Superbrawl V

Legacy Review

Superbrawl V

February 19, 1995 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

One thing I need to get out of the way right at the top: Bobby Heenan is plastered. Not three sheets to the wind, he's made his own sails and is halfway to the Caribbean. Clearly working for WCW has not been advantageous to his liver.

Heenan's already stumbling over his words during the opening stand up. We get footage from earlier in the night of Vader arriving in a limo, a limo commentary speculates might also include Ric Flair. Why that'd be such a big deal or needs to be a big secret I really don't know. An anti-Hogan alliance between the two makes perfect sense. Another limo arrives and Vader thinks Hogan's in it, so he attacks the driver and smashes out a back window. No Hogan. During this time WWF was starting to experiment with the Free For All preshow so WCW followed suit, taking advantage of their TBS airtime by having that week's Main Event be a live preshow. Vader crashed that too, storming commentary and attacking wrestlers after a match. One other thing to note from the Main Event preshow- Arn Anderson successfully defended the TV title against Johnny B Badd (again).

"Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright def Paul Roma in 13:20- I think most everyone's heard of this match. Roma attacks Wright while he's having back spasms dancing. Press slam and Roma mocks Wright's dance to a pretty positive crowd reaction. Wright gets a sunset flip for 2 and armdrags that Roma was barely in position for. Roma reverses some arm work. Wright tries to counter and Roma pulls him down by the hair. Wright hops to the top rope and uses Roma's own hold to armdrag him again. Roma's not even trying to sell Wright's arm work, he's just sitting there and jawing with the crowd. Paul Orndorff, Roma's tag partner, comes out to ringside. Nothing but extremely dull mat work happening in the ring. Roma's still more interested in jawing with the crowd and the ref than actually working the match. Roma slam and elbow drops, followed by a tortuously slow triple backbreaker. He stomps Wright down and tosses him to the floor. Wright punches from the apron and tries a sunset flip but Roma says FU and punches him down in midair. Wright tries a backslide. Roma holds back forever, finally goes over, and kicks out at barely 1. Wright small package for 2. Roma goes right to pounding him again. Heenan: "Wonderpunk's had some great mats" and stops. Yeah, he's fershnickered. Loooooooong Roma chinlock. Heenan's slurring like crazy on commentary. Roma dodges a dropkick. He hits the elbow off the top rope and dances around like a prat. Wright gets a dodge in the corner and hits European uppercuts. Roma sandbags a hiptoss. Wright spinning heel kick and again Roma kicks out at 1. Wright hits a crossbody but Orndorff pulls him off the cover. Wright dropkicks Roma in the back, sending him into Orndorff, rolls him up, and gets the pin even though Roma kicked out as a final middle finger. This is what going into business for yourself looks like. Roma decided he was going to make himself look good and take it upon himself to bury Wright. His unprofessional douchebaggery not only cost him his job with WCW, it kept him from getting work with any major company again after this. Blackballed. That said, there is some perverse amusement in watching it. Roma's a dick, but Wright isn't exactly a legend and WCW was banking on him to give way more than what he really had to offer. *

 

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan def Bunkhouse Buck (w/Col. Robert Parker & Meng) in 11:54- Another jump start with Duggan slugging. Buck eye rakes and bites. Duggan hiptoss. He did a wrestling move! A rare one for the bingo card. Buck is clotheslined 360 to the floor. He drags Duggan down with him and they slug it out on the floor. Duggan gets posted. Back in Duggan hits an ugly ass knee drop. Atomic drop. Back elbow for 2. Buckle shots for Buck. Buck hits Duggan with his rope. More weak brawling. Duggan places Buck on top and hits some gut shots. Another slugfest. Duggan backdrop for 2. Things bog down even worse with Duggan controlling everything and I wonder how the hell this match is still going on. Duggan scoops and spins Buck, slams him and hits another awful kneedrop for 2. Mounted munches. It's still completely one sided for Duggan and he's running out of bullets on his belt. Duggan takes Parker out, hits the 3 point stance clothesline and mercifully gets the pin. As soon as the bell rings Meng attacks Duggan. How the hell did those two get booked for this much time? On top of that the whole thing was laughably one sided with Duggan on offense nearly the whole match. If they kept it under 5 minutes it would have been.....well, not quite as horrendous as that. DUD

 

Kevin Sullivan (w/the Butcher) def Dave Sullivan in 7:16- Oh JOY. This sure isn't going to improve things. And I'm not even getting into the whole "magic slippers" thing. Nope. Another jump start and slugfest. Evad gets a slam and does some ground and pound. A weak back elbow sends Kevin to the floor. Back in Kevin takes buckle shots. Backdrop for 2. Butcher trips Evad. They go to the floor and Kevin runs Evad into the apron. Butcher gets some shots in. Kevin gets a boot up in the corner back in. Evad bites Kevin's.....stomach? OK then. Kevin pounds away with chops and punches in the corner, then clearly on camera tells Evad "punch me". Evad does. After getting dumped to the floor again Evad chokes Kevin. More Kevin chops and he gets crotched on the ropes. More buckle shots. Butcher distracts. Kevin runs Evad into Butcher, sacrificing him, and rolls Evad up with a handful of tights for the pin. After the bell Butcher's reconstructed face is injured and he's writhing in pain all the way back to the back. This was the lead in for the next of Brutus Beefcake's 47 WCW gimmicks, The Man With No Face. It sounds way cooler than it actually was. The match, as expected, sucked. Dave Sullivan is hands down one of the worst wrestlers that's ever worked for a major company. DUD

This show feels like it's been three hours long already. I think I need one of Heenan's drinks.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Harlem Heat (c) (w/Sister Sherri) def The Nasty Boys by DQ in 17:06- Standoff and jawing after the bell. Eventually Booker and Knobbs start. Shoving and slapping. Booker hits knees to the gut on the ropes. Knobbs ducks a heel kick and Booker crotches himself over the top rope. Knobbs knocks him to the floor and Sags runs him over. Back in Sags hits the low blow headbutt and attacks Booker's leg. Booker gets a tag (while selling the leg) and Ray pounds away on Sags. The Nastys work Ray down in their corner and do some work on his leg. Booker tags in and gets hiptossed. More work on Booker's knee. Booker dropkicks Sags over the top to the floor. Sherri and Ray run him into the guardrail. Back in Sags and Ray wander around lost before Sags hits a clothesline. Sags goes to the floor again and Sherri gets a punch in. Sags dodges a Booker elbow drop. Booker no sells it and does the spinaroonie! You know, that's a cool looking move there. Maybe you should find a way to highlight it more in matches? Just a thought, WCW. Heel kick from Booker. Ray comes in and euthanizes a match already on life support with a forever chinlock. Booker scissors kick. Ray hits an awful powerslam. Sags dodges a Booker kneedrop off the second rope and hits a powerslam. Tags on both sides. Knobbs cleans house. Double DDT on Heat. Big splash on Ray and we're donnybrooking. One of Heat gets tossed over the top to the floor. Sherri tries coming off the top rope with the Shoe of Match Ending +1 but hits her own man instead, Knobbs rolls him up and gets the pin and the titles! Or does he? Here comes backup ref Randy Anderson. He tells Nick Patrick about the over the top throw and the decision is reversed to Heat by DQ. Classic awful Dusty Finish. It's sad to say this is the best match on the show so far. *1/2

 

The Blacktop Bully (w/Col. Robert Parker) def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes in 16:08- Blacktop Bully is Barry Darsow, AKA Demolition Smash and Repo Man in WWF and Krusher Kruschev in JCP. This is an extension of the Dustin/Stud Stable feud that ran most of '94. After antagonizing everyone from the crowd one too many times Bully was hauled off to jail, bailed out by Parker, and offered a $75,000 bounty to take Dustin out once and for all. Before the match Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel throws Meng out because of his attack on Duggan earlier. Bully tries to jump before the bell but Dustin is one up on him. Flying clothesline. Mounted punches and bionic elbow, with his jacket still on. Dustin turns his back and Bully clips his knee. He smothers Dustin with his own jacket. Dustin dodges in the corner and Bully posts his shoulder. He gets kicked off the top to the floor, and stalls a bit down there. Once he gets back in they go back to the basics. Bully tries to slam out of an armbar but Dustin holds on, then transitions to a headscissors. High knee from Dustin that looks like it caught Bully in the face for real. Bully gets a snap mare, Dustin reverses it into a hammerlock. Dustin roll up for 2. As the match crawls along a section of fans across from hard camera amuse themselves by loudly chanting "KFC" at Parker. Dustin springboard back elbow. Suplex for 2. He gets a sunset flip, Bully fights and walks over to the ropes. He grabs one, but the ref kicks his arm off? Dustin rolls him over and gets a 2 count. Why wouldn't Bully get a rope break there? That's crap officiating. Bully blocks a monkey flip and Dustin 360 sells a clothesline. Slow cover for 2. Dustin's tossed to the floor and Parker stomps him. Another punch exchange and Bully hits a back suplex for 2. He dodges a crossbody and Dustin rolls to the floor. Dustin grabs Bully's leg and posts his knee. Bully dodges a kneedrop and hits a suplex. Dustin catches Bully coming off the second rope. Neither guy seemed sure of what he was doing there. Dustin backdrop and inverted atomic drop. Bulldog! Parker puts Bully's foot on the rope. Dustin suplexes Parker into the ring. He goes to suplex Bully off the apron. Parker grabs Dustin's foot and Bully falls on top for the pin. Wrestlemania 5 finish. Another match that hugely overstayed its welcome. 1/2*

Mean Gene brings out Ric Flair. He asks about the limo and Flair says "Why would I be in Vader's limo?". He says he's here for the party and will be in the front row for the last two matches.

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage and Sting def Big Bubba Rogers and Avalanche in 10:16- Savage seems to have a bit more zest and shows more of his natural self not being paired up with Hogan. Sting and Avalanche start. Avalanche wins the lockups. Sting clotheslines and a dropkick stagger the big man. Rogers hits Sting from the apron and the heels double team. Rogers goes up top. Savage grabs him and crotches him. Sting superplex! Rogers gets knocked around and see saws in the ropes before falling to the floor. Savage double ax handle off the top to the floor. Reset with Savage and Rogers. Savage gets an armdrag. He gets jawey with Flair and Rogers attacks him from behind. Sunset flip from Savage and he dodges the butt splash counter. A high knee to the back sends Rogers into the corner and Savage rolls him up off the ricochet for 2. He deliberately elbows Rogers into the corner and slaps Avalanche! Avalanche tags in. Savage slaps him again! He tries to slam Avalanche which naturally doesn't go as planned. After a corner dodge Sting tags in and attacks Avalanche's knee. Scorpion Death Lock! Everyone in the pool! Forever Stinger Splashes on both heels...until Avalanche cuts Sting off and slams him. Savage jaws with Flair some more. Sting dodges Avalanche in the corner. He slams Avalanche! Rogers punches from the apron and Sting does his "unintentional" headbutt to the crotch. Tag to Savage. Double ax handle off the top. Donnybrook! Savage gives Rogers the elbow off the top. Sting clotheslines Avalanche from the top rope, stacks him up and gets the pin! A decent match that felt like a frigging masterpiece after what's been on this show so far. Savage was on form. It definitely should have gotten more time and other matches cut down. **1/2

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Vader by DQ in 15:08- This is easily one of the most anticipated matches since Hogan's signing with WCW and should have been the Starrcade main event. Vader's manager for his whole main event WCW run, Harley Race, is not here due to having to leave wrestling altogether after having hip replacement surgery following a car crash and would sadly not be back. Lockup stalemates at the start. Vader completely shrugs off Hogan punches. The mask is off. Hogan slaps Vader in the corner! Corner clothesline. Vader no sells again! Hogan is flummoxed. Vexed, even. He switches gears, cranks Vader's arm and does an arm takedown into an arm scissors. New Japan Hogan is here. He could wrestle, when he felt like it. Vader powers out. Here come the corner potatoes. Vader short clothesline and avalanche. Hogan rolls out to regroup. Vader follows. Hogan reverses a whip and Vader goes over the guardrail into the chair Ric Flair barely got out of in time! Back in Hogan hits chops and a clothesline. Big boot. Another clothesline sends Vader 360 to the floor. After a corner beatdown Hogan tries a slam but Vader falls on top of him. Vader tackle. More potato shots. Setup slam. Vader bomb! Hogan kicks out! Vader goes all the way up. VADERSAULT! Hogan dodges! Great camera angle from the floor for that too. They fight on the floor. Hogan gets a chair and nails Vader in the head! Back in Vader ducks a clothesline. Choke slam! Elbow drop and more corner pummeling. Vader suplex. Hulk Up! Punches, big boot, legdrop. Vader kicks out at ONE! A Vader tackle takes out Hogan and the ref. Powerbomb! No ref. Flair gets in pissed off, tries to revive the ref and gets out again. Splash from Vader! Another Hulk Up. Big boot and Vader gets 360 clotheslined to the floor again. Flair attacks Hogan for the DQ. After the bell the heels beat Hogan down and Flair puts the figure four on before Savage and Sting make the save. Vader and Flair leave together to more speculation. Well, that was actually one hell of a match. What I really liked was Vader worked his match, forcing Hogan to adapt and get out of his usual formula, and what we ended up getting was a very mid-'80s style Hogan match. The end run was a bit messy getting to the DQ. Put a clean finish on that and we'd probably be talking about a classic. Of course, Vader having the gall to actually push Hogan to try led to Hogan politicking the shit out of him backstage and burying Vader in their subsequent rematches. You could also make a strong argument for Vader winning this match, even for a short run and Hogan winning it back at the next PPV, but that was probably a bridge too far for Hogan when he could control his own booking. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The main event saved this from being an all time disaster. WCW's undercard was in desperate need of reshuffling, rethinking and frankly some guys that were actually good workers. Speaking of all time disasters, the first Uncensored is the next PPV....

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+