WCW WrestleWar ‘92 results, live retro blog: Sting’s Squadron vs. Dangerous Alliance

Well... I’ve been meaning to do this for a pretty long time. And you’ve wanted me to do this for a pretty long time. That long wait is over.

This Saturday night, the Live Retro Blog is WCW’s WrestleWar ‘92, taking place on May 17, 1992 from the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida.

And returning after a year-long absence (for WCW) is WarGames: The Match Beyond. Wait... WarGames: The Match Beyond? Que? Como? Huh? What?

Longtime fans don’t need an explanation, but for those that have never seen a WarGames match, it goes like this:

• The match takes place in a double-ring enclosed steel cage (the rings are side by side).
• Two teams of four (or in this case, five) face off in what is billed as “the most dangerous match in wrestling”.
• Two men start (one from each team), and they wrestle, fight, etc. for five minutes.
• When the five minutes are up, a coin toss determines who can send a man in for their team. The winner sends their man in immediately. The loser must wait two minutes before they can send their guy in.
• The teams alternate sending their men in at two-minute intervals.
• Important to note: there are no pinfalls in this match. And anything goes.
• Once everyone is in the cage, THE MATCH BEYOND begins. Only at this point the match can be won, and not a moment before. The match can only be won when someone submits or surrenders. If your guy submits or surrenders, your team loses.

It may sound a bit confusing, but once you see it in action, you’ll understand it quickly, I bet.

This incarnation of WarGames will feature The Dangerous Alliance of “Stunning” Steve Austin, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, The Enforcers (Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko), and Bobby Eaton versus Sting’s Squadron, which consist of Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, and... Sting. Obviously.

Plus two titles are on the line as The Freebirds will challenge for the United States tag titles held by Terry Taylor and Greg Valentine and Brian Pillman defends the light heavyweight title against “The Z-Man” Tom Zenk.

Showtime is 7pm ET for this Live Retro Blog. That’s 6pm CT, 4pm PT, 1pm Hawaiian, and midnight in Britain. Everywhere else, figure it out.

Broadband connection and WWE Network subscription required (as it is that version of the show we’ll be watching. Don’t have the Network? You can get it here. First month’s on the house if you’re a new subscriber. Not our house. Theirs. You... you get it, right? Or if you don’t feel like giving your card number, you can get a WWE Network subscription card at a 7-11 or Walmart or Gamestop.)

Pics and GIFs are welcome in the Live Retro Blog, but keep them to a minimum as you’ll need to frequently refresh as the show progresses.

This Saturday night, prepare... FOR WAR!

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Hi! I’m Eddie Mac. I’ll be your captain this evening. Let’s watch some live retro wrestling!

CONFIRMED MATCHES

• WARGAMES MATCH: Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Barry WIndham, Dustin Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, and Ricky Steamboat) vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Eaton)
• WCW UNITED STATES TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: Terry Taylor & Greg Valentine vs. The Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes)
• WCW LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Brian Pillman vs. Tom Zenk
• #1 CONTENDER’S MATCH FOR THE IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott) vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka

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Booming voice intro running down the teams, PYRO AND BALLYHOO! We are LIVE from the Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville. Tony Schiavone and Eric Bischoff are your hosts, with Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura at the commentary table.

Tony and Eric briefly run down the rules of WARGAMES and chat a bit about Sting's injured ribs. Jesse compliments Jim Ross' tie and Ventura brings up an interesting point: with Sting the WCW world champion in WARGAMES, there are nine potential challengers to the title in that match. Can Sting even trust his own guys, or will greed get in the way?

Match 1: The Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes) defeated Terry Taylor and Greg Valentine at 16:02 to win the WCW United States Tag Team Championship. Garvin hit the DDT on Taylor after he backdrops Valentine and Hayes KO's him. Side note: this is the last time the titles change hands on PPV. Just over a month later, they lose the titles to Dick Slater and The Barbarian on Main Event. A month after that, the titles are retired.

Match 2: Johnny B. Badd defeated Young Pistol Tracy Smothers in 7:03. Left hook—probably closed fist (Ventura thinks so)—knocks out the Pistol.

Missy Hyatt's with the new US tag champs and I'm assuming their manager, Precious. Or... something. And they chat about the NWA world tag title tournament. Wait... Precious?

Also, obligatory "behind every successful man, there's an equally successful woman" early 1990s reference. FUTURE EDDIE ALERT: Note that we don't say this in 2016 because it's been shown time and time again that women can be successful on their own.

Match 3: Scotty Flamingo defeated Marcus Alexander Bagwell in 7:11. Bagwell rolled up Flamingo, then Scotty reverses said rollup and holds the tights.

Promo for WCW's next PPV Beach Blast '92.

Video of Junkyard Dog (in a tux) running in from the crowd to aid Ron Simmons against a two-on-one assault on Abdullah the Butcher & Cactus Jack.

Match 4: Junkyard Dog and Ron Simmons defeated Cactus Jack and Mr. Hughes at 5:22. Pre-match, the two teams split off, with Cactus Jack taking out JYD with an elbow off the ramp, then Simmons backdrops Jack on the ramp. Referee Bill Alfonso informs them that one of them has to go as Ron rushes back. It ends up being Simmons and Hughes, with Simmons virtually dominating.

Match 5: The Super Invader defeated Todd Champion in 5:26. This was a match that happened. On PPV. Not surprisingly, it was cut from the home video release. As was the next match...

Match 6: Big Josh defeated Richard Morton at 7:33. Also a match that happened. Morton's finishing maneuver, Northern Exposure, was basically the Earthquake Splash. FUTURE EDDIE ALERT: Big Josh would make his last appearance for WCW a week later with a win over Tracy Smothers. He would return to the WWF late in the year as... the original Doink.

Pretty heated interview with Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk from WCW Saturday Night leads into this title bout between friends.

Match 7: "Flyin'" Brian Pillman defeated "The Z-Man" Tom Zenk at 15:30 to retain the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship. Best match on the show to this point. Pillman worked on the leg throughout the match and it paid off. Zenk missed a missile dropkick.

Match 8: The Steiner Brothers defeat Tatsumi Fujinami and Takayuki Iizuka in 18:17 to become the #1 contenders for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Top rope belly to belly from Rick wins it for him and his brother. Also Tatsumi Fujinami is awesome and is the man. BTW: the team that held the IWGP tag titles at the time: Big, Bad, and Dangerous (Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow.) FUTURE EDDIE ALERT: The Steiners would beat BBD for the tag titles a month later at the awesomely named Masters of Wrestling.

Match 9: Sting's Squadron defeated The Dangerous Alliance in WARGAMES at 23:27. It's Zbyszko that drops the ball for the Alliance when he hit Bobby Eaton on the shoulder with a steel bar. Sting went right for the arm and Eaton gives up. The Alliance is LIVID as the Squadron celebrates. By the way, four people bled in what was a BRUTAL match.

EDDIE MAC'S QUICK REVIEW

If you don't want to slog through the PPV to get to the main course, here's the WARGAMES match (WWE Network link). There's a couple good bouts on the show, but there's A LOT of filler. Probably being a bit generous with the rating, but the meat of the show is REALLY GOOD MEAT. So a fair rating for the show would be... 8 out of 10, yeah? Yeah.

So... let's do it again next week, yeah?