Spotlight: WCW 1994 - Part 1
I think this project was prompted by the WCW YouTube page started recently by WWE. They came out the gate with some great stuff and have been trickling out Hogan era schlock lately. Anyhow, 1994 seemed like a really interesting year in terms of their roster and matchups. As usual, I'm going to cherry pick certain wrestlers and matches. I want to focus on Steven Regal, Ricky Steamboat, Vader & tags that look interesting. I know I'm missing some stuff. I was going to do a comprehensive 1994 but that was too large of a project. I'm mainly using the TV shows but will include WCW YouTube stuff where applicable for PPVs and any official wrestler YouTube videos.
TAGS
2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Bagwell
Paul Roma and Paul Orndorff vs Marcus Alexander Bagwell and 2 Cold Scorpio (01/15 WCW Saturday Night) - This was OK and not very long...for as big a mouth as Roma has had, he didn't work very well here. I think that he missed a spot or took too long and didn't seem to know what the finish was on a rolling clutch type thing...and after the match, they were to do a top rope splash on Scorpio and it looks like a legit knee drop on Scorp's abdomen because Roma didn't want to commit to the splash
Harlem Heat vs Marcus Alexander Bagwell and 2 Cold Scorpio (02/19 WCW Saturday Night) Oh man! This was a heck of a match. We don't get a clean finish but damn it still ended spectacularly! Obviously, Booker was best with Bagwell & Scorpio but I definitely appreciated Stevie Ray's hard hitting style in this match. Very good stuff!
2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Bagwell vs Harlem Heat Worldwide March 26th, 1994 - Another high energy tag match with Scorpio & Bagwell being a team that I wish I knew sooner. Unfortunately we don't get a clean finish but looking forward, it sets up a couple more matches. (looks like Bagwell & Scorpio have some good tags in '93).
Marcus Bagwell vs Booker T (04/02/94) - Super fun match! Plenty of quality in ring action and a nice finish involving Ron Simmons - keep the feud alive 
Ice Train, 2 Cold Scorpio, & Marcus Bagwell vs Harlem Heat & Ron Simmons Worldwide April 9th, 1994 - I think that the unifying factor of the Buff & Scorpio team is that they dance. Not in a stupid way (I guess) but yeah...hahaha! Booker does his break dance and even Ron Simmons is shaking his hips. There's a lot of boogie in this match 
Ice Train is here for moral support as he's never tagged in. So, we get excellent in ring action with Scorp & Buff wrestling their butts off vs Harlem Heat & Simmons. This is very good stuff...simple but exciting wrestling. This just puts a smile on my face.
2 Cold Scorpio, Bagwell, & Ice Train vs. Harlem Heat & Ron Simmons (04 16 1994 WCW Saturday Night) - Holy cow, they gave this some time on Saturday Night. This feud didn't make it to PPV so I think they gave them this to end it. And damn they wrestled this like it was - hot opening, face in peril with Bagwell and a hot tag to finish. I thought this was a great TV match for sure. Sadly it's the end of the Scorpio & Bagwell team by the looks of it... or at from I've found. They had more stuff in '93 so perhaps that's worth a look.
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STEAMBOAT
Ricky Steamboat & Arn Anderson vs. Steve Austin & Lord Steven Regal (03 05 1994 WCW Saturday Night) - Holy cow! That was a great TV tag match! Steamboat in peril was fantastic and Austin & Regal as a team is as top notch as you'd like. Arn laying the smack down was great too. Great pacing and timing...just super easy to enjoy this.
“Stunning” Steve Austin vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (03 12 1994 WCW Saturday Night) - This was a great match from beginning to end - technical but with some fisticuffs, shenanigans but nothing that spoiled the match, full of action but no mindless spots. Yeah, this definitely Recommended wrestling. And a good finish that leads to bigger things
Paul Roma vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (03 19 1994 WCW Saturday Night) - Very nice keep-it-simple work-a-limb wrestling. Roma just looks like a smarmy heel so this just works in the most basic way. Fun stuff...There's an old RF shoot where Roma talks shit on Ricky...like the only person ever to have bad things to say about Steamboat... classy dude.
Spring Stampede '94 April 17th 1994 PPV
Steamboat vs Flair - Set aside some time, be in the mood/mind set and watch these two masters go at it one more time. I thought this was a classic. Definitely suggest you read some of the takes from the 1994 Match Discussion Archives/PWO Yearbook. There's spoilers there. As far as my opinion, I have no real flaws in mind but I would say that you're going to be watching something in line with their '89 matches...which are more technically oriented than brawling or full of the fanciest moves of 1994. Headlock work, backslides...there's chops, dropkicks, moves off the top but they're not the bulk of the match. So bear that in mind 
Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat & Arn Anderson vs. Pat Tanaka & Haito (04 23 1994 WCW Saturday Night) - Tons of fun! Face/heel, Steamboat in peril...Tanaka was making things look great.. nothing complicated but this is the stuff that made Saturday Night a excellent weekly show.
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REGAL
Sting vs Steven Regal (02/05) WCW Saturday Night - Oh hohoho this was really good stuff. The thing that I like about Sting is that he always goes along with opponents and will work their match. He's keeping up with Regal (who is great making the Stinger look like a technician) and this gets better & better as it goes.
Arn Anderson vs Steven Regal (Super Brawl IV 02/20) - A long match for WCW standards. However, these are two guys I could watch all day. Your mileage is going to vary based on the pacing (the go almost 30 minutes). Very good stuff...I saw this was given ****1/4 by Loss on the '94 Yearbook... I can't find any argument against that.
WCW Pro 3/26/94
Steven Regal vs Brad Armstrong - PWO denizens will appreciate this match. Regal is grinding and stretching Brad's arm all match. Armstrong is barely able to find openings to fight back and it seems his only chance is to gets a pin fall from a quick reversal. This was a very good story match and really drew me in.
Spring Stampede '94 April 17th 1994 PPV
Regal vs Brian Pillman - Oh yeah, they gave them time to work and it was very good wrestling. Good rope stuff, Regal stretching, Pillman was fiery...I liked this quite a bit. A good mix of everything here. Definitely a match for wrestling fans, I feel. See the Spring Stampede '94 link above.
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VADER
Big Van Vader vs Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat
February 26, 1994 edition of WCW Saturday Night - Yeah we miss the beginning but Steamboat goes hardcore on Vader by blasting him with chair shots. This is fair since Vader really is a beast. We get a really fun match and Harley Race is a fun manager. Obviously this is a fraction of what they could do but Steamboat gets in a lot of high impact offense and its a blast to watch!
WCW World Wide Wrestling 4/30/94
Cactus Jack vs Vader - Oh man! They went at each other like wild animals. This was a heck of a match for World Wide...chair shots, splashes off the middle, somersault senton off the apron, Harley Race was even bumping. This definitely could have gone another 5 minutes. Fantastic !
Maxx Payne vs. Big Van Vader (04 30 1994 WCW Saturday Night) - I thought there might be a little more to the match since Maxx was Cactus Jack's partner but, it's essentially a jobber match. Fun big man wrestling nonetheless.
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This has been a fun project so far as it's got a lot of variety and quality. My apologies for the way I've organized this as I tend to go strictly chronologically but it's been easier for me to group them by wrestler. Also apologies for the inconsistency with the dating and name formats. Again it was just easier to have them this way (usually copy/pasted from the source videos). You should be able to find these online a little easier at least 🙂
The next WCW '94 post should pick up a couple things I intentionally left off in April '94 and then get to May and the Summer months of 1994. I hope you enjoy watching these matches in the meantime!
Thanks for reading!
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