-2/25/90
-From Greensboro, NC
-Hosts are JR & Terry Funk
-JR & Funk run down the card. JR notes that Theodore R. Long is claiming that Dan Spivey is injured, and won't be wrestling. JR calls Ole and Arn "the Anderson brothers".
-Teddy is with Gordon Solie. He reiterates that Spivey is hurt. Teddy says he's hired another wrestler to take his place for the night, and that he has a big surprise later.
-Match 1: The Rock 'N' Roll Express VS The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette)
-Lane introduces Cornette as "the man who stole Ivana from Donald Trump", and JR calls Cornette gay in so many words. Lane and Gibson start. Gibson counters an attempted monkey flip with a fist drop, causing Lane to bail. Cornette challenges Nick Patrick, and freaks out when Patrick accepts. Crowd LOVES the whole thing. Things don't go any better for the Midnights' and Lane ends up shoving Eaton down on the outside. Lane punches Morton down and tags in Eaton, who promptly loses the momentum after being taken down with a series of arm drags.
Rock 'N' Rolls dominate the first few minutes, but then Ricky Morton becomes the face-in-peril. Eaton hits a senton for two. Lance hits a powerslam, but Gibson makes the save. Morton gets a sunset flip on Lane, who manages to tag Eaton. Eaton catches the unaware Morton with a swinging neckbreaker. Midnights hits the Rocket Launcher, but Gibson makes the save again. Lance hits a side slam, and they go for the Rocket Launcher again, but this time Morton gets his knees up, and is finally able to make the tag.
Cornette waffles Gibson with the tennis racket, but that only gets two. The Midnights go for a two man flapjack, but Morton spears Eaton and Gibson rolls up Lane for the pin. Really hot opener with well-executed tag formula.
-Match 2: Street Fight: Mean Mark Callous & a masked man [Mike Enos] (w/Theodore R. Long) VS The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering)
-Roadies hop on motorcycles and are driven the short length from the entrance to the ring. Doom (in suits) come down to watch the match. Enos throws some spectacularly awful punches on Animal. Warriors win pretty quickly with the Doomsday Device on Enos. No-DQ didn't even come into play. Roadies, bullies that they are, pull Teddy into the ring and throw him out, but Doom catch him, and start a fight with the Roadies.
Simmons pulls something out of his boot, but Animal takes it, and hits Simmons with it. Simmons no-sells, and they keep going until the Roadies throw Doom out of the ring. Doom really should have won that fight.
-Match 3: NWA United States Tag Team Championship: Brian Pillman & The Z-Man [c] VS The Freebirds
-Pillman & Zenk steal the Freebirds' ring jacket and pummel them, before egging the crowd into a "Freebirds Suck!" chant. Zenk locks Hayes in an arm bar and yells "Ask Him!" about as loud as he can. Hayes turns the tide as Funk gets upset with JR for forgetting that Funk went to college. Pillman locks in an arm-wringer on Garvin while the crowd reacts to something else going on off camera. Hayes locks a sleeper on Pillman, and JR calls it a "sleep hold".
Pillman is face-in-peril for a bit. Pillman and Garvin knock heads, and that allows Pillman to make the tag. Zenk locks a sleeper on Hayes, but Garvin breaks it up. Hayes locks in a rear chinlock on Zenk, and shows that his trash talk vocabulary is very limited. Zenk tries to fight back, and Hayes locks in his own rear chinlock. Funk and JR take the time to note that Funk has the teeth and breath of a Texan.
Hayes hits a bulldog, yells "YES!", but only gets two. This match is going waaaaay too long. Just as JR says the Freebirds are a DDT away from winning, Zenk catches Hayes with one, and makes the tag to Pillman. Nick Patrick catches Hayes trying to use one of the title belts, so Garvin chucks Pillman into a cameraman. Pillman finishes Garvin with a crossbody from the top shortly after anyway. This was really, really boring, and went an obscene amount of time longer than it should have.
-Match 4: NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers [c] VS The Minnesota Wrecking Crew
-Arn is the TV champion at this point. Rick shows the Andersons a sign that says "Sting's Revenge". JR again refers to the Andersons as brothers. Steiners manhandle Arn to start. Ole and Rick get in, and neither team can get a real advantage. Arn does manages to drop a knee on Rick, but makes the mistake of going up top, and Rick gets up to meet him. Scott locks Arn in a Figure 4, but Ole makes the save.
Rick becomes the face-in-peril, but Ole does a poor job of stopping Rick from making the tag. Scott takes Arn outside, but misses a clothesline, and ends up hitting the ringpost. Scott isn't FIP for long, hitting a Frankensteiner out of nowhere on Arn. Andersons set Rick up for a double team, but Rick kicks Arn and small packages Ole for the pin to retain. Match was good, but I'm worn out on tag matches right now.
-Match 5: NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair [c] (w/Woman) VS NWA United States Champion Lex Luger
-Sting was injured at the last Clash of the Champions, and Luger gets the shot instead, turning face in the process. Match is clipped (ok, this is clipped, but not the US title tag?), and Luger pounds on Flair in the corner. Flair avoids a clothesline, and Luger spills outside. Flair keeps the pressure on Luger, and takes time to try to intimidate Nick Patrick. Flair keeps working Luger over, and Woman joins in when the opportunity presents itself.
Lex finally manages to turn the tide, bashing Flair's head into the guardrail. Flairs comes back, but makes the mistake of trying to suplex Luger off the apron, and Luger reverses into a suplex of his own. Luger bashes Flair's leg into the ringpost as the crowd goes NUTS. Luger botches a figure 4 attempt in spectacular fashion. Flair, perhaps feeling humiliated thta he had to sell that, chops Luger. Luger gets a powerslam for two.
Flair takes control back, and works over Luger's leg to set up the figure 4. Once Flair locks it in, Sting comes down to ringside to pump Luger up. Luger starts no-selling everything Flair throws at him. Luger hits a huge military press slam. Luger gets tired of Woman's shit, but ends up taking a double knee to the back which wipes out Nick Patrick too. Luger cuts off Ole and Arn when they interfere, and locks Flair in the Rack.
The Andersons go after Sting, and Luger, for once in his life, makes the altruistic choice and saves Sting, which leads to him being counted out. AA drops Luger with a DDT, but the Steiners rush out to prevent further damage from being done to Luger. Typical Flair/Luger match. Count out finishes are usually cheap, but this one, with Luger cementing himself as a babyface, at least had a purpose.
-FINAL THOUGHTS: Well, if you really like tag wrestling, then this release is for you. As for me, I really struggled to pay attention, as this couldn't hold my interest for long stretches of time (particularly the US title tag). The main event looked ok from what was shown, that match has been done, and better.
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