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Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack), which he would be embrassed by for years afterwards. After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that followed a reporter trying to find the now missing Jack. She eventually found him in Cleveland where he was revealed to have developed amnesia and was living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received segments were halted after only a few weeks and Cactus Jack was soon brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
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* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack), which he would be embrassed embarrassed by for years afterwards. After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that followed a reporter trying to find the now missing Jack. She eventually found him in Cleveland where he was revealed to have developed amnesia and was living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received segments were halted after only a few weeks and Cactus Jack was soon brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
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Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack), which he would be embrassed by for years afterwards. After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that followed a reproter to find the now missing Jack. She eventually found him in Cleveland where he was revealed to have developed amnesia and was living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received segments were halted after only a few weeks and Cactus Jack was soon brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
to:
* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack), which he would be embrassed by for years afterwards. After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that followed a reproter reporter trying to find the now missing Jack. She eventually found him in Cleveland where he was revealed to have developed amnesia and was living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received segments were halted after only a few weeks and Cactus Jack was soon brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
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Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack). After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that showed an amnesiac Jack living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received segments were halted after only a few weeks and Cactus Jack was soon brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
to:
* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack). Jack), which he would be embrassed by for years afterwards. After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that showed an amnesiac Jack followed a reproter to find the now missing Jack. She eventually found him in Cleveland where he was revealed to have developed amnesia and was living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received segments were halted after only a few weeks and Cactus Jack was soon brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
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Changed line(s) 17,18 (click to see context) from:
* The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. This "title" was created from the ashes from WCW's ill-fated partnership with the [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA]]. When they broke up, the current NWA Champion Wrestling/RicFlair was stripped of the title, but retained the belt since WCW actually owned it. So "WCW International", a completely fictitious subsidiary, was created and Flair was recognized as its "World Champion" (not to be confused with the ''actual'' WCW Championship, held at the time by Wrestling/{{Vader}}). The whole thing was a mess, and while the International title did have some top-caliber champions ({{Wrestling/Sting}}, Flair, Wrestling/RickRude), it was mercifully ended in 1994 with WCW World Heavyweight Champion Flair defeating WCW ''International'' World Heavyweight Champion Sting to unify the titles.[[note]]Contrary to wrestling tradition, it was actually the ''losing wrestler's belt'' that would represent the new "unified title" going forward. Of course, since said belt was the Wrestling/BigGoldBelt no one had any complaints.[[/note]]
* The infamous "negative title reign", where the Freebirds lost the WCW World Tag Team Championship to the Steiners six days ''before they won them'' from Doom. People watching on TV were none the wiser because the first match aired on syndicated TV a couple weeks after the second one (which was shown live on PPV), but the 500 people or so in attendance for that first match obviously weren't fooled.
* The infamous "negative title reign", where the Freebirds lost the WCW World Tag Team Championship to the Steiners six days ''before they won them'' from Doom. People watching on TV were none the wiser because the first match aired on syndicated TV a couple weeks after the second one (which was shown live on PPV), but the 500 people or so in attendance for that first match obviously weren't fooled.
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* The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. This "title" was created from the ashes from WCW's ill-fated partnership with the [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA]]. When they broke up, the current NWA Champion Wrestling/RicFlair was stripped of the title, but retained the belt since WCW actually owned it. So "WCW International", a completely fictitious subsidiary, was created and Flair was recognized as its "World Champion" (not to be confused with the ''actual'' WCW Championship, held at the time by Wrestling/{{Vader}}). The whole thing was a mess, and while the International title did have some top-caliber champions ({{Wrestling/Sting}}, Flair, Wrestling/RickRude), it was mercifully ended in 1994 with WCW World Heavyweight Champion Flair defeating WCW ''International'' World Heavyweight Champion Sting to unify the titles.[[note]]Contrary to wrestling tradition, it was actually the ''losing wrestler's belt'' that would represent the new "unified title" going forward. Of course, since said belt was the Wrestling/BigGoldBelt Wrestling/BigGoldBelt, no one had any complaints.[[/note]]
* The infamous"negative negative-day title reign", reign, where the Fabulous Freebirds lost the WCW World Tag Team Championship to the Steiners six ''six days ''before before they won them'' them from Doom.Doom''. People watching on TV were none the wiser because the first match aired on syndicated TV a couple weeks after the second one (which was shown live on PPV), but the 500 people or so in attendance for that first match obviously weren't fooled.
* The infamous
Changed line(s) 25 (click to see context) from:
* Amazingly, we had not yet reached rock bottom as Vince Russo, WCW World Heavyweight Champion (won from Wrestling/BookerT, no less), was soon to follow. Russo gave himself the title[[note]]Joining Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Jeff Jarrett, Verne Gagne, Wrestling/JerryLawler, Wrestling/KevinNash, Wrestling/GiantBaba, Wrestling/AntonioInoki, and countless others on the list of people that have booked themselves to win a world title. Of course, you'll notice that all but the first name on that list are actual professional wrestlers.[[/note]] not long after he gave it to David, getting speared through a steel cage wall and winning via "escaping the cage" stipulation (so at least he didn't "beat" Booker and only won by dumb luck). The one good thing better about Russo's title run in comparison to Arquette's was that it was mercifully shorter: Arquette held the belt for 12 days, while Russo only held it for a week. Russo did vacate the title, but still it's worth mentioning that after Goldberg dropped the belt at ''Starrcade'' '98 there were 30 title changes in two years[[note]]In the first seven years of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, there were 20 title changes, not counting vacancies and the like. The last three years and 3 1/2 months of WCW's existence? ''33'', 25 of which came in 2000 alone.[[/note]]; Jerry Lawler himself would have to shake his head. And at least he traded titles with people who met at least two qualifications (athletic and over).
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* Amazingly, we had not yet reached rock bottom as Vince Russo, WCW World Heavyweight Champion (won from Wrestling/BookerT, no less), was soon to follow. Russo gave himself the title[[note]]Joining Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Jeff Jarrett, Verne Gagne, Wrestling/JerryLawler, Wrestling/KevinNash, Wrestling/GiantBaba, Wrestling/AntonioInoki, and countless others on the list of people that have booked themselves to win a world title. Of course, you'll notice that all but the first name on that list are actual professional wrestlers.[[/note]] not long after he gave it to David, getting speared through a steel cage wall and winning via "escaping the cage" stipulation (so at least he didn't "beat" Booker and only won by dumb luck). The one good thing better about Russo's title run in comparison to Arquette's was that it was mercifully shorter: Arquette held the belt for 12 days, while Russo only held it for a week. Russo did vacate the title, but still it's worth mentioning that after Goldberg dropped the belt at ''Starrcade'' '98 there were 30 title changes in two years[[note]]In the first seven years of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, there were 20 title changes, not counting vacancies and the like. The last three years and 3 1/2 months of WCW's existence? ''33'', 25 of which came in 2000 alone.[[/note]]; Jerry Lawler himself would have to shake his head. And head, because at least he traded titles with people who met at least two qualifications (athletic and over).
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* ''The Great American Bash'' '91, which had the entire Baltimore audience switching back and forth between two reactions: sitting on their hands, and chanting "WE WANT FLAIR!" (including during the main event). They were protesting Flair's firing just days earlier. Note that {{kayfabe}} was far from dead at the time, and Flair was the biggest heel in the company. Flair, meanwhile, would join the WWF, taking the NWA World Heavyweight Championship with him (since he wasn't paid back the $25,000 deposit he put down on the belt when he received it for the first time). Flair kept calling himself the "Real World's Heavyweight Champion" to antagonize then-champ Wrestling/HulkHogan...but everyone knew the TakeThat was really meant for Jim Herd, who was running WCW at the time. As a result, the main event featured Wrestling/BarryWindham and Wrestling/LexLuger in a steel cage, fighting for Wrestling/DustyRhodes' old Pacific Wrestling Federation belt with a plate bolted over that read "WCW WORLD CHAMPION", since the new belt wasn't finished yet. It was capped off with the first of many unnecessary heel turns by Luger.[[note]]Up until the TurnOfTheMillennium, this was considered the worst wrestling PPV ever, with the [=WWF's=] ''Wrestling/KingOfTheRing'' 1995 the only other serious contender. Between Vince Russo's time in both WCW and [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]], and some of the absolute garbage WWE has shoveled out over the last 20 years (say what you want about ''GAB'' '91 but at least it didn't last as long as a transcontinental flight), this show just comes off as really boring rather than downright offensive to modern eyes.[[/note]]
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* ''The Great American Bash'' ''Wrestling/TheGreatAmericanBash'' '91, which had the entire Baltimore audience switching back and forth between two reactions: sitting on their hands, and chanting "WE WANT FLAIR!" (including during the main event). They were protesting Flair's firing just days earlier. Note that {{kayfabe}} was far from dead at the time, and Flair was the biggest heel in the company. Flair, meanwhile, would join the WWF, taking the NWA World Heavyweight Championship with him (since he wasn't paid back the $25,000 deposit he put down on the belt when he received it for the first time). Flair kept calling himself the "Real World's Heavyweight Champion" to antagonize then-champ Wrestling/HulkHogan...but everyone knew the TakeThat was really meant for Jim Herd, who was running WCW at the time. As a result, the main event featured Wrestling/BarryWindham and Wrestling/LexLuger in a steel cage, fighting for Wrestling/DustyRhodes' old Pacific Wrestling Federation belt with a plate bolted over that read "WCW WORLD CHAMPION", since the new belt wasn't finished yet. It was capped off with the first of many unnecessary heel turns by Luger.[[note]]Up until the TurnOfTheMillennium, this was considered the worst wrestling PPV ever, with the [=WWF's=] ''Wrestling/KingOfTheRing'' 1995 the only other serious contender. Between Vince Russo's time in both WCW and [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]], and some of the absolute garbage WWE has shoveled out over the last 20 years (say what you want about ''GAB'' '91 but at least it didn't last as long as a transcontinental flight), this show just comes off as really boring rather than downright offensive to modern eyes.[[/note]]
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* If someone tries to tell you Russo is a misunderstood genius, show them ''New Blood Rising'', or as it should be known, "Swerve Hell". This show featured Buff Bagwell and Kanyon in a "Judy Bagwell on a Forklift" match, because nothing says wrestling quite like fighting over a wrestler's mother while making constant fat jokes, two [=KroniK=] matches somehow, and Lance Storm doing the "heel changes the rules to screw the face over" routine... in CANADA, so fans don't know how to feel. Worst match of the night is the "Rip off the Camo" mud strip match between Miss Hancock and Major Gunns; neither can wrestle, it ends in a pinfall despite being a strip match, and it ends in a kayfabe miscarriage.[[note]]Don't worry, Hancock was fine, she ended up coming back with a baby carriage full of [[AssPull photos of Shawn Stasiak]], which is somehow not the strangest thing that a wrestler gave birth to in 2000.[[/note]] And then you have the {{kayfabe}}-destroying "Goldberg refuses to follow the script" moment (detailed in the Goldberg folder), as if this show weren't irredeemable already.
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* If someone tries to tell you Russo is a misunderstood genius, show them ''New Blood Rising'', or as it should be known, "Swerve Hell". This show featured Buff Bagwell and Kanyon in a "Judy Bagwell on a Forklift" match, because nothing says wrestling quite like fighting over a wrestler's mother while making constant fat jokes, two [=KroniK=] matches somehow, and Lance Storm doing the "heel changes the rules to screw the face over" routine... in CANADA, ''Canada'', so fans don't know how to feel. Worst match of the night is the "Rip off the Camo" mud strip match between Miss Hancock and Major Gunns; neither can wrestle, it ends in a pinfall despite being a strip match, and it ends in a kayfabe miscarriage.[[note]]Don't worry, Hancock was fine, she ended up coming back with a baby carriage full of [[AssPull photos of Shawn Stasiak]], which is somehow not the strangest thing that a wrestler gave birth to in 2000.[[/note]] And then you have the {{kayfabe}}-destroying "Goldberg refuses to follow the script" moment (detailed in the Goldberg folder), as if this show weren't irredeemable already.
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Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* Of almost equal importance was the fate of the WCW World Television Championship. True, it was secondary silver in the championship hierarchy, but it had an uninterrupted history of over 25 years dating back to the company's NWA days, longer even than the WWE's own Intercontinental Championship title. Aside from that, the title had also served as a heat-building device in allowing {{heel}} wrestling champions to escape with it via a time limit draw of either 10 or 15 minutes from within a wrestling match, and its list of champions is a who's who of names that became legends of pro wrestling.[[note]]Namely, that list includes Ric Flair, Wrestling/GregValentine, Wrestling/RickySteamboat, Bill Eadie aka Ax from Wrestling/{{Demolition}} (as The Masked Superstar), Wrestling/RoddyPiper, Wrestling/RockyJohnson (the father of [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]], as Sweet Ebony Diamond), Jimmy Valiant/Charlie Brown (the TropeNamer for CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown), Wrestling/MikeRotunda, Dick Slater, The Great Kabuki, Tully Blanchard, Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Wrestling/ArnAnderson, Wrestling/NikitaKoloff, Rick Steiner, Sting, Wrestling/TheGreatMuta, Bobby Eaton, [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin Steve Austin]], Wrestling/BarryWindham, Wrestling/ScottSteiner, Wrestling/PaulOrndorff, Wrestling/WilliamRegal (as Lord Steven Regal), Larry Zbyszko, [[Wrestling/MarcMero Johnny B. Badd]], Diamond Dallas Page, Wrestling/LexLuger, Wrestling/PerrySaturn, Booker T, Wrestling/RickMartel, Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Fit Finlay, Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/{{Konnan}}, among others.[[/note]] The title itself was unceremoniously abandoned on November 29, 1999 by Wrestling/ScottHall, who literally threw it in a dumpster after he decided onscreen that it was not worth defending. Granted, WCW had already reduced its value to that of scrap metal, but never before has a title belt been [[WastebasketBall treated literally as garbage.]] It was fished out of the garbage by Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan a few months later, since he defended it a few times on ''WCW Saturday Night'', but the title itself would soon be deactivated following WCW's reboot. A few months before that skit, Chris Benoit was on FAN 590 (original call letters of CJCL, owned by Rogers Media; now titled ''Sportsnet Radio'' 590-The FAN) in Toronto and was asked if he thought that there was a conspiracy to destroy the company from within. He said, "It appears that way". When you have a wrestler straight-up calling a long-running title "garbage", no wonder why Benoit thought that.[[note]]About two months after that skit aired, Benoit would ask for his release along with Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Perry Saturn (rumor has it that Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr and Konnan also asked to be released but were talked out of it). Shockingly, WCW would grant this request despite Benoit ''winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship the night beforehand'' at ''Souled Out'' 2000 and the quartet, now dubbed The Radicalz, had immediately jumped ship to the WWF.[[/note]]
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* Of almost equal importance was the fate of the WCW World Television Championship. True, it was secondary silver in the championship hierarchy, but it had an uninterrupted history of over 25 years dating back to the company's NWA days, longer even than the WWE's own Intercontinental Championship title. Aside from that, the title had also served as a heat-building device in allowing {{heel}} wrestling champions to escape with it via a time limit draw of either 10 or 15 minutes from within a wrestling match, and its list of champions is a who's who of names that became legends of pro wrestling.[[note]]Namely, that list includes Ric Flair, Wrestling/GregValentine, Wrestling/RickySteamboat, Bill Eadie aka Ax from Wrestling/{{Demolition}} (as The Masked Superstar), Wrestling/RoddyPiper, Wrestling/RockyJohnson (the father of [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]], as Sweet Ebony Diamond), Jimmy Valiant/Charlie Brown (the TropeNamer for CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown), Wrestling/MikeRotunda, Dick Slater, The Great Kabuki, Tully Blanchard, Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Wrestling/ArnAnderson, Wrestling/NikitaKoloff, Rick Steiner, Sting, Wrestling/TheGreatMuta, Bobby Eaton, [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin Steve Austin]], Wrestling/BarryWindham, Wrestling/ScottSteiner, Wrestling/PaulOrndorff, Wrestling/WilliamRegal (as Lord Steven Regal), Larry Zbyszko, [[Wrestling/MarcMero Johnny B. Badd]], Diamond Dallas Page, Wrestling/LexLuger, Wrestling/PerrySaturn, Booker T, Wrestling/RickMartel, Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Fit Finlay, Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/{{Konnan}}, among others.[[/note]] The title itself was unceremoniously abandoned on November 29, 1999 by Wrestling/ScottHall, who literally threw it in a dumpster after he decided onscreen that it was not worth defending. Granted, WCW had already reduced its value to that of scrap metal, but never before has a title belt been few were [[Wrestling/{{Madusa}} the]] [[Wrestling/ShaneDouglas people]] who'd dared to treat their own titles [[WastebasketBall treated literally as like garbage.]] It was fished out of the garbage by Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan a few months later, since he defended it a few times on ''WCW Saturday Night'', but the title itself would soon be deactivated following WCW's reboot. A few months before that skit, Chris Benoit was on FAN 590 (original call letters of CJCL, owned by Rogers Media; now titled ''Sportsnet Radio'' 590-The FAN) in Toronto and was asked if he thought that there was a conspiracy to destroy the company from within. He said, "It appears that way". When you have a wrestler straight-up calling a long-running title "garbage", no wonder why Benoit thought that.[[note]]About two months after that skit aired, Benoit would ask for his release along with Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Perry Saturn (rumor has it that Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr and Konnan also asked to be released but were talked out of it). Shockingly, WCW would grant this request despite Benoit ''winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship the night beforehand'' at ''Souled Out'' 2000 and the quartet, now dubbed The Radicalz, had immediately jumped ship to the WWF.[[/note]]
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Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
** But, no. They actually ran with it, [[FaceHeelTurn turned David heel]], and had him purposely lose the title to Jarrett at ''Slamboree'' 2000. The entire company was made to look like a joke in order to pop ratings and tie in with a movie which most fans at the time thought was worse than ''Film/NoHoldsBarred''. Even Arquette (a lifelong wrestling fan himself) fought against it since he knew it would annoy the fans, but he was contractually obligated. He quietly donated his paychecks to the families of Wrestling/OwenHart, Wrestling/BrianPillman, Bobby Duncum Jr., [[Wrestling/BrianHildebrand Brian "Mark Curtis" Hildebrand]] (all deceased), and Darren "Droz" Drozdov (paralyzed from the waist down following an in-ring accident), so at least some good came of it. ''[=WrestleCrap=]'' presented their [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/david-arquette-2000-gooker-award-winner/ very first annual Gooker Award]] to Arquette's championship run.
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** But, no. They actually ran with it, [[FaceHeelTurn turned David heel]], and had him purposely lose the title to Jarrett at ''Slamboree'' 2000. The entire company was made to look like a joke in order to pop ratings and tie in with a movie which most fans at the time thought was worse than ''Film/NoHoldsBarred''. Even Arquette (a lifelong wrestling fan himself) fought against it since he knew it would annoy the fans, but he was contractually obligated. He quietly donated his paychecks to the families of Wrestling/OwenHart, Wrestling/BrianPillman, Bobby Duncum Jr., [[Wrestling/BrianHildebrand Brian "Mark Curtis" Hildebrand]] (all deceased), and Darren "Droz" Drozdov (paralyzed from the waist down following an in-ring accident), so at least some good came of it. ''[=WrestleCrap=]'' presented their [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/david-arquette-2000-gooker-award-winner/ [[https://www.wrestlecrap.com/inductions/david-arquette-wcw-world-champion/ very first annual Gooker Award]] to Arquette's championship run.
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Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack). After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that showed an amnesiac Jack living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received shorts were dropped after a few weeks and Cactus Jack was brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
to:
* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack). After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that showed an amnesiac Jack living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received shorts segments were dropped halted after only a few weeks and Cactus Jack was soon brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
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Added DiffLines:
* The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack). After being powerbombed on the unprotected concrete floor by Big Van Vader on a 1993 episode of WCW Saturday Night, a series of vignettes were aired that showed an amnesiac Jack living with a group of homeless people under the delusion that he was a sailor. The poorly-received shorts were dropped after a few weeks and Cactus Jack was brought back without any further reference to the amnesia storyline. Foley--who had simply wanted to take some time off to build up anticipation for his feud with Vader--was quite horrified when the idea was pitched to him and says he only went with it after realizing that WCW would be paying him to do nothing for a few months.
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Changed line(s) 62,66 (click to see context) from:
* ''New Blood Rising''. If someone tries to sell you on the idea that Russo is a misunderstood genius, show them this PPV. The whole thing was just over-swerved. Besides this being the event where the curtain over {{kayfabe}} was infamously torn by branding Goldberg as "unprofessional" for not letting himself be powerbombed (covered in the "Goldberg" folder), you have:
** Wrestling/LanceStorm. He's clearly the hottest wrestler in the building, but he's booked like a cowardly heel. And then the next night he's booked as the babyface rebelling against authority? Made no sense and hurt his push. Lance was actually one of the most-over people in the company during that period (one of the few, actually), so of course Russo decided to try to rehash the Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin vs. Dude Love match where the rules keep changing to screw with the face, and essentially had Lance lose 3 or 4 times in the same match, before winning by cheating...in Canada (and Wrestling/MikeAwesome wasn't exactly setting the world on fire).
** Sting said in various interviews that after Owen fell, he declined to do the entrance from the ceiling anymore for a number of reasons, and yet here's Russo booking it again the very next year.
** By far the worst match of the night, and possibly the entire year, was the Rip Off the Camouflage match between [[Wrestling/StacyKeibler Ms. Hancock]] and [[http://i.imgur.com/xOHaLqd.gif Major Gunns]] aka Tylene Buck. The backstory alone is groan-worthy, as it's basically Hancock feuding against Gunns for the affections of the former's then-boyfriend David Flair. This match came about because Gunns tried to give David mouth-to-mouth after his (losing) appearance in a Cruiserweight Championship title match. Right from the start, it's obvious these two have no idea what they are doing. Gunns clearly doesn't know how to take bumps, whereby she plods slowly towards the turnbuckle and then turns her back long before she actually connects with it. The pair make their way up to the stage where a pool of mud (naturally) just happens to be. The match takes a turn for the tasteless when Gunns kicks Hancock right in the stomach, the latter holding it with a very worried face. That's right, Russo tried to make a miscarriage angle out of what should've been a silly {{fanservice}} match. This turned out to be an AssPull when, months later, Ms. Hancock returned with a baby carriage which was revealed to be just a pile of pictures of Shawn Stasiak, whom she had dumped David for. Truly an abortion of both a match and a story.
** The "Judy Bagwell on a Forklift/Pole" match between Wrestling/BuffBagwell and Wrestling/{{Kanyon}}. Because nothing gets wrestling fans amped like two guys fighting over Buff's mom.
** Wrestling/LanceStorm. He's clearly the hottest wrestler in the building, but he's booked like a cowardly heel. And then the next night he's booked as the babyface rebelling against authority? Made no sense and hurt his push. Lance was actually one of the most-over people in the company during that period (one of the few, actually), so of course Russo decided to try to rehash the Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin vs. Dude Love match where the rules keep changing to screw with the face, and essentially had Lance lose 3 or 4 times in the same match, before winning by cheating...in Canada (and Wrestling/MikeAwesome wasn't exactly setting the world on fire).
** Sting said in various interviews that after Owen fell, he declined to do the entrance from the ceiling anymore for a number of reasons, and yet here's Russo booking it again the very next year.
** By far the worst match of the night, and possibly the entire year, was the Rip Off the Camouflage match between [[Wrestling/StacyKeibler Ms. Hancock]] and [[http://i.imgur.com/xOHaLqd.gif Major Gunns]] aka Tylene Buck. The backstory alone is groan-worthy, as it's basically Hancock feuding against Gunns for the affections of the former's then-boyfriend David Flair. This match came about because Gunns tried to give David mouth-to-mouth after his (losing) appearance in a Cruiserweight Championship title match. Right from the start, it's obvious these two have no idea what they are doing. Gunns clearly doesn't know how to take bumps, whereby she plods slowly towards the turnbuckle and then turns her back long before she actually connects with it. The pair make their way up to the stage where a pool of mud (naturally) just happens to be. The match takes a turn for the tasteless when Gunns kicks Hancock right in the stomach, the latter holding it with a very worried face. That's right, Russo tried to make a miscarriage angle out of what should've been a silly {{fanservice}} match. This turned out to be an AssPull when, months later, Ms. Hancock returned with a baby carriage which was revealed to be just a pile of pictures of Shawn Stasiak, whom she had dumped David for. Truly an abortion of both a match and a story.
** The "Judy Bagwell on a Forklift/Pole" match between Wrestling/BuffBagwell and Wrestling/{{Kanyon}}. Because nothing gets wrestling fans amped like two guys fighting over Buff's mom.
to:
* ''New Blood Rising''. If someone tries to sell tell you on the idea that Russo is a misunderstood genius, show them this PPV. The whole thing was just over-swerved. Besides this being the event where the curtain over {{kayfabe}} was infamously torn by branding Goldberg ''New Blood Rising'', or as "unprofessional" for not letting himself it should be powerbombed (covered in the "Goldberg" folder), you have:
** Wrestling/LanceStorm. He's clearly the hottest wrestler in the building, but he's booked like a cowardly heel. And then the next night he's booked as the babyface rebelling against authority? Made no sense and hurt his push. Lance was actually one of the most-over people in the company during that period (one of the few, actually), so of course Russo decided to try to rehash the Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin vs. Dude Love match where the rules keep changing to screw with the face, and essentially had Lance lose 3 or 4 times in the same match, before winning by cheating...in Canada (and Wrestling/MikeAwesome wasn't exactly setting the world on fire).
** Sting said in various interviews that after Owen fell, he declined to do the entrance from the ceiling anymore for a number of reasons, and yet here's Russo booking it again the very next year.
** By far the worst match of the night, and possibly the entire year, was the Rip Off the Camouflage match between [[Wrestling/StacyKeibler Ms. Hancock]] and [[http://i.imgur.com/xOHaLqd.gif Major Gunns]] aka Tylene Buck. The backstory alone is groan-worthy, as it's basically Hancock feuding against Gunns for the affections of the former's then-boyfriend David Flair.known, "Swerve Hell". This match came about because Gunns tried to give David mouth-to-mouth after his (losing) appearance show featured Buff Bagwell and Kanyon in a Cruiserweight Championship title match. Right from the start, it's obvious these two have no idea what they are doing. Gunns clearly doesn't know how to take bumps, whereby she plods slowly towards the turnbuckle and then turns her back long before she actually connects with it. The pair make their way up to the stage where a pool of mud (naturally) just happens to be. The match takes a turn for the tasteless when Gunns kicks Hancock right in the stomach, the latter holding it with a very worried face. That's right, Russo tried to make a miscarriage angle out of what should've been a silly {{fanservice}} match. This turned out to be an AssPull when, months later, Ms. Hancock returned with a baby carriage which was revealed to be just a pile of pictures of Shawn Stasiak, whom she had dumped David for. Truly an abortion of both a match and a story.
** The"Judy Bagwell on a Forklift/Pole" Forklift" match, because nothing says wrestling quite like fighting over a wrestler's mother while making constant fat jokes, two [=KroniK=] matches somehow, and Lance Storm doing the "heel changes the rules to screw the face over" routine... in CANADA, so fans don't know how to feel. Worst match of the night is the "Rip off the Camo" mud strip match between Wrestling/BuffBagwell Miss Hancock and Wrestling/{{Kanyon}}. Because nothing gets wrestling fans amped like two guys fighting over Buff's mom.Major Gunns; neither can wrestle, it ends in a pinfall despite being a strip match, and it ends in a kayfabe miscarriage.[[note]]Don't worry, Hancock was fine, she ended up coming back with a baby carriage full of [[AssPull photos of Shawn Stasiak]], which is somehow not the strangest thing that a wrestler gave birth to in 2000.[[/note]] And then you have the {{kayfabe}}-destroying "Goldberg refuses to follow the script" moment (detailed in the Goldberg folder), as if this show weren't irredeemable already.
** Wrestling/LanceStorm. He's clearly the hottest wrestler in the building, but he's booked like a cowardly heel. And then the next night he's booked as the babyface rebelling against authority? Made no sense and hurt his push. Lance was actually one of the most-over people in the company during that period (one of the few, actually), so of course Russo decided to try to rehash the Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin vs. Dude Love match where the rules keep changing to screw with the face, and essentially had Lance lose 3 or 4 times in the same match, before winning by cheating...in Canada (and Wrestling/MikeAwesome wasn't exactly setting the world on fire).
** Sting said in various interviews that after Owen fell, he declined to do the entrance from the ceiling anymore for a number of reasons, and yet here's Russo booking it again the very next year.
** By far the worst match of the night, and possibly the entire year, was the Rip Off the Camouflage match between [[Wrestling/StacyKeibler Ms. Hancock]] and [[http://i.imgur.com/xOHaLqd.gif Major Gunns]] aka Tylene Buck. The backstory alone is groan-worthy, as it's basically Hancock feuding against Gunns for the affections of the former's then-boyfriend David Flair.
** The
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* ''Slamboree'' '96, to determine the next contender to the US Title, revived the "Battlebowl / Lethal Lottery" from ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92 and its own show in 1993. This concept was never good and never drew numbers, but the ''Slamboree'' edition managed to plumb new depths in both respects. First problem: they changed the format from 1 round of tag matches and then a 16-man battle royal to 2 rounds and an 8-man, which only drew out the bad matches more. The teams (which were pre-drawn, unlike in previous Battlebowls) were mostly jobbers as usual. In the very first match, Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors, who had been drawn against each other, attacked their own partners and caused a no contest, taking a giant shit all over the concept right from the off. This somehow wasn't the only partner-attacking incident, as the Ric Flair/Randy Savage enemies team lost their second round match due to being too busy brawling to even start the match. The final battle royal contained no one anywhere near the main event, and was won by Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage... but then the entire event was rendered pointless on the next ''Nitro'' as DDP was stripped of his title shot on a technicality. The shot ultimately went to Lex Luger, who had been eliminated in the first round! A complete, sorry waste of time.
to:
* ''Slamboree'' '96, to determine the next contender to the US WCW Title, revived the "Battlebowl / Lethal Lottery" from ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92 and its own show in 1993. This concept was never good and never drew numbers, but the ''Slamboree'' edition managed to plumb new depths in both respects. First problem: they changed the format from 1 round of tag matches and then a 16-man battle royal to 2 rounds and an 8-man, which only drew out the bad matches more. The teams (which were pre-drawn, unlike in previous Battlebowls) were mostly jobbers as usual. In the very first match, Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors, who had been drawn against each other, attacked their own partners and caused a no contest, taking a giant shit all over the concept right from the off. This somehow wasn't the only partner-attacking incident, as the Ric Flair/Randy Savage enemies team lost their second round match due to being too busy brawling to even start the match. The final battle royal contained no one anywhere near the main event, and was won by Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage... but then the entire event was rendered pointless on the next ''Nitro'' as DDP was stripped of his title shot on a technicality. The shot ultimately went to Lex Luger, who had been eliminated in the first round! A complete, sorry waste of time.
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* ''Slamboree'' '96. Not only was this the first ''Slamboree'' to exclude a Legends' match, but they also brought back the ill-fated "Battlebowl" concept (used at ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92, as well as its own pay-per-view in 1993[[note]]Which drew an absolutely horrific buyrate, something that shouldn't have been a surprise when the two ''Starrcade'' shows that featured the Battlebowl also tanked. Bringing it back again because Dusty liked it was lunacy, and to the shock of no one ''Slamboree'' did shit numbers as well[[/note]]) for its "Lord of the Ring" Tournament, where the winner would earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match at ''The Great American Bash'' '96.
** First off, unlike the previous Lethal Lotteries, there were two rounds of matches, with the winners of the first round advancing to the second round, and the winners of the second round advancing to the Battlebowl Battle Royal. Also, unlike the previous Lotteries, where the teams and matches were drawn on the day of the show, they were pre-drawn. The sixteen teams and opening round matches were as follows: Road Warrior Animal & Booker T vs. Road Warrior Hawk & Lex Luger, The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge, one of the few teams to remain together) vs. Chris Benoit & [[Wrestling/KevinSullivan The Taskmaster]], Rick Steiner & [[Wrestling/BrutusBeefcake The Booty Man]] vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman & Wrestling/ScottSteiner, [[Wrestling/MikeRotunda V.K. Wallstreet]] & Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan vs. The Blue Bloods (Lord Steven Regal & Squire David Taylor; incidentally, Taylor was a substitute for The Belfast Bruiser, who Regal was feuding with and was out due to injury), Dick Slater & Earl Robert Eaton vs. [[Wrestling/GlennGilbertti Disco Inferno]] & Wrestling/AlexWright (this was years before Disco and Wright became an official tag team known as the Dancing Fools aka the Dancing Idiots and Boogie Knights later on), Diamond Dallas Page (who had just been reinstated to WCW the week earlier, substituting for "Hardwork" Bobby Walker, who was injured by Luger on WCW Saturday Night) & The Barbarian vs. Meng & "The Laughing Man" [[Wrestling/BillDeMott Hugh Morrus]], Fire & Ice ([[Wrestling/ScottNorton Scott "Flash" Norton]] & Ice Train) vs. [[Wrestling/BigBossMan Big Bubba Rogers]] & Stevie Ray, and Ric Flair & Randy Savage (who were feuding at the time) vs. Arn Anderson & Eddie Guerrero.
** In the very first match, Animal & Booker faced off against Hawk & Luger. Neither of the Road Warriors locked up against each other. In fact, both Road Warriors turned on their respective partners for the night, resulting in a double count-out and all four men being eliminated. [[SarcasmMode What a way to start your tournament!]] In the other matches, Public Enemy beat Benoit & Taskmaster (which would lead to the [=Benoit/Sullivan=] feud), Rick Steiner & Booty Man beat Scott Steiner & Pittman (though both Steiners did face each other briefly), Wallstreet & Duggan beat The Blue Bloods, Slater & Eaton beat Disco & Wright, DDP & Barbarian beat Meng & Morris, Fire & Ice beat Bubba & Stevie, and Flair & Savage beat Arn & Eddie (where Flair and Savage attacked each other at every opportunity and Arn turned on Eddie during the match). So, that means that both Road Warriors, both members of Harlem Heat, Luger, Benoit, the Taskmaster, Pittman, Scott Steiner, the Blue Bloods, Disco, Alex Wright, Meng, Hugh Morris, Bubba, Arn, and Guerrero were all eliminated in the opening round.
** In the second round, the teams redrew opponents, but due to the very first match ending in a double count-out, one team at random was automatically drawn to the Battlebowl Battle Royal, which ended up being the team of Fire & Ice. In the first match, Slater & Eaton beat Wallstreet & Duggan. The next match had Flair & Savage facing The Public Enemy, which never even got started as Flair and Savage got into a brawl with each other, resulting in the ref declaring Public Enemy the winners by forfeit, and the last match had DDP & Barbarian beating Rick Steiner & Booty Man.
** There were also three title matches that took place from within the pay-per-view. The first was Wrestling/DeanMalenko defending the Cruiserweight Championship against Wrestling/BradArmstrong. The second was Konnan defending the United States Championship against Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger. The last, and the main event of the pay-per-view, was The Giant defending the WCW World Title against Sting. All three champions successfully retained their respective titles and all three matches were simply okay, but relatively unimportant, except for the World Title match.
** So, the Battlebowl Battle Royal came down to DDP, Barbarian, Ice Train, Johnny Grunge, Scott Norton, Dick Slater, Bobby Eaton, and Rocco Rock, one of whom would be the number one contender for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship...or so we thought. The winner ended up being DDP, who would then unexpectedly end up losing his title shot the next night on Nitro after it was revealed that Page was thrown over the top rope with one foot hitting the floor. So, who ends up getting the title shot? Lex Luger, who was one of the first men eliminated from the tournament! Therefore, the Battlebowl Battle Royal, and by extension the "Lord of the Ring" Tournament at the pay-per-view itself, was absolutely pointless! The Battlebowl concept itself was never done again after this show due to poor pay-per-view business and negative critical reception. Fortunately though, one week after this entire debacle had taken place, Scott Hall made his WCW return, and the rest is history.
* ''Hog Wild / Road Wild''. The whole PPV is bonkers, and not in a good way. None of it makes sense. Up is down, black is white. The audience looks weirder than the wrestlers. The minorities, {{face}} or heel, all get booed. Big Sexy breaks the pro wrestling record for doing the absolute least amount of work possible. Creator/JayLeno puts Hogan in a wrist lock.
** The PPV was conceived because Eric Bischoff was (and likely still is) a huge motorcycle fan. It was held for four years in Sturgis, South Dakota to coincide with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Great main event which the horrible crowd totally drains the life out of: Since it was held outside and with the ring surrounded by motorcycles, there was no gate, meaning they lost money every year. Add in that your audience consists of hundreds of drunk bikers, many of whom didn't care about wrestling and only wanted to see people get hurt, to the point that they loudly cheered a [[GarbageWrestler garbage match]] between forgettable wrestlers Scott Norton and Ice Train; while in response to a match between Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, the bikers act like they'd rather shovel shit than watch these two guys wrestle a minute more. For that entire match, they're either silent or booing.
** Not only was the best match of the night ruined, the bikers heaped racist abuse on Harlem Heat. Add in that for almost every bump, the bikers would rev their engines, meaning people who paid for the PPV couldn't hear the commentators. That Sturgis crowd was one of the worst in history.
** Not to mention the reason for the name change from "Hog Wild" to "Road Wild" was that, after the first event, they were threatened with a lawsuit by the '''H'''arley '''O'''wners '''G'''roup. WCW couldn't even put on a PPV without getting sued.
** First off, unlike the previous Lethal Lotteries, there were two rounds of matches, with the winners of the first round advancing to the second round, and the winners of the second round advancing to the Battlebowl Battle Royal. Also, unlike the previous Lotteries, where the teams and matches were drawn on the day of the show, they were pre-drawn. The sixteen teams and opening round matches were as follows: Road Warrior Animal & Booker T vs. Road Warrior Hawk & Lex Luger, The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge, one of the few teams to remain together) vs. Chris Benoit & [[Wrestling/KevinSullivan The Taskmaster]], Rick Steiner & [[Wrestling/BrutusBeefcake The Booty Man]] vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman & Wrestling/ScottSteiner, [[Wrestling/MikeRotunda V.K. Wallstreet]] & Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan vs. The Blue Bloods (Lord Steven Regal & Squire David Taylor; incidentally, Taylor was a substitute for The Belfast Bruiser, who Regal was feuding with and was out due to injury), Dick Slater & Earl Robert Eaton vs. [[Wrestling/GlennGilbertti Disco Inferno]] & Wrestling/AlexWright (this was years before Disco and Wright became an official tag team known as the Dancing Fools aka the Dancing Idiots and Boogie Knights later on), Diamond Dallas Page (who had just been reinstated to WCW the week earlier, substituting for "Hardwork" Bobby Walker, who was injured by Luger on WCW Saturday Night) & The Barbarian vs. Meng & "The Laughing Man" [[Wrestling/BillDeMott Hugh Morrus]], Fire & Ice ([[Wrestling/ScottNorton Scott "Flash" Norton]] & Ice Train) vs. [[Wrestling/BigBossMan Big Bubba Rogers]] & Stevie Ray, and Ric Flair & Randy Savage (who were feuding at the time) vs. Arn Anderson & Eddie Guerrero.
** In the very first match, Animal & Booker faced off against Hawk & Luger. Neither of the Road Warriors locked up against each other. In fact, both Road Warriors turned on their respective partners for the night, resulting in a double count-out and all four men being eliminated. [[SarcasmMode What a way to start your tournament!]] In the other matches, Public Enemy beat Benoit & Taskmaster (which would lead to the [=Benoit/Sullivan=] feud), Rick Steiner & Booty Man beat Scott Steiner & Pittman (though both Steiners did face each other briefly), Wallstreet & Duggan beat The Blue Bloods, Slater & Eaton beat Disco & Wright, DDP & Barbarian beat Meng & Morris, Fire & Ice beat Bubba & Stevie, and Flair & Savage beat Arn & Eddie (where Flair and Savage attacked each other at every opportunity and Arn turned on Eddie during the match). So, that means that both Road Warriors, both members of Harlem Heat, Luger, Benoit, the Taskmaster, Pittman, Scott Steiner, the Blue Bloods, Disco, Alex Wright, Meng, Hugh Morris, Bubba, Arn, and Guerrero were all eliminated in the opening round.
** In the second round, the teams redrew opponents, but due to the very first match ending in a double count-out, one team at random was automatically drawn to the Battlebowl Battle Royal, which ended up being the team of Fire & Ice. In the first match, Slater & Eaton beat Wallstreet & Duggan. The next match had Flair & Savage facing The Public Enemy, which never even got started as Flair and Savage got into a brawl with each other, resulting in the ref declaring Public Enemy the winners by forfeit, and the last match had DDP & Barbarian beating Rick Steiner & Booty Man.
** There were also three title matches that took place from within the pay-per-view. The first was Wrestling/DeanMalenko defending the Cruiserweight Championship against Wrestling/BradArmstrong. The second was Konnan defending the United States Championship against Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger. The last, and the main event of the pay-per-view, was The Giant defending the WCW World Title against Sting. All three champions successfully retained their respective titles and all three matches were simply okay, but relatively unimportant, except for the World Title match.
** So, the Battlebowl Battle Royal came down to DDP, Barbarian, Ice Train, Johnny Grunge, Scott Norton, Dick Slater, Bobby Eaton, and Rocco Rock, one of whom would be the number one contender for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship...or so we thought. The winner ended up being DDP, who would then unexpectedly end up losing his title shot the next night on Nitro after it was revealed that Page was thrown over the top rope with one foot hitting the floor. So, who ends up getting the title shot? Lex Luger, who was one of the first men eliminated from the tournament! Therefore, the Battlebowl Battle Royal, and by extension the "Lord of the Ring" Tournament at the pay-per-view itself, was absolutely pointless! The Battlebowl concept itself was never done again after this show due to poor pay-per-view business and negative critical reception. Fortunately though, one week after this entire debacle had taken place, Scott Hall made his WCW return, and the rest is history.
* ''Hog Wild / Road Wild''. The whole PPV is bonkers, and not in a good way. None of it makes sense. Up is down, black is white. The audience looks weirder than the wrestlers. The minorities, {{face}} or heel, all get booed. Big Sexy breaks the pro wrestling record for doing the absolute least amount of work possible. Creator/JayLeno puts Hogan in a wrist lock.
** The PPV was conceived because Eric Bischoff was (and likely still is) a huge motorcycle fan. It was held for four years in Sturgis, South Dakota to coincide with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Great main event which the horrible crowd totally drains the life out of: Since it was held outside and with the ring surrounded by motorcycles, there was no gate, meaning they lost money every year. Add in that your audience consists of hundreds of drunk bikers, many of whom didn't care about wrestling and only wanted to see people get hurt, to the point that they loudly cheered a [[GarbageWrestler garbage match]] between forgettable wrestlers Scott Norton and Ice Train; while in response to a match between Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, the bikers act like they'd rather shovel shit than watch these two guys wrestle a minute more. For that entire match, they're either silent or booing.
** Not only was the best match of the night ruined, the bikers heaped racist abuse on Harlem Heat. Add in that for almost every bump, the bikers would rev their engines, meaning people who paid for the PPV couldn't hear the commentators. That Sturgis crowd was one of the worst in history.
** Not to mention the reason for the name change from "Hog Wild" to "Road Wild" was that, after the first event, they were threatened with a lawsuit by the '''H'''arley '''O'''wners '''G'''roup. WCW couldn't even put on a PPV without getting sued.
to:
* ''Slamboree'' '96. Not only was this '96, to determine the first ''Slamboree'' next contender to exclude a Legends' match, but they also brought back the ill-fated "Battlebowl" concept (used at US Title, revived the "Battlebowl / Lethal Lottery" from ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92, as well as '92 and its own pay-per-view show in 1993[[note]]Which 1993. This concept was never good and never drew an absolutely horrific buyrate, something that shouldn't have been a surprise when numbers, but the two ''Starrcade'' shows that featured the Battlebowl also tanked. Bringing it back again because Dusty liked it was lunacy, and to the shock of no one ''Slamboree'' did shit numbers as well[[/note]]) for its "Lord of the Ring" Tournament, where the winner would earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match at ''The Great American Bash'' '96.
**edition managed to plumb new depths in both respects. First off, problem: they changed the format from 1 round of tag matches and then a 16-man battle royal to 2 rounds and an 8-man, which only drew out the bad matches more. The teams (which were pre-drawn, unlike the in previous Lethal Lotteries, there Battlebowls) were two rounds of matches, with the winners of the first round advancing to the second round, and the winners of the second round advancing to the Battlebowl Battle Royal. Also, unlike the previous Lotteries, where the teams and matches were drawn on the day of the show, they were pre-drawn. The sixteen teams and opening round matches were mostly jobbers as follows: Road Warrior Animal & Booker T vs. Road Warrior Hawk & Lex Luger, The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge, one of the few teams to remain together) vs. Chris Benoit & [[Wrestling/KevinSullivan The Taskmaster]], Rick Steiner & [[Wrestling/BrutusBeefcake The Booty Man]] vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman & Wrestling/ScottSteiner, [[Wrestling/MikeRotunda V.K. Wallstreet]] & Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan vs. The Blue Bloods (Lord Steven Regal & Squire David Taylor; incidentally, Taylor was a substitute for The Belfast Bruiser, who Regal was feuding with and was out due to injury), Dick Slater & Earl Robert Eaton vs. [[Wrestling/GlennGilbertti Disco Inferno]] & Wrestling/AlexWright (this was years before Disco and Wright became an official tag team known as the Dancing Fools aka the Dancing Idiots and Boogie Knights later on), Diamond Dallas Page (who had just been reinstated to WCW the week earlier, substituting for "Hardwork" Bobby Walker, who was injured by Luger on WCW Saturday Night) & The Barbarian vs. Meng & "The Laughing Man" [[Wrestling/BillDeMott Hugh Morrus]], Fire & Ice ([[Wrestling/ScottNorton Scott "Flash" Norton]] & Ice Train) vs. [[Wrestling/BigBossMan Big Bubba Rogers]] & Stevie Ray, and Ric Flair & Randy Savage (who were feuding at the time) vs. Arn Anderson & Eddie Guerrero.
**usual. In the very first match, Animal & Booker faced off against Hawk & Luger. Neither of the Road Warriors locked up Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors, who had been drawn against each other. In fact, both Road Warriors turned on other, attacked their respective own partners for and caused a no contest, taking a giant shit all over the night, resulting in a double count-out and all four men being eliminated. [[SarcasmMode What a way to start your tournament!]] In concept right from the other matches, Public Enemy beat Benoit & Taskmaster (which would lead to off. This somehow wasn't the [=Benoit/Sullivan=] feud), Rick Steiner & Booty Man beat Scott Steiner & Pittman (though both Steiners did face each other briefly), Wallstreet & Duggan beat The Blue Bloods, Slater & Eaton beat Disco & Wright, DDP & Barbarian beat Meng & Morris, Fire & Ice beat Bubba & Stevie, and Flair & only partner-attacking incident, as the Ric Flair/Randy Savage beat Arn & Eddie (where Flair enemies team lost their second round match due to being too busy brawling to even start the match. The final battle royal contained no one anywhere near the main event, and Savage attacked each other at every opportunity and Arn turned on Eddie during was won by Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage... but then the match). So, that means that both Road Warriors, both members entire event was rendered pointless on the next ''Nitro'' as DDP was stripped of Harlem Heat, his title shot on a technicality. The shot ultimately went to Lex Luger, Benoit, the Taskmaster, Pittman, Scott Steiner, the Blue Bloods, Disco, Alex Wright, Meng, Hugh Morris, Bubba, Arn, and Guerrero were all who had been eliminated in the opening round.
** In the second round, the teams redrew opponents, but due to the veryfirst match ending in a double count-out, one team at random was automatically drawn to the Battlebowl Battle Royal, which ended up being the team round! A complete, sorry waste of Fire & Ice. In the first match, Slater & Eaton beat Wallstreet & Duggan. The next match had Flair & Savage facing The Public Enemy, which never even got started as Flair and Savage got into a brawl with each other, resulting in the ref declaring Public Enemy the winners by forfeit, and the last match had DDP & Barbarian beating Rick Steiner & Booty Man.
** There were also three title matches that took place from within the pay-per-view. The first was Wrestling/DeanMalenko defending the Cruiserweight Championship against Wrestling/BradArmstrong. The second was Konnan defending the United States Championship against Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger. The last, and the main event of the pay-per-view, was The Giant defending the WCW World Title against Sting. All three champions successfully retained their respective titles and all three matches were simply okay, but relatively unimportant, except for the World Title match.
** So, the Battlebowl Battle Royal came down to DDP, Barbarian, Ice Train, Johnny Grunge, Scott Norton, Dick Slater, Bobby Eaton, and Rocco Rock, one of whom would be the number one contender for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship...or so we thought. The winner ended up being DDP, who would then unexpectedly end up losing his title shot the next night on Nitro after it was revealed that Page was thrown over the top rope with one foot hitting the floor. So, who ends up getting the title shot? Lex Luger, who was one of the first men eliminated from the tournament! Therefore, the Battlebowl Battle Royal, and by extension the "Lord of the Ring" Tournament at the pay-per-view itself, was absolutely pointless! The Battlebowl concept itself was never done again after this show due to poor pay-per-view business and negative critical reception. Fortunately though, one week after this entire debacle had taken place, Scott Hall made his WCW return, and the rest is history.
time.
* Any ''Hog Wild / RoadWild''. The whole PPV is bonkers, and not in a good way. None of it makes sense. Up is down, black is white. The audience looks weirder than the wrestlers. The minorities, {{face}} or heel, all get booed. Big Sexy breaks the pro wrestling record for doing the absolute least amount of work possible. Creator/JayLeno puts Hogan in a wrist lock.
** The PPV was conceived because Eric Bischoff was (and likely still is) a huge motorcycle fan. It was held for four years in Sturgis, South Dakota to coincide with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Great main event which the horrible crowd totally drains the life out of: Since it was held outside and with the ring surrounded by motorcycles, there was no gate, meaning they lost money every year. Add in that your audience consists of hundreds of drunk bikers, many of whom didn't care about wrestling and only wanted to see people get hurt, to the point that they loudly cheered a [[GarbageWrestler garbage match]] between forgettable wrestlers Scott Norton and Ice Train; while in response to a match between Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, the bikers act like they'd rather shovel shit than watch these two guys wrestle a minute more. For that entire match, they're either silent or booing.
** Not only was the best match of the night ruined, the bikers heaped racist abuse on Harlem Heat. Add in that for almost every bump, the bikers would rev their engines, meaning people who paid for the PPV couldn't hear the commentators. That Sturgis crowd was one of the worst in history.
** Not to mention the reason for theWild''[[note]]the name change from "Hog Wild" to "Road Wild" was that, changed after the first event, they were threatened with 1996 edition under threat of a lawsuit by the '''H'''arley '''O'''wners '''G'''roup. WCW couldn't even put '''G'''roup[[/note]] pay-per-view could fit this page by concept alone. Held at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (due to Eric Bischoff's love of motorcycles), it was held in the open air and so exactly ZERO people paid for it. The crowd was invariably made out of drunk bikers who wouldn't understand a wrestling match if it plowed them over on two wheels, only cheering blood and violence, and booing anyone who wasn't white regardless of whether they were face or heel. They would also rev their engines at inopportune times, drowning out the commentators. Lowlights of the individual shows include:
** ''Road Wild'' '98 saw aPPV without getting sued.complete botchfest between Brian Adams and Steve [=McMichael=]; Goldberg invading an [=nWo=] Hollywood vs. Wolfpac battle royal and reducing it to "stand around and wait to be speared and eliminated"; and most hideously, DDP and '''Jay Leno''' of all people teaming up to face Hogan and Bischoff, which was just embarrassing for all involved.
** ''Road Wild'' '99 had exactly one decent match: DDP vs. Benoit. Everything else ranged from "mediocre" to "please let this end". The latter end of the scale was reserved for the likes of Buff Bagwell vs. Ernest "The Cat" Miller, Sid Vicious and Sting's agonisingly slow encounter, and the main event featuring face-turned Hulk Hogan having the worst possible version of a formulaic 1980s Hogan match against a Kevin Nash who clearly could not care less.
**
**
** In the second round, the teams redrew opponents, but due to the very
** There were also three title matches that took place from within the pay-per-view. The first was Wrestling/DeanMalenko defending the Cruiserweight Championship against Wrestling/BradArmstrong. The second was Konnan defending the United States Championship against Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger. The last, and the main event of the pay-per-view, was The Giant defending the WCW World Title against Sting. All three champions successfully retained their respective titles and all three matches were simply okay, but relatively unimportant, except for the World Title match.
** So, the Battlebowl Battle Royal came down to DDP, Barbarian, Ice Train, Johnny Grunge, Scott Norton, Dick Slater, Bobby Eaton, and Rocco Rock, one of whom would be the number one contender for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship...or so we thought. The winner ended up being DDP, who would then unexpectedly end up losing his title shot the next night on Nitro after it was revealed that Page was thrown over the top rope with one foot hitting the floor. So, who ends up getting the title shot? Lex Luger, who was one of the first men eliminated from the tournament! Therefore, the Battlebowl Battle Royal, and by extension the "Lord of the Ring" Tournament at the pay-per-view itself, was absolutely pointless! The Battlebowl concept itself was never done again after this show due to poor pay-per-view business and negative critical reception. Fortunately though, one week after this entire debacle had taken place, Scott Hall made his WCW return, and the rest is history.
* Any ''Hog Wild / Road
** The PPV was conceived because Eric Bischoff was (and likely still is) a huge motorcycle fan. It was held for four years in Sturgis, South Dakota to coincide with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Great main event which the horrible crowd totally drains the life out of: Since it was held outside and with the ring surrounded by motorcycles, there was no gate, meaning they lost money every year. Add in that your audience consists of hundreds of drunk bikers, many of whom didn't care about wrestling and only wanted to see people get hurt, to the point that they loudly cheered a [[GarbageWrestler garbage match]] between forgettable wrestlers Scott Norton and Ice Train; while in response to a match between Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, the bikers act like they'd rather shovel shit than watch these two guys wrestle a minute more. For that entire match, they're either silent or booing.
** Not only was the best match of the night ruined, the bikers heaped racist abuse on Harlem Heat. Add in that for almost every bump, the bikers would rev their engines, meaning people who paid for the PPV couldn't hear the commentators. That Sturgis crowd was one of the worst in history.
** Not to mention the reason for the
** ''Road Wild'' '98 saw a
** ''Road Wild'' '99 had exactly one decent match: DDP vs. Benoit. Everything else ranged from "mediocre" to "please let this end". The latter end of the scale was reserved for the likes of Buff Bagwell vs. Ernest "The Cat" Miller, Sid Vicious and Sting's agonisingly slow encounter, and the main event featuring face-turned Hulk Hogan having the worst possible version of a formulaic 1980s Hogan match against a Kevin Nash who clearly could not care less.
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Changed line(s) 117 (click to see context) from:
** On March 8, 1999, Nash had the idea to not book any wrestling matches for the first hour of ''Nitro''... on World Championship '''Wrestling'''. Nash sincerely believed wrestling matches were passé, and that people would pay to see him and his friends banter and have a good time for 60 minutes. Unsurprisingly, ''Raw'' destroyed ''Nitro'' in the ratings that night.
to:
** On March 8, 1999, Nash had the idea to not book any wrestling matches for the first hour of ''Nitro''... on World Championship '''Wrestling'''. Nash sincerely believed wrestling matches were passé, and that people would pay to see him and his friends banter and have a good time for 60 minutes. Unsurprisingly, ''Raw'' destroyed ''Nitro'' in the ratings that night.[[note]]Fast-forward to the present and WWE is pretty much doing the exact same thing, with a 3 hour (plus overrun) episode of ''Monday Night Raw'' often featuring less than a half-hour's worth of actual wrestling (a lot of which isn't even shown on TV due to [=WWE's=] infuriating practice of having all their commercial breaks '''during the matches'''.) So maybe Nash was just a little too far ahead of the times.[[/note]]
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Changed line(s) 102 (click to see context) from:
** This was also the night where [=nWo=] Hollywood leader Hulk Hogan, returning from his [[BatmanGambit yearly football vacation]][[note]]Hogan liked to take yearly vacations just in time for the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] playoffs, which usually drew viewers away from WCW, and then return when the playoffs ended, claiming the improved ratings were because of him.[[/note]], was going to announce his running mate in his bid to become President of the United States. This never happened, and instead Hogan decided that if Goldberg couldn't make it, he would face "that spoon Kevin Nash" in a "retirement match" — and supposedly, to settle the feud between the [=nWo=]'s split factions.\\\
to:
** This was also the night where [=nWo=] Hollywood leader Hulk Hogan, returning from his [[BatmanGambit yearly football vacation]][[note]]Hogan liked to take yearly vacations just in time for the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] playoffs, which usually drew viewers away from WCW, and then return when the playoffs ended, claiming the improved ratings were because of him. He did the same thing during the UsefulNotes/{{NBA}} playoffs, which ''really'' messed with [=WCW's=] ratings because ''WCW Monday Nitro'' would get pushed back to 11 p.m.[[/note]], was going to announce his running mate in his bid to become President of the United States. This never happened, and instead Hogan decided that if Goldberg couldn't make it, he would face "that spoon Kevin Nash" in a "retirement match" — and supposedly, to settle the feud between the [=nWo=]'s split factions.\\\
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---->'''Bobby Heenan:''' THIS IS GREAT TELEVISION HISTORY! THIS SURPASSES A SUPER BOWL, A WORLD SERIES, ANYTHING YOU WANT TO NAME! THIS IS TREMENDOUS!
to:
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* While most of the first ''World War 3'' was at least okay at best, the titular main event [[GimmickMatches gimmick match]] was an absolute mess in every sort of way.
** The World War 3 gimmick itself. It's basically a Battle Royal with three rings and 60 wrestlers, 20 in each ring to start. Just like in a normal Battle Royal, you're eliminated when you're thrown out over the top rope, but otherwise you can go under the ropes and freely travel between the rings. Once enough wrestlers are eliminated from two of the rings, the rest must go to the main ring and it turns into a standard Battle Royale. All of this sounds simple, and from a live audience standpoint might be actually fun to watch. But then you realize you're also doing this on live TV and it starts to fall apart. Just to show all the action at once required three Picture-in-Picture feeds with two commentators each, which not only made it hard to follow any of the action (due to the small size of the screens, or even which commentator is on which feed), but none of the feeds could stay consistent. At one point, two of the feeds were filming the same ring, just showing two different angles of a bunch of wrestlers trying to eliminate Hogan. It was a chore keeping track who was being eliminated and any good spots. This concept might be feasible today (a promoter could simply show it on their website and let fans select whatever camera feed they want and jump back and forth at their leisure) but in the mid 90s the tech to really show this on television properly just wasn't there yet.
** The whole clusterfuck that was WCW advertising "a giant in each ring", which tied into another clusterfuck known as [[Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom The Yeti]] (aka "THE YETAY!"). The idea behind having "a giant in each ring" was to make sure Hogan had to fight a giant no matter which ring he was in. The end result was Hogan being billed as one of the giants, despite being ''the shortest'' of The Outsiders. How did this happen?
*** This all began with The Yeti, who was being built up in the weeks prior to ''Halloween Havoc'' '95. The original plan was to have him be played by Wrestling/GiantGonzalez (yes, the same Giant González who had stank up ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' IX in ''[[Horrible/{{WWE}} one of the worst matches in history]]''). However, González had visa issues and couldn't make it in time, so they instead had Wrestling/RonReis being wrapped up like a mummy to come out to do the spot in the main event, hoping to later unwrap him to reveal Giant González. Then Ron turned the Yeti into a joke with the [[https://prowrestlingstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-Yeti-Hulk-Hogan-The-Giant.gif double bearhug spot]] that both he and [[Wrestling/BigShow The Giant]] had inflicted upon Hogan, so they had to scrap the character and repackage Ron into Super Giant Ninja for ''World War 3''...while still advertising The Yeti as part of the giants.
*** González still had visa issues leading to him being dropped entirely. So Plan B was this: Giant, Yeti, and Wrestling/TheOneManGang...the latter of whom was mysteriously dropped despite doing the promos for it, not to mention ''One Man Gang still appearing at the World War 3 battle royal''. Plan C for this slowly-disintegrating mess was Wrestling/GiantHaystacks as "Loch Ness", a British wrestling legend who was ''way'' past his physical and athletic prime at that point. ''And that too fell though'' due to scheduling conflicts. Thus, due to already advertising three giants, they had to bill Hogan as a giant.
** Then came one of the biggest reasons (apart from ''[=WrestleMania=]'' IX) why you should never give Hogan any influence in booking. The original plan was for The Giant to eliminate Hogan by throwing him over the ropes, with "Macho Man" Wrestling/RandySavage winning the World Heavyweight Belt clean. However, Hogan got cold feet and changed the outcome: The Giant threw him ''under'' the ropes, either to create controversy via a ref error or just to undermine Savage. So, when did Hogan get cold feet? Oh...'''halfway through the match.''' The result was Savage "winning" the belt, and Hogan once again stealing his thunder by bitching in the ring and trying to get the result changed. The crowd had none of it, and it was undoubtedly the beginning of the end for Hulkamania.
* Every ''Uncensored'' PPV installment. The concept behind the event was that the (fictional) WCW Board of Directors washed their hands of it, so each match on the card was unsanctioned, i.e. they were not subject to any rules[[note]]Why they were still using WCW referees, commentators, logos, etc... was never explained[[/note]]. In reality, it was a lackluster WCW show, albeit one with a tendency to feature more gimmick matches than usual...and not good ones.
** The 1995 edition. When not just one match from it, but ''the entire pay-per-view'' gets [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/uncensored-95/ inducted]] into ''[=WrestleCrap=]'', you know you're having a rough time.
*** The opening bout from the show set the stage for things to come, as [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} Dustin Rhodes]] faced the Blacktop Bully (Wrestling/BarryDarsow, also known as Smash from Wrestling/{{Demolition}} and the Repo Man) in a King of the Road match, which was a match taking place in an open-air, moving semi truck full of hay with several chain link barriers set up. The winner would be the first one to ring a bell at the front of the truck. The entire match was slow and due to the mobile nature of the match, it was hard to get good camera angles, which was compounded by filming this two minutes before sunset with cameras that had no white balancing, so half the match was in darkened shadows, and the chain link barrier structure making the wrestling barely visible. This is not a match you should open a PPV with. To cap it off, both Rhodes and Darsow would be fired from the company immediately afterwards for blading during the match[[note]]Along with agent Mike Graham, who was the "producer" of the match[[/note]] (which was against WCW's "no-blood" policy at the time), which in turn meant they had to do edits that made it even harder to tell what was going on to prevent the blood from showing. [[{{Irony}} On a PPV called Uncensored.]]
*** Randy Savage vs. [[Wrestling/JohnTenta Avalanche]] was an okay match until the end of it, when Ric Flair, [[CreepyCrossdresser disguised as a woman]], interfered. Because ''Uncensored'' was unsanctioned, there was no DQ... that is until Hulk Hogan came out and awarded Savage the win via DQ anyway. ''Somehow''.
*** Wrestling/TheNastyBoys vs. Harlem Heat in a Falls Count Anywhere Texas Tornado Tag Team match was also an okay brawl, barring the concession stand [[{{Foodfight}} food fight]], but the finish to it was screwed up by production when Brian Knobbs managed to score the pinfall, ''off camera''.
*** Two special-themed matches from the PPV had consisted of Wrestling/{{Meng}} vs. Jim Duggan in a karate match and [[Wrestling/MarcMero Johnny B. Badd]] vs. Wrestling/ArnAnderson in a "boxer vs. wrestler" match (and by those we mean "wrestling matches that look like karate and boxing matches").
*** The main event was Hulk Hogan vs. Vader in a strap match. Nether man's title (Hogan was WCW World Champion and Vader the US Champion) was on the line due to ''Uncensored'' being unsanctioned, so it wouldn't be recognized anyway. The match itself was a slow, plodding affair which soon became apparent that it takes far too long for Hogan to touch the four corners of the ring and be able to pin Vader for it to be believable due to Vader's own weight. The solution to this problem? Have Hogan pin ''Ric Flair'' (who ran down to interfere) to win. Again, ''somehow''.
** The 1996 edition:
*** The most infamous of all its matches was the Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage) vs. the imaginatively-named "Alliance to End Hulkamania": Two of Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen (Ric Flair and Arn Anderson), the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom (Lex Luger, Meng, Wrestling/TheBarbarian, [[Wrestling/KevinSullivan The Taskmaster]]), Z-Gangsta (Creator/TinyLister; Zeus from ''Film/NoHoldsBarred''), and the Ultimate Solution ([[Creator/RobertSwenson Jeep Swenson]]). Things got off to a bad start before the event even began: Ultimate Solution was originally named Final Solution until they realized that was a term for the Nazis' plan to exterminate Jews. The first 15 minutes of the match itself were basically them on top a triple-decker cage (like Hell in a Cell), and they had to fight their way through trap doors to the ring. It's incredible because nobody at all (including the commentators) knows what constitutes an actual victory, and you can tell who the actors are because they have no idea how to sell. Hogan and Savage, two men, somehow go over ''eight'' men. You could watch this match 50 times and still have no idea how they won...and one suspects they don't either. [[note]](What actually happened was Savage pinned Flair after Luger accidentally hit his teammate with a glove with a foreign object in it. Thing is, Hogan and Savage had already left the cage by this point, but Savage went back in to actually pin Flair.)[[/note]] Wrestling/BobbyHeenan's attempts to sell the match fell flat, to say the least.
** The World War 3 gimmick itself. It's basically a Battle Royal with three rings and 60 wrestlers, 20 in each ring to start. Just like in a normal Battle Royal, you're eliminated when you're thrown out over the top rope, but otherwise you can go under the ropes and freely travel between the rings. Once enough wrestlers are eliminated from two of the rings, the rest must go to the main ring and it turns into a standard Battle Royale. All of this sounds simple, and from a live audience standpoint might be actually fun to watch. But then you realize you're also doing this on live TV and it starts to fall apart. Just to show all the action at once required three Picture-in-Picture feeds with two commentators each, which not only made it hard to follow any of the action (due to the small size of the screens, or even which commentator is on which feed), but none of the feeds could stay consistent. At one point, two of the feeds were filming the same ring, just showing two different angles of a bunch of wrestlers trying to eliminate Hogan. It was a chore keeping track who was being eliminated and any good spots. This concept might be feasible today (a promoter could simply show it on their website and let fans select whatever camera feed they want and jump back and forth at their leisure) but in the mid 90s the tech to really show this on television properly just wasn't there yet.
** The whole clusterfuck that was WCW advertising "a giant in each ring", which tied into another clusterfuck known as [[Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom The Yeti]] (aka "THE YETAY!"). The idea behind having "a giant in each ring" was to make sure Hogan had to fight a giant no matter which ring he was in. The end result was Hogan being billed as one of the giants, despite being ''the shortest'' of The Outsiders. How did this happen?
*** This all began with The Yeti, who was being built up in the weeks prior to ''Halloween Havoc'' '95. The original plan was to have him be played by Wrestling/GiantGonzalez (yes, the same Giant González who had stank up ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' IX in ''[[Horrible/{{WWE}} one of the worst matches in history]]''). However, González had visa issues and couldn't make it in time, so they instead had Wrestling/RonReis being wrapped up like a mummy to come out to do the spot in the main event, hoping to later unwrap him to reveal Giant González. Then Ron turned the Yeti into a joke with the [[https://prowrestlingstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-Yeti-Hulk-Hogan-The-Giant.gif double bearhug spot]] that both he and [[Wrestling/BigShow The Giant]] had inflicted upon Hogan, so they had to scrap the character and repackage Ron into Super Giant Ninja for ''World War 3''...while still advertising The Yeti as part of the giants.
*** González still had visa issues leading to him being dropped entirely. So Plan B was this: Giant, Yeti, and Wrestling/TheOneManGang...the latter of whom was mysteriously dropped despite doing the promos for it, not to mention ''One Man Gang still appearing at the World War 3 battle royal''. Plan C for this slowly-disintegrating mess was Wrestling/GiantHaystacks as "Loch Ness", a British wrestling legend who was ''way'' past his physical and athletic prime at that point. ''And that too fell though'' due to scheduling conflicts. Thus, due to already advertising three giants, they had to bill Hogan as a giant.
** Then came one of the biggest reasons (apart from ''[=WrestleMania=]'' IX) why you should never give Hogan any influence in booking. The original plan was for The Giant to eliminate Hogan by throwing him over the ropes, with "Macho Man" Wrestling/RandySavage winning the World Heavyweight Belt clean. However, Hogan got cold feet and changed the outcome: The Giant threw him ''under'' the ropes, either to create controversy via a ref error or just to undermine Savage. So, when did Hogan get cold feet? Oh...'''halfway through the match.''' The result was Savage "winning" the belt, and Hogan once again stealing his thunder by bitching in the ring and trying to get the result changed. The crowd had none of it, and it was undoubtedly the beginning of the end for Hulkamania.
* Every ''Uncensored'' PPV installment. The concept behind the event was that the (fictional) WCW Board of Directors washed their hands of it, so each match on the card was unsanctioned, i.e. they were not subject to any rules[[note]]Why they were still using WCW referees, commentators, logos, etc... was never explained[[/note]]. In reality, it was a lackluster WCW show, albeit one with a tendency to feature more gimmick matches than usual...and not good ones.
** The 1995 edition. When not just one match from it, but ''the entire pay-per-view'' gets [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/uncensored-95/ inducted]] into ''[=WrestleCrap=]'', you know you're having a rough time.
*** The opening bout from the show set the stage for things to come, as [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} Dustin Rhodes]] faced the Blacktop Bully (Wrestling/BarryDarsow, also known as Smash from Wrestling/{{Demolition}} and the Repo Man) in a King of the Road match, which was a match taking place in an open-air, moving semi truck full of hay with several chain link barriers set up. The winner would be the first one to ring a bell at the front of the truck. The entire match was slow and due to the mobile nature of the match, it was hard to get good camera angles, which was compounded by filming this two minutes before sunset with cameras that had no white balancing, so half the match was in darkened shadows, and the chain link barrier structure making the wrestling barely visible. This is not a match you should open a PPV with. To cap it off, both Rhodes and Darsow would be fired from the company immediately afterwards for blading during the match[[note]]Along with agent Mike Graham, who was the "producer" of the match[[/note]] (which was against WCW's "no-blood" policy at the time), which in turn meant they had to do edits that made it even harder to tell what was going on to prevent the blood from showing. [[{{Irony}} On a PPV called Uncensored.]]
*** Randy Savage vs. [[Wrestling/JohnTenta Avalanche]] was an okay match until the end of it, when Ric Flair, [[CreepyCrossdresser disguised as a woman]], interfered. Because ''Uncensored'' was unsanctioned, there was no DQ... that is until Hulk Hogan came out and awarded Savage the win via DQ anyway. ''Somehow''.
*** Wrestling/TheNastyBoys vs. Harlem Heat in a Falls Count Anywhere Texas Tornado Tag Team match was also an okay brawl, barring the concession stand [[{{Foodfight}} food fight]], but the finish to it was screwed up by production when Brian Knobbs managed to score the pinfall, ''off camera''.
*** Two special-themed matches from the PPV had consisted of Wrestling/{{Meng}} vs. Jim Duggan in a karate match and [[Wrestling/MarcMero Johnny B. Badd]] vs. Wrestling/ArnAnderson in a "boxer vs. wrestler" match (and by those we mean "wrestling matches that look like karate and boxing matches").
*** The main event was Hulk Hogan vs. Vader in a strap match. Nether man's title (Hogan was WCW World Champion and Vader the US Champion) was on the line due to ''Uncensored'' being unsanctioned, so it wouldn't be recognized anyway. The match itself was a slow, plodding affair which soon became apparent that it takes far too long for Hogan to touch the four corners of the ring and be able to pin Vader for it to be believable due to Vader's own weight. The solution to this problem? Have Hogan pin ''Ric Flair'' (who ran down to interfere) to win. Again, ''somehow''.
** The 1996 edition:
*** The most infamous of all its matches was the Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage) vs. the imaginatively-named "Alliance to End Hulkamania": Two of Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen (Ric Flair and Arn Anderson), the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom (Lex Luger, Meng, Wrestling/TheBarbarian, [[Wrestling/KevinSullivan The Taskmaster]]), Z-Gangsta (Creator/TinyLister; Zeus from ''Film/NoHoldsBarred''), and the Ultimate Solution ([[Creator/RobertSwenson Jeep Swenson]]). Things got off to a bad start before the event even began: Ultimate Solution was originally named Final Solution until they realized that was a term for the Nazis' plan to exterminate Jews. The first 15 minutes of the match itself were basically them on top a triple-decker cage (like Hell in a Cell), and they had to fight their way through trap doors to the ring. It's incredible because nobody at all (including the commentators) knows what constitutes an actual victory, and you can tell who the actors are because they have no idea how to sell. Hogan and Savage, two men, somehow go over ''eight'' men. You could watch this match 50 times and still have no idea how they won...and one suspects they don't either. [[note]](What actually happened was Savage pinned Flair after Luger accidentally hit his teammate with a glove with a foreign object in it. Thing is, Hogan and Savage had already left the cage by this point, but Savage went back in to actually pin Flair.)[[/note]] Wrestling/BobbyHeenan's attempts to sell the match fell flat, to say the least.
to:
* While most of the first ''World War 3'' was at least okay at best, the titular main event [[GimmickMatches gimmick match]] was an absolute mess in every sort of way.
** The World War 3 gimmick itself. It's basically a Battle Royal with three rings and 60 wrestlers, 20 in each ring to start. Just like in a normal Battle Royal, you're eliminated when you're thrown out over the top rope, but otherwise you can go under the ropes and freely travel between the rings. Once enough wrestlers are eliminated from two of the rings, the rest must go to the main ring and it turns into a standard Battle Royale. All of this sounds simple, and from a live audience standpoint might be actually fun to watch. But then you realize you're also doing this on live TV and it starts to fall apart. Just to show all the action at once required three Picture-in-Picture feeds with two commentators each, which not only made it hard to follow any of the action (due to the small size of the screens, or even which commentator is on which feed), but none of the feeds could stay consistent. At one point, two of the feeds were filming the same ring, just showing two different angles of a bunch of wrestlers trying to eliminate Hogan. It was a chore keeping track who was being eliminated and any good spots. This concept might be feasible today (a promoter could simply show it on their website and let fans select whatever camera feed they want and jump back and forth at their leisure) but in the mid 90s the tech to really show this on television properly just wasn't there yet.
** The whole clusterfuck that was WCW advertising "a giant in each ring", which tied into another clusterfuck known as [[Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom The Yeti]] (aka "THE YETAY!"). The idea behind having "a giant in each ring" was to make sure Hogan had to fight a giant no matter which ring he was in. The end result was Hogan being billed as one of the giants, despite being ''the shortest'' of The Outsiders. How did this happen?
*** This all began with The Yeti, who was being built up in the weeks prior to ''Halloween Havoc'' '95. The original plan was to have him be played by Wrestling/GiantGonzalez (yes, the same Giant González who had stank up ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' IX in ''[[Horrible/{{WWE}} one of the worst matches in history]]''). However, González had visa issues and couldn't make it in time, so they instead had Wrestling/RonReis being wrapped up like a mummy to come out to do the spot in the main event, hoping to later unwrap him to reveal Giant González. Then Ron turned the Yeti into a joke with the [[https://prowrestlingstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-Yeti-Hulk-Hogan-The-Giant.gif double bearhug spot]] that both he and [[Wrestling/BigShow The Giant]] had inflicted upon Hogan, so they had to scrap the character and repackage Ron into Super Giant Ninja for ''World War 3''...while still advertising The Yeti as part of the giants.
*** González still had visa issues leading to him being dropped entirely. So Plan B was this: Giant, Yeti, and Wrestling/TheOneManGang...the latter of whom was mysteriously dropped despite doing the promos for it, not to mention ''One Man Gang still appearing at the World War 3 battle royal''. Plan C for this slowly-disintegrating mess was Wrestling/GiantHaystacks as "Loch Ness", a British wrestling legend who was ''way'' past his physical and athletic prime at that point. ''And that too fell though'' due to scheduling conflicts. Thus, due to already advertising three giants, they had to bill Hogan as a giant.
** Then came one of the biggest reasons (apart from ''[=WrestleMania=]'' IX) why you should never give Hogan any influence in booking. The original plan was for The Giant to eliminate Hogan by throwing him over the ropes, with "Macho Man" Wrestling/RandySavage winning the World Heavyweight Belt clean. However, Hogan got cold feet and changed the outcome: The Giant threw him ''under'' the ropes, either to create controversy via a ref error or just to undermine Savage. So, when did Hogan get cold feet? Oh...'''halfway through the match.''' The result was Savage "winning" the belt, and Hogan once again stealing his thunder by bitching in the ring and trying to get the result changed. The crowd had none of it, and it was undoubtedly the beginning of the end for Hulkamania.
* Every''Uncensored'' PPV installment. The concept behind 1995 was, in story, unsanctioned by the event was that the (fictional) WCW Board of Directors washed their hands of it, board, so each match on the card was unsanctioned, i.e. they were not its matches wouldn't be subject to any rules[[note]]Why the usual rules (why they were still using WCW referees, commentators, logos, etc... was never explained[[/note]]. WCW's brands and staff for it wasn't clear). In reality, it this was a lackluster WCW show, albeit one with a tendency to feature just an excuse for more bad gimmick matches than usual...usual. It started off with a "King of the Road" (match on the back of a truck filled with hay) between Dustin Rhodes and [[Wrestling/BarryDarsow Blacktop Bully]], which was not good ones.
** The 1995 edition. When notonly devoid of real action and barely visible due to being filmed at sunset, but resulted in '''both men and the road agent''' being fired due to violating a blading ban. Two "different style fights" (Meng vs. Jim Duggan in karate and Johnny B. Badd vs. Arn Anderson in boxing) just one match from it, but ''the looked lame and added nothing. Production issues reared their head again, most glaringly the finish of the Harlem Heat vs. Nasty Boys brawl happening ''off camera''. Randy Savage vs. Avalanche ended in DQ because Ric Flair interfered dressed as a woman, despite this event being full of no-DQ matches apparently. The main event (Hogan vs. Vader in a strap match) saw Vader be too heavy for Hogan to believably wrangle him around, so they just had him pin Flair instead! ''The entire pay-per-view'' gets [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/uncensored-95/ inducted]] made it]] into ''[=WrestleCrap=]'', you know you're having ''[=WrestleCrap=]''.
* ''World War 3'' 1995 was headlined by its disastrous titular gimmick match: arough time.
*** The opening bout from the show set the stage3-ring, 60-man battle royal. Sounds great for things to come, as [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} Dustin Rhodes]] faced the Blacktop Bully (Wrestling/BarryDarsow, also known as Smash from Wrestling/{{Demolition}} and the Repo Man) in a King of the Road match, which was a match taking place in an open-air, moving semi truck full of hay live audience, but godawful for PPV. Just showing it required 3 picture-in-picture feeds with several chain link barriers set up. The winner would be 2 commentators each, but the first one small screens just made it harder to ring a bell follow the action (not to mention the fact that at some points, 2 screens were showing the same feed at the front of the truck. The entire match was slow and due to the mobile nature of the match, it was hard to get good camera angles, which was compounded by filming this two minutes before sunset with cameras that had no white balancing, so half the match was in darkened shadows, and the chain link barrier structure making the wrestling barely visible. same time!). This is not a match you should open a PPV with. To cap rendered it off, both Rhodes a chore to keep track of eliminations and Darsow would be fired from spots. They advertised a "giant in every ring" - the company immediately afterwards original plan was for blading during The Giant, Power Plant graduate Reese, and a returning [[Wrestling/GiantGonzalez El Gigante]] as "The Yeti", but Gigante had visa issues, so they put Reese in the match[[note]]Along with agent Mike Graham, who was the "producer" of the match[[/note]] (which was against WCW's "no-blood" policy at the time), which in turn meant Yeti suit, then [[RetCon took him out again]] as his debut sucked. Later plans for Wrestling/TheOneManGang or [[Wrestling/GiantHaystacks Loch Ness]] to appear all fell through for some reason, so they had to do edits that made it even harder to tell what advertise Hulk Hogan as the third giant. The finish was going on to prevent painfully lame as Hogan went under the blood from showing. [[{{Irony}} On a PPV called Uncensored.]]
***ropes, rather than over them, making planned winner Randy Savage vs. [[Wrestling/JohnTenta Avalanche]] look weak. The end visual being not Savage triumphant, but Hogan bitching at him, did not go over well with the crowd at all, marking the time everyone knew Hulkamania was an okay match until the end of it, when Ric Flair, [[CreepyCrossdresser disguised as a woman]], interfered. Because dead.
* The 1996 ''Uncensored'' wasunsanctioned, there was no DQ... that is until Hulk Hogan came out and awarded Savage a slight improvement over the win via DQ anyway. ''Somehow''.
*** Wrestling/TheNastyBoys vs. Harlem Heat in a Falls Count Anywhere Texas Tornado Tag Team match was also an okay brawl, barring the concession stand [[{{Foodfight}} food fight]], but the finish to it was screwed up by production when Brian Knobbs managed to score the pinfall, ''off camera''.
***1995 edition, key word being slight. Two special-themed matches from the PPV had consisted of Wrestling/{{Meng}} vs. Jim Duggan ended in DQ and no-contest respectively, and a karate title was defended, again despite this being unsanctioned. A horrid man/woman match between Col. Robert Parker and [[Wrestling/MarcMero Johnny B. Badd]] Madusa wasted time, and Sting and Booker T vs. Wrestling/ArnAnderson in a "boxer vs. wrestler" match (and by those we mean "wrestling matches that look like karate the Road Warriors saw Hawk and boxing matches").
*** The main event was Hulk Hogan vs. Vader in a strap match. Nether man's title (Hogan was WCW World ChampionAnimal both gassed after 2 minutes and Vader still go 30. But the US Champion) was on the line due to ''Uncensored'' being unsanctioned, so it wouldn't be recognized anyway. The match itself was a slow, plodding affair which soon became apparent that it takes far too long for Hogan to touch the four corners of the ring and be able to pin Vader for it to be believable due to Vader's own weight. The solution to this problem? Have Hogan pin ''Ric Flair'' (who ran down to interfere) to win. Again, ''somehow''.
** The 1996 edition:
*** Themost infamous of all its matches match was the Mega Powers (Hulk a 2-on-8 triple-decker cage match with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage) Savage vs. the imaginatively-named "Alliance to End Hulkamania": Two Hulkamania", made up of Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen (Ric Flair 2 of Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen, 4 of the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom, and Arn Anderson), the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom (Lex Luger, Meng, Wrestling/TheBarbarian, [[Wrestling/KevinSullivan The Taskmaster]]), Z-Gangsta (Creator/TinyLister; Zeus from ''Film/NoHoldsBarred''), and [[Creator/TinyLister two]] [[Wrestling/RobertSwenson guys]] whose most notable connection to WCW was being in a movie with Hogan. One of whom was called "The Final Solution" until someone realised that was a Holocaust reference, so they had to rename him to the Ultimate Solution ([[Creator/RobertSwenson Jeep Swenson]]). Things got off to a bad start before the event even began: Ultimate Solution was originally named Final Solution until they realized that was a term Solution. As for the Nazis' plan to exterminate Jews. The first 15 minutes of the match itself were basically them on top a triple-decker cage (like Hell in a Cell), and they had to fight their way through trap doors to the ring. It's incredible because itself, nobody at all (including the commentators) knows knew what constitutes an actual victory, was going on, and you can tell who the actors are because they have there was no idea real indication of how to sell. Hogan and Savage, two men, somehow go over ''eight'' men. You could watch this match 50 times and still have no idea how they won...and one suspects they don't either. [[note]](What actually happened was Savage pinned Flair after Luger accidentally hit his teammate with a glove with a foreign object in it. Thing is, win. Hogan and Savage had already left the cage by this point, defeated eight men, that we know, but Savage went back in it's hard to actually pin Flair.)[[/note]] Wrestling/BobbyHeenan's attempts tell how. Bobby Heenan was incredibly hyped for this, and there was no real way to sell the match fell flat, to say the least.tell why.
** The World War 3 gimmick itself. It's basically a Battle Royal with three rings and 60 wrestlers, 20 in each ring to start. Just like in a normal Battle Royal, you're eliminated when you're thrown out over the top rope, but otherwise you can go under the ropes and freely travel between the rings. Once enough wrestlers are eliminated from two of the rings, the rest must go to the main ring and it turns into a standard Battle Royale. All of this sounds simple, and from a live audience standpoint might be actually fun to watch. But then you realize you're also doing this on live TV and it starts to fall apart. Just to show all the action at once required three Picture-in-Picture feeds with two commentators each, which not only made it hard to follow any of the action (due to the small size of the screens, or even which commentator is on which feed), but none of the feeds could stay consistent. At one point, two of the feeds were filming the same ring, just showing two different angles of a bunch of wrestlers trying to eliminate Hogan. It was a chore keeping track who was being eliminated and any good spots. This concept might be feasible today (a promoter could simply show it on their website and let fans select whatever camera feed they want and jump back and forth at their leisure) but in the mid 90s the tech to really show this on television properly just wasn't there yet.
** The whole clusterfuck that was WCW advertising "a giant in each ring", which tied into another clusterfuck known as [[Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom The Yeti]] (aka "THE YETAY!"). The idea behind having "a giant in each ring" was to make sure Hogan had to fight a giant no matter which ring he was in. The end result was Hogan being billed as one of the giants, despite being ''the shortest'' of The Outsiders. How did this happen?
*** This all began with The Yeti, who was being built up in the weeks prior to ''Halloween Havoc'' '95. The original plan was to have him be played by Wrestling/GiantGonzalez (yes, the same Giant González who had stank up ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' IX in ''[[Horrible/{{WWE}} one of the worst matches in history]]''). However, González had visa issues and couldn't make it in time, so they instead had Wrestling/RonReis being wrapped up like a mummy to come out to do the spot in the main event, hoping to later unwrap him to reveal Giant González. Then Ron turned the Yeti into a joke with the [[https://prowrestlingstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-Yeti-Hulk-Hogan-The-Giant.gif double bearhug spot]] that both he and [[Wrestling/BigShow The Giant]] had inflicted upon Hogan, so they had to scrap the character and repackage Ron into Super Giant Ninja for ''World War 3''...while still advertising The Yeti as part of the giants.
*** González still had visa issues leading to him being dropped entirely. So Plan B was this: Giant, Yeti, and Wrestling/TheOneManGang...the latter of whom was mysteriously dropped despite doing the promos for it, not to mention ''One Man Gang still appearing at the World War 3 battle royal''. Plan C for this slowly-disintegrating mess was Wrestling/GiantHaystacks as "Loch Ness", a British wrestling legend who was ''way'' past his physical and athletic prime at that point. ''And that too fell though'' due to scheduling conflicts. Thus, due to already advertising three giants, they had to bill Hogan as a giant.
** Then came one of the biggest reasons (apart from ''[=WrestleMania=]'' IX) why you should never give Hogan any influence in booking. The original plan was for The Giant to eliminate Hogan by throwing him over the ropes, with "Macho Man" Wrestling/RandySavage winning the World Heavyweight Belt clean. However, Hogan got cold feet and changed the outcome: The Giant threw him ''under'' the ropes, either to create controversy via a ref error or just to undermine Savage. So, when did Hogan get cold feet? Oh...'''halfway through the match.''' The result was Savage "winning" the belt, and Hogan once again stealing his thunder by bitching in the ring and trying to get the result changed. The crowd had none of it, and it was undoubtedly the beginning of the end for Hulkamania.
* Every
** The 1995 edition. When not
* ''World War 3'' 1995 was headlined by its disastrous titular gimmick match: a
*** The opening bout from the show set the stage
***
* The 1996 ''Uncensored'' was
*** Wrestling/TheNastyBoys vs. Harlem Heat in a Falls Count Anywhere Texas Tornado Tag Team match was also an okay brawl, barring the concession stand [[{{Foodfight}} food fight]], but the finish to it was screwed up by production when Brian Knobbs managed to score the pinfall, ''off camera''.
***
*** The main event was Hulk Hogan vs. Vader in a strap match. Nether man's title (Hogan was WCW World Champion
** The 1996 edition:
*** The
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*** That edition also featured a weird man-vs.-woman match between Col. Robert Parker and Wrestling/{{Madusa}} (setting up the lame wedding skit with Parker and Wrestling/SherriMartel) and a boring street fight between Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors and the team of Booker T and Sting, where it soon becomes clear that the Road Warriors only have about 2 minutes of gas in them, Wrestling/{{Konnan}} defeating Wrestling/EddieGuerrero to retain the WCW United States title (bringing the question of why a title is being defended on an "unsanctioned" show), and two matches, one between the Steiner Brothers and Wrestling/TheNastyBoys and the other between The Belfast Bruiser (Fit Finlay) and [[Wrestling/WilliamRegal Lord Steven Regal]], which ended in a no-contest finish for the tag team match and a disqualification win for Bruiser, respectively (again, in what's supposed to be an "unsanctioned" show).
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* ''Slamboree'' '96. Not only was this the first ''Slamboree'' to exclude a Legends' match, but they also brought back the ill-fated "Battlebowl" concept (used at ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92, as well as its own pay-per-view in 1993[[note]](Which drew an absolutely horrific buyrate, something that shouldn't have been a surprise when the two ''Starrcade'' shows that featured the Battlebowl also tanked. Bringing it back again because Dusty liked it was lunacy, and to the shock of no one ''Slamboree'' did shit numbers as well.)[[/note]]) for its "Lord of the Ring" Tournament, where the winner would earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match at ''The Great American Bash'' '96.
to:
* ''Slamboree'' '96. Not only was this the first ''Slamboree'' to exclude a Legends' match, but they also brought back the ill-fated "Battlebowl" concept (used at ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92, as well as its own pay-per-view in 1993[[note]](Which 1993[[note]]Which drew an absolutely horrific buyrate, something that shouldn't have been a surprise when the two ''Starrcade'' shows that featured the Battlebowl also tanked. Bringing it back again because Dusty liked it was lunacy, and to the shock of no one ''Slamboree'' did shit numbers as well.)[[/note]]) well[[/note]]) for its "Lord of the Ring" Tournament, where the winner would earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match at ''The Great American Bash'' '96.
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Changed line(s) 56 (click to see context) from:
* ''Slamboree'' '96. Not only was this the first ''Slamboree'' to exclude a Legends' match, but they also brought back the ill-fated "Battlebowl" concept (used at ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92, as well as its own pay-per-view in 1993[[note]]Which drew an absolutely horrific buyrate, something that shouldn't have been a surprise when the two ''Starrcade'' shows that featured the Battlebowl also tanked. Bringing it back again because Dusty liked it was lunacy, and to the shock of no one ''Slamboree'' did shit numbers as well[[/note]]) for its "Lord of the Ring" Tournament, where the winner would earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match at ''The Great American Bash'' '96.
to:
* ''Slamboree'' '96. Not only was this the first ''Slamboree'' to exclude a Legends' match, but they also brought back the ill-fated "Battlebowl" concept (used at ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92, as well as its own pay-per-view in 1993[[note]]Which 1993[[note]](Which drew an absolutely horrific buyrate, something that shouldn't have been a surprise when the two ''Starrcade'' shows that featured the Battlebowl also tanked. Bringing it back again because Dusty liked it was lunacy, and to the shock of no one ''Slamboree'' did shit numbers as well[[/note]]) well.)[[/note]]) for its "Lord of the Ring" Tournament, where the winner would earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match at ''The Great American Bash'' '96.
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Changed line(s) 56 (click to see context) from:
* ''Slamboree'' '96. Not only was this the first ''Slamboree'' to exclude a Legends' match, but they also brought back the ill-fated "Battlebowl" concept (used at ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92, as well as its own pay-per-view in 1993) for its "Lord of the Ring" Tournament, where the winner would earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match at ''The Great American Bash'' '96.
to:
* ''Slamboree'' '96. Not only was this the first ''Slamboree'' to exclude a Legends' match, but they also brought back the ill-fated "Battlebowl" concept (used at ''Starrcade'' '91 and '92, as well as its own pay-per-view in 1993) 1993[[note]]Which drew an absolutely horrific buyrate, something that shouldn't have been a surprise when the two ''Starrcade'' shows that featured the Battlebowl also tanked. Bringing it back again because Dusty liked it was lunacy, and to the shock of no one ''Slamboree'' did shit numbers as well[[/note]]) for its "Lord of the Ring" Tournament, where the winner would earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match at ''The Great American Bash'' '96.
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** The opening match (despite being so heavily promoted in the lead up to the event one might've assumed it was going to be the main event[[note]]At least they didn't open with a scaffold match like at the Bash[[/note]]) featured [[Wrestling/GiantGonzalez El Gigante]], Wrestling/{{Sting}}, and The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Wrestling/{{Scott|Steiner}}) against Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher, [[Wrestling/ScottHall The Diamond Studd]], [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]] and [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] in a Chamber of Horrors Match. The match rules are that it's basically a steel cage match in which there's an electric chair in the middle of the ring, and the way to win this match is to put a member of the opposing team in the chair and switch a lever on, so as the person is electrocuted in {{kayfabe}}. It was basically a protracted clusterfuck as, instead of a standard tag team match, everyone from each team attacks the members of the other at the same time. It is filled with many bizarre moments,[[note]]A masked man at one point emerges from a casket that's inside the chamber, but ends up doing nothing of note since Studd knocks him out and spends the rest of the match passed out. Then, a group of people that can be best described as "zombie orderlies" emerge on the entrance ramp with a stretcher.[[/note]] but the most damning is that that lever at one point gets knocked down into the "on" position, being clearly visible to the camera, leading to a referee outside trying to tape it upright. The match ends when Abdullah gets electrocuted by Cactus Jack pulling the lever, mistakenly assuming that Rick Steiner is in the chair (even though Jack is at an angle where he could clearly see who's on the chair), which Abby then proceeds to NoSell by beating Jack.[[note]]Plus a crew member and the zombie orderlies, with their purpose for the match never being revealed.[[/note]]
** [[Wrestling/KevinNash Oz]] faced Bill Kazmaier, a former world champion powerlifter and strongman. Despite the match lasting less than four minutes long, it still made painfully clear that Kazmaier was green as grass (his most agile move in the entire match being a skit-the-cat on the ropes), coupled with Oz's performer being someone not known for carrying people in matches[[note]]Those who've only seen Nash's more well-known work (starting with his run as Diesel in the WWF) where he was a lumbering big man wrestler with bad knees would be shocked to see that Big Kev was at this point quite quick and agile for a man his size. That being said, he really wasn't any less green than Kazmaier (having only been in the business for less than a year himself) and his best asset has always been his promos, so yeah...[[/note]], before it mercifully ends with Kazmaier making Oz submit to the Torture Rack.
** Next, Van Hammer went against Doug Somers. Despite being even shorter than the Oz/Kazmaier match (going only slightly over a minute), it still featured noticeable botches by Somers, including fumbling a clothesline and tripping on his way to a corner. However, the most dangerous botch goes to Van Hammer, who almost dropped Somers on his head as he went for his finisher, the Hammer Rocks (slingshot suplex) that ended the match.
** Finally, the main event is a 2-out-of-3-falls match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship between champion Wrestling/LexLuger (with Wrestling/HarleyRace) and Wrestling/RonSimmons (with Wrestling/DustyRhodes). The match goes along well, with Simmons scoring the first fall, until a spot in which, when Luger and Simmons are on the ropes, Race holds on to Simmons, making Simmons drop Luger over the top rope. Due to WCW's rules at the time, which ruled throwing an opponent over the top rope as grounds for a disqualification, the referee disqualified Simmons, awarding a fall to Luger. Problem is, there were several instances of wrestlers throwing their opponents over the top rope through ''this very event'', and at no moment the referee disqualified them. Luger would go on to score a second fall on his own to win the match and retain the title, but the spot certainly left a feel of having stunk up the joint.
** To put it in perspective, when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGDXRLKXIg the event was reviewed]] by ''WebVideo/WrestlingWithWregret'', not only did Brian Zane give zero stars to the Chamber of Horrors Match, but he actually became so enraged with the Van Hammer/Doug Somers match that he inaugurated ''[[BrokeTheRatingScale negative stars]]'' as a rating to give that match negative three stars.[[note]]He in particular singled out Van Hammer's botch, going into a rant about how the hell Van Hammer was able to stay employed by WCW until 2000.[[/note]]
** [[Wrestling/KevinNash Oz]] faced Bill Kazmaier, a former world champion powerlifter and strongman. Despite the match lasting less than four minutes long, it still made painfully clear that Kazmaier was green as grass (his most agile move in the entire match being a skit-the-cat on the ropes), coupled with Oz's performer being someone not known for carrying people in matches[[note]]Those who've only seen Nash's more well-known work (starting with his run as Diesel in the WWF) where he was a lumbering big man wrestler with bad knees would be shocked to see that Big Kev was at this point quite quick and agile for a man his size. That being said, he really wasn't any less green than Kazmaier (having only been in the business for less than a year himself) and his best asset has always been his promos, so yeah...[[/note]], before it mercifully ends with Kazmaier making Oz submit to the Torture Rack.
** Next, Van Hammer went against Doug Somers. Despite being even shorter than the Oz/Kazmaier match (going only slightly over a minute), it still featured noticeable botches by Somers, including fumbling a clothesline and tripping on his way to a corner. However, the most dangerous botch goes to Van Hammer, who almost dropped Somers on his head as he went for his finisher, the Hammer Rocks (slingshot suplex) that ended the match.
** Finally, the main event is a 2-out-of-3-falls match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship between champion Wrestling/LexLuger (with Wrestling/HarleyRace) and Wrestling/RonSimmons (with Wrestling/DustyRhodes). The match goes along well, with Simmons scoring the first fall, until a spot in which, when Luger and Simmons are on the ropes, Race holds on to Simmons, making Simmons drop Luger over the top rope. Due to WCW's rules at the time, which ruled throwing an opponent over the top rope as grounds for a disqualification, the referee disqualified Simmons, awarding a fall to Luger. Problem is, there were several instances of wrestlers throwing their opponents over the top rope through ''this very event'', and at no moment the referee disqualified them. Luger would go on to score a second fall on his own to win the match and retain the title, but the spot certainly left a feel of having stunk up the joint.
** To put it in perspective, when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGDXRLKXIg the event was reviewed]] by ''WebVideo/WrestlingWithWregret'', not only did Brian Zane give zero stars to the Chamber of Horrors Match, but he actually became so enraged with the Van Hammer/Doug Somers match that he inaugurated ''[[BrokeTheRatingScale negative stars]]'' as a rating to give that match negative three stars.[[note]]He in particular singled out Van Hammer's botch, going into a rant about how the hell Van Hammer was able to stay employed by WCW until 2000.[[/note]]
to:
** The opening match (despite being so heavily promoted in the lead up to the event one might've assumed it much-hyped opener was going to be the main event[[note]]At least they didn't open with a scaffold match like at the Bash[[/note]]) featured [[Wrestling/GiantGonzalez El Gigante]], Wrestling/{{Sting}}, Rick and The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Wrestling/{{Scott|Steiner}}) Wrestling/ScottSteiner) against Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher, [[Wrestling/ScottHall The Diamond Studd]], [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]] and [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] in a Chamber of Horrors Match. The match rules are that it's basically a Putting aside the bizarre premise (a steel cage match in which there's with an electric chair in the middle of middle, the ring, and winner is the way first to win this give their foe a HighVoltageDeath) the match is was poor. In addition to put a member of being marred by the opposing team in the chair and switch a lever on, so as the person is electrocuted in {{kayfabe}}. It "Refer-Eye" cam above, it was basically a protracted clusterfuck as, instead of a standard tag team match, everyone from each team attacks the members of the other at the same time. It is filled structureless, hard-to-follow brawl with many bizarre moments,[[note]]A almost no tags. At one point, a masked man at one point emerges from a casket that's inside the chamber, but ends up doing nothing of note since Studd knocks him jumps out of a casket, is wiped out by Hall, and spends the rest of the match passed out. Then, a group of people that can be best described as "zombie orderlies" emerge on the entrance ramp with a stretcher.[[/note]] but the most damning is that that carried off by crew in zombie costumes, all seemingly for no reason. The lever at one point for the electric chair gets knocked down into the "on" position, being clearly visible to the position in front of camera, leading to a referee outside trying to tape it upright. The match ends when Abdullah gets is electrocuted by Cactus Jack pulling the lever, who mistakenly assuming that thinks he's shocking Rick Steiner is in (despite the chair (even though Jack is at an angle where he could clearly see who's on the chair), which Abby then proceeds to NoSell by beating Jack.[[note]]Plus a crew member and the zombie orderlies, with their purpose for the match never being revealed.[[/note]]
obviously in sight for Jack), then Abby {{No Sell}}s it and attacks Jack and several staff. Pointless, hopeless, clueless.
** [[Wrestling/KevinNash Oz]]faced vs. Bill Kazmaier, a former world champion powerlifter and strongman. Despite the match lasting less than Kazmaier was four minutes long, it still made painfully clear that Kazmaier was with zero athleticism, featuring a man who could barely do the most basic moves being carried by (and defeating, by submission!) the only slightly less green as grass (his most agile move in the entire match being a skit-the-cat on the ropes), coupled with Oz's performer being someone not Kevin Nash, who has never been known for carrying people in matches[[note]]Those who've only seen Nash's more well-known work (starting with his run as Diesel in the WWF) where he was a lumbering big man wrestler with bad knees would be shocked to see that Big Kev was at this point quite quick and agile for a man his size. That being said, he really wasn't any less green than Kazmaier (having only been in the business for less than a year himself) and his best asset has always been his promos, so yeah...[[/note]], before it mercifully ends with Kazmaier making Oz submit to the Torture Rack.
anyone.
**Next, Van Hammer vs. Doug Somers went against only a minute and was almost entirely made up of botches. "Highlights" include Doug Somers. Despite being even shorter than the Oz/Kazmaier match (going only slightly over a minute), it still featured noticeable botches by Somers, including fumbling a clothesline and tripping on his way to a corner. However, the most dangerous botch goes to corner, and Van Hammer, who Hammer almost dropped dropping Somers on his head as he went for with his finisher, the Hammer Rocks (slingshot suplex) slingshot suplex finisher. So horrid was this that ended the match.
** Finally, the main event is a 2-out-of-3-falls match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship between champion Wrestling/LexLuger (with Wrestling/HarleyRace) and Wrestling/RonSimmons (with Wrestling/DustyRhodes). The match goes along well, with Simmons scoring the first fall, until a spot in which, when Luger and Simmons areon the ropes, Race holds on to Simmons, making Simmons drop Luger over the top rope. Due to WCW's rules at the time, which ruled throwing an opponent over the top rope as grounds for a disqualification, the referee disqualified Simmons, awarding a fall to Luger. Problem is, there were several instances of wrestlers throwing their opponents over the top rope through ''this very event'', and at no moment the referee disqualified them. Luger would go on to score a second fall on his own to win the match and retain the title, but the spot certainly left a feel of having stunk up the joint.
** To put it in perspective, when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGDXRLKXIg the event was reviewed]] by''WebVideo/WrestlingWithWregret'', not only did Brian Zane give zero [[BrokeTheRatingScale used negative stars for the first time]] to rate this match. (For comparison, the Chamber of Horrors Match, but he actually became so enraged with the Van Hammer/Doug Somers match that he inaugurated ''[[BrokeTheRatingScale negative stars]]'' as was a rating to give that match negative three stars.[[note]]He in particular singled out Van Hammer's botch, going into a rant about how the hell 0.) Somehow, Van Hammer was able not fired for over '''eight years''' after this.
** The main event saw a mostly middling World Title defence with Wrestling/LexLuger (with Wrestling/HarleyRace) vs. Wrestling/RonSimmons (with Wrestling/DustyRhodes) in a 2/3 Falls match. This, however, turned into a perfect capper tostay employed by WCW until 2000.[[/note]]this poor event at the end of the second fall, as Simmons dropped Luger over the top rope and was disqualified. Effectively a reminder of Bill Watts' old school rules, this just makes no sense as several times during this very show, wrestlers were thrown over the top rope with no DQ called.
** [[Wrestling/KevinNash Oz]]
**
** Finally, the main event is a 2-out-of-3-falls match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship between champion Wrestling/LexLuger (with Wrestling/HarleyRace) and Wrestling/RonSimmons (with Wrestling/DustyRhodes). The match goes along well, with Simmons scoring the first fall, until a spot in which, when Luger and Simmons are
** To put it in perspective, when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGDXRLKXIg the event was reviewed]] by
** The main event saw a mostly middling World Title defence with Wrestling/LexLuger (with Wrestling/HarleyRace) vs. Wrestling/RonSimmons (with Wrestling/DustyRhodes) in a 2/3 Falls match. This, however, turned into a perfect capper to
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switching devices to fix the rest of the entry
Changed line(s) 34 (click to see context) from:
* ''Halloween Havoc'' '91, which followed ''The Great American Bash'', showed that it would still take a while for the company to escape from the fallout from ''Bash''.
to:
* ''Halloween Havoc'' '91, which followed ''The Great American Bash'', showed that it would still take a while for the company to escape from the fallout from ''Bash''. Most elements that could have been good were marred by minor issues (the "Refer-Eye" cam making the otherwise good Light Heavyweight Title match hard to see, Steve Austin and Dustin Rhodes botching the slightly-too-late-fall spot in the TV Title time limit draw, the Halloween Phantom being obviously Rick Rude and ruining the surprise reveal, etc.). On top of that there were many glorified TV matches on PPV (The Enforcers vs. The Patriots, Big Josh and P.N. News vs. 2 jobbers dressed up as "The Creatures", Jimmy Garvin vs. Johnny B. Badd). Those were at least redeemable in a vacuum; the truly Horrible moments of this show, however, are the following.
Deleted line(s) 36,37 (click to see context) :
** The random tag team of Big Josh[[note]]A pre- Wrestling/DoinkTheClown, Matt Osbourne as a lumberjack from [[PartsUnknown "the North Woods."]][[/note]] and P.N. News [[note]]An {{Acrofatic}}, PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy rapper [[/note]] defeats The Creatures [[note]]Longtime WCW jobbers Johnny Rich and the late "Jumping" Joey Maggs, wearing green-scaled masks & tights [[/note]] who don't even get ring names, the team members only being billed as Creature 1 and Creature 2, in a five-minute match that could be barely worthy enough of a BShow, let alone a pay-per-view.
** [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin Steve Austin]] and [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} Dustin Rhodes]] faced off in a good match for the WCW Television Championship, but one that unfortunately ended up in a 15-minute time limit. Even while the time limit would've been forgiven, the final moments featured a botch, as apparently they tried to do a common spot on time limit matches of one wrestler appearing to score what would've been a definitive pinfall, only for time to run out. Here, Rhodes pins Austin, but since there was still some seconds left, Austin had to do an awkward kickout right before the time expires.
** [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin Steve Austin]] and [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} Dustin Rhodes]] faced off in a good match for the WCW Television Championship, but one that unfortunately ended up in a 15-minute time limit. Even while the time limit would've been forgiven, the final moments featured a botch, as apparently they tried to do a common spot on time limit matches of one wrestler appearing to score what would've been a definitive pinfall, only for time to run out. Here, Rhodes pins Austin, but since there was still some seconds left, Austin had to do an awkward kickout right before the time expires.
Deleted line(s) 40,41 (click to see context) :
** Wrestling/BrianPillman defeated Richard Morton in the tournament final to crown the inaugural WCW Light Heavyweight Championship in a serviceable effort from both men, but one that gets hampered via most of the moments of the match getting lost due to the "Ref Cam" (alternately called the "Refer-Eye"), which basically consisted on the referee wearing a helmet with a camera on it.[[note]]It was also used during the Chamber of Horrors Match, and it was also terrible there.[[/note]] Pins in particular were near impossible to see, with the viewer only getting a handful of mat and the referee's arm.
** A particular match was [[Wrestling/TomZenk Z-Man]] facing a masked wrestler known as "The WCW Halloween Phantom", who quickly squashed Z-Man. There's a lot of speculation from the commentators about who was behind the mask, which would be all well and good... except that the mask still makes one able to see that the Phantom has a big PornStache, giving away that he was Wrestling/RickRude. Making the Phantom's identity even more obvious, he used Rude's signature finisher, the Rude Awakening, to score the pinfall. By the time [[Wrestling/PaulHeyman Paul E. Dangerously]] and Wrestling/{{Madusa}} unmasked the Phantom as Rude later in the evening (in what would be the beginning of the Wrestling/TheDangerousAlliance), most viewers would've probably guessed who he was already.
** A particular match was [[Wrestling/TomZenk Z-Man]] facing a masked wrestler known as "The WCW Halloween Phantom", who quickly squashed Z-Man. There's a lot of speculation from the commentators about who was behind the mask, which would be all well and good... except that the mask still makes one able to see that the Phantom has a big PornStache, giving away that he was Wrestling/RickRude. Making the Phantom's identity even more obvious, he used Rude's signature finisher, the Rude Awakening, to score the pinfall. By the time [[Wrestling/PaulHeyman Paul E. Dangerously]] and Wrestling/{{Madusa}} unmasked the Phantom as Rude later in the evening (in what would be the beginning of the Wrestling/TheDangerousAlliance), most viewers would've probably guessed who he was already.
Deleted line(s) 43 (click to see context) :
** Overall, the only only good match of the card that didn't have any element that spoiled it was Bobby Eaton defeating Terrance Taylor. There were other matches that were [[SoOkayItsAverage average]], like [[Wrestling/MarcMero Johnny B. Badd]] (with Wrestling/TeddyLong) defeated Jimmy "Jam" Garvin (with Michael Hayes),[[note]]There was a confusing storyline of Hayes having an arm injury only to reveal through the match that he was faking it, despite it having no influence on the match outcome, but it came off as head-scratching more than horrible.[[/note]] and WCW World Tag Team Champions The Enforcers (Wrestling/ArnAnderson and Larry Zbyszko) retaining the titles against the absolutely forgettable tag team The Patriots (Todd Champion and Firebreaker Chip).
Changed line(s) 98,99 (click to see context) from:
* During the leadup to his Leather Strap match against [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] at ''Uncensored'' 1995, Hulk Hogan cut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRQy5TdXow a bombastic promo]] on ''WCW Main Event'' hyping up "The Ultimate Surprise" that would be in his corner, as stage fog surrounded a muscular man with long hair and tassels on his arms. Unfortunately, the man behind Hogan was not The Wrestling/UltimateWarrior, but a CaptainErsatz called The Renegade (Rick Wilson), who Hogan had the audacity to say would "bring Hulkamania into the 21st century". He was not much better than his inspiration, had none of the charisma, and most of his mic time was carried by his manager Wrestling/JimmyHart (who was also the manager of Hogan as well). Despite being green and having to be carried through all of his matches, the Renegade got a six-month winning streak and an unmemorable Television Championship reign that year.\\\
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart (who had [[FaceHeelTurn turned against]] both him and Hogan so that Hart could align himself with the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom) after losing a match against "The Taskmaster" Wrestling/KevinSullivan on ''Nitro''. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement after that being as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run in 1998. Sadly, Wilson's abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in his mental health after his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart (who had [[FaceHeelTurn turned against]] both him and Hogan so that Hart could align himself with the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom) after losing a match against "The Taskmaster" Wrestling/KevinSullivan on ''Nitro''. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement after that being as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run in 1998. Sadly, Wilson's abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in his mental health after his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".
to:
* During the leadup to his Leather Strap match against [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] at ''Uncensored'' 1995, Hulk Hogan cut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRQy5TdXow a bombastic promo]] on ''WCW Main Event'' hyping hyped up "The Ultimate Surprise" an "Ultimate Surprise"]] to make the difference, heavily implying that would be in his corner, as stage fog surrounded a muscular man with long hair and tassels on his arms. the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior had signed. Unfortunately, the man behind Hogan what we got was not The Wrestling/UltimateWarrior, but a CaptainErsatz called The Renegade (Rick Wilson), who Hogan had the audacity to say would "bring Hulkamania into the 21st century". He was not much better than Every bit as bad as his inspiration, had "inspiration" with none of the charisma, and most of his mic time was carried by his manager Wrestling/JimmyHart (who was also the manager of Hogan as well). Despite being green and having he had to be carried through all of every match. Nonetheless, he got Wrestling/JimmyHart as his matches, the Renegade got manager, a six-month winning streak streak, and an unmemorable the Television Championship reign that year.\\\
His career tanked as fast as it rose:year. WCW seemed to realise their mistake after losing he dropped the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, 1995; he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart (who had [[FaceHeelTurn turned against]] both him and Hogan so that Hart could align himself with the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom) after losing a match against "The Taskmaster" Wrestling/KevinSullivan on ''Nitro''. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement jobbed out repeatedly after that being and buried live on air by a now-heel Hart. His last significant appearance was as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run in 1998. Sadly, Wilson's 1998 (see below for that one). After his suicide a year later[[note]]Wilson had an abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in upbringing, and the circumstances of his meteoric rise and collapse destroyed his mental health after health[[/note]], WCW didn't even care enough to get his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to name right in the tribute, calling him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".Rick ''Williams''.
His career tanked as fast as it rose:
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Changed line(s) 112 (click to see context) from:
* In January 2000, Stevie Ray [[FaceHeelTurn turned on Booker T]] and formed Harlem Heat 2000. The problem? Stevie's threatening new partner was Big T f.k.a. Wrestling/AhmedJohnson, still as much an unsafe, injury prone botch machine as ever, but a few years more out-of-shape. They were managed by J. Biggs (Clarence Mason from WWF's Nation) who infamously informed Booker T that he no longer had the rights to the Harlem Heat entrance or '''''the letter T''''', leading him to come out as just "Booker" with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5J2S92Bymc a cartoony stock piece]] that you'd expect to hear on ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''. The stable expanded with [[ScaryBlackMan Kash]], formerly 4x4 in the No Limit Soldiers, who was somehow '''worse''' than Ahmed and so inflated by steroids that his arms couldn't even touch his sides. This left Stevie Ray, of all people, to be the workhorse of a team no one could take seriously. After the Russo/Bischoff reboot, the two heavies were gone, Booker got his T back, and Stevie Ray retired to the commentary desk for the rest of WCW's lifespan.
to:
* In January 2000, Stevie Ray [[FaceHeelTurn turned on Booker T]] and formed Harlem Heat 2000. The problem? Stevie's threatening new partner was Big T f.k.a. Wrestling/AhmedJohnson, still as much an unsafe, injury prone botch machine as ever, but a few years more out-of-shape. They were managed by J. Biggs (Clarence Mason from WWF's Nation) [[Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination Nation of Domination]]) who infamously informed Booker T that he no longer had the rights to the Harlem Heat entrance or '''''the letter T''''', leading him to come out as just "Booker" with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5J2S92Bymc a cartoony stock piece]] that you'd expect to hear on ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''. The stable expanded with [[ScaryBlackMan Kash]], formerly 4x4 in the No Limit Soldiers, who was somehow '''worse''' than Ahmed and so inflated by steroids that his arms couldn't even touch his sides. This left Stevie Ray, of all people, to be the workhorse of a team no one could take seriously. After the Russo/Bischoff reboot, the two heavies were gone, Booker got his T "T" letter back, and Stevie Ray retired reconciled with his brother, retiring to the commentary desk for the rest of WCW's lifespan.
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trimming the fat on Harlem Heat 2000; remind me to go back and fix both the WCW and TNA pages, so many non-examples and cuts that had to be made.
Changed line(s) 112,115 (click to see context) from:
* In January 2000, Stevie Ray [[FaceHeelTurn turned on Booker T]] and formed Harlem Heat 2000 with Big T (Wrestling/AhmedJohnson), flanked by their insurance Kash (Teddy Reade, f.k.a. 4x4 of the No Limit Soldiers) and manager J. Biggs (f.k.a. Clarence Mason in the WWF). The idea was to make the team [[ScaryBlackMan imposing and intimidating]] due to their size, but it was doomed from its inception for a number of reasons:\\\
Ahmed was already notorious in the WWF for botching his finisher, nearly dropping other wrestlers on their heads, injuring his fellow workers, and being very injury-prone himself. Not only did he get worse in WCW, his promos were no more coherent and he had fallen far out of shape. Kash, on the other hand, was so jacked and bloated that he was even less mobile than Ahmed — and as John Pollock pointed out, his arms could not even touch his own sides. As a result, Stevie Ray had to be the team's workhorse, but he was ill-fit for the role, which made the team hard to take seriously.\\\
The team did not last long after the April 2000 reboot. Ahmed and Kash were quietly released later that year, the feud between Stevie and Booker was swept under the rug, and Stevie retired from wrestling to spend WCW's final days as a color commentator.
** Harlem Heat 2000 was also the root of the infamous angle where Booker T lost the rights to use Harlem Heat's entrance theme and ''the letter T'' to Big T. As a result, his ring name was reduced to "Booker" and he had to come out to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5J2S92Bymc a cartoony stock piece]] that you'd expect to hear on ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''.
Ahmed was already notorious in the WWF for botching his finisher, nearly dropping other wrestlers on their heads, injuring his fellow workers, and being very injury-prone himself. Not only did he get worse in WCW, his promos were no more coherent and he had fallen far out of shape. Kash, on the other hand, was so jacked and bloated that he was even less mobile than Ahmed — and as John Pollock pointed out, his arms could not even touch his own sides. As a result, Stevie Ray had to be the team's workhorse, but he was ill-fit for the role, which made the team hard to take seriously.\\\
The team did not last long after the April 2000 reboot. Ahmed and Kash were quietly released later that year, the feud between Stevie and Booker was swept under the rug, and Stevie retired from wrestling to spend WCW's final days as a color commentator.
** Harlem Heat 2000 was also the root of the infamous angle where Booker T lost the rights to use Harlem Heat's entrance theme and ''the letter T'' to Big T. As a result, his ring name was reduced to "Booker" and he had to come out to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5J2S92Bymc a cartoony stock piece]] that you'd expect to hear on ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''.
to:
* In January 2000, Stevie Ray [[FaceHeelTurn turned on Booker T]] and formed Harlem Heat 2000 with 2000. The problem? Stevie's threatening new partner was Big T (Wrestling/AhmedJohnson), flanked by their insurance Kash (Teddy Reade, f.k.a. 4x4 of the No Limit Soldiers) and manager Wrestling/AhmedJohnson, still as much an unsafe, injury prone botch machine as ever, but a few years more out-of-shape. They were managed by J. Biggs (f.k.a. Clarence (Clarence Mason in the WWF). The idea was to make the team [[ScaryBlackMan imposing and intimidating]] due to their size, but it was doomed from its inception for a number of reasons:\\\
Ahmed was already notorious in the WWF for botching his finisher, nearly dropping other wrestlers on their heads, injuring his fellow workers, and being very injury-prone himself. Not only did he get worse in WCW, his promos were no more coherent and he had fallen far out of shape. Kash, on the other hand, was so jacked and bloated that he was even less mobile than Ahmed — and as John Pollock pointed out, his arms could not even touch his own sides. As a result, Stevie Ray had to be the team's workhorse, but he was ill-fit for the role, which made the team hard to take seriously.\\\
The team did not last long after the April 2000 reboot. Ahmed and Kash were quietly released later that year, the feud between Stevie and Booker was swept under the rug, and Stevie retired from wrestling to spend WCW's final days as a color commentator.
** Harlem Heat 2000 was also the root of the infamous angle whereWWF's Nation) who infamously informed Booker T lost that he no longer had the rights to use the Harlem Heat's Heat entrance theme and ''the or '''''the letter T'' T''''', leading him to Big T. As a result, his ring name was reduced to come out as just "Booker" and he had to come out to with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5J2S92Bymc a cartoony stock piece]] that you'd expect to hear on ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''. The stable expanded with [[ScaryBlackMan Kash]], formerly 4x4 in the No Limit Soldiers, who was somehow '''worse''' than Ahmed and so inflated by steroids that his arms couldn't even touch his sides. This left Stevie Ray, of all people, to be the workhorse of a team no one could take seriously. After the Russo/Bischoff reboot, the two heavies were gone, Booker got his T back, and Stevie Ray retired to the commentary desk for the rest of WCW's lifespan.
Ahmed was already notorious in the WWF for botching his finisher, nearly dropping other wrestlers on their heads, injuring his fellow workers, and being very injury-prone himself. Not only did he get worse in WCW, his promos were no more coherent and he had fallen far out of shape. Kash, on the other hand, was so jacked and bloated that he was even less mobile than Ahmed — and as John Pollock pointed out, his arms could not even touch his own sides. As a result, Stevie Ray had to be the team's workhorse, but he was ill-fit for the role, which made the team hard to take seriously.\\\
The team did not last long after the April 2000 reboot. Ahmed and Kash were quietly released later that year, the feud between Stevie and Booker was swept under the rug, and Stevie retired from wrestling to spend WCW's final days as a color commentator.
** Harlem Heat 2000 was also the root of the infamous angle where
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Changed line(s) 97 (click to see context) from:
* Harlem Heat's original gimmick: "The Posse". Booker T and Stevie Ray, as "Kole" and "Kane" respectively, wore prison outfits and were carried in chains by SouthernGentleman Col. Robert Parker, who won their services in a card game. The initial concept only lasted a single house show, where the audience became outraged by the obvious UnfortunateImplications: they were meant to portray convicts, but looked more like slaves. The team did perform on-screen as Kole and Kane for close to a year, but without the prison motifs or Parker. Curiously enough, pictures of Booker and Stevie wearing the prison suits managed to sneak into [[https://i.imgur.com/DTx1B05.jpg the poster]] for ''Fall Brawl'' 1993.
to:
* Harlem Heat's original gimmick: "The Posse". Booker T and Stevie Ray, as "Kole" and "Kane" respectively, wore prison outfits and were carried in chains by SouthernGentleman Col. Robert Parker, who won their services in a card game. The initial concept only lasted a single house show, where the audience became outraged by the obvious UnfortunateImplications: they were meant to portray convicts, but looked more like slaves. The team did perform on-screen as Kole and Kane for close to a year, but without the prison motifs or Parker.Parker (who would later go on to manage them again alongside Sherri Martel). Curiously enough, pictures of Booker and Stevie wearing the prison suits managed to sneak into [[https://i.imgur.com/DTx1B05.jpg the poster]] for ''Fall Brawl'' 1993.
Changed line(s) 115 (click to see context) from:
** Harlem Heat 2000 was also the root of the infamous angle where Booker T lost the rights to use Harlem Heat's entrance theme and ''the letter T'' to Big T. As a result, his ring name was reduced to "Booker" and he had to come out to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5J2S92Bymc a cartoony stock piece]].
to:
** Harlem Heat 2000 was also the root of the infamous angle where Booker T lost the rights to use Harlem Heat's entrance theme and ''the letter T'' to Big T. As a result, his ring name was reduced to "Booker" and he had to come out to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5J2S92Bymc a cartoony stock piece]].piece]] that you'd expect to hear on ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''.
Changed line(s) 125 (click to see context) from:
** This was also the night where [=nWo=] Hollywood leader Hulk Hogan, returning from his [[BatmanGambit yearly football vacation]][[note]]Hogan liked to take yearly vacations just in time for the NFL playoffs, which usually drew viewers away from WCW, and then return when the playoffs ended, claiming the improved ratings were because of him.[[/note]], was going to announce his running mate in his bid to become President of the United States. This never happened, and instead Hogan decided that if Goldberg couldn't make it, he would face "that spoon Kevin Nash" in a "retirement match" — and supposedly, to settle the feud between the [=nWo=]'s split factions.\\\
to:
** This was also the night where [=nWo=] Hollywood leader Hulk Hogan, returning from his [[BatmanGambit yearly football vacation]][[note]]Hogan liked to take yearly vacations just in time for the NFL [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] playoffs, which usually drew viewers away from WCW, and then return when the playoffs ended, claiming the improved ratings were because of him.[[/note]], was going to announce his running mate in his bid to become President of the United States. This never happened, and instead Hogan decided that if Goldberg couldn't make it, he would face "that spoon Kevin Nash" in a "retirement match" — and supposedly, to settle the feud between the [=nWo=]'s split factions.\\\
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Now a redirect. Can't tell if replacement or others applicable.
Changed line(s) 126 (click to see context) from:
Then Hogan and Nash got in the ring. After gesturing around for a bit, Hogan poked Nash in the chest, Nash took [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhS4ZDnRqJQ the biggest bump of his career]], and Hogan covered him to win the belt and [[ShockingSwerve reform the nWo]]. As they celebrated, it was revealed that Goldberg had been released and was arriving at the arena — in a car, even though the police station was across the street. The logical thing to do was have Goldberg [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge utterly wreck]] the reformed [=nWo=], which he even began to do to massive pops... and then they buried Goldberg to oblivion, taking turns humiliating him by tazing him, spray-painting him, handcuffing him to the corner, etc. Of course, Hogan orchestrated his revenge and regained the world title at the Georgia Dome — the same place Goldberg beat him for the title six months before.\\\
to:
Then Hogan and Nash got in the ring. After gesturing around for a bit, Hogan poked Nash in the chest, Nash took [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhS4ZDnRqJQ the biggest bump of his career]], and Hogan covered him to win the belt and [[ShockingSwerve reform the nWo]].[=nWo=]. As they celebrated, it was revealed that Goldberg had been released and was arriving at the arena — in a car, even though the police station was across the street. The logical thing to do was have Goldberg [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge utterly wreck]] the reformed [=nWo=], which he even began to do to massive pops... and then they buried Goldberg to oblivion, taking turns humiliating him by tazing him, spray-painting him, handcuffing him to the corner, etc. Of course, Hogan orchestrated his revenge and regained the world title at the Georgia Dome — the same place Goldberg beat him for the title six months before.\\\
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Changed line(s) 112 (click to see context) from:
* In January 2000, Stevie Ray [[FaceHeelTurn turned on Booker T]] and formed Harlem Heat 2000 with Big T (Wrestling/AhmedJohnson), flanked by their insurance Kash (Teddy Reade, fka 4x4 of the No Limit Soldiers) and manager J. Biggs (fka Clarence Mason in the WWF). The idea was to make the team [[ScaryBlackMan imposing and intimidating]] due to their size, but it was doomed from its inception for a number of reasons:\\\
to:
* In January 2000, Stevie Ray [[FaceHeelTurn turned on Booker T]] and formed Harlem Heat 2000 with Big T (Wrestling/AhmedJohnson), flanked by their insurance Kash (Teddy Reade, fka f.k.a. 4x4 of the No Limit Soldiers) and manager J. Biggs (fka (f.k.a. Clarence Mason in the WWF). The idea was to make the team [[ScaryBlackMan imposing and intimidating]] due to their size, but it was doomed from its inception for a number of reasons:\\\
Changed line(s) 126 (click to see context) from:
Then Hogan and Nash got in the ring. After gesturing around for a bit, Hogan poked Nash in the chest, Nash took [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhS4ZDnRqJQ the biggest bump of his career]], and Hogan covered him to win the belt and [[ShockingSwerve reform the nWo]]. As they celebrated, it was revealed that Goldberg had been released and was arriving at the arena — in a car, even though the police station was across the street. The logical thing to do was have Goldberg [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge utterly wreck]] the reformed [=nWo=], which he even began to do to massive pops... and then they buried Goldberg to oblivion, taking turns humiliating him by tazing him, spraypainting him, handcuffing him to the corner, etc. Of course, Hogan orchestrated his revenge and regained the world title at the Georgia Dome — the same place Goldberg beat him for the title six months before.\\\
to:
Then Hogan and Nash got in the ring. After gesturing around for a bit, Hogan poked Nash in the chest, Nash took [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhS4ZDnRqJQ the biggest bump of his career]], and Hogan covered him to win the belt and [[ShockingSwerve reform the nWo]]. As they celebrated, it was revealed that Goldberg had been released and was arriving at the arena — in a car, even though the police station was across the street. The logical thing to do was have Goldberg [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge utterly wreck]] the reformed [=nWo=], which he even began to do to massive pops... and then they buried Goldberg to oblivion, taking turns humiliating him by tazing him, spraypainting spray-painting him, handcuffing him to the corner, etc. Of course, Hogan orchestrated his revenge and regained the world title at the Georgia Dome — the same place Goldberg beat him for the title six months before.\\\
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Changed line(s) 127 (click to see context) from:
The episode tore a massive hole in WCW's credibility. It wasn't just that 40,000 fans in the Georgia Dome who wanted to see Goldberg vs. Nash had been ripped off. It buried WCW's hottest star; proved that WCW only had one trick up their sleeve (the [=nWo=]); and that they were more concerned with beating the WWF than putting on a good product. In addition, it spat in the face of the younger wrestlers and told them they didn't matter as long as Hogan and friends were running the show, proving that the [=nWo=] was not just a gimmick after all and Hogan's band of egomaniacs really was untouchable.\\\
to:
The episode tore a massive hole in WCW's credibility. It wasn't just that 40,000 fans in the Georgia Dome who wanted to see Goldberg vs. Nash had been ripped off. It buried WCW's hottest star; proved that WCW only had one trick up their sleeve (the [=nWo=]); and that they were more concerned with beating the WWF than putting on a good product. In addition, it spat in the face of the younger wrestlers and told them they didn't matter as long as Hogan and friends were running the show, proving that the [=nWo=] was not just a gimmick after all and Hogan's band of egomaniacs really was untouchable.show.\\\
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Changed line(s) 35 (click to see context) from:
** The opening match (despite being so heavily promoted in the lead up to the event one might've assumed it was going to be the main event) featured [[Wrestling/GiantGonzalez El Gigante]], Wrestling/{{Sting}}, and The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Wrestling/{{Scott|Steiner}}) against Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher, [[Wrestling/ScottHall The Diamond Studd]], [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]] and [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] in a Chamber of Horrors Match. The match rules are that it's basically a steel cage match in which there's an electric chair in the middle of the ring, and the way to win this match is to put a member of the opposing team in the chair and switch a lever on, so as the person is electrocuted in {{kayfabe}}. It was basically a protracted clusterfuck as, instead of a standard tag team match, everyone from each team attacks the members of the other at the same time. It is filled with many bizarre moments,[[note]]A masked man at one point emerges from a casket that's inside the chamber, but ends up doing nothing of note since Studd knocks him out and spends the rest of the match passed out. Then, a group of people that can be best described as "zombie orderlies" emerge on the entrance ramp with a stretcher.[[/note]] but the most damning is that that lever at one point gets knocked down into the "on" position, being clearly visible to the camera, leading to a referee outside trying to tape it upright. The match ends when Abdullah gets electrocuted by Cactus Jack pulling the lever, mistakenly assuming that Rick Steiner is in the chair (even though Jack is at an angle where he could clearly see who's on the chair), which Abby then proceeds to NoSell by beating Jack.[[note]]Plus a crew member and the zombie orderlies, with their purpose for the match never being revealed.[[/note]]
to:
** The opening match (despite being so heavily promoted in the lead up to the event one might've assumed it was going to be the main event) event[[note]]At least they didn't open with a scaffold match like at the Bash[[/note]]) featured [[Wrestling/GiantGonzalez El Gigante]], Wrestling/{{Sting}}, and The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Wrestling/{{Scott|Steiner}}) against Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher, [[Wrestling/ScottHall The Diamond Studd]], [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]] and [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] in a Chamber of Horrors Match. The match rules are that it's basically a steel cage match in which there's an electric chair in the middle of the ring, and the way to win this match is to put a member of the opposing team in the chair and switch a lever on, so as the person is electrocuted in {{kayfabe}}. It was basically a protracted clusterfuck as, instead of a standard tag team match, everyone from each team attacks the members of the other at the same time. It is filled with many bizarre moments,[[note]]A masked man at one point emerges from a casket that's inside the chamber, but ends up doing nothing of note since Studd knocks him out and spends the rest of the match passed out. Then, a group of people that can be best described as "zombie orderlies" emerge on the entrance ramp with a stretcher.[[/note]] but the most damning is that that lever at one point gets knocked down into the "on" position, being clearly visible to the camera, leading to a referee outside trying to tape it upright. The match ends when Abdullah gets electrocuted by Cactus Jack pulling the lever, mistakenly assuming that Rick Steiner is in the chair (even though Jack is at an angle where he could clearly see who's on the chair), which Abby then proceeds to NoSell by beating Jack.[[note]]Plus a crew member and the zombie orderlies, with their purpose for the match never being revealed.[[/note]]
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Changed line(s) 98,99 (click to see context) from:
* During the leadup to his Leather Strap match against [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] at ''Uncensored'' 1995, Hulk Hogan cut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRQy5TdXow a bombastic promo]] on ''WCW Main Event'' hyping up "The Ultimate Surprise" that would be in his corner, as stage fog surrounded a muscular man with long hair and tassels on his arms. Unfortunately, the man behind Hogan was not The Wrestling/UltimateWarrior, but a CaptainErsatz called The Renegade (Rick Wilson), who Hogan had the audacity to say would "bring Hulkamania into the 21st century". He was not much better than his inspiration, had none of the charisma, and most of his mic time was carried by his manager Wrestling/JimmyHart. Despite being green and having to be carried through all of his matches, the Renegade got a six-month winning streak and an unmemorable Television Championship reign that year.\\\
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart (who had [[FaceHeelTurn turned against]] both him and Hogan) after losing a match against "The Taskmaster" Wrestling/KevinSullivan on ''Nitro''. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement after that being as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run in 1998. Sadly, Wilson's abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in his mental health after his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart (who had [[FaceHeelTurn turned against]] both him and Hogan) after losing a match against "The Taskmaster" Wrestling/KevinSullivan on ''Nitro''. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement after that being as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run in 1998. Sadly, Wilson's abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in his mental health after his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".
to:
* During the leadup to his Leather Strap match against [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] at ''Uncensored'' 1995, Hulk Hogan cut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRQy5TdXow a bombastic promo]] on ''WCW Main Event'' hyping up "The Ultimate Surprise" that would be in his corner, as stage fog surrounded a muscular man with long hair and tassels on his arms. Unfortunately, the man behind Hogan was not The Wrestling/UltimateWarrior, but a CaptainErsatz called The Renegade (Rick Wilson), who Hogan had the audacity to say would "bring Hulkamania into the 21st century". He was not much better than his inspiration, had none of the charisma, and most of his mic time was carried by his manager Wrestling/JimmyHart.Wrestling/JimmyHart (who was also the manager of Hogan as well). Despite being green and having to be carried through all of his matches, the Renegade got a six-month winning streak and an unmemorable Television Championship reign that year.\\\
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart (who had [[FaceHeelTurn turned against]] both him andHogan) Hogan so that Hart could align himself with the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom) after losing a match against "The Taskmaster" Wrestling/KevinSullivan on ''Nitro''. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement after that being as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run in 1998. Sadly, Wilson's abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in his mental health after his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart (who had [[FaceHeelTurn turned against]] both him and
Changed line(s) 128 (click to see context) from:
To further rub salt in the wound, spoiling the main event of ''Raw'' backfired massively in WCW's face, as it was revealed the next morning that over '''500,000''' viewers switched to ''Raw'' to see the EnsembleDarkhorse Foley win the WWF Championship from Wrestling/TheRock.
to:
To further rub salt in the wound, spoiling the main event of ''Raw'' backfired massively in WCW's face, as it was revealed the next morning that over '''500,000''' viewers switched to ''Raw'' to see the EnsembleDarkhorse Foley win the WWF Championship from Wrestling/TheRock.[[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]].
Changed line(s) 139 (click to see context) from:
* While the back end of 1998 saw some missteps, 1999 was a huge turning point in WCW's public perception — for the worse. With no streak, Schiavone sending hundreds of thousands to ''Raw'', and clueless [[FollowTheLeader imitations]] of the WWF's product, fans began to tune out in droves. But even then, their ratings (which had consistently trailed WWF since Summer '98) remained strong for quite a few months in '99. Unfortunately, it was Kevin Nash's booking that led to the ratings free-fall in '99. Dave Meltzer provided a week-by-week account in the ''Observer Newsletter'', and it's really something to read.
to:
* While the back end of 1998 saw some missteps, 1999 was a huge turning point in WCW's public perception — for the worse. With no streak, Schiavone sending hundreds of thousands to ''Raw'', and clueless [[FollowTheLeader imitations]] of the WWF's product, fans began to tune out in droves. But even then, their ratings (which had consistently trailed WWF since Summer '98) remained strong for quite a few months in '99. Unfortunately, it was Kevin Nash's booking that led to the ratings free-fall in '99. Dave Meltzer provided a week-by-week account in the ''Observer Newsletter'', ''Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter'', and it's really something to read.
Changed line(s) 141 (click to see context) from:
** Kevin Nash's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HY_intJPQ4 gauntlet match]] against the New Blood, on the June 5, 2000 ''Nitro''. They must have been running long that night, because Nash [[SquashMatch squashed]] '''the entire New Blood''' (about a quarter of the roster at the time) in quick succession, even eliminating some without physically touching them. He didn't even bother to pin them, as the ref slapped the mat as soon as one of the opponents was down — all in less than five humiliating minutes. It perfectly explains why Nash never has anything bad to say about Vince Russo.
to:
** Kevin Nash's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HY_intJPQ4 gauntlet match]] against the New Blood, on the June 5, 2000 ''Nitro''. They must have been running long that night, because Nash [[SquashMatch squashed]] '''the entire New Blood''' (about a quarter of the roster at the time) in quick succession, even eliminating some without physically touching them. He didn't even bother to pin them, as the ref slapped the mat as soon as one of the opponents was down — all in less than five humiliating minutes. It perfectly explains why Nash never has anything bad to say about Vince Russo.
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Changed line(s) 98,100 (click to see context) from:
* During the leadup to his Leather Strap match against [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] at ''Uncensored'' 1995, Hulk Hogan cut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRQy5TdXow a bombastic promo]] on ''WCW Main Event'' hyping up "The Ultimate Surprise" that would be in his corner, as stage fog surrounded a muscular man with long hair and tassels on his arms. Unfortunately, the man behind Hogan was not The Wrestling/UltimateWarrior, but a CaptainErsatz called The Renegade (Rick Wilson), who Hogan had the audacity to say would "bring Hulkamania into the 21st century". He was not much better than his inspiration, had none of the charisma, and most of his mic time was carried by Wrestling/JimmyHart. Despite being green and having to be carried through all of his matches, the Renegade got a six-month winning streak and an unmemorable Television Championship reign that year.\\\
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement after that being as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run. Sadly, Wilson's abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in his mental health after his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".
* Wrestling/RoddyPiper's entire WCW run. By that point, the man had no place in a wrestling ring to begin with, as a recent surgery had left him wearing an artificial hip that limited his mobility. He spent most of his time there battling Hulk Hogan and looking dumb while doing it, just to [[ArmedWithCanon avenge the minuscule number of losses]] Hogan had eaten in the WWF. The epitome was the main event of ''Starrcade'' 1996, where Piper defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hogan clean, to the joy of WCW's fans and locker room... in a non-title match.[[note]]Piper was notoriously stingy regarding who he put over, and winning the title would mean having to lose it later; having him drop the title back to Hogan would likely not sit well.[[/note]] Highlights included holding the United States Heavyweight title for all of two weeks, overturning a bunch of finishes as WCW Commissioner, fighting Buff Bagwell in a boxing match refereed by Mills Lane, and being roasted by Jim Cornette on Raw the night after an atrocious cage match against Hogan.
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' before being buried on-air by Jimmy Hart. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement after that being as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run. Sadly, Wilson's abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in his mental health after his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".
* Wrestling/RoddyPiper's entire WCW run. By that point, the man had no place in a wrestling ring to begin with, as a recent surgery had left him wearing an artificial hip that limited his mobility. He spent most of his time there battling Hulk Hogan and looking dumb while doing it, just to [[ArmedWithCanon avenge the minuscule number of losses]] Hogan had eaten in the WWF. The epitome was the main event of ''Starrcade'' 1996, where Piper defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hogan clean, to the joy of WCW's fans and locker room... in a non-title match.[[note]]Piper was notoriously stingy regarding who he put over, and winning the title would mean having to lose it later; having him drop the title back to Hogan would likely not sit well.[[/note]] Highlights included holding the United States Heavyweight title for all of two weeks, overturning a bunch of finishes as WCW Commissioner, fighting Buff Bagwell in a boxing match refereed by Mills Lane, and being roasted by Jim Cornette on Raw the night after an atrocious cage match against Hogan.
to:
* During the leadup to his Leather Strap match against [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] at ''Uncensored'' 1995, Hulk Hogan cut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRQy5TdXow a bombastic promo]] on ''WCW Main Event'' hyping up "The Ultimate Surprise" that would be in his corner, as stage fog surrounded a muscular man with long hair and tassels on his arms. Unfortunately, the man behind Hogan was not The Wrestling/UltimateWarrior, but a CaptainErsatz called The Renegade (Rick Wilson), who Hogan had the audacity to say would "bring Hulkamania into the 21st century". He was not much better than his inspiration, had none of the charisma, and most of his mic time was carried by his manager Wrestling/JimmyHart. Despite being green and having to be carried through all of his matches, the Renegade got a six-month winning streak and an unmemorable Television Championship reign that year.\\\
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by JimmyHart. Hart (who had [[FaceHeelTurn turned against]] both him and Hogan) after losing a match against "The Taskmaster" Wrestling/KevinSullivan on ''Nitro''. He was quickly forgotten, spending the rest of his career as a {{jobber}} complete with a pointless heel turn, with his only notable achievement after that being as a body double for the actual Ultimate Warrior in the latter's WCW run.run in 1998. Sadly, Wilson's abusive upbringing as a child resulted in a massive decline in his mental health after his firing from WCW, which led to his suicide. WCW included a tribute to him in an episode of ''Nitro'', only to call him "Rick Williams".
* Wrestling/RoddyPiper's entire WCW run. By that point, the man had no place in a wrestling ring to begin with, as a recent surgery had left him wearing an artificial hip that limited his mobility. He spent most of his time there battling Hulk Hogan and looking dumb while doing it, just to [[ArmedWithCanon avenge the minuscule number of losses]] Hogan had eaten in the WWF. The epitome was the main event of ''Starrcade'' 1996, where Piper defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hogan clean, to the joy of WCW's fans and locker room... in a non-title match.[[note]]Piper was notoriously stingy regarding who he put over, and winning the title would mean having to lose it later; having him drop the title back to Hogan would likely not sit well.[[/note]] Highlights included holding the United States Heavyweighttitle Championship for all of two weeks, overturning a bunch of finishes as WCW Commissioner, fighting Buff Bagwell in a boxing match refereed by Mills Lane, and being roasted by Jim Cornette Wrestling/JimCornette on Raw the night after an atrocious cage match against Hogan.
His career tanked as fast as it rose: after losing the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995, he was squashed by Paul Orndorff on the pre-show to ''Halloween Havoc'' 1995 before being buried on-air by Jimmy
* Wrestling/RoddyPiper's entire WCW run. By that point, the man had no place in a wrestling ring to begin with, as a recent surgery had left him wearing an artificial hip that limited his mobility. He spent most of his time there battling Hulk Hogan and looking dumb while doing it, just to [[ArmedWithCanon avenge the minuscule number of losses]] Hogan had eaten in the WWF. The epitome was the main event of ''Starrcade'' 1996, where Piper defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hogan clean, to the joy of WCW's fans and locker room... in a non-title match.[[note]]Piper was notoriously stingy regarding who he put over, and winning the title would mean having to lose it later; having him drop the title back to Hogan would likely not sit well.[[/note]] Highlights included holding the United States Heavyweight
Changed line(s) 110 (click to see context) from:
* In March 1999, during Vince Russo's stint as WWF booker, Ed Ferrara played a "fan" during a segment in which he did a mocking impression of Jim Ross. Clearly, Russo and Ferrara were so proud of this segment that they turned this into a regular on-screen character in WCW, "Oklahoma", turning the spite up to the max by having Ferrara spout catchphrases repeatedly and mimic JR's actual Bell's palsy. When Oklahoma showed up during ''Mayhem'' 1999, you could hear Tony Schiavone mutter "Oh, no..." in a way that makes you doubt if Schiavone's disgust was just acting. And in one of WCW's lowest points, Oklahoma had an agonizing feud with Madusa in which he constantly spewed variations of "[[StayInTheKitchen women have no place in wrestling]]", and managed to beat her for the Cruiserweight title despite not even being a cruiserweight or a wrestler; and then he vacated the title on the following ''Thunder'', not putting anyone over on the process and making his match with Madusa a waste of time. After a while, Oklahoma was flanked by Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams, which did nothing to win Ferrara any fans. Nobody other than Russo or Ferrara seemed to like the character, with Ric Flair, Jim Cornette and Ross himself speaking out against it — and even Ferrara came to regret the angle.
to:
* In March 1999, during Vince Russo's stint as WWF booker, Ed Ferrara played a "fan" during a segment in which he did a mocking impression of Jim Ross.Wrestling/JimRoss. Clearly, Russo and Ferrara were so proud of this segment that they turned this into a regular on-screen character in WCW, "Oklahoma", turning the spite up to the max by having Ferrara spout catchphrases repeatedly and mimic JR's actual Bell's palsy. When Oklahoma showed up during ''Mayhem'' 1999, you could hear Tony Schiavone mutter "Oh, no..." in a way that makes you doubt if Schiavone's disgust was just acting. And in one of WCW's lowest points, Oklahoma had an agonizing feud with Madusa in which he constantly spewed variations of "[[StayInTheKitchen women have no place in wrestling]]", and managed to beat her for the Cruiserweight title despite not even being a cruiserweight or a wrestler; and then he vacated the title on the following ''Thunder'', not putting anyone over on the process and making his match with Madusa a waste of time. After a while, Oklahoma was flanked by Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams, which did nothing to win Ferrara any fans. Nobody other than Russo or Ferrara seemed to like the character, with Ric Flair, Jim Cornette and Ross himself speaking out against it — and even Ferrara came to regret the angle.
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Changed line(s) 125 (click to see context) from:
** This was also the night where [=nWo=] Hollywood leader Hulk Hogan, returning from his [[BatmanGambit yearly football vacation]], was going to announce his running mate in his bid to become President of the United States. This never happened, and instead Hogan decided that if Goldberg couldn't make it, he would face "that spoon Kevin Nash" in a "retirement match" — and supposedly, to settle the feud between the [=nWo=]'s split factions.\\\
to:
** This was also the night where [=nWo=] Hollywood leader Hulk Hogan, returning from his [[BatmanGambit yearly football vacation]], vacation]][[note]]Hogan liked to take yearly vacations just in time for the NFL playoffs, which usually drew viewers away from WCW, and then return when the playoffs ended, claiming the improved ratings were because of him.[[/note]], was going to announce his running mate in his bid to become President of the United States. This never happened, and instead Hogan decided that if Goldberg couldn't make it, he would face "that spoon Kevin Nash" in a "retirement match" — and supposedly, to settle the feud between the [=nWo=]'s split factions.\\\
