It’s February 1999 and that means it’s time for WCW SuperBrawl IX from Oakland, California. This show drew a crowd of just under 16,000 and featured Ric Flair taking on Hollywood Hogan in the main event for Hollywood’s World Championship.
The Best
Kicking off the best, we have Billy Kidman defending his Cruiserweight title against Chavo Guerrero Jr. It was a really good bout but I’d say there’s nothing new for the 90s that will get you percolating. If you’ve seen either of these two in action in WCW over the past two or so years, you know what to expect from them individually in-ring. It’s how well they mesh that makes this one worth catching. Also, it’s on the light side length-wise, so it won’t eat up a ton of time for you to enjoy.
Next up, we have the battle between the teams of Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko and Curt Hennig & Barry Windham for the vacant WCW Tag Team titles. Sure, it ran a little longer than necessary but it was two out of three falls…I guess that’s a good reason? Anyway, the action was good throughout and it seems like teaming with Windham put some umph in Hennig’s late 90s game in WCW. The ending was pretty meh but overall, this was an enjoyable match.
We got decent tag match between Konnan & Rey Mysterio Jr and The Outsiders with a better than solid match. Hall was fine and over, Konnan kept the pace as did Rey, Rey and Hall would gel decently. Unmasking Rey worked in the moment but was definitely a bad decision in the long run. As to the match, it was better than I remembered.
DDP really earned whatever he was being paid at this point because Scott Steiner hadn’t looked that impressive in 1998 and I wasn’t expecting much. However, Steiner was decent enough that along with his sidekick Buff Bagwell doing interference and DDP’s consistency, this match worked very well!
The Rest
Was the Disco gimmick a bit odd for WCW? Ehh, it depends on the period of WCW but Discos ability while not mind-blowing was solid enough that with an equal or greater partner, he could drop some decent bouts. The opener was one of them as Booker T spanks him to build up steam for 1999.
Chris Jericho and Perry Saturn had a mid match, it could’ve been much better for having 11 minutes to work with and if a count out was going to be in the cards but it didn’t suck.
I’m so tired of Piper in WCW. Jeez. Anyway, horrible punches, sub meh match, Hall goes two-up first taking Rey Jr’s mask then taking the US title. Good for Hall.
Next, we have Goldberg taking on Bam Bam Bigelow. What worked here is that it was kept simple and Bam Bam’s bumping which showed Goldberg’s power. Bam Bam was a big dude and better than he put on in this match but he wasn’t moonsaulting on Goldberg and dropping him on his head or anything. Decent enough hoss fight. Syrupy-slow at times but decent enough.
The main event wasn’t awful but it wasn’t anything special either. At least the crowd was into it. The one bonus I’ll give is that they kept it on the short side. WCW and these long main events featuring Hogan and so on needed to shortened significantly. This was the perfect length considering the pace and action and it helped the match. If this longer, the match would’ve suffered.
WCW SuperBrawl IX Verdict: Bronze Medal (5.5/10)
Honestly, that Hall vs. Piper match kneecapped the score. This was a low-silver medal show where most of the matches were either decent or good with some acceptable bouts. Then the U.S title match pops up and just—meh. The middle of SuperBrawl IX had this great stretch with several good-to-great matches in a row. Wonderful.
I’ll give match of the night to the WCW Tag Team title match between Hennig & Windham and Benoit & Malenko. The runner up is the WCW Cruiserweight title bout between champion Billy Kidman and Chavito.
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