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The high point and eventual collapse of WCW are a huge part of my wrestling background. I stopped really watching back around 1999/2000, as the death of WCW really killed my interest in the company. As such, I love talking about how lovely WCW was. But, a lot of really, really dumb things happened. One thing that sticks out to me as kind of overlooked, but very representative of WCW at the time, was the signing of Madusa Miceli or, as she was known in WWF, Alundra Blayze. As Blayze, she was a long time Women's Champion, basically being the division along with a token monster heel (played by Bull Nakano & Bertha Faye) for roughly a three year period before jumping ship in 1995. She was brought into WCW in '95, and immediately dumped the WWF Women's title into a trash can on live TV. This was about a year after Shane Douglas' thing, but as a young fan with no knowledge of ECW at all, it was the highest profile thing involving a promotion's title belt at the time. Blayze went back to the Madusa name upon entering WCW and promptly began doing basically the same thing - being the face of a moribund women's division with no hope of help showing up. Eventually, the entire division went away, and Madusa was sent home for about two or three years. Upon her return, she managed Macho Man for awhile, had a odd feud/managerial deal with Evan Karagias and (once I stopped watching) feuded with Ed Ferrera (who was doing his fake JR schtick as "Oklahoma"). This was about as meaningless as it sounds. Oh, and at some point during this time period they also brought her out to promot a new WCW-branded cologne. Which involved her acting like it smelled terrible. This was also the only time the cologne was mentioned on WCW programming, that I can remember. But, to me, she's a good example of the thought process behind WCW's hiring. If you had any modicum of notoriety, you'd get a multi-year deal and a good probability of not working for half of the contract, more if you're "lucky" (see: Lanny Poffo, amongst others). Beyond throwing the title into a trash can, there's nothing that Madusa would have been able to bring to WCW unless they really committed themselves to a top tier women's division. Clearly, they didn't, and since Madusa was never able to cut a promo, she was a waste of money.
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Jan 1, 2010 02:11
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Luger was never a good worker, but he was a convincing worker, wasn't absolutely horrible and had a good look, and that's what got him over. It may be hard to believe, since when his name comes up now the things that come to mind are things like "Luger vs. shirt" and his being The Narcissist, but he was pretty well over and was serviceable in a borderline top of the card role. And while a lot of WCW did suck, they were capable of scouting and signing talent for a long period, and they don't get enough credit for that.
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Jan 1, 2010 04:50
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FishBulb posted:They were also capible of pissing away talent. I mean they had Hall Nash The Undertaker HHH etc... Before they were anything in the WWF I was really speaking more to the mid-to-late-90s, where they mostly featured the talent they had signed, even if it was in the midcard and not the main event. Of course, this is generally speaking - they undoubtedly blew countless opportunities to inject new life into the main event scene and blew it. Still, they had the talent there to blow, and that is about as twisted as a positive can get, which really embodies WCW to me.
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Jan 1, 2010 16:03
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I loved Disco & Smiley. Both were just entertaining in their gimmicks and the little time given to them.Gavok posted:The B-Team had a fantastic little angle where Ernest "The Cat" Miller came into the ring to pull off a generic promo about how great he is. Backstage, the B-Team (and Disco) are watching and decide to mess with him. One of them shouts out, "Yo, Scott! The Cat's in the ring and he's calling you out!" Oh man, I can't believe I missed this. It sounds absolutely perfect.
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Jan 4, 2010 17:56
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nyratk1 posted:Goddamn, that's a loving awesome and simple storyline idea. No kidding. Thanks for the video, Skinty. That video reminded me that I also liked Norton because he just looked like he would murder people.
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Jan 4, 2010 19:09
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nyratk1 posted:I thought Hogan usually didn't show up on Thunder? After the first few months, none of the established main eventers did.
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Jan 5, 2010 04:51
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I keep meaning to type up a thing about some other dumb WCW thing, but I keep getting distracted by various shiny things. I did, however, come across the Shooter Mark Curtis while going over DDTDigest recaps. That brought back some smiles. I miss Shooter.
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Jan 11, 2010 05:32
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CVagts posted:Shooter ruled. He was the ref that UFC'd the one fan who ran in, right? Yep. Fan rolled into the ring, Curtis dropped right on top of him and put him in a guillotine choke. This is notable because Curtis was very, very small - Wikipedia lists him as 5'6", 145. Edit: Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX3hnt3rFdY Punch McLightning fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Jan 11, 2010 |
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Jan 11, 2010 14:26
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I just thought of something I've never seen and have only read about. Basically, WCW called up a guy from the Power Plant that they were allegedly very high on. They put him in a match with DDP. During this match, the new guy climbed to the top rope, leading to DDP running into the ropes as a normal set up for the 'crotch yourself on the turnbuckle' thing. Instead of doing it, said new guy screamed at the top of his lungs and hurled himself into the ring. The new guy was never heard from again. I think he may have worn a mask, but I can't Google anything up.
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Jan 14, 2010 07:07
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Lamuella posted:GI Bro: "Hey, we have an african american guy here who was half of a really hot tag team, had an awesome best of seven series with Benoit, and if handled right could be a major and credible main event face. Should we start pushing him to the moon?" "Nah, let's cover him in camo and give him a name that's a cross between a melvin van peebles movie and an action figure" That was Booker T's first gimmick in his career (prior to WCW). Now, I'm not sure why they went back to it, but I'd guess Vince Russo was involved.
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Jan 29, 2010 03:12
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DJ Ran, UP IN YOUR AREA~! What a lovely, lovely part of Nitro. Punch McLightning fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Jan 29, 2010 |
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Jan 29, 2010 23:51
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I can't believe it took everyone involved so long to realize that Orndorff was hurt and for the match to be stopped. That's not normal "WCW is dumb" stuff, that's how the gently caress are you a wrestler material. For reference, here's the DDT Digest coverage of the event, which (I think) was live. http://ddtdigest.com/updates/2000093p.htm
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Feb 4, 2010 00:41
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When Matthew was out there, I didn't hear anything. When John the Baptist was out there, I didn't hear anything. When Paul was out there, I didn't hear anything. So tell me, brother, why are you splitting the fish & bread on me? Edit: I swear I did not read the WWE Discussion thread prior to this post. Punch McLightning fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Mar 23, 2010 |
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Mar 23, 2010 01:13
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Let's talk about an awesome part of WCW: Arn Anderson vs. The Great Muta for the TV title in 1990, featuring Jim Ross & Jim Cornette on commentary and/or personal insults of anyone within 500 feet (with Ross possibly saying "Are there any good looking Orientals?"), a Buzz Sawyer appearance, a Batman reference, Bill Apter, the Cattle Mutilation and atomic heat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij0IJ4GJKLs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh7-OCuTEKU
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Mar 23, 2010 01:58
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DDP vs. Raven, Raven's Rules, 1998 Spring Stampede Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOj7YngCjJg Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u_KnKfxG1g Pretty good story of DDP vs. the entire Flock. Edit: with "Shooter" Mark Curtis as the ref  Edit2: "He's gonna suplex him!" "Where?" "ON THE WEBSITE!" Punch McLightning fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Mar 24, 2010 |
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Mar 24, 2010 23:43
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Starrcade 1989 had two round robins - a tag and a singles. Muta was in the singles, and jobbed to Luger, Sting, and Flair.
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Mar 11, 2011 14:25
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Yeah, that doc was useless, more or less.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:29
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I just reupped for a few months, and I saw the most recent old WO issue was from 10/23/1995. Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but there were a few good WCW tidbits. I thought the thing about the infamous Shawn Michaels bar fight was interesting.quote:Numerous stories have evolved stemming from the situation where Michaels, 30, was beaten up and hospitalized. What is consistent in all versions is that Michaels, Davey Boy Smith and 1-2-3 Kid (Sean Waltman) were drinking at a bar in Syracuse, NY near their hotel, coming into town after matches earlier that evening in Binghamton. The wrestlers called for a taxi to take them to their hotel, but the taxis in town were all booked up as it was closing time on a Friday night. One of the bouncers got his girlfriend to drive them back. As the wrestlers left, between eight and ten servicemen (depending upon the report) followed them outside the bar. One of them started calling Michaels a "fag" and another tried to throw a punch at Kid into the car. Michaels either got out of the car or was pulled from the car and the car door was slammed on his head. Michaels ended up being knocked down with several of them stomping him in the head and smashing his face onto the car bumper before Smith and Kid got out of the back seat in the two-door car and got involved in the altercation, whereupon several more guys who appeared to be servicemen showed up. Kid was on the ground wrestling with one of them. Smith dragged off one of the guys who was attacking Michaels, who was helpless by this point. He was leg-dived from behind by a second guy, but ended up quickly getting him in a front facelock and was choking him out when a third guy from behind stuck his finger in the left corner of his eye and tried to pull his eye out. He turned around and began fighting him when what appeared to be an undercover police officer showed up and pulled a gun, sending the servicemen running into two white Ford Broncos where they left the scene. Anyway, a bit of WCW stuff: I'm not quite what this is referring to, but it sounds like classic WCW. quote:The latest on the Flair-Sting situation is this. The original idea was for Flair, Anderson and Pillman to turn on Sting at Havoc. About a week or so back, Sting changed his mind only three months after the idea was proposed to him and he agreed to do it, thinking it would make him look stupid (some believe it was Lex Luger who talked Sting into this way of thinking). Sting proposed the idea where they try to turn on him but he would escape having outthought them and not get beaten up, which doesn't create much heat coming out of the situation but Sting also does come out looking stupid but he should have nixed it months ago rather than going through with the deal for this long and then changing his mind. The best idea of all would be for Sting to turn, since it would be a big shock, create tons of new potential main event match-ups, and keep Flair as a face since he's the most popular wrestler in the company right now. Of course Sting may never agree to turn, and Flair is dead-set against being a face. Nevertheless, they are going to split up either at Havoc or shortly thereafter. quote:The Sheik is pretty much a definite as appearing at Havoc in Sabu's corner. Detroit is being papered like crazy. Anyone who buys a WCW calling card at the local 7-11's gets a free ringside ticket to the PPV show. quote:Hogan knocked Vince McMahon, again not by name, on the 10/16 Nitro saying that Hogan was so powerful he makes other promoters cry when they realize that Hogan is more powerful than their "whole stinkin' promotion." I never thought the guy could get more unbearable. Hogan received a songwriters award from SESAC as part of Country Music Week in Nashville for his "American Made" entrance music which is billed as having been written by Hogan, Jimmy Hart and J.J. Maguire. Hogan wasn't present to receive the award, but when it was announced they said the song was played upon Hogan's entrance at every "WWF" event and said Hogan does three to five shows per week drawing 20,000 fans every time out. Nothing really amazing in this one for the most part, though.
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Dec 24, 2012 04:30
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Goldberg definitely had tons charisma, a unique look for his company, a monster push, a monster moveset, and was really, really loving strong. He was pushed for reasons beyond Austin, and even if that was a factor initially, that wouldn't have been enough to put Goldberg where he went. And while Foley & DX were big acts during the Austin Era, the only one in the WWF that was really comparable was The Rock. Without Austin, all of those, including Rock, would have had less of an impact simply because their #1 draw would not have been around.
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Dec 29, 2012 21:18
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Was that one of those "half-to-fully-in-character" WWF books?
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Dec 30, 2012 03:20
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Sorry, Tr33, wasn't trying to imply that it was pointless you (or Saul) brought it up, just trying to make sure it was a fairly kayfabe quote. And there's a shitload of dumb WCW things to talk about. This thread should never die.
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Dec 30, 2012 03:36
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There's going to be a new version Death of WCW coming out in 2014.f4wonline.com posted:Bryan Alvarez and RD Reynolds announced today on Figure Four Daily that they have signed a deal with ECW Press to write a newly-expanded 10-year anniversary edition of the 2005 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Book of the Year, "The Death of WCW".
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Jan 15, 2013 21:19
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Retail Slave posted:Yes, it looks like poo poo and like they're desperate for money. Just like it does for major boxing events, UFC, the NFL, the NBA, the MLB, major college sports...
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Jan 19, 2013 03:11
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Paulocaust posted:Who the gently caress is Wild Cat Willie. He didn't wrestle, he was their mascot! He got the fans hyped up. Obviously.
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Jan 21, 2013 16:41
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:New back issue from December 1995 is out and I loved this story - I read this this morning and it loving made my day.
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Jan 30, 2013 18:37
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VogeGandire posted:"Buff's Fans"? I don't believe those were a thing. At all. There was the time he came back from his broken neck and got naturally babyface support. Of course,  lead to a swerve where he turned heel a week after he came back or something.(I know this story's been talked about on this site before, but I just love the story so much)
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Feb 15, 2013 00:43
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:I also found this quote funny since the thought of Vince "chatting" with fans and being an rear end in a top hat is hilarious. Probably went better than this one.
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Feb 20, 2013 16:05
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Skinty McEdger posted:Vince legitimately loved George the Animal Steele. It may have seemed like a cop out answer, but for whatever reason he loves the big goofball and has repeatedly talked about it in interviews. Considering that, it's surprising that Steele isn't brought back for the legends stuff more often (or at least from what I read; I haven't watched a Raw in forever, so I could be wrong). Anyway, that interview is amazing.
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Feb 20, 2013 20:12
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An Actual Bear posted:Jesus christ Dave, what the gently caress is this poo poo? This man so needs an editor and quickly. An editor and a time machine.
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Mar 6, 2013 13:47
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That guy might be the most high profile worker to be hosed over by different people via unprofessional behavior during matches important to him.
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Apr 6, 2013 02:37
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Zack_Gochuck posted:Was Abbott ever champ? I'm drawing a blank. No, but that was part of Russo's plan right before he was fired.
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May 18, 2013 23:56
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I'd listen to his debut single, "The Gordian Knot."
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May 30, 2013 21:52
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New retro Observer! This one covers the aftermath of WCW Uncensored.quote:However, the main event, a not well thought out two-on-eight match involving Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage turned out to be even worse than one would have figured going in, and going in people were expecting the worst. The rules of the match were never explained, and in hindsight it appears because nobody had figured them out. On one television show they said the match would be held in the Triple Tower of Doom, a contraption Kevin Sullivan came up with nearly eight years ago for a PPV event. By the TBS show the day before the event, fans were told it would be a four deck cage, complete with trap doors, and it was emphasized that Brian Pillman would be part of the heel team plus they would have a surprise mystery man to finish out the squad as the plans from the previous weekend were changed once again. As it turned out, despite spending the better part of the Saturday show building the match around Pillman being there, he wasn't, and the two slots were taken by Meng & The Barbarian. Reports were that Pillman couldn't make it due to medical complications stemming from his throat surgery the previous week and WCW was aware of it by Thursday afternoon. When the WCW Saturday Night show was taped on Wednesday night, they weren't aware Pillman wasn't going to be there, although it's not clear whether they actually informed him that he was going to be announced as being in the main event before taping the interviews announcing it to the world. When Pillman informed the office the next day he wasn't going to be there, they had two days to make whatever edits were necessary to not false advertise, but aired the show as is anyway. Then, after spending the Saturday show hyping Pillman as the main last minute thrust for late buys, on the Sunday Main Event show, being done live, they never once mentioned Pillman wasn't going to be in the match as advertised. Even WWF couldn't resist making remarks about bait-and-switch on PPVs the next night on Raw. On Nitro the day after the show, Eric Bischoff gave as a lame reason for Pillman not being there that he refused to team up with Kevin Sullivan, so Pillman wasn't buried on the air for not being there as some had speculated would happen since there was heat regarding it. On Booty Man vs. DDP: quote:Finish saw Page go to kiss Kimberly, who was dressed up like a ballerina in a sixth grade play and acting like a sixth grade girl around the ring saying things like, "I want him to be my boy friend." Kimberly slapped him, stunning Page and Booty hit a high knee which was more like a low knee for the pin in 16:00. Booty Man than kissed Kimberly and she sold it like it was her first kiss of her life. Even by the standards of pro wrestling, this angle is the most unrealistic thing in the world. DUD This could be the worst major main event ever. quote:7. Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) & Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) beat Meng (Uliuli Fifita) & Barbarian (Sionne Vailahi) & Ric Flair (Richard Fliehr) & Arn Anderson (Marty Lunde) & Kevin Sullivan & Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) & Ze Gangsta (Tom Lister) & Ultimate Solution (Jeep Swenson) in 25:16. Hogan & Savage worked with Flair & Anderson on the top level, and threw powder at them to go to the middle level. There they faced Sullivan, Luger, Meng & Barbarian. They locked Meng & Barbarian in half of the middle level cage, and then the other four wound up in the wrestling ring. Finally Jeep & Zeus, who weren't even there at the beginning (Schiavone kept asking where Jeep, Zeus and Pillman were, still hinting that Pillman would be there even though he wasn't, taking the bait-and-switch well past any point of sensibility), showed up. They dragged Hogan & Savage into the bottom level of the cage and it only got worse since they can't work. Somewhere while all this was going on, Meng & Barbarian were let out of their cage and simply walked backstage. Finally Sullivan, Luger, Flair and Anderson were in the bottom cage so it was six-on-two. Jimmy Hart gave Luger a loaded black glove and he went to hit Savage, who ducked, and then he held up, then changed his mind and KO'd Flair for the pin. -*** Tony Schiavone, keeping it real. quote:The humorous backstage note on the show was that when the show started, Flair, Heenan and Okerlund still hadn't arrived. The story is that they got lost trying to find Tupelo from coming in at the Memphis Airport the day of the show. Usually everyone gets in a day early for PPV events but Flair had some kind of a commitment the night before and since he's a pro, nobody ever worries about him. That's why Lee Marshall opened the Main Event show and when Okerlund finally appeared about 15 minutes into the show, he had done a rushed make-up job, why Bobby Heenan wasn't in a suit (and why at the end of the show Tony Schiavone made a crack about not to get lost wherever they were going) and why Flair missed the first heel interview during the Main Event show. There was a deal with the WCW Cruiserweight title, but it appears the WCW section might not have been transcribed.
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Jun 5, 2013 14:05
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:If I recall this is the one that Pillman ducked out of to preserve his career, even though Hogan wanted him (to job). So I suppose it's possible that no one told Schiavone that Pillman was not going to wrestle, perhaps because they themselves didn't know. Yeah, I read an article Meltzer wrote after Pillman's death a bit ago, and this is the one where Pillman just "had" to get surgery at that moment.
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Jun 5, 2013 15:36
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Pope Corky the IX posted:If he waited a few years, he could have. I was going to make this exact same joke. I know that it's unsafe and stupid and all other kinds of bad things, but the visuals of the nWo being pelted with trash at the end of a Nitro was a cool visual (the first three or four times, at least).
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Jun 11, 2013 16:06
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He was just trying to shave his beard off!
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Jun 11, 2013 16:24
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I loving loved Lash LeRoux and I don't even know why.
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Jun 13, 2013 14:10
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bobkatt013 posted:Or the fact he is an insane political cartoonist. In hindsight, I'm pretty sure it was the Ls.
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Jun 13, 2013 14:34
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triplexpac posted:It's too big a project for me, but it would be amazing if someone made a video companion to the Rise & Fall book. Obviously it wouldn't be able to be sold or legitimately acknowledged, but it would be great to have. When Bill Simmons' Book of Basketball came out, he had a web page which consisted of a bunch of Youtube links listed next to the corresponding page and passage. A similar deal could easily be set up.
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Jun 20, 2013 01:54
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triplexpac posted:Why do you have to take bumps to "build character" and write wrestling storylines? You can build life experience without being bashed into plate glass windows. Haven't people talked about how between the two, Shane was by far the worst booker?
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Jun 20, 2013 17:38
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