February 18, 2009
Matt Peddycord

WCW World War 3
November 26, 1995
Norfolk, VA
The Scope

The current WCW champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: vacant (10/30/1995)
WCW U.S. Champion: Kensuke Sasaki (11/13/1995)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Harlem Heat (9/27/1995)
WCW World Television Champion: Johnny B. Badd (10/29/1995)

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Bobby Heenan.

Before we even get to any ‘rasslin matches, Gene Okerlund meets with Sting, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. Hulk says SCREW THE DARK SIDE! He’s back with the red and yellow and they’re all friends again. To emphasize his point, he burns his black sleeveless shirt and doo rag in some sort of evil witch’s kettle. But that’s not all. Some guy who writes rag sheets for a living says that Savage is injured and can’t wrestle tonight. Hogan responds by saying that was all a plan and throws a rolled up piece of paper used to represent Meltzer’s dirt sheet into the burning kettle. Not discounting that Savage’s shoulder really was injured in real life, but you’re telling me that Luger and Shark trying to rip Randy’s arm off didn’t happen?! You can’t just hit the reset button on storylines like that.

WCW World Television Champion Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page (w/The Diamond Doll) – Winner Gets The Diamond Doll AND The Title
Kimberly finally opens her mouth about being mistreated by DDP and shows some interest in Johnny B. Badd. Big schoolyard brawl in and out of the ring to start. Back in, Badd gets two off a fireman’s carry and takes over with a headlock. Page pulls the hair to escape and grabs an armbar. Badd flips around like Tiger Mask and pulls on Page’s scraggly locks. Page misses a charge and falls out to the floor. Badd fakes him out and levels Page with a pescado. He wants the TOOTIE FROOTIE PUNCH, but Page puts Kimberly in front of him. He throws Kimberly into Badd and pops him in the mouth. Back in, Page counters a tilt-a-whirl headscissors with a reverse pancake slam. Page thinks that was a “10? and points to Kimberly to put up the sign, but she refuses. Page gets distracted by his woman and misses a corner charge. Badd comes back with an inverted atomic drop and a series of punches. Big clothesline from Badd gets himself a “10+”! Geez Louise! Sitout powerbomb by Badd gets 1-2-NO! Badd runs into an elbow out of the corner for the Ric Flair pin. That gets two. Now see, I would have had Kimberly push his feet off the ropes instead of standing there shaking her head. Page delivers a tilt-a-whirl side slam and a cocky cover gets reversed into another nearfall for Badd. He nails Page with the tilt-a-whirl headscissors after all, but a slingshot splash hits knees. Gutbuster by Page gets two. Badd flips out of a gutwrench and eats an elbow. During a tombstone reversal, Badd delivers for 1-2-NO! TOOTIE FROOTIE PUNCH puts Page on the floor as Badd follows up with a somersault plancha. Back in the ring, Badd hits a slingshot legdrop for 1-2-3. (12:35) Real good match. Badd could always bring out the best in DDP back in those days. Kimberly isn’t sure what to think, but she embraces Badd anyway. FREEEDOM! ***¼

After Gene Okerlund shills the WCW hotline saying that the steroid troubles for the WWF isn’t over, Badd gives Kimberly the choice to stay with him or do whatever else she wants to do. So this feud was about a woman’s right to choose! I get it now!

Jim Duggan vs. Big Bubba Rogers – Taped Fist Match
Tidbit of useless information: almost nine years earlier to the date, Big Bubba Rogers beat Ron Garvin in a similar type of death match called a Louisville Street Fight at Starrcade 1986 with a little help from Jim Cornette’s tennis racket. The only way to win is by having your opponent down for a ten-count. Duggan controls in all his glory until he misses a dive on Bubba and falls onto the guardrail. Who is he, Brian Pillman? Bubba ties Duggan to the top rope with his own tape so he can have some open shots on him. Bubba charges into Duggan’s taped fist so he can free himself. Duggan slams Big Bubba and delivers his THREE-POINT STANCE. VK Wallstreet, formerly known as Mike Rotunda, sneaks down to ringside to hit Duggan with his chain-wrapped fist. Duggan whacks him with his 2×4 to foil his plans, but the chain ends up with Bubba. He uppercuts Duggan and wins via the ten-count. (10:20) Holy bejeezus this was long. Not to mention awful. ¼*

Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto (w/Sonny Oono) vs. Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki
So which of the Big Two have the better November PPV women’s match? The evil Sonny Oono manages the heels so we know who to boo as if people in Norfolk wouldn’t know to boo for people who have stick-up hair of the extreme variety. Most U.S. wrestling fans would probably remember Bull Nakano from her matches with Alundra Blayze from “up north” only a year earlier. Mike Tenay joins us for commentary. This was actually a bigger deal for the Japanese fans than us common American wrestling fans could understand. Nakano and Hokuto wrestled for AJW while Suzuki and Ozaki wrestled for JWP – so it’s essentially an interpromotional match that possibly wouldn’t be seen otherwise. Thanks for the scoop, Tenay! Ozaki just gets OWNED to start by Nakano and Hokuto. Just to be a female dog, Hokuto teases the tag over at Suzuki. Ozaki counters a backdrop into a DDT and makes that much needed tag to Suzuki. They mix it up with some ‘rasslin as Suzuki grabs a half crab on Hokuto, Ozaki stops a charge from Nakano and applies a half crab herself. The crowd goes nuts! Suzuki stays on the leg of Hokuto. Nakano pulls her off her partner and gets a tag. Suzuki dropkicks Ozaki off the apron by accident and takes a powerbomb from Nakano to set her up for a moonsault, but there’s nobody home! Suzuki and Ozaki start dishing out some flying double stomps! That gets two. Nakano blocks a double suplex and takes them both over. Flying splash from Hokuto misses. Suzuki and Ozaki dropkick Nakano out of the ring and then looks for a double superplex on Hokuto. Nakano breaks it up by pulling them both down. Hokuto regroups and hits her opponents with a flying bodypress on them both! The JWP girls come back with STEREO FRANKENSTEINERS! Ozaki delivers her finisher which is called the TEQUILA SUNRISE for 1-2-NO! Not to be confused with Konnan’s submission – this is a three-quarter nelson suplex. Hokuto hits Ozaki with a Bridging German Suplex that lands her on her head. Nakano tags in and kills Ozaki with a clothesline. Suzuki comes in to help her partner, but they’re both drawn into a missile dropkick from Hokuto. To the floor, Hokuto lands a somersault plancha on her opponents. Back in, Ozaki receives a Doomsday Device. That gets two as Cutie makes the save. As Hokuto takes care of Suzuki, Nakano delivers her GUILLOTINE LEG DROP for the win. (9:18) So much action. WCW wins over WWF with the better womens match on PPV. We get a rematch the next night on Nitro. ***½

WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Kensuke Sasaki (w/Sonny Oono) vs. Chris Benoit
Benoit’s already the fourth member of the Four Horsemen. Know how I KNOW that? He sticks up the four fingers as much as possible. Sasaki just beat Sting for the U.S. title over in Tokyo at the Sumo Hall. Pretty boring start as they trade holds on the mat. It goes nowhere until they go to the floor where Benoit delivers a suicide dive on Sasaki and nearly lands his face on the guardrail. Since there’s three rings, there’s a middle section in between rings for people to sit. Back in the ring, a Snap Suplex from Benoit only gets one. Oono joins us on commentary to explain the recent sell of WCW Pro thanks to some shady deals with Heenan. How does he POSSIBLY have the power to do that? He’s just a color commentator. Apparently WCW still wants to do business with Oono, which will be settled at Starrcade. In the ring, Sasaki avoids the third German Suplex off the Rolling Germans and runs Benoit down with a clothesline. Benoit counters a tombstone for one of his own and delivers the SWANDIVE HEADBUTT! Real slow cover gets two. Top rope hurracanrana gets another nearfall for Benoit. He charges into a leg trap powerbomb and applies the Strangle Hold Gamma which is like a step over armbar with your leg pushing down on the back of your head. NORTHERN LIGHTS BOMB! Sasaki retains. (10:02) The first half was pretty dull, which killed the heat for the rest of the match. The second half did pick up quite a bit though. **¼

Lex Luger (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Randy Savage
It looks like just a rematch from Halloween Havoc, but since then Savage wants revenge for Luger trying to break his freakin’ arm on Nitro. Savage goes nuts on Lex to start by choking him all over the place. They head out to the floor for some guardrail action. Back in, Savage slams him for the MACHO ELBOW! Jimmy Hart’s on the apron with the ref though. He tries to throw Luger into Hart, but Jimmy moves at the last second as Lex spills out to the floor. Luger finally gains a break by reversing a whip that sends Savage into a ring apron. See, because there’s three rings. Luger breaks the count and then goes back out to the floor to put Savage in the TORTURE RACK! Back in the ring, Lex applies an armbar on Randy’s bad arm. Doesn’t matter though, Savage is out. (5:27) He keeps cranking on the armbar until Sting runs down and whispers something to Luger to make him release the hold. What is up with these two? Luger walks off as Sting checks on his buddy Randy Savage. I think we could have gone without this match. ¾*

Sting vs. Ric Flair
Sting NO-SELLS Flair’s chops and press slams him all over the place, so Flair retreats to one ring and then heads over to another one to make Sting come after him. For some reason, Col. Parker and Sister Sherri walk down the aisle to smooch and get some air time. They go and sit down somewhere. Meanwhile, Sting misses a Stinger Splash up against the guardrail. Flair grabs a chair, but ref Nick Patrick says no way. Back inside, Sting gets excited and claws at Flair, but he nails him with a lowblow to stop all that. Flair hits the Rolling Knee Drop and struts a little bit. Flair starts kicking at the knee and directs the ref’s attention away to throw Sting out over the top rope to do more damage to the knee. Back in another ring, Flair clips Sting and delivers a back suplex to set up the FIGURE-FOUR! He slaps Sting, which only gets his adrenaline pumping to turn the hold over. Sting blocks a hiptoss for a backslide for 1-2-NO! Flair shoves the ref and then gets shoved down on his butt. Sting NO-SELLS a chop and gives chase after Flair into another ring. Clotheslines abound, but then Flair goes to the eyes. Sting slams him off the top rope and then the Flair Flip leads into a clothesline on the apron. Flair tries to end the ten-count corner punch early with an atomic drop, but Sting avoids it and punches back. He follows up with a top rope superplex to lead into the SCORPION DEATHLOCK for the submission. (14:31) It’s always a fun combination even if they don’t really do anything different. ***

60-Man Battle Royal – Winner Becomes WCW World Champion

The participants: Arn Anderson, Alex Wright, Brian Knobbs, Ricky Santana, Squire David Taylor, Scott Armstrong, Sting, Joey Maggs, Pez Whatley, Disco Inferno, Meng, Stevie Ray, Mark Starr, Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, Lt. James Earl Wright, Lex Luger, Eddie Guerrero, Cobra, The Giant, Paul Orndorff, Chris Kanyon, Bobby Walker, Earl Robert Eaton, Chris Benoit, Randy Savage, Marcus Bagwell, The Yeti, Kurasawa, Hugh Morrus, Zodiac, VK Wallstreet, Diamond Dallas Page, Scott Norton, Brian Pillman, Sgt. Craig Pittman, One Man Gang, Super Assassin #2 (Warlord), JL, Bunkhouse Buck, Kensuke Sasaki, Mike Winner, Shark, Steve Armstrong, Road Warrior Hawk, Dave Sullivan, Scotty Riggs, Johnny B. Badd, Big Train Bart (Black Bart), Lord Steven Regal, Dick Slater, Maxx Muscle, Super Assassin #1 (Barbarian), Fidel Sierra, Kevin Sullivan, Jerry Sags, Jim Duggan, Booker T, Big Bubba Rogers, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan.

Each ring has a giant inside – the Yeti in one ring, the Giant in another ring, and Hulk Hogan in the other ring. Two more teams of commentators joins us as Bischoff and Dusty will be at one ring while Chris Cruise and Larry Zbyszko will be announcing from the third ring. I actually enjoy Chris Cruise’s voice. There was always a certain throaty excitement in his voice. There’s twenty men per ring. After ten guys are eliminated from each ring, the remaining thirty men merge into the center ring for the finale. We get a camera view for ring for the time being until everyone empties into the center ring. Even though he was hyped as one of the “giants”, the Yeti appears to be the first guy out of the match. He’s not even dressed in his mummy getup – he’s wearing some yellow and black body suit and mask. There’s no way to tell what’s really going on because the camera shots are either close to the action or too far away. This is why the Royal Rumble works and this doesn’t. Of course, I’m sure this would be a lot better to see in person. Naturally, they rid the ring of all the jobbers first. The only thing notable happening during the three-ring mess is Luger and Arn fighting out on the floor to stir up a problem between them for tomorrow night’s Nitro main event with Sting and Luger taking on Arn and Pillman. After about sixteen minutes in, the remaining thirty head into the center ring. I’ll try to do some late eliminations here. Bubba and Duggan spill out together as Scott Armstrong gets stretchered out. Road Warrior Hawk gets some revenge on Disco Inferno for being an idiot around him by tossing him to the floor. Pittman flips Dave Taylor over the top rope to the floor while Luger is choking Savage as he’s standing on the floor and Savage is sprawled out in the corner. The Dungeon of Doom turn on each other to emphasize the “every man for himself” aspect. Hogan gets rid of Booker T and Jerry Sags followed by Kevin Sullivan. To make up for that stinker of a match earlier, Savage and Luger brawl into an empty ring. Meanwhile, Arn runs Regal into the ringpost as he’s standing on the apron to cause him to tumble to the floor. Badd and DDP take each other out of the match. Pittman charges at somebody and misses to fall out to eliminate himself. Kurasawa kicks Benoit out, then Meng kicks out Kurasawa. One Man Gang makes his presence known by clotheslining Meng to the floor. Throwback! Orndorff and Hogan try and eliminate one another. Pillman whips Zodiac into Hugh Morrus who backdrops him over the top rope to the floor. Kensuke Sasaki tops that by sending out Morrus. Road Warrior Hawk flips Pillman out to the floor and then tries to prevent Sasaki from being thrown out. THE HELL RAISERS ARE FOR LIFE! Hogan stops all that by coming over and getting rid of Hawk, which in turn eliminates Sasaki too. Awwwww. In a cool spot, Eddie Guerrero has a sleeper hold clamped on the Giant in the corner. Sting comes over and hits them both with one Stinger Splash which harms Eddie. Giant moves on the second one and that knocks Guerrero off the turnbuckle out to the apron. Meanwhile, Hogan backdrops Orndorff! We’re down to nine men. Guerrero nails Arn with a missile dropkick, but then Flair grabs him for a Figure-Four. Now there’s enough room for an Arn Anderson Spinebuster to Eddie! Tony ~ “Arn Anderson powerbombs Eddie Guerrero.” Really Tony? Arn tosses Eddie while Hogan and Sting join forces to pummel Flair. Now Savage and Hogan are working over One Man Gang. Flair and Arn get thrown out together. Flair goes INSANE about it too. All Four Horsemen are now gone. Sting and Luger work together to try and clothesline the Giant out while Hogan and Savage try to flip out the One Man Gang. It takes a lot, but Sting and Luger can’t eliminate the Giant without Hogan coming over and flipping them all out to the floor. Meanwhile, Savage eliminates the One Man Gang. Giant pulls Hogan out to get him some, but that makes the refs think Hogan has been eliminated too! Savage wins his first WCW world title. (29:50) Another WCW world title change ridden with BS. Hogan and Savage are still cool with one another tonight, but Savage says he’ll take a look at the footage tomorrow night on Nitro to confirm just how cool they are with one another. They played it safe in this battle royal by keeping the guys who are already feuding at each other’s throats and tossing one another out. Other than Savage winning his first WCW world title, it didn’t really do much for me. But then again, it’s their first chance at one of these big battle royals. Maybe it will improve next year?

Final Thoughts: We have a real hot crowd with an undercard that provided a couple of decent matches, but you also have some real stinkers and time wasters. Again, the 60-man battle royal is more of a match that would be enjoyable live and in person thanks to the shoddy camerawork and all. Overall, it’s a recommended show with some good work underneath by some of the pros. Thumbs up for World War 3 1995. Boy that makes no sense when I type it.