Spring Stampede '94

Legacy Review

Spring Stampede '94

April 17, 1994 from the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

Spring Stampede is the first and only new entry to the WCW PPV calendar in '94, bringing their total up to seven for the year along with the usual four Clashes. Tonight marks the PPV debut (possibly overall debut but I'm not digging into weekly TV shows to find out) of the famous "target" WCW ring mat logo.

Johnny B Badd def Diamond Dallas Page (w/Diamond Doll) in 5:55- In my review for the last WCW PPV (Superbrawl IV) I pointed out both these guys as poised for some serious in-ring ability growth over the next couple of years, and here we are with them facing each other. DDP's real life wife Kimberly Page has taken over as the Diamond Doll. My word she is gorgeous. DDP gives her a present to give to Heenan, then turns and jumps Badd before the bell. Badd ducks a clothesline and gets a roll up for 2. Hammerlock reversal. DDP with a back elbow and shoulderblock. Badd gets an armdrag. DDP with a headlock takeover for 2. He gets Badd in a dragon sleeper-like hold. Badd does a nice job of flipping over to get out of it and hits a dropkick for 2. DDP pulls Badd into the top turnbuckle by his tights. Badd Bret bumps and DDP hits a back suplex. Gutwrench gutbuster. Suplex for 2. Badd fights out of a chinlock and hits his own back suplex. Inverted atomic drop and clothesline. He barely gets DDP over for a backdrop. A Badd flying headscissors almost drops DDP on his head. The Tutti Fruiti punch hits but it sends DDP to the floor. Badd plancha! Back in he hits the sunset flip off the top and that gets the pin. They both worked hard and kept things moving, but their limitations also showed. They're getting there. **

Jesse Ventura is still hanging around after Heenan took his commentary job. He and Mean Gene shill the hotline in a bit of an awkward segment.

 

WCW World Television Championship: Lord Steven Regal (c) (w/Sir William) and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman go to a 15:00 time limit draw- Another quick start with Pillman immediately letting chops fly. Regal tries for Pillman's chronically bum knee, but Pillman dodges and works some ground and pound. Regal begs off. Pillman gets to his knees and slaps him! Speed run and Pillman hits a Japanese armdrag. Regal rolls out. Pillman follows and there's a brawl on the floor. Regal's arm gets rammed into the guardrail. Commentary has issues as there's a lot of extraneous noise coming through. Tony is still on so it must be Heenan's headset. Regal's arm is posted. He fires back with an eye rake and European uppercut. Heenan's headset is still being worked on. Apparently he stood on something he shouldn't have, but sounds like he's taking it in stride and not freaking out. Pillman with chops and a European uppercut of his own. Regal catches Pillman in a leapfrog and slams him. Pillman flips out of a Canadian backbreaker and wraps up a small package for 2. Regal reverses a leg takedown and hooks on an STF. More European uppercuts. Pillman dodges one and tries a backslide. Regal reverses it into a surfboard. Pillman comes back with more chops. Regal counters a backdrop. He goes for a powerbomb, but Pillman twists in midair and turns it into a hurricanrana! Regal struggles to lift Pillman but finally gets him up and hits the Regal Roll for 2. More Regal mat work. He goes for a bow an arrow, loses a bit of grip, but carries on with it anyway. Half crab into an Indian Death Lock by Regal as we hits the 10 minute mark. More Pillman chops. Regal tights pull roll up for 2. He grounds Pillman again. 4 minutes left. Another Pillman flurry. This time an angry Regal fires back with forearms. Pillman hits a headbutt that staggers both guys. 3 minutes left. More back and forth slugging. Pillman dropkick. Regal tries a Boston crab but Pillman flips out of it. 2 minutes. Pillman enzuguri. Regal blocks a monkey flip. 1 minute. Regal comes off the second rope but Pillman counters with a dropkick. Pillman backdrop and waist takedown. He comes off the ropes. Regal catches him and they both tumble over the top to the floor. A little fumbling in that last sequence. There's not enough time for them to get back in the ring and the match is a draw. **3/4

 

Chicago Street Fight: WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys def Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne in 8:54- It's Falls Count Anywhere rules for this one. Everyone's got their street fighting gear on. The Nastys jump the faces on the ramp and it's on! Crazy brawl pair off. Knobbs brought a half a pool cue with him. Jack whacks him with it. Cactus Clothesline! Saggs with a chairshot on Payne. He didn't even fold the chair up before hitting him. Jack takes shots with the chair and pool cue. Sags takes a chair shot in return. It's been a crazy ass fight and they've only been warming up. Knobbs clotheslines Jack from the ramp 360 back in the ring. More pool cue shots. Payne and Knobbs fight up the aisle. Knobbs goes over the guardrail into a not at all suspiciously set up merch stand area. Trash can shot for Payne. Jack and Saggs go into the crowd. Saggs throws a chair at Jack. Jack gives Sags a chair shot to the head. Bang bang! Payne slams Knobbs through the merch table! He grabs a shirt and stuffs it down Knobbs' mouth. Cover for 2. Knobbs beats Payne with what's left of the table's support and legs. All four guys are in the merch area now. Jack gets whipped over the rail. The Nastys throw Payne through the standing merch display! Tony: "Is everything half price now?" Sags lifts the second merch table and hits Jack with it. Sags and Jack go back on the ramp with the table. Knobbs gets thrown through what's left standing of the merch display. Jack SUPLEXES THE TABLE ONTO SAGS! Knobbs has a snow shovel. He hits Jack with it! Payne takes the shovel and hits Knobbs with it. Knobbs low blows Payne. Sags sets Jack up for a piledriver on the table, but before they can do anything the table prematurely breaks in half! Sags pushes Jack off the ramp and he splats hard on the concrete. He grabs the shovel, gives Jack a ridiculous stiff shot right in the head with it against the concrete floor, and covers for 3. While all that was going on Payne had Knobbs covered but both refs were with the other guys, which I'm pretty sure is what they used as an argument for a rematch. After the carnage Tony is shocked Jack is standing. Heenan says that was the best time Jack's ever had. That was an insane, magnificent, beautiful all arena brawl that was about four years ahead of its time, at least as far as the big two companies are concerned. ECW would soon make this a business model. In this instance the table breaking early didn't hurt the match, because of the chaotic nature and the fact it was so fresh no one knew what was going to happen. They did a good job improvising a new finish too, I'm positive the table piledriver was supposed to be it. ****1/4

Ventura is in the back with Badd, who issues a challenge to the winner of the US title match.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) (w/Col. Robert Parker) def The Great Muta by DQ in 16:20- Even though the official joint Tokyo Dome shows are over, the WCW/NJPW relationship continues. Muta's popping over for this, and some WCW guys would go to Japan after this show to participate in the annual spring Wrestling Dontaku tour. Muta gets a decent reaction. His run in '89 pretty much set him as a permanent face in the US. Despite that, he's been booked kind of heelish saying he's going to take the title back to Japan, and the fact he's against one of WCW's biggest heels makes it even more odd. Cautious start. Muta has the advantage in the early basics. He grabs an abdominal stretch. Austin tries to reverse it but Muta blocks that. Austin back suplexes out of a headlock. Muta hits a brain buster and elbow drop. Speed run and Muta rolls under Austin, then hits a dropkick. Headlock/headscissors. Muta escapes and Austin powders for a think. Back in Austin hooks Muta's tights and rolls him up for 2. Parker tries to trip Muta. An Austin knee to the back off the distraction sends Muta tumbling outside. Parker with a choke. Austin comes off the apron a couple of times and posts Muta. Back in he locks in an abdominal stretch. He plays with rope leverage until ref Nick Patrick catches him. Muta tries to come back but misses a dropkick. Austin elbow off the second rope (rope rope, not corner) for 2. Muta blocks a buckle shot, gives Austin one and hits a backdrop and suplex. He goes for a missile dropkick but Austin dodges it. Austin tries for his new Hollywood & Vine leg grapevine finisher. Muta escapes before it's locked in. Guess that one needs more work. He gives Austin his own stun gun! Handspring elbow. He sets Austin up top and hits a hurricanrana. Parker gets on the apron. Muta kicks him off, then backdrops a charging Austin over the top rope, forcing the lame rule DQ. Guess no one wanted to take a loss. It was fine but Muta was clearly on autopilot. Like Naito he was wont to do that in his US appearances. **1/4

 

WCW International World Heavyweight Championship: Sting def "Ravishing" Rick Rude (c) in 12:50- Harley Race interrupts Rude's usual prematch shtick to issue a challenge to the winner on behalf of Vader. Then he tries to cheapshot Sting and pays the price for it. Same goes for Rude, who gets backdropped out and suplexed on the floor. Pillar to post beating back in the ring. Sting back suplex for 2. Slam and elbow drops. While in a front facelock Rude grabs tights, so Sting responds in kind. Rude tries to stomp Sting's feet to get out but no dice. Finally after a few tries he lifts Sting up and crotches him on the top rope. Sting falls to the floor. Rude forearms to the back and back suplex for 2. After a double chinlock and some posing Rude drops an elbow for 2. Back to the chinlock. Sting tries to electric chair out but Rude counters with a victory roll. Sting counters the counter and rolls Rude over for 2. Rude hooks on a sleeper. After two arm drops Rude lets it go! Bold strategery, Cotton. He's determined to beat Sting up some more. Sting hulks up and asks for more punches! Sting atomic drop and inverted atomic (that they need two tries at) with the classic Rude sells. Clotheslines. Corner whip reversal and Rude squashes the ref in the corner. A Stinger Splash makes sure he's down. Sting hooks the Scorpion in and tries to revive the ref. Race and Vader run out. Sting fights them off. While he's distracted Rude clips his knee. He tries for the Rude Awakening but Sting fights it. Race comes in with a chair. Sting sees him coming and ducks, and Race whacks Rude in the back of the head with it, busting him open somewhere as we'll see later. Sting covers for the pin and the title! Sting wins the big gold belt back, for what it's worth right now. The split title mistake is about to be fixed. Once again the match was OK, not great, and the overbooking did it no favors. **1/2

And this would turn out to be the final PPV match of the great career of Rick Rude. During the previously mentioned Dontaku tour in Japan, Rude would win the title back from Sting, but during the match suffered a back injury that would turn out to be career ending. The intention was for him to win the title back, but the change was retroactively erased for Rude using the belt as a weapon during the match and Sting kept it. Really Rude had already been breaking down so it wasn't a huge shock. He was never the same after the neck injury at the end of '92 that ended his great US title run. He'd become famous all over again during the Monday Night Wars as a bodyguard/enforcer figure for both DX and the NWO, even appearing on Raw and Nitro on the same night one week due to Raw's pretaping, before his untimely early death in 1999.

He was also just the first of two Hall of Fame wrestlers that suffered career ending injuries in WCW in '94. Foreshadowing!

Speaking of foreshadowing, Tony mentions Flair offered to buy Hulk Hogan a ticket for this show. Obviously Hogan was a no show. The teasing continues.

 

Bunkhouse Match: Bunkhouse Buck (w/Col. Robert Parker) def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes in 14:11- Buck is Parker's old Stud Stable tag partner Jimmy Golden. Fun fact: he also played Jack Swagger's dad for a short angle in 2010. Dustin's UT shirt almost has me rooting against him. I'm an A&M guy myself. Dustin charges down the ramp on his entrance and dives over the top rope with a lariat! Man, no one's wasting any time tonight. Another lariat. Buck rolls to the apron and Dustin suplexes him back in. The fight goes to the floor as it's still all Dustin. Buck dodges a crossbody and Dustin tumbles down to the floor. Buck takes a piece of wood (a 1x2 per Tony, as opposed to Jim Duggan's 4x4), breaks it over Dustin's back then pokes him in the head with the broken piece. Dustin's bleeding. They go to the ramp. Dustin 360 sells a clothesline and Buck chokes him with his suspenders. Back in Buck stomps on the cut and works on Dustin's knee a bit. Dustin manages to kick Buck down and gets something out of his pocket. Heenan says it's his will. It's powder! But Dustin's too hurt to follow up. Buck takes his belt off and whips Dustin ON THE CUT with it. Tony channels JR with some "IT'S LEATHER ON FLESH" talk. Straight low blow from Buck. More beating in the corner. Buck charges one too many times and Dustin dodges. Buck's leg is caught on the rope. Dustin props him on top of the corner and punts away on him. Dustin takes his belt off, wraps it around his fist and hits Buck with it. Now Buck's busted open. Dustin takes his boot off and comes down on Buck off the second rope with it. He rips Buck's shirt off and whips his back. Bionic elbow. Buck is clotheslined to the floor. He appears to get something from his pocket, but Dustin dodges a punch and hits an atomic drop. Corner clothesline/bulldog combo! Parker gets on the apron. Dustin suplexes him in and gives him some belt whipping. Buck uses the distraction for a roll up for 2. Slugfest. Parker puts some knucks on Buck's hand. He waffles Dustin with them, and gets the pin! Don't think anyone expected that result. As opposed to the tag match's ahead of its time all arena kitchen sink plunder brawling, this was very much an old school '80's NWA bloody brawl that daddy Dusty had all the time. Went on a bit longer than it probably should have though, it was starting to feel flabby at the end. ***1/4

Ventura is in the back with Rude, with dried blood over parts of his face. He's super pissed at both Race and Vader. The rest of the heel locker room has to hold him back. I wonder if they were planning to turn him face before his injury. I've never seen anything that said so, just speculation on my part. Would have been interesting, Rude had never been a face at any point of his career.

 

Big Van Vader (w/Harley Race) def The Boss in 9:02- This has serious potential if Boss (Man) can find his peak '91-'92 form. ANOTHER jump start as Boss meets Vader on the ramp. Race tries to hold Boss down and eats a Vader tackle. The mask is off. Boss clotheslines Vader 360 into the ring and the bell rings to officially start. Boss big boot. An uppercut sends Vader over the top and back to the ramp. They just left the ramp! Heenan has a bit going on why did the crew even bother building the ring the way things have been going tonight. Boss throws some very pulled and weak punches. Vader responds with potato shots and a short clothesline, then scoops Boss up and slams him back in the ring. Vader backs up on the ramp, gets a huge head of steam and leaps over the top rope with a diving splash! Boss gets his knees up! They've been in the ring a whole 10 seconds so Boss clotheslines Vader out to the floor. Whip and Vader crashes over the guardrail into the first row! Boss lifts him up and drops him on the rail! Somewhere in there Vader got cut around his right eye. It takes a bit before there's noticeable blood but I think it bothers him the rest of the match, he looks slightly off. Back in Boss hits an avalanche. He scoops Vader up with some difficulty and slams him. Vader pops up with more potato shots. Boss punches back, a bit stronger than earlier. Vader was known to stiff guys bad until they got the courage up to stiff him back, then he'd ease off. It was his way of gauging respect. Vader backdrops Boss FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE RING ALL THE WAY OVER THE TOP ROPE AND TO THE FLOOR. Damn. Lots of ways that could have gone bad. He suplexes Boss back in and hits a big splash for 2. Corner potatoes. Boss jabs back and hits a back suplex. Now the cut around Vader's eye is starting to show a good amount of blood. Clothesline exchange. Vader sets up a Vader bomb. Boss comes from behind, scoops Vader up and just drops him in the middle of the ring! Boss takes Vader up to the second rope and hits a half avalanche DDT half superplex for 2. He goes up top again and tackles Vader for 2. One more time up top, this time Vader catches and powerslams him. I think that was supposed to happen last time and they got their signals crossed. Vader bomb! Boss kicks out! Vader climbs all the way up. THE VADERSAULT HITS! And good night. After the bell Boss attacks both heels with his nightstick and beats Harley Race down with it. What did Race do? Vader won clean as a sheet. What a sore loser. The match was good, but not as good as it could have been. Like I mentioned, Vader seemed off, possibly due to the cut around the eye. Boss had added some weight and he looked more like late '80s WWF Boss Man rather than the really good and underrated worker he was around '91 and '92 when he had dropped some weight. On top of that it really looked like they struggled with chemistry to me. This was good almost through sheer force of will and the general awesomeness of peak Vader. ***

After some more hotline shilling Ventura is in the back with Boss and commissioner Nick Bockwinkel. Bockwinkel punishes Boss for his tirade by taking his nightstick, his handcuffs, and the Boss name from him. Why not just take my dignity while you're at it? This was due to WWF lawyers having issues with similarities between the Boss and Big Boss Man (NO!), so WCW was changing up his gimmick. Little did they know the epic saga that was about to unfold.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat no contest in 32:19- Flair gets the book back and one of the first things he does is get himself another match with Steamboat. Smart. As you know these two had a legendary trilogy of matches in '89 that were nothing less than the greatest professional wrestling matches ever seen to that point, and five years on they hadn't been topped yet. For added story symmetry it was right here in Chicago that Steamboat beat Flair for the title in the first of those matches. Steamboat's music starts then stops. Everyone's confused. After a minute it starts again where it left off with no rewind. Lots of boos for Steamboat. He'd been asking for years to work as a heel, maybe this was Flair's backdoor way to letting him do it for at least one match, even though the build clearly had Flair leaning back toward heel in anticipation of him turning in full when Hogan came in. Speaking of, commentary talks about Hogan a bit more. Big pop for Flair. Pre-bell staredown. There's no lockup, instead Flair dips down for a quick drop toe hold. Arm tradeoff stalemate. More mat stalemates. Flair bridges out of a headscissors. Steamboat generally controls the mat game, getting a fireman's carry takedown and trying for leverage. When they get up again Steamboat slaps Flair! Flair chops him back. Long intense staredown. Now they lock up and crank the speed up. Steamboat gets a press slam and several flying headscissors. He dropkicks Flair to the floor. Steamboat quickly follows, rolls Flair back in, and hits a chop off the top rope for 2. Flair rolls out for a breather and takes his time getting back in. Another lockup with Flair pulling hair and Steamboat kiping back up. Big Flair chops. Steamboat grabs a headlock and walks up the ropes. After holding the headlock a while Steamboat gets a shoulderblock and immediately covers for 2. Back to the headlock. Flair works him to the corner and chops him. Steamboat with a hiptoss and another flying headscissors. A bit more headlock work. Flair pushes Steamboat off and uses momentum to send him over the top rope. Steamboat skins the cat back in and rolls Flair up for 2. Headlocking again. Flair tries a tights leverage pin. Steamboat blocks an inverted atomic drop, but Flair uses the opening for a knee to the gut. Shoulderblock from Flair, but on the rebound Steamboat gets a drop toe hold. Flair backs Steamboat in the corner and hits some shoulderblocks to the gut. Steamboat with a backdrop. Flair dodges the follow up dropkick. This is wrestling as human chess at its finest. Flair snap mare/kneedrop combo and he tries to wrap Steamboat up for a pin. Back elbow for 2. Chop exchange with Flair going down. After a little obvious "You ready? Ready for this?" conversation Flair hits a crossbody and both guys tumble over the top rope to the floor! Steamboat backdrops out of a piledriver attempt on the floor. Flair dodges a dive and Steamboat crashes into the guardrail. After a small struggle to the top rope Steamboat hits a superplex for a long 2. Flair Flip! Steamboat chops him off the apron! Steamboat climbs to the middle of the top rope and comes off with a chop down to the floor. It's beg off time for Flair as both guys assume their natural roles. Steamboat with some mounted punches and chops. Extended Flair Flop! Steamboat covers but Flair gets a foot on the rope. Flair uses a tights pull to send Steamboat outside. Steamboat pops right back up with a sunset flip. Flair punches out. He goes for another kneedrop. Steamboat blocks it! Steamboat figure four! They have a long fight in the hold, with Flair trying to get to the rope and Steamboat dragging him back to the center. Finally Flair eye pokes out. Steamboat rolls out and takes time on the floor to get his eyes working again. Flair needs to use the ropes to stand back up. He tries to suplex Steamboat back in but Steamboat falls on top of him for 2. Bridge up spot. Backslide fight. Steamboat turns Flair over for 2. Steamboat small package for 2. Flair chops. Steamboat chops back. Flair Flop through the ropes to the ramp! Suplex counters on the ramp. Steamboat chops Flair back into the ring. Flair Flip 2, and he falls all the way to the floor! Steamboat comes off the apron but Flair gets his boots up! Another chop exchange. Steamboat crossbody off the top! Flair kicks out! The crowd bit hard on that one. Hard Flair clothesline. He goes up top but Steamboat slams him off. Steamboat tries a splash off the top but Flair dodges. Flair figure four! Steamboat tries to block it but Flair gets it applied. After a bit of a fight Steamboat gets to the ropes. Flair goes for it again. Steamboat small packages him for 2. Chops from Steamboat and he sets Flair up top again. Another superplex! Both guys are down. Steamboat slowly drapes an arm over Flair for 2. Roll up from Steamboat, but ref Nick Patrick got knocked down during it and has to get back in the ring, giving time for Flair to kick out. Steamboat hooks in the double chickenwing! Talk about '89 callbacks. Both guys go down. Patrick counts 3! But who won? After some discussion Patrick determines all four shoulders stayed down and it's a double pin. Flair retains the title. Bockwinkel follows up with commentary saying he's going to have to take it to *looks up* board room level, and there'll be a final decision on TV next weekend. Was the match '89 trilogy level? No. Was it the next best thing? Pretty much. If it had a clean decision I'd probably give it the full monty. Sadly there'd be no PPV rematch and this was the last time Flair and Steamboat had a match at this level. ****3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: A home run. It's not just the top level matches, it's also the fact that on an 8 match card everything is at worst adequate. That's impressive, Kip Frey era level quality. It's crazy no one let Flair book more than he got to. But in a case of horrible timing for WCW, this was just a few weeks after WWF knocked it out of the park with Wrestlemania 10, which had its own breakout gimmick match in the Shawn/Ramon ladder match, and had the red hot Bret/Owen feud going so this show didn't get the notice that it really should have. Well, that and the fact that WCW's business was a few months away from changing completely, making this show historically much less important, but no less good.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A