WCW Fall Brawl 1998 (Version II)

 

Original Airdate: September 13, 1998

From Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan

Opening Match: Disco Inferno and Alex Wright v Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart: Alex and Bulldog start, and they posture. Smith gets him in the corner and unloads, but Alex turns the tables. A criss cross ends in Bulldog press-slamming him, and both guys tag out. Jim powers him around, but Disco manages to put him down, and stomps away. Disco with a kneelift, so Jim tags out. Bulldog grabs a headlock, but Disco powers him into his home corner, and tags to Alex. Wright hammers Davey into the corner, and a leg lariat gets him two. Alex with chops in the corner, but a corner charge hits a boot, and Bulldog clotheslines him. Tag to Disco for a 2nd rope pointed elbowdrop for two, and he adds an inverted atomic drop, but gets tossed over the top during a criss cross. Jim immediately hops out to beat Disco on the floor, and Bulldog catches him with a knee on the way back in. Smith works a chinlock, and they cut the ring in half on Disco. Wright gets the tag, and runs wild on Smith, with Davey taking a few bumps on the hidden trapdoor for Warrior’s entrance later that ended up messing him up for the rest of his life. And you can immediately see that he’s in a bad way, and it takes him three tries just to lift Disco for the running powerslam at 11:13. This wasn’t horrible, but way too long. ½* (Original rating: ¼*)

WCW Television Title Match: Chris Jericho v ‘Bill Goldberg’: Jericho made the challenge for this one earlier in the show, but it ends up being a joke, as we get a Goldberg impersonator (complete with styrofoam toy title belt), and the referee actually rings the bell for it. So Chris casually squashes the fake Goldberg, and taps him out with the Liontamer at 1:14. This was a skit, not a match. As a skit, it was fine, but really would have been better placed on TV than pay per view. But I guess they kind of top loaded the card here, and needed to fill time. And, apparently, the actual Goldberg was unaware of this whole thing, and was furious. DUD (Original rating: DUD)

Ernest Miller v Norman Smiley: Miller offers him a chance to forfeit, triggering Smiley to attack, and a dropkick knocks Miller to the outside. Smiley follows, but gets whipped into the guardrail, and Ernest chokes him down in the corner as they head back inside. Miller lands a sidekick, and a chop thrust to the throat follows. He grabs a headlock, but Smiley side suplexes him to escape, and lands a legdrop, then an elbowdrop for two. Miller begs off in the corner, and goes to the eyes when Norman approaches, and Miller sweeps the leg. He grabs an armbar, but Smiley escapes, and delivers a bodyslam, then a turnbuckle smash. Smiley with a hanging vertical suplex for two, and he tries a superplex, but Miller blocks. That allows Miller to dive with a flying roundhouse kick, and then another roundhouse kick finishes at 5:07. Miller’s gimmick was entertaining, but the ‘karate guy’ schtick was terrible in the ring. ¼* (Original rating: –¼*)

Rick Steiner v Scott Steiner: Scott tries to get out of the match via doctor’s note, but JJ Dillon forces him to wrestle. Rick destroys him early, unloading punch after punch. Into the corner, so Scott tries a turnbuckle smash, but Rick shrugs it off. Scott bails into the crowd, but Rick drags him back, so Buff Bagwell tries to assist. Rick shrugs that off, and looks to German suplex Scott, but Scott throws a mulekick to buy himself time. Scott puts the boots to his brother, and he takes him to the outside to feed him the steps. Inside, Scott lands a clothesline, but Rick blocks a butterfly suplex, and delivers a DDT. Rick goes up for a dive, so Buff hops onto the apron to distract him. Rick takes the bait, allowing Scott to recover, and send Rick back to the outside for a trip into the post. Inside, Scott tries a backdrop, but Rick blocks, and pounds him down in the corner. But then everyone sees that Buff is still down on the apron, and can’t move his arms… and since he was nearly paralyzed by Rick back in April, the match just sort of stops at 5:08. There was really not much going on here, and then the copout finish on top of things. ¼* (Original rating: ¼*)

WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Juventud Guerrera v Silver King: King hits a chop right away, but Guerrera blocks a suplex attempt, and slugs him down. Guerrera goes to a wristlock, but King escapes, and throws a dropkick at him. Both guys decide to throw a bunch of kicks at each other, won by King, but a criss cross goes Guerrera’s way with a headscissor takedown. King bails to regroup, but Guerrera lands a clothesline for two once he gets back in anyway. A criss cross allows King a pop-up dropkick, and he drops Juvi across the top rope. King with a backbreaker for two, and a muscle neckbreaker gets two. A dropkick sends Guerrera to the outside, and King dives after him with a springboard bodypress on the floor. Inside, King delivers an awkward looking backdrop, but a pop-up powerbomb gets countered with a rana into a cradle for two. Guerrera follows with a clothesline, and a cross corner whip leads to a matslam. Guerrera with a missile dropkick for two, but a criss cross goes King’s way with a superkick for two. King misses a corner splash, allowing Guerrera an inverted rana off the middle for two. That was a great looking spot. Guerrera tries for the scoop brainbuster, but King counters with a cradle for two, then snap suplexes the champion. King with a springboard flying moonsault, but Guerrera dodges, and hits the scoop sitout brainbuster to set up a flying 450 splash at 8:37. Some hot moves, but overall a very disjointed effort. It felt like they couldn’t properly get on the same page. * ¼ (Original rating: * ¼)

Raven's Rules Match: Raven v Saturn: Kanyon is handcuffed to the ringpost for this one, and if Raven wins, Saturn joins the Flock, while if Saturn wins, the Flock has to break up. Raven hits a hotshot for two right away, and a cross corner whip is followed in with a body attack. Raven lands a kneelift from there, but gets reversed into the corner, and Saturn throws a superkick. A bodyslam gets him two, and a flying splash is worth another two, so Lodi distracts him, allowing Raven to recover with a knee. Raven tries a suplex over the top, but Saturn blocks, and knocks Raven into the rail. Saturn follows up with a suicide dive, but gets nailed by Lodi out there, and Raven delivers a bodyslam on the way back into the ring. Raven adds a pair of 2nd rope elbowdrops for two, and he tries a sunset flip, but Saturn reverses the cradle for two. Raven cuts him off with a clothesline, and he grabs a sleeper, but Saturn manages a jawbreaker to escape. He’s too battered to come back, allowing Raven to cover for two, and he uses a pair of snapmares. Backslide, but Saturn reverses for two, so Raven hits him with a two-alarm rolling Russian legsweep for two. Saturn goes low to buy time, but doesn’t buy enough, and Raven is able to nail him in the corner. Raven grabs a chair for a drop-toehold onto the seat, and the Flock shows up. Kidman comes in first, but instead of diving at Saturn, he intentionally hits Raven with a missile dropkick! That’s finally enough to allow Saturn to return fire with a death valley driver, but he only gets two, as the rest of the Flock chase Kidman away. Both guys stagger up, and Saturn ducks a clothesline, allowing him a few suplexes. Saturn with a bodyslam to set up a springboard legdrop for two, and a scoop sitout brainbuster is worth another two. Raven flashes off a small package for two, but Saturn takes him to school in the rings! Lodi saves, but a double team backfires on them. Saturn tries a corner whip, but Raven reverses, and the referee gets bumped in the process. That allows Kanyon to steal the handcuff key, and he gets loose, with everyone else down. Kanyon comes in to hit Saturn with a reverse STO, and he puts Raven on top, before going back to his handcuff before the referee notices. Raven gets a dramatic two count from the dazed official, and Saturn goes low as both guys stagger up. Saturn stops to put Lodi through a table to make sure he stays out of things, but that gives Raven enough time to recover with a DDT for another dramatic two. Raven is stunned, allowing Saturn to grab him with the death valley driver for the pin at 14:03. I really wasn’t expecting much here, especially since this angle has been terrible for a while now, but they went out there and worked. They did a great job of telling a story in the ring here, and they got the crowd extremely into it - which is especially impressive considering how confusing the angle has been. *** (Original rating: ** ¼)

Dean Malenko v Curt Hennig: Kind of odd that they already did a cage match on Nitro ahead of this, and now it’s just a regular match. Dean charges in and goes to town until Hennig ends up on the outside, and Malenko follows to dropkick his knee against the rail. The crowd chants ‘we want Flair’ at Curt, which is especially fitting at this event and venue. Rick Rude goes after Dean, but Malenko fights him off, and wraps Hennig’s leg around the post. Inside, Malenko continues to work the leg, but a corner charge hits a boot. That allows Curt to try a bodyslam, but the knee gives out, and Dean topples him. Dean goes to a toehold from there, but Curt blocks the Texas cloverleaf by going to the eyes. Curt capitalizes with an earringer, but Dean sweeps the leg, and goes back to the part. Dean with a kneebreaker, so Curt bails, and Rude tries to help him regroup. Back in, Dean takes him down for a grapevine, but Rick helps Curt get into the ropes. Malenko stays focused with a leglock, and a side suplex follows, so Rude takes a cheap shot at him. That allows Hennig to take a swipe at Malenko, and he tries the fisherman suplex, but Malenko reverses - only for Rude to run in for the DQ at 7:37. This wasn’t good, really, but I did appreciate that they reversed the dynamic from the Nitro match with Malenko controlling the whole time, since Curt was much better at selling than controlling a match at this point. The finish was absolutely insulting for a pay per view bout, though. Afterwards, they beat Dean down, so Arn Anderson makes the save, but gets destroyed as well. This was just begging for a Ric Flair run in, but it wasn’t in the cards for this. ½* (Original rating: * ¾)

Scott Hall v Konnan: I’ve completely forgotten that Hall was one half of the tag champs at this point. Also at this point: Hall is doing his drunk angle, and is stumbling around. For those keeping score, both the WWF and WCW ran this same disgusting angle at the same time. Hall demands a ring switch, and everyone obliges, but then he demands to switch back before contact is made. This feels like when Michael Scott read that book on negotiating, and kept ‘changing the venue of the meeting’ after everyone had already sat down. Hall works a wristlock to start, as the announcers look past this match to just talk about the main event. Wow, that kind of treatment is usually reserved for deep undercard matches. Konnan with a rolling clothesline, so Hall tries bailing to the other ring, but Konnan attacks him in between. Scott goes underneath the ring and comes out the other side, but gets nailed as he tries sneak attacking. Hall bails to regroup with Vincent, and stops to take a drink before climbing back inside. Scott manages to take Konnan down for a bow-and-arrow, then on to an abdominal stretch, as the match bores everyone to tears. Konnan reverses, but Scott quickly escapes, only to miss an elbowdrop. Konnan makes a comeback, but runs into a boot in the corner, and Hall delivers a clothesline. Hall with a side superplex, but he stops to get another drink instead of going for the kill, and Konnan delivers a sitout facebuster to set up the tequila sunrise at 12:03. This was horrendous. Embarrassing as both a match and as an angle. -¼* (Original rating: ¼*)

Main Event: #1 Contender's WarGames Match: Diamond Dallas Page, Roddy Piper, and Warrior v Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and Stevie Ray v Kevin Nash, Sting, and Lex Luger: So the winner of this gets a world title shot at Halloween Havoc. Page and Hart start, and Bret goes after the arm. Dallas reverses a wristlock, and he grabs a headlock, but Bret forces a criss cross, so Page throws a shoulderblock. Page with a belly-to-belly suplex for two, but Bret blocks a Diamond Cutter, and catches DDP with a hotshot across the top turnbuckle. Hart with a DDT to set up a legdrop, and a Russian legsweep gets the Hitman two. Hart with a small package for two, and he corner whips Dallas, but Page manages a discus clothesline, as Stevie enters the match. Stevie attacks Page to get the heat off of Bret, and they work together until Sting enters the match. He gets a huge pop, and brawls with Stevie. Hart hits Page with a piledriver to set up a 2nd rope pointed elbowdrop, as Piper joins the party. He throws punches at everyone, as Stevie gets wedged between the rings. Luger is next in, but doesn’t really do anything of note. Piper gets Stevie in a sleeper as Nash enters, and he goes for Piper. Hogan sneaks into the cage early to save Stevie from Piper and Nash, as Lex gets Bret in a torture rack. Hulk saves him, but then directs Stevie to clip Hart’s leg anyway. We get an exposing moment here when Hogan and Stevie have to literally drag Nash off of the trapdoor so Hulk can deliver a legdrop, and Warrior is next in - also ahead of schedule. Hulk nails him from behind as the smoke clears, but then the ring fills up again, and when it clears, Warrior has disappeared. Warrior then runs out from the dressing rooms (in different gear than he had on five seconds ago, no less), and I’m guessing poor Renegade had to spend the evening under the ring in his place. Hulk responds by escaping the cage and locking the door to keep away from Warrior, as everyone in the match just kind of stops doing anything as Warrior stalks around trying to get at Hogan. You were just able to teleport across a building, and change your wardrobe while you did it, maybe try that again? Warrior responds by literally kicking a section of the cage off, and he chases Hulk to the back, as Page hits Stevie with a Cutter at 20:04. You know, I’m pretty forgiving of the revamped WarGames concept they tried here, but the match itself was a complete dud, regardless. DUD (Original rating: ¼*)

BUExperience: Boy I feel bad for the people seated in front of the ring where Warrior’s trap door was, because after the Bulldog injury in the opener, only one other match used it, and even the WarGames was almost completely contained to the second ring. 

This show has a reputation for being horrible, and boy does it live up to it. You can usually count on WCW undercards to carry these pay per views, and with almost all of the big stars in the main event, you’d think this would be an opportunity for the underneath guys to shine. You’d be very, very wrong.

Other than a surprisingly good Raven/Saturn match, this was almost all terrible, and absolutely not worth your time.

DUD