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[1990-05-26-NWA-World Championship Wrestling] Interview: Ric Flair & Ole Anderson / Rocky King vs Cactus Jack


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  • 1 month later...

Flair and Ole demand to be told right away what is going on. It's the WEEKEND OF RACISM in wrestling, as Flair says the Horsemen don't even talk to guys like Rocky King.

 

We cut to the ring for a Cactus Jack vs Rocky King match. Flair and Ole are out before the match even starts to get in Rocky King's face about who the surprise is. Ole treats Cactus like a total jobber. Flair calls him "boy" and tells him he can't moonwalk with a broken leg. Woooowwww.

 

Anyway, JYD comes through the crowd to a big pop from the crowd, but this feels like a big step backwards after Sting and Luger feuds. Flair treats this as almost laughable until JYD gets the best of him. JYD tells the Horsemen it ain't 1935 no more. This has great heat, and Flair is tremendous, but it's obvious Ole is out of touch.

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Well, wouldn't you know it: a perfectly timed, quintessential example of the "other" types of race-related angles I was comparing Lawler/Snowman to. Flair and Ole go from casual racism when referring to Rocky King to referring to him as "boy" and then later talking about showing JYD "what they do to guys like Rocky King back in Minnesota." Um...kudos to WCW for tackling the issue of Midwest racism? JYD cleans house and cuts a promo on Flair.

 

Godawful. JYD was over with the crowd, but fuck me, this was everything the Lawler/Snowman angle hasn't been. The crowd pop for JYD and the fact that the racists are being booked as heels are the only two things saving this. Physically JYD looked horrible and Flair should be so above this bullshit. Oh, actually, during the first King interview I thought the surprise was going to be Ole's old buddy Thunderbolt Patterson, so in that way JYD is almost a pleasant surprise.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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I think this could have been just as effective an angle if they had taken the racism out of Flair and Ole's remarks. Hell, why is Rocky King the only other guy besides Jim Ross to know about JYD? Was it in the Black WON? Both JYD and King have some charisma, and JYD doesn't look completely terrible here (even though he's totally out of shape and even Flair is going to struggle to get anything out of him) and I can't help but think this would have been a good angle if Ole hadn't made it so damned uncomfortable to watch.

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  • 1 year later...

I consider myself an intelligent enough person to know what racism is, and I didn't see patently racist behavior here as much as I saw wrestling heel behavior. With racist elements, certainly, but not racist in and of itself, and there's a difference. Flair's called white guys "boy" before too, and the stuff about not even talking to guys like Rocky King has as much to do with relative status as color. Besides. what the hell are the frazzled Horsemen supposed to do, say "Mr. Ritter, we believe that we're better wrestlers than you"? How does that get the crowd to boo them out of the building and/or want them to be hurt, which I assume is the intent here?

 

Sorry, but until I actually see Ole in blackface with outsized white lips or hear Fiair going "Yassuh, boss" in the ring during promos, I'm going to assume that they're just normal heels doing what normal heels do to babyfaces regardless of color (which may at times include racist statements, granted), not the newest pledges to the KKK.

 

I loved Flair's George Steele impersonation when he first saw JYD: "YOU! YOU! YOU! HEY! HEY!"

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  • 10 months later...

Great set-up by Rocky King here but this was soured by the racism. It also didn't help that JYD did a promo at Capital Combat where he said he was going after the Horsemen, which kind of took away from the surprise element.

 

This angle really pissed off Meltzer and his readers, and not entirely because of the racism aspect.. A lot of the talk centered around JYD (or JFD, the Junkfood Dog as the Observer referred to him) being a horrible worker that was 6 years past his prime (of being over) that put no effort whatsoever into getting into shape.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 8 months later...

Flair and Ole are back out and the World champion is demanding to be told what the surprise for himself and the Four Horsemen is. Ole isn’t happy that Rocky King knows and Flair says that if Ross doesn’t tell him he’s going to go down to the ring, grab King by the neck and find out himself. Stubborn Jim refuses to tell them ‘it’s a surprise, you’ll have to wait’, so the pair of them head to the ring.

 

Cactus Jack is scheduled to face Rocky King when Ole and Flair interrupt the ring announcements. Ole tells Cactus to take a powder, he doesn’t have to wrestle and get out of there. Ole turns to King and tells him to relax, all they want to know is what this surprise is for the Horsemen? Rocky doesn’t give them an answer, just that they’re going to be surprised. Ole is losing patience now and tells King how they got rid of Sting, Luger and Norman and if he doesn’t want to end up with his head stuck somewhere the sun doesn’t shine, he better tell them what he knows. Flair calls King ‘boy’ and tells him that he can’t moonwalk with a broken leg so spit it out! The crowd start making some noise and the Junkyard Dog hops over the ringside barriers and into the ring. Flair is dismissive of the Dog and the idea that he is the one that’s going to take the Horsemen down. Ole tells Flair to show the JYD how they take care of people in Minnesota and makes out as if he’s going to hit the Dog, but suckers King instead. Ole is about to throw a punch at the JYD but the Dog gets in their first, and he handles both Horsemen clearing the ring of them. He then tells them that it isn’t 1935 anymore!

 

As has been pointed out this does seem like a backwards step after Sting and Luger, but where else could they possibly go? Sting is still injured and they dug themselves in a hole with Luger saying that he would never ask for another match again if he didn’t win in the middle at Capital Combat. El Gigante isn’t ready, Steiners are feuding with Doom, Road Warriors are on the downer and outside of Pillman, I can’t think of one other credible challenger in the NWA. I thought it was strange that King got some promo time earlier in the show, but why is he the only other person who knows what the surprise is? Surely not because he’s black? Can’t say I was fond of Flair calling King ‘boy’ either.

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  • 1 month later...
  • GSR changed the title to [1990-05-26-NWA-World Championship Wrestling] Interview: Ric Flair & Ole Anderson / Rocky King vs Cactus Jack

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