25 Best Wrestling Shows EVER
23. WCW Spring Stampede 1994
As was common for the era, the show took a while to get going, and suffered a lull at the midway point. The depth of talent in the mid-’90s wasn’t as strong as it is nowadays.
When it peaked, though, WCW Spring Stampede ‘94 was superb.
The Nasty Boys Vs. Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne was transgressive sick filth - a legendary squelcher of a plunder brawl. Dustin Rhodes Vs. Bunkhouse Buck isn’t as infamous, but it was almost as gripping, with a stronger emphasis on emotion. Dustin’s selling was world-class. Of all people, Blondie's Debbie Harry once said that she preferred Georgia Championship Wrestling to the expanding WWF because it was "funkier", and "they get more crazed". WCW was often a joke in the early to mid '90s, but on April 17, 1994, the outfit honoured its gritty southern roots.
Steve Austin Vs. the Great Muta was good in places, but meandered for too long towards a rubbish DQ finish. Sting and Rick Rude, meanwhile, had an off night.
The show however ended very strongly. Vader beat The Boss, who had his best night in WCW, in a bruising, compelling hoss fight. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat almost approached their seminal 1989 trilogy in a heated, worthy main event that was as worked as sumptuously as you’d expect. It may well be the last truly great "pure" Ric Flair performance. He still crafted magic as an old man deep into the 2000s, opposite Triple H, but those matches stung with a sense of pathos.
At Spring Stampede ‘94, Flair was the real Flair one last time. Where so much of 1990s mainstream wrestling was unfashionable, this, without being cutting edge, was timelessly beautiful.