WRESTLING 20 YEARS AGO PODCAST

Listen to our November 1997 WCW podcast, reviewing World War 3.

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If you have visions of WCW screaming into December 1997 and Starrcade at lightning speed – in many ways you’d be completely wrong. They were absolutely smashing attendance records left and right, this show itself broke records for opening day sales only to be blown out of the water by the first day of sales for the December pay-per-view. They were also on a year-long run of beating Raw in the ratings, and Hulk Hogan's straight-to-TV movie - "Assault on Devil's Island" had done very strong ratings in the Tuesday night slot.  

But things weren't all that rosy. In two months time they'd be launching a new weekly live television show – now christened "Thunder" - but they still didn't really have a plan for it. Then on again, off again idea of having an NWO show and a WCW show was back on again, at least for a while, even if nobody seemed to have any idea of the specifics. Their television product, you may be surprised to find out, was almost shockingly boring at this stage in time. They were lucky in the sense they had momentum, even if they weren't showing it. Oh, and they also had Bret Hart.  

After Vince McMahon got cold feet over Hart's 20-year contract, he told Bret to resume contact with Eric Bischoff – who nearly signed him 12 months prior. WCW were absolutely game to sign him on both occasions – despite the fact Bret would completely annex WCW's pay hierarchy – he was too big a name to baulk at. And with a new television show coming along in a couple of months time. WCW made the deal, Bret got "screwed" at Survivor Series, and WCW did a bad job announcing his arrival – Eric Bischoff slipping Bret's name in during a horrible segment on the second week of Nitro. He, Hogan and others no-doubt enjoying Bischoff calling Bret a "knockout-kind of guy" too.  

That really was about it on the build front. This show had very little in the way of anything going into it – Hogan, Sting and Piper were all off the card, Kevin Nash was injured (kiboshing a match with Giant that in theory would be rearranged for Starrcade) and everyone else of note was kind of bundled into the main event.  


Glacier and Ernest Miller vs Meng and Barbarian (w/ Jimmy Hart)  
Not for the last time tonight, a completely cold match going in. Glacier and Miller just haven't worked and, while the announcers insist on telling us how tough Meng is, he rarely gets to show it. Still, Meng and the Barbarian are two absolute powerhouses, and the best spot of this match is a backdrop from Meng where Barbarian catches the falling Glacier and lifts him into position for a powerbomb. The match kinda peaked there, Meng puts the Tongan death grip on Miller and ends up pinning him. Perfectly passable but entirely forgettable.  


Disco Inferno vs Perry Saturn (w/ Raven) for the WCW Television Title 
There was interesting side-bar to Saturn’s first WCW pay-per-view match, that was the accusation either directly or indirectly from Taz that Saturn was copying his style in WCW. How much of a case Taz might have had is an interesting one – Saturn certainly was wrestling a style different to that which he’d done in ECW, including a lot more suplexes. But Taz didn’t invent the suplex and, in fairness to Saturn, he’d been working with a pretty serious knee injury which may have grounded any thoughts of doing a more aerial based offense.  

That little story aside, there was very little to this match. Disco is good in the right spots (see against Dean Malenko and his match with Jacquelyn last month), but here he was cold with another pretty cold act. Disco does at least whip out a “Chartbuster” (his version of the stunner) on Billy Kidman but an attempt to hit one on Van Hammer falls flat. Saturn gets him in the Rings of Saturn to win the WCW TV Title.  


Yuji Nagata (w/ Sonny Ono) vs Ultimo Dragon 
Maybe this was just a night where everyone was off – not for the last time tonight this was a match between two guys who we’d seen better of form before. Lots of kicks from both, particularly Nagata who’s going after Dragon’s arm that still isn’t 100% yet following surgery. After the kicks stop we reach the conclusion of the match: Nagata passes out in the Dragon sleeper, only for the ref to be distracted by Ono. Dragon then pins Nagata after a frankinsteiner from the top, but this time Ono puts his foot on the ropes. Dragon then uses Nagata to knock Ono off the apron, but as Dragon falls back Nagata falls into a pinning position. The referee counts four (because, at this point, fuck it) and Nagata wins. A bizarre finishing sequence, the wrong guy went over and their match last month was better. But apart from that…  


The Blue Bloods (Steve Regal and Dave Taylor) vs The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott w/ Ted DiBiase) for the WCW Tag Team Titles 
A televised squash match basically. Still we’ve complained before about tag matches with endless shitty finishes so I shouldn’t make too much of it. Scott plays the face in peril, briefly, then tags in Rick, they hit their tag team bulldog from the top and pick up the win.  


Scotty Riggs vs Raven (w/ Saturn, Kidman etc…)  
Riggs is wrestling an eye patch… I think many of the audience wished they were wearing two for most of this show. Riggs dominates much of the match, including bulldogging Raven onto a chair. Eventually Raven just stops selling, grabs a microphone and says “Why didn’t you listen to me? I feel your pain”, before putting Riggs out with a pair of DDTs and winning via a standing ten count.  


Steve McMichael vs Goldberg 
Well, more the shame it wasn’t really. Goldberg was carry a minor injury so they wrote him off via an unaired pre-match attack. Debra drags Alex Wright out for a match which is… not good. Mongo takes down Wright when a couple of shoulder tackles then hits a tombstone piledriver and wins the match. Meh. 


Rey Mysterio Jr vs Eddie Guerrero for the WCW Cruiserweight Title 
Again, another match where we’ve seen better. I mean, sure, this was the best match of the night and still undoubtedly really good just not… that good. The action is there, and the crowd are for the most part too as Mysterio hits a running senton splash to the floor and a spinning moonsault from the top. After some more serious action Guerrero hits a frog splash from the top for a three count.  


Curt Hennig vs Ric Flair in a No DQ match for the WCW United States Title 
The third match of the evening you feel we may have seen a better version of previously, except this one was underscored by the realisation that both guys may simply have lost it. They brawl into the crowd and around the trio of rings, but the crowd aren’t really invested. Both men begin to tire but still little of note is happening as they do some ECW-style guardrail work. The biggest pop of the match is probably Flair wrapping a chair around Hennig’s leg and bouncing it up and down. Flair locks in a figure four, Hennig knocks him silly with the title belt and wins the match. 


Scott Hall, The Giant, Chris Adams, Brad Armstrong, Buff Bagwell, The Barbarian, Chris Benoit, Bobby Blaze, Booker T, Ciclope, Damien, El Dandy, Barry Darsow, Disco Inferno, Jim Duggan, Fit Finlay, Héctor Garza, Glacier, Johnny Grunge, Juventud Guerrera, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Eddie Guerrero, Curt Hennig, Prince Iaukea, Chris Jericho, Lizmark Jr., Lex Luger, Dean Malenko, Steve McMichael, Meng, Ernest Miller, Rey Misterio Jr., Hugh Morrus, Mortis, Yuji Nagata, John Nord, Diamond Dallas Page, La Parka, Lord Steven Regal, The Renegade, Rocco Rock, Randy Savage, Silver King, Norman Smiley, Louie Spicolli, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner, Stevie Ray, Super Caló, Squire David Taylor, Ray Traylor, Último Dragón, Greg Valentine, Villano IV, Villano V, Kendall Windham, Wrath, Alex Wright and Hollywood Hogan in a 60-man, three-ring battle royal for a WCW title shot 
There was less of the three-way split screen nonsense that traditionally renders this match a non-event, so WCW did it a different way just with 20 minutes of almost no action. We get down to the final ten and, unlike the preposterous situation last yearwhere WCW attacked themselves before going after the NWO, at least this time it feels like a somewhat fair fight.  

We get down a final seven of Bagwell, Hall, Savage and Hennig against Giant Page and Luger. After Giant deals with Bagwell and Hennig and Luger take each other out it’s left to Giant and Page against Hall and Savage. Page smashes Savage with a Diamond cutter for a huge pop, only for Giant to stop Page eliminating him – waiting for a chokeslam to do the job himself.  

Hall gestures to the aisleway, presumably to unveil the 60th man  (who should be Kevin Nash) but it’s actually Hulk Hogan, inserting himself into a match where the winner would go on to face the WCW Champion in February 1998. The WCW Champion at the time, of course, was also Hogan – leaving us the tantalising prospect of Hogan having to decide who’d go over in a match between himself… and himself. 

Still, that’s not the plan. Hogan bodyslam’s Giant, and then eliminates Page. A suspiciously tall and long haired Sting rappels down from the rafters – Hogan eliminates himself out of fear then Sting hits Giant with the baseball bat, eliminating Giant and leaving the winner to be Scott Hall. Sting takes his mask off and (shock-horror) it’s Kevin Nash. All that’s left is for Hogan to hit a shockingly-decent Diamond Cutter on Dallas Page as we go off the air. 

Score Rating: 2/10 
Go Back and Watch: The final 5-10 minutes of the main event are interesting… but you can skip this entire show if you want. There’s nothing here on the “I really need to get the down-low in the lead up to Starrcade” territory at all.  

Listen to our November 1997 WWF podcast, reviewing Survivor Series.

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It’s hard writing a preview piece like this – to try and summarise the build to WWF Survivor Series 1997 would take more words than it would be worthwhile. But needless to say that the story of Bret Hart’s exit from the WWF is a long and winding one that even in the days and hours leading to the show seemed to go one way or another. 

Regardless of the whys and the hows, the whats were this: Bret Hart had handed in his notice to the WWF after being told by Vince McMahon to pursue a deal with WCW he nearly made a year earlier. While that wasn’t in doubt, the exit strategy very much was. Such was Bret’s leverage in 1996 that he was able to negotiate “reasonable creative control”, while he couldn’t necessarily dictate the terms of his exit positively, he was at least able to prevent it happening negatively. 

And, really, there was only one negative. Bret was willing to drop the title to anyone – Mankind, Ken Shamrock, The Undertaker, even Jeff Jarrett of all people. Just not Shawn Michaels, and not on this night. Which, theoretically, gave the WWF any point up until four weeks after Survivor Series to take the title off of him. But there was a problem: with the news beginning to break and Bret having signed a deal with WCW, even if he couldn’t appear there until after his contract expired if WCW were able to announce on television Bret’s impending arrival, if he was still the WWF champion it would make him a lame-duck until the time in which he left and, more the point, would make it look like Bret had only lost the title because he was about to join WCW.  

It created a perfect firestorm for Vince McMahon. It had to be that night and, given the magnitude of the match, it had to be Shawn Michaels. Caught between a rock and a hard place… it left apparently only one choice… 

In some ways the story of Bret’s departure is only part of the bigger amazement going into this show. If you were watching Raw in the weeks leading up to the show you’d be forgiven for wondering whether there was even going to be a match at all, such was the oddities surrounding the build. With Shawn and Bret now both fully heel, it made pairing them off at anytime on TV particularly difficult, especially given Shawn’s… (how can I say it) willingness to say and do things that some parties wouldn’t find acceptable. One thing that had helped drive a rift between Bret and Shawn so big that Bret was no longer willing to lose to him, even on the way out.  

The build that did exist was almost bizarre. The Hart Foundation got drawn into a storyline that involved someone defacing the Nation of Domination locker-room with racial slurs because nobody had the balls to tell Vince McMahon what a completely stupid idea it was. So the Nation made their case, both to Steve Austin: who responded by not overtly denying the accusation, and to Bret Hart and the Foundation: who responded with a political “non-denial denial” saying that where he was from, everyone was treated equally.  

Quite what the plan with any of this I don’t quite now. But with Bret seemingly in a dead end (seemingly because him outright saying “no, it wasn’t me” would’ve got the heel group sympathy), it was left to Shawn Michaels and the newly named “Degenaration-X” to chime in. Shawn accused Bret of being racist to the core, and call him “The Grand Wizard along with the rest of the members of the KKK”. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (who hopefully will become Triple H soon so I don’t have to keep writing that out!) followed that by suggesting he’d heard that the “n-word” was used while they were doing it.  

The whole scenario was preposterously, doubly so when you realise there was zero pay-off. It was all in the name of building to the big match something that, hindsight does not show enough, the WWF did a terrible job of. The buyrate for this show ended up being modest, even after a late burst of interest when the Bret to WCW broke. When you compare the build of this to WCW’s build of Hogan vs Sting – which if it was any more overt would smack you in the face on a weekly basis - the results prove the point. The WWF badly got this wrong. 

As for what remained of this card – there wasn’t much else. Owen Hart against Steve Austin was meant to be (and ended up being) the semi-main, but given that Austin’s neck was still a big issues and Owen had his own issues too it meant that would largely have to be smoke and mirrors. Beyond that it was almost a non-event, a card that would only further go to expose the hideous lack of depth of the WWF undercard. 


The Headbangers (Mosh & Thrasher) and the New Blackjacks (Bradshaw and Windham) vs The Godwinns (Henry O and Phinueas I) and “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn and The Road Dogg 
No WWF… please don’t throw your best acts out fir… oh. If you wanted an illustration of how bad the tag division was at this point then this would be a good palace to start. The New Blackjack’s are faces purely due to the fact they’re no longer heels – and we get a strange confederate angle/tie-in between Billy and Henry. No Road Dogg or Billy Gunn early doors as we get the Godwins working with the Headbangers. 

As is the case with Survivor Series matches, you really have to lower the bar for pins. Henry is randomly rolled up by Bradshaw, Windham gets pinned by a clothesline and Mosh gets eliminated with a running slam. It doesn’t really improve, Bradshaw kicks out of a pin but the ref eliminates him anyway. And after Thrasher counters a pumphandle slam into a crossbody on Road Dogg, Billy Gunn completely misses a leg drop from the top, but apparently he didn’t and that’s enough for the win. 


The Truth Commission (The Jackal, The Interrigator, Rekon, Sniper) vs The DOA (Crush, Chainz, Skull and 8-Ball) 
Jesus… no, wait – he’s part of Los Borricuas. This was something else. Noteworthy things in this match: Bill Buchanan, the Interrigators neck… and that’s about it. There were FOUR eliminations in this match via sidewalk slam, I have very little else to say about this match over than it was terrible. Interrigator is the last man standing and nothing of note was gained.  


Team USA (Vader, Steve Blackman, Goldust and Mark Mero w/ Sable) vs Team Canada (Jim Neidhart, The British Bulldog, Phil LaFon and Doug Furnas). 
A head count on the number of Canadians in team Canada… zero. The fans, at least, finally have something to cheer for, as Bulldog in particular gets a lot of cheers as he goes through his 1993 routine with Vader. Steve Blackman, as is par for the course for new guys we’re trying but-not-really-trying to get over, gets eliminated via countout, the first of a few quick eliminations as Jim Neidhart and Phil Lafon are both taken out by Vader.  

Goldust is working this match with a cast on. I say working, I mean standing on the apron. After the only good prolonged piece of action in the match between Vader and Doug Furnas, Goldust just fucks off, being eliminated by count out. Vader takes care of Furnas but Bulldog whiffs him with a ring bell as, of course, neither ref can see. Bulldog is the sole survivor and smart booking wins out.  


Mankind vs Kane (w/ Paul Bearer and Mood Lighting) 
This might have been the high point of the show. The match underscored by the deep red lighting that kind of gave both guys the out to have a match as good or as bad as they like. This was a Mankind special, with much of the action on the floor and the ring steps in almost constant use. He piledrives Kane mid-ring, then after putting the mandible claw in on Bearer, Kane sits up and chokeslam’s him off the apron through the Spanish announcers table. 

Within 60 seconds Mankind is up and about, Kane has enough time to lob him off the second rope straight onto the floor as Mick Foley’s body takes another absolute pounding on pay-per-view. Kane hits a tombstone piledriver that still looks hideous on his knees and picks up the win. Decent match, Mankind both got over and got Kane over in a losing cause. The Kane train, at this stage, seems unstoppable. And the WWF, it should be said, have done a tremendous job presenting him so far. 


The Nation of Domination (Farooq, Rocky Maivia, Kama and D’lo Brown) vs Ken Shamrock, Ahmed Johnson and the Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) 
A match of frequent eliminations, and one that (perhaps surprisingly given Farooq’s recent status) seems solely aimed at getting Rocky and Shamrock over. You can say a lot about this show, but the booking is pretty solid if nothing else. Rocky whips out a Rock bottom in this match and eliminates Hawk – he also breaks out a people’s elbow (sans elbow pad) which is perhaps the only thing more ridiculous than the People’s elbow is doing it while getting zero reaction. 

Ahmed eliminates Farooq very early with a pearl river plunge, that’s a setup for Farooq costing Ahmed and an elimination a few minutes later and sending him to the back. After Animal is eliminated via a Road Dogg distraction, we pick off the pieces until we’re down to Rocky and Shamrock. They’re given a good few minutes, Rocky dominates but Shamrock turns and armbar position into an ankle lock for the clean submission victory. Not for the first time tonight, the booking was probably stronger than the match was.  


Steve Austin vs Owen Hart (w/ The British Bulldog, Jim Neidart, Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon) for the WWF Intercontinental Title 
While it was Calgary in July, and Montreal here, the reaction that Steve Austin gets is perhaps the most fascinating of all. Some of it will be a slightly softer reaction to Bret later in the show, but there were a lot of Austin 3:16 shirts in the crowd at this stage, and even against Owen there was a fairly split reaction across the board.  

This match, predictably, was a bit of a non-event. Austin’s neck was still a bit all over the place and Owen didn’t come in healthy either. After a bit of back and forth on the outside, Austin nails Owen with a stunner for the win and wins the title to a pretty big pop.  

 
Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart for the WWF Title 
Well here we are. We get full walk through from the back scenes after a video package that completely belied the lack of build of this feud. Shawn comes out to a bad but not “we wanna kill you reaction” – he does get a beer chucked at him for his troubles.  There is a big pop for Bret’s entrance, both he and Shawn came out a lone. Oh, and as Bret gets in the ring there’s a very prominent CHYNA IS A MAN sign in the crowd. 

This whole scenario is… weird to say the least. Very easy to say in hindsight, but the whole thing has a strange vibe to it, after an early brawl at ring side there’s about eight refs out there, along with the likes of Vince and Pat Patterson. It makes the whole match feel very cramped – especially as much of it doesn’t take place in the ring. Bret and Shawn go into the crowd, as Bret’s big matches generally do these days, and they get *very* up close with the fans as they’re brawling. 

They brawl up the aisle way, then finally into the ring. We settle into a typical Bret pace of match as the pair both settle down. Save for one of Bret’s best turnbuckle figure fours and a fan in the front row, alone, chanting “SHAWN IS GAY” over and over, very little is actually happening. Michaels rolls over a figure four in the ring, then Bret comes off the top but Michaels pulls Hebner into the ring for a ref bump. 

And this is where things get weird. Michaels gets Bret set for a sharpshooter, Hebner shoots up much quicker than expected, takes one look at Bret and calls for the bell. It’s hard to really describe the action – the match hasn’t been going on long enough for it to feel a remotely organic conclusion. Hebner hi-tails it out of the building, Bret spits at Vince, Michaels looks pissed off, grabs the title and walks off and nobody is really sure what to make of it. And that’s how the show goes off the air, the stuff with Bret drawing “W C W” in the air and trashing the place happens after the live feed has stopped.  

Score Rating: 2/10 
Go Back And Watch: I mean, you do have to see the main event – but it’s really not all that. The rest of the show is entirely skippable.  

Listen to our October 1997 WWF show, reviewing all of the antics on a barmy couple of weeks of Raw.

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The Grand Wizard – October was a really weird month in the WWF. Even without the benefit of what would happen in Montreal, Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart was basically their biggest marquee match they could offer. If you were watching TV, however, you'd be forgiven for being less confident. With the pair both heels, it wasn't exactly easy to build a back and forth, but surely anything was better than what they actually did.

After the Nation of Domination's locker-room was torn apart and defaced with racist language. Both Bret Hart and Steve Austin, seemingly the two prime candidates in the eyes of Farooq, were accused of the act, and neither particularly denied it. Austin came out and stunnered Farooq, and Bret did his best "non-denial denial", saying that where he was from they treated everyone equally.

Now, I've got literally zero idea what they were trying to achieve with this, but I believe the innocent/sweet idea behind the whole thing was it was Shawn Michaels' group trying to stir the pot by being racists. But despite the WWF's desire never to pay this off, it was the line from Michaels that really underscored this whole thing. Michaels, referring to Bret and the other members of the Hart foundation, said: "The Grand Wizard and the rest of the KKK" - before Triple H said he'd heard they'd used the N word while doing it. I mean... fucking hell.
 

I mean... fucking hell – It may legitimately not have even been the most offensive thing that aired on TV in October for the WWF. This is not an attempt to make light of the death of Brian Pillman, which was very nicely observed at the start of both Raw and also briefly on Nitro and ECW Hardcore TV, but of what followed later in the evening. The WWF actively promoted an interview with Brian's widow, Melanie, live, less than 48 hours after his death.

Dave Meltzer, perhaps rightly, offered the people involved a pass given that people's mind make strange decisions in the aftermath of news like that, but surely someone backstage could've said "Vince, this is a dreadful idea". Nevertheless, the interview went out – it was somewhat harmless, Melanie spoke incredibly well in the circumstances, and besides Vince at one point basically saying "can you absolve us from any blame" (by trying to blame his personal issues on the wider genre of pro-sports), it was actually handled fairly well. But their decision to push it heavily throughout the show was particularly bad.
 

And that's my opinion – Jim Cornette managed to negotiate himself some air-time this month to talk about... whatever he damn well liked. And so he did, given a weekly 2-3 minute segment of him in a studio just talking about whatever he liked. And very few things were off limits, as the words "Eric Bischoff" and "WCW" made air on a WWF programme far more easily than they ever had previously. Although, to give the segments "credibility" (if you like) Cornette wasn't shy of critiquing the WWF product if he needed to.

It's a real weird packet of segments. On the second Raw of the month Cornette calls out Phil Mushnick, a writer at the New York Daily Post for a piece he wrote in the aftermath of the Pillman's death. Mushnick's piece was more a general piece looking at wrestling as a whole, but did make the point that in pro-wrestling, an athlete dying at 35 is an event so common people have come to ignore it. Cornette was basically saying that Mushnick had no right to exploit Pillman's death for his own gain. Oh no, only the WWF were allowed to do that.
 

Jeff Jarrett's Back – Seriously, is there a more bizarre career in wrestling than Jeff Jarrett's? Never mind what happened once TNA started. He started in the WWF, was pushed probably about as hard as you could be in a mid-card gimmick, then buggered off and joined WCW. In WCW, he was pushed about as hard as he could've been (even if at one point he felt like the NWO's biggest opponent), then became the chosen one as Ric Flair (in what must've been the most bizarre point in his career) basically became Jarrett's cheerleader. Only to amount to being a mid-carder. So after his contract expired he left.

And so he was back. But this wasn't "Double J" anymore – this was blazer wearing, serious toned Jeff Jarrett. Oh, and did I mention everyone was shooting these days. He beamoned his gimmick in the WWF ("you put me with a black man who couldn't speak the language"), and his lack of push in WCW. It was an odd promo that didn't really go anywhere. If anything, it was his second promo the following week – a sit down with JR – that was more effective. He pointed out the chasm in quality between WWF and WCW house shows (in WWF's favour, if that isn't clear) and how that he was a reliable and possibly cheap investment for Vince McMahon – as he was young and didn't do steriods. He also absolutely didn't have a building history of walking out on promotions that definitely wouldn't come into play in the near future.

 
That Is Kane – Kane debuted at the pay-per-view and, while nothing major happened since, it really is worth pointing out how much of a good job they were doing with him. The mask looked great, the red mood lighting was great and Kane was protected really well. If you want me to make a really strange comparison, I'd compare the debut few weeks of Kane with the debut few weeks of Goldberg in WCW. Both had an absolute 10/10 look, and both were protected to the hills. Excellent stuff.
 

Ric Flair is back – Not that, in the end, he ever really went away. Flair After being written off after Fall Brawl to go and have a face-lift (yes, really) it was predicted that he would be off for a couple of months, something that was underlined where Flair cut an impassioned promo over the telephone disbanding the Four Horsemen and telling the likes of Dallas Page and the Giant to “beat up the NWO, but leave a bit for me”. So imagine our surprise when Flair rocked up the first week in October on Nitro, cleared the ring of the NWO guys and then cut a great, impassioned promo in front of his hometown crowd in Minnesota. If anything, he’d come back too soon.
 

Stings, Stings Everywhere – We’ve spent the entire year with the announcers not having a clue about whether an invading Sting was the real one or not, so it was always going to be a “remember-where-you-were” moment when Tony Schiavone finally said, “hang on a minute”. Now, full disclosure, it was probably only when the third Sting walked out that Schiavone might have worked out something was up, but finally he had.

This was a great end to the final Nitro ahead of Halloween Havoc. During an NWO beatdown (what else) Sting appeared in the crowd. Then another one did. Then another one did. Then a couple appeared on the ramp way. Each in less convincing Sting outfits, each in less convincing Sting wigs. Each one got picked off by the NWO until one didn’t – but he was wearing a mask too. Bagwell punched him, “Sting” stood his ground, hit Bagwell with a slop drop, the wig (brilliantly) came off as he hit the ground, and then he removed the mask to reveal it was really him. Great moment, apparently a Hogan/Sullivan creation – real good.

 
Goldberg’s Jealous Of What? Maybe I just don’t get it, but why is Goldberg jealous of Steve McMichael. Mongo was a former Superbowl winner, Goldberg was a guy who was on the Atlanta Falcons roster at some point. It never really made an sense, particularly with Goldberg essentially being presented as a Steve Austin style face. But still, it was another bumper month for Goldberg, save his part in one of the most match finishes I’ve ever seen at the pay per view. Who’s next?
 

Tune In During Assault on Devil’s Island – I’m not saying it was a quiet month on WCW television, but the final Nitro of the month was literally dedicated to Hulk Hogan’s movie premiere the next night on network television. It was the subject of the opening segment, then was mentioned regularly through the next hour and a bit. Then in the final hour, they confirmed that Sting would be doing his contract signing with Hogan during a commercial of the movie. Which gave the announcers 50 more minutes to talk about like it was the biggest thing ever and I swear THEY NEVER STOPPED. Maybe I shouldn’t complain, Hogan vs Sting was WCW’s biggest drawing feud ever.