– 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.