Written by: Bob Colling
World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 2/15/1992
From: Atlanta, GA
Matches:
1.) Tom Zenk & Marcus Alexander Bagwell defeated Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker & Greg Sawyer
2.) Terrence Taylor defeated Dan Garza
3.) Mr. Hughes defeated Big Josh
4.) Brian Pillman defeated John Peterson
5.) Johnny B. Badd defeated Mark Kyle
6.) WCW United States Champion Rick Rude defeated Chris Sullivan
7.) Dustin Rhodes defeated Bob Cook
8.) The Steiner Brothers defeated WCW United States Tag Team Champions The Young Pistols in a non-title match
9.) Ricky Steamboat & Barry Windham wrestled WCW World Tag Team Champion Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko to a no contest
Angle Developments/Notes:
1. Barry Windham opened the show with pre-tape comments saying that he and Ricky Steamboat are going to take care of Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko later tonight. Zbyszko and Anderson also had some comments where Zbyszko said that today they will have the biggest problems of all, the Dangerous Alliance!
2. Sting comes down to ringside to be interviewed by Jim Ross. In two weeks he will meet WCW World Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger at Superbrawl II. Sting says that he is going to be more emotional about the match while Luger is all business. That’s all he had to say.
3. Zenk and Bagwell kicked off the shoe with a convincing win. Bagwell continued his winning streak after pinning Sawyer with a fisherman suplex.
4. Marcus Alexander Bagwell joined Jim Ross on commentary for Terrence Taylor’s match. The arrogant Taylor picks apart Garza until he hits an ugly looking gut wrench power bomb and soon afterwards hits a leaping forearm smash for the win. The crowd was completely dead for that match. After the match, Taylor brings Bagwell to the ringside area to have a talk about a misunderstanding. Taylor sees a lot of a young Taylor in Bagwell. Taylor wants Bagwell to follow him out of the arena to be his protégé. Bagwell tells Taylor that he doesn’t need him but he does need the people. Taylor doesn’t take the rejection nicely and punches Bagwell. Bagwell is attacked by Greg Valentine who runs down from the backstage area and Bagwell is beaten down. Jim Ross didn’t do a good job with Valentine’s debut as he didn’t seem so surprised by it himself. Tom Zenk ends up running out and chases Taylor and Valentine away.
5. Eric Bischoff is back with the WCW Magazine segment. Bischoff continues to hype up the Sting/Luger feud. Earlier in the day, Sting wrestled against Vader on the Power Hour. Remember, Harley Race is also an advisor for Vader along with Luger. We see footage of the match which saw Sting avoid a splash on the floor and Vader hitting the ring post to allow Sting to win by count-out. Sting took care of Harley Race with a splash in the corner and put the Scorpion Death Lock on Race briefly before taking Vader out with a slingshot cross body. Ricky Steamboat has recruited a masked ninja to be by his side to prevent anybody from getting involved in his match with Rick Rude at Superbrawl. Footage for Steamboat wrestling against Zbyszko is shown where the masked Ninja intimidated Zbyszko and Madusa. Bischoff finishes off the segment by running down what will take place at Superbrawl II.
6. Jim Ross announces that next week Big Josh and Ron Simmons will challenge the Young Pistols for the WCW US Tag Team Championships tomorrow at 6:05pm. Josh is in action tonight as he meets Mr. Hughes. Late in the match, Harley Race hands Hughes a roll of quarters and Hughes nails Josh in the face with them to win the match. After the match, Ron Simmons slides into the ring but is knocked to the floor. Josh axe handles Hughes from behind and rolls him up so that Simmons can count the three. Too bad for Josh, that doesn’t matter. That was a really boring match, folks.
7. Brian Pillman gets some momentum as Superbrawl II inches closer. He manages to defeat John Peterson following a springboard clothesline. I find it kind of funny that Pillman is getting a title shot despite not having won a lot of matches and being paired in jobber tag matches.
8. Footage from Wrestle War 1990 where Sting tried to motivate Lex Luger against Ric Flair. Luger was able to fight off the Anderson’s but Sting was attacked by the Anderson’s and that made Luger break the Torture Rack to take care of the Anderson’s and lost by count-out.
9. A couple weeks ago Johnny B. Badd attacked Brian Pillman but he is still being cheered. Something might have happened on the syndication shows to explain that, but I have no idea. Badd is able to win the match following a top rope sunset flip in a rather quick fashion. After the match, Badd puts a lips sticker on Kyle’s cheek after knocking him out with a left jab.
10. Dusty Rhodes talks about the Sting/Lex Luger showdown taking place at Superbrawl II. Rhodes obviously promotes the pay per view big time.
11. As if there was any doubt, WCW United States Champion Rick Rude took care of business against Chris Sullivan after hitting the Rude Awakening. After the match, Jim Ross interviews Paul Dangerously and Rick Rude, Dangerously talks about being banned from ringside at Superbrawl II. He says that WCW will do whatever it takes to get under his skin. He believes they are trying to enhance Steamboat’s chances to win the WCW United States Championship. Dangerously is going to be thinking of ways to mess up Steamboat’s life for the next fourteen days. There is nothing that is too disturbing for them to do to Steamboat! Rude chimes in and says that the Dangerous Alliance will lurk in the shadows of Steamboat’s mind. Rude believes that Steamboat has been mentally impaired because Dangerously is banned from ringside. Rude finishes off saying that Steamboat’s problems have only just begun!
12. Dustin Rhodes picks up an easy win over Bob Cook following a running bulldog. Not much said about that, just a filler to get Rhodes on the program.
13. The Steiner Brothers bring out a dog, Arnold, to the ring with them. I don’t recall them using a dog before but that is actually kind of amusing to me. The Young Pistols are able to double team Rick Steiner for a few moments after Scott Steiner held his own in the ring before tagging out. Rick is able to clothesline the Pistols to tag out to Scott. The Young Pistols showed up to fight and prove they are the best tag team in WCW, but they weren’t good enough to beat the Steiner Brothers this week. Scott cleaned house after getting the tag and after Armstrong is sent to the floor, Rick hits a top rope bulldog on Smothers and the Steiner Brothers pick up a well deserved win.
14. The masked ninja joins Ricky Steamboat and Barry Windham to combat Paul Dangerously who is also at ringside. The match started off with all four men going at it until Zbyszko took care of Windham on the floor and allowed Anderson to control Steamboat in the ring. Anderson worked on Steamboat’s neck hitting a DDT but wasn’t able to get a three count. Windham gets the hot tag and cleans house with his injured hand. Windham plants Zbyszko with a DDT but doesn’t cover and hammers away on Zbyszko. Windham and Steamboat have control of Zbyszko for a few moments, which was rather surprising since the Dangerous Alliance have typically controlled these bigger matches. Zbyszko helps Anderson by shoving Windham off the middle rope to the floor as he tried for a superplex. Steamboat was also rammed into the guard railing on the floor. Late in the match, Steamboat and Windham have control of the match as the masked ninja stalks Dangerously to the backstage area. Steamboat hits a top rope cross body on Zbyszko but on the cover attempt, Anderson hits him with Dangerously phone causing what appeared to be a disqualification though no result was given. The rest of the Dangerous Alliance enter to attack Steamboat and Windham. Dustin Rhodes and Sting run down to cause a brawl as the show comes to an end. The match was one of the better main events so far for Saturday Night. All around good effort with plenty of storylines progressing.
Final Thoughts:
It is clear that WCW is trying to get Terrence Taylor over. I like the character but Taylor just doesn’t interest me. He isn’t that good of a worker at this point and the fans aren’t responding to him even in a arena where they tell you who to boo and cheer for! The Greg Valentine debut would have been surprising if Ross acted surprised at first, but he didn’t.
I’m not sure how Pillman earned a title shot against Jushin Liger. I could’ve sworn that he lost to Richard Morton because of Johnny B. Badd. Speaking of Badd, since Pillman is a good guy and he screwed him over wouldn’t Badd be a heel? I guess not since the fans where cheering for him on this show.
The promo by Dangerously and Rude was nicely done. I think it’s safe to say that Steamboat/Rude will be the best match at Superbrawl as that has a great story going and the promos have been great in adding to it.
The main event was pretty good, a lot better than some of the more recent main event outings on Saturday Night.
Overall, I thought this week’s episode was solid. The build up towards Superbrawl II is almost over!
Thanks for reading.