Superbrawl VIII

Legacy Review

Superbrawl VIII

February 22, 1998 from the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

This is WCW's attempt to fix their giant frak up that was Starrcade '97, and I think by this point they'd realized they really did frak up. Not that they'd learn anything from it. The stage setup is pretty nice, one of the best of the era on the WCW side and worthy of a major show.

WCW World Television Championship: Booker T def Rick Martel (c) in 10:31- This was originally supposed to be Booker defending against Saturn. However, Martel's comeback was going so good he pulled the upset on Booker for the title on the go home Nitro, turning heel in the process. Now Booker is getting his rematch, and then the winner will defend against Saturn. After the bell Martel offers a handshake. Booker slaps it away and starts throwing fists. Martel gets huge air off a Booker backdrop then gets clotheslined 360 to the floor. Back in Martel aggressively takes control. Booker blocks a hiptoss and hits a clothesline. We get a shot of the Flock at ringside. Either that or it's a bunch of students from pretty much any San Francisco art college that got their parents to pay for ringside seeats. Martel lays in knees and kicks in the corner. Booker ducks and hits the spin kick. Snap mare/kneedrop combo for 2. They do an extended speed dodge sequence and Booker hits a superkick for 2. In between moves Booker's been focused on wearing down Martel's arm. Corner whip and Booker sends Martel clear across the ring with a hip toss. Martel backdrops Booker over the top in the corner out to the floor. Both on the floor and in the ring Martel goes into his usual back softening up work. Booker dodges in the corner and hits a side suplex. Missed elbow drop, spinaroonie back up and Booker hits a forearm. Powerslam from Martel. Spinebuster. The Boston Quebec crab is on! Booker is too close to the ropes and easily gets a break. Martel hits a springboard crossbody but Booker rolls it over for 2. Booker roll up for 2. Martel clothesline for 2. Booker hits a flying forearm and the scissors kick. Spinebuster. Booker goes up top. He comes off with a crossbody but Martel dodges and he splats hard on the mat. Martel tries coming off the second rope. He leaps right into the Harlem side kick! Booker gets the pin and the title back! The second of what would be a record six TV title wins. I have more to say, but as soon as the bell rung Saturn leaped into the ring to start the next match.... **3/4

 

WCW World Television Championship: Booker T (c) def Saturn in 14:20- Rings of Saturn! The ref rings the bell again to start the match. Booker gets to the ropes. Saturn small package for 2. More quick pin attempts as Saturn tries to put the tired Booker away quickly. After a bit more beating Booker leaps over in the corner and gets a roll up for 2. Saturn stomps him out of the ring. Booker is whipped into the guardrail and Saturn posts his shoulder. Reversal and now Saturn goes into the guardrail. Saturn is quickly back up with some ground and pound. Back in he gives Booker some arrogant kicks. Corner whip reversal and both guys go for kicks at the same time. Booker catch and powerslam. He's clearly exhausted but still fighting. Saturn 360 clotheslines him out. Plancha! Springboard splash to the floor. Saturn hurt himself on the landing. Back in Booker hits a flying forearm. Saturn dodges and Booker has a huge crash in the corner. Back suplerplex from Saturn. Booker blocks a regular superplex attempt and drops Saturn. Missile dropkick! Spin kick. Saturn gets a full nelson into a half and half suplex. Slow cover for a long 2. Saturn belly to belly suplex for 2. A springboard moonsault hits and Saturn does some more corner beatdown. Booker has some trouble keeping his footing while leaping up to the top rope, recovers nicely by putting one foot on the middle rope instead, but again misses the crossbody. He might want to rethink that move. Big head of steam on rope runs and we have a HUGE midring collision. Saturn hits a powerslam. Booker dodges in the corner and gets a spinebuster. Scissors kick. Side suplex. He goes for the Harlem Hangover but Saturn dodges it. Northern lights suplex for 2. German suplex for 2. Booker flips over another suplex attempt. The side kick hits! Booker gets the pin! Really well done for what was a completely improvised match with no prep time at all. See, Martel was scheduled to win the first match, but partway through he hurt his knee and the result had to be changed on the fly. In fact, he completely tore his MCL, which would end what had been a fantastic comeback. Still finished the damn match too. He'd work one more match for WCW after recovering (ironically against Stevie Ray), get hurt again and fully retire. Because of that change Booker and Saturn had to completely call this whole match in the ring not even knowing it was going to happen before it did. I'd say they did fine, though it would have benefited from being cut down a bit time wise. Booker looked like an absolute star in the making during these two matches, holding the whole thing together superbly. It may not have been the intended result, but it turned out to be the right one. **1/2

 

Disco Inferno def La Parka in 11:39- The Chairman of WCW has his chair with him. While the ref is trying to take it away Parka tosses the chair at Disco! It hit him with a glancing blow, which I'm not sure was supposed to happen or not. Lots of whip fumbling at the start. Parka hits a powerslam. He mocks Disco's dancing and hits a kick. Disco responds with a powerslam for 2. Corner clothesline for 2. Parka hits a short clothesline, then a spinning heel kick that sends Disco out to the floor. Parka corkscrew plancha! Parka does a run where he whips Disco into the guardrail, hits a clothesline, and drops Disco on the guardrail, but in between every move he goes back in the ring to do some more dance mocking. Back in Disco dodges a splash off the top rope. Parka goes to the floor, and Disco does the exact same rail whip/clothesline/rail drop sequence Parka just did. I'm getting deja vu. Parka snaps Disco over the top rope and gives him some kicks back in. Drop toe hold and magistral cradle for 2. More kicks. He uses the top rope to flip Disco out to the floor. Tope suicida! Back in Disco gets a boot up in the corner and Parka posts his shoulder. Disco inverted atomic drop and clothesline for 2. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. The ref inadvertently takes a shot in the eye from Disco. Parka takes advantage and gets his chair. He sits Disco in it and goes to the top rope. Disco gets up and crotches him. After some struggle Disco tosses Parka off the top and face first into the chair. The Chartbuster (a Stunner) hits and it's over. Total clash of styles that went twice as long as it needed to. 1/2*

Mean Gene is with JJ Dillon, who's here to settle the debate about Nick Patrick after his supposed relapse of evil at Starrcade. He calls Patrick out, then says he's got no evidence to support any of the charges against him, therefore Patrick is fully reinstated. Patrick does a crazy over the top celebration that pretty much means he's a heel again. He says he'll be fully vindicated when he refs tonight's main event. Dillon says hold on a second, I didn't say anything about you reffing the main event tonight, we've already got someone else scheduled. Which pretty much guarantees Patrick will end up working it. While ranting about that Patrick screams "What about my back pay?!" and chases after Dillon.

The next match is an unannounced bonus match. The reason for that isn't mentioned on TV: there was originally supposed to be a match tonight with NWO and Scott Hall nemesis Larry Zbyszko facing off against Hall flunkie Louie Spicolli. However, Spicolli died due to a drug overdose the week before the show. Anyone familiar with him or his career honestly likely wasn't too shocked.

 

Bill Goldberg def Brad Armstrong in 2:23- Kind of surprised to see Brad Armstrong still hanging around on the roster. He was a fairly underrated junior heavyweight/cruiserweight in the late '80s and early '90s and was the last WCW Light Heavyweight Champion, but for years now has been little more than a jobber with a name. On the other side, the mega push for Goldberg centered around his undefeated streak is on, though still in its early days. This is his first PPV appearance since it got going. Standing switch and Goldberg gets a leg takedown. He hits some knees and does a rolling takedown. Press powerslam. Belly to belly suplex. Armstrong gets some token offense in. His Russian leg sweep is no sold. Pumphandle suplex. Spear. Jackhammer. Good night. Goldberg squash. 1/2*

 

Title vs Mask Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) def Juventud Guerrera in 13:27- During his entrance Jericho shows how much of a heel he is by ripping up an "I'm a Jerichoholic" sign. He doesn't want to take the belt off and insists on wrestling with it. Heenan says "It's his binky". Commentary goes on a nice riff about how Jericho NEVER takes the belt off in his normal life. Should have tried that with the AEW World title belt, it would never have been stolen. Lockup with the belt still on. Surprising clean break. They trade some arm wringers and escapes. Jericho hits chops. Juvy back kicks the belt! Jericho does a nice delayed sell of that shot. Then he decides, OK, go ahead and take the belt. I first watched this match on Jericho's first WWE DVD compilation set (remember those?) and the whole wrestling with the belt on bit amused me no end for years. Still does. Juvy hits a spinning heel kick. Jericho escapes a headlock and gets a knee to the gut. Another chop. Flying headscissors from Juvy. Springboard spinning heel kick! He springboard hurricanranas Jericho off the apron to the floor! Jericho decides to play dead on the floor, making it obvious by looking around then closing his eyes again, to take the countout. At about 8 Juvy realizes what he's doing and drops an elbow on him. The flaw in the plan. Chops from Juvy back in. Jericho hits forearms. Juvy flips out of a German suplex attempt but Jericho recovers to hot shot him. Springboard dropkick. Jericho slams Juvy on the floor. He sets the stairs up, runs up them, but Juvy counters and Jericho goes into the guardrail! Back in Juvy tries another springboard but Jericho catches him and hits a combination driver/tombstone for 2. Back elbow and arrogant cover for 2. Juvy victory roll for 2. Jericho gets a kick to the head and hits a delayed suplex. Senton and another arrogant cover for 2. Backbreaker with a stretch. Juvy hits some more chops but runs into a Jericho clothesline. Juvy goes up top for a hurricanrana. Jericho blocks it with Juvy on his shoulders and hits an electric chair. Juvy dropkicks Jericho from behind as he's climbing the ropes and he goes to the floor! HUGE Juvy springboard dive that goes all the way to the end of the entrance aisle! Back in Juvy hits a driver. The 450 splash hits! The ref counts 3 and the bell rings, but then the ref realizes Jericho had a hand on the rope and waives it off! While Juvy's arguing Jericho clips his knee. Juvy gets a roll up for 2. Jericho clothesline for 2. He goes for the powerbomb. Juvy counters into a DDT for 2. Jericho blocks a top rope hurricanrana but leaps down into an inverted atomic drop. Juvy springboard hurricanrana for 2. Bridge up spot and Jericho hits a reverse suplex. Lionsault...Juvy dodges! Jericho tries for the Liontamer but Juvy counters with a roll up for 2. He goes for another hurricanrana. Jericho blocks it and puts the Liontamer on in the dead center of the ring! Juvy has no choice but to submit! Clean as a sheet win for Jericho. Though it's good this match isn't *quite* as good as its reputation to me, but it's most certainly the match that really cemented how Jericho can be relentlessly entertaining even as a heel. ***1/2

After the bell Jericho takes a mic to brag and thank all the Jerichoholics for the win, then eggs Juvy on to take the mask off. Juvy gets it undone but hesitates pulling it off so Jericho rips it off his face. After some initial hesitation Juvy plays to the crowd, seeming to embrace his new maskless self. In the end losing the mask wasn't a career killer for him, just a transition from one phase to another.

"The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith def Steve "Mongo" McMichael in 6:10- Bulldog returned to WCW in late January after leaving WWF immediately following the Montreal Screwjob and got right into a feud with Mongo. On a similar note, any particular reason Bret Hart isn't booked at all on this show? He's not even mentioned the entire show. Dropping the ball with him already. Mongo charges right into a drop toe hold. Bulldog hits some forearms. Mongo gets a spinny powerslam and goes into his usual kicky chokey offense. Slam from Mongo but the follow up legdrop misses. Bulldog kicks Mongo's leg a few times then checks the obvious thing off the match list and puts a Sharpshooter on because Montreal will be endlessly referenced. It's not quite as bad as the Rock's, but almost. Mongo slowly reaches out to grab a rope. He eye rakes Bulldog and we get more stompy chokey stuff. Bulldog gets tossed out and Mongo hits a double ax handle off the apron. He knocks Bulldog around the guardrail. Bulldog dodges and Mongo hits the ring post! For real. In fact, he legit broke his arm on that shot. An arm that Bulldog then proceeds to smash all over the ringside area and on the turnbuckle. Off a corner whip reversal Bulldog flops upside down into the corner. Mongo tries a 3 point stance but his arm won't take it. He hits the tackles anyway. He tries to lift Bulldog up for the tombstone but can't hold him. Bulldog hooks on an armbar. After an overlong fight the ref calls for the bell. Afterward Mongo argues with the ref that he never submitted and shoves him down. Typical awful Mongo match with Bulldog putting bare minimum effort in, but credit to Mongo for finishing the damn match after breaking his arm like the Hall of Fame football player he is. The injury would thankfully spell the end of Mongo's big push. He'd come back in the summer but never got to the same level again before leaving for good in the spring of '99. 1/4*

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Diamond Dallas Page (c) def Chris Benoit in 15:43- DDP STILL has taped up ribs. That really is part of his regular ring gear now. It's been nearly a year. They're healing slower than Cowboy Bob Orton's broken arm. Cross corner staredown into a Code of Honor hand slap as this is a face vs face match. Arm wringer tradeoff. Benoit does a rare cartwheel escape. That leads into a nice counter sequence and a stalemate. Speed run and Benoit gets an armdrag. DDP hits some corner elbows. Gutwrench into a gutbuster. Benoit fights a suplex attempt and drops DDP on the top rope. Now DDP blocks a suplex, so Benoit switches gears to go for the Crossface! DDP escapes to the floor and takes a minute to reset himself. Test of strength back in. Benoit does a nice fancy escape into some near fall tradeoffs. Chops from Benoit. DDP hits a back suplex. He goes for the Diamond Cutter! Benoit squirts free and takes his turn to go to the floor and regroup. He and DDP go nose to nose. Slapping! Slugfest! Full on mat brawl! It's completely broken down. Benoit gets a punch in over the ref trying to get a corner break. They go speed again and Benoit counters a monkey flip into a cradle. DDP counters that into a wheelbarrow slam for 2. Benoit hits a basement dropkick to DDP's knee. Short clothesline. Snap mare and Benoit wraps DDP up in a modified cobra clutch. After a bit DDP fights back up and jawbreakers out. Not a full Cutter. DDP pulls himself up in the corner and goes into comeback mode. Benoit cuts it off with a snap suplex for 2. Back to the cobra clutch. DDP escapes. Sleeper from Benoit! DDP tries to back suplex out but Benoit flips through that and puts it on again. Then DDP tries to ram him into the corner. No dice. Finally DDP just flips Benoit over the top rope and down to the floor! Back in DDP hits a discus clothesline. Another slugfest. DDP gets a takedown and calls for the Cutter. Benoit feels it coming and tosses DDP away so hard he goes all the way out to the floor. DDP pops right back up, goes up top and hits a clothesline off the top for 2. He hooks up for a suplex. Benoit counters into the Crossface! It's fully on! DDP barely manages to get a foot on the rope. Small package from DDP for 2, which Benoit then counters for 2. Benoit Bret bumps in the corner. DDP hooks up for a German suplex. Benoit flips out of it, but DDP uses that counter to counter the counter and hits a belly to belly suplex for 2! Standing switch and it's ROLLLLLLLLLLLLING GERMANS time! Benoit hits all three and bridges on the last one for a LONG 2 count! The crowd thought it was 3. DDP counters a hiptoss into a DDT! Nice. Another Cutter attempt. Benoit counters into a backslide. He can't get DDP down so Benoit flips over again. As soon as he lands DDP turns around and hits the Cutter! That gets the pin! That was a beautiful piece of wrestling right there with pretty tight psychology and amazing counter work the entire match, which we know Benoit could do but was also one of DDP's biggest strengths. ****1/4

Tony announces the injured Giant won't be here tonight due to flight issues. He'd been on the shelf since Kevin Nash legit dropped him on his head while trying to jackknife him at Souled Out. As a result of that, the jackknife has been (kayfabe) banned.

No DQ: "The Total Package" Lex Luger def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) in 7:20- It's all NWO matches from here on out. First up is a rematch of the main event of Souled Out, this time with No DQ stips. Luger comes in with *very* taped up ribs after a Savage attack on Nitro. DDP's jealous. Savage charges but Luger's ready for him. He tries a press slam but the ribs give out. Big "Luger sucks" chant from the clearly pro-Savage crowd. Savage kicks the hurt ribs, then tosses Luger over the top and out. Luger gets dropped on the guardrail and Savage kicks his ribs some more. Savage spits on Luger before continuing the rib attack in the ring. He tries a slam but Luger counters with a desperation small package for 2. Back to the ribs and Luger gets tossed out again. More ringside knocking around, including into the crowd. Savage gets a chair and gives Luger's ribs a shot with it. Finally Luger gets a shot in, ramming Savage into the guardrail, but another kick to the ribs puts him right back down again. Suplex from Savage back in. Luger pops back up and hits a powerslam. He gets Savage in the Torture Rack! Elizabeth runs in and pushes Savage out of it! Here comes the NWO. Luger AND Savage both fight them off! The bell rings at this point but wasn't supposed to, causing some confusion. Luger gets Savage up in the Rack again. Savage submits and the ref calls for the bell for real. Hogan reforms the troops and leaves Savage to die, saying "I'm glad he got beat". This is all continued groundwork for the coming NWO civil war. On the plus side, the psychology was tight and Savage at least tried to bring some energy to it. On the bad side, pretty much everything else. *

A short recap of the recent journey of the tag titles: after being screwed out of the belts multiple times by Eric Bischoff early in '97, the Steiners finally beat the Outsiders to win the titles in October on Nitro. The Outsiders took the belts back on Nitro in January, then the Steiners retook them again on Nitro in early February. Now they're going at it one more time.

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Outsiders (w/Dusty Rhodes) def The Steiner Brothers (c) (w/Ted DiBiase) in 4:14- This is definitely a very pro NWO crowd. No survey needed to confirm that. Tony hilariously turns heel on the crowd, saying there's more morons than usual out there. There's none of the hints before the match of the discontent that's been brewing between the Steiners for months, which means something is probably going to happen tonight. Rick and Hall start. Hall goofs around and Rick punches him. Shoulderblock standoff. Rick eye pokes and hits a Steinerline. Belly to belly suplex. Mounted punches from Rick despite Hall's repeated attempts to stop them. Another belly to belly that almost plants Hall on his head. Nash comes in and slugs it out with Rick. Rick Steinerlines him 360 to the floor. The Steiners hit their usual pose, but something about Scott seems off. While they're posing....SCOTT HITS RICK IN THE BACK! Tony: "What in the world did I just see?". Scott double underhook suplexes Rick! Then pops DiBiase! Too sweets all around between Scott and the Outsiders! Hall covers. Rick manages to kick out but it's academic now. Rick slugs out of the NWO corner. Nash gives Rick a shot from behind. Hall needs two tries to get Rick up for the Razor's Edge. He clearly needs to stop doing that. It finally hits and it's over. Scott hands the Outsiders the belts as Rick is hauled off. I'm not wild about it being yet another NWO turn, but that aside Scott's heel turn is fantastic and history shows was clearly the right move for him at this stage of his career. Not much of a match because it was all about the angle. 1/2*

Vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Sting def Hollywood Hogan in 16:30- Here we go. "The biggest rematch in the history of our sport" per Tony. Buffer even throws a little extra Buffer onto the intros. The crowd seems a bit more 50/50 for this one. Sting charges in during his entrance but as soon as he hits the ring Hogan whips him with his weightlifting belt. More belt whips and a belt choke. It's already all Hogan. He puts Sting's jacket over his face and punches him, then chokes Sting with his own jacket. Back rakes! On the floor Sting takes some guardrail shots. Chops from Hogan. Sting takes a glancing blow on the post. Back in Hogan puts Sting in a knucklelock and grinds him down. Sting fights back up until a Hogan kick puts him down again. God forbid Sting gets any offense in this match. Hogan hits some corner knees. Corner clothesline. Slam and elbow drops. Hogan turns to the camera and Sting pops up behind him. Sting pounds away on Hogan in the corner. Inverted atomic drop. He takes Hogan's belt off and whips him back with it. Hogan tries to walk. Sting chokes him with the belt in the aisle. He goes for the Stinger Splash on the floor, but Hogan dodges and Sting crashes into the guardrail. Hogan goes right back to choking. Chairshot. He makes sure to get the weightlifting belt back on. Sting reverses a corner whip and hits a short Stinger Splash. Scorpion Death Lock! Hogan is right by the ropes and easily gets a break. Another Stinger Splash attempt. Hogan pulls ref Lil' Naitch in the way and he gets squashed. Another ref runs in. Of course it's Nick Patrick. Tony is aghast. Hogan legdrop. Sting kicks out! Hogan is shocked at Patrick. Hogan pounds on Sting and Patrick pulls him off! Hogan back suplex for 2. And 2. And 2. Sting uses the knucklelock to bridge up, but Hogan uses it back to grind Sting back down again. Hand stomp. Hogan gets a roll up for 2. He's still mad at Patrick for not fast counting. Sting gets tossed to the floor again and my eyes almost go out of my head I roll them so hard. If I have to type anything about a guardrail shot one more time on this damn show.... Way, way, way overdone. It's like WWF using shots into the ring steps to get that loud noise all the time around the same period, but ten times worse. Once they get done doing the same shit as every other time on the floor Hogan gives Sting a low blow in the ring because he'd been on offense for a whole ten seconds. Hogan clubbing blows wake Sting back up and he starts no selling punches. Sting flex and chest pound. Stinger Splash! A second one! He sets up for the Scorpion Death Drop. As he hits it Hogan kicks Patrick down! Of course. And right on cue here come all the NWO goons. While Sting's fighting them off Savage comes from behind and hits Hogan! Sting covers with no additional moves and Patrick counts 3. Sting FINALLY wins the title, and gets about a quarter of the reaction he would have if they'd had this match at Starrcade, which amazingly had even more bullshit than this one. The only thing the last two months of holding the title up accomplished was killing Sting's momentum stone dead and there was no getting it back. Also, I get the continued setup for the NWO civil war, but come on, can Hogan not take one clean loss to Sting? Is his ego too fragile for that? Anyway, Savage left a spraypaint can for Sting. Sting takes it, sprays WCW on Hogan, takes the belt from Dillon and leaves. Remember all those overwrought 10+ minute NWO celebrations that have closed so many PPVs the past year and a half? Sting get nothing close to that. He was already half out of the ring when he took the belt. Yet another trash NWO Hogan main event. At least Patrick turned out to be straight up after all. 1/4*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Thre's one great and one really good non-NWO match, plus the whole TV title bit came off well thanks to Booker T. Scott's heel turn is a genuinely good moment, but outside of that it's the usual crap from the NWO side. That moment of Hogan laying in the ring with WCW painted on him really should have been the end of the whole thing, but it had become WCW's whole business model and they were either unwilling or unable to change gears.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+