Legacy Review
Wrestle War '92
May 17, 1992 from the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville, FLCommentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura, with Tony Schiavone and Eric Bischoff in the hosting pit
This show represents the finale of the short lived but incredible Kip Frey era in WCW. It's also the final blowoff for the Dangerous Alliance vs Sting and friends angle, and in true classic WCW fashion, how do you blow off a mega hot feud with a large number of guys involved? War Games, of course.
WCW United States Tag Team Championship: The Fabulous Freebirds def "The Taylor Made Man" Terry Taylor & Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (c) in 16:02- Fortunately Taylor has moved away from DiBiase's color schemes and is now in a red jacket. Badstreet USA is still awesome entrance music. Seeing the Freebirds as faces still makes me do a bit of a double take. Hayes struts around as usual at the start. The heels try to double team but Hayes gets them to run and collide instead. Valentine posts his shoulder in the corner and looks like he wants to fall to the floor, but quickly realizes the commentary table is there and stops himself. Taylor helps him get back up. The Freebirds work super quick tags on Taylor's arm that Taylor sells wonderfully. The Freebirds do a double team and swap without a tag behind the ref's back, and Hayes pulls down Taylor by the hair. The Freebirds are faces but they're still cheating. Taylor pulls Garvin outside by his tights, then Valentine hits him with a double ax handle off the apron, giving the heels control. Garvin counters a Valentine charge in the corner with a big boot, and Valentine does his classic delayed tree timber sell (I should start calling that the Valentine Flop), but still prevents Garvin from tagging. Garvin goes mild face in peril, but takes advantage of a double clothesline to get a warmish tag to Hayes. Donnybrook! The heels get back control and Hayes goes FIP. Valentine hooks in the figure four but Garvin comes in to break it up. Hayes counters Taylor's attempted turnbuckle shots and gets a stiff left hand in to make the hot tag. Garvin hooks Taylor up for the DDT. Valentine tries to break it up, but Garvin backdrops him and Hayes clocks him with another left. Garvin then hits the DDT to get the win. Nice finish sequence. It might be a tad long for what they had to offer, but it's still solid tag wrestling from four veterans. The US tag titles had become increasingly irrelevant since their revival in early 1990, and later in the summer of '92 would be permanently deactivated by the new Bill Watts regime. ***
Johnny B Badd def "Young Pistol" Tracy Smothers in 7:03- Smothers had recently turned to singles wrestling but still had Young Pistols gear and music. Badd got positive reactions after his '91 debut and had turned face at the start of '92. Ventura: "(Badd) would enjoy being a bridesmaid." Badd swaps his robe for a feather boa during his entrance. Some women ringside but dollar bills into Badd's kneepads like he's a stripper. Wow. Smothers complains about a tights pull barely 15 seconds into the match. Badd schools him for a bit with some athleticism. They get into a punchfest in the corner. Badd's going to win that exchange every time. That Golden Gloves background is legit. Smothers has been working this match at 50% speed. Smothers gets in a back rake and scrapes Badd's face across the top rope. The Young Pistols worked as heels for much of '91, but Smothers is still in Heel 101. He starts hitting moves off the top rope, almost like answering a challenge of athleticism from Badd. Badd hits a V Trigger! A top rope sunset flip only gets two. Badd hits the Tutti Fruitti I'm So Pretty Punch and it's done. **
Scotty Flamingo def Marcus Alexander Bagwell in 7:11- Bagwell is the future Buff Bagwell, just out of his rookie year (as commentary makes point to mention). Flamingo is the future Raven, in his early months with WCW. The Flamingo character is closer to Johnny Polo from his initial WWF run. Long lockups to start with neither man getting an advantage. They trade some stiff slaps. Intensity! Flamingo tackles Bagwell and throws him out. Bagwell lands on his feet, gets back in and reciprocates by blindside tackling Flamingo from behind very roughly. More stiff slaps. It's getting that feeling that a line has been crossed somewhere and one or both of these guys is legit pissed off. Bagwell works some power moves. Flamingo pulls him outside by his tights. Flamingo hits an ugly looking side suplex. Looooooong chinlock spot. Flamingo does a cross body near the ropes and both guys tumble over the top. Bagwell hits the Yellowjacket Suplex (Perfectplex) but Flamingo gets a foot on the ropes. Flamingo counters a roll up and holds the tights to win. Athletic and motivated, but also very raw and inexperienced. *3/4
While Tony & Bischoff do their usual between match jabber Hughes gets on the turnbuckles and gives the crowd a very non-PG Spaceballs Salute.
The Super Invader (w/Harley Race) def Todd Champion in 5:26- Todd Champion looks like a low rent Dolph Lundgren. He'd been wrestling since '86 and had tours of Mexico and Japan under his belt but somehow always manged to look like a rookie. Super Invader was a very short lived addition to Harley Race's stable to go along with Vader, and it's none other than Hercules in a mask (I'd almost call it more pantyhose than a mask. It looks like he's about to rob a bank). Super Invader is billed as from Bangkok, Thailand and is called a "martial arts expert". Just hearing martial arts in the same sentence as Hercules makes me chuckle. He was not the right guy for this character at all. Invader attacks before the bell. He busts out exactly one martial arts move, a thrust chop to the throat. Other than that it's all power wrestling moves and chokes. Invader is wearing an elbow pad over one forearm and a colored glove on that hand. No one knows why. Long chinlock spot. Champion gets thrown out and rolls all the way into the barricade. Invader goes to the top but Champion gets his boot up. Champion goes on offense and neither guy looks like they know what the hell they're supposed to be doing. Champion hits a couple of ugly moves off of rope runs. He comes off the ropes again, Invader dodges a dive, Champion hot shots himself, Invader hits a power bomb, and it's mercifully over. A total squash, twice as long as it needed to be and felt twice as long as it was. 1/2*
Big Josh def Richard Morton in 7:33- We've got two holdovers from the Jim Herd era here: heel Ricky "Richard" Morton, still completely unchanged in appearance from the Rock 'N' Roll Express, and the Big Josh gimmick. Morton hides in the ropes to start. Josh takes over with power moves and the log roll. Morton hits a sneaky style punch on a rope break to get an opening and tears part of Josh's flannel shirt off. Lots of back and forth. They're wrestling with good snap and intensity, just none of it is hugely notable or interesting. Josh finally says the hell with it and dumps the remnants of his shirt. Morton works the arm for a bit. Josh hits a belly to belly and a double arm underhook suplex for 2. A running double ax handle to the throat from Josh, and the Northern Exposure (Earthquake splash) ends it. Or it should, but the ref frakked up the finish. He counted two and pulled up like Morton kicked out, except he didn't. So the ref declares Josh the winner anyway. Perfectly acceptable wrestling, but there was no meat on it to get it to the next level. Neither guy was going anywhere anyway. Morton's heel run had proven to be a failure, and Josh was mired in midcard hell. In fact, this was Josh's last PPV appearance for the company. He would soon be off to the WWF where Vince had an even crazier gimmick waiting for him- an evil clown named Doink. **1/2
Promo clip from WCW Saturday Night the previous night, where Zenk gets ahead of himself and offers title shots to Scotty Flamingo or JT Southern. Pillman is displeased. Pillman's promo style here is a great preview of where he's going to be going with his character over the following few years.
WCW Light Heavyweight Championship: "Flyin'" Brian Pillman (c) def "The Z Man" Tom Zenk in 15:30- Both these guys are faces. They are "best friends" and former tag partners. They even held the US tag titles back in 1990. Zenk is shocked by his pyro. It's funny how that happens to so many guys in early '90s WCW. Pillman offers a Code of Honor handshake to start. Zenk takes it but doesn't look too happy about it. Basic dropdown/leapfrog exchange to start. Double dropkick! Pillman works the arm a bit. Both guys go for flying armdrags off the ropes and it's a stalemate. They know each other backwards and forwards. The simmering pot of tension in this match threatens to boilith over. Ventura is practically begging for one guy to snap and start cheating. Zenk works the arm a bit. We get a nice counter sequence that leads to a Pillman flying headscissors. Ventura can't believe JR's football talk that Pillman was a nose tackle in college, he's too small. Zenk starts going for quick pins a la WM 3 Ricky Steamboat. Pillman answers with a stiff chop. The crowd audibly gasps at that escalation but Zenk doesn't take the bait. Pillman starts working Zenk's knee. Zenk dodges a senton attempt on the knee and starts working Pillman's previously injured back. Pillman catches him off the 2nd rope with a kick and starts in on the knee again. Zenk counters with an enziguri. Zenk misses a knee lift in the corner. Figure four! Both guys are slapping each other while in the hold. Zenk manages to roll it over and both guys get to the ropes. Pillman goes for a springboard cross body but Zenk catches him in midair and turns it into a powerslam! Only gets 2! Pillman hooks in a crucifix for 2. Leapfrog spot and both guys hit heads. Pillman tries to whip Zenk but Zenk can't stand. Pillman goes up top but Zenk kick him in the face in midair. He goes for a pin, but Pillman gets a foot on the rope. Zenk kicks Pillman while he's down but they clearly aren't connecting. Pillman sells them anyway. Zenk goes for his dropkick off the top rope but Pillman dodges it, gets an O'Connor Roll and Bridge, the same way he beat Liger at Superbrawl, and gets the pin with it again here! It's not the revolutionary high flying athletic showcase that Pillman/Liger was, but it's still great wrestling and really good storytelling to boot. It's a bit of a shame that in the end neither guy snapped, but the tension of the temptation of it added to the match very effectively. And it was a sneak preview for the full on Pillman heel turn that would happen in the fall of '92. ****1/4
WCW World Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers def Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka in 18:17- The Steiners won the WCW tag titles back earlier in the month but they weren't on the line here. Instead, as part of WCW's continued relationship with New Japan this was a #1 contender's match for the IWGP Tag Team titles, belts the Steiners had already held for a good chunk of 1991 and were currently being held by the awesome team of Big Van Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow, collectively known as Big, Bad and Dangerous. I'll say. Fujimani you know as a WWE Hall of Famer, one of the men so influential on the business he was inducted having never worked a day for WWE. Iizuka you probably know as having recently retired (February 2019) after his final run in NJPW as the crazed wild man member of Suzuki-Gun, always coming in through the crowd and biting his opponents or using the Iron Fingers glove. HUGE pop for the Steiners. Scott and Fujinami start. Some basic sequences to get settled, then Scott hits both guys with 360 degree powerslams. If you've never seen Scott Steiner before he became Big Poppa Pump in the late WCW years, he truly was a one of a kind athletic freak. Iizuka comes in and hits a swanton off the top. He hooks Scott in Young Lion Submission Hold 1A, the Boston Crab. Scott bridges out and tags in Rick. The Steiners hit Iizuka with a modified Demolition Decapitation Device, with Iizuka on Scott's shoulder and Rick coming off the top rope. But Rick catches Iizuka full in the face with his elbow, most likely breaking his nose. You can see Rick check on him before covering him for the pin attempt. Iizuka quickly tags out to legit recover and we get a reset with Rick and Fujinami in. Rick deadlift German suplexes Fujinami. Suplex City, bitch. Like I've said before, the Steiners wrote the founding documents. Fujinami gets Rick into electric chair position and tags in Iizuka. Iizuka goes up top and goes for a cross body, but Rick catches him in midair, while on Fujinami's shoulders, and twists it into a belly to belly suplex! Holey sheet that was amazing. And it only gets two. Fujinami starts wrapping Rick up in leg submission holds. Iizuka comes in a does the same thing. Rick manages to get out and tags in Scott. Tiltawhirl suplex on Iizuka! Iizuka gets a blind tag to Fujinami, who goes up top and hits a diving blow from behind on Scott. He then goes after Rick because he wants to. DONNYBROOK! Fujinami and Rick are trading legit straight punches in the corner while JR goes nuts over the physicality. When things calm down Fujinami wraps Scott up in an abdominal stretch (or cobra twist in Japan). Scott muscles out and gets the tag. Another stiff exchange as Fujinami backs Rick up into his corner. Iizuka hits Rick with kicks in the corner, but Rick says eff this crap and does a double leg amateur takedown that drops Iizuka right on his head! That's an Ibushi/Naito level head drop. Scott comes in and fights off a double team, then Rick hits a diving double Steinerline off the top rope! Scott picks Iizuka up and plants him on the top rope for a superplex, but Fujinami Germans him off the 2nd rope. Spike piledriver on Scott! Fujinami locks in his patented Dragon Sleeper. Scott makes it to the ropes. Double tag. Rick Steinerlines and belly to bellys Iizuka. All four guys are in again. Rick hits Iizuka with a belly to belly off the second rope, and gets the pin while Scott holds Fujinami back! This was a 100% Japanese style match. The Steiners are my favorite tag team of all time, and I love me some Japanese Strong Style. Put those two together, when the Steiners know they can let loose and it's all good, and you get magic. The only thing I can possibly say against this match is for whatever reason they didn't quite hit the full monty. Nothing to complain about. The Steiners would go on to win their second IWGP tag titles in June in Tokyo. ****1/2
War Games Match Participants: The Dangerous Alliance (WCW United States Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbysko, "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton, w/Paul E Dangerously and Medusa) vs Sting's Squadron (WCW World Champion Sting, WCW World Television Champion Barry Windham, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and Nikita Koloff)
War Games Match- Amazing pyro and ballyhoo to warm up for the match. LET THE WAR GAMES BEGIN! Going into this match Sting had suffered hurt ribs at the hands of an attack by Vader, laying the groundwork for their long feud that would begin right after this Dangerous Alliance blowoff. Also, Ricky Steamboat had a taped up nose and Barry Windham was still sporting a taped up hand from the car attack back at Halloween Havoc '91. There was also much intrigue surrounding former Sting rival Nikita Koloff. Would he play ball as part of the team or did he have his own agenda? Before the match Paul E has his team in a football huddle and is going over the strategery with them, using an actual football or basketball style play sheet. Fantastic. Usual War Games rules: two guys start for 5 minutes, coin toss to determine advantage (heels always win), then they alternate one guy in at two minute intervals. Or "periods", to give it more of a sports feel. The match can only end after all 10 guys are in, AKA The Match Beyond, and only by submission or surrender. No pins, countouts or DQs.
P1. Austin and Windham start us off. Windham had just beaten Austin for the TV title a couple of weeks before (and would drop it back to him a couple of weeks after this, a small 20ish day blip in Austin's near year-long run with the title). Windham blocks a cage shot and Austin backs off. Austin backdrops out of a piledriver attempt. Paul E is still going over the playsheet outside. Austin blocks a cage shot but eats a DDT. Austin hits a diving clothesline over the top across the rings. Austin gets caught up in the roof, allowing Windham to face plant him. Austin takes the first cage shot and gets busted open. Windham's taped fist is covered in blood.
P2. Rude- Rude works Windham over while Austin recovers, then they double team him. Windham gets busted open.
P3. Steamboat- He gives both heels cage shots and DDTs, then uses the roof for takedowns.
P4. Anderson- Arn plants Windham with a DDT, then Steamboat with the World's Greatest Spinebuster. Rude and Arn lock in a unique Boston Crab on Steamboat, with each of them on one leg. The intensity in this match is 10+ already. Rude hits a piledriver on Steamboat then throws him across rings.
P5. Rhodes- He takes out Arn, then raises Austin's head into the roof. Steamboat has a Boston Crab on Rude. Windham has Arn's head caught between the rings!
P6. Zbysko- Rhodes ambushes him as he comes in. Medusa climbs to the top of the cage and drops Paul E's phone in. Arn grabs it and nails anyone in sight with it. Sting climbs the cage to get Medusa to go back down. Rhodes and Arn are busted open. There's blood all over the ring.
P7. Sting- He gorilla presses Rude's back into the roof. Arn eats cage. He backdrops Austin into the cage! All eight guys are brawling in one ring. Now Sting and Steamboat have Rude's head caught between the rings and they're wishboning his legs!
P8. Eaton- As Eaton is waiting to go in Paul E is chanting "WAR! WAR! WAR" like he's at a Viking War Experience Raiding Machine match. Zbysko and Eaton start working to remove the top turnbuckle on one of the rings.
P9. Koloff- The Match Beyond begins. Koloff tears into Arn. Then he walks up to Sting laying in the corner and stares lasers through him. The crowd gets tense. Koloff extends a hand and helps Sting up, then they have another staredown. Tension! But then Koloff pushes Sting out of the way of an attack and takes it himself. Sting helps him fight it off, and they share a high 10. Huge pop for that. Rude is working to get the buckle off now. Sting has Arn in the Scorpion Death Lock but Eaton makes the save. The turnbuckle is now off. Eaton and Zbysko take the steel hook from the buckle and look to hit Sting with it. But, Sting dodges and Zbysko nails Eaton in the arm with it. Sting takes out Zbysko then locks in an armbar on Eaton. After a minute, Eaton submits! Sting's Squadron walks out victorious and a unified team, while the Dangerous Alliance turns on Zbysko for costing them the match. The beginning of the end for the Dangerous Alliance. This was pure, intense brutality, a perfect feud blowoff and the best War Games match there has ever been. *****
OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The undercard isn't as strong as other Kip Frey shows, partially due to having so many of the top guys in one match, but there's no denying that closing stretch of greatness. Bill Watts was listed as an Executive Producer along with Frey for this show so the transition was already underway. The Kip Frey Era in WCW was short but glorious.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-
