Confusing state of early 1999 WCW

[TheXtremisT]

On the Network, I've been watching WCW Nitros from 1997 onwards, and I'm currently at April 1999. And the direction the company is going is evident. Chaos and lack of conviction/clear plan is what I'd describe it as, even if I didn't know what came of the company during 1999-2001.

But what's confused me the most was how it went from well-established characters and motivations, to acting out of character and changing heel/face.

For example:

- Literally during the Flair vs Hogan match at Uncensored, March 1999, Hogan was working the match as babyface (which the crowd got behind) despite getting David Flair to turn on Ric and organising an abduction and beat down of Ric in the middle of a field prior to the match. Soon after this, Mean Gene, the commentators and the crowd began treating Hogan like a face despite being a dastardly mega heel and still leader of the NWO/Wolfpac up until this point. And he was getting good crowd reactions almost as a face. Totally unearned.
Also, at Spring Stampede in April, he was treated as a babyface after he got injured....

- Ric Flair was face and chasing Hogan for the World Heavyweight Championship, and had been named President of WCW. David turned on him, and garnered Ric sympathy from the fans. But the story from the commentators/wrestlers became Ric cared more about the WHC than David, started to become drunk with power. But he didn't really show much of abusing power at this time, the fans still cheered him and the 4 Horsemen. It was only after winning the WHC at Uncensored that he started to back down from challenges. Which came out of the blue and made no sense. Then by pure virtue, Benoit and Malenko just "became" heels despite being mega babyfaces prior to this. The fans almost didn't know to cheer or boo the Horsemen.

- DDP had just feuded with Scott Steiner who was antagonising Kimberley. And had just thrown her out of a moving car. Page then inexplicably was turned heel just because he said "don't believe the hype" to Mean Gene when Gene referenced Page being the People's Champion AND locking on the figure 4 around the ring post on and injuring Hogan at Spring Stampede. Page was still supposed to be a babyface, won the WHC, then literally the next night Roddy Piper trashed him on commentary for injuring THE BIGGEST HEEL IN THE COMPANY and questioned Page's testicular fortitude because Page had unfinished business with Steiner and wanted to clear that up rather than fight Goldberg.
So then the next couple of week's Page started ducking out of challenges for the title and it was clear he was a heel. He didn't seem heel, he didn't act heel. But commentary treated him like a heel and then the crowd started booing him. It felt like it came out of left field.

- Kevin Nash - part of the Wolfpac and feuded with Flair, beat him senseless in the field.... Then like 1 month later was all pally with Flair in a backstage segment as if nothing had happened prior to this (eg turning David against his father), and then helped Goldberg from getting injured by DDP. Goldberg - the man he had been feuding with and caused to break the streak/lose the WHC....


Basically all of this felt like it came unearned and out of nowhere.


Thoughts?

[The Brain]

Just goes to show how bad shape the company was in when the main event feud was Flair/Hogan...in 1999.I love Naitch but man just wrong on all levels.Then you factor in the whole ''mental hospital'' stuff just God awful.Worst time period of his career in my book

And yeah DDP and his story is a big head scratcher. He finally wins the big one to a big pop then they turn em heel right after. What the hell kind of booking is that??!!

So sad looking back how hot the company was from 96-98 then 99 comes and it quickly fades away and never recovers.

[hbkbigdaddycool]

I remember hearing back in 1999 on wrestling news sites that Flair and Hogan both agreed to turn during that match because Flair wanted to be heel again and Hogan wanted to be baby face. So they thought that was the best time to do it in a match with each other. Honestly?? It worked. Fans cheered Hogan on and booed Flair. So that says something about the intelligence at least then of Hogan and Flair for what worked in wrestling.


The DDP heel turn made zero sense. The same can be said for Luger months earlier when he said, "Screw it, I will just join this heel NWO group that Hogan is leading again with the Wolfpac." If it was to make Goldberg the number one good guy, it failed because they didn't do jack crap with Goldberg and then turned him heel a year later in a shocking moment that Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff both said, "Nothing Vince McMahon could do about it." Why the hell would McMahon care about that anyhow?? So dumb.

[CM Tusk]

I’d argue that most of WCWs booking post signing Hogan was confusing and all over the place. Occasionally they would hit gold like with the original NWO and the Cruiserweight division, but most of it was like watching a kid play with toys.

I may be bias. I think WCW was pretty garbage for the most part.

[cordless2016]

All fans wanted to see in 1999 was Goldberg destroy the nWo once and for all. People point to the finger point of doom as the “start of the end” for WCW, but ratings for Nitro actually went up over the next month. Fans were interested in seeing Goldberg get his revenge on the nWo…

…so WCW logically blew off Goldberg’s feuds with Hall and Nash, only to move him into a feud with Rick Steiner out of nowhere. Meanwhile, Hogan and Flair were fighting over the world title while DDP’s momentum was killed off with his heel turn.

I’m a huge WCW fan, and while things had been questionable before 1999, this is when things really started to hit the fan.

[The Brain]

Another very bad decision in 99...Going from the classic Nitro set to this...🤢

[cordless2016]

Aug 10, 2022 23:40:59 GMT -5 The Brain said:

Another very bad decision in 99...Going from the classic Nitro set to this...🤢

WCW was aways known for their high production values compared to their competitors, so the change to a darker, uglier entrance-set aways confused me. The new set was missing that “wow” factor the classic version had.

[Its Tiffy Time]

was gonna blame Russo then remembered this was pre russo but this sounds like something he would do.

[TheEvilDoink1987]

I'm still of the belief that the absolute peak of WCW was when Revenge came out on N64, but it definitely did not take long into 1999 for things to rapidly deteriorate. The tide had clearly shifted to the WWF and even an 11 year-old pro wrestling junkie like myself back then noticed that the weekly WCW programming was in a nosedive.

If I was to revisit the Nitro days, I could enjoyably watch from the inaugural episode up until around Spring Stampede 1999. Definitely checking out for good once the Filthy Animals and Master P shenanigans begin. The brief run Bret had at the end of the year kind of got my attention back as a kid - the Owen tribute match against Benoit and him finally winning the World title - although we all know how that story ends unfortunately.

That leads us to the banner year that was WCW in 2000. Again, I kept up with them as best as I could, but was a casual follower at best during these dark final days.

[TheEvilDoink1987]

Aug 10, 2022 23:40:59 GMT -5 The Brain said:

Another very bad decision in 99...Going from the classic Nitro set to this...🤢

Apologies for the double post, but this set is pretty much my WCW barometer. A physical/tangible symbol of the downturn of that company in my eyes.