Dan Spivey vs. Ricky Morton
A cruel squash for Morton. It’s a 3 minute match where Spivey didn’t bump for his punches and otherwise got dominated. Spivey was in a weird mix of being a “big guy” but is more athletic than that limited role which shone through. They could’ve gotten a lot out of this as shown by Ricky Morton’s brief hope spots. I expect this was done as a squash to set up Ricky Morton’s heel turn in the coming weeks when he joins the York Foundation. Spivey ends this was a wicked powerbomb. SQUASH
Dustin Rhodes vs. Terrance Taylor (w/Alexandra York & Mr. Hughes)
You can say what you want, but the fans are really into Dustin Rhodes. I think it’s because they can cheer for Dusty by association, especially early on in his WCW run, but he puts in the effort to warrant it. Him and Taylor have a very solid match from start to finish. They messed up a bionic elbow spot but Dustin saved it by grabbing a side headlock. Dustin also did his signature missed to the floor too. Mr Hughes tried to interfere for the finish but hit Taylor accidentally before Dustin decked him to a big pop. Dustin wins in an okay match. **1/2
Taped Fist Match: Flyin' Brian vs. Barry Windham
The nature of the stipulation limited this to a semi-brawl with a lot of punches and strikes but they still kept the intensity of the feud and Pilman still flew when necessary. Another critique is probably its length, but I still thought this was really good. Plus Windham bleeding elevated this greatly. Windham wins with a superplex which is fine except Pilman would never really get the big win he should’ve gotten given how hot he was at this time. ***1/2
WCW World Tag Team Title Match: The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) (c) vs. Lex Luger & Sting
The template for the modern day match, including an incredible video package beforehand. There was no commentary, nothing but just clips of all four wrestlers hitting moves and it was the best way to present this. A lot of this match was them trying to top what came before it. A massive belly to belly suplex is met with a top rope belly to belly. That is met with a tombstone reversal. And the crowd goes crazy for it. But what is infectious is the wrestlers feeling it too. Each move came across as them knowing how cool it all was which was pretty awesome to see. Some sloppy parts, sure and the finish wasn’t clean. But Nikita interfering led to the brawl between him and Sting, so there was positives to it. A famous match. Maybe not a classic for me, but it’s certainly memorable. ****
WCW World Television Title Match: Arn Anderson (c) vs. Beautiful Bobby
I thought this was splendid. Arn Anderson at his finest doing Anderson things - attacking a limb and going all in on breaking the limb and his opponent until there is nothing left. In that sense, there is always a singular layer of the match and not much beneath it. But what works in Bobby Eaton’s favour is his history as a tag wrestler and the fact that he doesn’t have much success since 1983 as a singles title contender (last being NWA Mid-American Heavyweight Champion), allowing for much drama outside of his incredible sell of the leg. And the fans were fully on his side. Arn and Eaton come from an era where the basics and fundamentals were the high spots and they performed that style almost perfectly here. Arn was rough with his leg work. Each move looked snug and had intent while Eaton sold and did some excellent comeback hope spots only for it to be tugged away and we went back to the leg. Not one note per se, but consistent. I prefer that term and it pays off in making Eaton ever more sympathetic. The finish is standard with Windham attempting to interfere and Pilman preventing it, allowing Eaton to him the Alabama Jam to a big pop. Shame WCW’s production team missed the pin count. ****
WCW World Heavyweight Title / NWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. Ric Flair (c)
I think if you are looking for a classic or an epic, this will fail to meet expectations. The crowd simply didn’t react to this with the gravitas it deserved. And I don’t think Flair or Fujinami’s style together was cohesive to create a dramatic sort of match. Not in America. And it didn’t in Japan either. However, if you watch and judge the match on its face value, I think this was a great match. A softer finale act, but until then, I thought they made the right choices and wrestled the heck out of it. This match was technical at first, with Fujinami working the lower back of Flair, using leverage holds and eventually the scorpion hold while Flair worked on Fujinami’s leg, doing his usual routine. The peak of this portion of the match was Flair slapping Fujinami, which caused him to angrily fight out of the move. This progressed into Fujinami getting more comfortable with throwing hands and becoming more heelish, although he never commits to it. Flair gets bloody and starts also getting into comfortable bumping and selling as a face too. But like I said, the finish was a little soft and there were minor moments where the quality of work wasn’t good, such as the double pin bridge spot which they failed 3 times in a row. But I do think it played off as a struggle or Flair blocking well enough not to be embarrassing or anything. This is a big could’ve been special but a more expansive Fujinami, where he does his bigger spots like the dragon suplex or his dragon sleeper could’ve elevated this into MOTYC territory, which this was not. ***3/4
Other Ratings
Freebirds vs Young Pistols - 3
Rich vs Koloff - SQUASH
Black Bart vs Big Josh - SQUASH
Oz vs Tim Parker - SQUASH
Gigante vs Sid - DUD
Rimmons vs Reed - 3
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