Dark Pegasus Video Review: Superbrawl III

Superbrawl III by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook Examiner.com February 21, 1993 Live from Asheville, N.C.. Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura. Opening Match: The Hollywood Blonds vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell & Erik Watts. Oh my. The crowd HATES both babyfaces, but especially Erik Watts. You may know Watts as Bill Watts’ son and a horrible wrestler at this point. Pillman and Austin get great heat, although it’s a bit blunted because of all the heat the greenhorns are getting. Pillman works in the knee trick that only fools Erik Watts, but then that’s the only person he needed to fool. Watts avoids a dive and sends Pillman chin-first into the railing. Watts plays face-in-peril, thus making the match much better because we don’t have to watch Bagwell and Watts on offense. Watts gets his knees up to block the Rocket Launcher. Bagwell gets the hot tag and cleans house on the Blondes. A donnybrook erupts, and Bagwell gets a Perfectplex on Pillman. Austin comes off the top on him, though, and Pillman covers for the win at 16:33. The usual quality match from the Blonds. Bagwell and Watts didn’t add much outside of poofy hair. **1/4 Missy Hyatt tries to get into Ric Flair’s limo, but security drags her off. Indeed, it is Flair in the limo Eric Bischoff announces Ron Simmons can’t wrestle, so Maxx Payne will take his place. Payne plays “Taps” on his guitar to drive home the point of what he’s going to do (presumably “kill” not “submit”). Chris Benoit vs. 2 Cold Scorpio. This was before either guy was established. Benoit delivers a stiff forearm and levels Scorpio with an elbow. A snap suplex puts Scorpio down again. A spin kick sends Benoit to the outside to think about things. Benoit goes with a wristlock once he gets back in and they exchange incredible reversals that end when Benoit winds up with an armbar. Crowd is appreciative. Scorpio flips out of a hammerlock and runs Benoit into the ropes. Benoit holds on and Scorpio back handsprings to his feet. WOW! Benoit charges, but Scorpio leapfrogs him and armdrags him out of the ring. Great sequence! Benoit wants a test of strength, which is won by Scorpio. Benoit forces up and forces Scorpio down into a bridge. Benoit tries to break him down, but Scorpio counters to a monkey flip. Benoit tries to do the same thing, but Scorpio lands on his feet and armdrags Benoit back down into an armbar. Scorpio cartwheels away from a reverse monkey flip, but gets leveled with a Benoit clothesline after a missed spin kick. Benoit delivers a pendulum backbreaker and stretches Scorpio across the knee. Benoit hangs Scorpio on the top ropes and kicks him out of the ring. Scorpio misses a missile dropkick, and Benoit get two. Benoit locks in the Liontamer, but just lets go. Benoit sets Scorpio on the top rope and delivers a scintillating SUPER BACKDROP SUPLEX! Benoit is too hurt to capitalize right away and only gets two. Benoit powerbombs Scorpio and stacks him up. ONE, TWO, THRE—NOOO!!! Benoit goes for a Thunder Fire Powerbomb, but Scorpio counters to a sunset flip. They’re in the ropes, though, so no count. Scorpio delivers a 360° Stinger Splash and goes up top. TWISTING SOMERSAULT SPLASH! ONE, TWO, THR–KICKOUT BY BENOIT! Scorpio goes for a Victory Roll, but Benoit just dumps him face first to the mat. Benoit goes up and delivers a legdrop for two. Both guys exchange nearfalls until Scorpio winds up with a rollup for the three count at 19:59. Way ahead of its time for mainstream wrestling, but today it comes off as just an exhibition of moves. Those moves are really good, though, and it would lead to a big change in style for wrestling. ***1/2 The British Bulldog vs. Wild Bill Irwin. This is the Bulldog’s PPV debut for WCW. It’s about what you’d expect for a DBS squash from the era. Bulldog does his power moves to awe the crowd before Irwin gets rough. Irwin comes off the ropes but gets powerslammed at 5:49. The usual squash for the Bulldog. He didn’t get really good until 1995 or so. 1/2* Falls Count Anywhere: Cactus Jack vs. Paul Orndorff. Jack interrupts Orndorff’s pre-match promo and chases him to the ring with a shovel! The ref takes it away from him, allowing Orndorff to jump him. Cactus comes back and hits the Consequences Elbow off the apron. Still sick. He also does a sunset flip on the concrete, which the announcers point out hurts him more than Orndorff. They brawl up the aisle, and Orndorff whips him over the barricade. Jack gets his knee caught in the barricade, so Orndorff wrenches it against the bar. Back to the ring, Orndorff locks in the figure-four. Interestingly, even though this is FCA, Orndorff tries to fight it like a traditional wrestling match while Jack goes all-out with a brawl. It makes for an interesting psychological contrast. Orndorff destroys Jack’s knee with a chairshot as Jesse calls for the ref to stop the match. Orndorff stops to call for the piledriver (and mock Hulk Hogan’s posing), so Jack grabs the shovel and nails him right between the eyes for the upset win at 12:17. Most of the match was Orndorff working the leg, which is fine. Quite different than a lot of FCA. **3/4 SMW Tag Team Titles: The Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) vs. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. The Bodies bring Bobby Eaton with them to ringside, but Nick Patrick sends him away. Boo! This is the usual from the Rock ‘n’ Rolls which was already so old it was new again. The Bodies get blitzed early and regroup with Jimmy Corn. Jess says Cornette might eligible to join the military under Bill Clinton. The Bodies almost do as much damage to each other as their opponents do. Cornette darts into the ring and gets steamrolled by Stan Lane. Oops. Finally, Ricky Morton gets nailed to set his stint as Ricky Morton. The Bodies cut off the ring nicely, but Ricky gets a double DDT to get out of trouble. Gibson cleans house, but it’s two-on-one. The R&R hit the double dropkick on Prichard, but Gibson stops to go after Cornette. Prichard hits the bulldog on Gibson for two. Corny hops on the apron as Morton covers Prichard. Eaton returns with the Alabama Jam, but Morton avoids it. Eaton nails Dr. Tom instead. Gibson dives into a cover, and the Rock ‘n’ Rolls pick up the win at 12:52. Classic tag wrestling. It’s kind of like chicken soup for what ails ya. Apparently, the title change was later reversed in SMW because of chicanery. ***1/2 U.S. Title: Dustin Rhodes vs. Maxx Payne. Payne looks like someone who was thrown in there at the last minute. He also looks like Ann Wilson. Dustin unloads on him early as Jesse speculates that Payne has nerves. Yeah. He’s got a lot of nerve wearing spandex like that. Payne controls but does nothing of note. Seriously. Rhodes locks in an abdominal stretch, and the pain is so excruciating that Payne has to pull the ref into Rhodes to avoid submitting. That’s a DQ at 11:25. There’s not enough “meh” in the world. 1/4* Ric Flair comes down to observe the next match. NWA Heavyweight Title: The Great Muta vs. Barry Windham. Muta looked like a big star, even in America, after Starrcade. Whatever he had then, it’s gone here. Maybe it’s the presence of Flair overshadowing him. Flair thinks Windham will win, but says that “Japs are tough.” Muta controls much of the early going with a side headlock. This lasts about 10 minutes because Gary Michael Capetta tells me so. Finally, Muta misses a dropkick to allow Barry to take over. Barry gives him a backdrop suplex on the outside. That should really be more dramatic. Back in, Barry PICKS THINGS UP… with a chinlock. After what seems like an eternity, Muta comes back with his usual finishing sequence – handspring elbow, backbreaker, moonsault. Windham moves but takes a knee to the back of the head. Barry blocks another moonsault with the knees and hits a DDT for the win and the title at 24:08. This sucked the life right out of me. 1/2* White Castle of Fear Strap Match: Sting vs. Vader (w/Harley Race). Oh, come on. You know Harley Race growling the line “Did Doogie Howser just steal my car?” would be hilarious. This is not sanctioned by WCW. We know that because of the graphic on the bottom. This is another case of Sting getting in over his head as he accepted a match where Vader named the stipulations. Since Vader has nearly 200 pounds on him, Vader picked a strap match. Vader demonstrates why he picked that early on, yanking Sting all around the ring. Sting uses stragedy and crotches Vader with the strap. Sting hits a flying splash to knock Vader out and starts whipping him with the strap. They cut away to an old grandma in the crowd who has a fucking BLOODLUST! You can talk about your online marks and hillbillies all you want, but NOTHING will top little old ladies in terms of rabid, foul-mouthed wrestling fandom. Vader is bleeding from the straps. Sting: What’s your name, boy?!!! Vader: ::sniff:: Leon! Sting tries another splash, but this time Vader rolls out of the way. Vader splashes him and hits a super Samoan Drop! That leads to the first serious attempt to touch all four corners. Vader tries a pump splash, but Sting rolls out of the way. Vader goes up, but Sting crotches him again and yanks him off the top. Damn! No big man bumps like Vader. Vader drags Sting to three corners, but the champ yanks him away from the fourth. Vader avalanches him a few times, but Sting hits a Kappou kick on the third try. Vader is *still* up first. Ref gets bumped. D’oh! I mean d’ohn’t worry. This ref bump serves a good purpose. Sting picks him up on his back and carries him to three corners. Oh, but he trips over the ref and falls just inches shy of the fourth. Of course, it wouldn’t count anyway because the ref didn’t see the first three, but it was a pretty dramatic moment. Vader drags him around to three. Sting grabs onto the bottom rope, but when he kicks Vader away, Vader falls into the fourth corner for the win at 20:54. What a way to end the show! Another fantastic match between these two. Probably the best strap match ever. Vader actually wrestles like a big man, but he bumps like a little guy. Sting may be the ultimate babyface (just behind Ricky Steamboat), so these two had great chemistry. ****1/4

The 411: Ehhhhhh. Tough call. The strap match is a must-see, but the undercard leaves a lot to be desired. If you do go looking for it, try to find the full version with the Benoit/Scorpio and SMW tag match on it. The T.H.E. version clips out the good matches and leaves in the crap. Call it a marginal thumbs up for the main event and to see some of the 90s future stars beginning to come into their own. Mild thumbs up.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]