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On 10/3/2021 at 11:11 PM, Gorman said:

Thoughts on Halloween Havoc 91

The Chamber of Horrors match should have been the main event. It was a crazy, Halloween-themed cage match with an electrifying finish. The match had a lot of star power too (Sting, Steiners & Gigante over Cactus, Abby, Diamond Studd & Vader).

Bobby Eaton continued his great 1991 with a win over Terrance Taylor. Eaton's year would have been even better if Steve Austin and Dustin Rhodes hadn't emerged, as they battled later in the night for the TV title that Eaton held briefly.

Chattanooga fans must love the Atlanta Braves, because they went crazy for the Freebirds wearing Braves gear and doing the Tomahawk chop. Of course, if they were real Braves fans, they would have stayed home to watch Game 7 of the World Series, which the Braves lost to the Minnesota Twins.

Oz turned down the stupidity even more by ditching the old-man mask and Wizard hat, so Bill Kazmaier made up for it by carrying a "globe" beach ball on his back. Since Lex Luger had switched his finisher to the piledriver, Kazmaier quickly adopted the Human Torture Rack OF DOOM to beat Oz.

WCW kept piling on the gimmicks in 1991, with a rocker (Van Hammer), a fireman (Firebreaker Chip) and a soldier (Todd Champion).

Tom Zenk should have stayed in the WWF, and he lost PPV matches in 1991 to Eaton, Vader, Diamond Studd, and here to The WCW Halloween Phantom (Rick Rude). Rude was just the opposite, as he was a main eventer throughout this run in WCW after only a cup of coffee at that level in the WWF.

Brian Pillman is the MVP for becoming the first WCW light heavyweight champion. He worked hard all year and was the perfect choice to kick off the division as its champion. The WWF didn't crown its first light heavyweight champion until 1996 (Taka Michinoku).

Lex Luger and Ron Simmons both looked great in the main event. Simmons proved himself by pinning the World champion in the middle of the ring in the first fall, and Luger pinned Simmons cleanly with the piledriver in the third fall.

Technically, WWF had a juniors belt dating back to the mid-60's that they just kinda gave to Japan eventually and it wound up part of the J*Crown.

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On 10/4/2021 at 11:14 PM, Brian Fowler said:

Technically, WWF had a juniors belt dating back to the mid-60's that they just kinda gave to Japan eventually and it wound up part of the J*Crown.

5566-E9-CC-DFF5-462-E-8721-553906-EB4771

12/28/84 Cobra vs. Black Tiger at MSG:

 

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Thoughts on Starrcade 91: Battlebowl (The Lethal Lottery)

Just like at Starrcade 89, no titles were on the line. Fortunately, WCW had enough talent and star power to get through TEN random tag team matches without the crowd falling asleep.

Jushin Liger & Bill Kazmaier formed the quintessential "speed and power" tag team. Indeed, Bill pressed Jushin over his head and threw him onto DDP for the victory.

Larry Zbyszko & El Gigante formed the most dysfunctional tag team. Larry slapped Gigante, who fed him into a double-dropkick by Dustin & Morton to end the match.

The same high school kid who made the feathery Fantasia outfit must have designed Arachnaman's gear as well. Of course, the character was a "cease and desist" letter waiting to happen.

Sting won Battlebowl by tossing out Lex Luger, perfectly setting the stage for their World title match at SuperBrawl 2. 

However, the MVP is Abdullah the Butcher. He livened up the middle of the show as an agent of chaos. As soon as he realized that he wasn't Cactus Jack's partner, he destroyed Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, who was chosen instead. In the next match, he attacked his own partner, Sting. They somehow managed to win their match, and Abby even started fighting with Cactus after the match.

 

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Thoughts on SuperBrawl 2

Jesse Ventura told Jim Ross that he should wear a cowboy hat so he could look like JR Ewing. "His initials are even JR!" A light bulb went on above Vince McMahon's head.

Terry Taylor changed his moniker from "The Computerized Man of the '90s" to the "Taylor Made Man," which apparently meant raiding Ted DiBiase's wardrobe.

Junkyard Dog came out of the crowd to save Ron Simmons from a beating by Cactus Jack and Abdullah the Butcher. But why was JYD wearing a white tuxedo?

Tom Zenk ended his 5-PPV losing streak by teaming with Van Hammer to beat Richard Morton and Vinnie Vegas, who looked relieved not to be portraying "Oz" any more.

Paul E. Dangerously dressed up as Ricky Steamboat's ninja and caused Steamboat to lose his US title match against Rick Rude. Of course, the fact that Paul E. wasn't in Rude's corner gave away the surprise.

Sting survived Lex Luger's piledriver and Harley Race's attempted piledriver on the floor to win his second WCW title. The fans were definitely ready for Sting to be back on top of the mountain, with tons of his shirts and signs in the crowd. Luger was off to the World Bodybuilding and Wrestling Federations.

Arn Anderson is the MVP. He threw powder in Rick Steiner's face, causing Rick to suplex the referee and get disqualified. Not only did Arn and Bobby Eaton retain the WCW tag team title, but Arn also escaped the wrath of Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes, who beat Larry Zbyszko and Steve Austin to gain revenge for the parking lot attack at Halloween Havoc. Even though Larry adopted the "Cruncher" nickname, Arn was actually the one who slammed the car door on Windham's hand.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Gorman
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Thoughts on WrestleWar 92

Terrance Taylor and Greg Valentine acted like two singles wrestlers, and it's a wonder they held the US tag team belts, which they dropped here to the Freebirds.

Scotty Flamingo beat Marcus Bagwell to move into contention for the light heavyweight title. Later, Tom Zenk challenged Brian Pillman for the title. You would think, "aren't they a little too big?" But the weight limit was 235 pounds!

Speaking of Zenk-Pillman, Jesse Ventura was begging them to lose their cool and cheat. They lost their cool, but neither of them cheated.

Junkyard Dog didn't make it to the ring to team with Ron Simmons against Cactus Jack and Mr. Hughes due to a prematch attack. Instead of competing in a handicap match, Simmons just faced Hughes in a singles match. It was the reverse of the ECW and later WWE trope of singles matches morphing into tag team bouts. 

The Steiners battered Tatusumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka to become the top contenders to the New Japan belts. Rick and Scott were arguably more suited to the Japanese style than the American style of wrestling, like Steve Williams & Terry Gordy.

Sting is the MVP, as he led his Squadron to beat the Dangerous Alliance in War Games, which was all action and included buckets of blood. Even though he held the World title, he convinced Nikita Koloff to stick with him. Nikita would have certainly gotten his long awaited World title shot if he had lowered the boom on Sting. Larry Zbyszko tried to lower the boom on Sting with the turnbuckle bolt, but Sting moved out of the way and Bobby Eaton got blasted instead. 

Edited by Gorman
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10 hours ago, Gorman said:

Thoughts on WrestleWar 92

Terrance Taylor and Greg Valentine acted like two singles wrestlers, and it's a wonder they held the US tag team belts, which they dropped here to the Freebirds.

Scotty Flamingo beat Marcus Bagwell to move into contention for the light heavyweight title. Later, Tom Zenk challenged Brian Pillman for the title. You would think, "aren't they a little too big?" But the weight limit was 235 pounds!

Speaking of Zenk-Pillman, Jesse Ventura was begging them to lose their cool and cheat. They lost their cool, but neither of them cheated.

Junkyard Dog didn't make it to the ring to team with Ron Simmons against Cactus Jack and Mr. Hughes due to a prematch attack. Instead of competing in a handicap match, Simmons just faced Hughes in a singles match. It was the reverse of the ECW and later WWE trope of singles matches morphing into tag team bouts. 

The Steiners battered Tatusumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka to become the top contenders to the New Japan belts. Rick and Scott were arguable more suited to the Japanese style than the American style of wrestling, like Steve Williams & Terry Gordy.

Sting is the MVP, as he led his Squadron to beat the Dangerous Alliance in War Games, which was all action and included buckets of blood. Even though he held the World title, he convinced Nikita Koloff to stick with him. Nikita would have certainly gotten his long awaited World title shot if he had lowered the boom on Sting. Larry Zbyszko tried to lower the boom on Sting with the turnbuckle bolt, but Sting moved out of the way and Bobby Eaton got blasted instead. 

I like the idea of Valentine & Taylor as a tag team, but as I've mentioned before on the pictures thread, it was a huge dissapointment to me that Taylor wasn't wearing robes at this point, so they indeed ended up looking nothing like a tag team, much less like champions. Many of the WCW PPV's of this era open with a Freebirds match and thusly I usually fall asleep during the opener and end up missing most of the good stuff.

The main event shows the tremendeous depth of the face side roster, as you have 5 guys who you could have challenge for any title at any time, and you can see that Dangerous Alliance can hang with them until it's time to send Eaton and Larry in. As good as those guys were, they ended up being no match for the top guys, once the sides evened up.

The level of talent in the main event is crazy, but it shows on the undercard, as there are matches that may not have made the card had not most of the main eventers not been jammed into one match.

Edited by Shartnado
Structure things...
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On 10/11/2021 at 12:32 PM, Gorman said:

Thoughts on SuperBrawl 2

Jesse Ventura told Jim Ross that he should wear a cowboy hat so he could look like JR Ewing. "His initials are even JR!" A light bulb went on above Vince McMahon's head.

Terry Taylor changed his moniker from "The Computerized Man of the '90s" to the "Taylor Made Man," which apparently meant raiding Ted DiBiase's wardrobe.

Junkyard Dog came out of the crowd to save Ron Simmons from a beating by Cactus Jack and Abdullah the Butcher. But why was JYD wearing a white tuxedo?

Tom Zenk ended his 5-PPV losing streak by teaming with Van Hammer to beat Richard Morton and Vinnie Vegas, who looked relieved not to be portraying "Oz" any more.

Paul E. Dangerously dressed up as Ricky Steamboat's ninja and caused Steamboat to lose his US title match against Rick Rude. Of course, the fact that Paul E. wasn't in Rude's corner gave away the surprise.

Sting survived Lex Luger's piledriver and Harley Race's attempted piledriver on the floor to win his second WCW title. The fans were definitely ready for Sting to be back on top of the mountain, with tons of his shirts and signs in the crowd. Luger was off to the World Bodybuilding and Wrestling Federations.

Arn Anderson is the MVP. He threw powder in Rick Steiner's face, causing Rick to suplex the referee and get disqualified. Not only did Arn and Bobby Eaton retain the WCW tag team title, but Arn also escaped the wrath of Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes, who beat Larry Zbyszko and Steve Austin to gain revenge for the parking lot attack at Halloween Havoc. Even though Larry adopted the "Cruncher" nickname, Arn was actually the one who slammed the car door on Windham's hand.

 

 

 

 

I remember this time period vividly which is insane as I was just about to turn 9 yrs old.  The January Clash was a huge show and built this ppv perfectly.  They promoted this show huge on the Saturday TV and in the WCW Magazine.  I thought this would be the show where Steamboat finally beats Rude, Sting beats Lex, and the Steiners win the tag belts back.  Sadly only one of the three happened.  

I could be off but I am 99% sure JR made mention to Lex gassing early and being in terrible shape.  Also once Lex loses he immediately gets right up and walks off.  Way to treat your best friend.

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On 10/11/2021 at 12:32 PM, Gorman said:

Junkyard Dog came out of the crowd to save Ron Simmons from a beating by Cactus Jack and Abdullah the Butcher. But why was JYD wearing a white tuxedo?

He was watching a wrestling show.

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Thoughts on Beach Blast

Beach Blast was a great, influential show. It had the first Falls Count Anywhere and Iron Man matches on pay-per-view. It was also the first major "Beach"-themed PPV.

Bill Watts showed up at the beginning of the show. Even though Watts didn't declare a no-top-rope rule, Scotty Flamingo won the light heavyweight title from a guy who's nickname was "Flyin'."

Ron Simmons continued his run toward the World title by beating the Taylor-Made Man. Simmons' breakup with Reed was a year earlier, so it was time for Simmons to reach the top.

I thought Marcus Bagwell would win the "youth vs. experience" battle with Greg Valentine, but nope. The Hammer won with the figure-four.

When Sting and Cactus Jack came out for the Falls Count Anywhere match, I thought, "wasn't this the main event?" Cactus wasn't a huge star yet, and the World title wasn't even on the line. Sting hit Cactus with a spectacular top-rope clothesline onto the ramp for the win.

When Steamboat and Rude came out for the Iron Man match, I thought, "wasn't this the main event?" Steamboat is the MVP for rallying from a 3-1 deficit to beat Rude 4-3. Why was this also a non-title match? Steamboat even fought off an attack from Cactus Jack later in the night.

When Dustin-Nikita-Windham and Arn-Eaton-Austin came out,  I thought, "okay, this is the main event." But I was wrong! Good thing, because Ole Anderson calling for a disqualification isn't the best way to end the show. Neither is a 30-minute draw between the Steiners and Doc & Gordy, which actually was the main event.

So Beach Blast was a good show that could have been a great show. All they had to do was switch the Sting and Steamboat matches with the last two matches and put the World and US titles on the line. Steamboat could have won the US title at the end, with Bonnie and little Richie coming back out for the celebration.

 

 

 

 

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Thoughts on Great American Bash 92

Steamboat & Koloff vs. Pillman & Liger was a great babyface battle. Both teams were billed as representing the USA in the opening graphics, while Doc & Gordy, two Americans, were representing Japan. It made sense for Steamboat to reverse Pillman's top-rope bodypress because that's Steamboat's finisher. 

Speaking of representing Japan, Hiroshi Hase delivered a perfect Northern Lights suplex to send himself and Hashimoto to the semifinals. 

Steve Williams & Terry Gordy are the obvious MVP winners. Not only did they beat Steamboat & Koloff and Dustin & Windham, but they also wisely challenged and defeated the Steiners at Clash XIX. So they only had to wrestle twice here, while Dustin & Windham had to wrestle three times. Also, Doc & Gordy had recently beaten the Steiners again to win the WCW tag belts. Now that's dominance.

Not sure why WCW devoted two major shows to the NWA tag team belts, or why they muddied the waters by pulling out Ric Flair's old NWA World title on the same night Big Van Vader won the WCW title from Sting. Ron Simmons was watching the Vader-Sting match with Tony Schiavone, and Simmons surprisingly ended Vader's reign before it even lasted one month.

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22 hours ago, Matt D said:

At least Doc/Gordy vs Dustin/Barry worked.

Yeah

And also that's maybe the only time the Watts episodic booking legend was evident in WCW, already setting the stage for the split immediately after they won the belts. Just damn great wrestling and storytelling.

I will now once again cry that we never got the proper Dustin/Barry feud

 

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26 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

Yeah

And also that's maybe the only time the Watts episodic booking legend was evident in WCW, already setting the stage for the split immediately after they won the belts. Just damn great wrestling and storytelling.

I will now once again cry that we never got the proper Dustin/Barry feud

 

In hindsight, it is really weird we never did get a full-blown feud between the two, but the fact that both guys had different singles titles at the same time by early next year just pushed them into different directions. "Yeah, I hate you and will take every opportunity to beat you up in tag team matches, but this title is still the most important thing to me right now!"

Now I think that missing out on Dustin/Barry vs The Steiners for the tag team titiles makes me want to cry, too!

Edited by Shartnado
Stop crying, it makes me cry, too!
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Thoughts on Halloween Havoc 92

Michael Hayes and Shane Douglas must have had deja vu during the opening six-man, as the Philadelphia fans again cheered Hayes' heel team. But Shane got the last laugh this time, as Philly's own Johnny Gunn scored the winning pinfall.

Vader strangely defended Rick Rude's US title for him, impressively beating Nikita Koloff. It wasn't the most prestigious position for Vader to be in, considering that he won the WCW title on the last PPV.

Hey, it's the team of Steve Williams and Steve Williams! Austin and Doc actually won the belts from Rhodes & Windham, but it turned out to be rare Dusty finish that benefits the babyfaces. (Dustin finish?)

Manabu Nakanishi showed up in the crowd before the Chono-Rude NWA title bout, and he would eventually make his way to WCW. Ole Anderson hilariously checked referees Harley Race and Kensuke Sasaki for foreign objects. If you think that they could not only be biased, but use a foreign object, why did you allow them to be referees in an NWA World title match?

I love Barbarian, and I was privileged to announce a couple of his matches, but he had never won a singles title before getting a championship match against Ron Simmons. WCW could have picked Austin, Doc, Eaton, Arn, or even Barbarian's cornerman, Cactus Jack.

After the match, Simmons joined Bruno Sammartino and Erik Watts on the interview platform. They were clearly going for a "past, present and future World champions" moment.

Speaking of the interview platform, Madusa gets the MVP award for kicking Paul E. Dangerously's head off after his misogynistic tirade. As she beat him into oblivion, Vader, Race and Tony Schiavone all walked away like "Yep, he had it comin'." Madusa later fulfilled her obligation and appeared in Rude's corner as he challenged for the NWA title.

They explained the snake-related shenanigans in the Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal match between Sting and Jake Roberts. Since "Spinner's Choice" was one of the options, they had "anti-cobra venom" in the building in case the wheel landed on that and Jake picked a "Loser Gets Bitten by a Cobra" match. The only problem with this logic was that Sting was the spinner.

Edited by Gorman
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Thoughts on Starrcade 92

The second annual Battlebowl was an endurance test for the wrestlers and the fans. WCW sent its best wrestlers out three times while two dozen midcarders sat in the locker room and didn't have their names called. WCW did a great job promoting the importance of winning Battlebowl and the ring, enlisting home-run king Hank Aaron and American football legend Paul Hornung.

Johnny B. Badd punched out his own partner, Cactus Jack and knocked himself out of Battlebowl. He must not have heard of how prestigious the ring is.

Vader smartly decked Dustin Rhodes after their victory, realizing that Dustin had immediately become a Battlebowl foe. Vader lost the King of Cable match to Sting, and then immediately lumbered out for the battle royale. He and Sting didn't have any gas left. Two days later, Vader won the WCW title back from Ron Simmons, five months after losing it to Simmons in the same building in Baltimore. 

Rick Rude was supposed to challenge Simmons, but he had to drop out due to an injury. He complained that WCW was threatening to strip him of the US title, when it didn't do the same when then-WCW champion Sting had a rib injury.

Great Muta and Barry Windham threw a double dropkick in their tag team match, and Muta eventually dropkicked Windham out of the ring to win Battlebowl. Muta bounced back from a loss to NWA World champion Masahiro Chono. Three years after losing three matches at Starrcade, Muta won twice and captured the MVP award. 

Edited by Gorman
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Thoughts on SuperBrawl III

The Hollywood Blonds dusted off the Surprise Partner Smash finish to beat Erik Watts & Marcus Alexander Bagwell. 

2 Cold Scorpio is in a elite class of wrestlers who are fun to watch because they move in a unique way. I would also put Rob Van Dam, Rey Misterio, Sonny Kiss, and Dante Martin on this list.

Davey Boy Smith debuted with a win over Wild Bill Irwin and immediately targeted Vader's WCW title.

Paul Orndorff was having so much fun spamming Hulk Hogan's taunt that he didn't realize Cactus Jack was about to knock him out with a shovel.

Poor Bobby Eaton. He came out with Jim Cornette and Stan Lane, but he was introduced as the third member of the Heavenly Bodies before the referee sent him back to the dressing room. Then Eaton returned to do the Surprise Partner Smash, but he hit Tom Prichard instead and the Bodies lost. On the bright side, a fan had a sign declaring the Midnight Express as the best tag team ever. I hope Bobby signed it.

The Bodies' opponents were the Rock & Roll Express, who replaced the Wrecking Crew and improved the quality of the bout by 500 percent.

Maxx Payne's first PPV appearance saw him play the national anthem on the guitar and get a US title shot against Dustin Rhodes. It's amazing that a 350-pound former All-American wrestler never won a title in WCW or in the WWF as Man Mountain Rock. 

Barry Windham scored the biggest win of his career by avenging his Battlebowl loss and beating The Great Muta for the NWA title. So of course, the returning Ric Flair immediately upstaged him.

Vader is the MVP for winning the brutal White Castle of Fear strap match against Sting. The WCW title was not on the line, but Sting and Vader destroyed each other as if it were. Vader's win was a sign that he would dominate WCW for most of the year.

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On 10/25/2021 at 3:55 PM, Gorman said:

Thoughts on Halloween Havoc 92

They explained the snake-related shenanigans in the Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal match between Sting and Jake Roberts. Since "Spinner's Choice" was one of the options, they had "anti-cobra venom" in the building in case the wheel landed on that and Jake picked a "Loser Gets Bitten by a Cobra" match. The only problem with this logic was that Sting was the spinner.

i just watched this event over the weekend, and every time they mentioned the "anti-cobra venom" i got a chuckle and thought of this post. kudos!

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