I’ve reviewed a good amount of WWE shows in this little section of the website, so I figured it was time to dig into the old competition: WCW. As pay-per-view calendars expanded throughout the ‘90s, the boys down south decided to not only give fans a January offering but give them, for a year at least, a pay-per-view presented by the New World Order. It seems to be most appropriate that looking back at a series of WCW shows, we get a run of good to great and a run of dumpster fires.
1997
The first edition of Souled Out comes to us from the Five Seasons Center (now the US Cellular Center) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It’s a smaller building but provided plenty of energy (initially) for a majorly hyped event. Don’t ask me why the NWO made their way to the building on the backs of garbage trucks. I don’t know why either. But foreshadowing?
Right off the bat, you get the idea that things are a little thrown together. The WCW wrestlers get no music, there’s no real ring announcing, just a voiceover from the guy that did the NWO ads and Nick Patrick is our only official for the night. We get started off with Masa Chono taking on Chris Jericho. They have a decent, if slow and plodding, match that kind of does a disservice to Jericho’s style. There is a botch where Chono goes for a flying nothing and they end up in a bear hug on the ground. Chono wins with the big boot and I will say this: the referee slow counting WCW guys is gonna get really annoying by the end of the night.
In between matches, we get the running awful gag of the Miss NWO pageant. I have tried to describe this several times but ended up deleting everything I wrote. You’ll have to experience it for yourself. Just know that it’s bad, it’s pointless and it always brings the show to an ass-grinding halt.
Up next, the Mexican Death Match between Big Bubba and Hugh Morris. No, that sentence doesn’t make any sense. It makes more sense with the explanation that Hugh Morris is a replacement for Konnan, who couldn’t make the show. I mentioned how quickly the ref gimmick was going to wear thin. Here we have Nick Patrick admonishing Morrus for breaking the rules of a death match. It makes sense in the grand sense of the story but it’s really grating just two matches in. It was an interesting finish with Bubba running Morrus down with a motorcycle and a fast 10-count to take the win. But meh.
Jeff Jarrett and his terrible gear take on Mr. Wallstreet next. Mike Rotunda so deserved a better gimmick on his return to WCW and instead he was just handed something to mock Vince McMahon. They have a wrestling match. There’s no story here until the last minute or so. We get more Nick Patrick interference then Debra and Steve McMichael get involved via a Haliburton. He then intimidates Patrick to make the 3 count and WCW gets a win. We finally have a finish that tells a story but it comes at the end of a dud of a match.
We finally get a match with some heat behind it as the American Males explode. You know what, you need their theme song in your life right now.
There we go. Anyway, this is Buff (formerly Marcus Alexander) Bagwell against former tag team partner Scotty Riggs. Like I said, there’s the story of the tag team breakup and betrayal by Bagwell to tell here. And they delivered the best match of the night so far. Buff hits the blockbuster for the clean win and we get a very cool camera shot of it as well. Bagwell will undoubtedly get haranged in future reviews because he doesn’t have the greatest in-ring reputation but here, he delivered a solid match.
Diamond Dallas Page, just really starting his rise up the card, takes on Scott Norton who’s looking to punish Page for his refusal to join the NWO a few weeks ago. Bischoff and DiBiase on commentary can’t stop railing Page for his refusal to join. Can I also bemoan the fact that Scott Norton did not get the chance to be as big a star in the US as he should have been? He was a huge gaijin star in New Japan and probably should have at least had a shot at a run on top somewhere. Regardless, the action in the ring quickly becomes secondary when Sting shows up in the crowd. Page makes his comeback and is cruising before being interrupted by Buff and a crowd with another offer to join up. Page once again pretends to join, then BAM diamond cutter to Norton before escaping through the crowd and tearing off the shirt. Which would have been fine if he hadn’t done the exact same thing to Hall and Nash. Oh, Norton won by countout if anybody cares. Which they didn’t.
Our first title match is next as The Outsiders defend the tag titles against the Steiner Brothers. Rick takes most of the heat, Scott gets the hot tag and wrecks house. Patrick takes a really weak bump to the outside before they double team Hall and WCW ref Randy Anderson, whose been watching the show from the crowd, jumps the railing and makes the three count. For the time being, we have new tag team champs but that would only last until the next Monday, when Bischoff would give the belts back to Hall and Nash and fire Anderson. Another decent match that comes to an abrupt conclusion. I don’t hate the swerve though, there’s still a decent story told and a good reason to do it all again.
Your semi-main event is the ladder match for the WCW United States Championship as Eddie Guerrero defends against Syxx, despite Syxx entering with the belt. He stole that a few weeks back. Guess what? I actually have a match where I can say ‘see below for more on this one’.
Our main event is the long-awaited WCW World Heavyweight Title match between Hollywood Hogan and The Giant. Giant getting thrown out of the NWO after cashing in the title match he earned by winning World War 3. This had the big fight feel that you’re looking for in a main event match. The problems that people want that big fight to deliver. Instead, we got a match where Hogan got too much offense in for his opponent, another referee screwjob and an unsatisfying finish full of NWO guys jumping the Giant, Hogan pantsing him for some reason and a sloppy no contest. The crowd chanted for Sting to make the save but alas, there was no save. Just the same post-match gang beatings that we saw every single Monday night. Except we had to pay 30 bucks to see this one. The show goes off to silence because our announce team is in the ring and this was a bad ending to a bad night.
MUST SEE MATCH
- Ladder match for the WCW United States Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Syxx
- A classic ladder match that gets overlooked by many. This is the fastest pace match of the night as one would expect. It’s another case where they have one ladder to work with and I always wonder what they would do if that one broke. I like that Ted alluded on commentary to Hall giving Syxx tips on how to excel in this type of match. They threw it all out there; see Syxx’s leaping side kick from the top of the ladder and the crazy falls they both took.
FINAL GRADE: F
This is widely considered to be one of the worst PPVs that WCW ever put on and after seeing it in its entirety, I tend to agree. The only bright spot was the ladder match and Eddie and Syxx could only do so much. All this show has is a ladder match and a whole lot of novelty.
1998
The NWO exclusive idea thankfully died in 1997 and this show was back to a more normal format. The Giant vs. Kevin Nash is the big match heading into the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio.
It’s an 8-man atomicos match to get us started with Chavo Guerrero Jr., Juventuda Guerrera, Lizmark Jr. and Super Calo taking on Psycosis, Silver King, El Dandy and La Parka. After the match, the chairman of WCW cleans house with his steel chair for, well for no reason really. But why not? This match has literally everything else.
Up next, Raven squares off with Chris Benoit in a Raven’s Rules match.
Rey Mysterio Jr. defends the Cruiserweight title next against Le Champion Chris Jericho.
And now the show comes to an ass grinding halt as Roddy Piper comes out to make the match for Superbrawl, the rematch between Sting and Hollywood Hogan. I say this about long promos on PPVs now and it was the same back in the late 90s: these are horrible and kill all momentum that the beginning of the show created.
Trying to reclaim that momentum will be Rick Martel and Booker T doing battle over the TV title. They didn’t have a bad match, it was a pretty standard match. The downside to me is that there was not a clear face or heel in this one and the crowd didn’t have much into this one. I think their match at Superbrawl where Martel suffered a severe knee injury was actually a better match. This one really just advanced the three-way rivalry over the TV between them and Perry Saturn.
Up next, Scott Hall takes on Larry Zbyszko, Hall flanked by Louis Spicolli, the Legend bringing Dusty Rhodes to the ring from the commentary position for the classic WCW vs. NWO battle. The crowd was much more into this one, although there was plenty of schtick in this one. But there was a good amount of catch-as-catch can style wrestling here as well. Larry made a pretty good account of himself, considering it had been several years since he was in the ring on a regular basis. This match, in the end, actually doesn’t matter. The real reason for this match was to facilitate the most pointless defection to the NWO: Dusty Rhodes.
Next up on the Saturday Night portion of the PPV, a six-man tag team match between Buff Bagwell, Scott Norton and Konnan of the NWO take on Ray Traylor and the Steiners. The match has started but Tony is hard selling Dusty’s turn. He is taking this one very hard. In the ring a lot of big guys are doing big guy things. What we really have though is another match to plant the seeds for something else. We’re really just establishing more tension between the Steiners, leading to their eventual break up and Scott’s full turn into madness and the NWO.
Up next, it’s giant vs. Giant as Kevin Nash takes on The Giant. While the pair showed off some impressive athletic feats, we all know why this one is remembered. This is the match that Nash tried to powerbomb the Giant and nearly broke his neck by dropping him right on his head. But how did we get to that spot? Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff with the distraction, Nash gets a pot of coffee from nowhere, dick shot, botched powerbomb. This match probably messed up a good amount of plans the company had for the rest of the year.
Bret Hart finally has his first official match in WCW, going one-on-one with Ric Flair. This is a must see, especially for old school fans.
Then there’s the main event: Randy Savage vs. Lex Luger. While this is an intense feud in the company, this is not a main event match and it’s placement at the top of the card is confusing. But after all of the post-match activities it all makes sense. The match here is inconsequential. It’s just a means to get Luger and Sting to beat on Hogan and Nash before the show fades to black.
MUST SEE MATCHES:
- Chavo Guerrero Jr., Juventuda Guerrera, Lizmark Jr. and Super Calo vs. Psycosis, Silver King, El Dandy and La Parka.
- The action is so fast paced, there’s so many dives and flips and takedowns, it’s just insane. Especially if you’re not well versed in lucha libra, you’ve gotta see this one.
- Raven’s Rules match: Raven vs. Chris Benoit
- These two beat the dog out of each other in a classic street fight. These two would be a part of an even better one at Uncensored ‘98, but don’t miss these intense ten minutes.
- WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs. Chris Jericho
- I think these two had better matches but this is still one to see, if that tells you anything about their chemistry in the ring. This is also the beginning of Jericho’s collector gimmick, where he’d claim prizes as he defeated his fellow cruiserweights.
- Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair
- If you’re in the mood for a classic wrestling match between two of the best to ever do it, do yourself the favor and check this one out.
FINAL GRADE: B-/C+
This is one of the better WCW pay per views I’ve seen since starting these retro reviews. There’s a ton of good early on in this show but there are plenty of lows and the main event is underwhelming. Despite that, the ‘98 edition definitely washes the taste of ‘97 out of my mouth.
1999
WCW in 1999 was the beginning of the end. It’s when the company began to spiral out of control and eventually into oblivion. Things look to be going alright in January though. Charleston, West Virginia turned out to pack the Charleston Civic Center with nearly 11,000 fans. The main story on the night is that WCW is back in control of the war against the NWO, despite Hollywood Hogan being World champion again. Ric Flair has assumed control as president of the company and he’s here to tag up with his son David in his professional debut.
Your opening contest is Mike Enos vs. Chris Benoit, which totally does not sound like a PPV match at all. Despite the fact that the announcers don’t bother talking about the match until right before the end, Benoit is mad over in Charleston. Well, West Virginia always was Horseman Country. Benoit by submission in a pretty solid match.
Up next, Norman Smiley takes on Chavo Guerrero Jr. Smiley comes out to the ring with an urn containing the remains of the stick horse Pepe, a reminder of how ridiculous a gimmick Chavo was saddled with at the time, no pun intended. It seems Charleston only cared to see the Big Wiggle from Norman and the other 15 minutes here were pretty tepid.
Next, Fit Finaly and Van Hammer had a match. In typing that sentence, I’ve forgotten what happened.
Up next, two big men do big man things as Wrath takes on Bam Bam Bigelow in a rematch from Nitro a few weeks before that ended as a no-contest. So at least there’s some heat in this one. Both guys show off their strength and agility but this one’s nothing special. Bigelow takes it with a Greetings From Asbury Park.
Konnan gets on the mic before his matchup with Lex Luger, finishing his promo by telling Luger to toss his salad and peel his potatoes. Alright. Again, we have a match with heat so this is good. This is what you want on a PPV. We get another slow match until Miss Elizabeth comes down to ringside to hit Konnan in the face with spray paint while he had Lex in the Tequila Sunrise. Yup.
Here’s one I’m looking forward to; Chris Jericho vs. Perry Saturn. So much talent in the ring here and the loser has to wear a dress. I’d explain why, but Tony, Bobby and the Professor are still too wrapped up in examining Elizabeth’s motives to give us the background. It’s kind of disappointing that the finish of this match took away from the decent work the two guys were putting in. The crooked ref switches a small package, fast counts Saturn and Perry has to wear the dress.
The Cruiserweight title is up for grabs as Billy Kidman defends against Juventud Guerrera, Rey Mysterio and Psychosis in a Four Corners match.
Charleston was unfortunately quiet for this one, which was unfair. It was a little slow to open and the tag dynamic in the match was confusing (they had to tag in and out instead of all four men being legal at once) A double sunset powerbomb from the apron to the floor woke everything up. Thankfully, they gave up on the tag format, made it a true lucha libre style match and things made all the sense. The finish not as much though. Rey saw Kidman climbing to the top to hit the shooting star press so he decided to take out Psychosis who was on the floor but then couldn’t get back in time to break up the pin. That didn’t make a ton of sense. Why not just knock Kidman off the top, hit Juvi with a move and win the belt? That kinda knocked the match down a bit for me. It would slide into honorable mention territory to me.
Your semi-main event is a tag match between the NWO Black and White’s Curt Hennig and Barry Windham against Ric and David Flair. This was David’s in-ring debut and he thankfully had three of the greatest workers in the history of the business to guide him though this one. And you can absolutely tell that it’s David’s first match. You want to judge him harshly for being so stiff and green in there but you also have to respect what he did. Most of the time, when people debut it’s in front of 50 people at an Elks lodge. David did it on worldwide pay-per-view in a building with 10,000+ people. All of that considered, the match isn’t great. There’s a lot of pantomime, which can be expected, but it’s a basic tag match where takes all the heat so they can tell the story that Ric doesn’t want David to get into the match. He eventually does and gets the pinfall, then the NWO comes down to beat on Ric and shove David around like a group of fictional schoolyard bullies. Hogan whips David, Tony can’t remember how old David is, the kid gets spray painted. This all makes even less sense when David turns on his father less than a month later. Because long term storytelling.
And your main event is not for the world title. It’s Goldberg vs. Scott Hall in the Stun Gun ladder match. Yes, the only way to win is to climb the ladder, retrieve the stun gun and zap your opponent with it. Goldberg is favoring his left knee the entire match, as the NWO attacked it on the Nitro before. And its a plodding affair until Hall starts working over the knee. Out of nowhere, Goldberg is bleeding pretty heavily. It’s definitely a different kind of ladder match than we’re used to seeing. Scott Hall does all of the climbs up to tease getting the stun gun and he’s the one who takes all of the big bumps. Goldberg even gets to fight off Disco Inferno before getting ahold of the taser and winning after a really drawn out standoff over the stun gun. And as a reminder that it’s WCW, we get a production botch as the camera cuts to the entrance way as Bam Bam Bigelow runs in to clock Goldberg. There was a solid story told in this one but I don’t know if you need to go out of your way to see it.
FINAL GRADE: C
This show couldn’t be more down the middle of the road if it tried. Nothing truly awful happened but neither did anything amazing. There was stuff that worked well, stuff that didn’t, stories that were well told and segments that missed the mark. I can’t say there’s any match that I would go out of my way to see again, but I’m not angry I watched the show either.
2000
The year 2000 in WCW was… well, not good. All of the missteps in these twelve months just dug the hole deeper and the company would not emerge from it. Vince Russo actually played no part in the writing for this show, as he stepped down as head writer after being told he’d have to work on a creative committee and it wouldn’t just be his and Ed Ferrera’s show going forward. If you need any indication that things were confused backstage at the time, note that there are TWELVE matches on this card. Wrestlemania this is not. I cannot comment on whether or not Cincinnati is proud to have hosted this event, but more than 14 thousand were on hand to see it. The announcers start the show by running down the card and I think it’s because there were so many changes. They may also need to fill time, it has that feel to it.
We open the show with the first of Billy Kidman’s Triple Threat Theater matches, an idea that was originally set for Chris Benoit and Jeff Jarrett. Instead, Kidman got to wrestle three opponents, the first Dean Malenko in a catch-as-catch-can match. The Iceman’s final WCW appearance was embarrassing to say the least. The rules of this match included a provision where the wrestlers could not leave the ring and would be disqualified if their feet touch the floor… which Malenko does like two minutes in. I get why you’d do this with Kidman working three matches tonight. But they apparently didn’t tell referee Charles Robinson before because he lets Malenko take a walk and come back in and it’s obvious he’s being told to call it in his earpiece. Just awful execution.
Speaking of awful execution, whatever rundown Tony Schivone is working off of has been blown up. We go to an interview backstage with Vampiro that Masa Chono randomly interrupts. So now we have a three way dance with Vampiro, David Flair and Crowbar after Crowbar and Flair attacked Vamp on the pre-show, so he naturally demands to face them both in a match. And they’re the tag team champs, oy. Vampiro, who is hella over, and Crowbar have a decent little match going as long as Flair isn’t involved. He sells like a bad of wet hammers. Crowbar actually does some good looking moves. Flair looks like he’s somewhere outside of Des Moines, Iowa. So that quickly turned into a cluster.
Up next, a special added match because 11 matches would have just ripped off the fans. The Mamalukes took on the Harris Brothers in the most complete match of the night so far. Johnny the Bull takes most of the heat from the Harris’, I think we even got a boring chant during that. The finish was flat as hell.
Oh yea, it’s Oklahoma vs. Medusa. For the cruiserweight championship. At least by this point, Ferrara had stopped doing the facial contortions to mock Jim Ross’ Bell’s palsy. But he will make sure to open this segment up with a misogynistic promo. Actually, this all feels very familiar from like 1996. Just replace Ferrara with Colonel Robert Parker. Medusa got more offense in this match than in her encounter with Parker at Uncensored ‘96, but she still got rolled up dirty and screwed out of the cruiserweight title. But she poured bbq sauce down his singlet to get her heat back… just blah.
The hardcore title is on the line next as Brian Knobbs defends against Meng, Norman Smiley and Fit Finley and dear lord why do they have to call it “Four The Hard Way”? It’s exactly what you’d expect. Six sloppy minutes full of guys hitting each other in the head with various plunder. There was an attempt to tell a story between the four but it was a mess.
Up next is a bunkhouse match, as Kidman gets part two of the Triple Threat Theater out of the way against Perry Saturn. Hmm, a hardcore match and a bunkhouse brawl back to back? Anything goes, falls count anywhere? How different and refreshing. Horrible show stacking aside, the match was alright. Saturn beats the dog out of Kidman for 10 minutes before forgetting that you never try to power bomb Kidman and ate canvas.
Before we get to brother vs. brother, we go to a package featuring Stevie Ray cutting a dramatic promo, allegedly in the ghetto. But they forgot to cut the crowd mic from the arena so as Ray talks about the people from their old neighborhood, you get his words drowned out by a randomly yelling crowd, killing any drama from Stevie. Both guys cut emotional promos before the match, but I can’t figure out who is the face and who is the heel. The two have a decent match going before Ahmed Johnson + 40 pounds jumps Booker and we get a DQ finish. They beat on Booker before announcing the new Harlem Heat. I guess the finish makes sense since there’s more of the story they wanted to tell but it felt very rushed.
Next up on WCW Saturday Night… oh, I’ve already used that joke? Well, it’s Jerry Flynn and Tank Abbott in a match where the only way to win is by KO or submission. This was probably as close to an MMA bout as we were going to get in a 2000 wrestling ring, as it looked pretty close to a shoot. Abbott won with a rabbit punch about 90 seconds in and despite them building a decent amount of heat to this match and then it was over that fast.
Up next, Diamond Dallas Page and Buff Bagwell battle in a deathmatch over the rumours of Buff banging Page’s wife. There were also a fair amount of small dick and homophobic intonations in the build for this one, so… it was 2000, what can I say. The match at least was pretty good. It was a wild brawl that had a little bit of everything; a little fighting in the crowd, some good in-ring work, a big table spot that destroyed the WCW.com set. Referee Slick Johnson delivered the fastest 10 count I’ve ever seen in a last man standing match, but most of those came during double downs. I was into the match and then a fumbled finish killed it for me. Page ate a blockbuster and several shots from a riot baton, but him hitting a Diamond Cutter put him down for the count. Buff managed to get up before Page and Tony had to quickly cover for the fact that the spot was supposed to be Buff grabbing the ropes to stop the move, but he didn’t do a good job. But it’s okay, the camera was too focused on Kimberly Page walking to the ring to catch the end of the ten count.
If you haven’t been burnt out on the concept of rules without matches, it’s time for Kidman’s third match, inside the cage against a mystery member of the Revolution, who turned out to be The Wall. Sidebar: the WCW cage at this point is huge. It has to be twenty feet tall and surrounds the ring like the Hell in the Cell. You’ll notice that Cincinnati is exhausted at this point and is really quiet for a match like this. This was match number 10 on the night. They got up for some of the big spots, but when The Wall caught Kidman out of mid-air with a goozle and a huge chokeslam, they were almost silent. The match itself was yet another brawl. They beat on each other. The Wall probably gave Kidman a little more than he should have.
Hey, more hardcore as Terry Funk defends his commissionership of WCW against Kevin Nash. If Funk wins, the NWO is over. If Nash wins, he gets to be commissioner on-screen. I think he already was the booker at this point, so that wouldn’t be a stretch on air. Plus side, we get to hear Funk cuss Nash for the first two minutes straight of the match. Negative, the other five or so are Nash being the dog out of Funk. Terry is a bloody mess after a chair shot and a jackknife through the announce table. Funk did get two comebacks in but they were both cut off with a low blow. Nash wins after powerbombing Funk through a construction of chairs. This one got to be hard to watch after a bit. The seven and a half minutes felt like like three times as long.
We are finally at our main event for the vacant WCW World Title as Sid takes on Chris Benoit. I’ll confess this; I am getting to this match on my third sitting for this show. I needed to break this show up because it is so long and also so not good. Sid spends the opening minutes throwing Benoit all over the ring before he finally start to chop the big tree down. Benoit constructs a cool spot, sandwiching Sid’s knee in between the ring steps and the post and drop kicking the steps as a way to continue to work on the big man’s knee. Benoit eventually cuts off Sid’s comeback attempts and wins with a crossface. Granted, we can’t have a totally clean finish because he slaps on the hold with Sid’s foot under the ropes, right after Anderson broke up a pinfall because Benoit’s leg was under the ropes. The irony of all of the build up for this match, including a speech by guest referee Arn Anderson right before the match starts is that this fight for the future of the company is immediately rendered moot when Benoit vacates the title and walks out of the company the very next day. I’m sure the finish would have played into a rematch, probably at Superbrawl. The match itself is well put together and tells a good story. But it’s hard to get hyped for this at the end of a night of mediocre action. Plus, once again, a decent match is killed off by a really confusing finish.
FINAL GRADE: F
It has to be an F, right? There’s too much not good on this show for it to be as long as it was. 12 matches is an eternity, even if several were under 3 minutes long. This would be the last Souled Out show as the name was not used in 2001 and that would be it for the company. This was the beginning of the end for the company and it did not start out well. It goes without saying that there’s nothing here worth coming back for.
Anyway, if you feel like venturing deep into the Network for some diamonds in the rough, it’s worth your time to find these:
| Year | Participant | Participant | Stipulations |
| 1997 | Eddie Guerrero (c) | Syxx | ladder match for the WCW United States Championship |
| 1998 | Chavo Guerrero Jr., Juventud Guerrer, Lizmark Jr., and Super Calo | Psycosis, Silver King, El Dandy, and La Parka | |
| Raven | Chris Benoit | Raven’s Rules match | |
| Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) | Chris Jericho | WCW Cruiserweight Championship | |
| Bret Hart | Ric Flair |
The Finisher 