– Live from somewhere in Kentucky.
– Your hosts are the Usual Idiots.
– Opening match, Cruiserweight title: Kidman v. Mikey Whipwreck. Was the world really waiting for Mikey to debut in WCW? This is the typical Kidman match, without someone, you know, good, to carry Kidman. Mikey is playing heel here. Some good highspots, but Mikey ain’t the guy to hold something like this together. Too much resting, and Mikey inevitably tries a powerbomb and gets the dreaded shooting star press. This was okay, but so what? Why bother to sign Mikey when you already have 20 other luchadores who can do the same match, better? **1/2
– Promo for the Harlem Street fight.
– Promo for the cage match. As always, I ask the point of promo-ing a match that people have already bought the PPV for.
– Harlem Street Fight: Stevie Ray v. Vince. Stevie’s got a combination of his referee tights and his usual Harlem Heat-as-done-by-the-nWo tights tonight. It still looks ugly. They fight into a section of empty chairs, which is coincidentally taped off. A horrible, horrible match results, with contrived spots that they proceed to blow, including a low blow spot that is so horribly conceived and executed that I wonder they even bother. Horace runs in and tosses the ODOR EATER OF DEATH into the ring, and Vince tries to use it, but gets booted and slapjacked (the move, not the foreign object) for the pin. Why do they bother with this crap? 1/4*
– Kevin Nash (w/ Luger & Liz) v. Gonnad, Jr. (w/out Gonnad). Geez, where’s K-Dogg? His little buddy Rey is out there against the Wolfpac alone. Hot crowd for this one. Nash tosses Rey around, but Rey gets a couple of highspots in…and Nash sells! That lasts about 10 seconds before the proper ending finally kicks in and Nash powerbombs the shit of Rey after a proper beating and pins him. In any other context, this is a squash, but at least it ends the stupid “Giant killer” angle. *
– Jerry Flynn v. Ernest Miller & Sony Onoo. Why is this on PPV? Stuff happens and Onoo makes the mistake of tagging in and gets pinned. Blah. DUD
– “Hardcore” match: Hak v. Sandman v. Bam Bam Bigelow. For this they left ECW? Chastity brings out a dumpster full of weapons, all of which get used. They stick inside the ring for some reason. Lots of dumb ECW brawling spots which will probably draw raves from the mutants. Ugly spot as they try to put Hak through a table but it doesn’t break. Chastity gets involved with a fire extinguiser, but sprays it in Raven’s face and lowblows him, allowing Hak to get the pin. Chastity leaves with Hak. Whatever. I didn’t really like this one, and I didn’t care enough to rate it, anyway.
– World tag team title match: Barry Windham & Curt Hennig v. The Vanilla Midgets. An okay match which I’m not paying too much attention to, like most of this card. Finally, Hennig makes the mistake of popping Arn Anderson with a belt, and AA responds by pulling his trusty tire iron out of his jacket and waffling Hennig. Benoit launches himself 3/4 of the way across the ring with the headbutt for the pin, to FINALLY get an official WCW title. Well, this puts me in a better mood. ***
– Dog collar match: Saturn v. Chris Jericho. Saturn is now using a Marilyn Manson ripoff for his music and wearing Adam Bomb’s contact lenses. Jericho sends Ralphus packing back to the dressing room. Yet another okay match that I care nothing about results, with nothing happening outside of some spots with the chain. Jericho tries the Liontamer, but ends up choking himself out with the chain. A couple of DVD attempts and reversals result, with Saturn hitting the DVD for the pin. This was nothing. 1/2*
– World TV title match: Scott Steroid v. Booker T. Memphis heel stalling to start. Pretty watchable match for Steiner. Booker controls to start, but Steiner’s cheating swings the advantage. Booker comes back and tries an axekick, but Steiner ducks…and referee DOESN’T get bumped, as Booker overshoots him too, then turns around and nails Steiner for real. Buff gets desperate and grabs a chair, but Booker nails him with it and then nails Scott and pins him for the title! Whoa, what happened there. Decent match and great to see Booker get the title back. Hopefully Booker will go back to defending it every week like it should be. **3/4
– WCW World title match, first blood: Hulk Hogan v. Ric Flair. Flair gives a heelish interview where he tells Charles Robinson not to stop the match for a trickle of blood. Hogan is wrestling like a babyface here. I do NOT like where this is going. Hogan plays to the crowd and then applies the figure-four. Oh, god, they ARE going to do the double turn. Flair gets cut open fairly early, but it’s not bad enough to stop the match yet. Flair is going full tilt boogie as a heel, but Hogan is back into full face mode, resulting in the crowd being about 50/50. David Flair and the nWo Whore wander out to ringside and Flair offers some bad words to them. Hogan gets the legdrop a couple of times and keeps forgetting that it’s a first blood match. Charles Robinson gets bumped (duh), and Arn Anderson runs down to deck David and the Whore. He slips the tire iron through the cage and Flair knocks Hogan silly with it. Flair slaps on the figure-four and gets the PIN????? In a First Blood match? Flair wins his 14th World title and is the WCW President for life. Okay, now is the finish they should have done at Superbrawl. Better match, too. **
The Bottom Line: A better show overall than Superbrawl, with faces going over at the right times and heels going over at the right times. The main event felt somehow disappointing, with no in-ring celebration and Hogan having some sympathy from the fans. The quality of wrestling wasn’t up to snuff, but the usual air of stupidity seemed to be lifted tonight, so it entertained me enough for a thumbs in the middle, leaning towards up. This Hogan thing has me REALLY uneasy, though. I guess we’ll see tomorrow where this goes. Overall, the show still felt, I dunno, not epic enough. Like it was just a make-up show for Superbrawl rather than a PPV unto itself. I dunno. Maybe I’ll like it better on second viewing.
Still, I’d save your money for Wrestlemania in two weeks…
