February 1, 2007
Matt Peddycord

Wrestle War ‘91
February 24, 1991
Phoenix, Arizona
Memorial Coliseum

With my Turner Home Entertainment version, it means there’s some matches edited out, so just to show you that you aren’t missing anything, here’s what you missed! Thank you, ProWrestlingHistory.com!

- Ultraman and Eddie Guerrero defeated Rudy Boy and Huichol (7:39) when Guerrero pinned Rudy
- Itsuki Yamazaki (from the JUMPING BOMB ANGELS!) and Mami Kitimura defeated Miki Handa and Miss A (Dyanmite Kansai) (6:47) when Yamazaki pinned Miss A
- The Wild Eyed Southern Boys (Tracey Smothers and Steve Armstrong) defeated The Royal Family (Rip Morgan and Jack Victory) (12:05) when Smothers pinned Morgan.
- Terry Taylor pinned Tom Zenk (10:59) in a "no DQ" match.

Ok, here we go.

Your Hosts are JR & Dusty! I LOVE OLD SKOOL JR!

WCW World Six-Man Tag Champions Ricky Morton, JYD & Tommy Rich vs. State Patrol & Big Cat

The champs have no belts! What’s the point in calling them champs then? JYD’s totally bald here, but still kicking butt. State Patrol is WCW Power Plant leader, Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker and the other guy is Lt. James Earl Wright, not to be confused with James Earl Jones. However, you might get Big Cat confused with James Earl Jones, because he’s Mr. Hughes and they DO look alike. YES THEY DO. JYD starts off against Big Cat and they trade blows with JYD winning that and catching Cat with a clothesline. Tag to James Earl as JYD tags in Morton. They run the ropes for a bit until Morton catches him with a bunch of armdrags. Like, six of them at least! Tag to Rich, and he locks in an armbar to slow things down. James Earl escapes and attempts a backdrop, but Rich lands on his feet and gets a slam. James Earl moves out of the way of an elbow drop and thinks Rich went down, but NOPE! He’s SOBER tonight however and he catches himself. Rich puts him back down with an armdrag, which James Earl eyepokes out of for a slam. Tag to Parker, and the heel offense is short lived as the “champs” take back control. Tag to Morton, and he catches Parker with an inverted atomic drop. Morton goes back to working on the arm and tags in JYD. JYD pulls out a headbutt from his amazing move set, which sends Parker in the corner to tag in Big Cat. JYD wants a test of strength, and Cat DOESN’T kick him in the gut. JYD headbutts him in the chest and then takes his legs out from under him. Well, that wasn’t very face-like. JYD hits more headbutts, but Cat has had enough of that and pounds him down. Parker gets tagged in and his offense has no effect on JYD. Dusty says JYD looks a little bit like George Foreman with his bald head and I say to you Dusty, NO HE DOES NOT. Now Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker on the other hand, looks a lot like an 8th grade Brock Lesnar. That’s a FACT. Tag to Morton, and Big Cat comes in to distract the ref so that James Earl can NAIL him in the back of the head with a nightstick I believe it was. That would make sense. Tag to James Earl and they do a Demolition-type Decapitation move on Morton for the first near fall of the match. Another tag to Parker and a double team running shoulder block gets two. Parker tags in Big Cat and they do a drop-toe hold/elbow drop combo move for a near-fall. You can just guess who does the drop-toe hold. I’ll give you a hint, he’s white. Morton comes off the ropes and Cat gets a dropkick that looked to have missed by a little bit but it’s hard to tell from that angle. That gets two. Cat gets a slam and misses an elbow, but that goes nowhere. Cat tags in Parker and he gets a quick powerslam for two. Parker tags in James Earl and they do a battering ram double team move, and then Parker drops him with a faceslam, and then James Earl elbow drops him for two! COOL! Tag to Parker again, and they do a double team backbreaker/slam move for another near fall. Big Cat gets a tag and catches an unwisely leaping Morton and gives him a backbreaker. Cat pops Rich in the face to do some heel double-team tactics on the other side of the ring. Parker tags in illegally and misses a charge, which allows Morton to reach JYD for a hot tag. Parker tags in James Earl and headbutts are everywhere. JYD gets the THUMP on Parker, who IS NOT the legal man. The three-count is interrupted by Cat, but nonetheless, Morton jumps on Parker, for the win to retain their “titles”. (9:54) So I guess being legal doesn’t matter in these six-man matches. I don’t know, I just thought that was the point of the TAGS. Anyways, good match aside from what appeared to be a pretty messed-up finish somehow. **½

Brad Armstrong vs. Bobby Eaton

JR mentions Brad’s brother who is over in Desert Storm. By the way, that brother is none other than the future TAG TEAM CHAMPION OF THE WORRRRLD, Road Dogg Jesse James. Now see, WCW didn’t see Desert Storm as a way to make some cash off of it. That’s why I’ve always found the Sgt. Slaughter thing in 1991 horribly distasteful. Anyways, this match has the tendency to RULE, so let’s see what goes down here. Hopefully, I won’t be disappointed. Bobby is the mid-card heel here who attacks Brad from behind to kick things off. They run the ropes until Brad catches Bobby in a headscissors takedown, a dropkick, and then he grounds him with an armdrag into an armbar. Eaton gets up and into the corner, and just POPS the crap out of him. Armstrong reverses the whip into the opposite corner and gets a monkey flip and then goes right back to the armbar. Eaton escapes and tosses Brad to the floor. He goes out after him, but gets his face slammed into the ring post. Back in, Brad goes BACK to the arm. Eaton gets to the ropes to break the armbar, and Brad is getting PISSED. They do a test of strength, and Bobby kicks him in the gut. Brad climbs back up to his feet and then CLIMBS BOBBY EATON and jumps over his back and then into the corner for a crossbody block for two! Now, Brad goes BACK to the arm. Eaton gets up and takes Brad into the corner and just POPS him in the face again with a right hand. Eaton attempts a comeback and tries a slingshot suplex, only to have Brad counter into a suplex of his own! Awesome. Brad goes back to the arm, as we see Jason Hervey from the Wonder Years is in attendance. Since we’d rather look at Jason Hervey than watch the match, I couldn’t tell you how Bobby gets out of the armbar, but just know he does. Bobby nails Brad with a clothesline for a near fall. Bobby drops a back breaker on him and then trash talks him for two. Eaton slaps on a reverse chinlock as some kid in the front row flips off Bobby Eaton a whole bunch. THAT’S FUNNY! We then look over to see that Great Muta is here pretty much just to promote the big WCW/New Japan Super Show that took place there in Japan. Armstrong elbows out of the chinlock, but Eaton takes back over and gets a slingshot backbreaker for two! Now, Eaton goes back to the chinlock. Armstrong elbows out again, but gets knocked out to the floor. Eaton goes out after him and drops Armstrong chest-first across the guardrail! Back in, Eaton locks in a heelish ab stretch by using the top rope for leverage, but ref Randy Anderson sees what Eaton is doing and makes him break the hold. Eaton stays in control until he misses a charge into the corner. Brad catches Eaton with a dropkick and gets the RUSSIAN LEGSWEEP for a near-fall. Armstrong ducks his head too early, and Eaton punishes him with a swinging neckbreaker, which leads to an ALABAMA JAM for the pin. (12:50) A really great match from these two. 1991, at least the first half, would prove to be Eaton’s biggest year as a singles wrestler, as he would go on to win his one and only WCW TV Championship by pinning Arn Anderson at Superbrawl in May. Eaton would also go on to face Ric Flair at a Clash of the Champions in June for the World Title in a best 2/3 falls match, which was Flair’s last pre-WWF match. However, in the second half of the year, he got stuck in tag matches with P.N. News and meaningless singles feuds. 1992 wasn’t too bad for him, but he was always booked as the weakest link in the Dangerous Alliance. ***½

Missy Hyatt talks about going into the men’s locker room to go where no woman has stepped foot in before to get an interview.

Buddy Landell vs. Dustin Rhodes

If it were not for Dustin being at the Royal Rumble a month prior to his feuding with his daddy against Ted DiBiase, this would be Dustin’s PPV debut. We’ll just call this his WCW PPV debut. If you want to get REALLY technical, this is everyone that is involved on this show’s WCW PPV debut. Anyways, onto the match. Rhodes gets a quick backdrop and a dropkick to start. Buddy Landell is to Ric Flair what Gillberg is to Goldberg. Landell tries to take over, but the no-selling from Dustin turns on some Dusty offense with elbows and such. Dustin locks in an armbar, but Landell gets out. Landell goes up, and of course gets slammed off just like Flair, only more jobberish. Dustin misses a charge and eats post, so Landell just pounds on him. Landell gets a slam for a near-fall. They screw up an Irish whip, and then trade sleeper holds. Landell takes Dustin’s head to the buckle, only to run and get a boot to the face. Landell gets clotheslined to the floor for no reason. Landell back in, Rhodes gets a press slam and the bulldog for the pin. (6:29) Dustin was WAY too green here for PPV and Landell just wasn’t the right guy to help improve him. ½*

Missy Hyatt goes in to the men’s locker room and gets thrown out immediately by Stan Hansen. “GIT YOUR BIG BUTT OUTTA HERE!” Tell her, Stan. AHH MAN THAT WAS SO FUNNY! HAHAHAHA, not.

Stan Hansen vs. Big Van Vader This is a big rematch between these two from “Super Fight” a year earlier in New Japan where Vader dislocated his eyeball in one of the top matches of 1990. Yes, even better than Hogan/Warrior. Suck it. The match ended in a double-countout and this is the follow-up. Vader can basically say he chased Hansen ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN to get at Hansen. Vader is wearing the ugly mask that he used in Japan. Hansen meets Vader on the ramp way and they brawl into the ring. Hansen turns his back on Vader and gets DECKED by a lariat. Vader nails a corner splash for two. Hansen is spilling tobacco out of his mouth ALL over the ring. Vader tosses Hansen to the floor and they brawl on the outside. It’s sad, but you can clearly see completely empty sections of the arena here. Back in they go, as Vader pounds on Hansen in the corner. Vader misses a charge and falls victim to a back suplex for two. Hansen kicks Vader out to the floor and they brawl all over and around JR & Dusty. They nail each other with chairs, monitors and clotheslines until they go back into the ring with Hansen in control. They go out again and Vader drops Hansen gut-first across the railing, but Hansen comes back and makes sure Vader eats the stairs. Back in, more punches and headbutts until ref Randy Anderson disqualifies them both. (6:28) Post-match, Vader comes off the top with a HUGE clothesline. He calls for a splash, but Hansen evades moves out of the way and tackles Vader down. They end brawling their way to the backstage area. The crowd was getting into it towards the end. *½

WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger vs. Dan Spivey

Ahh, Sid Vicious’ old mullet tag team partner, Danny Spivey. He would later go on to be called Waylon Mercy in 1995 WWF. Too bad he was never that big of a deal in WCW. He wasn’t that bad of a big man wrestler in my opinion. This is the last match with the old NWA-style U.S. Championship belt, as it would be replaced by another design. They lock-up to start with Luger in control using backdrops and clotheslines; the usual Luger offense. They lock-up again and Spivey pounds away on Luger. Luger blocked an atomic drop and counters with a back suplex for a near-fall. Spivey tries to take back control, but eats boot as he runs at Luger in the corner. Luger gets a hip toss and tries a crossbody, but Spivey drops out of sight and sends Luger into the other Wargames ring. Spivey suplexes Luger back into the other ring and then gets a tombstone for a near-fall. That move was SUCH a big deal then. Spivey works on the neck now by hitting a reverse neckbreaker and then slaps on a chinlock. Spivey lets go of it pretty quickly and hits a DDT for another near-fall! The crowd cheers on Luger and so therefore, Luger fights back. Spivey doesn’t care though and takes back control. Spivey however, misses a charge in the corner and Luger rolls him up for two. Spivey wisely goes right back to beating down Luger. Luger blocks a suplex and gets one of his own! Double-KO! Spivey is up first though and goes up top and hits a SWEET elbow drop for a HUGE near-fall! Spivey hits a sloppy swinging neckbreaker for another two count and then locks on a head scissors. I’ve noticed Spivey doesn’t hold on to rest holds for very long. Spivey lets go and hits a big boot for two. Spivey hits a nice piledriver! OH SNAP! That gets two until Luger starts to HULK UP! Luger fights back with rights, until Spivey takes back over with a belly to belly suplex for ANOTHER near-fall. Spivey puts on a chinlock and holds onto it longer than ten seconds unlike any other holds in this match. Luger’s arm drops twice, but not thrice. Luger fights up and elbows out, but gets caught with a Japanese armdrag. Luger comes back and hotshots Spivey on the top rope, sending him over the top and to the floor. At the time, being thrown over-the-top-rope would result in a DQ, just in case you didn’t know. Ref Nick Patrick waves it off saying it was unintentional. Luger fires away on Spivey and nails a clothesline off the second rope. Luger gets the powerslam and looks to be going for the rack, but Spivey tosses him to the floor to stop his momentum. Luger tries to sunset-flip back in, but Spivey holds onto the middle rope and punches Luger in the face. Double-clothesline! Both men are up at seven, as they pound on one another with Luger soon taking control. Luger takes Spivey down with a shoulder block and goes up top. Spivey attempts to slam Luger off the top. As Luger comes off the top, he cradles Spivey up for the three-count out of nowhere to retain his title. (12:51) This was one of Luger’s last good matches of his career. After this match, and all the way to his retirement, none of his matches compared to this one. Outside of a few botched moves, Spivey looked like a million bucks and a valid contender of the U.S. title in a match where the ending came off looking like a fluke win for Luger. ***½

Tony Schiavone is standing by with Grizzly Smith & Nikita Koloff who is here to present the brand new U.S. title to Lex Luger. Nikita Koloff congratulates Luger on his win, and then NAILS HIM IN THE FACE WITH THE NEW BELT! Nikita says he’s done everything in this sport but win the World title, and so who better to beat up on than the #1 contender to prove he’s a worthy contender! This is the big return of Nikita Koloff who feuds with Luger & Sting throughout the summer of ’91.

WCW World Tag Team Champions Doom (w/Teddy Long) vs. The Freebirds (w/DDP & Big Daddy Dink)

It’s DDP at his most annoying. He tries to get over the phrase, “Good God!” while bringing out his replacement as the Freebirds’ manager, Big Daddy Dink a.k.a. Oliver Humperdink. RON SIMMONS WILL OWN YOU! Simmons starts out and just punks Hayes like he’s nothing until Hayes catches Simmons out of the corner with a left jab. Hayes catches Simmons with a bulldog for two. Simmons quickly comes back and powerslams both Freebirds. They both go out and talk to Dink. Back in, Hayes tags in Garvin and wants Reed instead of Simmons. Garvin is a house full of forearms until he gets rocked with a clothesline. Reed ducks low and Garvin tries a sunset flip for two. Tag to Hayes and he gets press slammed, but not before a blind tag to Garvin. Garvin gets pressed as well, but Hayes saves him on his way out with a left jab to Reed. Reed reverses a whip and gets a backbreaker for two. Reed hits a butterfly suplex for a near-fall and then tags in Simmons. Simmons works the back and tosses Garvin to the floor for Reed to slam him around. Back in, Simmons pounds on the back and tags in Reed. Reed makes the same mistake off of a whip and ducks low again and got caught with a DDT. Reed tags in Simmons and stops Garvin from tagging in Hayes. Simmons throws down Garvin with a SICK spinebuster for a near-fall. Simmons hits a powerslam for another near-fall. It breaks down and everybody is in the ring, including Dink. While ref Randy Anderson is busy with Dink, Teddy Long throws in a pair of brass knucks to Reed. Simmons holds Hayes while Reed does the honors, but of course, Hayes ducks and Simmons goes down. Meanwhile, Garvin is all dazed and Dink shoves him down on Simmons from the apron and the ref counts three for the Freebirds to win their 2nd World tag team titles. (7:00) This was the end of the two-year experiment known as Doom. It was awesome while it lasted. Simmons & Reed fight at the next PPV in a Thunderdome cage match, which I’ll review in the near future. *

At ringside, JR & Dusty are standing by with some 12 year-old kid with a Bart Simpson hairstyle who won some sort of sweepstakes. JR asks him who his favorite team in the Wargames is, and he says “Doom.” I kid you not. What a moron. JR quickly gets him out of the way because he has no idea what he’s talking about.

Sid Vicious, Barry Windham, Ric Flair & Larry Zbyszko (w/Arn Anderson) vs. Brian Pillman, Sting, Rick & Scott Steiner - Wargames Cage Match

Pillman’s shoulder is all taped up due to a Horsemen attack from the previous WCW Saturday Night episode. Larry Zbyszko is subbing for Arn due to injury, I believe. Pillman, full of emotion and revenge in mind, starts out against Windham. Will that prove unwise? Let’s watch and see! Pillman takes Windham down with a clothesline using his good arm, and uses the cage to take Windham down with a hurracanrana. Pillman leaps onto the second turnbuckle off of a whip, fakes a jump, and then connects with a missile dropkick. Pillman takes one high-risk move too many, and whiffs a crossbody while landing on his injured shoulder. Since there’s no disqualification, Pillman takes advantage of that and jimmy-taps the CRAP out of Windham. Pillman makes sure Windham meets the steel and busts him open. That’s crazy! This match has only been going on for two minutes and Windham is already busted open. Pillman is totally fired up here and in complete control of Windham. Windham meets the steel again, and then turns around and gets nailed with a top-rope clothesline from Pillman! Pillman picks him up and heaves him into the other ring! He picks Windham up and makes sure he eats plenty of steel. Pillman starts to work on the knee. Windham fires back and tries a piledriver, but Pillman backdrops out of it. The first period is over and the Horsemen win the coin toss. Flair is in, and he and Pillman trade tons of chops until Windham comes up behind and saves Flair. Together, they toss Pillman shoulder first into the cage several times. Flair tosses Pillman back into the other ring, landing him on his injured shoulder. Now Sting comes in and he destroys both Horsemen with kicks and clotheslines. Sting tosses Flair over to Pillman and works on Windham, and then they trade Horsemen. Windham takes over on Pillman, while Sting pounds on Flair. Pillman drops his whole body in between Windham’s legs! Not once, but twice! Zbyszko comes in, and Sting LEAPS over into the other ring and NAILS Zbyszko! Pillman has the figure-four on Windham! Sting goes after Flair, but gets nailed from behind by Zbyszko. Flair breaks up Pillman’s figure-four and stomps away at him. Rick Steiner is in next and he is met at the door by Flair & Windham. Steiner-line to Flair! Steiner-line to Windham! Flair goes into the other ring and Rick Steiner follows right after him and gets a belly-to-belly. Pillman is busy choking on Zbyszko, while Sting pounds away on Windham. Now Rick makes Flair taste the steel and now HE is busted open! Zbyszko now has Pillman in the other ring tied up in the tree of woe, kicking away at his injured shoulder. Sid Vicious is the last man in for the Horsemen. He goes right after Rick and takes him head-first into the cage, but that has ZERO effect! So instead, Sid holds Rick for Flair to kick him square in the balls! Now THAT DID have effect. Pillman goes after Flair, blocks being sent into the cage, and then sends Flair face first into the steel at LEAST a half dozen times. Zbyszko sends Rick into the steel, but he doesn’t seem to know that Rick has a very hard head. Rick just levels him with a Steiner-line and sends him into the cage. Rick now takes Flair’s head and sends it back into the cage, until Zbyszko comes up behind and saves Flair from further damage. Zbyszko is SO dumb! He tries to toss Rick into the cage again, but of course, THAT DOESN’T HURT HIM! Zbyszko takes a Steiner-line again like an idiot! Flair takes over on Sting in the corner, but not for long as Sting makes him taste the steel again for what seems like the 20th time in this match. Scott Steiner comes in as the final guy to enter on the face team. THE MATCH BEYOND BEGINS! SUBMISSION OR SURRENDER! Windham & Flair meet the other Steiner at the door again and you guessed it, Steiner-lines for both of them. Zbyszko comes in after him and he gets ROCKED with a double-underhook powerbomb. Rick reverses a whip on Sid from the corner and out of nowhere, Scott shoots off the middle turnbuckle and clotheslines the CRAP out of Sid to a HUGE pop! Scott picks him up and rams him shoulder-first into the corner. In the other ring, Sting hits a Stinger Splash on Flair! SCORPION DEATHLOCK, but Zbyszko breaks it up. We now see Sid working on Pillman’s injured shoulder. However, Pillman goes low and ALL the faces lock in a figure-four on the Horsemen at the same time! They all escape, followed by Sting pressing Flair into the cage a bunch of times. Meanwhile, Sid gets a huge clothesline on Rick Steiner, while Pillman chokes on Zbyszko. Rick comes back with a Steiner-line on Sid! Windham comes in to help Sid double-team Rick. Sid saves Zbyszko and grabs Pillman. Flair takes over on Pillman, but he will just not die! Pillman chokes away at Flair, but only until Sid makes a save. Sid sends Pillman into the ropes, presses him up and just drops him face-first onto the canvas. Sid goes for a powerbomb, and completely messes it up by catching Pillman’s feet on the cage ceiling, and then he drops Pillman right on his neck! OH MY GOSH THAT WAS SICK! It should be over right there, but Sid picks him up and does it AGAIN! Arn says, “That’s it!” This brings out El Gigante who rips open the door and goes to check on his little buddy. He tells the ref to stop the match because Brian Pillman cannot continue. (22:01) Way to go, Sid! You almost KILLED someone. I really don’t believe that was the actual finish of the match. Nevertheless, this was one of the BEST WCW matches of the ‘90s. Total blood count - Barry Windham, Ric Flair. ****½

Final Thoughts: Other than having Dusty’s lil’ boy shoved down our throats, nothing was really bad here. The Wargames match is ALWAYS awesome in my opinion and a GOOD ‘90s Lex Luger match is hard to come by, so check this one out if you can find it. I got my tape from eBay, so be on the look-out. Thumbs up for WrestleWar ’91.