February 6, 1990
Memorial Coliseum — Corpus Christi, Texas
Announcers: Jim Ross and Jim Cornette
The Setup
This show was set to be the blowoff to the Horsemen vs. Gary Hart’s crew, but faded into the background by the time it got in the ring because something much more important happened. Doom’s masks versus the Steiners tag team titles seemed like a foregone conclusion after Doom went 0-3 at Starrcade.
The Business
The show posted a 4.5 cable rating, lower than the last two Clashes that featured some advertised variation of Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk. I think they believed a cage match on free TV would also be a draw, but the guy with the most heat on the heel side was Muta, and he was coming off going 0-3 at Starrcade and losing the TV title. In fact, with Doom in the semi-main, both entities that lost every match at Starrcade were in the main and semi-main of this show. You can’t say that’s the most effective booking.
Prowrestlinghistory has the attendance at 3,000 and the gate at $30,000.
The Results
Steve Williams def. Samoan Savage in 7:55 ***
Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk def. The MOD Squad (Basher & Spike) in 9:53 *3/4
Mil Mascaras def. Cactus Jack in 5:00 **1/4
Falls Count Anywhere: Norman the Lunatic def. Kevin Sullivan in 7:26 **1/2
The Skyscrapers (Dan Spivey & Mean Mark) def. The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) by DQ in 7:26 **
NWA World Tag Team Title / Doom’s Masks Match: The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) (C) def. Doom (#1 & #2) in 13:04 ***
Cage Match: The Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson & Ric Flair) def. Gary Hart International (Buzz Sawyer, The Dragon Master & The Great Muta) in 6:10 **1/2
Notable Happenings
This was the show when Flair, Arn, and Ole jumped Sting and kicked him out of the Horsemen. Ole’s promo was fucking tremendous, as was Flair’s that followed. You can argue whether or not they should have done this, but the execution was tremendous.
Sting hurt his knee scaling the cage and missed the PPV main event with Flair, also forcing the abrupt babyface turn of Lex Luger.
Speaking of Luger, he was interviewed by Terry Funk in an average segment.
Doom unmasked as Butch Reed and Ron Simmons. Man, they were only an unmasked tag team for a year. They should have gotten more out of that.
The Skyscrapers attacked the Road Warriors after their match, leading to Danny Spivey killing poor Hawk with a chair. This was the Mark Callous version of the team, but Spivey is gone before their next PPV match against the LOD.
Norman pinned Sullivan off camera in the women’s bathroom, which was a hokey end to a good brawl. It’s one of the few times babyface Norman didn’t suck.
Pillman and Zenk would win the US tag titles in a few weeks on Worldwide, kicking off what would easily have to be Zenk’s best run in WCW.
Tully Blanchard was backstage and was supposed to become a Horseman, but both parties reached an impasse over the financial terms.
We recently asked what would happen in a Muta babyface universe in 1990. Because of the Sting angle much earlier in the show, Muta was insanely fucking over as a babyface in the main event. Man, that would have fucking ruled.
Rating: 7.0/10.0
Maybe I’m higher on this show than most, but the wrestling was good, and both the Horsemen turn and Sting running out during the main event were tremendously well done. The fans were chanting for Sting by the end, not realizing he’d be on the shelf for six months.
The Video
Not available on YouTube, but here is the epic Horsemen turn.
