The Great Muta vs Arn Anderson (NWA, 1-12-1990)

NWA Power Hour, Gainesville, GA

Hot damn, look who’s back in the National Wrestling Alliance, it’s Arn Anderson! Arn had left Crockett in 1988 and headed to the WWF with Tully Blanchard, and they were there through late 1989, when both left intending to return to the NWA and reform the Four Horsemen. The WWF sabotaged Blanchard and basically ended his career, which is among the second-tier shit-ass things Vince McMahon has done and would be elite-tier by normal wrestling promoter standards but, well — anyway.

So here’s Anderson back as we kick off 1990, and he’s challenging Muta for the worlds televisions championship. They start with very basic work to kill a few minutes, and then Buzz Sawyer and Dragon Master hit ringside as Muta’s J-Tex Corporation allies. Gary Hart isn’t here. The Horsemen have been reformed, but it’s Flair, Arn, Ole, and Sting now. Sting is the worst Horseman ever; people always go with Roma or Mongo or Sid, but it was Sting, who didn’t fit the group in any way and also they were more purely babyface than ever in that collective, which is not the Four Horsemen. They can be more good than rivals — Dungeon of Doom, nWo — but they cannot be good.

“In the NWA, it’s not who can pose, it’s not who has an animal with ’em,” Jim Ross begins one of his usual anti-WWF spiels like Rick Steamboat never brought that stupid lizard to the ring with him in the sacred NWA where Abraham Lincoln was the world champion.

Goofy Buzz is a constant distraction ringside. Dragon Master fades into the background as usual. Muta methodically dominates with Big Judo Chops and Japanese Submission Holds and then Cornette gets down to it: “Sting is too soft. He won’t want to live the Horseman lifestyle. Sting is not gonna want to go to places, do the things the Horsemen do as part of daily activity. Sting wants to go take vitamins and talk to kids. I don’t think he’s gonna fit in.” He is correct.

(Second-worst is Sid, who fit worse than anyone other than Sting. I love Sid, like Sting, but nobody is good in every role. both trash Horsemen. At least Roma carried the right vibe and was a decent tag worker. Mongo had a briefcase full of cocaine of course he was a good Horseman.)

Arn gets a chance to turn the tide with an inverted atomic drop, really smashing Muta’s balls, and Muta sells the fuck out of it like he always did. Seeing how effective the first one was, Arn smashes his balls again with the same move. That’s veteran presence, baby. Anderson turns the wristlock bodyslam into a “DO YOU WANNA SEE IT?” move.

After the spinebuster, Dragon Master distracts the referee and goofy Buzz flies off the top with a forearm that drops Arn, but he kicks out at two because he’s Arn Anderson. Muta goes for the moonsault to finish, but Arn gets the knees up, hits the DDT, and we’ve got a new TV champion!

It’s not as good as the TV matches Muta had with Sting and Flair toward the back end of ’89, but it’s very good, a wonderful TV title match. When I think “TV title,” I will always think Arn Anderson first, then Lord Steven Regal, and then everyone else comes to mind as a jumble, and I’m over here, like, “Tully Blanchard! Konnan! Chris Jericho! Prince Iaukea! Jim Duggan found the belt in the trash!” This was a workhorse championship, meant for guys like Anderson and Regal.

Rating: 3.5/5