| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% Due to the nature of this trope, finding a proper image will be very tricky. |
| 4 | %% DO NOT add an image to this page without discussion in Image Pickin'. |
| 5 | %% Image Pickin' thread for reference: https://tvtropes.https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1482208684003082500 |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | %% |
| 8 | ->''"If, as the saying goes, [[MonkeysOnATypewriter an infinite number of monkeys, given an infinite amount of time, could sit at an infinite number of typewriters and eventually write]] [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]'s ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', then two of them, in a half an hour, could book ''Nitro'' and ''Thunder''."'' |
| 9 | -->--'''''[[http://www.ddtdigest.com/updates/1999051m.htm DDT Digest]]''''' on ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro'', May 3, 1999 |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Wrestling/{{WCW}} was once the second-most popular wrestling/sports-entertainment promotion in the United States (and even ''beat'' its chief rival, Wrestling/{{WWE}}, for a decent stretch of time). When you're that hot, [[ProtectionFromEditors you can do no wrong]]. But pride comes before a fall, and the sheer amount of terrible angles, nonsensical matches, backstage politics, bad financial decisions, bi-yearly fatalities, and appearances by Wrestling/VinceRusso led to a company worth $500,000,000 and backed by UsefulNotes/TedTurner becoming, in a few short years, a hollow shell of a promotion bought by Wrestling/VinceMcMahon for just $4,000,000. The rise and fall of WCW was so sudden that Bryan Alvarez Figure Four Weekly and R.D. Reynolds of ''Website/WrestleCrap'' co-wrote a book about it, ''Literature/TheDeathOfWCW''. |
| 12 | ---- |
| 13 | !!Examples: |
| 14 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | [[folder:Championships]] |
| 17 | * 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]] |
| 18 | * The infamous negative-day title reign, where the Fabulous 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. |
| 19 | * To promote ''Film/ReadyToRumble'', WCW had actor Creator/DavidArquette win the WCW World Heavyweight Title in an embarrassing tag-team title match--him and new champion Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage versus Wrestling/EricBischoff and Wrestling/JeffJarrett (fun fact: Russo booked this based off a joke suggestion from Wrestling/TonySchiavone). The match had a contrived stipulation that basically [[TheLoad let Arquette win the belt from Page]] despite not even pinning the legal man. He spent the next two appearances apologizing to DDP, trying to give the belt back and generally acting scared to death that he might actually have to defend it. He kept it for a while, in order to build up to a triple-cage match at ''Slamboree'' 2000 (because the movie had one). He [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl87W1BOYQY#t=330s turned heel]] (which Schiavone called "the ''ultimate'' swerve!") midway through, and ultimately lost to Jarrett, making the company look like a joke to pop ratings, and tie in with a movie few of the marks even liked. After this match, Wrestling/{{Kanyon}} came out to save DDP from a beatdown, only to get tossed off the second tier of the cage onto the entrance ramp. This near-fatal bump could've been on par with any of Wrestling/MickFoley's best... except it occurred in the final 10 seconds of the show and got zero replays (another fun fact: Russo also booked this--in the same arena Wrestling/OwenHart died in). Even Arquette, a lifelong wrestling fan, fought against it--he knew it would annoy the fans--but he was contractually obligated. He quietly donated his paychecks to the families of Owen Hart, Wrestling/BrianPillman, Bobby Duncum Jr., Wrestling/BrianHildebrand, and Darren "Droz" Drozdov. ''[=WrestleCrap=]'' presented their [[https://www.wrestlecrap.com/inductions/david-arquette-wcw-world-champion/ very first annual Gooker Award]] to Arquette's championship run, and [[WebVideo/CinematicExcrement Smeghead]] talks about everything that happened in [[https://vimeo.com/254965894 Part 2]] of his ''Ready to Rumble'' review. |
| 20 | * Eric Bischoff himself held the WCW Hardcore Championship at one point. He gave it up a day later, but he defeated ''Wrestling/TerryFunk'' to win it in the first place. And in case you're asking, yes, [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/eric-bischoff-hardcore/ it was inducted into]] ''[=WrestleCrap=]''. |
| 21 | * 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, Wrestling/JeffJarrett, [[Wrestling/{{AWA}} 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, because at least he traded titles with people who met at least two qualifications (athletic and over). |
| 22 | ** Just as an example: Russo's friend, Jeff Jarrett, became a four-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion in the span of a month and a half. Ric Flair beats Jarrett (2nd reign) to win the title. One week later, Russo strips Flair of the title and gives it back to Jarrett (3rd reign) on ''Nitro''. Kevin Nash beats Jarrett to win the title on ''Thunder'', the following Monday Nash hands the title to Flair who then turns around and loses it back to Jarrett (4th reign) the same night. The title changed hands five times in 14 days (as for Nash himself, one amusing piece of trivia is that Kevin Nash, wrestling as Diesel, held the WWF title once and the WCW title five times, but his WWF title reign was almost four times longer than his cumulative runs with the WCW belt[[note]]Nash's 358 day reign with the WWF title wouldn't be topped for nearly 20 years (though it wasn't a record, Bruno Sammartino held it for nearly ''8 years straight''), Wrestling/CMPunk finally passed him in 2012 on his way to a 434 day reign[[/note]]. |
| 23 | * 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[[note]]Technically Nash threw it into a trash can, with Hall's blessing[[/note]] after he decided onscreen that it was not worth defending. Granted, WCW had already reduced its value to that of scrap metal, but few were [[Wrestling/{{Madusa}} the]] [[Wrestling/ShaneDouglas people]] who'd dared to treat their own titles [[WastebasketBall 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]] |
| 24 | [[/folder]] |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[folder:Pay-Per-Views]] |
| 27 | Perhaps part of the reason fans have so much nostalgia for WCW is that a lot of them never bought a single PPV. If they had actually spent money on any of the following [=PPVs=], they'd probably be furious. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | * ''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).[[note]]A little bit of forgotten trivia: ''GAB 91'' was Wrestling/EricBischoff's WCW debut, working as a backstage interviewer. As mentioned over on the WhatCouldHaveBeen page this was shortly after the WWF turned him down for an announcer job, a decision Wrestling/VinceMcMahon probably regretted when Bischoff was able to convince UsefulNotes/TedTurner to fund ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro'' a little over 4 years later[[/note]] 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,[[note]]That was advertised as the main event but the actual last match was a mixed tag team cage match with Wrestling/ArnAnderson and Wrestling/PaulHeyman taking on Rick Steiner and Missy Hyatt, which ended up turning into a handicap match because Maryland doesn't allow intergender matches. Steiner won in about 2 minutes, the promo Anderson and Heyman gave earlier that night hyping the match is pretty much the only worthwhile thing on the entire show[[/note]] 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]] |
| 30 | * ''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 [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} 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. |
| 31 | ** The much-hyped opener was [[Wrestling/GiantGonzalez El Gigante]], Wrestling/{{Sting}}, Rick and 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. Putting aside the bizarre premise (a steel cage with an electric chair in the middle, the winner is the first to give their foe a HighVoltageDeath) the match was poor. In addition to being marred by the "Refer-Eye" cam above, it was basically a structureless, hard-to-follow brawl with almost no tags. At one point, a masked man jumps out of a casket, is wiped out by Hall, and is carried off by crew in zombie costumes, all seemingly for no reason. The lever for the electric chair gets knocked down into the "on" position in front of camera, leading to a referee outside trying to tape it upright. The match ends when Abdullah is electrocuted by Cactus Jack[[note]]Who was nearly crushed by the chair as it was being lowered until Rick Steiner broke character to make sure Cactus got out of the way[[/note]] who mistakenly thinks he's shocking Rick Steiner (despite the chair being obviously in sight for Jack), then Abby {{No Sell}}s it and attacks Jack and several staff. Pointless, hopeless, clueless. |
| 32 | ** [[Wrestling/KevinNash Oz]] vs. Bill Kazmaier was four minutes 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 Kevin Nash, who has never been known for carrying anyone. |
| 33 | ** Van Hammer vs. Doug Somers went only a minute and was almost entirely made up of botches. "Highlights" include Doug fumbling a clothesline and tripping on his way to a corner, and Van Hammer almost dropping Somers on his head with his slingshot suplex finisher. So horrid was this that on ''WebVideo/WrestlingWithWregret'', Brian Zane [[BrokeTheRatingScale used negative stars for the first time]] to rate this match. (For comparison, the Chamber of Horrors match was a 0.) Somehow, Van Hammer was not fired for over '''eight years''' after this. |
| 34 | ** 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 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. |
| 35 | * ''Uncensored'' 1995 was, in story, unsanctioned by the WCW board, so its matches wouldn't be subject to the usual rules (why they were still using WCW's brands and staff for it wasn't clear). In reality, this was just an excuse for more bad gimmick matches than 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 only 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 (which forced WCW to use shots that were too dark to notice the blood, or literally edit the daylights out of the match, despite being billed as Uncensored). The "King of the Road" match was also pre recorded, meaning this was the best they could come up with on the editing table. Two "different style fights" (Meng vs. Jim Duggan in karate and Johnny B. Badd vs. Arn Anderson in boxing) just 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'' [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/uncensored-95/ made it]] into ''[=WrestleCrap=]''. |
| 36 | * ''World War 3'' 1995 was headlined by its disastrous titular gimmick match: a 3-ring, 60-man battle royal. Sounds great for a live audience, but godawful for PPV. Just showing it required 3 picture-in-picture feeds with 2 commentators each, but the small screens just made it harder to follow the action (not to mention the fact that at some points, 2 screens were showing the same feed at the same time!). This rendered it a chore to keep track of eliminations and spots. They advertised a "giant in every ring" - the original plan was for [[Wrestling/BigShow 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 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 advertise Hulk Hogan as the third giant. The finish was painfully lame as Hogan went under the ropes, rather than over them[[note]]a change Hogan himself decided upon '''mid-match'''[[/note]], making planned winner Randy Savage 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 dead. |
| 37 | * The 1996 ''Uncensored'' was a slight improvement over the 1995 edition, key word being slight. Two matches ended in DQ and no-contest respectively, and a title was defended, again despite this being unsanctioned. A horrid man/woman match between Col. Robert Parker and Wrestling/{{Madusa}} wasted time, and Sting and Booker T vs. the Road Warriors saw Hawk and Animal both gassed after 2 minutes and still go 30. But the most infamous match was a 2-on-8 triple-decker cage match with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage vs. the "Alliance to End Hulkamania", made up of 2 of Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen, 4 of the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom, 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. (And the other of whom was more famous for his role in an [[Film/{{Friday}} urban stoner comedy]] than anything related to wrestling.) As for the match itself, nobody knew what was going on, and there was no real indication of how to win. Hogan and Savage defeated eight men, that we know, but it's hard to tell how. Bobby Heenan was incredibly hyped for this, and there was no real way to tell why. |
| 38 | -->'''Bobby Heenan:''' THIS IS GREAT TELEVISION HISTORY! THIS SURPASSES A SUPER BOWL, A WORLD SERIES, ANYTHING YOU WANT TO NAME! THIS IS TREMENDOUS! |
| 39 | * ''Slamboree'' '96, to determine the next contender to the 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. |
| 40 | * Any ''Hog Wild / Road Wild''[[note]]the name was changed after the 1996 edition under threat of a lawsuit by the '''H'''arley '''O'''wners '''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: |
| 41 | ** ''Road Wild'' '98 saw a 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. |
| 42 | ** ''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. |
| 43 | * There are very few, if any, instances where an entire promotion will JumpTheShark, but if one exists, it is undoubtedly ''Starrcade'' '97. Wrestling was at a turning point in late 1997, with the Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob fresh in everyone's memories. The show was meant to the biggest one in WCW's history at a time where the product had never been hotter, and forever cement the legacy of Eric Bischoff; it ''did'' go down in history, but for all the wrong reasons. The main event was meant to be the crowning moment for Sting finally defeating Hollywood Hogan and overcoming the [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]]. Instead, in true Hogan fashion, the Hulkster decided that Didn't Work For Him, Brother, and instead what we got was a slow, boring affair where Hogan ate up Sting's entire offence and made him look like a joke (apparently, because he thought Sting was out of shape). The finish was intended to have crooked ref Nick Patrick give a fast count, Montreal victim and new WCW talent Wrestling/BretHart come out and restart the match, and Sting win clean. However, Hogan got in Patrick's ear and had him do a normal count, making Hogan look like the screwed one, Sting look like a complete loser, and Bret look like an asshole! Sting never got his crowning moment over Hogan,[[note]]A rematch on ''Nitro'' was cut off for no reason to pop ratings for the new show ''Thunder'', and when Sting finally won at ''[=SuperBrawl=] VIII'', it was once again in a match where Hogan dominated and made Sting look a fool.[[/note]] completely cheating the WCW fanbase out of a conclusion to their hottest ever storyline. Meanwhile, up in New York, WWF managed to turn their part in Montreal into the Wrestling/AttitudeEra, turning their fortunes around whilst WCW went into a nosedive. The rest, as they say, is history. As Reynolds and Alvarez would write in ''The Death of WCW'' a decade later: |
| 44 | -->''Starrcade'' '97 was, without question, the biggest money-maker WCW had ever produced. 17,500 fans. A $543,000 gate. An incredible 1.9 buy rate, meaning nearly $6 million in revenue. And the beginning of the end. |
| 45 | * Russo briefly lost his job when he submitted Tank Abbott's name as WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Turns out Abbott was a borderline psychopath. Check out the "Leather Jacket on a Pole" match at ''[=SuperBrawl=]'' 2000: That wasn't so much wrestling as Tank just mauling someone and then ending the match with a knife to the guy's throat and threatening to kill him. The camera cuts away quickly, with Schiavone saying he was just going to cut off Al's beard. Al doesn't have a beard. The worst part was, Big Al wasn't actually a trained wrestler. Abbott tries carrying the guy up the stairs without using his hands, and the fall alone was savage. Big Al was lucky. |
| 46 | * ''Spring Stampede'' 2000 is about as bad as it gets. It took place 6 days after the [[ContinuityReboot reboot]] Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo hatched after they both came back as bookers, meaning that that all the storylines heading into the show had one night to build (except the Dustin Rhodes vs. Terry Funk feud, which for whatever reason was the only storyline to make it through the reboot). Since all titles were vacated, there were tournaments for the United States and Tag Team Championships, a tournament finals for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, a multi-man match for the Cruiserweight Championship with more wrestlers than time allotted, and a Hardcore Championship match. What fans ended up getting was a 14-match show with only one match going more than 9 minutes. And almost every match had interference. |
| 47 | ** There was also a "match" between Wrestling/JimmyHart and "Mancow" Muller, a horrible radio DJ based in Chicago who was/is ripping off Creator/HowardStern. He was brought in solely as a ploy to sell more tickets, i.e. they promoted the hell out of WCW on his shows. Even more stupidly, the two would have ANOTHER match on PPV seven months later at ''Mayhem''. |
| 48 | * ''Bash at the Beach'' 2000: if WCW didn't [[JumpingTheShark jump the shark]] at Starrcade '97 or after the Fingerpoke of Doom, it sure did here. Anything that had a chance not to suck was overbooked to hell... and most of it didn't stand a chance in the first place. The no-hopers included: non-wrestler/truck driver Ralphus getting a [[ADayInTheLimelight mostly-singles match]]; a wedding gown strip match between [[Wrestling/StacyKeibler Miss Hancock]] and Wrestling/{{Daffney|Unger}} that ended with David Flair taking his pants off for no reason; a graveyard-based walk-and-brawl between Vampiro and the KISS Demon conducted completely in pitch-black; Scott Steiner losing his US Title as a result of using a banned move, making him look like a moron; and Goldberg beating Kevin Nash to tear up the contract of Scott Hall, a man who hadn't been employed for half a year. The show is most infamous for Hulk Hogan refusing to lose to Jeff Jarrett, leading to a bizarre shoot incident where Jarrett laid down for Hogan, Hogan cursed Vince Russo out to camera afterwards, then Russo came out and derailed the show with a rambling promo about Hogan's politicking.[[note]]This would eventually get WCW sued for defamation. Why? Because Russo called Hogan "bald".[[/note]] As a result, the first ever World Title for Booker T went completely forgotten. Brian Zane of ''WebVideo/WrestlingWithWregret'' gave his first '''two''' [[BrokeTheRatingScale zero-star]] ratings in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Cr4B7mf5g review of this show]], to the Wedding Gown match and Jarrett/Hogan. |
| 49 | * 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. |
| 50 | * 51-year-old Wrestling/PaulOrndorff (who had retired due to injury) was a surprise team member for the Filthy Animals when they took on the Natural Born Thrillers at ''Fall Brawl'' 2000. Old wrestlers doing one-offs aren't unheard of, but by this point you can see major atrophy (from his '''career-ending injuries''') on the right side of Orndorff's body, most notably in his arm. During an execution of a piledriver, he fell--''paralyzed''--to the mat, forcing Charles Robinson to call the bout early. It was announced later on in the PPV that he suffered a stinger, a temporary spinal injury. Wonder how many people Russo injured when he was booker?[[note]]The match was finished the following night on ''Nitro'' with the remaining participants in the match (the match was held under elimination rules) with the Filthy Animals picking up the win.[[/note]] |
| 51 | * One of the last ever [=PPVs=] WCW ever ran was ''Sin'' on January 14, 2001. Although most of the show was nothing to write home about, outside of it being home to the tag-team match[[note]]Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell vs. Goldberg and [=DeWayne=] Bruce[[/note]] that ended Goldberg's WCW career, it is ''also'' home to one of the most '''horriffic''' [[CareerEndingInjury injuries]] in the sport of professional wrestling. The main event was a four-way bout between Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett, Sid Vicious, and Road Warrior Animal. At one point during the match, Sid climbed up onto the second turn buckle in order to attempt a flying big boot to Steiner.[[note]]It is worth mentioning at this point that this was a stunt Sid ''[[GenreSavvy absolutely]]'' [[GenreSavvy was not comfortable doing]], and ultimately only did so [[ExecutiveMeddling after some of WCW's higher ups kept prodding him to introduce some areial maneuvers into his wrestling moveset]].[[/note]] [[BodyHorror He instead landed on the ring mat, and snapped his leg in half.]][[note]]It is ''also'' worth mentioning that even though, [[CaptainObvious for understandable reasons]], this was too graphic for most broadcast affiliates to air, [[WhatTheHellHero WCW Nitro showed footage of the incident uncensored the following night.]][[/note]] And what's worse, ''[[TheShowMustGoOn they kept going]]''. Despite being in blatant pain, Sid decided to sell the injury as if it were deliberate, and Steiner and Animal stuck to the script and proceeded to ''repeatedly kick him''. Now, while Sid ''was'' able to get to the hospital quick enough afterwards, and had managed to get his leg repaired[[note]][[TheDogBitesBack and also sue WCW, it is worth mentioning]][[/note]], the fact remains that one of WCW's last ever pay-per-views '''had a man snap his leg during the main event, in a match ''they did not stop'''''. |
| 52 | [[/folder]] |
| 53 | |
| 54 | [[folder:Angles and Gimmicks]] |
| 55 | %%No further need to keep adding the "Shockmaster" segment. It doesn't qualify and is included on multiple WCW subpages. |
| 56 | * 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 (who would later go on to manage them again alongside Wrestling/SherriMartel). 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. |
| 57 | * The "Lost in Cleveland" storyline was a career low point for Wrestling/MickFoley (then wrestling as Cactus Jack), which he would be 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. |
| 58 | * During the leadup to his Leather Strap match against [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]] at ''Uncensored'' 1995, Hulk Hogan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRQy5TdXow hyped up an "Ultimate Surprise"]] to make the difference, heavily implying that the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior had signed. Unfortunately, what we got was a CaptainErsatz called The Renegade (Rick Wilson), who Hogan had the audacity to say would "bring Hulkamania into the 21st century". Every bit as bad as his "inspiration" with none of the charisma, he had to be carried through every match. Nonetheless, he got Wrestling/JimmyHart as his manager, a six-month winning streak, and the Television Championship that year. WCW seemed to realise their mistake after he dropped the title to Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage at ''Fall Brawl'' 1995; he was jobbed out repeatedly after that 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 (see below for that one). After his suicide a year later[[note]]Wilson had an abusive upbringing, and the circumstances of his meteoric rise and collapse destroyed his mental health[[/note]], WCW didn't even care enough to get his name right in the tribute, calling him Rick ''Williams''. |
| 59 | * 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 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 Wrestling/JimCornette on Raw the night after an atrocious cage match against Hogan. |
| 60 | * For a very long time, all the way up to his death, Scott Hall was known for his crippling alcoholism, which often left him nearly or outright unable to perform. He was apparently getting deep into his addiction during his WCW run, which the company tastefully turned into an on-screen angle in which Hall would slur his words during promos, juke and stumble around, strange "acting" from other wrestlers (especially his long-time friend Kevin Nash), and a segment where Hall vomited all over Eric Bischoff. It got so bad, Hall's ex-wife Dana begged the company to stop and give him help in [[https://web.archive.org/web/20001016184543/http://www.fortunecity.com/olympia/wolfpac/107/hall.html an open letter]] sent to a WCW fansite. |
| 61 | ->"Konnan beat Scott Hall in 12:03. Hall was doing a drunk gimmick, with [[Wrestling/{{Virgil}} Vincent]] holding a drink and Hall frequently taking swigs of it... Hall tried a hair pull on Konnan but there wasn't any...At another point, Hall held Konnan in an abdominal stretch and grabbed the drink from Vincent and began drinking." |
| 62 | -->--Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter: September 21, 1998 |
| 63 | * In mid-1998, the WWF was on the rise and starting to get regular ratings wins against WCW. Eric Bischoff, desperate to regain his lead, drafted in the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior.[[note]]Or just Warrior; Jim Hellwig had changed his name to Warrior to assert his ownership of the Ultimate Warrior character over the WWF, but WWF still owned the full name.[[/note]] Warrior kicked off by interrupting a Hulk Hogan promo, where he was meant to go 7-8 minutes but rambled for ''over twenty'', with Bischoff not daring to stop him so as not to kill his momentum. His feud with Hogan was defined by hokey (literal) smoke and mirrors, such as duplicate Warriors everywhere and an infamous segment where Warrior was a vision in the mirror that only Hogan could see. His entrance saw him appear in a cloud of smoke in the ring, which necessitated a wooden trap door that was dangerous to bump on; when [[Wrestling/DaveyBoySmith The British Bulldog]] landed back-first on it, he broke his entire back and spent over six months in hospital, leading to the painkiller addiction that would take his life. All of this was to build up to a Hogan vs. Warrior match, which was an embarrassing retread of the ''[=WrestleMania=] VI'' encounter and saw Hogan botch the finish as flashpaper that was intended for a fire spot blew up in his face. This overran so much, the PPV feed was cut off before the (very good) DDP vs. Goldberg main event began, so it forced WCW to lose ludicrous amounts of money offering refunds and re-showing the match free on ''Nitro''. Warrior was gone a few weeks later (lending credence to his theory that he was brought in to give Hogan his win back), having massively devalued everything he touched, including the company and himself. |
| 64 | * 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 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. |
| 65 | * Vampiro was in a creative slump in 1999 when he had the strange idea to bring in legendary punk rock band Music/TheMisfits, and WCW were all too eager to do so. Not for a concert or to play his theme song, mind you - they showed up for a number of weeks and ''wrestled'' a handful of matches until Jerry Only got hurt during a cage match against "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Apparently, Vampiro was trying to build a career outside of wrestling, but it came across as an excuse for him to pal around with his favorite band. It did not get anyone over, and the only good thing that anyone got out of it was guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein marrying Randy Savage's valet off-screen. |
| 66 | * 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 [[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" letter back, and Stevie Ray reconciled with his brother, retiring to the commentary desk for the rest of WCW's lifespan. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Goldberg]] |
| 70 | After blowing the Sting vs. Hogan feud, including the ''Starrcade'' '97 fiasco, about the only thing keeping WCW afloat was Wrestling/{{Goldberg}}'s white-hot 1998 run. Of course, WCW botched the end of ''that'' too: |
| 71 | |
| 72 | * The January 4, 1999 episode of ''Nitro'', highly hyped in the weeks before it, turned out to be disastrous for Goldberg's career and for WCW in general: |
| 73 | ** The first hour had nothing important because it was not in direct competition with the WWF. Then when ''Raw'' went live, Goldberg was arrested and charged with stalking Wrestling/MissElizabeth (it was going to be a "rape" charge, but Goldberg nixed that idea).\ |
| 74 | The storyline was that Goldberg had been scheduled to face [=nWo=] Wolfpac leader Wrestling/KevinNash in a rematch for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and that Goldberg's arrest had put the match at risk of being canceled. The big dramatic hook was that Goldberg needed to come back to the arena in time for the match — except every time we cut to this storyline, the announcers mentioned the police station was just across the street from the arena. As an aside, Bischoff was trying to reset the company to 1997, so Tony Schiavone openly spoiled the main event of that night's (taped) ''Raw'': |
| 75 | -->'''Tony Schiavone:''' Fans, as Hollywood Hogan walks away and you look at this 40,000 plus on hand, if you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, fans, do not, because we understand that Wrestling/MickFoley, who wrestled here one time as Cactus Jack, is going to win their world title. Ha! [[ItWillNeverCatchOn That's gonna put some butts in the seats]]. |
| 76 | ** 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/NationalBasketballAssociation 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.\ |
| 77 | Then Hogan and Nash got in the ring. After gesturing around for a bit, Hogan [[FingerPokeOfDoom poked Nash]] [[TropeNamers 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 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.\ |
| 78 | 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.\ |
| 79 | 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/DwayneJohnson The Rock]]. |
| 80 | * In Summer 2000, WCW advertised ''The Great American Bash'' with something that would "change the face of professional wrestling forever"... and it was turning Goldberg heel. Goldberg was WCW's top draw at the time, and the ensuing loss to his credibility devastated the company. Goldberg dragged his feet from start to last, and whatever heelish acts he ''did'' do [[PokeThePoodle paled in comparison]] to some of the [=nWo=]'s, so fans weren't inclined to start booing. The whole thing got cut short when Goldberg suffered an injury, and when he returned, he went back to being a face. |
| 81 | ** To illustrate: on the night of ''The Great American Bash'', Goldberg [[https://www.inquisitr.com/2120863/exclusive-goldberg-talks-legends-of-wrestling-wwe-return-gfw-nfl-sting-and-more/ met a cancer patient]] with the Make-a-Wish Foundation backstage, only to find her in tears over his heel turn. He ended up feeling so guilty, he later told Bischoff to his face that it wasn't going to work. |
| 82 | -->''"I had to go out and blast [Hacksaw Jim Duggan] and had a Make-A-Wish girl in the back, with cancer. So I come back after the match and she's in tears — wrestling is wrestling, I get it, the good, bad and evil and trying to storyline people in and out of what they think is going to happen. But I wasn't going to do that. [...] That one little girl destroyed me and I told them the next day that we're going back, immediately."'' |
| 83 | * While not the worst match on this list, few matches have violated the tenets of pro wrestling like the semi-main event of ''New Blood Rising'': a three-way match between Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner and Goldberg.\ |
| 84 | It was already off to a bad start: while gearing up for the match, the announcers acted confused about who would win, with Scott Hudson explicitly wondering who would "go over". Then for the finish, when Goldberg was about to be powerbombed by Nash, he ''stopped'' Nash from performing the move and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere stomped off]] anticlimactically. The announcers blasted Goldberg for being unprofessional and signaled at Nash and Steiner to "improvise", leaving the two to wrestle without Goldberg. Imagine if, while playing Luke Skywalker in ''Franchise/StarWars'', Creator/MarkHamill refused to climb in an X-Wing, flipped off Creator/GeorgeLucas and left, leaving the TIE Fighters to shoot at each other. Read more about it [[http://www.wrestlecrap.com/inductions/goldberg-script/ here]] at ''[=WrestleCrap=]''. |
| 85 | * Goldberg lost a no-DQ tag match to Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger, with the stipulation that if he lost he'd have to retire. On the following episode of ''Nitro'', the wrestlers "laid to rest the career of Goldberg": a coffin filled with Goldberg's book, an actual spear, and an actual jackhammer. Not a bad segment overall, but it goes on for over ''half an hour'' in a two-hour show. Luger, Bagwell, Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Ric Flair, Road Warrior Animal, the Steiners, DDP, and Ernest "The Cat" Miller just talking on the stick. No action whatsoever. Mind you, this is all of three months before Vince bought out WCW for mere pennies. |
| 86 | [[/folder]] |
| 87 | |
| 88 | [[folder:Other]] |
| 89 | * The infamous "Robin Hood" match from January 13, 1997. In an attempt to promote their new show ''Series/TheNewAdventuresOfRobinHood'' (airing immediately after ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro''), the Creator/{{TNT}} braintrust decided to start a Wrestling/HulkHogan vs. [[Wrestling/BigShow Giant]] match with '''one minute''' left to air on ''Nitro'' and then promising "live" updates during ''Robin Hood'''s commercial breaks. Fans at home were expected to believe that Hogan and Giant wrestled for a half hour, but fans in the building reported that the match actually went about five minutes. And as you probably already guessed, the finish was the usual [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]] run-in for the DQ. Both fans and wrestling critics killed WCW for this one, and even the WWF made a couple snide comments about it on ''[[Wrestling/MondayNightRaw Raw]]''. The Turner brass took the hint and never tried anything like this again, and ''Robin Hood'' only lasted two seasons. [=WrestleCrap=] inducts it [[https://www.wrestlecrap.com/inductions/the-robin-hood-nitro/ here]]. |
| 90 | * Columbia, South Carolina was a recipient of the infamous Sting vs. Bret Hart main event match for the U.S. Title that took place on the October 5th, 1998 episode of ''Nitro''. The "match" took place entirely in the back, displayed on the Titantron, and with a screwjob finish to boot. The audience rightly booed it, and many of them likely never paid $40 to see ''Nitro'' again. A shame because Columbia was a stronghold for WCW when it was still the Mid-Atlantic NWA region. Oh, and [[NeverTrustATrailer despite what Schiavone said]], there would be no U.S. Title changing hands that night. |
| 91 | * 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 ''Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter'', and it's really something to read. |
| 92 | ** 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]] |
| 93 | ** 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. |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Horrible / WCW
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
