Pro Wrestling Love #79: 1995 WCW PPV Main Events (Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Vader, Sting)

 Hey Yo,

Learned my lesson keep these preambles short and sweet and let the reviews do the talking. I watched a shit ton of 1995 this past year and this blog post collates all the WCW Main Event matches from PPVs/Supercards and WCW World Heavyweight Title Defenses on Nitro. WCW Main Event is specified to be any match that features Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Sting, Vader, The Giant and/or Lex Luger. Everyone besides Vader, I have affectionally dubbed the Nitro Six. I enjoyed WCW 1995 more than most and hope you enjoy these reviews!  

Show	Match	Rating
Clash XXX	Sting vs Avalanche	DUD
Clash XXX	Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs Kevin Sullivan & The Butcher	DUD
Superbrawl V	Randy Savage & Sting vs Avalanche & Big Bubba Rogers	3.5
Superbrawl V	Hulk Hogan vs Vader	4
Uncensored	Randy Savage vs Avalanche	2.5
Uncensored	Sting vs Big Bubba Rogers	3
Uncensored	Hulk Hogan vs Vader	2.5
Slamboree	Sting vs Big Bubba Rogers	3
Slamboree	Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs Vader & Ric Flair	3.25
Great American Bash	Sting vs Meng	3.5
*Great American Bash	Ric Flair vs Randy Savage	4.75*
Bash At The Beach	Sting vs Meng	3.25
Bash At The Beach	Ric Flair vs Randy Savage	3.75
Bash At The Beach	Hulk Hogan vs Vader	3.5
Collision in Korea	Ric Flair vs Antonio Inoki	DNW
Main Event	Hulk Hogan vs Kamala	3
Clash XXI	Vader vs Ric Flair & Arn Anderson	3.25
Nitro 9/4/95	Hulk Hogan vs Big Bubba Rogers	2.5
Nitro 9/11/95	Hulk Hogan vs Lex Luger	2.5
Fall Brawl	Ric Flair vs Arn Anderson	4
Fall Brawl	Wargames (Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Sting & Lex Luger vs Dungeon of Doom )	2.5
Halloween Havoc	Lex Luger vs Randy Savage	2.5
Halloween Havoc	Sting & “Ric Flair” vs Sting & Arn Anderson	4
Halloween Havoc	Hulk Hogan vs The Giant	3
World War III	Lex Luger vs Randy Savage	3
World War III	Sting vs Ric Flair	3.75
World War III	Randy Savage wins World War III Battle Royale	DNR
Nitro 12/4/95	Randy Savage vs Lex Luger	3.75
Nitro 12/18/95	Randy Savage vs The Giant	3
Nitro 12/25/95	Randy Savage vs Ric Flair	3.5
Starrcade	Ric Flair vs Sting vs Lex Luger	3
Starrcade	Randy Savage vs Ric Flair	3

*The Randy Savage vs Ric Flair match from Great American Bash is a Top 100 Match of All Time. I also recommend watching Hulk Hogan vs Vader from SuperBrawl, Ric Flair vs Arn Anderson from Fall Brawl and Sting/"Flair" vs Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman from Halloween Havoc. 

Sting vs Avalanche - WCW Clash of the Champions January 95

Guardian Angel (Bossman) is the Special Guest Ref, which is a spot he had last year as The Boss for the Flair vs Vader return match. This is led to a lengthy Vader feud which kept Vader fed, but ultimately left Angel/Bossman ground up. The heel turn and return to the Big Bubba Rogers gimmick makes sense. This heel turn has to go down as one of the worst of all time. Avalanche is in the Scorpion Deathlock. Angel does not call for the bell. Somehow Nick Patrick can hear the wails of agony from Quake and calls the match for Sting. Bubba takes exception to this, which is fine, I guess, but this one of those things that should play out over weeks. Tempers flare and instead Sting whacks Bubba and Bubba attacks back and then he is aligned with Avalanches. What the fuck? I dont mind him being pissed, but teaming with Avalanche came way too soon. Bubba's rights looked good. 

This was a condensed version of their Starrcade match so I would say just as good. I still dont think much of Avalanche/Earthquake. Sting jumpstarts the match and even gets a dropkick to send Avalanche out as a part of his shine. Heat segment proper starts when Sting collapses on a slam attempt. Good elbow and leg drop from Quake. Sting does that spot where the knock heads and he ricochets off the ropes into Avalanche's nuts. I didnt realize how often Sting did that. It is a fun spot. Avalanche misses the Elbow Drop. Four Stinger Splashes and the Scorpion Deathlock. I covered the finish. I think there is a lot of ways to get to a compelling Big Bubba Rogers heel turn here in this match, but they way they went about it was wicked lame. 

Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs The Butcher & Kevin Sullivan - Clash of the Champions January 1995

This is my first time watching this very infamous segment and I got to say that's what everyone was complaining about?!?! He did not no-sell the Vaderbomb. He no-sold a Powerbomb. Whoopty-fucking-doo! LOL! This whole time I thought he no-sold Vader's finish. I am generally pro-No-Selling. I dont think it would have been my choice as the booker to have Hogan no-sell the powerbomb, BUT it was just a Powerbomb, folks. It was NOT the Vaderbomb. It was NOT the Vadersault. I know anti-Hogan sentiment is very popular, but I am sorry this was not as egregious as many made it out to be. 

Now, the Reviving Elbow, which I thought they did at Slamboree and may be they do repeat it. I have a higher tolerance for camp in Pro Wrestling than most Pro Wrestling fans and initially I thought it was a cute segment. For those have not seen a lot of older pro wrestling, it was actually customary to revive fallen pro wrestlers that had succumbed to the Sleeper with a choke to the back. So this was a cute way to do it. Now, how does that jive with Savage using it as a finish and people selling it as such. It is hard to make that jive. I think I still like the spot (do not do it all the time obviously) but this one I can see having stronger complaints about. If you watch the November Clash, they did a great job building up the Sleeper so I think this was a good payoff to that. 

The rest match was solid. Nothing to write home about definitely not bad. Beefcake is atrocious. It is a real shame because best friend turning angles rule. I thought all the plot points were really good, I thought Hogan and Sullivan played their parts well, but they could not overcome just how fucking bad Beefcake is. The sad thing is I do not know if he is worse on the mic or in the ring. He has no redeemable aspects to him. I thought Macho Man selling and Sullivan's offense especially the Tree of Woe kept this entertaining enough that it was never bad. Hogan was good in the shine and hot tag. 

I think because this coincided with Starrcade it is more notorious, but it was basically a three month angle to get them from Flair to Vader. Three months in the grand scheme of things is not that bad. If you watch Starrcade 94 it is actually sold on whether Savage will be friend or foe with regards to Hogan, which is a much better selling point. Again, the focus is on Hogan & Savage and not what is a collection of what feels like midcard talent. November is a Sweeps month, but December and January are kinda dead months. By the time youre headed into February Sweeps you are going into Hogan/Vader which was their strongest possible match after Flair. Honestly, you knew that was coming at the end of Starrcade. I really dont think this as awful booking as people make it out to be. Is it Crockett 86? No! I am listening to JT & Chad breakdown Summer/Fall of 96 WWF and that sounds way, way worse. 

Randy Savage & Sting vs Avalanche & Big Bubba Roger’s - WCW Superbrawl V

It is a warm day in New England so let’s get back at it! This match way over delivers! Wicked fun and very entertaining! So simple but so effective. This match is a real testament to the fundamentals of character work and joy.

Each wrestler understands who they are and doesn’t deviate it from that. The match doesn’t get bogged down in a pointless heat segment. Everyone and their mother knows the babyfaces are going to win so let’s just have some fun. That is what is missing from wrestling more than anything else today and that is fun & joy. Not comedy, there was only one comedy spot on this match, but rather this match just made you smile. 

Avalanche demonstrates how power advantage over Sting but Sting has been in this situation before and he has got heart, folks! Sting works on chopping the big man down with clotheslines. Bubba cheats and grabs him while he is running the ropes. They don’t belabor this. Next thing you know the babyfaces ping pong Bubba who plays it to the hilt doing his seesaw spot in the middle rope. Savage nails his patented double axe handle. Savage slaps Avalanche. That spot got so much heat. That’s pro wrestling, baby! Savage slaps him again but Avalanche is just too damn big to slam. So Avalanche misses a splash in the corner and Savage & Sting take turns teeing off on him. Sting slams Avalanche to big pop. Bubba punches and Sting falls headfirst right into Avalanche’s Snowballs (Tony it is as right there). Savage drills Bubba with the Big Elbow and Sting top rope crossbody on Avalanche with a tabletop assist from Bubba for the win.

Id remiss not to mention that retired Ric Flair is in the front row and him Savage got into it a bunch setting something up down the line. 

 Loved this match. It is a Summer Action Movie Blockbuster where the crowd and me were just pop pop popping all over the place not everything has to be an athletic marvel or a heavy comeback story. Sometimes it is just alright to have fun *** 1/2

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs WCW US Heavyweight Vader

Superbrawl V February 19, 1995 Baltimore, MD

Not much of a story to this one, except it was one of the big dream matches since Hogan had arrived in WCW and really logical. Hogan had made his star by wrestling these big monsters and vanquishing them (Studd, Bundy, Andre, Earthquake). However, there is no more versatile big man than Vader, who combined the size of those men with an explosive quickness. Also, Hogan’s star was on the wane as his 10 year old character had grown stale and passé especially in the South, which expected a higher level of wrestling than the cartoon stuff that Hogan liked to shovel. This led to this weird dynamic of Hogan getting pretty brutally booed the entire match against monster heel, Vader.

Tony lets us know that Ric Flair is indeed here in the front row. Hogan had “retired” Flair in October of 1994. They begin by both men are of equal strength. Hogan unleashes some pretty wicked slaps and his whip/elbow combo. Vader just screams “NO PAIN! NO PAIN! NO PAIN!” I was totally marking out during this segment. I just wanted Vader to maul Hogan. In a cool twist, Hogan realizes the power game is ineffective and actually attempts to wrestle Vader. WHAT!!??! He even busts out a flying cross arm-breaker (juji-gatame for MMA fans). Vader breaks that up by stepping on Hogan’s face like a boss. Hogan is betwixt and between. Vader mauling in the corner is combined with a wicked short-arm clothesline.

Hogan powders and Vader eats his railing bump and nearly wipes out Flair. Well, I think Hogan may have found something that worked. Hogan works some chops in the corner, the 10 punch count and then a rebound lariat to a small pop. Hogan uses some of his heel tactics: boot on throat and eye-rake, but he goes for the bodyslam attempt too early as Vader drops on top of him. Vader runs through some strikes and then connects with the powerslam/Vaderbomb combo for two. The Vadersault misses and Hogan in desperation whips Vader back into the rail and blasts him with the best Hogan chair shot I have ever witnessed. VADER FEELS NO PAIN! Vader chokeslams the fuck outta Hogan. I don’t think Hogan intended to take that wicked of a bump. The Hulk-Up comes off a vertical suplex. Vader KICKS OUT of the LEGDROP at ONE!!!! HOLY SHIT!

A Vader body attack wipes out the ref and Vader hits the powerbomb and he counts a visual three along with Flair, but there is no ref. Hogan makes his comeback and clears him outta the ring only for Flair to attack. Finally the ref calls for the DQ. Savage and Sting make the save against Flair & Vader.

There is a lot to love about this match up until the finish. I loved the beginning story with Hogan trying to wrestle Vader and then using his own dirty tactics out of desperation because Vader was such a monster. Vader comes across as this unconquerable monster with the no-selling at the beginning, the killer offense and of course kicking out of the vaunted leg drop at one. A lot is made about how, Hogan no sold a Vaderbomb previous to this match and how it killed Vader’s drawing power. I can only say he definitely tried to make up for it in this match because Vader looked awesome here. All of the traditional Hogan transition are ineffective against Vader and they only way for Hogan to sustain offense is through Vader mistakes and illegal tactics like chairshots really makes Vader seem like an unstoppable force. The finish is pretty unsatisfying. A Vader victory and subsequent matches against Sting and Savage would have drawn well while Hogan questions if he still has it would have been an interesting wrinkle to the Hogan character. I like the Boss match better because of the efficiency of spots and the better finish, but this one was remarkably good and one of the Top 5 Best Hogan matches I have ever seen. ****

Randy Savage vs Avalanche - WCW Uncensored 1995

Aaaaahhhh the famous WCW has a PPV full of gimmick matches and this one is no DQ but ends in a DQ. Oh, WCW! I was kinda surprised it ended in a DQ as thought this was swan song of Kevin Sullivan’s faces of Fear giving way to Vader/Flair/AA as the main heels until Dungeon of Doom is formed. I think Savage gets his win on Saturday Night.

I am not the biggest Tenta fan and given this is a Randy Savage babyface match I knew he take the majority of the match and he still does nothing for me. 

At least they didn’t go right to heat. Savage stuck and moved. Lots of cat and mouse. Avalanche missing charges and hitting hard objects or falling out the Ring. Savage leaping on him or sticking with jabs and clotheslines. Excellent psychology. Respecting the size difference. Avalanche is a problem for the Macho Man to solve. 

He gets cocky tries to slam but collapses under the immense weight of Avalanche. Avalanche has a solid, very average heat segment. Lots of splashes, slams and even throws out a dropkick. The King of the Mountain is well done. Savage is throwing hope spots out. Trying to leap on the Big Man. Sunset Flip is ill-advised and leads to a nice sit down splash. Savage rolls out of the Earthquake Splash and again out of a middle rope splash. Looks like Big Elbow and go home but Avalanche powders. Savage hones in on him and nails him with a double axe handle. IT IS RIC FLAIR IN DRAG!!!! He kicks the shit out of Savage. Hogan saves and the NO DQ match is thrown out as a DQ. lol.

Before the finish it was *** but a DQ in a NO DQ match is too much even for me so this is sub-3. I thought Flair in Drag is BRILLIANT! It really shows how unhinged he has become in retirement. Anyways still not sold on Tenta, a fine match but nothing special. 

Sting vs Big Bubba Rogers - WCW Uncensored 1995

Not sure if there was a stipulation but there was a finish so it is already better than the last match. This is all because Roger’s turned on Sting at the January Clash in a match against Avalanche which I watched like 4 years ago. That’s crazy! 

Crowd didn’t give a shit about this match until the last 3 minutes or so which is a shame because it is a pretty good match. Sting is the ultimate camp wrestler. He feels hardcore Dadcore. Like if a Dad joke was a wrestler it would be pre-Crow Sting. The way he made such a big deal out for leg dropping Bubba’s hat and tossing it out into the crowd was such a Dad move. I like camp a lot but I don’t know Sting always felt extra goofy to me.

Sting’s shine is nice & long. Good punches, clotheslines, dropkicks and splashes. Bubba bumps well. He could’ve stooged a touch more to whip the crowd into a frenzy I think that’s what was missing. There were a couple Bubba hope spots like when he slipped out the Ring around the post you thought it end in a punch but it ended into a head to the knee on a Sting leapfrog which led to some really good knee work.

Bubba really dissected the knee while also working in his trademark punches and spots. It was effective but looking back on it. It was a bit dry. Where was the heeling? There was nothing to piss the crowd off. It was just strong work. Very Japanese in a native vs native way which I enjoy but that doesn’t play to 1995 Tupelo Mississippi brutha. Sting threw in some good hope spots.

Bubba slips off top rope not sure if that was on purpose. Sting top rope Judo Chop! Bodyslam! Good selling working through the pain. The sleeper hold ironically wakes the crowd up and they’re in for the rest of the match. Great German Suplex by Sting! Beautiful Stinger Splash from Top Rope! 1-2-NO! Uh oh. I was a little surprised but he still has the Scorpion Deathlock.

Sting loves a good timber bump into an inadvertent attack this time it is Bubba falling into his knee. Sting goes to bodyslam Roger’s again but his knee collapses under the weight and Roger’s wins!!! WOW I am shocked! I though Sting had this!

Loved the surprised ending; I am a sucker for the knee collapse spot to end a match. I thought this was very textbook and really solid. Fun shine, well-executed heat segment and an explosive but tasteful home stretch. Nothing that will change your world but good. The finish elevates it. I see there is a rematch at Slamboree that’s up next! *** 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Vader - WCW Uncensored 1995 "Strap" Match

I am pleasantly surprised that some people liked this. It had its moments but it was more bad than good on the whole so I cant recommend it. Their SuperBrawl match is a classic, but this far less so. 

First thing's first, Flair in drag is absolutely glorious. He should have dressed as glam rocker the rest of the year. I have been watching a lot of his 1996 promo work post-Hogan turn. It approaches good, but it is too filled with non-sequiturs and scatter-brained to be good. Here he looks an absolute madman and he lays out the method to his madness. The professional jealousy and insecurity that ate him alive in the 80s only to be faced with the stark reality that it was all true that he is not as good as Hogan and worse yet not only is he not as good, Hogan stole the thing he loved most in the world his ability to wrestle! This is really powerful heel motivation. Some of the best character work ever and the make-up really enhances it all. I loved that promo! I think this rejuvenated the Flair/Hogan feud enough that could have went back to that well, but Flair/Savage was such a good feud that produced some amazing matches especially the Great American Bash 95 match that I am happy they didnt, but they could have. 

It is interesting they have already started bringing up Hogan going to the Dark Side. Hogan and WCW knew he needed an edge, but they didnt know how to get him there. The Renegade was ridiculous. Flair sold it like a million bucks. Fuck for one night only through the miraculous powers of Flair, it did work. Jimmy Hart coming out in tatters was fucking stupid. Why did that pip-squeak need a triumphant entrance? What was he going to do? All he did was distract for a mid-match turn the tide that was just one of many. The body of the match was very uneven. First off it was way too fucking long. It was 18 minutes. There was good stuff here like Vader taking the ringpsot shots, and feed for the nut shot. There was the VaderBomb and the Chokeslam. The Vadebomb happened what 5 minutes into the match. They sold too hard too fast. All the beginning spotlight was on Flair/Renegade. It fucked up their flow. It was a rather heatless match outside of the highspots. It was not well-paced. Now, if they gave this a proper finish, I think I would have gone in the ***-***1/2 even with Hogan mostly ignoring the stipulation and removing the strap. Hogan dragging Flair around to win is a bridge too far for me. 

I am pretty sure this was non-title. I think this was a perfect time for Vader to win, but what do I know. They have Arn Anderson come out and explode Wooden chairs against Renegade and Hogan. Flair gets in on the act. I wonder if Wooden chairs are the answer. They might hurt less than metal and they have the cool visual of exploding. If I was a a promoter or booker, I'd look into them. Vader has the match won only for Flair to ask him to try to splash Hogan. Vader misses the most ginger somersault. He looked like a four year old doing a somersault for the first time. Flair does something maybe a wooden chair shot but Hulk Up time. We cant have Vader jobbing again so it is time for Flair to get dragged around. 

I did like the ending with the Masked Man racing out. I was like he was moving way too fast and he is not stocky enough to be Double A. Then Arn comes out gagged and bound. That popped me. It is the Macho Man! Who decks the heels! O before this Hogan double clotheslines the heels, which is such a sickening Hogan ending. Ugh. 

There was some good stuff and some atrocious stuff. It is sub-three stars for me. I am glad I watched it. WCW 1995 before Nitro becomes a thing is really fascinating.  

Sting vs Big Bubba Rogers - WCW Slamboree 1995 Lights Out

The swan song of Bossman in WCW. He does main event the first Nitro against Hogan but he really doesn’t do much after this. They got five months out of the heel turn which is pretty good. Bischoff tries to sell this as some big grudge match as Sting is bringing a table to the ring, but the crowd and I are just not buying it. The crowd is pretty dead until the finish.  

I thought Uncensored match was slightly better structurally and just more uptempo and entertaining. They had enough bells & whistles: table, powder, ties & belts to keep it fun. It did feel heatless. There was nothing wrong with the psychology. The moves they did were well executed and they made sense in the context of the match. I felt the same about Uncensored. Why does these matches top out at good? That’s the magic of truly great pro wrestling. It is HOW they do it. It is the charisma. It is letting you in. Bubba has a terrific right hand. It is one of the best. Sting sells it well. It is about the presentation. There’s just a way that Razor/Hall does that right hand that pulls you in just that much more. It is nothing you could probably teach Bubba or Hall. It is innate. It is something I thought about a lot because I don’t have a lot of criticisms of this match but it is still only good. It is very interesting. 

 They opt for a slower start. Sting gets a nice back fist / dropkick combo. Bubba goes to the eyes pretty early. I think a truncated shine was a bad idea. Bubba works that beauty of a right early and often. Bubba goes to the tie to choke out Stinger. Lights Out is just a fancy way of saying No DQ. They brawl on the outside. This is a mid-90s table much hardier and much more fun. Sting turns the tables (pun fully intended) on Bubba slamming him into it. Sting tries his own table spot but he who sets it, gets it. Bubba POWDER into Sting’s eyes and sends him into the table. Wonderful! Lovely transition. Sting missed a Stinger Splash and ears nothing but table. Bubba whips Sting with a belt. Bossman Slam for two. Bubba goes up top but Sting throws him off. Too neat. Wish they came up with something more creative. Stinger Splash from all the way up top. He has a great top rope splash. Double Stomp as the table lays on Bubba. Scorpion Deathlock and that’s all she wrote. 

I guess my major criticism was besides the powder. It was a bit too rote. Too clean, too neat. Just checking boxes. It was good and fun. That’s where it topped out. Onto Sting vs Meng! *** 

Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs Ric Flair & Vader - WCW Slamboree 1995

One of those matches where I thought it was solid, but was still disappointed. All guys are in my top 50 of all time and three are in my Top 25 so they are all capable of having that big Summer Action Blockbuster main event, but instead it is just good. The other reason I am disappointed is I really wanted more out of Randy Savage and Vader as a pairing. This is their only match ever and I think if they were given the opportunity back in the day they could have had an all-timer. Yes Savage takes the Vadersault like a man, but it just wasnt a good scrap. 

Man how much better is Flair/Vader/AA as a heel unit than fucking Beefcake/Earthquake/Sullivan. Talk about a massive upgrade. Need to mention the Renegade is out with Hogan & Savage to counterbalance the Enforcer. He is not as involved as in Uncensored and you can feel him being shunted down the card. They do give him a chance with the TV title beating AA, but you can tell he is not hitting. The Giant, unnamed, makes his debut looming in he aisleway. 

Enough extracurriculars, so onto the match Vader takes the first part of the shine which is so bizarre when the bump & feed master is on the apron. Hogan thumbs in the eye early. I am not one to bitch about Hogan cheating but even I have to call that out as too soon. Vader takes a bump to the outside. Vader loves to bump. It just makes more sense with Flair right there. Vader steamrolling the Megapowers with a double clothesline was very much needed to get his heat back. Flair and Savage have insane chemistry and I could watch those two wrestle forever. Flair does a great job shining the babyfaces up and this makes more sense. You can save Vader as the heater now that Flair is going to get in over his head. Flair Flip into the Hogan Big Boot on the apron will never get old. We get the press slam and Hogan slips on the Figure-4 Dusty Rhodes style which is honestly the safer and more efficient way to do it. They do the old Horsemen spot of Hogan rolling up AA while still applying the Figure-4. This is a spot I love. It feels ham-fisted since AA is not in the match. This enough of a distraction for Flair to chop block the leg to start Heat Segment #1. Vader works the leg. This is fine. I thought the stretch where Hogan did the customary no-sell of the suplex only to get RUN THE FUCK over by Vader was great. Vaderbomb connects! He does a top rope Vaderbomb (I thought he was going Vadersault) this misses and Hogan tags out. That stretch was probably the best of the match. 

Savage is a house afire, but you can just feel this is going to be Double FIP. He goes hit the Top Rope Elbow on Flair, but Double A pulls him out. So again they use Double A as a distraction to set up the heat segment which is smart. It is the not the most efficient sneak attack and in part that is due to it being poorly shot in the sense that was actually too well-shot since Vader was in the frame. The Vadersault was a great nearfall with Hogan making the save to protect it. Hot tag to Hogan! I liked Arn being used again to interrupt the hot tag by tripping him after the big boot to impede the Legdrop. Vader splash allows for a proper Hulk Up though not his best. Arn eats a punch and Hogan drops the leg on Flair for the win. 

After the match is the famous angle where Flair beats up Randy Savage's Dad who was being inducted into Hall of Fame this leads to the awesome, Top 100 match of all time match between Flair and Savage at Great American Bash 1995. Personally, I would have put the heels over here as well as at Uncensored. Recapping it the match actually sounds really good. All the beats are there. Good climaxes and transitions for each segment when written down on paper. It is now what you do, but how you do it. From a layout perspective, this is a strong match, but nobody seemed to have pep in their step to take it to that next level. ***1/4

Sting vs Meng - WCW Great American Bash 1995 Vacant US Title Match

STING DID A COFFIN DROP ON MENG!!! THERE WAS A PROPHECY AND IT WAS FULFILLED! 

I think something wrestling fans get hung up on that US Title and IC Title should be on the Next Big Thing. I dont disagree that is a valuable use of the titles. I think more importantly they should be on people that are over and near the top of the card. I think it is more valuable they are whoever is #2 or #3 on the depth chart of the babyface or heel side. I actually think this is a great use of US Title. Sting for better or for worse has been shut out the main event scene by the a pretty powerful foursome of Hogan, Vader, Flair and Savage. So giving him the US Title keeps the title on top and gives Sting something to do in third from the top match. 

For once an announcer is not using hyperbole when they declare this is so-so's biggest match of their career because it is actually true for Meng. For all the mystique and cult like following around Meng, he was never given many shots near the top of the card. He was a little short to be a Hogan opponent in the 80s, but credit to WCW they got him over a killer from this point on. I remember you could pretty much re-heat Meng any point and get a reaction out of the WCW faithful. I am surprised he didnt get a Hogan title shot around this time. Meng is not yet Dungeon of Doom 4 Life, but it is in the last vestiges of the Studd Stable with Col. Robert Parker. I believe Buck & Slater are still around the tag title scene against Harlem Heat. 

The match is worked as a mini-Sting vs Vader match. Now Meng is not as good as Vader so it is not as a good as those matches. However, Sting thrives in this formula. Thus this match is significantly better than Sting/Bubba, where Bubba plays a much more vulnerable, stooge Southern-style heel. Here Meng is playing the role of a Martial Arts, Mystical Badass that is hard to get off his feet. That plays to Sting's strength because Sting is very good at the desperation comeback. 

Pretty much no shine. Meng works the Martials Arts gimmick, thrusts, barefoot, chops, and kicks. Meng applies a long choke on Sting to show he is a Wildman! Sting throws a couple of dropkicks to create space and give the crowd some hope. Parker calms Meng down. Sting goes flying over the top rope and gets into it with Parker and the distraction gives the Meng opening he needs to consolidate control. I like Sting hurling his body as a weapon there. There is plenty of Tongan Nerve Pinches, BUT there is also a sick Powerbomb and Shouldertackle. Sting's hope spots and comeback is right out of the Vader playbook. There is just a way he does it and that is so compelling. Man when does get Meng off his feet the whole place comes unglued! I felt it 30 years later too. The Coffin Drop was a sick spot. Just hurling your body with reckless abandon. The best part is it got Meng off his feet, but Meng got up first. To quote the Jesse The Body at Starrcade 1992 from Sting vs Vader, "It is gotta be depressing as hell when you do the move and your opponent gets up first". Meng hits a diving headbutt and The Brain declares it is over. Sting starts his comeback in earnest. It just feels hot and electric in a way that the Bubba comebacks did not. Scorpion Deathlock, but Meng breaks it. Top Rope Stinger Splash! 1-2-NO! It was a leaping DDT that earns him the win. 

Sting needs to work on his finish stretch. It is a bit too rote. We need some wrinkles. Some better transitions. It just feels like three high spots strung together, but other than that as a poor man's Sting vs Vader this was a ton of fun. Given that Haku/Meng is a bit of a cult-like figure and those who like Sting really like Sting (I am middling on the Stinger), I am surprised this is not held up more as "HEY! Sting can have a very good match on his own against someone that is not known as all-time worker.". I wanted to do a quick scan of Cagematch Matchguide for Meng, but it looks like it is down. I took some notes a couple months ago on this. So according to my notes from September 2024, it looks like the Benoit matches are considered better and this Sting match is the 3rd best match of his career. So I think of I have seen the Benoit matches and I would say they are in the same ballpark so I will have to watch and see. Definitely a contender for the best Haku/Meng match of all time. *** 1/2 

“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs “Nature Boy” Ric Flair - Great American Bash 1995 

This may be my favorite match of all time. My two favorite wrestlers competing one of the greatest hate-filled, relentless, fight to survive matches I have ever seen. I remember being so excited to finally see Savage vs Flair, my two favorites of all time, when I finally started searching youtube 2006 and immediately it was the Wrestlemania VII match that I wanted to see it. It is a great match and a great moment in the culmination of the overarching Randy Savage Wrestlemania story arc dating back to Wrestlemania III. Something was missing. It was missing that truly out of control feel and energy that Flair and Savage can bring. Watching this match in shitty quality on dailymotion in 2008, I was transfixed. Savage was a relentless ball of fury. Lunging at Flair at ever turn. There were just these little things that made it feel like a shoot. Savage attacking Flair from behind in such a way that was scary. Or Savage just suffocating Flair even on the begging off section. There just was not the customary time. The selling was selling of exhaustion of a fight. Savage's selling of the knee was spot on and why he was one of the greatest of all time. While Savage gives a truly special performance, it would be an amazing match without Flair. Flair sells the match as a fight to survive. He is blasting the fuck out of Savage and he dives onto Savage from behind, which is another wicked bump. The way he sells. He is in pain and fatigued, but if he even takes one moment to breathe, he may not last. So he just keeps fighting. I can not say how much I love this match.

My video includes opening remarks from Savage with the interview being conducted by “Mean” Gene Okerlund. He vows revenge against Flair and the momentum is on his side. Incidentally, today is Father’s Day and a happy accident for this storyline He finishes with one of my favorite lines from him: “Too hot to handle, too cold to hold”. Flair is adorned in a black and white sequined robe decorated with Monarch Butterflies in white diamonds. Savage is also donning the black and white and HE IS NOT ALONE. His father, Angelo Poffo, is with him after the attack from the Horsemen, but with the aide of a cane. This is NOT FAIR TO FLAIR. DOUBLE A! DOUBLE A! Where art thou? 

Once Poffo is settled in, Savage hits the ring and Flair heads for the hills. Savage gives chase. Savage wants to kill Flair and any offense Flair can muster is because Savage is overzealous. Savage is hitting hard tonight. This aint a wrestling match. THIS IS A FIGHT~! Flair stops Savage’s momentum by sending him into the steel ringpost and then the guardrail. Flair with an uncharacteristic axe-handle off the apron to the back of Savage. The bump Savage takes was just violent and gripping to watch. I love it, Flair knows that Savage wants to kill so he adapts by pulling out all the stops. Angelo Poffo gets out of the chair with a look of concern as Flair is taking Savage apart with his trademark moveset of chops and kneedrops. Savage connects with a flurry of jabs and in a fit of rage chokes Flair and grabs at his nose. Flair takes the Bret-bump into the corner more choking. Flair tries to powder out, but Savage nails him from behind wicked hard. These are the moments that make it feel like a shoot. Flair takes his usual bump off the top rope. How does he not have crippling back injuries? Flair flip now onto the outside and now he goes after daddy. The Brain and I share the same sentiment as us that was fuckin dumb. Flair is smarter than both of us because he suckered Savage into checking on his Daddy and then clipping the knee. What follows is a shinbreaker across the guardrail, which is another crazy bump. The Brain wonders if “Did Daddy bring two canes because his son is going to need one.” The Brain continues to the tell story well, “Flair was smart he knew he was going to be able to slug it out with Savage, a man possessed. So he went to take a body part out. Flair has a plan.” 

Savage throws punches from his back in a show of valor and courage. Kicking and clawing at Flair with whatever he can muster and Flair like the prick he is just keeps going back to knee. This is masterful psychology. Savage is killing it right now with his selling. NOW WE GO TO SCHOOL!!! Flair of course gets to the ropes for that additional leverage. Savage is fighting only for his father and in a truly moving spot, Mr. Poffo attempts to get the ref’s attention that Flair is cheating. This is one of the most emotional matches I have ever had the pleasure of watching. SAVAGE REVERSE THE PRESSURE!!! 

Savage hops on one leg only to dive on Flair and keep punching. Flair and Savage are just laying it all on the line. Flair flip for a second time, runs down the apron but Savage hits him in the gut as he comes done. SAVAGE HITS HIM WITH BIG ELBOW!!!! He pins Flair, but pulls him at 2. NOT ENOUGH SAYS MACHO MAN as he grabs the ring bell (shades of Ricky the Dragon) and the crowd is whipped into a frenzy. The Brain says Savage is out to maim Flair. At some point, Savage has been busted open under his eye. Holy shit, what a brawl so far. The ref saves Flair from the bell and Savage crashes and burns hard on the guardrail. What a bump, the fans in the front row are freaked out because he hit so hard. Flair is pissed off because Savage has tried to maim him. Flair goes for Angelo, Poffo chokes him with cane, but Flair knocks out Angelo and gains control of the cane. Savage having checked on his dad does not realize this. Flair waffles him with cane. Flair picks up the tainted victory. 

This match epitomizes why I love wrestling: Raw hatred for each other with stiff shots, high-energy no resting with brilliant story-telling and acting. WATCH THIS MATCH! Contender for best WCW match of the decade. The last Match of the Year contender, Flair or Savage would ever have. I would say the best babyface Savage performance of his career in WCW or WWF. ****3/4

WCW US Heavyweight Sting vs Meng - WCW Bash at the Beach 1995

You gotta give Bischoff credit running unique venues like this is cool. I wish like Sturgis or the Spring Break Nitros this was an annual venue. I love see the waves and the sand in the background. The crowd was really into Sting moreso than the last three PPVs. Meng is still with the Colonel and has  not entered the Dungeon. They are pushing him pretty hard with the video package and on commentary. 

A notch below the first match but still good. The beginning is interesting they wrestle like the mat is made of concrete and they take no bumps which I like. You should earn the bumps. Meng corners Sting on two occasions to start his martial arts work. Sting’s first comeback is a thing of beauty and the crowd is eating it up. Meng misses a diving headbutt. Scorpion Deathlock! Sting and the crowd are vibing. Parker distracts Sting. Here’s out Heat Segment proper. Pretty gnarly vertical suplex that inadvertently turned into a brainbuster. Meng is relying on more holds like the Bow & Arrow and the Abdominal Stretch. They trade Sunset Flips. Sting blocks. And hits the GNARLIEST BACK SPLASH! It was basically a coffin drop. It looked sick. Again Meng gets up first and puts him in a weird Boston Crab Scorpion Deathlock hybrid that has me and Tony confused. Unclear if Sting makes it to the ropes or Meng just releases. It is comeback time! Sting is just hurling his body at Meng. One of the best Thesz Presses I have ever seen. One of the worst hurricanaranas I have ever seen BUT fuck I had no idea Sting ever attempted one. Sting goes for the Stinger Splash in the corner and gets WIPED THE FUCK OUT BY MENG’S FOOT! I mean if Meng was going over that should’ve been the finish. It was killer. Meng splash for two. Finish is lame as Sting tabletops Meng for the roll up and win.

So I was a bit shocked by the flukey win. Meng teams up with Nakanishi against Sting & Hawk next month. Hawk saves Sting from the post-match beatdown. I would’ve thought they would have done something more definitive here as they don’t run another match again. Meng is kept strong at the beginning of the Nitro Era but once he is fed to Hogan in January. He is a tag team guy. I think they knew they wanted to use Meng at the start of Nitro so they wanted to keep him strong. The body of the match was a touch more tepid than GAB. Sting busted out three great body hurling high spots in this one. Enjoyable match. *** 1/4

Randy Savage vs Ric Flair - WCW Bash At The Beach 1995 Lumberjack Match

Another hidden gem hiding in plain sight...no, no, no. This does NOT touch their ultra-heated classic from Great American Bash 1995 which I consider to be the best match the two ever had and a Top 100 Match of All Time. However, it is still Savage vs Flair so this is very good, borderline great. I am not fond of lumberjack (it is lifeguards in this case because they are on a beach) match as I tend to think they hinder the performance rather than augment my enjoyment. I am very much a fan of this Huntington Beach venue. It just feels different and cool. I'd love to see venues like this, Sturgis and the Spring Break Nitros make a comeback. 

Similar to the Great American Bash match a month prior, this is very scrappy. It is fought at close quarters. It is tight punches and stiffs chops/clotheslines. However, the Lumberjacks stifle chaos/mayhem of the GAB match. Savage's performance is not as incensed or possessed as the GAB match either. Savage starts off hot and overwhelms Flair early. Flair comes out of the corner with the Atomic Drop. The fire-fights between the two are great. There are flashes of 80s Flair throughout this match. Each takes a turn dumping the other out to establish the stipulation as is customary. There are some gnarly bumps by both Flair and Savage to floor about halfway through the match. Flair goes for the sleeper twice. In a cool spot, I am not sure if Flair was getting antsy waiting for Savage to press slam or it was planned: Flair falls off the top rope and lands chin first on the crown of Savage's head and it looked like Savage had jostled the ropes. Killer spot. That looked raw and organic. Savage repays him with a sleeper of his own. Kneecrusher by Flair!!! Flair works the leg including a somersault off the middle rope to wrench the leg. Dont say Flair doesnt add wrinkles. The Figure-4 at about 10 minute mark has great heat. I would be remiss not to mention that Flair was wicked over in the beginning, which either dispels the notion that these fans were casuals OR that Flair was very over with the casual Hogan, WWF castoff crowd. Flair was going up against the beloved Macho Man not the polarizing Hogan. Once in the Figure-4, the fans did rally around Macho Man. Nice delayed vertical by Flair, shades of the 80s. Savage begins his very scrappy comeback. Flair powders the lifeguards bring him back in. Double Axehandle, which I think is the first highspot from Savage. Savage is amazing because he is the anti-workrate's fan dream but he gets workrate fans to love him too. He has so little in terms of high spots. The reason he works is because he is so fucking real in that ring and everything is a fight. Flair gets dumped again. As the ref is attending to that, best friend & Enforcer, Arn Anderson nails Savage with a DDT faster than you can say "quicker than a hiccup". 1-2-NO! I totally bit on the finish. I figured that would fuel that Flair/AA break-up. Anderson does all the hard work, but gets none of the glory.  Savage counters Flair and revs back up. Savage was looking Big Elbow but Flair feeds Double Axehandle. Bodyslam. Big Elbow 1-2-3!

It was almost too neat of a finish. I loved the AA DDT as Flair's big nearfall and am fine with Savage winning the Blowoff with the Big Elbow, but would liked something more violent or aggressive to finish such a personal, hate-filled feud. This match had a lot of spots that didnt go as planned. Young wrestlers should watch how the cover them. They make everything feel raw and organic. Watch that Flair fall from the top rope, jaw-first to Savage's head or the finish how he feeds the Double Axehandle. My read on it was Flair didnt feel ready to take the Big Elbow that his body momentum didnt take to a natural laying down position. He fed a different high spot. Macho Man used the bodyslam to lay him flat for the big finish. Nowadays people go against their natural body momentum to ham-fist that next spot. Imagine if Flair was writhing and all of sudden stopped and flipped to his back perfectly flat. It would have looked like the shits. Yet so many of today's wrestlers do that. These two are masters of the art of organic, raw pro wrestling. *** 3/4

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Vader - WCW Bash at the Beach 1995 Steel Cage

Vader cuts all-time great bully, dumb jock promo. He says brutha about 64 times, chump about 8 and says he is from Compton and that Hogan is a fake ass beach poseur. It was fucking epic. The Roadkill Roadtour where Vader murders Jobbers at your local house show was a great concept. Hogan Donald's him saying the Compton thing is fake-news, fuck you Hogan and he has Rod The Bod with him. Hogan and Rodman have some weird chemistry as you would expect. Rodman is a better promo than I expected. 

The SuperBrawl match is the crown jewel of the Trilogy, but this whole feud killed Vader shit is pretty overblown. Hogan and Vader had great chemistry and the Clash that follows this, babyface Vader is wicked over. The match is better than Uncensored, but not by a huge amount, what helps is that it has a proper finish, but the finish is the worst part of the match. 

Typical Hogan street fight tactics here using the shirt and doo-rag to choke Vader and throw him into the Cage. The Huntington Beach crowd is pretty into Hogan. Hogan does a ten-count punches the crowd counts along, then he goes up another rung and stomps to 9 and the double axehandle off the top was supposed to be ten. Hogan keeps pounding Vader, but Vader very wisely never bumps. He is a rockin' and a reelin' but he wont fall down, which is smart. They start fighting over who will send the other into the cage. Vader mounts his comeback. Nice big heavy blows by Vader. There were some really good Stand & Bang exchanges between these two. Hogan runs Vader into his Big Van Vader Helmet and Vader bumps off that! Nice! Hogan puts it in on and very gingerly headbutts him with it. Vader gets the big Splash in the corner that looks great. VADERBOMB~! 1-2-NO! Five minutes into the match, crazy! There is a great spot where Hogan is trying to quell Vader by hooking in a front chancery but Vader organically transformed into a vertical suplex without taking a bump. Someone crib that highspot baby! Hogan fires up but his bodyslam attempt fails epically. Vader does some sort of weird top rope Senton. I was expecting him to miss the forwards splash. He seemed hesitant about the Senton and looked like he wiped out. Reading some comments apparently he was supposed to do a SHOOTING STAR PRESS?!? and belly flop, but I guess he got freaks out went Senton. It looked ugly and gnarly. Hogan second slam attempt but Hogan collapses under the sheer mass of the Mastodon Vader. I will say there was some good trash talk on both side here. Vader was hitting some good stiff shots and honestly Hogan was giving as good as he got. Hogan tries his darndest to whip the crowd into a frenzy for the Big Slam. It is weird because watching other matches on the show, the crowd was clearly into the wrestling and even earlier they were with him, but when they needed the crowd the most for the finish it petered out. 

I would say I was thinking *** 3/4 before the finish. I was pretty impressed with the hard-hitting action. There was a clear narrative of Hogan trying to slam Vader, Vader missing big high-risk moves. The action was hard-hitting and heated. The finish just had no oomph. Hogan FINALLY Slams Vader, but he hurts his back. I get it they didnt want to go right to the finish because they wanted to do the Hulk-Up. I think as you will see later, they should have replaced the big boot with the Bodyslam. Lets get back to reality and then I will explain my solution. Hogan's back is injured. Vader recovers stiff short-arm clothesline, middle rope Vader splash gets two. Thats the Vader nearfall. I think a chokeslam or a Powerbomb there would have elevated the heat. Hulk-Up~! They really milk the Hulk-Up Vader tries a couple punches, three cage shots to Hogan before Hogan finally lets loose. Ugly Big Boot. Vader does NOT bump. Even worse Big Boot to the gut this time gets Vader down. A weirdly timed Dungeon of Doom run-in (Sullivan & Zodiac (Beefcake)) Rod The Bod beats them back with a chair. Legdrop NO POP! So Hogan is like fuck it. Everything is mistimed. He hits the reset. Plays to the crowd. Now he hits the real Legdrop, better pop. He looks to go out over the top, but Vader meets him (Vader popped up after Hogan's finish, where's all the bitching about that, wrestling fans get worked up over the strangest things). Hogan beats him back with chops. Vader takes one last gnarly from the top of the cage, twisting on the top rope to the canvas. Hogan wins and parties with Jimmy Hart and Dennis Rodman. He's government-inspected (no more government to do that) and he's US-grade, Tony signs off, BUT WAIT...

Ric Flair is in the ring accosting Vader for losing to Hogan saying he was banking on him to get his retribution vicariously through Vader. He puts his hands on Vader, bad idea, Naitch. The Enforcer comes in and Vader shoves him off too. Flair takes an INSANE BUMP off the cage in his haste to escape Vader. Like what the fuck? He could have seriously hurt himself. Vader says he wants both of them and this Vader's babyface turn baby and he will get both of them at next Clash. Lets unpack this and we will go back to the match. GENIUS! Fucking Genius! I am so sick and fucking tired of feuds just getting started because someone just attacks someone else. It is so fucking lame. THIS is how pro wrestling booking should be done. You establish a matrix of relationships that you can leverage to start feuds. Flair had been retired by Hogan and began championing Vader's cause to vanquish Hogan and win the title. They had alliance at Slamboree and Flair was continue to trumpet Vader. Flair being the egomaniac that he is cannot stand the failure. He wanted this so bad. He snapped. So he berated and belittled a very strong and very proud man. Vader in turn gave a little something to think and spooked him. Now we got a freshly minted babyface Vader based on the natural progression of the story. It is NOT hard, people. This is how pro wrestling should be. Now you can pick nits that should this been shoehorned at the end of the PPV and Vader should have been selling getting beat up by Hogan. All valid points, but the nucleus of the story is perfect. I would have done it on the next episode of Saturday Night, but I can also see the value of having a chaotic ending to the PPV. It foreshadows the booking of Nitro really well. This felt like the end of an early Nitro.

Back to the match, the finish just felt anti-climatic. I think if they just had an editor re-arrange some things they could have made this worthwhile. I think you do the Dungeon of Doom run-in first. They feel like Vader cant get the job done. Rod the Bod beats them off but Hogan is distracted so here comes the Big Vader nearfall first either a Chokeslam or a Powerbomb. Hulk-Up. No Big Boot. This is where you put the Bodyslam. Drop the Leg. I'd do the 1-2-3 honestly or just have him go out over the cage. The whole thing with Bodyslam hurting him leading to Vader nearfall was weird. The Big Boot was terrible. The Dungeon run-in distracted the crowd and they missed the first Legdrop. It was a shockingly mis-paced Hogan finish run, but I think if they rearranged in the above way it would have hit better. I still thought this was very good, but not as good as SuperBrawl or Hogan/Yoko KOTR 93. *** 1/2 

Vader vs Ric Flair & Arn Anderson - WCW Clash of the Champions August 1995

One of the biggest What Ifs thats never really explored is what if Vader does not get into the fight with Mr. Wonderful and Vader's "babyface" run was allowed to play out. Part of the reason, I dont think it is discussed is because it feels so natural. The Nitro 6 of Hogan, Savage, Sting, Flair, Luger and Luger is just a perfect 6-pack that adding Vader just makes it feel off-kilter. If Vader doesnt go to WWF, with the loss of Nash & Hall and Bret's sabbatical the WWF would feel so thin. It just feels right. I think that's why it is not explored. Just to start on the interesting ramifications on the WWF as well. Vader was naturally positioned as their #1 heel in the Summer. No Vader, means it is most likely that rush back Sid, I would think, who was back by July. There is the outside shot of a stronger Goldust push as well. As for WCW, Vader's "turn" seems off, you already have Hogan, Savage and Sting. He will be battling it out with Sting for the #3 spot, you have Giant and Flair as your heels. It is unclear if they knew Luger was coming in or not at this point. The reason I started to put "babyface" and "turn" in quotes is because the post-match promo. Thats when the light bulb went off. He was in the Luger role. Or to be more accurate, Luger got slotted into Vader's role. This was a tweener where the babyfaces are questioning is he Dungeon 4 Life or is Hulkamania Ride or Die. I think you can basically assume everything Luger does until about Halloween Havoc maybe even later is what Vader wouldve been slotted to do. This of course means we were potentially robbed of Vader vs Savage at Halloween Havoc, which is a massive bummer. Then question becomes what the hell is Luger supposed to do if Vader stays. He probably would have been more involved with Sting & Flair instead of Hogan & Dungeon. My final thought on this is that Vader was 100% ready to be a babyface. The Daytona crowd was pop pop popping for him. They were ready to watch Vader whup some heel ass. My only concern is how many heels were there for him to whip. Obviously, doing the inverse of Starrcade 1993 would be fun. Vader/Giant would be interesting as a big man showdown but after that. Who is left? I guess maybe Luger?!? Anyways, a fun thought experiment. 

The WCW Heels of 1995 EXPLODE~! After being aligned as Triangle of Terror, Hogan put Vader to bed at Bash at the Beach 1995 and WCW looked to turn Vader babyface. Prior to this match, Hulk Hogan visited the Dungeon of Doom, which seemed to be located in Florida and based on what we know about Florida today that checks out. ;) This is not the very famous "It's Not Hot" vignette, I had not seen this one before. Hogan Cosmo Kramer's his way into Dungeon interrupting Sullivan and Iaukea's nonsense only for Giant to show up and tear off Hogan's cross...because you know he is Andre's son. Giant and the Dungeon (Kamala, Shark & Zodiac) beat him down until Vader saves. Vader & Giant staredown is pretty cool. After this match, Hogan parades out with Savage & Sting to declare war on Dungeon of Doom, but he wants to know where Vader stands. Vader wants to kick some Dungeon ass, but nobody tells him what time it is. LOL Which I think is a very comical way of saying he is an independent man, who dont need know Hulk Hogan telling him what to do. Finger snaps in a Z Formation. 

Onto this match, was I ever going to get there? This match is mostly a backdrop to the Flair/AA feud to set up the Fall Brawl which ultimately sets up the reformation of the Horsemen at Halloween Havoc and the turn on Sting. The story is that Flair is going to let AA take the lead and he is going to pick the Enforcer's scraps. Arn with some nice heavy blows to the gut. Vader throws those swinging bearpaws in typical Vader fashion. Vader is kicking ass, but Arn does get the Spinebuster. Just as promised The Enforcer has gotten the Big Man down and it is time for Flair to finish the job, but Flair is too cocky and plays with his food. Then in the ultimate rite of 80s/90s babyface passage Vader gets to Press Slam Ric Flair, which pops me huge. Flair Flip stiff Vader clothesline. The inverse of Starrcade would have been a lot of fun. Arn continues to save Flair with chop blocks, DDT and multiple saves. Flair does get the Figure-4, but is press slammed off the top. Massive Top Rope Splash from Vader! Vader trucks Flair with a Clothesline and a powerbomb polishes off Anderson. There is quarreling between Flair & Anderson that looks ready to explode. 

Overall, it is more of a character piece, the primary objective is to set up Flair & Double A for Fall Brawl, but also this was Vader's coming out party as a babyface. It was effective on both levels. *** 1/4

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Kamala - WCW Main Event 8/6/95

These two have some of that freaky deaky chemistry. Nowhere near as good as their 87 classics but this is 5 minutes of good craic. This is the start of the Second Gen Dungeon of Doom. It takes a repackaged Sullivan, Beefcake and Earthquake from 94 version with the name of Dungeon of Doom and adds Kamala eventually The Giant and Meng. This is a rare Hogan singles match and is a defense of WCW Title. This is on the Main Event before the Clash, most of the hype is around Hogan entering the Dungeon during the Clash telecast (this is not the famous vignette). 

Only five minutes of action but it is brisk and fun. Hogan is wearing the war paint. He charges into battle but is caught off at the pass. Lots of really good looking chops by Kamala. Bodyslam. Hulk-Up. Hogan is in full street fight mode throwing all the heel offense back at the heel. Great punches and nasty offense. Kamala starts firing up with thrusts to the throat. Sullivan interferes with a staff to the throat. Kamala splash that’s the Kamala near fall. Hulk Up home stretch. Drop the Leg but Sullivan is on top. Press Slam. Here comes the Dungeon. Sting & Savage save. Stock Hogan promo about going to War and the Dungeon to set up Wargames. It was fun, sue me. ***

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Big Bubba Rogers - WCW Nitro 9/4/95

The main event of the first Nitro and probably the best possible main event they could have conjured up with. Having Hulk Hogan defend the WCW World Title in the main event of the first Nitro, instantly made Nitro feel must-see. Big Bubba Rogers who was #3-#5 Heel of the year for WCW so he was the perfect challenger with enough credibility to garner interest, but not as marquee as Flair or Giant which worthy as a PPV main event. 

Similar to the Liger/Pillman and Sting/Flair match, this felt like the hyper-compressed version of your typical Hogan match. Typical Hogan Clash of the Titans start with headlocks, test of strength and shouldertackles. Mongo saying Hogan is too much of a technician to get bested by the brawler, Bubba, while Hogan is slamming Rogers' head into the top turnbuckle is rich. The ref keeps breaking it Hogan's fists of fury. Rogers uses those breaks to take over with some great fists. Both these guys arent afraid of throwing a punch and there were a lot of good punches in this. Bubba goes for his customary slide out and punch, but Jimmy Hart gets in his way. Hogan uses the distraction plus Jimmy Hart's coat to beat up Rogers some more. Again it is more fisticuffs. Bubba gets the Bossman Slam out of nowhere and that leads to Hulk-Up! You know the drill 1-2-3. The Hulk-Up lives and dies by the nearfall preceding it. The Bossman Slam just had no heat to it. Usually Hogan sells a lot more, but I think there was directive to wrestle uptempo and just keep kicking ass. Usually the Hogan formula will peak harder through investment of Hogan's selling, but they opted for action instead. People who say Hogan wrestles slow always smacks me as strange. He is a very good uptempo wrestler. 

I am surprised they didnt just throw Rogers into the Dungeon of Doom for the hell of it to add some heat to this match and so Kevin Sullivan would be on the outside I am shocked by how little they brought up the Fall Brawl main event. This really felt like a big reset button on the company and we were now in Nitro-verse. The Dungeon (Kamala, Meng, Zodiac & Shark) attack, BUT LEX FUCKING LUGER SAVES! He goes from saving Diesel in the main event of Summerslam from Mo to saving Hogan from these Oddities. The Luger and Hogan promo is expertly done. It is pitch perfect. Luger feels immediately like a huge deal and he has not felt this hot since July 4, 1993. They set up a huge main event of Hogan vs Luger for the next week which will be the first week head to head with RAW. Great booking. The match was average. 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Lex Luger - WCW NItro 9/11/95

Second Nitro and this has a huge fight feel! Luger looks like a million bucks.

Not too much meat on the bone in this match. They give you enough that doesn’t feel like a ripoff. Luger more than the Warrior for me personally is the dream match for Hogan. This is Arnold vs Sylvester brutha. One thing that’s interesting even though the crowd is majority pro-Hogan to the point where Bischoff could claim absolute victory for the Hulkster by the crowd he claims it is a 50/50 split. He is really trying to push the shades of grey. 

Babyface Vs babyface clash of the titans symmetry. Each no-selling the other’s suplex was awesome. Hogan misses a charge and a Luger powerslam. He is calling for the Rack!!! LUGER RACKS HOGAN!!! The Hulkster withstands the pain long enough that Luger has to relinquish. Hogan Hulk-Ups after the pin fall attempt. Basic Hulk Up and the Dungeon attacks so we don’t know if Luger would kick out or not. It casts enough doubt in people’s head. 

Savage and Sting make the save BUT the Dungeon never touch Luger. The resulting brouhaha with Mean Gene whether Luger’s blood is running red & yellow or if he is Dungeon 4 Life! Is great pro wrestling theatre. I love how all four stay true to their characters and their motivations. Sting wants to win at Wargames and he has been friends with Luger for almost ten years. Savage is a paranoid lunatic and doesn’t want to be stabbed in the back. The uncertainty is killing the Hulkster and he has to just know one way or the other. Luger is willing to help them out if he gets another title shot down the line. It is genius. This is how pro wrestling should be. 

Ric Flair vs Arn Anderson - WCW Fall Brawl 1995

"If God Were A Pro Wrestler His Name Would Be Ric Flair", Amen, brutha amen. And look a Flair 3:16 sign! I have always fallen on the positive side of things in this controversial match because it was a compelling story between two men who said true to themselves from start to finish. The Enforcer is a double tough sumbitch that has been content (or proud) to be the Champion's best friend and protector. Anderson's game plan has always been to neutralize an opponent by taking a limb away rendering him powerless to be picked apart. We have seen this countless times in WCW especially in the amazing Dustin Rhodes Saturday Night 1992 match. Anderson could brawl, but he was a brawler per se. He wrestled with intent to maim and win. He was violent, but in an out or control frenetic way. He had purpose and that is every bit as violent as a bar room brawl. The story never called for Anderson to come in and tee off on Flair to beat him up. He wanted to prove his mettle against the measuring stick of pro wrestling and he was going to do it his way. He was going to take away Flair's arm and beat him down to humble him. He was going to prove he was every bit the pro wrestler that Ric Flair was and it could have been just easily him in that top spot.

Flair says it all in the beginning "Are you sure you want this?" You could interpret that two ways. It is Flair cocky as ever saying I am going to beat you 1-2-3 and you are going to look a fool. Or is it the Nature Boy that does not want to fight his friend. From the outset, Flair was shown up by his Enforcer on the mat and standing up. He would ball up those fists and get tagged in the face. It woke Flair up to the reality that he was in a fight with his best friend and if he did not get his ass in gear then he would be the one humiliated. It was not two men who loathed each other, it was their pride at stake. When the chips are down, Flair will do whatever it takes to win a match. In a stroke of genius, for over a decade, Ric Flair would go up and over the turnbuckles run down the apron and either he get struck or thrown off the top rope. On this night, Anderson expecting to deck the prone Nature Boy, Flair finally pulls down the ropes sending him head over heels onto the floor. It was such a great spot and finally the Dirtiest Player in the Game is on top and he ain't too proud to use a ref's distraction to take a cheapshot at Anderson. In a way, at this point, Anderson has won, he has proven that Flair would be forced to go into his bag of tricks to beat. Anderson was the better pure wrestler, but Flair was the better cheapshot artist. It was time for The Enforecer to get his hands dirty and on the floor he starts the rapid fire punching to the head. At about this point, they do lose me a bit because it does become a bit of the Flair show as they just start throwing shit out as part of the grand finale. Flair gets a suplex on the floor and then a delayed vertical, but then the next thing you know he is hanging upside down. Anderson goes for the DDT and Flair hooks the top rope, but then Flair is getting thrown off the top. The Figure-4 stuff was incredible and super heated. I loved Anderson blocking, the struggle, Flair spit and then Anderson fires up. Anderson did a great job selling the knee and just when you think it is over. Pillman whacks Flair and Anderson hits the DDT. The Enforcer beat the Nature Boy at his own game by calling in the reinforcements and having that all-important Plan B. My minor quibble aside about the run up to the finish, I thought this was a great match that stuck to the story and was a match that only these could work. Arn Anderson was Arn Anderson he was not the Flair opponent du jour. My major qualm with the match was that Flair was ostensibly the face coming in, worked heel in the match and then got turned full-on babyface by the finish. I know Flair's preference to work heel and I think it was the right call to have him wrestle match as a heel because it served the story better. It felt they were going for a double turn in the match and then finish cements where they were going into it. I have lessened on this because Anderson/Sting does not have the same cache as Flair/Sting teaming and it was a good desperation tactic by Anderson to tear a page out of Flair's book. I would put this over Pillman/Badd, which on rewatch felt really, really long and overwrought. This match had the heat and the big match atmosphere, but there were too many lulls and it never felt like they ratcheted all the way up to a real boiling point, which you would have loved to see. ****

Wargames 1995 - Hulkamaniacs vs Dungeon of Doom - Fall Brawl 1995

Finally a reverse chinlock wins a match! Brutus Beefcake in all his forms is a shitty wrestler, but was he ever worse than as the Zodiac. His stooging and bumping was the lamest shit I have seen since Akeem. The first five minutes with Sting and Tenta was actually pretty fun. Sting was his usual hopped up on sugar self which is perfect for starting the match. I really liked his leap from one ring to the other. Tenta played a good big man foil for Sting. When he tries to replicates Sting's leap he ends laid out across both ropes allowing for Sting to kick him in the gut. It was fun shit. Then The Zodiac comes in. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! The match does not pick back up again until Luger accidentally nails Savage or was it an accident? I really liked WCW main event booking at this time. It is a booker's dream having Hogan, Savage, Luger, Sting, Flair and Giant at your disposal. It is great because everything weaves them together in interesting and unique fashions that plays off old history. It comes close to achieving the full booking potential of pro wrestling. The WWF/E's overly simplified linear booking where the only person who exists in your world is the person you are working a program with has always bothered the shit out of me. Of course, there are deviations from this path, but for the most part WWF/E has followed this paradigm. The beauty of wrestling should be all the interconnections and shifting pieces in interesting, organic fashions by overlapping issues. All six main events have real motivations to hate or support one and another. Any permutation of face versus heel is interesting not just because of the characters, but because the motivations are in place to add to the match. I wanted to say something positive about WCW booking at the time because this match sucks. Hogan comes in and throws powder in everyone's face. The Desert Storm Match was way cooler. Hogan/Sullivan was not as fun as I expected, but The Giant's debut was pretty sweet. Talk about making a rookie a main event star immediately. WCW would eventually bungle The Giant, but I would say at least up until Hog Wild '96 and really through Souled Out '98, he was a legitimate main event with plenty of heat. I'd argue that from his debut through Souled Out '98, The Giant was never used more effectively in his career. Yes, he became a better wrestler in the WWF, but was never the credible main event player that he was in WCW. This is pretty counter-intuitive to the "Vince books big guys better" and "WCW fucks everything up". Yes WCW eventually fucked it up, but they actually got quite a decent run out of him first. Don't watch this match. Watch Nitro, it is way more fun and interesting.

Lex Luger vs Meng - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995

Unfortunately I watched this about 2 hours ago, but couldnt get to the review until now due to a couple work emergencies. Which is too bad because I had a lot of thoughts about this match. I will be lead with the most interesting: Lex Luger's individual performance. 

Coming watching a lot of WWF Lex Luger in the past 6 months, it is night and day watching the Total Package here. I dont think anyone would dispute that the quality of Lex Luger performance is significantly better than pretty much any of his WWF work. Only 3-4 months prior to this match, he was having sub-par matches with Yokozuna in singles and in tags. It is not like all of sudden Lex Luger just got better. We know his work prior to his WWF run was better than his WWF run as well. There are two possible options in my opinion:

1. Lex Luger dogged it in WWF. Either he didnt like working there, he fell out of love with wrestling and was just cashing a paycheck, who knows. One theory would be his low effort level. Effort level definitely would explain why his WWF 1995 work would suck. Why suck in 1993? The rocket was strapped to his back, but he just was not having good matches at all. You could say his effort level rose in WCW because he was back amongst his friends or that he knew with his bridge burned with WWF, this was it, and he needed this to work out or he was fucked. 

2. An institutional difference between WWF and WCW. We all know the house style between WCW and WWF is different. This match here is not a great match per se. No one would confuse it with Luger/ Flair or Luger/Steamboat but it was so much more dynamic than anything Luger in WWF expect maybe his match with Nash. There were so many wrinkles and things that kept you off-beat. There were more hope spots and cutoffs. It is not like all of sudden it was a workrate marvel, but there was more struggle and urgency than anything in WWF. The question becomes was the WWF hamstringing him. Were they giving him direction and he was simply following it? That being said it was clear the Kliq and Bret Hart were still having great, workrate-centric matches at the same time. Were the Kliq & Bret flouting WWF direction? Did the WWF seem them as workers but Luger was a "power" guy like Hogan should wrestle in a way different than Bret and Shawn? Why couldnt Luger be like fuck that, I used to go 40+ minutes with Flair, I can work too, pal. 

It is hard to say why, but it is easy to say there is a significant difference IMMEDIATELY with Luger retuning to WCW. 

As for the body of the match, I enjoyed Luger's shine. Luger worked primarily as a babyface in WWF and dont remember a shine this good. He was showing his ability to out-power and out-think the Monster Meng. There was a great catapult to Meng and he worked the arm well shoving him into a post. Both these high spots while not revolutionary you would not see in the WWF. I thought the transition to Meng's heat segment was a bit lame. I thought we would get more arm work. Sullivan seemed to distract Luger a little. I liked how they built up the heat segment. Luger misses a charged hard into the corner. Meng follows up with a great shoulderbreaker. Meng works the arm. Meng is really giving the full court press. Smothering him in the corner. Great piledriver by Meng. There was another good cutoff, but unfortunately I forget. I remember he hoists him up for a belly to back suplex, but Meng falls on top for a cover. The noisy verbal selling of Luger is back in full force. He just feels like he cares. Luger gets a great crossbody. Strong vertical suplex back into the ring. The finish stretch was a series of Luger clotheslines that Meng registered for pitch perfect. Powerslam to set up the Rack. Meng spikes with the Golden Thumb Ring, Asiatic Spike. It shocks me because I was 100% certain won and I was like I cant believe Luger would kick out. Sullivan comes in and kicks Luger at 2 to trigger the DQ. 

So whats going on here? I am a big proponent of late 1995 WCW booking. I think it is a paradigm that could be followed to great success. A lot of people try to recreate the NWO or Austin vs McMahon, but that is much more difficult in my opinion than trying to replicate 1995 WCW. The others rely more on the charisma and unique nature of the people involved. WCW 1995 booking model is something you could plug 4-6 main eventers in and would result in interesting stories. The crux is that no one trusts anyone and there is seeds of doubt sown weekly. The popular game show "Traitors" which my wife got me to watch all three seasons of is a great example of this style of storytelling. Luger shows back up in WCW at the first Nitro. Great return. He immediately wants a shot at Hogan and the World Title, but is he friend or foe. Of course, people like Sting would vouch for him, but he does NOT have an impeccable record, he is a known asshole. Then you got the Dungeon of Doom and Kevin Sullivan playing these mind games by not attacking Luger on Nitros. Is Luger DOD 4 Life? Or are they framing him, playing on the natural suspicions of Hogan and Savage to isolate Sting/Luger from Hogan/Savage. United the stand, but Divided They Fall strategy by Dungeon of Doom? There are all sort of off-shoots here: Luger proves his worth to the babyfaces, or he is DOD 4 Life or he becomes radicalized like Sting did in 1996 and so pissed that no one trusts him that strikes it out on his own. To me this is the pinnacle of pro wrestling booking. It is a matrix-style booking where you leverage these 6-15 interpersonal relationships to feed individual motivations that create organic storylines. As a huge history buff and fan of soap operas, to me this is the optimal way to present pro wrestling so that it is intriguing. Now even though I like the paradigm of late 1995 WCW booking, I will be first to admit it somewhat lacks in execution and it is nowhere near as good as say 86 Crockett or 96-97 WCW/NWO, but it is is a template that could be used for great success.

Sorry, I never explained Sullivan's rationale. If Luger won this match, he has to wrestle Savage. Savage defeated the Zodiac in less than two minutes earlier in the show. A fan rushed the ring, but never made contact with the wrestlers. Zodiac missed a move off the top. Savage dropped the elbow. This looks like penultimate appearance by Zodiac before he transforms into the Booty Man in February 1996 (World War III is the last). This was near the end of Meng's push which would officially end with a job to who else but the Hulkster before he became Barbarian's tag team partner in late January 1996. 

So Sullivan's motivation could be twofold, one is that Luger vs Savage means that both men take more punishment and also it furthers this discord between Luger and Savage which in turn furthers the discord between Luger and Hogan. Overall, I really liked the finish and I enjoyed the body of the match. I liked Meng getting up in Sullivan's face demonstrating that not even Meng was in on the plan all along. Very cool booking here. *** 1/4

Lex Luger vs Randy Savage - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995

A nothing burger of a match. It was bad, but there was not much meat on the bone at only 5 minutes. Each man won a match over Dungeon of Doom earlier in the night in order to make this match happen. Savage defeated the Zodiac in under two minutes. Luger had a long, ~13 minute match, but was about to lose when Sullivan hit him to trigger a DQ and make this match happen. 

Luger would reveal that he was Dungeon of Doom 4 Life at the end of the show when he RACKED Hogan and Savage to end the show. At this point, this was still nominally face vs face. Typical Savage babyface performance as we go into heat quickly. It is a pretty scrappy match. Lots of short punches, snug strikes and throwing your opponent into hard objects. Savage blocks Luger sending him into the railing and in turn he sends the Package into the railing. Savage Axe Bomber looked sick. Jimmy Hart is out and it is also not known that he is Dungeon of Doom 4 Life either at this point. Luger knocks heads with Jimmy Hart on the apron and leads to the Macho Man elbow for the win. 

They were on pace for a good match. They were working snug, dirty and ugly. The Jimmy Hart shit was dumb and convoluted. It only seemed to exist to throw people off the scent of Jimmy Hart and Lex Luger, but there was no sus on Jimmy Hart so it was just dumb. Wish they got 5-10 more minutes. 

Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman vs Sting & "Ric Flair" - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995

I watched all of Halloween Havoc 1995 something like 5-10 years ago. This is even more glorious than I remember it. 

It is not just the turn that is excellent, but the actual match itself is wicked good. Bobby Heenan, as always when Flair is involved, is much more engaged and entertaining on commentary. The Sting shine was brilliant. It is exactly how you want a top level babyface to handle two midcard heels that are our threats. He divides & conquers and outsmarts them. In the Crockett tradition, they mix in enough camp and levity to make it really fun. Love the Full Nelson spot where Sting Kangaroo Kicks Pillman off the apron and then switches onto Double A and drops Anderson on his ass. Sting gets bated to the floor, Heenan says that is the exact opposite thing to do, but he ducks both Pillman and Anderson and slugs them both. The Military Press Slam on Pillman had me pumping my fist. The standard Pillman spot with the railing worked perfectly into the transition. As a groggy Pillman pulls himself up on the apron, Anderson cracks Sting's head into Pilman's and thus begins the Heat Segment. The babyface shine was money. Of course, this is the exact time, Flair hits the ring, which is perfect timing. The crowd was rabid for Flair! Lots of We Want Flair chants both before and after his arrival.

I enjoyed the heat segment as well. I thought it did grow a little long in the tooth, but it was more entertaining than not. Perfect mixture of the Horsemen grinding Sting down, hope spots and cutoffs. I really enjoyed Flair on the apron. He was a maniac, strutting and hollering at Sting. Flair yelling "Stand Tall" and Sting doing his Action Movie Acting howling "NATURE BOY!" was so damn good. It felt like a real struggle. I bit on two or three of the hope spots thinking that had to be it. I really liked the Sting rally that ended in the Spinebuster. They get bonus points for having Sting crack Pillman's head into Anderson's head on the apron to be the high spot that leads to the tag. The tag is tremendous. It was the perfect climax to all the tension they built. Flair stomping around and winding up to hit Double A ONLY TO SLUG THE STINGER! What really makes it is Sting's reaction. He does NOT lie there and get pummeled. He is INCENSED! He fights back and the way Anderson and Pillman TACKLE him is so realistic. I loved it. Flair gets his cheapshots in. 

To me this is a ***** angle, wicked good. Hard to rate as a match because it is more of an angle, but it really holds up well as a match too so I am going ****. This ages very well, I am pretty sure this is my 3rd time watching it.

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs The Giant - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995

This match's reputation is more based on the dumbass Monster Truck angle and the debut of the YET-AY~! Thanks to Tony Schiavone, I pronounce it as Yeh-TAY in real life and makes me look like dumbass. The first time my wife heard me say it, she thought I was fucking dumb, but now she thinks it is funny. 

The match itself is a lot better than people give it credit BUT the dumbass booking does have to be accounted for so I dont think I can call it good, but it is not horrible either. It is far superior to WrestleMania VIII. The Giant literally had one match before this match. That is pretty high stakes for a green as grass rookie. Main Event against Hulk Hogan. Not only did he NOT stink out the joint, he looked like a veteran. You couldnt tell this was functionally his first match ever. 

The layout is very typical Hogan, but it works great. Hogan brings it to The Giant early with good shots and I love the Giant register. Hogan goes for the slam, but he aint getting The Giant up on the first attempt, brutha. Giant takes over. I LOVED those wild double axehandle swings. It looked like he was swinging a baseball bat. It looked great. Giant was really good with his clubbering offense. Hogan does a good job selling on the run, but it is a full court press by The Giant. The knucklelock is sold well and feels like a great Clash of the Titans moment. Giant Bodyslam and he goes for the leg drop, but crashes & burns. Great transition to Hogan rockin' and rollin'. Hogan throwing all that offense into Giant's face looked great, but he cant get the Big Man off his feet. He finally clothesline The Giant over the top rope to a big pop. Hogan runs out of a steam and on an Irish Whip ends up in a Sidewalk Slam. Another good transition. They work the Bearhug not once but twice. Again this is a good Hogan match. GIANT CHOKESLAM~! HELL YEAH! 1-2-NO! HULK-UP~! DROPS THE LEG! JIMMY HART NAILS THE REF WITH THE BIG GOLD BELT! Hogan does not see that it is Jimmy Hart who does it. So Jimmy Hart is able to nail him too! Here comes Randy Savage and Lex Luger, but whose side is he on? Luger attacks Savage. Here is the YEH-TAY~! YEH-TAY humps Hogan in the ass and then Savage. Luger RACKS them both. Michael Buffer says twice the title cant change hands on a DQ. Giant is declared the winner by DQ. I assume it is because Jimmy Hart was aligned with Hogan and when he hit the ref that counted as being in favor for Hogan, but that is dumb. It turns out the Nov 6th Nitro that Jimmy Hart put a clause in the contract that Giant could win the title on DQ. I dont mind the shady contract fine print. I think thats good heel shit, but I think declaring Giant winner by DQ is a stretch. I think it would have been better if Jimmy Hart clearly hit Giant with the title and then it is revealed on Nitro the next night that it was a double cross. 

Anyways, it was a good match and if it was just a Jimmy Hart and a Lex Luger heel turn, I think this match would be much better remembered however with the Monster Truck Battle and the YEH-TAY~! ***

Randy Savage vs Lex Luger - WCW World War III 1995

At the outset of the show, Hogan makes a big deal out of saying the Observer has it all wrong that Savage is not injured and he burns an Observer on air saying "Observe this", brutha and "Internet has got the scoops". It would be funny if Randy Savage just won the World Title, injured to spite Meltzer. 30 years later Bischoff is still railing against Meltzer. 

Lexy Flexy is out with Jimmy Hart as he is Dungeon of Doom 4 Life, brutha, but he is still friends with Sting. Hogan/Macho trust Sting and say Sting can have his deal with Luger. Sting & Luger are teaming up the next night on Nitro. I really dig that the booking for WCW at this time. All six main eventers, which means there are 15 unique relationships are developing those unique relationships and they can leverage them in different ways. Very cool matrix booking. 

Savage is out with a massive bandage on his arm is decidedly not healthy. Even though this match is about the same length as the Halloween Havoc match, I did think this one was better, but still left a lot on the table. Presumably, they would have gotten a chance to go longer if Savage was not injured. These two have great chemistry together. I know there is one Nitro match from 1995 I like between these two, plus I like their Souled Out 1998 main event match together. 

Savage is out for blood. Even though he is injured, he comes out the gate at a million miles per hour and is just kicking ass. He throttles Luger. It is really fierce and ferocious. It is a full court press. He is using the hard parts of his body and the hard parts of the ring. He is in pure Tasmanian Devil form and Luger it totally overwhelmed. Usually Savage likes to go right to heat so it was refreshing to see him work this blood-feud-esque shine. Nice Boston Crab which you dont always see from him. Big Elbow and it looks like Total Package just got squashed. However, the Mouth of South wont let Luger die an easy death. Savage goes to throw Luger into Hart, but Hart moves and Luger careens to the floor. Luger is able to reverse an Irish Whip and whip Savage into the ring apron of a different ring (three rings for the 3-ring Battle Royale). Savage takes a gnarly bump and sells it like a million bucks. Luger RACKS the Macho Man on the floor. Then throws him back in the ring. Slaps on a armbar/hammerlock and Savage passes out from the pain, BUT DONT WORRY GUYS HE IS TOTALLY HEALTHY. Sting comes out and gets Luger to relinquish the hold apparently Luger was the one who talked sense into Sting to relinquish the hold on Flair on Nitro. 

Again it is great shades of grey booking, on paper, it sounds all fine and dandy for Hogan/Savage to let Sting maintain his friendship with Luger, but if Luger keeps pulling this shit will this cause a Hogan/Savage vs Sting/Luger feud or will Sting have to say enough is enough cut out his toxic friend. There is a lot of interesting paths they can go. I enjoyed this match even though it is short. They have good chemistry. Savage was ferocious to start, total Tasmanian Devil. The Big Elbow was a good visual fall for Macho Man. Good transition for Luger followed by the Torture Rack and armbar submission. It was a very WCW moment for Hogan to grandstand that Savage is 100% and they run a finish on that same night that is directly counter to that promo. You would think someone would put 2 and 2 together. Good little match. ***

Ric Flair vs Sting - World War III 1995

The grudge match following the infamous Ric Flair turn at Halloween Havoc, great match and great angle. Is this match they should have run after that angle? No. It is a very good Greatest Hits version of their matches at around 15 minutes which makes for an entertaining experience even if it is not congruent with the storyline at the time. 

Pretty strong Sting shine here. There is A LOT of Gorilla Press Slams. For Flair detractors, I am sure that will get long in the tooth for them. Flair tries an eyepoke to set up the chops and big heavy blows. Flair's strikes always look great. Sting comes roaring back. Pretty standard Sting stuff. Sting fighting through Flair's offense with standard back fists and kicks looked great. All press slams were good. Flair bailing to the various rings (there were three because of the 3-ring Battle Royale) and Sting kicking his ass was good. I really liked the transition to heat as Sting crashes and burns on a Stinger Splash onto the steel railing. When Sting tries to mount a comeback, Flair ballshots him. I love that as a 1-2 punch to consolidate his advantage. The pro-Flair contingent would be very happy to see this heat segment. It is one of Flair's strongest of the 90s. He really works the leg of Sting well. A good variety of attacks to the leg, good tempo, well-struck and well-sold by Sting. Really liked the chop block. Great heat on the Figure-4. Loved Sting's reaction to being slapped and hulking up through the Figure-4. Things get desperate for Flair as he shove Nick Patrick who shoves him back down to a big pop. Then it is pretty much all Sting as he stalks him into a new ring and the Press Slams abound. Great superplex and the Scorpion Deathlock finishes it. Sting does relinquish the hold even though a big deal was made that was he was going to keep it on forever. 

Like I said it was a Greatest Hits of Flair vs Sting. I thought Flair's heat segment makes this stand out and puts it into very good category. I liked the Sting finish stretch in the sense he strung about 4-5 impressive moves together to clinch a victory. I think I would have liked 1-2 wrinkles thrown in there to take the match to the next level, but this still was a very good match. Flair has a very good, under the radar 1995. *** 3/4 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Macho Man Randy Savage vs Total Package Lex Luger - WCW Nitro 12/4/95

An extended Nitro by about 10 minutes looks like the overruns have started. I thought the first half was pretty skippable. Harlem Heat vs American Males was fine but nothing you have to see. It is funny how the Spinaroonie was so much bigger of a deal in WWE but was used so much better as a transition to Harlem Sidekick and the Harlem Hangover is always sick to see. Sting vs Kurosawa wicked short. Kurosawa worked the arm. Sting said not tonight brutha. Stinger Splash and Scorpion Deathlock. They hyped Scott Norton in action so I thought he get a win over Shark or Hugh Morris but then Giant came out. Weird they didn’t hype a Giant appearance as this is his lengthy match on Nitro. Giant big times Norton but Norton gets him up for an Atomic Drop to the big pop. Norton comes off top. Chokeslam. Over. Fun little hoss match. Flair is with Charles Barkley not much is said but cool as fuck. 

Savage vs Luger single handedly save the show and have a total hidden gem. These two have terrific chemistry. The Nitro matches of 95 far outshine the PPV matches of 95 so watch these bad boys. Significant departure from the Savage babyface formula. Savage starts out very aggressive, usual scrappy tenacious Pitbull dog energy from Savage. Luger weathers the storm and hits a clothesline. You think we are going into heat as is custom for babyface Savage. Nah nah. Savage catches Luger on the outside and back on attack with a top rope double axehandle. Luger gets the suplex. Heat Segment? Think again. Missed elbow drop by Luger. Savage works the arm?!? Savage has had a bad arm for months now so Everton expected his arm to get worked over not Luger’s. How many times do you get to see Savage work the arm. It is good to work. A mixture of holds and slamming the arm into hard metal objects. I wish there was a nice punctuation mark on this control segment with a near fall but otherwise great. I LOVED THE Transition! Luger sidesteps Savage who crashes and burns into guardrail!

Luger sells his arm very well in his heat segment. Again it is solid work by Luger on Macho Man but I wish we got like a powerslam as a sort of punctuation mark before they transitioned to the finish stretch they used a head collision on rope running to level the plying field. Jimmy Hart took off the turnbuckle pad so of course Macho Man rams the Total Package’s head into the exposed buckle. The reeling Total Package wipes out the ref. Macho Man Elbow Drop! Flair it out COLD COCKS MACHO MAN with Knuckledusters. He puts the Package on top. Hogan says not on my watch. Kicks Flair’s ass and stops the ref from counting three and that gets the match thrown out. He is hauls off to clock Luger but hits Sting instead! GREAT BOOKING!

The promo after is great pro wrestling theatre everyone is true to their character different motivations. Sting wants to straighten his friend out and wants the Mega Powers to cut him and Luger slack. Hogan and Macho rightfully dont trust Luger and you can see why they don’t trust Sting. Next weeks a big match tag match with Hogan/Sting Vs Horsemen they clear the air but definite dissension on the babyface side.  

Loved the match. Just missed two-three big moments to make truly great but this is a really good Lo-fi match. Love these two together. *** 3/4 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs The Giant - WCW Nitro 12/18/95

Nitro Recap: Covered the first 1/3rd of this LOADED show in Flair vs Eddie. 5/6ths of Nitro 6 are in action save for the Hulkster. Luger dispatched of Dont Call Me Buff Bagwell with a Powerslam and Torture Rack. Could fun shine spots but as boiler plate as boiler plate gets. Sting defeated Please Call Me Bobby Eaton after Eaton misses the Bombs Away Knee into Stinger Splash and Scorpion Deathlock. A couple Sweet Home Alabama Rights gets this into good territory.

Alright with this match I have now watched & reviewed all the 95 Nitros and all the WCW Title defenses of 95. I thought this was pretty entertaining until the shit, dumbass Hogan finish. It was what you expected but done really well with Savage playing cat & mouse with Giant. Sticking and moving. He goes for the Sleeper. Big biel. This is only Giant’s 3rd competitive televised bout and he looks like a veteran. People talk about how quickly he picked this up. He looked confident in there. Savage gets the high knee to the back, but it all goes south on the bodyslam attempt. Tried to be a hero but came out a zero. Really good Giant heat segment with clubbing blows, bear hug. I liked the eye rake to cut off the Chokeslam by Savage. He tries to get something going with clotheslines but Giant cutoffs with a Backbreaker. Good work. There’s some cool spots that get as big of a pop as you expect like Giant press slamming Savage from THE FLOOR OVER THE TOP ROPE! Or how he misses the Top Rope Giant Splash! Excellent Transition to Macho Man Elbow Drop! Sullivan or Hart should have attacked here to protect Giant. Giant gets forceful kick out which makes him look like a million bucks. But if he is not going to win the title you’ve booked yourself into a corner. Giant dropkick and Chokeslam look cool BUT Savage cant kick out without hurting the Giant so youre left with the dumbass finish of Hogan RANDOMLY AND UNPROVOKED attacking Giant, Sullivan, Hart and refs with a chair. It really makes Macho Man look weak and it is just dumb. Have Hart or Sullivan interfere to at least justify Hogan’s save. Booking sucked but I liked the match. ***

The Hogan and Savage relationship had been portrayed as the one rock solid one in WCW but Hogan’s jealousy and greed is getting the best of him and he wants the title. Macho Man is awesome in this promo and says Hogan gets the next crack after Flair and Starrcade Triangle winner. Ooooooo YEEEEAAHHHH   

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ric Flair - WCW Nitro 12/25/95

Couldn’t fall asleep due to work stress so I threw on this episode of Nitro. This was a very good match and worth watching. Luger beat Riggs in a match where Riggs got way more offense than I expected. Nice Rack finish. Sting beat Big Bubba in a condensed version of their two PPV matches from this year. Sting won with a cradle hardly a decisive victory. Malenko had a good showing against Jerry Lynn under a hood. Some promos pushing the Sting/Luger and the seeds of the Dungeon/Horsemen being planted. Jimmy Hart will be in Flair’s corner. These original one hour Nitro’s are so breezy a much better format than today’s TV wrestling.

I liked this more than their Starrcade match. They have exited the Summer of 95 blood feud matches and are now in Championship wrestling mode. I thought this was a really well-laid out and executed match. Savage’s babyface shine as is customary is short but sweet. Flair goes for teh Rolling Knee too early and Savage drags him out and posts him. Savage applies the Figure-4 for a feel-good spot. This is a very 80s Flair match with a lot of trappings from there. They tease Flair kicking up his leg to ballshot Savage but it doesn’t happen. Flair goes for his own Figure-4 but Macho Man reverses into a cradle. Savage is overzealous in clamping down on Flair leaves himself open to the short knee on the ref break. The Short Knee is 80s Flair at his finest as is dumping his opponent on the outside and consolidating his Advantage out there. Good arm work especially the hammerlock, half Nelson cover with the feet on the ropes. Savage was the master of peppering in those stiff jabs and creating hope spots not with high spots but just his Tasmanian Devil energy. The Flair work in response is really good from the leg work to Figure-4 to getting out the way of a double axe handle on the floor, to the trick knee ball shot on a Savage sleeper to an eye poke. Flair was varying his work some was offensive like the arm & knee work, some was using environment using the corner and the floor, some was dirty cheating the ballshot and the eye poke. This was one of the most classic Flair matches. This is an excellent example of why Flair is better when he can go 20-30 minutes because he has a great variety of transitions that can keep a match entertaining. Savage is a great opponent for him because Savage can sell extremely well, big charisma and Savage is scrappy and brings out that dog in him. Savage starts to get things going after a Flair attempted sleeper and a double axe handle from the top. Savage puts his hands on Jimmy Hart and this draws out Lex Luger. Sting is out but whose side is he on?!? If you watched WCW a lot around this time you know this was a standard call because they were threatening to turn everyone heel. The Heenan call at Bash 96 seems weird to us but it made sense in the context of 95-96 WCW. 

Flair attacks Sting before we can find out. Savage and Sting dump the heels and go back to back. Shoving and jawing match ensues.

This is a million times better than the million pull apart brawls we see each week. The tension of two babyfaces shoving and jawing is significantly more alluring than tepid brawling. The booking was trying to get you to believe it would be Savage/Sting at the PPV in two days because they end in the Ring together, they just did Savage/Flair on Nitro and there has been ~4 Savage/Luger matches in the last three months. So running the Flair/Savage match two nights before Starrcade was to throw you off the scent. Anyways I thought this was better than Starrcade match and if they got double time it could be been a classic. *** 1/2 

Ric Flair vs Sting vs Lex Luger - WCW Starrcade 1995

I normally skip triple threats but these three a cool threesome with their 8 year history but this is during the period when the three way was still being innovated. This is a singles match with one man on the apron who can be tagged in. Being on the outside allows you to rest and recuperate but also you can’t win the match. 

The funniest part of the match is Dusty has never heard of playing possum and goes on a ridiculous rant and The Brain is beside himself that he has never heard of playing possum.

This is my first time reviewing a match over 20 minutes in length in a long time so breaking it in half. Work has been pretty light for a change this week. 

Flair and Sting start us off and go a good 10-ish minutes. It is not as good as the WWIII match I just watched but still solid. Sting steamrolls Flair to start. Flair slows things down with a hammerlock and some really good blows. Flair’s punch is so underrated. Sting no-sells and looks great against Flair. He does the All Japan no sell on the outside against the railing to steamroll Flair. Sting looks like there is no stopping him until he misses a dropkick and Flair takes over. Lots of cocky shit from Flair and taunting Luger. Sting no-sells a Flair suplex and the rout is back on. SUPERPLEX! Luger threatens to break it up. Sting is like what the hell man and Luger is like well I am not just going to let you win. Flair knocks Sting into Luger which is not wise as Luger has had 10minutes to rest. 

Luger transforms into 1988 Luger and immediately hits Flair with a FLEX to put him on his ass. I am a sucker for that spot. Luger Caveman Carries Flair back in the Ring. It get a little clunky. Flair is able to pinball off Luger to get them back on track. Another press slam it is 90s Flair he loves it. Flair is able to chop block the knee and works it over. Love chair smash on the knee. Lots of great knee work by Flair here. Back to watching the match. Flair hits a great blow to the hammies or was it the balls? The Figure-4 was worked great. The big flex by Lex was electric. Suplex by Luger and then Press Slam. The Package is rolling.  Flair opts to tag out. Will that be wise?

The match had been pretty good but it nosedives here. Luger and Sting have pretty bad chemistry and look actively lost at times. I would have gone with babyface vs babyface wrestling lots of symmetry before Luger starts to cheat. Neither guy knows how to chain wrestle so they opt for a lot of clubbering and you can hear the crowd dying. Luger heels way too quickly. He is stepping on Sting’s throat almost immediately. Sting gets it going but eats knees on a Vaderbomb and when Luger is in the ropes on Scorpion Deathlock, Luger hits him in the nuts. Inverted Atomic Drop by Total Package feel the testicular psychology. Love Sting intentionally not whipping Luger into Flair’s corner. Stinger Splash! Misses the second one. LUGER RACKS THE STINGER! Sting wipes out the ref. Flair chop blocks Luger! I love when Lugers knee gives out in the Rack so I loved that spot. He sends both packing to the outside. They both get counted out and Flair wins?!?

Both legal men getting counted out feels like it should be ruled a double count out but it is WCW so who the fuck knows. Clearly they wanted Flair to win but they wanted to protect Stinger and Luger from eating a fall. So as far as nonsensicalWCW finishes go this one isn’t so bad. It is essentially three separate matches. Flair/Luger was my favorite but just for the heat and finish. Flair/Sting was good start to finish. Sting/Luger drags this down. It was like *** 1/4-1/2 but let’s go a flat ***. At almost 30 minutes dont think I need to watch this again. 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ric Flair - WCW Starrcade 95

This is why you should never let someone else blade for you. After the Megaphone shot, Savage futzes with something and then just pounces on Flair’s head and Flair comes up with a Five Alarm Bladejob. That was fucking crazy! Why didn’t Flair just do it himself?

Short main event but both had already wrestled on the night. Not one of their classics but still an energetic affair. Savage is nursing an arm injury like he is DDP with his ribs in 1997. Still Savage is all gas, no brakes. Backslide right out the gate let’s you know he wants to win. These are some of the best Macho punches ever. Really awesome stinging jabs. Flair sells them so well. Flair catches Savage in the breadbasket as he is coming off the top. Flair heat segment on the outside is good shit. Heavy blows. Jimmy Hart is with Flair now who the fuck knows lol and he gets a lick in. Flair works the arm like a champ. Savage mounts his comeback with more great punches and a clothesline. 

The finish is classic 90s but it is a bit too chaotic to really land. As mentioned above the Megaphone gets involved with Savage wresting control of it and then blading Flair and nearly killing him. BIG ELBOW! Here Comes The Horsemen! Savage throws Pillman into Benoit. Double A clocks Savage with a loaded fist and Flair wins his title in anti-climatic. All for some chicanery late in a match but this felt anti-climatic. Flair is clearly fucked up and they cancel the interview so he can get help. 

Also Mr. Wonderful of all people in a neck brace had sauntered out mid-match because Horsemen had broke his neck. Orndorff getting a main event push in late 1995 is insane. I assume it just got dropped. 

 It is Flair vs Savage everything is scrappy, close quartered fisticuffs and snug work. The finish and length leave something to be desired but it is still good. ***