- Scott Keith

Live from Cleveland, OH

- Your hosts are Jim Ross & Magnum T.A.

- Opening match: The Russian Assassins v. The Midnight Express. Okay, let’s go over it again so you don’t have to ask the Rick: The Assassins are Jack Victory (Highspot!) and the Angel of Death. And they were neither Russian nor Assassins. Talk amongst yourselves.

Lane controls #1 with kicks, and the Express work on his arm. #2 comes in and gets killed with doubleteams. Eaton gets caught in the heel corner, so Lane beats up Paul Jones to break up the momentum. Jim Cornette adds a tennis racket shot to a Russian. Russians do the EVIL COMMUNIST SWITCHEROO OF DOOM and Lane plays face-in-peril. Totally dull bearhuggishness follows. That lasts forever (give or take 7 minutes) until Eaton gets the hot tag. Rocket Launcher finishes at 13:08. Extended squash for the Midnights, for whom 1989 was not exactly their banner year. *1/2

- Ricky Steamboat offers some words for Ric Flair, leading to their Chi-Town Rumble match a few days after this show.

- Steve Casey v. "Hacksaw" Butch Reed. This is some high-quality stuff they’re booking to hype that PPV. Casey is a pretty ripped Stan Lane-ish type wrestler who just never clicked, despite endless pimping by the announcers. Perhaps his total lack of emotion and/or charisma had something to do with it. He gets a quick dropkick and armdrag to avoid Reed’s power. Armbar lasts a while, so the crack camera team cuts to a couple making out in the audience to amuse us. Reed escapes and stalls. Then he works on the arm. Casey reverses and Reed stalls again. Reed was particularly good at that. The "crowd shots to ring shots" ratio for the camera work is going up by the second as the crew cuts to the crowd to make the match seem less boring. Test of strength doesn’t help the pace any. Reed cheats and hammers Casey. More stalling follows. Normally I’d insert some goofy bit in here to amuse myself, but all my "A" material is at the cleaners right now, so you’ll just have to suffer with me. Casey makes the comeback, but gets clobbered and chinlocked, and THAT goes on for a while. Reed tosses Casey and stalls. This may be the most boring match ever. Suplex gets two. Whoa! A near-fall! Casey misses a dropkick, and Reed goes back to the chinlock, redeeming himself somewhat by putting his feet on the ropes. Casey mounts the comeback with the enemy pummel and a dropkick, but Reed catches him with a press-slam and finishes with the flying shoulderblock at 17:34. THANK GOD IT’S OVER! Who the hell booked this to go 18 minutes? Dusty Rhodes is a lunatic, but at least he had the common sense he was born with. ½*  More...