WCW Fall Brawl ‘98
September 13, 1998
Winston-Salem, MA
Reviewed on November 13, 2014
What the hell is going on?
Ten months ago it was supposed to be over. WCW had gotten Bret Hart. WCW had the super hot Sting vs. Hogan feud. WCW had the NWO. Even the raw rookie Goldberg somehow became one of the biggest stars in pro wrestling.
And WCW…is losing?
This is the equivalent of an all-star team in sports without thought of making a “team”. It’s hard to find a top guy in WCW booked correctly except for Diamond Dallas Page at this point. Hogan? Stale. Nash? Acting half his age trying to be the “cool” heel or face or whatever (although he’d get mega over by the end of the year). Sting? Buried in Washington D.C. last December and replaced by some guy in red face paint. Don’t even get me started on Goldberg. All the momentum in the world and somehow Goldberg still plays second fiddle to Hogan. In fact, Goldberg hadn’t even wrestled a last match main event since his title win in July.
Of course there’s Bret Hart too. One of the biggest wastes in wrestling history was Bret Hart in WCW.
Most recently WCW signed The Warrior as well. He went right after Hogan and…
And well let’s get right to it. Fall Brawl means WAR GAMES! The Warrior in War Games! Who knows what will happen?!
The Card
Opening video reminds us that Team Hollywood in War Games is Hollywood Hogan, Stevie Ray and Bret Hart. One of those is not like the other.
“WE WANT FLAIR!” Well, wait a night.
Tony Schiavone talks about the new rules for War Games. Three teams! It can end before all nine men get into the ring (um…what? Why would that happen from an entertainment standpoint?). Also winner gets a World Title shot at Halloween Havoc. So much for the team aspect eh?
Ernest Miller being held by security. Fuck if I know the storyline there.
Gene Okerlund talks about the rest of the card. Why? We already sold the PPV, no?
It’s Chris Jericho! Jericho is one of the best parts of WCW 1998. He’s calling out Goldberg and says Goldberg accepted a match against Jericho tonight! Title vs. title!
Alex Wight and Disco Inferno vs. The British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart
I like how we get separate entrances for Wright and Inferno. Double the dancing!
USA chant to Alex Wright. The British Bulldog was in the ring opposing him.
A whole lot of nothing to start this thing…other than Anvil dancing.
Bulldog can still land on his feet after being monkey flipped from the corner. Impressive.
Bulldog screws up a stun gun. It’s amazing how different the Bulldog and Neidhart are in terms of giving a shit here. In WWF 1997, the Bulldog and Neidhart showed great intensity. Here? Meh.
“WE WANT FLAIR!” Yeah no one cares about this boring match.
Neidhart misses a slingshot shoulder block. I don’t think he was supposed to miss.
Bulldog actually screws up picking Disco up for the Running Powerslam. Sad.
Bulldog and Neidhart win when Bulldog pinned Disco in 11:03. Bulldog eventually gets the Running Powerslam for the win. Bad boring match. This match is also infamous for the Bulldog injuring his back on the Warrior’s trap door.
Not the typical WCW opening match goodness sadly.
Scott Steiner has a doctor’s note! No Steiner vs. Steiner tonight.
No wait! JJ Dillion calls him on his bs! The match is on!
Title vs. Title
Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg
JPS! Ralphus and the Jerichoholic NINJA!
Jericho is just absolutely brilliant here.
And it’s a midget Goldberg!
Chris Jericho vs. Mini-Goldberg
Mini-Goldberg gets a spear in! You know HHH stole this idea a year later on Smackdownm using Gillberg.
Chris Jericho wins by submission in 1:15. Liontamer! Jericho is brilliant.
Norman Smiley vs. Ernest Miller
Angle here? Smiley asked Miller what his problem was after Miller attacked The Armstrong Brothers. That’s it.
Miller pins Smiley in 5:07. Top rope feliner I think was the finish…but Smiley didn’t go all the way down. Smiley hits a 2nd for the win. A whole lot of nothing for five minutes. Not a good sign when the best part of the first 45 minutes of the show is a Jericho joke match.
Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner
Angle began when Scott turned on Rick back in February at Superbrawl. Buff Bagwell’s serious injury was used as an angle between them as well, where Bagwell faked being friends. Scott did all he can to avoid fighting Rick, but Dillion said it has to happen at Fall Brawl. So here we are.
Crowd is very into this.
Really good brawl to start! Crowd is really into Rick Steiner. I’m starting to think they should have pushed Rick big as a face here. Too bad though as…
No Contest in 5:30. Bagwell tried to attack, but Rick Steiner slams him into the 2nd turnbuckle. Bagwell goes limp. The announcers treat it as a shoot. It takes about 10 minutes to get Bagwell into the ambulance…and then Scott and Bagwell attack Rick! It was a ruse! A great brawl turned into a bullshit angle. Ah well.
WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Juventud Guerrera© vs. Silver King
Silver King? Really?
Sunset flip botch! Woo!
Inverted top rope frankensteiner is pretty cool. Shocked it only got 2.
Juventud Guerrera retains in 8:36 by pin. Weak Juvi Driver, then the 450 for the win. Decent. Pretty low on the standard WCW Cruiserweight Title match quality tier. I don’t think anyone saw Silver King winning either. Best match of the night by default.
Drunk Scott Hall and Konnan have a confronation.
Raven’s Rules: If Raven wins, the Flock disbands, if Saturn wins, he becomes Raven’s slave. Kanyon is handcuffed to the ringpost.
Raven vs. Saturn
I enjoyed this match two months ago, so I am all for it again.
Back at Bash at the Beach, Saturn had broken free from the Flock. Now Saturn is trying to save the others from Raven. I don’t remember how Kanyon ended up officially in the Flock to be fair.
This one has more wrestling than the last…but Saturn picks it up with a tope!
One of the big shocks: The Flock comes to help Raven finish off Saturn…but Kidman takes out Raven with a missile dropkick!
That’s followed by a great false finish with the DVD!
Kanyon breaks free, Flatlines Saturn, the locks himself back up. I laughed.
Saturn kills Lodi with a DVD through the table on the floor!
A lot of great false finishes. Saturn survivies an Evenflow!
Saturn frees the Flock at 14:04. DVD wins it! Great second half of the match. I still prefer their July encounter though. Kidman would become a star instantly, winning the Cruiserweight Title the next night. Somehow, despite the big reactions for Saturn here…he would be getting pinned by Sonny Oono two months later. Whatever. Still a solid match.
Curt Hennig vs. Dean Malenko
For some reason these two had a cage match on Nitro. Doing things backwards…aren’t we.
“WE WANT FLAIR!” At least it makes sense, since Hennig turned on the Horsemen at this event in the same building last year.
This is a fun little match where Malenko beats the crap out of Hennig’s leg. I like it in terms of building up Malenko’s aggressiveness.
Malenko wins by DQ in 7:38. Malenko nails Hennig with the Hennig-Plex…but Rick Rude runs in to cause the DQ. Arn Anderson looks to make the save, but gets taken out. No Flair. He would come tomorrow. Still, not bad. The last three matches have at least taken this show past F potential.
Konnan vs. Scott Hall
The drunk Scott Hall angle. Horrible.
He actually gets a drink while applying an abdominal stretch.
Hall has it won, but wants another drink. Konnan kicks the drink out of Hall’s hand (and it hits a fan, nice) and hits a facebuster.
Konnan makes Scott Hall submit in 12:03. Tequila Sunrise for the win. Horrible. It’s still hard to believe something like that was on TV, much less Pay-Per-View.
#1 Contender War Games
Team Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart, Stevie Ray) vs. Team Wolfpac (Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Sting) vs. Team WCW (Roddy Piper, Diamond Dallas Page and The Warrior)
DDP is #1. Bret Hart #2. The team psychology is already non-existant.
Stevie Ray is next! Well…it was a good five minutes between Bret and Page I guess.
So 0 Wolfpac, 2 Hollywood and 1 WCW. Yeah that makes sense.
Here comes Sting! Crowd comes alive!
Sting kicks Stevie Ray’s ass, and leaps from one ring to the other with a flying clothesline!
Piper’s in, looking like a nut. It’s all punches and kicks though.
Here comes Lex Luger! There really isn’t a whole lot happening between each segment.
Kevin Nash next! Big reaction. Hogan and Warrior left.
Hogan’s out early! So much for rules!
Hogan slapjacks everyone but Stevie Ray.
For some reason, Hogan doesn’t go to pin anyone.
We’re just waiting for the Warrior here.
As soon as the pin attempt happens there’s SMOKE EVERYWHERE!
WARRIOR’S IN THE RING! Hogan nails him from behind!
More smoke….it’s a fake Warrior? Whatever, here comes THE WARRIOR!
A few punches and Hogan goes through the door of the cage to escape. Hogan locks himself out of the cage (well, Warrior goes for the door and it slightly opens…and Warrior avoids the door. Nice). Warrior gets all angry, kicks the top part of the cage to get out, blows his quad and then gets some more punches in. Even though it’s a match and both are participants, security breaks them up. Imagine if that happen at Bad Blood ’97.
Now that the angle is over, Stevie Ray accidentally hits (I think it missed and Bret knew it) Bret Hart with a slapjack, and a Diamond Cutter to Stevie Ray!
Diamond Dallas Page wins in 20:06 when he pinned Steve Ray. Bret tries to make the save but fails as Page pins Stevie Ray for the Title shot. Absolutely horrible. The worst War Games in the history of the match. It’s not even close really. One of…if not THE worst major PPV main event in professional wrestling history. Your match was a 5 minute solid Bret-Page match, entrances and punches (except for Sting, who did some good stuff). Kevin Nash’s entire night was a few forearms before getting hit with the slapjack and taking two legdrops. The Hogan-Warrior angle was an embarrassment. Page getting the win at the end was pure afterthought.
Here’s another thing about this PPV.
No Rey Mysterio Jr. or Eddie Guerrero (but Silver King!)
No Chris Benoit.
No….Goldberg. No fucking Goldberg.
At the end of Hennig-Malenko we were in D range. The show overall was a whole lot of nothing. The only real positive I saw storyline wise was Saturn vs. Raven.
Well drunk Scott Hall didn’t help. The show basically rested on the main event. Considering it’s possibly the worst main event in professional wrestling history, that should tell you all you need to know.
WCW somehow still hung in there ratings wise…although not for long.
Final Grade: F