Hello readers and welcome to the thirteenth edition of “Keeping The Memories Alive“. In today’s edition, I will be reviewing WCW Fall Brawl 96.
The event was aired live on Pay Per View from the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on
 September 15, 1996. Keep your requests coming.


The show opens with a video package highlighting some of the key moments for the nWo throughout the year.


Pyro goes off as Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes welcome us. The announcers show us footage from last Monday on Nitro
 with what appeared to be Sting wearing nWo black and white and attacking Lex Luger. Then we see footage from WCW Saturday Night last night
 where the New World Order destroyed Lex Luger’s car.


Match #1: “DDP” Diamond Dallas Page vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Chavo wastes no time, drop kicking Page to the floor, followed by a somersault dive onto the floor. Both men brawling on the outside now. Where’s the
 count ref? Back in the ring, Chavo with a cross body for a count of 2. Chavo eventually runs out of gas and DDP turns things around with a bunch of
boring and slow holds. Chavo hits an inside cradle out of nowhere but only gets a 2 count. DDP goes to kick Chavo, misses and falls right on his ass.
Chavo hit’s a missile dropkick but only gets a count of 2. Chavo goes for a hurricanrana off the top but again only 2. Both men now go over to the
second ring that will be used for War Games later in the broadcast. Page hit’s a shades of Dino Bravo side slam for a count of 2. Page hit’s a nicely
done tornado power bomb but again, 2! DDP makes the sign for the diamond cutter, hits it and pins Guerrero for the win. Not a bad opening bout
for a rookie and a guy just getting on his feet in the industry.


We see Harlem Heat, Sherri and Robert Parker backstage at the WCW online station.


We go to a special report with Gene Okerlund (Is this a PPV or a Saturday morning recap show?) showing us everything the New World Order has
 done since May. What a waste of 5 minutes.


Match #2: Scott Norton vs. Ice Train (with Teddy Long) in a Submission Match.
I can already tell this will probably be the worst Submission Match in history. The referee is holding a microphone, which is usually done for
 I Quit Matches, not Submission Matches, but Eric Bischoff no doubt saw the WWF do it at Wrestle Mania 11 with an I Quit Match, so he probably
figures it’s the same thing. 3 minutes into the match, nothing but punches and kicks, Teddy Long is the most interesting thing in the match thus far by just
yelling on the outside. Ice Train hit’s a big power slam on his former Fire & Ice tag team partner. Norton has Ice Train locked in a code red arm bar
 (ala Craig Pittman). Long acts like he is about to throw the towel into the ring but the referee directs him not to. Why do they need a microphone and
 a towel? Train has now locked in a Japanese arm bar but Norton is not giving in. Norton hit’s a big spine buster and then hooks in a Boston crab but
 Ice Train says no. Teddy now gets on the apron, Norton pulls him in but before he can do anything, Ice Train slaps on the full nelson for the win.
And yes my prediction was right, the worst Submission Match in history at WCW Fall Brawl 96!


Match #3: Konnan (with the “Mouth Of The South” Jimmy Hart) defends the AAA America’s Title against Juventud Guerrera.
Mike Tenay joins the announce team for this match. They refer to the AAA America’s Title as the Mexican Heavyweight Title. Juvi does an
 awesome move, spring boarding off the ropes, onto the ropes of the other ring, back to the other ring where Konnan was standing by the turnbuckles
 and takes him out with a press. Konnan goes outside for a breather. Guerrera does a suicide dive but mainly hit’s the steel barricade. Tenay says
 tonight on the hotline, he will address the internet rumors of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash (Jim Ross had been claiming they were on their way back to
 the WWF). Tenay also brings up the fact that Juvi is the son of Mexican wrestler, Fuerza Guerrera. Konnan is kicking major ass now. Powerbomb,
 dropkick, German suplexes. Guerrera goes outside for a breather. Juvi springboards back in the ring with a dropkick and then a leg drop for a
2 count. Juvi back outside now, K-Dawg nails him with a dropkick off the apron. Back in the ring, Konnan with yet another dropkick (Ok, he does
 a good dropkick but for God sakes, do something else!). Both wrestlers trade roll up pin fall attempts but come up short. Juvi does a nicely done
 springboard spin kick but takes to long to get a cover. Juvi then does an excellent 450 splash (which surprisingly gets no reaction from the crowd)
but only a 2 count. Konnan hit’s a brain buster off the top rope, again only 2. Konnan finally puts Juvi away with something like a razor’s edge off
the top rope (announcers call it a power drop) for the win. Hands down, the best match thus far.


Match #4: Chris Jericho vs. “The Crippler” Chris Benoit.
Benoit takes early control of the match. He puts Jericho in his own hold, the lion tamer, which Tony Schiavone refers to as a half crab. Jericho strikes
 back with a spin kick for the first pin fall attempt of the match. Both men roll up, bridge and counter from one side of the ring to the other, sending
Benoit under the ropes to the apron. This allows Jericho to do his trademark springboard dropkick off the second turnbuckle. Jericho then does a
 suicide dive onto the floor, looks like his shoulder got all floor. Back in the ring now, Jericho with a tiger bomb for a count of 2. Benoit goes for a
side suplex but ends up tossing Jericho over the ropes to the floor. The crippler brings Jericho back in the ring and screams at him “come on Jericho,
 you wanna be famous”. Benoit has now applied the abdominal stretch. Jericho breaks out with an arm drag. Benoit slams Jericho and goes up top
to deliver the flying head butt for a 2 count. Jericho gets tossed outside the ring, again. Back in the ring, Jericho sneaks in a small package for a count
of 2. Jericho with a backslide, again only 2. Jericho hit’s a nice northern lights suplex for another 2 count. Jericho hit’s a tombstone!, goes for the
lionsault but sees Benoit move and he lands on his feet. Jericho with a hurricanrana off the top rope, another 2 count! Benoit strikes back with a
back superplex for the win. 2 good matches in a row, but Benoit and Jericho always have good matches. Crowd seems to like Benoit over Jericho
 in this meeting as Benoit was a member of the Horsemen at the time.


Match #5: Rey Mysterio Jr. defends the WCW Cruiserweight Title against Super Calo.
Mike Tenay again joins the announce team for a match I’m sure that will be hard to call. Tenay brings up the fact that Super Calo got his name from
 the Mexican rap group “Calo”, who gave him the name in the middle of the ring in AAA. The match surprisingly takes a few minutes to heat up.
Calo hit’s a power bomb, spring boarding Mysterio off the ropes with it for the first pin fall attempt. Mysterio gets clotheslined over the top rope
 to the floor Royal Rumble style. Super Calo follows that up with a missile dropkick to the floor. Calo then does a nicely done somersault senton splash
onto the floor (similar to Eddie Guerrero’s flip over the apron but on the floor). Back in the ring, Calo does a reverse hurricanrana off the top but only
 gets a 2 count. Still no offense in this match from Rey Rey. Calo slows things down with the short armed scissor hold. Calo now has Mysterio in the
 surfboard, turns it into a pin but again only 2. Mysterio hit’s a full contact cross body, sending himself and Calo over the top rope to the floor,
Mysterio follows that up with a suicide dive. Mysterio goes for what he now calls the west coast pop but Calo counters with a dropkick. Both men
 brawl into the second ring. Dusty says Mysterio will probably not be able to get out of bed when he is 30, he then jokingly says “I’m 36 and
I have trouble”. Calo is back on the floor, Mysterio does an awesome springboard flip to the floor. This entire card is just high risk city.
If there is anything WCW did good for the business, it was introducing the fast paced style to America. Mysterio jumps on the rope, springboards
 himself to the second rings rope, hit’s a hurricanrana to retain the Cruiserweight Title. As expected, lots of high risk which makes for a good match.


Match #6: Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray, with Sister Sherri & Col. Robert Parker) defend the WCW Tag Team Titles
 against the Nasty Boys (Brian Knobs & Jerry Sags).
This should be a nice brawling match. I still don’t understand why WCW chose to have 3 fast paced matches in a row, they should had split them up.
 Stevie and Sags start the match. Sags hit a big clothesline for the first pin fall attempt which Sherri broke up by grabbing Sags leg. It sure is weird to
see Booker with short hair. Knobs and Booker are now tagged in. So far all we have seen is clotheslines and punches after 5 minutes. Sherri is
screaming at the top of her lungs. Sherri is actually pretty hot, even with all her makeup. Bull Nakano is another one who was made to look ugly but
 was pretty hot without the make up. Luna Vachon, uh no. OK, I’m getting carried away, back to this very slow paced match, after all I’m not Tony
 Schiavone. Booker has Knobs in a chin lock. Knobs gets tossed outside, allowing Sherri to unload with some uppercuts. Back in the ring, Stevie Ray
 is tagged back in, hit’s a horrible leg drop and Knobs gets right up. Booker back in, goes for the sidekick, misses and goes over the top rope to the floor.
 Sags is tagged in and cleans house on both Harlem Heat members. Sags flips Sherri into the ring. Sags rolls up Booker but only a count of 2. Sags
 hit’s a piledriver but Stevie breaks up the count, which brings in Knobs to take him out. Booker is down, Sags goes to the top rope, Parker trips Sags
 off with his cane. Sags back in the ring, Booker hits his scissor kick, sending Sags back outside where he gets triple teamed by Sherri, Parker and
 Stevie as Knobs argues with the ref. Knobs is finally tagged in, cleaning house with clotheslines and back body drops. Sags back in, gives Booker
 the pump handle slam, Knobs with a splash off the second rope. Robert Parker gets on the apron to distract the referee, Sherri rolls in with the cane
 and levels Knobs across his head. Booker rolls back over to cover Knobs and retain the Tag Team Titles.


An advertisement airs with Ric Flair sporting the Fall Brawl t-shirt.


Backstage, Mike Tenay interviews Randy Savage. Tenay looks so young! Savage does his usual promo, screams, gets quiet, oh yeah,
thinking thinking, screams, blaw blaw blaw. He gets quiet again and you can’t even hear what he is saying.


Match #7: The Giant vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
The Giant comes out to the Dungeon of Dooms music even though he recently joined the New World Order. WCW stops the music and then starts
 playing the nWo theme. Are they serious? I miss Big Show back when he looked like a barbarian. Giant is totally overpowering Savage. There must
 be a fight breaking out in the arena as everyone in the crowd is looking to their right. Bobby Heenan even makes mention of this by asking if the New
 World Order are in the crowd. We see nothing though. I guess this match bores Heenan just as much as me. Giant has Savage in a bear hug for a
 while. He finally puts him down but misses an elbow drop, which allows Savage to go up top with a bulldog and take the Giant off his feet. Savage slams
 him and then goes up top for the elbow drop. Hulk Hogan has now come down and Savage goes after him. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are waiting
 by the entrance way with chairs and take the Macho Man out. In the ring, referee Nick Patrick (who was in cahoots with the nWo) has his back turned
 and is talking to the Giant. Hogan brings Savage back to the ring, allowing the Giant to get the easy victory.


A Promo airs for Halloween Havoc next month, featuring Randy Savage.


The War Games cage is lowered to the ring with so much pyro, I’m surprised the ring didn’t catch.


Backstage, Mike Tenay is with Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Woman and Elizabeth. Tenay asks who will replace Sting tonight now that he has
 joined the New World Order? Flair doesn’t really answer, he just says the Horsemen kick ass! Anderson answers the question by saying they will go
 in alone. Sting then shows up and says it was not him on Monday night. Luger says he knows it was him and he doesn’t believe him. Sting says he will
 prove it tonight. Interview ends with Flair telling Luger he is a lean, mean, wrestling machine.


Michael Buffer reads the rules for the War Games Match.


Match #8: The New World Order (“Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall & “Sting”) vs.
Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Sting & “the Nature Boy” Ric Flair in a War Games Match.
Scott Hall (with “Trillionaire” Ted Dibiase) will start the match with Arn Anderson. Both men will have 5 minutes until someone else enters the match.
 If you are not familiar with War Games, its pretty similar to TNA’s Lethal Lockdown. 2 teams of 4 or 5 (in this case 4), 2 men from each team start
it out and then after several minutes go by, another member of a team will enter the match, giving that team the early advantage. This match is only
one fall! No falls can be attempted until all men have entered the ring. Oh yeah, and it takes place in a steel cage with 2 rings! Anderson has taken the
 early lead, going to work on Hall’s leg. You just know the next guy out will be an nWo member. Hall tries to go in the other ring but Anderson follows
 him and slaps on a sleeper. Anderson just hit a huge spine buster. Anderson now has a single leg crab on Scott Hall, Tony Schiavone just informed us
 that the New World Order have won the coin toss to see who will be out next. Kevin Nash is the next man out. Double A says to bring it but Nash takes
 him out with a big boot. And now its time for the Outsiders to do what they do best, double team. Also, a new guy will enter every 2 minutes from here
 on out. Lex Luger is #2 for WCW. He takes the Outsiders out with a double clothesline. He nails Hall with the flying forearm (I’m surprised Tony
didn’t say anything about a metal plate, hehe). As we await the third man for the New World Order, Luger and Anderson have Hall and Nash pretty
much under control. Hulk Hogan is the next man out. Lex and Arn double team Hollywood while Hall and Nash are down. However, the 3 on 2
advantage quickly turns to the favor of the black and white. Hogan beats on Anderson in one ring while the Outsiders destroy Luger in the other. Here
 comes the Nature Boy! He is stylin and profilin, begging Hogan to come get it. Flair has a taped fist and drills the Hulkster, he takes Hall and Nash
down with low blows. Flair now has Hogan in the figure four in the middle of the ring. The final man for the New World Order comes out. Its Sting,
well, we think. He looks noticeably different. The man playing the “imposter” Sting here is actually Jeff Farmer, who was previously known as the
Cobra in WCW. 4 To 3 advantage has the nWo on top. The eighth and final competitor is indeed the real Sting and he is cleaning house, a Stinger splash
 in every corner! Sting kicks all this ass and then screams “is that good enough for you!” at Luger. He gives Lex the “stick it” sign and leaves the ring
 to go backstage. Its back to 3 on 4. I can’t really blame Sting. He said it wasn’t really him who attacked Luger and he was telling the truth. Mean while,
 the fake Sting has just made Luger submit to the scorpion death lock! Team New World Order are your winners. Luger rolls out of the ring and crawls
 on his hands and knees, screaming for Sting. All the other competitors are now brawling on the outside. Randy Savage comes down and brings Hogan
 back in the ring. Unfortunately for the Macho Man, the Giant and the Outsiders attack Savage from behind. A big delayed choke slam from the Giant,
 where’s the spray paint? Oh, Hogan just pulled some out. Elizabeth is now out here! She hasn’t been involved with Savage for years! Liz covers
 herself over Savage and Hogan spray paints Elizabeth instead. Hulk gets on the mic, calls Liz and Savage losers and pieces of garbage before spitting
 on Liz. I gotta say, Elizabeth may have been hotter when she was older, in her WCW days. Savage now gets the spray paint as well before yet
another choke slam at the hands of the Giant.


Heenan, Schiavone and Rhodes exit the broadcasting booth as the New World Order take it over. The Giant says tonight’s show was brought
 to you by the Ric Flair retirement fund.


The show ends with a trainer and Elizabeth helping Randy Savage to the back.


Roll to the credits (I still laugh out loud at the ending, Executive Producer: Eric Bischoff, and then it stays on the screen for 5 seconds).


Final Thoughts: This event occurred during WCW’s most successful run as a company. I was highly entertained by most of WCW’s PPV’s in 1996,
 much more than the WWF at the time. This event did have some good matches in Jericho/Benoit, Mysterio/Calo and Konnan/Juvi. The War Games
 match was not bad either. That match was the first step in one of WCW’s biggest storylines ever, where they had Sting sit on the sidelines for over a year
 with no loyalty to WCW or the New World Order. I believe it was the next night on Nitro (after this event I just reviewed) where Sting declared
 himself a free agent. Sting would sit up in the rafters, eventually growing his hair long and painting a black and white crow face on himself. Sometimes,
 he even had a crow with him, sometimes even a freakin vulture! Eventually, Sting returned to the ring at Starrcade 97 and won the WCW Title from
 Hulk Hogan. I still can’t believe Vince McMahon is so full of himself to not use this match in WWE. I mean, you own the freaking name! You don’t
have to call it Lethal Lockdown, it can still be War Games! The guy who invented it runs your development system! What you got to lose? I heard
 he doesn’t want to use 2 rings because it takes seats away, use one ring then!


I hope you enjoyed reading the thirteenth edition of “Keeping The Memories Alive”.
Now I ask, what would you like to see reviewed? My complete collection can be found at www.freewebs.com/jbryan1984/.
 Email me your feedback and requests at jbryan21408@yahoo.com.


Jim Bryan