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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2022 4:48:16 GMT -5
WCW WrestleWar ‘92 aired on PPV 30 years ago today! (Sadly, I cannot find a high-quality PPV poster image; crappy Google images) This is one of my favourite WCW PPVs ever. As we all know, the War Games match featured Sting’s Squadron VS The Dangerous Alliance. While many War Games deserve praise, this one should get more credit. I would say it’s the last great War Games match that WCW put on, what came after ranged from okay to mediocre. I love the undercard on this PPV. It was rare to see babyface vs babyface matches back in the day, but Tom Zenk and Brian Pillman wrestled for the Light Heavyweight Championship. It’s frustrating to think that 7+ years later, Russo was tainting the Cruiserweight Championship. The PPV featured two excellent tag matches: The Steiner Brothers VS Takayuki Iizuka & Tatsumi Fujinami, and the Freebirds VS Greg Valentine & Terry Taylor for the United States Tag Team Championship. Shame the U.S. Tag Team Championship was discontinued in July 1992. I should revisit this one. It was a lot better than WrestleMania VIII, the other big Spring PPV.
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Post by commond on May 17, 2022 6:12:52 GMT -5
War Games ‘92 is arguably the best War Games, though many prefer the original. There are parts of ‘91 that are really good. I think ‘94 is underrated. I really liked the Dustin Rhodes vs. Stud Stable feud. If you ever get a chance, you should watch the promo where Dustin and his father reunite. It’s spine tingling stuff. The only problem with ‘94 is there was no blood.
What’s wrong with Wrestlemania VIII? Savage vs. Flair and Bret vs. PIper were well received bouts.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2022 6:23:43 GMT -5
Oh, WM VIII has a lot going for it, but in comparison with WrestleWar ‘92, I know which is my favourite.
The ‘94 War Games is underrated. Felt peculiar as a main event at the time, given WCW was building everything around Hogan/Flair, yet neither appeared at Fall Brawl ‘94. (I saw that Dustin/Dusty promo, too)
I thought ‘93 War Games was one of the weakest.
Returning to WM VIII, I think what disappointed me slightly was how much the advertised card changed. Still not sure why Hogan and Flair didn’t wrestle (no argument against it has ever convinced me). They advertised an LOD/Natural Disasters street fight, but that didn’t happen. And I’m not sure I buy the explanation that Bulldog VS Berzerker didn’t happen due to ‘time constraints’. The card we got was good, but a lot changed. I did prefer WM VII.
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Post by commond on May 17, 2022 6:45:49 GMT -5
Hogan was leaving the company due to the steroid scandals, and there was no way they were putting Flair over Hogan on his way out. I seem to remember Vince also being disappointed by how Hogan and Flair drew on the house shows. IIRC, they were a stronger draw in WCW. Flair vs. Hogan was a better dynamic in WCW because the WCW fans cared about Flair more.
I’m pretty sure Hawk failed a drug test, which led to a suspension and LOD being on the outer.
Vince originally wanted to scrap Owen/Skinner but Davey Boy refused to work a short match. Skinner, on the contrary, had no problem lying down for a Wrestlemania pay day.
I am pretty sure the plans for Wrestlemania VII changed multiple times. The original plan was Ultimate Warrior vs. Hogan II from memory. The low ticket sales and the switch to the smaller venue were surprising at the time. It was a sign that wrestling was on the decline and the WWF’s popularity was fading.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2022 6:59:16 GMT -5
Hogan VS Flair certainly seemed to mean more at Bash at the Beach ‘94. In retrospect, maybe it’s good it didn’t get a PPV until then. Bless Skinner. I had a program at the time which stated Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Sgt. Slaughter were gonna challenge Money Inc. for the tag team championship. I’d have loved to have seen that. By the way, I thought I had ended up in an alternate universe once. In 2002, I read Hogan’s autobiography, where he mentioned being at Wembley Stadium in 1992. As we all know, Hogan wasn’t at SummerSlam ‘92. I don’t know why he has to embellish/make things up.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2022 8:03:29 GMT -5
WCW Slamboree '97 aired on PPV 25 years ago today, featuring a main event of Ric Flair, Roddy Piper and Kevin Greene VS The nWo (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Syxx). I can’t find a good-quality PPV poster to share here.
I remember being irked at the time that this was the second consecutive PPV where Hogan - still being paid big bucks - didn’t appear. Still, the main event was a solid one.
I did enjoy the undercard match between Lord Steven Regal and Ultimo Dragon, for the Television Championship.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 18, 2022 15:47:25 GMT -5
WCW Slamboree '97 aired on PPV 25 years ago today, featuring a main event of Ric Flair, Roddy Piper and Kevin Greene VS The nWo (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Syxx). I can’t find a good-quality PPV poster to share here. I remember being irked at the time that this was the second consecutive PPV where Hogan - still being paid big bucks - didn’t appear. Still, the main event was a solid one. I did enjoy the undercard match between Lord Steven Regal and Ultimo Dragon, for the Television Championship. For me, that was a selling point! Hogan got lazy, in WCW, as well as he was splitting time, with other, terrible projects (that tv series and similar drek). Him not being there was a plus, for me, as Hall and Nash were the heart of the NWO and Hall and Waltman could do the working, for the group. Piper still had some gas in the tank and Flair was a machine, who was treated like garbage, by Bischoff. Greene did okay and was way better than Mongo McMichael, in the ring.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2022 16:21:50 GMT -5
I suppose it irked me because I was a paying customer (like anyone), so at least show up. He wasn’t at the next PPV, either. Didn’t return to PPV until Bash at the Beach ‘97.
Also irked me that he’d be absent yet come back for a big match. I guess the 30-day rule completely went out of the window during Hogan’s era.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2022 6:43:14 GMT -5
From The Sportster: Full article: www.thesportster.com/drew-mcintyre-wants-to-bring-back-the-european-championshipGotta be honest, when the European Championship was introduced, after the novelty had worn off, I didn’t see the point. Yes, the tournament took place in Germany, and was won by Davey Boy Smith, so you can’t get more European than that. But when only two European wrestlers held it, and the majority of matches took place on U.S. soil, what’s European about that? Whatever next, would we have seen Vader battling Golga for the Light Heavyweight Championship? A European Championship should, in my view, have been held only on European soil - and should only have been open to European wrestlers. Only 3 title changes, if I remember correctly, took place within Europe. At the time, WWF Magazine ran a column by someone called “The Informer”, a supposed insider (was it Meltzer, LOL?). “The Informer” reported on how the WWF was considering belts representing other continents. How redundant would that have been?
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Post by codystarbuck on May 19, 2022 22:02:14 GMT -5
From The Sportster: Full article: www.thesportster.com/drew-mcintyre-wants-to-bring-back-the-european-championshipGotta be honest, when the European Championship was introduced, after the novelty had worn off, I didn’t see the point. Yes, the tournament took place in Germany, and was won by Davey Boy Smith, so you can’t get more European than that. But when only two European wrestlers held it, and the majority of matches took place on U.S. soil, what’s European about that? Whatever next, would we have seen Vader battling Golga for the Light Heavyweight Championship? A European Championship should, in my view, have been held only on European soil - and should only have been open to European wrestlers. Only 3 title changes, if I remember correctly, took place within Europe. At the time, WWF Magazine ran a column by someone called “The Informer”, a supposed insider (was it Meltzer, LOL?). “The Informer” reported on how the WWF was considering belts representing other continents. How redundant would that have been? The title was created to put a title on Davey, for touring the UK; then, it became an afterthought. Once Davey was out of the picture, it lost its purpose and just got traded around to people for no good reason. Had they toured Europe regularly, then the title would have made more sense and should have been a central feature for each tour; but, those tours weren't that frequent and when business picked back up in the US, the foreign tours were scaled back. To me, it kind of symbolizes the short-term thinking that has dogged wrestling since the mid-90s. First, booking became centered around the PPV cycle; but, once they became monthly, there were few long term plans of any kind. Then, with Nitro in opposition, it became booking on a weekly basis. Storytelling would be far better if they had a longer story that plays out through the year (a season arc, if you like), while shorter programs run quarterly. Everything done should carry the story along to those conclusions. That is especially necessary for the titles. the World title should be the year long focus, or else something of similar stature (like the Undertaker's final year, or something similar), and the secondary titles contested quarterly to give them more value. Creating a new title needs to have a long term justification; otherwise, you might as well just make it a tournament championship only and just run the tournament annually (like King of the Ring or the G-1 Climax, in New Japan). If you create a European championship, then it needs to be contested on European tours and it needs to feature more than just the American crew. Really, it would be a great way to develop a European franchise (like NXT UK) to mix some American stars with homegrown talent to highlight the local favorites and boost the draw of the card, with tv stars. Getting it up and running would take more involvement from established stars; but, if you are creating new stars and letting them grow, it could become self-sustaining, to where they could be on their own circuit and then sprinkle in special guest stars, from America; then, maybe, a couple of mega-cards, say once a quarter; or, at least twice a year.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2022 4:34:43 GMT -5
Couldn’t agree more. At the time, what interest did I have in seeing the likes of RVD, Test and Hunter Hearst-Helmsley battling for the European Championship on American soil? I hope I don’t sound xenophobic when I say I wanted it to be a European-soil title. I’m not saying American wrestlers shouldn’t have held it, or contested for it, but I think every match for that belt should have taken place on European soil.
I was pedantic about the WCW Television Championship. I read once that it was meant to be a TV-only title, but then it did end up on PPV more than once.
You know, titles are a funny thing to discuss. I remember, around 1997/98, when PWI was debating whether to award world title status to the ECW Heavyweight Championship. At least that belt seemed to be being defended regularly, unlike the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, which certainly didn’t adhere to the 30-day rule.
Today, I don’t feel WWE has a tag team roster depth deep enough to warrant two sets of tag team titles. Yes there’s a reunification match coming up, but I bet there’ll be a split again at some point.
And is there anything more unwieldy-sounding than the ‘ WCW International World Heavyweight Championship’? International and world in the same sentence is redundant. I understand the reasons behind the title, but it never sounded right.
If anyone has any thoughts, of any kind, on any title (past or present), I’d love to hear them.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 20, 2022 6:38:29 GMT -5
It's a funny thing title belt names... I've always just pictured in my brain there were levels... to me, the name didn't matter. FOr instances, the World champion is the top belt, the intercontential/US was the secondary belt, and the European/TV title was the third level. I always assumed the names didn't mean anything, because while sometimes they STARTED have something special, it never sticks.
Like AEW right now, the two womens belts feel equal. There's a whole mess of titles there rn, where they're brought the RoH titles into play as well as their own, then they also have the AAA titles on display now and then. WWE has the goofily named 'Universal Title'... why they don't just have a 'world' title, then a Raw title and a smackdown title, I don't understand.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2022 7:12:55 GMT -5
Having read your post, I agree.
In 2002, I thought it was weird to have both the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship. There was even a backstage segment where WWE Champion JBL and World Heavyweight Champion Triple H bickered. When Triple H talked about being the ‘world champion’, JBL replied, “In case you hadn’t noticed, WWE is the world.”
So, Universal makes no sense when it’s not really Universal. Just call them Raw Heavyweight Champion and SmackDown Heavyweight Champion. Just my view.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 20, 2022 7:23:10 GMT -5
WAY back when they did the brand split, I thought they should treat each show like its own territory... RAW, Smackdown and now NXT could all have their own belts, and a 'World' (or 'Universal' if you must) that 'Toured' the shows above them. Makes so much sense they never did it. Not sure they'd need 3 belts each for the women or the tag titles, but they could decide that.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2022 10:56:42 GMT -5
I like Roman Reign’s long reign. Wonder if he’ll beat Hogan’s 1984-88 tenure!
It’s hard to know what’s true on wrestling news sites as there are a lot of bullshit merchants (and copy and paste websites, probably ripping off Meltzer). Suffice to say, some reports suggest Reigns will be holding the belt for some time to come, including - look away now if you don’t want spoilers - defences against Riddle, Randy Orton, and Drew McIntyre.
Personally, I’d have Reigns lose the belt at next year’s WrestleMania - to Drew McIntyre. This would give McIntyre the “WM moment” he didn’t get in 2020 due to the pandemic/lack of crowds. That’s how I’d do it.
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