wcw 1992

[Cobra1000]

Looking back over this stuff it seems amazing, I'm really going to have a look and check it out. I only really got into WCW with Nitro in 1995.

 

Was '92 amazing? Why didn't it really take off, or did it? Was everything from 92 to 95 just a build up to the arrival of Nitro and the new Bischoff regime?

[Mark Out Media]

1992 WCW was awesome up to a point. I was a huge fan of it way back in my fandom infancy. Still am. But sadly, upon watching the 1992 season set of Worldwide, I've come to realize just how badly Bill Watts botched it.

 

January thru July is flippin' amazing workrate wise. But after Watts came in and started cutting costs, the product really suffered. Watts asked Pillman to take a pay cut or he'd be jobbed out. Pillman didn't take the pay cut and WAS reduced to a jobber (for a time). The Steiners, a huge asset to WCW, chose not to resign, jumping to the WWF. Talented workers such as Scott Hall and Matt Bourne also migrated to Titan. And who replaced them? Lugs like the Barbarian, Dick Slater, Tony Atlas etc.

 

As far as the Barbarian goes, he was even made the number one contender for Ron Simmons WCW title. What the flip? And Simmons as WCW champion brings up another point. Watts took the title off Vader when Vader was really hitting his stride. He'd been the monster heel since around March and pinned champion Sting relatively cleanly at the Great American Bash. He was set up for a huge run. But because Watts wanted to recreate Mid South, he tried to run with Simmons in the role of the Junkyard Dog.

 

1992 was awesome, but it could have been awesomer.

[twelve_grand]

Early 92 WCW is the best until early 94 birth of hard core. That was classic SoW/PS magazine territory as ECW arrived and Cactus Jack, Pillman and Austin started to acciendtly see what wrestling would become.

 

Early 92 just love any Dangerous Alliance vs Sting/Windham/Rhodoes/Steamboat. Best of 3 falls Austin Windham was the best end of mathc ever on WCW TV at that time. It was imperfect but incredible.

[air_raid]

Christ, looking at the number of replies so far and still..... I can't believe I have to do this....

 

Butch and Ian to thread, please?

 

Probably should invest in some form of horn, or possibly gong.

[Mr Tibbs]

This was the year I started watching wrestling too. WCW Worldwide was on at about 1:00 in the morning and I used to sneak downstairs to watch it. Loved it. Superbrawl (with the full Liger/Pillman match) was superb, so was War Games, Beach Blast and the GAB.

 

The talent they had was fantastic and although they lost the Steiners, they replaced them for a short time with AJPW "Dr Death" Steve Willliams & Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, who where one of the greatest tag teams ever.

 

Altough I have a great respect for Bill Watts, the product did start to suffer after he came on board, and by the time end of the year came, he had fallen out and alienated so many wrestlers that the product did suffer.

 

Still his last PPV Superbrawl 3 (and I know that was 1993) remains one of the finest PPV shows ever.

[PowerButchi]

Lugs like the Barbarian

 

Barbarian was great fun in 1992. His squashes during that period were some of my favourite ever. I know I've mentioned it before, but him destroying Marcus Alexander Bagwell is one of the best squashes I've ever seen. Easily top 3 anyway. Here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX4VoOR0czk

 

I don't think Barbarian was ever too much of a lug, he was always decent value. best Big Boot ever as well. Also, Bill Watts worked his arse off as regards pushing Tag Team Wrestling as something really really important, and meant the superb Rhodes and Windham tag team went pretty much full time, and the Miracle Violence Connection generally being awesome.

 

Also, Brad Armstrong got gold.

[Mark Out Media]

Lugs like the Barbarian

 

Barbarian was great fun in 1992. His squashes during that period were some of my favourite ever. I know I've mentioned it before, but him destroying Marcus Alexander Bagwell is one of the best squashes I've ever seen. Easily top 3 anyway. Here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX4VoOR0czk

To be fair, I liked Cactus Jack's role as the demented manager. He managed Jake Roberts, the Barbarian and Tony Atlas. They did some really good stuff together.

 

My problem was that the Barbarian replaced Vader in the main events. Going from Sting vs. Vader to Simmons vs. Barbarian was quite the drop in quality.

[wandshogun09]

Can't believe I forgot Doc & Gordy. One of the highlights of that period.

 

And yeah I agree with Butch, The Barbarian was great. Scary as fuck and I honestly think he could've made a good go at the heavyweight scene if he'd been given a better chance. He went from squashes to fighting for the belt so no-one bought it. If he'd been battering the Bagwell's, Joey Maggs' etc for a few months then moved up to beating the likes of Pillman, Rhodes and stuff I think he'd have been a more believable threat to the title.

 

Always thought he was underrated in the ring actually too. He was good in the ring, had a great look, didn't need to talk cause he had Cactus and his big boot finish was the shit. Test (RIP) had nowt on it.

 

EDIT - fair point though Mark Out, I dunno if it would've worked with 2 monster heels at the time and as much as I love the Barbarian I do think Vader was slightly better. Probably why Barbarian's main event run didn't last.

[Stately Wayne Manor]

This was the year I started watching wrestling too. WCW Worldwide was on at about 1:00 in the morning and I used to sneak downstairs to watch it. Loved it. Superbrawl (with the full Liger/Pillman match) was superb, so was War Games, Beach Blast and the GAB.

 

The talent they had was fantastic and although they lost the Steiners, they replaced them for a short time with AJPW "Dr Death" Steve Willliams & Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, who where one of the greatest tag teams ever.

 

Altough I have a great respect for Bill Watts, the product did start to suffer after he came on board, and by the time end of the year came, he had fallen out and alienated so many wrestlers that the product did suffer.

 

Still his last PPV Superbrawl 3 (and I know that was 1993) remains one of the finest PPV shows ever.

 

I was fortunate enough to attend the Jacksonville FL 1992 PPV and, man, was everybody psyched about Watts coming in. He was the returning Prodigal Son who had booked the old UWF into one of the most exciting promotions ever...or so we thought. Sadly, he was out of touch and a massive failure with IMO dumb ideas (wrestlers were no longer allowed to come off the top, for one). Nonetheless, to echo the sentiments so many have posted here, it was a very good time to be a WCW fan.

[air_raid]

Sadly, he was out of touch and a massive failure with IMO dumb ideas (wrestlers were no longer allowed to come off the top, for one).

 

I was about to try and write all of Bill's daft rules, but then realized I was actually reciting the Province Of Quebec rules.

[uwc39]

1992 WCW was the same as it was during most of Ted Turner's ownership - good but could've been a whole lot better.

 

It was also the last time in my view that Jim Ross was any good as an announcer. Controversial opinion I know.

[Taylorslade]

It always seemed that in the UK, for whatever reason, WCW was always seen as the "cheap alternative" to the WWF, of course that is ridiculously unjust and unfair, but that was definatley the way WCW was viewed by fans in the UK, certainly amongst everyone I knew from school and around where I lived. They all had the same opinion, so I imagine it was the same in other parts of the country. They all watched it, but it was certainly second choice to the WWF, and that didn't really change. During the peak years for Nitro in 96-98, I knew loads of people who watched Nitro first, then catch the repeat of Raw, as Nitro started at 9pm on TNT and Raw would air at 10pm on Sky sports, but they would air a repeat somewhere between 12 and 1am. Myself, I watched Nitro straight through and then Raw, but when they brought Thunder into the mix, I watched that after Nitro before watched the Raw that I recorded earlier. Anyway, during Nitro's peak years of 96-98, I was very much into the WCW product but you could only enjoy the product a certain amount without being able to see the PPV's. I've always believed that no matter which company was seen as the best in the US or anywhere else, the WWF was always ahead of WCW in the UK. It would of been interesting to see how WCW could of done over here had we been able to see the PPV's, instead of them just throwing the Nitro and Thunder tapings in a tin and sending it over.

 

It's a shame that WCW had that kind of image here, especially in the 1992 era which you guys were talking about, as that was an incredible time for the company in terms of the in-ring product and some of the personalities they had. Even back then when I watched WCW as a very young child, I remember noticing how much more intense the matches were, compared to that of the WWF.

 

 

Thinking back, I even remember that the WCW galoob figures were also saw as second rate by the kids back then. Of course though, I think most toys paled in comparison to the fucking awesome WWF Hasbro's. The WCW figures did have one thing which was thought to be a bonus by us kids back then, and that was the fact that every figure came with a title belt.

[Mr Mojo Rising]

It always seemed that in the UK, for whatever reason, WCW was always seen as the "cheap alternative" to the WWF, of course that is ridiculously unjust and unfair, but that was definatley the way WCW was viewed by fans in the UK, certainly amongst everyone I knew from school and around where I lived. They all had the same opinion, so I imagine it was the same in other parts of the country. They all watched it, but it was certainly second choice to the WWF, and that didn't really change. During the peak years for Nitro in 96-98, I knew loads of people who watched Nitro first, then catch the repeat of Raw, as Nitro started at 9pm on TNT and Raw would air at 10pm on Sky sports, but they would air a repeat somewhere between 12 and 1am. Myself, I watched Nitro straight through and then Raw, but when they brought Thunder into the mix, I watched that after Nitro before watched the Raw that I recorded earlier. Anyway, during Nitro's peak years of 96-98, I was very much into the WCW product but you could only enjoy the product a certain amount without being able to see the PPV's. I've always believed that no matter which company was seen as the best in the US or anywhere else, the WWF was always ahead of WCW in the UK. It would of been interesting to see how WCW could of done over here had we been able to see the PPV's, instead of them just throwing the Nitro and Thunder tapings in a tin and sending it over.

 

It's a shame that WCW had that kind of image here, especially in the 1992 era which you guys were talking about, as that was an incredible time for the company in terms of the in-ring product and some of the personalities they had. Even back then when I watched WCW as a very young child, I remember noticing how much more intense the matches were, compared to that of the WWF.

 

 

Thinking back, I even remember that the WCW galoob figures were also saw as second rate by the kids back then. Of course though, I think most toys paled in comparison to the fucking awesome WWF Hasbro's. The WCW figures did have one thing which was thought to be a bonus by us kids back then, and that was the fact that every figure came with a title belt.

 

 

 

 

I remember the same thing, it was always looked upon as the cheap alternative to the WWF, Probably the production values did not help at the time.

I always remember one lad at school who always use to say WCW was crap and the wrestlers were rubbish compared to the WWF, He later tried to prove his point when The Bulldog and Jake Roberts signed for WCW and they were promoted to Main Event Status, when in the WWF, they was only mid card at best.

 

 

Having said that I loved WCW in that era. Ron Simmons Title run was fantastic and I was totally sucked in by the first Black American Champion angle they had going on.

[garynysmon]

Yup, was the same round my neck of the woods.

 

Interestingly enough, more people used to watch WCW though as it was on free TV, wheras not everyone had Sky.

[air_raid]

Interestingly enough, more people used to watch WCW though as it was on free TV, wheras not everyone had Sky.

 

Worldwide FTW. Loved those Ron Simmons/Ice Train vs Tex Slazenger/Shanghai Pierce main events, that occasionally didn't finish before the show went off the air.