Wrestling: Pay-Per-View Players #30 - October 1990

#1 Randy Savage [--] (13-8-0) (WWF)

The shuffling deck of 1990 continues to keep the Top 10 steady as she goes. The Four Horsemen loom large over the action as NWA World Heavyweight Champion Sting overcomes the titan that is Sid Vicious! Meanwhile, Ric Flair & Arn Anderson team in an unsuccessful play to claim the World Tag Team Championships in a double count out against "Doom" Ron Simmons & Butch Reed!

US Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers surge back against the ranks, fending off the NWA pay-per-view first appearance of The Nasty Boyz! If Demolition still had the stroke to go toe-to-toe with The Road Warriors, then stat hounds might've viewed the Steiners dream match opponents for Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart.

The Rock 'n' Roll Express drop-off after their first pay-per-view loss. Robert Gibson is nowhere to be seen as Ricky Morton is joined by Tommy Rich in the eternal struggle against The Midnight Express. With eyes on the tag teams, we welcome The Master Blasters: Blade & Steel -- the latter of which will come to be better known as Diesel in a few years, or by his real name, Kevin Nash! Their win over Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong marks the ranking debut of Nash.

The rush to the end of 1990 begins! November's Survivor Series promises a massive thanksgiving spread, while the annual Starrcade continues its run in December.

 

Top Ten Singles PPV Players

#1 [--] Randy Savage (13-8-0) (WWF)
#2 [--] Hulk Hogan (12-3-1) (WWF) [Royal Rumble 1990]
#3 [--] Road Warrior Hawk (11-3-0) (NWA)
#4 [--] Road Warrior Animal (10-4-0) (NWA)
#5 [--] Ric Flair (10-5-3) (NWA)
#6 [--] Sting (9-1-2) (NWA) [World Heavyweight Champion]
#7 [--] Brutus Beefcake (8-2-3) (WWF)
#8 [+2] Rick Steiner (8-5-1) (NWA) [US Tag Team Champion]
#9 [-1] Smash (8-5-0) (WWF)
#10 [-1] Ultimate Warrior (7-2-0) (WWF) [World Heavyweight Champion]
 

Top Ten Tag Team PPV Players

#1 [--] Road Warrior Hawk & Animal (10-3-0) (NWA)
#2 [+1] Ax & Smash (6-3-0) (WWF)
#3 [-1] Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane (6-3-0) (NWA)
#4 [--] Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart (6-3-0) (WWF) [Tag Team Champions]
#5 [+1] Rick & Scott Steiner (6-3-0) (NWA) [US Tag Team Champions]
#6 [-1] Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson (5-1-0) (NWA)
#7 [--] The Samoan Savage & Fatu (4-1-0) (NWA)
#8 [--] Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (3-1-1) (WWF)
#9 [--] Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid (3-2-1) (WWF)
#10 [--] Ron Simmons & Butch Reed (3-3-1) (NWA) [World Tag Team Champions]

Top Womens PPV Players
#1 [--] The Fabulous Moolah (2-0-0) (WWF)
#2 [--] Rockin' Robin (2-0-0) (WWF) [Women's Champion]
#3 [--] Wendi Richter (1-0-0) (WWF)
#4 [--] Itsuki Yamazaki (1-0-0) (WWF)
#5 [--] Noriyo Tateno (1-0-0) (WWF)

 

Recent Pay-Per-View Event Results
- WCW Halloween Havoc (October 27, 1990)
- WWF Summerslam (August 27, 1990)
- NWA The Great American Bash (July 7, 1990)
- NWA Capital Combat (May 19, 1990)
- WWF Wrestlemania VI (April 1, 1990)
- NWA WrestleWar 1990 (February 25, 1990)

 

The Pay-Per-View Players rankings intend to take into account pay-per-view events promoted by NWA, WWF, WCW, ECW, WWE & TNA wrestling organizations. Only broadcast results contribute to the cumulative tally of win/loss record of wrestlers. Pre-show matches will not be included.

Wrestling: Pay-Per-View Players #28 - July 1990

#1 Randy Savage [--] (12-8-0) (WWF)

The era of the Stinger is here! The Great American Bash sees a fully recovered Sting claim the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a massive summer celebration! Ric Flair passes the torch and settles for the #5 rank, while Sting leaps up to meet "The Nature Boy" at #6! It looks like Sting is the man to lead NWA/WCW into the nineties -- but he isn't the only one pushing the Alliance forward in the PPV ranks!

Rick Steiner returns to the Top 10 with a tag team win opposite brother Scott! They go without titles, however, as Ron Simmons & Butch Reed make their stamp as World Tag Team Champions, entering the ranks at #10! The Doom tandem were responsible for handing The Rock 'n' Roll Express their first defeat on the pay-per-view stage! Rubbing salt in the wound is the success of NWA US Tag Team Champions Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane - The Midnight Express! They picked up a win against PPV fresh faces The Southern Boys (Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong).

In the future stocks: Big Van Vader made his first entry into the US PPV results! He defeated Tom Zenk in a 2 minute squash match! Mean Mark Callous fared better in his NWA US Heavyweight Championship match against retaining holder Lex Luger! Callous, of course, will be of far greater significance in a year or so as WWF's Undertaker.

On the flipside, some blasts from past returned to the ranks at Great American Bash! Paul Orndorff & Junkyard Dog teamed with El Gigante in a six-man tag team win over The Four Horsemen's Sid Vicious, Arn Anderson & Barry Windham!

The summer fun continues as WWF host the annual Summerslam!

 

Top Ten Singles PPV Players

#1 [--] Randy Savage (12-8-0) (WWF)
#2 [--] Hulk Hogan (11-3-1) (WWF) [Royal Rumble 1990]
#3 [--] Road Warrior Hawk (11-3-0) (NWA)
#4 [--] Road Warrior Animal (10-4-0) (NWA)
#5 [--] Ric Flair (10-5-2) (NWA)
#6 [+2] Sting (8-1-2) (NWA) [World Heavyweight Champion]
#7 [-1] Brutus Beefcake (8-2-3) (WWF)
#8 [-1] Smash (8-4-0) (WWF) [Tag Team Champion]
#9 [--] Dusty Rhodes (7-4-0) (WWF)
#10 [RE] Rick Steiner (7-5-1) (NWA)
 

Top Ten Tag Team PPV Players

#1 [--] Road Warrior Hawk & Animal (10-3-0) (NWA)
#2 [--] Ax & Smash (6-2-0) (WWF) [Tag Team Champion]
#3 [+1] Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane (6-2-0) (NWA) [US Tag Team Champions]
#4 [-1] Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson (5-1-0) (NWA)
#5 [--] Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart (5-3-0) (WWF)
#6 [+1] Rick & Scott Steiner (5-3-0) (NWA)
#7 [-1] The Samoan Savage & Fatu (4-1-0) (NWA)
#8 [--] Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (3-1-1) (WWF)
#9 [--] Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid (3-2-1) (WWF)
#10 [new] Ron Simmons & Butch Reed (3-3-0) (NWA) [World Tag Team Champions]

Top Womens PPV Players
#1 [--] The Fabulous Moolah (2-0-0) (WWF)
#2 [--] Rockin' Robin (2-0-0) (WWF) [Women's Champion]
#3 [--] Wendi Richter (1-0-0) (WWF)
#4 [--] Itsuki Yamazaki (1-0-0) (WWF)
#5 [--] Noriyo Tateno (1-0-0) (WWF)

 

Recent Pay-Per-View Event Results
- NWA The Great American Bash (July 7, 1990)
- NWA Capital Combat (May 19, 1990)
- WWF Wrestlemania VI (April 1, 1990)
- NWA WrestleWar 1990 (February 25, 1990)
- WWF Royal Rumble (January 21, 1990)
- WWF No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie (December 27, 1989)

 

The Pay-Per-View Players rankings intend to take into account pay-per-view events promoted by NWA, WWF, WCW, ECW, WWE & TNA wrestling organizations. Only broadcast results contribute to the cumulative tally of win/loss record of wrestlers. Pre-show matches will not be included.

Wrestling: Pay-Per-View Players #23 - December 1989

#1 Randy Savage [--] (12-6-0) (WWF)

From one extreme to another! WWF Survivor Series paraded a roster of stars in November multi-man team matches. Starrcade '89 takes a different tact: grounded by two round robin tournaments that feature the cream of the NWA singles and tag team crop!

Sting arrives to the big time with a monumental tournament victory over Ric Flair in the Starrcade main event! The Great Muta goes winless of the four, while Lex Luger finally evens the score to take a positive winning record in his own launch toward greatness. Less revolutionary: The Road Warriors secure their status as the best tag team of the time, ending the tournament with a points winning victory over The New Wild Samoans!

The pendulum of tag team wrestling swings once again! Ron Simmons & Butch Reed go winless in the round robin, but third team The Steiner Brothers find their way into the Top 10 PPV tag teams with a healthy 2-1 tournament record! Their graduation completes a cleansing of the tag team ranks, reducing the field to ten memorable pure duos!

Well short of the elevated 6 win entry point is Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake. They emerged victorious from the WWF steel cage in a promotional double: No Holds Barred: The Movie/The Match! Coming up short in the Summerslam '89 rematch - Randy Savage and film character come-to-life Zeus (aka Tom "Tiny" Lister)!

With that, we roll into the decade that transforms the pay-per-view business into a year-long institution! This is the nineties! 1990 isn't quite ready for a monthly schedule, leaving January the sole domain of WWF and the annual Royal Rumble! The 30-man elimination battle royal strips the scope of opportunity. Will the Federation superstars be able to counter NWA's '89 affirmation of new and old stars? The challenge is set!

 

Top Ten Singles PPV Players

#1 [--] Randy Savage (12-6-0) (WWF)
#2 [--] Hulk Hogan (10-2-1) (WWF) [World Heavyweight Champion]
#3 [+1] Road Warrior Hawk (9-3-0) (NWA)
#4 [-1] Ric Flair (9-4-2) (NWA)
#5 [+4] Road Warrior Animal (8-4-0) (NWA)
#6 [+4] Sting (7-1-2) (NWA)
#7 [--] Brutus Beefcake (7-2-2) (WWF)
#8 [-3] Smash (7-3-0) (WWF)
#9 [-3] Ricky Steamboat (7-5-0) (NWA)
#10 [-2] Dusty Rhodes (6-3-0) (WWF)
 

Top Ten Tag Team PPV Players

#1 [--] Road Warrior Hawk & Animal (8-3-0) (NWA)
#2 [--] Ax & Smash (5-2-0) (WWF)
#3 [--] Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane (4-1-0) (NWA)
#4 [--] Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart (4-3-0) (WWF)
#5 [--] Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson (3-0-0) (NWA)
#6 [--] Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (3-1-1) (WWF)
#7 [new] The Samoan Savage & Fatu (3-1-0) (NWA)
#8 [-1] Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid (3-2-1) (WWF)
#9 [new] Rick & Scott Steiner (3-2-0) (NWA)
#10 [-2] Jacques & Raymond Rougeau (3-4-1) (WWF)

Top Womens PPV Players
#1 [--] The Fabulous Moolah (2-0-0) (WWF)
#2 [--] Rockin' Robin (2-0-0) (WWF) [Women's Champion]
#3 [--] Wendi Richter (1-0-0) (WWF)
#4 [--] Itsuki Yamazaki (1-0-0) (WWF)
#5 [--] Noriyo Tateno (1-0-0) (WWF)

 

Recent Pay-Per-View Event Results
- WWF No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie (December 27, 1989)
- NWA Starrcade '89 (December 13, 1989)
- WWF Survivor Series (November 23, 1989)
- WCW Halloween Havoc (October 28, 1989)
- WWF Summerslam (August 28, 1989)
- NWA The Great American Bash '89 (July 23, 1989)

 

The Pay-Per-View Players rankings intend to take into account pay-per-view events promoted by NWA, WWF, WCW, ECW, WWE & TNA wrestling organizations. Only broadcast results contribute to the cumulative tally of win/loss record of wrestlers. Pre-show matches will not be included.

Wrestling: The Kayfabe Countdown - 02/06

#1 Edge [+1] (7-1-0) (WWE)
[World Heavyweight Champion]
It seems Alberto Del Rio's victory in the Royal Rumble has fulfilled WWE's hard working plans for the Mexican superstar, at least for now. Edge has risen rapidly in the win/loss rankings to leap from 2011 obscurity, back into second place for last week's [January 30] Countdown! In a year when John Cena (#99) has begun his road to Wrestlemania without a single victory; Edge's 87% win rate from eight matches in five weeks has to be considered no small feat!

Edge was unsurprisingly successful in defending his championship against unlikely contender, Dolph Ziggler (#76), whose fortunes have been inverse to Edge's (1-7-0 win/loss/draw), including losing the Intercontinental Championship immediately before his entry into the World title picture. I'm not sure I'll ever agree with the favour Edge has garnered in his role as a main event player, but it's undeniable that Ziggler was not yet ready to step up into the role. I appreciate, particularly with a WWE Champion as green as The Miz (#37) working on RAW, that bookers saw fit to grant Ziggler the opportunity, without prematurely following through on it.

Pseudo-babyface Edge appears to be carrying a little babyfat right now, but that hasn't stopped WWE investing heavily in the "Rated R Superstar," who replaced Kane (#73) as Smackdown's resident World Heavyweight Champion. With an opportunity to main event Wrestlemania in a title bout against Del Rio on the line; you'd have to think Edge will be relatively secure when he defends the belt in an Elimination Chamber at the February event of the same name. His opponents will be Dolph Ziggler, Kane, Drew McIntyre (#17), Rey Mysterio (#6), and Wade Barrett (#68), presenting the most likely alternate as Mysterio, whose feud with Del Rio was supposedly ended in a match won via count-out due to interference. An all-Mexican main event would certainly be a welcome change from WWE's typically unkind booking to international stars, but is only an outside possibility.

#2 [-1] Alberto Del Rio (6-2-0) (WWE) [Royal Rumble]
#3 [--] Robert Roode (4-0-0) (TNA) [Tag Team Champion]
#4 [--] James Storm (4-0-0) (TNA) [Tag Team Champion]
#5 [RE] Ken Anderson (4-2-0) (TNA) [World Heavyweight Champion]
#6 [RE] Rey Mysterio (4-2-0) (WWE)
#7 [-2] Kofi Kingston (4-3-0) (WWE) [Intercontinental Champion]
#8 [-2] Randy Orton (4-3-0) (WWE)
#9 [RE] Yoshi Tatsu (4-3-0) (WWE)
#10 [-3] Jeff Jarrett (3-0-1) (TNA)

#1 [--] Robert Roode & James Storm (4-0-0) (TNA) [Tag Team Champions]
#2 [RE] Layla & Michelle McCool (2-1-0) (WWE)
#3 [-1] Zack Ryder & Primo Colon (2-1-0) (WWE)
#4 [RE] Yoshi Tatsu & DH Smith (2-1-0) (WWE)
#5 [RE] Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov (2-3-0) (WWE) [Tag Team Champions]
#6 [-3] Eve Torres & Brie Bella (1-0-0) (WWE)
#7 [-2] Natalya Neidhart & Brie Bella (1-0-0) (WWE)
#8 [-2] Randy Orton & Jerry Lawler (1-0-0) (WWE)
#9 [-2] Angelina Love & Winter (1-0-0) (TNA) [Knockouts Tag Team Champions]
#10 [-2] Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy (1-0-0) (TNA)

Superstar Spotlight:
#NR Sting (0-0-0) (Independent)
A promo promising something mysterious for Monday night's RAW on the 21st of February has sparked speculation and theories about the imminent arrival of one of wrestling's biggest stars never to sign with WWE. The Sting phenomenon owes it's origins to the days of NWA (National Wrestling Alliance), but was solidified in WCW (World Championship Wrestling), where he eventually transformed from a brightly coloured surfer, to a gothic, comic-book inspired Crow style figure, clad in long trench coat.

While the "2 21 11" promo features a black figure in a long coat, and bares superficial similarities to promo reels from Sting's WCW days, there isn't a doubt in my mind that says this is a sign of the return of The Undertaker. [Undertaker] was bundled out in October last year at Bragging Rights, where he lost a Buried Alive gimmick match to fictitious brother, Kane. His only subsequent appearance featured the Deadman in a long hall, stepping through a door into white light -- imagery similar to previous instances of the Undertaker's theatrics, which have suggested many experiences with the afterlife.

These new promo vignettes, set in the rainy gloom of a solitary desert shanti, harken back to the original concept of Undertaker, which was directed toward the archetype of a Wild West figure, rather than the overtly supernatural, gothic overtones that the character is well remembered for. The video is either part of a return campaign that will be told exclusively in clips, or merely hype for the Undertaker's return from his previous bizarre video sequence. It may represent an Undertaker who has 'gone home', and come back stronger -- in time for Wrestlemania, which is a key part of his dominant mythology.

The looming significance of Wrestlemania plays a part in Sting theories, as well, given that the show is returning to WCW's spiritual home of Atlanta. WWE's annual Hall of Fame is expected to include representatives of the WCW era, and Sting is certainly among the top contenders who haven't already been inducted -- but will it happen? If it does, I don't think the 2 21 11 clips will have any part to play.

In the recent past, Sting has flirted with permanent retirement, but seems to be persuaded to come back to action time after time by a paycheque, and some sense of loyalty to a group who has opposed the oft-times dominant WWE, for two decades. His most recent performances have been with TNA (Total Non-Stop Action), often described as being as much about giving the fledgling company a chance to rise, as any aspiration to maintain his iconic status as one of wrestling's biggest stars.

Special Note: Technical difficulties meant the publication of this post was delayed [until February 11]. A second "2 21 11" vignette has aired, finishing with the Johnny Cash "Ain't No Grave" song used to promote Undertaker's 2010 Wrestlemania clash with Shawn Michaels. It seems a certainty the promos refer to WWE's "Phenom", rather than the Stinger.

The Kayfabe Countdown is based on the cumulative tally of wrestler win/loss records, based on televised matches from WWE and TNA 2010 broadcasts. At present, they includes TNA: Impact!, WWE: RAW, WWE: Superstars, WWE: Smackdown, and monthly Pay-Per-View events.