So, you think WWE and AEW can be wild? Neither has anything on the madness of WCW.
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00:00A common comparison when wrestling fans want to get mad is, this promotion has become WCW.
00:05That is because World Championship Wrestling really did fall off a cliff by the end of
00:09its run.
00:10But that's why I want to talk about it today.
00:12As you will see, nobody is even close.
00:15Cuz hello, I am Simon from WhatCulture, please do go and smash that subscribe button.
00:19And yeah, this is 10 times WCW was the craziest promotion ever.
00:2510.
00:26Hulk Hogan meets the Dungeon of Doom
00:27So we go back to 1995 with this one and it just goes to show, WCW was always kinda really
00:33wacky.
00:34Here Hulk Hogan was feuding with the Dungeon of Doom, a collection of wrestlers held together,
00:38to make you think the Hulkster would actually lose.
00:41Given who he chose to be in this, it didn't work.
00:43Nobody bought it for a second.
00:45Now I think they were meant to be some sort of cult, and for that reason they had a lair.
00:50Which yep, one night Hogan felt like he should go and explore.
00:53I mean you tell me, I've no idea.
00:55His real shock was that there were no Hulkamaniacs here, a line that has remained funny ever
00:59since.
01:00And Hogan is just hilarious throughout this.
01:02It is like watching some crazy B-movie set in the basement of death.
01:06You've also got Kevin Sullivan speaking in Riddles as the Taskmaster, and then there's
01:10the music.
01:11My gosh, the music.
01:12If you told me a 4 year old with a Casio keyboard wrote it, I'd believe you.
01:16It just gets weirder and weirder too, and if you were used to the WWF version of Hulk,
01:21you were even more baffled.
01:22Couldn't have been more cartoony if WCW tried, and that is saying something.
01:26If you do watch it, please remember, no, you haven't done drugs.
01:319.
01:32Those Mini-Movies
01:33Okay, right, so what we're about to talk about must have been the inspiration when
01:36it came to WCW and making this sort of thing.
01:39Cause once again, my gosh.
01:41Cause to build up events like Halloween Havoc 1992, Superbrawl 1993, and Bash at the Beach,
01:46the powers that be ran what can only be described as mini-movies.
01:51Now let's remember, being a wrestler does not mean you can act, and yet we still saw
01:55Sting go to Vader's White Castle of Fear, and honestly, you gotta see it.
01:59The over-the-top narration is hilarious, and you're essentially told the Mastodon and Harley
02:03Race live in some sort of giant cave.
02:06I would actually take more of these today because they are so crazy, and remember, WCW
02:11was doing this to sell pay-per-views.
02:14That's right.
02:15They thought that if you were on the fence, seeing the Stinger and the British Bulldog
02:18blowing up some boats with some dude called Cheetum would actually get you to drop some
02:22cash.
02:23So yeah, it is totally bonkers, but please, somebody, anybody, bring these back.
02:28They are so, so crazy.
02:30Number 8, Gene Okerlund shoots.
02:32Centred around the one and only Mean Gene Okerlund who is interviewing the Natural Born
02:36Thrillers, I think Geno decided to have some fun, or he was just done with WCW's nonsense.
02:42Because when Mike Sanders does an impression of opponent Conan, Okerlund fires back, real
02:46good impression, you prick.
02:48What?
02:49Sean O'Hare then threatens Gene, but he is totally unfazed.
02:52He tells Sean to blow it out his ass.
02:55This is amazing.
02:56Everybody just has to sell it like Gene is losing his mind and more power to him.
03:00I'm sure he'd been messed around enough, so decided to just enjoy himself, even if
03:05it was at the expense of the wrestlers.
03:07For the younger viewer too, this is the equivalent of Megan Morant telling Grayson Waller to
03:11jump out of a window.
03:13Just wouldn't happen.
03:14Number 7, Robocop the Wrestler.
03:17So this one is pretty damn famous as it would be.
03:19One day Robocop just turned up at a WCW show, why wouldn't he?
03:23Happening at Capital Combat 1990, it's even better than that, cos he was here to assist
03:28Sting.
03:29Yep.
03:30I suppose the robotic cop was hanging out backstage, and when his good friend was in
03:33trouble he thought, man, I better go and save him.
03:36Given that this attack was from the Four Horsemen, I'm still a little bit sad we never got Sting
03:40and Robocop vs Ric Flair and Art Anderson.
03:43And as I'm sure you've figured out, this was essentially a sponsorship deal.
03:46I guess at least WCW made some cash.
03:49It is so funny to watch because Mr. Cop also saves Sting from being imprisoned because
03:54he rips a cage door off.
03:56Surely if you'd never watched wrestling before, you were baffled.
03:59Let's just say what we're all thinking though, somebody needs to put Robo in the
04:03Hall of Fame immediately.
04:04Number 6, Scott Steiner's Tyranny.
04:07You can tell WCW had lost its way in 2000 because Scott Steiner just decided to go nuts
04:13and nobody stopped him.
04:14It's wild.
04:15Big Bubba Pump would even cut promos saying how much World Championship Wrestling sucked
04:18these days, and that people should tune in to Raw instead.
04:23Plus one time on Nitro From Nowhere, he just said that Ric Flair was a jealous old bastard.
04:28Once again, if you need context, this would be like Cody Rhodes walking out on the NXT
04:32he did and encouraging all of us to go and watch AEW instead.
04:36It just ain't happening.
04:37If you weren't in management, it was a heat to watch however, because you couldn't believe
04:41it.
04:42It made Steiner feel totally legit and dangerous, because he was just saying whatever the flub
04:46he wanted to say.
04:47Plus, we'd soon then found out the company had suspended him because he had kicked the
04:51crap out of DDP for no reason.
04:53Although no, there was a reason.
04:55Diamond Dallas Page had asked Scott to stop saying offensive things about his wife.
05:00My word.
05:01Somehow all of this worked as Steiner had quite the run two decades ago.
05:05Only in WCW.
05:06Number 5, Terry Funk fights a horse.
05:10I mean, who else but Terry Funk?
05:12If you do just want to smile all day long, you do have to go and find the 31st of May
05:152000 Thunder though, which was always an insane program, and watch Funk vs Chris Candido who
05:21were fighting for the hardcore title.
05:23Due to this championship, the fight was happening in the outside world and not in the ring,
05:27when the pair somehow ended up in a stable.
05:31Once again, you tell me.
05:32Now, the horse residing there didn't know what was going on, or that this was sports
05:36entertainment, freaked out, and booted Terry right in the head.
05:41Seriously, at first it's terrifying, because that can kill a man.
05:45Google it.
05:46If this were you and I, we would have totally gone screw this and legged it.
05:49But not Funk.
05:50He turned to the animal, told it off, and challenged it to a fight.
05:54Don't tell me he's not the best ever.
05:56Amazingly, the horse even backs away a little bit, so he must have known.
06:00And while we are here, just go and watch any of the hardcore stuff in WCW from 2000.
06:06They don't think they had a clue what they were doing.
06:094. WCW Gives Away WWF Results
06:12This sounds quite tame today, given what the internet has become, but you do have to put
06:16yourself in the late 90s mindset.
06:18It wasn't like spoilers didn't exist because online content was already flying, but it
06:22wasn't super popular or accessible.
06:24So when Eric Bischoff started walking out on Nitro and just told people what was happening
06:28on Raw that night, well, we were all stunned.
06:31This was made possible due to the fact WCW was going live every week, whereas the WWF
06:36would hop between that and tape shows.
06:39You're watching Smackdown, Rampage has already been recorded, and Michael Cole just
06:44tells you Daniel Garcia is losing to Miro, so you don't need to go and see that.
06:49It's bonkers.
06:50If we're honest too, it was higher stakes than this, as Raw and Nitro were in a proper
06:53intense ratings battle, and each wanted supremacy.
06:57Bischoff would even talk about wanting to kill the WWF for good.
07:00There's more too, as Eric would also stroll to the ring holding signs that read WWE Fears
07:05ratings on it, and he'd challenge Vince McMahon to a fight on pay-per-view.
07:09And we'll talk about that later, the whole thing was out of control.
07:133.
07:14HOLLYWOOD HOGAN'S OWN HEAD
07:16Yep, please bear with me.
07:17If you were a hardened fan, you know the 1990 Starrcade main event between Hollywood Hogan
07:22and Sting was rubbish.
07:23The whole build had been incredible, and then we got this bizarre screwy finish, which still
07:28doesn't make sense today.
07:29Was it a fast count?
07:30Wasn't it a fast count?
07:32Just have Sting win the title and call it a day.
07:34Sting is perfect mind, and that was true for this feud too, because some weeks WCW
07:39just went, well, WCW, for example.
07:42Before the pay-per-view, Eric Bischoff decided to host Hollywood Hogan Appreciation Night,
07:47where he gave Hulk loads of gifts.
07:49As is the way in wrestling, the last one was from the Stinger, and he was quite a strange
07:53man.
07:54This was a mannequin version of Hogan's head.
07:56I suppose this is quite threatening, but honestly, the way Hulk sells this is painfully funny,
08:01as he acted as if this was his own skull, even though he was using his own eyes to see
08:06it.
08:07I mean, you'd be freaked out, sure, but this was next level.
08:09It also meant Nitro went off air with Hogan staring at himself and screaming, but go look
08:14in the background.
08:15Bischoff isn't scared at all, he's just kind of rolling his eyes like, man, that's Sting,
08:20what an idiot.
08:21So you have to presume that nobody had chatted about how they were meant to react to this,
08:24especially as the announcers were not that bothered either.
08:26This is when I remember I really missed WCW, because it was the best.
08:31And the worst.
08:32But that's why it was the best.
08:36I mean, what were they thinking?
08:37WCW actually killed a man on TV, and then they just returned to the show.
08:42What?
08:43We do have to go all the way back to Halloween Havoc 1991, and yes, of course, it's the Chamber
08:47of Horrors match.
08:49If you need this summed up too, well, it's the definition of feeling like you have to
08:52do something new for the sake of doing something new.
08:55It would involve two teams with four members who, of course, had instruments of torture,
08:59with the ultimate goal to strap somebody to an electric chair.
09:03I am not making any of this up.
09:04Abdullah the Butcher pulled the short straw, so it was attached to this device, when somebody
09:08pulled the lever, and we saw some sparklers go off.
09:12I mean, it's quite funny anyway, but the fans are totally baffled by it all.
09:16What was the response meant to be?
09:18Unsurprisingly, Abdullah didn't really sell this, because what was he going to do?
09:22But then he just gets up and walks to the back.
09:25Again, I'm not kidding.
09:26You'd think at worst, somebody could have stretched him out of there.
09:29It also meant the whole match was utterly pointless, and once again is a nice reminder
09:33that in 1991, sometimes WCW was not all that good.
09:371.
09:38Bischoff Challenges McMahon
09:40As promised, here we are.
09:41Let's get into it, because it was ridiculous.
09:43I'm just going to continue in the same vein, as I feel it sells it better, but you're watching
09:48Dynamite.
09:50he tells Triple H, AEW Revolution is around the corner, so why don't they fight?
09:55I mean, Twitter would absolutely savage him.
09:58If we go back to 1998 though, this is exactly what happened before WCW's Slamboree show.
10:03It wasn't just like Eric called him out either.
10:05World Championship Wrestling dedicated all these videos of Bischoff telling Vince he'd
10:09better be there, or the world is going to think he's a massive coward.
10:13WCW even went as far as to have Michael Buffer announce him as the winner, when McMahon decided
10:18against it.
10:19Obviously.
10:20It stank of desperation because all fans knew this wasn't possible.
10:23If Vinny Mac had done it, millions would have bought this pay-per-view, which is the last
10:27thing the boss of the WWF wanted.
10:29Amazingly, even Bischoff's nearest and dearest warned him against this, as Hulk Hogan and
10:34Kevin Nash told Eric, if McMahon does take the bait, he is going to kick your ass.
10:39So once again, you really couldn't make this up.
10:42Ultimately though, I hope you have learned something today.
10:45Sometimes wrestling can be goofy and it rocks.
10:47Sometimes wrestling can be goofy and it kills an entire company.
10:51You take care, goodbye.