1997 WCW

By Scott Keith on 6 May 2017

Hey Scott,

Rewatching 1997 WCW and I’ve noticed something weird: on paper they have all these incredible matches on their PPVs and very few of them seemed to deliver. I was a pretty huge WCW mark at the time and even then I remember being underwhelmed.

For instance:
— Guerrero/Jericho at SuperBrawl was OK but a let down
— Benoit/Malenko at Spring Stampede should’ve been a classic, but it’s just ok
— Malenko/Guerrero ay Starrcade was super disappointing
— Guerrero and Jericho had another match at Fall Brawl for the CW belt and it’s technically good but so forgettable and boring.

— Even the Rey/Eddie rematch at WW3 wasn’t that great
— Malenko/Syxx – Guerrero/Syxx,all the combinations of Ultimo Dragon/Psychosis/Regal/Wright

Has there ever been any stories of these amazing workers being unmotivated and deflated by the politics and nWo stuff at the time? Not saying these matches were bad but given what the talent is capable of, it’s surprising.

Eddie and Jericho in particular had a weird anti-chemistry together, and I’m not sure why. They had another match at the final Clash as well, where Jericho blew up in the first minute and Eddie literally had to wrestle himself for most of it, and that’s kind of a stinker as well.

But yeah, in general most of those guys absolutely got unmotivated due to politics and getting treated like jobbers by the big stars. I don’t know if it specifically resulted in lower quality matches, but it was definitely a thing.