Scott Hall v Roddy Piper

[Guest Hunter's Torn Quad]

...

[Loss]

I remember how depressing this entire PPV was, because they put the heels over all night. Benoit and Malenko jobbed after being booked as the huge underdogs in the tag tournament, getting eliminated once in a double elimination match and having to do twice as many matches to get to the finals. They set it up perfectly for them to go over, especially considering that it was Hennig and Windham that *put* them in the loser's bracket, and then they did the job? Hennig and Windham were so over the hill and without heat at this point as well.

 

Then, you had what was supposed to be Kevin Nash teaming with Lex Luger against Rey Misterio Jr and Konnan, with Liz's hair being on the line against Rey's mask. Not to mention that had both Luger and Nash's hair been on the line, or even one of them, this match would have actually made a difference in the buyrate. Luger ended up injuring his bicep because of what was a story in itself with him and Konnan getting into an argument mid-match on a house show and Konnan apparently getting clumsy when Luger put him in the torture rack, causing Luger to tear his bicep. So Hall pulled double duty.

 

Then, you had Hall winning the US title, which he never defended, and he was off of TV until that fall, because he got drunk that night after the PPV and somehow ended up having a moving vehicle run over his foot. The US title, which originally would have had a fine match in Bret/Benoit, was switched to Hall/Piper to fuck Bret over, to fuck Benoit over (who jobbed to Hall the same night he took the fall in the match where he was eliminated in the aforementioned tag tournament) and because Hall felt that since he had gone like a month without incident that it somehow entitled him to a big reward push. Nash obliged, not surprisingly.

 

Then, you had Chris Jericho and Perry Saturn continuing a feud that ran its course in very quick fashion with Jericho going over by nefarious means to set up a rematch no one really cared to see -- a dog collar match at Uncensored. They were fucking with Jericho for not resigning by sticking him in a go-nowhere feud that was booked miserably with a guy he had absolutely no chemistry with in the ring. Saturn was also someone who dared to get over without permission, and in a meeting the WCW braintrusts had shortly before this show, both Jericho and Saturn, along with Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Raven, Kanyon, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit and Konnan, were put on a list of guys to bury. They succeeded admirably in their goal.

 

Then you had Ric Flair v Hulk Hogan in the main event. This was the match almost everyone was saying would be their "last shot" with WCW; that they were going to buy the show and if Flair went over, they'd continue watching the product and if Hogan went over they were giving up. I think this is the only reason this show drew such an impressive buyrate, to see Flair go over after the buildup had totally screwed him at every turn. Hogan won after his son turned on him, which they somehow turned into Flair being a bad guy because his son hated him. In fact, the double turn that followed this match killed off all the drawing power both guys had left, and they never posted a high buyrate again in the main event spot of a WCW PPV. Not to mention that Hogan worked as the babyface in the main event and then cheated to win in the end, making Flair look outsmarted, outwrestled and whatever else.

 

The booking for this card was an absolute disaster from start to finish,