WCW Saturday Night 5/23/1992

Written by: Bob Colling

World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 5/23/1992
From: Atlanta, GA

Matches:
1.) WCW World Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers defeated Ricky Morton & Tracy Smothers
2.) The Super Invader defeated Larry Santo & Steve Richards in a handicap match
3.) Steve Williams & Terry Gordy defeated Joey Maggs & Terry Bronson
4.) Ron Simmons defeated Terry Taylor
5.) Ricky Steamboat, Nikita Koloff & Dustin Rhodes defeated Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton & Larry Zbyszko in a best two out of three falls match

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) The special co-hose this week is Dave Casper of the Oakland Raiders. Casper thinks it’s great to be here. Who ever is working the camera is messing with it and unable to maintain a focus on both men. That was annoying and I hope it doesn’t last the entire show.

2.) Smothers and Scott kick off the tag match to start the action for the program. Scott leg trips Tracy early on but Smothers complains of a hair pull, which didn’t happen. Smothers hammers away on Scott briefly before being decked with a back elbow. Smothers knocks Scott off his feet with a spin kick but soon is met with an overhead belly to belly suplex by Scott! Smothers taunts Rick and wants him to enter the ring. Rick is tagged in and worked over by Tracy in the corner. Rick catches Tracy in the corner to hit a shoulder breaker. Smothers rolls to his corner and tags in Morton. Morton attempts a leapfrog but is power slammed instead by Rick who also decks Smothers to the floor! Morton distracts Rick on the floor and allows Smothers to hit a dropkick. Rick drops the challengers with a double clothesline from behind and here comes Scott to clean house with right hands but is double teamed briefly. Scott plants Morton with a double under hook power bomb and a tilt a whirl side slam on Smothers! Scott has Smothers on his shoulders and Rick hits the top rope bulldog for the victory! (**. An enjoyable extended squash match here as Morton didn’t even do much in the match. The Steiner Brothers are red hot in WCW with a great crowd reception to go along with it.)

3.) Diamond Dallas Page is interviewed by Ross and Casper. Page is happy that K. Allen Frye lifted his suspension from talking. Page claims to be sincere about his apology awhile back. Page says he is always prepared and talks about his new segment “Down with DDP.” He says he wants to get down with the brains behind the Dangerous Alliance none other than Paul E. Dangerously. Dangerously comes out and is met with a good amount of boos. Dangerously will answer whatever Page wants to ask him. Dangerously says that Page put together a highlight reel about his guys, but Page says that’s not true. We see footage of Dangerously paying off the girls who said they had an affair with Ricky Steamboat. Dangerously asks Page if he knows what he has done. We hear the music of Ricky Steamboat! Dangerously is freaking out as we see Ricky in the crowd and he is pointing at Dangerously. Zbyszko, Anderson and Eaton are standing in front of Dangerously. Ricky bypasses the trio and tackles Dangerously as Dustin, Koloff and Windham come over as well. Steamboat ripped off Dangerously pants during the melee. That was an effective segment, for sure.

4.) WCW World Champion Sting gave some pre-tape comments saying it makes him sick just thinking about Vader as the WCW World Champion. He feels good and is going to be champion for a long tie.

5.) Taylor slaps Simmons and runs away from Ron but is stopped by a shoulder block in the ring. Terry gets control with a few shots to Simmons but comes off the ropes and is snap power slammed by Ron! Taylor bails to the outside holding his back on the floor. Terry is atomic dropped and nearly pinned following a clothesline by Simmons. Taylor is able to drop Simmons with a back suplex to finally gain some momentum. Taylor chokes Ron over the middle rope and goes to work with several stomps and chokes Simmons with his knee. Simmons nearly pins Taylor with a sunset flip but Terry stops Ron with a jaw breaker. Ron works over Terry with several strikes to the midsection but misses a standing dropkick. Simmons hits a leaping shoulder block but Greg Valentine comes out and puts Taylor’s boot on the bottom rope. Taylor attacks Simmons from behind as Greg gets on the apron. Simmons sends Taylor into Valentine and Ron gets the win with a rollup. After the match, Simmons is attacked by both Valentine and Taylor with Valentine working on Simmons leg trying to put the figure four on Ron but the referees prevent that from happening. (*. Not much of a match for the most part, but the aftermath was fine and would realistically set a feud up between Simmons and Valentine.)

6.) Eric Bischoff is at the Fabulous Freebirds office to talk to Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin. Security comes over but they let him go when someone else comes over. Bischoff gets a tour of the office since he had never been there. Hayes and Garvin were making prank calls and sign their album contracts. They want the WCW World Tag Team Champions even though they are the WCW United States Tag Team Champions. They have more in store for Valentine and Taylor, as well.

7.) Steamboat and Eaton kick off the main event with Eaton taking Steamboat down to the canvas with a side headlock. Eaton atomic drops Steamboat on a leapfrog attempt. Steamboat avoids a slingshot suplex and knocks Eaton to the apron before locking in a Boston Crab right in the middle of the ring but isn’t able to get a submission. Eaton gets out of the hold but is sent into the corner face first and Ricky gets a near fall with a rollup. Steamboat keeps Eaton on the canvas with an arm drag but an eye poke allows Eaton to tag in Zbyszko. Larry attempts a kick in the corner but that is blocked and Steamboat clotheslines Larry. Rhodes tags in and continues to work over the left arm with a leg drop. Rhodes delivers several knee drops to the arm while in a hammerlock hold. Anderson tags in but Rhodes backs away from the corner.

Anderson takes Rhodes over with a fireman’s carry but Dustin decks Arn with a throat thrust sending Arn to his corner to recover from the strike. Ricky is now in and sends Arn to the floor with a strike. Arn gets worked over by Dustin on the floor before Steamboat continues to work over Anderson in the ring hitting an atomic drop. Rhodes and Koloff strike Anderson and Eaton gets knocked to the floor by Steamboat. Anderson works over Steamboat with a strike but Koloff tags himself in and Arn goes to his corner in distress. Eaton tags in and works over Koloff with several strikes and hits a vertical suplex but Koloff no sells it. Koloff dropkicks Eaton to the apron and hits a suplex back into the ring. Zbyszko enters the match to try his luck with Koloff. Koloff hammers away on Zbyszko with right hands but Zbyszko drops Koloff with a back suplex. Anderson enters to drop a knee on Koloff for a near fall. Nikita hammers away on Anderson but Zbyszko tags in only for Koloff to tag in Steamboat who hits a top rope cross body to get a pin on Larry to go up 1-0 in the match.

Zbyszko and Steamboat are doing a test of strength with Zbyszko getting the better of it at first. Steamboat leg sweeps Larry to the canvas as Anderson tags himself into the bout. Anderson knee lifts Steamboat but Ricky puts an abdominal stretch on Arn. Anderson misses an elbow drop and Ricky keeps control as Koloff tags in and continues to focus on the left arm. Arn backs Dustin into a corner and delivers a head butt followed by several strikes in the corner. Dustin runs into a boot in the corner and Anderson heads to the top rope. Dustin slams Arn off the top and locks in the figure four right in the middle of the ring. Steamboat puts the same hold on Eaton and Koloff does the same to Zbyszko! Anderson rakes Dustin’s eyes to break the hold and rolls to the floor. Eaton and Dustin are now the legal man despite there not being a tag. Dustin elbow strikes Bobby several times and knocks Eaton to the floor. Dustin misses a clothesline on the floor and hits the ring post. Eaton sends Dustin shoulder first into the post again.

Anderson works over Dustin back in the ring hitting a hammerlock scoop slam. Eaton comes back into the match for a near fall. Eaton hits a hammerlock scoop slam of his own and heads to the top to hit an elbow drop for a two count! Anderson knee lifts Koloff to the floor and they brawl. Eaton can’t get a telephone from Zbyszko and Rhodes decks Zbyszko with the phone to give the Dangerous Alliance the second fall to tie the match 1-1.

Rhodes and Eaton start the third fall with Rhodes taking Eaton down and working over the left arm. Koloff tags in and yanks on Eaton’s arm several times followed by yanking Eaton to the canvas. Anderson tags in but Koloff backs away to prevent a triple team in the corner. Anderson knee drops Koloff and crotches himself on the top thanks to Steamboat shaking the ropes. Ricky tags in and elbow strikes Anderson to the mat. Arn spikes Ricky with a DDT! Arn sends Ricky face first into Eaton’s knee. Ricky has a busted nose from a previous attack and the heels are just now working over the injury. Zbyszko gets a few cheap shots on the floor before Ricky is sent into the ring and Anderson stomps away on Steamboat. Eaton comes off the top to deliver a strike to the face. Eaton hits a swinging neck breaker and tags in Zbyszko. Larry takes Ricky down with a swinging neck breaker but only gets a near fall followed by shoulder breaker as well. Eaton comes back in and works over Steamboat in the corner briefly. Steamboat plants Eaton with a swinging neck breaker and both men are down. Anderson and Koloff get the hot tags with Koloff getting the better of the exchange backdropping Arn. Koloff hammers away on Eaton in the corner and hits a leaping shoulder block on Anderson for a near fall. Anderson holds Koloff but Zbyszko accidentally this Arn. Larry ducks a clothesline and Arn is hit with one from Koloff who pins Anderson to win the match 2-1. (***. A fine match involving these six guys, though the heels could have been presented stronger as they won their fall by a DQ. It just shows the demise of the Dangerous Alliance as a unit, which sucks big time.) After the match, Paul E. Dangerously is pissed at Zbyszko for blowing the match for the team. Anderson confronts Zbyszko with a stare down. Dangerously continues to blame Zbyszko for the blunder.

Final Thoughts:
A good episode this week as the main event delivered some quality action and the feud between Rude and Steamboat continues to be highly entertaining. Larry Zbyszko is probably the least interesting person to turn face from the Dangerous Alliance. I wish the group would have stayed stronger and together for a longer period of time.

Thanks for reading.