2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

so what happened at the end of Raw. My DVR cut out.

 

I thought one of the first ideas to get Bret Hart to jump ship and be the third man. I had also heard talk of Davey Boy Smith, but that wouldn't have been as good.

 

IIRC, I also think the original plan was for Hart to be involved, but once McMahon saw the kind of buzz Nash and Hall were getting, he signed him to that 40-year deal that eventually caused his release and the Montreal Screwjob. Sting was also the back-up plan, but I can't see that going over as well as Hogan turning; Sting simply isn't that great as a heel. You can tell he's not really into it, the few times he's done it, a la how Hogan will give shitty wins to guys he doesn't really believe in (Billy Kidman).

Also, to repeat a story from earlier in the thread: According to Kevin Nash, he and Hall weren't actually under a wrestling contract when they started that WCW angle. They had a verbal argument, and once WCW realized how hot the angle was, they also realized they had nothing on paper for it. As a result, Nash was able to parlay it from a $250k oral agreement to $450k in a written one, or something to that effect.

 

In fairness, Sting's heel turns came a) at the end of WCW's run with crappy bookers at a time when he had long since peaked and b) LOLTNA. Had he turned with the nWo, he could have had a very strong run. There was no matching Hogan for initial shock value, but the matches would have been better (Hogan's offense as a heel was pathetic).

 

Not that his offense as a face was any better ...

 

Hogan really didn't have much support in WCW as a face, other than when he beat Flair for the belt the first time. And even then, they brought in Shaq and Mr. T so the WCW fans wouldn't cheer Flair and boo Hogan.

Hogan actually teased a heel turn for a while in late '95, wearing black, but still being a face. At one point though, Luger put him up the torture rack, and even though he was a heel, the pop was huge. Soon after, the heel turn.

Supposedly, Hogan was worried about tarnishing his legacy by turning heel. That, plus losing out on merchandise money, which was why he was thinking about changing his mind about the turn. But he pulled it off well for a couple of years.

 

I still remember watching the PPV with a friend that year and him absolutely losing it when Hogan turned. We both thought Hogan was there to help the good guys ... then, bam! He does the leg splash off the ropes and sides with the Outsiders.

We were crushed. But we soon became marks for the nWo and hated almost all the good guys in WCW.

 

The original NWO angle was one of the best of all-time... And Bobby Heenan almost inadvertently ruined the whole thing; listen to him around the 25-second mark -

 

I was there, in person, at the Daytona Beach Convention Center. Camera side, on WCW's dime (set up by a friend who did some wrestling writing and who clearly had NO idea about what was to happen ...)

I remember, before the main event, thinking the highlight was finally seeing Ric Flair wrestle live. He won the U.S. strap that night, IIRC. Of course, what really happened dwarfed all that.

rb

 

I said the same thing, and... don't know if anyone caught this one.

"Never before, never again, two superstars who will be against eachother at Wrestlemania teaming up"..

Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold teamed up and held the Tag Titles months before they wrestled at Wrestlemania against eachother..

 

I think he meant Rock/Cena being a one-time only pairing. WWE has gone the partners-that-hate-each-other-but-somehow-win-the-titles route before. The SS ads just say "never before. never again." under the Rock and Cena photos, with no mention of WM.

 

It was, in the sense that people got engaged in it. You don't have to be Daniel Bryan if you have the fans behind you, and they bought the big boot and legdrop every time. When he went heel, he had to resort to 70s-era heel tactics (back raking, biting, gouging) that work a lot better for The Sheik in Joe Louis Arena that it would for an old, limited worker who hadn't been a heel on American soil in at least 14 years.