Tag team wrestling sure was hot in the late 80’s/early 90’s. While the WWF had a bunch of all-time greats going at it, WCW had its share of talented teams as well. Amongst top tier teams like The Steiners, Doom, and the Road Warriors, there was a new team on the rise: the Skyscrapers, consisting of Sid Vicious and Dan Spivey.
Jim Ross called them “the team of the 90’s”. However, thanks to this week’s Jobber of the Week, the so-called team of the 90’s only made it seven weeks into the decade before totally collapsing. Metaphorically speaking, this masked man turned a downtown New York high rise into just your average Compton crackhouse.
From Parts Unknown Class of 90, this week’s JOTW – The Masked Skyscraper.
In the summer of 1989, Teddy Long would unleash upon WCW rings his latest find. Comprised of a very young Sid Vicious, who on the outside showed all the promise in the world, as well as Dan Spivey, who after years of being a babyface clone of Hulk Hogan and Barry Windham, finally shed that image and turned evil. They were huge men, and after only a few appearances you had to believe that the WCW tag-team division’s manifest destiny would bring them face to face with the legendary Road Warriors.
But hey, this was WCW. You didn’t expect things to play out that smoothly, did you?
The first signs of the Skyscrapers’ faulty construction would occur in late 1989. Vicious wound up forced out of action with a punctured lung. WCW, not ready to give up on Long and Spivey yet, would insert a pre-Undertaker, pro-mullet, Mark Callous into the lineup, and it seemed as though the move might actually save the team and the feud with the Legion of Doom.
On Feb. 25th 1990 at Wrestle War, the “New” Skyscrapers would finally have that long awaited PPV Chicago street-fight showdown with the LOD. One slight problem though. On the eve of the PPV, Spivey would quit WCW, leaving them with a serious problem.
Enter the Masked Skyscraper.
Gone was the dream match of Vicious and Spivey vs. Hawk and Animal, and its in place was a giant clusterf*ck..
But hey, let’s give our masked friend a chance, shall we? At first glance, with his dated acid-wash jeans and oh-so trendy shirt with ripped holes in it, it looked like he had just walked off the set of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me” video. However, the only thing poured on Mr. Skyscraper that night was a vintage LOD ass-whuppin’. After about five minutes of action that made Callous wish he was dead (patience Mark), he took off to the back, ditching his masked partner who soon met his demise at the hands of the Doomsday Device.
And that was it. The end of the Skyscrapers, condemned for all eternity. Or was it? A few months later at Starrcade 90, the original duo of Vicious and Spivey would reunite as faces for one night only to take on the Big Cat and the Motor City Madman in a one-minute squash, thankfully closing the Skyscrapers story a little better than the Masked Skyscraper did.
Who was the masked man you say? It was poor ol’ Mike Enos, in is first WCW gig after leaving the AWA where he was a part of the successful Destruction Crew team with Wayne Bloom. He would have midcard stints in both WWF and WCW, culminating with a mid-90’s team up with Dick Slater. Clad in black leather chaps, they were known as Rough and Ready. But that is a JOTW story (or
a Pat Patterson wet dream) for another day.