Six of the Best – WCW Souled Out

Souled Out was an event that only ran for four years, with most of them being awful. However, there were enough good matches that I was able to find six of them for this feature, so I decided to do Six of the Best for the event. SuperBrawl next month should provide more options, due to more than one SuperBrawl event actually being good.

As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.

So without further to do, let’s get to it!

Souled Out 1997
Ladder Match
Syxx Vs Eddie Guerrero

This show was famously a massive turkey, with most of the matches being junk and a horrible “Miss nWo“ pageant, where large set ladies who couldn’t act had to talk about how much they wanted to grope Kevin Nash, really making things drag. The only thing stopping this show from being the worst ever is this match between Syxx and Guerrero, which is a good intense ladder match.

Of course WCW had to ruin it somewhat by having the nWo ring announcer introduce Eddie as “A Mexican Jumping Bean”, but the wrestling is good enough that it overcomes the casual racism. The match itself is all action, with lots of great dives and high impact moves. The awful commentary from Eric Bischoff and Ted Dibiase takes the shine off things to a certain degree, but the crowd do get invested in things as the match progresses and Eddie winning at least gives them something to cheer about on a generally miserable show.

Souled Out 1998
La Parka, Silver King, Psychosis and El Dandy Vs Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo, Lizmark Jr and Chavo Guerrero Jr

Whereas Souled Out 1997 is a generally terrible event, the 1998 version is a bit of a forgotten classic from the WCW crew, as there’s a whopping number of great matches on it and the crowd are up for basically everything. Parka is the undisputed star of this match, as the fans are totally into his wacky antics and cheer whenever he’s involved. It really is amazing that WCW couldn’t think of anything good to do with him when he got over so organically.

The bout itself is the usual insane Lucha Libre spot fest, as the competitors hit a flurry of dives and high impact moves, as the crowd cheer along. It’s a high octane and enjoyable opener, made all the better by Parka’s star aura. At the end of the match he brains everyone with his trademark chair, including all of the members of his own team, and then struts away like the superstar he is. This match is just fun, and fun was often in short supply sometimes in the ultra-depressing WCW.

Souled Out 1998
Raven’s Rules
Raven Vs Chris Benoit

This match was the payoff to Raven ducking Benoit for weeks, as he was finally forced to face Benoit on his own with The Flock banned from ringside. And shockingly, with the odds finally even, WCW actually booked the heel Raven to get his comeuppance, with Benoit pummelling him from pillar to post before making him pass out in the Crippler Crossface.

The match itself is a great intense brawl, as Benoit dishes out a life’s worth of fun to the masochistic Raven. I personally think Raven doesn’t get the credit he deserves in some quarters both as a worker and a storyteller in the ring. Benoit was an elite level worker, but he works Raven’s match here and it’s brilliant. Raven has no trouble keeping up with Benoit either and the two actually have some pretty good chemistry together as opponents.

I had this match on a VHS compilation tape many years ago, so I watched it quite a lot back then and it’s one of my favourite matches from WCW’s hot period. It was great to see Benoit get a big clean win like this and finally pay back Raven for all the weeks of heel antics. Raven’s creepy facial expression as he passes out in the crossface is fantastic character work as well. Both these men understood what they brought to the table and they combined it for the best match possible.

Souled Out 1998
Rick Martel Vs Booker T

Martel was really enjoying a career renaissance here that would sadly be cut short due to an injury suffered later in the year. Booker was really starting to come into his own as a singles star after years of being a tag guy. Having good matches with the likes of Martel was really important to establishing Booker as singles act, and he started getting over pretty quickly as a result.

This match has smooth wrestling great effort from both men and their ring styles complement each other well. Martel plays the role of subtle heel during the match, and actually excels in such a role. As someone who had found Martel eye wateringly dull as an in ring wrestler during his latter WWF stint, it was great to see him working so hard here to have good matches. It’s just a shame that he wasn’t as motivated six years earlier, as he could have really contributed to the WWF’s upper card if he’d been working at this level.

Souled Out 1998
Ric Flair Vs Bret Hart

This was Bret Hart’s first WCW pay per view bout, and it’s a great old school styled match between two of the greatest in ring performers of all time. Flair busts out all of his classic heel antics, such as asking the referee to check for time remaining so that he can drill Bret with a sneaky low blow. Flair does such a fantastic job as a heel that he actually succeeds in getting Bret cheered, which wasn’t a guarantee at the time due to Flair being a WCW legend and Bret being seen as a WWF guy by a chunk of the WCW audience.

The wrestling itself is superb, with Bret controlling things technically in the early stages, only for things to descend into more of a fight as things progress. The match builds gradually and it makes sense when things start getting more heated as both men lay the ground work before heating things up. It really is an exceptionally paced match from two highly experienced and talented wrestlers. You could almost see it as a seminar in ring psychology and how to build a match realistically.

Souled Out 2000
Last Man Standing
Buff Bagwell Vs Diamond Dallas Page

This is a fantastic heated brawl, with the storyline basis being that Buff supposedly played hide with the fishing rod with DDP’s wife. Both men forgo their usual entrances and just sternly head down to the ring to commence the brawl, which is a nice touch and really gets the match across as being a genuinely heated battle.

There’s a really fun dynamic in the crowd as well, where the guys are rooting for DDP whilst the women are all swooning for Buff, which gives an insight to how the storyline appealed to different sections of the audience. It’s also one of the few last man standing matches that retains the drama during the count out teases as well, thanks to the ref really selling the count.

This is a genuinely intense and well executed match, and probably Bagwell’s best ever big match post neck injury. It’s just a shame that WCW dropped the feud so abruptly when the audience was clearly into it and both men were working so well together. This one is definitely worth a look if you’ve never seen it.

Honourable Mentions

Chris Jericho Vs Rey Mysterio Jr (1998), Norman Smiley Vs Chavo Guerrero Jr (1999), Kidman Vs Rey Mysterio Jr Vs Psychosis Vs Juventud Guerrera (1999), Goldberg Vs Scott Hall (1999), Chris Benoit Vs Sid Vicious (2000)

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all later in the month for Six of the Best non-Rumble matches from the Royal Rumble 1988-1998!