I want to thank all you guys for reading. Forever Heel is a special column to me, as getting to share my love of wrestling’s villains with those who also prefer the heel section is really cool. Today’s article was supposed to be presented back in October because it involved WCW Halloween Havoc 1991, but I wanted to get this article just right. I wanted to give the Dangerous Alliance the respect they deserved, but after weeks of reading the same articles on different websites and watching a bunch of You Tube videos, I can’t be sure I got the timeline right. There also seemed to be a gap regarding what The Dangerous Alliance was doing during the summer and fall of 1992, so this is as complete as I could muster up.
The Dangerous Alliance (The WCW version) was born after commentator Paul E. Dangerously was fired for being too controversial. He would return at Halloween Havoc as manager of The Halloween Phantom. The idea here was WCW couldn’t fire Paul E. because he was hired by The Phantom, and not WCW. As Paul E. Dangerously finished his promo it was revealed that The Halloween Phantom was actually Rick Rude. Dangerously vowed to bankrupt WCW and take out all their heroes.
At this same PPV, The Enforcers (Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko) jumped Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes, the two men next in line for a shot at the Enforcers’ WCW Tag Team Titles. During the attack Zbyszko broke Windham’s hand in a car door, and proclaimed himself “The Cruncher Larry Zbyszko”. If you get a chance check out Larry Zbyszko’s old AWA promos. They were great. Nothing else really happened at this PPV, but it did have Eric Bischoff dressed as Dracula, so it may be worth the watch.
The next big event was Clash of the Champion XVII, where Rick Rude would challenge Sting for his WCW United States Title. Rude, being a good heel, didn’t want to rely on just his wrestling skills, which were superb. Rude would help create a conspiracy to make sure he could get the belt off Sting. As Sting headed to the ring, a carriage started coming down the ramp. This carriage was actually being carried by a bunch of muscle heads, so it should’ve been obvious Luger had something to do with this. First Madusa came out of the carriage and did a sexy harem dance for Sting. But Sting being only 12 years old had no time for girls, and knew something was up. Luger quickly popped out of the carriage and attacked Sting, reinjuring The Stinger’s bad knee. As Sting was taken backstage, many of his fellow baby faces tried to convince Sting to get checked out at the hospital before his match with Rude, but none more than Sting’s friend, Bobby Eaton.
As The Clash of the Champions wore on, Paul E. Dangerously reminded the crowd that if Sting was not back by the end of the show, that he would forfeit his United States Belt to Rick Rude. Of course Sting made it back just in time, but Rude was really exploiting Sting’s injury, and beat the injured hero. The next week Paul E. would introduce four new Dangerous Alliance members. First being The Enforcers, who felt cheated out of their WCW Tag Titles at Clash of the Champions because they had gone to all the trouble of breaking Barry Windham’s hand, only for Windham to be replaced by Rick Steamboat. They had now lost the belts and blamed WCW for it. The next member was Stunning Steve Austin, who often teamed with The Enforcers in six man tag matches, and was the WCW TV champ at the time. The final member was Bobby Eaton, the man who convinced Sting to go to the hospital and nearly cost him his US Title. Dangerously would again say his goal was to bankrupt WCW and take it over.
Paul E.’s plan was to take out WCW’s top guys and win all WCW Titles, thereby bankrupting WCW; the idea being nobody is going to watch WCW without its heroes and without any titles on the line. WCW would be bankrupt and vulnerable leaving WCW open to a hostile bid by Dangerously. Arn Anderson would team up with Bobby Eaton and win the WCW Tag Team Titles from Steamboat and Dustin Rhodes. This would give The Alliance all four major WCW Titles, except the World Title. This sort of left Larry without anything but that was okay because he could help out at the upcoming War Games in May of 1992.
The 1992 War Games pitted all five members of the Dangerous Alliance against WCW’s biggest heroes: Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, and Sting. This is really the match The Dangerous Alliance is known for. The match had a bizarre incident where Rick Rude had removed the turnbuckle cover, and over the course of the match, the top rope began loosening. By the end of the match, the top rope was on the floor on one side. Larry Zbyszko finally picked up the turnbuckle bar and hook, and had Eaton hold up Sting to be bashed with Larry’s new weapon. Larry ended up hitting Eaton instead, causing Sting to put Eaton into a submission hold. Eaton gave up, giving Sting and the WCW Heroes the win.
After bungling War Games, Larry was thrown out of The Alliance. He would turn face, and feud with Bobby Eaton over who was Arn’s better tag partner. Arn and Bobby would drift into an alliance with Michael Hayes. They would drift back to Paul E. during his feud with Madusa and help him out. Hayes was also allied with Paul, until late December. Rude and Madusa would both leave The Dangerous Alliance. Paul E. would also sporadically appear with Steve Austin.
In late 1992, Bill Watts was beginning to take over the helm in WCW. Watts fired Paul E. Dangerously and Bobby Eaton. He would then furlough Arn Anderson and Michael Hayes. Larry Zbyszko would become a WCW commentator, and start calling himself The Living Legend, even though no one got the reference. Madusa jumped to WWE to become their Women’s Champion. Rick Rude would finally get his hands on a WCW World Title. It was the The WCW International Title, but close enough. I have no idea what became of Steve Austin.
Paul E. returns with a vengeance
Not exactly a clinic, but not bad.
Again nothing big, but it’s an 8 man tag with Ron Simmons. He makes everything cool.
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