The "I've just watched ..." thread

[TRSL]

Wand I am looking forward to your WCW 1993 reviews.

[CleetusVanDamme]

Your rapey stalking might start scaring him away soon, Boydy.

 

[Devon Malcolm]

Bloody well spotted, Cleetus! He had me fooled with his using full stops.

[TRSL]

I have no clue what you are on about but I wont post anymore if it is going to cause all of this. Sorry everyone.

[Sheffbag]

Watched "The Trade" last night on Amazon. 1 hour doc about Nick Mondo, really well put together and lots of stupid CZW spots in it along with interviews with him and his childhood friends. Worth a watch if you have prime. 

 

Had a bit of Prime binge yersterday. Watch "wild wild wrestling" and finally saw the Rodgers / O'Connor title change along with the worst constructed cage ever in a Memphis match between Savage and Lawler. the "Cage" was essentially planks of wood with wire between them . When Savage was slamming Lawler "into the cage" Jerry was holding the wood to stop it falling over

 

Edited May 20, 2019 by Sheffbag

[Devon Malcolm]

1989 Starrrrrrrrghcade what the fuck is this? The same four tag teams and singles wrestlers all night? Ugh, I hate gimmick PPVs like this. Alright then.

The Steiners and Doom improved on their COTC 9 match with a more hard-hitting one. Doom have some massive bastard called Nitron at ringside, no idea who that is. Steiners win by countout and win 15 points but who fucking cares.

Lex Luger and Sting had a pretty good match even if the ending, where Luger pins Sting with his feet on the ropes even though Sting kicks out at least twice, was terrible. Luger was a far better heel here than he ever was as The Narcissist.

Doom are back in action, this time against LOD. Jim Cornette, who's commentating on the tag matches, takes time to take the piss out of Bill Apter's red jumper. LOD got the win after a clothesline off the top. I think this means Doom are going down with Huddersfield. Alright match.

The Great Muta vs Naitch now. He's coming out with the Andersons as well! Bastion Booger's at ringside dressed as Santa for some reason. Flair, in his fabulous pink trunks, wins after a couple of minutes with a roll-up and I think that was Muta's first loss. Great brawl at ringside when Buzz Sawyer and some Japanese bloke comes out.

Fuckin hell, there's no time between these matches! The Steiners vs LOD now! Go on, lads! Scotty does a belly to belly off the second rope on Hawk and Hawk just lands on his fucking head. That stupid belly-to-back pin thing comes into play again with the Steiners winning even though Animal's bloody shoulder was up as well. Christ. Good match though.

Sting vs The Great Muta now. I need an oxygen tent. There's a bit where Muta rolls to the outside and Gary Hart rubs his stomach. Maybe that green mist gives you gas too. Sting won with a superplex after a good match but I just don't care.

We're only halfway through ffs. The Wild Samoans have turned up at last, and here come the team of Dooooom. Doom loses again after Oliver Humperdinck pushes Fatu on to Simmons or Reed for the pin. Woman's not happy. Call Big Sam.

Help my family is dying here's Luger vs Flair now. This one goes to a time limit draw, a really good match, just a shame that it's all for nothing.

This feels longer than Wrestlemania because of how they've done it. Steiners vs Samoans now. There's loads of arseing around before this match, like they have time to kill. Absolutely loads of stalling in this one and another ropey ending on this one as the Steiners get disqualified on the over the top rope rule.

Muta vs Luger now. Luger's been the star of the show so far but he's limping to the ring. Oh no! Lots of leg work in this one by Muta on Luger with Muta DQed for misting The Package.

Samoans vs LOD now. The last tag match. THANK GOD. LOD win with a top rope clothesline after a messy but thankfully short match, and win the tournament and nobody cares.

Sting and Ric Flair to finish now. This is the match of the night, shame it was for nothing interesting. Sting wins with a roll up and wins the tournament.

Thank fuck for that. I'm never watching that show again.

[Sheffbag]

Wasn't that the only ever match (on tv/ppv not sure if they had a house show match) between Steiners and Road Wariors? 

[gmoney]

10 minutes ago, Sheffbag said:

Wasn't that the only ever match (on tv/ppv not sure if they had a house show match) between Steiners and Road Wariors? 

No they had at least one on Nitro in 96.

[BomberPat]

Is that the Luger/Muta match where Luger takes a full flat back bump from the mist? Always found that hilarious.

[Devon Malcolm]

Clash of the Champions 10! Texas Shootout! Bang bang! The opening graphics for this were hilarious.

Doctor Death Steve Williams gets a hilarious vignette played before his match with the Samoan Savage. Not a bad opener, goes a bit longer than I was expecting. The match wasn't as good as Doc's pre-match skit though.

Now Terry Funk, who I thought was pretty good on commetary during Starrcade, is interviewing the Four Horsemen. Sting doesn't accept Ole Anderson's demand to give up his world title shot so the Horsemen beat him up. Fair enough.

Time for the Mod Squad! Wait, who? Flyin' Brian and The Z-Man have been stuck together in their tag team by this point. They won a largely pointless match.

Funk then interviews Lex Luger for no reason. Fast forward.

Mil Mascaras then turned up for a match against Cactus Jack Manson. This is that match where Foley takes that fucking idiotic bump and smacks his head on the concrete, the tit. Mascaras is really smooth even in a match against Foley, and this is basically a squash.

Then we get a falls count anywhere match between Norman the Lunatic and Kevin Sullivan because we get what we deserve. Pretty fun brawl though with an ending we don't see because it happens in the women's bogs and the cameraman won't go in. Fantastic.

The Road Warriors then beat the Skyscrapers, with some bloke called Mean Mark subbing for Sid Vicious. He'll never amount to anything. The tall lads get DQed after battering LOD with chairs. They try a spike piledriver on a chair, by the way, but miss the fucking chair.

Titles vs masks! Steiners versus Doom and this is their best match to date. At this stage, Scotty was still hitting the Frankensteiner as a non-finisher. He also picks up a whacking bruise on his face. Rick unmasks Butch Reed before rolling him off for a win. Ron Simmons then unmasks and wow it's Ron Simmons. Damn etc.

Three Horsemen versus The Dragonmaster, Muta and Buzz Sawyer! in a steel cage match that lasts about 5 minutes but it's all mental. The crowd are fuckin cheering for Sawyer and then nobody pays attention to the match because Sting tries to invade and famously blows his knee out. Buzz tries a splash off the top of the cage as well! Great stuff.

 

[wandshogun09]

Shit, I forgot how brutal/stupid that Cactus bump was against Mil Mascaras. Christ. 

[tiger_rick]

Mick can barely walk or think. But he's lucky he's alive.

[mim731]

So WWE have popped up their annual PC Combine (I think it's an American football thing in general terms) that basically has NXT performers doing various competitive in-gym activities. It's 4 hours (I skimmed), but kinda an interesting concept of you wanna get an idea of what goes on in the PC.

[wandshogun09]

OK I’m starting on WCW 1993. I remember there being a lot more shit in 93 than there was in 92 but also a lot of stuff I loved as well. Let’s see how that balances out. 

Clash Of The Champions 22

January 13th 1993

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

Kicking it off with another Clash. And in the show opening montage, the nails on a blackboard voiceover bloke tells us about the ‘Thundercage’ match we’ve got coming up. Zero recollections of this show or what the fuck ‘Thundercage’ entails but it’s going to be Vader, Barbarian, Barry Windham and Paul Orndorff vs the team of Sting, Ron Simmons, Dustin Rhodes and...Van Hammer. Fucking Van Hammer in a main event with that lot? 

Anyway, Bill Watts is still knocking about. He opens the show with Tony Schiavone and he’s namedropping guys like The Crusher, Harley Race, Verne Gagne and, surprisingly, Ric Flair who was still in the WWF at this time. Although he was finishing up in January 93 so I’m guessing they knew he was heading back to them anyway. 

Wait, Watts drops the news that Hammer is injured and that he’ll be replaced in the Jesse The Body invitational arm wrestling match later. OK? That means he’s out of Thundercage as well, right? RIGHT?! 

We cut to an interview backstage with Larry Zbyszko and Erik Watts in his ‘on the pull’ shirt;

He’s been suspended apparently. For reasons that aren’t exactly made clear. Reading up on it, it was something to do with a storyline fight with Arn Anderson at a gas station. Money! He was meant to wrestle Cactus Jack tonight but that’s obviously off. Erik is woeful here on the mic. Really bad. Even worse than his dropkick on Dr Death at Starrcade. 

Jim Ross is still here! Thought he must’ve finished up at Starrcade but obviously not. This must be his last show because with WrestleMania 9 fast approaching, he’s got to get fitted for that toga...

Cactus Jack vs Johnny B Badd 

So we get this now Watts is out. This makes more sense anyway after these two teamed at Starrcade in the Lethal Lottery and ended up scrapping with each other. Badd out in a sailor hat looking as camp as a row of tents. Well, even more than usual. 

Jesse mentions that there’s a lot of Cactus Jack signs in the crowd. The babyface turn is coming. Although thank fuck neither of my babies had a face like Foley. 

Nothing match. 

Pretty much just that and then a weak Cactus elbow drop and it’s over in about 2 minutes. Wasn't really much point to that. 

Schiavone quickly tells us that The Great Muta is the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He beat Chono at the Tokyo Dome. 

Then we get this 2 Cold Scorpio vignette that’s so early 90s it’s ridiculous;

More cheese than one of Butch’s pizzas in the #EATCLEAN thread. 

Notice how the black kids were the naughty ones who wanted to skive off school but the little white girl was good and telling them they’ll be late for their lessons? Who produced this, the Watts Tang Klan? 

2 Cold Scorpio vs Scotty Flamingo 

And from that we’re straight into this. 2 Cold comes dancing out as usual. Scotty’s got them white man moves like your uncle at a wedding. Again, Scotty’s so awkward. His timing just always seems a step off whoever he’s in with. He actually tries to go aerial himself here, hitting a bit of a crap looking dive to the outside. Scorp makes the comeback though and soon puts Flamingo away with the 450 in a short match. 

There’s a video explaining that Rick Rude, who was originally in the Thundercage match, pulled out. So Harley Race had arranged a No DQ match on Main Event between the newly arrived Mr Wonderful Paul Orndorff and Cactus Jack to decide who’d take Rude’s spot on the heel team. During the match, Race pushes Cactus back in the ring and Cactus doesn’t like it and clotheslines him. Yeah, that babyface turn is on the way. Vader comes out and batters Cactus and Orndorff gets the win so Cactus twats them all with a shovel. 

”So give that bell a whack, and I’mma put this man on his back. And when I’m in the ring I’m a wrestling nightmare, straight from Georgia...something, something.” 

From Ron Simmons’ new entrance song. They’re still plugging the shite out of that CD. 

Brad Armstrong vs Chris Benoit 

Oh, Chris ‘Family Guy’ Benoit is here. Should be a good match. Finally, I’m going to get to actually watch Armstrong wrestle a match. 1992 wasn’t kind to him. He was either getting jobbed out quick or he was on crutches getting slapped around by Pillman. At least on the PPVs and Clashes anyway. 

”Where Benoit was trained speaks for itself because there are horror stories that come out of Stu Hart’s basement. Of people that went in there and never came back!” 

Jesse talking about the Dungeon there, but could just as easily be on about Benoit’s front room. 

Really good stuff here as you’d expect. Usual intensity from Benoit but Brad’s hanging right with him. He was really smooth in there and I always feel like he’s a bit overlooked. 

This match seems to mostly exist for Benoit to shine though. Brad has his moments early on but Benoit eventually pulls ahead and his aggression makes the difference. Nearly tears Armstrong’s head off with a clothesline and hits the old Dynamite snap suplex. 

Jesse seems to be quickly becoming a fan of Benoit as the match goes on; 

”I like this Benoit. You know why I like him? He can wrestle but he’ll do what it takes to win, I can tell that right now. You can see the gleam in his eye. He’s business out there. He’s out to win wrestling matches and he don’t care how he does it.” 

JR then calls Benoit a “walking weapon” but I reckon that’s what he really wanted to call Jesse. 

Anyway, Benoit gets the win with a bridging dragon suplex in around 10 minutes. Nice match. 

We’re treated to an arm wrestling match between Vinnie Vegas and Tony Atlas now. This goes on too long. Probably only lasts a minute or so but when it’s just two blokes straining and screaming it feels like 10. Best thing about this was Nash’s pink trousers. 

Z-Man & Johnny Gunn vs The Wrecking Crew 

Zenk and Gunn, the poor man’s Strike Force, are back. And this is our first look at The Wrecking Crew. Fury and Rage are the names their mothers gave them. Apparently. 

Handsome fellas. 

On the left is Marcus Laurinaitis. The forgotten third brother of Roadwarrior Animal and Johnny Ace. On the right is Al Green. He was better known as Kevin Nash’s partner in the Master Blasters tag team. 

You know, this is pretty shit. Only goes about 5 minutes though. The Wrecking Crew actually looked like they could’ve, maybe, potentially been a bit of a badass team if a bit more thought and effort had gone into their names and attire and stuff. But they weren’t around long at all, I don’t think. The Crew win with a double team move called ‘The Wrecking Ball’. Which based on this match, consists of one of them doing a sloppy powerbomb while the other comes off the top with a clubbing forearm. 

We get a load of backstage waffle now. 

YES! The Hollywood Blondes era has begun. Although they’re not known as the Hollywood Blondes just yet and they don’t have the matching gear and stuff. Pillman does all the talking here while Austin just stands there smirking and laughing. Right pair of cocky pricks. 

More plugging of the Slam Jam CD. But I’ll allow it because it’s Rick Rude’s song...

”He’s simply ravishing, he’s happening, he knows that he’s cool. All the girls go crazy, they don’t know what to do. He’ll steal your girl, break her heart and leave you a fool. He’s simply ravishing, dazzling, ravishing rude.” 

You know what, listen to it your fucking self...

”His body’s chiselled, abs all in a row. You’d think he was sculpted by Michelangelo.” 

Banger. 

Sting joins us. He’s responding to a challenge from Vader. Tony talks about the challenges Sting has overcome in the past and mentions ‘Spin The Wheel, Make The Deal’...why? Why bring that up, Tony? Why revisit traumatic events? Oh fuck, now they’re on about the ‘White Castle Of Fear’. Bring back the wheel! Seriously, at least we get Sting vs Vader 3 at the end of this goofiness and not Jake and his coal miner’s glove. Ron Simmons and Dustin Rhodes come out and it’s going to be 3 vs 4 in the Thundercage later. To be fair, Hammer probably would’ve been more of a hinderance than a help, the big orange berk. 

Now we’re with the heel team. Notice Vader has the belt again. He won it back off Ron Simmons just after Starrcade.

It’s all kicking off here. Race is still fuming over Cactus attacking him on Main Event before and decides Barbarian is off the team due to his past ties with Pervy Mick. Barbarian, it seems, has a little bit of a temper and lifts Race up by the fucking throat...

But Vader and Orndorff save Harley’s life and beat down the Barbarian. Kind of ironic because a few years later it would be Orndorff in his flip flops battering Vader, with Barbarian’s mate Haku stepping in. Funny old game. 

So yeah, it’s even now. It’ll be 3 vs 3 in the Thundercage later, for those keeping score at home. 

Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas (c) vs Stunning Steve Austin & Flyin’ Brian Pillman - WCW & NWA World Tag Team Titles 

Finally, we’re back in the ring. And this should be fantastic. I remember these 2 teams tearing shit up for a fair chunk of 1993. This being the beginning of that series. This is every bit as good as I expected. I think I only caught their TV matches at the time so I don’t think I ever saw this particular match. Goes around 15 minutes and there’s not a dull or dead moment to be found. 

It wasn’t quite the time for the soon to be Hollywood Blondes though. The finish comes when Pillman accidentally catches Austin with a springboard clothesline, allowing Steamboat to tag out. Douglas beats them both up but Austin grabs one of the titles and whacks him with it, forcing the disqualification. Steamboat and Douglas retain but the Blondes whip the fuck out of Steamboat with the belt before the babyface locker room chase them off. Top match. Shame there wasn’t a cleaner finish but it led to a cracking run of matches that took up the bulk of the first half of 1993 anyway so we got our fill. 

We get clips of Vader regaining the belt off Simmons now. Story was Simmons had a shoulder injury and Vader took advantage. Jesse interviews Vader and Harley Race in the ring. They chat shit and brag about beating Simmons, which brings Ron out. Of course, a fight ensues and Simmons winds up getting splashed on the concrete and hit with a couple of shoulderbreakers. He’s out of the Thundercage match. Fuck me. This shit is hard to keep track of. So now it’s 2 vs 3 in the main event. 

Sting & Dustin Rhodes vs Big Van Vader, Barry Windham & Paul Orndorff - Thundercage match 

This is one of those ‘come dressed as you are’ matches. So looking at this lot, I can only assume that Vader dressed in his wrestling attire 24/7 and Sting painted his face to go to Tesco. What’s ‘Thunder’ about this cage then? As far as I can tell it’s just that massive cage they used for the ‘Chamber Of Horrors’. This is basically billed as a street fight in a cage. Windham and Rhodes kick it off. Nice. This is what I’ve wanted to see since they split. Sting and Vader going at it now. Can’t go wrong. I never tire of watching these two beat the shite out of each other. Sting is getting the upper hand and really beating Vader down here;

If it’s a street fight, why are they tagging in and out? Anyway, the heels take control eventually and give Sting a right doing over. Orndorff is a vicious, nasty cunt here. Looks hard as nails wrestling in jeans as well. FINALLY, Sting makes the tag and AEW Dustin is in and kicking arse. 

But wait a minute...

Cactus is out with bolt cutters. He’s in the cage and it’s 3 vs 3 again. He comes off the top rope and whacks Orndorff in the head with his boot and gets the win for the babyfaces.

Cactus then cuts a pretty intense promo with JR and Jesse, he makes it clear that he’s now an enemy of Orndorff and Vader and the crowd are behind him. 

The turn is complete as we go off the air. 

You know what, that was quite an enjoyable show. The Thundercage match was entertaining, the tag title match was excellent, Benoit vs Armstrong was good, Scorpio continues to rise and the Cactus Jack turn feels really intriguing and new for 1993. There was some shite on here but it’s kept to a minimum and I’d say they started off 93 in a fairly positive way. 

Superbrawl III next. 

Edited June 27, 2019 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Superbrawl III

February 21st 1993

Asheville, North Carolina

Again, only seen a couple of matches off this, the main event and Scorpio-Benoit, but never seen the whole show before. Looking at the card as a whole now it looks really good. 

What this show is most remembered for though, is clearly the ‘White Castle Of Fear’ promos. What exactly was this bollocks?;

😂

Anyway, continuing with the weirdness...

We’re met with this sight at the top of the show before handing over to the announcers. And Jim Ross has finally fucked off to get his toga on. It’s Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura at the desk now. Bill Watts has also gone from the company. It’s all change in WCW land. 

Here’s Watts talking about how and why he left WCW; 

I’m assuming this interview was done before he found God?

Fuck me. We’ve got Maxx Payne doing a version of the national anthem with his guitar now. 

Look at the state. 

Stunning Steve Austin & Flyin’ Brian Pillman vs Marcus Alexander Bagwell & Erik Watts 

They’re still not officially known as the Hollywood Blondes yet but they’re sort of halfway there. They have the matching tights now with the stars on their arse but no snazzy silver waistcoats yet. Pretty good show opener. Goes around 15 minutes and it’s a decent match in spite of Bagwell still being a bit green and Watts’ all around crapness. It’s amazing how Austin and Pillman clicked as a team so quickly. They’d only started teaming a matter of weeks before this and already they feel like a proper established tag team. The Blondes win when Bagwell hits a fisherman’s suplex on Pillman and, while he’s bridging, Austin comes off the top with an elbow to the ribs. Pillman gets the pin and it’s over. 

Best thing in WCW at this point. 

2 Cold Scorpio vs Chris Benoit 

Saw this on the Benoit DVD years ago and remember it being good. These two wrestled a lot in Japan in singles and tags so they have that chemistry and their timing is pretty much down to perfection. 

Oh fuck, Jesse and Tony are making their predictions for this match. This line from Jesse hasn’t really aged well;

”I’m gonna go with Benoit. You know why? He’s got a little more of the killer instinct in him.” 

Little did we know just how much he had that in him. Jesse ‘The Prophet’ Ventura did. 

This is the first time we’re really getting to see what 2 Cold can do. Up until now he’s either been in short matches with bigger opponents or he’s been saddled with shitehawks like Scotty Flamingo. This is his first real opportunity to shine. And shine he does. This is such a fantastic match. Like Pillman vs Liger from the previous year’s Superbrawl, this is the kind of match that would’ve blown my mind and been a real eye opener if I’d seen it at the time. Nobody else in the WWF or WCW were having matches quite like this in 1993. 

Benoit is a vicious little shit in this match. While most of Scorpio’s offence consists of high flying and flashy attacks. Despite all the fancy stuff though, they still manage to make it feel like a struggle and a fight. It’s not just flips for the sake of flips. There’s a 20 minute time limit and as we go deeper into the match, 2 Cold starts to pull ahead and comes mega close on a few near falls. 

With about a minute left on the clock Scorpio lands this...whatever you call it splash and nearly gets the win. In the dying seconds Benoit gets control again. He goes for a dragon suplex but Scorpio reverses it and rolls him up for the 3 count with ONE SECOND TO GO! Scorpio wins! 19:59 is the official time. Tremendous match and the finish was really well done. 

British Bulldog vs Wild Bill Irwin 

The British Bulldog is here, whether he wants to be or not. He probably didn’t really, to be honest. He’d been let go by the WWF in late 1992, along with the Ultimate Warrior, because steroids. I remember seeing him pop up on Worldwide one Saturday afternoon at the time and being in shock. Obviously this was pre-internet and I was only 7 years old. I didn’t know he was gone from the WWF. Looking back, this was probably my first time experiencing a big name switching to the other promotion. I just remember that even back then, seeing Davey Boy in a WCW ring was surreal. I don’t think I ever got used to it and I don’t think I ever will. It still looks weird to me now. 

This is his big debut so they give him a squash match. Bill Irwin is probably mostly remembered for his stint as The Goon in the WWF in 1996. He’s doing a sort of a discount Stan Hansen gimmick here, coming out wearing a cowboy hat and whipping everything in sight with a big strap.

Not much to this match. It’s purely an introduction to WCW for the Bulldog. Although the fans know exactly who he is and he got a big reaction on his entrance. 

Interesting exchange between Jesse and Tony here. Wonder who they’re on about; 

Jesse: You’ve been doing your homework. 

Tony: I sure have. You’ve gotta be prepared. 

Jesse: No-one’s more prepared as an announcer than you, Schiavone. You know, some people can lose their jobs not being prepared. 

Back to the match, this only goes about 5 minutes, with Davey basically just doing a medley of his signature moves before putting Wild Bill away with the old running powerslam. Easy money. 

Oh, get the popcorn out. The Bulldog’s about to do an interview. 

”Well, Tony Schiavone. What a welcome it’s bin for the British Bulldog. Right here in Asheville, LIVE ON PAY PER VIEW! I’ve come to the WCW for one reason. That is to become the world...championship heavyweight champion of the world. But let’s get down to it. Big Van Vader, I’m lookin’ forward to your match tonight...with The Sting...and the strap. But Van Vader, if you ‘appen to keep that belt tonight, just remember one thing. The British Bulldog is here...in the WCW. And the British Bulldog is ‘UNGRY...and he’s comin’ after you. All 400lbs plus. I’m ‘ungry and I’m gonna eat you up Van Vader. With all the support of MY FANS...” 

Bischoff is with Paul Orndorff for an interview now for our next match but before Orndorff can even spit a sentence out, Cactus appears with a big fuck off shovel. It’s on. 

Cactus Jack vs Paul Orndorff - Falls Count Anywhere match 

Never seen this before but I bloody loved it. Proper wild brawl. Cactus seemed well into it as well. The babyface turn seems to have rejuvenated him. They start in the aisle and Cactus is chasing him around with the shovel like a lunatic. They scrap around ringside and Cactus does that goofy sunset flip spot off the apron to the concrete. Makes me wince every time. Orndorff is great here. Looks double hard and he seems totally in his element just battering Cactus all about the place. 

This was my favourite bit.

This is like one of those Attitude era arena-wide brawls you used to get with Austin and Rock, but years ahead of time. Cactus gets the win with a shovel shot in about 12 minutes. Great stuff. If you haven’t seen it I’d highly recommend this match. 

Rock & Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies 

Yet another really fun match. This was originally going to be the Rock & Rolls vs Wrecking Crew, so this is actually a vast improvement. No Jimmy Del Ray I’m afraid though, this is the Tom Prichard/Stan Lane version of the Bodies. But yeah, a really enjoyable match. They don’t even do anything special it’s just really good old school tag team wrestling. Cornette is his usual antagonising self at ringside and all 4 men in the ring are still quality at this stage. Finish comes when Bobby Eaton interferes, accidentally costs the Bodies the match and Gibson gets the pin. 

Sadly this was the end of these lot in WCW as the deal/angle with Smoky Mountain went tits up when Bill Watts left. Of course, Smoky Mountain ended up having a working relationship up north instead and the Bodies and Cornette were in the WWF by the summer. 

Dustin Rhodes (c) vs Maxx Payne - WCW United States Title 

Bit of backstory here. Rick Rude was stripped of the US title and Rhodes won the vacant belt by winning a tournament, beating Steamboat in the final. Apparently this was meant to be Rhodes vs Simmons but Big Ron’s shoulder is still knackered. 

This was the first actual bad match on the show. Even Dustin couldn’t polish this turd. He tries his best but Payne just looks well out of his comfort zone here. He’s much more suited to the brawling style stuff he was later involved in when he was teaming with Cactus. In this kind of match his flaws are exposed big time. Even with someone as good as Rhodes in the opposite corner. Dustin just can’t really do much with him at all. After years of having the likes of Rude, Austin, Anderson and Eaton bouncing around at a high pace, being paired with this big, plodding, fat Jo Brand lookalike must’ve been a bit of a shock to the system. And to top off a crappy match, we get an even crappier finish. Dustin has Maxx in an abdominal stretch (does Maxx even have abdominals?) and Maxx shoves the referee as he breaks out of it. That’s it. Dustin retains on a DQ and I’m just glad it’s over. Why couldn’t we have had the Rhodes vs Steamboat tournament final here instead of this mess? 

WOOOOOOH! He’s back. This is fair to Flair. Schiavone interviews him. It’s not as good as the Bulldog’s money promo but it’s decent. He basically just makes it known that he’s coming to regain the belt he “never lost” and he’s joining Tony and Jesse as a guest commentator for this next match...

Great Muta (c) vs Barry Windham - NWA World Heavyweight Title 

Another match I don’t think I’ve ever watched. But this one has always intrigued me. Big fan of both so I’m looking forward to seeing how they mesh here. 

Muta looks fucking badass in his entrance get-up with the big gold belt. Has a real superstar presence about him. 

Like I said before about the Sting vs Vader matches, there’s a big fight atmosphere at the start of this one. Despite the previous NWA title matches with Chono being cack, this still has a feel of importance to it. 

Unfortunately, I found this match a real disappointment. Nowhere near as good as it should’ve been given the talent involved. Whether they just didn’t have good chemistry or what, fuck knows. But this just didn’t hit the spot. It goes 24 minutes and for the most part it’s just a bit dull and boring. I mean, it’s not the worst match you’ll ever see. There’s nothing actually technically wrong with what they do, it’s just that not much happens. A massive chunk of it is spent exchanging long headlock sequences. It picks up a little bit towards the end though. The finish comes when Muta goes for the moonsault but Windham gets the knees up.  

A jumping DDT later and it’s all over. Barry Windham finally holds a major world title. Shame it was a belt that meant little at the time and in a match that wasn’t very good. Windham deserved better than that.

Flair straps the belt on the new champion post-match. Windham looks surprised when he sees it’s Flair putting the belt on him but it all goes by without incident and Flair leaves Baz to it. 

What exactly was it with these NWA title matches being so underwhelming during this time? Chono vs Rude at Halloween Havoc was shite, then Chono vs Muta at Starrcade was a bit cack, now Muta vs Windham falls way short of what it could’ve been. All these matches looked good-great on paper yet they were all letdowns in practice. 

Big Van Vader vs Sting - White Castle Of Fear Strap match 

It’s a non-title match for some reason, despite Vader being the reigning WCW champion. Ah, it says this is ‘non sanctioned’ by WCW so that’ll be why. 

Vader continues his tradition of wearing wacky accessories on his entrances for these Sting matches. At the Great American Bash it was the big smoking elephant mask thing, at Starrcade he went all gangsta with a black bandana, now this ensemble;

They’re 1-1 in big PPV matches at this point. This is a ‘rubber match’ of sorts. And once again, they deliver. This is fucking incredible. Probably the best match in their series so far for me. I’m not usually much of a fan of strap matches but these two do it properly. 

Vader starts off in control but Sting manages to get the upper hand. He hits 2 big splashes off the top then starts whipping Vader to bits with the strap until his back is bleeding. His back is red raw. Sting has him in trouble. Vader does finally turn the tide though and Sting catches a proper beating for a bit. Vader lands a Vaderbomb splash, returns the favour whipping Sting’s back with the strap and kills him with a big Samoan Drop off the top rope. Sting has brief moments of hope but Vader snuffs them out at every turn and keeps the punishment coming.

Sting’s getting fucked up. 

Sting rallies though and makes a big comeback with a release German suplex, a DDT and then repeatedly punches the crap out of him in the corner. He nearly touches the 4 corners but falls at the last one. 

Vader is a mess, bleeding badly from the ear. Sting’s also bleeding from the forehead. Sting is spent and Vader manages to touch all 4 corners for the win. Vader wins. Barely. Sting attacks him with the strap after and Vader looks like he wants absolutely no part of it. 

Here’s Vader not too long before he died talking about the series of matches with Sting...

The bit about his son wanting to live in the ‘White Castle Of Fear’ 😆 

We get a quick promo from the new NWA world champion Barry Windham before the credits roll;

He says no championship belt is safe, he’s coming for them all. 

And we’re done. 

That was a hell of a show. Dustin Rhodes vs Maxx Payne was the only outright bad match. Aside from that and Muta vs Windham being a bit of a bore, it was all pretty great. Vader vs Sting, Cactus vs Orndorff and Scorpio vs Benoit especially were all tremendous. 

Slamboree next. Fucking Nailz is on that one. 

Edited June 27, 2019 by wandshogun09