Sunday, February 21st, 1999, from Oakland, California
Superbrawl 9 was the first ppv I’ve watched from beginning to end in a long fucking time. I now have a decent understanding as to why I fast forward through most of them. While WWF at least has scattered bits of excitement, WCW (this time anyway) was three hours of straight forward wrestling. I like wrestling, if it’s exciting. Nothing very exciting at Superbrawl 9. And can you believe there wasn’t one, not ONE gimmick match? I guess they don’t want to be like WWF, and next months uncensored should definitely have at least a cage match going on. Surprisingly enough the best match was a match I thought would suck, being as the age of both competitors tally up to something over one-hundred.
DISCO INFERNO VS. BOOKER T- Being the first match on the card, what the fuck do you expect? Surprisingly enough this more or less “nobody” match was highly entertaining compared to others. Booker T has a lot of high flying exciting moves, like the sidewalk slam and the big karate kick to the face. Disco Inferno is funny with his dance moves and charisma. Short and sweet with Booker T winning. I’ll give this match **1/2 out of ****.
CHRIS JERICHO VS. SATURN- Chris Jericho is one of my favorite wrestlers, not because of his wrestling but because of his personality. He’s hilarious. Remember the luchadore battle royal when Jericho announced all of the combatants? One of the funniest ppv moments for me. This match is a re-match from Souled Out. Saturn beat up Ralphus by ripping off the fat man’s dress. Ralphus held his arms in front of his gut so no one could see how massive it was. Saturn DVD’d both Jericho and Scott Dickinson, the ref, and left the ring, thus loosing by count out. Ralphus and the DVD on the ref were entertaining, but the match wasn’t. **
CHAVO GUERRERO VS. KIDMAN- Kidman is a good wrestler but here there wasn’t really anything new or special, just the regular high flying maneuvers. Of course Kidman wins by his shooting star press. **1/2
CURT HENNIG & BARRY WINDHAM VS. DEAN MALENKO & CHRIS BENOIT- I love Chris Benoit but the rest of these losers deserve to be on WCW Saturday Night not at Superbrawl 9. This was the first of two matches for the tag team belts. Obviously the horsemen won in a boring as shit matchup. *
CURT HENNIG & BARRY WINDHAM VS. DEAN MALENKO & CHRIS BENOIT- A thirty second matchup right after the first. Windham chockes Malenko with his belt and they get the tag team championship belts. Surprising, but expect the horsemen to win the belts back either on Nitro or at Uncensored. Come on…Windham looks like he just left his AA meeting and beat his wife. –zero stars-
KEVIN NASH & SCOTT HALL VS. KONNAN & REY MYSTERIO JR.- This mask vs. hair match was supposed to feature Lex Luger but he got injured. I like Scott Hall better anyway. Rey Mysterio is the best wrestler in WCW and he proves it here. Basic match, not really worthy of ppv except when Mysterio takes the mask off. I hope he keeps the mask on though it looks cooler. **1/2
BIG POPPA PUMP VS. DDP- This oh-so personal match wasn’t good at all. DDP didn’t even give him the diamond cutter. The only good part was when Buff came down to the ring and exposed the steel on one ring post, thus letting Big Poppa ram DDP into the steel hurting him and getting the win with the stupid movie Steiner recliner. If Steiner is supposed to be one of the higher ups in the NWO (he was once the leader) how come his matches are boring? **
ROWDY RODDY PIPER VS. SCOTT HALL- I like Piper but he shouldn’t be wrestling. He’s so fucking old and he can’t wrestle or entertain anymore. He’s the commissioner, get him out of the fucking ring! Scott Hall didn’t really attempt to do anything cool either, but it was obvious Hall didn’t want to do any big moves because Piper has a bad hip. Hall wins the U.S. Title obviously. Definitely the worst match of the night (the 2nd tag team match doesn’t really count since it was thirty seconds long). Make Piper anything but a wrestler. ½*
BAM BAM BIGELOW VS. BILL GOLDBERG- Goldberg isn’t that good of a wrestler. His massive spear is exiciting but getting old, that’s why he gave Bigelow two spears. The middle of this match was a bore fest when Bigelow slowed down and did numerous holds on Goldberg. I guess they’re making Goldberg last a little longer and start to get beat a little bit. Exciting match but basic Goldberg, nothing new. **1/2
HOLLYWOOD HOGAN VS. THE NATURE BOY RIC FLAIR- I figured this match would suck beyond belief because both wrestlers are so old they can’t really do much beyond fake punch and kick. Surprise surprise! The best match of the night, and not because David Flair turned on his old man. Hogan and Flair were exciting. Hogan hit Flair with chairs and his belt. Flair got the belt and whipped Hogan around. Both wrestlers had fake blood all over their faces (Flair’s was obviously fake but they didn’t show it close up…probably because of the TVPG rating). The ref was knocked out and the mysterious woman came down to the ring, eventually a masked NWO-ite showed up with the stun stick and stunned the shit out of Flair. It turned out to be David Flair, Ric’s son. Hogan gets the win in a great bout that was definitely worthy of the main event. Expect the re-match to go in Flair’s favor, either on Nitro or at Uncensored. ***
I predicted 7 of the 10 fights. 70%, C-. The Saturn/Jericho fight is cheap because Saturn could have covered but he left the ring instead. The best fight of the night was actually Hogan and Flair, and the ending, though nothing truly surprising, was a great climax to a boring night. All in all ** for Superbrawl 9, let’s hope next month’s Uncensored is good when Raven shows up, and maybe if we’re lucky Macho or Sting may surprise us.
