WCW Fall Brawl 1994

Fall Brawl 1994 was an interesting lineup. While WCW had received a substantial bump in ratings and exposure with Hulk Hogan’s signing and title win, the Hulkster wasn’t booked for Fall Brawl – the show instead headlined by a WarGames match between Dustin Rhodes’ Team and the Stud Stable. That led to zero interest from fans like me who had started watching solely because of Hogan’s participation, though WCW spent most of the night dedicated to hyping the Hulkster’s appearance at the next pay per view – which did intrigue me enough to beg my parents to order.

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Opening WCW Television Title Match: Steven Regal v Johnny B. Badd: Regal runs through his gauntlet of stall tactics at the bell, until he ties up with Badd, and ends up in a wristlock. Regal hides in the ropes to break, but Badd goes for it again, and dropkicks Regal when he gets uppity. Badd takes him to the mat in the hold, triggering a pinfall reversal sequence that ends in Regal hooked in an armbar. Badd uses an airplane spin to block a reversal, and Steven bails to the floor to regroup, but Johnny flies out with a plancha to make sure he doesn't get himself counted out. Inside, Badd tries a bodypress, but Regal hits the deck, and Johnny crashes into the ropes. Regal hooks a wristlock of his own on the mat, and blasts him with a European uppercut as he tries to escape. Series of closed fists in the corner leave Badd dazed enough for Regal to take down in a full-nelson, but the challenger powers out with his ass (known as 'power bottoming'), and hits an atomic drop. Backdrop and a headscissors takedown get two, so Regal tugs at the tights to dump him. Undeterred, Johnny flies back in with a sunset flip for two, so Regal manager Sir William gets involved. Badd manages to dodge his interference, and hooks Regal in a backslide for the pin at 11:13. The crowd gives Badd a huge ovation for the win - his first of three TV Title runs. The match spent way too much time trading wristlocks without building to anything, but everything was well executed on both men’s part. ¾*

Loser Leaves WCW Match: Cactus Jack v Kevin Sullivan: They don't even make it into the ring before spilling into the crowd to brawl, and Sullivan smashes Jack's head into the guardrail, but gets tossed into the ringpost. Jack pulls up the floor mats to expose the concrete, but an attempt at a Cactus Elbow from the 2^nd rope gets blocked by Dave Sullivan, and Kevin slams him from the turnbuckle to the exposed floor. Sullivan bodyslams him out there, and they head inside for Sullivan to attack Jack's recently mutilated ear. Back to the floor, Jack gets backdropped on the exposed concrete, so he responds by throwing a chair at Sullivan. If fails as a distraction, however, and Kevin rams him into the ring steps before taking it back inside. He brings the chair with him, but Dave objects, so Kevin simply rolls Jack up at 6:38. Pretty disjoined, squash level match, but Jack was on his way out (this was his last WCW appearance, not an angle where he returns a few months later), with management furious at him for spitting on the WCW Tag Title belt while participating in a cross promotional effort with ECW a few months before. Not that becoming persona non grata stopped Jack from bumping his ass off out of spite, but Sullivan didn't give him much to work with. ¼*

WCW United States Title Match: Steve Austin v Jim Duggan: This was scheduled as Austin facing US Champion Ricky Steamboat, but the Dragon suffered a legitimate career ending injury in a match with Steve the month before, and comes out to forfeit the title to him. Austin's thrilled, but WCW Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel says he has to defend right here right now, and brings out Jim Duggan (in his WCW debut) to challenge. Austin bitches and moans as if he's just been forced into an impromptu match with Andre the Giant, and walks right into a 3-Point Stance at 0:40 while complaining. They were shooting for Honky Tonk Man/Ultimate Warrior here, and missed badly as audiences weren’t annoyed with Austin the way they were Honky, and weren't clamoring for Jim Duggan to win the title they way they were for Warrior. Though the crowd popped pretty loudly for it here, putting the title on Jim Duggan in forty seconds fell flat with critics across the board - especially for making Steve Austin look like a jobber, which he never recovered from (in WCW). DUD

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: Pretty Wonderful v Stars and Stripes: The entrances serve to prove that the champs are either on Mescaline here, or they're severely retarded. There is no middle ground. Paul Roma starts with Marcus Bagwell, and gets caught with a bodypress early on, then hooked in a wristlock. The Patriot tags in to keep the wristlock going, but Roma reaches Paul Orndorff... who ends up in a wristlock. Damn Mescaline. Criss cross ends with another Bagwell bodypress for two, so Orndorff bails back to Roma. Bagwell gets him in another wristlock (I'm guessing there was some sort of bonus for whomever used that hold the most on this show, or something), so Orndorff fires off a cheap shot from the apron, and the champs cut the ring in half. Orndorff with a piledriver, but Bagwell backdrops to counter, and passes to Patriot - but the referee misses the tag. That triggers a four-way brawl, and Orndorff piledrives Bagwell on the floor to Roma to pin at 12:59. Really dull stuff. ¼*

Vader v The Guardian Angel: The winner faces Sting immediately after, in a #1 Contender's Match. Vader tries to psych him out at the bell, but Angel responds by literally barking in his face, and then bending over. Not quite knowing what to make of that, Vader challenges to a more traditional test-of-strength, and powers Angel into the corner for some forearm shots. Avalanche, but Angel starts firing off clotheslines to block - only to have his back give out as he tries a bodyslam, and allow Vader to avalanche him. Angel fires back with a side suplex, but another try at a bodyslam fails (there's persistence, and there's being an idiot), leaving him on the mat for Vader to chinlock. Vader gets him up for a slam of his own, but Angel shakes his leg to sway the momentum, and topples Vader for two. To the outside, Vader tries an avalanche into the ringpost, but Angel sidesteps him, and rolls it inside for an enzuigiri. Another bodyslam attempt finally works, but leaves the Angel so shocked he forgets to cover, and Vader manager Harley Race blasts him with a headbutt to set up the Vaderbomb at 7:07. Certainly the worst of their four pay per view spanning series, Vader obviously conserving energy for Sting, and not leaving it all out there this time around. ½*

#1 Contender's Match: Vader v Sting: Sting is cautious in the first few tie-ups (going to stalemates), so Vader starts shoving him around, and unloads forearms in the corner. Sting tries a dropkick to turn the tide, but Vader slows him down with a bodyblock, and hits the Vaderbomb to really take the pep out of Sting's step. Another try gets countered with a series of kicks to the nuts by Sting, so Vader clobbers him with a brutal clothesline for getting cute, and then goes for the Vaderbomb again - Sting rolling out of the way this time. Clothesline knocks Vader silly, and Sting with a vertical suplex sets up a flying splash. An attempt at a regular splash hits knees, however, and Vader drops him with a powerslam to set up a flying moonsault - which misses. Sting powers the big man into the corner for a superplex, and a pair of leaping elbowdrops get two. Samoan drop for two, and the Stinger Splash gets two. Gorgeous German suplex for two, and the frustrated Sting gets caught with a series of forearms to leave him looking up at the lights. Not satisfied, Vader props him up in the corner for more forearms, but Sting SURFS UP!! Clothesline! Flying Clothesline! Another! Flying Splash! Powerslam! Scorpion Deathlock! - but time expires at 16:45 (kayfabe fifteen minutes). Since this is for contendership, the referee decides to give them five minutes of overtime, but Sting's momentum is broken, and Vader starts kicking him like he's trying to punt a field goal with his ribs. Suplex and a superplex, but Vader's winded, and Sting knocks him off the ropes - only to fall to the mat himself before he's able to follow-up. Vader manages a headbutt, but Sting backdrops him as he goes to the top rope - only to do more damage to himself in the process, and get splashed for two. Powerbomb, but time expires at 22:15 before he can pin him. Still, they need a winner, and with both men as dazed and confused as they are, the referee declares sudden death - first man to knock the other off of his feet wins. Vader wastes no time unloading forearms - knocking Sting around the ring like Muhammad Ali in his prime - but Sting uses the ropes to maintain a vertical base. Sting starts firing back with shoulderblocks to knock Vader over, but the referee is caught up with Harley Race on the floor and misses it. That allows a masked man to pop out of the crowd and whack Sting with a pipe, and the referee does see that at 25:14. Hell of a match here - hard hitting, exciting, and well paced. Of all the Sting/Vader matches, this one probably most served as a template for Vader's SummerSlam '96 match with Shawn Michaels (minus Michaels’ gross unprofessionalism), and outside of the screwy ending, this was one of their better matches - if the most overlooked. Vader would eventually get a title shot, but not until 1995. *** ¾

Main Event: WarGames: Team Rhodes (Dustin Rhodes, Dusty Rhodes, and The Nasty Boys) v The Stud Stable (Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, and Robert Parker): WarGames is a two ring match, with a cage covering both rings. One man from each side starts. After five minutes, a member from one of the teams - determined by a coin toss - enters, giving his team the temporary handicap advantage. After two minutes, a member from the other team enters to even the odds. Entrants alternate between teams every two minutes, giving the coin toss-winning team the temporary advantage in the numbers game before giving the other team the advantage with the freshest man in to even the odds. Once everyone is in, they battle to submission, surrender, or knockout - no pinfalls or disqualifications. There was a time when everyone who liked wrestling knew that, but with the WWE's refusal to incorporate WarGames into their schedule, I'm not sure that everyone remembers the details today. Arn starts for the Stable, and gets Dustin Rhodes - presumably because he's the most pissed/only one on his team weighing under 400 pounds. Arn gets slaughtered, so he wisely lures Rhodes into a chase into the heel ring - still getting pounded, but doing it on his territory. Dustin tries to find middle ground by literally trying to jam Arn in the gap between the two rings, and then clotheslining him back into the babyface ring. Dustin continues to destroy him, but Arn manages to get him back into the heel side as Bunkhouse Buck enters the match. The Stable work him over with double-teams, targeting Rhodes' previously injured arm. Jerry Sags joins the party to help even the odds - hitting a nice piledriver on Buck, and launching Anderson into the cage. Team Rhodes continues to control, as Terry Funk tries to throw a chair into the cage in frustration. The cage's roof thwarts his efforts, so he takes his boot off to use as a weapon once he buzzes into the match officially. Dustin is the first to feel the wrath of Famous Footwear, as Anderson and Buck double-team Sags. Brian Knobs is next in, as Sags hits a crazy piledriver on Funk - right into the gap between the rings. Team Rhodes gives everybody free trips into the cage, and then use the Stable as baseballs to pitch at a boot wielding Jerry Sags. Robert Parker enters before we get another inning, but he's more terrified than influential. They still have strength in numbers, however, and the Stable takes control with a pair of leather belts. Dusty Rhodes rounds things out by abuuuuussssin' everybody with elbowsmashes, so Stable bodyguard Meng starts climbing the cage. Unfortunately, he learns the same lesson burglars have for ages, as that pesky 'roof' thing doesn't let him get too far, and Dusty gets Parker in a figure four while the Nasties drop elbows on him for the surrender at 19:06. The usual chaotic excitement of WarGames, though not as brutally intense as other versions - the 'no blood' policy in full effect. The booking made sense in jobbing manager Robert Parker over one of the workers, but it also felt less satisfying, as Dustin really needed to finish Anderson to properly blow the feud off. * ¾

BUExperience: A real stinker outside of an awesome Sting/Vader match, which is almost enough to save the show since it takes up a good half hour block of a three our broadcast. Add that to the historical significance of Mick Foley’s last appearance, and the angle that led to Steve Austin following him to ECW soon after (which in turn led to their WWF careers, and the demise of WCW), and it’s almost worth checking out. Almost. *