Clash 7 Part 2

This week...the retro rocket returns for the second part of the 2 episode epic! We revisit 1989 and the second half of Clash of the Champions 7- Guts and Glory!

Episode Transcript

(00:15):
Hey, top of the day fans, or perhaps for you it's two am
and the wind is high today.But wherever this finds you, we do
hope it finds you. Well,I'm not a man of bullshit, right
Stirner, along with Ricky Kutcha Shtaand we have again taken our retro rocket
to the skies for the second partof a two episode epic. We are

(00:38):
still revisiting nineteen eighty nine and theClash of Champion seven this week, the
second half, including the main event, you will in your mind's eye as
we commandeer those comedy rights and commentaryrights for that matter. Norman the Lunatic
and Mike Justice the Varsity Club takeon the Steiner Brothers. Sting It takes
on Wild Bill Irwin Fabulous free Birdstake on the Midnight Express, Friendly Vacant

(01:03):
Tag Team and Belts, And inthe main event, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat
takes off Terry Funk. Buckle upnow in that Rower Coast Holster, because
you're paleling down the tracks to yourbig seat at the Big Show. Two
Rows from Ringside. Welcome to Rosefrom Ringside Fans to Part two of our

(01:42):
Well Week two. Part two ofour Retro Rocket Ride. We're here for
the final leg of the Retro RocketVoyage through Clash of the Champions seven from
nineteen eighty nine June the fourteenth,and Ricky. We were very upset that
we betrayed the fans last week bygiving them a main event of the first
part of this show, which endedwith a downright brutal bullshit finish of Terry

(02:08):
Gordy just walking out of the ringand Steve Williams Doctor Death half ass chasing
him. So let's hope that parttwo is as worthy of our excitement level
when we started this. Yes,I apologize to Sam Mitchell and our three
other viewers. However, we're gonnamake this. We are going to make
this better. The four of youare very important to us and we would

(02:30):
like to give you a better showingthis week. I happen to know for
a fact that it is more thanthat. But however, speaking of Sam,
we are going to do the matchyou said soon his favorite. Oh
yes, the fantastic favorite. Sowe got Flair Steamboat from Shytown Rumble and
then Undertaker Mankind from Barry to Lie. That's going to be coming up in

(02:51):
the next couple of episodes we havenot forgotten, but we decided to do
a little something different here, andwe decided the retro rocket had not flown
recently enough. So we came backand find ourselves now in the middle of
Clash of the Champion seven. SoRicky, let's get a time que on
this. I don't have to cheata little bit here, but let me

(03:13):
see the time que. I willthen quickly pause it if you want to
get your network pulled up to oras close to one second. We got
some buffering here. Fifty five minutesand thirty nine seconds, all right,
So I'll give you a few secondshere to get get your get yourself ready.
And we've still got some interesting stuffon this show to come. We've

(03:38):
got Terry Funk and Ricky Steamboat inthe main event. We still got the
Steiners versus the Varsity Club. AndI think it said Lex Luger was wrestling.
I could be wrong about that,but yeah, Ricky, I think
we're ready to go here. Ithink we've given the fans enough time.
We're gonna go here in three twoon all right. I love Gary Cappetta

(04:04):
and his sticky napkins. So MikeJustice not related to said Justice. Not
related to said Justice. But whois he wrestling? Obviously, Mike Justice
has been put out as a sacrificiallamb here and he is going to be

(04:27):
wrestling Norman the Lunatic. Is thatBaston Boger? Oh my god? Is
there a seatbelt on his side?It? Yes, he felt around his
end. Teddy Long is Teddy Longis leading him out to the ring.
And what does Teddy Long have?Dog was Teddy Long is probably like,
I can't believe I'm managing this guybecause he was a pretty decent manager for

(04:51):
them, right, he was agood heel manager. Yeah, he was
at this point, he was notyet the manager of Doom. I don't
think. I think that that wasstill to come. Norman the Lunatic was
downright slim, though compared to whathe would be as Bastian Booger. Yeah,
we all remember that from Survivor seriesninety three. I think Teddy Long
was carrying keys, maybe the keysto his mental patient cage or any cage.

(05:15):
They don't keep mental patients in acage usually, But wherever Norman comes
from, Teddy Long has got thekeys now. But I don't understand,
let's face it, Vince Wickman hasan eye for talent. Okay, he's
the best, the best promoter ever. He can't take that away from him.
At what point did Vince look atthe sky and say I want him
in my promotion. Well, assoon as he had the idea that we

(05:36):
need a wrestling monk called friar Ferguson, that is when he decided that Mike
Shaw had a place in this company. Mike Shaw had come from Calgary,
wrestled as Muck and Sing. Thenhe was Norman the Lunatic. Then he
became Trucker Norman Norman who carried ateddy bear, and he became a lovable
baby face, then came into theWWE as a miserable failure as friar Ferguson,

(06:00):
and then was repackaged into the legendaryhis most well known gimmick of all
your favorite in mind Bastion Booker.He's making short work here, Mike Justice,
though he just hit actually a prettyimpressive yeah have aalanche, which he
actually when he was Muck and Singhe referred to as the Karachi crutch.

(06:24):
And Mike Justice has been put downfor the three count already. Norman,
who is in mental patient inpatient pajamas. Well, we've had a little bit
of political incorrectness in the show.We've had a terrorist, we've had a
mental patient, and some ding dongsand some dingdongs. So they're bringing the

(06:44):
stretcher down now. Is that stretcherthough, for Norman or for Mike Justice?
As Norman being taken back to thehospital. Did Teddy Long just rent
him for one match? By theway, I love the music, It
is like the horror music. Yeah. So what is Teddy Long dangling there?
It's a key right, yeah.Oh, he's threatening him. My,

(07:05):
I think like time to go backor something. Oh, if you
don't listen, I'm gonna take youback to the hospital. Yeah. I
think you're right, Ricky. Ithink Teddy Long stole this man from the
hospital and he's using his fears ofprobably the beatings that he took. Is
a mental patient with a bad,inappropriate staff that worked at that hospital,

(07:27):
and he's look, Norman is crying. He does not want to go back
to the hospital. Ricky's very upsetand Teddy Long almost a cruel owner of
this man. He's He's brought Normaninto kind of a human slavery situation where
he's forced to wrestle. He's cryingat the thought of being taken away by

(07:47):
the by the e mts. Butnow what is happening here, Ricky Teddy
Long actually leading him to the bed, the bed, the gurnie, and
they're gonna goa shrap him up.And somebody must have hit Norman with the
with the tranquilizer, the shot inthe ass because he's now calmed down,

(08:09):
he's letting them strap him in tothe gurney. He seems so upset only
a minute ago, and now hejust sort of gently Oh, now he's
freaking out. This was you're tryingto be edgy. I'm not sure what
it is, but it's not.It is not edgy. It's making me
feel itchy. Yeah, that wassome garbage. No, I have no

(08:37):
idea what's going on this Triple CrownKing of the Hill. They're doing this.
There's this terrible graphic that looks atlooks that came out of the mid
seventies. It looks like my threeyear old daughter Drew King of the Hill,
Triple crowd of The announcer says,h thirty Maine will wrestle in the
rain at the Great American base andnow we've got a cup more soldiers on

(09:00):
here doing a promo again. You'llremember from last week this whole show is
built around military exercises, interviews withsoldiers, parachuting demonstrations, eight guns salutes.
Quite the production here. Now,Gordy's got a lot of nerve,
even shown his face out there afterhe ran away from that fight with Doctor

(09:22):
Death. I would tell you something, Palli, they stole my lines before
I said them. So you gotthe Freebirds and Gordy out here with Jim
Ross. Now, back in eightynine, those glasses probably looked pretty cool,
Ricky. I think they look amazingright now. You know what,

(09:45):
I'm gonna go with you on that. I actually love them. The way
the lights reflected in there, It'salmost like they got rainbows over their eyes.
I think I want to wear thoseinto work on one die so you
can tell the Freebirds kind of thoughtthey were badasses here in this like sort
of like biker a rock star hybridlook. But the Freebirds, I don't

(10:05):
know, as a wrestling fan,did you ever think the Freebirds came across
as tough guys? Well, theywere a little bit before my time.
I was just a year out ofthe womb here. No, you couldn't.
You couldn't analyze wrestling at that age. Now Gordy looked like a badass.
He was always a badass, butMichael Lays and Jimmy Garbin were never
what I would call tough guys.Mork Cremadonish, Yeah, Louka, Jim

(10:28):
Rosso stays goff. The crowd isat half naked at this point, the
hundred and twenty degree building. Literallynone of the dudes have shirts on.
Jim Ross's sweating that it just lookslike it came out Jim. I mean,
he is absolutely Usually somebody threw himin a pool with his clothes on,
and he just walked out and didthis interview. I hope everyone wore

(10:52):
their old spice that evening. Mygod, you know, seeing Terry Gordy
do a promo was like watching arabid hound dog try to cut a promo.
That's kind of his mannerisms. Wasthis an advertisement for Flying Brian Ricky?
Is that who I'm seeing the clipof here? The slow motion vignette.
This is a slow motion vignette,but I think it was Brian Pillman.

(11:16):
Yeah, it was Brian Pillman.So this was right as he was
coming into the company from Calgary.Pillman had a Jerry curled mullet unlike any
other. It was like a mulletyou have a permed. Seven years after

(11:43):
this, he would be the hottestthing in the wrestling business to want a
loose cannon gimmick where people thought hehad legitimately lost his mind, but that
was many years away. And thenshot or he didn't shoot him, and
he tried to shoot Stone Cold Sea, Boston when he broke into his house.
And then, sadly, at onlythirty five years old, he was

(12:05):
found dead of a drug overdose innineties six, right before No Not ninety
six, ninety seven, right beforethe Bad Blood pay per view in which
Sean Michaels took on Undertaker in thefirst Hell on the Cell match, and
it was the debut that night ofcame. That was the same night Brian

(12:28):
Pillman had been found dead. Forthose of you who like to make those
kind of connections, it had tobe so hard working all those nights that
those guys did. Oh my god, I can't imagine. I mean,
you talk about a gypsy lifestyle andthey wonder why they were all on pills.
So here you got Kevin Sullivan andMike Ratanda the Varsity Club, and

(12:52):
I've been looking forward to this match, Ricky. So they're going to take
on the Steiner brothers, who atthis point were being managed by Missy Hyatt.
I've forgotten about that. Oh mygod. Talk to us about how
you feel about Missy, Ricky.I think I said how I felt about

(13:13):
her a few episodes before nothing goingto change. Well, you talked about
how you were going to feel yourselfthinking about her, But I don't know,
you know, but I think youwere a little bit more excited about
seeing Missy after you know, shehad gone into cougar territory. Well,
I may have to google her.Look at what a look at what a

(13:33):
tool? Look at what a tool? Scott Steiner looks like in his original
gear, no knee pads, yellows, short tights, yellow boots, not
quite uh not quite ready to comeout there as big popa pump walking a
tiger. I always thought the nokneepads just looked strange. That doesn't it
It just well, first of all, it's you know, I know why
guys did it to show off theirtheir leg muscles if they had well developed

(13:56):
legs, because wrestling is obviously anupper body business, which a lot of
wrestlers would say to you. Butif you were a guy like Steve Astener,
um, you know, Scott Steiner, or even Kevin Sullivan in this
case, who had well defined legs, you would do it to show off
aesthetically, except if you're gring toHammer Valentine, you had no legs,
and didn't you sort of had ayou sort of had a tall roosters physique.

(14:20):
Um, if you're Greg Valentine.But you know, we got we
got some good I'm talking all overthis good action here. Rick Steiner came
in and there was some double team. Scott Steiner's doing a little ultimate warrior
action on the ropes there, andthe Varsity Club has taken a powder to
the outside, you know, thething that you were talking about with the

(14:41):
kneepads. Though, I just can'timagine the wrestlers that would wrestle for years
with no kneepad. Steve Assens had. It was one of the biggest mistakes
he made in his career. Helet his vanity and wanting to show off
his legs cause him to wrestle withunprotected knees, and you saw by the
end of his run and his rungot cut off prematurely by his neck injury.

(15:03):
He was wearing double double kneepads kneebraces, remember those giant races Steve
Alston used to wear. That wasa direct result of him wrestling with no
kneepads. Big power slam by ScottSteiner there on Kevin Sulliman. He just
about planted him right in the canvas, and Sullivan's trying to tag Mike Rotondo.
Mike Rotondo had to think about itfor a second. He didn't want

(15:24):
to get back in there. So, Ricky, do you prefer Mike Rotondo
as he is here? Or doyou like Erwin R. Shister better?
I think I think i RS becauseI know it better. But I guess
him as the varsity athlete athlete,he can pull that off too. Was

(15:46):
there a bigger gimmick heel or abigger cartoonish heel gimmick than IRS? No?
No, yeah, I mean wehad we had the Repo Man,
we had Duke the Dumpster. Enoughsaid you had me at Repo Man.

(16:06):
I RS is pretty damn bad,though the best was Bob Holly's first name,
Thurman's was a Thurman Thurmon Sparky Plug. Talk about the worst name.
I mean, bashing Booger is onits own level, but Thurman Sparky Plug's
pretty goddamn bad. So some goodchain wrestling here between Rotundo and Rick Steiner

(16:32):
sou But we talked about IRS.Now. IRS was the biggest period of
his career by far, though Ricky. Oh yeah, he doubled main event
at a WrestleMania against Hulk Hogan andBrutish Beefcake WrestleMania nine. I mean he
had a feud with the Undertaker.I RS was by far the biggest period
of his career. So but Ilike to how he just kind of used

(16:53):
as like a plug and play helllike on Survivor series Squads. Yeah,
but I mean like like four ofthe five members made sense and then they're
like, we gotta find out,we got to find another. Let's just
put IRS in there. Yeah.Yeah, but I mean he was pushed
at the top pretty much the entiretime he was there. He would be
putting feud with the boss Man,Tatanka, Undertaker. I think he did

(17:17):
a short feud with Randy Savage andof course the big match with Hogan and
then he had the long tag teamrun with the Basis money in so.
Uh. You know, they saythat about Vince. When Vince really feels
strongly about a gimmick or it's hisidea, he'll push the shit out of
it. He'll like, he'll pushthe he'll push that guy in the Moom
idea. Yeah, he was becausehe was mad about, you know,

(17:41):
the taxes being taken out and stufflike that, so he created a villainous
tax collector, uh, and thenpushed him. You know. Probably the
biggest example of that a gimmick thatVince was really behind and once the guy
agreed to do it, events pushedhim to the mom Probably the biggest example

(18:02):
would be the million dollars man thatwas all the way. Yeah, I
mean, he became one of thebiggest heels in the history of the company.
I love Teddy because he was awesome, classic heel of all time,
one of the best wrestlers ever.So this one, they slowed the pace

(18:26):
on it a little bit. Youknow, Scott Steiner was still pretty green
here, but even here you cantell what an amazing athlete he was gonna
be. Do Ever, we watcheda Signer Brothers match a few episodes ago,
and it was really good. Yes, it was from super Brawl one,
Stinging Lex Luger, one of thebest tag team matches of the nineties.

(18:49):
They just did a front soup plexwith Scott Steiner and and basically took
him over the top rope and justtossed him to the floor like a piece
of shit. And now Sullivan justposted him on that corps light banner covered
post. Oh my god, KevinSullivan just picked up the wooden ring steps

(19:12):
and threw them what looked very hardinto Scott Steiner's leg. Did that not
look like an extremely stiff shot?Yeah, that did not look pleasant.
And now Rotundo just turned Scott Steiner'stights into a thong. Briefly, that
was unpleasant. Big boot by Sullivan. Scott Steiner's on the mat, unwedging

(19:36):
himself at the moment, Mike Rotondolaughing. Now that the Varsity Club has
gotten the advantage back, I'll tellyou what, man like Kevin Sullivan was
downright sloppy on that shot. Ye, that didn't look too well. I
mean it looked like it hurt likea bitch. Big drop kick by Mike
Rotundo. You forget what an athletehe was in the I R S Kimmick.

(20:12):
Yeah, I was surprised. Lookat Scott Steiner's back, Rickie,
Oh my gosh, I wonder ifthat was from those steps. It looked
like it hit his leg, butmaybe it clipped him in the back.
Because Scott Stinder's got a giant bruiseacross his back and keeps holding it.
We're reaching for it, strong kickout. Still, this is a good little

(20:34):
match. Oh so Steiner slightly blewthat spot. You could tell Rotunda was
a little bit frustrated, but hegot he They redid it and he repeated
the clothesline as it was supposed tobe. Man, that bruise looks goddamn

(20:56):
nasty. Now he got the tagto Rick Steiner, but I guarantee you
the refere he didn't see it.He's making Rick go back out of the
ring. And now you got thedouble team from Sullivan and Rotundo. Rotundo
tried another one of those drop kicks, and Scott Steiner held the top rope.

(21:22):
Now he's gonna try to pull himselfup, but he was He was
clotheslining himself on the middle rope.As he tried to do that. Now,
now the tag to Steiner Rick Steiner. To think that Scott Steiner probably
wasn't on steroids here just goes toshow how big he was when he was
on steroids, because he is hugehere too. Yeah, he's absolutely huge.

(21:42):
Now, I would venture a guessthat he's definitely on steroids. However,
the level to which he was gassedup was not anywhere close to the
big popa Pump days or even likethe WWF Steiner days. Yeah, so
this thing's breaking down. Sullivan justtried to slide a chair in the ring.

(22:03):
Oh, Scott Steiner went for abig splash and Rotundo got the knees
up. Rick Steiner and Kevin Sullivanare brawling on the floor. Nick Patrick's
out there. Rotundo just suplex ScottSteiner on the chair. Sorry, Ricky,
I just talked all over there.You were gonna do comment him the
same thing. That's it. Well, I'm a little surprised by that result.

(22:25):
Now, today's product that had definitelybeen a kickout. Oh yeah,
yeah, you could sup plex himon a bed of nails and it would
be a kickout in today's wrestling.Here you can see the replay, Mike
Rotundo. So Kevin Sullivan smartly shovedthe chair into the ring. You know
what though, that it was notflat end down, Yes, Richard end

(22:49):
up is what I was trying tosay. That looked like it could have
really injured Scott Steiner if he hadlanded on it the wrong way. But
that's all. It took Suplex ontothe folding chair. Love matches because they're
short and sweet, short and sweetin and out. And it was a
good match. It was. Andhere's the guy with the hay again divisions,
the guy that was a future,a future sexual assault victim of camp

(23:12):
slaughter. Now we're in the chowline and watching these soldiers that eat a
little chowd It makes me a littlehungry. Now you got Jim Cornette and
Jim Ross. Let's track that youwant to crank the volume on this just
a little bit. Let's listen tosome Cornette Ricky Express tonight. Okay,

(23:40):
So those were qualifying matches anybody,but it comes along those classes. Hey,
poll, that's what I told youwe were gonna do. I believe
you talking about Hany. You gothany. Thank god, Cornett baby facing

(24:11):
himself there just to escape without wakingup. I'm gonna not expressed, probably
Jim Cornett describing a coyote ugly situationthere ten years ago with a sensation not
expressed. For the past five yearswe've never met. Well, best time.

(24:37):
The first one is going to themid not express. We're gonna be
the World Tag Tea champions, andI'm gonna be right here to make sure
the third, don't. I thinkit's rather amusing that Jim Cornett thought he
was going to do anything about TerryGordy interfering in the match. So now
we know Ricky Jim Martin. Nowwe're a governor. Governor Jim Martin.

(25:00):
What what the hell is he doingon here? Why do we got to
hear from him the States on aproud He's just doing a political speech,
it sounds like. But to anyway, Ricky, it looks like we were
correct that those two matches, theMidnights versus the SST and the free Birds
versus um the hell did the freeBirds be? Now? I can't even

(25:22):
remember, uh Special the Superstation Team, Oh the Dynamic dude. Yes,
but it looks like those were bothqualifying matches and the final will take place
on the same show with the Midnightsversus the free Birds for the tag team
belts. So you know who's inthe ring right now, Ricky, I
can't Wild Bill Irwin aka the FutureGoon. And here's Sting coming down of

(25:48):
the ring with children. Ricky,Yeah, I heard of children all with
Stinger face paint on bo. Stingwas so popular at this point as a
baby face the surfer Sting as theycall this look. And could you imagine,

(26:10):
oh, probably pretty bad at onepoint. Uh could you imagine Ricky
being one of those kids though?How cool that would have been at ten
years old come out with Sting.I'm sure it was. So they won't
forget that, that's for sure.Well, a wild Bill Irwin didn't come
to mess around, though. He'sgot a bullet in the ring that he's
swinging around like I'm madman. Sting'skeeping his distance. Sting was the world

(26:30):
television champion at this point, Rickywith that classic silver belt. People hit
him. Get dimmer in that arena, either the lights got dimmer or they
switched cameras and they and it andit appears to be a different lighting situation
now it looks the same, isn'tit. Yeah, it's still at a
dart over here. So Sting finallygot h Sting's rat tails died black here.

(26:56):
That's that's something. Uh, Stingsjust hit a couple of really nice
drop drop kick. Sting was sopopular here Ricky. He would actually win
the world title the next year fromRick Flair, but Bill Erwin pissed him
off swinging that bullet whip around.Sting found a way into the ring and
up until this flurry of offense fromBiller when Sting was handing him his ass.

(27:22):
Now whild Bill a need of themid section, the clubbing forearms.
So this was like right before statestings prime, right yeah before it really,
this was right before he really reachedthe top of the mountain. Although
although what you're seeing here couldn't eventouch his level of popularity in like ninety
seven ninety eight when he was thegirl that I mean, he was a

(27:45):
mainstream he was almost a mainstream starat that point. That was the biggest
he ever got. But wrestling wasif you compared in nineteen eighty nine and
WCW to nineteen ninety seven WCW,I mean, you might as well be
talking about two differ companies because theheights of popularity that reached that time no
one could have imagined in nineteen eightynine. Now, now that you see

(28:10):
wild Bill here as himself, doyou prefer this version, the rugged bull
whipping cowboy, or do you preferthe young man known as the Google.
I don't prefer any version you would, really, I wish you'd never had
to watch a Bill Irwin match.An interesting cell of Sting's big boot there
it just fell right on his ass. Did I see it correctly? Up

(28:34):
there? When they have the smallerflags underneath the American flags, that one
of them was a Confederate flag.Yeah, I think it was one of
the state flags of the I thinkthey have all the southern or all the
state flags, and was at Mississippistill at that point had the Confederate flag
is part of their state flag onI did not know that, Ricky,
thank you, thank you for educatingme. I'm curious. I think they

(29:00):
I'm sure they now removed it.But you know, it's a shame that
the Confederate flag means so many negativethings to so many people nowadays because the
actual design of the flag. Ialways thought it was a beautiful flag.
Um, and Michael Hayes fag okay, all right, yeah, you're right,

(29:21):
that makes sense to me now,Um, Michael Hayes, of course,
no one ever wore those that designany better than he did with that
sparkling Kate robe that he had thathad that generally Confederate flag on it.
That being said, you just won'tplay today because that to say you won't

(29:42):
see that many you will not aEW or WWE show. And don't get
me wrong, I understand why they'renot flashing all over their TV now.
It has become too much of apolarizing symbol. But if you've ever heard
me on any of the other showswe do, I'm not a big fan
of banning things or making them goaway forever just because they might have a

(30:03):
negative connotation. That being said,Oh and stinger splash and a roll up
wins it for sting here Bill Erwintried to go too far. They're grabbing
a leather strap. He was goingto do some cheating. But anyway I
can get regardless of if you canhandle symbols that are are now now have
a very negative connotation. I understandif you're running a wrestling program on national

(30:26):
TV, why you wouldn't want tobe associated with the symbol that is now
extremely polarizing. I agree with you. The stinger splash was such an impressive
move and very simple when you thinkabout it. But it always looked like
a million dollars, don't you think? I agree? I just think stings

(30:47):
work was awesome. Everything he didwas Todd Dodge. When you when you
go back to the early nineties ofthe late eighties here and you see sting.
Oh now we got the promo herefor gator Scott Hall. So what
was he supposed to be here?An alligator? An alligator poker? It
just showed him poking an alligator withsticks. Oh god, the mullet and

(31:12):
the mustache, a blonde he hasblonde frosted hair here. Uh. Not
much of a wrestler at this point. As you can tell from these brief
clips, he's doing some pretty shittylooking offense and he's just tormenting this poor
gator. You know, Scott Halllooked like a million dollars when he got

(31:32):
that razor ramone. Look, Imean, that was really what he was
missing. But what a tortured,sort of rotten human being does he keep
trying to fuck with this alligator.He's Gator Scott Hall. He he teaches
Gator's lessons. That's what he does. Man, gators pokes him with a

(31:56):
stig, he shows him who's boss. That's been lesson he hasn't trained.
Then love them. He just pokesthem with a stick. He's like,
it's time for your daily lesson,Gainers, and then he just started poking
the shit out and the Gainers lookingat each other like, oh God,
that frosted mulleted dick his back.He yo yos. So they're gonna throw

(32:27):
to an interview with Rick Flair here. They had actually advertised this as part
of the show, This is Rickselling North Carolina. And I believe that
was actually Rick Flair's house at thetime. I'm pretty sure that was his
legitimate house at this point in time. And Rick Flair was doing all rights
in spite of all the partying.But his partying would get so out of

(32:51):
control. Ricky as he got olderand he was like four times divorced or
whatever he was, Uh, RickFlair started to spend so much that not
only did he have to unretire fromhis classic retirement match with Seawan Michaels at
WrestleMania twenty four like the biggest sendoff anybody ever got, and he had
to unretire less than a year laterfor money because he just couldn't control the

(33:13):
party. That's fantastic. Good forhim, man, Jim Ross so much
younger here, Rick comes to RickFlair comes to the comes to the door
in a Laker's jacket and a neckbrace. How are you, Jim and

(33:34):
h and Fades? You know,Ricky, a couple of weeks ago when
we were watching mid Atlantic, youand I talked about how we were going
to get Fades and it hasn't happenedyet. I'm a little disappointed in us.
I would like to keep that promise. So this is serious baby face
Rick Flair, and a lot ofpeople they think back on Flair's career and

(33:57):
they remember all the crazy heel promosabout you know, having a hard time
keeping these alligators down. Has becomethis like sports cliche tagline. But Rick
Flair was a great baby face whenhe wanted to be. He in the
ring, he was a great babyface and his promos, he could really
be that thoughtful, humble, softspoken nature boy when he wanted to be

(34:19):
I do not remember Rick Flair asa baby face, So this is,
uh, this is new to me. All right, Well do you want
to do? You want to turnit up and track it for the audience
and listen in since you haven't gottento experience him as a baby face before?
Or did I did I accidentally eatyour remote while we were there?

(34:44):
So I'm gonna I'm gonna tag outof the commentary here for a moment fan,
so Ricky can hear baby face RickFlair and all of you can get
a little shot from the past.This is probably harder on me, and
it's been a harder on me thanthe far flane crash and I broke my
back because I knew day one aftereir Flane crashed it I would make it

(35:12):
back to doctors just one or twomore for me at some points, and
now it's a question mark. SoI feel good, but it's it's real
hard not knowing what the future holdsfor me with it the sport of professional
wrestling. Well, it's great tohear that you're feeling better, but I
think you know, knowing you asI do, I have to ask a

(35:36):
question, how do you feel mentallywell as you go through life? I
don't care what you do for living. You incur up and downs, ups
and downs, But mentally this it'sbeen the hardest part for me. I've
always been active, I've wrestled.To Nashal rusling line, it's interesting that

(36:00):
he's talking about this because the realguy, Rick Flair would tell you that
when he was home for any lengthof time, he would become depressed because
he missed, Yeah, the lifestyleand the parties and the just the crazy
jet setting life of the champion wrestler, drinking, the drinking, and the
women more difficult, the women thewings. So you know, doesn't young

(36:23):
Jim Ross a little bit remind youof of a Conrad Thompson kind of a
little bit. Yeah, that southernsort of aggressive, smooth talking, charismatic
guy. Must have been the titleevery thirty days, that's stipulation has been
honored for since the inception of theEnd, So Ross asking him about the

(36:43):
thirty day you've been physically unable todo that, and we've we've just gone
past that thirty day situation about thefifth week now. I think it was
very I think it was very Ithink a good sound move. The end
of good to Waigh that situation,right, Yeah, seeing as though they're
talking about waiving the thirty day rulethat a champion must defend his title with.

(37:07):
Yeah, so he was so injuredby Terry Funk that he was unable
to defend the title. No,this was he's selling the pile driver on
the table here. Still, Ohthat's right, okay for me, I
had thirty days to defend this wholething is will work, yep, but
it's But again, this is whywrestling worked in nineteen eighty nine. It
doesn't work. I'm the same nowbecause no one ever sells an angle.

(37:29):
Yeah. You know, you justhad to question whether this was real or
not. That's all it takes tomake it look lud shit where you have
to questions trying to work or somethingthat we all can live with. Of
course, the bottom line being ifI am not able to compete, oh
will not compete, they will takethe title from me. And I guess

(37:49):
that's one of the reasons we're heretoday. I am going to make the
announcement July. He had a lotof time. He's next two weeks,
you know, pretty this back togetherand and and trying to get back into
so Rick Flair is talking about wantingto come back, wanting to make it
back to defend the belt, becausehe says he only has till July first,

(38:13):
and they will strip him with thetitle title if he's not able to
defend it. If I'm not so, this was the cell the sidelines,
and they will take the title fromme. It's the most coveted trophy in
sports. It it deserves to bea man. I think Jim Roskt a
little too close to Flair's d there. Did you see a little weird sexual
tension going on there between these two? I ask you this question. We're

(38:35):
taking this on Tuesday afternoon. We'rebasically twenty four hours away from the Classic
Championship. It is airing in ifTerry Funk. We're watching this right now
on a monitor. What would yousay to him? Well, I think
it's fun. Could see my eyesright now. I wouldn't have to say
anything near anybody that Jim, youcan tell a looking him man's eyes.

(38:59):
What do I but we can't seeFlair's us because he's wearing fades in his
own house. I thought I wasmister cool for wearing my sunglasses at night.
Rick Flair's got me beat. Wearinghis fades in his own house.
But I won't. I wasn't mistercool. I wasn't mister drunk fool I
actually, but I did wear mysunglasses at night. You were awesome.

(39:23):
Don't let anyone tell you different.Ifended you, You did defend me again
against the people that were questioning mychoice for wearing my sunglasses. Although looking
back now walking around the casino,I don't love nicklog at night in a
leather jacket, live sunglasses. Maybeyou didn't look at like a little bit

(39:45):
of a less than recing whole character. I think the only people I offended
were the oily greyhounds. Anyone listeningto this is like, what the fuck
are they talking about? So RicFlair ends up with a handshake, says
that his career still hangs in thebalance. Um, but we're coming back

(40:05):
to action here, so I guesswe should crank it back down here a
little bit. I'm going back toour I want to know what happens with
this triple crowd King of the Hillof the Great American Beach. We'll have
to watch that show sometime because nowmy curiosity of my whistle has been wedded,
and now I need to know whathappens at the beach. So Ricky

(40:30):
just buttoning up on the Flair thing. So that was brilliant, you know,
Flair. They waved the thirty dayrule to give him a chance because
he was attacked. But here heis in his own house. He's raging.
He wants to kill Terry Funk,but he's selling the injury. So
when he comes back, he's thatmuch of a bigger baby face, and
folks got a million pounds of heaton him just by doing a few simple

(40:52):
things right again, really lacks intoday's product. All right, we've got
the World Tag team belts now again, Terry Gordy's shame on you for showing
your face after your poor showing.Why did they even put that on the
cart if they were gonna be no, he just got tired of wrestling right

(41:20):
now. Okay, Hayes has changedhis tights now he's wearing sort of a
look at arena emptied out. Lookat that. Yeah, if they got
too hot in there, it mustYeah, you might be right either fans
filed out unless they did an intermission. You know what, there might have
been an intermission during that Flare interview, and that might be why there's just

(41:43):
so many empty seats. Now.Anyway, we got world Tag team belts
here, the free Birds versus theMidnight Express, and if I remember correctly,
I think the free Birds win thegold here, Ricky, well,
you're right about half that half thathard camera section. He's gone, Yeah,
that doesn't look good. I wouldn'tbe happy right now. You're right,

(42:07):
though, maybe it wasn't. Whywould they I mean, I know
it's hot as ship, but whywould you leave the middle of the show.
Yeah, so Midnights were slapping somehands on the way down. Maybe
they were baby faces here, Ricky, because Cornette is high five somebody too.

(42:30):
I did not remember. Ohoh,Polly Dangerously just knocked the shift out
of Jim Cornette with his tennis racket. Jim Cornette is knocked out. Jim
Cornette is sitting motionless on the ground. Now face first, Polly Dangerously came

(42:55):
out there and swung for the fenceson Jim Cornett's head. And now they
they just got a picture. Theracket has got a horseshoe in it and
a choke collar. So yeah,I remember, now, Ricky. So
at this point Jim Cornette managed thedebt Dynamic Dudes and the Midnight Express,

(43:16):
and eventually the Midnight Express and JimCornette turned on the Dynamic Dudes and became
full fledged fields again. And whenthey did, people hated the Dynamic Dude
so bad for being these like gaycertain skateboarders that they got a huge baby
faced pot for the heel turn.But this is Jim Cornette looks like a

(43:40):
drunk man being dragged out of therenow unconscious, being held by the Dynamic
Dudes, carrying them off like awounded soldier. Poor Corny. But now
think about it, Ricky, thisis good storytelling because now the Midnight Express
is distracted, they kind of havean out if they lose to the Freebirds,

(44:01):
they sort of have a little bitof an out. Now we're worried
about him. Okay, I knowyour manage, you dying had y'all messed
up inside. That's Apollo Creed fromRocky three, but it applies to the
splash of the Champion Show. SoHayes is switched tights as I mentioned here

(44:25):
to now it's sort of an aquaaqua blue. The Midnights are still in
their very bright yellow gear, andJimmy jam Garvin I guess only brought one
pair of tits too. Hayes onetime on a TV taping took a hard
fall on the ring, and Iguess he had drank too much the night
before and he actually shit his pantsis wonderful and he had to go between

(44:47):
the second and third fall at acommercial break to go change his tights.
How would that even happen though duringa match like well he I guess he
got slammed, and well, no, I mean I understand him shitty himself,
but how would he like go tothe locker room to get changed.
I think they, I think they. They took like a commercial break,

(45:09):
and I guess he ran back tothe locker room, washed his ass off
really quick, threw his spare paratiteson, and ran back out and wrestled
in the third fall. The fansare probably like, what the hell's going
on? Why did he leave?And then when he shows them in different
types, they were like, yeah, now I gotta say, Ricky,

(45:37):
not that I'm really into ooh niceinsigury by stand Lane on Jimmy Garman.
Uh, I'm not into really examiningthe physiques of men, but I gotta
say the Midnight Express pants were notexactly flattering to bobby physique. Would you
say Bobby's physique wasn't all that flattery? He looks like a peeled banana.

(46:05):
And Bobby, he does not havethat bad of a pasigue. He was,
he was in good shape. Butthe way those tights come up,
I mean, he's like I guess, but he's not like sculpted. He's
not. No Bobby even put muchtime in the gym. No, Bobby
was not a body guy, buthe was in shape at least. But
the way he's got those tights abovehis midsection, Yeah, it looks like

(46:25):
he has this huge muffintop when hereally doesn't. And it looks like his
asses two asses high. His asslooks like it's in between his shoulder hoods.
Yeah, why is he wearing thosepants so high? It's not a
good look. I have to say, it is not a good look at

(46:46):
all. It's well above his belly. Buddy, the fans in this arena
really behind the Midnight Express here duringthis brief baby face run they had which
I had forgotten all about. Uh, and the crowd is going crazy right
now, Ricky, ships flying aroundme? Now, is that the freebirds

(47:07):
getting heat or is it the midnight'sgetting supported. It's hard to tell who's
really riling up the crowd here,but they've come alive. Yeah, it
looks like some of the crowd's comingback here, Ricky for that hard Yeah,

(47:31):
that wouldn't have surprised me. Youknow, I wonder in a situation
like that, you probably had acouple of fans who passed out. I
couldn't do it. I hate beinghot, like I would have left to
do. You mean you would havesacrificed watching Terry Funk and Ricky steamboat just
to cool off a little bit.Well, yeah, maybe they went.
Maybe they went outside for a bitand then came back in type of thing.

(47:52):
They probably went outside to get abreath of fresh air and smoke three
cigarettes. That's what I would havedone. Yeah, oh, not that
I smoke anymore, but when Iused to smoke, that's exactly what I
would have done. In fact,Ricky, I've gone to wrestling matches before
when I was a smoker, andI probably left the building four or five

(48:12):
different times just to take cigarette breaks. That's the one thing if you don't
smoke, I would I would adviseyou don't start because you start having to
run your whole life around it,including leaving a wrestling match that you want
to watch five different times just togo feed your habit. Yeah, I
don't miss it at all. Well, you used to do the same thing
with the flash of a whiskey,right, Yes, you're like, what

(48:35):
do you mean used to? Yeah, I'll be right back right, So
Hayes was still pretty slim back herein eighty nine. O Eaton just took
a big bump against the guardrail there. Stan Lane came around now is protecting
him. But the Freebirds, youknow, I forgot how much heat the

(48:58):
Freebirds had here, but they definitelyhave some heel heat going on. And
arena though it's still it definitely emptiedout. Yeah, you're right, there's
a large gap, and I wonderhow much of that is intermission. I
mean, this match has been goingon in ten minutes now, and those

(49:21):
bleachers section is about is about threeonly three quarters school stuff, and it's
legitimate bleachers, like bleachers is aloose term that that is a legitimate bleacher.
Well this didn't you say this wasa high school gyms? Funny like
you're having they're having a not apay per view, but a big refluence
draw with bleachers. It does notIt does not give the air of prestige.

(49:44):
Let's just say that it's like anover glorified high school gym. Jimmy
Garvin doing some really obnoxis shadow boxing, taunting Stan Lane to throw his partner
back in who had been injured onthe outside. Eaton got a nice right
hand in on On Hayes. Uh, ricky. Did you notice that they

(50:09):
did not even bring the tag teambelts out for this this tournament final?
And they didn't even this is Theseare the little touches that WCW often missed.
But don't you think for the endof a World Tag Team Title match
between two hot teams like full display? Yeah, Like, why wouldn't you
have had a special presenter come downwith both belts? Why would you have

(50:29):
the belt sitting on the table atringside? And you keep getting shots of
them during the match, reminding youwhat these guys are fighting for the world's
title when ww couldn't do Yeah,I said Pat ark Fishoff was mentioning how
they couldn't finish matches like WF likethe endings for WWF matches were always superior
and that WCW could not figure thatout. Well, you just saw a

(50:52):
great shining example of that in thematch between Doctor Death and Terry Gordon on
this very show, which we endedlast week Sturow episode with. I mean,
you could have thought of a betterfinish in your fucking sleep than that,
Ricky. That was bad, notfor a super show like this.
No, Bishop's right, they didnot put enough emphasis on crowd pleasing finishes.

(51:13):
Now. Look, I'm all aboutdon't don't blow your whole load now,
like, if the story is goingto continue, sometimes a non finish
is just fine. Yeah, butto have a non finish in just about
every other match, yeah, Imean there was there was some WCW pay
per view shows where you're like,did a bewildered, feral child write the

(51:34):
finishes on the show? Because theseare terrible. It's like disqualification after disqualification
of you know, two underneath guysthat have no heat in a seventeen minute
time limit draw kind of thing.Just terrible finishes. You're absolutely right when
you say that. So now theydid a little doughe the Midnights did a
little docy. Dough knocked Michael Hayesout of the ring. Terry Gordy trying

(51:57):
to interfere. He just got afish for his troubles. They're flipping Jimmy
Jam Garvin in there. I thinkwe might be getting close to the beginning
of the end here, Flapjack,the Midnight's flapjacked Garvin down on the mat.
He kicked out at too. Tooka little too long for them to

(52:20):
cover there. It saves a littlebit of heat on the Flapjack. Now
Gordy is in the ring. Gordyjust power bombed Bobby Eating behind the referees
back he runs back out of thering. That's gonna do it. Wow.
Wow, that was some blatant cheating, wasn't it. I'd say so.

(52:44):
I guess Gordy figured he better dosomething cool in this match to validate
his presence, make up for whathe did. What did he do?
So? Yeah, now he's gloating. Now he's he's been a difference maker
in this match, unlike his matchearlier with Doctor Death. Look at this

(53:09):
power bomb here on the slow motionreplay. Ricky he had a he had
a Japanese style power bomb where healmost went down with the guy and the
impact for something like that versus likeDiesel and sid would sort of do the
power bomb where or the Jack MCwhere they they they released the guy,

(53:30):
Gordy would go down with the guy. So it's a little bit of the
best power bomb in the business,best power bomb in the business. Mike
Austin had a good one. Uh, I'm gonna say, I gotta go
with sit At a damn good powerbomb. Kevin Nash's power bomb, for

(53:54):
the most part, was was impressivebecause how tall they were lifted up.
And this is different because you letthat almost like dropped them in mid air.
Yeah, he didn't like actually slamthem down. He just kind of
like let graft take its course,right right, you know, I'm gonna
go with I'm gonna say Vader.Oh yeah, he had a good one

(54:16):
too. I think I'm gonna sayVader because of the impact that he used
to plant guys with with all thatweight behind him. So now, fans,
we have reached our main event.As well as the main event of
this show. We now have TerryFunk in the ring, who was the
hottest heel in the company at thispoint by far. After his attack of

(54:37):
Rick Flair, Funk was in hismid forties here, and when he takes
his gear off, you're gonna seewhat amazing shape he's in. I love
Ricky Steamboat, by the way,And here's Ricky the Dragon Steamboat in the
middle of his comeback. This wasright after the series with Flair, and
it wouldn't be too much longer Ricky. He'd have a short feud with Lex
Luger and then Ricky Steamboat would begone from the company again and back in

(55:00):
the WWF by ninety one. Sotwo years ago Ricky Steamboat was wrestling in
front of ninety three thousand people,and now he's wrestling, and he's wrestling
at a high school graduation. Itlooks like, Yeah, Ricky that crowd,
I don't think he's ever coming back. They didn't come back for the
Midnight's match and they're still not backfor this match. So I think the
people that left that hard camera side, I think they were gone for good.

(55:24):
Yeah, I think Ricky Steamboat's definitelylike a top five a man.
There was his wife, Bonnie,known for being a real double barreled bach
for a while. She owned Shegot the name Steamboat in the divorce settlement.
He wasn't allowed to use the thename Ricky the no. I guess

(55:45):
she won the rights to the Dragonand he wasn't allowed to call him Ricky
the Dragon Steamboat because of his wife. God so, but you know how
the presentation is so different too.I just picked this up, so it
just cut and all of a suden, Terry Funk was in the ring,
Like this is your main event,and you're not going to have like the
dramatic entrance of Terry Fun. Youknow what, That's a really good point.

(56:07):
The only thing I can think ofis they must have been running short
on time, like because this wasa TV time event. It wasn't like
a pay per view where you youreally could you know, well you should.
You should have still been able totime this this card out like of
all matches to have to cut cornersyour main event. But in other words,

(56:29):
you might have had let's say anextra twenty minutes or half an hour
agreed upon by the cable company,Like if your show went long, the
cable company would stay with you,whereas on TBS here where these class shows
would air, you were stuck tothe time. You were stuck to the
time unless the actual network made achange. Yeah, so my guess is
either the Midnight's match or the theone of the matches probably went too long.

(56:54):
The show was running along, sothey just figured, Okay, we'll
go, we'll cut to commercial andTerry he's gonna have to get out to
the ring while the commercials on sowe can get right into this match.
But now, I mean seeing TerryFunk in his prime here, Ricky against
Ricky Steamboat. In this prime TerryFunk might have been slightly classed his primeber
there was still excellent. In hismid forties, he was still an awesome

(57:17):
wrestler. Called him middle aged andcrazy, and against Ricky Steambo, who
probably at this point in time mighthave been the best wrestler in the world
arguably. Yeah, his in ringwas tops for sure, certainly probably the
best baby face wrestler at this point, just total skill set wise. He
wasn't the most over baby face inthe world here, but probably the best.

(57:40):
So shoulder block down by Funk knockedhim down with a second shoulder block,
Dragon goes down Trump, Funk jumpsover and met with the karate the
double karate thrust by Steamboat text bookdrop kick. A second one knocks him
out. I used to love howTerry Funk would take bumps outside had the
ring like a flopping dead fish.And this was right after the period where

(58:07):
Funk had left wrestling for a whileand did some movies. He was actually
in Roadhouse with Patrick Swayzey, hewas in Over the Top with Sylvester Sloane.
He did some big movies and thenhe came back to WCW for this
run, this legendary run with theFlare series before he retired again. And

(58:29):
I think the next time he showedup in a wrestling capacity, ECW would
have been ECW. I'm pretty sureyou're right. Well, no, actually
he did his deathmatch shit in Japanbefore he came back from the States and
being ECW, and yeah, sothis would have been This would have been

(59:00):
just ooh, big shops by Steamboatonto Funk on the outside of the ring.
You know, I don't know ifI've ever seen a one on one
match between h Terry Funk and RickySteamboat Funk is tossed back in here by

(59:24):
the Steamer. So far though thismatches, it's almost like disappointing. It's
kind it's underwhelming. Maybe is theright way to say. Yeah, everything
in the match looks good. Themoves have looked good, but they don't
have much of a flow going yet, and that might be because they're running
short on time. Now Funk's gota down, we'll see see. A

(59:45):
steamboat match is always best when RickySteamboat is selling. So now Funk is
taking some control here. He justhe just put his the sole of his
boot on Ricky Steamboat's face and thenspun around. That's a nasty heel move
reverse neckbreaker. Oh jeez, italmost looked like he was about to lose

(01:00:08):
him there. And then a fellin a very brutal and did a splash
right on the shoulders of the Dragon, who was sitting in a seated position.
I've never seen a splash executed likethat when a guy detections sitting up.
I just feel like they're not reallymissing that. Well, you might

(01:00:29):
be right, there might be achemistry issue there. Like I said,
a steamboat match is going to goway better when Steamboat selling, which they
have moved into a a heat spothere. You know, Funk has a
very unorthodox style and Steamboat is veryfluid, so I wonder if maybe their
gears just didn't one hundred percent clickthat is possible. Look at the cumberbun

(01:00:55):
and bowtie and Gary Cappetta, andyou know that nap that they had,
the nap the jacket is full ofsticky napkins. Last week when we did
our mad libs, Oh yes,yes, yes, that woke up snow
Perry Winkle was Garry Gary coppetitus stickynapkins. I can't how's my joke?

(01:01:17):
And I can't even forgot that youdon't even remember your own best materials.
I guess I don't carry coppetitus stickynapkins. Okay, So now things are
picking up here a little bit.Steamboats on the top rope, threatening to
leap on Funk, who's outside thering, but Funk is back up on

(01:01:37):
the apron. Steamboat almost lost hisbalance. Steamboat is still up there.
Ricky up there. He wants toleap on Terry Funk, but Terry Funk
is just sort of come over here, Terry, so I can jump on
here. Terry Funk is flopping aroundout there, and steamboat does come off
finally with a chop. That wasa lot of build up for a chop

(01:01:59):
that was And why Terry Funk walkedon the whole other side of the ring
just to come back to get chopped. Seeing Steamboats clearly standing up there.
Steamboat now carrying around Funk like alike a trophy. And he's walking all
the way around the ring carrying TerryFunk in a body slam position. It

(01:02:22):
looks like he's carrying his wife acrossthe threshold of the of the marriage,
the marital bedroom. Steamboat just walkedaround the entire ring with Terry Funk just
to body slam him. That wasdownright bizarre. This has been really banned
so far. I have to agreewith you, Ricky. This is not
a great match. I expected betterand and you know what, this is

(01:02:46):
a match I want to like.I know, I like. I like
both of them. I love bothguys. Yeah, me too. You
know why this match got cut short, Ricky? Now, like now the
truth comes out. You're seeing thewhole show. The reason this match wasn't
all it could have been. Itwas because they had to spend time on
the show for the Dingdongs and Normanthe Lunatic. Now, I don't know

(01:03:10):
why that wasn't a disqualification. Steamboatpicked up Funk and threw him over the
top rope. That was a disqualification. I thought that's only when Bill Watts
was riding it. No that BillWatts banned top rope mode, like like
jumping off the top rope. Butit used to be a dq to throw
the guy over the top rope.But in this match, Steamboat just tossed

(01:03:30):
him over the top and the referee. It was right in front of the
referee, but the referee is ignoringit. So Steamboat may have just forgotten
and screwed up there. God,I love like old school wrestling, but
no jumping off the top rope.Oh that was such a terrible that that
was I liked a lot of whatBill Watts did during his time in WC,
A lot of people didn't, butthat was a stupid ass role.

(01:03:53):
And his logic was, look,I'm not panning the top rope. I'm
making it illegal, So you haveto do creative things to distract the referees
so you can do a top ropemove. It builds tension. I get
the logic. It just didn't workthen fans. Fans were so were too
used to seeing top rope stuff toallow for that kind of rule to go
by So this is not a terriblematch or anything like that, but it

(01:04:20):
is. It is underwhelmed and consideredhis wrestling right and in in a in
a year period where both of theseguys had classics that would still be regarded
as classics thirty years later with RickFlair to have an underwhelming match with each
other in the same year as justsort of off putting. Right. Yeah,

(01:04:45):
Oh, I don't know if youfans go hear the sounds coming off
the off the TV audio there butknocked the flesh off at Funk's chest.
I don't know how they put upwith the Like if someone gave me one
of those chops, I would beon the ground for forty five minutes.
I would be in the fetal positioncrying. Referee Nick Patrick just got knocked

(01:05:11):
out and Funk took the opportunity tothrow Steamboat over the top rope. Now
that was probably meant to look likesomething that he would have been disqualified for,
but it kind of took the pissout of it when five minutes before
Steamboat literally threw him over the toprope, threw Funk over the top rope.

(01:05:31):
Oh, so, Funk just nailedSteamboat with a pile driver out on
the floor. Now, let's paddedout there, but that's still a big
time move, especially back then.And I wonder if Funk's gonna win it
with the count out here. Thatwas an impressive looking pile driver. You
notice about Funk sometimes Ricky that italmost looked like he executes moves in a

(01:05:55):
way that's unique and different, butalmost a little sloppy to make it look
more real. Yeah, like thatpile driver, he looked like he was
going to fall back, he almostloses balance. I think all that stuff's
intentionally Funk to make it look real. I agree, No, we're not
going to get a count out finishedbecause Funk just supplex Ricky Steamboat back into
the ring. The referee is nowawake again, Funk trying to drag him

(01:06:19):
over, saying get over here andcount Nick Patrick won two, and Steamboat
had enough time to get his witsback about him and got the right shoulder
up. Funk immediately covers again anothertwo count. I love when Jim row
starts freaking out, when he startsgetting like really excited. Oh yeah,

(01:06:43):
it's classic. I mean it almostbecame a little cliche in the Attitude era.
But wasn't it great when he wouldyell stout, Yeah, Funk comes
off the top of the super Flysplash, but Steambo cut the knees up.

(01:07:05):
Although Jim Ross's worst name that heever came up with was for the
Undertaker, where for a while hewas calling it booger Red like it was
some kind of tough guy biker neighboror something. Was that what he's in
WCW it was when No, itwas when Undertaker was doing the American badass
immick on the motorcycle and Ross literallywould call him every week booger Red And

(01:07:30):
one time Jerry Lawler goes, Jr. What the hell is a booker Red?
All right, so this match hasdefinitely picked up some steam now,
Rick, Yeah, I'm yeah.Now it's these guys got there, got
their their act together with each otherand uh oh, stomach breaker there by

(01:07:51):
Steamboat onto Funk. Now steamboat goingup for the flying body Press. If
he hits it, this would benormally a finisher for most matches, or
are we going to get a chopbefore the body press? He hits the
chop, but the chop is usuallya precursor. Oh beautiful insecurity by Steamboat

(01:08:11):
knocks Funk out of the ring.He landed right on the announced table.
Could you imagine being right there atringside having wrestlers fly right under the table?
Yeah, that was Do you likethe announced table right up against the
ring like that? There's aspects ofit I do like, but I would
hate to be one of the announcersthat actually had to be there. Yeah.
Although Funk just stole a microphone fromthe announced table and he just parted

(01:08:36):
steamboats haar with it. That's thedisqualification. Oh, that's awful, What
an awful finish. And you knowit's not like Steamboat couldn't have lost here.
He was going. He was transitioninginto a United States title feud with
Lex Luber after this, Funk wasabout to go for the world title.
Why could we not have gotten aFunk pinfall in here? Even if he

(01:08:59):
had, he did to win,but pinned Steamboat, that would have been
good enough. Speaking Alex Luger,he's out here with a chair now to
defend Steamboat. This will be afew weeks before. This will be a
few weeks before, a few monthsbefore perhaps a Luger turned heel. Is
he dressed worse here than he wasn'tthe first nitro, Ricky. I think

(01:09:23):
it's pretty equivalent. I wonder ifit's the same shirt, the well built
Pilgrim, the sturdy built Pilgrim.So Lugar came down there and chased funk
Away. Now Luger's doing a promo. The mic doesn't work. Oh wc

(01:09:47):
W. Now Lugar doing a heelpromo here, which is odd because he
just saves steamboat. I got thosetwo he comed up about it. Yeah,

(01:10:08):
a basic WCW logo comes up.I think we're gonna get a heel
turn right here, Ricky, he'sgonna knock steamboat out of his boots.
There it is. Luger just clotheslined their ship out of Steamboat to set
up this United States title feud.So Luger was almost going out there like

(01:10:30):
to apologize for people who were misunderstandinghis arrogance, and then he was helping
Steamboat up and just clothes line himright out of his boots. Now he's
got that same chair that he cameout there to chase funk Away with,
and he's threatening steamboat with it,toying with him. He's got a cocky
smile on his face. Oh andhe did. He did hit the target

(01:10:56):
with that chair right in the smalleststeamboats back. Who is going to come
out there and save steamboat apparently doesn'thave any friends in the back, Rickie,
the torture rack. Steamboats up inthe torture rack and that move was
over. Yeah. Back then,I think that's one of the coolest finishers.

(01:11:17):
And he and he was. Hedid that to some big guys.
He got the undertaker up there onetime. Lugers got the mic again.
So Luger's issue seems to be thatSting is called the number one contender,

(01:11:39):
even though as US champion he wouldbe the natural number one contender. Now
Sting is there too little, toolate, But you know, he was
always friends with Luger, and it'shard, you know, with as many
times as Luger turned heel, itwas hard for Sting to keep up.
Probably, But anyway, Steamboat orSting came out there at the end,

(01:12:05):
stop the proceedings and the beatings ofLex Luger and Steamboat is selling that chair
shot big time? All right,Ricky, Well, I think we've got
a little promo here to end things. But you know, I thought it
was a pretty decent show. Thecard was pretty good, but the finishes

(01:12:26):
were really you know, the finish. The finishes certainly suffered for lack of
imagination. I was I was happyto see we got a couple of at
least wins, Like you got theVarsity Club beating the Steiners, you got
a tag team title change with nobelts for God's sake WCW, and then
you had your main event end ina cheap disqualification with funking the microphone.

(01:12:49):
Why couldn't you have had, forinstance, if you wanted to hurt Lugar
Heel in this same match, whycould you not have had Lugar come out
there cost Steamboat the match. Funkgets a big pinfall win, and uh,
and it's off to the races withLuger and Stinbo. Why could that
not have been the way they ended? It would have been much better than
the way they did ended well,fans, we hope in spite of some

(01:13:12):
of the frustrating aspects of it,it was wonderfully nostalgic for me, Ricky,
to go back to nineteen eighty ninewith you in the retro rocket clear
out. Yeah, well they clearedout halfway through the show because of how
hot it was these two are sweatinglike crazy drunk. That's how what like
he does? Right he is?I'm surprised Bob Cordle didn't keel over.

(01:13:33):
He was getting up there in ageat this point. Anyway, Ricky,
this has been part two for theTwo Rows audience, a week two,
Part two of this Clash of theChampion seven show. Look look at Bob
Coddle's face. There were funk landedon the table, but that's when he
was able to sneak that microphone infor this cheap ass ending. Anyway,

(01:13:59):
we will be fans next week formore Two Rows from ringside action, and
we'll have more of a traditional show, most likely with a couple of different
segments. But we thought for somethingnew, me and Ricky were gonna sit
here and just watch one show togetherand bring it to you in a two
part episode. So we hope youhave enjoyed our two part excursion in the
Retro Rocket over a two week periodand our travels through Clash of the Champions

(01:14:26):
seven. Ricky, did you haveanything else for the fans this week?
Any comments, any thoughts, anyparting words? Very good show? I
don't know. I don't see verygood shows. Decent show, entertaining,
show entertaining show very disappointing finishes.Yeah, I'll get to be much better.
Well, I'm going to make surethat our finish is not a cheap
finish, and I'm going to givethem what they came to expect and sign

(01:14:49):
things off with our traditional tagline.Fans, Happy trails to you until we
meet again. And remember, fans, if you're not down with the safe

(01:15:15):
side and you're too wild for thewild side, your rightful place is right
here with us. Two Rows fromRingside. Two Rows from Ringside has been
brought to you by White Horse MediaGroup and this has been Wrestling Wednesdays play