[1999-02-15-WCW-Nitro] Ric Flair and the NWO

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Arn Anderson beats up Disco Inferno in the back because hey, why not? He ends up getting arrested. Then we cut to Bischoff as Flair's driver and the point of view changes at least three times in the first minute, and countless times after that. Flair should know better than what happened to him considering that Teddy Long did the exact same thing to him with Doom in 1990. This is executed far, far worse than that though. Hogan and Nash are in ski masks for no apparent reason other than to look evil and the NWO beat Flair down while a helicopter flies above them. This is HORRIBLE - one of the worst wrestling segments I have ever seen in my entire life, and it goes on far too long . This is incredibly bush league and fake looking. Just the simple act of Buff with a handheld camera filming this and showing up at the broadcast booth to demand production play it immediately would have completely changed the tone of it. What purpose does the helicopter serve anyway since they arrived in a hummer. They leave Flair for dead and take off. I won't even get into this being an extreme example of putting heels over when there is no intention for the babyface to get his moment. I'll save that.

[tim]

This is really fucking stupid. Maybe it would be less stupid if it weren't so long. But it's really long. First of all what's up with the camera work lately? Those cuts to close ups of Bischoff's and Flair's faces during the limo segment. Then elsewhere you have those weirdly produced Torrie Wilson vignettes, Raven smirking into the camera during that Kanyon segment, other weird camera stuff going on. Give it a rest. The beat down was really lame. Why is there a helicopter involved?

 

Trying to turn pro wrestling into a TV show with a fourth wall just doesn't work. You can't do that where on the same program you have an announce team welcoming you to the beginning of the program, showing you the live audience during the entirety of the program, telling you when they're cutting to commercial, etc.

[Tim Evans]

WCW probably spent more on this than Randy Hales did on Power Pro wrestling all year. Just way too long and stupid Flair had to know what was going happen with the big ass light coming from the helicopter. I'd love to know how this did vs Raw.

[soup23]

Well this was utterly dumb as shit and really gets us into the complete wrestlecrap era of WCW that I am fearful of revisiting. This stuff is really around the time where I questioned myself as a staunch WCW supporter. Just no rhyme or reason to why this is going on. The camera angle switching is so bad and the helicopter makes no sense with the spotlight showing the other camera crew just toiling around in the swamp. STUPID STUPID STUPID.

[Zenjo]

Bad on so many levels. They probably wasted a hundred grand on this rubbish.

[PeteF3]

Haha, despite my self-imposed WCW boycott I did end up seeing a bit of Nitro this week and the unopposed week previous, and came on in the middle of the helicopter shot wandering what in the living fuck I was watching. But I haven't seen this bit of infamy in full, so some bullet points as we go through:

 

- Arn gets arrested because he...punches Disco Inferno a few times. Yeah.

- We get about 6 camera-angle changes in the first 2 minutes, with about 4 different angles inside the limo. You know what, forget what I said--this movie-style multi-camera setup is far worse than the half-assed pseudo-documentary style of shooting.

- The two actors (or random Turner suits wanting to be on TV) in back with Flair are horrible.

- "SIX cops?!" Yeah, that's kind of a minor overreaction to a random backstage brawl.

- The helicopter with its giant spotlight is of course beyond ludicrous. After the movie-style footage we've seen, we're back to reality TV, and with the bouncing spotlight moving from limo to Hummer and back, it looks like we're watching someone shine a flashlight on a darkened Japanese monster movie model set. It's a ridiculously expensive shot that manages to look incredibly cheap.

- Hey, Bischoff outsmarts Flair again. What a shock. Flair sure doesn't come off very smart when he assures the suits to "relax, there's nothing wrong."

- Nash cosplaying as a ninja would be laughable if this segment wasn't already part of an infuriating string of show-length angles.

- Why do these guys all need to hide their identities, exactly? Despite Dillinger's efforts with Arn, it's not like they've ever had to face arrest for anything they've done in the past (except of course for power bombing people).

- Boy is that droning helicopter annoying. All this expense and they couldn't invest in some decent sound editing?

- This goes on...and on...and on, with false finishes and everything. I guess to justify the money spent/assuage Hogan's ego.

- So...the point of this is that "Flair will never see SuperBrawl"? Did I get that right? Could Hogan maybe repeat that line another 273 times so that Marlee Matlin can get it?

- Forget the babyface getting redemption--how do they expect to DOUBLE-TURN these two after all this??! How the fuck do you redeem Hogan after what he's done for the past 2 months, much less the past 2 and a half years?

 

- Then Ric is saved by a passing trucker or something, just to make all this even more ludicrous. "Fairgrounds...Fairgrounds..."

 

Insane. I say this as someone who LOVED the Teddy Long limo kidnapping--so it's not an idea I'm vehemently opposed to. But the execution is about 9 million miles apart.