[1996-03-24-WCW-Uncensored] Sting & Booker T vs Road Warriors (Chicago Street Fight)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Joined in progress. This is the Road Warriors in their element, but this isn't particularly good brawling. Using a broom as a weapon? Seriously? Did I really used to like this match? The finish is great though, with Luger being interrupted from fixing his hair and he and Stevie Ray beating up Animal. Luger screams at Animal: "You ruined by sheam!" Hilarious. This is one of the first times it was obvious Booker T had something special.

[Bix]

"What's a Chicago Street Fight?"

[flyonthewall2983]

Watched this yesterday, and one thing stuck out. Dusty makes reference to the camera crew a few times, and says that "the truck is rockin' tonight". You almost never hear anything to this effect on WWE programming. Past or present. Only time I can think of is in the '92 Rumble when Bobby talks about the (genuinely) good camera work.

[El-P]

Way too long, but better than I remembered. They worked really hard, Sting especially, and Hawk had to carry the load for the entire match since Animal looked gassed pretty quick. I agree this is Booker T's breakthrough performance. The ending is really funny and well thought.

[PeteF3]

Even clipped down this was an interminable mess. The Roadies were always okay for quick sprints but booking them to go 20+ is just death. Booker works hard and Sting works okay and Luger is hilarious, but God, no match in history has needed pruning down more. Booker scores the pinfall, which surprised me a ton, thanks to a chairshot from Stevie Ray. This felt like a final burial for the Roadies, and I'm not sure if they were still around after this.

[soup23]

I used to really like this match too, no idea why now. Maybe I hadn't been exposed to any out of control brawling besides the Cactus stuff so this still felt different. Anyway, now this was tepid and mundane affair overall that creeped to the finish even in the JIP format we get it at here. Luger's character work is the most redeeming quality going on.

[DMJ]

Just watched this for the first time and, as El-P says, it is too long.

 

There are a couple moments that I did like, though - Sting flying into a spinning powerslam from Animal, Booker T leveling Hawk with a particularly stiff Scissors Kick, the aforementioned Luger cameo, and the second round of chairshots that happens towards the end of the match - but there are also some pretty boring stretches and highly questionable production/execution decisions that really make this one hard to enjoy (Sting's lengthy search for a weapon only to return with two 99 cent brooms, Booker T "quitting" the match rather randomly when his team is not in trouble and after he has withstood at least 15 minutes of Road Warrior beatdown, the tedium of watching Hawk no-sell piledrivers and Sting miss Stinger Splashes multiple times in the same match, the commentary team sounding audibly exhausted).

 

Compared to Finlay/Regal from the same night, it isn't violent enough and, without the drama of traditional tag rules, it has no form or suspense because there is no escalation or urgency at any point. If Sting wasn't still darn over, this match would probably be an even bigger turd - but the audience pops for the big hits, so, it's not like its a total dud (the same defense can be applied for Booty Man vs. DDP from earlier in the night, which, while certainly not worth viewing, will make you question how a just God could create a world where there are so many Ed Leslie fans this late in his career).

[DR Ackermann]

I was kind of was kind of looking forward to this, but it was way too long and repetitive. I'm guessing this went long to make up for the Finlay/Regal match getting cut short. Speaking of that match, this looks so tame comparatively despite being billed as a Street fight. I do love the ending though with Luger freaking out.

[dawho5]

This was not great.  Sting taking a long walk to find...2 brooms?  Again we have Sting being duped by the heels for the finish, which seems to be the story of WCW.  This went on far too long for what it was.  Possibly they had to add the time in to make up for shortening the Finlay/Regal match and this one suffered a little for it?