From John Cannon: It is thought by many that 1999 is the year that the WWF finally struck a blow too impossible to overcome in regar...
From John Cannon:
It is thought by many that 1999 is the year that the WWF
finally struck a blow too impossible to overcome in regards to the Monday
Night Wars with WCW. In all honesty, when wrestling fans look back it can
easily be said that 1998 was the year that the WCW pretty much started handing
the edge back to the WWF.
When the whole New World Order angle started in 1996, I,
like many wrestling fans, thought it was pretty cool. The WWF was peddling
Roddy Piper vs. Goldust (Dustin Rhodes), and eventually some abrasive on the edge factions that were
more shocking than entertaining, and just about the only thing really going for
them was Stone Cold Steve Austin and the feud between Bret Hart and Shawn
Michaels. On the other hand, WCW all of a sudden went from the tail end of a
Hogan - Flair program to being invaded by wrestlers last seen on WWF
programming – sometimes just a day or so earlier! In addition to starting what
looked like an invasion of wrestlers from the competition, WCW also started
putting a stronger emphasis on the cruiserweights, establishing a title for the
division.
Just a short couple of years later, what had started as
the coolest new angle in wrestling turned into the most ridiculous. When the
NWO was just made up of a few members you never knew when they were going to
strike. By 1998, there were not only enough members of the NWO to field a
couple pro football teams, but there were now two NWO’s! Never mind that there was later a Blue World Order,
Latino World Order, etc. Throw in a completely botched return of the Ultimate
Warrior – I went from excited to pissed off in less than three minutes – and a
reformation of the Four Horsemen with less than stellar new members, and it’s
easy to understand what the hell happened to WCW.
 |
| Disco Inferno |
By 1999, the WWF had started to pull away and never really
looked back, and WCW gave them a little help in January by announcing on Nitro
that Mankind would be winning the title on the WWF’s RAW is War, which caused fans to change over to see Mankind win. To
make matters worse, it was decided that the NWO would reunite on that same
program by WCW World Heavyweight Champion Kevin Nash laying down for Hollywood
Hogan in what is now referred to as the FingerPoke of Doom. This would lead to WCW’s SuperBrawl
IX event, held in Oakland, California, on February 21, 1999. If the old
finger poke didn’t wipe WCW out, well then this clinker of a pay-per-view would
do the trick.
The shame of SuperBrawl
IX is that it was filled with quite a few solid workers, but by then there
were so many lower tier guys sitting on the second shelf just below a handful
of truly talented wrestlers that the only way to fill up a card was to plug a
few of them in here and there and overuse your main talent – which explains why
Scott Hall was in two key matches, and the Disco Inferno, who I would have been
happy to have not even seen, was also brought out twice. Yeah, I know, if I pay
good money to see some marquee wrestlers, parading out Disco Inferno would
definitely make me feel like I got my money’s worth – NOT!
To this day, I feel like my favorite match from SuperBrawl IX is the Billy Kidman - Chavo
Guerrero match for Kidman’s WCW Cruiserweight Title. Exciting, pace changing,
at times over the top just when it needed to be, and Kidman’s shooting star
press for the win remains a spectacular sight when I look back on it. While not
the best match I’ve seen these two have, I would easily trade someone the
Booker T - Disco Inferno, Chris Jericho - Perry Saturn, and Goldberg - Bam Bam
Bigelow matches in exchange for the Kidman - Guerrero match … easy.
 |
| Kevin Nash and Scott Hall |
One match that still makes me chuckle is the one where the
Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) took on Konnan and Mysterio in a hair
(Miss Elizabeth’s) vs. mask (Rey Rey’s) match. Now you may ask why I would find
it funny that Mysterio is taking off his mask after weeks of hearing about the
legacy and importance of the mask? Well first off, all Mysterio looked like without
the mask was a little kid, but most importantly, years later in the WWE, fans
would have to hear the whole thing over again and how Mysterio can’t be seen
without his mask. He already has been
people!!!!!
Now another pretty interesting match was old faves Barry
Windham and Curt Hennig taking on a couple of young rising stars in Chris
Benoit and Dean Malenko for the WCW World Tag Team Title. The elimination style
tournament made the finals interesting, with Benoit and Malenko needing to win
two falls vs. Windham and Hennig only needing to win one due to how they
performed in the tournament. While surely not the best match of any of these
guy’s careers, it’s hard to go wrong with a match just based on what these four
were capable of bringing night after night. In the end, the advantage was too
much for Benoit and Malenko, and Windham and Hennig left the ring as new
champs.
Of the marquee
matches, I do recall being a bit disappointed when DDP (Diamond Dallas Page)
passed out in the “Steiner Recliner”, allowing Rick Steiner to hold on to the
WCW TV Title, and Scott Hall’s win over Roddy Piper to win the WCW US Title was
past its expiration date. A few years earlier, maybe Piper vs. Razor Ramon
might have gotten me hyped up, but by 1999 I was praying Piper wouldn’t die in
the ring, and I was about as sick of Hall as anyone. It also didn’t help that
Disco came out with Hall.
 |
| Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair |
Now as much as I may complain about half the matches at SuperBrawl IX, the biggest letdown has
to be the Hogan - Flair match for the WCW World Title. First off, for me, the
WCW World Title belongs around the waist of Flair way more than Hogan. Secondly,
pro wrestling had already by now screwed up what years ago was considered one
of wrestling’s ultimate dream matches: the WWF’s finest in Hogan, and the
poster boy for NWA/WCW in Flair. No one cared anymore about this match, just
like no one cared anymore about a Hogan - Warrior rematch after Warrior stood
in the WCW ring and went blah, blah, blah, blah, blah for a freaking eternity. Even
the attempt to buy cheap heat with Flair’s own son turning against him with the
stun gun couldn’t save this match. Sure the audience was whooping and hollering,
but I would imagine anyone would if you were witnessing perhaps the two most
recognized wrestlers in the world battle it out. Unfortunately, WCW’s idea that
the younger Flair turning on his pops could help turn this into a great match
killed any chance of it going down in history as at least a tough, well-fought
contest.
While SuperBrawl IX
has its place in wrestling history it would be an overrated opinion to think it
could be considered anywhere near the top half of all of wrestling’s
pay-per-views combined. It doesn’t even rank up with most of the many televised
Clash of Champions events, which is
why it is even more ironic, when during the Flair - Hogan match, that Bobby “the
Brain” Heenan refers to SuperBrawl IX
as “probably the biggest pay-per-view in history.”
If you believe that, then you’ll believe that Disco
Inferno will be announced as the next superstar to take a spot in the WWE Hall
of Fame. Right next to Mantaur.
