Johnny B. Badd vs Flyin’ Brian (WCW, 9-17-1995)

WCW Fall Brawl, Asheville, NC

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Both guys are babyfaces and opening the Fall Brawl ’95 pay-per-view. Michael Buffer is on the stick in the ring because it’s a big deal show. And the winner of this match gets a shot at the U.S. title, held currently by Sting. Badd is the obvious crowd favorite, as Pillman is more untrustworthy.

C&E start, Badd backs him to the corner and breaks clean. Pillman offers a handshake after that, and it passes without incident. Badd with an armdrag. Pillman goes behind, has the waistlock, Badd gets the standing switch. Pillman reverses to a hammerlock, Badd reverses back to his own, and Pillman hiptosses him over.

C&E again, Pillman with a headlock takeover and gets a one count. Shoulderblock from Pillman, Badd with a leapfrog, Pillman with one, they both throw a dropkick at the same time. Pillman with a standing wristlock, Badd fancily flips out and takes Pillman over with a wristlock of his own.

Badd working an arm wringer, into a hammerlock, Pillman kicks up and takes him over with a snapmare. Side headlock takeover from Pillman. Pillman sent off the ropes, they both go for something at mid-ring, Pillman takes Badd over and down and gets a quick count. Pillman working the arm now as they’re on the mat. Snapmare from Pillman, off the ropes, tripped trying to go over, and Badd goes for la magistral for a one count, Pillman gets the rope.

C&E, Badd with a wristlock again. Drop toehold from Pillman, cradle with a bridge for two. This is purely scientific so far. Snapmare and a chinlock from Pillman. Elbow from Badd, Pillman kicks up in the corner and takes Badd over with a headscissors. Rollup gets another two count. Chinlock again from Pillman. Badd nicked and bleeding a bit from something.

Pillman throws the first real strike, a forearm to the back of the head and then a chop. Pillman kicks up in the corner, hiptoss countered with an armdrag from Badd, and then into a chinlock. Into a side headlock, Pillman comes up, but gets taken over again. Backbreaker from Pillman and a wry smile briefly. Cover gets two.

Pillman going for a Boston crab now, and he turns it over and has it on. Pillman lets it go, then punches Badd in the face. “Who’s the Badd Man now?!” Pillman with a chop, Badd sends him off the ropes on a reversal, and hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. We’re turning up the heat a little now, but Badd slows it back down, going to the leg. Elbowdrop into the knee. More matwork from Badd, but then we get into a shoving contest, and Badd’s temper finally flares.

Pillman pushes Badd into the corner, feigns a break and elbows Badd in the skull. Badd firing back with a punch combination, using his vaunted boxing skills. Pillman bails to the floor and walks a little ways down the aisle to get space. Bobby Heenan makes a Peter McNeeley reference. Timely.

Brian comes back in and offers a handshake, but hothead Badd is not going for it. Right hand from Pillman, a couple more shots, and he dumps Badd to the floor. Pillman tries to ram Badd’s head into the turnbuckle from the apron, Badd blocks and does it to Pillman, and slingshots back in with a legdrop for two.

Chinlock again from Badd. Pillman up and out with some elbows, some rope running, and they collide at mid-ring, Pillman going for a leapfrog and Badd a crossbody. Pillman stumbles up and back down. Badd staggers up first, but walks into a headbutt from Pillman. Both down again.

Pillman up at eight, the match goes on. Badd’s head rammed into the turnbuckle, then Pillman with a kick to the gut. Pillman knocks Badd out to the floor and gets a breather. Badd back to the apron, Pillman tries to suplex him in, Badd blocks and suplexes Pillman out to the floor. Badd slingshots over from the ring to the floor with a crossbody.

Back inside now. Badd up top, flies down for a double axhandle, but Pillman catches him in mid-air with a dropkick. Pillman with the cardinal mistake, Badd power bombs him for two. Pillman sent off the ropes, reversed though, and Pillman hits a big tombstone piledriver! Two count! Michael Buffer announced three minutes left in the 20-minute limit during that move.

Pillman goes for a tornado DDT from the second rope, Badd throws him off and covers for two. Badd back to the arm. Two minutes left and Badd is doing wear down holds like a goofus. Pillman counters him with a Russian legsweep into a submission hold, working the arm and neck with his leg. Pillman lets it go, realizing he won’t get a submission. Then he puts on a worse hold. So that’s a strategy, I guess.

One minute left. Pillman still working the hold. Badd’s arm drops once, twice, but not thrice. Badd fires up, gets to his feet, Pillman sends him off the ropes. Cardinal mistake again and a faceslam, then the TUTTI FRUTTI, but Pillman scrambles under the ropes at two. Pillman goes for a springboard clothesline, but Badd’s too close in for it to look good. It does hit, gets a two count, and the timekeeper waits about an hour to ring the bell until Pillman is going for a pin even though Buffer was counting it down.

Nick Patrick tells Michael Buffer that the match must continue. It’s sudden death overtime, first pin wins it.

Pillman driving shoulders into Badd in the corner. Right hand, Pillman rakes Badd’s eyes on the top rope. Badd blocks a right hand, lands his own, lands another. Badd had great punches but has barely thrown any in this match, saving them for when it matters. The fight goes to the floor and Badd gets whipped into the guardrail, hitting the shoulder that Pillman has been working to neutralize Badd’s left hook.

Pillman on top with Badd in the ring, this time going for a missile dropkick, Badd tries to catch him in mid-air with a dropkick, they’re both down. Pillman with a sleephold, and Badd goes down, Pillman grapevining the body. Badd gets the rope. They’re scrapping now. Pillman off the ropes, Badd gets a sleephold now! That is one loose sleephold, and Heenan explains it away as Badd being too sweaty to get it tight, which works for me. Back suplex counter from Pillman.

Pillman with a right. “GITCHER FIST OPEN, PILLMAN!” Nick Patrick isn’t having it. Pillman places Badd on the top rope and slaps him in the face. Badd shoves Pillman off going for a superplex, and hits a flying sunset flip! One, two, no! Badd goes for another power bomb, Pillman counters with a rana for two.

Pillman goes for a crucifix, Badd counters it with a slam from that position and gets another two count. Badd puts Pillman up top and hits the Badd Day frankensteiner, but Pillman gets the shoulder up on the cover again!

Badd puts him back up top for it again, but Pillman counters and hits the tornado DDT! Cover, two, NO! Pillman going up top now, Badd backs to the ropes and crotches him up there on the turnbuckle. Pillman facing the floor, and Badd tosses him off, Pillman hitting the guardrail hard.

Badd calls for the Badd Mood somersault plancha to the floor, and hits it! Pillman thrown back in, Badd goes for a slingshot twisting splash, but Pillman gets his knees up! Pillman suplexes Badd over the top rope, he’s down on the apron. His feet also hit the camera. Badd trying to get it together outside, but Pillman hits a suicide dive, not fully landing it because Badd is too far away and WCW had extra steps in the center of the apron for no good reason.

Badd back to the apron, Pillman inside and he leaps for a clothesline or something, but gets crotched again. Pillman covered, two count. Off the ropes, off the ropes, HIGH VELOCITY, they collide, clotheslines ducked, they collide on a crossbody, and Badd gets the pin there!

Rating: 4/5. This is probably the best match of Marc Mero’s career and a highlight in Pillman’s career, too. It’s a 29-minute match opening a pay-per-view, and they work it really well as far as pacing and structure go, with almost no brawling even though Pillman is meant to play the heel in the babyface-babyface match, and brawling more would’ve been the easiest way to go. Instead, it was saved for certain spots of aggression from Pillman to make the dynamic clear, and it’s the dynamic the crowd wanted, too. As for the crowd, they never go insane for the match or anything, but they’re invested and don’t seem bored by the action, either. Which is good, because it’s just a really good wrestling match, a throwback in many ways, even by the standards of 1995. The early scientific stuff could have felt perfunctory, but didn’t. It felt like a true feeling out process to start, then a true respect for one another as it went on, until things broke a little bit. They timed the big stuff really well. You couldn’t ask for much more of this match.

EDIT (July 12, 2021): I watched this match again tonight. Bumping it to a 4.5/5. It’s really a great match and truly deserves to be mentioned with the best of U.S. wrestling in 1995.