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You're right of course, it probably would have made more sense if it was in Orlando somewhere.
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May 14, 2013 17:55
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Scirocco Griffon posted:Which is funny, since before the Attitude Era happened WCW was supposed to be the more serious alternative to WWF's cartoony larger than life style. To be fair, WCW's death throes were already well underway by then, so they were probably happy to just be able to work a deal with any company that had even a smidgen of brand name recognition value.
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May 14, 2013 18:01
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Sydney Bottocks posted:To be fair, WCW's death throes were already well underway by then, so they were probably happy to just be able to work a deal with any company that had even a smidgen of brand name recognition value. I assume the company saw that WWF New York was doing okay and they wanted in on it so they went to whoever was number two, and WCW at that pointed needed some money coming in.
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May 14, 2013 18:03
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bobkatt013 posted:I assume the company saw that WWF New York was doing okay and they wanted in on it so they went to whoever was number two, and WCW at that pointed needed some money coming in. Which is amazing when you consider that when the Nitro Grill opened (in 1999, I believe), WCW hadn't even yet headed into their biggest money-losing year ever. 
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May 14, 2013 18:08
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So after a quick check, I found the Excalibur is owned by MGM. I guess that explains why the Nitro Grill was there, since Nitro was filmed at Disney-MGM and they probably just got a really good deal on renting the restaurant space.
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May 14, 2013 18:15
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Scirocco Griffon posted:Which is funny, since before the Attitude Era happened WCW was supposed to be the more serious alternative to WWF's cartoony larger than life style.
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May 14, 2013 18:38
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Scirocco Griffon posted:The shadows under the knife and fork are obviously fake and the fork is too big, so that's definitely the case. Though WCW paying a ton of money to have Goldberg do a photo shoot just for that tiny header image is entirely believable in itself too.
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May 14, 2013 18:39
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LividLiquid posted:I'd say that ended when Hogan arrived, actually. "It's not hot!" and the mini-movies with Cheatum the Midget and the like. Yeah, probably. I just remember how WCW retrospectives always seem to say that people were sick of the WWF being less about the actual wrestling at the time and wanted a more serious alternative. Of course that could just all be BS that's been around long enough to become considered truth, it's hard to tell anymore. Halloween Jack posted:Considering how much A/V a major wrestling company is doing at any given show, it would cost them practically nothing to say "Hey Goldberg, hold this knife and fork so we can get a shot for the Nitro Grill signage. Hey DDP, will you put on this chef's hat? Hey, Scott! Wanna eat a baby for the camera?" You're only out 5 minutes and the cost of the baby. Well, keep in mind we're talking about a company that would routinely pay people huge amounts of money to either appear unannounced for one show or just not show up at all. I could easily see them calling up Goldberg during his week off and cutting him a big check to come out and do a last second photo shoot for something completely trivial like a website banner.
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May 14, 2013 18:51
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Scirocco Griffon posted:The shadows under the knife and fork are obviously fake and the fork is too big, so that's definitely the case. And unless he's left-handed, they're in the wrong hands.
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May 14, 2013 18:56
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Cavenagh posted:And unless he's left-handed, they're in the wrong hands. 
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May 14, 2013 19:05
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I was watching back in Ye Olden Times when Turner bought WCW, and I can say that while the transition from "a more serious alternative to WWF" to "watered-down rejected cartoony WWF stuff" was truly completed upon Hogan's arrival, it really began in earnest when Turner took over things from JCP. The Ding Dongs, Arachnaman, PN News, Van Hammer, Kevin Nash as Oz, and of course the Shockmaster...all that kind of goofy cartoony poo poo was well in place in WCW long before Hogan ever entered the picture. Oh sure, they still had the occasional violent bloody brawl; but even before the end of the legendary Flair/Funk feud in 1989, the ball was well and truly rolling towards stuff like Robocop saving Sting from the Four Horsemen.
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May 14, 2013 19:08
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Scirocco Griffon posted:So after a quick check, I found the Excalibur is owned by MGM. I guess that explains why the Nitro Grill was there, since Nitro was filmed at Disney-MGM and they probably just got a really good deal on renting the restaurant space. The restaurant was a licensed deal, some company decided "wrestling is hot, let's do a wrestling restaurant."
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May 14, 2013 20:10
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I've gotta say, the Nitro Grill looks a drat sight better than the WWF New York restaurant, at least from my recollection of it. Nitro looks a lot more open and I like the tables facing the giant movie-sized screen whereas WWFNY seemed a little more cramped. I realize this is because real estate in the very center of Manhattan is expensive but given the choice to watch a wrestling show in a bad wrestling-themed restaurant, I'd probably pick the Nitro Grill, brother.
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May 14, 2013 20:31
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I hope it had comment cards on your experience there and the only choice was "THE BEST MEAL IN THE HISTORY OF MY LIFE!" and everytime you got close to finishing a dish the waiter took it away saying "we're outta time!"
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May 14, 2013 20:41
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oldpainless posted:and everytime you got close to finishing a dish the waiter took it away saying "we're outta time!" Personally, I like the idea of yelling "we're outta time, WE GOTTA GO!" and then pulling a dine-and-dash
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May 14, 2013 20:46
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nasboat posted:Personally, I like the idea of yelling "we're outta time, SEE YOU ON THUNDER!" and then pulling a dine-and-dash
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May 14, 2013 20:50
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WE'RE OUTTA TIME SEE YOU THURSDAY AT THE THUNDERGRI-
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May 14, 2013 20:51
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Endless Mike posted:WE'RE OUTTA TIME SEE YOU THURSDAY AT THE THUNDERGRI- It was more of a Bistro.
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May 14, 2013 20:56
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Sydney Bottocks posted:I was watching back in Ye Olden Times when Turner bought WCW, and I can say that while the transition from "a more serious alternative to WWF" to "watered-down rejected cartoony WWF stuff" was truly completed upon Hogan's arrival, it really began in earnest when Turner took over things from JCP. I'm not sure why, but Kevin Sullivan fascinates me. In his early days, he looked like a hundred other workers (a good ol' boy who got a tan and bleached his hair blonde to look cool) and his wrestling style was never interesting, but he made himself stand out and got himself over by throwing himself into an edgy gimmick. But when he went to WCW, everything he tried to do was a few years behind the times. After I stopped watching as a kid, I didn't start again until the Monday Night Wars, and when I went back and saw his Dungeon of Doom stuff, I first assumed it was from the 80s, not 1994.
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May 14, 2013 20:59
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The novelty Stinger Smashed potatoes was lowered by a harness from the rafters down to your table but by the time it got there and was unfastened from it's harness the heat was gone.
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May 14, 2013 21:02
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The Macho Man Nachos were decent, but leave you with the nagging feeling that they had expired in 1987.
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May 14, 2013 21:15
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At the WWF restaurant, the waiter just slings the Blazin' Taters down on your plate, ruining your whole dinner.
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May 14, 2013 21:17
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Gonzo McFee posted:The novelty Stinger Smashed potatoes was lowered by a harness from the rafters down to your table but by the time it got there and was unfastened from it's harness the heat was gone. I'm sure part of that was that you'd see the Stinger Smashed potatoes at the pass every time you'd go there, and you would think "This is the week that the server will bring them over", but they never would. And finally, after paying a premium fee to get them, you only got a few bites in before the expeditor came over mid-meal and said the service was over and took them from you.
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May 14, 2013 21:20
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Hey now, you guys make fun of Sting and the roof stuff but at the time (at least before the Owen thing made it uncomfortable in retrospect) it was THE poo poo and drat near everything up to the actual Starrcade match was fantastic booking.
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May 14, 2013 21:38
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:Hey now, you guys make fun of Sting and the roof stuff but at the time (at least before the Owen thing made it uncomfortable in retrospect) it was THE poo poo and drat near everything up to the actual Starrcade match was fantastic booking. Even this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvL0YlwWloU
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May 14, 2013 21:40
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No, I agree. Looking back, it doesn't make sense to pay one of your biggest stars to just hang out for something like 8 months, but at the time it was good: Sting felt betrayed by WCW, retreated to rafters, would come down to beat NWO every so often, refuse a match with any nWo but Hogan, etc. My buddies and I were in college around this time and we watched it every week and loved the storyline. And if the fast-count was handled correctly, it would have been even better--hero overcomes even more odds in his way--but instead we got a confusing mess.
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May 14, 2013 21:43
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Didn't that happen right before the PPV, after nearly a year of build? Was that stupid? Sure. What I mean though is in general building that match up for a year was great thinking and completely shocking given the company.
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May 14, 2013 21:45
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:Hey now, you guys make fun of Sting and the roof stuff but at the time (at least before the Owen thing made it uncomfortable in retrospect) it was THE poo poo and drat near everything up to the actual Starrcade match was fantastic booking. I certainly hope no one is making GBS threads on the Sting rafters gimmick itself, because quite frankly that was one of the hottest angles WCW ever ran (before ruining the big blowoff).
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May 14, 2013 21:45
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:Didn't that happen right before the PPV, after nearly a year of build? Was that stupid? Sure. What I mean though is in general building that match up for a year was great thinking and completely shocking given the company. That was the end of the Nitro right before the ppv and the one in which NWO took down the set. I am just saying there were signs they were going to WCW it.
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May 14, 2013 21:47
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What was the PPV buy rate of that Starcade and how did it compare to other PPV's at the time?
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May 14, 2013 21:49
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Gonzo McFee posted:What was the PPV buy rate of that Starcade and how did it compare to other PPV's at the time? Starrcade 97 did 750,000 buys The rematch between Sting and Hogan did around 425,000 buys, Nash vs Goldberg did about the same and the Malone/DDP vs Hogan/Rodman did 600,000. On the WWF side, I believe WM 13 did 300,000 buys and WM 14 did 850,000.
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May 14, 2013 21:58
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At the time it happened it was one of the, if not the, best-selling wrestling PPV ever, wasn't it?
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May 14, 2013 22:02
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Great White Hope posted:At the time it happened it was one of the, if not the, best-selling wrestling PPV ever, wasn't it? It was was WCW's best selling PPV of all time, and maybe #2 of all time for pro wrestling. #1 was Wrestlemania 4. I am not sure if WM 3 tops Starrcade 97 or not, I think it's a push.
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May 14, 2013 22:05
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Halloween Jack posted:Yeah, Kevin Sullivan was already in there being a Saturday morning cartoon villain wizard in what, '91? My only memory of him was seeing him against Benoit in some sort of falls count anywhere match, and they were fighting in a bathroom. It was actually a pretty drat good match from what I can remember when I was 11. Apparently this was Great American Bash '96, which was Rey Mysterio's WCW debut, and was also where the big Outsiders vs Sting, Luger, and Macho Man was set up. Also where Bischoff got power bombed through the table which was the coolest thing at the time.
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May 14, 2013 22:10
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I feel like Benoit/Sullivan had a few of those matches. Maybe one at a Clash of the Champions, too?
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May 14, 2013 22:16
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Die Laughing posted:My only memory of him was seeing him against Benoit in some sort of falls count anywhere match, and they were fighting in a bathroom. It was actually a pretty drat good match from what I can remember when I was 11. Apparently this was Great American Bash '96, which was Rey Mysterio's WCW debut, and was also where the big Outsiders vs Sting, Luger, and Macho Man was set up. Also where Bischoff got power bombed through the table which was the coolest thing at the time. Fun fact: this was also during the feud where Sullivan "lost" Nancy to Benoit, both in storyline and in real life. 
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May 14, 2013 22:24
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Was that the one where Dusty went insane(r) on commentary? "They fightin in the women's bathroom!"
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May 14, 2013 22:28
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DeathChicken posted:Was that the one where Dusty went insane(r) on commentary? "They fightin in the women's bathroom!" I'm like, 99% sure, yes.
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May 14, 2013 23:33
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10 Minutes until Uncensored 96, one of the only PPVs to win TWO Observer Awards: http://sync.coconono.org/r/greatestnitroinhistoryofoursport
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May 15, 2013 00:49
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DeathChicken posted:Was that the one where Dusty went insane(r) on commentary? "They fightin in the women's bathroom!" DDP vs Savage at Halloween Havoc 98 has some great Dusty in it, especially when they get to the foam tombstones by the entrance. He kept yelling "He wobble-legged 'em". It's on the nwo dvd. Pretty good match, total poo poo ending, of course.
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May 15, 2013 01:46
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