WCW Wrestlewar ‘92
May 17, 1992
Jacksonville, FL
Reviewed on May 26, 2014

We are now in a post Ric Flair, post Lex Luger and I believe a post Jim Herd WCW. With losing Luger and Flair, WCW was down to one main eventer (Sting), but a lot of potential.Rick Rude had come in and the Dangerous Alliance storyline was a big deal. As all big stable angles end up going, Wrestlewar would feature the War Games.

1992 was an interesting year for WCW as a lot of the pieces seen on this show would end up never truly making it and getting ousted in one way or another by 1995. Also, perhaps with the exceptions of Rick Rude, Ricky Steamboat and Arn Anderson, it’s clear that Sting was in a different class than everyone else in WCW at the time. WCW was still ways away from challenging the WWF to anything resembling a rivalry, but at least they had gotten past the worst of the Jim Herd era.

The Card

WCW US Tag Team Championship
The Taylor Made Man and Greg Valentine© vs. The Freebirds

Terry Taylor as the Taylor Made Man just looks awful.

I don’t think these titles had any real value at this point.

I often wonder how Greg Valentine ended up with such gimmicky teammates. Honky Tonk Man and Taylor are two examples.

The Freebirds as faces here is also a bit strange to me.

The crowd is very into the Freebirds though.

The Freebirds win the title when Jimmy Garvin pins Taylor in 16:02. Garvin sets Taylor up for the DDT and backdrops Valentine while keeping the head locked. Hayes holds Valentine back and Garvin gets the DDT and the win. Good finish to an otherwise boring tag match. Fans popped big.

Johnny B. Badd vs. Tracy Smothers

The story revolves around Johnny B. Badd’s boxing history and the use of a closed fist.

Nice twisting bodyblock from the top from Smothers, but the Badd rollover counters is botched a bit, but it’s passable. I never pictures Smothers as a high flying guy.

Nice top rope sunset flip by Badd!

Johnny B. Badd pins Tracy Smothers in 7:03. Left hook gets the win, which was predictable due to the commentary. A lot better than I expected, considering I expected nothing. Wasn’t too bad at all.

Missy Hyatt interviews the Freebirds! Obviously they are happy.

Scotty Flamingo vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell

Raven vs. Buff Bagwell here. How strange.

Quite the bitchslapping contest here.

Pretty bad back suplex from Flamingo, although I think Bagwell didn’t go up for the move.

There’s a double over the top sequence that the commentators wonder on whose fault it was. I guess we were in the Bill Watts era? Seems too early though.

Scotty Flamingo pins Marcus Bagwell in 7:11. Bagwell rolls Flamingo over, but Flamingo counters and holds the tights for three. Nothing to say here really. Both guys were still young…and Flamingo would get better. Pretty subpar first fifth minutes to the PPV though.

Junkyard Dog and Ron Simmons vs. Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack

Story here: Abdullah the Butcher and Cactus Jack beat up Simmons, and JYD made the save. No idea why Hughes is Jack’s partner.

Jack attacks JYD on the outside…and Jack drops the big elbow off the ramp on JYD!

Simmons takes out Jack on the ramp.

Mr. Hughes and Cactus Jack has to be up there with oddest tag teams ever.

Simmons helps JYD to the back, but then comes out and cleans house.

This is now Hughes vs. Simmons.

Ron Simmons pinned Mr. Hughes in 5:22. Big Spinebuster, then Simmons attacks the interfering Jack. Simmons hits a chop block for the win. You know what…not bad! This should have been horrible, but Hughes’ offense was okay and Simmons showed off some damn good power slamming around the 400 pound Hughes. Cactus Jack being around is a good bonus too. Probably the best Mr. Hughes match I’ve ever seen (not really saying much there). No surprise this launched a Simmons push.

Todd Champion vs. Super Invader

Super Invader is Hercules I believe. Hercules sucks, so I think that’s a bad sign for this match.

This match has sucked, but Champion does take a surprisingly good bump to the outside into the guardrail.

Champion’s offense is terrible.

Invader pins Champion in 5:26. Powerbomb wins it. Pretty bad. Champion can’t really hit clotheslines correctly. Invader’s offense is a bunch of punches and headlocks with the occasional move like a backbreaker (just like Hercules). Squash here. Funny enough, I felt like this match would have been on a 1993 RAW with Champion being the babyface Vince would push. Whatever. This didn’t belong on PPV.

Big Josh vs. Richard Morton

For some reason Ricky Morton goes by Richard here.

Of course, Big Josh is the future Doink the Clown.

The story is Josh’s power vs. Morton’s er…flying ability? Also, how disgusting Josh is. Like he’s a Godwinn before the Godwinns were a thing.

Big Josh pinned Morton in 7:33. Josh hits a flying butt drop (I like how he used the Whoopie Cushion before he was Doink) for the win. Really boring match. Sorry, but no one has ever cared about the Rock’N’Roll Express when they were in singles matches. A very basic back and forth match.

WCW Lightheavyweight Championship
Flyin Brian Pillman© vs. The Z-Man Tom Zenk

Story here: Former partners. Pillman thinks Zenk didn’t have any gratitude for Pillman helping him out recently. Zenk says Pillman is arrogant, sticking his nose into things that don’t involve him.

Zenk gets scared by his own pyro. Great start there.

This is an example of a really good back and forth match. First match with any type of psychology as well, with Pillman working the leg, and Zenk working the back.

I’ve already see two figure fours now in this match. I wonder how many were done when Flair was around.

Pretty awesome counter to the over the top rope dive by Pillman when Zenk seamlessly slammed him out of it.

Awesome selling of the crossbody from Pillman there.

Pancake from Zenk and Pillman goes sky high for it!

Brian Pillman retains by pin in 15:30. Pillman goes to the top but eats a superkick on the way down! Zenk gets two on the cover, as Pillman got his foot on the ropes. Zenk comes off the top with a dropkick but Pillman sidesteps then folds Zenk up in a jackknife pin for the win. Pretty good match here. It built up to the frantic climax and had a good ending.

#1 Contender to the IWGP Tag Team Championship
The Steiner Bros. vs. Tatsumi Fujinami and Takayuki Iizuka

Steiners are the WCW World Tag Team Champions…I wish this was just for those belts. I wonder if people back in 1992 really cared about the Japanese titles. It bothers me that the Steiners would go for other tag belts. They are the World champions! Who cares about the other belts!

Fujinami has some WCW cred though, as he had that WCW Title/NWA Title deal with Flair in 91.

Nice elbow off the top from Rick in Iizuka when Scott had him in the rack.

Rick just dropped Fujinami on his head with a German suplex. Ouch.

Fujinami has Rick in the Doomsday Device setup, but Rick actually catches Iizuka and slams him when he comes off the top. Never seen anything like that. I do think Rick’s knee landed on Iizuka’s face though.

Man Scott Steiner just no sells a legdrop when he was on his knees. Steiners have dominated and it seems obvious to me that they aren’t being professional with Fujinami and Iizuka.

Really awesome counters by Scott Steiner of a double wristlock. I really can’t explain what he did though.

The Steiners win when Rick pins Iizuki in 18:05. Belly to belly off the top for the win. Someone is going to have to convince me that the Steiners didn’t purposely bury Fujinami and Iizuki here. The Steiners had 75% of the match, won in convincing fashion and there was some no selling from both Rick and Scott, and there was definitely some stiff takedowns from both Steiners.

NOTE: I did some research, and apparently the PWTorch had an article written about his match. Spoilered for length.

Fuck the Steiners. The more old stuff I watch of them the more I hate them.

War Games
Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham and Ricky Steamboat) vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko)

Sometimes it’s easy to forget Paul Heyman did stuff before ECW.

Austin and Windham start. I believe Windham won the TV title from Austin recently, so there is history here.

Nice DDT from Windham to Austin.

Austin’s busted open 4 minutes in. Good opening period from Windham and Austin.

Heels win the coin toss, and they waste no time. In comes Rick Rude!

Ricky Steamboat is the Squadron’s choice! There is history between Steamboat and Rude too!

Steamboat is owning everyone.

Alliance sends in Arn Anderson. A lot of great workers in that ring right now.

Massive spinebuster to Steamboat. Wow.

Steamboat gets thrown over BOTH top ropes into the other ring. What a bump.

Dustin Rhodes is in!

Larry Z is in, and Dustin beats the hell out of him!

Madusa climbs to the top of the cage and drops the cell phone (huge at the time) into the ring for Anderson, who uses it as a weapon. Sting goes up there to chase her away!

Huge pop! Here comes Sting!

Sting kicks all kinds of ass of course.

Sting just backdrops Austin into the cage! Austin hit hard!

Austin with a great clothesline that Windham sells like a million bucks. Wow!

Bobby Eaton is the last member of the Alliance in.

Larry Z messes with the turnbuckle.

Koloff is in! Match beyond begins!

Koloff and Sting had their issues in the past, but Koloff shows his allegiance by saving Sting from an attack and then they hug!

We have a rope torn down!

Sting’s Squadron wins when Sting makes Eaton submit in 23:27. Larry Z gets a metal hook from the broken ring rope. Eaton holds Sting, but Sting moves and Larry smacks Eaton on the arm with the hook. Sting takes out Larry, then puts Eaton in an arm bar for the submission. Post match the Alliance bitches out Larry Z for the screw-up. So, wow. What a match. Nonstop action for 24 minutes. Literally. It doesn’t stop starting from Austin vs. Windham all the way until the submission. Just wow. I am blown away here. Also, I think it’s something that Paul E. sucks chants were the biggest for any heel in 1992. Heyman owns.

I was wondering what the big deal was all the way until the main event, and I got it. This is basically a two match show, unless you think the Steiners match was good (which I don’t). War Games was awesome and Pillman vs. Zenk was solid. The rest? I mean nothing was mindblowningly bad, but it all ranged from boring to average at best (except Invader vs. Champion, that sucked). It makes sense though, all the workrate was in the Lightheavyweight title match and the main.

Funny enough, this card reminds me of Great American Bash 2004. One big bloody brawl. One good lightheavyweight/cruiserweight match. And a lot of disappointing crap. I’d say this is the much better version of that though. Maybe if there was some historic stuff here I’d give it a higher grade, but the only man who really did anything of note regarding their match here was Sting. Austin would be gone in three years. Rhodes in and out. Rude retired soon. Steamboat hung around but also retired soon. Windham probably peaked here. Etc. etc.

Final Grade: B-