WCW Halloween Havoc 1996: October 27th, 1996 (Rewatched 29 May 2020)

Tonight's the night, WCW Halloween Havoc 1996! This pay-per-view took place on October 27, 1996. It occured at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada! Top to bottom, this card was stacked. Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio Jr, DDP, Eddie Guerrero, The Giant, Jeff Jarrett, Syxx, Chris Jericho, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, The Outsiders, Harlem Heat, Hogan, Savage, and even the debut of Rowdy Roddy Piper! I mean, you can't ask for a better card than that. All of those names are some of the all time greats.

On the WWE Network, the event was about 3 hours long, and did not seem to drag at all.  The WCW vs nWo storyline continued, and now, after the event, the nWo controls the WCW World Title, and the WCW Tag Team Titles. 

So, how good was the show?  It was awesome.  I'm a big WWE fan now, but nothing came close to WCW in the 90's.  Even comparing this to modern WWE, this still is vastly better.  So, let's get into it and talk about the show!

The Show:

Dean Malenko defeated Rey Mysterio, Jr. to win the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship (18:32)
- This is what "Fight Forever" chants are made for.  These guys put on a heck of a match.

(Battle For The Ring) Diamond Dallas Page defeated Eddy Guerrero (13:44)
- This was a match for the Battlebowl Ring, which was apparently something people in WCW wanted back in the 90's, for some reason.  I never get tired of watching these two fight, though. 

The Giant defeated Jeff Jarrett by disqualification
- For some reason, The Giant has Ric Flair's United States Championship, which he didn't earn.  It was vacated after Flair's injury but I guess WCW management never took it back.  That was a fun little match though.  Giant's a big man, so nice it wasn't a squash.

Syxx defeated Chris Jericho (9:49)
- I gotta admit, this was pretty fun.  Watching young X-Pac and Y2J fighting in WCW.

Lex Luger defeated Arn Anderson (12:22)
- This has been a heck of a card.  I was really excited for this one - two of the all time greats.  The match ended with Arn in the Torture Rack and being carried out on a stretcher.

Steve McMichael and Chris Benoit (w/ Woman and Debra McMichael) defeated The Faces of Fear (Meng and The Barbarian) (9:23)
- I can't root for Chris Benoit, so naturally I was all in for the Faces of Fear and was hoping they would win.

The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) defeated Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) (w/ Sister Sherri and Col. Robert Parker) to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship (13:07)
- Two of the best tag teams of all time, it doesn't get any better than this.  And now the nWo is, to use an Undisputed Era phrase, draped in gold. 

Hollywood Hogan defeated Randy Savage to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (18:37)
- It's not like we didn't know the outcome of this going into it.  The nWo was the hottest thing going.  No way would they take the strap off Hogan this soon.  Hogan was looking silly as heck with those hair plugs though.  The announcers even made a joke about it.

Roddy Piper Debut
- After the match, Rowdy Roddy Piper made his debut.  It was pretty awesome, but the promo went on forever and felt awkward at the end.  Heck, WCW even cut it off and ended the show.  But I'm very interested to see this feud develop!

WCW Fall Brawl 1996: September 15th, 1996 (Rewatched 12 May 2020)

Tonight, we're rewatching WCW Fall Brawl 1996, a Pay-Per-View event that occurred on September 15th, 1996. This event came from the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. If you're new to WCW, the War Games match is actually pretty cool. It's two rings, put together, and a steel cage encompasses it. It starts with two men, and one men from each team enters after that. This War Games match was, of course, Team WCW vs Team nWo.

What made this one more interesting is that it follows the last WCW Nitro (Nitro #52), in which "Sting" supposedly turned on the WCW.  (Of course, we know that was just nWo Sting and not the real Sting).  He was set to be on team WCW, so who knows what could happen tonight!  There is set to be several title defenses, along with the traditional War Games match, so let's get right into it and talk about WCW Fall Brawl (War Games) 1996!

The Show:

Diamond Dallas Page defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr (13:07)
- That was a solid match.  Both great wrestlers.

WCW: Special Report on "The Attack"
- Basically, a little recap by Mean Gene of the nWo invasion of WCW.  Starting at when the Outsiders joined.

Ice Train (with Teddy Long) defeated Scott Norton (Submission match)
07:08
- I really don't get this rivalry, and I'm ready for it to be over with.  I mean, the match was fun, but I care very little about why these two are beefin'.

(AAA Heavyweight Championship Match) Konnan (c) (with Jimmy Hart) defeated Juventud Guerrero (13:45)
- I forgot this title was defended in WCW.  But Konnan didn't even come out with it, which was weird.  But this was a fun match.

Chris Benoit defeated Chris Jericho (14:36)
- I'm loving early Chris Jericho.  And Benoit is a horrible person (was, I mean), so it's easy to cheer against him.

(WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match) Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) defeated Super Caló (15:47)
- I could watch these two fight all night.  What a fun match.

(WCW Tag Team Championship Match) Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) (c) (with Sister Sherri and Col. Robert Parker) defeated The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) (15:31)
- One thing WCW did really well was tag team wrestling.  They had some great tag teams.  They definitely have that over modern era WWE.

Macho Man/Mike Tenay Promo
- I could watch Mach cut promos all day long.  He's one of the best.

The Giant defeated Randy Savage Singles match (07:47)
- Hogan came out to interfere, and got Mach out of the ring.  Then the Outsiders came out and attacked Mach.  But, before this, it was a pretty good match.

Halloween Havoc Promo
- I miss this PPV.  I wish WWE would bring this one back.

(WarGames match) nWo (Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and nWo Sting) (with Ted DiBiase) defeated Team WCW (Lex Luger, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Sting) (with Miss Elizabeth) (18:15)
- Michael Buffer kicked the match off and man, that's one thing I loved about WCW.  They brought out the big guns.  WCW Sting, or, the real Sting, came out and fought off the nWo and the nWo Sting, and then left the ring.  The match was solid, and it ended with Macho Man coming out and being ganged up on by the nWo, as usual.  Also, they spray painted Miss Elizabeth's dress with the nWo tag.

Random Notes

• Aww, no Glacier promo.
• That's about all I got.

WCW Clash of the Champions XXXIII Special: August 15th, 1996 (Rewatched 25 April 2020)

Today, we're rewatching WCW Clash of the Champions XXXIII, which took place August 15, 1996 at the Denver Coliseum in Denver, Colorado. While this event nowadays is a PPV, this one was actually a TV special that aired on TBS.  So, basically a free PPV type special for the fans.  It was a solid show, with a lot of great matches.  WCW vs WCW, and of course nWo vs WCW. For the purposes of this blog, I've labeled this as a WCW PPV, because it is a PPV type event, even though it was just a TV special aired on TBS.  So, with all that being said, let's go ahead and get into the show and talk about WCW Clash of the Champions XXXIII!

The Show

Rey Mysterio Jr (c) defeated Dean Malenko to retain the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship (12:07)
- That was a fun match.  These guys sure can put on a show!

VK Wallstreet defeated Jim Duggan (3:48)
- Two WWE legends - IRS and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, facing off!  He's got the 2x4 and the flag.  Now THAT is America!  And a short, but sweet match.

Konnan defeated Ultimate Dragon (w/ Sonny Onoo) (2:57)
- Well that was short, sweet, and to the point.

Meng defeated Randy Savage by forfeit (0:00)
- Macho Man's music hit, but he didn't come out.    Mean Gene came out and apparently Randy Savage didn't come out.  Meng won by forfeit.  This followed by an in ring promo with the Dungeon of Doom guys about defending WCW blah blah blah.

Madusa defeated Bull Nakano (w/ Sonny Onoo) (2:42)
- Again?  Well, okay.  We just did this like a week ago at Hog Wild.  Short and over quickly.

Eddie Guerrero defeated Diamond Dallas Page in a Lord Of The Ring Match (4:20)
- I'll never tire of watching these two fight.  Apparently they were competing for the Battlebowl Ring that DDP won at Slamboree a few months ago.  Also, Diamond Cutter outta nowhere!  Had major RKO vibes.

Hollywood Hogan Promo
- Apparently now Hogan is calling Ric Flair "the stupid little man".

The Giant (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated Chris Benoit (w/ Miss Elizabeth & Woman) (0:23)
- That's what we call a squash match.

Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) (w/ Sister Sherri) (c) vs. Lex Luger & Sting vs. The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) ended in a No Contest in a Triangle Match for the WCW World Tag Team Championship (13:22)
- I forgot that they called them "triangle matches" instead of "triple threat" matches like we do now.

Ric Flair (w/ Miss Elizabeth & Woman) defeated Hollywood Hogan (c) by DQ in a WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match (8:23)
- I heard cheers when Hogan came out.  This must be when the crowd started getting behind the nWo.  You can't beat Hogan v Flair.  Of course the Outsiders interfered, and the Horsemen came out after that.

Misc Notes

• They ran another CompuServe live chat promo for this.  I remember CompuServe.
• There was a commercial for the WCW Power Plant.  I can't imagine how many people watching WCW called and wanted to be wrestlers back then.
• They even ran a Glacier promo during this thing.

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.