[1998-02-22-WCW-Superbrawl VIII] Booker T vs Rick Martel / Booker T vs Perry Saturn

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[soup23]

I like Martel playing the heel role here and Booker is over big. Booker had control until he takes a nasty spill to the outside and martel takes full advantage of. Booker makes his comeback quickly with the leg kick and Martel shows off his resourcefulness with a powerslam. Martel puts on the crab which is a great false finish given him winning the belt on Monday with that. Crowd really pops when Booker reaches the ropes. Flying forearm gives Booker an opening the he needs. Booker misses a crossboyd and Martel catches a big kick from the top rope and we have a new tv champion. Good swan song match for Martel to go out on. (***)

 

Saturn attacks immediately and locks on the rings of saturn and pinning combinations. Saturn sends Booker into the railing. Booker gets a glimmer of hope send Saturn into the railing. Saturn in a nice move, shakes that off and continues to attack. I have really enjoyed Saturn in this match taking certain risks and inflicting damage on himself in order to gain the overwhelming advantage on Booker. Booker is finally able to get something going as he avoids a superplex. Booker then delivers one of most impactful looking missile dropkicks to the face that you will ever see. Spin wheel kick has the crowd coming around and raising the roof. Saturn hits a T-Bone suplex to take over again. Bobby and Tony bicker with each other as Tenay gives us the sad news about Martel. Nice comeback by Booker but he misses on the Harlem Hangover. After a few moves from Saturn, Booker gets a sidekick to win the match. Lackluster finish that didn't really play up the story but a really good 1-2 punch to start a PPV. (***1/4)

[Zenjo]

This certainly provided an effective push for Booker T, being able to win back to back at a significant disadvantage. Both bouts had reasonable duration as well. Allegedly it was supposed to be Martel who picked up the two wins, before he suffered a serious knee injury and they switched the finish. The veteran still looked pretty good during his cup of coffee final run. After the win Saturn jumped the victor and proceeded to work him over. T made regular aborted comebacks. It was quite reasonable fare although the structure wasn't ideal for match quality. Saturn was a solid worker, I'm fairly neutral on him. After a non-existent stretch Booker grabs the victory.

[Loss]

Watching the crowd reaction to Booker-Martel shows that WCW fans really loved good heavyweight wrestling. Martel looked excellent and really came motivated to prove himself in this run all over again, unlike guys like Hennig, Barry Windham and to an extent Bret Hart. The first match was really fun and the crowd popped huge for the finish. I really like how the second match starts with Saturn just going for nonstop pins, but the match really fell apart for me after that since Saturn's offense didn't look very good and he's not enough of a ring general to carry a match, especially one that goes this long. Between this and the best of seven with Benoit, WCW went to great lengths to push Booker T as a serious and credible wrestler, yet they had no idea what to do with him beyond that and didn't even think about letting him sniff main events until 2000. I'm not as high on Booker T as I used to be, but I still think he had potential to be a top guy in WCW if he was pushed the right way, and he was exactly the type that should have been getting a shot on top at this point to freshen things up. All in all, this double whammy did a great job of getting Booker T over and had absolutely no follow up because WCW.

[Childs]

Like everybody else, I loved seeing Martel, whom I didn't appreciate at the time but now regard as one of the best talents of the '80s. It's absurd how much talent swirled through WCW in these years. I remember feeling like they did a good job with the early part of Booker's push, in that I never thought much of him with Harlem Heat but quickly accepted him as a singles threat. I'd say that impression holds after watching this pair of matches.

[PeteF3]

A really good opening bout, sadly Martel's last significant match (he'd have one comeback bout against Stevie Ray in the summer and that would be it). Both guys are over--shockingly so, I'd say, especially Martel. Rick provides some focus on Booker's back to set up the Quebec Crab to give this a bit of a psychological thread, which is just one of the major points of difference between him and Saturn. The Saturn match starts off hot but for me it went way too long--and for the crowd as well, as they started off hot but burned out badly by the time we hit the finish, as the moves started getting sloppier and spots started to get repeated. Booker isn't a ring general either but it should have been clear watching this that they had a potential star--he had a star look, he had some great crowd-pleasing spots, he could talk, and not to get too patronizing but he also catered to a major demographic that WCW was often prone to ignoring.

[TravJ1979]

Guess I am in the minority as I enjoyed the Saturn match better. I give it a pass to all of the objections here because the story goes this was called completely on the fly. I took Saturn as just being out of control and doing moves in rapid fashion to attempt a quick win after all of his beginning pin attempts failed. Booker T did a great job in this entire thirty+ minute segment. Definitely an eye opener that he should have changed his attire and went main event. I may watch the Martel part again just to double check, but all in all these two matches are up there with Flair/Hart as the best of WCW this year.