Theres something about a Chicago wrestling crowd that always seems to turn an event up a notch. While the opening bout of this late eighties card featured an entirely forgettable opening number with Michael Hayes and a Russian Assassin that can basically be fastforwarded over, Sting and Butch Reed did a better job, Sting winning with a sunset flip after twenty good, hot minutes. The massively popular grudge match from Starrcade 1988 accelerated to a sudden climax here: the two Midnight Express tag teams finally resolved their issues when the teams met in a Loser Leaves The NWA match. In this case, to add some extra heat, the two managers were included in the match, Jim Cornette wearing a ludicrous scarlet lycra bodysuit with large underwear on the outside. Cornette would proceed to bump like crazy for the tiniest blow, until the original Midnight Express beat the Original Midnight Express, sending them away for good. In reality, Dennis Condrey had already left the NWA: he was replaced in the Original Midnight Express for this blow-off match by Jack Victory as a one-off deal. Needless to say, the exile gimmick didnt take: Randy Rose would find himself back in the NWA very quickly, Victory carried on performing in the NWA under a mask, and Paul E. Dangerously just went on to manage someone else. Lex Luger defeated Barry Windham for the US title in another cracking match, proving how underrated Luger was in those days. The Road Warriors defended the NWA world tag title against Kevin Sullivan and Steve Williams as The Varsity Club, winning yet again. That left the main event, a singles match for the NWA world heavyweight championship between champion Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. Many say that this is the single greatest main event in WCW history: its certainly one of the finest matches in the history of the promotion. Fast, brutal and intense, the drama never lets up in all twenty-three minutes of action. Steamboat would prove the victor but the two would continue feuding for the next couple of months, and hed drop the title back to Flair eventually.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
