So back in March, WWE started up a WCW Youtube channel and they’re in the process of uploading all the old WCW shows and some of the key matches. Yes, you can watch old Nitros, old Thunders, and even old PPVs in their entirety… for free. What a world we live in… and so we’re diving into that magical bag of goodness and checking out the 1994 edition of WCW Spring Stampede, featuring the main event of Ric Flair defending his WCW World title against Ricky Steamboat in what I believe was their last-ever encounter.
It’ll be a surprise for most of you to know that in all the years I’ve been doing this PPV musings on this blog, I’ve only ever touched one Spring Stampede event and that was the last one in 2000. It’s also entirely possible that I might have another Stampede or two on VHS somewhere, so maybe we’ll give those a look one of these days if I can find them, but otherwise, it gives me an excuse to dive back into vintage WCW big boys playing with each other professional wrestling from 1994… by which I mean, early-1994, before Hulk Hogan came along and everything started to be built around his orange ass.
Let’s get on with this, shall we? I’m genuinely excited…
We begin the show with Diamond Dallas Page – a couple years into his wrestling career after being a manager for longer – taking on Johnny B. Badd in a short match that eventually saw Badd get the win with a sunset flip. Sure, this was a thing that happened and honestly, it’s the novelty of seeing a younger DDP in action than expecting anything resembling a fun match. The dude would get better… eventually.
Interspersed between matches are interviews with wrestlers conducted by either Mean Gene Okerlund or Jesse Ventura, who was somehow still employed in WCW. I say this because it wouldn’t be long before that red and yellow goblin would rear his ugly head. I won’t make any more mention of these backstage bits because they’re largely promos to hype up their matches.
The match between WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal and Flyin’ Brian Pillman ended in a fifteen-minute draw; Regal retains the title, of course. I knew that Regal had a bad leg of sorts during this time, but they never really play up on that and the match itself was kinda, sorta just there. Plus, this was during that period in Pillman’s career where he was just floundering after his tag run with Austin came to an end and therefore, there was no point where the match convinced me that Pillman stood a chance of winning. Did they run a rematch later down the road or was it just dropped completely?
WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys defeated Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne in a Chicago Street Fight to retain the titles. A Chicago Street Fight was code for hardcore, no-holds-barred, anything goes, fall count anywhere… the sort of the stuff you’d see in ECW and WWF. The Nasties won via piledriving Cactus through a tab and delivering a vicious headshot with a shovel… which actually was the finish. You see, kids? Sometimes, the best finish to a hardcore match is not your usual finisher, but something that looks even more vicious and dangerous. That’s the whole idea of “anything can happen” and sure enough, anything that could happen (within the confines of 1994 WCW) did happen. I had already seen this match beforehand because it was on one of the old Foley DVDs, but seeing it again, this was a fun shitshow of a hardcore match and the Nasties were in their element in these sorts of matches.
WCW U.S. Champion “Stunning” Steve Austin defeated The Great Muta via DQ when Muta tossed Austin over the top rope, which was considered a DQ back in the WCW days. Yes, this finish would save Austin’s title, but it would come back to bite him in the ass later down the road. Anyway, Austin was a great worker. Muta was a great worker. This match sucked monkey balls. Whether it was Muta not giving a shit or Austin still being gre… no, fuck that. Muta clearly didn’t give a shit and it showed.
Sting defeated WCW All-Atlantic International World Heavyweight Big Gold Western States Heritage Continental Classic Champion “Ravishing” Rick Rude to win the title and pretty much close the book on Rick Rude’s wrestling career, as an increasingly bad back would eventually put him out of action. (Actually, scratch that. Rude and Sting would have a re-match later on and THAT would be Rude’s last match.) This isn’t a great match by any means, but it’s hard to pin the blame on anybody when one of the participants is dealing with some severe back issues. Back injuries suck. They’re a pain in the ass to deal. Trying to work through one is not fun.
Bunkhouse Buck defeated “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes in a Bunkhouse match – basically another hardcore match – where the finish saw Col. Parker supply Buck with some brass knux, which gets used to KO poor Dustin for the win. How sad is that we’re about halfway through the show and the only two really good matches are the hardcore matches? Again, this was a fun little brawl for what it was. Felt a little long at times, but on a whole, it was an enjoyable enough piece of business.
Big Van Vader defeated THE BOSS! (Man, Is He Big) with a moonsault… which is followed by THE BOSS! (Man Is He Big) to beat the shit out of Vader with his nightstick… so yes, THE BOSS! (Man Is He Big) is the former Big Bossman pretty much doing his old Bossman gimmick and somehow not getting sued by WWF. Of course, he’d eventually drop the gimmick in favor of becoming a “Guardian Angel” for a few months before reverting to his old gimmick of Big Bubba Rogers… anyway, this was two big fuckers beating the fuck out of each other for ten minutes and ain’t no way am I going to complain about that. This was fun stuff and it wasn’t even a hardcore match. I approve.
The match between WCW World Champion Ric Flair (sporting that WCW title belt that I actually prefer over the Big Gold, but to each their own) and challenger Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat ended in a double-pin finish, resulting in Flair retaining the title. The finish was kind of lame, but the match itself is excellent. Flair and Steamboat always worked well together, they always had great matches, and this one was no exception. In a way, I could understand Flair wanting another run with Steamboat for his Last Match EVAR, but there’s only so many times you could go back to that well before you run it dry and this ’94 encounter was the last good drop out of that well.
Spring Stampede 1994 has some low points, sure, but other than the Austin/Muta match, nothing on the verge of being wholly terrible. You do have a couple fun hardcore matches in there, a fun big man match, and of course, the main event is another Flair/Steamboat classic that’s sullied by the lame finish. All in all, I’d call that a good show and well worth a watch on the WCW YouTube channel.
That still feels weird to say…
dtm666 