Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton & Michael Hayes vs Tom Zenk,
Shane Douglas & Johnny Gunn
Neat little six man opener. Being in Philadelphia, the heel
team get cheered on their every move whilst the faces are met with a chorus of
boos. Unsurprisingly with this line-up, the match flows really well. Some neat
pairings here, Douglas meshing really nicely with Eaton, hitting him with a
lovely flying headscissors. Both teams use quick tags to start, with the
neatest being Arn tagging himself in while Zenk has Eaton in the air for an
atomic drop, allowing him to level the Z-Man with a sneaky clothesline. Eaton
takes out Douglas’s leg with a big clip, and delightfully Arn is all over it.
He locks in a figure four with Hayes helping with leverage from the apron. It
all breaks down as the hot tag is made to Gunn, and in the melee he nails a
Thesz Press on Hayes to get the win. Fun match.
Ricky Steamboat vs Brian Pillman
Really good match here, which is still short enough to leave
you wanting a future rematch. Loved how this opened, Steamboat lights up
Pillman with some stiff chops, which Pillman seems happy to replicate. They go
into a nice sequence that ends with a skin-the-cat and Steamboat hitting a
trademark armdrag. Steamboat plays up his rare power advantage, grabbing
Pillman by the throat and holding him in the air. Loved how Pillman locked on
his sleeper as the smaller man, just yanking Steamboat by the neck as he runs
the ropes, then leaping onto his back to put all his weight onto Steamer.
Pillman heels it up nicely, cowering off and luring Steamboat from the ring,
which leads to a nice moment as he knees Steamboat in the face entering the
ropes. Moments later this happens again, but this time Steamboat avoids the
knee and leg sweeps Pillman to the mat. Loved it. We get a series of roll-ups
and Steamboat manages to hold Pillman down for the win. This was some lovely
stuff.
Vader vs Nikita Koloff
Vader is defending the US title on behalf of Rick Rude, and I
liked how Ventura on commentary highlighted this disadvantage to Koloff,
preparing for a very different opponent. Vader is all over Koloff, mauling him
from the get go, but then poses giving Nikita a chance to come back, hitting a
rare crossbody for two. Vader still controls the bulk of this, battering Nikita
outside the ring, and hitting a chokeslam inside that sees Koloff land
awkwardly. Koloff gets a little shine, hitting a shoulderblock and an
impressive slam, but like an idiot he tries the Russian Sickle on the floor
with Vader stood against a ringpost. Surprise – he clotheslines the steel and
gets thrown back inside to eat a powerbomb for the Vader win.
Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Steve Austin &
Steve Williams
Austin was subbed in here to replace Terry Gordy, who was
fired that same morning for a contract dispute. Yet even with the heel team
being thrown together, this was really good stuff. Rhodes and Austin already
have really good chemistry from their 1991 feud, and Austin and Williams seem
to gel more and more as the match continues. There’s a lot to love here, really
dug Dustin breaking a Williams wristlock by leaping over the top to the floor,
snapping Williams’s arm over the top rope. This is pretty even stuff until
Windham gets wiped out with a flying clothesline from Williams. The heat on
Windham is really fun, lots of hefty blows being dished out. Loved Windham
blocking a superplex and nailing a big top rope clothesline to tag in Dustin.
Rhodes swiftly becomes face-in-peril after Williams clotheslines him behind the
refs back. Williams then bends Rhodes in half with a nasty looking Boston Crab.
Austin hits a rare powerslam on Dustin that looks great, but then the call of “5
minutes left” comes up and suddenly the pressure is on the heels to win. We get
a false finish, as the heels throw Dustin out of the ring after a ref bump and
pin Windham, but the original ref reverses the decision and continues the
match. The match goes on two minutes and ends as a time limit draw. Really neat
stuff, basically putting four 5* punchers in one match, and the result was a
fun, hard-hitting half hour that flew by.
Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono
This is for Chono’s NWA title, and it’s a direct contrast to
the previous match. Whereas the tag match is 30 mins that flies by, this is 22
minutes that drags to fuck. There are two refs, Harley Race inside the ring
(calling it down the middle, surprisingly) and Kensuke Sasaki on the floor.
There are bits of good in here – Chono snaps Rude to the mat with a sudden back
suplex, Rude hits some nice big blows early on, but there’s a lot of very dull
matwork that goes nowhere. There’s no fight over it, just two guys who should
do better putting on holds slowly. You can hear the crowd audibly deflate when
Chono locks on a sleeper. Nice little bit of psychology with Rude hurting his
back after hitting a missile dropkick, before Chono accidentally hits Race with
a Yakuza Kick. Rude is thrown outside the ring onto Sasaki, meaning that no-one
makes a count when he nails the Rude Awakening inside the ring. Chono locks on
the STF and Sasaki recovers to call the sub, but Race reverses the decision to
DQ Chono. Doesn’t matter, Rude doesn’t get the belt either way, and a screwy
finish is the final nail in the coffin of the crowd giving a shit. Awful stuff.
Ron Simmons vs the Barbarian
I’m a big fan of both guys, but I’d heard this was one of
the worst WCW title matches. I’d say that was a bit of hyperbole, to be honest,
this isn’t that bad. They work a nice power battle early, exchanging
shoulderblocks and clotheslines without a winner. Loved Simmons beating
Barbarian down with a series of double sledges, hammering him in the face. Barb
takes over after dropping Simmons neckfirst over the rope and clotheslining him
against the ringpost. Barb misses the ropewalk elbow and Simmons shows nice
energy as he hits a series of clotheslines and shoulderblocks. Barbarian gets
two after hitting the top rope headbutt, looked really good as he leapt across
the ring, before Simmons gets the win from nowhere with a powerslam. This was perfectly
decent power wrestling from two great power wrestlers.
Sting vs Jake “the Snake” Roberts
This is a Coal Miner’s Glove match after the whole “Spin the
Wheel, Make the Deal” debacle. Roberts distracts Sting to start, and tries to
climb the pole quickly, but is stopped. Coy opening, with neither seeming too
keen to commit, weighing their opponent up. Loved Roberts doing a cocky little
pose after Sting misses a dropkick, before hitting a bunch of knees to the
spine. They looked great. Roberts hurts his arm on the ringpost, and I loved
that Sting zeroes in on it, using it as his focal point. Clumsy spot with Jake
supposedly hitting a kneelift, but selling it like he’d missed and both guys
remain down. Ventura, bless him, covers for them both by claiming Jake’s
momentum went against him. Roberts hits the DDT, but with the bad arm, meaning
he can’t capitalise as quickly as he should, giving Sting a feasible way to
recover. Sting goes for the glove, Jake goes for his cobra, and Sting hits Jake
from behind, causing him to fall face first into the snake, who bites him as
Sting gets the cover. Have to admit that’s an innovative ending, even though it
looks a bit shit. Not as bad a match as I’d feared, it’s all logical, some nice
selling and I kinda enjoyed it.
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