World Championship Wrestling presents Power Hour
Date: 11/21/1992
MATCH #1: KENSUSKE SASAKI VS. BUDDY LEE PARKER
FINISH: Sasaki picks up the win after a judo throw.
Bob’s Take: Sasaki came across full of energy and power early on sending Parker reeling with a dropkick and clothesline. It’s not a full fledged one-sided squash as Parker briefly gets control with a headlock. Parker’s offense is actually a bit longer than I thought it would be as he hit a rolling neck snap and traded overhand strikes. The judo throw can’t possibly be a long-term finisher, right?
Match Rating: *1/2
Footage from the Clash on November 18th is shown where Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes had some issues when Dustin showed compassion towards Steamboat during the tag title match. Shane Douglas ended up pinning Windham after a belly to belly suplex, thus winning the tag titles from Windham and Rhodes. Windham ended up turning heel on Rhodes hitting a DDT and superplex. Windham attacked the new tag champions Steamboat and Douglas in the locker room with a steel chair.
MATCH #2: TEX SLAZENGER & SHANGHAI PIERCE VS. REX CASPER & GEORGE SOUTH
FINISH: Slazenger pins Casper following a reverse DDT.
Bob’s Take: Slazenger and Pierce dominate the match, and they look good in the process as a hard hitting duo. These guys excel at squash matches and if they get enough momentum they could easily be a suitable challenge for the tag titles on TV. I’m not sure I can see them as a PPV challenger, but they’d at least deserve a shot at Saturday Night at some point. There wasn’t much of a lull or slowness to the match. They hit their spots and looked good in the process.
Match Rating: Squash
Teddy Long provides a spotlight on Erik Watts. Long knows that Erik is getting dissed because his father is the head man in WCW. Long talks about Watts being a quarterback for Louisville and we see footage of him playing. We’ve seen recently that Erik Watts has become friends with Dustin Rhodes. Dustin puts over Watts as doing a good job in training. Watts noted that his training is going ahead of schedule. Dustin walked off with Watts. This is just a history of Watts brief history in WCW as Watts is learning the STF from Chono.
Missy Does The Mail hosted by Missy Hyatt is up next. A fan named Gary wrote in that they don’t think anyone can beat Ron Simmons in the arm wrestling contest. We see footage of Simmons winning his arm wrestling match with Steve Austin recently. We also see Barbarian beating Arn Anderson n an arm wrestling match. Hyatt talks about how people can leave the arm wrestling contest with a broken arm.
MATCH #3: RICK RUDE VS. VAN HAMMER
NOTE: As per usual, Rude insults the fans before the match begins.
FINISH: Rude pins Hammer following the Rude Awakening.
Bob’s Take: Hammer shows off his strength early on to gain the control on Rude, but Rude cuts him off quickly with strikes. Hammer has some good energy decking Rude with several clotheslines, but couldn’t keep Rude down long enough, yet. It’s a fairly basic bout with Hammer relying on a sleeper at one point to weaken Rude. Hammer delivers a press slam, but fails to hit the slingshot suplex leading to the finish, which was a good one. Rude is always a guy who makes lesser talent look viable and worthwhile. Yeah, even Van Hammer. Hammer tends to have his best matches with Rude I’ve noticed.
Match Rating: **
MAIN EVENT: VADER VS. RICKY STEAMBOAT
NOTE: This is the same match that aired on Worldwide.
Final Thoughts:
Not much to this episode, though Rude/Hammer was a fine TV match. Erik Watts really feels like a forced push on the fans and they are associating him with a bunch of babyfaces to get the rub. He wasn’t even all that good at Louisville. An average episode this week as the original matches on the show were fairly entertaining for their designed intent.
Thanks for reading.