Slamboree '96

Legacy Review

Slamboree '96

May 19, 1996 from the Riverside Centroplex in Baton Rouge, LA

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

This show features the return of Battlebowl and the Lethal Lottery for the first time since the Battlebowl PPV in November '93, and for the fourth time overall, but this time with an extra twist. This iteration is called the "Lord of the Ring" tournament. I'm not making any of the obvious Tolkien jokes. Though it's probably got more to do with Tolkien's writings than the Rings of Power TV series does. Dammit, couldn't resist. Anyway. There's 32 entrants who will wrestle traditional "random draw" Lethal Lottery tag matches. After that the 8 winning teams will wrestle again in semifinal tag matches. The winners of that, 8 wrestlers total, will then compete in a whopping 8 man Battlebowl battle royale to determine the Lord of the Ring (it's NOT the King of the Ring, don't even think that). In addition the winner will also get a World title shot.

Lethal Lottery: Road Warrior Animal & Booker T and Road Warrior Hawk & WCW World Television and World Tag Team Champion "The Total Package" Lex Luger double countout in 6:54- Hawk and Animal on opposite ends, and four guys that have been involved in tag title feuds all year in the same match. Improbable but not completely unbelievable. After the events of Uncensored and the weeks following on Nitro Luger has turned back face. The Luger/Sting story would have been more interesting if Sting had turned to the dark side, but they're prepping the way for a big heel turn later on in the summer. Tony claims that after the first round matches there'll be a redraw for teams among who's left. We'll see how that holds up. After everyone's in the ring Booker shoves Hawk, Hawk attacks Booker, and no one else in the ring seems to have a clue what's going on, including the ref. Everyone meanders around. Booker and Animal argue over who's going to start. Finally it's Animal and Luger locking up. Luger pounds away in the corner. Powerslam, then he lets Animal recover. On a speed run Luger jumps up for a leapfrog but Animal hits him with a clothesline I don't think he knew was coming. I think they need to have a serious discussion about what the hell they're trying to do out there. Animal hits a powerslam and tackle. Luger suplex and Animal pops right back up. Surprised Hawk didn't attack him for taking his spot. Booker hits a hook kick. He and Luger trade elbow drop misses. Booker spinaroonies and hits a heel kick. After a time killing chinlock Booker hits a scissors kick. Hawk breaks the pin up. That pisses Luger off for some reason and everyone gets in a big brawl. They go down to the floor, continue fighting, and both teams are counted out even though the LOD had a ton of time to get back in the ring. They clearly don't care. The much hyped fight between the LOD never happened. All kinds of awful. DUD

 

Lethal Lottery: Public Enemy def "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan and Chris Benoit (w/Jimmy Hart) in 4:44- Public Enemy get randomly drawn to team up out of 32 guys. OK, stretching credibility a bit but I guess it could happen. Sullivan and Benoit are strange bedfellow partners as the Dungeon of Doom and Four Horsemen were now feuding after the Alliance to End Hulkamania debacle. Benoit and Rock start with some slapping and shoving. Benoit tries a tiltawhirl but Rock turns it into a flying headscissors. More shoving. Benoit lifts Rock but Rock gets a hurricanrana out of it. Dusty's commentary is already coming from somewhere in the vicinity of Beetlegeuse, he's totally gone and ranting nonsense. Benoit and Rock do the same spot again but this time Benoit hits the powerbomb, followed by some ground and pound. And again everyone's in to fight on the floor. Chairs go flying. A table got set up on the floor. In a Public Enemy match? I know, unheard of. Sullivan gets set up on the table but Benoit cuts off Rock's dive with a clothesline. Rock suplexes Benoit out of the ring to the floor. PE put Benoit through the table while Sullivan saves himself, roll him in, and get the pin. 1/4*

 

Lethal Lottery: Rick Steiner and The Booty Man (w/the Booty Babe) def Scott Steiner and Sgt. Craig Pittman (w/Teddy Long) in 8:21- Now this is a good Lethal Lottery setup. The Steiners let the other two start while Heenan gets some good Steiner cracks in. Pittman works a hammerlock on BM. He gives BM a weird standing dive headbutt to his gut. BM kneelift on Scott. Scott hits the double underhook powerbomb. Pittman and Rick bark at each other before going at it. Rick catches Pittman on a leap and slams him. Pittman ducks a Steinerline and hits a German suplex! Nice. Big Rick tackle. They're stiffing each other nicely. Pittman looks for a tag. Scott hesitates, but goes through with it. Here we go! Steiner on Steiner. Rough lockup. Scott gets a fireman's carry takedown and Rick likes it. Rick headlock takedown. Nice mat exchange and stalemate. Scott belly to belly suplex! Rick Steinerline! Scott plays possum to sucker Rick into a small package. Heenan: "Outsmarting Rick, that's not hard to do". Scott full nelson. Rick reverses and hits a dragon suplex! He goes up top but Scott joins him and tosses him back down to the mat! BM tags in and posts his shoulder. Pittman goes to work on it. He hooks on the Code Red. BM fights over and gets a tag to Rick while still in the hold. Rick plants Pittman with a German and gets the pin. Worth watching for the short but awesome Steiner vs Steiner sequence back when they could both still go almost like they used to in their peak years. **1/2

 

Lethal Lottery: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and VK Wallstreet def The Blue Bloods in 3:46- Now two of the three Blue Bloods gets drawn together. I'm starting to question the "random" in the random drawing. VK Wallstreet is Mike Rotunda in his late career WCW IRS knockoff gimmick. Regal's reactions to anything going on around him are amazing. Duggan and Regal start. Regal hides in the ropes, then gets a cheap shot in the lockup. Duggan hits a hip toss and a trio of clotheslines. Wallstreet does some back and forth with both Bloods and has a European uppercut exchange with Regal. Duggan and Wallstreet start arguing and Regal hits Duggan from behind. Midring collision. Duggan goes for a tag but Wallstreet pulls back. Duggan pounds everyone, including his partner. He takes off his wrist tape, wraps it around his fist, waffles Taylor, and gets the pin. 1/2*

 

Lethal Lottery: "Dirty" Dick Slater and Earl Robert Eaton (w/Col. Robert Parker and Jeeves) def Disco Inferno and "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright in 2:56- Inferno and Slater start. Inferno hides in the corner and yells at Slater not to mess his hair up. Slater leg takedown. Inferno fights him off, with difficulty, celebrates, and takes a Slater elbow and chop. Wright hits European uppercuts on Eaton and does his usual 4 or 5 moves. He really hasn't developed much since his big "super rookie" push. Slater swinging neckbreaker on Wright. Wright backdrops out of a piledriver. And everyone's in again, why not? Could we at least get some variety in how these matches are laid out? Slater hits Inferno from behind with his boot to get the win. 1/4*

 

Lethal Lottery: Diamond Dallas Page and The Barbarian def Hugh Morris and Meng in 5:15- DDP lost a retirement match at the last PPV, so of course he's already back. Thanks to some mysterious benefactor apparently. I'm pretty sure we never find out who. Meng and Barbarian were both in the DOD and regular tag partners. DDP and Morris start with DDP doing a lot of crowd playing and messing around when Morris wants to lock up, but (being DDP) it's all a ruse to sucker Morris in as DDP gets an eye poke and goes to work. A shoulderblock sends DDP tumbling through the ropes to the floor. DDP dodges a Morris plancha and he splats on the mat! Back in Morris grabs DDP's foot and spins him around, but DDP cuts him off with his own clothesline. Meng and Barbarian both tag in and have no qualms about going at it. They block hiptosses across the ring. Meng with some wicked stiff chops that Barbarian shrugs off. Barbarian hits a shoulderblock. Double clothesline, double no sell! A Barbarian kick gets Meng down. DDP runs in and Barbarian press slams him onto Meng! How about that teamwork? Meng gets Barbarian back down and tags out. Morris elbow off the top rope. He doesn't cover and wants another. DDP runs over and hits the ropes to crotch him. Barbarian goes up, needs forever to get his balance right, and belly to belly superplexes Morris. Meng saves the pin. Morris hits a moonsault! DDP saves the pin and we're *sigh* donnybrooking again. Meng and Barbarian both hits big boots and cover, and both get three counts. But, DDP's foot was under the bottom rope, so his team advances. Finally, other than the Steiners going at it, something halfway decent, and pretty shocking considering who was in it. **1/4

 

Lethal Lottery: Fire and Ice def Big Bubba Rogers and Stevie Ray in 3:32- For frak's sake, ANOTHER regular team that got "randomly drawn" together. It's getting ridiculous. Rogers has recently joined the DOD for lord knows what reason. Why the DOD is even still a going concern at this point is an eternal mystery. Norton and Ray start with Ray getting a corner cheap shot. Norton hits a tackle. Ray gets a boot up in the corner and hits a clothesline. Rogers avalanche on Norton. Spinebuster for 2. Even Tony is getting bored with one crap match after another, he's pointing out the excessive amount of clotheslines in this match. Train butt splash on Rogers for 2. Double clothesline. "Two more clotheslines" comment from Tony. Rogers gets whipped into Ray, F&I hit a double shoulderblock and that's that. 1/4*

 

Lethal Lottery: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Woman and Elizabeth) def Arn Anderson and Eddie Guerrero in 4:04- Now, finally, this has some potential. Savage and Flair had feuded over the world title since the end of '95, and even with Giant taking the title from Flair they were far from done with each other. Both men are absolute lunatics, driven by each other to the brink of insanity during this feud. I won't criticize them getting "drawn" to be on the same team because that's normal Lethal Lottery stuff, it's all the other way too obviously fixed pairings that make this one stand out more. Flair's music plays and he doesn't come out. Savage makes his entrance, then Flair's music plays again. This time he does come out, and Arn has already jumped Savage in the ring so Flair charges in....and stomps on Savage! Savage rolls to the floor and Guerrero gets in with Flair. Guerrero shrugs off chops, hits punches and a dropkick. Flair slows things down. Guerrero backdrop and more dropkicks. Flair gets an eye poke and tags a still hurt Savage on the back. Arn also tagged in and is all over Savage. Savage takes a swing at Flair, then gradually starts to pound back on Arn. He gets a boot up in the corner, but runs into the World's Greatest Spinebuster! Cover for 2. Arn tights pulls Savage into Savage's own corner. Flair tags in, then chops Savage! Guerrero takes a page out of Flair's playbook with an eye poke and chops. Flair Flop! Guerrero DDT off the ropes. Savage attacks Flair! Arn DDT on Guerrero! Savage gets beat down on the floor, and Flair covers Guerrero for the pin. The Horsemen continue to pound Savage. Elizabeth slaps Savage! Tony reacts like she shot him or something. Arn DDTs Savage on the floor! Fun chaos, much more like what the Lethal Lottery is supposed to be. Flair and Guerrero showed the promise you'd expect, but also had some noticeable communication issues from never working together before. **3/4

Tony clarifies that the second round random draw is only for matchups. Shame, redrawing teams would have been a lot more fun, but judging by the show so far "fun" wasn't one of WCW's objectives. Tony also mentions due to the double countout in the first match one team will get a bye straight to Battlebowl.

Ad for Great American Bash, now firmly in its new June slot, and this year returning to its traditional home of the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore.

Mean Gene is with some Hooters girls and some envelopes. Okerlund with women during a Lethal Lottery drawing, this is always hold your breath TV as far as how much Okerlund will verbally sexually harass them. Fortunately he mostly keeps it in his pants this year. They draw for the bye, which goes to Fire & Ice, then they draw just the first match of the second round.

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Dean Malenko (c) def Brad Armstrong in 8:29- The cruiserweight division era is here. Shinjiro Otani defeated Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) at a New Japan show in March to win the inaugural title, which was billed by WCW as the finals of a "grueling" double elimination tournament, but in reality was the only match of said "tournament". Malenko then defeated Otani for the title on non-Nitro weekly TV a couple of weeks before this. Kinda nice to see Brad Armstrong still hanging around. One of the most underrated high flyer wrestlers of the late '80s/early '90s, he was also one of the few guys to hold WCW's original Light Heavyweight title, which is of course not mentioned by commentary. Good basic chain wrestling start. Speed run, Malenko slides under and grabs an Armstrong kick, Armstrong hits an enzugui. Armdrag and dropkick from Armstrong and Malenko powders. Back in Malenko teases a test of strength, but it's just a distraction to hit Armstrong in the knee with a basement dropkick. He posts Armstrong's knee and goes to work on it. Malenko puts Armstrong in a tree of woe and dropkicks the knee. Desperation cradle from Armstrong for 2. Malenko stays on the knee. He breaks out the old stump puller! Hold #437 I think. I miss a good stump puller. Leg scissors and Armstrong gets to the ropes. Malenko comes off the second rope and Armstrong gets a boot up to kick off the comeback. Powerslam. Missile dropkick. Knee's fine. He puts Malenko's own cloverleaf on him! Malenko gets to the ropes. Both guys go up top. Malenko gets Armstrong on his shoulders and comes down with the super gutbuster! That gets the pin. Usual solid Malenko match but not much else. The cruiserweight division was very much a work in progress as far as the crowd was concerned, but to be fair they've also probably been beaten into submission by the awfulness of the show so far. **1/2

Promo video for GLACIER! Elevator pitch: what if Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat was a real life wrestler? I have to admit, the graphic design is pretty cool, some of the company's best work in that department. Too bad the end result was....not so good. After that Mean Gene is with the Hooters girls again for the rest of the matchup drawings. He tries to hand one of the girls an opened envelope. One of the camera guys takes it instead and Okerlund says "I want them to have their hands free". We almost made it the whole way without Okerlund going full dirty old man on the guest eye candy.

 

Lord of the Ring Semifinals: "Dirty" Dick Slater and Earl Robert Eaton def VK Wallstreet and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in 4:08- Duggan and Wallstreet immediately start fighting each other again. Slater and Eaton jump them. Duggan and Wallstreet whip them into each other. Duggan tries to calm down and make peace but Wallstreet knees him in the gut down to the floor. Slater Russian leg sweep on Wallstreet for 2. Tony gets super excited for no reason whatsoever. Either he just got a massive spontaneous caffeine/sugar jolt or someone in the truck told him to liven things up. Wallstreet backdrops Eaton and Duggan pops him on the floor. Rotunda abdominal stretch! Some things you can always count on. He wants leverage help from Duggan but naturally good boy Duggan refuses. Slater breaks the hold up and everyone gets in to fight again. Thankfully that's not the finish this time. Duggan wears Slater down a bit and they have a horrible midring collision. Tags. Wallstreet slams Eaton off the top rope. After another disagreement Wallstreet hits Duggan, Duggan hits Wallstreet, and Eaton rolls Wallstreet up to win. Well at least the finish was better. 3/4*

Next up is the semifinal match between Public Enemy and the Flair/Savage team. Savage's music plays and no one comes out. Commentary isn't surprised after his beatdown earlier. Flair comes out with Woman and Elizabeth. Elizabeth has a fistful of money that somehow commentary knows is Savage's. She starts throwing it out to the crowd. Savage charges in and attacks Flair! A whole mess of security is instantly on Savage. They're soon joined by half the face locker room. They all drag Savage to the back. In the ring, Public Enemy are declared the winners by forfeit.

 

Lord of the Ring Semifinals: Diamond Dallas Page and The Barbarian def Rick Steiner and The Booty Man (w/the Booty Babe) in 5:05- DDP starts with initially Rick. To no one's shock DDP turns around and starts jawing with Kimberly. When he turns back around it's BM in the ring with him and they slug it out. A punch sends DDP stumbling through the ropes to the floor. He gets caught in a mess of TV cables and BM chokes him with it. Rick sloppy backdrop back in for 2. It looked like he was going for something else and changed his mind mid-move. He does mounted punches. DDP drops him on the top turnbuckle and tags. Rick ducks a Barbarian boot and hits a back suplex. Belly to belly superplex. Steinerline! Barbarian powerbomb for 2. Rick tries to reach for a tag. DDP distracts the ref and Rick gets tossed over the top rope. Barbarian avalanche and clothesline. Rick hits him with a hot shot and tags. BM high knee. DDP breaks the pin up. BM rolls Barbarian up. DDP comes in, drops an elbow on the back of BM's head, and Barbarian gets the pin. Mercifully, the Lethal Lottery matches are over. *1/4

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Konnan (c) def Jushin Thunder Liger (w/Sonny Oono) in 9:30- Mike Tenay is thankfully in for Dusty for this match. Mexico vs Japan for the US title. Liger's got an unusual gear look tonight: black and silver with yellow trim. He sure as hell didn't need Sonny Oono with him, but it was a WCW requirement at the time that all New Japan wrestlers had Oono has a manager in the US. Konnan gets a quick takedown into a clutch for 2. Rapid fire cover stalemate. Liger snap mare and senton. Konnan rolls out and gets kicked by Oono. Konnan chases and Liger hits him with a blindside baseball slide, sending Konnan into the guardrail. Liger plancha! Horrible sell by Konnan on that. Liger brain buster back in for 2. He wraps Konnan up on the mat to kick off a long sequence of countering submission holds. Konnan kicks to get free. Liger jumps right back on him with some ground and pound. Rapid fire strike exchange. Liger rolling kick in the corner. Superplex. Splash off the top for 2. He dropkicks Konnan to the floor. Liger tries coming off the top to the floor but Konnan kicks him in midair. Back in Liger slips out of a suplex into a Saito suplex. Fisherman buster! Konnan kicks out! Konnan counters a corner floatover into an Alabama slam with a jackknife cover for 2. He goes for Splash Mountain. Liger counters into a rollup for 2. Liger small package for 2. Powerbomb for 2. He comes off the top again but Konnan gets his boots up. Splash Mountain hits and it's over. Total Liger carry job. ***

Mean Gene brings Flair back out, plus entourage. Flair runs Savage down some more, then invites Okerlund to his "pajama/lingerie" party tonight. Flair then starts to run Steve "Mongo" McMichael down and doing the usual Flair thing of saying he's been messing with Mongo's wife. Never mind that shit, here comes Mongo. Flair says he and Arn Anderson walk all over football players to the locker room, and they challenge Mongo and any partner he wants to a match. Mongo: "Anybody?". Flair: "Listen to me! AN. Y. BO. DY." Mongo says fine, he's already got someone here. It's Kevin Greene! (now in a Carolina Panthers shirt after signing with them in free agency in the offseason) Flair: "I said retired player!". Everyone argues with officials separating them and end scene. This set up what would be one of the top matches at GAB.

 

Battlebowl- We've got Dick Slater, Rocco Rock, Johnny Grunge, DDP, the Barbarian, Bobby Eaton, Ice Train and Scott Norton in this. What a scintillating lineup. Reminder, the winner of this gets a WORLD title shot at GAB. Out of these guys. Usual weak WCW battle royale brawling to start. DDP does early elimination teases. Barbarian hits DDP with a big boot. DDP goes over the top rope and skins the cat back in. But, one of his feet touched the floor, which is apparently enough to be eliminated but no ref saw it. More weak brawling. Barbarian eliminates Rock. Slater accidentally whacks Eaton with his boot to eliminate him. Eaton pops Col. Parker! Slater comes out and attacks Eaton, apparently also eliminated. DDP eliminates Norton. Train powerslams everyone. Train/Barbarian double big boot on Grunge. DDP Diamond Cutters everyone! He pins Grunge. Oh, apparently pins are a thing in this match too. It'd really help if WCW laid the rules out ahead of time for once. DDP pins Train. He covers Barbarian but only gets 2. DDP shoves ref Nick Patrick and gets shoved back, with a sell Flair would be proud of. Barbarian clothesline for 2. DDP back elbow in the corner. Barbarian corner dodge and roll up for 2. Tombstone from Barbarian! DDP kicks out! Barbarian hooks on a sleeper. DDP low blows out. Barbarian powerbomb for another long 2. DDP showing some serious resilience here. Barbarian goes for the headbutt off the top but DDP dodges. Diamond Cutter! DDP wins! Not too shabby of an end run mini-match there. DDP was the only guy putting any serious effort in out there. He gets presented with a giant ring for being Lord of the Ring. **

If the whole Lord of the Ring thing was designed to get DDP up to the next level, it wasn't a bad idea but it was horribly executed. But of course in typical WCW fashion he'd have his legs cut back out from under him the next night on Nitro, where his title shot at GAB would be taken away due to the fact he should have been eliminated earlier in the match. His career was still on the upswing, but it'd be nearly two more years before he finally got a world title shot, the promise of this one long forgotten.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: The Giant (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def WCW World Tag Team Champion Sting (w/Lex Luger) in 10:41- Giant defeated Flair on Nitro in April for the title, a match I've always enjoyed just for the way Flair bumps like a maniac off Giant while trying to do shoulderblocks. It's officially his second title reign, but really his first because the first one was quickly vacated due to controversy. Hart and Luger are handcuffed to each other for this match. Early speed run and Sting BOUNCES off Giant while trying to hit a crossbody! It's almost like he was trying to one up Flair. Sting whacks Giant in the head with a double ax handle then jumps on his back and puts a sleeper on. Giant squashes him in the corner. Dropkicks and a clothesline are no sold and Sting rolls out to have a think. Back in Sting hits an enzuguri. Giant pushes him down with his boot. Sting tries a slam. Giant falls on top of him for 2. Giant steps over Sting. Sting tries to fight back but Giant clobbers him down again. Borderline low blow headbutt from Giant. He hooks on a body scissors and gets extra rope leverage. While that's going on Hart is trying to talk Luger back to his side. Sting hits a kick and Giant tosses him to the floor. He tosses Sting halfway up the entrance aisle. Giant goozle and he goes to chokeslam Sting through a table, but Luger has set Hart up on the table to block it! Giant backs off. Luger pulls Sting off the apron and Giant misses a dropkick. Sting blind back elbows the ref! He dodges Giant in the corner. Stinger Splash! Luger and Hart both get up on the apron. Giant goozles Luger! Sting hits repeated Stinger Splashes to get Giant to let go but it doesn't work. Finally Sting kicks Giant in the knee and he lets go of Luger. Giant goes down! Hart gets himself draped across the top of the corner. Sting goes to Stinger Splash him but Hart just escapes in time. Sting recovers and hits a splash off the top on Giant for 2. Another splash. He goes for the Scorpion Death Lock. Luger and Hart are on the apron again fighting over the megaphone. Sting takes the megaphone in the face! Giant his the chokeslam and it's over. Sting made Giant look like a million bucks in a way Hogan never could. ***1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Well, the title matches all delivered to some degree. The Lethal Lottery, however, was an abject disaster. Normally there's entertainment value inherit in the Lethal Lottery no matter how good the matches are, but that's completely missing here thanks to how unimaginative most of the pairings are.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D