September 20, 2008
Graham Cawthon

NWA Power Hour 2/23/90
Taped 2/12/90, Rainesville, AL

We open this up with Jim Ross saying NWA US Champion Lex Luger, the NWA's top heel until a couple weeks ago, will be a guest on the Louisville Slugger to discuss facing NWA World Champion Ric Flair in Sting’s place at Wrestle War.

JR & Gordon Solie are on the mic hyping both Sunday’s Wrestle War as well as the upcoming broadcast. Sting will be in Greensboro for the pay-per-view, Ross said, and he could be out for one year thanks to the dastardly attack by the Horsemen.

(FYI, the NWA said Sting injured his knee at the Clash but that it was further injured by a backstage attack from the Horsemen. Gotta put the heat on the bad guys. After all, there’s no money in Sting coming back to get revenge on a Thundercage.

Still, the image of Sting repeatedly kicking a cage is better than some of the stuff Turner put out in 90 and 91.)

Norman is on the show as is the newly-unmasked Doom, who will face off with the Road Warriors.

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Norman vs. Hacksaw Higgins

Cactus Jack has the misfortune of facing the future Bastion Booger Sunday at the pay-per-view. Higgins is a big dude with oily Bret Hart hair and a sexy bald spot near the back. Norman is sporting a psych ward ensemble that would make any girl weak in the knees. JR predicts Norman vs. Cactus won’t be for wrestling purists but should be entertaining. I guess that’s also debatable. Higgins controls quite a bit for this being a squash. Norman puts Higgins away with a splash from the middle turnbuckle at 4:54 but gets jumped after the contest by Cactus and Kevin Sullivan, with Cactus hitting his trademark elbow from the apron to the floor.

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Wrestling News Network with Gordon Solie

It’s prediction time. Wrestle War is Sunday and titles are up for grabs. And there’s a wacky “Wild Thing” rap song that will tempt you into buying the show if the card itself isn’t enough. Solie picks Luger, the Road Warriors, Norman, Pillman & Zenk, Arn & Ole to come out winners at the pay-per-view.

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Event center time. All the upcoming tour stops are mentioned but they all pale in comparison to WRESTLE WAAAAAAR!

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The Road Warriors are shown beating up a car and causing all sorts of – legal term – damage to personal property. What upstanding citizens they are. But what do they wear, aside from spikey shoulder pads, when they are out acting like juvenile delinquents?

One word.

“Roos,” says Hawk.

Wow. A tennis shoe commercial. Now that’s badass. No wonder they left a few months later.

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JR & Gordon run down the Freebirds vs. Pillman & Z-Man match upcoming. Pillman & Zenk are young, they’re high-flying, and they’ll get your daughter pregnant. The teams will face off twice this weekend – on Worldwide they’ll wrestle to decide the new US tag team champions and then the rematch will come in Greensboro.

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Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin vs. Larry Santo & Paul Drake

Pillman & Zenk cut a promo before the match. The Freebirds are just jealous cause Pillman & Zenk can get younger girls. Okay, maybe they didn’t say that exactly… But it’s true.

The girls are screaming as PS and Jimmy Jam wipe the mat with the two scrubs. JR says it’s hard to bet against the Freebirds in the big money matches. The fans are chanting for the DDT. Santo gets in a little awkward offense before he’s double teamed. Drake puts on a better showing than his partner but the DDT spells the end. Hayes sits on Drake’s face to end it at 8:23. Hot. Long for a squash and not very competitive.

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Sting, in his healthier days, plays stereotypical surfer dude, with a boom box on his shoulder. And what kind of shoes does he wear? You guessed it.

“ Roos, dude.”

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Lex Luger on the Louisville Slugger

Before Luger can spit out a coherent sentence, the Horsemen and Woman make their way into the ring. There’s a clip in the footage and when we come back, Ole tells Luger that he’s going to back out of the match or he’ll face the same future as Sting. Ole, Arn, Ric, and Woman then leave. Wow, a Horsemen appearance where Flair doesn’t say a word.

Cornette then grills Luger over what he’s going to do next. Luger, to a big babyface pop, says he’ll give them an answer later in the show.

ANOTHER clip (wtf?) and we’re shown JR interviewing the Horsemen after an apparent Flair & Arn victory. Ric’s huffin and puffin and he brings up Luger’s name. And now it’s time for Flexy Lexy to give that answer. The answer comes in a punch to the head of Ric, Arn, and Ole. Luger takes off while the Horsemen are fuming mad.

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Luger’s shown standing statuesque beside a punching bag. But what you don’t see are his feet.

…Enough with the damn Roos commercials!

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Main event time. Hopefully this will make up for the overabundance of shoe commercials.

The Road Warriors (w/ Paul Ellering) vs. Doom

Doom has just recently lost their manager, Woman, and their masks. Boy, this is going to be good. They’re going to kick the crap out of each other. And no more … wait … what does it say on each of the ringposts? R… AHHH! The damn Roos ads are everywhere!

JR and Gordon talk up the streetfight the Roadies will have with Mark Callous & Dan Spivey at Wrestle War. Gordon builds up Spivey to sound like a badass by talking about battles he’s had in Florida. What, did he go down to Sea World and take on some creatures? I can’t see Dangerous Dan powerbombing Shamu. A shark maybe?

The match picks up with Animal making the hot tag to Hawk. Hawk smacks Reed around with the other two men coming out to cause chaos. Doom goes for a modified Doomsday Device but Hawk taps Simmons on the ass and he takes a dive to the floor. Hawk then hits the clothesline off the top to Reed for the win at 12:39.

Gordon says the Roadies won because they had Ellering and Doom had no one.

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JR & Gordon are back from commercial break. Norman is the wrestler of the week (why?) and Saturday at 6:05 will feature Doug Furnas and an update in the US Tag Team Title tournament. Gordon said Luger beating Flair would not be considered an upset but only time will tell what the outcome of Wrestle War will be.

Overall: Not a bad show. The squashes were longer than they needed to be. Hell, half the Freebirds match was them posing or talking about how many women they get. The Luger / Horsemen stuff was just confusing since they took snippets from two different segments held during the taping and cut them together without explanation. The main event was OK. I failed to remember this was when Doom was in a bit of a slump, before they brought in Teddy Long, so of course they were going to lose clean.

Nothing memorable here but a fun watch.