- Lets go back to a time before WCW was bought out by the
WWF. A time when WCW not only put on good wrestling, but made money too. A time
before Hulk Hogan. So, lets head back to 1994 for the HITMAN383 Re-Rant for WCW
Spring Stampede 1994. (This was originally written in 2001)
- As some of you must know, I DID already do a rant for this
one, but it was REALLY early in my tape reviewing days, and I don’t like the
original that much. Future re-rants: Some of the WCW Videos featured in the
“compilation tapes” section of my site. (As noted before, back when there wasn’t the
WWE Network, I was at the mercy of local video stores for my reviewing. So when
fresh stuff ran out, there was nothing to do but go back and re-review stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of value to re-reviews, and I plan on
doing some on this site as well, but with so much content available on the WWE
Network, it’s hard to justify redoing a show when there’s so many classic cards
that haven’t even been covered yet)
- BTW, I use this system: ***** - Excellent, **** - Great,
*** - Good, **- Okay, * - Decent, DUD - Awful.
- Live from Chicago,
Illinois.
- Your Hosts are Mean Gene, and Jesse Ventura. The
commentators are Tony Shavonie and Bobby Heenan. Quite a line up, eh? (Yeah,
WCW signed a lot of big name talents that year, both in the ring and on the
microphone)
- Opening Match: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Johnny B. Badd: Badd was
still playing it super gay here. Page was still fat, and weird looking, but
whatever. Oddly, Badd is the face. I mean, WCW is mainly a southern company,
and they managed to make an effeminate character pretty over. Odd, considering
pretty boys are usually booed out of buildings in red neck territory. Page
jumps him, but Badd rolls him up for two then clotheslines him to the floor. He
drags DDP right back in, but Dallas
quickly takes control with a suplex for two. He hooks a front facelock, but
Badd reverses into a hammerlock on the mat. He rolls that into some pin
attempts, but Page elbows his way out. He tries a charge, but gets arm dragged
back to the canvas, only to change it into a facelock. Badd counters THAT,
however, and flips out into a dropkick for two. He goes to follow up, but Dallas rams him to the
corner. Side suplex, and he kicks Mero down. He connects with a nice gutbuster,
and a suplex/powerslam type move for two. He hooks a head vice on, but Badd
side suplexes out. He out runs Page, and hits an inverted atomic drop, then a
backdrop. He head scissors him down (to “ohhs” from the fans) and then punches
him out of the ring. He follows with an over the top dive onto Page, and then
sunset flips off the top to win at 5:50. Pretty good match, with great heat.
***. They’d go on have even better ones in 1996. (This is two years after my
original Rant, and I’m still at three-stars for this. Kinda makes me want to go
back and rewatch this match, because I don’t remember being so impressed with
it when I did the BUExperience)
- WCW Television Title Match: Steven Regal vs. Brian
Pillman: Pillman attacks him to start, and hammers away on the champ. Regal
tries to take out the legs, but Pillman reverses into so punching. He hits the
X-Pac armdrag, and Regal bails. Brian follows, and gets pounded by the
Ambassador. It backfires, however, and Pillman works the arm. Pillman gets
caught up with the manager, and Steve works the wrist. Man, this match has
slowed down. Criss cross leads to a dragon suplex by Regal for two. He tries a
Canadian backbreaker, but Pillman rolls him up for two. Steve won’t sit for that
kind of besmirching, and hooks on STF on poor Brian. He goes to the uppercuts,
and then hooks a surfboard. I like Regal, but he does too many holds to keep
the crowd going. G-D forbid he ever face Bob Backlund. (That actually sounds interesting)
He tries a powerbomb, but Pillman gets a rana for two. Steve tries the Regal
Roll, but trips, so they try again, and now he hits it for a two count. Very
amateur looking out there, guys. Back to the surfboard. Pretty obviously this
is going to a draw. Pillman fights out, but gets hooked into a half crab for
his troubles at 10:00 minutes in. Flyin’ Brian fights back, but Steve rolls him
up (with a hand full of tights) for two, then hooks a facelock on the mat. Big
slugfest won by Regal, but he takes a dropkick for the little guy. He tries
another, caught by Steve, who goes to the Boston Crab, but Brian pushes out.
Enzuguri by Pillman, and he tries a monkey flip, but gets thrown off. Regal
tries a move off the 2nd rope, but Pillman catches him with a dropkick to wake
up the crowd. Backdrop, and they spill to the floor with 10 seconds to go. He
goes for a suplex, but the time limit expires at 15:00. Decent, but slow. * ½.
Sign in the crowd: “Who Booked That?” I’d put $ 50.00 on Bill Watts.
- WCW World Tag Team Titles, Street Fight: The Nasty Boys
vs. Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne: Mick was super fat at this point. (As
opposed to now?) They waist no time, brawling in the isles, and Jack
takes a nasty bump with a cane right away. He returns the favor to Knobs, and
Cactus clotheslines him to the floor. Payne takes a vicious chair shot from
Sags, and a pool cue puts Jack down. He comes back with a chair, however, and
the faces kill the Nasties. In the ring, Cactus gets a pool cue to the head
again, while Payne and Knobs fight down the isle. Maxx and Brian reach a
souvenir stand (conveniently where the fans can’t go and … you know … buy
stuff. No wonder WCW was always losing money. They have merchandise stands
where fans can’t go. ( ) ) Cactus does mean things to
Sags with a chair, while Payne slams Knobs through a table for two. Cactus and
Sags join them at the merchandise stand, and the brawl continues on a VERY
small split screen. (That was one of my pet peeves with mid-90s WCW. The stupid split
screens that prominently displayed the show graphic, instead of the action. The
World War 3 matches were always the worst offenders, splitting into three tiny screens,
with dozens of guys crowding each, and making the match impossible to follow.
Especially on the much smaller, non-HD TVs people had in the 90s)
Cactus takes some nasty shots with a folded up table to the head, as Knobs
chokes out Payne. Sags and Cactus fight on the rampway, where Jack hits a
swinging neckbreaker. He suplexes the table onto Sags, then sets it up. He’s
about to do something, when Brian nails him with a shovel to the head. Ouch.
Sags and Cactus go on the table, but it cracks under the weight during a
piledriver spot. They make up for their fat by making Mick take a headfirst
plunge to concrete off the ramp. Ouch II. Sags follows him down, and cracks his
skull with a shovel (in a VICIOUS, VICIOUS bump) to end this at 8:55. It’s lost
some steam after all the hardcore matches the WWF and WCW (and ECW) have done
since, but still **** ½. Back then it was even better, since no one had ever
seen anything like it before. This was just a vicious, intense brawl.
- WCW United States
Title Match: Steve Austin vs. The Great Muta: This was back when Austin was a heel, and no
one felt it was strange. Stalls to start. Headlocks to follow. Wow, Muta has SO
lost his steam by this point. I miss 1989, when NOBODY outside of Randy Savage
was at his levels. (I wouldn’t go that far, but yeah, he was awesome in 1989, no doubt)
Criss cross leads to a Muta abdominal stretch, which Austin tries to reverse, but gets thrown off.
Waistlock leads to a Muta roll up for two, and he moves to the headlock spot.
To kill time the announcers bring up if the jet lag may effect Muta. See,
that’s some cool shit. Austin
side suplexes out of it for two, but Muta suplexes him back to teach him a
lesson. He follows with his twisting elbow, and goes to the headlock again.
Criss cross leads to a Muta dropkick, and he headlocks again, which Austin turns into a mat
based head scissors. Why are they resting so much? If this were 1989 he
wouldn’t do this! I guarantee! (Guarantee
not valid in Alaska or Hawaii) Austin bails out to waist more time. Steve
rolls him up for two, and they fight over a wristlock. Geez, pick it up a
little, guys. Col. Parker distracts Muta, which allows Austin to knee him to the floor. Abuse
follows. Back in Austin
hits a knee drop for two, and hooks an abdominal stretch. No where near the
ropes. The point? I don’t have a clue. I mean, if he can’t cheat with the hold,
it’s pointless. Luckily for him, they move over to the ropes, and Austin uses ‘em. Too
little too late. Muta finally hip tosses out, but misses a dropkick. Steve hits
the Bret Hart elbow for a series of two counts, and then chokes him on the
bottom cable. Muta comes back with kicks, and backdrops Austin to the heavens. Suplex connects, and a
dropkick follows. He misses a top rope version, however. Steve goes for the Hollywood and Vine, but
doesn’t make it. Criss cross leads to a Muta stun gun, and then the handspring
elbow. He hits a top rope rana to wake up the crowd, takes out Parker, and
backdrops Austin
to the floor! Uh Oh. Over the top is a DQ, and Steve retains at 16:43. Sure,
sure, Muta starts busting out the cool stuff AFTER 15:00 minutes of resting. *.
- WCW International World Title Match: Rick Rude vs.
Sting: Don’t ask about the belt. Just read Scott Keith’s “The Buzz on
Wrestling.” Anyway, they’re using the “big gold belt” as the “International
World Title,” and another belt as the WCW Title. They’d unify it about three
months later, when Ric Flair beats Sting at a Clash of the Champions show.
While Rude goes through his usual pre-match shtick, Harley Race (Vader’s
manager) comes out to challenge the winner for a title match on Vader’s behalf.
He then tries to jump Sting, which backfires, and Borden kicks his old ass. (That
seems like kind of a weird place to randomly start using Sting’s real name all
of a sudden) Rude charges at him next, but takes a backdrop, then gets
clotheslined to the floor. Suplex on the outside, and back in for some abuse by
Sting. Damn, Sting is the most over guy on this show so far. Side suplex for
two, and Sting hooks a front face lock. Slam, and a big elbow connect. He hits
two more big elbows for one. Back to the face lock. Rude fights back, but to no
avail, as Sting keeps it hooked on. He finally does break, however, by
crotching him on the top rope, and clotheslining him to the floor. The champ
follows out to pound, and then dumps Sting back in for a side suplex. It gets
two, and he hooks on a Sid-style chinlock. For a long time. Too many restholds
in this one. Man, I wish I could illustrate to you how long and boring the
restholds are in this bout. Sting powers up out of the hold for a victory roll,
but Rude reverses for one, and Sting reverses THAT for two! Excellent series.
Sleeper hooked on by Rude, but he lets off after two arm drops. Huh? That was
stupid. I’m proven right, as Sting starts no selling right away, and atomic
drops him into tomorrow. 100 clotheslines kill him, (Much like in the first Rant, my
hyperbole kicks into overdrive for this match. They just bring it out in me,
apparently) and a Stinger Splash hits, but the ref. goes down with him.
Deathlock applied, but Race and Vader come out. No luck, however, as Sting
kills them to big pops. Rude chop blocks him down, and tries for the Rude
Awakening. He almost gets him, but Race accidentally bops Rude with the chair
to give Sting the win at 13:11. HUGE, HUGE pop for that. Bigger than ANYTHING
Hogan got in his entire WCW stay, which is scary. **.
- Bunkhouse Match: Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes:
It’s better than it could ever sound. Trust me. Rhodes
flies in from the ramp with a clothesline to open it up, and then pounds away!
Flying clothesline puts Buck down. Suplex gets two, and a backdrop kills him.
It spills outside, where Dustin wins a slugfest, and then crotches Bunkhouse.
Back in, more punching. Rhodes misses another
flying clothesline attempt, sending him to the floor, where Buck beats him with
a wooden board. That busts him open, which, oddly, is what would get him fired
about a year later. Inside, Buck slams him, then destroys the knee on the post.
Rhodes fights back with kicks, and tosses
powder in the eyes of Buck. He starts to make the Big Dust comeback, but is met
with a whipping by Bunkhouse Buck. That goes on for a bit, then Buck beats the
hell out of him in the corner. For a LONG time. He eventually misses a knee,
and Dustin kicks a field goal on Buck’s body. He takes HIS belt off now, and
wallops him with it to draw blood. Whoa! TWO blade jobs in ONE WCW PPV … and in
the SAME MATCH!? OH MY G-D! Dusty elbow connects, and he clotheslines him to
the floor! Buck gets a loaded glove from his pocket, but gets atomic dropped
before he can use it, and takes a series of elbows in the corner. Bulldog
follows, but it only gets one, as Col. Parker distracts him. He takes a suplex
for his troubles, and then takes some abuse with Dustin’s belt. Buck recovers
and rolls him up, but it only gets two! Slugfest won by Rhodes,
but Buck gets the knux, wallops him, and gets the pin at 14:15. Pretty good
match, which was a non-stop brawl. ** ¾.
- Backstage Vader and Rude have a brawl over Race and Vader
costing Rude the “World” title. I only mention this because it involves Jerry
Sags running out in a small towel to break it up. Fair warning. If you get this
tape, cover your eyes for that portion. (Yeah, that was nasty)
- Vader vs. The Boss: The Boss is Bossman, in another
cop gimmick. The WWF would sue their ass shortly after this, and “The Boss”
would become the “Guardian Angel.” Don’t ask. They start with a brawl in the
isle, but Race accidentally gets in the way, and Vader goes down! Clothesline
into the ring, and a big punch puts him back out. They punch eachother out there
(won by Vader, duh), and he slams Boss back in. He follows with a running over
the top dive onto Boss, but it misses. Cool spot though. Bossman clotheslines
him to the outside, and then tosses the big man over the rail into the first
row. He follows with a slam onto the railing, so he can REALLY impress me. Back
in, Bossman hits a clothesline, and then slams the big guy. I’ve never seen
Vader dominated like this. Apparently he doesn’t like it either, as he follows
by punching Boss’s head off, and then backdroping him to the floor. Nice bump
there. They’re working really stiff, too, as Vader’s eye is cut, and so is his
mouth. Whoa. That’s REALLY stiff. (My mind is racing imagining how awesomely
brutal a Vader/Lesnar match would have been, if they existed in their primes at
the same time, and were given fifteen minutes on PPV) Suplex and a
splash get two, and Vader nearly kills him with corner shots. Criss cross leads
to a Bossman clothesline, but he catches a stiff one from Vader in return. He
goes for the Vader Bomb, but gets crotched and slammed off. He follows with a
DDT off the top (shit, where did THAT come from) for two, and Bossman goes up
for a flying bodypress for two. He tries another, but takes a powerslam for his
troubles. Vader is looking to finish, and hits the Vader Bomb, but it only gets
two??!! He decides to really kill Bossman, so he goes ALL the way up, and
moonsaults him for the pin at 9:47. Very good match, and probably Bossman’s
best ever. *** ¼. Afterwards, Bossman gets the nightstick, and kills Vader and
Race with it.
- Backstage, the commish (Nick Bockwinkle) yells at Bossman
for using the stick on Harley Race. The problem is, he yells at him like he’s a
little kid: “No Boss! No! You were BAD to hit those guys! Bad Boss!” The look
on Ventura’s
face is priceless. The real reason for this is that lawsuit I mentioned
earlier, since this was an OBVIOUS rip-off of his WWF gimmick.
- Main Event: WCW World Title Match: Ric Flair vs. Ricky
Steamboat: Good pops for both guys. Of course, shortly, Hogan would enter
(thus turning super face Flair into a heel), and knocking everyone else (like
Sting, Vader, Cactus Jack, Steve Austin and more) down the card. (Yeah,
that sucked, and everything, but really, Hogan did more good for WCW than bad)
As for Steamboat, he’d wrestle Austin
after this, and suffer a back injury (and officially retire him). So this is
almost like the Swan Song for both men. (Shockingly, Flair would still be wrestling
as a full timer for over fifteen more years. Think about that. Fifteen years
before this it was 1979. He hadn’t even won his first world title yet)
Staredown to start, and Flair wrestles him to the mat, but Steamboat counters
and they do the Angle/Benoit “get up and stare at eachother spot.” Repeat it
again. Steamboat gets a mat-based headscissors, but Flair wrestles out. Criss
cross leads to a Steamboat shoulderblock, and they do another wrestling
sequence. They get sick of that, and start the chops! Criss cross leads to
press slam by the Dragon, and he hits a flying head scissors. He gives him one
more, and a series of dropkicks puts the champ outside. He quickly rolls him
back in, and hits a top rope chop for two. Flair bails, which is smart
strategy, because he breaks Steamboat’s momentum. Ric wrestles him down with a
wristlock, and then goes to the chops. Steamboat fires back, and they have a
chop fest, which the ref. breaks up. Dumb ass ref. Ricky takes him down with a
side headlock, but Flair won’t stay there, so Rick keeps having to bust him
back down. Criss cross leads back to the Steamboat headlock, in a creative
spot. You know how in a criss cross one guy jumps down, face down, and lets the
other guy run over him? Well, Flair does that, but instead of skipping over
him, Steamboat dives back into the headlock! Steamboat with a shoulderblock for
two, and he re-hooks the headlock. Flair escapes, and chops, but takes a flying
head scissors, and then goes back into the headlock. Criss cross leads to Flair
tossing The Dragon out, but he skins the cat back in, and rolls him up for two.
Back to the headlock. Oddly, that’s the very spot that would end Ricky’s
career. He took the skin the cat bump wrong, and injured his back pretty badly.
Steamboat changes the pace, and goes to the front facelock, as Heenan and Tony
kill me. They were great together at this point. (Tony was actually a very good
announcer before he had to start juggling tons of corporate bullshit during the
Monday Night Wars, not unlike Michael Cole today) Ric breaks out, but
takes a backdrop, then dodges a dropkick. He chops Steamboat in the corner, and
hits a punch (but the camera catches it missing by six inches). They then do it
again! I’m disappointed, Ric! Snapmare and a knee drop by Flair for a series of
two counts. Back elbow for another series of twos, as Flair will not stop
trying. Another chop fest (won by Steamboat), leads to a criss cross, and both
men tumble to the outside. Ric recovers first, and tries a piledriver, but
Steamboat backdrops out. Steamboat then chops Flair’s chest (right in front of
his own wife), but misses a dive, and tumbles over the railing. Back in,
Steamboat hits a superplex for two, and a Flair Flip leads to another chop from
the challenger. Steamboat follows him out to the floor, and hits a top rope
chop! Nice spot. He rolls him back in, and does the ten punch count in the
corner. Flair is dazed, so Ricky hits some more chops for a two count. Sunset
flip is countered by Flair, but Steamboat catches his knee off a knee drop
attempt, and hooks Flair in the figure four!! Flair fights it, but Steamboat
won’t let him makes the ropes, dragging him back each time. Flair resorts to an
eye poke to break, and tries a suplex, but the knee gives out, and Steamboat
topples on him for two. A wrestling sequence leads to a Steamboat backslide for
two, and a small package gets two. Another chop fest (again won by Steamboat)
puts Flair on the ramp. Ricky tries to suplex him back in, but Flair reverses,
so Ricky chops him back in. Steamboat tosses him back out, but eats knee on a
diving chop, and stalls for time out there. Chop fest leads to a Steamboat
bodypress for a dramatic two. Flair goes up top, but gets slammed off by the
challenger. Steamboat goes up too, but misses a flying headbutt, and Flair goes
for the figure four. He almost hooks, but Steamboat pushes the leg up, keeping
him from locking it in. Flair fights through it, however, and locks it in,
putting Steamboat in pain. He finally makes the ropes, so Flair tries again,
but gets cradled for two. Steamboat backslide for two. Super-duperplex gets a
dramatic two count, and the crowd is going nuts. Criss cross leads to a Dragon
roll up for two, and he hooks the double chickenwing on (the hold he beat Flair
with to win the title in 1989), and he turns it into a pin attempt for the three
count at 32:18! The refs. confer on this, and decide that BOTH men’s shoulders
were down, so Flair retains. Great match, with a bad ending. It started off
slow, but kicked up shortly after. **** ¼.
- Bottom Line: Great show. Two blow away matches with
Flair/Steamboat and the Street Fight, and a very good one out of Vader and
Bossman. The rest is solid enough, with nothing really sucking out there. One
of the last really good shows before the Hogan arrival, when it all went down
the toilet. (Except for the part where they started, you know, making money)
- Recommended show.
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