Grilling JR - SuperBrawl I [Show Notes] (Patreon)

SuperBrawl 1 took place on May 19th, 1991 from the Bayfront Arena, in St. Petersburg, Florida. It drew 6,000 and a paid attendance of 4,887 for a gate of $76,000

This was obviously the first SuperBrawl pay per view. SuperBrawl would become an annual pay per view event for WCW until the company closed in 2001. Talk about where the idea for SuperBrawl came from

On March 21st, we saw the WCW & New Japan Pro Wrestling SuperShow where we saw Tatsumi Fujinami defeat Ric Flair to win the WCW World Title. Fujinami was already the IWGP World Champion, so this made him the first man to hold both World Titles at the same time.

It was a very controversial finish. How did you understand that finish? Did you consider Fujinami the WCW World Champion? The results of that match would lead to a rematch between Flair and Fujinami here at SuperBrawl 1

Why was that even done? Other than the purposes of this rematch at SuperBrawl. Was WCW hoping for a even bigger partnership with IWGP than what happened?

Speaking of that, Meltzer reported - Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki will be coming in September and staying for one year. The real reason behind this is because Hase & Sasaki are being groomed by New Japan to make a comeback in late 1992 as guys who are top of the card guys, but also so Hase can make contacts in the United States, learn the American ways, etc. because Hase is going to wind up as one of the most influential office workers in New Japan and basically be Riki Choshu's right-hand man and handle much of the dealing and contacts with foreign talent.

They didn't stay for a year. Any memories about them coming in and why that didn't happen?

Let's get to some company news heading into SuperBrawl -

Meltzer reported at the end of April that Sid Vicious was leaving WCW after SuperBrawl to go to the WWF.

He wrote -

Vicious had signed a contract with WCW through September. The reason he was given such a big push on television was because the company felt, by his own signing of the contract, that they had him through September. If the company planned on using him for any program past September, the company deserves no sympathy because it had bought the cart before signing the horse so to speak. But in this situation, the company had every right to program Vicious for a big summer program. As most of you know, when Vicious punctured his lung in November of 1989 and was out of action until the following July, he received his $3,000 per week salary that had been agreed upon under his contract.

The company wasn't this great benevolent organization for paying him while he was hurt. That was simply a provision of the contract. Presumably he was injured on the job, and that being the case, he deserved the money. I'm not saying Vicious owes any loyalty to WCW because an argument can be made that they gave him a national break. Vicious only owed them one thing. What he had agreed to, and that was to stay until September. At the same time, anyone who follows professional sports would have to be blind to not recognize that what Vicious did is no different from what leading stars in other sports have been doing for years. Maybe the precedent for renegotiating took longer to happen in wrestling, but it's already there everywhere else and was bound to trickle down to the wrestling business, if not in this case, in another case very soon.

He later wrote -  The latest on Sid Vicious is that he's been pulled by WCW from all previously announced house show dates except for the 5/19 PPV show. There is a lot of internal bitterness over this, because he's being paid his $5,000 per week for saying home for one month. You can't blame him for that because it was a decision made by the company, but it does seem like he's getting one heck of a nice reward for walking out on his contract.

The explanation given to me was the company feared Vicious, if he were to work his scheduled dates, would suddenly be injured and thus get out of doing the stretcher job at the PPV. One WWF official wanted to bet me that there was no way he was going out on the stretcher anyway. I didn't take the bet, by the way.

Meltzer reported - There will be a show during the summer at the St. Paul Civic Center, probably in August. . . The Arena in St. Louis is booked on 6/14 but the Arena turned WCW down in trying to get a Bash date booked. Arena gave them a date, despite Vince McMahon threatening to pull out of the building and out of town if they were to rent to WCW. Arena management is trying not to lose Titan, which is why they turned down the Bash date.

Was this a common occurance that you guys dealt with during this time? We talked about this recently on Bruce's show. In fact, here's what I read to Bruce regarding Meltzer's report on this in early May

What could wind up being one of the biggest stories of the year, or wind up being a non-story, is the end result of the current "poker game" of sorts going on between World Championship Wrestling, Titan Sports and, several municipally-owned buildings and the nation's largest building management company.

This story could end in any one of a number of ways, but ultimately it's final result will either solidify WCW as a minor league promotion with no hopes of being competition to the WWF, or a loss to the WWF in that its attempts at keeping WCW out of buildings will be ultimately broken.

When WCW was purchased by Turner Broadcasting two-and-a-half years ago, it was seemingly inevitable that this battle was in the cards. But this battle can only be fought once. The timing is all-important, and while it is a battle that WCW needed to eventually fight, one questions if this is the opportune time to start.

This is both a market-by-market battle, but also in many ways a national battle because the management of the various arenas will be looking at the initial results and the initial results will probably cause the "herd (no relation to Jim) mentality" prevalent in that industry to bend to whichever side successfully exerted the most pressure in the previous battles.

Exclusive access to buildings has been a part of pro wrestling since long before this current promotional war. Dating back to the early 1960s, rivals of Vince McMahon Sr. had unsuccessfully attempted to book shows in Madison Square Garden. In the mid-1970s, when Eddie Einhorn formed the outlaw IWA as competition to the NWA (which at the time had a working affiliation with both the WWF and AWA) using Mil Mascaras as his top drawing card, he found himself unable to book shows in the traditional wrestling buildings, and ended up running in secondary arenas and eventually the group went out of business.

In the early part of this wrestling war which began in 1984 with many different promotions involved and has now wound down to two big offices, one of which is a lot bigger than the other, the WWF had a hard time initially booking key arenas because the successful regional promotion (and despite how some have tried to rewrite wrestling history years later, back in 1983-84, most of the regional groups were extremely successful) had longstanding success and relations with the management of the buildings in their region.

Initially in cities that had strong regional offices, the WWF was forced into the secondary buildings or even had trouble getting into markets. As the WWF achieved more prominence and gained a track record as being able to draw, those barriers one-by-one fell down like dominos and in many cases, it was the formerly successful regional promotion that was even kicked out of buildings.

At the same time, in various attempts by the NWA and later Pro Wrestling USA (initially a consortium of the different major promotions remaining and later Jim Crockett and Verne Gagne) to book Madison Square Garden in New York and other key Northeastern buildings like the Spectrum, Capital Centre and Boston Garden were always rebuffed.

There is some question whether exclusivity of this nature is actually legal, but nobody has gone to court to test it. Eventually WCW was either going to have to test the legality of these exclusives, or be doomed to forever holding shows in secondary buildings in the major markets.

One of the buildings in the Oakland Coliseum Arena, a 15,500-seat county-owned facility in the Bay Area. The Bay Area is different from St. Louis in that there are many adequate facilities, including the Cow Palace (14,700 seats for wrestling) in San Francisco, two 6,000 seat buildings (Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland and San Francisco Civic) a 4,500 seat building (SUREC Arena in San Jose) and a 2,700 seat arena (San Jose Civic), all of which will book pro wrestling. Titan runs ten shows a year in the market, alternating between the Coliseum and the Cow Palace.

WCW's rare appearances have been in either the Kaiser Center or Civic, both considered minor league buildings and less familiarity as far as directions and the like to out-of-towners. However, WCW managed to book the Oakland Coliseum Arena on July 27 for a Great American Bash date. While Titan has yet to officially cancel any Oakland Coliseum Arena dates, those close to this situation here admit the idea of pulling out of Oakland has been talked about and privately hope it's only a bluff. Although the size of the crowds in this market are more dependent upon whether Hulk Hogan is on the card or not, rather than which building, the Coliseum is the most desirable building.

If Herd and WCW have their way, there are approximately two-dozen other markets where this same game is about to be played in. The end result of these battles will no doubt determine the fate in privately owned buildings as well due to the so-called "herd mentality" in the building industry.

"If Vince (McMahon) can't live with the free enterprise system, that's tough," said Herd. "His mistake is that he might have been able to break all the regional promotions, but there is no way he can break Turner Broadcasting. It's inconceivable for him to even think he can. But apparently he doesn't understand that."

While nobody from Titan can talk on the record to the Observer for obvious reasons, one source said, "This is a war and they'd better realize that when it's over, we're going to win."

We're also about to see the debut of a legendary character in the history of wrestling known as Oz.

Meltzer reported -

Okay, here goes. The characters of Oz and Merlin the Wizard will be introduced on the PPV. There will be a stage set up which is supposed to be the Emerald City and they'll have Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and a cast of Munchkins. I'm not making this up.

Oz was Kevin Nash. Talk about the creation of Oz. What did you think of it?

Meltzer reported - WCW is talking about instituting a junior heavyweight division, although "junior heavyweight" may not be the semantic term given for it. This news coming just a few weeks after the top WCW officials were in Japan and saw Jushin Liger is probably not coincidental. If WCW does institute its own title, which will more likely than not be announced on June 12 at the Clash of Champions from Knoxville, one would think it's candidate to build the division around would be Brian Pillman.

The immediate reaction to this is two totally polarized views. View No. 1, held by an awful lot of people within the business particularly is that tagging Pillman with the junior heavyweight tag and putting a junior title on him will be almost like a death knell to his career. Another view, held by those who have seen the division used viably, particularly by the New Japan promotion, is that this is a move that will open up a new level of excitement to American pro wrestling.

Dave then gave some advice on how to make it work -

1. Intermix the guys you are pushing as junior heavys with the heavys as little as possible. If Sugar Ray Leonard had to stand next to Larry Holmes, or better yet if Marvin Hagler, who had the killer rep more than Leonard, had to stand next to Holmes, the entire illusion of Hagler as a killer would have been destroyed. Negro Casas, at all of 170 pounds, isn't too small when he's in with a guy weighing 195, but he's a midget next to a guy weighing, 270. While Liger, because he's such a good worker, has been able to get away with being in the ring for quick spots against Bam Bam Bigelow and Big Van Vader (and even look believable doing spots with them), Liger is the exception to the rule. When Tiger Mask was hot, he never did jobs for any heavyweights nor did the foes he drew his good houses with, Dynamite Kid and Black Tiger. Kid and Tiger may have done jobs for Tiger Mask, but not for anyone else. If this division becomes the haven for guys who aren't big enough to beat Barry Windham or Lex Luger, then you are wasting your television time pushing a preliminary match with a worthless belt.
2. The style of the match has to be different. If the junior heavyweights can't do things in the ring that the heavyweights don't, there is no need for the division. Les Thornton was a great technical wrestler but the junior heavyweight division meant nothing with he as champion. Ditto Hiro Matsuda. Even Danny Hodge only meant something within his region, and a lot of that was because he was a legitimate sports legend in that area before he ever was a pro wrestler.
3. Realize right off that it isn't going to work at the beginning. Americans fans have been brainwashed by the Hulk Hogans, Lex Lugers and Road Warriors who they have never seen do jobs. That's why it was so easy to get Sid Vicious over.
4. The division-has to be built around someone who is spectacular in the ring and also has charisma. My pick here, at least at the start, would be Liger. I'd get tapes, and WCW has a working relationship with Liger's office, of his matches and start airing them maybe every Sunday during the Main Event broadcast. Not right away, but eventually, his style will at least create curiosity and if brought in for live shows, he can be an attraction to the events.

After he's been on a few PPV shows, as an attraction, with hand-picked opponents that people have never seen before (so they aren't established as jobbers to the fans which would mean he's really doing these hot moves on punching bags anyway), only then would you start programming your own guys like a Pillman or a Ricky Morton with him. If the fans believe medium-sized wrestlers from all over the world are gunning for the guy and that idea is somewhat in people's :leads, only then will it be viable to get him into a program and then build the division in the United States.

Meltzer reported - Jim Ross will be starting a weekly radio wrestling call-in show on WSB in Atlanta (750 AM), a clear-channel 50,000 watt station which according to station publicity, can be heard in 38 states at night (I'm assuming California isn't one of them). The show will air from 9 to 10 p.m. Eastern time and start tentatively the first sunday in June

Around this time, we saw The Freebirds get a new member, named Fantasia, who was Brad Armstrong under a mask. Talk about that idea, and why Brad chosen to do it?

Meltzer reported - In its press release, WCW claimed it reaches more than 21.2 million people weekly and ranks second of all syndicated networks in the 12-17 age group, the 25-54 age group and in men 18-49 age group. Titan only claims to reach 22 million per week, and you know legitimately neither group comes anywhere near either figure.

In that Titan ad last week where they claimed to draw eight million fans to live events in 1991 when in reality they will run roughly 510 events this year (unless they increase to a C team which there are no plans to do right now) which means they must average almost 16,000 fans per house show to reach eight million. Two to 2.5 million is reality but what does reality have to do with claims by wrestling promotions?

Meltzer reported - The B team guys worked on Saturday night in Rainesville, AL and had to drive all the way to Rock Hill, SC for a Sunday show and when they got there, the show was cancelled because the ring never arrived. Apparently the guy in charge of delivering the ring forgot about the show, and WCW has since forgot about keeping him employed.

Meltzer reported - Steve Austin, with valet Veronica Lane (Robin Smith), will be starting here shortly

Talk about Steve coming in and how that came to be

Speaking of debuts, we'd see another debut from a guy that would end up making a pretty big impact on the business in coming years, Scott Hall. However, he wasn't known as Scott Hall. Meltzer reported -

Also at the taping, but in a dark try-out match, was The Diamond Stud (Scott Hall with slicked back hair and an earring) managed by Diamond Dallas Page. He worked like Scott Hall, although he did a nice version of the power bomb as the finisher which got a good reaction.

Talk about the Diamond Studd gimmick and how it came to be. He wrestled in WCW as Scott Hall not long before this

The final event ever at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis on April 27th drew 3,200 and $36,000 as Armstrong pinned Rogers, Rhodes pinned Parker, Pillman pinned Cubano, Steiners beat Stan Hansen & Master Blaster, Luger double count out with Nikita Koloff, Simmons pinned Reed and Sting & Gigante beat Flair & Anderson.

Any standout memories or matches from that building? Starrcade 90 was held there

Jim Herd on the 900 line said that the No. 1 priority of the company is to deliver TV ratings on TBS. The change in name from NWA to WCW was strictly on the advice of lawyers who decided it was the best way to avoid a lawsuit from an ex-NWA promoter.

Speaking of Jim Herd, Meltzer reported -  Big Van Vader nearly quit again this week over a contract impasse with Jim Herd, but they seem to have worked things out. Seemed to being very qualified, because there have been several contracts that seemed to have been worked out here and somehow things come up. The hold-up wasn't money, but Herd wanting Vader to sign a four-year world wide merchandising rights contract while Vader only wanted to sign for one year and giving up merchandising rights only in the United States. The verbal compromise agreement was for U.S. rights for 18 months.

Talk about Jim's relationship with the locker room. Jim Cornette has been very outspoken over the years on his dislike for Jim, as has Ric Flair. Was that the norm or the exception with how people felt about Jim?

That takes us to SuperBrawl -

Mighty Thor pinned El Cubano in the dark match opener.

The Freebirds won the vacant U.S. tag team titles beating the Young Pistols in 10:21. The crowd started out hot for the match and the show because the local crowd saw the show as more important than your basic house show. Early in the show Brad Armstrong came to ringside to counter the outside interference of Big Daddy Dink and the ref threw both of them out of the ringside area. It was a pretty hot match with the teams working out new high spots early and them setting up normal Pistols high spots which the Birds would move away from.

They started getting the heat on Tracy Smothers at five minutes when Jim Garvin pulled down the ropes and he took the backward bump over. Smothers took an incredible bump when Hayes whipped him into Garvin outside the ring, who was standing in front of the guard rail, and Garvin backdropped Smothers over the guard rail. He later took another guard rail shot on his back. The crowd seemed pro-Birds, which Hayes was encouraging. The Pistols work so hard and come off on television as so likeable, but people just don't seem to like them. Smothers made the hot tag at 7:45 and the Pistols each missed an attempt at simultaneous dropkicks off the top rope.

But then they made a comeback when Smothers did a flying bodypress on to both of them, then a double clothesline sending both over the top rope. While on the floor, Armstrong did a flying cross bodyblock off the top rope outside the ring onto both Birds and the two did the Georgia jawjacker (which I'm sure isn't called that anymore but it's the move where Armstrong holds the foe in the air and Smothers comes off the top with an elbow drive to the chin) on Hayes.

Then came ref bump No. 1, which brought out Fantasia, who I assume is Brad Armstrong but don't know for sure, dressed like the Gobbledy-Gooker who gave both Pistols DDT's off the middle rope and Hayes pinned Smothers to win the titles. This was a great opener live. ***1/2

Danny Spivey pinned Ricky Morton in 3:11 with a power bomb. Basic big-man little man match with Spivey dominating and Morton doing his fearless comebacks but Spivey coming back with power moves to stop him. It was all fast-paced action while it was going on, but too short (what can you expect with 12 matches and several skits in a 2:47 time). I don't know if Spivey really needed to just stand on Morton for the pin. Morton is turning so it's like he's a new character, but he's not a jobber and I can't see the purpose in humiliating him when he's already doing the clean job. The crowd was pro-Spivey here. *1/4

Nikita Koloff pinned Tommy Rich in 4:07 with the Russian sickle. For what it was, it was okay. *

Nikita recently came back to the company during this time after being away for a few years. What's your memories of him coming back? He's even said that Ric had offered to drop the World Title to him, but Nikita declined the offer. Do you recall that?

Then came the introduction of Johnny B. Badd with manager Teddy Long, doing a gay act dressed up like a white Little Richard with a bodybuilder physique. Since I was there live, we really couldn't hear what was being said. Some people seemed intrigued by the new character, but the reaction live was negative (it's supposed to be, he's a heel, but a lot of the reaction wasn't booing the character as much as people screaming that if they wanted to see the WWF they'd have gone the night before). I want to at least watch him wrestle and hear him do an interview or two before making any comments.

What's your memories of the creation and debut of Johnny B. Badd?

Dustin Rhodes pinned Terrence Taylor in 8:05. Taylor and York's intro came complete with a board of directors from the York Foundation (a few local wrestlers who are recognizable as TBS jobbers). After a few early flurries, Taylor went outside to check with Ms. York's computer. I think it said, "You don't have a prayer in this match unless they change bookers." Later, when the two screwed up a spot, Taylor went out and checked the computer again. I think this time it said, "If you mess up one more high spot with the bookers' son, you'll be wearing your hair like a rooster again." The rest of the match was just fine.

Finish saw Rhodes hit the bulldog but York distracted the ref. Taylor then jumped Rhodes from behind as he was trying to get the ref back into action. Taylor held Rhodes and Mr. Hughes pulled out a black glove but naturally Rhodes ducked and Taylor got hit and pinned. After the bout Taylor and Hughes had a brief argument. **

Big Josh pinned Black Bart in 3:45 with the butt-drop. Bart replaced Larry Zbyszko who had a legit knee injury. Nothing was announced to the crowd live and people were more upset about Zbyszko not being there than I would have imagined. Josh came out with two bears who walked on their hind legs. Nobody cared a lick about either guy or the match. DUD

Then came a Danger Zone with Paul E. interviewing Stan Hansen. The mic went out twice but Paul E. ad-libbed pretty good within the character. John Stanley mainly challenged Dusty Rhodes.

Oz pinned Tim Parker in 27 seconds with the Al Perez alley-copter move. Live, the Oz entrance was one of the more embarrassing moments I've had in this lifetime when it came to rationalizing being a wrestling fan. The reaction was a combination of stunned amazement and brutal obscenity-laced vehemence. The smoke was sulphur-based and the building smelled pretty bad for the remainder of the show. The Oz thing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because it was really just an elaborate ring introduction rather than a several minute skit. But the people really hated it, maybe even more than they should have. There was a definite kind of reaction from the live crowd.

It was fairly pro-heel most of the way and they didn't get into anything that was WWF-like, and with WCW trying to copy WWF more and more, it is going to turn off the hardcore base even if the actual action level of the matches is good. -*** (negative two for the intro and the match, negative one more for the smell)

Barry Windham pinned Brian Pillman with the superplex in 6:08 in a taped fist match. Give Dusty credit for this. The Oz skit really was a turn-off live and the show was in the toilet at that point. This match, which was almost guaranteed to be good, took the show right out of the toilet and I guess all the way to the sink (they were still in the bathroom until the tag team title match). Windham juiced in the first minute. Windham was on the top rope and Pillman dropkicked him off and Windham took a great bump on the floor. Pillman came off the top rope outside the ring with a punch and then posted Windham, who juiced. Windham was also bleeding from the arm, although it may have been blood dripping from his head that looked like an arm cut. Finish saw Pillman on the top rope but Windham gave him a low blow, then pulled him off with the superplex for the pin and left him laying. This was a great match, while it lasted, but definitely too short for these two. ***1/4

El Gigante pinned Sid Vicious in what was billed as a stretcher match in 2:11. Vicious showed up and did his job. Over the last week the word was that if Vicious didn't show up, that WCW wasn't going to release him from his contract until it expired (September 5). Believe it or not, the folks at Titan were pretty adamant about Vicious showing up as well even though it would mean their star attraction would probably do a clean job. Still, WCW planned Gigante vs. One Man Gang in the format sheets. I think many of us had a false sense of how far Gigante had progressed by seeing him so often of late in with Flair and Windham. It was like watching two blind men trying to wrestle one another.

As soon as the pin took place, Vicious got up like nothing had happened and walked off while Gang and Kevin Sullivan attacked Gigante and hit him with the stretcher before Gigante recovered and they ran off. While people were mad because it was supposed to be a stretcher match, everything about this match was a bad situation. But after watching the match, Sid vs. El wouldn't have meant nearly as much as I thought at the houses afterward because it was evident within seconds that the "tension" of this match of giants was gone within 30 seconds when it was evident they were clueless as to how to pull it off. -*

Ron Simmons pinned Butch Reed in a cage match in 9:25. Teddy Long was put in a cage above the ring. Simmons bled in 35 seconds. Reed mainly beat on Simmons the entire match. The match was mainly deliberate brawling and not bad as far as action, but people just aren't into this feud. Finish saw Long throw a chain into the ring, Reed tried to use it but Simmons blocked it and then hit a spinebuster on Reed for the pin. **1/2

Do you think they broke Doom up too soon or was it the right time to do this?

Rick & Scott Steiner beat Sting & Lex Luger to keep the WCW tag team titles in 11:08. They showed the video before the match began. I was really surprised about a lot of things in this match. First, of course, is just how good it really turned out to be. But also, the amount of heat generated in a battle of babyfaces. The heat was super. Far and away the most of the show, and considering this was a total Japanese style match (high spot, high spot with the guys selling the moves, but then getting up, no heel vs. face drama) it says something about how the crowds are changing and what they really want.

I expected it to be like the Road Warriors-Steiners match at Starrcade in 1989, trading good moves but the crowd not popping big. Sting was the MVP of the show and it was the best he's looked since coming back from the knee injury. All four guys obviously put a lot into the match both in the ring, and also in putting it together. The Steiners were cheered slightly more throughout the match, but it didn't seem like anyone booed anyone. It opened with Lex and Rick trading spots. Rick took some nice bumps early.

Sting did a running dive over the top rope onto Rick, who was on the floor. And on and on it went, with one hot move after another, fans popping for every near fall, basically exactly like a hot Japan match. Near the end, Sting even reversed a tombstone piledriver on Scott. Although he did nothing to hurt the match, Luger's bag of tricks wasn't nearly as full as the other three.

Then came the obligatory ref bump. Nikita Koloff ran to the ring to hit Luger with a chain but Luger somehow stepped out of the way and Nikita hit Sting, who juiced and was pinned by Scott. When Sting got up he ran to the dressing room and attacked Nikita and they brawled outside the building. The finish accomplished its purpose in that they need to move Sting and Nikita into a feud right away, but it was also a cheap non-finish that took a lot away from what was one of the best matches of the year. ****1/2

This was at the time a pretty rare babyface vs babyface match. Why was the decision made to do this match?

Bobby Eaton pinned Arn Anderson in 11:10 to win the WCW TV title. These two had the unfortunate task of trying to follow the last match. The match before the main event on most PPV's has been a death spot because fans have seen so many hot matches and by this time want to see the main event. So they put, what on paper should have been the best match on the show here to alleviate that problem. And what happens? They have to follow a match of the year.

So it was hard to get the crowd into it, but the work itself was solid all the way. Eaton has dropped a lot of weight, mainly because he's been training for conditioning like crazy for his June 12 match with Flair.

Mainly Anderson worked on Eaton's left knee. The match didn't have much heat, but the finish was excellent with Eaton kicking out of the spinebuster, making a comeback and signalling like he was going to do the legdrop off the top for the finish. At this point Windham came out to interfere, but Pillman was on his heels and chased him away. Eaton then did the legdrop and got the pin. The crowd popped like crazy since they were expecting the screw-job and got the clean pin instead. What a concept. I guess when you rarely give clean pins in the top matches, it does make the clean pin seem like something special. ***1/4

This would be Bobby's first and only singles title in WCW. He'd also get to headline Clash of the Champions 15 on June 12th, and challenge Ric Flair in a 2 out of 3 falls match for the World Title, and get a clean pin on Ric in the first fall, but eventually lose the match. What did you think of Bobbys single push here? He'd eventually lose the TV title to newcomer, Stunning Steve Austin on June 3rd

Arn has been outspoken over the years about his friendship with Bobby. Talk about that and what did it mean to Arn to give Bobby his first singles title and what did it mean to Bobby to not only win it, but to win it from Arn?

Ric Flair pinned Tatsumi Fujinami in 18:36 to retain the WCW title in a rare battle of world champions. Live, this was a lot better match than in Tokyo. Some have told me on top they didn't think it was that good, but live it was just a stiff, excellent, well-paced match, up until the finish. Flair was really alive for this one and sold Fujinami's submissions so well that the match had surprising heat. Flair was the crowd favorite, but Fujinami's reaction wasn't too bad and he did awe the crowd with the bow and arrow move which kind of got everyone into thinking he was something special. Flair bled after being run into the guard rail.

They did miss the bridging spot. The finish saw ref Massao Hattori get bumped and immediately Flair got Fujinami from behind with a cradle using the trunks and Bill Alphonso jumped in and counted the fall. Everyone was mad about the finish, which was the designed reaction. The idea was they wanted to make everyone mad at Flair leaving the ring. Since Flair was going to be the crowd favorite since they really didn't even try to get Fujinami over, they needed a finish that would make everyone mad. At least that's the psychological theory.

The problem is, and the continuing years-long trend of diminishing house show crowds should bear this out, is that today's fans don't get mad at the heel for the screw-job finish, they get mad at the promotion, which is a fine way to end a pay-per-view card. ***3/4

Of the finish, Meltzer wrote - Dusty Rhodes didn't come up with the Flair finish apparently, which is why both he and Jim Ross never acknowledged the trunks being used in the commentary. Dusty should have at least specified on ref bump since they already had two others on the card.

How do you feel the show came off, do you consider it a success?

Meltzer reported - The latest numbers don't look good. The weekend of the SuperBrawl show, the TBS WCW show drew a 1.9 rating, which all things considered, is horrible. While it was up from the 1.7 the previous week, traditionally in weeks when the Sunday show is pre-empted, the Saturday ratings naturally pick up because those who need a fix of wrestling each week will at least watch one show.

SUPERBRAWL '91
- Thumbs up: 301 (59.6 percent)
- Thumbs down: 129 (25.5 percent)
- In the middle: 75 (14.9 percent)

BEST MATCH POLL
- Sting & Luger vs. Steiners 399
- Ric Flair vs. Tatsumi Fujinami 36

WORST MATCH POLL
- El Gigante vs. Sid Vicious 149
- Oz vs. Tim Parker 101
- Big Josh vs. Black Bart 46