NWA (WCW) Power Hour (June 23, 1989)

 

Original Airdate: June 23, 1989

Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jim Cornette

The Road Warriors v The Samoan Swat Team: The Warriors charge in to kick start the match, and they manage to clean house after a solid brawl. The dust settles on Animal and Fatu, and Fatu manages to powerslam him for two. A criss cross sees both men go down, and Hawk catches a tag. He runs wild on Fatu, and a neckbreaker gets two when Samu saves, so Animal comes in, and Roseanne Barr the door. The Warriors dominate, but the Fabulous Freebirds run in on them for the DQ at 3:19. This was nothing. The Freebirds injure Paul Ellering during the brawl, and the Warriors are pissed. DUD

Gordon Solie is in the studio for the Wrestling News Network. Nothing crazy here, but Gordon discussing the box office performance of No Holds Barred (complete with naming Hulk Hogan on camera) is pretty wild

Ross recently caught up with NWA World Champion Ric Flair at his home, where Flair is considering retirement due to the neck injury at the hands of Terry Funk

The Fabulous Freebirds v Scott Hall and Ranger Ross: The NWA World Tag Team title is not on the line here. Michael Hayes starts with Hall, and Scott gets a standing headlock on. Hayes forces a criss cross, but Hall nails him with a shoulderblock, and Michaels bails to stall. Back in, Hall with a bodyslam, so Jimmy Garvin runs in, but gets one as well, and the Freebirds both bail. Tag to Ross, and Hayes gets him in a standing headlock. He cranks on that for a while, until Ross forces a criss cross, and lands a dropkick to put Michael on the outside - not voluntarily this time. Back in, Hayes goes back to the headlock, but Ross forces another criss cross, and forces Hayes to do some cardio. Michael bails again, and passes to Garvin on the way back in. Garvin tries to help by getting a double team going, but it backfires, and the Freebirds stall. Garvin manages to pound Ross into the corner, but a cross corner whip gets reversed, and Ross delivers a backdrop on the rebound. A pair of dropkicks follow, and Garvin ends up on the outside again. Back in, Garvin forces a criss cross into a cheap shot from Hayes, and that’s enough to turn the tide in favor of the heels. The Freebirds go to work on Ross, until he manages to block a bulldog from Hayes, and makes the hot tag to Hall. Hall runs wild, and Roseanne Barr the door! Hall gets a rollup on Garvin, but Terry Gordy comes in to DDT him, and Garvin pins Scott at 10:53. I’ve come to appreciate the Freebirds as an act a lot more than I used to. They aren’t great workrate guys, but I can appreciate how well they work the crowd, and tell their story. *

It’s Funk’s Grill with Terry Funk! And he’s no Oprah! His guest is Missy Hyatt, and he wants to slap her around, but he won’t, since she’s pretty. Cue much sexual harassment, until the Steiner Brothers show up to intervene. When those guys are preventing harassment, you know things are bad out there

Terry Funk v Ricky Santana: Funk attacks on the outside, and continues dominating Santana as they head into the ring. Funk with right hands, and they spill back to the outside, where Santana eats the post. Back in, Santana manages a comeback, but gets backdropped over the top while trying a corner splash, and Terry piledrives him on the floor. Terry decides to pull the mats up for another piledriver, but the referee intervenes, and Funk settles for pinning him at 8:03. This was really long for what it was. Afterwards, Funk continues destroying Santana, and beats up the referee to boot, but the Steiner Brothers are back to chase him off again. DUD

BUExperience: While this didn’t cover a lot of ground, they did touch on most of the big angles of the period, and it was a fairly entertaining hour - even if the actual wrestling was not.