Classic Review: NWA WrestleWar 1989 - Music City Showdown
The NWA (for all it mattered by this point, the former Crockett was the entirety of the NWA) in 1989 is about as great and fun a year of wrestling there’s ever been for a single promotion, at least to my tastes. The stories, the work, the standout performers of the year — it’s just so good.
I haven’t watched this full show in about 15 years, though obviously I’ve watched the Flair-Steamboat match again since then. But this just felt like the way to go at the moment. I get an itch, I scratch.
A Tidbit: The WWF countered the NWA in Nashville by running a show the night before in the same building, going so far as to fly in Randy Savage, Brutus Beefcake, Jake Roberts, and Ted DiBiase on a chartered plane from Indianapolis to bolster the lineup1 after the NWA upped their local promotion in response. For what it’s worth, the WWF show sold about 7,900 tickets and the NWA pay-per-view did about 5,200, because the WWF was the much bigger promotion, period.
From May 7, 1989, at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium!
We’ve got Jim Ross and Bob Caudle on the call. I was recently thinking when speaking with someone a bit younger who didn’t grow up a big wrestling fan but got into it later, like, I experienced every national version of Jim Ross there was growing up. The only Jim Ross I came to late was the Mid-South Jim Ross. But this pre-WWF version of Ross, or even the early WWF version of Ross, is somewhat foreign for people who only know the WWF Attitude and beyond version of him. I have no deeper thoughts on it than that, just that he really did change a LOT over the years in style and approach, and this more subdued era of his work can be a little jarring if you only know the later days.
I really like Bob Caudle and think he’s about as underrated by modern audiences as anyone. He didn’t endure into the 90s much on big TV or anything so he’s sort of fallen by the wayside with younger audiences that tend to lack the curiosity to go watch old stuff because the style of the wrestling itself just does not do much for them.
Anyways! The Oak Ridge Boys sing the national anthem, then Jim Ross tells us that the NWA has “stepped in” to tell Eddie Gilbert and Kevin Sullivan that they must settle their personal squabbles on their own time, thus the United States tag team title match later will not have a hair vs hair stipulation as advertised.
Great Muta vs Doug Gilbert
This was supposed to be Muta facing Junkyard Dog, but JYD just didn’t show up and didn’t call in, and he really was out of the promotion because of it. He showed up in Florida for a couple matches with Jerry Lawler late in the year, then did a bit of Memphis in ‘90 before returning to the NWA for another bad run that included Ric Flair laboring through trying to get anything out of him at that stage, and, like, Flair was far more experienced with carrying a “style” like JYD’s than young Muta would have been.
What I’m saying is the world is haunted by the fact Muta vs JYD did not happen. Dog was nearly immobile, he was so heavy with his movement, and he just didn’t put in effort. You know the Jim Duggan vs Berlyn mess? Maybe you don’t, but if you do, I imagine Muta vs JYD would have been that but worse. Muta would have been smart to not even try to do his cool stuff, and what are you showing people then?