WCW World War 3 1995 11/26/1995

WCW World War 3 1995 11/26/1995

The wrestlers talk about World War III. Big Bubba says he will beat people up. Giant says he is swimming and hunting. Sting says it's survival of the fittest. Eddie Guerrero says he will stay low. Johnny B. Badd says he will stick and move. Giant says there can be only one and it's him. They talk about who they want to throw out first and last. Bubba and Giant both want to eliminate Hogan. They then talk about what they will do if they become champ. 

We are in Norfolk, Virginia. Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are our commentators. Tony picks Hulk to win World War 3. Heenan picks Savage then picks The Giant. Heenan then talks about Flair maybe winning.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Sting, Macho Man and Randy Savage. Hulk says out of something bad comes something good. He said he took a walk to the darkside and said maybe he wouldn't be here with his best friends if he took the biggest step. He said the darkside of Hulk Hogan is over. He takes off the black clothes and puts his usual red and yellow clothes on. He throws them into a bucket and the bucket sets the clothes on fire. Hulk says Sting will always be his friend. Macho says he was wrong and said Sting is the coolest dude in the world.

Gene asks for the fire to be put up and Sting swats at it. Sting then tries to pour water on it. Hulk says the WCW Title will be with The Hulkamaniacs. Hulk grabs a "rag sheet" and says to observe this, which is a copy of The Wrestling Observer. He said it said Giant would win World War 3 and Macho is injured. He said the internet has got the scoops and said him and his buddies will steal the belt. Hulk then does his whatcha gonna do line as Sting and Macho shake hands. 

WCW Title/Services of The Diamond Doll - Diamond Dallas Page (c) vs Johnny B. Badd

We see clips of Doll getting mad at DDP and feeling unappreciated.

They lock up, DDP backs him up and chest slaps him. They roll out. Badd punches him then is eye poked. DDP is pushed into the post. Badd crossbodies him and DDP rolls through. DDP shoulders him over then Badd samoan drops him. Badd side headlocks him then they fight over a wristlock.

DDP pulls him down by the hair then armlocks him. Badd pulls DDP down by the hair. DDP charges at Badd and goes over the top. Badd plancha's him outside. DDP pushes Doll into Badd then punches him. Badd is thrown into the rails.

DDP backdrops Badd. Badd tries a headscissors but is tombstone'd. DDP spinning lariats Badd for 2. DDP corner spears him then corner spears the post. Badd hits punches then atomic drops him. Badd hits more punches then hits a big lariat. Badd asks Diamond Doll to give him a 10+ on her card and she does. Badd powerbombs DDP for 2.

DDP back elbows him and tries to pin him with his feet on the ropes. DDP side slams him for 2. Badd flying headscissors him. Badd slingshots in and lands on DDP's knees. DDP gutbusters him then Badd tombstones him for 2.

DDP is knocked out of the ring with a punch. Badd flip dives him then slingshot legdrops him for the win.

Thoughts: It was a good opener here with some flying and DDP doing a lot of bumping. Thankfully unlike the last two PPV's, they didn't open the show with a 30 minute opener.

The Diamond Doll gets in the ring after and hugs Badd. Doll looks confused and unsure of what to do but ends up smiling and seeming okay with the situation.

Johnny B. Badd says he will teach DDP what respect is all about. Badd offers Doll the chance to be the manager of the TV champ. He tells her to do what she wants to do, fullfill her dreams and reach her goals. Doll says she will think about it and says the best man won tonight. Badd says he's ready for the battle royale tonight and says he's ready for war.

Big Bubba Rogers vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan

They usually just call him "Big Bubba", but they called him "Big Bubba Rogers" here. Jim nails him from behind as he enters. He has a 2x4 wrapped around him. Bubba is sent into the apron edge. They get in. Jim teases hitting him with the 2x4. Bubba hits shots to the gut. Jim hits lariats then lariats him over the top rope.

Bubba's head is banged off the apron of another ring and then they go into another ring. Bubba's head is pushed between the two posts. Jim comes off the apron and ends up going into the rails when Bubba moves. 

Bubba knocks him down with a punch. Bubba hits more punches to the head. They go to another ring and trade punches. Bubba step up enzugiri's him. Bubba puts more tape on his knuckles and punches him in the gut.

Jim hits shots to the gut then shoulders him out of the ring. They go outside again and Bubba tapes Jim to the top rope. Jim is stuck and Bubba starts punching him. Jim sticks his fist out and Bubba runs right into it. Jim back body drops Bubba over the top.

Jim hits punches outside then slams him inside. Jim running lariats him thne VK Wallstreet comes down with a chain. Jim nails VK with the 2x4. Bubba puts brass knucks or VK's chain on and drops Duggan. Bubba then wins by knockout.

Thoughts: It got a little repetitive match but it was good. Due to the tape, the punches all looked like they hit a lot better than they probably did. I was okay with the ending here. This was all punches.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Ric Flair. Ric says tonight, he will style and profile and says Sting almost injured him. Ric says he has got Sting, Hulk, Lex and Savage under the same roof at the same time. He said Dr. J ruled this arena and he will rule WCW one more time.

Cuty Suzuki and Mayumi Ozaki vs Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto

Here's a random one. Hokuto wore her kabuki mask out and Heenan says, "Tony, the misus is here". Mike Tenay joins the commentary booth for this one, thankfully. This is kind an AJW vs JWP match though Bull was basically freelance.

Bull and Akira jump Oz and Cuty. Oz takes a double lariat and a double boot. Bull hair throws Oz. Akira top rope elbow drops Oz's neck. Akira pulls on Oz's arms and teases giving Cuty her arms for the tag. Bull bites Oz and Cuty tries to kick her to get her off. Bull lifting double chokes Oz and Akira presses her down off the top.

Oz gets bullied around and is tied up in the ropes. Oz springboard forearms Akira then pendulum ddt's her. Cuty gets in and dropkicks Akira for 2. Oz and Cuty put stereo single leg crabs on and get a huge pop for it for some reason.

Cuty does bad butt drops on Akira's leg then single leg crabs her. Cuty ducks a Bull clothesline and dropkicks her partner on accident. Bull powerbombs Cuty then misses a top rope moonsault. Oz top rope double stomps Bull then Cuty does one as well. Bull takes another round of double stomps for 2.

Bull double suplexes her opponents then Akira misses a top rope splash. Bull takes a double dropkick. Akira top rope double crossbodies her opponents. Oz and Cuty hit stereo hurricanrana's for 2. Oz and Cuty do top rope crossbodies for 2.

Oz half and half suplexes Akira for 2. Akira hits a high german on Oz. Bull hits a nice lariat on Oz for 2 then nails Cuty with one. Akira top rope double dropkicks her opponents then top rope flip dives both opponents outside. Oz takes a doomsday device for 2. Akira slams Oz then Bull top rope legdrops Oz to win.

Thoughts: They shouldn't have done the doomsday device kickout but I liked this otherwise. The crowd did too so you know they did something right here. Akira and Bull stiffed and bullied their opponents and the faces were decent faces here. It was fast paced and they just did a lot of stuff you were not seeing at the time on American TV. This was a total success.

Mean Gene interviews Jimmy Hart and Lex Luger. Hart says Macho might be looking at the next WCW champ in Lex. Lex tells Macho he is the flagship of WCW. He says he will break him into 100 pieces and he won't make it into the battle royale. Lex says he will then stand as WCW champ.

WCW US Title - Kensuke Sasaki (c) vs Chris Benoit

They cut to some really hot girl in the crowd and even Bobby Heenan loses his train of thought over her. KS comes out to Great Muta's "Tokyo Takeaway" theme and is with Sonny Ono. Him and Benoit fought on Nitro and it wasn't good. Hopefully this one is better. It should be.

They said Bobby Heenan tried to sell WCW Pro to Sonny Ono. CB hits chops and some stomps. KS chops him and gives him a few boots. CB trips him. they do a double knuckle lock spot. CB takes him down by the wrist and they do another double knuckle lock. CB straightjackets him and KS pounds on him. KS slams him and chinlocks him. 

KS shoulders him over then gorilla press slams him. Cuty hits a nice tope outside on KS. CB snap suplexes him then headscissors him. KS powerslams him. Ono gets on commentary and says they worked out a deal for Starrcade. CB hits two germans then KS running lariats him. CB tombstones him then hits a top rope headbutt. CB top rope hurricanrana's him for 2.

KS does a stiff one arm powerbomb then puts him in strangle hold alpha. CB ropebreaks. CB lariats him then takes a stiff lariat back. KS hits a northern lights bomb and wins.

Thoughts: The crowd wasn't too into this which hurt it. These two really should match up well but the match never lives up to my expectations for some reason. KS was nice and stiff here like usual and it was a high impact match.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Jimmy Hart, The Taskmaster and The Giant. Task says they will take no prisoners in the battle royale tonight. He says they have friends in a lot of places and say Giant is the uncrowned champ. Jimmy says they say the three stooges out here earlier - Sting, Macho and Hulk. He says there's only one man around here that wears red and yellow and it's The Taskmaster. Gene says The Dungeon will have problems tonight as his men should want to be champ. Task says it doesn't matter who wins as The Dungeon will prevail. Giant says he will throw Hulk over the top rope. He says "roses are red, violets are blue, Hogan, I'm gonna kick your butt to Kalamazoo."

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Macho Man Randy Savage for the 2nd time tonight. Macho says what it is is what it is. He says it's his personality to be jittery. He says Lex will find out that he is The Total Package. He says he's a million percent when Gene asks about his injured arm. He says him and Lex have a date with destiny right now.

"Macho Man" Randy Savage vs Lex Luger

Macho hits Lex as he gets in. He bangs his head off the buckles, back elbows him and chokes him on the ropes. Macho chokes him. Macho hits punches and Lex gets his boot up in the corner. Macho then clotheslines him. Macho crabs Lex.

Macho bangs Lex's head off the rails. Macho slams Lex. Jimmy Hart gets on the apron and Macho top rope elbow drops Lex. The ref is distracted by Hart and can't count the pin. Macho throws Lex at Hart but Hart moves and Lex goes out.

Lex sends Macho into the post. Lex torture racks Macho outside. Lex armlocks Macho's injured arm and Macho is out. Lex gets the win.

Thoughts: Lex and Macho just don't produce great matches together. They really don't have much of a formula and end up just doing punches and boots. They had an easy match available here too with Macho having an injured arm but Lex didn't work it outside of the finish. 

Lex keeps the hold on and Sting comes in and talks to Lex face to face. Lex releases the hold.

Sting vs Ric Flair

Sting and Flair go face to face. Flair points at him and Sting tries to bite the finger. Flair head to the other ring. Sting follows and decks him. Sting gorilla press slams him. Flair hits shots to the gut and face. Sting hits corner punches, throws him and dropkicks him. Flair heads into another ring. Sister Sherri and Col. Rob Parker get in the aisle and kiss.

Flair chops Sting and Sting fires back. Flair is lariated over the top and heads up the aisle. Flair pulls Sting down by the hair and Sting kips up. Sting no sells Flair's chops then gorilla press slams him.

Sting splashes the rails when Flair moves. Sting grabs Flair by the throat and Flair low blows him. The ref is right there looking at it but doesn't DQ him. Flair stomps on Sting then knee drops him. Flair hits shots to Sting's leg and struts. 

Flair throws Sting over the top. They go outside again and Flair chops him there. Flair clips him in the ring then backdrops him. Flair figure fours him and slaps him while doing it. Sting turns it around and Flair breaks it. Sting backslides him for 2.

Flair pushes the ref Nick Patrick and Nick pushes him back. Flair chops Sting and Flair heads to another ring again. Sting gorilla press slams Flair and hits lariats.

Sting throws Flair off the top then hits corner punches. Sting superplexes Flair then sharpshooters him. Flair then taps out.

Thoughts: It got a little repetitive here as they going to other rings and going outside multiple times. I felt like they could have been a little more disciplined here and could have had a better ending. Heenan called for the Horsemen to come out near the end of this and I have no explanation for why they didn't. Heenan also said this match didn't matter at one point which was not a good thing to say.

Mean Gene interviews Hulk Hogan again. He says he smells the stench of The Giant. He says he's focused on taking the WCW Title and keeping it forever. He says he will rip and tear his way to the tile. Gene and Hulk agree it's every man for himself. Hulk says it's the most dangerous match in wrestling. He says he can prove Hulkamania is the greatest power in the universe tonight. He says things will go the way of him, Sting and Macho. He says he wants Giant.

We have three teams for commentary for the battle royale. Dusty/Eric, Larry Zbysko and Chris Cruise and Heenan/Schiavone.

WCW Title - World War III Battle Royal

I'm not listing all of the people in this one but we have people like The State Patrol, Scott Armstong, The Yeti (now dressed up like a ninja), Big Train Bart, Fidel Sierra and Mike Winner(who?). 

It's a pretty cool sight as 60 men start fighting. We get a triple split screen for this and it's pretty hard to follow anything closely that is going on. I think one of the Armstrongs is the first out. Arn and Flair beat up Sting outside the ring. The Yeti takes out Mike Winner and leaves him laying. Hulk carries Flair to one of the rings and Knobbs ends up outside but not eliminated.

Regal tossses out Dave Sullivan. Giant chokes Sting and Knobbs eliminates Mark Starr. The State Patrol try to take out Cobra and all three get eliminated. Paul Orndorff and Lex Luger fight outside and Bunkhouse Buck is eliminated.  They say Ring 2 is down to six men, but I don't see it. Meng tries to chop Giant and Disco gets sent to Pity City. 

Chris Kanyon gets knocked off the apron and we see One Man Gang (who I believe just got rehired) work on Macho. Big Train Bart gets eliminated. Lex back body drops Arn on the floor. Hulk running lariats a Super Assassin out. Field Sierra is gone and Orndorff throws out the other Armstrong brother.

Craig Pittman throws out Bobby Walker. Eddie Guerrero throws out the other Barrio Boy. Sting and Knobbs eliminated Stevie Ray. Giant lariats both from behind but Sting avoids the elimination while Knobbs doesn't. Alex Wright and Pez Whatley get eliminated. 

Macho eliminated Bobby Eaton and Hulk airplane spins Dick Slater out. Giant throws Dave Taylor off the buckles. Flair goes outside to beat up Sting and Arn goes out to beat up Lex Luger. Macho back body drops VK Wallstreet over the top. Hugh Morrus barely hits Norton from behind to eliminate him. A stretcher is brought out for Scott Armstrong.

One of the rings starts to get cleared as they want them to fight in two rings only. Macho bangs DDP's head off the post. Hulk slams Giant then Macho grabs Lex. The Dungeon of Doom choke Hulk.

Pittman throws out Kurosawa and Joey Maggs gets eliminated. Duggan eliminates Big Bubba then Bubba pulls him out right next to the stretcher. Hawk throws out Disco Inferno then Pittman throws out Dave Taylor. Eddie is standing on the top rope behind Sting for some reason and jumps on Arn.

Giant and One Man Gang stare down despite being in the same group. Hugh Morrus hits both but Taskmaster eventually gets them all to work together. Hulk throws out Booker and Saggs. 

Taskmaster and Giant get their heads banged together. Hulk eliminated Taskmaster but the camera's barley catch it. Macho and Lex go to another ring to fight then fight outside. Regal is thrown into the post and eliminated. Benoit and Pillman have their heads banged together. Johnny B. Badd throws out DDP but DDP holds on and eliminates him. Pittman charges at someone and goes out.

Benoit goes out then Meng gets Kurosawa out. One Man Gang and Meng fight and Gang lariats Meng over the top. Sting hits corner punches on Flair and is atomic dropped. Zodiac takes a back body drop out by Hugh Morrus. Hugh is then lariated out but Kensuke Sasaki. Hawk throws out Pillman. Hulk throws out Hawk, who is trying to help out Sasaki (his partner in japan, which they mention).

Sting splashes Eddie Guerrero in the corner. Orndorff tries to piledrive Hulk but is thrown over the top. Lex gorilla press slams Macho. Eddie top rope dropkicks Arn. Flair figure fours Eddie and Arn grabs Eddie's arm. Sting saves Eddie. Giant slams Macho then Arn spinebusters Eddie.

Arn throws Eddie out. Sting stinger splashes Arn. Giant chokeslams Macho. Sting catapults Arn into Flair on the ropes. Flair gets eliminated then Hulk eliminates Arn. Lex and Sting double clothesline Giant. They get Giant over with help from Hulk then Hulk eliminates all three of them like a true friend. Giant pulls out Hulk under the ropes and fights with him. Macho eliminates One Man Gang.

Despite Hulk being pulled out from under the ropes, they declare Macho Man Randy Savage the winner and the new WCW Champion.. Hulk slams Giant outside and gets in to complain. Hulk says he was pulled out underneath the ropes.  

Mean Gene Okerlund comes in the ring. He tells the ref what happened but the ref doesn't care. Hulk complains and says he was eliminated under the bottom rope. Gene says this is going to stand. Macho says they are friends and says he values his opinion. Macho says he didn't see anything but says it is what it is and asks if he can handle that.

Hulk asks the fans if he went under the bottom or not. A fan or two waves their hands "no" which is a lie. Macho says this has been his dream since coming here. He says if there's a dark cloud over this, that's not something he's comfortable with. Macho says he needs to see the film and Gene says tomorrow night on Nitro (man, if they had only invented instant replay by 1995). Hulk impersonates Macho and says thankfully they are all on the same team. Hulk congratulates him but says they need to watch the film. He says they will talk turkey as he deserves a shot at his belt. Macho says he likes it and they shake hands and hug. Macho then says, "ooh yeah". Hulk then does it back to him.

Thoughts: What a stupid ending. We had like three refs out there at one point, Doug Dillinger and multiple cameramen yet nobody could figure out that Hulk wasn't eliminated. Nobody felt like checking instant replay either even though they had used it earlier on the show. There's just no explanation for that one. It ruined what was an okay main otherwise.

As for the match, you can probably guess what it was like. We had three rings with constant action. The camera's missed a bunch of stuff and they used a lot of up close shots so we couldn't get clear views of what was going on most of the time. It was fun to see 60 people out there and fun to see some oddball matchups, but it was quantity over quantity. I still liked it though for how unique it was. The match was your usual battle royale. It was little but punches and kicks and we didn't really get to see true wrestling moves until the final 15 or so.

I'm not sure how I feel about them putting everyone in the same ring at once when there weren't as many people left. It makes sense but it also would have been cool to get a definitive winner from each ring and have the three winners battle it out.  

We had some stories going on here. Bubba/Duggan, Flair/Sting, Macho/Lex and Hulk/Giant all continued their feuds. Booker T was in there longer. Joey Maggs also had a nice Cinderella run and Knobbs had a good showing. But with all the chaos, the announcers didn't really get to put those things over.

Hulk was an awful face as usual here, throwing over his buddy Sting for no reason. The Dungeon of Doom were also dumb here as they fought each other as much as anyone else.

Overall thoughts: WCW had basically two different universes at this point. There was the Nitro Universe where all the main event stuff happened then the other shows where the midcard got filled out. Unfortunately, if you only watched Nitro like I had been doing, you would miss out on all of the midcard stuff. It just never got mentioned. I watched all of the Nitro's leading up to this and had no idea about most of the matches on this show. 

DDP/Badd was a solid opener. Duggan/Bubba was a little repetitive, but they threw a lot of good strikes here. The joshi girls did a great job in their match in front of a crowd who did not know them. Sasaki/Benoit failed to have a great match as the crowd wasn't into it and for whatever reason, they just don't click as well as they should. Lex/Macho wasn't good. Sting/Flair could have been better as they kept going outside and into other rings which threw off the floor. The battle royale was entertaining but it was really hard to keep track of and they didn't make the most of it. The ending was awful. Overall, I'd probably give it a 6 out of 10 as the ending stunk, the card wasn't promoted well and Lex/Macho was disappointing.