Happy Wednesday Everyone!
We’ll stick with the random TV reviews theme we’ve had recently, by looking at an episode of WCW Saturday Night from 1994, which is has a 4 Star Main Event according to David Meltzer of the Wrestling Observations Newspaper. Okay, consider me intrigued!
You can view the card for the event by clicking below;
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1600&page=3
The event was taped in Atlanta, Georgia on the 19th of July 1994 and aired on TBS on the 30th of July 1994
Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan, with Mene Gene Okerlund doing the interviews
We get a very mid-90’s styled open with machines in a victory until we get clips of Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat wrestling one another until Steve Austin runs down to help Flair put the boots to Steamboat.
The commentary team lays the table for us tonight, with Mean Gene saying that he’ll be trying to get a word with WCW Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel later on.
Opening Match
Frank Lancaster and Fred Avery Vs Stars and Stripes (The Patriot and Marcus Bagwell)
Stars and Stripes are the pushed wrestlers here, with Frank and Fred being enhancement talent that have been brought in to make the stars look good. Both Patriot and Bagwell are adorned in red, white and blue, just so the fans know who the good guys are supposed to be here. The commentary team doesn’t really talk about the match and instead focuses on hyping up the storylines.
Lancaster doesn’t have a bad physique and works reasonably well in there, whilst Avery looks like your typical chubby journeyman wrestler who has been brought in to put someone over. Stars and Stripes actually take quite a while to put their enhancement talent opponents away, although they never are really in any trouble during the bout. Eventually Patriot gives Avery a Full Nelson Slam for the three count.
WINNERS: STARS & STRIPES
RATING: SQUASH
Thoughts: This was a serviceable squash match, with Lancaster looking good when he was in there whilst Avery was kind of just a lump for the babyfaces to deliver moves to
WCW Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel is in his office and days that new WCW World Champ Hulk Hogan will have to defend the belt against former Champ Ric Flair, with the match taking place on the 24th of August at a Clash of the Champions event. I believe Flair ended up winning that one by count out, which people complained about at the time but it would have been silly to have Flair immediately win the belt back after losing it. A DQ/Count Out was an appropriate way to give Flair a win and build to a rubber match. Bockwinkel says he’s going to fine Sensuous Sherri for her constant interference in Hogan and Flair’s first bout at the Bash at the Beach 1994 pay per view.
Match Two
Diamond Dallas Page w/ The Diamond Doll Vs Barry Houston
DDP is the star here whilst Houston is here to put him over. Diamond Doll was actually DDP’s real life wife at the time, and she’s kind of giving off Cordy from Buffy/Angel vibes with her general look and demeanour here. Houston has hearts on his gear here, which makes me think he was doing a discount Shawn Michaels act on the indies at the time. Houston actually looks okay when he’s given a chance to get some offence in on DDP, and he takes some nice bumps when it’s time for him to make DDP look good.
According to the commentary team, the Diamond Cutter was still a pretty new move in DDP’s arsenal. DDP wasn’t anywhere near as polished an in-ring performer here as he would eventually go on to be, but he certainly isn’t lacking for personality, as he exudes arrogance and sleaziness in everything he does. Most of DDP’s offence is punching, kicking, rest holds and yelling, but he’s entertaining enough as a loud mouthed Heel and Houston does a solid job as the enhancement talent until it’s time to take a Diamond Cutter for three.
WINNER: DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE
RATING: SQUASH
Thoughts: DDP was still a couple of years away from being an especially good wrestler, but he definitely had something to him and Diamond Doll was a nice addition to his act
Fans can call in next week to decide who wrestles in the Main Event.
Match Three
Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) Vs Alex Davis and Kenny Kendall
The commentary team is talking about The Heat getting a new manager, which would eventually lead to Sherri hooking up with them I believe. This is another match where we have a team made up of genuine stars and a team made up of enhancement guys who are they to make the other team look good, which Davis and Kendall do a serviceable job at, whilst The Heat get to run through their arsenal, with Booker in particular looking really good in there.
Stevie mostly sticks to power stuff and clotheslines, which looks okay for the most part, whilst Booker focuses on doing more flashy stuff, with the ending being Booker coming off the top with an elbow drop onto one of the journeymen grapplers whilst Stevie gives the poor bugger a powerbomb at the same time.
WINNERS: HARLEM HEAT
RATING: SQUASH
Thoughts: Reasonable squash there, with Booker looking great and the enhancement talent doing a good job of selling and bumping for everything
Harlem Heat have some promo time with Mean Gene, where they say they have found someone they can trust to guide their careers, but they won’t let us know who it is until it’s time for us to know. This was a decent promo.
Match Four
Rip Rogers Vs Flyin’ Brian
Rogers was quite a well-known lower card guy around this time, owing to his years of wrestling prior to this and his ability to play the enhancement role really well. Brian had been in a tag team with Steve Austin back in 1993, but WCW had split them up and now Brian is back to being a hand slapping smiling babyface. He’d have a change of gimmick again in 1995 and was looking to really get over as the “Loose Cannon”, until a serious automobile crash left him a shell of his former self physically.
They have quite a fun match here actually, with Rogers happy to play the buffoon in order to make Brian look good, whilst Brian is happy to sell a bit for Rogers so that the match isn’t a total squash and actually feels more like a normal match where one of the competitors is just slight overmatched. Brian is clearly presented as the better wrestler, but Rogers can hang with him just enough that the bout still resembles somewhat of a contest. Brian eventually heads up with a crossbody block and that’s enough for three.
WINNER: FLYIN’ BRIAN
RATING: **
Thoughts: This was an entertaining semi-competitive TV match, where Brian was clearly positioned as the superior wrestler but Rogers wasn’t presented as a total joke, so it still felt like a “proper” match and not just a squash
Match Five
Lord Steven Regal w/ Sir William Vs Mark Starr
Regal had got into a spat with Antonio Inoki back at the Bash at the Beach 94 pay per view, so the commentary team talk about that. The eventual payoff to all of that was Regal wrestling Inoki on a Clash of Champions show, where Regal put Inoki over. Regal mostly outwrestles Starr here in this one, with Starr essentially holding on as best he can so that Regal can feed him a counter now and then. Starr gets a little bit, but it’s mostly a squash.
Regal himself would tell you that he was better in longer matches where he could tell a proper story rather than quick TV matches like this, but his assortment of punishing strikes and holds look painful here at least, which is probably a combination of Starr selling it well and Regal just outright beating his opponent up at points, as he could sometimes be want to do. Starr gets a little bit of a flurry towards the end of the bout, including a Tornado DDT for two, but Regal ends up getting a rope assisted pin for the win.
WINNER: STEVEN REGAL
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: Starr got enough there that it was bordering on being a normal match and not a squash, although Starr possibly needed a bit more in order to make that work. Regal going to the trouble of cheating to win was a nice gesture on his part though
Regal and William have promo time with Mean Gene following that, with Regal saying that he went to Japan and beat all of their best guys, but Antonio Inoki refused to face him whilst he was there.
We get clips from Bash at the Beach, where the Stud Stable celebrate Arn Anderson turning Heel on Dustin Rhodes in order to join their group.
Match Six
The Stud Stable (Bunkhouse Buck and Terry Funk) w/ Colonel Rob Parker Vs Jumpin Joey Maggs and Todd Morton
Maggs was another well-known enhancement talent, working many years for WCW and making a lot of wrestlers look good. Maggs and Morton have matching gear here, which makes me think they were a regular team either here in WCW or on the indies. The Stud Stable jumpstart this one, but then they do actually give Maggs and Morton some offence, with Funk taking his usual crazed frantic bumps for everything.
Bunk eventually cheap shots Morton and that leads to Stud Stable working Morton over, with Morton taking some very nice bumps. Morton ends up taking a wild almost backflip like bump for a punch from Buck and that’s then enough for the three count. The way Morton sold that punch, you could believe that it was a finisher!
WINNERS: THE STUD STABLE
RATING: SQUASH
Thoughts: Maggs and Morton played their parts really well there, with Morton in particular taking some very impressive bumps in order to make the Heels look good
We get some clips of Bunkhouse Buck beating up Larry Santo on one of the TV shows, leading to Dusty Rhodes coming down to the ring and beating up Buck as revenge for what Buck and The Stud Stable did to his son Dustin at the Bash at the Beach 94 pay per view. Terry Funk and Dustin Rhodes get dragged into the fight as well, leading to Parker’s bodyguard THE MONSTER MENG getting into the ring for a faceoff with Dusty. The locker room empties before Meng and Dusty can go at it. Dusty then says he neglected Dustin by not tagging with him originally against The Stud Stable, meaning that Dustin had to turn to Arn Anderson in the first place. Dusty says he wants to be Dustin’s tag team partner against The Stud Stable, and the crowd likes the sound of that. Dusty and Dustin share a hug following that and it looks like the team is a go.
Clash of the Champions Control Centre
Mean Gene talks us through the matches already announced; Hulk Hogan Vs Ric Flair for Hogan’s WCW World Title, leading to some promo time from Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart. Hogan’s cheesy promo really juxtaposes that previous heartfelt promo from Dusty. Even by Hogan standards, this was a pretty dull by-the-numbers effort. Bunkhouse Buck and Terry Funk will also be taking on Dusty and Dustin Rhodes. Not a bad one-two punch there.
Strangely there’s supposed to be a Dustin Rhodes Vs Larry Santo match here but it’s been cut for whatever reason. I doubt Dustin lost to Santo of course, so it’s not like the result of that match is going to keep anybody awake at night.
Main Event
The Nature Boy Ric Flair and WCW United States Champion Stunning Steve Austin w/ The Sensuous Sherri Vs Ricky The Dragon Steamboat and The Man Called Sting
So yeah, that’s a pretty star studded foursome right there! Flair had feuded with both Sting and Steamboat in 1994, but Steamboat’s main dance partner at this time was Stunning Steve, with the two having some great matches together. Flair doesn’t want to wrestle Sting early on, whilst Austin doesn’t want to get in there with Steamboat, leading to both Heels cowardly backing away when their respective rival is in the ring, which is all good classic Pro Wrestling fun.
Steamboat and Sting shine on the Heel team to start, with both Heels doing a fun job of bumping around and stooging for the babyface duo. Sherri ends up standing in the way between Sting and her man Flair, allowing Flair to poke Sting in the eyes like the dastardly villain he is. Using your woman manager as a human shield is always a classic wrestling bad guy trope and it’s almost always guaranteed to work just because it’s such a snide thing to do.
Sting manages to rebound from that and bumps Austin around inside the ring, with Austin taking some fantastic bumps, including a lightning fast back body drop at one stage. Steamboat also gets a chance to bump Austin around as well, with that also being entertaining. We take a break with Steamboat clearly in control of things and Austin on the back foot, and we actually come back with Steamboat still in control. I felt for sure we’d come back to find Austin and Flair in control instead.
I do like how Bobby would always act like something exciting was about to happen just as the show was going to commercial in order to keep the viewer interested. Even something as simple as “what’s he going to do now?” in an excited tone can make the difference between someone channel flicking or sticking around. Tony and Bobby give a very half-hearted attempt to hype up the When Worlds Collide pay per view the following week, not even mentioning the event by name, instead just saying that some “Lucha Libre” will be happening next week.
Sting eventually only finds some Austin knees waiting for him when he goes for a standing splash, which leads to Flair and Austin taking over and working some heat after a prolonged period of dominance for the babyfaces. As I type that though, Sting no sells a suplex from Flair and starts beating Flair up again, leading to Flair bailing for a bit in order to slow things down. It’s a good example of how they’re keeping the fans guessing by playing with the formula, which is something you can do when you have the experience of someone like Flair.
Eventually Austin is able to distract the ref and that leads to Flair flinging Sting over the top rope to the floor, which would have been a DQ in WCW around this time. Sherri makes sure to gets cheap shots outside the ring as well, as it seems like the Heels have family managed to take control of this match after spending something like 10-15 minutes getting battered. Well, you can’t say the Heels didn’t make the Faces look good until it was time for the cut off. Interestingly Austin does his trademark second rope elbow drop here, and he delivers it basically exactly the same as he would as Stone Cold except that he doesn’t shoot the bird at his opponent whilst doing so.
Sting does a good job selling in the heat and the Heels look good on offence, so the heat segment goes well and the crowd gets behind Sting. Sting eventually gets the knees up on an Austin attack and makes the hot tag to Steamboat, who runs wild on the Heels and fires the crowd up. Steamboat soon eats a clothesline though and we get our second heat segment, as apparently I’m watching a Rock ‘N’ Roll Express match and nobody told me (I’m sure they didn’t invent the double heat part of tag team wrestling formula, but they are the team I most associate with it).
Steamboat sells the heat exceptionally well (in other news, it snows in Alaska during winter) and they do some very good hot tag teases, with Steamboat getting super close to making the tag but Sting being JUST a tad too far away for it to happen, leading to the Heels foiling the attempt and working Steamboat over again. Bobby says “what a television match this is” at one stage and he’s right. You didn’t always get this calibre of wrestling on regular TV shows like this in 1994, unless this calibre of wrestler in WCW was given the time to deliver or someone in the WWF such as Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were allowed to go out there and tear the house down.
Sting does finally get the hot tag, but the ref misses it and continues to treat Steamboat as the legal man, meaning that when Sting gets Flair in the Scorpion Deathlock the bout cannot end. Sherri tries to help her man, but Sting grabs her and flings her out onto Flair. However, whilst all that is going on, Austin and Steamboat are going at it on the other side of the ring, leading to Austin getting a cheap three count on Steamboat to give his team the victory.
WINNERS: FLAIR & AUSTIN
RATING: ****
Thoughts: Big Davey Meltz was on the button with that star rating, as this was a cracking TV Main Event and well worth a watch if you’ve never seen it. Everyone delivered in their respective roles, including Sherri, and it ended up being a thrilling contest
Mean Gene interviews Sting and Steamboat following that, and the babyfaces are not happy about their defeat, with Steamboat claiming that Austin cannot defeat him cleanly. Steamboat wants a match with Austin at the Clash of Champions, whilst Sting wants a match with the winner of the Flair Vs Hogan match. This was a good promo segment, as both babyfaces got the issues across well and set things up for down the line.
In Conclusion
I don’t think you need to sit through the entire show, but that Main Event is definitely worth a watch. The show itself was fine and a reasonably easy watch, but there’s little here you really need to go out of your way to see, especially as the great Dusty Rhodes promo was lifted from another show anyway.
Not a recommended show (but watch that Main Event)