WWE Network Conversation

[SirSmUgly]

3 hours ago, cwoy2j said:

I wouldn't have fed Rude to Simmons right off the bat. I think Rude should've been the big bad for Simmons to slay after a decently long program.

I think putting Simmons against Steamboat would be tough on Ron because damn near anyone who goes against Steamboat is going to get booed. You could save a busload of kittens, orphans and old people from going off a cliff but the minute you start beating on Ricky Steamboat, people are going to boo you. Simmons might come across as a bully heel in that situation and he definitely doesn't have the nuance to walk that line I was talking about.

I think you can get Steamboat to work more aggressively while still staying babyface, though. He's able to turn that on and did so during the feud with various members of the DA that very year. Steamboat would be able to help Simmons walk that line.

I agree that I'd prefer to keep Rude for later, definitely. Rude was going to be the guy to dethrone Simmons before he got hurt, IIRC. 

I'm curious: What would you have booked for Simmons's programs immediately post-title? Do you see a path to keeping Simmons over as a viable main eventer without using Rude or Steamboat? Simmons was definitely way over right after winning the title, and he's slowly getting cooled off here by these unimpressive post-win opponents. 

[cwoy2j]

1 hour ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

I think you can get Steamboat to work more aggressively while still staying babyface, though. He's able to turn that on and did so during the feud with various members of the DA that very year. Steamboat would be able to help Simmons walk that line.

I agree that I'd prefer to keep Rude for later, definitely. Rude was going to be the guy to dethrone Simmons before he got hurt, IIRC. 

I'm curious: What would you have booked for Simmons's programs immediately post-title? Do you see a path to keeping Simmons over as a viable main eventer without using Rude or Steamboat? Simmons was definitely way over right after winning the title, and he's slowly getting cooled off here by these unimpressive post-win opponents. 

Therein lies the rub. I looked up WCW's 1992 roster and man, it was thin on top heel material. I guess Windham could've turned but he had been futzing around in the tag ranks. Scott Steiner would've been interesting had they convinced him to turn at that point but that's pie in the sky stuff. Muta was doing shots in WCW around that time so he was a possibility for a short-term opponent. That's actually who I'd have gone with as long as there weren't any political concerns with him jobbing. He and Simmons might have a clash of styles in the ring but at least it would've been an interesting program as Muta was a big name and had credibility with the fans. Certainly would've been better than Barbarian.

https://www.thesmackdownhotel.com/roster/?promotion=wcw&date=1992

Edited April 9, 2022 by cwoy2j

[cwoy2j]

And while we're saving failed WCW title reigns, I'm using my time machine to go back and book Stan Hansen as Sting's first opponent in 1990 instead of that Black Scorpion nonsense and the fake Sting crap with Sid at Halloween Havoc. I'd pull Hansen out of the feud with Luger and have him target Sting. I feel like after Flair, Sting needed an opponent to legitimize his "toughness" and main event cred ala what Foley did for HHH at Royal Rumble 2000. Having Sting survive an absolute war with Stan f'n Hansen would've cemented him as The Man.

Edited April 9, 2022 by cwoy2j

[cwoy2j]

And I'm going to save every WCW title reign in 2000, all 862 of them, by going back in time and convincing Vince McMahon to give Vince Russo a little extra money and time off so that Russo never goes to WCW. The WCW title changed hands or was vacated something like 25 times in 2000.

[SirSmUgly]

15 minutes ago, cwoy2j said:

Therein lies the rub. I looked up WCW's 1992 roster and man, it was thin on top heel material. I guess Windham could've turned but he had been futzing around in the tag ranks. Scott Steiner would've been interesting had they convinced him to turn at that point but that's pie in the sky stuff. Muta was doing shots in WCW around that time so he was a possibility for a short-term opponent. That's actually who I'd have gone with as long as there weren't any political concerns with him jobbing. He and Simmons might have a clash of styles in the ring but at least it would've been an interesting program as Muta was a big name and had credibility with the fans. Certainly would've been better than Barbarian.

https://www.thesmackdownhotel.com/roster/?promotion=wcw&date=1992

Exactly why I think that if Watts was serious about cementing Simmons, he needed to sacrifice Rude.

WCW is a mess on the heel side, yes. They are in the process of turning Pillman by August, but that's not nearly enough. Maybe the answer is that they don't have the pieces in place yet for a Ron Simmons run and therefore should have left the gold on Vader for a little while longer, but Watts is gone not very long from now anyway. 

They have all these credible mid- and upper-midcard heels, but they failed to elevate even one of them. In fact, they turned Zybszko face, which was probably a mistake because they didn't need him on that side of the ledger. I'm not saying that Larry Z saves Simmons's run or anything, but if they had him murking guys for a few months instead of being slightly under Arn's level in that stable, maybe he's a useful piece here re: Simmons. 

[cwoy2j]

I think they could've drawn money by giving Rude some of those lower card heels as flunkies that he sends at Simmons to try to weaken him. He's the mob boss that Simmons has to take out but has to fight through his goons first. I just don't think it's a good idea to sacrifice the only top heel you have that quickly especially when they didn't seem to have any plans to build up anyone else.

[SirSmUgly]

27 minutes ago, cwoy2j said:

I think they could've drawn money by giving Rude some of those lower card heels as flunkies that he sends at Simmons to try to weaken him. He's the mob boss that Simmons has to take out but has to fight through his goons first. I just don't think it's a good idea to sacrifice the only top heel you have that quickly especially when they didn't seem to have any plans to build up anyone else.

That's a quality idea. Rude and Heyman sending Eaton, then Arn, then Larry Z, then Austin, before Rude finally goes after Simmons himself would have been a fine way to get around the lack of main event-level heels. Much better than Cactus Jack cobbling together a crew with Barbarian and Butch Reed. 

[NoFistsJustFlips]

This got my creative juices flowing so I thought to myself well let me take a crack at this. Then I looked up WCW's roster in 1992. It's impossible to salvage and strap the rocket to Simmons using only the guys there. They just didn't have the pieces in place.

Rude is credible but he's also valuable and I don't think feeding him to Simmons gets enough rub to Simmons to be worth tarnishing Rude. Jake is a credible name but past his prime and already involved with Sting. Cactus just got done being decisively beat by Sting. Arn / Eaton / Zybysko were all great workers and solid mid carders. But they didn't really have a rub to give. Harley Race & JYD? Hell no lol. Steamboat & Sting would just get cheered over Simmons.

The sure fire way to build up a new super face is give him monsters to slay. The Barbarian was an attempt but just not credible as a monster. Especially coming off a mid card WWE run. To really solidify his run you'd need to poach some kind of real monsters. Steal a motivated and dominant Bam Bam Bigelow from New Japan. Find a way to get Earthquake away from WWE. Something like that.

But as is, I don't think there's a way to make it work any better than it did. They just didn't have the roster in place to make a new super face.

[SirSmUgly]

6 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

This got my creative juices flowing so I thought to myself well let me take a crack at this. Then I looked up WCW's roster in 1992. It's impossible to salvage and strap the rocket to Simmons using only the guys there. They just didn't have the pieces in place.

Rude is credible but he's also valuable and I don't think feeding him to Simmons gets enough rub to Simmons to be worth tarnishing Rude. Jake is a credible name but past his prime and already involved with Sting. Cactus just got done being decisively beat by Sting. Arn / Eaton / Zybysko were all great workers and solid mid carders. But they didn't really have a rub to give. Harley Race & JYD? Hell no lol. Steamboat & Sting would just get cheered over Simmons.

The sure fire way to build up a new super face is give him monsters to slay. The Barbarian was an attempt but just not credible as a monster. Especially coming off a mid card WWE run. To really solidify his run you'd need to poach some kind of real monsters. Steal a motivated and dominant Bam Bam Bigelow from New Japan. Find a way to get Earthquake away from WWE. Something like that.

But as is, I don't think there's a way to make it work any better than it did. They just didn't have the roster in place to make a new super face.

This is a cop out, dammit! You have to try and book it even if you think it's hopeless!

OK, OK, what if, hot off killing the Steiners for the tag titles, we run a Simmons/Dr. Death feud with Gordy seconding Williams? 

Be creative! I know you have it in you! 

Seriously, is there any wider gulf between "excellent in-ring product" and "totally fucked booking" than there is in 1992 WCW? It's one of my favorite wrestling years/promotions, but watching it again, boy is it a mess booking-wise.

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by SirSmellingtonofCascadia

[Matt D]

Isn’t the answer to not do worthless matches with Vader on house shows that would never draw and save the return match, with a gimmick, for a PPV to put Simmons over big. Vader could recover.

[cwoy2j]

14 hours ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

This is a cop out, dammit! You have to try and book it even if you think it's hopeless!

OK, OK, what if, hot off killing the Steiners for the tag titles, we run a Simmons/Dr. Death feud with Gordy seconding Williams? 

Be creative! I know you have it in you! 

Seriously, is there any wider gulf between "excellent in-ring product" and "totally fucked booking" than there is in 1992 WCW? It's one of my favorite wrestling years/promotions, but watching it again, boy is it a mess booking-wise.

 

If we're doing hopeless things, Scott Steiner actually turns heel and we get a 1992 version of Big Poppa Pump who's not broken down going against Legit Athlete Ron Simmons. Sign me the fuck up for the match where they have a giant hoss fight and beat the crap out of each other and toss each other around with reckless abandon.

Edited April 10, 2022 by cwoy2j

[NoFistsJustFlips]

13 hours ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

This is a cop out, dammit! You have to try and book it even if you think it's hopeless!

OK, OK, what if, hot off killing the Steiners for the tag titles, we run a Simmons/Dr. Death feud with Gordy seconding Williams? 

Be creative! I know you have it in you! 

 

LOL okay okay, I'll give it a shot. But if I had the book I would have built a couple heels up before doing the shock title change. Because the heel side is dire.

Without a proper monster factory, without ending the Jake & Sting thing abruptly, I'd have to go with a betrayal deal. Vader gets a return match that ends in a DQ. Vader & Harley are laying the boots in and Dustin Rhodes comes out for the save. They powder the heels and pose together to send the crowd home happy. You follow it up on a Clash with Vader & Rude teaming against Simmons & Dustin. Dustin as Rude beaten in the center. Vader comes in. Simmons cuts him off and tosses him over the top rope. Dustin & Simmons are DQ'd. Dustin is notably frustrated with Simmons for costing them the match. They eventually shake hands and pose together and wham Dustin lays him the fuck out. I don't think WCW was allowed to use juice in 1992 so it can't get too violent. But as violent as they would allow.

Then you have Dustin do a bunch of heel promos about how a shitty tag wrestler skipped to the front of the line and he's the son of a legend and didn't get the chance he was born to have. Yada yada yada. Real violent and personal feud where Simmons wins dominantly and effectively. He can't get the Hogan style mega push without a monster factory. So you have him survive a brutal betrayal while you create some monsters for him. Dustin remained an upper midcard face until he left WCW. But WCW was a heel territory. I think he would have had a better shot moving up and having a run as a heel champion. So down the road once Simmons has lost the title back to Vader (or Rude), then one of them drops it to Sting, Dustin could have been the guy to win the title from Sting in 1994 or so.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Great American Bash 98

Booker T opened the show by defeating Chris Benoit in Match 8 of their best-of-seven series. Bobby Heenan immediately called Benoit a dummy for not accepting Bret Hart's interference in Match 7, which would have won the series for Benoit. Later in the night, Booker beat Fit Finlay for the TV title, so Booker is the MVP.

Kanyon distracted Saturn by having another guy walk down the aisle dressed as Mortis. Kanyon snuck up behind Saturn and ... did nothing. He just waited for Saturn to turn around before starting the match. Later, two more Mortises showed up and started fighting each other. One of them was Raven, and after Saturn lost, Raven gave Saturn the "you had ONE job!" treatment and kicked him out of the Flock.

When Chris Jericho insulted Dean Malenko's deceased father, the Iceman lost his cool. He battled Jericho out the building and rammed him into a mailbox. Jericho actually won the Cruiserweight title on a disqualification because Malenko agreed to hold up the title to get Jericho in the ring.

The Baltimore fans were not into the Eddy-Chavo match - either that, or it reminded them of Luger-Windham from seven years earlier - because they chanted "We want Flair!"

Juventud Guerrera only came up to the middle of Reese's chest, but he still pulled off the David over Goliath YET-AY upset, thanks to Van Hammer, who continued to stick it to the Flock.

Curt Hennig kept finding new ways to turn on people. After Konnan became victim No. 100 of BILL GOLDBERG, Hennig and Rick Rude attacked Konnan and revealed their switch from nWo Wolfpac to nWo Hollywood. Of course, Hennig had previously turned on DDP and The Four Horsemen. Why would anyone trust Hennig to be on their team?

Bret Hart teamed with Hollywood Hogan to face the World's Craziest Tag Team (Savage & Piper) ... and it wasn't the main event? Savage and Piper were so crazy that they agreed to team up and then fight each other after the match. Poor Savage lost both matches by submission. 

Sting won control of the WCW tag team title by beating the SMOKIN' Giant, who wasn't worried about cigarettes stunting his growth.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Bash at the Beach 98

Kanyon employed more curious strategy in the Raven-Saturn match. He saved Raven from getting smashed in a table sandwich, only to throw him into the ring and give him the Flatliner. Did he really think the Flatliner was more devastating than two tables?

Juventud Guerrera continued to thrive without his mask by beating Kidman, who took over for Rey Misterio Jr. as Juvi's top rival.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. was smart enough to tap out to a handshake against Stevie Ray, because he knew he was going right into a hair vs. hair match with Uncle Eddy. Trying to cut his uncle's hair during the match wasn't so smart, and Chavo lost the match, his hair, and his mind.

Lex Luger was so much happier as a cool member of the nWo Wolfpac than as a WCW guy fighting the nWo. He was like the last friend in the group to get his driver's license.

Kevin Greene didn't need to wrestle on this show. Even though he was the all-time NFL sack leader among linebackers, we had already seen him wrestle twice, and Dennis Rodman and Karl Malone were coming up in the main event. The Giant beat him with AHHHHH-The Chokeslam!

When Chris Jericho agreed to defend the Cruiserweight title against a local guy who hasn't wrestled in six months, he should have made sure that he wasn't in San Diego. Rey Jr. came out and bounced back from a knee injury to win the title.

Bret Hart finally got a championship match on pay-per-view ... and it was for the TV title? The Hitman showed how much he cared about this belt by hitting Booker T with a chair in full view of the referee for the disqualification.

BILL GOLDBERG is the MVP for reducing Curt Hennig to Victim No. 112 and retaining the World title in less than four minutes.

Karl Malone lost back-to-back NBA titles to Dennis Rodman, and the Mailman lost again here in a sloppy match. He and DDP hit the Diamond Cutter on Rodman and Hogan, but Brutus "The Disciple" Beefcake came in to show that the STUNNER (Apocalypse) was the best move in wrestling, and Hogan pinned DDP. Page thought, "A basketball player couldn't help me beat Hogan. How about ... a late-night talk show host?"

[SirSmUgly]

Poor Goldberg getting stuck beating washed mid-carders to defend while Hogan is on top anyway. 

In my memory, this is the show where I started to think that WCW kinda sucked. It didn't help that WWF's 1998 was extremely good on PPV, especially their Big Five PPVs, in comparison. 

[Infinit]

They totally could've heated up Austin as a credible threat for Halloween Havoc. 

Have Austin jump Simmons after his win at the Clash. Maybe have Simmons "injured" so he looks in jeopardy to a reunited Austin and Paul E going into HH, only for Ron to come out on top. Which sets up Starrcade vs Rude.

[Infinit]

On 4/10/2022 at 11:57 AM, NoFistsJustFlips said:

I don't think WCW was allowed to use juice in 1992 so it can't get too violent. But as violent as they would allow.
 

 

WrestleWar 92 was a blood bath lol. Juice would be ok.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Road Wild 98

The Faces of Fear explode! After Barbarian failed to hurt Meng, Jimmy Hart thought a splash off the top rope would do the trick. Heenan: "It's like a fly landed on him!"

Disco Inferno asked for his and Alex Wright's regular match with The Public Enemy to be turned into a street fight. Wright and Tokyo Magnum abandoned Disco, who was put through three tables. This was like going to the golf course with Serena Williams and asking, "Why don't we play tennis instead?"

The ECW vibe continued with Raven vs. Saturn vs. Kanyon. Horace accidentally hit Lodi and Raven with a STOP sign, and Saturn won. Vincent similarly messed up to cause Brian Adams to lose to Steve McMichael.

WCW screwed the fans out of a Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner match. Scott faked an injury and ran away, so why didn't they do the match? JJ Dillon promising that the match would take place at Fall Brawl didn't make the fans in Sturgis feel better.

Juventud Guerrera completed his lack-of-mask-to-riches story by winning the Cruiserweight title from Chris Jericho. The belt really bounced around like crazy, as Rey Jr won the belt on the last PPV, and he beat Psicosis to win a title shot on this one.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Stevie Ray battled for the TV title, even though Booker T was the actual champion. I'm not a big fan of Chavo's "I'm CRAZY" antics, which came off as really fake.

Hogan and DDP had another celebrity main event, with Jay Leno obviously not being remotely athletic. His bandleader Kevin Eubanks was much more effective helping from the outside, and he hit the Diamond Cutter on Bischoff to give Leno the win.

BILL GOLDBERG is the MVP for streamrolling both nWo groups and winning a nine-man battle royale. The Giant seemed like a future challenger, but that was squelched here as Goldberg did an Undertaker sit-up after AHHHH-The Chokeslam! and pinned Giant after the spear and jackhammer.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Fall Brawl 98

Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart won the opener over Boogie Knights, but they would have been a much bigger deal if they were aligned with Bret Hart again.

Chris Jericho beat the WWF to the punch by debuting his own fake Goldberg, although his show-opening claim that he would be facing Goldberg was not the only bait-and-switch of the evening.

Buff Bagwell brought the show to a screeching halt with an elaborate fake injury during the Steiner vs. Steiner match. Of course, both brothers had to follow Buff all the way back to the ambulance instead of continuing their match. Why was Scott still trying to avoid fighting his brother when they were already halfway through the match?

Kanyon was handcuffed to the ring post during the Raven-Saturn match. Of course, this happened before when he was Mortis. Kanyon again was firmly convinced that the Flatliner was the most devastating move in wrestling. He freed himself from the cuffs, gave Saturn the Flatliner and then RE-CUFFED himself. Saturn kicked out and later pinned Raven to set The Flock free.

The fans were chanting for Ric Flair all night, but he did not return to gain revenge on Curt Hennig for War Games in the same building one year earlier. Arn Anderson tried to fill that role, but Hennig and Rude beat up Arn and Malenko, with no more help on the way.

Konnan pinned an inebriated Scott Hall in the co-main event, and Konnan's pre-match spiel was super over with the crowd.

Hogan was so afraid of The Ultimate Warrior that he locked himself out of WarGames, even with a title match against BILL GOLDBERG on the line. Warrior broke out of the cage and chased Hogan away. Diamond Dallas Page is the MVP for drawing No. 1 and going all the way to pin Stevie Ray for the title shot.

[Gorman]

Thoughts on Halloween Havoc 98

WCW thought we would be just as excited to see Hogan-Warrior as we were 8 1/2 years earlier at WrestleMania VI. The rematch was longer than the World title match between DDP and BILL GOLDBERG, who had the same type of face-vs.-face World title match that Hulk and Warrior had the first time.

The only problem with the Goldberg-DDP match was that many fans didn't see it. WCW thought this would be a great time to run a 3 1/2-hour pay-per-view and several cable carriers didn't get the message. Just like at Starrcade 97, WCW had the chance to do something really big and screwed it up.

Did this show really need an extra half hour? Did we need four Nitro Girl dance segments, Saturn vs. Lodi, and Alex Wright vs. Fit FInlay?

Wrath came out looking like Adam Bomb, and he beat Meng with the Meltdown. Surprised he didn't throw out mini-footballs to the fans.

Disco Inferno scored his most impressive win ever, pinning Juventud Guerrera after a JUMPING piledriver. This earned him a Cruiserweight title match with Kidman. Disco hit the same move, but he made a sloppy cover and eventually lost.

Rick Steiner started the night with a big mistake. He trusted Buff Bagwell as his partner against his brother Scott and the SMOKIN' Giant, putting his long-awaited singles match against Scott at risk. Everyone knew the Dustin-Arn Anderson spot was coming except Rick. Buff walked out, but he missed the part when he won the tag team title with Rick, who made a miraculous comeback. That was enough to win the MVP award, but Rick also pinned Scott to put that issue to bed at last.

Bret Hart defeated Sting after beating him up with a baseball bat. Maybe Sting shouldn't have brought it to the ring.

Worst fan sign:: "STING PUT HART IN THE SCORIPIAN"

Kevin Nash beat up Scott Hall, mocked his alcoholism, and gave him two Jackknife powerbombs. Nash then walked away and got counted out, showing that wins and losses don't matter and this is all just a waste of time (preview of The Fingerpoke of Doom). 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Gorman

[odessasteps]

I made the mistake of watching the Evil doc on Flair. It was like their attempt to do Dark Side, but with their own talking heads. 

[JLowe]

I've had a bit of free time in the evenings over the weekend where I needed to decompress, and I decided that I would revisit WCW. I started with the first Clash of the Champions, then opted to start watching/rewatching Nitro. I still can't decide if I actually saw the first Nitro live or not, I have strong memories of the Luger appearance but not the Mall of America. Both the Pillman-Liger and the Sting-Flair matches were good, the Hogan main was a mess, which really sums up WCW in the 1990s.

Both the first and second Nitros built up the arrivals of Sabu and Mr. Michael V.K. Wallstreet, who promptly lost their matches to Alex Wright (pre-dancing days) and Sting, although Sabu's loss was a DQ for putting Wright through a table after the match (IIRC). They also had a huge intro with Scott Norton showing up at the first Nitro, and then subsequently losing to Savage in week 2. Hogan-Luger ended with Dungeon of Doom interference and then a very long segment building to having Luger replace Vader on the Hulkamanics for WarGames at Fall Brawl.

I started watching Fall Brawl '95, which was weird since a lot of the matches were based on angles from WCW Saturday Night. Pillman and Johnny B. Badd had a really great opening match which went about 30 minutes (albeit with numerous restholds) and Badd getting busted open hardway early on. Still shocking that they were essentially running a blackface gimmick in 1995. After that was a weird squash with Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Cobra, who looked familiar and I confirmed my memory that he was also the NWO Fake Sting.

That's as far as I got, and I don't plan to make a regular thing out of posting about Nitros or WCW PPVs.

[SirSmUgly]

17 hours ago, Gorman said:

Kevin Nash beat up Scott Hall, mocked his alcoholism, and gave him two Jackknife powerbombs. Nash then walked away and got counted out, showing that wins and losses don't matter and this is all just a waste of time (preview of The Fingerpoke of Doom). 

There is an argument that in this case, Nash walking away was showing that his disappointment in his friend's backsliding toward alcoholism was this powerful feeling that Nash could only elucidate through violence, as pro wrestlers will. It hurt so badly that all Nash could do was lash out. Nash being mad at Hall failing not only Nash, but himself, meant more than any win could. That would be about as poignant as wrestling can get.

Of course, it's a bad look to center an angle around someone's IRL alcoholism, and besides that, this was indeed a preview of not only TFoD, but pretty much most of 1999. From that perspective, it meant nothing at all except that wins and losses don't matter, and also, ha ha this Hall guy is a pathetic drunk. 

Edited April 18, 2022 by SirSmellingtonofCascadia

[Gorman]

Thoughts on World War 3 1998

Wrath wasn't dressed as a Mortal Kombat character anymore, and the fans cheered him on to victory over Glacier.  Wrath decided to FINISH HIM~! with the Meltdown.  Mike Tenay said Wrath would be on the Mortal Kombat television show! Glacier probably fired his agent when he heard that news. 

Sonny Ono wrestling on PPV? No thanks. Yes, Ernest Miller did all the work and Sonny collected the pin. Nobody cares. Nothing against Kaz Hayashi, but Saturn should have moved onto something bigger after his win over Raven.

Rey Misterio Jr. was upset that Cruiserweight champion Juventud Guerrera had joined the Latino World Order because that meant he wouldn't get a title shot. He did something about it by helping Kidman regain the title and then quitting the LWO. 

WCW advertised Steiner vs. Steiner and Hall vs. Nash again and only delivered two minutes of the first match. BILL GOLDBERG saved Rick from Scott, Buff and the nWo referee who came to the ring with them. Hall came out with a large group of nWo black-and-white members after the first match with Nash went so poorly. They all turned against Hall. Kevin Nash came to the rescue but refused to reunite with Hall, leaving him hanging on the "Two Sweet" hand signal. Rough night again for Hall.

Bobby Duncum Jr. came out looking like the second coming of Barry Windham. While he didn't win the TV title like Barry, at least Duncum got to team up with him during his WCW tenure. 

Kevin Nash dumped guys out of his ring at World War 3 as fast as possible, so he could stand around doing nothing for several minutes. Nash's lack of effort as he approaches the top of the company is causing me to stop caring about WCW. This is the voice of the fan talking, as well as the voice of Jeff. Nash dumped Luger and Hall at the same time to earn a title match at Starrcade against the undefeated Goldberg. The only other person to win a match in non-screwy fashion was Wrath, so he can walk onto the Mortal Kombat TV set with the MVP award.

Bret Hart finally made it to a main event singles match in WCW, one year after defecting from the WWF. He failed to regain the US title from DDP, but at least he was out of Hogan's shadow for one night. 

[DreamBroken]

4 hours ago, Gorman said:

Thoughts on World War 3 1998

Wrath wasn't dressed as a Mortal Kombat character anymore, and the fans cheered him on to victory over Glacier.  Wrath decided to FINISH HIM~! with the Meltdown.  Mike Tenay said Wrath would be on the Mortal Kombat television show! Glacier probably fired his agent when he heard that news. 

 The only other person to win a match in non-screwy fashion was Wrath, so he can walk onto the Mortal Kombat TV set with the MVP award.

Inspired to check that out. Classic!