Whilst the legacy of WCW dates all the way back to the days of the NWA, it wasn’t until 1991 when the first fully WCW-branded PPV event took place. Prior to that, there had been a transition period in which NWA and WCW broke apart, with the latter then beginning to rise up the ranks of the professional wrestling ladder.
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The first 10 official WCW PPVs were certainly a mixed bag, with some fantastic shows coupled with some of the worst events in the history of WCW, which summed up what the promotion was as a whole throughout the 1990s up until their eventual demise - a lot of good and a lot of bad.
10 Great American Bash 1991
There was an uncomfortable atmosphere hanging over this event, with the WCW fans furious at the fact that their top star, Ric Flair, had left the company. With this backlash, WCW didn’t even do anything to help things, as they put forth a terrible show.
Only Lex Luger vs Barry Windham was worth watching, with matches such as Robert Gibson vs Ricky Morton underwhelming severely, along with an abhorrent Scaffold Match to open the show, which may be one of Steve Austin’s worst ever matches.
9 Starrcade 1991
This PPV was dominated by the Lethal Lottery gimmick, which turned out to be a failed experiment. The first ten matches were all very similar tag team matches, with competitors fighting to qualify for the two-ring battle royal main event.
Fans weren’t overly interested with the entire event being built around this one match. Sting would win the BattleBowl Battle Royal, earning a World Title shot for the next show. It was nice of WCW to try something new, but it quite simply did not work.
8 Halloween Havoc 1992
“Spin The Wheel, Make The Deal” made an appearance at this event, but it didn’t do much to improve things as the show didn’t impress all that much. Most of the matches were simply just “fine”, with Ricky Steamboat vs Brian Pillman and the Tag Title Match which saw Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes take on Steve Austin & Steve Williams being the only above average bouts.
The final three matches of the show were all disappointing, as Ron Simmons defended the WCW World Title against The Barbarian in a match which wasn’t PPV quality, in addition to a poor Glove on a Pole match between Sting and Jake Roberts, which somehow main evented the evening.
7 Great American Bash 1992
WCW built this show around a tournament to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions. Some of the matches were okay, but much like WrestleMania 4, for example, PPVs dominated by tournaments are hard to perfect.
The WCW World Title match between Vader and Sting was great, but it wasn’t enough to save a slow night of action which had very little excitement at times, with nearly all matches dragging.
6 Halloween Havoc 1991
For a show which featured one of the absolute worst matches in professional wrestling history, The Chamber of Horrors Match, in addition to some boring and lethargic squash matches on a card which was too full, there were surprisingly some bright points which saved the event from being an all-out disaster.
Beautiful Bobby vs Terrence Taylor had some good psychology, Steve Austin and Dustin Rhodes worked to a strong time limit draw, and Lex Luger vs Ron Simmons in a 2 out of 3 Falls Match closed the show in a very enjoyable way.
5 WrestleWar 1992
The first six matches on this show made WrestleWar 1992 on course for being one of the worst WCW shows ever, with a beyond boring United States Tag Team Title match, and the disastrous debut of the former Hercules.
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However, the last three matches were all excellent, saving the show and making it worth watching. Flyin’ Brian vs Z-Man was a great back-and-forth, The Steiners vs Tatsumi Fujimani & Takayuki Iizuka blended styles perfectly, and the main event WarGames match between Sting’s Squadron and the Dangerous Alliance was a five-star classic according to Dave Meltzer, per profightdb.com.
4 SuperBrawl 1991
If WCW had cut half of this card, it would be up there with the greats. Unfortunately, several squash matches bogged down the middle of the show, and it felt quite unnecessary.
Aside from that, there was some very good action. Barry Windham defeated Flyin’ Brian in a violent Taped Fist Match sprint, The Steiners defeated Sting & Lex Luger in a classic Tag Title bout, and Ric Flair defeated Tatsumi Fujinami in a hard-fought champion vs champion main event.
3 WrestleWar 1991
This was an up and down card, with an awkward opening six man featuring a past-it Junkyard Dog, a boring tag match between The Southern Boys and The Royal Family, among some other bland matches too. However, like most WCW shows it seems, they did enough elsewhere on the show to impress.
Itsuki Yamazaki & Mami Kitamura vs Miki Handa & Miss A was a stiff tag encounter, Vader & Stan Hansen packed a lot into their 6-minute brawl, Lex Luger defeated Dan Spivey in a clash which was far better than expected, and the main event WarGames match ended the show on a big high, with it being full of intensity and drama.
2 SuperBrawl 1992
Things kicked off in a marvelous way with a show-stealing Light Heavyweight Championship match between Flyin’ Brian and Jushin Thunder Liger. Cactus Jack vs Ron Simmons had a fun brawl, Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs The Dangerous Alliance was a solid tag bout, and the US Title bout between Rick Rude and Ricky Steamboat was smooth, had great psychology, and was wrestled at a great pace.
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Sting vs Lex Luger in the main event was fine, but fans knew Luger had one foot out the door towards WWE, and that damaged some of the excitement going in.
1 Beach Blast 1992
There is a lot to love about this show, with it being packed with solid action from start to finish, with nothing bad on the card, with it being the best overall show out of the first 10 WCW PPVs.
The notable standout matches included Sting vs Cactus Jack in a thrilling Falls Count Anywhere match, an Iron Man clinic between Rick Rude and Ricky Steamboat, and a physical and well-wrestled time limit draw main event, which saw The Steiners defend their WCW World Tag Titles against Steve Williams & Terry Gordy.
