Capital Combat: Return of RoboCop: The Wrestling Was Better Than the Joke

The opener has enough personality to overcome some rough timing. Cactus Jack takes the biggest bumps, including crashes over the railing, while Hawk and Animal provide the predictable power reactions and Norman absorbs the heel control segment. The six-man format lets everyone contribute without forcing any pairing to carry the entire match.

The finish is simple and effective. Animal's hot tag triggers the full-ring brawl and Hawk comes off the top with the clothesline on Sullivan for the pin. The match is not especially polished, but it is energetic and gives the Road Warriors a strong pay-per-view exit. Cactus already understands that spectacular punishment can make an otherwise ordinary match memorable.

Mean Mark looks imposing and Johnny Ace works hard enough to keep the match moving, but ten minutes is too much for the material. Ace attacks the arm and uses dropkicks, while Mark repeatedly cuts him off with kicks, chokes and Teddy Long interference. The crowd becomes quiet whenever the pace settles into holds.

Mark eventually lands the Heart Punch, walks the top rope and drops the elbow for the pin. Those final moves are the most historically fascinating part because elements of the future Undertaker presentation are already visible. As wrestling, the match is merely functional; as a career artifact, it is much more interesting.

The match begins with extended stalling and never fully recovers. The Samoans repeatedly stop to argue, work nerve holds and cut off Rotunda's attempts to reach the corner, while Rich spends long stretches waiting for the hot tag. The basic tag structure is sound, but it is stretched well beyond the amount of material available.

When Rich finally enters, the crowd briefly wakes up and the pace improves. The referee becomes distracted, Samoan Savage breaks the sleeper from the top and Fatu falls onto Rich for the pin. Nearly eighteen minutes make the ending feel like relief rather than payoff. The visible boredom in the building is the most accurate review of the match.

The Hair versus Hair match is deliberately comic and over almost immediately. Teddy Long arrives in boxing equipment, uses the loaded glove and gets a few cheap shots before Ellering steals the weapon. The crowd understands the joke and reacts more than the wrestling deserves.

Ellering knocks Long out with the glove and pins him in under two minutes. The haircut that follows is barely dramatic because Long is already balding, which weakens the stipulation's entire premise. As a quick comedy segment it is harmless; as one of eight pay-per-view matches it contributes almost no athletic value.

The match builds around Jim Cornette being trapped in the ringside cage. Eaton and Lane initially look disorganized without their manager, while Pillman and Zenk use quick tags, armdrags and speed to control the first half. The comedy around Cornette never overwhelms the wrestling because the stipulation directly affects the champions' strategy.

Pillman's mistake on the floor gives the Midnight Express their opening. Eaton and Lane attack the neck, cut off repeated comeback attempts and gradually restore their normal tandem rhythm. Zenk finally receives the hot tag and the final minute accelerates into near falls, saves and double-team counters.

Lane kicks Zenk from behind and sends him into Eaton's inside cradle for the championship. The finish is clever, the crowd reacts strongly and the new champions feel like they earned the victory. Twenty minutes pass easily because the match changes shape instead of simply repeating one control segment.

The stipulation is mostly decoration, but the teams know how to create crowd heat without it. Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin stall, strut and antagonize the audience, while Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson use quick offense and occasional strap shots to keep the babyface side lively. The crowd is invested even when the match becomes conventional.

Morton eventually takes the long beating, with Hayes using the strap on the floor and Garvin controlling inside. Gibson's hot tag produces the expected surge, Hayes hits the DDT and then wastes time celebrating instead of covering. That mistake gives Morton the chance to return and roll Hayes up for the pin.

The match would be stronger if the Corporal Punishment concept actually mattered. The straps disappear for long stretches and nobody receives the advertised post-match punishment. Still, eighteen minutes of experienced tag-team structure and strong crowd involvement are enough for a solid B-.

Doom and the Steiners work best when they stop stalling and simply collide. Scott Steiner throws Simmons with suplexes, Reed answers with heavy strikes and Rick turns every tag into another chance for a clothesline or powerslam. The crowd responds because all four men look capable of hurting each other.

The middle settles into a useful Scott Steiner control segment. Doom use the floor, Teddy Long and repeated double teams to isolate him, while Scott's Frankensteiner becomes the explosive escape that creates the hot tag. The athleticism makes the heavier style feel modern compared with several earlier matches.

Simmons eventually pulls Rick from a superplex attempt and places Reed on top for the pin and the championships. The finish protects the Steiners while establishing Doom as a serious team rather than masked supporting characters. The title change feels important, and the match grows in stature with knowledge of Doom's run that follows.

The main event smartly incorporates Luger's legitimate knee problem. Luger overwhelms Flair early with presses, clotheslines and power, while Flair retreats, survives and waits for the injured leg to become vulnerable. Once Luger hurts the knee on a superplex, Flair immediately changes the entire match around attacking it.

The second half is classic Flair structure. The Figure Four, rope leverage and repeated chops force Luger to fight from underneath despite his physical advantage, and the crowd fully believes the Torture Rack can end the match once he rallies. Flair bleeds heavily enough to make the cage feel dangerous without relying on constant weapon shots.

Then the booking destroys the stipulation. The Horsemen arrive, Sting fights them at ringside, El Gigante appears and the cage is raised just far enough for Barry Windham to enter and attack Luger while Flair is trapped in the Rack. Luger wins by disqualification, but Flair keeps the championship.

The wrestling is strong and intelligently adapted to Luger's condition. The finish is one of the most self-defeating cage endings WCW could devise, because the entire selling point was keeping the Horsemen out. A potentially excellent match settles at B+ because its final minute invalidates the premise.