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Mike Reviews – WCW Great American Bash 1996

11th June 2022 by Michael Fitzgerald

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Seeing as I reviewed an ECW show from June 1996 last week and I haven’t reviewed this GAB show before, I decided to review it this week as it’s a show I generally enjoy and I’m interested to see if it still holds up.

It’s also quite an historically significant one as well, as not only do The Horsemen get a new member but Kevin Nash and Scott Hall show up to set the table for Bash at the Beach and the forming of the nWo the following month.

Plus, we’ve got Benoit/Sullivan and Malenko/Mysterio to enjoy as well!

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Mike Reviews – WCW Slamboree 1999

21st May 2022 by Michael Fitzgerald

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I decided to review this show because I remember there being a couple of fun matches on it and there’s the usual WCW ineptitude from this Era that I can poke fun at now and then. This was the show probably most known for the shade thrown at it by Scott Keith when he asked “What if they had a pay per view and nobody cared?”

Scott actually busted out the old Hot Poker system for this show, although I’ve never really felt it was a show deserving of being in that category, especially when you think some of the really putrid shows WCW would put on during this period.

WCW itself was a pretty lousy product at the time from a storyline perspective, with Ric Flair in the role of WCW President and doing wacky things like ending up in an asylum because he thought he was actually the President of the United States. The New World Order angle had all but fizzled out, whilst Diamond Dallas Page was on top of the promotion as World Champ.

Thankfully there was still some good wrestling on the under card in order to help keep the shows bearable, but overall WCW was a DISTANT second to the WWF in the Spring of 99, with the WWF only kicking on to further success whilst WCW started to implode as a result of around 18 months of ridiculous mismanagement.

Around this period was when the chickens started coming home to roost from a ratings, buy rates and ticket sales perspective. 1998 had still been a successful year from a purely commercial perspective, but things started falling around this time period and they fell HARD!

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The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 08.12.96

6th May 2022 by Scott Keith

The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 08.12.96

Live from somewhere other than Orlando, thank god.  In this case, Casper, WY, which Larry immediately buries as “the middle of nowhere”.  What a pleasant fellow.

Your hosts are Tony & Larry, and Hulk Hogan is once again the champion after Hog Wild, so they’re pretty bummed.

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Mike Reviews – WCW Uncensored 1999 (14th March 1999)

12th March 2022 by Michael Fitzgerald

Happy Uncensored Saturday Everyone!

This was the first WCW tape I ever owned, as I got it as a Christmas present in 1999. I remember reading a lot about it at the time in the wrestling mags though, as it was the first time in a while we actually got a proper release of a WCW pay per view on a commercial tape over here in the UK.

The Main Event on this one is Ric Flair Vs Hollywood Hogan in a cage. If Flair wins then he gets to become WCW president for life. If Hogan wins then Flair’s career is done. I’m watching the Warner Home Video version of this, which means I don’t have to bother with dubbed music, although the general picture and sound quality isn’t on par with the version on Peacock/WWE Network.

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Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WCW SuperBrawl X (20th February 2000)

26th February 2022 by Michael Fitzgerald

Happy SuperBrawl Saturday Everyone!

Back with another Stinker Review, where I look back at a show that has a reputation for being bad and decide whether it’s rap sheet is deserved or not. Next month we’re back to reader requests, so if you have one you’d like me to put in the Stinker Hat then please let me know in the comments section.

This show came during the pretty lousy Kevin Sullivan Era of WCW, an era that lasted from roughly January to March 2000 and was replaced by the Russo-Bischoff New Blood Vs Millionaires Club Era. Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddy Guerrero had all jumped ship to the WWF, whilst Konnan and Shane Douglas were sitting at home because they didn’t want to work for the new regime, meaning that the overall wrestling quality of WCW’s shows had taken a notable dip.

Sullivan was pushing the likes of Sid and Hogan on top still, despite the fact that if they were any staler they could have been fed to the ducks at the local park, whilst Jeff Jarrett was regularly refusing to take the World Title because he didn’t want to go down in history as the lowest drawing World Champion of all-time (He seemed to get over that when he started up NWA:TNA).

I’ll be watching the Warner Home Video version of the show, so if they are any noted differences with the version up on Peacock/WWE Network then that will be why. I have to say that the tape had NOT aged well, something that is sometimes a trend with these Warner tapes. They clearly didn’t mind skimping on quality control.

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Mike Reviews – WCW SuperBrawl REVENGE (18th February 2001)

5th February 2022 by Michael Fitzgerald

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I decided to have a look at the dying days of WCW today, mainly because I remember this one having some good matches on it and a zany WWF Attitude Era styled Main Event involving Kevin Nash, so that should provide some comedy appeal if nothing else.

WCW had normally given SuperBrawl the old Roman numeral treatment, but they decided to give it the “Revenge” subtitle in 2001. I think they were kind of planning on doing a seven deadly sins themed thing for the pay per views that year, so it could have been that “Revenge” was used in place of “Wrath”. The March pay per view ended up being called “Greed”, although the company unfortunately went out of business before we could get “WCW Sloth, live on pay per view!”

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Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WCW Starrcade 1999 (19th December 1999)

25th December 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Happy Holidays Everyone!

For those not familiar with these reviews, I take a look at a show that has a reputation for being awful and decide whether that reputation is deserved or not. We’re back to reader requests for January, so get them in if you have any shows you’d like to see get the Stinker treatment.

We’ve got a special Holiday Stinker for you all today, where I’m going to watch Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara ruin WCW’s biggest show of the year. Well, they’d already ruined WrestleMania in 1999 so it’s only right that they ruin Starrcade too in order to complete the set I guess.

This was the last pay per view they would write together, as Russo was gone by Souled Out in January when he suggested putting the World Title on Tank Abbot. WCW had a pretty decent marquee level Main Event for this show with Bret Hart taking on Goldberg, but then they booked a month of nonsensical crap television and the end result was that, even though the ratings slithered up ever so slightly thanks to the car crash appeal of the TV show, the buy rate for this event was an absolute disaster.

Just to give an example of how horrific a job the RussAra team did of getting people to actually buy the pay per views, Starrcade did a pretty miserable 145,000 buys whilst Halloween Havoc (the first pay per view of their regime) did 230,000. So with more time to promote the show and a better Main Event with which to promote it with, the golden boy duo managed to scare off 85,000 potential pay per view buyers due to their atrocious Nitro and Thunder events.

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