Before anyone asks, I have yet to watch the Double Or Nothing show, though I did get the replay and will probably do so this weekend. If I do, expect a write-up for next week. In the meantime, however, we’ve got another WCW PPV event from 1994 uploaded onto the free WCW YouTube channel… will wonders never cease? Well, they did if you’re watching this show, which is best served as a precursor to WCW’s later (and far better) Spring Stampede ’94 PPV event. Still, this one isn’t all bad, is it?
No, not really… but the beginning does cast doubt on that.
We open with Harlem Heat getting a quick win over Thunder and Lightning. Harlem Heat were still going by Kane and Kole as their names and… I’ll let other folks fill in the blanks in that regard. This is followed by Jim Steele getting a win over someone called THE EQUALIZER… who is just some guy. I’d imagine after the whole SHOCKMASTER thing, having “some buy” be called an EQUALIZER is a safe bet or something. And then Terry Taylor beats young DDP with a roll-up after ten minutes of what is generously described as “action.”
I’m getting those matches out of the way because… well, they don’t really matter. But then we get Johnny B. Badd vs. Michael P.S. Hayes… except not really, because Hayes is in a wheelchair and thus can’t compete. Not to worry, though, because WCW commissioner Nick Bockwinkle decrees that Jimmy Garvin should come out of retirement and wrestle Johnny instead… and so we get that match and it’s a thing that happen and in the end, Johnny wins. The match was nothing, but then Garvin beats up on Johnny and even hits him with a KICK WHAM STUNNER long before the move became a popular thing and eventually a meme. Hey, that woke me up a bit.
World TV Champion Lord Steven Regal defeated Arn Anderson via umbrella-assisted pin to retain the title… the goofy finish aside, this was a perfectly acceptable wrestling match. It doesn’t sound like high praise, given what came beforehand, I’ll take it. On the bright side, things start to pick up significantly.
Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne defeated WCW World Tag-Team Champions The Nasty Boys via DQ when Sags breaks a guitar over Payne’s head; Nasties retain. This would lead to the awesome Spring Stampede Chicago Street Fight later down the road, but this was a fun brawl while it lasted. Finish sucked, but at least, it served a purpose in building towards a later match with a more satisfying result… and a better match to boot.
Dustin Rhodes, Sting & Brian Pillman defeated Rick Rude, Paul Orndorff & “Stunning” Steve Austin in the first of two Thundercage matches that saw Sting press slam Pillman onto Austin for the pinfall win. To keep track, Rude was the Big Gold Belt champion (I’m not doing the usual rigimarole), Austin and Pillman were feuding post Hollywood Blond-break-up, and Mr. Wonderful and Dustin are also there. Hey, you know what? I ain’t gonna complain about this one. This was a good, fun cage match that the crowd seemed to be really into.
WCW World Champion Ric Flair defeated Big Van Vader (with Harley Race as a manager and a slick rode as his entrance gear – I mean, seriously, that is a sweet looking robe) in the second of two Thundercage matches to retain the title. Your special guest referee for this match was THE BOSS! (Man, is he big) and yes, he is exactly who I say that he is thanks to the running joke that’s been around since ages. There’s some shenanigans here and there, the match is a bit of a mess, and honestly, I wouldn’t say that this is up there with their Starrcade match or even the prior Thundercage match we saw, but people were into Flair overcoming the odds, which makes sense since he was booking the shows at the time. Vader and Boss (man is he big) would have a match at Spring Stampede while Flair would move on to bigger and better things before he eventually doesn’t… but we’ll save that for later down the road.
For what it’s worth, Superbrawl IV doesn’t get good until Regal/Anderson, so you can easily skip the early crap and go straight to the good stuff. Once you do that, you’ll end up with a semi-decent show with a couple good matches and a really fun cage match. Of course, WCW would up their game with the far better Spring Stampede show that would come along later, but this show – or at least, the back end of it – is not a bad way to spend a rainy day.
dtm666 