WCW facts, tidbits, and stuff people forgot

[Guest Loss]

That tournament has a Rob Van Dam vs. Kevin Nash (Vinnie Vegas) match. Weird.

That match is floating around on low-grade comps all over the Internet, usually on a tape called "Rob Van Dam - The Early Years" or something similar.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Not to mention that they were planning on signing Rob Van Dam at one point, and if his early time in WWE was any indication, he would have been the star they needed to really ignite things.

Is it true they also had Don Callis on the same sort of agreement (be it handshake or whatever) around the same sort of time?

 

 

Also...

 

1) They brought in E.Z Money towards the end of the company's run to boost the Cruiser Division and they had Daniels, Styles and Modest. Where there any other former ECW/present indiy stars they had eyes on?

 

2) What was the story behind Arachnaman and was there ever any legal action over it's striking similarities to Spiderman?

 

3) Super Invader? What was that about?

 

4) As the flipside from a question earlier, were there any interesting WWF stars that the WCW nearly signed or had eyes on at any point.

 

5) From watching the Classics show here in the U.K, they recently showed the 'Nintendo Top Ten Challenge'. One of the first matches was Rude vs. Taylor which was heel vs. heel, although Taylor played face. Did the Challenge actually go anywhere or accomplish anything, or was it just an attempt to create interest in WorldWide for a while?

 

6) The Junkyard Battle Royal wasn't supposed to be that bad, was it?

 

Cheers in advance. This baby needs to get pinned.

[Guest Loss]

Is it true they also had Don Callis on the same sort of agreement (be it handshake or whatever) around the same sort of time?

Yes it is.

 

1) They brought in E.Z Money towards the end of the company's run to boost the Cruiser Division and they had Daniels, Styles and Modest. Where there any other former ECW/present indiy stars they had eyes on?

 

Kid Kash, for sure. Probably more.

 

2) What was the story behind Arachnaman and was there ever any legal action over it's striking similarities to Spiderman?

 

Brad Armstrong was originally called Fantasia and changed his name to Arachnaman. They changed the name to avoid a future lawsuit from Disney. There were never any lawsuits filed over the Arachnaman name.

 

3) Super Invader? What was that about?

 

He was better known as Hercules in the WWF.

 

4) As the flipside from a question earlier, were there any interesting WWF stars that the WCW nearly signed or had eyes on at any point.

 

HHH. Shawn Michaels. Jim Ross tried to get a job with WCW several times and Bischoff wouldn't take him back.

 

5) From watching the Classics show here in the U.K, they recently showed the 'Nintendo Top Ten Challenge'. One of the first matches was Rude vs. Taylor which was heel vs. heel, although Taylor played face. Did the Challenge actually go anywhere or accomplish anything, or was it just an attempt to create interest in WorldWide for a while?

 

It was just an attempt to boost syndicated ratings. It never went anywhere over the long haul.

 

6) The Junkyard Battle Royal wasn't supposed to be that bad, was it?

 

No. They lost a ton of money, had guys injured and the fans could barely see the match because the lighting was so poor. Total disaster.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Cheers Loss.

 

Brad Armstrong was also Badstreet, right?

[Guest Loss]

Cheers Loss.

 

Brad Armstrong was also Badstreet, right?

Yes. Cheers to you as well, I forgot about that one.

 

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

He was also Arachnaman.

[Guest Loss]

All of Brad Armstrong's wrestling personalities have been in movies with Kevin Bacon.

[strummer 0]

Loss, when did JR try to get back with WCW, between his firings in WWF, or was it during the Attitude Era?

[Guest OSIcon]

They brought in E.Z Money towards the end of the company's run to boost the Cruiser Division and they had Daniels, Styles and Modest. Where there any other former ECW/present indiy stars they had eyes on?

 

Christian York and Joey Matthews were set to be part of the Cruiserweight Tag Team Title tournament. The WWF swooped in though and signed them to developmental contracts (which they were released from not too long after when the WWF dropped Memphis as a developmental territory).

 

AJ Styles was of course used along with Air Paris as the team of "Air Raid" for the cruiserweight tag team division. They were seemingly going to stick around for the long haul since they had new entrance gear (flight suits) on their last apperance on Thunder.

 

Wildside was an unofficial developmental territory for WCW so they had their eyes on some guys down now. Obviously, that is how they picked up Styles and Air Paris.

 

RVD was already mentioned.

 

Johnny Swinger worked a couple of shows after ECW went down. He worked the Cruiserweight tag team tournament teaming with Jason Lee and had at least one singles match after that. A funny story is the way WCW handled Swinger's return on commentary. Swinger had been a Saturday night, low level cruiserweight for WCW around 1998-1999. Schiavone explained during Swinger and Lee's first round loss to Kidman/Mysterio that the fans "might remember Johnny Swinger from WCW a few years back" and that Swinger was "a rebel who wouldn't conform" (or something like that) which is why Swinger left in the first place. In fairness, Tony was trying to put him over in a weird way and provide some continuity for the fans who remembered Swinger, but the explanation was odd and pretty funny.

 

Kid Kash worked the final Thunder against Jason Jett (EZ Money), doing (and blowing) a whole bunch of hurricanrana variations.

 

EZ Money (Jason Jett) seemed to be used in more of a middle weight role. It may have just been a coincidence, but he beat Alan Funk, Disco, and Alex Wright who were all more along the lines of small heavyweights rather than cruserweights. With the Sanders/Disco team that started at the end of WCW's run, it always appeared to me that they were heading towards a subsection of smaller midcarders with guys like Jett, Disco, Alex Wright, Alan Funk, Mike Sanders, ect. At the very lease, a Wright/Jett vs. Disco/Sanders match seemed likely for the April PPV.

[Guest Loss]

Loss, when did JR try to get back with WCW, between his firings in WWF, or was it during the Attitude Era?

During his employment with the WWF, between his firings and as late as the NWO era. He apparently called Bischoff on a regular basis asking if he could have a job there and was told no quite often.

[Guest jm29195]

This is from a Steve Corino interview, late 2001-

 

 

ALLEN: After ECW ended, you were reported to have been backstage at a Nitro, saying hello to Dusty Rhodes…

CORINO: Uh huh… I was the only one that knew Dusty was gonna be there… ALLEN: Yeah? The story at the time was that you were obviously looking for a job. Did you speak to Bischoff about getting a job?

CORINO: Uh huh, yeah, of course

ALLEN: And what did he say to you? Sorry?

CORINO: No, not at all. “Show me your release”

ALLEN: And you didn’t have the release?

CORINO: No I had it.

ALLEN: So you made the decision not to go to WCW?

CORINO: No, we had a plan, and unfortunately the company was sold. At the PPV with Dusty & Dustin against Jarrett & Flair was my opportunity. We’d known probably the Tuesday before that something was going down, so there’s no use in introducing somebody. For me, it would look like I jumped on two companies that went down.

ALLEN: Ok. You said you talked to Bischoff. Did you ever have talks, either formal or informal with the WWF at the same time?

CORINO: No.

ALLEN: Any reason why?

CORINO: Because Dusty was advising me on what to do, and I was listening to Dusty.

 

So it looks like they maybe wanted Corino in at least an upper-midcard position in the new wcw.....

[Guest MikeSC]

I am still stunned that Jett never really got a shot with the WWE, as he managed to get himself over nicely in WCW (I remember him and Funk taking an apathetic crowd at Greed and getting quite a reaction).

 

Does anybody know why, for the last few months, WCW had all of the guys cutting promos while not looking at the camera?

-=Mike

...Also, why did they give Stan Hansen the US Title?

[Just John 0]

How was the "Goldberg won't follow the script" angle in 2000 ever resolved?

[Guest MikeSC]

How was the "Goldberg won't follow the script" angle in 2000 ever resolved?

It wasn't. They just stopped the horrible "shoot" interviews and GB became a total face.

-=Mike

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Hansen got the US belt because WCW had a working relationship, of sorts, with All Japan. They also used Danny Spivey as well, and the year before Sting had wrestled Spivey in Japan. I guess Baba felt it would do good for Hansen to have a short reign with a major US Title, so I would presume it was arranged for that purpose.

 

And I don't think the Goldberg angle with him not following the script was ever really resolved. I think it got dropped when Russo stayed home.

[Guest MikeSC]

Hansen got the US belt because WCW had a working relationship, of sorts, with All Japan. They also used Danny Spivey as well, and the year before Sting had wrestled Spivey in Japan. I guess Baba felt it would do good for Hansen to have a short reign with a major US Title, so I would presume it was arranged for that purpose.

 

And I don't think the Goldberg angle with him not following the script was ever really resolved. I think it got dropped when Russo stayed home.

I always felt that when they stopped the horrible shoot interviews (gee, having GB state he doesn't want to be a heel ON ONE OF YOUR MAIN SHOWS might hurt the angle) is when it stopped. It definitely ended after New Blood Rising, when the "concern" of a "shoot" in the match stopped.

-=Mike

...Have there ever been WORSE worked shoots than WCW in 2000?

[Guest OSIcon]

The Goldberg angle was kind of resolved. He "walked away from the powerbomb" at New Blood Rising. They continued the "breaking script" stuff for a little while then dropped it, but kept the Russo/Goldberg feud going. The whole point behind the Russo-Goldberg feud was that Goldberg didn't cooperate with Russo, so that was the basis of their feud the whole time even if they down played the "breaking the script" thing a few weeks after New Blood Rising. Russo told Goldberg he had to redo his 174-0 streak again or else he was fired. Even after Russo left, that angle continued until Goldberg lost at Sin to Bagwell and Luger in a tag match with Sgt. Parker and had to "retire".

 

Does anybody know why, for the last few months, WCW had all of the guys cutting promos while not looking at the camera?

 

I think the idea behind it was to make it seem like they were talking to a reporter or something. Most sports interviews aren't done with the guy looking directly into the camera, so I think they were going for that look.

[deancoles 0]

Here's one, who was responsible for the initial push of Alex Wright? I'm guessing it was Flair because just over a year later when Flair was off the booking team he was in a short lived team with Joe Gomez and The Renegade(complete with promo video) and was jobbing every week.

 

Can anyone remember Lex Luger missing a title match against the Giant and the next week making sure of his title shot by camping out the night before? It was sometime in May 96.

 

Did anyone else enjoy the Flair/Savage feud in 96? Flair having a banquet table at Nitro's was great.

[cmpunk04 0]

What happened during Giant Haystacks WCW run as Loch Ness? I remember him trying to get at Hogan at Superbrawl 96 I think but not much after that.

[Guest Pariah]

Didn't Wright do really well in one of the J-Cups, like 95 or 96? That could be a reason, albeit an outside one, as to why WCW pushed him

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Here's one, who was responsible for the initial push of Alex Wright? I'm guessing it was Flair because just over a year later when Flair was off the booking team he was in a short lived team with Joe Gomez and The Renegade(complete with promo video) and was jobbing every week.

 

Can anyone remember Lex Luger missing a title match against the Giant and the next week making sure of his title shot by camping out the night before? It was sometime in May 96.

Flair was behind the push of Wright. At one point, Wright was undefeated, and Flair beat him at a WCWSN taping. However, Flair felt so bad over it, that he had the match retaped the next day with a different finish.

 

I remember the Luger missing his title shots angle. It was horrible. It makes the title look like crap if the top contender is can't be bothered to make it to the arena for his shot.

 

What happened during Giant Haystacks WCW run as Loch Ness? I remember him trying to get at Hogan at Superbrawl 96 I think but not much after that.

 

He lost to The Giant at Uncensored in March in about 2 minutes. He was meant to be the next monster heel for Hogan to squash, but he was absolutely horrible, to the point that he was probably the worst wrestler ever, that all plans were shelved.

 

Didn't Wright do really well in one of the J-Cups, like 95 or 96? That could be a reason, albeit an outside one, as to why WCW pushed him

 

He was actually in the Top Of The Super Junior tournament of 1995. They are commonly mixed up with Super J Cups. He got a couple of wins.

[Guest Mad the Swine]

Here's one, who was responsible for the initial push of Alex Wright? I'm guessing it was Flair because just over a year later when Flair was off the booking team he was in a short lived team with Joe Gomez and The Renegade(complete with promo video) and was jobbing every week.

Flair was behind the push of Wright. At one point, Wright was undefeated, and Flair beat him at a WCWSN taping. However, Flair felt so bad over it, that he had the match retaped the next day with a different finish.

Wright's first loss was to Arn Anderson at Slamboree 1995. Double A was the reigning TV champion.

 

Flair defeated him by DQ in the US title tournament in May. That was their first meeting. The DQ was for Savage interfering. At Slamboree, Flair had put Angelo Poffo in the figure four.

 

I don't think another finish ever existed for that match.

 

Saturday Night was usually taped on a Tuesday back then and usually on a weekly basis. I don't recall any back-to-back tapings of it at that point (there's a lot of old SN taping results on RSPW).

 

Flair's booking stint ended in July 1995. He was replaced by Kevin Sullivan.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Here's one, who was responsible for the initial push of Alex Wright? I'm guessing it was Flair because just over a year later when Flair was off the booking team he was in a short lived team with Joe Gomez and The Renegade(complete with promo video) and was jobbing every week.

Flair was behind the push of Wright. At one point, Wright was undefeated, and Flair beat him at a WCWSN taping. However, Flair felt so bad over it, that he had the match retaped the next day with a different finish.

Wright's first loss was to Arn Anderson at Slamboree 1995. Double A was the reigning TV champion.

 

Flair defeated him by DQ in the US title tournament in May. That was their first meeting. The DQ was for Savage interfering. At Slamboree, Flair had put Angelo Poffo in the figure four.

 

I don't think another finish ever existed for that match.

 

Saturday Night was usually taped on a Tuesday back then and usually on a weekly basis. I don't recall any back-to-back tapings of it at that point (there's a lot of old SN taping results on RSPW).

 

Flair's booking stint ended in July 1995. He was replaced by Kevin Sullivan.

In a US Title tournament match that will never air, Flair beat Wright in a *** match. Wright came in with a big brace on his knee and Flair used the figure four, but Wright didn't submit and instead "passed out from the pain" and the referee stopped it. Flair felt so guilty about ending Wright's losing streak that he decided to re-tape the match the next night with a different finish.

 

From the Observer cover dated May 22nd 1995.

 

And the WCWSN tapings in question took place on May 10th and 11th of that year.

[The Mandarin 0]

So what was the new finish?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

So what was the new finish?

According the results listed in the Observer, Flair won by DQ, which I presume was due to a Randy Savage run-in, as the next competitive match taped was Flair v Savage, which aired 'the next week'.

[Guest Pariah]

Flair and Savage then went to a no contest in the Semis, which gave Sting the title by default after he beat Meng (?) in his Semi Final match

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Asya just showed up as one of Flair's sidekicks one day after he got out of the mental hospital, I think. They only named her Asya so they could say she was "bigger than Chyna".

IIRC, Asya was the "nurse" when Flair was in the mental hospital. Flair broke out of the hospital (I think) w/ some of his fellow patients, and Asya came along with them. How she transitioned from that role to a member of the roster, I forget, but I do remember her being the nurse in the hospital.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Scot Hall drove the bus when Flair and co broke out of there.

[Guest Pariah]

The Hospital thing was weird, Flair was in it for one week, he was then back the next re-instated as WCW President and the incident wasn't mentioned by any of the commentators. Then they showed another backstage clip of Flair from the hospital, but no one commented on it.

 

Unless my memory is playing tricks on me

[Guest OSIcon]

IIRC, Asya was the "nurse" when Flair was in the mental hospital. Flair broke out of the hospital (I think) w/ some of his fellow patients, and Asya came along with them. How she transitioned from that role to a member of the roster, I forget, but I do remember her being the nurse in the hospital.

 

The thing is, she really didn't have any reason behind becoming a member of the roster. It just "happened." She went from being Flair's nurse to disappearing for a brief time and then re-emerging as the valet for Revolution.

 

  The Hospital thing was weird, Flair was in it for one week, he was then back the next re-instated as WCW President and the incident wasn't mentioned by any of the commentators. Then they showed another backstage clip of Flair from the hospital, but no one commented on it.

 

Unless my memory is playing tricks on me

 

Naw...that is pretty much what happened. There were a lot of surreal moments like that in 1999 WCW.

 

The Torrie Wilson seducing David Flair thing for instance. All wrestling fans these days take it in stride when we are asked to not think why wrestlers are talking about certain things when a camera is filming them. The camera is just always there capturing the action and either the wrestlers know and don't care or we are supposed to simply believe that they don't know the camera is there. Either way, that is fine. However, in the initial Torrie and David skits, Torrie was talking to David, but was talking right at the camera. We saw all the action through the first person view of David (the camera). That crosses another line of disbelief. His David taping this himself (which wouldn't make sense)? How come we are seeing everything from *his* view? It didn't make any sense.

 

The NWO beatdown of Flair in the woods around that same time was also really surreal. I don't think the announcers talked about that incident either (though they might have).