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Kamala's Random WCW Bullshit thread

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I really appreciate Riggs trying to reinvent himself in ECW as Scotty Anton but it really missed the mark with me and only brought down RVD if anything. "The Clap" was something that would have worked a few years earlier but not in 2000!
 
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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Putting Mike Awesome aside (which is a pretty damn big aside, literally and figuratively), it didn't seem like there was the same animosity between WCW and ECW in 2000 that there was a few years earlier which is why THE CLAP was treated with more bemusement than hatred.

By '00, the WCW-ECW dynamic seemed closer to competitors than the big corporate bully-scrappy underdog relationship they had in the mid-late '90s.
 
Big Papa Paegan

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That's because Bischoff wasn't calling the shots and doing locker room raids anymore. In hindsight, no shit those guys wanted to be better paid (or paid at all), but I remember going online in late '99 and still hearing about the mole in the locker room in '96/'97.

Going to the WWF was fine, because the fans respected Vince. Going to WCW was bad, because Bischoff was a smarmy prick.
 
BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
Irish King Kamala said:
I get sense that WCW always wanted Riggs to be a bigger deal than he was. At least on the same level as his former American Male partner BUFF.

They tried a lot of different ways to get him over (plucky babyface, Flock member, Narcissist rip-off) before throwing in the towel and letting him go to ECW.
Click to expand...
IIRC Bischoff (Was he back on non NWO commentary?!?! that's who I remember) buried the last gimmick as a Mr Wonderful Knock off on the air as Riggs came to the ring with a mirror.
 
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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BruiserBrody said:
IIRC Bischoff (Was he back on non NWO commentary?!?! that's who I remember) buried the last gimmick as a Mr Wonderful Knock off on the air as Riggs came to the ring with a mirror.
Click to expand...
Bischoff showed up occasionally in the Summer of '99 as a straight shooting, occasional guest color commentator. He even semi-openly admitted that the product sucked and they were doing their best to improve things.

I love that Bischoff's huge plan to get WCW back into the hunt for top promotion was NEW YEAR'S EVIL!

Really though, I feel NBA lockout ending at 11th hour, really messed up WCW cause NBC was planning on airing 4-5 prime time specials to fill in the time slots left vacant from a canceled season. Including one airing at the same time at WrestleMania XV. WWF still would've won the war but it would've prolonged. I think Bischoff said in his book that Turner might have put the kibosh on it anyway cause they didn't want WCW airing on a competing network.
 
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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
Irish King Kamala said:
Bischoff showed up occasionally in the Summer of '99 as a straight shooting, occasional guest color commentator. He even semi-openly admitted that the product sucked and they were doing their best to improve things.

I love that Bischoff's huge plan to get WCW back into the hunt for top promotion was NEW YEAR'S EVIL!

Really though, I feel NBA lockout ending at 11th hour, really messed up WCW cause NBC was planning on airing 4-5 prime time specials to fill in the time slots left vacant from a canceled season. Including one airing at the same time at WrestleMania XV. WWF still would've won the war but it would've prolonged. I think Bischoff said in his book that Turner might have put the kibosh on it anyway cause they didn't want WCW airing on a competing network.
Click to expand...
I don't think a turd on Network TV will help any more than not putting a turd on Network TV. See WWE's SNME revival and the Tribute to the Troops.
 
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If Bischoff is to be believed...which is a pretty huge if...they were going to do PPV level cards for the NBC specials (Goldberg/Hogan II, the Carmen Electra/Dennis Rodman in ring wedding DIVORCE). Maybe WrestleMania XV would've been less ass if WCW was still pulling out the big guns.
 
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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Well, we got to consider Bischoff's reputation for giving away PPV level matches on Nitro. If he had gotten airtime on the #1 US Network at the time, I'm sure he would have given a lot of dumb stuff away and not done a glorified house show on TV like the '00s SNME.

Not saying that WCW on NBC specials would have changed the course of the Monday Night Wars but I think they might have prevented the nosedive for another 6-12 months. I think people forget how much of a backlash there was to WWF's dominance in '99. It's not that every wrestling fan loved WWF in Spring and Summer of '99, their popularity was surging cause it was trendy, edgy BS that was perfect for 1999 pop culture.
 
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I had no idea WCW let Tank Abbott work NWA Wildside to try and salvage something after he stopped working on TV.

We were this close to Tank Abbott Vs AJ Styles (or Tank Abbott Vs Abyss)
 
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Tank Abbott is really emblematic of the chaotic nature of '00 WCW. He was a high profile signing that went from "We'll shield him by having him do midcard sideshow matches." to "Well. Crap. Maybe we should hotshot him to the main event ('Give him the World Title, bro!') while he still has name value." to "Frig it. Just make him a comedy guy." to released in like a six month time span.
 
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My guess is he probably got grandfathered in. Late '98/early '99 is when Time Warner started micromanaging so I wouldn't be surprised if Hardcore Hak's wardrobe was a byproduct of that.
 
Big Papa Paegan

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It could also be that Hak was wearing major properties and Raven always favored indie stuff, often of bands or artists that greatly appreciated the exposure.

(Because I discovered Nevermore and Suicidal Tendencies that way.)
 
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