Line #33 Awesome/WCW


1	* 1995 Wrestling/{{New Japan\|ProWrestling}} joint show ''Collision In Korea'', a two day peace festival featuring the only encounter between Wrestling/RicFlair and Wrestling/AntonioInoki and the highest attended wrestling event on record. However, a caveat is in order for the claim of highest attendance, ''Collision in Korea'' was held in ''UsefulNotes/{{North\|Korea}}'' [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Korea]] (as opposed to the relatively democratic South Korea), a country with very little professional wrestling tradition living under the most oppressive, most xenophobic regime on the planet. Claims of attendance of nearly half a million people over two days was largely accurate, but it was most likely understood by the populace that attendance was more or less mandatory.
2	* Some argue in favor of a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Wrestling/HulkHogan that arguably trumps slamming Wrestling/AndreTheGiant -- his infamous FaceHeelTurn [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hILCw66sLU and joining of the newly-formed]] Wrestling/NewWorldOrder at ''Bash at the Beach 1996'', kicking off one of the biggest angles in the history of the industry and reinventing himself in the process. The video of that event on [=YouTube=] had a great quote: "I was a little kid when I watched this. [[BrokenPedestal I started crying]]."
3	--> ''"As far as I'm concerned, all this crap in the ring represents these fans out here. For two years, brother, for two years, I held my head high, I did everything for the charities, I did everything for the kids, and the reception I got when I came out here, you fans can '''stick it''', brother. Because, if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, you people wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would be still selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis, and if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, all these Johnny-Come-Latelys that you see out here wrestling wouldn't be here. I was selling out the world, brother, while they were bumming gas to put in their car to get to high school. So the way it is now, brother, with Hulk Hogan and the New World Organization of Wrestling, brother, me and the new blood by my side, whatcha gonna do when the new world order of professional wrestling runs wild on you? Whatcha gonna do?!"''
4	** Tony Schiavone's close of the show is also pretty awesome:
5	-->'''Schiavone:''' ''For [[Wrestling/BobbyHeenan Bobby "The Brain" Heenan]] and [[Wrestling/DustyRhodes "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes]], I'm Tony Schiavone... Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell. Straight to hell.'' ('''THUNK''' as he throws down headset in anger)
6	** To drive this point further, for those of you that were not alive at the time, Hulk Hogan turning heel made the news. Not just the local news, the ''national'' news! That’s right, a wrestler turning bad guy was front page, nationwide news.
7	* Also at ''Bash at the Beach 1996'': the show was kicked off with a singles match between Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr and his arch-rival Wrestling/{{Psicosis}} [[https://youtu.be/wQxUQs_4i4c the first time they'd fought each other in WCW]][[note]]When they met again in 2005 at [=WWE's=] ''One Night Stand'' PPV commentator Joey Styles mentioned they had wrestled each other ''over 500 times''. Which kind of begged the question of why they booked it again[[/note]]. The match itself was a classic. The finish, when Psicosis tried to do a top rope move (a crucifix into a powerbomb) and Mysterio countered with a Rana ''in mid air'', bringing the entire stadium (which had been lukewarm to the wrestlers in the first 10 minutes) to their feet. So, so many of the cruiserweights these days are following in the footsteps of Mysterio and Psicosis, and it's a Crowning Moment of '''Un'''Awesome that Psicosis never became a star like Mysterio did.
8	* He's no JR, but Wrestling/TonySchiavone did call one of the greatest swerves of all time: Lex Luger unexpectedly winning the World Title from Hogan at the Palace of Auburn Hills (in August 1997). Luger's got Hogan in the rack and the crowd is going bananas, then Schiavone comes in screaming "They're standing in Detroit! He's got him in the rack!" The bell rings and the arena comes unglued. Tony's going nuts, and even he sounds like he's in disbelief: "Luger won the title? LUGER WON THE TITLE?! ''LEX LUGER WON THE TITLE!!''"[[note]]His shock may very well have been genuine, Bischoff liked to keep his commentators in the dark about what was going to happen so their reactions sounded more realistic. This came back to bite them in the ass several times, as there were many situations where the commentators ''needed'' to know what was going to happen so they could explain it to the fans, but instead they just look like clueless idiots and everything becomes a confusing mess.[[/note]]
9	* Wrestling/{{Goldberg}}'s road into becoming a main eventer was one Crowning Moment of Awesome after another:
10	** First, winning the United States Championship from Wrestling/{{Raven}}, after taking out the Flock. No-selling a shot to the head from a STOP sign was amazing.
11	** His electrifying defeat of Hollywood Hogan on ''Nitro'' in July 1998 to win the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-h.html WCW World Heavyweight Championship]] for the first time. Though the match really should have been saved for a pay-per-view in order to create a massive PPV payday, the deafening crowd reaction (thanks to WCW scheduling the victory in Goldberg's hometown of Atlanta, Georgia) and the mere fact that Hogan took a ''clean'' pinfall loss in WCW make it probably the last truly great Crowning Moment of Awesome that WCW can attest to (since ''Nitro'' defeated ''Raw'' only six more times in the ratings).
12	** At ''Road Wild 1998'', Goldberg defended his newly won title in a battle royal where it was him going up against an entire nWo contingent. Not only did he avoid defeat against both the Hollywood and Wolfpac factions of the nWo, he capped off his victory by Jackhammering The Giant. He would later repeat this spot on ''Nitro'', and hold him up in the Jackhammer for several seconds!
13	** Speaking of the Jackhammer, Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage reversing it into a Diamond Cutter at ''Halloween Havoc''.
14	* How about Wrestling/ChrisBenoit's shoot on the likes of [[CreatorsPet Hogan and Nash]]?
15	--> "There's a group of us who are sick of the politics back there. Who are sick of the wrestlers who monopolize this company."
16	* Wrestling/RicFlair's promo on the final ''Nitro'' manages to sneak one in just before the end - read the transcript [[https://411mania.com/wrestling/the-furious-flashbacks-wcw-monday-nitro-night-of-champions/ here]].
17	** And you have to give a small [=CMoA=] to the [=WCW=] booking team for deciding to close out the last Nitro ever with a match that capped off one of the company's longest-running feuds: Wrestling/{{Sting}} vs. Ric Flair.
18	* How about the first time Sting came down from the rafters by zipline. The blowoff may have been a misstep, but after months of watching Sting in the rafters, this was really a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
19	** Or how about ''Spring Breakout 1998'', where he rappelled out of a FREAKIN' HELICOPTER.
20	* Wrestling/VinceRusso's Crowning Moment of Awesome (better known as "the only good thing Russo's ever done") came at ''Bash at the Beach 2000'', when he became so fed up with the backstage politics that had crippled WCW for years that he turned it into a WorkedShoot angle that turned more shoot than work. Wrestling/JeffJarrett, who was scheduled to defend the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Hulk Hogan that night, ended up lying down for Hogan and giving him the title. After Hogan had left ringside, Russo came out and cut a emotional promo promising that Hulk Hogan would never be seen in WCW again (he wasn't), explaining the politicking he had to deal with from Hogan and the other old-guard wrestlers was almost too much for him to handle, and that he was giving a title shot to someone who "still [gave] a shit" about WCW -- Wrestling/BookerT. For Russo, it all went exactly as planned. Well, except the lawsuit. (Watch the full promo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHeD-DSmL_k here]].) Booker T won that match - and his first World Title - that night, becoming the second African-American (after Wrestling/RonSimmons) to hold the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, one of the few black world champions anywhere!
21	* The "party" thrown by the New Four Horsemen and Wrestling/ArnAnderson on ''Nitro'' in 1998, with Ric Flair returning to WCW after a long hiatus. The amazing amounts of WIN that was Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Steve [=McMichael=], Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/ChrisBenoit standing in the ring, reforming the Horsemen, as well as Ric Flair's absolute fury at Eric Bischoff for crashing the party.
22	--> ''"Fire me! I'm already fired! Fire me! I'm already fired!"''
23	* Wrestling/ChrisJericho: Cruiserweight Champion:
24	** Working at a time when WCW's Cruiserweight division could not have been hotter, Chris Jericho reached his creative peak as a slimy, whiny SmugSnake who would do anything - short of actually wrestle - to keep hold of the title belt. His feud with Wrestling/DeanMalenko resulted in so many Crowning Moments of Awesome, including (but not limited to) proving that he is the Man of 1004 Holds, his introduction of the Cruiserweights at ''Slamboree'', his trip to the Library of Congress and subsequent gloating to Malenko (complete with a good old finger-poke-to-the-chest), and his five-star match with Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr.
25	** It should be noted that Malenko was taking time off for most of the feud. The storyline had Jericho having the "Ice Man" so rattled that he began a losing streak, which culminated in a dejected and fed up Malenko going "home". Jericho built this feud up ''by himself'', making fun of Malenko at every turn and even carrying around a blown-up version of one of Malenko's promotional photos. This culminated at the aforementioned ''Slamboree'' Cruiserweight battle royal, which was won by Ciclope when Juventud Guerrera jumped over the top rope to eliminate himself. Jericho ran in to gloat (and to attack his challenger) immediately afterward, and Ciclope unmasked, revealing Malenko. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpm_KbxyLTI The crowd came completely unglued in response.]] In his book, Jericho notes that this was "one of the top three most electric crowd responses I'd ever been in, and I'd been with [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] and [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin Stone Cold]] at their peaks".
26	--->'''Jericho:''' [[CrossesTheLineTwice Hey Dean, how's your dead father doing?]]
27	** This feud also led to a crowning moment for Ted Irvine (Jericho's RealLife father and former NHL wingman). Ted came out during one of his son's rants and told him to either shut up or man up.
28	* Who could ever forget the classic Ric Flair vs. [[Wrestling/RickySteamboat Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat]] trilogy in 1989? Dave Meltzer (who attended the ''Chi-Town Rumble'' event, where the first part of the trilogy took place) gave all three matches five stars, and the ''Chi-Town Rumble'' match is considered to be one of the best wrestling matches ever.
29	** Ricky Steamboat, a few years later, had another CMOA at ''Clash of the Champions XVII''. Dustin Rhodes was to challenge the then-tag champs The Enforcers (Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko) alongside his usual tag partner, Wrestling/BarryWindham. The problem was that Windham was dealing with a hand injury, so he wasn't going to be competing, but this was covered up in storyline by having the heels injure him intentionally so that the thread of the Rhodes / Windham tag team would be removed. Dustin shows up anyway with a "mystery man" clad in a cloak and a dragon mask... only for the mystery man to take off his costume and reveal himself to be none other than Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, making his return after departing from the WWF just weeks earlier. The reaction of the heels is pure pants-shitting shock and awe. [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz8eb9_20-91-11-19-ricky-steamboat-dustin-rhodes-vs-arn-anderson-larry-zbyszko-clash-xvii_sport Here's the match in it's entirety. Check 5:25 for the reveal.]] Arn Anderson sells Steamboat's return in particularly fantastic fashion, mentally trying to psych himself up to deal with Steamboat:
30	---> '''Anderson:''' He's just a man! '''He's just a man!'''
31	* Wrestling/DustyRhodes' amazing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4MmynUrze8 "Hard Times" promo.]] He compares the problems of mass unemployment to his injury '''and makes you believe in what he is saying.'''
32	* With all due respect to Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, 1997 belonged to the man called Sting, and his Crowning Moment of Awesome was at the end of that year's ''Uncensored'' PPV. For months leading up to the event, nobody knew whose side Sting was on in the [=WCW/nWo=] war. When the PPV's final match was over and the [=nWo=] was celebrating another victory, Sting descended from the rafters and proceeded to completely destroy ''the entire group'' with his now-trademark black baseball bat, culminating in a beatdown on "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan using just his fists.
33	* If you're talking about Rey Mysterio, you can't talk about his career without going to the match that practically catapulted him to stardom in the US: at ''Halloween Havoc '97'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jibrD6TRAZk he faced nemesis Eddie Guerrero in a Mask vs. Title Match]] for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship; while Rey would win the match, both men came out looking like gold thanks to putting on an amazing display of aerial assaults and technical skill, and Rey arguably became [=WCW's=] top cruiserweight from that point on until the promotion's demise in 2001.
34	* Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage and Wrestling/RandySavage had been feuding for a good portion of 1997, thanks to Savage being in the [=nWo=] and Page outright refusing to join the group. Page would resort to trickery at times, but Savage and the [=nWo=] were always prepared...except for one ''Nitro''. Savage was wrestling the masked ''luchador'' Wrestling/LaParka, and it seemed like it would be an easy win for him, so the [=nWo=] members he came to the ring with went to the announcers' table to start harassing Larry Zybysko. When they were distracted, "La Parka" hit a [[FinishingMove Diamond Cutter]] on Savage and ripped off his mask to reveal that he was, in fact, Page in disguise - this earned him a '''huge''' pop from the crowd. Page picked up the three count and escaped through the audience before the other [=nWo=] members could get to him, gloating with the fans.
35	** Speaking of DDP, while newer fans may know Wrestling/RandyOrton as the guy who can hit an RKO out of nowhere, he is preceded by Diamond Dallas Page and his Diamond Cutter. [[http://youtu.be/XY2_zFvJuiY The variations and counters that DDP had for his move]] were even more numerous than Randy's RKO, and there was always a new one every Monday night for about two years. Perhaps his most infamous ones were when he countered out of Goldberg's Jackhammer at ''Halloween Havoc 1998'' with the Cutter (8:57), which had the audience convinced that he would end Goldberg's undefeated streak (Goldberg secured a [=mini-CMOA=] just for kicking out); and a few months later at ''Starrcade'' when he maneuvered out of a top-rope Chokeslam from the Giant into a Top-Rope Diamond Cutter (at 8:36). DDP used to boast that he could deliver the Diamond Cutter once a week for a year and never do it the same way twice - and to prove it, he kept footage on his website of all 52 ways to deliver it.
36	* [[Wrestling/RickRude "Ravishing" Rick Rude]] appeared live on the ''Nitro'' after the Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob the same night he was on a pretaped ''Raw'', using the screentime on ''Nitro'' to call out Vince and Shawn over the Screwjob. (He also appeared on pretaped ECW programming the previous weekend, making him the only man to appear on all three companies' programming in what amounts to a weekend.) It should also be noted that Rude appeared on ''Nitro'' with only a moustache. He had been appearing on WWF TV with a full beard, including on that taped edition of ''Raw''. So from a chronological standpoint, he appeared on ''Nitro'' clean shaven, and was on ''Raw'' an hour later with a beard. It was not just a powerful commentary on the Screwjob, but also a shot to the WWF's pre-taped format as well.
37	* ''WCW Thunder'' has a reputation for being bad. But one moment sticks out as being awesome. On the first episode of ''Thunder'', The Giant (you know, Wrestling/TheBigShow) comes down to the ring, which is full of [=nWo=] members, grabs one of the turnbuckle posts ''with one hand '''and rips it out, collapsing the entire ring.'''''[[note]]Also awesome is Scott Hall in the ring selling like he's caught in the middle of the Loma Prieta earthquake[[/note]]
38	* When WCW was in its disastrous downward spiral in 1999, Eric Bischoff at one point snapped and blew up on "the boys in the back" one night. Among other things, he told the locker room that if anyone wasn't satisfied with the way things were going or how they was being booked, they could just leave. He called out several of the younger guys, like Raven and Konnan, in particular. This created two [=CMOAs=]: First, upon hearing that, [[Wrestling/{{Raven}} Scott "Raven" Levy]] quite literally [[TakeThisJobAndShoveIt got up and walked out]], asking for his release. Bischoff gave it to him, and he went right back to Wrestling/{{ECW}}. Secondly, when Bischoff gave Konnan the same offer, Konnan wanted to take it on one condition: Rey Mysterio gets his release too. Bischoff refused and told Konnan that he could either leave by himself or stay and Bischoff would make his life hell. Konnan, whose feud with the WWF meant he wouldn't be able to work there chose to stay. Still, despite knowing he'd been blacklisted from the WWF, Konnan was willing to face that if it meant he could get Mysterio out of WCW and their incompetent booking.
39	** In a similar vein, when Ole Anderson was running the company and under orders to cut costs, he tried to cut Brian Pillman's salary. When he was told he could either take a pay cut or job in the opening match for the duration of his contract Pillman simply responded with "I'm totally fine with being the world's highest paid curtain jerker." Pillman would end up sticking around until 1996.
40	* [=WarGames=] 1992 between the Dangerous Alliance of Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyzko, and Arn Anderson take on Sting's Squadron of Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, and Nikita Koloff. A classic matchup featuring a Who's Who of talent and probably the greatest [=WarGames=] match ever.
41	* Arn Anderson’s retirement speech deserves it’s own page, but what was really awesome happened the next week. The next week, after the NWO did a parody of the speech called The Four Jackasses with Kevin Mash portraying Arn as a drunken idiot who was a mid carder at best, Arn was so furious that that night, he went and pounded on Nash’s hotel room door and, neck problems or no, he was ready to fight someone much younger, bigger, and stronger.

Context Awesome / WCW