OPPS! 1993 is calling and saying that I forgot something:loser: I don't really think 1993 should be trying to flag up how awful it was anymore:mickie4: But what the hey, I will jump in my Delorean
and head back to 1993!
WCW Battle Bowl 1993
Date: November 20, 1993
Setting: Pensacola, Florida
Attendance: 7,000
Best Match: Battle Bowl Battle Royal
Worse Match: Hawk and Rip Rogers VS. Davey Boy Smith and Kole
Event Rating: 6/10
Comments: For the third straight year WCW pushed the Lethal Lottery/Battle Bowl concept on PPV. But this time rather than including it as part of the Starrcade super show, the powers that be decided to afford it its own pay per view. At a time when the depth of WCW's talent roster was not great and when business was the pits this was a strange move and one which rewarded the promotion with their lowest buy rate in history up to that point. Unlike the previous year's Lethal Lottery/Battle Bowl tournament which was broken up with non-tourament matches, here bigwigs decided to fill the whole show up with the format. Therefore, there was a total eight lethal lottery style matches, and the show was capped off with a 32 man battle royal for the battle bowl ring (the field was just eight in 92), it was overkill of course. Another issue was that WCW took the portential of having bitter rivals team up to the extreme, so that no less than five matches played out that way. The pick of the LL matches was Stunning Steve Austin and Ric Flair's lively win over Too Cold Scorpio and Maxx Payne. Flair who was very over with the crowd was clearly having a ball and was on top form during this match. Cactus Jack and Vader did a great job in selling their conflict at the begining of their LL scrap with rookies Charlie Norris and Harlem Heat's Kane (future Booker T). Manager Harley Race did a stand-up in the early stages too as he struggled to convince both that they had to get along in order to advance to BB. Race also earnt his money later during the headliner. Paul Orndorff and The Shockmaster against Ricky Steamboat and Lord Steven Regal (again bitter rivals) had its moments, but was also a little sloppy too. It was a better match for the lack of involvement from the clumsy Shockmaster. And I think the duo of Regal and The Dragon would have been better choices to advance to the main event. The highlight for me was Jesse Ventura on communtary commenting, that the Shockmaster last time was beaten by a wall, and since there is no wall in this match than he should be alright (this of course was referring to him tripping over a wall in a disatious appearance at a recent Clash of Champions special, this was very sharp from the Body!
). Involving washed up jobber Rip Rogers to beef up the field (Rogers and Road Warrior Hawk advaced) really was a sign of desparation from the company. In between matches Mean Gene and Fifi would draw the names of the next teams, this led to some amusing, if overdone comedy where the camera would often cut to Randy old man Gene with his mind far from on business
Luckily, the Battle Bowl main event was a very rewarding finish to the show. The field was overstuffed, and the action did sometimes drag, but there was still enough good talent involved to make for an eventful and exciting match, the closing stages of which was very dramatic. The final four of Ric Flair, Sting, Austin and Vader all produced the goods. Flair wasn't offically eliminated from the match, instead taking a stratcher job following a beating from Vader on the ramp. This was done to call into question Flair's appearance in his career VS. Title match at Starrcade, as well as to sell Vader's threat, and to protect Flair (by not having Vader cleanly eliminate him here), it suceeded in all three. This left heels Vader and Austin to double team face Sting (sound wrestling logic). Sting going for his second Battle Bowl ring was heroic and managed to eliminte Austin, but it was champion Vader who ended up eliminating his old foe for the win. Though the PPV was uneeded and flawed in many ways, this match and finish to it made it worth it.
Now back to 1994 for next review!
and head back to 1993!
WCW Battle Bowl 1993
Date: November 20, 1993
Setting: Pensacola, Florida
Attendance: 7,000
Best Match: Battle Bowl Battle Royal
Worse Match: Hawk and Rip Rogers VS. Davey Boy Smith and Kole
Event Rating: 6/10
Comments: For the third straight year WCW pushed the Lethal Lottery/Battle Bowl concept on PPV. But this time rather than including it as part of the Starrcade super show, the powers that be decided to afford it its own pay per view. At a time when the depth of WCW's talent roster was not great and when business was the pits this was a strange move and one which rewarded the promotion with their lowest buy rate in history up to that point. Unlike the previous year's Lethal Lottery/Battle Bowl tournament which was broken up with non-tourament matches, here bigwigs decided to fill the whole show up with the format. Therefore, there was a total eight lethal lottery style matches, and the show was capped off with a 32 man battle royal for the battle bowl ring (the field was just eight in 92), it was overkill of course. Another issue was that WCW took the portential of having bitter rivals team up to the extreme, so that no less than five matches played out that way. The pick of the LL matches was Stunning Steve Austin and Ric Flair's lively win over Too Cold Scorpio and Maxx Payne. Flair who was very over with the crowd was clearly having a ball and was on top form during this match. Cactus Jack and Vader did a great job in selling their conflict at the begining of their LL scrap with rookies Charlie Norris and Harlem Heat's Kane (future Booker T). Manager Harley Race did a stand-up in the early stages too as he struggled to convince both that they had to get along in order to advance to BB. Race also earnt his money later during the headliner. Paul Orndorff and The Shockmaster against Ricky Steamboat and Lord Steven Regal (again bitter rivals) had its moments, but was also a little sloppy too. It was a better match for the lack of involvement from the clumsy Shockmaster. And I think the duo of Regal and The Dragon would have been better choices to advance to the main event. The highlight for me was Jesse Ventura on communtary commenting, that the Shockmaster last time was beaten by a wall, and since there is no wall in this match than he should be alright (this of course was referring to him tripping over a wall in a disatious appearance at a recent Clash of Champions special, this was very sharp from the Body!
). Involving washed up jobber Rip Rogers to beef up the field (Rogers and Road Warrior Hawk advaced) really was a sign of desparation from the company. In between matches Mean Gene and Fifi would draw the names of the next teams, this led to some amusing, if overdone comedy where the camera would often cut to Randy old man Gene with his mind far from on businessLuckily, the Battle Bowl main event was a very rewarding finish to the show. The field was overstuffed, and the action did sometimes drag, but there was still enough good talent involved to make for an eventful and exciting match, the closing stages of which was very dramatic. The final four of Ric Flair, Sting, Austin and Vader all produced the goods. Flair wasn't offically eliminated from the match, instead taking a stratcher job following a beating from Vader on the ramp. This was done to call into question Flair's appearance in his career VS. Title match at Starrcade, as well as to sell Vader's threat, and to protect Flair (by not having Vader cleanly eliminate him here), it suceeded in all three. This left heels Vader and Austin to double team face Sting (sound wrestling logic). Sting going for his second Battle Bowl ring was heroic and managed to eliminte Austin, but it was champion Vader who ended up eliminating his old foe for the win. Though the PPV was uneeded and flawed in many ways, this match and finish to it made it worth it.
Now back to 1994 for next review!
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Thankfully HTM's WCW run was short lived. Pretty Wonderful (Roma and Orndoff) beat Stars and Stripes (Bagwell and The Patriot) to win the WCW Tag belts in a patchy effort. In further hype for the main attraction, Slick Ric and Sherri cut an entertaining heel promo (truth be told Sherri has cut some of my personal favourite promos ever, see Rumbles 1990, 91, and Slam 89 for examples).
ITS ALREADY 1994 YOU blueberry!!
The washed up Duggan looked terrible. Hogan bringing his mates along for the ride was possibly the worse thing for the likes of Austin's career prospects in WCW. Vader defeated The Guardian in a passible super heavy weight match. Ray Traylor was more effective when on offense than defense. The selling of manager Harley Race was a highlight for me. Loved Vader sticking it to be Sting and Ali at ringside
). And on the night the company made a profit overall. But they were still a long way off competing with even the underperforming WWF of 94. There were warning signs in the main event alone. Mr. T had lost some of his mainstream shine at this stage, after all the A-Team had been off the air for close to a decade. And if you look down the card, a guy like Vader had peaked probably in his feud with Flair, and had run out of good talent to feud with. Speaking of which, even if WCW could build their future success around Hogan, one thing they were struggling to do which WWF did so well from 85-92 was provide quality heels to rub off against him. The signs from this PPV was that WCW intended to keep the same old faces (Sting, Hogan, Vader, Flair) involved in the main event scene and rather than push the likes of Austin to the next level to challenge them would instead fill up the roster with Hogan's washed up pals, and useless 1980s style big men. From that point of view copying Vince's game plan to such a degree did not prove fruitful. Its the same thing that TNA would learn to their cost more than a decade later. Still there was a twist in the tail, but I haven't quite got there yet
This was another example of Hogan's washed up friends doing damage to future stars. The Nastys past their prime [their last great match with the Harts at Mania 7 over three years ago], should have been used to put over Heat in a quick, 5 or 7 minute brawl IMO. Harlem Heat were still raw at this time, so such a match would have protected them also. Sister Sherri [another recent WWF signing] had was Harlem Heat's new manager. No surprise that she was the highlight of the whole match.