It’s April 6, 1997, so it’s time for WCW Spring Stampede 1997! We even have a poster featuring the Four Horsemen and there’s actually a featured star in the show!
I mean, it’s MONGO but he’s in action. Benoit is also in action and it’s against Dean Malenko—which gets the nod from me. Can’t cry “False advertising” over that, folks. The main event is a no-DQ bout between Diamond Dallas Page and Randy Savage.
We’ve seen quite a few no-disqualification bouts between WWE and WCW on PPV and we’re not even midway through the year yet. Let’s dive in and see what’s the best and what’s the rest from Spring Stampede!
WCW Spring Stampede 1997: The Best
Man, WCW came in kicking ass when it came to pay-per-view. It was rare that you got a chilly or cold match that could’ve been on the pre-PPV B-show or in the abyss of the dark match card.
Rey Misterio Jr taking on Ultimate Dragon was extremely exciting from start to finish. This was a textbook 90s cruiserweight match with—at the time—modern lucha libre and lucharesu. The amount of time given to this was one was perfect as well. It was so action-packed that it deserved the generous time it was given.
Prince Iaukea defending his Television title against Lord Steven Regal was a sleeper match on this show. It was pretty good and didn’t run too long. That means there wasn’t too much Iaukea but unfortunately not enough Regal.
I’d say the best possible balance was struck here and we got a watchable match. What was way better than “watchable” was Chris Benoit taking on the O.G limb collector and U.S Heavyweight champion Dean Malenko.
If a PPV featured any combination of Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, or Benoit in singles action, you were getting loudest of loud in wrestling form. This match was awesome.
Malenko holds on to the belt in a no contest—which is fine. The action was more than enough.
Capping off the show is Randy Savage versus DDP. The Savage-DDP feud was a highlight of 1997 WCW. It had a great story and both men and their valets were superb in their roles.
We had the slow burn of Diamond Dallas Page becoming one of the greatest faces WCW ever had and the unhinged Randy Savage making Page the target of his harassment.
Then you had matches that made this feud worth following. The no-DQ bout between these two was pretty damn wild and a strong ender for a show where Hogan and Hall weren’t in action.
The Rest
A match that needed a little more time was the WCW Women’s title bout between champion Akira Hokuto and Madusa. The women’s division was never a major focus in WCW and that’s a shame.
WCW had a working agreement of sorts with GAEA in Japan but the quality native talent on the U.S just wasn’t there. I mean, they could’ve done a deep scouting initiative but all WCW had on had was Madusa, Jacqueline, and possibly Sherri.
Jacqueline wasn’t even used in the women’s division and Sherri was doing managerial work primarily. She was rough as hell as a manager but she wasn’t wrestling regularly at this point. For the length, this wasn’t a bad match at all.
Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Jeff Jarrett taking on The Public Enemy was a match I could’ve done without. I wouldn’t even say it was a palette cleanser. It went longer than it had any right going. Different opponents for both teams probably would’ve worked better here but these two teams against each other is a skip.
Nash taking on Rick Steiner for the WCW World Tag Team title was longer than it should’ve been. It was pretty damn slow and just not interesting but it was another chapter in WCW versus the new World order.
I would’ve preferred to see Kevin Nash doing something else on the show. When you look at the card and the Nitro episodes leading into Spring Stampede 1997, it’s become a question of “What else could Nash have been doing?”
Now, I don’t have an answer to that but Nash could’ve been better used. I’m really tempted to say just make the World title contendership bout a five-way match but that’s just excessive.
In the semi-main event, we had a number one contender match for World Heavyweight title. Included are the teams of Lex Luger and The Giant and Harlem Heat—only it’s in four-corner format. I enjoyed the match but it was such a random showdown.
It was mid-tempo pace-wise but went long. This match did not need to be 18-minutes and change. I’ll say it was a decent match.
WCW Spring Stampede 1997 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.75/5)
First off, the match of the night was Misterio-Dragon with Savage-DDP being and Malenko-Benoit being second and third. I put the Rey vs. Ultimate Dragon bout at the top because the action was untouchable from bell to bell.
Savage-DDP didn’t have the same level of pace or quality of in-ring action as Malenko-Benoit and Misterio-Dragon but there was a story so good that it didn’t need stakes. There was actually a greater investment in Randy Savage taking on Diamond Dallas Page than in the other two matches.
This is a feud, not a rivalry or an exhibition. We’ve got a story here, there’s a degree of hate and heat between the rising DDP and the villainous Savage. Then we continue to build onto how much of a rotten asshole new World order-Savage is by having him slap whomever he pleases and almost give Kimberly Page that works!
The rest of the show had matches that ran the gamut of enjoyable and skippable. We do get Nash giving referee Nick Patrick the Jackknife in the closing moments of the show so that went some ways as a palette cleanser to the Tag Team title match.
Also, we can’t forget Booker T’s interview botch from this show. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get The Overtimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
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