Jim Herd stepped down as Executive Vice President of WCW shortly after 1992 began as WCW looked to clean up the mess and disasters of 1990 and 1991. Herd was sick of being undermined by bookers Ole Anderson and Dusty Rhodes pushing their guys instead of Herd's guys, the bad ratings, and the low house show attendance.
WCW replaced Herd with Kip Frye. His bosses allowed him to spend more money as he was giving wrestlers big raises, including handing out a $5,000 bonus to the wrestlers who had the best match on a PPV or the Clash of the Champions.
The first Clash of the Champions event in January was actually a really good show thanks in part to Paul E. Dangerously's Dangerous Alliance. Kip Frye is being interviewed by Tony Schiavone and he announced that WCW had hired longtime WWF wrestler and commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura as their new color commentator.
The opening match of the card was very good as The Steiner Brothers defeated Big Van Vader and Mr. Hughes. Cactus Jack showed his value to WCW and showed contributions that made Mick Foley into a legend when he defeated Van Hammer in a Falls Count Anywhere match, and I do mean anywhere.
The match ended in the rodeo section of the arena they were in at Topeka, Kansas. Abdullah the Butcher, who had been feuding with Cactus, attacked Cactus, but accidentally knocked Van Hammer out with a shovel.
Interviewer Missy Hyatt was out there and Abdullah picked her up and threw her into a water trough. It was 18 degrees but unfortunately watching the replay, Missy did not show us how cold it was if you catch my drift.
The Fabulous Freebirds unveiled a new music video which was nowhere near as good as Badstreet USA. Kevin Nash made his debut as the Vinnie Vegas character after two disappointing stints as Master Blaster and Oz.
Vinnie Vegas was a wise cracking pseudo-casino bouncer mob type guy who was managed by and teamed with Diamond Dallas Page. The Vinnie Vegas character was instrumental in Nash's future success in the WWF and WCW.
The Dangeous Alliance was represented in the two headlining matches. Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, and Ron Simmons defeated Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Eaton in an awesome six-man tag team match that featured a bunch of legendary wrestlers.
The main event featured superstar legends Sting and Ricky Steamboat taking on the Alliance's "Ravishing" Rick Rude and "Stunning" Steve Austin. Sting and Steamboat got the win, but the Dangerous Alliance was going to be tough to deal with in 1992. Paul Heyman looked to be a star on the rise as a manager as well as assembling some of the greatest talent in pro wrestling history.
1992 looked to have a lot of great action in the company with a ton of star wrestlers (minus Ric Flair) and all they needed was some direction unlike the previous two years. The SuperBrawl II PPV on February 29, 1992 was another thrilling event with Brian Pillman defeating Jushin Thunder Liger to retain his WCW Light Heavyweight Championship in a classic that was the opening match of the card.
In other star-filled matches, Ron Simmons defeated Cactus Jack. Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes defeated Steve Austin and Larry Zbyszko. WCW World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton successfully retained their titles against the Steiner Brothers when the Steiners got DQ'd. Rick Rude pinned Ricky Steamboat to successfully retain his U.S. Title.
In the main event, Sting defeated Lex Luger to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in what was Luger's final match in WCW (at least until 1995). Luger left WCW to go to the WWF. Sting's World Title victory would be spoiled by the Dangerous Alliance ruining his victory celebration, starting an angle with Sting and the Dangerous Alliance.
This was to be Dusty Rhodes' last event as the booker and Kip Frye's last event as WCW Executive Vice President. In March 1992, a "new sheriff was in town" as Frye handpicked his success in "Cowboy" Bill Watts. Watts ran the Mid-South/Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) promotion until he sold out to Jim Crockett Jr. in 1987. The UWF was one of the most cutting edge wrestling promotions during its heyday.
In came Watts. Out came ring mats, moves off the top ropes (a wrestler would sadly be disqualified if he jumped off the top rope, basically killing the Light Heavyweight division), and out of the ring brawling as he would fine those who used the ring post or guardrail to attack their opponent. He wanted to keep the wrestling inside the ring.
Watts also had ridiculous rules such as wives and kids could not be in the locker room during TV tapings, wrestlers had to stay and watch every match even if they went on first (they couldn't even play cards or sleep or whatever and the penalties would be severe), and face and heel wrestlers could not talk to one another outside the arena. They couldn't even travel, train, eat at restaurants, and even stay in the same hotel together.
Watts attitude and "good ole boy" personality ultimately clashed with the corporate world of Turner Broadcasting. Watts liked to run the show his own way without corporate and their politics getting in the way. The corporate world was ultra politically correct yet Watts was not and that would rub a ton of people the wrong way.
Watts' pay was based not on how much he made the company, but how much costs he cut. He got rid of food catering during long TV tapings. He also tried to get the wrestlers to take a pay cut or wait until their contracts expired and then rehire them on a nightly basis by bullying them. He tried to get Brian Pillman to take a pay cut and Pillman refused. Watts threatened to job him and Pillman replied saying he would be the highest paid jobber in the company.
Sting, The Steiner Brothers, and Arn Anderson all got their salaries cut. It's remarkable that Sting was so loyal to WCW that he agreed to this even though he was their World Heavyweight Champion. Watts figured the best way to take down the WWF was to go back to the past. That worked!!! Right!! All he did was piss off the wrestlers and the fans.
Watts also began phasing out wrestlers such as The Fabulous Freebirds by having them job cleanly to other teams until they left. Scott Hall, The Diamond Studd, grew tired of his role in the company and left to go to the WWF where starred as "Razor Ramon."
Just like Dusty Rhodes in 1991, Watts brought in his son Erik and tried to push him. Unlike Dustin Rhodes who at least was pretty good but did not deserve the push he received the year before, Erik Watts was not good. In fact he was lousy and the fans knew this and knew he was being pushed by his father as a clear case of nepotism and the fans despised Erik.
The first PPV under Watts' direction, WrestleWar '92 on May 17, featured one of the greatest and most brutal matches in wrestling history, the WarGames main event. Sting teamed with Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, and Nikita Koloff to take on Paul E. Dangerously's Dangerous Alliance of Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, and Larry Zbyszko.
All 10 men involved beat the living crap out of each other as just about every wrestler was bleeding and the cage was destroyed after 30 minutes or brutality. These 10 men were certainly over with the crowd. At the end, Zbyszko tried to hit Sting with a metal rod from one of the ring posts, but accidentally hit Eaton in the shoulder with it. Sting forced Eaton to submit to an arm bar and one of the most violent and best matches in WCW was over.
Watts brought in a couple of his old wrestlers from the UWF in "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy and the two teamed up to take on WCW Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers. Watts pushed Williams and Gordy and dubbed their upcoming match with the Steiners at Beach Blast the "Dream Match."
The inaugural Beach Blast PPV on June 20, 1992 from Mobile, Alabama was a disaster at the gate as they only drew 5,000 fans but it was a really good show. The opening match saw Scotty Flamingo (before he famously was known as Raven) defeated Brian Pillman to win the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship. This was one of the better Light Heavyweight matches since Watts instituted his no jumping off the top rope rule.
Sting briefly was thrown back into a feud with his old nemesis Cactus Jack as he faced him in a thrilling "Falls Count Anywhere on the Gulf Coast" match. Mick Foley did what Mick Foley does, take sickening bumps, especially on a concrete floor. Sting defeated him as Foley wrote in his book this was his best match in his career at that time.
That match was followed by Rick Rude taking on Ricky Steamboat in a classic 30-minute "Iron Man" match. Both men put on a tremendous show as Steamboat defeated Rude: 4 falls to 3. Missy Hyatt won a bikini contest over Madusa!!! The Dream Match between The Steiner Brothers and Steve Williams/Terry Gordon was more like narcolepsy as it went to a time limit draw.
This match did setup the theme for Clash of the Champions XIX, which showcased the NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament. The Clash was shown two nights after Beach Blast on June 22, but it was taped six days prior on June 16. The first two rounds of the tournament were held at the Clash.
The NWA Tag Team tournament had different rules than that of WCW as they allowed jumping off the top rope and brawling outside as this did was confuse and infuriate fans, who were pissed that WCW banned top rope moves.
They also did a another major mistake in booking The Steiner Brothers against "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy in the second round at the Clash instead of having these two fight each other in the finals at the next PPV The Great American Bash.
Williams and Gordy beat the Steiners and advanced to the Great American Bash while the Steiners were not even on the card. Williams and Gordy beat them to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship a week before The Great American Bash on July 5.
The 1992 Great American Bash was one of the poorest PPVs in WCW history as it only drew 8,000 fans at the gate and only a 0.4 buy rate. Not having the Steiners in the tournament was stupid. Williams and Gordy beat Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham in the finals to become NWA World Tag Team Champions and unify both the NWA and WCW Tag Team Titles. They would lose both titles to Rhodes and Windham a couple of months later.
The only thing that made the Bash not the worst all-time was the main event where Sting defended the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against literally his largest opponent, the 450-lb. monster known as Vader. Vader was a huge star in Japan and worked in WCW sparingly since 1990.
Vader made it full-time in 1992 and was paired with legendary wrestler Harley Race as his manager. Vader destroyed everyone in his path and was named number one contender to Sting's World Title. He faced Sting for the title on April 12, 1992, but was disqualified. Sting received a pair of cracked ribs and a ruptured spleen.
Sting made appearances on TV while he was recuperating and eventually got to face Vader again at The Bash. But Vader was too powerful for Sting as he beat and bloodied Sting. Sting tried to hit Vader with the Stinger Splash, but missed and hit his head on the ring post, knocking himself out. Vader gave a beaten Sting the Powerbomb to win the match and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
Vader could have been a powerful and unstoppable monster that could draw serious heat if he continued to beat everyone in his path and dominate them. However, the WCW Title was taken off of him almost as quick as it was put on.
WCW would not have another PPV until the October 25 Halloween Havoc PPV. Bill Watts cancelled an upcoming PPV in August where it would have shown the tournament to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion after Ric Flair left WCW the year before. Watts did not like the NWA and did not want WCW to be associated with it even though they still were.
Watts tried to cut The Great American Bash but was unsuccessful. He also tried to cut a couple of the Clash of the Champions as he wanted fewer clashes and PPVs to make his wrestling more special and the fans wanting more and felt fewer PPVs and Clashes would make the card a much greater draw.
There was a special series of events that took place on an August 2, 1992 TV taping of The Main Event from Baltimore, Maryland. Sting was supposed to take on Vader for a rematch for the WCW Title. However, he was attacked by the debuting Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who left the WWF to come to WCW. He gave Sting several DDT's, including one on a steel chair, knocking him out of his scheduled title rematch with Vader.
Watts announced that a special "drawing" would be held to see who would replace Sting to take on Vader for the title. It was announced that Ron Simmons' name was drawn as Watts was doing everything in his power to push Simmons. Simmons defeated Vader that night to become the first African American World Heavyweight Champion in professional wrestling history.
Sting would feud with Roberts the next few months. Roberts was already thrust into a main event role with the company's top babyface. Roberts originally signed a huge contract when Kip Frye was still running the company. Robert was supposed to sit out for a 90-day no compete clause from the WWF.
However just before he was supposed to start with WCW, Bill Watts ripped Roberts' contract over some heat the two had with each other back in Watts' old Mid-South Wrestling promotion and Watts' hatred of guaranteed contracts. He made Roberts sign a new contract that was worth significantly less than the one he originally signed.
Roberts faced Sting in the main event at Halloween Havoc. This would be the first-ever "Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal" match where they spun a giant wheel with 10 different type of matches on and whatever the wheel lands on, that would be the match. To further hype their match, a very lame mini movie was made involving both Roberts and Sting.
The wheel spun on Coal Miner's Glove match so that was the match at Halloween Havoc. The match was lousy with the ending being the worst where Sting grabbed the glove and punched Roberts as Roberts was holding his king cobra. The cobra "bit" Roberts in the face even though it wasn't even close to biting Roberts and Sting won.
Despite Halloween Havoc not being a very good PPV with a lackluster main event and WCW World Title match (Ron Simmons vs. The Barbarian) and a rather irate Philadelphia crowd, Halloween Havoc '92 was WCW's most profitable PPV at the time and would be one of the most profitable PPVs ever in WCW history.
Despite the terrible match, Roberts' namesake helped make this one of the most profitable PPVs ever. Roberts brought much needed revenue for a short period of time but his personal demons crept back up and he was gone from WCW shortly after the PPV. Whether he was fired or quit, the debate remains to be seen. Roberts was out of the North American wrestling spotlight for the most part of more than three years.
As stated earlier. there was a 16-man tournament held in Japan with WCW and New Japan Pro Wrestling wrestlers to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion as it has been vacant for a year. The tournament lasted from August 6 to August 12.
Even though Bill Watts hated the NWA and didn't want to be associated with them, WCW was still associated with the NWA and Watts was forced to send his wrestlers as he was contractually obligated to do so.
In the finals, Masahiro Chono defeated Rick Rude to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The Big Gold Belt that Ric Flair took with him when he left and eventually returned was used separately as the NWA World Heavyweight Title.
There were now two world heavyweight championships in WCW, WCW and NWA, at this time and I felt that watered down the product. They had a rematch at Halloween Havoc where Chono retained the NWA Title.
On September 2, 1992, TBS broadcasted Clash of the Champions XX. They used this opportunity to celebrate 20 years of wrestling on WCW as they special guests such as Andre the Giant as he made his final U.S. TV appearance as he would sadly pass away a few months later.
The best match on the card was Ricky Steamboat defeating Steve Austin for the World Television Championship in a thrilling match. Ron Simmons defeated Cactus Jack to retain the world title. They also announced the ban of jumping off the top rope was now legal. The show only had 500 fans in attendance but drew a 3.7 rating.
Brian Pillman turned heel at the event as he was supposed to take on Brad Armstrong for the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship. However, Armstrong could not wrestle and was on crutches and was forced to vacate the title. Pillman confronted an injured Armstrong, mocked him and then slapped him in the face.
There was supposed to be a tournament to award a new Light Heavyweight Champion. However, this would be the end of the Light Heavyweight Championship as Bill Watts eliminated the title altogether as he was not a fan of this division. WCW would eventually bring back a similar title: the WCW Cruiserweight Championship four years later.
Rick Rude suffered a legitimate injury late in 1992 and was forced to vacate the United States Heavyweight Championship after being champion for nearly 14 months. A tournament was held to determine a new U.S. Champion.
Dustin Rhodes defeated Ricky Steamboat in the finals of the tournament in early 1993 when Barry Windham helped Rhodes beat Steamboat as he was feuding with Rhodes and wanted him to win the title so he can win it from him. Windham turned on Rhodes in November as he felt Rhodes cost them the WCW/NWA Tag Team Titles to Steamboat and Shane Douglas.
There was this lame "King of Cable" Tournament held in 1992 which I don't get what the hell King of Cable even means. There were some thrilling matches like Sting and Rude wrestling to a draw in the semifinals at November's Clash of the Champions XXI. Sting was awarded the win due to the judge's decision. Vader defeated Rhodes in the other semifinal matchup.
The biggest PPV in WCW: Starrcade in December featured the lame Battle Bowl/Lethal Lottery for the second year in a row as if Starrcade '91 wasn't bad enough and learned their lesson, they figure they'd try it again and hope for better results. Once again, their flagship PPV was again a dud as it drew only 8,000 fans and only a 0.5 buy rate. With Watts' philosophy of darkly lit arenas, the event nearly suffered a blackout.
The only great match was the King of Cable finals between Sting and Vader as the two put on yet another epic match as this might have been their best match in their thrilling feud. Sting defeated Vader to become the one and only King of Cable winner in WCW as this tournament was never held ever again.
Two days later on December 30, 1992 at a live event in Baltimore, Vader defeated Ron Simmons to win back the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Simmons apparently had been wrestling with a shoulder injury and they took advantage of it in storyline as Vader used a shoulderbreaker on his bad shoulder to win the title.
The fact that the title change did not take place on a PPV or even a Clash of the Champions was in itself quite lame but they tried to draw a great house. However, the event took place during a blizzard and few fans made it to the event to witness the title change. Despite terrible weather and attempt to reschedule the event, Watts refused and the title change occurred as originally planned.
Simmons did not draw well but it wasn't all his fault the company was going down the tubes. He also did get a fair shot as he was not booked in the main event despite being the company's top man as their world heavyweight champion. Watts in one last attempt to save WCW, he put the belt around the top heel in the company and should have just kept it on him to further build up his character.
Watts claimed to take WCW from losing $8 million in 1991 to losing just under a million dollars. Despite all this, Watts still alienated and pissed off the fans and especially the wrestlers and many wrestlers left WCW at the end of the year. TV ratings were down as were house show attendance, PPV buy rates, and simply morale.
Even if losing money wasn't an issue, it watered down the product as many of its top stars left the company by the end of the year. Maybe they didn't lose much money because they either gave top wrestlers a serious pay cut or they left the company altogether so saving money might not have been that great after all.
The Steiner Brothers left due to a money dispute. Scott Steiner had a brief singles run as his brother Rick was injured before he left as he defeated Ricky Steamboat to win the WCW Television Championship. However, he left WCW along with his brother to go to the WWF and was forced to vacate the TV Title.
Terry Gordon also left as did Paul Heyman, Madusa (who would go to the WWF as "Alundra Blayze"), and Scotty Flamingo (who would eventually become a superstar known as Raven) all joined the Steiners, Jake Roberts, Scott Hall, and The Fabulous Freebirds in leaving WCW by the end of the year.
Sting nearly left WCW for WWF when his contract expired late in the year. For some reason, Sting showed his loyalty in staying in WCW by taking a pay cut. He was almost replaced by Bret Hart, who nearly left the WWF after his loss at SummerSlam, but was talked into staying by putting the WWF World Heavyweight Championship on him.
Throughout all of 1992, fans were shouting "We want Flair" throughout various events at arenas all over the country despite Ric Flair being in the WWF. This started ever since July 1991 when Flair left WCW for the WWF.
Fans would eventually get their wish and their hero back as Flair would leave the WWF and return to WCW in 1993.
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