Headscratchers / WCW

WCW

• ITS STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT.
• Just who in the hell was driving the white Hummer, anyway?
  • This is as close to an explanation as you can get.
    • Word is, the original plan was to bring in Sable as the driver. But, because her release from WWF came with a year and a half no-compete clause, she wasn't able to take the part.
    • Which would have been an incredibly bizarre and random choice. This being WCW in the dying months of the Bischoff regime, the ONLY reason would have been for the shock value and for her to cut a Take That! promo on WWE, much like Rick Rude did on the November 17, 1997 Nitro at the same time that he was on Raw, which had been taped November 11th. Of course, then what?
    • Of course, it's likely because of Rude's appearance and trashing of WWF that the no-compete clause was added to contracts for WWF stars - the management learned from their earlier mistake^note Rude wasn't actually under contract, as a non-wrestler he was working under a per-appearance deal. And non-compete clauses don't apply when your contract runs out, only when you're released.
• Whose bright idea was it to let celebrities like David Arquette and Master P actually participate in full-length wrestling matches, anyway?^note They also had Jay Leno of all people wrestle a match, but since this actually drew decent money (the 365,000 buys made it the 9th highest PPV buyrate in the promotion's run, unfortunately it was Road Wild so there was a $0 gate) and got WCW a lot of mainstream press that wasn't completely embarrassing for once, it only gets trashed in the "That was a really rotten match" sense rather than the "Shit like this is why they're out of business" sense.
  • Short version: blame Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo. Especially the latter, as he is the antithesis of all that is good in wrestling.
    • In the case of Arquette, blame Russo. He overheard a joke made by one of the announcers, and decided to go with it. Arquette hated it, tried to talk him out of it, and later donated his paycheck to several families of deceased wrestlers and to Darren Drozdov.
    • For Arquette, blame Russo (although see the above for how decent a guy Arquette was about it). For Master P, blame Bischoff. Believe it or not, P was paid $200,000 per appearance i.e. in an average month of four Nitros and a PPV, he would be banking a million bucks.
  • Speaking of Arquette, how the hell could he have won the belt in the first place? He was in a tag-team match with Diamond Dallas Page at the time. Can singles titles even change hands during tag team bouts?
    • The match was under stipulation rules where the first person to score a fall become the champion. This is now known as the "David Arquette gimmick match". Note that the same type of match occurred during the Hummer angle the year before.
    • Actually, the Hummer-angle "first to score a pinfall" match was more convoluted than the easy-to-grasp (but stupid) "first to score a pinfall wins the title". In that match, it was Sting and Nash vs. Randy Savage and Sid. Whoever pinned Nash would win the title— even if Sting was the one to do it. (How in the hell he was supposed to pin his own tag-team partner is anybody's guess).
    • Prior to all that, there was an even more convoluted match with that stipulation on a pre-NWO Nitro. Sting/Lex vs Giant/Ric Flair. Sting and Lex Luger were tag champs. Lex was also the TV Champion. Flair was the WCW Champion. Technically, anyone could pin anyone and win that title. So Giant could pin Flair to win the WCW Title belt. Flair could pin Lex and would win the TV and tag titles. Sting could pin Lex. Despite Sting and Lex being in the middle of a "is Lex really Sting's friend" angle, and Giant gunning for the WCW Title that he technically never lost, partners pinning each other was never even teased during the match.
  • Blame Vince McMahon. How absurdly successful was the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection"? Absurdly successful enough that nearly every big-time booker ever would try it again, to varying results. It's just that nobody was dumb enough to put wrestling's most prestigious title on David Arquette before Russo.
    • True, but at least McMahon only put athletes or people with athletic backgrounds into matches (Mr. T, Lawrence Taylor, etc.). Any non-athletes would be announcers or something.
• Vince Russo's handling of the Hulk Hogan / Bash at the Beach 2000 debacle. He's clearly made the decision that, even if Hogan does win, he's still never appearing on WCW TV again. So why not strip him of the title and fire him in character the next night on Nitro? Heck why not do it that same night when he came out a second time? Was it really worth a complete break of kayfabe on live TV just to get Hogan's win off the record books completely?
  • This is Vince Russo we're talking about; the man loves Worked Shoots. Also, IIRC, Hogan exercised his "Creative Control" clause earlier in the day, which didn't give Russo much time to plan; apparently, this is where his brain goes under pressure.
    • What actually happened there is that Russo and Hogan had a worked shoot going, but Russo's promo at the end of BatB was so offensive to Hogan that he walked out and later sued Russo for defamation.
    • I Take Offense to That Last One: Rumor has it that the part that really got to him? Russo called him bald.
    • Interviewers in the Eighties were banned from referring to Hogan's baldness (yes, I'm serious) so that's entirely possible.
    • It's the reason Hulk had to make a deal with the judge in the Gawker trial to be allowed to wear bandanas in the courtroom.
  • In his book, Eric Bischoff claims that the part with Jeff Jarrett lying down for Hogan was a work, but Russo's actual tirade was an unplanned shoot.
    • In Hogan's book, on the other hand, he claims that Russo wanted him to lose to Double J cleanly, and then just have him wait out the last three months of his contract doing nothing. Hogan reasoned that if they had no interest in re-signing him, they might as well try to get the most mileage out of him. His plan (which Russo apparently agreed to) was to have him beat Jarrett for the World title, then announce his "retirement" the next night on Nitro. Then, a huge tournament would take place to crown a new champion. Hogan would then return to challenge the legitimacy of the champion, and they would face-off at Halloween Havoc to determine the undisputed champion, which Hogan would lose gracefully.
    • The fact that this troper read "Hogan would lose gracefully" and immediately burst into hysterical laughter is not a good indicator that Hogan's the most truthful of souls.
    • Not for one minute do I believe that the winning half of the Fingerpoke Of Doom would do anything that could be described as losing gracefully.
    • If it wasn't for the whole fact that we're talking about Hogan here, this would have been a good plan and a very basic way to get the winner of the tournament over.
    • No kidding, we are talking about the biggest ego in wrestling of all time, here. This is the same guy who was rumored to have bribed the ref for his '97 Starrcade match because he didn't want his clean defeat by Sting to go over well.
    • The fact that Hogan would not long after WCW closed put over not only the Rock but allow Kurt Angle to make him tap in the WWF (Something that would never happen before then or after, to this troper's knowledge in the WWF) and allow Brock Lesnar to use him as a man-sized rag doll leads me to believe he would have done what he claims was the original plan.
    • Vince McMahon knew that Hogan had burned his bridges in WCW and pissed off nearly everyone there (and McMahon as well). The Hogan name didn't have nearly the power it did in the 80's and early 90's. It wouldn't again until 2009, when the morons at TNA gave him the same "creative control" clause that WCW did.
• One of WCW's trademarks was doing very unique looking outdoor shows where everyone got in for free. Bash at the Beach was held on an actual beach in 1995, all of the Road Wild shows were held at the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota, and several episodes Nitro were shot at Club La Vela in Florida.^note Nitro also had a brief residence at the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando (with admission to the wrestling show included in the theme park ticket) in the summer of 1996, but in that instance it was thanks to just about every piece mobile broadcasting equipment in the Southeastern U.S. being commandeered for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The famous incident of Kevin Nash throwing Rey Mysterio headfirst into a trailer like a dart took place at one of these shows. Could you imagine Vince McMahon, or any other promoter for that matter, doing a PPV that's guaranteed to do a $0 gate? Not to mention that tapings of WCW Saturday Night and the syndicated shows^note Taped at Center Stage in Atlanta and the Disney studios in Orlando, respectively were always freebies, a common practice everywhere in wrestling outside of the WWF/E in the territory days but one that definitely should have been abandoned around the time Nitro started airing.
• Who was the father of Stacy's baby?
  • IIRC, Russo mentioned in an interview that he would be revealed as the baby's father, which would turn David Flair against him. But that wouldn't be the end of the angle, as after a few months Russo would return at David and Stacy's wedding (At that time, he would've forgiven her) to reveal that Stacy was the product of one of Ric Flair's one night stands. Making David and Stacy half-siblings.
    • .........Is every Vince in the buisness obssessed with incest??!
    • Yup. This is the man that gave the world "Beaver Cleavage", after all.
    • It was Vince Russo who created Beaver Cleavage and pushed hard to get it on camera. Vince McMahon was the one who pulled the plug on it.
    • Apparently, "Vince" + incest = Vincest.
• Oklahoma. Seriously, Vince Russo, fuck you.
  • JR is not often on TV, or usually wasn't on the TV at the time his Bells Palsy was at its worst Here is a probable inspiration for that character. Tasteless, indeed.
    • Ed Ferrera, the guy who played Oklahoma, doesn't even try to defend himself when he's confronted on it. He openly admits that it's the worst thing he did in his entire career and that he deserves whatever he gets.^note One thing he got was noted hothead (and close friend of JR) Jim Cornette spitting in his face. Ferrera just took it and walked away.
    • Although it is never mentioned by WWE, Russo, Ross, or Ferrera, the Oklahoma character actually debuted on WWF television in a segment where Ferrera was a fan doing an impression of Ross. He got crushed by Dr. Death Steve Williams in response, and it was definitely more offensive in WCW, but the impression on WWF television was almost identical in tone and intent.
• "HULK HOGAN IS IN THE BUILDING! GO GET 'EM, HULKSTER!" "Yeah, but WHOSE SIDE IS HE ON?!" Seriously, way to spoil the surprise there, Bobby. Was it even mentioned, after the show, that Bobby Heenan had something of a preternatural understanding of what was about to happen? Did anyone ever go, "Hey, Brain. How the hell did you guess that Hulk Hogan, of all people, was going to turn against us?! Are you also with the New World Order?!"
  • Heenan didn't actually know Hogan was going to turn on WCW at that time, Heenan was simply playing into his character of hating Hogan, and actually thinking about things.
    • Professional moron Eric Bischoff enforced Genre Blindness and wouldn't let the announcers know what was going to happen.
    • Brain NOT questioning Hogan would have been more of a tip off. He'd been saying Hulk was a liar and a phoney for over a decade at that point. To suddenly be happy to see Hulk would make no sense for him. It is in fact Dusty's response that tips the turn more than anything.
    • The commentators in wrestling are generally supposed to be clueless. To the IWC, this sounds stupid. They do this because of casual fans (who probably thought yay Hogan is coming to save WCW). This is why announcers need to be informed of things that are happening. They need to know how to sell it. If not, stuff like this happens. Heenan could have said oh great here is Hogan to take the spotlight and save WCW or something like that.
    • Tony Shiavone has said that while there definitely were times that the commentators were in the dark, this wasn't one of those times. Though part of the problem here was that a lot of people in WCW weren't sure if Hogan was actually going to through with the Face–Heel Turn. Remember, he had been a babyface for nearly 15 years and up to that point was the highest drawing babyface in modern wrestling history. Hulk getting cold feet and changing the finish while the match was ongoing wasn't out of the realm of possibility.
  • Everyone was waiting for the third "Outsider" to appear so Heenan probably just put two and two together.
• The ending of Starrcade 1997. Hell, the entire fucking match. I know that Hogan had a creative control card, but seriously! This is the one time you should tell him to fuck off if he chooses to exercise it. Having Hogan beat the hell out of Sting, pin him cleanly, Bret Hart come out as if it's the Montreal Screwjob all over again, and have Sting win with a sneak-attack Scorpion Deathlock was just about the absolute worst possible way to book that goddamn match! WCW deserved to die after that!
  • Yeah telling one of your biggest draws he can't have his way is a smart move. Even in spite of the fact that he can sue the company should they disregard the "creative control" slate in his contract (when he wants it used) but also the fact that this could galvanize him to jump ship to the competing promotion.
    • The WWF in 1997 would not have taken Hulk Hogan back. Shawn Michaels would've seen to that.
    • In December 1997, Shawn no longer had that kind of pull. However, Vince McMahon was fully committed to Steve Austin and was well aware of how Hogan would have ruined everything. So still, no dice.^note Vince actually did try to bring Hogan back around this time, he didn't really have any concrete plans for Hulk, he just wanted to steal his competition's top draw. And if he doesn't sign but uses his leverage in the negotiations to make sure the competition has to spend a ridiculous amount of money to keep him? That works too. Vince would often tell people he was trying to hire "Even if you don't want to sign with me make sure you use this as leverage to get more money from them".
    • Bischoff claims that Sting was having big personal problems (drugs and whatnot) at the time and was not in-ring shape. Bischoff changed the finish that day so they could have a reason to get the belt off Sting if needed. The ring shape part is 100% Bischoff's fault as he did not check if Sting was in shape nor did he have him do any warmup matches (Sting hadn't wrestled that much the year before). It would have been better for Sting to dominate, win and then drop the title to someone else on Nitro if he was really in that bad of condition.
  • Also Hogan wasn't supposed to go over Sting cleanly, the idea was that the referee was going to be paid off by the NWO and would deliver a fast count, thus justifying Bret Hart coming out and restarting the match. I suppose the idea was that not only would this be a crippling blow to the NWO, but would also get the crowd behind Bret. However as you said, Hogan pulled his control card (or as rumors go, paid off the referee for real to give a regular count and sabotage the whole angle) and thus...
    • The problem with the "Hogan paid the referee" idea is that if you watch the actual match, Hogan completely dominated it and didn't look like he needed a fast count, he won decisively. The match was booked terribly (whether or not this was Hogan and CC is debatable), but still, a fast count finish after that exact match made no sense at all.
  • The booking for the rest of the show is also baffling:
    • On what's supposed to be the big blowoff show, basically their equivalent of Wrestlemania, the heels win the first five matches. No wonder the crowd was dead for the main.
    • Kevin Nash (scheduled to face The Giant) no-shows thanks to either heart issues, acid reflux, eating too many cannabis edibles, or a severe case of jobberitis, depending on who you ask. Instead of simply slotting Scott Hall into his place and still actually having a match we get a couple promos before Giant powerbombs Hall and walks off. (The Nash-Giant match did take place the following month at Souled Out and gave us the infamous botched powerbomb.)
    • Raven is booked against Chris Benoit. Raven undergoes an emergency appendectomy a couple weeks before Starrcade and has to be pulled. WCW acts like Raven will work right up until the match is about to start and he grabs a mic and says he doesn't feel like wrestling. Perry Saturn takes his place and defeats Benoit by submission.
    • Dallas Page beat Curt Hennig for the U.S. title. Pretty much the only good thing they did all night. This, BTW, was the only clean babyface win on the entire show.
    • Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Bischoff. Hoo boy... For starters, Bret Hart is the guest ref. Yes, this is how they debut the guy that was a 5 time world champion, main evented countless PPVs, and was just involved in the most famous double-cross in wrestling history. They made him a guest ref in a match between a retired wrestler/commentator and the non-wrestler booking the show. Bret was given the privilege of officiating one of the worst matches ever captured on film, capped off with a botched loaded karate slipper spot that saw a metal plate get kicked into the 19th row of the arena and Bret declaring The Living Legend the winner for no adequately explained reason. This was panned by everyone as a complete embarrassment.

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