Corona Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 To my shame, I never really got into WCW. I've seen a handful of matches, but never sat down and watched a year, a wrestler or even a whole PPV. I bought a set of WCW PPVs, Clashes and Nitros, which are currently sitting on my hard drivel but I have too much choice of where to start. Just go with the first PPVs (dated 1983)? I could, but I suspect there's a lot of filler and not much fun. There's plenty of "top WCW matches" articles and posts out there, but they tend to be too subjective to be reliable. So, I turn it over to the assembled masses - give me something to begin on, please. I don't even really know what I want. I'm good with cherry picking matches, but would prefer a run of PPVs and / or Nitros to really get stuck into. The Megathread on WCWs dying days has a certain morbid fascination, but as I'm currently watching 1994 WWF, two sets of terrible wrestling may kill me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 I would think starting at the Nitro where Scott Hall debuts would be a good place and watch everything from there. The luchadores arrive shortly after and the nWo storyline is great (at least till sometime in 1997). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptCabana Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 If you're just looking to get into a segment of WCW, my favorite era was the Dangerous Alliance angle. So....Halloween Havoc 1991 - WrestleWar 1992. Seven - eight months of just AWESOME stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachchaos Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 1989. Start with the "holy trilogy" and go into the blood feud that follows. You'll see what are widely regarded as the top WCW matches, promos, PPV's, performances, everything. The Nitro era was fun, but what happened in '89 really defined the company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 Since 1983 was mentioned, it sounds like he needs to go back to JCP. I would use the Where The Big Boys Play podcasts as a guide for navigating the big shows. Check the Publications & Podcasts folder. They also did a rundown of the top TV matches of the 80s. They are covering every single major WCW/NWA show and are up to mid 1990 now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyonthewall2983 Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 Spring Stampede 1994. A pretty solid card up and down, at least starting with the Nasties/Cactus & Payne match where it jumps the crowd up pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 Also, there are a few feuds you want to see almost everything from: - Ric Flair vs Ron Garvin - Garvin could be argued as Flair's best opponent - even if he never really has been argued as his best opponent - and I'm a huge fan of this series. Really stiff and different from most Flair matches. - Ric Flair vs Lex Luger - The matches in this series continuously get better as Luger improves as a worker. This is really the closest to a Japanese-style years long title chase I've seen in American booking, even if the expected payoff is missing from the end. - Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat - The Chi-Town/Clash/Wrestle War trilogy is widely considered the best series of matches in the history of American wrestling. Your milage may vary, but at the least, you'll most likely love all of the matches. - Ric Flair vs Terry Funk - Total blood feud that delivers both in the ring and in the angles. - Ric Flair vs Barry Windham - Not much in terms of booking, but they had some terrific matches against each other, with the Worldwide match in January of 1987 being the biggest standout. - Ric Flair vs Ricky Morton - Flair working a feud against an undersized tag team wrestler and getting him over as a credible challenger is fun to watch. Some great angles that paid off with some great matches. I wish we had even more from this feud. - Midnight Express vs Rock & Roll Express - Kind of the definitive tag team feud and you'll also like ... - Midnight Express vs Fantastics - More of a "workrate" series. - Vader vs Sting - As good as heavyweight wrestling got in the U.S. in the 1990s. - Dustin Rhodes vs Col Parker's stable - This 1994 feud had lots of excellent matches and was really well-booked. It also features perhaps the greatest wrestling promo of all time from Dusty Rhodes. Also check out any War Games matches. Tully vs Magnum at Starrcade '85. Flair vs Vader at Starrcade '93 after you have a really strong feel of Flair's legacy from the 80s. Road Warriors vs Midnight Express in The Skywalkers is one of the most famous matches of the Crockett era. Most of the best stuff happened before the Turner buyout. Post-Turner buyout, you had a company that could give some great wrestling but you had a horribly mismanaged promotion most of the time, then there was a huge drop in quality after Hulk Hogan showed up. Things slowly rebounded when Nitro started and the Bischoff era peaked with the NWO. Post-1998, hang on tight. Overall, it's a fun promotion because they didn't micromanage talent in the way WWE does, so you had a lot more variety in styles. Wrestlers tended to do their own thing a big chunk of the time because there wasn't really anyone consistently overseeing the ship. Of course, the trade off to that is that the booking was usually inconsistent at best and pretty terrible at worst. Still, the Jim Herd, Kip Frey and Bill Watts reigns prior to Eric Bischoff taking over have plenty of positives and negatives. The negatives are worth enduring for the most part, because the positives tend to be really good. The best bush league sorry excuse for a wrestling promotion ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corona Posted November 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 Loss, heroics once again. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 Since 1983 was mentioned, it sounds like he needs to go back to JCP. I would use the Where The Big Boys Play podcasts as a guide for navigating the big shows. Check the Publications & Podcasts folder. They also did a rundown of the top TV matches of the 80s. They are covering every single major WCW/NWA show and are up to mid 1990 now. Yeah, honestly, I'm kind of tempted to say "Final Battle!" and all the stuff leading up to it, but really, start with 85. I know, it sounds like I'm crazy but, all of us, almost every single person on this board has JCP/WCW somehow in our formative wrestling experiences. We almost all caught it as kids or teenagers, whether watching Crockett and the Four Horsemen and RnRs and Valiant or or J-Tex and Flair with a bag on his head or watching Sting get mystery boxes and the Dangerous Alliance or having Hogan come in and RUIN EVERYTHING or the NWO coming on the scene and Crow Sting and hilariously good mid-card matches that'd never mean anything or just the drizzing shit it became. It's part of how we came to know wrestling. It's part of our DNA. If you're someone who's never encountered that at all, with nothing preconceived, there's nothing better that you can do but to jump right in at the start and just live as much as possible. The weekly TV from 85 is a lot of fun. There's a lot to really enjoy. There are a lot of handheld matches from that period to give everything some weight and heft and meaning. I kind of wish I could watch all this stuff again for the first time. You're pretty damn lucky. Don't waste it by starting at the end or even the middle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 This will sound ridiculously completist, but try to start at "the beginning" with the first Starrcade (or even better Final Conflict -- there's a great set of videos on youtube giving you the full build). It's hard to get the emotional impact of Starrcade 93 if you haven't built up the relationship with Flair from 83. You could watch shows in a vacuum but they are going to hit home more if you have built up a context. If Starrcade 83 seems too far back (although honestly, the chunk of the best Crockett is 85-8 talk to goodhelmet for more ...), Clash 1 wouldn't be a bad time to jump in. That's when the major players for the next few years like Sting and Luger are coming to the fore. And you can get a feel for key teams like the Midnight Express and so on. From the moment Hogan comes in during 94 to the end, it's a very different promotion, so that would be another neat jumping in place. Although -- in my personal view -- everything before it is much more interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 1985, just pick up when they get the World Championship Wrestling slot from the WWF. You'll see the Midnight Express and Rock N Roll Express enter the territory. The Challenge series over the summer is insanely fun and has a really good Blanchard/Taylor match. You'll get to see Nikita Koloff destroy jobbers every week and cut these incoherent and awesome promos. Just the promos every week from Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Tully Blanchard are good. You'll see Ole and Arn Anderson team up for the first time and the angle with them vs. Thunderbolt Patterson and Manny Fernandez will suck you in pretty quick. Ronnie Garvin, Magnum TA, the Barbarian and Buddy Landell are also main stays that year. You'll see the 4 Horsemen form as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 And you get this in 1986... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 I just watched Starrcade 1983. It's not a bad place to pick up. While hyping the big matches they'll give you background to get into the swing of things. Ditto Starrcade '84, though technical difficulties abound on that show. Personally I'd be tempted to watch the big shows in full, and at the moment most of them are on Youtube fortunately. Ditto the thoughts above. The big downfall of WCW is that things aren't as well produced and you're going to see more errors, technical difficulties and missed shots. But there's absolutely more variety of workers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victory Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 Another great feud from the JCP days that you should see would be Magnum T.A. vs Nikita Koloff. Some really fun stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 If you watch 1999 to 2001, you'll rename that thread "Don't get me started on WCW". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FedEx227 Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 If you watch 1999 to 2001, you'll rename that thread "Don't get me started on WCW". This would be my only advice, stop at around mid-way through 1998... maybe Goldberg winning the WCW Title from Hogan or Starrcade 1998. Absolutely no reason to subject yourself to 1999-2001 WCW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm funk Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 I'd start, like other people have said, from as early as possible so you can get the full context of the promotion. I know if I'd never seen JCP/WCW and only heard things about it that's what I'd do. I didn't start watching WCW til 91-92ish, but I went back and watched a lot over the years....all the major shows....as much of the tv as I could find. I particularly enjoyed 84-85 tv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mando Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 Some friends and I did a countdown (w/ video discussions) of the Top 200 Matches in Nitro history and I'd recommend checking out the some of the higher-ranked stuff from that: - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #200-151 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #150-101 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #100-51 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #50-11 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #10-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 Absolutely no reason to subject yourself to 1999-2001 WCW. Well, yes there is : http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=19237 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corona Posted November 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 Some friends and I did a countdown (w/ video discussions) of the Top 200 Matches in Nitro history and I'd recommend checking out the some of the higher-ranked stuff from that: - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #200-151 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #150-101 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #100-51 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #50-11 - Best of WCW Monday Nitro #10-1 Much appreciated. Looks like tonight, I'm going back to the 80s! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 There is that one Mid-Atlantic Best of 1977 show with the fun Mulligan/Blackwell match, a lot of talk of the Paul Jones turn, and the recap of the Flair/Steamboat. I'm just saying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 1985 also has that great Christmas episode with two awesome main events. You get Magnum TA defending the U.S. belt against Ole Anderson in a really good match and then you get Flair and Garvin chopping the absolute shit out of each other in a World Title match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted November 20, 2013 Report Share Posted November 20, 2013 Will's Death of WCW & a bottle of Ciroc. Wait, that's my plan :x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuttsy Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 Throw all the Nitros out and don't watch anything past Slamboree 1994. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 Throw all the Nitros out and don't watch anything past Slamboree 1994. Definitely not the worst idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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