This is a must if you were in the chatbox tonight. Sticky plz.
Discuss all of the goodness of World Championship Wrestling that came from the moment Vince Russo came in from latter 1999, 2000, and the final months of 2001.
Once he got injured (wanna say some kind of foot/ankle injury) he put on weight and clearly wasn't the same Barry Windham he was in the 80's, but he became more of a gritty brawler which suited him well due to his size. He had a bunch of good-great matches in the early 90's while he was like that. Then he went to WWF and did fuck all in terms of good matches (though had some fun tags with Bradshaw), then went back to WCW and uhhh... yeah. But the first decade or so of his career showed that he was legit one of the best wrestlers in the world at the time.
He didn't dip until he showed up in WWF as The Stalker. Early 90's WCW work was pretty great in my books. Managed to have one of the best tag matches ever, imo, to boot. w/Pillman vs Steamboat/Douglas.
Some have compared him to Randy Orton, hot shotted into the business because of his father and help from Harley Race. Tall and never really impressive at promos but extremely competent in the ring. Many of Windham's best work came with other great talent such as Flair, Anderson, Pillman and Midnight Express.
Some of the Flair matches he came off as the stronger party. Can't remember which one it was where I really found Barry to be the driving force behind it - Battle of the Belts? - but he more than proved his worth with the one or two matches alone where he even outshined Flair.
Don't get the comparisons to Orton. I see what some could be reaching for, but nah on quite bit of accounts.
Almost everyone's best work comes from working with great talent. Rare do we see someone like CM Punk for example have a **** match with someone like a Zack Ryder (aka useless twat). And I'd say Windham was better than the likes of Pillman (easily better imo), Midnight Express (though they were clearly a better tag team than any team Windham was involved in overall), and then looked as good or even better than both Flair and Arn in some of their singles matches. And post-awesome Windham was still more motivated and interesting than what Orton is right now.
Ooooh. Bobby Eaton & Barry Windham comparisons? Yikes. Let me peer into my brain and try and decipher who I'll give the edge to here. Forget anyone else's thought process. This is TOOOOOO close to call on a whim.
Sanders was a solid talker, O'Haire I'm still surprised never really did anything of note because he had a great look and was pretty decent in ring, Stasiak was...Stasiak...and Palumbo was also not bad. Also enjoyed Mark Jindrak, but we never got to see much of him in the Fed. Overall, I was a fan. The first young talent that had really been pushed in WCW in...years by that point.
Oh man, I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the awesome match between Kidman and Malenko at Souled Out in Jan. Tremendous match stipulation and an incredible finish.
What is the general consensus on Kevin Sullivan's tenure as head booker (Souled Out 2000 to late March 2000)? A complete hack or placed in a difficult situation after Russo had turned WCW into another WWF and the 'Radicals' walked.
This was his roster:
Sid Vicious
Jeff Jarrett
Hulk Hogan
Ric Flair
Lex Luger
Scott Hall
Terry Funk
Curt Hennig
Booker T.
Billy Kidman
Vampiro
Buff Bagwell
Dustin Rhodes
Bam Bam Bigelow
Fit Finlay
Meng
Brian Knobbs
Tank Abbott
Kanyon
The Wall
The Kiss Demon
The Artist Formally Known as Prince Iaukea
Psychosis
Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Lash Leroux
LA Parka
Norman Smiley
Berlyn
Disco Inferno
Ernest Miller
Hacksaw Jim Duggan
The Barbarian
The Maestro
Al Greene
Tag Teams
The Mamalukes
David Flair and Crow Bar
Harlem Heat 2000
3 Count
Harris Brothers
Lenny Lane and Rave
The following were unavailable for all or most this time:
Sting
Rey Mysterio Jr.
Konnan
Bret Hart
Scott Steiner
Shane Douglas
Diamond Dallas Page
The Yappapi Indian Strap match was horrendous...but was it worse than Uncensored 1999 where, coincidentally, Hogan vs Flair also main evented, but in a First Blood Barbed Wire Steel Cage?
Strap for me. Cage wasn't "bad" in terms of quality - only infamously hilarious thanks to the commentary being BAFFLED by the match having blood and not ending. Until it was revealed Robinson was on the take, it came off as very cheesy. When it was explained it at least made a tiny bit of sense. If not still completely goofy. Strap match was just...bad.
You'd have to look towards the early years of WCW to find more of the real classics. Only one from '96 I'd say that got anywhere near the level of "5 stars" was Finlay vs Regal from Uncensored.
Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat at Spring Stampede '94 and the Steamboat/Rude Iron Man match at Beach Blast '92 are both definitely 5 star matches. Flair/Steamboat is probably the greatest rivalry in NWA/WCW history in terms of matches.
Wouldn't say Flair vs Steamboat in '94 got to the same level as their '89 series did. At least not Spring Stampede. Think their match on Saturday Night for the vacant championship has it beat. Great matches all around. Only tells you the level the '89 matches are on when their '94 bouts almost pale by comparison.
If only their first matches were available. Always hear Flair say those were even better than what were taped.
Just indicates he has a lot of friends and thus can get some cool names on the air. The Jericho one is by far the best so far though. When they don't have a guest they go through fan questions etc, it's cool shit. Just listen to it Not a fan of Chavo either, what a boring person.
There's a thread going round in the WWE section where guys are planning to go through episodes of Raw each week and re-live the action and have a discussion about what's gone on in the shows they're watching that week.
Is there any interest in doing a WCW version? Starting back with the first Nitro and watching each show in real time (1 Nitro per week) and then having a discussion each week about the shows?
If anyone can put up old nitro's especially from scott halls 1st appearance id be very interested in watching them. not too keep on WCW 94 though the YET-TAYYY and the Shockmaster etc.. are not things that need to be relived at any time
Certainly I'd be down for a scenario like that. Most of the early one hour episodes are up on Dailymotion in full. Downloading can assist here too. If this snowballs it could be quite a bit of fun. Good idea. (Y)
Diamond Dallas Page gave me two of my favorite WCW matches ever: Vs. Sting on Nitro in March and against Goldberg at Halloween Havoc. Coincidentally, both took place in 1998.
Nah, 2000 should. 2001 wasn't really too bad of a year when coming off the nonsense of the previous. Felt as if they were starting to try again.
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