WCW Power Hour 3/2/1991

WCW Power Hour 3/2/1991

Last week's show is here:

Paul E Dangerously says Doom split up for good, The Freebirds are tag champs and Barry Windham is in a match with important ramifications. He says he'll have it on all on this morning's Power Hour.

The Royal Family (Rip Morgan and Jacko Victory) vs Dave Johnson and John Peterson

 

Rip and Dave go at it. Rip clubs and stomps him. Rip bangs his head off the buckles. Jack boots Dave then drops him with a punch. Dave is choked on the ropes and Jack drops Dave with a punch. Rip boots Dave in the gut then lariats him. Jack lariats Dave.

John gets in and Jack clubs him. Jack suplexes him then Rip hits a big slam on John. Rip legdrops John. Paul says The Royal Family has moved up with Doom gone. John is thrown into the buckles and goes down. Rip stomps John. John takes  double back elbow. John takes a double gordbuster and is pinned.

Thoughts: This was all squash as expected. The Family stuck to boots and punches for the most part and yelled "youuuuuu" a lot ala Stan Hansen. It wasn't great or anything but everything they did looked fine.

We go back to Jim Ross and Paul E. JR says it's been a few volatile weeks for Doom. He says they lost the tag titles at WrestleWar and say they got into a fight at The Omni. Paul says when a marriage breaks up, you always give it one more chance. He says everyone knew Doom was gonna split up and Doom was doomed. 

Z-Man vs Lt. James Earl Wright

 

Z is wearing baby blue here. Z wristlocks James. Z ducks a clothesline and hits a flying crossbody. Z armdrags him then armlocks him. James eye rakes him and Z sleepers him. James ropebreaks. Z side headlock takeovers him. James headscissors him. Z handstands out.

James side headlocks him and Z backdrops him off of it. Z hits a dropkick then armdrags him. Z does another armlock. James eye rakes him and hits headbutts. James hits a stiff clothesline then slams him. James misses a 2nd rope headbutt. Z then hiptosses him. Z back body drops him then does another sleeper. James is put to sleep and is out.

Thoughts: The sleeper isn't exactly the most exciting finisher. This was short one with Z winning as expected. James stuck to the usual heel moveset with basic shots. 

We go back to JR and Paul E. Paul wants to know why Z-Man calls himself that. He says Z-Man is too concerned with his name and not the WCW TV Title. He says he will have to do more than that to take the title from Arn Anderson. JR says Dustin Rhodes has been impressive and Paul agrees. Paul says there are a lot of people ahead of Dustin on the rankings ladder and says he will have to work his way up to get to Arn. JR says we will see Dustin after the break.

Dustin Rhodes vs Joe Cruz

Joe's pretty tall and probably shouldn't be getting squashed here. DR backs him up on the ropes. Joe rakes the eyes and knees him in the gut. DR hiptosses him then dropkicks him multiple times.

Joe goes out and DR follows. DR throws him in then armdrags him three times. DR armlocks Joe. Paul makes fun of JR being from Oklahoma and says they don't have a basketball team there (which of course later changed). Paul says they have two teams in NY (which they didn't at the time), saying Jersey doesn't count since it's just for tax purposes.

Joe eye rakes DR and hits shots to the gut. DR bangs Joe's face off the mat then back elbows him. DR elbow drops him then hits a corner lariat. DR hits a bulldog and wins.

Thoughts: I would have liked to have seen this get more time as they worked okay together and a squash only does so much. The commentators talked basketball for half of this.

Paul says people wondered what changed in Terry's mind and Paul says it took place over time. He says to watch this to see some of the change. JR says Terry is now a member of The York Foundation. We cut to:

Terry Taylor, Tim Horner and Brad Armstrong vs The Master Blaster Steel, Pat Rose and Rip Rogers

Steel slams Brad. Terry gets shots in on Steel then runs into a big boot. Steel side slams him. Steel elbow drops Terry. Pat back elbows Terry and gets a 2 count. Pat slams Terry then elbow drops him for 2. Rip boots Terry then bangs Terry's head off Steel's boot. Pat punches Terry in the gut. Terry neckbreakers Pat.

Brad gets in and drops Pat with a knee lift. Brad dropkicks Pat and Rip breaks the count up. Brad hits punches on Rip then back body drops him. Brad russian legsweeps Rip and picks up the win.

Thoughts: We only saw some of it. It was more even than I expected. We were supposed to see Terry show some signs of turning here but other than an eye rake, I didn't see much of note.

Wrestling News Network

Gordon Solie says Doom no longer holds the tag titles. He says the team is broken up. We see clips from:

WCW at The Omni 2/19/1991 - Teddy Long is handcuffed to the ropes - Barry Windham vs Ron Simmons 

 

Ron back body drops Barry then uppercuts him. Barry lariats the ref when Ron ducks. Ron lariats Barry twice then Barry pulls Ron over the top. Barry hits Ron with a briefcase then bangs his head off the rails. Barry powerslams Ron. Ron is put up top and Barry superplexes him. Barry has the pin and Butch Reed runs in. Reed beats up Barry. Reed wraps his belt around his fist and nails Ron when Barry moves. Barry drops Reed then gets the pin.

Thoughts: We only saw the last few minutes of this. Oddly, it had a pretty similar finish to the Simmons/Windham match from 2 weeks ago on this show.

Long is unhandcuffed. Long and Doom argue. Ron grabs Long and chokes him in the air. Reed flying knees Ron from behind and beats him up. Reed then holds Ron down so Long can whip him with the belt.

Gordon says Ron and Reed still had obligations to fulfill as tag champs and said they had to wrestle at WrestleWar 1991. We see a decent bit of Doom vs The Fabulous Freebirds for the WCW Tag Titles. Reed again misses a belt punch and nails Ron. Big Daddy Dink then pushes Garvin onto Ron and The Freebirds win the tag titles. We then see Reed and Long beat up Ron after. Gordon says Reed and Simmons will be a matter of two great forces colliding.

Thoughts: This was unusual as Doom basically broke up here before the PPV without them mentioning it on TV. Then WCW had Doom break up again at WrestleWar. I have no idea why they did this.

Sid Vicious vs Thad Clark

Thad tries to lock up and Sid throws him back with just one arm.  Sid double chops Thad in the corner then chokes him. Sid hits a big lariat and does the double thumbs down. Sid powerbombs Thad and wins.

Thoughts: It was a quick squash as usual with Sid winning.

 

Sid says, "I'm Sid Vicious and Sid Vicious rules the world". The stretcher and EMT's come out. Arn Anderson and Barry Windham are dressed up as the EMT's. They pound on Thad then drop the stretcher down on him.

We go back to JR and Paul E. Paul says Tyson and Holyfield couldn't step in the ring with Sid. JR asks if El Gigante could. Paul says it would be a heck of a match. Paul says Sid is invincible, indestructible and a monster. He says Sid would beat Gigante if they fought.

Sting and Lex Luger vs Magnum Force

Sting is wearing white and black with orange boots which wasn't one of his more common outfits. Lex backs up one of The Force on the ropes. Lex is put in a side headlock. He leapfrogs and does a hiptoss. Lex side headlock takeovers a Force member. Sting hits his opponent in the gut then side headlocks him. Sting takes shots to the gut then hits a knee to the gut. Sting hits a suplex.

Sting takes a double axe handle then hits a back body drop. Sting trips a Force member then hits an armdrag. Lex 2nd rope double axe handles his opponent's arm then armlocks him. Sting armdrags his opponent and hits a stinger splash. Sting then hits a slam and does a scorpion deathlock. Sting gets the submission win.

Thoughts: It was all squash as expected here with Magnum Force only getting some basic shots in.

Barry Windham vs El Gigante

EG = El Gigante

EG has like more than foot on Barry. Ric Flair distracts EG from the outside. Barry hits EG. Barry gets caught on the ropes and EG claws him. EG holds Barry in the air with the claw as Flair distracts the ref. Flair gets in and hits shots on EG. EG no sells them and puts Barry down with the claw. EG then goes for Flair and Flair goes out. Sting then comes out to save EG. El Gigante won this quick one by DQ.

Thoughts: It was a quick one here that didn't accomplish a lot except showing that Flair is powerless against Gigante.

JR and Paul E talk. JR says El Gigante vs Ric Flair for the WCW Title is signed. Paul E says Larry Zbysko will be on the Danger Zone tomorrow. JR says we have a World 6-Man Tag Title match with Junkyard Dog, Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton vs Bobby Eaton, Terry Taylor and Buddy Landell.

Overall thoughts: Wrestling wise it was all squashes and short matches. We saw Doom breakup twice here in a weird moment. We had a funny moment with Barry Windham and Arn Anderson being Sid's EMT's and beating the crap out of a jobber while doing it. The main of Windham vs Gigante was absolutely nothing. I liked the show but I wouldn't recommend this one.