Superbrawl III

Legacy Review

Superbrawl III

February 21, 1993 from the Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, NC

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura

The transition from Bill Watts to Eric Bischoff taking over continues, with Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson providing the creative direction while Bischoff gets comfortable. It shows. Bischoff is still doing his old host role on screen in the meantime. Johnny B Badd joins Bischoff and Missy Hyatt to form a triple headed host hydra. Maxx Payne provides the National Anthem on his guitar (called Norma Jean, don't ask), which is weird as he's supposed to be a heel. One vestige of the Bill Watts era still shows- separate entranceways for faces and heels.

The Hollywood Blondes def Marcus Alexander Bagwell and Erik Watts in 16:34- Austin and Bagwell start. Austin does the classic heel shove and hide in the corner bit. There is definitely a pro-Blondes, or anti-pretty boys, contingent in the crowd even in this very non-smarky town. Bagwell's power controls early. Austin gets a back elbow in the corner and blocks a roll up. A Bagwell punch sends him to the floor. Big boos from the crowd when Watts tags in. Pillman takes him to school. Watts hooks Pillman up in a wristlock to more boos and an audible "Erik sucks" chant. Bagwell crossbody on Austin for 2. More boos for Watts tagging in. This is hilarious. The faces take turns abdominal stretching Austin. Bagwell with a press slam on Pillman. Pillman ducks a clothesline, gets cocky and gets killed by another one. Watts comes in again and even Ventura mentions him getting booed. Tony covers for it. Watts gets his knees up on an Austin splash and cradles him for 2. Shitty Boston crab. Pillman breaks it up. Watts catches Pillman's boot and hooks him up in the STF. Pillman immediately gets to the rope, and feigns a hurt knee to sucker Watts in. Watts gets thrown to the floor. Pillman comes off the apron but Watts dodges and Pillman crashes into the guardrail with a hell of a sell. Pillman flop! The Blondes go to work outsmarting Watts at every turn. A double back elbow sends him to the floor again. Austin slams him on the floor and gets cheered for it. Watts blocks a sunset flip but the Blondes double team him again. They're running rings around Watts strategically and it's glorious. Austin straight up stands on Watts' back. The Blondes go for the rocket launcher but Watts gets his knees up. Austin just cuts the tag off! Back suplex. Watts and Austin collide in the corner. Tags on both sides. Bagwell pummels everyone. DONNYBROOK! Bagwell hits his perfectplex finisher. Austin comes off the top rope with an elbow to his gut while he's bridging! Pillman covers and gets the pin. The Blondes were incapable of having a bad match while they were together. The crowd wanting nothing to do with the faces, especially Watts, was just icing. ***

Bischoff confirms the rumors that have been circulating are true- RIC FLAIR IS COMING HOME! Hyatt is in the back to greet his limo. She gets stopped by security and frisked. "I'm usually getting kissed when this happens". No sir, I'm not touching that with any possible pole available. After Hyatt is shooed away The Man emerges. Huge "WE WANT FLAIR" chant from the crowd.

 

2 Cold Scorpio def Chris Benoit in 19:59- Benoit, and Dusty and Ole, still can't decide if he's a face or a heel. Benoit says screw your rope breaks and goes to work. Snap suplex. Scorpio springboard crossbody for 2. A spinning kick sends Benoit to the floor. Back in we get an extended arm wringer flippydo tradeoff. Scorpio does a backflip and a Japanese armdrag sends Benoit to the floor again. A test of strength leads to lots more flipping around and a Scorpio dropkick. I think I heard Jim Cornette throw something backstage. Another counter sequence leads to a Scorpio dropkick and armdrag. Crucifix for 2. Benoit ducks another spinning kick and hits a clothesline. Pretty good 50/50 crowd for this match despite Scorpio's instant popularity. Awesome wrestling will get you over. Benoit backbreaker with a stretch. He drops Scorpio on the top rope. As Ventura puts it, the slingshot suplex minus the suplex. Scorpio gets thrown to the floor and Benoit plays to the crowd for a bit. He dodges a Scorpio missile dropkick for 2. Benoit cuts a comeback off with a spinebuster and Boston crab. 5 minutes left in the 20 minute time limit. Benoit sets Scorpio up top and hits a back superplex! But he hit his own head coming down! 4 minutes left. Benoit finally covers for 2. Russian leg sweep for 2. He tries a back suplex, but Scorpio flips over for a near fall! 3 minutes left. Benoit powerbomb for 2. Scorpio tries to counter a gutwrench into a powerbomb, but both guys lose their balance and were too close to the ropes to pull it off. Scorpio gets a knee up in the corner and hits an enzuguri. 2 minutes left. Benoit ducks two more spinning kicks but Scorpio gets him with a clothesline. Good psychology there. Scorpio goes up top, but just hits the twisty big splash instead of the 450. Benoit kicks out! One minute. Benoit tries for a German suplex, but Scorpio blocks it and rolls him up for a pin with literally ONE SECOND left in the time limit! Damn good match. It's not on the level of the Pillman/Liger classic from the previous year's Superbrawl, but it's a similar showcase of the more athletic modern wrestling style. ***3/4

 

"The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith def "Wild" Bill Irwin in 5:49- Bulldog is making his big WCW debut. They got Irwin out of mothballs to be the JTTS again. All Bulldog power to start. After a criss cross Irwin is clotheslined 360 and out. Press slam back in and Irwin does a comedy fall back to the floor. After that Irwin gets some token offense with huge Bulldog kickouts. Slugfest. Bulldog delayed suplex. Irwin gets a boot up in the corner. Bulldog catches him coming off the second rope, hits the powerslam and good night. Extended squash, as expected. 1/2*

 

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Cactus Jack def "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff in 12:17- While Bischoff's interviewing Orndorff just inside the curtain Jack attacks him with the shovel that had become his weapon of choice the past few months. Brawl on the floor. Orndorff chokes Jack with a TV cable. Rail shots for both guys. Jack lifts the mat up and slams Orndroff on the concrete. Elbow drop for 2. Jack goes up and hits a sunset flip off the second rope all the way down to the concrete! Unsurprisingly that hurt him more than Orndorff, which allows Orndorff to take the match into the ring for a bit. After a minute of "regular" wrestling Jack gets tossed out again. They go up the aisle and Jack gets whipped over the guardrail into the limbo zone between the two entrance aisles. Slugfest. Orndorff suplexes Jack onto the rail! He wraps Jack's knee around the rail and goes to work on it. They work their way back to the ring and Orndorff gets Jack's knee brace off. Another crazy suplex, this time Orndorff suplexing Jack from inside the ring onto the corner! Orndorff hooks on a figure four. Jack fights and eventually punches out. Orndorff clotheslines him 360 and out. He smashes Jack's knee on the concrete and whacks him in the head with the brace. Chair shots on the knee in the ring. While Orndorff's playing to the crowd (doing what's very clearly Hulk Hogan's ear cup gesture) Jack grabs his shovel. He whacks Orndorff in the head with with it and pins him in the ring in the falls count ANYWHERE match. It's still early days for this match type and they're figuring out the best way to do them. Traditional Orndorff was not the best dance partner for this, especially him controlling so much of it, but Mick Foley continues to slowly carve his niche in the wrestling industry. **1/2

 

The Rock N Roll Express def The Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) in 12:52- During the last Clash the RNR's return was promoted as an SMW match, but SMW is not mentioned once tonight. Guess something happened in the back rooms with the lawyers between the Clash and now. Not long after this Cornette and SMW would end up working out a rare cross promotion deal with the WWF instead of WCW. I believe this was still promoted as an SMW tag title match by SMW. Bobby Eaton is out with his old Midnight Express partners. Huge pop for the RNR in an area they were literally responsible for selling out arenas in their '80s heyday. Before the match the ref tosses Eaton out. Gibson and Pritchard start. Gibson hits a hiptoss and flying headscissors. Rana from Morton! The Bodies get a sneaky tag but Morton is all over it, hiptossing Lane. Morton pulls Lane back from tagging and the Bodies collide. Gibson blocks the corner for Morton on a corner whip, protecting him from taking a buckle shot. The Bodies run into each other again and roll out to hug and regroup. Pritchard/Morton slugfest back in. Pritchard gets atomic dropped into Lane. Gibson enzuguri for 2. Morton fights out of the heel corner and we have a brief 2v2 standoff. Cornette and Morton jaw at each other. Criss cross. Morton slides out and chases Cornette while Lane is still hitting the ropes. They go through the ring and Lane and Cornette collide. Double noggin knocker and Cornette takes a punch, bouncing off the apron. Cornette grabs Morton's foot on a rope run. Lane uses the distraction to nail Morton. He falls out, Pritchard holds him, and Cornette gets a racket shot in for revenge. Lane hits a .5 Buckshot lariat back in. Bodies double team. Pritchard knee drop for 2. Lane swinging neckbreaker. More double teams. Morton gets a sunset flip but the ref is distracted. Pritchard sit out powerbomb for 2. Morton gets fired up and punches back. Lane cuts it off with a powerslam for 2. The Bodies go for a double backdrop. Morton counters with a double DDT! Hot tag! Gibson runs wild. There's a little bit of fumbling and spot repeating as they hit the stretch run. RNR double clothesline and double dropkick. Cornette is in again. Pritchard hits Gibson with a bulldog. The ref is distracted and by the time he starts counting Gibson kicks out. Gibson gets tossed over the top rope. Eaton runs in, accidentally hits Pritchard, and Gibson covers for the win! Afterward the Bodies are not happy with Eaton. Pure '80s tag wrestling goodness, which even at this point was pretty much a nostalgia trip. ***1/2

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes (c) def Maxx Payne by DQ in 11:28- Payne, who had only been in WCW a few weeks, is replacing an injured Ron Simmons. His gimmick is so '90s, a grunge rocker that's pretty much tripped out on drugs. He's announced as being from "a state of euphoria". This is the period when a lot of top stars were getting shitty new music, including Dustin. Dustin immediately starts pounding away. He hits the diving lariat and Payne rolls out. Dustin counters a backdrop and rolls Payne up for 2. More Payne stalling. Arm work by Dustin. Speed run and Dustin hits an armdrag with barely enough ring to pull the move off. Dustin dodges an avalanche. Payne looks out of control every time he hits the ropes. Dustin runs into a back elbow. Payne tosses Dustin by the arm and starts working said arm to set up his Painkiller (Paynekiller?) submission. After a bit he goes for it but Dustin rolls through and locks in a headscissors. More slow Payne offense. Dustin has a punchy kicky comeback until Payne catches a crossbody. He slams Dustin but misses an elbow drop. Another diving lariat. Dustin suplex for 2. He hooks on an abdominal stretch. Payne pulls the ref into Dustin, and the ref calls for the DQ. The fight continues after the bell, with Dustin's arm getting posted but he stands tall in the end. This was all kinds of awful. Payne was clearly not ready for prime time. 1/4*

Ric Flair makes his official in-arena WCW return. However, he makes sure not to actually step in the ring. See, when he left the WWF he got hit with one of their good old no-compete clauses, but it only kept him from wrestling, not appearing. This would lead to Flair's "A Flair for the Gold" talk show while he waited out the time until he could actually wrestle again. He joins commentary for the NWA title match, a title he makes the point of saying he never lost.

 

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Barry Windham def The Great Muta (c) (w/Hiro Matsuda) in 24:10- Windham gets some cheers in Horseman country despite the fact he had recently turned heel. About a 50/50 reaction for Muta despite being a ferrigner, he had managed to maintain the popularity he got from his '89 run. They make a big show of the ref giving instructions on the house mic which causes the crowd to break out into a huge "WE WANT FLAIR" chant. Feeling out start with lots of hit a move/pause/reset. Test of strength that Windham suplexes out of. Muta works a headlock for a long while. They crank it up, Muta hits a reverse kick, but it's quickly back to the headlock as the match gets stuck in park. Windham keeps trying a back suplex but Muta keeps countering it. Finally Winham backs into the corner. Muta blocks and hits a suplex and it's back to the damn headlock again. After a few more minutes Windham elbows out and dodges a dropkick. DDT. Muta tumbles to the floor. Windham hits a back suplex on the floor! Muta gets suplexed back in the ring for 2. Windham sleeper. It turns into more of a chinlock as Windham plays the rope leverage game with the ref. After a while he gets caught. Slow beatdown. Windham gutwrench suplex for 2. Double chinlock because lord knows this match hasn't been slow enough yet. Muta powers back. Windham blocks a sunset flip. Muta ducks a clothesline and hits a crossbody for 2. He backdrops out of a Windham piledriver. Windham punches and Muta does a delayed flop. Legdrop to the back of Muta's head for 2. Windham sets up for the superplex. Muta fights it off and hits a chop off the top rope. Handspring elbow. Backbreaker. Muta goes for the moonsault but Windham dodges it. Muta slips out of a suplex and hits a Saito suplex. Another backbreaker and another go at the moonsault. Windham gets his knees up! Lariat. DDT! That gets the clean pin! For the first time in his long and illustrious career, Barry Windham is a world champion! Very appropriate it's the Big Gold Belt too. Huge pop in Horseman country for Windham's win, heel or no heel. Flair presents the belt to Windham and there's a bit of tension as he walks off. As much as I love Windham winning the title, I really wish it was in a better match. I don't know what the hell was going on but this wasn't even in the same solar system of what these guys were capable of. 3/4*

 

White Castle of Fear Strap Match: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Big Van Vader (w/Harley Race) def Sting in 20:54- Speaking of shitty new music.....Poor Sting. These guys tore the house down in both of their two previous PPV matches (4 stars at Great American Bash '92 when Vader first won the title, 4.75 at Starrcade '92 in the King of Cable tournament final) and are concluding the trilogy here before moving on to other things. The title is not on the line, this is purely personal. Despite the fancy name (that has nothing to do with White Castle the fast food joint) this is pretty much a regular strap match. The only difference is you can touch all four corners on the floor as well as in the ring. This is a lights out unsanctioned match, as the multiple graphics on the screen tells us as the match starts. Vader wins the opening tug of wars. He pulls the strap and clotheslines Sting, then drops an elbow right on Sting's crotch. No DQ. Vader whips Sting with the strap. Splash off the second rope. Vader turns his back, and Sting pulls the strap up into his crotch! Standing enzuguri from Sting. Clothesline off the second rope. Big splash off the top! A second one! Sting gives Vader a whipping with the strap. Race gets on the apron and Sting whips him! Vader rolls to the floor. Sting pulls Vader into the post. Vader's back has been busted open hardaway in multiple places from those strap shots. Sting slams Vader on the floor! He goes for the posts on the floor. After two Vader stops him by pulling him into the guardrail! Sting gives Vader a Samoan drop in the ring! He charges but runs right into Vader tackles. Vader goes for a powerbomb but Sting backdrops out. He tries another splash off the top but Vader dodges. Ground and pound potatoes from Vader. He's not wearing his gloves tonight for extra stiffness. Huge Vader Samoan drop. Vader bomb! More whipping. Vader lifts Sting on his back and climbs up....avalanche Samoan drop! Vader goes for the corners. After two a Sting kick stops him. Vader sets up another Vader bomb. Sting dodges! Vader's still up first and goes to the top rope. Sting yanks the strap and Vader gets crotched! He uses the strap to flip Vader down to the mat! Vader, looks and wrestles like a superheavyweight but can bump like a man half his size. Vader gets up with more potato shots. Sting punches back. Vader sets Sting up top....SUPERPLEX! He goes for the corners again and gets 3 before Sting grapevines the bottom rope. Vader corner beatdown. Sting's busted open. He uses the strap to pull Sting into tackles. After a couple Sting uses that momentum to hit a pele kick! Sting with a German suplex! DDT! Now it's Sting's turn for a corner beatdown. Vader gets busted open again, this time around his ear. The guys are not holding back anything. The mask comes off. Sting lifts Vader up on his back and tries to carry him around all four corners, but as he lifted Vader ref Nick Patrick got taken out! After three corners Sting trips over the prone Patrick. Vader's weight was too much for him at that point anyway. Vader hits a butt splash, ties Sting up and goes for corners. After 3 Sting holds on to the ropes. Race tries to punch his hands off. Sting uses his boot to push Vader off, but Vader falls into corner 4 and Patrick declares him the winner! Another classic from these two, capping off what is really one of the greatest PPV trilogies of all time. It doesn't get as much love as it should. We can probably thank WCW's haphazard booking for some of that. A pissed off Sting gives Vader a couple more whips after the bell, but these two are now done with each other, at least for a while. This might be the best strap match of all time. ****1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- This was getting to be a really good show before a couple of stinkers down the stretch, then saved by the sensational main event. On the whole it doesn't come together as well as it should, likely due to another transition going on in the exec chair, but for the most part the good/decent outweighs the bad. Tony Schiavone taking over as lead announcer is as clear a signal that you could ask for that we are now entering the Eric Bishoff era.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-