WCW 1/21/92 Topeka, KS: Scott Steiner & Rick Steiner vs. 1992_01_21_HarleyRace 9:02. Scott Steiner ensured that the start of this major event was an exciting one. Scott did a really good job making his segment with Mr. Hughes, the weakest worker in the match, still work. The Steiner Brothers showed superior tag team work. Big Van Vader's team was all about Vader, who was managed by the legendary Harley Race. Even though Mr. Hughes was the weakest worker of the match, he understood his role as Vader's sidekick and didn't drag the match down in any significant manner. Vader was impressive for a huge guy. Vader showed off his size and power, but bumped and sold very well whenever the Steiners made their comeback in the match. Rick's segment with Vader was particularly explosive and impressive. Tony Schiavone mentioned that he hadn't seen the Steiners in this much trouble since they wrestled in Japan about a year ago. After Vader accidentally nailed his own tag team partner, Rick took advantage of the situation immediately and came off the top with a flying bulldog on Hughes for the win. This is how you wrestle an American heavyweight (tag team) match, and this was about as good as it gets for a match under ten minutes featuring powerhouse wrestlers. Good match. ***¼ 

Brian Pillman & Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs. Tracy Smothers & The Taylor Made Man 7:49. Terry Taylor was previously known as “The Computerized Man of the 1990s” Terrance Taylor, a prominent member of the York Foundation managed by Alexandra York (Terri Boatwright, the future Terri Runnels). However, Taylor was now his own man without a stable and known as The Taylor Made Man. He started off this match against Flyin' Brian Pillman. Both guys showed a lot of intensity and explosiveness. Taylor wasn't the most athletic guy, but his pro wrestling psychology was excellent. Pillman was one of the best American wrestlers of that time, which he had been able to show thanks to his feud with Jushin Thunder Liger. Jim Ross mentioned that they'll be talking about Liger later on this broadcast. Now, that's a smart way to keep my attention. Marcus Alexander Bagwell was a relatively inexperienced worker at the time, but he was clearly a physically gifted athlete. “Young Pistol” Tracy Smothers was a solid worker and one of the more underrated hard-working Americans. These four did a really good job keeping the action going, and managed to provide an exciting contest in spite of being in the difficult spot of being the second match on the card and having to follow the good opening match. The match slowed down a bit when the heels, Smothers and Taylor, were in control. They did a very good job of being heels yet not letting this heelishness drag the match down too much. It helped that Pillman was the one doing the babyface in trouble segment, which didn't last too long anyway. The finish was cheesy but creative, as Smothers was holding Taylor's hand after Bagwell went for a sunset flip until Pillman dropkicked Taylor out of the ring so that Bagwell could pin Smothers. Overall, this match definitely worked and was what it had to be. It could have benefited from a longer babyface comeback segment with maybe more of Pillman's offense on display, but that's perhaps only nitpicking, of course. Pillman was the worker of the match and definitely didn't disappoint. Also, Smothers worked hard, Bagwell contributed well enough, and Taylor worked in a very smart manner. After the match, Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone did indeed talk about Liger, and they mentioned he will be at SuperBrawl against a yet to be named opponent (which eventually would turn out to be Pillman). Decent match. **¾ 

Johnny B. Badd vs. Richard Morton 3:20. Ricky Morton was a heel known as Richard Morton here. He pretty much did the same Rock ‘n' Roll Express gimmick, but just in a heelish manner. Johnny B. Badd was an overly flamboyant and colorful gimmick, but he was a promising worker, for sure. This may be an unpopular opinion, but Morton might actually have been better as a heel than as a babyface, because there's more variety in his work as a heel. Badd gave a solid babyface performance but didn't get much of a chance to really show his potential due to the short length of the match. With the York Foundation, the stable Morton was part of, having been disbanded, and WCW clearly trying to push Badd as a future star, it kinda makes sense to have this as a short near squash match. However, it probably would still have been better if the match had actually been over five minutes. The post-match stuff was more interesting, as after the match, Pillman was interviewed by Eric Bischoff and cut what appeared to be a heel promo on Liger. Pillman then punched Badd, who was acting like a jester, right in the face. Okay match. **

Diamond Dallas Page vs. PN News 3:25. “Rapmaster” Paul Neu was a fat guy with a hip-hop gimmick. Some people might remember him from his short ECW stint in 1999. In spite of being 35 years old at the time, Diamond Dallas Page was a rookie pro wrestler at the time. And, as most of us know, DDP would end up making quite an impact in WCW (and he would also make a big impact after his wrestling career was over thanks to his “DDP Yoga” fitness program). PN News definitely looked like he could use some fitness tips. DDP gave a decent performance and bumped all over the place to try to make this match as watchable as possible. Jim Ross called News a “one-dimensional athlete.” News gave a poor performance, but won the match with a big splash off the top. This wasn't a good match, but luckily it was a short one. After the match, Tony Schiavone let us know the top ten contenders for Lex Luger's World Heavyweight Title in WCW; 10. Larry Zbyszko, 9. El Gigante, 8. Big Van Vader, 7. Dustin Rhodes, 6. Cactus Jack, 5. Rick Steiner, 4. Ricky Steamboat, 3. Steve Austin, 2. Sting, 1. Rick Rude. I'm not sure what El Gigante is doing in that list, but it's not a bad list otherwise. Mediocre match. *½ 

Falls Count Anywhere: Cactus Jack vs. Van Hammer 10:08. Prior to the match, it was announced that Kip Allen Frye had taken over as Executive Vice President of WCW (replacing the incompetent Jim Herd). Frye immediately made a big announcement, as he announced that Jesse Ventura had joined WCW as color commentator. Ventura, who was mayor of Brooklyn Park, MN at the time, mentioned that he will be at SuperBrawl. This falls count anywhere match between Cactus Jack and Van Hammer was a wild one. Cactus had really built up a reputation for being one of the more daredevil and unpredictable hardcore brawlers. “Heavy Metal” Van Hammer was a pretty cool gimmick (which was basically based on late ‘80s/early ‘90s hair metal/hard rock) and a relatively underrated worker (some of you may remember him from his run as Raven's Flock member Hammer in the late ‘90s). Hammer wasn't a very graceful or smooth worker by any means, but he was not as bad as people think, and he did some cool-looking moves here and there. And most importantly for this match, he could bump quite well, which added to the spectacle of this falls count anywhere match. Cactus was feeling right at home in a wild match like this, and he was visibly happy giving his impressive performance. Cactus executed a super crazy sunset flip off the apron onto the concrete floor, and he did more damage to himself than to his opponent (especially since he didn't quite nail the move as well as intended). Cactus took more damage to his back when he took a powerslam bump on the rampway. Cactus then took a bump off the rampway onto the concrete floor. Hammer hit a flying clothesline off the rampway for a near fall. The brawl went into the parking lot and a rodeo area next to the venue. The lovely Missy Hyatt went there to keep us updated on the brawling activities. Just as the match was about to peak, it started going downhill when Abdullah the Butcher showed up dressed as a cowboy; Abdullah attempted to hit Hammer but hit Cactus instead, Cactus pinned Hammer, Abdullah attacked Cactus and then threw Missy in some water while it was freezing cold outside. All in all, this was mainly the Cactus show. I don't know if we should praise this type of self-harming craziness, but it seems Cactus was going to do it anyway, and it's hard not to pop for his hard work. Perhaps the weirdest thing about the match was that Cactus worked like a babyface and Hammer worked like a heel, in spite of their roles being the other way around. Decent match. **¾ 

Brad Armstrong & Big Josh vs. Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin 3:03. “Freebirds” Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin worked hard and kept the pace high. Perhaps they were aiming for Kip Allen Frye's ‘workrate bonus.' Big Josh was Matt Borne dressed as a lumberjack. Brad Armstrong threw some tremendous dropkicks. The match was on its way to be pretty good, but it didn't last long at all. Hayes pinned Armstrong after the Freebirds executed an illegal double-team move, the double DDT. After the match, they showed an impressive highlight video about the Steiner Brothers, who were then interviewed by Eric Bischoff. Okay match. **¼    

Vinnie Vegas vs. Thomas Rich 0:56. Kevin Nash made his first appearance as Vinnie Vegas, as he was no longer using the Oz gimmick. The Vinnie Vegas gimmick was slightly better than the Oz gimmick, but that's not a very high bar. Tommy Rich was another one of the York Foundation members who were kinda ‘lost' now that the stable had been disbanded, so he did a quick job to Nash here. Mediocre match. *½ 

Barry Windham & Ron Simmons & Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton & Larry Zbyszko. Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman), manager of the Dangerous Alliance, cut an intense promo prior to the match. This trios match was a classic babyfaces vs. heels match with the heels bumping and selling like crazy and the babyfaces acting like superheroes. The crowd was really into it. Even though the match was a bit contrived, like Dangerous Alliance matches tend to be, all six participants worked hard and to the best of their respective abilities. Heyman also added a lot to the match as the heel manager. Early in the match, Bobby Eaton took a big bump to the floor after a dropkick by Barry Windham. After a lot of action, the match ended when Eaton was pinned by Windham. Eaton was the worker of the match. Good match. *** 

Sting & Ricky Steamboat vs. Steve Austin & Rick Rude 11:21. Jesse Ventura joined the broadcast booth. Prior to the match, Rick Rude cut a promo on the “fat, out of shape, cable-watching couch potatoes” watching at home. The layout of the match, particularly the ebb and flow and overall pacing, was quite excellent. In spite of the storytelling being done really well, the execution of the wrestling and selling wasn't always very impressive. Steve Austin's work hadn't reached the quality it would reach a bit later on in his career. Ricky Steamboat was kind of bland. Rick Rude showed good intensity and was arguably the worker of the match, as the match relied a lot on what he did. Sting was a very basic wrestler, but his tremendous charisma and explosiveness more than made up for it. Overall, this was a pretty decent American wrestling tag match and a good way to close this enjoyable show. However, it still felt a bit underwhelming and disappointing, especially since the preceding match was a far more heated one. Also, we didn't really get a near-fall segment, and the match ended rather abruptly. In the end, the babyfaces won, but the heels attacked the babyfaces after the match to get the last laugh. Okay match. **¼  

Show rating: 6.0/10.0. Good show.

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