The Single File #6
Posted: 02/22/01
Sorry this is a little late. I got 10 hours of Lucha in the mail, which diverted my attention for a while (10 hours, actually). But we’re back with a hidden gem I found while going through some old tapes of WCW Pro.
Who: Sting/Rick and Scott Steiner/Brian Pillman vs. Ric Flair/Arn Anderson/Barry Windham/Sid Vicious
When: If I had to guess, probably late in January, 1991, since they were hyping the upcoming Clash of the Champions XIV on January 30th.
Where: Dunno. Atlanta, I guess. It was a hot crowd, I’ll say that much.
Backstory: This match was used to hype 2 things. The first was the main event for the upcoming Clash, which was Ric Flair defending his World Title against Scott Steiner, so you know we’d get some teases of that dream match. The second was the main event for Wrestlewar ‘91, which was to feature these 8 man in a Wargames match (1) to blow off the Sting/Horseman feud. So the odds of this match having a clean finish weren’t so good.
In case you were wondering, everyone was AWESOME at this point (well, except Sid). Maybe not at their peaks, but all these guys were doing great work at the time (even Sid was about as good as he was going to get). Scott Steiner was probably the best wrestler in North America at the time, and I’m finally realizing how great Pillman and Anderson were. Even Jim Ross, doing solo commentary, was tremendous, and I kinda wish he’d get a shot at doing RAW by himself sometime.
The Match: Anyway, both teams come out together, which is always nice to see. Flair has the manly pink robe and trunks, while Pillman has the really small blue Cincinnati Bengals tights (2).
Arn and Sting start off. Arn acts like he’s going for a tie up, but opts to kick Sting in the gut, then lays in with a few punches. He throws Sting into the heels’ corner, but the Stinger manages to fight his way out. Sting then throws Arn into the faces’ corner, who all get their shots in, and Arn stumbles into a Sting punch that sends him to the mat. The rest of the Horsemen come in, only to be met by the faces, and we’ve got a Mexican standoff as the place goes nuts. Things settle down, and Sting lets everyone know that he wants Flair. So Arn obliges, tagging in The Nature Boy.
Flair offers Sting a handshake, then pulls back his hand to slick back his hair and “whoo.” God, I love Flair. Sting turns to the crowd to offer his own “Whoo” to the crowd, and Flair thinks about jumping the Stinger, but thinks better of it when Sting turns around. They tie up, and Flair pushes Sting into a neutral corner. Flair with some punches and chops, all of which are no-sold by Sting (3). Flair clamps on a headlock, but Sting whips him into the ropes. Flair hits a shoulderblock that knocks Sting to the mat, but when he tries it again, Sting drops down, then leap frogs, and finally catches Flair with a Go Rilla press. Flair begs off, then pokes Sting in the eye (of course). Flair with another chop, but it’s no sold by Sting. Sting backs Flair into a neutral corner and does the ten punch routine (only doing 4 for some reason). He whips Flair into the opposite corner, and we get Flair’s flip-upside-down-and-land-on-the-apron bit, and he walks into a punch from Scott that knocks him to the floor. The heels run in and we’ve got another standoff as Flair does the Flop on the floor.
Flair gets back in and tags in Windham, as Sting tags in Rick. Rick and Windham tie up, and Barry hits a quick armdrag. They tie up again, and Windham gets whipped to the ropes and gets flattened by a Steinerline! Windham gets whipped to the ropes again and caught with a belly-to-belly/powerslam thingee. Rick covers and gets a 2 count (Sid runs in, but Barry had already kicked out). Windham begs off in the corner, and Rick, like an idiot, drops down on all fours in front of him. So Windham pokes him in the eye. Barry follows with some punches and a nice vertical suplex that gets a 2 count. Then Barry…sigh…tags in Sid.
Sid comes in and bodyslams Rick, but misses a running elbowdrop. So Rick tags in Scott, who comes in and rams Sid’s head into the turnbuckle. So Sid…tags in Arn? What a puss. Still, the less Sid, the better.
Arn kicks Scott in the gut and tries a slam, but Scott goes behind and tries to roll up Arn, but The Enforcer manages to hold onto the ropes. Arn tries a running clothesline, but Scott ducks and hits a big powerslam on the rebound. Arn asks for a time-out, but Scotty helpfully reminds us that there are no time-outs in wrestling. They tie up, and Arn backs Scott into the ropes and lays in some punches. He whips Scott into the ropes and tries a kick, but Scott catches the foot. He spins Arn around and hits an atomic drop that send Arn into the faces’ corner. Pillman and Sting get their shots in on Arn, who again walks into a big punch from Scott that sends him tumbling into the heels corner. Arn wisely tags Flair back in.
Oooh, Flair and Steiner in ’91. Flair tries to psyche Scotty out by posing, but Scott responds by showing off his not-yet-totally-roided physique. Test of strength, which Steiner easily wins, so Flair cheapshots him with his free hand. Flair clamps on a side headlock, but Steiner pushes him off into the ropes. Flair rebounds with a shoulderblock that sends Steiner to the mat. Flair tries it again, but Steiner catches him with a drop toehold and slaps on a figure four. The other Horseman come in, but Pillman and Sting manage to out Anderson and Windham in figure fours, respectively, while Sid and Rick fight it out. Sid does manage to fight off Steiner and break up the figure fours.
Once everyone gets cleared out of the ring, Flair catches Scott with a thumb to the eye, then clamps on a side headlock into a pin for a few 2 counts. Steiner manages to scissor Flair’s head with his legs, but Flair turns it into another pinning position. But Steiner bridges up and hooks a backslide on Flair, only to have the pin broken up by Sid. Brian Pillman gets tagged in for the first time, but Flair catches him with a kick and lays in some chops in the corner. But Pillman fights back and nails some chops of his own, followed by a nice dropkick. He and Flair then take turns chopping the hell out of each other, culminating in a Flair flop. Whoo! Flair gives Pillman the evil eye and tags in Arn as we go to a commercial.
Okay, we’re back as Pillman and Arn tie up and Anderson backs Pillman into the corner, laying in with some knees and punches. He tries a cross-corner whip, but Pillman reverses and hits a nice dropkick. Whindam comes in and gets dropkicked too. Pillman goes up top and hits a nice double cross-body on Whindam and Anderson. Pillman goes for a double pin, but Sid breaks it up with a cheap shot (that Pillman doesn’t sell, oddly enough). The Horseman call time out and huddle on the outside.
Finally Arn gets in the ring with Pillman. They tie up, and Arn clamps on a headlock, but Brian manages to whip him into the ropes. But Arn manages to hold on to the ropes and slides outside, with Pillman following. Seconds ago JR mentioned that the Horseman want to isolate Pillman due to the experience factor, and wouldn’t you know it, Arn leads Pillman into the wolves’ den, where “Flyin’” Brian gets leveled with a Windham clothesline. Sid then comes over and hotshots Pillman onto the steel guardrail while the faces complain the ref (instead of, you know, actually doing something). Sting tries to help his comrade, but gets shooed away by the referee, allowing Flair to mug Pillman, finally dumping him back in the ring. Arn puts the boots to Pillman and tries a back bodydrop, but Pillman manages to turn it into a sunset flip. But Arn, crafty veteran that he is, manages to tag Sid before being pinned. Sid comes in and basically mauls Pillman. Pillman tries to fight back, but Sid no-sells all his shots (yeah, I’m shocked too). Sid hits a nice powerslam, but Rick Steiner comes in to break things up. Windham gets tagged back in and hits the flying lariat on Pillman. He goes for a pin, but Rick breaks it up again.
Windham tags Flair back in, and nails Pillman with a harsh chop in the corner, but Pillman fires back with some chops of his own. They get in a vicious chop fight, which Pillman actually gets the better of, allowing him to make the hot tag to Steiner. Steiner comes in a house o’ fire, whipping Flair into the corner and hitting a back bodydrop on the rebound. He nails a Steinerline on Flair, then on the rest of the Horseman as they get in the ring. Then, the predictable pier-six brawl breaks out, and both teams get double DQ’d (15:30).
The Horseman eventually retreat as the faces pose in the ring. Ross goes on about how only the Wargames cage will contain this fight. We see some replays of Scotty abusing Flair and we’re out.
Damn cool match that just flew by. I swear, this could have gone 45 minutes to an hour and I wouldn’t have noticed. Just good stuff with the heels selling like champs, even for Pillman, which was nice to see. Plus there was the neat story of the Steiner/Flair and the Horseman ganging up on the less experienced Pillman, expertly put over by the commentary. And Sid was in the match for like 2 minutes…now that’s how I like my Sid matches.
Fallout: Steiner and Flair went to a time limit draw at the Clash. And the Wargames match was even more amazing then this. If you’ve never seen it, try to correct that. The famous ending saw Vicious nearly kill Pillman by ramming his head into the top of the cage twice during powerbombs, and then El Gigante improvising and throwing in the towel.
Let’s look at everyone today:
Sting: Transformed from surfer dude to the Crow. Today, has greatly deteriorated and is currently healing up from an injury.
Rick Steiner: Also greatly deteriorated, but U.S. champ.
Ric Flair: “C.E.O.” of WCW, head of the Magnificent Seven. Retired?
Arn Anderson: Retired.
Barry Windham: In Japan, if memory serves.
Sid Vicious: Recovering from a nasty leg injury.
Scott Steiner: Hugely deteriorated, but got the world title…11 years later.
Brian Pillman: Deceased.
Interestingly, everyone but Sting and Anderson jumped to the WWF at some point after this, and Arn had been there once before.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back in a week or two with something.
Joe Gagne
bwo@telegram.infi.net
Endnotes:
(1) Actually, Larry Zbyszko ended up subbing for the injured Arn Anderson.
(2) You know what I’m talking about.
(3) Sting’s about the only person I don’t mind no-selling Flair’s chops.