tafkaga
Samurai Cop
the Dogfather
Posts: 2,350
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Post by tafkaga on Feb 10, 2023 10:24:32 GMT -5
What was the deal with Madusa's 1996-97 WCW run? I get that Bischoff's main objective was probably just to get her to throw the WWF Women's title in the trash can, but after that she gets beat by Sherri in her first match, then flounders against Nakano and then Hokuto in back to back losses before suddenly announcing her retirement. Do we know if there was some plans for her that got cut short or was the whole idea to use an established American wrestler to put over the Japanese stars as part of their relationship with New Japan?
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Mochi Lone Wolf
Fry's dog Seymour
Development through Destruction.
Posts: 24,150
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Post by Mochi Lone Wolf on Feb 10, 2023 10:29:01 GMT -5
The main thing I remember from this run was Heenan absolutely ripping the shit out of her on commentary during and after the Hokuto match.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Feb 10, 2023 10:51:04 GMT -5
Genuinely surprising they didn't give her a run with the WCW women's title.
Her match vs. Hokuto at GAB 97 is seriously underrated.
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Feb 10, 2023 15:27:01 GMT -5
I think as mentioned Bischoff just mainly wanted her for the trash can deal. It was still weird though how they used her with how many big matches she lost. Like you would think she would be no brainer to push as the centerpiece face champion of the division and for whatever reason they didn't. Other then winning feuds with Nakano and Luna she was just kind made to look like a underachieving loser all the time. She lost like three PPV title matches to Hokoto, including the retirement match, and then whole division was done. Then there was also the weird losses to Sherri and Colonel Parker.
I guess maybe she wanted to retire and at that point they still didn't know what they were doing with the division. I know she returned a few years later as part of Team Madness but I don't what the deal was in between then.
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Post by Hypnosis on Feb 10, 2023 15:33:40 GMT -5
I think as mentioned Bischoff just mainly wanted her for the trash can deal. It was still weird though how they used her with how many big matches she lost. Like you would think she would be no brainer to push as the centerpiece face champion of the division and for whatever reason they didn't. Other then winning feuds with Nakano and Luna she was just kind made to look like a underachieving loser all the time. She lost like three PPV title matches to Hokoto, including the retirement match, and then whole division was done. Then there was also the weird losses to Sherri and Colonel Parker. I guess maybe she wanted to retire and at that point they still didn't know what they were doing with the division. I know she returned a few years later as part of Team Madness but I don't what the deal was in between then. Even in '97 as a kid, I did think WCW going from having a women's division to debuting the Nitro Girls felt rather abrupt.
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Post by fortknox on Feb 11, 2023 13:30:04 GMT -5
Speaking of the women's division, does anyone else remember the Women's Cruiserweight belt? Cause I sure don't.
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Post by MrElijah on Feb 11, 2023 18:49:53 GMT -5
Speaking of the women's division, does anyone else remember the Women's Cruiserweight belt? Cause I sure don't. Yep, saw the Women's Cruiserweight Champ on Worldwide once and that's it.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Feb 11, 2023 20:55:04 GMT -5
Speaking of the women's division, does anyone else remember the Women's Cruiserweight belt? Cause I sure don't. Yep, saw the Women's Cruiserweight Champ on Worldwide once and that's it. Pretty sure the belt only appeared 2-3 times.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2023 21:08:30 GMT -5
Oh, I think its pretty obvious Bischoff only wanted her so he could have a WWF belt thrown in the garbage for shock value. He had absolutely zero intent on pushing women or following through on anything Madusa wanted; to him, she was just another pawn in the Monday Night Wars.
It's why the WCW Women's Championship only had two champs, and neither was Madusa.
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y4j1981
Dennis Stamp
Rowsdower
Posts: 4,712
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Post by y4j1981 on Feb 11, 2023 22:59:27 GMT -5
Speaking of the women's division, does anyone else remember the Women's Cruiserweight belt? Cause I sure don't. From Wiki; The World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Women's Cruiserweight Championship was a singles women's professional wrestling championship in World Championship Wrestling for smaller women. It was created as a joint venture between WCW and GAEA Japan. The weight limit for the women's cruiserweight division was 130 lb (as announced on WCW television). The first champion was crowned in a four-woman tournament that began on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro on March 31, 1997 and concluded on April 7, 1997. Since the tournament final was only shown on WCW Main Event, and the results were never mentioned on WCW television again, it is speculated that the title was created solely to be used by the GAEA promotion in Japan. In fact, the title was defended and changed hands twice in Japan before being abandoned in early 1998.
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
Sigs/Avatars cannot exceed 1MB
Posts: 4,951
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Post by auph10imitated on Feb 12, 2023 11:03:04 GMT -5
I think there was a few factors that went against it, the feud with Sherri would have been longer but Sherri got fired, they actually taped several matches which never aired.
They were originally going to partner with AJW, which probably would have afforded them better talent but they went with GAEA instead.
Once they had the Japanese women, apparently it became logistically difficult to keep booking them so it ended to with them just doing Worldwide and Saturday Night tapings (which were all done in one day) which made it difficult for them to feature it on Nitro
Apart from the Japanese women there was not many other women to use (although Jacqueline would have made sense)
I think by mid 1997 Madusa was frustrated, The Observer said they wanted to use her as a manager but it looks like she met her then husband Cincinnati Bengals player Ken Blackman and she just decided to sit out her contract, hence the retirement angle, I assume she was under contract until December 1997 but was off TV from June
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tirtefaa
Unicron
If you wanna know the truth, you gotta dig up Johnny Booth.
Posts: 3,228
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Post by tirtefaa on Feb 12, 2023 15:22:42 GMT -5
It's funny that both WWF and WCW made a huge deal regarding the trash can incident, when probably 95% of fans didn't care or wouldn't remember. Sometimes I think they believe something is going to be more "damaging" than it actually is.
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DragonMasterP
King Koopa
I'd change my avatar, but beardless Luke Harper is too funny.
Posts: 12,016
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Post by DragonMasterP on Feb 12, 2023 15:29:43 GMT -5
Speaking of the women's division, does anyone else remember the Women's Cruiserweight belt? Cause I sure don't. Not entirely related, but are there any still shots of the WCW Women's Championship that don't have that weird white light shining on it?
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tafkaga
Samurai Cop
the Dogfather
Posts: 2,350
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Post by tafkaga on Feb 12, 2023 19:45:33 GMT -5
It's funny that both WWF and WCW made a huge deal regarding the trash can incident, when probably 95% of fans didn't care or wouldn't remember. Sometimes I think they believe something is going to be more "damaging" than it actually is. It didn't damage the WWF at all, but it was still shocking and underscored the narrative that *anything* could happen on Nitro, as opposed to Raw where McMahon just repeated the line "anything can happen" ad nauseam and nothing very interesting ever did.
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fg
Unicron
Gaming
Posts: 3,268
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Post by fg on Feb 12, 2023 21:45:18 GMT -5
It's funny that both WWF and WCW made a huge deal regarding the trash can incident, when probably 95% of fans didn't care or wouldn't remember. Sometimes I think they believe something is going to be more "damaging" than it actually is. It didn't damage the WWF at all, but it was still shocking and underscored the narrative that *anything* could happen on Nitro, as opposed to Raw where McMahon just repeated the line "anything can happen" ad nauseam and nothing very interesting ever did. What about Kevin Nash’s promo where he said he wasn’t going to be the corporate puppet that Vince tried to make?
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Post by Banjo Is Broken on Feb 13, 2023 2:44:21 GMT -5
Her name says Mad-USA.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2023 8:55:03 GMT -5
Speaking of the women's division, does anyone else remember the Women's Cruiserweight belt? Cause I sure don't. Not entirely related, but are there any still shots of the WCW Women's Championship that don't have that weird white light shining on it?
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Post by David-Arquette was in WCW 2000 on Feb 13, 2023 14:18:29 GMT -5
Just to confirm, that is not Killer spelled backwards. That would be Rellik.
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Post by fortknox on May 6, 2023 18:55:25 GMT -5
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Post by Natural Born Farmer on May 6, 2023 21:24:36 GMT -5
Women's wrestling was such a joke then I don't think it really mattered at all.
WCW only wanted her so they could say they had her. I don't think they had any plans once she was on their roster.
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