Alright, so I figured I’d share a bit about my recent deep dive into the WCW pay-per-views from 1996. Man, that year was a total trip, wasn’t it? Wrestling just felt like it was on fire, and I genuinely wanted to go back and see if all that hype I remembered held up, or if it was just my younger self being easily impressed. So, I kinda made it a mission, decided to sit down and go through every single one of ’em, from the start of the year to the end.
The whole thing kicked off because I got into this little argument, you know, with a buddy of mine. He was going on about how ’96 WCW was the absolute pinnacle, no flaws, perfect wrestling. I remembered it being massive, yeah, but also a bit of a beautiful mess at times. So, I thought, “Okay, challenge on. I’m gonna watch ’em all and get my own proper take on it now.”
My Approach: How I Went About It
First off, the biggest hurdle was actually rounding up all those shows. Some I actually still had on ancient videotapes, believe it or not, gathering dust in the attic. For the rest, I had to dig around on the WWE Network, which thankfully has a ton of that old WCW library. It was a proper nostalgia hunt just finding them all, took a bit of effort.
Once I had the full set, my game plan was pretty straightforward:
- I was determined to watch them in the order they happened. No jumping ahead to Bash at the Beach or Starrcade. I wanted to see the build, the whole nine yards.
- I made a point to actually watch, not just have it on in the background while I did other stuff. I was looking at the stories, how the crowds were, the whole vibe of each event.
- I even scribbled down some thoughts as I went, especially for the big moments or things that kinda jumped out at me, for better or worse.
So, I started with SuperBrawl VI back in February. It was, you know, pretty standard WCW for that time. Some decent matches, especially the cruiserweights doing their thing, but you could almost feel like something big was just around the corner, or needed to be.
The Rewatch Experience: The Good, The Bad, and The nWo Takeover
Then I worked my way through Uncensored – always a bit of a weird one, that show – and then Slamboree. The wrestling itself was mostly solid. You had Flair, Arn, Sting, Luger, Savage, all those top guys. The Giant was making waves. But then, man, Bash at the Beach in July. Even knowing the outcome all these years later, seeing Hogan make that turn, the formation of the New World Order… it was powerful. The shock from the crowd, Bobby Heenan yelling “Whose side is he on?!” – that stuff still gives you a jolt. It really was one of those moments that just clicked perfectly.
After that, it was pretty much all nWo, all the time.
- Hog Wild was next. That outdoor setup with all the bikers was a strange scene, but the nWo felt absolutely dominant. Hogan winning the strap there felt like a big deal.
- Then came Fall Brawl with WarGames. That was always a highlight, and the nWo vs. WCW match was pretty epic. But you also started to really see how that one storyline was just overshadowing everything else on the card.
- Halloween Havoc rolled around with Hogan vs. Savage. More nWo victories, more spray paint. Meanwhile, you had amazing talents like Dean Malenko, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio Jr. putting on absolute clinics in the undercard, but it often felt like they were in a completely separate universe.
By the time I got to World War 3, it was peak nWo saturation. That three-ring battle royal was just a chaotic mess, almost impossible to keep track of. And then to cap off the year, Starrcade ’96. It had big matches, Piper vs. Hogan, Luger vs. The Giant. It definitely felt important, but also, I don’t know, a bit disorganized? It felt like they were trying so hard to keep the nWo heat going that other things got tangled or forgotten.
So, What Did I Reckon After All That?
Looking back at the whole of 1996 for WCW, it was undeniably a monster year. The nWo angle? Revolutionary. Changed the entire landscape of wrestling, no question. But was it the flawless masterpiece my friend remembered? Not quite. There was a ton of fantastic wrestling, especially from the cruiserweights and mid-card guys who were just incredible. But the main event scene, while white-hot with the nWo, did get pretty muddled and honestly, a bit repetitive as the year wore on. It was a wild ride to go through it all again. Made me appreciate some of the genius bits even more, and also scratch my head at some of the booking choices. Definitely an eye-opener seeing how such a massively successful storyline could also start to, you know, almost suffocate other parts of the program if they weren’t careful. A good lesson in there, I think.
