Random Network Reviews: Fall Brawl 1995

Fall Brawl 1995
September 17th, 1995 | Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina | Attendance: 6,600

The damn Dungeon of Doom. If there was a WrestleCrap Hall of Fame, these guys would be one of the main attractions. They headline this edition of Fall Brawl. Now I’m a sucker for War Games but the first one I get to review involves the Dungeon of Doom. Yay. It’s incredibly one-sided. However, this Pay-Per-View is rather historical as it is the first to air in the Nitro era. Granted, Nitro was only a few weeks old at this point so most of the build was done on WCW Saturday Night, but still.

The intro package is the standard cheap looking stuff WCW usually produced. Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan welcome us to the show. Schiavone explains that the Giant used his monster truck to destroy Hulk Hogan’s motorcycle on the pre-show. It would lead to their disastrous match at the next PPV.

Brian Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd
Michael Buffer tells us this match is under elimination rules. Umm, what? There’s only two competitors you imbecile. Brian Pillman gets the heel reaction even though both guys are faces. This isn’t billed as a number one contender’s match but the winner is going to get a US Title shot against Sting. Feeling out process starts and they do a standoff following dueling missed dropkicks. Unfortunately, the crowd doesn’t respond to this. Surprisingly, commentary does a good job pointing out how the normally cheery Pillman is acting different. So far, they’ve exchanges chink locks and near falls. After a backbreaker, Pillman goes to a Boston crab as this has slowed down. Oh, but it picks up as Pillman breaks the hold and punches Badd, busting him open above the eye. He trash talks the fans, but Badd hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. Badd works the leg, leading to a shoving match. I like how the intensity has picked up slowly. Pillman laughs after a back elbow but is then knocked down and takes a breather outside. Pillman continues to do the small things that make for great heel work like biting Badd’s head. He busts out a headbutt before trying to suplex Badd into the ring, only to be suplexed to the outside. Badd follows with a dive. Inside, he leaps from the top but right into a dropkick for two. Sitout powerbomb from Badd also gets two as the time limit is coming up. Pillman comes back with a tombstone for two. These guys are going hard now. Badd blocks the tornado DDT and slams Bran to the mat. Unfortunately, with time winding down, they move to exchanging submissions. Pillman does counter a leg sweep into a Koji Clutch variation which was sweet. Badd nails the Tootie Fruity punch but his pin is too close to the ropes and Pillman gets his foot on the ropes. A near fall on a cross body comes as time is up. Instead of the usual WCW draw, we go to sudden death! We continue as both men whiff on dropkicks together and are down. Sleeper applied by Pillman but Badd turns into one of his own. After that is broken, Badd gets massive air on a leaping sunset flip from the top for two. They move to the corner where Badd connects on a top rope Frankensteiner but somehow that only earns two! Tornado DDT earns Brian two. So many near falls at the end here really give this a sudden death feel. He’s knocked from the apron onto the guardrail chest first in a big spot. Badd greets him out there with a running plancha but his splash inside is met with knees to the ribs. Pillman dives out onto Badd on the outside but misses his next move and gets crotched. They run off the ropes and collide on cross body attempts, with Badd landing on top and earning the win.

Winner: Johnny B. Badd in 29:59
My goodness, I did not expect an opener like that. A match like his was rarely seen in the US at this time, so that made it even better. They legitimately went for thirty minutes and looked great. A few minor things I didn’t like, like putting on submissions with time expiring but overall, a fantastic way to kick off the show. ****¼

Mean “BAH GAWD” Gene interviews Ric Flair about his big match against Arn Anderson tonight. The Horsemen collide! Flair admits he loves Double A, but will teach him a lesson.

Cobra vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman
Cobra’s theme music is just beeps as we are told that he’s not a marine, but a CIA agent. He would go on to portray nWo Sting in the future. Instead of Craig Pittman coming out, the future Prince Iaukea is out in army fatigues to distract Cobra while Pittman rappels from the ceiling. He sneaks up and chokes Cobra with a belt. They brawl outside for a bit but once they’re inside, Pittman applies Code Red, an armbar, to win.

Winner: Sgt. Craig Pitman in 1:22
So the feud was because Craig Pittman supposedly deserted Cobra on a mission. I can’t fathom how Cobra survived that because he looked pathetic here. Awful. DUD

We take a look at Paul Orndorff’s meeting with psychic Gary Spivey. See, he’s been on a losing streak and isn’t sure if he’s even “Mr. Wonderful” anymore. Spivey’s hair is absurd, but the only thing worse is the acting in this segment. This would lead nowhere as an injury forced Orndorff into retirement shortly after.

WCW World Television Championship
The Renegade w/ Jimmy Hart vs. Diamond Dallas Page w/ the Diamond Doll and Max Muscle
The fact that the Renegade held a title is kind of sad in my mind. We get told that DDP has 13 million dollars. Does that make him 13 million times better than Ted Dibiase? Despite DDP attacking before the bell, a headbutt doesn’t hurt the Renegade and sends him outside. What is he? A Samoan? Back inside, Renegade applies a headlock to slow things down. DDP comes back with a neck snap on the top rope as he tells the Diamond Doll to give him a score of ten. She gets upset at having to keep giving him tens, but her acting is along the lines of Spivey and Orndorff bad. DDP tries to cheat on a pin by holding the ropes but it’s reversed into another pin for two. DDP hits his DDT that is a hip toss counter. It’s so odd that he had this in his arsenal often. You would think opponents would just not hip toss him. After the Diamond Cutter is blocked, Max Muscle gets on the apron but is knocked off. Renegade hits a powerslam and goes up top. Like a clown, he dives out onto Muscle, allowing DDP to hit the Diamond Cutter inside and win the title.

Winner and New WCW World Television Champion: Diamond Dallas Page in 8:07
About as good as you could expect from the Renegade. He was pretty awful and would be sent down to the Power Plant shortly after. DDP was a little while away from becoming a star so this was a smart choice. *¼

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Bunkhouse Buck and Dirty Dick Slater w/ Colonel Robert Parker vs. Harlem Heat w/ Sister Sherri
According to Booker T, “IT’S ON LIKE NECKBONE!” How were Buck and Slater the Tag Champions? Was the shape of the division that bad? The bigger story here is that Sherri and Parker have a bit of a love affair going on. This is as basic as tag team matches get. Seriously, this is dull as it is just non-stop heat segments and rest holds. Tony Schiavone promotes the hotline because someone has jumped promotions! This would happen about 1,769 times over the next year. Slater hits a weak piledriver for two as the crowd is absolutely silent. It’s so boring that Heenan starts to discuss Buck’s attire and the shower. I kid you not. Schiavone calls it “great tag team wrestling.” I don’t think anyone has ever lied more than him in commentary history. Buck powerslams Booker and nearly dumps him on his neck. In the second ring, Sherri and Parker make out, allowing the Nasty Boys to appear and lay out Slater with a boot. Harlem Heat covers and wins.

Winners and New WCW World Tag Team Champions: Harlem Heat in 16:51
You know, I hear a lot about how great Harlem Heat was in the 90’s but I haven’t seen much of it. Their matches around this time were always overly long and really dull. This was a prime example of both. Awful. DUD

After the match, Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater are not pleased with Robert Parker. Parker will get them another match but he claims to be serious about Sherri. We then go backstage where Mean Gene interviews Arn Anderson after a video package of their history together.

Arn Anderson vs. Ric Flair
The Four Horsemen theme rules. Several wrestlers, like Pillman, the American Males and Eddie Guerrero, are all in the crowd to watch this, giving it a big fight feel. Arn Anderson gets the early upper hand and steals a “woo”. Arn knows every Flair move before he does it and works the arm, because he’s an Anderson. Commentary mentions that the 11 time World Champion, Flair, never gave Anderson a title shot which is some good backstory. They continue with the smooth wrestling as they go from sleeper holds to hammerlocks seamlessly. Anderson strangely goes up top, only to come down and put a sleeper back on. After that’s broken, he hits a knee to the back from the second rope. Maybe they got mixed up. Arn continues to work the arm with a hammerlock slam and armbar. Flair knocks him outside and actually connects on a top rope double axe handle. Flair now picks apart Arn with some chops and his signature stuff. Heenan is beside himself at the thought of these two fighting. Flair works a long sequence of being in control until Anderson sends him into the corner and he gets stuck in tree of woe position. He tries the DDT, but is too close to the ropes and Flair holds on to block it. He goes for the Figure Four, but Arn brilliantly holds Flair’s leg to block it. He can only do it for so long though as it’s still applied. Arn turns it over and when Flair tries it again, pulls him into a small package for two. Brian Pillman jumps on the apron and levels Flair, who hits him back. Pillman kicks him in the head and Arn nails a DDT to win.

Winner: Arn Anderson in 23:05
One of the best singles matches I’ve ever seen Arn Anderson have. The finish was a bit cheap but it does set up for a rematch. The bout itself featured a nice amount of psychology and selling between two people that know each other very well. ****

The Hulkamaniacs cut a pre match promo backstage. They’re all dressed in camouflage and have painted faces. Hogan mentions “DTA – Don’t Trust Anybody” about a year before Steve Austin made it famous.

War Games Match
The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Sting, Macho Man and Lex Luger) w/Jimmy Hart vs. The Dungeon of Doom (Zodiac, Shark, Kamala and Meng) w/ Kevin Sullivan
If the Hulkamaniacs win, Hulk Hogan earns five minutes with Kevin Sullivan. We start with Sting and Shark. Why on Earth would you start with the guy who has the WORST conditioning on your team? Even Heenan questions this. Sting is fun here, but Shark goes to a staple of out of shape wrestlers…the bearhug. Shark gets caught in between the rings and lays across the ropes, while Sting pounds away. Zodiac joins in just as Sting has the Scorpion Death Lock on. He uses the ceiling to hit a dropkick and puts Zodiac in the hold because Zodiac is worthless. They end up double teaming Sting until Randy Savage joins the fray. They just trade clubs for a while, with Kamala and Meng pulls Savage out from under the poorly constructed cage and beating on it. When Kamala comes in nothing of note happens. Still. Lex Luger is in and does his usual hot tag stuff. SCREAMING CLOTHESLINES GALORE! He slowly gets into the second ring, while Shark and Kamala politely wait for him to enter. Luger nail Savage by mistake and they begin to go at it because Savage didn’t trust Luger anyway. Meng enters and takes advantage of this. Hogan enters and the place goes kind of wild. He immediately throws salt in the eyes of his opponents as Heenan calls him on his dirty tactics but Schiavone is all like “so what?” He also does about 600 back rakes. This dude was meant to be a heel. With absolutely no drama whatsoever, Hogan puts Zodiac in the camel clutch and he submits.

Winners: The Hulkamaniacs in 18:48
Easily the worst War Games match in history. Not only was the heel talent pool never any worse, but the match itself was poorly constructed and the execution sucked. The outcome was never in doubt. ½*

Kevin Sullivan is forced to go five minutes with Hulk Hogan, but it brings out the Giant. He hops into the ring after taking out an official and kills Hogan. Lie, he snapped his neck. Hogan did have it done to him back in the late 80’s by Zeus so I guess he’s okay.

4.0

The final score: review Poor

The 411

It was so hard to decide on a score for this show. On the one hand, the opener was really good and the Anderson/Flair match was excellent. But everything else on this show sucked something fierce. This had the worst War Games match in history, and what may be the most boring tag team match I’ve ever seen. Besides the two matches I pointed out, the other four combined to get less than two stars. Games match in history, and what may be the most boring tag team match I’ve ever seen. Besides the two matches I pointed out, the other four combined to get less than two stars.