Hunter's Torn Quad

The backstory to this started in early November, with the word in the locker room being that Hogan was unhappy with Eric Bischoff supporting Kevin Nash and that he was going to take one of his hiatuses, which Hogan always did when he thought business was going to suffer; that way, he wouldn't get damaged by being on top when things tanked, and because his big return would bump the ratings, he could make it look like WCW needed him and he'd get even more power to return. Kevin Nash was made booker in early November, and Hogan promptly walked, subsequently announcing his retirement on The Tonight Show. The locker room rejoiced because Hogan was gone, and everyone rallied behind Nash because they saw him as finally getting rid of Hogan. Nash then ended Goldberg's streak at Starrcade, and eight days later we got the Fingerpoke of Doom. The whole story of Hogan being unhappy with Bischoff was a work on the locker room. To settle things between Nash and Hogan, as there was tension, it was agreed that Nash would be made booker and get to end Golderg's streak, and in return Nash agreed not to threaten Hogan's spot as the top name in WCW. A pretty accurate article is on Wikipedia: Fingerpoke of Doom

While I have to say it was some good stuff on TV, this guy was OVER. Would it be safe to say he was the most over guy in all of wrestling in 1997? I'd say so. Austin had yet to hit his peak, and Bret, Shawn, etc were just below Sting. I think in the end, is it safe to say that THIS is WCW's biggest mistake ever? Forget the fingerpoke, if this Sting push went as is, we could be talking about Sting in the same light as Rock and Austin of the attitude era? I don't think we'd be comparing Sting to Austin and Rock, because after the Hogan match, even if it had gone to plan, there was nowhere else for the Sting character to go without taking away the aura that had been built for the previous fifteen months. Everything that got Sting over was about building towards that one match. Once the match was over, and maybe even before it had started, the aura would have been gone too. Also, another question, was he doing house shows or anything to keep in shape or did he really collect like 15 months worth of pay between war games 96 and starrcade 97 while doing absolutely NOTHING? What you saw Sting do on TV was just about all he did between War Games in 1996 and Starrcade in 1997. As I recall, Sting's contract called for a maximum number of dates, and he was fast approaching that number, and the whole idea was originally a way to avoid reaching that limit and having to agree on a new deal. Sting did some major house shows in that fifteen month period, but there were very few of them.

MMAJunkie have confirmed the story.

Whether he works in the role or not, it might be an idea to give Afa Jr. a wardrobe that doesn't make him look like an Indy version of Umaga.

WIA History of the WCW Six-Man tag tam titles They were around for around nine months. The six-man belts were very minor and never meant anything, so no real thought was put into them. The last trio to hold them were the York Foundation (a criminally underrated stable), and the belts were vacated when the Foundation broke up. It was for the better, as WCW had the World, US, World tag, US tag, TV and Light Heavyweight titles already; another one was overkill.

F4W F4W

That made Punk seem even more of an afterthought. The World champion of the brand gets laid out, and we see nothing more of him the rest of the night. After Adamle said Punk might not be able to make it, did they even give an update on Punk's condition?

I think WCW, Jim Herd specifically, were so frustrated with how the contract negotiations were going, that they didn't care anymore.

I'm not necessarily against HHH retaining his title, but if that was the plan all along, did they really have to make MVP, Shelton Benjamin and TBK look like geeks on Smackdown and again during the Scramble? At no point in the build up to the match or during the match itself were any of them made to look like any kind of threat to HHH or that they should be taken seriously. Jeff Hardy got off kind of lightly. As for Punk, he did come across as weak by not coming out for the main event. Jericho took a far more severe beating, but he was able to come out. I think Punk may have been the first babyface champion to get laid out before his match, the main event on the PPV no less, and not get to make the heroic comeback to either win against the odds or be screwed by the heel.

That would be Mike Bell in THIS match: http://www.wrestlinggonewrong.com/video/sa...bell_match.html Different match. I forget the guys name, but as evilhomer said, he wanted to get in offense during the match but and Saturn had other ideas.

Flair was going to drop the belt to Luger at the Bash. During the contract problems between Flair and Jim Herd, the plan was changed to Flair dropping the belt to Windham at a TV taping in Macon, GA, and then Windham would lose the title to Luger at the Bash. I think the Windham idea was put in place when WCW felt it was better to not even have the Flair vs. Luger match and to try and hasten Flair's departure.

If HHH isn't losing the title tonight, then how he treated MVP, Benjamin and TBK on Smackdown was pointless and made all three look like geeks. The way HHH was so cocksure on Smackdown seems to be setting up for him getting screwed out of the belt, possibly thanks to Khali.

Given the thought that went into booking Unforgiven, it's clear that WWE considers it throwaway.

PG-13. I kept expecting them to be picked up some point, but they never did. Not even in the scramble round.

Correct on both counts. The Race win over Flair is on a Flair compilation entitled Ric Flair: Legend. It's available from the usual places.

There's a tag team that didn't get drafted that I was surprised to see left out, especially considering some of the promotional styles portrayed by some people.

It's happening as the semi-main to Nogueira vs. Mir. Dana White announced at the post-show press conference that Evans gets the first crack at Griffin.

What more can you say? A highlight reel KO that nobody, especially Chuck, saw coming. Wow.

Holy Shit!!!

I hope Rashad doesn't look as out of his league as Hamil did. I don't think he'll win, but I at least hope he puts in a good showing.

They're not the best matches in the world, but perfectly acceptable fare.

Franklin is totally outclassing Hamil. Hamil deserves credit for hanging in there, but he's way out of his league and it shows.

Hamil looked totally unwilling to press the action, and it's costing him. Franklin is more aggressive, has better striking, and looks on course to knock Hamil out or win by TKO. I don't see this going the distance.

An uninspiring third round, but Henderson should have done enough to get the decision win.