The Hummer Angle

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah the names were Lane and Rave by that point however.

 

That Spring Stampede main event was bizarro world. Hogan was injured mid match by DDP, Macho attacked Flair near the end and dropped the elbow on him (Macho was ref, and this never really led to anything that I recall), the whole thing was truly strange. Not a bad match or anything but just booked by a crackhead.

 

The reason DDP winning was really weird is that you'd think his first title win would be built up a bit more. If I recall DDP hadn't even been on TV leading up to this show (selling an injury from Steiner from Superbrawl I think). Besides, it was his first world title so why the hell would someone book a guy's first title win in a FOUR WAY?

 

Also, DDP's momentum from 98 had seriously stalled by April 1999. If they had put the title on him soon after his good match with Goldberg at Havoc, he might have been better received. But he'd cooled off considerably by the point they put the title on him, and had also done some sort of strange heel turn around the time of this show with little fanfare. In fact, while I said in the original post that to me the Hummer Angle is the main angle that truly sent WCW into the ground for good, there was this one Nitro before it that could stand as a 1 show primer on what killed WCW.

 

To wit: DDP faced Sting for the title in the first hour of Nitro. He jobs straight up in the middle of the ring, Sting wins the title. Everyone was happy, I was happy....and then for whatever reason Flair or whoever was in charge grants DDP a rematch in a convoluted 4 way involving Nash, DDP, Sting, and someone else I can't recall (was it Flair?). DDP protested the whole match by sitting in the crowd, didn't wrestle a lick. Anyway, at some point everyone was fighting and DDP snuck in and got a quick Diamond Cutter on Nash--his only actual move of the match--and regained the title.

 

This show flat out drove me up the wall. I think it was the first time where I felt a flat out feeling of disdain towards WCW, not outright outrage or hate like I did with the Fingerpoke...just a feeling of "That was such bullshit I might not watch this show again."

[Slickster 0]

Why, is that where Nash was run over by the Hummer?  In Fargo?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

DDP lost and re-won the title on a May '99 Nitro in Fargo.

[cabbageboy 0]

Say what you want about WCW but at least they didn't try and prove a point with DDP and keep the title on him for nearly a year, despite him not having any semblance of heat.

 

Sound familiar?

[Placebo Effect 0]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

 

Yes, it was. Once Russo came in, Lodi never appeared again, and Lenny was spotted in the crowd with a "Use Me" sign before getting one match against The Wall. Lenny and The Wall shook hands, said "Buddy system," and then he was never seen again.

 

It's sad that I remember this.

[cabbageboy 0]

Speaking of completely off the wall Russo era booking, I actually had the sick desire to watch New Blood Rising tonight. This was the height of Russo's bizarro "shoot" style WCW booking where the announcers constantly waved the format sheet to the camera to insist "This isn't on here, it's real!" There was a goofy Ms. Hancock/Major Gunns mud wrestling match where poor Stacy had a "miscarriage" and they sold it as something real. And of course there was the truly insane Nash/Goldberg/Steiner match where they talked in terms of each man going against the scripted booking of the match! I shit you not:

 

Nash: "I may not be professional out there tonight, I'm going OVER!"

Scott Hudson during match: "Goldberg hates Kevin Nash, right before Starrcade 98 Nash got himself on the booking committee and got to end the streak."

 

Midway through Goldberg gets uncooperative with Nash during the powerbomb spot and just walks away, tells Russo to fuck off, and the announcers are like "Oh God, Goldberg is going against the booking of the match, that was the planned finish! Now Nash and Steiner are going to have to improvise a new finish!"

 

It was kinda entertaining in a truly wild carwreck way but can you imagine anyone actually doing something like this?

[Richard 0]

When did Russo get fired/quit the second time? I'm pretty sure he wasn't there till the end.

[BUTT 0]

He left in October 2000. His last appearance was when he came out in a Popemobile to tell Goldberg he would have to repeat his winning streak in order to get another WCW title shot. He took a leave of absence and was supposed to be back after a few weeks, but he never returned.

[BUTT 0]

Speaking of completely off the wall Russo era booking, I actually had the sick desire to watch New Blood Rising tonight.  This was the height of Russo's bizarro "shoot" style WCW booking where the announcers constantly waved the format sheet to the camera to insist "This isn't on here, it's real!"  There was a goofy Ms. Hancock/Major Gunns mud wrestling match where poor Stacy had a "miscarriage" and they sold it as something real.  And of course there was the truly insane Nash/Goldberg/Steiner match where they talked in terms of each man going against the scripted booking of the match!  I shit you not:

 

Nash:  "I may not be professional out there tonight, I'm going OVER!"

Scott Hudson during match:  "Goldberg hates Kevin Nash, right before Starrcade 98 Nash got himself on the booking committee and got to end the streak."

 

Midway through Goldberg gets uncooperative with Nash during the powerbomb spot and just walks away, tells Russo to fuck off, and the announcers are like "Oh God, Goldberg is going against the booking of the match, that was the planned finish!  Now Nash and Steiner are going to have to improvise a new finish!"

 

It was kinda entertaining in a truly wild carwreck way but can you imagine anyone actually doing something like this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

And then the next night, Russo came out in the ring with Tank Abbott and told Goldberg he would have to fight Abbott, who "if this crap was real" would have defeated Goldberg when they wrestled each other two months earlier. The strange thing was that Goldberg and Abbott's brawling looked fairly stiff and realistic, showing that had they gone through with that match as the main event for Starrcade 2000 (as was planned at one point), it might not have been half-bad (but then there's a very good chance it might have been completely awful).

[cabbageboy 0]

Oh God. What was with Russo's hard on for Tank Abbott? He got relieved the first time for wanting to put the title on Tank, and he wanted him to main Starrcade? Surely that wasn't the title match, but just part of Goldberg's new streak.

 

WCW 2000 stuff is actually kind of interesting in a car wreck sort of way, I'd recommend any of it over the truly dismal 1999 output (aside from Spring Stampede). Say what you want about Russo but at least his stuff is never boring. Shows like that New Blood Rising PPV are jaw dropping even now, the whole crazed "shoot" nature of it being way ahead of its time (does that stuff even HAVE a time?).

[ChrisMWaters 0]

I have this to say about the Hummer Angle:

 

At least (with the exception of Bischoff) it just invovled wrestlers and no "Outside Personalities"

 

See: No Limit Soldiers, Dennis Rodman: Pro Wrestler, Karl Malone: Pro Wrestler, Jay Leno: Pro Wrestler, and David Arquette: WCW World Heavyweight Champion.

[cabbageboy 0]

Perhaps but I don't think the Rodman, Malone stuff really had any long term negative effects on the promotion. And in retrospect, the No Limit feud was at least carried by Hennig's awesomeness and the whole Rap is Crap music video (the No Limit side of things did suck however).

 

I can't defend the Arquette thing though, haha.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Perhaps but I don't think the Rodman, Malone stuff really had any long term negative effects on the promotion.  And in retrospect, the No Limit feud was at least carried by Hennig's awesomeness and the whole Rap is Crap music video (the No Limit side of things did suck however).

 

I can't defend the Arquette thing though, haha.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What about the "Jay Leno: Wrestler" stuff?

[Fro 0]

The summer of 99 is when Nash had booking power and it was *really* bad.

 

The Nash/Savage feud was probably the worst of all time since Macho Man had roided up and lost all wrestling ability and Nash never had any to begin with.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

The summer of 99 is when Nash had booking power and it was *really* bad.

 

The Nash/Savage feud was probably the worst of all time since Macho Man had roided up and lost all wrestling ability and Nash never had any to begin with.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

He had SOME.

 

It's just he used it all up in his days between Oz and Diesel.

[Guest jm29195]

I thought the whole KISS concert/Demon thing was the most stupid thing WCW did in 99, firstly just because you're a wrestling fan doesn't make you a KISS fan so you're obviously gonna tune out when the last part of your wrestling show gets turned into a rock concert..... secondly why the hell did they use it as a promotional tool to push firstly Brian Adams and the Dale Tolberg... they could at least have had someone decent to go with the gimmick!!!

[cabbageboy 0]

What decent wrestler would do such a gimmick?

 

As far as Leno goes, it was much like the Rodman and Malone stuff, just a silly little one time deal with no harm done. Not like they put the world title on him.

 

It's funny but as much crap as he booked I can't find it in me to hate Nash. He's just one of those guys that is so inherently likable that if he told me to go out and job to the Kiss Demon I'd probably do it with a smile. A born used car salesman.

[Jericholic82 0]

Speaking of completely off the wall Russo era booking, I actually had the sick desire to watch New Blood Rising tonight.  This was the height of Russo's bizarro "shoot" style WCW booking where the announcers constantly waved the format sheet to the camera to insist "This isn't on here, it's real!"  There was a goofy Ms. Hancock/Major Gunns mud wrestling match where poor Stacy had a "miscarriage" and they sold it as something real.  And of course there was the truly insane Nash/Goldberg/Steiner match where they talked in terms of each man going against the scripted booking of the match!  I shit you not:

 

Nash:  "I may not be professional out there tonight, I'm going OVER!"

Scott Hudson during match:  "Goldberg hates Kevin Nash, right before Starrcade 98 Nash got himself on the booking committee and got to end the streak."

 

Midway through Goldberg gets uncooperative with Nash during the powerbomb spot and just walks away, tells Russo to fuck off, and the announcers are like "Oh God, Goldberg is going against the booking of the match, that was the planned finish!  Now Nash and Steiner are going to have to improvise a new finish!"

 

It was kinda entertaining in a truly wild carwreck way but can you imagine anyone actually doing something like this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and the best part was that in the next match on the card, the booker t/jarrett world title match, the announcers went back to "kayfabe" mode.

 

as "useless moron" scott keith once put it, Russos shoot-style angles were basically telling the fans "Everything you see is fake, except for this right now, this is real"

 

 

Actually Bischoff as the hummer driver makes a lot of sense. Remember Bischoff had returned (he had left after flair won the "wcw presidency" and world title from hoagn at uncensored 99) at slamboree 99 and turned face by reversing a bad call and letting nash continue his match vs ddp, and he won the title. In july 99, sting beat Ric Flair to win the wcw presidency. The preisdent angle was dropped after the match and never mentioned again, the rumors on the net at the time were thatsting was going to give the preisdency back to bischoff. so infact then eric could have been revealed as the hummer driver after he was president again and turned heel in the process.

[Art Sandusky 0]

WCW made drug dealers millionaires. This shit would be hilarious to watch.

[cabbageboy 0]

Ok stop and think of that. Bischoff overturns a bad call and HELPS Nash win the title and then the next month for no discernable reason drives a Hummer and attempts to kill him? What possible sense does that make?

 

Say what you want about Russo but at least I put in some of those 2000 and at least I can tell when people are doing heel turns, who is on whose side, etc (aside from the Nash/Goldberg/Steiner insanity described above).

 

I put on some of those 1999 tapes and honestly I have no idea what the fuck is happening half the time. There was some match on Spring Stampede 99 with Benoit/Malenko vs. Raven/Saturn....then by GAB Saturn and Benoit were somehow teaming, Raven was nowhere to be found, the Triad had formed, and I have no idea what Malenko thought of any of it (though I think he did turn heel on Benoit at the next PPV).

 

I mean in 1999 it seemed like Kevin Nash started as a tweener leaning towards face in the Wolfpac, then turned heel with the Fingerpoke, then turned face again with DDP (which was never fully explained as to how either man was the heel or face), then turned heel again when Hogan came back in the red and yellow, retired after losing to Hogan, then came back with Hall as the Outsiders, but they were now faces.

 

What the fuck kind of character consistency is this? Nash was booking and he made himself do all this stuff?

[Guest Hass of Pain]

I am pretty sure that the original plan was for Savage to eventually turn out to be the driver of the Hummer, and Savage went off the deep end and bailed on the company when Hogan had the angle scrapped, accusing the goblin of sabotaging his career yet again.

 

I think this tied in with the angle they were building towards where Bischoff would turn heel President of the company, when he was going to have the entourage with the black female body builder and the two midgets.

 

I need to find that quote in my old Observers, WCW was hilarious at this point.

[cabbageboy 0]

Savage being the driver is so blatant and obvious that it couldn't have been the idea. I mean of course he was already feuding with Nash, but the whole concept was that it was someone Savage HIRED to run down Nash, not that it was Savage himself.

 

Was the black bodyguard Midnight by some chance?

 

It's funny but I actually remember reading about the Fingerpoke a few weeks before it actually happened. I think it was on Scoops. Something like "Nash will beat Goldberg and end his streak and then simply lay down for Hogan." I never gave this a second thought, I figured there would be no way they'd actually DO something that insane and retarded.

 

For the record I didn't mind Nash ending the streak the way he did....that said, it all went horribly wrong on that Nitro where Nash layed down for Hogan. I simply thought Goldberg would get the title back that night, thus the pressure of the streak would be off his back and he'd still be 99% as dominant. Nash would have been more over than before since he'd have ended the streak, and you still have the ready made feud with Hall waiting over the taser.

 

That Jan. 4, 1999 Nitro is possibly the most outraged I've ever felt at a single wrestling program. From the stupid way they had Goldberg arrested and charged with raping Liz, to the way Schiavone badmouthed Foley's title win (thankfully I taped the show and wasn't spoiled), to doing the Fingerpoke in the main event. That said, it left me outraged but at least wanting to know where they were going with it next, whereas the DDP title win on Nitro left me just feeling disgusted in the way like "I don't feel like watching this again."

[Jericholic82 0]

I didnt really mind the fingerpoke too much. To me, it was just another "wrestling swerve" and seemed to usher in the return of the real nWo without all the jobbers in it. Of course that didnt last.

 

 

Bischoff helping nash then hurting him makes no sense but this is pro wrsetling after all. But maybe Savage made him do it so he can win the title from Nash instead of DDP? I dont know.

 

That was just my opinion, not a known fact. (but sting giving the president title to Bischoff was rumored online at the time)

[cabbageboy 0]

Every stop and think of how much different things would have been without that Fingerpoke Nitro though? As in if Goldberg had simply beaten Nash on that show instead of being arrested.

 

The sad irony of all this is that WCW started doing all this really stupid shit at the height of their ratings. Even though the WWF was starting to beat them in the ratings in 1998, WCW's ratings continued to grow during that year as well. Thus they did all these horrible angles with everyone watching.

[Jericholic82 0]

Every stop and think of how much different things would have been without that Fingerpoke Nitro though?  As in if Goldberg had simply beaten Nash on that show instead of being arrested.

 

The sad irony of all this is that WCW started doing all this really stupid shit at the height of their ratings.  Even though the WWF was starting to beat them in the ratings in 1998, WCW's ratings continued to grow during that year as well.  Thus they did all these horrible angles with everyone watching.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What would happen? I suppose Nash would still be face and the nWo would not have reformed? thats the extent to where that goes. It wouldnt have changed wcws fate in the end. Besides the fingerpoke did not kill WCW. TNT killed WCW by canceling Nitro. and Vince buried it.

[cabbageboy 0]

Well, TNT cancelled Nitro due to all the stupid shit they did and the big thing that first truly pissed fans off was the Fingerpoke. If Goldberg simply gets the title back and feuds with some other people I think WCW would have been reasonably ok. There's always the chance his rather one note persona would start to bore people though, but at least they might have stayed in business.

 

Watching WCW in 1999 I couldn't help but think "Where is Goldberg? Why doesn't he just come out and destroy _____ and get the belt back?" It was so simple, yet they literally refused to give the fans what they wanted. It's almost comparable to Heyman not putting the title on RVD in ECW during this period, although that was a different situation with less politics involved.

[what 0]

Sid's win streak was really rather harmless though.  It was too rushed and he just attacked people and counted them as wins.  Thing is, at least it led to a pretty solid PPV match with Goldberg where Sid did a sick bladejob.  This wasn't anywhere near the level of crap of the Hummer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, I loved his Millenium Man gimmick. It was so dumb but perfectly suited for Sid.

[Guest Edgehead]

When he had Charles Robinson follow him to the ring with signs of the streak as he powerbombed the jobbers on Nitro was comedy gold. WCW had more heel turns in this period with the referees alone.