- Scott Keith

- Live from Troy, NY

- Your hosts are Jim Ross & Gordon Solie.

- Opening match: The Freebirds v. The Road Warriors. This is non-title and the ‘Birds don’t have the belts with them. At the same time, Ross hypes a title defense against the Steiners on the edition of World Championship Wrestling upcoming that week. You do the math. Mucho stalling to start from the Freebirds, as the Warriors toy with them off and on. Freebirds cheat and get a quick advantage on Animal, but Hawk flips out and decks the ref for the lame DQ at 5:19. This was nothing. ½*

- Bill Apter gives Sting the "Most Popular" award for 1989, and Flair the "Wrestler of the Decade" one. Flair beat Hogan in a rigged vote by the "fans" to win the honor. Shockingly, no one runs out and smashes the trophies.

- Doom v. Tommy Rich & Eddie Gilbert. Capetta rips off my gag, introducing them as the "TAG TEAM COMBINATION OF DOOM!" Oh, wait, I guess he’s not being sarcastic. Gilbert and Rich manage to hold off Doom with armbars, but Doom quickly comes back and hits a double-team clothesline on Rich for the pin at 5:12. Pretty much a squash. *

- Jim Cornette interviews the Steiner Brothers, and Scott officially names his finisher: The Frankensteiner.

- The Dynamic Dudes v. The Midnight Express. Speaking of Cornette, over the course of 1989 he gradually grew apart from the Midnight Express and began mentoring the Dynamic Dudes, thus annoying the Midnights so much that they fell into a losing streak as a result. So they signed a match with the Dudes behind Cornette’s back, and thus Cornette is in a neutral corner. Eaton and Douglas start and Shane makes with the armdrags. Gotta think Shane is upset at having Johnny be his boss now. Shane fights off a standard Express double-team, but Lane takes him down and works the arm. But Cornette suddenly jumps up and tells the ref about Lane’s hair-pulling tactics. Ace comes in and blocks Lane’s enzuigiri attempt, thanks to Cornette’s coaching, see? He hits a pair of dropkicks, and the same for Eaton. Eaton bails and Shane hits the DORKY SURFER OUTTA CONTROL PLANCHA. Nice. Back in, the Dudes continue working the armdrags. Bobby simply punches Shane in the mouth to counter (drawing a huge face pop) and tries a superplex, but Shane escapes and rolls him up for two. Cross body gets two. Ace comes in and Eaton can’t get the advantage on him, either. Finally, a cheapshot from Lane turns the tide, and the crowd pops HUGE. Russian legsweep sets up the Rocket Launcher, but again the Dudes counter. Shane comes in on fire, as a weird suplex on Eaton gets two, but Eaton finds a chain. Cornette comes in to even things up, grabbing the chain from him and tossing it into the crowd. Shane goes for the kill…and Cornette waffles him with the tennis racket, drawing a monster pop from the crowd. Eaton gets the pin at 8:35, thus killing the Dudes’ WCW push once and for all, as the Express is reunited and rejuvenated. **3/4

- Steve Williams v. The Super Destroyer. Using cost-effective booking, the Destroyer would be used later in the night. He’s just a huge masked jobber, although one you’ve probably seen recently, albeit not in any wrestling promotion. The answer in the next match. Williams crushes him with the Oklahoma Stampede powerslam at 1:40. DUD   

- The Steiners v. The Skyscrapers. Rick makes a late entrance, after giving away some popcorn in the audience. Rick hits a release german suplex on Spivey to start, and a Steinerline sends him flying. Spivey comes back with a vicious looking tombstone for two. Scott comes in and hits a Frankensteiner on Spivey out of nowhere, then hits Sid with a fallaway slam as he charges. Interesting side-effect of that move: Scott’s head came down too hard on Sid’s chest and punctured his lung, putting him out of action for months and screwing up the NWA’s booking plans for a lot of things. As a result, they needed a replacement, so they brought in a big goof from Memphis called Master of Pain who had been bugging them for a job for weeks.  More...