[1999-03-15-WCW-Nitro] Ric Flair & Goldberg vs Hulk Hogan & Kevin Nash

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Flair moves around like a guy half his age the way he’s taking bumps in there at the beginning. The Hogan/Goldberg no-sell Clash of the Titans stuff is tremendous. Even Nash works hard. Flair stays on the apron longer than you’d think, but Flair and Goldberg are Tag Team Partners Who Hate Each Other, and Goldberg doesn’t want to make the tag. Flair ends up tagging himself in and Goldberg tries to yank him out by the hair. Flair-biased referee Charles Robinson refuses to count when Flair is pinned so Hogan punches him out before eating a Goldberg spear. Then they go all Jim Crockett Promotions by going off the air before a finish. This is kind of a front for a Goldberg/Hogan match with Nash and Flair out of it most of the time. This is a really fun match.

[tim]

So they're going with the conspiracy angle and Flair is clearly heel now. Alright. This is one hell of a spectacle. The dynamic is both interesting and weird. Flair is heel now, Hogan is going face, Goldberg is still solidly a face though. Hogan and Nash get heat on Goldberg but work as faces when Flair is legal. Nash taking out Goldberg to set up for Hogan's boot is a clear face spot but so is Goldberg spearing Hogan after the match. For now though I'll just enjoy this for what it is because this was a really cool main event. Opening stuff is great with Goldberg slamming Flair to make him start the match and Hogan and Nash getting a great round of offense in on him, then Goldberg comes in and Goldberg and Hogan do some cool clash of the titans sort of work. The Goldberg FIP draws on a bit much but then the match really comes back to life when Flair comes back in. Hogan Hulks up and its a huge moment with the fans totally into it. Non-ending as Robinson refuses to count for Hogan and then takes an awesome bump off a punch. Super fun main event segment.

[Tim Evans]

Relatively clean main event for WCW standards. Flair's got that heel haircut so you know he's the heel. He's also bumping like Rick Rude for Hogan. Nash seems motivated which is nice. I hate heel refs but Lil' Naitch I always liked. Good match.

[soup23]

Complete bizarro world stuff with tag partners hating each other. Hogan being a tweener. Nash is working really heelish vs. Goldberg and still doing a lot of heel things behind the scenes. Everything is just weird and bizarre and even though this is a big time match and the work is fine, I get a weezy feeling watching it all and my brain cant really process everything. The other thing is that the NWO is essentially dead as Buff/Steiner/etc are non factors and we essentially just have Hogan and Nash as a team currently. Finish was really abrupt and not my preferred method of leaving the show. **1/2

[Superstar Sleeze]

This was way better than I expected. Goldberg should have launched Flair onto Hogan and Nash. I loved that start. Flair was great bumping for Hogan. Hogan clearly wanted to go babyface and Flair was more than willing to oblige by bumping all over the place for him. Flair diving to Goldberg for the tag was hilarious. I wish the booking was better than Hogan as a heel champion then Flair turning heel to win and then DDP turning heel to win. They needed more stability and a babyface on top, methinks. Hogan and Goldberg is fucking awesome. Like book that match for Spring Stampede brutha! Fuck, if only I was in charge of WCW in 1999 and everyone listened to me. WWE wishes they had the talent of that roster now. I loved each one popping up after big move was hit on them. I loved the battle over the Irish Whip. It was some really great shit. Nash and Hogan worked a strong heat segment. I loved Goldberg's reaction to Flair coming into the match by yanking his hair. Flair selling for the Hulk Up never gets old. Lil Naitch is becoming Lil Naitch, awesome! He won't count. SPEAR! As we go off the air...fun stuff. WCW had a brief resurgence it seems in March and April of 1999, but it would not last

[PeteF3]

In a vacuum I might have liked this more, but Chad summed up my feelings quite well already. The pall of the nonsensical booking hangs over this no matter how good the action or the star power is. It can't be un-noticed that the first Hogan-Goldberg confrontation doesn't get much heat--not a whiff of what Rey and Kidman were getting a few segments ago. The crowd is hot by the end but clearly they don't really know who, besides Goldberg, is supposed to be getting cheered. And I didn't like the fade-out at all, reeking way too much of Raw's "we don't have the attention span to write an ending, just go home" finish. From what we saw, a much better Nitro than usual, but with the exception of the upcoming Spring Stampede "better than usual" appears to be the new upside for WCW.