WCW's worst booking blunder of 1998?

[bmfjules]

So many options to choose from. But if you could just undo one of them and re-book it the way it should have gone, which one would you fix?

In my head: Screwing up Bret was bad. Hottest free agent WCW ever had, but he was at the end of his career likely even without the concussion so they lost out on about a good five year window where they could have made serious money with him.

Sting could have been booked as WCW's version of the Undertaker after Starrcade and as he worked steadily until the middle of this last decade, he could have been a dependable top draw for a long, long time.

Goldberg was probably going to eventually leave the wrestling business so I'm thinking best case booking scenario, you make as much money as you can with him until the mid 2000s when I think he likely would have left to do TV shows and movies anyway, or since WCW was never opposed to light work contracts for top guys, he could still had a deal where he showed up a few times a year for big matches and could still be doing that up until the present for them as he is for WWE now.

I came into this thinking Bret was the clear winner for worst blunder, but now I'm going to say Sting. He had a brand new character that was more over than anything he'd ever done and they turned him into a dancing lobster for shits and giggles.

[Milkman Norm]

1. Running Hogan vs Goldberg with minimal build on Nitro just to break WWF's winning streak was insanely stupid. It should have been at Halloween Havoc or Starrcade.

2. The problem with Sting was it turned out to be a new coat of paint on the same guy. He had learned how to be Sting in 1988 & had been that guy for 9 years. Then he changed his look. So long as he was just dropping goes with the reverse DDT & pointing a bat it worked. The second he hit a drop kick & did the Sting yell it was all over.

3. I've been thinking about this recently. It's pretty much accepted fact that WCW bungled Bret. Bischoff has admitted he didn't use Bret correctly. Bret has obviously said it. But what made Bret so hot in 1997? It was The Harts vs Austin, USA vs Canada, & the work turned shoot stuff with Shawn Michaels. By the summer of 97 he was the hottest heel in WWF. Obviously we know what happens that leads him to go to WCW. And at that point? All of the things that made Bret a great antagonist are gone. Not only that but because of what happened in Montreal he's coming in as a babyface. So you've got Sting as your top face then you've got in some order The Giant, DDP & Lex Luger. So creatively you either cool down a program you've been building over a long period to slot Bret into a position. Otherwise he's like the 5th babyface in the pecking order. If you turn him heel to soon the reason he's got people buzzing is gone too. So what do you do? Oh and you can't make a connection between Bret, Davey & Neidhart. So that's gone too. I'm a big Bret Hart fan but I don't think it was as easy as "Bret comes in & is the top star"

[cabbageboy]

I voted for Goldberg and his various booking. Bret's booking wasn't great but truth be told I don't see him being the sort of draw for WCW that Goldberg was or could have been. I think Bret was a shell of himself for most of his WCW run anyway.

[XIII]

I think short term it has to be Bret. Rarely are you gifted a top performer with those controversial circumstances like that. Hard to screw that up, but WCW found a way. Long term it has to be Goldberg, he likely wasn’t in it for the long haul but they should have been able to find a way to keep him hot for way longer than they did.

[bmfjules]

Apr 13, 2020 13:55:00 GMT -5 Milkman Norm said:

1. Running Hogan vs Goldberg with minimal build on Nitro just to break WWF's winning streak was insanely stupid. It should have been at Halloween Havoc or Starrcade.

2. The problem with Sting was it turned out to be a new coat of paint on the same guy. He had learned how to be Sting in 1988 & had been that guy for 9 years. Then he changed his look. So long as he was just dropping goes with the reverse DDT & pointing a bat it worked. The second he hit a drop kick & did the Sting yell it was all over.

3. I've been thinking about this recently. It's pretty much accepted fact that WCW bungled Bret. Bischoff has admitted he didn't use Bret correctly. Bret has obviously said it. But what made Bret so hot in 1997? It was The Harts vs Austin, USA vs Canada, & the work turned shoot stuff with Shawn Michaels. By the summer of 97 he was the hottest heel in WWF. Obviously we know what happens that leads him to go to WCW. And at that point? All of the things that made Bret a great antagonist are gone. Not only that but because of what happened in Montreal he's coming in as a babyface. So you've got Sting as your top face then you've got in some order The Giant, DDP & Lex Luger. So creatively you either cool down a program you've been building over a long period to slot Bret into a position. Otherwise he's like the 5th babyface in the pecking order. If you turn him heel to soon the reason he's got people buzzing is gone too. So what do you do? Oh and you can't make a connection between Bret, Davey & Neidhart. So that's gone too. I'm a big Bret Hart fan but I don't think it was as easy as "Bret comes in & is the top star"

Here's my thoughts as far as booking Bret in 1998. I think in the short term, yes you absolutely use Bret as the top babyface given how he just came off of WWE TV. What McMahon did at Survivor Series was basically another double turn that turned Vince into the biggest heel in the business and Bret into the biggest babyface and WWF television even furthered the angle while he was gone. First few months I book Bret in an immediate program with Hogan which serves the dual purpose of getting Hogan out of the title scene for a while and cashing in on the biggest match you have with Bret in WCW. Eventually Bret cools down and is just another solid main event option, but in the first few months after Montreal you make the Lugers and DDPs understand that this is a special circumstance and let Bret be the dangerous outsider kind of like Sting was in 1997, not on anyone's side in the war but out for his own agenda and settling old scores. After Hogan, Bret also has a ready made program with Ric Flair which can be shades of grey instead of straight babyface vs. heel. At the same time, Sting who beat Hogan cleanly at Starrcade runs through the remaining main event NWO members with title defenses against Nash, Macho, Hall etc until at least Fall Brawl. Meanwhile Goldberg is still doing what Goldberg was already doing, getting over by squashing half the roster.

At Fall Brawl you have the WCW version of the Avengers in Sting, Bret, Goldberg, and DDP defeat the NWO consisting of Hogan, Macho, Outsiders etc. That war games ends with Hogan tapping out to Bret in the sharpshooter but before that Goldberg comes out last and does a one man house clearing party on the NWO bumping them all around. At Halloween Havoc, Hogan regains the title from Sting after the Giant or someone else turns and joins the NWO. Bret wins the WW3 battle royal getting a future title shot down the line. Meanwhile Goldberg beats Hogan for the title at Starrcade 98, with Sting going for revenge in the semi-main.

My big moments at Starrcade 98 would be: Goldberg winning the title, Bret and Ric Flair setting aside personal differences to win the tag titles from the Outsiders at Starrcade then after the match Bret and Flair get to beat the hell out of Bischoff, Sting gets his revenge on the Giant countering a chokeslam into the Scorpion Death Drop which he did and which was very cool in real life, DDP dropping the United States title against Scott Steiner who will be a challenger for Goldberg in 99. Then you begin 99 with Goldberg having challengers all over the map with a viable Hogan rematch, Sting owed a rematch, Hart owed a title shot, and Steiner and other guys in the wings.

[Milkman Norm]

Apr 13, 2020 15:35:30 GMT -5 bmfjules said:

Apr 13, 2020 13:55:00 GMT -5 Milkman Norm said:

1. Running Hogan vs Goldberg with minimal build on Nitro just to break WWF's winning streak was insanely stupid. It should have been at Halloween Havoc or Starrcade.

2. The problem with Sting was it turned out to be a new coat of paint on the same guy. He had learned how to be Sting in 1988 & had been that guy for 9 years. Then he changed his look. So long as he was just dropping goes with the reverse DDT & pointing a bat it worked. The second he hit a drop kick & did the Sting yell it was all over.

3. I've been thinking about this recently. It's pretty much accepted fact that WCW bungled Bret. Bischoff has admitted he didn't use Bret correctly. Bret has obviously said it. But what made Bret so hot in 1997? It was The Harts vs Austin, USA vs Canada, & the work turned shoot stuff with Shawn Michaels. By the summer of 97 he was the hottest heel in WWF. Obviously we know what happens that leads him to go to WCW. And at that point? All of the things that made Bret a great antagonist are gone. Not only that but because of what happened in Montreal he's coming in as a babyface. So you've got Sting as your top face then you've got in some order The Giant, DDP & Lex Luger. So creatively you either cool down a program you've been building over a long period to slot Bret into a position. Otherwise he's like the 5th babyface in the pecking order. If you turn him heel to soon the reason he's got people buzzing is gone too. So what do you do? Oh and you can't make a connection between Bret, Davey & Neidhart. So that's gone too. I'm a big Bret Hart fan but I don't think it was as easy as "Bret comes in & is the top star"

Here's my thoughts as far as booking Bret in 1998. I think in the short term, yes you absolutely use Bret as the top babyface given how he just came off of WWE TV. What McMahon did at Survivor Series was basically another double turn that turned Vince into the biggest heel in the business and Bret into the biggest babyface and WWF television even furthered the angle while he was gone. First few months I book Bret in an immediate program with Hogan which serves the dual purpose of getting Hogan out of the title scene for a while and cashing in on the biggest match you have with Bret in WCW. Eventually Bret cools down and is just another solid main event option, but in the first few months after Montreal you make the Lugers and DDPs understand that this is a special circumstance and let Bret be the dangerous outsider kind of like Sting was in 1997, not on anyone's side in the war but out for his own agenda and settling old scores. After Hogan, Bret also has a ready made program with Ric Flair which can be shades of grey instead of straight babyface vs. heel. At the same time, Sting who beat Hogan cleanly at Starrcade runs through the remaining main event NWO members with title defenses against Nash, Macho, Hall etc until at least Fall Brawl. Meanwhile Goldberg is still doing what Goldberg was already doing, getting over by squashing half the roster.

At Fall Brawl you have the WCW version of the Avengers in Sting, Bret, Goldberg, and DDP defeat the NWO consisting of Hogan, Macho, Outsiders etc. That war games ends with Hogan tapping out to Bret in the sharpshooter but before that Goldberg comes out last and does a one man house clearing party on the NWO bumping them all around. At Halloween Havoc, Hogan regains the title from Sting after the Giant or someone else turns and joins the NWO. Bret wins the WW3 battle royal getting a future title shot down the line. Meanwhile Goldberg beats Hogan for the title at Starrcade 98, with Sting going for revenge in the semi-main.

My big moments at Starrcade 98 would be: Goldberg winning the title, Bret and Ric Flair setting aside personal differences to win the tag titles from the Outsiders at Starrcade then after the match Bret and Flair get to beat the hell out of Bischoff, Sting gets his revenge on the Giant countering a chokeslam into the Scorpion Death Drop which he did and which was very cool in real life, DDP dropping the United States title against Scott Steiner who will be a challenger for Goldberg in 99. Then you begin 99 with Goldberg having challengers all over the map with a viable Hogan rematch, Sting owed a rematch, Hart owed a title shot, and Steiner and other guys in the wings.

1. Sadly in a selfish business like wrestling unless the action would lead for the guy who is giving up a spot to make more money they aren't voluntarily going to give it up.

2. What scores did he have to settle in kayfabe? There were alleged heat with some people on the roster but all of that was smarky work shoot stuff that very few people where aware of.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

This was actually a really difficult choice which just goes to show how horribly they self-destructed that year. I'd add all booking decisions related to Scott Hall that year. Fans were begging to see him and Nash together as faces and they refused to give it to them.

[wgdj]

It's gotta be how they wasted Bret, but they wasted Warrior just as badly.

He could have worked with Sting, with Savage, with Bret... instead he was just brought in to give Hogan an ego stroke.

[bob]

I can't pick -- all 3 were equally stupid

[rocket]

The Starrcade 1997 main event is well documented. But we don't talk enough about how Sting at the beginning of the year was stripped of the title, won it back, then lost to Savage who immediately loses it to Hogan. So after over a year of build that's what we end up with.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

All three were horrible mistakes. Bret should have been the hottest star in the company, but they bungled that in a matter of weeks. He should have been in the middle, beyond the WCW vs. NWO stuff, taking on any and all-comers. Instead, they just had to make him part of Hogan's team.

Sting should have been the hero of WCW, facing the entire NWO singlehandedly and doing what nobody else in WCW could do, get a decisive and significant victory over them. Instead, he jobbed to Savage and never got near the main event again until a year later... by turning heel.

Finally, Goldberg... I don't even know where to begin lol they made so many missteps with him. Like Bret, he should have been beyond the NWO/WCW stuff and just been a guy that kicked your ass, regardless of affiliation.

You can't fix just one of these in order to save WCW, because all three screwups were so big. But if I was going to pick just one thing to change, it would be Bret's booking. Because if they had used Bret properly, you could have built several guys up to being main event level talents on their own. Eddie, Malenko, Jericho, Benoit, Rey, Booker T, all of those guys could have become stars by working with Bret. Imagine Jericho and Bret feuding for a couple of months, Jericho taunting Bret over the Screwjob, without actually saying that. Or Bret counseling Eddie about his issues with Bischoff, since Bret has experience going against management. You could have had the WCW Six ruling the roost, under the watchful eyes of Bret and presumably Sting and Flair, as well. While Hogan, Goldberg and Nash could have been used for "featured programs" far away from the World Title(wishful thinking, I know lol)

[bmfjules]

Apr 13, 2020 16:32:54 GMT -5 bob said:

I can't pick -- all 3 were equally stupid

And maybe equally huge. Except for WWE in 2001 (turning Austin heel, then a comic goofball, bungling the Invasion in a million different ways) I can't think of a company that made three bigger mistakes so close together. It's like someone decided to shoot, stab, and drown themselves all at the same time.

[bmfjules]

Apr 13, 2020 14:31:29 GMT -5 XIII said:

I think short term it has to be Bret. Rarely are you gifted a top performer with those controversial circumstances like that. Hard to screw that up, but WCW found a way. Long term it has to be Goldberg, he likely wasn’t in it for the long haul but they should have been able to find a way to keep him hot for way longer than they did.

I think Sting short term as well. The whole show was built around this man of mystery for a year and a half almost. 

Maybe this works: Screwing up Sting sunk their past work and present, screwing up Bret killed their immediate future, and screwing up Goldberg took out their hope of ever recovering long term.

[XIII]

Apr 14, 2020 11:37:10 GMT -5 bmfjules said:

Apr 13, 2020 14:31:29 GMT -5 XIII said:

I think short term it has to be Bret. Rarely are you gifted a top performer with those controversial circumstances like that. Hard to screw that up, but WCW found a way. Long term it has to be Goldberg, he likely wasn’t in it for the long haul but they should have been able to find a way to keep him hot for way longer than they did.

I think Sting short term as well. The whole show was built around this man of mystery for a year and a half almost. 

Maybe this works: Screwing up Sting sunk their past work and present, screwing up Bret killed their immediate future, and screwing up Goldberg took out their hope of ever recovering long term.

I agree with this. Sting never should have joined any version of the nWo. Stupid.

[sfvega]

Probably Bret. Bret was an unbelievably sympathetic character coming in, but he was also the great anti-anti-hero of the era of sleaze that was the late 90's. But sadly, there wasn't a ton of sleaze in WCW in 1998. They were more corporate and Russo hadn't showed up yet. So Bret's schtick that had found so much footing in the WWF the year prior didn't play in WCW. I do think he could have been a good babyface and he was still one of the most famous wrestlers in the world at the time. They just didn't put any thought into him. They gave him this 3rd rate music and an initial role of Hogan's lackey for a lot of 98. He was dead in the water.

Sting's de-push is pretty far up there for me. Even after the badly, badly botched Starrcade, Sting's character still had plenty of candle to burn. But they just kinda forgot about him after he won the title again. It's crazy to spend a year making one guy look really f***ing cool and then the next year he's the toy you got 3 christmases ago that's forgotten in the closet.

Goldberg to me is less terrible. He was a draw and he did have mystique, but the dude had one good match in his entire WCW career and he was never a very good promo. You would think they'd put his title win on a PPV, but ultimately the result would have been the same and the match would have been way less epic than it was. You could only cover for Bill's deficiencies for so long. And people like to think Goldberg was as over in Dec 98 as he was in June of 98, but he wasn't. A lot of fans wanted DDP to beat him, and by December Nash with the Wolfpac was more over than Goldberg. Easily. The more egregious booking was having Nash, who was white hot at the time, lay down for a fingerpoke to a guy who was on his career's last legs and whose promos were consistently boring fans to sleep.

[thehottag]

And people wonder why this company nosedived in 1999. Holy moley, this is a tough choice!

Goldberg's win for free was probably the biggest business blunder, but it did give us one of the all-time great Nitro moments. As a company it sucked, but as a fan at least I got something enjoyable.

Sting was just depressing. Built up for a whole year to end in a damp squib like that. Yes he was still popular, but compared to what should've been, it was a huge misstep.

But Bret Hart is just ridiculous. Bring in a huge star you've been chasing for years, who was just involved in the most controversial & infamous match in decades, who was the WWFs WORLD CHAMPION just a few months prior, & then do absolutely nothing worthwhile. Beyond baffling, just insane business.

[chronocross]

I'd say Bret turning heel and helping Hogan win the WCW title from Savage. The next week on the 4/27/98 Nitro, Bret does an interview where he is about to tell Hogan why he helped him and Savage runs in and they never revisit that storyline.

Followed closely by Sting getting depushed after losing the WCW title at Spring Stampede, he goes after the tag belts instead.

[somsta]

Apr 13, 2020 16:15:26 GMT -5 "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik said:

This was actually a really difficult choice which just goes to show how horribly they self-destructed that year. I'd add all booking decisions related to Scott Hall that year. Fans were begging to see him and Nash together as faces and they refused to give it to them.

It’s kind of funny, I look back so fondly at 1998 as a fan and wonder how they could have screwed it all up in 1999. But when it’s laid out, 1998 really was a mess. They were coasting on and starting to screw up what they had built the last couple of years and relying so much on gimmicks or quick hot shotting. It was clear they were completely lost in 1998 as well.

[chronocross]

One that some people don't mention often is Buff Bagwell after his injury. They had a ready made babyface on their hands as fans were concerned and wanted to see him back as a face, instead they did some stupid heel-face-heel turn every other week with Scott Steiner.

Then after a year or so, they turn him face in 99 after the fact and no one cared.

[Hit Girl]

Who ended Goldberg's steak?