The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Superbrawl 9

The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Superbrawl 9

Yeah, turn David Flair heel. That’ll put butts on seats

Amazingly this show actually did a good buyrate of 1.1. Possibly because the majority of the audience wanted to see Ric Flair beat Hulk Hogan and figured that Hogan being a broken down heel wouldn’t stand a chance in a match against a babyface President of WCW, Flair. A little comparison in terms of crowd here for WCW to show how badly things went after this. Nearly 16,000 fans for this show. At Superbrawl X they failed to sell out the Cow Palace in San Francisco. The idea of any WWF show not selling out at the same time was ludicrous. And the buyrate for Superbrawl X? 0.10. No, that’s not a typo. 0.10. That’s how badly WCW killed its own business during 1999. I don’t have every PPV from 1999 but I have a fair cross section of them. Amazing stuff to watch a billion dollar company just completely self destruct.

We’re in Oakland, California. Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan. Tenay points out that Flair is dedicating tonight’s match to his family. Keep that in mind. We get a look at the tag team tournament final. It’s been double elimination. Chavo turned heel during this. We get a very short from promo from Dean Malenko.

Booker T v Disco Inferno

We get clips from Thunder where Booker chokes Disco down for messing with his relationship with his brother Stevie Ray. Disco has just joined the nWo Wolfpac at this point although I find it hard to understand why they let him in. Disco starts fast and hits a swinging neckbreaker. Booker pops back up and slams him but Disco brings the armdrags. Disco taunts so Booker levels him with a clothesline. Flying Jalapeno gets 2. Disco takes over on the floor and connects with a double axe handle for 2. Booker comes back with the kicks. Axe kick connects but there’s no pin. Booker hits a spinebuster (“Sidewalk Slam” – Fat Tony). Disco comes back with a clothesline. This match is suffering from Scorpioism’s. No pins. Last Dance is blocked into a back suplex. Spinneroonie. Sidekick and Booker climbs instead of covering allowing Disco to get him. Disco showboats like an idiot so Booker pushes him off and a butt ugly Harlem Hangover finishes at 9.16. **1/2. Booker was sloppy as hell and Disco was Disco. Still it was surprisingly good despite that. Interesting that the nWo bring in someone specifically to job for them. Great quote from Tenay – “he just got an axe kicking”. Nice pun. Obviously Tony ruins it by correcting the name of the move. Oh, irony is SO lost on this guy.

Chris Jericho w/Ralphus v Perry Saturn

Saturn lost a dress match at Souled Out. Now if Saturn can win the dress passes on to Jericho. Ralphus is wearing a dress too. This is one big cross dressing angle. Scott Dickinson is the referee because his 30 day suspension for siding with Jericho is up. He walks out here with Jericho. No bias there then! Jericho gets the mic to tell Saturn he looks absolutely ridiculous. Not ricockulous? He feels sorry for all the Jerichoholics having to watch this. Jericho links the cross dressing to Saturn’s cross eyes. He tells Saturn to take the dress off so he’s less of an embarrassment. Saturn doesn’t and instead opts to attack Jericho and backdrop him. They fight out into the crowd and the fans seem to enjoy that. Jericho steals a beverage to nail Saturn with. “Didn’t even flinch” says Tenay even though it was an empty cup. Heenan REALLY doesn’t care by this point and when Tony offers to “carry” the broadcast with Tenay he goes “ok”. Jericho misses with a dropkick and Saturn catapults him over the top same as last month. Saturn follows with a pescado. Saturn goes after Ralphus. That pink dress is ridiculous. Saturn rips it off and Ralphus scurries for cover. Jericho sneaks in with a dropkick into the back of Saturn’s head. Vertical suplex and Ralphus has gone. Cocky cover gets 2 and Saturn counters out of it and pounds Jericho’s face into the mat. Saturn falls outside and Jericho hits a missile dropkick to the floor. Back in Jericho hits a slam and goes for a twisting, something or other, off the top. That misses. Saturn hits a thrust kick to the chest and slams Jericho. Saturn goes up for the Frog Splash. He calls for the DVD but Jericho rolls him up for 2. Saturn strikes away in the corner and hits the 10 count punches w/dress. Jericho counters right into the Liontamer but Saturn blocks into a pin for 2. Saturn goes for a powerbomb but Jericho gets out into a release German suplex. Jericho goes up top but Saturn cuts him off. Jericho shoves him back and hits a crossbody but Saturn counters into the Rings of Saturn. Jericho moves his legs around to get the ropes. Saturn with a Falcon Arrow but the moonsault misses. LIONSAULT scores for 2. Saturn goes for the DVD but Jericho goes to the eyes. Spin kick is ducked and Saturn hits the DVD. It’s over but Saturn doesn’t want to pin. He wants to DVD Scott Dickinson. Saturn has gotten his revenge and he doesn’t mind about the dress so much so he walks. Technically it’s a DQ. Match time is 11.17. The official records have the win as a count out but there was no count. ***. Good match though.

Cruiserweight title – Billy Kidman (c) v Chavo Guerrero Jr

Kidman’s smiling like he just got Torrie Wilson’s phone number. These guys were briefly a tag team for the tag title tournament until Chavo turned on Kidman. This starts slowly with Chavo failing to position the referee for an eye rake. Kidman with some armdrags and a dropkick. Chavo starts bumping around like crazy and bails a few times. Tony feels the need to give away the ending of the PPV by talking about how people shockingly join the nWo all the time and someone could shock the world tonight. People have already bought the show, Tony. You don’t need to plug it anymore. You certainly don’t need to say stupid things like that. Chavo comes back with a brainbuster for 2. Chavo slows it down with a chinlock for a while. Elbow sends Kidman outside and Chavo follows with a somersault senton. Chavo with boot scrapes. Kidman up top with the high crossbody for 2. Whirl backbreaker from Chavo but then he tries for a powerbomb. You can’t powerbomb Kidman! He backdrops out of this one. Chavo with a back suplex and tries for a high crossbody but Kidman dropkicks him on the way down. Chavo with a super rana for 2. The selling is very patchy here. Reminds me of a US Indy match pre-ROH. Kidman with the Rydien bomb for 2. Up top again and Chavo DDT’s Kidman off the top for 2. These moves are getting silly now. Crowd isn’t really buying it. Chavo tries a powerbomb again. You can’t powerbomb Kidman! What’s wrong with you Chavo? He’s down and the SSP finishes at 8.25. **. Too many spots in a short space. The selling was all wrong as a result.

CLIPS – Goldberg/Bigelow feud.

Curt Hennig/Barry Windham v Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko

Technically this is for the tag titles. But only if Hennig & Windham win. See, its double elimination and they’ve not lost. Benoit & Malenko have lost once already. If they win this fall then we get 30 seconds of rest and then a straight up title match. There’s no more deserving duo in the company than Benoit & Malenko so it should be obvious to regular WCW viewers what is about to happen. You may be wondering about who vacated to create this tournament. Well in possession of the belts at the turn of the year were Rick Steiner and Kenny Kaos. Yeah, really. But Rick got injured thus causing them to forfeit. This is WCW’s attempt to ressurrect the division, which has been in the toilet since the Outsiders lost the belts. Windham tries to fool Malenko by rolling outside and then rolling back in but Malenko is on him the whole time. Malenko takes him down into an STF but Windham counters and gets a hammerlock. Hennig wants in and in comes Benoit too. The reaction for Benoit is kinda luke warm because WCW has killed his popularity with a string of jobs throughout 1998. These guys chop and slap each other really cranking the reaction on this. Benoit with a big chop and Hennig bails. Windham in so Benoit chops him too. Hennig comes in but Malenko goes for the Cloverleaf. Windham attacks him from behind and hits a suplex for 2. Windham punches away in the corner and hits a biel. Heels with a poor double clothesline. Malenko double legs Hennig and gets the jack knife pin for 2. Malenko forward rolls into the corner and Benoit comes in. Hennig as well but Benoit takes on both heels. Backbreaker on Hennig gets 2. Snap suplex for Hennig gets 2. Malenko in with a back suplex for 2. Horsemen with a double back elbow and they can hit their double teams. Benoit knocks Windham off the apron and calls for the headbutt. Crowd goes wild for that. Flying Wolverine! Windham comes back in for the save. Malenko is in for the pin but the referee takes forever to take Windham out. Malenko dropkicks Hennig to the floor. Windham comes around to help him as Benoit is closing in. That wasn’t really a heel move from Windham. Kind of screwed with the psychology of it. Hennig goes low on Malenko and Windham comes in to gutwrench slam him. Malenko gets a tag out and Benoit brings the intensity. Snot Rocket for Hennig. Everyone comes in and Windham really isn’t making much sense in this one. He’s wrestling like a face. Windham in with a superplex for 2. Malenko makes the save in timely fashion. Windham starts randomly jawing with the referee. I’m convinced he’s trying to make the faces look like shit here. Double suplex on Benoit gets 2. Hennig with the rolling neck snap and a jack knife pin for 2. At least Curt cares. Windham with a back suplex but Malenko charges in for the save again. Malenko gets the tag and cleans house. Everyone in and Malenko has the Texas Cloverleaf. Hennig makes the save. Benoit drags him away and the Cloverleaf is on again this time for the submission at 19.34. ***. Great tag match only dragged down by Barry Windham who was probably pissed off about taking the job. Of course this means jackshit because the next match is for the titles.

Tag titles – Curt Hennig/Barry Windham v Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko

Now it’s for the titles. Benoit and Hennig are still brawling from last time. Malenko goes for the Cloverleaf again but Windham chokes him with his belt. The referee misses it. Lame clothesline and Windham chokes away some more and gets the pin at 20.36. BOOO! How fucking hard would it have been to put the faces over? Who the hell cares if the heels win? This whole thing is to set up a lumberjack match where the Horsemen win the belt at Uncensored. A lumberjack match? What does that have to do with a belt? Way to go WCW. Way to go. DUD. Ruined everything they spent 20 minutes building towards.

Outsiders v Rey Mysterio Jr/Konnan

Originally Luger was slated to be Nash’s partner but got injured last week and they pick Hall to replace him. They have Miss Elizabeth and Luger out here. Liz’s hair is on the line against Rey’s mask. Konnan has now returned to his Mexican roots. Rey losing his mask here was down to Eric Bischoff saying he was “unmarketable” under a hood. Unmarketable? How many replica masks has the WWE sold since Rey went there? How many shirts with the mask design on? Seriously Eric, what kind of a retard are you? Controversy may create cash but there are far easier ways to create cash. Like getting a guy over and then selling merchandise based on it. Rey is over as a masked wrestler. So sell the mask. Hall laughs at how small Rey is and slaps him around. Hall overpowers and poses. Rey with an armdrag and some mocking with Hall style finger waggling. Rey with a dropkick and he flips around into a springboard Rocker Dropper. Hall is really selling big for Rey here. Springboard Alley Oop and Rey nails Nash in the jaw. He gets caught for the fallaway slam though. Hall crotch chops him and tags in Nash. He hits an enormous biel. Rey goes for a sunset flip but Nash just picks him up into a choke lift. Hall back in and he slaps at the back of Rey’s head. Hall sets for the Razor’s Edge but Rey fights out and tags Konnan in. He cleans house on both Outsiders. Nash gets dropkicked out. Nash takes offence and cheap shots Konnan into a Hall lariat. Nash frames up Konnan for some elbows. Konnan loses his bearings and gets clotheslined by Hall. Konnan goes for the Rolling Clothesline but Hall sees it coming and ducks into a double clothesline. Tags both way and Rey hits a springboard dropkick on both Nash and then Hall. Spinning heel kick for Nash and he’s on his knees so Rey launches off him into Hall. Broncobuster for Hall. Luger pulls Konnan out of the ring though leaving Rey trapped in a huge disadvantage. Rey moonsaults Nash and knocks him out but Liz distracts for long enough for Hall to nail Rey with the Outsiders Edge and Nash gets dumped on top for the pin at 11.01. *1/2. Rey worked really hard but you’d have to question how any of this helps him. Especially losing the mask.

POST MATCH Rey unmasks. Thankfully for Rey people had largely stopped caring about WCW after the Fingerpoke so no one even remembers what Rey looks like. Nash tells Rey to put the mask back on. He looks really young. CMLL tried to run a mask v mask match the following week with Rey losing it to Psicosis in Mexico terms but Mexico has strict rules about such things so AAA ratted them out and the match ended up being just a straight up bout and the crowd turned on Rey. See, WCW can even fuck up other promotions in other countries with their booking.

TV title – Scott Steiner (c) v Diamond Dallas Page

Scott grabs a “freak” from ringside. DAYUM! He’s into full on Scott Steiner mode here being your hook up. Hollah if you hear him. He tells Page it’s not his fault if Kim digs him. No posing from DDP. He’s pissed off. DDP gives chase around ringside and beats Scott down. He tries to run again but DDP catches up again and beats him down again. Scott with a double leg but DDP counters and pounds him. This is just a fight. Scott rakes the eyes but runs into boots in the corner. Outside for more of a brawl. DDP ends up taking a few bumps off the apron onto the rail. DDP comes back with a diving clothesline and a swinging neckbreaker. That brings out BUFF. He’s here to check on Scott who looks hurt. They prepare for double teaming but DDP is all “come on then”. Buff gets his ass kicked too. Double clothesline. Buff is out but he cheap shots DDP allowing Scott to hit a clothesline. DDP goes low on Buff. Steiner lays him out again for 2. Bicep kiss elbow. DDP is hung up in the tree of woe and Scott pulls at the neck. Buff goofs around. What a waste of a zygote. Scott punches away for a while. This match has gone. Just completely lost all steam. DDP tries to come back but runs into the White Thunder belly to belly. Steiner argues the count and gets rolled up for 2. Steiner beats him back down. Buff has a chair and Steiner gets it behind the ref’s back and nails DDP. Referee somehow doesn’t hear it. Buff removes a turnbuckle pad. Charles Robinson comes over to bitch at him and tells him to get out of here. Buff protests despite blatantly cheating the whole time he’s been out here. Steiner gets in the ref’s face and DDP is back up for a clothesline to the floor. Pescado from DDP but he gets whipped into the steps shortly afterwards. Steiner gets in the ref’s face again and Little Naitch runs around the ring until DDP lariats Steiner. Scotty got far too distracted by the referee there. DDP goes up top but Steiner crotches him. Up he goes for the Frankensteiner off the top for 2. That was a shock kick out. Steiner goes for something else but DDP counters into a DDT for 2. Steiner avoids the Diamond Cutter and throws DDP into the exposed buckle, five times into a powerslam. Most of the shots were to the back. DDP can barely fight back now and Steiner puts him in the Steiner Recliner at 13.53. DDP passes out in it. *. The overbooking stuff with Buff really dragged this down. Plus they couldn’t put Page over? That’s three big matches and three heel wins.

POST MATCH DDP does a stretcher job. Crowd helpfully chant “DDP sucks”.

US title – Roddy Piper (c) v Scott Hall w/Disco Inferno

Piper was given the belt because Bret was injured but Piper had two bad hips and knee problems so he could barely walk let alone wrestle. I know they needed someone to transition the belt to Hall but couldn’t they find someone healthy to do it? Piper gets in Hall’s face and slaps him. Piper has trouble getting his shirt off. Kilt over Hall’s head and Piper throws rights. Hall falls over and Piper runs himself in the buckles. Oh, dear fucking lord. That was woeful. Piper with some shocking jabs. Missing the target by 2 feet on average. They fuck up another punch. How hard is that to get right? Seriously now. Hall with a wristlock but Piper takes him over and grabs at the hair. Hall barely moves. Piper keeps pulling at it. Disco gets his hair messed up for getting on the apron. Atomic drop only misses by about a foot and a half because Piper can’t bend his legs. Hall manages to drag Piper over but he can’t really bump anything because he’s so hurt. Sign in crowd – WWF rules. Piper absorbs some punches on the ropes. At least Hall’s look good. Piper fights back and hits a low blow. Just. Referee is looking right at that. Crowd is bemused. Or confused. Or doesn’t care. Tree of woe for Piper and Hall puts the boots in. Disco holds onto Piper. Why can’t this just end? Piper is crippled. Shades of Wilbur Snyder and Hall cheats, as per usual. The commentators argue about whether the extra leverage makes any difference. Heenan seems particularly pissed off, particularly with Tony. Piper hip tosses out and gets the sleeper. Hall beckons Disco in and he runs into the ring, no DQ obviously, and Piper lays him out. Nash is out here but Piper low blows him when he tries to go over the top. Hall jumps from behind. And then pins using the ropes at 8.21. -*. That was amazingly bad. Piper was in no condition to wrestle at all and it showed to even the most markish of marks. Then it takes three heels to run in there illegally and feet on the ropes to pin him? The fuck is that about? Oh and another heel goes over but this was the one match where the heel should have won.

POST MATCH “…Hey yo” – Hall. He’s blown up, probably from all the carrying in that last 8 minutes. Hall crotch chops at Piper and wants his belt. Piper beats him down again. Disco can barely get the belt and the Outsiders decide it’s time to beat the shit out of the old timer. Finally they get Piper out of the ring. I love Roddy Piper but there’s a time and place to showboat and wrestle when you’re totally unfit and this wasn’t it. Hall actually injured his foot shortly afterwards and missed most of 1999 as a result. So this win ended up meaning nothing because Hall had to forfeit the title. A tournament followed where Scott Steiner got bumped one further up the pecking order to get the US title.

Bam Bam Bigelow v Bill Goldberg

Goldberg is still the most guy on the card and the star of the company so obviously he’s been bumped around the midcard since losing the title while Hogan and Flair duel over it. They run a few collar & elbow tie ups. Goldberg takes a shoulderblock but just pops back up and slams Bigelow. Goldberg with his own shoulderblock and a Samoan drop into the cross armbreaker. Goldberg is just dominating Bigelow here. Goldberg is the only over babyface in these parts. Even DDP was told he sucked repeatedly by the crowd earlier. Bigelow takes a leg and slows the pace. His style in his attacks on Goldberg was vicious and in your face. This is slow and methodical, which makes you wonder why they’d do the exciting stuff for free and the dull stuff on the PPV. Bigelow with a chinlock. Yawn. Honestly now, who laid this match out? I guess someone said “Goldberg can’t have long matches” and this is the attempt to prove the naysayer’s wrong. Back to the chinlock. This goes on for ages until Goldberg back suplexes out. Bigelow is up quicker and hits the diving headbutt for 2. Hey, near fall! You don’t see those on Goldberg too often. Bigelow goes up top but Goldberg drags him off but the spear misses. Crowd REALLY woke up for the spear. Goldberg decides to limp around a bit. It’s the whole Rob Van Dam school of selling. Do your moves as usual then limp a bit afterwards. Spear! That looked good. He thinks about the Jackhammer but opts instead for a superkick into another spear. Now Bigelow is finished and the Jackhammer, just about, finishes at 11.41. ½*. Boring apart from Goldberg hitting the finish. A two minute squash would have worked the same. No one cared about this Bigelow push because they were too late doing this match. Oh and finally a babyface goes over in a big match but it’s not important because Bigelow has beaten precisely no one of importance.

WCW title – Hulk Hogan (c) v Ric Flair

Now what is wrong with this picture? Hogan-Flair? In 1999? I can dig the match and even to a lesser extent the build up but for the title? Please. Buffer’s introductions are getting worse. They could save the entire night here by booking Flair to win. It’d erase the bad memories of the earlier heel wins and send the fans home happy and finally get the belt off Hogan, for good. Hogan overpowers and does the WHOO, then some posing. What’s with the babyface stuff? Crowd actually chant for “Hogan”. Damn you fans! It’s always your fault! Hogan pounds away and hits a backdrop. Flair takes his front bump. Flair finally trades into chops about 2 and half minutes in. Kneedrop sends Hogan cowering in the ropes. Flair takes his corner bump to the floor. Hogan with a weak chair shot. Then with an even worse one. If can’t do them, then don’t do them. Flair is bleeding. Hogan no sells some chops and hits his own. Hogan with a suplex on the floor. Hogan with some weak elbow drops and now Flair pops up and no sells himself. That blood looks great. Hogan pulls off his weightlifting belt and straps Flair with it. Isn’t that a DQ? Weren’t the chairs a DQ? What the fuck is wrong with Hogan? Hogan connects to the head with a belt shot when Flair gets a double leg. Ref! Get the belt! Flair comes back at Hogan with chops but Hogan no sells again to a huge reaction. Flair goes to the eyes, then the groin. The crowd totally heel on Flair, which really doesn’t make this a WCW crowd. Flair gets the belt off Hogan and turnabout is fair play, I guess. Flair throws the belt out to distract while Hogan blades. Out comes Torrie Wilson to make her debut. Damn, she looks young. She gets on the apron and shows at Flair for some reason. Naitch takes a slap. Doesn’t make any difference as Flair hits a back suplex. “I don’t know what she’s doing on our shows” – Tony. HAHAHA. That’s funny on several levels. Pretty but useless and Tony doesn’t know anything. Flair hits a suplex for 2 and Hogan’s kickout bumps the referee. You can see people in the crowd signalling for the run in. Oh, it’s SO predictable. Big boot. Ref is still motionless. Legdrop misses. Out comes a guy in a mask. Oh, this booking is going to suck. Figure Four but the masked man Stun Gun’s Flair with the nWo patented tazer. Hogan pins for the win and to retain at 11.59. DUD. Terrible match but the swerve really dragged it down. Under the mask…David Flair. Oh boy. David who Ric was defending in this match and who this match was dedicated to. Hey, a turn that makes NO sense whatsoever. Welcome to WCW! Also there’s no pay off. David can barely wrestle. If they were going to do this they should have at least teased dissention. Maybe say Ric not wanting David to wrestle and berating his poor performance in the ring and driving David away. Not the nWo beating the shit out of David at the last PPV and then he joins them. What?

The 411: The undercard was ok but the main events dragged it down and there’s nothing SO amazing on the undercard to go and check it out for. This show got really positive reviews at the time but I think that was entirely down to it not being shit. The tale end of 1998 set the standard of PPV so LOW for WCW that generally people didn’t expect anything when they ordered a WCW show. When they got something they ended up being really happy about it. But if you look at the booking they totally fucked the fans over. They knew Flair was losing and still jobbed out Benoit & Malenko, Rey Jr, DDP and put the US title on Scott Hall. Yeah, Goldberg went over but if he’d have lost then WCW would have had to be completely gaga. Thumbs in the middle for this one but no real recommendation to check it out.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]