Superbrawl III

Date: 02/21/1993

Location: Asheville, NC

Announcers: Tony Schiavone & Jesse Ventura 

The Setup 

This match was the third Vader-Sting match in a trilogy that began the previous July at the Great American Bash, this one being a strap match without the WCW title on the line despite Vader being champion. Barry Windham was challenging the Great Muta for the NWA title after turning heel in November, and Muta won the title from Masa Chono at the Tokyo Dome in January. This was also Ric Flair’s triumphant return to WCW in what ended up being an announcer role for the Muta-Windham match. They did not have enough time to advertise his appearance heavily because the WWF (likely purposely) made mistakes on the paperwork for Flair’s release. Bill Watts also quit/was fired just days before this show. 

The Business 

Wrestlenomics has the show at 95,000 buys, tied for their third lowest of all-time to this point with Starrcade ‘92, and only trailing Beach Blast ‘92 and the Great American Bash ‘92 (the latter also headlined by Vader vs. Sting). While Sting vs. Vader in the King of Cable finals didn’t headline Starrcade ‘92, it was on the show, and that match combo was on three of the four lowest amounts of PPV buys in company history at this point. As good as the matches were, they never drew. 

Prowrestlinghistory.com has a total attendance of 6,500 fans, which is more than good according to 1993 WCW attendance standards. Word of Flair returning was out there, which likely helped in Asheville.

Results/Ratings 

-Brian Pillman & Steve Austin def. Erik Watts & Marcus Bagwell in 16:34 **1/2 

-2 Cold Scorpio def. Chris Benoit in 16:57 ***3/4 

-British Bulldog def. Bill Irwin in 5:49 *1/4

-Falls Count Anywhere Match: Cactus Jack def. Paul Orndorff in 12:17 ***1/2

-SMW Tag Team Title Match: Rock n Roll Express def. Heavenly Bodies (C) by DQ in 12:52 ***1/2 

-US Title Match: Dustin Rhodes (C) def. Max Payne by DQ in 11:28. * 

-NWA World Title Match: Barry Windham def. Great Muta in 24:10 1/2* 

-Strap Match: Vader def. Sting in 20:54 ****1/2

Snap Bumps: 

-Sting and Vader beat the shit out of each other in the main event, particularly with the strap itself. I liked their Starrcade match slightly better, but it was still phenomenal. 

-This was Ric Flair’s first PPV appearance after leaving the WWF. They couldn’t have picked many cities better than Asheville. Flair trying to put the NWA title on Windham after his victory, but Barry freaking out was a great way to kickstart their story. 

-Why the main event was a non-title match when the champ won anyway is beyond me. 

-As mentioned, Muta won the NWA title in Japan, and this was his only defense of the title on American soil. For a guy the WCW fans once begged to turn babyface, they really did nothing to maximize this title run in the slightest. Muta didn’t help with a sluggish performance against a stud like Windham. 

-The Rock’ n’ Roll vs. Bodies match felt very much like an old R&R’s vs. Midnight Express match, only shorter. That also worked in Asheville, the city of many JCP TV tapings. The crowd was so into the brief return of the R&Rs to their television. 

-Thank God, Max Payne eventually changed his gear. Despite his successful amateur background, the blue singlet didn’t complement his otherwise goth look. It was horrible. 

-Speaking of Payne, he didn’t jive well with Dustin. Ron Simmons was initially scheduled for the match, but a shoulder injury necessitated the last-minute replacement. We would have been much better off with Simmons. 

-The Cactus/Orndorff match was really good, but I wish Orndorff weren’t doing jobs at the Clash and his first PPV here upon arrival. The Cactus babyface run did work, but Orndorff may have been someone they could have made a top guy if he had been pushed more as something special.

-Scorpio and Benoit certainly delivered. Even in Asheville, NC, there were moments when the crowd applauded the great in-ring action, like they were in Tokyo. Both were used so well while Watts was still in charge. 

-Bulldog’s unannounced debut was a fun addition. What they missed later was pushing a guy who was never once in the WWF title picture while there, and who only beat Bill Irwin in WCW, into WCW title matches with Vader, was a mistake. This was very TNAish before TNA was a thing. 

-This was Austin and Pillman pre-Hollywood Blodnes, but they were still very good. Watts and Bagwell weren’t a team that needed a sixteen-plus-minute match. 

The Verdict: Thumbs Up 

Honestly, as far as show quality is concerned, we could have done without the US and NWA title matches, but an excellent main event paired with some of the good undercard matches made this an easy thumbs up. As bad as Watts’ WCW could be at times, he had a good Clash and PPV under his belt before leaving. He started building momentum with Scorpio, Benoit, the Blondes, and some established guys. Still, alas, he was thrown out on his sizable ass when an old, extremely offensive Pro Wrestling Torch interview came to bite him in said ass. His last two major shows made it look like he was starting to figure things out.