Came across this on You Tube. Dennis Condrey asking Jim Cornette " Do you know who this is" while in an arm bar was great. Whatever became of the mysterious James brothers?
They changed their name to the Armstrong Brothers? We will literally never have a way to find out who were under the masks anyway, so it's kind of a moot point. I mean, the detective work needed to penetrate those disguises would bankrupt Scotland Yard.
They changed their name to the Armstrong Brothers? We will literally never have a way to find out who were under the masks anyway, so it's kind of a moot point. I mean, the detective work needed to penetrate those disguises would bankrupt Scotland Yard.
Come on, now: it was just a sumo monster truck match. Hogan killed the Giant when they brawled afterward, but, just like a video game or action movie, the Giant returned for the main event later that night (if Wikipedia's match order is correct, there was only a 5-minute Luger-Savage match between the sumo match and the main event).
ReplyDeleteThat said, there is stupidity in even the best angles (or at least the best times) in a wrestling company.
This was a bad, bad time for WCW and pretty much rasslin' in general. Pretty amazing though how things can turn around so quickly, with one man jumping the barricade to wage war.
ReplyDeleteWrestling went from straight awful to pretty fucking awesome very quickly. Oh how I miss the Wars.
DoD is a guilty pleasure of mine.
ReplyDeleteI know where they're out of! They're out of Dusty Rhodes' car!
ReplyDelete1995 WCW makes me want to hear the real reason Hogan agreed to do the nWo.
ReplyDeleteI actually find 1995 WCW as the hardest year to watch straight threw, well right there with WCW 2000.
ReplyDeleteThey did finish strong with Starrcade 95, but you cant wait til the last ppv of the year to deliver
2000 is impossible to watch straight through. Anyone who claims TNA is "bad" I dare you to watch 1 month of Nitro's from 2000. Literally every match has interference or lasts 2 minutes.
ReplyDeleteIt's just wild how downhill things got. I understand losing The Radicalz, Jericho, etc. will hurt the workrate, but they still had a damn good roster of guys.
ReplyDeleteThey got so obsessed and stuck into the "attitude era" mindset that they totally abandoned professional wrestling and everything it is. And look at the ppv's. I swear every card has 6-7 gimmick matches on it
While I have lightened up on Russo over the years, that stance he still stands by, which he brought up again this year on the RD & Blade Show/Wrestlecrap podcast about how the fans "Want to be entertained by the show and see all of this wild shit, and NOT SEE A WRESTLING MATCH" is beyond frustrating.
Them losing their core fan base, the one who always chose them over WWF, which I considered myself a part of, was no ones fault but themselves.
In the decades those 2 companies faced off against one another, nothing was more one sided than WWF 2000 and WCW 2000.
Wwe has some awful years too. Except for a few bright spots I never liked 93, 94, 95, 96 WWF.
ReplyDeleteI gave up on WCW sometime early in 2000. I don't remember when, but it became very obvious that there was no coming back for them, and it was kinda too depressing to watch.
ReplyDeleteRusso simply isn't intelligent when it comes to wrestling; I'm not sure how else to say that. I mean, the only time his stuff ever worked is when he had Vince McMahon there to filter his ideas and such.
I, for one, never particularly cared for the Techwood Studio days of World Championship Wrestling as it seemed bush league compared to WWF TV tapings of that time a held in widely populated arenas.
ReplyDeleteBut Dusty and the gang could be counted on to pull the proverbial rabbit from the hat (such as this great match / angle) that would really make you stand up and take notice.
See, as bad as 1995 was for wrestling it still FEELS like wrestling, where WCW 2000 is just depressing.
ReplyDeleteStuff like the Undertaker resurrection or Giant falling off the roof and coming out without a scratch is in no way believable but it's goofy as hell in a fun sort of way. Re: Giant vs Hogan, at least the wrestlers and the announcers sell it and the crowd is actually into the match as a nostalgia piece.
Compare that to 2000, where everyone is practically falling over themselves to remind you that everything seeing is FAKE (except for THIS right here!) and that these guys are following a format sheet in front of dead crowds that only pop for entrances or if someone goes through a table.
Wasn't the James Boys unmasked as Tony Zane and Sam Houstan or something.
ReplyDeleteEven someone like me, who likes having more non-wrestling thqn wrestling on TV, knows that wrestling is the point of this whole deal, which is why it should be the main thing on PPVs, and you should deliver at least one quality TV match a show.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing about the rooftop fight is WCW actually had an "out"... although not a great one:
ReplyDeleteHeenan mentions that someone had an idea for the Giant to come out for the match, dripping wet, with a fish in his trunks. And Heenan's commentary right after the fight (Which side did he fall off of?) supports that it was at least possible... of course Bischoff's response killed that idea.
There's a certain train wreck aspect to WCW 2000 that make it entertaining. Sort of like Steven Segal movies with rappers.
ReplyDeleteThere was still plenty of 4-5 star matches sprinkled in those years though. 95 WCW rarely got to that level
ReplyDeleteI think the WCW "exploding" over night is revisionist history:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Night_Wars
just look at the ratings chart. yes, Nitro did better after the nWo was formed. but initially it was more from getting regular 2.7-3.1 ratings to getting 3.3-3.6 ratings.
it was more at the very end of 1996/the beginning of 1997 when the WWFs ratings started to go down a lot (and the WCWs ratings going up at the same time).
a fish in his trunks? wtf?!
ReplyDeleteand even more important: to me the focal point of a wrestling show needs to be "guy x and guy y settle their differences in a wrestling match".
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/ODiflG86R0M
ReplyDeleteECW, USWA and SMW were the only reasons I didn't give up on wrestling entirely in 95. And IIRC 95 is when SMW went tits up.
ReplyDeleteI was always kinda curious how things would have gone in WCW into 1996 had the NWO angle never happened. The Sting and Luger team/feud was really cool stuff, and I remember being really excited to see where it would lead. Plus, of course, you had the Giant, Savage, and eventually the cruiserweights came in, too.
ReplyDeleteThe same is true for WCW in the fall of '99, in the period between Bischoff and Russo. I thought the TV shows were pretty solid, and was actually getting excited about the product again. I don't know who was booking those shows (WCW probably doesn't, either.), but I really wished they had let things go as they were going.
Just says so much that as horrid as WWF was in '95, compared to WCW, they were the height of wrestling entertainment. Course, ECW was doing well and SMW too but those antics were just nuts.
ReplyDeleteStill, WCW was able to pull it together more for Nitro. Never forget, no one gave them a chance against RAW, it was going to be a massacre but then Luger shows up on the first show and suddenly, everyone wants to see what's coming. That helped ease some of harsh feelings the rest of the year give fans.
I won't lie, it scared me as a kid
ReplyDeleteMaybe the company was dying by 1999 - but I thought the booking between September and October was fine. No need for Russo at all. Maybe it was dated and the same old guys in charge - but at least it was known guys and not a bunch of people WCW fans didn't care about.
ReplyDeleteWhen did WCW fall?
ReplyDelete1997: Even I'll admit the Hogan vs. Sting was a misfire. Either have Hogan destroy him cleanly and have Kevin Nash turn face and feud with Hogan or have Hogan put him over cleanly. Really wished they could have had WCW guys with their show and nWo guys feuding on their show.
1998: I don't groan at Nash beating Goldberg. I was a big Diesel mark - yearning for his title regin in 1995. I dislike Nash now because in retrospect his shoots clearly show why the company did die. His explanation of the botched powerbomb on the Giant is just sad. (The guy was too fat -- and I tore my back out trying to pick him up.) I am sickened by what they did to Bret. They show signs of going a different direction, but Hogan wins the title back - only to freak out and put Goldberg over - only to feud with Warrior and then go into hiding. Again, with hindsight - Nash should have stayed away and I would have brought Hogan back in the summer of 1999 as a face and beat Goldberg for the title there.
1999: Finger poke of doom was a turning point, along with Tony insulting Foley. If they had not been booking on a napkin at that point / I think they would have survived it. But nope - Bischoff buries Flair on PPV in spite of allowing him to win on Nitro. Hogan comes back - and the nWo elite was formed. Luger's heel turn worked -- but they needed to cut the dead wood of nWo jobbers. Then within two months Flair is a heel again. Hogan is a face, and DDP turns heel. The summer was decent, but when Bischoff got fired - they should have stayed the course. Instead Russo comes in - buries the established talent - and thinks they can write funny stories and use anybody. Oh and Russo cops out with another nWo angle. Russo is soon fired as top stars injure themselves and can't perform and Aol suits want to contain the madness.
2000: Dead on arrival. We go from Russo inane booking without Bret Hart to Kevin Sullivan booking. I was always anti-Beniot - even in 2000 and wished they had just had Sid win the vacant title. Instead they book Benoit as champion - then again maybe it we'd planned to be a dusty finish all along. Either way, four WCW guys flee for good. Hogan returns - but sadly he feuds with Luger and Flair. Rumors of Hogan putting Sid over can't be proven, Bischoff and Russo rehired as bean counter flees from sinking ship. Second Russo era starts somewhat strong - but within two months / all established guys are buried or sent home and un-over guys with no funny gimmicks are pushed. Booker didn't get good until until years later.
I'm firmly of the belief that as late as the fall of 1999, WCW still could have been saved. It wouldn't have been easy, but there was enough talent on the roster, combined with some still dedicated WCW fans, to make it happen. Once Russo came in and started running some of the stuff he did, it was all over.
ReplyDeleteI resent this e-mail.
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