WCW Fall Brawl ‘95
September 17, 1995
Asheville, NC
The War is on! WCW Nitro had launched two weeks prior to this show and had surprised everyone by being competitive in the ratings with WWF Raw. WCW hit the WWF right where it hurt when they stole Lex Luger away and he made a surprise appearance on the first Nitro. The WWF, with taped shows already in the can, couldn’t do anything to stop WCW early on. WCW also had the first PPV since the Monday Night Wars started, and here it is. The main event here is a bit questionable…we have the four big faces (Sting, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Lex Luger) against a heel group without remotely the star power to match the face team (The Dungeon of Doom) so you know who’s winning here. Should WCW just went for the kill right away with Luger and Sting vs. Hogan and Savage? We’ll never know.
Still, a good PPV here and the WWF would really be in trouble. Could WCW pull it off?
The Card
#1 Contender for the United States Championship
Flyin’ Brian vs. Johnny B. Badd
Badd looks exactly like he would a year later as “Wildman” Marc Mero when he was the IC Champ, red outfit and all.
Hilarious first moment. Badd tries to throw a Frisbee into the crowd, but accidentally hits the ringpost and it goes nowhere, getting a noticeable groan from the crowd.
Michael Buffer is announcing the opener. How confusing.
Pretty slow start here. Most notable moment in the first five minutes was a double dropkick.
Beautiful bridge trap by Pillman for a two count.
About eight minutes in Pillman starts to bring out the heel stuff. I expect this to pick up now.
Great variation of the surfboard from Badd. So far this is the best Mero match I’ve ever seen.
Buffer says five minutes remaining…so we know where this is going.
Thing really pick up at this point though. Badd starts to fly with a plancha onto the floor!
Pillman takes out Badd with an awesome dropkick as Badd comes off the top! Only two for that.
The big moves are coming! Powerbomb from Badd gets two, Tombstone from Pillman also gets two!
Badd counters the Tornado DDT from the top!
Ugh. Badd goes into a hold, which doesn’t make sense at this point. There’s only two minutes left!
We get to the time limit, but the referee declares that there has to be a winner considering they need a #1 contender…so overtime!
Great elevation on a top rope sunset flip from Badd. I woulda bought that as a 1995 finish for sure.
Top rope hurricanrana…but Pillman still kicks out.
Pillman hits the Tornado DDT this time…but Badd survives! Great idea for OT not to last a mere 2 minutes or something.
Badd throws Pillman off the top rope onto the guardrail! Ouch!
Pillman hits a suicide dive through the ropes and gets a lot of distance. Announcers claim Pillman didn’t really hit it, which is a shame because it looked awesome.
Johnny B. Badd pins Flyin’ Brian in 29:17. Double crossbody, and despite Pillman landing on top they make it seem like Badd got the best of it and he makes the cover for the win. Pretty disappointing finish considering everything else. I thought this was a great 20 minute match masquerading as a 30 minute match, but that doesn’t change that it was very good overall. Interestingly, both Badd and Pillman would be gone from WCW within six months. Easily the best Badd match I’ve ever seen.
Ric Flair on the mic and he really knows how to sell something special. He talks about the broken families he and Arn Anderson had went through and you can’t help but feel the damaged friendship between them.
Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Cobra
I have no idea what this feud is about. Looks like a military vs. military thing or something.
Some random soldier comes down to distract Cobra as Pittman comes from the ceiling. Pittman chokes him out with his ammo belt.
Craig Pittman makes Cobra submit in 1:22. Code Red armbreaker for the win. At least this was short. Why was this on the PPV anyway? What was the point?
We get a video of Mr. Wonderful angrily doubting himself in the back. Some psychic tries to talk to him and get him back on track. Uh…Orndorff retired shortly after this. I don’t blame him, this was awful.
WCW Television Championship
The Renegade© vs. Diamond Dallas Page
The Renegade is an Ultimate Warrior ripoff.
Pretty funny how far DDP would come in the next 18 months. He looks ridiculous here.
DDP runs into the ring post by himself then takes a bump over the guardrail. That was strange for sure.
This was a time that Page and Kimberly weren’t getting along because Page treated her like crap. Page does manage to get all the heat here with no help at all from the Renegade.
Renegade’s comeback was pretty decent actually.
Diamond Dallas Page wins the title by pin in 8:07. Maxx Muscle holds Renegade’s foot, and DDP hits a pretty bad Diamond Cutter for the win. Nothing really to say here, although this could have been a lot worse.
WCW World Tag Team Championship
Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater© vs. Harlem Heat
The real point of this feud is that there’s some strange relationship deal with Sherri and Col. Robert Parker, which sounds awful just typing it.
Bobby Heenan reciting a poem is the highlight so far. Otherwise, we’ve just had a few minutes of punching and kicking so far.
The crowd is dead quiet here.
Terrible atomic drop from Slater.
Booker gets trapped in there and we get one of the most boring heat segments I’ve ever seen in a major tag team match. Were Slater and Buck just going through the motions here?
In the 2nd ring Sherri starts crawling toward Parker and they start making out…
Harlem Heat win the title when Booker pins Buck in 16:49. The Nasty Boys come out and take out Buck with a boot shot to the heat for Harlem Heat’s win. Parker would move onto co-manage Harlem Heat with Sherri…but they’d lose the belts to The American Males the next night. Anyway, this was awful. Seventeen minutes of just about nothing.
Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson
Flair and Double A had been as close as brothers, but things began to go wrong thanks to Vader. The story pushes that Flair hasn’t been the same for a year since he lost the World title to Hogan. Anderson wanted to see Flair be the best again. Flair blamed Anderson for not helping him at crucial spots.
I love Double A’s demeanor throughout the opening sequence. Just straight out seriousness with the occasional mocking of Flair.
Smart booking decision to have Anderson dominate the early going. If there was anyone who thought Anderson wasn’t on Flair’s level, this would be showing them otherwise.
Commentators do a great job explaining why Anderson’s armbars hurt so much. That’s something that’s just missed in today’s wrestling.
Flair takes total control. Once again, the commentary is great, and now its question about whether or not Double A can hang with Flair. You really want Anderson to pull this one out.
Anderson blocks the Figure Four by holding Flair’s leg when he tried to come down with it. Can’t say I’ve seen that one before.
Crowd erupts when Anderson reverses the Figure Four. Hell, crowd goes nuts for each false finish here.
Arn Anderson pins Ric Flair in 22:37. Brian Pillman climbs onto the apron when Flair has Anderson down and kicks Flair in the head. Double A drops Flair with a DDT and gets the upset. Crowd ultimately was mixed on the finish (I think they were into the match…but this is still Flair country…nevermind that it wasn’t clean). All of this would lead to the reunion of the Horsemen, although I don’t remember how it played out.
War Games
Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting vs. Kamala, The Shark, The Zodiac and Meng
If the Hulkamaniacs win, Hogan gets five minutes with The Taskmaster.
This was a cartoonish feud that didn’t really jive with the rest of what WCW was doing at this point. Kevin Sullivan’s pre-match promo/video is just laughable.
A side story to this is the debut of The Giant, who was being promoted as Andre’s son.
This has to be one of the most unbalanced multi-man tag team matches in wrestling history. There’s literally no way the Dungeon of Doom can win no matter how much the “can the good guys trust one another” story is shoved down our throats.
The Hulkamaniacs are in camouflage and have an American flag. Uh…is Kevin Sullivan not from the US or something?
Dungeon of Goom. Really Hogan?
Beefcake looks ridiculous, even for him, as the Zodiac.
We start off with Sting and the Shark.
Entertaining start, with Sting diving over both top ropes and taking out the Shark.
No idea if this was planned, but the Shark tries the same over both top ropes dive that Sting did earlier, but gets caught up on the ropes. I like John Tenta, but he shouldn’t be trying anything like that for sure.
Not a bad opening period. Of course the heels win the coin toss and here comes the Zodiac.
Things have slowed down since the Zodiac got in. Randy Savage comes in to save Sting from an uninspiring two on one beat down.
Kamala is next and this has just turned into a sloppy brawl.
Luger comes and evens the odds are again. Only decent part so far has been Sting-Shark and even that wasn’t that great.
Luger and Savage accidentally hit another and go at it…at least something interesting happens. Here comes Meng.
Luger sells a kick from Meng that doesn’t even remotely hit.
Hogan comes in and throws powder in everyone’s eyes. And he’s the top good guy!
Zodiac oversells some Hogan punches. That was embarrassing.
The Hulkamaniacs win when Hogan makes Zodiac submit in 18:47.
We get a terrible Camel Clutch (called a reverse chinlock) for the win. It’s not like Sting and Luger have finishers that are submission holds afterall. Hogan didn’t take one move, it was all offense and that was it for the Dungeon of Doom. Absolutely horrible all around here with a shit finish. Second worst War Games in the history of the match (’98 is worse for sure).
Hogan then beats up Sullivan for a while, before the Giant comes in and chokes Hogan and injures his neck. Even in getting beat down, Hogan doesn’t take a bump. What an embarrassment.
Two really good matches but a whole lot of garbage inbetween. WCW needed to move past this Dungeon of Doom thing, but really wouldn’t until mid-96 when Scott Hall showed up.
A least the Nitros have been good so far.
Final Grade: C