Hogan and Giant faced off in the Superbrawl main event inside a steel cage.
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WCW's first pay per view of the year brings us to Superbrawl in Saint Petersberg in Florida. A few weeks after winning the WCW World Title back off of Ric Flair, Randy Savage would be defending the title against Flair inside of a steal cage. Also, in the other co-headliner cage match, Hulk Hogan would be facing the man who defeated him for the World Title – The Giant – in a non-title grudge match.
To surmise the television over the past few weeks would be incredibly tough. Shoe's have been involved (specifically, Woman's high heeled shoe that Flair hit Hogan with on the January 29th Nitro that caused Hogan not only to lose the match, but also to sustain an eye injury that he would carry into this show). Otherwise just imaging your usual schmosh of Nitro main events cycling the usual suspects in a series of matches with screwy finishes and post match run-ins.
Elsewhere, Brian Pillman would be entering what would be his final night of WCW ever, the latest in a series of angles leading towards a worked-shoot that only a few people were in on. After causing Bobby Heenan to swear at the Clash, Pillman would subsequently "be released" before rocking up on ECW's Cyberslam show just a few days later.
The Nasty Boys and the Public Enemy would be reprising their January brawl in the opener, Johnny B Badd was fighting for The Diamond Doll's money from DDP with $6.6m dollars on the line, there would be two tag title matches and a United States title match oh, and Loch Ness (who you'll know as Giant Haystacks) is in the US... he's big! By WCW standards, this was a stacked deck going in.
The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) vs The Public Enemy ("Flyboy" Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge)
Well I'll be damned if this wasn't fun. A watered down version of the Public Enemy fare, and a brawl that (like a lot of these things) seemed to leave selling at the door. These two teams beat the piss out of each other in a match that maybe stayed in the ring for a minute or two. Rocco Rock ends up going through about three tables, weapon shots galore... ends with Rock coming off a platform/balcony about ten feet up – Knobbs moves and he crashed and burned through the table. This was real fun.
Mean Gene Okerlund does a hotline teasing "which former champions of the WWF are rumoured to be coming to WCW". Those two names would, of course, by Diesel and Razor Ramon.
Johnny B Badd © (w/ The Diamond Doll) vs Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW Television Title and DDP's $6.6m Dollars
Page comes out with an entire bunch of roses that actually don't play any part in the match, which is almost bizarre. These two have had better matches (see Halloween Havoc and World War 3) but this was still really good. Their chemistry is excellent and the dynamic between the them and the Doll kept things going. DDP is more than servicable at this stage and Badd continues to be highly underrated. After a nice closing exchange, Badd hits a tombstone piledriver for the win.
Read More: The Rise Of Diamond Dallas Page
Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) vs Sting and Lex Luger © for the WCW Tag Team Titles
As ever, they're teasing philosophical differences between Sting and Luger. A short match – that made sense given Sting and Luger were going again later in the evening. Directly or not, they're teasing the idea that Sting is beginning to be influenced by Luger (there's a nice moment where Sting jumps in the ring, despite not being tagged, after a prolonged beat-down on Luger). In the end the match ends with Animal of the Road Warriors leathering Stevie Ray with a block of lead of some kind (a return of a Nitro finish from that Monday). Afterwards, Okerlund asks if Sting saw what happened, Sting says he didn’t, then says to Luger “I’m sorry I ever questioned you, I’m with the program”.
One Man Gang vs Konnan © for the WCW United States Title
One day I'll come to a consensus on whether Konnan is good or not. Last month we got a great match with Psicosis, and an "It could've been far worse" on with Sandman. This, against One Man Gang, wasn't very good either. Silent crowd for a mercifully short match, Konnan rallies, Gang misses a second rope splash and Konnan hits a flip dive to retain the title. At one stage, Konnan hits a pair of dropkicks, fires himself off the far ropes and then does a backbump for... no reason at all. Maybe it’s simply a case of Konnan only being as good as his opponent allows him to be.
The Taskmaster (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs Brian Pillman In An "I Respect You" Strap Match
These two brawl hard from the outside, eventually Pillman grabs hold of the microphone says "I respect you, booker man" and walks off (The rules of this essentially the same as an I Quit match). This is Pillman's work – Sullivan, his opponent, being the actual booker being one of the few people in on it. Can't help but feel this whole thing may have flown over many people's heads.
The Taskmaster (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs Arn Anderson In An "I Respect You" Strap Match
Of course, while a few were in on the work, most weren't. So when Pillman walked off all of a sudden a match that presumably had 15 minutes timetabled for it now... didn't So Arn Anderson comes out in a shirt and shorts and works about four minutes of a match before Ric Flair comes out and says it's time to end all of this. How bizarre.
The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk) vs Sting and Lex Luger for the WCW Tag Team Titles
So they had 12 minutes in the ledger for Pillman and Taskmaster (if we're working everyone we need it to be believable, after all), so the resulting shenanigans meant they had some time to fill. I'll give Lex Luger credit, he tried; stalling on the aisle way for a good few minutes debating whether to get in the ring or not. Even by levels you'd expect, this was a poor outing. The Road Warriors, if nothing else, are over and it shows in the quality of their matches. This ends by double count out.
Ric Flair (w/ Woman) vs Randy Savage (w/ Miss Elizabeth) in a Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Title
Stalling in this one too with Flair joshing about on the microphone before the match starts. Flair randomly levels the refere early on – something that doesn't seem to go anywhere, later the ref would actually pull Flair off of a figure four he had it locked in so long. We get the "Moon over Florida" not once, but twice as Savage resorted to pulling Flair's trunks down to stop him escaping. Flair blades, Elizabeth throws Flair her shoe, Flair nails Savage with it and pins him to regain the WCW World Title. Histrionics and good action in equal measure, quite good this.
The Giant (w/ The Taskmaster and Jimmy Hart) vs Hulk Hogan in a Cage Match
If ever we needed a reminder of how tall Giant is, with his arms outstretched the cage is barely taller than he is. Your standard Hogan match – he plays a heel, fights vailiantly against the bigger heel, Hulks up – then does three leg drops on Giant (who quickly sits up even after the third, which is some endorsement). Hogan pushes Giant off of the top rope and escapes the cage to win the match.
The show ends like any Nitro, the Dungeon Of Doom storm the ring and Hogan runs them all off with a chair. After that Loch Ness (aka Giant Haystacks) a 600lb+ brute from England walks out and the Dungeon Of Doom "hold him back" from Hogan – hiding, perhaps cruically, the fact that Haystacks probably wouldn't be able to fit through the cage door.
Score Rating: 5/10
Go Back And Watch: Enemy/Nasties, Badd/DDP, Pillman/Taskmaster (for the hell of it) and Flair/Savage. Some decent stuff but nothing remarkable to counteract some of the low points on this show.
To surmise the television over the past few weeks would be incredibly tough. Shoe's have been involved (specifically, Woman's high heeled shoe that Flair hit Hogan with on the January 29th Nitro that caused Hogan not only to lose the match, but also to sustain an eye injury that he would carry into this show). Otherwise just imaging your usual schmosh of Nitro main events cycling the usual suspects in a series of matches with screwy finishes and post match run-ins.
Elsewhere, Brian Pillman would be entering what would be his final night of WCW ever, the latest in a series of angles leading towards a worked-shoot that only a few people were in on. After causing Bobby Heenan to swear at the Clash, Pillman would subsequently "be released" before rocking up on ECW's Cyberslam show just a few days later.
The Nasty Boys and the Public Enemy would be reprising their January brawl in the opener, Johnny B Badd was fighting for The Diamond Doll's money from DDP with $6.6m dollars on the line, there would be two tag title matches and a United States title match oh, and Loch Ness (who you'll know as Giant Haystacks) is in the US... he's big! By WCW standards, this was a stacked deck going in.
The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) vs The Public Enemy ("Flyboy" Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge)
Well I'll be damned if this wasn't fun. A watered down version of the Public Enemy fare, and a brawl that (like a lot of these things) seemed to leave selling at the door. These two teams beat the piss out of each other in a match that maybe stayed in the ring for a minute or two. Rocco Rock ends up going through about three tables, weapon shots galore... ends with Rock coming off a platform/balcony about ten feet up – Knobbs moves and he crashed and burned through the table. This was real fun.
Mean Gene Okerlund does a hotline teasing "which former champions of the WWF are rumoured to be coming to WCW". Those two names would, of course, by Diesel and Razor Ramon.
Johnny B Badd © (w/ The Diamond Doll) vs Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW Television Title and DDP's $6.6m Dollars
Page comes out with an entire bunch of roses that actually don't play any part in the match, which is almost bizarre. These two have had better matches (see Halloween Havoc and World War 3) but this was still really good. Their chemistry is excellent and the dynamic between the them and the Doll kept things going. DDP is more than servicable at this stage and Badd continues to be highly underrated. After a nice closing exchange, Badd hits a tombstone piledriver for the win.
Read More: The Rise Of Diamond Dallas Page
Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) vs Sting and Lex Luger © for the WCW Tag Team Titles
As ever, they're teasing philosophical differences between Sting and Luger. A short match – that made sense given Sting and Luger were going again later in the evening. Directly or not, they're teasing the idea that Sting is beginning to be influenced by Luger (there's a nice moment where Sting jumps in the ring, despite not being tagged, after a prolonged beat-down on Luger). In the end the match ends with Animal of the Road Warriors leathering Stevie Ray with a block of lead of some kind (a return of a Nitro finish from that Monday). Afterwards, Okerlund asks if Sting saw what happened, Sting says he didn’t, then says to Luger “I’m sorry I ever questioned you, I’m with the program”.
One Man Gang vs Konnan © for the WCW United States Title
One day I'll come to a consensus on whether Konnan is good or not. Last month we got a great match with Psicosis, and an "It could've been far worse" on with Sandman. This, against One Man Gang, wasn't very good either. Silent crowd for a mercifully short match, Konnan rallies, Gang misses a second rope splash and Konnan hits a flip dive to retain the title. At one stage, Konnan hits a pair of dropkicks, fires himself off the far ropes and then does a backbump for... no reason at all. Maybe it’s simply a case of Konnan only being as good as his opponent allows him to be.
The Taskmaster (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs Brian Pillman In An "I Respect You" Strap Match
These two brawl hard from the outside, eventually Pillman grabs hold of the microphone says "I respect you, booker man" and walks off (The rules of this essentially the same as an I Quit match). This is Pillman's work – Sullivan, his opponent, being the actual booker being one of the few people in on it. Can't help but feel this whole thing may have flown over many people's heads.
The Taskmaster (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs Arn Anderson In An "I Respect You" Strap Match
Of course, while a few were in on the work, most weren't. So when Pillman walked off all of a sudden a match that presumably had 15 minutes timetabled for it now... didn't So Arn Anderson comes out in a shirt and shorts and works about four minutes of a match before Ric Flair comes out and says it's time to end all of this. How bizarre.
The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk) vs Sting and Lex Luger for the WCW Tag Team Titles
So they had 12 minutes in the ledger for Pillman and Taskmaster (if we're working everyone we need it to be believable, after all), so the resulting shenanigans meant they had some time to fill. I'll give Lex Luger credit, he tried; stalling on the aisle way for a good few minutes debating whether to get in the ring or not. Even by levels you'd expect, this was a poor outing. The Road Warriors, if nothing else, are over and it shows in the quality of their matches. This ends by double count out.
Ric Flair (w/ Woman) vs Randy Savage (w/ Miss Elizabeth) in a Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Title
Stalling in this one too with Flair joshing about on the microphone before the match starts. Flair randomly levels the refere early on – something that doesn't seem to go anywhere, later the ref would actually pull Flair off of a figure four he had it locked in so long. We get the "Moon over Florida" not once, but twice as Savage resorted to pulling Flair's trunks down to stop him escaping. Flair blades, Elizabeth throws Flair her shoe, Flair nails Savage with it and pins him to regain the WCW World Title. Histrionics and good action in equal measure, quite good this.
The Giant (w/ The Taskmaster and Jimmy Hart) vs Hulk Hogan in a Cage Match
If ever we needed a reminder of how tall Giant is, with his arms outstretched the cage is barely taller than he is. Your standard Hogan match – he plays a heel, fights vailiantly against the bigger heel, Hulks up – then does three leg drops on Giant (who quickly sits up even after the third, which is some endorsement). Hogan pushes Giant off of the top rope and escapes the cage to win the match.
The show ends like any Nitro, the Dungeon Of Doom storm the ring and Hogan runs them all off with a chair. After that Loch Ness (aka Giant Haystacks) a 600lb+ brute from England walks out and the Dungeon Of Doom "hold him back" from Hogan – hiding, perhaps cruically, the fact that Haystacks probably wouldn't be able to fit through the cage door.
Score Rating: 5/10
Go Back And Watch: Enemy/Nasties, Badd/DDP, Pillman/Taskmaster (for the hell of it) and Flair/Savage. Some decent stuff but nothing remarkable to counteract some of the low points on this show.
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