Financial Screw UP's

[Stuttsy]

Wasn't Norton a hunting buddy of Bischoff's that he knew from his AWA days? That, I think, would explain the 800 k/per year more than anything.

[tomk]

*Swole (Master P's bodyguard) signed to a $400,000 a year contract. Master P also convinced WCW to sign both Chase Tatum and Teddy '4x4' Reade to deals although Meltzer doesn't mention how much they received.

PRetty sure both Tatum and 4 X4 were in power plant pre-Master P.

[artDDP]

Wasn't Norton a hunting buddy of Bischoff's that he knew from his AWA days? That, I think, would explain the 800 k/per year more than anything.

During the Collision in Korea PPV commentary Bischoff mentions going to high school with Norton.

[GSR]

I didn't think Lanny ever wrestled for WCW, at least that's how he made it sound in his shoot on 57talk. That is probably the least ridiculous figure on this list though because as it was explained, Lanny's contract was a gift to Savage for getting them the Slim Jim sponsorship.

Just a couple of dark match appearances. The first at a Saturday Night taping, the other on a Nitro dark match:

 

10.14.97 Fort Myers, FL (Saturday Night Taping) Lanny Poffo bt L.A.

10.20.97 Biloxi, MS (Monday Nitro Taping) Lanny Poffo bt Johnny West

 

Also, I thought Wacholz rolled over from '93.

No. As Boondocks said he was resigned again in the late 90s. He had a tryout match on 10.16.97 in Minneapolis, MN before Nitro and defeated Yuji Nagata whilst wrestling under the name Kevin Kelly. Maybe Nagata pulled a Bret Hart/Tom Magee situation out of the hat and made Wacholz look way more better than he actually was. According to Meltzer, the plan was for Wacholz to join the nWo and get a huge push, although that obviously never happened and he just ended up wrestling a couple of house show openers against Barry Darsow.

 

*Swole (Master P's bodyguard) signed to a $400,000 a year contract. Master P also convinced WCW to sign both Chase Tatum and Teddy '4x4' Reade to deals although Meltzer doesn't mention how much they received.

PRetty sure both Tatum and 4 X4 were in power plant pre-Master P.

 

Yeah, Tatum was definately in the Power Plant prior to being in the No Limit Soldiers, though dont know about Teddy Reade. No idea what sort of pay they were making pre-NLS, but from his writings (and considering what they paid Swole), you got the impression that Master P persuaded the powers that be to sign them up to six figure deals. Another interesting thing about Swole from Big Dave was that apparently Bischoff had been convinced that Swole had wrestled for New Japan. For any Brits out there who enjoy their football, just think Graeme Souness - Southampton - Ali Dia.

 

Couple more payment details that I forgot to add last time were:

 

*Sonny Onno earned $160,000 a year for his role as manager, although he coined in more money in side deals, and as being some sort of liaison to foreign talent.

 

*Buff Bagwell in March 2000 signed a three year contract for $700,000 the first year, $800,000 the second and $900,000 the third. This was clearly one of those that enabled him to be cut/get fired.

[Death From Above]

Mysterio wrestled in the opener, but otherwise you're right. Also Sir Not Appearing In This Film: Hennig, Bigelow, Rick Steiner, Bagwell, Windham, Stevie Ray, Kanyon, and every single luchadore who wasn't in the opening match. Granted, some of those guys were shitty workers, but they all had one thing in common: they weren't Jerry Flynn.

Yeah I think you're right. Thinking back the opening match was Kidman vs. Juvi vs. Mysterio, Kidman wins, Eddie comes out and yells at the other two for failing (I think this was during the last gasp of the idea of a unified Latino World Order), then Eddie wrestled Kidman and lost. Off topic but man, the downward spiral of Billy Kidman was really something considering how much they did to put him over at one point.

 

Hennig was on the show but only did a run in. He was the guy that cost Flair the match over Bischoff if I remember right.

[Guest Slickster]

That's correct. Hennig gave Bischoff the foreign object he used to KO Ric Flair.

 

It seemed like Starrcade 1998 was designed to be a WEAKER card than even a normal WCW PPV. I wouldn't have expected Smiley vs. Iaukea or Flynn/Finlay vs. Norton/Adams on a Slamboree or a World War 3 card, much less on the company's supposed biggest PPV of the year.

[artDDP]

Starrcade 1998 also came at a time when WCW had an annoying habit of only actually promoting 3-4 top matches up to a week before a card. For example, Souled Out 1999 had only four advertised matches, and even the free thirty-minute pre-show didn't announce the full card.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

I'm pretty sure Luger vs Steiner and Hall vs Bigelow were supposed to happen at Starrcade '98, but then they...just didn't, I guess.

[Guest Slickster]

I definitely recall Scott Hall vs. Bam Bam Bigelow being explicitly mentioned during the Starrcade 1998 preshow.

[artDDP]

Now that you mention it, Slickster, I remember that, too.

 

Another thing that struck me was how WCW booked Starrcade as if it were just another Nitro telecast with "Mean" Gene conducting interviews on the rampway hours before their matches (and thus spoiling the wrestler's crowd reactions later that night). The only thing missing was Gene saying, "In the third hour of tonight's Starrcade..."

 

None of the matches on the cards were treated as special, almost no one got a superstar entrance with any special effects. I only recall WCW treating the 1997 Starrcade as any more important than the other PPV cards that year.

[Guest Slickster]

I would love to know why Starrcade 1998 was booked so poorly. If only Eric Bischoff would answer that question.

[jdw]

The shit was starting to come apart with all the infighting. Hogan had taken time of due to the loss to Goldberg and the bomb of the Warrior storyline. Nash had the "book" and was using it to screw over Goldberg. I seem to recall they were picking off a rash of injuries as well. The company was moving into trainwreck mode, which became clear with the Hogan-Nash finger point of doom in January.

 

John

[Death From Above]

I find it funny that the Fingerpoke of Doom actually has its own entire Wikipedia page.

 

The legacy of WCW will be preserved in the sum of all human knowledge forever.

[artDDP]

Watching the Rey Mysterio 3-disc set today and I started thinking: Did the Road Wild PPVs actually make money? I don't recall them charging admission and I'm sure the telecast cost more to produce than it could have ever made in PPV buys and video sales. Not to mention the crowd seemed wholly disinterested in the matches and wrestlers outside of Harlem Heat.

[Guest Slickster]

They didn't charge admission.

 

Eric Bischoff devotes a whole chapter to Road Wild in his book.

 

To summarize:

 

- the events were designed to provide a unique-looking PPV that didn't look like your typical Nitro

- the events were designed to be sponsored like a NASCAR event

- "The perception of bikers was that they are pretty edgy, aggressive, beer-drinking, fistfighting kind of guys. I thought that was an attitude that would serve WCW well, given the direction we were going with Nitro."

- "I realized that “motorcycle culture” was already part of the mainstream. People saw it as edgy, which made it attractive. This was a couple of years before Monster Garage and American Choppers, two wildly successful cable shows."

-"And from an economic point of view, Sturgis didn’t make a lot of sense, because we weren’t going to get a gate."

[artDDP]

Bischoff's Sturgis rationale underscores my basic belief that wrestling promoters haven't yet seemed to grasp: Wrestling fans watch wrestling for wrestling.

 

Bischoff thought brining his PG-rated kiddie-themed wrestling program to a bike rally with Jay Leno in a main event was edgy? A wrestling promotion were wrestlers couldn't say "ass"? I seem to recall the most edgy thing that took place was Dallas Page doing a blade job, and the camera still pulled wide.

[Bix]

The "edgiest" thing about those shows was when the bikers booed Harlem Heat.

[Death From Above]

That's correct. Hennig gave Bischoff the foreign object he used to KO Ric Flair.

 

It seemed like Starrcade 1998 was designed to be a WEAKER card than even a normal WCW PPV. I wouldn't have expected Smiley vs. Iaukea or Flynn/Finlay vs. Norton/Adams on a Slamboree or a World War 3 card, much less on the company's supposed biggest PPV of the year.

There was a ton of potential for Starrcade 98 to be a pretty key event... well I guess it did turn out to be key, just not in a good way.

 

Okay, complete fantasy booking sidetrack. Obviously there's a boatload of politics why this shit probably wouldn't work, but since WCW was saddled with a lot of politicing older guys, might as well run with it.

 

The n.W.o. black and white gimmick was pretty much dead by the end of 1998, which is why they'd spun off Nash and friends into n.W.o. Wolfpac to separate them (or Nash trying to separate himself?) from Hogan's group which was dieing. Starrcade 98 really should have been the death of black and white. It was a good gimmick but it was time to move on and killing it off in a big send off would have still done good business and given you natural outs for where to go from there.

 

Could still build to Nash vs. Goldberg for the big shiny belt. Nash is now de-facto leader of the "real" n.W.o. in the eyes of the fans anyway, so it's a good match to build to. Should also be building up to a Flair vs. Hogan match with a stip that if Flair wins, n.W.o. is no more, if Hogan wins no more Four Horsemen and/or Flair must retire and/or be Eric Bischoff's lackey and/or blah blah blah, it's wrestling, attach as many goofy stips to the side that isn't going to lose as it takes to get the point over. Point is it's the face of the n.W.o. vs. the face of WCW in the book of Revelations chapter of the story where the shit hits the fan.

 

You run Godlberg vs. Nash as the semi-main for the belt, Goldberg goes over. No reason for him to drop the belt because the crowd hadn't said "we want a new champ" and he was still doing good business. No reason to shoot the golden goose before it's time. Nash losing isn't going to break his character.

 

You put Flair vs. Hogan in the main event, as a no-DQ lumberjack match. This puts over the "final us vs. them" thing, strokes the correct egos, blah blah blah. Hogan brings out whatever is left of team Black and White: Scott Steiner did his heel switch around here (I think it was actually after but if they'd pulled it a couple months earlier he could have been hot shit by now even if all he'd did is debut the look and yell a lot), so you bring out Steiner, Hennig, Norton, The Giant (who hadn't left yet), and a couple of the Wolfpac guys as "solidarity", say Savege and Luger, but no Nash. Flair brings out Benoit, Malenko, McMichael, his fellow horsemen, along with DDP, Sting (who should have never been in the Wolfpac to begin with), Rick Steiner representing WCW, but no Goldberg. Hell you can even throw Bischoff and Arn Anderson into that mix for a couple big pops. This gives you again the "us vs. them" vibe plus gives you plenty of cover for out of the ring nonsense to cover up that nobody really wants to see Hogan wrestle Flair for the 100th time but it's the natural conclusion to the WCW vs. n.W.o. feud.

 

Match goes along, shit hits the fan, everyone hits the ring. n.W.o. guys get big advantage, beat the shit out of people, maybe you have Bagwell/Hall/Konnan run-ins, giant clusterfuck, fans probably throw garbage because it's WCW, blah blah blah. DDP and Sting run off to the back. Heenan's calling them cowards on commentary, like 30 seconds later they hit the ring with Sting Approved Baseball Bats © but bring Goldberg with them, crowd goes fucking bananas, Godlberg and friends beat the snot out of the n.W.o. ring is cleared out, Goldberg SPEARS Hogan's leg, Flair kicks the shit out of it for a minute, locks on figure four, Hogan taps, Team WCW stands as One People United Against Tyranny in the ring, crowd goes home happy. Only WCW couldn't figure out that in the end in pro wrestling the good guys have to, you know... win.

 

People don't even remember the same show had no undercard if you give them The Big Send Off.

 

Hogan cuts later Nitro promo on Nash for not helping him, leads to Hogan vs. Nash feud over whatever is left of the Wolfpac/n.W.o. label, and allows you to start breaking guys off from that as apropriate. Gonna suck ass in the ring but you can worry about that when you get there, at least it makes sense and you can sort of carry it on for a while without dragging down other shit because Hogan (and friends) occupies Nash (and friends).

 

Goldberg goes on killing people until the crowd says stop.

 

Obviously couldn't have happened. Too many politicians and what not. It still can't possibly turn out worse than what they actually did.

[Matt D]

Back to the fingerpoke of doom, I thought the whole rationale behind that at the time was that they were going to get some sort of show on NBC/ABC/CBS, one of them, and the suits at the network wanted the belt on Hogan. Nash, shortly thereafter, said (and hell if I know where. These aer ten year old memories) that he gave in to the pressure to book it that way because it was the only way for him to get the belt and be both a WCW and WWF champion, which is such a great weird kayfabe but not answer to that.

[Guest Slickster]

Yeah, WCW was scheduled for a February 14, 1999 prime-time special on NBC that would run head-to-head with WWE's St. Valentine's Day Massacre PPV. However, the NBA's lockout was resolved in mid-January, so NBA basketball returned to NBC and so the WCW special was cancelled.

[Bix]

So is the answer to the inevitable "Why didn't they just run specials after basketball season?" question that NBC was desperate for live sports-ish programming and didn't care about WCW when they didn't need them anymore?

[artDDP]

I think that was it, Bix. And, wasn't the whole idea just Bischoff's panicked reaction to the possibility of the WWF getting a network TV contract, even if it was UPN?

[Loss]

It's really amazing how fast things went down in 1999. They were on the way down in January, but they were still pulling a few 5.0+ quarter hours, and they did a huge buyrate for Flair/Hogan at SuperBrawl in February. By April, crowds were noticeably down, and that summer was perhaps the worst summer of wrestling any major promotion has ever produced. Things continued to decline into fall, and we all know how 2000 turned out.

[Strummer]

I would take 1995 WWF and 1990 AWA over summer of 99 WCW. I can't remember who had the book then. Was it still Nash? Wasn't this the time period where Bischoff took his daughter to Europe for making the honor roll?

[artDDP]

After Hogan won back the title WCW's storylines reverted back to re-running the same guys on top and nothing interesting at all on the undercards. The WWF really tapped into the testosterone-fueled teenage male demographic and whether it was good or bad they were producing can't-miss TV for them.

 

In 1997 WCW had an interesting undercard. In 1999 it was really, really hard to get excited about anyone feuding with Barry Windham and Curt Hennig before the West Texas Rednecks.