BATMAN DEBUTS IN WCW!!!
Wait a minute... oh, it's just the Warrior.
Well, he's back. Jim Hellwig - known in wrestling circles as the Ultimate Warrior. Or, since he's now in WCW - just "Warrior". He made his WCW last week on Nitro, which helped clinch their ratings victory this week. He was incredibly over with the fans, who kept popping whenever he said anything at all. Oh, and that first pic above is the Warrior's symbol, which they shone on an arena wall - just like Batman.
If you're wondering what in the hell he actually did, well all I can say is that he gave a 10 minute long interview. Let me set the scene. Hogan comes out and starts yappin' about how he can beat anybody - any wrestler, any war and any WARRIOR. Cue the fancy light show, the fancy ring entrance music and cue the Warrior. He walks to the ring - Shivone, Heenan and Tenay are creaming in their pants at this point. Basically the Warrior talks about his match with Hogan at Wrestlemania 6, and how he beat what was once "unbeatable". Blah, blah blah - he says that he will start a "revolution" which will destroy the nWo for good. He gets a good crack at the Disciple though by calling him Hogan's barber (The Disciple used to be Brutus Beefcake in the WWF. Too bad that many of the WCW fans in the arena didn't know.) Anyways, once Hogan's ego has been crushed, cue the smoke and Warrior drops down a trap door in the ring. Smoke fades, Hogan is left spellbound. End of segment. It earns a 6.4 in the ratings quarter hour breakdown. Not as high as Hogan/Goldberg but still very inpressive.
Personally, I was sort of glad to have finally seen one of these "monumental" WCW moments involved ex-WWF'ers but I really didn't mark out at all. I was flipping out when I saw Goldberg beat Hogan but I'm sure the marks loved seeing the Warrior again. However, speculation has already begun over how long it will take the Warrior to leave WCW. Scoops is reporting he's only signed to about 16 appearances (not necessarily matches) but other sources are saying he that he's signed to at least 50. But anyways, the general consensus is that Hogan/Warrior will happen at Halloween Havoc. But who knows, we all know how WCW loves to drag out and milk storylines. A scenario that I've seen is to have the Warrior defeat Hogan at some point between now and Starrcade, thus allowing the Warrior to face Goldberg for the title at Starrcade. Then, Goldberg beats the Warrior and makes him the undisputed force in pro-wrestling. But, Hogan is guaranteed to be the first man to beat Goldberg. Let him do it after Starrcade. Hogan instantly gets MEGA-bragging rights. WCW finally gets a fresh storyline.
Let's think back a few years, during the early 1990's. The WWF had become a federation teeming with gimmic wrestlers. Clowns, garbage men, plumbers, voodoo witchdoctors, repomen, and even hockeyplayers. Now let's look at the WWF of today, the only real surviving gimmic based wrestlers are The Undertaker and Kane. And even the Taker of today isn't the same of years gone by. Since the WWF has dropped most of its ridiculous gimmics, and become a more hardcore, "streetlevel" organization, it has enjoyed the most success of it's entire existence. The real working man's champion, Stone Cold Steve Austin, sells more t-shirts than Hogan in his 80's heyday.
Now we've been introduced to Gangrel. Who incidentally is being pushed as some sort of vampire. He's got the teeth, the flowing hair, the wild eyes, and even the goblet of pre-match "blood". Sounds stupid right? Sure it does. Just about as stupid as a wrestling deadman right? When I saw Gangrel's debut I moaned and groaned, thinking about gimmics like Doink the Clown and Duke "The Dumpster" Drose. "Not another supernatural gimmic", I groaned.
But then I watched it again. And thought about how the WWF could pull it off. Start pushing Gangrel as a "Vampyre", one of those people who are really into the "Vampire lifestyle". Vampyres drink blood, or some other substitute, but don't go around biting people. Do this NOW, instead of trying to make him out to be an undead, bloodsucking zombie. In today's wrestling world, Gangrel's career would be over before it even started. He seems to be a good wrestler, who's talents shouldn't be hindered by a bad gimmic.
Here's some personal notes about Gangrel: He tarined in the WWF's Funking Dojo along with Sean Morley (Val Venis) and Adam Copeland (Edge). He's been romantically involved with Luna. He was known as the Vampire Warrior while wrestling on various indie wrestling circuits. Unfortunatley, I can't seem to remember his real name at the moment. 8)
Remember when Dan injured D-Lo? Well, when he went into the KotR against The Rock, he had some tremendous heat. The fans had begun to accept Severn as a crippler or shooter, but his loss to the Rock really caused him to lose that heat. I'm not saying it can't be saved, but this match with Shamrock should only happen after the Shamrock/Owen feud has been resolved and some real attention can be given to their eventual showdown, perhaps at Wrestlemania.
But now the showdown will happen in 2 days. Kinda lackluster isn't it. The only reason I can see as to why this match is even happening is because the WWF needs something to compete against the Warrior on Nitro, but don't want to use their really big guns. I just hope the WWF isn't making a bad decision by putting what could be a huge moneymaker on free tv.
The Arm wrestling match really, REALLY sucked. Rumours are saying that Sable won't tag up with an oddity at all. It may be Edge!
I like the whole D-X/Nation streetfight. Not too hardcore, but at least someone got to bleed, and the laddermatch at Summerslam was finally set up. I hope we see HBK ref that one.
As for next week's RAW, live from Philadelphia:
Philly always has a great, rowdy crowd so the intensity level should be high as it always is with a jacked crowd.
Shamrock vs Severn is scheduled to happen. I still hope the WWF isn't pulling and old WCW trick by putting big matches on RAW instead of saving them for ppv.
Al Snow should make his first WWF appearance in front of a Philly crowd, home to ECW. I hope the WWF decides to give out styrofoam heads to the crowd for this one. 8)
Now for some news (some old, some new)... plucked from various sources around the Net. I will also start giving credit where credit is due for most of these new tidbits, so if you want to read about these stories, I suggest checking out some of the great Wrestling News Sites located on my Links Page.
Click here for the previous "News & Views" Column.
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