PWP Nation’s “From The Vault” series continues, as Sam Thorne covers WCW Fall Brawl from 1995.
As part of Randy’s quest to watch and review all of the Monday Night Wars, I’ll be taking a look at each pay-per-view as it comes along, as several hours of wrestling each week is more than enough for one man to handle. This time, I’ll be taking a look at the first WCW pay-per-view on our list, which is Fall Brawl 1995!
To kick-off, we get a garish video package and an incredibly cheesy voice-over promising us: a continuous bombardment of excitement, two title matches, two main events and two former allies coming to blows – Arn Anderson and Ric Flair. To finish, it briefly describes the war game match between Hulk Hogan‘s team of Hulkamaniacs (wow) vs. The Dungeon of Doom.
Bobby Heenan and Tony Schiavone further hype the War Games main event at ringside, before Flyin’ Brian Pillman comes out for our first contest of the night.
Brian Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd
#1 Contendership for the WCW United States Championship
Johnny B. Badd spends a good two minutes showboating on the turnbuckle while Michael Buffer announces the first fight of the night. I thought he only did main events, but clearly WCW felt the need to waste their money, even at this point in time.
As the bell tolls, the two lock up and back each other into a corner, before shaking hands in the dreaded face vs face match-up. There’s a lot of basic grappling exchanges, until Pillman locks in a headlock, already. Badd throws him off and Pillman hits an incredible dropkick, which Badd doesn’t feel like selling, as he bounces up before Brian does. We go back to stalling and a couple of standing switches, trading several arm drags as the two circle each other again. Pillman goes for a second side headlock, completely stalling any tempo the match had so far.
The camera goes to the crowd, as we return to the hard camera, we see Badd go for a roll-up and gets a two-count, which is surprising as both men have had virtually no offense at this point. Yet another arm drag by Mero, *yawn*, Brian goes for a roll-up, and hits a snapmare takeover for ANOTHER REST HOLD 6 MINUTES IN. Brian livens the match up with an irish whip into an incredible looking head scissors and back right into a headlock on the floor. Tony tells us it’s been a physical match-up so far. Cheers Tony.
Johnny B. Badd has bladed for some reason, as we see him pull Brian up in yet another headlock. Badd keeps him grounded, but Brian takes control and puts him in a weak Boston Crab. Brian asks ‘Who’s the man now!?’ as he chops Badd on the ropes, Badd reverses and works on the knee of Pillman. Badd hits a modified bow-and-arrow surfboard type thing, but drops it, as Badd and Pillman start to shove each other yet again.
The pace finally catches up for two minutes, until Badd grounds Pillman again for what feels like the thirtieth resthold of this *EXCITING* match. They start running the ropes and awkwardly bump into each other in the air, which is possibly one of the most stupid wrestling spots in history. The ref teases counting both men out, as they both get up, and hit the classic double clothesline into another rest spot.
Pillman gets up first and starts stomping away at Badd, Buffer announces that there’s only five minutes remaining, thank god. Pillman takes a kick to the floor, as Badd follows up with a springboard plancha, flooring both men. Badd drags him back in and goes for a top-rope axe handle, but Pillman hits a beautiful dropkick on Badd whilst mid-air. Pillman only gets the two-count as Tony tells us there’s only three minutes left. Badd hits a power-bomb for another 2. Pillman hits a piledriver but no 3-count. Pillman telegraphs a hurricanrana but Badd throws him off, and again works at the leg of Pillman, further wasting what little time we have left.
Pillman escapes and hits a Russian leg sweep and locks Badd into a chinlock as they tease a submission victory, but Badd starts to ‘Hulk-up’. Johnny B. Badd gets Pillman with the tuttifruity, but Pillman’s leg is under the ropes. Pillman hits a plancha as Buffer starts to count down for the remaining 15 seconds. As Pillman goes into a backslide, we’re told that time is up.
Result: Time-limit Draw
Buffer talks to Patrick, who announces that we’re going to sudden death as we must have a winner.
The bell rings for the second time, as the two men immediately brawl to the outside. Pillman rolls Badd in and both men hit each other with dropkicks. Pillman whips Badd into a sleeper, Heenan quips that someone is snoring, he’s right, I am. Badd reverses it and catches Pillman in his own sleeper hold, joy of joys. It looks like we’re finally at the finish as Badd hits a great sunset flip powerbomb, for a very close 2-count. Badd sets up another powerbomb, but Pillman reverses it with a headscissors. Badd hits the ‘Badd Day’ (Super frankensteiner) but still can’t put Pillman anyway in this never ending match.
Pillman’s on the outside again as Badd dives after him again, before throwing him in, he goes for a springboard, but Pillman’s knees are up. Both commentators put over the fact that we’ve seen almost every move that these men know, as Badd hits yet another dive to the outside. Both are back in, they run the ropes, and both men hit each other with dual crossbodies, but Badd gets the 3-count!?
Winner: Johnny B. Badd
I literally don’t understand why this was the move to put Pillman away, after the Frankensteiner, the powerbomb, or almost anything else, it’s totally illogical. I’d like to like this match, but it just didn’t need to be 29 minutes long, both were pacing themselves after the 3-4 minute mark with headlocks and it was obvious that this was going to be a long, dull match. It was very stop-and-start. I’d rather have seen a fifteen minute match with some actual pace to it. It picked up towards the end and both men were technically sound throughout, but we just didn’t need half an hour. Badd gets the win and will face Sting at some point.
It’s back to the announcers as Tony and Bobby shill the Ric Flair vs Arn Anderson feud, and then we cut to mean gene and Flair for a backstage promo. Flair says for fifteen years he and Arn lived together, sweated together, bled together and cried together, and while he loves Arn, tonight he has to show him that there’s only one king of the hill. Terrific promo.
Cobra vs. Sergeant Craig Pittman
C.I.A operative Cobra comes out to his stupid theme tune composed entirely of morse code, as even Bobby Heenan struggles to put this awful gimmick over. The curtains open but Pittman’s not there, some guy in army fatigues comes out instead. Pittman descends from the rafters ala Sting ’97 and attacks Cobra from behind as the bell rings! Tony says you’ll never know what you’ll see on a WCW pay-per-view, well he’s not wrong. Pittman pummels Cobra repeatedly dominating the offense. Pittman counters a crossbody and locks in the Code Red armbreaker and Cobra taps.
Wow…
Winner: Sergeant Craig Pittman
Can’t say that was really a match at all, but hey, as least I didn’t have to watch Cobra vs. Pittman for 29 minutes.
We see a video package of Paul Orndorff flipping out asking ‘Who am I?’ while he throws stuff around really unconvincingly. Gary Spivey tells him he has to be Mr.Wonderful. Paul says he doesn’t want to. They go back and forth for about five minutes. Probably one of the most bizarre wrestling vignettes I’ve ever seen.
The Renegade vs. Diamond Dallas Page (w/Diamond Doll and Max Muscle)
WCW World TV Championship Match
Page cuts The Renegade off before the bell and gets the early advantage. Both men exchange turnbuckle bumps, before Renegade cranks in a side headlock. Page tries to climb out the ropes, but Renegade drops the headlock and clotheslines Page for a 2-count. Page starts choking Renegade on the top rope and hits a neckbreaker.
Page tosses Renegade out, knees him down to the floor a second time, Renegade does a sunset flip and they take turns reversing each other’s roll-ups. Heenan quips ‘This is the longest match Renegade’s had’, as he’s usually booked in straight squash matches like the Ultimate Warrior. Renegade hits a surprisingly good cartwheel elbow on Page in the corner and a top rope splash for another 2.
Max Muscle tries to interfere but Renegade knocks him off and power slams Page, but he dives on Max instead of going for the pin. Max grabs his leg, and Page hits the Diamond Cutter to win the WCW TV Title.
Winner: Diamond Dallas Page
This was a decent match considering how green The Renegade was. This match marks the decisive end to Renegade’s only push as he’s used mainly as a jobber from this point on, but ‘fake’ wrestlers gimmicks are just a bad idea in the first place. Page isn’t quite at his best in 1995, but he’s close.
The Stud Stable (Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater) vs. Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri)
WCW World Tag Team Championship Match
Booker T and Ray come out with Sister Sherri, and Booker shouts utter gibberish at the camera. Bunkhouse and Dick Slater look like dirty, old hobos as they walk to the ring with Colonel Robert Parker.
Match starts with Dick Slater and Booker in the ring. There’s a lot of stalling as Booker takes an early advantage. He tags to Stevie as they take turns kicking Dick, who looks exhausted already. Ray holds him in place while Booker hits a stiff kick to his sternum with the tag, but Dick drives him to the ropes, where he’s able to tag Bunk in, who’s first move is an arm drag, what a technical master he is.
Several rest holds later, Booker’s got Bunk on the floor in a headlock as the announcers mention the love angle between Parker and Sherri, the two managers of these teams. Bunk tags Dick, but Ray no-sells all of his punches and proceeds to beat him for the classic 10 corner punches. Dick finally gets some offense in with a neckbreaker and sends Booker T out to the floor as the momentum finally shifts to the heels.
Slater continues to ground Booker in the ring, knocking him over repeatedly, as he struggles to hit a piledriver. Bunk is in as he sends Booker T to the floor again, as we’re already stalling for time. Tony picks an awkward moment to call WCW the best promotion in the world. Bunk drops Booker with a big boot and cinches in a reverse chinlock.
Five minutes later, Booker’s still grounded as the heels work him over in this typical tag formula match. Bunk is tagged in and locks in a semi-Boston crab for a long while, but drops it for an attempted pin. Booker T finally gets up and hits a sidekick as he goes for the hot tag. Ray comes in and batters both men, but Bunk seems slightly confused as to where he’s supposed to be. All four men are in the ring, Ray’s thrown out as Bunk and Dick tag team on Booker once more. In the other ring, Sherri tries to seduce Colonel Parker as she crawls to him. What the hell? The Nasty Boys run in and knock out Slater with a boot. Parker and Sherri kiss as Harlem Heat pick up the win and the belt.
Winners: Harlem Heat
It’s unclear as to whether Parker allowed his men to lose and set them up for Sherri, or if he just let it happen. The finish makes Harlem Heat look slightly incompetent as they could have won themselves, but the right team went over. Presumably Nasty Boys vs Harlem Heat is happening in the future. Either way, the match was fine, fairly generic tag-team match besides the completely unexpected finish.
Gene and the Stud Stable berate Colonel Parker for an interview segment, but Parker says he loves Sherri and that he’ll get them another match. Gene calls him disgusting for kissing a woman. What? Parker says his heart is soaring like an eagle and continues to ramble in southern metaphors.
We’re back with Tony and Bobby as we see a graphic for Halloween Havoc ’95… oh god. They shill the Dungeon vs Hogan War Games match, before introducing us to the Flair/Anderson rivalry. Time for Anderson’s promo with Gene, but we first see a video package of the Four Horsemen and how the stable dissolved, mainly because Flair kept leaving Arn to fend for himself against Vader and in numerous tag matches. Both men do a great job of selling this match, saying that they love each other, and that’s why they needed this match. It’s about respect, nothing else. It’s the kind of well-built genuine rivalry that you just don’t see in modern wrestling.
Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson
As Flair makes his entrance and the two face off, the camera shows various talents from the WCW locker room in the crowd, ready to watch this one; from the likes of Brian Pillman, Eddy Guerrero, Alex Wright, Bubba Rogers and even Colonel Parker for some reason.
The two circle the ring, before Ric Flair does the Fargo strut for a huge pop. They run the ropes, Arn trips him, and Anderson slaps the back of Flair’s head, clearly disrespecting him. They lock up again, Anderson flattens Flair again with a vicious shoulder block, then slaps him when he gets up. There’s so much story here and the selling by Flair makes it absolutely phenomenal to watch. Anderson knocks Flair down, and starts nailing Flair’s forearm with his knee. Flair sounds off on him but Anderson slaps him again as Flair flips out.
Anderson continues with the great psychology, as he wears down the arms and elbow of flair keeping it extended, as the camera turns to Pillman for a reaction. Minutes later, Anderson still has the same armbar locked in, bringing Flair back down to the mat with his feet. Flair rolls out of it finally and chops Anderson down. He chops Anderson again, but can’t keep him down, as he counters an Irish Whip and takes to the top, and leaps with a kick to the ribs of Flair. He slams Flair down, as Flair does his patented ‘beg for mercy’ spot, but Anderson kicks him again.
Anderson pulls Flair down to the mat with an arm-drag, pinning him for several 2-counts, but Flair eventually gets to his feet. Heenan mentions that Arn should be working on the leg not the arm, as Flair’s main threat is the figure four leg lock, great commentating. Anderson’s still working away at Flair’s arm, he counters for a brief second to chop Arn, but Arn counters again with a sharp punch to Flair’s forehead. Arn whips Flair into the corner, Flair rolls over the top and stands on the apron, Arn charges at him, but Flair ducks sending Arn out to the floor! Great heel tactics by Flair.
With Anderson down on the outside, The Nature Boy goes to the top rope and hits an axehandle. Flair finally seems to have the momentum as he chops Arn against the barricade, but quickly runs back inside the ring. Ric capitalizes with a knee to the head and puts his legs on the ropes, but he can still only muster a 2-count. Flair tries to chop Arn in the corner, but Anderson counters with a series of punches. Flair hits a low-blow of Anderson and the ref catches it, but he lets it slide after questioning him. Flair dumps Arn out and floors him with another sharp chop.
Flair brings him in and shows he’s strong enough to hang with Flair by hitting a powerful delayed vertical suplex, as both men fall to the floor. Flair’s up first and he chops Arn straight back down before whipping him to the opposite corner, catching him with yet another chop. Anderson’s on the comeback again, as he whips Flair into the corner, as Ric does the classic over-the-top flip selling straight into a tree of woe spot. Arn stomps him in the corner and tells us he’s going for the DDT but flair grabs the ropes and avoids it, what a fantastic reversal.
Flair’s up on the top rope but Anderson rushes to cut him off, as he slams Flair off the top and gets a 2-count. Arn says it’s over and he goes to the rope, but Flair counters and locks in the figure four! Arn sells it fantastically before getting the slow reversal, as Flair’s forced to break the hold and crawl away. Flair rams the back of Arn’s knee, as Arn clutches it in pain and Ric goes for a second figure four, but Arn rolls him up for a 2.9 count. Flair’s got arn in the corner as he does some incredibly soft jabs on the jaw of Anderson, then knocks him down by kicking his knee.
Flair continues in pursuit after Anderson collapses, but Pillman jumps the crowd and onto the apron as he berates Flair. The Nature Boy tells him to ‘f*** off’ if my lip-reading skills are as good as I think they are. Brian decks him from behind, Flair hits him, Pillman kicks him again and Anderson hits the DDT out of nowhere for the 3-count!
Winner: Arn Anderson
A great match with a lot of heavy psychology and a great story. The finish seems to imply that Flair is the better man even though he lost the match, but clearly him losing via dirty tactics when he’s the heel in this match is just desserts. I would have liked to have seen Arn win clean, but this finish clearly protects both men and is likely the soft finish they were looking for so Arn and Flair can reform the horsemen? Or knowing WCW, it’ll continue anyway. Either way, this match is fantastic, go out of your way to watch it.
The Dungeon of Doom (Meng, The Shark, Kamala and Zodiac ) vs. The Hulkamaniacs (Hulk Hogan, Sting, Randy Savage and Lex Luger)
War Games Match
Taskmaster rambles like a camp 90’s era Bray Wyatt as he says vague and mysterious things about Hulk Hogan. At one point he starts picking off dead flowers, for no apparent reason. He then hits a Hulk Hogan action figure with a spade. Oh WCW. Tony tells us about The Giant (Big Show) using a monster truck to trash Hulk’s Harley Davidson. Tony says we’re ready as we cut to another cheesy but effective voice-over video package.
Hogan rambles and shouts at Mean Gene while the others stand their awkwardly in their stupid army fatigues and face paint. Hogan then hogs the mike again after everyone else, effectively saying nothing for a good few minutes while the other awkwardly cheer, nod and slap each others chests. The dungeon are out first, but Taskmaster does literally all of the talking as the dungeon aren’t the most charismatic bunch, hence why they have really stupid gimmicks. To start is Sting vs The Shark for the first five minutes.
Shark gets the advantage as he starts battering Sting, what a waste of potential he was in this gimmick. Sting hits a crossbody from one ring to another, as he then body slams the Shark quite impressively. It’s kind of underwhelming when Tenta gets up and immediately flattens him, though. He then locks Sting in a bear hug for most of a minute, but Sting bails out. They then do a stupid comedy spot where Tenta dives over the ropes and gets caught between the two rings. Sting just kicks him in the gut for a bit and for some reason things a splash in between the rings would be a good idea. Shark catches him and flattens him, but he’s able to crotch him and wobble the rope for a while.
We’re twenty seconds from the next man in, which turns out to be Hulk Hogan’s best friend, Ed Leslie, otherwise known as The Zodiac. The heels bully sting for the next two minutes in what is the painfully predictable formula they use in almost every war games match. Macho’s in next as he beats up both men, all too predictably. Macho gets too close to the apron, as Meng and Kimala pull Savage’s leg through the apron and stomp it, keeping him down.
Kamala’s in as the heels dominate again with generic punch/kick/body slam offense. Tony and Bobby struggle to explain why the match rules don’t clearly favor the first team in as they’ll have the numbers game, but hey, they’re not miracle workers. Luger’s in and he knocks both Kamala and the Shark down with the double clothesline, as the faces dominate until the fourth Dungeon member comes in.
Meng is in and the monsters dominate our plucky heroes, until Hulk Hogan runs in to save the day, because WCW, that’s why. Hogan’s in as he starts throwing dust in the eyes of Zodiac, Meng, Kamala and the Shark, which is usually a heel tactic? So the good guys are allowed illegal weapons just because it’s a war games match? What nonsense. Hulk starts beating Zodiac who bounces between the ring ropes, in what is one of the stupidest looking spots in wrestling history. Hogan knocks Zodiac over by slamming into the cage and locks him into a camel clutch, which Zodiac taps to in about 7 seconds.
Winners: The Hulkamaniacs
The Hulkamaniacs win as The Taskmaster tries to bail out of the arena, but the security pushes him back. So, Hogan wins so he gets to just beat the shit out of Kevin Sullivan for a while. What a good guy he is! Hogan slams TM into each side of the ring, repeatedly. He then walks him outside of the ring, only to slam his head into the cage again, and then walks inside, again. Clearly they’re stalling for something, because the Pay-Per-View would be over otherwise. The Giant comes down looking pissed, as he throws the ref out of the way, walks in the cage and starts to choke Hogan.
Hogan no sells it, but he hits the Giant who also no-sells. He puts his head in a vice again as fans desperately cheer for Hogan, but The Giant does some weird necksnap thing and Hogan sells it like death, for once in his career. The Hulkamaniacs get back in the ring, but it’s too late, The Giant’s already gone.
Pretty much everything bad about wrestling in 1995 was in this match. Cheesy, cartoon-like gimmicks, a clear lack of direction, an over reliance on Hulk Hogan and they’re just not giving us good wrestling matches, almost everything is an angle, or just boring punch/kick/resthold nonsense. This match in particular was far too obvious, it was clear the faces were going to win hands down, and The Giant’s interference was made wholly obvious by the fact he’s feuding with Hulk but he’s not in this match. The commentary and pre-match video showing The Giant also signposted it.
Conclusion
The Cobra vs Pittman thing was generic filler, but not completely awful. The tag match was defensible and the U.S title contention match had some great spots, it was just too long. The dungeon match was pure bullshit, but the second main event in Arn vs Flair was legitimately one of the best matches I’ve seen.
All in all, WCW isn’t at its best. It has a lot of big players in 90’s wrestling in Sting, Luger, Hogan, Big Show and Savage, but the mid-card isn’t there, besides a very young Eddie Guerrero who debuted on the episode of WCW Main Event, before this aired. It’s also far too hammy, ridiculous, dependent on Hogan’s mates and just generally quite dull. Overall, we’ll have to wait and see if it’s better than the first WWF pay-per-view on our journey, which is In Your House #3.
Thanks for reading and be sure to tune in next time.