Sports Entertainment

Brahma said:

That was good. And Goldberg was the number one wrestler on the planet at that time. But it wasn't a defining moment really. You knew Hogan needed a break at that time. He was looking slower and really tired.

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Something interesting in this clip. Tenay mentions that "a lot of fans would put WCW at number 3 in the balance of power, behind the two NWO factions". This is pretty emblematic of how lame WCW looked at the time. Even NWO Hollywood was starting to look lame, since the Wolfpac took the most popular guys from both of the other factions. However, WCW was basically down to Goldberg and DDP, and that was it. Flair and Piper weren't around and they hadn't elevated anyone else. Raven and Booker T could have easily been elevated in 1998, but nope. It says a lot that Team WCW at Wargames 98 had to be filled out with part-timers Piper and Warrior because there was no one else. Sad thing is it would have made total sense to get Booker T on there since he was known to be allies with DDP, and Stevie Ray was on the NWO team so they could have advanced that feud. But nope, had to bring in Piper for a one-off.

I remember how wildly imbalanced the whole thing looked in mid-98. Wolfpac was small, but it had some seriously heavy-hitters in Macho/Sting/Luger/Nash. Konnan was super-over too. NWO Hollywood was basically Hogan and an army of jobbers, but it also had Giant and Bret Hart (as a non-official affiliate) and felt like a huge threat. Then...there was WCW. It had Goldberg and DDP, then nothing except a few part-time superstars and a lot of disjointed wrestlers that weren't any kind of unified force. When they were teasing DDP joining the Wolfpac, I seriously thought Goldberg would end up being all WCW had left, so he basically had to win the title at that point.

I feel like WCW 98 also left a ton of meat on the bone with A) Hogan vs. Bret which they teased incessantly and never delivered, B) Hogan vs. Nash or NWO vs Wolfpac in an all-out battle, C) Potential Goldberg opponents like Macho Man, Luger, and Sting that never panned out that year aside from a Sting/Goldberg match on a random Nitro that really shouldn't have happened without any build. I look back on WCW 98 and I see one of the best years for any wrestling company ever, but My God there are so many big feuds/matches they could have done and didn't. How they passed on Goldberg/Warrior at World War 3 I'll never know. Every kid I know wanted to see Goldberg and Warrior go at it (less so after Warrior lost to Hogan but yeah). Personally I was sure we were gonna get Goldberg/Warrior after Warrior destroyed Hogan, then that didn't happen at all.

Merrith said:

For all the hate Goldberg gets, that crowd when he beat Hogan for the title was loud as fuck. I can't believe they put that on Nitro and not a PPV.

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I don't know but I'm really glad they put it on free TV. That was a great surprise to tune in and get such a massive match. I'd only started watching wrestling in April 98 so here I was less than 3 months in and getting the biggest match ever out of nowhere.

Naming top 3 moments is ridiculously hard. I can round it down a bit by only going by things that happened since I started watching, and that I actually saw when/around when they happened. I'll name my favorite moments from each company:

WCW - Goldberg beats Hogan. Yeah, in retrospect Goldberg kinda sucks (unless he shows up in AEW and passes the torch to Wardlow). However at this point in time he was ludicrously over and I remember how much all the other kids wanted to see Hogan lose the title. I missed out on the Sting/Hogan feud but I did catch the Macho Man / Hogan feud and that was pretty cool. Meanwhile Goldberg was ascending rapidly and really seemed unstoppable. At the same time, Hogan was like a roach, he couldn't be put down either. So when things segued into Goldberg/Hogan it was tremendously exciting for young me. Then you had DDP and Karl Malone getting involved (those guys were awesome) and...yeah, this was a hell of a moment.

WWF - HHH returning from injury in 2002. This was about when I started watching WWF (had primarily been WCW before that). Was such a huge moment and HHH was pretty much my favorite WWF guy immediately.

TNA - Bully Ray turning evil against Jeff Hardy to win the title and reveal himself as the Aces and Eights leader. People slammed this at the time, but I thought it was a hell of a moment. Then the following Impact he laid out his entire evil plan and his gang took over the show and the TNA website. As much as it got bashed, they were trying something new.

NXT - Andrade vs Malakai Black for the world title. Just an insane, incredible match and the first thing I think of when I think NXT. Actually, the two Sasha/Bayley matches at back-to-back PPVs were on the same tier. I can't pick one of these, they were all tremendous.

New Japan - Kenny Omega's last match against Tanahashi. Kenny walking out to the Undertale final battle music while Tana is in the ring visibly crying is one of the strongest emotive moments I've seen in wrestling.

AEW - CM Punk return on Rampage last year. Easily the biggest AEW moment for me. I don't have a ton of huge AEW moments yet but I'm hoping the coming years will supply some after a rocky start. Biggest moment from an actual match is probably Kenny driving Sammy through a table with the OWS from what seemed like the top of the stadium at DoN 2020. Absurd ending to an absurd match and I loved the hell out of it.

Araxen said:

We all google over the AEW women every week. They don't care. I don't watch WWE, but I assume it's the same.

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The Anna Jay thread on there is $$$

Also, Anna Jay needs to be women's champion. What I'd like to see:

Sasha joins AEW, Sasha vs Thunder Rosa at All Out, Sasha new women's champion, unification match with Jade at Revolution where Jade wins, then some time later Anna Jay gives Jade her first loss and goes on to have a long title reign.

That's what they should be doing. Anna turning evil at some point is a given because she's hot as hell in that persona, then Jamie Hayter can be the one who de-thrones her.

Chris said:

There's a good chance that Sasha Banks moves into acting, wasn't she on The Mandalorian?

However she does seem to be a wrestling nerd and was pictured with loads of Japanese wrestlers last time she walked out, so maybe she loves the buisness and will go elsewhere.

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AEW working with Japan to the extent that they do makes them the optimal place for Sasha/Mercedes.

Actually she might need a new name entirely since AEW already has Mercedes Martinez.

Maybe Sasha Varnado? Yeah that sounds good.

My one real problem with AEW right now is that Jade feels like the real women's champion and the TBS title feels like the main women's title. Thunder Rosa has been so sidelined as champion. At this point unifying the titles might be the best thing to do. Jade being unified women's champion is $$$

Sucks for Rosa though and her general misuse kinda pisses me off. It feels like Britt Baker is still the focal point/champ.