WCW Fall Brawl 1995 (Version II)

Original Airdate: September 17, 1995

From Asheville, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

Opening #1 Contender's Match: Johnny B. Badd v Brian Pillman: Winner becomes top contender to the WCW United States title. Feeling out process to start, until Pillman starts to get aggressive with a blatant punch, and he chops the Badd man on the ropes, but runs into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. Johnny grounds him in a toehold, then shifts down into a leglock, but Brian is still looking for an escape, so Badd latches on a surfboard to make sure he gets the message. Pillman uses the ropes to escape, and gives Johnny a hard shove, but Badd responds in kind, and sends Brian to the outside with his Golden Gloves routine. Brian stalls, but gets reversed on a turnbuckle smash, and Johnny hits him with a slingshot legdrop for two. Chinlock wears Brian down, but he forces a criss cross to escape, which results in a double knockout spot. Both guys stagger up, so Pillman throws a headbutt to try and take control, but it knocks him silly as well, and we have another double knockout. Brian manages to dump him to the outside, but a vertical suplex back in gets reversed over the top to the floor! Johnny capitalizes with a plancha, but a dive on the way back in is countered with a dropkick by Pillman for two. Backdrop, but Johnny counters with a sitout powerbomb for two, so Brian drops him on his head with a tombstone for two. Tornado DDT, but Badd blocks, and he grounds Brian in a mat-based abdominal stretch. Bodyslam, but Brian counters with a Russian legsweep, then into an octopus hold on the mat. Johnny won't quit, and time is running low, so Pillman shifts to... an abdominal stretch. God, could they be telegraphing the time limit draw any harder? Johnny fights free, and delivers a facebuster, then pops Pillman with a knockout punch, but Brian is in the ropes. Brian fires back with Air Pillman for two, and a backslide is worth two, just as time expires at 20:05. Looks like we have a draw, but the referee decides to extend the match into sudden death overtime until we have a winner. Where was this clown during Steve Regal's title run? Slugfest goes Johnny's way, so Brian bails to the outside, and manages to reverse Badd into the guardrail out there. Back in for a missile dropkick, but Badd throws his own dropkick, and both guys are down again. Brian recovers first and tries a sleeper, wrestling Badd down with a bodyscissors while applying the hold, but Johnny makes the ropes. Badd with his own sleeper, but Brian is ready with a side suplex to escape. He tries a superplex, but Badd blocks, and dives with a flying sunset flip for two. I love how the announcers are treating this like an actual sporting contest, asking why Pillman would try such a high risk maneuver so late in the match, and such. As opposed to today, where they'd probably talk about how Brian has such a love of performing for the WWE Universe, and needs to entertain them in any manner possible! Badd tries a powerbomb, but Brian counters with a rana for two. Crucifix, but Badd counters with a Samoan drop for two, and he takes Pillman upstairs for a rana off the top for two! Back up, but this time Brian counters with the tornado DDT he couldn't hit earlier, but it only gets two! Pillman goes up, so Johnny throws his body into the ropes to crotch him up there, then slams Brian all the way down into the rail! Johnny follows with a somersault plancha, but a slingshot splash on the way back in is blocked with the knees, and Pillman hooks the leg for two. Brian drops him front-first across the top rope to send Johnny to the outside, and here comes Pillman with a tope out there! Back in, Brian tries a springboard dive, but Badd knocks him out of the air for two. That leads to a fast criss cross, with both men throwing bodypresses at the same time - Johnny able to get the better of it for the pin at 29:12! I thought the first act dragged a lot with the extended feeling out portion stuff, but by the time they got to the third act, it was tremendous stuff. While I wouldn't quite go four-stars anymore, it's still really good, though ultimately suffers from being too long by a third. *** ½ (Original rating: ****)

Sgt. Craig Pittman v Cobra: Pittman seemingly no-shows, but it turns out to be a sneak attack, as he flies down from the ceiling while Cobra is distracted, and chokes him out from behind. I remember finding that really wild as a kid back in '95, since you didn't really see that sort of thing back then. Of course, then it became a weekly occurrence a couple of years later. Anyway, Pittman destroys him, and quickly finishes with the Code Red at 1:21. This definitely worked as far as making me think Pittman was a vicious guy as a kid, but even at under two minutes long, this was a mess. DUD (Original rating: DUD)

WCW Television Title Match: Renegade v Diamond Dallas Page: Renegade runs in to scare Page back, but then stupidly turns his back, and gets jumped. What a moron. Dallas with a Russian legsweep for two, but a headbutt backfires, mostly because Renegade has nothing up there to hurt. Page does a massive oversell off of it, falling not only out of the ring, but into the first row. Gotta love the dedication. Renegade drags him back in for a turnbuckle smash, followed by a clothesline for two, but Page ducks a bodypress, and the champion wipes out. Dallas snaps his throat across the top rope, and hits a swinging neckbreaker for two, then dumps the champion to the outside. That backfires when Renegade comes at him with a slingshot sunset flip for two, but Page cuts him off with a clothesline for two. Corner whip follows, but Dallas misses the charge, and Renegade mounts a comeback. He actually busts out a handspring backelbow tonight, followed by a flying axehandle for two, but Page fights him off with a jawbreaker. Jumping DDT follows for two, but Renegade blocks the Diamond Cutter, and schoolboys his challenger for two. Powerslam hits, but Renegade gets distracted by Max Muscle on the outside, and hit with the Diamond Cutter at 8:05. Renegade continues to be terrible, but Page was willing to bump around enough to make this at least watchable. * ¼ (Original rating: ½*)

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater v Harlem Heat: Instead of these two busted ass cowboys, I think Colonel Parker should have gotten a bunch of women wrestlers to go after Harlem Heat. See, 'cause they could call themselves Harem Heat. Slater and Booker T start, but it doesn't really go anywhere. Hence, I have plenty of time to think up Harem Heat scenarios. Over to Buck to hold Booker in a front-facelock, but Stevie Ray helps Booker take control, so Booker can hold Buck in a chinlock. You've heard of eye-for-an-eye, WCW gives you resthold-for-a-resthold. A cheap shot puts Booker in trouble, and the champions cut the ring in half. Slater's mismatched kneepads and dollar store t-shirt make him (and this division) look even more low rent. This match is so lazy that Stevie Ray can't even be bothered to rush in when breaking up pin attempts, shooting off lame half-hearted kicks from time to time to save his brother. This is so bad that I actually contemplate calling up my parents and apologizing that they spent their money on this for me in 1995. The match drags on through chinlock after chinlock, until Booker fights off Buck with the axekick, and Stevie gets the tag - Roseanne Barr the door. As both teams brawl, Parker makes a move on Sister Sherri over in the other ring, and while THAT'S going on, the Nasty Boys run in with a cheap shot on Slater to allow the Heat to win the belts back at 16:49. We complain about how thin the tag division was in the WWF during this period, but at least the title matches were usually okay. WCW's tag division this year has been like a black hole, to the point where I find myself dreading having to sit through some fifteen minute resthold exhibition with every show. So much so that most of my memories of watching WCW at the time revolve around being bored by Harlem Heat matches, more so than anything else. You know it's bad when that's what stands out, and not whatever silly bullshit was going on with the Dungeon of Doom. DUD (Original rating: DUD)

Ric Flair v Arn Anderson: I'm kind of surprised it took a good ten years before they got around to running this one. We spot all sorts of younger WCW wrestlers in the crowd observing, which adds a nice layer of prestige to the match. Arn controls the initial sequence with a drop-toehold, but he backs right off, content with the message that sent to Flair not to underestimate him. Arn controls the next sequence as well, and Flair is getting mad, so the Enforcer slaps him across the face, and Ric bails. Back in, Arn continues to dominate by working the arm, and Ric is looking less and less confident, and more and more desperate. Ric starts firing off chops, and manages a cross corner whip, but a charge ends badly, and Anderson grabs a sleeper. Ric quickly escapes, so Arn comes off the middle rope with a flying high knee, and he bodyslams the Nature Boy. Arn grounds him in an armbar, but Flair keeps trying to escape, so Anderson bashes the arm into the post a couple of times, then drops him with a single-arm DDT. Back to the armbar, so Flair tries chops to escape, leading to Anderson corner whipping him. Flair flips to the apron, and Arn charges, but Ric ducks, and the Enforcer takes a spill over the top. That leads to Flair diving with a flying axehandle, and in a nice touch, he stops to gloat to the same fan who was taunting him when Anderson dominated the early sequences. That's some quality snark, Nature Boy. Inside, Flair works over Anderson, but Arn manages a backdrop for two, so Flair blows him low. Hey, Arn should have expected that. Shame on him if he didn't. They spill to the outside, where Anderson manages to backdrop Flair on the floor, but Ric reverses a vertical suplex out there. Back in, Flair delivers a hanging vertical suplex, and a few chops are worth two. Backdrop, but Arn counters with a sunset flip, so Flair tries to block with a punch, but misses. Anderson cross corner whips him right into a tree of woe, but Flair blocks the DDT. He goes up, but Anderson slams him off, and adds a kneedrop for two. 2^nd rope flying axehandle follows, but Flair slugs him out of the air to block, and he slaps on the Figure Four! He resists the urge to use the ropes for leverage on his pal, but Anderson reverses, so Ric clips the leg. Back to the hold, but Anderson counters with a small package for two, so Ric zeroes in on the knee again. He does enough damage that Arn collapses while Flair tries a cross corner whip, and as the referee checks him out, Brian Pillman (one of the young guns observing in the crowd) pops up onto the apron to protest. Flair tells him to 'fuck off,' so Brian pops him with a kick, and Anderson capitalizes with the DDT at 23:02. This didn't quite live up to the hype surrounding it, but WCW did a good job with the overall promotion and delivery (which isn't something you could take for granted with them, like you mostly could the WWF), making it feel big and important. ** (Original rating: * ¾)

Main Event: WarGames Match: The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Sting, Randy Savage, and Lex Luger) v The Dungeon of Doom (Meng, Shark, Zodiac, and Kamala): If Hogan's team wins, Hulk gets five minutes alone in the cage with Kevin Sullivan. Man, what a weak field on the heel side. Like, I'd have a hard time buying them against anyone in 1995, let alone literally four of the biggest names in the sport. And not even, like, the biggest names in 1995. Four of the biggest EVER. Sting and Shark start, with Shark pounding him down early on, but missing an avalanche. Sting tries to capitalize with the Stinger Splash, but Shark wisely swims into the other ring to avoid it, so Sting dives from one ring to the next with a clothesline instead. Sting then shows why everyone always treats him like an idiot, as he muscles though a bodyslam, but hurts his back doing so. Then tries for a second bodyslam, and gets toppled. No wonder Flair knew he could sucker him for Halloween Havoc. You got lucky enough to get through it once, and hurt yourself in the process, so you try it again?! Shark capitalizes with a bearhug, but Sting escapes and gets into the opposite ring, so Shark actually tries to match Sting's dive from one ring to the next, and ends up planked between the top rope of either ring! Well, points for effort. Cool visual, either way. Sting goes to town on him in that position, and clips the knee to set up the Scorpion Deathlock, but Zodiac enters the match to save. Sting uses the top of the cage to monkey-bar his way into a couple of dropkicks, and he puts Zodiac in the Deathlock, but Shark saves, and they double up on the Stinger. I get why the babyfaces are all dressed in military fatigues, but why do they have a giant American flag? Do they think they're representing the American armed forces, or something? And against the Dungeon of Doom? Randy Savage is next in, and he saves Sting from the two-on-one beating, but quickly gets thumped, and Sting has to come to his rescue. WCWs ring crew did a shitty job with the cage, as there's a gap between the bottom of the cage and the ring apron so wide that the heels are able to attack Savage's leg from the outside with ease. Kamala is next in, and I wasn't timing it, but I'd estimate it took him a good three minutes just to get across both rings to attack Sting. I get that he had a run with Hogan way back when, but why did they even bother bringing him in at forty four years old, especially when he was so out of shape, and unover. I can tell you that even as ten year olds, my friends and I didn't buy Kamala as a threat to anyone. Luger is in next, and quickly takes out Shark and Kamala with a double clothesline, then helps Macho toss Zodiac into the cage. Lex starts dropping pointed elbowdrops on Zodiac, so Shark comes over to save, but Macho dives with a flying axehandle to stop that party. Lex tries a clothesline, but Zodiac ducks, and he accidentally ends up hitting Savage - leading to a fight between them, as Macho was already wary of Luger in the buildup to this. That's broken up when Meng comes in and just kicks both of their asses, which goes on for the remainder of the period because, you know, Meng. Hogan is last in to begin the Match Beyond, and he wastes no time throwing powder in the eyes of all the heels. Why didn't the rest of the team think of that? Hulk looks like he's having a ball reliving his rivalry with Sgt. Slaughter from the summer of 1991 out there. Maybe that's why he brought the flag. The babyfaces work together to destroy all four heels with relative ease, which again, given the disparity in star power here, isn't exactly all that surprising. Hulk corners Zodiac in the empty ring, and slaps on the worlds sloppiest camel clutch, but it's enough for the submission at 18:45. That allows Hogan to live out his caged Sullivan fantasies, but Giant comes out to make the save before he can properly kill the Taskmaster. This is actually the first WarGames I ever saw, which might go a long way in explaining why I've never been as enamored with the gimmick as those who cut their teeth on the original versions. ** ¼ (Original rating: *)

BUExperience: It’s kind of a sad comment on the state of WCW pay per views in 1995 when a show like this could be considered one of their better offerings – if not outright the best they’ve produced for 1995 thus far.


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