Ron Simmons vs. The Barbarian

[4.0] "I actually think The Barbarian is a little better than he gets credit for, but there is absolutely no way he should have been getting a PPV World Title match in 1992. The match itself was fine, if a little slow at points, but it felt extremely midcard, and the crowd (who were pretty hot early in the show) are completely checked out. It doesn't help that Vader and Koloff already had a significantly better version of the same style of matchup. Baffling booking, but a watchable match."

[4.0] "They waited too long to put the title on Simmons and you can see the result here. The crowd was silent for the most part and they only popped for the finish. It wasn't bad work-wise, but it didn't feel like a world title match, plus it didn't help that they had to follow the abysmal bout between Rude and Chono."

[4.0] "This was alright; which really when you think of it means this was on the higher end of matches with Barbarian in them. While it's a disappointing opponent it is good to see Ron Simmons get a title defense on PPV."

[4.0] "Big time main event when The Barbarian is getting the world title shot! So the gimmick here is Cactus Jack has been training Barby by breaking cinder blocks on his back and making him get slammed by jobbers over and over again to "toughen him up" against Simmons powerslam finisher. Guess what? Simmons wins with the powerslam. Needless to say, Cactus Jack is a HORRIBLE trainer! I can imagine if Cactus was a football coach he would be training his team by making them take multiple chop blocks so they would be "immune" by the Sunday game!"

[4.0] "The Barbarian is a more-than-capable wrestler who I always enjoyed. But he shouldn't have gotten a world title shot on PPV in 1992. WCW couldn't even get fully behind Simmons by having him go on last. They stuck him with a mid-carder in the next to last match and the result was mid."

[5.0] "A little bit more livelier than the NWA World's title match before it, but not by much. Still quite a bit of ground moves and neither guy really seemed to have a definite advantage, just trading moves. There were some high spots, but they didn't lead to much. Finish just came out of nowhere and appeared to be more fluke than anything. Definitely not a classic."

[6.0] "A match that shouldn? t have happened but it? s not as bad as people say in my opinion. Its big flaw is that long long long submission spot that seemed to kill the crowd. I think Simmons looked better here than in his match with Cactus, selling better and showing more ability. Barbarian isn? t hopeless but he? s bigger than Ron but not so big he creates an underdog story. He even makes Ron? s spine buster look worse. I do not believe WCW had long term plans for Ron which is likely why they didn? t want to sacrifice any real top guys to him on PPV."

[3.0] "Watchable match but it didn't feel like a World Title match on PPV whatsoever and the crowd was dead as hell. [*1/4]"

[3.0] "Ron Simmons' WCW Title reign continued to be on a downward spiral upon his title win. Not only did they pit him against a Barbarian that didn't pose a threat whatsoever, but he was also forced to go toe-to-toe with him for ten plus minutes straight. Barbs plodded through the entire bout with tedious movements. Foley tried distracting Ron, but the champ fought through and came back with a powerslam for the win as the crowd sat in silence. You know a World Title match is bad when the only resemblance of anything vaguely interesting is a wrestler at ringside. This was dry as dust and dull as dishwater. [*1/4]"

[3.0] "Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura are trying to see that this was going to be a hard-hatting power match, and it just isn't. Barbarian wasn't capable to elevating to the next level and Simmons just wasn't a guy that can carry people to next level matches. This was okay for a midcard match but a disappointing match for a main even level title match."

[3.0] "Another real disappointment from the reign of Simmons, and I can't blame him too much as this was presented as a very midcard match despite Simmons holding the world title. Barb and Simmons are both good and there was some attempt to build up Barb but nobody could take it seriously as a world title feud. Crazy that Foley is right there, a much better challenger, but he's standing on the sidelines. More bad Bill Watts booking."