Best WCW Matches Of 1995

Strangely enough, the odd man out in this photo is the man on the far right

Listen to our review of WCW Halloween Havoc which, while wildly varying in quality, did include our WCW match of the year.

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1. Ric Flair & Sting vs Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman – Halloween Havoc
The near perfect tag team match. Sting said before the match “cross me and I’ll kill you” to Flair. Sting wrestled the first ten minutes alone, keeping the upper hand on Pillman and Anderson while Flair sold a pre-show “attack” backstage. Flair came out and worked the crowd into a frenzy in the second half as Sting faded. Finally, mercifully, Sting got the hot tag to Flair, who bounced off the far ropes and nailed Sting with a right hand. Never had a heel turned caused such a great reaction.

2. Johnny B. Badd vs Brian Pillman – Fall Brawl
Putting two guys out on pay per view and hoping they would fail might seem like an odd attitude, but that was exactly what WCW did with Brian Pillman and Johnny B Badd. After firing Steve Austin – in part due to his attitude of an underused young talent – WCW put two of his crew in the opening match at Fall Brawl and gave them half an hour hoping they’d drown when it came to it. Two young guys, motivated to prove people wrong, did just that.

3. Ric Flair vs Randy Savage (w/ Angelo Puffo) – Great American Bash
With Flair out of retirement, and Hogan off on a PPV break, the main event of June’s PPV was open to Savage and Flair, a rivalry building off of Flair putting Savage’s dad in the Figure Four the month prior. The speed was electric, Savage and Flair still had it, and finally in June WCW had a pay per view main event worthy of the name. A clean finish would have to wait, Flair nailed Savage with Angelo’s cane and won the match.

4. Brian Pillman vs Alex Wright – Great American Bash
Would it be fair to say it took six months for WCW to have a good pay per view match in 1995? Perhaps, yes. Pillman, once again in the opening spot and Wright – who’s bubble was about to be burst as Ric Flair’s power base as head booker was evaporating had what was – at the time, WCW’s best pay per view match of the year.

5. Hulk Hogan vs Vader – WCW World Title – Superbrawl
Can you nominate a match purely because of its “big fight feel”? It was something wrestling in 1995 desparately struggled with and something, in truth, that Vader and Hogan eventually struggled with. But for a short time in February WCW had a match up people wanted to pay to see. The atmosphere on the night was really good, and the action was all you could hope for. The interference from Flair was a sign of things to come, however much people wanted to see Hogan vs Vader – don’t hold your breath at getting a result!

6. Arn Anderson & Ric Flair vs Vader – Clash Of The Champions (August) Eventually people just started cheering the ass kicker Vader and, rather than fight it, WCW just went with it. Vader challenged Flair and Anderson to a two on one, he fancied himself against both. It was a typically great story – Anderson worked hard to get on top, tagged Flair in who quickly lost the advantage. Three pros wrestling a fun handicap match.

7. Eddie Guerrero vs Sinjiro Otani – Starrcade When WCW bought in Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit they had acquired three of the best in ring talents in the world. While they would take their time to establish themselves as PPV acts, Benoit and later Guerrero would both get a spot on team WCW for Starrcade against New Japan’s best talent. Guerrero and Otani had a fantastically physical matchup. Guerrero was a star, but Otani was highly impressive too.

8. Johnny B Badd vs Diamond Dallas Page (w/ The Diamond Doll) – TV Title -  World War 3 (November)
Johnny B Badd was just really good, Diamond Dallas Page was a highly entertaining and very competent talent. In their first of two matches in this list, Badd and Page worked a highly entertaining opening match, telling a story that really got the crowd involved. Badd won the match, retained his title, and got the girl too – The Doll had put herself up as part of the match,

9. Alex Wright vs Arn Anderson – Slamboree
This was not a good show, but Wright and Anderson was a highlight – the young rookie against the wiley old veteran in Anderson. Wright wrestled a style beyond his years, beating Anderson on the ground. In the end, Arn came out on top, feinting Wright with a right before snapping him with a DDT. Wright’s unbeaten run was over – probably a good thing.

10. Johnny B Badd vs Diamond Dallas Page (w/ The Diamond Doll & Max Muscle) – TV Title -  Halloween Havoc (October)
The first of their two pay per view encounters, this was only marginally less fun than the one that followed. Good in ring action, some fun antics on the outside with Max and The Doll, and a couple of really good false finishes that helped whip the crowd into a frenzy. Badd wins the title after ducking a punch from Muscle than nailed Page.