The Year is 1989. Batman & Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade grossed $885 million dollars at the Box Office worldwide. NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback Joe Montana led the San Fransciso 49ers on a 11-play 92 yard game wining drive in Super Bowl 23 over the Cincinnati Bengals. NBA Hall of Famer & arguably the Greatest Basketball Player of All Time Michael Jordan delivered one of the most legendary moments of his career when he hit “The Shot” to eliminate the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 of the 1989 first-round NBA playoffs series. A 6.9 earthquake hit the San Francisco area right before game 3 of the World Series between the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants. Nintendo released Gameboy and The Simpsons debuted on Fox.
In NWA, “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat wrestled for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a trilogy of the most epic matches in wrestling at Chi-Town Rumble, Clash of Champions VI, Wrestle War 89.
In WWF, The Mega Powers exploded as “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage wrestled for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania V. WWF (WWE) Released their movie “No Hold’s Barred starring Hulk Hogan which lead to a rivalry with the character Zeus (Tiny Lister) in matches at Sumerslam, Suvivor Series, and a late December PPV “No Hold’s Barred : The Match/The Movie.
In this article we will revisit the weekly shows, pay-per view’s, the championships, the rosters and more. Sidenote. {November 2, 1988 National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)-affiliated promotion called ‘World Championship Wrestling’ appeared nationally. This entity was under the ownership of Atlanta Based media mogul and cable-TV pioneer Ted Turner. Shortly following the purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions a decision was made to utilize the familiar “World Championship Wrestling” TV show name, as the brand name for this new promotion. This would explain the confusion of the WCW show name with NWA Titles.}
With that being said enjoy this recap of 1989 !!!!
Weekly Shows
Pay Per View Events
Championships
Rosters (left side & last center picture is WWF, right side is NWA)
WWF & NWA Timeline
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event / January 7, 1989
WWF Royal Rumble / January 15, 1989
NWA Clash of Champions V: St. Valentines Massacre / February 15,1989
NWA Chi-Town Rumble (start at the 6:11 mark) / February 20,1989
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event / March 11, 1989
WWF – Wrestlemania 5 / April 2, 1989
NWA Clash Of Champions VI : Ragin’ Cajun / April 2, 1989
NWA Wrestle War 89 / May 7,1989
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event / May 27,1989
NWA Clash of Champions / June 14,1989
NWA Great American Bash 89 / July 23,1989
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event / July 29, 1989
WWF Summerslam 89 / August 28,1989
NWA Clash Of The Champions VIII : Fall Brawl / September 12,1989
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event / October 14, 1989
NWA Halloween Havoc 1989 / October 28,1989
NWA Clash of the Champions IX : New York Knockout / November 15,1989
WWF Survivor Series 89 / November 23,1989
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event / November 25,1989
NWA Starrcade 1989 / December 13,1989
WWF No Holds Barred The Match/ The Movie / December 27,1989
Talk Show Appearances
The Arsenio Hall Show
Regis and Kathy Lee
Late Night with David Letterman
The Bobby Heenan Show
Learning the Ropes with Lyle Alzado
Prime Time Wrestling – Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, “Classy” Freddie Blassie (Skip to 7:16….hilarious)
Video Games
WWF Wrestlemania NES Commerical
WWF Superstars Arcade Game
WCW World Championship Wrestling NES
Commericals
As you can see the year of 1989 in WWF & NWA was just so entertaining, fun and captivating.
Fun Facts about WWF & NWA in 1989
- Harley Race last match was at the Royal Rumble versus Haku
- Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake only Royal Rumble appearance was in 1989
- Royal Rumble on had 165k buys
- Big John Studd’s last WWF match was on June 4, 1989
- Summerslam 89 was the first PPV Gorilla Monsoon did not do play-by-play
- Ted Turner ran NWA Clash of Champions VI: Ragin Cajun for free on TBS head to head against WWF Wrestlemania V on April 2
- Wrestlemania V made 1.6 million in advanced ticket sales
- SummerSlam 89 was the first of four Summerslam events to break 600k PPV Buys
- Shane McMahon debuted as an outside referee in Suvivor Series 89
- Barry Windham would not wrestle for the WWF till late 95. Windham’s NWA contract ended in March of 89. He joined the WWF in June of 89, then left the company by October of 89.
- Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard would not team again and only Arn Anderson would return to WCW/NWA in 1990 due to Tully Blanchard failing a WWE drug test. Blanchard would make a one-night only appearence at 1994 WCW Slamboree in a match against Terry Funk.
- Zeus would not wrestle again till 1996 WCW Uncensored as Z-Gangster
- The Samoan Swat Team’s NWA entrance theme was the Halloween theme from the 1978 John Carpenter movie Halloween
- The Steiner Brothers NWA theme was 1987 Guns N’ Roses song “Welcome to the Jungle
- Nitron, who was the bodyguard for Woman & Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed) is actor Tyler Mane. Mane is known for his role in X-Men as Sabertooth and as Michael Myers in Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake.
- Elvira, horror icon known for her movie Elvira: Mistress of the Dark appeared in a few commercials for NWA/WCW Halloween Havoc PPV from 1989-1991
Source: WWE, Pro Wrestling Illustrated , NBC, Fox,
DEDRIAN E COLON 