On Sunday, July 6, 1996, in Daytona Beach, Florida, the wrestling business changed forever when Hulk Hogan emerged as the mysterious third man and formed the nWo alongside Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.
Frank Dee, Jay and I look back at the nWo on the 20th anniversary of their inception and talk about their impact on WCW and the industry.
I come from a musically-inclined family; however, the maker left me out of that equation, which I’ve come to terms with. Besides, being an enthusiast of this artistic medium is more my speed anyway.
There are days where I enjoy nothing more than throw on the headphones and lose myself to the sweet melodies of some good music. The one thing that can send all of that to a screeching halt is to expect something amazing, only to get something awful in return. Continue reading “The Plague of Unauthorized Wrestling Albums”
The world of professional wrestling received sad news this past Friday as Rowdy Roddy Piper passed away in his home at age 61. I didn’t get into wrestling until 1988, during Piper’s hiatus from the WWF and after his big feuds with Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, and Adrian Adonis. However, my friends always talked about Piper and would fill me in on all of his past shenanigans.
Piper returned to the WWF at WrestleMania 5 in a special edition of Piper’s Pit. His guests were Brother Love and controversial talk show host Morton Downey Jr.
It was my first time seeing this wrestler that had been built up by my friends to legendary proportions. Continue reading “RIP Rowdy Roddy Piper 1954 – 2015”
The nWo made wrestling cool in the mid to late 90’s. Their gang like mentality and infamous black and white colors resonated with fans all over the world. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan were the founding members of this revolutionary faction, and other members followed.
On this special edition of the Gerweck Report Podcast, Frank Dee and Atlee Greene take an informative look at 1996 with introduction of the nWo storyline and its influence on the wrestling world. We give a very honest blow by blow take on the New World Order and how it all came to fruition.
Topics include the:
Hulkamania getting booed in WCW
Razor Ramon and Diesel in the WWF
The Outsiders’ debut in WCW
Who the third man originally was supposed to be
The rumored 4th man of the nWo who was in WWF at the time
and so much more in this 2 hour podcast so sit back relax and listen as we take a ride into simpler times with the nWo. Click here to listen and be nWo 4-Life.
One of the fun things that comes with being a fan of any genre are the undiscovered gems you stumble upon. That wow factor kicks into overdrive because it sounds too good to be true when you find something that you never knew existed.
‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage and Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger are two of my favorite professional wrestlers. Up until this past weekend, I would’ve called you a liar if you said they actually wrestled each other. Well, they did in fact tango in the squared circle.
Their one and only encounter took place on July 17, 1996, in Sapporo, Japan, during a New Japan Pro Wrestling tour. Savage was one of four wrestlers representing WCW and hurt his leg on a dive the night before in a losing effort to Ric Flair.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, a sellout crowd 6,400 fans filled the Makomanai Ice Arena as Savage hobbled to the ring for his showdown with the esteemed junior heavyweight. Liger entered next with his usual flash and energy as an admirer handed him a bouquet.
While the match was only eight minutes and really nothing special, it was a nice novelty to see two of the all-time greats dance one time. It was odd seeing Savage being the bigger of the two wrestlers since he was often the smallest guy in the ring.
Despite winning the match with his patented flying elbow drop, Savage really worked to put Liger over as a serious threat. He played defense most of the time due to his leg injury, sold like a champ for the palm strike, and took a Liger Bomb.
Wrestlers have always been expected to wear their working shoes when traveling to Japan. However, looking at the landscape of superstar American heavyweights at the time, I don’t think that many of them would have gone out of their way to make a wrestler in a weight class below look like credible.
It was fun to see Savage out of his element and with Liger. Again, the match is nothing to write home about, but this one time encounter is worth a gander if you a fan of these colorful titans of the mat. The Madness versus The Thunder, Ooh Yeah!
Remember when WCW was the top wrestling promotion in the world? It’s sad that they are out of business because WWE no longer has competition to push them to create quality content on a consistent basis.
For every great idea WCW had, they had one that was equally as bad. On top of that, their lack of continuity at times was down right insulting to the audience.
My my newest column at What Culture.com highlights about some of the company’s creative missteps. Make sure you check out 10 Incredible WCW Storylines That Never Got Resolved
It took 13 years, but Sting finally appeared on WWE television in an official capacity. Albeit it was in a commercial for the company’s 2K15 video game, but it was still cool to see something after months of speculation. Gamers will be happy to have the WCW icon as a full-fledged character in the game as opposed to taking tedious amounts of time to create him. I really enjoyed this commercial. The violinists playing Sting’s original crow theme as he emerged from the shadows was very well done. I can’t get that song out of my head as I’ve been humming it since Monday. The next logical step in this promotion’s progression should culminate with an in-ring appearance. Then again, that might be just a pipe dream. Continue reading “It’s Showtime Folks: Thought’s on Sting’s Return”
In this edition of the Bodyslam Podcast, Atlee Greene, Shane Daly and Todd Graham tackle a very interesting listener question. What if WCW didn’t go out of business in 2001? There is so much ground to cover on this subject between what actually happened and what could have been. We discussed a wide array of topics on this matter including…
-How long would they have lasted?
-Could an Eric Bishoff owned WCW survive and would he learn from his mistakes?
-Would Eric Bischoff push younger talent as main eventers?
-Who would be the face of the company today?
-Would Hulk Hogan still have creative control and backstage power?
-What station would their TV show be on?
-And so much more!
Click here and get SLAMMED!
Follow The Bodyslam Podcast on Twitter @BodySlamPodcast E-mail us at bodyslampodcast@gmail.com
I crawled into bed late last night to watch TV. Channel after channel, nothing tickled my fancy until I said “Hey, you have the WWE Network.” I logged onto my iPhone and fell asleep watching WrestleMania Rewind chronicling the iconic confrontation between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. When I woke up, I realized I’d just experienced something that my ten year old self could only dream of. Continue reading “WWE Network Recommendations”
In honor of the RoboCop reboot hitting movie theaters today, I feel it’s only appropriate to reminisce about one of wrestling’s greatest moments. Ok, I’m joking. People hated it and its widely considered the most preposterous publicity stunt in the history of wrestling. As a nine-year-old kid who thought wrestling was real, I loved it. My imagination ran wild with possibilities as the cybernetic law enforcement officer found a new partner in a man called Sting. Continue reading “RoboCop Saves Sting From The Four Horsemen”
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