January 9, 1988 WCW Saturday Night results

The January 9, 1988 Edition of WCW Saturday Night was a live professional wrestling television show which took place on January 9, 1988 at the WTBS Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.

This show is considered to be building up towards the Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 PPV.

Recap
Show begins cold with footage from last week's episode. We see the end of Ronnie Garvin's match against Arn Anderson which ends with Garvin and Lex Luger brawling with Anderson and Tully Blanchard.

Tony Schiavone and David Crockett welcome us from the studio portion. They run down tonight's expected card.

We start with a squash match as the team of Barry Windham and Sting work through some jobbers for a few minutes. They got the win when Tommy Angel submitted to Sting's Scorpion Deathlock. After the match Sting and Windham were interviewed by Crockett. They hype their teamwork and state that their sights on on the World Tag Team Titles and the Horsemen who hold them. Windham also tells Larry Zbyszko that he's ready for him.

After commercial, Jim Cornette is in the studio with Schiavone and he tosses us to a match featuring the Midnight Express.

Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane take their time dishing out a lot of offense in a 7 minute squash match. Cornette spends most of the match on commentary where he laments the lack of challengers for their US tag team titles and makes plans for Lane to go for the TV title and Eaton will aim for the US title. He also insults Schiavone pretty heavily.

After the match, Schiavone interviews Cornette and the Midnight Express. Cornette dresses down Dusty Rhodes.

Nikita Koloff successfully defends his NWA World Television title in a squash against Jeff Crews. Afterwards he is interviewed and in his heavily accented English he tells Cornette that he is not scared of competition. He also tells Micheal Rotundo that he is welcome to challenge him as well.

Schiavone and Crockett tell us that several wrestlers like Rick Steiner and Ricky Morton are injured because of the preliminary lead up Stampede matches to the official PPV Bunkhouse Stampede main event. They cut to a video of Mighty Wilbur in a hospital bed, he says he'd been injured in a Bunkhouse Stampede match because it's such a rough match. He'll be cheering on the Road Warriors and Dusty Rhodes. They also show a clip of Rhodes and Eaton competing in a wild card match for a spot in the Bunkhouse Stampede match where both are trying to throw each other over the top of the cage.

Back to the ring, The Barbarian squashes Steve Atkens in just over a minute. Paul Jones jumped on commentary and bragged that his Army would destroy the Road Warriors.

After commercial, Schiavone ran a pre-taped interview from Ric Flair. Flair hypes the Four Horsemen and himself. He derides Lex Luger as someone who just couldn't make it and wasn't on the same level as the Horsemen. He takes a moment to acknowledge Michael Hayes as an up and comer who wants to be on his level.

Ron Simmons wins a squash match against David Isley. Isley got a little offense in, but Simmons no-sold everything before hitting a German suplex to finish it.

In his post-match interview, Simmons says he's held back long enough but he has his sights set on Ric Flair and the World heavyweight title. He wants to become the first black heavyweight champion.

Schiavone interviews Dusty Rhodes in their studio. Rhodes says the Midnight Express are a fine team, but they are biting off more than they can chew. Rhodes predicts he is going to have a great 1988 and will soon be tangling with Flair again. Rhodes then goes on describe Jim Cornette as a real "feminine" person.

Larry Zbyszko wins a stall-filled squash match against Cougar Jay. The crowd keeps getting under his skin by cheering for Barry Windham.

After a commercial, Zbyszko and Baby Doll are interviewed by Schiavone. Zbyszko berates the fans for distracted him and promises to win the Western States Heritage title.

Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner show off their quickness as the Lightning Express over a jobber team. The announcers put them over as possible contenders Midnight Express.

Bill Apter of Pro Wrestling Illustrated is out to present some awards.

Most inspirational wrestler goes to Nikita Koloff who accepts the award with a garbled speech where he brings out Magnum T.A. and dedicates his title to him. Magnum talks up Koloff.

Apter awards the Most Popular Wrestler Award to Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes comes out to accept the award and puts over Apter and the fans.

Apter awards the award for Most Hated Man to Ric Flair. Accepting the award for Flair was Jim Crockett Jr. who simply said that Flair may be the most hated, but he is the most successful.

The next award was for Tag Team of the Year. The Midnight Express win and brag about themselves along with Jim Cornette.

The Warlord wins a quick 90 second squash match.

After commercial, we get a replay of a dominant finish to a Lex Luger match and some previously aired comments from Luger about Flair

Dick Murdoch comes out to his squash match with Jim Cornette, which surprises the announcers given the negative Cornette had previously said about rednecks. They reasoned that a common hatred of Dusty Rhodes is what unites them. Murdoch breaks a few rules to win his match.

Post-match, Cornette acknowledges that he trashed rednecks, but he calls Murdoch a high-class society redneck who only enjoys the best of redneck culture. He warns Rhodes that he's left behind a lot of betrayed friends like Murdoch. Murdoch runs down Dusty's family and award he just won.

The Road Warriors quickly dispatch a pair of jobbers in under a minute.

In the post-match interview, the Road Warriors insist that they are the biggest and the baddest wrestlers in WCW. Hawk has an additional threat to Ric Flair about how he's going to beat him.

After commercial, the Rock & Roll Express have an interview where they promise success in the Bunkhouse Stampede. They also promise revenge on the Sheepherders.

The Sheepherders win a moderately challenging squash match. Afterwards, in the interview they declare they hate the Rock & Roll Express because they are "bloody yanks" and because they hate rock & roll and mullets.

Results

 * Barry Windham & Sting defeat Alan Martin & Tommy Angel (4:38)
 * Windham was the NWA Western States Heritage Champion at the time of this match.
 * Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) (w/Jim Cornette) defeat Lee Peek & Mac McGyver in a non-title match (7:22)
 * Midnight Express were NWA United States Tag Team Champions at the time of this match.
 * Nikita Koloff defeats Jeff Crews in a non-title match. (2:54)
 * Koloff was the NWA World Television Champion at the time of this match.
 * The Barbarian (w/Paul Jones & The Warlord) defeats Steve Atkens (1:15)
 * Ron Simmons defeats David Isley (3:58)
 * Larry Zbyszko (w.Baby Doll) defeats Cougar Jay (3:51)
 * Lightning Express (Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner defeat Bob Riddle & Trent Knight (5:31)
 * The Warlord (w/Paul Jones & The Barbarian) defeats Larry Stephens (1:36)
 * Dick Murdoch (w/Jim Cornette defeats Rick Nelson (5:22)
 * The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) (w/Paul Ellering) defeat Dale Laparose & Nate Brolin in a non-title match (0:46)
 * The Road Warriors were the NWA International Tag Team Champions and 2/3rds of the NWA World 6-Man Tag Team Champions at the time of this match.
 * The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) (w/Johnny Ace) defeat Italian Stallion & Mike Jackson (1:37)

Other on-screen talent

 * Commentators
 * David Crockett
 * Tony Schiavone
 * Referees
 * Teddy Long

Other credits

 * Executive Producer: Jim Crockett
 * Producer: Virgil Runnels
 * Director: Tommy P. Edwards
 * Associate Producer: Wayne Daniel
 * Electronic Graphics: Alice Airth
 * Audio: Ken Carter
 * Video Tape: Domenick Esposito
 * Studio: D. Wilson, Tim Smith, Ian Forsyth, Cliff Stroud, Jimi Stricklin, Angela Walker, Ricky Lassiter
 * Production Engineer: Phil Dickey