Halloween Havoc '95

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '95

October 29, 1995 from the Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

The Giant has driven Hulk Hogan over the edge so bad (pun partially intended with what's happening on this show) that he's starting wearing all black nearly a year before that would take on a whole new meaning. It's gotten so desperate Hogan has even SHAVED HIS MUSTACHE OFF. I think there was a TV role reason he did that but I can't remember. Anyway, part of tonight's festivities is Hogan and Giant doing battle in monster trucks, and at the start of the show we get a clip of them already in their trucks and facing off. That's a long time to sit there and rev your engine at the other guy without doing anything. We're also told that Ric Flair was attacked in his dressing room by Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman ahead of their match tonight. Sting hasn't even arrived at the arena yet so he doesn't know what happened.

Funny bit leading into the next match- Badd won a shot at the US title at Fall Brawl, but when the time came for the match on non-Nitro weekly TV he no showed. Later in the night he finally got to the arena, telling Mean Gene he was the victim of a flat tire. Diamond Dallas Page and his entourage join to mock Badd. Maxx Muscle says "What a shame you got four flat tires". Badd says: "Who said anything about FOUR flat tires? I said A flat tire!" like he's Poirot deducing the butler did it or something and punches Muscle out. Unintentional comedy. That brings us to tonight.

WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B Badd def Diamond Dallas Page (c) (w/the Diamond Doll and Maxx Muscle) in 17:01- DDP has stolen Badd's blaster, but he violates the heel code by actually setting it off for the crowd. An imposter Badd shows up in his robe during his entrance so the real Badd can attack DDP from behind. I knew ZSJ and Fujita didn't come up with that themselves. DDP gets tossed to the floor. Muscle takes a shot and Badd gives them a double noggin knocker. DDP tries to escape through the crowd but Badd pulls him back. Badd found a bucket somewhere and puts it on DDP's head, then punches him. Back in Badd gets an armdrag and drop toe hold into an ARMBAR. They do some basic counter stuff and both guys pull hair. DDP complains to ref Nick Patrick "He's pulling my hair!" in a gloriously whiny voice. Badd goes "Like this?" and pulls his hair again! They go speed and Badd does a hiptoss straight into a cover for 2. He tries mounted punches but DDT drops him on the top turnbuckle. Badd Bret bumps and DDP back suplexes him off the rebound. DDP hits the "pancake" for 2. I honestly don't remember that move. Chinlock time. Badd tries to fight out but DDP hair pulls him back down. More chinlock. Badd blocks a hiptoss into a backslide for 2. DDP clothesline for 2. Badd sunset flip with counter and counter counters for near falls. Muscle helps DDP out of a wristlock fight. He distracts the ref so DDP can choke Badd with his wrist tape, then covers it up with MOAR chinlock. They do arm drops and Badd powers out. Another wristlock leverage fight and this time Muscle can't help. Badd back suplex. Inverted atomic drop. Regular atomic drop. DDP is in super selling mode. Badd flying headscissors. Double ax handle off the top. The Doll, who's job during matches is to rate all of DDP's best moves a 10 with her card, gives Badd a 10 for that. Badd sit out powerbomb for 2. Page hits the Diamond Dream, another one in his arsenal I don't remember. Badd uses the ropes to block the Diamond Cutter. That one I do know. I sure hope so. He goes for mounted punches again and through the course of counter events DDP gets tossed over the top to the floor. Somersault plancha on DDP and Muscle! Slingshot splash for 2. Badd runs DDP into Muscle and gets a roll up for 2 that the crowd bit hard on. Badd gets dumped to the floor. Another heel double team fails as Muscle clotheslines DDP! Badd covers and gets the pin and the TV title for the second time! Meh. Both guys had been having much better matches, have to chalk this up as a disappointment. *3/4

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage def The Zodiac in 1:30- Savage and Lex Luger have been having problems recently with each other and with Hogan despite the fact they're all faces for a very logical reason- they all want to be world champion. With that in mind we've got a way overdone setup for Savage and Luger tonight. They're each facing members of the Dungeon of Doom, and if they both win they get to have a match with each other to try to settle things. Why the elaborate gauntlet, I have no idea. Zodiac is replacing Kamala, who left the company just before this show. Savage jumps Zodiac from behind. Before they can get anywhere a crazy and likely very drunk fan gets in the ring and tries to shoot fight everyone. Ref Randy Anderson holds the fan back while Savage and Zodiac take things to the floor to get away. Security drags the nut away off camera. Back in Savage dodges Zodiac off the second rope, goes up top while Zodiac obviously repositions himself, hits the elbow and it's already over. Garbage match, but they had major outside distractions to deal with. NR

We join Mean Gene in the back and he's got HOT NEWS that he can only share if you call the hotline. Apparently he overheard Jimmy Hart talking to someone he used to represent in "another wrestling federation" about coming to WCW. Yup, it's the Nitro era with the endless promotion jumping teases. Also Okerlund should stop listening in on other people's conversations.

 

Kurasawa (w/Col. Robert Parker) def Road Warrior Hawk in 3:15- Kurasawa is New Japan legend Manabu Nakanishi during his Young Lion excursion. This is a revenge match as Kurasawa (kayfabe) broke Hawk's arm at the last Clash of the Champions. True to that, Hawk jumps quick at the bell. Tackle. Neckbreaker. Fist drop for 2. Big Hawk chops. Kurasawa dodges and Hawk posts his shoulder. Kurasawa tries to go for the arm but Hawk says screw that and goes right back on offense. Powerbomb. Parker grabs Hawk's foot and Kurasawa attacks from behind. Hawk dodges an elbow off the top and clotheslines Kurasawa 360 to the floor. Flying clothesline off the apron, but not onto Kurasawa, onto Parker! Kurasawa posts Hawk. Back in Kurasawa hits a backdrop slam and Samoan drop, covers Hawk and puts his feet on the ropes, and Parker holds Kurasawa's feet for double extra leverage as he gets the 3 count. Hawk seemed like he had zero interest in letting the youngster do anything, but Hawk jobbing to anyone in a singles match, even with an illegal leverage pin, is a rare event. 1/4*

Savage joins Mene Gene for the famous "Your mustache is crooked!" promo that nearly goes completely off the rails before old pro Okerlund reins it back in. We make fun of Okerlund for all his forced hotline schilling in his WCW run, but there's never been anyone better at conducting interviews.

 

Sabu (w/The Sheik) def Mr. JL in 3:25- How about a little ECW action in the middle of this WCW PPV? Crazily enough both guys were signed to WCW at the time, but Sabu's tenure would only last a few weeks. JL is Jerry Lynn in a mask. Sabu charges the ring and it's on. JL hits an enzuguri that sends Sabu to the floor. Baseball slide. Sabu shrugs it off, whips JL into the guardrail, and hits a springboard moonsault that takes out both JL and Sheik! JL ducks a charge and Sabu splats on the floor. JL dive off the top rope to the floor! Back in JL dodges a moonsault and hits one of his own for 2. Sit out powerbomb for 2. JL crashes in the corner after a dodge. Sabu slingshot legdrop for 2. He goes up again but JL grabs him and German suplexes him off the ropes. Another top rope climb and Sabu does a victory roll with both guys on the top rope for 2. JL dropkicks Sabu off the top rope down to the floor. Sabu gets the edge again out there, rolls JL back in, and hits the springboard splash for the pin. After the bell Sheik throws a fireball in JL's face just because. Crazy ECW spotfest sprint that the WCW crowd had no idea how to react to. **1/4

Next up the Dungeon of Doom is joining us live. Yay. The Master's styrofoam throne has been transported into the arena. He shouts some stuff about a total eclipse and walking on galaxies or something. Kevin Sullivan sounds almost normal after by comparison, talking about how Hogan's donning of "evil" black gear is going to corrupt his soul or something. Well, in the long run he actually got that right by accident. Usual DOD crap. They do mention, and Tony does after, that their "insurance policy" is here tonight. I could go into detail now, but that would spoil the hilariously awful fun to come later. After that the black-clad and mustache-less Hogan joins Mean Gene and Jimmy Hart to present the motorcycle contest winner with their prize in a bit that goes on way too long.

Ad for the next PPV, the first ever World War 3. 3 rings! Because why have two when you can have THREE! SIXTY man battle royale! The winner gets a world title shot. Well, that would change between now and then.

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger def Meng (w/The Taskmaster) by DQ in 13:14- Meng's look sure has changed since he joined the DOD. Commentary is still speculating if Luger is a DOD plant or not. If he is he's sure is playing the very long game. Luger jumps before the bell. It's been all go tonight hasn't it. Gut stomp and he slingshots Meng into the corner. Meng pounds back and chops Luger. Luger gets a boot up in the corner and clotheslines Meng 360 to the floor. Meng and Sullivan have a discussion on the floor and Luger posts Meng. Back in Luger works the arm for about .6 of a second before Meng forgets about it. Luger ducks a clothesline, tries a back suplex but Meng twists in midair to cover Luger for 2. Meng piledriver for 2. Luger fights out of a chinlock and hits a hard crossbody that Meng also jumped in the air during for 2. Meng back suplex. Luger is tossed out. Sullivan goes over, but instead of attacking Luger he talks to him. More very slow Meng offense back in. Luger dodges a dropkick. He backdrops Meng onto the apron and suplexes him back in. Meng no sells clotheslines. Luger finally drops him with one. Backdrop and more clotheslines. Powerslam. Meng gets the GOLDEN spike out of his boot and pokes Luger in the throat with it. Luger drops like drunk panties at a frat party. Meng covers, but Sullivan comes in and breaks the pin up? It looked like he kicked Luger, but the ref DQ's him for kicking Meng and Luger gets the win. Commentary speculates that Sullivan wants Luger to wrestle Savage later tonight as Meng and Sullivan argue. 3/4*

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Sting and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def Arn Anderson and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman by DQ in 17:09- Pillman attacked Flair during his match with Arn at Fall Brawl to get the win for Arn. We found out later that Arn had recruited Pillman to begin the reformation of the Horsemen. They're announced as the Horsemen for this match. Sting comes out by himself with Flair nowhere to be seen after the reported attack before the show and he starts the match off with Arn even though he's partnerless. Hammerlock exchange. The crowd chants "We want Flair". Sting agrees and Arn plays a little violin for the crowd. The Horsemen try a double team but Sting fights them both off and they regroup on the floor. Sting kips up out of Arn hair pulls. Kick and faceplant. Another double team is fought off and the Horsemen restrategize on the floor. Pillman tags in, slaps Sting and quickly bails to the floor. Sting chases. Arn tries to ambush but Sting is one up on him and clotheslines both guys. Back in Pillman offers a handshake. Sting takes it and kicks Pillman. Long delayed press slam. Pillman scurries to the corner to tag out. Arn is reluctant. They do a little more planning in the corner. Arn hits some clubbing blows. Sting counters a piledriver, slingshotting Arn into Pillman, who was set up on the top rope! Sting tosses Pillman off the top into the guardrail! Jabs for Arn. Arn goes deep in his old playbook, ramming Sting's head into his own partners to get Sting down. Flair's out! He's in street clothes and has a giant bandage on his forehead but he's here! Pillman works Sting over on the floor while the ref gets Flair under control and on the apron. Pillman chops Sting back in. Sting fights out of the corner but the tag is cut off. Flair comes in and hits Arn with his shoe. The Horsemen do a rocket launcher but Sting gets his knees up. Arn JUST cuts the tag off and back suplexes Sting. He tries for a leverage pin and gets crotched on Sting's knees. Again Arn manages to hold Sting back from tagging. Flair chases Pillman around the ring. Arn abdominal stretch. Pillman comes in and continues the beatdown while mocking Flair. Single leg crab and cover for 2. Flair charges in again. Arn hits the World's Greatest Spinebuster! Flair breaks the pin up. Pillman puts on a leg scissors as both Horsemen work on Sting's knee a bit. Arn hooks on a bear hug. After arm drops Sting bell rings out. Again the Horsemen just keep him from tagging. Corner beatdown. Sting fights out. Big collision and everyone's down except Flair. And the ref. Sting finally gets the tag! Flair charges in, does his usual warm up rope hit......AND PUNCHES STING! RIC FLAIR AND THE HORSEMEN HAVE TRICKED STING AGAIN! Holy crap I'm laughing so hard. Fool me once shame on me, fool me seventeen times....well, Sting should be expecting it by now is all I'm saying. Flair pulls the bandage off his forehead and he's just fine! The whole attack was a ruse. The ref calls for the DQ as the now three Horsemen beat Sting down before another ref comes in to get them away. Good match, great angle. Flair fooling Sting never gets old. ***1/4

Mean Gene is in full outrage mode. Flair grabs the mic away from him. "Now we go to school!". The band is back together, baby! They need a fourth to round out the numbers, and that would happen soon enough.

 

Sumo Monster Truck Match- WCW presents another one of the most awful ideas ever put on a wrestling TV show. Before Hogan and Giant have their scheduled world title match later tonight, they're doing this monster truck thing. So, they're up on the roof of Cobo Hall, five stories up, which is adjacent to Joe Lewis Arena, their trucks are welded together at the front bumpers, and the goal is to push your opponent's entire truck (both axles, not just one) out of the sumo circle that's been set up. There's also supposed to be two randomly placed "charges" that if run over will explode and "disable" a truck. This is being presented as live, but it was actually all pretaped the night before. Tony is the smart man and takes his leave for this match. Heenan is joined by Eric Bischoff and the creator of the original Bigfoot monster truck, Bob Chandler, who also is supposed to have designed Hogan's truck. Commentary goes through a whole bunch of truck gearhead stats. Put simply, they're big. Really really big. There's also a ton of "somebody's going to die" teasing, mostly centered around what happens if one of those randomly placed charges get run over. We get underway and it's explained that there's actually co-drivers in each truck controlling the rear wheels. Apparently their names and faces don't matter. They're even framed out of the in-truck shots. At one point the back of Hogan's truck is pushed out of the circle and something goes boom. I guess that was one of the charges. It doesn't do anything. Typical WCW. After way too long Hogan pushes Giant's truck out with no drama or fanfare. A pissed off Giant gets out and confronts Hogan on the edge of the roof. They start fighting. Hogan pushes out of a choke and Giant falls off the roof! He's dead, Jim. Commentary is aghast. Well except for Chandler who doesn't seem to know or care what's going on. Heenan asks the logical question, what side did Giant fall on, the street side or the water side into the river? Bischoff gives the infamous answer "You've got a parking lot and you've got a river, what difference does it make?". You can physically see Heenan's give a shit leave his body as he reacts to that sentence. Still, a man might be dead, oh well, the show must go on.

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage def "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 5:23- Back to Tony and Heenan on commentary. The crowd is almost completely pro-Savage for this. There's a discussion after the bell and Luger offers a handshake. Savage attacks him instead! Luger clothesline out of the corner. Jimmy Hart comes out to ringside. Luger pounds away while commentary is still preoccupied with finding out what condition the Giant is in. Savage gets some gut punches but Luger stays in control. Savage gets tossed out. Luger double ax handle off the apron. Savage reverses and Luger takes guardrail and stair shots. Clothesline to Luger's back in the ring. Luger counters Savage coming off the top rope. Hart gets up on the apron and starts up a conversation with Nick Patrick. Luger tries a pin with illegal rope leverage but Hart is still distracting. Savage reverses a whip sending Luger into Hart, knocking him off the apron. The top rope elbow hits and we're done here. That was pretty pointless, especially with what's about to happen. 1/2*

Heenan is still freaking out over the Giant and leaves commentary. And he's back. For those of you that missed the end of the truck fight and roof fall 10 minutes earlier on the show that you paid to watch, here it is again. In full. After that Heenan freaks out some more, and brings some good continuity into it by saying how close he was with Giant's dad Andre.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: The Giant (w/The Taskmaster) def Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) by DQ in 14:30- Hogan comes out first looking distraught and takes the mic. He says "What just happened wasn't supposed to happen" and calls it a terrible accident. But never mind all that, the Giant is here! Without a scratch on him. Also completely dry so unless he hopped in an industrial dryer he must not have ended up in the river. How did he survive? Which side did he fall off of? Questions we'll never have the answers to, because shut up. One other thing to note here- this is Paul Wight's first official match ever. In the main event on PPV. Hogan takes his bandana off and he has paint on his forehead the same as Taskmaster's. Giant no sells a boatload of punches like he no sold that roof fall. After about a dozen Hogan finally starts to stagger him. Hogan tries a slam and of course it fails miserably. Giant goes to work with clubbing blows, back rakes, chops and corner chokes. Hogan fights back in a test of strength knucklelock. They dance around for a minute looking lost before Giant hits a back elbow and slam. Hogan dodges a legdrop and does a mini Hulk up. Buckle shots and mounted punches from Hogan. Here come the back rakes. Corner clothesline. Giant gets clotheslined 360 the floor and sells falling out of the ring more than he did falling off a five story building. Sullivan leads Giant to the aisle to leave. Hogan chases and runs them into each other. Shoulderblocks in the ring wake Giant up again. Giant backbreaker. Time for the inevitable bear hug. After a bit Hogan punches out only to have Giant pound him down again and back to the bear hug. Arm drops and Hogan powers out again. He runs into a goozle. Giant choke slam! Hulk Up time. 3 punches, big boot, big man slam, legdrop. The ref is down! Did Jimmy Hart do that? Hogan brings Hart in and Hart denies it. OK, everything's good. They help the ref back up. When Hogan turns around Hart pushes the ref down again and hits Hogan with the belt! Jimmy Hart turns on Hogan! Giant puts the bear hug back on. Savage and Luger run out to help. But wait! Here comes the "insurance policy". Yup. It's................THE YETAYYYYYY! THE YETAY IS HERE! (It's supposed to be Yeti but that's the way Tony pronounces it so I'm going with it) With all those bandages it should be the Mummy. He's even taller than the Giant. Meanwhile, lost in that madness Luger is attacking Savage. I guess he was with the heels after all. Giant and YetAY put Hogan in a double bear hug sandwich. YetAY is moving his hips around way too much for my liking. I don't want to know what's going on under those bandages. Luger puts Hogan in the torture rack to confirm his turn. Savage also gets sandwich humped and racked. The ref is back up and calls for a DQ. The announcement is Giant wins by DQ. But Hart attacked Hogan. Surely that means Hogan should have won, and don't call me Shirley. The "logic" here is that because Hart was on Hogan's side when the match started, Hart's interference means the Giant wins. Giant takes the belt with him while Buffer makes it clear that titles do NOT change hands on a DQ. Hogan and Savage put themselves back together as the show ends. 1/4*

Buckle up kids, this is where it gets complicated. The next night on Nitro Hart revealed he put a clause in the match contract stating that the title could, in fact, change hands on a DQ. Giant is now the world champion, ending Hogan's title reign at 469 days, the longest WCW/NWA world title reign since Ric Flair's '80s heydays. The lawyers conferred on this, and the week after that on Nitro Giant was stripped of the title due to all the controversy and it was determined that the winner of the inaugural World War 3 60 man battle royale would be the new champion.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The majority of the wrestling is still horrible and the Dungeon of Doom is shit beyond redemption, other than the Giant who does have potential even if they're pushing him too hard too soon, but outside of that this show has the first real glimpse of the "swerve a minute" main event philosophy that will become standard in WCW over the next year and help catapult them to #1. For a time. That's the problem with basing your whole product on constant shocks and surprises, it works in the short term but isn't sustainable over the long haul, something you'll be reading a lot more from me and in more detail as we get further into the era. Everything involving the Horsemen reformation is great though, something I'm sure Flair was handling himself without head booker Kevin Sullivan being involved. Historically this is a fairly important signpost show leading to what WCW will become in 1996, for better or worse.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

Ground Zero '97: In Your House

Legacy Review

Ground Zero '97: In Your House

September 7, 1997 from the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, KY

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

After a little over two years of In Your House shows being discounted 2 hour PPVs on the months there's not one of the "Big 5" shows (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, King of the Ring, Summerslam, Survivor Series), all WWF PPVs become 3 hours and full price starting with this show. It's also the start of the phasing out of the In Your House name as it's now secondary to the monthly name. This is also the only PPV to use the Ground Zero name.

The opening video focuses on the new Undertaker/Shawn Michaels feud after Summerslam and the transformation of Shawn into "the most hated man in the WWF". Per Shawn, "You're either with me or against me". Well, only a Sith thinks in absolutes so there you go. Case closed. It's not mentioned in the video but D-Generation X has also come together, with Triple H, Chyna and enforcer Rick Rude all joining Shawn. Despite the In Your House name being pushed down the ladder the house set is still being used. The old red, white and blue ring ropes are also making a temporary comeback, likely because it's Labor Day weekend.

Brian Pillman def Goldust (w/Marlena) in 11:06- Pillman having to wear a dress on Raw after losing at Summerslam was only the start of this feud. It's gotten completely nuts. Pillman is now pulling the Ric Flair, saying he was with Marlena before Dustin was (something everyone says is true), and then he drops a bomb: Dustin's 3 year old daughter Dakota is ACTUALLY PILLMAN'S LOVE CHILD! Yes, the soap opera-ization of wrestling is in full gear. Also I can't see how anyone can watch angles like this and think the Attitude Era doesn't start until '98. We're there already. With all that happening, the stipulations for tonight's match are- if Pillman loses, he leaves the WWF FOREVER; if Goldust loses, Pillman gets Marlena for 30 days and 30 nights. Goldust jumps Pillman on the ramp as Pillman's coming in. Inverted atomic drop and clothesline in the ring, followed by mounted punches. Pillman begs off then chokes Goldust with his shirt. Chops. Pillman jumps out to stalk Marlena and Goldust attacks him from behind. More Pillman chops. Goldust blocks a Pillman bulldog and Pillman lands crotch first on the top rope. Pillman walks and Goldust follows. Goldust suplex on the entrance ramp. He crotches Pillman on the ring post. After a few shots to Pillman's oft-injured knee Goldust tries for the bulldog. Pillman counters. Backdrop. Double chinlock from Pillman. Goldust electric chairs out. Back elbow in the corner from Pillman. He goes up top but Goldust hits the ropes and Pillman gets crotched for the third time tonight. He's going to need an icepack down there. Goldust tosses Pillman off the top rope down to the guardrail. Marlena slaps Pillman. Pillman counters a superplex. Goldust dodges a missile dropkick. He hits the Curtain Call, but Pillman pushed Hebner down. Cover but no ref. Marlena gets on the apron and tries to hit Pillman with her purse. Pillman blocks it, takes the purse, waffles Goldust with it, and covers for 3! Marlena is devestated. Pillman drags her away as she tries to fight him off. That was better than their Summerslam match but not by much. *1/4

Lawler's got Marlena's purse. He opens it up and there's a brick in it! As Bobby Heenan once said, you never know when you'll need a brick. We go backstage to see Pillman throw Marlena into a car and drive off with Goldust trying to chase. In classic Russo fashion this was supposed to lead to the big swerve of Marlena voluntarily joining Pillman. Sadly, the angle was never completed as Pillman passed away in his hotel room the night before the October PPV Badd Blood.

 

"Too Sexy" Brian Christopher def Scott Putski by ref stoppage in 4:45- We've got a couple of second generation wrestlers making their PPV debut here. Christopher is Jerry Lawler's son, though in a fun angle Lawler denies it on air while everyone else drops endless hints that it's true. He'd go on later to be half of the popular Attitude Era tag team Too Cool. Putski is the son of WWF legend Ivan Pustski, who never really amounted to much and had already had his career peak of winning multiple titles in the old GWF in the early '90s. JR mentions in passing this is a Light Heavyweight match. The crowd chants "Jerry's kid" after the bell. Christopher stalls, then tries to jump but Putski was waiting for him. Corner clothesline. A dropkick sends Christopher to the floor. Back in Putski hits some armdrags. Christopher blocks a hiptoss and hits a clothesline. Putski catches Christopher coming off the top rope. Hurricanrana for 2. Christopher hits a Skull Crushing Finale like faceplant. Clotheslines from Putski. Christopher hits a German suplex and tosses Putski to the floor. Christopher plancha that was pretty eh. He hit Putski with his back. Putski is down on the floor, holding his knee and barely moving. The ref counts, then goes out to check on him and calls for the bell. The medical team comes out and we get a shot showing Putski's left kneecap currently in the vicinity of his mid-thigh. I'd call that a legit injury. He's stretchered out while Lawler raises Christopher's hand and crows on the mic because he's not his son don't you even dare insinuate that. The match was OKish before being cut short. I can't fully criticize because I've never had an injury like that, but the unwritten creed among wrestlers is you always finish the damn match no matter what. Putski didn't, and he never wrestled another match for WWF. 3/4*

 

Triple Threat Match: Savio Vega def Faarooq and Crush in 11:37- Vince Russo's gang wars continue, as the three current gang leaders meet in one of WWF's first ever true Triple Threat matches. They're still trying to figure out how to make them work and frankly these aren't the guys to be trusting with figuring it out. All three are alone without their gangs too. Small note of significance: it's not mentioned at all during the match but during the prematch video package we see Rocky Maivia is back from injury and has joined the Nation of Domination. Crush tries to attack before the bell but the other two gang up on him. Crush double clothesline. Faarooq gets a boot up in the corner on Crush and Vega rolls him up on the rebound. Faarooq breaks it up. A belt has been introduced and everyone gets a taste of it. After a hip toss sequence both guys try to pin Vega. Faarooq low blow on Crush. Spinebuster on Vega for 2. Crush works Vega over a bit. Powerslam on Faarooq for 2. 3 way slugfest. Vega heel kick on Crush. Faarooq gets knees up on a Vega splash. More pins are broken up. Crush chinlock on Vega. Faarooq comes off the top rope with a headbutt to Crush's back and covers for 2. Crush electric chair on Faarooq. Vega quickly covers for 2. Crush inverted atomic drop on Vega and both guys cover for 2. Vega gives Faarooq the worst swinging neckbreaker ever. They went in completely opposite directions. Vega gets beat down by Faarooq while Crush decides it's super important to tie his hair back. Then he pushes Faarooq aside and backbreakers Vega. Crush and Faarooq work out a deal and double suplex Vega. Both guys cover him but the ref says you can't do that. Vega gets tossed out and Faarooq attacks Crush. Crush and Faarooq try to beat each other while Vega keeps breaking the pins up. Crush and Vega team up for a spike piledriver on Faarooq. Crush clotheslines Vega to the floor. Heart punch on Faarooq. Vega comes back in, hits Crush with his spinning heel kick, and covers him for the pin. Nothing about that worked. The match was little more than a lethargic series of pin breakups, and without the large gangs brawling with each other the crowd didn't give two shits. 1/4*

 

Max Mini def El Torito in 9:21- And now for something completely different. As part of the limited deal WWF had with AAA back at the beginning of the year they're getting some of the lucha midget wrestlers over for some variety on the card. Torito has bull horns on his mask and charges around on his entrance like a bull. Mini is billed at a scant 86 pounds and is called the smallest athlete in the world. Wonder if this is a Light Heavyweight match too? Some flippydo counters at the start from Mini and he hits a couple of spinning flying headscissors. Torito goes to the floor. Mini somersault plancha! Back in Torito pounds away with his huge size advantage. In terms of midget wrestling this is almost Rey Mysterio vs Big Show. Mini dodges a senton and works a wristlock. Torito bites Mini's ass! He's a bull I guess. Stiff kicks from Torito. Mini dodges a corner charge and they do the same wristlock/ass biting sequence again. Mini gets pissed at the ref for letting it happen. Mini bites the ref's ass! The ref chases him around and out of the ring! How is that not a DQ? Mini runs around commentary, then hops in Lawler's lap! He puts Lawler's crown on! JR asks if this reminds Lawler of when Brian Christopher was a kid. After that bit of fun Mini flips back in the ring, right into a kick to the face. Torito hits the senton this time. Mini hurricanrana! Cover for 2. Torito powerbomb for 2. Mini sunset flip for 2. Torito hits a huge clothesline. Mini chops Torito down with clotheslines of his own. Armdrags and Torito is on the floor again. Mini with a springboard moonsault! He got some serious air time on that for someone of his stature. Back in Torito crashes into the corner. Mini hurricanrana off the top rope. He hits another sunset flip and that gets the pin! Fun stuff. Mini sure is a little dynamo in there. Reminds me a bit of Taiji Ishimori. He's only slightly smaller than Ishimori is too. ***

We get a recap of Steve Austin's injury at Summerslam, followed by video from Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter (the new on-screen authority figure due to Gorilla Monsoon's health troubles) saying Austin claims he can wrestle but WWF won't risk it and he wants Austin in the ring at Ground Zero to vacate the tag titles. Slaughter flat says Austin has "more guts than brains". They're letting Austin keep the Intercontinental title for now but that would be vacated the next night on Raw. Back live and Slaughter is in the ring with JR. Dude Love comes out first. He says he's doing this reluctantly, he thought about defending the titles by himself (something Foley would end up doing at a future PPV) but it's thanks to Austin that he got them at all so he's going to respect that and hands the belt over. Next out is Austin to what's becoming the Austin pop. He flips off JR and goes nose to pointed chin with Slaughter. Austin takes the mic from JR, tells Vince to take that stupid look off his face, he says he can wrestle so he can wrestle and the whole WWF is out to screw him. He drops the belt at Slaughter's feet and tells him to drop and give him 20. And that's an order! Slaughter picks the belt up without incident. JR takes the mic back and tells Austin no one wants this, we want to see him wrestle but the company isn't willing to risk permanent paralysis for it. Stunner for JR! Love holds Austin back from giving Slaughter one. Austin flips Slaughter off as he leaves. Vince leaves commentary in a fury. JR gets carried to the back. When Vince gets back to commentary he says "Austin's a jackass!". Could this have been done on Raw? Sure, but it got Austin on the PPV, and Austin is so great and on the talking run of his life so getting him on the PPV while he's hurt however they can is the right call. The injury to Austin was bad in terms of it kept him from wrestling for a while, and while he was on a massive hot streak of good to great PPV matches too, but in the long run it might have helped. This is without a doubt the early version of the "Austin vs WWF corporate world" and Austin vs Vince feuds that would take over most of the product in '98 and give them the final huge push to get ahead of WCW and the NWO again, this time for good.

 

Fatal Four Way Elimination Match for the vacant WWF Tag Team Championship: The Headbangers def The Godwinns, The Legion of Doom and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart in 17:19- Just Vince and Lawler on commentary for the rest of the show. The Headbangers are replacements for Austin and Dude Love. Thrasher and Phineas start. After a shoulderblock standoff they hit the ropes with Thrasher getting a counter into a roll up for 2. Thrasher tags Henry to try to make the Godwinns go at it. Phineas says nah and tags Mosh. Henry and Mosh stand and stare at each other forever. Do something! Finally they lock up. Mosh gets a hiptoss and armdrag. Headbanger double team. Animal tags in but gets caught in the Godwinn corner. Henry and Animal collide and don't move a muscle. Henry gets tossed to the floor. Hawk comes down and punches him. The Godwinns and LOD still have a thing going on. Henry's had enough and tags Mosh. Animal powerslams him. Hawk clothesline off the top. Press slam. Bulldog refuses to tag Hawk. Hawk punches him and the ref counts that as a tag. OK then. Henry press slams Owen for 2. Owen enzuguri for 2. Animal goes in peril for a bit before getting his boot up on Phineas coming off the second rope. Hot tag to Hawk. The Godwinns break up the Doomsday Device. Animal grabs the Godwinns' bucket and swing it at anything that's moving. It's in plain view of the ref and LOD are DQ'd and out. Mosh works Phineas over a bit. Headbanger double team suplex for 2. Thrasher somersault plancha! Henry pulls the top rope down and Thrasher falls to the floor, going Headbanger in peril. He manages to get a sunset flip on Phineas and that gets a pin. The Godwinns are gone. Owen comes in with a gutwrench suplex and legdrop. They work Mosh to double team. Bulldog back elbow and delayed suplex. Owen missile dropkick for 2. Thrasher crossbody for 2. Owen neckbreaker. Thrasher and Bulldog try to do a counter but it ends up being a huge mess. Tags on both sides. Mosh runs wild. Owen and Bulldog try a double team but Owen hits Bulldog with a spinning heel kick. Here comes Austin again! Stunner on Owen! The Headbangers cover for the pin and the titles! Riding the hot hand I guess as that most late '90s of teams gets a big pop for the win. They go and celebrate in the crowd after. Like the triple threat match earlier this didn't come together well at all and there was a distinct lack of noticeable effort. The only team really capable of putting a good match on sat parked on the apron most of it. *1/2

Slaughter is in the back with an iced up and pissed off JR. He says he doesn't give a damn how popular Austin is, he can't get away with this shit. Yes, he really says shit. Lots of bleeps in this segment. He didn't come here to get beat on. "They can kiss my 3:16 ass. Tell Vince if this shit happens again my ass is gone." I think this is the maddest I've ever heard JR until Jay White accidentally knocked over his announce table and knocked him down at one of the early US shows while JR was still commentating for New Japan.

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) def The Patriot in 19:19- Bret at the peak of his Canadian pride anti-American heel run against the Patriot is an obviously logical way to go for a placeholder defense. I mentioned the GWF earlier, the Patriot was their big Hulk Hogan-like star in the early '90s. He also had some success in WCW's tag team division in the early Bischoff years and had a couple of decent stints in All Japan. His overly serious old school character was not a good fit for where the WWF is at the moment though, and he wouldn't last long. He's also openly being called Del Wilkes and even did an interview without his mask during the build. Yes, that's Kurt Angle's music Patriot is coming out to. It was originally written for him. Both guys prop their flags up in the corners. Bret jumps before the bell! That's different. Back suplex and gut headbutt from Bret. He puts Patriot in the tree of woe and stomps away. Chokes and bites from Bret. Patriot reverses a corner whip and hits a clothesline. Dropkick and another clothesline sends Bret to the floor. He stalls on the floor to regroup, then hides in the corner when he gets back in before running into armdrags. Patriot spends the next few minutes working Bret's arm over. Bret shakes the arm off after a corner break then comes out with kicks to Patriot's knee. Bret starts picking the knee apart. Spinning toe hold, pretty much a .5 figure four. Post wraparound figure four! Bret posts Patriot's knee. The Bulldog is out to ringside. Bret Russian leg sweep for 2. Backbreaker. Patriot blocks a suplex and hits his own! How dare you break up the Five Moves of Doom! Patriot sunset flip for 2. DDT for 2. Bret gets a knee up in the corner but is caught coming off the second rope. Bulldog trips Patriot. Bret rolls him up off the distraction for 2. Patriot pushes Bret, who knocks Bulldog off the apron. Patriot roll up for 2. The crowd bit pretty hard on that one. Uncle Slam (a full nelson slam) hits! Cover and Bulldog makes a save. Patriot hops out to discuss it with him. Vader is out! I honestly don't remember what beef he had with the Harts but he attacks Bulldog and all four guys brawl on the floor. Vader whips Bret into the steps. Bret wants a DQ but we must have Red Shoes reffing this one because he's letting everything go. Patriot goes back on the attack in the ring. Big boot. Patriot Missile! Bret kicks out! Atomic drop/back suplex combo for 2. Bret counters with a hot shot! They muffed it a little as Patriot hit the middle rope instead of the top one, you can see Bret trying to save it but he can't. Bulldog. Elbow off the second rope. You knew those Five Moves of Doom would be completed somehow. They swap corner punches and Patriot accidentally hits the ref. Another Uncle Slam! The ref is slow to get over to count and Bret gets a foot on the rope. Midring collision. Patriot blocks a roll up. Small package reversals for near falls. Bret bump! Patriot hooks on a Sharpshooter! Bret reverses it! He's the master. Patriot is close to the ropes but can't reach far enough to grab one and has to give it up. Perfectly solid Bret Hart title defense and probably the Patriot's best match, at least in North America. Bless the crowd for thinking Patriot actually had a chance of winning. They were so innocent back then. ***1/2

After the bell Bret continues the assault. Piledriver. He breaks Patriots US flagpole, tears the flag off and chokes Patriot with it. Things get so heated Bret even punches Pat Patterson. But he's Canadian too! I know he's French Canadian but that still counts.

 

The Undertaker and "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels no contest in 16:20- Shawn may be the big heel besides Bret now but he still has young female fans. Oh yeah, this is the match that Shawn's in ring pyro goes off late and he doesn't take it well, mocking it then doing the jerk off gesture. This is the first singles meeting between these two in what would become a legendary decade spanning feud. Shawn freaks out when Taker makes the lights snap back on and hides behind ref Mike Chioda. Taker punches Chioda out before he can ring the bell to start the match! It's going to be one of those nights. Shawn refuses to wrestle and tries to run. Slaughter comes out and forces him back in. Chioda is back up. Good, we can get this thing started for.....Taker scoops Chioda up and throws him down to the floor on Shawn! Guess not. Shawn tries to get away again, crawling up the ramp all the way to the house set. He tries to open the house door but it's locked! Taker press slams Shawn on the ramp! Into the flower bed goes Shawn! A punch sends Shawn rolling all the way down the ramp. We've already seen Shawn at his worst and best tonight. Jerk Shawn getting pissy about his pyro, and great wrestler Shawn selling like mad for Taker. Taker chokes Shawn with a TV cable. Shawn tries to use the bell but can't. Into the rail goes Shawn. Taker punches Shawn onto the French announce table. Shawn stands on the table, and a Taker punch sends him down into the rail again! Finally back in the ring and Shawn begs off. The beating continues. Taker covers, but I don't know what he's expecting there because he's the one that killed the damn ref. Shawn flip! He falls back to the floor. Finally Earl Hebner joins the match. Shawn begs him to end it or DQ Taker but Hebner tells him to get in the ring and get it on. Taker stalks Hebner. Shawn uses the opening to chop block Taker. Hebner rings the bell to finally start the match officially. Yes, everything up to now was extracurricular and the match clock is only starting now. Shawn tries to hit mounted punches but Taker pushes him off. Goozle! Shawn kicks Taker's knee. Taker catches Shawn coming off the top and clotheslines him 360 to the floor. Shawn sunset flips back in but Taker lifts him up by the throat. Shawn gets kicked up in the corner and crotched. Clothesline and cover for 2. Taker cranks Shawn's arm. Shawn counters old school and now Taker is crotched. Baseball slide. Shawn plancha! Taker catches him! He posts Shawn's back. Shawn tries to get away in the ring but Taker gives him a low blow and goes to work on his back. Mile high backdrop. As is mandatory in this era Shawn's ass cheeks make an appearance outside his tights. Taker tries another backdrop but Shawn counters it with a swinging neckbreaker. Taker sits up and Shawn bails. He gets a chair. Taker cuts it off with a kick. He takes the chair. Hebner takes it away! That's a brave man. Shawn dropkicks Taker in the back and Hebner gets knocked down. Flying forearm. Elbow off the top. A second one. Cover. Hebner crawls over, slow counts, and Taker kicks out. Rick Rude is out. He tosses Shawn a pair of brass knucks and leaves. Shawn wallops Taker with them! Cover but Hebner's down again. Shawn stomps on him in frustration. Ref #3, Jack Doan, makes his way in. I can picture all the refs in the back drawing lots and the loser having to get in the match. Doan counts and Taker kicks out again. Shawn punches Doan out. Triple H and Chyna are now out too. HHH pounds on Taker and throws him knee first into the steps. Shawn runs Hebner into the turnbuckle. I think he's done for the night. Shawn continues the beatdown. On Taker, not the refs. Taker tries to fight back but Shawn clotheslines him back to the floor and the waiting fists of HHH. Chyna gets a shot in. That wakes Taker up. He fights with HHH and Chyna. Shawn comes off the top rope onto Taker's back. He chokes Taker with a cord. HHH gives the crowd a crotch chop. Back in Shawn squeaks out of a Tombstone. Taker blocks a superkick. Google and corner pounding. Taker confiscates Shawn's knucks. He hits Shawn with them! Taker takes HHH out too. Cover. Hebner, who's amazingly still alive, crawls over. Shawn kicks out! Taker choke slams Hebner. NOW he's done. Speed run and Taker hits the flying clothesline. Ref #4, Tim White, runs in and says enough of this shit and throws the whole match out. After him there's probably no refs left. Taker choke slams Trips into Shawn! Superkick! Taker gets tied up in the ropes Andre the Giant style. DX gets another chair but Taker big boots it into Shawn's face. HHH saves Shawn from a Tombstone. The officials gaggle is out. HHH gets Tombstoned. Now the locker room empties as everyone runs in to stop the fight. Everyone gets separated.....until Taker runs and dives over the top rope onto Shawn and all the other wrestlers on the floor! I think that was the first time ever Taker did his big swan dive. After that order is finally restored as Taker closes the show in the ring. Well. That was eventful. Even on PPV the non-finish works to keep the feud going and there was clear chemistry between the two. There's already getting to be diminished returns on all the ref murdering though after Shawn and Austin did basically the same thing back at King of the Ring. Still, the overall package was a lot of fun and these two clearly have even better matches in them. The next month at Badd Blood they'd have one for the ages, and not for the last time. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Pretty typical of the era in that everyone who you know will deliver delivers while everything else was pretty much crap. At least the best matches are backloaded to the end of the show. Keeping Austin on TV in any way they can while he's injured is most definitely a plus.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+

Fall Brawl '95

Legacy Review

Fall Brawl '95

September 17, 1995 from the Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, NC

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

Monday Night Nitro has started, kicking the Monday Night Wars off in full. Like a lot of wars, at least historical ones before the advent of "shock and awe" aerial bombardment, there would just be some exploratory skirmishes to start out with, like Lex Luger making a shock return to WCW on the first Nitro. Total warfare wouldn't begin until the start of the NWO in '96. Hell, WWF wouldn't even hardly acknowledge there was a war before late '96 or '97 other than those hilariously awful Billionaire Ted skits. I guess all those coastal defenses just blew themselves up.

During the intros it's mentioned that during the Main Event preshow the Giant destroyed Hulk Hogan's prized Harley motorcycle by running a monster truck through it. Sadly that is a direct setup for what's coming next month.

Johnny B Badd def "Flyin'" Brian Pillman in 29:14- The winner of this match gets a US title shot. This is face vs face, at least in theory. Badd makes Buffer wait forever with his frisbee throwing and Badd Blaster blasting. Note Buffer says this is a 20 minute time limit. Pillman gets a lot of boos on his intro, the crowd is almost all pro-Badd. Code of Honor handshake, but after the inital lockup. Does that still count? I need an ROH rules expert to make a ruling. Polite but fairly intense basic wrestling at the start. After an extended speed run both guys try a dropkick at the same time. Badd goes to arm work. Pillman snap mares out and moves into a headlock. Another speed run and both guys hook for armdrags, twirl and go flying. Pillman runs and trips in Badd's vicinity, not sure what that was supposed to be. Badd rolls him into a magistral cradle but Pillman quickly gets out. Pillman drop toe hold and Euro clutch for 2. Flying headscissors in the corner from Pillman and he gets another leg roll up for 2. Pillman starts laying in the chops. Badd's bleeding on his head from somewhere. It's clearly inadvertent, I'm not sure where it could have happened and commentary doesn't even mention it (Turner corporate orders were WCW was a no blood zone). Badd hiptoss into a chinlock. Pillman tries an armdrag but Badd rolls through it back into the chinlock. Pillman backbreaker for 2. Boston crab. He lets go pretty quickly and starts punching Badd as the heel loose canon starts to come out. Badd tiltawhirl backbreaker for 2. He hooks on a toe hold then rolls into a surfboard. Pillman gets out and shoves. Badd shoves back. The niceties are definitely over. Pillman gets a back elbow in the corner then messes with the crowd, clearly going full heel now. Badd punches back and Pillman rolls to the floor. After he gets back in he offers another handshake. This time Badd knows better and offers a fist instead. Pillman punches and tosses Badd out. He bites Badd on his cut! Badd gets a slingshot legdrop for 2. They hit the ropes again, both guys leapfrog, then they leapfrog at the same time and collide! That's definitely a theme in this match and it's not done yet. Pillman plants Badd with a headbutt but collapses and both guys are down again. Pillman's up first and kicks Badd to the floor. 5 minutes left. Badd suplexes Pillman out to the floor. Pillman does that every match and it never stops looking awesome. Badd plancha! Back in Badd comes off the top. Pillman dropkicks him in midair! 4 minutes left. Badd sit out powerbomb for 2. Pillman tombstone for 2. 3 minutes left. Pillman tries a DDT off the second rope but Badd pushes out. He wraps Pillman's arm up in an obvious stall. 2 minutes left. Pillman slips out of a slam, does a Russian leg sweep and transitions into his own submission hold for a bit more time limit stalling. 1 minute. The ref does arm drops on Badd and they don't get up until there's 30 seconds left. Badd faceplant. Tutti Fruiti Punch! Pillman falls under the ropes to save himself. Pillman springboard clothesline for 2. He gets a backslide as time expires. Ref Nick Patrick quickly calls Buffer over and says this match MUST CONTINUE! It's for a title shot so it's sudden death until there's a winner. Pillman charges out aggressive and bites Badd again. Badd punches Pillman to the floor. Chop exchange. Badd gets whipped into the guardrail. Back in Badd comes off the top with a missile dropkick, but Pillman also tries his dropkick counter again! Another simultaneous move. Pillman hooks on a sleeper. Badd goes down and they do the arm drops again. Badd grabs a rope. Badd sleeper! Pillman back suplexes out. Badd blocks a superplex. Sunset flip off the top! Pillman kicks out! Badd tries another powerbomb but Pillman counters with a hurricanrana for 2. Pillman goes for a crucifix but Badd drops him for 2. Badd sets Pillman up top. Hurricanrana off the top! Pillman kicks out again! Badd sets Pillman up top again. Pillman counters into an avalanche DDT! Badd kicks out! Where the hell is this crowd, these are serious quality near falls and they're all sitting on their hands and staring at their phones or something. Wait, it's 1995. They're imagining staring at their AOL homepages at home. Pillman goes up again. Badd tosses him off all the way to the floor onto the guardrail! Somersault plancha! Badd goes for a slingshot splash back in. Pillman gets his knees up! Cover for 2. Pillman drops Badd on the top rope and he falls to the floor. Pillman TOPE SUICIDA! Man, Badd did Pillman no favors there, he was a mile away. Pillman barely reached him. Pillman tries a springboard apron dropkick but Badd counters and Pillman gets crotched on the top rope. Another crazy speed run. I mean they're going full tilt. SIMULTANEOUS CROSSBODY COLLISION! Badd ends up on top and gets the pin! Great finish, great match. Other than Flair/Savage at Great American Bash this is by far and away the best match WCW has put on in this dreary year so far. The time limit draw and restart was a bit silly and unnecessary but the match after that was so great it's easy to forget about. ****

Ric Flair gives a great promo about his history and relationship with Arn Anderson ahead of their match against each other tonight, including some Four Horsemen references. Good stuff, but I spent almost the whole thing trying to figure out what the hell that big green stain is on Okerlund's cuff.

 

Sgt. Craig Pittman def Cobra in 1:22- Cobra (sadly not dressed like GI Joe bad guy Cobra) is Jeff Farmer, soon to be NWO Sting. There's this huge elaborate backstory about how Cobra and Pittman knew each other in 'Nam and one of them went AWOL or something but frankly it's not worth getting into. Zero crowd reaction for the supposed face Cobra. Pittman no shows his entrance and instead a generic unnamed solider (crazily enough the future next Alex Wright-like rookie push bomb, Prince Iaukea) comes out to argue with/distract Cobra. Distract because Pittman rappels down from the ceiling behind him. It's special forces warfare! Pittman chokes Cobra from behind and after a little back and forth submits him with the Code Red armbreaker. Total crap, but they kept it short so I'll go easy on it. NR

Next up we get a video of Paul Orndorff backstage doubting himself after a recent string of losses, thinking he's not Mr. Wonderful anymore. Until help arrives in the form of....."Gary Spivey?! From the Psychic Companion's Network?". Yes, that's the actual line from Orndorff. You can hear the collective shouts of "WHO?" from 1995 still echoing across spacetime today. This Spivey guy, no relation to Dan Spivey that I know of, was an actual "celebrity" (I use the term very loosely) psychic. His wig has to be seen to be believed. It looks like it's chiseled out of styrofoam. Anyway, Spivey goes all Stuart Smalley on Orndorff, convincing him he's good enough and doggone it people like him. Orndorff starts kissing his own arms so I guess that means he's OK now. This angle was so bad that Orndorff decided retirement was preferable by the end of the year.

 

WCW World Television Championship: Diamond Dallas Page (w/the Diamond Doll and Maxx Muscle) def The Renegade (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) in 8:07- DDP's got a very early Savage/Elizabeth relationship going on with the Doll and that's finally given him some traction with crowds and on TV. Case in point: DDP gets in the wrong ring then blames Doll for it. DDP jumps Renegade before the bell. Bret bump from Renegade and DDP turns the rebound into a Russian leg sweep. Renegade shouts and DDP stumbles out of the ring, walks into the ring post and stumbles over the guardrail into the first row. What, is Renegade the Dragonborn or something? DDP begs off back in and tights pulls Renegade into the corner. Renegade drags DDP around in a headlock. Clothesline for 2. DDP dodges a crossbody...ish. He snaps Renegade over the top rope. Swinging neckbreaker and he tosses Renegade out. Renegade sunset flip back in. DDP counters for 2. Renegade counters the counter for 2. DDP clothesline for 2. Running corner shoulderblock. Renegade dodges another. Backdrop counter and clothesline from Renegade. DDP is selling like a crazy man. Renegade handspring elbow with a great DDP flop out of the corner. Double ax handle off the top for 2. DDP jawbreaker. Renegade goes for a hiptoss. DDP counters in midair into a DDT! That was good. He cinches up for the Diamond Cutter. Renegade pushes out, DDP bounces off the corner and Renegade rolls him up for 2. Muscle gets on the apron. DDP gets whipped into him and Renegade hits a powerslam. Renegade goes up top....and dives on Muscle on the floor! Emotion over strategy. As Renegade gets back in Muscle holds his leg down. Diamond Cutter! DDP gets the pin and his first WCW title! On top of that our long nightmare of Renegade as TV champ is over. WCW thankfully decided to pull the plug on the experiment after this. Renegade would hang around a couple of more years but only as a lowcarder and jobber. But for DDP, the sky was the limit. The Doll is not happy with the title win however. It's only 1995 but DDP is already a freaking miracle worker, dragging Renegade to a decent match. **1/4

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri) def Bunkhouse Buck and "Dirty" Dick Slater (c) (w/Col. Robert Parker) in 16:49- The romantic subplot of Parker and Sherri being into each other continues. Booker drops what sounds like an f bomb coming down the aisle. A shot from hard camera catches one of the ringside cameramen coaching fans to boo on camera. Booker and Slater start with Booker getting the quick edge. Slater gets a drop toe hold into a sort of crossface before getting worked over in the face corner. Ray chinlocks early. Booker hits a heel kick. They go speed and Booker hits a hiptoss and kneedrop. Slater tries to chop Ray down, eventually giving him a swinging neckbreaker. Ray responds with a gut headbutt then chokes Slater with his own bandana. Well if he wears it in the ring voluntarily.... Parker is caught on camera all in a flutter about Sherri. Booker gets tossed onto the steps. Buck runs over and clotheslines him with his rope. Booker goes Heat in peril. Heel corner beatdown and choke. Slater Russian leg sweep for 2. Piledriver. Booker gets tossed out again and run into the guardrail. Medium boot back in from Buck. It was too short for a big boot. Buck dodges and Booker crashes hard in the corner. Slater back suplex for 2. Some more Booker FIP beatdown follows. Buck and Booker muff a counter sequence a bit before Buck slams Booker. Slater hooks on a Boston crab. Ray breaks it up. The heels swap without a tag and Buck puts on a single leg crab. Buck goes for a backdrop but Booker counters with a scissors kick. Tag! Ray cleans house. Powerslam. DONNYBROOK! While the fight goes on in one ring Parker and Sherri can't contain themselves anymore and get in the other ring to have a "match" of their own. Sherri crawls toward Parker and they make out. Hard. If it wasn't Turner PG clothes would be coming off. The Nasty Boys run in, whack Slater with a boot, and Ray covers for the pin and gets the titles back for Heat while the intergender Greco Roman lip lock continues in the other ring. Why would the Nastys interfere on Heat's behalf? Could be something from weekly TV I don't remember. Could just be WCW. Buck is pissed at Parker while Heat aren't sure what Sherri is doing either. Sherri argues they got the belts back so everything's good. Not as bad as their borefest of a match at the last Clash but still nothing close to good. They did try to work the most classic of tag team formula. 3/4*

Mean Gene stops the heels as they walk back. Buck and Slater are still pissed at Parker. Parker says he's serious about Sherri, and he's the boss anyway so shut up. He also promises to get them a rematch.

Next up is a video package going through Flair and Arn's recent issues. One of the key parts of this is Flair has clearly not been himself mentally since Hogan came in. For both guys this is not anything like a blood feud or grudge match, it's an unfortunate piece of family business that must be done.

 

Arn Anderson def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in 22:37- It's a perfect stroke to have this match in North Carolina, the former home of Jim Crockett Promotions where Flair, Arn and the Four Horsemen became stars in the mid '80s. It'd be even better to have it in Greensboro or Charlotte, JCP's top two cities, but that's a very minor quibble. Flair looks conflicted as he makes his way to the ring. A bunch of wrestlers have joined the crowd in the first couple of rows, adding more atmosphere to the match. This truly is a match we thought we'd never see. Flair gives Arn a little Slick Ric and strut before locking up. Speed run, Flair shoulderblock, Arn gets a drop toe hold and rides Flair a bit. Long staredown. Arn gets his own shoulderblock. Both guys shove. Flair rolls out for a think. Arm wringer tradeoff back in with Arn getting the edge. Flair gets out and yells. Arn slaps him! Flair, of course, bumps off it. Flair gives Arn one of the most intense "WOOOOO"s ever. Hammerlock exchange. Flair gets a drop toe hold. Arn counters into a hammerlock. Flair gets a leg takedown but Arn cranks the arm again. He goes into an armbreaker. Flair does a really sweet multiple roll flip to get out and puts on a headlock. Arn headscissors counter. Flair chop! He kicks Arn's knee as things get ratcheted up a notch from clean mat wrestling to striking. More chops. Back elbow in the corner from Arn. Arn sleeper! Flair backs him into the corner. Arn climbs the second rope and comes off with a knee to Flair's back. Hammerlock slam. Flair tries to beg off but Arn grabs the arm again. Pure vintage Anderson strategy, choose a body part (usually an arm), stay on it and pick it apart. Leverage pin attempt from Arn. Flair wobbles him with more chops. Arn hair pulls Flair back down, then posts his arm. ARMBAR. Flair backs into the corner and hits more chops. Arn starts throwing punches. Flair Flip! Arn charges while Flair's on the apron, but Flair pulls the top rope down and Arn goes to the floor! Brilliant subversion of the usual moves there. Flair double ax handle off the top to the floor! He's Randy Savage all of a sudden. Arn gets snapped over the top rope. Flair chop and kneedrop. He tries a rope leverage pin. Arn pummels him with left hands. Backdrop. The ref has enough of the closed fists and blocks an Arn punch. Flair takes advantage with a hard cheap shot to Arn's gut. Arn gets tossed out again. Arn backdrops Flair on the floor! He follows up with some ground and pound. Flair blocks and suplexes Arn on the floor! Delayed suplex from Flair back in the ring. Both guys are down. Flair rolls over for a 2 count. More Flair chops. Arn sunset flip. Flair tries to punch out but Arn dodges. Flair Flip 2! Flair gets caught in the tree of woe! Arn stomps and chokes him. He calls for the DDT. Flair grabs the top rope to block it. Flair Flop! Flair gets slammed off the top rope. Arn tries coming off the second rope again but Flair clotheslines him. Figure four! Arn tried to block it by grabbing Flair's leg but Flair gets it applied. After a couple of near falls Arn sits up. Flair spits on him! Arn reverses and Flair lets go. Chop block from Flair as both guys are limping. Another figu....no, Arn small package for 2! Another knee shot. Flair pummels Arn with punches in the corner. Arn's knee goes again on a whip attempt. Brian Pillman gets up on the apron. He punches Flair! Flair punches back! Pillman kicks Flair! Arn DDT! That gets the pin! That was a beautiful piece of business. Intense, emotional, perfectly worked by both guys. You'd prefer a clean finish of course, but Pillman's interference would be explained in the coming weeks and it turns out it all works when you get through the whole story. Flair must have booked all this out on his own without Sullivan. ****1/4

From that to this. After a typically weird as shit Kevin "Taskmaster" Sullivan video we get a replay of the Giant committing motorcyclecide on Hogan's Harley with his monster truck. Then ANOTHER video setting up the match. Of all the War Games deserving a double video package, this one sure isn't it.

 

War Games: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Sting, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and "The Total Package" Lex Luger (w/Jimmy Hart) def The Dungeon of Doom (w/The Taskmaster) in 18:47- Luger was a last second replacement for Vader after Vader left the company and Luger returned at the same time. Luger also takes over Vader's assigned role of possible Dungeon mole within Hogan's team. Luger already made Hogan promise him a title shot the night he came back. Hogan's team are all decked out in camo pants and paint. Huh, I think I have an idea where that green stain on Okerlund's cuff came from. An added stipulation is if Hogan's team wins, Hogan gets Taskmaster inside the cage.

P1. Sting and Shark- Shark is the latest gimmick for the former Earthquake. You know, he's into natural disaster gimmicks. Wonder what would happen if you combined a shark with a tornado? Nah, that's too out there even for wrestling. Shark gets in control at the start because he's large. Shark swims steps over Sting and bites his arm. Sting dodges an avalanche. Dive across rings by Sting! He slams Shark, then tries for another slam and gets squashed. Shark bear hug. That'll kill some time. Sting bell rings out. Shark tries to dive between rings but gets caught straddled over the top rope. Beached whale! Sting kicks him while he's hung up. Another Sting dive. Shark catches him this time. Shark gets up top again and gets crotched. Sting hits some hammy kicks. He manages to put the Scorpion Death Lock on as the period expires.

P2. Zodiac- OK, so Zodiac is announced as "the man that walks between the darkness and the light". Well, yeah. Don't we all? Anyway, with that deep thought, Zodiac breaks the Scorpion up. Sting grabs the top of the cage (which is even lower than usual because of all the pyro that's been set up on it) and kicks Zodiac. He goes for another Scorpion but Shark breaks it up. Elbow drops from the heels. Double clothesline. Sting's run into the cage.

P3. Savage- He runs in and, as expected, goes nuts. The Dungeon guys are too much and he gets pounded down. The heels outside pull Sting's arm under a huge gap that's between the bottom of the cage and the ring. Man, they phoned in the setup on this one. Shark powerslam on Sting. Now Savage's leg gets pulled through the gap. Someone in the back must have said something because they stop doing that after this.

P4. Kamala- He pounds away on Sting as the Dungeon stay in control.

P5. Luger- Double clothesline on Kamala and Shark. Zodiac is run into the cage. Savage manages to get a double ax handle off the top rope despite the ceiling being almost as low as in some of those ballrooms Ring of Honor used to run back in the early aughts. Zodiac ducks and Luger clotheslines Savage! Uh oh. Savage attacks Luger! Sting tries to make peace.

P6. Meng- He easily picks apart the infighting face team. The Dungeon stays in control as the camera stays on a shot of Luger being choked in the corner for a very long time.

P7. Hogan- The Match Beyond begins. So does any drama that the Dungeon might actually win. Hogan comes in with a pocketful of powder and it's all got the Dungeon's name on it. After that every heel takes his turn getting bounced off the cage. More powder gets thrown. After a few more minutes of painfully dull brawling Hogan hooks Zodiac in a mostly camel clutch and Zodiac gives it up. It's definitely one of the worst War Games, but it's the Dungeon of Doom, what can you do? *1/2

As per the stipulation Hogan now gets Taskmaster in the cage. Taskmaster tries to run but security ace Doug Dellinger and Sting get him in the cage. Hogan tosses him around. Taskmaster tries to escape, Hogan drags him back in. Big boot. The Giant makes his way out. He gently tosses the door ref aside (with a hilariously great look of terror on the ref's face), then swings himself over the top rope using the top of the cage. He could move in his younger days, I'll give him that. Giant chokes Hogan from behind. Hogan tries to punch back but of course they have no effect. Giant snaps Hogan's neck and leaves him lying in the ring as Buffer calls for medics.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's a lot of the usual '95 shit, but if you sort through the shit enough there's a couple of nice solid gold nuggets in there. As usual, a crap main event hurts the final rating though. Main events matter. WCW wouldn't get better overnight but the early days of Nitro do give them some focus that they had been lacking up to this point.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+

Summerslam '97

Legacy Review

Summerslam '97

August 3, 1997 from the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ

Commentary: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

The tagline for this show is "Hart & Soul", referencing the Bret/Taker main event. The show opens up immediately with the National Anthem, before another good opening video on the recent career paths of the players in the main event. Pyro! Lots of it. The cage is already set up for the opening match.

Steel Cage Match: Mankind def Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) in 16:25- The likely reason this is opening is so they don't have to take the time to set the cage up later. They're still using the old blue bar cage which is much heavier than a chain link one and can't be lowered from above. Traditional escape only WWF cage match rules here as they try to put an end to this feud, at least for now. Mankind kisses the cage before getting in. HHH dives right for the door at the bell. Mankind stops him. Now HHH tries to climb. Mankind stops that too. Corner beatdown from Mankind. Running knee. Bang bang! Piledriver. The Mandible Claw is already on! Chyna reaches in and chokes Mankind with her belt to break it up. HHH catches a leg, spins Mankind, but eats a Mankind clothesline. Mankind climbs. Chyna also climbs up and stops him. HHH joins him up top. He superplexes Mankind off the top of the cage! HHH goes for the door, thinks, stops and goes back in to dish out more punishment. He could have easily won there. Bold strategy, Cotton. He runs Mankind into the cage on almost every side. Kneedrops and more cage shots. Foley, no surprise, is going into the cage full speed and just about head first. HHH climbs. Mankind grabs a leg to stop him going completely over and drags him back in. Mankind beatdown. Chyna gets a forearm shot in through the cage. HHH inverted atomic drop. Mankind inverted atomic drop and clothesline. HHH facebuster. Mankind lifts HHH in a suplex and HHH's legs get caught on the top of the cage, putting him in a cage tree of woe. Mankind running elbow. Now HHH gets run into the cage. HHH backdrops Mankind into the cage! Double climb and slugfest on the top rope. Both guys take cage shots and fall, with HHH getting crotched on the top rope. Mankind crawls for the door. Chyna slams it in his face, then runs the ref into the door! She gets a chair, climbs and tosses it into the ring. In fact she accidentally tosses it right onto Trips. HHH sets up for a Pedigree onto the chair. Mankind counters and slingshots HHH, who goes into the cage and knocks Chyna down! Double underhook DDT onto the chair! Mankind climbs. Chyna gets in the cage, starts to drag HHH to the door, then realizes she's too early and gets out again. Whoops. Mankind goes all the way to the bottom of the cage....but instead of dropping to the floor to win he stops and thinks, pulls his mask off, and climbs back up! He sits on top of the cage and rips his top off, showing Cactus Jack gear underneath. Cactus Elbow off the top of the cage! He climbs again. Now Chyna is in at the right time and drags HHH to the door, but she's not quick enough as Mankind is down to the floor and wins! As he's lying on the floor Dude Love's music starts playing. Foley taps his foot while lying down, then gets up and dances to it. Solid enough but far from their best match even to this point. It had way too much Chyna, which could have been because of all the "the cage is there to keep Chyna out" talk. The crowd was super into it too. They've fully embraced all aspects of Mick Foley. **3/4

Todd Pettingill is on the old school interview stage with New Jersey governor Christie Todd Whitman. New Jersey had just repealed a tax on sports and/or entertainment attractions and this is WWF's first PPV in the state in 8 years because of it. I'm sure the McMahons were political contributors too. WWF President Gorilla Monsoon presents Whitman with an honorary title belt in what would be one of his final public appearances. After that we see Tiger Jeet Singh is in the crowd with his son Tiger Ali Singh, who would soon be debuting for WWF to soak up as many DUD ratings as a human could possibly receive.

 

Goldust (w/Marlena) def Brian Pillman in 7:15- If Pillman loses this match he has to wear a dress on Raw the following night. Said dress is on display on a mannequin ringside. Pillman was in very bad shape at this point. Injuries had taken their toll on him to the point he was a shell of the wrestler he used to be, and his personal demons were also a major issue that would catch up to him very soon. Pillman jumps Goldust before the bell. He bites Goldust in the corner and chops him. Goldust counters with a springboard back elbow. Mounted punches and Goldust blocks an inverted atomic drop. He gives Pillman a vary rarely seen Greco Roman lip lock. Pillman has to roll to the floor to get over the shock. He uses a test of strength tease to get one up on Goldust, then rolls out and chases Marlena, running into a Goldust clothesline. Goldust rolls with the Dusty jabs in the ring. Pillman counters a backdrop. Suplex. He goes up top. Goldust tosses him. I think Pillman was supposed to land crotch first on the top rope but instead he falls down to the floor. Marlena blows some smoke in his face after I'm pretty sure checking to see if he was OK. Pillman uses Marlena as a shield and DDTs Goldust on the floor. Clothesline off the top for 2. Snap mare/chinlock. Goldust fights out and gets a backslide for 2. Pillman clothesline for 2. Goldust flying clothesline. Open hand slaps are followed by a bit of flip flop and fly. Bulld...no, Pillman counters and Goldust slides all the way to the floor. Goldust does a horrible sunset flip coming back in, almost landing on his head. Pillman struggles mightily to get in position near the ropes, takes a purse shot from Marlena when he finally does, and Goldust gets the pin. Ugly ugly ugly finish. Pillman naturally loses it after, pulling the mannequin apart and trying to rip the dress up. 1/2*

 

The Legion of Doom def The Godwinns in 9:51- Wait, the Godwinns are still on the roster? Phineas suffered a broken neck after landing on his head while taking a Doomsday Device from LOD on Raw earlier in the year, and when he came back the Godwinns turned heel to start their morph into Southern Justice. 2v2 standoff at the start. LOD swings first. Clotheslines send the Godwinns to the floor. Hawk clothesline off the apron while Animal hits a tackle in the ring. Reset with Animal flipping out of an attempted double suplex and hitting a double clothesline. Hawk continues the attack on the floor. Re-reset with Hawk and Henry. Henry snaps Hawk's throat over the top rope. Hawk dodges an apron legdrop and tosses Henry into the steps. Snap mare and legdrops from Hawk. Henry gets some shots in and Hawk in in the wrong part of town. Phineas hangs Hawk up by his neck. Hawk escapes and both sides tag. Animal cranks Henry's arm. Phineas kicks Animal from behind on the apron. Cactus Clothesline from Henry! Animal gets knocked off the apron into the guardrail. Bear hug from Phineas. They do the arm drops and Animal bell rings out but is still cut off from tagging. Phineas tries coming off the second rope. He misses but lands on his feet, then Animal clotheslines him. Tag. Hawk powerslam. He fights off both Godwinns. Corner clothesline. Neckbreaker. DONNYBROOK! The Doomsday Device is broken up, so the LOD hit a spike piledriver and that gets the pin. *1/2

Next up is some more live TV contest hijinks. Pettingill is out with Sunny and Sable (who manage not to murder each other on camera, they did not get along backstage at all). Sunny's outfit is.....hoo boy. She's one of the world's biggest train wrecks now but back then that was a train you'd be OK with riding even if you ended up in the hospital after. Pettingill tries to make live phone calls with the usual issues. One number no one picks up (YOU LOST YOUR CHANCE AT A MILLION DOLLARS!). Another number is disconnected and probably dialed wrong. They finally get someone on the phone and he's not watching Summerslam. Eventually they get through it all with no one winning. I don't think this helped the buyrate any.

WWF European Championship: "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith def Ken Shamrock by DQ in 7:29- The European title, first awarded back in February and still in the hands of the inaugural champion Bulldog, is finally being defended on PPV for the first time. Bulldog threw some dog food on Shamrock during the build so there's an extra stip that if Bulldog loses he has to eat the dog food. The can of said dog food is sitting on the commentary table so there's no way at all that's going to get involved during the match. Jump slugfest right at the bell. Shamrock belly to belly suplex. After a horrible looking whip Shamrock gets a leg takedown for the ankle lock and Bulldog quickly grabs a rope. Shamrock clothesline for 2. Corner body shots. Kneelift. Bulldog gets a boot up in the corner and hits a clothesline. Delayed suplex. Shamrock gets a sunset flip for 2. Another Bulldog clothesline and chinlock. Shamrock starts fighting back so Bulldog low blows him in the corner in full view of the ref. He hits forearms and gets a small package for 2. Shamrock's shoulder gets posted and he falls to the floor. Bulldog whips him into the steps. Another Shamrock flurry is cut off with a low blow. At least the ref didn't see this one. Bulldog is supposed to DDT Shamrock on the floor but they muff it horribly and both end up just kind of flopping down to the floor. Back in with yet another Bulldog chinlock and we can see Shamrock is bleeding from the mouth. Back outside and Shamrock is slammed on the floor. Bulldog grabs a handful of dog food and throws it on Shamrock. Bad move. Shamrock absolutely loses his shit on Bulldog. He grabs the can and whacks Bulldog in the head with it, which is apparently one step too far for the ref and he calls for the bell, DQing Shamrock. Shamrock doesn't give a damn and continues the assault. He puts a sleeper/rear naked choke on Bulldog and won't let go. Every ref in the building is in the ring trying to talk him off. Talk mind you, no one is physically doing anything about it. More officials come in. Finally Shamrock lets it go to a mixed crowd reaction. He doesn't like the officials admonishing him so Tony Garea, Gerald Briscoe and a couple of refs all take belly to belly suplexes. The crowd liked that a lot more and chant "Shamrock". The match showed again that Shamrock was talented but extremely raw, while Bulldog was in "hit a couple of moves and rest" mode. *

 

Los Boricuas def The Disciples of Apocalypse in 9:07- Vince Russo's beloved gang warfare is well and truly underway. Both these groups were born out of the breakup of the original Nation of Domination. Savio Vega founded and leads Boricuas with a few other Puerto Rican wrestlers whose main claim to fame are being a member of Los Boricuas (Jesus, Jose Estrada Jr and Miguel Perez Jr). Crush is the leader of DOA, along with Skull, 8-Ball (the former and now shaved Blu Brothers) and Chainz (Brian "Fake Undertaker" Lee). The Nation is also still a going concern, now consisting of Faarooq, Ahmed Johnson, D'Lo Brown and Kama Mustafa. So basically we've got the black gang, the Hispanic gang, and the white biker gang. Going through all of this is way more interesting than the actual matches to me. I never really cared for any of this stuff. The height of Russo's faction wars was the Kaientai/Oddities match at the following year's Summerslam that was a wonderful comedy match. But I'm getting way off track. The DOA all come in on motorcycles. They charge in and quickly clear the ring. The DOA control for a bit. LB control for a bit. During LB's segment the Nation come in through the crowd and park it ringside. Johnson's neck choker is something else. After a long face in peril run one of the Blu boys (still can't tell them apart) gets a hot tag and quickly everyone's in the pool. Chainz gets thrown out and hits Johnson so Johnson Pearl River Plunges him on the floor. He gets thrown back in and pinned. To no one's surprise the huge brawl continues after the bell. Crush finally breaks it up by riding his motorcycle through everyone. 1/4*

 

Before getting into the next match I want to take a moment and go through where the tag titles are going into this show. When last we left them on PPV Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin were wrestling each other as tag champs at King of the Ring soon after ending the long reign of Owen Hart and the Bulldog. However, they were stripped of the titles in July after a backstage attack by Shawn on Bret Hart. A match was set up that night for the vacant titles between Owen and Bulldog, who had won a #1 contender's tournament, going against Austin and a partner of his choosing since, for once, Austin wasn't involved in the attack. Of all people Austin chose the red hot new crowd favorite Dude Love, Mick Foley's new alternate persona to Mankind. Austin and Love won the match for the titles and still hold them as of this show.

A bit of history during the intros for the next match as very young, very thin and very goateed Michael Cole makes his WWF PPV debut taking his life in his hands by trying to talk to Austin as he's walking to Gorilla. Austin's response? "You're fixing to kiss my ass, son. You and your stupid bow tie".

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin def The Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart (c) in 16:16- Owen's been making a huge deal out of pinning Austin in the epic 10 man tag match at Canadian Stampede, so Austin has promised that if he loses his match he will kiss Owen's bare ass. Austin's pops continue to get bigger and bigger. He flips a double bird to Owen as he hits the corners on his entrance. Owen comes from behind and clips Austin's knee before the bell! He posts Austin's knee. Austin punches back. Thesz Press! Owen does a Bret bump in the corner. Austin goes into beatdown mode before transitioning into working Owen's arm for a bit. Owen tries to flip out so Austin gives him an eye poke and goes back on the arm. They do a series of hammerlock reversals and Austin slams Owen. Owen gets a back elbow and Austin goes to the floor. He pulls Owen down in the corner but Owen pulls with his legs to send Austin into the post. He smashes Austin's hand on the steps and starts to pick apart that most dangerous of all Steve Austin weapons- his middle finger. Owen bites Austin's middle finger! He ties Austin up in the ropes. Austin gets free and gives a charging Owen a stun gun! Love the "Stun gun! Stun gun!" call from JR, a definite WCW callback. Owen leaps for a hurricanrana but Austin catches and powerbombs him. Owen is clotheslined 360 to the floor, decides he's had enough and takes a walk. Austin chases, clotheslines him from behind and drags him back. Owen begs off. Austin offers a sarcastic handshake then stomps away. Owen gets his snap belly to belly suplex. Swinging neckbreaker. Legdrop for 2. Elbow off the top for 2. Owen cranks Austin in a neck vice while JR, with unintentional foreshadowing, goes into Austin's history of neck trouble. Austin eye rakes out. Clothesline out of the corner. Austin tries to put on a Sharpshooter but Owen fights it off. Legdrop to the back of the neck from Owen. Springboard crossbody. Austin rolls through it and covers for 2. Owen German suplex for 2. Camel clutch. Austin gets out and they hit the ropes again. Owen counters a backdrop with a DDT for 2. Austin sleeper. Owen sleeper. Austin jawbreakers out. Austin tries coming off the second rope but Owen catches him. Russian leg sweep. Owen puts on a chinlock and moves close to the ropes for extra leverage until Hebner catches him. Austin tries a tiltawhirl. Owen rolls through it to counter, positions Austin for a reverse piledriver, and drops him. Right on his head. For real. Austin is out completely, then comes to and can't move. Owen walks around and messes with the crowd to play for time but you can clearly see he's in shock. You can tell something's wrong for real. After a couple of minutes Austin is finally able to struggle to his knees, where he gets Owen in the worst roll up ever with Owen doing almost all the work, and gets the pin because he was supposed to win the match. He drops again right after and still can't get up. Finally the refs help him to his feet and help him to the back. This is the infamous piledriver incident that broke Austin's neck, forcing him out of action for a while. On the bad side Austin was on a ridiculous hot streak, having phenomenal matches with everyone and this killed that for a while. After coming back he'd have to change his style to almost nothing but straight brawling but, being Austin, he still made it work. On the plus side he stayed on TV while recuperating and the neck injury didn't keep him from talking, so his popularity continued to skyrocket based on that alone. This also led to the traditional piledriver being banned in WWF/E, and it still is to this day. Before the injury the match was superb and likely would have hit the upper echelon if not for that. ***1/2

Commentary vamps for a bit because the last match was supposed to go longer than it did. Bret also kills some time after coming out by asking the Canadian national anthem be played.

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def The Undertaker (c) in 28:09- Shawn Michaels is the special guest referee for this match, making it pretty obvious shenanigans are going to go down. Shawn gets his full entrance between Bret and Taker's, and JR quips "All the other referees are going to want pyro now!". In this night of stipulations we have one more: Bret promised that if he failed to win the WWF Title he'd never wrestle in the US again. WWF officials forced him to keep that promise by putting it in the match's contract. Bret grabs the belt from Shawn and whacks Taker with it before the bell. Taker no sells punches, tosses Bret in the corner and lays in quick fire body shots. Clothesline and Bret rolls out to kill the momentum. Taker chases and runs Bret into the guardrail and post. Bret whips Taker into the steps. Taker catches Bret coming off the apron and runs his back into the post. Shawn admonishes him so he does it again. Back in Taker focuses on Bret's back. Backbreaker and bear hug. Bret bites out but runs into a Taker big boot. Bret ducks another big boot and kicks Taker's leg out of his leg. Bret spends the next portion of the match picking Taker's knee apart. Figure four! Paul Bearer makes his way out so commentary can remind us that Kane is coming. If he really is still alive that is. The jury was still out at this point. Taker sees Bearer as he's reversing the figure four. Bret grabs a rope to break. Taker slams Bret's knee....then goes out after Bearer! As Taker's beating Bearer down Bret clips him again from behind. Bearer gets escorted out by refs. Post wraparound figure four from Bret. Shawn counts for the break and he and Bret argue after. Bret gets back on Taker's knee. Now Owen and Pillman come out to ringside. Bret posts Taker's knee again. More Bret and Shawn arguing and more knee work. Taker drops his good leg across Bret's jaw on the mat, gets up, flips over the top rope and goes after Owen and Pillman! Shawn throws the two of them out. Bret runs into a goozle! Choke slam! Taker covers but Shawn's still watching Owen and Pillman being escorted out. Taker grabs Shawn and pulls him up to the apron and they argue. Bret rolls Taker up for 2. Clothesline from Taker and he stalks Shawn again. They go back outside and Bret runs Taker's back into the apron, then the post. New target. Again Bret and Shawn argue with Shawn saying "My patience is wearing thin". Back in Bret works on Taker's back. Backbreaker for 2. Situp. Bret suplex. He gets on the second rope, flips the crowd off, and hits the elbow drop for 2. Another situp. DDT for 2. Taker grabs Bret, lifts and drops him on the top turnbuckle. Headbutt exchange with Bret targeting Taker's back again. Legdrops from Bret. He tries for the Sharpshooter but Taker goozles him. Knee to the gut. Bret gets a boot up in the corner. He runs into another goozle. Slugfest and both guys are down. Taker flying clothesline. Bret bump! Taker big boot/legdrop for 2. Brother. Bret gets on the apron. Taker goozles him and choke slams him off the apron into the ring! Bret kicks out! Taker tries old school but Bret kicks the top rope and Taker falls. It takes them two tries (Taker had a hard time getting his footing right) but eventually Bret superplexes Taker. Sharpshooter! Taker barely moves, but eventually manages to power out so forcefully Bret rolls all the way to the floor! Clothesline from Taker. He calls for the Tombstone. Bret squeaks out. Post wraparound Sharpshooter! Taker powers out again and Bret falls on top of Shawn! Shawn tweaked his knee and is down. Bret gets a chair and whacks Taker in the head with it! He calls Shawn in and covers. Taker kicks out! Shawn sees the chair and confronts Bret with it. Bret clearly says "Fuck you" and spits on Shawn. Shawn's had enough and swings the chair. Bret ducks and Shawn hits Taker in the head! Again! Shawn is furious at himself. Bret covers. Shawn reluctantly gets down, counts three, and immediately rolls out and walks to the back still furious at himself. Taker quickly follows, also furious with Shawn. Bret celebrates in the ring as he's just tied Hulk Hogan's record with his 5th WWF Title win. The crowd throws so much trash in the ring you'd think he was in the NWO. The stands also empty out pretty quickly. The match was well worked and psychologically sound, but also a bit flabby. I'm sure they had to go longer than expected due to the Owen/Austin match ending early. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Solid opener, two good matches at the end, but the middle is a bit rough. Austin's injury tends to overshadow everything else that happened on this show, but it was a major transition show in the main event scene. Taker and Shawn's new feud would take center stage before we hit the final road to Bret vs Shawn at Survivor Series and the Montreal Screwjob.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

Clash of the Champions XXXI

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXXI

August 6, 1995 from the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, FL

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

 

No intro at the top of the show, we start right up with intros for the opening match. It's regular TV instead of PPV so gotta cram everything in.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Sting and Road Warrior Hawk def Meng and Kurasawa (w/Col. Robert Parker) in 7:23- Kurasawa is New Japan star Manabu Nakanishi, who was on his Young Lion excursion at the time. The Kurasawa name is.....eh. Whatever. Nakanishi should have gone the whole hog and tried to direct WCW's infamous B movie like segments (one of which is later in this show) like his namesake. Couldn't do any worse than the usual WCW production crew. With longer hair and a beard he looks a bit like Hirooki Goto. The heels pull the Suzuki-Gun (RIP) jump before the bell. Hawk runs over Kurasawa. Meng gets double teamed and the heels regroup on the outside. Reset with Hawk and Kurasawa. Both guys swing kicks. Hawk gets a double leg takedown and hits the gut headbutt. Sting with an inverted atomic drop. Kurasawa chops back. Suplex from Sting. Kurasawa counters a Hawk backdrop and Hawk gets trapped in the heel corner. Meng/Hawk double clothesline double no sell. Kurasawa suplexes Hawk on the floor. Back in Hawk gets a boot up in the corner and hits a clothesline. Fistdrop for 2. Swinging neckbreaker on Meng. Hawk splash off the top on Kurasawa. Powerbomb. Meng breaks the pin up and it's DONNYBROOK time. Sting and Meng go at it while Hawk looks totally lost. Sting literally shouts at Hawk what to do on a double team like Dolph Ziggler shouting instructions during the 2015 Elimination Chamber disaster. Stinger Splash. Hawk and Kurasawa continue to fumble around on the periphery while Sting and Meng wrestle. Double clothesline on Kurasawa. The faces hit their version of the Doomsday Device and get the pin. Hawk looked like crap, so of course he worked most of the match instead of Sting. After the match Kurasawa snaps Hawk's arm, injuring him. *

 

Diamond Dallas Page (w/The Diamond Doll) def "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright in 8:14- No high pitched pop for Wright. In fact, he gets almost no reaction at all apart from some scattered boos. This is a fascinating match when looking at where both these guys are in their careers at this point. Wright was the figurative golden boy who was handed a big push on a silver platter that was now slowly starting to fizzle out as he's failed to make any real connection with the crowd and before long he'd be just another guy. On the other side, DDP had been spinning his wheels for literally years and was just now finally starting to get going thanks in large part to the heel heat generated by his constant abuse of the Diamond Doll, which had a lot of echoes of the early Randy Savage/Elizabeth relationship, and it would be nothing but up for him from here as he continued to improve. He was never the smoothest or best pure wrestler, but he was one of the best at match layouts, DDP's matches almost always have cohesive and logical flow. DDP plays around on a corner break. He tosses Wright out of a lockup and plays to the crowd. Wright sneaks up and rolls him up for 2. DDP bitches at the ref and again Wright rolls him up for 2. Wright dropkicks send DDP to the floor. Plancha! DDP bitches at Doll. I guess she was supposed to block it. Back in DDP works the arm a bit. Wright goes full World of Sport to escape and gets a fireman's carry takedown. Corner flip over moonsault from Wright and another dropkick. DDP tights pulls him to the floor. Wright pops up and hits a slingshot splash for 2. Long speed run and Wright crossbody for 2. DDP floors him with a straight right. Gutwrench gutbuster. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. Wright blocks a hiptoss and gets a backslide for 2. European uppercuts and spinning heel kick. Wright high knee for 2. Missile dropkick for a long 2. Wright goes to mounted punches and DDP drops him on the top turnbuckle. Standing switch and Wright gets a German suplex for 2. A flying forearm sends DDP to the floor. Another dive from Wright, but DDP dodges and he splats on the floor! DDP rolls him in and covers for a clean pin. Golden boy no more. Good logical finish, but boooo to no Diamond Cutter. The match was decentish. **

 

WCW World Television Championship: The Renegade (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff in 3:59- This is a rematch from Bash at the Beach. Is Renegade using Sting's old music now? I don't think so but it kind of sounds like it. He runs to the ring again like you know who that he's clearly ripping off and Orndorff jumps him with his robe still on. Renegade turns it with a clothesline and belly to belly suplex. Orndorff rolls out still in the robe. Renegade gets up on the ropes to pose for the crowd and gets nothing but mild boos. Orndorff, robe still on, sneaks up and back suplexes him off the second rope. Now the robe comes off. Boogie woogie elbow and a slow Orndorff beatdown follows. Tony tries to excuse Renegade's awful selling by saying it's Orndorff's awesome power. Sure. Renegade gets tossed out and tries to hulk up on the floor. Orndorff knees him off the apron a couple of times, then turns around to jaw with the ref. Renegade hits a slingshot crossbody and gets the pin. DUD

 

Harlem Heat and Sister Sherri def WCW World Tag Team Champions Bunkhouse Buck & "Dirty" Dick Slater and Col. Robert Parker in 11:01- Slater and Buck defeated Harlem Heat for the tag titles the week after Bash at the Beach (in a match that had been taped a month before that). There's also a subplot, or possibly main plot as far as commentary is concerned, of Parker being romantically smitten with Sherri. If the Harlem Heat trio win they get a title shot. Parker's wrestling in his suit. This isn't the case of a non-wrestling manager working a match, Parker was older but he was also a near 20 year veteran with a wrestling career that spanned many deep south territories as well as the AWA. Sherri was also one of the best women's wrestlers in the '80s before she went to managing full time. Both Heat guys have to hold Sherri back as she wants at Parker bad. Ray and Slater start with usual dull Ray offense. Buck tags in as Sherri still wants in. Booker dropkicks Buck off the top rope. He holds Buck down for a Sherri punch. Booker elbow drop miss, spinaroonie and flying forearm. Slater wobbles himself trying to headbutt Ray. Hook kick from Ray. Another Sherri shot. Booker gets a heel kick as we go to commercial. More of the match is cut off by an ad for WCW's contest to win a Harley, the winner to be announced on the premiere episode of Monday Night Nitro on September 4. I don't know if that was really the first true mention of Nitro, but Tony acts like it is and goes into super hype promo mode for it. Meanwhile in the match Buck hot shots Booker to send him Heat in peril. They work the FIP stuff a bit and do the ref didn't see the tag spot. Double punch from the heels. Parker tags in for the first time. Booker pops up and beats him down. Heat double suplex. Sherri is tagged in. Crossbody off the top for 2. Elbow drop. Parker dodges a splash off the top. Sherri is out cold on the mat. Parker, ever the southern gentleman, can't bring himself to hit her. Sherri gets up, hits the ropes, gives Parker what should be a Thesz Press but it's a bedroom Thesz Press as she's kissing him on the mat. Parker's shocked and gets pinned. After the bell Sherri continues chasing Parker, ripping his shirt off and trying to kiss him more. Parker can't get away fast enough. You're into a woman, she finally decides to go for it, you find out she's completely nuts and can't get away fast enough. Dude, I've been there. I guess the story they're going with here is Sherri hit her head on the mat, that scrambled her brains and now she's totally into Parker. I'm sure wacky hijinks will ensue. Boring ass match though. 1/2*

I mentioned one of WCW's infamous mini-movies on this show, and here it is, Hulk Hogan walking into the Dungeon of Doom. Important background here- Paul Wight had made some initial tease appearances on earlier shows, but he's now a full fledged DOD member called the Giant and his whole angle to tie him to Hogan is he's Andre the Giant's son. It starts out with the Master shouting some more stuff that no one can understand to the Taskmaster. Hogan walks in, attempts to act, says bring on everybody and he wants the Giant. Giant comes in, rips Hogan's crucifix necklace off in a direct nod to the Andre feud, chokes Hogan down and the entire DOD come in to beat him up. VADER off all people comes in to save Hogan. He distracts Giant, giving Savage, Hart and Sting time to drag Hogan away. Clearly the intent here was face turned Vader was going to put Giant over before he went for Hogan. It wouldn't end up happening that way, which I'll get into after the next match. Its far from the worst DOD segment. Thankfully it wasn't the one where Hogan walks around the Dungeon and says the "anti-Hulkamania" water is burning him with some of the worst acting ever caught on camera.

Commentary continues the Nitro hype, including a tease that an Emmy winning sportscaster will be joining the broadcast crew on that show. Never mind that shit, here comes Mongo. Tony also announces the first Nitro will be live from the Mall of America.

 

Handicap Match: Vader def Arn Anderson and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in 8:05- Flair "unretired" to team up with Vader in an attempt to take Hogan out once and for all. When Vader failed Flair turned on him. Arn, at this point, is just along for the ride as Flair's best friend. Evan after the Hogan save earlier the crowd's not quite sure if they want to fully embrace Vader yet on his entrance. Vader's got the old school entrance headgear on again like Bash at the Beach. Arn starts with Vader as was the plan. Arn softens him up, Flair comes in to finish him off. Series of lockup stalemates to start. Vader starts laying in the potato shots. Arn retreats to his corner and Flair tries to fire him up. Forearm shots from Arn. Vader hits an inverted atomic drop and clotheslines Arn 360 to the floor. Flair helps him up but still doesn't even try to tag in. More Vader potatoes. Short clothesline. Arn reverses a whip and manages to give Vader the World's Greatest Spinebuster! Now Flair tags in. He gives Vader some boot sole eye rakes. Vader pops up when Flair's back is turned. Press slams. Flair Flip! Vader clotheslines him off the apron. Now the crowd is getting behind Vader. Flair grabs a chair to distract the ref and Arn clips Vader's knee. The heels double team with a little trouble getting their coordination down. Legit trouble, not storyline. Arn plants Vader with the DDT! Flair tags back in. Figure four! Vader grabs a rope. He slams Flair off the top rope. Big splash. Arn breaks the pin up. Vader and Flair have some trouble getting a snap mare off right. Vader splash off the top rope. Again Arn makes the save. Vader double clotheslines both heels. Powerbomb on Arn, and Vader covers for 3. OK but underwhelming match considering the talent that was in there. Give them more time on a PPV and it'd probably be much better. **1/4

Flair, who's been a serious loose canon since coming back earlier in the year, is pissed at Arn. Arn's having none of it. Flair tries to leave but Arn drags him back in and they argue some more. Finally Flair walks away with nothing settled. This was the lead in to Flair and Arn breaking up and feuding. After that Hogan comes out, wants to know exactly where Vader is coming from, and declares war on the Dungeon of Doom. Hmmm, Hogan declares war and the next PPV is Fall Brawl. I think I know where this is going.

This would end up being Vader's last major appearance for WCW, which in retrospect is not much of a shock considering how his feud with Hogan and the political BS it turned into went. Hogan did eventually ask Vader to be on his War Games team but Vader was gone from the company before that show. Vader left with a hell of a legacy, dominating the world title scene for most of '92 and all of '93 and firmly cementing himself as one of the best big men of all time. THE best, in my opinion. He'd take some time off to rest and heal up, returned to New Japan for one match, an absolute classic with Antonio Inoki at the '96 January 4th Tokyo Dome show as part of Inoki's years long retirement tour, and then debuted for WWF at the '96 Royal Rumble.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- As the start of Nitro gets closer the Clashes get less and less important and more like contractual obligation shows for TBS. If you missed it you didn't really miss anything other than Vader's last big WCW match.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+