Halloween Havoc '94

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '94

October 23, 1994 from the Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

WCW World Television Championship: The Honky Tonk Man and Johnny B Badd (c) go to a 10:00 time limit draw- Just what WCW fans were clamoring to see, the Honky Tonk Man, another Friend of Hogan coming in and taking a spot. This is his first run with a major company since leaving WWF in late 1990. Badd takes some swings after the bell and Honky hides in the ropes. Badd wins an arm wringer tradeoff. He ducks a Honky punch and hits an atomic drop. Then he musses up Honky's hair! That's almost DQ worthy. Honky has to roll out to recover after that one. Sting is on the hotline to tell you how he feels about Eric Bischoff not bothering to book him tonight not wrestling tonight. Honky takes over with the same slow '80s heel offense he's been doing since time immemorial. Back elbow and it's chinlock time. He cuts off a Badd comeback with a knee to the gut. Badd sunset flip for 2. Honky hooks up for the Shake, Rattle and Roll but Badd backdrops out. Dodge and Badd flies full speed into the corner. Cover from Honky with a foot on the rope for 2. Badd's tossed to the floor and Honky hits a double ax handle off the apron. Back in Honky hooks on his fourth or fifth chinlock so far in the match, I've lost count. 2 minutes left. Badd tries elbows to the gut to get out again, he should be an expert on breaking chinlocks at this point, but Honky gives him a knee to the back. Buckle shots and mounted punches from Badd. One minute left. Badd gets a kneelift and Honky begs off. Honky ducks the Tutti Fuiti punch and hits a back suplex. Both guys choke each other and have an all out roll around mat brawl as time expires. That was as much as you were going to get out of Honky. And way to make Badd look strong after finally winning his first title. Not just drawing with Honky, but he was on defense for 75% of the match. 1/2*

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Pretty Wonderful def Stars & Stripes (c) in 13:47- Stars & Stripes failed to take the tag titles from Pretty Wonderful at Fall Brawl, but then defeated them on weekly TV just the week after. S&S run to the ring and try to fire the crowd up but don't get much response. They're good with chanting USA and booing the heels but rooting for these specific guys is another matter. Orndorff and Patriot start. Rough lockup. All four guys are quickly in and brawling. Orndorff tosses Patriot outside while Bagwell clotheslines Roma 360 and out. Rail shot for Orndorff and Patriot hits an ax handle off the top back in the ring. The faces knock Orndorff around then go to work on Roma's arm. Roma with a slam and fistdrop off the top rope on Bagwell for 2. Bagwell crossbody for 2. S&S double team and work Roma's arm some more. Bagwell sunset flip off the top for 2. Orndorff tags in and runs into a drop toe hold. Bagwell and Orndorff collide with each guy clearly having different ideas on what they were supposed to be doing. Bagwell recovers to hit a slam. Orndorff powders, lures Bagwell into the heel corner and gets him in peril with some double teams. Bagwell gives Roma some forearms, works his way over and tags. Patriot corner clothesline for 2. More arm work on Roma. Roma pulls Bagwell's tights to send him face first into the heel corner. Orndorff breaks out the dreaded boogie woogie elbow. Think he's toned that down a bit since the last PPV, this one couldn't be mistaken for an epileptic seizure. Bagwell completely fucks up a simple whip and Orndorff walks over and gives him some possibly get your shit together stiff shots. Roma rolls through some power moves. Bagwell hits a springboard "crossbody" off the second rope (his leg hit Roma right in the face) for 2. Roma cuts a tag off. Orndorff dropkick and elbow to the gut. Bagwell blocks and hits a suplex. Instead of tagging he covers for 2. Backslide from Bagwell. Roma breaks it up. Bagwell boot up in the corner and he hooks a sleeper on Orndorff. Donnybrook! After a few minutes ref Randy Anderson finally gets Patriot to listen to him. Same thing happened at Fall Brawl. It has to be the mask. Bagwell hits Orndorff with the perfectplex, but Roma hits him with an elbow off the top and Orndorff covers for the pin to get the titles back. That was 15 minutes that felt like 30. Bagwell is not progressing like the super hot rookie he was touted as back in '91, which is possibly why he's been kept in the tag division with random partners. For comparison, Badd debuted the same year at about the same level of experience and has come miles since then. *1/2

Dave Sullivan def Kevin Sullivan by countout in 5:17- After dispatching Cactus Jack to the Shadow Realm Kevin grew tired of his brother Dave's Hulkamania experimentation and set off a brother vs brother feud. Bret Hart vs Owen Hart, which carried WWF for most of this same year, this is not. Dave comes out to a new song called "I Want To Be A Hulkamaniac" and it's a saccharine coated earworm nightmare. Think the It's a Small World song, but even worse. I'm a Disney World fanatic but I categorically refuse to ever ride that ride because I don't want that song in my head for the rest of time. Kevin tries to jump but Dave beats him to the punch. An elbow sends Kevin to the floor. Corner chops from Kevin back in. Dropkicks. Dave blocks a buckle shot and pummels Kevin with them. Horrible backdrop. Kevin pulls tights and sends Dave to the floor again. Dave gets posted. Kevin beatdown in the ring. He grabs Dave's Hogan bandana and stuffs it in his mouth, then hits double stomps to the gut. Kevin goes up top but Dave slams him off, then puts the Hogan bandana in his mouth. Clothesline and big boot. Kevin begs off and uses the bandana to pretend he really likes Hogan now, honest. Of course it's all a RUSE. Brawl on the floor and Dave is posted again, but he manages to roll back in to beat the count while Kevin takes his time and gets himself counted out. Woof. As bad as this is, it's only the warmup to the horrors that are to come. A little something called the Dungeon of Doom. 1/4*

 

"The Natural" Dustin Rhodes def Arn Anderson (w/Col. Robert Parker and Meng) in 9:50- The long Rhodes/Stud Stable feud was blown off in War Games at Fall Brawl but we've still got some end of war skirmishes to mop up, like Dustin getting one on one revenge on Arn for turning on him. Like he should have expected anything else. Lockup stalemate. Arn blocks a hiptoss and gets an amateur takedown. Dustin counters with a headscissors and another stalemate. Arn frustrates Dustin by complaining about phantom hair pulls, like he's got anything back there to pull. Cheap shot by Arn on a rope break. Dustin responds, blocks a kick, spins Arn into an atomic drop and clotheslines the back of his head. Dustin goes up top but Arn smacks one of his legs out from under him, crotching him. Arn goes for a superplex. Dustin blocks and headbutts out. Lariat off the top for 2. Dustin loads up a bionic elbow but Arn cuts it off with a straight right. He tries coming off the second rope. Dustin gets a boot up but Arn sees it, lands on his feet out of harm's way, and drops an elbow. He goes for a figure four but Dustin pushes him all the way to the floor. Brawl on the floor and Arn ends up posting his shoulder. Dustin goes to work on it. Arn pulls hair but Dustin hangs onto the arm and hooks on an armbreaker. Inverted atomic drop from Dustin. He charges, but Arn dodges and Dustin flies over the top rope all the way to the entrance ramp! Gut punch from Arn back in for 2. He tries a leverage pin but Dustin gets him in a body scissors. That was the spot where Arn normally crotches himself, nice change up. Arn uses it to drag Dustin and slingshot him up into the bottom rope! Slugfest. Double clothesline. More slugfest. Dustin kick combo and lariat for 2. Arn tries to counter a backdrop into a DDT. Dustin blocks it by grabbing the rope and immediately follows up with an elbow drop. Dustin hot shot! He pulls his kneepad down and tries to kneedrop Arn's hurt shoulder. Arn rolls out of the way. He goes for a piledriver. Dustin backdrops out, but Arn rolls through it into a sunset flip. He puts a foot on the rope but the ref catches him. Dustin stacks him up and that gets a pin! After the bell Arn punches Dustin out and gives him a DDT. Good stuff with two old veterans (Dustin had been around long enough already to be called that) doing their thing, with some tight psychology. ***1/4

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (c) def "Stunning" Steve Austin by DQ in 8:02- This is a "rematch" from Fall Brawl, if you could call the farce that happened there a match. Austin jumps Duggan before the bell. He's still got the "US Champ" tights on. Duggan responds with clotheslines and a slam. Duggan with a sleeper! Who knew he even knew how to do that? Austin flips out and goes to work on Duggan's knee. Duggan pushes, Austin flies all the way into the post, and Austin rolls him up for 2. Austin does the good ol' eye poke and goes back to the knee. Duggan atomic drops Austin out to the floor. Austin stalls and whips out the insincere handshake offer back in. Duggan has none of it. Austin hits a couple of double ax handles off the second rope. He goes for a third but Duggan clotheslines him in midair. More punches and Austin tries to hide behind the ref. Low blow! Nick Patrick reads Austin the riot act. Austin stomps a mudhole in Duggan but passes on walking it dry. Elbow drop off the second rope for 2. He tries coming off top but Duggan dodges, with Austin taking an incredible bounce off the mat that's only partially caught on camera. Pillar to post beating. Duggan gets in the 3 point stance, charges, and Austin backdrops him over the top rope for a cheap DQ. Duggan chases him off with the 2x4 after. Like Honky Tonk earlier, Austin got all he could out of pretty much washed up Duggan. *3/4

Mean Gene brings unbooked Sting out. He's going to sit ringside with Muhammad Ali, who's been there the whole show.

 

Vader (w/Harley Race) def The Guardian Angel in 8:17- Another feud that won't die, and it's starting to get past its sell by date. Remember Vader winning a #1 contender's match for the world title at Fall Brawl? Neither does WCW. Angel has a bunch of Guardian Angels come out with him. Vader gets in Ali's face during his entrance. Angel gets a preemptive strike on Race before the bell. Vader helps Race up on the floor. Bell. Vader plays to the crowd before locking up. Angel slaps Vader in the corner. That's bold strategery, Cotton. Vader lays in the corner potatoes. Short clotheslines. Angel goes 360 to the floor. Vader gets whipped into the guardrail and clotheslined. Angel chases Race into the ring and takes him out again. Angel slams Vader onto Race! The mask is off. Avalanche from Angel. More potato shots from Vader. Angel gives Vader a suplex and big boot. More punches from Vader, straight shots right to Angel's jaw that are seriously nasty looking and get gasps from the crowd. Vader does his usual spot of coming off the second rope and getting slammed. Angel headbutt off the top for 2. Enzuguri. Angel clotheslines Vader 360 over and Vader lands on his feet. Clothesline from Vader. He appeared to hurt his arm, but Angel is also out. Not sure what happened there but it didn't look like everything went to plan. Vader bomb! Slow cover and Angel kicks out. Vader goes for another. Angel gets his knees up. Angel big splash for 2. Spinebuster for 2. Boss Man Slam. Race distracts again. Angel goes over and suplexes Race off the apron into the ring. But as soon as he lands Vader nails him with a big splash! Vader gets the pin! Brilliant finish, as Angel's obsession with Race ends up costing him the match. It's nice to see a top heel win by legitimately outsmarting his opponent every once in a while. Vader won a couple against Sting that way too. ***

The Nasty Boys def Bunkhouse Buck and Terry Funk (w/Col. Robert Parker and Meng) in 7:56- The Stud Stable attacked the Nastys in their locker room after Fall Brawl to set this up. Knobbs has no shirt on during the attack which is practically an affront to humanity. I mean, he looks like I would and I know no one wants to see that. They Nastys bring a carved pumpkin to the ring because it's Halloween. As soon as they hit the ring the brawl is on. The Nastys clear the ring as the heels roll out wrapped up together in a heap and try to fight each other. Long stall, then reset with Knobbs and Funk. Funk gets pummeled and falls through the ropes. Sags sits on Funk and the Nastys give him the dreaded pit stop. Funk is furious. Sags gets beaten down in the heel corner but fights out. Buck gets knocked around and Funk is whipped into him as the heels fall to the floor again. Funk grabs a chair and hits himself in the head with it literally about a dozen times, then wanders into the crowd. I think Funk is going completely off script here. Back in Funk grabs a headlock, works himself up the ropes in the middle of the ring, and gets chopped off down to the floor. Now I think Funk is just trying to amuse himself. Buck chokes Sags with a rope. The heels try to double team Sags but he faceplants them both. Buck trips Knobbs from the floor. He puts on some knucks but the ref catches him. Meng tries to take a shot but hits Funk instead. Sags piledrives Funk through their pumpkin because it's Halloween, and it's over. What a mess, and I'm not talking about cleaning up the remains of the pumpkin. Way to make the Stud Stable look like a bunch of geeks. Funk left WCW almost right after this. DUD

 

Career vs Career Steel Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (w/Sensuous Sherri) in 19:25- Mr. T is the special guest referee for this one. The main story here, apart from the career vs career stipulation, is Hogan's knee that's been wounded by attacks by a mysterious masked man over the past couple of months. Buffer, will you shut up and let the match start, people aren't here to see you even though you clearly think they are. The cage isn't lowered until after entrances and everyone is in the ring. There's pyro galore as the cage is lowered. I mean TONS of pyro. Flair looks annoyed at it. Hogan's got his shirt tucked in his trunks to keep and use later. Flair goes to lock up but Hogan says screw your lockup, kicking Flair and eye raking him. Flair blocks a cage shot. Hogan backdrop and clotheslines. Flair begs off. Hogan with mounted punches, and he uses the cage to stomp Flair. T pulls him down and gets on him. Flair uses the opening for an eye poke. Chops. Flair takes the first cage shot. Flair Flop! Flair punches Hogan's bad knee and starts working on it. He gets in a shoving match with T. Hogan's run into the cage. Snap mare/kneedrop combo. Hogan reverses a whip and hits a corner clothesline. More cage shots for Flair. Hogan chokes Flair with his shirt. T gets on Hogan again and again Flair uses that opening. Delayed suplex from Flair. Punches and Flair struts around a bit. Hogan responds with punches and chops of his own. Flair tries to climb out. Hogan follows and gives Flair a cage shot on the top of the cage. Flair falls and gets crotched on the top rope. Back down Flair gets a boot up in the corner and goes for the figure four. Hogan reverses into a small package for 2. More chops that Hogan no sells. Flair goes into the cage again. Hogan gives him the cheese grater, which doesn't really work when there's no blood. And there should be blood in this match of all matches. Hogan back suplex for 2. Flair tries climbing again and Hogan chases. Flair dangles upside down over the top of the cage and Hogan rams his face into the cage. Hogan chops and Flair falls. Hogan grabs a headlock. Flair uses it to give Hogan a kneebreaker! Now we're going to school. Flair pulls the tape off the knee. Figure four! Hogan sells it, then stops and reverses it. Flair quickly lets go. T takes a ref bump. Flair hits a back suplex. Cover, Hogan kicks out and Flair lands on T. Flair stomps T! Sherri starts climbing the cage. Jimmy Hart pulls her down, pulling her skirt off in the process. Sherri hits Hart, climbs again, and this time Sting comes out of the crowd to stop her. The masked man comes out from under the ring! He hits Sting and Hart with his lead pipe. Sherri climbs and comes off the top of the cage onto Hogan's back, which he no sells. Hogan points at Sherri. Flair chop blocks Hogan! Sherri and Flair handcuff T to the bottom rope. Hogan gets run into the masked man's pipe. Flair and Sherri have some trouble coordinating what they want to do. They settle for Flair hitting another suplex while Sherri stomps T. Hogan no sells the suplex. Double clothesline for the heels. Hogan slams them both. Then clotheslines them both again. Sherri tries to escape and Hogan slams her off the top rope. Flair climbs and Hogan gives him more top of the cage shots. Big boot for Sherri. Flair chops Hogan, only causing him to Hulk Up more. Point, 3 punches, big boot, legdrop, T counts 3 while still handcuffed and good night. I've got a lot of thoughts on this one. Good match? Sure, though spectacle might be a better word with all the crazy overbooking. Best Flair/Hogan match so far? Probably. But I've got too many quibbles to put this into the upper tier: no blood; too much Superman Hogan; all the overbooking when all you need for Hogan vs Flair is Hogan vs Flair; and the career vs career stakes never felt as huge as they should have, continuing the trend of this epic feud of, at that point, the two greatest and biggest wrestlers of all time not quite feeling like the earth shattering event that it should be. Close, but not quite. To the surprise of no one Flair's forced retirement from the stip would last about as long as a real life retirement and he'd be back at the first of the following year. Fortunately his pairing with Sherri ended here, they never clicked together. ***1/2

While Hogan's celebrating the masked man runs out again and tries to attack, but of course Hogan beats him to the punch. While he's laid out Hogan finally gets the mask off......and *gasp shock* it's Hogan's BFF Brutus Beefcake! Oh wait, we can't use that copyrighted name. Er, Brother Bruti. Hogan is SHOCKED. Bruti pleads for his life. Kevin Sullivan runs out, as does the WCW debuting EARTHQUAKE! Except that name's copyrighted too so we can't use it even though he's still wearing his WWF gear. Commentary just calls him "the big man" but it's obvious they know who he is, they don't pretend he came out of nowhere which is good. Quake lays Hogan out with his powerslam and gives him the Earthquake splash. Sting runs in to make the save. The show ends with Hogan getting carried out, so kudos to them for that at least. Well gird your loins folks. You think it's been rough the last few PPVs? You ain't seen nothing yet. The Three Faces of Fear, the precursor to the Dungeon of Doom, are here.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A very rough start, an up and down middle, and a good but not great main event to end the Hogan/Flair feud for now. The transition to the Hogan era roster continues with more Friends of Hogan getting spots, leading to a general marked downturn in quality that's not going to get any better for quite a while.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

NXT Takeover: Respect

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: Respect

October 7, 2015 from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL

Commentary: Rich Brennan, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton

It's a short turnover from Brooklyn as this is only about a month and a half after. Maybe this was to appease Full Sail for them not having a Takeover for the first time. They better get used to it. Oh great, the pink ring rope is here. October show back when Shyster G Komen had all the sports leagues in the country wrapped around their little finger in October. Fortunately that's something else that's changed. They've put a lot of work into making the stage setup look different tonight. The Dusty Classic trophy is set up on the stage. This was the first ever tournament, just months after Dusty passed away, so it really does have a special feel around it rather than the yearly checking off a box it's become since. It also came at a very opportune time, as they'd put a lot of work into finally building up the NXT tag division and this was a great way to showcase it.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Semifinals: NXT Champion Finn Balor and Samoa Joe def Dash and Dawson in 8:45- SAY YEAH! After a long time in the NXT system this is the first Takeover appearance for the team soon to be known as The Revival, and later down the road FTR, on their way to becoming the BEST TAG TEAM on this PLANET. Yes, I'm a big fan. Dash and Dawson beat the tag champ Vaudvillians in the second round, which will be important after the tournament was over. Balor and Joe agreed to form a superteam for the tournament in honor of Dusty and everyone, I mean EVERYONE, was waiting for one of them to turn on the other. No fooling around, Dawson gets right on the apron after their entrance, and Dash charges and takes Balor out while Balor and Joe were debating who was going to start! Joe takes momentum back with a series of shots. Corner charge by Joe. Dawson pulls Dash out of harm's way and Joe crashes. Double team fists a flyin' in the heel corner. Joe takes a long beating from both Dash and Dawson with commentary saying they've never seen Joe pummeled like this before. Joe dodges in the corner and hits Dash with an enzuguri. Dawson tries to cut the tag off but Joe makes it to Balor. Clothesline on Dawson and Balor knocks Dash off the apron. Receipt cashed. Corner chops on Dawson and Dash gets knocked down to the floor again. A dropkick sends Dawson outside as well. Balor tope con hilo! He rolls Dawson back in. John WOOOOOO dropkick! Dash cuts off the Coupe de Gracie. Dawson with a chop block to Balor's knee! Dash and Dawson go to work on it with quick tags and keeping Balor right by their corner. Balor's knee is posted. Brennan says they're "very mechanical in nature", a reference, maybe an automatic verbal tic, to their original name that didn't stick, the Mechanics. Saxton name drops the Brain Busters and Minnesota Wrecking Crew as inspirations for Dash and Dawson, which was music to my ears back watching this live and still learning about them. Dawson puts on a half crab and jaws at Joe a bit. I don't think that's going to end well. Balor gets to the ropes. Dawson tries to put on a figure four but Balor pushes him out to the floor. He crawls over to tag. Dash pops up behind Joe from under the ring and pulls him off the apron! Brilliant. Dash and Dawson hit the Decapitation Device! Balor kicks out! Dawson's frustrated. Balor gets a knee up in the corner (the good knee), dodges, and Dawson goes into the middle turnbuckle and falls to the floor. Dash rolls him back in, tags, and cuts Balor off again. Balor keeps fighting and gets the tag to Joe! Joe with an inverted atomic drop, big boot and senton. Scoop powerslam for 2. Uranage! He sets up the muscle buster. Balor says he wants to tag back in. Joe does. Muscle buster! Coupe de Gracie! But Balor tweaked his knee again! He manages to cover Dash and gets the pin. Damn good match. Great initial coming out party for the Revival and Balor now has a wound to watch in the finals. ***1/2

 

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Semifinals: Baron Corbin and Rhyno def Chad Gable and Jason Jordan in 10:28- Ready, willing, and Gable. This is the team that will soon be known as American Alpha and Full Sail already loves them. They had some wonderful quick backstage promo bits on weekly TV while their team was being put together. Corbin and Rhyno decided to put their differences aside after their match a couple of Takeovers ago to try for the Dusty Cup. Unusual for Corbin as he clearly didn't play well with others. This is going to be a definite clash of styles. Jordan and Corbin start. Lockup! Jordan gets some waist takedowns. Corbin uses a waistlock to swing Jordan to the floor. Jordan pops right back in, hits the ropes, Corbin tries to hip toss him but Jordan flips through and lands on his feet! Corbin wins a shoulderblock exchange. Jordan deadlifts Rhyno! Amateur pin for 2. Tag and Gable leaps over with a sunset flip while Jordan holds Rhyno. Rhyno lays in shots in the corner. The crowd starts to chant "Gable" to the theme of Kurt Angle's music. I've been saying for years WWE has had the next Kurt Angle in Gable. Full Sail knew it too. Not to take a thing away from Jordan, he was fantastic before his unfortunate career ending neck injury (and before main roster booking got a hold of him but I'm not going into all of that). Gable does some maneuvering into a hammerlock on Rhyno and they trade arm wringers. Rhyno has enough and runs Gable over. Tag to Jordan and the faces quick tag and stay on Rhyno's arm, sticking to game plan on the bigger man. Double suplex for 2. Rhyno tries to get Gable into the ropes. Gable flips over the ropes and stretches an armbar! Gable was a fantastic amateur wrestler, but that was a page right out of Minoru Suzuki's book. Charge from Rhyno and Gable flies off the apron. Corbin runs Gable into the apron. Cover for 2. The heels go into somewhat slow beatdown mode but generally keep things moving. Gable slips out of a slam, tries for a tag, but Corbin pulls him back by his hair! Big boot. The ref was distracted by Jordan arguing and is slow to get over for a 2 count. Rhyno goes up top. Gable dodges the headbutt. Graves: "That's why Rhyno generally stays away from the top rope". Tags. Jordan with dropkicks. He tosses Rhyno out. Saito suplex on Corbin. The straps are down! Corner spear! Tag to Gable. Corbin fights out of the corner before they can get their finisher. Deep six on Gable! Rhyno with a belly to belly suplex on Jordan. Gable roll up deadlift German suplex on Corbin, with a bridge! Rhyno breaks the pin up! Gore on Jordan! Gable does a tiltawhirl around Corbin.....right into End of Days! Cover for 3. Solid match, fantastic finish sequence. ***1/4

 

So the tournament only superteams will be in the finals of the tournament, but the immediate future of the tag division is very clearly set with the semifinal losers. In fact, between here and the next Takeover Dash and Dawson used their tournament win over the champs to get a title shot on weekly TV and won, the first of the famous seven stars for 7 Star FTR. Top guys, out.

Really good video package for Asuka, the former Kana, making her hugely hyped in-ring debut tonight. Lots of footage from beautiful and historic Korakuen Hall in there. OK, maybe not beautiful as you would normally define it, but it's holy ground for wrestling in Japan and WWE needs to run a televised show there one day.

 

Asuka def Dana Brooke (w/Emma) in 5:25- As I mentioned before, Asuka is my favorite women's wrestler of all time, so if any bias shows here or in the future it's just because of that. Brooke and Emma had been arrogantly lording over everyone else in NXT, so this is their natural comeuppance. "Asuka's gonna kill you!" chant at the start. Asuka offers a Code of Honor handshake. Brooke slaps it away. Some jockeying before locking up. Asuka wrestles rings around Brooke while focusing on the arm. Brooke back elbows out and gives Asuka her famous condescending head pat. Not a smart move. Asuka slaps. Brooke slaps back harder. Really not a smart move. Asuka smiles! "You fucked up" chant from the crowd. Asuka strike flurry. Hip attack. Asuka mocks Brooke's entrance pose! Brooke's pissed. She charges. Asuka grabs her by the arm and grounds her. Brooke gets to the ropes. Kicks to the back from Asuka. Brooke rolls out. Asuka follows with more kicks. Emma grabs Asuka from behind and Brooke gives her a cutter in the ropes. Cover for 2. Some corner work from Brooke. Short clothesline. Body scissors. Asuka easily escapes and grabs an ankle lock. She suplexes Brooke by the ankle! Armbreaker! Brooke tries to roll out. Asuka kicks her in the head! Emma gets on the apron. Asuka knocks her off with a spinning back fist! Sliding kick on Brooke. Asuka Lock! Brooke taps! After the bell Brooke starts jawing again so Asuka kills her with a spinning kick to the head! The way she's holding her head while she's down Asuka might have caught her stiff on that. Asuka and Emma stare down on the floor and Emma wisely backs off. So begins the longest undefeated streak in the history of wrestling. Hashtag better than Goldberg. Brooke was still nowhere near good but she was a perfectly workable punching bag for Asuka's debut. ***

Ad for Shyster G Komen. I'm so glad everyone wised up to the fact that almost none of the money that was pouring into them in donations was going to actual cancer research and stopped promoting them so heavily every October. After that we see Balor with the trainers, working on his knee. Promo video for Nia Jax, coming next week. Oh, joy.

 

Apollo Crews def Tyler Breeze in 8:50- Fairly split crowd here as Breeze has been an NXT staple since the FCW days, and Crews has had that "not quite ready for prime time" look about him since his debut in Brooklyn. Rough lockup and basic start. Crews hits a dropkick and Breeze rolls out. Crews runs him over on the floor! Long delayed suplex back in for 2. After some corner reversals Breeze hits a kick and uses a cradle to roll Crews to the floor. He tosses Crews into the apron. Breeze targets Crews' back and goes to work on it. Whip reversal, Breeze ripcord knee and modified vertebraker for 2. Breeze goes up top. Crews grabs him and presses him off. Breeze escapes, does a leg takedown and hooks on a Sharpshooter! Crews teases tapping before fighting to the ropes. Breeze argues with the ref and Crews hits a clothesline. Breeze goes back to the back. Mounted punches. Crews lifts him up and carries him. Breeze turns it into a hurricanrana! He charges but Crews hits a standing enzuguri. Breeze backdrops Crews over the top rope but he lands on the apron. Flip back in. Breeze superkick! Crews kicks out! Springboard dropkick from Breeze that looked a ways off target but Crews sells it anyway. Breeze comes off the top again. Crews catches him and powerslams him for 2. Gorilla press. Breeze grabs Crews' leg. Crews shakes him off and goes for the standing moonsault. Breeze gets his knees up! Small package for 2. Series of running elbows by Breeze. Crews counters with a big boot. Power bomb! That gets the pin. Pretty underwhelming match that will do noting to dispel the notion that Crews, for all his obvious athletic talent, wasn't quite on the level of the other big name indy singing that have been coming in. He was still learning. On the other side, another solid performance by consistent and underrated workhorse Breeze in what would be his last NXT match. He'd move to the main roster later in the month, gain zero traction, and would end up teaming up with Fandango for a pairing best remembered for their hilarious Zucker Brothers/Police Squad style comedy bits called Fashion Files. Which were really, really funny. **3/4

The still injured Hideo Itami is in the crowd, along with FUNAKI! SMACKDOWN #1 ANNOUNCER!

 

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Finals: Finn Balor and Samoa Joe def Baron Corbin and Rhyno in 10:57- The big question going in is, will Balor's knee hold up? Balor's severely breaking wrestling etiquette by not having his knee all taped up to say to everyone "HERE'S AN INJURY, TARGET IT". Brandi "Eden Stiles" Rhodes is back to do ring announcing for this match, with commentary openly acknowledging her marriage to Cody so she's a Rhodes by marriage. Balor and Rhyno start. Balor ducks under and rolls Rhyno up for 2. Shoving. Corbin tags in. He and Balor jockey and feel each other out for a bit. Finally Corbin kicks the bad knee. Balor hits a dropkick and tags out before any more damage can be done. Fists of fire from Joe. Kick and kneedrop. Corbin hits a flash powerbomb! He follows that with some ground and pound. Rhyno belly to belly suplex. Joe goes in peril and the heels go into slow beatdown mode. Interesting call having Joe be the mid-match FIP guy instead of Balor with the bum knee. Corbin hits avalanches and a big boot. Joe reverses a corner whip and hits an enzuguri. Tag to Balor. John WOOOOO dropkick on Rhyno as he comes in. Forearm on Corbin that maybe was supposed to be a slingblade and they just didn't pull it off right. Balor's knee twinges again and Corbin gives him a big boot. Rhyno clips Balor's knee while he's on the apron. Corbin posts it and start working on it. Balor fights out of the heel corner but runs into a deep six. Slingblade outta nowhere! Tags on both sides. Joe runs over Rhyno but does the exact same hot tag move combination he did in the semifinal match. GORE! GORE! GORE! (copyright Paul Heyman) Balor breaks the pin up! Corbin goes for End of Days but Balor swings around and turns it into a DDT. He clotheslines Corbin 360 to the floor and gives him an apron PK. Rhyno knocks Balor off the apron. He sets up for another gore on Joe. Joe counters with a kick. Tag to Balor and they do the muscle buster/Coupe de Gracie combo again to get the pin and win the tournament! This wasn't nearly on the level of the semifinal matches. It's almost as if the two best teams lost those matches. I think the fact they got through the whole thing without either Balor or Joe turning on the other took the wind out of the sails for some people too. **1/4

The Dusty trophy is in the ring along with all the Rhodes kids, including Cody and Dustin, both of whom were still with WWE at this point. Cody cuts a nice little promo. Man he's come a long way on the mic since those days.

Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Lita and the inventor of women's wrestling Stephanie McMahon are ringside for the first ever women's Takeover main event, a truly deserved honor after they tore the house down in Brooklyn. It also helped that the NXT Champion was doing the Dusty tournament instead of defending.

 

30 Minute Ironman Match for the NXT Women's Championship: Bayley (c) def Sasha Banks-

FALL ONE: Both women soak up the atmosphere with the crowd giving them all the love. Long lockup stalemate. Banks grabs a headlock with dueling chants going. She rolls through some quick pin attempts. Bayley shoulderblock and she also goes through some quick pin tries. More quick covers from both as they both try for an early lead. Banks ends the run with a dropkick. Staredown. Bayley hits some Japanese armdrags, including one that almost drops Banks on her head. Flying headscissors from Banks. Corner counters and they both block each other's finishers, a testament to how well they know each other by this point. Bayley helps Banks back up. Banks responds by grabbing Bayley's hair and yanking her down to the mat! There's the Boss. No more playing nice. Cover for 2. "Like a boss" chant. Bayley gets a back elbow in the corner. Series of elbows and dropkick. Banks rolls outside. Bayley corner baseball slide! Twice! Faceplant back in for 2. Banks rolls Bayley up and puts her feet on the ropes but the ref catches her. Both women almost squash the ref in the corner (I wouldn't complain). Banks uses her position blocking the ref's view to give Bayley an eye poke, rolls her up and gets a pin! 1-0 Banks with 21:28 left.

FALL TWO: Banks lays on the aggression. Bayley gets a leg takedown, setting off a mat brawl. Buckle shots for Banks. Banks turns and Bayley crashes into the middle turnbuckle. She sets Bayley up for the corner double kneedrop. Bayley catches her coming down and drops her over the top turnbuckle. Banks pops up with a forearm. Bayley to belly! Pin for Bayley! We're tied 1-1 with 19:05 left.

FALL THREE: Banks goes to the floor. Bayley tries the corner slide again. Banks catches her, pulls her out and SWINGS her into the stairs! Roll in and cover for 2. Banks tosses Bayley out again and throws her into the stairs again. And again. Banks yells at Izzy at ringside! She was a well known young Bayley superfan, her and her family were Full Sail regulars. Another cover for 2 and another toss out. Banks points at Izzy, goes up the ramp....and throws Bayley right into one of the tron boards set up on the stage! Horrible camera work on that too, it was in close up on Bayley the whole time. The ghost of Kevin Dunn strikes NXT. The board shorts out and Bayley is dead. Banks walks back to the ring and pulls a bow out of Izzy's hair on the way! She puts the bow on and struts around the ring! Bayley is counted out and it's 2-1 Banks with 15:47 left.

FALL FOUR: Banks is still mocking Izzy. Izzy is bawling while her dad his holding her! Now THAT is heel work. Absolutely phenomenal. Bayley tries to get back in but Banks gives her a baseball slide. She rolls Bayley in and covers for 2 as we hit the halfway mark. Banks mocks Bayley's tube man wave while dishing out more punishment. She pulls Bayley into a backbreaker. Boston crab from Banks, and she leans back into almost a full Walls of Jericho old style. Bayley slowly crawls to the ropes. Banks goes for it again. Bayley flips her over and gets a cradle for a pin! Tied again 2-2 with 12:38 left.

FALL FIVE: Izzy's good again. Banks sets Bayley up in the corner upside down. Bayley still dodges the double kneedrop! Running double ax handles from Bayley. She faceplants Banks with a move that I don't think went how they planned. Corner elbows. Diving back elbow off the second rope for 2. Bayley suplexes Banks into the tree of woe. Springboard elbow for 2! 10 minutes left. Both go up top. Banks slides out and puts Bayley in the tree of woe. Springboard double kneedrop! Cover for 2. She puts Bayley in the tree again. Charge, dodge, and Banks posts her shoulder. She falls to the floor. Bayley follows and smashes Banks' hand onto the steps! Receipt from what Banks did to her at Brooklyn. Bayley adjusts the steps and gives Banks more hand smashes. Bayley runs up the steps and comes off with a flying clothesline. Banks pushes and Bayley goes backwards hard into the steps. Banks tope suicida....Bayley catches her! Bayley to belly on the floor! Roll in and cover. Banks kicks out! 5 minutes left. Bayley sets Banks up top. Both are moving slow as we get deep into the match. Banks fights her off. Bayley springs back up. Super Bayley to belly! Banks rolls to the edge of the ring and JUST gets a foot on the rope to prevent a pin! Bayley sets Banks up top again, backwards. She's looking for the super poisonrana again. She does it, but Banks rolls through and lands on her feet! BANKS BAYLEY TO BELLY! Bayley kicks out! But Banks goes right into the Banks Statement! 2 minutes left. Bayley fights. Graves points out Banks can't fully lock the hold on because of the hand Bayley hurt earlier. When they get close to the ropes Banks pushes off with her foot and flips them over. Bayley tries to escape during that but Banks gets the hold back on. 1 minute left. Bayley grabs Banks' bad hand and smashes it on the mat! 30 seconds left. Banks goes for the Banks Statement again. Bayley rolls through it into an armbreaker! She stretches Banks' bad hand! Banks submits with 4 seconds left! Time expires and Bayley wins 3-2! It's not quite on the level of their Brooklyn masterpiece but it's still a fantastic match worthy of a Takeover main event. I'm a sucker for Ironman matches too, it's one of my favorite stipulations and we need another one. A 60 minute one. ****1/4

After half the match is replayed (I just watched the match, I don't need to see it all again) we see the whole NXT roster is on the stage applauding. Triple H and GM William Regal have flowers. Regal gives Banks flowers on the floor and she breaks down crying. Trips gets in the ring with Bayley, raises her hand and gives her the flowers. Bayley celebrates in the ring as the show closes. This would be Banks' last NXT match. She'd join Charlotte and Lynch on the main roster full time while Bayley kept the 4 Horsewomen flag flying in NXT.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Outside the main event it's all more good than great. There's nothing outside the Ironman match that anyone needs to go out of their way to see. Full Sail brings their all after the last Takeover went on the road, the crowd is nuclear all night long. All in all a solid midrange Takeover.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+

Fall Brawl '94

Legacy Review

Fall Brawl '94

September 18, 1994 from the Roanoke Civic Center in Roanoke, VA

Commentary: Tony Schaivone and Bobby Heenan

WCW gave Hulk Hogan millions in guaranteed money, put the world title on him in his very first match with the company, were almost literally rebuilding the company around him.....and he's already taking PPVs off. Welcome to the new WCW.

 

During commentary's stand up open, which Mean Gene has been sitting, er, standing in on the last few shows, Okerlund says that he'll be talking to Hogan later in the show.....via satellite from Venice Beach. The crowd boos that.

WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B Badd def Lord Steven Regal (c) (w/Sir William) in 11:08- Regal first won the TV title at last year's Fall Brawl and, other than a one month blip where Larry Zbyszko took it, has held it since. Meanwhile, Badd has slowly and clearly been improving in the ring but had been unsuccessful in multiple opportunities at both the TV and US titles and was still titleless in his 3 year WCW career. Regal's got the rare alternate powdered wig look back tonight. Someone got the preorder exclusive code. Usual Regal stalling at the start before the lockup. Regal works out of an arm wringer and switches to a headlock. Leverage fight and Badd puts the arm wringer on again. Regal's had enough of that, casually wrapping up in the ropes. They go speed, do a series of counters, Badd hits a dropkick and drop toe hold. Regal monkey flips out of the corner. Badd hangs on to the knucklelock and works it into a hip toss. Regal sunset flip. Badd rolls through into a jackknife cover. Regal counters that and Badd does another drop toe hold into the ARMBAR. Badd with an airplane spin! Regal rolls out. Badd tope suicida! He tries another dive in the ring but Regal dodges and Badd crashes into the ropes. William chokes him with his cane. Regal starts laying in the European uppercuts and turns the aggression up to 10. He hooks on an arm scissors and gives Badd a lot of ground and pound. Oh, there's the Blacktop Bully again. Yay [/sarcasm]. He's still just "that crazy fan" to commentary. More European uppercuts and a cover for 2. Badd starts a comeback and hits a kneelift for 2. Huge European uppercut response from Regal. Badd tries punching back, so Regal ducks into a drop toe hold and locks on a mat full neslon. Badd powers out but runs into a back elbow. Slugfest with Badd coming out on top and he gives Regal an atomic drop. Backdrop and the momentum has fully shifted. Flying headscissors. Regal begs off and uses Badd's tights to pull him to the floor. Badd sunset flip back in. Regal tries to use William's cane, a finish they've done before, but the ref kicks him off. Badd gets a 2 count. William holds Badd and gets taken out. Badd roll up for 2. Armdrag from Badd but Regal dodges the follow up elbow. More uppercuts. After a few Badd ducks, grabs a backslide, and gets a 3 count to finally win his first title! Hell of a fun match. Regal would switch to the tag division after this. The original plan was to pair him with up and comer Jean-Paul Levesque (a guy you might know now by the name The Man with Three H's that's doing a bit of high level work in WWE), but after WCW let Levesque go he was teamed with veteran Bobby Eaton as the Blue Bloods. ***1/2

Commentary cues up a full recap of the last edition of The Hulk Hogan Show, also known as the last Clash, with the masked man attack and injury angle. In the aftermath of that Flair had started showing up with his own belt claiming to be the real world champion (an echo of his awesome WWF entrance in 1991), and for that he was suspended, a convenient excuse for him to not be here tonight when Hogan wasn't either. During all this there's multiple chants of "We want Flair" from the crowd. So to recap, the crowd has booed Hogan and chanted for Flair.

Loser Leaves WCW Match: Kevin Sullivan (w/Dave Sullivan) def Cactus Jack in 6:08- The former tag champs have suddenly had a disagreement so all encompassing that one of them has to leave the promotion. Or to put it another way, the firings have begun as WCW reshapes their roster for this new era. Nice pop for Jack. Evad has the full Hulkamaniac gear on again. Sullivan throws his robe off, Jack meets him on the floor, and we're on. Jack's run into the barricade and flips back into the first row. Sullivan joins him and the fight continues on the crowd side of the barricade for a bit. Jack takes over in the ring but they struggle to get on the same page in what they're doing. They go back out and Sullivan gets posted. Jack pulls the ring mat up and hops up to the second rope to deliver the full size Cactus Elbow. Evad stops him. Sullivan gets up and slams Jack off the second rope all the way down to the bare concrete floor! Foley bump. Then Sullivan slams him again on the concrete for good measure. In the ring Sullivan attacks Jack's famous half ear, an injury he'd only had about a year at this point. Jack gets a back elbow and elbow drop for 2. Back out again. Jack sets up a piledriver but Sullivan backdrops him, again onto the exposed concrete. Foley's giving full value on his way out. Running clothesline from Sullivan and Jack takes one more bump on the concrete. Jack tosses a chair in the ring Terry Funk style. On the floor he goes for a chairshot but Evad stops him. Sullivan gives him a stair shot. Back in now it's Sullivan with the chair, but Evad also stops him from using it. Jack charges, Sullivan dodges and Jack hits heads with Evad, and Sullivan rolls him up for 3. Cactus Jack's WCW career is over. He was already doing some work for ECW and would continue to as well as some other US indys over the next couple of years. He'd also work some of the most famous hardcore matches ever with Terry Funk in Japan before moving over to WWF in '96 as Mankind. Also somewhere around this time, I can't remember exactly when, Sullivan would take over as WCW's head booker and a dramatic drop in quality would follow. The match was decentish purely through Foley's crazed bumping. **

Mean Gene is with the Stud Stable backstage. Col. Parker says something but honestly I can't understand a word of it. And I'm from the south. Well, Texas. We're independent from the rest of the south. Commentary has been mentioning all night something was up with the US title, now we're going to find out what. Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel is in the ring as Steve Austin is announced. After that Ricky Steamboat comes out carrying the US belt, but in street clothes. Bockwinkel announces, with Austin in his face the whole time, that due to injury that no one is sure of the severity of yet Steamboat can't wrestle tonight, and he's giving the title back to Austin. Austin is thrilled. Steamboat cuts a promo saying he hopes to be back sometime and Austin's facial expressions during it are priceless. As I mentioned in the Clash review, this was the end of Steamboat's full time career. He wouldn't wrestle again until his 2009 short WWE comeback. Austin says Steamboat saved himself from an ass kicking, and tops it off by saying "Hell of a match!". Hah! Austin says that's it, he's the champ and he's done for tonight. Bockwinkel says wait just a gosh durned minute, you're scheduled to wrestle and we've got an opponent for you. He tells Gary Michael Capetta to introduce him over Austin's objections, and it's.....the WCW debuting Hacksaw Jim Duggan! Austin is not happy.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan def "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) in :35- Austin keeps protesting but Bockwinkel says to ring the bell and it does. Three different times. Austin tries to leave. Bockwinkel drags him back in. Duggan hits the 3 point stance tackle, covers Austin, and pins him for the title. And I just about flip my table over. I get Duggan being popular still, I get it, but how in the holy hell do you put him over the clearly rocketing to stardom Austin IN BARELY 30 SECONDS? You have to be completely clueless to look at Austin at this point and not realize what that man is doing, and what he was capable of. And here's one of Hogan's buddies coming in, cutting his legs straight off. Might as well have him come in with a chainsaw and cut his legs off for real. It's insane, ludicrous, ass backward, moronic booking that I still can't believe it happened. NR match, MINUS FIVE STARS booking

...SERIOUSLY, DECREPIT COULD BARELY STILL WORK JIM DUGGAN BEAT RAPIDLY HITTING PEAK STEVE AUSTIN FOR THE #2 TITLE IN 30 SECONDS WHAT THE HELL OK OK OK, I'm OK. My calm was damaged but I'm good. Shiny. Let's move on.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Pretty Wonderful (c) def Stars & Stripes in 12:54- Stars & Stripes are Marcus Alexander Bagwell and former GWF top star the Patriot, who had just signed with WCW after working in All Japan since GWF folded. The Bully gets in S&S's faces on their entrance and finally gets ejected. The heels make a huge show of taking each other's clothes off. Interpret that how you will. And then the "Paula" chants let Orndorff stall some more. Eventually we get going with Roma and Bagwell, meaning the combined IQ in the ring is about the same number as your average baseball score. Roma gets the quick edge. Bagwell ducks clotheslines and hits a crossbody for 2. The faces work Roma's arm for a bit. Patriot catches Orndorff coming off the top and the faces work his arm for a bit. Speed run and another Bagwell crossbody, followed by a Patriot crossbody. S&S double hiptoss on Roma for 2. Orndorff grabs Bagwell from the apron while he's running the ropes and drops him. Chinlock slam from Roma. Orndorff gives Bagwell the dreaded boogie woogie elbow. It looked like Orndorff had a spasm in the ring. Seriously, you think the People's Elbow, the worm elbow or the ballin' elbow are over the top? The boogie woogie elbow is like all three of those combined, AND it predates all of them. Bagwell gets a sunset flip and reversal tradeoff for 2. Roma dropkick for 2. He hits the elbow off the top and takes a ton of time celebrating before covering. Well, it is Roma. The Patriot breaks the pin up, allowing Orndorff to dump Bagwell over the top rope behind the ref's back. Orndorff rams Bagwell's face into a cooler at ringside, supposedly Heenan's drink cooler. Then Orndorff picks the cooler up and dumps the contents on Bagwell! It's mostly ice, but judging by what was in there Heenan is drinking water and.....Hi-C? What, is he 7? Back in Bagwell fights out of an Orndorff piledriver. Roma cuts the tag off. Bagwell slowly pushes forward and they do the ref didn't see the tag spot. Patriot doesn't care and cleans house anyway. Orndorff piledrives Bagwell on the floor. The Patriot hits the full nelson slam on Roma, but the ref doesn't count and Patriot finally figures out what's going on. Maybe he couldn't hear the ref because of the mask? Orndorff rolls Bagwell in, Roma drapes an arm over, and the ref apparently counts 3 even though Patriot dives over the top rope to break the pin up and it looked like the ref only counted 2. Yet another messy finish in a WCW tag match. *1/2

 

Triangle Elimination Match to be #1 Contender for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Vader (w/Harley Race) def The Guardian Angel and Sting in 30:22- Triple threat matches weren't a thing yet, so this match has some really strange and unique rules. Commissioner Bockwinkel is in the ring and he hands all three guys a coin. They all flip at the same time and the "odd man out" gets a bye while the other two have the first "round" of this match. In this case Sting wins the toss and gets to sit out while Vader and Angel wrestle, then he gets the winner. There's even more complicated stuff involving the time limit but I'll explain all that when we get there.

FIRST FALL (Vader vs Angel)- Lockup and shoulderblock stalemates to start. Angel yells....something at Vader. That sounded like Sting's "I'm a great white shark" promo. Vader wants a test of strength. Angel goes for it. Vader gives him a knee maybe to the gut or maybe a bit south of that. He tries an avalanche but Angel pops out with a clothesline. Angel goes for a slam but can't lift Vader. Now Vader hits the avalanche. Angel ducks a clothesline and hits a side slam. Elbow drop to Vader's gut. He still can't slam Vader. Angel comes off the top but Vader moves and Angel clotheslines himself over the top rope. Angel dodges another avalanche and rolls Vader up for 2. Angel crossbody for 2. VADER CACTUS CLOTHESLINE! Awesome. The mask is off. The heels try a double team but Race gets hit. Vader is posted. Back in Angel hits an enzuguri and finally slams Vader. Cover for 2. Ref Nick Patrick manages to get himself knocked down. I mean, he was practically trying to be a third wrestler there. Boss Man Slam but no ref. Race comes in and headbutts Angel. Vader bomb! That gets the pin.

SECOND FALL (Vader vs Sting)- Another round of this feud? Yes please. Lots of jawing before the lockup. Sting gets pushed out and pops right back up trash talking. Vader lays in shots in the corner with Sting no selling and hulking up. Vader hits him harder. Sting shoves and hits a dropkick. A little miscommunication ends with a Sting clothesline. Sting ducks Vader clotheslines but runs into a Vader tackle and drops down hard. Vader bomb! He goes up for another one. Sting gets up, kicks his leg and makes him drop back down. Vader potato shots and clothesline. He drags Sting to the corner again. Sting dodges another Vader bomb. He clotheslines Vader 360 to the floor. Vader lands on his feet! Nice. Race tries to suplex Sting right onto the announce team but Sting reverses and suplexes Race on the floor. Tony says he saw his life flash before his eyes. Back in Sting suplexes Vader and hits a splash off the top. He goes for it again but Vader gets his knees up. Corner slam and Vader goes all the way up top. Sting dodges the VADERSAULT. He sets Vader up in the opposite corner. Superplex! Elbow drops and a cover for 2. Samoan drop! Another Vader kickout. The Stinger Splash hits! Clothesline and another 2 count. Sting German suplexes Vader. Another 2. Vader is up with more potato shots. He tosses Sting out (with some difficulty) and Race gives Sting an apron shot. Vader short clotheslines. Sting hulks up in the corner. Clothesline. Vader rolls out, confers with Race, and gets back in the other ring. Sting goes up top and hits a diving clothesline across rings! Everything moves to ring 2. Another Sting clothesline off the top. Splash off the top! Vader kicks out again! Vader hits a back suplex for 2. Straight right hand. Vader comes off the second rope but Sting powerslams him. Scorpion Death Lock! Vader fights out before it's fully on. The 15 minute time limit elapses. The rules of this match are there will now be a 5 minute overtime period because there must be a winner. So what's the point of having a time limit in the first place? OT starts with more Vader potatoes and a suplex. Sting fights off a superplex. He bites Vader! Vader with a headbutt. He goes up top but Sting joins him and backdrops him off. Vader tackle and clothesline. Powerslam for 2. Splash for 2. After an obvious stall Vader hits a powerbomb as the OT time limit expires. Now they're going to sudden death OT, which means the first guy to get knocked off his feet loses the match. Vader's straps are down! Super cereal time. Vader pummels Sting, who uses the ropes to stay up. Sting punches back and Vader collapses into the ropes, which hold him up. The Guardian Angel decides now is a great time to run back out and grab Harley Race. They fight up the aisle with Patrick trying to stop them so he doesn't see Vader go down in the ring. The masked man from the Clash is back! He hits Sting in the leg! Patrick gets back, sees Sting is down, and calls for the bell. I have to say, all that was way too overbooked and convoluted for my liking. That was a long way to go to get a finish like that. I also thought that as great as Vader and Sting are, individually and together, they didn't really use the extended time they got well and the match started to feel like, as Bilbo Baggins might say, butter scraped over too much bread. What could have been an epic felt more like marking time until the screwy finish kicked in. Still, it's Vader and Sting so it's going to be good no matter what, and the first segment with Vader and Angel wasn't bad either. Give the whole package ***1/4

Mean Gene cues a up a "live" (clearly pretaped) interview with Hogan. Hogan's "hanging and banging" in the gym with his knee still taped up. Lots of boos from the crowd when he comes up on the screen. After a minute Jimmy Hart runs in with a phone and we go split screen with Flair on the other end, in Vegas with some adoring fans. One of the women is answering the phone for Flair. Hogan tells her to put Flair on, asks if she's Flair's training partner and says "I bet you give Flair a real good workout". Hey hey, let's keep it PG here. Flair takes the phone and claims that he's retired and couldn't be bothered with wrestling Hogan again. His "real world title" belt looks like a cheap Big Gold knockoff you'd get fleeced for $1000 buying on Ebay and realizing after you get it that it doesn't look anything like the real one. After some really bad back and forth arguing Hogan offers a deal- if Flair will agree to one more match Hogan will put his career on the line. Flair says that's good enough for him. It takes them 5 more minutes to really say it but that's the gist of it. After Flair gets off the phone Hogan starts taking his knee tape off and makes like it should be a secret between him and Okerlund that the knee isn't as bad as Flair thinks. Um, we're all watching you know! After some more commentary vamping Bockwinkel joins Okerlund and reads a statement from *looks up* board room level. The match having been agreed to with Hogan's career on the line, it will take place at Halloween Havoc with one additional stipulation- it'll be inside a steel cage! Okerlund: "WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING, MAN?".

 

War Games Match: "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and The Nasty Boys def The Stud Stable (Bunkhouse Buck, Terry Funk, Arn Anderson and Col. Robert Parker, w/Meng) in 19:05- What started off as a little dust up between Dustin and Buck in the spring has turned into the Feud that Wouldn't Die. Not that it's been terrible, but it hasn't set the world on fire either. Meng was originally going to be in the match before the Rhodes' boys got a really good lawyer and made Parker contractually obligated to wrestle in the match. Dusty recruiting the Nasty Boys is another one of those gloriously bad Rifftrax level WCW mini-movies. Dusty's got matching gear with the Nastys tonight.

P1. Dustin and Arn- Funk hinted in the prematch promo that he wanted to be first in but Arn gets the final call. The brawl is on. Arn tries to switch rings. Dustin climbs to the top rope and dives down onto him. Arn blocks a cage shot. He switches rings again and Dustin runs him backward into the cage. An inverted atomic drop and big boot puts Arn over the top rope into the middle section. Dustin holds him upside down with Arn's head stuck between the rings! Eye rake from Arn for some breathing space. Dustin ducks a punch and backdrops Arn. Head of steam and Dustin dives across rings over both top ropes with a lariat! Bionic elbow. Arn covers his junk but Dustin still gives him a nut stomp. Another lariat. Arn counters a backdrop into a DDT. He chokes Dustin with his wrist tape. Dustin 360 sells a clothesline. He ducks an Arn enzuguri and puts on a half crab.

P2. Buck- After ref Randy Anderson fumbles the coin toss like a Broncos RB at the goal line in last night's game (Broncos vs Seahawks week 1 Monday night 2022 season if you're reading this in the distant future) the heels win advantage. I'm SHOCKED. That never happens! Buck takes it to Dustin, who were the original two that this whole epic feud started with. Double back elbow from the heels. Dustin gets run into the cage. The heels work Dustin's arm a bit then switch to a double crab.

P3. Sags- He charges in with a double clothesline...ish. A clothesline that hit the top of their heads. Powerslam on Arn. Sags backs Buck into the cage and throws Arn into it face first. Piledriver on Buck. Dustin hits mounted punches on Arn. Arn flop! Dustin hooks on a sleeper.

P4. Funk- Talk about a man that was made for War Games. During the countdown Funk throws a chair up in the air. Um, there's a ceiling on the cage you know, this isn't NXT War Games. Funk is nuts. Before he gets in Funk takes one of his boots off and as soon as he gets in starts hitting everything that moves with it. The faces take more cage shots. Funk puts Dustin's face right in front of his dad outside. He stomps but Dustin moves and Funk gets crotched on the top rope. Sags piledrives Funk between the rings and he falls all the way down the gap! 

P5. Knobbs- The heels meet him as he gets in and they get run into the cage all over the place. Arn gets cheese grated. That would look a lot better if anyone was actually bleeding. Knobbs gets a hold of Funk's boot and goes to town with it. So does Sags. Funk, as usual, is selling like crazy.

P6. Parker- He's understandably reluctant to get in. Buck holds Knobbs down for him and Parker comes in to take some shots. Arn hits the World's Greatest Spinebuster on Knobbs. There's two belts that have been taken off and turned into weapons, being swung like whips all over the place by both sides. Meng sees Parker taking punishment and wants in badly, trying to tear off a side of the cage.

P7. Dusty- The Match Beyond begins. Dusty's immediately attacked but he's got bionic elbows for everyone. Parker tries to bail but the Nastys grab him. Meng climbs the cage trying to get in. Dusty hooks Parker in the figure four while the rest of the team holds the other heels off, and after a minute Parker submits! Meng is furious and cradles Parker like a hurt brother after the match is over. Underwhelming for War Games but it was still fairly good. The psychology with the faces getting to Parker after forcing him in the match was solid, and it was definitely better than the previous years'. Gotta knock it down for a lack of blood though. That's a War Games staple. You've got two Rhodes, a Funk and an Anderson in a cage and *none* of them bleed? **3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Outside the Austin US title debacle everything else is at least watchable, with a few good or near good matches in there. The crowd reactions to Hogan and Flair whenever they're mentioned or pop up are hilarious, the complete opposite of what WCW wanted. Like other recent WCW shows the flow is also very disjointed with a lot of long talking segments.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

NXT Takeover: Brooklyn

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: Brooklyn

August 22, 2015 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY

Commentary: Rich Brennan, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton

For the first time ever, Takeover is taking place in a large arena and on the night before a major PPV (Summerslam '15). In fact, it's the first time a Takeover has been held outside Full Sail University at all. I remember during the build for this every time Brooklyn was mentioned the Full Sail faithful booed. They had become understandably proprietorial of "their" NXT, but this move was absolutely vital if the brand was going to continue to grow.

 

The show opens with Triple H in the ring in a dark arena. He gives a great speech about the growth of NXT. "We had an idea, you made it a revolution". The lights come up and reveal a raucous Barclays Center, jam packed for this first ever NXT show outside Full Sail and red effing hot. "WE ARE NXT", mic flip and done. No big video package, that's all the show intro we need. With the switch to large arenas this is also the first Takeover to use the alternate white logo instead of the usual NXT black and gold. Greg Hamilton is making his Takeover debut as ring announcer as well. He's still getting his sea legs, but, as always, Greg Hamilton is Gold (an old deep cut from my old The Following Contest podcast days).

Jushin Thunder Liger def Tyler Breeze in 8:42- Another super special Takeover entrance for Breeze with a bunch of runway models. Those are some shiny hats they're wearing. The New Japan legend and Class of 2020 WWE Hall of Fame inductee Liger is wrestling his first and what would be only match for WWE in his over 30 year career. It's a shame they didn't get Liger's New Japan music for this one off appearance. Saxton mentions Liger is a record 11 time IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion. Breeze hits a shoulderblock out of a headlock and chills in the corner. Liger with a drop toe hold, elbow drop to the back, and he goes to the corner and mocks Breeze's pose! He hooks on the surfboard. Breeze stands out and stomps. Liger dodges the corner, hits a kick, and goes to the Romero Special. Monkey flip in the corner with Breeze doing a full 180 degree sell. Liger takes Breeze's selfie stick! Breeze takes it back and Liger uses the opening to hit some chops. Breeze grabs Liger's mask horns and tries to pull it off. Superkick from Breeze for 2. Snap mare/legdrop combo into a facelock. Breeze reverses a whip and hits a ripcord knee, then a straitjacket backbreaker for 2. The Barclays crowd goes full New Yorker and chants "Full Sail sucks". Guess they heard Full Sail booing them. Liger powers out of a facelock. He lifts Breeze over the ropes onto the apron. Breeze jumps back in but right into a Liger rolling kick! Tiltawhirl backbreaker. Liger comes off the top but Breeze gets his knees up. Flip over crucifix for 2. Breeze gets frustrated, kicking and punching Liger in the corner and yelling at the ref. Running palm strike from Liger! Breeze goes to the floor. Liger with an apron cannonball! Back in Breeze tries to fight out but Liger hits the Ligerbomb, and that gets the pin! Pretty abrupt finish, it felt like they had 5 more minutes left in them. Still a good match that was exactly what it needed to be. You could argue that Breeze should have gotten the win as he was the full time guy, but he had already bounced off the NXT glass ceiling and wasn't going back up there with the influx of huge name indy stars that were coming in. ***1/4

Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac are in the crowd. We get a promo for Nia Jax, coming soon. Yeah, that could have been never and I'd have been just fine.

 

NXT Tag Team Championship: The Vaudvillains (w/Blue Pants) def Blake & Murphy (c) (w/Alexa Bliss) in 10:16- Blake & Murphy's entrance is what Kevin Dunn thinks matches should look like. Since last appearing on Takeover the Vaudvillains had turned face thanks to the Full Sail crowd loving them, and the Brooklyn crowd is just as much behind them. They had promised to get help for this match as Bliss had been interfering in all of B&M's title matches since joining them to make sure they kept the belts. Since no one came out with them, Bliss grabs a mic and runs them down for not being able to find anyone. The Vaudvillains point to the stage. The crowd is already ahead of what's happening. The blue gear might have given it away. Yes, iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's BLUE PANTS (Leva Bates)! Complete with Enzo & Cass recorded intro and them singing the Price is Right theme. Bliss is furious. "This is awesome" chant from the crowd. Once things settle down Blake and Gotch start. Gotch does squats in a hammerlock and works his way out. "Blue Pants City" chant. I'll let you work out what that's riffing. More nice chain wrestling from Gotch into a roll up. He rolls Blake into an armbreaker. Blake counters with a cradle for 2. Double team work from the Vaudvillains. They are in full control and ownership of their gimmick and it's so much fun to watch. Running PK from English for 2. B&M do a double leapfrog, but off the rebound English gives them a double Japanese armdrag, then deep armdrags Murphy and strikes a manly pose. B&M maneuver English onto the apron. He tries to fight off a double team but the heels are too much for him. Back in Blake goes right to the chinlock to kill the match dead. Murphy mocks the manly pose. We get the tweet scroll on the screen. Holy crap, I'd forgotten all about them doing that. And don't miss it. B&M keep English in peril with their usual bland offense. English gets an armdrag and goes for a tag. Blake runs outside and pulls Gotch off the apron just as English is about to tag him. B&M double pop up neckbreaker for 2. English pushes off a double team in the corner and B&M hit heads. Hot tag to Gotch! Manly offense. The strap is down! Running corner forearms on both heels. B&M run into each other again. Murphy fights off a double team. B&M try to double superplex English but Gotch pulls them down. English swanton bomb on Murphy! Murphy kicks out! Bliss gets on the apron. Blue Pants does her job, chasing Bliss around and taking her out. On the distraction Blake gets a roll up for 2. Whirling Dervish! Pin and new champions! Huge pop for the win and the Vaudvillains get a nice celebration, ending B&M's unexpectedly long title reign at 219 days, the second longest NXT tag title reign to that point. The match was perfectly solid, elevated by good storytelling and a very popular win. **3/4

 

Apollo Crews def Tye Dillinger in 4:44- 10! 10! 10! This is early in Dillinger's run as the Perfect 10. He's still a heel and has the old version of his music. It's already starting to get over as the crowd is into it and there's even a small "10" section. After being in the crowd at the last Takeover this is Crews', the former Uhaa Nation, official in ring debut. He acts shocked to see his name on the tron. Lockup! Dillinger dodges in the corner, does a cartwheel, and flashes some 10s. Crews one ups him the next exchange by doing a full backflip. Huge 10 chant from the crowd for Crews. Dropkick from Crews. Dillinger tries to toss him out. Crews lands on the apron, leaps, but Dillinger hits him in midair with a dropkick! Stomps and a choke in the corner from Dillinger. He does a long setup and puts on a modified cobra clutch. Crews fights out. He blocks a superkick, but Dillinger hits an immediate followup superkick for 2. Ground and pound from Dillinger. The crowd's starting to get restless. Crews blocks another superkick and hits a stand up enzuguri. Spinning Rainmaker clothesline. Stinger splash. Diving clothesline and kip up. Crews gives Dillinger a gorilla press followed by a standing moonsault and that gets the pin. Solid enough debut match, but it had way to much Dillinger offense to give Crews the showcase he needed. **

And now for a message from our GM. William Regal announces, in honor of the recently passed away Dusty Rhodes, NXT will be holding the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, which will culminate with the finals at the next Takeover in October. After that we see the final four in the revived and to date last season of Tough Enough at ringside. The only one you need to know is the future Mandy Rose, though there were other familiar names in that season that had been eliminated earlier: Sonya Deville, Chelsea Green, and Patrick Clark AKA Velveteen Dream. We get a good video package for the next match, highlighting Corbin's multi-sport background in boxing and football. This was the start of Corbin's run as the "anti-indy" guy, which was a perfect fit for both him and his place in the evolving NXT landscape.

 

Samoa Joe def Baron Corbin in 10:22- Joe had already wrestled on weekly TV after his surprise debut at the last Takeover so this is just his first Takeover match. Reportedly he originally signed an open contract that allowed him to wrestle elsewhere as well, but WWE locked him in exclusively full time after his debut got such a huge reaction. "Joe is gonna kill you" chant right after the bell. Kudos to the guy with the "Joe has an 8 1/3% chance to win" sign. That joke never gets old. Good lockup stalemate. Joe attacks, Corbin backs him into the corner, and Joe goes for the coquina clutch early. Corbin slips away and slides to the floor. Joe's intense waiting for him to get back in. Corner whip reversal by Joe into a back elbow and enzuguri. A dropkick sends Corbin back outside. Joe cranks up a dive but Corbin blasts him with a forearm before he can take off. Avalanches and corner beatdown by Corbin. Joe ducks a clothesline and delivers more high impact offense. He hooks on a single leg crab, transitions to a crossface, then into an arm crank that's almost a ZSJ Orienteering with Napalm Death. Corbin just gets a foot on the rope, then pulls Joe's shorts to toss him to the floor. Joe cuts Corbin off on an apron move and throws him into the barricade. Back in Corbin plays dead and grabs a heel hook when Joe gets close. Joe teases a tap but just manages to drag himself to the ropes. Big Joe chop. Corbin hits deep six for 2. Superkick from Corbin, enzuguri from Joe, and both guys are down. When they get back up they start throwing hands that lead into a very extended and good slugfest. A Joe spinning back fist rocks Corbin. He sets Corbin up for the muscle buster. Corbin fights off the top rope and hits a big boot. Suplex for 2. He throws Joe into the ropes, maybe looking for End of Days, but Joe ducks and tries the clutch again. Corbin back elbows out before it's cinched in. Modified chokeslam from Corbin. He tries a stack cover, but Joe flips him over! Coquina clutch! Corbin tries to fight but he goes out and the ref calls it. You know, I enjoyed that. Solid NXT big match debut for Joe, and a really good learning match for Corbin. ***

Sgt. Slaughter and Ric Flair are at ringside, and standing with them is KANA! Holy shit, did Kana sign with NXT? It would be confirmed later on that she had, one of the absolute best joshi wrestlers coming in to an NXT women's division that needed some reinforcements after recent callups. For those that don't know, it's Asuka, AKA my favorite women's wrestler of all time. Naomi and Tamina are also at ringside, Sasha Banks' Team BAD partners. Stephanie McMahon comes out and takes credit for creating women's wrestling. Thanks, Steph. The much hyped Steph-led "Diva's Revolution" had started on Raw a couple of weeks prior when Banks, Charlotte and Becky Lynch all made their Raw debuts. The group was also starting to be acknowledged as the Four Horsewomen on screen.

 

NXT Women's Championship: Bayley def Sasha Banks (c) in 18:16- Bayley's got Dusty tribute polka dots in her gear. She's still got a brace on her hand, she had been working through a hand injury. Banks gets an awesome special entrance, rolling into the arena in a Cadillac SUV and escorted by bodyguards. Serious big match feel here with a nuclear hot crowd that's more split than you'd think. Banks continues to get fans despite her heelishness because she's just that great of a wrestler. Banks makes fun of Bayley's polka dots. Bayley takedown! Back and forth brawl on the mat. A real brawl, not a rolling around catfight like the women used to do. Bayley hits a elbow to the back of Banks' neck and a diving clothesline. Huge dueling chants. Like, you can barely hear commentary huge. Bayley no sells buckle shots and gives Banks a couple. She puts Banks in the tree of woe. Springboard elbow drop! She goes for an early Bayley to Belly. Banks dodges into a roll up for 2. A Bayley armdrag off the second rope sends Banks to the floor. She takes her time recovering outside. Bayley goes out and hits her with the corner baseball slide! Banks goes for the kneedrop with Bayley propped in the second rope. Bayley works free before she can hit it. Banks tries a superplex instead but Bayley fights that off too. Banks kicks Bayley in her previously hurt knee and Bayley falls off the second rope all the way to the floor. Banks mocks Bayley's entrance, then mocks Bayley's moveset. Vintage Banks. Neck crank and straitjacket from Banks. Bayley fights back with forearms in the corner. Banks sets Bayley up for the corner kneedrop again. Bayley catches her in midair! Banks grabs Bayley's head with her legs and runs her into the turnbuckle! She sets Bayley up on the TOP rope. Triple decker corner kneedrop! Cover for 2. More jawing from Banks, saying Bayley's a loser and pathetic. Bayley kicks her in the face, setting off a comeback flurry. Banks goes to the apron and snaps Bayley's arm over the top rope. On the floor she pulls off Bayley's hand brace, exposing her hurt hand. She rams it on the steps! Then she wedges the hand between the steps and apron and kicks the steps! While Bayley's recovering on the floor Banks dives over the ref with a tope con hilo! Roll back in and cover for 2. Banks knucklelocks Bayley's bad hand, runs up the ropes, but Bayley gets free and Banks collapses to the floor. Slugfest back in with Bayley trying to protect her bad hand. Bayley running double ax handles. Corner elbow. She suplexes Banks into the corner and calls for the Bayley to Belly. Banks deadweights her. Bayley rolls her up, tries for a deadlift German suplex, but Banks blocks that and slams Bayley's bad hand. Banks Statement! Bayley reaches for the ropes with her bad hand....and Banks stomps it! Bayley just pushes off the rope and flips over. She reverses the Banks Statement! Banks slowly crawls and just gets to the ropes. The Bayley to Belly hits! Banks kicks out! Bayley sets Banks on the top rope. Banks fights her off. Bayley bounces back up with a running forearm. She goes for a hurricanrana, but Banks blocks it and Bayley splats hard on the mat! That was one of those deals where they made the counter look so good it could be mistaken for a botch, but it was all as it was supposed to be. Banks Meteora off the second rope with a cover! Bayley kicks out! Another top rope setup and fight for leverage. Bayley works around......POISONRANA OFF THE TOP ROPE! Another Bayley to Belly! That gets the pin and the title! Bayley's crying as she's handed the belt and Sasha can clearly be seen crying on the mat. They know what they just did. Charlotte and Lynch come out to congratulate Bayley. After a minute Banks and Bayley hug, and all Four Horsewomen celebrate in the ring in an absolutely wonderful and completely genuine real life moment. Four women that changed the game. NXT had great women's title matches before this, but this is the one that silenced all but the most trollish of the doubters and put women's wrestling on the map to stay. It's possibly the single most important women's match there's ever been. I dare you to find anything wrong with this match. I certainly can't. Drama, great wrestling, great story, great crowd, historical importance, this match has it all. *****

WWE World Heavyweight Champion, and the first ever NXT Champion, Seth Rollins is ringside with his former woman, looking at his future wife in the ring. We get video of Triple H announcing to the crowd earlier in the night that in December NXT will be going on a tour of the UK. Might want to have a Takeover while you're over there.

 

Ladder Match for the NXT Championship: Finn Balor (c) def Kevin Owens in 21:39- Owens insisted on a ladder match for his rematch after losing the title at the Beast in the East Tokyo Network special, thinking he had the advantage because Balor never had a ladder match before and he's been in a ton of them. Another Takeover, another great Demon entrance. After it's over we can see Owens chilling in a chair by the announce table giving absolutely no shits at all. Fantastic. Hey, there's only ONE ladder here! They didn't fill the entire ring area with 87 ladders. That's a refreshing change. Owens points up at the title belt and Balor is hesitant. Owens shoves and tries to step out to go for the ladder but Balor stops him. Dropkick and corner chops. Balor runs into a back elbow and Owens hits a senton. Again Balor stops Owens from even getting out of the ring to go for the ladder. The crowd gets distracted by some stupidity happening in the upper deck and the match slows down while they settle down. I don't remember what it was and really don't care. Balor blocks a powerbomb. Standing double stomp. Owens hits the cannonball. Some more back and forth sluggy stuff. The crowd starts chanting "Ole". Owens stops and mocks Sami Zayn's shoulder injury. Balor with a slingblade while Owens was messing around! That's great thinking on your feet, there's no way they could plan for that. Owens finally gets out of the ring and goes for the ladder. Balor chases him from behind and Owens gets run into the ladder. Balor starts dragging the ladder to the ring. Owens grabs the other end and squashes Balor between the ladder and the apron. He sets the ladder up in front of Balor, backs up, charges....then stops and punches Balor! I love it when he teases high spots then does something super simple. Balor comes back with forearms and tosses Owens over the barricade. Crowd brawl! Balor gets whipped into the barricade on the crowd side. Owens sets up a powerbomb. Balor backdrops him over the barricade back to ringside. He leaps off the barricade but Owens catches him and rams him into the barricade, then tosses Balor over the announce table! Owens grabs the table cover and drops it on Balor, then hops onto the table and poses. He looks under the ring and gets the backup ladder. It's a modern ladder match, there has to be at least two ladders involved. Balor shotgun dropkicks the ladder into Owens off the announce table! Damn that was a hard hit. Owens keeps Balor from getting the ladder into the ring. Balor tope con hilo! He sets the ladder up and climbs. Owens pulls him down and throws him into the ladder. He tosses Balor out and climbs, sees Balor coming in with the other ladder, stops and intercepts him. Balor dodges a ladder throw in the corner. He charges, probably for a running dropkick, but Owens cuts him off with a clothesline. He rams the ladder into Balor's arm and drops it on Balor, then slams Balor on the ladder. Senton on the ladder! Owens sets up a powerbomb again. Balor backdrops him onto the edge of the ladder! Set up and Balor climb. Owens pulls him down and throws him into the corner ladder. Cannonball! Balor dodges and Owens crashes into the ladder! John WOOOOOOO dropkick! Coupe de Gracie! Balor climbs. Owens gets up and grabs him. Powerbomb off the ladder! If he keeps backdropping you, just pull him off the ladder and drop him. Owens climbs. Balor tips the ladder over. Owens drags Balor to the floor and sets up for the dreaded apron powerbomb of death. Balor grabs the ropes to save himself! Apron PK! He goes for a double stomp off the apron but Owens dodges. Kick wham apron powerbomb! Owens resets the ladder and climbs. Balor recovers to get back in time and tips the ladder over again. Owens lands on his feet and hits a superkick! He yells "Stay down!" at Balor and superkicks him again. "You did this!". Owens sets up a ladder bridge in the corner. He sets Balor up on the standing ladder to fisherman's superplex him onto the bridge ladder. Balor blocks it, punches, and Owens falls on the bridge ladder! And the ladder doesn't break! Ouch. Balor climbs but the ladder but it's too far over to reach the belt. He sees Owens, has a rethink, and hits another Coupe de Gracie off the ladder! Ladder reset, climb, and Balor gets the belt to win! They had a hell of a match to follow, but they did it with a tremendous car crash match where Owens looked like the perfect ruthless bastard doing anything he had to do to win, and Balor overcoming it all to survive. ****1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The first large arena Takeover couldn't have gone better. Some people still point to this show as the gold standard of Takeovers. There's some after that I think are better, but there's no denying this show's greatness or historical importance.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A

Clash of the Champions XXVIII

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXVIII

August 24, 1994 from the Five Seasons Center in Ceder Rapids, IA

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

The show opens with the Network "presented in the most complete form possible" disclaimer and starts right up with the Nasty Boys' entrance.

The Nasty Boys def WCW World Tag Team Champions Pretty Wonderful in 9:33- Since losing the titles the Nasys have turned face, a role they're badly suited for. To make matters worse, they'll be WCW's top or near top face team for the next two solid years. Ugh. During intros we get our first shot of the Blacktop Bully (Barry Darsow) sitting ringside. He pops up off and on for a while. He doesn't have a name yet, commentary just calls him an obnoxious fan, but anyone that's watched wrestling for a while should recognize him and know something's up. That and the fact random fans don't get camera time like that no matter how loud they are. Tony mentions that a lot of guys aren't here tonight due to other things going on, specifically saying Sting is doing an appearance in Chicago. That will play into things later. Orndorff and Knobbs start but almost immediately the Nastys are double teaming and take both heels out. Roma gets a boot up in the corner on Sags for their first bit of momentum. He comes off the top rope but Sags catches and powerslams him. The fight goes to the floor and the heels get a double team shot on Sags. Orndorff chokes him with a TV cable and flips him over the guardrail. Sags gives us a very, ahem, unique sell of an eye rake on the floor, wandering around like a literal blind man. Back in Roma hits a slam and elbow off the top rope. More face in peril work with Knobbs constantly running in follows, none of it very interesting. Sags backdrops out of Orndorff's piledriver and tags. DONNYBROOK! The heels hit a suplex/top rope elbow combo, but Sags comes down on Orndorff with a top rope elbow of his own, covers him, and even though Sags isn't legal the ref counts the pin. I assume this got the Nastys a tag title shot but it must have been blown on weekly TV because they aren't in the tag title picture the next few PPVs. Small mercies. The match never came together, they were oil and water. 3/4*

Hey kids, tired of blowing your parents' money on the WCW Hotline? Well now you have a whole new option: the HULK HOGAN HOTLINE! That's right, Hogan now has his own individual hotline. With "Beat the Hulk (I assume in a match, not, er, other 900 number things), Hulk trivia, your daily Hulk affirmation (OK, I paraphrased that one), there's always something new!". After commercial Mean Gene brings out the man himself. But wait! A masked man runs out and hits Hogan in the knee with a crowbar! Was it Jeff Gillooly? Hogan rolls on the floor and shouts "WHY ME?". OK, he doesn't, but the whole Nancy Kerrigan thing was less than a year before this, the reference is irresistible. Heenan makes the reference. A gaggle of officials and trainers surround Hogan, including commish Nick Bockwinkel and Eric Bischoff, who's acknowledged on air for I think the first time ever as the current WCW executive producer. Okerlund runs through all his metaphors, saying it's "a madhouse, bedlam, zoo atmosphere". That just makes me think of Planet of the Apes. The real one, not the Tim Burton remake that doesn't exist. Anyway, Hogan's leg gets braced and they cart him off on a stretcher to get him on an ambulance to take him to the local medical facility.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) in 16:02- During entrances we see Hogan being loaded into the ambulance (or "meat wagon" per Heenan). Bischoff gets in with him. Heenan: "Is there even a real hospital in Cedar Rapids or are they taking him to some animal clinic?". The DQ rule is waived for this match, meaning Steamboat can win the title if Austin is DQ'd. Austin has the Dragon Slayer tights on again. Headlock/headscissors tradeoff start. Slapping and shoving. Austin tries to hide behind the ref and sneak attack Steamboat but gets caught. That was fantastic. Commentary is still focused on Hogan, bringing in a production guy that was an eyewitness to say what he saw. There's a crossbody reversal in the ring while the camera is on him. Austin roll up with tights for 2. Chop exchange. Steamboat dropkick. Austin back elbow. Steamboat powerslam and roll up for 2. Austin gets a monkey flip, but Steamboat reverses into a cover for 2. DEEP armdrag. Austin snap mare and he tries for a chinlock. Steamboat flips him over to set off another breathless reversal and near fall sequence. Austin uses momentum to send Steamboat to the floor. Steamboat drags him out and chops him. Austin tries to run, but Steamboat goes the opposite direction and catches him on the other side of the ring with a running chop! Austin rolls back in and they immediately turn the jets on again. The pace in this match has been insane. They both try sleepers. Steamboat hooks his in better but Austin quickly jawbreakers out. Tony says Sting has hopped on a charter jet in Chicago to fly to the arena and replace Hogan if necessary. Somehow I doubt it will be. Just a hunch. A cameraman gets knocked off the apron while Austin chops Steamboat in the corner. Steamboat gets a hiptoss and another series of reversals ends with Austin posting his shoulder. Steamboat wraps his arm around the post, then knucklelocks Austin, climbs and walks the top rope, then drops Austin's arm onto it! Chop off the top for 2. Austin backs the ref into the corner and eye pokes Steamboat. Kneedrop for 2. He slaps Steamboat on the ground. After a short chinlock, about the only pause in the match so far, we get another chop exchange. Both guys flip out of suplex attempts, Steamboat hits a clothesline, he goes for a splash but Austin gets his knees up. Austin elbow off the second rope with some very Stone Cold mannerisms. Steamboat lifts Austin to the top rope. Another chop exchange with both guys standing on the ropes. Austin headbutts Steamboat back down. He pops up and crotches Austin with some great mocking by Steamboat. Superplex attempt by Steamboat, but Austin blocks it and drops him to the mat. Austin launches and Steamboat gives him a gut punch on the way down. Steamboat comes off the top. Austin dodges and lets him faceplant himself. He slaps around on the back of Steamboat's head, mocking him and getting super cocky. He even gives Steamboat the old Hollywood Blondes camera crank. More slaps. Steamboat hulks up. Leg takedown! Steamboat's pissed. Austin pushed too far. Steamboat spinebuster for 2. Electric chair for 2. Classic Steamboat series of rapid fire pin attempts for near falls. Austin gets a backdrop near the ropes but Steamboat skins the cat. Roll up for 2. Another small package, and after all those attempts Austin's run out of escapes and Steamboat gets the pin and the title! That match was a beautiful piece of business with an insane breathless pace and some truly remarkable counter and reversal work. Unfortunately since we're on regular TV Steamboat gets about a whole 5 seconds of title celebration before commercial and moving on. More unfortunately, this would also end up being Steamboat's last match as a full time wrestler. He suffered a back injury during this match that forced him to hang it up, becoming the second hall of fame wrestler to have a career ending injury in WCW in the past few months (Rick Rude being the other). After a quick Fall Brawl appearance to hand over the belt Steamboat wouldn't resurface on camera again until his mentor work with both TNA and ROH, where he had a big hand in the development of a young CM Punk, then his short WWE comeback in 2009 with the wonderful Chris Jericho feud. ****1/4

I have no idea how anyone could watch Steve Austin in this period and not think he was a major star waiting to happen. Let's see how the next few months play out for him.

We come back from commercial with Hogan being unloaded from the ambulance at the hospital. I guess they picked up Brutus Beefcake on the way there. Bischoff takes a mic and says they don't know anything yet, Hogan didn't see anything but said that "something snapped" in his knee. Bischoff leaves the mic with the cameraman and goes into the hospital. After that Tony hypes the coming of the Honky Tonk Man, which I'm sure everyone watching WCW was just clamoring for. Yes, that was sarcasm. They have a new music video from HTM to debut, which sounds a lot like his WWF music but just different enough to probably hopefully avoid a lawsuit. We continue the talking segment run with Mean Gene talking to Commissioner Bockwinkel. He says they don't have enough information to make a statement, but apparently he does know enough to say that if Hogan can't make his scheduled title defense tonight he will forfeit the title.

 

"The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes def Terry Funk and Bunkhouse Buck (w/Col. Robert Parker and Meng) by DQ in 7:27- This feud has gotten so big it's gotten Dusty out of retirement. Of course the Rhodes family vs the Funks goes back a long, long way. They show the full promo from weekly TV of Dusty asking to be his son's partner and there's some genuine emotion in there from both of them. They make sure to say this is the first time they've teamed up *in WCW*. Eagle eye, well, memory, fans will remember that Dusty and Dustin teamed up at the '91 Royal Rumble just before they both left WWF. As soon as the Rhodes boys hit the ring the brawl is on. The heels get run out of town and crazy Terry Funk goes crazy with a chair. Reset with Buck and Dustin. Dustin wins another brawl exchange. The heels confer in the corner and the Dustin gets trapped in there. Buck takes out Funk on a double team attempt. Dustin clotheslines Buck 360 to the floor and atomic drops the heels into each other. Dusty tags in to a huge ovation. Bionic elbows on Buck. Dustin saves his dad on a corner whip. More bionic elbows for everyone. Funk's selling like a madman. So like Funk. The heels get piled up in the corner. Dustin powerslam on Buck. Funk breaks the pin up and Buck hits Dustin in the back of the head with his boot behind the ref's back. Dustin blocks a Funk DDT. Headbutts from Funk. They do the "ref didn't see the face tag" spot. Buck comes off the top rope with his boot but hits Funk. Tag to Dusty. Arn Anderson runs in and attacks Dustin from behind, then trips Dusty. Funk stomps on Dusty's arm. Dusty dives over to the corner and gets the tag. Dustin cleans house. Lariats for everyone. He whips the heels into Dusty bionic elbows. Dustin bulldog on Buck. Arn comes in and hits Dustin for the cheap DQ and gives Dustin a DDT. Dusty takes Arn out. Now Meng gets in and everyone reacts like shit just got real. Dusty backs off. He gets a wooden chair. I stress wooden. He hits Meng with it, breaking it over his head! Meng doesn't even flinch. What, is he Zeus now or something? Meng slaps a nerve hold on Dusty while everyone else holds Dustin out. They fight security off for a bit before Doug Dellinger finally gets Meng off. This would all lead to this feud getting the War Games match at Fall Brawl. The match was a serviceable brawl, if a bit one sided but in context of the story they were telling it worked, and the angle was pretty good. The crowd was super excited to see Dusty back in the ring too, no matter how limited he was. **

We return to Bischoff at the hospital. He still doesn't know anything. Crack reporting, Eric. He does say it "doesn't look good" which is probably about as reliable as anonymous White House sources. He's joined by Hogan's attorney, Hart and Beefcake. Excuse me, Bruti. That other name has a WWF copyright on it so we can't say it. The lawyer says Hogan is being x-rayed. The doctors think Hogan should forfeit but Hogan of course wants to go. The lawyer is concerned. Hart is concerned. Bruti is concerned. We're all concerned. We have a consensus. Back to the arena and Flair and Sherri join Mean Gene and step all over each other's promos. They were an odd pairing and didn't mesh well. Flair wants Hogan back in the arena, but not to wrestle, to personally hand the belt back over to Flair. Okerlund says if that happens "it'll be a cold day.....well, in Cedar Rapids". Um, it's Iowa. Half the year at least is cold days. Should have thought that through more or just said the naughty word on TV. After commercial Okerlund says his sources say "somehow" Hogan is on his way back to the arena.

 

Antonio Inoki def WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) in 8:26- We're early on in Inoki's four year Final Countdown retirement tour (check out my my reviews of the January 4th Tokyo Dome shows from this era for more). I'm really not sure why this match is happening other than Inoki wanted to check "wrestled for WCW" off his list before retirement. Regal attacks before the bell while the camera is on the crowd for a long while. Inoki slides back to the floor and gets his robe off. When he gets in there's the usual MMA style cautious hands up grappling Inoki did. Regal gets a facelock and a leg takedown but doesn't seem to be sure what to do after. Inoki goes for the rear choke but Regal grabs a rope. European uppercuts from Regal. He headbutts Inoki on a corner break. More ground work and Inoki ends up halfway on the announce table, where William gives him a cheap shot. An Inoki reverse kick misses by a mile but Regal sells it anyway. Must have moved the air really hard. Strong style. Regal wraps up a leg hold as we go split screen and see Hogan arriving back at the arena, walking slow and limping. While the match continues back and forth with zero attention from commentary Bockwinkel comes out and says Hogan has been advised not to wrestle but he's going to anyway. Inoki Choki! Regal powers out of it, something very few guys in Japan got to do. Double underhook suplex from Regal for 2. Inoki ducks an uppercut, puts the Inoki Choki on again, and Regal goes out. Your mileage on this match will vary greatly depending on how much you care for Inoki's pseudo MMA pseudo shoot style. Personally as much as I respect Inoki I don't think it came together well at all. It's been a bad night for champions so far. 1/2*

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (w/Sensuous Sherri) def Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart and Brother Bruti) by countout in 14:26- There's a long delay between Hogan's music starting and him coming out, but he makes it, limping the whole way. Flair tells him to give him the belt. Hogan teases doing it and then attacks Flair! He pummels Flair with Flair's robe up over his head. A Flair chop is no sold and Hogan does the shirt tear in Flair's face. Then he stuffs the shirt in Flair's mouth! At least Hogan is still limping around selling the knee attack. Flair Flip to the floor. He drags Hogan out and more chops are no sold. Hogan grabs a towel from someone ringside, wraps it around Flair and posts him. Guardrail shot. Flair is selling like a maniac. He begs off in the ring. Hogan clotheslines him with the towel. The ref finally gets on Hogan for all the rule breaking and Flair gets in an eye poke. He goes up top but Hogan slams him off. More clotheslines. A punch sends Flair 360 to the floor. They go up the aisle with Hogan giving him a bunch of back rakes. Flair gets posted again. Hogan grabs a chair but Flair dodges. He catches Hogan coming back in and gives him the delayed suplex. Hogan pops right back up, as much as his bad knee will allow, and hits another clothesline followed by elbow drops. Flair Flip 2 and apron clothesline. Another rail shot. There's an old lady at ringside swinging her cane around trying to hit someone with it. Where the hell is security? Hogan teases taking the cane from her to use, and also teases grabbing the belt as a weapon. Back in Flair *finally* hits Hogan in the bum knee and we're loading up the bus to head to school. Sherri comes in and hits Hogan's knee because she's contractually obligated to get involved at some point. Nothing against her but she was such an unnecessary add on in this feud. Flair kneedrop on the bad knee. Hogan fights off the figure four. Chop block and Hogan tumbles out. Flair continues to pick the knee apart. Figure four! At least Hogan's selling it more than he did in the Bash at the Beach match. Then he starts Hulking Up and physically pulls Flair's leg off to break the hold. More Huking Up with Hogan ignoring Flair's kicks to the knee. Finger point. 3 punches. Big boot. Hogan collapses after hitting that. He uses the ropes to stand back up, manages to hit the legdrop, but can't get up to make the cover. He stands up and the knee buckles again. Flair hooks the figure four back on. Hogan almost submits, then grabs the ref and tells him no. He reverses the figure four. While they're on the apron and the ref's attention is with Hart Sherri hits Hogan in the knee with her Shoe of Extraordinary Pointiness +1. Hogan falls to the floor, can't get back up and is counted out. Michael Buffer announces Flair is the new champ. *sigh* Why the hell did WCW hire him again? The ref says no but Flair takes the belt. He at least should know better. Buffer then says Hogan wins by DQ. Heenan shouts "No you dummy, it was a countout!". The masked man is in again! He hits Hogan's knee and he and Flair pick it apart some more until Sting runs in to make the save. Flair leaves with the belt. Sting helps Hogan out of the ring and the show closes with him being loaded into the ambulance again. For those wondering the masked man was played by Arn Anderson tonight, but as much as he made sense he wouldn't be the officially revealed masked man. More on that when we get there, but it's not going anywhere good. **3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Welcome to the Hulk Hogan Show. No matter who was in the ring or what else was happening, Hogan was always the topic of conversation on TV. So, like the Inoki match, your mileage will vary. The main event is worth watching if you're going through the whole Hogan/Flair feud but isn't worth it on its own. The US title match, however, is must see and helps elevate the overall package.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+