On the next Rewind-A-Wai this Friday, John Pollock & I will be reviewing WCW Uncensored 1997 featuring a triangle elimination match:
Team nWo (Hollywood Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) (w/ Dennis Rodman)
vs. Team Piper (Roddy Piper, Chris Benoit, Steve McMichael and Jeff Jarrett)
vs. Team WCW (Lex Luger, The Giant and Scott Steiner).
You can watch the show on the WWE Network by clicking here.
This show was selected by Espresso Executive Producer @jzieg2313.
Leave any feedback or questions for this week’s reviews and tune in Friday!
I’m the only one amongst my friends who actively watched WCW back in '97. Nitro, at the time, only aired at 3:30 am on Wednesdays, Newfoundland time. I used to tape it and watch it the next day. As for the PPVs, I used to watch, or rather listen, to them via scramble-vision.
To be honest, I threw this PPV on in the background, only half-paying attention, until the Glacier/Mortis match. I looked at the tv and saw Mortis who bared a strong resemblance to Kanyon. I had to look him up to see if I was right. I was. It was Kanyon.
In honour of Glacier I have to ask the question: which Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter characters do you guys think would make good gimmicks? Personally, I could see Reptile or Sonya Blade from MK as good gimmicks.
The rest of the card was half-decent for a 1997 WCW PPV (except the Buff/Scotty Riggs match which ended in a botch). The Prince Iaukea/Rey Misterio match was better than I expected even if the crowd didn’t seem to be in it. The ending of the PPV was pure “Sports Entertainment” and it had a good ending with Sting. The only thing I would have changed about the finish was having Hulk and Sting stay separated. There was no need to have them touch.
One final thing that I noticed was that it had actual credits after the show. I thought that this was a nice touch to at least acknowledge some of the crew who put it together.
I remember watching the main event on a “Best of Uncensored” VHS and wondering what the hell was going on, I’m still thinking that now only because they had already made things over complicated with the NWO angle by March of 97. I’m sure John will give reasons as to why Piper had his own team and why they were basically the Horsemen. What could have been a simple elimination tag between the NWO and WCW got more bodies thrown in by adding Piper’s team. Having said all that WCW was catching fire and was about ready to get even bigger so while I may nit-pick the main event it clearly worked out for the best. Besides the main event, this show didn’t look like it was anything special outside of Malenko & Guerrero.
I decided to watch Uncensored 1997 again after seeing you guys were covering this on Rewind-A-Wai. You owe me an hour and a half of my life back. Haha. Just kidding.
The opening match was very good with Dean and Eddie having a great back and forth contest. I like how it was a No DQ match, but they wrestled around the stipulation rather than letting the stipulation dominate the match itself (if that makes any sense). I also enjoyed the Tornado Tag Street Fight, especially seeing Sherri getting so involved in the match. She really was a great part of the Harlem Heat act for many years and added a good bit to this match in particular. The main event was a cluster, but it was also fun for what it was. The match was basically an excuse for the Sting attack at the end.
The rest of the show was God awful. Psicosis and Dragon never clicked into second gear in their match. The Mortal Kombat ripoff and the Bagwell/Riggs strap match were abominiations. And Prince Iaukea had about as much charisma to this crowd as a broom. They couldn’t care less, and he didn’t do much to change their minds either.
One thing that bothered me was during the Dean/Eddie match when WCW used the match to sell the Rick Steiner injury storyline. If this were a jobber match on PPV or something that developed between matches, my reaction would likely be different. But considering it’s a U.S. Championship match on a PPV, I think there’s a certain expectation from the audience of seeing the match full screen instead of seeing parts of it in a small square box. What are your thoughts on this happening during this match or any other match you can remember?
As a 24 year old I totally missed the entire Monday night war era and have dipped back to watch. WCW events as you guys have been reviewing them over the years. I really struggled with this one and gave up half way through. Fair play to you guys for reviewing any old shit that the guys pick as their review. John, you said on RaS that this show outdrew wrestlemania that year? What was the difference im viewership and PPV buys at this time between WWE and WCW?
PS - Just wanted to say congratulations on the success of the site and I have been happy to be contributor due to your effort, wit and great content. PS - John, will you start covering more UFC events with post shows? Really enjoyed UFC 225 post show
One look at Buff’s outfit, and all I could think is, of course this guy eventually became a gigolo! Also, I feel like strap matches are problematic in the same context that cage matches are. The psychology behind it is that the face is so frustrated with the heel that he wants to be tied to him(lock him in a cage) so that he can finally get his vengeance, and yet there are these dumb alternative ways to win that counter the very point of the match. If you’re so angry at someone you want something as violent as a leather strap to hold you together, how do you stop your beating to remember to walk to each corner to tap it? Not a fan. Same with the ability to just walk out a door.
Other than that, solid card, loved the undercard, Glacier vs Mortis was entertaining, the Rey match was great. Interesting to see that there were 6 cruiserweights on the card, and no Cruiserweight title. All in all, great card to watch, and well timed with Extreme Rules coming up.
Love having another WCW review. This was a fun show. You can really tell the time period from Syxx’s huge video camera and Sonny Onno’s brand new digital camera, both of which look like giant boxes compared to technology of today. I wonder what we’ll think of 20 years from now, when you guys are reviewing a 2018 edition of Raw and see Kurt Angle on his brand new iphone, texting every week.
I was shocked to see an aerial move from Dean Malenko. I’m sure he’s done them, but I dont remember it, so it was nice to see him pull off the frog splash. I recently listened to Glacier on the Why It Ended podcast and it was interesting to hear, about how the Blood Runs Cold stable was supposed to be a big deal, before the NWO ended up becoming a thing.
2 Questions…
What are your opinions on the DDP/Savage feud, if you remember it? This was one of my favorite feuds in WCW and I thought the angle on this show was great. It shows you can do an angle between a man & woman and it doesnt have to come off as something to be sensitive over and it made you want to see Page kick Savages ass even more
Do you think the WWE could pull off something like WCW did with Sting in this time period and have it seen as a success? Or is there just not enough patience from the audience in 2018?
It seems like aside from the gift to the late 90s IWC that was “I am your Realty Check T”, Piper’s last good moment came against Bret in 1992.
Am I undervaluing his role in WCW in 96 and 97?
I don’t mean, was he better than this show made him seem, I mean is his role as a stop gap that both protected Hogan’s reign without sacrificing other hot talent, and gave the fans a bit of relief with his wins, a more valuable and crucial part of the success of the company at this time?