WCW's Highway to Hell

[Loss]

Hotshot tite change of the week : Psychosis loses the cruiserweight title to Disco Inferno (Nitro). Yep, Psych apparently won the title on the week-end over Lenny, and he does the job to Disco (who looks way tOuch ! Well there was still ECW but... yeah. Wrong year.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall, the title change from Lenny to Psicosis was worked and never actually happened. They needed to write Lenny and Lodi out immediately due to pressure from GLAAD, so this is how they made it happen.

[caley]

Hotshot tite change of the week : Psychosis loses the cruiserweight title to Disco Inferno (Nitro). Yep, Psych apparently won the title on the week-end over Lenny, and he does the job to Disco (who looks way too big to be a cruiserweight, that even was the entire point of the angle last time he competed for the belt). Good thing the whole Lenny thing was dropped, it was eye gouging. Too bad for Psych, who gives away his mask only to have the chance to lose a title we haven't seen him win on TV.

Around 1998, I started doing a running, kayfabed Top 30 for each week. I'd watch every bit of WWE and WCW I could see, made notes of who beat whom and would shuffle the deck accordingly (With Saturday Night you'd have guys like Mike Enos winning each week until you had no choice but to lift him into the Top 10, then he'd come out on Nitro, lose to the NWO and drop all the way, way back down). I think this might have been the week I gave up, because I had no idea how to give Psychosis points for a belt he didn't win, nor give Disco the points for winning the title, when he never really beat the champion. BTW, if you have problems with Disco being too heavy for the title, wait until you see what's coming!

 

Stupid angle of the week : Goldberg reduces Sid's car to a little cube of twisted steel (Nitro) This is the kind of stuff I didn't care for in WWF when Austin was stuffing Vince's limo with concrete, don't expect me to care with Goldie and Sid. Plus it screams "we're imitating WWF" here, which isn't the right way to go. Sid screaming "Why me ?" was insanely ridiculous.

Oh God, this angle! My sister, who put up with my brother and I watching wrestling for a few years and would often watch along just to see what we were talking about, still, to this day, will occasionally lift her hands in the air and go "Goldberg! Why me!?" Even by pro wrestling standards, Sid was an awful actor. The only person I can think of, off the top of my head, who might be a worse actor in wrestling, is Mike Awesome.

 

So, we learn that Russo & Ferrera have been signed (is it a first that creatives are actually referred on the air as as such ?), we have a swerve, we have a WWF-like backstage angle, we have a shooty-shooty promo, we have hotshot title changes... hum...

I like how when Russo becomes an off-camera voice named 'The Powers That Be'. Also you have the absolute worst shoot moment coming up

 

When Buff Bagwell comes out and says something about "the writers in the back" and it's just awful

 

[Gregor]

I think this might have been the week I gave up, because I had no idea how to give Psychosis points for a belt he didn't win, nor give Disco the points for winning the title, when he never really beat the champion.

Psychosis defended three titles on WCW TV that year. He actually won only one of those titles, never once pinned the champion, and had no successful defenses. All in all, he won one title that year and lost three, one of which he isn't recognized as ever holding.

[caley]

I think this might have been the week I gave up, because I had no idea how to give Psychosis points for a belt he didn't win, nor give Disco the points for winning the title, when he never really beat the champion.

Psychosis defended three titles on WCW TV that year. He actually won only one of those titles, never once pinned the champion, and had no successful defenses. All in all, he won one title that year and lost three, one of which he isn't recognized as ever holding.

 

That's amazing. He lost all.the.time, too. He had more losses than guys like the Armstrongs, IIRC.

[Bix]

That Kidman bump from the Devon Storm march is burned into my memory. For a guy who was becoming a big bumper that was the craziest bump I ever saw him take.

[El-P]

WEEK 41 (October 11 to 16, 1999)

 

Heartbreaking moment of the week : Bobby Heenan saying goodbye to Gorilla Monsoon (Nitro). Moosoon had just passed away. This is really sad to watch, as the emotion is as genuine as ever here. Poor Bobby is paying hommage to his late friend and really does a great effort to not break down in tears afterward. You can see him twisting his pen with his fingers and looking down at his notes and finally taking a deep breath before taking his turn to talk about this edition of Nitro. One of the most emotional moment I've seen on a wrestling TV show.

 

Feud of the week : Perry Saturn & Rey Mysterio Jr. (Nitro & Thunder). They had an explosive match on Nitro which ended with Douglas trying to interfere only to be stopped by Malenko. Later in the show we would get a tag match with Saturn & Dean Malenko, subbing for Douglas who's not cleared to work because of his elbow injury, against Kidman & Rey in a very good match that is the best of this week. At the end Douglas subbornly interferes again, throws his chain to Saturn who then proceed to bash Kidman with it. Watching what happened on the screen, Malenko throws away his Revolution T-shirt and spits at Douglas. Earlier in the show, Benoit had already left the group as he was confronted by Douglas about his loyalty (Benoit was scheduled to tag with Bret). On Thunder Saturn vs Rey once again in the lesser match of the three, but with some funny bits of announcing from Kevin Nash, who goes crazy with calling everything "Old Glory" (dating to a Jim Duggan match earlier in the show). The whole Revolution vs Animals feud as been pretty fun, and Douglas & Saturn clearly turning heel was the right way to go.

 

Cryptic shooty-shooty comment of the week : Hogan saying he'll show to the "guys in the back" or something... (Nitro). I think the rumour had it that Russo wasn't gonna use Hogan on top anymore after Halloween Havoc, so Hogan just said this stuff at the end of his promo. It must have gone over everyone's head.

 

Better then expected match of the night : Ric Flair vs Curt Hennig (Nitro). Hennig was hitting on Torrie Wilson backstage when David Flair showed up, very unhappy. Torrie basically brushes him off (despite being basically a babyface being hit on by a heel here) and Hennig beats him up. So we get yet another Flair vs Hennig match, but it's better than the one they had the previous year, entirely because Hennig is much better now. Hennig does a hilarious sell of a low-blow, basically doing a moonwalk spot. Priceless. The ending is kinda lame, Flair pinning Hennig with the help of the ropes despite being way too far off for the ropes to really matter and despite having Curly Bill just right there at ringside. Man, Vincent is worthless in any role he gets, the fact he got a check from WCW for so long is a damn hold-up.

 

Random match of the week : Lex Luger & Rick Steiner vs Bugg Bagwell & La Parka (Thunder). Yep. Bagwell interrupted a Luger interview earlier and got beat up by the Package and Liz's huge boobs, wait, by Rick Steiner, when La Parka showed up to save him. Why La Parka ? No freaking idea. This is the most random run in ever. So we get this short brawling match. Steiner sells shit. The ending is even more bizarre. Bagwell gets Luger in position for his finisher when at the same time La Parka enters the ring with his chair, so Luger retreats and Bagwell looks like an idiot standing on the ropes. So since La Parka is basically right in front of him, he applies the Blockbuster on him and leaves the ring. WTF ?

 

On Nitro, Goldie actually speared Sid. Best use of Sid since he showed up in WCW. The angle is that Goldie wasn't supposed to touch Sid before the PPV, so now there's a cliffhanger about will the match happen or not. Berlyn is packing wins but all the heat goes on the bodyguard since he's the one getting the wins by punching people around. I hate this. He should only do it in big matches, Berlyn looks like a jabronee when he can't beat a JTTS by himself. He was doomed. Yet another pedobear approved vignette starring Dustin as Uncle Fester (that's a spoiler for you). What were they thinking ? That they could create their version of the Undertaker ? Anyway, most of what happened thus far doesn't matter because starting next week : VINCE RUSSO & ED FERRERA are going to SAVE WCW ! Because they are responsible for the success of the WWF for the past two years. The pendulum of power will finally go back the other way and a new era of rating victories for WCW will happen, it will be as big as the nWo... Yep. I guess that's how they sold themselves or something. Seriously, I think the company was still salvageable at this point, with the right bookers and ideas. It certainly wasn't going into the right direction yet, but the post Nash era, especially after Bischoff was gone, saw an distinct effort to actually give the company some balance and some direction. Going back to nostalgia wasn't gonna cut it, but you also felt they were trying to rebuild Goldberg back up, giving him more quick wins, having him do his long intro from teh backstage area with the security guards. Benoit was paired up with Bret Hart, so who knows what they intended to do with them in the months to come. The product was cold, but it wasn't horrible like during most of the Nash days, which are the ones which made it cold in the first place. Yeah, WCW was salveagable. By keeping on digging its own niche and not trying to catch up with the red hot WWF. But of course, it's not what happened. Next week, the Russo era 1.0 begins. Russo had killed my love for the WWF product earlier in the year, and he would kill what was left of my interest for mainstream US wrestling in a matter of two months or so. I don't remember if I made it to Starrcade. I know that by 2000, I had thrown the towel.

 

So, with that being said, I'm taking a break now, which is convenient since I'm also taking some vacations. In a few weeks I'll come back and dive deep into arguably the worst wrestling TV ever for a major company. Or I may take all those files, put them in the trash can and click "Empty the trash can". Who knows.

[artDDP]

If memory serves Tony Schiavone tried to prevent that tribute to Gorilla from making the air. I think this was the night Heenan told Schiavone, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you down here" and turned his back on him or something like that.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

C'mon El-P, take one for the team. You would have the patience of God if you can get through WCW 2000. I think it'd be appropriate to exploit your coming grieve by placing bets on whether you can make it through. Any takers ?

 

Great thread, by the way.

[s1rweeze]

So, with that being said, I'm taking a break now

You deserve one. This is my favorite thread here so I very much appreciate the write-ups you do for each week, despite how painful and/or boring they may be.

[flyonthewall2983]

If memory serves Tony Schiavone tried to prevent that tribute to Gorilla from making the air. I think this was the night Heenan told Schiavone, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you down here" and turned his back on him or something like that.

Bobby probably legit hated Tony before this night. I say this because the time I met him for an autograph session at a record store earlier that year (I even remember when it was, because it was the day before Owen died), I engaged in a brief Q&A with him. Because it was a record store I asked him what music he liked and he gave a pretty non-descriptive answer and the follow-up was "what does Tony like?". His response was "little boys in closets".

[Guest Nell Santucci]

If memory serves Tony Schiavone tried to prevent that tribute to Gorilla from making the air. I think this was the night Heenan told Schiavone, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you down here" and turned his back on him or something like that.

Bobby probably legit hated Tony before this night. I say this because the time I met him for an autograph session at a record store earlier that year (I even remember when it was, because it was the day before Owen died), I engaged in a brief Q&A with him. Because it was a record store I asked him what music he liked and he gave a pretty non-descriptive answer and the follow-up was "what does Tony like?". His response was "little boys in closets".

 

If false, that's a very low thing to say. I suspect there were a lot of rumors going around.

 

Heenan was always very apathetic toward the WCW product. I wonder if he felt that Tony Schiavone was just a stooge, which he probably was given his Mick Foley comments and his annoying punchline of "This is the greatest day in the history of our sport." Someone like Heenan would have a natural aversion to that, even if Tony was just doing his job.

[Loss]

Tony pulling out the threats at the broadcast booth always made me smile.

 

"Don't you dare go away!"

 

Or what, Tony? What are you going to do to me if I go away?

[flyonthewall2983]

He said it in a joking manner no different than if you would have heard him say it in the broadcast booth, that's all I took it as. In retrospect he didn't seem too pleased to be there, with marks like me asking him tired questions and having to put up with the local rock station (who sponsored the event) playing at full blast.

[Tim Evans]

Did Brian Adams have any matches as the Kiss Demon? I only remember him being the character during his debut during the Kiss concert.

 

Can't wait till ELP gets to the epic Super J/Chono vs Rotunda/Rick Steiner match from January 2000. One of the worst WCW matches I've ever seen.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

I'm surprised El-P gave any praise to the Maestro. I remember his work. He came off as an out of shape, clumsy guy who had no business being there. In fact, the truth is that he had about as much business being there as our good friend Curly Bill. He was signed to WCW because the Macho Man Randy Savage had a girlfriend, Georgiana, and she wanted the name "Gorgeous George". As it would turn out, the Maestro, who used to work for SMW as Gorgeous George III, had a trademark on the name. So he was signed to give up rights to the name whilst working people that he is really related to the original Gorgeous George as his "grand uncle".

 

One thing I will say about his work though is he always seemed to put an effort in his matches, but he was still a bad worker. I remember reading through a 1995 Wrestling Observer where one of Meltzer's sources noted that his dark match was "pretty bad". It was on the same night that Chris Benoit worked with Owen Hart.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

I must say that throughout this thread, I really have cringed all along. I mean, it's a human tragedy that WCW went under and all the warning signs were there when they needed to change up. Eric Bischoff is a fucking fool.

[Johnny Guitar]

Anyway, most of what happened thus far doesn't matter because starting next week : VINCE RUSSO & ED FERRERA are going to SAVE WCW ! Because they are responsible for the success of the WWF for the past two years. The pendulum of power will finally go back the other way and a new era of rating victories for WCW will happen, it will be as big as the nWo... Yep. I guess that's how they sold themselves or something. Seriously, I think the company was still salvageable at this point, with the right bookers and ideas. It certainly wasn't going into the right direction yet, but the post Nash era, especially after Bischoff was gone, saw an distinct effort to actually give the company some balance and some direction. Going back to nostalgia wasn't gonna cut it, but you also felt they were trying to rebuild Goldberg back up, giving him more quick wins, having him do his long intro from teh backstage area with the security guards. Benoit was paired up with Bret Hart, so who knows what they intended to do with them in the months to come. The product was cold, but it wasn't horrible like during most of the Nash days, which are the ones which made it cold in the first place. Yeah, WCW was salveagable. By keeping on digging its own niche and not trying to catch up with the red hot WWF. But of course, it's not what happened. Next week, the Russo era 1.0 begins. Russo had killed my love for the WWF product earlier in the year, and he would kill what was left of my interest for mainstream US wrestling in a matter of two months or so. I don't remember if I made it to Starrcade. I know that by 2000, I had thrown the towel.

It's worth remembering that around this point in time WCW had just finished conducting a huge survey of the fanbase to findout exactly what it was they wanted.

 

More wrestling and less skits were the overwhelming desires.

[flyonthewall2983]

As much as Bischoff is to blame, I think in the bigger picture of things he's a small part of what let WCW die on the vine. When one began to read in the news that Ted Turner was talking about retirement, I'd kind of suspected the jig was up. I can't imagine "passion for pro wrestling" was high on the list of anybody who replaced him, if at all.

[Loss]

There may have been all sorts of passion from Time Warner if WCW was still pulling high TV ratings and drawing 30,000 people to Nitros. Just a thought. :/

[flyonthewall2983]

Ted's passion for it came out of the loyalty to how well the product served his network in the 70's. He let it ebb and flow through some rough waters in the early 90's, when wrestling hit a staggering low compared to the previous decade. Time Warner let it slide because it was making big money for them, but I have no doubt that the knives were out once things started to slip. It's a good example of how corporate culture ruined television.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

As much as Bischoff is to blame, I think in the bigger picture of things he's a small part of what let WCW die on the vine. When one began to read in the news that Ted Turner was talking about retirement, I'd kind of suspected the jig was up. I can't imagine "passion for pro wrestling" was high on the list of anybody who replaced him, if at all.

When did you read this, what year was given on Ted Turner's possible retirement, and when did he actually retire?

 

There may have been all sorts of passion from Time Warner if WCW was still pulling high TV ratings and drawing 30,000 people to Nitros. Just a thought. :/

Supposing that was their standard, WCW wasn't going to last.

[Loss]

My point was that if WCW was still a money-making promotion, Time Warner would have kept it, and been supportive of it. And they stopped making money because people stopped buying pay-per-views and attending their shows. All the rest has always felt like excuse-making.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

My point was that if WCW was still a money-making promotion, Time Warner would have kept it, and been supportive of it. And they stopped making money because people stopped buying pay-per-views and attending their shows. All the rest has always felt like excuse-making.

Yes. I read most of Bischoff's book but never cared to buy it because it's clear that the guy won't accept responsibility for destroying a promotion with the highest potentiality in human history. All he does is scapegoat the corporate brass, ignoring all the dumb blow-offs he did and, well, check out El-P's thread for more details.

[flyonthewall2983]

As much as Bischoff is to blame, I think in the bigger picture of things he's a small part of what let WCW die on the vine. When one began to read in the news that Ted Turner was talking about retirement, I'd kind of suspected the jig was up. I can't imagine "passion for pro wrestling" was high on the list of anybody who replaced him, if at all.

When did you read this, what year was given on Ted Turner's possible retirement, and when did he actually retire?

It was in the news for a little while in the early 2000's, definitely pre 9/11 and I think while WCW was still in business. Wiki said he resigned from Time Warner as vice chairman in 2003 and from the board of directors a few years later.

[Superstar Sleeze]

El-P, I was just watching Flair vs Sting in 1993 and Sid was commentary. Even back in 1993, he was bitching and moaning about Flair's chops to the chest being the most painful thing EVAH~! You could tell from his tone how much disdain he had for taking those chops. Maybe Sid just has a sensitive pectoral region. Make of that what you will.