WCW Worldwide 4/23/1995

Written by: Bob Colling

World Championship Wrestling presents Worldwide
Date: 4/23/1995
From: Orlando, FL

Matches:
1.) Sting defeated Cliff Sheets
2.) WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat defeated Kip Abee & Vern Henderson
3.) Sgt. Craig Pittman defeated Walter Slowe
4.) Stars & Stripes defeated Kevin Sullivan & The Butcher

Angle Developments/Notes:
1. We hear from Ric Flair, Vader and WCW Television Champion Arn Anderson. Vader says that Hogan didn’t get the job done at the last two pay per views. He put themselves over as the most dangerous three men in the business. Flair is back in the company, in case you forgot. Vader will be teaming with Flair at Slamboree to take on Hogan and Savage. Arn will be watching Flair’s back, as usual. Flair chimes in and talks about how they begged him to come back to the company. Now, they fell into the trap and better watch out.

2. Sullivan and Patriot kick off the match with Sullivan hammering away on the masked wrestler. Patriot fights back with a dropkick and backdrop. Bagwell enters to scoop slam Butcher along with Patriot slamming Sullivan. Patriot works over Butcher with strikes but runs into a big boot. Butcher delivers a high knee for a two count. Bagwell and Sullivan are now legal as Bagwell hits a monkey flip but is soon on the floor getting worked over by Butcher. Sullivan sends Marcus over the top while the referee was distracted by the Patriot. The distraction allows Bagwell to be attacked on the floor. Bagwell and Sullivan collide heads and Patriot gets tagged in to clean house. That was really uninspiring. Sullivan pulls the top rope down and Patriot crashes to the floor where Kevin follows up with a scoop slam! Patriot is sent back first into the ring post, as well. Butcher prevents a sunset flip pin attempt with a kick to Patriot’s head. Bagwell gets tagged in moments later and hammers away on the heels. Bagwell nearly wins with a fisherman suplex on Sullivan. Patriot accidentally collides into Bagwell, who knocks Butcher to the floor. Bagwell hits a power slam on Sullivan but there isn’t a referee. Butcher comes off the middle rope only to hit Sullivan. Bagwell pins Sullivan! (*. It seemed like even a Worldwide crowd was not fully invested into the hot tags. This has to be considered an upset with the top heel faction losing to a midcard tag team. I was honestly surprised of the outcome and this is nearly twenty years after the fact.)

3. Mean Gene talks to the losers of the match. Sullivan is pissed at Butcher and his failures as of late. Sullivan asks what is wrong with Butcher. Butcher tells Sullivan he doesn’t think things are that bad. Sullivan doesn’t agree and proceeds to piledrive Butcher on the stage! Sullivan storms off.

Final Thoughts:
So, we get an upset victory and the apparent split between Butcher and Sullivan. The feature match wasn’t great, but at least we continue to get angle advancements on a lower tier program.

Thanks for reading.