Let's Remember Some Guys: WCW With Nick Aldis Part II

May 19, 1990 was WCW’s Capital Combat pay-per-view, and the event was promoted with an added bonus: RoboCop himself would be there. The tagline for the show was actually “Return of Robocop,” though RoboCop hadn’t really appeared in wrestling before. But RoboCop 2 opened a month later. The poster for the event even depicted RoboCop towering over the wrestlers.

This kind of movie/wrestling cross promotion is almost always ridiculous. It led to David Arquette winning the WCW championship, Rick Steiner yelling at Chucky from and Gabriel Byrne cutting a promo while in character as Satan to promote the apocalyptic Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle End of Days. (Sadly, WWE has cut this last example from the SmackDown episode available on the WWE Network. )

Anyway, RoboCop appeared on WCW TV to promote the crossover. He was feuding with the Four Horsemen at the time. “Sting has now made it clear he will be at Capital Combat with Robocop,” Jim Ross said on WCW TV before throwing to a promo. “Flair, if you think you’re invincible,” Sting bellowed, before Robocop finished the line: “Think it over, creep!”

Sting did not wrestle Ric Flair on the show. He did not wrestle Ole Anderson or anyone else from the Four Horsemen, either. He did not wrestle at all! Here’s what happened: There was a small cage at ringside; manager Jim Cornette had been locked in the cage for a match earlier. But when Sting came out for an interview, the Horsemen locked him in Cornette’s cage.

RoboCop came to the rescue. He walked, very slowly and generally in the way that a cyborg cop would walk, down the entranceway. The heels scattered. He turned to the cage and simply pulled the door off. Then he went backstage, never to return. A Turner Home Video promo for the $39.98 VHS version of the show called the Sting/RoboCop vs. Horsemen confrontation “the ultimate showdown between good and evil.”

Before Nick Aldis defends his NWA World Championship at All In, a massive indie wrestling show being held on Saturday near Chicago, he sat down with me to open some old WCW wrestling cards and remember some guys. One thing he mentioned during our conversation: Wrestlers love to get together and watch early-1990s WCW, specifically mentioning RoboCop.

No doubt buoyed by the hoopla surrounding RoboCop’s alliance with Sting, RoboCop 2 was rather profitable for an R-rated film. Meanwhile, Capital Combat was just about as popular as every other WCW PPV that year. Still, I’d agree it was ultimate showdown between good and evil.