Hello everyone. Welcome to my review of StarrCade 1989, which will be my final review of the 80s. It’s also the last PPV for NWA in 1989, one of the best years that any company has ever had.
A win by pin/sub is worth 20 points, a count-out win is worth 15, a DQ win is worth 10 and a draw gives both wrestlers/teams involved 5 points each. But forget all that, the only point system that you need to care about is here!
Before starting, here is the list of then-NWA champions:
- NWA World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair
- United States Heavyweight Champion: Lex Luger
- NWA World TV Champion: The Great Muta
- NWA World Tag Team Champions: The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner)
Enjoy the review!
The hosts are Jim Ross, Jim Cornette (for the tag tournament) and Terry Funk (for the singles tournament)
Live from Atlanta, GA
Tag Tournament Match #1: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner) vs. Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed)(w/ Woman & Nitron)
Steiners: 0 points, Doom: 0 points, LOD: 0 points, Wild Samoans: 0 points
Also, there is a fifteen minute time limit for each and every match, in both the singles and tag tournaments. Scott takes over on Simmons to start with a powerslam. Scott misses a charge but a quick Steinerline puts him back in control. Both tag off to their respective partners, with Reed cheating for a while before walking into a Rick powerslam for two. Back to Scott as they get into a weird atomic drop fest, before Scott simply goes for a roll-up for two. We hit the chinlock for a while until a heel distraction allows Reed to pound Scott down. Scott makes a brief comeback but Doom hit a double backdrop to keep him grounded.
That makes Rick angry on the apron, which distracts the ref and allows Doom to double-team Scott behind his back. They throw him over the top rope (illegal in the NWA) just to be dicks and even do some choking. Gary Capetta announces there are only two minutes left in the match (incorrect, but we’ll go with it), which is cue for the Steiners’ big comeback. Scott blocks a piledriver and explodes with a belly to belly suplex. Hot tag Rick who comes in hot with a powerslam on Simmons for two, followed by a clothesline to both Doom members. Nitron gets involved and draws both teams to the floor for a brief brawl, before Rick manages to get back inside the ring at the count of nine for a count-out win at 12:24.
- Rating: What a weird opener this was. It took a while to get the action going due to numerous reasons, and then once it got going just well… they gave us this lame finish. Why can’t the tag team champions beat freaking Doom? Oh that’s right, because the Steiners aren’t winning the tournament. Thirteen minutes for a count-out finish because this tournament (with nothing on the line) is a thing that needs to exist. Not a bad match, though, all things considered. **
Singles Tournament Match #1: Lex Luger vs. Sting
Luger: 0 points, Sting: 0 points, Ric Flair: 0 points, Muta: 0 points
JR says on commentary these two are the future of NWA and the wrestling industry in the 90s, and calls back to their friendship before Luger’s heel turn earlier that year. So of course their long-awaited meeting takes place in the first round of this meaningless tournament. This is like doing The Rock vs. Stone Cold in the second round of the Deadly Games at Survivor Series 1998 instead of waiting until the main-event of WrestleMania. Not even Vince Russo was that dumb!
Sting wins a popularity contest to start, so Luger wants none of this – to be fair, why would he? He has nothing to gain and could possibly get hurt and risk his US title reign – and simply walks away. Sting goes after him and brings him back inside. Sting picks up the pace as the crowd comes alive with him, but Luger cuts him off with an atomic drop. He stops to point out his intelligence, though, which allows Sting to clothesline Luger’s head off his shoulders. A Luger charge into the corner only finds boot, and Sting follows that up with a dropkick that gets two. He goes up only to jump into another atomic drop. Instead of pointing to his head Luger actually hits another one, which allows him to actually stay in control!
Meanwhile, Capetta announces we’re ten minutes in with only five remaining, when it’s not even close to that. Lex begins to target Sting’s midsection setting up for the Rack. Sting fights back with an attempt at a quick little comeback that is quickly killed by Luger, and he tries to take it home with the Torture Rack. Sting escapes that as Capetta announces there are three minutes remaining, but Luger pounds him down some more. Another Sting comeback goes nowhere as time is about to expire, and they fight on the apron. Sting goes for a suplex back inside (I think so), but instead just they fall back and Luger lands on top of Sting while literally holding on to the ropes with his hands and his feet to steal the win and the 20 points at (a real) 11:31.
- Rating: I feel like I will be saying the same thing over and over for every match, so I’ll try to make it as short as I can. It was easily much better than the opener tag match, but then it all had to stop so they could work in this ridiculously lame finish just to fit the rules of this pointless tournament. Also, there was no reason to do this match so soon, this meeting could and should have been a much bigger deal than this. Still a good enough match. ***
Tag Tournament Match #2: The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal)(w/ Paul Ellering) vs. Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed)(w/ Woman & Nitron)
Steiners: 15 points (1 match), LOD: 0 points (0 matches), Doom: 0 points (1 match), Wild Samoans: 0 points (0 matches)
Hawk and Simmons do a battle of no-sold shoulderblocks for a long time to start before Hawk catches him with a powerslam. Animal comes in to hit a chinlock as Capetta is ALREADY telling us we’ve hit the five minute mark! It has barely been two. I know this idea is pointless and these matches mean nothing, but if you’re going to rush through them like this, why did you book them in the first place? The genius of Jim Herd. Simmons responds with a powerslam of his own to Hawk into his own chinlock, and suddenly we hit the ten minute mark. Well, if you say so. Animal comes in running wild off the hot tag with a powerslam (yes, another one) for two. Suddenly all hell breaks loose, and Reed hits a piledriver on Animal only to eat a flying clothesline by Hawk for the pin and the 20 points at THREE THOUSAND MINUTES AND FORTY FIVE SECONDS! In reality, 8:31.
- Rating: What a mess. Nothing but powerslams, chinlocks, repeat. The finish was pretty cool, I’ll give them that. But the rest was just not interesting as this tournament continues to be nothing but a complete waste of time. 1/2*
Singles Tournament Match #2: Ric Flair(w/ Arn & Ole Anderson) vs. The Great Muta(w/ Gary Hart)
Luger: 20 points (1 match), Flair: 0 points (0 matches), Muta: 0 points (0 matches), Sting: 0 points (1 match)
Arn Anderson is back, one month or so after being one-half of the WWF’s World Tag Team Champions! Also, Great Muta is still undefeated at this point, so you can already see them fucking this up one way or another, given the pattern this show is on at this point already. Muta runs wild all over Flair to start, pounding away in the corner. Quickly into the corner for a very fast handspring elbow followed by another elbowdrop. Flair fights back and chops away, though. Atomic drop into the kneecrusher as Flair is already thinking figure four, but Hart runs in which also draws the Andersons in. Muta takes advantage of this distraction to hit a quick Mutasault, but Flair moves out of the way and simply cradles Muta to end the undefeated streak at 1:55.
- Rating: So Doom already has 20 minutes worth of action, but we have to cut time in this match? And in the process end Muta’s undefeated run with a roll-up of all things in less than two minutes? Not a DUD because the action was fast and furious while it lasted, but if I had to describe this match in the nicest way possible, it would definitely be to simply call this a bunch of bullshit. 1/2*
Tag Tournament Match #3: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner) vs. The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal)(w/ Paul Ellering)
LOD: 20 points (1 match), Steiners: 15 points (1 match), Wild Samoans: 0 points (0 matches), Doom: 0 points (2 matches)
Honest question: I know this is not supposed to mean anything and there’s nothing on the line, but the Samoans haven’t been in one single match yet heading into match #4 in the tag tournament. Meanwhile, every other tag team will have to face them with one (or more) matches already under their belt. In what world does this make sense? Have I mentioned how much of a mess this whole thing is?
Another big match between the two top babyface teams that should NOT be happening anytime soon, but here it is because… of course it is. Hawk and Scott start, with the latter going after the leg only to eat an enziguiri. Tag off to Rick but Hawk says hi with a nasty lariat. How nice of him! In comes Animal for a couple of shoulderblocks until Scott catches him with a suplex that gets two. Clothesline by Animal puts the LOD back in control, though, and Hawk comes in with a backbreaker. He follows that up with a deadlift right into a gutwrench suplex. A human being should NOT be able to do something like that! Hawk makes the mistake of going up which earns him a belly to belly off the top courtesy of Scotty. Animal manages to tag in and grabs Scott for a bearhug, and suddenly all four guys are in the ring. IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA! The Road Warriors clean house and finish off Scott with the Doomsday Device, but Scott gets his shoulder up at two while Animal’s shoulders are down in a bridge position until the count of three. That means the Steiners get a pinfall win over LOD and 20 points at 7:27.
- Rating: All problems aside, this was a pure fight between four guys trying to hit each other as hard as they could. Unsurprisingly, that gave us the best match in the tag tournament so far. There’s no doubt this match should’ve been done WAY later down the road and should’ve been a much bigger deal, but I had fun watching it. Good and intense little match. **3/4
Singles Tournament Match #3: Sting vs. The Great Muta(w/ Gary Hart)
Luger: 20 points (1 match), Flair: 20 points (1 match), Muta: 0 points (1 match), Sting: 0 points (1 match)
So this was quite the feud over the TV title throughout 89. Muta starts off quick yet again with a mule kick off an attempted full nelson hold by Sting. Muta grabs a headlock only for Sting to monkey flip his way out of it. Suplex gets two. They tease another Muta squash with Sting going for the Scorpion Deathlock already, but Muta holds on to the ropes for dear life and bails.
Back in, a rake to the eyes turns things around for the TV Champ. Muta adds an elbowdrop and it’s off to an awesome bridging double chickenwing. Sting pounds away and a slam gets two. Sting tries to play Muta’s game with his own elbowdrop, and that quickly goes nowhere as Muta turns the tables and chokes away in the corner. Muta is thinking Mutasault, which Sting blocks but ends up eating a spinkick anyway. Muta goes up for it yet again but Sting follows him and brings him down with a superplex for the win and 20 points at 8:41.
- Rating: Nice job by both men here. Though you can’t compare this with their classic matches over the TV belt earlier that year due to obvious reasons, they put on a very good effort. ***1/4
Tag Tournament Match #2: The New Wild Samoans (Fatu & The Samoan Savage)(w/ ‘The Big Kahuna’ Oliver Humperdink) vs. Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed)(w/ Woman & Nitron)
Steiners: 35 points (2 matches), LOD: 20 points (2 matches), Wild Samoans: 0 points (0 matches), Doom: 0 points (2 matches)
So, this is the Wild Samoans’ first match in the tournament, while Doom have already wrestled twice and already have no chance to win. Reed and Fatu trade powerslams to start. The Samoans no-sell a few headbutts as well as a Ron slam. The crowd couldn’t care less about any of this, and neither do I. Tama misses a flying headbutt and Reed scores with a neckbreaker for two. Capetta announces there are ten minutes left, as this is still going on for some reason with an already eliminated team and one that is working their first match. All of a sudden all hell breaks loose with everyone inside the ring, and Humperdink shoves Fatu on top of Reed to give the Samoans the win at 8:22.
- Rating: This was nothing. This was way too long (for some reason went four times longer than Flair vs. Muta did) and simply bad. 1/4*
Singles Tournament Match #4: Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger
Luger: 20 points (1 match), Flair: 20 points (1 match), Sting: 20 points (2 matches), Muta: 0 points (2 matches)
This is more like it. Luger bails and walks around for a while to play mind games. Flair grabs a headlock to start which Luger turns into his own. Luger goes after the hair to keep Flair grounded, so obviously Flair responds with some badass chops with extra mustard. Luger runs away for his life while Flair follows him around and keeps throwing the chops. Back inside goes Luger and Flair backdrops him out of the corner as Luger starts asking for mercy.
Luger finally catches Flair going for another chop and starts working the back setting up for that Rack. Flair catches him with a suplex though, and goes after the arm but Luger goes back to the hair. Flair once again chops the heck out of Luger and continues to work the arm with a hammerlock which Luger breaks by dropping Flair on the top rope. Luger starts going after the neck as we get the last five minutes announcement – it was late, but here I don’t mind it because this is kicking some ass. Luger sends Flair into the corner, Flair flip into the apron but Luger meets him there with a great clothesline! Flair almost catches Luger by surprise with a quick sunset flip for a nice nearfall, but then Luger misses an elbow and Flair starts working the leg with a minute left on the clock. Ric locks in the figure four as Capetta does a countdown for the final ten seconds. Luger hangs on in that hold until time expires, which means it’s a draw and five points for each wrestler at 17:15.
- Rating: Well thank goodness! This is finally a match worthy of being on a NWA 1989 pay-per-view. The crowd was alive, both workers were feeling it and they just put on one hell of a match inside those ropes. This could’ve been an all-timer without the rules of this meaningless tournament, but it was still pretty amazing as it was. ****
Tag Tournament Match #5: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner) vs. The New Wild Samoans (Fatu & The Samoan Savage)(w/ ‘The Big Kahuna’ Oliver Humperdink)
Steiners: 35 points (2 matches), LOD: 20 points (2 matches), Wild Samoans: 20 points (1 match), Doom: 0 points (3 matches)
So basically this is the Steiners’ final bout in the tournament, while the Samoans still have to face the Road Warriors. Before the bell, Rick Steiner mocks the Samoans’ pre-match ritual over and over in a funny bit. After mucho stalling Scott scores with a lariat on Tama, but the Samoan complains about hair-pulling that didn’t happen. They’re taking their time here but it’s actually working, as they try to get inside each other’s heads and the crowd’s into it. Next up Rick throws one Samoan into the other and tries to turn them against each other, they hug it out. A very young Dr. Shelby must’ve had a big smile on his face at this time.
Scott comes in as the action actually gets going. Scott runs wild for a bit but ends up missing a dropkick on Fatu, who drops him on the railing. The Samoans cut the ring in half and get in some classic heel double-teaming before locking in a bearhug on Scott. Young Scotty escapes but walks into a powerslam as we have two minutes left in the NWA’s imaginary clock. Steiner suddenly hits a Frankensteiner and reaches for the hot tag to Rick, who comes in to clean house. As all hell breaks loose and the match is about to end in a time-limit draw, Scott blocks an attack from Tama (I believe) by backdropping him over the top rope, which is illegal in the NWA, so the ref calls for a Samoans DQ win at 14:05.
- Rating: I was actually feeling this one. I enjoyed the mind-games in the beginning, even though they did go a little longer than they probably should have, and the action that came afterwards was good too. The show is much better now and the crowd is alive and into things, which I very much appreciate. Better than I expected. ***
Singles Tournament Match #5: Lex Luger vs. The Great Muta
Luger: 25 points (2 matches), Flair: 25 points (2 matches), Sting: 20 points (2 matches), Muta: 0 points (2 matches)
So yeah, Muta has no chance of winning the tournament and is pretty much only fulfillig his duty like a good employee. Luger comes out selling the leg from the Flair match, so you know this will kick some ass. Fast action to start – much like in every Muta match on this show. Luger shoots Muta off the ropes, criss cross, leapfrog… but Luger lands on the bad leg and that allows Muta to kick him in the leg and take over. Lex smartly walks away much like he did earlier with Flair’s chops, only for Muta to go after him with kicks to the leg on the outside. Muta works an anklelock back in as Luger continues to run away from him, this time to the corner, only for Muta to meet him there with the handspring elbow.
Muta goes back to working on the leg with a number of holds. Lex has to rake the eyes to escape, only to miss an elbow and for Muta to catch him in an Indian deathlock. Thankfully for Luger he’s close to the ropes, so he grabs them and stays in it. Poor Luger tries to make another comeback but the bad leg once again allows Muta to take him down, this time with a spinkick. Luger finally takes Muta down the hard way with a nasty lariat. He runs wild (always selling the leg), as Capetta starts with the time announcements. Muta cuts that off with a sunset flip for two before walking into a Lex powerslam, so Muta finally says “fuck this” and gives Luger the green mist right in the eyes in front of the ref for the DQ at 14:15.
- Rating: Another great match with some badass psychology by Luger. Lex had one hell of a 1989, so it’s only fitting he ends the year with one last fantastic match. I loved the selling by Luger, the failed comebacks due to his leg constantly giving out, Muta going after it viciously as he should have. Really great stuff as this show has been somewhat saved with a series of competent matches. Awesome work here. ***3/4
Tag Tournament Final Match: The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) vs. The Wild Samoans (Fatu & The Samoan Savage)(w/ ‘The Big Kahuna’ Oliver Humperdink)
Steiners: 35 points (3 matches), Wild Samoans: 30 points (2 matches), LOD: 20 points (2 matches), Doom: 0 points (3 matches)
In case you care about this tournament, we have three possible winners – the Steiners finished with 35 points and are in the lead, while the Samoans are right behind with 30 and LOD have 20. Here’s how each team can win:
Steiners: they have already finished their work in this tournament, so they have to pray for a LOD win by DQ, which would give LOD 30 points and the win to the Steiners;
Samoans: at 30 points, a draw would tie them with the Steiners. Which means that basically any kind of win for the Samoans in this match gives them the win in the tournament.
LOD: they are 15 points behind the Steiners, who are in the lead, and 10 points behind the Samoans. Any kind of loss in this match gives the Samoans the win, while a victory via DQ works for the Steiners. A count-out win ties the LOD with the Steiners, so LOD has to win via pinfall/submission only in order to win.
Animal no-sells a piledriver to start and the LOD are soon in control with power moves. Savage with a takedown on Hawk that looked terrible, which Hawk rightfully no-sold and responded with a dropkick. Off to Animal for a powerslam, before they botch something big time and just fall awkwardly fall down together. Ew. Savage chokes away but misses a splash, allowing Hawk to hit the flying clothesline and (thankfully) take this one home at 5:18.
- Rating: Nope, this was terrible. At least it had some drama due to being the final match in the tournament and having three possible winners, but otherwise this sucked. Visually ugly botch festival. 1/4*
So with that, the final result in the tag tournament:
1st: LOD (40 points), 2nd: Steiners (35 points), 3rd: Wild Samoans (30 points), 4th: Doom (0 points)
Singles Tournament Final Match: Ric Flair vs. Sting
Luger: 35 points (3 matches), Flair: 25 points (2 matches), Sting: 20 points (2 matches), Muta: 0 points (3 matches)
Once again we have three possible winners – Flair, Sting or Luger. Here’s how each man can win:
Lex Luger – currently in the lead with 35 points, a draw would work for the US champ. A Sting DQ win would also give him the win in the tournament.
Ric Flair – a DQ win is only good enough to tie him on top with Lex. A count-out win works, and obviously so does pin/sub.
Sting – a DQ win gives Luger the win, while a CO win ties him with Luger on top. Sting has to win by pinfall or submission.
Sting goes after Flair with a headlock but Flair escapes and bails. So Flair is smartly embracing the heel-in-peril role in this babyface/babyface encounter. Flair work a hammerlock back in, but Sting counters that and turns it into a hold on Flair’s leg. Flair overpowers Sting and puts him on the top rope to break the hold, and then Flair… gives him the clean break?? Mind games city WOOOOO! Sting is visually surprised at this turn of events, so it appears to be working.
Back to the center of the squared circle they go for a nice wrestling sequence, but Flair soon bails yet again. Five minutes have gone by and Flair gets back in with a hiptoss, which Sting blocks and turns into a backslide for a good nearfall. Flair missing that hiptoss pissed him off as he explodes with the chops. Ric goes for another one but Sting blocks once again and actually turns it over and hits his own! Now Flair is done with the games, but Sting catches him getting up with a number of dropkicks. NOW Flair has had enough of being Mr. Nice Guy, and that means poor Sting gets to eat the railing on the outside. Back in, Flair uses the ropes to attack Sting in order to fully embrace the heelish role, and a very nice abdominal stretch cover gets two. Roll-up gets two. Suplex gets two. Flair is starting to complain with the ref after each Sting kickout! This match is beautiful, if only there was something on the line.
Sting finally stops Flair with a clothesline, and Flair is out of there for yet another breather. Sting follows Flair only to walk into the classic chops, which Sting NO-SELLS! Hopefully you can imagine the Road Warrior pop this gets once Sting looks Flair dead in the eyes. Sting throws him back in for a sunset flip, but Flair loads up the closed fist and drops it right on Sting’s face – notice how Flair shows the fist at the crowd before dropping it just to be a dick, because he knows exactly how to work. Capetta has announced we have five minutes left a while ago, but I’m so lost in this match that I forgot to write it! Flair loads up more chops which only gets Sting even more fired up, as the Stinger runs wild in the corner. Hiptoss out of the corner right into a clothesline. Flair into the corner, Sting with the STINGER SPLASH! Sting wants the Scorpion Deathlock, but Flair is lucky enough to be very close to the ropes. Sting breaks the hold, which gives Flair enough time to hit the kneecrusher. Oh no! It’s time to go to school baby WOOOOO! Flair is all heelish going after the leg, slowly stomping on it and walking on top of Sting’s leg while taking his time. Flair was naturally born a douchebag and it’s a pleasure to see him do it! Off to a great pinfall reversal sequence as we apparently have only one minute left (damn it). Flair stops the fun with another blow to the leg, and gives him another kneecrusher. Off to the ropes where Flair sits on top of Sting’s leg to punish him some more. Time is about to expire but Flair still walks on Sting’s leg some more, and only then does he want the figure four. Capetta is doing the final ten seconds countdown, but Sting catches Flair and turns the figure four into a cradle for the win and the tournament at 14:30.
- Rating: Simply incredible. This shows how much better and how much more natural Flair is when working heel. Sting was on fire as a babyface as well, and it just clicked. Imagine if something actually important (like say, the World title perhaps…) had been on the line! A great match to close the book for NWA-WCW pay-per-views in 1989, one of (if not the) best year in company history. Simply spectacular. ****1/4
The final result in the singles tournament:
1st: Sting (40 points), 2nd: Luger (35 points), 3rd: Flair (25 points), 4th: Muta (0 points)
After the match, the Andersons and Flair confront the winner Sting. They tease the heel turn but ultimately raise Sting’s hand as the winner, accepting Sting in the Four Horsemen. The winners Road Warriors and Sting have an interview with Gordon Solie, but the show fades to black during it. Well that was… okay then!
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: You know what, they managed to save this show somehow. The first half is ridiculously horrible, specially when you have to sit through eight minutes of Doom vs. the Samoans (with one of them already eliminated) while Flair vs. Muta goes one minute in what was the opening match for both. This is a great example that no matter how shitty creative might be, when you have badass talent like this a miracle is indeed possible. Overall I would say watch the second half of this show, it’s REALLY good – maybe apart from LOD/Samoans. As far as the first half goes, it’s worthy of taking a big shit on it. It sucks, stay as far away from it as you can. The great talent plus the ‘how you leave them’ effect ultimately outweighs the (incredibly) bad. 6/10
Finally here are the points (mine!) for each wrestler to close the book on 89 and the 80s:
(Note: the tournament winners will get an extra point because why not)
- Sting: 13,5 points (10,5 for star ratings + 2 for two pinfall wins + 1 for main-eventing + 1 for winning the tournament – 1 for a pinfall loss)
- Lex Luger: 12,25 points (10,75 for star ratings + 1 for a pinfall win + 0,5 for a DQ win)
- Ric Flair: 9,75 points (8,75 for star ratings + 1 for a pinfall win + 1 for main-eventing – 1 for a pinfall loss)
- The Great Muta: 5 points (7,5 for star ratings – 2 for two pinfall losses – 0.5 for a DQ loss)
- Scott Steiner: 9.25 points (7.75 for star ratings + 1 for a pinfall win + 0.5 for a CO win + 0.5 for winning a fall – 0.5 for a DQ loss)
- Rick Steiner: 8.75 points (7.75 for star ratings + 1 for a pinfall win + 0.5 for a CO win – 0.5 for a DQ loss)
- Hawk: 6 points (3.5 for star ratings + 2 for two pinfall wins + 1 for winning the tournament + 0.5 for winning a fall – 1 for a pinfall loss)
- Animal: 5.5 points (3.5 for star ratings + 2 for two pinfall wins + 1 for winning the tournament + 0.5 for winning a fall – 1 for a pinfall loss – 0.5 for losing a fall)
- Fatu: 4.5 points (3.5 for star ratings + 1 for a pinfall win + 0.5 for a DQ win + 0.5 for winning a fall – 1 for a pinfall loss)
- Samoan Savage: 3.5 points (3.5 for star ratings + 1 for a pinfall win + 0.5 for a DQ win – 1 for a pinfall loss – 0.5 for losing a fall)
- Ron Simmons: 0.25 points (2.75 for star ratings – 2 for two pinfall losses – 0.5 for a CO loss)
- Butch Reed: -0.5 points (2.75 for star ratings – 2 for two pinfall losses – 0.5 for a CO loss – 1 for losing two falls)
Note: RIP Butch Reed, who died this week while I was already working on the review for this show that has him on it. My condolences go to his family and all his friends and loved ones.
As always, thank you for reading. With 1989 now behind us, I’ll do a special year-end article to see who were the top wrestlers of the year in both the NWA and the WWF, as well as overall. Make sure you don’t miss that, as we then move on to the 90’s. Stay safe everyone!