WCW World War 3 (1995 TV Special) User Reviews

Hogan didn't do a clean job (even in a battle royal).

[amanwhorocks · 5/10 · 16 October 2013]

1. TV Title match: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Champ-Johnny B.Badd - Match was decent, but booking was bad. Page should get over Badd at least one. Diamond cutter rolls over TKO. Howgh. 7/10

2. Match of Stiffs: Big Bubba Vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan - Worst match of 1995? So close, we had Diesel here. But these two were awful. Their style of wrestling make me want to puke. Big Stiffa won over Insult. 2/10

3. Cutie Suzuki/Mayumi Ozaki vs. Bull Nakana/Akira Hokuto - Solid match 7.5/10

4. U.S. Heavyweight Title Match: Chris Benoit Vs. Champ-Kensuki Sasaki - Nice clean match. 8/10

5. Macho Man Randy Savage vs. Lex Luger - Luger won in that terrible match using strategy on Savage's injured arm. 4.5/10

6. Ric Flair Vs. Sting - Sting clearly defeated Flair in a normal match 6/10

7. Battle Royal Match: One of the worst ending ever, with Hogan pulled out of the ring-> REFEREE DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING and Randy Savage was declared as a winner. Nobody cares about that stupid unclear ending. Hate it. And another thing what makes me sick is how everything was turning only around Hogan or Savage. I have no interest in these 2 old jerks. Hogan didn't do a clean job (even in a battle royal). 5/10

WCW finally manages a decent PPV... with a cruddy royal rumble

[theanomaloushost · 6/10 · 31 October 2021]

1.) DDP vs. Johnny B. Badd

Much better than their prior PPV encounter. DDP seems more capable here, probably because he and Badd are more comfortable working together now, and DDP is aware of his limitations.

3.25 / 5

*****************************************************************************

2.) "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan vs. Big Bubba Rodgers

Both these guys suck as wrestlers. But to be fair, I expected this to be worse than how it turned out. Regardless, it's a typical brawl that requires very little skill to pull off.

Rated: 1 / 5

*****************************************************************************

3.) Japanese Women's Tag Team Match Cutie Suzuki/Mayumi Ozaki vs. Bull Nakana/Akira Hokuto

Now this is where the Japanese ladies show all American wrestlers how it's done. A couple missteps here and there, but otherwise high impact tag team wrestling with great coordination. I normally don't like tag team matches, but this is a major exception. This is the match of the night right here.

Rated: 3.5 / 5

*****************************************************************************

4.) Kensuki Sasaki vs. Chris Benoit

Solid wrestling bout between these two, as expected.

Rated: 3.25 / 5

*****************************************************************************

5.) Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage

I give up. I keep expecting these two to eventually hit a stride to put on a solid match, but it just doesn't happen. At best, their matches together are mediocre.

[Edit: their best outing that resulted in a decent match was in a later episode of Nitro on December 4, 1995]

Rated: 2 / 5

*****************************************************************************

6.) Ric Flair vs. Sting

This match never picked up enough steam. It stayed one or two gears lower than I was hoping for. A very slow-paced match, which would've been forgivable if the maneuvers weren't getting monotonous. They pull the same schtick of maneuvers and reactions at least 2 times in this bout, maybe even 3.

Rated: 2.5 / 5

*****************************************************************************

7.) 60 Man, 3-Ring, Battle Royal

It sucked. Too much going on between the 3 screens to be invested in any one encounter going on. The whole 3-ring gimmick was a terrible idea. Nothing all that interesting happened until the last 10 minutes (this match went on for too long), and even then what did happen wasn't all that noteworthy.

Rated: 1 / 5

***************************************************************************** *****************************************************************************

Big improvement over the last PPV. I would've preferred seeing a match featuring Eddie Guerrero over one of the lesser matches. Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Johnny B. Badd, Sting, Ric Flair, and Brian Pillman are easily the best talent I've seen so far since Nitro began (Randy Savage seems capable of pulling off a good match when he really wants too, and I keep hoping Lex Luger would put more effort into the matches beyond those loud grunts and moans he makes whenever he takes/receives a hit). They should be the ones headlining each PPV, having matches with each other or some upcoming talent. That would make the PPVs overall better. Really wish Hulk Hogan would stop hogging the spotlight; he's overrated as hell.

Story-wise, the only one I was interested in up to this point was Ric Flair's feud with Arn Anderson. But that's been over and done with ever since the last PPV. The only interesting storylines now are Flair's feud with Sting, and Savage's Feud with Luger. But Savage and Luger don't seem capable of having good matches with each other, and the Flair vs. Sting matches have grown tiresome (I preferred the match they had on Nitro's debut episode over the one they had here).

Heard things get better in 1997. Just need to make it through 1996, and the rest of 1995. Here's hoping Starrcade is good.

The Battle Royal stinks, brother.

[callanvass · 6/10 · 5 March 2016]

Live from Norfolk, VA

Your commentators are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Eric Bischoff, Dusty Rhodes, Chris Cruise, and Larry Zbyszko

Hulk Hogan is with Sting and Randy Savage. Hogan is back to wearing the red and yellow attire and calls Sting and Randy Savage his only true friends.

Television Title

Johnny B Badd (C) Vs Diamond Dallas Paige (W/The Diamond Doll)

Kimberly is sick of DDP's crap, so the winner gets The Diamond Doll's services. Badd retains the title and wins the services of The Diamond Doll with a slingshot leg drop. You can't ask for more when it comes to openers. It wasn't all Badd this time because DDP was vastly improving in the ring. These two just seem to click when they wrestle. The melodrama with Kimberly/DDP/Badd is slightly silly, but that's wrestling for you. I'd fight for Kimberly's services too.

***1/2

Taped Fist Match

Big Bubba Rogers Vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan

Big Bubba is The Big Bossman. V.K Wallstreet (I.R.S) interferes and hands Bubba a chain. Bubba drills Duggan with it and knocks Duggan out to win the match. This match is the definition of awful. If I wanted to watch a match of nothing but punches, I'd watch boxing. Because of all the punches, this match is extremely boring to watch. Both men were past their prime at this point anyway.

DUD

Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki Vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto

Nakano and Hokuto win when Nakano hits a leg drop from the top. This match was nothing but action. It was non-stop right from the outset, featuring one spectacular move after another. It was very entertaining overall.

***1/4

United States Championship

Kensuki Sasaki (C) (W/Sony Onoo) Vs Chris Beniot

Sasaki retains the title with a brainbuster. I'd say this match was just above average. I found Sasaki's offense to be somewhat boring and it kinda dragged the match down a bit. Whenever Beniot was on offense, the pace really picked up. The crowd was dead for most of the match.

**1/4

Randy Savage Vs Lex Luger (W/Jimmy Hart)

Luger wins by submission with an arm hold. Luger keeps the hold applied after the match until Sting comes down and convinces Luger to break the hold. This was a pretty boring match that ended rather abruptly. Most of it consisted of boring brawling. Luger getting a clean win was rather surprising.

*1/4

Ric Flair Vs Sting

Sting wins clean by submission with The Scorpion Deathlock. Another really good matches from these two, what else is new? These two can wrestle in their sleep and probably get at least ** stars from me. There is one thing that annoys me, though. Flair keeps going for the chop, despite that it NEVER works on Sting.

***1/4

60 Man Battle Royal for the WCW Heavyweight Championship

The participants are Arn Anderson, Alex Wright, Brian Knobbs, Ricky Barrio, David Taylor, Scott Armstrong, Sting, Joey Maggs, Pez Whatley, Disco Inferno, Meng, Stevie Ray, Mark Star, Sgt. Lee Parker, Lt. James Earl, Lex Luger, Eddie Guerrero, Cobra, The Giant, Paul Orndorff, Chris Kanyon, Bobby Walker, Bobby Eaton, Chris Beniot, Randy Savage, Marcus Bagwell, The Yeti, Kurasawa, Hugh Morris, Zodiac, V.K Wallstreet, Diamond Dallas Paige, Scott Norton, Brian Pillman, Sgt. Craig Pittman, One Man Gang, Cerebral Assassin #2, Mr. J.L, Bunkhouse Buck, Kensuki Sasaki, Mike Winner, The Shark, Steve Armstong, Road Warrior Hawk, Dave Sullivan, Scotty Riggs, Johnny B Badd, Big Train Bart, Steven Regal, Dick Slater, Max Muscle, Cerebral Assassin #1, Fidel Barrio, Kevin Sullivan, Jerry Saggs, Jim Duggan, Booker T, Big Bubba Rogers, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan

I'm not a fan of battle royals so I'm not looking forward to this. I'm expecting a bit of a train wreck. There are three rings to hold all the wrestlers. Randy Savage wins the Battle Royal to become the new WCW Champion, but Hulk Hogan was never officially eliminated. Hogan, like the selfish jerk he is, complains incessantly about it to the officials. The issue will be resolved on Nitro. This was a complete waste of time. This Battle Royal was done to end the controversy about the WCW Title, yet they go and create more. It was hard to pay attention because of the Three Screens at times and it lacked action.

*1/2

Overall, this is a pretty good show if you cut the Battle Royal. Three matches of *** plus is nothing to sneeze at. But the crap at the main event is one of the reasons why WCW went out of business.

P.S....

Hogan is a jerk.