Monday, December 28, 1992
The Omni
Atlanta, Georgia
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
Off The Grid, Volume 17:
Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura are here to hype up the show. We go to Eric Bischoff for a Special Report and he lets us know that Rick Rude is injured. Ron Simmons will instead wrestle Steve Williams.
Tony Schiavone is now in the ring with Bill Watts and Hank Aaron. They bring out Sting and present him with the ring for Sting winning BattleBowl last year.
We now go to Larry Zbysczko and Missy Hyatt to draw the Lethal Lottery again.
Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match
Van Hammer & Dan Spivey vs. Cactus Jack & Johnny B. Badd
I'll give them credit on this one, this is about as random of a group of wrestlers here. Hammer starts off hot, taking care of both Jack and Badd. Badd comes back with some arm drags and a hurricanrana for a 2 count. He tags in Jack and he misses an elbow drop, so in comes Spivey. Spivey nails Jack with a clothesline. Spivey legit looks unhinged here. Spivey hits Badd with a knee to the back when he's running the ropes and Hammer doesn't like it. Badd and Spivey collide, but Badd is able to tag Jack. He comes in and hits a modified bulldog and an elbow drop for a 2 count. Spivey throws Jack out of the ring, but Jack is back in and hits a clothesline. Badd is knocked out, so Jack can't get a tag. Hammer hits a flying shoulder block and Badd accidentally hits Jack with an elbow drop. Badd and Jack aren't happy and Hammer is able to pick up the win. This one was a little disjointed and just felt like a bunch of moves.
Match Rating: *1/2
Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match
Dustin Rhodes & Big Van Vader vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Barbarian
Vader and Barbarian give us some hard hitting big man stuff to start. Barbarian body slams Vader. Vader returns the favor after a couple of headbutts. Rhodes gets tagged in and hits a clothesline while Vader held Barbarian up. Barbarian comes right back with a back suplex and then Rhodes hits one of his own. Sasaki is tagged in and the pace picks up. Sasaki goes off the second rope and Rhodes counters with a dropkick. Vader is tagged in and he nails him off the second rope. Sasaki eats a big boot to the face, but he blocks Vader's suplex and hits one of his own. Both men make tags and Rhodes hits a knee lift and a dropkick. Barbarian accidentally runs into Sasaki, Rhodes rolls him up and gets the victory. After the match, Vader nails Rhodes with a clothesline. This was pretty similar to the first, where it felt like they were a little off overall.
Match Rating: **
Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match
Barry Windham & Great Muta vs. 2 Cold Scorpio & Brian Pillman
All four men get a little bit to show off their skills. Windham and Pillman are tagging later tonight for the tag titles, but even they go at it for a little bit. Muta hits a big kick on Pillman, but Pillman is able to trip him up into the second turnbuckle. Scorpio is in there and hits a leaping clothesline. Scorpio goes for a splash, but Muta gets the knees up. In comes Windham and he nails Scorpio with a clothesline. Windham and Muta hit a double dropkick . Scorpio hits a nice leg drop for a 2 count. He then hits a slingshot somersault dive that looks like that ma have hurt Muta. Windham comes in and knocks out Scorpio. Muta hits a moonsault for the victory, even though it looked like maybe Pillman broke up the pin attempt. Watching these old WCW shows just makes you realize just how valuable Pat Patterson was.
Match Rating: **1/2
Lethal Lottery Tag Team Match
Steve Williams & Sting vs. Erik Watts & Jushin Liger
One of these men is not like the others. Liger tries to hit one of his flashy moves, but Williams just nails him with a clothesline. In comes Sting and he throws him stomach first into the top turnbuckle. Liger hits a sunset flip for a 2 count. Sting and Williams dominate Liger until he's able to hit a tag to Watts, who the crowd seems to hate. Watts whiffs on a dropkick and then hits another. Watts goes for the STF, but Williams has the bottom rope. Williams dumps Watts through the ropes. When he's back in the ring, he hits a Stun Gun and gets the victory. This was the longest match of the four, but wasn't any more notable.
Match Rating: **1/4
NWA World Championship Match
Great Muta vs. Masahiro Chono
We get some slowwwww wrestling to start things off. What a terrible start to a wrestling match. Chono eventually goes up to the top rope, but Muta grabs him and hits a superplex. The 15 people in the crowd who are into this cheered. Muta hits the handspring elbow in the corner. He goes up for a moonsault, but Chono moves and Muta lands on his feet, but sells the knee injury. Chono locks in the STF and after a good effort, Muta submits. This match was torture.
Match Rating: 1/2*
JR and Ventura go over the Rick Rude situation and out comes Rude. He cuts a good promo about it being a conspiracy and that it isn't going to work. I liked the fire from Rude here.
WCW Championship Match
Steve Williams vs. Ron Simmons
We get lots of stalling to start, followed by some cheesy football stuff. Simmons goes up to the top and you'll never guess it, but he misses. Williams drags him by the leg and slams it on the apron. Apparently these two watched the last match and said "Hold my beer". After a seemingly endless heat sequence, Simmons makes his comeback with a spinebuster. He takes out the knees of Williams, but then they spill outside the ring and brawl. They keep brawling and the bell rings. They announce a double countout. The brawl continues and somehow they reverse the decision and say that Williams is disqualified. Are you kidding me? We get a garbage match and then an almost worse finish? Absolutely terrible.
Match Rating: 1/4*
NWA & WCW Tag Team Championship Match
Shane Douglas & Ricky Steamboat vs. Brian Pillman & Barry Windham
Now we're talking. Douglas and Steamboat use some double teaming to gain an early advantage on Windham. The action spills outside and Windham gets body slammed on both the particle board on the floor and the elevated entrance ramp. Windham is finally able to make a tag to Pillman and he goes to work on Douglas. Douglas is able to hit a dropkick on Pillman and he goes flying into the guardrail on the outside. Windham stalls Douglas a little and Pillman dropkicks Douglas off the top rope and to the floor. I can't believe that in 1992, WCW thought it was a good idea to just have pieces of wood on the floor. The action again goes outside and Steamboat hits Windham in the back with a chair. Douglas is still unable to make a tag and continues to take a beating. Douglas hits a suplex on Windham and finally makes the hot tag to Steamboat. The action is picking up quite nicely now after a little bit of an uninspired first half. The match breaks down and all four men are in the ring. Steamboat clotheslines Windham over the top rope onto the ramp. Douglas hits a belly-to-belly suplex and Steamboat holds Windham back to pick up the victory. I remember loving this match, but I would say I merely liked it this time around. Good match though.
Match Rating: ***1/2
King Of Cable Tournament Final
Vader vs. Sting
The King Of Cable Tournament is the most WCW thing I can think of. Vader manhandles Sting early on. Sting battles back quickly though and clotheslines him out of the ring. These two have such great chemistry together. Back in the ring, Sting hits an arm drag, but Vader gives him a boot to the face. Sting comes back with a DDT and the crowd is loving it. Sting hits a superplex/DDT off the second rope. Sting puts Vader into the Scorpion Death Lock, but Vader grabs the bottom rope. Outside the ring, Sting goes for a splash, but Vader moves and Sting hits the rails. Vader dominates the next few minutes before missing a splash off of Sting's sunset flip attempt. Sting is able to hit a back suplex, but Vader is quick to recover. Vader may have my favorite punches in wrestling. Vader goes for a superplex, but Sting knocks him off, but is unable to follow up. Sting is now telling Vader to bring it and Vader continues to, throwing clubbing blow after clubbing blow. They are telling the story of Vader fatiguing, as Sting is able to withstand the beating. Sting fights back and knocks the big man down. Sting goes up top and hits a splash. Vader is able to come back and hit a splash off the second rope. He goes off the top rope, but Sting catches him and hits a powerslam to pick up the victory. This was an excellent match with a great pace for being a heavyweight match. It may have been for something stupid, but they made it seem important.
Match Rating: ****1/4
After the match, Ventura presents the trophy to Sting. Speaking of pointless things, Schiavone and Zbyszko hype up the BattleBowl ring. They then go to a pre-taped interview with Paul Hornung and he tries to tell me that this stupid ring means something.
BattleBowl
Vader attacks Sting on his way down to the ring before the match starts. With only 8 men in the match, we skip the chaotic beginning of a normal battle royal and skip right to the meaningless middle portion of the match. Van Hammer is the first one to be eliminated, which was the obvious choice here. Sting then hits a back body drop on Spivey over the ropes and he's gone. Vader charges at Sting and clotheslines both Sting and himself over the top rope to eliminate both men. We are down to Windham, Rhodes, Muta and Williams. Windham and Rhodes are battling by the ropes. Williams charges at them and Windham is able to dump both of them. The crowd is really into Muta. Windham throws Muta over, but he hangs on and skins the cat. Muta hits two dropkicks and sends Windham over the top for a big pop. That was an extremely uneventful match that just didn't feel like a big deal. WCW continues to try and search for their Royal Rumble, but they never found it.
Match Rating: *3/4
There really isn't much to stay about this show. Sting/Vader is awesome, the tag match is good and the rest was pretty brutally bad. The back-to-back title matches in the middle was some of the worst stuff I have seen by talented wrestlers on any show. I would do anything to get that part of my life back. It's hard to give this any type of recommendation, but I think any 90s wrestling fan should see the Sting/Vader match.
Overall Rating: 41%
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