El-P

What if Sting turns instead of Hogan? No way in hell it would have worked as well. I'm not saying it wouldn't have worked and it would have been a huge shock. But Hogan turning had an impact unlike anything in modern wrestling history and I say that without a hint of hyperbole. This. Sting was considered for the job actually, as was Luger. Hogan was just on another level. Plus it fit so well with all his history in WCW and the frustration of the old fans who never quite adopted him and saw him as a WWF guy. In that respect, Hogan turning heel made Sting a much bigger babyface than he ever was before too.

The thing people seem to forget, although John talked about it earlier, is that the nWo angle didn't need Sting to take off. It needed Hogan. Then the angle became the hottest in the decade with Sting being involved much anymore. The main single matches worked for the first six months were against : Flair, Giant, Savage and Piper. Sure, Sting was over as all hell in 1997, when he wasn't actually working. But DDP was over as all hell too, as was Luger (the pop he gets when he wins the title from Hogan on Nitro is defining). I'm not saying he deserves no credit in the whole thing. He was an important figure in 1997 opposing the nWo. Would the angle have been any less hot without him ? I doubt it honestly. Like Dylan said, there were other foils for the nWo like Flair when he came back, DDP working with Savage, Luger. By 1998, Goldberg had taken the promotion by storm, and Sting wasn't relevant as the big number one face anymore. He was just another guy wearing the (red) nWo colors.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I think Flair and Sting never get the best out of each other, them working together pretty much always garantees a lower denominator match with cliché spots and sequences being repeated like routines with lots of begging, lots of Sting no-selling, hiptosses and Flair Flops. This is the case here, although to me this is better than their famous and not very good 1990 match, mostly because Sting is a much better worker at this point. There's a nice spot in which Sting anticipates the Flair Flop on the corner and blast him with a clothesline before Flair gets to run the apron. The Sherri turn you could see come from a mile away, but kudoos to her for catching Sting and taking that nasty bump on the floor. She was a trooper. And of course the annoying part, because you have to know the show will be all about Hogan from now on. First off, Heenan is beloved, but he was just as much a Hogan bitch as Gene was. Second of all, Hogan and Flair having physical contact already (with Flair begging like a bitch) was stupid. Third, Jimmy Hart is fucking unbearable as Hogan's retarded jumping bitch. I don't care how great he was in Memphis, these years as Hogan's stooge are enough for me to erase whatever goodwill I have toward this guy. Here you can hear him tell Hogan to "Hit her ! Hit her !", meaning Sherri. WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE ! This is a guy encouraging your number one American hero and babyface to hit a woman in the face on a show destined at kids (yeah, now that Hogan is in the place, the demos targetted by the company is kids). To me it's way more disturbing that Tommy Dreamer actually piledriving Beulah on a freak-show promotion with a metal/grungy/porn-trash mentality. I think I hate Jimmy Hart the Hulkamaniac more than Bruti. Anyway, Hogan is in the place and he's already unbearable like he was in the WWF. The heel turn can't happen soon enough. Oh, you mean I have two years of Hulkamania to suffer through before Hulk becomes somewhat enjoyable ? Fuck me.

Man, I never saw this before. Hogan gets booed out of the building ! Makes for a fun moment. Flair has a nervous breakdown. I really wonder why he choosed to go that route, why not remain the poised champion he portrayed for the last few months ?

Dustin, you stoopid. The old Arn means he's gonna stab you (pun intended) in the back. Yeah, good promo. WTF was Dustin wearing ? He sure was preparing himself for those Goldust robes.

Shaq was relevant. Mr. T, not so much...

Another very good match, if a bit rushed. Calling this a great match is clearly pushing it way beyond what it is though. Zbyszko and Regal had a terrific chemistry together.

Awwwww Gawwwwwd....... Brotha, dude, Hulkamania brutha.... Jimmy Hart jumping around like a retarded little bitch. Gene sucking hard on Hogan's dick and swallowing to boot. "The Greatest Moment in the History of Wrestling." Brutha, the big man upstairs dude ! Fake parade. WATCHAGONNADOBROTHA ! AWWWWW GAAWWWWWWWWWDDDD !!!!! My WCW fandom feels raped. WCW 1.0 is dead. Welcome to WCW 2.0, the WWFesque version.

Hyper upset Flair promo. Works for me as pretty much all of the old-school NWA/WCW fans must have felt the same way.

Not at all. You misunderstood me. And I like Jake too like I said.

I never said it was the story. I'm just saying that part with the vignettes at home had me grinning. The aging playboy bordering on 45 would soon get Sherri at his side, then get back Woman, fuck Liz again and get batshit crazy. And I can't not point out the irony of Flair turning into Steamboat circa-89, although he didn't had his baby boy wear a Little Naitch outfit. The arc of Ric Flair the character is so much like Ric Flair the human being, because infact they are the same person, so it's always fun to point out to me. I loved the Legend putting his career on the line for one last shot at glory storyline, which was obviously 99% of it.

When did I talk about a trend about Jake Roberts again ? I just think he's a bit overrated at this point that's all. Maybe I'm wrong (not about his work, about the way it's percieved these days).

I enjoyed the build for Starrcade 93, but I admit the whole Race stuff went way over my head since I really haven't watched 83 in context ever. I thought Flair as the family man was still a huge stretch, after years of coming off to the ring with lines of women, talking about basically how he fucked a thousand women in every city, having Fifi at his side clearly identified as *his* woman at the time. The whole kissing the wife and the kids had me rolling my eyes, this was the same guy who 4 years prior was shitting on Steamboat's family values. But Flair has always been a hypocritical sleazebag anyway, as a character and a human being, so...

I didn't hate it because the characters fit so well together, but what you said is right, it was kinda infuriating to watch at times. Same goes for every no-bump manager (yeah DiBiase comes to mind). On the other hand, I'm not a fan of Harley Race with Vader because Race was a rather shitty promo and Vader a terrific one, so the purpose was negated, and Harley's only fun moments came from bumping, but at time it seems too much focus on him taking huge bumps actually.

As much as I don't care for the Worldwide taping, their outside set with the whole New York street decorum was awesome, and they had some pretty great entrance, like DDP in fancy cars with Kim on his side. I'm always a big fan of glamour in wrestling, so I dig this quite a bit. And talking about glamour, I disagree, I think Flair + valet is just a natural pairing. It's visually right and it's in the character to show off having a beautiful woman at his side. The best visuals in Flair's career was the short period in 1996 when he would come out with both Liz and Woman. Made for an awesome entrance.

Well, I'm just entering the era of Flair/Sherri soon, so we'll see if I end up feeling that way. I thought she was just fine with Shane Douglas in ECW, and he certainly wasn't a cartoon character.

With the Volunteer Slam III, it's obvious the promotion is sliding way down. Not much in term of matches, Thrillseekers vs Well Dunn wasn't good, Savage vs Bedlam sucked, Jake vs DWB didn't deliver. The DIrty White Girl angle was okay I guess, but it's still a poor rehash of the Liz stuff, which was a lot more intense with one single slap.

I know Jake is an internet darling at this point, and I admit he's got great psych antics, but he just never delivers much in the ring. To me he peaked in Mid-South, had some fun matches early in WWF; but quickly he became an angle oriented worker. Great on promos and angle, not so good in matches. Once again it's a snail pace match that doesn't build, Roberts really gets by with smokes and mirrors, and although he's a great evil character, there's a sense of lazyness in his work. The Dirty White Girl stuff looked like a poor rehash of the Liz stuff. I really like Jake, but I have to recognize the fact he just doesn't deliver most of the time in a match setting. He needed to be a manager who worked on occasion at this point, not a main event wrestler.

I couldn't care less about Bruiser Bedlam. Yet another gimmick match ? Yawn. Cornette's booking really begin to show his limitation in the long haul.

Yet another excellent evil promo by Jake.

Yes, Jake's Psychology is outstanding. Yes, his antics are very fun. But at some point, I'm sorry but I want a match to get going, which just isn't the case. Jake was great at all small things, but my issue with him is that he was doing *only* small things. At some point I find the match dull to watch because it's just a bunch of small things which would be amazing in a big match setting with great work. Also, I miss Dutch a lot here. Not that Caudle and Thathcer together are bad, but something is clearly missing. I saw the flash spot coming from miles away. Good little match with fun antics, but that's it. Yes Loss, I call you crazy on that one.

I always liked Flair with a woman at his side. Felt right to me. Be it Woman, Fifi, Sherri, Liz. And since I'm a Sherri fan, I'm glad she got to be with Flair for a while, although her best stuff ever was next to Savage. Actually, the first plan was to pair her with Kevin & Dave Sullivan and feud with Missy Hyatt and the Nasties. When Missy was fired, the plans were scrapped.

I tend to agree with Dylan. At some point, we' just have to look at the cold facts. Would have String be a bigger star if he had jumped in WWF and took the Warrior's place ? Maybe. Did he get some really bad stuff to work with ? Yes he did. But it's not like he's the only big babyface who had been fed shit feud to work with. And it's not he only had shit feud either. _He won the belt from Flair in a bad situation, as it had been delayed because of the knee injury, but the reality is Luger drew much better with Flair and had better matches to boot then. People remember the Black Scorpion angle as being terrible, and it was, but the first Clash with Sting vs Black Scorpion (not Flair, Al Perez I think), actually did an excellent rating, although he did had Flair vs Luger second to the top, and they did look like much bigger deal than the Stinger. _Halloween Havoc had Sting vs Sid, which on paper looked like a big deal, but really wasn't (Sid is interestingly enough another one of these guys who look like a much bigger star than they actually were). _Then Starrcade flopped with the big blow-off feud, and before too long Flair had the belt back because the Sting experiment didn't work, and he was back at upper card big babyface working against guys like Nikita. _The next big feud for Sting was against Rick Rude, who was supposedly a hot WWF transfuge and a credible main-event player. The fact is, Rude vs Sting didn't draw either (none of the Dangerous Alliance did really and we can't blame this for being shitty wrestling), and Sting getting the belt from Luger didn't last because Watts had another idea in mind. _When it came time for Sting vs Jake Roberts, another hot WWF transfuge, Watts build of Halloween Havoc actually worked well and it is probably the best Sting on top drawing card (despite being a quite shitty PPV infact). _Then the failed Ron Simmons experiment ends and the big main-event feud goes to Vader vs Sting. Say what you want about the stupid mini-movies, you can't blame that for keeping them from drawing, it was Sting the big babyface of WCW vs Vader the incredible monster champ. Then they threw Sid into the mix again, along with the Bulldog who was again a rather hot WWF transfuge, coming off main eventing the biggest outdoor Stadium show in years (in his home country, yes, but still). None of that drew well. _In early 1994, Sting gets put back in the mix by Flair, gets the Gold Belt from Luger and then a unification match with Flair. That's where I am thus far in my WCW watch, and when you look at the facts, yes Sting got some back luck and bad booking, but he was programmed against Flair, Rick Rude, Jake Roberts, Vader in big feuds on top. At some point, excuses don't cut it. When you don't draw well, you don't draw well. The more I watch it unveil in context, the more Sting looks like more the Mascot of WCW rather than the Franchise to be honest.

Actually, the final round was not taped on the same set of tapings, which is why Flair doesn't have the same haircut. Super fun series of match. Flair adapting to Regal is great so watch.

Anyone ever came across this ?