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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Spring Stampede 1994

Spring_Stampede_94

WCW Spring Stampede ‘94
April 17, 1994
Chicago, IL
Reviewed on June 7, 2014

An interesting era for WCW here. This is the last remnants of the old school NWA/WCW…as Hulkamania was only three months away. Ric Flair had come back to WCW last year and won the World Title at Starrcade, so Hogan vs. Flair was on the horizon. But first, a real throwback. Flair vs. Steamboat captivated audiences in the late 80s, with some hailing their matches as the greatest of all time. What could go wrong with a rematch?

We seem some of the last great days of some wrestlers here (Rick Rude) as the near end of some great WCW runs (Cactus Jack, Steve Austin). But for now, this is the last of the pre-Hogan era, and it is critically acclaimed. Let’s see how it looks 20 years later.

The Card

This show is apparently important enough to get an on-air National Anthem. Not sure if that means anything.

Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page was still a midcarder here. I think I’ve written enough about my dislike for Badd.

DDP looks a bit heavy here.

Kimberly! Woo!

DDP looks like the indy version of Diesel.

This actually hasn’t been that bad. It’s not particularly exciting, but it’s not horrid like I expected.

Johnny B. Badd pins Page in 5:55. Top rope sunset flip for the win. Not terrible, but pretty forgettable. Matched seemed like it was 3/4ths the speed it should have been.

WCW Television Championship
Steven Regal© vs. Flyin’ Brian

Pillman and Regal have some nice exchanges early.

Pillman works on the arm. A little weird as Regal has his leg bandaged and it seems like that should be the target.

There actually is some history here. Last year the Hollywood Blondes were the tag champs, but Pillman got hurt and Regal subbed in for him. Austin and Regal lost the belts.

This match has turned into Regal stretching Pillman for 10 minutes. Not sure why they went that route.

It’s being announced that 10 minutes have expired and 5 minutes are left. I feel like the finish is obvious.

Regal retains via time limit draw in 15:00. Ugh, a time limit draw. Pillman makes his last minute comeback but it doesn’t work as they go over the top rope. Regal for some reason when time was expiring went back into the ring. Horrible logic. Disappointing match considering who is involved. Regal just stretched Pillman for 12 of the 15 minutes, and it killed all the momentum. End was good until the very end. And the finish sucks.

Col. Robert Parker with Bunkhouse Bunk interview. Nothing really to note here.

Chicago Street Fight
Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne

Part of a huge de-push for Cactus…he was feuding with World Champ Vader last year.

Fun brawl here reminds me of some ECW ’95 stuff.

Holy shit that was a shovel shot right to Foley’s head.

Foley just gets shoved off the stage and he takes a back bump. God damn.

The Nasty Boys win when Sags pins Cactus in 8:58. Another sick shovel shot to Foley’s head while he lies on the concrete. Then the pin. Wow. This is 1994? This match is years ahead of its time and Foley takes a really sick bump on the floor at the end. Great brawl even if it seemed rather messy at times.

Badd wants a US Title Match. Woo?

WCW US Championship
Stunning Steve Austin© vs. The Great Muta

Er…I believe this is heel vs. heel. Sounds like a disaster.

There are big Muta chants, so I’m wrong about heel vs. heel.

Pretty slow to start, with Muta wearing down Austin.

They are announcing the time again. Does this have a time limit?

Austin with a creative jump off the middle of the middle rope. No typo there.

Muta uses Austin’s own move, the stun gun. Nice.

Top rope hurricanrana!

Muta kicks Parker off the apron! Crowd is hot.

Stunning Steve wins by DQ in 16:30. Ugh, Muta backdrops Austin over the top and gets DQed. That finish will never be any good. Crowd was just getting into this and it was picking up. Finish ruined it. Slow match that did build up. Just ugh.

WCW International Championship
Rick Rude© vs. Sting

The International Championship was a weird title that was a spinoff of the NWA World Title I believe. It used the Big Gold Belt though, which was smartly changed to the WCW World Title when Flair unified it by beating Sting (omg spoiler).

Harley Race comes out and says Vader wants the winner of this. Race attacks Sting and Sting blasts him.

Here we go! Sting starts off on fire!

Rude works on the back, which is ironic considering what would happen two weeks later.

No idea Rude had a victory roll in his arsenal, even if it was botched a bit.

Whoa Rude sells a backdrop by rotating all around. I’ve probably seen him do that before, but still. He doesn’t land on his feet though.

Scorpion!

It’s VADER!

Sting fights them off, but Rude retakes control.

Harley Race screws up the finish by forgetting his role, leaving Rude to just wait there!

Sting pins Rude to win the title in 12:50. Rude goes for Rude Awakening, but Race swings a chair and Sting escapes, and Rude gets nailed. Sting gets rid of Race and wins. Decent match, although it felt a little off. I’d even say it was good. Rude would injure his back in the rematch 2 weeks later, ending his active wrestling career.

Bunkhouse Match
Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes

Dustin Rhodes bleeds pretty early here after a piece of wood gets broken over his head.

Brutal belt whipping from Bunk. Ouch.

This has been a good old school brawl.

Bulldog! But Dustin chases Parker away.

Bunk pins Dustin in 14:11. Brass knuckles shot for the win. I think the Bulldog would have been a fine finish, but this works too. Pretty solid brawl.

Vader and Rude go at it in the back.

The Boss vs. Vader

I must say, it took some big stones to name the Bossman the Boss and dress him up as cop. No wonder they got sued.

Man Boss is over. (CLEVER!) Vader accidentally takes out Race.

Boss just drops Vader on the railing. Serious strength there.

Vader just backdrops Boss over the top rope. I never knew the Bossman did stuff like this.

Boss one arm slams Vader off the ropes when Vader went for the Vader Bomb. Wow!

DDT off the top from Boss? What?!

Bossman comes off the top and Vader catches in midair and slams! What?!

Vader pins The Boss in 9:58. Vadersault! Wow, this was a really good match. I had no idea that the Boss could do any of this. Postmatch shows Boss beat up Vader with a nightstick, and Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel stops him…and actually takes his gimmick away. This is because they were getting sued, of course.

WCW World Championship
Ric Flair© vs. Ricky Steamboat

The joke here is that there’s no story here: they just looked for an excuse to have these two have a great match.

Mat wrestling to start, but a vicious slap wakes the crowd up by Steamboat.

A lot of the match focuses on how well each man knows the other. Good stuff.

Steamboat gets a figure four on Flair! Nice!

Steamboat with the most obvious counter to the figure four that I’d never seen, just using his hands to block Ric dropping the leg.

Flair and Steamboat wrestle to a no-contest via double pin in 32:19. Steamboat gets several near falls, then locks in a double chickenwing, the move that won him the title in 1989. Flair counters by dropping back, so he ends up on top of Steamboat still in the hold. Both men’s shoulders are down for the count. Steamboat thinks he’s won and the crowd does too, but the commish rewards the title to Flair. Look, it’s a great match, but I’m never going to buy a draw as a finish to the main event. Maybe that worked in the 80s, but this is 1994. The Saturday Night rematch should have happened 1st, then this should have been the rematch. For the record while I do think this match is great…it does feel a little forced in terms of the rematch. It feels more like a tribute to their 1989 series and doesn’t stand on its own.

What a tough PPV to judge. Positives: Several good to great matches. Innovative stuff with the Street Fight. Negatives: Every title match had a bullshit finish (Time Limit draw, over the top DQ, Race nails Rude with a chair, double pin), some matches that could have absolutely owned didn’t (Regal-Pillman).

I also don’t think Flair vs. Steamboat is revolutionary or anything that would put this PPV over the top. Just a great match.

This PPV had A+ potential, but way too much eh stuff brought it down big. If the main had a finish I’d be happier, but it didn’t so I’m not. It’s still pretty good overall though.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Beash Blast ’92

Beachblast92

WCW Beach Blast 92
June 20, 1992
Mobile, AL
Reviewed on March 26, 2014

Background: To be honest, I don’t know my WCW 1992 very well, but I do know of some things that were going on and how the company was struggling as a result.

WCW had lost their top two main eventers in the past year. The Jim Herd era had the NWA/WCW’s top draw leave without dropping the belt, as Ric Flair left in the middle of 1991. This led to the end of the new Lex Luger run as well…as Luger never beating Flair ended up ruining Luger’s reign, and he bolted shortly thereafter. This left Sting as the only top guy. WCW did have talent though, and we’ll see it on this show.

Herd was fired after the Flair fiasco and I believe Kip Frye took over for a while…but eventually Bill Watts was the head guy in WCW for this point. Watts was an extreme mixed bag…extremely old school…but at least his booking provided good stories and solid action. So let’s see how Beach Blast 92 shakes out.

The Card

Main event tonight is a World Tag Team Title bout: Steiners vs. Dr. Death and Terry Gordy. I guess that passes in 1992.

Bill Watts is on screen talking about tonight’s matches. He talks about hard hitting action and rules and stuff. I do think there is a way to do the old school stuff, and Watts was the way to do it. They weren’t going to beat the WWF like that though.

WCW Lightheavyweight Championship
Flyin’ Brian Pillman vs. Scotty Flamingo

I wonder how much it killed Raven to be Scotty Flamingo.

Crowd is very into Pillman. I think this is right after a series of matches with Jushin Liger.

Well wrestles match so far. Watts’ rules had no over the top rope moves…so unsurprisingly we’re getting a technical contest.

Not the best selling of the wristlock by Raven (unless you purposely flip to the canvas in a wristlock).

Most of my Brian Pillman viewing was post accident in 1997, watching him do cruiser stuff is a bit jarring (although I’ve seen it before). Pillman was really good.

Jim Ross points out that if Pillman jumped off the top rope it would have been a DQ. See, that was a bit too much for the old school stuff.

Scotty Flamingo looks like Carlito.

Getting close to the 20 minute time limit here.

Scotty Flamingo wins the title by pin in 17:29. Pillman clotheslines Raven over the top rope onto the ramp, but misses an over the top rope dive and lands on the ramp hard (both of which I thought would be DQs here. I guess I don’t understand the WCW rules at the time). Raven brings him back in and hits a knee from the 2nd rope (looked terrible though). Gets the three. Good match. Not great, but filled the 17 minutes pretty well and put over Flamingo.

Bikini Contest
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Oh god Johnny B. Badd is hosting this. I actually prefer Marc Mero.

I guess it’s actually an evening gown contest first. Doesn’t really fit the Beach theme.

We’ll get back to this later apparently.

Ron Simmons vs. Taylor Made Man

Here’s another wrestling joke: Terry Taylor. At least this is better than the Red Rooster.

Horrible three point stance shoulder blocks…as Taylor practically jumps over Simmons.

Simmons presses Taylor over this head and tosses him into the ring from the ramp. Jesse Ventura says I guess that’s not a DQ because Taylor was thrown into the ring. Even the announcers were confused.

Angry Man Spinebuster wasn’t that angry yet.

Ron Simmons pinned Taylor in 7:10. Powerslam for the win. Honestly, I could see why Watts went with Simmons later. Simmons would have been a great guy for a territory to build around, and if Watts was going old school, it makes sense.

Marcus Bagwell vs. Greg Valentine

A really young Buff Bagwell here.

I can’t really tell, but I feel like Valentine is stiffing Bagwell here.

Good old school match with Valentine destroying the leg.

Greg Valentine makes Bagwell submit in 7:17. Figure four for the win. Interesting ending as Bagwell never makes a comeback, almost as if this was a “real” match. It was what it was, but good psychology with the leg I guess.

Falls Count Anywhere
Sting vs. Cactus Jack

Some story here, although I know more about the backstage stuff: Sting was beginning to be fed monsters to help put him over (I think preparing for a Sting vs. Rick Rude World Title match). As Mick Foley wrote in his first book, Cactus Jack came in to put over Sting…but Foley wanted to try some crazy stuff to put himself AND Sting over, which worried Sting at first. Mick Foley calls this his favorite match in his book. While Sting is the WCW World Champ here, it is a non-title match and it kinda makes sense as that’s not what Cactus Jack was about at this point.

In the storylines, Cactus Jack was kinda known as the king of the Falls Count Anywhere match at this point. That’s really the standard Hardcore Match. He beat Van Hammer in one where Abdullah the Butcher interfered.

Awesome backdrop sequence on the ramp! Awesome start so far.

Jack with the flying elbow off the apron. A killer move for the time.

Sunset Flip off the apron on the floor. I’d love to see someone Foley’s size do that today!

I can’t believe this match is taking place on USA national PPV in 1992. Crowd fighting. Rail bumps!

That was what was great about the Cactus Jack character. Yes he was a violent brawler…but he could wrestle too…and that only added to the danger (body scissors here).

Nice Stinger Splash on the floor where Cactus ends up dumping Sting on the railing.

Not sure if that was a botched piledriver or part of the story with Cactus’ knee. I’m actually gonna go with story here.

Sting bashes Jack in the knee with the chair. So yeah, I think the earlier spot was story. Cactus escapes the Scorpion!

Sting pins Cactus Jack in 11:24. Flying clothesline from the top to the ramp from Sting for the win. Great match! Nice brawl. Wish this was longer…and I am wondering why this didn’t main event? No wonder Sting wanted to work with Foley so much afterwards.

30 Minute Iron Man Match
Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat

Oddly, another non-title match as Rude was the US Champ here.

I like how Rude’s gimmick hadn’t changed one bit since 1988, yet he was still over as hell anyway.

Before I even watch, same question about Sting vs. Jack. Why isn’t this the main event?

Steamboat brings his kid and wife Bonnie (Flair’s brings some insight there about here). He attacks Rude’s ribs and Ventura has a point about Steamboat using his kid as a way for Rude not to attack first.

Steamboat trying to win it with some submissions quickly. Interesting story they are trying to tell.

Rude gets a surprise pin after a knee to the face. Steamboat was absolutely owning before that. Pin seems a bit quick for me, but if we are going for realism a knee to the face I could see being a good finish (ain’t that right D-Bry).

Rude nails the Rude Awakening for a quick 2-0 lead now. I do like that booking a lot. Steamboat is dazed…so take advantage. Well done.

Rude comes off the top rope with a flying knee drop! That’s a DQ here! 2-1. But wait, that took out Steamboat…so Rude gets ANOTHER pin for the 3-1 lead. Awesome heel spot. HHH vs. Rock stole this idea at Judgment Day 2000.

Steamboat gets beat on for about six minutes, but nicely reverses a Tombstone and drills Rude to cut it to 3-2. I wanna see someone climb Undertaker like that.

Steamboat with an awesome bridge into a backslide for another three. 3-3! Still 10 minutes left.

Steamboat trying to take the lead with tons of pinning attempts. No dice though, Rude stops him.

Man even Rick Rude’s sleeper looks awesome.

This seriously is the best sleeper I’ve ever seen. And somehow Steamboat even sells it like a million bucks…which is crazy, again, because it’s a sleeper. Two minutes left.

Ricky Steamboat wins 4-3. Wow! Steamboat looks dead in the sleeper…but gets back to his feet and does the Bret Hart-Roddy Piper/Steve Austin Rude pins himself sequence…only the Rude’s injured ribs story makes it more effective…and he gets the pin! Rude goes batshit insane here and gets SEVEN two counts in 30 seconds to try to tie it…but no dice. Incredible finish. Match was great. I did think the first fall came too sudden but everything else worked really well. Really wondering why this wasn’t the main event especially since there was a great finish here. This was PWI’s Third Runner up for Match of the Year.

Swimsuit Competition
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Oh god more Johnny B. Badd.

Um…I think Missy Hyatt wins. There’s a round three later though.

Six Man Tag Team Match: Ole Anderson is the special referee
The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson and Beautiful Bobby Eaton) vs. Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes

A young Stone Cold and Goldust in this one. Young Heyman at ringside too.

Windham and Austin start. Not sure if this is really a good comparison, but I actually see some Austin in Windham at this point.

They tease Arn Anderson coming off the top. Really pushing the new rules of WCW here.

Koloff clotheslines Arn over the rope…and Paul E. wants a DQ. He doesn’t get the call though…which it least is consistent from the Lightheavy title match.

During the match Ross and Ventura say that Madusa is beating Hyatt 51% to 49%. A lot of blind people voting I guess.

I like Ole Anderson as a referee.

Rhodes, Windham and Koloff win in 15:32 by DQ. Arn Anderson is caught coming off the top rope for the DQ. Ugh. Look, that’s fine if you want to get the new rules over, but don’t waste a PPV finish on it. This is a well wrestled match but utterly pointless due to the finish.

Paul E. tells Steamboat no more US Title shots. Then Steamboat is attacked by Cactus Jack. Good stuff.

Bikini Contest
Missy Hyatt vs. Madusa

Hyatt uses Ventura’s scarves as a bikini. Johnny B. Badd says she wins. Madusa gets mad. For the record, Hyatt’s swimsuit was more of a bikini. Whatever. How did Missy Hyatt get so unhot though? She was practically Sunny before Sunny.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Steiner Bros.(c) vs. The Miracle Violence Connection (Dr. Death Steve Williams and Bam Bam Terry Gordy)

I think the story here is the Steiners have destroyed everyone…but these two from Japan can match amateur wrestling and power with the Steiners.

A lot of amateur wrestling early.

Jesse Ventura with the line of the night. JR: “Rick Steiner has a degree in Education for Michigan.” Ventura: “Oh yeah right. From Kindergarten?”

Crowd is really into the Steiners, for what it’s worth about this being the main event.

All this technical wrestling leads to a Bow and Arrow lock from Scott. I like the rarer unique submissions as you can see.

Working on Scotty Steiner’s knee. Always good psychology.

Dr. Death with the Walls of Jericho!

I always wondered how people killed JBL for his Clothesline From Hell when the Steiners used Steinerlines as a finisher at times.

Time Limit Draw in 30:00. Scott Steiner gets a Frankensteiner, but it’s too late. Of course, in any era, this is a shit finish for the last match on the show. Match itself was pretty boring. Maybe it was a big deal in 1992, and it was wrestled well I guess, but I just wasn’t feeling it. This match also has another bigger issue. Throughout the show a NWA World Tag Team Title tournament was being promoted. So, why should I care about the WCW World Tag Team title?

Interesting PPV. It’s wrestled well from top to bottom, but it has some major problems. One is the match order. Having two non-finishes as the last two matches on a PPV is very unsatisfying. Especially when Steamboat-Rude was an excellent Iron Man Match and quite main event worthy…and the WCW Champ Sting could have also main evented in a great brawl with Cactus Jack. But a DQ by coming off the top and a time limit draw? Bad way to end the show in any era. I’m guessing the tag match main evented because Watts liked tough guys, and Dr. Death, Gordy and the Steiners were all as tough as they come. It’s still the wrong choice though and really messes up the card.

The bikini stuff didn’t need three different segments.

There could have been some emphasis on the stories. While Cactus Jack got some story, I had no idea about why Steamboat-Rude wasn’t for the title and why he still can’t have a title shot. Also no idea why, as alluded to in the commentary, Vader was happy that Cactus was beating up Sting.

Those may be the only bad things, but they are major.

A lot of good stuff though. Great wrestling. A couple great matches. Some of the bikini stuff was great. Very good opener. A clear showing that they were going to go with Ron Simmons at some point. The storytelling is there…they just need to tell us.

Good outweighs the bad for sure.

Final Grade: B