BRM Reviews WCW WrestleWar 1992

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews WCW WrestleWar 1992

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 20th, '15, 00:37

WCW WrestleWar 92 (5/17/1992)- Jacksonville, FL

NWA UNITED STATES TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Greg Valentine & The Taylor-made Man(c) vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael P.S. Hayes & Jimmy Garvin)- 6/10
We learned in this match that there is no DQ for throwing someone over the top rope INTO the ring. They had a good match, with a finish that must have seemed REALLY cool in 1992.

YOUNG PISTOL TRACY vs. JOHNNY B. BADD- 4.5/10
Young Pistol Tracy was Tracy Smothers, one half of the Young Pistols tag team. That’s what JR said, anyway, but for all we know his name might not be Tracy. The graphics guy seemed to have his doubts, because his graphic read “Young Pistol ‘Tracy’” as if Tracy were some sort of pseudonym.
Johnny B. Badd was introduced as “the man who says he’s the prettiest in all of World Championship Wrestling.” He wasn’t actually cross-dressing, but he was definitely skirting the line (see what I did there?). They thought this would get him over as a babyface. It actually seems to have worked for at least one woman in the crowd, who loved Johnny so much she stuffed some singes in his kneepads.
Actually… Johnny does seem to be pretty darn over as a babyface.
Anyway, they had an okay match, but Jesse Ventura has a very good point: Why is Johnny B. Badd allowed to pin people after a closed-fisted punch, which is an illegal maneuver.

MISSY HYATT INTERVIEWS THE FREEBIRDS & PRECIOUS- good.
Schiavone & Bischoff explained Precious’ presence (the first time she’d been seen in years) as being because this is the “politically correct era of the 90’s” and thus “behind every successful man, there is an equally successful woman” You heard it here first, folks: Precious was just as successful in the wrestling business as Jimmy Garvin.

MARCUS ALEXANDER BAGWELL vs. SCOTTY FLAMINGO-
I know what you’re thinking, and yes: this really is Buff Bagwell vs. Raven. Look at these two men in this match right now, and let that fact sink in. These two had a fun match, with some additional fun to be had by listening to the commentary with the advantage of hindsight.

JUNKYARD DOG & RON SIMMONS vs. MR. HUGHES & CACTUS JACK-
I guess Abdullah The Butcher left WCW between the last PPV and this one, so they figured they’d find some other large black man to replace him. Fortunately for them, Curtis Hughes is definitely an improvement over a washed-up old Abby.
JYD and Cactus brawled outside the ring before the match, resulting in Cactus injuring JYD with an elbow drop off the stage, so instead we got…

RON SIMMONS vs. MR. HUGHES (w/Cactus Jack)- 4.75/10
The match was decent until the finish, which saw Simmons pin Hughes after… a football tackle to the knee.

TODD CHAMPION vs. SUPER INVADER (w/Harley Race)- 0.5
Almost a squash. With performances like this one, Todd Champion will probably never be a champion.

RICHARD MORTON vs. BIG JOSH- 1.75/10

WCW LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Flyin’ Brian(c) vs. The Z-Man- 7/10
They told a great story, and J.R. and Ventura’s back and forth helped add another dimension to it.
They did a great figure four slap-fight spot, but between his goofy old west mustache and the strange way he was flailing his arm back and forth following the action, the only thing you can really concentrate on during that spot is the referee.
There was also a nearfall where, when the guy kicked out, a woman in the front row was so overjoyed that she jumped up out of her seat and actually jumped around in a circle in excitement.

BEACH BLAST COMMERCIAL- at one point they spent a good five seconds just showing a woman’s bikini-clad ass. I didn’t quite expect that in 1992.

WCW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Steiner Brothers(c) vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka- 7.5/10
Yes, Iizuka is the same as Takashi Iizuka who has spent the past few years sucking in New Japan right now, so I took a particular delight in watching the Steiners maul him. He was actually really good here, but I took solace in knowing that in twenty-two years, he would fully deserve this beating.
Oh yeah. There was wrestling here to, and that was great.

WAR GAMES MATCH: Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, & Nikita Koloff) vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, Rick Rude, & Beautiful Bobby) (w/Paul E. Dangerously & Madusa)- 8.5/10
Madusa looks SO out of place in that sparkly blue dress.
Paul E. brought this giant sheet of paper with his team’s battle strategy and diagrams and stuff. It was awesome. More managers should do that.
This match definitely had a sense of craziness and carnage about it. They used the cage not just to throw each other into, but they swung off of it, too. The heels took the top rope apart (which I don’t think people ever really did back in those days) to try to use the turnbuckle hook as a weapon. Definitely crazy stuff for its time.
Austin and Steamboat were the stars here. Austin for his athleticism and Steamboat for his babyface fire. I know that this really isn’t a new observation or anything, but Ricky Steamboat is the best babyface ever.
A lot of people bled a lot, but I think that Austin and Dustin bled the most, and Austin was bleeding for what felt like the entire match.
A big part of the hype for the match was built around whether or not the babyfaces could trust Koloff. When Koloff finally entered the cage (last, naturally), they did this nice staredown with Sting before Nikita shoved Sting out of the way of an attack from behind and it was nice and all… but it would have worked a lot better if Nikita hadn’t punched Arn in the face right before it, essentially killing all the suspense that Sting and Nikita’s staredown should have had.

POST-MATCH STUFF- the other heels blamed Larry Z for their loss.

A good show from WCW if you skip the two short, boring matches in the middle.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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