Mike Reviews WCW Slamboree 1995

Happy Friday Everyone!

I’m writing this in the tail end of December 2024, meaning that this will probably be the end of my journey into 1995 WCW unless some sort of a miracle happens with the archives over on Netflix (Or the WCW Vault channel on YouTube uploads the full WCW pay per view archive). I’m almost sad that I couldn’t make it to the absolute disaster that was going to be Bash at the Beach, as I was probably going to have a lot of fun burying that one in a shallow grave. As it is though; Slamboree 1995 is where our journey might be ending. (Spoiler; I managed to get the rest of the 1995 WCW pay per views done after cramming towards the end of December 2024)

We’ve got Ric Flair and Vader taking on Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in the Main Event, with Sting getting another crack at Big Bubba in the Semi-Main.

Logan has reviewed this one as well, so go give his link a click (oh er Matron!)

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

WCW Slamboree 1995 Card

Slamboree is emanating from St. Petersburg, Florida on the 21st of May 1995

Calling the action are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Gordon Solie

It’s a WCW pay per view, so we can’t just get to a match and instead need some boring pre-amble following the opening pyro as the announce team yak for a bit.

We get a video package for The Harlem Heat, as they’re going to be in action in our opener.

Opening Match
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) w/ Sister Sherri Vs The Nasty Boys (Knobbs and Sags)

The Nasty’s managed to defeat The Heat back at Uncensored in a non-Title match, so now we have the logical follow-up Title match between the two teams. Sags has to go it alone to start as apparently The Nasty Boys got attacked during the pre-show. I mean, rather than showing us a Harlem Heat video package maybe they could have played us a clip of The Nasty’s getting beaten up so that we know why only one Nasty is here? The crowd is really into Sags, and Booker takes a fantastic bump from a clothesline early on to really fire up the crowd, so the bout has good crowd reactions and the fans get into the story of Sags being on his own against essentially three opponents. Sags just outright punches Sherri at one stage, which Bischoff is clearly unhappy about on commentary but the crowd loves it. It was 1995, what can I say?

Sherri ends up getting Sags back by distracting him so that The Heat can cut Sags off for the, uh, heat segment, and she even throws in some slaps when the opportunity allows as well. Sags sells well enough in the heat, and Sherri does a good job riling up the crowd in her usual timid and demure manner. Booker looks good on offence, aside from one terribly applied chinlock at one stage, with even Stevie Ray having his working boots on as he attempts an atrocious dropkick at one stage. Stevie also gets an absolutely awful leg drop from the first rope at one stage as well, where he barely even gets airborne. It’s not been a banner night for Stevie, but bless him he’s trying. Knobbs eventually does join us, complete with a taped up mid-section, and the crowd is into the idea of Knobbs wrecking stuff.

This has been a great crowd and they’ve really added to the contest when the work has been lacking. To be fair, The Nasty’s have been fine, if a bit sloppy, here and Booker has generally been very good. Only really Stevie has been bad from an in-ring perspective, and Sherri has done an excellent job as a manager. Eventually Knobbs throws Sherri out onto Stevie, and that leaves Booker alone in the ring with the challengers, meaning that The Nasty’s are able to put Booker away to claim the belts to a MONSTER POP from the crowd.

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

Thoughts: This was a below average match from an in-ring perspective, but the crowd was really invested in it and that bumped up the rating for me. It ended up being a solid start to the show and the crowd bought into the drama of Sags having to go it alone for so long

Lord Steven Regal and Earl Robert Eaton stare down The Nasty’s following that in order to set them up as the next challengers.

We get a weird cut to Eric Bischoff interviewing The Nasty’s following that, where they officially accept the challenge of Regal and Eaton. I wonder what got cut out there and why?

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Kevin Sullivan backstage. Sullivan is almost in a trance and says that he hasn’t slept in five days. Maybe he’d been watching too many episodes of Monday Night Raw from this timeframe and it had left his mind fried?

Match Two
“Taskmaster” Kevin Sullivan Vs The Man With No Name

TMWNN is Ed “Brutus Beefcake” Leslie, during one of his many gimmick changes. Sullivan and Leslie were previously aligned, but Sullivan used Leslie as a human shield and then left him for dead, so Leslie wants some payback. They do at least try to work this one as a grudge match, as they don’t even bother locking up and go straight to punching, kicking and choking. It’s not a match that is going to win any technical wrestling awards, but it suits the story they are trying to tell at least. The one hold they do try to do, a sleeper by Leslie, is applied terribly and the jaw jacker that Sullivan does to counter it looks pretty awful. Leslie’s punches and eye gouges are serviceable I suppose, and that’s the majority of the bout, as Sullivan is mostly on the backfoot. Leslie does deliver a nice Piledriver at one stage, so I’ll give him that. Eventually Leslie misses a charge in the corner and bonks his surgically repaired face on the metal post (although the commentary team doesn’t really make much of a point of that) and that leads to Sullivan getting the win with a Tree of Woe followed by a Double Stomp.

WINNER: KEVIN SULLIVAN
RATING: *1/4

Thoughts: A short slightly rubbish brawl here, but it wasn’t terrible. It was somewhat alarming to see how little heat the match had with the crowd though considering how much time had already been devoted to this bizarre Kevin Sullivan storyline. If watching Ed Leslie throwing passable looking punches at Kevin Sullivan for 5 minutes is your idea of a good time then you might rate this one a little bit higher

Curtis Iaukea does a big monologue in the Dungeon of DOOM following the match, which leads to Sullivan leaving the venue in a trance in order to join Iaukea so that they can try and destroy Hulkamania together.

Mean Gene is backstage in the interview area with Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Jimmy Hart. Savage’s family are at the venue to watch him tonight, which is something that will come up later on. Hogan and Savage cut the usual bombastic promo that they were known for, so it’s entertaining but nothing you haven’t heard before.

Angelo Poffo, Randy Savage’s dad, is happy to be in the WCW Hall of Fame and is also pleased to be here in order to watch his son later on.

Match Three
Legends Reunion
Dick Murdoch Vs Wahoo McDaniel

This is our Legends Bout of the evening, which was the theme that Slamboree was built around in the early years. We’ve got perennial Hall of Fame candidate Dick Murdoch, who was renowned for being a great wrestler in the ring and possibly a bit of a wrongun outside of it. McDaniel was formerly an American Footballer who then moved into the wrestling world to great success. They’ve decided to change the colour scheme to black and white for this one in order to give it that classic feel. These days they’d try to make it look like a multiple time copied VHS tape I expect. Gordon Solie hops on commentary for this one, and he has a decent chemistry with Heenan.

This one is naturally fought at a more deliberate pace due to the fact that these two wrestlers were grizzled veterans by this stage in their careers, but all of the work looks believable and well-executed. I’m not sure the crowd really knows what to make of it, although there is an “ooooo” reaction at one stage when McDaniel slaps Murdoch in the face and Murdoch does a big wobbly legged sell for it. The match is mostly a mix of strikes and traditional holds like arm wringers etc. There’s absolutely nothing wrong it, but it’s not exactly a thrilling contest either. It’s two experienced wrestlers keeping it simple and having a match that makes sense, so if that sounds like something you’d enjoy then you’ll probably like this.

Murdoch’s selling is probably the highlight of the bout for me, as he does a great job of stumbling around like he’s had his bell rung whilst still showing that he’s not completely out of the fight yet. It’s a type of selling that you don’t see a lot of in modern Pro Wrestling. There’s also a sense that Murdoch is perhaps exaggerating the clumsiness of it all in order to lull McDaniel into a false sense of security, which actually gets paid off at one stage as Murdoch stumbles and that leads to McDaniel getting into range so that Murdoch can clatter him for the cut off. McDaniel fights back though and puts Murdoch down with a chop for the three count in a pretty abrupt ending.

WINNER: WAHOO MCDANIEL
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was totally fine, if not especially thrilling. Just two folks doing the basics and doing them well, with Murdoch’s wacky selling adding a little bit of extra flavour to proceedings. The crowd didn’t really know how to feel about it, but they were polite for the most part and seemed to understand that they weren’t going to be getting 1990’s wrestling in this one. I would have liked WCW to keep the Legends Match thing going, but Slamboree 1995 is the last time they did it

Mean Gene is backstage with Big Bubba Rogers, who is confident that he will defeat Sting once again later on because Sting has lost faith in himself and that means that The Stinger is getting run out of town. This was a decent promo from Bubba and set up the match later on nicely.

Match Four
IWGP Heavyweight Title
Champ: The Great Muta Vs “Mr Wonderful” Paul Orndorff

Muta would pop in now and then because he was a recognisable star and New Japan liked to point to it as an example of one of their roster members being a big international star. Muta actually won the IWGP Title as Keiji Muto, but he’s defending it as Muta here. Muta was very much into his 1990’s grove of “generally wrestle a pretty slow match but throw in the odd burst of speed so that you trick the crowd into thinking the bout was more exciting than it actually was” here. Everything Muta does looks good, and Orndorff is his usual solid self, but the match feels a bit stop-start due to the way its structured. There are some really enjoyable quick bursts where Muta will bust out something like the Power Elbow or handspring in the corner for instance, but there’s a lot of sitting around in rest holds between it all. With a little bit more urgency to work on the mat they might have qualified as working holds instead of rest holds too, but sadly they don’t ever managed to cross that line with it.

Orndorff eventually decides that he’s had enough of this whole wrestling thing and flings Muta to the floor so that he can choke the Japanese star with a camera cable. Ironically that would normally be a Muta tactic when he was wrestling in Japan, along with stabbing folks in the head with beer bottles and just generally being violent and unpleasant. Muta’s selling is decent enough in the heat, and eventually the two wrestlers manage to get the crowd to clap for Muta after sitting for a long time in a chinlock. However, they then immediately have Muta get put in yet another hold, thus killing off some of the momentum they were building. Muta does eventually make a comeback, getting his trademark face buster out of the corner for two, before heading up with the Moonsault and that’s enough for a rather abrupt three.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: THE GREAT MUTA
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The quality of the actual wrestling on display was fine, but the match structure didn’t really work for me as there was a lot of sitting around doing nothing and then Muta just hit a couple of moves to win without much fanfare. There’s nothing wrong with working a more hold based match, but you can’t just sit around in the holds. At least make it look like you’re trying to either inflict pain on your opponent in the hold or make it look like you’re actively trying to fight your way out of the hold. You can sit on the mat for minutes in holds and it can genuinely be riveting stuff, but you have to actually put some effort in and the effort was somewhat lacking in this one, and that’s why it didn’t get a higher rating from me despite the match having some good stuff in it at points

We get a decent video package for the next match.

Mean Gene is in the interview area with Arn Anderson, Ric Flair and Vader. Anderson says that he’ll teach Alex Wright why Anderson is a canny veteran that folks like Wright need to look up to. Flair isn’t even in his wrestling gear yet, because he’s got Vader on his team so he can afford to be more relaxed. Vader is his usual angry self and yells about how he’s going to destroy Hulk Hogan later on. This was Anderson being cold and calculating, Flair being wacky and boisterous and Vader being loud and violent, so everyone was playing to their strengths and it was a good interview segment.

Terry Funk is very humble about his impending Hall of Fame induction.

Match Five
WCW World Television Title
Champ: “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson Vs “Das Wunderkind” Alex Wright

I do really love Wright’s techno-styled entrance music, although I believe the German broadcasters would dub in a special different song for him whenever he would wrestle on those shows. This match has a special 30 minute time limit due to Anderson and Wright going to a 15 minute draw on WCW Worldwide in the build-up. Wright had been given an undefeated streak prior to this bout, so either he’d win the Title here or suffer his first defeat, so there is something tangible on the line regardless of the match’s result.

Wright controls things in the early going with a side headlock, with the occasional dropkick thrown in, and it’s decent. Watching this you can see that Wright was still developing as in-ring performer, but he gives a good account of himself for a young lad who debuted in the autumn of 1992. It’s kind of crazy that he was wrestling for a major Title in a big company like WCW at this stage, and I think it’s a credit to him that he looks as good as he does. Being in there with an experienced guy like Anderson certainly helps, and Anderson gives him quite a lot of offence too.

The crowd responds to the action as well, especially when Anderson bails to the floor and Wright follows him out with a body press. Wright showed some good fire there and Anderson sold it really well. Anderson tries fighting back outside the ring, but Wright dodges his clothesline attempt, causing Anderson to hit the ring post, and then works the arm over back inside the ring for a bit. Anderson eventually manages to deliver his trademark Spine Buster, almost in desperation, and that allows him to take over control of the contest for a bit.

Wright sells well, which is something that can sometimes be difficult to learn in the early days of your career, but Wright doesn’t overdo it and registers the pain in believable fashion. Eventually Wright makes a comeback, getting some nice flashy moves including a missile dropkick from the top rope, but he isn’t able to put Anderson away. Anderson is on the back foot, but in a clever finish he mimes that he’s going to throw a punch, which causes Wright to duck, only to leave himself in prime position for a DDT, which Anderson delivers for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: ARN ANDERSON
RATING: ***

Thoughts: I enjoyed that. It wasn’t a classic or anything but it was a good match where Anderson sold a lot for Wright before using his experience to catch him out and pick up the win. It was probably time for Wright to lose at this stage, as it wasn’t like he was a Bill Goldberg styled monster babyface who really needed the winning streak, and he was presented as a credible challenger throughout the bout who only lost due to the wily veteran pulling an ace out of his sleeve at a crucial moment

Match Six
THE MONSTER MENG w/ Colonel Parker Vs Road Warrior Hawk

Hawk would feud with a few of Parker’s goons in 1995, including Manabu Nakanishi later in the year. This one was set up on the pre-show apparently. We were still in the Cycle of Meng at the time, whereby WCW was trying to push Meng as a genuine threat for a bit before they forgot about it and let him move back into the mid-card for a bit before the cycle started up again, so this match is just a competition between the two opponents to see who can sell the least. It’s not a terrible brawl, and the crowd actually kind of gets into the idea of these two madmen being indestructible tanks, but it does give the match a shelf life. Meng controls things for a little bit after Hawk takes a spill to the floor, but Hawk is soon back to his no selling ways and the battle rages on until we get the inevitable Double Count Out.

DOUBLE COUNT OUT
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: There was probably more chance of Sienna Miller showing up on my doorstep with two tickets to Glastonbury than there was of us getting a finish in this one. As it was, it was an okay quick TV match with no finish because neither guy was willing/able to do a job at this stage. It didn’t really belong on a pay per view like Slamboree, but what it wasn’t awful or anything

Wrestlers, Agents and Security break up the fight as best they can following the bout, with Bischoff teasing that we might see the match again at some point.

We get the WCW Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Gordon Solie is our master of ceremonies, and our inductees are Wahoo McDaniel, Terry Funk, Angelo Poffo, Antonio Inoki, Big John Studd, Dusty Rhodes and Gordon Solie. Solie didn’t know the last one was coming and he seems genuinely moved by it. This was a nice segment and it was done well. The crowd responded well to it and were respectful to the inductees, especially when Big John Studd’s son came out to collect the posthumous honour for his father. Also of note here is that Cody Rhodes got a quick cameo as he was able to hold Dusty’s HOF trophy during the induction.

Mean Gene is backstage in the interview area with Sting. Sting says that we’re going to have a different result to Uncensored tonight. This was a short promo but Sting showed some good fire in it.

Co-Main
Lights Out Match
Big Bubba Rogers Vs Sting

Rogers got a win over Sting back at Uncensored, so Sting has another chance to get at Bubba here at Slamboree. Sting has a table with him here for this one, playing into the whole Lights Out aspect of the bout. This is another match in a series of them tonight that has been worked at a more deliberate pace, but the work itself has been fine and the crowd likes Sting, so it has decent reactions for the most part and never really gets dull. Sting gets a healthy pop for bonking Rogers’ head off the table outside the ring at one stage. This is a real table as opposed to a more traditional wrestling one, which means it has enough MEME capabilities to put Maffew’s kids through college. Indeed, the table withstands everything that’s thrown at it, but that doesn’t hurt the match in all honesty, as it kind of makes the wrestlers look tougher that they’re getting flung into this heavy table that isn’t even budging and they’re surviving to tell the tale. Sting comes off the top rope with a Splash at one stage, but Rogers is able to kick out and the bout continues. Sting puts the table on top of Rogers at one stage and stomps it, with the Scorpion Deathlock then following to give Sting the submission win.

WINNER: STING
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: Slow pace of the bout aside; Rogers is a good Heel and Sting is a good babyface, and the crowd cared about Sting and wanted him to win, so everyone did their job properly here and the crowd enjoyed it, so it fulfilled it’s brief. They got a lot of use out of just the one table as well, showing that less can be more in a big gimmick match sometimes

Main Event
“The Nature Boy” Ric Flair and Vader w/ Arn Anderson Vs The Monster Maniacs (WCW World Champ Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage) w/ Jimmy “The Mouth of the South” Hart and The Renegade

Hogan supposedly retired Flair by defeating him at Halloween Havoc 94, but Flair ended up dressing up as a woman to attack Hogan and Savage, thus leading to him getting reinstated and teaming up with Vader to take out The Monster Maniac team of Hogan and Savage. Eric Bischoff pushes on commentary that the babyfaces wanted Flair back and campaigned for it, which is a big reason why he ended up getting reinstated, which at least makes sense as a way to overturn a stipulation I suppose. Renegade was still new to WCW at the time, and had the unfortunate gimmick of basically just being an Ultimate Warrior cosplayer.

I do wonder what would have happened had the real Ultimate Warrior had decided to come in and they just called him The Renegade instead? Hogan, Savage and Warrior would have been such a dominant babyface trio that you’d probably have to end up turning one of them because the Heel side would be at a pronounced disadvantage, especially with Sting also working on the babyface side. Vader’s penchant for being super stiff and working hard was always likely to cause him some bother with Hogan, although their initial match at SuperBrawl V wasn’t too bad when it came to making Vader look like dangerous monster. Sadly Hogan had already no sold Vader’s finisher and made him look like a chump prior to that match happening, but we should be thankful for small mercies I suppose.

Hogan gets to shine on Vader early, but he replies by destroying both of the Faces by himself before tagging in Flair, who ends up getting pinballed around by Savage. Better times would be ahead for Flair in 1995, but during this period he was basically an ineffective stooging Heel getting pummelled at every turn, hence the alliance with Vader to try and help him look like some semblance of a threat to the babyfaces. Flair does commit to the bit at least, meaning the section where Savage and Hogan ping him around from pillar to post is entertaining to watch.

Even Arn Anderson gets in on the act by coming in to bump for Hogan, but that at least allows Flair to kick Hogan in the leg so that the Heels can get some heat on him. Whilst that goes on, Paul Wight stands in the aisle way looking mean, which is his WCW debut I believe. Meanwhile, Hogan no sells a suplex from Vader, but gets quickly knocked down again anyway without trying to make the tag. This is a strangely structured match in a lot of ways. It’s meandering for the most part, which is strange when you consider the talent in the ring.

Hogan eventually manages to dodge a pump splash and drags his way to the corner for the tag to Savage, who does a nice hot tag segment with Flair before heading up for the elbow drop. The ref is too busy dealing with Hogan and Renegade though, which allows Anderson to break up the pin and then lure Savage outside for an attack from Vader. Vader crushes Savage with an awesome looking moonsault back inside, but Hogan comes in to break up the pin, as we see that Savage’s dad is at ringside watching on.

So now we get our second heat segment, and I really don’t think this match needed one of those if I’m being honest. Savage fights back though and a double clothesline sees him and Flair down, which leads to the hot tag to Hogan. That’s a pretty flat reaction to a hot tag to be honest. Body slams come for Flair and Vader, followed by the big boot on the former. Anderson trips Hogan up however, which allows Vader to come in with a splash. This would now be a good opportunity to give the Heels a scummy win to build for Title rematches, but this is WCW in 1995, so Hogan of course kicks out and starts Hulking Up. Anderson tries coming in to help Flair, but hits him by mistake and that allows Hogan to leg drop Flair for the win. That one probably should have been a DQ too.

WINNERS: THE MONSTER MANIACS
RATING: **

Thoughts: This dragged for me if I’m honest, which was disappointing because I do genuinely like Vader, Savage and Flair, and I also like Hogan in the right setting too

The Heels do the big Heel beat down following the bout, which leads to Savage’s dad, Angelo Poffo, coming in to try and protect his son, leading to Flair beating Poffo up to set up a feud with Savage. That feud with Savage actually did well on the house show circuit and contributed to WCW actually making a profit at the end of the 95/96 business year.

In Conclusion

Slamboree 95 wasn’t a bad show overall, although it was a bit “meh” for the most part. Just a lot of matches in the **ish range by my watch, which meant the show lacked excitement, but there wasn’t really a lot of bad wrestling going on. The crowd certainly helped at points, especially during the Tag Title and Lights Out match. The Main Event was a bit disappointing, but it did set up one of WCW’s last great pre-nWo feuds, so it had that going for it.

The Hall of Fame segment was very tastefully done and the crowd responded in kind, which was nice to see. Slamboree would no longer be the legends show following the 1995 event, which is kind of a shame but I also think a show like that would have felt a bit out of place during the nWo Era. They would have probably had the nWo show up to beat down the legends and spray paint them all, which probably wouldn’t have gone down too well and would have been against the point of the whole Legends Reunion thing to begin with.

Slamboree doesn’t come recommended, but it’s not awful either