WCW Fall Brawl 1998 Is A Truly Terrible Pro Wrestling PPV

Held at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on September 13, WCW Fall Brawl 1998 is so nakedly awful and creatively threadbare that it can be blamed for doing tremendous damage to WCW’s most popular gimmick match in WarGames. 

September 1998 was a peculiar time in the history of World Championship Wrestling. The company had been at the peak of the pro wrestling world, having dominated the Monday Night Wars against the World Wrestling Federation. That changed throughout 1998, however, with WWE booming with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as the undisputed top babyface in the company, and arguably pro wrestling as a whole.

The Monday Night Wars weren’t as one-sided as they were previously or would become, with both sides exchanging ratings wins, but the WWF had very much regained the lead, especially creatively. 

Dating back to 1993, Fall Brawl had been the annual home of WarGames, the two-ringed Steel Cage Match that ended feuds. None of the Fall Brawl versions of WarGames were on the same level as those held in the 1980s at Great American Bash or WrestleWar in the early 1990s, but WCW had another chance to do WarGames justice, and it couldn't have come at a more crucial time after WWE held SummerSlam 1998 just two weeks earlier, a show with Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker, The Rock vs. Triple H in a Ladder Match, and Ken Shamrock vs. Owen Hart in a Lion’s Den Match that drew 700,000 pay-per-view buys, one of the biggest buy-rates in WWE history to that point. 

WCW didn’t exactly have the creative plan to match their competitors as Fall Brawl was primarily focused upon The Ultimate Warrior, a wrestler who was at least six years past his prime and very much out of date in the grungy late 1990s. 

A few weeks prior to Fall Brawl, The Ultimate Warrior - billed simply as The Warrior - arrived in World Championship Wrestling to much fanfare. Upon said arrival, though, Warrior proceeded to cut a rambling 25-minute promo that was only planned to go seven minutes. Things then only went from bad to worse in the weeks after, all so Hollywood Hogan could get his win back from WrestleMania VI eight years later. Alongside so much more, fans were treated to bat signals, teleportations, and a sado-masochistic Brutus Beefcake.

Fall Brawl and WarGames were built around the programme between The Warrior and Hollywood Hogan, but also the war between nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac which led to the first-ever Three vs. Three vs. Three WarGames match, where the average age of the participants was 41. 

Hogan teamed with Bret Hart and Stevie Ray, while Kevin Nash was alongside Wolfpac stablemates Sting and Lex Luger, and WCW representatives were Warrior, Diamond Dallas Page, and Roddy Piper. On the line was the person who scored the winning pinfall would earn a future WCW World Heavyweight Title shot.

In further issues that didn't help the show, Ric Flair's return to WCW was saved for the post-Fall Brawl edition of Nitro. World champion Goldberg, the hottest wrestler in the whole company, was also nowhere to be seen and didn’t defend the title for the second pay-per-view in a row. 

Beyond the main event, the undercard had some reasonable offerings on paper, from a singles match between nWo rivals of Wolfpac’s Konnan vs. Hollywood's Scott Hall, to Rick Steiner taking on Scott Steiner months after Big Poppa Pump turned on his brother. Horsemen hopeful Dean Malenko also faced off with Curt Hennig, the man that double crossed the Horsemen the previous year. Then there was former Flock member Perry Saturn battling Raven in a match where if Saturn won, the entire Flock would be liberated.

A Cruiserweight Title match of Juventud Guerrera against the talented but underpushed Silver King also looked set to be fun. Jim Neidhart & Davey Boy Smith vs. Alex Wright & Disco Inferno also didn’t sound horrendous but probably didn’t belong on a pay-per-view, while Ernest “The Cat” Miller vs. Normal Smiley belonged more on Thunder than Fall Brawl. Overall, though, Fall Brawl 1998 could very much be perceived as a one-match show in WarGames.

The Undercard of WCW Fall Brawl 1998

The Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC hosted a healthy 11,500 fans for Fall Brawl. The show began with Neidhart & Davey Boy vs. Wright and Inferno and it was a total mess as fans were given little reason to invest in the opening contest. The match also had massive repercussions for the career of Davey Boy Smith as he received a back drop from Alex Wright onto the mat, landing right on top of the steel trap door embedded in the mat for Warrior’s teleportation entrance later in the night.

Despite being in serious pain, Smith managed to finish the match, putting Disco away with his powerslam, though he clearly struggled to lift Disco due to the pain he was in and the slam itself was very rough looking.

The move seriously injured Smith’s back and he developed a staph infection which hospitalised Davey Boy for six months, almost leaving him paralysed. While Smith was out injured, WCW fired him because he was unable to perform. 

After an abysmal start, things went from bad to worse as fans were initially led to believe there may be a title match after all as Chris Jericho - in the midst of his self-deluded heel turn that would make him a star - was a last-minute addition to the show in what was billed as a Title vs. Title Match against Goldberg. 

The whole segment was a designed sham, however. Jericho mocked Goldberg's long entrance walk, even getting lost like Spinal Tap did in Cleveland, before finally hitting the ring. Then out came Goldberg, but it was just a Goldberg imposter who was beaten in three minutes by Jericho to a loud chorus of boos. 

Fans expected the impostor to be a precursor to the real Goldberg showing up and Jericho getting his comeuppance, but there was no WCW World Heavyweight Champion to be seen, something which only left the fans unhappy.

The match was the beginning of a planned angle where Jericho would antagonise Goldberg into an eventual match, where the real Bill would demolish him in seconds, to the gratification of all.

Except fans never did get that pay-off. Goldberg was manipulated by others backstage into thinking the storyline was going to ruin his edge, so after a few more weeks of teases, the feud was dropped. Shortly after, Jericho decided to jump to the WWF when his deal expired the following summer.

For Miller vs. Smiley, it was simply a throwaway match. What was worse, the wrestlers blew the finish as Miller whiffed on the would-be winning kick so badly there was absolutely no crowd noise for the move or the winning pin.

Next up was the battle of the Steiner Brothers, Rick and Scott. Tied in with the feud was Buff Bagwell, who suffered a near-catastrophic neck injury earlier that year as a result of a botched spot involving Rick. The previously-heel Bagwell returned in a wheelchair in July, and in a true WCW move, immediately turned heel again after feigning forgiveness toward Rick.

Regardless of the messy storyline, it was the Steiner Brothers. While Scott's acquisition of muscle had taken away some of his once-awing agility, it promised to be a good match and it was, but only for around one minute. 

The siblings had a knock-down, drag-out fight for the first minute of the contest, then Bagwell got involved and Rick smashed him into the buckles. Buff then lay there, pretending to be immobile and hurt, as though Rick had just re-injured his repaired neck. The match then ground to a halt as Buff was "hurt", and the commentators sold it as though Rick had legitimately hurt Bagwell for a second time.

The fans didn’t buy it one bit, but Tony Schiavone and company had to carry on with the script, and the match ended without a winner as Bagwell was stretchered out in an excessively long post-match angle. 

Just as Buff was loaded into an ambulance and Rick turned away, Bagwell jumped out and beat down Rick with Scott. As nobody was buying Bagwell being hurt, few in attendance cared when he revealed it to be a set-up.

Finally A Couple Of Good Matches

Fortunately for those in attendance and fans who bought the pay-per-view, the show improved in the mid-card as Juventud Guerrera vs. Silver King was next. The match was simply a match, no different than any throwaway cruiserweight bout on any Nitro or Thunder of the day, but it had one moment of exception as Guerrera hit a top rope poisonrana to Silver King, causing the fans in attendance to lose their minds. Juvi went on to win with the Juvi Driver and the 450 splash following eight and a half minutes of mostly decent wrestling.

Next up was Perry Saturn vs. Raven and there was almost nothing to complain about. The fans bought into the story, were given understandable stakes, and had a great villain in Raven to root against.

The match built masterfully. Willing Raven lackey Chris Kanyon was handcuffed at ringside to prevent interference, though he did manage to do so after uncuffing himself during a ref bump. Unwilling Raven lackey Billy Kidman interfered against his leader at one point too to begin his own major push.

Eventually, Saturn beat the odds to win the match, kicking out of Raven's Evenflow DDT to win with the Saturn Driver. It was a total audience match with lots of moving parts and a coherent story, culminating in a feel-good finish.

The Good Matches Didn't Last Long

The next match of Dean Malenko vs. Curt Hennig was fine. It was basically seven minutes of angle advancement as Malenko worked over Hennig's knee before Rick Rude ran in for the DQ, leading to Arn Anderson trying to make the save but getting laid out. All of it was a trail of breadcrumbs leading to Flair's grand return the next night, and that was fine. Not a great match, but fine.

Less fine was Konnan vs. Hall. At the time, Hall's serious personal issues had been turned into a pretty tasteless angle as his off-screen drinking migrated into on-screen drinking, with friend-turned-rival Nash becoming concerned over his old friend’s obvious spiral.

Such an angle, if handled seriously, had potential to be effective, but WCW made it a comedy storyline. At different points during a 12-minute stallfest, Hall accepted drinks from Vincent/Virgil, and he even drank while holding Konnan in an abdominal stretch, thus turning a serious situation into a comedy bit.

The match actually resulted in an upset win for Konnan, who kicked one drink into Hall's face and quickly submitted his larger foe with his Tequila Sunrise hold. This was at a time when stars of Hall's calibre rarely tapped, especially to wrestlers like Konnan that weren't pushed as hard. It might have even meant something had it not been preceded by a bad house show match laced with thoughtless comedy.

A Horrendous Main Event

After all of that, it was time for the main event in WarGames. Unlike a typical WarGames match, anyone could pin anyone, negating the whole concept of teams, and falls could occur at any time, even before all the participants had entered the double cage. 

For a while, the match was pretty pedestrian. It started with DDP and Bret Hart, which was the wisest booking move, but the two competitors just went through the motions for the opening five minutes. When the two minute entries began, Stevie Ray hit the ring to help Bret double-team Page. Sting was then out next to a big pop, the first of the match.

Piper, Luger, and Nash followed, as everybody just brawled randomly, with some even attacking their designated partners. Hogan followed - entering way too early for unknown reasons. He and Stevie Ray proceeded to take everybody else out with a slapjack, then they stood around and stalled for a while as six lifeless wrestlers lay in their midst.

Then, smoke filled the ring and what looked to be The Warrior appeared from the plume, only it was actually Richard "Renegade" Williams, having entered through the trapdoor. Hogan proceeded to remove Warrior’s duster jacket and beat The Renegade down, just as smoke filled the ring again. 

When the smoke had cleared, Hogan was left just holding the duster, and “Warrior” was nowhere to be seen. This brought out the real Warrior to hit the ring after the pointless bait-and-switch and he began brawling with Hogan, with all six of the other wrestlers still lay motionless around them. 

With Warrior on top, Hogan managed to escape with the help of Brutus Beefcake, who proceeded to padlock the cage door while Warrior turned his attention to Stevie Ray. This proved to be futile, however, as during a long period of Hogan and Beefcake slowly escaping, Warrior climbed the cage and kicked at the steel partition to escape, before he clobbered Hogan some more as they headed up the ramp. The main issue, though, was Warrior suffered a torn biceps and twisted his ankle during the cage escape. 

The finish then arrived moments later as DDP, Bret Hart, Stevie Ray, and Sting all magically awakened at the same time, and a quick miscue led to DDP pinning Stevie with the Diamond Cutter. The entire fiasco was 20 minutes long.

WCW Fall Brawl 1998's Legacy

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's match ratings for the show were as follows:

• Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart vs. Alex Wright & Disco Inferno: 0.25 stars
• Chris Jericho vs. "Goldberg": 0.5 stars
• Ernest "The Cat" Miller vs. Norman Smiley: -1 star
• Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner: -1 star
• Juventud Guerrera vs. Silver King: 2 stars
• Dean Malenko vs. Curt Hennig: 1.5 stars
• Konnan vs. Scott Hall: DUD
• Team WCW (Diamond Dallas Page, Roddy Piper & The Warrior) vs. nWo Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart & Stevie Ray) vs. nWo Wolfpac (Kevin Nash, Sting & Lex Luger): -4 stars

WCW Fall Brawl featured a historically horrid, laughably-booked main event which followed an eight-match undercard with one worthwhile bout, and five truly bad matches. Readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter voted Fall Brawl 1998 the Worst Major Event of that year.

Sadly, this was textbook WCW of the time: an undercard with bouts thrown together for no reason, a couple of decent to good matches that didn't mean anything due to the glass ceiling, and a main event tier that was effectively a good commercial for why you should be watching the WWF instead.