"Why wouldn't you push Kidman to the moon after this?" Well that's actually rather simple. The head booker for WCW (at the time) viewed guys of Kidman's stature as "vanilla midgets".
fc775 no, no. Kidman had personality. The Filthy Animals were a ton of fun. It isn’t just stature that makes a guy a vanilla midget, it’s also lack of personality. Kidman was small, but entertaining.
I hate the people that say that. There are 200 reasons you can love wrestling we cant all like the same stuff. I love the cruiser's because it gives me hope that I could make it too lol
The only person that wasn't a straight up jobber that I'd consider a vanilla midget at the time was Dean Malenko. And that's only because his gimmick is "no nonsense ass kicker"
@@Thor-Orion I see where you're coming from but no, that was Art Barr (Not so fun fact: When Vickie called Eddie to inform him that Art Barr had passed, she said "Art's dead" and Eddie thought she meant Art Flores), Eddie's tag partner in Los Gringos Locos
El Muchacho thank you! You wouldn’t think Art was a common name in Mexico. But Barr was from Portland and played a Beetleguise type character in wcw at one point, am i remembering that right?
Fun fact: before joining WCW, Sonny Onoo used to teach karate in my hometown in Northern Iowa, so it shouldn't be any wonder that he can pull of a decent jumping kick on Miller.
I still love that the attempt to give away the big Raw storyline of Mick Foley winning the title and disrespecting Mick at the same time ended up making the scene much bigger, accidentally took viewers away from Nitro as people wanted to see Mick win the title. And they were mocking Mankind as the champ, meanwhile the booking for the title "match" on Nitro was the stupid deliberate drop of the title to Hogan.
stone cold coming out in that match is one of the biggest pops i've heard in wrestling. who was the twatbag from wcw in the crowd who reported back bad mouthing it?
It's always bugged me that Hogan and nash did the "finger poke of doom" spot, but when JJ blatantly laid down for Hulk, he whined and said, "Not like this." Hogan is such an ass, and his last few years in WCW really proved it. At least Vince could sort of keep Hulk under control.
Vince couldn't control Hogan at any point either. Hogan was the same he always was, only with creative control clauses in his contract. That was something he didn't have in WWF.
Kidman was always one of the dudes who I really liked when I watched these as a kid. I know he's known for botching the shooting star press several times now, but he really did have some good matches and was a big part of the cruiserweight division at the time.
Super Fun Fact: Brain mentions Hogan's chances of becoming president today using percentages, then immediately cuts to talk about Scott Steiner. The Numbers Don't Lie!
The Raplhus gimmick down to the teeny tiny tee shirt saying "Jericho Personal Security" seems like the kind of innovation we see from Jericho to this day. Always has fresh and often times groundbreaking ideas with his character and gimmicks.
No conclusion to Bret Hart-Sting, no Booker T, no Chris Benoit, no Bam Bam Bigelow (who was red hot at the time), no Scott Hall, no Steiner brothers, and no Hogan...no idea if most of these guys were injured or whatever but man, that card should have been a hundred times better than this train wreck.
To be fair, I think this was when Sting took time off from wrestling because his personal life was falling apart so that's probably why Sting vs Bret was so short lived.
A bunch of the nWo guys (Nash, Hall, Waltman, Luger - anyone else I'm forgetting?) seem to have thought they were hip gangstas. FUBU gear, Tupac-style bandanas, "Syxx-pac", etc. I don't think it was ever acknowledged by them or the announcers.
@ that's why WCW was the go to for us cause they was emulating 1990s hip hop/rap.. ECW was the real gangster shit though!! WWF got my attention with Stone Cold and The Nation of Domination..
@ Pretty sure Konnan renamed powerbomb-to-facebuster 'the 187', not said 187. But yea, he was always spouting rap lyrics, as i'm writing this I remembered they made a rap video once. Like a legit song and video. Old dude would always say euphamisms for disgusting sexuals acts in reference to the other male wrestlers. "Toss my salad' means to tongue the anal cavity and 'peel my potatoes' means to tongue the scrotum. How the hell any of that made it past Standards and Practices once I will never know, much less for years.
This was the Last WCW PPV I ever bought, and St. Valentines Massacre was the first WWF PPV I ever bought. This video was like a through line of me giving up on WCW after the fingerpoke, which basically nullified Starcade entirely, and taking up with WWF. I still remember when Paul popped up out of that ring, I popped off. I just knew FINALLY 'the giant' was going to be utilized properly and not jobbed out to Hogan.
There are recent shoots on mean gene as to his role not only as the interviewer his ability to put guys over in the interviews. He was the best at making promos believable and keeping the lore of the character interactions intact. Miss him and Gordon Solie. The new guys need to go back an watch these and take notes
Mean Gene was really good at being memorable himself while still putting the wrestlers over. He added something to the show. The WWE nowadays just has bland interviewers who add nothing to the show and they're just there to hold the microphone. If the WWE got rid of them I don't think anyone would notice.
Nash had the book from some time around autumn of 1998, according to The Death of WCW. Nash claimed he wasn't the booker by saying that he had no control over Hogan and other stars that had creative control over their characters. Everyone else, from Hogan to Bischoff to Goldberg to everyone, tells a different story. Nash is one of the all-time great bullshit artists in the wrestling business.
I buy that Nash had zero control over some of the other main event talent, especially guys like Hogan but my issue with his booking is if he did in fact have the book at this time...putting himself to go over Goldberg and then the bullshit with Hogan two weeks later, it was like he was trying to cause harm to the company by doing that. Goldberg was never the same again in WCW....or WWE for that matter until his most recent return. Nash made himself look like a joke. The last thing anybody wanted to see at that time was yet another Hogan title run. It was like he said to himself "How can we make it to where we kill off everybody in one swoop?" and this whole ending the streak and finger poke of doom combo was born.
Jeremy Vanbrunt regardless it was time for the streak to end and not soon enough(Goldbergs logic was that he would be undefeated for his entire career so what’s that tell you?)
Billy Kidman is one of the most underrated guys in WCW that should've had a bigger push definitely and these first two matches proved that he definitely had the drive
World's Finest what are you talking about? WCW was still doing good in 1997 and in 1998 to me WCW really started to go downhill once they brought in Vince Russo.
They shouldn't have closed out the PPV with Goldberg losing the belt. They should have teased Hogan's return to the company after his failed political angle, reunited the nWo, cheated Goldberg out of the belt, and then built up the WCW vs nWo feud. They could have stretched that out to Starrcade the following year where-in Goldberg just desperately tries to reclaim his belt but he just can't do it because the nWo squirm away every time but at the end of the year he finally gets it back. That would have been entertaining but of course WCW let the inmates run the asylum when they gave booking to Kevin Nash.
That's essentially what they did. Goldberg broke his hand though smashing their limo and fucked it up. The two nWos were united as heels and had just successfully conspired the belt away from Goldberg and back to Hogan. Goldberg was meant to go through the entire nWo until only Hogan remained and get his title and win streak back. All the way to Starrcade Idk but that was the plan. Dirty tactics like spoiling Foley's title win and a fluke injury made the Fingerpoke look much worse in hindsight than it actually was.
Always wondered what would have happened if the Wolfpac stayed faces with Hall, Sting, and Macho Man back. 99 would have been a great year for those two factions battling for power and also having some friction within the Wolfpac.
I think they realized they had watered down the nWo at that point so keeping the Wolfpac face wasn't an answer. Black and white, red and black, LWO, it was really becoming silly. Tried to squeeze the last dollars out of the ship before it lost its value by reuniting
I love how Kevin Nash said in his Youshoot interview he never mentioned ending the streak either as a shoot or a work and the very first thing he said on Nitro the next night was "I ended the streak!"
@@nobodycareswhatithink Same! The Shooting Start Press by him and the 450 Splash by Juventud Guerrera were my favorites back in the day. I loved WCW's cruiserweight division.
Yeah, i hate his rating system, but love his videos. Sometimes he gives 1 and a half star saying, that it wasn't a bad match. 1 1/2 stars is subpar, sometimes he calls these matches good. It makes no sense and feels just wrong. I think he should just use a regular 5 star rating scale so he would have more room for his ratings.
@@Nat2025now but it's true though I mean if you think about it WWE wants guys that look like Drew McIntyre undertaker and Brock Lesnar but move like Adam Cole Young bucks it's like that those guys don't show up often that are that big that can move around like that and when they do somebody like Keith Lee they f****** ruin them they had Vader keately ruin the big guys that can move like that but you know it's either you get a big guy who moves slow like a big guy or you going to get a vanilla midget which nobody cares about I mean that's the state of wrestling now everybody is an amazing wrestler that is 6 ft taller under and 195 lb the big guys move like big guys so
With the Halloween Havoc ppv screw up that year. It would have made sense to get it right at Starrcade. Also Starrcade would have made the perfect place to end the Wolfpack NWO black and white fued.
One thing I found really weird during this time was The Giant would come down to the ring smoking a cigarette. Like him smoking wasn't part of any angle, gimmick or rib, he just didn't finish his cig by the time he was supposed to come to the ring, so he just finished it on the way to the ring
You should do a review of the January 4th, 1999 edition of Nitro. Not just the Fingerpoke of Doom, but really the entire show helped launch the beginning of the end of WCW. Tony Schiavone giving Foley's championship win away, Goldberg being accused of stalking Ms. Elizabeth, and worst of all, the jail Goldberg was held was across the street from the Georgia Dome (where the episode took place) AND a cop drove a regular car from the jail to the Dome with Goldberg in the back. This episode was not only bad and it not only was the official beginning of the end of WCW, but it showed two things. It first showed how the Creative Control and Backstage Politics of so many people hurt the company. The second thing it showed was bad booking; and that was before Vince Russo joined WCW.
@@TeemoQuinton If you do your research, you will see that Kevin Nash did not book himself to end Goldberg's streak. In fact, Nash never joined the WCW booking committee until February of 1999. Lastly, if Kevin Nash at Starrcade 1998 was the wrong person and the wrong place & time to end Goldberg's undefeated streak, then who was the right person and when was the right place & time to end the streak?
@@josephroberts1266 they had a chance to push him that fall. He should have had the feud with Goldberg. Yeah, he would have lost it, but it would have made him a legitimate upper card contender, similar to when John Cena challenged Brock Lesnar after Wrestlemania 19.
Great review video! Love review videos of shows that haven't been covered over and over by other channels. Don't hear about Starcade 98 as much. Awesome video!
I remember being a WWF fan and my WCW friends kept telling me tough Goldberg was. My mom got me Starcade 98 on vhs. That was my first exposure to WCW and Goldberg. Talk about underwhelming.
Yea I had some WCW kids always making fun of me for having Stone Cold gear saying Goldberg was bigger and WWF was just a bandwagon they didn't realize WCW was dying lol cause this was 98
Yeah but you need to have an undercard - Christ, the WWF shows of the same era had Marc Mero and Kurrgan in featured spots. Besides, a lot of people criticise WCW for only focusing on ageing ex WWF talent; at least they were trying to put new guys over on a big show.
From what I've read that the WCW announcers would break down the card at the beginning of every PPV because the card wasn't finalized until like the week prior so many fans might not know what matches are taking place, or who is against who in a match.
This is the first ppv I ever saw. I was a WWE guy, but was spending the weekend at a family members house and they were a WCW family. The first WWE ppv I saw was 1999 Royal Rumble.
Good stuff, Brian. IDK why, but long before Russo showed up, WCW refs were always very lenient in matches where the rules were usually enforced. Like you said, that's wrestling logic for ya.
This ppv was the beginning of the end of WCW. They needed to let Goldberg stay champ wayyy longer n not have an older vet take him out like that. I remember being at Hara Arena in Dayton Ohio December 1996 when Rick Steiner called out Sting but wow what 2 years did to the whole scene. I didn't watch WWF until late 96 early 97 and you could start to see changes on the WWF side and characters were in the grey zone as I call it whereas WCW was black and white (heels and babyfaces strictly). But I agree it was a B ppv compared to 1997. Oh when you do the 89 Royal Rumble ppv, could you tell us what year started if you won the Rumble you get a title shot? I want to say 92 but am not sure if I'm correct. I could go look it up but Id like to hear your thoughts on why it wasn't that way from the beginning and why they started doing it. TY BZ
He was not injured, he was out dealing with an addiction to painkillers, his crumbling marriage, and becoming a born again Christian. He had taken a leave of absence only 2 months earlier after losing to Bret Hart at Halloween Havoc, and wouldn't return until late March/early April of '99.
Kidman was great, especially in the Flock. Now for some reason he is a joke, I know he's long removed from competition but he is treated like a glorified jobber by other people in the industry.
Billy Kidman was the reason I got into wrestling as a kid. He was super talented and I can't help mentioning him every time I see cruiserweight in general. He was fantastic and the bar I hold all other cruiserweights to.
whisperienced, your comment is ridiculous! Kidman deserves to get high praise by everyone. The guy was just that damn good! Whether you like him or not. The Cruiserweight division probably wouldn't be the same had he'd never joined it. And even today, you can't talk about the Cruiserweight division without bringing up Billy Kidman! His high flying moves were fuckin' incredible! The only problem was when he joined WWE, they didn't know to use him and so many other wrestlers in the Cruiserweight division right. And believe me, the Cruiserweight division in the past is better than today's 205 Cruiserweight division.
Always liked kidman. He just never got over with the crowd the same way it seemed. I don't know if they ever did meet, but I wanted to see a kidman vs 123 kid match. That would have been incredible.
9:39 - "Miller totally no-sells it..." Anyone with a pair of eyes saw that Ernest *took a knee* and did the "what the hell, manager?" spot that would usually turn somebody face. A far cry from something like a Lio Rush table no-sell. He could have sold BETTER (hit the buckle with your back, THEN take the knee!) but in no way was that a no-sell.
I was going to say a similar thing......i think he sold it perfectly.....the kick wasn't intended for him, so why would he sell it like it knocked him out....i mean, it connected, but "he didn't get all of it" 'No-Selling' is more like Road Warrior Hawk immediately getting to his feet after taking a pile driver...
I am not going to lie. I have been really really enjoying your old ppv reviews. I agree with most of your opinions. Please keep them coming i am loving them.
6:47 Not paying any attention to a low to midcard match and putting over main event matches and talent was a Hallmark of WCW. It's really no shocker that they are no longer in business
I mean, a "good card" in the sense that it included one of the worst PPV world title matches in WWE history, between Triple H and Scott Steiner. But hey, they followed that up with Angle vs. Benoit, one of the BEST PPV world title matches in WWE history. It's probably hard to find a major PPV show with back-to-back matches of such disparate quality.
Jericho with Ralphus was one of the best things going on in WCW at the time. Very under rated how good Ralphus was with Jericho and the Jericho Personal Security! This was brilliant!
@@420jamamaw Jericho is an absolute wrestling genius! He never has the "big man" size that Vince gets so hard for. This is a hard thing to say considering how many great versions of Jericho there have been, but WCW Jericho with Ralphus and JPS ( Jericho Personal Security) and the " Man of 1004 holds" was some of his best works. That is just my opinion. Jericho got Ralphus so over that they ended up paying him close to 6 figures as a wrestler in WCW. After Jericho left they tried to pair up Ralphus with Norman Smiley and actually Ralphus was the one who somewhat got Norman Smiley over and not the other way around
It's actually quite crazy to know that Bill Goldberg was only a 1 time WCW champion. Guess WCW figured that since they kept the guy basically strong and undefeated for well over a year ever since his debut match in '97, that he didn't really need much compensation with multiple title reigns added to that fact.
I will say this, Kevin Nash winning the WCW Championship was a good thing, and the way he won it was good as well, because Goldberg looked strong in the loss. Remember, Nash was extremely over at this point, and the second most popular (since Sting was out at the time). Nash was the only choice to win, and everyone came out looking strong. The problem was everything that happened after the Event. Goldberg should've regained the WCW Championship on January 4, 1999, then he could've lost it to Diamond Dallas Page at Spring Stampede in a Fatal 4 Way (so Goldberg isn't pinned). Then we get the storyline of Goldberg trying to get a rematch for the Championship, and Management working hard to prevent this; this could've lasted till Starrcade, when Goldberg would become a 3x World Champion. Instead, Goldberg basically became nothing and never won the WCW Championship back, while Nash became a 5x WCW Champion. The big question is what would have occurred if Goldberg had retained the WCW Title? When would he eventually lose the Title and who would he face at each PPV? Yes, The Streak was something, but changing things up is always good, and they were still trying to regain the Ratings battle, so you understand why they chose for Goldberg to lose the Title, he just should've regained the Championship. Now, I've heard Nash's plans for everything, and even his explanation for the "Fingerpoke of Doom" makes sense (how would they beat the crap out of each other, if they were planning to regroup). His plan was to build up Hogan, then have Goldberg take the Title from him. The only issue was that Hogan-Flair made money, so they gave the Title back to Flair and basically just moved on from Goldberg and for some reason focused on Hogan, Nash, Randy Savage, Sting and Bret Hart. The WCW was losing every week and decided they needed to focus on ex-WWE guys and proven names instead of fresh faces (even Goldberg). People really need to watch Starrcade 1998 (mainly Nash vs Goldberg) and not think about what happened in 1999; if you do that, then Nash beating Goldberg (and the way he did it) makes sense and gets you excited about the future.
I have long since agreed with a lot of what you have said. Kevin Nash winning the title AND beating Goldberg wasn't as much of a problem, especially considering what else happens in the next 24 months. You could've taken the title off Goldberg and he still would've been strong in my opinion.
Agreed, history made this look worse and worse because of the BS that followed but at the time it made me tune into Nitro because you knew that it was a robbery and he'd get the title back.
Except Kevin Nash himself who said(Not direct quote) Goldberg and everyone else thinks I was booking at that point but in truth I didn't start booking until a week or two later, they came to me and offered half a mill to book which i accepted.
24:42 WAY too many people let Schivone off the hook for this. There are those who are forced to follow orders Sophie's Choice style, and then there are henchmen who rub their hands together and respond to such orders with "WITH PLEASURE SIR". Schivone's "HA! That'll put butts in the seats" was proof of the latter. Especially when Bishoff has gone on record as just giving him the match results with nothing extra added. Foley, whom is infamous for being "too nice for the wrestling business" put Tony over in his book, but it was clear as day what Schivone thought of Mick as a wrestler. He deserves all the vitriol that smarks heave at Bishoff and Russo.
This ppv is burned into my memory. I was 7, wrestling was still real to me and Goldberg loses. I was legit about to cry, if it wasn't for my dad making fun of me, I would've. Classic wrestling memories.
Kevin Nash actually didn't start booking for WCW till either February or March of 1999 actually, Eric Bischoff was still booking at the time when this Starrcade came around. Apart from that I really liked the video, keep up the good work
"Why wouldn't you push Kidman to the moon after this?" Well that's actually rather simple. The head booker for WCW (at the time) viewed guys of Kidman's stature as "vanilla midgets".
And they were kinda right
fc775 no, no. Kidman had personality. The Filthy Animals were a ton of fun. It isn’t just stature that makes a guy a vanilla midget, it’s also lack of personality. Kidman was small, but entertaining.
I hate the people that say that. There are 200 reasons you can love wrestling we cant all like the same stuff. I love the cruiser's because it gives me hope that I could make it too lol
The only person that wasn't a straight up jobber that I'd consider a vanilla midget at the time was Dean Malenko. And that's only because his gimmick is "no nonsense ass kicker"
@@andrejg4136 it's a shame cause Dean is a really good performer but unfortunately.....
....so is Marko Stunt.
"Every match gets incrementally slower" That's WCW shows in a nutshell during this time.
Also, DDP is awesome
Fun fact: Art Flores AKA Spyder was Eddie Guerrero's best friend from childhood
Wholesome Eddie
He's no ralphus
He invented the frog splash yeah?
@@Thor-Orion I see where you're coming from but no, that was Art Barr (Not so fun fact: When Vickie called Eddie to inform him that Art Barr had passed, she said "Art's dead" and Eddie thought she meant Art Flores), Eddie's tag partner in Los Gringos Locos
El Muchacho thank you! You wouldn’t think Art was a common name in Mexico. But Barr was from Portland and played a Beetleguise type character in wcw at one point, am i remembering that right?
Fun fact: before joining WCW, Sonny Onoo used to teach karate in my hometown in Northern Iowa, so it shouldn't be any wonder that he can pull of a decent jumping kick on Miller.
I still love that the attempt to give away the big Raw storyline of Mick Foley winning the title and disrespecting Mick at the same time ended up making the scene much bigger, accidentally took viewers away from Nitro as people wanted to see Mick win the title. And they were mocking Mankind as the champ, meanwhile the booking for the title "match" on Nitro was the stupid deliberate drop of the title to Hogan.
Brian Crocker To me, that was the "Jump the Shark" moment for WCW.
stone cold coming out in that match is one of the biggest pops i've heard in wrestling. who was the twatbag from wcw in the crowd who reported back bad mouthing it?
It's always bugged me that Hogan and nash did the "finger poke of doom" spot, but when JJ blatantly laid down for Hulk, he whined and said, "Not like this." Hogan is such an ass, and his last few years in WCW really proved it. At least Vince could sort of keep Hulk under control.
I still remember being 10 and jumping up and down in joy when Mick won.
Vince couldn't control Hogan at any point either. Hogan was the same he always was, only with creative control clauses in his contract. That was something he didn't have in WWF.
Kidman was always one of the dudes who I really liked when I watched these as a kid. I know he's known for botching the shooting star press several times now, but he really did have some good matches and was a big part of the cruiserweight division at the time.
January 4th 1999 wouldn’t be a bad idea for a full scale episode at some point.
Yeah! It could be like a "Who War It Better" of sorts (though we already know the winner lol).
I can see Wrestlelamia making a final bell about that day
@@ForWhatItsWorth_ yeah
WWF/E: won the Monday Night Wars
WCW: lost the Monday Night Wars
NJPW: Shinya Hashimoto suffers Inokiism
AJPW: Giant Baba has cancer.
I won 40 dollars off of Kevin’s win. Thank you Scott
W.S. Fletcher What did you spend it on
TC TC Drugs or a Wii
how could he buy a wii in 1998? it was N64 back then.
L1am21 He could have use a time machine to get the infamous Wii
why would you place a bet with someone that has a time machine? FOOLISH! then again who bets on pro wrestling :/
Fun fact: due to Flair no showing to attend Reid’s match, he was also left out of WCW/NWO Revenge.
Interesting
They Could've Put Undertaker In That Game To Replace Ric Flair
Super Fun Fact: Brain mentions Hogan's chances of becoming president today using percentages, then immediately cuts to talk about Scott Steiner. The Numbers Don't Lie!
dbzfan22 huh? Is that a reference to something?
@@gatchywatchyentertainmentb2090 my friend, look up Scott Steiner's math promo. Then prepare to have a wonderful day =)
The Raplhus gimmick down to the teeny tiny tee shirt saying "Jericho Personal Security" seems like the kind of innovation we see from Jericho to this day. Always has fresh and often times groundbreaking ideas with his character and gimmicks.
No conclusion to Bret Hart-Sting, no Booker T, no Chris Benoit, no Bam Bam Bigelow (who was red hot at the time), no Scott Hall, no Steiner brothers, and no Hogan...no idea if most of these guys were injured or whatever but man, that card should have been a hundred times better than this train wreck.
To be fair, I think this was when Sting took time off from wrestling because his personal life was falling apart so that's probably why Sting vs Bret was so short lived.
Yeah. All Those Security Team Members In Yellow Uniform, Smock Looking Things Don't Count As Top Stars Restling.
Sting was the face of WCW
Starrcade 1998, the genesis of Dick Kick City.
Shouldn’t it be the founding of dick kick city
Starting this event, from now. From this event on. This will be the event. Of the genesis........of d*** kick city.
Luger in the FUBU gear.
A bunch of the nWo guys (Nash, Hall, Waltman, Luger - anyone else I'm forgetting?) seem to have thought they were hip gangstas. FUBU gear, Tupac-style bandanas, "Syxx-pac", etc. I don't think it was ever acknowledged by them or the announcers.
"I'll FUBU hero..." ah, dammit.
@ that's why WCW was the go to for us cause they was emulating 1990s hip hop/rap.. ECW was the real gangster shit though!! WWF got my attention with Stone Cold and The Nation of Domination..
@@zennyspent LMAO!!!!!!!! FUBU!! My Lord everybody was wearing FUBU by that point in history.. LMAO!!!!!!!
@ Pretty sure Konnan renamed powerbomb-to-facebuster 'the 187', not said 187. But yea, he was always spouting rap lyrics, as i'm writing this I remembered they made a rap video once. Like a legit song and video. Old dude would always say euphamisms for disgusting sexuals acts in reference to the other male wrestlers. "Toss my salad' means to tongue the anal cavity and 'peel my potatoes' means to tongue the scrotum. How the hell any of that made it past Standards and Practices once I will never know, much less for years.
This was the Last WCW PPV I ever bought, and St. Valentines Massacre was the first WWF PPV I ever bought. This video was like a through line of me giving up on WCW after the fingerpoke, which basically nullified Starcade entirely, and taking up with WWF. I still remember when Paul popped up out of that ring, I popped off. I just knew FINALLY 'the giant' was going to be utilized properly and not jobbed out to Hogan.
I HATE to be "That Guy", but it was Randy Anderson that Bischoff fired, not Mickey Jay. Other than that, this channel is AWESOME!!
ua-cam.com/video/5FNHSiPFtvA/v-deo.html
There are recent shoots on mean gene as to his role not only as the interviewer his ability to put guys over in the interviews. He was the best at making promos believable and keeping the lore of the character interactions intact. Miss him and Gordon Solie. The new guys need to go back an watch these and take notes
Mean Gene was really good at being memorable himself while still putting the wrestlers over. He added something to the show. The WWE nowadays just has bland interviewers who add nothing to the show and they're just there to hold the microphone. If the WWE got rid of them I don't think anyone would notice.
One thing I will never ever forget about WCW, was Alex Wright's dance 😂😂😂😂😂😂
JackGeezy das wunkerkind
Nash always claims he wasn't booking at this time. Goldberg seemed to feel otherwise.
Nash had the book from some time around autumn of 1998, according to The Death of WCW. Nash claimed he wasn't the booker by saying that he had no control over Hogan and other stars that had creative control over their characters. Everyone else, from Hogan to Bischoff to Goldberg to everyone, tells a different story. Nash is one of the all-time great bullshit artists in the wrestling business.
I buy that Nash had zero control over some of the other main event talent, especially guys like Hogan but my issue with his booking is if he did in fact have the book at this time...putting himself to go over Goldberg and then the bullshit with Hogan two weeks later, it was like he was trying to cause harm to the company by doing that. Goldberg was never the same again in WCW....or WWE for that matter until his most recent return. Nash made himself look like a joke. The last thing anybody wanted to see at that time was yet another Hogan title run. It was like he said to himself "How can we make it to where we kill off everybody in one swoop?" and this whole ending the streak and finger poke of doom combo was born.
Goldberg was a mark for himself, of course he would feel otherwise even if it wasnt true
Jeremy Vanbrunt regardless it was time for the streak to end and not soon enough(Goldbergs logic was that he would be undefeated for his entire career so what’s that tell you?)
Mike Tenay still called Japan "the Orient" in TNA. Great stuff.
It could be either depending which way you go orient or occident.
Keep it oldschool.
I love it. It is the Orient
Billy Kidman is one of the most underrated guys in WCW that should've had a bigger push definitely and these first two matches proved that he definitely had the drive
Starrcade 1998: The TRUE beginning of the end for WCW!
I'd say Starrcade 1997 foreshadowed WCW's demise
Not the Fingerpoke of Doom?
Finger poke of DOOM counts, too!
World's Finest what are you talking about? WCW was still doing good in 1997 and in 1998 to me WCW really started to go downhill once they brought in Vince Russo.
Wesley Landon Woolsey I'd say 97 was foreshadowing the 98 came along and it's sealed wcw fate
As a kid that Goldberg and Nash match was crazy no one was expecting that hall run in. The bad guy was crazy over at my house lol
They shouldn't have closed out the PPV with Goldberg losing the belt. They should have teased Hogan's return to the company after his failed political angle, reunited the nWo, cheated Goldberg out of the belt, and then built up the WCW vs nWo feud.
They could have stretched that out to Starrcade the following year where-in Goldberg just desperately tries to reclaim his belt but he just can't do it because the nWo squirm away every time but at the end of the year he finally gets it back.
That would have been entertaining but of course WCW let the inmates run the asylum when they gave booking to Kevin Nash.
is that how you would have booked it better cause your smart ass *wink*
That's essentially what they did. Goldberg broke his hand though smashing their limo and fucked it up. The two nWos were united as heels and had just successfully conspired the belt away from Goldberg and back to Hogan. Goldberg was meant to go through the entire nWo until only Hogan remained and get his title and win streak back. All the way to Starrcade Idk but that was the plan. Dirty tactics like spoiling Foley's title win and a fluke injury made the Fingerpoke look much worse in hindsight than it actually was.
I don't think keeping the nWo going for another year was a good idea. By 1999 many people were sick of the nWo and just wanted them to go away.
Always wondered what would have happened if the Wolfpac stayed faces with Hall, Sting, and Macho Man back.
99 would have been a great year for those two factions battling for power and also having some friction within the Wolfpac.
I think they realized they had watered down the nWo at that point so keeping the Wolfpac face wasn't an answer. Black and white, red and black, LWO, it was really becoming silly. Tried to squeeze the last dollars out of the ship before it lost its value by reuniting
WCW Might've Done Better Business Than They've Done & Then Ended Up Winning The Monday Night War.
People were already getting tired of the NWO by this point, I don't think sticking with face NWO vs heel NWO would have made a difference.
What Bischoff took far too long to understand is that trends in wrestling change as fast as trends in popular culture.
I love how Kevin Nash said in his Youshoot interview he never mentioned ending the streak either as a shoot or a work and the very first thing he said on Nitro the next night was "I ended the streak!"
I love Nash but he’s a bullshitter.
Billy Kidman was and still is one of the most underrated Cruiserweights
One of the most underrated wrestlers period. Dude had skills.
kidman was hella underrated...he could work his ass off
He was the first person I ever saw do a shooting star and it blew my 9 year old mind
@@nobodycareswhatithink Same! The Shooting Start Press by him and the 450 Splash by Juventud Guerrera were my favorites back in the day. I loved WCW's cruiserweight division.
I used to have a Billy Kidman shirt waaaaaaaay back as a young lad ,and I thought I was the coolest shit around hahahahhaha
Happy New Year everyone!!!
JC HAZARD you to
Norman's dance move is now being done by Big E. from A New Day.
Sammy Lane *The new day
It's *a New Day! Yes it is!
Maybe Big E was trained by Norman Smiley!
I think Norman Smiley works in WWE, if he does he probably gave it to him to use
@@Ghouse666 he's a NXT trainer
“Great match here, good story told by these guys. 2 out of 4 stars.”
Yeah, i hate his rating system, but love his videos. Sometimes he gives 1 and a half star saying, that it wasn't a bad match. 1 1/2 stars is subpar, sometimes he calls these matches good. It makes no sense and feels just wrong. I think he should just use a regular 5 star rating scale so he would have more room for his ratings.
I wish I could like this comment a thousand times. Sums up every complaint I have about Zayne, despite enjoying the trip down memory lane.
Idk why he doesn’t use 5 star system... who tf uses 4 stars? Sounds like a fuckin car commercial
LMAO
2 out of 4 means it was decent. His scoring system us better than ign where everything is 100 out of a 100.
To this day, I still find myself going along with Ric Flair at 10:11-10:20.
I always laughed at it when I was a kid & I still love it, today.
Only if wwe watched how the cruiser weights should look
And the rest of WCW's homegrown talent that went to WWE
At least WWE had the sense to give some of the cruiserweights bigger titles and pushes.
The trouble is because everyone nowadays is basically a cruiserweight (drag) the division is relatively pointless
@@Nat2025now but it's true though I mean if you think about it WWE wants guys that look like Drew McIntyre undertaker and Brock Lesnar but move like Adam Cole Young bucks it's like that those guys don't show up often that are that big that can move around like that and when they do somebody like Keith Lee they f****** ruin them they had Vader keately ruin the big guys that can move like that but you know it's either you get a big guy who moves slow like a big guy or you going to get a vanilla midget which nobody cares about I mean that's the state of wrestling now everybody is an amazing wrestler that is 6 ft taller under and 195 lb the big guys move like big guys so
thanks for this video Brian this is one of my favorite parts of the channel keep up the great work
The main event of Starrcade 98 should've been DDP vs Goldberg 2! With DDP winning with a diamond cutter! Making 2 top stars in one match!
DDP should have broke it at Halloween Havoc
With the Halloween Havoc ppv screw up that year. It would have made sense to get it right at Starrcade. Also Starrcade would have made the perfect place to end the Wolfpack NWO black and white fued.
I agree, they really dropped the ball with DDP in 98. Waited too long to put the belt on him and then turned him heel.
This was a great video probably the best retrospective ppv review since Unforgiven please do more WCW '98-'00
One thing I found really weird during this time was The Giant would come down to the ring smoking a cigarette. Like him smoking wasn't part of any angle, gimmick or rib, he just didn't finish his cig by the time he was supposed to come to the ring, so he just finished it on the way to the ring
You should do a review of the January 4th, 1999 edition of Nitro. Not just the Fingerpoke of Doom, but really the entire show helped launch the beginning of the end of WCW. Tony Schiavone giving Foley's championship win away, Goldberg being accused of stalking Ms. Elizabeth, and worst of all, the jail Goldberg was held was across the street from the Georgia Dome (where the episode took place) AND a cop drove a regular car from the jail to the Dome with Goldberg in the back. This episode was not only bad and it not only was the official beginning of the end of WCW, but it showed two things. It first showed how the Creative Control and Backstage Politics of so many people hurt the company. The second thing it showed was bad booking; and that was before Vince Russo joined WCW.
Nash had the book around this time, everybody BUT Nash says this
@@TeemoQuinton the Klique all over again
The FPOD nullified all of 1998's stories. Terrible!
@@TeemoQuinton If you do your research, you will see that Kevin Nash did not book himself to end Goldberg's streak. In fact, Nash never joined the WCW booking committee until February of 1999. Lastly, if Kevin Nash at Starrcade 1998 was the wrong person and the wrong place & time to end Goldberg's undefeated streak, then who was the right person and when was the right place & time to end the streak?
I have so much nostalgia for this PPV. I used to watch it all the time at my dad’s house
I really wish Wcw pushed Jericho better.
So do they lol
How much more can you push a guy? Geez he wasn't a main eventer yet
@@josephroberts1266 US champion for starters.
@@josephroberts1266 hewas
@@josephroberts1266 they had a chance to push him that fall. He should have had the feud with Goldberg. Yeah, he would have lost it, but it would have made him a legitimate upper card contender, similar to when John Cena challenged Brock Lesnar after Wrestlemania 19.
These make my day
Great review video! Love review videos of shows that haven't been covered over and over by other channels. Don't hear about Starcade 98 as much. Awesome video!
I remember being a WWF fan and my WCW friends kept telling me tough Goldberg was. My mom got me Starcade 98 on vhs. That was my first exposure to WCW and Goldberg. Talk about underwhelming.
Yea I had some WCW kids always making fun of me for having Stone Cold gear saying Goldberg was bigger and WWF was just a bandwagon they didn't realize WCW was dying lol cause this was 98
Really. It nearly killed off wwe.
Oof
The cards WCW could of put on each PPV were immense, instead they treat us to ernest the cat miller and norman smiley et al.
Mr McMahon thanks Vince
Yeah but you need to have an undercard - Christ, the WWF shows of the same era had Marc Mero and Kurrgan in featured spots. Besides, a lot of people criticise WCW for only focusing on ageing ex WWF talent; at least they were trying to put new guys over on a big show.
From what I've read that the WCW announcers would break down the card at the beginning of every PPV because the card wasn't finalized until like the week prior so many fans might not know what matches are taking place, or who is against who in a match.
This is the first ppv I ever saw. I was a WWE guy, but was spending the weekend at a family members house and they were a WCW family. The first WWE ppv I saw was 1999 Royal Rumble.
Fun fact: Bischoff looks like Tommy Dreamer in that match.
Another great video, man. Thank you for all the hours of entertainment you've brought me this year. You are fabulous!
Chokeslam backbreaker would be a cool finisher. If safe to do generally.
Baron Corbin uses it sometimes as a signature move
The chokebreaker aka Nick Gage's finishing move.
I can't help but laugh at the WWE Network dubbed over theme of Public Enemy.
Shout out to Norman Smiley wearing the old school Combat Speeds wrestling shoes
Isn't the LWO pretty much 90's LAX?
Yes, but better.
Every time he said tazer I shouted CATTLE PROD!
Good stuff, Brian. IDK why, but long before Russo showed up, WCW refs were always very lenient in matches where the rules were usually enforced. Like you said, that's wrestling logic for ya.
This ppv was the beginning of the end of WCW. They needed to let Goldberg stay champ wayyy longer n not have an older vet take him out like that. I remember being at Hara Arena in Dayton Ohio December 1996 when Rick Steiner called out Sting but wow what 2 years did to the whole scene. I didn't watch WWF until late 96 early 97 and you could start to see changes on the WWF side and characters were in the grey zone as I call it whereas WCW was black and white (heels and babyfaces strictly). But I agree it was a B ppv compared to 1997. Oh when you do the 89 Royal Rumble ppv, could you tell us what year started if you won the Rumble you get a title shot? I want to say 92 but am not sure if I'm correct. I could go look it up but Id like to hear your thoughts on why it wasn't that way from the beginning and why they started doing it. TY BZ
Little detail but Charles Robinson as Little Natch was always biased in Flair's favor
Umm why wasn't Sting at Starrcade 98? Was he injured or something?
Optimus yes he was
He was not injured, he was out dealing with an addiction to painkillers, his crumbling marriage, and becoming a born again Christian. He had taken a leave of absence only 2 months earlier after losing to Bret Hart at Halloween Havoc, and wouldn't return until late March/early April of '99.
As someone who doesn't like WWE/WWF much... Sting should've gone to WWF in 1999/2000.
Joe Schmo TNA started in 01-02
Yeah Supposedly. That Super.sucks
I really enjoy the videos you make bro , It has given me a chance to learn about the different eras 😃
In my hometown, Ripon WI, one of the dorms in the college is called Scott Hall
University of North Texas down here in Denton, TX also has a dorm called Scott Hall.
That opener was incredible. 3 of the best high flyers.
Ralphus for president
Kidman was one of my favs. Shooting star press is just such an awesome move. He had pretty cool music too.
Kidman was great, especially in the Flock. Now for some reason he is a joke, I know he's long removed from competition but he is treated like a glorified jobber by other people in the industry.
whisperienced Kidman was super talented. What kind of made people turn sour with him was his brief fuede with Hogan near the end of wcw.
Billy Kidman was the reason I got into wrestling as a kid. He was super talented and I can't help mentioning him every time I see cruiserweight in general. He was fantastic and the bar I hold all other cruiserweights to.
Kidman was my favorite wrestler growing up
He was amazing
whisperienced, your comment is ridiculous! Kidman deserves to get high praise by everyone. The guy was just that damn good! Whether you like him or not. The Cruiserweight division probably wouldn't be the same had he'd never joined it. And even today, you can't talk about the Cruiserweight division without bringing up Billy Kidman! His high flying moves were fuckin' incredible! The only problem was when he joined WWE, they didn't know to use him and so many other wrestlers in the Cruiserweight division right. And believe me, the Cruiserweight division in the past is better than today's 205 Cruiserweight division.
He bulk.ed up and couldn't hit the ssp in WWE without botching it.
I forgot how Flair be throwing those good ShoRuken Uppercuts to the balls! Those blows made me flinch and grab myself! LOL!
Great video by the way!
"it's been choke slam city bitch" idk why but that really cracked me up. 😂
Another great review! I look forward to seeing more of these in 2018!
You should do a Wrestling with wreqret video on classic and old wwe games from the ps2 era , like HCTP and wwe svr 2007
Subscribe to Brian's Patreon, money talks...
money talks lmao
ACE Waves Great idea
welp money talks.......$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ that enough lmao
HCTP is still one of my favorite wrestling games ever 👍🏻
I am just now discovering your content. love it man. i grew up on all these wcw shows
WTF?! I literally just watched this PPV last night and was texting my brother making jokes about the QVC ad and Eddie Guerrero botching his promo lol
4:47 Eddie Guerrero actually powerbombs Billy Kidman!
DDP with the Eclipse.
Great shows so far thanks for this Brian just started watching your show love it keep it going
Always liked kidman. He just never got over with the crowd the same way it seemed. I don't know if they ever did meet, but I wanted to see a kidman vs 123 kid match. That would have been incredible.
Apparently they have had some matches in WWF, search on UA-cam
Thank you for mentioning both the January 4th episodes of Raw and Nitro, I recently watched both those episodes back-to-back.
9:39 - "Miller totally no-sells it..."
Anyone with a pair of eyes saw that Ernest *took a knee* and did the "what the hell, manager?" spot that would usually turn somebody face.
A far cry from something like a Lio Rush table no-sell. He could have sold BETTER (hit the buckle with your back, THEN take the knee!) but in no way was that a no-sell.
I was going to say a similar thing......i think he sold it perfectly.....the kick wasn't intended for him, so why would he sell it like it knocked him out....i mean, it connected, but "he didn't get all of it"
'No-Selling' is more like Road Warrior Hawk immediately getting to his feet after taking a pile driver...
I am not going to lie. I have been really really enjoying your old ppv reviews. I agree with most of your opinions. Please keep them coming i am loving them.
21:10 - The original RKO outta nowhere.
6:47 Not paying any attention to a low to midcard match and putting over main event matches and talent was a Hallmark of WCW. It's really no shocker that they are no longer in business
I think you should review royal rumble 2003 because that was a good card.
I mean, a "good card" in the sense that it included one of the worst PPV world title matches in WWE history, between Triple H and Scott Steiner. But hey, they followed that up with Angle vs. Benoit, one of the BEST PPV world title matches in WWE history.
It's probably hard to find a major PPV show with back-to-back matches of such disparate quality.
Then go to patreon.com/wrestlingwithwregret
22:23 Kevin Nash move set:
1. Right quad tear
2. Left quad tear
3. Both quad tear
4. Jack knife power bomb
5. Running big boot
6. Hair flip
This is the first PPV I can remember my Dad ordering for me.
Jericho with Ralphus was one of the best things going on in WCW at the time. Very under rated how good Ralphus was with Jericho and the Jericho Personal Security! This was brilliant!
Just another reason jericho is the goat. Constantly changing gimmicks. Getting over every time. Hell he got ralphus over.
@@420jamamaw Jericho is an absolute wrestling genius! He never has the "big man" size that Vince gets so hard for. This is a hard thing to say considering how many great versions of Jericho there have been, but WCW Jericho with Ralphus and JPS ( Jericho Personal Security) and the " Man of 1004 holds" was some of his best works. That is just my opinion. Jericho got Ralphus so over that they ended up paying him close to 6 figures as a wrestler in WCW. After Jericho left they tried to pair up Ralphus with Norman Smiley and actually Ralphus was the one who somewhat got Norman Smiley over and not the other way around
Brian Zane should interview Eric Bischoff
It's actually quite crazy to know that Bill Goldberg was only a 1 time WCW champion. Guess WCW figured that since they kept the guy basically strong and undefeated for well over a year ever since his debut match in '97, that he didn't really need much compensation with multiple title reigns added to that fact.
all except the main event, this was a solid PPV
Yes thanks Brian been waiting for you to review starrcade 98 this made my day.
MEAN WOOOOOOO! BY GOD GENE!
Here I am falling asleep when I see you made a review of the PPV I wanted. Damn you Zane!
I will say this, Kevin Nash winning the WCW Championship was a good thing, and the way he won it was good as well, because Goldberg looked strong in the loss. Remember, Nash was extremely over at this point, and the second most popular (since Sting was out at the time). Nash was the only choice to win, and everyone came out looking strong.
The problem was everything that happened after the Event.
Goldberg should've regained the WCW Championship on January 4, 1999, then he could've lost it to Diamond Dallas Page at Spring Stampede in a Fatal 4 Way (so Goldberg isn't pinned). Then we get the storyline of Goldberg trying to get a rematch for the Championship, and Management working hard to prevent this; this could've lasted till Starrcade, when Goldberg would become a 3x World Champion. Instead, Goldberg basically became nothing and never won the WCW Championship back, while Nash became a 5x WCW Champion.
The big question is what would have occurred if Goldberg had retained the WCW Title? When would he eventually lose the Title and who would he face at each PPV? Yes, The Streak was something, but changing things up is always good, and they were still trying to regain the Ratings battle, so you understand why they chose for Goldberg to lose the Title, he just should've regained the Championship.
Now, I've heard Nash's plans for everything, and even his explanation for the "Fingerpoke of Doom" makes sense (how would they beat the crap out of each other, if they were planning to regroup). His plan was to build up Hogan, then have Goldberg take the Title from him. The only issue was that Hogan-Flair made money, so they gave the Title back to Flair and basically just moved on from Goldberg and for some reason focused on Hogan, Nash, Randy Savage, Sting and Bret Hart. The WCW was losing every week and decided they needed to focus on ex-WWE guys and proven names instead of fresh faces (even Goldberg).
People really need to watch Starrcade 1998 (mainly Nash vs Goldberg) and not think about what happened in 1999; if you do that, then Nash beating Goldberg (and the way he did it) makes sense and gets you excited about the future.
Robert James George If Goldberg still retained and Nash was booking, he would have just had Goldberg look weak in all his matches but always win.
I have long since agreed with a lot of what you have said.
Kevin Nash winning the title AND beating Goldberg wasn't as much of a problem, especially considering what else happens in the next 24 months.
You could've taken the title off Goldberg and he still would've been strong in my opinion.
Agreed, history made this look worse and worse because of the BS that followed but at the time it made me tune into Nitro because you knew that it was a robbery and he'd get the title back.
Correction BZ, Haku would've been able to get up from being attacked with a taser. Just saying lol Great job as always!!!
Kevin Nash wasn't the Booker during Starrcade, he started booking about a month later.
TheHouseOfGozzie everyone in the WCW locker room will tell you otherwise
Except Kevin Nash himself who said(Not direct quote) Goldberg and everyone else thinks I was booking at that point but in truth I didn't start booking until a week or two later, they came to me and offered half a mill to book which i accepted.
TheHouseOfGozzie Nash wasn't the sole booker buit was on the booking committee come Starrcade 1998
That Nitro was the last pro wrestling show I ever watched.....until recently. Way to go, Nash.
NwO Soul'd Out got lower attendance than a 2011 Smackdown taping
J Smith 2019
Your first exposure to Flair was 1998?? Geez you have catching up to do 😅
"The 'dip-shittery' of the refs." Love it!
Luger in a FUBU jersey was nostalgia overload
I don't know why I know this but the ref was Randy Anderson not Mickey Jay
24:42 WAY too many people let Schivone off the hook for this. There are those who are forced to follow orders Sophie's Choice style, and then there are henchmen who rub their hands together and respond to such orders with "WITH PLEASURE SIR". Schivone's "HA! That'll put butts in the seats" was proof of the latter. Especially when Bishoff has gone on record as just giving him the match results with nothing extra added. Foley, whom is infamous for being "too nice for the wrestling business" put Tony over in his book, but it was clear as day what Schivone thought of Mick as a wrestler. He deserves all the vitriol that smarks heave at Bishoff and Russo.
Why don’t you do predictions for WK12?
This ppv is burned into my memory. I was 7, wrestling was still real to me and Goldberg loses. I was legit about to cry, if it wasn't for my dad making fun of me, I would've. Classic wrestling memories.
RG I was so happy Goldberg lost lol
Looking back though if anyone should've been DDP
This is the last great year had wcw 1998
What was so great about it?
Kevin Nash actually didn't start booking for WCW till either February or March of 1999 actually, Eric Bischoff was still booking at the time when this Starrcade came around. Apart from that I really liked the video, keep up the good work