1998 WCW matches that should've been way bigger

[Jindrak Mark]

Even in the IWC where we constantly discuss like the minutia of random stuff from 25 years ago I swear I rarely or never hear anything about any of these matches.

I'm going to try do one from each PPV that year. Matches that on paper look either great or like really big time matches but seem to have been forgotten.

Bret Hart v Ric Flair at Souled Out - Their only PPV match. Bret's first WCW match. Seems like it should be pretty notable.

Hollywood Hogan v Sting at Superbrawl - Rematch from WCW's biggest ever match. Do people even remember this one happened?

Bret Hart v Curt Hennig at Uncensored - They had a classic at Summerslam 91 and another great match at KOTR 93 but this one is never mentioned.

Sting v Randy Savage at Spring Stampede - Two absolute legends and this was their only big PPV match.

Bret Hart v Randy Savage at Slamboree - Again, two all-time greats and this is their only PPV match

Randy Savage v Roddy Piper at Great American Bash - Okay, there's a lot of forgettable Savage and Bret matches this year. And this is yet another case were it's two icons having what would be their only big one-on-one PPV match.

Goldberg v Curt Hennig at Bash at the Beach - Only 6 days after Goldberg's big win over Hogan so I guess understandable that this one was overshadowed.

NWO invitational battle royal at Road Wild - World title match full of huge names like Goldberg/Nash/Sting/Luger/Hall/Giant.

Curt Hennig v Dean Malenko at Fall Brawl - Even with Hennig being past his prime this still seems like a bit of a dream match for the IWC.

Kevin Nash v Scott Hall and Scott Steiner v Rick Steiner at Halloween Havoc - Two cases were a tag split happened then it took months and months for the big grudge match to happen and when they finally did neither felt as big as they should have.

DDP v Bret Hart at World War 3 - This main evented over the 60 man battle royal which is the only time that happened. I'm guessing these two would be capable of having a very good match but I have no memory of it.

DDP v The Giant at Starrcade - This actually ended up being the semi-main event because so many of the biggest names didn't work Starrcade that year for whatever reason.

What are your thoughts/memories on any of these matches (or similar forgotten ones from that era not mentioned)?

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Because most of those matches were either on b-level ppvs, buried under other matches, or both. Bret vs Flair didn't even main event Souled Out, the kazillionth Savage/Luger match did. Actually, besides World War 3, Bret didn't main event a PPV in a singles match for all of 1998. His matches with Savage and Sting weren't even semi-main events. He and Hogan teamed up at the Great American Bash and it was only the semi-main under Sting vs. The Giant for the Tag titles (yes, you read that right). Meanwhile, Sting main evented four PPVs in the first half of the year and nobody remembers any of the matches.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

I would say the match that should've been biggest was Goldberg against the Giant as that didn't even make it to PPV. That could've been a big money PPV match during Goldberg's run and instead they blew it off on Nitro.

[Instant Classic]

Has WCW ever had a triple threat match?

[4real]

Bret v Sting could have been massive if built up properly but it didn’t really feel like it.

[The Thread Barbi]

How do you throw away Ultimate Warrior and Sting vs Hollywood Hogan and Bret Hart away on Nitro?

[chrom]

Jan 22, 2023 17:06:51 GMT -5 The Thread Barbi said:

How do you throw away Ultimate Warrior and Sting vs Hollywood Hogan and Bret Hart away on Nitro?

Bischoff's main focus has always been about the short term gain.

[Deleted]

Yeah WcW teased the “greatest night in the history of our sport” matches on nitro, with the Michael Buffer intros. Only for them to end in BS.

Ppvs were always secondary to nitro with very little hype. So when these matches finally did happen on ppvs. It was very easy to over look them at the time.

[evilone]

Jan 22, 2023 17:06:51 GMT -5 The Thread Barbi said:

How do you throw away Ultimate Warrior and Sting vs Hollywood Hogan and Bret Hart away on Nitro?

That has always been my thought but then I grew smarter and figured that was not even a match. It was a superstar roll call for them to gather in a ring and just do something for a novelty factor. There was no way these four could have constructed a match with clean finish.