flyonthewall2983

I thought Bruno Sammartino would have outlived him

The way Vader put it, that's kind of what happened. I can't help but feel that whole situation would have been avoided if Harley Race was still in WCW. He could have been effective in calming down both guys before things ended up the way they did.

That's just insanity if you think about it. They had more proven top guys than any wrestling company in history, spreading that star power out a bit would have helped both shows instead of featuring everyone, all the time. They were at critical mass at this point, signing Bret after what was a really hot year for him in the WWF, only to do what they ended up doing with him. This makes me wonder if Spike and CW questioned WWE when did their brand-split 4/5 years later. As far as the NWO job squad, I think it was effective for a little while, essentially having their own security force so faces wouldn't get at Hogan, Hall or Nash so easily. But, as you said, it did jump the shark at this point.

I'm breaking this off from a discussion in the WWE Network thread about Goldberg, but I'll reiterate that I think they are a bad idea. Everybody has to lose eventually, and it's one thing to have a hot streak but to come in from the cold and stay entirely without a L could mean disaster. The one guy who comes to mind for me is Tatanka. He was a mildly popular babyface in 92 and 93, and had some decent matches, and was made on this undefeated streak. They never went anywhere with it until Yokozuna squashed him and he was replaced by The Undertaker at the Survivor Series. When he came back, he steadily went down the card, except for a mildly interesting heel turn and feud with Lex Luger. Anyway, can someone make a better case for them?

Would this development be worth opening up that thread again?

That makes very little sense. So the NWO just fights each other every Monday night? Seems to me the better idea would have just been to put the most over guys on Nitro and everyone else on Thunder, to make it a show where talent has the chance to get over instead of being trampled by the bigger names.

From the sound of it, Goldberg never would have worked as a heel. Both in theory and very likely if you asked him, too. I mean they tried, but I don't think he ever fully bought into doing it. As far as Andre goes, I get the sense that him being undefeated was basically a secondary issue to the attraction. I'm sure it was almost an unspoken thing among promoters to make sure he didn't lay down for a three count, but it wasn't something they belabored in promoting him. Easier said than done with a company that was already red hot, with guys (some rightfully, some not) thinking they were responsible for things being where they are. They could only know what they lost once they did. Jobbing everyone out to him could have been more feasible if they found Goldberg before they had Hogan, and right when Bischoff just came into power. In that anemic situation the company was in in the early 90's, would he have been as huge? Probably not, but the company could have had a fighting chance to rise above with a roster of talent that they didn't need to steal from the WWF. Getting into daydream booking here but imagine in that scenario if they put Goldberg in Flair's place at the end of 93, or maybe extend Vader's title run into the next year. A younger Goldberg with Vader in perhaps his very physical prime, would have been a hell of a match.

If he figured out "You don't know what you don't know" 20 years before things might be very different

He sent out a pretty cryptic tweet around New Years, and it sounded like he had a really rough year. Just to be a fan for a minute, the person I feel bad for in this story is Diamond Dallas Page, because he should have been the one to end the streak. Considering the fact that Bill suffered for some of the bumps he took in that Halloween Havoc match, it feels like they could have called an audible and given DDP the win to end it early. I personally feel that winning streaks can be as detrimental to someone as it can to get them over. It was so WCW that they didn't figure out the endgame for that aspect of his character until Nash did. It's even killed people for Vince. Tatanka was fairly popular, but he went down and down the card once they ended his undefeated streak, not really rationalizing as to why to give it to him.

Bobby Heenan marking out for Goldberg during that whole run might have been some of his best mic work. And some of his calls on this night were on par with his Rumble '92 performance.

Ric Flair had a pretty funny story about calming Greene down backstage at the GAB '96 because Scott Hall introduced himself and apparently made a joke that Greene wasn't sure how to take because he wasn't one of the boys. Funny because the entire NWO angle could have been ruined right there if Scott came out for the Bischoff interview with a black eye or noticeable limp.

Bret and Jim had way better matches as heels. Classic MSG matches with the Bulldogs, Killer Bees and Rougeaus (who I think were better as faces, but I've heard great stuff about their matches with Shawn and Marty). When they turned face, those levels of matches were fewer and far between, and it was clear that at a few stages they were really testing the waters with Bret as a singles guy, giving him matches with Perfect as early as 89 and Shawn the following year.

This was at a house show

I saw Bret/Shawn in a cage in December '93 On this basis alone I give the edge to Bryan. Bret's angles in the 90's mostly sucked, outside of what he did from 96 until he left. The Owen feud was hot and memorable to a degree, but weighed down by family drama that even felt a little phony to me as a kid. The stuff with Lawler had it's moments but was largely placating Bret from the top spot.