JoeDirt

Vampiro was going to throw Demon into that pit, and Demon would come out as an angel of some type. Wow. Yeah. When did Steve McMichael leave WCW? I seem to remember Benoit/McMichael in the tag team title tournament by Malenko replaced him...or was it Benoit/Malenko all along? How did Shane Douglas debut in WCW when he came in 1999? Anyone else remember a story where WCW wanted to get a title off a guy who refused to job, so they taped a match where there was supposed to be a Dusty finish, and then ended up showing it on TV and cutting off the end of the match so it looked like he really lost the title?

Yeah, Raven is always good at making psychologically intriguing characters. Sounds like interesting stuff...didn't Raven leave WCW shortly after that and go back to ECW for a bit before joining the WWF again? Does anyone else remember a planned angle for New Year's Eve 1999 where Vampiro would cast somebody into a pit of fire at midnight or something crazy like that? Another weird angle I swear I read about online at the time that never happened as Russo and Ferrara came in later and switched everything up.

So Nash was going to challenge them to fight, they wouldn't accept, and then that would make the WWF look bad? That was the idea? That fake plane crash thing is crazy. Does anyone else remember a planned angle (can't remember if it was WCW of WWF) where they'd "blow up" a casino in Las Vegas as part of a storyline? I swear I remember reading that sometime during 1999. It was either going to be an angle with a new character who was a "terrorist" or would involve Steve Austin being involved, I can't remember, it's really vague.

WOW. Who? I have a question for you, also. How was Nash going to do the angle he wanted to do in early 1999 involving Steve Austin and Ken Shamrock? Do you know what I'm talking about? Nash/Austin/Shamrock? WTF?

??? Seriously? Any more to it than this? Wow.

I was watching Starrcade 91 the other night, which was a battle bowl show. The battle royal itself sucked, but a lot of the tag matches were fun. Sting/Abdullah vs. Pillman/Eaton, Cactus Jack/Buddy Lee Parker vs. Steamboat/Todd Champion, Steve Austin/Rick Rude vs. Van Hammer/Big Josh, Bill Kazmaier/Jushin Liger vs. DDP/Mike Graham...weird matchups, but pretty fun matches.

Bischoff was a wife swapper? Do you remember anything else that was revealed? This stuff should have been in the DVDVR scum thread!

What was the story with Bischoff and Nash and others getting in trouble for stuff that happened at strip clubs? I think sports players were involved too? What was the deal with the Steiner/Steiner feud and Bagwell faking a bunch of neck injuries? Why did they keep putting off the Steiner/Steiner match?

So the "trust fund" angle was that Raven's parents left him money or something?

Oh, what was the deal with Rick Steiner picking Kenny Kaos as his new tag team partner after Havoc 98? Looking back that just seems kind of out of left field. Thanks for the answers as always...

I agree, this is fantastic. I hope more cool stuff is revealed in the Death of WCW book.

HTQ, I'm shocked at how good Nidia looks in your sig there. Well over 100 posts in not a very long time. This is awesome. Did Scotty Riggs originally do a pirate gimmick? When did he switch to the narcissist gimmick? How long was Mikey Whipwreck with WCW for? Were there any feuds in WCW that had a clear, conclusive blow off? I mean seriously, I can think of Booker/Benoit in their best of 7, but not much else during the nWo era at least. What was WCW's reaction to WWF overtaking them in the Monday night ratings in early 98? Is this what led to Goldberg winning the title on a Nitro and not on a well built up PPV? Did Shawn Michaels almost sign with WCW before his world title run in the WWF? What was the storyline behind Bret Hart screwing Randy Savage out of the title and leading to their match at Slamboree in 1998? Obviously they had to have someone screw over Savage so Hogan could win the title back, but still... Did DDP ever join the Wolfpac? Was Warrior's WCW debut at Fall Brawl, or had he appeared before then? If so, how did he debut?

Was this before he became Mortis? And then he went back to being Kanyon later? What was the deal with Glacier? I mean honesly, who thought THAT was a good idea? And didn't he get a big push? When was James Vandenburg with the company?

???? I'm pretty sure Raven mentioned this in one of his shoots. And the whole deal was dropped because the skits that lead up to it were scrapped at the behest of Big Lazy. This was in early 1999 right? I remember reading something about Raven skits where he's digging through his home and found the Piper pictures or something. So Jake Roberts was going to come in then? That was only months before Heroes of Wrestling! Man, all this stuff is fascinating. What was the reasoning behind turning Sting heel at Fall Brawl 99? Just trying to come up with something different to do while still having Hogan and Sting feud?

Fun fact I discovered while looking at stuff on DDTDigest. In 1999, Nick Dinsmore AKA Eugene wrestled on Saturday Night for WCW. Who was everyone's favorite Saturday Night/Worldwide wrestlers here? I liked the Frog, and was a fan of Lash LeRoux back when he was a Saturday Night jobber. Besides Wrath, did Nash totally take away the heat from anyone else who was up and coming on the roster?

I'm not talking BAD matches, but just plain old BORING matches. The ones that feel like they're two weeks long. Like Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldust at Survivor Series 1995. Literally nothing happens for 12 minutes until Goldust hits his finisher and wins. What's the most boring match you've ever seen?

Hey Loss, since you were a long time WCW fan, what did you think of the whole "powers that be" period for WCW? Obviously they were going down the shitter anyways, so did you think it was an improvement or hate it because of rampant stupidity, shorter matches, etc?

Well I know Hogan left after Spring Stampede because of an injured knee or something, and I think the nWo just faded after that. Hall was gone then, and Nash was soon the babyface champion. I think there was still the black and white b-team, like Vincent and those guys. Not positive though.

They felt the reason ratings were down was because of the look of the show. The new design was crap. Like I said before I REALLY got into wrestling in March/April of 1999, so it was really disappointing to see WCW go downhill in that year. There was so much crap. Master P feuding with the West Texas Rednecks, that douchebag DJ they had, the Nash/Savage feud, David Flair as US champ, Hogan returning to win the title, Goldberg returning in their main event which was a CHAD BROCK CONCERT...man.

No. Well that's good booking.

Yeah, I meant Nash vs. Bret on Leno, my bad. Any details to the Raven/Piper feud that never happened? Thanks for answering these questions, you guys are all awesome.

So you mean there were other great ideas that Meltzer never mentioned?

Yeah, I've always been curious what would have happened if not for all those injuries during Russo's first WCW run. I mean right after they got there Hall, Hart, Jarrett, and right after that Nash got hurt. Oh, and Goldberg too when he punched that glass window on the car. Would have been interesting to see what happened if those injuries hadn't happened. I read on a board elsewhere a post by Ed Ferrara where he says that they had good intentions in their first (and second) WCW run, but that Russo was so intent on bringing the ratings back up quickly that they threw away everything quickly instead of doing things slowly, which he admits was a big mistake. Does anyone else remember that Bret and Nash were supposed to wrestle on Nitro until Owen died? I think it was right after Nash won the title at Slamboree. Anyone else remember Sabu being announced as signed with WCW in 1999 or so? Speaking of the Goldberg/Hart angle in Toronto, what was up with Hart walking out then and saying "Eric Bischoff, I quit"? Can you think of any other major or interesting angles that were proposed but never happened? When did WCW know that Giant/Big Show was leaving for the WWF? Why did Sean Waltman leave his buddies Hall and Nash and go back to the WWF? Who were the different booking teams for WCW and when were they in power?

The plan was for a shutdown to take place after the Greed PPV until that May. They would return with Hulk Hogan as the new commissioner occasionally wrestling, and him and Flair involved in a dual for power on an almost constant basis. They would also return with a new name, don't know what it was going to be, and many new stars. Greed was going to end with the wrestlers all coming out of the dressing room and rioting, tearing down all the WCW banners and declaring the company dead, basically making for total anarchy on PPV, which is always fun. They would then do an angle where TBS and TNT kicked them off the air for a few months, allowing them time to plan feuds for the next 6-12 months, only to fight to get back on. It was a good plan. This sounds crazy. Could have been cool, I'm sure.

The cruiserweight countdown was awesome. At the time, I was simply blown away.