NWA/WCW World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage match--WCW Capital Combat 1990

NWA/WCW World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage match-WCW Capital Combat 1990
By Eric Darsie

The main event of the evening put challenger United States Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger (with his astro-green trunks) taking on National Wrestling Alliance/World Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship inside the Steel Cage, in Washington D.C. A normal pay-per-view back then, they did not build up the main event right before the match, so I got a hold of a very good source (thanks Eric Gargiulo!) helped me on knowing what lead up to the pay-per-view.

Lex Luger, to my surprise, was a replacement for Sting, who tore his knee in an angle seven to fourteen days before at the Clash of Champions. The biggest downfall of Sting’s knee being torn is NWA/WCW took a year building the Flair/Sting storyline, and the replacement they had was Luger. The predicament they were in was Luger was a heel, which meant they had to turn him face quickly, for their match at Wrestle War, a month before the match that I watched.

The match at Capital Combat that I watched was a rematch between the two because Ric Flair won by a count-out at Wrestle War 1990, caused by Ole Anderson attacking Sting outside the ring and Luger running out to save his fallen friend.

Looking at the match length at Wrestle War with the “Total Package” Lex Luger and the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, their match at Wrestle War went almost forty minutes. Why that surprises me is that their match at Capital Combat was about half the length of their match at Wrestle War.

Another huge part at Capital Combat was the wild card was Robo Cop. Robo Cop was there to rescue Sting away from World Heavyweight Champion and the IV Horsemen. Why this was a huge part back in the 1990’s was the crossover promotion with having Robo Cop on National Wrestling Alliance/World Championship Wrestling television. This was the same thing for the World Wrestling Federation and Lawrence Taylor at WrestleMania XI, having him face Bam Bam Bigelow.

But anyways, that’s the background of the match, here’s the review of the match:

One of the funniest lines that I heard was when Ric Flair came out, with Woman (Nancy Benoit), Bob Caudle mentioned: “…the wrestler of the decade of the ‘80’s…” That gave me a good laugh, because one it was Ric Flair, and two, it was a great line. When Flair was being introduced, he was introduced as a six-time World Champ. A fact that the next time Flair comes back to WCW within a couple of years; he’ll be an eight-time World Champ.

Something that I did enjoy was the referee was patting down Luger, Flair, and Woman, because ref’s these days simply don’t do that anymore. And it was weird that Woman was left to stay inside the cage during the whole match. That surprised me, and at the end of the match, it still didn’t make much sense to me. But that’s okay.

One thing that we don’t see in the world of professional wrestling anymore was delayed vertical suplexes. Both Luger and Flair gave each other a delayed vertical suplex, and there was a lot of holds and moves in this match, which was something I really enjoyed during the match. Talking about holds, another move that I haven’t seen that often was Luger gave Flair a couple of Military Press Slams.

Another line that I got a good chuckle was when Bob Caudle mentioned “…most dangerous when he’s injured…,” referring to Ric Flair being outside of the ring, right by Woman, taking a break from the action with Luger inside the ring.

Where the hard camera was located, we saw the “Floor C” sign a lot for the crowd. Why I bring that up? I find that interesting that we saw that a couple of times. Good stuff. Also, I noted that I really love Flair matches around this time period, he makes everything look great.

A turning point for the match was when there was a “suplex from Lex,” which hurt his injured right knee. After which, Flair took his time on stomping Luger’s knee, ankle, leg region, setting him up for the patented Figure Four Leg Lock. Go submissions! Flair did a belly-to-back suplex, I almost cried because of all the wrestling moves and holds in this match-up.

During this time, the Horsmen came down to cage side, trying to get inside the cage, not wanting their man to lose the World’s Championship to Luger, and then Sting came down and triple teamed the Horsemen, then Ole “found” where the operating table was to raise the cage for Barry Windham to get in and attack Luger, when he had “the Nature Boy” up in his finisher, the “Torture Rack.”

A great match, I thought, especially coming from a early WCW pay-per-view, but made me realize on why I love the matches of man we know as Ric Flair, the greatest World’s Heavyweight Champion in professional wrestling history.

Another reason why I love Ric Flair was the couple of words that we were able to be graced by him after the match. “You keep your mouth shut!” That he hollered out to a fan. I love that guy. Another line was “…there is only one [referring to the World Heavyweight Championship], and it’s mine!” Ric Flair is full of great one-liners.

But I did enjoy this match, with a lot of wrestling holds and wrestling moves. I do appreciate matches like this and am happy that I do have this match on VHS. But this is Eric Darsie, jamming out to Black Stone Cherry, goodbye!