wrestling / Video Reviews
Random Network Reviews: SuperBrawl V
Loading...SuperBrawl V
February 19th, 1995 – Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland – Attendance: 13,390
Here we look at an interesting time period. While the WWF was having its own struggles, WCW was in trouble too because ever since the arrival of Hulk Hogan, a lot of talent was pushed aside for his friends. Looking back at a review I did for a show about five months earlier, you could see Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake, Honky Tonk Man, etc. getting a lot of shine. This show is billed as “The Biggest Brawl of Them All” because it’s SuperBrawl. Get it?
Before the show begins, the WWE Network has a popup saying that there were technical difficulties with this show and it is presented in the most complete form they could. Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are on commentary as the show begins in the middle of the opener.
Alex Wright vs. Paul Roma
I didn’t get to see Das Wunderkind make his fantastic entrance so I’m pissed instantly. He was a face, so did he even have the dance yet? He does some very athletic things to get out of a wristlock that the crowd is surprisingly appreciative for. Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff walks out to cheer for his partner in Pretty Wonderful, Paul Roma. Roma busts out some back breakers as he’s trying to teach the youngster a lesson. Tony Schiavone mentions that Wright is undefeated. Wright fights back but when he tries to slingshot in, he eats a big uppercut for two. Roma applies a chin lock and uses the ropes for leverage. Man, I miss the little things that heels would do throughout matches. He goes up top and connects on a pretty flying elbow but taunts too much and picks up Wright on the pain. Ten bucks says that will come back to bite him. Sure enough, Wright begins to rally but hasn’t looked good throughout this. Roma continues to brag with Orndorff, allowing Wright to dropkick him and roll him up for three.
Winner: Alex Wright in 13:21
Strangely enough, Paul Roma seemed to not care about selling here. He went out of his way to make Wright look bad, though I give Alex credit for still doing his best. Roma even kicks out at three in the end. Research shows that he was promptly fired after this show for basically being a dick. *¾
Cutting to Mean Gene Okerlund, who is with the WCW Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat and Sister Sherri. After Sherri says a bunch of stuff, Gene looks right at Stevie Ray and calls him Booker T. I guess Gene is like “they all look the same.” Not cool dude.
Bunkhouse Buck w/ Colonel Robert Parker and Meng vs. “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan
Remember that thing I said about Hulk Hogan’s friends running amuck in WCW? Jim Duggan is a prime example. Commentary informs us that this will be a fight because neither guy is any god as a wrestler. Duggan knocks Buck outside and tears the man’s shirt. SHIRT RIPPER! He does a stalled atomic drop for two. These two just trade punches and kicks throughout, with Duggan in control for the most part. It’s really not very good. Duggan gets a near fall with an elbow drop. He gets distracted by Parker and Meng but turns around and it has zero effect. Spinning powerslam and knee drop from Duggan get two. Schiavone and Heenan are selling this like Buck is the toughest SOB in history. Duggan has decided to try some actual wrestling but he’s not fooling anyone. Parker gets on the apron and is taken down by Duggan before the Three Point Stance mercifully ends it.
Winner: Jim Duggan in 11:57
This lasted far too long. Neither guy is a good worker and they just bored the hell out of me for nearly twelve minutes. DUD
Meng enters and superkicks Jim Duggan before applying the DREADED nerve hold. Where’s the Tongan Death Grip when I need it? When we go to the commentary table, I swear to you, Bobby Heenan is trashed. He is repeating himself and just seems wasted. Backstage, Mean Gene interviews the Nasty Boys who cut a pretty lame promo where they just say “nasty” a ton.
Dave Sullivan vs. Kevin Sullivan w/ The Butcher
I have never understood why Kevin Sullivan was so prominent in WCW. We get told again that this won’t be a wrestling match but a fight. I think it’s more because both guys are awful rather than this being personal. Another point is that the Butcher is Brutus Beefcake. The same Brutus Beefcake who main evented WCW’s equivalent of WrestleMania two months prior. Dave or Evad, as his trunks say, is just beating down on Kevin. A trip by the Butcher puts Kevin in charge. Goodness, this is worse than the previous match. Dave’s offense even includes biting Kevin’s midsection. Dave is near the win so Butcher gets on the apron. Kevin tosses him into Butcher and rolls him up with a handful of tights to win. They sell it as Dave ran into the metal plate in Butcher’s face.
Winner: Kevin Sullivan in 7:18
So I reviewed a match they had a few months earlier at Halloween Havoc. It was a dud. They have another one here and guess what? It might have been worse. Nothing about this match was worth watching. DUD
Kevin Sullivan doesn’t care about Butcher’s well-being and neither do most of us. Bobby Heenan still looks rather trashed as Tony Schiavone introduces us to the Spanish commentary table. They seem to sitting miles away from the ring or in another building even. We go to Mean Gene, interviewing his third tag team of the night in the same dressing room. This time it’s the Big Boss Man and Earthquake! I mean, Big Bubba Rogers and Avalanche.
WCW World Tag Team Championship
Harlem Heat (c) w/ Sister Sherri vs. The Nasty Boys
It has occurred to me that these two teams wrestled a LOT in WCW during the mid-90. It’s as if WCW had no other teams. Heenan is slurring a bit as he just keeps talking about how good Sherri looks. The teams start with completely basic brawling stuff. Harlem Heat gets the advantage as Heenan calls the Nasty Boys’ effort “lackadisl”. Yup. He can’t say lackadaisical at this point. Saggs gets in some legit looking shots to Stevie in the corner. We get the line of the night, “this won’t be wrestling, it will be a fight.” Gee, is there any wrestling on this show? Neither team is really impressing or gaining a lengthy upper hand. That is until Saggs becomes the face in peril after Sherri throws him into the guardrail, though they botch that. Sherri gets in another cheap shot, as does Stevie Ray while Booker distracts the official with the SPINAROONIE! At least they’re doing a good job of building the drama for the eventual hot tag. Hot tag to Brian Knobbs, but the crowd is not as into it as I expected. He comes in hot and they finally pop as he busts out a double DDT. Saggs throws Booker over the top and out, which should be a DQ before Sherri jumps in with her heel and accidentally nails Stevie. Knobbs rolls him up and earns the belts. OR DID THEY? Another referee is out to say that Booker was thrown over the top and we get the dusty finish. That probably means another match between them down the line.
Winners via disqualification: Harlem Heat in 17:09
I’ll never understand why the Nasty Boys get over 15 minutes. They aren’t that good and their chemistry with Harlem Heat never clicked. The dusty finish didn’t help the score at all. *¾
More from drunk Bobby Heenan, before we go to Mean Gene, who actually might be more hammered. He has the gall to say “this might be one of the best Pay-Per-Views I have ever seen.” Man, they are paying him the big bucks. He goes to interview Sting and the Macho Man, but Macho Man is too pissed to talk. Sting does well here, but even without talking, Macho Man steals the promo.
Blacktop Bully w/ Colonel Robert Parker and Meng vs. Dustin Rhodes
It’s the Repo Man! He looks just like Adam Pearce, so much so that it’s scary. Meng is ejected from ringside. In a precursor to some of his Goldust stuff, Dustin is sporting a pretty sparkly jacket which he doesn’t remove for his early assault. Dustin works some basic offense in on Repo Man. The crowd starts to chant something at Parker that I can’t make out. It feels like Dustin has been working the arm for far too long. Oh, the chant is “KFC”. Because he’s the Colonel. Clever. This is not very good because Bully stopped being really watchable in the WWF around 1993. Parker gets in some cheap stomps on Dustin outside, leading Heenan to claim that he was just getting the dirt off his shoes. Dustin begins the babyface comeback with a back body drop. He goes to a hockey fight style by pulling Bully’s shirt over his head and off. Bully is not in good shape. Parker gets involved so he gets suplexed into the ring by Dustin. He goes to suplex Bully as well, but is tripped by Parker, who holds his feet down allowing Bully to get the three.
Winner: Blacktop Bully in 16:10
Much like the last match, and the Duggan one, this was given far too much time. It was incredibly dull and just didn’t work. Also, the heel winning means that the feud between Dustin and Parker continues even though it had been going on forever seemingly at this point. *
Mean Gene continues to earn that paycheck as he interviews Vader. This is classic Vader stuff, which is excellent because he is phenomenal in every single way. After commentary discusses some stuff, Mean Gene has moved from backstage to the arena to introduce Ric Flair. He’s styling and profiling tonight. Flair will be sitting in the front row for the next match. Interesting note, Flair lost a retirement match just four months prior.
Avalanche and Big Bubba Rogers vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Sting
Man, Sting’s theme music is pretty piss poor. He opens with Avalanche who has the nerve to flex like he’s got muscle tone or something. Sting hits some clotheslines and is showing heart, even when the heels double team him. Macho Man crotches Bubba on the top, allowing Sting to nail a second rope suplex. This gets the biggest pop of the night so far. Bubba gets knocked outside so Savage follows with a double axe handle the place is going bonkers. Heenan continues to stumble over his words. He has to be on his fifth bottle of Jack by now. Savage and Avalanche are now the legal men and Savage fails to body slam him. Sting gets the tag and wisely takes down the legs of Avalanche and sets up for the Scorpio Death Lock. The crowd goes nuts but the move gets stopped and Avalanche takes him down. Savage argues with Flair at ringside for a few seconds as Sting slams Avalanche. He then makes the hot tag as Savage is back to being interested in this thing. Savage drops the elbow n Bubba, but can’t cover because they aren’t the legal men. Sting nails a diving shoulder block on Avalanche and gets the win.
Winners: Sting and Macho Man in 10:19
The most enjoyable thing on this show so far. Sting and Savage finally got the crowd into this show. However, this still had some problems. The Flair involvement seemed forced and the finish came off strange but this was still fun. **¾
The video package for the main event shows that Vader was on Hulk Hogan’s side for a while but decided that it was VADER TIME and he should come for the World Title. It’s always Vader time.
WCW World Heavyweight Championship
Hulk Hogan (c) w/ Jimmy Hart vs. Vader
Hulk Hogan’s WCW theme was terrible, even as bad as Sting’s. We get the incredibly long winded Michael Buffer introduction, which I’ve never been a fan of. Early on, Vader removes his mask and takes everything Hogan dishes out and none of it fazes him. Badass. Hogan plays the reaction to this tremendously. We actually see an armbar type move from Hogan but Vader gets to his feet and stomps him to break it. The fight spills outside where Vader is tossed onto Flair, so he gets pissed and throws the guardrail aside. Inside, Hogan hits the big boot and it doesn’t knock down Vader, but a clothesline outside does. Hogan tries a slam but fails miserably and Vader hits his classic body block. Vader Bomb hits but only earns two! He goes up top for the amazing VADERSAULT but misfires. Hogan pulls Vader outside and whacks him with a steel chair that the referee doesn’t call a DQ on. Seriously? Commentary just ignores the bad officiating. Being the legit badass that he is, Vader shakes it off and Chokeslams Hogan. But of course, it’s “Hulk Up” time. Big boot and Leg drop connect but Vader PRESSES HOGAN OFF OF HIM AT ONE! That is unheard of. Vader knocks Hogan into the referee and nails a powerbomb that should have been three but there’s no referee. Flair gets in and counts but it obviously doesn’t matter. He wakes up the referee and stomps on Hogan, but Hogan kicks out. He clotheslines Vader out and Flair chops him resulting in the DQ.
Winner via disqualification: Hulk Hogan in 15:10
One of the better Hulk Hogan matches that I can remember. Neither he nor Vader gave an inch and both guys came off looking great. This should have been the main event at Starrcade the year before instead of the one involving Brutus Beefcake. The DQ finish, especially considering the chair shot earlier, wasn’t great but the match was still fun. ***¼
Ric Flair and Vader beat down on Hulk Hogan until Randy Savage and Sting make the save.
