Dark Pegasus Video Review: The Rise and Fall of WCW (Disc Three)

Posted by J.D. Dunn on 09.22.2009

From the rise of the nWo to "the Fat-Chick Thriller."

The Rise and Fall of WCW (Disc Three)

by J.D. Dunn
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WCW Heavyweight Title: Ric Flair (w/Woman & Elizabeth) vs. The Giant (w/Jimmy Hart – 04/29/96).
Both guys are heels, but the Giant is the default babyface because Flair is such a great heel. Flair tries everything he can think of from going straight at him to tricking him into the chase to working the leg. Flair actually does get the figure-four leglock on the Giant, but Giant no-sells and grabs Flair by the throat while in the figure-four. That leads to the chokeslam and the title at 5:50 in what was basically a squash. **

WCW Cruiserweight Title: Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko (08/15/96).
These guys wrestled each other quite a bit when Rey jumped over from ECW. Mysterio is amazingly crisp here, probably because he's about 20 pounds lighter. Malenko, by the way, is at his absolute vicious best, hitting a sickening hot shot that sends Rey bouncing off the ropes. This is a surgical dismantling, more grounded than usual thanks to the thin air in Denver. Rey goes up, but Malenko catches him with the press gutbuster. Malenko, you randy little spaniel. ONE, TWO, THREE! New champ at 9:19. Oh, but Rey's foot was on the ropes, so the ref restarts the match. Rey sneaks up from behind and Victory Rolls Malenko for the real win at 9:38. A great example of the *real* Rey Mysterio and the chemistry between these two. Their series in 1996 languishes in the shadows of Rey's series with other cruiserweights, but it's definitely worth a look. **3/4

Wargames: Sting, Lex Luger, Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall & A Mystery Partner (w/Ted Dibiase - 09/16/96).
This is the first big match in the WCW vs. nWo war (not counting Hogan vs. Giant which I consider more to be a personal accomplishment for Hogan). Double A and Scott Hall start, and Arn works his leg. Tony announces that the nWo has won the coin toss. They're not even paying lip service to kayfabe anymore. Arn spinebusters Razor and puts him in a half-crab as Kevin Nash comes in. Arn meets Nash, but the NUMBERS GAME overwhelms him. Luger is up next and gets booed even as he takes on both Outsiders. Arn and Luger don't make much of a cohesive team, though, so Hall and Nash are able to take over until Hogan comes out. Both Arn and Luger get them some of Hogan to a big pop. The nWo dominates until Flair comes in. Flair evens things up and turns the tide for WCW. Figure-four on Hogan as Sting comes down to join the nWo. The crowd chants, "We want Sting!" which should tell you how fooled they were by this ruse. The real Sting comes in as the final man for WCW. Sting DESTROYS the nWo as the rest of WCW just backs off. Sting is so disillusioned that they thought he was a traitor that he walks out on his teammates. That leaves WCW alone in a 3-on-1. "Sting" puts Luger in the Scorpion Deathlock and gets the submission at 18:16. This was before the booking with multiple Stings got really out of hand, and it's probably the only time it worked, although even here the fans seem more confused than betrayed. I really liked the booking here with several WCW relationships (Sting-Luger, Flair-Sting, Luger-Horsemen) being tested all in one match. ***1/2

U.S. Title, Ladder Match: Syxx vs. Eddy Guerrero (01/25/97).
This is from Souled Out, the nWo-run PPV that was a pretty cool experiment. I miss when feds were this ballsy. I suppose an all-submission PPV is outside-the-box thinking for the WWE, but I think this was pretty creative, especially given that the camerawork and announcing were changed from the usual WCW style. This was just before Syxx succumbed to the injury bug and went with a more grounded style. He uses his martial arts skills to get the advantage and rams Eddy with the ladder. Evil nWo ref Nick Patrick helps Syxx get the ladder to the ring. Eddy snaps the ladder into Syxx's face but winds up getting whipped into it. Syxx tries to ride the ladder down on top of him, but Eddy dropkicks it into him and superplexes him. They both go up and fight each other off. Again, they go up, and Syxx wins a slugfest. Eddy staggers back and knocks over the ladder. Both guys go up again and get the belt at the same time, but Eddy slams it into Syxx's face and knocks him back. Eddy gets U.S. Title at 13:47. Bischoff calls that "using a foreign object." Eddy celebrates with the WCW guys in the crowd. A lot of people liked this match at the time, but it's kind of slow and clunky by ladder match standards. ***

U.S. Title, No DQ: Eddy Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko (03/16/97).
Dean and Eddy had mutual respect until the title came between them. The fans are all over Eddy here, siding with Dean all the way. Eddy would go back and forth between heel and face before finally settling on heel in the summer of 1997. He stomps a mudhole in Dean but gets press slammed. We cut to the back to check on the nWo and Rick Steiner as Dean grabs a pretty sick half-crab. Dean smacks Eddy around with the belt but runs right into the Rock Bottom. Sleazy Eddy makes his first real appearance in WCW as he goes to work on Dean's knee. We keep cutting to the back to check on Rick Steiner getting hauled away. Eddy puts Dean in the figure-four and uses the ropes, drawing the ire of the crowd again. To the floor, Dean takes a breather and suckers Eddy into coming off the top… right into the barricade. Back in, Dean gets a mulekick in for a big pop, but Eddy rolls him up… and then Dean sells the lowblow? Huh? Dean hits a frogsplash but hauls Eddy up at two. This is edging toward awesome. Eddy botches a rollup, so Dean improves and covers him so Eddy can reverse it to what he was looking for anyway. Nice. Eddy slaps on the Texas Cloverleaf on Dean as payback. Syxx comes down to steal the belt, so Eddy drops the hold and goes after him. Syxx tosses in his video camera, so Malenko wallups Eddy and gets the pin at 19:12. Not quite on the level of their ECW classics, and it doesn't help that the match was interrupted for nWo antics. Still, good wrestling is hard to ruin, and this was good wrestling. ***3/4

Cruiserweight Title vs. Mask: Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrero (02/22/98).
I think the presence of this match begs the question, ahem, WHERE'S THE GODDAMN JERICHO SET?! Also, "Evenflow" is great entrance music. Jericho wrestles with the belt on because he's Jericho. Juvi kicks him in the belt, though, so it backfires. Juvi ranas him to the floor, and Jericho tries to take a countout to keep the title. Juvi makes him pay with an elbowdrop. Jericho sets up the steps and springboards, but Juvi catches him and throws him into the barricade. Sick bump. Speaking of sick bumps, Jericho drops Juvi on his head with a cradle piledriver. ARROGANT COVER… gets two. A tilt-o-whirl backbreaker leads to a stretch backbreaker. ASK HIM! ASK HIM! Juvi fights back and hits Air Juvi to the floor. The 450-splash appears to end things at 10:32, but Jericho has his hand on the ropes. Jericho clips an unsuspecting Juvi from behind. Juvi fights back again, though, and hits a double-jump huracanrana. He reverses the Liontamer once and nearly gets the pin. Jericho blocks a huracanrana, though, and finishes with the Liontamer at 13:27. This has aged surprisingly well, and it shows Jericho's versatility. ***1/2

After the match, Juvi has to unmask. ::gasp:: It's Michael Jackson!

Unified Tag Titles: The Outsiders (w/Dusty Rhodes) vs. The Steiner Bros. (w/Ted Dibiase – 02/22/98).
The nWo smokes WCW in Hall's pre-match survey, thus putting Heenan and Schiavone in the unenviable position of insulting the live crowd in order to save face. At this point, they should have just given the nWo Nitro and had the less-popular WCW guys stick with Thunder. Rick cleans house on both Hall and Nash, and the Steiners stop to pose. This time, though, Scott double-crosses Rick and smashes him in the back of the head. Oh, what a SHOCKING SWERVE… that had been teased for six months. Rhodes sends Dibiase into the post, taking him out. Hall finishes Rick after an Outsider's Edge to pick up the titles at 4:18. In order to combat obvious swerves, WCW started teasing swerves for months on end so that fans got burned out and stopped caring – then they did the swerve. On the plus side, it's one of the few nWo "heel" turns that actually wound up meaning something because Steiner totally reinvented himself. 1/4*

Diamond Dallas Page & Karl Malone vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman (w/The Disciple – 06/12/98).
See, I think Karl Malone probably could have been a decent wrestler with the proper training. Decent. Not good. All four guys look like they took a Jerry Lawler "How to Waste Time Without Really Wrestling" seminar… and stayed for the brownies. That's fine for Rodman and Malone, but you'd think Hogan and DDP could actually wrestle. Page winds up as the face-in-peril for what seems like an eternity. Hogan misses the legdrop, though, allowing Malone to tag in and clean house. Sure. Malone and Page hit Diamond Cutters, but the fans actually seem to like that, so Disciple sneaks in and hits the Apocalypse on DDP. Hogan gets the pin at 23:44. Ugh. It's slightly better than recent matches that have involved celebrities, but this was the main event of a pay-per-view. *1/4

WCW Heavyweight Title: Goldberg vs. Diamond Dallas Page (10/25/98).
Most of the hype going into this show was for Hogan vs. Warrior II, and I'm wondering if these two didn't take that personally seeing as how they were, you know, the main event and all. At any rate, this is one of Goldberg's best matches, if not his best match. Some people might not remember this, but there was a time when people questioned if Goldberg was able to put on even a competent match. Although it looks like Page mapped out the whole match, Goldberg actually wrestles here too. Goldberg misses a charge in the corner and posts his shoulder. Later, when he hits the spear, it hurts him too much to cover. Goldberg goes for the Jackhammer, but Page lands on his feet and hits the Diamond Cutter! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Goldberg finishes with the Jackhammer for real moments later to go 155-0 (uh huh) and retain his title (10:33). This was Page's first brush with greatness, and he'd use this to springboard to an actual title reign the following year. Goldberg's streak would be ended less than two months later, and with it, his drawing ability. ***1/2

WCW Heavyweight Title: Booker T vs. Lance Storm (08/07/00).
The late Mike Awesome is on commentary, and he's the one guy with the sense not to talk over Storm's pre-match promo. The match is pretty good for a TV match, so of course WCW has to ruin it with a silly angle with Awesome's fat girlfriend receiving sandwiches (and complaining that they're not donuts, which Awesome had been promising, so I assume no one actually told him unless Russo was going for some sort of clever sandwich subtext). I'm also pretty sure they didn't tell security that the guy would be delivering the sandwiches because you can see a guy running to intercept him. What a way to run a railroad. Storm goes after Booker's knees and hits the superkick. Psst. That should have been his finisher. Booker catches him with the Book End for the win to retain his title and dignity at 5:24. **1/2

Spoke too soon.

After the match, Jeff Jarrett jumps Booker from behind and breaks the Canadian flag over his leg. Lance Storm objects to that and goes after Jarrett, so Jarrett grabs his guitar and swings for Storm's head only to crack Awesome's portly princess. That leads to Awesome chasing Jarrett into the ring for the Book End.

The 411: Whereas the first disc recounted some of their greatest matches in an era when they were dominated by the WWF, this disc shows WCW's ascent, ridiculous excess, and frustrating fall in just a few matches. The documentary is short on depth but wide on breadth, covering everything from the territorial days to the Ding Dongs to the Russocracy. The matches feel more like a supplemental selection rather than capturing the history. That's fine by me because Hogan vs. Goldberg, Nash vs. Goldberg, the nWo formation, and the early brilliance of Flair are all captured on other sets. All in all, it's a fantastic set, especially the second disc which gives us Flair vs. Steamboat and some marvelous tag team matches.

Thumbs way up.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]