WCW ongoing thread

[DMJ]

Quick question that I'm sure someone here can answer -

I'm watching Mayhem 2000 and after the Bam Bam Bigelow/A-Wall match, Bigelow is taken out on a stretcher and the announcers treat it like a legit injury. I haven't finished watching the show so I"m not sure if they bring it up again or this is just a swerve for a future angle, but did Bigelow legitimately hurt himself? Suffer a heart attack? Concussion? He doesn't look great in this match, but again, its WCW in late 2000 and his opponent is A-Wall, so I wasn't expecting him to put on a clinic or anything. 

[SirEdger]

That probably was an angle since he wrestled Mike Awesome at Starrcade one month later.

[DMJ]

Yeah, I also read that he fought A-Wall again the next night on Nitro, so whatever happened, he must have been medically cleared. Based on what I've gathered (which is pretty much nothing), it might be that he had a unscripted "false alarm" after the match - loss of breath, chest pain, etc. - that required him to need oxygen and EMTs at Mayhem, but did not actually suffer a heart attack or anything. 

It just feels like WCW, as many tasteless decisions as they made, wouldn't run this sort of angle so closely to the Paul Orndorff injury? Plus, I can't seem to find much about it online, which means, it probably wasn't mentioned again or used as storyline fodder (because, if it were, I think there'd be more hubbub about how tasteless it would be).  

 

EDIT: So, I kept watching Mayhem today and, lo and behold, as he's getting carted off to the back and General Rection is making his way down the aisle, Bigelow gets off the stretcher and sneak attacks him before his match against Lance Storm. It was all a swerve. 

[flyonthewall2983]

I watched DDP/Goldberg from Halloween Havoc '98, and I've got to say it holds up as a fast-paced big-hype match. Hindsight-wise it would have been better if DDP won and broke the streak himself, as it could have built up another big program between the two, instead of...you know. 

[Tim Cooke]

On 2/5/2019 at 6:42 PM, flyonthewall2983 said:

I watched DDP/Goldberg from Halloween Havoc '98, and I've got to say it holds up as a fast-paced big-hype match. Hindsight-wise it would have been better if DDP won and broke the streak himself, as it could have built up another big program between the two, instead of...you know. 

Agreed.  You watch this and think about what a healthy, non-sabotaged by backstage antics Benoit, Sting, and Bret Hart could have done with Goldberg before he lost.

[cm funk]

Twice now in recent days I've heard Bryan Alvarez say WCW was good in 1995.

There was a lot of good stuff in 1995, but it was decidedly not good overall.  There was a ton of shit, and a lot of the good stuff really got going toward the end of the year

I think his brain has been warped by watching so much modern WWE.  1995 WCW probably looks incredible in comparison, even the crap was better!

[El-P]

The crap was more "fun" back then and probably a lot less boring and infuriating (because there was not so much you could ruin, whereas it's been a pattern forever now on WWE's part to systematically ruin 95% of the talent they sign). Also, there was a lot less content, so it was much easier to digest.

[cm funk]

1 hour ago, El-P said:

The crap was more "fun" back then and probably a lot less boring and infuriating (because there was not so much you could ruin, whereas it's been a pattern forever now on WWE's part to systematically ruin 95% of the talent they sign). Also, there was a lot less content, so it was much easier to digest.

Agreed.  I'm also nostalgic for 95 WCW as teenage fan who watched it back then, and I can laugh at the horrible Hogan stuff and other assorted bullshit, but it's undoubtedly more interesting than modern WWE and had a lot of freedom to it that allowed people to get over.  And WCW had great fans who added to the product

I wonder what younger modern fans would think seeing that stuff for the first time.  I think a lot of it has become meme'd over the years

[Rocco]

It's funny but a few months a go I watched a bunch of RAWs from 1995 and found them somehow more fresh and interesting then current WWE stuff despite being over 25 years old.    

[WingedEagle]

Nostalgia goes a long way towards making that stuff fun, never mind tolerable.  Nothing lasts too long and there are memorable characters so its a really fun watch.  But nostalgic doesn't equal good.

[El-P]

Indeed, but I don't think the current WWE audience will get nostalgic in 25 years about the current product. Well, of course they won't, because they're so old they'll all be dead by then. Ba dum tss !

[Phil Schneider]

I think in many ways WWF right now (or at least before COVID) is similar to watching WCW in the 90s, much of the pushed stuff was hard to watch, but there was so much happening that you would have plenty of cool shit to scrape. This year had Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak which was the equivalent of a killer Benoit or Eddie PPV match, and shows like NXT UK and 205 Live had great stuff which no one watched. Brian Kendrick is basically Villano IV.

[cm funk]

8 hours ago, Phil Schneider said:

Brian Kendrick is basically Villano IV.

[TheDuke]

I was watching the 91 Great American Bash and saw the lumberjack match between Big Josh and Blackblood. I have never seen the WCW tv leading to this, but was Big Josh supposed to be a kayfabe literal lumberjack? When I saw Blackblood carrying that big medieval looking executioner axe to the ring I had to wonder WCW's thought process at this time. Did he always carry that axe? If so, was the thought process "lumberjacks carry axes, and Blackblood carries an axe; therefore we should put him in a lumberjack match against a guy who is a kayfabe lumberjack!" 

[Brynn]

On 7/20/2021 at 7:15 PM, TheDuke said:

I was watching the 91 Great American Bash and saw the lumberjack match between Big Josh and Blackblood. I have never seen the WCW tv leading to this, but was Big Josh supposed to be a kayfabe literal lumberjack? When I saw Blackblood carrying that big medieval looking executioner axe to the ring I had to wonder WCW's thought process at this time. Did he always carry that axe? If so, was the thought process "lumberjacks carry axes, and Blackblood carries an axe; therefore we should put him in a lumberjack match against a guy who is a kayfabe lumberjack!" 

I just watched this recently as well and was wondering the same thing! 

A friend of mine used to have a DVD called “Best of Blackblood in WCW” years ago that I borrowed. I remember it being mostly TV squashes, and angle or two and the GAB match. I don’t remember much else about it or the buildup to the Big Josh match. Then again, I haven’t seen a lot of WCW TV from 1991 either. Don’t think he (Blackblood) was around much after the GAB match though.

[strobogo]

I don't think it is a coincidence that the build to Starrcade 1997 goes completely off the rails 4-5 weeks before the event, right as Eric Bischoff decides to book himself in a match. Things are going real strong right up to that point, then everything gets real sloppy and messy in all angles. Not even talking about the execution of the event itself, but just the last 4-5 weeks before the show are so haphazard. It's wild to me there is literally no mention of Thunder debuting until the Nitro the same week. 

 

Also I find something humorous about Benoit's theme having a cowbell in it.

 

[Strummer]

Was Terry Taylor still booking then? He takes over for Sullivan around August/Sept. 97. Still not clear who was booking between then and when Nash takes over in fall of 98. I don't think Taylor lasted long.

I do remember when Taylor took over the midcard matches got much more time and the midcard belts got much more attention.

[strobogo]

I have to wonder if there is a single good match or promo during the entirety of the original Hollywood Hogan run.  Off the top of my head, the only one I can think of was against Macho at HH 1996. He's consistently if not the worst, at least bottom two-three segments of every show every week. Just straight up comically bad, which could be enjoyable for lulz if he wasn't positioned the way he was and given those weekly rambling promos about nothing. In fact, I might go so far as to say that quality wise (in terms of promos and matches), the 1996-1998 Hollywood Hogan run might be the worst major heel run of all time.

 

Really felt like Hogan and HBK were seeing who could outdo the other with the longest promos without saying shit.

[sek69]

50 minutes ago, strobogo said:

Really felt like Hogan and HBK were seeing who could outdo the other with the longest promos without saying shit.

It really was an amazing time when both major promotions were being headlined by folks completely high on their own farts. 

[Migs]

I happened to watch an early '98 Scott Hall vs Jim Neidhart match on a comp tape and Neidhart used an oriental spike, which is something I have literally zero recollection of. Feels like something that should have main evented WCW Saturday Night for six months.

[sek69]

WCW had so much TV in the mid to late 90s since there was still the remnants of syndication (Saturday Night, Main Event, Pro, Worldwide) that was winding down while Nitro and Thunder were kicking off. As a result there's a near endless supply of "I never knew that happened" moments that always will grab you out of nowhere. 

[Dale Wolfe]

There's some bizarre match-ups on Pro from 97. I did a skim through a few years back & you're seeing stuff like Public Enemy v Doc Dean & Robbie Brookside, Jim Duggan V Super Calo

Some episodes are almost surreal; a lot of good stuff hidden in that show, though

[strobogo]

8 hours ago, sek69 said:

It really was an amazing time when both major promotions were being headlined by folks completely high on their own farts. 

Both routinely would go on so long being as glass gargling as possible that they'd be losing their voice by the end of the promos. Every week! Shit was brutal on both shows. 

 

Unrelated, WCW should have kept up with the fledgling "martial arts division" they were testing out in 1998. There were some nifty little shootstyle matches for a couple of weeks. Certainly the best Ernest Miller ever looked.

[Stiva]

The Ernest Miller and Glacier tag team was fantastic fun in a way you’d never expect. And it wasn’t all Mortis dragging them to something good

[strobogo]

Yeah the Mortis/Wrath vs Glacier/Cat feud is one of those undercard feuds that seem like they should be stupid waste of time (and especially how it fit into the nWo era landscape of WCW) but turns out to be a lot of fun because the matches were surprisingly good.