83 Weeks - SuperBrawl Revenge 2001 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

WCW SuperBrawl Revenge was the eleventh and final SuperBrawl event  and it went down on February 18, 2001 from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville Tennessee. The show drew 4,395 fans, which looked good on television since the building was cut down to a 6,000 capacity, which was 3,105 paying $87,133.

The show did a brutal 0.15 buyrate. Only about 70,000 bought the show on PPV. Oddly enough, that’s not a decrease from the previous year. SuperBrawl in 2000 did about 70,000 as well. But at its height, which was in 1999, Superbrawl IX drew 485,000 pay-per-view buys. So in just two years, WCW has gone from pay-per-view powerhouse to the outhouse.

(All good things must come to an end...but...is that a tough pill to swallow, to see such a sharp drop in business?)

The tagline for the show is “A Path of Destruction...A Night of Vengeance.” And, unlike all the other Superbrawl events, this one is subtitled with the “Revenge” name. The company had a smash hit videogame called WCW/nWo Revenge, which might have helped inspire that. But, the PPV names in 2001 were being changed, with Sin the previous month and Greed the next. It was almost a “seven deadly sins” style theme. And on the card tonight, revenge - the sin of wrath - will be a theme in most of the storylines.

(Do you have any insight into that? Whose idea? Is that a theme you would have continued if the purchase went through? Did you like it?)

The poster has Scott Steiner, Goldberg, Sting, Sid Vicious, and Booker T on it. Only Scott Steiner will be at this event, out of all of those. This is also one of two SuperBrawls that were never released on home video. The other one was Superbrawl 4 in 1994, Flair and Vader in a thundercage.

(It’s a longshot but I have to ask...we know why this one didn’t get released. The company sold the next month. But...why didn’t Superbrawl 1994 get released?)

News and Notes

Let’s take a look at how WCW has done in the past year leading up to this event.

The estimated average attendance in January, 2000 was 3,593; But the estimated average attendance 1/01 was 2,342 (-34.8%). That’s a huge drop from the previous month, too. December 2000 saw average attendance at 2,726. But the WWF is hitting its stride, here. The estimated average attendance for January, 2001 was 12,263, up +3.9% from the year before.

(What had WCW done wrong from 2000 to 2001?) (What did the WWF do right?)

Numbers were pretty similar for the average gate. 1/00 was $86,575. One year later, 1/01 $63,823 (-26.3%). By comparison, during January, 2001, the WWF did an average gate of $401,133, an increase of 26.8% from the last year.

The ratings are very interesting, too. The WWF’s average Monday night rating in 1/01 had actually fallen about 20-percent from the year before to 5.14 (-20.4%). WCW, meanwhile, was doing an average number of 2.35 when it wasn’t constantly being preempted, which we talked about before. That’s about 24-percent lower than the year before.

So the ratings are both down about the same from the year prior.

(Does that mean the television show was mostly the same quality from the year before, based on the overall declining status of the business?)

WCW was in trouble but at this point in time, things weren’t hopeless. If you remember, there was actually a plan that had begun to form in January where WCW would be sold to Fusent Media Ventures, coming under the management once again of Eric Bischoff. The press release sent out on January 11, 2001 announced it. But...something else happened that day. AOL-Time Warner merged. That’s literally the same day the merger was finalized. Plans will eventually change in March...but we’re not there yet. We’re in mid-February, and it looks like TBS will retain a minority interest in WCW as well as long-term programming rights.

(How involved were you with creative, if at all, during this period? Did you try to help steer the ship in the right direction? Were you giving directives or mandates to NOT do certain things on TV?)

It had been written that you were considering a company shutdown for several weeks to reboot the storylines but, there was a report from your favorite, Dave Meltzer, saying there had been a change in plans.

The current storyline is to virtually eliminate the top babyfaces from the roster, to present Diamond Dallas Page as the last major survivor against Scott Steiner on the 3/18 PPV in Jacksonville. If there is no shutdown, most likely, either on that show, or perhaps on the Nitro the next night in Gainesville, FL, shoot the big angle that was planned for early April by having the new owners take over and foil Ric Flair's plans by bringing back all the stars (Bill Goldberg, Sting, Kevin Nash, Booker T and possibly Hulk Hogan and perhaps others if deals can be made) and build seven weeks of television hype, more time than WCW has devoted for one specific show in years, for the 5/6 PPV show which would be something of a major coming out.

(How accurate is that as to what your plans were at the time?)

It wasn’t just WCW having troubling times at this point. ECW had struggled for several months and was on its last legs.  On December 30, 2000, ECW Hardcore TV aired for the last time and the January 7, 2001, broadcast of Guilty as Charged was the company's last PPV. Living Dangerously was scheduled to air on March 11, 2001, but because of financial trouble it was cancelled in February…

(Was there a conversation or an idea about trying to bring ECW or their talent into the WCW fold? We know you were wanting to rebuild and even have heard about interest in Joey Styles. Was there any thought to maybe buying the entire company and mixing the two?)

Lance Storm had a column on his website around this period talking about how he was hearing of ECW talent being offended at the idea of WCW asking them to do a tryout match before hiring them.

(By chance, do you remember hearing about any issues with talent wanting to do tryouts who thought they shouldn’t have to do them?)

Let’s add some more context to this time frame. It’s not just WCW or ECW having troubles. Also...the XFL was seeing major problems. It was even talked about that internal belief was Vince would be distracted from wrestling over it.

From week one to week two, the audience itself dropped from 15.1 million to 6.5 million. It dropped again for the third week another 27 percent to 4.78 million. For the third week of play, which was the best overall broadcast to date, the show fell again to what appears to be a national 3.2 on NBC (down 30%). The games were both deeply entrenched in last place on both nights among all network programming.

(I’ve always wondered how much you followed the XFL’s debut during this time frame. Was there any satisfaction in seeing Vince stumbling here? Did it play a role in your strategy to possibly not do a “shutdown,” as was rumored in the Observer?)

Now, before we get to the show...

There’s an event that happened on February, 18, 2001 that we have to talk about for a few reasons. That day was what is known in the racing world as Black Sunday. The Daytona 500 was on the last lap and moments after he cheered on his son over the headset, Dale Earnhardt was in a crash that caused him to collide with a retaining wall at a speed estimated around 160 miles per hour. This was just after 4 PM when about 17 million people watched a man die on live without realizing it. At 5:16 PM, he was pronounced dead. The news started coming out about an hour later.

For people who don’t know, Earnhardt was one of if not THE most popular in the sport at the time. For people who weren’t a NASCAR fan, it was a big news story. But for people who WERE, this was a tragic, shocking event.

(When did you learn about what happened? Just out of curiosity, were you ever a fan of his or the sport?)

By the time fans were pouring into the arena that night, the news had been announced and it was all that was on TV. Including TV’s in the concession stand area. One of the reasons to bring this up is, in the middle of a show, fans are talking about this. One of the people who attended the show 20 years ago sent us a note. Shout out to therealchrishughes.

He said “I remember a murmur flowing through the crowd and when I went to the concession the TVs were showing the crash that Dale Earnhardt died in. I’ve never been a big NASCAR fan but man, that sure was a shocking day. I’ll never forget it.”

(What do you do in the middle of a big show when a huge celebrity dies, especially a performance type show? I hate to ask this but does that have an effect on the crowd’s interest in the matches? It has to be at least a distraction from what we were told.)

We should point out that the next night on Nitro, the company paid tribute to Earnhardt on their show. Meltzer said they showed more compassion to Earnhardt than any wrestler who had died recently. But, maybe some of that has to do with how the death affected so many people.

The Event

WCW SUPERBRAWL: 

• Thumbs up 84 (70.0%)
• Thumbs down 20 (16.7%)
•  In the middle 16 (13.3%)

BEST MATCH POLL: 

• 6-way cruiserweight elimination match 48
• Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Rey Misterio Jr. 36
• Diamond Dallas Page vs. Jeff Jarrett 8

WORST MATCH POLL: 

• Brian Adams vs. Luger & Bagwell 30
• Hugh Morrus vs. Wall 29
• Kevin Nash vs. Scott Steiner 19
• Rick Steiner vs. Dustin Rhodes 11

A. In the dark match, Chris Harris pinned Kid Romeo.

The opening of the pay-per-view begins with the cruiserweights in action. Around this time, we had seen a lot of time being given to cruiserweights. It was reminiscent of some of the glory days of Nitro, when the cruisers really started to shine. They were having the best matches on the card pretty regularly, too.

(I’m just wondering if this is a directive or an idea they got from you given plans for the WCW buyout were still going strong around this time? Did you at least agree with it?)

1. Shane Helms won the six-way cruiserweight match over Shannon Moore, Kaz Hayashi, Yun Yang (James Yang), Jamie Knoble (James Gibson) and Evan Karagias (Evan Kavagias) in 17:30. The win sets up Helms challenging Chavo Guerrero Jr. for the cruiserweight title on the 3/18 PPV. They did an angle in the pre-game show which saw Billy Kidman injured by Road Warrior Animal, which led to Helms coming in as the replacement and coming out as the winner.

(The next night on Nitro, by the way, was a tag match between Animal and Chavo against Kidman and Konnan. Interesting combinations!)

No heat early. Dragons did a stereo Asai-moonsaults. Hayashi had a new look which made him look too much like Sonny Onoo. Knoble continued to show great improvement. Everyone looked great except Yang and Karagias and they were missing spots all over the place. Although Yang took heat from fans for it, the wrestlers blamed it on Karagias forgetting all his spots and making Yang look bad in the process (although Yang did fall off the slippery ropes on his own). Karagias and Yang had what was called a problem in the ring at this point, with Karagias version being that since the whole match was laid out move by move in order and Yang did a move out of sequence, he didn't know what to do next and just wanted to take him down and settle it down. At that point Yang wanted to tag out, thinking Karagias was lost and Hayashi wouldn't tag in. Karagias even missed a springboard splash he was supposed to hit by overshooting.

(My god. What happened here? Are these guys relying too much on planning out spots?)

Helms showed good fire. Yang did an incredible DDT on Moore. Everyone missed leaps off the top ropes in a spot out of corny Lucha. I hate that spot because by the time the second guy misses, everyone knows everyone else is missing and at best all it does is get the audience to laugh at everyone which usually isn't the intent. Helms did a plancha on Yang. Karagias hit a springboard plancha on both. Hayashi did his twisting dive. Moore did a top rope Asai moonsault. Knoble did a high flip dive hitting Helms. Knoble missed a move on Hayashi he was supposed to hit and they did the spot where he and Karagias kept fighting over who was supposed to get the pin. Yang and Karagias then botched up four spots in a row to the point the audience was heavily booing, before Yang pinned him with a Gori especial bomb in 10:21. Knoble pinned Yang with a tombstone piledriver in 10:51. Moore pinned Knoble with the bottoms up (famouser) off the top rope in 11:58. From this point on the match was excellent, including a spot where Moore and Helms started fighting with each other. Ref Scott James (veteran wrestler Scott Armstrong) was knocked silly legit as apparently he was believed to have suffered a concussion from the bump, forgot what he was supposed to be doing, and had to have Arn Anderson in his earpiece give him directions for the match to remember the end correctly.

(Do you remember many times where a referee was legitimately knocked out in a match? Would it maybe, in hindsight, have been a good idea to send someone out to replace him?)

Helms pinned Moore in 15:11 with the nightmare on Helms street. Helms and Kaz worked a great series of spots including a strong near fall by Hayashi with a german suplex and Hayashi rolling through on a sunset flip off the top and kicking Helms in the face. Helms finally got the pin with the vertabreaker. The first six minutes of this was the best stuff on the show, but to give this match a high rating, one would have to ignore just how ungodly bad certain parts of the match were. ***¼

(It was a little bit rough at times. Is that what happens when performers plan too many acrobatic spots that can go wrong?)

(Is this just the risk of this type of wrestling? That sometimes, it’ll just be off?)

In some pre-recorded comments, Hugh Morrus talked about General Rection as if he was a different person. The Wall, as Sgt. AWOL, had betrayed General Rection, causing the break-up, and that led us into tonight’s match. It also led us to these two performers losing the embarrassing names.

2. Hugh Morrus (Bill DeMott) pinned The Wall (Jerry Tuite) in 9:43. Fans chanted for tables. Some messed up looking spots when Wall didn't go up or mistimed going up for Morrus' lifts. The explanation is that when Wall had the steps dropped on him, he went out and was dead weight in those spots where Morrus was supposed to lift him, which is why Morrus had so much trouble picking up a 340-pound man who wasn't going up. Very physical, but kind of sloppy. Morrus won with a moonsault, and delivered a second one after the match as well. 1/2*

We have another match here with some major mistakes. Only, this time, the performers weren’t able to make up for it. .

(What did you think of The Wall, Jerry Tuite, who passed away in Dec, 2003? He seemed loaded with potential when he first showed up but then, things went south. Why? Personal struggles?)

We’re jumping into the tag-team picture next, with two teams battling that were both former members of the Natural Born Thrillers. A video package aired showing the Natural Born Thrillers had broken up after Shawn Stasiak & Mark Jindrak got sick of being the lesser team compared to tag champions Chuck Palumbo & Sean O’Haire.

3. Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo retained the WCW tag titles over Mark Jindrak & Shawn Stasiak (Shawn Stepich) in 11:37. Based on reports of their previous matches which were apparently not good, everyone should be real happy with this one. Stasiak actually showed the most charisma he's ever shown in his life (that isn't as big a praise as it sounds), a little on the interview and more in the ring. Basic tag team psychology, which the old-school crowd bought, as Jindrak & Stasiak played heel doubling on Palumbo, who hot tagged to O'Haire and they went to the finish with Palumbo hitting the jungle kick on Stasiak and O'Haire pinning him after the seanton bomb. **¾

(Sean O’Haire’s swanton bomb was really impressive but at the same time, he’s a giant dude. 6’6”, 270 pounds. Did he need to be doing high risk moves? The WWE logic would seem to say no but, you have succeeded by breaking the rules before. What do you think?)

The cruiserweight title is on the line next in a match between Chavo Jr. and Rey Mysterio Jr. who looks very different from what most people think of when they consider Rey, now. No mask, with devil horns glued onto his head. But, the cruiserweight division was getting a second wind with Chavo Guerrero at the top of the hierarchy

(Did Chavo start to stand out here during this period? Would you have had big plans for him in the theorized reboot?)

4. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (Salvador Guerrero III) pinned Rey Misterio Jr. (Oscar Gutierrez) to retain the cruiserweight title in 15:54. Aside from a couple of spots where Misterio Jr. slipped on the ropes, this was an excellent match. Fast-paced, lots of good moves and surprisingly good heat. Misterio Jr. got a lot of near falls and did a hot flip dive out of the ring. Finish saw Guerrero Jr. crack him with a hard chair shot to the head and deliver a brainbuster for the pin. ***½

As one fan wrote online, this was the best WCW match since the turn of the millennium.

(What did you think?)

5. Rick Steiner (Robert Rechsteiner) retained the U.S. title pinning Dustin Rhodes (Dustin Runnels) in 9:11. Both guys were dressed in red pants and a black shirt, which showed the company's desperate need for more care in costuming. Match had good heat and was a lot better than one would have thought. Steiner undid the padding on the turnbuckles and dropped Rhodes on it for the pin. He delivered a death valley driver on him after the match. However, Rhodes came back with the shattered dreams kick. **1/2

(There’s a theme of Revenge that seems to be going into the show tonight, with all of the angles or the matches involving revenge in some way. What do you think of that idea?)

Totally Buff is out next, cutting a super long-winded promo about being part of Flair’s stable, about Bryan Clarke not being cleared to compete, and about the winners of the match getting a title shot. But, all of this had been explained already. It’s basically either just an excuse to be on TV or an excuse to fill time.

6. Buff Bagwell (Marcus Bagwell) & Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) defeated Brian Adams in 6:25 to get a title shot at Palumbo & O'Haire on the Greed PPV. Storyline was that Clark was attacked when he went to get medical clearance on a swerve set up by Lance Storm. The lights went out as a guy, supposedly Bryan Clark, ran out to help Adams, but he was clocked with a chair and laid down face first. It was clear it wasn't Clark, which was about the only thing decent about the match other than at least it was kept short. Some heat. The fake Clark attacked Adams and was revealed to be Mike Awesome. The real Clark came out with his clothes all torn up. While this was going on, Luger racked Adams and then Bagwell pinned him after a blockbuster. 1/4*

(Do you think the Totally Buff tag-team worked? Why did Buff Bagwell seem to work or click with so many different tag-team combinations?)

In our next match, the commissionership was on the line. Again. Because if you remember, back at WCW Sin - which we covered earlier this year - the commissionership was also on the line between Mike Sanders and Ernest Miller.

Before the match, Lance Storm cut a promo calling himself the greatest technical wrestler in the world.

(Was that a dig at Chris Benoit who called himself the best technical wrestler around this time?)

7. Cat (Ernest Miller) pinned Lance Storm (Lance Evers) to win back the commissioner job in 8:07. Storm did about as good a job carrying Cat as you probably could. Finish saw Mike Sanders come out, but Ms. Jones first slapped him, then laid him out with a high kick and a distracted Storm walked into the feliner. **

After a video for our next match, Schiavone told us that Cat only resumed power at midnight so Ric Flair had him ejected from the building.

(Is this creatively trying to add stakes to match, in the form of the commissionership?)

The next match...well, it didn’t have any build that we can talk about, so let’s just jump straight into it.

8. In an impromptu match, Kanyon (Chris Klucsaritis) pinned Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkinburg) in 8:15. To explain this, Jeff Jarrett showed a tape where Page said he'd face Kanyon anytime, anywhere, so Jarrett said Flair ordered the match to take place at this point. Kanyon came from under the ring to attack Page. They had a hot match. Page juiced from having his face jammed into the ring steps. Page hit a killer uranage for a near fall. Page kicked out of a Kanyon cutter. Page got another near fall after Kanyon collided with Jarrett. After a ref bump, Jarrett hit the stroke on Page and Kanyon pinned him with the flatliner. ***¼

(I had forgotten how well Kanyon and DDP worked together. What did you think of these two’s work and chemistry? Did their friendship help them propel the matches to a higher level?)

9. Page pinned Jarrett in 8:30. This match began immediately. Both bouts were cut well back in time because the show was running long. They brawled outside the ring. Page DDT'd Jarrett on a table that didn't break. The announcers were trying to sell the bloodied Page's comebacks as a life or death struggle. Guess they had to since he's in the main event on the next PPV. To Page's credit, he came out of the show looking like a big star and put on a hell of a performance in both matches. Page got several near falls until Kanyon came back and attacked him. Jarrett clocked Page with a chair to the head but he kicked out. Jarrett went to hit Page with the guitar, but he moved and hit Kanyon instead, and Page then gave Jarrett a diamond cutter for the pin. ***½

We’ve arrived at our main event, now. The main rivalry, between Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash, for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Steiner retained the title against Road Warrior Animal, Sid Vicious and Jeff Jarrett in a four corners match at Sin. The following night, on Nitro, Steiner cut a promo on injuring Vicious' leg and forcing Goldberg out of WCW. His boasting led to Commissioner Ernest Miller booking a match between Steiner and Kevin Nash later in the night, which ended in a disqualification after the Magnificent Seven attacked Nash. On the January 17 episode of Thunder, the Magnificent Seven interfered in a match between Jarrett and Diamond Dallas Page, prompting Nash, Miller and KroniK to come to the rescue. On the special Tuesday Nitro edition of Nitro on January 23, a match was made between Nash and Buff Bagwell to determine Steiner's opponent for the title at SuperBrawl Revenge. And here we are.

Before we get to the match...the Magnificent Seven is a group we don’t hear a lot of talk about. They only lasted two months. But, it was Ric Flair, Jarrett, both Steiners, Luger, Bagwell, and Animal, with various other members being associated with them. They went by another name, too, early on: The Elite. The group formed at Sin and broke up when WCW was sold.

(Did you have plans for the Magnificent Seven or were you a fan of the group?)

10. Scott Steiner (Scott Rechsteiner) retained the WCW title winning two of three falls from Kevin Nash in 11:04. Flair announced before the match the loser leaves town stipulations. Throughout the show they did the gimmick where all the faces, Konnan, Cat, Kronik and Rhodes were ordered out of the building by Flair. Also, during the pre-game show, in a strange bit of advertising, they said they had no idea if the main event would even take place. Great way to get those last minute buys. They'll sacrifice income by telling people the main event may not happen just to get a pop because a guy comes out of a wheelchair. That's the kind of "surprise" booking that a company making money can afford, but a company losing money can't.

(Can we get your reaction to that booking and Meltzer’s thoughts on it?)

Nash came out in a wheelchair with two hot nurses. Deja vu. He then got up, showing the cast was a fake, and clocked Steiner with the title belt and pinned him in 17 seconds. Flair then ordered the match to go two of three falls. Page was staggering around backstage and Luger and Bagwell put him in a box to eliminate him. Steiner juiced. Midajah distracted Nash for Steiner to hit him with a pipe on the floor. With Nash on the floor, Flair announced it was now a falls count anywhere match and Charles Robinson counted the pin at 2:30 of fall two. Nash juiced from a chair shot but broke out of the recliner. "No one has ever broken the hold" they exclaimed, unfortunately, memories of Goldberg flashed before my eyes as the announcers destroyed their credibility again. I guess you can't destroy what you don't have. Nash came back with a choke slam but Midajah stopped Robinson from counting. After a power bomb by Nash, Midajah again broke up the pin. Nash gave Midajah a side slam, thereby having a cover reason to eliminate her from the company. Nash went for the pin again but Flair pulled Robinson out and attacked him. Nash went after Flair, allowing Steiner time for a low blow, a chair shot to the head and Marcus Johnson came out and signalled for the bell as Steiner put Nash in the recliner. *¾

It’s been written that this was the worst WCW PPV main event since Hogan/Warrior. (What did you think?)

(There was a school of thought that WCW was building Scott Steiner up to be a super heel at the time, but he looked like a cowardly heel who barely kept his title, here. What would you have done with Steiner and the world title, looking back?)

Here’s what Meltzer had to say about the event…

The temporary elimination of Kevin Nash and putting as much heat on the heels, in particular CEO Ric Flair, as a way to build the new ownership group when they come in to be big babyfaces, was the key piece of business at the SuperBrawl PPV on 2/19 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

Largely due to a combination of a strong workrate and a very responsive crowd, this show turned out to be far better than it looked to be on paper as was a solid thumbs up show. The main event saw a take-off on an old WWF storyline with Vince McMahon, this time with Flair announcing an impromptu loser leaves WCW forever stipulation (which nobody bought live and just served once again to kill whatever faith the fans would have in any advertised stipulations and thus the drawing power of such), and then changing the match stipulation to two out of three falls when Nash quickly won. With most of the key babyfaces banned from the building, Nash fell victim to constant interference from Flair and Midajah before losing at the end in a match, which due to storyline a lot more than anything that happened in the ring, ended up pretty heated.

(Give us your Eric Bischoff rating on the one to ten scale for WCW Superbrawl Revenge!)