Shown on Sky Sports in the U.K.

By Stephen Lyon.

This week: The beginning of a Halloween-themed month of shows. This week’s theme was ‘face-painted wrestlers’. Matches this week included: Ultimate Warrior vs Papa Shango (WWF 1992); Sting vs The Great Muta (WCW 1989); Legion of Doom vs Demolition (WWF 1991); Doink the Clown vs jobber Bob East (Doink’s in-ring tv debut, WWF 1993); and Shawn Michaels vs Goldust (WWF 1996).

The Show:

Show opened with one of the all-time lamest WWF angles/feuds/storylines in history. Gene Okerlund was interviewing Papa Shango on a stage in the arena, on the June 6th, 1992 edition of ‘WWF Superstars’. Papa Shango stood there, shaking and trembling, engaging in voodoo activity I presume, as Okerlund recounted the previous events in Shango’s episodic feud with Ultimate Warrior. Clips aired, as Okerlund spoke, of Shango putting a curse on Warrior. After a Warrior squash match win, Warrior doubled up in pain and fell off the ring apron. Warrior was also shown cutting a promo on the stage with Okerlund, when ‘black goo’ began to trickle down Warrior’s forehead and conveniently covered Warrior’s never-worn-before-or-since white ring jacket. Shango mumbled something about Warrior stepping into a black circle. The interview segment ended, and Shango walked off the stage. Okerlund looked at the camera and said, ‘Thank God that’s over!’ Shango thrust his arms down, and a huge cloud of smoke engulfed the stage. When the smoke cleared, Okerlund’s arm went into a spasm, and the dreaded ‘black goo’ began to trickle down his arm. Well, you don’t see nonsense like this every day (thankfully).

Back in the present-day WWE studio (which was decorated in all manner of Halloween-related props, including WCW-like fake tombstones), Okerlund remarked that it ‘took him a few weeks’ to recover back to normal after the incident with Shango. Kayfabe lives!

1) Ultimate Warrior defeated Papa Shango. This match was a dark match from the ‘WWF Superstars tv taping’, held in Lexington, Kentucky on May 19th, 1992. It never aired on tv, and announcers for the match were Gorilla Monsoon & Lord Alfred Hayes. Warrior came running to the ring to his entrance music and clotheslined Shango out of the ring. Back inside, Warrior nailed him with several clotheslines, slammed him, and went for his big splash off the ropes, but Shango brought his knees up and caught him. Shango took control with punches and choked Warrior on the ropes. Shango placed Warrior in a nervehold and began doing a voodoo chant. He slammed Warrior, but then missed an elbow drop from the second rope, and Warrior began a ‘Superman’ comeback. Several clotheslines, a flying tackle and a big splash later, and Warrior was victorious, pinning Shango for the win.

2) Sting defeated The Great Muta (w/Gary Hart in his corner). This match was from the ‘WCW Starrcade 1989’ pay-per-view event, held in Atlanta, Georgia on December 13th, 1989, and was part of the four-man round-robin ‘Iron Man’ tournament that was part of the card for the night. The other two wrestlers involved were Ric Flair and Lex Luger, with all four wrestling each other in singles matches, and gaining points for both winning their matches, the manner of the win, and also if they drew the match as well. Muta was the reigning WCW Television Champion at the time of this match too. Announcers for this match were Jim Ross & Terry Funk. Muta began the match by spraying mist into the air. Sting locked Muta in a full nelson, but Muta nailed Sting with a mule kick to escape. Muta grounded Sting with a side-headlock. Sting managed to break free, hit several dropkicks and went for the Scorpio deathlock, but Muta escaped to the outside. After a commercial break, Muta backdropped Sting, and drove an elbow into his chest. Muta tried for a submission move, but Sting broke free. Sting press-slammed Muta and scored a nearfall. Muta chopped Sting in the corner, choked him, but then missed a moonsault attempt from the top rope, landing on his feet, but then superkicking Sting. Muta went to the top rope again, but Sting crotched him on the top turnbuckle, then superplexed him off the top rope, and pinned Muta to win the match. This was a good match.

Promos from the February 3rd, 1991 edition of ‘WWF Wrestling Challenge’ aired, from Legion of Doom and Demolition, hyping their match against each on ‘next week’s show.

3) Legion of Doom defeated Demolition (w/Mr Fuji in their corner) via D.Q. This match was from the February 10th, 1991 edition of ‘WWF Wrestling Challenge’, taped in Chattanooga, Tennessee on January 8th, 1991. Announcers for this match were Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan. Both spent part of this tv match hyping Willie Nelson’s just-announced appearance at Wrestlemania 7. Demolition were comprised of Smash & Crush at this point, with Hawk clotheslining both at the start of the match. Hawk ran the ropes, but Smash pulled down the top rope and Hawk fell to the outside. Mr Fuji nailed Hawk with his cane. Back inside, Smash continued to work over Hawk, double-teaming him with Crush. Both Hawk & Crush clotheslined each other at the same time, allowing Animal to come in on the hot tag. Animal beat up both Demolition members. Mr Fuji jumped on to the ring apron to interfere, but as Animal went to attack him, Crush pulled him to safety. Animal hit two running clotheslines on Crush in the corner of the ring, before Demolition bailed to the back, and the referee abruptly awarded the match via disqualification to the Legion of Doom.

4) Doink the Clown defeated Bob East. This was the in-ring tv debut of heel Doink, from the January 31st, 1993 edition of ‘WWF Wrestling Challenge’, taped in Beaumont, Texas on January 4th, 1993. Announcers for this match were Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan. Heel Doink (Matt Borne) was great, bursting kids balloons on the way to the ring, then periodically acting all dark and moody as he scowled at the camera, menacingly. This was a total squash, as East got in no offense. Doink locked in a spinning toe hold, used an enziguiri, a dropkick, a snap suplex and finished East with a submission move, locking the jobber in a modified head scissors and pulling up on one of East’s legs for the win. During the match, a promo from Doink aired, split-screen, with Doink bragging about attacking Crush (during a recent angle).

One of the original Goldust vignettes aired, from September 1995. Goldust was on location in the Hollywood hills, and was dressed in a sparkly gold suit. He talked about what a big star he was, and signed off with ‘Hasta la Vista, Baby’, at the time his trademark of uttering famous lines and quotes from films. In hindsight, this was a very creative gimmick. Years later, WWE creative would resort to giving Goldust ‘tourettes syndrome’. I’ll let you be the judge as to which was better and more ‘creative’.

5) WWF Champion, Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario in his corner) defeated Goldust (w/Marlena in his corner). This match was from the ‘WWF Raw Championship Friday’ show, that aired on September 6th, 1996, after being taped in Wheeling, West Virginia on August 19th, 1996. Announcers for this match were Jim Ross & Kevin Kelly. Goldust blew a kiss to Michaels to start the match, with Michaels chasing Goldust around the ringside area. Back inside the ring, Goldust attacked Michaels with punches and stomped on him, dropping him throat-first across the top rope. Goldust placed Michaels in a sleeperhold, as Marlena taunted HBK from outside the ring. Mankind was shown backstage by the entrance area, claiming that he had a big surprise for Michaels. After a commercial break, Michaels slipped out of Goldust’s suplex attempt, and hit a flying forearm smash, before nipping up. He followed up with a slam, then connected with a crossbody block off the ropes on to Goldust, with Goldust rolling through with the move and scoring a nearfall on Michaels. Michaels caught Goldust with another slam, and went for a superkick, but Marlena climbed on to the ring apron. Goldust came from behind and tried for the Curtain Call, but Michaels blocked it, escaped, then hit an Asai moonsault off the top rope and on to Goldust to score the pinfall win. After the match, Mankind ran in from the crowd, and as Goldust & Mankind went to attack Michaels, Michaels managed to escaped to the outside. Jim Ross exclaimed, ‘The mind games have only just begun, between Shawn Michaels and Mankind’. This was a very good match.

Closing thoughts: A mixed bag of a show. The Warrior-Shango stuff was just terrible; I mean ‘makes you embarrassed to be a wrestling fan, hope no-one walks in the room whilst this is on’ terrible. We need to forget that stuff, not remember it! Legion of Doom vs Demolition was just a throwaway tv match, which was kind of sad given how, a few years earlier, it would have been regarded as a something of a ‘dream match’. The Doink squash wasn’t anything special, apart from being his in-ring debut. I sure hope this doesn’t lead to more squash matches airing on this show. On the plus side, both Sting vs Great Muta, and Shawn Michaels vs Goldust were really good matches. The idea of a Halloween-themed month of shows is intriguing; there’s certainly a lot of material that they can draw from, particularly from the WCW tape library. Will we get to see the infamous ‘Chamber of Horrors’ match from 1991 WCW, where Abdullah the Butcher was ‘electrocuted’?

Match Results:

1) Ultimate Warrior defeated Papa Shango (WWF Superstars tv taping – Lexington, Kentucky: 19/05/92).

2) Sting defeated The Great Muta (w/Gary Hart in his corner) (‘WCW Starrcade 1989’ pay-per-view event – Atlanta, Georgia: 13/12/89).

3) Legion of Doom defeated Demolition (w/Mr Fuji in their corner) via D.Q. (‘WWF Wrestling Challenge’ – Chattanooga, Tennessee: taped 08/01/91, aired 10/02/91).

4) Doink the Clown defeated Bob East (‘WWF Wrestling Challenge’ – Beaumont, Texas: taped 04/01/93, aired 31/01/93).

5) WWF Champion, Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario in his corner) defeated Goldust (w/Marlena in his corner) (‘WWF Raw Championship Friday’ – Wheeling, West Virginia: taped 19/08/96, aired 06/09/96).

Please note: I DO NOT sell DVDs or tapes of any of these shows. Sorry!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s report. For other reports like this one, be sure to check it out my website archive at http://www.classicwrestlingreports.com .

It’s no longer updated, but this website carries all of my previous WWE Classics tv reports that have been featured on the old WrestlingObserver.com website.

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Until next week, have a good week.

Stephen Lyon,

St Helens, England, U.K.