It’s time for September’s promised Classic Review! We’re going back to WCW! We’re going back to 1993! This is the show where the Shockmaster actually, you know, followed up in the big War Games match after his legendarily blown debut at the August Clash of the Champions.
WCW Fall Brawl
Sept. 19, 1993
Houston, TX
The Astroarena — later Reliant Arena, now NRG Arena — hosts this edition of Fall Brawl, the first pay-per-view the company ran under that name, but the fourth show to include it in the title, following three Clash of the Champions events in Sept. 1989-91. (The 1990 edition was Fall Brawl ‘90: Mountain Madness, to be very specific.)
It’s also the first Fall Brawl event to take place outside of the company’s normal stomping grounds in the Mid-Atlantic area, and would be the last until the final Fall Brawl in 2000, which took place in Buffalo.
This is not a well-regarded show, but it’s one I just sorta feel like revisiting, and I am still into the idea of doing the Classic Review for a show that took place in the month we’re in.
Tony Schiavone and Jesse “The Body” Ventura (it’s Texas so he’s gonna call people “Texicans” all night) will be calling the matches, and Eric Bischoff is also elsewhere to pitch in basically nothing but “pitching it to” different stuff and maybe some interviews.
Ricky Steamboat vs Lord Steven Regal
For Steamboat’s WCW Television Championship
“We’re in for a great scientific matchup,” Jesse predicts. It’s the double-ring setup for War Games, of course. And Regal has Sir William in his corner. Steamboat had won the TV title about a month prior from Paul Orndorff.
“There’s never been anyone like (Ricky Steamboat) and I don’t think there ever will be. I’ve been lucky enough to wrestle a lot of great opponents over the years. For me, the absolute best was Fit Finlay. Benoit, Terry Rudge, and Ray Steele would be on the list, too. But when I came over to America, there was something about Steamboat that made him awesome.”
— Walking a Golden Mile (William Regal with Neil Chandler, 2005)
I really dig this period of Steamboat, he’d always been able to work with a nasty edge for a clean-cut pure babyface, but he really leaned more into that with his in-ring work at this point. He starts with that fire, because he took a beating the night before (well) from Regal and Sir Bill’s umbrella, and Ricky’s here with some tape on the ribs, ready to fight this guy.
Ventura admits quickly that he was wrong, and the Dragon is forcing a fight here, and that this may indeed favor Steamboat, who tosses Regal out to the entrance ramp, where Lord Steve lands hard.
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