WCW's Highway to Hell

[Death From Above]

What is this ? FMW ?

We could only wish.

 

Also it's hilarious that "Bizarre Turn of the Week" can basically be a real thing. What a company.

[El-P]

Also it's hilarious that "Bizarre Turn of the Week" can basically be a real thing.

And it's not over.

 

WEEK 13 (March 29, April 03 1999)

 

Bizarre turn of the week : Diamond Dallas Page basically showing heavy signs of turning heel (Nitro). First we get a very strange, overdirected, overenergetic, overacted interview with Mike Tenay in which Tenay looks like he's on coke (or simply too much caffeine), and DDP brushes him off when he calls him the "people's champion". First sign of heelness. Then, the Canada crowd (this is Nitro's first Canadian broadcast, from Toronto) gives him a heel reaction, despite having him argue with Flair, who's clearly a heel now. He gets paired up with Hogan, who got a huge babyface reaction, for an okay Nitro main event. Hey, it doesn't make a whole lotta sense except if you go to the route of "DDP is sick of playing nice which ended up with Kim getting injured, so he's gonna take care of business now.", but his face run was getting tired at this point. We'll see how it will play out the following week back in the good ol'US of A.

 

Angle of the week : You know the one. Bret Hart challenges Goldberg, who KO's himself on a hidden metal plate while spearing Bret. Bret gets a huge reaction, he's clearly a big star in Canada at this point, easily the biggest star of the night. The angle is really well done although I think Bret sold the spear too long. But anyway, this is as close as classic stuff as anything that WCW would produce that year. I totally forgot about the "Hey Bischoff ! I quit." line after the angle though. Bret getting all frustrated was the way to go since it was real. Of course a tragedy would scrap the whole thing.

 

Match of the week : Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman (Nitro). Malenko is much better against fellow cruiserweight. Rey vs Benoit is as great as it sounds. One of the best TV match of the year thus far, maybe the very best. Raven shows up and screws the champs around, Rey ends up being a double champion. This is a title change I had totally forgot. Nice build for the PPV, as we'll get Raven & Saturn vs Horsemen, and tag partners Rey and Kidman going at it for the cruiserweight title. At least some intrigue in the undercard and around the title belts.

 

Promo of the week : Chris Jericho (Nitro). I thought Jericho was done at this point. After all he's not on job duty. Well, he cuts a classic, easy but fun promo totally sucking up to the canadian audience, which sounds right since heel Bret was a babyface here too. Except Jericho ends up turing them upside down at the end and gets a huge chorus of boos. Well done, as the crowd loved the hell out of him when he showed up. His match with Chris Adams was yet another proof that Adams was one of the most underused and underrated worker in the country at this time. Really stupid to not use him at a TV title level like they did with Regal or Finlay at one point.

 

"Spot that doesn't exist" of the week : The Big Wiggle. Norman had been off TV for some time, and then when he showed up he didn't use the Wiggle anymore. It became very clear on Thunder, as when Norman picked up a sign in the alley (which probably refered to the wiggle), the director cut to a crowd shot, then the announcers talked about the big wiggle having been the center of controversy. And later in the match, as Norman was obviously teasing the wiggle, we get another crowd shot while the annoucers wonder if Norman actually did the move as he got a big reaction. Now, I understand the Big Wiggle was really a rather crass move, but it was over as all hell, and the WWF was doing way worse on the other channel. It really harmed Norman's push I think. He's the one who ended up taking it doggystyle.

 

Undercard feud match of the week : Barbarian & Hugh Morrus vs Meng & Jerry Flynn (Saturday Night). Nothing special, but Barbie is always fun, as is Flynn. I'm not a big fan of Da Monster Meng, he's doing way too much no-selling for my taste. And Hugh Morrus, well, Hugh Morrus, as competent as he is, really doesn't strike me as "underrated" or "underused". I'll get back to this when/if I get to the Captain Rection days... Stiff little match. Fun.

 

Line of the week : "That wasn't me, that was Tommy, goof !" Saturn to Raven telling the story of them fighting at summer camp over "that girl Beulah McGillicuty". Raven clearly didn't give a shit anymore and was just having fun. And I love harmless interpromotional overlaping.

 

The US tournament is still going on. It seems. Although there are no bracket at all and we have no idea who's in it and what's going on. The nWo B-Team feud still gets vignettes and matches on damn near every show, unbearable. And we still get vignettes about David Flair and such despite the fact his whole deal seems to have completely crashed with the apparent demise of the nWo as a coherent unit and the upside-downing of the heel-face structure in the company. Seriously, Hogan is apparently a babyface (and after all he's done to WCW Gene is back to licking his balls, which drives me nuts), Kevin Nash some sort of tweener, Scott Steiner is full fledge heel, as is Luger but he seems to be gone while nursing his injury (no more Liz on TV, snif). Oh, I almost forgot, there was a Sting sighting on Nitro. In the rafters. Wearing white and black (remember he was a part of the Wölfpack last time he was around). This is a complete mess. When you add DDP who's apparently turning heel too... Ok. Enough. Head aches.

[jpchicago23]

Interesting comments about Brian Adams as i always thought he was a bit underused in that time frame as well. I would also like to see a fun little TV title reign working matches on Saturday night every week.

[El-P]

Interesting comments about Brian Adams as i always thought he was a bit underused in that time frame as well. I would also like to see a fun little TV title reign working matches on Saturday night every week.

That's Chris Adams for you. Not Brian.

 

Brian was overused and I want him away from my TV set immediately.

[El-P]

WEEK 14 (April 5 to 10, 1999)

 

Match of the week : Raven & Perry Saturn vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman (Nitro). The tag team championship keeps on delivering each week. This time, we get Raven & Saturn vs the smaller champs, and they do bump like crazy, including Kidman taking one of his ridiculous bump to the floor. Rey is very clearly the best worker in the company, which also makes it the best worker in the big two (I'd argue that Tajiri was better than him then).

 

ECW match of the week : Hardcore Hak vs Mickey Whipreck (Thunder). This is pretty surreal. Whipreck had injured an ankle in his debut match against Kidman, so he was off TV until then. Good little match. They had no idea what to do with Whipreck, no idea why they signed him.

 

Dream match of the week : The Cat vs Norman Smiley (Saturday Night). Two of the most entertaining characters on the roster, and they can't get a match elsewhere than on the C-show. Meanwhile, we get a battle royal on Nitro with all the nWo B-team guys. Depressing. Anyway, this is a fun little match. Wiggle is not showed on TV, and even Tenay and Hudson joke about the whole "controversy" stuff.

 

Comeback match of the week : Jim Duggan vs Lenny Lane (Nitro). This is Duggan's first match coming back from cancer. Looks pumped up as hell, with his large scar on the right side. I wasn't happy with his comeback promo a few weeks back, but this match made me smile. Fuck cancer !

 

Debut of the week : Nitro's new look. This is what WCW needed to get back in the ratings. Yes ! I think Jericho almost tripped on the giant C.

 

Death of WCW angle of the week. Sting returns in black and white and points to the video screens, which play a video of Macho Man announcing the main event for Spring Stampede, a four-way match with himself as the guest referee. Okay. Bare with me. Earlier in the show, there was that long sequence of promos by Flair, Hogan, Goldie and DDP which led to a four way on Nitro for the title. It was made clear that Flair was calling the shots, and *he* made the match himslef as he was provoked by DDP and attacked by Goldie after he first gave Hogan a title shot. Sting was supposed to adress the fans. So, ending of the four way sees Sting rappeling down to the ring, like it's 1997, baseball bats and all. Which already makes no sense. And then that abortion occurs. So, the WCW production team put together a video of Macho Man announcing a four-way match that includes Sting and himself as a guest referee. Makes the whole company looks like a total joke on so many levels that I won't even go into it. Also probably the laziest build to a PPV main event ever. Nash's booking of the main event scene is putrid at this point. I forgot, it seems ike DDP is not really a heel after all, not yet at least. Sting ? Who the hell knows why he's back in black and why the hell he's getting a title shot. Macho Man helped Ric Flair defeat Bischoff in January, so by all acount he was a face by then, but now that everything is upside down, who the hell knows. As far as him making the match and being a guest referre, this is just booking at random. It's simply as bad and nonsensical as anything Vince Russo did. Godawful stuff.

 

WCW really looks like it's totally crumbling from the top at this point. There's no direction whatsoever. The undercard stays fun thanks mostly to the tag team scene with Rey/Kidman, Raven/Saturn and Benoit/Malenko (Hennig is injured, so sadly no more him/Windham). The US tournament gets Steiner vs Booker T in the final. Way to make fuck up the TV title. They seemingly put Hak with Bigelow simply because they used to be ECW guys. The fact that Chastity turned on Raven had been forgotten. Rick Steiner is having a bad mini-feud with Fit Finlay (he basically squashes Finlay at every turn), and Buff Bagwell may be the candidate for "most degraded worker" this year. He's bloated and looks all stiff. Not a good comeback, I'm glad they took him away from Steiner.

[jpchicago23]

Interesting comments about Brian Adams as i always thought he was a bit underused in that time frame as well. I would also like to see a fun little TV title reign working matches on Saturday night every week.

That's Chris Adams for you. Not Brian.

 

Brian was overused and I want him away from my TV set immediately.

 

 

Ahh shit how the fuck did i put Brian Adams in there? I prefer the singer over the wrestler in that case but yeah i meant Chris. Guys like him and Martel had fun little stints on the WCW B shows

[Dooley]

Interesting comments about Brian Adams as i always thought he was a bit underused in that time frame as well. I would also like to see a fun little TV title reign working matches on Saturday night every week.

That's Chris Adams for you. Not Brian.

 

Brian was overused and I want him away from my TV set immediately.

 

 

Ahh shit how the fuck did i put Brian Adams in there? I prefer the singer over the wrestler in that case

 

Crush may not have been great shakes in the ring, but I'd watch an hour of his matches from any era before I'd listen to that song from Robin Hood.

[Mando]

Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash vs Goldberg & Ric Flair (Nitro)

I was live in Cincinnati for this show. A friend of mine (who now wrestles as Pompano Joe for Karl Anderson's home fed in the States) and I snuck up as close as we could to the rail since everyone was standing for that match's duration anyway and it's cliche but it was electric just seeing those guys all up there under the lights in the same ring together. That Mysterio vs. Kidman was is really, really great and fared well (think it was #9 on our Top 200 Nitro Matches video countdown we did on my blog).

[Kevin Ridge]

El-P punishes himself with his wrestling viewing projects for our entertainment. I've been only skimming these to avoid spoilers as I've seen little of WCW from 99 towards the end. But good work from what I have read as I wish I was watching along.

[artDDP]

Reading this thread has left me wishing I'd done a lot more drinking in high school.

[El-P]

PPV 4 : Spring Stampede 1999

 

Match of the night : Raven & Perry Saturn vs Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko. Most heated match of the card from the get-go. Someone must do something right. Saturn & Raven showed some pretty cool double-team move. Malenko works better as a heel, his wooden personnality plays out better this way. The ending is excellent, but also shows to how much lenghts Benoit was willing to go, which didn't do him any favor in the long haul.

 

Honorable mention of the night : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Kidman. Pretty long match which gets better as it goes, although with Kidman it never goes beyond a your turn/my turn formula, with each one trying big moves to end the match and countering each others.

 

Upset win match of the night : Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair vs DDP vs Sting. So, Macho is the special referee. Comes out with Gorgeous George, who looks like a porn star. Midlife crisis anyone ? I give credit to Savage for updating his look, although it includes getting back on roids which wasn't the best decision. Flair and Hogan look old at this point, and Flair just goes into routine mode instead of getting anything out of the setting of the match. Just bust out his cliché spots against Hulk and Sting, like he's doing extract from older matches instead of actually working the current one. He also blows up some stuff and depsite still looking crisp in spots, basically is the worst of the four. Can't say much about Hogan, as he's carried out after having his knee injured by DDP. Gotta find a way to not look like he lost another match on PPV I guess. DDP vs Sting is the best part of the match, and they work some good little stuff together. No explanation why Sting is back in 1997, but he's still really over. DDP winning the belt was nice for him, as he was the best worker in the match and he deserved it at some point, but it came at least one year too late, he wasn't at the peak of his babyface run anymore, and it's obvious people wanted Sting to win judging by the mild pop he got. Oh, I almost forgot Macho "betraying" Flair (how did he betray him anyway, Macho came off as a face) which basically led him to lose. Match had its moments.

 

Get you win back match of the night : Kevin Nash vs Goldberg. They work Lex and Liz (well, kinda) in the match too as they were involved in the infamous Fingerpoke of Doom angle and the beatdown that followed, which is neat. Nash gets a lot of offense before Goldie's comeback. Nice spot as Nash actually leapfrog over the spear, that was pretty unexpected and showed that Nash was a resourceful worker when he wanted to be. Goldie gets his win back four months too late for it to really matter, but hey, at least now he's even, and also got his shot on Luger, so not complaining.

 

ECW match of the night : Hak vs Bam Bam Bigelow. Chastity is in total slut look now, the announcer are all over her. This is the typical, bust stuff over the head of your opponent match, complete with Tony saying the trash can shots don't jurt as much as they sound like. Hak does alll the cool work and bumps here. Man, Bam Bam never cease to underwhelm, he's not too good and badly blows up a basic spot too. This is nonsensical but kinda fun thanks to Hak.

 

Future of WCW match of the night : Scott Steiner vs Booker T. Steiner is an awesome heel, giving the people their money's worth, antogonizing, sometimes almost in a physical way, people in the front row. Deliberate Steiner kind of match, which works for Booker since he only has a few token spots he can put it in. Works quite well here, and Steiner heel tactics and ref intimidation are the bulk of the match, feeding Booker at the right time for his comebacks. Steiner wins the US belt. Long time overdue. Booker remains the TV title, so now you've got two champions that are over in the midcard and make both belts matter.

 

Pretty good PPV, with a nice stretch of matches during the second half. Considering how horribly this was build (well, mainly the main event to be honest, the undercard was actually decently built), this was a rather good surprise. Steiner winning the US belt and DDP winning the WCW title freshen things up, the tag was very good and had heat, the cruiserweight looked good (with a nice Juvy vs Blitzkrieg opener), with only Disco vs Konnan being way too long and a useless Scotty Riggs vs Mickey Whipreck match thrown in (I like both guys, but this made no sense with zero build at all for either guy, especially Mickey). No stupid shit nor booking that made no sense (actually everything was well balanced in term of satisfying results for heel and faces). Best PPV of the year I would say thus far.

[artDDP]

I had forgotten all about the Nash-Goldberg rematch until you mentioned the leapfrog. Now I remember it well.

 

What I remember most about this PPV was my friends and I laughing hysterically for days for some reason at Savage illustrating Hogan's knee injury with his hands. Savage motioned to the crowd like he was breaking a pencil in two.

[El-P]

Yeah, Savage was actually good in this role, he didn't get in the way of the match until his spot with Flair, did the job of counting pretty well and had a cool way of putting over the action at times.

[El-P]

WEEK 15 (April 12 to 17, 1999)

 

Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Juventud Guerrera (Thunder). They already had a match on Nitro which was stopped after the Horsemen jumped on Rey. Juvy is in full rudo mode. it's sad they didn't get a real built in feud in WCW, seems like they only really got paired in random matches (they had a short deal while in the lWo but that was it). They fumbled on one spot, but the rest of the match is poetry in motion as usual with these two. Rey gets Juvy with a brutal top rope frankensteiner, Rey's execution of the move is explosive, and the way Juvy takes it makes it look even better. One bad thing though, was Juvy using the People's elbow. Made them look totally second rate. I'm amazed no one told him he had to stop doing this immediately.

 

Nostalgia match of the week : Ric Flair vs Sting (Nitro). "For old times sake", as said by a hysterical Sting earlier on the show. Whoever wants to argue was still a great wrestler in 1999 oughta watch this match. He's in total routine mode, doing the same match he was doing 9 years before, looking old and tired doing it. And it's one of these match where Sting no-sells 90% of Flair offense, making him look like an old bitch. He also wears awful looking white shoes. Eventually, since these two knows each other so well, it turn into something enjoyable if you're into that sort of stuff, mostly because Sting works kinda hard at it, but Flair was clearly not even what I'd call a *good worker* at this point. He could be fun to watch at points, and could also be sad to watch.

 

Sad promo of the week : Stevie Ray (Thunder). This to me signs the official death certificate of the nWo. This is Stevie Ray "taking over", burying Hogan who's injured, burying Lex, Nash and Steiner for various nonsensical reasons. The nWo as a main event faction was essentially dead for a few weeks now, but this is what ends it all to me. From now on, the nWo is a mid-card JTTS small group, and while Nash and Steiner still use the Wölfpack music, there is no nWo per say anymore. It's barely an afterthought. It's bizarre to think the biggest angle in the history of the company, and the second biggest one of the decade, eventually just petered out. Stevie Ray wants DDP's belt, he'll do the job later on the show. Bad promo too, as Stevie Ray was not just a bad worker in the ring.

 

Stiff fest of the week : Barbarian vs Jerry Flynn (Saturday Night). My favourite C show feud. Thank you Jimmy Hart for booking this. You know the drill, Barbie and Jerry Flynn exchange stiff offens. Fun stuff.

 

Payback match of the week : DDP vs Scott Steiner (Nitro). DDP was such in a bizarre tweener spot. Here he's full on babyface, coming out with Kimberly and taking revanche on Big Poppa Pump. Fairly heated and dynamic, with enough time to actually build to a very satisfying finish. Kim swings a mean chair. I didn't think we'd have an actual conclusion to this feud that made sense. Good stuff.

 

Stupid angle of the week : Ric Flair signs some paper but doesn't even read it. (Thunder) Arn is going crazy because Flair is not even looking what he's signing. You know what this will lead to...

 

WTF angle of the week : Savage makes a challenge to Flair, his girl vs Flair's "girl" (Nitro) If Gorgeous George wins, Savage is "reinstated". Except he was never suspended of anything, but whatever. George slaps the hell out of Robinson. This is goofy but quite fun actually.

 

Debut of the week : DJ Ran (Nitro). He's all up in ya area. (seriously, he wasn't bad or anything, plus I heard he hated Master P. and thought it was crap)

 

nWo dead. Buff Bagwell and Vampiro had a pretty bad match on Thunder. Bam Bam Bigelow keeps on not showing me much. Mickey Whipreck is a competitive jobber. Hogan gone for some time. Nash seemingly turning face again, or something, not really sure. The heel/face structure at the top is a big mess.

[El-P]

WEEK 16 (April 19 to 24, 1999)

 

Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Juventud Guerrera vs Blitzkrieg vs Psychosis (Nitro). Not a big fan of 4-ways or 3-ways, especially when it's not an elimination match, but this got so ridiculous in term of high flying and big spots that it was actually quite fun. They worked a semi-storyline of Psychosis and Juvy kinda working together at times against technicos Rey and Blitzkrieg, and the psychology or having to get rid of two opponents before being able to pin the third was well established. Obviously a way to get the belt off Rey without having him do the job, but having Blitz take the pin kinda made Psychosis's win a bit minor key.

 

Honorable mention of the week : Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko & Kidman vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Raven & Perry Saturn (Thunder). Rey and Kidman still are the tag champs, and the two other teams are gunning for them. Fun dynamics with Kidman and Rey not wanting to hurt each others, while the Horsemen are especially vicious. Arn gets physical at the end, which is always fun. Tag team wrestling has been the best thing on WCW TV in 1999 thus far in term of feuds and matches.

 

Funniest match of the week : Goldberg vs The Cat (Thunder). The Cat does his five count deal with Goldie, but actually gets a cheap shot in. Not as dumb as one could think ! Very fun squash.

 

Stupid angle of the week : Roddy Piper sends Ric Flair into a mental hospital (Nitro). He's Ric Flair's friend and wants to protect him from himself. Flair is batshit insane, fires Piper but wants a match with him at Slamboree for the control of the company. Piper accepts. Nothing makes any sense, it's all pretty damn terrible. Flair gets carried away after his match with Nash. Yes, Flair had a match with Nash, which saw Nash do backbody drops on Flair, a spot than Nash never ever does. There you go again Flair, forcing spots on people who never usually do them. Nash was quite good at selling for Flair though, very nice way to register the punches.

 

Tweener turns heel/tweener turns face match of the week : Goldberg vs DDP (Nitro). So, DDP is a full fledge heel now, as he does a clear turn for the bad side during his match with Goldie, getting a foreign object and trying to bust his knee out. Goldi is only saved by Nash, who definitly turns clear cut face. What a mess of a main event scene, but at least now it seems like things are getting a little bit more clear, although Steiner and the rest of the nWo are still heels (except Hogan, who's out injured and who's a face). The match itself was actually quite exciting, no one gets more out of Goldberg than DDP. He let him kick out of his Diamond Cutter, which makes Goldie look like The Man. Good job by DDP.

 

Line of the week : "It looks like you're looking for a job !" Tony Schiavone to Dusty Rhodes, who guest announced the Nitro main event and made a great pre-match hype job for it.

 

Nitro was actually quite solid all around with quite a bit of fun matches and two big time matches/angles at the end. Odd fact, I totally remembered the hot girl behind Scott Steiner when he cut his weekly promo (the one on the right who seemed way into it). The Flair and Roddy angle is stupid, but outside of that, everything else pretty much made sense. They build toward Nash & DDP at the PPV, the three team tag match, now they can have a cruiserweight match too since Rey isn't the champ anymore, Buff challenged Steiner (although I don't expect anything from that match, Buff just isn't the worker he was before the injury). Oh, and Berlyn was sitting in the crowd. And Macho Man brought Madusa back to train Gorgeous George.

[Death From Above]

That Flair/Piper angle and the whole nuthouse thing is the total shits, but I actually enjoyed their PPV blowoff match. Just two old dudes (Piper in particular looks pretty immobile) just doing THAT MATCH they both know how to do where they chop and eye poke and low blow each other for 12 minutes. That I can go with. Stupid angle though. I can't decide if they were really trying to bury Flair or if it was just a really dumb idea someone actually believed was good. It's hard to tell with WCW sometimes. I seem to vaguely recall that Piper's WCW contract guaranteed him something like 6 PPV appearances and they cooked this whole thing up to fulfill the last of those, but that might not be quite right.

 

The Gorgeous George/Charles Robinson match was damned funny too. Robinson hamming it up to the Nth degree as Ric Flair Jr. was pretty great as a one-off, or at least I thought so then. I think I might still have that tape, I should pop it in when you get there next update or two.

 

I do feel like the fact there's a Konnan vs. Stevie Ray match on that same PPV should come with a warning label, though.

[BBscout]

Same exact thing happens in Havoc main event that happened at Uncensored too. Schiavone asks if Sting-Goldberg is for the title or not, and if they could get a referee at some point. Thought I was tripping when I read your recap but it happened both times.

[El-P]

That Flair/Piper angle and the whole nuthouse thing is the total shits, but I actually enjoyed their PPV blowoff match. Just two old dudes (Piper in particular looks pretty immobile) just doing THAT MATCH they both know how to do where they chop and eye poke and low blow each other for 12 minutes.

That's also the recollection I have from this match. I wonder though, as Piper has been rotten in the ring the few times I've seen him in 98 and 99 thus far. We'll see, I have one more week of TV to go (and what a Nitro it was... oh man... you better enjoy the "bizarre turn of the week" stuff... and the "stupid title switches of the week" stuff too...)

[El-P]

WEEK 17 (April 26 to May 01, 1999)

 

I'm not gonna lie, this is getting tougher... I'm kinda get angry behind my screen watching 14 year old pro-wrestling...

 

Match of the week : Sting vs DDP (Nitro) They throw around this main event caliber match at the top of the second hour, facing RAW. They clearly are getting desperate here. And it's gonna get worse. For now though, this is pretty great. Not a great match per say, but clearly one of Sting's best in ages. What makes this so fun is two things : first, the heat is seriously amazing, WCW audience were so into Sting winning the title that they made this match so much better than it probably is. Second, they worked some terrific nearfalls at the end, and it seemed like DDP would lose and Sting would indeed win the title. Until he did. And they it exploded, litteraly. Great Nitro moment, and it showed that Sting still was worthy of a run at the top as the babyface of the company. Yes but....

 

Retarded match of the week : Sting vs DDP vs Goldberg vs Kevin Nash (Nitro) Yeah. For the title too. Because we need two fucking world title matches on the same show. Before making this match from "the loony bin", Flair also changed the Slamboree main event into Sting vs Goldberg. With two weeks of build. Nice. Anyway, so they throw these four together and it's a bit messy and doesn't attain near the same level of intensity as DDP vs Sting earlier on. And then. Randy Savage, who's a babyface feuding with Flair mind you, attacks Sting, saves DDP and basically gives him the victory, and the title. Yep. Yet another nonsensical heel/face dynamic on top, and Sting was the champ for a whole 90 minutes. Rating jerk-off booking.

 

Retarded title switch of the week 2 : Rey Mysterio Jr. pins Psychosis in 4 minutes to win his title back (Nitro). Yep. After winning an epic 20 minutes 4-way the previous and scoring the upset win, Psych jobs hard in a match that is nothing but a backdrop for another Horsemen attack on Rey. This is so stupid.

 

Godawful vignettes & angle of the week : Flair at the mental hospital gives instructions to Charles Robinson who is the active vice president of the company (Nitro) Yep. Charles Robinson apaprently was the vice-president and as such can overule Piper. The Flair vignettes are embarrassing to watch. Scott Hall making a cameo is the only "funny" moment. That muscular nurse only brings more bad memories. Complete shit. Again, this is as bad as anything Russo was doing in WWF at the time, and it's obvious Nash was copying the hotshotting and stupid vignette style of Russo.

 

Stupid job of the week : Raven doing the job to Steve and Scott Armstrong (Nitro). Why ? Supposedly Saturn had been attacked by the Horsemen earlier on. Still, this has no point and the announcers make it worse by calling it a huge upset, which really doesn't make Raven look like a big deal but rather make the Armstrong look like complete jabroni. They beat up a guy 2 on 1 and it's still a huge upset ? Shit.

 

Get some relief match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Kaz Hayashi (Saturday Night). Apart from Hayashi doing his own version ofthe People's Elbow (seriously, WTF ?!!), this was a nice little cruiserweight match which ended the week on a better note.

 

This was hard to get through. So much shit going on. Booker T is now getting some unwanted help from his big brother, thrilling. He's also showing me each and every time that he was pretty much a poor worker at this point. Really got into a total routine with sloppy spots, awkward set-ups and shitty looking shots, always doing the exact same spots with the exact same transitions at the exact same point of the match. I never thought much of Booker, but his stock has dropped a lot thus far in 1999. Ditto Bam Bam who thus far has been way more disapointing than he already was in ECW. The same garbage matches every week with Hak are getting old, and that's coming from a Sandman fan. He's not working with terribly exciting opposition either, Hugh Morrus and now Brian Knobbs... Of course we'll get that thrilling feud between Konnan and nWo Black & White. And Rick Steiner is getting a single push. Meanwhile, Kaz Hayashi, The Cat, Norman Smiley, Fit Finlay among others do nothing of note. And I know it's not gonna get better with the horrible Summer on the horizon... I need some support people....

[Loss]

The summer coming up is ... just ... wow bad. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it in wrestling. Please stick with it. Kevin Nash vs Randy Savage may be the single worst main event program of all time.

 

Sting/DDP was a match I liked, and yes, the Hall cameo was very funny. But Nash took a company that was behind the WWF, but was very much still in the game and capable of turning things around and completely threw it off the rails.

 

Amazingly, I still think WCW was salvageable when Russo started too. It was a company people wanted to give a chance and that people wanted to do well. That's the frustrating part.

[Death From Above]

Bigelow was a bad garbage wrestler, and although I'm not his biggest fan, it doesn't show off his skills at all. I am pretty sure the only reason they had him doing it is "he used to work in ECW", which is pretty stupid rationale. I think he's a prime example of a guy that was hurt at this point by them not really taking the tag titles that seriously. Which is weird because as you've noted, there's a lot of decent matches going on in the tag scene at this point (probably because it's an area most of the power players in WCW are ignoring it so it got filled up with guys actually working). There are quite a few loose end guys in WCW I could have seen making a cool team with Bigelow if there'd been much of a division there. Instead they have him hitting guys with cookie sheets. The whole thing reeked of copying a trend that was already cooling off for the WWE if I remember the timline of the WWE hardcore title correctly (which I probably don't).

 

I remember this two world title matches thing. So over the top. Also Savage helping DDP win hurts the wrestling fan compartment of my brain. I have no memory of this whole sequence where Juvi won the title then dropped it to Rey in a nothing match at all.

 

Amazingly, I still think WCW was salvageable when Russo started too. It was a company people wanted to give a chance and that people wanted to do well. That's the frustrating part.

There was still the odd good thing - I will go to bat for 3 Count as a gimmick any day of the week - and it was so bizarre watching all these relatively interesting workers involved in such a terribly uninteresting, yet hypnotic trainwreck.

[El-P]

Please stick with it. Kevin Nash vs Randy Savage may be the single worst main event program of all time.

You really want me to be driven insane.

 

But Nash took a company that was behind the WWF, but was very much still in the game and capable of turning things around and completely threw it off the rails.

Agreed. And it has gotten noticeably worse since the Flair turn I would say. The storyline arc of Flair getting control of WCW was nice, but Hogan turning tweener then face for absolutely no reason while Flair tunred heel just fucked things up big time on top, and it's been a gigantic mess since then. The way the nWo pretty much pettered out is pretty amazing when you think it was the biggest angle ever in the company and the second biggest of the decade in the US or anywhere for that matter. Kayfabe-wise, it's like the nWo crumbling from within let WCW without an enemy to fight, so Flair just got back to his old ways and got insane with power, and then everyone was in only for themselves, thus a big time mess and total lack of direction and heel/face dynamics. I'm rationalizing the best I can here !

 

Bigelow was a bad garbage wrestler, and although I'm not his biggest fan, it doesn't show off his skills at all. I am pretty sure the only reason they had him doing it is "he used to work in ECW", which is pretty stupid rationale.

Totally agree. They had no idea how to use him after the initial Goldberg debacle. I think his finest hour in WCW will come with the New Jersey Triad days. Well, I can only hope so at this point.

 

Which is weird because as you've noted, there's a lot of decent matches going on in the tag scene at this point (probably because it's an area most of the power players in WCW are ignoring it so it got filled up with guys actually working).

I'm not so sure they were ignored. They got the Horsemen vs Raven/Saturn vs Kidman feud going pretty well, with simple angles every week (basically, the Horsemen fucking up the other two teams, which is exactly what the Horsemen should do). Nothing elaborate, but it was simple and efficient booking and led to good matches. Really, the tag team division has been the only running saving grace of the product thus far. Really took the role of the cruiserweight division from 96 to 98 it seems like. Of course it won't last very long. We still got the Jersey Triads period which was cool from memory, and then...

 

I have no memory of this whole sequence where Juvi won the title then dropped it to Rey in a nothing match at all.

That was Psych. Poor guy, he never went beyond highest JTTS level luchador. It's funny, I seem to remember that Blitzkrieg actually got the belt at one point, but I doubt it will happen now. His stint really seems like it was ridiculously overblown back then (by us I mean), although he had lot of potential. Probably a capoeira practicionner judging from the way he moved.

 

I forgot to mention this was the week Rick Rude died. He got a still picture and a three count before Nitro...

[goc]

This is my favorite topic on this board and I eagerly hope for a new post from El-P here every time I log on.

[El-P]

Well, thanks, that is heart-warming. I need love, Kevin Nash is doing bad things to my brain...

 

WEEK 18 (May 03 to 08, 1999)

 

Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Kanyon (Thunder). Kanyon is back ! And he's working a really good match with Rey Mysterio, maybe his best single match thus far. Sadly there is no finish since Rey is under the Horsemen radar, but it's nice to see him work with a heavyweight who can take his cruiser offense like a king.

 

World title match of the week : Ric Flair vs DDP (Nitro). They throw big match around on live TV like crazy. This is in Charlotte, so Flair works like a fiery babyface, which means he'll connect at least one coming off the tope rope. He'll also get thrown, don't worry. 95% of his offense consists of chops. Despite what he says in his (not so good) promos, DDP is not in his prime anymore, and it shows at points, but he's still way ahead of Flair as a worker at this point. I enjoyed this match probably more than I should considering Flair's limitations. He also take bumps like an old guy at points. Savage once again helps DDP to win.

 

Stiffest match of the week : Bam Bam Bigelow vs Hak (Nitro). Nope, Bam Bam isn't shining in those matches, and they basically kill each other with plunders without much creativity. The really bad part is when Brian Knobbs shows up at the end and attacks both guys with ridiculous stiff shots. If there's a guy I dind't need to see on my TV again, that was Knobbs. And he's getting a push. Way to go Nash.

 

C-show feud match of the week : Barbarian vs Jerry Flynn (Saturday Night). Why are these two on Saturday Night having cool little matches while Knobbs and Stevie Ray get PPV spots ?

 

Funniest match of the week : Meng vs David Flair (Nitro) Flair booked his son with Meng, to punish him for betraying him and sending him into a mental hospital. Meng kills David Flair. This is fun. Hey ! Torrie Wilson is still around David ! Wait, wasn't she with him only to get him against his father in an elaborate nWo ploy ? Why is she still with David ? What happened with that whole angle ? Remember Ms Robinson ? No one knows, including Nash apparently.

 

Line of the week : "Arn, book him with Meng ! Book him with Meng !" Yeah, that was legit funny.

 

Random match of the week : The Cat vs Buff Bagwell (Nitro) This is the best match Bagwell had since his comeback. The Cat is ridiculously entertaining to me, and he knows how to get heat for himself while stalling. This is psychology people. Bagwell is mediocre at best now but he sure is over, although his character as a babyface is grating to me. The heat helped, but the work was decent enough and they kept things moving. I enjoyed this more than any Bagwell match in a long while.

 

Flair cut an insane promo on Nitro, building the Gorgeous George vs Charles Robinson feud, with George being choked by the muscular nurse. That sucked, it feels like a rehash of the Chyna character, which would only get more obvious when she'll get a name. They also "built" the Goldberg vs Sting match with them going at it other, why, we don't really know. The crowd is super hot for this, and it's a shame this match is wasted on a secondary spot. This could have been a Starrcade main event with a few months worth of build. Nash vs DDP hasn't been built very well, as all the intrigue and heat is on Macho Man & George vs Robinson and Flair vs Piper. The undercard looks so-so, with Buff vs Scott Steiner and Rick vs Booker T, to downright bad with Bam Bam vs Knobbs (ugh). Most promising match on paper is the tag team championship match, once again.

[Death From Above]

I'm the weirdo who likes Brian Knobbs. He also takes one of the most retarded bumps ever in that PPV match. Hooray!