Mike Reviews WCW Fall Brawl 1994

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Back again with some more WCW from 1994, as we take a look at Fall Brawl 1994, an event that features Dusty Rhodes in his first War Games match since the 80’s.

Elsewhere, we’ve got an infamous match for the US Title and more Vader Vs Sting, which is almost always good. You can view the card for Fall Brawl 1994 by clicking below;

Fall Brawl 1994 Card

Fall Brawl is emanating from Roanoke, Virginia on the 18th of September 1994

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

I do really like the Windows 95-like opening video package, with a dramatic voice over man talking over low quality gifs of the wrestlers whilst they point at the camera. Good fun all round!

Some bloke sings the national anthem as I skip forward.

The announce team yaks on for a bit. The most important bit is that Ricky Steamboat has a back injury, but that will be addressed later on in the night.

Opening Match
WCW World Television Title
Champ: Lord Steven Regal w/ Sir William Dundee Vs Johnny B. Badd

Whereas Regal’s first reign with the TV Title had gone on for an impressive 225 days, his second one clocked in at a more slender 87, but by that stage the belt had already established him as a player in the WCW mid-card and WCW had designs of moving him into the tag team ranks with fellow snooty European Jean Paul Levesque (Triple H’s next gimmick when it was time for him to no longer raise some terror), so the comparative brevity of the second reign didn’t do him any harm. His main rivalry of his second reign saw him going at it with Johnny B. Badd, and this is a continuation of that issue.

Badd (Marc Mero) had originally entered WCW in 1991, playing an outrageously flamboyant character that cosplayed as Little Richard and wore extravagant outfits and makeup in order to look as suitably fabulous as possible. In the early days of the gimmick Badd was mostly all character, but as he gained more experience he eventually started becoming a pretty solid in-ring competitor who could work a decent match with most people and have genuinely good ones with the more talented wrestlers, such as Regal. Regal had managed to defeat Badd at the Bash at the Beach 1994 pay per view, but a rematch was signed for Fall Brawl 94, and this would be the moment that Badd would finally breakout from being just a character wrestler into becoming a credible competitor in his own right.

The crowd really likes Badd and he controls things in the early going, mostly working a wrist lock. There is the occasional moment where it doesn’t look like they are on the same page, but they always manage to cover it and its fun action for the most part. What I like about pro-wrestling is when you get two wildly divergent wrestlers and characters like these two and just throw them in there to react to one another. One problem I have with wrestling in general these days is that too many of the wrestlers wrestle a similar style, which means you don’t get as many fun styles clashes as you used to.

Regal does eventually manage to gain control of the match and tries to grind the challenger down with holds and strikes. The crowd stays with Badd though, and get behind him whenever he tries to make a comeback. Badd sells well during the heat actually, and his comeback attempts are timed well, with Regal also selling well when it’s his turn to do so. In a fun call-back to a defence His Lordship had with Arn Anderson, Regal and William try the same trick they did in that bout, where Regal grabs on to William’s umbrella for an illegal boost to his pin, but the referee knows to look for it in this match and breaks it up, allowing Badd to get a great near fall by countering to his own pin for two. I love stuff like that!

William tries to help again, but Regal ends up running into him by mistake and Badd gets another great near fall from a school boy roll up. Some of the near falls here have been fantastic and the crowd has been biting on all of them. I love how all of Regal’s treachery is either being spotted by the referee or outright failing too, meaning that he has to actually be the better man rather than using his usual shortcuts, thus putting him on the back-foot against a Badd who is good enough that he doesn’t need to do those things. That’s just great storytelling and an excellent example of how wrestling is the ultimate morality play. With William’s attempts at cheating foiled, Badd gets a backslide and that’s finally enough for the three count and monster pop from the crowd.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: JOHNNY B. BADD
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was a really enjoyable match, with good wrestling for the most part, some excellent storytelling and a crowd that was invested throughout the contest. Badd was the right choice to dethrone Regal if it was time to move Regal into a new division, as Badd was on the cusp of being a genuinely credible guy in the mid-card and this win here pushed him over that line

We get footage from a previous Clash of the Champions show, where Ric Flair defeated Hulk Hogan by count out thanks to Hogan getting jumped by a mysterious masked assailant. Flair is now declaring himself the Real World’s Champ, even though belts don’t change hands on DQ’s/Count Out’s. I suppose this caught anyone up on the storyline if they’d missed The Clash, but I’m not sure I like them eating up pay per view time with this stuff. WCW went from having really tight match focused pay per views in the first half of 1994, to go to this filler stuffed pay per view’s in the second half once Hogan came in. For instance, after getting a 3 minute or so recap of the Flair/Hogan story, we then get more yakking from the commentators, including a plug for Mean Gene’s Hotline (make sure you call kids, Gene’s pet Killer Whale ain’t gonna feed itself) thus killing all the momentum built by the excellent opener.

Match Two
Luchas de Apuestas
Loser Must Leave WCW
“Taskmaster” Kevin Sullivan w/ Evad Sullivan Vs Cactus Jack

Sullivan and Cactus had won the tag belts back at Slamboree, but their alliance has crumbled since dropping the belts to Pretty Wonderful and now they are battling to see who will remain in WCW. Cactus had already worked some ECW shots and Sullivan was entrenched in the running of the company, so the result of this one was pretty obvious. They had tried to turn Cactus Heel on the way out by having him attack The Sullivan’s, but the fans had rejected it and he’s thus still a babyface here. Evad’s whole thing is that he’s a gormless goober with dyslexia who loves Hulk Hogan, with Kevin gradually taking advantage of him more and more in order to entrench his status as a horrible villain.

This one is a brawl from the off, and it’s a decent one, with Cactus removing the protective mats at ringside so that he can attack Kevin on the exposed concrete. Evad doesn’t want to see that happen though and prevents Cactus from jumping off the second rope onto Kevin, which allows Kevin to slam Cactus down onto the concrete so that Cactus can deliver one more sick bump whilst in WCW before heading out. Kevin works over Cactus back inside the ring, targeting the area where Cactus’ ear used to be, with Cactus selling that well. Cactus eventually fights back and the brawl heads out to the floor again, where Cactus takes yet ANOTHER bump onto the concrete, this time from a back body drop.

I have to commend Mick Foley for taking all this punishment on his last night when he really didn’t need to seeing as he was leaving anyway. I guess it was a combination of personal professional pride and also not wanting to be a jerk on the way out in case he ever had to return to WCW one day? Cactus keeps shrugging off all the punishment like the insane madman he is, but Evad prevents him from using a chair at one stage. Evad continues to keep getting involved by stopping Kevin from using a chair as well, which leads to Evad and Cactus colliding and Kevin getting a roll-up to banish Cactus Jack from WCW.

WINNER: KEVIN SULLIVAN
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was a decent brawl, with Cactus taking 3-4 really nasty bumps onto the concrete before heading off into the sunset. From memory of reading Mick Foley’s first autobiography, he actually got delayed making it to the building for Fall Brawl and that meant that the planning session between he and Kevin ended up being quite brief. Perhaps they could have had an even better match if the circumstances had been kinder and Cactus hadn’t been delayed?

Mean Gene Okerlund is backstage with The Stud Stable (Colonel Parker, Bunkhouse Buck, Arn Anderson, Terry Funk and THE MONSTER MENG) who are worried that Parker has to wrestle tonight at Fall Brawl in the War Games. Parker delivers a great freakout whilst his charges do a good job of looking mean and dangerous. This was five wacky folk being wacky and it was great fun.

We’re supposed to get Steve Austin Vs Ricky Steamboat for the US Title here, but Steamer has a back injury that would keep him out of the ring in an official match capacity until WrestleMania 25, (he did do some stuff with ROH in 2004) so Steamboat has to come down and surrender the belt to Austin. However, Austin will still have to wrestle tonight, with Hacksaw Duggan being introduced because…

Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff!

Match Three
WCW United States Title
Champ: “Stunning” Steve Austin Vs “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan

The crowd chants “USA” for Hacksaw whilst Austin hilariously tries to back out of the match by being a big wuss. Austin going from cocky punk on being awarded the belt, to moistening his ring trunks at the sight of Duggan was superb Heeling I must say. Austin eventually gets forced into combat, and Duggan quickly gets a back body drop and a splash for the three count and the Title. The crowd actually pops big for it, with Duggan still having plenty of residual overness from his time in the WWF.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: HACKSAW DUGGAN
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: This was a controversial booking decision at the time of course. Not so much that Duggan won the belt, although it did stink of cronyism that one of Hulk Hogan’s mates came in and immediately won a major Title like this, but more so that he won it so quickly and easily. You could somewhat excuse it in that Austin didn’t know Duggan was coming, but it was still a pretty rum way to treat someone like Austin, who had received a solid push for all of 1994 prior to this and looked like he was ready to make the step up to the World Title division at one stage. That wasn’t happening following this though and a disillusioned Austin would be fired by Fed-Ex in 1995 after refusing to answer an Eric Bischoff phone call. Revisionist history tends to suggest that Austin wasn’t going anywhere prior to his sacking, but WCW had done a very un-WCW job of building up Austin really well prior to this match, so the idea that he couldn’t have eventually moved up the card there if the roster hadn’t been swamped by Hogan’s buddies doesn’t really hold water with me

Hacksaw heads over for some promo time with Mean Gene following that. Duggan gets a good response for his usual pro-USA promo, until he makes the mistake of shouting out Hulk Hogan, who the trenchant pro-Flair crowd hate. Oh Hacksaw; this isn’t 80’s WWF where you can get a cheap easy pop by buddying up to The Hulkster.

Match Four
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: Pretty Wonderful (“Pretty” Paul Roma & “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff) Vs Stars & Stripes (The Patriot & Marcus Alexander Bagwell)

Pretty Wonderful had won the belts back at Bash at the Beach 1994, with Stars & Stripes being the latest tag team that Bagwell found himself in, with Scotty Riggs, Scott Norton, Scott Steiner, Shane Douglas and Lex Luger all being future partners for “The Stuff” during his WCW stint. Stars & Stripes actually appeared on an episode of GamesMaster over here in the UK and did a really good job, although Dominik Diamond did think that Bagwell’s surname was “Bagley”. Boy, I sure hope someone was fired for that blunder!

The Blacktop Bully (Barry Darsow/Demolition Smash/Repo Man) yells at the babyfaces as they make their entrance, which leads to him getting kicked out of the building. The commentary team muses if it’s an unlucky night for the Champs thus far, which is actually really good work on their part and makes it feel like the show itself has it’s own storyline going on tonight. The Champs seem to have some fans in the crowd, with Wonderful in particular getting some chants from the crowd. This is solid wrestling to start, with the challengers doing the usual babyface tag team shine by working wristlocks and the like whilst the Champs try to focus more on throwing punches and kicks because they don’t want it to be a wrestling match. Everyone performs their respective role well and it’s “perfectly cromulent” tag team wrestling as Scott Keith would say.

Eventually Mr. Wonderful is able to catch Bagwell with a cheap shot from the apron whilst the referee is distracted and that’s the cut off. Bagwell was missing a little something from a personality standpoint during this period, but he was mechanically sound in the ring by the time 1994 rolled around, so he does a solid job as the babyface in peril, selling everything correctly and taking nice bumps for the Champ’s offence. Pretty Wonderful do an equally solid job as Heels working their younger foe over, to the point that they manage to draw some “USA” chants from the crowd as the Roanoke faithful try to encourage Bagwell to make a comeback. Roma in particular is excellent at playing a smug douche that you just want to see get beaten up. I’ve never been a huge Pretty Wonderful fan, just because I’m more of a Power and Glory guy, but they’re a fine mid-card Heel tag team, as this match shows.

Bagwell eventually manages to fight off a Wonderful attempt at a Piledriver, but Roma manages to prevent the hot tag, although I think they could have perhaps teased that for a few extra seconds in utter to get the absolute most out of it. Patriot eventually gets the tag, but the referee misses it and thus doesn’t allow it to count. Patriot still runs wild on the the Champs though, which actually draws some boos from the crowd because they know he isn’t legal. Whilst Patriot is running wild on Roma in the ring, it allows Wonderful to give Bagwell a Piledriver out on the floor before putting his limp body back in the ring for a Roma three count. What a rubbish partner Patriot ended up being!

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: PRETTY WONDERFUL
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: Decent tag action there, although I didn’t like the whole “Patriot gets a hot tag that the ref misses, but then still does a full comeback which isn’t a DQ because…reasons” bit at the end. I thought that detracted from the match overall, although it was a neat idea and I get why they wanted to have the babyfaces at least do something at the end so that the match didn’t come across as too one-sided. I think there were probably better ways to do it though. Honestly, I would have just had Patriot actually get a legal tag, only for the ref to lose track of things and then forget who was legal, thus leading to the illegal Bagwell getting pinned after the attack on the floor just so that the babyfaces actually had a reason to feel aggrieved, because they kind of didn’t here due to everything happening the way it did due to Patriot being a big dumb-dumb rather than the villains being especially villainous

Mean Gene Okerlund is backstage with Team Rhodes (Dusty, Dustin and The Nasty Boys), who all cut a promo ahead of the Fall Brawl War Games match later on. The Nasty’s yell a lot, Dustin is all serious and Dusty is Dusty. This was three very wacky folk and a serious wrestler all somehow gelling together in an entertaining fashion.

Halloween Havoc 94 is on 23/10/94, and I have it pencilled in for a review next month, so keep an eye out for it.

We get a video package explaining the background of the next match.

Semi-Main
#1 Contender Triangle Elimination Bout
Vader w/ Harley Race Vs The Guardian Angel Vs The Man Called Sting

All three of these wrestlers had an issue with each other (although Angel and Sting have much less animosity between one another), so this match was put together. Two wrestlers will start, and then once a fall is decided the eliminated wrestler will be sent to the back and the third wrestler will enter. The winner of the second session will then be declared the overall winner. So someone here will need to win two straight matches in order to be declared the overall winner whilst another might only need to win one. Guardian Angel would likely be better know as Ray “Big Boss Man” Traylor.

Session 1: Vader Vs Angel

Interesting that Vader, the only Heel of the three, is the one expected to wrestle twice here rather than them starting out with the two babyfaces and then bringing in a fresh Vader to try and pick the bones after the Faces have already gone at it. Vader doesn’t whinge about it either, with him being happy to mix it up. I think the eventual plan was to use Vader as a babyface in 1995 before he left the company after a real backstage fight with Paul Orndorff, so maybe Vader being so bold here despite being a Heel was the beginning of WCW trying to sow those seeds? Vader and Angel usually always had good matches together, with Angel being big and strong enough that he could believably throw Vader around, but also being a good enough bumper and seller that he could take all of Vader’s big moves successfully whilst making them look good.

Vader gets the better of things to start with his usual array of stiff strikes, but Angel replies with a big suplex and then drops an elbow to Vader’s mid-section, just to be mean. Angel misses an Axe Handle off the top though and that leads to Vader regaining control. I can see some folk not enjoying this section if they’re more into smaller wrestlers having high flying contests, but if you like big 300-400 pounds bruisers beating the haslet out of one another then there should be plenty for you to enjoy here, even though they are working at a slightly slower clip than usual due to one of them needing to wrestle Sting straight after. Angle keeps going for a Bodyslam on Vader, and finally he gets it, which leads to a near fall. I actually really loved that Angel went for a pin there, as slamming a man Vader’s size like that should hurt him enough that you might be able to pin him. The referee ends up getting bumped, meaning that he isn’t there to count an Angel pin following the Boss Man/Blackhole Slam. This allows Race to come into the ring and cheap shot Angel, which leads to Vader coming off the second rope with a Pump Splash to eliminate Angel once the ref revives.

Vader Eliminates Angel (Pump Splash)

That was a decent section of the bout, although the two wrestlers have had better matches before. However, it’s understandable that they’d be conserving energy here, both in kayfabe and real life, so the slightly slower pace of this one can be forgiven somewhat and it was still an enjoyable scuffle overall.

Session 2: Vader Vs Sting

There is great intensity to this one early on, with Sting even firing up after some trademark Vader shots in the corner. You really get the feel from it that these are two experienced battlers who have fought one another many times and now they’re both trying to find an avenue then haven’t ventured down before in order to pick up a victory because they’ve both seen what the other has to offer on countless occasions. Vader actually connects with the Pump Splash early on, but he doesn’t go for a pin and instead tries another one, which gives Sting time to recover and fight back. So much of this match is just the two throwing bombs at each other, because by 1994 the fans had seen pretty much every situation and stipulation for these two so there’s no need for any preamble, just get in there and start clobbering the chutney out of one another!

WCW’s inconsistent over the top rope DQ rule waves it’s ugly head again, as Sting clotheslines Vader over the top to the floor, but it’s not a DQ because it’s not the scheduled finish. Race tries getting involved at one stage whilst the ref is distracted by Vader, but Sting blocks Race’s attempt and then suplexes Race out on the floor. Even the retired manager is taking big bumps to get this one over, what more do you want?!?! Sting gets a, frankly incredible, suplex on Vader back inside the ring following that, which is an example of fantastic strength from Sting and great posting from the huge Vader. It takes two to make a spot like that work and they both absolutely nailed it. Vader fights back and tries the Moonsault following that, only for Sting to roll out of the way and then get the world’s heaviest Superplex on Vader, with something like 600-700 pounds hitting the mat between the two competitors.

Sting’s face paint is soon almost completely sweated off, which is his equivalent of the Big Boss Man’s shirt becoming fully unbuttoned/Kane’s hair getting extra frizzy, but Sting still runs wild with clotheslines, as Vader takes such great bumps from them that the fans are actually disappointed that Sting doesn’t win with them. Yes, the crowd here at Fall Brawl were upset that Sting couldn’t defeat freaking VADER with a basic clothesline due to how well Vader sold it. This match is tremendous! Vader ends up soup-canning Sting to the floor, which leads to a Race cheap shot and some Vader stiff strikes back inside. Sting starts STINGERING UP though, as the crowd continues to be entranced by this. Heck, I’m enjoying it so much that there’s points where I want to stop reviewing it and just watch it, which is the universal sign of a match being the dog’s bollocks (sorry Spaniels).

The 15 minute time limit for the session expires, meaning that we need to go to a 5 minute overtime, as Vader has to be approaching something like 25 minutes total match time so far tonight, which is incredible for a guy his size. Hey, a WCW show where we’re going to get an actual finish no matter what, you don’t get a chance to write that one often! The pace has clearly slowed once the overtime kicks in, but the intensity of the fight remains high, as does the crowd interest, as both wrestlers continue to fight with everything they have until it looks like they are drained over every ounce of energy. This has possibly been the sluggiest slugfest these two have ever slugged, and it feels like a suitable conclusion to the years of feuding the two have had.

The overtime ends with neither combatant being able to secure a victory, which means we head into a sudden death period where the first one to knock the other down picks up the win, as they just keep ramping up the drama here. Sting eventually manages to knock Vader down for a monster pop from the crowd, but sadly the referee misses it due to Race and Guardian Angel brawling outside the ring. This leads to the mysterious masked man who previously attacked Hulk Hogan running down to clock Sting whilst the ref isn’t looking, which means that Vader is able to stand back up to his feet and pick up the win once the ref heads back down to ringside after breaking up the Race/Angel fight.

Vader Eliminates Sting (Outside inference from Masked Man)

WINNER: VADER
RATING: ****1/2

Thoughts: The Vader Vs Angel section was a decent enough match, but the Vader Vs Sting section was one of their better matches, so adding it all up I came to that rating. Give it a clean finish to the deciding section, and a slightly better first section, and I would have happily gone for the full five stars here. The live crowd in Roanoke loved it and it was a great mix of drama, storytelling and exciting in-ring action. If you’ve not seen this one before then I strongly suggest seeking it out, because I absolutely loved it!

Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair join Mean Gene via a (pre-recorded) satellite link for an excruciating segment so that we can set up the Main Event of Halloween Havoc. Flair, Hogan, and some ladies, deliver stilted dialogue during a phone call, with Flair not even being able to hear Hogan at points. Between the bad acting on display from pretty much everyone and the amount of time this all took, it really annoyed me that they stuck it on pay per view. The outcome of all of this is that it’s Flair Vs Hogan at Havoc, with both wrestler’s careers on the line. That did at least lead to a decent buy rate for Havoc, but this segment should have been saved for TV and not done on pay per view.

We now get further filler, as we get a long video package for the War Games.

Between the ending of the previous match and the start of the Main Event, we’ve had 30 minutes of no wrestling on this wrestling pay per view people bought to watch wrestling on. I’m not going to say that a whole show has to be matches with no room for anything else, but waiting that long between matches on a show the audience has paid to view is really inexcusable.

Main Event
War Games
Studd Stable (Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, Terry Funk & Colonel Rob Parker) w/ THE MONSTER MENG
Vs
Team Rhodes (Dustin Rhodes, Dusty Rhodes, Knobbs & Sags)

Dustin had been feuding with Parker and his goons for most of 1994, with this designed to be the Final Conclusion to the matter. War Games kind of became the Fall Brawl tradition from 1993 onwards, although most of them from the 90’s were pretty cack because WCW had a no blood policy at the time, which kind of limits the drama and realism that you’d find in a match like War Games. The Nasty’s had been Heels, but Dusty had gone to a bar and convinced them to turn babyface, hence they are now fighting alongside Dustin and Dusty. Anderson keeps his streak of always starting out a War Games match going here, as he gets in there for the first five minutes with Dustin. As usual when Anderson and Dustin mix it up; it’s good action, although there’s sadly no blood due to WCW being very PG at the time. Anderson gets his head stuck between the two rings at one stage, which was a spot he liked to do in these, as the action continues to be entertaining. In a shock of all shocks; the Heels win the coin toss, meaning that Buck is the next competitor in there.

Bunkhouse Buck enters the War Games

They do at least get the match structure correct here, even though they have omitted the blood, as Anderson and Buck control things on Dustin now that they have the numbers advantage, which gives Dustin a good opportunity to sell. The Heels stick Dustin in a double team crab hold, but eventually the clock ticks down and Sags joins us.

Sags enters the War Games

Sags flings the Heels around for a bit, which the crowd enjoys, and the bad guys take some nice bumps for it all. Dustin can now get back in the action seeing as he has some help, which leads to a 10 punch onto Anderson whilst Sags continues to clobber at and fling around poor Buck. It continues to be an enjoyable brawl, and the crowd remains invested in the action. Funk is the next one in for the Heels, which makes sense seeing as they’re not going to send in the manager until they absolutely have to.

Terry Funk enters the War Games

Funk takes off his cowboy boot and starts clobbering everything that moves with it, which is very much in-line with the crazed madman gimmick that Funk had at the time. Again, some blood would really up the drama levels right now, but I understand why they can’t do it. It does stretch credibility somewhat that guys are getting flung into a metal cage and are getting clocked in the face with cowboy boots, yet no one is coming up bleeding from it. Funk takes a Piledriver between the rings and ends up tumbling through the gap under the ring, which is also very on brand for him. These days in WWE of course that would lead to The Stud Stable getting DQ’ed, as you’re not allowed to leave the cage.

Knobbs enters the War Games

Knobbs takes the same approach to things as Sags did, as he just enters the cage like a whirling dervish of destruction that tries to destroy anything that enters his general radius. The Nasty Boys fit this kind of match really well actually, as they are perfectly suited to just running into a cage and battering people. Finally though it’s time for an incredibly sweaty Parker to enter the cage, and he reluctantly does so.

Colonel Parker enters the War Games

Parker very quickly gets across the idea that he’s a weedy blowhard by selling that punching the babyfaces hurts his hand, which is the easiest way to get across that someone in wrestling is a bit of a wuss. Dustin really wants to get some of Parker, but Parker manages to keep ducking away by having his charges run interference, but eventually Dusty enters to even things up and the crowd goes nuts.

Dusty Rhodes enters the War Games

Dusty of course gets to run wild on everyone with elbow’s, because Dusty, whilst Meng does a great job on the outside of being an angry and frustrated bodyguard because he can’t get in there to guard any bodies. With the rest of his team nullified, Parker has no one to help him and that means that Dusty can lock him in a Figure Four. The Nasty’s add some elbow drops whilst that is all going on, and Parker not surprisingly uncles in order to give the babyfaces the win. According to Dusty on one of WWE’s DVD’s, The Nasty’s were really laying in those elbows and it actually caused Parker to foul himself, which probably makes this one of Vince McMahon’s favourite matches of all-time…

WINNERS: TEAM RHODES
RATING: ****

Thoughts: The lack of blood hurt this one somewhat. I’m not the kind of wrestling fan that expects all big grudge matches to have blood, but I think given how long this feud had been going and taking into account the War Games stipulation, I think we really needed some claret in this one, not just to increase the drama, but also for realism’s sake. There were spots where someone was getting cheese grated face first into the cage for instance, which just ended up looking overly phony when the wrestler on the receiving end didn’t even have a scratch on them. The quality of the brawling itself made up for it somewhat though, and the match storyline of Parker being totally out his depth but now being in a position to take his medicine after months of being a jerk was really well executed. I like how they actually got the War Games match structure correct too, with the Heels controlling things when they had the man advantage but the babyfaces holding their own in a fair fight, which is something that so often gets forgotten in these. I see people say that War Games is a confusing match stipulation, but when it’s done correctly I think it’s pretty straightforward. You have a team of bad guys and a a team of good guys who alternate sending a wrestler into the cage every two minutes, and when everyone is in you win by making someone on the other team give up. That’s not an overly difficult concept to grasp, wrestling companies just sometimes overcomplicate it or get too cute with it. I liked how this match didn’t go on for 45-60 minutes either. They got it all done in under 20 minutes and it didn’t need a second more. You got a wild brawl and some good storytelling, and then they took it home at the peak by having the annoying manager get his just desserts for being an absolute weapon to the babyfaces. Fabulous!

The announce team close things out and we get the credits for the production staff.

In Conclusion

Like with a lot of WCW pay per views from the second half of 1994, there was just way too much filler on Fall Brawl and that made it difficult for the show to gain momentum at points. Despite that, the in-ring action was generally to a good standard on Fall Brawl, with the TV Title, Triangle and War Games matches all being worth your time. For that reason, Fall Brawl 94 is a mild thumbs up, but be prepared to use your fast forward button (or whatever the equivalent on a streaming service is) in order to get to the actual wrestling. 30 minutes between matches cannot be excused on a pay per view unless some kind of real life tragedy takes place, and the only tragic thing here was Hogan, Flair and the gaggle of extras trying to act in a segment that should have been saved for television

Fall Brawl comes mildly recommended