ThunderStruck: WCW World War 3: A Reflection

World War 3 was an annual event held by World Championship Wrestling in November from 1995 to 1998. It’s intended purpose was for the 3 ring, 60 man battle royal to compare to WWE’s annual Royal Rumble event. Unfortunately for WCW, any idea that had the potential to be great usually fell flat on it’s face or just didn’t last long enough for anyone to consider it to be significant. The four battle royals that took place between 1995 and 1998 each have their own significance in the history of World Championship Wrestling. How significant? You be the judge.

 


 

In late 1995, the Giant defeated Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title in controversy when it was revealed that Hulk Hogan had signed a contract stating that he could lose the title by DQ during their match at Halloween Havoc. Jimmy Hart was the man behind the scheme as he had written the contract and intentionally caused the DQ that made the Giant win the match. The Giant’s reign was short lived, as WCW vacated the title one week later due to the controversy. It was then announced that the winner of the first three ring, 60 man battle royal would be crowned the new heavyweight champion of the world.

World War 3 November 26, 1995 from Norfolk, VA

The sixty man battle royal had the following participants: Scott Armstrong, Steve Armstrong, Arn Anderson, Johnny B. Badd, Marcus Bagwell, Chris Benoit, Big Train Bart, Bunkhouse Buck, Cobra(later fake Sting), Disco Inferno, Jim Duggan, Bobby Eaton, Ric Flair, The Giant, Eddie Guerrero, Hulk Hogan, Mr. JL, Chris Kanyon, Brian Knobbs, Kurasawa, Lex Luger, Joey Maggs, Meng, Hugh Morrus,Max Muscle, Scott Norton, One Man Gang, Paul Orndorff, Diamond Dallas Page,Sgt.Buddy Lee Parker, Brian Pillman, Sgt. Craig Pittman, Stevie Ray, Lord Steven Regal, Scotty Riggs, Road Warrior Hawk, Big Bubba Rogers, Jerry Sags, Ricky Santana, Kensuke Sasaki, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Shark(Earthquake), Fidel Sierra, Dick Slater, Mark Starr, Sting, Dave Sullivan, The Taskmaster, Super Assassin #1 and #2, Booker T, Squire David Taylor, Bobby Walker,VK Wallstreet(IRS aka Mike Rotundo), Pez Whatley, Mike Winner, Alex Wright, James Earl Wright, The Yeti, and The Zodiac(Brutus Beefcake).

The match itself lasted just under thirty minutes. The big difference between the WW3 battle royal and the Royal Rumble was the three rings and the fact that all the participants started out in the rings together. This shortened the match immensely as compared to the length of the Rumble matches where a superstar would come out every so many seconds. Luger, Sting, Flair, Hogan, Savage, and the Giant were considered the top contenders in this match. It came down to Hogan, Savage, and the Giant in the final three. When Hogan was able to eliminate the Giant, the referee was then distracted long enough for the Giant to pull Hogan out of the ring underneath the ropes and have the referee believe him to be eliminated. Savage won the match in controversy because of this and Hogan gave us one of his traditional “interrupt the ending to a main event that I didn’t win” segments just to put himself over. Nonetheless, Savage was crowned as the new World Heavyweight Champion. Savage would go on to lose the title the following month at StarrCade to Ric Flair. He would regain the title in early 1996, only to drop the title again to Flair in February. The 1995 battle royal was the only one contested to determine a new World Champion.

In 1996, the nWo formed in July and took the World Heavyweight Title from the Giant at Hog Wild and put it around the waist of Hulk Hogan. The 1996 World War 3 battle royal was used to determine the number one contender for Hulk Hogan’s World Heavyweight Championship. The winner would be allowed to select which pay per view they would use their title shot on.

World War 3 November 24, 1996 from Norfolk, VA

The sixty man battle royal had the following participants: Arn Anderson, Marcus Bagwell, The Barbarian, Chris Benoit, Big Bubba, Jack Boot, Bunkhouse Buck, Ciclope, Disco Inferno, Jim Duggan, Bobby Eaton,Mike Enos, Galaxy, Joe Gomez, Jimmy Del Ray, The Giant, Johnny Grunge, Juventud Guerrera,Eddie Guerrero, Scott Hall, Prince Iaukea, Ice Train, Mr. JL, Jeff Jarrett, Chris Jericho,Kenny Kaos, Konnan, Lex Luger, Dean Malenko, Steve McMichael, Meng, Rey Misterio, Jr., Hugh Morrus, Kevin Nash, Scott Norton, Pierre Ouelette, Diamond Dallas Page, La Parka, Sgt. Craig Pittman, Jim Powers, Robbie Rage, Stevie Ray, Lord Steven Regal, The Renegade, Scotty Riggs, Roadblock, Jacques Rougeau, Tony Rumble, Mark Starr, Rick Steiner, Ron Studd, The Taskmaster, Syxx, Booker T, Squire David Taylor, Último Dragón, Villaño IV, Michael Wallstreet, Pez Whatley and Alex Wright.

This match was also just under 30 minutes long. The final ten participants in this battle royal were Regal, Luger, DDP, Rey Mysterio, Jeff Jarrett, Eddie Guerrero, the Giant, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Syxx. It was essentially nWo vs WCW. Guerrero was first eliminated by Regal, and Mysterio was next eliminated by the Giant(lifted overhead with ONE HAND!). Jarrett then had to pull himself over the top rope as Nash failed to clothesline him hard enough for elimination. DDP was tossed after that. Hall, Nash, and Syxx then dumped Regal over the top rope. Hall went to eliminate Luger but was Flair-dropped over the top rope and eliminated from the match. Luger then eliminated Syxx with an overhead gorilla press onto Hall on the outside. It was down to Nash, Luger, and the Giant. Luger then put Nash in the torture rack and the Giant ran into them, knocking Nash to the outside to be eliminated. The Giant then eliminated Luger as soon as Nash hit the floor. The Giant earned his WCW World Title shot and cashed it in at Souled Out in January of 1997. The match he had with Hulk Hogan lasted only eleven minutes and ended in a no contest when members of the nWo attacked the Giant. Talk about a GREAT way to waste an important title shot in your company’s storylines.

1997 was perhaps the biggest year in the history of WCW. They dominated the ratings war as Monday Nitro defeated Monday Night RAW in the ratings every single week in 1997! This was arguably the biggest year of dominance in the history of the nWo. The Outsiders held the tag team titles from October of 1996 to October of 1997(they lost the titles twice, once in January and once in February, but both losses were with controversy and the titles were returned to them by Eric Bischoff). After their tag title reign, Scott Hall began to focus on his singles career once again.

World War 3 November 23, 1997 from Auburn Hills, MI

The sixty man battle royal had the following participants: Chris Adams, Brad Armstrong, Buff Bagwell, The Barbarian, Chris Benoit,Bobby Blaze, Booker T, Ciclope, Damien, El Dandy, Barry Darsow, Disco Inferno, Jim Duggan, Fit Finlay, Héctor Garza, The Giant,Glacier, Johnny Grunge, Juventud Guerrera, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., Eddy Guerrero, Scott Hall, Curt Hennig, Hulk Hogan,Prince Iaukea, Chris Jericho, Lizmark, Jr., Lex Luger, Dean Malenko, Steve McMichael, Meng, Ernest Miller, Rey Misterio, Jr., Hugh Morrus, Mortis, Yuji Nagata, John Nord,Diamond Dallas Page, La Parka, Stevie Ray, Lord Steven Regal, The Renegade, Rocco Rock, Randy Savage, Silver King, Norman Smiley, Louie Spicolli, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner, Super Calo, Squire David Taylor, Ray Traylor, Último Dragón, Greg Valentine,Villaño IV, Villaño V, Vincent, Kendall Windham, Wrath and Alex Wright.

This was another 29-30 minute match. That’s a lot of action with 60 guys in such a short period of time. Hall, DDP, and the Giant were the final three men left in the ring. The match had only started with 59 wrestlers and it was assumed that Kevin Nash was on his way. The final participant was in fact the WCW Champion at the time, Hulk Hogan. Hogan joined up with Hall in what appeared to be a way for Hogan to win the match and not have to defend the title against anybody. Sting made a surprise appearance as he came down from the rafters. Hogan eliminated DDP and saw Sting enter the ring with a baseball bat. Hogan then eliminated himself as he ran from Sting. Sting then eliminated the Giant with the help of his baseball bat and Scott Hall was the winner! It was then revealed that it was in fact Kevin Nash dressed as Sting who had cost Hogan and Giant the match! Nash and Hall celebrated the angle with Hogan and Bischoff to close the show. Hall wouldn’t cash in his title shot until Uncensored in 1998, where he would lose to Sting.

1998 would be the year of Goldberg in WCW. Looking back on it, it was a sad year indeed. The winner of World War 3 would be expected to go after the undefeated streak of the World Champion.

World War 3 November 22, 1998 from Auburn Hills, MI

The sixty man battle royal had the following participants: Chris Adams, Chris Benoit, Bobby Blaze, Ciclope, Damien, El Dandy, Barry Darsow(Demolition Smash), The Disciple, Disco Inferno, Bobby Duncum, Jr., Bobby Eaton,Mike Enos, Scott Hall, Héctor Garza, The Giant, Glacier, Juventud Guerrera, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., Eddy Guerrero, Hammer, Kenny Kaos, Kaz Hayashi, Horace Hogan, Barry Horowitz, Prince Iaukea, Chris Jericho, Kanyon, Billy Kidman, Konnan, Lenny Lane, Lex Luger, Lizmark, Jr., Lodi, Dean Malenko, Steve McMichael, Ernest Miller, Chip Minton,Rey Misterio, Jr., Kevin Nash, Scott Norton, La Parka, Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, Psychosis, Scott Putski, Stevie Ray, The Renegade, Scotty Riggs,Perry Saturn, Silver King, Norman Smiley, Scott Steiner, Super Calo, Johnny Swinger, Booker T, Tokyo Magnum, Villaño V, Vincent,Kendall Windham, Wrath and Alex Wright.

This match was the shortest of the four WW3 battle royals as it ended in just 22 minutes. Leave it to Booker T to ask what da hell on this one. Nash, Luger, Hall, the Giant, Malenko and Benoit were the final six men in this match. The other five got together and threw the Giant over the top rope in a team effort. Benoit and Melenko were then both quickly eliminated and it was down to Luger, Hall, and Nash. As Luger went to put Scott Hall over the top rope, Nash ran up and hit them both with a big boot, knocking Hall out of the match. Nash was able to easily shove Luger out of the ring moments later to get the victory. Nash would go to cash in title shot against Goldberg at StarrCade where Scott Hall aided the big man in ending Goldberg’s undefeated streak. Nash’s victory over Goldberg was the only successful cashed in title opportunity of the three that were acquired from the WW3 match. It seems as though it would have only made sense to have the winner take their title shot at StarrCade every year, given that it was the company’s biggest claim to fame at the time. I think it would have given the annual battle royal much more meaning and would have probably sold more pay per views that way.

To wrap this up, the WW3 match had a great purpose behind it, but it just never seemed to live up to it’s own hype. The big match itself always seemed to be far too short, and only two out of the four guys that won the thing managed to accomplish anything with it. I loved WCW for what it gave as an alternative product to the WWF, but some things when you look back on them just showed how bad the company really was in the big picture. They just didn’t know how to utilize a good concept or work the talent over properly. That’s all for this one. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the subject below. I have some special plans for my December column; it should be my most subjective collection of writing to date! Until next time, thanks for reading!

www.facebook.com/thunderstruck11 – ADD ME!

Related Articles

Latest Articles

Videos