Burning Hammer Tape Review #6
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WCW: Spring Stampede 1994
April 17, 1994
--Taped from Rosemont, IL
--Your hosts are Bobby Heenan & Tony Schiavone
--Johnny B. Badd V. Diamond Dallas Page (W/Diamond Doll). Badd would later go on to be known as Marc Mero in the WWF, while Diamond Doll is Page's real life wife Kimberly before she started using her real name. Badd gets the pin at 5:54 with a top-rope Sunset Flip. * Basic match, just not all that good.
--WCW Television Championship Match: Flyin' Brian V. Lord Steven Regal (W/Sir William). William is a pretty well known Memphis wrestler, Bill Dundee, and is also the father of JC Ice, who was one of the rappers for the original Nation Of Domination, and a member of the USWA bred tag team, PG-13. Brian is Brian Pillman before he lost all of his talent. Regal catches Brian in a Leapfrog, and turns it into a Release Northern Lights Suplex for 2. Interesting clash of styles is going on, Brian wants to go to the air and make the match more fast paced, but Regal keeps on grounding him and slowing the match down a lot. Match is a draw at 15:03 when the time limit expires. *1/2 Their styles just didn't mesh well here, and the match suffered a lot as a result.
--Chicago Streetfight, Falls Count Anywhere Match: Nasty Boys V. Cactus Jack, Maxx Payne. The Nasty Boys are Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags. Payne had a brief stint in WWF as Man Mountain Rock, and everybody should know Cactus from his run in the WWF as Mankind and Dude Love. Cactus has the uber bad-ass Superdad t-shirt on tonight. Only Cactus could wear a shirt like that and still come off as a psychopathic bad-ass. It's a brawl right from the get go, as they lay into each other with some vicious shots. Payne & Knobbs fight into a fake souvenir stand, and proceed to destroy it. Cactus suplexes a table onto Sags in a vicious spot. Cactus & Sags climb atop a table, only to have it break under their own weight before they can pull off whatever move they were going for. Sags gets the pin at 8:59 after hitting Cactus flush in the head with a shovel. **** This was a brutally good brawl, with everyone involved going balls to the wall for all nine minutes, and a great match resulted.
--WCW United States Championship Match: Great Muta V. Steve Austin (W/Col. Parker). Incredibly long feeling out process, until Muta drops Austin with a Brainbuster. Muta then goes right back to a Headlock, which is apparently the move du jour for this match. Austin wins by disqualification at 16:29 when Muta Backdrops him over the top-rope. NWA/WCW employed a disqualification anytime you purposely threw someone over the top-rope in any way, shape, or form, and that was perhaps one of the stupidest rules they ever came up with. *1/2 They tried to pick it up near the end, but the match was already too far gone by that point for it to actually mean anything. Although, if you're a big fan of Headlocks & Abdominal Stretches then this is the match for you.
--WCW International Championship Match: Sting V. Rick Rude. There's a very long and very stupid backstory to the WCW International Championship which still continues to this day, but I'll save that particular headache for a later review. Sting at one point uses a Backscratch, and I can't recall ever seeing him use that move at any point before or after this match, but if anyone else out there knows differently, then please let me know. We've gone form Headlock City in the previous match to Front Facelock City in this one, which includes Sting holding onto that particular move for close to four minutes at one point. Rude goes on the offense with a Chinlock, which is just what this match needs. Rude goes to a Sleeper, and man this match is just chock full of chain wrestling, just with restholds and no action whatsoever in place of mat wrestling. Sting gets the pin and the title at 13:08 after an interfering Harley Race hit Rude with a chair by mistake. 3/4* Sting was not his usual good self here, and Rude was downright horrendous in this match. In trying to protect a back injury that he suffered just previous to this match Rude took a lot of awkward looking bumps, and really slowed down the match in the process of delivering a terrible performance.
--Bunkhouse Match: Bunkhouse Buck (W/Col. Parker) V. Dustin Rhodes. Buck may be better known to some as a seminal southern wrestler by the name of Jimmy Golden. Rhodes would later gain all his fame in the WWF/E as Goldust. A bunkhouse match is just another way of calling this a hardcore match. The match starts off when Rhodes comes flying down the ramp and into the ring with a Clothesline to take down Buck. Buck breaks a 1x2 board over Rhodes back, and then attacks him with it, which gives Rhodes the opportunity to blade. Buck nails Rhodes with his belt in some truly vicious shots. Rhodes goes to work on Buck with his belt buckle, which allows Buck to tap into a keg of type-o negative. Buck gets the pin at 14:15 after labeling Rhodes with a pair of brass knuckles. ***1/2 Very good brawl, with both guys putting out a maximum effort, and a good match resulted.
--Boss V. Vader (W/Harley Race). Boss is just Big Bossman in one of WCW's many failed attempts to cash in on his former WWF gimmick, all of which were stopped by potential lawsuits by the WWF before he was forced to go back to his old NWA namesake of Big Bubba Rogers. Race is one of the greatest wrestlers I've ever had the pleasure of seeing perform, but he was starting to wear out his welcome behind the scenes by this point. Vader tries a running Plancha from the ramp into the ring, but Boss gets his knees up to block it. Vader takes an up & over bump on an Irish Whip into the railing from Boss. Vader is drawing cheers here, and he always presented an interesting dichotomy when he wrestled in places like Chicago. He was a heel, so we the fans were supposed to boo the hell out of him, but he was also a tough, mean motherfucker, so Chicagoans liked him. This resulted in him always getting cheered in Chicago, because the more of a bad-ass WCW made him out to be, the more we cheered for him. Boss takes a sick Backdrop over the top-rope and to the outside from Vader. They take turns nailing each other with some stiff Clotheslines, and somewhere in their Vader busted his eye open hardway, and there's now a steady stream of blood flowing out of his eye. Boss tries a DDT off the middle-rope, but they get crossed up as Vader apparently thought he was going for a middle-rope Vertical Suplex, but they do manage to salvage the move by making some contact. Vader catches Boss coming off the top-rope with a Crossbody in a Powerslam, that was fucking awesome. Vader gets the pin at 9:19 with a Moonsault Press. ***3/4 This was a SWEET~ match, Vader was his usual great self, and Boss seriously stepped it up here, and was able to keep pace with Vader for the whole match. This is a perfect example of good, hard hitting, stiff, power wrestling. Post-match Boss beats down Vader, but when Vader makes the comeback the fans go nuts for him, because we Chicagoans sure do love tough mofos.
--WCW Heavyweight Championship Match: Ricky Steamboat V. Ric Flair. It's Steamboat & Flair in a wrestling ring, going one on one, and that's all you need to know. Heenan goes off about how Chicago fans would boo the Easter Bunny. Hell yeah, we'd boo the Easter Bunny. If he brings the damn eggs and Easter baskets on time he'll be fine, otherwise he's meat. Some great back and forth action to start things out, where neither guy can get any clear cut advantage. Now they start laying into each other with Chops. Awesome series of moves by Steamboat, as he alternates between a Headlock and a Bell Clap to cause the Headlock to be more damaging. Flair uses a Lateral Press, and manages to get about ten 2 counts off of it. Steamboat catches Flair in a Crossbody, and Hiptosses him over the top-rope, and both guys tumble to the outside. Steamboat goes to town with Chops in the corner, which of course necessitates that Flair oblige us with a Flair Flop. Steamboat catches a Kneedrop from Flair, and turns it into a Figure Four Leglock. Flair can't make the ropes, so after repeated failed attempts he does what any upstanding individual would do, and uses an Eye Poke. Top-rope Crossbody by Steamboat gets 2, but Flair counters with a stiff Clothesline. Steamboat misses a top-rope Splash, and makes the cardinal error of holding his knee in obvious pain, and now Flair says we go to school. Figure Four Leglock by Flair, but Steamboat tries to fight it off, only to have Flair wrench it on even tighter. Steamboat fights his way to the ropes, and gets 2 off an Inside Cradle after Flair tried to reapply the Figure Four Leglock. Superplex by Steamboat put both guys out. Match is a draw at 32:21 when both guys shoulders are down while Steamboat had Flair in a Double-Chickenwing. Tie goes to the champion, so Flair retains the belt. ****1/2 Excellent match, which should be expected with these two guys in the ring. A slight lull in the action in the middle of the match, and the double pin finish that I can't stand are all that stop this match from being rated even higher.
--Final Flash: Awesome event. The Chicago crowd was loud and rabid, which they always are for any wrestling event. Two ****+ matches and two ***+ matches make this not only a great event, but put it up there with some of wrestling's best cards ever.
Highly Fucking Recommended.
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