As the show opens, Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura welcome the fans, mention they have a lot of surprises in store tonight, including the naming of the new WCW Commissioner, in a ruling that was just made official hours ago by the WCW Championship Committee! We also have two titles on the line, and our huge main event, Sting and Ric Flair taking on Vader and Rick Rude!
At the moment, with some last minute breaking news, they go back to Mean Gene, who’s backstage with the Assassin and Pretty Wonderful. Paul Roma is on crutches. Roma says he injured himself while training for this match this week, and he can’t compete. So sorry, Scorpio and Bagwell, maybe next time. Okerlund stops him, and says, by order of the new WCW Commissioner, if Roma can’t compete tonight, then Orndorff has to find a new partner! Roma, Orndorff, and the Assassin are irate at the news, as Gene sends it to the ring.
MATCH ONE: JOHN HAWK vs. THE Z-MANHawk hits the ring first, a tall, broad Texan with long blonde hair. Ventura says what everyone at home is thinking, and how reminiscent he is of Barry Windham. He waits on the Z-Man, and wanting to make an impression in his first match, jumps Zenk as the bell rings. After hitting some shots to the back, he sends Zenk into the ropes and hits a powerslam, but doesn’t go for a pin. As he puts Z-Man on the turnbuckles, going for a superplex, but Z-Man is able to fight him off, and hits a dropkick off the ropes! Z-Man goes for a pin, but only gets 2. Zenk then whips him in the ropes, and tries for a body block, but Hawk is able to catch him, and throws him over his head with a Fallaway Slam. As Zenk gets to his feet, Hawk hits a big lariat, goes for the pin, and gets the win!
WINNER: JOHN HAWK (6:02 - Lariat)On the ramp, Mean Gene is with a mic. He says that at this time, he would like to introduce the new commissioner of World Championship Wrestling, Magnum TA!
Magnum comes out, and says that he is here to make sure that everyone in WCW gets a fair shot, and that so many WCW wrestlers lately think they answer to no one, but they now answer to him!
In his first act as commissioner, he has ruled that if Paul Orndorff cannot find a new partner to replace the “supposedly injured” Paul Roma, Pretty Wonderful will forfeit their match!
In addition, tonight, the World Tag Team Title Match will be no disqualification! He has also granted a one-night manager’s license to Arn Anderson, who will be in Flair and Sting’s corner tonight when they face Vader and Rude!
This Saturday, he will be presiding over a contract signing for the SuperBrawl Main Event, Thundercage between Vader and Ric Flair!
TA ends his announcements by telling everyone that this is the new WCW, and Gene sends it back to the ring!
MATCH TWO: WORLD TELEVISION TITLE MATCH - LORD STEVEN REGAL vs. RICKY THE DRAGON STEAMBOATIn this Starrcade rematch, Steamboat took the early advantage, using his martial arts offense to control the match. He went for a flying clothesline, but Regal blocked it, and used a series of European uppercuts to hurt Steamboat. He tossed the Dragon with a gutwrench, but only got a 2 count. Regal went for a suplex that was reversed, and Steamboat climbed to the top rope, hitting a karate chop! Steamboat bounced off the ropes, but when he came back, Regal hit a drop toe hold, getting him tangled up in the ropes. With Ricky Steamboat in the ropes, Sir William gets involved, raking his eyes. This brings out Shane Douglas, who tries to run William off. This distracts the referee and Steamboat, which allows Regal to roll up Steamboat with a big handful of tights! The referee turns and sees Steamboat pinned, and counts the three!
WINNER: LORD STEVEN REGAL (8:15 - ROLLUP)Ventura and Schiavone announce that next month, at SuperBrawl, there will be a Light Heavyweight Showcase Match featuring former WCW Light Heavyweight Champion Jushin “Thunder” Liger and Chris Benoit! A highlight clip was shown of a recent match they had in Japan. Ventura looked really excited about the match, and recalled the great match Liger had with Flyin’ Brian two years ago at SuperBrawl.
MATCH THREE: ICE TRAIN vs. RON SIMMONSThe former WCW World Champion jumped his former protoge before the bell rang, allowing Simmons to get the upper hand on Ice Train. He went for a big clothesline, but this was countered into a big slam by the Train! Ice Train looked to have the match in hand, when he was picking Simmons up for a power bomb, Simmons hit him below the belt! An absolutely despicable act by the All American from Florida State! Train charged at Simmons, but Ron hit a powerslam for the pin!
WINNER: RON SIMMONS (5:25 - POWERSLAM)Mean Gene is backstage with Sting, WCW World Champion Ric Flair, and Arn Anderson, who’s holding a piece of paper very proudly in front of the camera. Arn tells everyone that this is the one-night managerial license that Commissioner TA gave him earlier today! What this means is the second Harley Race tries to get his fat face involved, The Enforcer’s going to be right there to meet it with his fist! Sting says that after weeks of talking, weeks of cheap shots by Vader and Rude, that it all comes to a head in just a few minutes. Flair told Okerlund that Vader has promised to end his career tonight, and make sure he doesn’t make it to Thundercage. But what would happen if when Flair locks Vader in the figure four, he doesn’t let go, and he breaks his ankle! Vader and Rude picture themselves as the hunters, but what if they’re actually the hunted? WOOOO.
MATCH FOUR: PAUL ORNDORFF AND BOBBY EATON vs. 2 COLD SCORPIO AND MARCUS ALEXANDER BAGWELLMr. Wonderful picked a damn fine replacement for Roma here, in perhaps the most experienced tag team wrestler in the company, the rugged veteran Beautiful Bobby! This curveball threw Scorpio and Bagwell for a loop. Paul Roma tried to stay at ringside, but the referee kicked him to the back! Orndorff and Eaton took the early advantage, with chemistry and double teams that you would not expect from a team pairing up for the very first time. They truly cut the ring in half, isolating Scorpio from his partner in the corner. There were a few times where Scorpio would actually make the tag, but the referee was out of position and wouldn’t allow Bagwell in the ring. Finally, after a big dropkick to Orndorff, Scorpio made the hot tag, and Bagwell came in with a house of fire. He was able to fight off both Eaton and Orndorff, but when Scorpio got in the ring as well to help even the numbers, the referee tried to get some semblance of order in the ring. This allowed Orndorff to hit the piledriver on Bagwell, the legal man, and Eaton hit the Alabama Jam for the three count.
WINNER: PAUL ORNDORFF AND BOBBY EATON (7:45 - ALABAMA JAM)Backstage, Mean Gene is with the original Freebird, Michael Hayes. Hayes says that he has to make an announcement, and that is that he’s stepping away from the ring. He’s not saying the “r” word, but right now, he’s going to go on a nationwide search to find the next Freebirds. The next truly great tag team that can learn from PS’s teachings, and he’s going to lead them to tag team glory here in WCW.
MATCH FIVE: WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH, NO DISQUALIFICATION - THE NASTY BOYS vs. CACTUS JACK AND MAXX PAYNEThis match started off fast and furious. With no disqualifications, a stipulation added by new Commissioner Magnum TA, there was no threat by the referee to get any order in the match, so he largely just metaphorically threw his hands up and let these two teams beat the hell out of each other. In the carnage, a steel chair was introduced to the ring, and later introduced to Knobbs’s forehead. Payne had the Payne Killer applied to Saggs, but Knobbs was able to break it up. This brought Cactus Jack into the ring, where he tossed Knobbs over the top rope, climbed out to the apron, and motioned to the crowd. When Jack hit his big elbow off the apron, Missy Hyatt jumped on his back, clawing and scratching. Cactus then chased her around the ring. While this happened, the Nasty Boys were two-on-one with Payne. They were able to hit a double team corner splash, and Saggs hit an elbow drop to get the win and retain the titles.
WINNER: THE NASTY BOYS (12:07 - ELBOWDROP)Mean Gene is backstage with Stunning Steve and Colonel Parker. Parker said that not just any man could watch the back of the reignin’ WCW United States Champion, so he went to find the meanest, toughest, most ornery man he could find. That took him down to Amarillo, Texas, the Double Cross Ranch... Stunning Steve’s partner, and the newest member of the Stud Stable is former World Champion Terry Funk!
MATCH SIX: BRIAN PILLMAN AND DUSTIN RHODES vs. STEVE AUSTIN AND TERRY FUNKStunning Steve and Colonel Rob Parker made a great choice in a partner, as Terry Funk is one of the toughest men to ever step foot in a WCW ring! Funk wastes no time here, going right after Pillman, beating him down with rights and lefts, and then he spits at Rhodes, and tells him “That’s for you and your worthless daddy, too!” Rhodes tried to get involved, but the referee wouldn’t let him. Rhodes finally got the tag, and pulled in Funk over the top rope, going right after him. The tag team dynamics broke down as all four men were in the ring, and the referee would have been well within his rights to throw the match out, but he let it keep going. Rhodes and Funk ended up outside the ring, basically brawling their way out of the match, leaving just Pillman and Austin in the ring. Austin had control, and when Pillman seemed to get some momentum, Austin pulled the referee in front of him, who caught the brunt of a Pillman dropkick! Austin, seizing the opportunity, grabbed Pillman and called for Parker to enter the ring. Parker took off his hat, and took a major swing at Pillman, who ducked, causing the Colonel to accidentally strike Austin! Pillman dropkicks Parker out of the ring, then goes to the apron, turns in, and hits Air Pillman on Austin! He covers him as the referee comes to, and gets the win!
WINNER: BRIAN PILLMAN AND DUSTIN RHODES (10:32 - AIR PILLMAN)Tony and Jesse send the fans to a special video, showing the creation... of Thundercage.
They show shots of the cage being put together, in between the “WCW Engineers” talking about it. Saying how it’s designed like the War Games cage, only it’s much taller. And it goes around the ringside area, it doesn’t just encircle the ring itself. There’s a lot of room to fight here. The Engineer says that this cage is not just like another cage in another match. The Thundercage is meant to end careers.
MATCH SEVEN: RIC FLAIR AND STING vs. VADER AND RICK RUDEThe crowd was absolutely electric for this. The main event, the match they’d been waiting all night for, and it did not let them down at all. Sting and Vader started the match, and have wrestled together enough that they knew exactly where the other person was going to be, what they were going to do, and it showed. After a big suplex by Vader, he tagged in Rude, who kept up the attack on the Stinger. Finally, after a ducked clothesline, Sting was able to make the tag to the World Champion, which got an incredible pop from the crowd. Flair came in like a house of fire, hitting chops to Rude, then hitting Vader with some as he entered the ring. When Harley Race tried to interfere, true to his word, Arn Anderson pulled him off the apron and punched him right in his face. Rude was able to gain a little bit of an advantage on Flair, and appeared to have him all ready for the Rude Awakening. Maybe there was something about Rude claiming to be the “true” World Champion. However, Arn Anderson got involved, distracting the ref while slipping some kind of object in to Flair. Although these were hallmarks of Flair’s bad guy Horsemen days, the fans didn’t mind him using the object on Rude at all, knocking him out completely with a single shot from the object! Flair then locked on the Figure Four, Sting made sure Vader stayed away, and with Rude passed out, the referee counted his shoulders to the mat for the win!
WINNER: RIC FLAIR AND STING (16:40 - FIGURE FOUR)