This Week In WWE Vintage Collection History - 208 - A Jamboree Of Slamboree (See What I Did There?)
By Aaron Wood May 27, 2012 - 5:57 PM
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COLLECTION #208 Mean
Gene opened the show, noting we'd be finishing up our Slamboree
retrospective (well, it is June as of next week, and so I'd imagine
it'll be Great American Bash time...) , and we'd be taking a trip
back to 1995 first. Gene explained that Slamboree started out by
airing legends vs. legends matches, in this case, Wahoo McDaniel vs.
Dirty Dick Murdoch. And indeed, on this occasion, they aired it in
black and white. So don't adjust your monitor...
Our
next match saw Gene set things up, taking us to 1997 as the Ultimo
Draon defended the WCW TV Title against the UK's own Lord Steven
Regal, who was looking for his fourth TV Title in his WCW career.
After
the break, we jumped to 1996, and another match for a title involving
a guy managed by Sonny Onoo, as Jushin Thunder Liger challenged for
the US Title against it's holder Konnan..
It
was main event time next as the vacant International Heavyweight
Title was at stake at the 1994 Slamboree event. And the men fighting
for it were Sting and Big Van Vader. They had fought earlier in the
90's for the WCW World Title, and that rivalry would be rekindled
with this different prize up for grabs. So will The Stinger "Splash"
his way to victory, or will it be Vader time?
Sting
reclaimed the WCW International Title, but a month later, at Clash Of
The Champions, he would face WCW World Champion, Ric Flair in a
unification bout, which Flair would win, and deactivating the
International Title. Gene then announced, contrary to my jibe about
the Great American Bash, that next week, we'd start one his favourite
annual runs on the show, as it would be Cruiserweight month as he
signed off.
Epilogue As
you could probably guess due to the deference shown to the legends
and match itself in the above video, This was the last time they had
a "Legends match" at Slamboree. That said, the first
Slamboree in 1993 was subtitled "A Legends Reunion" and was
put together in conjunction with the launch of the WCW Hall Of Fame.
Most of the card featured matches with legends, such as McDaniel,
Murdoch, Thunderbolt Paterson, Dory Funk Jr. and Nick Bockwinkel to
name a few.
The
1994 "Legends match" saw Tully Blanchard vs. Terry Funk.
Suffice to say though, this match in 1995 with McDaniel and Murdoch
was the only one at all that aired in monochrome. That said, Solie
also did the 1994 match. When Slamboree returned in 1996, they did
the Lethal Lottery/Battlebowl concept, dropping both the idea of
having "legends" on the show and indeed, the Hall Of Fame
entirely, as no-one was inducted past 1995.
Regal
would hold onto the TV Title for 2 months before losing it back to
Ultimo Dragon on an episode of Nitro in July 97. Regal spent most of
the rest of his time in WCW either trying to win the title back from
either Dragon or Alex Wright (who won it from Dragon himself later
in the year) or teaming with Squire Dave Taylor. That would be until
his match with Goldberg for which Regal was fired when he didn't lost
in a jobber-like manner as he was supposed to.
After
winning the TV Title from Regal and then losing it to Wright, Ultimo
Dragon went back to concentrating on the Cruiserweight Division,
winning the title from Eddie Guerrero at the end of the year before
having his career "ended" the following year, as previously
discussed.
Having
won the US Title from The One Man Gang that February, Konnan
continued to hold the title until the Bash At The Beach, where he
would lose to Ric Flair. Konnan didn't do much of note for a few
months until joining the Dungeon Of Doom in it's dying days, although
that would pick up when he ended joining the nWo a year later.
As
noted by Mean Gene, Sting would lose the title when Flair defeated
him to unify it with the WCW World Title. After this, he spent the
rest of the year by the side of WCW's new arrival, Hulk Hogan, as
Kevin Sullivan's stable The Dungeon Of Doom.
Vader
spent the summer feuding with "The Guardian Angel" (a.k.a.
Big Boss Man), facing him in matches at Bash At The Beach, Fall Brawl
and Halloween Havoc. After this, in an autumn/fall Clash of The
Champions event, Vader beat Dustin Rhodes to earn a shot at the US
Title, which he got against Hacksaw Jim Duggan, winning the title.
