Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Paid Members

It's certainly better than Uncensored 96. Maybe not as enjoyable, but Uncensored 96 is entertaining for all the wrong reasons 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
11 hours ago, AshC said:

So, I've found the great unloved WCW PPV of yesteryear.... Bash at the Beach 1997!

I absolutely loved it. I picked it up when that random company (using the same boxart template as Silver Vision, looking at the spines) released a stack of 97 shows and continued up to SuperBrawl IX. I ended up owning all of them except Fall Brawl 98 which was the drizzles.

Most of those shows of 1997 were belters up to probably World War 3, loaded with enjoyable matches. There were great “workrate” matches but most of the ones involving less Meltzer-friendly wrestlers told decent stories or got you invested in outcomes. The WWE myth is that the undercards were good but the main events were rubbish but that’s bollocks, most of the nWo main events were fun in the storyline/pantomime style in exactly the same way old WWF Hogan/Warrior goodies and baddies stuff was. The TV told a decent story so you were interested in what happened next. And if Sting was going to turn up.

I 100% agree with you that Flair vs Piper was really fun and better than it should have been. Due to TNT hacking Nitro up into an hour in the UK at the time and me not bothering to read WCW results on the net yet, I actually didn’t know the match had happened at all until the tape was delivered so I was able to watch it unspoiled. Great storytelling match.

From the same era Spring Stampede and Slamboree are both really enjoyable shows start to finish with great “wrestling match” matches and two great soap opera main events - DDP vs Macho Man and Flair/Piper/Greene vs Outsiders/Syxx. My personal pick for overlooked gems from the timeframe are (if you can still watch him) the two hard hitters Benoit had with Meng at Slamboree and Great American Bash.

If you enjoyed Bash at the Beach, you should also go watch Uncensored 97 for an absolutely bonkers main event. Rumble style entry team vs team vs team gauntlet with elimination via pin, submission or over the top - Hogan, Savage & The Outsiders vs Luger, Giant & The Steiners vs Piper, Benoit, Mongo & Jarrett. With a cameo from Rodman. And Sting turns up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Middle of WCW 89 and Terry Funk is holding the fort as the top heel in the company. There's not many to choose from really. After piledriving Flair through the table at WrestleWar. He's out injured whilst Funk is mowing down jobbers every week on TV. On 17th June show, he's got Cougar Jay to annihilate. Straight from the tie-up, Funk grabs Jay's head and launches him through the middle ropes. His foot catches the rope on the way out and he flies face first to the outside. After Funk's customary win, he gets out of the ring and stands nose to nose with a fan, not saying a word. His mate starts hollering "get out of his face boy, get out of his face." Funk's 45 at this point. Then the fan just shouts "Fuck you" at Funk as he walks off without saying a word  They then cut to Funk's famous jackass promo about Ric Flair.

Also on this show is the debut of Mike Awesome as a jobber, with his partner Rock Hard Rick. Can't go wrong with a name like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If we're on a WCW 97 kick, let me share this lovely gem. 

It's the WCW/nWo Takeover show from Germany in June 1997. Its a tidy two hour DSF special with a really nice card that has a bit of something for everyone, and of course Das Wunderkind. Well worth your time. Was WCW bigger in Germany? 

Full card: Alex Wright/Hugh Morrus, Luna/Madusa, Harlem Heat/Steiners, DDP/Wallstreet, Malenko/Mysterio, Benoit/Meng, Outsiders/Luger & Giant. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
1 hour ago, Chili said:

If we're on a WCW 97 kick, let me share this lovely gem. 

It's the WCW/nWo Takeover show from Germany in June 1997. Its a tidy two hour DSF special with a really nice card that has a bit of something for everyone, and of course Das Wunderkind. Well worth your time. Was WCW bigger in Germany? 

Full card: Alex Wright/Hugh Morrus, Luna/Madusa, Harlem Heat/Steiners, DDP/Wallstreet, Malenko/Mysterio, Benoit/Meng, Outsiders/Luger & Giant. 

That video’s worth it for the guy doing the live dubbing of the “New-New-New World Order” sound bites and whatnot for The Outsiders’ entrance music.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Your Fight Site said:

That video’s worth it for the guy doing the live dubbing of the “New-New-New World Order” sound bites and whatnot for The Outsiders’ entrance music.

It's where I first knew of it, but the actual card is fantastically watchable. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
20 minutes ago, AshC said:

Bit puzzling that they didn't come to England for a couple of shows, having already come all this way.

No WCW here between autumn 1994 and spring 2000...

True. They also had stronger TV than the WWF for most of that time (given Cartoon Network/TNT didn't need a subscription).

Even the Dynamite Kid could watch that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
16 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

True. They also had stronger TV than the WWF for most of that time (given Cartoon Network/TNT didn't need a subscription).

The Cartoon Network/TNT switchover was my first exposure to regular wrestling. Even in 1999/2000 where everything was falling apart for them, my innocent mind thought it was superb. It was quite a contrast going from Johnny Bravo to Cow and Chicken, and then to WCW Nitro, but welcome nonetheless. Made for my first glimpses of people like Goldberg, Sting, Booker T, archive clips of Hogan still doing the rounds, etc. Had I been born a few years earlier, I think the nWo story would have absolutely blown my mind at that age. 

For some reason I thought Lance Storm was a proper star and the coolest human I'd ever seen - this was around the time he was wearing about 50 different belts with the Canadian flag plastered over them. I didn't even know Canada was a place. And 'STORM' as a name? He must be decent!

After watching him for a couple of weeks, he eventually got a crack at Booker T and the WCW title. It's the first full match I can remember thinking was the bollocks and I genuinely thought Storm might nick it. Bloody Booker. 

On another episode, Sting is supposed to face Booker for the WCW title, and Goldberg (who'd been on a mad one) took him out on his way to the ring. Psycho heel-Goldberg is another one of those that you look at now and think 'that didn't work', but at the time I was genuinely scared he'd beat up all of my favourites. The bald twat. I've had it in for him ever since. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
8 hours ago, AshC said:

Bit puzzling that they didn't come to England for a couple of shows, having already come all this way.

No WCW here between autumn 1994 and spring 2000...

This the same company that hired Bret Hart in late 1997 then didn’t book a show in Canada until 1999.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
3 hours ago, air_raid said:

This the same company that hired Bret Hart in late 1997 then didn’t book a show in Canada until 1999.

For all the talk of the bad booking of Bret in WCW, this is the biggest shocker of them all, isn't it? The opportunities Bret should have opened up in the Canadian market possibly even outweighed the selling point of having the most recent WWF Champion jumping ship, it's a license to print money.

When people talk about WCW's mistakes, it's almost always janky booking, and never complete own goals like that, or the generally ballsing it up at every turn approaching to booking live events and tours. 

 

I don't think I ever saw WCW on TNT! When Cartoon Network switched over, it was always to a black and white old movie, or at least an advert for Turner Classics, and nothing could have signaled "THIS IS AN OLD PERSON'S CHANNEL" any stronger for me. I must have seen adverts for it, though, because when I was watching WWF for the first time as a kid, I was definitely aware of there being other wrestling out there. I think I've said on here before how, in my head, starting watching wrestling as Hogan was gradually phasing out from the WWF, but before he turned up in WCW, I knew that other wrestling must exist because I knew Hulk Hogan was a thing, and he wasn't on the shows I was watching. But then I also knew Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks existed, so I assumed that whatever WCW was, it must be where they were too. 

Edited by BomberPat
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
6 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

But then I also knew Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks existed, so I assumed that whatever WCW was, it must be where they were too. 

Well, for a hot minute Giant Haystacks was there, but I know what you mean. Once WCW Worldwide stopped being shown in my ITV region I never saw anything WCW until my mate rented WCW vs The World on the N64 and I couldn’t get over Hogan on the box.

Also, didn’t TNT on start showing Nitro in the UK in 97/8?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
6 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Also, didn’t TNT on start showing Nitro in the UK in 97/8?

1997 at the absolute latest. The first I saw was from the night after Uncensored. Sting showed up. That’s probably why I watched the week after. And for another 83 weeks or so thereafter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...