Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – SuperBrawl IX

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

We’ve got an infamous Stinker for you this week, in the form of WCW SuperBrawl IX. SuperBrawl IX is one of those shows that was actually a success when you look at it on paper, due to it drawing an incredible 1.1 buy rate at the time. However, the show itself ended up being so universally reviled that WCW never got close to touching that kind of buy rate ever again and they had to essentially do a make good show in the form of Uncensored 1999 in order to quell the bile SuperBrawl IX churned up within it’s fan base

However, is SuperBrawl IX really that bad of a show? Looking at the card, there surely has to be some good wrestling on here right? I mean, we’ve got Kidman taking on Chavo Guerrero Jr, Booker T facing off with The Disco Inferno, and Bill Goldberg tangling with Bam Bam Bigelow. At least SOME of those matches have to be good surely?

Anyway, let’s take a look and see if SuperBrawl IX really is as stinky as it’s reputation suggests. You can view the card for the event by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1701&page=3

SuperBrawl IX is emanating from Oakland, California on the 21st of February 1999

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan

We open up with Torrie Wilson talking to the camera on a bed, with her mocking the camera operator for injuring them on one of their carnal journeys. The big reveal is that the mysterious camera operator has bought her tickets for the show.

We get the opening video package, which focuses on the major battles tonight.

The tag belts are on display in the entrance area as dramatic music plays, which seems strange as the match for them isn’t scheduled until later on. As it’s a WCW pay per view, the commentary team yaks for a bit whilst all the momentum of the opening music and pyro slowly ebbs away.

We get a recap of the WCW Tag Team Title Tournament. Again, why are we seeing this when that match isn’t until later on? We’re wasting valuable momentum for the show here.

“Mean” Gene Okerlund now hocks his Hotline, as this show continues to drag. Make sure you call up kids, those moustache brushes aren’t going to pay for themselves

Say it with me everyone, GET A MATCH IN THE RING WCW!!!!!

Opening Match
nWo Vs WCW
The Disco Inferno Vs Booker T

Disco was a member of nWo Elite/Wolfpac at the time, with him essentially being a lackey for Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Disco was entertaining in the role, but he did kind of seem out of place in what was supposed to be in the new re-tooled more serious nWo faction. Booker was kind of wandering in the mid-card at the time, although he was soon going to be in the TV Title division again. So after the opening skit with Torrie, the opening video package, the Tag Team video package, Mean Gene’s shilling AND the entrances for this match, we FINALLY get to see some wrestling on this wrestling pay per view we bought to watch wrestling on. And it only took 10+ minutes!

Look, I’m not saying an entire pay per view run-time has to be made up of just in-ring wrestling. Angles/Videos/Promos/Skits have their place as well of course, but to make the audience wait that long to see a match is pretty inexcusable on pay per view. On TV? Sure, no problem, it’s free and TV is generally more about advancing storylines etc than it is about the matches themselves most of the time, so if you want to take your time until getting to the opening match then it’s more reasonable. However, pay per views are when you have paid to tune in and you’re mostly paying to see the wrestling, so dragging out the time between the pre-amble and the opener goes completely against the whole point of the show.

This is a classic old school opener to start out, with Disco posing to get the crowd to boo him whilst Booker then poses to get cheered. There’s a few examples of sloppiness when both wrestlers don’t appear to be on the same page, but the bout still hits the beats it needs to in order to get the crowd fired up for the rest of the show. Booker gets the babyface shine to start, with Disco bumping around in order to make Booker look good, and the crowd is into it. Eventually Disco manages to clothesline Booker to the floor and then rams Booker into both the ring steps and the metal ringside railings in order to gain control of the bout. Booker sells well whilst on the defensive and Disco shows off some solid Heel mannerisms during the heat segment.

Booker manages to counter an Axe Handle Smash from the second rope into the 110th Slam at one stage, but then does a Marty Jannetty flip sell from a Disco clothesline in order to restore parity, as they’re doing some nice back and forth stuff here. There’s still an element of sloppiness to things, but the match has had good energy and the crowd’s enjoyment of it has really elevated things. Booker eventually manages to come off the top rope with the Harlem Hangover (kind of a forward flipping leg drop) and that’s enough for three and a pop from the crowd.

WINNER: BOOKER T
RATING: ***

Thoughts: A little bit sloppy in parts, but the match had fantastic crowd reactions and it highlighted that these were two of the people WCW should have been looking to elevate at the expense of the more stale old guard. They kind of did with Booker in 2000, but Disco never really got past the Cruiserweight/TV Title level, despite having an over gimmick and being a solid in-ring performer for the most part

Bobby blows the call of the replay, deliberately it seems, possibly just to annoy Tony. They were very much like an old married couple who just hated the sight of one another at this stage.

Match Two
Luchas de Apuestas
Loser Wears A Dress
“Lionheart” Chris Jericho w/ Ralphus Vs Perry “SEGA” Saturn

Jericho had won a match that forced Saturn to wear a dress back at Souled Out 99, which was apparently something Saturn had requested of the booking team in order to give his character a different kind of edge. This is the rematch between the two, and they’d have yet another match at Uncensored. Referee Scott Dickinson actually enters with Jericho here, as he had an issue with Saturn at the time. Why he’d then be assigned to referee this match when WCW had a babyface authority figure at the time is beyond me, but WCW didn’t tend to make sense at the best of the times, never mind the blurst of times. Jericho chastises Saturn on the mic prior to the match, which is seemingly done to wind Saturn up so that he’ll make a mistake in the match.

Saturn runs wild on Jericho following that, but the crowd doesn’t seem to really care that much, possibly because this a feud based over who has to wear a dress. Tony Schiavone even says on commentary that Saturn’s dress isn’t too far away from being a singlet anyway. Saturn beats the heck out of Jericho, with Jericho taking some nice bumps for it, with Saturn mostly focusing on taking Jericho to Suplex City™, as Tony and Bobby continue to snipe at one another on commentary. Ralphus is also wearing a dress here, for reasons that escape me, so Saturn drags Ralphus into the ring and de-frocks him, much to the commentary teams consternation. Saturn has of course succumbed to Tommy Dreameritus though, which means that he’s focused too much on beating up the manager/valet, which allows Jericho to lay Saturn out and work some heat.

Saturn sells well enough in the heat segment and Jericho looks decent on offence, but the crowd continues to not really be as in to this one as they were the opener. Saturn’s comeback manages to get the crowd to wake up a but at least, leading to Saturn getting the dress assisted 10 punch in the corner, which is a spot Vito did during his brief dress wearing gimmick in WWE in the 00’s I believe. Saturn manages to catch Jericho in the Rings of Saturn (think Britt Baker’s “Lockjaw” hold without the Mandible Claw part) but Jericho manages to get to the ropes, as Scott Dickinson has done a fair job reffing this one thus far. Saturn delivers the Spicolli Driver onto Jericho, and for some reason doesn’t make the pin, which even gets Dickinson to encourage Saturn to make the pin. However, Saturn delivers the move to Dickinson as well and just walks away for a thoroughly unsatisfying and dumb ending to what was a decent match.

WINNER BY COUNT OUT: CHRIS JERICHO
RATING: **

Thoughts: I can’t even with that finish. They play it up like Saturn didn’t want to stop wearing the dress, but he could have won and still worn the dress if he wanted to. It was “Loser Wears A Dress”, not “ONLY THE LOSER is allowed to wear a dress”. I mean, I wouldn’t put it past 1999 WCW to come up with a match stipulation that dumb, but that wasn’t the case in this instance at least. The match itself was decent enough, although I’ve never personally thought that these two had much in the way of chemistry with one another. The finish and the quiet crowd drags it down a bit, but it was okay for the most part

Rey Mysterio Jr and Konnan are doing an interview at the internet desk, where they say that they won’t be losing later on.

We get a video package to hype up the World TV Title Match for later on. I don’t get why WCW always played these videos way before the actual matches themselves took place. ECW used to do it too though, with really only the WWF waiting to play the videos before the actual match themselves.

Match Three
WCW World Cruiserweight Title
Champ: Kidman Vs Chavo Guerrero Jr

Chavo had been a comedy character for most of 1998, but they tried to give him a harder edge in the build to this by having him give Kidman a DDT onto the floor. Apparently Chavo and Kidman had been in the ill-fated tag team tournament but their team had combusted, hence why they are wrestling here. Hey, it’s an actual reason for a Cruiserweight bout, so I’ll take it. Kidman shines on Chavo to start, with Chavo showing that he isn’t going to be a comedy worker any more by sending Kidman off the apron into the metal railings for the cut off. That’s the third match in the row tonight where someone getting thrown into something on the outside of the ring has been integral to the cut off.

Kidman sells well whilst on the defensive, and Chavo looks good on offence, so the wrestling is solid here, even if the fans don’t appear to be that into it. Kidman manages to catch Chavo with a dropkick when Chavo tries something from the top rope, and that leads to Kidman making a brief comeback until Chavo cuts him off again. They are clearly trying to rehab Chavo following his comedy stint here by having him take the majority of the offence in this bout so that he looks like a viable challenger. I think it might have worked better if they’d spent 2-3 months pushing Chavo as a more serious guy, as he was fighting for the memory of his burnt wooden horse just a month prior to this. Chavo ends up ruining things for himself by trying to Powerbomb Kidman however, and the usual finishes things for the Cruiser Champ right after.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KIDMAN
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The wrestling was good here, but the match felt kind of flat, mostly due to the crowd not really being that into it. It could have just been that the crowd didn’t see Chavo as a viable challenger and that’s why they didn’t get that invested into the match

We get another video package for a match that’s coming later, this time the one between Bam Bam Bigelow and Goldberg.

Match Four
Tournament Final for the WCW World Tag Team Titles
Curt Hennig and Barry Windham Vs The Horsemen: “Iceman” Dean Malenko and “Crippler” Chris Benoit

This tournament was double elimination, meaning that if you lost your first match you could then win the losers bracket and get yourself back into the Final. Hennig and Windham came out victorious over on the Winners side of the bracket, whilst Benoit and Malenko had come out the other side of the Losers bracket. If Windham and Hennig win here then they are the Champions. If Benoit and Malenko win then we will go straight into another match, with the winner of that being crowned as the new Champs. This was a needlessly complicated way of booking the tournament, but it does mean that the babyfaces have to win twice in the same night in order to become the Champions, which gives them a mountain to climb and should conceivably generate some drama.

All four of the wrestlers in this one are experienced and have a good grasp of psychology, so the match should be well wrestled and make sense when it comes to how it is structured. The Horsemen manage to out wrestle the Heels in the early going, with Hennig of course taking some nice bumps in order to make his opponents look good, including a half-Jannetty bump for one of Benoit’s chops. The way Windham sells Benoit’s chops is top notch, as he tenses up before taking one and then his body jolts immediately upon impact, which makes them look even more punishing than usual. The Heels eventually manage to cut off Malenko in their half of the ring and work him over, with Malenko selling it well and constantly looking for a way to fight back, which adds an extra layer of realism to things.

Benoit eventually gets a hot tag and runs wild on the Heels with his usual offence, with Hennig in particular still making it all look good. Hennig is bumping for 8 men here, and Windham has been no slouch in that regard either. It’s almost as if The Horsemen work some heat on Hennig now, as they put him in their corner and just brutalise him, as they seem to be eschewing the usual tag formula in some ways here. I wonder if Benoit tagged in a bit too soon so they had to do the punishment section on Hennig before getting the heat again? What makes me think this further is that Hennig clocks Malenko right in the icicles at one stage, which seemingly leads to Malenko taking a second heat segment. The Heels look good on offence, although the crowd is seemingly finding the bout boring.

It doesn’t help that we get another not-quite-a-hot-tag, with Benoit coming again and not really making a comeback or running wild. It’s almost like they’re working an All Japan match from the 1980’s or something, with both teams just trading the momentum rather than the two teams focusing on the usual tag formula. That could possibly be why the fans haven’t gotten that into this, despite the wrestling itself being good, as they haven’t really been given the traditional tag spots to latch on to? They do eventually seem to settle into a heat segment on Benoit, but the crowd continue to sit on their hands. It’s a shame that the crowd hasn’t really cared about this that much when you consider the quality of the wrestling, but the two teams haven’t helped themselves with the way the match has been structured.

Malenko does a very nice hot tag segment at one stage, which wakes the crowd up a bit, and goes to the Texas Cloverleaf onto Windham, only for Hennig to break up the hold before Windham can tap. Malenko won’t be denied though and goes back to the hold, with Windham eventually tapping out in order to make The Horsemen eligible to win the belts in the next match.

WINNERS: THE HORSEMEN
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: The wrestling here was mostly good, but they structured the match in an odd way by not settling into the formula quickly enough and the crowd never really got that into the match. If you turned the sound off and just watched the wrestling, then you’d probably think that this would deserve a higher rating, but when you can hear how uninterested the crowd were in the contest it will likely take away from the overall enjoyment you’ll get from it if you’re anything like me

We’re supposed to get a 30 second rest period here, but Benoit stupidly starts attacking Hennig, which leaves the referee distracted and allows Windham to choke Malenko using the leather belt from his jeans. So that’s both Saturn and The Horsemen who are dumb babyfaces, which just drives a truck through any credibility that a babyface might have.

Match Five
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Curt Hennig and Barry Windham Vs The Horsemen

Malenko is limper than an overly boiled noodle following that, which allows Windham to get a quick three count in order to give the Heels the win and the belts

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: HENNIG & WINDHAM
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: So not only were the babyfaces dumb, but it also cost them the match. The payoff for this would be a lumberjack match at Uncensored where the ‘jacks had belts on them. That match was actually great and a bit of a hidden gem, but this two match series was only ever-so-slightly above average

We get a video package to hype up the US Title match for later on. And yes, to the shock of no one, that match isn’t until later.

Match Six
nWo Vs WCW
Luchas de Apuestas
Hair Vs Mask
The Outsiders (“Big Sexy” Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) w/ Lex Luger and Miss. Elizabeth Vs Rey Mysterio Jr and Konnan

Liz’s hair is on the line here against Rey’s mask, which basically telegraphs the finish because there’s no way they were scalping poor Liz here. Honestly, neither outcome is any good and neither should have happened, but we’re getting one of them here anyway, because WCW. Originally it was going to be Luger and Nash as the team, but Luger has an injured arm so Hall is stepping in and working twice tonight. They really should have said that it would be Luger losing his hair if the nWo team lost here, as at least that would have been somewhat believable as an outcome.

Rey shines on Hall to start, and actually gets to look good for a bit due to Hall taking some bumps for him. However, the size difference finally pays dividends for the nWo, with Nash in particular flinging Rey around with reckless abandon. Rey takes some excellent bumps for everything the nWo does to him, which shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve ever seen a Rey Jr match in your life. Rey manages to slip out of The Outsider’s Edge though and it’s hot tag Konnan, with Konnan running wild and popping the crowd in the process. Nash even takes a bump to the floor at one stage, but he soon clobbers Konnan from the apron and that gives us our second heat segment.

Konnan sells that well enough, with this being the second loudest the crowd has been for a match all night thus far. Rey eventually gets the hot tag and the babyfaces run wild, with the crowd getting into it. Luger ends up dragging Konnan to the floor when the ref isn’t looking, which leaves Rey in a handicap situation. Rey seemingly has a chance to win it, but Liz distracts the ref and Hall gets The Edge on Rey before draping Nash on top for three.

WINNERS: THE OUTSIDERS
RATING: **1/4

#LolNwoWins

Thoughts: We can debate the booking decision to de-mask Rey until the cows come home (it was really stupid) but the match itself wasn’t that bad, with them protecting the babyfaces in defeat somewhat at least. The crowd got into things, with Rey and Konnan being good underdogs fighting against the odds

Rey hands his mask over, whilst the nWo laughs at him. Rey is actually quite a handsome man, but he immediately loses a lot of his mystique without his mask (pun partially intended)

Nash would do a fluke loss to Rey on an episode of Nitro following this show as a way to kind of make this whole mess up to him, but Rey lost a lot of lustre without his mask and WWE were smart in giving it back to him when he went there in 2002.

Match Seven
nWo Vs WCW
WCW World Television Title
Champ: “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner Vs “Diamond” Dallas Page

This feud came about due to Steiner making unwanted advances to DDP’s wife Kimberley and then flinging her out of a moving car. Obviously it would make sense for DDP to then avenge his wife here after this horrible behaviour from the Heel, but this is WCW, where common sense goes to die. We can’t be having WCW guys getting any revenge, how will that help make the nWo look good? The nWo must look good at all times. I mean, what’s going to happen if the WCW guys lose all the time and look like chumps? It’s not like the company is going to go out of business or anything…

DDP eschews his usual entrance here and goes straight in there to fight with Steiner, going to mounted punches when he can. Buff Bagwell joins us following that to help out Steiner, which isn’t a DQ because DDP supposedly asks the ref to let it go. I like how they were trying to explain why that wasn’t a DQ, but it really doesn’t make much sense as to why the ref would let that go just because a wrestler in the match asked them to. The numbers game eventually leads to the nWo cutting DDP off and working him over, with Bagwell getting in some cheap shots whenever the opportunity presents itself. DDP sells well whilst getting worked over, and Steiner does an effective job of looking like a big scary man (probably because he legitimately was a big scary man at the time who was liable to snap at any given moment due to all the…chicken he was ingesting. Yes, let’s go with chicken, it’s less likely for me to get legal letters if I write that).

Bagwell distracts the ref at one stage so that Steiner can clobber DDP in the back with a chair, although I ponder why Bagwell even needed to do that seeing as the ref has already let someone not in the match quite literally climb into the ring in order to fight one of the legal contestants. Case in point, DDP gives Steiner a low blow following that, and the ref kind of just has to let it go because he saw it but it’s not the finish and he’s already let some stuff go. The ref decides to send Bagwell to the back at any rate, which leads to DDP making a bit of a comeback by giving Steiner a clothesline outside the ring when Steiner is trying to chase the ref down whilst experiencing a serious case of rooster rage.

Undettered, Steiner snaps off a Frankensteiner back inside the ring, which was very impressive when you consider how big Steiner was at the time, but DDP replies with a floating DDT for a two count. Steiner won’t be denied though, and rams DDP multiple times into an exposes turnbuckle where Bagwell had removed the pads before being thrown out. DDP’s mid-section has been turned into mush following that, which leads to Steiner locking in the Steiner Recliner for the TKO finish. There was actually a big cheer from some of the crowd following that, which shows what an ineffective job they’d done of booking DDP as an avenging babyface during this feud

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: SCOTT STEINER
RATING: **

#LolNwoWins

Thoughts: The match had some decent wrestling, but the booking was head scratching, as DDP came into the match looking to avenge his wife after she was harassed and physically assaulted by a Heel wrestler, only to then get rather easily dispatched and injured in the process. It’s not even like DDP was coming back for revenge at Uncensored or Spring Stampede either, as they moved both guys onto other things following this. So basically they booked an extremely one-sided feud where the Heel got the better of his babyface foe, as well as the babyface’s wife, and then they had the babyface get crushed in the match with no follow-up where the babyface finally got his revenge. Yup, that sure sounds like WCW alright!

DDP gets stretchered out following that and the fans are booing him and chanting “DDP Sux” so much that they actually have to mute the audio. When you book a feud where the babyface is getting booed like this, then you’ve done a TERRIBLE job of booking that feud!

Mark Madden takes a few moments away from his busy schedule of being an absolute hack and shill by talking to Bam Bam Bigelow at the internet area. How nice of him. Bammer cuts a good promo in all honesty.

Match Eight
WCW Vs nWo
WCW United States Title
Champ: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper Vs Scott Hall w/ The Disco Inferno

Oh yes, I forgot, Hall is doing double duty tonight! Piper had won the US Title from an injured Bret Hart on Nitro, in a match where Bret couldn’t move because he was hurt and Piper couldn’t move because he was Roddy Piper. Why it was so essential to also stick Hall in an US Title match here when he already needed to work earlier is beyond me, especially as there’s roughly zero chance that this match will be any good. The opening sequence of the match looks goofy as Piper slowly takes off his shirt and Heel Hall just has to stand there not hitting him, so we’re already off to a winning start.

What saved any Piper matches from this era would be crowd heat, but the crowd is deader than the dodo here, so that means we get an horrendous brawl whilst the crowd sits on their hands. They not only appear to be on different pages but on different continents here, which just further makes this match awful. Hall and Disco stooge around for Piper as best they can, whilst Piper throws horrible punches and moves at one eighth of the speed he used to move at in his prime. Disco eventually manages to distract Piper long enough for Hall to clobber The Hot Scot from behind, giving us our Heel heat segment.

Piper’s selling is actually okay here, as he could still do the fired up fighting from underneath thing despite his physical limitations at the time, with selling and punching being the only things he could really do with any kind of aptitude. It’s quite sad watching this at points here, as Piper really shouldn’t have been expected to go out and work a major singles pay per view match at this time. He should have been in the role Sting has occupied during his AEW stint of working tags and wild brawls in order to hide his deficiencies, not going out and working horrible singles matches like this for major Titles.

Hall isn’t that great here either really, although he at least can move somewhat normally, so if he was in there with someone who could also do so then he might possibly have been capable of having a good match here. Disco ends up in the ring at some stage, which isn’t a DQ for some reason, and whilst the referee removes Disco this allows Nash to come down for an attack. This all leads to Hall getting a rope assisted pin for the three count without Piper ever really getting a proper comeback.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: SCOTT HALL
RATING: DUD

#LolNwoWins

Thoughts: This was pretty awful with very little in the way of redeeming features. Piper looked horrendous here and Hall didn’t do a very good job of carrying him either. Just a terrible match to stick on pay per view, and I don’t think it needed the three versus one aspect of it either, but they probably did that to appease Piper and make him do the job

Piper throws the belt at the feet of Hall and crotch chops him before fleeing an nWo beat down, which does at least mean that the WCW guy didn’t get laid out following the bout I suppose. It’s a shame that they chose to protect Piper so much and not one of the other babyface acts though. DDP getting laid out and humiliated whilst Piper got to out smart the villains and avoid a beat down is a pretty clear example of the current pecking order if nothing else.

Semi-Main
“The Beast From The East” Bam Bam Bigelow Vs “Da Man” Goldberg

They’d been teasing this match for months since Bigelow debuted in November 1998, with them finally clashing here. Bigelow had gotten involved in Goldberg’s match with Kevin Nash back at Starrcade 1998 and had gotten a win over Wrath back at Souled Out 1999, which had basically seen Bigelow step over Wrath on his way up the card and essentially end Wrath’s push. There’s a pretty funny sign in the crowd of Goldberg playing with a cat where it says he’s kind to animals. Honestly, whenever Goldberg isn’t dealing with the horrible politics of Pro Wrestling he seems like a perfectly affable chap, so it wouldn’t shock me to learn that he was kind towards animals.

This one certainly has that famed “Big Fight Feel” to it, with two huge men facing off with one another and the crowd clearly being up for seeing it. Goldberg is the first one of the two to assert his dominance by getting a very impressive World’s Strongest Slam type move to Bammer in the early going, which causes Bigelow to step outside for a bit in order to get his wind back. Goldberg continues to muscle his huge opponent around by delivering a Fireman’s Carry and then clotheslining Bigelow over the top to the floor, as Bammer is taking some cracking bumps for a guy his size here. Bigelow gets some elbows to Goldberg’s abdomen, which the announce team say are actually low blows, but I think there’s enough ambiguity in them that they don’t make the ref look too dumb for not calling a DQ. Regardless, those shots slow Goldberg down and give Bigelow a chance to take over.

Goldberg’s selling whilst on the defensive is actually quite good, and it’s a bit of an underrated aspect of his game in some ways. I think the problem is that fans didn’t really want to see Goldberg sell and rather just wanted to see him cream people, so even though Goldberg was a decent seller it wasn’t something people really wanted to watch. It’s one of the issues that can arise when you book someone like Goldberg. Bigelow targets Goldberg’s legs with holds and head butts, which looks to be working for him, but then he switches to a chin lock, which isn’t very consistent from a psychology standpoint. The offence from Bigelow looks fine and he has done a solid job getting the heat here, but the crowd reactions have died down considerably since the heat segment began, because fans don’t want to watch Goldberg selling.

Bammer comes off the top with a big head butt, but Goldberg manages to kick out, which leads to Bigelow heading up for a Moonsault. Goldberg is up before that though and slams Bigelow down before prepping for the Spear, which Goldberg manages to get on the second try and that certainly wakes the crowd up. The Jackhammer looks to follow, but Goldberg decides he hasn’t got all he wants of Bigelow just yet, so he delivers another Spear and the Jackhammer finally brings things to an end.

WINNER: GOLDBERG
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was okay, although the crowd didn’t really get into the heat segment that much. Bigelow should have probably had a couple more near falls on Goldberg before eating the pin, especially in how decisive the finish was. There was zero doubt as to who the better man was here, and Bigelow was kind of done as any kind of a top level attraction following this, although he was a solid part of the mid-card for the rest of his WCW stint. I think that if they hadn’t delayed on this for as long as they did and if they’d had a more back and forth brawl in the match itself, then this could have been a bigger deal. Still, a babyface won clean with their finish, so I’ll take it

Main Event
nWo Vs WCW
nWo/WCW World Title
Champ: Hollywood Hogan Vs “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair

Hogan had beaten the crap out of Flair’s son, David, at the previous pay per view, so Flair is here to get revenge for his family. Flair was also the acting WCW President at the time, which had brought him into direct conflict with the nWo in general. This had led to the nWo wearing masks and beating the crap out of Flair in a field, only to then take their masks off to gloat about it, which raised the question as to why they wore the masks in the first place? The Wolfpac and Hollywood factions of the nWo had kind of merged around this time into nWo Elite, which means that Hogan is using the Wolfpac theme instead of the classic nWo theme or Voodoo Chile by Hendrix. That was always kind of jarring for me at the time. I think it’s something like the fourth of fifth time we’ve heard that theme tonight, which is kind of a problem when you make everyone in the Heel faction all use the same music.

Flair doesn’t really get much of a shine in the early going, with Hogan putting a beat down on the challenger and Flair even bleeding as a result from it. Flair does eventually manage to deliver some chops and even delivers a knee drop, but Hogan soon clotheslines Flair down and continues to work him over. I don’t know why Flair is on the defensive so much here considering that this is a big grudge match where Flair is trying to avenge a family member. Flair should be pummelling Hogan here and taking it to the cowardly Heel who now has to face the music. Instead Hogan is being presented as the tougher guy here and he’s winning in a fair fight, which is baffling when you consider the storyline that was used to build this one up. Hogan does finally do a bit of cheating on the floor, even adding a chair shot at one stage, which the ref allows because I guess rules don’t really exist in WCW anymore.

Flair has got a good bleed going on here, and has WCW didn’t really allow blood at the time that means that the camera has to pan back on the hard cam so that they can get as little of it on screen as possible. It really hampers the way the match is shot actually, as whenever Flair tries to fire up it means we don’t get to see his facial expressions, which are key to getting that sort of stuff over. Come on guys, it is what it is, just shoot the blood. Flair does eventually get to fight back a bit, but Hogan even no sells some of it at points despite being the Heel. Flair does finally get some joy by kicking Hogan right in the vitamins, which the referee allows to happen because reasons. Flair does manage to finally put a bit of beating on Hogan following that, showing some good intensity and even opening Hogan up a bit as well.

We don’t get to see much of Flair finally getting some revenge on Hogan though, as Torrie Wilson joins us (although she was unnamed at the time) and hops on the apron to slap Flair a couple of times. This also isn’t a DQ, as I wonder what even the point of having referees in WCW is if they’re all going to let this sort of stuff go on. Flair manages to overcome Wilson’s devastating slaps and gets a couple of suplexes onto Hogan for two, with Hogan pushing Flair off onto the referee to bump him during the kick out. With the referee down, a masked man comes out and attacks Flair with a Stun Gun (the item, not the move) and that leads to Hogan picking up the tainted win.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: HOLLYWOOD HOGAN
RATING: **1/2

Say it with me people, #Lol.Nwo.Wins

Thoughts: When they actually started letting Flair fight back this became a watchable grudge match, especially when both wrestlers started bleeding. The way the match was structured made very little sense when you consider that Flair was the babyface coming for revenge and he spent the majority of the match getting easily dispatched by the Heel who had been tormenting him for weeks, but I’ve long since given up on hoping that WCW from this time period will make sense. They at least didn’t job Flair out cleanly, although what’s the point of The Horsemen if Flair leaves Benoit and Malenko high and dry earlier and they do similar to him here? The nWo actually work together, because they aren’t idiots, and that led to them winning all of the major matches tonight. Because again, the nWo are smart and cool whilst the babyfaces are stupid and lame. I get that you need to keep Heels strong so that they’ll remain a threat, but this went totally in the other direction. If your babyface opponents are so weak and ineffective, how cool and dominant are you really when all is said and done?

The masked man hugs Wilson following that and then unmasks to reveal David Flair. So not only is Flair a chump who couldn’t get revenge for his son in the Main Event, his son actually betrayed him in said Main Event. There’s a thing as too much heat sometimes, and this match is the shining example of that. I will say that Wilson was excellent here considering she was still very new to this.

Is It Really A Stinker?

The first half of this show wasn’t too bad, with a good opener and a mostly decent few matches to follow it. However, from the Hair Vs Mask match onwards the show went straight into nWo hyper booking, where all of the babyfaces, except for Goldberg got resoundingly thrashed, making the show an overall miserable experience, with bad booking decisions compounded by the fact that there wasn’t much good wrestling going on. I was surprised as to how bitter this show still made me 25 years later actually, as the booking was so destructive and you can argue that WCW never truly bounced back from the damage they did here. Don’t get me wrong, the company was still salvageable following SuperBrawl IX, but the path back to the promised land became a lot more precarious following it due to just how bad they made the babyfaces look here.

Saturn and The Horsemen look dumb for losing their matches the way they did. Rey lost the thing that gave him the most prestige. DDP is a weakling who can’t avenge his wife. Piper is an old man who can barely move who lost to a guy who had already wrestled earlier in the night. And Flair, arguably the second top babyface in the company at the time behind possibly only Goldberg, not only fails to avenge weeks of humiliation and beat downs, but his own son betrays him in the Main Event. You could have a couple of those things happen on a show and it not leave such a bitter taste in the mouth, but loading up a show with them was just utter poison.

The only positive for SuperBrawl IX is that the actual wrestling wasn’t THAT bad overall, with only one match really stinking out the joint, with the rest at least being somewhat watchable to one degree or another. The booking drags the show down A LOT, but overall I don’t think you could say that it was a full-on Stinker. SuperBrawl IX is the definitely the next level up from true Stinkerdom though and I certainly wouldn’t recommend watching it unless you either love the nWo or you just love getting angry at how stupid short sighted a major wrestling promotion can be.

Final Rating – Stinky

(Scores based on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)

Now, as a special bonus, how would I have booked SuperBrawl IX if given the chance? Well, my lovely readers, I’ll share with you below;

Disco Vs Booker T
12 Minutes
I’d keep this pretty much the same. Competitive opener with Booker going over.

Meng and Barbarian Vs Brian Adams and Horace Hogan
7 Minutes
I was going to go with Adams and Scott Norton, but I think he was either on tour with New Japan at the time or was only just back, so we’ll stick Horace in there instead. This is a Mean Guy Match where all four burly blokes clobber each other until the nWo wins clean. Meng and Barbarian can have a miscommunication leading to their defeat perhaps. This is mostly to establish that the nWo Black and White are in the house, because we’ll be seeing them later.

Vincent Vs Wrath
3 Minutes
Squash win for Wrath so we can start with heating him up again (I love Wrath, sue me).

Scott Hall w/ Lex Luger and Liz Vs Rey Jr w/ Konnan
10 Minutes
We strip away the Hair Vs Mask stipulation and just do a bullying bigger Heel against a smaller gutsy Babyface match, with Hall eventually winning due to help from Luger and Liz. A competitive match here should hopefully help Rey’s standing a bit.

Kidman Vs Chavo
12 Minutes
We don’t need to change this much. A competitive match with Kidman over clean.

Scott Steiner w/ Buff Bagwell Vs DDP
10 Minutes
DDP goes over by DQ here when Buff interferes. Booker T then runs down to save DDP from a 2 on 1 assault, thus shifting the heat over to Steiner Vs Booker for Uncensored. DDP doesn’t get to pin Steiner, but he gets a measure of revenge and the babyfaces stand tall following the bout.

Hennig and Windham Vs Horsemen
15 Minutes
Rather than do all the silliness with The Horsemen needing to win twice here, just have a single elimination Tag Tournament on TV, with Hennig and Windham cheesing The Horsemen in the Final, setting up a rematch here. As we’re doing a lumberjack match at Uncensored, Hennig and Windham eventually run away for the count out, setting up next month’s match. The Horsemen don’t win the belts, but they don’t get jobbed out either and hopefully fans now want to see a stipulation match where they finally win the belts.

Guest Ref: Roddy Piper
Jericho w/ Ralphus Vs Saturn
12 Minutes
Instead of Piper defeating Bret for the belt, we just strip Bret of it and then do a mini-tournament (yes, I know two tournaments at the same time is kind of overkill, but needs must) where Jericho and Saturn qualify for the Title match here. Scott Dickinson can try to cheat Saturn, but Piper can put a stop to that and Saturn can then win the belt. Jericho and Saturn will then be 1-1 and you can do the rubber match at Uncensored for the belt with some kind of stipulation.

Nash Vs Bigelow Vs Goldberg
12 Minutes
Three big lads in a triple threat match here. Goldberg eventually gets the win by pinning Bigelow but you leave something on the table for a singles match between Goldberg and Nash down the line.

Hogan Vs Flair
12 Minutes
If Flair isn’t winning then he needs to dominate this match. All of the protection booking Piper got should be doubled up here for this one. Hogan shouldn’t get anything resembling offence for the first 6-8 Minutes, so that the crowd can enjoy seeing Flair get some revenge. On about 8 Minutes we’ll have Adams, Horace and Vincent run down to try and help out Hogan. Flair can take care of Horace and Vincent, but that will leave him open to a blindside from Adams whilst the referee is distracted, which will be the cut off.

The Horsemen can brawl to the back with the nWo following that, but Flair has been weakened and Hogan can now work some heat. On about 10 Minutes though Flair can make the comeback, and go the whole hog with it by having Flair actually Hulk Up on Hogan for once. The no sell, the finger point, the punches, all of it! This will be the cue for Torrie to join us, leading to Hogan bumping the ref into Flair. Hogan can go for the Title belt after that, but Flair can see it coming and kick Hogan low before going to the Figure Four.

Hogan can tap out but there will be no ref, leading to Torrie going to Flair’s eyes to break up the hold, followed by David Flair showing up and doing his big Heel turn in order to give Hogan the win. Flair does still get screwed, but he gets to batter Hogan for a good while first at least and we now have a reason to do a big cage match the next month due to all of the interference. With the rest of the show not being such a downer, and Flair looking so strong in defeat, hopefully the fans will go along with this and be prepared to wait for one more month in order to see The Horsemen triumph.

See ya’ll next time!