WCW: Every Superbrawl Event, Ranked

Back in 1991, the wrestling landscape was a lot different. Monthly PPVs were still years off, and WCW itself hadn’t quite latched onto a regular series of big shows. They had Starrcade, Great American Bash, and Halloween Havoc, but not much else. WCW relied more on the Clash of the Champions shows for attention but were making their way into more PPVs. The first Superbrawl was held in 1991, and from there, it would become the first big PPV of the year. Even as the rest of WCW faltered and shifted shows around, Superbrawl was seen as a decent kick-off to how WCW would start the year off.

Sadly, a lot of times, WCW started it off very badly. There’s no getting around it, but Superbrawl has a reputation as one of the worst shows for WCW. Some cards could be good, but it’s as if WCW was afraid of a big show in the same month as the Royal Rumble. A few shows had decent bouts but also a lot of terrible stuff too. That was especially true in the later years of WCW when the entire company was collapsing hard. Here’s how all 11 Superbrawl shows rank to prove what a tough PPV it could be for WCW fans.

11 X (2000)

WCW could have kicked off a new era with this show. They failed. It opened with a bad Prince Ikeau vs. Lash Leroux match and got even worse. Tank Abbott and Big Al clashed with Abbott famously holding a knife on Al. Booker T and Big T fought for the letter “T” (seriously); Ric Flair and Terry Funk had a match in 2000, and James Brown showed up for a dance-off with Ernest Miller.

The ending was a triangle match of Sid vs. Scott Hall vs. Jeff Jarrett, which was even worse than it sounds. From top to bottom, one of the worst WCW shows ever.

10 Revenge (2001)

WCW was going under, and it showed with this card. The opening elimination match was at least breezy fun but too little too late to push younger guys. After that, it was terrible with Hugh Morrus vs the Wall, Rick Steiner vs Dustin Rhodes, Ernest Miler and Lance Storm for the Commissioner job and more.

At least Jeff Jarrett vs DDP and Chavo vs Mysterio were decent. The ending was Steiner beating Nash in a “retirement” match while it was clear WCW didn’t have that long to go.

9 V (1995)

This came right smack in the period where Hulk Hogan’s ego was dominating WCW, and it showed. It started in terrible fashion with Paul Roma refusing to sell to Alex Wright, which marred their opener. Bunkhouse Bunk vs. Jim Duggan, Kevin, and David Sullivan fighting it out and Blacktop Bully vs. Dustin Rhodes were all wretched.

Sting and Randy Savage faced Avalanche and Bubba Rogers, and the tag title bout was a mess. The main event was the topper as Hogan beat Vader by DQ when Flair interfered. A lousy show to kick off a bad year for WCW.

8 VII (1997)

A show that kicks off with Roddy Piper doing an insane promo from Alcatraz is going to be a mess. Syxx beat Dean Malenko for the Cruiserweight title in a rough opener before Buff Bagwell needed the NWO to take down DDP.

Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero did spark things up with a terrific US title match, but that was followed by a horrible three-way tag match: Jeff Jarrett vs. Steve McMichael and Lex Luger and the Giant vs. the Outsiders. Piper closed out the show with an awful main event against Hogan with Randy Savage joining the NWO. Another bad NWO-dominated show.

7 IX (1999)

This show started off promising but then swiftly went downhill. It kicked off with a surprisingly good opener of Booker T vs. Disco Inferno. Chris Jericho vs. Saturn and Kidman vs. Chavo Guerrero were also good bouts. Then things got bad with Rey Mysterio losing to Nash and thus forced to unmask.

That was followed by horrible Steiner vs. DDP, Scott Hall vs. Roddy Piper, and Goldberg vs. Bigelow matches. The main event had Hogan winning the WCW title off of Ric Flair when David Flair turned on his dad. It was a sign of how bad this year would be for WCW.

6 VI (1996)

This show is infamous pretty much for one match. Otherwise, it’s packed with horrible bouts of talented guys such as Johnny B Badd vs. DDP, Lex Luger, and Sting vs. Harlem Heat, and then the Road Warriors and Konan vs. One Man Gang. The Brian Pillman/Kevin Sullivan match had the memorable moment of Pillman declaring, “I respect you, Booker-Man” to start his “Loose Cannon” act.

Flair beating Savage for the World title was good, but then it ended with a lousy Hogan-Giant cage match and Hogan fighting off eight guys on his own. Another horrible Hogan-led show.

5 IV (1994)

Given all the talent involved, this show has no business being so terrible. The first four matches would be considered bad if they had aired on WCW’s weekly TV shows with Terry Taylor beating DDP and Johnny B Badd over Michael Hayes. Arn Anderson and William Regal had an agonizing long 30-minute TV title match that felt much longer.

The “Thundercage” matches were rough with weak action. The main event was a mess of Ric Flair beating Vader in a cage with Big Bossman as the ref. It’s astounding just how awful the show was considering all the talent WCW had at the time.

4 VIII (1998)

The opener is a bit harsh as Rick Martel lost the TV title to Booker T and suffered his career-ending knee injury. Juventud Guerrera and Chris Jericho had a very good match, followed by Steve McMichael and British Bulldog. DDP vs. Chris Benoit was good, but then Luger vs. Savage was bad, and Scott Steiner turned on Rick to join the NWO.

Sting and Hogan had a bout at least better than their Starrcade 97 disaster. Yet this was a clear sign of how things were about to take a bad turn for WCW as a whole.

3 I (1991)

This is a card salvaged only by one great match. The opener was an okay Freebirds vs. Young Pistols bout but had a lot of duds as well. Kevin Nash made his PPV debut as the laughable Oz character while jobbers Big Josh and Black Bart somehow got time.

The Sid Vicious-El Gigante stretcher match was horrific, and Butch Reed vs. Ron Simmons wasn’t much better. At least we got the terrific Sting/Lex Luger vs. Steiners match that was a MOTY candidate. The main event of Ric Flair over Tatsumi Fujinami was good, but the show itself was poor.

2 III (1993)

This show was better than expected, kicking off with the Hollywood Blondes in a beautiful tag team opener. Chris Benoit and 2 Cold Scorpio had an excellent battle, and Cactus Jack and Paul Orndorff put on a wild brawl. The Heavenly Bodies and the Rock n Roll Express was a throwback to great tag team wrestling of the 1980s with terrific action.

While Great Muta vs. Barry Windham wasn’t as good, the main event was one of the best Sting vs. Vader bouts ever. The two tore into each other in a stunning strap match that showed how they could make any bout an exceptional main event.

1 II (1992)

Any show that starts with the classic Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Liger Light Heavyweight match is automatically a great one. The pair put on one of the greatest opening matches of any PPV in history, which is still an amazing battle to watch. The rest of the show was just as good as even a dud six-man tag match couldn’t drag it down.

Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton had an excellent tag team match with the Steiners, and Ricky Steamboat and Rick Rude had a good U.S. title bout. The main event had Sting regaining the WCW title from Lex Luger to cap off the best Superbrawl of the bunch.

Next: Surfer String vs Crow Sting: 5 Best Matches of Each Ranked