Written by: Matt Peddycord
WCW Worldwide
November 2, 1991
Huntsville, AL
Von Braun Center
(Taped on October 15, 1991)
The current WCW Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Lex Luger (7/14/1991)
U.S. Champion: Sting (8/25/1991)
World Television Champion: Steve Austin (6/3/1991)
World Light Heavyweight Champion: Brian Pillman (10/27/1991)
World Tag Team Champions: The Enforcers (9/5/1991)
U.S. Tag Team Champions: The Patriots (8/12/1991)
World Six-Man Tag Team Champions: The York Foundation (10/8/1991)
As far as WCW is concerned, November in 1991 means its “Submit or Surrender” month! On each edition of Worldwide throughout the month, there will be one match where the only way to win is to make your opponent give up or say “I quit”. I guess you could also say that it’s “I Quit” month, but “Submit or Surrender” sounds better. However, today’s match pits Johnny B. Badd against Bobby Eaton! Umm, okay!
Your host is Tony Schiavone! Where’d Magnum go?
- Barry Windham vs. Larry Zbyszko
As you may recall, Larry Zbyszko and Arn Anderson slammed Barry’s hand in a car door at Halloween Havoc, but you’d never know it because there’s no real mention of it here. Larry Z stalls a whole bunch and rips up a fan’s ‘Barry Windham’ sign to show he’s a terrible person. Once they FINALLY lock up, Windham hooks on an armbar and takes Zbyszko down with a hiptoss. He charges after Larry up against the ropes, but Zbyszko ducks and Barry flies out to the floor. Zbyszko tosses Windham around on the floor and then brings him back in for a suplex for two. Windham fights back, but misses a dropkick. Larry capitalizes with a swinging neckbreaker for another near-fall. Zbyszko continues to wrench on the neck as Arn Anderson waltzes down all smug-like to get a closer look. Windham misses a corner charge for another two-count. Slam gets two for Zbyszko, but then he ducks low off a whip and Windham surprises Larry with a sunset flip for 1-2-3. (7:34) Don’t be fooled by the time because half of it was stalling. The Enforcers double-team Windham until Ron Simmons runs in for the save. Tony marks out at the mere thought of Windham/Simmons going up against Anderson/Zbyszko for the tag titles. *
Johnny B. Badd, Teddy Long interview with Eric Bischoff: Teddy says Bobby needs to go ahead and give up now before he gets KO’ed by the Tooty Frooty Punch. Oh hush, Teddy!
- Van Hammer vs. Paul Lee
This is the Worldwide debut of Van Hammer, says Tony. He carries his axe (by axe, I mean guitar) out to the ring and swings it around his neck. That’s about the coolest thing he could do and even that isn’t too cool. He’s got that “Warrior” look, but he’s pretty pedestrian in the ring. He gives Lee a gourdbuster and follows it up with a jumping legdrop before leading the crowd in a round of some Queen’s “We Will Rock You” *clap-clap-stomp* action, which becomes his “thing”. He then insults Tully Blanchard forever by adopting the Slingshot Suplex as his finisher for the win. (1:35) Poor Tully.
- Arachniman vs. Lou Fabiano
Ah, Brad Armstrong’s latest horrible gimmick. He’s Spiderman if he were wearing WCW’s purple and yellow colors instead of the blue and red. He even shoots silly string out of his palms during his ring entrance! Hmm, maybe they’re streamers. It’s hard to tell. That would really come in handy at a ROH show when another Japanese legend comes to the states. You got to hand it to Brad because with every bad gimmick he’s stuck with in 1991, he always manages to make them all have different moves. Here he knocks Fabiano down with a Flying Headbutt and then pins him with a victory roll. (2:17)
Let’s go to Gordon Solie in the WNN newsroom. He first gives Scott Steiner some advice telling him to take it easy in the ring so that he doesn’t re-injure his bicep. In other news, Vader is BACK! He shows a montage of Vader destroying some jobber. He’s awesome. Also, Bill Kazmaier wants a title shot and WCW is actually going to give him one. Kazmaier cuts a little promo saying that he’s been practicing a few moves. Not a bunch of moves, just a few. Evidently, he thinks he’s going to win the World title from Lex Luger. Hey, Gordon is down for it.
It’s time for the WCW Top Ten for the weekend of November 2!
(the change in rankings will be according to the October 19 Top Ten since I don’t have last week’s show)
10. Bill Kazmaier [-]
9. Abdullah the Butcher [-]
8. Cactus Jack [^1]
7. Tom Zenk [-]
6. Rick Steiner [-]
5. Dustin Rhodes [same]
4. Barry Windham [^1]
3. Ron Simmons [^1]
2. WCW World TV Champ Steve Austin [v2]
1. WCW U.S. Champion Sting [same]
WCW World Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger
Tony Schiavone meets up with Rick Steiner for a little interview time. He gets into his crazy child-like character, so just imagine Eugene here. He talks about how much he likes watching Lex Luger wrestle because he’s GOOD. Tony asks Steiner what he thinks about Lex’s change in attitude, (which if history tells us anything, Rick’s going to get his face stomped in if he says anything negative here. Thanks a lot Tony.) and Rick just says that you have to do whatever you got to do to win. That’s cool, but then Rick makes a huge mistake and says he could beat Lex Luger. He says he’s beat him before too! HIT LUGER’S MUSIC! Of course Lex doesn’t come without Race and Hughes. Luger says he’ll let Rick go because they’re friends, but Rick just won’t forget about the time he beat Lex when they were ‘rasslin in the locker room. Oh me. Luger says Rick needs to learn some respect, so he takes his sport jacket off and they head to the ring. Here we go!
- WCW World Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger (w/Harley Race & Mr. Hughes) vs. Rick Steiner – non-title match
Lex stomps away and LEVELS Rick with a clothesline, but Steiner manages to backdrop out of the PILEDRIVER. Steiner starts to NO-SELL punches and turnbuckle smashes before delivering a release German suplex out of the corner. Rick hits a powerslam and then nails Race and Mr. Hughes. He then turns around and gives Luger a BELLY-TO-BELLY SUPLEX for 1-2-3! (2:00) Crowd goes insane! Surely they didn’t think Steiner won the belt there.
- Bobby Eaton vs. Johnny B. Badd (w/Teddy Long) – “Submit or Surrender” match
Like I said up above, it’s “I Quit” rules in this match. Badd corners Eaton and goes for the TOOTY FROOTY PUNCH early, but Eaton counters a PUNCH into an armdrag. Awesome! By the way, this match is being held in Bobby’s hometown, which might explain why he’s main-eventing and stuff. Badd grabs an armbar, but Eaton escapes and knocks Badd down with a clothesline that sends him rolling out to the floor to be with Teddy. Back in, Eaton gets a drop-toehold and buries his knee a bunch on a hammerlock. Badd breaks loose, but then they do the spot where they keep reversing hiptosses across the ring until Badd ends up flying out on the floor. Back in again, Teddy distracts Eaton long enough for Badd to sneak in a left jab on Eaton’s ribs to take over. Johnny punches away and then heads up for the Flying Sunset Flip, but no pinfalls in this match. Eaton counters a slam into an inside cradle, but there’s no pinfalls! Badd tosses Eaton to the floor and gives him a hiptoss on the concrete! Eaton crawls back onto the apron, but he’s met with a clothesline from Badd. Johnny charges into the corner, but he eats an elbow and then gets nailed with a backdrop. Eaton hits the Bobby Eaton backbreaker, but Badd goes to the eyes and delivers a flying elbow drop. Badd then ducks low off a whip and takes a swinging neckbreaker before Eaton goes up top for a flying elbow drop of his own! They run the ropes for a bit, which leads to a double-KO spot. Both men are down for the ten-count, so now the winner is the one who gets up first. Teddy comes in the ring and starts fanning Badd. Badd gets up first, but the ref doesn’t see it because he’s with Teddy, so Eaton pops Badd in the mouth and leans up against the ropes in order to stay on his feet. The ref turns around and declares Eaton the winner. (8:58) Great match and it’s good to see Badd improving by being in the ring with guys who can wrestle and have a good match with just about anybody. Definitely one of Johnny’s best matches to date. ***
Cactus Jack interview with Eric Bischoff: Next week, he’ll be facing Sting in a “Submit or Surrender” match. Sadly, I don’t have next week’s show. Anyways, he says submit and surrender are words that are not in his vocabulary. He’s already met Sting before and destroyed him on national television at the last Clash, and next week will be the only second chance he’s going to need to get rid of Sting. BANG! BANG!
Final Thoughts: Well, you’ve got to take the bad with the good here in WCW. The stage is now set for the main event at the Clash on November 19 between Lex Luger and Rick Steiner, which is one of the more note-worthy Clashes in the last two years. Not necessarily note-worthy because of the title match, but for other reasons.