WCW SuperBrawl 1

WCW SuperBrawl 1
St. Petersburg, FL
Bayfront Center
May 19, 1991

This is only the third WCW supercard in 1991 and we’re up to May. Not counting that New Japan PPV, there’s only been two big events in the first five months of the year, weird. Anyway, this marks the first time that I come to a point where I actually was sort of following WCW at the time. TBS was new in the city in mid 1991 and we got a free preview of the channel for a few months. Matt’s dad ended up paying for the extra channels after the preview had ended and they remained semi-WCW fans throughout the early 90s. My interest in the company was on and off. I started watching some WCW programming on TBS in 91, including a couple upcoming Clashes, and loved all of the geeky, WWF-style gimmick characters that were in the company at the time. I didn’t get huge into WCW, but would watch it occasionally and remember seeing so many of these characters and angles on Saturday Night and other shows until the free preview ended in fall 91 sometime. By fall 92 WCW was being shown on a regular channel on Saturday mornings, and I started watching it again through to 94 when it was no longer on. I’m excited to see the upcoming events as I get deeper into 91.

This card was held in a classic WCW location, St. Petersburg, FL in front of a hot crowd. The setup was the same as usual, and Jim Ross and Dusty Rhodes were the commentators for the evening. There were 12 matches on a packed card, which made the time fly by.

1. The Fabulous Freebirds defeated The Young Pistols at 10:11 to win the vacant WCW US Tag Team Titles when Hayes pinned Smothers after a masked man, wearing a shirt that said “Fantastia” interfered, after the referee had been knocked down

Exciting opening match. Lots of outside craziness to start, as DDP and Big Daddy Dink accompanied the Birds down to the ring, then Brad Armstrong came down to even the odds. The pace was non-stop from the start as both teams were working in high gear. I’ve been so impressed with the Young Pistols, but I think they were better off as the Southern Boys. There’s some great tag team spots and lots of aerial impact. The Freebirds have been the go-to team to open big events and they always bring the goods. I thought the Pistols were headed for victory, but, after a ref bump, someone wearing a black bird costume ran down. I read that this character was supposed to be Fantasia, but WCW was afraid of a lawsuit by Disney. The evil Gobblygooker double DDT’d both Pistols and helped the Freebirds win the belts. Great action to start the show!

Tony Schiavone interviewed Tom Zenk and Missy Hyatt on the ramp about the card. Schiavone then said Missy would be going back into the dressing room later in the show just like Wrestle War 91 when Stan Hansen ran her out of the dressing room. This was a funny segment as Hyatt was basically begging and hoping to see Zenk naked. LOL.

2. Dangerous Dan Spivey pinned Ricky Morton with a knee to the midsection and the powerbomb at 3:11

Spivey was still being pushed as a nearly unstoppable monster. Morton has been lost for nearly a year without Robert Gibson. This was a glorified Virgil squash match, with Morton trying to land some quick dropkicks and punches, but being annihilated in the end. Spivey’s power offense was damn impressive and he kills Morton with a powerpomb to put this away.

3. Nikita Koloff pinned Tommy Rich with the Russian Sickle at 4:08

Koloff has been on a reign of terror since returning at Wrestle War and turning on Luger. Here he’s in another squash against Tommy Rich. I guess fans were supposed to believe Rich would put Koloff to the test, but instead he gets destroyed. Again, I ask the same question – why the hell is Rich booked on every single damn PPV? Anyway, Koloff destroys him with the Russian sickle and we move on.

Tony Schiavone interviewed Teddy Long on stage. He then announced that he found his newest protege and introduced the world to Johnny B Badd. I laughed my ass off at his horrible promo, and him challenging PN News! LOL! Badd was completely over the top, and it’s amazing that he got over so big. Badd has a lot of hilarious lines, like “I’m so pretty I should have been born a little girl!” The WCW hick faithful boo the shit out of him.

4. Dustin Rhodes pinned Terrance Taylor (w/ Alexandra York & Mr. Hughes) at 8:06 after Hughes accidentally hit Taylor in the face behind the referee’s back

Since our last event, the former Big Cat has now transformed into Mr. Hughes, a gimmick I always thought was really great. The York Foundation have been trying to recruit Dusty’s boy and he of course turned them down. Dusty is hilarious on commentary, putting Dustin over like he’s Hulk Hogan. This match was really well wrestled, as both guys were more than capable in the ring. I think the Terrance Taylor gimmick was the best of his career and he’s pretty awesome as an ultra-slick yuppie heel. The ending was typical Dusty booking, with Dustin outsmarting the whole Foundation and dodging a Hughes punch, which of course connected with Taylor leading to the pin. Dustin Rhodes was a good worker, but Dusty totally oversold him on commentary.

5. Big Josh pinned Black Bart (sub. for Larry Zbyzsko) at 3:47 with a double axe handle and the Northern Exposure; prior to the bout, Josh came ringside with two performing bears

The Wrestlecrap parade continues as Big Josh makes his WCW supercard debut against grizzled old Black Bart who was replacing Larry Zbyzsko. I’d rather see Bart anyway. This match was a mess and a half, just an ugly brawl. As a kid, I remember loving these gimmick characters like Big Josh. They now seem so second rate compared to the WWF’s gimmicks though. WCW sure had an identity crisis at this time, as they partly wanted to be a blood and guts, champions and challengers league like the NWA used to be, and the family friendly WWF. It created a real weird atmosphere on some of these cards, and I suspect it will only be getting worse. Anyway, Josh beats Bart with Earthquake’s vertical big splash. Makes no sense for Josh’s finisher.

Up next Stan Hansen was a guest of Paul E. Dangerously’s The Danger Zone in which Hansen called out the likes of Dustin Rhodes, Brian Pillman, and Tom Zenk and said no one wanted to wrestle him that night. Why even have these talk show segments on a card that’s already jammed with matches? As a result a lot of this stuff felt extremely rushed. Paul E. generates a ton of heat though and he ranted until they cut him off.

Words cannot describe what came next. I read someone’s report on the net saying that segments like this made them ashamed to say they liked wrestling. It was time for the “long awaited” debut of Oz. The arena went dark and smoke and green lights lit up the stage area where a giant castle backdrop had been lowered. Dorothy, The Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the fucking Scarecrow appear. A really stupid voiceover is played, blabbing complete nonsense about a man who’s greater than a wizard. Speaking of wizards, Merlin The Wizard appears (WTF!) with a monkey crawling on him, saying “Welcome to Oz” over and over. Finally the big dumbass Oz himself appears out of the castle and is wearing a wizard mask complete with a beard. This is honestly one of the stupidest moments in the history of wrestling. It makes Papa Shango’s voodoo powers look amazing and realistic. Oz finally unmasks in the ring and Jim Ross pretends to have no idea who he is despite the fact that Kevin Nash last wrestled less than a month before as The Master Blaster! WTF!

6. Oz pinned Tim Parker at the 29-second mark after an airplane spin throw

After the big entrance Oz beats a jobber in under 30 seconds. The whole time Ross continues on about having no idea who this seven foot giant is, despite the fact that he looks the same as he did a month before. This is BEYOND stupid! It’s hysterical to look back with hindsight and think about Oz being a future world champion and one of the “coolest” guys in WCW history.

7. Barry Windham pinned Brian Pillman in a taped fist match at 6:09 after moving referee Nick Patrick out of the way, landing a low blow as Pillman was on the top rope, and hitting the superplex; after the bout, Windham landed several more blows to the face of the bloody Pillman

Here’s where the personality of crisis of WCW really shows up. After seeing Johnny B Badd, Big Josh, and Oz, we get this awesome, NWA style, blood and guts brawl between Pillman and Windham. This feud has been brewing since February and these two enemies just destroy each other in this match. The blood starts flowing early as both guys are pounding the shit out of each other. Awesome old school style match, with some innovative spots and high flying thrown in the mix. Just a great blood feud. Shockingly, Windham picks up the win over Pillman.

Up next Missy Hyatt went in to the men’s locker room and found Terrance Taylor freshly out of the shower. She was looking for Tom Zenk and thought he might be in the shower, but it again turned out to be Stan Hansen who came out wearing his boxers, hootin’ and hollerin’ and spanked Missy until she ran out of the locker room. I guess all this was suppose to be funny, but it just seemed stupid.

8. El Gigante pinned Sid Vicious in a stretcher match at 2:14 with the claw after kicking Vicious as he ran into the corner; after the bout, the One Man Gang and Kevin Sullivan attacked Gigante from behind but Gigante slammed the Gang onto the stretcher on the aisle; moments later, Sullivan threw powder into Gigante’s face, with Gang then hitting Gigante with the stretcher

More outright stupidity. Vicious had announced he was leaving WCW and heading over to the WWF. They insisted he put over Gigante on his way out since this feud had been building for a long time. This is 2 of the worst minutes of “wrestling” that you’ll ever see. Just a farce. Vicious clearly doesn’t care and Gigante is awful. They also ignore the stretcher stipulation and Gigante wins with a clawhold. Vicious simply gets up and walks out after the match. Kevin Sullivan and One Man Gang appear and attack Gigante and another terrible brawl breaks out. It was funny to see the Gang slam a stretcher on Gigante, but this was just horrible. I’m shocked at how little impact Sid had in his first WCW run. I always imagined him to be a top guy and in many big PPV matches, but other than his main event with Sting at Havoc 90 he didn’t really do much of anything. The company seemed clueless on how to use him effectively. And he didn’t exactly have a better run in the WWF from 91-92 either.

Another segment was next as Diamond Dallas Page hosted the Diamond Mine. He was a good talker, but damn annoying at this time. He was flanked by a couple of hot early 90s babes as he prattled on about Lex Luger and Sting. To end the segment he brought out his newest protege – the Diamond Studd! Out walked Scott Hall looking more like Razor Ramon than I remembered. Page did all the talking while Studd just stood there posing. Again Ross pretended to know nothing about this guy, lol!

9. Ron Simmons pinned Butch Reed (w/ Teddy Long) in a steel cage match at 9:40 with the spinebuster after avoiding being hit with a foreign object thrown to Reed by Long; during the bout, Long was suspended above the ring in a cage

Doom explodes! In a cage match no less. Part of the reason WCW has always felt so bush league is because of the weird little things they can never get right, such as this match where Reed and Simmons both enter with the same music, both wearing black tights. If Simmons did a big face turn why not wear some more colorful tights? Or get some new music? This match was a decent brawl and both guys juiced earlier. Reed beat up Simmons most of the match, then when Long tossed the chain down to the ring it gave Simmons the chance to recover and plant Reed with the spinebuster. The crowd pops pretty huge for Simmons, which I’m sure the company was happy for.

10. WCW Tag Team Champions Rick & Scott Steiner defeated Sting & WCW US Champion Lex Luger at 11:10 when Scott pinned Sting after Nikita Koloff interfered as referee Randy Anderson was knocked down on the floor and attempted to hit Luger with the Russian Sickle, a chain wrapped around his arm, but hit Sting instead and busted him open when Sting shoved Luger out of the way

A true 1991 dream match between four of the most popular stars in WCW history. This match was awesome from the opening bell! All four guys pull out all the stops and wrestle at full throttle. It’s non stop high impact power moves and insane suplexes. I wish this match would have been given another 10 minutes because it was so damn good. For four babyfaces, the action is extremely stiff and the crowd is going nuts for whoever is in control. Just a great, great battle. The ending was alright as Sting saves Luger from Koloff, but takes a chain to the side of the head and gets pinned. In a nice touch the Steiners come to check on Sting right after the bell. Once Sting is up he races to the back and attacks Koloff who’s being interviewed by Schiavone. They brawl into the rainy parking lot outside, which was an awesome visual.

11. Bobby Eaton pinned WCW TV Champion Arn Anderson to win the title at 11:50 with the Alabama Jam, moments after Brian Pillman appeared and chased off Barry Windham as Windham attempted to interfere

Bobby Eaton has slowly become a babyface due to the huge crowd reactions he’s been getting. Eaton has been on an awesome role since separating from Lane in late 90 and here he finally gets a big shot at a singles title. I don’t think the Horsemen are still a unit as they’re not acknowledged during this card. This was a great back and forth battle over the title, and Eaton was just tremendous as the ‘never-say-die’ babyface. Barry Windham comes out to interfere, but Pillman quickly fights him off. Eaton comes back and plants Arn with a neckbreaker and finishes him with the Alabama Jam to win the TV title. Just an awesome package of events.

12. WCW World Champion Ric Flair pinned IWGP World Champion Tatsumi Fujinami at 18:39 with a roll up and grabbing the tights for leverage after Fujinami butted heads with referee Tiger Hatori, with referee Bill Alphonso then making the pinfall

Here we are, Ric Flair’s last WCW PPV appearance until 93. I never fully understood Flair’s greatness and what he brought to the company until I started watching all of these NWA events in order starting with 1983. Flair has been the cornerstone of the company and really is their single best asset. To let Flair go due to backstage politics was a complete travesty to the company. This is a return match from the Japan PPV, which had a wonky finish between Flair and Fujinami. Again, I have to say that Fujinami is a great talent, but with his plain black trunks, plain black boots, and boring haircut, he looks like he just stepped out of a 1978 ring. He really could have added some sizzle to his appearance. Despite that, this was just a great match. Flair and Fujinami beat the hell out of each other and the crowd was behind Flair solidly. This was a stiff, Japanese style battle that saw a lot of near falls, really bringing the fans into it. It still seems so weird to me that this was the main event on a card that saw the debut of Oz. Flair picks up the cheap win in the end by using Fujinami’s tights to roll him up.

I was entertained throughout this PPV but it sure had some dumb moments and terrible matches. WCW really needed to decide if they wanted to be a second rate WWF or their own type of company. I’m excited to see the next few events since I remember this time period so well.