WCW Worldwide 11/30/1991

Written by: Matt Peddycord

WCW Worldwide
November 30, 1991
Gainesville, GA
Georgia Mountains Center
(Taped on November 5, 1991)

The current WCW Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Lex Luger (7/14/1991)
U.S. Champion: Rick Rude (11/17/1991)
World Television Champion: Steve Austin (6/3/1991)
World Light Heavyweight Champion: Brian Pillman (10/27/1991)
World Tag Team Champions: Ricky Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes (11/17/1991)
U.S. Tag Team Champions: The Young Pistols (11/5/1991)
World Six-Man Tag Team Champions: The York Foundation (10/8/1991)

Your host is Tony Schiavone!

They kick off the show with the finish to the Sting/Rude US title match at the Clash.

• Arachniman vs. Mike Staples

Arachniman is now being billed from “Web City”. The capitol of the World Wide Web, perhaps? Who knows. In case you haven’t been following, Arachniman is Brad Armstrong. Staples gets agitated with Arachniman after being put out on the floor with a dropkick. Back in, Arachniman delivers a Flying Headbutt to Staples and finishes with the LABYRINTH (Oklahoma rollup) for the pin. (1:52) Wow, Gainesville actually loves him.

Big Josh stumbles his way through a promo on Thomas Rich. Wait, I thought he was supposed to face Terrence Taylor! Anyways, Rich gets some promo time as well and actually makes more sense than Josh.

• Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko (w/Madusa) vs. Mike Graham, Tom Zenk & Brian Pillman

HECK YEAH! I love how the Dangerous Alliance guys adopt red and white as the colors for their tights, but still manage to keep the same style tights as they always had before. It’s a small detail, I know. Eaton traps Graham in the heel corner, but he knows better and escapes instantly as Larry Z gets a tag. Criss-cross leads to a blind tag to Pillman and a crossbody block on Zbyszko for 1-2-NO! Zbyszko tries to trap Pillman in his corner this time, but Pillman fights out and clears the ring of the heels. Pillman whips Arn into the face corner for some ping-pong action and that leads to a big brawl with the Dangerous Alliance on the floor once again. Zenk tags and delivers some dropkicks, but Arn goes to the eyes and tags in Larry. He delivers a suplex and covers for two before Zenk runs away and tags in Graham. He becomes face-in-peril once Zbyszko breaks up a FIGURE-FOUR with an elbow drop. The crowd really gets behind Graham as he’s pulled out to the floor and double-teamed by Anderson and Eaton while Zbyszko distracts the ref Nick Patrick. Back in, Eaton delivers a backdrop for two, but then Arn ducks low off a whip and we get a HOT TAG TO PILLMAN! He goes dropkick crazy and gives Arn & Larry a double-noggin knocker! It turns into a pier-six brawl as Pillman catches Arn with a FLYING CROSSBODY, but Eaton comes down on Pillman with a double-sledge to break up the pin. Arn drapes his arm on Pillman as the ref slides back in the ring from being on the floor and counts 1-2-3. (7:36)That was some fun fast-paced formula action right there. ***¼

• WCW World Television Champion Steve Austin (w/Paul E. Dangerously) vs. Michael PS Hayes

Hayes and Austin work the crowd basically the whole match and just work in some armbars, headlocks and hammerlocks. These guys including Paul E are phoning it in for this match. Literally, Paul E is talking on his phone during this one. At about six minutes in, Austin delivers some back elbows and then the Bossman straddle before hooking on another chinlock. Hayes comes back with the left jab and goes for the DDT, but Austin shoves him off. He still manages to hit the DDT, but he slowly…makes…the…cover for 1-2-NO! Austin gets his foot on the bottom rope. Hayes pounds away and covers just as the ten-minute limit expires. (8:36) Silly WCW and them not being able to tell time. Too much stalling for my tastes. *

Let’s head over to Gordon Solie in the WNN newsroom. He explains the new “Lethal Lottery” concept that will be used at Starrcade. Next, he brings up the controversy over the tag titles switch back at the Clash. The Enforcers signed to wrestle Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham, not Dustin Rhodes & Ricky Steamboat and therefore “filed a grievance” with WCW. Nevertheless, Dustin Rhodes & Ricky Steamboat are the tag champions. Also, Eric Bischoff introduces the video clip of Luger attacking Sting at the Clash and injuring Sting’s knee to the point he needed to be carried to the hospital in an ambulance. They also show Paul E reading from the Sting/Rude match contract that if Sting didn’t show up, he’d forfeit the title to Rick Rude. Well, of course Sting shows up back at the arena just in the nick of time after stealing an ambulance (yes, he STOLE it). We get to see the finish one more time as Rude grabs the tights and pins Sting to win the WCW U.S. title. That was such a well-done angle, by the way. Everyone involved came out looking so strong after that match.

• Thomas Rich (w/Alexandra York) vs. Big Josh – “Submit or Surrender” match

This was supposed to be Big Josh vs. Terrence Taylor after Taylor bashed Josh in the head with York’s laptop to win the World six-man tag belts, but for some reason we get Thomas Rich instead. Now it’s just the same old feud with Rich joining up with the York Foundation and becoming a jerk towards his ex-friend Big Josh. Not much to this one. Josh chases Rich around the ring and beats him with his axe handle. Back in, they trade Boston crabs. Mmm, that trade sounds delicious! They brawl back out to the floor where Morton comes down to hit Josh with York’s laptop, but Josh ducks and Morton hits Rich instead. Morton gets nailed and Rich doesn’t make it to his feet before the ten-count and Josh picks up the win. (4:21) These matches have been hit-or-miss and this was definitely one of the misses. ½*

Eric Bischoff meets up with WCW U.S. Champion Rick Rude and Paul E. Dangerously for a little interview. Paul E’s holding one of the World tag team belts and tries to hide it, of course. Bischoff thinks Rude holds a hollow victory over Sting because he wasn’t at 100%, but Rude doesn’t give a crap. Paul E says Rude wasn’t at 100% either because no mere man could possibly handle Rude at that point. Haha, now that is SUPREME arrogance. Great interview there.

Next week, Van Hammer faces Cactus Jack in a rematch from the Clash! Plus, Bobby Eaton and Steve Austin take on the Freebirds!

Final Thoughts: Can’t complain much about this episode. There’s plenty of star power here for everyone to sit back and enjoy.