WCW's Highway to Hell

[BruiserBrody]

IIRC that's the Nitro w/ the Hogan/Nash vignette where they are watching and mocking a Flair promo and Hogan bombs at trying to keep up with Nash's one liners:

 

Flair says "The Nature BOY!" Nash chimes in with: "Bud-dee Land-dell" and Hogan quickly offers up "Buddy Rose"

[Slasher]

IIRC that's the Nitro w/ the Hogan/Nash vignette where they are watching and mocking a Flair promo and Hogan bombs at trying to keep up with Nash's one liners:

 

Flair says "The Nature BOY!" Nash chimes in with: "Bud-dee Land-dell" and Hogan quickly offers up "Buddy Rose"

Showing Hogan to not be quite on the ball with references. Honestly, I loved WCW and this shit El-P is watching is great, even if it was business-killing. I mean, fuck. Chaos at its best... or worst, depending on point of view.

[Death From Above]

God, I don't even remember Flair and Goldberg ever having a singles match and I actually *liked* WCW.

 

Then again that probably tells you something about what was wrong with their matchmaking. I mean how do you fail to make that a big deal? Even the Hogan/Goldberg match, you can argue (quite correctly) that giving it away for free was a mistake, but at least it was memorable for what it was.

[flyonthewall2983]

I remember Goldberg talking about it on Dennis Miller's show.

[artDDP]

I can almost swear I read somewhere that Nash booked that first hour with nothing but vignettes because he was convinced WCW could put anything in that first hour and it wouldn't make a difference to the ratings. God, I hope I'm not quoting Scott Keith.

 

I can't imagine what it would have been like to have paid to attend that telecast.

[El-P]

PP3 : Uncensored 1999

 

"Who the fuck is that ?" match of the night : Mickey Whipreck vs Kidman. Not even anounced on TV. Mickey doesn't even get a music theme. Way to produce a new guy. Bobby Heenan makes fun of his name despite Mickey playing heel. On the positive side, it shows how good Mickey was at this point, as he gives Kidman his best match since Starrcade, dies a few times (this Cactus Jack bumps over the guardrail look brutal), and actually gets some heel heat from an audience who apparently doesn't know who he is (Louisville, Kentucky, ECW stronghold). Good job Mickey. Match of the night also

 

"Nobody wants to see that shit" match of the night : Stevie Ray vs Vincent. Meanwhile, Fit Finlay, Bret Hart, Juventud Guerrera, Blitzkrieg, Mike Enos, Goldberg and a few others are sitting at home. There's a comically bad sequence, so awfully timed and executed that I burst out laughing during this. Embarrassing. PLus if you dig a little bit, it could almost be interpreted as a racist angle. Really, a bunch of smart ass white guys playing off two stupid black guys and having them fight each other to be the fake boss of a B-team nobody gives a shit about. Yeah, really.

 

"Stupid turn" match of the night : Raven vs Hak vs Bam Bam Bigelow. They stay in the ring and play around with plunders, which is nowhere near as fun as them fighting off backstage and bumping on cars. A few fun spots mostly thanks to Raven and Hak, who are much better than Bam Bam here. At one point CHastity gives Raven some duct tape to tie Hak's hand together, which only works for a few seconds. And of course, at the end of the match, Chastity turns on Raven and gets with Hak. Which makes no sense since she physically helped Raven against Hak earlier on. Match was okay, turn was nonsensical.

 

"Me want my win back" match of the night : Kevin Nash vs Rey Mysterio Jr.. Okay, forget what I said about Nash doing a good job putting Rey over on Nitro. It was good, but at the end it serves no purpose if Nash just gets his win back on PPV with barely a half-ass intervention from Luger on the outside. The match is very good for what it is though, and Nash's work is actually really good, bumping hard for Rey at times. The problem is that this match does nothing for Nash and even less for Rey who doesn't look like a giant killer after all. Oh, and WCW director never got the notion that Liz was at ringside as an eye candy, so he should, I dunno, get some good shots of her from time to time. Man, WCW's production sucked. Oh, and while I'm at it, there was no backstage interviews at all during this PPV, but they replayed the videos hyping up the matches, the same they showed on TV. Dumb.

 

Most satisfying match of the night : Barry Windham & Curt Hennig vs Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko. Strap lumberjacks outside the ring. Yeah, this is good, Arn Andersons takes the place of a lumberjack to even the balance, as Kendall Windham is also at ringside with a strap. Hennig isn't afraid to fall outside to get strapped. Benoit and Windham are the best workers of the night along with Rey and Whipreck. Dean is okay as an overhyped midget. Heels get fucked by Arn who busts Hennig with a tire iron, ultimate revenge on Curt screwing the Horsemen 18 months before. Horsemen get the tag titles. Good work, good heat, good finish. This is *good*.

 

Funniest match of the night : Jerry Flynn vs The Cat & Sonny Oono. The Cat is the perfect exemple of why you don't need to win any match to get over. He finally found his character, and he's so much fun. Plus he became quite decent in the ring too as a performer. And Jerry Flynn (minus the mullet, which has been cut out by Cat & Oono on Nitro) on PPV is great. Flynn was everything Steve Blackman should have been if he didn't suck. Anyway, this is as fun and goofy as it sounds with Oono playing the chikenshit martial art manager, and some actual stiff action from Flynn & Cat. The Cat is one of the only bright spot of dying WCW.

 

Scott Hall no-showed match of the night : Scott Steiner vs Booker T. It was suppose to be Hall vs Booker T (that's why Hart did a job first to Piper then to Booker, the poor guy), but of course Hall disappeared from TV leading to the PPV, and I don't think it's even mentionned. Anyway, Scott Steiner is the best heel in WCW at this point, and seems so far above the TV title it's not funny. Decent match, but Booker really keeps on not improving. He looked great in Harlem Heat next to Stevie Ray, and paired up with a great worker like Bret or Benoit he can have strong matches, but he's just not very good nor compelling himslef.

 

Most disapointing match of the night : Chris Jericho vs Perry Saturn. Dog collar match, but without any blood and without the usual "touch the four corner" rule. Which already makes it kinda useless. I have been underwhelmed by Jericho's work in 1999, but this is plain bad. A mess of a match, blown spots galore, no heat, awkward and boring. Saturn was so much fun with and against Raven, but he's been really blah in this feud with Jericho. Also, he comes out looking like Marylin Manson, complete with a rip-off version of The Beautiful People, which is a bit outdated already, especially since Raw used it as a theme song for years now. Manson wasn't the freak of the day anymore, Eminem was. Anyway, this is bad. Sad way for Jericho to go out, as it's his last PPV appearance (I don't remember if he was used on TV after that point, he was a goner anyway).

 

Death of WCW match of the week : Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan Bear with me people, this one is a definite checkpoint in a Death of WCW road. Ric Flair says it's a first blood match. That's news to me. Flair was the babyface until he began to act kinda heelish. Hulk is the super heel. Hogan kinda works like a face. Flair works like a heel. Flair bleeds 5 minutes into the match. Match doesn't stop. Hulk works like a babyface. Hulk wants a pinfall. Referee doesn't count because it's a first blood match. Hulk signals Flair is bleeding. Referee doesn't know what to do. Flair bleeds like a pig after Hulk uses razor wires. Flair uses a foreign object that he *hides in his knee pads*, in a barb wire cage match with a referee who obviously is biased toward him. Hulk hulks up. Remember Hulk has been the super heel who beat the shit of of David then turned him against his father. Flair bleeds like a stuck pig. David Flair and Torrie Wilson showed up. they are heels. Cheering for heel Hogan working as a babyface and getting cheered like crazy. Arn Anderson, babyface who helped babyface horsemen win earlier on, shows up and hits heel David Flair who cheers for heel/babyface Hulk. Arn hits him after spending the last few weeks telling Ric that David was a good kid who was manipulated by heel Hogan (who works face). Babyface Arn passes on a tire iron to heel Flair who beats up heel Hogan acting like a babyface. Ric Flair puts Hogan into a figure four. IN a First Blood match. Referee counts three. In a First Blood match. Crowd is silent. Heel David comes into the ring to check heel/babyface Hogan while heel Flair doesn't get a celebration for winning his 14th World Title and the control of WCW, as he leaves the ring with babyface Arn. THIS IS AWESOME !!!!!!

 

Line of the night : "Well... uh.... are we told this is a First Blood Match ? .... Allright let's just forget about that." Tony Schiavone, dumbfounded.

 

Seriously, this main event is nearly enough to make anyone quit watching the promotion. And seemingly that's what people did, considering the PPV buys would not stop diving off after this amazing debacle. Flair looked like a complete idiot (he just didn't look like one BTW, he totally acted like one too and seems largely responsible for a lot of that shit), the referee apparently had no idea what to do and the announcers were totally lost. Whoever was responsible for that gigantic fuck up of a main event should have been fired on the spot. Like I said, this would be my first checkpoint on the WCW Highway to Hell, I could throw the towel here and not regret it (I won't, because I'm stubborn, and a bit stupid). The Fingerpoke of Doom at least was in itself a great angle that was executed extremely well. This, on the other hand, is the picture of a company dying.

[Death From Above]

That Hogan/Flair match is such a glorious clusterfuck, it's really fun. If you have a sense of humor for that sort of thing. I mean the whole thing makes no sense, but it's way better than some of the Flair and Hogan work over the previous years. Bizarre stuff.

 

I never have quite figured out what was up with the first blood thing though. They ran that angle where we can't say "blood" on TV so go check the WCW website to see the stip (which in itself probably wasn't a bad marketing ploy for wrestling in 1999), then... Flair just bleeds like crazy. I wonder if he just got busted open so everyone said fuck it, let's improv.

 

The way WCW insisted on always keeping their own announcers out of the loop never failed to entertain.

 

I still haven't recovered from Stevie Ray vs. Vincent.

 

I also own the VHS of this show. Lucky me.

[Loss]

I think that was during the time that WCW was "G-rated", which made no sense since Scott Steiner said whatever he wanted.

 

A line Flair had in the buildup to this match I personally loved was "We are going to give the people what they haven't had in ten years - and you know what I'm talking about." It didn't quite make sense, but it did suggest that the match was going to be different, and possibly more "real", than Flair vs Hogan typically was.

[Loss]

I should also mention that there was nothing more frustrating online at the time than all the criticism of WCW for using rubber tipped barbed wire in this cage match. I think Joey Styles even had a segment at the beginning of an episode of ECW criticizing WCW for it. Flair also apparently loaded up on aspirin and Coca-Cola before the match to thin his blood, which I think is common practice, but that was the first time I'd heard that and was suitably freaked.

[Loss]

And another memory: I think during this time, Eric Bischoff took his daughter to France for making the honor roll (because that's a normal reward and all), and was gone for a long time while Nash was left in charge.

[El-P]

I wonder if he just got busted open so everyone said fuck it, let's improv.

Nah, he bladed and it was pretty obvious. Yeah, terrific clusterfuck of a match.

 

And another memory: I think during this time, Eric Bischoff took his daughter to France for making the honor roll (because that's a normal reward and all), and was gone for a long time while Nash was left in charge.

Yeah, I remember about this. Bischoff has been off TV for a few weeks now, and Nash is having a blast shooting a hundred nWo vignettes. I also seem to remember grey haired Bischoff coming back all humble and shit as a simple announcer.

[Jingus]

I wonder if he just got busted open so everyone said fuck it, let's improv.

Nah, he bladed and it was pretty obvious.

 

Yeah. It sure looked intentional on Flair's part, and Hogan never really seemed to react to the blood in a "yay, I just won!" sort of way. Having it be hardway blood and an improvisation is literally the only way this would make any sense, but unbelievably it looks like this was all done on purpose.

[Jingus]

I should also mention that there was nothing more frustrating online at the time than all the criticism of WCW for using rubber tipped barbed wire in this cage match. I think Joey Styles even had a segment at the beginning of an episode of ECW criticizing WCW for it.

Which was really damn dumb, in hindsight. The criticism, not the rubber. All of those "no pretty blue mats here in ECW!" masochistic tendencies are, thankfully, mostly gone out of the business now.

 

Flair also apparently loaded up on aspirin and Coca-Cola before the match to thin his blood, which I think is common practice, but that was the first time I'd heard that and was suitably freaked.

Yeah, common whenever you have to bleed. There's a variety of different stuff you can take, but the most traditional combo is aspirin and alcohol. A couple of pills and one big shot of vodka are all you need, generally.

[Loss]

The layout of the match was supposed to be Hogan getting screwed by a referee that was a huge Flair mark. I thought it made a lot of sense in a vacuum, just not in the big picture.

[El-P]

It really didn't played out that way. The referee just looked as dumbfounded as anyone when Hogan went for a pinfall then signaled for the blood when he wouldn't count. Seriously, the whole storyline that followed looks like total damage control to me. And if that story was pre-planned, than it's the worse execution of an angle *EVER*. I have a hard time believing it. Or maybe Flair was just supposed to bleed a little bit and then the referee would ignore it to screw Hogan until Hogan would then bleed a lot after being hit by the tire iron. But having him bleed a gusher after 6 minutes threw that out of the window. Hence the most illogical finish ever > figure four > pinfall. Anyway you put it, nothing makes sense whatsoever in this match, nothing.

[BruiserBrody]

I can almost swear I read somewhere that Nash booked that first hour with nothing but vignettes because he was convinced WCW could put anything in that first hour and it wouldn't make a difference to the ratings. God, I hope I'm not quoting Scott Keith.

 

I can't imagine what it would have been like to have paid to attend that telecast.

IIRC they had JTTS matches on during the vignette-fest

[WingedEagle]

And another memory: I think during this time, Eric Bischoff took his daughter to France for making the honor roll (because that's a normal reward and all), and was gone for a long time while Nash was left in charge.

Konnan talked about this period on a recent MLW podcast. Nash basically took the opportunity to see just how much he could get away with and found the answer was quite a lot.

[artDDP]

So why did Hogan and Flair get to bleed all over two PPV main events if it wasn't going to be mentioned again on TV afterward and they even went to the trouble of editing out any visible blood on their VHS biography releases? I think it was the first time ever Hogan and Flair bled for each other and rather than use it to sell the angle it was swept under the rug.

 

"Because it's WCW" is an appropriate answer here.

[Strummer]

Interestingly when Bischoff returned from Europe the thing he was most angry about was Barry Windham and Curt Hennig winning the tag belts. They were of course quickly put back on Benoit and Malenko. In a span of four months in early 99 WCW changed their tag titles seven times.

 

Does anyone else remember during this time the rumor that WCW was going to run a Hogan v Hart match on the Nitro from Canada? It was reported like every day and of course never happened

[El-P]

Does anyone else remember during this time the rumor that WCW was going to run a Hogan v Hart match on the Nitro from Canada? It was reported like every day and of course never happened

Yep, I remember that one too.

 

WEEK 11 (March 15 to 20, 1999)

 

Good employee of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr., who's given back the cruiserweight title on Nitro with a win over Kidman. I guess this was the reward for playing along. Good match too, and really freshens the scene as Kidman's title reign hasn't been very interesting. He had good matches, but despite being a sympathetic babyface they didn't book him in notable feuds. Rey doesn't waste any time and delivers the match of the week too against Juventud Guerrera on Thunder. These two are just magic against each other, and this is no exception although they have to put a lot into a short match frame.

 

Turn of the week : Buff Bagwell is turned babyface by Scott Steiner, who blames him for the loss of his TV title. It's a good thing, it takes away Buff from Steiner, who doesn't need him at this point, plus Buff is not able to bump like he was before so he'll be better suited as a babyface, and he gets some good heat especially from the girls, so this is all for the better. Scott beats up Bagwell with a chair, attacking his neck. Damn, those Steiners won't give Buff a chance.

 

Rematch of the week : Barry Windham & Curth Hennig vs Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko (Saturday Night). This combination is the highlight of the company thus far in 1999. They just can't have a disapointing match together, although I'd be remiss if I didn't mentionned once again how little Malenko effectively brings to the table in the tag setting. One of these day we'll have to seriously reevaluate this guy's case, as I always thought he was ridiculously overrated just because he was in the package along Benoit & Guerrero and worked a lot with Rey in 96. Anyway, this is the excellent action I've become accustomed to from Windham, Benoit & Hennig, with a little twist in the finish which saw Kendall interfere. Hum... Hennig and the WIndham brothers... Hum...

 

Switch of the week : Ric Flair / Hulk Hogan (Thunder). Flair is a full flegde heel now, antagonizing the crowd, looking down on people, saying he respects Curt Hennig (did he forgot about the cage door ?), looking calm, cool, collected and über arrogant. This wasn't the right time for a Flair heel turn, but I admit this is pretty cool as Flair is always better as a heel, and he hasn't been in this role since the first half of 1996. Meanwhile, Hollywood Hogan is slowly reverting back to good ol' Hulk, which sucks. He's even hulking up in every match now, and although he's still clearly a tweener and not a full fledge babyface, the fact that people are cheering him again after 2 and a half year of hating him shows that the first wave of Hulkamania nostalgia was coming up. Which sucks. I enjoy Hollywood Hogan about a thousand times more than Hulk, and I don't look forward to see the red and yellow come back.

 

Funky pairing of the week : Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash vs Goldberg & Ric Flair (Nitro) : Yeah, all three guys want a title shot, and we get this match. The best part is the interaction between Goldberg and Flair. Goldie gorilla slams Flair to the feet of Hogan to force him to debut the match, then later on Flair is tagging himself up (not even touching Goldie) to get into the ring. Hulk and Nash work pretty hard again and they actually do a pretty good job with the heat segment on Goldberg. This ends up in a schmozz, but it's quite fun to watch.

 

Funniest moment of the week : Disco Inferno crashing Konnan's video. Yeah, I laughed, I had totally forgot about that. And the match that followed on Nitro was actually pretty damn good for a Konnan match. Gotta love Disco and the billion ways he finds to remain relevant and fun to watch depsite being settled basically with a short term comedy gimmick. And the fact he had a good match with Mr. Yippe Yo Yippe Yeah also speaks volume of his work ethic. Apaprently Konnan wasn't happy with doing a job to Disco and blamed Nash for it.

 

Stupid vignette of the week : A rat (sorry, no other word) is trying to seduce David Flair while Kevin Nash & Torri Wilson watch on camera. It fails, despite the girl clearly showing her stuff to David, who doesn't want pussy because he's "in love" with Torrie. Torrie finds this sweet and Nash is pissed off because the trick didn't worked. I have no idea what this was about. Get a sextape to blackmail David Flair ? I'm sure Nash himself doesn't know.

 

Line of the week : "Are you trying to seduce me, Ms Robinson ?" David Flair, to said rat showing him her stuff (same exact frame as in the movie BTW). I love the idea that 19 year old David Flair would quote The Graduate in 1999. Cultural relevance from Mr. Nash.

 

By the way, did you remember Ricky Rachman hosting Nitro parties on campus ? Me neither. I always figured the Nitro Girls being totally harrassed by drunk young punks during those, and wrestlers fucking tons of girls off camera. Hey, next week is the Srping Break edition of Nitro, I always loved these.

[Death From Above]

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

Shit like this was always my TV main event when I would play Extreme Warfare Revenge. I'd take all my main event feud dudes and just throw out random tag nonsense with them every week.

 

Either that or the classic "double count out, brawl to the back" singles match that gives away nothing before the PPV, of course.

[Slasher]

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

Shit like this was always my TV main event when I would play Extreme Warfare Revenge. I'd take all my main event feud dudes and just throw out random tag nonsense with them every week.

 

Either that or the classic "double count out, brawl to the back" singles match that gives away nothing before the PPV, of course.

 

Same here. Always paired up two of my top three singles feud participants in tag matches in the main events... or non title matches for the champion vs non feuding opponent.

[El-P]

WEEK 12 (March 22 to 27, 1999)

 

Random match of the week : Scotty Riggs vs Jerry Flynn (Thunder). And that's pretty much my favourite match of the week too. Riggs has no gimmick per say, he's just a self-absorbed guy now. It's really a shame he was never given a role, as he's much better than Bagwell at this point. Really solid match, with good leg work from Riggs and decent selling of it from Flynn. These are two of my favourite non-pushed guys on the roster.

 

Re-debut match of the week : Vampiro vs Juventud Guerrera (Nitro). Vampiro debuted in August of 1998, then vanished. He re-debuted on the previous Thunder, and here he is with Juvy. I think those two had some heat, as Juvy was pissed about Vamp using the same finisher. Vampiro looks decent here, and I may give him the benefit of the doubt despite the fact he looked godawful in MLW a few years later. He still fucks up at times and I don't buy his act whatsoever. Stiff fest though, you can feel the hostility. Vamp also uses no less than three powerbomb variation. What is this ? FMW ?

 

Style clash of the week : Ric Flair vs Rey Mysterio Jr. (Nitro). The angle is that Flair had a lottery with midcarders and cruiserweights to select an easy opponent for himself, but the guy who was selected got injured (El Dandy), so Rey takes his number. The first stricking thing is how small Rey looks next to Flair. It's really amazing in a way, although Flair is by no way a small guy. But still. Flair looks okay beating the shit out of Rey with stiff chops, but whenever he has to take his offense, he just bumps funny and slow. As a matter of fact, Kevin Nash bumped way better and quicker than Flair for Rey. Just doesn't work very well together, but it's interesting to see nonetheless. Since it's the Spring Break edition of Nitro, guess who's ending up in the pool ? At least that's a satisfying ending.

 

Bizarre turn of the week : Saturn coming up to help Raven who's unmercifully beat up by Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko. (Nitro). Raven is so great at taking a beating, his body language and facials are awesome. So, the Horsemen kinda turn themselves heel (they have to, as Flair is a heel now) by beating down poor Raven 2 on 1. Since Raven is getting positive reactions, the fact that face Saturn comes to his aid solidifies the turn, although the whole thing is a bit puzzling to the audience. I'm all for Saturn getting back with Raven, he's never been better than when paired up with Scott one way or another.

 

Unfunny comedy spot of the week : Disco Inferno as La Cucaracha. In a 8 man lucha match ending up by a series of incredible dives and misses, and Disco applying his finisher to at least 3 of his opponents. The match was really cool, but the whole angle makes the luchadors look like fools.

 

Promo of the week : Bret Hart. (Nitro). Very good blasé, snarky promo by Bret, almost a shoot but in a good way. Begins with "I came here to earn a reputation, not lose it". Complains about not getting a title shot since he came in *the* WCW, bashes Flair, Hogan, Nash ("You can be the pencil, but I can be the eraser", more subtil than "Bookerman" but pretty damn close), and says he can beat Goldberg in five minutes. Next week, first Nitro in Canada...

 

Line of the week : "Sable eat your heart out !" Kevin Nash while Torrie Wilson shows her bikini at Club La Vela. Yeah, that was nice and all, except Sable probably was a biger draw than anyone on your roster at this point (which was depressing BTW).

 

They're having a US title tournament since Scott Hall ended up drunk somewhere. Of course, as usual, no brackets. Jericho is on TV but clearly on his way out. Jobs, no mic time. The whole heel Flair would be better if there wouldn't be this whole heel referee stuff, which I never enjoy much. Robinson is a good performer though.

[MojoJsyn]

Loving these reviews so far.

[Loss]

My favorite thing about that Nash segment was the crowd chanting "Show Your Tits" at the girls, and Nash responding by saying "I would, but it's cold."