Post by fg76 on Oct 9, 2009 14:48:26 GMT -5
Welcome to the ego trip train, folks. As 1998 could have been a great year for WCW, but it turned into the biggest train wreck in history. Blame Nash, blame Hogan, blame Kevin Sullivan, blame egomania runnint wild - whatever.
The point I'm making is that around July 1998, WCW really went downhill. Yeah, most people point out Starrcade as the beginning of the end . . . but you fooled yourself in thinking something might work when you had the Wolfpac vs. Hollywood feud start. You hoped you'd finally get a Hogan/Nash feud - but it never happened due to ego.
Bret Hart had been introduced, and Jim Neidhart and the British Bulldog followed him down to WCW - but either a lawsuit or stupid booking just kept them all apart. I mean, you could have had WCW's answer for DX - with Bret, Davey Boy, and the Anvil now challenging nWo Hollywood. Instead, Anvil refuses to job to Chris Jericho and ends up getting fired - and WCW didn't have much stock in Jericho either - which tells you how much they wanted big Anvil in the first place.
Davey Boy was either too concerned with drugs (Ultimate Warrior's version) to care about his career, or legitly injured by a trap door. (Warrior: Oh give me a break, he was gone before I showed up . . . he was high on drugs all the time, and they want to blame me for that.)
Which left us with Bret Hart. Who you thought WCW was going to book as a nWo killer. Outside of a decent match with Ric Flair, which would have Main Evented anywhere else.
Remember kids what did Main Evented Souled Out 98. Giant vs Nash? Nah, that would have made sense. Luger vs. Savage did, and it was a DQ nWo style beatdown.
Back to Bret - so they let Bret take Hennig down, which was dismal as Hennig was in no shape to care about working a good match.
So we get Sting finally as champion, with Hogan vs. Savage as a side feud. The Giant gets his neck almost broken legit, but the rematch with Nash doesn't pay off squat and Giant never gets his revenge.
Then they do the big Wolfpac vs. Hollywood break around Spring Stampeed, which has Savage win the title from Sting - only to drop it back to Hogan. Business as usual . . . oh and Bret Hart turns heel and into a Hogan worshiper - which lead to . . . NOTHING.
Bret turned heel, turned face, turned heel, order a hot dog, wrestled Booker T to a no-contest and finally won the US title after Goldberg vacated it from winning the World title from Hogan. And people think WWE is bad now . . . HA!
How would you like being a bland heel, with no motivation or real purpose of being one. It worked wonders for Bret. They teased a face turn for months again, but in the end it was all to setup a Sting/Hart feud - which could have been set up the old fashioned way with Sting and Bret. Instead, Bret Hart really did look like Hulk Hogan Jr, in retrospect.
Oh and speaking of Bill Goldberg. Hogan puts him over, but the title becomes a prop for the next six months. Well, they did actually book Goldberg a decent feud with DDP, before finally saying Jokeberg's done - let me have the belt. Oh wait, I was channeling Kevin Nash there . . .sorry.
Okay so I'm ranting here, but you had months of Hogan wrestling after he lost the title in Main Event slots. Then you have the ill-advised Warrior feud, which was bascially - I want my job back, brother and then Hogan decided to get the heat off of him by "running for President" and "retire."
It's sad because Hogan really was a assett, but he was also a cancer.
The point I'm making is that around July 1998, WCW really went downhill. Yeah, most people point out Starrcade as the beginning of the end . . . but you fooled yourself in thinking something might work when you had the Wolfpac vs. Hollywood feud start. You hoped you'd finally get a Hogan/Nash feud - but it never happened due to ego.
Bret Hart had been introduced, and Jim Neidhart and the British Bulldog followed him down to WCW - but either a lawsuit or stupid booking just kept them all apart. I mean, you could have had WCW's answer for DX - with Bret, Davey Boy, and the Anvil now challenging nWo Hollywood. Instead, Anvil refuses to job to Chris Jericho and ends up getting fired - and WCW didn't have much stock in Jericho either - which tells you how much they wanted big Anvil in the first place.
Davey Boy was either too concerned with drugs (Ultimate Warrior's version) to care about his career, or legitly injured by a trap door. (Warrior: Oh give me a break, he was gone before I showed up . . . he was high on drugs all the time, and they want to blame me for that.)
Which left us with Bret Hart. Who you thought WCW was going to book as a nWo killer. Outside of a decent match with Ric Flair, which would have Main Evented anywhere else.
Remember kids what did Main Evented Souled Out 98. Giant vs Nash? Nah, that would have made sense. Luger vs. Savage did, and it was a DQ nWo style beatdown.
Back to Bret - so they let Bret take Hennig down, which was dismal as Hennig was in no shape to care about working a good match.
So we get Sting finally as champion, with Hogan vs. Savage as a side feud. The Giant gets his neck almost broken legit, but the rematch with Nash doesn't pay off squat and Giant never gets his revenge.
Then they do the big Wolfpac vs. Hollywood break around Spring Stampeed, which has Savage win the title from Sting - only to drop it back to Hogan. Business as usual . . . oh and Bret Hart turns heel and into a Hogan worshiper - which lead to . . . NOTHING.
Bret turned heel, turned face, turned heel, order a hot dog, wrestled Booker T to a no-contest and finally won the US title after Goldberg vacated it from winning the World title from Hogan. And people think WWE is bad now . . . HA!
How would you like being a bland heel, with no motivation or real purpose of being one. It worked wonders for Bret. They teased a face turn for months again, but in the end it was all to setup a Sting/Hart feud - which could have been set up the old fashioned way with Sting and Bret. Instead, Bret Hart really did look like Hulk Hogan Jr, in retrospect.
Oh and speaking of Bill Goldberg. Hogan puts him over, but the title becomes a prop for the next six months. Well, they did actually book Goldberg a decent feud with DDP, before finally saying Jokeberg's done - let me have the belt. Oh wait, I was channeling Kevin Nash there . . .sorry.
Okay so I'm ranting here, but you had months of Hogan wrestling after he lost the title in Main Event slots. Then you have the ill-advised Warrior feud, which was bascially - I want my job back, brother and then Hogan decided to get the heat off of him by "running for President" and "retire."
It's sad because Hogan really was a assett, but he was also a cancer.
