WCW Saturday Night
February 26, 1994
Atlanta, GA
Center Stage Theatre

The current WCW Champs were as follows:
WCW World Champion: Ric Flair (12/27/1993)
WCW International World Champion: Rick Rude (9/19/1993)
WCW U.S. Champion: Steve Austin (12/27/1993)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Nasty Boys (10/24/1993)
WCW World Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (9/19/1993)

We are a week out from Superbrawl IV where Ric Flair retained the WCW world title over Vader in a THUNDERCAGE match. As special referee, The (Big) Boss (Man) was a huge help in that match for Ric Flair which will lead to the Vader-Boss feud that causes Boss to get a name AND gimmick change and takes us WAY into the fall. But before Superbrawl IV, Ricky Steamboat was whipped (WHIPPED LIKE A DOG!) by Vader and now he wants a match with the Mastodon himself! That’s not very bright, Ricky. Heenan thinks that evidently Steamboat has his insurance paid up because that’s the only thing he can come up for a reason to want to get in the ring with Vader.

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan. Funny how they updated the show intro, but not the set.

This is a special 90-minute edition of Saturday Night as opposed to the usual two hour show because the Atlanta Hawks are playing the floundering Philadelphia 76ers at precisely 7:35PM EST! By the way, Hawks win 118 to 102! Consider the game SPOILED.

• Johnny B. Badd vs. Bill Payne
  

Johnny B. Badd stopped being a flagrant homosexual in the spring of 1993 and slowly started becoming a fan favorite around this point as he put lip stickers on the gals at ringside to let you know he’s switched teams. He’s even got the Badd Blaster with him now! I always thought that was cool. Who doesn’t want a confetti gun? It’s like a gun but it shoots out fun and smiles everywhere! Tony explains how Badd got to wrestle Jimmy Garvin in the place of Michael Hayes at Superbrawl IV. Tony says he should really give Nick Bockwinkel a big pat on the back for taking charge as the Commish of WCW. Total headlock squash as Badd gets to his feet and delivers a backdrop before hooking Payne up in the crucifix for the win at 2:15.

• The Mongolian Mauler vs. Brian Armstrong
  

Brian Armstrong looks like a long lost Armstrong brother here, but he’s better known as the Road Dogg or BG James for the TNA fans. As for Mongolian Mauler, he’s about twenty years too late. He’s got black contacts and has weird spiked up hair near the front of his head and the rest is bald. You could call him the white Abdullah the Butcher if you want to. He’s even got the Iron Sheik boots on. You know what, here’s a picture.

Unlike Butcher though, Mauler took a dropkick bump. Armstrong tries a sunset flip and pays for it as the Mauler sits down on him. Let’s skip ahead to the elbow drop out of the corner gets the three-count for the Mauler at 2:49. With this type of character, you’re wondering when Skandor Akbar is going to show up. The Mauler stuck around for a few TV tapings until somebody realized what a stupid hire he was and got rid of him for good. This is Wrestlecrap, for sure.

We look over to see Gene Okerlund in the audience between two college chicks. He’s got a secret about Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma! The girls want to know what the secret is, but even they have to pay to listen to Gene Okerlund talk. Call the WCW hotline 1-900-909-9900! Kids, get your parents permission before calling. Yeah, like my *parents* were going to stop me from calling and running up our phone bill. Pfft.

After the break, Gene Okerlund shows highlights of the two Thundercage matches at Superbrawl IV. My recap for that show is just a couple clicks away. You know where to go.

• WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys (w/Missy Hyatt) & The Equalizer vs. Pez Whatley, Sonny Rogers, & Mike Winner
  

Holy crap the Nasty Boys together with the Equalizer better known as EVAD Sullivan – the dyslexic idiot who wanted to be a Hulkamaniac. Hmm, reminds me of Abyss except without the dyslexia or the pet rabbit. This might be the worst combination of three men ever devised in wrestling. Pez Whatley thinks he’s still Shaska Whatley and goes nuts on the heels until Sags shuts him down with a clothesline. Whatley avoids a corner charge from Knobbs and tags in Rogers. He dropkicks Knobbs, but fails on a monkey flip. While they run through their stuff, the Nasties keep tagging each other while completely disregarding the Equalizer. They don’t need him anyway. Sags hits the Flying Elbow on Rogers for the win at 3:52.

The Nasties even snub Equalizer during the post match interview as they decide to turn on Equalizer here and beat him down because he’s such a loser. This leads to Kevin Sullivan returning to WCW to join up with his “little brother” to battle the Nasties at Slamboree, but that gets changed around as we all know for something greater.

• Terra Ryzing vs. Larry Santo
  

Well if it isn’t Triple H himself. This is VERY early in his career as his first WCW TV match was just weeks prior to this match. He wears a ridiculous purple ring jacket with gold tassels already looking like a snob. When he takes off his jacket, we see short purple tights, purple kneepads, and white boots. Odd series of moves as Ryzing delivers a suplex and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker before applying an Indian Deathlock for the win at 2:09. Bobby Heenan is impressed with this guy.

• WCW World Television Champion Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) vs. The Patriot
  

Two weeks ago, the Patriot took Lord Steven Regal to a 15-minute time limit draw and now he’s getting a NON-TITLE rematch. Wait, so you take a champion to a time limit draw in a title match and in the rematch, the title isn’t on the line? That doesn’t seem fair. Regal takes it to Patriot early on with STIFF forearm shots. Enough of that, Patriot goes after Regal’s taped up thigh and hooks a half crab. Regal finds the ropes and heads out to Sir William. Back in, Patriot grabs the leg again, but this time Regal steps over the grab and catches Patriot with another forearm. Regal grounds Patriot and roughs him up a bit. He even goes after the mask, but ref Nick Patrick won’t allow it. Back to the mat, Regal keeps him grounded with a front headlock. He tries the Edouard Carpentier roll, but Patriot moves out of the way. Patriot starts kicking at the leg again and slams Regal. He hooks the taped up leg for 1-2-NO! That was actually pretty smart there. Regal flips Patriot off a Boston crab out to the floor, but Patriot hotshots Regal back. Patriot runs into an elbow in the corner. Regal sunset flips Patriot, but Patriot flips out of that and cradles Regal for the 1-2-3! (7:32) Not a masterpiece, but a great moment for TV as Regal was RARELY ever pinned back then. **

• Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne vs. Ricky Santana & Fidel Sierra
  

Tony and Bobby discuss the craziness that went down between the Nasties and Cactus & Maxx at Superbrawl IV. Again, the recap is a few clicks away. Payne slams Sierra around before tagging out to Santana. He catches a kick from Cactus and spins him around to eat a clothesline. The Cubans try a double-team as Sierra whips Cactus into the ropes and drops to the mat while Cactus jumps over him into a spin kick from Santana. They continue to double-team Cactus while Maxx Payne gets pretty mad. Eventually, Payne has had enough and we’ve got a pier-six brawl on our hands. Santana gets dumped out as Cactus gives him the elbow drop off the apron. Back in the ring, Maxx Payne corner clotheslines Sierra and when he Flair Flops, Cactus legdrops him on the back of his head for the win. (4:44) Thought it was going to be a regular squash, but the Cubans brought the ruckus with them. ¾*

Gene Okerlund grabs Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne for a quick interview. They are LOOKING FORWARD to the street fight at Spring Stampede with the Nasty Boys.

After the break, Gene is shown hanging out in the crowd with a couple boy scouts. You kids like gladiator movies? Nah, he’s actually talking about women – specifically Miss Elizabeth. Call the WCW Hotline to find out what Gene thinks he knows about her!

They show a clip from three weeks ago when Vader and Harley Race attacked Ricky Steamboat. Oh the humanity!

• Ricky Steamboat vs. Vader (w/Harley Race)
  

We are JIP as Steamboat has Vader down working on his knees. Harley Race sneaks in and takes a dropkick back out to the floor. What you doing, Harley. Steamboat charges Vader and they tumble out to the floor to brawl. Steamboat even goes as far as to beat Vader with a chair while Harley is yelling at the referee! He absolutely beats the crap out of Vader! AWESOME. Back in, Steamboat chops away and runs to the floor when Vader isn’t responding. Since Steamboat can move faster, he jets back inside and baseball slides into Vader before the big guy can get back in the ring. Big flying chop to the floor connects. While Harley holds Steamboat, Vader pulls the ref into the guardrail to run over and blast Steamboat with a clothesline. The ref reprimands Vader in the ring while Race stomps Steamboat. Vader brings Steamboat back inside the ring with a standing suplex and pummels him in the corner. He continues with the violence beating Steamboat all over the ring. He tries a super sunset flip, but Steamboat blocks and jumps down on Vader’s chest. Steamboat connects with a pair of Flying Chops and delivers the FLYING BODYPRESS for 1-2-NO! He gives Vader a super DDT while Race is with the ref. Flying Splash by Steamboat gets 1-2-NO! Steamboat grabs Race on the apron and moves for Vader to splash his own manager. Steamboat brings Race into the ring with a suplex and AGAIN moves while Vader splashes Harley! Well, Steamboat can’t fight off both men forever. Eventually the numbers game catches up to him and ref Nick Patrick awards the match to Steamboat via DQ. (7:35 shown) Vader goes to splash Steamboat while Race is holding him up, but the (Big) Boss (Man) makes the save and cleans house with the night stick. Way too overbooked with all the silly exchanges between Ricky Steamboat and Harley Race. The guy was on the apron or interfering pretty much the entire match. *½

And that’s all for now, folks!