WCW UnCensored 95'

RATING LEVELS:

Curt Hennig – A “GOAT” show, as Perfect as possible

Watch It – A consistently good show worth watching in its entirety

Watch It…With Remote in Hand – 3 or more above-average ratings

High Risk Maneuver – Mostly filler, inessential, but 1-2 good matches

DUDleyville – Zero redeeming qualities, chore to watch

WCW UnCensored - March 95'

Tupelo, Mississippi

COMMENTATORS: Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Hulk Hogan is the reigning WCW World Champion, Vader holds the United States Championship (but doesn’t carry it or get announced as it at any point in tonight’s show), Arn Anderson is the TV Champion, and Harlem Heat are the recognized WCW World Tag Team Champions.

Blacktop Bully vs. Dustin Rhodes in a King of the Road match is our opening contest and this match is every bit as bad as you've probably heard. With two guys fighting on the back of an 18-wheeler cruising down an open country road, you know that you're not going to get much technical wrestling, but the "action" you do get is so slow-paced, so poorly captured, and so mild that it is a bore to sit through. There are a few moments when the Bully is in despair, nearly falling out into the street, but as there is no camera to capture anyone's facial expressions, it doesn't resonate and there's no real drama. Absolutely atrocious and at least 3-4 minutes longer than it needs to be. (0/5)

National Karate Champion, Sonny Onoo, is the referee for our next bout (and the first in front of the live Mississippi crowd) - Jim Duggan vs. Meng in a Martial Arts Match. Duggan comes dressed for a hardcore match and refuses to bow to his opponent to start the match. The crowd is more involved in this than I would've predicted as Duggan and Meng put on a ridiculous, cartoonish contest. Sonny Onoo's involvement adds an extra element of bizarreness, but this one is just barely PPV worthy. I enjoyed the final spot and one must give credit to WCW for trying their best to establish Meng as a credible heel. (1.5/5)

Before our next match, we get an interesting video segment centering on Arn Anderson, the reigning Television Champion. Like a weird political ad, you get a whole bunch of soundbytes, but very little actual substance. Still, it's a cool curiosity worth digging for. In fact, overall, the pre-match interviews and video packages building up to each match are quite good and provide needed context to viewers, like myself, revisiting these rivalries 20 years after the fact. (3.5/5)

Like the previous two matches, this one features a strange stipulation: it will be fought in 10 3-minute rounds and can be won by 10-count or pinfall as Television Champion Arn Anderson takes on former TV Champ, Johnny B. Badd. Badd starts things off with some jabs to the Enforcer, while the Enforcer tries to retaliate by tying him up. A 60-second rest period allows Anderson to regroup, but does little to hold the attention of the audience, who seem to get cooler by the minute. To his credit, Badd's rights and lefts look fantastic and stiff, while Anderson's selling is spirited and realistic. The start of the third round changes things up a bit as Double A cheap-shots his way to advantage and pulls out some desperation maneuvers to keep the upper hand.  The last few minutes are as up-and-down as the rest of the match - unique but not great. As a novelty, this could've been worse, but it also could've been a ton better and ended with a more suspenseful finish. (2.5/5)

The Macho Man joins Mike Tenay in the lockerroom in anticipation for his match with John "The Avalanche" Tenta tonight. After a few words, Savage heads down the aisle to take on, without question, the best third of the original Faces of Fear triad. This match further proofs Tenta's underrated greatness as he and Savage put together the best match of the night thus far. Fought under "Anything Goes" rules, it is oddly wrestled cleanly for the majority of its run time. Savage takes to the air and tries his best to use his speed and agility to defeat the Avalanche, but the big man's strength and size is too much for the Macho Man - a familiar story, but one that the participants can sink their teeth into. Savage's WCW run is rarely praised as much as his WWE work, but this match shows he still had something left in the tank, especially with the right opponent and the right opportunity to tell a complete story the way he knew he needed to as a babyface - through loads of selling, hope spots, and expert pacing that pulls the viewer in through subtle shifts in momentum, not over-the-top bumps. The arrival of Ric Flair, dressed in drag, robs the audience of what could've been a satisfying clean ending, but it at least keeps Avalanche strong and points to a future program between Savage and Flair. (3/5)

After a video package hyping their rivalry and some words from Sting, we get our second "Anything Goes" match in a row - Big Bubba vs. Sting. Unlike the previous bout, this one starts off cartoonish, with the Stinger (who gets a huge reaction) connecting with a legdrop to Bubba's hat before the actual match even begins. Bubba, who had some great matches with Vader in 94', takes a beating for quite awhile to and looks pretty winded early on, but just when one assumes that Rogers is spent, he takes control of the match and it is Sting who is on the receiving end of all sorts of stomps and strikes. The story of the match revolves around Sting's injured knee, the initial damage coming from a very organic-looking spot that looks like a botch, but seems so integral to the story of the match that it is hard not to view it as a perfectly executed pseudo-flub. As the match continues, we get a handful of cool moments (including an excellent German suplex from Sting) and even some rare submissions out of the heel. Unfortunately, as good as this match, the ending just seems so rushed. By not truly milking Sting's damaged knee as a key factor in the finish, it left me feeling like this bout was a missed opportunity to develop what could have been a strong rivalry. (3/5)

It's Texas Tornado time and I'm not talking Kerry Von Erich - no, this is a non-title Texas Tornado Tag Team Match pitting the WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat vs. the Nasty Boys. Prior to the match, the Nasty Boys share some intense words, the kind of promo work that is sorely missed in the WWE's overly-scripted product today. The first few minutes of the match don't draw too much interest from the crowd as Harlem Heat's offense is pretty thin. Things pick up a bit as the Nasties take over and start to incorporate the garbage wrestling/weapons-based approach that made their matches against Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne classics. Unlike those masterpieces, though, the violence here is relatively tame, but arguably "funner" - for example, these four (plus Sherri) make an absolute mess of a phony concessions area. Unfortunately, shoddy camera work prevents us from viewing the ending until a replay makes it clear. Not great, but at least you get to watch a wild food fight. (2.5/5)

A fun promo from Vader and Ric Flair segues us into Hulk Hogan defending his WCW World Championship against Vader in a Strap Match. Hogan has his own ally tonight - the debuting Renegade. When Renegade arrives, the pop is huge - no doubt because his music was nearly identical to the Ultimate Warrior's and Hogan had hyped him as his "Ultimate Surprise" to counterbalance Flair outside the ring. The early minutes of the match are dominated by Flair hijinks, who sprints into and around the ring at, drawing much of the crowd's attention from the actual match. This is actually a little unfortunate becase seeing Hogan in a stipulation match is novel and Vader is a great opponent for the Hulkster - powerful and big enough to appear dominate, but agile enough to get a pace going that guys like Andre or Earthquake could not. Hogan's offense lacks stiffness, especially his chair shots, but Vader makes up for it with his energy, ramming himself into the ringpost with reckless abandon at one point. Halfway through, the crowd's excitement begins to taper off due to Hogan's very limited moveset. Wisely, the momentum shifts at this point and Vader takes over again, delivering an excellent chokeslam, splash, and suplex to the Hulkster. Of course, if you've seen one Hogan match, you know that there will be a "Hulk Up" eventually, but I give credit to the bookers for a genuinely surprising false finish. The actual finish goes against the basic rules of any strap match I've ever seen - but things get even worse when the Masked Man returns, followed by Arn Anderson waddling down the aisle. Hokey, overbooked, cartoonish...this match is all of the above...but its also surprisingly fun to watch, the lunacy so laughable that it left a smile on my face. (3.5/5)

With an average match/segment rating of 2.43-out-of-5, UnCensored 95' is a show with considerably more dips than peaks. The first two matches are almost unwatchable and the Television Championship is less entertaining than the promos before it. The midcard is not too terrible, though – Savage/Avalanche and Sting/Bubba may not be Match of the Year candidates, but they’re solid. The final match of the show is not everyone’s cup of tea, with several writers calling it one of the worst matches of all time. I found it exciting and I'm not alone. Dave Meltzer of the trusted wrestling periodical, The Wrestling Observer also gave it a 3.5 star rating. The in-ring work might not be too impressive, but there is something cool, stupid, or in-between happening for every millisecond of its runtime. Whether its Flair, Vader, Hogan, Renegade, or even Jimmy Hart, Arn Anderson, and Randy Savage - someone is holding your attention. UnCensored contains the good, the bad, and the ugly of WCW in one 3-hour package and part of the fun is figuring out what is what.

FINAL RATING – High Risk Maneuever