Mike Reviews WCW Slamboree 1993

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We’re going to take a bit of a break from 1994 WCW pay per views as I’ve already reviewed the July 1994 offerings from them so we’ll drop back in to that period with Fall Brawl 94 in the autumn, and if I get a chance I’ll take a look at some of the Clash shows from 1994 as well. In the meantime; we’ll drop back a year to look at some shows from 1993, starting with Slamboree.

1993 is usually seen as a bit of a dark period for WCW, with the summer and autumn months in particular being considered particularly drab. The company was between era’s, as Bill Watts had finally been mercifully punted and Hulk Hogan was yet to come in.

Slamboree began as an event to honour legends of wrestling’s past, with the show featuring a Hall of Fame ceremony along with some matches featuring the legends. On top of all of the legends stuff, we’ve got Vader taking on Davey Boy Smith and a very special Flair For The Gold segment.

You can view the card for Slamboree 1993 by clicking the link below, and Scott Keith’s review can be found HERE

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1565&page=3

Slamboree is emanating from WCW Country, Atlanta, Georgia on the 23rd of May 1993

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Larry Z

The show opens up with the ring chock full of wrestling legends, which leads to the commentary team prattling on. Larry of course uses the opportunity to waffle about nonsense.

Maxx Payne is here and plays some guitar, which leads to some muscle men carrying a carriage down to the ring. Fabulous Moolah is sadly in there, as I was hoping we wouldn’t have to see that vile hag tonight.

Eric Bischoff and Missy Hyatt now talk as well, as this wrestling pay per view has had precious little wrestling on it thus far. The lights actually go out during this segment, because WCW, but Sleazy E and The Walking Riot gamely struggle onwards in an effort to hype up Sting’s match later on.

Opening Match
“Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and Chris Benoit Vs 2 Cold Scorpio and Marcus Alexander Bagwell

Scorp and Bagwell are the regular duo here, and would go on to win the tag belts later in the year. Benoit had impressed back at SuperBrawl III, but he wouldn’t be staying in WCW for much longer during this run. Scorp and Bagwell (or “Bagley” if you’re Dominik Diamond) have matching gear here, so you know that they’re on the same page, although the crowd doesn’t seem that impressed by their dancing. Benoit and Scorpio do some great wrestling to start, with some slick counters, as they pick up from where they left off by at SuperBrawl. Eaton and Benoit do a good job bumping around for the babyfaces in the early stages, as this has been a good way to warm up the crowd thus far.

We get an example of WCW’s inconsistent over the top rope DQ rules, as Bagwell back body drops Benoit over the ropes at one stage, but it’s not a DQ, because reasons. Bagwell is the least accomplished of the four here, but he holds his own just fine and he was a decent wrestler by the late 90’s, although a serious neck injury in 1998 ended his momentum and he was never quite the same as an in-ring performer. Eaton ends up soup canning Bagwell to the floor for the cut off whilst Benoit distracts the ref, and that gives us the heat segment. Bagwell sells that well and the Heels look good on offence, so it ends up being an effective section of the bout. Benoit is jumping around with ease here, and showing some good cockiness too. You don’t often think of Benoit as a cocky high flyer, but that was kind of his thing during this period.

Bagwell eventually manages to get his knees up on a Benoit splash attempt and that gives us the hot tag to Scorp, who runs wild and looks good, with Benoit in particular getting some nice air on a back body drop. We get some near falls and that leads to the Heels getting run together, leaving Benoit prone on the mat so that Scorpio can come flying off the top with a twisting somersault leg drop. It looked like Scorp landed arse first right on Benoit’s gob there actually.

WINNERS: SCORPIO & BAGWELL
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This was a good match and a solid open to the show. If they’d been allowed to really cut loose in the finishing stretch then this might have been rated higher, but 1993 was a different time, and to be honest it’s probably better to end the match when you’re approaching the peak rather than going too long and missing the peak entirely

The commentary team explains that Colonel Rob Parker has brought someone in to get a piece of Van Hammer up next, as Hammer had rebuffed his managerial approaches.

Match Two
Sid Vicious w/ Colonel Rob Parker Vs “Heavy Metal” Van Hammer

Sid had been brought in as Parker’s new monster so that Parker could get revenge on Hammer. In reality, WCW was light on potential Main Eventers, and did what desperate promotions usually do in such situations by pushing the big guy button. Sid was on a very decent wage at the time, but he didn’t end up justifying it in the long run. Sid gets a decent response for his entrance, and no sells some Hammer offence before delivering a big powerbomb for three. Interestingly, Sid uses the music that the Steiner’s would go on to use in New Japan.

WINNER: SID
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: Sid’s continued popularity amongst the online wrestling community continues to befuddle me, as he couldn’t wrestle a lick and only had a body, which those sorts of fans usually abhor. Hammer took a nice bump for the powerbomb

Eric Bischoff is with Red Bastien and Bugsy McGraw. They both put Sid over, and McGraw makes a crack about how Sleazy E is wearing too much makeup, which actually causes Bischoff to corpse live on air.

Match Three
Legends Bout
Blackjack Mulligan, “Jumpin” Jim Brunzell and Wahoo McDaniel Vs “Captain Redneck” Dick Murdoch, Don “The Rock” Muraco and Superfly Snuka

We’ve got about half of ECW’s Main Event scene from 1993 in this match. Mulligan teamed with Blackjack Lanza as The Blackjack’s. Brunzell was mostly a tag wrestler with partners such as Greg Gagne and Brian Blair. McDaniel was a former American Footballer who then moved into wrestling to great success. Murdoch was an excellent wrestler, but also allegedly held some problematic views. Snuka and Muraco feuded in the WWF, with Snuka diving off a cage onto Muraco at one stage, the move that made Mick Foley want to become a wrestler. All of the legends enter to the awesome Slamboree theme here, as I once again must give kudos to the person working in the WCW production truck at the time who found this on a CD somewhere and decided to use it.

Brunzell is moving the best of anyone here, so he’s probably going to have to carry his team, as both McDaniel and Mulligan are looking a bit rougher physically. Snuka and Muraco were both working ECW in 93/94 and were doing okay there, with Murdoch getting an improbable run in the 1995 Royal Rumble, so they can all go enough to make this work, with Murdoch in particular working the crowd in his usual top notch manner by using facial expressions and body language. Mulligan actually does okay once he gets in there, with him being able to hold his own in exchanges with Snuka and Murdoch. McDaniel does get a very impressive feat of strength at one stage by shoot slamming Muraco by picking him up and throwing him before Muraco has time to post, so it’s basically all McDaniel. I don’t think either guy was being unprofessional there, McDaniel just went for the slam before Muraco was ready and was strong enough to muscle him over.

Brunzell delivers his world famous dropkick at one stage, as both teams appear to be just trading the momentum here rather than working the heat segment into a hot tag formula that you usually see in tag bouts. It eventually looks like we might get some heat on Brunzell, with the other team cutting him off and working him over in their half of the ring, although Muraco does accidentally clock Snuka at one stage. Brunzell sells everything well, with the offence from the other team being okay, with Muroch being the best of the three. Snuka ends up accidentally clocking Muraco though, which leads to the two former rivals arguing. Things break down following that, with all six wrestlers going at it and the referee throwing it out.

NO CONTEST
RATING: **

Thoughts: The action here was mostly okay, although the non-finish was a bit annoying. It was a throwaway legends match on pay per view and none of the guys were really getting pushed. One of them couldn’t have been pinned by a roll-up or something?

Missy Hyatt is with Mad Dog Vachon and The Masked Assassin, and she quickly loses the interview, as Vachon rants on about whatever and Assassin challenges Dusty Rhodes to a match. This was a segment that certainly happened.

Match Four
Legends Bout
Baron von Raschke and Ivan Koloff Vs Brad Armstrong and Thunderbolt Patterson

Baron and Ivan made a career out of being evil foreigners (representing Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia respectively) whilst Patterson was a big local star in Georgia in the 70’s who went into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2024. Armstrong is filling in for his injured dad here. The crowd is really in to Patterson, and pop when he cuts a quick promo before the match. Brad ends up wrestling in his street clothes, after the Heels mock his father and his family. This one is a brawl to start, with it having some of the best crowd reactions on Slamboree so far.

Patterson keeps shaking throughout the match like he’s been zapped with lightning, which I’m guessing is to go along with his nickname? Things eventually settle down into a normal tag match, with Brad of all people taking the heat, even though he was the regular wrestler of the four and is actually in great shape here (although he has an all-time terrible mullet going on). Brad sells that all well at least, although it’s silly that he’s the one getting beaten up by the old codgers whilst Patterson gets to be the big hero who gets the hot tag. Patterson ends up chopping Baron in the throat, and that’s enough for three.

WINNERS: PATTERSON & ARMSTRONG
RATING: *

Thoughts: This wasn’t that good, but at least Brad looked good in there, the crowd liked Patterson, and we actually got a pin fall finish, so I’ll be generous

We get “Flair for the Gold” next, which was Ric Flair’s personal interview segment. This was supposed to see the reforming on the Four Horsemen line-up of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard. However, WCW low balled Blanchard on money, so he turned them down, meaning they didn’t have a fourth horsemen. WCW decided to give Paul Roma a chance in the role instead, which went down like a lead balloon with a decent chunk of WCW’s audience. It wasn’t that Roma was a bad wrestler (he was actually a solid in-ring performer) but he had no real ties to WCW’s history and he’d never really got past a certain level in the WWF, so his face just didn’t fit in what was supposed to be an elite level faction. Had WCW brought him in and built him up with wins for six months in order to get the lower card stink from the end of his WWF run off of him, then this might have worked better, but instead they just brought him in off the street and threw him in the deep end with no build. It would be like WWE reforming Evolution today and bringing in Lee Moriarty or someone of similar standing from AEW because they couldn’t get Batista. Moriarty is a good in-ring wrestler, but he’s never got past a certain level in AEW and Evolution is one of the all-time biggest factions in WWE history, so there’s a great chance that the fans would reject it. The segment itself is passable at least because you’ve got Ric Flair and Arn Anderson cutting promos, but you could tell that the crowd wasn’t buying into Roma in this role right from the off.

Match Five
Legends Bout
AWA Vs NWA
Nick Bockwinkel w/ Verne Gagne Vs Dory Funk Jr w/ Gene Kiniski

Bockwinkel was a long reigning AWA Champ whilst Dory had an impressive NWA World Title run, so this is a match that a lot of people would have wanted to see when both had their respective belts. Johnny Valentine hops on commentary for this one. Bock is dressed like the wrestler’s from the World Championship Wrestling game for the NES here, with trunks over long tights. This is a match that won’t be for everyone, as it’s mostly the two wrestlers working patiently on the mat with some strikes thrown in at points, such as when Dory throws in some trusty European uppercuts.

I could definitely see some thinking that this is boring, and I’m not sure I’d want a whole show of it, but for something a bit different on a show like this I think it’s a refreshing change of pace. It helps that the actual wrestling is well executed by the two wrestlers, with them keeping it simple to stuff they can still do and knowing when to up the pace here and there without extending themselves too much. It’s an interesting match to watch in some ways, as the crowd reacts almost like a Japanese crowd would, as they watch intently, and almost politely, as the two veteran wrestlers go at it. There’s the occasional catcall from an idiot, but in general the crowd seems to appreciate this for what it is and understands what the two wrestlers are going for with it.

They do an excellent job of presenting this as an athletic contest between two people trying to out wrestle one another, with the slower pace not really taking away from that. Things pick up a bit as we hit the final five minutes of the bout, with both wrestlers firing off some bigger moves in hopes of picking up the win, with Dory even delivering a piledriver at one stage. Bockwinkel tries to reply by using counters and pinning holds in an effort to win, which is a nice juxtaposition between the two with Dory trying to go higher impact whilst Bockwinkel tries to be more cerebral. Eventually the time runs out and the match ends a draw.

TIME LIMIT DRAW
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This won’t be for everyone, as it was slow even for 1993 and it would be comparatively glacial to someone who only watches wrestling in the 2020’s. However, it was really well worked and they did a good job of building up to the last five minutes. This was two pro’s knowing how to structure a wrestling match, and structure it they did

Both wrestlers get a nice round of applause following that.

Eric Bischoff is with Lou Thesz and Bob Geigle, who both put over the action we’ve seen so far tonight.

Match Six
Mr. Wonderful and “Ravishing” Rick Rude Vs “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes and “Power Warrior” Kensuke Sasaki

Wonderful and Rude seemingly make the perfect arrogant tag team who are tough enough to back up their arrogance. Rude and Rhodes were feuding over the US Title at the time after Dustin won a tournament when Rude was forced to vacate the belt. I’m not sure why they booked Sasaki out of all the New Japan guys they could have chosen. Don’t get me wrong, I like Sasaki, but he was a level below the likes of Muta, Chono, Hashimoto, Hase and even Koshinaka at the time. Rude tries shoving Rude around to start, but Sasaki shoves him back and the crowd gives him a good reaction for it. Sasaki actually looks kind of small when in there with these other three, which isn’t something that really comes across when you watch him wrestle in Japan. It really shows you just how big a man Dustin is as well, as he’s towering over his partner here.

This one has some decent wrestling to start, with Dustin and Sasaki shining on the two Heels. The babyfaces do your standard stuff of working arm bars etc, with it eventually breaking down into a slugfest when Rude and Dustin get in there, seeing as they were feuding at the time. The Rude and Dustin exchanges are pretty good, with Rude taking a wonderful back body drop until dodging a Dustin attack to send the grandson of a plumber tumbling over the top rope to the floor for the cut off. Wonderfully Ravishing work reasonably well as a team, as Wonderful was usually solid enough that you could plug him in with most other Heel wrestlers and get an acceptable Heel tandem going on, with him eventually forming a solid pairing with Paul Roma. Dustin sells well in the heat and makes sure to get an attack here or there to show that he’s still in the contest before invariably getting cut off again.

Eventually Wonderful and Dustin bonk heads, which leads to a double down and our hot tag to Sasaki, who runs wild and gives Rude an Atomic Drop so that Rude can do his iconic sell job for it. Rude takes some nice bumps for Sasaki actually, as he’s done a good job making Sasaki look like an actual contender here and not just a smaller designated job guy. Eventually it takes a cheap shot from Wonderful in order for Rude to be able to get the expected three count on Sasaki, as Wonderful shoves Sasaki off the top rope and Rude pounces with the Rude Awakening for the three count, with Sasaki even kicking out at 3.1. I’m guessing that’s because that move isn’t really a finisher over in Japan so Sasaki didn’t want to look too weak back home? To be fair, Sasaki had barely taken any offence prior to that, so in kayfabe he probably shouldn’t have been sprawled out on the canvas following just one move.

WINNERS: WONDERFULLY RAVISHING
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: An okay match, although I don’t think it was truly pay per view quality. It felt more like a TV Main Event, although there was nothing actively wrong with it. Everyone looked good on offence and Rude was generous with his selling for Sasaki, which helped Sasaki overcome the size difference somewhat

Gordon Solie inducts some wrestlers into the WCW Hall of Fame. Solie seems genuinely moved by the reaction he gets from the live crowd, and reads off a list of wrestlers who have passed away and cannot be here tonight. Then we get the inductees, with Lou Thesz being first. And really, who else could it be? He had the NWA World Title for an 8 year reign at one stage for crepes’ sake! Next up is Verne Gagne, which is another easy choice due to his success both as a wrestler and a promoter with the AWA (although he eventually fell behind the times in the 80’s and the AWA crumbled as a result). Masked wrestler Mr. Wrestling II is next up, who was known for his devastating Knee Lift finisher and a famous feud with Magnum Terry Allen where Wrestling II got jealous of his protege. Eddie Graham is the posthumous induction, who ran the Florida territory to great success for many years.

Missy Hyatt is with James Blears and John Tolos, and she seems to be crushing on Tolos somewhat. Tolos puts WCW over, whilst Blears gives a shout out to the folks in Hawaii.

Match Seven
Bounty Bout
The Prisoner Vs The Man Called Sting

Scott Norton decided to quit because they asked him to lose to Sting, hence we get this match. Sadly it’s not Patrick McGoohan wrestling Sting here, but rather Nailz from the WWF, with a gimmick that had WCW practically begging for the WWF to sue them. I mean, he’s dressed like Nailz and has essentially the EXACT same gimmick aside from the name change. The Prisoner can do basically two things, choke people and seethe, so he exhausts his move set roughly 5 seconds into the contest. Sting does his best to sell everything Prisoner throws at him, but the match is still pretty hard going. Even the commentary team doesn’t know who put this bounty on Sting by the way. I’m guessing it was either Harley Race or Colonel Parker?

One thing I will say is that Prisoner’s tactics actually make sense if he’s just going for the bounty from injuring Sting, as he’s flirting with constant DQ but it doesn’t matter to him so long as he gets paid. Sting eventually gets to make a bit of a comeback, but Prisoner’s bumping and feeding is awful, which is actually really annoying as Sting did a decent job selling for The Prisoner in the heat and now Prisoner is failing to return the favour down the closing stretch, either because he doesn’t want to or because he straight up can’t. Sting eventually comes off the top rope with a clothesline and that’s enough for three.

WINNER: STING
RATING: ½*

Thoughts: Sting was trying here, but he had nothing to work with. Prisoner couldn’t even take the most basic of bumps, and it ruined any chance of the match had of picking up steam once Sting made his comeback. Up to that point; it hadn’t been the most exciting of matches, but the story was actually reasonably well told, with Prisoner not even trying to win the match but just hurting Sting for the bounty money. Sting was selling well and doing what he could to get across the idea that he was in jeopardy, so the table was set up for a big comeback. If Prisoner had just been capable of bumping and feeding properly for the comeback then this might have ended up being passable, as the crowd was briefly into Sting fighting back until they realised that Prisoner couldn’t do anything, and any chance at building to a crescendo was lost in that moment. It’s so very WCW as well that they not only wasted arguably their top babyface in such a turgid match, but that they basically took a WWF gimmick wholesale and planted it onto the show and expected that to be okay. Still though, this is the company that thought they could get away with Arachna-Man, so I shouldn’t be too surprised at such flagrant idiocy

Eric Bischoff is with Da Crusha and Ox Baker, who fill some time whilst they set up the cage for the next match. I can barely understand what Crusha is saying, but I can deduce that he’s giving a shout out to his grandchildren, which is nice of him. Crusha was known for cage matches back in the day, so it makes sense that he’s cutting a promo here. Baker says he wishes he could wrestle again and then gives a shout out to Atlanta.

Match Eight
Steel Cage Bout for the NWA/WCW Unified Tag Titles
Champs: The Hollywood Blondes (Flyin’ Brian and Stunning Steve) Vs Dos Hombres (Ricky Steamboat and Tom Zenk)

There’s a bit of a backstory here. The NWA and WCW Tag Titles were unified by Steve Williams and Terry Gordy in 1992 and the Titles remained unified from that point on until WCW split from the NWA. The belts had eventually found their way to the team of Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas, but The Blondes cheated to defeat them and started throwing out open challenges to Enhancement Talents, because they were such swell guys. Eventually Steamboat and Savage accepted the challenge under the guise of being faux luchadores, thus setting up this match at Slamboree. However, Douglas ended up leaving WCW, so they’ve stuck Zenk in there instead just so they can finish this feud off. WCW in 1993 everybody!

They’re not even trying to hide that this is supposed to be Steamboat and Douglas by the way, with them being announced as such and even entering to Steamboat’s music, even though I think we’re supposed to think that they are actually masked Luchadores. Or maybe we’re not? It’s WCW, so all bets are off. The crowd doesn’t react to this much in the early going, but the wrestling itself is very good, with all four wrestlers working well together. Steamboat and Zenk get the better of things in the early going, with them doing the traditional babyface tag team shine spot of working a wrist lock and switching out to keep the hold applied. Steve takes a horrifying bump at one stage where he receives a back body drop but he’s too close to the ropes and he ends up hitting them on the way down to land mostly on his neck. That was BRUTAL, but it woke the crowd up somewhat at least. Thankfully Austin is up and about after it and the match continues.

Austin nearly dies again when he gets hung up on top of the cage by his legs and falls back into the ring when the challengers are teeing up to hit him. Can we please get through this match with no one suffering a serious injury? Eventually the Champs manage to cut off one of the challengers and work them over for the heat segment, with The Blondes looking good on offence. I’m pretty confident that it’s Zenk getting worked over here, and he does a good job, with both he and the Champs working in some good false hot tags. Steamboat does eventually get the hot tag, and he runs wild on the Champs, looking good doing so and managing to fire up the crowd a bit. It helps that The Blondes are bumping all over the place in order to make Steamboat look good, as they were great buffoons when it came to them getting beaten up.

Steamboat eventually removes his mask voluntarily and heads up to the top of the cage for a double cross body onto the Champs, which is such a convincing near fall that the timekeeper rings the bell and has to be corrected by the referee. That would have been a great finish were the belts changing hands, but then you’d have to work out what to do with the fact Douglas had skipped town, so I understand why it wasn’t. The Blondes actually manage to end up getting a “sort of” clean finish, as Austin manages to catch Zenk with a Stun Gun (the move, not the item) OUTTA NOWHERE, and that’s enough for the flash three count. That ended up being a darn good match where they worked really hard throughout, with Austin nearly suffering serious injury more than once. They should have just had Steamboat tagging with Zenk officially following this and done some more matches as they worked well as a team.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: THE BLONDES
RATING: ***1/2

Eric Bischoff is with Dusty Rhodes, Mr. Wrestling II and Stu Hart. Dusty spends most of his promo hyping up a feud with The Assassin that I don’t think went anywhere. Wrestling II congratulates WCW for the show and then thanks them for putting him in the Hall of Fame. Stu is there to hype up Davey Boy Smith for his Title match later, although he struggles a bit as the promo rolls on.

Semi-Main
NWA World Title
Champ: “The Lone Wolf” Barry Windham Vs “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson

Windham had defeated Great Muta in a pig of a match back at SuperBrawl III to win the Title and had refused to rejoin The Horsemen, so Anderson is now looking to both defend the group’s honour and also win a first ever singles World Title. Anderson is actually still using the Dangerous Alliance theme here, as I thought he’d’ve stopped using it by this point. Hey, I’m not complaining, it’s one of WCW’s best ever entrance themes in my opinion! Anderson is actually a really good babyface here, as he shows good fire and sells in a way that makes him come across as gutsy tough guy looking to get himself into the match. Anderson manages to get a DDT reasonably early in the contest, but Big Bazza draws the challenger to the outside and then pulls him out of the ring onto the ramp for the cut off.

Anderson sells well during the heat, with Windham doing a good job of coming across as an unlikable and desperation Champion as he works the challenger over. Anderson eventually manages to fight back and throws Windham face first onto the metal railings, which leads to Windham coming up bleeding and begging off in traditional Heel World Champ style. It’s a pretty gory blade job actually, with Windham’s face and hair soon getting caked in claret. Anderson tries coming off the top with something, but Windham dropkicks him whilst on the top rope and that leads to Anderson taking an unpleasant tumble to the floor, which is then made worse when Windham adds a suplex out there. Both wrestlers are really working hard here and they’re having a very good fast paced competitive match.

Windham comes off the top rope with a clothesline to Anderson, but he chooses not to go for the pin and instead decides to punish Anderson further with a big knee drop before finally making the cover for two. I like that, as it shows that this one has a personal edge to it and they not only want to win but they also want to dish out some pain to their opponent as well. Anderson manages to catch Windham with a Spine Buster (giving Tony a chance to yell “THAT’S HIS MOVE” on commentary) but Windham is able to roll to the floor to avoid being pinned and then tries to make a run for it. Anderson chases Windham down though and puts him back in the ring so that he can try to defeat the Champ by pin fall. However, the ref ends up getting shoved down in the melee, and that gives Windham an opening to clock Anderson with the belt for three.

WINNER: BARRY WINDHAM
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: I like how they teased a possible count out and DQ finish there, but still delivered a pin fall finish at the end, even though it was a clearly tainted one. We actually get a finish, Anderson is protected in defeat and Windham draws some Heel heat. All around that was a good piece of business! The match itself really was great, as they worked it at a quick clip and both played their respective roles well

Main Event
WCW World Title
Champ: Big Van Vader w/ Harley Race Vs Davey Boy Smith

Davey had been let go by the WWF in 1992, in what they would later say was for a positive steroid test, but Davey himself disputed that. Regardless, with him being a free agent and WCW looking to branch out into the European market, they offered him a generous financial package and snapped him up. His debut match was at Super Brawl III, which led to a pretty hilarious post-match interview that I think featured on one of the earliest episodes of Botchamania, where Davey stumbled over his lines.

Vader had lost the Title in 1992 to Ron Simmons but had won it back at the turn of the year and was coming off a brutal strap match with Sting at Super Brawl III. Davey was popular at this stage but he wasn’t really “beat the monster Heel to become the World Champ” popular, mainly because his ceiling in America had always tended to be just a step lower than Main Event level. It did mean that he could be used as a challenger of the month, but it also meant he never had a sustained run as a World Champ in America. In fact, it took Drew Galloway winning at WrestleMania in 2020 for a British guy to be crowned the top man in a big American company.

This wasn’t soon after Vader had put Cactus Jack out with a power bomb on the floor, which should have led to a fired up Cactus coming back for revenge in a great angle, but ended up leading to him getting amnesia and thinking he was a sea captain or something, because WCW. They establish early on that Bulldog is a powerful challenger by having him straight up no sell a Vader clothesline, which gets a good reaction from the crowd. Vader sells that well by having a troubled facial expression that his usual MO isn’t working. It’s a good bit of storytelling and the crowd are into it.

Vader responds by hammering away with punches before sending Davey outside for some Race cheap shots. Davey manages to dodge a Vader running attack on the outside though, which leads to Vader tumbling into the front row. Davey heaves Vader back in over the railing before body slamming him on the floor. Davey actually gets a hanging vertical suplex back inside, which is a great show of strength from him and a great display of posting from the monstrous Vader. Without cooperation that spot that doesn’t happen. Kudos to both men.

Bulldog is now over with the crowd due to him flinging Vader around like that, as Vader bails to catch his bearings. The cut off comes not too soon after though, as Davey goes for a crucifix pin only for Vader to drop back into a modified Samoan Drop. Vader works some heat on Davey now, and it looks suitably brutal. Vader was a very believable monster, mainly because he supposedly just clobbered people for real most of the time. I’d certainly never wanted to get in there with him, but I can’t deny that his act was impressive to watch.

Davey bumps around and sells well for Vader during the heat, most likely because he has no choice, but it doesn’t really have the desired effect of getting the crowd behind him to make a comeback. Davey does manage to block a superplex by shoving Vader down and then follows with a sloppy looking diving head butt for a double down. Davey would try and work that move in to his move set now and then and I never really thought it suited him. It was always Dynamite Kids move to me and Davey just never got the execution right on it.

Davey manages an atomic drop for a two count, but Vader fires back with a clothesline, but misses a splash and that allows Davey to get another two. Vader replies by heading up top for a big splash, actually getting it this time, but he sells his mid-section as if he hurt himself. It could have been Davey was meant to get his knees up there but didn’t, especially as he is up first following the splash. Vader flings Davey out for some more cheap shots from Race. Race was always an interesting manager for me, because I never really thought his manager promos were up to much but he was great as a bump taking manager who could get involved in matches.

Vader goes to a camel clutch back inside, which gets the crowd to clap along for Davey and he follows up with an Electric Chair Drop to a good reaction. Davey makes the comeback with punches and gets a big clothesline for two. This crowd has been a bit inconsistent when it comes to reactions to be honest. When Davey is doing the impressive power stuff they’ve been into it, but when he’s been getting near falls or selling they’ve mostly sat on their hands. Case in point, Davey catches a Vader running splash in the corner and power slams him down for a pop, but the resulting pin fall attempt doesn’t really get much, even when Race breaks it up unforeseen by the ref.

Davey finally clobbers Race, which gets less of a pop than you’d think after he’d been interfering so much, and that leads to Vader hitting Davey with a chair for a lame DQ. Obviously they didn’t want to change the belt and also didn’t want Davey to lose, so that finish was kind of necessary, but I can’t deny that it was a super lame way to end what had been a decent bout.

WINNER BY DQ: DAVEY BOY SMITH
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The work was fine here for the most part, but the rubbish ending and the strangely flat crowd knocked it down a bit for me, hence the rating

Vader destroys Marc Bagwell and Scorpio, and then heads off to finish Davey, but Sting runs down for the rescue to set up a Davey and Sting Vs Vader and Sid match for Beach Blast 93 (Along with a notoriously awful mini-movie).

In Conclusion

There’s enough good wrestling on Slamboree 93 for me to give it a mild thumbs up, with the Tag and NWA World Title matches delivering pay per view quality action. Of the Legends bouts, there’s only one real stinker here, and the Funk/Bockwinkel match is really good for what it is, although it won’t be for everyone. The Legends aspect in general helped make the show feel a bit different from a standard WCW event, but I’m not sure it really needed to be on pay per view, as it perhaps would have worked better as TV special. Windham and Anderson snag the match of the night honours, which is kind of what I expected when I saw the card. WCW in 1993 was a bit of Jekyll and Hyde promotion, as you’d get good serious wrestling sometimes (usually from the likes of Vader, Flair, Windham etc) but you’d also get a healthy dose of wacky stuff too (The Prisoner, the mini-movies, Lost in Cleveland etc) and it would give the shows a bit of an odd quality where from one segment to the next you could be going from something good to something utterly cack at the drop of a hat. Slamboree 93 thankfully had more positives than negatives, so it get’s a passing grade, but some of the tonal whiplash could be really disconcerting sometimes.

Mildly recommended show