Chi-Town Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) banner. It took place on February 20, 1989, at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois.
The main event was a standard wrestling match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, in which Ric Flair defended the title against Ricky Steamboat. Steamboat won the match—and the championship—by pinning Flair with a small package.
Featured matches on the undercard were The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) versus The Varsity Club (Steve Williams and Kevin Sullivan) for the NWA World Tag Team Championship, Lex Luger versus Barry Windham for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, Mike Rotunda versus Rick Steiner for the NWA World Television Championship, Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) and Jim Cornette versus Original Midnight Express (Jack Victory and Randy Rose) and Paul E. Dangerously in a Loser Leaves NWA match, Sting versus Butch Reed and Michael Hayes versus Russian Assassin #1.
Storylines
Chi-Town Rumble featured seven professional wrestling matches that involved wrestlers from pre-existing rivalries, plots and storylines that were played out on World Wide Wrestling, Pro and World Championship Wrestling–WCW's television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a hero, villain or a tweener as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or a series of matches.
The main rivalry heading into the event was between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. At Starrcade, Flair defeated Lex Luger to retain the title.
The main tag team rivalry heading into the event was between The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) and The Varsity Club (Steve Williams and Kevin Sullivan) for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. At Starrcade, Varsity Club defeated The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) to win the NWA United States Tag Team Championship. Later that night, Road Warriors retained the NWA World Tag Team Championship against Sting and Dusty Rhodes by intentional disqualification. On January 14 edition of World Championship Wrestling, Sullivan and Williams challenged Road Warriors to a match for the World Tag Team title. On January 28 edition of World Championship Wrestling, it was announced that Road Warriors would defend the title against Sullivan and Williams at Chi-Town Rumble. On January 28 edition of World Championship Wrestling, it was announced that Windham would defend the United States title against Luger at Chi-Town Rumble. As a result, it was announced on April 9 edition of Main Event that a rematch would take place between the two for the title.
After winning the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship from Barry Windham at Chi-Town Rumble, Lex Luger continued his feud with Windham. On March 18 edition of World Championship Wrestling, Luger and Michael Hayes competed against Barry and Kendall Windham in a tag team match, during which Hayes turned on Luger and helped the Windhams in winning the match. As a result, Hayes joined Hiro Matsuda's group Yamazaki Corporation and began a rivalry with Luger.