Mike Reviews WCW Slamboree 1994

Happy Slamboreein’ Saturday Ya’ll!

I’ve decided to do some more 1994 WCW shows, as they’re generally decent, and that brings us to Slamboree. Slamboree was initially a show where WCW would honour legends of the past and bring them in for some matches.

We’ve got the Hall of Fame on this show, along with Tully Blanchard making a brief return to the company for a match with Terry Funk.

I seem to remember Slamboree 94 being a decent show, so let’s see if that recollection is accurate. You can find the card for the event at the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1595&page=3

Slamboree is emanating from Philly, PA on the 22nd of May 1994

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

We get the opening video package to the awesome Slamboree theme that WCW had in the early days of doing this event. Seriously, it’s one of my favourite generic production tracks that WCW just borrowed for a pay per view. Whoever picked that one on the CD made a good call!

Mean Gene Okerlund introduces our legends for the evening; Ole Anderson, The Assassin, Penny Banner, Red Bastien, Tully Blanchard, Da Crusha, Don Curtis, Terry Funk (although he doesn’t show for some reason), Verne Gagne, Hard Boiled Haggerty, Larry Hennig, Killer Kowalski, Ernie Ladd, Wahoo McDaniel, Angelo Mosca, Harley Race, Ray Stevens, Lou Thesz, Johnny Weaver, Mr. Wrestling II and Tommy Young.

That’s one heck of a collection of Legends actually. You can’t say WCW didn’t push the boat out for Slamboree tonight!

The commentary team yaks, as we see that ECW Hat Guy is in the crowd tonight. How’d he manage to score such plum seats? WCW commissioner Nick Bockwinkel comes over to the commentary booth with the WCW International Title in his hands. Bock calls out Sting and tries to award him with the belt because Rick Rude is unable to compete later on. Sting refuses though, because he’s a gallant babyface, and instead the belt will be decided later on when Sting wrestles Vader. Normally I hate it when WCW takes forever to get the first match in the ring, but the legends are why we are here at Slamboree tonight and the angle with Sting actually set something important up for later, so I’ll let it slide.

Opening Match
WCW United States Title
Champ: Stunning Steve Austin w/ Colonel Rob Parker Vs Johnny B. Badd

Badd earned himself a Title shot with a win over DDP on the previous pay per view, whilst Austin managed to scrape by against Great Muta. You don’t want to make Johnny mad of course, even if he is pretty as a picture and looks just like Little Richard. I hope that you have that entrance theme stuck in your head all day now too! Austin has “U.S. Champ” on the back of his trunks tonight, just in case he gets lost and can’t identify himself I guess. We get a chain wrestling battle in the early going, as we see that Sherri Martel is sitting in the crowd, which was a tease for her eventually joining WCW as a manager. The wrestling is executed nicely by both combatants, as both of them were competent grapple merchants by this stage in their collective careers.

Eventually Austin manages to cut Badd off and work some heat, with Parker getting some cheap shots in when the ref is distracted for good measure. Badd does a good job of selling everything and Austin is smooth on offence, so it’s a solid heat segment. Badd eventually makes the comeback, with Austin taking some nice snappy bumps for it all. Parker distracts the ref when it looks like Badd has Austin pinned for three, but Badd manages to send the two Heels into one another and then rolls Austin up for two in a near fall so convincing that the timekeeper actually rings the bell! However, Austin is indeed out at two and the match continues, with Badd getting another near fall from a Sunset Flip before Austin pushes off the ropes on a back suplex to land on top of Badd for three.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: STEVE AUSTIN
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Solid start to the show, with Austin getting a skin of the teeth victory when it looked like Badd was in the ascendancy

Badd clobbers Austin with a punch post-match.

Mean Gene hocks the hotline. Make sure you dial kids, moustache combs don’t come cheap! Wahoo McDaniel and Ernie Ladd join Mean Gene for some promo time, and both of them are humble and happy to be there. Gene stirs the pot by mentioning to Wahoo that Bobby Heenan has been insulting him, and Wahoo of course has a response to that. This was a pleasant segment, as every segment with the legends has been thus far.

Dusty Rhodes is having a ball in Hollywood and is said that he can’t be at Slamboree tonight, but his heart is there even if The Dream himself can’t be at the show. I wonder if Dusty was actually in Hollywood or he just didn’t want to be seen as the same as the rest of the retired guys?

Match Two
Legends Bout
Tully Blanchard Vs Terry Funk

WCW had been lowballing Blanchard for years, but he’d finally agreed to come in for this match. Funk had been working in ECW at the time, so big chunks of the crowd just treat it as him working a WCW shot rather than this big return to the mainstream from a long lost legend. Blanchard has basketball highlights #34 as his music here, which is a theme Chris Jericho would use when he first entered WCW. This one is a brawl from the off, which the crowd is really into. Funk is of course super over with a section of the crowd due to his ECW connections, and Funk makes a point of posing with Hat Guy in the crowd at one stage. Gordon Solie has jumped on the commentary desk for this one, and he does a good job handling the call.

Things finally get into the ring, with Funk getting a Rude Awakening, but they are soon out fighting on the ramp, which is going straight up to the ring apron tonight. Referee Nick Patrick tries to get the wrestlers back in the ring, as the fans start chanting that they want blood, because Philly. Funk tries heading up with a Moonsault inside the ring at one stage, but Blanchard manages to move out of the way at the last second. Blanchard has been solid here, but it’s kind of been the Terry Funk show thus far, as The Funker has been an absolute riot in this one. Neither one is really playing babyface here, with them both essentially being violent jerks who just happen to be facing off with one another.

Patrick ends up taking a bump and that leads to Funk bringing a chair into the ring, as Blanchard appears to have bladed from something. Well, I guess he was only in for a one shot so he didn’t have to worry about getting in trouble for an unauthorised blade job. Funk tries to Piledrive Blanchard off the second rope onto the chair at one stage, but it goes awry and they don’t quite pull it off, although thankfully no one appears to get hurt from it. Both wrestlers brawl out onto the ramp, with Funk attacking Blanchard with his branding iron. The referee ends up taking a punch from Blanchard and that leads to the match being thrown out, much to the crowd’s consternation.

DOUBLE DQ
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: An entertaining wild brawl, although it would have been nice to have gotten a pin or submission finish. Still though, for a match thrown out there cold, this ended up having good crowd interest and both wrestlers were working hard

Funk drops an elbow on Hat Guy’s hat following that. That hat was just one day away from retirement as well! Heenan being the ultimate coward as Funk stalks around ringside is always fun.

Jesse Ventura is backstage with Ric Flair, who cuts a promo on Colonel Parker, saying that he’s ready for Parker’s mystery man tonight at Slamboree. It’s a Ric Flair promo, so it’s a good promo. In other news, the ocean has fish in it (or at least it will until climate change and over fishing take their toll).

Match Three
Non-Title Grudge Contest
WCW World Television Champ Lord Steven Regal w/ Sir William Vs The Living Legend Larry Zbyszko

Regal had been picking on Larry Z, so Larry came out of retirement to do battle with him here. A simple storyline, but one that usually works when done well. Larry Z shines on Regal to start by getting the better of him in the early wrestling exchanges, which leads to Regal using his great facial expressions to get across how frustrated he is at his inability to deal with The Living Legend. Regal eventually has some joy with some trusty European Uppercut’s, which leaves Larry Z on the defensive. Larry does a good job selling Regal’s offence, as the work here has been solid, although some of the crowd reactions have been a little bit lacking at points.

Regal using the uppercuts works well, because they look good and they also don’t require Larry to do anything more high impact than a flat back bump, which is something where he has full control over where he lands, so it’s the perfect move to use in a match with someone who is ageing and has had an in-ring layoff. Regal tries to end things with an Underhook Suplex, but Larry Z bridges out of it into a pinning hold and that’s enough for a three count and a sizeable pop from the crowd. Larry didn’t really get a proper comeback there, but it worked for the story they were telling, as Larry was still rusty so it was only natural that he’d tire and not have enough juice for a full-on comeback, but he had the ring smarts to catch Regal with a counter like that.

WINNER: LARRY ZBYSZKO
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: They told a decent story there and the work was to a solid standard. The crowd wasn’t into it at points, but it was a good piece of business that led to further matches and a brief TV Title reign for Larry, where he would end up defending the belt against a young Triple H

Mean Gene is backstage with Terry Funk, who says he didn’t come out with the legends earlier as he is THE legend, before going on to say that he’s a hardcore wrestler who hates Dusty Rhodes. Funk adds that he’s not leaving yet, and Dusty’s kid is in a match later. Hmmm……

Gordon Solie does the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Harley Race is the first one out, and he was a Heel manager in WCW at the time, but he politely accepts his plaque anyway in an out of character moment. Race of course was a multiple time NWA World Champ and also had a successful run in the WWF as a wrestler during the 80’s, although he did suffer a serious injury in a match with Hulk Hogan. Next up is Da Crusha, who was a big star in the AWA who used to train by lifting bear kegs and was known for smoking comically big cigars. Ernie Ladd is next up, a former NFL player who then entered the wrestling business. He was a gigantic Heel wrestler for many years, and was a big star in places like Mid-South Wrestling. Next up is The Assassin, who was a feared masked wrestler who ended up training wrestler’s at WCW’s training school. We get Ole Anderson next, one of the founding members of the Four Horsemen and a successful booker in the Georgia territory. Ole was also pretty much the Victor Meldrew of professional wrestling, in that he was a complete grump most of the time. Dick The Bruiser is the posthumous induction, who played in the NFL before getting spotted by Verne Gagne and turned into a wrestling superstar. He notably refereed the Main Event of Starrcade 1990, dressed like the world’s most violent sailor.

Jesse Ventura is backstage with Colonel Parker, who is getting a sweat on as per usual. In fact, Parker is going to crank up the heat in the WCW World Title match later on, but he won’t yet reveal who Flair’s opponent will be later on.

Match Four
Bullrope Brawl
Bunkhouse Buck w/ Colonel Rob Parker Vs The Natural Dustin Rhodes

Buck was essentially Parker’s goon (hired goon) to take on Rhodes, with more soon to join. This is pin fall rules, but you can use the rope and cowbell as a weapon, so Christopher Walken should be happy. Buck got a tainted win over Dustin back at Spring Stampede, so Dustin is looking for some payback here at Slamboree in his family’s trademark stipulation match. Dustin gets the better of Buck in the early going, using the rope to his advantage because he has better knowledge of the stipulation than Buck does. I like when wrestlers show how their experience in a speciality gimmick bout gives them a specific edge over their opponent, as it makes sense and it’s also a good storytelling tool.

The crowd wants some blood (again, because Philly) but Dustin instead decides to viciously target Buck’s leg with the cowbell. Buck eventually manages to pull Dustin’s shirt over his head hockey style and get some unanswered shots with the cowbell in order to get himself back into the contest. Buck ties Dustin to the ring post and unloads with some punches, although that does mean that he can’t make use of the sustained offence by getting a pin as Dustin is tied up outside the ring. Dustin ends up managing to fight back, and drills Buck in the head with the cowbell a few times, although he doesn’t succeed in drawing any blood, much to the crowd’s annoyance. I think WCW pretty much had a no blood policy during this timescale, although we did see some on the previous two pay per views, so I guess it depended on the circumstance.

I’m not a gore freak or anything, and I’ve tutted at plenty a Jon Moxley match in my time, but I do think some blood would enhance this one, if only from a realism aspect as if you get hit in the head with a metal object enough times it’s highly likely that you’d have at least a trickle going on. The referee takes a bump and Parker comes in to try and help his charge, but things go awry and Dustin ends up walloping Buck with the cowbell, just in time to get a three count from the revived referee.

WINNER: DUSTIN RHODES
RATING: ***

Thoughts: The crowd was probably right in thinking that this one could have used some blood, but it was still a decent brawl and it had a suitable amount of cowbell in order to keep The Walk’s happy

Terry Funk runs down following the match to help Buck put a beat down on Dustin, meaning that this feud will now continue.

Mean Geneis on the interview podium, where he talks about a poll on the hotline where you can vote as to whether Cactus Jack should be banned. Red Bastien and Ray Stevens come over for some promo time. They both say that they think it was a good idea to retire! This was a nice little segment, and both wrestlers spoke well and made sure to put the current generation over, which you like to see.

Match Five
WCW World Title
Champ: The Nature Boy Ric Flair Vs Barry Windham w/ Colonel Rob Parker

This was a bait and switch, as WCW hyped that Flair would defend his belt against a 6 ft 5 blond man here at Slamboree, which was obviously supposed to make people think of Hulk Hogan, but it ended up being Big Bazzer instead. Jesse Ventura has stepped onto commentary for the one, which pleases me as I’ve always felt that Tony and Jesse had good chemistry together as a commentary tandem. Windham isn’t in the best of shape here, which makes me think that they called him out of the blue for this one and he didn’t have time to get ring ready. Flair gets the better of things in the early going, looking good on offence with trademark chops and kicks to Windham’s previously injured knee, but Windham ends up catching Flair with a clothesline out of the corner and then starts working Flair over.

Windham’s work is notably lacking some crispness, but the wrestling here is decent for the most part, although the crowd doesn’t really get into the match that much during the heat segment. It could be that they don’t buy Windham as a challenger and thus they don’t think that Flair’s belt is in any real jeopardy, thus they aren’t getting that emotionally invested? Flair never liked to work babyface, but he’s excellent in the role here, fighting from underneath and playing the part of gutsy Champion who keeps battling. Flair eventually manages to catch Windham with an Atomic Drop, but he takes too long setting up for something on the top rope and that leads to Windham getting a Superplex for two. That move used to be Windham’s finisher, but by 1994 it was unlikely that the move was going to get someone the three count as it’s effectiveness had been dulled considerably by people not treating the move like a big deal.

Flair ends up managing to fight back and catch Windham in the Figure Four, which leads to a good submission tease as Windham desperately tries to make it to the ropes. The crowd reactions have still been a bit disappointing here, but the match has built nicely and they’re picking things up as the end of the bout appears on the horizon. Flair actually successfully comes off the top rope with a chop, which you’d think would be a bigger deal with the crowd, but they still don’t care. Man, they’re throwing everything they can at this crowd to make them bite and they’re just not interested. Flair gets a bit of a reaction for clocking Parker, but the resulting roll-up that Windham gets on the distracted Flair doesn’t really get much interest from the crowd. Oddly though, Flair soon comes off the top with a body press following that and the crowd goes nuts when it gets three. If they popped so big for that, then why didn’t they seem to care during the match itself?

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: RIC FLAIR
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: I thought the wrestling was quite good here, but they just couldn’t get the crowd to care about it no matter how much they tried, and that left the match with a flat atmosphere, which took it down a bit for me. Windham wasn’t the most thrilling of mystery opponents, especially as he wasn’t at his best physically here, but they delivered a solid match in the end

We get a Bash at the Beach advert, featuring Bobby Heenan and some good looking ladies.

Mean Gene continues to hock the hotline. Come on guys, Gene needs Martini, get dialling! Da Crusha and Don Curtis come over for another interview segment. Curtis struggles a bit but Gene helps him through it. Crusha gives a shout out to Dick The Bruiser during his promo, in a nice moment. Crusha promises beer for later.

Semi-Main
Broadstreet Bully Bout for the WCW World Tag Team Titles
Guest Referee: Dave Schultz
Champs: The Nasty Boys (Knobbs and Sags) Vs Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan

The story here is that Cactus (Maxx Payne) and Sullivan (Evad Sullivan) have seen their respective partners injured by The Nasty’s, so they’ve joined forces to extract some revenge, with former ice hockey player Schultz there to keep order. There’s a fun story in one of Mick Foley’s books where he writes a bout a nervous Schultz asking the guys in the match how to throw a worked punch, only for them to encourage him to lay it in, seeing as they’d be doing that in the match itself. Thus Schultz relaxed, got his beer on, and then came out ready and raring to go!

This is a wild brawl from the off, with everyone fighting all over the place in classic Memphis/FMW/ECW style. ECW was already popularising this style of match on the underground scene, but Sullivan and co bringing it to pay per view took it into the mainstream, and it ended up contributing to the WWF taking over the North American Pro Wrestling scene once again in the second half of the decade with their much vaunted “Attitude” Era. There’s not much in the way of play by play I can do here, as it would just be me reading off the weapon shots and sick bumps. What I can say is that all four go at it with reckless abandon here, with the likes of metal bins and steel chairs getting used liberally.

We of course get a table involved at one stage, with Cactus getting flung off the stage through it, although he soon gets up from it. Honestly, if that was anyone other than Cactus Jack I’d be annoyed at him getting up so quickly, but Cactus was established as a wild madman who could take punishment like that and keep going, so I’ll give them a pass this time because it at least works in kayfabe. Sags ends up stupidly starting a fight with Schultz, and that goes about as well for him as you’d expect, with Cactus then hitting Sags with Schultz’s hockey stick for the three count.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: CACTUS & SULLIVAN
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was a wildly entertaining crazy brawl, with weapon shots galore and big bumps for good measure. If you’re not into brawling or weapons based matches then you might not enjoy this, but I have time for those kinds of bouts in the right setting, and I felt this was the right setting. Holding the bout in Philly was a smart move, especially with some of the ECW regulars in attendance. WCW was actually ahead of the curve on the WWF when it came to stuff like this, although once the WWF started doing these kinds of matches more regularly from 97 onwards they ended up eclipsing WCW’s best efforts due to being able to go further than WCW would be allowed to go

Maxx Payne joins us after the match and clobbers Sags with a guitar, whilst Evad Sullivan comes down and batters Knobbs with a crutch, ensuring that both of the injured tag team partners get some revenge on The Nasty’s as well. What a great piece of business this all was!

Mean Gene is at the interview podium, where he brings in Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne, which is pretty cool as we have both the old school NWA and AWA represented respectively. Neither of the legends seem happy about the violence in the previous bout.

Main Event
WCW International Title
Belt Vacant
Vader w/ Harley Race Vs The Man Called Sting

Right, this is going to take some explaining. Basically, when Ric Flair jumped to the WWF in 1991 he took the Big Gold Belt with him so that he could be promoted as “The Real Worlds Champion”. This led to WCW busting out a new belt to crown a new WCW Champion, which eventually ended up being Lex Luger. The belt Flair had was actually the NWA Title, and the NWA eventually got in back in 1992 for a tournament in Japan, where Masahiro Chono ended up winning it. With WCW still in a working relationship with the NWA, they were able to book the NWA Champ on their shows.

Hence Chono and later Great Muta defended the NWA belt on WCW shows whilst WCW had its own Champion as well. Eventually Barry Windham won the belt from Muta at Super Brawl III in an absolute stinker, essentially returning control of the Title to WCW. Windham would lose the belt to a returning Ric Flair at Beach Blast 93, which the NWA was cool with. However, WCW then started treating the NWA belt like it was actually their property and started changing the Champion without the NWA’s permission. The NWA didn’t like that and revoked WCW’s right to use the name NWA on their shows.

WCW refused to give the belt back however, so came up with the fictional “WCW International board of directors” to oversee the Title so that they could continue to use the Big Gold Belt on their shows without actually referring to it as the NWA Title. Why they didn’t just unify the belts as quickly as possible is a question many have asked over the years, as it would likely have saved a lot of bother and confusion. But hey, WCW is going to WCW at the end of the day. Rick Rude had actually been the Champion, but a legit back injury meant he had to pull out. Hence we got the angle at the start of the show, with Sting refusing to be handed the belt and this match being for the Title instead.

We’ve already seen some of the “too cool for school” element from the ECW fans that have attended this show tonight, and we get more of it here, with a vocal section of the crowd choosing to cheer for the villainous Vader over the heroic Stinger. This causes Sting to go in a bit of a sulk, and takes the match down a bit. As a result this is probably the worst Vader Vs Sting pay per view outing. However, even then it’s still decent at the very least because these two had that sort of wild chemistry few wrestlers do. Some fans even vocally chant “Sting Must Die” at one stage, which the mic’s pick up, causing the commentators to go quiet for a bit.

Vader proceeds to try and give them what they want by clobbering Sting down to the mat with a barrage of punches. Sting fights back with punches and kicks of his own, as ECW Hat Guy yells at Vader for having the temerity to sell for the pretty boy. Sting follows up with an impressive vertical suplex, which seems to serve only to annoy Vader and he mows Sting down with a body tackle to start the heat segment. The heat is exactly what you’d expect, as Vader brutally destroys Sting with the usual, with Sting selling it well.

Vader gets some scattered boo’s in the heat, but most of the crowd sits on their hands and doesn’t really get behind Sting to make a comeback. Sting finally manages to floor Vader and drops a big jumping elbow for a double down. Vader recovers first and drops an elbow of his own, as this one has been a bit disjointed. There is finally some clapping for Sting as he fights up and goes for a running shoulder tackle, but Vader ducks and the referee gets bumped. Vader choke slams Sting, but there’s no ref.

Race tries to help Vader by hitting Sting with a chair, but Sting ducks and Vader eats it instead (although it was a pretty weak shot that didn’t look good) and Sting follows with a DDT for a two count from the revived ref. Sting clotheslines Vader out and then suplexes him back inside before clotheslining him out once again. Sting bumping Vader around will always be cool. Sting tries the Stinger Splash back inside, but Vader catches him and slams him down before heading up for a moonsault. Sting manages to dodge that and makes a cover. Race tries coming off the top rope with a diving head butt, but Sting moves and Race hits Vader instead, in full view of the referee. The ref decides to let that go, even though it should be a DQ, and Sting heads up with a splash for the three count.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: STING
RATING: ***

Thoughts: One of the lesser matches the two had, but it was good for the most part. The finish was pretty weak as they had to give Vader an out for losing, which is why they did the whole Race backfired interference, but it was in full view of the ref and should have been a DQ even if he hit his man by mistake. Someone not involved in the match coming in and doing a diving head butt is a DQ in my book, regardless of who he hits. They did similar at Starrcade 93 and I didn’t like it there either

Sting decides that he isn’t going to stick around following his win and raises the belt briefly before trudging off.

In Conclusion

Slamboree 94 has plenty of solid action, with no bad matches and a great brawl in the Tag Title bout. That alone is enough to make the show an easy thumbs up. Slamboree doesn’t really meet the heights overall of Spring Stampede, so if you only have time for one then I’d pick Spring Stampede out of the two, but Slamboree is still a good show and well worth your time, especially if you like straightforward wrestling with solid storyline advancement and good in-ring action.

Recommended show!