Thursday, April 23, 2020

WCW Hog Wild PPV: August 10th, 1996 (Rewatched 23 April 2020)

We have arrived at the first Pay-Per-View event of my WCW rewatch:  WCW Hog Wild (1996)! Now, kids, back in the day we didn't have the WWE Network and used to have to pay forty to fifty bucks to watch these events. We usually got a bunch of friends together to share the cost, and made a huge night out of it.  Pizza, Surge, you know, the whole 90's experience.

 This event was a big one, because it was the cumulation of a bunch of nWo storylines, and it also had a lot of great action in it! This event happened on a Saturday, instead of the usual Sunday. It took place in Sturgis, South Dakota, at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. I've read that around 5,000 people attended, many of whom were on motorcycles! 

Rewatching it, I had a lot of fun with this one.  It was a solid event, and a lot of fun to watch.  So, without further ado, let's get into the show!  Apparently, there was a TBS broadcast before this of a bunch of matches, which I couldn't find on the WWE Network, so I'm going to simply be talking about the PPV itself.

The Show:

Rey Mysterio, Jr. (c) defeated The Ultimate Dragon to retain the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship (11:35)
- For some reason, a USA chant broke out in the middle of the match.  I mean, Rey is a Mexican wrestler but he's from California, so I guess it works.  Ultimo Dragon is from Japan, so perhaps it was against him.

Scott Norton defeated Ice Train (5:05)
- These guys used to be a tag team, but they're fighting now.  I care very little about this storyline.  That was a quick little throwaway match.

Ric Flair Promo
- Ric cuts a little promo on the nWo and what they did to Arn Anderson.

Madusa defeated Bull Nakano (5:00)
- For this match, the ladies wrote out on motorcycles.  Madusa on a classic Harley and Bull had some kind of crotch-rocket motorcycle.  The winner of this match gets to destroy the other person's motorcycle for some reason.  Madusa went on to destroy Bull's motorcycle with a sledgehammer after the match.  And the crowd rejoiced.

Backstage
- There's a promo for CompuServe showing the Steiners trying to figure out how to chat with people who are doing a live chat with them.

Chris Benoit (w/ Woman and Miss Elizabeth) defeated Dean Malenko (26:55)
- I don't really like talking about Chris Benoit, personally.  Due to what he did.  And I kid you not, it actually said "With Woman and Miss Elizabeth" when he came out.  It sucks that Benoit is such a horrible person, because this match was incredible.  These two really brought the heat.  This match went to a draw due to the time limit, but then it went into "overtime" for some reason.  The time limit went out, but apparently they went into another overtime.  Whew, that was a heck of a match.

Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) (c) defeated The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship (17:53)
- I still don't get the point of Harlem Heat coming out with a Col. Parker, this white bread looking cowboy, but WCW didn't always make sense. 

Ric Flair (c) (w/ Woman and Miss Elizabeth) defeated Eddie Guerrero to retain the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship (14:14)
- Nothing beats seeing these two legends in a match together.  Ric was already a legend at this point, and Eddie was one of the new kids on the block making a name for himself.  This was a good match though, theses guys definitely put on a show.  And man, could Flair sell. 

The Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) defeated Sting and Lex Luger (14:36)
- This match had been building for quite a while, and it delivered.  The finish was questionable, but it was still fun to watch.

Hollywood Hogan defeated The Giant (c) to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (14:55)
- I forgot they had Michael Buffer on these broadcasts.  The entrances to this match and the ring announcing really felt like we were about to see something epic.  Michael Buffer really sold it.  Now, this doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but back then - watching Hogan in the black and telling fans to shut up, that was a big deal.  This was the red and yellow machine who told us to say our prayers and eat our vitamins.  So this Hogan was a big deal.

After The Match
- I forgot about this, this was when the Booty Man came out in an nWo shirt with a birthday cake for Hogan, trying to join the nWo.  Hogan ended up laying him out, because he doesn't mix "business with pleasure", but ironically the Booty Man would join the nWo later on as The Disciple. 
- And then of course, it ended with that iconic image of Hogan spray painting nWo on the WCW title.  Back then, that was so metal.

Random Notes

  • Cool to have Dusty Rhodes on the mic.  But man, that fashion.  A tucked in, cut off denim shirt, with denim cut off shorts, and cowboy boots.
  • WCW nailed those stage designs.  It's one thing WWE doesn't really do anymore.




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