The SmarK Retro Repost – Superbrawl III

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– Live from Asheville, NC

– Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura.

– Opening match: Erik Watts & Marcus Bagwell v. The Hollywood Blonds.

And we start out with a brush with greatness. Fans boo noticably every

time Watts tags in. So the Blonds oblige by beating the hell out of

Bill’s snotty little kid. Watts is HORRIBLE at this point, doing

nothing more interesting than an armbar. Austin & Pillman carry the

entertainment end of this with all the Blonds trademarks — the trick

knee, the sucker moves, “roll camera” and the double-teaming. Bagwell

pretty much carries his team. I can appreciate Bagwell in his formative

years a bit better today. Bags gets the hot tag and Watts, like an

idiot, follows him into the ring and fights with Austin, which gets him

escorted out and it’s party time for the Blonds, who execute a

double-team on Bagwell and get the pin. **1/2 The Blonds would capture

the tag team titles a couple of weeks following.

– The first of many snippets of the “White Castle of Fear.”

Stinger…stinger…come into my White Castle of Fear!

– Missy Hyatt accosts the limo of Ric Flair, making his return to WCW

tonight.

– Chris Benoit v. 2 Cold Scorpio. BOO-YAH! Very mat-based here.

Benoit rests too much at times, but it’s solid throughout. When was the

last time WCW let a couple of mid-carders have 20 minutes? Ultra-hot

ending, as Scorps throws everything at Benoit, but he keeps kicking out.

Benoit with a legdrop for 2, and he goes for the dragon suplex (his

finisher at the time) but Scorpio drops down and they do a

rollup-reversal spot which puts Scorpio on top for the win at 19:59 by

the skin of his teeth. **** Great stuff. Too bad neither guy got

another shot after this.

– Wild Bill Irwin v. The British Bulldog. Big pop for Davey Boy’s first

WCW appearance. Total squash, you know the routine. *

– Bischoff interviews Paul Orndorff, which segues right into…

– Cactus Jack v. Paul Orndorff (falls count anywhere). Is there any

other kind with Cactus’ WCW stinit? Lots of the usual Mick Foley bumps.

Orndorff might as well have been a mannequin during the brawling

portions — Da Mickster carries it all. Back in the ring (boo!),

Orndorff works over Jack’s knee non-stop. Dammit, there’s too much

wrestling in this brawl. Then Orndorff snaps and goes apeshit with a

chair and we’re back to brawling. Orndorff calls for the piledriver and

starts doing the Hogan ear-cupping thing because the fans are popping.

He thinks it’s for him, but actually Jack is reaching out to get his

big-ass shovel and nails Orndorff right between the eyes for a mild

upset. Not bad, not great. It couldn’t decide whether it was a

wrestling match or a brawl. **1/2

– Special Smoky Mountain Wrestling match: The Heavenly Bodies v. The

Rock N Roll Express. These are the original Bodies — Stan Lane and Tom

Pritchard. Great crowd heat for this one. SMW must have been big in

North Carolina. Pretty much a comedy match. Everyone compares the

Bodies to the Midnight Express, because of the presense of Stan Lane,

but really their styles were 100% different. Jesse speculates that Dr.

Tom might be a doctor of…gynecology? Geez, thanks for that image,

Jess. Ahem. Hot tag to Robert Gibson (duh), and the dreaded

double-dropkick, but the ref is tied up with Cornette (duh). Pritchard

with a bulldog for two, then more chaos and Morton covers Pritchard, but

now the ref is tied up again and Bobby Eaton runs in, but Morton moves

and Eaton hits the Doctor, and now Gibson (the legal man) covers, and

gets the win. I’m a sucker for SMW, what can I say? ****

– White Castle of Fear. Again.

– US Title match: Dustin Rhodes v. Maxx Payne. Payne is subbing for

Ron Simmons. Is the State of Euphoria near Ohio? The crowd empties

before our very eyes, as seemingly everyone in the on-camera section

chooses this match to hit the concession stands. Move #403 from Chris

Jericho’s 1004 holds (armbar) is used liberally here. Soooooooo

sloooooooow. I only avoid the FF out of respect for you, the reader.

Dustin puts Payne in an excrutiatingly painful…uh…abdominal stretch,

which is too much for Payne to handle, so he shoves the ref for the DQ.

Oh, great, a screwjob ending, too. -*

– You-know-what colored Castle of you-know-what.

– Nature Boy comes down to ringside to observe the next match, prompting

a huge “We Want Flair” chant. Hey, that boycott’s starting early…

– NWA World title match: The Great Muta v. Barry Windham. Muta was

actually the champion here. Betcha didn’t know about that one. Muta

dogs it yet again here, as per his usual lack of effort once he hits

American soil. They literally just lie there in a side headlock for 8

minutes. Windham goes heel by putting his feet on the ropes during a

chinlock, if only to evoke some kind of crowd noise. Terrible, horrible

match. Muta does the big comeback and tries the moonsault, but Barry

moves. Yet another moonsault, but Barry lifts the knees, hits a lariat

and pulls off something that looked like a cross between the Implant and

the sloppy leaping DDT that he later reverted to. It works, at any

rate, and he gets the pin to win his first NWA World title. Flair puts

it around his waist personally, and Barry shoves him away. DUD

– Main Event: “White Castle of Fear” strap match: Big Van Vader v.

Sting. Non-sanctioned by WCW and helpfully labelled as such at the

bottom of the screen. The usual great match between these two — I

think I’m spoiled by them. Great booking twist as Sting tries to drag

Vader around the *outside* ringposts. Cute. Sting whips him so hard

that he bleeds from the *back*. Yee-ouch! Vicious shots from both

guys. Back and forth, with neither dominating. Sting blades at one

point. Sting picks up the ref and gets three, but the ref was bumped so

none of it matters. Vader bleeds hardway from the ear. Vader then

hogties Sting and drags him around for the win with relative ease.

Sting was still learning to deal with Vader, which included not doing

stupid stuff like signing matches named by Vader. ****1/4

The Bottom Line: WCW was on the downward road and was about to hit rock

bottom, but this was a darn good show. Dusty Rhodes’ booking instincts

were pretty much reined in by Uncle Eric here, as there was a minimum of

screwjobs and three **** matches by my count. Can’t ask for much more

than that, although the show just felt…flat, somehow.

Recommended, however. A fun show.