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By Brian Hoops, PWTorch.com Specialist Contributor
SuperBrawl II took place on February 29, 1992 from the Mecca Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This PPV is one of my all time favorite PPV’s and won 3rd best PPV in the annual Torch Year End Awards poll for 1992. Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Liger was voted as Match of the Year in the same awards poll. A stronger main event would have easily pushed this PPV to the top PPV for 1992. The buy rate for SuperBrawl II was .96, down slightly from the 1991 SuperBrawl which drew 1.04. In comparison, the WWF PPV in January, the annual Royal Rumble drew a 1.8 buy rate. The show featured eight solid matches including four title matches. The main event was Sting vs. Lex Luger for the WCW World Heavyweight Title. It should also be noted this was the first PPV that K. Allen Frye, the new V.P. of Wrestling Operations for WCW promoted; having assumed the job for the departing Jim Herd. Frye had the responsibility of turning the promotion around after a dreadful 1991 and SuperBrawl 1992 was a show that was great from a wrestling standpoint and gave fans some encouragement for 1992.
In a dark match, Big Josh pinned Dallas Page in 7:36.
Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura are the broadcast team and this was Ventura’s initial broadcast for WCW.
The first match of the PPV was the show stealer. Brian Pillman captured the WCW World Light Heavyweight title from Jushin Liger in 17:00 when Pillman pinned Liger. As mentioned, this match was voted as Match of the Year in the annual Torch Year End Awards poll for 1992. This match was also included on the Brian Pillman dvd distributed by the WWE in 2006. Pillman was the first Light Heavyweight champion, winning the title at Halloween Havoc 1991 in the finals of a tournament to determine the first champion. Liger defeated Pillman on Christmas night in Atlanta, Georgia’s omni in another very good match. Pillman had tried, unsuccessfully at house shows to recapture the title from Liger and they tore down the house at every arena with their match ups. Early in the match, both guys used mat wrestling tactics and slowly built the match into an intense, highflying battle towards the end. Both guys hit their major moves and traded several near falls throughout the match that only increased the drama of the match. Finish came when Liger missed a splash off the top rope and Pillman used a creative rollup for the pin fall. This is a must see match.
Next match is Marcus Bagwell vs. Terry Taylor. Story of the match is Taylor is doing his “Taylor made man” gimmick and offered the rookie Bagwell the opportunity to be his protégé. Bagwell refused and Taylor took offense to it and they blew off the feud on this PPV event. The match was very basic and Bagwell was very green but showing potential. Taylor carried the match with Bagwell selling most of the match with little offense. Bagwell screwed up the planned finish but did manage to roll up Taylor out of nowhere in 7:38 to gain the win. Taylor beat Bagwell after the match and left him lying. Basic match.
Ron Simmons pinned Cactus Jack in 6:34. Jack controlled most of the match and did his crazy spots, including getting his head caught between the ropes and a double ax handle smash off the middle rope to the floor. Cactus also took a sick looking spine buster from Simmons on the ramp way leading to the ring. Booked similar to the previous match, Simmons got the pin out of nowhere after being on the defensive most of the match. Cactus came off the second rope and Simmons turned it into a power slam for the pin. After the match, Abdullah the Butcher came down to ringside and Cactus and Abdullah proceeded to beat down Simmons until the Junkyard Dog came out of the crowd to make the save for Simmons. Crowd chanted JYD after JYD cleared the ring. Decent action with a clean pin fall
Tom Zenk [photo by Wade Keller (c) PWTorch]
Van Hammer & Tom Zenk defeated Ricky Morton & Vinnie Vegas (Kevin Nash) in 12:01. I thought this was a weird tag match. Neither team had been teaming together recently; making it appear this match was just thrown together. There was no reason for any of these guys to be wrestling on the PPV from a story line standpoint. Secondly, the teams didn’t look good together. Vegas and Morton in particular appeared to be a strange pairing. A rock and roller with a Vegas hit man. It appeared Vegas and Hammer were being pushed, but were too green to work a match alone, so WCW just placed them with a couple of established guys who could work and carry a match. Vinnie Vegas was a previous persona of Kevin Nash. The match was good when Zenk and Morton were in; unfortunately, Van Hammer was in the majority of the match. Zenk finally made the hot tag into the match and rolled up Morton in the corner for the pin fall. Match was average but at least had a clean pin fall.
Next match is Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham vs. Larry Zbyszko & Steve Austin. Story behind this match was Zbyszko, Arn Anderson broke Windham’s wrist at Halloween Havoc 1991, and Windham was trying to gain his revenge against Zbyszko who had taken to calling himself “The Cruncher”. I have always thought if WCW was going to have Zbyszko be the guy who put Windham out of wrestling with his “injury”, they should have had him slam the car door on Windham instead of Arn Anderson. Rhodes and Austin had been in a feud over the World TV title at Halloween Havoc 1991 and worked well together. All four guys were good workers and this turned out to be an excellent old school style match. Ventura got in the line of the night when he said Oklahoma was the only college that when you graduated and went into the NFL, you had to take a pay cut. Finish came when Windham came off the top rope with a clothesline on Zbyszko getting the pin fall and his revenge in 18:23. A very good match with a satisfying finish.
The WCW World Tag Team Title match is next. The match pitted the PW Torch 1992 #2 tag team of the year, the Steiner Brothers against the WCW World Tag Team Champions and PW Torch #3 tag team of the year. Anderson and Eaton had just won the titles from Dustin Rhodes and Ricky Steamboat in January and this was their first defense on a major card. Eaton and Anderson were both members of the Dangerous Alliance. Just prior to the start of the match, WCW announced Paul E. Dangerously was banned from ringside and Madusa would come down to ringside to manage Anderson and Eaton. This was a very hard-hitting contest and Scott Steiner abused Bobby early on. Match consisted of Steiners hitting big suplexes and other spots while Anderson and Eaton worked very well as a tag team to control the match. Finish came as Rick bulldogged Arn off the tope rope for a near fall. Madusa gave Arn some powder, which he threw into Rick Steiner’s eyes, blinding him. Rick Steiner was “blinded” and suplexed the ref. Scott Steiner gave Eaton a Frankensteiner and another ref ran in to count the pin. However, when the original ref, Randy Anderson, was revived, he disqualified the Steiners. Winners by DQ were Anderson and Eaton in 20:06. (***) Good match but the finish took away from the rating.
In the next match, Rick Rude defeated Ricky Steamboat to retain the WCW U.S. Heavyweight title in 20:02. Paul E. Dangerously was banned from ringside for this match as well. Rude came out first and was booed out of the building. The crowd was so loud it drowned out his spiel on the mic before the match. That was awesome. Rude was voted best heel by the readers of the PW Torch in 1992. Rude was really coming into his own as a heel and as a wrestler at this time. Steamboat came out with his ninja. The story was Rude had won the US title from Sting at the Clash of Champions in November. Steamboat had just lost the tag titles in January and he was now concentrating on a singles title and wanted Rude’s US title. A few weeks previously, Rude attacked Steamboat several times on WCW TV, “breaking” his nose one time and forcing Steamboat to wear a facemask. Steamboat hired a ninja for protection from the Dangerous Alliance and Rick Rude. The match was slow paced with Steamboat working over Rude’s arm while Rude worked on Steamboat’s neck to set up the Rude Awakening. The match was dominated by mat wrestling and back and forth action. Finish came when Steamboat went to the rope, but the Ninja hit Steamboat over the head with a phone. The Ninja was later revealed to be Paul E. Dangerously. It was obvious who the Ninja was, but it was still great. A good match if you like old style wrestling.
The main event of the evening is up next; Lex Luger defends the WCW World Heavyweight title against Sting. The story of the match was Sting and Luger were good friends until Luger won the title at the Great American Bash in July of 1991 and turned his back on Sting and the fans of WCW. Luger’s WCW contract was up and it was widely known he was joining Vince McMahon’s World Bodybuilding Federation and then the WWF when his non-complete cause expired, so everyone expected Luger would drop the belt to Sting in this match. Luger had not wrestled for WCW since StarrCade 1991 in December as he had already met his maximum dates of his contract. Therefore all WCW could do was a one sided build toward this match. Luger, who was not the best worker to begin with, mailed in his performance. Sting, who needs someone good to work with, struggled in this match also. Match had good crowd heat early, but lost the crowd midway through the match. Finish came when Luger threw Sting outside the ring and Sting climbed the ropes and hit Luger with a flying body press in 13:02 to win the title. Disappointing for a world title match.
Summary: This was one of my favorite PPV’s and I would highly recommend it. The Pillman-Liger match is a must see and the rest of the PPV is solid, but not spectacular. Of the eight matches, seven had a pin fall finish.
Next week, we will look at the next chronological PPV for WCW in 1992 look at WrestleWar 1992.
I hope you enjoyed this week's column. As always your questions, comments and thoughts are always welcomed, and you can contact me at bhoops@iw.net.
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