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.
