The Faces of Fear in 1996

[dawho5]

I recently started watching a comp of Meng and Barbarian in 96 and the booking surrounding them is pretty strange(if it's not WCW with Hogan around, that is).

 

We start 1996 with Meng against Hogan. So Meng gets to beat up on the Hulkster for a short time and then you know what happens. Hulk is sort of getting pops for this, but it's not exactly 1980s level pops. Also, in the jobber match the week before and this one, Meng wears this sweet ring robe that I wish he hadn't gotten rid of. And Sullivan is passing him "the Golden Spike" for his thumb spike finisher. Interesting stuff and about two matches later both of those are gone.

 

Meng wrestles Johnny B. Badd and it's really not memorable.

 

Then the FoF do not one but TWO jobs to get the Roadies over on their return to WCW. Not bad matches, but that turned out really well didn't it?

 

And right on the heels of the second job to the Roadies we have the Doomsday Cage Match. Incredible spectacle for that cage, but really? I'm not sure how many people in WCW were panicking about this time about how Hogan was killing them, but it had to be a lot.

 

And next match out Meng and Barbarian are CRUSHING the American Males. And it's fun. Then there's some chaos and somehow illegal man Buff ends up getting the pin after both him and Riggs get beaten savagely for about 7 minutes.

 

At this point, both Meng and Barbarian are JTTS. There's no way around it. Only people they have beaten this year, despite all the love the announcers show them, are jobbers.

 

And hey, let's job Meng to Duggan in a perfectly good match up until the Duggan tape wrapping on the outside for the punch that finishes (the guy who can't be headbutted, but a taped up punch, HELL YES that works) Meng. Yeah, JTTS.

 

But wait, now we have Barbarian and Benoit in another perfectly good match.

 

And two weeks later Meng jobs to Sting after Barbarian boots him in the face. Meng returns the favor in Barbarian's match against Duggan to set up Battle Bowl where they face each other in the first round. Barbarian and DDP make it to the end with DDP doing the majority of the work.

 

So then the next logical step is to have the FoF in a good tag titles match against Sting and Luger. Because they were built up so well. But it's a step in the right direction.

 

The momentum continues with a team squash, Meng looking good against Sting and Barbarian getting matches with Luger and Eddie Guerrero and splitting them.

 

The Dungeon of Doom becomes an 8-man squash machine for a while with Bron the Leprechaun running around ringside. Which is possibly the most insanely poorly thought out gimmick I've seen in a while.

 

And Meng gets 10+ minutes with Ice Train to put the Train over in his return, which is not at all good. Ice Train can't keep anybody interested past his big spots to pop the crowd. Meng has been killed so much leading into this that nobody seems to care. And I can't tell if it's apathy or lack of ability to get the crowd involved on Meng's part.

 

And this leads to two months straight of DoD squashes sandwiched around a brawl with the Horsemen that is very quickly swept under the rug in the wake of the NWO.

 

So far I'm seeing a lot of really good punishment dished out by both Meng and Barbarian. Barbarian is sloppy, but his big spots are stiff and brutal. It almost seems like Meng got demoted for getting too much heat with the almost immediate small, but significant, changes to his gimmick after the Hogan match. Can't have heels getting too much heat now. And just when things started to swing their direction again the NWO was taking off. There's no way these guys are going to have any real heat while that's going on, especially given their lack of any political pull. Makes me wonder if Jimmy Hart didn't have a lot of interest in these guys despite being their manager.

 

 

[thebrainfollower]

I'm not quite sure what the point is here. They're mid carders. Meng was a guy who looked big and bad but jobbed far more often than not and the Barbarian was lower than him in the pecking order by far.

 

I don't think Meng was demoted because of heat against Hogan. We tend to really love the FOF, heck they might make my top 25 tag teams, but they were a priority to absolutely nobody in WCW. They were where they were in WCW and no one ever intended to make much more out of them than was done.

[dawho5]

I don't know. Meng seemed like he was getting at least a midcard singles push as a heel with the gimmicked finisher. Then he went straight to being a JTTS with almost zero momentum for months despite being in a new tag team. Either way, pushing forward.

 

Next up the FoF take on John Tenta and RON Studd. Not sure if he's a relation, but he's big. I'm guessing Power Plant. Fun match with Tenta giving some back to both Barbarian and Meng before Meng sets up a nice variation on the Barbarian big boot for the win. Also, CLUBBERINS! Love Dusty on commentary.

 

And we continue with a squash of High Voltage, but not before Meng does the staggered spot into finally getting knocked down, which he does real well. Almost seems like they are trying to convince the fans High Voltage really deserves a better push on commentary.

 

Harlem Heat is out with the tag titles, and it seems like there is some confusion pre-match as to who is the face and who is the heel team. They get it sorted out and Booker does will as FIP. Then chaos starts, but only after the crowd has reacted to the outsiders coming in through the crowd (they have a tag title shot on PPV). And we get a "WCW united" moment where they stop wrestling and go out as four WCW guys to challenge the Outsiders to come over the guard rail.

 

We're working towards FoF against Benoit and McMichael at Havoc and I'm pretty amped that they actually have something going other than "lets put them in there to look impressive so a big name comes off looking good." Even if the Horsemen are technically heels, and I'm not sure if the Heat were babyface by now. Also, the Outsiders are already getting as many cheers as boos, so who exactly are the heels here?

[dawho5]

Three more squashes, and each one has it's own flavor.

 

Bunkhouse Buck and Mike Enos, with Bunkhouse trying to engage both Meng and Barbarian in a technical wrestling match. Odd that.

 

The Fantastics, with Tommy Rogers doing a great little comeback spot before being crushed.

 

And High Voltage, again getting more offense than last time. Until the really nice finish. They really wanted to get their Power Plant guys over.

 

Which brings us to:

 

Benoit & McMichael vs. the Faces of Fear

 

McMichael looks good against Meng twice in the early going. Meng goes right to McMichael's strengths and makes him look great. Benoit and Barbarian brawl a bit and have a nice exchange that ends in Benoit northern lights. We go to a short McMichael heat after he gets some offense in on both opponents. Then a Benoit comeback followed by some major heat on Benoit. At one point Benoit takes a belly to belly off the top that has to be seen to be believed. Benoit ends up with his feet a few inches off the ropes in the opposite corner. That leads directly into McMichael using the briefcase on Meng (the guy you can't headbutt) to set up a Benoit finish. I had forgotten about McMichael using the briefcase to hit guys. I really wish it had stayed forgotten. Anyway, Sullivan, Traylor and the rest of the DoD come in from the crowd and take McMichael out. Benoit fights off everybody for a while, but the inevitable happens. Sullivan taunts Woman and starts beating up Benoit. Good tag match brawl with the right build to protect Mongo. Not exactly what you hope for on PPV as far as finishes go, but eh.

 

Oh, and the purpose of this thread is more for me to keep my resolution for the year. I want to write more about what I'm watching rather than just watch it and forget it. So it's not meant to be a complaint about WCW's booking. Just trying to put down what I see.

[Judy Bagwell]

the barbarian is the most underrated wrestler on this forum

[shakla]

Bryan Alvarez's favorite tag team right here.

[Grimmas]

the barbarian is the most underrated wrestler on this forum

hmmm... just on this forum? He's pretty under rated everywhere.

[flyonthewall2983]

It's too bad their potential as a tag team was never fully explored, either here or in WWF in the early 90's. I think by '96 they seemed more like a tag team than ever.

[dawho5]

I wouldn't call them my favorite tag team by any stretch. They would have been perfectly good as upper midcard enforcer or gatekeeper types though. You give them a good three or four year run in that role and they'd be pretty well-remembered. I could see them as transitional champs also, take the belts off a team on the downturn and have some up-and-coming babyface team come in and upset them leading to a few months feud. Easy way to get a new babyface team over quickly.

 

Moving along, the RnRs are up next on Saturday Night. Robert takes the heat and Ricky comes in hot, but the match seems a little awkward all around. Dusty and Tony hype up the RnRs as contenders in the tag division in a rather comic bit of commentary.

 

Then the American Males are back in the picture with Riggs coming back from an injury. They get more offense in but go down to way less punishment. You'd think that WCW would give the match a bit more time to let the FoF get in more offense if they wanted to make the Males look good. Hart gets on the mic and demands that his team be involved in the tag title match at World War 3. And the face turn that has been sneakily being done seems almost complete here.

 

Th Outsiders have just taken out the Nasty Boys, their other opponent for WW3 on next week's Nitro. They threaten Tony and call out the FoF, who don't come running out. Cameras follow the Outsiders to the back and guess who attacks. They brawl out the back door of the building and the FoF get to look good against the champs.

 

On Saturday Night right before WW3 Ciclope and Galaxy are the next victims. Both are in the ring for about two minutes straight until a big barbarian double lariat sets Galaxy up for a beating. I'd say it was a heat, except the FoF are the babyfaces now. Barbarian seems to excel in this role on offense. Ciclope gets in some offense off the tag before the finish and Hart cuts another promo.

 

WW3 sees Nash and Hall getting jumped by both the Nasties and the FoF. Things settle into a Nasties vs. FoF brawl when the Outsiders cower away. This is actually a fun brawl with the Outsiders doing their best to tag themselves in strategically while letting the other two teams hurt each other. Eventually the other teams catch on and things start to even up. Strange spot where Barbarian and Meng are tagged in opposite one another and immediately tag out. Knobbs and Meng tag in both Hall and Nash and everybody drops off the apron. Nash lays down for Hall in the obvious spot that I suppose did have to be reserved for them. And a short bit of chaos ensues which leaves Nash powerbombing Knobbs and covering for the finish. I wish there had been a better finish, especially given that Hall and Nash were the legal men no more than 20 seconds before. Maybe them clearing the ring and getting their cheap and easy victory of one pinning the other. Fun brawl with a lot of good clubberins and some actual decent to good from Hall and Nash in bursts. When they didn't have to do a lot and just got more signature stuff in they didn't detract from the match at all.

 

Edit: Meng and Barbarian are wearing those swank black leather vest/robes with the skulls on them now. Love that entrance gear.

[dawho5]

On the next WCWSN we get a Hart promo looking for a title match with the Outsiders at Starrcade. The next week's Saturday Night we find out it is on as the FoF make their entrance. And proceed to kill High Voltage, giving them not a whole lot of offense at all. Fun squash.

 

Ron Studd and Roadblock on the next WCWSN. Studd can barely move. Luckily this is short. Basically the same promo as last week from Hart pre-match.

 

FoF against the Outsiders on Nitro just under two weeks before Starrcade. Good enough brawling around for a few minutes before Traylor hits the ring and turns on the Dungeon. Because we need everyone possible in the NWO. And the locker room starts to empty with the rest of the DoD, then the rest of the NWO, then WCW. And Ice Train gets leveled by Norton on the way to the ring, with Norton fighting alongside the NWO. Because nothing says "this is important" like doing the same exact thing that just happened less than two minutes ago. And he wheels are already starting to fall off...

 

Starrcade and the tag titles. Outsiders give the FoF a nice shine. Short beatdown on Barbarian goes into a heel-in-peril on Hall. Patrick is the subject of scrutiny by the announcers for not counting Hall out on several moves And not checking Hall on a nerve hold by Barbarian. I get what they are going for, but it isn't the early 80s. Even if it was I don't think a simple nerve hold on the side of the neck is putting a main event guy out. Barbarian hits a big boot after a Meng inverted atomic drop. But he never tagged so why is he covering? Nash gets the tag, hits a big boot on Barbarian and Meng breaks the count at 2. Hall and Meng tumble outside, Barbarian misses the big boot and Nash powerbombs him for the win. So basically Barbarian goes down after about 20 seconds of offense following the FoF controlling 75% of the match. But they are in main event territory now and that's the kind of thing that comes with that.

 

The last Nitro of the year it's Faces of Fear and Harlem Heat. Fun match while it lasts, Booker hits his big spots, the FoF hit a few of theirs. Then Parker comes out and gets attacked by Sherri. Jacques Rougeau is out to throw something in the face of Booker T, who eats a big kick from Meng. And while Meng is pinning him, Stevie Ray comes up from the outside, touches Meng's head and the pile rolls over with Meng taking the three count. HUH? Did somebody screw up royal on that finish? Was there even any clue as to what was supposed to happen? Anyway, that's the end of 1996 and I'm tempted to see what i can find on 1997. Nothing great, but they tend to make their matches enjoyable with what they bring to the table. I still maintain that properly booked, these guys would have made great gatekeepers between the midcard and the main event.