Written by: Bob Colling
World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 10/23/1993
From: Columbus, GA
Matches:
1.) The Shockmaster, Ice Train & Charlie Norris defeated Jeff Gamble, Todd Zane & Fred Avery
2.) Ricky Steamboat defeated Bobby Starr
3.) Davey Boy Smith defeated Sledgehammer McGill
4.) Sid Vicious defeated JD Striker
5.) Johnny B. Badd defeated Paul Orndorff by disqualification
6.) The Colossal Kongs defeated Rick Thames & Buddy Ryan
7.) Steve Austin defeated Tommy Angel
8.) WCW International Champion Rick Rude defeated Brad Anderson
9.) Marcus Alexander Bagwell & 2 Cold Scorpio defeated WCW Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys to win the titles
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Tony Schiavone opens the show in front of the wheel for the main event at Halloween Havoc. Cactus Jack will be spinning the wheel tonight to find out the stipulation for the main event contest.
2.) This show has a different feel because they aren’t at Center Stage. It kind of makes Saturday Night seem like a bigger deal since they are in a bigger arena in Columbus.
3.) Tony Schiavone allows a fan to spin the wheel. The fan, Carlos, barely spins the wheel and it landed on the Russian chain match. Carlos was kind of awkward and I’m not sure the point of this segment.
4.) Davey Boy Smith is interviewed by Tony Schiavone at ringside. He’ll be wrestling Lord Steven Regal at Halloween Havoc for the WCW Television Championship. Smith says this is for pride and respect. Smith says the fans aren’t peasants and rather good people. Sir William comes outer and tells Smith that Regal is going to defeat him. Smith picks William up for a press slam but Regal comes out with a wooden board and whacks Smith in the ribs with it. Smith is left laid out.
5.) Sting comes out and is interviewed by Tony Schiavone. He’ll be wrestling Sid Vicious tomorrow night at Halloween Havoc. Sting decides to talk about the Cactus/Vader match saying that Cactus is going to win the match since Vader won’t know what to prepare for. Sting doesn’t consider himself the franchise of WCW but rather someone who has a burning desire to be a giant killer. He tells Sid he better be ready and is ready to break Sid’s leg with the Scorpion Death Lock.
6.) Col. Robert Parker and Sid Vicious are interviewed after Sid’s easy victory. Parker says he has been working hard and has the greatest star of all by his side in Sid Vicious. Vicious chimes in and wants Schiavone to imagine him walking down the aisle next week when he squares off against Ric Flair. Vicious is going to make Flair beg for forgiveness. Vicious says that Sting is going to wake up from his nightmare and it will be a reality. Vicious rules the world! Flair vs. Sid next week is a huge match, folks.
7.) Orndorff is arguing with the referee as the fans are chanting “Paula” at him. Badd uses his speed to sidestep Orndorff at the start of the contest. Badd takes Orndorff down with a rollup for a two count. Badd controls Orndorff with a side headlock. Badd shoulder blocks Orndorff and goes back to a headlock. Orndorff stops Badd with a few right hands to the midsection. Badd comes off the ropes and trips Orndorff to just go back to the side headlock. Orndorff takes Badd down with a back suplex, but Badd hangs onto the hold. Orndorff sends Badd through the middle rope to the floor. Orndorff quickly follows and eye rakes Badd and chokes Badd with his own gear. Orndorff delivers a forearm drop and keeps Badd on the mat with a chin lock. Badd comes off the ropes to hit a cross body for a two count. Orndorff regains control with a knee lift and goes back to a front face lock using the ropes for leverage, too. Orndorff attempts a suplex but Badd counters with one of his own. Badd attempts a splash coming off the ropes but Orndorff gets his knees up. Orndorff stomps on Badd in the corner and argues with the referee. Badd hammers away on Orndorff but runs into a high knee in the corner. Orndorff works over Badd with strikes in the corner. Badd takes Orndorff over with a head scissors and a clothesline a few times. Badd hip tosses Orndorff and heads to the top rope. Badd connects with a double axe handle managing a two count. Badd dropkicks Orndorff as Maxx Payne has come down to ringside. Badd punches Orndorff several times in the corner and the referee gets knocked down. Payne trips Badd and Orndorff holds Badd. Payne gets on the apron but accidentally hits Orndorff and that leads to a disqualification. (*1/4. I didn’t really care about this match as Badd didn’t have explosive offense and they focused a lot on a headlock. It kind of felt like a house show match with their work rate.) After the match, Orndorff voices his displeasure with Payne before leaving the ring.
8.) Tony Schiavone has another fan with him this time a female fan. Tammy spins the wheel much better than the first fan and it actually goes around a few times. She lands on a lumberjack match with the lumberjacks having straps. Again, this doesn’t really matter.
9.) Steve Austin is interviewed by Tony Schiavone following his victory, with Brian Pillman by his side. Austin will meet WCW United States Champion Dustin Rhodes tomorrow night at Halloween Havoc. He is going to be a champion that fans can lookup to. Col. Robert Parker comes over to the interview segment. Parker puts over Austin’s talent and says Austin can be the greatest star of all. Parker doesn’t care about Pillman and tells him that. Sid Vicious comes over and tells Parker to mind only his business. Sid tells Parker to go backstage and they leave the interview. Pillman and Austin are confused to end the segment.
10.) Tony Schiavone calls out Ric Flair for an interview. Flair first talks about his match next week against Sid Vicious. Flair says that starting tomorrow night that his life is on the line. He is going to take back the World Championship from Rick Rude, or the Big Gold Belt. He also puts over Sid Vicious for being a big guy and great talent. Flair says that he will beat Sid and then meet Vader at Clash of the Champions to find out who is the one and only true World Champion. Flair is going to defend the honor of Fifi. Flair is really thinking ahead believing he’ll wrestle Vader at Clash of the Champions in a unification match.
11.) Knobbs and Sags go on the quick attack hitting Bagwell and Scorpio with strikes to get the cheap advantage. Knobbs rams Bagwell into the corner after Scorpio was sent to the floor. Scorpio comes flying off the top to hit a double clothesline and a double dropkick sends the champions to the floor. Knobbs gets annoyed with the fans chanting for the challengers calling them losers. Knobbs and Scorpio legally start the match with Knobbs working over Scorpio with strikes. Sags gets tagged in and hammers away on Scorpio, too. Sags rubs Scorpio’s eyes across the top rope and Knobbs delivers a few shots. Knobbs delivers a few more strikes in the corner. Scorpio nails Knobbs with a spinning heel kick and a scoop slam as Bagwell knocked Sags down. Scorpio nearly wins with a standing moonsault. Scorpio works over the left arm of Knobbs on the canvas with a hammerlock. Bagwell tags in but they miss a double clothesline settling for a double face buster. Bagwell shoulder blocks Knobbs for a two count. Bagwell leg drops the left arm of Knobbs and tags in Scorpio. Scorpio comes off the middle rope to deliver a leg drop to the left arm. Bagwell delivers an axe handle off the top rope. Knobbs stops Bagwell with a knee lift and Sags gets tagged in. Sags hammers away on Bagwell in the corner. Sags decides to bite the chest of Bagwell in the corner. Bagwell comes out of the corner with a leaping elbow strike for a two count. Scorpio gets tagged in and Sags is met with a double dropkick. Scorpio dropkicks Sags and heads to the top rope missing a big splash. Knobbs clotheslines Scorpio from the apron and Scorpio falls over the top to the floor. Knobbs rams Scorpio back first into the cameraman podium at ringside. Bagwell distracts there referee and Scorpio gets whacked over the back with a chair by Sags. Sags gets a two count on a pin attempt.
Knobbs tags in and elbow drops Scorpio a few times. Knobbs plants Scorpio with a gut wrench slam for a near fall as Bagwell broke up the cover attempt. Knobbs puts an abdominal stretch on Scorpio but isn’t going to get a submission. Sags enters and elbow drops Scorpio a few times to keep control of the match. Sags sends Scorpio chest first into the corner and gets a two count. Sags controls Scorpio with a bear hug in the middle of the ring. Scorpio fights out of the hold but when he comes off the ropes Sags puts the hold back on. Scorpio fights out of it and is able to yank Sags down by his hair. Scorpio tries to tag out and kicks Sags down. Bagwell gets the hot tag cleaning house with clotheslines, slam and dropkick on the champs. Bagwell rolls Knobbs up but lets go to deck Sags for a two count. All four men are brawling in the ring as Scorpio and Sags get sent into each other. Bagwell drives Knobbs down to the canvas but here comes Sags off the top to hit a forearm drop! Sags has the cover on Bagwell but pulls him up at two. Sags picks Bagwell but Scorpio hits a top rope dropkick and Bagwell is on top for the three count! New champs! (**. It’s not too terrible of a match, but the announcers not really announcing the match hurt the viewing for me. They wanted to make mention of there being a microphone in the ring for added sound. That’s cool and all, but the announcers being silent made it seem like they didn’t care about the match. This comes across like a fluke win anyway judging by the finish so it didn’t really help Bagwell and Scorpio. I wonder if this was actually a shock title win for fans.)
12.) Cactus Jack comes out for an interview about his match with WCW World Champion Vader at Halloween Havoc to end the program. Cactus says he doesn’t see the most brutal matches in history when he looks at the wheel. Instead, he sees his friends. He has some barbed wire with him and tells a story when he was seven years old where he did some hard labor in Upstate New York. He wen there with his bicycle that didn’t have brakes. He called out for his mom and daddy while get stuck in barbed wire. He went home and got his wounds cleaned out. Cactus realized that he liked it. Cactus got more barbed wire and put it under his pillow allowing him to sleep like a baby. Cactus confronts Harley Race as he comes out to the segment. Cactus tells Harley that he is in for the longest night of his life. Harley goes to spin the wheel and is instead met with a double arm DDT from Cactus! Cactus goes to the wheel and spins it. They do some slow motion and say, “To be continued… at Halloween Havoc.”
Final Thoughts:
The title change was kinda cool, but this felt like a weak go-home show for a big pay per view event. I’m bummed that the Hollywood Blonds are going to be splitting up since they are a great team. However, a singles push for Austin is cool with me. Hopefully, Brian Pillman doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, though. Did this show make me want to watch Havoc? Actually, no, so I don’t think it was a good show this week.
Thanks for reading.