WRESTLING 20 YEARS AGO PODCAST

Listen to our November 1996 WWF podcast, reviewing Sid's title victory over Shawn Michaels in what surely was one of the best matches of his career.

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It probably wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the WWF in the middle of 1996 were looking for something; anything to help them out of a rut. With Bret Hart on hiatus, and Kevin Nash and Scott Hall not only no longer under contract, but also beginning to tear it up in Atlanta, the WWF were short of star power. More than that, though, they were really short of hope. Shawn Michaels finally had a clear run on top, but no-one to face. Vader, through nobody’s fault but the company’s itself, was falling a little flat, and they were looking to stars from the past like Jake Roberts and The Ultimate Warrior just to fill in gaps of their talent. And then, and this should hardly come as much of a surprise, Warrior got suspended. 

The suspension was contentious, Warrior no-showed some events following a legal dispute and the death of his father. The relationship between him and Vince McMahon had deteriorated (again) and Warrior was on suspension. Even though he was working some brief matches at live events, there was no doubt that he was still a big draw – as was indicated when his return to Raw in April spiked a record rating in a rare week where Nitro wasn’t airing. Warrior’s flame was burning out, quickly, but at least he had one. The timing of the suspension, at the very end of June, also preceded by a few weeks a planned main event that featured him alongside Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson. 

So, in a time of need, who do you call? Well, the first man they called was Bret Hart – as you would. I mean, the July pay per view was in Canada after all, and it was following on the coat-tails of another six-man main event with a mystery third member. Still, Bret was in the middle of a well-earned period of time away – even if the story of him having Shawn’s back actually might have worked well here. One they couldn’t work out a deal with Bret, the cupboard was already looking pretty bare. But Sid. 

It’s possible that no man that has been pushed so much based on look alone has had so little to back it up. Yet, wherever Sid went he was pushed: he went from being a Horseman in WCW, to a Wrestlemania main eventer against Hulk Hogan in 1992, back to being the star in waiting at the end of 1993 before a fight with Arn Anderson saw him fired. In 1995 he returned to the WWF to be a heavy for Shawn Michaels, but quickly went it alone when Shawn’s babyface turn became an inevitability. He and Diesel had a feud that was just dreadful, and he spent the rest of the time being just a really flat heel as a part of the Million Dollar Corporation that just seemed to be stable of losers. He lasted until the very first Raw in 1996, before leaving after suffering a neck injury. At that stage, he wasn’t over, nor was he any good.

But, needs must. Vince McMahon put in the call and rustled up Sid on short notice. With all of the TV taped ahead of the pay per view, the best they could do was a teaser throughout Raw from a studio with Shawn and Ahmed teasing their opponent before revealing him at the end. On the week before the show they managed to film an angle at a live event that saw Michaels and Johnson get lead into a three on two trap only for Sid to steam in from right of screen in a car, wipe out a load of pallets and just get there as the heels had left. In the circumstances of two taped shows, they’d worked miracles to have two weeks works on angles that not only worked but actually probably did a better job at getting Sid over than anything they’d done the year prior. Still, a pay per view in Canada – they’d have to start all over again, right?

The card itself was a five match show with well, not very much on the undercard. The month after Steve Austin won King Of The Ring he was facing Marc Mero as he descended down the card for the next few months. Mankind and Undertaker, who’s feud was now in full swing, took a break from each other in matches against Henry O’Godwin and Goldust respectively and opening up was the never ending black hole of the WWF’s tag division in 1996 with the Smoking Gunn’s facing The Bodydonnas. As was obvious a mile off – where you’re short on talent and you put them all in the six man main event – don’t be surprised if the rest of the card sucks. Still, we were in Canada, and they wanted somebody to cheer…

And then Sid came out. Maybe it was fans just looking for someone fresh to cheer? Maybe it was respect for a guy who was a former Wrestlemania main eventer. Maybe it was just the only guy they liked – as we’d see later in the year Shawn was really struggling to win over the male section of the audience. But somewhere the people of Vancouver got the memo – Sid was the biggest babyface in the building.

The match itself was barmy, given plenty of time to breath and all six guys having their working boots on it went the better part of 25 minutes. In front of a hot crowd everyone had an incentive to make this match work – and it did. Even Vader, who as I’ve written previously was usually booked pretty badly, was on the receiving end of a positive, pinning Michaels after Jim Cornette had cut off his attempt at hitting a sweet chin music. Still, Sid was the guy left standing at the end, hitting both Owen and Bulldog with powerbombs to send the crowd home happy. 

But one night would be a freak, right? The next day they flew from Vancouver to Seattle for Raw tapings – Sid appeared twice and again, with no real explanation, received a heroes welcome. Finding an explanation is not a particularly easy one. This wasn't 2-3 years later, where there were so many over guys it oftentimes translated into everyone being over. This was the pits of 1996 – but maybe that is the point. With Bret away, Diesel and Razor gone, fans just yearned for someone to cheer for – while Shawn was on top he wasn't exactly the first round pick for many adult males who watched the product. 

Maybe it was just the thing it always was, Sid *looked* like a star. Not when he was in the ring, mind – not that it particularly mattered in this era. But if Sid looked like a star, and he smelt like a star, and his star burned (if feintly) more brightly than everyone elses... then he was a star, right? That was all that mattered. Never mind his matches were often dreadful, nor that his promos often made no sense... it all added to the aura of Sid Eudy, and in the midst of 1996 that's all he really needed.

Fascinating to think, though, is what happens if Warrior doesn't fall out with Vince and the company? Talk about a guy who's star burned brightly, Warrior's shelf life in 1996 was always beginning to feel coming to a close barely weeks after he started. He no-sold Triple H's pedigree at Wrestlemania, popped a monster TV rating a couple of weeks later then "wrestled" (and I use that term loosely) one of the worst matches of the year – all in the space of about four weeks. Come the end of June Warrior's main use was really as a house show "attraction", another term I'd use loosely – less to do with his drawing power and more to do with the scope of matches they were putting on. 

The other player in all of this was Vader. Vader was on a stop/start lift straight to the top, well... if you ignored the fact he was often losing at house shows (usually to Warrior) and the booking of his run to that point had been pretty ropey. If you squinted hard enough you might just be able to make out a mega-push of the WWF's top heel. Still, he was up to facing Shawn Michaels at Summerslam, time to make amends? 

Well Vader won... then he won again... problem was the first was by count out and the second by disqualification. Both times the match was restarted – he then kicked out of a superkick (a rare feat in itself) before overplaying his hand after Jim Cornette convinced him to go for a moonsault rather than a Vader bomb. Michaels moved and pinned Vader. Again – Vader had an "out" (he always did) but much like Lex Luger three years earlier, he'd done everything but win the title. 

Vader and Sid came to a head in October in a "Battle of the Powerbombs" match to decide the number one contender. Plans at the time called for Vader to face Shawn again at Survivor Series, but after JJ Dillon traded a WWF office position for one in WCW, it was allegedly decided to change route because "WCW would know our plans". This, of course, sounds like bullshit – but it wouldn't be the first time they were doing something that made no sense. There was also the title of December's pay per view "In Your House: It's Time", that seemed to point to Vader being in a top spot.

As it was, in the battle of the move that neither man could do on the other, Sid defeated Vader via a chokeslam. The problems for Vader had started a lot sooner, but there's a case that his run was probably still salvageable at this stage – the beauty behind booking someone quite well is you can heat them up and just showcase the times you got it right. But once he lost to Sid it was probably too late. Things were moving forward at a pace with Bret Hart returning and picking out Steve Austin as his opponent for Survivor Series. 

It set Sid, suddenly, on a collision course with Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series. The Michaels story of 1996 is actually a strange one. WWF’s business went up in 1996 as they had their best year since Hulk Hogan departed, Michaels himself had a phenomenal year on top of the company and, in some ways, probably kept them afloat. It’s actually hard to comprehend how bad the WWF would have had it in 1996 had Michaels not been around or got injured. The summer of 1996 was, in some ways, dreadful. Raw’s were frequently irrelevant and often awful, but Michaels was a rare consistent light and again, it should be repeated – business was decent in 1996.

But this was 1996, and traditional metrics like house show sales and pay per view buyrates mattered less given that Raw was being beaten soundly by Nitro on a weekly basis, a problem exacerbated in May when Nitro went to two hours. As it was later described about 8-9 months later when Raw moved to two hours; Raw running 8-9pm while Nitro ran 8-10pm basically meant Raw was just acting as a great lead-in for Nitro’s second hour.

It all added up, Shawn was doing well but one man alone wasn’t capable of combating Nitro on a wave of ex-WWF talent. Michaels, as he would later testify, was also being worn down by WWF’s relentless schedule – one not necessarily unique to him as it would’ve arguably been a lot worse for Hulk Hogan a decade prior, but more that Michaels’ desire to put on a show ever night without any real backup (Hogan did it with an infinitely stronger ensemble cast) meant that things just unravelled.

Which made his match against Sid at Madison Square Garden an interesting one. It always seemed the plan that Shawn would be the man “returning the favour” for Bret at Wrestlemania in 1997, but Shawn holding the title for a year, barring an exceptionally strong run, seemed almost counter-productive. Once the Vader experiment had fallen short then step in Sid? The fact that Survivor Series would be held in New York provided an interesting backdrop for a champion babyface who was starting to wane on the fans and an act in Sid who couldn’t accurately be described as a heel or a face.

As it turned out, in the face of a crowd that probably at best started split when it came to who they favoured ended the match almost unanimously pro-Sid as Shawn’s male stripper act waned on the predominantly male section of the North Eastern fanbase. The evolving reaction added a level of fascination to an astonishingly good match. Sid, for all of his flaws and whirling punches did have an extra gear he could deploy when the time was right. Add that to a rabid crowd, a big match and the best performer in wrestling of 1996 and the match (arguably) was more impressive than the critically lauded Bret Hart vs Steve Austin match that happened earlier in the evening.

As it was, they had decided this was the right time to change the title. Before the month was out the company had formally announced that January’s Royal Rumble would be held in the 70,000 seat Alamodome in San Antonio – something on the surface was a ridiculous idea given the position of the company at the time. Still, San Antonio was Shawn Michaels’ home town, which made him a lock for the main event but also pretty much dictated that for the match to have any anticipation that he would have to go in as challenger, rather than champion.

So he lost. Michaels' manager Jose Lothario climbed on the apron, only for Sid to attack him, before Sid then lamped Shawn with a TV camera and pinned him following a powerbomb. Sid got a huge pop and we had a new champion. The angle was devised with the idea of at least attempting to keep/move Sid to being a heel – which given that his potential opponents as Champion (Bret, Undertaker and Shawn in his home town) did make some sense. It also gave Shawn the opportunity to have another conveniently scheduled period of time off, setting up Sid for a match with Bret at December's PPV.

The thing with motivating Sid for a big match is that well... if he doesn't want it, there's not much you can do. His match against Bret at December's In Your House Pay Per View was by any standards really bad (although, it should be said, Bret was not blameless in that capacity). It was a snoozer, complete with listless Shawn Michaels commentary and a really bad finish (Bret crashing into Shawn who inexplicably found himself on the apron) before Sid hit him with a powerbomb for the three. It was the latest in a string of events that would eventually set up a Bret Hart heel turn but in the short term setup Shawn chasing Sid for the title entering the Royal Rumble in San Antonio.

Trying to fill a 70,000 seat venue was a huge ask – hell it's a huge ask 20 years on and WWE are in a far stronger position now. The WWF threw everything they could at the problem: blacking out the PPV in the Greater-San Antonio area, booking a series of Mexican talent popular in the area and Terry Funk and also selling tickets at (by any standards) incredibly cheaply – lots less than $10 along with a heavily papered building. They ended up getting to 62,000 people – which regardless of how they got there was a phenomenal achievement and one that made things look major league for the first time since Hulk Hogan was with the company.

Despite all the build, despite the fractured response Shawn often received, come time for the match it was heavily pro-Shawn and heavily anti-Sid – in that sense, job done. The match wasn't close to their one two months prior, owing in part to Shawn being ill, but the crowd were into this match far more than anything else on the show, and popped big  when Shawn regained the title from Sid.

But much like Sid's reign was only designed to get the belt back to Shawn, it seems like the medium term coming out of this show was for Shawn to drop the belt back to Sid before Wrestlemania, with plans calling for the Shawn vs Bret rematch not to be for the title, enabling them to give the Undertaker/Sid title match equal billing on the card. That was the plan right up until "Thursday Raw Thursday" in February, where things changed quite quickly!

Quite who or what you believe will be down to your own levels of cynicism – suffice to say that Shawn told the company within 24 hours of the show that he would be forfeiting the title, ostensibly to have surgery on his knee that would see him out of action indefinitely. Shawn cut a promo that the live promo reacted to proportionately (by chanting "We want Sid") before leaving the ring and the title with Gorilla Monsoon. While there are no wider doubts over Shawn's knee problems – he'd been wrestling with knee braces on for a couple of years prior – the severity of the problem and perhaps more pertinently the immeadiacy of them cast doubts. Wrestling was full of talent who worked hurt for the "greater good", couldn't Shawn work through Wrestlemania then take the time off to get healed?

If you want to be a bit more cynical, Shawn – as he often would – was creating or exaggerating to avoid dropping the title that he held. As he did in 1993, as he did in 1994, as he did in 1995 – in fact the only title in the three and a half years that we'd been doing the show Shawn lost in the ring was the defeat to Sid three months prior. Funny that. Whether he was wanting to avoid jobbing to Sid on that Raw, Bret at Wrestlemania or (most likely) both. Shawn's knee surgery story along with his general state of mind at the time (said to be a lot of things, few of them particularly positive) - probably added up the most likely version of events.

So the WWF pivoted quickly, axing the planned title match for that Raw, changing Sunday's number one contender four-way between Bret, Austin, Undertaker and Vader into a title match and then guaranteeing Sid a shot a the victor the Monday after. After one of the best WWF matches in years, Bret won the title by dumping Undertaker over the top rope to start his forth title reign. That lasted 24 hours when Sid defeated Bret thanks to interference from Steve Austin – who slipped into the role of Bret's Wrestlemania opponent quite nicely in Shawn's absence.

It was a hell of a lot of work to get there – Sid would have to fend off Bret once again in a title match six days prior to Wrestlemania, in what has to go down as one of the most bizarre builds to a Wrestlemania ever, thanks in large part to a shift to Raw being two hours that threw existing taping schedules completely out of whack. While previously taping three or four Raw's at once, the doubling of the length meant they needed to add in extra dates at short notice – which would've been fine except the venues didn't really exist, and tours of Europe did. It all leant itself to a really odd build that focussed on, of all things, ECW and less on the matches themselves. The fact that Sid faced Bret in a title match a week prior to the show tells you a lot of what you need to know – the fact the buyrate for the show was the lowest for Wrestlemania by some distance says much more.

Not that it would likely have changed the result, but one thing that didn't work in Sid's favour was the TV rating of a match on March 3rd – taped in Berlin – against Mankind. The show, a dingy affair that drew the lowest non-holiday Raw rating in history, was complete by the title match in the middle of the show that drew a 1.5 segment rating, losing by 3 whole ratings points to a segment on Nitro that was so bad the previously impenetrable Roddy Piper ended up being booed. Sid was on a losing path headed into Wrestlemania as it was, but it really didn't help.

Still, Sid vs Undertaker was given the main event billing, something that in the shadow of a phenomenal match between Bret Hart and Steve Austin it was never likely to fit. Thanks to a warm crowd, multiple Bret Hart interferences and a ludicrous (for the time) spot where Sid countered the Tombstone into one of his own the match never got to the point where it was flat, but not for the first time Sid was the fall guy – dropping the title to Undertaker after one interference from Bret too many.

It's hard to put a final point on the Sid run. In some ways he was the beneficiary of circumstances right up until the time he wasn't. Plucked out of a softball league into a main event spot in the middle of one of the company's flattest runs ever, Sid was for a while the character the WWF had been lacking. But once he got swallowed up by politics and the necessities of cowering to more important acts, the one dimension that Sid had going for him fell apart. Ultimately, though, Sid was Sid – an incredibly limited character pushed because of his look and size – he was never going to be a wrestler a company could build themselves around (although, more the shame we never got to see WCW try three years earlier) - but he was still and important act at a very transitional time for the WWF. 

But that was always the way with Sid - he got pushed because of how he looked and, to an extent, his presence both in and out of the ring. Sid came on the tail end of the final era where size really mattered, and it's no real coincidence that people kept putting him in big spots, because the audiences by and large were always willing to accept him there. For a brief time in 1996 the WWF audience were willing to accept him as exactly that. And while he will be, by the defintion of the term, viewed as a two-time transitional champion in that term, he was more generally a "transitional" champion in the sense that between July 1996 and April 1997 a lot changed in the WWF. 

Listen to our February 1997 WCW podcast, reviewing Piper's antics in Alcatraz and his title match with Hogan. 

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In 1994 the WWF ran with a main event of Roddy Piper against Jerry Lawler at the King Of The Ring pay per view, ahead of both the King Of The Ring finale and Bret Hart’s first WWF title defence of his reign against Diesel. The match felt hideously out of place at a time when the WWF were simultaneously pushing the idea of the “New Generation”, but save a bit of time on Raw and the match itself it largely didn’t take up much time, and the then 40-year-old Piper disappeared, not to be seen on a wrestling show for another 18 months.  

Piper, on his day a tremendous promo, still probably had a place in wrestling in the 1990s – but the demands for him as an in-ring act were pretty low. When the WWF bought him back at the beginning of 1996 to fill in for President Gorilla Monsoon his role was exactly that – delivering a barmy promo while they were building a cage on February’s pay per view, then playing mediator between the jarringly respectful Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart ahead of their match at Wrestlemania. Following the suspension of Razor Ramon, Piper was bought onto the Wrestlemania card to oppose Goldust in a crazy match that involved a car chase and Goldust being stripped down to a full set of women’s underwear before he won the match. Once again, after the match Piper basically disappeared.  

It was all indicative of someone who was quite content with his place in the wrestling world. In the aftermath of Hulk Hogan’s arrival in WCW two years prior, Vince McMahon amidst his disappointment had spoken of his desire for Hogan to become the WWF’s Babe Ruth. I’m not well versed enough in Baseball to stretch that analogy much further, but Piper certainly would’ve fit into the category of a legendary main eventer that could be bought back sparingly as a special attraction. But, as had slowly been coming a pattern recently, money was beginning to talk, and loyalty was beginning to mean less and less if the price from Altanta was right. Within weeks of Mr Perfect walking out on the WWF mid-angle to sign a deal with WCW, Piper followed. 

Piper’s arrival was a surprise to just about everyone, walking out at the conclusion of the Halloween Havoc pay per view, after the NWO had dispatched of Randy Savage in an angle so decisive that it was designed, if need be, to write Savage off permanently if he didn’t sign a new contract. The promo – designed to begin the setup for Hogan vs Piper – went so long the show actually went off the air before they'd finished. Piper’s digs at Hogan were that Piper was just as important as Hogan was during the boom, even going as far to name-check Wrestlemania. Quite where the angle was supposed to finish it’s not sure, but despite Hogan’s efforts to hurry things along it just fizzled out as we ran out of time.  

Piper’s arrival came at an interesting time for WCW. In the midst of what could only be described as a “growing” phase of the NWO angle. As the group expanded from three at the end of August to a dozen by the end of November – the WCW had really struggled to find any kind of opposition as the New World Order dominated proceedings. With Savage gone, Flair injured and Sting undergoing a change of character initially designed to write him off so he could tape a movie and miss some dates to rebalance his contractual obligations – there wasn’t really an opposition to speak of. And Roddy Piper had no real plans of changing that.  

But, as much as I wanted to hate the angle, to hate WCW's misuse of resources (time on television, money and the guys who – full time – could be put in this spot), it really was hard to dislike Piper. His character on TV was honest, funny, and believable in an era still dominated by larger than life personas. Piper didn't align himself with WCW not, necessarily, because WCW sucked (although there was the implication) but because he didn't need anyone else. Even in the face of an NWO onslaught Piper never cried for help – he took his beating and came back from every one of them.  

It also helped that Piper was presented as and reacted to like the star he was. The announcers talked about him... constantly – every segment, every match the talk was about what Piper might do next, or how he might react to the previous actions of the NWO. Piper seemed bigger than everyone else, in the same way that Sting was walking around in his own universe so was Piper. It helped both of them get over, almost as if neither was guilty by association with what was left of WCW which, given that the Horsemen were busy occupied with themselves, seemed to be being spearheaded by Jim Duggan, of all people.  

Piper's arrival also preceded the heel turn of Eric Bischoff. It should be said that there's very little argument to suggest the turn was completely bungled: from how it was executed (randomly at the end of a Nitro with very little fan fare), to the absence of logic (how Bischoff had been the primary target of the NWO for months), to the justification behind it (Bischoff had something hot and wanted to be a part of it). But, even with all that in mind, it cannot be argued that Bischoff very, very quickly became accustomed to the role and thanks to his seniority on and off screen quickly became one of the best acts within a group that was quickly losing its edge.  

The NWO had gone from a renegade group of three guys to a bloated assembly of a mixed part of WCW's overall roster. The idea was to create NWO as a brand, and despite all of the flaws of that idea there could be no denying that, on a scale WCW wanted, the group had to expand. First it was the Giant (a big, if ultimately flawed turn), then it was fake Sting – which worked for the angle it was built for then quickly became a complete irrelevance. Then Syxx, then Nascar driver Kyle Petty – soon the group was in double figures. When Bischoff declared war on WCW, and gave everyone four weeks to "convert your WCW contracts into NWO ones", then Bagwell turned, then Bubba joined, then Scott Norton joined, then VK Wallstreet joined. All of a sudden being in the NWO wasn't cool anymore, unless your name was Hall or Nash.  

Piper was largely shielded from all of that, mind. There was a segment during the World War 3 pay per view (which had enough NWO problems as it was) where Piper's horrid looking scar from hip surgery was exposed as they made formal him vs World Champion Hogan at Starrcade five weeks later. Another huge beatdown on Piper who had no allies (he didn't ask for them) and kept getting back up (what doesn't kill him...) - Piper was a fucking badass, regardless of the rights and wrongs of how he was presented. And, come Starrcade, there was a real belief he could topple the World Champ. 

You'll notice I keep referring to Hogan as the World Champion – he was, that's not the issue, but you would've blindly assumed that any Piper vs Hogan match at WCW's biggest show of the year (in whas was being called "The Match Of the Decade" no less) would be for WCW's (or the NWO's) biggest prize. While WCW could correctly argue they never outright said it, the implication of the matchup was that Piper vs Hogan was for the title... but it wasn't.  

Which, of course, meant that Piper could beat Hogan – which he did. The crowd suitably popped for what should’ve been a title change and a match between two guys long past their best (and wrestled like it too) got through unscathed thanks to the tenure of both guys and, to WCW’s credit, how hard they’d promoted the match. But the problem with promoting a big match is that for it to matter or, more importantly, the next one to matter, it needs big consequences.  And while the big mistake WCW made was not promoting a match of such magnitude without the biggest title on the line, it was followed by something perhaps even worse.  

The next night on Nitro they had Bischoff and Hogan come out and pretend that Hogan won – straight up. And while you might think that delusional heel isn’t exactly the worst trait, the big mistake in the context was them not being called out on their bullshit. Or, at least, not doing it to anywhere near the degree that they should’ve. Art imitating life, people were scared to stand-up to Bischoff and Hogan, treated the match and the result like it didn't matter. And it *did matter* - Starrcade did just under 380,000 buys, Nitro the next evening did a 3.6 rating – most of those people didn't see the pay per view. 

And for a while that was it, Piper went away while WCW started (sorta) promoting and NWO-only pay per view and Hogan, Bischoff and everyone else went on like Roddy Piper wasn't the World Champion in all but name.  

Of course, though, this is Hulk Hogan, and whether he was saying it or not Hulk Hogan the person knew that - as they were building in the storyline prior to the Starrcade match – he still hadn't beaten Roddy Piper. Whether they were saying it or not, the record books would ultimately read Roddy Piper def. Hulk Hogan – and much like they would later do with The Ultimate Warrior and would attempt to do with Yokozuna – Hulk Hogan wanted all of his wins back.  

Which set the stage for the rematch. It was announced that Hogan and Piper would face-off at Superbrawl in February for the World Title. Except Piper didn't want to, he arrived with his child Colton in tow, to announce his retirement from in ring competition. The whole thing, somewhat hokey, went with Bischoff and Hogan goading Piper before Colton gave Piper the all clear to go after Hogan, Bischoff and the World Title.  

The promos continued to make little sense, hell – on the Nitro before the pay per view they filmed a promo of his in an actual cell inside Alcatraz (the PPV was in San Francisco). Piper lurched between once extreme and another, promising to spend seven days and seven nights inside the Rock before the match, "I'm not here to create the world, I'm hear to destroy Hulkamania". 

And that's how the pay per view started, Piper being lead out of the prison, charging across the courtyard and getting a boat headed for shore. It perhaps could've only been topped had Piper got into a raft he'd made himself out of rain jackets, but still it was a cool if bat-shit crazy way to open the pay per view. Quite frankly, if there was a line about Piper's run in WCW up until this stage the line "cool if bat-shit crazy" would probably sum it up.  

The match, much like the last one, was pretty predictable. Once again the crowd were invested, once again the action was pretty ropey – that didn't matter though. This time the match came to an end with Randy Savage (decked out in black and white) stood at ringside while Piper once again locked in the sleeper hold. Hogan once again collapsed. Hogan once again passed out. Piper, once again, won. Piper, once again, was champion. 

Once again – he wasn't. This one was for the title, but in the annals of fucked finishes, having Randy Savage retrospectively pull Hogan's legs under the bottom ropes ranks as a weak finish in anyone's books. The pop for Piper's win was huge, but Savage's actions so subtle and the angle so swift that it caught every by surprise. In theory, Savage's turn should've been a huge deal but in a slight of hand WCW had, well, overplayed theirs. The ref spotted his "error", restarted the match before Hogan nailed Piper with the knucks that Savage gave him and won the match.  

1996-1997 would be known as time that WCW could do no wrong – and in a lot of ways that was correct. But WCW's lax, lazy attitude to match stipulations and following through on promises would ultimately harm them in the long term. But despite all the reservations you might have about Piper's return, his first 4-5 months with the company were excellent.  

Listen to our November 1996 WCW podcast, reviewing WCW World War 3.

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WWF Tag Team Division – exhales... I mean, tag team wrestling has always traditionally been overrated – in the sense that the "depth" of a division is usually infinite providing the top two teams are really good (see Beer Money/MCMG in TNA in 2010). Of course, if the two teams on top are horrid, then the rest gets exposed very quickly. In 1996 that was the case in the WWF, a division headlined by The Smoking Gunns (with all the charisma of a bucket), The Godwinn's (with an actual bucket), The Bodydonnas and the New Rockers. Matches were, without variation, awful and the division just sucked for the entire year. Mercifully by the end of 1996 Owen and Bulldog had the titles and the team of Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon had been shipped in from Japan. Still, the 4 way tag title match at Summerslam was a new low... for anything, let alone wrestling.
 
Shootfights in ECW – ECW always liked to be ahead of the curve, right on the tail of pop-culture. Never was this more apparent than in the middle of the year when they were trying to get Taz over as a legitimate "shooter" in the wake of the rising popularity of Ultimate Fighting. Nobody ever really asked the question how, in the middle of a show, you could present a match as a "shoot fight" but not inadvertantly call the rest fake... but there we are. Up against Taz was "The Polar Bear" Paul Varelans, a 6ft 8 – 350+ pounder with a 5-4 MMA record. Problems were: 1) it looked nothing like a shoot fight (it actually resembled a really bad pro wrestling match and 2) Varelans didn't want to lose cleanly. So, of course, the first and only "shoot fight" to end via interference took place within ECW in June 1996 as Taz won after Perry Saturn hit a dropkick from the top rope. I wrote a full piece on the topic here.
 
Loch Ness – Giant Haystacks was (and still is) one of the biggest names in British Wrestling history. Ask people in the UK about wrestling, even in 2017, and you'll never been too far away from hearing his name. But in 1996, in WCW, a near 700 pounder was an odd choice for a feud with Hulk Hogan. Still, WCW pre NWO in 1996 was a very weird place as Hogan (struggling) for a reaction continued a feud with the Dungeon of Doom never seemed to want to end. Aside from some squash wins (literally, in this case) on Nitro, Haystacks wrestling under the moniker Loch Ness would be remembered the finish at Superbrawl – where he had to be held back from attacking Hogan because he wasn't able to fit inside the steel cage, and a flat match with the Giant at Uncensored. And just like that, it had finished. Got a lot of time for Haystacks, but he shouldn't have been on a national wrestling show in 1996.
 
Mass Transit – a lot has been written about the incident, but it really does bear stating just how horrid the whole thing was. At an ECW live event in Revere, MA in November 1996 ECW were short of a wrestler following Axl Rotten no showing. At the building was an obese 17-year-old kid called Eric Kulas, who wanted to be a wrestler. After lying about his age, Kulas was allowed to do the match tagging alongside D-Von Dudley against The Gangstas. He wanted to "juice" but, having never done it before, didn't want to do it himself. Cut to the middle of the match as New Jack is hacking away at Kulas' head, causing a cut so deep a significant number of towels were needed to stem the flow and Kulas needed to be taken to hospital. Nobody comes out of this story well, at all, but it was a reminder that ECW was still a million miles away from being a serious promotion.
 
Doomsday Cage – There's a special place in wrestling hell reserved for this match. At quite possibly the height of WCW's craziness ahead of the angle that would spearhead them through the next couple of years things got a bit... weird. None more so than the idea of having a 1 on 4 handicap match in a triple decker cage. Of course, WCW thought that was far too sane and turned it into a 2 on 8 contest featuring Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage taking on an ever evolving list of names – which up until the week of the show apparently included both Brian Pillman and (if you believe Eric Bischoff) Dennis Rodman. The match itself was... dreadful – Hogan and Savage picked off the first three chambers with minimal effort before bizarrely escaping the structure completely (the rules were never explained) and eventually winning after Savage pinned Ric Flair. Ready my full review of WCW Uncesored here.
 
Hog Wild – I mean, there's enough to be said about the pure self-indulgence to hold a pay per view at a biker rally just because you're a wannabe biker, and one that has a gate of entirely $0. But this show has a place in this list for two reasons. Firstly, as a follow up the debut of the New World Order and turn Hulk Hogan heel turn, it was really quite bad – Hogan winning the title off of the Giant in a horribly flat main event and the tag match between Sting and Lex Luger against the Outsiders also ending in a flat finish. The other reason were the fans, largely not wrestling fans and, also, racist. Despite being flat all night, when it came to Harlem Heat's match a vocal and loud portion of the crowd were all over them. Still, at least the scenery and sunset were positives, mind.
 
Fake Razor/Diesel - Yeah, this one had a full piece written about it so I'll keep this summary fairly succinct. In the aftermath of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash debuting on Nitro, legal proceedings were started by the WWF against WCW for basically anything they could think off. These proceedings would take an age to sort themselves out, but in them WWf convinced themselves that the reason Diesel and Razor Ramon were so popular was not thanks to Hall and Nash, but more down to Vince McMahon's ability to create a character. Fast forward a couple of months and Jim Ross is talking on Raw about the return of Diesel and Razor Ramon. Hall and Nash they weren't (although the pair did get a big pay increase from a scared WCW), but WWF tried to con their fans into thinking two major characters were returning. Fortunately, eventually, someone backstage realised the whole thing was going to fall flat. Still, they were too committed to turn back so the pair debuted to crickets and the whole thing died a death – didn't stop them both being regulars on TV for about six months afterwards, mind.
 
Billionaire Ted – Raw in 1996 was 45 minutes long which, when compared to 2016, would seem like heaven. But when your main television outlet is only 45 minutes long, every minute really does count – so much so that even WWF's biggest stars often didn't appear on every show – rotated around as there often wasn't time to feature all of them. With that in mind, the Billionaire Ted segments (which I wrote a full piece on here) were a major piece of self-indulgence. Running at nearly five minutes each show, and running from the first Raw in January right the way through until Wrestlemania, it was a set of segments that was often embarrasing to watch. Vince McMahon's idea of humour and his desire to stop the Time Warner/Turner merger meant fans had to sit through skits each week poking fun at Hulk Hogan, Randay
 
WCW’s Main Events – Doomsday Cage, quite rightly, got its own section, but 1996 was a bad year for WCW main events across the board. Despite a sea change of personnel in the lower and mid card (a welcome change from years past) the main events still sucked in comparison. With the company focusing main events around guys like Hogan and Savage (who were both definitely well past their best) and even Ric Flair, who in 1996 was at best a really good impersonation act of Ric Flair, their main event scene was too poor for a company wanting to call itself the best. New acts came in – Hall, Nash, Giant, even Luger – but without anyone who you could really call good in 1996, not to mention Roddy Piper, WCW’s main event scene deserves its place in this list. Just imagine what might have been had Bret Hart signed in 1996?
 
WCW World War 3 – In 1995, WCW debuted a new pay per view called World War 3 – using an ambitious if ultimately preposterous setup of three rings in a triangular formation, with a show headlined with a 60 man battle royal. It sucked.. but hey, they tried. In 1996 they returned with… the same show, with the same 60 man main event and the same stupid main event. If this wasn’t bad enough, four of the sixty men were NWO members – and nobody bothered to attack them… like, at all. Which was infuriating – we got down to 4 vs 4, then 1 vs 4 as the four NWO members had survived all bar one of the entrants – Lex Luger. But still, 25 minutes of poor logic actually could’ve been excused if they’d have pulled the trigger on Luger – which the crowd were ridiculously ready for. Luger rallied, eliminated three of the four the Giant eliminated him. Ugh…
 
ECW’s “World” Title Picture – We’ve been teasing this for this category ever since we started reviewing ECW – their treatment of their world title has hardly been stellar – but 1996 sunk to a pretty low place. The title went back and forth between the Sandman and Raven who, while their feud was often good were incapable of putting on a match that wasn’t dire. More bizarre still was the lack of seemingly anyone else who even wanted the title. Shane Douglas wrestled a series of matches against Raven, each time being screwed by one of Raven’s expanding flock, yet the program ended abruptly when Too Cold Scorpio brainwashed Shane Douglas into thinking he’d be better off going after the TV title. And remember, that was like June… after that nobody even mentioned the title.
 
Battlebowl – The 1993 pay per view WCW Battlebowl still remains the worst wrestling show I’ve ever seen, which makes the decision to bring the format back (under the guise of Slamboree) a baffling decision. The random draw tag format is a nightmare, particularly when WCW eliminate most of the interesting acts in the first round, and it dictates that there must be thirteen matches on the card. Add to that two other title matches and the whole thing was just dire. Not quite the 1993 version – this had a bit more going for it – including the angle that was the prelude to Steve McMichael joining the Four Horsemen. But gees… a month later WCW held their Great American Bash pay per view, which will go down as one of their best ever. Weird.

WWF’s Entire Undercard – It’s hard to even think about what the WWF might have been like in the middle of 1996 had Shawn Michaels got injured. With Hall and Nash debuting in WCW, and Bret Hart on hiatus, the WWF was massively reliant on Michaels to prop up almost everything they were doing. TV in the middle of the year sagged anyway (as it wasn’t uncommon for the Champ to miss shows) and pay per view undercards were almost universally dire – save for Michaels coming in and having excellent matches with just about everyone: Owen, Bret, Diesel, Bulldog, Vader, Mankind – even Sid. The WWF did certainly have talent down there, but in some cases it was being misused (Vader, Mero) and in other cases it just wasn’t anywhere near ready yet (Helmsley, Ahmed Johnson, Bradshaw). Beyond that, though, was just a real lack of depth – not just in the tag division but also singles acts like Savio Vega and Goldust.  It just needed to go away.
 
Piper vs Hogan Without The Title – There’s a lot that can be said about putting Roddy Piper in a main event in the 1990s. It felt a couple of years past its best in 1994 when the WWF did it, but WCW bringing in Piper to headline Starrcade in 1996 felt like a step too far. However, that isn’t why this is here, Piper was often a riot in the build-up to the match, and come show time the face-off with Hogan had the best big fight feel of any WCW match of the year, one which was rewarded when Piper beat Hogan, cleanly, with a sleeper hold and won the WCW Title. Except he didn’t… the match was never for the title, something that WCW did their best never to bring up nor did they ever attempt to explain why it wasn’t.