Rewatching WCW

[Magnum Milano]

Yeah, there's a ton of pure randomness on those Disney tapings from Orlando; like when the New Japan guys came in towards the end of 1995, and you have Jushin Liger vs Barry Houston with Houston obviously having the time of his life working with Liger and busting out a Northern Lights suplex on the floor among other hot moves.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, Magnum Milano said:

And Frank Andersson gets a strange push that is exclusive only to the European syndicated shows.

Ah, Frank. One of many acts that I saw on ITV and in the intervening years have never seen wrestle since. See also : Thunder & Lightning, whose finish I bought into as brilliant on a Power-Plex level.

[PowerButchi]

I really dug him as a lad. His suplexes were ace., It always seemed like they were angling towards him vs Pittman eventually.

[PowerButchi]

FRANK ANDERSSON RELEASED A SINGLE

 

 

[Cannibal Man]

Had enough time to blitz through a Great Muta in WCW best of and a DOOM best of recently. Never seen much of DOOM before this but they're one of those teams I liked based on look alone. First few matches they've got these horrifying sex murderer masks on and fuck off evil cloaks, both look the part from the off and the matches are spectacular. Obviously not technical masterpieces but the kind of tag stuff WCW seemed perfect at earlier on as in just four enormous fucking men go mental for 12 minutes. Also realised, if you look at Teddy Long with a flashier bandana on from behind it looks like he's got a Pentagon mask on.

Great Muta was mostly jobbers getting fucked in. Can't get enough of that.

[Boycie]

Just on the last episode of 1996 now. Been watching from the first Nitro and I've enjoyed it on the whole. I never watched much of it at the time. 

I've enjoyed the cruiserweight stuff (they were way ahead of the WWF in that regard). 

Really like the nWo stuff, though it kind of got ruined by having way too many members and the likes of Big Bubba and Scott Norton hardly screams 'elite group'. 

There seems to be a lot of random matches where two guys just get paired together with no story or build. 

As I said, it's an enjoyable show for the most part. Looking forward to seeing what 1997 brings. 

[BomberPat]

I honestly think the NWO stuff was going downhill long before it started to get bloated with the Buff Bagwells and Scott Nortons of the world.

I rewatched some early NWO stuff recently, and Nash and Hall still feel genuinely cool and dangerous in those first few appearances, and even knowing how it all went down, they feel like something outside of the norm. There's a real sense of them as an actual outside threat.

The Bash At The Beach main event is spectacularly booked and presented. I don't think the commentators refer to Kevin Nash by name the whole time, he's just "The Big Guy", while Scott Hall probably only gets named twice. It really hammers home the sense of them as something other. It's booked so well around not knowing who the third man is, too, and it's easy to forget that when the ending has become so famous. Lex Luger is taken out super early, and not from anything particularly substantial, which is enough to sow some doubt that maybe he could come back out later as the third man - after all, he jumped ship from the WWF too. But then Sting is the one responsible for Luger being taken out, so it could be him - and I suspect the match was structured that way with Sting as Plan B in mind.
Randy Savage fights a brilliant underdog babyface match and a great hot tag, even after taking a horrific blow to the neck when he doesn't roll out of the way of a Kevin Nash elbow drop in time - that potential injury only adds to the sense of urgency and danger, in fact. And when Hogan comes out, it feels justified because it's only after Savage has been hit by a low blow, so it feels like a natural point for a babyface save.

 

It's honestly within a matter of months that it loses all of that sense of being a genuine outside threat, though. The Giant joining the stable doesn't make any sense in kayfabe terms, and dilutes any sense of them as ex-WWF guys trying to take over WCW. Ted DiBiase coming in makes sense in terms of him being "the money" behind the nWo, but he adds nothing to their act, and is rendered redundant once Bischoff is revealed as part of the group. Fake Sting is extremely heavy-handed, and going to that well so quickly after Bash At The Beach feels like trying to catch lightning in a bottle again with another "but who's the other guy on the team?" angle. Before long you get Virgil in the group, and who wants that?

It really doesn't take long until the whole group and how they're booked starts to feel just as much of a "but does it work for the Hulk, brother?" situation as the Dungeon of Doom ever did - it stops being about these cool heels from the WWF trying to take down WCW, and starts to become about Hulk and his cronies doing what they want. And while Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were genuinely cool, Hogan never was.

 

Basically, beyond that first promo, once Hogan's involved it starts to feel like a wrestling angle. Before that it felt real.

Edited January 25, 2021 by BomberPat

[Chili]

Was Frank Andersson ever pegged to do anything but european exclusive matches. I think he's really fun looking back, but he would have been what a World War III entrant at best?

[PowerButchi]

I've found a couple of matches of him on Prime on youtube but they're in a vacuum vs jobbers.

[PowerButchi]

33 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I honestly think the NWO stuff was going downhill long before it started to get bloated with the Buff Bagwells and Scott Nortons of the world.

Vicious and Delicious were great. Mug off Wallstreet and Big Bri all you want and I'd defend you for doing so, but V&D were a highlight.  Also possibly the best tag team name in history.

[BomberPat]

52 minutes ago, PowerButchi said:

Vicious and Delicious were great. Mug off Wallstreet and Big Bri all you want and I'd defend you for doing so, but V&D were a highlight.  Also possibly the best tag team name in history.

I'm a massive Scott Norton mark, so it's not a criticism of him (or Bagwell, though I'm team Stars & Stripes on that count), more a criticism of them as part of the nWo rather than their own deal. 

[RancidPunx]

6 hours ago, Chili said:

Was Frank Andersson ever pegged to do anything but european exclusive matches. I think he's really fun looking back, but he would have been what a World War III entrant at best?

You know , I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Frank Andersson match ??

Erm......... , In a question i didn’t see myself asking today , what’s Frank Andersson’s best match ?

[kidzero]

I watched nitros clash's and ppv from 9-96 they were mostly enjoyable ..I but I skipped ahead to late 97 in to 98 it was a hard watch the  cheeseyness of Hogan was unbearable

[BomberPat]

Frank actually had a comeback a few years ago for STHLM in wrestling - I've done a couple of matches with some of their talent, and they were super excited to have him there. 

He rocks the tough old man look.

 

[Chili]

Chip Minton, he was another olympic athlete who accomplished less than Chad Brock did. Think he was in one of the WW3 matches and literally nothing else I can remember.

Had to look up a Barry Houston match thinking it must have been a renamed Sam Houston, nope different dude. The hell was he? He stuff looks pretty solid.