Hello, readers! This is Prince Osborne, a member of SmarkDown in Discord and YouTube and I’m here to expand my take on pro wrestling with the help of this blog. Tonight, we’re set for a high-stakes show of Monday Night Raw. Lest cut to the chase!
The footage of last week was shown as Nikki A.S.H. cashed in her Money In The Bank contract to defeat Charlotte Flair for the Raw Women’s Championship.
Nikki A.S.H. ushers in as Raw Women’s Champion
IMG Credits: WWE
Nikki has the mic welcomes everyone to the show as she follows it up by stating that she is happy to be Raw Women’s Champion. “You Deserve It” chants emanate from the crowd. She said that she failed every time when she tried her best to reach for the stars. Then, she had a change in herself which is the “superhero” gimmick which boosted her confidence level. In the middle of what was slated to be a C+ motivational speech, Charlotte Flair interrupted the scene. Charlotte starts the promo stating that Nikki is such a disgrace of being the Raw Women’s Champion and follows it up with her recent interviews. Most of them doesn’t believe that happened as Charlotte said that she’s here to add the star power this division needs. “You Suck” chants rise from the crowd and Charlotte shuts the crowd down again. At a certain point, Charlotte blames the crowd for the “injustice” happened to her whenever a cash-in happens as Rhea Ripley enters the fray. The crowd is so over for Rhea! Rhea states that they’re all jealous of Charlotte eventhough she had the title for one single day. She stated even further as she should be the one to challenge Nikki at SummerSlam. But, Nikki politely rejects the challenge from both women as she expects fresh faces to challenge her. Out comes Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville to make a Triple Threat Match for the Raw Women’s Championship at SummerSlam. Charlotte says that this decision is ridiculous as she challenges Nikki for a match tonight! Nikki accepts! It’s official! All the three women brawl with Nikki standing tall. An okay-ish predictable segment. Grade: B-
We were cut to the commercials by an upcoming match between Damian Priest and the United States Champion, Sheamus.
United States Championship Contender’s Match: Damian Priest vs Sheamus
IMG Credits: WWE
Damian Priest def. Sheamus @ 6:35 by pinfall after hitting the Reckoning neckbreaker. A hard hitting match, to be frank and they did what they had to do with the short time given. Priest entering the United States Championship picture is really interesting and I have my money on him dethroning Sheamus at SummerSlam. Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Coming up next, a rematch from Money in The Bank as AJ Styles and Omos defend the Raw Tag Team Championships against The Viking Raiders!
Tag Team Match for the Raw Tag Team Championships: AJ Styles & Omos (C) vs The Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik)
IMG Credits: WWE
AJ Styles & Omos def. The Viking Raiders @6:04 by pinfall after Styles pinned Erik by hitting the 450 Splash. Another solid match in the books of Styles & Omos as this rivalry gets heated up even more which wasn’t expected by most. Rating: 2.25 out of 5 stars
Up next, Drew McIntyre addresses his actions from last week where he laid out one of Jinder Mahal’s proteges, Shanky with 32 chilling chair strikes!
Before the scheduled match between McIntyre and Veer, Jinder requests the former to apologize for what he did to Shanky. But, Drew neglects it and fires up the crowd by shutting Jinder and his crew down with “Drew’s gonna kill you” chants.
Singles Match: Drew McIntyre vs Veer w/Jinder Mahal Drew McIntyre def. Veer @3:48 by disqualification after he hits a Claymore Kick onto the chair laid on Veer’s head. I can’t really rate this match in terms of quality as this felt more of an angle heading towards SummerSlam for Drew vs Jinder. Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars
IMG Credits: WWE
Post-match, Drew McIntyre knocks the newly appointed “attorney” of Jinder with a claymore! What a “surprise” it was.
Up next, another championship contender’s match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships as Eva Marie and Doudrop face the champions, Tamina and Natalya.
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships Contender’s Match: Tamina & Natalya vs Eva Marie & Doudrop Tamina & Natalya def. Eva Marie & Doudrop @3:12 by pinfall after Tamina hits a superkick on a distracted Eva. Another match that really can’t be rated for any reasons because I really hate this rivalry between Eva and Alexa. Rating: DUD
Up next, a rematch straight from NXT TakeOver: XXX as Keith Lee faces the current NXT Champion who had a disappointing debut last week, Karrion Kross.
Singles Match: Keith Lee vs Karrion Kross Karrion Kross def. Keith Lee @5:16 by submission by locking in the Kross Jacket. A decent back-and-forth match with a result that is much needed on one side but on the other contrary, Keith Lee should be protected at all costs. After a debut that should not be remembered, Kross bounced back with a big win. Rating: 1.75 out of 5 stars
IMG Credits: WWE
Up next, the underbuilt pairing of Mustafa Ali and Mansoor will face MACE and T-Bar in a tag team match.
Tag Team Match: Mustafa Ali & Mansoor vs MACE & T-Bar
IMG Credits: WWE
Mustafa Ali & Mansoor def. MACE & T-Bar @3:09 by pinfall after Mansoor rolled up MACE for the pin. More of an angle to hype up the pairing of Ali and Mansoor who are really talented. Rating: N/R
Up next, the almighty WWE Champion Bobby Lashley will respond to the challenge laid out by the WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg last week.
Bobby Lashley responds to Goldberg’s SummerSlam challenge
MVP calls back what happened last week and awaits for the champ’s answer. Lashley said that he doesn’t want to dignify the challenge by a response. Out comes Cedric Alexander who says that he is desperate of a challenge and Shelton Benjamin comes out to step up. Lashley simply orders both of them to step up.
IMG Credits: WWE
Two on One Handicap Match: Bobby Lashley w/MVP vs Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander Bobby Lashley def. Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin @2:40 by pinfall after he hits the Dominator on Alexander. A powerful squash for the WWE Champion and an impromptu reunion of The Hurt Business. Rating: N/R
Backstage, AJ Styles is having a conversation with The Miz & John Morrison secretly. Don’t know what’s that for. But, up, next, Riddle goes toe-to-toe against John Morrison.
Singles Match: Riddle vs John Morrison w/The Miz John Morrison def. Riddle @6:21 by pinfall after Morrison hit Riddle with a Starship Pain. Another solid match which had its slippery moments here and there but the tag team angle improved so well as Styles ad Omos have their new challengers possibly set in RK-Bro. Rating: 2.25 out of 5 stars
Up next, the 24/7 Championship will be on the line as Reginald will defend it against R-Truth.
Singles Match for the 24/7 Championship: Reginald (C) vs R-Truth Reginald def. R-Truth @1:26 by pinfall after a front flip splash. An entertaining angle for Reginald. Rating: N/R
IMG Credits: WWE
Backstage, Charlotte is being interviewed as she is poised to prove that the “superhero” in Nikki is a fluke.
Raw Women’s Championship Contender’s Match: Nikki A.S.H. vs Charlotte Flair Charlotte Flair def. Nikki A.S.H. @8:31 by pinfall after she reversed a crossbody splash and pinned her. A decent main event. Charlotte winning was easily predictable and the title picture is so mediocre. Rating: 2.25 out of 5 stars
IMG Credits: WWE
Post match, Nikki challenges Charlotte to a rematch next week as Charlotte accepts. Then, Charlotte attacks her and stands tall!
IMG Credits: WWE
Overall Match Rating: 1.25 out of 5 stars Overall Show Rating: 3.5 out of 10 points
This show started really well with two solid matches and it just went into the deepwaters of irrelevancy and annoying repetitions. Priest vs Sheamus stands out as the Match of the Night for me.
What do you think, people? Was the show felt the same as myself or do you feel something different? Share your opinions in the feedback section right below. I’ll see you all tomorrow for NXT on Syfy Network. See you all and enjoy wrestling!
Welcome Everybody To The First Edition Of Our Live Coverages Here At SmarkDown. My name is Tanner, but I’m also known as Viper on our Youtube Page. Thank you for tuning in and lets get right on into this
We are live in my home city of Cleveland, Ohio and also at the Rolling Loud Festival!
John Cena Opens The Show
We kick off with the recently returned John Cena! He takes a moment to feel the mostly positive reactions from the Cleveland crowd. He talks about how fun it was to be at Money In The Bank, and makes it official that he is challenging Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. He jokes about The Cleveland Indians changing their name to The Cleveland Guardians. He then says that SmackDown with Roman Reigns sucks. He once again gives light to the fact that the crowds are back. He says that SummerSlam is an opportunity to stand up for what you believe in. Who’s team are we on? He says that Roman Reigns will realize that after SummerSlam the champ is here. After asking for Roman to come out several times, Paul Heyman appears with his signature “Ladies & Gentlemen” which I personally haven’t heard in that variant in quite some time. He says that Cena has it all wrong. He mocks Cena’s You Can’t See Me and says that Roman is simply not listening to Cena because he isn’t worthy. He then gives Cena his word that Roman will answer the challenge when he decides to tonight. We close with Heyman mocking Cena’s theme song.
Finn Balor takes on Sami Zayn
Balor hit the sling blade, two shot gun drop kicks, and the finishing Coup de Grace blow to defeat Sami Zayn @ (stopwatch issues)
This was a good match here. Sami Zayn is a nice worker and Balor is looking as great as ever. Nice return match for Finn! [***]
Backstage Baron Corbin claims the person that funded his CorbinFundMe stole all of his money (this is both sad and hilarious!)
Big E Celebrates His Big Money In The Bank Win!
Big E exclaims how he won the MITB Contract in front of a crowd after a grueling ladder match. Out comes Apollo Crews who brags about actually having a title, then come out Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode (for some reason), and THEN comes King Nakamura with Rick Boogs, AND THEN Cesaro comes out and seemingly challenges Apollo Crews before a big brawl explodes throughout the ring! This seems to set up a 6 man tag team match for later tonight
We switch over to the Rolling Loud Festival where…
Angelo Dawkins takes on Chad Gable!
Dawkins defeated Chad Gable after a spinebuster @ (more stopwatch issues :/)
The crowd wasn’t really into it, but I honestly loved the work here from Gable and Dawkins had some nice counters to Gable’s offense. Finish to me may have been anti climatic because I’m not too familiar with Angelo’s moveset, but I assume that was his finisher. Overall enjoyable match here [***1/4]
Bianca BelAir defends the Smackdown Women’s Championship against Carmella!
Bianca retained her championship after hitting a KOD on Carmella @ 4:44
This felt longer then it was in my perspective. A way shorter, more simpler title match then the one last week, and it was overall an ok contest [**]
Nox and Shotzi are backstage trying to fix their tank with Kevin Owens when Baron Corbin shows up. He begs Owens for money which he obliges to before the tank suddenly shoots at Corbin’s GROIN and Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode steal it while Owens tells them to get outta there. (An unlikely friendship?)
The Rated R Superstar Edge speaks Live!
Edge celebrates the crowds being back and celebrates how hard he worked to get back into the business. He claims he should be standing there as the Universal Championship, but isn’t because of Seth Rollins. He said he didn’t except Rollins to attack him, but rather attack the champion. He then mentions THAT segment in 2015 where Rollins threatened Edge’s life practically. He then basically says that Seth Rollins has no idea what the consequences are gonna be for his actions. He brags about being in The Brood and The Ministry Of Darkness. Seth Rollins then interrupts Edge with his rock music of greatness. Rollins then calls Edge old and laughs about the man that Edge USED to be all those years ago. Edge then simply tells Seth to shut up. He then offers Rollins down to the ring who was already going to do so anyways. He then insults my city which is just great, and insults Edge and Cena’s part timing ways in the WWE. He mentions that they take away from guys like him who DESERVE the title shot. He then calls Edge a scumbag and says nothing would make him happier then being the man to end Edge’s career. He says that when they talk about Edge’s career they’ll be talking more about the man who ended it, Seth Rollins. He mentions all those years ago when Rollins threatened Edge’s life practically. He threatens Edge’s neck. Edge then attacks Rollins who fights back. Edge was able to hit the Edgecution, but Rollins is able to avoid a spear to end the segment. (Brilliant segment!)
Up Next Toni Storm Makes Her Main Roster Debut Against Zelina Vega!
Storm is able to finish off Zelina with a Storm-1 in a nice debut @ 2:35
This is too short to be given a rating, but it was a very nice debut for Storm who seems to be on Vince’s good side which is rare these days. Hoping for the best for her! [N/R]
Jimmy Uso takes on Rey Mysterio’s son Dominik!
Jimmy won after a roll up to Dominik was assisted by his brother Jey @ 7:56
Overall this was just ok. A couple botches at the end were very noticeable. Nothing really to note except for the finish I guess [**]
Roman Reigns Is Here!!
Reigns is wearing a nice white version of his Head Of The Table T-Shirt (might have to cop that). Right off the bat he tells us to acknowledge him and claims that John Cena acknowledged him at Money In The Bank, Raw, and tonight on Smackdown! He basically says that John Cena has never changed and did the same thing he’s always did. He then compares it to a certain sex position that I guess happens every single night. He says that he doesn’t WANT to see John Cena and that he will not be facing Cena in the main event. Then out comes….FINN BALOR????!!! What’s he doing here? Balor says that if Roman’s not interested in Cena’s challenge then he’ll interested in HIS. (Holy SHIT!!)”Roman’s scared” chants erupt and Roman silences them by…..ACCEPTING BALOR’S CHALLENGE!!!! This is gonna be huge!
And that concludes our very first coverage of Friday Night Smackdown. I personally give this a 7/10 as there were some nice matches, nice segments, new developments. This was pretty good!
Hello everyone and welcome to a very special review here on the blog. With fans back in the arena, this time hopefully for good (fingers crossed), it’s only fitting I’d give this event a look. Apart from the typical Money in the Bank Ladder matches, Bobby Lashley puts his WWE Championship on the line against Kofi Kingston, while Roman Reigns takes on Edge for the Universal Championship. That and much more.
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & wrestlingnoticias.com.br
The hosts are Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Jimmy Smith, Michael Cole & Pat McAfee
Note: In the kickoff match, The Usos defeated Rey Mysterio and his son Dominik to win the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
Female Money in the Bank Ladder Match – Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka vs. Liv Morgan vs. Naomi vs. Natalya vs. Nikki ASH vs. Tamina vs. Zelina Vega
IMG credit: WWE & wrestlemaniacos.com
As someone who was completely away from the live product during pretty much the whole pandemic, I’d like to know what the hell has happened to Nikki Cross. Is “A.S.H.” the PG version of “S.H.I.T.”, Rosey’s old gimmick? The bell starts and everyone goes for the ladders while Bliss stays on the top rope. She leaves and skips around for a while before trying to retrieve the briefcase using some magic super powers, but Asuka comes up from behind with a German suplex, only to eat a kick from Zelina Vega, who then turns around into an enziguiri from Liv Morgan. Clothesline by Natalya. Tornado DDT by Cross. Naomi with the What She Calls The Rear View. Superkick by Tamina Snuka. IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN TEXAS! Tamina cleans house because Nobody’s Meaner Than Tamina (trademarked), and then Liv nearly steals it but Tamina destroys both her and Zelina. She sets up the ladder, but Asuka gets in her face and we get a slugfest. An international one! Asuka goes up to avoid a shot with the ladder, and gives Tamina a missile dropkick and stands tall. We get an “Asuka” chant while she literally buries Tamina under a ladder. She climbs it, but Tamina lifts the ladder and Liv comes in with a Codebreaker to Asuka to make the save.
Now it’s Morgan’s turn to climb, but Natalya saves and drops Liv on her knee. They get into a tug-of-war over the ladder, and Nikki comes in for some superhero action but ends up eating the ladder like a complete geek instead. Now Naomi and Tamina get into a slugfest on said ladder, which Morgan and Natalya are still grabbing and allowing them to do these spots (I hate these spots, drop the ladder and take them both out…) as Tamina gets a samoan drop. Zelina dumps Tamina with a flying headscissors, and Asuka sends her into the barricade with hip attack. Meanwhile, Natalya & Morgan just keep awkwardly holding the ladder. What the hell. Bliss comes in and traps Morgan in the corner, and Natalya blocks what looked like a version of Stratusfaction by Bliss, but she no-sells Natalya’s reversal and laughs in her face while Natalya goes to run the ropes, and then Natalya just charges anyway and (obviously) eats some ladder on a drop toehold. Duh, what were you thinking? This match is not clicking at all. Bliss goes after Morgan next with a senton bomb and she sets up the ladder, but Vega follows her to the top. And then… oh then… Bliss simply looks at Zelina and FUCKING HYPNOTIZES HER to steal the briefcase, but Natalya saves with a sitout powerbomb off the ladder. And now Zelina, seemingly back to being a normal sane human being, goes after Natalya herself. I have no words for this, it’s just not for me. How does Zelina go from normal to crazy to normal again all in the span of 25 seconds?
Next up, Naomi powerbombs Liv Morgan right into Zelina’s back and into a ladder in the corner, and she follows it up with a double springboard enziguiri to both Natalya and Tamina, followed by a double springboard stunner. Cross tries her luck next, but she gets slammed on a ladder by Naomi, who follows it up with the split legdrop. Natalya again makes the save and goes up, but Zelina goes up and puts her in a sleeper up there. Uh oh. Natalya climbs anyway and they both fight over the contract, but Liv Morgan pulls both down at the last second. Now they all get into a mega slugfest and literally make a pool of people in the ring, while Nikki Cross climbs a ladder on the outside and takes every single soul out with a flying crossbody, nearly failing miserably and knocking herself out on the ropes. For some reason they still show the replay of this like it was a big highlight reel moment. Here, have a look:
IMG credit: WWE
Thankfully it didn’t go wrong… Anyway, Nikki is all alone in the ring, but her former partner Alexa Bliss confronts her and hits her version of Sister Abigail. Natalya & Tamina again make the save and dump Bliss, going to work on her on the outside and taking her out with a ladder into the barricade. Then everyone proceeds to bury Alexa Bliss under a pile of ladders, and Morgan, seemingly being the only person with a brain in this match, goes back to the ring while everyone’s posing outside and climbs the ladder. Tamina stops her, but ends up eating a headscissors into the buckle. Two more ladders are set up in the ring, which is absolutely NOT setting up a contrived spot coming soon. No, sir. Asuka misses the hip attack on Morgan and gets caught on the ropes, as Morgan takes her out and climbs the ladder. And suddenly out comes everyone to climb all three ladders, while Nikki ASH…. simply grabs it while everyone’s there and seemingly ignores her??? Huh?? Yes, that’s your lame finish at 15:45.
Rating: Terrible ending to what was easily the worst Money in the Bank Ladder Match I have ever seen in my entire life. A bunch of sloppy or botched or contrived spots, sometimes a combination of all three, particularly Nikki’s crossbody in which she was this close from landing with her feet on the top rope and cracking heads with someone in the ring. I also hated Alexa Bliss’ stuff during this match, like when she hypnotized Zelina, only for her to be normal again 15 seconds later and not sell it anymore. Just weird. And bad. The finish would get over almost as well as a fart in church. A really awful match, in my opinion. 1/2*
We recap the kickoff match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. Jimmy sacrificed himself by covering Jey and taking Rey’s 619 instead, and then Jey sent Rey into the buckles and rolled him up for the win, with some leverage from Jey.
Meanwhile, Roman Reigns is happy for the Usos in the back. Reigns is happy all the family has gold, but not before reminding them it was all Reigns’ credit. Now it’s time to focus on keeping Roman’s belt.
WWE RAW Tag Team Championship – AJ Styles & Omos(c) vs. The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar)
IMG credit: WWE & insidesport.co
The Vikings won a battle royal last month on RAW to get this tag title shot. AJ starts with Erik, but after some second thoughts he tags Omos in instead. The Raiders do the same and try to cheapshot Omos with a 2-on-1 attack, but Omos completely no sells it and cleans house. Now Styles is feeling it, asking for the tag and hitting a kneedrop, but it only gets one. Styles ends up getting caught in the Vikings’ corner, and he plays Ricky Morton. Erik slams Ivar into Styles for one, and the crowd doesn’t give a crap about them despite being the babyfaces. Erik gives Styles a massive knee to the face that could and should ABSOLUTELY be a finish, but it barely even gets a two. Styles cheapshots Erik and dumps him with a dropkick, taking Ivar too with a baseball slide before tagging in Omos. Styles follows with a fantastic Omos-assisted flying hurricanrana on the floor, and apparently we ignore the tag to Omos as Styles puts Erik in a chinlock. Erik escapes and backdrops AJ, and out comes Ivar with a shoulderblock to Styles. Sideslam is followed by a splash, and the big cartwheel lariat gets two. Styles gets some distance with a jawbreaker and brings in Omos, who also eats the cartwheel lariat, but totally no-sells it. The Vertical Jump That Always Misses gets caught by Omos, who turns it into a powerslam.
Omos works the DREADED NERVE HOLD OF DEATH like this is 1986 and he’s Sivi Afi, but then he releases it and simply knocks Ivar down before tagging Styles back in. AJ and Ivar get into a slugfest, but Ivar manages to roll over Styles’ back and makes the ice cold tag to Erik, who comes in running wild and gets a release slam to Styles. Ivar knocks Omos off the apron as the Raiders now go to work on Styles together, and their German/springboard clothesline combo gets two. Ivar goes up but eats a Pelé Kick, setting up the tag to Omos. Ivar is still knocked out on the top rope, and Omos brings him down with a gorilla press slam for two. Back to Styles for a double-team attack, but poor AJ runs into Ivar’s knees in the corner, and Ivar blocks an Omos blind charge and makes yet another “hot” tag, which gets no reaction yet again. The Raiders double-team Omos with a couple of Erik knees, and Ivar manages to dump him with a clothesline, with Omos landing on his feet. Erik dives at Omos, who still doesn’t go down, and Styles nearly steals it with a roll-up on Ivar that gets two. Forearm on the apron sets up the big Phenomenal Forearm, but Erik shoves Ivar out of the way and they hit the Viking Experience for the win, but Omos saves by grabbing Erik and sending him into Ivar. Omos gets the tag and they all trade spinning heel kicks, ultimately leaving Omos alone with Erik, who charges into an Omos chokeslam for the win to retain the RAW titles at 12:55.
Rating: This match certainly had a weird babyface/heel dynamic, but to their credit it got much better near the end and it turned out to be a pretty good match. Omos looks like he’ll be an attraction if he’s booked well, and for now keeping him alongside Styles so he can hide his weaknesses and just come in to do his handful of spots while he’s green is a good idea. Good little match. ***
Drew McIntyre says he’ll win the Money in the Bank in the state of Texas, much like he won last year’s Royal Rumble match here.
Lashley/Kingston recap – Kofi says he thinks Lashley might be getting a little soft because he surrounds himself with a lot of hot women, uses overpriced suits and takes vacations. Coming from the guy who throws pancakes in the air. How this is supposed to make Lashley a heel is beyond me, of course everyone would want Lashley’s lifestyle. Lashley says “enough of this bullshit”, and tells Kofi to get ready to fight not for the title, but for his life after calling Lashley soft. I can’t say I don’t second this.
WWE Championship – Bobby Lashley(c)(w/ Montel Vontavious Porter) vs. Kofi Kingston
IMG credit: WWE & agulf.net
We get big match intros for this one. Lashley’s wasting no time tonight, going after Kofi as soon as the bell rings while MVP grabs his leg, but Kofi manages to escape and gets a sunset flip for one. Kofi goes up with a flying double stomp for two, but Lashley turns things around with a big backdrop. Massive clothesline follows, and Lashley looks like a killer tonight. He proceeds to abuse Kofi in the corner with a couple of short spears, before eventually missing a blind charge. Kofi springboard gets caught by Lashley, who follows it up with an impressive one-handed chokeslam. Then he just slams poor Kofi all the way to the floor. Lashley follows him for some abuse on the outside, getting him up in a fireman’s carry and running Kofi’s head into the post like a sack of potatoes. HOLY SHIT. Put all the titles on this man tomorrow, please! He then does it a second time just to please me. Don’t piss him off next time, Kofi. Back in, Lashley takes Kofi’s head out in the corner before picking him up by the hair and hitting an elevated flatliner. Lashley goes for the Hurt Lock but can’t lock it in, and instead throws him 3/4 of the way across the ring with a release slam. Another flatliner takes Kofi down yet again, and Lashley slugs away. Three Dominators end poor Kingston’s night, while the ref literally begs for a pinfall so Kofi can live to fight another day. Lashley’s like “fuck that” and this time the Hurt Lock is academic to retain the gold at 7:35.
Rating: Really an extended glorified squash, but I have to say – according to the story told in the video package that aired before the match, this was really the only way it could’ve gone. Having been watching Bobby Lashley since his early 2000s run, this is by far the best work of his career, and he looks like a badass STAR and probably the best choice for WWE Champion. Simple yet very effective match, though it would probably be better served on a RAW. **1/2
WWE RAW Women’s Championship – Rhea Ripley(c) vs. Charlotte Flair
IMG credit: WWE & Josh M.
Their match at last year’s WrestleMania was one of my personal favourite of that event, so I’m really curious to see this one. Ripley comes out first despite being the champion, because Charlotte IS the title! Big match intros for this one too. Big lockup gets things going in, and then Charlotte responds to a big “we want Becky” chant with a “suck it” and a middle finger to the crowd, with WWE blacking out the feed because they’re lame and the 9 year olds might see this and repeat it. They exchange some bitchslaps before Rhea blocks a big boot and hits a dropkick. She misses a charge and gets sent into the apron, with Charlotte following her as they get into a slugfest up there. Charlotte goes after the knee and tries to clip it, but Ripley notices climbing in and jumps to the middle rope to block, before stomping Flair. Nice! Baseball slide follows but she misses a senton to the outside and eats a low dropkick into the barricade. Charlotte goes for the pin back inside, but it only gets one. A suplex into the corner gets two. And we hit the chinlock. Ripley goes to fight out of that, but Charlotte grabs her by the hair and tosses her back down. Now Charlotte starts talking some trash while she slugs away on Ripley, being a massive prick and getting the crowd behind Ripley. Charlotte hits a nasty elbow to the face but misses a blind charge and eats a backdrop to the floor.
Ripley follows her to the floor with another senton, but this time it connects. Back in, Ripley runs wild with a couple of short arm clotheslines, but Flair blocks a third one and Ripley headbutts her instead and follows with a low dropkick. Northern lights suplex gets two. Charlotte snaps Rhea’s neck on the top rope but can’t get an O’Connor Roll, as Ripley explodes with a release German suplex. She goes up for a missile dropkick, but Flair grabs her leg in mid-air and turns it into a Boston Crab instead. Ripley rolls over for two and Charlotte goes for the figure four instead, with Ripley again rolling her over for two, only to get up and eat a Charlotte big boot for two. She goes up for the big moonsault, but Ripley shoves her off the top. Ripley gets her up on her shoulders, which is blocked by Charlotte, and then it looks like they mess up something but Ripley immediately makes up for it by muscling Charlotte up into a vertical suplex for two. Back up, Ripley chops away with extra mustard, but Charlotte eventually whips Ripley into the corner, who gets dumped off a Flair flip over the top. I love how Ripley is working Ric Flair’s spots in a match against his daughter! Ripley gets on the apron and tries to get back inside, but Charlotte big boots her back down and follows with her big moonsault to the floor.
Back in, Charlotte goes to finish but Ripley blocks the Natural Selection and works a modified cloverleaf submission, which Charlotte blocks by rolling through for two. Rhea goes for the Riptide, but it’s turned into a DDT by Charlotte at the last second for two. Chopfest follows and it looks like Ripley blocks another big boot, but Charlotte catches her with an elbow to the face and goes for the Ric Flair rope-assisted pinfall, but the ref catches her and stops the count at two. Charlotte stops to discuss with the referee for a while, which gives Ripley enough time to kick Charlotte and turn things around. Rhea takes her up for a superplex, but Charlotte again takes advantage of Ripley’s knee to escape and get Ripley off the top rope, and she follows with a flying Natural Selection for a great false finish. Charlotte preps the figure four yet again, but Ripley has some gas left in the tank and dumps her to prevent the hold. Ripley goes after Charlotte, who grabs her by the head and sends her skull first into the post. Ripley’s pretty much done, yet Charlotte proceeds to sandwich Ripley’s injured knee in between the post and the stairs, and viciously kicks at the stairs a number of times. Back in, Charlotte locks in the figure eight and Ripley taps at 16:50 to give Charlotte her 800th title.
Rating: These two have insane chemistry and this is yet another match that proves it. I simply loved the match and most of their exchanges and reversal sequences. It was different than their WrestleMania 36 match, which focused more on selling and psychology for a longer period of time, while this one was more about the action, but I honestly love both equally. The finish was really clever and creative for once, despite Charlotte winning being as certain as death and taxes in life. Fantastic match. ****1/4
An annoyed Kevin Owens looks on as Riddle, King Nakamura and Rick Boogs sing and dance to Randy Orton’s theme music like idiots before the MITB match. Funny stuff.
Male Money in the Bank Ladder Match – Kevin Owens vs. Riddle vs. King Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Ricochet vs. John Morrison vs. Big E vs. Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre
IMG credit: WWE & itnwwe.com
Slugfest to start as Riddle takes Rollins out with a big knee to the face outside, and Ricochet takes Morrison out with a huge dive, followed by one from Riddle to Rollins. The house gets cleaned and suddenly it comes down to Drew and Big E, but Riddle comes in and eats an overhead belly to belly from Big E. Back to the big confrontation, and this time it’s Ricochet who tries to interfere with a springboard crossbody to Drew, who just grabs him in mid-air and simply drops him to the floor like an annoying mosquito before getting back to the confrontation with Big E. Now they go at it, with Drew getting the better of it via a belly to belly of his own, but Drew misses a charge and Big E takes him out with his crazy spear off the apron to the floor, which has most likely taken 20 years off his life thus far. This leaves Owens all alone, until Nakamura shows up and takes out Owens with an exploder suplex onto a ladder. Nakamura preps the ladder next, but Morrison comes in with his insane parkour stuff and takes out Nakamura. However, Nakamura ends up climbing and going after Morrison to save, putting him in a crazy armbar up there, and Rollins comes in with a flying knee off the top rope to Nakamura. Rollins and Morrison temporarily join forces against Nakamura and take him out with the ladder. And a shot to Big E while they’re at it for good measure. And to Drew. And to Riddle.
Morrison follows it up with a crazy samoan drop onto the ladder, and does a little cocky dance to celebrate. John’s so charismatic, I honestly don’t know how he’s not a former champion by now. Even Jack Swagger got a run back in Morrison’s generation, for crying out loud… The MorriSeth Association goes back to work with a double backdrop to Ricochet into a ladder. Owens comes in and goes after Rollins, but Morrison follows him and again saves Seth, helping him beat up Owens and exposing the announce table. They set up a ladder bridge, and Owens manages to escape that for a while, but Seth and Morrison again cut him off and go for a double team shot with the ladder, but Owens blocks and moonsaults their ladder onto them. Owens goes for an insane powerbomb onto the edge of a ladder on Rollins, but again Morrison saves him and it’s Owens who eats a double suplex onto the edge of the ladder. Good fucking lord, these guys are absolutely insane. Drew McIntyre tries his luck next with a number of chops with extra mustard, and he actually gets a pretty good little comeback sequence, but he too falls short against the incredible MorriSeth Association, and eats a crazy flying flipping elbowdrop from Morrison, and then Rollins… attacks Morrison with the ladder. NOOOOOO!
Rollins goes up after the briefcase, but everyone prevents him and Riddle takes him out with the RKO. Nakamura and Riddle go at it in a pretty awesome sequence of kicks, but McIntyre comes in and takes bothout with a double Claymore. Future Shock DDT to Big E. Ricochet tries an inverted hurricanrana on Drew, who uses his power to block it and hit his reverse Alabama Slam onto a ladder. McIntyre follows it up with a crazy dive onto a number of guys on the floor, and back in Rollins eats the Glasgow kiss. Drew does the countdwon and follows it up with the Claymore, but Jinder Mahal and his useless pair of geeks come out and beat up Drew to remove him from the match. When you go from beating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania one year to feuding with Jinder Mahal the following year, something has to be fucked up. Ricochet takes advantage and tries to climb, but Riddle pushes him off, only for Ricochet to land on the top rope and hit an insane dive onto everyone on the floor. Fuck! Ricochet goes back inside the ring to prevent Riddle from winning, only to get caught in a kimura, while Rollins sets up a second ladder close to theirs. Big E goes after Riddle, but that only earns him an RKO. And one to Ricochet off the top of the ladder. Riddle stops to do Orton’s little mat-punching routine, but Rollins comes in and stomps him!
Nakamura takes Rollins out with a GTS and he goes up, but Morrison follows him up there and blinds him with the DRIPSTICK OF WET DEATH, only for Owens to pull him off the ladder and hit the Stunner. Nakamura prevents him from going up and eats the Stunner too in the process, and Ricochet takes the Pop Up Powerbomb. Now Rollins goes after Owens’ bad leg to prevent him from winning, and powerbombs him into the bridge ladder set up earlier. Rollins climbs and has his fingers on the briefcase, but suddenly out comes Big E with a massive Big Ending off the top of the ladder, and Big E climbs the ladder and retrieves the briefcase at 17:40.
Rating: These guys went out there determined to put on a show and absolutely tore the house down. If the female Money in the Bank match was the absolute worst one I’ve ever seen (cinematic thing in 2020 aside), this one actually came close to beating the inaugural one from WrestleMania 21, which is still my all-time favorite.. Spectacular MITB match that allowed everyone to have their moments. Props to everyone involved, I loved it. ****1/2
Seth Rollins is hurt backstage and he’s determined to challenge the winner of the upcoming Universal Title match between Roman Reigns and Edge.
Reigns/Edge recap – WrestleMania took place exactly ten years to the date after he was forced to retire as the World Heavyweight Champion in 2011, and that hit him hard, even forcing him to take some time away. However, he watched the match back and saw the fear in Reigns’ eyes when he had the crossface locked in, which Reigns claims only succeeded in pissing him off even more, but then Edge made him tap with the same move after their six man tag match last Friday on SmackDown and stood tall with the belt.
Main Event – WWE Universal Championship – Roman Reigns(c)(w/ Paul Heyman) vs. Edge
IMG credit: WWE & Sabe99
Lockup to start goes to the corner, with Reigns adding a little cheapshot on the clean break. Another lockup ends with the same result, but this time with Edge returning the favour. They get into a brief technical sequence next that is won by Edge, and he adds the little bitchslaps to the back of Reigns’ head like Kurt Angle used to do to Rey Rey all the time. Edge shoulderblocks him, but he’s the one who goes down and he bails. Back in, Edge goes after the arm and shoulder, likely softening him up for the crossface, which is great psychology, but Reigns escapes that with a cheapshot. Reigns slugs away in the corner, but Edge snaps the arm on the ropes and throws him shoulder-first into the post a number of times, looking to follow up with the crossface but Reigns bails to escape it, while Heyman tells Reigns to make his father proud. Great story thus far. Reigns comes back in but Edge puts him back on the floor with a knee to the back, but then Edge follows him and walks into a samoan drop on the floor. Reigns sends Edge into the post and gets back inside, and Edge just barely beats the count back in at eight, but Reigns dumps him back to the outside. Reigns sends Edge into the post and gets two back in. The kickout only pisses off Reigns, though, as he gets on top of Edge and slugs away while saying “so you’re trying to take my money, huh” before sending him into the post. Put all the titles on him too!!!
Reigns stops to talk some trash before adding a suplex for two. Reigns works a headlock with extra mustard, literally trying to tear Edge’s surgically repaired nek right off his shoulders, and Edge just can’t escape it. The crowd rallies Edge as he shows some life, and he eventually escapes only to walk into an uppercut from Reigns. Drive By gets two. Superman Punch gets turned into a backslide for two and a double big boot results in a double KO spot. Back up, we get the weird boo/yay slugfest, which is one of the few things I didn’t miss from the crowds, until Edge blocks one of Reigns’ shots and catches him with the Edge-o-matic for two. Edge slowly gets back up and gets one hell of a loud reaction, being arguably the wrestler with the best crowd psychology these days, and he clotheslines Reigns before hitting the Edgecution for two. Edge puts Reigns up top and goes for something crazy, but Reigns takes him down with a shoulder, only for Edge to ram his nose into the edge of the post. Reigns gets caught in the tree of woe position, and Edge pounds away some more before putting him in an STF, which Michael Cole (being Michael Cole) calls a crossface. Reigns is about to make the ropes, so Edge turns the hold into the crossface (now it is one, Cole) to prevent Reigns from using the left arm, but Reigns still gets to the ropes with his right arm.
Edge preps the Spear and goes for it, only to get caught in the guillotine, which Edge escapes by tossing both Reigns and him to the floor. Reigns gets pissed and looks to spear Edge through the barricade, but he moves out of the way and Reigns takes himself out instead, and then Edge himself spears Reigns through another part of the barricade. He drags Reigns’ dead body back inside but only gets two, with Reigns barely rolling his shoulder off the mat. Edge goes for another Edgecution, but Reigns blocks it with an uppercut and a Superman Punch sends Edge into the ref, taking him out. Charles Robinson is on the mat like “I did the sprint of my life in your WrestleMania main event and this is how you thank me?” and Edge is like “hmm yeah, Undertaker was the one pinning me”. Long term storytelling! With the ref down, Reigns gets the piece of the chair and goes for the crossface himself, but Edge slugs and headbutts his way out of it before locking Reigns in it again. Cue The Usos to save Reigns, but Rey & Dominik prevent them from interfering and take them out. However, out comes Seth Rollins with a low superkick to Edge, breaking up the hold. Reigns sets up for the Spear, still selling his jaw from the crossface in a brilliant spot, but he eats Edge’s spear instead. A second referee comes out to count, but it only gets a delayed two. Edge looks to follow with another Spear, but he stops to boot Rollins off the apron, and then turns around into a Reigns spear for the win to retain the Universal Championship at 33:10.
Rating: Hell of a main event that focused more on the story and the psychology and might not be for everyone, but I absolutely loved this match. The package showed Edge knew the crossface was the only time he saw any kind of fear of defeat in Reigns’ eyes at WrestleMania, and he immediately went after the shoulder and arm to set up that hold as soon as the match began, which made all the sense in the world. Meanwhile, Reigns was able to cut off Edge’s big hope spot by going after Edge’s fucked up neck, which also makes all the sense in the world. I didn’t particularly like the old lame “wrestler A stops to knock the interfering person off the apron and turns around to eat wrestler B’s finisher and lose”, but otherwise it was absolutely spectacular. I didn’t think the three way at WrestleMania was that awesome, it was very good but not great in my opinion, but this one I truly loved! Terrific main-event. ****1/2
After the match, a pissed Edge goes after Seth Rollins and they take their fight to the crowd, while John Cena returns and confronts Roman Reigns, most likely setting up a title match at SummerSlam.
IMG credit: WWE & sportskeeda.com
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: First of all, it’s always amazing to see the fans back in the arena, and it really shows how nothing is guaranteed in life and we need to be thankful for the smallest of things we have. With that out of the way, the show kicked off with a horrible Money in the Bank match, the worst ever in my opinion, excluding the cinematic match last year, but on the other hand, the guys’ MITB match is very close to the top of that list. The three final matches were simply great, all in their own different way, and unquestionably elevated the quality of this PPV. John Cena’s return in the end was a very interesting way to close the show too. Overall, I really liked this PPV, especially the last part, but the girls’ MITB match drags this way down. Still an easy high 7/10 from me.
And that’s all for this review, thank you so much for your time as always. I’ll see if I review SummerSlam or not next month, but for now get ready for some of the next shows coming up on my retro series, with WCW Halloween Havoc and WWF Survivor Series 1991 coming up soon. See you all next time, stay safe and have a great summer!
August 26, 1991 Live from New York, NY Announced attendance: 20.000 (capacity: ca 18.500!) PPV buyrate: 405.000
Hello everyone and welcome to my review of WWF’s SummerSlam 1991 event, featuring a “Match Made In Heaven” (Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth getting married) and a “Match Made In Hell” (handicap bout between Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior and the Triangle of Terror). Also, Ted DiBiase is challenged by former bodyguard Virgil for the Million Dollar belt, Bret Hart looks for his first big singles break as he challenges Mr. Perfect for the IC Title, and much more.
Here is the list of champions in the WWF heading into SummerSlam:
WWF Champion: Hulk Hogan [champion since March 24th 1991 – previous champion: Sgt. Slaughter]
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Mr. Perfect [champion since Nov. 19th 1990 – previous champion: The Texas Tornado]
WWF World Tag Team Champions: The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) [champions since March 24th 1991 – previous champions: The Hart Foundation]
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE
The hosts are Gorilla Monson, Bobby Heenan & Roddy Piper
Ricky Steamboat, The British Bulldog & ‘The Texas Tornado’ Kerry Von Erich vs. The Warlord & Power and Glory (Hercules & Paul Roma)(w/ Slick)
IMG credit: WWE
This was Steamboat’s one and only PPV appearance during this weird brief WWF run, where he wasn’t even billed as Ricky Steamboat for some dumb reason. Also, why did Hercules grow a moustache at this time? He looks like Jake Roberts on steroids. Maybe he was trying to confuse the office and get Jake’s big run with Ultimate Warrior and Undertaker in his place. Roma cheapshots Steamboat to start and gets a powerslam followed by a dropkick. He goes up, but Steamboat catches him with an armdrag in mid-air and goes to work on the arm. Roma makes it to the corner, however, where he gets a cheapshot on Steamboat. He eats buckle on a blind charge, though, and Steamboat catches him with an another armdrag followed by a dropkick of his own. Hercules comes in off the tag, but walks into a number of armdrags from Steamboat as well, who tags in Kerry. Tornado rams Herc’s head into the buckle a few times and slugs away in the corner. However, Hercules rakes the eyes and brings in Warlord, but Bulldog comes in at the same time. Bulldog knocks him off his feet after four consecutive clotheslines, and hits a vertical suplex for two. Off to Steamboat, who comes in with the FLYING KARATE CHOP OF HAWAIIAN DEATH. Warlord manages to block a Steamboat monkey flip, though, and Roma comes in with a clothesline.
Roma gets distracted with Tornado, however, which allows Steamboat to block a powerslam and get an O’Connor Roll, but Warlord breaks it up with a clothesline. Roma follows it up with a snap suplex for two. Roma shows off his power with three backbreakers in a row, and up next it’s Hercules’ turn with a gorilla press slam. Off to Warlord for a slam, followed by Roma’s buttdrop splash as Steamboat keeps playing Ricky Morton and tries to carry a match for five other people. Steamboat shows some life and tries to make a comeback, but Hercules catches him with a stungun and cuts him off. Warlord slams him and goes up(!), but the Vertical Jump That Always Misses only finds boot. Tornado comes in running wild off the hot tag, as both Power & Glory hit the Tornado Punch. He goes to work on Warlord next, but gets a blind tag to Bulldog before Warlord can sunset flip him. Davey goes up but gets caught by Warlord, only for Kerry to hit the Tornado Punch and Bulldog falls on top for two. Roma gets the tag but walks into Davey’s Running Powerslam for… one?!?!?!?! They all get in and start fighting as IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN THE GARDEN. In the middle of the confusion, Steamboat gets the tag and finishes Roma with the high crossbody at 10:43.
Rating: Decent opening match to get the crowd going, but not much more than that. This would turn out to be Steamboat’s final WWF PPV match ever, by the way, excluding his brief 2009 return. **1/4
Bret Hart might be excellent, but he’s not perfect, says Mr. Perfect.
WWF Intercontinental Championship – Mr. Perfect(c)(w/ Coach) vs. Bret Hart
IMG credit: WWE & hammyreviews.wordpress.com
Perfect came into this match with a broken back and wouldn’t wrestle again until the following year’s Survivor Series, which makes what he did here all the more impressive. Lockup gets things going, and Bret strikes with a shoulderblock and a hiptoss, as Perfect starts bumping all over the ring and bails. Back in, Bret gets two with a crucifix pin and immediately takes him back down with a headlock. Perfect escapes the hold by pulling the hair, so Bret pulls the hair in return and puts him back in the hold. Perfect does it again, and again Bret returns the favour before getting two with a crossbody. The kickout sends Bret all the way to the apron, where Bret gets a spear followed by a springboard sunset flip for two, and right back to the headlock he goes. Perfect pulls some hair once again, and he escapes the hold with a chop. Bret blocks a kick to the gut, though, and fights back with the abdominal stomp. Perfect whips Bret into the buckle and slams him, but gets kicked off, and then Bret slams him but gets kicked off as well, only to dump Perfect with a clothesline. Perfect calls it a night and is more than happy to take a count-out loss, but Bret follows him and literally rips Perfect’s gear apart before bringing him back inside the ring.
Perfect begs for mercy back in and hides in the corner, before eventually getting a cheapshot in the corner. Perfect dumps Bret with a couple of low kicks, and proceeds to shove him off the apron all the way onto a photographer and into the railing. Back in, Bret shows some life and gets two with an O’Connor Roll, but Perfect immediately cheapshots him and gets back in control. Whip into the buckle (featuring the Bret Hart bump) gets two. Perfect necksnap gets two more. A dropkick dumps Bret, and Perfect follows him to the outside. They both climb up to the apron get into a slugfest on the top rope, but both eventually fall down, with Perfect landing on top for two. Perfect bitchslaps Bret a couple of times and slams him out of the corner by the hair, setting up the “let’s go Bret” chants. A Perfect sleeper is blocked by Bret, who goes for another crucifix pin, which this time Perfect turns into a samoan drop for two. Perfect chops away and whips Bret into the buckle for another Bret Hart bump, this time chest-first, for two more. Perfect sets up for the Perfectplex and hits it for a rare nearfall.
Bret fights back with a couple of atomic drops followed by his own slam out of the corner by the hair, setting up Mr. Perfect’s ball-crushing bump on the post. Bret hits a suplex for two. Inside cradle gets two. Russian legsweep gets two. Bret nails a backbreaker with extra mustard and goes up for the middle rope elbow for two. The crowd is literally booing the fact that Perfect is still able to kickout! Bret argues with the referee, which gives Perfect a small window to O’Connor Roll Bret for two. They take the fight to the outside, where Bret whips Perfect into the post. Back in, Bret kicks at Perfect’s legs in the ropes for the classic Mr. Perfect bumps, setting up the Sharpshooter, but Coach gets up and distracts him. Bret knocks him off the apron with a punch, with an indignant Bobby Heenan crying that Bret hit a man wearing glasses – hilarious! Bret goes to leave the ring and chase Coach, but Perfect kicks the middle rope right into Bret’s little Hitmans, putting Perfect back in control and restarting the “let’s go Bret” chants. Perfect follows it up with a dangerously low legdrop. He goes for another one, but Bret blocks by grabbing Perfect’s leg on the mat and turns him over into the Sharpshooter for the submission win and the IC title at 18:04. Bret rips up the rest of Perfect’s gear and celebrates with his parents Stu & Helen in the crowd.
Rating: These two tore the Garden down in an instant classic for the IC title, even with Perfect wrestling with his back destroyed, which is incredible. Fantastic storytelling by both, with Bret not allowing Perfect to get the upper hand by cheating, returning the favour every single time. The nearfalls and false finishes near the end were absolutely amazing, especially the one which saw Bret kick out of the Perfectplex. Also props for the innovative finish, which is always welcome in wrestling. Just an awesome match, both historically and technically. ****1/2
The Bushwhackers recap Earthquake destroying André the Giant’s leg a few months back on Superstars of Wrestling. The fact that this stupid company erases the of wrestling part out of the Superstars name is just ridiculous. Why would one be so ashamed of being apart of the wrestling business? That’s Vince McMahon for you. Sportz entertainment my ass…
The Bushwhackers (Butch & Luke)(w/ André the Giant) vs. The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon)(w/ Jimmy Hart)
IMG credit: WWE
Jimmy Hart asked André to be Earthquake’s partner a couple of months earlier on Superstars, but André refused and Quake destroyed his leg in the process. A few weeks later, Tugboat turned on the Bushwhackers during a six men tag match, allowing Quake to win and revealing himself as his new partner under the new ring name “Typhoon”, setting up this match. The Bushwhackers jump the Disasters with thumbs to the eyes on the floor before the bell, but then stop to mess around with André and allow the Disasters to regroup. Well, nobody ever said intelligence was their strong point. Typhoon gets his ass bitten to start, and Quake tries to make the save but ends up taking out his partner instead. The Bushwhackers clean house with a battering ram to Quake onto Typhoon followed by a double clothesline to Earthquake. However, they stop to celebrate like the big goofballs they are, allowing Quake to jump Butch and take control. He sets up for a big elbow to the back, but telegraphs it way too much and Butch moves out of the way.
Quake prevents Butch from making the tag, though, and this time the elbow to the back connects. Typhoon comes in briefly to hit a backbreaker, and it’s back to Quake for a bearhug. Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan leaves the commentary table for a while to go and discuss some business with Hulk Hogan backstage. Quake gives Butch a backbreaker of his own, and tags Typhoon as Piper wonders if Typhoon will continue the psychology over the back. Come on, Rowdy! Then Typhoon makes him look dumb by doing a back elbow smash, to which Piper follows with “elbow, lands on the back, it counts”. Right, so every bump in wrestling counts as solid in-ring psychology over the opponent’s back! Quake comes in for a clothesline, but takes out Typhoon instead and allows Butch to make the hot tag to Luke. The Bushwhackers run wild with battering rams for both and Luke gets two on Typhoon. Quake comes in and just squashes poor Luke via Bushwhacker sandwich, then gets the tag and finishes Luke with the earthquake splash at 6:27. The Disasters go after the defenseless André after the match, but the Road Warriors make the save and the babyfaces clean house.
Rating: Basic match that quickly turned into your typical Bushwhackers mess. Not a big fan. *
Bobby Heenan (with the Big Gold Belt) goes to Hulk Hogan’s personal locker room and challenges him on behalf of Ric Flair, but Hogan rudely closes the door in his face. What a hero! Randy Savage takes a call from a fan who wants to know where he and Liz are going on their honeymoon. Ted DiBiase says Virgil won’t be a millionaire after tonight, but still shows how sensitive he is by giving him a crying towel!
Million Dollar Belt – Ted DiBiase(w/ Sensational Sherri) vs. Virgil
IMG credit: WWE & wrestlingrecaps.com
This is for the unsactioned million dollar belt held by Ted. Virgil jumps him on the top rope before the bell and exposes the million dollar ass, slugging away and running wild with clotheslines as DiBiase bails. Wonderful how DiBiase is always in place to feed his opponents, that’s what always made him a perfect heel. Virgil follows him to ram his former boss’ head into the stairs, and back in he runs wild with the godawful Shane O’Mac dancing MMA potatoes, followed by another atomic drop that dumps DiBiase once more. Meanwhile, Heenan joins us back on commentary and gets mocked by both Gorilla and Piper for the previous segment. DiBiase turns things around on the floor, however, and this time it’s Virgil who eats some stairs. Back in, DiBiase clotheslines Virgil and adds the million dollar fistdrops. DiBiase goes up and hits a flying double axehandle for two. Backdrop follows and DiBiase signals for the end, but he ends up finding himself in Virgil’s version of his own Million Dollar Dream hold. However, Sherri jumps Virgil for the apparent DQ to save the title, but the ref decides to send Sherri to the back and let the match continue instead.
I have to give props to Roddy Piper for putting all of this over like a huge deal on commentary. Virgil rams DiBiase’s head into the buckle and makes the comeback, but DiBiase shoves Virgil into the ref and we get a ref bump. DiBiase stops to taunt Piper, and proceeds to calmly suplex Virgil a number of times, counting along after each one. This is starting to piss off the crowd, who start a “Rowdy” chant! DiBiase follows it up with a piledriver for the visual pinfall, but the ref is still out. DiBiase gets pissed and kicks the ref down as he proceeds to expose a turnbuckle pad. DiBiase humiliates Virgil and tells him what he’s about to go through, but Virgil blocks at the last seconds and it’s DiBiase who eats the buckle and gets knocked out instead. Virgil crawls over for the win and the belt at 13:11 and the pop of his life!
Rating: Wow, this was so much better than I thought it would be. DiBiase carried the match as the heel usually does, taking his time beating up and humiliating Virgil, which got the crowd more and more pissed on their way to Virgil’s big upset win in the end. Virgil did okay here, but I was particularly impressed with DiBiase’s awesome heel performance as well as Roddy Piper’s fantastic work on commentary. ***
The Mountie asks the New York police officers not to treat the loser of his match kindly. Oh no!!
Jailhouse Match – The Big Bossman vs. The Mountie(w/ Jimmy Hart)
IMG credit: WWE & WhatCulture.com
The loser of this match spends a night behind bars in New York. The Mountie lays the trash talk to the Bossman’s face to start, who responds with a big right hand. That was a fun spot to kickoff the bout! Very few people in the history of wrestling could play a smartass heel and then get his comeuppance and know how to perfectly sell and react to it like Jacques Rougeau. Bossman slugs away some more, until Rougeau starts throwing his own shots too and we get a slugfest, won by Bossman with a back elbow smash. An added splash gets two. Off to the ropes for some choking and the running sliding assdrop on the ropes. Mountie reverses a second one, but Bossman reverses said reversal and catches Mountie with an uppercut. Back in, Mountie thumbs the eye and goes up, but Bossman catches him in mid-air and drops him with a spinebuster. Bossman works a headlock, putting some extra mustard on it as he nearly tears poor Mountie’s head right off his shoulders, but he gets distracted with Jimmy Hart and goes after him on the outside, allowing Mountie to send him into the stairs and turn things around. Back in, Mountie gets a flying back elbow smash and he pounds away on Big Bossman.
Whip into the corner followed by a powerslam gets two. Bossman reverses a second whip into the buckle, but he ends up eating buckle on a blind charge anyway, and Mountie gets two. Dropkick gets two with a kick out WITH AUTHORITY BY GAWD that sends Mountie flying all the way to the outside. However, he immediately grabs Bossman and lays him out with a nasty elbow to the throat. Meanwhile, Gorilla adds the comment of the night by calling Jimmy Hart “the greatest walking advertisement for birth control I’ve ever seen, Hot Rod”!! Back in, Bossman shows some life and goes for a comeback, but Mountie cuts him off using some classic Greco-Roman biting followed by a piledriver. However, instead of going for the pin the Mountie grabs the SHOCKSTICK OF EXCRUCIATINGLY SLOW PAIN and takes a swing, but Bossman moves out of the way and an uppercut sends the shockstick flying. The Mountie leapfrogs over Bossman a couple of times, but Bossman eventually catches him with another uppercut and follows it up with the Bossman slam for the …. KICKOUT?!?!? Hmm, well that’s rare. Mountie trips up Bossman and goes for a second piledriver, blocked by Bossman and turned into an Alabama slam for the win at 9:38. Bossman then helps the police officers as they drag the Mountie to the car in the parking lot. Those same police officers that Mountie asked NOT to be nice earlier!
Rating: Very fun match in terms of storytelling. It wasn’t the best technical match you’ll ever see, but I enjoy both guys’ work and I really liked the story they told here. This was the best stage of Bossman’s entire career, he was really fun to watch as a babyface at this time, and I’ve always been a huge fan of Jacques Rougeau, I think his heel work is brilliant. Very fun match, but would’ve accomplished the same goal had it been just a few minutes shorter. **1/2
And now it’s PPV remission time, so get ready for some segments:
A VERY pissed Ted DiBiase thinks the belt should still be his via disqualification loss. Gotta love it when a heel has super valid points New IC Champion Bret Hart proved there is no such thing as perfection, and tonight Mr. Perfect just wasn’t good enough The Natural Disasters call out the Road Warriors, while poor Jimmy Hart wants to call his lawyers to prevent The Mountie from spending a night in jail Big Bossman has proved he’s the law and order in the WWF, and reminds The Mountie of the kind of people he can meet behind bars – any! Randy Savage continues getting calls from fans and completely ignores Mean Gene, until he says he’s going to talk to Elizabeth instead. That’s never a good idea, Gene!
Meanwhile…
The Mountie arrives at prison
IMG credit: WWE & WhatCulture.com
Oh no! The three police officers keep dragging him as hard as they can while Mountie begs them to stop and tells them they’re hurting him. He keeps yelling “Do you know who I am? I’M DA MOUNTIE! (OW OW) We speak the same language. Let me show you: you have the right to remain silent… OWW STOP IT… you have the right to an attorney, anything you say… AAAWW… will be held against you AND I’M DA LAW. WE’RE THE SAME. I’M DA MOUNTIE”. Jacques is making this way more funny than it should be!!
The Nasty Boys cut a promo on the Road Warriors, but Sean Mooney stops Jimmy Hart because he’s received word there’s more going on with the Mountie as we speak… here we go again!
It’s time for the criminal picture. The Mountie keeps looking down and refusing to take the picture, so the lady goes “so I guess the Bossman kicked your butt, huh?” which gets Mountie all worked up and allows her to take the picture!
Back in the arena, Jimmy Hart is not happy. “THAT’S INVASION OF PRIVACY… WE’RE GONNA SUE”. I’m dying!
The Road Warriors want to meet the Natural Disasters, but first they want The Nasty Boys and the belts
And now, The Mountie doesn’t want to give his fingerprints to the officers. “You want the finger? I’ll give you the finger” before giving the officer a middle finger to his face! That forces them to get a little bit aggressive in order to get the fingerprints, all while the Mountie yells “YOU CAN’T GET MY FINGERPRINTS… I’M DAAAA MOUNTIEEE”. At one point the cameraman has to get the camera down because one of the officers just couldn’t control himself and started laughing. This shit is hilarious. I don’t know how much Jacques Rougeau was getting paid, but I know it wasn’t enough!
Sgt. Slaughter claims it will be an easy win and says he has a surprise for tonight’s match. The feud ending would be good enough for me, thank you Sarge.
Sid Justice stands alone and promises that tonight justice will be served
The Nasty Boys come down to ringsi…. oh it’s their match. I almost forgot this was a wrestling show!
Street Fight – WWF World Tag Team Championship – The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Saggs)(c)(w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal)
IMG credit: WWE & thesportster.com
We get a pier six to start and the LOD clean house. Animal with a powerbomb on Knobbs gets two, but Saggs breaks it up. Hawk makes him pay with a badass shoulderblock. Saggs turns things around by spraying Hawk right in the eyes, and the Nasty Boys pound away on Hawk. Knobbs with a back elbow gets two. He follows it up with a flying elbowdrop, but Animal saves the pin. Now it’s Knobbs’ time to go up, but a splash only finds Hawk’s knees and he makes the hot tag to Animal. He runs wild on both Nasties, but a powerslam on Knobbs gets saved by Saggs. Meanwhile, Jimmy Hart hands Saggs the helmet to cut off the Warriors’ comeback, and a shot to Animal’s back gets Knobbs two. Unfortunately for the champs, however, Hawks ends up catching the helmet as now both Nasty Boys eat it for a huge pop. Saggs is left alone and the Doomsday Device gives Animal the pin and LOD the tag titles at 7:45.
Rating: For a street fight, this was certainly nothing special apart from a few shots with the helmet. It was pretty much a basic regular tag match, with the LOD making the comeback in the end and getting the titles. Decent match at best, but LOD getting the belts was pretty cool. **
And now, back to the Mountie as the poor guy gets locked behind bars.
Greg Valentine vs. Irwin R. Schyster
IMG credit: WWE
The living definition of ‘death slot’ before the main-event. Typical short IRS promo before the match, he wants you to quit crying and start paying. Valentine gives him a shoulderblock to start, but IRS stalls and we get a stalemate. Another one off a criss cross sequence followed by a hiptoss, and IRS bails. IRS turns things around back inside and slugs away, but Valentine sunset flips him for two. However, IRS immediately slams him and works the rope-assisted abdominal stretch, until the referee finally catches him and forces the break. Valentine goes for the comeback but misses a kneedrop, and IRS follows it up with a chinlock, setting up the dreaded “boring” chants. IRS goes up but gets slammed off, as Valentine starts making the comeback by going after the leg. Figure four time, but IRS grabs the ropes to break. Valentine sets up another one, but IRS yanks him by the hair into a cradle and steals it at 7:07.
Rating: Technically fine but, at the end of the day, it was just a filler match that no one cared about. *1/2
Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior are ready for the handicap match
Main Event – Handicap “Match Made In Hell” – Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior vs. The Triangle of Terror (Sgt. Slaughter, Gen. Adnan & Col. Mustafa) – special referee: Sid Justice
IMG credit: WWE
Sid is making his first ever WWF PPV appearance, just a few months after jobbing to El Gigante (pfff!) on PPV in his final WCW date. Slaughter grabs a weapon to start, but Sid doesn’t allow him and steals it from him. Sid, the ultimate advocate for clean fights in the world, of course. Unless scissors get involved. The babyfaces take turns beating up Sarge for a while. Hogan with a flying double axehandle, but Sheiky Baby comes in and pulls him by the hair to break up the pin. Hogan slugs away in the corner and pisses off Sid, completely ignoring his warnings and going back to beat up Sarge in the corner, forcing Sid to get more serious and allowing Sarge to cheapshot him. Can’t blame anyone but you, Hulkster. Off to Adnan for some CLUBBING BLOWS OF IRAQI DOOM, and then Sheiky Baby with a gutwrench suplex to set up the camel clutch. He applies it, but Warrior comes in and kicks him in the back of the head to break up the move. What a couple of role models, these two. Slaughter proceeds to whip Hogan into Sid, then he goes up but Warrior shoves him off.
Hot tag to Warrior, who comes in running wild with the usual. Slaughter moves out of the way of one of the shoulderblocks, which ends up hitting Sid instead, but it’s no-sold. The heels cheapshot Warrior and Sheiky Baby tries a suplex, but Warrior blocks and gives him his own suplex instead. You No Suplex Da Iron Sheik, Ultimate Jabroni! Warrior catches Sarge with a flying clothesline and he makes the hot tag to Hogan, which shockingly doesn’t get a big pop from MSG. It gets one, obviously (it’s Hulk Hogan), but nothing even close to the insane Hogan pops. Times were definitely changing. Or maybe it’s just because this match has been the absolute shits. Maybe both. The other heels get involved, and Warrior grabs a chair and chases them all the way to the backstage in his final WWF appearance, reportedly getting fired by Vince as soon as he got through the curtains. For those who don’t know, he wrote McMahon a letter with a bunch of ridiculous demands, including being paid a STUPID amount of money or else he wouldn’t show up and do this match. Vince accepted so he could appear and do it, since the match had been advertised for months, and then immediately fired him as soon as his participation was over for being a dick. This leaves Hogan all alone with Sarge inside the ring, and the great hero Hulk Hogan throws some powder in Sarge’s eyes behind Sid’s back and finishes with the legdrop at 12:40. Hogan and Sid celebrate afterwards, without the recently fired Warrior.
Rating: Ridiculously long, painfully boring and plain awful match with a surprisingly bored crowd. That’s what shocked me the most, particularly when Hogan got the hot tag and the fans weren’t that alive for it. The marketing couldn’t have been more accurate – the match made in hell indeed. 3/4*
The Mountie meets his first couple of jailhouse mates. One maniac wants to fight him and the other one wants to…. hmmmm… well…. fight him too. “Hi! Don’t you just love the way leather feels against your body! – The Mountie: “UGH MY GOD GET ME OUTTA HERE”. I’m dying!!!
Savage/Elizabeth recap.
The Real Main Event – “Match Made In Heaven” – Randy Savage & Miss Elizabeth Wedding
IMG credit: WWE & WhatCulture.com
We get a really nice video looking back at some of the best Macho & Liz memories. Only Macho Man has enough class to accept with a “OH YEAH”! Just in case you’re wondering, in real life they had been married since the mid 80s. Unfortunately, they would get divorced the following year. The show goes off the air this way, but obviously Jake Roberts and the snake would soon get involved and start a new feud here, with Vince McMahon convincing Savage to come back to the ring due to lack of star power, as Hogan had one foot out the door and Warrior was already gonzo.
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: Certainly a mixed bag here. The main event didn’t deliver at all, but at least the Hogan/Slaughter feud finally ended. It had been going on since February and had long lost its fuel post WrestleMania. Perfect/Bret is an all-time classic and your go-to match from this show, DiBiase/Virgil is very good too with tons of heat from the crowd and also the wedding is very emotional, which shouldn’t be any shock given who’s in it. But one of the major highlights from this show is ‘The Mountie’ Jacques Rougeau, with lots of hilarious little segments throughout the show that will keep you entertained. Jacques was one of the most charismatic and more underrated wrestlers from this era, both as a member of the Fabulous Rougeaus in the late 80s and now as the Mountie. Not a spectacular PPV, but it was good enough to get a slight thumbs up from me. 6/10
Thank you so much for your time reading. Make sure you don’t miss the next reviews, as we’re approaching WCW’s Halloween Havoc and WWF’s Survivor Series events. Until then, stay safe!!
July 14, 1991 Live from Baltimore, MD Announced attendance: 9.320 (capacity: ca 14.000) PPV buyrate: 145.000
Hello everyone and welcome to my review of WCW The Great American Bash 1991, featuring Lex Luger and Barry Windham fighting over the vacant World Title due to Ric Flair’s departure (more on that story throughout the piece), Sting taking on Nikita Koloff, Steve Austin in a scaffold match in his PPV debut, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express explode, and much more.
Here is the list of champions in WCW heading into this PPV:
WCW World Heavyweight Champion: vacated [since July 1st 1991 – previous champion: Ric Flair]
WCW United States Heavyweight Champion: Lex Luger [champion since Dec. 16th 1990 – previous champion: Stan Hansen]
WCW World TV Champion: ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin [champion June 3rd 1991 – previous champion: ‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton]
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner) [champions since Feb. 18th 1991 – previous champions: The Fabulous Freebirds]
WCW United States Tag Team Champions: The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin) [champions since May 19th 1991 – previously vacant – previous champions: The Steiners]
WCW World Six Man Tag Team Champions: The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin & Badstreet) [champions since June 3rd 1991 – previous champions: The Junkyard Dog, Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich]
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & insidepulse.com
The hosts are Jim Ross & Tony Schiavone
Scaffold Tag Team Match – ‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton & PN News vs. ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin & Terrance Taylor(w/ Lady Blossom)
IMG credit: WWE & placetobenation.com
Man, what a PPV debut for Austin, things could’ve certainly gone south quickly in a match like this. For those of you not familiar with the match type, the first team to capture the flag (over on the opponents’ corner) and take it to their own corner OR to throw an opponent 20 ft down all the way to the ring wins. Eaton is the only one with experience in these matches, having been in a few back in his Midnight Express days in the 80s, so he steps up to start in a nice bit of psychology. Taylor is scared to death of the height, so he chickens his way out (easy target, I know!) and Austin comes in. Austin literally calculates each and every step he takes up there, while Eaton fakes him and scares the shit out of him. Austin’s not backing down, though, only to once again lose his balance. Eaton asks for a test of strength, which Austin reluctantly accepts while his hands literally shake.
Austin thumbs him in the eye but Eaton quickly comes back with a faceplant, and Austin nearly falls off the scaffold. You can bet these guys were legit taking deep breaths out there, this stip is way too dangerous and shit could go wrong at any given second, with so little space for them to move around. PN News steps up and shoves Austin all the way into Taylor in their corner. News awkwardly falls on top of Taylor on a “test of strength” that makes for an … hmm… interesting visual to say the least. Eaton saves the painful spot by pulling Taylor off of News by his legs into his corner, while News stays over in Austin’s corner for a double slugfest. IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN THE SCAFFOLD BY GAWD. We get a loud Bobby chant, which makes me even more sad to see him in this spot after the classic bout with Arn Anderson at the last PPV. PN News then lays down near the heel corner and stays there for a few seconds, probably taking a nap due to how boring this match has been. I certainly am not the one who can blame him. News finally wakes up as all four guys go at it in the heel corner, and then… everyone forgets about Bobby, allowing him to grab the flag and take it to his corner for the win at 6:19. What kind of stupid bullshit finish is that? But wait, that’s obviously not it, who am I fooling! Austin climbs down to get some hairspray from Lady Blossom, before climbing back up to blind both Eaton and News with it, setting up the long awaited HUGE spot of… wait for it …. wait for it….. wait for it……. WAIT FOR IT….. all four climbing down the scaffold together and the heels walking away. Fuck all of this. DUD
Meanwhile, JR & Tony address Ric Flair’s departure and talk about how this is a new beginning for WCW. Speaking of beginnings in WCW…
ERIC BISCHOFF makes his first appearance in the series, interviewing Arn Anderson & Paul E Dangerously. They have some words against their opponents Rick Steiner and Missy Hyatt in tonight’s steel cage mixed tag team match. Oh great, another shit match tonight. Just hold on, this will get even dumber by the end of the show!
‘Z-Man’ Tom Zenk vs. The Diamond Studd(w/ Diamond Dallas Page)
IMG credit: WWE
DDP calls out a girl from the crowd to strip Hall’s clothes, but Zenk out-pimps him by coming down to the ring with four girls by his side. Zenk cleans house with a dive to start and he runs wild with a couple of corner clotheslines, but DDP pulls the top rope down and dumps Zenk on a criss cross. Zenk goes after him, which allows Studd to cheapshot him from behind and take over. Back in, Hall slugs away and rams him into the buckles. Choking follows but Hall misses a clothesline and Zenk crossbodies him for two. Scott stays in control with some chops in the corner and works an abdominal stretch. He uses the ropes for leverage, but the referee eventually catches him and Zenk escapes with a hiptoss. Zenk misses an elbowdrop, though, and Hall takes over once more with his “very basic, very simplistic” offense, in JR’s words (right on the money), before Hall blocks a Zenk hiptoss and turns it into a chokeslam. Hall gets too cocky and Zenk nearly steals it with a sunset flip, but Hall cuts him off right away with a clothesline. Zenk tries another sunset flip, but this time Hall blocks it with a cheapshot. Zenk blocks a charge and gets a superkick, as Hall bails. They take the fight to the floor for a while, and a Zenk missile dropkick back inside gets two, with DDP breaking up the pin with a slap. Zenk brings him into the ring by the hair and superkicks him, which gets no pop at all, before Hall puts him away with a backdrop suplex at 9:00.
Rating: Too much kicky punchy offense for my liking from Hall, who was still VERY green and didn’t have his stuff together yet, but the action was solid and perfectly watchable. **
Ron Simmons vs. THE BIG HUMAN BEING OZZZZZZZZZ(w/ The Great Wizard)
IMG credit: WWE
Oh no, not Ron. I have a bad, bad, bad gut feeling about this one. Nash is so green at this point that he does his big face reveal with his back turned to the hard camera. Ron gets a noticeable big pop, which makes me even more scared about this. Lockup gets things going, with Nash giving him a clean break. What a heel. Another lockup goes nowhere, and Simmons then struggles to fight out of Nash’s side headlock. He eventually does, though, and we get a stalemate. They get into a battle of the shoulderblocks, with nobody selling, until Simmons charges into the big boot. Nash gets a shoulderblock, but Simmons takes him down with a drop toehold, with Nash taking an awkward bump. Nash rakes the eyes to cut him off, though, and he pounds away with the SIMPLISTIC OFFENSE OF DEATH. Man, JR is on fire on commentary here! Nash ends up missing a charge in the corner, and then Simmons clotheslines him over the top after three tries for the obvious DQ at 5:29… nah, who am I kidding, take a drink!
Back in, Nash asks for a test of strength and we stay there for a while, until Ron escapes with an overhead suplex only to miss a dropkick. Nash regains control with a clothesline and follows it up with a sloppy sideslam for two. Oh god. Nash proceeds to dump Simmons for a cheapshot from Wizard, and back in Simmons can’t complete a sunset flip. Nash follows it up with a bearhug, but he’s completely lost out there and awkwardly releases the hold immediately, having probably been told by either Ron or the ref it’s time to go home, as he misses a clothesline and eats a dropkick instead. Simmons shoulderblocks his legs twice and then hits a regular one for the win at 7:55.
Rating: Good lord, Nash didn’t look good at all here. This was the end of Nash’s stupid push as Oz (thankfully), after he reportedly refused a pay cut to 300 dollars per night. Simmons tried his best and saved it from being a complete DUD, but it was pretty much a lost cause, the match sucked. 1/2*
Meanwhile, it’s time to have fun now with…
THE WCW TOP TEN RANKING!
Alright, I’m going to do my best to try and take this seriously. Here we go!
WCW World Championship top ten contenders list: 10) Johnny B. Badd; 9) Ron Simmons (this low????); 8) The Diamond Studd; 7) El Gigante (oh please, cut the crap); 6) Arn Anderson; 5) ‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton; 4) TV Champion ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin; 3) Sting; 2) Barry Windham; 1) US Champion Lex Luger – the champion is the highly decorated Vacant
Richard Morton(w/ Alexandra York) vs. Robert Gibson
IMG credit: WWE
Having Ricky Morton as a heel sounds too dumb of an idea even for WCW, but here it is. Gibson jumps Morton on the ramp before the bell and we get a slugfest out there to start, won by Gibson. He goes on the attack back inside, but Morton immediately bails to get some advice from York and the computer. That advice? “If WCW asks you to turn heel, please say no” but he’s like “too late” and he gets back in. Gibson blocks an irish whip and goes to the corner, but he stops to taunt the crowd and Gibson catapults him all the way back inside. Gibson blocks a hiptoss and slams him, as Morton bails yet again. Morton asks for a handshake back inside, but Morton goes after him and Morton bails again… Back in, Morton sends Gibson face first into the buckle by his tights, and then goes right after the injured knee by ramming it into the post.
Morton goes to work on the leg and proceeds to rip the tights apart. Gibson blocks a figure four with a cradle for two, and back after the knee goes Morton. Gibson manages to sunset flip him for two despite struggling, and Morton puts him in the figure four. That lasts for exactly a minute before Morton finally reverses the hold and puts the pressure on Morton, who makes it to the ropes. Back after the leg goes Morton, as this just isn’t clicking at all and keeps going forever. Morton throws knees and pounds away on the leg for a few more minutes, before Gibson finally gets an enziguiri and dumps Morton. They take the fight to the floor where they double dropkick each other, and then York gives Morton the computer and distracts the ref, allowing him to use it for the win at 17:03. Yawn.
Rating: Nope, this simply didn’t work. I get what they were going for and it looked solid on paper, but in execution it was just long and quite boring. Morton just didn’t come across as a natural heel, and nobody cared about his “vicious” attack on Gibson’s leg. Avoid this match, you’ll be very disappointed. *1/2
Alright, if these two couldn’t save this show, I’ve lost all hope now. Let’s see if there’s some kind of miracle incoming.
Six Men Elimination Tag Team Match – The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin & Badstreet)(w/ Big Daddy Dink) vs. Dustin Rhodes & The Young Pistols (Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong)
IMG credit: WWE
Dustin trying to cut a pre-match promo like his father with the forced speech impediment and fake accent is so bad, and exactly why the Goldust gimmick and him being forced to add his own personality was the best thing that could’ve happened to his career. Hayes moonwalks to start, and Dustin responds with his own (bad) version. Hayes pounds away to start but Dustin fires away with powerslams on all the Freebirds, and then he runs wild with Dusty’s flip flop & fly and the bionic elbows, which gets no reaction from the crowd. Yikes. Hayes obviously bails, and Garvin gets in a cheap knee allowing Hayes to take over. Dustin fights back with a double faceplant on Hayes & Garvin, though, and the Pistols go up for stereo flying shoulderblocks to clean house. The Freebirds stall some more, and back in Garvin asks for Tracy to get tagged in. Dustin obliges, but the Freebirds stop for some posing that would leave Hulk Hogan jealous. Tony wonders why the fuck Tracy is literally just standing there and allowing all this instead of hitting them, which is a pretty good point. Tracy runs wild with some dropkicks but ends up missing one, only to hit a flying back elbow smash. Steve goes up to follow, but Garvin awkwardly stands there and then just leaves the ring after Steve stands there like “it’s not supposed to be you”, and about ten seconds later he finally does it to Badstreet instead. What a mess.
The Freebirds obviously stall some more and we get a stalemate, as it’s back to Hayes and Tracy. Steve comes in off the tag for a criss cross sequence, but Badstreet pulls the top rope and dumps him. Dink adds his own clothesline on the floor, followed by a Badstreet slam on the floor. Hayes cheapshots Steve on the apron and dumps him once more, and this time he even gets some railing for dessert. Badstreet comes in with a clothesline out of the corner on Tracy, and it’s back to Hayes for a sleeper, which is very appropriate given this show. Off to Garvin for his own sleeper, as you can literally hear the guy in row 17 getting up to get some popcorn. Hayes cheapshots Tracy and goes for the DDT, but he backdrops out of it and makes the “hot” tag to Armstrong. He runs wild with dropkicks on everyone and a double shoulderblock by the Pistols on Badstreet, but the crowd doesn’t give a shit about any of this. Steve stops to go after Badstreet’s mask, however, leaving him open for a clothesline from Hayes. Him and Badstreet double DDT Steve for the pin at 13:49.
Steve Armstrong eliminated
Hayes then backdrops Tracy over the top rope, and this time it counts as a DQ at 14:04. Save your drinks for another day!
Michael Hayes eliminated
Garvin goes after Tracy now, and Badstreet comes in with a flying double axehandle. Smothers tries to make a comeback and gets the tag to Dustin, but the ref missed it. The Birds take advantage and double DDT him behind the ref’s back to put him out at 15:16.
Tracy Smothers eliminated
Dustin immediately comes in with a flying clothesline on Garvin for another pin at 15:24, leaving Dustin alone with Badstreet.
Jimmy Garvin eliminated
Badstreet takes over with a nice standing big boot followed by a flying double axehandle. Elbowdrop gets two. Badstreet slams him and he goes up for another double ax, but this time Dustin catches him and takes him down with the flying clothesline. However, Dink distracts the referee, and it only gets a delayed two. Dink enters the ring, but Dustin bulldogs Badstreet while kicking Dink in mid-air in the process at the same time, and that’s all at 17:10.
Rating: The finishing sequence was alright, the finish itself was pretty good even, but the match as a whole was really poor and ridiculously long. *
Johnny B. Badd(w/ Theodore Long) vs. The Yellow Dog(w/ An Actual Yellow Dog)
IMG credit: WWE
The Yellow Dog is poor Brian Pillman. And then, just as I thought this show couldn’t get any worse, this happens…
Yellow Dog – god, I can’t believe I’m typing this – cheapshots Badd on a clean break and blows him a kiss, prompting Badd to go after him. Pillman fights back with a hiptoss and a great dropkick, and then follows it up with a chop that sends Badd all the way to the floor. And he takes the time to talk some strategy with Teddy Long, which I’m sure goes something like this “make sure you get the rights to Johnny B. Badd if you ever feel like leaving for Vince, ya feel me playa?”. Should’ve paid attention, Johnny. Pillman gets a crucifix for two, but Badd rakes the eyes and blocks an O’Connor roll, only for Pillman to dropkick Johnny right onto Teddy, knocking him off the apron. Teddy challenges Pillman for a chase, allowing Badd to jump him from behind on the floor. Badd ducks a Pillman high crossbody, but only sort of gets on his knees instead of moving forward and getting out of the way, as Pillman awkardly lands on his back. What is up with this show? Johnny goes up for a flying sunset flip for two, and he goes right after the mask. Pillman counters with a jawbreaker, but Badd catches him with a high knee. Badd misses a left, though, and ends up eating a spinning wheel kick. Pillman backdrops him and goes up for a high crossbody, but Teddy jumps him for the DQ at 6:00. Teddy eats Air Pillman to close the segment.
Rating: Very sloppy at times, but at least it wasn’t boring as hell. And at this point I’ll take what I can get on this stupid show. *1/2
Lumberjack Match – Big Josh vs. Black Blood
IMG credit: WWE
Black Blood is Billy Jack Haynes, but he’d leave after this show due to a pay dispute. The heels beat up Josh to start, but then the babyfaces over on the other side simply throw him back in. Josh chops away in the corner and runs wild for a bit, as the heels allow Blood to bail a little bit over on the heel side. Josh hits a weird move out of the corner, that I believe was meant to be either a clothesline or an uppercut but ended up being neither, and Josh steps on Blood’s belly. Josh dumps Blood on the babyface side, who put him right back inside immediately. Josh slugs away in the corner, but Blood rams his head into the buckle to escape. He follows with a slam onto the top rope and a high knee, before sending him into the babyfaces. They allow him to catch his breath on the floor (what hypocrites), while the lumberjacks start a big fight at ringside. IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN BALTIMORE! Blood brings Josh back in with a vertical suplex from the apron back inside, but misses a kneedrop. JR claims the fans are getting their money’s worth since there are two fights happening at the same time, but I’m pretty certain they’d have a thing or two to say about that. Josh ends up eating boot on a blind charge, but the ref turns his attention to the outside as the lumberjacks start fighting again. Blood uses this distraction to grab an axehandle, but Dustin Rhodes hits him in the leg with his own axehandle and Josh cradles him for the win at 5:39. Damn, Dustin Rhodes managed to come back from a 2-on-1 disadvantage in his own match and win it AND was also the big hero in this one. I wonder who was booking.
Rating: This wasn’t awful or anything, just a bunch of nothing really. 1/4*
El Gigante vs. One Man Gang(w/ Kevin Sullivan)
IMG credit: WWE
Good lord please end this show already. Gigante comes out with four midgets looking like Gang and Sullivan because WCW. The midgets outsmart Gang before the bell, and he has second thoughts about facing Gigante, but Gigante brings him back into the ring. Gigante takes over with the CLUBBING BLOWS OF GIGANTIC DOOM, and a Gang shoulderblock ends up knocking him out instead. Gang bails and Gigante catches him with a hiptoss back inside, and follows with horrible spears in the corner that miss by a mile. Gang goes up with a flying clothesline that gets Gigante down on one knee, giving us the always awesome visual of Gigante trying to sell. Gang beats him up with a wrench and goes to work on Gigante’s leg, as this poor crowd is doing their best not to fall asleep. Gang continues to beat him up with the wrench and hits the 747 splash, but Gigante kicks out WITH AUTHORITY BY GAWD and sends Gang flying to the outside. Gang goes up and stands there for a while doing nothing, as Gigante clearly forgot the spot, and then slams him off the top once Gang visually calls the spot. Major yawner. Gigante actually gets a suplex(!), but Sullivan gets on the apron and eats the CLAW OF DEATH until Gang cheapshots him from behind. Sullivan hands OMG some “powder or salt or something” according to Schiavone (I’ll throw my two cents in and say they stole JYD’s crack), but Gigante kicks it back in his face with a big boot. Gigante follows it up with a clothesline to the back of the head for the win at 6:13.
Rating: No surprise here, this was laughably bad. DUD
Russian Chain Match – Sting vs. Nikita Koloff
IMG credit: WWE
This is finally more like it. First to touch the four corners in a row wins it, with no disqualifications and them tied to each other with the chain. A shoving match quickly turns into a slugfest, and they take the fight to the floor where Sting slams him on the railing a few times. Back in, Sting rams his head into the buckle a number of times, as the crowd has FINALLY woke up for this match. Sting chokes Nikita with the chain on the outside, and he goes for the corners already. He gets two, but Nikita holds on to the ropes and kicks Sting away. Now it’s Nikita who gets to ram Sting into the railing before taking him out with a chain-assisted clothesline on the floor. Nikita goes to work with the chain, but Sting blocks him and Nikita ends up eating some railing and the post as well. However, Nikita uses the chain back inside and drops an elbow on Sting’s back. Nikita chokes Sting all the way down with the chain. Sting fights back and uses the chain to low blow Nikita but, apparently having balls made of steel or something, Nikita takes him down and goes for the corners. He drags Sting and gets three corners, but Sting kicks him off and they both touch two corners at the same time while in a lockup. Nikita breaks that up with a low blow, but Sting retaliates with his own and they both race to the third corner and touch it at the same time again. They get into a slugfest on their way to the final corner, with Nikita holding on to the ropes with his legs to prevent Sting from getting there, and Nikita hits the Sickle. He takes a long time taunting, though, and Sting charges with the Stinger Splash, but ends up sending Nikita into the corner first for the win at 11:38. Nikita goes after Sting afterwards, but the chain gets caught on the ropes between his legs and Sting low blows him again to end the segment.
Rating: This match was alright and they worked the stip pretty well, but they went a bit too far with the ballshots near the last few minutes. Honestly, I thought their match at the last Clash was much better. But regardless, this stands as the best match of the show thus far! **1/2
Vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship – Steel Cage Match – Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham
IMG credit: WWE & f4wonline.com
A new belt is introduced here, as the big gold belt still technically represented the NWA World Championship that Flair, much like every NWA Champion at that time, paid a 25,000$ deposit for, and since WCW didn’t give him the money back when they fired him, the belt was legally Ric Flair’s property and couldn’t be used by WCW! We get huge “we want Flair” chants before the bell, and they shoulderblock each other to start, but no one goes down. They each go for a suplex, but neither can do it and we get a stalemate. A shoulderblock knocks Luger down, but he responds with a hiptoss and we get another stalemate. Windham dropkicks a charging Luger, but gets a slam blocked with a cradle by Luger that gets two, as they’re pretty cautious in these first few minutes. Luger slams him but misses an elbowdrop as we get a small “nature boy” chant underway. Windham pounds away in the corner and backdrops Luger, as we get another stalemate. And more “we want Flair” chants.
They get into a wrestling reversal sequence on the floor, but Windham fakes him and simply bitchslaps the taste out of Luger’s lips. I always loved that spot. Windham follows with a suplex, but Luger blocks it and turns it into his own suplex. Windham fights back with a slam and goes for a figure four (wrong night to do that), but Luger powers his way out of it and atomic drops him. Windham shoulderblocks him but ends up running into a sleeper when going for a second one, but he escapes the hold and eventually catches a charging Luger with his own sleeper. Luger rams Windham into the buckle to break, though, and a DDT gets two. Luger goes up but gets slammed off, and Windham adds a kneedrop for two. Now it’s Windham who goes up, and he prevents Luger from following him, but then misses a flying elbowdrop and knocks himself out.
Luger starts making the comeback and runs wild with the series of clotheslines for two. Back elbow smash gets two. Luger follows it up with a powerslam and calls for the Torture Rack, which the crowd approves. Luger gets it locked in, but gets way too close to the ropes, as Windham uses them to backflip out of the hold and takes him down with a backdrop suplex. And we get a double KO spot. That was a pretty good sequence. They both get up at the same time, with Luger taking him up and actually going for the superplex, but Windham holds on to the cage and shoves Luger onto the mat. Windham comes down with a flying clothesline, followed by a regular one and a slam for two. Barry goes up again and gets a missile dropkick for two more. However, Harley Race & Mr. Hughes come down and distract Windham, allowing Luger to hit a knee in the corner followed by a piledriver for the win and the World Title at 12:25. This was a double turn, because of course WCW decided that turning their most popular babyface into a heel on a night where the fans particularly NEEDED a feel-good ending would be a good idea.
Rating: The match itself was very good, with both wrestlers telling a great story of how well they knew each other – being former tag champs – and playing safe in the first few minutes before switching gears and exchanging some nice reversals before Luger’s long awaited World Championship win. They did a great job and won the crowd over in spite of the initial Flair chants, so props to them for it. ***1/2
(Alleged) Main Event – Steel Cage Mixed Tag Team Match – Arn Anderson & Paul E Dangerously vs. Rick Steiner & Missy Hyatt
IMG credit: WWE & classicwrestlingreview.com
Dick Slater & Dick Murdoch come out and take Missy Hyatt to the back, which was done to cover up the fact that the Maryland State Athletic Commission legitimately didn’t allow intergender matches. Why do you book it in the first place then? This is just so stupid. Steiner goes at it alone, as Paul hides in the corner and it’s pretty much a singles match. Rick blocks an Arn leapfrog with a powerslam, but gets distracted with Paul in the corner and allows Arn to cheapshot him. Rick goes for a stungun, but Paul goes up and nails Rick in the back of the head to block it. Rick catches a flying Arn with the Steinerline and takes him out, leaving him alone with Paul out there. Heyman tries to climb the cage, but Rick brings him back in and finishes Paul with a slam and the Steinerline at 2:08. After the match, JR says he’s glad there are no more matches left on the show. I love shoot comments that aren’t supposed to be shoot comments.
Rating: Just complete stupidity. DUD
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: Highest recommendation to avoid. Maybe watch Luger vs. Windham for the World Title if you’re really interested, that match is really good, but for the love of god please avoid everything else. What an absolutely awful PPV. 2/10
And that’s all for this show, thankfully. Thank you for your time, and make sure you don’t miss the next review, where I’ll be looking back at WWF’s SummerSlam 1991. Until then, stay safe.
June 12, 1991 Live from Knoxville, TN Announced attendance: 5.000 (capacity: ca 6.500) TV rating: 3.9
Hi there everyone, welcome to my review of a very important edition of WCW’s Clash of the Champions. It features the last WCW appearance of Ric Flair in the series (until his 1993 return), where he defends the World title against ‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton. On the other hand, a young Steve Austin makes his very first appearance in the series, The Steiners defend the IWGP World Tag Team Championship, Sting battles Nikita Koloff and much more.
Here is the list of champions in WCW heading into this show:
WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair [champion since Jan. 11th 1991 – inaugural WCW World Champion, previous NWA World Champion: Sting]
WCW United States Heavyweight Champion: Lex Luger [champion since Dec. 16th 1990 – previous champion: Stan Hansen]
WCW World TV Champion: Bobby Eaton* [champion since May 19th 1991 – previous champion: Arn Anderson]
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott) [champions since Feb. 18th 1991 – previous champions: The Fabulous Freebirds]
WCW United States Tag Team Champions: The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin) [champions since May 19th 1991 – the titles were previously vacant – previous champions: The Steiners]
WCW World Six Man Tag Team Champions: The Junkyard Dog, Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich* [champions since Feb. 17th 1991 – inaugural champions]
*Steve Austin and The Fabulous Freebirds were technically the champions, but said title changes only aired later that month
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: ringthedamnbell.wordpress.com
The hosts are Jim Ross & Tony Schiavone
The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin & Badstreet)(w/ Diamond Dallas Page & Big Daddy Dink) vs. ‘Z-Man’ Tom Zenk & The Young Pistols (Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong)
The babyfaces run wild to start, with Zenk dropkicks and Pistols high crossbodies for everyone. Hayes pounds away on Tracy, but punches the buckle on a charge and once again the babyfaces clean house with a Zenk springboard clothesline on both Hayes & Garvin, and the Freebirds stall. Garvin cheapshots Tracy on a criss cross back in, and Badstreet follows it up by dumping him with a clothesline over the top rope, which isn’t a DQ for reasons. New rule in the series: for every time this rule is conveniently forgotten about = we take a drink. Badstreet proceeds to cheapshot both Steve and Zenk off the apron, before the Freebirds slam Smothers onto the railing over on the other side and by gawd the pier six is on. IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN KNOXVILLE USA! The Freebirds dump all the babyfaces and celebrate, only to be the victims of three simultaneous slingshot sunset flips for the triple pin at 4:49.
Rating: A wild six men tag match to open the show, with the babyfaces showcasing some cool moves and eventually being able to surprise the cocky Freebirds. Nothing crazy here, but the smart choice for the opening contest. **1/4
THE INCREDIBLE OZ(w/ The Wizard) vs. Johnny Rich
Haha, fucking hell. I don’t know how Kevin Nash went from Oz to a multiple time WCW & WWF World Champion, but it’s quite the career upgrade! Nash pounds away and gets a shoulderblock. Clothesline follows, with the jobber taking a flip bump for it and falling right on his head and neck.
IMG credit: WWE
Good lord. Nash doesn’t want the pin yet, hitting a big boot instead. Sideslam, helicopter slam, sayonara Mr. Johnny at 1:29.
Rating: Yawn. This whole thing is a disaster. DUD
Meanwhile, PN News is coming to rap at an arena near you. Does Oz come with the package? The amount of ridiculous gimmicks on this show is hilarious.
Danny Spivey vs. Big Josh
We get a slugfest to start, with Josh literally punching nothing but air once, which gets a chuckle out of me. Spivey finally takes over with a clothesline in the corner, but Josh brings him out of the corner with a REALLY rotten belly to belly suplex and he pounds away. However, Spivey catches him with a Japanese armdrag followed by a big boot, but Josh reverses Spivey’s suplex with one of his own. Spivey completely no-sells it and gets back up with a clothesline, though, only to eat a backdrop suplex. Out comes Kevin Sullivan, still with his hair all messed up from the previous match (he was Nash’s manager, The Great Wizard) and he breaks a crutch over Josh’s back. Spivey finishes with a German suplex into a bridge pin at 2:49.
Rating: Sloppy in the beginning but it got much better near the end, and it got the point across. 1/2*
And now, the moment I’ve been waiting for. Guess what’s back!! It’s the epic return of…
THE WCW TOP TEN RANKING
Anyone but Oz as the number one contender and I riot.
WCW World Championship top ten contenders list: 10) Stunning Steve Austin (what?); 9) One Man Gang (in his – African – dreams!); 8) Barry Windham (isn’t #8 just a little bit too low?); 7) Arn Anderson (same goes for him); 6) Sting (if him as champ means more Black Scorpion feuds, keep him away from it!); 5) Nikita Koloff (I see nothing wrong here); 4) Beautiful Bobby Eaton (isn’t he actually #1 since he’s challenging tonight?!?!?!?); 3) El Gigante (HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA); 2) The Great Muta (he’s great but he’d been mostly gone for the last year or so, #2 is way too high at this point); 1) Lex Luger (certainly one of, if not the, most popular babyfaces on the roster) – the champion is Ric Flair
No Oz on the list????
Just kidding… even though El Gigante being anywhere near that top spot is indeed more than worthy of this GIF!
Meanwhile, Paul E Dangerously hosts the Danger Zone with Missy Hyatt’s boyfriend, 19 year old Jason Hervey, as his guest. Hervey says he has a new house, car and everything, so Paul asks him a brilliant question – if he likes to have everything new, how can he have a girlfriend as used as Hyatt. A pissed off Jason gets in Heyman’s face… geez kid, just because you can’t handle the truth, it doesn’t give you the right to be rude like that. Heyman rightfully defends himself and knocks him out with the phone.
Dustin Rhodes vs. Terrance Taylor(w/ Alexandra York & Mr. Hughes)
A rematch from the PPV here because reasons. Taylor shoves Dustin to start and hides in the corner, but Dustin gets a corner clothesline for two. Taylor bails and goes to the computer already, while JR announces the York Foundation will announce a new member later on this show. Back in, Dustin catches Taylor going for a kick and gets a few atomic drops, only to miss a blind charge in the corner and eat the post. Kneedrop by Taylor gets two. Gutwrench sitout powerbomb gets two. Dustin catches Taylor with a sunset flip and he gets two of his own. They fight over a backslide, which is won by Dustin for two. Dustin makes the comeback with his father’s flip flop & fly and the Bionic elbow. He hits the bulldog, but Mr. Hughes jumps in and causes the DQ at 4:27 instead. Ricky Morton comes in to make the save… but he joins the beatdown and reveals himself as the new member of the York Foundation, Richard Morton. Big Josh cleans house with an axehandle.
Rating: Despite the poor finish, this was actually better than their match at SuperBrawl. Dustin didn’t look as green here, and the match was nice and went back and forth while it lasted. Morton as a heel is never a good idea, but he needed something to do with Robert Gibson out injured. *3/4
Johnny B Badd is coming to an arena near you.
Recap of Nikita Koloff getting involved in the World Tag Team Championship match at SuperBrawl.
Sting vs. Nikita Koloff
Sting wastes no time here, sprinting to the ring and going after Nikita immediately, but he eats a back elbow to start. He follows it up with a shoulderblock, and then dumps Sting to the outside where he whips Sting into the railing. Back in, Sting fights back with a piledriver, which Nikita no-sells due to his AWESOME NECK MUSCLES BY GAWD and proceeds to hit Sting with a tombstone piledriver for two. Sting can’t complete a sunset flip and Nikita gets cocky, which allows Sting to get it for two. Nikita stays in control, however, and hits a backbreaker for two. Nikita continues to beat up Sting and adds some choking on the ropes, with Sting showing some life but not being able to make a comeback yet. Nikita dumps Sting and goes to whip Sting into the railing once more, but this time Sting reverses and ends up sending Nikita into it instead. Back in, Sting hits a tombstone piledriver, and this time Nikita doesn’t pop right back up. Sting finally makes the comeback with the crowd going absolutely insane for it, but the Stinger Splash only finds buckle. The Sickle ends up hitting the buckle as well, though, and Sting rolls him up for the win at 9:33.
Rating: This was a great fight, with Nikita in control for most of the match to set up Sting’s awesome comeback. It’s good to see Sting being involved in good stuff again. Nikita was a credible antagonist to Sting, which helped. Good job by both guys. ***1/4
PN News does a rap. Lucky us. Allow me to share his “art” with you:
I’m PN News, here to let’cha know I’m here to bumrush this show I’m from the streets, not doing crime That’s why I (something?) all the time My name is News and I’m on the attack Check me out later because I’ll be back YO BABY YO BABY YO I SAID YO BABY YO BABY YO
Eminem, eat your heart out, homie
Teddy Long & Johnny B Badd interrupt this because Teddy wants to show PN News what up. He clarifies Johnny is the true rap master, and PN’s all like yo back off little man yo whassap witcha man why you dissing me yo I ain’t no big ugly bad boy whatcha problems. This is so bad that it’s actually hilarious! Badd bails and that’s all. What am I watching!?
Loser Of The Fall Leaves WCW – The Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Barry Windham) vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman & El Gigante
Only the loser of the fall is leaving here. Arn and Pillman slug it out to start, and Pillman gets a backslide for two. Arn goes for a slam but Pillman falls on top for two more, and Arn tags out. Spinning wheel kick on Windham gets two. Windham fakes a pinfall reversal sequence, stopping at the last second and knocking him out with a right hand instead. That was a nice touch. Windham follows it up with a DDT for two. Arn comes back in with a high knee and he goes up, but Pillman dropkicks him to the outside and follows him with a dive. Gigante chokes Arn out, though, and Pillman hits a high crossbody off Gigante’s shoulders on Windham, but Arn stops the count. Pillman turns his attentions to Arn with a powerslam and he goes up, but Windham shoves him off the top and follows with a punt to the head for the pin to end Pillman’s WCW career at 3:08.
Rating: For a three minute match, this was as good as you could get. Gigante wrestled a grand total of 00:00 and was limited to doing only Pillman’s cool spot, which was the best thing they could’ve done. For those wondering, Pillman wasn’t going anywhere – this was all apart of the story. **1/4
IWGP World Tag Team Championship – The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner)(c) vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroshi Hase
Scott and Hase start with wrestling reversal sequences, until Scott just goes “enough of this wrestling crap” and just stomps him on his skull. Scott telegraphs a Hase leapfrog but Hase catches him going for a kick, and dumps him with an enziguiri. Hase welcomes Scott back in with a couple of chops, but Scott stunguns him and works the count a few times. Hase bridges out of that and superkicks Scott, which is effective at pissing Scott off and earns Hase a belly to belly with EXTRA MUSTARD. Rick goes for a backdrop but telegraphs it, and Chono blocks by kicking him and BREAKING RICK’S HEAD GEAR IN HALF. Even Haku probably watched this match and went “geez boys maybe you went a bit too far there”! Chono proceeds to kick his brains off twice more until Rick’s all like “fuck off” and bounces off the ropes with the mother of all Steinerlines. The Steiners hit the Steiner Decapitation while the crowd goes absolute apeshit. Hase tags back in and he makes the biggest mistake of his life – trying to German suplex a Steiner. Rick obviously reverses it and sends Hase flying with his own.
Hase cuts him off with a back slam, though, and Chono comes in with a flying shoulderblock. A Chono samoan drop is immediately followed by a Hase flying kneedrop, and Chono turns Rick over into the STF. Meanwhile, Scott suplexes poor Hase right on the floor and goes to break up the STF from the top rope, which he originally botches after slipping off the top rope but he immediately gets back up and covers that up by breaking the hold. They both take each other out with a double clothesline, and tag out at the same time. Scott comes in with a STIFF clothesline on Hase. Was that his tooth flying?! Scott follows it up with the tilt-a-whirl slam, but Hase wants some more. Why would anyone do that? Scott follows it up with the butterfly powerbomb and the belly to belly superplex, but Chono breaks up the pin. Hase actually manages to block a Scott suplex and reverses it into a dragon suplex, but this time Rick breaks up the count and BY GAWD IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN KNOXVILLE. The Japanese dump Rick and hit Scott with a double clothesline. They go for another one, but Rick trips up Chono while Scott gives Hase the Frankensteiner for the pin to retain the IWGP straps at 8:14. Dick Murdoch & Dick Slater jump the Steiners after the match.
Rating: I feel like I need a vacation myself after watching that one. Good grief were these dudes determined to kill each other out there or what?! This match RULED, this was epic. I don’t know who I should feel bad for – Rick who literally got his head gear kicked in half(!!!) or the poor Japanese dudes who just got run over and stiffed by the Steiners afterwards. Another incredible match by the Steiners, who are just so ahead of every other team (especially now that Doom is no more) that it’s almost unfair for all the other tag teams. ***3/4
Tommy Rich vs. The Diamond Studd(w/ Diamond Dallas Page)
Diamond Studd is, of course, Scott Hall, who is making his first in-ring appearance in the series. Studd slugs away in the corner to start, with Rich trying to fight back with a hiptoss, but Studd blocks it and chokeslams him. Studd goes up for a splash that only hits knees, but Rich misses a high crossbody and the Diamond Death Drop (Razor’s Edge) ends things at 1:59.
Rating: Short and to the point. 1/2*
Meanwhile, the young winner of WCW’s Sting look alike contest gets to meet the real Sting, with the kid absolutely losing his mind… and then Nikita Koloff comes out and beats up Sting with the chain. He then goes after the kid, who hides behind his mother before going to check on Sting. This was a great little segment.
#1 Contender for the WCW World title at The Great American Bash – Lex Luger vs. The Great Muta
Winner was supposed to wrestle Ric Flair for the title at GAB, but Flair didn’t last until that event, quitting due to creative and payment disputes. Muta spits the MYSTERIOUS GREEN MIST OF DOOM to start. Wrestling reversal sequence on the mat to start, and we get a stalemate. Luger gets a shoulderblock and a Muta chop is no-sold, with Luger hitting a backdrop suplex for two. Powerslam sets up a big elbowdrop, but Muta moves out of the way and Luger takes himself out. Muta backdrops him but eventually walks into the gorilla press slam. Luger misses a clothesline in the corner, but Muta misses the handspring elbow too and goes flying to the outside. A vertical suplex from the apron to the inside is blocked by Muta, who goes for the GREEN MIST OF DEATH, but Luger manages to get his arms up in time and catches a charging Muta with a powerslam for the win and the title shot at 3:43.
Rating: It was a criminally short match, but for the time it lasted it was all nonstop back-and-forth action and it was pretty good. **
Stunning Steve Austin(w/ Lady Blossom) vs. Joey Maggs
A baby Steve Austin making his debut appearance on the series! Austin slugs away to start and the stungun does it already at 0:25.
Rating: Squash. N/R (no rating)
Meanwhile, The York Foundation announce their newest member, Richard Morton. Robert Gibson comes out to confront his former partner, but eats a piledriver.
Main Event – Two Out of Three Falls Match – WCW World Heavyweight Championship – Ric Flair(c) vs. ‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton
Yeah this might rock. The winner goes on to win the WWF Championship at the next year’s Royal Rumble defend against Luger at GAB. The first lockup goes to the corner, with Flair WOOOO’ing Bobby on the clean break. Another one goes to the corner again, and Flair this time slaps him on the clean break, but Bobby slaps him even harder in return. Eaton telegraphs a dropdown and Flair lays in the chops in the corner already, as they get into a slugfest. This time it’s Flair who gets caught on a dropdown, with Eaton predicting it and dropping an elbow on his back. He proceeds to dump Flair with a clothesline over the top, with the DQ rule again being conveniently ignored. TAKE A DRINK! Back in, Flair chops away in the corner, but Eaton chops him even harder and Flair goes down off a Flair flop. Eaton backdrops Flair out of the corner and gets two, while Flair gets on his knees asking for mercy in the corner.
Flair asks for a test of strength, only to cheapshot Eaton, but Bobby hiptosses him and works a short armscissors. Flair rolls over but Eaton holds on to the arm, and then rolls back to the middle of the ring with the hold still locked in. However, Flair manages to make it to the ropes, and Eaton goes after the arm. Flair reverses a hammerlock with a drop toehold, and a chop only earns Flair a massive right hand. Flair runs away and catches Eaton getting back into the ring, taking control and going back to the chops. Flair sends Bobby into the post and the kneedrop gets two. A suplex gets two more. Another chop pisses off Eaton, who fights back and slams Flair off the top rope. Irish whip sets up the Flair flip, as Eaton meets him and knocks him off the apron with a shot. Back in, Bobby goes after the back with a backbreaker, swinging neckbreaker and a powerslam to set up the Alabama Jam for the pin and the first fall.
Flair 0-1 Eaton
Eaton goes right back to work as soon as the second fall begins, pounding away in the corner and following it up with a hiptoss out of the corner. Eaton takes the better of a slugfest, as Flair goes down off another Flair flop. Eaton nearly takes it with a backslide, and then again after landing on top after Flair couldn’t slam him. Swinging neckbreaker sets up yet another Alabama Jam, but Flair gets up and launches himself into the ropes in desperation, causing Eaton to lose his balance and land right on his knee on the floor for the Flair count-out win.
Flair 1-1 Eaton
The third fall starts with Bobby still on the floor, but Flair puts him back in. Eaton turns things around and hits a superplex, but his knee is too hurt to capitalize and it only gets a delayed two. Flair gets a backdrop suplex and he goes for the figure four, but the ref catches him using the ropes for leverage. Flair brings him to the middle and goes for it again, but Eaton blocks it with a cradle for a very close nearfall. However, Flair clips him and this time gets the figure four locked in again. Flair uses the ropes for leverage once more, but this time the ref misses it and counts Eaton’s shoulders down for the final fall at 14:26.
Flair 2-1 Eaton
Rating: They were running out of time on the show and thus the match was a bit short, but they still delivered a very good match while working the 2/3 falls stip. A good one for Flair to go out on. ***1/2
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: This Clash certainly had some good matches, particularly the insane IWGP tag title match between the Steiners and Hase/Chono, but also Flair vs. Bobby and Sting vs. Koloff. However, apart from that there is not much to see here, just a bunch of TV squash matches that wouldn’t feel out of place on weekly WCW programming. It was nice to see the in-ring debut of future big stars Steve Austin and Scott Hall on the series. If nothing else, this show stands out for being Ric Flair’s final major WCW event before his departure, as he’ll soon shock the wrestling world by appearing over on the WWF with the Big Gold Belt! We’ll be here to look at all those historic moments like always. But anyway, as far as this show goes, it’s right there in the middle. 5/10
+1 for retaining a title +1 for winning two falls -0.5 for losing a fall
7
Scott Steiner
3.75
1
–
+1 for retaining a title +0.5 for winning a fall
6.25
Rick Steiner
3.75
1
–
+1 for retaining a title
5.75
Sting
3.25
1
–
–
4.25
Barry Windham
2.25
1
–
+0.5 for winning the fall
3.75
Tom Zenk Tracy Smothers Steve Armstrong
2.25
1
–
+0.5 for winning the fall
3.75
Arn Anderson
2.25
1
–
–
3.25
Bobby Eaton
3.5
-1
1
+0.5 for winning a fall -1 for losing two falls
3
Lex Luger
2
1
–
–
3
Masahiro Chono
3.75
-1
–
–
2.75
Hiroshi Hase
3.75
-1
–
-0.5 for losing the fall
2.25
Nikita Koloff
3.25
-1
–
–
2.25
Dustin Rhodes
1.75
0.5
–
–
2.25
Danny Spivey The Diamond Studd
0.5
1
–
–
1.5
Terrance Taylor
1.75
-0.5
–
–
1.25
El Gigante
2.25
-1
–
–
1.25
Stunning Steve Austin
–
1
–
–
1
Oz
0
1
–
–
1
The Great Muta
2
-1
–
–
1
Flyin’ Brian
2.25
-1
–
-0.5 for losing the fall
0.75
Michael Hayes Jimmy Garvin Badstreet
2.25
-1
–
-0.5 for losing the fall
0.75
Tommy Rich Big Josh
0.5
-1
–
–
-0.5
Joey Maggs
–
-1
–
–
-1
Johnny Rich
0
-1
–
–
-1
As always, thank you all so much for taking the time to read. We have two PPVs coming up in the series, WCW’s The Great American Bash and WWF’s SummerSlam, so make sure you don’t miss any. Until then, stay safe!
May 19, 1991 Live from St. Petersburg, FL Announced attendance: 6.000 (capacity: ca 8.600) PPV buyrate: 150.000
Hi everyone and welcome to my review of WCW’s very first SuperBrawl PPV. Featuring a winner-takes-all match in the main event between WCW World Champion Ric Flair and NWA World Champion Tatsumi Fujinami, in a rematch from Japan. Doom explodes when Ron Simmons battles Butch Reed in a steel cage. Lex Luger & Sting challenge The Steiners for the World Tag Team Titles. That and much more.
Here is the list of champions in WCW heading into this show:
WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair [champion since Jan. 11th 1991 – inaugural WCW World Champion, previous NWA World Champion: Sting]
WCW United States Heavyweight Champion: Lex Luger [champion since Dec. 16th 1990 – previous champion: Stan Hansen]
WCW World TV Champion: Arn Anderson [champion since Jan. 7th 1991 – previous champion: ‘Z-Man’ Tom Zenk]
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott) [champions since Feb. 18th 1991 – previous champions: The Fabulous Freebirds]
WCW United States Tag Team Champions: vacated [since April 9th 1991 – previous champions: The Steiners]
WCW World Six Man Tag Team Champions: The Junkyard Dog, Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich [champions since Feb. 17th 1991 – inaugural champions]
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & kbwrestlingreviews.com
The hosts are Jim Ross & Dusty Rhodes
Vacant WCW United States Tag Team Championship – The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin)(w/ Big Daddy Dink) vs. The Young Pistols (Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong)
IMG credit: WWE & tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com
In a brief explanation, the Steiners were stripped off the US tag straps after they became the World champions during said reign as well. Similar to Warrior and the IC title after WrestleMania 6. Hayes struts and stalls to start but gets rolled up by Steve for two and we get a stalemate. Dink goes for a clothesline on Steve on the floor, but misses and all the heels end up eating one each instead. However, Dink trips him up back in and allows Hayes to take over, at which point Brad Armstrong (Steve’s brother) appears to even the odds. The ref sends both Brad and Dink to the back, and the Freebirds go to work in the corner until the Pistols clean house. Steve leapfrogs over both Garvin and Tracy before both Pistols double shoulderblock Jimmy Jam for two. Off to Hayes, who struts some more. Hayes with a leapfrog and Jimmy pulls the top rope to dump Tracy, as then the Freebirds slam Tracy throat first onto the railing.
Back in, Hayes works a hold and gets a high knee. Hayes comes in and gets pounded in the corner, but then cheapshots Tracy and tags Garvin back in. However, Tracy superkicks Garvin and gets the “hot” tag, with the pro-Freebirds crowd not giving two craps about it, but Steve comes in and runs wild regardless. They both go up but both miss stereo dropkicks, however the Freebirds’ stalling allows Tracy to go up again with a double flying clothesline. Tracy dumps both Birds with a clothesline over the top rope, which isn’t a DQ here because that’s not the planned finish(!) and Steve follows it up with a high crossbody to the outside. Back in, the Pistols hit a flying elbow on Hayes. They hit one on Garvin as well, but the momentum ends up knocking the ref down as well, and we get a ref bump. Cue Fantasia, the MASKED MYSTERIOUS FREEBIRD MEMBER OF DOOM, who DDTs both Pistols off the middle rope. Hayes simply pins Tracy for the win and the titles at 10:19, and the crowd loves it. Fantasia was Brad Armstrong, who interfered twice in the same match.
Rating: This wasn’t bad but I don’t think it needed ten minutes. They would’ve been able to get the point across with less time, as after a while it was mostly the usual Freebirds stalling and takeover leading up to an ice cold Pistols “hot” tag. The run-in at the end was cool and would make you want to tune in to find out more, I guess, but I just wouldn’t give the Freebirds another tag title run at this point, as their best days were clearly behind them. The match was alright. **1/2
Ricky Morton vs. Danny Spivey
IMG credit: WWE & culturecrossfire.com
Spivey goes to work on Ricky in the corner to start and even dumps him. Morton keeps coming back in and fighting back, but Spivey keeps dumping him to the floor until Spivey finally catches him with a great looking DDT to get control of things. Clothesline gets two. Razor’s edge connects but Ricky Morton, being Ricky Morton, keeps fighting back despite barely being able to stand. This guy was born to be a babyface. Next up, fallaway slam sets up the legdrop for two. Should’ve added a little bit more of “believing in yourself” to that legdrop, brother. Morton rolls him up for two but misses a dropkick, only for Spivey to miss an elbowdrop himself. The powerbomb doesn’t miss, however, and that’s all at 3:11.
Rating: For what essentially was a three minutes squash (poor Ricky Morton), this was as good as it could get. Ricky rolled over and played dead for Spivey like a champ, and Spivey looked dominant in his role too. For the short time they got, it was good. Props to both. *1/2
Nikita Koloff vs. Tommy Rich
IMG credit: WWE & tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com
Looking at how awesome Nikita looks here, despite being past his prime, I just can’t understand why Vince never signed him for a house show run with Hogan. Rich actually gets a bodypress for two to start and we get a stalemate. Nikita pounds away in the corner but gets rolled up for two, and we get a stalemate again. Rich works a headlock and hits an elbow in the corner, but a second one hits the post instead. Nikita drops a few elbows for two. Rich rams his face into the buckle and pounds away in the corner, only to miss a flying bodypress and eat Nikita’s Russian Sickle at 4:27.
Rating: Another squash match to elevate Nikita on his way to the US title match with Lex Luger – which never happened after Flair left to the WWF and Luger moved up to the World title scene – but with Tommy getting WAY too much offense for cannon fodder. 1/2*
Theodore Long introduces Johnny B. Badd
Yep, it’s one of the first appearances (the first on PPV) of Johnny B. Badd. They throw out a challenge to PN News, and Mero clarifies that he should’ve been born a little girl, but he’s a bad man. On the bright side, it could only go uphill from here!
Dustin Rhodes vs. Terrance Taylor(w/ Alexandra York & Mr. Hughes)
IMG credit: WWE & culturecrossfire.com
Alexandra York is of course the future Terri Runnels, Dustin’s future wife. The computer gives no prediction on how long it’ll take for Taylor to win, so you already know he’s jobbing tonight. Early wrestling sequence goes nowhere, and Taylor bails and goes to the computer already. Taylor hiptosses Dustin but gets kicked off, armdragged and put in an armbar. And Taylor bails some more. They get into a slugfest that is won by Dustin, and he goes back to the armdrag. And then, say it with me… Taylor goes back to the computer. Dustin then misses a bodypress and gets dumped, seconds after almost falling on his face on a really awkward-looking leapfrog. Taylor manages to turn things around with a necksnap on the top rope, and a vertical suplex brings Dustin back in the hard way. Kneedrop gets two. Taylor goes up for the Vertical Jump That Always Misses and SHOCKINGLY… it misses. Dusty comes back with a backdrop, clothesline and atomic drop for two, as Taylor gets his foot on the ropes. Dustin hits the bulldog for the visual pinfall, but York has the referee distracted. This allows Mr. Hughes to put on a loaded glove on the other side, but Dustin moves and he hits Taylor instead to give Dustin the win at 8:05.
Rating: Looked good on paper with a dramatic finish to boot, but the match was sometimes sloppy as hell mostly because of how green Dustin was. Going over these veteran wrestlers so early into a run can sometimes be a very bad idea (just ask Rocky Maivia), but I’m sure being the son of the booker had something to do with that! Dustin was super green here, but he’d become much more mature and deserving of the ‘natural’ nickname. Don’t believe me? Just ask Terri Runnels… anyway I digress!! *1/4
Big Josh vs. Black Bart
IMG credit: WWE & tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com
Josh comes out with two actual giant bears walking on their own two feet. Josh takes over with a number of hiptosses and even steps on Bart’s belly. Bart cheapshots him but goes nowhere, as Josh slugs away and goes to work on the arm. Black Bart fights back with some good ol’ eye rakes and some choking in the corner. Josh goes after the arm some more and then finishes with Earthquake’s assdrop splash at 3:46.
Rating: The bears were cool. DUD
FILLER ALERT! Paul E. Dangerously interviews Stan Hansen, who challenges Dustin Rhodes for a fight. Heyman then predicts the Horsemen will keep their belts later on and “quits”. Alright then, moving on.
Tim Parker vs. THE INCREDIBLE OZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ(w/ The Great Wizard)
IMG credit: WWE
These morons. We actually get the whole cinematic entrance of the POWERFUL NASHOZ for nearly four or five minutes. I’m sure it was wonderful, but don’t ask me because I fast forwarded the entire damn thing. Nash finishes the jobber with a spinning helicopter slam at 0:26.
Rating: Are you fucking serious? Twenty six hot OZ pokers up your ass, Herd, one for each second longer than it needed to be. DUD
Taped Fist Match – Barry Windham vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman
IMG credit: WWE & tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com
Won’t take too much to impress me after that clusterfuck of mOZive proportions. Both wrestlers’ fists are heavily taped here and there are no DQs. Windham shoves Pillman to start just to be an asshole and gets a shoulderblock. However, Pillman blocks a powerslam and gives him a shoulderblock of his own, followed by a hiptoss. Pillman with a flying shoulderblock and he pounds away with the taped fist, as Windham hides in the corner and cheapshots him. Windham goes to work on the ribs with the taped fist and he goes up, but Pillman dropkicks him off the top rope and dumps him. Pillman follows him out there for more shots to the face, busting him open, and Windham stops him by sending him face first into the post, making him bleed as well.
Windham then takes him to the ramp and drops him off the ramp onto the barricade, throat first. Back in, Pillman somehow ducks a clothesline and makes the comeback with a spinning wheel kick. Pillman runs wild with chops, only for Windham to cut off his comeback with a thumb to the eye and a stungun. Pillman tries to fight back with more chops, but he can barely stand up and Windham takes him down with a backdrop suplex. They proceed to headbutt each other for a double KO spot, as then Pillman blocks a Windham suplex and fights back with his own. Pillman goes up, but Windham shoves the ref away and low blows Pillman with the taped fist. And then the Superplex is academic at 6:08.
Rating: For the six short minutes they got, they worked the stipulation pretty well and were able to deliver a violent and bloody fight. Pillman was great as always as the babyface fighting from underneath, while Windham kept killing his comebacks with every chance he got. I also liked how they worked the stip into the finish, with Windham punching Pillman with the taped fist right in the balls and winning because of it. Very good stuff, short and sweet.***1/2
Meanwhile, DDP kills some time by hyping some of the upcoming matches before introducing Diamond Studd (Scott Hall).
Stretcher Match – Sid Vicious vs. El Gigante
IMG credit: WWE & WhatCulture
What did I do to deserve this punishment? Speaking of punishment, Sid already had the WWF deal planned here, and this is his very last date in WCW. Sid takes over with a cheapshot but Gigante comes back with a horrible clothesline as Sid bails. Back in, Sid cheapshots him again and goes after the leg, which gives us the great image of Gigante trying to sell an injury. But then Sid simply walks into a shitty boot on a blind charge in the corner, and Gigante pins him with the GIGANTE CLAW OF EXCRUCIATING PAIN at 2:13. El Gigante gets beat up by Kevin Sullivan and One Man Gang after the fact.
Rating: When Sid Vicious is the best worker involved in any match, it already smells enough trouble. But when Sid Vicious looks like Ricky Steamboat compared to his opponent, you get this. DUD
Thunderdome Cage Match – Ron Simmons vs. Butch Reed
IMG credit: WWE & tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com
This is the big match after Doom’s split at the last PPV, with the team’s former manager, Teddy Long, locked inside a shark cage above the ring. Simmons wins a slugfest to start and sends Reed into the cage, but ends up missing a charge and eating some cage himself. Simmons already has a busted lip, but he reverses a whip into the buckle and gets a backdrop suplex. He eats knee on a blind charge, though, and Reed goes up with a flying elbowdrop that gets two. Reed proceeds to ram Simmons’ face into the cage numerous times and stomps on Ron’s face. Reed follows it up with a flying double axehandle, and Ron’s already busted open. A Ron attempted comeback goes south faster than birds in the winter, as he misses an elbow, and Reed drops some elbows and chokes away. Simmons once again tries to fight back, but Reed grabs the tights and sends him into the cage. A sick piledriver from Reed gets two.
Reed picks up Ron on his shoulders and slams him face first into the cage. Simmons slugs away and tries yet another comeback, but Reed quickly cuts that off with a swinging neckbreaker and the flying shoulderblock gets two, with Ron getting his foot on the ropes. So what? It’s a cage match. A splash only finds Simmons’ knees, who runs wild for a bit before running into a high knee from Reed. They clothesline each other for a double KO spot, at which point Teddy Long throws a steel chain into the ring. Ron goes for it, but Reed stomps him down and grabs it. His swing misses, though, and Simmons finishes with a nasty spinebuster with extra mustard at 9:39.
Rating: I knew exactly what to expect from this one coming into it, and it’s exactly what I got. Two tough badasses determined to hit each other as hard as they possibly can, with Teddy Long playing into the finish. That final spinebuster looked sick and made Simmons look great in the end, as his push to the top continued while Reed left the territory after putting him over. Really solid rugged tough guy match. ***1/4
WCW World Tag Team Championship – The Steiners (Rick & Scott)(c) vs. Sting & Lex Luger
IMG credit: WWE & sportskeeda.com
They all shake each other’s hands in this all-babyface match. Luger and Rick feel each other out to start, with both giving the other clean breaks. Luger explodes with a shoulderblock and hits a powerslam for two. He eats buckle on a blind charge, though, and Rick german suplexes him out of the corner before meeting him with a Steinerline for two. Backdrop from Rick but then Luger turns him inside out with a massive clothesline and gorilla press slams him before bringing in Sting. The Stinger dumps Rick over the top with a clothesline (no DQ because reasons) before following with a huge dive to the floor. Back in, a Sting bulldog is no-sold by Rick, but Sting just picks him up regardless and gives him a dominator into the buckle. He moves out of the way of the Stinger Splash, though, and brings in Scott for a crazy sitout powerbomb. Scott follows it up with a tilt-a-whirl slam, but Sting stunguns him and tags out.
Luger hits a suplex and brings Sting back in, who walks into a Scott atomic drop followed by a belly to belly superplex for two. Scott puts Sting on the top rope but misses a charge, and Luger brings him in with a vertical suplex off the apron that gets two. Scott armdrags his way out of a Luger powerslam, but he can’t block a second attempt. Luger sets up for the Torture Rack, but Scott uses a russian legsweep to escape. Nice! Rick comes in with a blind tag and surprises Luger with a flying bulldog off the top rope for two. Sting, having missed the Steiners’ blind tag, comes in as well with a dropkick on Rick. Hot tag on each team brings in the fresh men, and Sting gets a backdrop suplex. Scott goes for a tombstone piledriver, but we get a tombstone reversal sequence and Sting is the one who ends up hitting it, but Rick breaks up the count as IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA and we get a ref bump. Sting hits the Stinger Splash on Scott and goes for the Scorpion Deathlock, but meanwhile out comes Nikita Koloff after Luger. He takes a swing at him with a chain, but Luger moves out of the way and it hits Sting instead, giving Scott the pin to retain the titles at 11:09. Sting then chases Nikita backstage and they take their fight all the way to the parking lot.
Rating: They started off at a slow pace, establishing the mutual respect on both sides, but once they switched gears this was all action and it was freakin’ awesome. The match went back and forth, with both teams exchanging some pretty good sequences, and I liked how the friendship went out the window temporarily when Sting missed the Steiners’ blind tag, adding some extra drama to an already hot match. The finish with Nikita was really smart, as he came in after Luger (who he was feuding with) but ended up hitting his partner Sting instead, and planted the seeds for a feud between them as well. This was great stuff. ****
WCW World Television Championship – Arn Anderson(c) vs. ‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton
IMG credit: WWE & culturecrossfire.com
Bobby is now finally a babyface going after his first singles title in WCW, and he’s pretty damn over. Nice wrestling reversal sequence gets things going before Eaton catches Arn with a right hand. That pisses off Arn, though, and he pounds away in the corner. He ends up missing a charge and Eaton fights back with an explosive clothesline out of the corner for two. Eaton grabs an armbar, but Arn makes it to the ropes and cheapshots Eaton on the clean break to turn things around. Eaton fights back and goes up, but Arn slams him off into the ramp on the outside. He goes to follow with a piledriver right there, but Eaton backdrops out of it and then backdrops Arn all the way back to the ring. Flying double axehandle gets two, and back to the armbar goes Bobby. Anderson once again makes it to the ropes in the corner, cheapshots him on the clean break and then rams Eaton’s leg into the post a few times.
Back in, Arn goes to work on the leg, dropping some knees on it and working a step over leglock with some extra leverage from the ropes. AA stomps on the leg some more, but Eaton manages to kick him off into the buckle in desperation. Eaton shows some fire by ramming Arn’s head into the buckle a number of times, but Arn goes right after the injured leg to kill the comeback and slams it onto the apron. Awesome psychology here. Eaton continues to show some life, even knocking Arn down with some shots, but his leg is too hurt and he can’t follow up with anything, allowing Anderson to catch him with a legscissors. Eaton won’t quit, however, so Arn releases the hold and pounds away on the leg for some more punishment. Eaton manages to hit a suplex, but again the leg gives out and Arn goes after it yet again.
Eaton keeps showing life while he’s in the hold, though, throwing some kicks and eventually escaping with a punch, but he’s too hurt and Anderson takes him back down with a snapmare. Arn eats knees on a slingshot splash, but once again it ends up hurting Eaton more than it does Arn because of the injured leg, so Anderson is able to catch a charging Bobby with the spinebuster for a nearfall. Arn misses another move off the top, but this time Eaton stops him with a punch and not the legs, which means NOW he is able to follow up with a swinging neckbreaker. The psychology in this match is just beyond perfect. Eaton struggles to slam Arn but still limps his way up to the top rope for the Alabama Jam. Horsemen Barry Windham comes out to help Arn, but Flyin’ Brian prevents him from doing so. Alabama Jam connects for the win and the title (AND A HUGE FUCKIN POP!!!) at 11:50. Bobby would then go on to transition the title to a young up-and-comer by the name of Stunnin’ Steve Austin, who I’m sure you’ve heard of before!
Rating: This was a kickass match all the way! Just some good ol’ solid wrestling and a lesson in in-ring psychology, with Eaton never being able to follow up on his comebacks due to his leg constantly giving out. I loved the spot where Arn’s slingshot splash hit Eaton’s knees, yet it hurt Eaton more than it did Arn because of the leg. And when Arn blocked the next move with his hands instead of his legs, only then he was able to make the comeback. The wrestling was very smart, with Anderson constantly going for legscissors and leg holds to set his own pace and add more punishment, while Eaton sold like a champ the whole time, even when he was on offense, making Arn look great in defeat in the process as well. The big pop at the end also shows how effective the road to it was. I know the slower pace might not be for everyone, but it made all the sense in the world. Brilliant stuff, this was amazing. ****1/4
Main Event – WCW World Heavyweight Championship – Ric Flair(c) vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
IMG credit: WWE
Alright, this may be quite complicated to some, so I’m gonna take a second to explain. Even though WCW debuted their own World title in January of that year, Flair was still recognized as the NWA champion. At a special WCW/NJPW Supershow in March, Flair lost the NWA title to Fujinami, but near the end Fujinami sent Flair over the top rope, which is considered a DQ in America but not in Japan, allowing Fujinami to officially win the gold while at the same time giving the American fans (and WCW) a reason to claim Flair was still the champion. And here we are, doing the rematch on PPV to see who the real champion was… that is until Flair left the company a few months later due to Jim Herd’s stupid idea to cut his hair and call him Spartacus (I wish it was a joke too) and went to the WWF, leaving both sides without a champion!! Irony can truly be ironic some times. Anyway, onto the match.
Fujinami doesn’t even get announced as the NWA champion, which shows how much they were trying to distance themselves from the NWA. Lockup and a shoulderblock from Fujinami get things going. Flair showcases his technical ability with a drop toehold and we get a stalemate. They continue to feel each other out until Flair fires away with the chops and we get a chopfest, won by Fujinami who follows up with a backdrop out of the corner. Now Fujinami does a drop toehold of his own, and then goes to a bow and arrow to work the back, which gives JR the chance to bring up the plane crash accident like he always does. Take a drink. Flair kicks Fujinami into the corner, who fights back with a bridge roll up, but the momentum puts Flair on top instead and it gets two. Fujinami works a Boston crab (or is it the Tokyo crab!?) before changing his mind and goes with an Indian deathlock instead.
Flair fights out with a suplex and a greco roman thumb to the eye, which Fujinami completely no-sells and nails a flying forearm for two. How dare you no-sell the THUMB TO THE EYE OF DEATH, Road Warrior Fujinami! Fujinami then knocks Flair over the top rope with another flying forearm, which isn’t a DQ because reasons. Never mind something like this being the reason for this rematch existing to begin with. Flair crotches Fujinami on the railing and follows with a chop (with extra mustard) on the outside. Back in, Flair takes Fujinami to school by going after the leg and puts him in the figure four, which the crowd loves. Flair adds some bitchslaps while he’s got the hold locked in, which fires up Fujinami and allows him to turn over and put the pressure on Flair, who makes it to the ropes.
A slugfest follows, with Fujinami taking down Flair into a sharpshooter, but Flair’s on the ropes to break. Fujinami responds with a Saito suplex for two, and he works the count some more. The crowd is scary silent here, apart from when Flair is on offense. Flair escapes a side headlock with a backdrop suplex, and follows with the Flair kneedrop. They go to a pinfall reversal sequence on the mat, with Fujinami failing to bridge up in time and actually pinning himself (even though the ref stops the count at two) until they give up on the spot after three or four failed tries and Flair just pounds on him instead. Yawn. Had it been Flair in Fujinami’s spot it actually would make sense because of the bad back, but here it just looked awkward.
Flair dumps him and follows him outside, but eats some railing followed by some post for dessert on the outside and gets busted open. Fujinami pounds away back inside and whips Flair into the corner, setting up the Flair flip… which he can’t complete. This match is just so weird. Flair bails and falls on his face on a Flair flop outside, but gets a thumb to the eye on the apron and he goes up, only to get slammed off. Fujinami follows it up with Antonio Inoki’s Octopus hold, while the crowd chants ‘USA’. Ouch. Flair manages to slam him off to escape the hold, but he goes down as well. Fujinami pounds away on the bloody Flair in the corner, who fights back with chops. Slugfest follows, and Flair goes down off the Flair flop yet again. A double shoulderblock ends up sending both men to the floor for a double KO spot, but they both manage to break the count back in. Flair goes for a powerslam, only for Fujinami to land on top for two. A Flair backdrop is turned into an inside cradle for two. Fujinami gets an O’Connor roll, but Flair sends Fujinami into the referee on the kickout, allowing Flair to roll-up Fujinami with a handful of tights which a second referee counts to make Flair the undisputed champ at 18:39.
Rating: I honestly don’t know what to think about this one. Flair worked heel here against Fujinami, which made for a pretty weird dynamic as the crowd didn’t get behind Fujinami at all. I was enjoying the action in the first few minutes, everything looked solid, but the second half of this match had some clear miscommunication spots and even a few awkward and bad looking ones too. Don’t get me wrong, it was far from being bad or anything, but it could and should’ve been much better. ***
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: I’ll admit it, at one point I was afraid this show was gonna be an all-time suckfest, with way too many undercard matches such as the awful Sid/Gigante match or the Oz… whatever that was, but then things took a complete 180 turn starting from the taped fist match between Pillman and Windham. The final few matches featured two awesome ****+ match of the year contenders (Luger & Sting vs. Steiners; Arn vs. Eaton) and other good-to-great ones (Pillman vs. Windham; Simmons vs. Reed; Flair vs. Fujinami) and gave the show some much needed life. It looked like it was going to bomb big time in the middle, but it actually turned out to be quite okay. I’d say watch the final six matches or so – Sid/Gigante aside – yet skip the rest of the show and you’ll be just fine. 6/10
+1 for retaining a title +0.5 for winning the fall
6.5
Rick Steiner
4
1
–
+1 for retaining a title
6
Ric Flair
3
1
1
+1 for retaining a title
6
Michael Hayes
2.5
1
–
+2 for winning a title +0.5 for winning the fall
6
Jimmy Garvin
2.5
1
–
+2 for winning a title
5.5
Barry Windham
3.5
1
–
–
4.5
Ron Simmons
3.25
1
–
–
4.25
Tatsumi Fujinami
3
-1
1
–
3
Lex Luger
4
-1
–
–
3
Sting
4
-1
–
-0.5 for losing the fall
2.5
Brian Pillman
3.5
-1
–
–
2.5
Danny Spivey
1.5
1
–
–
2.5
Butch Reed
3.25
-1
–
–
2.25
Dustin Rhodes
1.25
1
–
–
2.25
Steve Armstrong
2.5
-1
–
–
1.5
Nikita Koloff
0.5
1
–
–
1.5
Arn Anderson
4.25
-1
–
-2 for losing a title
1.25
Big Josh Oz El Gigante
0
1
–
–
1
Tracy Smothers
2.5
-1
–
-0.5 for losing the fall
1
Ricky Morton
1.5
-1
–
–
0.5
Terrance Taylor
1.25
-1
–
–
0.25
Tommy Rich
0.5
-1
–
–
-0.5
Black Bart Tim Parker Sid Vicious
0
-1
–
–
-1
That’s all for today. Make sure you don’t miss the next review, with an edition of WCW Clash of the Champions coming up, followed by The Great American Bash and then WWF’s SummerSlam. Until then, stay safe!
April 27, 1991 (taped April 15) Taped from Omaha, NE Television rating: 7.7 Announced attendance: 9.400 (capacity: ca 10.960)
Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the 29th edition of WWF’s SNME. This episode features a rematch from the Royal Rumble between The Ultimate Warrior and Sgt. Slaughter, with The Undertaker paying close attention, a big battle royal featuring WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart’s first big singles break against Ted DiBiase.
Here’s the list of champions in the WWF heading into this show:
WWF Champion: Hulk Hogan [champion since March 24 1991 – previous champion: Sgt. Slaughter)
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Mr. Perfect [champion since Nov. 19 1990 – previous champion: The Texas Tornado)
WWF World Tag Team Champions: The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) [champions since March 24 1991 – previous champions: The Hart Foundation]
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE
The hosts are Vince McMahon & Randy Savage
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter(w/ Gen. Adnan & Col. Mustafa)
This is obviously a rematch from the WWF Championship match at that year’s Royal Rumble, with Warrior having recently been attacked and locked inside a casket by TheUndertaker. We’re wasting no time here, as Warrior slams Slaughter off the top to start and takes over with the clotheslines and the baaaaaaack bodydrop. Another one of my favorite Vince-isms on commentary! They take the fight to the floor, where Sheiky Mustafa Baby gets a shot and allows Slaughter to take control. Sarge pounds away back inside with lots of kicks and punches for a while. He works a bearhug, which Warrior escapes from with a powerslam, but his back is too hurt (from a 5 second bearhug and a slam?) and he stays down, allowing Sarge to go back to the bearhug. And we stay there for a while. Cue Paul Bearer, who brings a casket and leaves it at ringside. Slaughter pounds away on Warrior, but he’s shaking! Warrior fights back with the clotheslines and the flying shoulderblock, but Bearer opens the casket and The Undertaker is in it, stopping Warrior’s comeback sequence as all the heels jump Warrior for the DQ at 8:00. They go to work on Warrior until Hulk Hogan runs in to make the save. One shot takes Slaughter and his guys down but UT no-sells it and beats down Warrior some more, while Hogan goes after Slaughter. Warrior makes the comeback with the usual sequence, but UT no-sells it all and walks away.
Rating: The match itself was very forgettable and kinda sucked a little bit, but the post-match segment was pretty good and made The Undertaker look like a million dollars. 3/4*
WWF World Tag Team Championship – The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags)(c)(w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. The Bushwhackers (Butch & Luke)
This is the Nasties’ first tag title defense. Ignore Bushwhackers were off WrestleMania and did nothing to earn this, apart from being a bunch of popular idiots, while The Rockers won their match and weren’t considered. Strange! Slugfest gets things going until the Bushwhackers clean house with a double clothesline. The Nasties stall for a while, but Butch turns his back to pose like a complete geek and Sags jumps him from behind. You don’t say! Butch fights back with a kneelift into a Luke jumping clothesline, but Knobbs is there to break up the pin. The Bushwhackers deliver battering rams to both Nasties, who stall some more. Luke eats a kick to the back of the head from Knobbs on a criss cross, putting the Nasties back in control. Knobbs comes in with a number of elbowdrops for two. Sags drops one of his own, but now Butch comes in and breaks up the count. Sags misses a charge in the corner and it’s hot tag Butch. He runs wild on both Nasties until Knobbs catches him with a clothesline and it’s BREAKING LOOSE IN OMAHA! The Bushwhackers hit the battering ram in the middle of the confusion but Sags is there to break up the pin at the last second. And then Knobbs simply rolls up Butch, with a little leverage from Sags, to retain the titles at 6:48. The Bushwhackers hit the battering ram and stand tall to close the segment.
Rating: Not much to this one, a simple match designed to put the Nasties over the popular Bushwhackers. It was effective at that, but the finish was a bit weak. *
Meanwhile, Jake Roberts introduces the new snake, Lucifer, after Earthquake squashed and destroyed Damian.
20 Man Battle Royal
The participants: Big Bossman, Earthquake, Greg Valentine, Haku, Hercules, Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Jimmy Snuka, Kato, Marty Jannetty, Mr. Perfect, Paul Roma, Shawn Michaels, Tanaka, The Barbarian, The British Bulldog, The Texas Tornado, The Warlord and Tugboat
Hogan jumps everyone to start and Mr. Perfect already steals the whole show, sitting on the apron and hugging the ringpost to avoid elimination while everyone’s still in there! It’s a bunch of people kicking and punching each other all over the ring, until Marty Jannetty and Paul Roma eliminate each other for our first eliminations. Hogan, ever the sportsman, chokes Earthquake with his tape. Mr. Perfect teases getting eliminated a few times and starts bumping all over the place for everyone. He tries to quietly crawl under the bottom rope, but Hogan catches him and nearly eliminates him. Over on the other side, Warlord dumps Bulldog. Snuka eliminates Tanaka, only to be immediately tossed himself by Haku. Roberts is gone too via Earthquake, but he gets Lucifer out of the bag and into the ring, with the match literally stopping. And we take a break.
Commercial
We return with the action already underway, and Hogan is shockingly attacked by Tugboat, his greatest friend in the whole world. Hogan backdrops Warlord out while Barbarian dumps Von Erich. Earthquake eliminates Duggan, which infuriates his greatest friend in the whole world, Hulk Hogan, who retaliates by eliminating Quake. Kato is gone too via Hogan, but then Tugboat dumps Hogan himself. Michaels tosses Tugboat immediately afterwards, and there’s tension between the two greatest friends in the whole world. Perfect dropkicks Bossman into a Barbarian backdrop and out for a pretty cool elimination, and then Michaels dropkicks Haku out.
Final four: Perfect, Michaels, Barbarian & Valentine
Michaels pounds away on Perfect and puts him out, but Perfect hangs on. Michaels catches Perfect with a dropkick back inside and now it’s Michaels who barely avoids elimination on the apron, but Perfect completes the elimination with an elbow to the back of the head. Perfect and Barbarian go to work together on Valentine, but Perfect dropkicks Barb by mistake and Valentine dumps him. And it’s down to Perfect and Hammer. Perfect chops away and Valentine responds with some of his own, the last one with a little bit of extra mustard on it. Valentine atomic drops Perfect right into the buckle and drops some elbows. Hammer tosses Perfect with a slam over the top, but Perfect holds the top ropes and Valentine is the one who hits the floor, with his own momentum taking him all the way down to give Perfect the win at 12:30.
Rating: During the first few minutes, it was the usual kicky punchy battle royal mess, but after the break and the whole Jake Roberts deal it was actually quite good. Mr. Perfect was obviously the highlight here, spending the whole match doing everything to avoid the elimination before getting an intelligent win in the end. The people who interacted with him got over, particularly Shawn Michaels and Greg Valentine in the final sequences. This match created some tension between Hogan and Tugboat as well, while also developing the Earthquake/Roberts feud. Battle royals rarely impress me, but this one wasn’t bad at all. ***
Ted DiBiase(w/ Sensational Sherri) vs. Bret Hart
So yeah, this was basically Bret’s first real test as a singles wrestler, just a month after the friendly split from Jim Neidhart. Hard lockup to start and DiBiase cheapshots Bret on the clean break. He chops away but Bret hiptosses him out of the corner and clotheslines twice. A third one dumps DiBiase over the top rope, as Bret then meets him there with a dive. Back in, Bret gets two off a side headlock takedown, and Ted gets a two count himself. DiBiase fights out of it only to eat a shoulderblock, but then Sherri trips Bret on a criss cross and distracts him. DiBiase charges with a knee but hits Sherri instead, and Bret O’Connor rolls him for two. DiBiase catches Bret with a stungun and gets two with a piledriver. Bret blocks a DiBiase slam and goes for another O’Connor roll, but DiBiase ducks and the momentum dumps Hart to the floor.
Sherri gets her shot in while DiBiase distracts the ref, and DiBiase pounds and chokes away back inside. Sherri adds some choking of her own as well and a punch to the throat. A hard whip to the buckle, with the awesome Bret Hart bump, sets up the Million Dollar Dream. DiBiase locks it but Bret runs him into the corner to break. DiBiase goes up but misses it and Bret starts making the comeback. Atomic drop followed by a great flying back elbow gets two. Russian legsweep gets two. Backbreaker sets up the middle rope elbow, and gets two more. The crowd are really buying into all these nearfalls, which was a great sign. Bret goes after Sherri once she trips him up on a criss cross yet again, which allows DiBiase to jump him from behind. This draws Roddy Piper down to ringside, who beats Sherri all the way to the back with a broom. DiBiase leaves the ring to confront him, but Bret follows him out as well, and they get into a slugfest on the ramp as the ref calls for a double count-out at 9:56.
Rating: What a really great match this was up until the (understandable) non finish. You could tell Bret was leaving it all out there to impress and finally get his big singles break, and he couldn’t have had a better opponent. Both DiBiase and Sherri were absolute pros and great natural heels, so it naturally clicked. The fans were into all of Bret’s nearfalls near the end, and the in-ring action was superb. Very good stuff that could’ve been epic with a proper story between each other and, obviously, a proper finish as well. ***1/2
(Alleged) Main Event – Tito Santana vs. The Mountie(w/ Jimmy Hart)
This is actually a rematch from the penultimate match on the card at WrestleMania VII, which Mountie won in a minute. The Mountie starts off cocky, which earns him an atomic drop and a couple of clotheslines, and Mountie bails. Santana follows him to the outside, where he rams Mountie’s head onto the apron, and he pounds away back inside. Santana goes for a monkey flip out of the corner, but Mountie grabs the ropes and Santana knocks himself out instead. Mountie rams Santana’s head into the buckle a few times but a splash only finds Tito’s knees. Jimmy Hart gets up on the apron to stop the count after the flying jalapeno, so Santana gives him one as well. However, this allows Mountie to grab the stick and knock out Tito for the win at 4:29.
Rating: Your typical brief final match at a SNME, with Tito getting some shine but ultimately putting Mountie over once more. It was alright. *1/2
Meanwhile, Slaughter and Hogan cut promos on each other to close the show.
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: Not a bad edition of SNME at all to follow up on WrestleMania VII. The Warrior/Slaughter match was a giant sack of nothing, much worse and more forgettable than their Royal Rumble encounter, but the angle that came afterwards was pretty damn cool and made The Undertaker look like a badass next to the main-eventers like Hogan and Warrior. The Bushwhackers standing tall against the tag champs feuding with the Road Warriors was what it was, while the battle royal and Bret/DiBiase were clearly the highlights of the night, with a number of wrestlers looking better than they did coming in. In the final match, Mountie and Santana did the best they could with four short minutes. Pretty solid edition, carried by a fun battle royal with a very exciting final sequence, and a strong match between DiBiase and Bret. 6/10
For the battle royal participants, each elimination will be worth 0.5 points, and being eliminated will cost the wrestlers 0.5 points as well. Winning will be worth 3 points.
Wrestler
Star ratings
Result
Eliminations
Main-eventing
Extras
Total
Mr. Perfect
3
3
1.5
–
–
7.5
Hulk Hogan
3
-0.5
1.5
–
–
4
Ted DiBiase Bret Hart
3.5
–
–
–
–
3.5
Earthquake Barbarian Shawn Michaels
3
-0.5
1
–
–
3.5
The Mountie
1.5
1
–
1
–
3.5
Brian Knobbs
1
1
–
–
+1 for retaining a title +0.5 for winning the fall
3.5
Jerry Sags
1
1
–
–
+1 for retaining a title
3
Marty Jannetty Paul Roma Warlord Jimmy Snuka Haku Big Bossman Greg Valentine Tugboat
3
-0.5
0.5
–
–
3
British Bulldog Tanaka Jake Roberts Texas Tornado Jim Duggan Kato Hercules
3
-0.5
0
–
–
2.5
Tito Santana
1.5
-1
–
1
–
1.5
The Ultimate Warrior
0.75
0.5
–
–
–
1.25
Sgt. Slaughter
0.75
-0.5
0.25
Bushwhacker Luke
1
-1
–
–
–
0
Bushwhacker Butch
1
-1
–
–
-0.5 for losing the fall
-0.5
As always, thank you all so much for your time. Make sure you tune in next time for WCW SuperBrawl, featuring Ric Flair vs. Tatsumi Fujinami for both the WCW and NWA World Heavyweight Championships. As far as SNME goes, it’s taking a break until early 1992, and the WWF’s next review will be SummerSlam. Until then, stay safe!
March 24, 1991 Live from Los Angeles, CA Announced attendance: 16.158 (capacity: ca 16.740) PPV buyrate: 400.000
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Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the seventh WrestleMania in WWF history. One that was originally supposed to happen at the much bigger Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with a seating capacity of nearly 100.000 people, but got changed to the Los Angeles Memorial Arena due to shitty ticket sales bomb threats due to the Sgt. Slaughter storyline… allegedly.
This WrestleMania features the aforementioned Sgt. Slaughter putting his WWF Championship up for grabs in the main-event against Hulk Hogan, while ‘Macho King’ Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior go to war in a retirement match. Elsewhere, The Nasty Boys challenge the Hart Foundation for the tag straps, The Big Bossman challenges Mr. Perfect for the IC title, The Undertaker makes his first ever WrestleMania appearance, and much more.
Here is the list of champions in the WWF heading into WrestleMania VII:
WWF Champion: Sgt. Slaughter [champion since Jan. 19th 1991 – previous champion: The Ultimate Warrior]
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Mr. Perfect [champion since Nov. 19th 1990 – previous champion: ‘The Texas Tornado’ Kerry Von Erich)
WWF World Tag Team Champions: The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) [champions since Aug. 27th 1990 – previous champions: Demolition)
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & culturecrossfire.com
The hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan (apart from a few matches)
Willie Nelson performs America the Beautiful this year
The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty) vs. Haku & The Barbarian(w/ Bobby Heenan)
IMG credit: WWE & WhatCulture
This is one of the exceptions where Heenan is replaced on commentary, since he’s at ringside managing members of his “family”. In this case, Gorilla is joined by Jim Duggan. Easy check on the biggest show of the year. Michaels and Haku kick things off, with Haku in control to start. Haku throws Michaels into the buckle a number of times, uses the ropes to block an O’Connor roll before eventually walking into Michaels’ flying shoulderblock. Haku briefly takes back control, only for Michaels to tag in Jannetty. We get some Rockers double-team action with a double hiptoss, double elbowdrop, double kip up… and Barbarian comes in and just kills them with a massive clothesline. Barbarian tries another one, but misses and the Rockers respond with a double superkick to clean house. The heels bail for some advice from Heenan. That advice? “If you ever have a broken neck and they ask you to work with Warrior, SAY NO”. The heels take control back inside, until Michaels comes in and dropkicks Barbarian’s back to help Jannetty complete a hurricanrana.
Double headbutt by the Heenan guys puts them back in the driver’s seat, as now Haku comes in. Jannetty tries a hurricanrana on him as well and Michaels once again tries to come in, this time with the ref stopping him, allowing Barbarian to come in from the other side and yank Jannetty by the hair on the top rope, throat-first. Elbow by Haku and it’s back to Barbarian for a gorilla press slam, as Jannetty continues to play Ricky Morton. A cheapshot to Michaels brings him in and gets the ref distracted, which allows Haku to come in for some choking. They collide on a criss cross with Jannetty falling on top and getting two. That looked like some clear miscommunication, but Haku quickly covers that up with a couple of AWESOME backbreakers. Tag to Barbarian, who simply pins Marty and gets two. We hit the bearhug next, followed by a hard whip into the buckle by Barbarian. Jannetty gets his boot up on a blind charge and goes up, only to jump right into a powerslam by Barbarian. Now it’s Barbarian who goes up for the flying headbutt, but he finds no water in the pool.
Haku gets the tag and he tries to avoid the hot tag to Michaels, but Jannetty manages to crawl his way there first. Hot tag Michaels and he’s a HOUSE OF FIRE! Flying back elbow takes Haku down and he pounds away in the corner. Barbarian tries to jump him from behind, but Michaels sees him and meets him with a high crossbody. Swinging neckbreaker on Haku gets two. Haku thumbs the eyes and Michaels can’t get a sunset flip, but Jannetty comes in with a clothesline and to help Michaels complete it, but Barbarian breaks up the pin and IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN CALI. The Rockers run wild and clean house with a double dropkick on Barbarian and a double clothesline on Haku. They both go up, with Jannetty hitting a missile dropkick followed by a Michaels high crossbody for the win at 10:33.
Rating: This was probably the best choice for the opener. Exciting nonstop action for the most part, with some incredible bumping by both Rockers. The finishing sequence in particular looked pretty cool and had the crowd on the edge of their seats, and overall the whole match was quite good. Also, on an individual note, another strong PPV match featuring The Barbarian. ***1/4
Meanwhile, CELEBRITY TIME! Mean Gene is backstage with Regis Philbin, Alex Trebek and Marla Maples. Marla wants to be the first woman to ever interview a man in the locker room, which had just been done in WCW at the prior month’s WrestleWar PPV, with Stan Hansen kicking Missy Hyatt out of the dressing room.
Dino Bravo(w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. ‘The Texas Tornado’ Kerry Von Erich
IMG credit: WWE & Twitter
Bravo attacks before the bell and we get a slugfest to start, won by Bravo with a clothesline over the top as he dumps Von Erich. Bravo follows him outside and rams his head into the apron. However, Von Erich turns things around back in with an atomic drop and a clothesline. Tornado pounds away in the corner and tries the HEADSQUEEZING CLAW OF DEVASTATING TORTURE already, but Bravo uses his power to block it and chops away in the corner. A Von Erich blind charge meets Dino’s boot, who follows it up with a couple of elbowdrops and gets two. Tornado criss crosses but walks into Bravo’s sideslam for a rare nearfall. Bravo goes up with the flying double axehandle, but a second try meets Von Erich’s CLAW OF DEATH. Mucho squeezing follows and the Tornado Punch puts Dino Bravo away at 3:11.
Rating: I wasn’t expecting much from a match between two guys who were on such a downfall in both their professional and personal lives (both would tragically be dead less than two years later), but it was kept short and thus didn’t suck. Short and inoffensive, I’ve seen way worse. *
Meanwhile, The Warlord says nobody can break his full nelson hold, and The British Bulldog will be no exception. Elsewhere, Davey Boy Smith says he can and he will – now we know where another Dog got his whole gimmick from! – Davey also promises a running powerslam for Warlord tonight.
The British Bulldog vs. The Warlord(w/ Slick)
IMG credit: WWE & WhatCulture
Before the bell, Gorilla starts with the usual ‘don’t expect much from this match’ shtick, which is like an early apology for how shitty this match can be. BOWLING SHOE UGLY is the metaphor you’re looking for there, Gorilla! A number of shoulderblocks are no-sold by both men, until Davey Boy puts the pedal to the metal with three consecutive shoulderblocks and dumps him for a huge pop. Back in, Warlord takes over with the CLUBBING BLOWS and Davey goes for a crucifix pin, but Warlord uses his strength to block it and turns it into a samoan drop. A series of elbowdrops get two. Warlord follows it up with more CLUBBING BLOWS OF DOOM before locking in a bearhug. This is like the living definition of a broomstick match!
Bulldog fights out of that but walks into a stungun for two. They get into a slugfest, won by Warlord who follows it up with a belly to belly suplex. Warlord works a chinlock, with Davey doing a great selljob and keeping the crowd awake as he tries to fight back. Bulldog eventually escapes with a headbutt and then hits an AWESOME dropkick with a half-assed selljob by Warlord. Bulldog rams Warlord’s head into the buckle a few times and a crossbody gets two. Davey tries a piledriver, blocked by Warlord with a backdrop, which Bulldog blocks with a sunset flip, also blocked by Warlord who sits down for the pin, which is ALSO blocked by Bulldog who rolls over into his own pin for two. If Vince had been on commentary here this is the exact spot where he’d be declaring it a SEE SAW MATCHUP BACK AND FORTH! Bulldog eats boot on a blind charge and Warlord starts calling for the full nelson. Warlord gets it but Davey Boy powers out of it. Warlord goes for a powerslam instead, but Bulldog lands on his feet and turns it into his own running powerslam for a loud pop and the win at 8:15.
Rating: Major props to Davey Boy Smith, he had his working boots on and managed to get a pretty good match out of Warlord, one of my least favorite wrestlers of this generation, if not the very best of his whole career. Call it a miracle if you want but I actually liked this one. Much much MUCH better than I expected. ***
Meanwhile, The Nasty Boys yell a lot and promise to win the tag belts. Elsewhere, The Hart Foundation don’t think they’re nasty enough to take the straps.
WWF World Tag Team Championship – The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart)(c) vs. The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags)(w/ Jimmy Hart)
IMG credit: WWE & WhatCulture
The Nasties got this shot by winning a tag battle royal on TV shortly before the event, with Power & Glory eliminating the Road Warriors in the end and literally gifting the Nasty Boys the title match, which also gave us LOD vs. P&G on this show. More on that one later. Bret and Sags lock up to start, and the latter takes over thanks to a cheapshot in the corner until Bret just runs him over with a FANTASTIC Thesz Press (by gawd) and he pounds away. Knobbs runs in and he eats an atomic drop as Bret cleans house and gets a big reaction. Bret slingshots Sags from the apron back inside, where he blocks a boot and takes him down for the abdominal stomp. Knobbs gets the tag but he wants Anvil instead, and Bret obliges.
Neidhart stomps a mudhole in the corner and he goes to work on the arm. Unfortunately for him, he gets caught in the heel corner, which allows the Nasty Boys to take over. Neidhart comes back with a faceplant, though, and brings in Bret who just beats the living shit out of Sags in the corner. Some great solid punches there. Russian legsweep and the middle rope elbow, but Knobbs breaks up the pin and cheapshots Bret to turn things around. Sags follows it up with a clothesline and dumps Bret. Back in, Bret gets whipped into the corner for the classic Bret bump. And Knobbs goes to work on the back immediately with a backbreaker for two. He adds a knee to the back and works a rear chinlock to punish the back some more. Bret almost fights out of it, only for Knobbs to release the hold and sit on Bret’s injured back to keep him down. And back to the rear chinlock he goes. Strong psychology here.
Off to Sags, who goes right after the back himself with a rear chinlock of his own while sitting on the back, before hitting a neckbreaker for two. Sags goes back to the hold, but this time Bret fights back and breaks the hold with a neckbreaker of his own. However, Sags makes it to his corner first, and Knobbs prevents the hot tag and drops elbows on Bret’s back to keep him down. Bret soon slams him down though and goes for the tag yet again but now Sags runs in and gets a cheapshot on Anvil, allowing the heels to double-team Bret. Sags ends up eating buckle on a blind charge and Bret takes Knobbs down too with a clothesline. Bret finally reaches Neidhart for the hot tag, but the ref is busy with Knobbs and misses it. This allows Jimmy Hart to give Knobbs the megaphone, but Bret moves out of the way and he hits Sags instead.
HOT TAG ANVIL who powerslams one Nasty Boy into the other and then proceeds to run them over with a double clothesline. Another one on Knobbs gets two. Powerslam gets two more, with Sags breaking up the pin. That draws Bret in as well for a pursuit and the Nasty Boys collide, setting up Knobbs for the Hart Attack which gets the crowd on their feet. Hart Attack connects but the ref misses the pinfall due to Bret being in the ring, and Sags comes in for a shot with the megaphone to the back of Neidhart’s head. Sags simply puts one arm on top of Anvil for the win and the titles at 12:10.
Rating: What an enjoyable match. Very good heat spot and psychology over Bret Hart’s injured back, who played Ricky Morton to perfection in this one. This match was designed to put Bret over right before his big singles push, and he got some awesome reactions throughout the whole bout. Also, sayonara Hart Foundation, who had a great run and went out on a great match, but it was indeed the right time to move on. ***1/2
Jake Roberts/Rick Martel feud recap, which started all the way back in October 1990 on The Brother Love Show, when Martel blinded Roberts with ‘Arrogance’ and put him out of action. Hence the blindfold match here, a stip that makes sense according to the build.
Meanwhile, Jake Roberts reminds us that a man only has five senses. But a snake? He has six. “We always do it better… in the dark”. Great promo as always.
Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martel
IMG credit: WWE & thesun.ie
Blind action to start with both of them going nowhere as expected. Roberts starts using the “I point and you react” strategy, which gets the crowd all fired up. That allows Roberts to actually reach Martel, who tries to crawl away at any costs, but then trips on Jake’s back. Martel chokes away and goes for a backdrop, with Roberts simply walking around him and avoiding it. Which brings up the question: why do people walk into it all the damn time in matches where THEY CAN ACTUALLY SEE!? But then again, nobody else has the sixth sense of a snake, I guess. From there we reach a stalemate. They slowly walk into each other’s backs, and Martel knocks himself out on the ropes on a blind charge. HAR HAR HAR.
Roberts points some more, but Martel finally gets smart and walks away when the people yells, avoiding Roberts and using the crowd reaction to lure Roberts and hit a powerslam. Elbowdrop follows, but Roberts had moved out of the way long before. And back to the chasing we go, with Martel this time grabbing the referee. Bobby Heenan smartly claims Martel should’ve put a shirt on after both had the blindfold on, which would’ve allowed him to lure Roberts into a false sense of security, thinking he was the ref. Whatever Heenan was getting paid, it was not enough. Back to stage A we go, with Roberts finally grabbing Martel, but he’s on the ropes and the ref forces the break. Heenan asks why the hell isn’t Martel getting the hood up and cheating, which is a pretty good point. You’re the heel and you fucking blinded Roberts during the build, why are you following the dumb rules of a simple match? Cheat, you idiot!
“You’re wrestling a guy that’s got a 500 lbs snake in the corner, so you cheat. Big deal.”
Bobby Heenan
We get a stalemate once again, and at this point it’s about damn time we switch gears. Roberts grabs Martel with a side headlock, but then collides with Martel on a criss cross and knocks himself out of the ring. Martel follows him out there and grabs a chair, and uses it to hit… the ringpost. Okay, end this already. Roberts brings him back in but Martel hits a backbreaker and he goes for the Boston crab. Roberts powers out rather easily and then Martel just kinda walks into the DDT like the world’s biggest geek. Roberts tries to find him on the mat, does so and covers him for the win (THANK GOD) at 8:28. Roberts then destroys Martel’s ‘Arrogance’ and gives him Damian.
Rating: Talk about the disappointment of the night. After such a strong feud that I enjoyed quite a lot, we get a comedy match for the blow-off that just kept going forever without changing gears and completely buried Martel. He looked like such a pussy heel, following all the rules and then walking into Jake’s finish like a dumbass. What an awful feud-ender, this sucked. 1/2*
Meanwhile, Marla Maples tries to interview The Nasty Boys in the dressing room but fails miserably because they’re insane. Yep, copy and paste from WCW’s segment with Stan Hansen & Missy Hyatt from the prior month’s WrestleWar PPV. Moving on.
And now…
THE DEBUT OF THE STREAK – The Undertaker(w/ Paul Bearer) vs. Jimmy Snuka
IMG credit: WWE & essentiallysports.com
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Undertaker actually gets a relatively small yet vocal pop after the first gong. UT slowly pounds away to start and he’s already on with the choking. Flying clothesline connects and a Snuka blind charge finds UT’s boot and dumps Snuka. So far, Paul Bearer likes what he sees. UT brings him back in with a vertical suplex off the apron but misses an elbowdrop, and now Paul Bearer turns his back to the action. Snuka gets his two cents in but UT completely no-sells it all and then moves out of the way of a Snuka flying bodypress, who ends up dumping himself. Snuka fights back with a slingshot but gets (sort of) caught in mid-air. Clearly a blown spot there. UT improvises by giving him an extra shot and then picks him right back up and finishes with the Tombstone Piledriver at 4:20.
Rating: Botched ending aside, this did exactly what it had to do. Short and effective. The first WrestleMania win of MANY for Undertaker – who would’ve even dreamed back in 1991!? *1/4
Macho King/Ultimate Warrior feud recap – Savage started asking for a title shot in the fall of 1990, but got no answer and attacked Warrior after a WWF Title match with Ted DiBiase at SNME in November. Still with no answer, Savage asked Sherri to seduce Warrior and make him accept the title match, but Warrior still refused. It ended up costing Warrior’s title when Savage interfered twice in his match with Sgt. Slaughter later that night. Now with no title involved in their feud, the two were set to finally clash in a career-ending match!
Retirement Match – ‘Macho King’ Randy Savage(w/ Sensational ‘Queen’ Sherri) vs. The Ultimate Warrior
IMG credit: WWE & wrestling.pt
In her first appearance since the prior year’s WrestleMania, Miss Elizabeth is sitting in the crowd. For once Warrior actually walks into the ring, realizing the importance of this match. Big match feel here. Consider me hooked already. Savage slugs away to start but eventually walks right into a Warrior shoulderblock and he bails. Sherri takes the opportunity to get up on the apron and distract Warrior, allowing Savage to come up from the other side with a cheapshot, only for Warrior to hit a clothesline. Warrior picks up Savage and chokes him before dropping him with an atomic drop. And another one. Sherri has had enough of this and actually runs in, only for Warrior to slam Macho right onto her, which gets a loud pop.
Savage gets caught on the ropes à la André while Warrior pounds away, only for Macho to find himself free and hit the Macho clothesline. He goes up for the high crossbody, only to be caught in mid air by Warrior. Warrior then simply puts Savage back down and bitchslaps him. OH SHIT! Savage gets all worked up and leaves the ring, tossing a chair inside the ring to distract both the ref and Warrior, as he then jumps in with another cheapshot. Warrior soon takes back the driver’s seat, stomping a mudhole on Savage in the corner to the delight of the crowd. He completely misses a blind charge in the corner though, and goes knocks himself out on the outside. Sherri gets a few shots in while Savage has the ref distracted, and then Savage meets him there with the flying double axehandle. Sherri goes to work on Warrior some more, who then shoves Sherri for a big reaction, only for Savage to cheapshot him and send him into the ringpost. And Sherri gets another shot in just to add some insult to injury. Meanwhile, Gorilla has just been informed “this is the largest PPV audience in the history of PPV”. Cut the crap, guys.
Back in, a Savage neckbreaker is blocked by Warrior and turned into a backslide(!!!) for two. We get a stalemate and Savage SPITS IN WARRIOR’S FACE. Uh oh. Savage runs away while Sherri gets up on the other side, which is cue for another Savage cheapshot, but this time Warrior catches him coming in and takes him down with a clothesline. Warrior criss crosses like an idiot and knocks himself out on a flying shoulderblock that would never in a million years hit, and Savage gets two. Savage works a chinlock while Sherri is getting impatient on the outside. Her work has been incredible in this match, really selling the fact that she just can’t afford to lose Savage, her meal ticket. Warrior escapes the hold and they collide for a double KO spot, with Sherri trying to revive her man. The ref gets distracted with her again, this time missing a Warrior small package that gets a delayed two. Warrior stops to confront the ref, while Savage comes in and sends Warrior into the ref with a high knee to Warrior’s back.
Sherri takes advantage of this ref bump and climbs up to the top rope with her shoe in her hands, but Warrior moves out of the way and she knocks out Macho instead. Warrior chases Sherri and actually grabs her, but Savage comes in from behind with a roll up and nearly steals it. You can feel the panic in the building! Savage proceeds to whip Warrior into the buckle before slamming him throat-first on the top rope. Macho necksnap sets up a powerslam, which gets two. Savage goes up for the Macho Elbow and it connects. He goes up again with the crowd going BANANAS, teases a second one and actually drops another one. And another. He goes up AGAIN, this time really getting under the people’s skin, and drops a fourth one. For the fifth time he goes up, and it connects again. Savage finally pins him after five Macho Elbows for the academic one, two… NEARFALL!? The kickout gets a huge pop and Savage goes to work on Warrior some more, but heeee’s shaking! Warrior makes the comeback with the clotheslines, followed by the gorilla press slam and the Warrior Splash for …. TWOO!!! This crowd is just losing their collective shit at this point, and Warrior can’t believe it. He starts questioning his destiny and teases leaving while talking to himself on the apron, which is both stupid yet somehow believable since it’s the most Ultimate Warrior thing ever, and actually allows Savage to get back up and cheapshot him. Savage goes for another flying double axehandle, but Warrior moves out of the way and Savage knocks himself out on the railing. And now Warrior is feeling it again. Back in, Warrior runs him over with a flying shoulderblock and knocks Savage all the way down to the floor. He puts him back inside and does a second one, knocking Savage to the floor again. Savage is just done at this point, and Warrior brings him back in for a third flying shoulderblock. He drags Savage to the to the middle of the ring by the hair, puts one foot on Savage’s chest and ends his career at 20:47.
Warrior celebrates after the match, while Sherri is losing her mind at ringside. A furious Sherri gets in the ring and, having just lost her meal ticket, proceeds to beat up a defenseless Savage. Finally, having had enough of this, Elizabeth runs in and cleans house herself. Liz tries to touch Savage, but not knowing who it is, Savage tries to defend himself. She allows him to get back up to his feet, touches him a second time and Savage goes to fight back until… he sees Elizabeth. And then, with tears falling down her face, Savage hugs her and officially becomes the most beloved babyface wrestler in the whole world, just two minutes after being the most despised heel wanting to retire everyone’s hero. Savage and Elizabeth get back together in what probably is the most emotional moment in wrestling history, with shots of multiple people CRYING in the audience. Liz holds the ropes for Savage to leave the ring as usual, but he refuses and actually holds them for Liz, officially changing back from the “Macho King” to the “Macho Man” and getting the pop of the night. Now this is wrestling. This will always give me goosebumps no matter how many time passes, what a once in a lifetime worker Randy Savage was. Truly one of the best wrestlers of all time, class personified.
Rating: This feeling can’t be described, this is truly one of the most special matches of all time. It’s incredible how Savage was able to carry Warrior to such a classic while also making the whole crowd cry a few minutes later. What a beautiful match, one of the best matches in WrestleMania history and easily the best in Warrior’s brief wrestling career. In case you’re wondering, Savage was indeed planning to retire for good and start a family after this, but Vince came calling later that year in need of big stars, since Hogan had one foot out and Warrior was gone. With that said and all things considering, with the benefit of hindsight and all that, it actually wouldn’t have been a bad idea to have Savage actually go over here. You know what, fuck it – I’m going full monty here, I simply love this match. *****
Meanwhile, the celebrities interview a few guys. I fast forward.
Demolition (Crush & Smash) vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Koji Kitao
IMG credit: WWE & Twitter
I feel bad for these guys having to follow that last match. Now add in the fact that you have two babyfaces that the crowd just doesn’t recognize, and the result is thousands of people getting up and using this match to go the bathroom. The Demos attack before the bell as Crush goes to work on Kitao. The latter fights back but a Smash distraction gives Fuji the chance to hit Kitao with the cane. Demolition pound away with the CLUBBING BLOWS OF DEATH while the fans in the front rows have literally disappeared. This match might’ve added nothing to this show, but I’m sure the guy selling hot dogs was thankful. We get a long heatless spot, until Smash charges into a Kitao clothesline, who makes the “hot” tag to Tenryu. He runs wild for a while, slams Smash but misses a flying elbow and eats a clothesline instead. Crush adds a backbreaker and Smash hits a backdrop suplex. They set him up for Demolition Decapitation, but Kitao shoves Crush off the top and the crowd still doesn’t care. Tenryu then thankfully finishes Smash with an enziguiri and a powerbomb at 4:44. Oh Demolition, how the mighty have fallen…
Rating: Complete filler to let the people go to take a piss after the Savage/Warrior retirement match. This was boring and quite pointless. 1/4*
Meanwhile, The Big Bossman doesn’t like it when people talk about his mother like Bobby Heenan did. Tonight, he’s gonna pay. Elsewhere, Mr. Perfect & Bobby Heenan mock Bossman some more. Perfect says he’s not afraid of Bossman, in fact he’s cool as a cat.
WWF Intercontinental Championship – Mr. Perfect(c)(w/ Bobby Heenan) vs. The Big Bossman
IMG credit: WWE & wrestling.pt
Replacing Heenan on commentary for this one is Lord Alfred Hayes. Bossman spits in Perfect’s face to start, who slaps him in return. Perfect bails and mocks the fans in the front row, only for Bossman to follow him and slap him even harder, turning him inside out. Back in, Bossman swings Perfect around by the hair, who is already bumping all over the place determined to turn this into something special. Perfect whips Bossman into the corner, who goes out and back in from the other side of the post like Corbin. Bossman misses a clothesline, but Perfect eats boot on a blind charge and now Bossman does hit the clothesline. And then he dumps Perfect over the top and to the floor. Back in, a Bossman charge only finds turnbuckle but Bossman manages to whip Perfect into the opposite corner, who takes it with a somersault out of the corner (or a 360, if you ask Gorilla). Bossman splashes him in the corner and then hits him with his belt, which somehow isn’t a DQ. Perfect responds by wrapping the belt around his fist and he pounds away with it. All is fair in love and WrestleMania, says I.
Perfect chops Bossman with a little extra mustard on it, which only pisses him off even more, and they get into it a slugfest. Perfect wins that one by whipping Bossman hard into the buckle, and he goes to work on the back with a vicious reverse chinlock that almost puts Bossman in a bridge position. And Perfect adds some rope grabbing just to be a dick. Abdominal stretch follows, and Heenan wants the timekeeper to ring the bell. Unfortunately for him this isn’t Montreal and neither is Bret Hart in the ring, so his orders are rudely ignored. Perfect dropkick gets two. Another vicious chop is followed by the Perfect necksnap, and he’s thinking Perfectplex. He goes for it but Bossman blocks and cradles him for two. Perfect hits the AWESOME reverse Perfect necksnap that he already did in their SNME match in late 1990, literally snapping Bossman’s back in half. It gets two. Perfect goes up for the Vertical Whatever That Always Misses and guess what… he misses. I’m shocked too.
Bossman sends Perfect from one corner into the other, but the usual Perfect ball shattering isn’t completed, so Bossman goes outside and does it himself. Back in, Bossman uppercuts Perfect right back to the floor. He follows him again but turns his attention to Heenan, allowing Perfect to come in from behind and send Bossman into the stairs. Heenan takes this moment to add his own wussy shots on Bossman, and HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT DRAWS ANDRÉ THE GIANT IN! And Heenan wants no part of André, no sir. André grabs the IC belt which distracts Perfect, and actually hits Perfect with it behind the ref’s back. Bossman goes for the cheap pin but it only gets two. Cue the rest of the Heenan family in for the DQ at 10:46. André and Bossman clean house like French maids and celebrate together to close the segment.
Rating: Good match here, with two hungry wrestlers determined to put on a show in front an excited crowd. I would’ve liked a clean finish, of course, but it makes sense to keep the IC title on Perfect. And also Bossman got his hands on Heenan, which is who he was feuding with in particular, not Perfect. Good action as well, with Perfect superbly working over Bossman’s back. Good effort. ***1/4
Meanwhile, Mean Gene interviews Donald Trump and Chuck Norris. Fast Forward City.
Earthquake(w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Greg Valentine
IMG credit: WWE
Valentine had originally left the WWF shortly after his Rhythm & Blues partner Honky Tonk Man left in January 1991, but he was quickly brought back and made it to WrestleMania. Earthquake casually picks him up and slams him to start, and gets two. Quake eats buckle on a blind charge and Hammer hammers away in the corner. He gives Earthquake some spaghetti legs, and he actually knocks him down with a flying elbow. Elbowdrop sets up the figure four, but Quake’s too big and he can’t lock it in. Jimmy Hart gets up on the apron for the distraction, and Quake drops the big fat elbow. The tremors set up the earthquake and that’s all she wrote for Hammer at 3:14.
Rating: An extended squash, but it was effective. *
Meanwhile, the Road Warriors know they would’ve been challenging the Harts if it wasn’t for Power & Glory. Tonight, they pay for that, what a rush. (Heenan: “what a bunch of crybabies”)
Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) vs. Power & Glory (Hercules & Paul Roma)(w/ Slick)
IMG credit: WWE & WhatCulture
P&G jump the LOD before the bell but quickly eat a double clothesline from Hawk. Roma slams Animal and he goes up, but Animal catches him with a powerslam in mid-air. Doomsday Device follows and it’s already thanks for coming Power & Glory at 0:59.
Rating: Oh, what a rush. N/R (no rating)
Ted DiBiase vs. Virgil(w/ Roddy Piper)
IMG credit: WWE & wrestlingrecaps.com
After the epic Virgil face turn at the Royal Rumble, here we are. Piper is in Virgil’s corner to help carry him both in promos and in charisma. Let’s be honest, everyone wanted to see the turn but there’s a reason why Virgil went nowhere once the feud ended. Piper is on crutches, apparently due to a motorcycle accident, according to Gorilla. I’ll take his word on that one. Virgil is dancing like Brock Lesnar to start for some reason, which Gorilla calls “fancy footwork”. I won’t take his word on that one. Virgil “slugs” away with some incredibly wussy shots, with poor DiBiase having to sell them and try to get Virgil over. DiBiase bails and Virgil continues with the weird dancing. What the fuck is up with him, did he steal Shawn Michaels’ drugs that night?
Back in, DiBiase tries to get a shot but Virgil blocks and responds with some more wussy punches of his own. Now I know who inspired Shane McMahon on wanting to become a “wrestler”. DiBiase bails some more but he gets dumped with a clothesline over the top to the floor. Back in, DiBiase hits a clothesline but walks into a Virgil elbow that gets two. And DiBiase stalls some more. DiBiase finally turns things around with a drop toehold and he chops away in the corner. Piledriver gets two. Suplex gets two more. Gutwrench suplex gets two. DiBiase dumps Virgil and shoves the injured Piper before hitting a powerslam on Virgil back inside. Piper uses his crutches to hold the top ropes down and knocks DiBiase to the outside, only for DiBiase to beat him up some more. But the ref is counting and Virgil gets it via count-out at 7:41. DiBiase doesn’t like that stupid decision and puts Virgil in the Million Dollar Dream, only for Piper to hit him with the crutch. But then out comes Sensational Sherri, having apparently been bought by DiBiase after Savage’s loss in the retirement match earlier, and DiBiase destroys Piper’s leg with the crutch to get his heat back.
Rating: Major props to DiBiase who actually carried Virgil to a decent match, which could’ve been better had Virgil taken the situation seriously instead of acting like a goofball in the first few minutes. DiBiase did his best, but he’s only human and there’s no way he could’ve put Virgil’s bad looking potatoes over. These two would have a much better match later down the road, which we’ll be discussing soon! **
Meanwhile, it’s Sgt. Slaughter‘s rules.
The Mountie(w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Tito Santana
IMG credit: WWE & denofgeek.com
Tito hits the flying jalapeno already, but Mountie saves himself by rolling to the outside. Santana gets an atomic drop back inside, but Mountie shocks Tito with the stick behind the ref’s back and that’s enough to beat poor Tito at 1:21.
Rating: Onto the main event. N/R (no rating)
Meanwhile, Hulk Hogan cuts one last promo before the main event.
Main Event – WWF Championship – Sgt. Slaughter(c)(w/ Gen. Adnan) vs. Hulk Hogan
IMG credit: WWE & cagesideseats.com
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And here we are, Hogan challenging Sgt. Slaughter for the WWF Championship one year after the classic main event with Warrior. That reign turned out to be a bit of a flop though, so Slaughter was used to transition it right back to Hulk. Lockup gets things underway and Hogan shoves Slaughter as we get the big ‘USA’ chants already. Shoulderblock is no-sold by Sarge but a second one puts him down, and Slaughter bails. Hogan follows him out there but gets attacked by Adnan and distracted, allowing Sarge to come up from behind with a lame chairshot to the back that Hogan no-sells. Sarge lures Hogan back inside, where he turns things around with a thumb to the eye but misses an elbow eventually. Hogan with a clothesline and even Adnan eats a shot, as Hogan goes back to work on Slaughter with an atomic drop that gets two. Hogan rams Sarge’s head into the buckle and backdrops him out of the corner. Another whip to the corner for Sarge, this time with a great bump from him. Hogan adds a catapult into the buckle, as Hogan just continues the punishment on Slaughter.
Hogan with a corner clothesline and he pounds away. Another corner clothesline gets two. He goes up(!) but Adnan distracts him, so Hogan slams him and drops a few elbows instead. Hogan goes up once again but gets slammed off and dumped. Sarge with a chairshot to Hogan’s back on the floor and he chokes him out with the TV cable, drawing the Hogan chants. Back in, Sarge goes to work on the back and a backbreaker gets two. Slaughter puts him in a Boston Crab but Hogan makes the ropes. Slaughter drops some knees to the back to continue the punishment. He goes up for a flying stomp to the back, and for some reason Adnan distracts the ref while Slaughter is pinning Hogan, which still gets a delayed two. What the fuck was that? Adnan distracts the ref some more, this time in his man’s favour, as he hits the distraction to hit a chairshot to Hogan’s face for two. And Hogan is bleeding. Slaughter goes for the camel clutch on the bloody Hogan, but he releases the hold so he can stomp the back some more. And back to the camel clutch. Hogan powers out like in the match with Iron Sheik in 84, but Slaughter shows he studied that tape as he releases the hold in time and rams Hogan into the buckle. Slaughter brings in the Iraqi flag, drops it in Hogan’s face and covers him for two. Hogan rips the flag apart and he starts hulking up. The usual sets up the big boot and the big leg for the win and the title at 20:26. Hogan then celebrates with the belt and the American flag to end the show.
Rating: This match is sometimes overlooked, but it’s actually a pretty good main event. The crowd was obviously hot for Hogan as expected, but there was some good psychology over Hogan’s back near the end. Slaughter did a great job here as well, playing his role well and putting Hogan over. A good match. ***
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: Overall, I’d say there is a lot to appreciate from this WrestleMania. Starting with the opener, which was exciting and exactly what you want from an opening bout. Davey/Warlord shocked me the most, as it was actually pretty good as well. There’s also Perfect/Bossman, Harts/Nasties or Hogan/Slaughter, which were all enjoyable. And then there’s Warrior/Savage, which is simply beautiful. Roberts/Martel was a huge disappointment and there were some pointless squash matches as well, but it was still a good show. An all-timer compared to the last couple of WrestleManias. 6/10
Thank you so much for your time. Don’t miss the next reviews, as we start a brand new “season” in the WWF with WrestleMania VII now behind us. Over on the WCW side of things, SuperBrawl is coming up next. Once again, thank you so much, and stay safe!
February 24, 1991 Live from Phoenix, AZ Announced attendance: 6.800 (capacity: ca 15.000) PPV buyrate: 160.000
Hi everyone and welcome to my review of the first ever WCW-exclusive PPV, after the NWA era. This show features a huge WarGames main-event, as the Four Horsemen take on the babyface team of Sting, Brian Pillman and The Steiners. Also, Lex Luger puts the US title on the line against Danny Spivey, Big Van Vader returns to WCW PPV to face Stan Hansen, and much more.
Before starting, here is the list of champions in WCW heading into this PPV:
WCW & NWA World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair [champion since Jan. 11th 1991 – inaugural WCW World Champion, previous NWA World Champion: Sting]
WCW United States Heavyweight Champion: Lex Luger [champion since Dec. 16th 1990 – previous champion: Stan Hansen]
WCW World TV Champion: Arn Anderson [champion since Jan. 7th 1991 – previous champion: ‘Z-Man’ Tom Zenk]
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed) [champions since May 19th 1990 – previous champions: The Steiners]
WCW United States Tag Team Champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott) [champions since Aug. 24th 1990 – previous champions: The Midnight Express]
WCW World Six Man Tag Team Champions: The Junkyard Dog, Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich [champions since Feb. 17th 1991 – inaugural champions]
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & culturecrossfire.com
The hosts are Jim Ross & Dusty Rhodes
WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship: The Junkyard Dog, Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich(c) vs. Big Cat & The State Patrol (Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker & Lt. James Earl Wright)
IMG credit: WWE Network
What a weird opener this is. This title was introduced just seven days before this PPV at a house show, and by looking at the inaugural champions you could tell they were just created for the hell of it. The champions also come out with no title belts, just to remove all the doubts that they were doomed from the start. After a grand total of nine months and four title reigns, it was deactivated. JR is all over the pro football backgrounds already on commentary and says there is a ‘tremendous crowd on hand’. Sure!
JYD and Cat get into a slugfest to start, and JYD gets the better of that with a clothesline. Headbutt and Cat is out of there. Off to Wright while JYD brings in Morton for a double back elbow. Morton takes over with a leapfrog and a number of different variations of armdrags. Here comes Rich with a double clothesline alongside Morton. Rich goes to work on Wright’s arm, who cheapshots him on the clean break only to eat a powerslam. Rich continues to work the arm and Wright rakes the eyes to escape. He slams Rich and brings in Parker, who misses an elbowdrop and gets worked over as well. Morton runs wild with a couple of atomic drops to both State Patrol members to wake up the TREMENDOUS crowd on hand! It’s back to JYD and Big Cat for a test of strength. Big Cat wrestles JYD down until he fights back with a number of headbutts and escapes with a back heel trip. Cat rakes the eyes and an elbowdrop gets two. Parker comes in with wussy punches, which JYD no-sells. Tag to Ricky Morton, but he gets nailed with a pipe shot to the back by Wright on a criss cross while Cat distracts the ref.
The State Patrol hit a backbreaker + flying headbutt double team for two. Double shoulderblock gets two. Tag to Cat and an elbowdrop gets two more. Dropkick gets two. Morton is already playing babyface in peril as always! Cat slams Morton but he moves out of an elbow. Unfortunately for Morton, Cat is too close to his corner and the heels stay in control. Parker hits a slam for two. The State Patrol hit a Bushwhackers-like battering ram, into a Parker bulldog into a Wright elbowdrop for two. Nice sequence there. They follow it up with a double backbreaker followed by a double elbowdrop for two more. Cat comes in with a backbreaker for another nearfall as Morton just keeps getting beat up. Big Cat gets in a cheapshot on Rich to get them all worked up and distract the ref, which allows the heels to triple-team Morton over in their corner. Parkers hits the chinlock only to miss a blind charge in the corner. Tag to Wright but Morton rolls over and gets the hot tag to JYD! JYD runs wild on both members of State Patrol and hits Parker (the illegal guy) with the Thump powerslam. The ref counts the pin anyway, only for Big Cat to break the count. JYD gets into a fight with Cat, and Morton simply gets the pin himself to retain at 9:54. What a stupid finish.
Rating: The match was not bad at all, it was actually quite decent due to Ricky Morton – probably the greatest babyface in peril of all time – getting his ass handed to him for most of the final minutes. That finish made no sense whatsoever, with the illegal Morton pinning the illegal Parker, but this was much better than I expected anyway. **
Tony Schiavone interviews The York Foundation. Alexandra York is very happy with the computer’s accuracy and they’re looking for more wrestlers. The computer predicts Terry Taylor will defeat Z-Man in less than 15 minutes and 28 seconds. Taylor predicts pain. A feeling he must’ve been familiar with after that painful WWF run.
‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton vs. Brad Armstrong
IMG credit: WWE
Dusty predicts Bobby will win a major singles WCW title in 1991. Very clever prediction, bookerman! Eaton takes over with a cheapshot to start. Brad leapfrogs over, catches him with a flying headscissors, dropkick and an armdrag right into an armbar. Hot start as Brad now goes to work on the arm. Eaton takes him over into the ropes for the break and a cheapshot. However, Brad gets a monkey flip out of the corner and goes back to the armbar. Eaton escapes with yet another cheapshot and dumps Brad to the outside. He follows him and tries to send Brad into the railing, only for Brad to block and send him instead. And into the post as well. Back in, Brad goes back to work on that arm, but Eaton makes the ropes. Stalemate as we get a test of strength. Eaton wrestles Brad down with the help of a little kick to the midsection, but then Brad literaly walks over Eaton’s shoulders and hits a high crossbody for two. And back to the armbar. Into the corner where Eaton gets in another cheapshot on the clean break. Eaton with a slingshot suplex, but Brad lands on his feet and hits a suplex of his own.
Armstrong cranks on the arm but Eaton blocks an O’Connor roll and catches him with a clothesline for two. Great pop up backbreaker by Eaton gets two. Eaton with a slam followed by an elbowdrop to the forehead gets two. And we hit the chinlock. Meanwhile, The Great Muta is in the crowd to promote the upcoming WCW/NJPW SuperShow. Muta wrestled Sting on that show, but I won’t review it because it’s not on the Network. Anyway, back to the match as they exchange nasty elbows and knees until Eaton hits a fantastic slingshot backbreaker for two. I’m amazed with Beautiful Bobby here, he’s obviously most famous for the Midnight Express but he’s fantastic in singles wrestling matches as well. Back elbow knocks Brad silly, as Eaton then wipes him to the outside like he’s taking out the trash! Eaton drops Armstrong on the railing and gets back in, but eventually Brad breaks the count as well only to walk into an abdominal stretch. Eaton grabs the ropes for leverage until the ref catches him doing it and forces the break, as Eaton then misses a blind charge in the corner and gets dropped on his little Eatons. Ouch. Armstrong dropkick followed by a Russian legsweep gets two, as Eaton has his foot on the ropes. Eaton gets the swinging neckbreaker, though, and he goes up for the Alabama Jam and the win at 12:51.
Rating: Fantastic undercard match between two great workers. Bobby Eaton in particular looked awesome here. ***1/2
Ad for WCW SuperBrawl, the next PPV coming up in May.
Itsuki Yamazaki & Mami Kitamura vs. Miki Handa & Miss A
IMG credit: WWE Network
Basically hype for the Supershow. Yamazaki is a former WWF Women’s Tag Team Champion back in the late 80s as a member of the Jumping Bomb Angels, by the way. They waste no time and start off with fast action. Yamazaki takes down Miss A with a flying armdrag off the top rope and then walks the top rope for a sunset flip that gets two. Off to Kitamura for a back elbow, but Miss A no-sells and just stiffs the fuck out of Kitamura with vicious forearms and kicks in the corner. This gave me a great shot of the TREMENDOUS crowd on hand, like JR said multiple times earlier. Take a look.
IMG credit: WWE
JAM PACKED, BY GAWD! Anyway Miss A brings in Handa for a fast sequence that ends with a slam for two. And it’s back to A, as Dusty is already sold! Vertical suplex gets two and A goes to work on the leg. She drops some knees on the leg but then Kitamura catches her with a flying back elbow. Off to Yamazaki who runs wild and hits a butterfly suplex for two. The crowd is very much into this. Back to Kitamura for a backdrop suplex, but Handa is there to break the count. Handa hits a forearm but walks into an inside cradle for two. Kitamura hits a dropkick in the corner and comes out of the corner with a bulldog. Back to Yamazaki, who shoots Handa into the ropes and meets her with a rolling headbutt to the chest. Gutwrench suplex gets two. Handa makes the tag to Miss A and shit gets real again, as A just throws kicks WITH EXTRA MUSTARD all over Yamazaki’s body. And then she kicks her in the face for good measure. A goes for a test of strength, but Yamazaki jumps over into a sunset flip for two, which Miss A turns into a pin of her own for two. Northern lights suplex gets two and then a backdrop suplex gets two more. Handa comes in for a northern lights suplex herself, which gets two. A and Handa hit Kitamura with a double shoulderblock followed by a double suplex, but here comes Yamazaki with a flying double dropkick to save the day. She can’t take Miss A down with a sunset flip, so Kitamura gives her a hand with a flying clothesline, which gets two. Miss A takes Yamazaki’s head off with a clothesline for the pin, but Yamazaki has her foot on the ropes. A goes for a German suplex, but Yamazaki blocks and rolls her up for the win at 6:47.
Rating: This definitely came out of nowhere, but holy cow it was AWESOME. They certainly made the most of the relatively short time they got, with fast nonstop action and Miss A getting over with a crowd (and Dusty) that didn’t know her at all before the bell. Badass match. ***1/2
Meanwhile, Missy Hyatt promises to interview a man in the locker room. Hm, okay.
Buddy Landel vs. Dustin Rhodes
IMG credit: WWE
JR reminds Dusty they have to be impartial calling the action. Good luck with that, Jimbo! Landel bitchslaps Dustin to start, which only succeeds in getting him all fired up. Dustin with a backdrop and dropkick gets two. Landel hides in the corner and we get a stalemate. Landel chops away in the corner, but Dustin turns things around and nails him with elbows. Hiptoss followed by a clothesline for two. Dustin armdrags him and goes to work on the arm. Landel cheapshots Dustin and slams him. He goes up but takes too much time, allowing Dustin to get back up and slam him off as Landel begs for mercy. Nature who? Meanwhile, Dusty on commentary: “when you back a dawg into a corner, you gotta be very careful that it don’t bah-bah-bah-bite ya”. Very insightful comments there! Dustin misses a blind charge in the corner and eats post, as Landel drops the knee on Dustin’s skull. Landel chops away and goes to work on the arm. Buddy gets in a few cheapshots and a slam gets two. Landel works a sleeper, but Dusty makes the ropes and Landel eats boot on a blind charge. Dustin with a wussy clothesline, and then clotheslines him over the top and to the floor. No DQ in this case because it’s not the finish they booked for this match.. Back in, Dustin struggles to hit a gorilla press slam and then finishes with the bulldog at 6:33.
Rating: The experienced Buddy Landel knew what he was doing and carried Dustin to a watchable bout, but Dustin was still way too green for it to be anything more than that, watchable. He was a bit sloppy at times, particularly on the clothesline and the press slam near the finish, but otherwise it was overall okay. *1/2
Meanwhile, Missy Hyatt is backstage in the guy’s locker room and she wants to know what is the first ‘babe’ to ever be interviewed by a woman in a wrestling locker room. She walks in and the first person she runs into… is Stan Hansen. And, well, there goes her attempt at interviewing someone. This was funnier than I thought it would be, and I’m sure it got Hansen some heat from the pervs who wanted to see a little bit more!
The Young Pistols (Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong) vs. The Royal Family (Jack Victory & Rip Morgan)
IMG credit: WWE Network
Tracy and Steve are obviously the Southern Boys with a new gimmick, and the Royal Family are still around from the international tag team tournament at StarrCade. They wouldn’t be around much longer. The Pistols go for a double team move but eat stereo clotheslines instead. Victory dumps Armstrong but the Royals miss a double clothesline on Smothers in the corner, as Armstrong comes off with a double high crossbody and then the babyfaces clean house with stereo dropkicks. And now… the lights go out in the arena. Should’ve paid the bill, guys. They fire up a spotlight so we can at least see the match. Morgan goes to work on Smothers’ arm, but Armstrong comes in and the Pistols clean house once more. Back in, Morgan takes over with a headlock on Armstrong and brings in Victory, who walks into an armbar. He escapes with a shoulderblock and we get a stalemate. Another shoulderblock connects and we get a stalemate. Blind tag by Smothers as the Pistols hit a double shoulderblock on Victory that gets two.
Smothers cranks on Victory’s arm and we get more double teaming by the babyfaces. Armstrong goes for another shoulderblock, but Victory moves out of the way and Steve takes himself out. The Royals cut the ring in half now as a back elbow by Morgan gets two. Victory eats boot on a blind charge in the corner to set up the hot tag to Armstrong, which doesn’t get a great reaction. Smothers runs wild with superkicks to both heels. Morgan gets a cheap knee to Smothers’ back on a criss cross to cut off the comeback, though, and Victory clotheslines him over the top for the ULTIMATE HEEL DICK MOVE while the ref is distracted. Just call an audible and go home already, this is going on way too long already and the crowd doesn’t care. Just as I say this… Morgan works a bearhug. Joy, says I. Morgan hits a spinebuster for two. The Royals hit a double suplex as now Victory gets his own bearhug. Really? The Royals double-team Smothers to the point Armstrong comes in himself and breaks it up, as it’s BREAKING LOOSE IN PHOENIX… under complete silence. The Pistols go for another double suplex on Smothers, but Armstrong dropkicks them and Smothers lands on top of Morgan for the win at 12:05.
Rating: Good lord. It’s not that it was technically bad or anything, but it was just ridiculously long, heatless and incredibly boring. *
Meanwhile, the new manager of the Freebirds calls out Doom and Teddy Long. The Freebirds’ new manager? Diamond Dallas Page. You might’ve heard of him before!
No DQ Match – Terry Taylor(w/ Alexandra York) vs. ‘Z-Man’ Tom Zenk
IMG credit: WWE Network
According to JR, these two traded a number of DQ victories and draws on TV, so we get this no DQ match at the PPV. Lockup results in a stalemate. Another one and Zenk takes over with an armdrag and a dropkick. Taylor gets up in Zenk’s face, but he slaps him in return and Taylor bails to think some strategy with York. Back in, Taylor cheapshots Zenk, who gives him one in return and Taylor bails some more. Zenk takes over with a headlock and a shoulderblock gets two. And back to the headlock he goes, working the count a few times but Taylor makes it to the ropes. Okay and? It’s no DQ… They get into a slugfest and Taylor backdrops him for two. And back to the headlock. Jesus, can’t you do anything else? Taylor tries to get out of it, but Zenk uses the ropes for leverage and rolls back into the headlock. Into the corner they go and the ref forces the break once again. FUCKING WHY??? Taylor whips Zenk into the other corner and hits a backdrop suplex for two. To the outside they go, where Taylor chokes him out with a TV cable but the ref can’t do anything about it. The ref gets in Taylor’s face and they get in a heated conversation. That conversation? “Choke the life out of him with the TV cable all you want Terry, but DON’T YOU DARE USE THE ROPES”.
Taylor pokes the eyes back inside and hits a backbreaker for the win… actually never mind as Zenk had his foot on the ropes to stop the count. See what I mean about the ropes? That’s going too far, man. Taylor works a few restholds but gets clotheslined over the top to the outside, as they get into a slugfest on the outside. Meanwhile, JR says this is the first major PPV of York representing her York Foundation. Damn, I know Rotunda left for the WWF, but no need to Chris Benoit him like that. Zenk with a swinging neckbreaker and a SPECTACULAR superkick, but Taylor has his foot on the ropes. Ugh, fuck off already, will ya? Taylor blocks a kick and talks some trash only to eat an enziguiri from Zenk. He follows it up with a high crossbody but York is up on the apron and misses the count. Taylor rolls him up from behind with a handful of tights for the win at 10:51.
Rating: I had a high rating ready for this match, but unfortunately I got my feet stuck on the ropes which breaks the count, I’ve heard. All jokes aside, this didn’t work. **
Paul El Perigoso interviews El Gigante
IMG credit: WWE Network
Check out the Latino swagger on Paul E. Eat your heart out, Tito Santana! This is your “we want El Gigante on the PPV but he’s too shitty to wrestle” portion of the show. Heyman introduces El Gigante, with JR saying he wants to be the next World Champion while Dusty reinforces that Ric Flair is on Gigante’s mind. The fact that they even considered this is absolutely mental. Heyman wants to teach Gigante a few words in English, like jerk. “Because that’s what you really are, jerko amigo”!! Gigante is going to be the special referee for a cage match for the title between Flair and Sting and he has no doubts Gigante will try and steal the belt from Flair. He asks for Gigante’s comments on the whole situation. His comments? ‘No hablo inglés’. No wonder this company was on its ass. Heyman gets tired of the jerko amigo, and throws his hat in Gigante’s face, who picks him up with a half assed slam. And then Gigante steals his hat to close the segment. I hope Gigante gave Heyman at least half of his salary that night, because he literally carried the entire segment on his night while Gigante just stood there doing nothing at all. Well better than having him wrestle a match, I guess.
Meanwhile, Hiro Matsuda and The Great Muta promote WCW/NJPW Supershow. Muta spits some green mist to end the segment.
Big Van Vader vs. Stan Hansen
IMG credit: WWE Network
This is a grudge match from Japan. This is only Vader’s second WCW PPV appearance, having squashed Tom Zenk the prior year. They’re wasting no time here and get into a slugfest on the ramp already. Hansen hits the LARIATO and just dumps Vader over the top and into the ring like a giant sack of trash. There is Hansen’s tobacco all over the ring already. Hansen pounds away on Vader in the corner but then walks right into Vader’s own version of the LARIATO. Vader slugs away on Hansen for two, getting some more tobacco hanging out of Hansen’s mouth in the process. Vader follows it up with a massive corner clothesline and a big fat elbowdrop gets two. Vader dumps Hansen and follows him out there, taking the fight to the outside. Hansen goes back to the ring to get away from Vader, but he follows him back there. Another corner clothesline misses, and Hansen drops Vader with a BACKDROP SUPLEX for two. Hansen pounds away some more and drops an elbow for two. Vader bails as they proceed to hit each other with chairs and boxes for fun. Vader slams Hansen ribs-first on the railing and drops an elbow right there on the floor. Hansen brings Vader back to the outside and throws him into the steps. They crawl back inside and literally get into a slugfest on their knees. They headbutt each other and throw the ref out of the way, drawing the double DQ at 6:21. They ignore the stupid rules and continue the fight, as Vader comes off the top with a flying clothesline. Hansen moves out of the way of a splash though, and just RUNS HIM OVER with a massive shoulderblock. Good god almighty!! Hansen tries to hang Vader with his bullrope, but Vader blocks and they just continue beating the shit out of each other all the way back to the curtain.
Rating: This was really fun to watch, I loved it. I wish it would have been longer and it had a proper finish, but for the six short minutes they were out there, they wasted no time and had an awesome hoss fight. ***1/4
United States Heavyweight Championship – Lex Luger(c) vs. Danny Spivey
IMG credit: WWE Network
This doesn’t look promising on paper, but I’ve heard good and even great things about it before. Let’s see if it lives up. JR and Dusty announce the winner of this match will be awarded with a new US title belt. Lockup to start and a stalemate. Spivey cheapshots him on the clean break to take over but Luger backdrops him and fires away with a number of shoulderblocks. Spivey goes to work on the back already to set up his side slam (thank you, JR!), but then Luger blocks a Spivey atomic drop and hits a backdrop suplex for two. And we get a stalemate yet again. Spivey eats boot on a blind charge as Luger slugs away. Hiptoss by Luger but then he misses a charge and goes flying into the other WarGames ring! Luger is brought back into the main ring with a Spivey vertical suplex and then a TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER gets two. Neckbreaker gets two more. Spivey snaps Luger’s neck in half before hitting a great looking DDT for another good nearfall. Lex took that one like a champ. Holy crap I’m digging this one! Luger shows some life but Spivey cuts him off with a headbutt. Corner clothesline gets two. Spivey misses a blind charge in the corner and Luger rolls him up for two, but Spivey easily takes back control and pounds away with some nice kicks on Luger. Lex blocks a suplex and gives him one of his own, but Luger is way too beat up and he can’t follow up with anything, allowing Spivey to take back control.
Spivey slams Luger and comes off the top with a fantastic flying elbowdrop for a nearfall. Spivey works a legscissors(!!!) to punish Luger’s back some more, and then hits a big boot for two. Spivey sets up for a piledriver, which Luger tries to block, but eventually Spivey overpowers him and connects for two. Luger starts hulking up and no-sells a number of shots from Spivey, so Spivey is like “okay, fuck it” and hits a belly to belly suplex instead. That gets two. Spivey works a chinlock but Luger still has some life left in him, as he elbows his way out of the hold but then runs right into an overhead armdrag. Spivey with a shoulderblock but then Luger stunguns him. Luger starts making a comeback as he slugs away and comes off the middle rope with a flying clothesline. Luger follows it up with a powerslam but Spivey shoves Luger to the floor. Luger tries to come back in with a sunset flip on Spivey, who holds the ropes and drops a fist on Luger to block it. They clothesline each other as we get a double KO spot. And then another one, this time via a double shoulderblock. Luger goes up but gets slammed off by Spivey, but Luger turns it into an inside cradle in mid-air for the win to retain at 12:52.
Rating: Call it a miracle, call it whatever you want, but this way way better than it had any right to be. Very good psychology from Spivey over Luger’s back and neck in the first half of the match, with Luger taking some nice bumps and fighting from underneath like a champ in the second half. A fun and physical tussle and a great showing from both workers. ***3/4
New US Championship belt presentation
IMG credit: WWE Network
Former US champ Nikita Koloff presents Luger with the new belt after the match. As a former champion, he congratulates Luger on the match and says it’s his pleasure to give this to Luger… WHAM! Nikita hits Luger with the new belt right in the face and proceeds to challenge him because the title “is changing hands back and forth way too often”. Oh Nikita, you wait until WWE gets their hands on that title in the early 2000s! Very good angle.
WCW World Tag Team Championship: Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed)(c)(w/ Teddy Long) vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin)(w/ Diamond Dallas Page & ‘Big Daddy Dink’ Oliver Humperdink)
IMG credit: WWE Network
The story here is that Doom had been having some miscommunications heading into this title match, so the Freebirds would try and take advantage of that. Typical Freebirds stalling as Simmons overpowers Hayes easily and he keeps claiming hairpulling. Simmons quickly has enough of Hayes and hits a spinebuster for two. Simmons eats a cheapshot on a blind charge though, and Hayes follows it up with a bulldog for two. Simmons comes back with a powerslam and then catches a flying Garvin in mid-air with another powerslam. The Freebirds bail and get some advice from Humperdink. Off to Garvin, who wants Reed instead. Reed blocks a hiptoss and takes Garvin’s head off with a clothesline. Garvin blocks a back elbow and gets a sunset flip for two. Reed cleans house with gorilla press slams on both Freebirds, until Hayes cheapshots him while he’s doing one to Garvin. Reed comes back with a backbreaker on Garvin and Doom hit a double back elbow. Simmons follows it up with a couple of headbutts while Reed slams Garvin on the floor. However, Garvin catches Reed with the DDT, but Reed makes the tag to Simmons who prevents Garvin from reaching Hayes. Are the Freebirds working babyface in peril here!? Simmons hits a spinebuster WITH EXTRA MUSTARD but Hayes is there to break it up. Holy shit that looked awesome. Simmons with a slam and again Hayes breaks up the pin. Humperdink gets up on the apron and distracts the ref while Long gives Reed some brass knuckles. Reed charges… but Hayes moves out of the way and Reed knocks Simmons out instead. Uh oh. Hayes holds Reed while Garvin simply pins the dead Simmons for the win and the titles at 6:56. Simmons shoves Long after the match, so Reed hits him with the knuckles again, this time on purpose, effectively turning Simmons babyface and starting his singles push.
Rating: The match was fine and told the story it had to tell, but the dynamic with the Freebirds as babyfaces was really weird. It was fine. **1/4
Fun fact: the Freebirds had already dropped the belts to the Steiners at a TV taping six days before this PPV, which technically means the Freebirds had a -6 days title reign!
Main event – WarGames – The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Barry Windham & Sid Vicious) & Larry Zbyszko(w/ Arn Anderson) vs. Sting, Flyin’ Brian Pillman & The Steiners (Rick & Scott)
IMG credit: WWE & upprox.com
Arn Anderson is being replaced by Zbyszko here due to injury. Meanwhile, over on the babyface side, Pillman comes out with a taped left shoulder after the Horsemen destroyed him on TV literally the night before this event. Wanting revenge, Brian Pillman steps up to start the battle with Barry Windham, which is not a very wise decision to say the least. Pillman with a flying clothesline to start as he then uses the roof of the cage to dropkick Windham, as well as a flying headscissors, and Windham begs off. Pillman fakes a high crossbody and comes down with a missile dropkick instead. Windham moves out of the way of a bodypress and teases a whip into the cell, but Pillman answers with a blatant low blow and sends Windham into the cage himself. Pillman rams Windham into the cage repeatedly, and we even get some cheese grater action while Windham bleeds already. Pillman follows it up by BITING HIS OWN BLOODY FACE and gets Windham’s blood all over his own goddamned lips. Holy shit I wouldn’t mess with this maniac again. Windham continues to learn that the hard way as he earns another free trip into the cage and then eats a flying clothesline off the top. Pillman proceeds to dump Windham all the way into the second ring where he continues the punishment, and at this point Windham’s hair has already turned red. Pillman goes to work on Windham’s leg now as he just continue to beat the living shit out of Windham. Meanwhile, it’s now time for the coin toss, which is won by the heels. Shocking, says I, SHOCKING!
Ric Flair comes in for the Horsemen to make it 2-on-1 for the next two minutes, getting into an epic chopfest with Pillman until Windham breaks it up and they throw Pillman into the cage. Windham is all like “let me take care of him” as he then rams the injured shoulder into the cage. Flyin’ Brian then goes flyin’ all the way back to the original ring, getting his foot caught on the top ropes and landing right on his bad shoulder. They continue to go to work on the shoulder but here comes Sting!
The former World champ goes to work on the Horsemen with a double clothesline, as the crowd goes nuts for the Stinger. Sting catches Flair with a bulldog, but Windham crotches Pillman over in the other ring. The chops are no-sold by Sting, who answers with a Stinger Splash on Naitch followed by the Scorpion Deathlock… but here’s Zbyszko for the save. Sting says “alright then” and takes him out with a dive from one right to the other. The number’s advantage once again bite the babyfaces in the ass though, as Zbyszko is able to turn things around with the help of the Horsemen. Rick Steiner is the penultimate entrant for the babyfaces.
Flair & Windham are waiting for him by the cage door, but Steinerlines are abound and Rick runs wild on the heels. A Flair atomic drop is easily blocked and turned into a belly to belly before Rick sends him face-first into the cage. Cheese grater action follows and now Flair is bleeding. In other words, water is wet! Time for Sid Vicious as we have the full heel team in there already. He goes right after Rick to save Flair, but Pillman comes in from behind and he rams Flair into the cage himself to get his punishment. Flair is just taking a whoopin’ out there! Rick Steiner no-sells a whip into the cage by Zbyszko and pounds away, while Flair goes low on Sting. We get the final countdown as Scott Steiner completes the field and WarGames is officially underway.
Scott is a house of fire early on, taking Flair & Windham down with a double Steinerline. Butterfly sitout powerbomb on Zbyszko. That looked great. Rick then whips Sid right into a flying Steinerline from Scotty. Sting with a second Stinger Splash on Ric Flair as he tries the Scorpion Deathlock once more, but Zbyszko breaks it up. Sid rams Pillman’s shoulder into the buckle, but you can tell Sid is completely lost out there as he doesn’t know what to follow up with and keeps on loudly calling spots on camera. All four babyfaces then lock in stereo figure fours on the heels, with Arn Anderson getting all worked up on the outside and wanting to get in. Thankfully for them, they’re all close to each other and use each other’s bodies to get out of the holds. Sting gorilla press slams Flair into the cage numerous times like he’s Dr. Death or something and slugs away on him. Rick catches Sid with a Steinerline but Sid & Windham respond with a double clothesline. Pillman chops away on Flair and bites him too, while Scott gives Windham a half-assed DDT only to get back up and turn around right into a Sid big boot. Sid then blatantly calls more spots to Pillman before slamming him on top of the cage. Geez at least hide it, you big doofus. He then follows it up by almost killing Pillman with the Powerbomb, apparently forgetting there’s a cage right there and literally dropping him on his neck. Good lord… Sid hits a (much safer) second Powerbomb as out comes El Gigante to throw the towel and give up for Pillman, giving the Horsemen the win at 21:50.
Rating: This was quite the awesome brawl for the most part, especially in the first few minutes with Brian Pillman showing some awesome fire and wanting revenge on the Horsemen. He was the true highlight of this match and came out looking like a big star. Sid Vicious was on a mission to single handedly fuck everything up, loudly calling spots numerous times and dropping the aforementioned up-and-comer Pillman right on his neck on that first Powerbomb, but he wasn’t quite successful. This still ruled and probably would’ve hit the full mounty had it not been for Sid being green and just overall shitty in early 1991. ****1/2
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: I had to wait a long time, but FINALLY a good show from WCW came! The PPV started off with a really weird opener for the short-lived Six Man Tag titles, which Ricky Morton still carried to “watchable” level. From there, we got a number of good-to-great matches including Eaton vs. Armstrong, the Japanese women’s tag match, Vader vs. Hansen, Luger vs. Spivey and the WarGames main-event. Not forgetting the great angles between Luger and Nikita or Ron Simmons’ babyface turn as well. Sure, there was some forgettable stuff on the show as well, particularly in the middle, but there was enough to give this a thumbs up. 6/10
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