Let’s look at WCW Uncensored 1999, a PPV often pointed at as the decline for the company on PPV. Taking place in Louisville, Kentucky, WCW drew almost 16,000 for an evident main evented by Ric Flair vs. Hollywood Hogan in a barbed wire cage match.
The Best
The opener was very good with Mikey Whipwreck challenging Billy Kidman for the WCW Cruiserweight title. It’s cool to see a new face—albeit familiar—in the division. Also, Mikey was doing some pretty U.S junior heavyweight stuff here, you know that late 90s-early 00 wave of lighter U.S wrestlers who were taking some of everything for their style.
Mikey and Kidman are from the same earlier wave of high flyers. Kidman had direct exposure to the luchadors and Japanese juniors while Mikey had some exposure to luchadors but also the ECW’s juniors who were taking in styles from puroresu and lucha libre tapes that came through. It’s an interesting clash of styles that really worked!
Eh, the the lumberjack stipulation wasn’t even necessary here in the Tag Team title match between Benoit & Malenko and Hennig & Windham. The match was very good with a downslide team of Hennig and Windham having a fire under them to work hard here while Benoit and Malenko need no fire under them and are in their prime. Nice action here with the time given being used well.
Booker T is back on the lower title hunt targeting Scott Steiner’s TV title in a strong bout. I don’t where Steiner got this “new year, new me” approach to his PPV matches because last year was dismal at points. Perhaps it was his opponents and the storyline. Anyway, these two mixed it up well and Booker snatches up against TV title win. Without the main event that would follow, this was a pretty good semi-main but considering what we would see next, this was a great semi-main.
The Rest
Starting off “The Rest” section–what even was Stevie Ray vs. Vincent? Who asked for it? Why was it necessary to have a story around this? The match itself wasn’t interesting, the action was blah, it could’ve been on a preshow or something. It didn’t have to add to what would be a damn sorry PPV.
Nash and Rey Mysterio had a good tag team bout at SuperBrawl IX but this singles bout wasn’t a good follow up. Nash spanks Rey readily. I don’t know if anything was actually planned for Rey at this point or what but hey, Nash came out looking dominant here.
We’re going to do a “Wrestling Salvage Yard” on Jerry Flynn because there was something that could’ve been done with this uninteresting but tough dude. Miller was decent enough. Onoo was…bad as expected. Bad match that had the right amount of time.
I dig this match not because of any clean mat work or variety of moves, it was like getting the Faygo Moon Mist version of WWE’s Mountain Dew when it comes to hardcore matches. It just had more bumps. Also, these tables are the sturdiest tables outside of Japan. These tables were Harlem Heat vs. Nasty Boys stiff. I don’t typically award an MVP of the Night honor but the Uncensored 1999 tables get it.
I don’t know what to make of Jericho vs. Saturn’s Dog Collar match. It’s something I would salivate over being more a brawling stipulation and these two could deliver a good match but in back-to-back PPVs they delivered something that was just serviceable—not bad at all but eh, it could be better.
For some insight into how the sausage is made for “Into the Vault”, I tend to watch the main TV shows leading into the PPV—then I watch the event. Going back to 14-year-old me hearing about Flair and Hogan in a barbed wire cage match with the title on the line, that was juicy!
I was—and still am—big into hardcore and death match wrestling, so this got me percolating. Plus, there were stakes-stakes. If Flair lost, he had to retire and if he won, he became president of WCW.
Now that I’m much older and I knew what was coming, it didn’t get me going at all. This match just wasn’t it. The length of the match was fine, it’s just the barbed wire cage stipulation and wasn’t necessary.
This wasn’t the battle to end all battles between Hogan and Flair and it turned out not to be a good battle at all. A regular cage would’ve done.
I really don’t know what it is about Hogan taking on Flair in a cage that I just don’t like because both were actually cage masters. It’s as if they just don’t put on a good bout in them—together. However, the severity of the stakes involved warranted a major cage conflict and here we are.
WCW Uncensored 1999 Verdict: Bronze Medal (4.5/10)
Just to sum this show up, there were three matches worth watching, one that I enjoyed since I enjoy trainwrecks, and a lot of skippable bouts. It’s been said that Uncensored 1999 is what killed WCW’s PPV game going forward and I can see that being the case. This was…not a good show overall.
On that note, the match of the show goes to the opener between Kidman and Whipwreck for the Cruiserweight title.
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