Post by jason88cubs on Jan 1, 2024 18:39:45 GMT -5
I remember reading in Bischoff's book he had a idea where he wanted WCW to have a NYE ppv in Vegas in 1999 going into 2000.
It got turned down thought, I think he stated from AOL executives
I found a article about it
The KISS Demon, originally portrayed by wrestler Brian Adams, was booked to begin a long feud with Vampiro. The two would battle each other for months, which would ultimately culminate on pay per view on Friday December 31st, 1999. The original idea for the pay per view, according to Bischoff, was from his boss, Dr. Harvey Schiller. Schiller suggested hosting a big show on pay per view on the final year before the new millennium. The event was to be called ‘New Year’s Evil’ and would be a three hour show. It was to take place at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. The Sun Devil Stadium has a capacity of about 70,000.
According to Eric Bischoff, the concept would have been half concert and half wrestling show. For instance, KISS would preform a song on one half of the field and then on the other half would be a wrestling ring where there would be a match and keep flipping back and forth. The culmination of the show would be a main event match between the Demon and Vampiro. Bischoff said the match would end at approximately 11:59 PM (Although it wasn’t clear if that would’ve been for the east coast or the west coast.) Eric Bischoff hinted that the ending of the New Year’s Evil show would have been like the world was coming to an end (playing off everyone’s Y2k fears) with lots of lights and pyro to ring in the year of 2000.
The show sounded grand and elaborate but, alas, New Year’s Evil never happened. It was being reported at the time that many WCW wrestlers and staff were against the idea of working on New Year’s Eve and even threatened a walk out if it went down. The reasoning behind the failure to pull this extravaganza off had many parts to it. First off, this was 1999 and by that time KISS’ nostalgia act was three year’s too late. While still a top rock band, the popularity of their tours were waning. Secondly, during the Monday Night Wars, a concert is not what most wrestling fans wanted to see. When KISS played a song on Nitro to debut the Demon, viewers turned away in droves.
In September of ’99, WCW management had seen enough of losing money and removed Eric Bischoff from power. The pay per view idea was scrapped and the Demon disappeared for a couple of months only to reemerge as Dale Torborg instead of Adams who hated the gimmick to begin with. While on paper, it may have seemed like a brilliant marketing ploy to get KISS and WCW in bed together, the end result was far from their expectations.
According to Eric Bischoff, the concept would have been half concert and half wrestling show. For instance, KISS would preform a song on one half of the field and then on the other half would be a wrestling ring where there would be a match and keep flipping back and forth. The culmination of the show would be a main event match between the Demon and Vampiro. Bischoff said the match would end at approximately 11:59 PM (Although it wasn’t clear if that would’ve been for the east coast or the west coast.) Eric Bischoff hinted that the ending of the New Year’s Evil show would have been like the world was coming to an end (playing off everyone’s Y2k fears) with lots of lights and pyro to ring in the year of 2000.
The show sounded grand and elaborate but, alas, New Year’s Evil never happened. It was being reported at the time that many WCW wrestlers and staff were against the idea of working on New Year’s Eve and even threatened a walk out if it went down. The reasoning behind the failure to pull this extravaganza off had many parts to it. First off, this was 1999 and by that time KISS’ nostalgia act was three year’s too late. While still a top rock band, the popularity of their tours were waning. Secondly, during the Monday Night Wars, a concert is not what most wrestling fans wanted to see. When KISS played a song on Nitro to debut the Demon, viewers turned away in droves.
In September of ’99, WCW management had seen enough of losing money and removed Eric Bischoff from power. The pay per view idea was scrapped and the Demon disappeared for a couple of months only to reemerge as Dale Torborg instead of Adams who hated the gimmick to begin with. While on paper, it may have seemed like a brilliant marketing ploy to get KISS and WCW in bed together, the end result was far from their expectations.
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Looking at this I thought it would have been pretty cool. It's something unique and different, something we never see much anymore of in wrestling
