Capital Combat: Return of RoboCop was a one-time professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) held under the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) name. Capital Combat took place on Saturday, May 19, 1990, at the D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C. The show featured a promotional crossover with the imminent release of RoboCop 2, with RoboCop rescuing Sting from an attack by the Four Horsemen during the PPV.
The main event of the show was a steel cage match with Ric Flair defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Lex Luger. On the undercard, The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner) defended the NWA World Tag Team Championship against Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) while Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk defended the NWA United States Tag Team Championship against the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane). The show included five additional matches.
Production
Background
In 1989, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) held their first pay-per-view (PPV) in May when they held the first WrestleWar event. In 1990, WrestleWar was held in February, with WCW instead opting to hold a different event in May. This PPV event, held at the D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C., was named "Capital Combat" in light of it being held in the capital city of the United States. Due to a printing error on the tickets, the starting time for the show was listed as 8 PM instead of 7 PM, leading to the first couple of matches taking place in front of a half-full arena. The event ended up drawing 7,500 paid spectators, not quite filling the 10,000-seat arena but close to capacity since part of the seats were blocked by the sets and ring ramp.
WCW had originally intended to have the Samoan Swat Team (Fatu and Samu) wrestle for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship, facing champions Flyin' Brian Pillman and "Z-Man" Tom Zenk at the show. When the Samoan Swat Team did not show up for the television taping on April 9, where they were supposed to film the beginnings of the storyline that would lead to the match, WCW replaced them with The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) instead.
The main storyline leading up to Capital Combat, and the main storyline in WCW at the time revolved around Four Horsemen stable and the Faces (those that portray the "good guys") of WCW. At Clash of the Champions X on February 6, 1990, the Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Ole Anderson) turned on Sting, attacking him and kicking him out of the Horsemen because he accepted an NWA World Heavyweight Championship match against Ric Flair. In the ensuing fight Sting suffered a knee injury which required surgery. Due to the injury, the plans for WCW's 1990 WrestleWar PPV had to be changed drastically, with NWA United States Champion Lex Luger, a former friend of Sting's, receiving the championship match instead. During the main event, Luger had Flair locked in his submission hold, looking like he was about to win the match and the championship. At that point the Andersons cornered Sting, who was on crutches after his surgery, threatening to injure him even further. At that point Luger abandoned the match, opting to save his long time friend instead even though it cost him the match and the championship. The sixth match of the night, a tag team match between The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) and The Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) was billed as a "Corporal Punishment" match. The "Corporal Punishment" stipulation meant that each team was given a three-foot-long leather strap they were allowed to use during the match. The straps themselves were not widely used during the match as both teams opted to wrestle the match as a straight match with only a few moments of actual whipping. In the end, Morton rolled up Michael Hayes to win the match. In a 2008 review J.D. Dunn rated the event as 8.5 out of 10, stating "Most people remember this for the laughable Robocop segments, but the wrestling was stellar on this show". The main event match was later included in WWE's "The Greatest Cage Matches of All Time" DVD that was released in 2011.
Aftermath
After recovering from his knee injury Sting received his championship match against Ric Flair at the 1990 Great American Bash where Sting won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Sting, Luger, El Gigante and others continued the feud with the Four Horsemen over the next year, ending in 1991 when the Four Horsemen disbanded as Ric Flair (at the time the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion) and Sid Vicious left WCW. Ace later worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling and, after retiring from in-ring competition, end up working behind the scenes and on-screen in WWE under his real name, John Laurinaitis.
The Road Warriors left WCW after this PPV, moving on to the WWF and calling themselves by their alternate name "The Legion of Doom" but not bring their longtime manager Paul Ellering with them for their initial WWF run, and soon feuded with the "Road Warrior Clones" Demolition. The Rock and Roll Express were no longer a team after Robert Gibson injured his ACL in a house show match against Doom in September and Ricky Morton began a solo career, eventually turning heel to join The York Foundation as "Richard Morton".
Results
See also
- 1990 in professional wrestling
- Jim Crockett Promotions