JoeDirt

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?

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.

They ate MILLIONS of dollars so Hogan could get a job back? What did Steiner do to Konnan?

I don't. You might try looking through DDT Digest. Do you know what time frame should I look? 1997, 1998... It was right before Fall Brawl 1997.

Nodq.com might have it somewhere...I think I found it on Kazaa, too. What was the deal with Warrior coming in? Was it just because Hogan never beat him? How did he leave so quickly? Was he working on a show to show basis?

With all the bad things we're talking about in this thread...what are everybody's favorite WCW moments? I think I read before that the decision to give DDP the title at Spring Stampede 99 was a last second decision, is that true? Looking back on all the title changes in 99, you really see how it was just last second stuff with no real planning involved... Why didn't the proposed "old vs. young" feud ever really go down in 99?

Don't you mean Fall Brawl? Because isn't that the card where Jericho brings out the Goldberg midget? Or were they going to continue the feud and blow it off at World War 3? Also, they were going to have Sting beat Goldberg for the title on NITRO??? And Sting was facing Hart at Halloween Havoc, so would they have then given the title to Hart? This seems really weird, but I guess it was WCW!

Okay, so the Hogan/Jarrett stuff at BATB was a work, but Russo's comments were more than he was supposed to say so Hogan left? I see, so that's why they had Russo take the belt back. Hogan would have claimed to still be the champ and have been the champ on Thunder? Sting got Luger and Steiner busted...wow. Was there any long term heat about that? Aren't Sting and Luger good friends still today? When was the Nash promo were he ripped on Hogan and what did he say? What PPVs was he kept off of? Why were people like Nash and others allowed to get away with refusing to do jobs? The "fingerpoke of doom"...honestly, what the fuck? If Nash was upset about not getting to be Hogan's equal storyline wise, why book this shit? He also put Hogan over at Road Wild 1999 and went into "retirement", too. What do you think WCW's long term angles would have been if Russo hadn't shown up? Or would they have just kept floundering from month to month with no real direction? (I suppose that's likely) I remember a Nitro in 1999 where the main event was something like Hogan/Goldberg vs. Sid and a mystery partner (Might not be that exactly, but I know Sid had a mystery partner.) Then for the match, Sid's partner was Rick Steiner. The announcers acted all surprised, even when Steiner had been with Sid in his promo earlier in the night. Had someone else originaly been booked for that slot? When Hall turned on Nash at Slamboree 98, why did they not face each other one on one until Halloween Havoc? Or did they on Nitro or something? Was the Jericho/Goldberg "feud" originally meant to happen and then Goldberg backed out? Why was Roddy Piper always in and out of WCW? (At least it seemed that way to me) And why the hell did he get to beat Bret for the US title in Feb. of 99? Were there any WWF or ECW stars who almost signed with WCW but for some reason it never quite worked out? I remember Sabu was announced as having signed with WCW in 99 or so, but then it never happened for some reason. How long were Neidhart and Bulldog with WCW and did they do anything significant when they were there? Sting vs. Goldberg given away on Nitro the night after Fall Brawl 98? Why?

Loss, I could literally ask you questions all night. I never really got into wrestling until March/April 1999, so I missed a lot of WCW during its "prime" and therefore don't know a lot of this stuff. Here are some more questions for you: 1) I believe Sting disappeared after his match with Bret at Havoc 98, right? He was hurt? How did he make his return prior to Stampede 99? 2) When did Sandman sign with WCW and how did he debut? Did they ever do anything interesting with him? How quickly did he leave WCW? 3) When did Bigelow debut and how many televised matches did he have with Goldberg? 4) Was Hogan/Russo at BATB 2000 a shoot? 5) Did Nash ever do the job to Giant that he skipped out on by faking the heart attack before Starrcade 97? 6) When/how did the Wolfpac first form? 7) What was the Boston Brawl? 8) I know most of the time there was a huge separation between the upper card and everybody else...but were there ever any big "upsets" match wise? I know Jericho pinned Scott Hall once. (With a fluke rollup, but still...) Oh, and keep bringing all the other info, this is great shit.

Damn, you simply know too much. Oh, okay, just off the top of my head here are a few random ones: Blitzkrieg Disco Inferno Wrath Chase Tatum Bam Bam Bigelow Oh, and Randy Savage...why did he TWICE job the title to Hogan the night after winning it? And why the hell did they give him the title at Spring Stampede 1998 when he was hurt?

I really think at this time it became apparent that Raw and Nitro had much different viewers, with WCW fans prefering a more athletic product and longer matches. There was really no way Nitro could have overtaken Raw in the ratings because they couldn't pull in that casual fan. Not until Vince Russo, baby!

You know that scummiest wrestling urban legends thread over at the DVDVR boards? Well this is like that, except not about scum, and about WCW instead. (Yeah, it won't get quite as much attention!) Anyways, post stuff here that you think some/many/all of the readers here didn't know. You know, proposed angle ideas that never happened, backstage gossip, all that crap. Or reminisce about some Nitro main event that everyone forgot, or a Thunder angle that nobody remembers today. Stuff like that. Go!

Thanks Loss, that's really interesting stuff. I think I need to start a WCW thread! That stuff about Hogan is ridiculous...I remember Benoit saying in some interview that backstage if he said hi to Hogan, Hogan would just walk by him, not even acknowledging him...

This thread isn't about whether a pay per view actually delivered or not, but how the buildup to that pay per view was. What shows were you most excited about going into, whether you ended up liking the show or not? What were the best hyped shows for the WWF/WWE, WCW, ECW, and anyone else?