WCW/NWA Gauntlet Series

The WCW/NWA Gauntlet Series was a series of matches within one weekend that a wrestler had to go through to win $15,000. The series was in 1990 when World Championship Wrestling was still using the National Wrestling Alliance name.

The Gauntlet

• Each wrestler was given three opponents on each of the three weekend WCW shows on TBS (Power Hour (Friday night), World Championship Wrestling (Saturday night), and Main Event (Sunday night)). If the wrestler won the first match, he went on to the next, if he won that, he moved on to the last match, and if he won that match, he won $15,000. The three opponents were not only trying to win the match, they were trying to block the gauntlet runner from winning the money. If any wrestler caused the gauntlet runner to fail in their match, the three opponents would split the $15,000 instead, giving each of the three opponents $5,000. A failure was considered a pinfall loss, submission loss, disqualification loss, or countout loss. It is unclear who would have gotten the money in case of a draw (double countout, double disqualification, double pin, or time limit draw). Only two wrestlers successfully completed the gauntlet, they were Rick and Scott Steiner.

The Matches

• Brian Pillman-Gauntlet Runner
  • Defeated Tim Horner (9-14-90), Defeated "Nature Boy" Buddy Landell (9-15-90), Lost to Dan Spivey (9-16-90)

• Scott Steiner-Gauntlet Runner
  • Defeated Bobby Eaton (9-21-90), Defeated Ric Flair (9-22-90), Defeated Arn Anderson by Disqualification to win $15,000 (9-23-90)

• Bobby Eaton-Gauntlet Runner
  • Defeated Tracy Smothers (9-28-90), Defeated Ricky Morton (9-29-90), Lost to Sid Vicious (9-30-90)

• Steve Armstrong-Gauntlet Runner
  • Defeated Stan Lane (11-10-90), Lost to "Nature Boy" Buddy Landell (11-10-90), 3rd opponent would have been Bobby Eaton on 11-11-90.

• Rick Steiner-Gauntlet Runner
  • Defeated Moondog Rex (11-16-90), Defeated Tim Horner (11-17-90), Defeated Sid Vicious by Disqualification to win $15,000 (11-18-90)

• Ric Flair-Gauntlet Runner
  • Defeated Buddy Landell (11-24-90), Lost by Disqualification to Ron Simmons (11-24-90), 3rd opponent would have been The Nightstalker on 11-25-90.