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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Mar 20, 2019 17:56:20 GMT -5
So I have been binge-watching a lot of OSW lately.
I didn't get into wrestling until 1998 or so, so I wasn't watching WCW when the Dungeon of Doom was around.
People watching at the time, whether you were already a weathered smark or a little marky kid, what did you think of them? Was this shit actually over with anybody?
A lot of stuff dates a lot because of changing times, and some of it with some understanding of context and trends you can get it. I simply cannot imagine how in the 90s this can have been remotely thought of as a good idea or got remotely over with anybody, but I only have hindsight. This stable existed at the same time as the goddamn NWO, for f***'s sake.
So if you were there, what did YOU think of the Dungeon? Were they remotely over, even with the smallish crowds WCW was drawing? Did you like them? Did anybody you knew who watched wrestling like them? Was any of this shit taken remotely seriously???
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Post by 2coldMack is even more baffled on Mar 20, 2019 18:02:30 GMT -5
I was....7 years old, if I'm right, and I was all about them. I honestly was rooting for them against Hogan, because they were so over the top "EVIL!!!!" that they were hard to hate.
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Post by carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) on Mar 20, 2019 18:20:37 GMT -5
They were actually kind of interesting at the start of the NWO, because there was tension with them being evil wizards, but also they're loyal to WCW. That did not last long.
I always thought Meng had potential as a monster heel. I love big huge beasts with soothing theme music.
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Post by chronocross on Mar 20, 2019 18:26:06 GMT -5
I was somewhat interested as Vader was turning face at the time and helped Hogan to fend off the Giant in one of the "Dungeon" segments at Clash of the Champions 31 in August 95 but he left before we could see how that storyline played out.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2019 19:45:20 GMT -5
The Dungeon of Doom was cheesy but it was fun. It had some bona fide monster heels like Giant, Kamala, Meng and Barbarian, but unfortunately it also had a number of awful gimmicks like Zodiac, Shark and the "Yetay". Honestly, in the mid 90's they didn't stand out as much as you might think, because WCW and WWF were still replete with cheesy gimmicks.
By the time the nWo debuted, I'm pretty sure that most of the awful gimmicks were out of the Dungeon and it was focused more on the Giant, Faces of Fear and Kevin Sullivan.
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Post by HMARK Center on Mar 20, 2019 19:55:53 GMT -5
I was 10 years old in 1995, and had stopped watching WWF full-time late in 1994; as much as I loved Bret Hart, way too many of my old favorites were gone and I just wasn't feeling the New Generation era.
However, my parents have long worked on Saturdays, and during a nice stretch there they often dropped my brother and I off at our grandparents' house; we'd play downstairs and put on the TV, and it was during that time that I discovered "Tha Muthaship, if ya weeeell" at 6:05 on TBS, just in time to see Hogan's jump to WCW and the arrival of all the guys I knew from old school WWF.
I can't say I watched religiously; I was burned out enough on wrestling that I wasn't really interested in watching pay per views for either WCW or WWF, and the most I'd watch would be some of Superstars on Saturday mornings and some of Saturday night, but I wasn't keeping the closest eye possible. That said, there was no ignoring the arrival of the Dungeon of Doom, because holy shit, look at them.
I honestly can't say how I fully reacted to them. I think I might've just been confused why Earthquake had gone from Avalanche to just The Shark, and I was probably kind of surprised to see Barbarian and Meng, but more than anything it was just impossible to ignore them...whether for good or bad reasons, that was up to the viewer.
Still, I like to imagine that the Dungeon could've been adapted to work a bit better once the nWo arrived on the scene. By then they were already dropping some of the supernatural stuff, and they actually did have the structure of a pretty decent tough guy stable that could have played a role in the nWo storyline - Sullivan's feud with Benoit showed he could still go as a brawler, the Faces of Fear were always a threat, Bubba could've stuck around (though I understood putting him in the nWo), and Giant could've continued being their lynchpin, throw in one or two more guys who fit a more "down and dirty brawlers" style and it might've worked, at least for a little while.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Mar 20, 2019 20:54:44 GMT -5
I started watching wcw and became aware of them after the baywatch episode, yeah that era before the nWo. It was painful to watch.
Sullivan admitted that the Dungeon was only created because he couldn’t keep jobbing Flair to Hogan and both Vader and Rick Rude didn’t want to work with Hogan. So he had to get the goof troop.
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Post by Aceorton on Mar 20, 2019 23:21:38 GMT -5
I remember wondering why King Curtis, who I hadn't seen since he was with Kamala in the WWF, was now hanging out in a cave and calling Kevin Sullivan his son. I wondered why all of them were in a cave listening to this old, wrinkled fool.
I'd been a fairly regular WCW Saturday Night watcher for years, even though my loyalty was to the WWF, but with the Dungeon of Doom, I basically turned up my nose and stopped paying attention to WCW. Two notable effects from that:
1. When the nWo caught fire and WCW started killing the WWF, I was baffled and angry. A company that had recently been doing the Dungeon of Doom couldn't really be THAT good. WCW fans were all idiots.
2. I thought Kevin Sullivan was an absolute turd. How was he successful? Why was he a major player backstage? Who the hell thought "The Taskmaster" was a good ring name? Not until the last few years, when I've seen some of Sullivan's shoot chats, have I reversed myself on this. Now I really like the guy and enjoy hearing him talk about the business.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Mar 21, 2019 0:08:59 GMT -5
For what it’s worth, and he’s not the most reliable source, Honky Tonk Man said that Tenta, Beefcake, and Kamala, were given mercy jobs just so Hulk could control the locker room. HTM was part of this crew before getting fired.
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Psicofreak667
Mephisto
Just learned 'Activity' is a thing on proboards
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Post by Psicofreak667 on Mar 23, 2019 22:42:18 GMT -5
When I first started watching wrestling in 1996, I didn't have cable and so all I had was their syndicated Saturday afternoon show, WCW Worldwide. And good God it featured the Dungeon a lot. Kevin Sullivan must've squashed a jobber on every third show, and they were always pretty much the same match. Sullivan usually didn't even give the kids a hope spot. Konnan and Hugh Morrus regularly won jobber matches as well. Meng and Barbarian didn't appear as often, and they seemed to fight Public Enemy and the tag team of Jim Powers and Bobby Walker in the main events a lot.
I always thought the post-nWo dungeon didn't really have a theme, but looking back, it was really just that Konnan didn't fit in with the stable at all.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2019 23:09:47 GMT -5
I was only 5-6 when the Dungeon was around, so I only have vague memories of what I thought when it was current, but I remember loving it. Especially the Giant. I bought into the hype that he was 7’6 and an unbeatable monster. I also REALLY liked Loch Ness, because he was billed over 700 pounds, making him bigger than my favorite Yokozuna.
Now, I obviously think it was cheesy and dumb, but it’s kind of fun to go back and watch for the nostalgia factor of it.
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Post by toodarkmark on Mar 23, 2019 23:55:17 GMT -5
I was a teen and it was not over with anyone I knew, or early internet people on forums in 95. This was what Hogan believed people wanted to see and who he wanted hired. More people came out but the towns slowly fell until nWo. Then when it caught fire, the stable was just something for Jimmy Hart and other friends to do.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2019 6:10:58 GMT -5
too dated
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Post by Citizen Snips on Mar 24, 2019 7:26:51 GMT -5
At the time, I was 15 and loathed it. Not only was it corny on its own but I was also spending my Tuesday evenings glued to Sportschannel Philadelphia and being mesmerized by ECW.
I can appreciate its camp value now but at the time, it was just the pits.
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Post by Joe Neglia on Mar 24, 2019 12:04:29 GMT -5
By the time the nWo debuted, I'm pretty sure that most of the awful gimmicks were out of the Dungeon and it was focused more on the Giant, Faces of Fear and Kevin Sullivan. One of their members was feuding with a former member over haircuts and using a sock of quarters as a weapon on the same show the NWO formed.
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