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Was it ever determined if Halloween Havoc 1998 went long purposely or by accident? I recall lots of speculation that WCW purposely loaded that card with bonus matches and Nitro Girl dances just to give the DDP-Goldberg match away for free as a ratings ploy. Additionally, what was the story with Nick Patrick at Starrcade 1997? Did he just screw up the finish? I'm going to sound like Wade Keller here: It conditions the audience to stop paying attention. I remember getting really frustrated during this period because I didn't watch each PPV card and the next night you had no idea what the hell happened. There'd be time devoted to recapping mid-card matches but main event angles were only alluded to here and there. I guess it was to drive people to order PPV replays alongside Bobby Heenan, because he was always watching them

It could be the former Arco Arena, right here in Sacramento, California! The building has a lot of wood in the stands. For a long time it was rated the loudest in the NBA by decibel levels in the Kings' heyday. If the crowd is hot that place can get insanely loud. Conversely, it's horrible for acoustics and the city rarely draws outside of a mainstream top-40 act so musicians avoid it as much as possible.

I thought the plan was to make Hogan champ and run Hogan vs. Flair for the aborted NBC special and have Goldberg disappear into the mid-card.

One big rumour around the Internet back then was that it was supposed to be Jake Roberts. He was also supposed to show up in WCW as part as Raven vs DDP angle the year before. Yeah, we were all about Jake Roberts in the late 90's. Page and Raven were making references to "The Snake" in their promos and then it just stopped. Typical WCW, of course. I was 15 back then but I enjoyed not Nash pumping the sewage into Savage's limo but the promo spot for the septic service that followed immediately afterward. Aside from that, I hated every minute of that program. For me 1999 was a very difficult year to sit through as a wrestling fan.

I think there was still something of a committee at that point. I remember the storylines having a sense of being tied together and each character sort of intertwining. There were even lengthy TV matches back then. After SummerSlam did a big buy rate the show went downhill rapidly and became "crash TV".

Congratulations to you both. I became a father in March. It's awesome

This pic looks like it came from the Brazzers site.

The Rock was there after the summer and still pretty popular and they seemed to want to make the focus solely between a babyface Kurt Angle (who hadn't proven he could draw yet) and Steve Austin, who was stuck in a heel turn the fans weren't entirely behind. I can't recall anyone outside of Rob Van Dam and Chris Jericho getting treated as any sort of big deal back then, either.

I remember them being $27.95 for a long time and wondering why they were just a little cheaper than the WWF's $29.95 when their production values were night-and-day.

John, this paragraph pretty much sums up exactly how I feel. Since 2002 or so I just haven't cared much for anyone on the WWE roster or anyone else in professional wrestling for that matter. I've attended the shows, bought some of the DVDs, watched stuff online and more often than not I find myself struggling to finish watching. For some reason that emotional investment, that sense of fun is completely gone now. I figure that Punk has finally proven he's "WWE 4 life" and they're willing to give him a little bit more of a push.

Back at Backlash 2000, when Pat Patterson trots out to the ring in a referee shirt during the main event, Ross howls, "The parade must be over, Patterson's here." I always thought that was pretty mean. Jerry Lawler seemed genuinely surprised, yelling "WHAAAT???!!"

Darn, looks like I missed it. Sek's a top man, been keeping me lol'ing for more than ten years now.

I guess this makes sense. I always thought they were ego-stroking for Vince.

My friend Thomas and I used to paint our faces like Demolition whenever we'd wrestle around the house. We thought they were the baddest tag team around because they had the best face paint, in our opinion. I haven't watched much of their work since adulthood. I'll have to go back and look. I have a question that I've thought about now and then: Why did they get booked in the post-intermission sort-of-squash match against Tenryu and Kitao at WrestleMania VII?

Quotes like this are why I love visiting this board so much more than others.

They've done that with a few people who are no longer with them. I think archived Bischoff footage appears in a lot of the DVDs with WCW ties.

I agree with this. At the time, the WWF was riding a rocket ship of mainstream publicity and huge success and McMahon just put his trust in him.

One thing I don't remember from that period, which is odd because I was a never-miss-a-match fan at that point: What happened to change Angle's in-ring character and style? During the feud with Triple H he was still happy-go-lucky Kurt Angle and then suddenly he's heavyweight champion and screaming "I'll break your fucking ankle!" at The Rock?

I'm with John. Given how many WWE TV programs start out promising original content and then just metamorphose into a magazine show recapping the major angles I don't expect much from this show.

I agree with you on both points. I always liked when a match ends without the established finishing move because the modern fan just waits for the big spot or interference. If it happened more often--and not just with those horrible fluke roll-ups--then fans wold pay more attention to the in-ring product. As for the topic itself, I'm drawing a blank lol.

Was this before or after that? Anyone know? -- On Cole: Yeah, I watched Raw and how bad he is is actually shocking. Who's idea was it to keep him employed for this long? Probaby the worst non-indy commentator ever. Heenan got his Gorilla tribute in moments after the show started and the clip I uploaded was just afterward.

By all accounts, Heenan hated Schiavone. This is Bobby the night he wanted to pay tribute to Gorilla Monsoon on "Nitro" and Tony allegedly fought to veto it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr8lmVxxRhA Oh, and...

I expect you'll get twenty-five minutes of Irish whips around the barricade and ring steps, a lot of closed-fist punches in the stands, and some dramatically drawn-out chair and sledgehammer blows with a lot of segments (sorry, Loss) of guys laying on the ground gasping for air while the announcers call it "the most brutal epic in SummerSlam history!" How will it end? My guess is a run-in costs Hunter the match.

I was, too. Warrior was my first favorite wrestler, and I don't know what kind of joyless bastard you would have to be to hate Randy Savage, so I was happy neither of them sold out at the time. As an adult....Flair and Perfect went a very long way to accomplish something that they could have gotten from jumping Savage in the parking lot before his title defense against Flair. If the in-universe goal was to injure Savage's knee going into that match, this was kind of a needlessly elaborate plan that could've easily backfired on them. If the real life goal was to create added tension for the Savage/Warrior match, it's not like either of those guys need help being paranoid and insane. I was actually watching their tag against the Nasty Boys from the SummerSlam Spectacular just the other day. You totally buy that these guys would have dissension even without an outside heel party getting involved. So the storyline comes across as kinda pointless to me. They could have easily just shot a pre-tape of Flair and Hennig attacking Savage in the parking lot but a big part of me wants to believe Flair wanted to get loaded in London so he got the WWF to book him to play a larger role in the main event.