The SmarK Rant for WCW Worldwide – 01.09.93
BREAKING NEWS! Big Van Vader has defeated Ron Simmons to regain the WCW World title on December 30!
Time for the 1992 YEAR IN REVIEW.
Big Van Vader v. Joe Thurman & TA McCoy
From the July 11 1992 episode of Worldwide. Is that THE Joe Thurman? Uh oh. Vader hits McCoy with a corner splash and Tony confirms that this was indeed the match with the powerbomb on Thurman. Well that’s a bit yucky. Over to Thurman, and Vader quickly chokeslams him and Thurman takes the bump almost right on his head. And then Vader hits him with the fateful powerbomb that breaks his back, and Tony frames it as Vader “screaming in his face” while he checks on the jobber while covering him. I mean, yeah that powerbomb was nasty as hell, but why exploit the poor guy by showing it again? That’s some GLOW-level stuff.
WCW Magazine with Eric Bischoff. Barry Windham talks about the Thundercage match all the kids are talking about, which will be happening at Clash of the Champions.
Tony and Jesse discuss the year that was.
Steve Austin & Brian Pillman v. Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas
From Worldwide, November 24 1992. Joined with Shane hitting a crucifix on Austin for two, and Steamboat comes in with a chinlock. Austin fights out of that and the Blonds double-team Steamboat in the corner before Steamboat backslides Pillman for two. So Pillman gives Douglas a cheapshot to draw him in and Austin does some damage to the Dragon outside, and back in for some chops from Pillman. Steamboat fights back with kicks but Austin beats on him in the corner, so Steamboat chops back until Pillman cuts off the tag again. Pillman goes up and hits knees on a flying splash, and it’s hot tag Douglas. Shane runs wild with slams and then we leave things hanging at 4:20 as apparently the show ran out of time at that point. You know, tape machines were a thing that was invented by 1993. Just saying. Seemed like a good match but we didn’t get very much of it.
Meanwhile at Starrcade, Sting beats Vader to win the King of Cable tournament.
WCW Magazine with Eric Bischoff! This time we’ve got footage of Vader winning the title from Ron Simmons. The full match is currently available as a Hidden Gem on the WWE Network, by the way. Afterwards, we get a promo from Vader and Harley Race and they call out Sting, Rick Rude, Dustin Rhodes and anyone else who wants a piece.
US title: Rick Rude v. Nikita Koloff
Joined with Rude holding a rear chinlock on Koloff, but Nikita powers out of it, so Rude hits him with a piledriver for two. Koloff fights back and Rude rakes the face to cut him off and follows with a suplex. Koloff gets all fired up and slugs away in the corner, so Madusa gets involved and a frustrated Koloff tosses Rude over the top rope to draw the DQ. Seemed like a good match but again, not much shown of it. And they continue the fight into the back but we quickly cut it off and move on.
Meanwhile, Great Muta is the surprise winner of Battlebowl 92 at Starrcade.
Meanwhile, Vinnie Vegas (who works out his arm on slot machines according to Jesse) faces Van Hammer in the first round of the arm wrestling tournament, and they make goofy sex faces at each other before Hammer wins the match and then goes on to win the tournament. That was an exceedingly random choice for a year in review match.
WCW Magazine with Eric Bischoff. He runs down some of the matches on the upcoming Clash, including Cactus Jack facing Erik Watts in a bounty match. Jack promises that Erik will be hung on his wall afterwards. I don’t think that match actually happened. That whole Clash card sounds kind of dreadful outside of the Blonds v. Steamboat & Douglas match.
Sting v. The Barbarian
From another rando episode of Worldwide. They trade shoulderblocks and Sting dropkicks him to the floor, where Cactus gives moral support. And then Cactus gives Sting some punches, by way of extra support for Barbarian. Back in, Barbarian with a body vice and then a bearhug. Powerslam and he goes up after changing his mind 5 times about which corner he wants, and then he misses the diving headbutt anyway. Sting goes up and finishes with a flying bodypress to end a pretty boring match, albeit one with great heat.
This show was pretty dull and didn’t really seem to offer any kind of point, which makes sense given the tumultuous backstage situation at that time.