The fourth and final edition of WrestleWar took place on May 17, 1992 from the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida. The show would be replaced by Slamboree the next year and the War Games match itself would move to September to become the headlining match of the newly created Fall Brawl PPV. As in previous years, all major roads lead into the double cage, with top heel group The Dangerous Alliance taking on a collection of babyfaces that became known as Sting’s Squadron. What we were treated to was one of the best War Games matches of all time but more on that later.
We start out with a return bout for the WCW United States Tag Team titles as the unlikely duo of Terry Taylor and Greg Valentine defend the belts against the team they won them from a little over a month previous, the Freebirds. Right off the bat, I’m sorry but it’s so weird to see a babyface version of the Freebirds. Just doesn’t seem right. What we got out of that was an explosion when the Birds regained the US tag titles after a decent starter. There was a good amount of heat, a pair of hot tags, Michael Hayes was very sweaty and a DDT ended it.
Our next match pits Johnny B. Badd against Tracy Smothers of the Young Pistols. It’s kind of weird to see Smothers here, knowing what he’d do in ECW a couple of years down the line. Of course Jesse has all the jokes for Badd, it was 1992 after all. And we get a fast paced opener that is the ‘92 equivalent of the cruiserweights that got everything going on WCW PPV in years to come. Badd wins after his vaunted left hand and that really irks Jesse. Close fists have never mattered Ventura, you of all people should know that. This one was a faster pace again, not bad at all.
Two future superstars square off early in their careers next as Marcus Alexander Bagwell meets Scotty Flamingo. Raven he is not yet, but again, it’s cool to see what a guy like Raven was doing long before the incarnation that he is most known for. Flamingo’s tights couldn’t be more 1992 though. These two do slap the bejeebus out of each other to start this one. The issue with this one that it’s a match that is very similar to the previous one. Same pacing, same energy, the main difference is the heel went over as Flamingo reversed a roll up, grabbed a handful of tights and went to the pay window. I think there’s a lot more they could have done, there was some good chemistry going, but they were only given like 7 minutes so it was a lot packed into a small window.
Next, the odd couple of Cactus Jack and Mr. Hughes takes on Ron Simmons and the Junkyard Dog. Or that’s how it was supposed to go. Cactus jumped JYD from behind and dropped an elbow off the ramp onto the concrete, knocking him out of the match and making it a singles contest between Simmons and Hughes. Ron came back like a house of fire, got over on Hughes a little bit and then took a good amount of heat from the big guy. And the crazy guy outside as well. Simmons eventually overpowered Hughes, hit an impressive looking spinebuster, dispatched Cactus and won it with a chop block. Two big guys doing big guy things and Ron Simmons comes out strong as hell.
Todd Champion makes his singles PPV debut against the Super Invader (Hercules under a mask) with Harley Race. Invader beats on Champion for most of this one, except for a sloppy Champion comeback. One unique looking powerbomb and Super Invader is your winner and that one really didn’t need to be on a pay-per-view.
Coming up next on WCW Power Hou…er, WrestleWar, Big Josh meets Richard Morton, a replacement for the Diamond Studd who left the company shortly before this show. Commentary is selling this as a big man v little man match, but it is far faster and more physical than you’d expect. Like two guys wanted to go out with something to prove and only seven minutes to do it in. Big Josh wins with the Northern Exposure (no that’s not code) in a finish where ref Bill Alfonso only counted 2 and then gave it to Josh anyway.
The WCW Light Heavyweight Title is on the line next, the only singles championship match of the night. Brian Pillman defends against former tag team partner The Z Man Tom Zenk. This one would be my honorable mention of the night. If you’re interested in seeing the early base that the later styles of many lighter guys would develop from, this is a great 15-minute display of that. You’ll recognize the speed and agility-based moves that are mixed in to the pacing of the day. Pillman ended up retaining after dodging a top rope dropkick from Zenk and rolling him up. There was also an impressive spot where Pillman came flying off the top and Zenk just stuck his foot up in a giant teep-style kick to fend off the champ and both guys just tumbled down in a heap. Never seen that kind of spot done like that and it was actually pretty impressive.
MUST SEE MATCHES:
The Steiner Brothers vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Takayuki Iizuka
This one was for the #1 contendership to the IWGP World Tag Titles while the Steiners are the WCW World Tag Champions. This coming about because the Steiners were stripped of the IWGP belts due to an injury to Scott and they’re trying to win their belts back. What we got was a brilliant display of strong style that many American wrestling fans were unfamiliar with at the time. Iizuka looked great, getting a lot of offense in as the young component of the team with Fujinami as the vet. This as a physical, physical match where the WCW champs took a ton of punishment before finally overcoming the Japanese contingent when Rick his Iizuki with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex from the top rope. Also, a treat for me personally because I admittedly haven’t gotten to see a ton of the Dragon’s in-ring work.
WarGames Match – Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and Ricky Steamboat) vs. the Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko)
This one is quite often rated as the best or one of the best WarGames matches of all time. Which I always kind of found interesting, like how do you rate chaos? So what was so great about this one? Well, the intermeshing storylines coming into the match gave every member of both teams a reason to come in at a fever pitch. They also were doing the will he won’t be be loyal to the team angle with Nikita Koloff, which hadn’t quite been done to death yet. And unlike a few WarGames over the last year or so and a few to come after this one, it was a battle between all of the top guys. All the major singles champions were represented sans the Light Heavyweight title. The Television champion Windham and the former TV champ Austin started this out in high gear and it really never slowed down. Austin was the first to get busted open in the first period and while I don’t remember blood in this one, its almost a necessary part of the match. It’s one of those elements (like a roof on the cage) that are missing from the WWE version of the match that kind of takes away the meaning of the WarGames. It is the ultimate battlefield, but it doesn’t feel like the ultimate battle is taking place. But I’ve been accused of being a bloodthirsty Neanderthal over this point before. There’s also the Match Beyond aspect that’s present here, making the only way to win via submission. This lived up to its name, it was an absolute war. Multiple guys ended the night as bloody messes and as Jim Ross predicted, at the end it was difficult to distinguish the winners from the losers. It had all the physicality that even included some ring deconstruction that lead to the finish.
FINAL GRADE: C-
In what is the reverse of the WCW PPVs that I’ve reviewed as late, the best matches were actually at the end of the night. Unfortunately, two or three great matches weren’t enough to overcome a ton of meh from the rest of the night. Unlike several other shows, there is definitely some great stuff worth your time to seek out. Just keep your finger on fast forward.
NEXT WEEK:
I haven’t truly felt a ton of pain for these reviews as of late, so I figured its probably time I suffered. Before I start (mostly) randomizing what I watch, I thought it would be appropriate to do something related to the season as we’re about to hit December and the Festive period. With that in mind, come back next week for my review of 2006’s worst idea next to Little Man: WWECW December to Dismember.
The Finisher 