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Episode 38: Spring Stampede 1994
35 Plays3 years ago
Saddle up, pardners! It's time for a new series! In 1994, WCW decided the absolute best location to host their new, cowboy-themed show, Spring Stampede, was of course...Illinois? Sure, that sounds logical. It also features precisely zero Bunkhouse Stampedes, though we're actually rather thankful for that one. So what does it have? The Boss boldly battles Vader and copyright law! Dustin Rhodes and Bunkhouse Buck fistfight to prove which is better, Texas or Tennessee...in Illinois. Best pals Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat battle it out in a reignition of their legendary feud. For all this, plus our thoughts on the latest Michael Buffer fashion, let's go to the ring!
Music by Michael Gary Brewer at https://www.instantmusicnow.com/
Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/letsgo2thering , or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LetsGo2theRing/
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Transcript
Podcast Recording Woes
00:00:00
Speaker
Well, the show was great. Oh, we didn't print the recording, so... Oh, God, I live in fear of that happening. I know, I know at some point I am going to have forgotten to hit record on something.
Introductions and Technical Issues
00:00:38
Speaker
Hello everyone, and welcome to Let's Go to the Ring, where we take a look at the good old days, and not so good old days, of World Championship Wrestling, series by series. I'm your host, Bob Moore, and I'm joined by special guest, Mr. Kazuo Ishikawa, along with my regular cohort, Alec Bridget. How's it going tonight, Al? Good, how's it going with you, and I guess the other guy is here. It's going well, and yeah, how's it going, Mr. Ishikawa? Mr. Ishikawa?
00:01:08
Speaker
Oh, it appears the microphone we gave him doesn't work at all. Well, we'll just carry on as usual then. Oh, well. John's replacement will not get a chance tonight. He's irreplaceable anyway. Oh, no, 100%.
Overview of Spring Stampede 1994
00:01:21
Speaker
Well, tonight we are taking a look at Spring Stampede 1994. Locked horns. Bullish tempers. Let the stampede begin.
00:01:33
Speaker
I mean, if it's a stampede, I'm pretty sure it's happening whether you let it or not. Right. Also, do we want to be there for a stampede? There's no point to not be there? Yeah. I kind of wonder if WSW mixed up stampede and rodeo. Mm-hmm. That could be.
00:01:49
Speaker
Spring Stampede 1994 was held on April 17th, 1994 at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, Illinois, in front of 12,200 fans, of which 9,000 paid. The Rosemont Horizon, now known with the much more boring name of the Allstate Arena, seats between 16,000 and 18,000, so I'd say if you're cutting off one side of the arena, WSW actually did pretty well here.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, I was looking at the wiki page for it. The attendance varies around 16-17, but yeah, I don't know how much blockage they have versus a normal one. Right, yeah. Paper view-wise, Spring Stampede 1994 earned 120,000 buys, which is fairly standard for WSW shows up until, of course, Bash at the Beach 1994 and the much-hyped arrival of Al Kogan. There were a couple dark matches before the show.
00:02:44
Speaker
Second, Pat Tanaka and Hayito, that being Paul Diamond in a take on his old WWF fake Asian gimmick, Kato, beat Kevin and Dave Sullivan.
Strange Dark Match Highlight
00:02:54
Speaker
Aw, we missed a Dave Sullivan match? Oh, show was ruined. The show was saved. Oh, obviously, yes.
00:03:02
Speaker
But before that, Danny Bonaducci, yes, that Danny Bonaducci from the Partridge family, beat Christopher Knight, yes, that Christopher Knight from the Brady Bunch in a singles match.
00:03:16
Speaker
WCW actually did a Partridge Family versus the Brady Bunch match. And even stranger, they did it as a dark match. I would be surprised if the match itself were that good, but really, if you're gonna do a Classic TV Show versus Classic TV Show match, you'd think you would at least put it on TV.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah. And other times they've done these weird interpromotional things, they're on pay-per-view. Like when like Man Cow shows up later in this series, by the way. Is it? Oh, is it really? Okay. Yeah. Plus it feels like a real Clash of the Champions kind of thing. Yeah. Given that it's TBS. Yeah.
00:03:50
Speaker
I will note, uh, just for historical record, this is not the only paper for you to have Danny Banducci and Mick Foley on it. There
Upcoming Matches Preview
00:03:57
Speaker
is a, uh, one of TNA's lockdown shows. Oh, okay. Peter Danny Banducci in an opening, um, boom, we'll get dark matte, but it was, you know, however that would work on, I guess, YouTube sort of thing. And that's the same show where Mick Foley wins the world title, which is kind of weird given that it's 2009 that this happens. But hey, good for him.
00:04:16
Speaker
Weird coincidence, by the way. Danny Bonaducci is a black belt in Tang Soo Do, a martial art from Korea. I swear if we tried to plan links in our episode scheduling like this, we would never manage it. No. That is true. Saddle up, partner. Let's ride to the ring.
00:04:37
Speaker
Tonight, four titles are up for grabs as the champions try to hog-tie the challengers for the showdown of their lives. After being piled driven into the bare floor by pompous Lord Stephen Riegel, lying Brian's shot at the TV title is more than just revenge. Chicago's streets will never be the same as Max Payne and Cactus Jack play a little tune of their own on WCW's nastiest tag team, The Nasty Boy.
00:05:02
Speaker
Then the U.S. title is in danger of being captured by Japan's own Mudok as he takes on stunning Steve Austin with Colonel Parker by his side. As far as Sting is concerned, no doors will be slammed in his face as he challenges ravishing Rick Roode for the international title. Will Roode be citing any autographs after the match? Sting and other contenders can only hope. Texas' own Dustin Rhodes is saddling up for his bunkhouse match.
00:05:27
Speaker
with Colonel Parker's latest trophy-smashing fine, Bunkhouse Buck. Sound the sirens as the boss tries to brand the monstrous Vader with his version of law and order. And after a supposed misunderstanding, Ricky Steamboat will go up against longtime friend, Ric Blair, as this world title match puts their friendship to the test. Tonight, live from Chicago's Rosemont Horizon, it's World Championship wrestling's Spring Stamps.
00:05:57
Speaker
The opening video package goes over the matches for the evening, running down the whole card, but the intro kind of makes it sound like it's just going to cover the title matches, which makes it seem like the first four matches it mentions must all be title matches, but one of them, Cactus Jack and Max Payne vs. the Nasty Boys, is not. Yes. It actually does a good job of giving a quick hint, at least, to the story going into each match.
00:06:22
Speaker
Though it actually skips one. Poor Diamond Dallas Page and Johnny B. Bad aren't worth a mention in the opening video package, I guess. That's true, yeah.
Johnny B. Bad vs. Diamond Dallas Page Analysis
00:06:30
Speaker
It's only strange because it goes over every single other match on the show. Yeah, yeah. If you're that close, you might as well go whole hog, right? Yeah, exactly. Or whole cow, I guess, really. Pick the theme of the show. Yeah.
00:06:44
Speaker
I like the design of the video border. It's got this wooden look with kind of a tree stump in the foreground that's been branded with the W.S.W. Spring Stampede logo. It captured the mood of the show nicely, I thought. More in the points for trying category is the end of the video, which shows the backdrop being sawn off from the foreground, or at least that's what I realized was going on after the fourth look at it.
00:07:08
Speaker
As all you get to symbolize it is a spray of what I guess is supposed to be tree sap and an extraordinarily crappy sound effect that I thought was supposed to be a slow motion woo or something like that at first. Would it have been that hard to put in a chainsaw blade? I guess it was. Mean Jean Okerlund welcomes us to the show alongside an amazing amount of fireworks. He says fans are hanging from the rafters and I hope not because that's where all the fireworks are going off.
00:07:36
Speaker
Nevermind how dangerous that would be. Yes. Gene says that they've got a lot of surprises tonight, and one of them is Aaron Neville of the famous Neville Brothers, who comes out to sing the national anthem. He is dressed in leopard print and looks like he should be a pro wrestler. He does, yes. He looks more like a pro wrestler than Monkhouse Buck does, for sure. This is fair. Yeah.
00:08:00
Speaker
He does a perfectly acceptable job. He likes to do a lot of little vocalizations and maybe does them a tad too often, but he has a nice voice.
00:08:09
Speaker
WCW even got artsy with it and showed superimposed fireworks, American flags, and the US Capitol during the singing. A vast improvement over their attempts at Starrcade 83. Oh, yeah. Well, they couldn't even get the camera pointed right at the flag. Yeah, it's a stationary object. You can get the camera pointed at. Yeah. That's why you practice these things, guys.
00:08:31
Speaker
I will admit that the Capitol image, which featured a huge crowd of people lining the steps and approach to the Capitol building, has a little bit of a different feel after January 6, 2021. Yeah, I think I felt that way too at the time. Yeah, they mentioned that. It's just a momentary flash before I reminded myself that it was before all that insanity, but it's there. No, yeah, I can never see that. Yeah.
00:08:57
Speaker
As Neville exits, we cut to Tony Schiavone and co-host Bobby the Brain Hienan, the latter of which is wearing a red jacket and a multicolor bow tie. He looked quite a bit like a circus ringmaster. I'd think he'd take it as a compliment. Schiavone welcomes Hienan and he says he can't wait to see tonight's Flair vs. Steamboat match. Tony points to the crowd, who are chanting Weasel at Hienan, and he claims he can't hear anything and tells Tony to shut up.
00:09:25
Speaker
He's always good about not being fazed by those. Yes, yeah. That's got to be difficult because they get loud sometimes. They do, yeah. There's one of them where Tim and also with Nabisco, I believe. Nabisco's like encouraging it and you can see him like waving it on and he's trying hard to ignore it. That definitely sounds like Larry. Yeah. Let's go to, Tony says, and I got really excited until he ended it with our first match. To be fair, that first match is in the ring. This is true. This is true.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yes, it's implied. So our first match is Johnny B. Bad versus Diamond Dallas Page with the Diamond Doll. Referee for this one is Randy Anderson. It's not a great time for DDP, so back in 1992 he had a nice stable with Vinny Vegas, Johnny Fomingo, and the Diamond Stud. Sure if those guys did okay without him.
00:10:18
Speaker
That ended, unfortunately, with someone leaving and he was injured. So he's since come back from injury, now he's sort of trying to find a place for himself. Now that he's back and obviously he's sort of on his own. But at least he's got his lady with him, so that helps. But as far as I can tell, there's no, like, story between these two. Yeah, not yet, anyway. I think towards the end of the year, we start the big Trying to Be Bad versus DVP feud, right? Yeah, so there's a point where there's like eight or nine pay-per-view matches, it feels like, with the two of them.
00:10:44
Speaker
It is funny to think that, um, DDP starts really hitting it big as a singles wrestler in, uh, like 96 really is where he starts becoming particularly big, which is just about the same time that. Former Vinny Vegas, Kevin Nash, and former diamond stud, Scott Hall come back to the company, but they don't end up aligned.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, that is interesting, yeah. The admittedly wise decision of keeping DDP out of any version of the individual kept them from reuniting, I suppose. Yeah, it's just funny that that never happens, and just the alignment of we're all back in the company, but in vastly different roles now, and all being big stars again. That's just interesting.
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'm curious if we get around to a show like, you know, 98, 99, maybe when we have like a Kevin Nash, GDP match, which I'm sure there's gotta be at least one of you review. It's a couple. Yeah. See if they reference that at all or print their history. Yeah. That'd be nice. I mean, probably won't, but look forward to it. In theory, look forward to new ways. We let down like five people on the show. Yeah.
00:11:52
Speaker
Bad comes out wearing a red cowboy hat and vest, scarf, and loincloth, all of which are covered in red glitter, as are his twin Bad Blaster air cannons. Honestly, Bad might deserve MVP just for being able to come out in that outfit and not collapse laughing halfway down the ramp. He won't want this bangly jacket award, he might want this bangly everything else award, though. Yes.
00:12:17
Speaker
He does a little dance in the ring and fires off the bad blasters to the crowd. So we can look forward to wrestlers getting the confetti stuck to them for the rest of the night. I would say it's funny to think too as a face thing that he goes out and shoots garbage onto fans. This is true, yeah. Congratulations, here you go! Speaking of the fans, holy crap this one guy in an orange shirt is absolutely covered in this stuff. Oh jeez. They get a good shot of him and he's like cheering but trying not to get any of his mouth. But not to inhale it, yeah.
00:12:46
Speaker
Paige, for his part, comes out to the sound of a motorcycle rubbing its engine, followed by a theme that sounds kind of like Alice Cooper's School's Out. So I guess even early DDP's theme plays fairly fast and loose with copyright rules. Yeah. I'll say, at this point, they haven't officially hired Jimmy Hart yet. Yeah. Because that was his thing, was retrofitting classic songs and making them legally distinct but not really distinct songs for themes. Yeah.
00:13:12
Speaker
DDP wears mostly black, but with silver glitter along the lining of his vest, and some ridiculous shiny silver sunglasses. And of course he's gnawing on a ginormous cigar. Yes, of course. It's always pretty neat to see this early page before he's fully developed his look. He has more of a standard big man appearance than that lieth look that he'll develop later on. Oh yeah, for sure.
00:13:35
Speaker
As Paige gets in the ring, the diamond doll comes over to give something to Henan, his initials in diamonds. Well, I'm sure he'll still be impartial. Oh, yeah. I tried to look for it. Did they actually ever show it in our camera? Because he talks about it. I don't think they do. I suspect they did not actually hint him anything but like a little bag or something. Yeah. I could see like them doing that with the Henan saying, we're gonna hand you a bag, you can say whatever, whatever, whatever you want it to be is in there. He could totally handle that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:02
Speaker
And obviously this is after they've pretended to give someone a ring too, so. Yes. At least, well, no, they definitely, the first time they didn't give him a ring. Second, they gave him the ring of the next year, the celebration for having won it a year before. Yes, yeah. They gave him the ring a year late. Yeah, that's right. And then Buddha, presumably, I don't know, received his by air mail to Japan or something. Yeah.
00:14:27
Speaker
Paige attacks before the bell. The Bad ducks a clothesline and rolls him up for two. Then works Paige's arm as Henan for some reason, relentlessly compliments Paige. I wonder what's going on there. Paige does pull the hair to get advantage and get two, but Bad muscles him over on a hammerlock for two. Henan claims that Paige is a huge star internationally even at this point. I'm pretty sure he made that up. Oh, 100%.
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah, this whole story where he's formed in Europe and Asia, and he's a big star there, but decided to be formed here lately. It is bizarre. Yeah. Heening continues praising Page's generosity, as Page counters further armwork with what looked like an Eyepoke, then gets two off a near-sideways suplex takeover, and hits a cool suplex from a kneeling position for another two.
00:15:15
Speaker
It's pretty neat. He just, like, doesn't fully rise up, but grabs Bad and really quickly suplexes him over. I don't think I've ever seen him do that otherwise. It was pretty neat. Yeah, even at this point, he's sort of experimenting with stuff, which is a nice key. Bad gets two off a beautiful dropkick, but Paige suckers Bad into the corner and sends him into the turnbuckle, then beats him up and belly to back suplexes him for zero as he just shows off.
00:15:40
Speaker
Hienan calls for him to pin bad, but then when he realizes Page isn't, he quickly shifts to praising him for showing off. It's a good redirection there, yeah. Tony complains, but Hienan says he's just jealous because Page didn't give him anything. Fair enough. The two also argue over what to call a Page gut buster, as Tony calls the move correctly, but Hienan out of spite insists it's a stomach buster. I can see maybe if you're a big buff and shape wrestler, being hit in quote unquote the gut makes it sound like you're not in shape.
00:16:11
Speaker
So, I can see there's not logic, but yeah, this at least is the same thing, yeah. Paige rotating suplex for two, and the crowd really calls for Bad's comeback from a chinlock, but Paige is up first after a back suplex as Henan points out his resilience. Bad slugs Paige in the gut, and Tony calls it midsection, gut, and stomach to appease Henan, who praises him for learning his anatomy like Gordon Sully.
00:16:37
Speaker
Bad counters Page's strikes and hits his left hook, the kiss that don't miss, but Page spills to the floor. Bad nearly catches his foot on the top rope as he dives out onto Page, but it lands fine. Back in, a groggy Page grabs Anderson, who shoves him away just as Bad leaps off the top rope for a sunset flip for the three count and the win.
00:17:00
Speaker
Hienan claims nefariousness on the part of Randy Anderson, pointing out the shove, as we get replays of the dive outside and the top rope sunset flip. Tony actually kind of agrees with Hienan on it, not really quite being fair, but says it is a win nonetheless. Thoughts on this one?
00:17:17
Speaker
That was a pretty good match. It was a good choice for open right thought because you have the big bright entrance with bad. Um, you have a pretty easy to hate, even if you don't necessarily know the guy. Well, he on DDP, even if you've not seen him rest before, which I'm guessing a lot of people had. And he's still on the rise at this point. You see him come out on those mannerisms. You instantly know who the bad guy is. There's no question about it with him.
00:17:40
Speaker
As we've said earlier, DDP, even if he needed to take time to hone his craft on the wrestling side of things, he like almost immediately got the character side of things. Oh, yeah. Even, yeah, the Battle Ball show. Yeah. Yeah. Not that. Yeah. Mm hmm.
Mid-card Potential Discussion
00:17:55
Speaker
For his part, Bad is a good mid-card face. He has a good technical side. He has enough flashy moves to enter his look that he can appease that sort of audience. Question with him and obviously never really got entered is, can he get above that level? Like, could you see Johnny Bad challenging, you know, Flair for the title? I could see the match happening, but I mean, I don't know if this version of Bad always feels like he would be in that spot. I feel like, yes, if it were the 80s.
00:18:24
Speaker
Mm. Yeah. But at the 90s, we started getting into that era where I don't know that you expect the upper card to necessarily entirely be serious, but you didn't really see a lot of pun name gimmicks. Sure. So I feel like Mark Marrow almost certainly could have gotten to the upper card, but Johnny be bad. I'm not sure.
00:18:43
Speaker
Yeah, they try over certain periods of time with him to give him like more serious views, like have him be injured, or try to make a little more serious and be more intense. But yeah, I kind of agree with you on that. This is late mid like 80s. He absolutely would be challenging flair and like, you know, grammar can bash to where I could see that for sure.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yep. As far as this match goes, I thought they had the pacing pretty well. Um, they slowed down when the need pays needed to, you know, re what's on page 15, you know, paragraph three to, to bad and what happened.
00:19:15
Speaker
To the credit too, I kind of like the misdirection because you have bad hitting a finish, but not him like at the pin. There's like a wrestling rule where if face hits their finish, but can't win, then they're going to lose. Yeah. They get the one shot at it. Basically if they fail, that's all that happens. But then to have him win the way he did, that was kind of nice sort of tweak of that formula bit. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, I thought this was a perfectly good opening match. Paige may not have developed his full style yet, and he's still working some things out, but he's already very good, and he pulls off a neat mix of big power moves and interesting, more momentum and rotation-driven ones. It was cool to see him, like you pointed out during the match, experimenting and figuring out what works. Yeah.
00:19:59
Speaker
and bad, I totally agree, makes for a really good fired up baby face, great early card guy that can charge up the crowd really easily. And he puts his agility and speed to good use here. Aside from a bit of a close shave on his outside dive, and to be clear, it does still work, he's in really fine form with all his various leaps and flips tonight. I thought the actual Matt's story was pretty standard, just kind of your average strong face start, heel takes over, face fires up and wins.
00:20:27
Speaker
But there's a few surprising spots, and the general strength of the talented performers made it an above-average opener. And I will agree with you, I think they did a nice little twist to the ending there. You've totally expected Bad to just be screwed out of it by something, but he still comes out of winter.
00:20:43
Speaker
to mention too, seeing the ref involved physically in the finish kind of spot. Because this ref, you expect that from Nick Patrick in WCW and Earl Hebner a lot in WWF at that time. Earl Hebner's famous, you know, kick the arms off the ropes spot he loved doing. Yes. Yeah, Nick Patrick doing his hilarious cartoon fall when he gets punched, you know, stuff like that.
00:21:08
Speaker
Or even the show you watch, they stopped the match to have him tease the fistfight between him and Jim Cornette, which was good. Which was awesome. It was, yeah. But it's interesting seeing that Bob was the guy who's not normally involved in that kind of stuff. Well, and I liked how they did it. Paige could legitimately say, as Hienan says on his behalf, that that wasn't fair. Yeah. But at the same time, it's not like Anderson did anything inappropriate. Right.
00:21:30
Speaker
He was being grabbed by the wrestler and he just said, ah, get off me basically. Right. And just happened that the timing worked out such that it could be said to have caused Paige's loss. Yeah. I could see that being used to carry the angle forward in an interesting way. Right. I agree with that.
00:21:48
Speaker
DDP is surprisingly absent from the next couple of shows. Like I said, he's still trying to rebuild his character and find him where he fits. However, bad does rebound from Nicely. He has a US title match on 1994's Slamberary Show. Yes. Which will be the first plug of many to remind you to listen to the other episode to be having yet. Hint hint.
00:22:11
Speaker
Tony goes over the upcoming matches, and Hienan jokes that he's gonna wear a raincoat during the upcoming Chicago Street fight between the Nasty Boys and Cactus Jack and Max Payne because you have no idea what's gonna happen in that. I personally would pick SWAT armor, but a raincoat's fine, I guess. But you know, if there's, I guess, flying hunks of wood, you want a small piece of vinyl over your head, I guess? Yeah. Hienan notes it's an exciting pay-per-view because he's there.
00:22:39
Speaker
Tony just manages to keep from laughing.
Technical Match Breakdown: Pillman vs. Regal
00:22:42
Speaker
You can see him shaking from the effort. That's funny. He gets himself back under control and throws to Mean Jean as he then makes bunny ears behind his head. We cut to Mean Jean and Jesse Ventura, who shilled the hotline, managed by Gordon Soli and Larry Zabisco. 1-900-909-9900. Jesse says he wants to go call the hotline to talk to Soli because Soli might not be around much longer.
00:23:09
Speaker
Gene says that people can also get the chance to talk with Sting, as Jesse polishes Gene's bald head. You're bald too, man. Glass houses and all that, yeah. 1-900-909-9900 Gene turns the discussion to Flair vs. Steamboat, which he says is sure to be a classic.
00:23:29
Speaker
He and Jesse have bet a steak dinner on the outcome. To the Chicago Street Fight, and Jesse gets a cheap pop mentioning the name of the city that he's in. Gene almost says our title. He says, let's get back to the ring. Very close. I guess if we ever stop the show with some reason and then resume it, that wouldn't be our show title. There you go.
00:23:49
Speaker
Our second match is Fly-In Brian Pillman versus Lord Steven Reagle with Sir William for Regal's WCW World Television Championship. Referee for this one is Mirror Universe Nick Patrick.
00:24:03
Speaker
So at this point, we're in the midst of the big TV title run with Steven Riegel. His whole thing was he would constantly fight people, the time limit draws, try to just escape with the title so you could find ways to have faces not lose, but also not win. It was a good way. So in this one, what they did was the pair had a match on WSB Saturday night. When it was going Pillman's way, Riegel got himself disqualified thanks to the help of Sir William.
00:24:32
Speaker
and then left. So the next week, Pilgrim rightly says, you know, I did B2 last week, and it wasn't for the title. So I should get a rematch. There. Regal says no, basically. And it's proper, you know, snooty British way he says things. So naturally, that's followed by people in terms of WCW going, yes, rematch. In less snooty British fashion, I assume. Yeah, arguably, it would have been Nick Bachwinkle. So it'd been on on the fence.
00:25:02
Speaker
He would have found some extra fancy way to say it, you know, anyways. I love Pillman's silver jacket as he comes out. Looks like a Space Age Air Force kind of thing, which I'd imagine is exactly the intent. Mm-hmm. And Regal's cape, of course, remains awesome. Hienan actually claims it was given to Regal by Prince Charles. Side note, given their technical styles and their similar wardrobe, if he ever could have gotten a Brian Pillman vs. Sinjiro Itani match,
00:25:33
Speaker
Come out matching their jacket, the black jacket with the jacket. That'd be great. Yes. Oh, that'd be awesome. I love that we're both such fans of Shinjiro Itani having seen precisely one match. Yeah. It tells you how good that was. Yeah. Well, it's easy to reference ties. You have no bad matches to talk about too. This is true. Yeah. He's great in everything I've seen him in. Michael Buffer is already doing the intros tonight. I think they've got him out for every single title match. Yeah. It seems like it.
00:26:02
Speaker
Appropriately, he notes that Regal is wearing royal blue.
00:26:07
Speaker
Pillman and Regal trade one counts on some quick pin attempts. Regal begs for a timeout, but Pillman slaps him hard, then drives him from the ring to get sympathy from Sir William. Pillman pursues and they brawl outside. Regal tries to ambush Pillman getting back in, but in a very rare moment, Pillman actually manages to counter that with a rope snap. There's a lot of popping noises all of a sudden, as Henan has accidentally stepped on his headset cord and disconnected it.
00:26:34
Speaker
Tony distracted, miscalls a regal arm drag takeover as a snapmare, as he's watching Hienan try to fix his headset. Hienan still somehow manages to be more audible than Kazuo Ishikawa on collision in Korea. He finally gets the headset fixed, and claims that he stepped on it while standing to show respect to Lord Regal.
00:26:59
Speaker
Regal works to keep Pillman in holds on the mat, and on a brief escape, catches a Pillman leapfrog and suplexes him super smooth for two. Tony brings up Pillman's time in the Hollywood Blondes, and he then claims that it was Steve Austin who did all the work. Tony disputes that as when the Blondes lost the tag titles, Pillman had temporarily been replaced by... Regal.
00:27:21
Speaker
Regal tries a Canadian backbreaker, but Pillman kicks off the turnbuckle to flip himself over and roll Regal up for 2. Regal suckers Pillman in for an STF and an elevated surfboard. Pillman Hurrikarana gets 2. Regal roll, a forward roll with Pillman on his shoulders, which if I'm honest looks kind of silly, for 2.09.
00:27:42
Speaker
I like that move if it's a setup something else like you do that towards the turnbuckle then do like a moon salt or something I think that works really well then it's not as bad yeah but it being taken seriously as I'm gonna pin you after this it just looks goofy I'm sure it actually hurts or would actually hurt if it were done in reality because you're rolling on top of the guy I get the idea but it's still it just looks so dumb you're gonna make that move look really good though
00:28:07
Speaker
Vader. Yes. If it's someone that size doing it, I think it's like the hip drop. When you see Finley do it, that has no impact whatsoever. But when you see a guy at the size of Vader do it, it's like, oh my gosh, you could be dead. It's one of those moves that needs a really big dude to do it.
00:28:23
Speaker
Right. Or just like the cannonball dive into the corner. It can be good if you're a smaller guy and you get like a real quick speed. Like Jamie Noble used to do that. He'd do like a real quick run and dive in the corner. But then you compare it to the guy who innovated that move out of Vons, who is this terrifyingly large, rotund Austrian man who just throws his whole body at you, literally like a bowling ball. Oh, I see why that's a venture for him. Absolutely. Right. Exactly.
00:28:50
Speaker
USA chant, but Regal pretzels Pillman and uses a bow and arrow hold, though Pillman's legs slip free, but he saves the hold by grabbing one. Heating claims that Pillman is known as a quitter from his NFL days because he doesn't have a Super Bowl ring. Harsh. That could quit the team before they won a game, though. Yeah, it's a great conversation they've got there. Heating just keeps upping the bar on what you have to achieve to not be a quitter.
00:29:20
Speaker
Regal half crab, death lock, and STF variant. Five minutes remain. Hienan asks Sir William to confirm the time remaining, and Sir William wonderfully pulls out a pocket watch to show him. I love Sir William. He's a terrific addition to the ringside. He is. Pillman fights back, but he's exhausted. Regal rolls him up with the tights for two, then locks him in a hole to try to stall for the time limit. Four minutes, and Hienan says, is 3.59 by Sir William's watch, so, quote, they're a minute off.
00:29:51
Speaker
I'm not sure that Henan gets how minutes and seconds work. Regal and Pillman trade blows, but a Pillman headbutt stuns him worse than Regal.
00:30:01
Speaker
Regal puts Pillman up top, but Pillman counters with a dropkick, and both lie stunned for six. Pillman spins free of a Boston crab, and they're both down again for five. Pillman and Zaguri, but Hina and Tony point out that he can't follow up and time is working against him. Pillman counters a Regal's second rope dive with a dropkick, then gets a series of strikes and a back body drop.
00:30:23
Speaker
30 seconds. Pillman runs over to Regal and tries a crossbody, but Regal catches him and both spill outside the ring. 15 seconds, and Pillman ducks Sir William's umbrella and suplexes Regal in, but time expires. Regal stumbles off as the match is ruled a time limit draw, meaning that Regal retains.
00:30:44
Speaker
Thoughts on this one? It's a good technical match for sure. Like if you were watching a show like this and you didn't like know the technical side of wrestling, like all the holds, you'd learn a lot of them watching this. Absolutely. Here's this soul. Here's this suplex. Here's this. Yeah. So it's very good as a training aspect. The tricky thing for me with matches like this, a lot of the Regal's TV champion stuff is, I think I was on a previous show with a different match.
00:31:09
Speaker
The story is kind of written backwards. The match is set up as, hey, we're going to fight to 15 minutes and it's going to be a draw. So when you start a match like that, you decide, okay, we got to have like five, six minutes of just holds on people. And then you sort of build the match around that. So you build these nice spots like the last minute or so where they keep teasing it or strong offense early on or, you know, escape spots.
00:31:35
Speaker
But it's not the same kind of match where the natural ebb and flow. That said, it is doubly good. Pillman makes a good strong babyface here, constantly trying to get out of hold in times of, you know, fight his way free. Rego of course is very despicable, so he's easy to both like and hate. Yeah.
00:31:55
Speaker
as a bad guy here. It's not a match where they just, you know, block on a hole for 10 minutes and then it happens. There's always action, but it's just a different kind of match, which I think works as long as the only kind of match like that on a show. But it's a big spec for me. I liked it a lot, but I can see some of them outside watching and they can spend a lot of time in these holds. Yes. Yeah, I would generally agree. I thought this was quite a fun match.
00:32:23
Speaker
Pillman and Regal complement each other really well, and Pillman has the speed and aerial moves, and Regal has the intricate ground game, but they're each good enough to work with the other one's focus and keep up when the match becomes the other's primary style. And they both hit some really vicious strikes, so you've got a hard fought and complex match.
00:32:41
Speaker
But like you said, I feel like it becomes fairly obvious that they're going to the time limit. Especially in the late stages of the matches, they quite suddenly start doing some longer lasting holds and both men down spots. Part of it can be sold as regal strategy trying to keep Hillman in holds to run out the clock. So it does still work, but it is fairly obvious.
00:33:03
Speaker
I think the last match you mentioned that on was the Norton match from collision in Korea. But with this one, I felt it a little bit more interesting that when I felt like kind of maintained as a consistent pace the entire way through for this one felt fast paced. And then as they started getting towards the end, it seemed to like slow down and then picked up again at the last minute. So it had a bit more of the time limit draw pacing. Sure.
00:33:26
Speaker
that I'm used to with this sort of match, where the other one I think felt like, okay, yeah, they're probably going there, but I think it maintained consistency a little more. No, I can see that. In any case, it still in no way spoils what's a very fun match, and I really appreciated how well these two blended their styles together. Yeah. This is a show where we just did the series that followed afterwards, they're trying to be too spoiling about it.
00:33:52
Speaker
But it's obviously worth mentioning that Rigo would lose the TV title to Larry Zabisco, but it wouldn't happen on pay-per-view. So this is outside the realm of spoilers for our series here.
Colonel Parker's Interview Segment
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah. It happened on Saturday night. WCB Saturday night, that is.
00:34:07
Speaker
Then, because of the weird taping schedule, that match would actually happen before they'd have a match, a non-title match, as Ziska would win. It's kind of funny how that goes. Yes. And then Rigo would get the title back onto Clash, so nothing would be really interrupted on actual pay-per-view, as far as that goes.
00:34:24
Speaker
I recall that Regal and Lizabisco match from Slambree 94 being really good. That was one of our favorite matches from the series, I think. Yeah. I know it made your Ultimate Slambree. I can't remember if it made mine or not. It might have. Yeah, I can't recall right now, but that was a good match. Now, the other side of this is kind of interesting. So at this point, Brian Pillman
00:34:44
Speaker
goes off to ECW, but he's not actually left the company. He's part of a talent exchange program they're doing. So he's off the next few shows at least, but he's working at ECW TV events and their periphery calendar, which is kind of intriguing because knowing his history later, where he famously gets them to fire him to quote, fool the boys and, you know, fool the dirt sheets so he could go to ECW for real. It's funny to see that they're sending him there voluntarily a year before that happened.
00:35:14
Speaker
Yes. Tell me it means there's not a follow-up on the next show with these two again, though. Yeah, I could have done with more with these guys, for sure. They're very good together. Absolutely. We go backstage, where Mean Jean Okerlund is with Bunkhouse Buck and Colonel Robert Parker.
00:35:43
Speaker
the greatest promoter on the face of the planet earth carol robert parker before i thought that this fertilizer salesman over here study steve austin amanda i've come up here very shortly you're talking about a firm so fertilizer salesman here you know
00:35:58
Speaker
And here is the dressing room inside of here. You know, today I feel like the greatest promoter of all time. Look over here when I'm talking to you, I'm feeling the shoes of Tom Parker and you know, ever since Elvis Presley disappeared, I found myself riding the limelight of the Parker family. And tonight is no exception because our United States heavyweight champion will be wrestling from Japan. The greatest star Japan has to offer.
00:36:28
Speaker
great mooda. I'm sure that's going to be an exciting event but the one I'm looking forward to shortly after that is when Buck here takes on Dusty's puppy. I'm talking about the natural dusting road. You're going to take a natural whoop in the night road and I ride
00:36:45
Speaker
You know what you're talking about? I'm sweating and stinking this way for weeks. That's the way daddy did it. That's the way bunkhouse like to do it. My daddy told me boy, when I was a little boy, he said, son, good things come to those who wait. My good time is near, boy. Dustin wrote you 10-fit. I'll take a shower and you're going to ruin it, pal. Let's get back to the rain.
00:37:12
Speaker
Let's get back to the ring again. They're playing with us tonight, Al. That did seem like it, yeah. Parker did a good job here, I thought, building up the excitement of his clients' matches, and I liked that he actually played up Muda in addition to his client, Austin, here. Helped make the match feel like it was gonna be a special thing. I can see that, yeah. Even as a healer, you want your opponent, the good guy, to be strong and powerful because you think whether it's gonna happen or not that you're gonna win. Your client's gonna win, I should say.
00:37:41
Speaker
And Buck, I thought, was fine. He's kind of generic and shouty, but he does a decent job of mixing in some Westernisms to add a little bit of flavor. I thought both he and Parker did a good job glaring at Gene anytime he snarked about Buck, too. Yeah.
00:37:54
Speaker
I would say it was weird to lean into the Colonel Tom Parker stuff. Yeah, this is the only time I've actually heard them make that explicit on a WCW show that he's supposed to be either fictionally related to or at least fictionally carrying on from Elvis' controversial manager.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of weird because he talks about carrying on from him, given that he stopped pruning Elvis, you know, 1977 when Elvis, you know, died. Yeah. So obviously, if you're taking over him, you've been waiting a while to do so. Yeah, it's interesting that that's always obviously been the subtext with the character and the reason for the name and everything. But it was neat to hear them just like state it right out. Yeah, for sure.
00:38:35
Speaker
Looking at the actual Colonel Parker's wiki page, I guess he stopped making public appearances in 1994. So maybe that's why they reference it now. Maybe. It could be a quick coincidence, who knows. Yeah.
00:38:48
Speaker
I'm with you on Bunkhouse Buck to some extent. He basically was given like the one part of the promo to give and he sort of fed through it super fast and kind of muddles words a little bit. This whole thing of like, my dad told me when I was a boy, he said boy. And I'm like, what, what? The phrase, the construction that sends it a little weird. Now maybe that was intentional. I don't know. I did like his, my good time is here.
00:39:14
Speaker
He's kind of one-dimensional at this point, which he's early on in his run here. Yeah. But yeah, it's terrible. Our third match is The Nasty Boys, Brian Nobbs and Jerry Saggs versus Cactus Jack and Max Payne in a Chicago Street fight.
Street Fight Review: Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne
00:39:32
Speaker
The referees for this one are Randy Anderson and Nick Patrick.
00:39:36
Speaker
So earlier in the year, the tag champions, the nasty boys were challenged by the duo of Jack and Payne, which I'm told is a good drink, by the way. The match ended as you might expect. And they do Q for the heels. So they're going to escape with their titles and set up a future rematch. And just to be clear, because it could be either in this case, the heels in this case are the nasty boys. Okay. Yeah.
00:40:01
Speaker
They used a weapon to get disqualified when they were being challenged for the titles. You know their heels because they try to get away with it. Yes. But yeah, this is a weird time where Max Payne is certainly a good guy, despite his name being Max Payne. With two X's, by the way. In case you didn't think it was 90s enough. It'd be called Max Payne. Naturally, the story is the heels have to get DQ to keep their titles, so they get a rematch of the next show with no DQ. So of course, it's not for the titles.
00:40:31
Speaker
Well, what? Yeah Yeah, then that's a story. It's like they get disqualified and he the titles and then we got faces again No, it's no DQ, but also not non title to this is gonna be fair to you guys. You know, that's that's strange Yeah, it's like they almost structured a full story and then gave up Admittedly if someone was going to intelligently construct a match contract. I don't think it would be cactus Jack or Max Payne, but yes, I
00:40:57
Speaker
Maybe they used the same agent that did the 96 Starrcade show. Yes. The non-title title match with Roddy Piper. Yes. Yeah, should I include the thing where you get to win the title? I guess if you have time, it's not that important. Knobs screams about nastiness all the way to the ring. Knobs and Sags are carrying their tag titles, but Tony says, as you pointed out, the titles are not on the line.
00:41:25
Speaker
Sags carries a pipe, and Knobs carries a wooden pole or something. I think Tony does eventually identify it as a pool cue. Yeah, I think it's like the bottom half of a pool cue or something. Tony says if the competitors come over towards the commentary desk, he'll leave it to Hienan, but Hienan says he'll already be gone. There'd be a Hienan-shaped smoke cloud there at the chair. Yes, presumably. Or he'd jump up in the air and run like his feet, but not go anywhere, like we do.
00:42:09
Speaker
Jack wears a SuperDad t-shirt, and Payne has some album cover or something. I feel like it's the Guns N' Roses thing with all the, you know, roses on it. Maybe. But then the back is typically for himself as the Max Payne fashion victim thing on it, so I'm a little confused myself. Sign in the crowd, dot matrix even. Ears to ya, Cactus Jack. For those not in the know, Jack legitimately lost an ear in a match against Vader. Yes.
00:42:17
Speaker
I can picture him doing that. Right? It's so natural.
00:42:40
Speaker
The nasty boys attack on the elevated ramp before Jack and Payne even get to the ring. Knobs and Jack brawl, and Payne's spinebuster sags in the ring. Knobs jumps off the second rope, but Jack punches him and he drops what Tony finally identifies as probably the remains of a pool cue, so Jack batters him with it and he loses an elbow pad. Cacked his clothesline over the ropes, and Jack lands on the apron while Knobs hits the floor.
00:43:05
Speaker
Everyone brawls outside, and Sags hits Payne with a chair. Well, the seat is unfolded, so it hits like a pickaxe. That must have hurt like hell. Yeah, right? Ow.
00:43:17
Speaker
barricade shots, choking, and more pool cue and chair shots. Hienan jokes that Jack should team up with Aaron Neville, who's at ringside, as a singer, but we miss why I'm guessing Jack might have gotten hit in the balls. Oh. But they didn't catch it on camera, but Hienan jokes about it. Oh, okay. Payne and Knobs end up by a souvenir stand where Knobs batters Payne with a trash can and table, as WCW decides to go split screen so it's impossible to watch.
00:43:45
Speaker
Yes. It does have a nice branded wood border, though. It's true. It does. I can't follow this, Henan says. Me neither. Yeah. Another terrifically unsafe Sags chair shot, and Jack is nice enough to fold the chair before returning fire. Knobs gets two on Payne off some punches. Back to full screen, and Payne drops Knobs through a souvenir table, and chokes him with a t-shirt for two. Just as Tony was saying that no one was trying pins.
00:44:14
Speaker
Yeah. In fairness, he probably couldn't see Knobs' attempt any more than I could during a split-screen. Yeah. Knobs uses dangerous-looking table debris against Pain, and we go back to split-screen as Sags and Knobs double-team Pain for two.
00:44:28
Speaker
Both shots literally showed the exact same thing as Sags beats Jack with a table. That's true, yes. Like, what's the point? Yeah, like, he wandered in too far as the split screen merged together. Yeah. But they didn't do a cool, like, artistic thing where they actually did merge back together. Yeah, exactly. What was it, um... Toejam and Arul, I think, would do that? Oh, well, that sounds right, yeah. The Genesis game, I think.
00:44:53
Speaker
Sags send Jack to the ramp as Knobs pins Pain for two, but Pain flings Knobs through the souvenir stand backdrop. Jack suplexes the table onto Sags, but Knobs saves with a snow shovel of all things. Pain and Knobs fight as Sags sets Jack for a pile driver onto the table, but it snaps in half beneath them and they fall hard to the ramp. Thank God Jack was not actually lifted yet. That could have killed him. Yes, absolutely.
00:45:22
Speaker
Nob's pin's pain for zero, as both refs are helping clear the table, and Saggs shoves Jack off the ramp to the floor where he lands hard. Saggs smacks him with the snow shovel for the three count and the win. Payne, who somehow didn't notice that his buddy was in trouble despite clearly looking right at him multiple times during that whole bit, was also going for a pin, but Jack's pin has already been counted, so it doesn't count.
00:45:48
Speaker
Weirdly, almost all of that ending bit was filmed with Payne and Knobs in the foreground. It's too close to fully see what they were doing. And Jack and Sags in the background, often hidden by Payne or by Knobs. Hey director, here's a tip. When someone stands on a table or shoves someone off a ramp, cut to a camera close to that.
00:46:07
Speaker
If it's a show where there's, like, only the one camera, you can go, well, maybe the camera guy was literally blocked by those two standing on the ramp, but... Yeah. They have a hard camera, for one thing. Yes. They had multiple cameramen. Yes. As they demonstrated moments before with their stupid split screen. That's true, yes. Payne stumbles to his feet, but Sag sprints at him and clocks him with a chunk of table. We get shots of Jack and Payne slowly recovering and never even see the match winners again.
00:46:34
Speaker
Yep. Tony says that he's surprised that Jack is moving, and Henan says he's not surprised. This is probably the best time Jack has ever had. Thoughts on this one? Ah, see, I took very detailed notes for this, Bob. Did you? My notes are weapon shots, walking.
00:46:53
Speaker
Fiddle I felt like summarizing. Even it's live in the split-screen stuff, this kind of match doesn't really work for me because it's just them hitting each other with stuff. Other than the few flashes of Mick Foley doing his good character clothesline, especially because he managed to sit on the apron instead of going all the way out with him, which actually looked really cool, there's just not enough excitement here.
00:47:15
Speaker
This kind of match could work with a couple of teams. Like if you did this kind of match, not solely so hardcore, but like doing the false kind of respect with like four luchadors, for instance, you know, they're diving off of this, they're flying into that. That kind of thing can work for me, but this, it's just these guys lumbering around each other. Sometimes with really obviously gimmick kind of things like suplexing the table onto him, which is, I think Foley does. It looks weird.
00:47:44
Speaker
Well, a lot of times it's the nasty boys being overly stiff. Yeah. With poor Max Payne here. Which would be a poor attention with him, by the way, and him leaving the company. I would imagine so, yeah. He complained very vocally apparently about how they're often overly stiff and brutal to him during matches. So much of this is just them hating each other and falling around.
00:48:06
Speaker
that weird bit with pain where he decided he's gonna body slam whichever nasty boy is with at that point. I lost track, honestly. But instead of, like, grabbing him and doing a quick slam, he, like, carries him around for, like, feels like a minute. He passes by one table and goes, no, I want to smash the table. I want this other table over here, so I'm gonna walk awkwardly around it. Yeah. Which is the kind of thing you can do in, like, the wrestling games.
00:48:29
Speaker
which still looks fake there obviously, but just sort of catch a guy and walk around till you're one of them there. I've never seen an actual match do that before until this one. Yeah.
00:48:39
Speaker
And the finish, not even getting the, as you said, about how it's shot so poorly. I mean, the paladora thing goes wrong, which is funny. If you read any like Matt summary for this, like on Wiki or people like reviewing it, they describe the paladora through a table and like, uh, did you watch the match? Yeah, it doesn't happen. Yeah. It does not happen. Yeah. It's not even like an attempted pal. They're like, he paladora is fully through a table. I'm like, uh, no, he does not. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:08
Speaker
It feels like Sag's got annoyed and just shoved him off the apron like that. And just fully just, you know, insane at this point. I don't know, maybe this is his idea, but it felt like a kind of indicative thing to do. He's mad at the table for breaking. So he's just kind of shove his, I assume his friend four feet down onto his back and head onto a concrete floor and then hit him with a shovel anyways. Cause you know, that shove wasn't enough. Yeah. Ugly finish on all accounts.
00:49:51
Speaker
I thought Jack was in his element, engaging in a brutal fight. The Nasties had their working boots on to give as good as they got, and Payne was serving nicely as a big dude that could throw in an occasional decent power move and throw people around. They made pretty good use of the ringside area and the souvenir stand set, and they came up with some clever spots, and made a bit of a story to this of a divided, even fight that swung mostly based on the Nasties having better teamwork.
00:50:05
Speaker
I'm gonna partially disagree with you.
00:50:16
Speaker
So it actually had a little bit more of a story to it than a lot of hardcore matches, which I think is what's helping me with it. I do agree, though, that the match got pretty uncomfortable at times. There's some notably unsafe weapon strikes by the Nasties, particularly Sags' unfolded chair shots, which I have never seen someone else do and I hope I never see someone else do again.
00:50:36
Speaker
Yeah. An ill-advised late match table stunt that thankfully didn't get someone killed when it went wrong, and some very hard falls by Jack in particular. Yeah. It was a good hardcore match, I thought, but it could have dialed things back to a safer level and still been entertaining. It definitely helped me knowing that all four guys went on to have other matches. Yeah. Jack would, of course, go on to have better luck at Slamboree when he would team up with Kevin Sullivan against the same team.
00:51:04
Speaker
So the lesson I guess is find a druid and you'll do better. Alleged. Oh, I'm sorry. Alleged druid. Sorry. Yeah. I need the, the NBC, the more, you know, rainbow thing to flash by when I say that. As a bonus, he was also replacing Dave Sullivan in that match. So it's good for us. Anyone had to watch that match.
00:51:25
Speaker
As mentioned, Max Payne is not along with the company. As I said, he complained about the NASA working stiff and he tried to do other stuff. He would then go to WVF for it to become Man, Mountain, Rock. Definitely one of those so bad it's good names. Oh yeah. Especially when you see him when he's got the WVF safe guitar. Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:51:45
Speaker
It's weird, he doesn't look great in either gimmick, but I think he looks better in Mad Mountain Rock than he does as scraggly look he has here, whereas his random rock band shirt and weird sweatpants kind of thing would have a weird emblem on him. It's at least kind of a connected look for the latter one, yeah. Yeah. Pain, by the way, I believe legitimate guitarist, right? Yes. One of the samborees, he does the guitar in the intro.
00:52:09
Speaker
We cut back to Jesse Ventura, who is with Johnny B.
Johnny B. Bad's Challenge
00:52:13
Speaker
Bad, who has put the sparkly cowboy duds back on. Of course. Because why wouldn't you? Yeah. All right, everybody. Jesse the Body Ventura here with a successful Johnny B. Bad. You had the kiss that couldn't miss tonight, Johnny, but I know you're looking to the future. We all know Slamburys about a month away down the road, and it's going to come from the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
00:52:37
Speaker
I'll tell you, Jesse, what a reception tonight. The bad man is on a roll. It was no surprise that I defeated Diamond Dale this page. He's a good wrestler, but I'm a bad man. And I'm here to tell you, Jesse, and I'm here to tell the whole world that I want a shot at the winner of the Muda Stunna Steve Austin match.
00:52:53
Speaker
The only thing I'm knocking right now, Jesse, is that gold around my pretty waist. Wait, let me understand this now. You're issuing a challenge right here, right now, for the winner of Muda and Stunning Steve in the U.S. Heavyweight title. Exactly, Jesse, because I'm going to shock the world. I'm going to prove to everybody that I'm the greatest wrestler of all times. All right, and on that note, let's go to Ringside and Michael Buffer.
00:53:20
Speaker
Perfectly acceptable promo by Bad here, and I liked that he, again, praised his opponent, even while declaring victory. Yeah. I also really liked him immediately doing some work to set up what would come next for him, and as I believe we discussed earlier, we covered the match that he sets up on our previous series, Slamberee. Correct. It was quite a good match, as I recall. Uh, yeah, that was a good one, yeah.
00:53:43
Speaker
He states what he wants quite clearly, and then Jesse Ventura is like, let me make sure I understand. I'm like, how do you not understand? He clearly challenged the winner of that match. It's not a hard concept, man. Pretty much, yeah. But yeah, I thought he's good. He had good energy here for a short segment setting up a future show. I thought it worked. Yeah, yeah.
00:54:07
Speaker
Our fourth match is the great Muda versus stunning Steve Austin with Colonel Robert Parker for Austin's WCW United States Heavyweight Championship.
Great Muda vs. Steve Austin Breakdown
00:54:18
Speaker
The referee for this one is Nick Patrick. Incidentally, I looked it up. So, Muda's last appearance for WCW was Starrcade 1992 before the show. Oh, well, okay.
00:54:29
Speaker
He's been gone for more than a year at this point. He came in for that one, they gave him Battle Bowl and he was like, oh crap, I'm not coming back to you guys for a while. Maybe they finally agreed to give him his ring from winning Battle Bowl and I showed up. Lured him back by promising the ring. Yeah, exactly. We get that cool wanted poster style match graphic again. It's really nice.
00:54:52
Speaker
I like when they do more with a show's gimmick like this, bringing it in with the match graphics and some of the other design elements. They don't do as much with this one as I think they will at, I forget if it's 97 or 98. I've recalled there being one where there's a stagecoach, actually. Oh, yeah, I think that's 97, I could be wrong. Maybe 98. But they still do quite a bit on this show to kind of like build up the theme, which I enjoyed.
00:55:15
Speaker
Yeah. Usually shouldn't have been funny is made like little cartoon version of the wrestlers on screen, have them like, you know, posing like they're going to fight and then have a stampede taste them off. Buffer does the ring intros again and says that the match is sanctioned by the WCW. Sigh. You always got to bring that up, don't you? I do. I do. Yeah. Okay. Because I know how much you love it. That's true. I totally love it. Clearly.
00:55:45
Speaker
Muda comes out in an awesome sparkly red G and mask. Was there a sale on red glitter leading up to this? Austin at least went with gold glitter on his vest. It's funny how Austin's kind of close to his eventual stone cold look here, but just more glitzy. Yeah, that's true.
00:56:04
Speaker
He's got short-styled hair rather than bald, but he does have facial hair, and he wears a mostly black vest, it's just also gold and glittery. Yeah, now we're gonna say by the belt tights. Yes. He even does a almost stone-cold style strut and head shake on the way to the ring, but the smile's more cocky heel. Yeah. It's like he's drifting that way, but not quite there. Yeah. The debris period where they ship a lot of that away from him, and they make him the ringmaster.
00:56:30
Speaker
But then they course correct, thankfully, in wrestling history. They were the same. Yeah. An audience member has a KFC sign to make fun of the Colonel, of course. Naturally. Tony and Hienan discuss Austin developing a new hold. An inside toe hold he calls Hollywood and Vine. Incidentally, Hollywood and Vine was an actual tag team inglow. I'm not surprised. Yeah. A Muda sign in the crowd is quite well drawn.
00:56:59
Speaker
Muda gets Austin dead center of the ring with an abdominal stretch, but he slips the hand free, so Muda elbows him hard. Meanwhile, Parker is going, yaw, yaw, yaw. Muda roll up for two, headlock for one, and Patrick catches Austin trying to use the hair. Muda nicely resists an Austin back suplex to take Austin down again, but a second try gets two for Austin.
00:57:21
Speaker
Muda counters a suplex with a brain buster and hits the power drive elbow with typically awesome acceleration and works around a side headlock for another one. Henan claims Neville was lip-syncing earlier and he was the actual singer. Austin catches Muda with a head scissors, but he's clearly frustrated. And Henan says that Muda has been thinking several moves ahead, so Austin should use the hair and trunks. Makes sense.
00:57:50
Speaker
Muda slips free, and Austin scrambles out, and confesses to Parker, he's got me completely flustered. It's a nice character moment there. Austin uses the tights for two, as Tony points out that Neville has now come to sit by Heenan, so Heenan now says that Neville's a great singer and praises his earlier performance. You gotta love Bobby Heenan.
00:58:13
Speaker
Muda gets a hammer lock and levers Austin for two. Austin whips Muda to the ropes, and Parker grabs his leg. So Austin hits a really nice jumping knee strike from behind, and Muda falls outside. You know, with a jumping knee strike, they often kind of like jump at them, but kind of gently connect and then push. Right. Where with this one, I'm sure he was still effectively doing that, but he made it look snappier, like an actual impact. Yeah, yeah. I really like that.
00:58:40
Speaker
When I said we were watching they remind me a lot of Randy Savage would do that. Right. I always liked his too because he had a good speed and it could have been a combination of his timing and the obviously I take the moves timing but always looked impactful to me. Right. Patrick lectures Austin and Parker chokes Muda. He didn't claims that he was just helping Buddha clean up drool with his kerchief. Of course.
00:59:02
Speaker
Austin beats Muda up outside. Back in, and Austin knee drop, but he takes his time and only gets two. Muda's hair is wild now, but Austin's is absolutely pristine. Yes. What is the use on that stuff, rubber cement? Right? Abdominal stretch, and Austin uses the ropes as Hina nicely discusses the move's impact on your spine and breathing, and offers to demonstrate on Tony. Tony intelligently declines.
00:59:32
Speaker
Patrick finally catches Austin, but Muda still takes a few moments to counter out. I like that, it looked legit. Yeah, yeah. You know, you're used to them kicking the hand off the ropes or whatever and the guy immediately flipping the guy doing the holdover. Yeah. But Muda, like, still needed to struggle for a little bit, so that was nice. Yeah, I can see that, it builds it up a bit.
00:59:52
Speaker
Hienan is shocked that the crowd is not cheering for Austin, but Tony says that they like fair play. Chicago? Hienan says. Yeah. And accuses every single Chicago sports team of cheating. Yeah.
01:00:07
Speaker
Austin dodges a Muda dropkick and hits a second rope elbow from between the corners for three two counts. Choking by Austin and Parker, but Muda blocks a turnbuckle ram and hits a spinkick, suplex, and dropkick, but Austin dodges a second one and tries for Hollywood and Vine, but can't quite get it locked in, so Muda rolls free. Heaton jokes that Austin made it to Sunset and Vine and Hollywood was up the street a bit.
01:00:34
Speaker
Muda hits Austin's own stun gun, and even Muda looks surprised at that. The crowd cheers huge. Cartwheel elbow and top rope hurricane run on by Muda, but Parker climbs to the apron so Muda spin kicks him, but Austin charges from behind. So Muda dumps him over the top rope, getting disqualified. Austin wins by DQ.
01:00:58
Speaker
The fans are not happy with that decision, but Muda cheers them up with a dive over the ropes onto Austin and Parker. Parker and Austin don't quite agree on the timing for the fall, so Austin goes down earlier than Parker and Muda nearly splats his face on the mats outside. Oh, yeah. We've got Parker still standing and he's supporting Muda's legs, so Muda's face goes rapidly toward the ground. Fortunately, he catches himself. Yeah.
01:01:26
Speaker
Big boos for Austin, who walks off supported by Parker with a triumphant smile, declaring himself the greatest US champ of all time. Hienan is amazed by the top rope Rana that Muda did on the replay of the finish. Thoughts on this one?
01:01:42
Speaker
This is interesting because if you look at it on paper, even not as you are saying, the time frame, you know, this isn't 1997's Stone Cold Steve Austin, obviously, it's studying Steve Austin. You expect a whole lot from this match? I think in general, I think it's a good match.
01:01:58
Speaker
pacing's a little oftentimes, it's a kind of running theme through the show to a certain degree. Like they slower at certain parts to maybe in this case, it's to help sort of call the match. These guys haven't wrestled a bunch of times like other people on the show have. So you're building a match in the ring, like I know Austin would famously do. He'd have the layout of the match, but he wouldn't, it's not DDP or Randy Savage where they'd have the binder. He was the guys that liked calling matches in the ring.
01:02:26
Speaker
So I can kind of see it from that point of view, but yeah, it's a little slow at times, but Muda I think does a good job when he gets his highlights kind of like with Pillman earlier in the show. When he gets his highlights it works. The only problem with this one is it seems like the crowd's not as into the match as a whole as you might think it would be. I feel like it's maybe just a lack of familiarity with Great Muda perhaps.
01:02:49
Speaker
I'm honestly going to disagree with you. I felt that the crowd was pretty hot for this. Oh, okay. I mean, there's, there's a couple of points that where I've obviously specifically noted it, but I felt like they were pretty into this for much of the match. Oh, for me, there's definitely points where they pop. Like I said, the ending parts there for sure they do. That could be wrong, but if I didn't feel the same way about that one personally. Okay.
01:03:08
Speaker
The big problem is just they build this finish and then it just, that just stops because of the stupid DQ finish. Yeah. It would work if it was Austin intentionally being heelish to try and get himself this qualified, but it really is mooted just like sort of shrugging and tossing over shoulder and then being not too annoyed really when he doesn't get to win the title. Obviously he dives in them, but he doesn't like act all frustrated about it. Yeah. It's kind of weird the way that it's done. He's like, I could win, but eh, I don't feel like it.
01:03:40
Speaker
I thought this was a really fun match and it had a good story, I thought. Muda, as Henan points out, just seems to be ahead of Austin in predicting his every move for most of the match, dominating. But rather than making Austin look bad, it just gives him a lot of room for character work. I loved the frustration that he showed through the whole thing and the fact that he even goes out and just straight up admits it to Parker. Oh yeah, I thought his character really worked well in this for sure, yeah.
01:04:05
Speaker
I thought he took what could have been a one-sided match and shifted the focus to his character work. And, of course, he ultimately manages to cheat his weight into a bit of an advantage towards the end. There are a few minor flubs. Notably, I'm fairly sure that Hollywood and Vine was supposed to actually get locked on for a little, but they just didn't get it right.
01:04:23
Speaker
But overall, I thought these two told a really good focus story that was easy to follow and enjoy. I do very much agree that the ending is a letdown. Right. I'll get into this a little later, but the whole like, oh, I accidentally threw you over the top rope, therefore I'm DQ'd thing is obviously a stupid rule. Right. And is not used with any kind of consistency in all of WCW? Correct. I still thought that the match leading up to that point was quite good.
01:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, I wasn't as still as young as you were, but no, I'm not, I think it's a bad match for sure. Yeah. Yeah. This would be Muta's last US wrestling match for about a year. Oh, okay. Uh, he would appear on WWE pay-per-view earlier in 95 being shown sitting in a crowd on the show, but he wouldn't actually perform on it. He would appear again until Sambury nights 95, which of course is a match we already covered. He'd return was the IWP champion.
01:05:18
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah. And just to connect things a bit back, that title he has is the one he won off Shina Hashimoto, which technically happened after the collision career pay-per-view happened. It happened before it aired in America. Right, right. It happened like less than a week after the show takes place live, but it's a good month and a half or two before they actually run it in the US. And obviously we covered what Austin's doing already.
01:05:50
Speaker
We cut backstage where Jesse is with Dustin Rhodes. See, Jesse agrees with me.
Dustin Rhodes Interview and Feud
01:06:08
Speaker
to move on to the future and the future is just a couple of matches away Dustin Rhodes it's gonna be you and bunkhouse buck in a bunkhouse matchup now to me that means it's just a street fight that ain't wrestling and we all know Dustin Rhodes it was just a couple of weeks ago bunkhouse buck made a trophy presentation to you literally
01:06:29
Speaker
I don't need to see this. I've watched this over and over and I can remember it in my head like it was yesterday. It hurt real bad and I'm getting out of bed a lot harder now these days. But I'm gonna tell you what, Bunkhouse Buck, that's what you're best at, is jumping people from behind. You and that good-for-nothing Colonel Parker. Well, let me just give you a little bit of advice.
01:06:47
Speaker
Tonight, just a few matches away, it's you and me. There's a big difference in the tee in Tennessee, in the tee in Texas. In the tee in Texas, the natural Dustin Rhodes, 260 pounds, is gonna get your possum nacombut under that tree. And I'm gonna get you down there and I'm gonna tick your tail like it ain't never been ticked today.
01:07:07
Speaker
Well, there you got it. Dustin Rhodes looks ready. Let's go to Michael Buffer up at ringside because coming up next, ravishing Rick Roode and The Stinger. Stay with us, everybody. It's just going to get better. I assume this is actually going to be a match about Rhodes liking to drink Texas tea while Buck prefers Tennessee tea and they'll battle it out in a drinking contest. Yeah, I can't see how that would happen. I thought this was a perfectly good promo by Rhodes.
01:07:36
Speaker
He did a good job kind of varying his tone from quietly resentful of seeing the footage of Buck's attack on him, to loud and angry proclaiming what he was gonna do. It's a basic shift, but it's more than what you get in some promos, and seeing Dustin fired up was pretty good.
01:07:50
Speaker
Yeah, seeing them actually react to it is nice. Sometimes they just either come in angry or they stick to their I am the good babyface character. So it's like going back to the other shows we've covered when we get to see a annoyed sarcastic sting at Starrcade 95 for instance. Right, yeah. It feels different because he's not like, boy, I love the fan. Gee, howdy. One of our favorite sting moments, I think. It's like, go ahead and ask. Yeah. That was great. Yeah.
01:08:18
Speaker
seeing them actually react to the storyline and think about how would I feel if this legitimately was happening, you know, is nice. Yeah. The thing that's kind of funny for me is this is all about like Texas versus Tennessee. And I'm like, but you guys are in Chicago, you realize, right? This is true. There's so much of that. Like, I get you're playing for all the audiences, but as it feels like this, like there was a show originally going to be one of those states and then they'd have been Illinois.
01:08:47
Speaker
Yeah, it is weird that the first Spring Stampede show is in Illinois. Yeah. Like I wouldn't have been surprised if like down the line they ended up spreading out, but you really would expect the first Spring Stampede to be in, you know, a western state. Yeah, exactly. You either need to be way more south or way more north because you can be in Canada for Canadian Stampede, which I believe was a show that they end up suing over the name rights ever later.
01:09:17
Speaker
I think Chavani jokes is a few times he actually won a case in court, but I don't know how that actually ended. I also would like that Jesse Ventura apparently shares a Vergania and Luth as his opinion of hardcore wrestling. Yes. It says, just to fight, it's not wrestling.
01:09:32
Speaker
That's true. And of course, W.C.W. can't quite get through the segment without an error. So they cut in Michael Buffers ring announcing at the end there before Jesse's actually done throwing to it. Yeah, kind of makes me want to thunder replace the orchestra playing you off your speech too long bit with the backup buffer just starts announcing a match. Someone's going on about I want to thank my wife and my kids and it's like, boy, he's an internal bar on the next match. Like, okay, I'm going to work.
01:10:02
Speaker
Our fifth match is Sting versus Ravishing Rick Roode for Roode's WCW International World Heavyweight
Sting vs. Rick Rude Feud Ignites
01:10:10
Speaker
Championship. We're in that era again. Oh yeah. Referee for this one is Randy Anderson.
01:10:16
Speaker
So on an earlier show, they had a six-man cage match, allowing two teams, obviously. We had Sting on one side, Rude on the other. In the aftermath of the match, Rude attacked Sting, doing what's now a classic spot, which is closing the cage door on someone's head. Right. That really sets off the personal feud between Rude and Sting. Much like his cohort, Steven Riegel, he refuses to give Sting a title match. And I guess he's just kind of allowed to do that, which is interesting in his case.
01:10:47
Speaker
Uh, so what Sting would do as a reference in the intro video packet to don't explain is Sting gets a woman to be in your ringside after one of Roots matches and getting this quote sign and autograph, but it's actually the match contract for this. Devious Sting. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Babyface Sting uses a fan to get a title match for himself.
01:11:09
Speaker
That really sounds like you picture that, ultimately, it comes out that Sting consulted with Ric Flair, since Flair's in kind of his semi-good guy mode at the point. He'd be like, hey, Flair, if I was world champion, or should I meet world international champion,
01:11:25
Speaker
That's a thing. And, you know, you wouldn't touch like it's me, but I wouldn't get with you. How would you do it? Oh, well, I'd use plan 43, where I get a fake person to sign an autograph. I assume that he first suggested dressing up in an ill-fitting mask and coming out in the spaceship, but Stink said no. Yeah. Then moved on to the next one. Yeah. First plan was that second plan was just like a woman attack them behind because that's a classic flare move as well. Yes.
01:11:51
Speaker
Sting was like, I want one that maintains my dignity, Rick. And Rick was like, that cuts out like a hundred of mine, but sure. Yeah, the guy with the neon scorpion on his leg needs his dignity. Okay. Buffer does the ring intros and calls it the WCW again. Yay. Sting has a hilarious wide-eyed expression on the wanted poster. It's like they took his picture a second too early.
01:12:18
Speaker
Sting comes out in a awesome black and silver glittery jacket and red and white face paint. That jacket is just super sparkly. I think they did the lights really well tonight to catch all the shine on the entrance gear. Oh, for sure, yeah. It's like you can see beams of light shining off that thing. Mm-hmm. A Sting sign in the crowd is pretty good, but it makes his expression look kind of evil, and one of his hands looks like it's on backwards. That's a very genetic disorder, Bob. Shouldn't make fun of people that have that.
01:12:48
Speaker
Sting takes off his coat and appears to have some of its glitter on his chest. Rude's out next in a blue and silver sparkly robe. Buffer's intro references the multicolored artwork on Rude's tights. I haven't heard that called out before in an introduction. It is excellent art of Rude and Sting. I really hope someone has all of those ring tights that he wore.
01:13:12
Speaker
Yeah, much like the Jimmy Hart jackets, the Rick Roode tights, the works of art, yeah. Such a great collection. Then eventually you start getting RVD's singlets, yeah. Yes. Roode's intro is interrupted by Harley Race, wearing a jacket that's just about as bright a red as Hienan's.
01:13:31
Speaker
Race challenges the winner of Rude versus Sting on behalf of Vader, then tries to deck Sting. But Sting blocks the punch, decks him, and flings him to the other turnbuckle, where he basically does the flare flip up and over to the floor. He does, yeah. It's pretty impressive. Bet you're gonna use it in the active retire as a wrestler for like three or four years now at this point, I believe. Yeah, yeah. Still has it. Oh, yeah.
01:13:55
Speaker
Rude attacks while Sting is distracted, but Sting fights back and clotheslines him out over the ropes. Rude hadn't even gotten his robe off yet.
01:14:03
Speaker
So this is where I have to say, I've never gotten why that spot's okay, but the back body dropout is a disqualification. It feels backwards, right? Yeah, I mean... Because the clothesline is clearly intentional. Like you know that you're sending him out over the ropes when you do the clothesline. Right. Where the back body drop feels like it's always done as an instinctive reaction. So if one's going to draw a DQ, it should be the clothesline. I think the idea is it's supposed to be an even less controlled thing when you just huck them over the top rope.
01:14:32
Speaker
I'm not saying it actually is, but I think that's a lot that they're going for. Yeah. Like you're actively trying to hurt somebody, you know, more than you're supposed to in a wrestling match with that kind of move. Like it's quote unquote too dangerous.
01:14:44
Speaker
I guess. It just feels like it should be based on intention and the back body drop is almost always portrayed as just like, oh, but I accidentally did it. Yeah. I can almost see maybe like when they first came up with this silly DQ rule that included the clothesline, but guys could just not stop doing it. And the rest had to go, ah, okay. Clothes are okay.
01:15:05
Speaker
Cause you see it, we see how often it happens in matches, just on the show, for instance. It's frequent. Yeah. I mean, we get them back in the tag match. The Max Payne Cactus Jack Nasty Boys won. We got the cactus clothes on to the outside. Then we got cactus himself being clothesline back to the inside. Yes. Just in that one match. So yeah. My guess is that guys couldn't stop doing clotheslines. They made an exemption without ever clarifying it and explaining it in a logical fashion. Right.
01:15:31
Speaker
Sting suplexes Rude on the mats outside. Back in, Rude finally takes his robe off, as Heenan makes excuses for Harley Race. Commissioner Nick Bachwinkle sits down at the commentary table, and Heenan warns Tony not to talk to him because he'll never shut up. Sting belly to back suplex for two. Back rake! Sting works the front face lock, interrupting only for some tremendous jumping elbow drops for one. As usual, Sting has amazing vertical leap.
01:15:59
Speaker
Rude drops Sting crotch first on the ropes, beats him up outside, then rolls him in. Rude belly to back suplex for two, and he mocks Sting and flexes to huge boos. Rude works a seated rear chinlock that's almost a camel clutch. Yeah. Heaton says that Rude won't back off, unlike Richard Simmons. What? Yeah, I don't get that at all. I have no comprehension of what that means.
01:16:25
Speaker
I don't know, it might have made more sense in WWF before Roode got his hair cut, because I could see his more poofy hair looking closer to Richard Simmons thing, but at this point he's been short-haired for at least the last three years. The only other thing I could think of was if he accidentally confused Richard Simmons and Ron Simmons, but I don't think Ron Simmons is even in WCW at this point. No. Someone said you got to make a cultural reference somewhere and just make it work. They tried.
01:16:54
Speaker
Rude drops an elbow for two, and back to the clutch. Hinnen says it's hard to get up from this hold. All you can do is scoop backwards, forwards, or get up. Huh? So you have multiple, so you can basically do anything? You have three last chances. Sting lifts Rude on his shoulders, but Rude rolls forward for one, but Sting reverses for two. The fans were on their feet for that.
01:17:17
Speaker
Rude grabs a sleeper, but breaks the hold before the third arm check and shoves Anderson. Rude slugs away, and Heenan calls Sting a human piรฑata. What kind of candy would he hold, Al? Oh, given his coloring, maybe Smarties? Th-that seems... seems fair. Yeah, yeah. Sting absorbs Rude's strikes and asks for more, giving an awesome, wild-eyed look. Sting flexes and Rude runs the hell away, but Sting catches him by the tights.
01:17:45
Speaker
With Rude's butt part exposed, Sting beats him up as Hina makes full moon jokes. Yeah. Back body drop and Rude does a full front flip and nearly lands on his feet but collapses. Tony says he could have broken a leg and he's right. That looked dangerous. Yeah.
01:18:02
Speaker
Stinger Call draws massive cheers. Anderson gets caught behind Rude in the corner, and Sting, unaware, lands a stinger splash on both. Scorpion Deathlock, but Anderson is out. Harley Race and Vader run down, so Sting breaks the hold and fights both of them off. Race gets hit, reels, and clearly expects to get hit again, but Sting is prepping for a big punch to knock out Vader, so Race just kinda falls out of the ring himself. Awkward bit. No bit, yeah.
01:18:31
Speaker
Rude chop block Sting from behind, and the crowd deflates. Vader grabs a chair, but Bachwinkle catches him, so Race steals one from Henan, who protests his innocence to Bachwinkle. Rude holds Sting for a chair shot, but Sting dodges, and Race nails Rude. Race flees as Sting kicks him out, and Sting pins Rude for the three count and the win.
01:18:54
Speaker
The crowd erupts with cheers as Sting claims the big gold belt. Heenan decries the injustice and goes to grab his chair. Sting's shoulder is bloody and Tony points out that Root is bleeding from the chair shot. Yes, he is. We get a replay of the chair shot and pin. Thoughts of this one? That was a quite solid match. I will say going back to my point about there being a pacing problem, that headlock spot seemed like it went up for a while. Was that or is that just me?
01:19:22
Speaker
No, I agree. I feel like they spend a lot of time in both the front face lock by Sting and the Camel Clutch by Rude. Yeah. They kind of sit on those for a while, and it's not like they're not doing anything, but it starts to be noticeable. Yeah. I didn't have as much problem with the Camel Clutch, because again, they said there was interruptions and movement around with a big headlock. It's weird. It's like Sting's this big high energy guy, and he just locks in a front face lock and just sort of went to hang out there for a while and just not do anything.
01:19:50
Speaker
It feels like a real heal move where you lock a guy like that and won't let him go. Like you try to mess with the crowd. Like, you know, this is a reverse. The brew does that to Sting and it's like, aha, the crowd can enjoy this match because I'm holding them still. Yeah. Then aside, I thought the action when they let it pick up was really good. It was good seeing Sting do the electric teardrop, or as I will call with no context, the Mecha Shiva.
01:20:18
Speaker
Which was encounter, which was nice. Normally you can't counter the Mecha Shiva. It's a pretty powerful move. Yeah, that was a nice spot. Yeah.
01:20:26
Speaker
The big problem with this match, if you're going to have one, is definitely the ending. So a bunch of stuff has to happen here. You need the ref knocked out. You need Harley coming in. You need Vader coming in. You need Nick Bockwinkle to stop Vader, which I kind of get the idea, like he's often getting with the ring, but then Vader like just sort of sits in the outside, like the one punty or two punty takes from Sting, like debilitated him. He couldn't get back in the ring. In fairness, one was a windmill.
01:20:53
Speaker
Oh, that's true. Yeah. The windup does build a lot of speed and power. It's at least a plus five damage. That's true. Fair enough. But yeah, it's just weird that he's like staying in the outside like, Oh, I wish I could get back in there. But then here's his, his manager who's been beating up all night. And as we'll see later, continue to get beat up all night, rushing in and doing the whole thing. Likewise, the timing is a little off with the rude awakening.
01:21:17
Speaker
He pauses just a little too long to get Grace in time for the tear shot. It's not super distracting, like he holds him there and has to, like, audibly call for him, but his rotation is definitely slower and, like, a little pause at the end. Yeah. Because they need to be stopped before the end is kind of funny.
01:21:33
Speaker
race is a little bit awkward in this match he does a good spot in the opener yes but then um he's he's a little bit awkward in the bit where sting's punching him invader and then again at the ending things seem a little mistimed and i really do think it's it's him it's not not like he's bad or anything oh no no just uh just that it seems like he's the one that's not quite in his in the right place on a few different instances it's a case of where they backload so much of this match
01:21:59
Speaker
He gets to know so much choreography just for this match alone, not counting his stuff he has later on this show. Right. He'd totally get that. Yes. The other thing I have to know about the ending is, okay, so rude to him with the chair shot, sting sees it, and gives him sort of the one kick to get him to leave. More like a shooting away kick. Yeah, which again, like, race is just about falling out of the ring already. Yeah. He needs the extra push of wind, I guess, to knock him out there.
01:22:28
Speaker
Okay, so as things sees it happen and goes, yeah, I'll like the pin off this. Yes. This thing is taking the team victory to get the title. And Bachwinkle is okay with this as well. Yeah! That's just so weird. There's a lot of questionable things about the ending of this. Yeah, it's like they have to get from point A to point B, but somewhere along the way, they take several detours and eventually get their sort of careening into the finish.
01:22:52
Speaker
Yeah, I'll agree overall on it. I think the match itself is actually surprisingly slow paced at times, but I do have to say the tremendous crowd interactions and huge reactions they're getting actually still make it feel quite exciting. Oh yeah. No, I can see that. Yeah, absolutely.
01:23:07
Speaker
But yeah, like you mentioned, Sting's front face lock and Rude's camel clutch kind of make up a large portion of the match. They do fight in and out, and they build up some tension and interest, but it just feels like we could have used some more hold variety, I think, is what it is for me. Yeah, and as I said, Sting being the one to hold the front face lock feels reversed. It is weird. And especially the heel then crotches on the top rope. That feels like Sting escaping Rude's hold. Yes. It's bizarre.
01:23:33
Speaker
They do have some nice strikes and some great selling though. Sting in particular has the crowd in the palm of his hand with his late match struggles at comebacks. If you did the same match with guys that didn't have such a great connection with the crowd, I think it would end up feeling very dull. But with these two, it still actually ends up working. Still, it ended up a fun match. I just think it has some more flaws than I was expecting given these two performers.
01:23:57
Speaker
Yeah, if they could have had a slightly screwy finish, I didn't have so many moving parts and things that could go wrong and did slightly go wrong. Yeah. It would definitely be stronger.
01:24:09
Speaker
Famously, a rematch between the two would occur at the Wrestling Dontaku 2 show in Japan. During that match, Sting would technically lose via some chicanery and some cheating by Rude.
Impact of Rude's Career-Ending Injury
01:24:22
Speaker
However, during the match Sting would do a dive over the top rope onto Rude and he'd land an awkward separation sort of gap in the floor.
01:24:30
Speaker
two or three inch level off from the mat area to the floor. And it's saying that just the right way, much like we see about four years later with John Michaels in the casket. Right. Being thrown out would unfortunately lead this freak injury and ultimately lead to the very end of Rick Rood's wrestling career.
01:24:48
Speaker
Which is interesting because as we'll see as you recover in later promo, we're clearly building up a weirdly heel versus heel title match between Vader and Rick Roode. Which really was is an intriguing concept. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
01:25:03
Speaker
I feel like if Triple Third matches and not the awkward triangle match they do at Starrcade 95, if those were a thing, absolutely Sting Vader Roo would be a great match. I could see that being really cool, yeah. But for a reason, that's just not a thing they did at this point in wrestling, really until ECW started popularizing it.
01:25:22
Speaker
It's also worth noting, um, that because of the timing with all this stuff happening, they go to Japan and have that show, you know, it doesn't run in the U.S. like a normal pay-per-view. It's just like a special Japan show they're doing. They pre-taped a bunch of stuff for WWE Saturday night, including more stuff building up the Rick Roode Vader match, which technically airs after his injury happens. So he actually does have matches after the injury, just because of the weird time warp aspect.
01:25:52
Speaker
A depressed Bobby Heenan sympathizes with Rude, and Bachwinkle wanders around in the background as Tony builds up the upcoming matches. As Rude is helped out, Tony mentions that Flair offered Hulk Hogan tickets to watch his match against Ricky Steamboat later tonight. Heenan says that they would undoubtedly be ringside tickets, so he takes a look around, but there's no Hogan.
01:26:14
Speaker
And this is Hogan, so they would have counted against his, what, eight pay-per-views or four pay-per-views a year or whatever the contract was? Yeah. So probably good he didn't show up. Our sixth match is Bunkhouse Buck with Colonel Robert Parker versus the natural Dustin Rhodes in a bunkhouse match, which is no disqualification. Referee for this one is Nick Patrick.
01:26:38
Speaker
So a running theme throughout this year is that Colonel Parker has a beef with Dustin Rhodes, mostly based on him just liking his father. And Dustin, you know, sort of want to be his own man, setting up for himself and all that. So Parker would bring in Bunkhouse Buck, would be his new henchmen basically, and challenge Dustin to his signature match, or I guess his dad's signature match. Because at this point in the match Dustin has a signature match, really.
01:27:07
Speaker
leading to this pay-per-view match. I'm just thinking it's a good thing this is a bunkhouse match, not a bunkhouse stampede match. Yeah.
Dustin Rhodes Match Analysis
01:27:15
Speaker
Never forget that weird battle royale where they're in a cage and they have weapons.
01:27:24
Speaker
should have been so much cooler than it was. Yeah. And apparently, I do recall on that one, apparently a much better match was happening off camera constantly. Oh, yeah, yeah. They constantly managed to film the most boring part of that match happening. And then the announcers are telling us about something much more interesting happening off camera. Oh, the guy felt the Kate. We didn't cut to it. It is funny that there's not a bunkhouse stampede on spring stampede. Yeah, that's true.
01:27:53
Speaker
Interestingly, ring announcer, Capeta, just calls Parker the greatest promoter on the face of the earth rather than adding the usual self-proclaimed or he calls himself thing that you get in cases like that. Maybe that's just a thing with Parker that I haven't noticed. I don't know. That whole self-proclaimed thing and then you say it, thing always bugs me. You got that with the world's greatest tag team in WWE, like the self-proclaimed world's greatest tag team. Like, but you just said it, didn't you? Sort of.
01:28:22
Speaker
Gene did that earlier in the promo segment as well, actually. Oh, yeah. He just says he's the greatest promoter on the face of the earth. I was like, oh, well, nice compliment. Thanks, Gene. Bunkhouse Buck's duster coat does look cool. I will give him that. It does. Tony tells us this is actually Buck's first pay-per-view. He removes the coat, but keeps a button-down shirt on this time, so it doesn't look like he's wrestling in cowboy pajamas. That's good. Well, they call him the natural. Natural. Rhodes runs down to the ring.
01:28:53
Speaker
He's holding a chunk of lumber and dives at high velocity over the top rope to clothesline Buck to the mat. Now that is an entrance. Yes. Rhodes batters Buck, and a diving clothesline and big punch send him to the apron where Rhodes suplexes him back in for two. Buck soon spills out of the ring again, as heening questions Texans beating the crap out of those who offend them, and says it's much better to demand cash. I do agree, but this is a wrestling show, not a legal drama. Yes, that's true.
01:29:21
Speaker
They fight outside, and Rhodes knocks Buck down. Buck makes this kind of weird, uh, weeeaaah noise. Not sure what that was. Like a weird ZZ Top noise, yeah. Back in, Rhodes continues dominating, and Buck swings wild punches at nothing after an eye poke. But Buck ducks a crossbody, and Rhodes flies over him, bounces off the mat, and flies out of the ring to land by Parker. Holy crap, Dustin.
01:29:52
Speaker
Parker chokes in with a kerchief, and Buck retrieves the lumber and breaks it over roads, then calls the crowd geeks and, pretty sure, silly b****s. I'm pretty sure he says that. He takes off the button-down shirt, so now he just looks like he's wearing pajamas. Weird bit, as he seems to plan a dive, but just kind of walks down to punch roads.
01:30:17
Speaker
On the ramp, a Buck clothesline sends Rhodes end-over-end, and he chokes Rhodes with his suspenders. Rhodes is bleeding badly and, while blinded, nearly slugs Patrick. Buck strikes him in the bleeding forehead, then works the leg with the aid of the apron and ring post, but Rhodes kicks him away, gets powder from his pocket, and flings it in Buck's face. Heated actually jokes that it might be a note from Dusty when he first pulls it out.
01:30:44
Speaker
Buck takes off his belt to whip roads. I'm getting somewhat worried about this disrobing. Hopefully he never thinks of how he could use his pants as a weapon.
01:30:58
Speaker
When Rhodes fights back, Buck punts him hard in the crotch. Buck beats Rhodes up in the corner, but Rhodes dodges a charging kick and Buck jams his knee on the ropes, so Rhodes puts him on the ropes for a charging punt. Tony proposes that Rhodes should try out for the Dallas Cowboys. He then says Buck might be the football. Bionic elbow!
01:31:19
Speaker
Rhodes takes off his own studded belt and beats the crap out of Buck with it, then takes off his boot and hits a deadly second rope boot strike. Rhodes rips Buck's shirt, which actually improves his outfit, and whips him some more, then sends Buck outside with a big clothesline.
01:31:36
Speaker
Buck is now bleeding too. Buck takes something from his pocket to punch Rhodes, but Rhodes ducks and continues the beating. Bulldog, but Parker climbs up so Rhodes breaks his pin to suplex Parker in and starts whipping him, but Buck rolls Rhodes up. For two. Rhodes wins a slugfest for one. With Buck near the ropes, Parker sneaks something into his hand, and he slugs Rhodes hard in the face with it, for the three count and the win.
01:32:04
Speaker
Buck and Parker celebrate as Patrick checks on Rhodes and we get a replay of that final punch. It looks like it might've been taped up, quote unquote, brass knuckles. I think that's the idea, yeah. Hienan is thrilled that if Rhodes has lost a bunkhouse match.
01:32:19
Speaker
Thoughts on this one?
01:32:37
Speaker
Which isn't necessarily bad. And to be fair to the match, they got a good amount of sympathy for him. It really made his comeback feel strong, but I wonder if maybe he could have paced that a little more, like maybe slightly more even match, maybe more interesting. The other thing with this match, and it's really not an option to this match, just where it's on the show, is we had that crazy, chaotic four-person fight everywhere. He played with weapons constantly match. Now here's the second one.
01:33:04
Speaker
Admittedly, there's more psychology to this one. They work, you know, limbs and such on here, but having a second big, chaotic fight with weapons on that show dilutes it a little, I think.
01:33:15
Speaker
I'll agree with you to some extent on that, but I do feel like they make the two of them different enough. Mm-hmm. They're not identical now, for sure. They each, like, take their own variants on hardcore. Like, the tag one does more of the, like, let's range all over the arena type of hardcore, and this one does more the let's be a focused match that just is more brutal. Mm-hmm. I appreciate that they took different angles with it. Oh, yeah. They're not identical, but it's just the bleeding and the weapon shots aren't quite as packful, because we've seen it before on this show, is all I mean. Mm-hmm.
01:33:45
Speaker
It's not quite like the Darkade where we have the really good and really violent and quick match on a show where literally everyone bleeds in their matches. Right, yeah, that's, shall we say, a bit too much repetition. That's the, I believe, still the only TVMA-rated show we've covered. Yes. TVMA for so much blood. Yes.
01:34:07
Speaker
The other thing we would match is that it's not quite like they match where almost literally every spot is, here's a weapon, hit someone with it. They vary a little bit with both punches and kicks to be fair, and they use weapons
01:34:21
Speaker
in sometimes good, sometimes weird ways. Like it's good wrapping your hand at the belt with the buckles on it, punching people, but then less good doing a fist drop with your hand in a boot. Yeah, that was a little bit odd. Yeah. But for me, it's a little funny that they spend so much time to seeing people with weapons and then what finishes off another weapon shot, but just a straight punch for the weapon after so many other straight punches of weapons. I guess it's, it's kind of like a, you know, it's a buildup of if it's a secret weapon, obviously it's harder.
01:34:51
Speaker
I suppose. It's just like, if this was a straight match between these two, then, you know, still be a lot of brawling and punching and, you know, all that. But then it definitely finishes the weapon. Then it's like, Oh, I brought a weapon to this, but I'll grant you that. One thing I will say I liked about it though, is that they did a nice like false finish with it where he sneaks out his own one first and Dustin ducks that, but then Dustin thinks he's dealt with the weapon. Right. So now he's open to the actual weapon shot. Yeah. So I did like that aspect of it. Yeah.
01:35:20
Speaker
It also has the classic faces are dumb bit where Dustin could win a match. Yes. And just sort of let go to run over at park who's on the other side of the ring. Yeah, you just win the match first and then go beat him up. Yeah, right. But yeah, the whole thought it was good. But yeah, it's like I said, it's a little diluted by being on the same show as the Chicago street fight, but they definitely did their own thing.
01:35:42
Speaker
I think much like the Chicago Street Fight, I think I like this a little bit more than you did. I thought it was a great, really wild brawl, that creative use of some creative weapons, a terrific intensity to the whole thing, and a lot of changes in advantage, all in front of a very hot crowd. And it mixed in some very big stunts, courtesy of Rhodes' willingness to dive and fall in pretty much any way he needed to for the good of the match. Yeah, he knew it takes out Parker when he just missed a dive and rolled off on the bottom row. Bonkers.
01:36:11
Speaker
It's brutal, but it really draws you in, and it feels like it could go either way. Which, considering this is apparently Buck's first pay-per-view match, is a major accomplishment with a new character. So I just don't have one question. What the heck happened at Slampery 1994?
01:36:28
Speaker
A month after this match, these same two guys will have a massive snoozer of a bull rope match. It's hard to believe it's the same guys. In that match, it felt like Buck had literally nothing when he went on offense. But in this, he was a good, brutal striker. I really wish this Buck had stuck around.
01:36:46
Speaker
Yeah. I wonder, I know later on, they're famously a bit with Dustin where they get stretcher about blood and that kind of stuff. I wonder if there started to be some push on that and maybe actually start pulling it back. Or maybe it just is that Buck is the sort of wrestler that works really well in a full on hardcore match. But if you ask him to be more controlled, maybe he legit doesn't have other things. I don't know. But yeah, maybe.
01:37:10
Speaker
It's just amazing to think that the same two guys in the span of just two months have a really nice wild brawl and an absolute snoozefest. Yeah, so I will agree this is a pretty punchy brawl, but it's a good punchy brawl.
01:37:29
Speaker
Yeah, I thought Dustin made him work more than I was expecting it to. Mm-hmm. Because like I said, having watched the previous Bunkhouse book match and seeing him in the tag parts later of not without impressed with him. So seeing him in this definitely is a better version of him than when we get on him times. Yes. If this version of him had stuck around, I would like him a lot more. Mm-hmm. As you mentioned, they would then have a board match to the next paper view.
01:37:56
Speaker
Which sucked. Yes. I will bring a little history up for kind of interesting for you. The long running story of this Colonel Parker, Bunkhouse Buck, and Dustin Rhodes aspect is eventually leading to him reforming his own version of the studs table, which I get towards the end of 94. That still actually goes back a long ways. The original version was back in 1982, back in Southern Championship Wrestling, when it was actually Bart Parker's brother that formed it. Oh, okay.
01:38:22
Speaker
He is described as the original Tennessee stud, Ron Fuller. I'll tell you his list of the Wikipedia. Oh, okay. His version back then had Jimmy Golden, AKA Punk House Buck in it. Oh. As well as our Anderson, who we would see involved in that storyline later.
01:38:37
Speaker
Okay, that's interesting. They would do as well in CWA, the Continental Wrestling Association between 86 and 89, where Gen B, those two, as well as Dutch Mantle, Tom Pritchard, and Cactus Jack, apparently. Huh. And finally, I'll link up to this, you get a version in 1991 in Smoky Mountain, where again, Rob Parker would come over there, he'd fight with the teams such as Rock and Roll Express and Heavenly Bodies, and it would again be him and Jimmy Golden and Dutch Mantle.
01:39:07
Speaker
the stable broke up when R. Parker left Bucky Mountain to go to WCW. Okay. And here comes Spunkhouse Buck now. So that stud stable concept has really followed Parker around. Yeah. That's, that's, that's neat. Yeah. So you're telling me that that where there were actually moments in wrestling history where we could presumably have tag matches with Arn Anderson and Cactus Jack on the same team.
Backstage Confrontation: Rude vs. Vader
01:39:30
Speaker
Uh, yes. That sounds kind of awesome actually. Yeah.
01:39:37
Speaker
We cut backstage, where Jesse is with an infuriated Rick Rude who is punching lockers. A paramedic or the like is working on Jerry Saggs in the background. It's been like an hour. Is he just getting to Saggs now? Yeah, no rush. This seems bad.
01:39:55
Speaker
Thank you, Tony, Shabody, Jesse, the Body Ventura, back here into the dressing room. I'm hoping to get an interview with Ravishing Rick Roode. Rick, look it. I understand what happened out there tonight, but I'm confused. I mean, I figured that Race and Vader were coming out there to aid you, and I'm not so sure about it. I didn't send out no SOS. I didn't need no help. What you're looking at is 14 years of hard work, blood, sweat, tears, does a drag. I didn't need no help. I had to stay right where I want.
01:40:24
Speaker
loud noises
01:40:44
Speaker
Rude and Vader shove each other, and Regal, Knobs, Austin, and a towel-clad Jerry Sags get between them, wisely directing most of their attention to holding Rude back so they don't tempt Vader to murder them. Regal's expression during all of this is wonderful, by the way. As Rude screams at Vader, Regal just gets this look of pure horror, like, oh dear, the lunatic is enraging the monster and I'm in the immediate vicinity. I may well die today.
01:41:11
Speaker
It's other words noting that Riegel's wearing, it looks like blue jeans, right? It does, yes. Like casual. Very, very British Lordly outfit to wear. Yeah. Blue jeans. Exactly. I thought this was a great segment. It was. Rude is so angry that he's not even thinking clearly about just who he's challenging. Yeah. And it definitely made me interested in seeing where this could go. Mm-hmm.
01:41:35
Speaker
Sadly, as you mentioned earlier, we won't get to see this fully developed because, as we covered on Slamberry94, Rude would go on to suffer a career-ending injury against Sting in Japan. I do really wonder where this would have gone otherwise. Maybe a face turn for Rude? Yeah, I don't know. Face version Rick Rude versus Vader would have been quite interesting. Yeah.
01:41:56
Speaker
Or like, Rude fights Vader and Vader loses because of Harley Race messing up and then Vader turns face? That could be interesting too, yeah. I know one thing that would definitely have been great. Rick Rude's tights. Oh, of course, yeah. Vader and Rude tights would be an amazing sight. Oh yeah, absolutely. We go back to the commentary desk and Tony says that Rude blames Race and Vader for his loss. Heena says, of course, who else would he blame, Mr. Rogers?
01:42:25
Speaker
Aaron Neville stays stock still in the background for this whole segment just staring at the ring. Why is he there? I mean, I guess he sat down and no one said otherwise. No one is willing to acknowledge or question it.
01:42:38
Speaker
Tony throws to footage from 1994's Super Brawl 4, where the boss, Ray Trailer in the very much copyright infringing gimmick, was handcuffed to a cage, broke the cuffs, and beat up Vader with his nightstick. It's surprising to see such violence that Super Brawl 4, the quest for peace. You don't expect that. Tony finally gives us a let's go to the ring.
01:43:06
Speaker
Let's go to the ring and Gary Cappetta! Our seventh match is The Boss versus Vader with Harley Race in a gigantic grudge match. Referee for this one is Randy Anderson.
Boss vs. Vader Grudge Match
01:43:21
Speaker
And by the way, a gigantic grudge match appears to just be a normal match, just that happens to have two big dudes in it. Yeah. It's not the ODQ or anything. There's one part that makes you think it might be something more, but yeah, we'll get to that.
01:43:33
Speaker
So as noted at Super Bowl, the boss, not man, was a guest ref in Vader's match.
01:43:40
Speaker
things would go awry as Vader and his manager would not take kindly to the boss they thought officiating poorly so they beat him up and handcuffed him to the cage he would of course break free and beat them up and then cost Vader the match which certainly did not make Vader happy presumably he had a similar locker punching incident after that same way he just dealt with the other side
01:44:04
Speaker
We know he did at Starrcade 93 at least, so. That's true. He really just, like, replaces the lockers with, like, Nerf ones or something, like, nice and foamy. He's like, rah! Ooh, so nice. We'll just move them because you know Vader's gonna be mad. A locker of pillows. Ooh, yeah, there we go. It's somewhat ironic that the boss has shown on a wanted poster well-dressed as a member of law enforcement.
01:44:29
Speaker
Yeah. That old gimmick is weird from the get-go. He goes from NWF being a prison guard, which they conflate 100% with being a cop. Which is not quite the same thing. Not quite the same. I mean, there's a lot of crossover. Yeah, there's some overlap there, but they just go right from he's a prison guard to just use cop. It doesn't matter what else happens. Yeah. That's basically what he is here. He's basically a cop, yeah.
01:44:54
Speaker
I assume that Vader's appearance on a wanted poster would be more informational without a reward listed. You know, just, this guy's in the area, we can't do anything about it, just treat it as a natural disaster and take cover. Yeah. Vader's in the same level as the actual stampede. Yes. I'm pretty sure that Boss's sirens at the start of his music are the same ones that they eventually used for Scott Steiner in his later WCW days. Could be. The rest of his theme is very old cop show, so quite appropriate. Yeah.
01:45:25
Speaker
It is amazing that WCW thought that we could get away with him literally dressing as WWF's big boss man, but just wearing a black outfit instead of blue. Yeah. It's the same look. Yes. Vader sadly does not have the helmet this year, but he does have Harley race and a camera crew that follows race instead of focusing on Vader posing awesomely with Pyro. Good job WCW.
01:45:51
Speaker
Boss charges Vader on the ramp. Lot of that tonight, but Vader stops that with a punch. Race holds Boss for the flying refrigerator, but Boss dodges and Race is flattened. He didn't ask why WCW bothers setting up a ring and Tony cracks up. Vader takes off his mask already.
01:46:09
Speaker
Boss clotheslines him into the ring, and they trade big blows until Vader slams Boss, goes to the ramp, charges, and dives over the ropes onto Boss, catching his feet on the ropes and coming down really fast. Boss gets the knees up. That could not have felt good to anybody, but it looked awesome. Nicely, despite countering, Boss sells the legs, limping around, which, in retrospect, might not actually be selling.
01:46:37
Speaker
could be. It's just nice to see an acknowledgement that countering a move that way against the guy as huge as Vader would still damage you. Absolutely. Yeah.
01:46:46
Speaker
Boss actually dominates with lots of big strikes in and out of the ring and even sends Vader over the barricade into the crowd. And I'm pretty sure yelled, see ya, as he did in the great moment. I think he did, yes. Back in, Boss gets big cheers for their body slam. They trade blows, but Vader catches a jumping body press and dumps Boss over the ropes to the floor. And Boss nearly goes head first, but barely catches the ropes to flip himself over on the way and save his life. Yes. Terrifying spot.
01:47:16
Speaker
Tony and Hina'd acknowledge the boss very well could have died there. They also claimed that Anderson didn't see it to explain there not being a DQ, but from the look of terror on Anderson's face as it happened, he definitely did. See, I like to think that you get one free over-the-top-rope move in a gigantic reg match. Yeah, maybe, yeah. That or he's just too afraid to DQ Vader. Yeah, fair.
01:47:41
Speaker
But yeah, just if you look at Anderson while that's happening, it's abundantly clear he definitely saw what was happening, because he looks terrified. Oh yeah. Boss understandably takes a few moments to recover and to let Race get a few kicks in, and we see a shot of Vader who is currently bleeding around the eye. Jeez. Vader suplexes Boss back in as Hienan jokes that he's going to slug the silent Neville if he keeps asking questions. Yes, Neville is still randomly sitting there.
01:48:11
Speaker
Vader jumping body splash gets two. Vader mauls boss, but he fights back with his own strikes. He does whiff on an uppercut, which Tony acknowledges. Huge boss jumping clothesline, you can hear the smack. But Vader soon flattens him with a clothesline, only for boss to take him off the second rope with an inverted power slam. Boss gets two with the second rope DDT and one with a flying body press. Race howls, especially at the second rope DDT bit.
01:48:41
Speaker
Vader catches another top rope dive into a smooth power slam and gets two with a second rope slingshot splash, then hits his beautiful moonsault for the three count and the win. Interestingly, despite the crowd clearly favoring boss throughout the match, the moonsault gets huge cheers before they go back to booing Vader's win. Of course, yeah. How can you not cheer that? Yeah, it's just so amazing that even though they're against him, they still give him acknowledgement there. I like that. Exactly, yeah.
01:49:10
Speaker
Race takes Boss' nightstick and cuffs, and tries to cuff Boss to the ropes, as Henan accidentally calls him Boss Man. But Boss stops him, slugs him, takes the nightstick, and clubs Vader with it before beating the crap out of Race with the nightstick. Commissioner Bockwinkle gets into the ring and backs Boss off, encouraging him to get out of the ring as Vader recovers and Anderson gently encourages him back.
01:49:33
Speaker
Bonkwinkle takes boss up the ramp as Vader comes over to roar at the commentary team asking them, who's the man now? Toning in heat and confirmed that Vader is the man. Absolutely. We get replays of Vader's final splash and moonsault. Thoughts on this? It was a very good, very hard hitting match. And one of those matches they definitely felt the next day. I'll say. And probably the next week. Yes.
01:49:58
Speaker
What's really neat with this match is they don't just do the normal big man stuff. They give you that, but they give you extra bits. Even them doing more basic moves that just aren't really done in a big man versus big man match, like suplex and stuff are neat to see.
01:50:15
Speaker
Likewise, Vader and Boss do. Vader and the Boss do a good job of making all the stuff work pretty well. Boss is a bit of trouble with the biosam at first and Vader play the system and letting him slam him. Yeah. It's not like K-Fae burning, but he can definitely tell that there's some assistance there. Because to be fair, Vader's, you know, life is in the line when he's being help side down like that. So I would absolutely help them do that to me too. Yes. The crowd pop big for that slam. Yeah.
01:50:45
Speaker
If anything, you could argue that maybe they're a bit too adventurous and too ambitious, maybe. Cause there's a couple of spots they do. I think they execute generally well, but like really the DUT spot looks kind of odd because boss like actually getting the DUT even does like the quick sort of drop backwards off the ropes, but then it looks more like an actual suplex. Yeah, I can see that.
01:51:08
Speaker
It still looks like an impactful move. It looks like one guy was taking a different move. But credit cards do. Just trying to move like that and exiting as close as they did is still worthy of merit. Yes, absolutely. Likewise, even if you're going to critique whether Vader always hits his moonsault 100% center mass and perfectly, the fact that he does such a beautiful looking moonsault at his size is impressive to see. Yes, absolutely.
01:51:38
Speaker
I'm much of the same mind. This is two big scary dudes pounding the ever-loving crap out of each other, but it's intermixed with some neat counter spots that give it a bit more complexity than we sometimes get from that sort of match. Vader is big and awesome as usual, but Boss gave as good as he got, and both got some of the hard hits and big slams that you want from this sort of match. It was really cool to see somebody get to go toe-to-toe with Vader like that. In fact, it's almost a little bit too much in favor of Boss at the start.
01:52:07
Speaker
But once Vader starts getting offense, the match gets more even quite quickly, so I can forgive it. I guess they just felt the need to get boss on even footing with Vader first. I can see that. Yeah, very entertaining match from two very hard-working big guys. I enjoyed this quite a bit. Getting that pacing, I've seen in other Vader matches, even with him and Sting. Sting will come in really strong and sort of throw him off his game. Then all he needs is one good strike and one good counter and then he can take over again.
01:52:36
Speaker
Yeah, I just think maybe they could have recognized, okay, boss is just about equivalently big as Vader, so we probably actually don't need the heavy offense intro from him necessarily. Yeah. Like I said, once they get Vader doing offense, it feels perfectly nice and even, so it gets there very quickly. No, I'm not doing that. I can see that point, yeah.
01:52:55
Speaker
The other thing I really, really liked about this is both of them were really good about selling for each other. Yes. They're both big guys that look tough, but are actually really generous. Yeah. Not like too generous, not where it like devalues them, but both of them really do a nice job in this and in other matches of being big dudes that are not afraid to show that they got hurt. Yeah. When you get a wrestler like that, that's that special. Oh, for sure. Yeah.
01:53:23
Speaker
After a short delay involving, you know, the whole WWE International title at the next show, the few would resume in time for the Bash at the B-Tape review where they would have another match. Back to Mean Gene, and he shills the hotline where you can talk to Sting. He says it like it's just because Sting won the title, but they'd already been planning to have Sting on the hotline before. It's almost like wrestling is scripted or something. I was gonna say, it's like a different Sting.
01:53:52
Speaker
1-900-909-9900. He gets cheap cheers by calling Chicago a Major League City and throws to the main event. Let's get back to the ring. Come on! How much do you taunt us in the past?
01:54:07
Speaker
We get the wanted poster with Flair and Steamboat, but Tony suddenly says there's something going on in the back. We cut to Gene for a moment and he looks rather confused, clearly wondering why he's being queued again, before they properly cut backstage where we see Jesse with the boss and Commissioner Bachwinkle, i.e. the actual boss. They fail to turn on Jesse's microphone for a bit, but they get there. I guess it does help make this look unplanned if I'm being generous. Let's go with that.
01:54:42
Speaker
That's some tough matches tonight where the contestants stipulated to the rules before they got into the ring. This was not the scenario tonight and I realize how you feel and I sympathize with you but I'm going to tell you right now
01:54:57
Speaker
You represent a lot of good people and they do it in a certain way. This is not one of them and I'm taking this away from you right now. I'm taking the handcuffs away from you.
01:55:08
Speaker
Okay? Because I'm saying one more thing to you. As far as I'm concerned, personally, you're no longer the boss. Now, I want to say that I sympathize with you and I know how you feel, but there's no two ways. You can't just take this. We know what this has done. And you did the wrong thing. It's not a popular decision on my part, but that's the way it's going to be. Well, there you got it, ladies and gentlemen, Nick Bockwinkle.
01:55:32
Speaker
Taking away the handcuffs, taking away the wand, the baton, and literally stripping the name Boss from the boss. Let's go to Michael Buffer and the main event. Jesse Oddly calls the nightstick a wand at the end there. Does he think Boss is a wizard? Yeah. I'm not sure which Harry Potter house he's part of, but I'm sure someone has decided that.
01:55:58
Speaker
So this is actually happening because Boss being Boss was getting WCW in legal trouble with the WWF, but I think is actually a good way to handle it. Boss semi-justifiably lost it after his match when Race went for him, but went too far in reply, so Buckwinkle lays down the law here in one of his better segments. They had to do this, but it was nice that they gave it a bit of a story. Right, I can see that.
01:56:20
Speaker
Yeah, Bakugo got to the right point, but he definitely repeats himself maybe a bit here. Yes, definitely. He lingers a little on his statements and kind of restates himself several times and says the exact same thing a couple times. Can be repetitive, maybe, perhaps. It's not quite as bad as Starrcade 94. No. That's this one. He clearly knows what he's going to say. True. Yeah.
01:56:46
Speaker
Mia Sohor, this would lead to the boss becoming the guardian angel, which makes me think of it's a wonderful life in a very different way now. Like he's going to shove you off the bridge instead of saving you. The guy who actually ran that program, uh, the guardian angels, I believe ran for mayor of New York city recently. Oh, interesting. It'd be lost, but that was just an interesting thing to find. Yeah. All right. Our final match.
01:57:15
Speaker
is Ricky the Dragon Steamboat versus the Nature Boy Rick Flair for Flair's WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
Flair vs. Steamboat Championship Clash
01:57:23
Speaker
Referee for this one is Nick Patrick. Now champion again, Flair faces off with the returning rival in the form of Ricky Steamboat. Famously, the pair would have a classic match in 1989 at a bizarrely one-off show, typically in Chicago, which is nice for this actually. The way they got to this point was a little interesting.
01:57:43
Speaker
So Steamboat would reappear and try to get his match. This would lead to, of all people, Steve Austin, giving a hard time over this. They would have a match between him and Steve Austin, where he would win via DQ over Austin after losing a tag match earlier with him and Flair to become a number contender. I guess it kind of goes back to the whole US champion is number contender thing. Although if he has to have a match.
01:58:11
Speaker
He's not an implementer then. Yeah. He's what? Theoretically an implementer. They go back and forth on whether it actually means number one or it just gets you close. I don't know. Yeah. They're not, they're not very consistent on that, which will shock no one. Yeah. And of course the last bit of buildup is there'd be a fight in the ring involving Flair's team boat and others and the process team would accidentally hit Flair and Flair was not so sure it was accidental.
01:58:38
Speaker
Oh, okay. So they referenced earlier. From that angle. Yeah. I thought it would be Flair accidentally hitting Steamboat. No. That's interesting. That explains some of the mood in this match then. Yeah. It takes it away from being just the friendly rivals thing to maybe being more personal. Yeah. Interesting.
01:59:02
Speaker
Steamboat's music starts up, then suddenly stops. I swear that you hear what sounds like Ric Flair talking to some people backstage and giving a quick woo while the commentators are talking about what just happened with the boss. Could be. It wouldn't surprise me at this point.
01:59:17
Speaker
Steamboat's music starts up again, and he comes to the ring, wearing dragon wings and walking between two awesome smoking dragon statues. He has a torch, and he does a fire breathing stunt when he reaches the ring. He has very cool dragon art on his pants. We see a beavis and butt head sign in the crowd praising Steamboat, which is a sentence I definitely never expected to say.
01:59:42
Speaker
Tony points out that the fans are split. There's some Dragon fans and some Flare fans, and we definitely see that throughout the match. Yes. Flare is out next in a black and silver robe. A sign in the crowd spells woo with two Hs, which is too too many. Buffer is here for ring intervals again, and says the WCW again. Of course he does. Did no one talk to this guy between matches? Right?
02:00:10
Speaker
He runs through the organization and executives sanctioning the match, which I rather liked. I know it's just a bunch of babble, but it does make it feel more like a legit major title match when you list all that stuff. Buffer almost says that Steamboat is from Chicago, but quickly corrects himself to Charlotte. Steamboat actually gets booed by a significant portion of the crowd, which I'm not sure I've ever seen. Yes. Flair also gets a mix of boos and cheers. The crowd's definitely conflicted, as Tony pointed out.
02:00:40
Speaker
Michael Buffer, by the way, is wearing an earring here, which I don't think I've ever noticed on any other show. I'm thinking back, and I really don't think I've ever seen him wearing an earring before. Yeah, Beth doesn't seem really to me either. It's the 90s, you know? That's happening. Yeah. We get a shot of Flair's then-wife, Beth, in the crowd, and Tony goes over the chaos of the earlier matches on the card and says, this is going to be an entirely different match. Flair and Steamboat will keep it in the ring and do a straight wrestling match.
02:01:12
Speaker
rapid counterwrestling to start, and they're evenly matched. Heaton points out that fans booing Steamboat probably still like him, they just like Flair more. Tony agrees, and he and Heaton go over the lengthy history of Flair vs. Steamboat, including Steamboat's first time taking a title from Flair, the NWA TV title, in the late 1970s. Steamboat's time with Vern Ganya and the AWA also gets a mention.
02:01:36
Speaker
The counterwrestling continues until Flair, frustrated, shoves Steamboat hard, so Steamboat gives him a mighty slap. Flair shoves him again and earns a slap so hard he has to use the ropes to keep his feet.
02:01:51
Speaker
Stare down, and Steamboat goes on hard offense, moving beyond holds to a military press drop, flying head scissors, and a couple drop kicks that send Flair to the outside. Steamboat goes out, but just throws Flair back in, holding true to Tony's prediction, and hits a top rope flying chop for two. Flair goes back out to recover, and Steamboat calmly waits. Nicely, Flair goes to the ramp to get in, to make it easy to do so without lowering his guard. Nice little touch there.
02:02:22
Speaker
Flair starts using the hair to take Steamboat down, and an angry Steamboat knocks him flat. Flair's shove, Steamboat slap, and Patrick separates them yelling, wait a minute, wait a minute, whoa, whoa! He warns both of them, especially Flair. Patrick having to reassert control nicely shows how emotional the match is getting.
02:02:41
Speaker
Back to wrestling, and Steamboat works a side headlock. Flare tries to shove him to the ropes, but Steamboat kicks off the corner turnbuckle, flips over Flare, and takes him down to keep the hold on. Heaton does note that technically Steamboat was illegally using the ropes there. Awesome spot though. Oh yeah.
02:02:58
Speaker
Steamboat really grinds on the headlock and earns several two counts. Flare keeps getting caught by shoulder blocks on escape attempts. Flare, buddy, work on your match prep. Flare finally throws his Steamboat over the top rope, and Patrick is just about to DQ Flare when he sees that Steamboat caught the ropes and was skinning the cat back in. It should probably still be a DQ, but I like that they at least try to explain it. Yeah, I mean, I think a tent should account for something if we're going with these rules, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
02:03:26
Speaker
I guess you can say maybe it only really counts if they actually do hit the floor hard, and since Steamboat didn't have a chance of being critically injured, maybe that's why. Like I said, at least there's an explanation, like an attempt at one. Steamboat gets two counts with a roll-up and side headlock takeover, but Flair rolls him onto his shoulders for two.
02:03:45
Speaker
Flare finally escapes the side headlock with a knee strike to the gut, but Steamboat quickly shifts to a front face lock, keeping Flare away from the ropes. Flare escapes with multiple shoulder blocks in the corner and dodges a Steamboat dropkick, then repeatedly uses his own body to hide close fist punches from Patrick.
02:04:03
Speaker
Flair lands his excellent knee drop, and Steamboat rides in pain. Hienan randomly points out Neville's beefy arms and asks why he wasn't in the earlier street fight. Yeah, he's still just sitting there. Yep.
02:04:17
Speaker
Flair wears Steamboat down, but Tony points out that Steamboat quickly gets to his knees to try to make Flair expend more energy pushing him down again, as Flair does for seven two-counts. He then tells him to use the tights next time. Just being helpful, yeah. Yeah. Another three two-counts from a back elbow. Flair complains to Patrick. Flair and Steamboat exchange chops, but Flair crossbody Steamboat and himself to the floor.
02:04:46
Speaker
Flair trials a pile driver out on the floor, but Steamboat back-body drops free. Flair comes up with glitter on his back, and I'm shocked that I think that's the first time I've actually said that tonight. Uh, yeah, I think so. Steamboat goes toward the commentary table, but pats Bakwinkle's shoulder, then tries a flying splash with Flair on the barricade, but Flair dodges and Steamboat eats barricade.
02:05:09
Speaker
Tony theorizes that Steamboat might actually have wanted to grab a chair, but stopped when he saw a bokwinkle, which nicely builds up how angry Steamboat is getting at Flair's tricks.
02:05:19
Speaker
Back in, Steamboat counters a Flair top rope move with a beautiful Superplex for two and a half. Steamboat flings him to the corner for a Flair flip, chops Flair down, and hits a flying chop to the outside. Flair begs for mercy and there is a great shot where you can see the welts that Flair's chops have left on Steamboat's chest. Oh yeah. It's just perfect camera work there for once.
02:05:44
Speaker
Steamboat lands his own chops and Flare flops for two, but Flare sends Steamboat outside by the tights, but Steamboat sunset flips back in. Flare keeps his balance and punches him, then goes for the knee drop, but Steamboat catches his leg and smoothly transitions to the figure four. Great spot there.
02:06:04
Speaker
Steamboat earns multiple two counts and fights expertly to keep Flair away from the ropes, drawing a d**k from him and on a close miss. Flair finally manages an eye poke to break, and Steamboat rolls out to recover. Flair struggles to stand, and on an attempted suplex, Steamboat falls on top for two and a half.
02:06:26
Speaker
They trade fast two counts, and Henan says his blood pressure is 200 over 300. So hopefully they can get that paramedic that was working on Jerry Saggs to come out. Flair begs for time, and Steamboat angrily asks, why? They chop each other around the ring. Tony notes that Steamboat is able to use his legs to put more power in his chops, and Henan adds that Flair just doesn't have the leg power after the figure four. Great bit of commentary there.
02:06:54
Speaker
Steamboat double chop sends Flair to the ramp, and Steamboat flips over a Flair counter of a Steamboat suplex and chops Flair back in. Nice. Flair flip to the floor, but he gets his boots up on a Steamboat diving chop from the apron, and Hienan yells for Flair to get Steamboat back in for a pin. Easy there, Coach, Tony says.
02:07:16
Speaker
Back in, more chops by both, and Steamboat hits a flying crossbody for 2 and 9 tenths. Flare clotheslines him, but his hurt leg slows him going to the top, so Flare Karma strikes. Beautiful Steamboat flying splash, clear across the ring, but Flare dodges, so Steamboat's knee gets hurt.
02:07:35
Speaker
Figure four. Steamboat tries to resist it, but Flare kicks him and locks the hold on, earning multiple two counts. Steamboat agonizingly drags himself and Flare to the ropes to force the break. Flare goes after the knee, but Steamboat counters another figure four and a hip toss for two each, then gets Flare up top for a massive superplex. Both are down, and Patrick's counts to eight before Steamboat drapes an arm for two and a half.
02:08:03
Speaker
Patrick is forced to dodge out of the ring on a whip and lunges back in to count two on a steamboat roll-up. Steamboat flips over a back suplex attempt and grabs his elevated double-chicken-wing hold, but his legs give out, and he goes down. He goes for a pin, bridging, for the three-count. The cheering crowd and the commentators think that Steamboat has won, as does Steamboat himself, but Anderson comes out to consult, and Bachwinkle enters the ring.
02:08:33
Speaker
Patrick tells him that both men's shoulders were down, neither had control, and he had to count both down. Bachwinkle advises Patrick as the crowd chants and cheers for Flair and Steamboat, but Patrick finally rules Flair, the winner. Steamboat protests, but the ruling stands and fireworks go off. Bachwinkle comes over to explain.
02:09:06
Speaker
Mr. Commissioner sitting right down here with us.
02:09:10
Speaker
As Ric Flair retains the title, we heard Nick Patrick say that both men had their shoulders down. You went in there. What did you tell Nick exactly? Two things. Tradition dictates that if a match would be a draw, that naturally it would go to the champion. But this was not a time limit situation. The other situation is this.
02:09:34
Speaker
Flair was the champion and it was the job of Steamboat to take and be won 16th or 132nd of an inch ahead of him. He was not. He did not prove it. So he, at this moment, until I can take this to the board, the championship will be retained by Flair. So you're a great decision. So you've got to talk to the board yet, right?
02:09:56
Speaker
Well, I mean, this is the decision I've made tonight. The match is over, and so be it for this moment. But so right now, Flair is the champion, and I'll take this to the board. Alright, he will take it to the board, so the controversy continues. Hopefully we'll have some results of your talk with the board. A fantastic effort by two great athletes.
02:10:15
Speaker
on wcw saturday night fans make sure you join us next saturday night you'll be talking to the board and what a while yes go ahead and i think that you did the only fair thing and justing how about that well it's unusual to get compliments from sir robert all right so rick flare is still the world heavyweight champion commissioner nick bachwinkle will talk to the board this week and we will have the results of that discussion this coming saturday on wcw saturday night
02:10:40
Speaker
Again, kind of slightly clumsy by Bachwinkle there. He doesn't fully seem to have it planned out what he's going to say. Yeah, but still not as bad as stargate 94 at least. No, that's true. Basically, it just boils down to it was Steamboat's job to get a clear victory. He didn't. So flair retains. Yeah, it's kind of funny because he keeps going back to, well, this is my decision, but go to the board. Yeah, that is true. Yeah.
02:11:04
Speaker
thoughts on the match? Oh, it's a really good match. I mean, it's flair and steamboat, obviously. Right. Yeah. It's like we've talked before over, you know, certain pairings like flair and sting, for instance, something bad has to happen for a match between the two to go poorly. Right. Thankfully, in this case, we didn't have any of that.
02:11:23
Speaker
If anything, we got a little extra bit. For example, we don't have fully superhero flair. He's slightly more faced, but as he gets angrier, he gets a little more antagonistic, but he's still mostly a good guy here. And they give him the angle of obviously being a noise team vote for the actual contact. So it's different than previous ones where I'd always be full on.
02:11:46
Speaker
you know, wheeling, dealing, losing ride, and jet flying. Ric Flair against third babyface wants to spend time with his family in, you know, Hawaii. Steamboat. Right. It feels a little bit like the Sting versus Flair at Starrcade 89. Oh yeah. Though this one goes harsher faster than that one. True. But it's a similar concept where it's like Flair's not quite a full bad guy. Yeah. He's kind of the probably a good guy, but he's still Ric Flair, so you kind of doubt him. Exactly.
02:12:13
Speaker
That's the default Randy Orton face move, is it? Yeah. Yeah. There's a nice dynamic here as well as Steamboat gets annoyed with Flare's antics. It's nice to see him sort of being able to turn with the match and go with the crowd and be a little more heel-ish. Yes. Even he's never going to go full heel and never win his career, which is interesting. There's a depth to his character in this one that is really interesting.
02:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, when he's in control, he can sort of deal with players shenanigans. But when he's not in control, they get more annoying, because obviously they're keeping him from getting what he wants, which is the world title. Yeah, it's a rare match where Tony Schiavone can say, I think Steamboat might have been going for a chair. And I actually buy it. Yeah, it's not. It's not he didn't say that. Yeah. Yeah, he was selling the anger so much. Yeah, that I was like, you might be right. Yeah.
02:13:04
Speaker
Admittedly, if you did all of that, it wouldn't really seem like it wouldn't affect the match that much given how Bach would let the whole shenanigans with the international title go on without any interruption. Fair, yes. And by the way, no board called for that one? Nope, nope. Okay. Maybe the international board gave him full control. Oh, okay. WCW International being a different company. Yeah. Allegedly. WCW International being a placard on the door that just leads to another one of his offices. Yes.
02:13:32
Speaker
Nick Bockwinkle is WCW International. We broke the code. I think we did. Same name. Nobody cares at this point, but we did it. Hooray. Yes. But yeah, they work a really good match. I remember saying at the time, I thought they were going slow, but steady early on. But again, they even said then they never stopped with the character aspects. They never stopped with the action. They would just slow down on holds. But as you said, with Steamboat as well over of course, the show covering him.
02:14:01
Speaker
He always keeps hold interesting, whether he's in them or he's applying them. Yes. You know, he'll change the grip a little bit, or he'll, you know, let them sort of struggle a bit or, you know, fight away out of it. So the match was never boring. I just, I was worried about it because knowing the length of it, and even in being flaring steam, but I was like, can they really fill all this time out with meaningful action? And I thought they did a pretty good job with that. All things said, yeah.
02:14:27
Speaker
the slowest bit in it is when they're working that side headlock by Steamboat. And even that, like you said, he keeps it interesting, he moves around, he grinds on it really heavily and makes clear his distaste for Ric Flair in that moment. He does a good job of taking honestly a fairly basic hold, but doing a lot with it. Exactly.
02:14:46
Speaker
And this is again, this is on the same show where we had the sting root match where they had that some internally long front face lock. So you have a good contrast for how you can make these moves more interesting and holds more interesting. Yeah. While still giving an actual rest period and prep period. Yeah. Yeah. I can't normally make complaints. Um, it would be nice to have an actual finish.
02:15:09
Speaker
But I think they're trying to sort of build intrigue at a time where they know the company's gonna change. I don't know if this point Hogan's actually signed, but he's definitely going to sign if he hasn't properly signed behind the scenes yet. So they're trying to look one last bit of sort of old school, NWA, JCP territory, drama before it basically gets all cartoony with masked people with batons and, you know. Yes, engine of doom and all that.
02:15:38
Speaker
If you're going to give a swan song to the old WCW before things change, Flare Steamboat is not a bad way to do it. There is a reason that this feud is legendary, and while their 89 series is more often spoken of, this is an excellent contest as well that lives up to the legend.
02:15:56
Speaker
It does, as we said, have some repetition in the middle with Steemo working the headlock for quite a bit, but he does so aggressively and they work around it expertly in a variety of ways, so it retains interest. Otherwise, a rapid and complex mat wrestling opening set the stage for an exceptional match with loads of great counters, excellent character work, a complex and interesting crowd dynamic, and an ascending intensity that just built and built through the whole thing.
02:16:23
Speaker
Both men showed off their incredible stamina, and while you could see the wear of the match had on them, they performed strongly all the way to the end. Like you, I didn't really like the ending. I thought this should have been a, there must be a clear winner, so let's continue the match kind of situation. But the match to that point was brilliant, and this one's still a must-see.
02:16:43
Speaker
I could definitely see them doing like he said, there must be one other thing and then maybe have Flair do a special heal-ish to really enforce yet. No, he's Rick Flair, he's the heal because we know he has to be mega heal Rick Flair for when Hogan shows up brother.
02:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, you could use this to do the turn that is like, oh no, we must continue. And then Flair just grabs a chair and just belts Steamboat or something. Yeah. Yeah. I could see if they wanted to at this moment, take Rick Flair full heel, then that's what you do. But I think they kind of hold on with him a little bit longer. Yeah. Cause they have to match the next show as well, where he's still sort of between being a full heel and being a face. Yeah. Yeah. So Nick Paquinco did go to the board and they determined that the match was a draw.
02:17:27
Speaker
and that the title was vacated. Oh. Which means there's a brief overlap here, by the way, where the WCW title is vacated and the WCW International title is also vacant. I don't know if it's ever at the same time, but it's so close together. It's funny they went that way. You can't get either world title right, guys. Come on. Yeah, right. Admittedly, the International one was due to them having to reconjigger the story with fruit, but yeah, it's just a legit injury where this is a storyline thing, yeah.
02:17:57
Speaker
At this point, they're holding two Clash of Champions shows per year. And they just have one fairly recently. And the next one's going to be, I believe it's September, which is the second one of two they do every year. And obviously, they're not going to leave the world title of Vacate in for that long. And there's no pay-per-view until Slamberee. So instead of leaving in Vacate in for that long, they decide, well, let's have a big blow-off for the final Ric Flair, Ric Zima match on WCW Saturday night.
02:18:27
Speaker
Feels odd. Yeah, a bit. Especially given we know of wrestling history, which is that Steamboat's injured before the end of this year and doesn't wrestle again until I think it's 2008. That would be when he comes back for the two matches. So this is not actually the final chapter of Steamboat Flair. It's actually on, again, WCW Saturday night.
02:18:48
Speaker
And admittedly, this is a point where WCW Saturday Night is more major than it ends up. Yeah. Nitro has not yet come into play, so... To be fair, yeah. Contextually, it's not as bad as it sounds, but if you look back, and like, yeah, the final Flare Steamboat match is... that. Yeah. It's interesting. It is surprising. Flare, of course, regains the title, and thus leads into the match he has at Slambree against the mystery opponent.
02:19:15
Speaker
Which of course, not Mr. Dusk, because again, we've covered that show. Right, yes. But if you haven't watched that show or episode, add Mr. Duke, I'll leave it that way.
02:19:25
Speaker
Tony talks up WCW Saturday night where they're going to have news of Buckwinkle's discussion with the board, as you noted, and Hienan interrupts him constantly to propose different scenarios with Tony finally just sighing and glaring at him. Hienan wants to know what's going to happen right now and crumples Tony's notes and throws them away as Tony tries desperately not to laugh.
02:19:47
Speaker
Tony repeatedly tries to wrap up the show, as Hienan says, Bockwinkle should just fire the board, make Hienan the board, and he'll handle it. And Tony finally manages to wrap things up and promote Slamboree. And Spring Stampede 1994 is done. So, overall thoughts on Spring Stampede 1994.
02:20:06
Speaker
As a whole, it's a good show. Other than for me, the Tiger Street fight, there's not really bad matches. There's matches that I like less than you for varying reasons and different degrees. But yeah, there's not like a real sore spot of, oh, make sure you skip this match if you're going to watch the show, et cetera, et cetera.
02:20:26
Speaker
So certainly there's a nice variety here. You have sort of the shorter match with the DP, John B. Bad, the basically no story, but here's some action kind of match. Then you have the strong and technical match with the Pillman Regal match. You get what later become the requisite hardcore match with the tag match there. You have in theory, the big international attraction match, which again, we vary our opinions on that with Buddha and Austin.
02:20:55
Speaker
You have the big title match, which because it's WCW you have to evolve some sort of shenanigans in, which definitely comes into play later in WCW. Yes. Well again, while I didn't like as much as you did, I thought the Brod's bunkhouse buck match had a lot of merits and was an interesting sort of combination of the
02:21:15
Speaker
more prolonged match like Pillman Regal and the hardcore-ish kind of match with Street Fight. So, yeah, there's not a one-to-one thing to some variety in the show, which is nice. Boss versus Vader was a great big man match with high lumber and depth than you might expect in Variety of Offense. And any show with Flare Steamboat, unless somehow you made an all-battleable show that ends in Flare Steamboat. Where Flare's also playing Black Scorpion,
02:21:41
Speaker
Yes, there you go. It's hard not to recommend a show with a floristina on it. So, there we go. Consider, like, I don't know, this is close to a three-hour show, probably. I can't remember the exact runtime.
Show's Overall Quality and Unique Matches
02:21:54
Speaker
Assume it is. Even if literally everything else on the show had sucked, floristina would still be one-sixth of the show. Yeah. So. That's true. Even if everything else had sucked, it would still be worth a look just for that. Yeah. But everything else did not suck.
02:22:11
Speaker
This was a terrific show. And honestly, I would actually say it's one of the best that I've watched for Let's Go to the Ring. At eight matches, every single one I thought was at least good, with some truly great ones mixed in. Terrific character work up and down the card, a whole bunch of excellent and interesting angles with a ton of potential, and expert setup for the upcoming Slamboree. Now, sure, not everything may go to plan coming up, but that is not something to hold against this show. No, sure.
02:22:41
Speaker
What's more, the matches almost all got enough time to breathe and really develop into something interesting. They aren't just action, they really communicate their own story. Yeah. Each one feels unique, each one telling a story different from the others with its own nature and feel. It's a really impressive accomplishment by WCW here, and it's rewarded by some amazing crowd reactions throughout the night. It's a really hot crowd for most of the show.
02:23:07
Speaker
The only notable mark against the matches is that there are some rather unsatisfying or awkward endings on this show and some otherwise brilliant matches. We have a time limit draw, an over the top rope DQ, a table spot that seems to go a bit off, a slightly awkward chair shot spot, and a somewhat confusingly handled double pin.
WCW Presentation and Production Issues
02:23:25
Speaker
The matches remain good fun and don't lose much in those endings, it's just a bit of an odd theme to an otherwise excellent show.
02:23:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's a tricky thing not being viewed as a placeholder show, you know, sort of prolonging the story. So we'll watch the next show for the real, including everything. Right, yeah. WCW pulled out a lot of stops in the presentation. Lots of pyro, cool entrances like Steamboat's dragons, and a good emphasis of the show's theme in the various graphics. It really helped make the show stand out and give it a strong identity. Yeah.
02:23:58
Speaker
The production, unfortunately, was also where some missteps happened, most notably during the Chicago street fight where the split screen gimmick hurt a good brawl and the camera guys were frequently out of position. Yes. There were a few other glitches on the audio or video front at other points, but that was the biggest offender. For sure, yeah. Commentary was excellent. Yes.
02:24:18
Speaker
This is early in Tony and Hienan's time together, so they do seem to still be working out their act and let a few things by that in later appearances they jump right into. But even so, they have a great mix of good discussions and funny jokes that just works, and works well right from the get-go.
Final Thoughts and Comparisons
02:24:35
Speaker
As ever, I enjoyed listening to them, and it was clear that they were having fun playing off of each other. Silent Third member Aaron Neville was an odd presence throughout the night, but Hienan managed to make even that funny. Yeah.
02:24:47
Speaker
It was just a brilliant show. I have no major complaints. It's an easy, easy show to watch and an easy show to recommend. If you want to see WSW at its finest, this show is a great choice.
02:24:59
Speaker
No, yeah, absolutely. That shows as well that it's hard to predict based on what year and what placement a show is. It's going to get quality, because you can have Starrcade, which is arguably the WrestleMania, and then you have just some real stinkers, like the 991. Starrcade 94. That one's an awful show. Yeah, I think that was really the worst of all of us as a whole, if I remember correctly.
02:25:28
Speaker
It's definitely in contention for worst, if not the worst of all, what, 18 shows. Yeah. But yeah, then you have Spring Stampede with this random show in 1924 with a cowboy, you know, Western theme and in Chicago of all places. And yeah, quality as a whole is really, really strong. Yeah, exactly. I would never have predicted coming into this, that this would be an excellent show, but it was. Yeah, it's very enjoyable.
02:25:54
Speaker
Alright, it's time for our match of the night and MVP, so Al, you're a match of the night.
02:26:00
Speaker
So, as I said many times, it's good to have a show where it targets big matches at night because there's a lot of strong matches. Yes. For me, I think it comes down to picking between basically the last two matches. Mm-hmm. Boss Vader was a really good match, which had the, for me, the right amount of, like, surprise spots, sort of innovation in this kind of big man match, and just the sort of level of
02:26:25
Speaker
two big guys just literally throwing themselves at each other and slamming each other around. Checked all the boxes for me. Likewise, Flare Steamboat is, you know, Flare Steamboat. Yes. It's again, hard to go wrong with Flare Steamboat. They get extra edge for me for really adding extra nuance here by having Steamboat not turn heel, but definitely turn edgier, sort of coming full 90s Steamboat as opposed to being really, really talented Steamboat that sometimes feels like a person out of place
02:26:54
Speaker
in what's getting into the edgier 1990s.
MVP and Memorable Moments
02:26:57
Speaker
As worse, he can feel like he's a full on 80s wrestling character, you know, the serious grappler guy who just doesn't adapt to anything. But thankfully, here you get to see that's not true. Yeah, it's a toss up for me in a lot of ways. But I think for surprising me a lot and give me everything I wanted, I really have to go with both versus Vader.
02:27:17
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. That was a great Big Man match. Like you said, it has some surprising things that takes it beyond the normal Big Man match. Exactly.
02:27:27
Speaker
Well, I will go with your other choice. Okay. I'm going with Flare versus Steamboat. There were a ton of good matches on this show. In fact, every single match for me was either good or great, but Flare versus Steamboat is above the rest of them easily. Sure. It's so good. It has so much story, so much emotion, so much intensity, and it piles it all on top of a great match that, though long, keeps a good pace and tells a complex and evolving story.
02:27:56
Speaker
What clinches it for me is what you pointed out, actually, in your statements. They did more. Like, they took a Flair versus Steamboat match, which you could have just done. They could have literally just done the Flair versus Steamboat match, but they intentionally evolved the characters. Yeah. The fact that they're taking what's already one of the greatest matches of all time, I think, and pushing it a step further in their characterization, I think, for me, made that definitely the match of the night.
02:28:25
Speaker
Yeah, I would not dispute that because it's a toss-up for me picking those two, but yeah. Yeah. I'll get with you then. MVP? That's a tricky one for me. I could be really predictable and favor the fact that I really liked his match and in fact he actually got to hit his moonsault that I picked Fader, but I like to sort of spread things around unless it's super, super obvious and there's no other picks.
02:28:47
Speaker
So I think between watching the match and your summary really sort of selling it for me, I think I had to give it to Steamboat. Okay. Just because obviously his match was really good, he pretty flaws his execution honestly, which should be enough. But then, as we said, he evolves his character a bit. He gets a little anger and you see an edge turn that normally gets. So take something you don't need to improve and then still doing anyways. For me, that gets in the extra edge. All right.
02:29:15
Speaker
Again, there's a ton of excellent performances tonight, but I'm going to agree with you for a brilliant, emotional performance with incredible subtleties in a lengthy match. I'm giving it to Ricky Steamboat as well. He's always great, but tonight he was just at the top of his game and going beyond what he normally does. It's amazing to say that about someone as good as Steamboat.
02:29:39
Speaker
Also, I do have to give some kudos to the commentary team for really helping to draw out the subtle elements of his character that he was presenting. They did a great job for most of the night, but especially during his match. I definitely considered giving MVP a heat in for maybe the second time. But yeah, his team of performance is so good, he has to be given accolades.
02:30:00
Speaker
I do want to just note a runner-up for me was actually Steven Riegel for having a great performance in his match, but also just for that, that look of sheer terror on his face when he's holding Rick Rude back from fighting Vader. That was a scene-stealing moment. It was wonderful.
02:30:21
Speaker
Riegel, when he leaves WCW, he goes to the WWF and is branded the real man's man. True. It's funny, you get a hint of that, because seeing him in blue jeans, I thought I'd bring his cape. If he's wearing them, are they called blue blood jeans? Oh, yeah, I'll give you that one. Or I guess they would be if Vader got through with them. Yes, definitely then, yeah.
Listener Engagement and Next Episode Preview
02:30:45
Speaker
And that wraps up our review of Spring Stampede 1994. If you've enjoyed listening to us tonight, you can find us on Twitter or Facebook as Let's Go to the Ring. Links will be available in the episode description. Follow us for episode announcements and other show details, and share your own thoughts about each show as we go through. You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, Verbal, or Audible.
02:31:13
Speaker
And please, if you've enjoyed this show, give us a rating or review and share the show through your favorite social media platforms to help others discover us. Many thanks to OSW Review for attendance of pay-per-view figures and to Gina Trujillo for our logo. Next up, Spring Stampede 1997. Wait, what now?
02:31:35
Speaker
Hmm, yes, we go straight from 1994 straight to 1997. We are not skipping shows. Nope. WCW just didn't do a Spring Stampede in 1995 or 1996. Yeah. The title of the show, by the way, is These Men Do Solemnly Swear to Kick, Fight, Punch, Stomp, and Flatten Anybody Who Gets in Their Way. The series has some lengthy taglines. Yeah, it's getting, uh, anime-esque, yeah. There we go.
02:32:02
Speaker
This is Bob Moore for Alec Pridgen signing off. Good night, everybody. Happy rest. Buck beats. Buck beats wrote up. Jeez.