Alright, here's my second Fall Brawl review.
Quite different than the 95' show.
WCW FALL BRAWL 1996
Winsten-Salem, North Carolina
"You want a war?…
You've got a war“
On commentary is
Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, & Dusty Rhodes. They talk about the NWO vs WCW Battleground match and the apparent betrayal from Sting and his attack on Lex Luger.
Diamond Dallas Page Vs Chavo Guerrero, Jr.
25 year old rookie Chavo Guerrero looks like a stern mustachioed dad that wrestles on the weekends.
Chavo immediately goes after Page in a flurry, then beats him with a belt, the ref is fine with this. Heenan talks about how Page used to be a street person. An extremely stiff clothesline off the top rope from DDP absolutely crushes poor Chavo. The size difference between these two guys is really apparent. Very stiff elbow right to Chavo's face as Page pulls him into it, it looks like it knocked him out momentarily, the crowd pops for it. DDP takes an amazing backflip bump as Chavo hits him with a huge knee lift coming off the ropes. The crowd boos poor Chavo for his efforts. Winsten-Salem really hates face Chavo. Page hits an absolutely massive rotating tilt-a-whirl powerbomb, crowd goes nuts for this. Soon followed up with a Diamond Cutter, and DDP gets the win. A fantastic opening match, really surprised me considering the odd pairing.
3.25/5 stars.
Harlem Heat w/Sherri & Colonel Robert Parker are in the back to live chat with fans over
Compuserve. Some poor young computer dork is trying to type for them as Colonel Robert Parker yells what sounds like gibberish at him.
Scott Norton vs Ice Train w/Teddy Long
The former Fire & Ice tag team go up against each other. Look at these two barrel chested hoss ass mother motherfuckers. Ice Train's arms are fucking massive. Backdrops, DDT, clotheslines, chops, splashes, suplexes, powerslam. Huge spine buster from Norton right into a Boston crab. Teddy gets up on the apron and Norton pulls him into the ring and lifts Teddy by the neck up. Ice Train quickly comes from behind and applies a full nelson hold on Norton. The hold looks like it's going to pull Norton's arms out from their sockets. Norton collapses to the mat and taps. Ice Train wins via submission. There can only be
One Hoss to rule them all.
2/5 stars.
Juventud Guerrera Vs Konan w/Jimmy Hart
Juventud comes out and trips right over the ring stairs as he's pointing to the camera. A sign of what's coming his way.
Konan has made the transition over to his chulo gimmick. Highly disappointed that Jimmy Hart is not dressed to match him.
Match starts with an immediate quick pace. Release German suplex from Konan as Juve does a full flip in the air. On the outside Konan catches Juve jumping off the safety barricade and destroys him with a kneel down powerbomb. An old lady in the front row is very concerned about poor Juve and hysterically begs for him to get up. Dusty talks about how Juventude needs to flippity flop Konan to get the win. More powerbombs and Germans from Konan. Konan catches Juventude jumping backwards off the ropes and turns it into a really vicious looking wheel barrel suplex, just whips him back with full velocity. The crowd shrieks as they react to what is likely a concussion. Front row old lady is beside herself. Juve recovers quickly, 450 splash for a two count. Konan grabs Juve's legs as he's holding onto the top ropes in the corner, turns himself around and whips Juve forward into a huge Alabama slam. Juve goes to the top again and Konan folds him up on his shoulder and hits him with a Muscle Buster. Konan gets Juve back up onto the top turnbuckle and gives him the Splash Mountain, what looks like a Razor's Edge while standing on the first rope. Konan wins by pinfall. The old lady in the front row is now crying quietly to herself. RIP Juventude.
It was hard to watch Juventude take that many hard bumps. A ridiculous amount of big high spots but most were dangerous. Pretty gross.
3/5 stars.
Chris Jericho Vs Chris Benoit
Fuck yes. Chris Jericho is making his very first WCW PPV appearance.
Benoit immediately goes on offense aggressively. Crowd is popping big for Benoit, they are red hot for the Four Horsemen. Benoit is knocked outside with a Jericho springboard dropkick. Jericho then springboards backwards off the second rope over the corner to the outside for a flying back elbow, but while he's coming down the back of Jericho's left hand absolutely fucking nails Benoit right in the face as you hear a loud smack. Big powerbomb from Jericho into a pin attempt, followed by a double-underhook suplex into another pin attempt. They give each other some strong choppy chops. A massive top rope headbutt from Benoit that hits Jericho perfectly. Benoit yells at Jericho "
You wanna be famous!??" Great sequence with a chain of reversals and corner chops. Jericho reverses Benoit and hits a...Tombstone piledriver? Jericho follows with the Lionsault, Benoit moves out of the way, Jericho lands on his feat and hits Benoit with a stiff clothesline. Jericho hits a Frakensteiner off the top rope. Benoit recovers and eventually hits Jericho with a top rope back suplex and gets the final pin. There can only be One Chris.
4.25/5 stars.
Cruiserweight Championship
Super Calo Vs Rey Mysterio, Jr. (C)
Crowd is really dead for this one to start, I don't think they know how to react to Super Calo who looks really weird. Calo hits an awesome springboard head scissors on Rey who's sitting on the top turnbuckle. North Carolina is not impressed with his flippy shit. Calo works Rey's arm, Rey's selling is great. Rey hits a somersault senton over the ropes to Calo on the outside and lands perfectly on Calo. Rey goes for some kind of springboard move on Calo who's in the ring now, and Calo hits him midair with a dropkick, it looks amazing. Crowds gasps and then goes dead again. Calo works the arm again. Both men are standing on the ring apron, Rey springboards off the ropes and hits Super Calo with a spinning Frakensteiner to the outside. Holy fuck. Crowd is mildly excited. Rey springboard backflips into the second ring. He then jumps on the top ring rope, leaps to the top rope of the ring Calo is in, and then gives Calo a springboard Frakensteiner right into a pin. Jesus Christ. Rey gets the win. Since there are no Horsemen in the ring the crowd barely reacts to this. The commenters are super impressed and give both guys major props.
4/5 stars
World Tag Team Championship
The Nasty Boys Vs Harlem Heat (C) w/Sister Sherri & Colonel Robert Parker
Harlem Heat's pyro fucking explodes out with two massive fire balls, it looks awesome, also scares the shit out of Colonel Parker.
Match starts and Sherri immediately yanks Jerry Sag's feet as he goes for first pin. Nasty Boys are really over for whatever reason. Basic but sound tag team wrestling. One of the ringside photographers gets in the way as Sags goes to the outside to deal Parker and Sherri. Sags just pushes the photographer to the ground and walks right over him. In the ring Stevie Rey hits Brian Knobbs in the face with an absolute monster jumping scissors boot. Jerry Sags likes to shout "NASTAAAY!" at random times. Knobbs hits Booker with some stiff potatoes and Booker gives him an immediate receipt with a vicious flying forearm to the head as Knobbs is coming off the ropes. Sherri keeps getting involved. Sags stalks Colonel Parker on the outside, Stevie Rey then pops up from behind Parker and levels Sags with a football style cross clothesline. Brian Knobbs gets the hot tag to a pretty big reaction. Knobbs goes to pin Booker after a second rope splash, but the ref is distracted and Sherri nails Knobbs in the back with a cane. Booker climbs on top and gets the pin. Harlem Heat retain. Shucky ducky quack quack.
3/5 stars
Commercial for Fall Brawl t-shirts with Ric Flair.
Macho Man promo. He quotes Alanis Morissette, then makes sure to make mention of Hulk Hogan's black heart.
Macho Man Vs The Giant (NWO)
Crowd is hot for this match. At the start Macho hits Giant over the head every time he tries to climb into the ring. Macho attacks him outside and tries to slam him, falls backward and Giant squashes him on the concrete. Giant manhandles Macho in the ring. Jumping headbutt to Macho's dick. Ref seems fine with this. Horrible looking Boston crab from Giant. Bear hug. Macho attacks Giant's right knee and finally knocks him down with a top rope bulldog. Macho slams Giant and the entire arena goes fucking nuts. Macho hits the top rope elbow and Hogan makes his way out at the same time. Hogan lures Macho's dumb ass out of the ring and up the ramp. Hall and Nash appear from the curtains and Nash nails Macho in the back with a chair. They beat down on him and then throw Macho back into the ring. Nick Patrick is allegedly on the take and ignores what just happened. Giant casually makes the pin and picks up the win.
1/5 stars.
Backstage segment with team WCW.
Sting shows up and explains how it wasn't him that attacked Lex. Lex isn't buying it. Sting says he'll see them out there and runs off.
War Games
Team WCW (Flair, Arn, Lex) Vs NWO (Hogan, Nash, Hall, & mystery partner) w/Ted Dibiase
Michael Buffer runs down the rules, then goes through the introductions while explaining that the NWO have a secret teammate they are not announcing.
This War Games is different from last year. The first two men to start the match come out alone, the rest make their way out as it's their time to enter the cage. Scott Hall and Arn Anderson are first.
They start out brawling. Crowd is really hot for Arn. Hall is throwing some amazing looking working punches. Match slows down with some holds. Big spine buster off the ropes from Arn which gets a huge pop. Nash is out next and legs it down, immediately going for Arn. They ram Arn into the cage. Luger jogs out next. He double clotheslines Hall and Nash for a massive pop. Tosses both of them into the cage and runs wild. "Luger is pumped!". Heh. Hogan is out next and is in the cage before the timer is done. NWO gang up on Arn and Lex in the second ring. Flair is out next. He gets in the first ring, hits the ropes and struts by himself. Flair hits Hogan with brass knucks, then low blows both Nash and Hall...followed by more strutting. Knee to Hogan's dick. Figure-four. Fake Sting out next for NWO. Crowd boos. NWO takes over with the extra man. Countdown hits for next Team WCW member and it's real Sting sprinting down to the cage. Sting hits all four NWO team members with Stinger Splashes. Crowd is still hot as hell. Lex's poor child-like mind can't seem to comprehend what is happening and prods Sting for an explanation. Sting points to fake Sting and yells "
Is that good enough for you!?", gives Lex the shove it gesture, walks out of the cage and up the exit way. Fake Sting puts Arn in a Scorpion Deathlock and Hogan chokes him at the same time. Arn passes out and the NWO are victorious.
1.75/5 stars
NWO beat down team WCW post match. Lex crawls out of the ring and up the entrance way, reaching out and screaming "
STINGERRRRR!!". The fight moves out to the entrance way. Macho comes out and goes straight for Hogan, dragging him back to the ring. Hogan begs off and The Giant comes in attacks him from behind, chokeslam. Miss Elizabeth comes out. She's a member of the NWO but is concerned for Macho. She begs them to stop and then lays over Macho to protect him. Hogan spray paints the back of Elizabeth. "Hogan sucks" chant breaks out. Hogan calls them two pieces of trash and spits on Elizabeth. NWO taunts the fans and as trash is hurled at them. They pull Elizabeth off and spray paint Macho. Giant calls himself
the greatest artist in the world. Hogan spits in the camera. Another chokeslam for Macho. NWO storms the commentary desk and chase off Heenan/Tony/Dusty. Trash is just raining down on them nonstop now, they love it. Macho is helped to the back as the PPV signs off.
