Some of the WCW PPVs- Great or Gruesome?

[DarksideEric]

Have you seen Halloween Havoc '97? Some of the best undercard matches I think from the late 90s WCW era.

Mysterio Jr vs. Eddie Guerrero alone is worth the download.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

Bash at the Beach '98 was in July. The Leno/DDP vs. Hogan/Bischoff Road Wild match was in August 1998.

Dennis Rodman had just won 3 straight NBA titles with the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls. He was considered a loose canon.

Karl Malone played for the Utah Jazz. Malone had lost to Rodman and the Bulls in the 1997 & 1998 NBA Finals.

If you want to see a good WCW PPV, here 's some ideas:
Starrcade '88, Great American Bash '89, SuperBrawl II, WrestleWar '92, SuperBrawl III, Spring Stampede '94, Slamboree '94, Starrcade '95, Great American Bash '96, Souled Out '98, SuperBrawl VIII and Spring Stampede '99.

Thank you! I've already noted them all and can't wait to watch them. I did glimpse through Starrcade 1996 yesterday and may I say what an awesome event! Ultimo Dragon vs Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio vs Jushin Liger, The outsiders vs Meng and THe Barbarian was awesome, Jeff Jarret vs Benoit and Eddie Guerrero vs DDP were good, and two main events, Lex Luger vs Giant, and Roddy Piper vs Hulk Hogan.

Have you seen Halloween Havoc '97? Some of the best undercard matches I think from the late 90s WCW era.

Mysterio Jr vs. Eddie Guerrero alone is worth the download.

I'm not sure I have and it's unfortunate. I do remember in 2008 having downloaded/glimpsed through 2-3 WCW ppvs but I never watched them entirely. I think one of them was Road Wild. I'll surely watch Halloween Havoc and certainly would enjoy Mysterio vs Guerrero as I'm finding most of these ppvs better than the Wrestlemanias produced by the WWE in recent years. Such awesome wrestling! ? I am incredulous as to why WCW failed with all this amazing talent in the world, from the mexican and japanese cruiserweights to Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit ,DDP, Booker T, and the big stars like Hogan, Nash , Sting, Flair, Savage, Bret Hart.

Goldberg wasnt booked in meaningfull top tier matches on PPV for most of his big first title reign. Hulk Hogan headlined the PPVs in July, Aug, & Sept, GB's first three months as champion. In the two biggest shows he had title defenses, he was a headliner but shared significant build and promotion time with Hogan again (Halloween Havoc, Hogan-Warrior & GB vs DDP) & with Ric Flair's return Starrcade 98 (GB vs Nash & Flair-Bischoff). Fact was, DDP & Nash were the only feuds that were given any major promotion during his reign, all those months as champ and for almost all of it he took a backseat to Hogan, his best feud and match (which he lost) only coming when Hogan took time off.

Dennis Rodman was a multi time All Pro NBA player with Detroit, winning championships with them in the early 90s. Later in his career he cultivated a highly controversial personna, wearing outrageous outfits, multi colored hair, married a Supermodel, in short he was a wrestling like caricature even before he joined WCW. Karl Malone was the anti Rodman, equally (if not more so ) talented but a very quiet, conservative, public image.

Kevin Greene was a multi time All Pro Linebacker & Defensive End, playing mostly for the Rams when they were in Los Angelos. His 160 career sacks are among the highest totals all time in NFL history. Greene made no secret of his appreciation of wrestling, especially when he played for Pittsburgh. There were even articles in the local papers discussing the friendly feud among players on the team who split into two camps during the Hogan-Flair feud (Greene piloted Team Hogan, linebacker LeVon Kirkland lead Team Flair). Flair met several players from Pittsburgh while appearing at annual charity events sponsored by the Post Gazette newspaper (where website columnist Mark Madden was a sports collumnist who also covered wrestling). After befriending some of his fans on the team he arranged for several players to attend a Clash Of Champions TV special held in Vegas (near the site of that year's Super Bowl, which Pittsburgh was playing in). Eric Bischoff thought WCW might get some mainstream media exposure if they promoted the team's attendance and use a player in some capicity (which they did w/ Greene jumping in the ring to save Hogan from a Flair-Giant beatdown). After Hogan turned heel and formed the NWO Greene returned to team with Flair in 1997 tag team match on a PPV held in Charlotte (Greene by then was playing for Charlotte's NFL team). In between he was recruited by Nitro commentator Steve 'Mongo' McMichael (former Starting defensive end for Chicago when they won the 1985 Super Bowl) to help him in his feud with Flair over his wife Deborah. It was supposed to be NFL vs WCW until Flair & Arn Anderson bribed Deborah to convince Mongo to end the feud and join The Horsemen.

A wonderfully enlightening post! I now understand the whole deal with these non-wrestling athletes/celebrities being involved in WCW main-events. I'd never known/seen WCW in the 90s really except for the year 2000 but growing up in my 10s, I hardly understood what went on on Raw in 1999 with the Ministry, the corporation and so on, but it was awe-inspiring to see Undertaker, Big Show and Kane together in the ring. I will always regret not being old enough in the 90s and not having known/experienced two things in the 90s- Wrestling as it unfolded, especially WCW, and Grunge.

As far as WCW PPV events Great American Bash 96 was very good, so was Great American Bash 1989, Starrcade 87, Starrcade 85, Great American Bash 85, Great American Bash 88, Crockett Cup 87.

Can't wait to watch these, being a huge Sting fan and those War Games matches which I've never really seen.

 

[Rocky84]

I liked WCW more back in 1997-1999 and watched it all the time. It's good to see some info in this thread that proves the finger poke and Jay Leno didn't do anything to bring them down as the WWE likes to say (as well as their fans).

The Rodman and Malone storyline was HUGE, as they were rivals in real life in the NBA. They were the two dirtiest players in the league at their position and their teams met in the Finals for the championship. Rodman fit amazingly with the NWO...it was crazy. Malone and DDP were a perfect match too...both tough, but natural good guys. That build up got insane publicity.

In regards to Goldberg and his short matches...yea he wasn't the greatest technical wrestler but that wasn't his game. He did put on good matches though. He wouldn't be there if he couldn't. He's had real good matches with top guys like DDP (my fav match) Bret, Hogan, Sting (another real good one) and Nash.

The statement that he couldn't go for 20+ minutes was the reason he didn't last in WWE is bs. That was his character and WWE knew what they were getting and the fans loved him. He left on his own free will because he didn't like the product as he thought it was too edgy and didn't want to be a part of it. Goldberg was awesome. People I guess don't understand variety and that you need different types of characters...they can't all be the same or wrestle the same style.

WCW had some really good PPV's...a lot of them were too stacked. Halloween Havoc 98 for example was nuts. Also, their undercard and cruiser weights were amazing and I'd watch them over WWF's undercard anyday. I love me some Norman Smiley, Glacier, The Cat, The Meistro, Alex Wright, Finley, Wrath, Jerry Flynn, Ming, Juvi Juice, La Parka, Psychosis, Kidman, Eddie, Rey, Jericho etc etc etc.

WCW rocked...until corporate took over, Bischoff lost control and Russo came and ruined it.

 

[rinehart]

In the short term, the fingerpoke of doom increased business. Rocky 84, WCW did rock. You are 100000% correct.

If you want to test yout abilities to withstand punishment, watch the following: Great American Bash '91 (a dumpster fire), Halloween Havoc '91, Slamboree '93, Battlebowl '93, Starrcade '94, Uncensored '95, Uncensored '96, Slamboree '96 and Souled Out '97.

 

[spaldoni]

I'll certainly watch the 88-94 era of WCW too because I was a big fan of Sting when I first discovered him in 2005 through TNA, and before that, the only product I ever knew was the WWF from the attitude era. I had actually watched a few youtube clips of Sting in a surfer sort of gimmick/attire and now that I look back in retrospect, I imagine a John Cenaesque Sting, albeit taller and much more charismatic, with the face paint, the blonde hair, he was so likeable! I believe he had feuded with Mick Foley around those years, as well as Ric Flair. Can't wait to watch.

Sting had an awesome match with Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) at Beach Blast. Foley says that's one of his top 5 matches of all time. Also check out the first Clash of Champions with Sting taking on Ric Flair for the title. It's the match that made Sting a huge star. You're right about Sting. Magnum T.A. said it best "Sting had so much talent and charisma he didn't know what to do with it"

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Can't wait to watch these, being a huge Sting fan and those War Games matches which I've never really seen.

The PPV to go back and watch from that era was Wrestle War 1992...that War Games match was absolutely insane in the amount of talent (and bloodshed). It was a stacked match: Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes Vs. Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Eaton...not a single slouch in the bunch. Austin and Rhodes in particular looked absolutely decimated by the end of the match.

The undercard was great too: Brian Pillman Vs. Tom Zenk and The Steiner Brothers Vs. Tatsumi Fujinami and Takayuki Iizuka. The Steiners were a sight to see in those days.