Happy SuperBrawl Saturday Everyone! I hope all of your collective shirts are too tight on this momentous day!
This week we return to a WCW show I’ve been intending to watch properly for a while now in the form of SuperBrawl VI. It’s probably best known for the Kevin Sullivan Vs Brian Pillman match, but there’s also Ric Flair taking on Randy Savage and that has to be good right?
If you’d like to view the card for the event you can do so by clicking below;
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1617&page=2
The event is emanating from St. Petersburg, Florida on the 11th of February 1996
Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes
We get the opening Video Package, which runs through the card for the upcoming event. I did like that aspect of the classic WCW shows, although the sitting around whilst the commentators talk rather than just getting a match in the ring annoys me as usual.
Opening Match
Falls Count Anywhere
The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) Vs The Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge)
Both of these two teams were known for brawling and using weapons, so getting them to fight one another in this sort of match made sense. Sadly TPE’s fun WCW theme is dubbed out here with generic parp. This would appear to be a babyface Vs babyface affair based off the entrances as both of the teams acknowledge the crowd on the way to the ring and neither is really heelish.
This is one of those matches where if you like brawling and weapon shots then you’ll probably enjoy it, as it’s basically an ECW match on a WCW show, meaning they’ve toned it down a bit (i.e. no blood or swearing) but it’s still guys fighting all over the place and using plunder. There are a few stiff weapon shots to the head that I could do without, but I can enjoy this style of match in moderation so I can have fun with this.
There is a silly moment where Sags gives Grunge a piledriver on a metal bin inside the ring but then Grunge gets his foot on the rope to break the resulting pin, which shouldn’t count in an FCA match because falls literally count anywhere. They end up fighting by the merch area and Rocco Rock misses a splash through a table and Knobbs gets the pin for three to end the carnage.
WINNERS: THE NASTY BOYS
RATING: **1/2
I had fun with this but your own mileage may vary depending on how much you like hardcore wrestling
Mean Gene Okerlund is backstage where he hypes up his Hotline. Did anyone here ever actually bother calling that? Please share what it was like if so and if you bothered to get your parents’ permission. Konnan comes in for some promo time and thanks the fans for congratulating him on winning the US Title. He will not let the fans down tonight and speaks some Spanish for good measure.
Match Two
WCW World Television Title
Champ: Johnny B. Badd w/ Kimberly Page Vs Diamond Dallas Page
Badd had defeated DDP in November of 1995 in order to get Kimberly as his manager. DDP was not best pleased about that, especially as there was a secondary story going on where DDP won a lot of money on bingo but the ticket ended up belonging to Kimberly. In this match it’s not just the belt on the line but also Kimberly and the bingo winnings.
Kimberly was a darn attractive person but leaping around doing wacky hijinks for Badd’s entrance sure takes a cruise missile to her hotness rating. We see that Linda Hogan is actually watching in the crowd, probably jealous of how tan Kimberly is if her terrible autobiography is anything to go by. DDP hadn’t switched to his Nirvana theme rip off and was still using his Gary Glitter theme. Strangely WWE Network doesn’t bother dubbing that one out but are terrified of Dave Grohl laying the smackdown on them so they always dub Self High Five out.
DDP has roses for Kimberly here in an effort to win her over, but she isn’t interested and the fight starts up between the two wrestlers right away. DDP gets the worst of that and slows things down back inside, leading to some slick chain wrestling between the two, as DDP was really improving at this stage and would end the year as a solid worker. DDP eventually manages to catch Badd with a Stun Gun and starts working some heat, which Badd sells well.
DDP keeps stopping to jaw with Kimberly when he should be focusing on winning, which is solid storytelling as it gets across how his mind isn’t right for this one. DDP makes sure to cheat when the possibility presents itself, such as putting his feet on the ropes when working a chin lock, thus making it a working hold instead of just a rest hold because he’s actually using it as a way to get across the Heel/Face dynamic.
Badd gets the occasional roll-up to show that he’s still alive in the contest, but DDP will invariably regain control whenever this happens. Badd does eventually make the comeback, with DDP bumping and feeding for it well, which leads to Kimberly giving Badd a 10 at ringside. The crowd is either a bit flat for this or aren’t mic’ed that well, but the comeback is fine from a wrestling perspective, one sloppy sit-out powerbomb from Badd aside.
They do some nicely executed near falls, although the crowd doesn’t really bite on them that much, even when DDP tries to get a rope assisted pin at one stage. DDP busts out a version of Matt Riddle’s Bro-Derek move at one stage actually, but it only gets him a two. He tries it again but Badd counters it into a Tombstone Piledriver and this is enough for the three count.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: JOHNNY B. BADD
RATING: ***
The crowd didn’t really get into it but I thought the actual wrestling was good and they told a decent story in there with DDP being too preoccupied with Kimberly and it eventually giving Badd a window back in to the match, leading to DDP eventually losing
Kimberly doesn’t really seem that bothered that she’s just become 6 million dollars richer, and neither does the crowd either. They had done this match quite a few times at this stage so I’m guessing it was getting stale and that’s possibly why the crowd didn’t really care?
Mean Gene is backstage with Harlem Heat. They get a Title shot at Lex Luger and Sting up next. Stevie Ray says he’s going to get revenge on Luger tonight and Sting will be guilty by association. Booker T says The Champs don’t know what they’ve got themselves into tonight. They don’t seem too phased about wrestling The Road Warriorslater on if they happen to win the next one.
Match Three
WCW Tag Team Titles
Champs: Sting and Lex Luger Vs Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray)
Sting and Luger were doing a fun storyline where Sting was a babyface and Luger was a Heel, but they still coexisted due to being friends. It was a surprisingly nuanced storyline by wrestling standards. Sting and Luger don’t seem to be on the same page that much in the early going, with both really doing their own thing whilst Harlem Heat seem like the more well-oiled machine.
The match itself is pretty basic, with it mostly being both teams punching and kicking one another. It’s not actively bad or anything but there’s nothing really that exciting or interesting about it either outside of the occasional storyline point between Sting and Luger. The crowd is kind of flat for it as well, outside of when Sting gets a chance to hit some of his trademark offence such as the running face buster.
Harlem Heat work over Luger for a bit, which he sells in his usual manner that I just can’t ignore now after watching lots of OSW Review. The work remains serviceable but the match remains kind of middling. Stevie Ray does apply an utterly terrible nerve pinch at one stage, which looks like he’s giving Luger a lousy massage rather than putting him in a debilitating hold of some kind. Booker follows that up with a front face lock, as this continues to trundle along at a, let’s say, relaxing pace.
Sting eventually gets sick of seeing his buddy getting beaten up and comes in to run wild even though he hasn’t been tagged. The referee gets distracted by this and doesn’t see Road Warrior Hawk attack Stevie Ray with an international object of some kind, leading to Luger picking up the three when the ref finally starts paying attention again.
WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: LUGER & STING
RATING: *1/2
This was one of those matches where there wasn’t really anything wrong with it (outside of maybe the odd move or hold from Stevie Ray) but it wasn’t really that exciting to watch and it had a pretty flat atmosphere. It didn’t really feel pay per view worthy and more like a TV match
Booker doesn’t understand what happened there whilst Sting seems surprised that his team won.
Mean Gene does an interview with the Tag Champs in the entrance way. Luger talks around the interference in the finish, and Sting seems to be on the same page.
Match Four
WCW United States Title
Champ: Konnan Vs One Man Gang
Konnan had defeated Gang for the belt after Gang had won it from Kensuke Sasaki, so this here is the rematch. This is a pretty big styles clash, as Gang likes to club and punch away, whilst Konnan likes to use Lucha Libre. I like Gang and think he was a good monster Heel in his prime, but his prime years were beyond him at this stage.
Gang clubs away on Konnan to start but Konnan then uses his speed to put Gang on the back foot and even gets a dive off the apron whilst Gang is out on the floor at one stage. Gang pretty much no sells all of that though and proceeds to slowly work Konnan over whilst the crowd looks on unenthused. This crowd has been pretty miserable tonight thus far if I’m honest, sitting on their hands for most of the show.
Konnan eventually makes a bit of a comeback with some punches and gets a super sloppy flying head scissors before missing a terrible dropkick. I think Gang was supposed to move out of the way but he just didn’t so Konnan had to stop short. That looked abysmal. Gang heads up to the second rope and misses a splash (although his feet clearly hit the mat first and he just sort of crumpled) and Konnan tumbles off the top to pick up the three count.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KONNAN
RATING: ¼*
This was pretty lousy as they had negative chemistry with one another and Gang could barely do anything
Mean Gene continues hyping up his hotline, as two former WWF Champions are apparently jumping to WCW. I wonder if that was The Outsiders he was referring to? The Road Warriors come in for some promo time, where Animal says that attack on Harlem Heat was to ensure Sting and Luger won because they want to beat up Luger for something that happened on Nitro. Hawk makes some nasty threats about bodily harm to The Champions.
Match Five
Respect Strap Match
Kevin Sullivan w/ Jimmy Hart Vs Brian Pillman
The story here was that Sullivan’s Dungeon of DOOM faction were ostensibly aligned with The Four Horsemen due to their mutual desire to END Hulkamania, but Sullivan and Pillman can’t get along, so they’ve got a strap match tonight in an effort to settle things. This is both a strap and I Quit match, as to win you have to make your opponent grab the mic and say that they respect you.
This was an attempt by the men involved, and Eric Bischoff, as a way to work the locker room, which is always a stupid thing to do as that doesn’t sell you any extra tickets and just serves to annoy your wrestlers. They have a very quick brawl, leading to Pillman grabbing the mic and saying “I respect you, bookerman”, which was an inside comment as Sullivan was the real life booker and matchmaker in WCW at the time. The crowd doesn’t understand what happened though and boos this.
Arn Anderson comes down to the ring in street clothes following Pillman leaving and it looks like he’s going to be taking part in the match instead. I’m not if they clued Anderson into this or not or if they quite literally just grabbed him in the back and asked him to go out there. If he wasn’t supposed to be part of this then he’s hiding it well anyway.
Sullivan and Anderson have a decent brawl actually, as they work it snug with some loud strap shots and the crowd at least responds a bit to it. Ric Flair eventually decides to run down and get the two back on the same page and the match kind of just ends.
NO CONTEST
RATING: N/A
That was too weird to rate, as it mostly confused the crowd and they ended it just as Sullivan and Anderson were getting the match cooking. I just generally don’t enjoy this sort of stuff either, as it was an angle for the smart fans and the actual wrestling locker room, whilst the paying fans sat at home or in the stands wondering what the heck was actually going on
Pillman managed to convince Eric Bischoff to give him a real contract release following this so that they could really sell that this was “real”, and he ended up jumping to the WWF as a result.
Mean Gene is backstage with The Giant and Jimmy Hart. Hart says that Hulk Hogan only has one eye tonight and that means that Hulkamania is finished. Giant adds his own comments and cuts a decent promo for a guy who was less than a year into his wrestling career.
Match Six
WCW Tag Team Titles
Champs: Sting and Lex Luger Vs The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal)
Luger is of course reticent to get in the ring with The Warriors here, causing Sting to have to try and convince him to get in there. Hawk tries a neck breaker early on and doesn’t quite get it, so they improvise with Sting not selling it leading to a scramble on the mat. That was a good way to cover a botch actually. The match itself is another middling bout that isn’t bad but also isn’t especially exciting or entertaining either, with the crowd continuing to sit on their hands.
The teams don’t really feel like they have much in the way of chemistry as opponents, but there are some nice moments in the match when the wrestlers cut loose with some power stuff. Both teams trade momentum, with Luger being the only Heel meaning that you can’t really work the usual tag formula. Instead both teams take it in turns to control things, with there never being a real heat segment. The closest we get is a segment where The Warriors control Sting for a bit, but they aren’t really working it like Heels.
Sting and Animal no sell some suplexes at one stage, which wakes the crowd up a bit, but Animal cuts Sting off with a dropkick. Luger keeps coming in with cheap shots whilst Sting is getting worked over, which leads to all four men fighting outside of the ring for the ultra-lame count out finish. Urgh, this show already doesn’t have much goodwill and a lousy finish like that isn’t going to help.
DOUBLE COUNT OUT
RATING: **
It looked like the match might finally go somewhere and they promptly took it home with a crappy finish that only served to rip off the paying customer. Oh WCW, you rascals you.
Mean Gene is backstage with Ric Flair and Woman, who hype up Flair’s match with Savage. Woman flirts with Gene, as was her usual M.O. at the time, whilst Flair rants like a madman in the way only he can about how he’s going to win the belt and take Elizabeth home with him. This was highly entertaining, as Flair was almost giddy at the end at the thought of taking BOTH Woman and Liz onto Space Mountain with him.
We get a video to hype up Uncensored in March.
Mean Gene is with Elizabeth and Randy Savage, and Savage is all fired up for his match up next. This was also frantic promo fun, as Flair and Savage were natural foes.
Semi-Main
Steel Cage Match
Pin and Submission Rules
WCW Title
Champ: Macho Man Randy Savage w/ Elizabeth Vs Ric Flair w/ Woman
Savage and Flair had traded the belt over the winter period, with this being the blow off between them. Savage had brought Elizabeth back to Pro Wrestling and she had helped him regain the belt from Flair after Flair had won it at Starrcade 1995. Flair being the lecherous sod that he is has of course got designs on Liz as well as the belt here. Flair even grabs a mic before the match starts to try and entice Liz into his corner, but she sells that she isn’t interested.
This one is a brawl right from the off, with Flair even clocking the referee early on for whatever reason. The ref kind of just has to shrug that off and keep reffing the match because the cage means another ref can’t just run down to replace him. This thus makes him probably the fastest recovering referee ever. They should have tested his DNA to try and work out a cure for why referees are so naturally predisposed to being knocked out for ages by simple attacks that wrestlers basically ignore.
Savage sells a lot in this one and doesn’t really get much of a babyface shine either, which kind of goes counter to what the match should probably be. I think the WrestleMania VIII match between the two where an angry Savage comes out of the gate a batters Flair with a big shine until Flair finally manages to get the cut off and work some heat works better than this one does. You feel like they perhaps put a bit more thought into that one than they did this one.
That being said, the work in this one isn’t bad, the match is structured oddly. Savage gets a Figure Four on Flair at one stage and Flair makes the ropes, but the referee states that rope breaks don’t count in this match, so Flair has to go to the eyes of Savage to save himself instead. Flair is ever the conniver of course. Savage heads up to the top of the cage and tries an Axe Handle Smash, but Flair is ready for him and catches him with a punch on the way down.
Savage loved doing ludicrous leaps off the top of cages during this period, as I think he came off one at Halloween Havoc 1997 as well and destroyed his knees in the process. Flair works Savage over again following that, trying to put Savage away whilst he holds the advantage, but Savage manages to keep kicking out. Both wrestlers’ selling has been great in this actually, with Flair still kind of limping a bit since the Figure Four whilst Savage is punch drunk following the attack off the cage.
For some reason the referee breaks up a Figure Four from Flair at one stage, which doesn’t really make sense seeing as rope breaks don’t count, with the commentators seemingly not sure either. Savage starts fighting back following this anyway by absorbing some chops and then flinging Flair into the cage a few times. This match has been kind of messy, but it’s also felt like an actual fight most of the way as well, so it’s worked in its own way.
Flair starts bleeding following the flinging into the cage, which didn’t get signed off that often in WCW during this era, and then tries to flee because of it, which of course gives us the spot where Flair has his trunks pulled down to expose his bum. Flair didn’t need much of an excuse to display his naked anatomy just generally in life so I’m not sure we should be surprised to see him do it live on pay per view either. I will say that the spot feels a bit out of place in a serious grudge match like this though. It’s more of a House Show comedy spot.
The cage door ends up getting unlocked, but I don’t think it was planned and the ref just closes it again. Sadly we get a wide camera shot for the rest of the match due to Flair’s blade job, which either makes me think it wasn’t an authorised blade or they just got worried about potential backlash from the censors.
The finish is a bit convoluted as Woman throws powder at Savage (although it kind of misses), but Savage still gets a roll up on Flair afterwards, which I’m guessing was an adlib because the powder so obviously missed. However, the big story point is that Liz actually goes Heel for the first time since she initially showed up the WWF as Savage’s sneering Heel manager (they repackaged her pretty quickly) and Flair uses her shoe in order to win the Title.
*Insert your own Austin Powers MEME here*
WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: RIC FLAIR
RATING: ***
This sadly wasn’t a patch on their great WrestleMania VIII match and some of it was quite messy, but it was still fun for the most part and had some good energy. I’m thinking the finish was supposed to be Savage getting the roll up and THEN getting blinded by the powder into the shoe hit, but Woman maybe jumped the gun? Either that or he was just supposed to get powdered and shoed but the powder missed and he threw in the roll up at the last minute
The crowd is pretty shocked to see Liz hook up with Flair and this led to some really good business at the House Shows between Flair and Savage, whilst the ratings were jumpstarted by it as well, which gave them a solid base for when the nWo storyline started.
Hulk Hogan joins us with a chair to chase the Heels off, because it always has to be about him. I mean, couldn’t they have let Savage have his moment to sell the big Heel turn without Hogan hanging around to syphon off his heat?
Mean Gene is backstage with Hulk Hogan following that, and Hogan thinks Liz has been in cahoots with Flair for a while as Flair shoed him on Nitro for good measure. Hogan says dude a bunch and talks about how his Hulkamaniacs will be guarding his blindside. I guess that means they need to shout if someone is attacking Hogan from that side?
Main Event
Steel Cage Match
Escape Rules
The Giant w/ Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan Vs Hulk Hogan
Giant had defeated Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1995 via DQ, which had led to Hogan losing the WCW Title as Jimmy Hart had betrayed Hogan and put a clause in the contract that the belt could change hands that way. Hogan is coming for his ultimate revenge on Giant tonight in a cage. Interestingly they’ve been referring to Hogan and Savage as “The Mega Powers” on this show but I don’t think they were allowed to still do that after a certain point and they became The Mega Force instead.
This one isn’t especially well-liked as far as I can tell, and it’s hardly a technical classic, but it’s not terrible either considering Giant’s lack of experience at the time. Giant does look green at points here but he does a solid enough job to not look too out of place in a Main Event setting like this. When you consider how bad some of the other green big men in wrestling have been over the years, Giant had a shocking level of aptitude in his early days.
Hogan gets the shine to start, with some of Giant’s selling being a bit suspect, but Giant eventually cuts him off and works some heat. Giant’s offence is most stomps, clubbing forearms and chops, and it’s basic but mostly looks okay. You can tell that Giant was on his best behaviour with Hogan as some of his stomps are so light that Hogan doesn’t even register them at first because he doesn’t realise that he’s being attacked. Giant knew where his bread was buttered alright.
Hogan also does a blade job here, which I think led to Vince McMahon writing a letter to Ted Turner complaining about the blood I believe? Kind of rich considering how Bret Hart had bled a gusher back in December 1995, but Vince McMahon and hypocrisy are two things that go together like chocolate and peanut butter so I don’t think we should be surprised. Giant gets Hogan with a Choke Slam and that would appear to be that, but Hogan of course Hulks Up and makes the comeback.
Giant gets flung into the cage a few times and does his own attempt at a blade job, which means we head back to the wide shot. Look, I’m not precious about blood or anything, but if you’re going to do it then at least don’t be massive cowards about it and zoom out. If you’ve authorised a blade job then show us the blood. Don’t do the blade job but then give us a rubbish camera angle for the rest of the match. Either do it and film it properly, or don’t let the guys blade, pick one.
Anyway, Hogan spends forever setting up a body slam whilst Giant has to woozily just stand around waiting for it, like he’s a character from Mortal Kombat just before you deliver a fatality at the end of the fight. Some Leg Drops of DOOM follow that (three to be exact) but Giant gets up super quick from them in order to try and stop Hogan climbing out. Hogan manages to fight Giant off though and makes it out of the cage to pick up the win.
WINNER: HULK HOGAN
RATING: **
I’ve seen that a lot of people online don’t really like this one, but I thought it was okay for the most part when you take into account how green Giant still was at this stage in his career
Kevin Sullivan attacks Hogan with a chair following that, which leads to Hogan chasing him into the cage. The entire Dungeon of DOOM then joins us for the big Heel beat down on Hogan, only for him to then beat them all up by himself with a chair in a ridiculous moment. You can understand why fans were turning on Hogan at this stage because it was so silly to see him beating up the entire Heel stable by himself. Giant Haystacks tries to get into the cage to get Hogan but they hold him back and I don’t think that match ever ended up happening, which was probably for the best as Haystacks was utterly finished physically by this stage.
In Conclusion
This one started out okay but the middle portion was a slog with some lame finishes and blasé matches. Flair and Savage picked things up a bit, even though that match had some issues as well that prevented it from being as good as you’d hope a match between those two would be. The Main Event wasn’t terrible, but the post-match where Hogan fought off all the Heels by himself was utterly infuriating and you could just feel the crowd turning on Hogan whilst he did it.
At points this show was bordering on being a Stinker, but in the end there was just enough that was okay to good on it that it ended up just being a middling show at best but not a disaster either. It’s certainly not a thumbs up though, that’s for sure.
Not a recommended show