WWE vs. WCW: Monday Night War

[Dunthreevy]

what will the next episodes be? a mini-bio on Stone Cold, Sting, Disco Inferno?

I Would love to see a Disco Episode. He was a good character.

From what I've heard of him he annoyed the hell out of a lot of people in WCW behind the scenes.

[Dunthreevy]

Just read something that pointed out that from October 1999 to September 2000 the WCW World Heavyweight Championship title was vacated eight times, with 20 title reigns happening in between. The Vince Russo and David Arquette title reigns happened during that time frame. Anyone think that might have started the demise of that title and why we eventually saw it go away in WWE.

[SDM]

Nah, WCW was toast and most if not all their titles were meaningless at the time if we use the historical definition of a title-- supposed to be on the top-ish performer and beating the top-ish performer is supposed to be a big deal. The title scene in 1998 was a mess and the fingerpoke of doom was in Feb 1999 and they only drew a 5.0+ rating head-to-head once after that.

Also, Russo uses the belt as a tool to get others over/cheap heat getter, he's never been interested in using titles how they've been used historically in the industry. I'm too lazy to doublecheck, but Vince insists that ratings spiked-- and he did get some mainstream attention-- from putting the belt on himself and Arquette. I certainly don't agree with putting the belt on those two, or any non-wrestlers really, but I understand the desperation behind it.

[Dunthreevy]

I liked the ECW episode quite a bit, and I say that not as a guy who was a major ECW mark back in their heyday. They opened up a little about Vince funding ECW for a time before they eventually went out of business and that's information that I did not know (though I'm sure it's probably common knowledge on the internet). I also didn't remember the 1st ECW/WWE angle at that In Your House event in like 95 or 96. The earliest ECW/WWE tie-in I remember was much later, when they started sharing talent to a certain degree.

Also, you can tell from the Heyman and Biscoff segments that those 2 guys simply do not like each other. With Heyman and Vince, I think there's at least a mutual respect there and they don't dislike each other but are cautious of each other.

[Shemy]

most this stuff was pretty much covered in the rise and fall of ECW, didnt realize that sandman and whipwreck went to WcW in their dying years though

Heyman denies taking money from vince but vince straight out says it in the middle of the documentary that he pretty much loaned them almost a 100k that much I didnt knew

[Shemy]

also to add Tazz's theme music has to be one of my favorites

[SDM]

I've seen a doc where Heyman admits Vince sent him $1K a week. Not enough to make or break the company, either way.

[Dunthreevy]

most this stuff was pretty much covered in the rise and fall of ECW, didnt realize that sandman and whipwreck went to WcW in their dying years though

Heyman denies taking money from vince but vince straight out says it in the middle of the documentary that he pretty much loaned them almost a 100k that much I didnt knew

I vaguely remember Sandman being there towards the end but I only remember seeing him maybe 1 time. Had no idea Whipwreck ever went there.

I would tend to believe Vince a little more on that story. Heyman is very prideful about ECW being his baby and them being the underdogs. To openly admit that Vince was bankrolling their operation, even for a short time, would be a chop at their legacy to someone like him.

[skbucks1985]

I just watched the Cruiserweight episode, it was a solid, fun episode. The part about the Radicalz was kind of funny how they clearly went to painstaking lengths to show Benoit as little as possible. Vince Russo was probably on TV for all of 15 seconds and I still wanted him gone the second I heard his stupid accent. I also wonder how much of the fact that they used very little WCW Cruiserweight footage post-early 98 was due to the story they were telling and how much of it was avoiding showing Rey without the mask.

One of the things I thought was interesting was that along with Rey and Eddie, Dean Malenko was the star of this episode. And I get it to a degree because he was really the first Cruiserweight Champion, he beat the NJPW guy and that was really when the Cruiserweight Title really became a major part of the show. One guy who I think was overlooked was Billy Kidman because I think he was a very integral player in that division and he has a fascinating story as well because he was the guy that I think they gave the closest thing to a good faith push to. They gave Rey the push after he lost the mask but that ended so quickly and abruptly. But Kidman was slowly moving up the ranks, he almost won the US Title for example, until the feud with Hogan which was just such a disaster on so many levels.

[Shemy]

Goldberg episode was good

Was the whole taser thing that big of a deal??? Think it was kinda badass, and why is the wolfpac viewed in such a negative light loved them as a kid and to me it seemed they were pretty over, **** went downhill with the finger poke of doom

[TheGameChanger]

Goldberg episode was good

Was the whole taser thing that big of a deal??? Think it was kinda badass, and why is the wolfpac viewed in such a negative light loved them as a kid and to me it seemed they were pretty over, **** went downhill with the finger poke of doom

Nash was the booker who ended the streak. The Streak should've kept going. My big issue with WCW was the NWO. Hall Nash Hogan were great. However when everybody else decided to join it went downhill. Bischoff was the exception he was only guy I liked that joined the nwo.

[skbucks1985]

I remember liking the Wolfpac, they had what I thought at the time was cool music and there guys were over. But looking back, they were kind of emblematic of the issue of the NWO getting too large. There really should've never been a Wolfpac, the angle should've ended in early 98 after Sting beat Hogan at Starrcade 97 (which was a horribly booked match) and then they have the rematch and everyone kind of went on there way. While WCW still did well financially and in the ratings for most of 98 (although that was largely because of Goldberg) it seemed like that was when the creative started slowing down.

The taser thing wasn't in and of itself too bad but it led to the Fingerpoke of Doom and Goldberg just kind of floundered after that, although that could be attributed to his lack of versatility with his character, and he never even came close to getting the opportunity for retribution.

[Dunthreevy]

The Goldberg episode made it very clear (as if it wasn't before) that Goldberg COULDN'T wrestle. I don't think they could have hammered that point home any harder if they tried. I remember watching that Nitro where he won the title in the Georgia Dome and completely losing my mind. That was one of the truly cool moments of the 90's wrestling scene.

[skbucks1985]

I always thought the constant insistence of Goldberg as a poor wrestler was always a little overstated. Was he Dean Malenko or Eddie Guerrerro, no of course not. But there were a lot of guys that have been very successful that were as limited as Goldberg was. The obvious one is Warrior, but Hogan in his mid-40's was as well and neither of those guys were anywhere near the pure athlete Goldberg was. What he didn't have even compared to Warrior was essentially no experience and I think Goldberg would do a lot better today when there really isn't a taboo on heavily scripting your matches ahead of time, its not a coincidence that easily the best match of his career was against DDP who was known for scripting his matches almost move-for-move.

[TaiLs21]

I did love watching Regal and Goldberg on that episode. Talk about an awkward match.

[Wo1verine]

WCW is what i watched when i as a kid and i thought it was great - It's too bad things went down hill for them.

WCW in my opinion had the much better cast.

Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Bret Hart, Sting, Eddy Guerrero, etc..

[Dunthreevy]

WCW is what i watched when i as a kid and i thought it was great - It's too bad things went down hill for them.

WCW in my opinion had the much better cast.

Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Bret Hart, Sting, Eddy Guerrero, etc..

That inclusion is strange to me. Bret was only there for a short time, and even he will tell you it was not close to being a good stint. In fact, that list of guys were only there in WCW together during the period in which the company started going downhill (98-00).

[WRau1]

I was never a big WCW fan, wasn't even that fond of the NWO because Nash reminded me of my creepy 50yr old neighbor that was always trying to rail highschool chicks. Was never a Goldberg fan either because to me, he was just a jacked up version of Austin. In fact, I think my favorite WCW guys were Raven, Jericho and Mortis/Kanyon.

[TaiLs21]

I was never a big WCW fan, wasn't even that fond of the NWO because Nash reminded me of my creepy 50yr old neighbor that was always trying to rail highschool chicks. Was never a Goldberg fan either because to me, he was just a jacked up version of Austin. In fact, I think my favorite WCW guys were Raven, Jericho and Mortis/Kanyon.

Mortis/Kanyon was the best in the N64 Revenge video game. I was pro wwf as a kid but was bummed out the WCW games were so much better.

And I don't believe Nash in the Goldberg episode that WCW piped in the Goldberg chants because he seems like he has a huge diva ego

[Dunthreevy]

I really liked this week's episode. It was all about Jericho and his rise to prominence from WCW not utilizing him to his rise in WWE. Really solid episode.