How big an impact did Giant have in WCW?

[Deleted]

Obviously he wasn't anything resembling a negative. But I find it strange that the best giant to ever do it doesn't seem all that vital to WCW during the Monday Night Wars.

He was the biggest homegrown attraction outside of Sting, Goldberg, maybe Page later on, but the NWO is so omnipresent that they define that era and Giant is just sort of there, feuding with them/joining them/turning back and forth like he has his whole career.

I always felt WWE left a lot on the table with Show, but WCW was so crowded up top that if Show wasn't there, things would hardly even be different.

[Toilet Paper Roll]

He could have been a silent and reluctant face for WCW against now and probably would have been over huge. He was still relatively over in his partnership with Luger, but constant face and heel turns will kill you, and he was as directionless as everybody else in WCW

[Squirrel Master]

I didn't care for Giant smoking cigarettes as he worked.

[Racksman]

Obviously none or else he'd still be around wrestling as a Main Eventer twenty years later.

Oh wait 

No, but really. WCW did an amazing job of introducing him at first. It was completely believable for the younger crowds/marks, because I gotta tell ya, I was absolutely crushed in late 1999 (I was 12) when I found out Andre the Giant WASN'T the Giant's dad, thanks to the Bossman funeral segment.

But it often gets misunderstood that he "beat" Hulk Hogan a bunch of times. He never "beat" Hulk Hogan. The first match had a clusterf*** finish as a way to keep the Giant strong, god forbid Hogan get beat, and shoot the title to Savage without letting Hogan, or Giant for that matter do the job. Then there was always rumblings Hogan was supposed to legitimately put Giant over at Starrcade 1995, but that never happened and both men weren't even on the card. And then two months after that, Hogan beats him in a Cage Match, and that's the exact match where the WCW fanbase had officially had enough of babyface 1980's All American Hulk Hogan. If you watch it on the Network, they boo the ever loving shit out of him from the minute he makes his entrance until he steps out of that cage. And it wasn't like it was in some smark hotbed or IWC saavy community...it was in St. Petersburg, Florida.

So for a real wrestling fan like I assume a good majority of us on boards like these are, yeah, sure, the Giant had a big impact in WCW. But in the grand scheme of things, considering the way he was booked the rest of his WCW run post Hog Wild '96, it was barely a drop in the water.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

I think he could've had a greater impact there, the problem was that basically, Show had to learn how to work in the wwe, years after he debuted. He was never broken in the right way, the guy won the belt in his first match.

Another thing going against him was that he didn't had a good work ethic regarding his body and how he carried himself. They pretty much send him to OVW to lose weight.

[Capt Lunatic]

One of my all time WCW memories is The Giant chokeslaming his way out of a figure 4.

He got the Jericho treatment as he took a while to learn the WWE style.

[jimmyjames]

You also have to consider how young he was. I can't believe he was only a couple years older than I was at the time in high school. The writing for his introduction and the aftermath was perfect. Obviously there were issues, and Big Show has admitted and discussed them, but for his age and not growing up around the wrestling business as so many other wrestlers did, I think he did a good job.

[RowdyRobbyPiper]

WCW booked him better than WWE has.

[Deleted]

Dec 26, 2015 20:21:07 GMT -5 RowdyRobbyPiper said:

WCW booked him better than WWE has.

Much better.
He was intimidating and looked like a monster there. In WWE he looks like a big goof ball.
But it is true that in WCW it was easy to get lost in the crowd and buryed under Hogans endless push.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

They should have never booked him to go back to the nWo. It just made him look real bad realigning with the same Hogan who turned on him the year before.