Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WCW Fall Brawl 1993

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

Back again with another Stinker Review, as I look at a wrestling show with a bad reputation to see if that reputation is deserved or not. This month we’ve got WCW Fall Brawl 1993, a show that featues The Shockmaster in the Main Event along with a man in yellowface wrestling near the top of the card. In 1993!!

So with all of that going on; Fall Brawl 93 already looks like it’s well on the way to Stinkerville, but maybe there’s enough good stuff elsewhere on the card that it won’t ultimately reach it’s smelly destination? I’ll guess we’ll have to take a look at Fall Brawl 93 to find out. Lucky us…

You can view the card for Fall Brawl 93 by clicking below;

WCW Fall Brawl 1993 Card

Fall Brawl is emanating from Houston, Texas on the 19th of September 1993

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura

We get a cheesy black and white intro about autumn to start, until things suddenly get even cheesier with a Risk styled intro video talking about the big matches tonight.

Opening Match
WCW World Television Title
Champ: Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat Vs Lord Steven Regal w/ Sir William

I’ve always enjoyed Regal’s WCW theme, as it has such a pompous air to it that really suited the character he was playing. The always virtuous and valiant Steamboat made a perfect opponent for the nefarious and snide Regal, especially as both men were proficient when it came to scientific technical wrestling. WCW had started bringing in boxing ring announcer Michael Buffer for their special bouts by this point, so he does the announcements here due to it being a Title match.

Steamboat has the left side of his ribs taped due to a previous Regal assault on an edition of WCW’s flagship show Saturday Night, so Steamboat is fired up and throws strikes right from the off rather than going for the technical style he would normally employ. WCW’s inconsistent “over the top rope” disqualification rule rears its ugly head once again, as Steamboat forcefully flings Regal out, but Regal lands on the ramp way instead of the floor so it’s classed as not counting because the match isn’t due to end just yet.

Steamboat is really fired up here and he continues to take it to Regal, even outright choking him in the corner at one stage, doing a great job of getting across the story that Regal has properly agitated his onions and now he’s going to try and make him pay. Regal sells all of Steamboat’s offence really well, and it’s a really strong opening section of the bout in general. There do appear to be a couple of fans who really don’t like Steamboat, to the point that they actually yell advice to Regal at certain points, but the rest of the crowd are behind the Champion.

Regal eventually manages to find a window into the match by going after the rib injury, which gives Steamboat a chance to sell, something he’s also excellent at. It was always the little things that Regal did that made him so good, such as the way he would drive his knees or elbows into his opponent when applying standard holds just to make them look even nastier than usual. Steamboat makes sporadic attempts at a comeback, but all Regal has to do is go back to the ribs and he’s back on top. It’s a simple story but they tell it well.

Steamboat is eventually able to get a comeback going after reversing a Regal attempt at a Tombstone Piledriver. We get some near falls, with Steamboat mostly going for quick pinning holds due to the pain in his ribs limiting the type of moves he can go for, which is another nice little touch in a match full of them. Eventually though Sir William proves to be the difference maker, as he hits Steamboat with his umbrella when the referee isn’t looking and that leads to a Regal suplex for the win and the Title to a chorus of boos.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: HIS LORDSHIP
RATING: ***1/2

I’ve always enjoyed this match. The wrestling is really good but so too is the selling and storytelling, with Steamboat overcoming the issues with his ribs only to then be cheated out of the Title due to the villainous ways of Regal and William. They could have easily had Regal defeat Steamboat cleanly and used the ribs as an excuse, but they made sure to have Regal cheat as well just to make him even more dislikeable than he already was

In a lot of ways Lord Steven Regal was the perfect person to hold the TV Title. He had the stamina not only to defend the belt regularly but to go the distance in time limit draws as well, and he was a good enough technician that he could carry guys through matches even if they didn’t have the same level of technical wrestling acumen as he did. Indeed, when one wrestler asked Regal what to do when it came to trading holds with him in a technical battle, Regal was said to reply dryly “just hold on” and that Regal would handle the rest

Eric Bischoff is interviewing The Nasty Boys up on the stage area. The Nasty’s say that they have a big secret to reveal later on, and that they’ll win the Tag Titles with a flying bulldog later on. This was the usual yelling and yelping from The Nasty’s.

Match Two
Big Sky Vs Charlie Norris

Big Sky is a generic tall muscle man from Canada, whilst Norris is a Native American wrestler from Minnesota. I believe Norris is a legitimate Native American as well, which isn’t always the case when you see that sort of character in Pro Wrestling. Two women in the crowd seem excited by Norris at least, as they show the type of enthusiasm rarely seen on a WCW show from 1993. The crowd totally dies once the match itself starts though, as you can just see empty seats everywhere, as folks seem to be treating this bout as an excuse to buy nachos.

The actual wrestling isn’t that great, but it’s not awful either, as they mostly just to standard fare such as wristlocks and the like. This is going to be really weird to write, but the silence of the crowd is so pronounced during this one that can almost “hear” it if that makes any sense? Sky eventually manages to shrug off the wristlocks and get a big boot, before following up with stuff like slams and leg drops. The offence doesn’t look too bad, but the crowd continues to not care. Sky eventually misses a knee drop from the second rope and Norris makes a big “We have Tatanka at home” comeback, with a jumping kick eventually picking up the win.

WINNER: CHARLIE NORRIS
RATING: *

Thoughts: Nothing particularly offensive from an in-ring perspective, but the crowd was so quiet that they were in danger of making amoebas sound loud, and it left the match feeling really flat and lifeless as a result

Scott Dunlop interviews Davey Boy Smith, who thinks that Vader is big, Sid is very quick and Harlem Heat are very sneaky, but his team will still win the War Games later on. Oh yes, because when you think of Sid Eudy, his speed and agility are the first things that come to mind! This was an incredibly wacky promo, but it wasn’t dull I’ll give it that.

Match Three
“Mr Wonderful” Paul Orndorff and The Equaliser Vs 2 Cold Scorpio and Marcus Alexander Bagwell

Orndorff was coming off a TV Title reign and was using Equaliser as a heavy. Equaliser would eventally go on to become Evad Sullivan, Kevin Sullivan’s dyslexic brother. Bagwell and Scorpio were a solid babyface tag team in the mid-card, with Scorpio bringing exciting high flying moves and Bagwell showing good promise, despite being a bit generic during this stage of his career. The crowd at least likes getting on Orndorff’s case as a Heel, so this match has more of an atmosphere than the previous one did. Equaliser manages to overpower Bagwell in the early stages, so Bagwell tries using speed instead, along with double team attacks involving Scorp, and that finally leads to Equaliser taking a spill to the floor. I don’t buy Equaliser as this unstoppable tank that requires two regular sized guys to attack him for him to sell anything, but it made the babyface tandem look like a cohesive unit at least.

Things pick up with Orndorff in there, as he’s happy to bump and sell for the babyfaces, so the action is a lot smoother and better executed when the babyfaces try to shine on Mr. Wonderful. Eventually Equaliser low bridges Bagwell whilst the referee isn’t looking, and that leads to Bagwell tumbling to the floor for the cut off. The Heels work Bagwell over following that, with Bagwell selling it all well, as he was mechanically solid for the most part during this timeframe, he just hadn’t really developed the necessary charisma or personality to become a singles star. Ironically, when Bagwell did finally develop that personality, he ended up suffering a serious neck injury and was never the same level of worker, meaning we were essentially robbed of Bagwell having a chance at becoming a complete worker, which is honestly quite sad as he could have had everything.

Orndorff is decent on offence during the heat, whilst Equaliser keeps it simple with clubbing strikes and power moves, meaning it’s a serviceable heat segment overall. Bagwell eventually counters a Wonderful back suplex and tags in Scorp, who runs wild and looks good doing so, with the crowd reacting well to it. All four wrestlers go at it, with the Heels getting the better of that. However, the Heels focus their attack on Bagwell, who isn’t legal, which means the Heels can’t pick up the win. Orndorff ends up accidentally catching Equaliser with a big knee to the face, which allows Scorp to come off the top with a 450 Splash onto Equaliser for the three count. Equaliser still kicks out at 3.1 though, because apparently he’s a Road Warrior or something and not some dumpy dude who looks like John Njord and Hulk Hogan gene spliced together, with the worst elements of each on show.

WINNERS: SCORPIO & BAGWELL
RATING: **

Thoughts: Equaliser’s ludicrous no-selling aside, this was a decent tag match, with the babyfaces getting their shine, the Heels working an efficient heat segment, and then a quick comeback for the babyfaces that saw them up pick up the win right at the peak of the crowd’s interest. A solid night’s work from three of the four competitors

Equaliser gets up straight after the 450 Splash to start battering Scorpio, leading to the Heels laying out the babyfaces. Why the Heels needed to get their heat back when both of them were going in different directions following this show anyway made very little sense

Lord Steven Regal and Sir William are being interviewed by Eric Bischoff on the stage area. They will be off to meet the Queen tomorrow in order to present the belt to her, and refuse to rise to Sleazy E’s jibes about supposed cheating like the pompous arrogant American he is.

Match Four
Shanghai Pierce w/ Tex Slazenger Vs The Ice Train

Pierce and Slazenger are angry Texan’s who would move to Arkansas and join the WWF as The Godwinn’s. Ice Train would tag with Scott Norton for a bit as the team “Fire and Ice” before becoming a limo driver/heavy under the name Smooth. If Train was any greener here then RVD might try to roll him up and smoke him, but WCW were looking for fresh blood on the undercard, so here he is working a pay per view long before he was ready to do so. Pierce does an okay job of holding things together, with Ice Train getting a brief shine where he gets to show off his power until a Slazenger distraction allows Pierce to cut the big man off for a quick heat segment. Train makes the generic comeback following that and no sells an attempted double team attempt from the Heels before catching Pierce with a sloppy Powerslam for three.

WINNER: THE ICE TRAIN
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: This would have been fine on WCW Pro or Worldwide, but it wasn’t the sort of match that should have been put on a big show like Fall Brawl, as it absolutely was not pay per view quality

We get a Halloween Havoc hype package, and we’ll get to that one next month.

Match Five
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Horsemen (“The Enforcer” Arn Anderson and “Pretty” Paul Roma) Vs The Nasty Boys (Knobbs and Sags) w/ “The Walking Riot” Missy Hyatt

The Horsemen had finally managed to unseat The Hollywood Blondes (well, a makeshift version of them at least) back at a previous Clash of the Champions event. The Horsemen had run afoul of Missy though, so she’s recruited The Nasty’s to do her bidding here at Fall Brawl. The Nasty’s hadn’t been doing much in the WWF for most of 93, so jumping to WCW helped freshen them up and they had a decent 3 years or so as a team in Turner Land until they started looking like a dated act when the nWo angle started gaining traction. The Horsemen shine on The Nasty’s to start, with The Nasty’s getting bumped around and stalling outside the ring in classic Larry Z style whenever they can, which suggests that this one is going to get a decent chunk of time. It’s a solid enough babyface shine, as all four of these wrestlers know how to work the traditional tag team formula, and the crowd seems to dig The Horsemen, so they are into the idea of the Champs giving the challengers a battering.

I would say that the shine possibly goes on for a tad too long though; as it gets to the point where the Champs have been in control for so long that the crowd kind of stop caring about watching the Heels get worked over. It doesn’t help that the babyfaces dedicate the majority of their control segment to working over Sags’ leg, only for Sags to almost immediately shrug it all off when it’s time for the heat segment, which comes about when Sags clocks Roma from behind following a distraction from Knobbs. Roma sells the heat well enough, whilst The Nasty’s look okay on offence and Hyatt makes sure to jaw with the fans in order to rile them up. Anderson gets the hot tag and runs wild, but Hyatt distracts the referee and that allows Knobbs to clothesline Anderson over the top rope to the floor, which would be a DQ in WCW (although it wasn’t always consistently enforced).

Anderson sells the second heat segment well, although the match is starting to feel like it’s dragging due to the overly long shine and now the double heat segment. The match goes nearly 25 minutes, when really 10-12 was all they really needed here in order to make this work. 15 at a push. All four of the competitors know how to work a tag match, but The Nasty’s weren’t really known for their endurance and it’s not like this was such a heated issue that they needed so much time for their match. Sags forgetting the leg work aside, the actual wrestling itself has been fine here, we’ve just had roughly 10 minutes too much of it. Anderson eventually manages to fend off both challengers before making the tag to Roma, who runs wild and things threaten to pick up after a pretty flat period of the bout. Things break down following that, with Roma botching a victory roll for two. Anderson comes in with a Spine Buster onto Knobbs, but Sags comes flying off the top with an elbow drop to Roma when he tries the pin, and that leads to Knobbs getting the pin for the three count.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: THE NASTY BOYS
RATING: **

Thoughts: A competently worked match for the most part that just went on for too long and started getting dull as a result. These two teams did not need to be wrestling for 25 minutes. If they’d shaved 10-12 minutes off this one then I think it could have been entertaining in a similar vein to The Nasty’s match with The Hart Foundation back at WrestleMania VII. As it was, it was a functional yet dull match, not unlike Egypt Vs Ireland from Italia 90

The Nasty’s and Missy Hyatt head over for the victory promo with Jesse Ventura.

We get a recap of the feud between Vader and Cactus Jack, going through all of the relevant story beats and closing with an excellent promo from Cactus.

Match Six
Special Bounty Match
Yoshi Kwan w/ Harley Race Vs “Mr. Bang-Bang” Cactus Jack

The story here is that Vader injured Cactus with a Powerbomb onto the concrete floor, causing Cactus to get amnesia and forget his family. However, fans hated the whole amnesia thing and the skits where Cactus was “Lost in Cleveland” were so silly that they took a lot of the heat out of what should have been a big injury angle. WCW eventually decided to pivot, saying that Cactus was just pretending to have amnesia in order to mess with Vader, leading us to this next chapter of the storyline. Enter Kwan, who is an evil mystical wrestler from Asia who Race has recruited in order to take out Cactus. However, Kwan is being portrayed by Chris Champion, who is from the far away Asian country of…Kentucky.

So yeah; Champion is in outright yellowface here, and it weirdly annoys me more here than when Paul Diamond was Kato or when Kendo Nagasaki was working in Britain. Maybe because those two wore masks so there was slightly more ambiguity to it all? There’s also a bit of a bonkers backstory to Kendo where he’s not actually supposed to be Japanese but rather the spirit of a Japanese warrior has entered his consciousness or something, which makes it a bit more of a spiritual thing than just a dude doing in his hair in certain way in order to look like an extra from The Talons of Weng-Chiang. There’s also some other story point going on here surrounding Cactus having a precious bag stolen by the Heels, although I’m not sure if we find out what is actually in that bag at any point.

Cactus is actually quite over with the crowd, as despite all the silliness they are actually into the storyline of Cactus trying to get revenge on Vader. Cactus controls things in the early going, but keeps going for Race and that allows Kwan to work some heat, with Chris Champion being decent on offence in all fairness. This is Cactus’ match to lose though; and he eventually catches a Kwan kick and makes the comeback. Cactus systematically dismantles Kwan with measured offence, although Kwan’s comical overselling spoils the effect of it somewhat. Cactus ends up running the two Heels into one another and then gets the Double Arm DDT on Kwan for the three count.

WINNER: CACTUS JACK
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was one of those matches where you’d set the road agent note to “storytelling” on TEW, as it was all about advancing the storyline and giving Cactus a win, so it worked well enough on that front, although it wasn’t much a bout aside from that

Cactus gets his special bag back after that, but we still don’t learn what’s in it.

We get clips of Rick Rude laying out Ric Flair after trying to put the move on Flair’s maid.

Match Seven
Big Gold Belt
Champ: “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair w/ Fifi the Maid Vs “Ravishing” Rick Rude

Right, so give me a moment to explain this. WCW had been a member of the NWA, and as a result they had both a WCW World Champ (Vader) and the NWA World Champ (Flair). However, WCW had started taping TV months in advance to save money, and as a result they already had footage filmed of Rude carrying the NWA belt around The problem is that the NWA was unhappy that WCW had just switched the belt like that without asking them first, which led to relations between WCW and the NWA breaking down and the two groups no longer working together. WCW felt that they owned the physical belt, but they couldn’t say it was the NWA World Title due to the split, so instead they just started referring to it as “The Big Gold Belt” as it was big, made of gold and a belt (creative genius at work I think we can all agree). WCW eventually created a fictitious “WCW International” governing body, leading to the Title being renamed to the WCW International Championship, and that name would remain until WCW just unified the two belts in 1994 and pretended the whole thing never happened.

Rude reveals that he has Fifi emblazoned on his tights in an effort to wind Flair up, but Flair doesn’t sell it at first. Rude misses a knee drop early on and Flair goes straight to the Figure Four, which succeeds in getting a reaction from the crowd, but Rude quickly makes his way to the ropes to break. In a funny gag, Ventura says one misogynistic thing too many during the early stages, so the production team cut his mic for a bit, which he of course takes with his usual good grace. Meanwhile, Flair controls things in the ring with arm bars and the like, with Rude selling it all well and Flair’s application of the holds been executed properly. It’s not an especially exciting opening stretch, but it’s competently wrestled one at least and the crowd does seem to be into Flair. Eventually both wrestlers take a spill to the floor, which leads to Rude suplexing Flair back into the ring for the cut off. Rude looks to target the head and neck of Flair following that, as the match continues to go at a deliberate pace.

The actual wrestling continues to be fine here, as both combatants are experienced enough to execute the basics properly, but there also continues to be little in the way of excitement. The crowd is starting to drift off as well, after initially being into the action early on, because the wrestlers aren’t really giving them much to get them on their feet, with lots of long holds where the two kind of just sit there. There’s a definite difference between a rest hold and a working hold, and we’re seeing the former more than the latter in this one thus far. Flair’s selling is of course excellent whilst Rude works him over, and Rude’s stuff looks good, with him taking the opportunity to jaw at both babyfaces when he can, but the match still feels flat. Flair eventually does make a bit of a comeback, throwing a series of punches at Rude in the corner that Rude sells really well like he’s being beaten up in a Japanese anime, but Rude quickly regains control, as this one continues to meander.

Rude tries to put Flair away with the Rude Awakening, but Flair blocks that and then hits his own for a good pop, which Rude only survives because he’s able to get a foot on the ropes. That part was very well done and the crowd dug it. Flair decides to start attacking the leg again following that, getting some very nice leg focused offence as he takes the challenger to school. Rude manages to fend off any attempts at the Figure Four, but Flair continues to control things, even getting a flying chop from the top rope to the floor at one stage. Once they’ve started picking up the pace this has gotten a lot more fun. It almost makes me wish that they’d cut some time out of the match and just had them work the match at a quicker pace in general. The momentum ebbs and flows down the closing stretch, with both wrestlers getting some near falls and the crowd biting on a few of them.

Rude forces a snog on Fifi and drags her into the ring, which leads to a fired up Flair pummelling Rude. Flair being the gallant gentlemen coming to the aid of a damsel in distress just feels so…off for that character for some reason, but the crowd digs seeing Flair putting Rude in his place at least. Flair manages to lock in the Figure Four and looks to have it won, but the ref is distracted whilst dealing with Fifi and that allows Rude to clock Flair with an International Object in his tights for the three count. I think that finish was done as a way to maybe plant seeds that Fifi was actually on Rude’s side all along, but I’m not sure they ever actually paid that off or not.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: RICK RUDE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Another match that was probably longer than it needed to be, as they could have told the same story in 15-20 minutes that they did with the 30 minutes they were given. Overall I’d say the match was quite dull by the usual standards of both wrestlers, but mechanically it was pretty much faultless and the crowd did care about some of the bigger moments. If they’d chopped the run time in half and worked this at a quicker clip, then I think it might have been a good match. As it was, it just ended up being more of a middling one

The War Games cage gets lowered and the rules are explained.

Main Event
The War Games
Big Van Vader, Sid Vicious, Kane and Kole w/ Harley Race and Colonel Robert Parker Vs Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes and The Shockmaster w/ Road Warrior Animal

Kane and Kole would go on to be renamed to Stevie Ray and Booker T respectively. Shockmaster is Tugboat/Typhoon from the WWF with a new gimmick that he’s a clumsy big man who falls over all the time, which came about because he accidentally fell through a wall during his big debut and WCW decided to just make that his gimmick. No, I’m not making that up. For those not familiar with War Games (and there could be some of you out there) the rules are that we’ve got two rings with a cage covering it. Two wrestlers from each team will start and then other wrestlers will enter the ring at timed intervals, with the advantage being given to whoever wins the coin toss. If your team wins the toss then you will be able to send your next wrestler in first, meaning that you will have 2 Vs 1, 3 Vs 2 and 4 Vs 3 advantages at different points throughout the match. Eventually once it’s 4 Vs 4; “The Match Beyond” begins, where you win by making the other team surrender.

Dustin is carrying a rib injury here, so the rest of his team want him to enter last, but he’s not having that and jumps in despite their protestations. This gives us Vader Vs Dustin for the opening five minutes, and it’s good action as those two normally worked well together. Dustin quickly takes his boot off and starts clonking Vader with it, but it doesn’t take long for Vader to target the ribs, which puts Dustin on the defensive. Dustin sells well and manages to fight back with a DDT, as this opening section has been a lot of fun. As WCW was going for a more family friendly product at the time, we don’t get the usual amount of blood you would expect from a War Games match, which is a shame but the work has still been good thus far. I’m not a gore freak or anything like that, but I do think in some matches that blood enhances things and adds to the drama, and cage matches definitely meet that criteria. The Heel team continues a long tradition of winning the coin toss, which means they get to send someone in next.

Team Vader wins the coin toss (Duh)

Stevie Ray enters the War Games

So whilst Dustin could somewhat hold his own in there in a one vs one situation, he has little chance against two opponents, especially whilst injured. This is why Heels winning the coin toss makes the most sense, as it gives the babyfaces an even bigger mountain to climb and adds to the drama of the matches story. Dustin becomes the only person of the match to bleed during this one here, which is better than nothing I guess but not exactly on par with the War Games of yore where multiple folk usually ended up bleeding, which helped actually make it look like a battle was going on in there. I mean, it’s called WAR Games for a reason you know?!

Sting enters the War Games

Sting saves Dustin from getting killed for a bit, running wild on both Vader and Stevie here, looking good whilst doing so. The ebbs and flow and switching of the momentum between the two sides is what makes these War Games matches work, and they’ve handled that aspect well thus far.

Sid Vicious enters the War Games

I would have thought that Sid would be the last guy for his team actually. He restores the balance of power to the bad guys with his usual array of awful looking offence, but he’s over with the crowd, so he gets away with it. Dustin continues to sell really well here, as his has worked reasonably well as a match thus far. Vader and Sid both press Sting into the roof of the cage at one stage in a cool visual, although Sid then delivers some of the worst punches and kicks in the history of man to Sting in the corner straight after, which takes away form some of the coolness we’ve just witnessed.

Davey Boy Smith enters the War Games

Bulldog gets to run wild in order to help out the babyfaces, which leads to Sid getting pressed into the cage roof by Sting and Davey. They’ve worked the War Games formula just fine here to be honest, it’s just lacked the usual level of blood and could have done with a couple of better workers on the Heel team, because Vader has been carrying them from a work rate perspective.

Booker T enters the War Games

The Heels control things now, with the idea being that it’s building excitement for Shockmaster to save the day, which would probably work better if we weren’t all relying on the freaking SHOCKMASTER to be the hero of the day!

The Shockmaster enters the War Games

The Match Beyond Begins!!!

Shockmaster makes a pretty underwhelming big comeback for the babyface side to be honest, although the likes of Booker and Vader are doing their best to make him look good in order to fire up the crowd. We don’t get much more of a match following Shockmaster’s arrival, as he quickly locks Booker in a Bear Hug and Booker uncles in order to end his misery. I’ve got nothing against the big star/tank on the babyface team coming in and quickly killing the Heels leading to the victory, but that sort of booking tends to work better when the babyface wrecking everyone’s stuff isn’t Typhoon/Tugboat/Fred Ottman.

WINNERS: TEAM STING
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This match suffered from three major issues. Firstly, it was the worst televised War Games up to this point in history, which kind of unfairly magnified how bad it was in people’s minds. Secondly, it was the first War Games to really tone down the blood and violence, so those who enjoyed the gimmick previously were always going to be disappointed that a key aspect of the stipulation was missing. And thirdly, War Games was usually made up of some of the best workers the company had, but this one had Stevie Ray, Sid and Fred Ottman in it, none of whom really fit in that category. As a result, this version of War Games at Fall Brawl 1993 was always going to have an uphill battle to climb. In fairness; they actually executed the War Games formula just fine, so the match made sense and it played the notes it needed to. If they’d just amped up the levels of violence a little bit and maybe tweaked the teams (sub out Taskmaster for Ricky Steamboat on the babyface side and then maybe put Austin and Regal on the Heel side instead of Harlem Heat perhaps) then this could have been a much better match. As it was; Fall Brawl 93’s War Games match isn’t awful, but it also isn’t a patch on some of the classics that came before. They at least managed to keep it under 20 minutes though, which automatically made it less of a drag than some of the 45-60 minute extravaganzas that AEW and WWE do when they attempt War Games these days

Is It Really A Stinker?

Fall Brawl 1993 was more boring than outright awful, something which is represented by the CageMatch score, which was at 4.88 when I last checked (this is being written a few months before it goes up). For that reason, I wouldn’t say that Fall Brawl 1993 is an outright Stinker, but it’s certainly not a good show either, with most of the matches maxing out at the ** range by my watch. Steamboat Vs Regal was good, Cactus Jack’s promo was good, and the last two matches were acceptable but little more. There were some pretty weak matches on the undercard with green generic guys who shouldn’t have been on pay per view, so I’ll go with a Stinky rating here, but I’ve seen much worse shows than Fall Brawl 1993.

Final Rating – Stinky
(Scores done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)