SuperBrawl VI – February
1996
St. Petersburg,
Florida
COMMENTATORS: Bobby
Heenan, Dusty Rhodes, and Tony Schiavone
CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN:
Coming into tonight’s show, the WCW World Heavyweight Champion is Randy
“The Macho Man” Savage, Lex Luger and Sting are the WCW World Tag Team
Champions, Johnny B. Badd is the Television Champion and the United States
Championship is held by relative newcomer Konnan.
In a rematch from the Clash of the Champions a few weeks
prior, the Nasty Boys vs. Public Enemy
in a street fight is the evening's opening contest. While there are some good
chair shots and table spots, the violence doesn't really escalate,
giving this match absolutely no form or drama. It is essentially just four guys
clobbering each other in turns. While I prefer this bout to their comparatively dull Clash match, this is no career highlight for either team. (2/5)
Johnny B. Badd,
accompanied by the "Diamond Doll" Kimberly Page, arrives next with
his Television Championship to take on Diamond
Dallas Page in a match where the winner will take home a check for $6.6
million. From beginning to end, this match is tightly packed with good work,
nice sequences, and credible pin attempts. Page's PPV track record over the
past year has been consistently strong and this match is up to that
level. Badd and Page had undeniable chemistry and this match is very good, bordering on great. But don't just take my word on it - this match received an even stronger 3-and-a-quarter rating from
Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer. (3/5)
Harlem Heat are
backstage with "Mean" Gene to share their thoughts on the next match
- their chance to dethrone the World Tag Team Champions, Lex Luger and Sting, who had been showing a bit of tension as Sting
grew to learn that Luger had been taking shortcuts to help their team. The winners
of this match will face the Road Warriors later in the evening, a fact that
comes into play for the finish. The match is easily the best Harlem Heat outing in several months, with much of the credit (somewhat surprisingly) going
to Luger, who makes them look very strong. Sting spends most of the match on the apron, but when he does come in,
the crowd's interest perks up. While not a satisfying finish, it serves its
purpose. (2.5/5)
The United States Championship is on the line next, with the
former US Champion, One Man Gang,
taking on the current United States Champion (and Mexican Heavyweight
Champion), Konnan. Konnan was in the
midst of a major push, debuting against Psycosis at the Clash a few weeks prior
and already holding the second biggest championship in the company. If Konnan's
debut was an attempt to introduce him in a bout that would showcase his lucha
libre skills, this one is more about putting the Konnan character into a
traditional American wrestling context. I'm not sure it works,
though, as Konnan doesn't get the crowd's support as much as this match needs
to make it interesting. Not a terrible 7 minutes, but not worth spending the
time on. One also has to wonder why One Man Gang was in the position he was in
when there were so many more interesting and innovative talents in WCW that
were more over. (1.5/5)
Up next is the semi-historic Brian Pillman vs. Kevin Sullivan "Respect" Strap Match.
Before the two competitors can be strapped together, Pillman and Sullivan just start
brawling, hitting eachother with stiff punches on the mat. When they do get
pulled apart, Pillman grabs the microphone and, with a smirk, proclaims,
"I respect you, booker man!" (a not-so-subtle allusion to Kevin
Sullivan's backstage role as WCW's head booker). The whole scene lasts under 3
minutes...but it doesn't end there. After the Loose Cannon storms off, Arn Anderson arrives and inserts
himself into the match as an apparent attempt to save face for the
Horsemen. Before Sullivan/Anderson really gets going, though, Ric Flair arrives
and reminds everyone involved that they share the same goal - to end Hulkamania
and destroy Randy Savage. As a "match," this is an incoherent,
confusing mess...but as an absurd piece of wrestling history, it is an interesting
experiment in the "worked shoot" approach that would come into vogue
(and then become overused and abused) over the next few years. Still, those
that call this segment "genius" and "ahead of its time" are
bestowing on it a bit too much credit. The fact is, the angle was "too smart"
then and would still be “too smart” now. What was endgame for this program?
Where was this going to lead aside from flat-out admission of wrestling being a
scripted, fake drama? Why again was Pillman upset with Sullivan-as-Booker and
not Sullivan-as-Wrestler? Pillman's Loose Cannon gimmick had tremendous
potential and made for some interesting TV, but it was so "meta" that it never delivered in the traditional pro-wrestling sense. This “match” exemplifies the
whimsy and potential of Pillman's uncontrollable, boundary-crossing character,
but it also shows the flip side of the coin - that, in the end, he had
"worked" the audience to the point that what they were watching was
no longer the exact thing they wanted to watch: professional wrestling. (2.5/5)
The next match is an elongated brawl, with Sting and Lex Luger defending the WCW
World Tag Team Championships for the second time of the night against The Road Warriors. The crowd is more
engaged in this match than they were for the first tag title bout, but I'd
place a lot of the credit for that on the marquee names involved and less on
what they actually deliver. Things end in a clusterfuck double count-out, but what
really struck me about this match was how boring the majority of it was. There
just isn't enough suspense in this one to make it worth 13+ minutes of airtime.
(1/5)
Our first of two main events is next - Randy Savage defending the WCW World Championship against Ric Flair in a cage match. Flair stalls
for several minutes before the match, building anticipation, so when the action
does begin in earnest, the crowd is revved up for it. Over the course of the
next 20 minutes, Savage and Flair deliver one of their best matches together,
with a considerable amount of brutality from the get-go. This one may even be
my favorite of Savage's since he joined WCW as he really goes over the top
selling the viciousness and dangers of the cage, at one point missing an
axehandle from the very top and then, later on, taking several harsh back bumps
onto the narrow ring apron. Flair is no slouch either, entrancing
the live crowd with both his comedic side (having his trunks pulled nearly to
his ankles) and more serious work (throwing and receiving some big shots and ending up bloodied). Adding to the match’s story is the involvement
of Miss Elizabeth, whose understated facial expressions always made it clear
that she was concerned about someone or something - even if it wasn't who or
what the fans assumed. The finish isn’t great, not because of poor execution
but because of the weapon the bookers chose to strike the final blow. The
post-match is also a missed opportunity, as Hulk Hogan arrives for almost no
reason, drawing attention away from what should have been a much more emotional
scene for Savage. These criticisms aside, this is an excellent match worth checking out. (4/5)
Backstage, Hulk Hogan expresses his shock and outrage over Miss Elizabeth's actions. Hogan also mentions Liz and Savage were legally
separated 4 years earlier, something I'm not sure was revealed on TV prior to
this. Interesting tidbit.
The second half of our cage match double-header is upon us -
Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant. After long
minutes of nothing more than punches and clubbering forearms, the first
"high spot" of the match is the Giant bodyslamming the Hulkster.
Aside from that, neither man leaves their feet much or even attempts a true
wrestling hold for lengthy stretches. The Giant does get Hogan up
for a rudimentary vertical suplex and backbreaker, but the sluggish pace makes
this one a chore to get through. After an ugly chokeslam from the big man, we
get the classic Hogan "Hulk Up" and the match ends exactly as one
would expect. The post-match does nothing to help the heels, who, despite
having at least a 7-on-1 advantage, just can't seem to take out the Immortal
One. The Loch Ness Monster shows up at the tail end, but looks just like every
other monster Hogan has vanquished in the past. Overall,
an absolutely awful match with a post-match that is predictable and appalling
at the same time. (0/5)
With an average match rating of 2.06-out-of-5, SuperBrawl VI is a below-average show with very
little to recommend. The best match on the card is Savage/Flair, Page/Badd
is solid, but neither tag match is above average. The
card's main event is for ultra Hulkamaniacs only. The most notable event on the
show might be the Pillman/Sullivan non-match, but even that historically controversial segment is more interesting to talk about than to watch.
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