Thursday, September 5th, 1991
August-Richmond County Civic Center
Albany, Georgia
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Off The Grid, Volume 61:
Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone welcome us at ringside before passing it off to Eric Bischoff, Missy Hyatt and Paul E. Dangerously as our interviewers.
Georgia Brawl Battle Royal
Each entrant gets their name called to generic music. We have Big Josh, Steve Austin, Oz, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, PN News, Z-Man, Terrance Taylor, One Man Gang, El Gigante, Thomas Rich, Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, Young Pistol Tracy, Ranger Ross and Bobby Eaton. Ranger Ross, Big Josh and Taylor all get eliminated first at the same time. This is one of those crowds that is very screamy in a fun way. I'm not sure what about any of this that they care about, but it's at least making it more interesting to me. The eliminations pick up including some of the bigger names like Austin and Windham. We're down to a final four of Oz, One Man Gang, Dustin Rhodes and El Gigante. So, I guess the difference between WCW and WWF is that WWF just shoves it down your throat about how tough it will be to get a big man eliminated over the top before watching it happen frequently, and WCW takes it literally. Oz and Gang team up to eliminate Rhodes. Then Gigante hits them both with a clothesline and they both are eliminated. I can't believe that both promotions pushed this guy. This was every battle royal ever but at least it was quick.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Badstreet vs. Brian Pillman
Badstreet is out with the Fabulous Freebirds. This is Pillman's return from injury here. This show feels like it's at a frantic pace and I am okay with it. Pillman looks great at the start here. He hits a springboard sunset flip for a 2 count and then a big dropkick. Pillman tries to suplex over the rope and into the ring but Badstreet counters and suplexes him to the floor. This of course leads to the announcers having to explain to us how that isn't a disqualification. Badstreet is able to pull Pillman into the ring post and then celebrates it in the ring. That gives Pillman time to launch himself into Badstreet. Badstreet comes right back with a neckbreaker. Badstreet goes up top and Pillman hits him with a dropkick. Pillman hits a suicide dive going about 900 mph and as a result, he hits the guardrail pretty hard on accident as well as nailing Badstreet. Pillman goes for a missile dropkick but Badstreet hits him with a dropkick. The action here is really fast paced for this era and there is just about no selling. Badstreet hits a DDT and gets a 2 count. Pillman goes for a crucifix but Badstreet counters and drops him to the mat. Pillman knocks Badstreet off the second rope and Pillman hits the crossbody for the victory. This is a semi-final match for the Light Heavyweight title apparently. This was balls to the wall action here. I wish they would have done some more selling but everything else was very entertaining.
Match Rating: ***1/2
It's time for the Top Ten.
10. Bobby Eaton
9. Z-Man
8. Diamond Studd
7. One Man Gang
6. Dustin Rhodes
5. Steve Austin
4. El Gigante
3. Barry Windham
2. Ron Simmons
1. Sting
Yes, El Gigante.
US Championship Match
Johnny B. Badd vs. Sting
They show a hilarious clip of Sting opening a box and Abdullah the Butcher being inside of it. Badd hits a series of quick moves, including his signature top rope sunset flip for a 2. We slow things down and Badd works on the wrist of Sting. The flow of this match is that of one that is going to go for another 15 minutes. Jim Ross lets us know that another box has been delivered and of course it is not shown on TV. Badd sees the box and he thinks it's for him. Theodore Long pleads with him to focus on Sting and then Sting sees it. Sting gets an inside cradle and picks up the win in a terrible finish. Out comes Cactus Jack and he attacks Sting. He hits a top rope elbow to the floor. Back in the ring, he hits the double underhook DDT. Out come Sting's pals to make the save. I love how they just refused to show the box. WCW, everybody. Anyway, this match sucked for some reason.
Match Rating: 1/2*
When we come back, they finally show us Cactus Jack coming out of the box.
Richard Morton vs. Mike Graham
This is another Light Heavyweight tournament match and the winner of this will face Pillman. This is from the time where they thought it was a good idea for Morton to be a heel singles wrestler. The crowd is absolutely dead for this one. JR lets us know that Sting will be okay. I was really worried. This match is off to an absolutely terrible start. Graham finally does something of interest with a German suplex into a bridge for a 2 count. Graham looks like someone you'd meet at a bowling alley, so no one in their right mind is expecting him to win. This match is the absolute death sentence. It is dead silent and they just keep going. Alexandra York distracts the referee and he misses what would have been a victory for Graham. Morton pushes him into the corner and rolls him up for the victory. Absolutely terrible.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We are back to listen to how strong Bill Kazmaier is. We go to Bischoff in the ring and he brings him out to try to break a record tonight. This has some big time Dino Bravo vibes. Sadly, I cared about Dino more. He bends a bar on his head and then gets attacked by Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko. Out comes Rick Steiner to make the save. Another death segment here.
Fabulous Freebirds vs. Patriots
So this match is not for the United States Tag Team Championships, but they fight again on Saturday and that one is. Since it's the Patriots, I don't really care. At least this match has some spunk after the last two segments. We are informed that Kazmaier refuses to go to the hospital. Please do us a favor and just go. Todd and Chip may be about as dorky of names as they could have possibly come up with. Hayes hits an elbow to the back of the head behind the referee's back and the Freebirds pick up the win.
Match Rating: *1/2
Paul E. Dangerously is in the ring with Cactus Jack. Paul asks who his business partner is. There's a box on the ramp again and Cactus thinks it is Abdullah. He goes and gives the box a hug and out comes Sting, who tosses him off the ramp to the concrete. They brawl into the commercial break.
We come back from commercial and the quality of it is pretty poor. They show Ron Simmons getting his number retired at Florida State. We go to a pre-recorded Bobby Bowden interview talking about how great Simmons is.
Diamond Studd vs. Ron Simmons
Studd comes down to the ring yelling "I'm the bad guy". Studd attacks Simmons upon entering the ring. Simmons quickly battles back until getting raked in the eyes. Studd catches Simmons trying to leapfrog and turns it into a chokeslam. Studd hits a second rope bulldog but is too cocky on his pin attempt. Simmons is able to slide under the ropes and pulls Studd's legs and crotches him into the ring post. Simmons hits the shoulder tackle and picks up the win. That was it? They kept hyping how Diamond Studd was a top 10 contender. Not that this one needed another 10 minutes or anything, but this was actually a good match and so naturally the gave it about 2 minutes.
Match Rating: **1/4
Dangerously is now in the ring with Simmons. Simmons says he isn't afraid of Lex Luger and his entourage. Out comes Harley Race and Mr. Hughes. Simmons says that he'll face Lex Luger and walks away.
Terrance Taylor vs. Van Hammer
Hammer is one of my all time least favorite wrestlers. Watching him strutting around in the ring with his guitar confirms it. Taylor attacks him from behind with the computer. Hammer no sells it and hits a body slam. He hits a series of clotheslines and then a suplex. He starts doing a "We Will Rock You" chant and hits one of the worst looking top rope moves you will ever see for the win. Squash.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We go to Missy Hyatt, who apparently has been having issues with locker room interviews lately. She's with Lex Luger and Ron Simmons knocks on the door. This looks like the quality of the skits my backyard wrestling videos had. They throw him out, so he does a running shoulder tackle to bust open the door. We get chaos and they quickly cut back to the ring.
WCW Television Championship Match
Z-Man vs. Steve Austin
Zenk is such a dorky face. Austin is with Lady Blossom who looks like a woman you would see in wrestling during this era. Austin's trunks are horrendous and it's easy to see why he ditched the ponytail. We get some slow submission wrestling to start here. With the pace we are starting off at here, it looks like these two saw the Greg Valentine/IRS match from SummerSlam and were hoping to top that. This is not the match I was hoping for here. We finally get a burst and Zenk hits a superkick and a back body drop for a 2. The announcers are criticizing Zenk for not being aggressive enough. Zenk hits a dive on Austin but then misses with the top rope crossbody. Austin hits the Stun Gun but is too slow to get the cover and Zenk gets an inside cradle for 2. Zenk then puts on the sleeper. Austin gets to the rope and we get the most obvious hand off of a foreign object you will ever see. Zenk picks him up for a back suplex and Austin hits him with the object and picks up the victory to retain the title. This stunk.
Match Rating: *
The Ron Simmons hype train continues here as they show him at a local YMCA giving a speech to the youth. They keep telling us that Lex Luger is not quite ready for the press conference. Please just end this show. They show Simmons again and this time he's taking the kids on a bus to wrestle at the Omni. We're still waiting for Luger to show up. Luger is finally out and I have to say that you would never know that both of these guys were only 33 years old. They sign the contract and Luger tries to do the thing where he sounds like he is complimenting him but then offers him a job as his driver and that leads to a brawl. They run Luger into the limo and get him out of there.
WCW World Tag Team Championship Match
Enforcers vs. Rick Steiner & Bill Kazmaier
On the plus side, we're under 10 minutes left in the show and this hasn't even started yet. Kazmaier is all taped up after the attack tonight. Steiner hits a big slam on Arn early on but Zbyszko breaks it up. Ross brings up that the fans would have loved to have seen Scott Steiner tonight and I'm pretty sure they'd rather see Rick's partner be a cucumber than Kazmaier. Steiner tries to make a comeback but the double teaming slows it down. Kazmaier tags himself in and no one cares. Arn runs in while Kazmaier has Zbyszko up in the air and hits him in the injured ribs. Zbyszko falls on top and we have new champions. This was so rushed and just nothing.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Arn tells us that the best sailboat can't move without wind or something stupid. Zbyszko says it doesn't matter how much muscle you have or how many holds you know. Whatever, just end it.
This show started off promising and just turned into an absolute chore to get through. None of the stories being told were interesting and focusing so much energy on Kazmaier was a complete waste of time. This show is something that you never need to see outside the good Pillman match.
Overall Rating: 28%
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