1995 would be a lousy year for WCW, at least mostly in the first half. Hulk Hogan would continue to be the WCW World Heavyweight Champion and would continue to align himself with Macho Man Randy Savage and Sting. Hogan reformed "The Mega Powers" with Savage from their WWF days.
Eric Bischoff was close to having at least either a PPV or a Clash of the Champions event every month of the year. 11 of the 12 months had either a PPV or a Clash; only April 1995 was PPV or Clash-free. Bischoff decided to increase the number of PPVs and decrease the number of Clash of the Champions events.
Bischoff believed that the caliber of matches the made up the Clash of the Champions being shown free on cable TV should be put on PPV for people to pay for them and create a much greater demand for them. The Clash of the Champions went from four events in 1994 to just two in 1995.
Bischoff debuted two new PPVs in 1995: Uncensored in March and World War 3 in November. Uncensored kind of replaced Spring Stampede from the previous year. World War 3 replaced the annual November Clash of the Champions event. More on these PPVs later. The Great American Bash made its return in June after a three-year hiatus.
Bill Watts tried to eliminate The Great American Bash for 1992 but was turned down. The Great American Bash was the second-longest running and second-most prestigious PPV in WCW only behind Starrcade, run from 1985-1992. The Great American Bash replaced the annual June Clash of the Champions event.
There would be one thing Bischoff manages to that we will discuss later that would help WCW fully compete with the WWF and for a time, even beat the WWF and nearly put them out of business. This would help WCW establish itself as the number one professional wrestling promotion in the United States ahead of the WWF.
Ric Flair was supposed to be "retired" following a loss to Hulk Hogan at 1994 Halloween Havoc due to stipulations. According to Flair, WCW was going to pay him to not wrestle for an entire in an attempt to build him up. Flair was going to work in the WCW front office and continue his role as head booker.
Flair would still appear on WCW television in non-wrestling roles such as appearing at January's Clash of the Champions XXX event where he "purchased" a front row seat and watched the event. He said he was retired and had no plans from wrestling.
However, Harley Race, who was Vader's manager at the time, was seriously injured in a car accident and his wrestling career was pretty much done, even his stint as a manager was done. WCW needed Flair back in wrestling capacity sooner than they wanted and wanted him to partner with Vader to take on Hulk Hogan.
At SuperBrawl V in February, Hogan defended his WCW Championship against Vader. This was actually a really good match. Flair again sat in the front row but this time, he ran into the ring to help Vader attack Hogan until Randy Savage and Sting made the save. It was better to have Hogan feud with Vader and/or Flair then Brutus "The Butcher."
The next PPV on the schedule might be one of the worst ever: Uncensored. The event took place on March 19, 1995 from Tupelo, Mississippi. This was supposed to be an unsanctioned WCW PPV that the WCW Board of Directors wanted nothing to do with and the matches would have weird and strange stipulations. The WCW titles would also not be on the line.
Let's start with the worst match and worst match gimmick ever. Dustin Rhodes and the Blacktop Bully, who was this lame truck driver character played by Barry Darsow known as Smash from Demolition and even more ludicrous The Repo Man, fought in a "King of the Road" match, which took place on the back of an 18-wheeler while it was driving on a road somewhere.
The match took place a few days before and was taped and heavily edited by WCW due to their strict "no blood" policy. Both Rhodes and Darsow were fired after the event for "blading", making each other bleed. Whoever made this match should have been the one that was fired.
Meng took on "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in a "Martial Arts" match with Duggan who has no martial arts background whatsoever. Johnny B. Badd fought Arn Anderson in a Boxer vs. a Wrestler match. The Nasty Boys took on The Harlem Heat in a Falls Count Anywhere Texas Tornado match where the fight went into the concession stands.
Randy Savage fought Avalanche in what was supposed to be a "No Disqualification" match that ended in a disqualification. A "female" fan ran into the ring to attack Savage only to be revealed as Ric Flair dressed like a woman for some reason to further generate heat.
In the main event, Hulk Hogan took on Vader in a Leather Strap match with Hogan's WCW Title not on the line. Nothing like having a PPV where none of the titles, especially the World Title, were on the line. That's not a waste of $49.99 or whatever the hell it cost back then. Hogan's manager Jimmy Hart was "kidnapped" earlier in the night and was held backstage by Vader and Flair.
Before the event, Hogan unleashed an "Ultimate surprise" thinking it was The Ultimate Warrior. Close but we were way off. It was "The Renegade" a wrestler dressed like and supposed to be The Ultimate Warrior as The Renegade made his WCW debut aligning himself with Hogan. This totally bombed as it should not be a surprise.
Hogan defeated Vader in the strap match without actually having to defeat Vader. How? Let me explain. Ric Flair interfered in the match so Hogan put the strap around him and touched the four corners so he ended up winning the match. Well since this was a "non-sanctioned" event, the rules were thrown out the window, great job!!
Jimmy Hart emerged from the back where he was held. A masked man emerged earlier in the match to take out The Renegade, again with the fucking masked man angle!! Well the masked man again came back and looked to join Vader and Flair in attacking Hogan.
But the masked man turned on Vader and Flair and revealed he was Randy Savage as he joined Hogan. Arn Anderson came from the back tied up as he was the original masked man that Savage tied up.
Why the hell was Arn Anderson masked? It wasn't like when Brutus Beefcake was the masked man because they wanted to hide his identity in a swerve but Anderson wasn't trying to swerve Hogan. Anderson was already an ally to Ric Flair. So I definitely did not get that at all. I also don't know why they needed Flair to dress like a woman when we knew they were feuding.
This was supposed to be an ECW-type event only to fail miserably. WCW should be went out of business right after this and if it weren't for Ted Turner putting up the money and still in charge of Turner Broadcasting, it would have ended long before we witnessed this atrocity.
Hogan and Savage wanted retribution on Flair for his attacks, but Flair was still technically retired so Hogan and Savage pleaded for his reinstatement to the ring so they could tear him limb-from-limb. Eventually, Flair was reinstated and Hogan and Savage got their wish.
Hogan and Savage teamed to take on Vader and Flair in the main event at the next PPV Slamboree. Savage's father Angelo Poffo was inducted in the WCW Hall of Fame at the Slamboree event and he was in Hogan and his son's corner.
Hogan and Savage defeated Vader and Flair, but were attacked by Vader and Flair and Arn Anderson after the match. Angelo Poffo went into the ring to try to get them to stop attacking them, only for Flair to attack Poffo and putting the 70-year-old Poffo in the Figure Four Leg Lock.
Savage wanted to tear Flair apart for attacking his father. Savage lost to Flair at The Great American Bash when Flair took Poffo's cane and hit Savage with it. Savage got revenge by defeating Flair in a "Lifeguard" match, basically a lumberjack match, at Bash at the Beach.
The Bash at the Beach PPV was held on a beach in Huntington Beach, California on July 16, 1995. It was really cool seeing that but there was a huge problem though. People had to pay to watch it and people had to pay to witness the event but those who were just on the beach, got to see the event for free if that makes any sense.
The Bash at the Beach PPV saw Hogan defeat Vader in a Steel Cage match. The PPV was notable for the first major appearance of Paul Wight, known now as The Big Show. Wight had been seen several times before sitting in the stands as this mysterious giant. He approached Hogan during an interview on The Main Event just before the PPV.
He had a white shirt similar to what Andre the Giant used to wear and threw it at Hogan yelling "remember this?" A visibly shaken Hogan recognized this as the shirt of the late Andre. Wight was originally supposed to be the son of Andre who was looking to get revenge on Hogan. Thankfully, Wight would just be known as "The Giant" and would just be a giant since he wasn't related to Andre.
It appeared that Kevin Sullivan, who underwent this transformation into "The Taskmaster" after he found "The Master" in a really stupid angle. Sullivan created The Dungeon of Doom, a stable he created to take out Hulk Hogan and The Giant was his crown jewel to end Hulkamania.
These lame gimmicks were all cute and all but WCW needed to figure out what it was going to take to overtake the WWF. After Ted Turner met Eric Bischoff where Turner asked Bischoff what it would take to beat the WWF, Bischoff replied by asking for a live primetime spot on one of his networks.
Turner not only gave him a live primetime show on his flagship TNT network, he gave him one hour live at 9:00 on Monday night to compete against the WWF's Monday Night Raw show. WCW would call their show WCW Monday Nitro. This would be the launch of the infamous "Monday Night Wars."
This would be unlike anything seen in professional wrestling at the time: a live weekly show on primetime on Monday nights. Sure, WWF had Raw which originally was live, but soon became taped. Nitro was going to do every one of its shows (with few exceptions) live every week.
Prior to Nitro, and even Raw, wrestling shows were taped weeks if not months (see Disney tapings) at a time and shown on various WCW and WWF cable and syndicated TV shows known as TV tapings. As we know especially from past TV tapings, again see Disney, we would find out future title changes before they were scheduled to happen.
The debut episode of Monday Nitro took place on September 4, 1995, Labor Day, from the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The put a ring in the middle of the mall where the action would take place in a really creative and genius idea.
After this, Nitro would happen at arenas with the occasional Spring Break episodes originating from Spring locations in South Florida. Nitro set to change professional wrestling on network television as their show Nitro would mostly feature PPV-caliber type of matches instead of one or two big matches but mostly matches featuring mid-carders and jobbers like RAW was doing at the time.
Bischoff would be one of the announcers along with Bobby Heenan and former Chicago Bears Defensive Lineman Steve "Mongo" McMichael, who joined WCW as an announcer and soon a wrestler. Bischoff often used the tagline "This is Where the Big Boys Play" when describing WC and Nitro. Nitro would originally be shown live from 9-10 p.m., one hour after WWF's Raw.
Bischoff would often use the practice of giving away Raw results on his live Nitro. Back then, Raw would have one live show followed by a few weeks worth of shows taped right after and shown on the next few Monday nights. Results from the taped RAWs got out and Bischoff would reveal the results on his show or have other announcers to do the same.
On the debut episode of Nitro, it was only fitting to have the two top WCW wrestlers all-time Sting take on Ric Flair. In the middle of the match, Lex Luger appeared in the aisle way in dress clothes as cameras were focused on him and even the announcers thought he was an unwanted guest as it appeared as if he was here while still with the WWF.
In reality, Luger left the WWF just before the first episode of Nitro. Luger was sick of the WWF and wanted to return to WCW for the first time in nearly four years. In fact, Luger just wrestled the night before at a WWF house show in his final match.
His contract was coming up and he never let the WWF, especially Vince McMahon, know he was leaving the WWF to return to WCW so everyone was shocked he was on WCW television. Luger made it a secret as Eric Bischoff only let a few people know he was coming back to WCW to further the "shock value" for the first episode of Nitro.
This would not be the only shock of a WWF wrestler coming back to WCW surprisingly appearing on Nitro. On the December 18, 1995 episode of Nitro, Madusa Miceli returned to WCW after three years as she appeared on Nitro. She had a stint in the WWF as "Alundra Blayze" and was the current WWF Women's Champion at the time of her surprise appearance.
She appeared on Nitro and per Eric Bischoff's request, she threw the WWF Women's Championship belt into a garbage can. Miceli went back to her Madusa name.
No debut episode of Nitro could not have Hulk Hogan as "The Huckster" defended the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in the main event against Big Boss Bubba Guardian Angel Rogers as Ray Traylor kept getting new names every time. Hogan won the match, but would be attacked by The Dungeon of Doom afterwards. Sting and Randy Savage came out to help Hogan and so too did Lex Luger.
After they cleared the ring, Hogan and Luger bumped into each other and both looked to strike each other before pulling back. "Mean" Gene Okerlund interviewed the foursome in the ring. Hogan was wondering why Luger was here and he said he wanted to be a part of WCW. He challenged Hogan to a World Title match the next week on Nitro, to which Hogan accepted.
Luger faced Hogan on the September 11, 1995 edition of Monday Nitro for the title in the main event. The Dungeon of Doom ran in and attacked both as the match ended in a no-contest. Again, The Dungeon of Doom attacked both men as Savage and Sting came to make the save.
Afterwards, they were all being interviewed. Sting suggested that Luger take Vader's place in their WarGames match against The Dungeon of Doom at Fall Brawl. Sting was Luger's best friend so naturally he would defend him.
Vader was set to team with Hogan, Savage, and Sting, but Vader was fired from WCW shortly before due to a real life backstage fight with Paul Orndorff. Savage said no as he didn't like or trust Luger. Hogan eventually allowed Luger to be their fourth for WarGames.
This was the worst WarGames match ever. Hogan's crew won and Hogan got five minutes alone with "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan as a result. However, The Giant broke into the cage by ripping the door off of it and choked Hogan and proceeded to "twist" and "break" Hogan's neck.
Hogan was set to defend the WCW Championship against The Giant at Halloween Havoc. But before their title match, Hogan met Giant in a really stupid "Monster Truck Challenge" also at Halloween Havoc.
The monster truck battle would be both men in their monster trucks in a sumo wrestling type match where the winner had to push the other out of the circle. The event took place on the roof of Cobo Hall in Detroit, where Halloween Havoc was being held.
The event took place a day before and was taped and shown on Halloween Havoc. Hogan defeated The Giant in the Monster Truck Challenge. Afterwards, The Giant pulled Hogan out of the truck and attacked him. However, Hogan fought back as The Giant fell off the roof and "plunged" into the river. This looked real and looked like it was a tragic accident and possibly The Giant's death.
A "visibly shaken" Hogan appeared for their title match and said what just happened wasn't supposed to happen as he sold it like it was real. However, The Giant's music played and to the shock of everyone, The Giant was fine after falling off the roof and into the river.
The end of the match happened as Hogan looked to beat the Giant. However, Hogan's manager Jimmy Hart hit the referee with the World Title belt, knocking him out. Hart then ran into the ring and hit Hogan with the belt as he turned on Hogan.
The Giant and Kevin Sullivan and this strange 7 ft 6 mummy called "The Yeti" all attacked Hogan. Lex Luger and Randy Savage ran down to the ring to help Hogan. However, Luger attacked Savage and then joined in on beating up Hogan. Luger then put both Hogan and Savage in the Torture Rack as Luger appeared to join The Dungeon of Doom along with Jimmy Hart.
The Giant left the ring with Hogan's World Title as he won the match but by disqualification and the title does not change hands on a DQ, or so we thought. As it turns out, Hart further screwed Hogan out of the title as he put in the contract that the title could change hands on a DQ and since he was Hogan's manager that night, Hogan lost the title.
WCW said Hogan was no longer the champion as his 469-day reign as champion came to an end. He remains the longest-reigning WCW Champion of all-time. However, WCW decided that The Giant would not be the champion as well and made the World Title vacant.
Even though Luger was now a heel and feuding with Hogan and Randy Savage, Sting was still an ally with Luger in a really rare face/heel team as Hogan and Savage were not trusting Sting.
This even led to a match with Sting taking on Hogan in a must-see Sting-Hogan match that we all waited for since Hogan entered WCW on the November 20, 1995 edition of Nitro. Sting had Hogan in the Scorpion Death Lock before The Dungeon of Doom ran and attacked both. Both Hogan and Sting patched things up.
WCW added a new PPV called World War 3 on November 26, 1995. World War 3 featured the three-ring, 60-man World War 3 battle royal and the winner of the battle royal would be the new WCW World Heavyweight Champion. It was a cool idea other than the fact there were 60 wrestlers. I couldn't even name 20 WCW wrestlers back where the hell would the find 60?
The World War 3 match had a controversial ending. Hulk Hogan managed to eliminate Sting, Lex Luger, and The Giant while Randy Savage was trying to eliminate One Man Gang. While the referees saw Savage throw Gang over the top rope, they missed Hogan being pulled out of the ring under the bottom rope by The Giant.
When things sorted out, the refs saw only Savage in the ring and figured he won the match so they awarded him the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship, joining Hogan and Ric Flair as wrestlers who won both the WCW and WWF Championships. Hogan protested this, saying he wasn't eliminated, but the referee's decision was final.
Savage lost the title to Flair at Starrcade 95 to end the year. Flair had to defeat Sting and Luger in a Triangle match just before the title match with the winner to face Savage for the World Title. Starrcade 95 was mostly known for the WCW vs. New Japan Pro Wrestling, USA vs. Japan "World Cup of Wrestling" won by WCW and the USA with Sting beating Kensuke Sasaki in the deciding match.
Flair reformed the Four Horsemen at Halloween Havoc 95 in October. Flair had a feud with Arn Anderson and his newest ally Brian Pillman after Pillman turned heel and helped Arn defeat Flair in their thrilling match at Fall Brawl.
Pillman started 1995 with this lame California gimmick. He was supposed to be team with Steve Austin to reform the Hollywood Blondes, but that idea was turned down by WCW and Austin was eventually let go from WCW. That move ultimately be the downfall for WCW, albeit it wouldn't be for a few years as Austin helped the WWF ultimately put WCW out of business after the turn of the century.
When Pillman turned heel, he dropped the stupid California gimmick and became known as "The Loose Cannon." Pillman would yell and scream and act like a crazy person in the ring as well as outside as many felt he was becoming this nut as he walked a thin line between gimmick and real life even though the real life part was all part of the act but Brian did a great job convincing everyone this was legit.
Flair tricked Sting into teaming with him to take on Arn and Pillman at Halloween Havoc. Before the match, Flair was shown being "attacked" by Arn and Pillman, taking him out and Sting had to face both men by himself. Eventually, a bandaged Flair made his way out and eventually tagged Sting in. However, Flair hit Sting as Flair, Arn, and Pillman attacked Sting.
Flair brought back the Four Horsemen with Arn and Pillman and newcomer Chris Benoit joined the faction late in 1995. They would feud with Sting, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and even the heel Lex Luger when Luger and Sting teamed up.
Speaking of Benoit, he was one of the many new and great talents acquired by WCW from ECW late in 1995. Also acquired were Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Sabu (albeit only for two months before he returned to ECW), and The Public Enemy in an attempt to take the company in a new direction.
Harlem Heat became the top tag team in 1995 and one of the best tag teams in WCW history. They began the year as WCW World Tag Team Champions and feuded with The Nasty Boys and the team of Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck. The three teams traded the titles throughout 1995.
Again, the Disney tapings wreaked havoc on the tag team titles. Harlem Heat lost the titles to The Nasty Boys at Slamboree. However during Disney tapings for WCW World Wide on May 3,1995, 18 days before the Slamboree PPV, Harlem Heat defeated the Nastys to win the titles before the Nastys would win the titles from them.
The tapings showed the Nastys would win the titles at Slamboree. This actual match would take place on the June 24, 1995 edition of WCW World Wide. Harlem Heat lost the titles to Slater and Buck on the June 21, 1995 taping of WCW Saturday Night even though Harlem Heat did not yet win the titles from the Nasty Boys on TV.
The title loss to Buck and Slater would be shown on the July 22, 1995 edition of WCW Saturday Night, six days after the Bash at the Beach PPV where Harlem Heat were shown with the titles. Luckily, WCW would soon get away from this practice of having title changes shown weeks in advance.
Harlem Heat won the titles back from Slater and Buck at Fall Brawl. They traded the titles with The American Males (Marcus Bagwell and Scotty Riggs) in the fall. The Harlem Heat would ultimately win the WCW World Tag Team Championship a record 10 times as a team and Booker T won the title 11 times, the most as an individual.
Even though there were lame ass gimmicks and plots and storylines, the influx of new talent, PPVs, and the new Monday Nitro TV show helped WCW make a profit for the first time ever. With the WWF struggling, things were looking up for WCW.
WCW would be on its way to its best years ever while the WWF would be facing its toughest years ahead going into 1996.
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