WCW On Pay Per View in the 90's - Every event Reviewed

[Deezy]

Say what you want about the product today...but atleast they keep their thrown together matches on the preshow and announce them atleast a week beforehand.

 

[Keith]

If you are speaking of the TV title then that really is on Honky. He was being a jerk. His no jobs on TV deal was a right joke. If WCW wanted to push Badd, then as the older guy HTM should have went along with it. He was a decent wage after all.

 

[Deezy]

Should have just told Johnny B Badd to shoot on that Honky...

 

[Roadster]

New layout is dope, just a shame i can't say that about some of these shows. God damn that card looks like it sucked.

Try watching it. Pain is all that can be said.

but damn forgot HHH wrestled against ALEX WRIGHT on a Starrcade.

 

[Keith]

Try watching it. Pain is all that can be said.

but damn forgot HHH wrestled against ALEX WRIGHT on a Starrcade.

Wright was underrated for me. I am interested to see his next PPV appearance.

 

[Deezy]

Honestly the only thing I remember of him.....like proto Finn Balor

 

[Keith]

Had a decent look, and was solid in the ring. His promos maybe weren't the best. The main issue was that WCW never found the right character for him.

 

[Keith]

WCW On PPV Year in Review 1994

From the Top!

1994 was the year that WCW head Eric Bischoff layed out his first big plans in turning the promotion into a realistic contender in the war with Vince McMahon and the WWF. It was a very mixed year on PPV, with a very solid first half, but an awful second half. Any year with a show the standard of Spring Stampede [something of A Masterpiece] cannot be all bad. Of course the big signing of Hulk Hogan was huge for WCW, and business made a big leap as a result of his signing. Hogan's arrival had many negatives too. Too many of his WWF buddies arrived soon after. The best of the bunch were Macho Man, Sherri Martel, Mean Gene and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Most of the in-ring signings past their primes and to make matters worse were pushed ahead of WCW's bright future prospects. As much as things did change in 94, it also felt that things stood still.

The Meat of It

Superbrawl IV was saved by the duel cage match headliners. Both the six man match and the Ric Flair VS. Vader delivered the goods. The undercard was very patchy and felt like an edition of WCW Saturday Night. Mean Gene and Da Brain both made big impressions on their first nights.



The first ever Spring Stampede was not only a stacked card with barely a bad match in sight, but it also attracted a very healthy 12'200 attandence in Chicago [even WWF were struggling to pull such a crowd at this point]. The Wild Chicago Street Fight, the U.S and International Title, and Ric Flair VS. Ricky Steamboat [probably the Dragon's last truly great match], were all very good.





Slamboree 94 was a big improvement on the event twelve months prior, but was still hit and miss, with the legends concept over done. The Austin/Badd U.S. Title and Nasty Boys VS. Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan matches were the picks. Terry Funk dropping an elbow on a fan's hat was a blast too!



Hulk Hogan's big WCW debut in the main even of Bash at the Beach against defending WCW Champion Ric Flair was a big let down in ring. Though it did produce a strong buy rate and live gate. The undercard wasn't up to much either. Special props go to Lord Steven Regal who carried Johnny B. Badd to a very smooth TV title opener. The Super heavy Weight match between The Guardian Angel [Ray Traylor] and Vader, and the tag title match were the other stand outs on the night.



Fall Brawl was one of the lowlights of the year. The War Games headliner was forgettable with a cartoonish finish. The tag title match [featuring the naff Stars and Stripes duo], was rubbish, and the buriel of Steve Austin at the hands of the washed up Jim Duggan was a joke. Both Austin and Cactus Jack [who lost a loser leaves WCW match against Kevin Sullivan], were heading for the exit door. Easy E did not rate either. How wrong he was



Halloween Havoc was a one match card. That match being the Hogan-Flair re-match title VS. Career inside a cage. The match itself was a big improvement from their BATB meeting. The rest of the card was mostly useless filler. Starrcade didn't improve things much and as I said in my review was probably the worse in the event's 11 year history.

PPV's Ranked in Order
1. Spring Stampede 9/10
2. Slamboree 6.5/10
3. Superbrawl IV 5/10
4. Bash at the Beach 5/10
5. Fall Brawl 4/10
6. Starrcade 3/10
7. Halloween Havoc 3/10

Top Ten PPV matches of the year
10. Sting VS. Avalanche [Starrcade]
9. Stunning Steve Austin VS. The Great Muta [Spring Stampede]
8. Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan VS. The Nasty Boys [Slamboree]
7. Sting VS. Rick Rude [Spring Stampede]
6. Stunning Steve Austin VS. Johnny B. Badd [Slamboree]
5. Thunder Cage Match, Sting, Brian Pillman and Dustin Rhodes VS. Rick Rude, Steve Austin and Paul Orndorff
4. Johnny B. Badd VS. Lord Steven Regal [Fall Brawl]
3. The Nasty Boys VS. Maxx Payne and Cactus Jack [Spring Stampede]
2. Thundercage match, Ric Flair VS. Vader
1. Ric Flair VS. Ricky Steamboat



Overall Year Rating - 4/10

Coming up on WCW on PPV in the 90s...
The Monday Night Wars offically get under way as I will be reviewing the very first edition of WCW Monday Nitro in fall!



Plus I will review random episodes of other WCW TV from the year

Plus WCW adds another two PPV's one which is basically them trying to one up the WWF's Royal Rumble

A young rookie known as The Giant joins its ranks.

Plus more madcap adventures from the likes of Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Vader, THE YETI!!!:fp:

 

[Keith]

Its 1995, so things can only get better, right?....

Superbrawl V

Date: February 19, 1995

Setting: Baltimore, Maryland

Attendance: 13,390

Comments: The opening PPV of 1995 carried on the recent WCW tradition of being a one match show. Luckily that one match produced the goods. Not just that, but both came out looking good, and it set up future feuds. The undercard was mostly forgettable, and included some awful finishes. The semi-final did deliver some thrills however. Based on the late 94 form, things could have been worse.

The wonderkid Alex Wright pinned Paul Roma in a forgettable opener. This match was most note worthy for one of the most selfish performances ever from Roma. Refusing to make the rookie look good as planned, Pretty Boy instead dominated the match, and presented himself as the showoff style babyface, therefore taking the spotlight off Wright. He even kicked out of the planned finish which the ref counted away. Roma followed Honky out the door a few days later. And like Honky he was no great loss to WCW.




Match Rating: **

Jim Duggan hammered Buckhouse Buck in a boring brawl. Noting to report from this one.

Match Rating: *1/2

Kevin Sullivan defeated Dave Sullivan in a cartoonish match. The finish came when Kevin ran his brother into 'The Butcher' on the apron to get the pin via roll up. In the storyline The Butcher was proving to Sullivan that he was worthy by putting his own body on the line. The finish was dumb.



Match Rating: *

WCW Tag Team Championship
Harlem Heat retained the tag titles against the Nasty Boys by DQ in a poor match. The timing between these two teams were just off throughout, and to make matters worse The Nastys were phoning it in big time. Once again most of the highlights came from Heat's manager Sister Sherri.



Match Rating: **

Blacktop Bully (Barry "Demolition Ax" Darsow) upset Dustin Rhodes in a solid brawl which actually featured some good chain wrestling. The credit here goes to Rhodes who carried the match like a Pro (just shows you far he had come since his 91 debut). Hard to believe where Dustin would end up by the end 95 Sadly the finish to this one was weak. Col. Robert Parker grabbed Dustin's foot as he was attempting a suplex and held onto it allowing Bully to score the 1980s style pinfall **1/2




Match Rating: **1/2

Sting and Macho Man (in his first in ring appearance for WCW) defeated Avalanche and Big Bubba Rogers in lively match. Sting pinned Avalanche with a clothesline off the top rope after some confusion with the heels. The layout of the match meant that Sting took most of it, meaning they tease Macho's first official action in ring. When he finally got the hot tag it was all the more special I like the dream face team of Sting and Savage. Score one for WCW on this. WWF never should have let Macho go (he still had a good 3 or 4 years left in him when he departed Stamford). The heated exchanges between Macho and Ric Flair at ringside were another highlight.



Match Rating: ***

WCW World Title Main Event
WCW World Champion Hulk Hogan retained his title by DQ in a dramatic main event against Vader following interference from Ric Flair. Big credit to Hogan who sold really well for Vader in this one (including with his terrified facial expressions). And to booker Flair. The story of the match put Vader over as the monster (including kicking out of Hogan's leg drop on 1!), and the DQ finish protected Vader too. This was a nice piece of work all round.



Match Rating: ***1/2

Best Match: Hogan VS. Vader

Worse Match: Sullivan VS. Sullivan

Event Rating: 4/10

Bonus match!

WCW Saturday Night February 25th, 1995

WCW Tag Title Main Event

Macho Man and Sting went to a no contest with tag Champions Harlem Heat in a thrilling match. This would have been even better on PPV and if it was at least 3 to 5 minutes longer. Enjoyed the massive brawl post-match.



Match Rating: ***1/3

 

[Roadster]

Hated this show, and this year in general.

Especially the Fall months.

 

[Keith]

Hated this show, and this year in general.

Especially the Fall months.

Would you say it was worse than 94? At least that year had the legend that was Spring Stampede 94.

 

[Roadster]

Overall 1994 wasnt that bad.

1995 was one shit show after another. At least 1994 had Hart v. Hart and Hogan/Savage/Heenan debuts.

 

[Deezy]

95 had the dungeon of doom and 2 dudes with attitudes....woat year.

 

[Smart Marx]

Hated this show, and this year in general.

Especially the Fall months.

I'd even go as far as to specify in both companies. Both WWF and WCW were doing poor business.

 

[Keith]

I'd even go as far as to specify in both companies. Both WWF and WCW were doing poor business.

Wrestling in general was going through a lean spell during this time for a number of reasons (in the states at least). WCW did have a spike in business when Hogan came in, but then I'm guessing over time it dropped off again until the whole NWO thing.