WCW SuperBrawl III 1993 Review (The White Castle Of Fear)

February 21^st, 1993
Location: Asheville, North Carolina, USA (Asheville Civic Center)
Announced attendance: 6 500 (capacity: 7 674)
PPV buys: 95 000 (same as Starrcade 1992; down 65 000 buys from SuperBrawl II 1992)

Welcome to my review of WCW’s first pay-per-view of 1993, SuperBrawl III. It features Sting against WCW Champion Vader in a non-title unsactioned “White Castle of Fear” strap match in the main event. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express take on Jim Cornette’s Heavenly Bodies in a personal feud stemming from Smoky Mountain Wrestling. ‘Mr. Wonderful’ Paul Orndorff gets into Cactus Jack’s playground in a Falls Count Anywhere Match, and more.

Here is the list of WCW champions heading into this PPV:

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Big Van Vader [53^rd day of his reign] – previous champion: Ron Simmons
• NWA World Heavyweight Champion: The Great Muta [48^th day of his reign] – previous champion: Masahiro Chono
• WCW United States Heavyweight Champion: Dustin Rhodes [41st day of his reign] – previous champion: Rick Rude, before it was vacated
• WCW World Television Champion: vacated [for 39 days] – previous champion: Scott Steiner
• WCW/NWA Unified World Tag Team Champions: Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas [95^th day of their reign] – previous champions: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes

Note: in title matches, the defending champions are underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Jesse Ventura (no more Jim Ross in WCW, whose last appearance was on the previous night’s broadcast of WCW Saturday Night)

Eric Bischoff and Missy Hyatt open the show. Missy teases an interview with the returning Ric Flair for later in the night. Bischoff brings in Johnny B. Badd, who hypes up some of the matches before they introduce Schiavone and Ventura at ringside.

Maxx Payne performs an instrumental version of the American National Anthem. Quite weird since he’s a heel.

The Hollywood Blonds (Stunning Steve Austin & Flyin’ Brian Pillman) vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell & Erik Watts

Hollywood Blonds are the number one contenders for the tag titles, but they’re doing this instead of challenging Steamboat and Douglas. We got here after Bagwell scored fluke wins in singles matches against each member of the Blonds on TV during the last few weeks. Bagwell pinned Pillman, while Austin’s loss was in a 10-minute challenge in which Bagwell survived that time. Watts is here as well because… I’ve got nothing. Bagwell starts with an armdrag on Austin and goes to work on the arm. Austin tries to outwrestle him as it turns into a test of strength, surprisingly won by Bagwell. Austin catches Bagwell with a cheap elbow in the corner, and goes to work on him. Austin with a powerslam attempt, Bagwell avoids it and a right hand dumps Austin all the way to the floor. Watts gets booed out of the building as soon as he gets tagged in, which is pretty hilarious. Bagwell and Watts with a double backdrop to Austin and a double clothesline to Pillman. Watts and Pillman get into a brief shoving fest, before Watts takes over with a series of laughable armdrags. Seriously, look at this.

Eat your heart out, Ricky Steamboat! Watts with a wristlock on Brian. Bagwell comes in, but ends up getting caught in the Blonds’ corner in short order. Austin misses a clothesline, they get into a criss-cross sequence and Bagwell connects with a crossbody for two. Off to Watts for a headlock into an abdominal stretch, and Bagwell comes back in for an abdominal stretch of his own. Austin grabs a handful of hair to break the hold and tags out. Pillman gets met with a gorilla press slam by Bagwell, though. Marcus follows it up with a clothesline that gets two. Austin with a powerslam on Watts, drops an elbow on Erik’s face but a splash only finds Erik’s knees. Boston Crab by Watts. Pillman comes in with a cheap kick to break the hold and gets a pop for it! Brian comes in off the tag, but misses a kick to the gut and Watts takes him down into the STF. Pillman is on the ropes, though.

Brian’s knee buckles and he asks for a time-out, which allows him to take control after the idiot Watts falls for it. Pillman takes the rookie to the outside and goes for a move off the apron, but Watts moves out of the way and Brian eats the railing throat-first. However, the Blonds hit a double-elbow on Watts back inside that sends him back to the floor. Austin slams Erik on the floor. Back in, Austin struggles to sunset flip Watts and Pillman comes in for a cheap attack, which draws Bagwell in and gets the referee distracted, allowing the Blonds to cut the ring in half as the beatdown on Erik continues. A sunset flip by Watts gets a delayed two count, as the referee was busy with Austin. Bagwell gets a cheapshot from Austin as well, which gets him all worked up and allows the Blonds to continue the beating. Pillman goes up for a flying splash, but Watts gets his knees up again. He’s still not able to make the tag, though, as Austin backdrop suplexes him for two. Austin and Watts butt heads in the corner, causing Austin to miss a running guillotine buttdrop and allowing Watts to FINALLY make the hot tag. Powerslam by Bagwell, but Austin breaks up the pin and Watts joins in as ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE! Bagwell with a Perfectplex to Brian, but Austin comes off the top rope with an elbowdrop while the ref is busy taking Watts off the ring. Brian covers and steals the win at 16:34.

• Rating: This was a competent tag team match with the right result, although it didn’t need to go over 16 minutes at all. It’s a miracle how Austin and Pillman managed to get such a fun match out of Bagwell and Erik Watts of all people, who the crowd totally rejected at the start, yet the heels managed to win them over during their heat segment on Watts. It would’ve been a lot better had it been a solid 5-7 minutes shorter, but this was about as good as it was going to get. I liked how the Blonds pinned Bagwell, avenging their recent fluke losses in singles matches against him to put an end to that story, before moving on to the tag titles. **3/4

A short video package for Vader/Sting airs with Sting going all the way to the Rocky Mountains looking for Vader in the “white castle of fear”. Yep, you read that right.

Eric Bischoff reveals that Ric Flair is coming back to WCW, and Missy Hyatt unsuccessfully tries to interview Flair as he arrives in his limo.

2 Cold Scorpio vs. Chris Benoit

Benoit fires away early with a shoulderblock. Snap suplex by Benoit. Scorpio strikes with a springboard crossbody for the first nearfall of the match. He follows it up with a dropick and a spinkick, and Benoit bails. Back in, Scorpio uses his agility to get out of Benoit’s hammerlock, but Benoit eventually takes him down and locks in an armbar. Scorpio once again uses his flips to reverse the hold, and now he goes to work on Benoit’s arm. They go to an exciting criss-cross sequence, which ends with Scorpio dumping Benoit all the way to the outside with an armdrag. Test of strength leads into a pretty great sequence on the mat, until Scorpio explodes with a dropkick and an armdrag. Scorpio drops a leg on Benoit’s bad arm as he continues to work on it, but Benoit fights back with a headbutt. Sharpshooter attempt by Benoit is blocked by Scorpio who sends Benoit flying using his legs, Benoit avoids a dropkick but Scorpio ALSO avoids an elbowdrop before delivering a superkick to Benoit! Scorpio goes back to the armbar, even turning it into a crucifix pin for two. Meanwhile, Cappetta announces there are 10 minutes left in the time limit.

Benoit escapes the hold and rams Scorpio’s head into the buckle. Leapfrog by Benoit, Scorpio cartwheels his way out of a Benoit move and tries a spinkick, but Benoit ducks and nails him with a clothesline! The crowd is really enjoying this by now. Benoit follows it up with another clothesline. Benoit with a backbreaker hold followed by a chinlock, before dropping Scorpio on the top rope with an inverted suplex. Scorpio puts the “miss” in missile dropkick back inside and Benoit gets two out of it. Benoit catches a charging Scorpio with a spinebuster and he locks in a modified version of the Boston Crab. It looked similar to the Liontamer that Jericho would later use. We’re in the final five minutes. Benoit takes Scorpio up top for a backdrop superplex, but he ends up hurting himself as well. He’s still able to crawl over for two, though. Russian legsweep gets two more. Backdrop suplex by Benoit gets turned into a crossbody by Scorpio in mid-air for a quick nearfall. Three minutes remaining. Powerbomb by Benoit gets two. He ends up eating knees off a blind charge, however, and Scorpio gives him an enziguiri. Benoit ducks a couple of spinkicks but Scorpio finally catches him with a running clothesline. He follows it up with a spinning splash onto Benoit in the corner and climbs up to the top rope. One minute left. Scorpio hits his flying twisting splash but Benoit kicks out! Scorpio tries to end it with a victory roll, only to get dropped down with a faceplant. Benoit goes up with a flying legdrop for two. Scorpio gets two of his own with a cradle as Cappetta starts the countdown for the final ten seconds. Benoit goes for the dragon suplex, Scorpio sits down to avoid it and rolls him up for an alleged “last-second win” at an alleged “19:59” aka 18:35.

• Rating: This was a pretty awesome undercard match between two great young talents who were both wrestling their first singles PPV match (Scorpio had been apart of battlebowl at Starrcade 92). They were given more than enough time to shine (perhaps even more than necessary), so of course these two were going to deliver a quality bout. The crowd absolutely loved this and so did I. Great win for Scorpio, in what was easily the best match in his brief WCW career up to this point. Benoit would soon go back to Japan and wouldn’t be signed full-time until 1995, although he still wrestles at the next PPV. ***3/4

Bischoff announces Dustin Rhodes vs. Ron Simmons for the US Title is cancelled due to Ron’s injury; Maxx Payne will be challenging Dustin instead.

Davey Boy Smith vs. Wild Bill Irwin

Here is Bulldog making his WCW debut fresh off his WWF release for steroids the previous November, just a couple of days after his IC Title loss to Shawn Michaels aired on SNME. Big pop for Bulldog. Davey Boy overpowers Irwin in the beginning, with Irwin arguing about some inexistent hair-pulling. Irwin throws some forearms in the corner, which earns him a couple of shoulderblocks followed by a clothesline to the outside. Bulldog gets a break here and isn’t DQ’d as he was still getting used to the new WCW rules! You don’t get a break, though. Down that bad boy! Gorilla press slam by Davey and Irwin bails. A shoulderblock back in the ring is obviously no-sold by the Bulldog, who immediately responds with a hiptoss. Irwin rams Davey Boy into the buckle though, and throws a back elbow smash for two. We hit the chinlock, easily escaped by Davey Boy who gets Irwin up for a delayed vertical suplex. Bulldog with a clothesline for two while Jesse wonders if the irish whip really is Irish! Irwin goes up top for a high crossbody, only for Smith to catch him effortlessly in mid-air as the Running Powerslam finishes Bill at 5:49.

• Rating: Short match to introduce British Bulldog to WCW fans. Irwin got too much for cannon fodder, but it got the job done. *1/4

After the match, British Bulldog says he came to WCW hungry. He challenges Big Van Vader for the World Title after he’s done with Sting.

Paul Orndorff is backstage for an interview with Bischoff, but Cactus Jack comes up with a shovel and our next match is underway!…

Falls Count Anywhere Match – Paul Orndorff vs. Cactus Jack

Cactus chases Orndorff with the shovel all the way to ringside. It’s Paul who gets the first shot after getting in the ring first and kicking Cactus in the head, though. Paul rams Cactus into the railing a few times and adds some choking with the TV cable. Cactus turns things around in short order and starts exposing the concrete already. He slams poor Orndorff on the exposed floor and follows it up with a running elbowdrop for an early two count. Cactus climbs up to the top rope for a SUNSET FLIP ONTO THE EXPOSED FLOOR. That gets two. This guy is nuts. Cactus’ bump allows Orndorff to take over back inside the ring. Paul dumps Cactus back to the outside and jumps onto him with a flying elbow smash off the apron. He takes Cactus to the top of the ramp, where he sends Cactus over TWO SETS of railing and onto the floor!! They get into a slugfest up there, won by Cactus, who throws Orndorff back to the ramp. Paul suplexes Cactus onto the TOP OF THE RAILING… holy f*ck.

Orndorff takes Foley back to ringside, who is laughing in Paul’s face and takes an even bigger beating for it! Paul goes after Cactus’ bad knee with some shots. He rips the brace and locks in a Figure Four. Cactus manages to fight his way out of it, just to immediately eat a clothesline and get dumped. Paul drives Cactus’ knee right into the concrete to add more punishment. Cactus slowly climbs up to the apron, and Paul meets him with a shot to the head with the knee brace, with Cactus falling backwards and taking a crazy back bump on the outside. My god. Orndorff takes Gary Cappetta’s chair for some extra shots to the knee. Paul calls for the Piledriver but he takes too much time, and the crazy bastard is already standing beside him with the shovel in hands.. Paul turns around and WHAM! Cactus takes this one at 12:17.

• Rating: This was great stuff. Cactus took some scary looking bumps in this one, but the crazy motherf*cker sure knew how to get the people emotionally invested while he took a beating. This was no exception, and Mr. Wonderful helped take this one to the next level with his intensity and heel work. Props to Paul for getting out of his comfort zone and doing this to help elevate Cactus at over 40 years of age, when he easily could’ve refused. This is one of his best matches! I loved the psychology near the end, and the fact that they started the match with the shovel and then brought it back for the finish. ****1/4

Meanwhile, Johnny B. Badd and Missy Hyatt offer their VERY important thoughts on the show so far.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) vs. The Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane & Tom Prichard) (w/ Jim Cornette and Bobby Eaton)

The story heading into this one was actually pretty cool and one you probably know or have heard of. Rock ‘n’ Roll had recently returned to WCW and were originally scheduled to wrestle The Wrecking Crews, aka The Godwinns a few years later in WWF, on this show. However, Jim Cornette, manager of the Heavenly Bodies (whom the RNRE were feuding with in Smoky Mountain), came out on WCW Saturday Night and cut a great worked shoot promo on WCW management and how incompetent the company was, especially after making the Midnight Express look like sh*t for years and that being the reason for him and Stan Lane leaving in 1990, while Eaton stayed there just to collect their money. A good part of this story is actually true, which is what makes it great. WCW met with Smoky Mountain President, Bullet Bob Armstrong, who agreed to hold this match on WCW’s PPV. Ironically enough, this exact same match would then happen at that year’s Survivor Series in the WWF… mind-blowing! Well except Eaton, of course, who remained in WCW for a few more years collecting their money!

Eaton gets thrown to the back immediately, as Gibson starts with a flying headscissors to Tom. Morton in with a hurricanrana and an armdrag to Lane. Morton whips Lane into the interfering Prichard for a double noggin knocker. Lane sends Morton into the turnbuckle, but Gibson covers the turnbuckle with his body to block his partner’s impact. Prichard tries to do the same right away, but Gibson comes in and the Rock ‘n’ Roll go to work on the heels together. The Heavenly Bodies take a powder, with Cornette joining them for a supportive hug. Back in, Prichard and Morton get into a slugfest, won by the latter who follows it up with an atomic drop that knocks Tom into Lane yet again. It’s off to Robert for an enziguiri that gets two. The Bodies try to isolate Morton in their corner, but Ricky fights his way out of there alone and we get a stalemate. Cornette tries to provide a distraction leading into a criss-cross sequence. However, Morton leaves the ring to chase Cornette while Lane’s still running the ropes, and Corny goes flying after crashing onto Lane in the ring! Morton follows it up with a right hand that dumps Jim out for good, after a double noggin knocker to the Heavenly Bodies. Ricky goes back to business as he criss-crosses, only for Cornette to trip him up, allowing Lane to kick Ricky in the leg from behind. Cornette adds a shot with the racket as it’s about time for Ricky to get his contractually obligated ass whipping.

Lane stops to pose and dance for a while, with the Heavenly Bodies finally in control for the first time. Meanwhile, Schiavone calls Ricky “Richard Morton”… why would anyone remember that awful heel run of his? Good lord. Anyway, the Bodies remain in control with constant double-teaming. Double suplex by the Bodies into an elbowdrop by Lane. Morton gets a quick sunset flip in, but Cornette has the referee distracted and he misses it, allowing Prichard to cheapshot Morton and break up the pin. Ricky tries to fight back, only for Prichard to cut him off rather easily with a sitout powerbomb for two. Ricky attemps another flying headscissors out of the corner, but ends up walking into a powerslam by Lane for two. The Bodies go for a double backdrop on Morton, who manages to block and drive both guys down with a double DDT. Ricky craaaawls…. aaaaaaaand…. he’s in the wrong corner! He turns around, craaaaaawls…. aaaaaaaand….. HOT TAG GIBSON!! Robert runs wild on the Bodies until he gets caught 2-on-1. Ricky eventually joins him in the ring for a double clothesline to Lane. Double dropkick to Prichard. Gibson sends Cornette flying into the ring too! The distraction gives Prichard enough time to come in with a bulldog to Gibson, which gets a delayed nearfall. Cornette stops to argue with Nick Patrick, causing him to miss Ricky’s cover on Tom off an atomic drop. Bobby Eaton shows up on the top rope, but his flying elbow ends up hitting Prichard instead. Ricky dumps Eaton and holds Lane, allowing Gibson to splash Prichard for the win at 12:52.

• Rating: Holy caw, this was an absolutely amazing tag team match full of action from start to finish. It never ceases to amaze me how great Ricky Morton is at tag team wrestling. His psychology is nothing short of perfect, knowing exactly when to get his butt kicked just as the fans think his team have their opponents right where they want ’em. From there, he gets destroyed from pillar to post while always trying (and failing) to fight back, building up the hot tag perfectly and setting up Robert’s eventual comeback spot brilliantly. I loved this. Another banger from this show. ****1/4

Meanwhile, Sting finds the White Castle of Fear and walks in.

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship – Dustin Rhodes vs. Maxx Payne

Well, speaking of bangers… this one won’t fall in that category, I’m afraid. Dustin starts off aggressively and Payne bails already. Payne walks back in, eats a running clothesline and bails yet again. Cool. Back inside, Dustin gets a roll-up for two, gets an armdrag aaaand…. Maxx Payne bails. Well, consistency is the key to success. Dustin works an armbar and the crowd is so dead I can literally hear a 12 year old girl in row 20 or so yelling. Maxx fights out of the hold and we get a stalemate, only for Dustin to take him down. And back to the armbar we go. Payne rams Dustin into the buckle, but he misses a corner clothesline and Dustin… say it with me… goes back to the armbar. Payne throws some chops, but misses an elbowdrop and Dustin goes after the arm again. Dustin eats an elbow off a blind charge and Payne gets two. Maxx Payne sends Dustin flying off the corner and now HE WORKS AN ARMBAR. Okay guys we get it, you’re really good at armbars, can we please move on from here? Maxx Payne sets him up for his dreaded submission hold “The Painkiller” (LOOOOL), but Dustin wants none of that. I guess he wasn’t quite recreational yet in 93. Payne slugs it out for about two minutes or so and they even take it to the floor for a while. The crowd still doesn’t care. Maxx with a backdrop back inside, but Dustin makes the comeback. He connects with the Lariat and follows it up with a suplex for two. Rhodes goes to an abdominal stretch and… Maxx pulls the referee for the stupid DQ at 11:28. You gotta be sh*tting me..

The beating continues after the match, but Dustin fights back and stands tall. What a pointless waste of time.

• Rating: The arm work that they spent about five minutes on went nowhere. A tedious boring affair with a horrible non-finish. As far as the rating – well, here comes the payne: DUD.

The returning Ric Flair joins us to provide commentary for the match for the title he never lost.

NWA World Heavyweight Championship – The Great Muta (w/ Hiro Matsuda) vs. Barry Windham

The crowd showers them with “we want Flair” chants while the ref goes over the rules, which is always a good sign. Windham gets the better of a test of strength early on. Barry gives him an overhead suplex off the test of strength, and Muta goes to work on him on the mat. Muta with a spinkick and he goes to the side headlock. Windham tries to escape it with a backdrop suplex, only for Muta to reverse it and hold on to the hold on the mat. Barry escapes it, but walks into a dropkick and Muta goes back to the headlock. Cappetta with the 10-minute announcement even though it’s not even close. Muta blocks a Barry suplex and turns it into one of his own, followed by an elbowdrop. And back to the side headlock he goes. This match is weird as hell. Barry fights out of it with elbows, avoids a dropkick and FINALLY turns things around with a DDT. Windham takes him outside for a backdrop suplex on the floor, before taking him back in with a vertical suplex off the apron into the middle of the ring.

Windham drops a knee for two, before putting Muta in a sleeper. That lasts forever until ref breaks it after catching Barry’s foot on the ropes. Windham hits a gutwrench suplex for two. 20-minute announcement. It’s certainly felt that long, that’s for sure. They go outside and do nothing except trading a few chops back and forth. Back in, Windham drops an elbow and gets two. We hit the chinlock. Exactly what this needed. Muta goes for a sunset flip, but Windham’s too powerful and stops him with a right hand. Muta with a crossbody for two. Muta backdrops his way out of a piledriver attempt by Barry, but the latter remains in control. Muta explodes with a spinkick, but Barry AGAIN remains in control as this just keeps going. Windham takes him up top for a superplex, but Muta shoves him off and comes flying with a chop. Muta with the handspring elbow, but Windham moves out of the way of the Mutasault. He goes for it a second time after getting the upper hand, but Barry gets his knees up to block it. Windham follows it up with a clothesline before putting Muta away with the DDT (it looked awful) for the win and his first World Title at 24:10.

Ric Flair hands Windham the belt afterwards, but Windham refuses the help and celebrates alone. It was cool to see Barry get his first World Title, but his win clearly felt nothing but a bridge to put the NWA title back on Flair as soon as his WWF no-compete clause expired.

• Rating: Another match that was incredibly painful to watch. They traded chinlocks and side headlocks back-and-forth for OVER TEN MINUTES and the whole thing just seemed like nothing but a weird clash of styles. This just kept going on and on and on forever. The finish looked awful too, which certainly didn’t help. DUD

Main Event

Unsactioned “White Castle of Fear” Strap Match – Sting vs. Big Van Vader (w/ Harley Race)

As you can see above, Vader’s WCW World Title is not on the line since this is an unsactioned match. Monster pop for Sting. This feud was really amazing. Here’s my review of their two previous matches if you’ve missed them: Great American Bash 92 and Starrcade 92. This one follows the “touch the corners” rule. Vader overpowers Sting rather easily to start. Big clothesline by Vader followed by a pair of elbowdrops. Vader uses the strap to get the whipping going, and crushes Sting with a flying splash off the top. However, Sting crawls between Vader’s legs and goes low with the strap a few times, allowing him to unload on the big man and take him down. Sting goes up for a flying splash of his own, followed by a second one. Sting grabs the strap and exposes Vader’s back before returning the whipping from earlier. Harley gets up on the apron, so he ends up taking a shot with the strap as well. Vader crawls to the outside to stop Sting’s flurry. Sting meets him outside, where he uses the strap to ram Vader into the post. Sting touches a corner (apparently it counts outside as well), and slams Vader on the floor before dragging him into the other corners. He can’t do it due to Vader’s size, though, and ends up eating the railing instead. Vader is bleeding from the back. That must’ve been a heck of a shower afterwards… holy mackerel.

Vader sets him up for the Powerbomb back inside, only for Sting to backdrop his way out of it. Sting goes up for another flying splash, but finds no water in the pool this time around. Vader capitalizes by immediately splashing Sting. The champ unloads on Stinger and gets him up for a Samoan Drop. Vader Bomb connects and Vader DESTROYS Sting’s back with some NASTY strap shots. Vader gets Sting up on his shoulders yet again, climbs up to the top rope(!) and comes all the way down with a super Samoan Drop off the top rope. What a monster. He touches a couple of corners, but Sting stops the count with a pair of wussy kicks. Vader tries another Vader Bomb, but Sting rolls out of the way of this one. He still gets up way before Sting, though, and climbs up to the top rope. However, Sting uses the strap to crotch him and to bring him down. The monster turns things aroud again somehow and hits a superplex. Vader goes for the finish, but Sting smartly wraps his legs around the bottom rope and causes the break. Vader slugs away on poor Sting, who can barely even stand anymore. Sting comes back with his crazy rolling koppo kick. He follows it up with a German suplex and a DDT. Stinger slugs away on Vader in the corner, while we see a shot of him bleeding from the face. His flurry of punches even took Vader’s mask off! He’s bleeding as well. Sting touches all corners with Vader on his shoulders, but Vader shoves the referee down and Sting trips on the fallen ref on his way towards the fourth and final corner. Vader is busted wide open now. He comes down with a buttdrop and drags Sting around by the foot to touch three corners. Sting holds onto the ropes to stop him, and he eventually kicks Vader off… sending him into the fourth and final corner for the fluke win at 20:54.

Sting beats on Vader with the strap after the bell to avenge his loss. Vader and Harley Race get outta town as soon as possible.

• Rating: I came into this one expecting an intense, physical, brutal, barbaric encounter between these two great rivals after a fantastic year-long feud between them. That is exactly what they delivered here, going back-and-forth with shots with the strap (or simply their bare hands) to destroy one another. Vader left the match with a bruised back, unmasked and bleeding from the face; Sting, on the other hand, saw his face paint slowly turn into blood and took some wild strap shots to the back himself. The finish wasn’t decisive, leaving plenty of money on the table for future business. This feud REALLY helped elevate both Sting and Big Van Vader into legendary status. I expected a somewhat more decisive finish, but this was still a terrific strap match, probably the greatest ever. ****1/4

The new NWA World Champion Barry Windham comes out for an interview with Eric Bischoff. He wants to take every single championship in WCW.

Tony and Jesse recall what happened before closing the book on this PPV.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: Overall, I’d say this was a pretty awesome pay-per-view that had more ups than downs. But boy oh boy were those downs DOWNS. I’m honestly referring to both the NWA and US Title matches, which were both absolutely horrible to get through. On the other hand, though, there were several ****+ matches (Cactus/Orndorff, Bodies/RnR, Sting/Vader). Benoit/2 Cold also came pretty close to it. Looking at a card like this in the end, the highs definitely outweighed the lows, even with two DUDs in it. High recommendation to watch SuperBrawl 3. 8/10

POINT SYSTEM

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