WCW Saturday Night 7/4/1992

Written by: Bob Colling

World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 7/4/1992
From: Atlanta, GA

Matches:
1.) Greg Valentine & Dick Slater defeated Marcus Alexander Bagwell & Big Josh
2.) WCW Tag Team Champions Steiner Brothers defeated Randy Starr & Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker
3.) Cactus Jack defeated The Italian Stallion
4.) Ricky Steamboat defeated Bob Cook
5.) Brad Armstrong defeated Pat Rose
6.) WCW Television Champion Steve Austin defeated Michael Hayes to retain the title
7.) The Barbarian defeated Steve Pritchard
8.) Bobby Eaton defeated Tom Zenk
9.) Terry Gordy defeated Larry Santo
10.) Nikita Koloff defeated Tracy Smothers
11.) WCW United States Champion Rick Rude defeated Jimmy Garvin to retain the title

Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) The Steiner Brothers are interviewed by Jim Ross following their victory. They are the new IWGP Tag Team Champions, as well. They will be wrestling Steve Williams and Terry Gordy tomorrow night in the Omni. Scott is pissed about Gordy recently trying to take his knees out. Rick Steiner calls Williams and Gordy nothing but cheaters.

2.) Jim Ross is with Cactus Jack for an interview. Jack attacked Ricky Steamboat at Beach Blast and he talks about that. Jack says he is being paid real well to take Steamboat out of wrestling. Cactus feels excitement everyday he wakes up. He only destroys the best and Steamboat is the best. Cactus says that Steamboat will have a lump in his throat, but it won’t be excitement or thrill but instead it will be his liver.

3.) Austin and Hayes trade arm drags in the opening moments of the match. Austin works Hayes over in the corner with shoulder rams and strikes. Hayes takes Austin over with an arm drag. Austin controls Hayes on the canvas with knee strikes. Hayes drops Austin with a left jab after a leapfrog but only gets a near fall. Austin backs Hayes into a corner and hammers away on Hayes but Hayes fights back with strikes and goes for the DDT but Austin backdrops out of it. Austin lifts Hayes up and hits the Stun Gun to win the match. (*. Basic as basic can get. They didn’t do much in the ring but I’m glad it was rather short since I wasn’t overly interested in the match anyway.)

4.) Jim Ross interviews WCW Television Champion Steve Austin and Paul E. Dangerously. Austin puts himself over for being the greatest champion and claims that he can beat Barry Windham in five minutes. Windham appears in the ring and says that Austin won’t even stay in the ring for five minutes with him. Austin gets on the apron but two referees and several wrestlers come out to prevent an altercation. Bill Watts takes the referees out and allows Windham and Austin to brawl. Windham clotheslines Austin and counts a two count for himself. Austin drives Windham down with a back suplex. This isn’t an official match. Windham arm drags Austin but Austin works over Barry in the corner with some strikes. Windham big boots Austin and takes Steve over with a headlock. Windham decks Austin with a right hand. Austin backdrops Windham as the fight continues on. Austin takes Windham over with a vertical suplex. Windham decks Austin with a lariat and Dustin Rhodes jumps into the ring to count a three and there is a celebration as if Windham just won the belt. I liked the segment of two guys just fighting.

5.) Jim Ross interviews Paul E. Dangerously about Barry Windham. Dangerously says that Windham had all his friends out there to protect him. Dangerously says their match tomorrow night will only go past five minutes if Austin wants to destroy Windham longer.

6.) Jim Ross conducted an interview with Greg Valentine. Valentine wants to talk about a young punk Dustin Rhodes. Valentine says that Dustin Rhodes didn’t earn the nickname the Natural. He believes that Dustin was born into it thanks to Dusty Rhodes. Valentine says that Dustin Rhodes is a snot nose punk.

7.) Terry Gordy is interviewed by Jim Ross. The chop block that Gordy used on Scott Steiner has been outlawed in the NFL. Gordy says this is professional wrestling and if you can’t take a little bit of pain you might as well get out. Gordy says they are going to take the WCW World Tag Team Championships tomorrow night in the Omni.

8.) Bill Watts has an announcement for the fans. Watts has been studying the tag team division and says that the company wants quality instead of quantity. July will be the last month that the WCW US Tag Team Championships will be defended. The Freebirds are the current champions. Dick Slater and the Barbarian come over and they believe that Freebirds should have to defend the titles against them. They would like to retire the belts. Dick Slater is not a good promo.

9.) WCW World Champion Sting is interviewed by Jim Ross regarding a match with Arn Anderson tomorrow night. Sting says that Arn Anderson has been complaining about their match being non-title. He will wrestle Vader in eight days on pay per view. Sting is going to beat Vader up for all the pain and agony that Vader has issued on himself and all his fans.

10.) Rude powers out of a headlock to take Garvin down to the canvas. Garvin fights back with an arm drag and a drop toe hold. Rude works over Garvin in the corner with shoulder rams and strikes. Garvin avoids Rude in the corner and rams the champ head first into the corner. Rude drives Garvin down with a back suplex. Rude continues his offense with a back breaker. Rude focuses his offense on the lower back of Garvin. Rude locks in a bear hug but isn’t able to get a submission. Rude scoop slams Garvin but Jimmy fights back only to run into a knee lift. Rude finishes Garvin off with the Rude Awakening. (*. Similar to the other title match on the show, this didn’t have a lot going on.) After the match, Rude taunts Nikita Koloff who was on commentary suggesting that Koloff come into the ring to backup his words. Koloff doesn’t take long to enter the ring but the show comes to an end.

Final Thoughts:
A very weak show with there not being a lot of angle advancement and the feature matches were not fun to sit through. It felt like a filler week of television before the pay per view weekend.

Thanks for reading.