It’s September 17, 1995 and WCW are in Asheville, North Carolina for WCW Fall Brawl 1995. This is the second Fall Brawl in the company’s history. Is it the best one and can WCW reignite its streak of better than WWE’s pay-per-views? SummerSlam 1995 picked up a 6 out of 10, matching WCW’s highest-rated event from 1995 Bash at the Beach. Let’s see what the company has for its fall season kickoff!
Low-Tier
Now, I did say I’d stop telling our readers which matches to skip. Instead, I rank them according to the action and interest in the match by name-value involved and the storyline leading into the match. Go on ahead and skip Craig “Pitbull” Pittman against Cobra.
I mean, you could watch it, it’s just a little over a minute. Either way, you’ll end up forgetting it. DDP taking on The Renegade for the TV title will have you wondering how a Saturday Night show snuck onto PPV. That is if Pittman vs. Cobra didn’t already do that.
DDP has always hustled in a match but at this point, the only two who could get something PPV-worthy out of Renegade were Paul Orndorff and Arn Anderson. Unfortunately, Double A is busy tonight.
Mid-Tier
The Hulkamaniacs—mainly Hulk Hogan—had been feuding with Kevin Sullivan and his Dungeon of Doom for a chunk of the year. Honestly, Sullivan’s consistency as a thorn in Hogan’s side was World title worthy. He could’ve gotten the belt at Halloween Havoc then lost it by Starrcade and it would’ve made sense.
At any rate, we got Sullivan on the outside as Kamala, Zodiac (Brother Booty), The Shark (Earthquake), and Meng faced off against Hogan, Savage, Luger, and Sting. Accompanying them is future Dungeon manager, Jimmy Hart. Hogan’s side got some hitters on it! On top of that, they’re all in the War Games!
This was my favorite WCW stipulation. You had to watch the weeks prior to see who the babyface would get for their team. The heel’s team was usually already set but the main face was always in a scramble to find a team. This match was solid.
It was a War Games bout meaning time entries, a slower pace as everyone entered, heels taking advantage for a lot of it, and a big brawl at the end after the last face enters. Textbook War Games but this match would’ve been Exotic-tier with better heel opponents or even if Sullivan was in it.
You know, just divert from the Hulkster playbook of Hogan needing to fight monsters. Speak of the devil, a whole ass Giant came out and attacked Hogan after he got his hands on Sullivan.
Exotic-Tier
Off the bat, Brian Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd was goodd. It was really goodd. Badd grew extremely fast from his debut in WCW and while he was entertaining in the gimmick, he matched his charisma with an athletic, energetic style. Pillman at this time was my favorite, while he was great in cruiserweight action, he wanted to move up to be more involved in storylines.
That was always a thing with the cruiserweight division. It was always more athletic, lengthy exhibitions than being involved in WCW. I loved the division regardless but Pillman had kind of outgrew it—similar to Jericho at the end of his WCW run.
It appears that the Nasty Boys will not face Harlem Heat on WCW Fall Brawl 1995. A pity, those two teams are gold together. But wait, Col. Robert Parker has been siccing his boys “Dirty” Dick Slater and (cousin) Bunkhouse Buck on Sherri’s Harlem Heat! Oh, they have to fight and it’s for Buck and Slater’s World Tag Team titles!
Fun, exciting match. It was mainly a brawl—which I love—and while it wasn’t up there with the Heat vs. The Nasties, this was a good bout. And hey, the Nasty Boys show up! This one’s a winner but if you need some razzle-dazzle then there’s Col. Parker and Sherri swapping spit. There you go.
The semi-main event had Ric Flair face off against Arn Anderson in a really good match. You always knew that these two could go if they faced off. They both have a particular kind of match they wrestle and unlike Flair clashing with Inoki, it worked here. We even get some Pillman interference which would feed into Pillman joining the new 4 Horsemen down the line.
WCW Fall Brawl 1995 Verdict: 7/10
Fall Brawl 1995 had several dope matches and a match that I really enjoyed. That War Games match was missing just a few things but what it had used the War Games formula to the point that it was enjoyable bout. If there are two matches you watch from this show, it should be Pillman-Badd and Flair-Arn.
WCW/NJPW Collision in Korea Score: 4/10
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