WCW World War 3 1995 (Version II)

Original Airdate: November 26, 1995

From Norfolk, Virginia; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

I don't normally cover the interview segments for pay per view shows, but the one that kicks off this show is basically the pièce de résistance of pay per view interview segments, and requires proper discussion. Okay, so, Gene Okerlund has Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Sting out for a platform interview, with Hogan declaring that his flirtation with the dark side is over with, and he burns the all black outfit to make his point. Of course, someone with the production gets way overzealous with the flames, and they nearly pull an ECW by burning the arena down in the process. And poor Macho Man is wearing one of his (far superior) WWF era outfits for the first time in a while tonight, and man did he pick the wrong night to go back to the fringe heavy gear. But, that's not at all why this interview is so notable. No, see, Hogan isn't content with simply burning the outfit, he also wants to set an issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter aflame. No, seriously. He goes on an epic rant about how much bullshit the WON is, noting that the newsletter's claims of Randy Savage having a legit arm injury are bogus, the claims that Giant is winning the main event are bogus, and that newsletters are like "dinosaurs" compared to the internet, where the "real scoops" are. This segment was all kinds of legendary level weird. WCW was in an odd reactionary place at the time, where they’d change long term booking plans strictly to disprove Observer rumors – even if those changes were detrimental to the product and/or logic. Also, why were Sting and Savage (also in the battle royal tonight) so enthusiastic about Hogan promising a win? There’s being a pal, and there’s being a fool

Opening WCW Television Title v Services of Diamond Doll Match: Johnny B. Badd v Diamond Dallas Page: This has gotten zero time on Nitro thus far, the buildup pretty much taking place exclusively on the weekend shows. The three ring set up gives this show an atmosphere akin to an auto show, down to models standing around (as ring girls). They immediately spill to the outside after the bell, where Badd reverses a shot into the post, and he hits a bodypress on the way back in, but Dallas rolls through for two. Badd with a Samoan drop for two, and he grabs a side-headlock for a bit. They trade holds on the mat, until Page tries a charge, but goes flying over the top when Johnny sidesteps. Badd dives after him with a plancha, leading DDP to use Doll as a distraction to take control on the outside. Back in, Dallas corner whips him, and delivers a side suplex, followed by a tilt-a-whirl front-powerslam. Doll refuses to give him a ten, however. Perhaps he should ask Tye Dillinger. Page with a clothesline for two, but he misses a charge, and Badd starts to mount a comeback. He earns a ten from Doll, and celebrates with a sitout powerbomb for two, but misses a charge of his own - allowing Page to try a leveraged pin for two. I was sure Doll was going to push his feet off the ropes to set up the finish there, but nope. Dallas with a tilt-a-whirl slam for two, countered by Badd with a kick out into a crucifix cradle for two. Johnny manages a headscissors takedown, but Dallas lifts his knees to block a slingshot splash, and hits a gutwrench gutbuster for two. Another gutwrench, but Badd counters to a waistlock, so Page throws an elbow to block a suplex. Tombstone, but Badd reverses for two, and he pops Page with a big left hand - only to knock him out of the ring in the process. Johnny dives after him with a somersault plancha, and delivers a slingshot legdrop to retain at 12:33, as well as win the 'services' of the Diamond Doll. Considering the guy was married to Sable in real life at the time, that must have made for a few interesting Saturday nights. You know, splitting the bill at Applebees, and such. Another solid pay per view outing between these two chaps. Both guys have improved immensely in the last year or so. ** ½ (Original rating: * ½)

Taped Fist Match: Big Bubba Rogers v Jim Duggan: Duggan attacks him in the aisle before the bell, beating him up on the floor for a while before taking things inside. He tries to use the 2x4 as they head in, but the referee intervenes, so Jim settles for a trio of clotheslines to knock Bubba over the top. They brawl over into another ring, where Hacksaw wedges Rogers' head between two posts, and rings his bell. Jim misses a dive off the apron, however, and wipes out on the guardrail in the process. They head into the third ring, where Bubba is able to win a slugfest with a leg-feed enzuigiri, and he hammers the ribs with some taped fist shots. Duggan returns fire, and manages to knock Rogers out of the ring with a shoulderblock, Hacksaw following out for a brawl back into the original ring. Bubba pulls out some additional tape, and tapes Jim up to the top rope for a beating - which is considerably less impressive than when he uses to use handcuffs to do it. I mean, we're supposed to believe that a couple of strands of sports tape attached to a single hand are enough to restrain a three hundred pound wrestler. Bubba charges the prone Duggan, but Jim sticks out his fist to block, then backdrops Bubba over the top so he can free himself. Inside, Duggan with a bodyslam to set up the three-point stance, so VK Wallstreet heads down with a chain. Duggan blasts him with the 2x4 before he can use the chain, but the distraction allows Rogers to palm a roll of coins, and he knocks Hacksaw out with it at 9:17. This was, in a word, 'terrible.' In more words, 'complete fucking crap.' In no words, -¼* (Original rating: -*)

Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto v Cutie Suzuki and Mayumi Ozaki: Interesting trend on pay per view from both of the big two that November. Mike Tenay sits in on commentary for this one. Bobby talks about how hard these girls train, noting that “it’s not something they do on the weekend, because they got laid off at the laundromat!” Five more minutes, and he’ll be asking for a manicure, or something. The heels attack, and put a beating on Ozaki right away, with Bull then hairwhipping her across the ring a few times. Over to Akira for a flying elbowsmash, and she taunts the faces by holding Ozaki inches away from a tag, but not letting her get it. They continue cutting the ring in half on Ozaki, but she manages to hit Akira with a sloppy springboard, and gets the tag off. Cutie comes in with a dropkick for two, and she grounds Akira with a half-crab, so Bull comes in to break it up - only to get cut off by Ozaki, and tied up in a half-crab as well! The babyfaces double up on Akira, but she escapes another half-crab to tag Bull. Cutie tries a dropkick, but accidentally hits her partner in the process, and Nakano powerbombs her ass to set up a flying moonsault - which misses. That allows both babyfaces to take turns coming off the top with multiple flying double-stomps, and they try a tandem suplex, but get reversed. Akira tries to capitalize by diving in, but misses a flying splash, so they try tandem superplexing her, but Bull saves. That allows Akira to come off the top with a double flying bodypress, but the babyfaces counter stereo pop-up powerbombs with ranas! The referee restores order as Ozaki hits Akira with a bridging half-nelson suplex for two, but gets caught in a brutal looking German suplex. Back to Bull with a clothesline, but Cutie breaks the count at two, so Akira hits her with a flying dropkick. That puts both babyfaces on the outside, and Akira dives after them with a flying somersault senton. Man, she wasn't shy about connecting with that one. They roll Ozaki in for an electric chair/flying clothesline combo, but Cutie saves at two. They get rid of her again so Bull can kill Ozaki with a flying legdrop, and this time Akira makes sure Cutie can't break it up at 9:17! The match was weird because it basically went right to the heat segment, and those first few minutes weren't exactly great, but once they started just throwing spots like mad women, it was a lot of fun! *** (Original rating: **)

WCW United States Title Match: Kensuke Sasaki v Chris Benoit: Benoit's part of the Horsemen now, so he's switched to his more familiar WCW gear now. I'd be pretty pissed if I paid for ringside tickets, and every match is being booked for the center ring except for the main event. At least they alternate for Fall Brawl. They measure each other with chops to start, before settling into a feeling out process. Funny bit on commentary, as Heenan notes that Benoit was recently named 'Canada's greatest athlete,' but when pressed by Schiavone as to whether or not, as a 'broadcast journalist,' Bobby confirmed the story with more than one source, Heenan ends up embarrassed to say he hadn't. Turns out Bobby was just ahead of his time. Sasaki with a press-slam, but Chris blocks a crab by sending the champ to the outside, and Benoit dives out after him with a tope. Back in, Chris snap suplexes him for two, and grounds the champion in a headscissors. Sasaki escapes with a powerslam for two, but Chris counters a vertical suplex into the rolling German. Watching the confused reactions of the officials to that spot in the early days is fun. He gets two alarms off before Sasaki counters with a clothesline, but his attempt at a tombstone gets reversed by the challenger. Chris goes up with the flying headbutt, but knocks himself silly, and it only gets two by the time he can cover. Rana off the top gets two, but Chris gets himself powerbombed while looking for a follow-up, and Sasaki goes for an armbreaker, but Benoit has the ropes. Chris tries throwing a clothesline, but Sasaki responds in kind, and a scoop sitout brainbuster retains at 10:00. It wasn't bad, just took forever to get going, and definitely not up to the level of stuff Benoit was doing on a regular basis on TV at this point. ** (Original rating: *)

Randy Savage v Lex Luger: Despite Hogan noting that the Observer's claims of Savage's arm injury are false, Randy's arm is heavily bandaged here. It's like for every two steps forward in the right direction this promotion would take, they always had to take one step back. Macho blitzes him, and applies a Boston crab, but Luger has the ropes. That's such a random move from Savage, especially when he's all fired up for a grudge match. And he doesn't do it well, either. They spill to the outside, where Randy rams him into the rail a few times, and he delivers a bodyslam to set up the Flying Elbowdrop on the way back in, but Jimmy Hart is distracting the referee to prevent the count. I'm kind of surprised they'd book Macho to have a visual pinfall over Luger after a total of, like, two minutes of action, but also not surprised at all. Again, two forward, one back. They spill to the outside again, where Lex reverses a whip into the apron, and slaps on the torture rack. He rolls Macho in to finish off, putting him in an armbar on the not-bad bad arm, and it's enough for the win at 5:27, since Savage is unresponsive following the rack anyway. Luger refuses to let off after the bell, but Sting runs out and gets him to let off before he breaks Macho's arm. It would have helped of Luger's armbar looked, like, at all painful. This was pretty shitty, and the booking was really underwhelming, but it managed to be better than the Halloween Havoc match, at least. ½* (Original rating: ¼*)

Sting v Ric Flair: Flair is all trash talk at the bell, but he quickly gets decked, and bails into another ring so he can make his threats from a safe distance. Sting follows and press-slams him, so Flair goes to the eyes and tries a cross corner whip, but Sting rebounds at him with a clothesline! Ten-punch count leads to a hiptoss and a dropkick, so Ric bails into the third ring to try and regroup. Despite having the high ground, his chops are absorbed by the Stinger, and Flair gets clotheslined over the top. Meanwhile, Colonel Robert Parker and Sister Sherri watch from the aisle, while making out. Hey, cheaper than taking her to the movies, I guess. Flair tries more chops, but gets press-slammed for his efforts, and bails. He suckers Sting into following, but an attempt to whip Sting into the rail doesn't work, leaving Flair scrambling to dodge a Stinger Splash out there - which he does. Even so, his chops get no-sold as they head back into the original ring, so Ric ups the ante by blowing Sting low. That works. Ric works him over, as we check in with Parker and Sherri again, with the announcers having an amusing conversation about Sherri possibly being pregnant. Tony and Bobby had a good report with one another in the pre-nWo days, and there exchanges felt natural. Meanwhile, Flair continues to work Sting over in rather dull fashion, and uses a side suplex to set up the Figure Four! Sting escapes, and counters a clothesline into a backslide for two, so Ric tries throwing chops, but gets no-sold. He bails into another ring, but Sting follows with another press-slam, followed by a pair of clotheslines, so Ric goes to the eyes. He heads up, but Sting slams him off, and unloads another ten-punch. Vertical superplex sets up the Scorpion Deathlock, and that's actually it at 14:30. That finish felt really anticlimactic. I found this one to be extremely repetitive (even by their standards), and derivative of their previous works, with little new to say. * ¼ (Original rating: * ¼)

Main Event: WCW World Title 60-Man World War 3 Match: Winner gets the vacant title. Each ring has its own announce team, with the main team on one ring, Eric Bischoff and Dusty Rhodes on another, and Chris Cruise and Larry Zbyszko on the third. The participants are: Scott Armstrong, Steve Armstrong, Arn Anderson, Johnny B. Badd, Marcus Bagwell, Chris Benoit, Big Train Bart, Bunkhouse Buck, Cobra, Disco Inferno, Jim Duggan, Bobby Eaton, Ric Flair, Giant, Eddie Guerrero, Hulk Hogan, Mr. JL, Chris Kanyon, Brian Knobbs, Kurasawa, Lex Luger, Joey Maggs, Meng, Hugh Morrus, Max Muscle, Scott Norton, One Man Gang, Paul Orndorff, Diamond Dallas Page, Buddy Lee Parker, Brian Pillman, Sgt. Craig Pittman, Stevie Ray, Lord Steven Regal, Scotty Riggs, Road Warrior Hawk, Big Bubba Rogers, Ricky Santana, Jerry Sags, Kensuke Sasaki, Randy Savage, Shark, Fidel Sierra, Dick Slater, Mark Starr, Sting, Dave Sullivan, Kevin Sullivan, Super Assassin #1, Super Assassin #2, Booker T, David Taylor, Bobby Walker, VK Wallstreet, Pez Whatley, Mike Winner, Alex Wright, James Earl Wright, Yeti, and Zodiac. If that sounds like it might be difficult to keep track of, it is, so WCW has 'helpfully' split the screen into three portions - which works in theory, but while trying to watch a match of this scope (especially in 1995, when the television screens were considerably smaller) most of the time you can't really tell what's going on. Standard battle royal fare to start, Hulk Hogan targets Ric Flair in their ring, various guys get tossed on the edge of the screen - nothing particularly exciting or noteworthy. That Mike Winner fellow doesn't live up to his name. I found that interesting. After a good fifteen minutes, they have the numbers to merge into one ring, with a bunch of guys ganging up on Hogan. WCW also decided, in a match with sixty guys, to buck battle royal convention, and have the referees on the inside of the ring. What's the point of that? Anything goes in a battle royal! You could shit on your opponents head, if you think it’ll help. Their only job is to watch the floor for eliminations, and see whose feet hit the ground. Even the referee doesn't know what he's doing in there - wandering around aimlessly watching the match. Duggan and Bubba dump each other to guarantee the continuation of that brilliant feud, and Dave Taylor flies out, robbing us of what would have undoubtedly been an epic title run. We get down to Luger, Giant, Flair, Anderson, Sting, Gang, Guerrero, Savage, Orndorff, and Hogan as the last ten and Paul's the first to go. Eddie's next, followed by Luger next, and Savage takes a chokeslam from Giant. Then, in possibly the first and only interesting spot of the match, Flair and Anderson try a spike piledriver on Sting, but he counters Arn with a catapult, firing him into the corner, and knocking Flair off the top, and out of the match. Awesome! He dumps Arn next, as Flair flips out. Not, like, a 'Flair Flip,' just, like, ‘goes fucking nuts,’ flipping. Sting and Hogan gang up to dump Giant, but virtuous babyface Hulk Hogan (who had spent half the night hanging out with Sting, in less notable interview bits I glossed over) pushes Sting out along with him, from behind. Giant's pissed (although, Sting really should be the one angry, as his professed 'friend' just pushed him out of the match, from behind, for his own benefit), and pulls Hogan out – though under the bottom rope. The referee sees Hogan on the floor, and Savage alone in the ring, and declares Randy the winner at 29:30, which is kind of hilarious, considering Macho was horrible at Royal Rumble’s. See, that kind of shit would never happen if the referee stayed on the floor like he’s supposed to. Hogan comes back in and whines about it afterwards, as opposed to shaking his other ‘best friends’ hand, and there's your set up for a big title match at Starrcade, right? Nope, as it turns out Hogan took time off, and they went in a different direction. You'd think sixty men in what's essentially a barroom brawl would have to be exciting, but, somehow, it wasn't. They really booked themselves into a corner, as they promised a battle royal to end all battle royals, and you can't pay that off with the ten minute match – therefore forcing us to watch thirty minutes of this. You'd think they'd take the hint, but they'd actually run this thing annually through 1998 - and in those instances a title wasn't even on the line. There was no saving this, just a lame attempt to emulate the WWF's success with the Royal Rumble. ¼* (Original rating: DUD)

BUExperience: As noted, WCW was in a weird reactionary place at the time, where they’d change long term booking plans strictly to disprove Observer rumors, and that made a lot of the booking on this show feel strange. That said, compared to some of the shit they were passing off as pay per view events in 1995, this was definitely significantly better than everything prior to the debut of Nitro.

Still a bad show, but sadly I would consider this one of their better efforts for 1995, though I liked Fall Brawl better overall.


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