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Pre-Show Stalwart
For the last quarter of 1998, the nWo Wolfpac were shorthanded with Randy Savage going on hiatus to recover from double knee surgery, and Sting being ordered to go to rehab just a few months after he became a Born-Again Christian. The last remaining members of the babyface nWo faction were Kevin Nash, Konnan and Lex Luger.
Remember: Konnan was 100% Wolfpac in promos and wrestling because he had a real-life background growing up in street gangs long before he even became a wrestler and a spokesperson for AAA Mexico wrestling and helped contribute to WCW by bringing aboard future Luchadores in Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, La Parka, Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera in 1996 on his return to the World Championship Wrestling company.
But after Goldberg lost the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt to Kevin Nash at Starrcade '98 in a friendly match in face vs face despite outside interference from Scott Hall, it appeared that the Wolfpac was the most severely damaged faction, booking-wise. That's why nobody got to see a proper full-on feud between nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood because what's the point doing a proper feud if Hogan has to have his way all the time and won't stop using Creative Control every once in a while just because he can't accept that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were far more cooler than him?
Anyway, there was an angle in which Goldberg got arrested by allegedly stalking Miss Elizabeth of nWo Hollywood. Nash was supposed to have a rematch with Goldberg with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt on the line, but due to Goldberg's kayfabe arrest, Hogan came out of his kayfabe retirement to wrestle for Nash's WCW Championship Belt in all-black street clothes. However, it turned out Elizabeth couldn't keep her story straight, so Goldberg was free to go back to the arena. But it's too late for Goldberg, as his card placement was usurped by the returning Hollywood Hogan.
Eventually, Nash ends up losing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt to Hogan under controversial circumstances, as Hogan fingerpoked Nash in the chest, and Nash sold it like it's a Super Fingerpoke for Hogan to get a pinfall victory, so the event in January 1999 had become to be known as The Fingerpoke of Doom. Because of the match ending, nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac merged back together again under the Wolfpac emblem. As a result: Nash, Hall and Luger became heels, and Hogan, Steiner, Buff and Miss Elizabeth joined the Wolfpac, and in the process of reuniting Scott Steiner with his former Team WCW teammate Lex Luger for the first time since SuperBrawl VIII. And Konnan didn't even return to the Wolfpac when the Wolfpac became a heel group.
Had Sting not gotten sidelined after Halloween Havoc '98, maybe he would've gotten a proper heel run and retained the Wolfpac face paint and his own Red & Black outfit, and the heel run would've been a bit better than his actual heel run in the Fall of 1999 when Vince Russo took over the show as a WCW booker. As it is, a heel Wolfpac Sting would've been more resonating than Sting's failed heel run in-between the third and fourth quarters of 1999.
But backstage, there was speculation that Konnan would've been losing his potential push, which he did, and fell out of favor with the booking team. And in 1999, Nash and Hogan settled their differences, but that didn't stop Hogan from being solely responsible for keeping Goldberg in the midcards. In retrospect, Konnan critics assume that Konnan is a projectionist whom the K-Dawg critics think should be grateful for Hall, Nash and Hogan even saving his booking trajectory from Kevin Sullivan. At least Nash is always grateful for Kevin Sullivan, while Konnan can't find it in his heart to thank Kevin Sullivan for getting him out of the Dungeon of Doom in '96-'97. Konnan was a poor fit for the Dungeon of Doom before being in the nWo in '97-'98 really saved his booking trajectory for a couple of seasons.
So what I'm looking for answers, is that, did the WCW booking committee make the right call by punishing Konnan by stripping him of his nWo Wolfpac membership when he questioned Hogan and Nash for not promising him a potential main event push as a big time player in January 1999? And it made matters worse when Konnan legitimately injured Lex Luger at a house show and caused him to suffer from a torn biceps tendon, so WCW had Rey Mysterio injure Luger via car door slam as a way to write him out of action to give him some time off.
Remember: Konnan was 100% Wolfpac in promos and wrestling because he had a real-life background growing up in street gangs long before he even became a wrestler and a spokesperson for AAA Mexico wrestling and helped contribute to WCW by bringing aboard future Luchadores in Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, La Parka, Psychosis, Juventud Guerrera in 1996 on his return to the World Championship Wrestling company.
But after Goldberg lost the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt to Kevin Nash at Starrcade '98 in a friendly match in face vs face despite outside interference from Scott Hall, it appeared that the Wolfpac was the most severely damaged faction, booking-wise. That's why nobody got to see a proper full-on feud between nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood because what's the point doing a proper feud if Hogan has to have his way all the time and won't stop using Creative Control every once in a while just because he can't accept that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were far more cooler than him?
Anyway, there was an angle in which Goldberg got arrested by allegedly stalking Miss Elizabeth of nWo Hollywood. Nash was supposed to have a rematch with Goldberg with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt on the line, but due to Goldberg's kayfabe arrest, Hogan came out of his kayfabe retirement to wrestle for Nash's WCW Championship Belt in all-black street clothes. However, it turned out Elizabeth couldn't keep her story straight, so Goldberg was free to go back to the arena. But it's too late for Goldberg, as his card placement was usurped by the returning Hollywood Hogan.
Eventually, Nash ends up losing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt to Hogan under controversial circumstances, as Hogan fingerpoked Nash in the chest, and Nash sold it like it's a Super Fingerpoke for Hogan to get a pinfall victory, so the event in January 1999 had become to be known as The Fingerpoke of Doom. Because of the match ending, nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac merged back together again under the Wolfpac emblem. As a result: Nash, Hall and Luger became heels, and Hogan, Steiner, Buff and Miss Elizabeth joined the Wolfpac, and in the process of reuniting Scott Steiner with his former Team WCW teammate Lex Luger for the first time since SuperBrawl VIII. And Konnan didn't even return to the Wolfpac when the Wolfpac became a heel group.
Had Sting not gotten sidelined after Halloween Havoc '98, maybe he would've gotten a proper heel run and retained the Wolfpac face paint and his own Red & Black outfit, and the heel run would've been a bit better than his actual heel run in the Fall of 1999 when Vince Russo took over the show as a WCW booker. As it is, a heel Wolfpac Sting would've been more resonating than Sting's failed heel run in-between the third and fourth quarters of 1999.
But backstage, there was speculation that Konnan would've been losing his potential push, which he did, and fell out of favor with the booking team. And in 1999, Nash and Hogan settled their differences, but that didn't stop Hogan from being solely responsible for keeping Goldberg in the midcards. In retrospect, Konnan critics assume that Konnan is a projectionist whom the K-Dawg critics think should be grateful for Hall, Nash and Hogan even saving his booking trajectory from Kevin Sullivan. At least Nash is always grateful for Kevin Sullivan, while Konnan can't find it in his heart to thank Kevin Sullivan for getting him out of the Dungeon of Doom in '96-'97. Konnan was a poor fit for the Dungeon of Doom before being in the nWo in '97-'98 really saved his booking trajectory for a couple of seasons.
So what I'm looking for answers, is that, did the WCW booking committee make the right call by punishing Konnan by stripping him of his nWo Wolfpac membership when he questioned Hogan and Nash for not promising him a potential main event push as a big time player in January 1999? And it made matters worse when Konnan legitimately injured Lex Luger at a house show and caused him to suffer from a torn biceps tendon, so WCW had Rey Mysterio injure Luger via car door slam as a way to write him out of action to give him some time off.
