Hey Scott,
Love the blog and visit it daily. Had a question for you. With the recent release of the WCW Clash of the Champions set (which per your suggestion in your review, I picked up and is a phenomenal set by the way), I was in a WCW mood. I was curious what you would rank as your top 5 (or more) WCW pay-per-views of all-time. I know you rave about Bash '89. Would love to hear your input, thanks.
Steve
Maybe I should do a Book of Lists on Kindle this summer, or a more detailed version of my "Guide to Every PPV Ever" rants.
So yeah, Bash 89 is clearly my favorite. The Bash/Bash combo of 96 is also awesome, featuring the Outsiders powerbombing Bischoff through a table at GAB and then of course the Hogan turn at BATB 96. Spring Stampede also produced some great stuff, most notably 94 with the Flair-Steamboat main event and 99 with Blitzkrieg's one PPV match and a fantastic Benoit/Malenko v. Raven/Saturn tag match. Halloween Havoc 89 is an underrated show, with a great Flair/Sting v. Funk/Muta cage match on top and a tremendous Pillman-Luger US title match. And Superbrawl II was a great show up and down the card during the thick of the Dangerous Alliance.
An updated guide to every pay-per-view ever would be like a million buys.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to see what people come up with for this thread since I've seen almost no WCW and have kind of had the urge lately to go check stuff out after watching 3 WarGames matches yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI find it kind of sad that, despite watching a lot of WCW (TV and PPV) during the height of the "Monday Night Wars", I really can't recall a single PPV in any type of detail.
ReplyDeleteEven something like "Bash At The Beach, 1996", the ONLY thing I remember is Hogan's heel turn, I couldn't tell you one other match that took place on the card. I actually remember more from ECW.
Granted, I was never really a WCW fan growing up (started watching in '94/95, up until '99), but I'm surprised that the stuff I DID see hasn't stuck with me.
Great American Bash '89 (the T.H.E. version is great, the standard ppv version is really good)
ReplyDeleteSuperBrawl II
SuperBrawl III
Spring Stampede '94
Slamboree '94
If I had to pick 5 NWA/WCW PPVs, I would pick Great American Bash 89 (no doubt an awesome show), Superbrawl II, Spring Stampede 94, Great American Bash 96, and probably Fall Brawl 97 (this pick may change).
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Scott didn't mention Slamboree '94, as he has raved big time about that show in the past.
ReplyDeleteI would add Beach Blast 92 to the list (great Steamboat vs Rude Iron Man Match, Sting vs Foley, Flamingo vs Pillman, and the MVC vs Steiners main event). In general, I also think, if you can track em down online, that most of the Clash of the Champion shows from late 91 (CotC 17, I think) thru 1992 are all quite good, with some great stuff based around the Dangerous Alliance storyline.
ReplyDeleteWrestlewar 92 and Souled Out 98 make my list.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I know it's a flat out bad ppv, but the first World War 3 will always hold a place in my heart. I was 10 at the time and was so juiced for the 60 man Battle Royal. Also, Macho Man was always a favorite of mine, so watching him win the big gold belt was great.
Oh, WCW, how I miss thee:
ReplyDelete1. Starrcade 1985...it was pre-PPV but everybody I knew wanted to see Blanchard go down hard in that "I Quit" Match. Flair-Rhodes was really good too despite the Dusty Finish.
2. Souled Out 1998...Benoit-Raven hooked me. Flair-Hart was just gravy on top. This card seemed like a huge apology from WCW for Starrcade.
3. Halloween Havoc 1998...In spite of the glaring "over 3 hours...oops" error by WCW this card was stacked with great matches (not including Warrior-Hogan).
While I agree with cards such as Bash 89, Spring Stampede 94, and others being great these 3 PPVs are the ones that bring back the most memories of what I miss about WCW.
Man, that show had Mysterio/Pscyhosis in an opener that was ****+ stars.
ReplyDeleteSouled Out '98 is such a good show (minus the main event)
ReplyDeleteThirded!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the love for Spring Stampede 99, Scott pretty much nailed it on this one.
ReplyDeleteI may be in the minority, but I didn't care for Slamboree 94 that much.
ReplyDeleteGOOD call with Beach Blast 1992. The Steamboat vs. Rude and Sting vs. Cactus Jack matches were both excellent.
ReplyDeleteSouled Out 1998 has to be one of the most underrated WCW PPVs.
ReplyDeleteI didn't care too much for Halloween Havoc 98 (hell, I can say that about MOST of WCW PPVs in 98), but the opener with Jericho and Raven and Goldberg vs DDP were very good.
ReplyDeleteAnd a shockingly good Nasty Boys/Public Enemy brawl. The rest of the card was crap though, featuring such trash as the Carson City silver dollar match and Joe Gomez v. Mongo McMicheal. And the Ric Flair vs Dean Malenko match, while fine in a technical sense, is one of the most boring matches I've ever seen.
ReplyDeletesuperbrawl ii also has this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAVY8iwHXkw
now THAT is heat. . . .
Check out Souled Out 97. Not a great (or even good) card, but it's just so strange that you have to see it at least once.
ReplyDeleteChi Town Rumble 89 should get some love for the Steamboat/Flair bout.
ReplyDeleteMy all-time favs would be in no particular order: Great American Bash '89, Capital Combat 1990 (RoboCop debacle notwithstanding), WrestleWar '91, SuperBrawl 2, WrestleWar '92, Beach Blast '92, SuperBrawl III, Spring Stampede '94, Starrcade '95, Great American Bash '96, Bash At The Beach '96, Fall Brawl '96, Starrcade '96, SuperBrawl VII, Uncensored '97, Bash At The Beach '97, Souled Out '98, SuperBrawl VIII, Spring Stampede '98, Souled Out '99, SuperBrawl IX, Spring Stampede '99, Fall Brawl 2000, Sin, SuperBrawl Revenge and Greed. So yeah, as much as we like to make fun of WCW and while WCW has given "Are You Serious?" and Wrestlecrap tons of material, can't deny that WCW contributed a lot of good to the wrestling industry as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually Ric Flair vs Konnan. I actually kinda like that one haha. I'm not as big of a fan of the Public Enemy match, although there are a couple of good spots.
ReplyDeleteLots of great shows mentioned.
ReplyDeleteFor unheralded shows, Bash at the Beach 1997 is a sentimental favorite of mine, it just has such a fun atmosphere. I really, really like the opener, it's definitely the best thing Glacier or Ernest Miller were ever apart of.
Overall it is hard to beat Great American Bash 1989 though, that is is defenitely my favorite PPV ever, Halloween Havoc 1989 is right up there as well. I still need to watch SuperBrawl III, I've never seen it.
Yeah WCW crowds HATED him, it's kind of awesome. He probably should have got a run with the world title, I'm sure people would have loved to see Sting chase him for the belt.
ReplyDeleteSouled out 98 is sooooko awesome. Jericho's offivial heel turn on misterio is such a great memory, catching the hurricanrana into the lion tamer!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a great show! That Benoit/Raven match is just fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't think Raven gets enough credit for being a hugely entertaining part of the mid/upper-midcard in WCW. So much else going on in 1997-1999 has to do with warring factions like WCW and the Horsement vs the NWO. You had the luchadors, but they didn't get much in the way of strong angles. Raven defenitely brought a unique flavor and worked with a LOT of different types of guys, older guys like DDP, young upstarts like Goldberg who were pretty green, and smaller, talented guys like Benoit and Jericho and basically had great matches with all of them.
Yeah, that is definitely a sick finish, even if the match itself wasn't all it could be. Wasn't Mysterio hurt legitimately going into the match?
ReplyDeleteThe last 3 WCW PPV's (Sin, Superbrawl Revenge, and Greed) all deserve some love.
ReplyDeleteOne interesting note about Halloween Havoc 1998 from some old Meltzer posts I read -- it turns out WCW actually did contact the cable companies a couple of weeks in advance to notify them that the show was going 3 1/2 hours instead of the usual 3. It turns out the problem with most companies was due to the automated systems used to determine when the PPV feed starts and ends.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why they had the foresight to notify the companies in this case is because they failed to do so on two other occasions -- a lot of people got cut off at the end Halloween Havoc 1996 when Piper showed up and went very long in his interview with Hogan. A smaller number of people also got cut off at Road Wild 1997 shortly after Hogan got the three count.
Yeah, I never understood why Luger/Savage went on last. Though it is not saying much, I think it is easily the best Luger/Savage encounter of all of their encounters between 1995 and 1998.
ReplyDeleteLooking at Smackdown spoilers, pretty disgusted with the MITB lineup because you can just tell who is gonna win.
ReplyDeleteThat was always my favorite WCW PPV, mainly because it stuck out like a sore thumb (that still manages to be awesome despite its soreness) amidst all the absolute shit they were cranking out. Also because the mom n' pop video store I went to never had WCW tapes, so my opinion of their PPVs is pretty much based on late '98 until their death.
ReplyDeleteMysterio was legit hurt, and he didn't return till Bash At The Beach that year.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're right, Malenko is in the match before that, which is also boring as hell. Not that anyone really cared, people only ordered the show for the main. And I think the Nastys/PE match would have been better received had we been been able to see what was going on during the middle of the match, but they had the "double trouble Bash at the Beach bubble" split screen where you couldn't see shit.
ReplyDeleteGreed was pretty good, probably because they knew it was the last one (second-to-last show period, I think) and wanted to go out on a high note.
ReplyDeleteThat show sounds even worse than RAW. Do they seriously think that people are going to buy some of those MITB "contenders" as having any shot?
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if one of those "contenders" broke through the glass ceiling and got a shot, instead we get somebody that will never get over. I guess he is great for sales at the concession stands though.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell are they thinking with that lineup for the smack down ladder match? Sandow v. Kidd v. Marella v. Christian v. Tensai? What the hell kind of trainreck is that gonna be? With more guys to come next week, this is gonna be like a 10-man match?
ReplyDeleteI think it had something to do with backstage politics and not saying that Flair and Bret drew a good buyrate all on their own.
ReplyDeleteTried not to give stuff away, some dont like to be spoiled. Yeah, if Tensai isnt winning Id be shocked. Id rather see Kharma win and get a title shot over that pile of useless crap. They just never learn.
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm stunned by how underwhelming the wrestlers in the SD MITB are. Last year at this time, I was practically frothing at the mouth for this ppv. What a difference a year can make.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I realized that was a dick move on my part after I hit reply so I took the names out. I wasn't thinking. But that is a motley fucking crew of losers.
ReplyDeleteWhat would the top 5 TNA PPVs be? I guess from when they started going monthly as including the weekly ones might make it harder to choose.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm....sports...and lemons....delicious.
ReplyDeleteLOL yeah, that was the match with the dreaded split screen. I'm probably judging the Nasty Boys / PE match by too high of standards -- I don't feel the motivation to watch any Nasty Boys match that isn't one of their two insanely brutal 1994 brawls. I'm just not a big fan of out of the ring brawling in general unless it's littered with nasty spots haha.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't like Dean Malenko vs Disco Inferno? Disco is definitely a guilty pleasure for me. That might be his best match actually.
I could see the first for sure, but I'm not so sure about the second.
ReplyDeleteSure, it certainly sounds WCW-ish, but the companies don't really know if they'll get a big buy-rate beforehand, the majority of PPV buys are impulse buys done right before the event. I could see that being a way to justify it after the fact though. It was definitely one of the biggest shows they did without Hogan wrestling -- although he was promoted (along with Sting) as being a part of the show. So I'm sure he took all the credit in any case lol
If you've ever seen the countdown show, they talk extensively about Flair/Hart and recap the whole feud, where Luger/Savage gets very little coverage, so I wonder if they just forgot and had to throw it on at the end. That sounds even more WCW-ish to me lol
Still never seen any of those -- I'd like to get a PPV tape of them from a trader, but I imagine they are about as rare as any major league PPV ever done, given the poor buyrates.
ReplyDeleteI think Souled Out 1998 is a really great show and one of WCW's better efforts from 1997-2001.
ReplyDeleteA good *** 8 man tag.
A ****1/2 Benoit-Raven match with pretty astonishing use of just ONE steel chair.
A **1/2 disappointing Jericho-Mysterio match. Still entertaining and started the awesome run of Heel Jericho
If I remember right Booker and Martel had a pretty nice match.
Then two pretty rancid NWO matches.
Kevin Nash and Giant had a surprisingly good match
And Flair and Bret had a great match.
Pretty much as good of a show as they could have had, though it was missing Eddie and Dean.
Yeah I'd say I'm pretty close to you on everything. The good stuff gets lots of time and the crap is kept short.
ReplyDeleteI'd go *** 3/4 on the Lucha match, there are just some sick spots in it and La Parka really gets over with the crowd.
Raven/Benoit is definitely **** 1/2, not much else to say there.
Jericho/Rey is definitely not what you'd expect, but I suppose at least the psychology is strong with Jericho constantly working on the knee.
The Luger/Savage match isn't actually that bad, it's barely 7 minutes
long with entrances too, so they don't drag it out at least.
I actually didn't like Flair/Bret quite as much as I have on the previous viewings of it, but it's definitely a solid match.
Who knows, maybe the WWE will show it on whatever their streaming service is (I stick to Youtube), seeing as how it's WCW month.
ReplyDeleteThis poor fuck appears to have uploaded one of them (and a shitload of old RAWS)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/BDWJ1983/videos?query=superbrawl+revenge
Not really a fan, he's kind of like WCW's version of the Road Dogg, in that he dances around too much during his matches. I've heard a lot of people call that his best, which doesn't speak to well of him. Who has their PPV debut as their best match? Then again, he probably came down with the "I-stopped-giving-a-shit-itis" that 80% of WCW employees had. Plus, Malenko bored me to death to begin with.
ReplyDeleteAnd I might be judging the PE/Nastys match by too high a standard, given that they all suck and I haven't seen it in quite a while. I'll watch it later if I can find it and report back.
My friends and I got most every PPV from Fall Brawl '94 (the first PPV we could get in our area) through mid '98 and I can barely remember them. It's all jumbled together. Which one had that awesome cruserweight match to open the show and ended with Hogan and/or the nWo standing victorious?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've always been a big Malenko fan, so that helps too I suppose.
ReplyDeleteLOL that's a hell of a collection of PPVs to have online. It takes me forever to upload a 15 minute clip, I can't imagine uploading all of those shows!
ReplyDeleteThat was my though, clearly that guy *REALLY* wants people to have access to terrible PPV's and August 1998 RAW's lmao
ReplyDeleteOne interesting thing regarding BATB 1996 -- given all of the hype going into it, it actually didn't do as good of a buyrate as I expected that it would given the buzz. I imagine a lot of people felt burnt on some of the previous shows and took a pass.
ReplyDeleteWCW actually had a good PPV year in 1995, but it really seemed to dip in late 1995 though and throughout 1996, as the Hogan luster started to wear off and the undercards were filled with Big Bubba, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and John Tenta matches. Of course things picked up after the NWO debuted -- they (along with the cruiserweights) probably couldn't have come at a better time for WCW I don't think.
Nice to see a fairly positive WCW thread for once. I echo others when I say Spring Stampede 99, Souled Out 98 are fantastic shows.
ReplyDeleteFall Brawl 2000 wasn't too bad of a show. Maybe it's because everything else in 2000 was so bad for WCW, that I think that.
Oddly enough, the thing that stands out must for me about Souled Out '98 is Tony Schiavone being a total douchebag to Bobby Heenan under the pretext of being "distraught" over Dusty Rhodes' heel turn, repeatedly mocking him and telling him to shut up while he tries to move on and call the next match. After this goes on for much longer than neccessary, Bobby finally snaps back, "No, YOU SHUT UP!" Markout moment for me. let me tell you.
ReplyDeleteIf you thought Tony was a douchebag there, you should check out Spring Stampede '98, in particular right before the Hogan-Nash/Piper-Giant Bat Match when Tenay was talking about the upcoming Savage/Sting main event, you can see Tony cut off the audio in his headset long enough to chew out Bobby right on camera and Bobby looked VERY pissed off afterwards, then in a great moment when Tony was getting ready to chime in his thoughts on the main event, Bobby interrupted him and said "Let's go to the ring, I'm tired of hearing you talk." Mike's facial expression during their unscripted on-air argument (one out of many) was hilarious as well.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I sort of remember that. I never really thought of it that way -- I remember them having a very awkward exchange, but I always assumed that it was Tony having to drag out the distraught thing longer than intended because Mike Tenay wasn't out there when he was supposed to be to take over on commentary. I just remember Tony seeming like he was going to take off and calling for Tenay, but he doesn't show up till the next match, so they just kind of sit there and Tony can't decide if he should be quiet or emote haha
ReplyDeleteI just looked at that one -- Yikes! LOL.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure though, I think they may just be playing their typical antagonistic roles there. Tony makes a big point about how he actually agrees with Bobby for once and Bobby snipes back at him and mouths a few words to himself. The second Tenay starts talking, they simultaneously look at each other, give dirty looks and mouth some words -- that's pretty similar to the bit Bobby and Gorilla would do on camera where Gorilla would hype the first match while Bobby would say nasty things under his breath. Maybe though.
I know right? haha. What's crazy is about a thousand of them have been uploaded in the last month! That's like 200 hours of footage. I sure hope he has some awesomely automated way of doing it -- otherwise I am sure he has a mean case of hemorrhoids by now.
ReplyDelete"You can do a lot more damage with a surfboard than you can with a rubber shark."
ReplyDeleteThere's something you'll never hear outside of a wrestling show...
OK, just watched it and would give it **1/2, though I'd probably give it *** had they not fucked the ending with that table, still a good ECWish brawl though someone should have bladed here. Still pretty good for a 1996 WCW PPV. I might have gone even higher had the camerawork and commentary not been absolutely atrocious, forgot how much room the logo takes up. It's like I watched this match on a Sega Game Gear in each hand. Seeing as how the WWE probably has all the footage, they can proabaly mix it into something watchable.
As for Malenko, I really liked his work in Japan, but he couldn't do any of that cool puro shit over here. Never made any sense to me to sign a guy based on his work in Japan, and than not let him do the things that got him over in Japan.
I wanted to order it, but was at my dad's house (who didn't have PPV) at the time. Sucks being 14, you don't have control over those sort of things.
ReplyDeleteFair enough --and I love the Game Gear reference heh.
ReplyDeleteRe: WWE that's actually a great idea. I'm pretty sure WCW saved each isolated camera feed for shows from about 1995 on, because I've seen alternate angles used in some WWE airings of matches. Given that, they could actually probably make use of the widescreen aspect ratio for this match and each of the World War 3 matches that were also equally impossible to see.
Replying above...
ReplyDeleteYup, I was 15 -- I actually did order it (with my saved allowance money haha) and that may be the one and only time after a PPV that I actually did the "call your friends and tell them what happened tonight!" thing that announcers always beg you to do lol
ReplyDeletegot to disagree with Bash at the Beach 1996 (and, to a lesser extent, with GAB 1996 as well). yes, both shows had great stuff happening - but also too much dull, horrible matches (DDP vs. Duggan in a taped fist match etc.) to make those shows amazing.
ReplyDeleteWait i think im missing something here, the spoilers im reading, just
ReplyDeleteshow the five guys who qualified, but judging by everyones comments here
there is some abomination on the line up?. Is it Big show who we are talking about here? or is he already announced for the "Raw" mitb match?
Yeah, and why the fuck are they still breaking for commercials on DVD's? We know they are still filming. And while were at, how about we all kick in $20 to the World Wildlife Fund as a settlement so the WWE can STOP THE FUCKING BLURRING on DVDs. Everything from 1997 to the WWF/WWF lawsuit is basically unwatchable. Put the goddamned panda in the corner of the screen if you have to. This shit really isn't that complicated, all the fucking lawyers just make us think it is.
ReplyDeleteOh, just a tip to the WWE production guys: if you're gonna fix the PE/Nasty match, you might want to edit out Luger not hitting the ringpost where he gets "injured" in the main event. Just show the camera angle that's pointing at Hall or Nash and let Fat Tony explain the rest. That spot should be part of the first class of the Botchamania Hall of Fame.
Every time we talk about worst matches ever I want to bring HITC 2 up, but I don't want to dignify it as an actual match. That was the worst thing I've ever seen in wrestling, and I've seen a lot of CZW and IWA-MS. Still don't know who Mick pissed off to deserve that. I know the chokeslam bump was an accident, but even so, if I could go lower than -***** for that, I would. I HATE that "match".
ReplyDeleteI don't get that either -- I assume it's because there would be no commentary during those portions, because usually the commentators are talking about what is going to be occurring in the next segment or the finish of the match. Even still, it'd be nice to see the missing parts.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Panda in the corner would be tolerable, the blurring is terrible.
I'm one of the few guys that's probably still lugging around a giant VCR and old VHS tapes, because so much of the enjoyment for these old shows is in the nostalgia for me. The blurring is intolerable, the music editing ruins a big part of the show and the WWE logo in the corner on old WWF/ECW/WCW stuff just plain annoys me.
Yeah, the WWE used to be great about editing that stuff out, at least in the 1990s. They are incredibly inconsistent about it now though or do weird things, especially with audio. On the original PPV of Summer Slam 1990, Bad News Brown drops several f-bombs and various other colorful words during his match. The Coliseum Video version successfully trimmed all of them off, but the DVD version only gets some of them -- I guess the only 'F' word the WWE really cares about is "WWF".
Yeah, in retrospect they are lucky someone didn't end up dead. It's one thing to do a 'stunt' on tape, where you can edit around the footage and use padding. It's another to chuck a guy off the roof of a 20 foot cage with nothing but a TABLE to break his fall. It is an awfully bush league thing for a big mega corporation to do -- a spot like the HITC one with Triple H and Mick Foley is just as much of a spectacle and was actually SAFE.
ReplyDelete"The Mexican Jumping Bean" Eddy Guerrero.
ReplyDeleteHe's announced for the RAW match but I assume who people are referring to is the man he teamed with after RAW's dark match this week.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a huge box of tapes, nearly every PPV (I skipped a few, for reasons described above or just because they were a waste of $30) and most Raws, Nitros, and Hardcore TV from mid 1995 through the end of 1999, then lost them in a fire on New Year's morning in 2000. Actually got paid for them buy my insurance company, got something like $600(!). Wish I still had them, most of the VQ on Youtube is awful.
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't Busch league, hell, it wasn't even Natty league. That was some Steel Reserve league shit.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think GAB 1996 is the better wrestling show overall, as BATB definitely has a few stinkers. There are definitely better end to end wrestling shows than either of those -- but I think Scott is rating them based on other factors too besides match quality, including historical importance and the satisfying payoff of such a big angle.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, that would be one of the least racist things he'd be involved in.
ReplyDeleteHalloween Havoc 89
ReplyDeleteGreat American Bash 89
Starrcade 95
SuperBrawl 8
Souled Out 98
That sucks! I believe Scott lost a ton of his tapes in an apartment fire as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree about YT -- I don't think the quality would be so bad if most of the uploads weren't from 3rd generation copies of the tapes. I think a LOT of people just chucked their tapes in the trash or the donate pile -- I'll occasionally come across people's home recorded tapes at 2nd hand stores sometimes.
I saved most of my tapes or rescued them from my parents garage too -- I have a good portion of WWF PPVs between 1995 and 1998 and most of the WCW ones for the same period + 1999. I'm trying to convert most of them to DVD, but I'm forever changing equipment or coming up with a better techniques of capturing them, so they have been taking forever. It's a trip watching the weekly TV shows as I haven't seen most of them since they aired and forgot so much of what happened.
You should shoot me an email though at mlmarkle27 at gmail dot com though -- I may have something you are interested in!
I'll do that tomorrow, I'm about to crash, it's 4 AM here.
ReplyDeleteSounds good! Enjoy your evening.
ReplyDeleteI'll be enjoying my morning in a minute here, but yeah, you too.
ReplyDeletehe really is one of the very few guys that was better in WCW than in WCW, even with the same gimmick.
ReplyDeletewell, not on this blog.
ReplyDeleteYeah, your memory of it is correct, I think. I recall Tony being really anxious about Mike Tenay not being there. Although it's equally likely to have been one of the situations where nobody told the Brain what was going on, adding to his irritation.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that would certainly be Tony's MO at least according to Brain, although I sometimes discount what he says about other guys because he promised to reveal Hogan as a sleaze for years in a 'tell all book' and then later had Hogan write the forward to his book and then claimed he was just working everyone and maintaining kayfabe,and that since Hogan made him so much money, he was a-okay with him. It seems like he's done that with a couple of guys.
ReplyDeleteHas Mike Tenay ever talked about his relationship with Schiavonne or Bobby? I'd be curious to hear if they had a contentious relationship as well. Bobby didn't seem to think much of Tenay as an announcer though he said he was a nice guy.
I agree, he always came off as a goofy midcarder to me in the WWF with the perm and the sax music. I just never bought him as a main event guy until he got to WCW and they got him over like gangbusters in that first match against Sting. I think Paul E was a better fit for him than Bobby Heenan too -- I think it gave him more of an edge that fit the character he was playing better.
ReplyDeleteHow ridiculous that the IC champion is in the MITB match... at the expense of Cody Rhodes no less
ReplyDeleteNatty Ice is probably the worst beer ever.
ReplyDeleteMe and this chick i wanted to smash used to call this other girl i was boinking at the time "Natty Ice"
She was terrible at everything sexual. I thought I could change her lol...
I have pretty much every WWF ppv from WM 1 until WM 15 on VHS that I bought from best friends mother around 6 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe quality of some of them are terrible. Some of them are alright.
Just wanted to throw that in. If the quality was good enough i converted it to DVD.
WW3 95 isnt a bad ppv.
ReplyDeleteThe battle royal sucks ass, but as a 14 year old at the time i was in awe. Plus I really remember liking DDP/Mero and Flair/Sting. Benoit/Sasuke wasnt bad at all either.
Hogan doesnt do run-ins on semi mains.
ReplyDeleteThat was the (Latest) start of dissention in the NWO. For real this time.
WCW was never the greatest at gettin home video to Blockbuster. It was always WWF tapes.
ReplyDeleteI dont think i even saw my first WCW show until like 1992 at a friends house watching WCWSN, and thenwatching it regularly when Nitro came on the air.
Meanwhile, WWF was everywhere even when I wasnt watching. Id go with moms to Blockbuster and BAM theres WWF WM 7 or 8
Probably my ass.
ReplyDeleteRude should have been world champ many times over.
His work got better in WCW, from working with Steamboat and others for them 3 years, but I think he had to bring his promo game down so he wouldnt be considered as a haha heel.
ReplyDeleteWhile in the upper mid card in the WWF, he was more haha and once he cut off the permed hair he was trying to get serious in 90 during Warriors run, cuz that was the only way he was getting to the main event.
Cuz Hogan wasnt selling for him.
I cant say that I have every seen a TNA show that was overall good. 1-3 matches are good to great or they are all serviceable. or the main event is just so fucking bad that it brings down the whole show.
ReplyDeleteThe last ppv before Bischoff and Russo came on board. Dec 09 with the Joe/AJ/Daniels 2 and Angle/Wolfe that was a good show.
yea rey rey was hurt, hence jerichos post match tirade with the steps and chair to write him off tv. I remember him leaving without his title and screaming at the tv to take his belt.
ReplyDeletenow on to superbrawl 8 when he faught and de masked juvi he wrestled with the belt around his waist for the first few minutes of the match. Man Jericho's heel run in '98 was my fav of his career bar none!
Bash At The Beach 1996
ReplyDeleteI've heard in general that WCW during that time period didn't let any of the announcers know what was happening - they wanted their reactions to be genuine, but too often they came off like idiots (constantly being fooled by fake Stings), and their commentary wouldn't math the sorylines.
ReplyDeleteMy picks are
ReplyDeleteSuperBrawl II
GAB 89/96
Bash at the Beach 94/96
Spring Stampede 94
Slamboree 94
Spring Stampede 99
Superbrawl VIII
Wrestlers that no one believes are credible fight for the chance to win a briefcase that gives them the chance to justify this belief by winning the belt as cheaply as possible!
ReplyDeleteDamned if I can remember when it was (or be bothered to look it up), but I remember there being a spectacular show in the early days that featured an 8-man X-Division tournament where Juventud Guerrera and Teddy Hart put on several awesome matches.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, I'm pretty sure I have that one on tape, I'll have to rummage around for it.
Wow, surprised to see all the hate for SD's MITB - granted, I do hope that THAT guy (PA) doesn't win, but a hodge-podge of losers is exactly what I'd LIKE to see for a change in a match like this.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually hoping for guys like Justin Gabriel, Yoshi Tatsu, Hunico, and JTG to be entered - all are great wrestlers that are going to waste. Same with maybe throwing Cesaro in there, to give him a nice push along with his recent debut. And I'm really hoping that one of the guys that's already entered (TJW) gets to have a bit of a star-making performance, the guy is fantastic.
Rey's legitimately hurt going into 40% of his matches, so good chance of it.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on Raven's WCW run. They really could've done a lot more with him.
ReplyDelete(Replying to the Natty Ice comment from below)
ReplyDeleteNatty is pretty bad, but if you're already loaded it's tolerable. Rolling Rock, Red Dog, and anything made by Saranac is much worse, but when it comes to shitty beer, Steel Reserve (aka 211) takes the gold medal. Just the smell it makes me want to puke. I shouldn't even call it shitty, it's not fair to shit.
http://buffalobeast.com/101/Great_Genessee_Cream_Ale_Challenge.htm
Click on the link for a hilarious article on some terrible beers.
Spring Stampede '94 - First PPV I attended in person. Biggest live arena crowd for a PPV WCW had since GAB '89. Not a big fan of Slamboree '94. The Cactus Jack-Maxx Payne Vs. Nasty Boys match was a lot better in Chicago than Philly.
ReplyDeletePretty sure Unbreakable 2005 is up there solely on the AJ/Daniels/Joe match since that in canon is TNA's "greatest match ever."
ReplyDeleteTo that I say: Jack Swagger.
ReplyDeleteSpring Stampede '94 was a great show- as you said, hot crowd, cool atmosphere.- but the Steve Austin-Great Muta match featuring the 10-minute chinlock immediately followed by a lame over-the-top finish is one of the worst PPV matches I ever saw.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to think what would have happened if Flair had continued booking with the transitional roster they had into '95 before it became the Hogan show. Weren't they planning another Horsemen relaunch at SS 94 but it was scrapped? Or was that a different year?
The November and December shows in '09 were both pretty good. One had Joe/AJ/Daniels and Angle/Wolfe, and the next event had AJ/Daniels and Angle/Wolfe 2 out of 3 in a cage. Two damn good events.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I figured Cody was a shoe in, but he's lost a good deal of heat recently. The Big Show feud really stalled his momentum and you can hear that with the crowds. Maybe Dolph will be added. Or a returning Wade Barrett.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine it's impossible to, instead of blurring, go in and black out all the WWF logos. Same basic effect only you'd hardly notice a bunch of black blobs on the screen rather than some giant blur that makes it look like you've got glaucoma.
ReplyDeleteI love Superbrawl VIII too. Good call.
ReplyDeleteYes, Austin-Muta was very disappointing. Maybe not to the casual fans, but I was old enough to remember Muta from '89 and then the New-Japan-WCW events. So, I was expecting a pretty darn good match. Still, when those two are near the bottom of your card, it must be a really good PPV.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about Flair's booking in a non-Hogan controlled WCW. I know Mick Foley likes to bash Flair's booking, but who was Flair pushing that shouldn't have been pushed? Anderson? Austin? Foley (as usual) has never gone into any detail. Plus, wasn't it Flair that MADE Foley with the Spring Stampede/Slamboree matches. Didn't those two matches also influence ECW? I think Flair should be given a lot of credit for putting Foley in those positions as opposed to what the non-Flair bookers had him doing in '93 (outside of the Vader matches).
Yeah, Bobby was definitely fighting it for a while there. He's absolutely obliterated on one of the early Fall Brawls - '94 or '95. He barely contributes anything and when Tony prompts him to talk he's just rambling and slurring his words. I remember thinking he seemed to be getting progressively drunker, and then the camera went outside the ring and there was a cooler beside the announce table:) though it could conceivably have had ice packs in it or something.
ReplyDeleteI have no trouble believing that Tony and Bobby had it out for each other. They had zero chemistry, and it probably had a lot to do with Tony's sense of humor . He often steps all over Heenan's punchlines or just goes "huh" and moves on. They didn't seem to ever be on the same page.
Man, I'm watching Superbrawl II on YouTube right now, and I GOTTA get a copy of the FULL version somehow, someway.
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