Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WCW Uncensored 1995

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

We continue with our journey into the depths of 1995 WCW today, as we look at Uncensored. Uncensored is like WWE Extreme Rules, in that the show has a number of wacky gimmick matches as a selling point. There were accusations from ECW at the time that WCW was trying to step on ECW’s toes by going the gimmick match route, but then ECW stole most of their concepts from FMW, who in-turn stole most of their concepts from Memphis Wrestling, so pot and kettle etc.

Uncensored currently sits at a miserable 2.10 out of 10 over on Cage Match, so I’m not especially optimistic about this one. Following on from SuperBrawl V, we’ve got Vader and Hulk Hogan wrestling again, although they’ve got a Strap Match this time. Elsewhere, we’ve got The Harlem Heat taking on The Nasty Boys in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Let’s see just how Uncensored this event is going to be!

You can view the full card for Uncensored by clicking below;

WCW Uncensored 1995 Card

Pics come from Classic Wrestling Review

Uncensored logo comes from Deviant Artist DarkVoidPictures

Uncensored is emanating from Tupelo, Mississippi on the 19th of March 1995

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

Interestingly we’ve got footage of Scott Steiner in the opening video package, even though I don’t think The Steiner Brothers weren’t actually in WCW at the time.

Earlier on the pre-show, Hulk Hogan cuts a promo whilst a guy who looks a lot like Jim Hellwig poses in the background.

Opening Match
King of the Road
King Of The Road Match
The Blacktop Bully Vs “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes

Bully defeated Dustin back at SuperBrawl V thanks to Colonel Parker getting involved. This time we’ve got a wacky stip where the two have to fight in the back of a truck and get to the front in order to toot the horn. I wonder if they passed another film crew who were shooting an episode of The Bureau during this one? This was pre-taped the day before, as showing the opening match of a pay per view on a big screen in the arena rather than giving the crowd an actual match is VERY 1995 WCW. The match is mostly average brawling, with the only really noteworthy aspect of it being that Dustin does an unauthorised blade job, which ended up leading to WCW firing Dustin.

Seeing as the two are working the match in the back of a genuine moving vehicle, they can’t really do much in there because they haven’t got much in the way of balance. The camera work is all over the place as well, seeing as the truck is actually moving and the folks filming it are in a pickup truck alongside it. There’s also a helicopter filming things as well, which is pretty useless as far as making out what is going on in the back of the truck. It does give us a funny line from Heenan when they drive past a trailer park though. It does look genuinely dangerous at points, especially when Bully straddles the side of the truck in a position where he could easily fall onto the road if he slipped. Eventually we get both Bully and Dustin fighting near the horn, which leads to Bully raking Dustin’s eyes to send him back into the truck before tooting the horn to win.

WINNER: BLACKTOP BULLY
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: This was so wacky that I don’t really feel comfortable rating it. I didn’t feel like the match worked as a concept, and some of the camera work could easily have given folks motion sickness, which seems somewhat apt considering the state of WCW itself at the time. When the only interesting aspect of a match is that it caused someone to be fired for breaking a rule most of the viewers wouldn’t even be aware of, then it’s not that interesting a bout really. It was needlessly dangerous at points as well, especially when they were perched on the side of the truck and were dangling above the road whilst on a moving vehicle. I don’t think you’d get a major wrestling promotion trying something like this today as it would probably violate a host of health and safety measures, leading to the lawyers shutting it down pretty quickly. This was also a really awful way to start off a pay per view like Uncensored, as the fans in the arena had to just sit on their hands whilst watching it on the big screen, and they were near comatose when it was over, even with the big pyro display in the arena to signal the conclusion. Honestly they should have saved this for TV, where they could have just spliced it in at the end of a usual broadcast when all the fans had gone home

Mike Tenay is backstage with Arn Anderson, THE MONSTER MENG and Colonel Parker. Anderson cuts a good promo about how Johnny B. Badd has made a mistake by agreeing to wear boxing gloves in their match later on. Parker is happy that Bully picked up a victory, and adds that Meng is now going to defeat Hacksaw Duggan up next. Parker’s promo was his usual southern rambling, but Anderson cut a really good promo to hype up his match.

We get a video package for the next match, set to Rey Mysterio Jr’s future entrance music. Gene Okerlund narrates, and does a good job with it, covering how Meng has gone from bodyguard to wrestler following an assault on James Duggan.

Match Two
Martial Arts Rules (Special Referee: Sonny Onoo)
THE MONSTER MENG w/ Col. Robert Parker Vs “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan

Meng gave Duggan a serious beatdown back at SuperBrawl V, so Duggan is now looking for some payback. This was I believe the debut of Onoo in WCW, as he was a friend of Eric Bischoff from back in his karate days. Onoo seems to be playing it straight as a martial arts master here, but he would eventually become the manager of every Japanese wrestler that WCW would bring in. Duggan is dressed like the dumb American in a JCVD movie who gets slaughtered early on just so we know that the villains are serious. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of rules early on, as Duggan removes his boot and clobbers Meng with it, which Onoo seemingly allows, although Onoo does try to take the boot away from Duggan. There are no rope breaks, and it seems like you win by pin fall, submission or knock out. Duggan is over with the crowd, meaning that the match has some reasonable reactions at least, but the match itself isn’t much, just punching, kicking and rest holds.

This was one of the earliest examples of “The Cycle of Meng”, whereby WCW would suddenly remember that Meng was a real life tough guy and would try to push him in order to try and make something of that, but they’d eventually give up on it and push him as a mid-carder for a while until suddenly remembering that Meng was really tough in real life, thus starting the cycle all over again. Meng takes most of the match here, but Duggan the fires up and slugs away, which the crowd seems to enjoy. Onoo takes umbrage with Duggan doing a ten punch for some reason though and breaks it up. Meng no sells Duggan’s clothesline finisher following that, which leads to Duggan clocking Parker and leaving himself wide open for a Thrust Kick from Meng for three.

WINNER: MENG
RATING: *

Thoughts: Dull match, and the stuff with Onoo didn’t make much sense either, as at times he was okay with them slugging one another but was then stepping in when Duggan was trying to make his comeback. They put Meng over pretty strong by having him take most of the match and then no sell Duggan’s finisher, but the crowd only really card when Duggan was fighting back and didn’t get that into Meng’s work as a Heel. Meng’s was a believable bad ass and the fans liked Duggan, but that was pretty much all this bout had to offer, and Onoo’s refereeing was a bug rather than a feature

Mike Tenay interviews Johnny B. Badd and his boxing trainer Roc Finnegan. Badd admits that wearing gloves will make the match more difficult for him, but that won’t stop Badd from winning tonight.

We get a cool video package showing us how tough Arn Anderson is.

Match Three
Wrestler Vs Boxer
“The Enforcer” Arn Anderson w/ Col. Robert Parker Vs Johnny B. Badd w/ Roc Finnigan

Anderson cheated Badd out of the TV Title, so now we’ve got a chance for Badd to get some vengeance. As the rules dictate, Arn is dressed to wrestle whilst Badd is dressed to box, complete with boxing gloves that will make it very difficult for Badd to do any actual wrestling. We have 10 rounds of 3 minutes here, which I guess is a concession to Badd for having his offence limited, and win methods are pin, submission or knock out. This match is probably a dream come true for Antonio Inoki, as it features two fighters of different styles going at it. Although the premise of the bout is kind of odd, Arn is a great wrestler and Badd actually had boxing experience, so they work it reasonably well and the contest tells a good story, with Badd dominating on the feet and Arn doing better on the mat.

The only issue with it is that it’s pretty clear that Badd is pulling his punches at points because actual boxing punches look markedly different to Pro Wrestling punches, and when you put someone in gloves and make them pretend to box then it becomes even more pronounced. The crowd doesn’t really seem to care that much about the contest, but the match itself is about as good as you could expect it to be given the awkward premise. Badd gets the better of things in the first two rounds, but then Arn catches Badd with a DDT when they should be going to the rest period, which allows Arn to work some heat. Apparently there are No DQ’s in this one, which is why Arn can get away with that stuff. If there are No DQ’s then why didn’t Arn just clock Badd right in the Mero’s the moment the bout started?

Badd sells well when asked to do so in the heat segment, and Arn is his usual smooth self in there when it comes to putting a beatdown on Badd. Eventually Finnigan leaps in there to attack Arn, as this just descends further into farce. The crowd does at least get more into the contest when they start doing all of the traditional Pro Wrestling shenanigans, so that’s a bonus. Finnigan decides that if Arn is going to cheat, then he and Badd aren’t going to play fair either, so Finnigan cuts off one of Badd’s gloves, meaning that Badd has proper use of his left hand, leading to a non-gloved punch right in Arn’s face. Arn goes down from that and can’t beat the count, meaning that Badd wins and the crowd goes nuts.

WINNER: JOHNNY B. BADD
RATING: **

Thoughts: I don’t think the premise really worked here, but the crowd did get really into the contest in the closing stages, so ultimately I think you’d have to call the bout a success overall. Arn was really good and did his best to hold the shaky foundations of the match together, and Badd did sell very well when it was time for the heat segment. Ultimately I don’t think the concept landed, but the two workers did their best with it and I think that’s to be commended

We get a Randy Savage video package, followed by an interview segment with Mike Tenay. Savage gives a shout out to Johnny B. Badd’s win and then cuts his usual angry promo about how he doesn’t like The Avalanche. It’s a Randy Savage promo, so if you like those then you’ll like this.

Match Four
The Avalanche Vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage

Savage has been feuding with Lanche, Kevin Sullivan and Butcher since the winter of 1994, so this is a continuation of that. Savage tries come out of the blocks hot to start, even going as far as to bust out a crossbody from the top rope down to the floor at one stage. Savage does the typical babyface mistake of trying to bodyslam the big dude too early in the match though, which leads to Lanche landing on top and squishing the Macho Man. Savage then sells a lot following the frantic start, which was the formula for most of his matches during this timeframe. Lanche does a solid job of working Savage over, even busting out a dropkick at one stage like the agile big man he is.

Savage has the occasional flurry where he tries to fight back, but Avalanche always manages to regain control, leading to Savage doing more selling whilst Lanche mostly focuses on power moves and using his size as a weapon with splashes etc. Savage times the fightback attempts really well, even though some of the execution of the moves themselves aren’t always the smoothest. Eventually Lanche misses a splash from the second rope, which leads to Savage making the comeback for real. This leads to Ric Flair running out of the crowd in drag and attacking Savage for the DQ. Well, in all the finishes to wrestling matches that I’ve seen over the years, that was certainly one of them.

WINNER BY DQ: RANDY SAVAGE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: I randomly stumbled across an old Facebook post from myself where I made special mention of this match and how it’s better than it gets credit for. After watching it back for this Uncensored review; it was basically fine, but not some hidden classic or something. I guess younger me just dug it more? Avalanche was a good monster Heel and Savage was a good gutsy babyface fighting from underneath, so the story they were telling worked and the actual wrestling was okay for the most part, although there were a few sloppy moments

Hulk Hogan saves Savage from a Flair and Avalanche beatdown.

Mike Tenay interviews Booker T, Stevie Ray and Sister Sherri backstage. Booker and Stevie cut a decent, yet somewhat rehearsed sounding, promo to hype up their match later on with The Nasty Boys. Sherri says that her boys are the most cohesive team in WCW, and that means they will leave The Nasty’s laying tonight.

We get a video package for the next week, followed by Mike Tenay interviewing Sting backstage. Sting is fired up, and tonight is the end for Big Bubba. That was a brief, yet entertaining, promo from The Stinger.

Match Five
Big Bubba Rogers Vs The Man Called Sting

Rogers turned Heel on Sting earlier in the year, so Sting is looking for revenge here. Sting clowns around to start, stealing Bubba’s hat in the process and squishing it, which the crowd loves but it doesn’t really fit the vibe of this being a heated grudge match when they’re doing comedy spots in the opening minutes. When they focus on having a brawling power match, it’s good fun and meets the brief of two hate filled rivals going at it. Sting unloads on Bubba, slapping his rival around and showing some good fire and aggression. Sting was good at getting all fired up and full of vinegar when the story of the match called for it.

Sting’s leg ends up getting hurt when he can’t quite clear Bubba on a leapfrog attempt, which leads to Bubba working some heat on The Stinger by targeting the appendage. Sting sells that well and Bubba’s offence is decent when he’s kicking and punching, although he was never really known as a submission master, so the holds he uses during the heat don’t look all that painful. The heat probably goes on for a bit too long and they lose the crowd a bit, but Sting’s comeback wakes the crowd up a bit, especially when Sting comes off the top with a big splash at one stage for two. Sting comes up selling his leg following that though, which halts his momentum and allows Bubba back into the match, leading to Sting’s leg going out on a slam and Bubba landing on top for three.

WINNER: BUBBA
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was fine. Good selling from Sting and the finish was a clever way to give Bubba the clean win without making Sting look too weak, as it was the injury that cost Sting the match in the end. For a first big singles match of the feud, this was a fine way to extend the storyline whilst also giving the fans a pin fall finish. It’s not a match I’ll ever need to watch again, but for a pay per view mid-card bout it ticked the boxes it needed to

We get a video package for the next match; followed by Mike Tenay interviewing The Nasty Boys backstage. The Nasty’s yell a lot, so it’s the usual promo from them.

We get another video package, this time focusing on just The Harlem Heat, as WCW was really trying to get The Heat over at the time, as they should have been as they were arguably the most interesting team in the promotion at the time.

Co-Main
Falls Count Anywhere Tag Team Match
The Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) w/ Sister Sherri Vs The Nasty Boys (Knobbs & Sags)

The Heat cheated to defeat The Nasty’s back at SuperBrawl V, so now we’ve got a match with No DQ so that they can brawl all over the place and recreate the famous Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl. The Heat jump The Nasty’s from behind to start thanks to a Sherri distraction, and things quickly become a brawl with all four wrestlers going at it. That makes more sense than trying to have an actual tag team match at least, which you sometimes get in matches like this and it never really works. This is the most ECW style match on the Uncensored pay per view so far, so I guess any ECW fans who wanted to cry theft could point to this bout as a good example.

We’ve got people brawling all over the place, weapons getting involved, and even a woman getting beaten up at one stage when Sherri gets sent to Pity City. Eventually all five wrestlers end up brawling over to an incredibly fake looking concession stand, where cotton candy gets used as a weapon and everyone gets covered in mustard and ketchup. Some sort of drink gets poured on the floor at one stage, which leads to Knobbs slipping and taking at least two or three really impressive looking unplanned pratfalls. Knobbs eventually ends up pinning Booker off screen after the two collapse one of the stands, and that’s the match.

WINNERS: THE NASTY BOYS
RATING: *

Thoughts: This was very disappointing. I thought that The Heat and The Nasty’s brawling all over the place and hitting one another with plunder would at least be entertaining in a wacky kind of way. However, the brawling was really quite tame, with the big spots being the bad guys getting doused in mustard, and to top it all off the camera crew missed the chuffing pin fall at the end! This was a far cry from The Nasty’s brawls with Cactus Jack, Maxx Payne and The Sullivan’s back in 1994

Mike Tenay attempts to interview Vader and Ric Flair backstage, but that doesn’t go too well for him as Vader snatches the mic and starts yelling. It’s a decent promo by yelling Vader standards to be honest. I do like how Vader is yelling like a madman, but he still politely refers to Ric Flair as “Mr. Flair” when its time for Flair to rant. Flair then gives a fantastic crazed rant about he’s taking Hogan down once and for all. This was a fantastic segment, with Vader and Flair gelling surprisingly well as a Heel duo.

Main Event
Leather Strap Match
Vader w/ Ric Flair Vs Hulk Hogan w/ The Renegade

Hogan got a DQ win over Vader back at SuperBrawl V when Flair got involved, so they’re re-matching here, although the World Title isn’t on the line this time. Considering that the Title isn’t on the line, Hogan doesn’t need to be pinned, and Vader was known as a specialist in this gimmick match, then you might think it would make sense for Vader to win here in order to gain some momentum in this feud after failing to win back at SuperBrawl? My answer to that would be BWA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA. There’s seemingly no referee for this one, so Flair is free to interfere if he wants, which leads to The Renegade running down to even the odds. For those not au fait, Renegade wrestled on the independent scene as a Tarzan styled character, and when WCW couldn’t sign the real Ultimate Warrior they decided to bring in Renegade as the ALDI/LIDL equivalent. It of course didn’t remotely work, but WCW decided to stick with pushing Renegade for a bit anyway. The irony of course is that WCW was so cartoony in 1995 that the real Ultimate Warrior would have likely gotten over there during this timeframe.

Hogan mostly gets the better of things in the early going, with both Vader and Flair getting whipped with the leather strap until Renegade eventually manages to neutralise Flair briefly, meaning we can get Vader and Hogan in a proper singles match for a bit. The no referee thing doesn’t really make sense here, as surely you need someone there to count when someone touches the corners? Vader does eventually manage to work some heat on Hogan, with Hogan selling that well and the crowd getting behind The Hulkster in the hopes that he will fight back. Jimmy Hart eventually joins us too, with his clothes in tatters, paying off a show long storyline that Hart had been missing from the venue all day. Hart distracts Vader so that Hogan can clatter Vader with some, thankfully safe, chair shots to the head. I’m somewhat glad that the only joy Hogan has with Vader is from using weapons like the strap and a chair, which does at least protect Vader’s monster image. Vader manages to regain control, but that sets up the Hulk Up and more strapping, with the Leg Drop of DOOM eventually getting dropped.

Flair hits Hogan with a wooden chair in order to save the match however, which leads to Mystery Masked Man coming down to the ring to seemingly assist Flair like had happened in the past when Flair was feuding with Hogan in 1994. Vader seemingly has the match won following that, but Flair demands that Vader hurt Hogan some more, which leads to Vader missing a Senton Splash from the top rope. Flair decides to keep attacking Hogan though, which leads to Hogan doing the Hulk Up again before dragging Flair to all four corners, which is seemingly enough for the win, Because WCW. Honestly would it really be a WCW pay per view event if it didn’t end with Hulk Hogan defeating Ric Flair in humiliating fashion? Who cares if the finish doesn’t make sense, it’s Uncensored! Rules are for fools!

WINNER: HULK HOGAN
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: I found this quite dull to be honest, although they protected Vader somewhat with the booking, by having Hogan need to use weapons to really get anything going when it came to offence and by having Flair be the one to take the loss instead of Vader. I’m not exactly sure HOW Flair was able to do that, but I guess I’ll just chalk it up to Uncensored operating within it’s own special universe where stuff like that is allowed. And also, you know, WCW just being WCW at it’s most WCW. The lack of a referee hurt it a bit too, as referees are actually quite important when it comes to telling a story in a wrestling match and not having one here just made the match feel strange

Vader and Flair try to beatdown Hogan and Renegade following that, with the Masked Man seemingly helping out. However, in a cute bit, it’s actually a SWERVE, as Randy Savage has tied up and shackled the real Masked Man (Arn Anderson) and he removes his own mask before helping the babyfaces making the big comeback.

Is It Really A Stinker?

One thing I will give Uncensored is that every match on the card had a storyline reasoning for happening, which was an improvement on some of the less focused cards we’d get from the promotion later on in the 90’s. When it came to the wacky Uncensored special gimmick matches; The King of the Road match just didn’t work, and neither did the Martial Arts match. The Wrestler Vs Boxer match succeeded in getting over with the crowd at least, and the two competitors did their best to make it better than it probably should have been. The Concession Stand Brawl was really disappointing, whilst the strap match really bored me, leaving us with a 20% success rate in the big stipulation showcase.

Avalanche/Savage and Bubba/Sting were both solid basic matches, which weren’t all that exciting but were at least competent wrestling exhibition’s. They actually made an effort to put some steam on the Heels in those matches too, by having them avoid a clean defeat (Lanche) and actually pick up a win (Bubba). On a show with better matches surrounding them, both of those bouts would be decent card fillers, but because the other contests on the show hadn’t really delivered up that stage, there was more pressure on them as the two big upper-mid-card grudge matches, and they didn’t really live up to it.

Had a couple of the stipulation matches delivered then this might have been an okay show, but most of them either didn’t work or just outright stunk, so for that reason Uncensored falls into Stinker territory almost by default. Some of the Uncensored pay per view events would go on to be decent (mostly 1997 and 1999, although 1998 had it’s moments too) but it was generally a bad show, and 1995 was a good way to start off that tradition!

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