Week 3, February 1990

Again, this is an exciting time in the NWA with the huge success of "Souled Out" and the many on screen and off screen events. Greg Moe has really dug in his heals now and the storylines are about to flow like melted butter. There was one negative event this week as The Iron Sheik walked out on the NWA, saying he was fed up of not getting booked in most of the NWA or WCW shows and when he did appear, he jobbed out to everyone. This however wasn't a huge deal for Greg as he was pretty fed up with the backstage stunts Sheik was pulling anyway. Everyone of the boys were pretty glad to see him go.

Let's get to the shows now, as there's lots to cover. Be sure to read these shows closely, cause there are a few embedded storylines written in among the match results. Make sure you don't miss any, cause things are just starting to heat up!

NWA Worldwide: Walter A Brown Arena (New England) 5,000 Sell Out "B-"

The show opened with Ric Flair and Lex Luger in the ring. They are standing there each holding a microphone and waiting for the boo's and jeer's to ease up before they begin to speak.
FLAIR: "Woooooo!" (He does the Ric Flair strut.) "Listen up! I want you to look at this man standing right here." (Points at Luger.) "I want you to give this man the credit he deserves! Wooooo! This is the man who took that punk, Bret Hart down at Souled Out. This is the N-W-A Champion! (The fans eager to give their disapproval by booing so loud the arena vibrated with a deep undertone.) "Shut up! Shut your mouths! Give this man credit damn it!" (Luger jerks his head around to face the loudest section of fans and waves his arms and points at a fat man in the front row.)

LUGER: "You people don't know a good thing when it hits you over the head." (He and Flair smirk at each other thinking back to Souled Out, when Flair hit Bret Hart over the head with a chair to help Luger secure the win and the title.) "You people don't know what a true champion looks like!" (Flair interrupts.)
FLAIR: "This is a real Champion! Woooooo!"
(Suddenly Bret Hart's music pierces the fan's earsplitting displeasure of Flair and Luger and Bret and his close friend Sting come out from the back and start their walk to the ring. This is just what the fans were hoping for and they gave their complete, thunderous blessing to the situation. Bret Hart and Sting climb through the ropes holding their own set of mics, as Flair and Luger give retreat to the farthest set of ropes. )

BRET: (Bret points at Luger and more directly to the NWA Belt around Luger's waist.) "Luger! Luger, you have my belt and I want it back!" (The fans explode once more with thunderous cheers as Luger shakes his head with an exaggerated motion.) "If you're supposed to look like what a real champion looks like, then it's no wonder Flair used to be champion, cause you both look like jackasses!" (Once more the fans erupt. Flair takes a step toward Hart only to retreat when Sting takes a step forward. Lex Luger turns and furiously kicks the bottom rope.)

(Suddenly on the huge video screen over the wrestler's entrance area at the top of the ramp appears the large face of NWA General Manager, Greg Moe, and the four men in the ring turn to face the cocky image of the NWA General Manager.)

GREG: "Hold on there gentlemen! Before you four do something you'll be sorry for, let me give you a bit of information. Bret, that's not your belt anymore, that's Lex Luger's. You lost that title fair and square at Souled Out." (Flair and Luger flash a smile of agreement while Hart and Sting look at the screen with hatred.) "That's right. You lost that title, fair - and - square, and Lex Luger is now the champion and there's nothing you're going to be able to do about it." (Long pause.) "Do you hear me!" (Not waiting for an answer.) "But here's what's going to happen tonight..... I'm going to give you a chance for some redemption..... Yes, tonight you and your buddy there, Sting, are going to face Flair and Luger in a match in the main event!" (Now Flair and Luger trade expressions with Hart and Sting as the fans reach an even higher level of approval that was thought impossible as the show goes to commercial.)

1. Tully Blanchard defeats Mitsuhara Misawa to retain the NWA United States Title "C+"

This was the second disappointing match Misawa gave while on trade with All Japan. As soon as Misawa came through the curtain to the back, Greg Moe sent him back off to All Japan hardly giving him time to pack his bags.

2. Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) defeated Taylor Made (Dave Taylor & Scott Taylor) "C-"

Greg gives the Road Warriors a rebound victory after putting Dynamite Kid and Jim Neidhart over at Souled Out, and also giving Dave and Scott Taylor some TV time.

(After the camera follows Hawk and Animal back up the ramp to the back, the camera suddenly shifts to a shot of Ric Flair in the locker room bathroom. It catches him coming out of the middle stall of three, and he walks up to the sink and begins to wash his hands. Suddenly Bret Hart walks in the bathroom door and he flashes a huge smile as he catches Flair as he turns to exit the room. Flair begins to back up and beg off to Hart.)
FLAIR: "Hold on there Hitman. You don't want to do this."

(As Flair backs up, suddenly both doors of the two stalls on either side of the one Flair came out of open and out steps Jim Neidhart and Dynamite Kid.... Flair sees them and drops to his knees as Bret walks up to him and grabs Flair's out stretched hand that he extends to beg Bret off with. With the precision of a Swiss watch, Bret, Jim Neidhart and the Dynamite Kid begin to punch and stomp Flair down onto the bathroom floor. At some point in the beating, Flair managed to juice himself and blood streamed from his scalp and pooled up on the white, tiled floor as the segment went again to commercial.)

3. Fatu, Samu & Don Muraco defeated Flyin' Brian, Stunning Steve Austin and Tommy Rich to retain the NWA World Six Man Tag Team Titles "D"

This match was a mess and only got worse when Tommy Rich  got injured by cracking his sternum on the turnbuckle off a powerful  Irish whip by Muraco.

4. Paul Orndorff defeated Ole Anderson "D+"

It's hard to say what happened in this match. There just never seemed to be a time when the match flowed at all. It looked like Ole Anderson was completely lost in the match and totally uninterested through the whole thing. Insiders say that while watching the match, Greg Moe was heard muttering to himself backstage and then seemed to snap into a state of joy with a hidden idea that overtook his devious mind.

5. Rick Flair & Lex Luger drew with Bret Hart & Sting "B"

The four men put on a excellent match that the fans really bought into. It ended in a "no decision" draw when the referee lost control of the match when Jim Neidhart, Dynamite Kid, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard all became involved. This was the perfect match to follow up on the Souled Out PPV, keeping the fans enthralled with this storyline.   

WCW Saturday Night: Missouri State Armory (Mid West) 5,000 Sell Out "B+"

The show opens with the camera showing an office backstage with Greg Moe sitting behind a desk, and standing in front of him is a room full of workers existing of The Great Muta, Ivan Koloff, Bobby Eaton, Stan Lane, Dennis Condrey and in the front of the group, Jim E. Cornette, who is holding his famous tennis racket and is listening intensely to the NWA President and Worldwide GM, Greg Moe.
GREG: "Ok, listen Cornette. This is your chance. Probably the biggest opportunity you'll ever have in your life. As you know, I'm giving you the position of general manager of the WCW and WCW Saturday Night." (Cornette boyishly grins.) "Don't mess this up now. Oh, and one more thing in case you were wondering, I'm bringing Muta and Koloff here over from the NWA roster to help you keep control of this show. I don't want any screw ups! I mean it!"

CORNETTE:  "Don't you worry, don't you worry! I've got this in the bag Mr. Moe. I'm going to run the show with an iron hand. Don't you worry!" (Muta and Koloff look at each other and roll their eyes.) "I'll have this show rolling like my dear, chubby, Mother on a steep hilltop." (Now Greg rolls his eyes.)
GREG: "Just look." If you have any problems with these guys out there, just turn to Muta and Ivan, and have them take care of it."
(Before the show goes to commercial, we catch a shot of Paul Dangerously standing outside the office where this is all taking place, and as he turns to walk away, we here him mutter.)
DANGEROUSLY: "General Manager my ass."

1. Terry Funk defeats Rick Steiner to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Title "B-"

Wasn't the match it should have been. Though Funk and Steiner did a great job working together, the fans just didn't seem to buy into Steiner getting a title shot, which is quite understandable. Greg was just hoping for a great pop from the fans on this one, but it never really happened.


(After coming back from commercial, the camera is on Stan Hansen, Bob Orton and Jerry Lawler backstage in the locker room sitting and talking about what they thought was going to happen now with Cornette in charge. They knew things wouldn't be good for them as Cornette fell right in line with Greg Moe's underhanded tactics.... Suddenly, as the three of them sat talking, in walked a masked man with a gripping blue cape and matching boots.... He walked up to the three men sitting there.)

MASKED MAN: "I couldn't help but overhear the three of you talking, and I want to assure you that you have nothing to worry about." (Hansen, Orton and Lawler glanced at each other with puzzled looks.) "You don't have anything to fear from Cornette and his group of thugs." (The three men sit silent with looks of complete confusion. After a big pause the masked man continued.) "Don't you want to know why you have nothing to fear?" (Again the three remain silent.) "Well, I'll tell you. You have nothing to fear cause Super Zenith is here! Super Zenith will rule the day!" (The masked man flips his cape over his head and vanishes off screen. The camera is left on the three men sitting there with their jaws wide open and just staring to where the masked man had been standing.)

2. The Texas Cowboys (Stan Hansen & Cowboy Bob Orton) drew with Midnight Express (Beautiful Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) to retain the WCW World Tag Team Titles "B"

This was another great match between these four. It ended in a draw when Dick Murdoch and Dennis Condrey became involved and James E. Cornette sent the whole thing into a massive mess.

3. Super Zenith defeated Dennis Condrey "B-"

This was the first match of the new super hero like, masked figure, Super Zenith. He and Condrey did a decent job with Super Zenith looking great, and he got a huge response from the fans.

(Diary Note: I'm not going to tell you who Super Zenith is right now. If you've been following the WCW the last two months, you should be able to guess who Super Zenith is after you notice the absence of one of the shows upper mid-carders after a while. I'd be interested if anyone can guess either here on this website, or in my diary thread in the GD forums just who you think Super Zenith is. If someone can guess him, I'll be happy to give you absolutely nothing! Now who can't use that?)

4. The Great Muta defeated Jerry Lawler for the WCW Television Title "B+"

Though he was upset, Jerry Lawler agreed to drop his WCW TV title to The Great Muta in this match. Greg Moe was sorry to see Lawler upset, but promised Lawler bigger and better things and explained to Lawler that he needed to drop the title to build incoming heat for Muta, along with Cornette and Koloff. Muta won this match when Koloff interfered in the match allowing Muta to get the pin and win the title.