By "Net.cop" Scott Keith

As I was saying last week, I get tons of requests for specific shows in my mailbox from people, wanting to know what I thought of it and wondering when and if I'll do a Retro Rant on it.

So with you folks in mind, here's part two of my Netcop Guide to Every PPV, Ever.

Part Two: The NWA/WCW

1987.

The NWA made it's less-than glorious debut with Starrcade 87, originally scheduled for Thanksgiving but pushed back to December for good because of a WWF power play. As a first effort, it's not bad. But then, Ronnie Garvin v. Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes v. Lex Luger doesn't really bode well, either. Still, mildly recommended.

1988.

NWA Bunkhouse Stampede was possibly one of the most spectactularly bad cards ever, but there was a good Larry Zbyszko v. Barry Windham match buried in the junk (Dusty Rhodes won the Stampede, which was a battle royale inside a cage -- I don't know who thought of that, either...) so it's not worse than other shows that came later, but still, there's no reason to even rent this dog. Strong recommendation to avoid.

The NWA made a strong comeback with Great American Bash 88, which featured the first-ever match between Ric Flair and Lex Luger for the World title, which was a 30 minute ****1/2 classic to boot. Ronnie Garvin turned heel on Dusty Rhodes at this show as well. Terrific stuff. Recommended.

Starrcade 88 featured another classic Flair-Luger match and the blowoff to the Rick Steiner-Mike Rotundo storyline, both of which are two of my favorite matches ever. I really love this card from top to bottom, except maybe the stuff involving Junkfood Dog. Highly recommended.

1989.

We now enter the Holy Trinity of PPV shows, beginning with Chi-Town Rumble 89. Three words: Steamboat v. Flair. The only reason I don't give the match here ***** is because the one at WrestleWar 89 was just that much better. The match will rock your world, I guarantee. Luger-Windham is pretty good, too. Highest recommendation.

WrestleWar 89 saw Ric Flair beat Rick Steamboat to regain the title in what is, IMO, the single greatest wrestling match EVER. The rest of the card is crap, but Steamboat-Flair is 25 minutes and well worth the price of rental. Highest recommendation. Terry Funk attacks Flair after that match, setting up...

Great American Bash 89. Terry Funk battles Ric Flair in a psycotic, bloody brawl for the World title and everyone on the WHOLE FREAKIN CARD is *on*. Sting v. Muta! Luger v. Steamboat! The *'s just keep on rolling with at least four matches that are in the good-mindblowing range. This is quite possibly the single greatest PPV ever put on by either company in terms of entertainment and match quality. And that's saying something. You MUST see this show. Highest recommendation and a gold star to boot.

Halloween Havoc 89 rolls around, and the NWA is still in this killer groove. Flair & Sting battle Funk & Muta in an electrified cage and Pillman carries Luger to a terrific match in a time before either guy sucked. Plus the inauspicious debut of Doom. Highly recommended.

The NWA wraps up 1989 with Starrcade: Future Shock and something went horribly wrong here. This is the "Iron Man challenge" show with Sting going over Flair in the finals, and the one and only meeting between the Steiners and the Road Warriors. Boring as all hell, too. Recommendation to avoid.

1990.

Sting messed up his knee in February, giving us WrestleWar 90 with a main event of Luger-Flair for the title, again. Yet another ****1/2 classic between the two, meaning an automatic thumbs up from me. The rest is throwaway junk, except for a decent Midnight v. Rock N Roll match. Recommended.

As a followup, we got Capital Combat 90, and with Sting still out it's Luger v. Flair again, this time in a cage. And again, another Match of the Year candidate. Plus Doom improbably beating the Steiners for the tag titles and a spectacular Midnights v. Pillman/Zenk match. Highly recommended.

Finally, Sting returned to best Flair for the title at Great American Bash 90, another really terrific card that showed signs of the dismal future for the NWA/WCW. A pretty good Sting-Flair match and an AWESOME Midnights-Southern Boys match make this an easy thumbs up. Highly recommended.

And then it got bad for a while.

The NWA was slowly morphing into WCW, and Sting couldn't draw flies as champion. Evidence of this was Halloween Havoc 90, a slapdash mess of a show with Sting defending against Sid Vicious. Still, a legendary brawl with the Steiners defending the US tag titles against the Nasty Boys (in the match that *made* their career) and The Horsemen challenging Doom make this a good watch. Recommended.

Starrcade 90 veered wildly from good to bad, with the good overtaking the bad thanks to a terrific brawl between the Horsemen and Doom and some good action on the undercard. The Sting v. Black Scorpion main event was underwhelming, to say the least. Mildly recommended.

1991. (Dum-da-dum-dum-dum...)

We started out with WrestleWar 91, with Sid Vicious nearly killing Brian Pillman in the WarGames, and that couldn't have boded well for anything that year. A very long and draggy card with something like 140 matches. Luger v. Dan Spivey is pretty okay, the rest is a test in patience. Recommendation to avoid.

Next came the first Superbrawl, with Flair meeting Tatsumi Fujinami in a match so complicated that not even WCW knew why they were having it, exactly. Luger-Sting v. The Steiners is AMAZING, however. Recommendation to avoid, but check out the tag match if you can.

Ric Flair was fired in one of the all-time bonehead moves shortly into July, and to celebrate WCW gave us Great American Bash 91. This card is so bad that it should come with a gift certificate for a therapist to help you recover. Easily the worst PPV, ever. Strongest recommendation to avoid!

I'm torn on Halloween Havoc 91. On one hand, it was really bad. On the other, The Dangerous Alliance debuted. But I mean, the Chamber of Horrors match, for god's sake. I'll have to vote for neutral feelings on this one.

Starrcade 91 was the first emergence of BattleBowl, a Dusty Rhodes brainchild. There really was a random draw as they went along, and as a result no one could work together worth a damn. Strong recommendation to avoid, although it's a neat idea in theory.

1992.

Superbrawl II was a good comeback, with Sting winning the World title from Lex Luger and some excellent stuff on the undercard, including a ****1/2 Pillman-Liger jaw-dropping opener. Highly recommended, but it's a fluke for 92.

WrestleWar 92 was the first step down the crapper again for WCW, with an anemic WarGames featuring the Dangerous Alliance battling Sting's team and not much else of note. Recommendation to avoid.

Bill Watts emerged as the head honcho in WCW, and Beach Blast 92 was his first show. Sting took on Cactus Jack in a non-title brawl and Steve Williams and Terry Gordy battled the Steiners to a draw to begin a monster push. Not much to cheer about here. Recommendation to avoid.

Great American Bash 92 is good for specific reasons. Well, actually just one reason: Big Van Vader tosses Sting around like a ragdoll and wins the World title. An easy **** match, but the rest of this card is long and laughable. Recommendation to avoid.

Halloween Havoc 92 was one of the most interesting concepts ever devised: The Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal match between Jake Roberts and Sting. The actual match, and most of the card, was terrible. Recommendation to avoid.

Starrcade 92. Ron Simmons v. Steve Williams? Masa Chono v. Great Muta in a -** match? Not surprisingly, Bill Watts was fired/quit not too long after this mess. Recommendation to avoid.

1993.

Superbrawl III kicked off the year, under new head guy Eric Bischoff with Ric Flair signed and on his way back. Vader fought Sting in a strap match and the Hollywood Blonds made their PPV debut. A good card. Recommended.

Slamboree debuted in 1993, with Vader defending the World title against the British Bulldog and some old guys fighting. Not much of note here except the incredibly stupid Roma-Horsemen incarnation. Recommendation to avoid.

Beach Blast 93 saw Ric Flair win the NWA World title from Barry Windham and the infamous Mini-Movie Match come to pass as Sting & Bulldog took on Vader & Sid. Bleh. Recommendation to avoid.

Fall Brawl debuted in 1993 with an abysmal WarGames and Ric Flair resting through a match with Rick Rude. Strong recommendation to avoid.

Haloween Havoc 93 was a little better, with Cactus Jack taking on Vader in a Texas Death match, but not much else of consequence. Recommendation to avoid.

The less said about BattleBowl 93, the better. Strong recommendation to avoid.

Starrcade 93 marked a big WCW comeback, with Ric Flair beating Vader to win the World title in a **** classic. The rest was unexeceptional, however. Very mildly recommended.

1994.

WCW kicked off the year with Superbrawl IV, a so-so card featuring the first of many good battles between Cactus Jack and the Nasty Boys, and a double-Thundercage main event. Still, it kinda left me flat. Neutral feelings on this one.

Spring Stampede debuted in 1994 with an amazing ****1/4 classic between Flair and Steamboat (yep, them again) and an amazing ****1/2 brawl with Jack and Maxx Payne against the Nasty Boys. Highly recommended.

Slamboree 94 is one of my personal favorite shows ever, featuring one of the single greatest brawls ever with Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan taking on the Nasty Boys and yet another terrific Sting-Vader **** match. Lots of good stuff here. Very highly recommended.

Bash at the Beach 94 was the first match for Hulk Hogan and WCW began yet another cyclic slide down in quality as he beat Ric Flair for the WCW World title. A pretty crappy card overall. Not recommended.

Fall Brawl 94 was the infamous 27 second job for Steve Austin, as Jim Duggan was inexplicably given the US title. Strong recommendation to avoid.

Starrcade 94 was the exciting Hogan-Beefcake main event, with Mr. T taking on Kevin Sullivan on the undercard. Strong recommendation to avoid.

1995.

Superbrawl V kicked off the year, with a bad Vader-Hogan match as the main event to a forgettable card. Strong recommendation to avoid.

Uncensored made, a, er, memorable debut in 1995 with Ric Flair (in drag) getting pulled to all four corners by Hogan in Hogan's match against Vader. Imagine how goofy, overbooked and poorly wrestled a card could be, and that's Uncensored. Strong recommendation to avoid. (sense a pattern here?)

Slamboree 95 featured the WCW roster sleepwalking through contrived Hogan-booked garbage. "Main event" was Hogan and Randy Savage reuniting to meet Flair and Vader. Utter garbage. Strong recommendation to avoid.

Great American Bash 95 is next, with Renegade cleanly pinning Arn Anderson to win the TV title in what Arn called the most embarrassing moment of his career. The same can be said for most of this show. Strong recommendation to avoid.

Bash at the Beach 95 actually had them wrestling on a beach (get it?). There was one or two watchable matches amongst the silliness, but not enough to make it good. Recommendation to avoid.

Fall Brawl 95 is something of an improvement, with a very good Johnny B. Badd v. Brian Pillman match and Ric Flair v. Arn Anderson saving the show. Stil, the rest is really, really bad. Mild recommendation to avoid.

Finally, a good show in Halloween Havoc 95, which marked the true beginning of Terry Taylor's run as booker, with shock turns from Lex Luger and Jimmy Hart, the cruiserweights, and the debut of the Giant. Recommended.

World War III debuted in 1995, with a chaotic 60-man battle royale for the WCW World title as the main event. A fun show, although the WW3 battle royale itself is fundamentally flawed and a Hogan screwjob ending didn't help. Still, recommended.

Starrcade tried something different in 1995, with a US v. Japan tournament that featured some spectacular wrestling and some really bad wrestling. But a super triangle match with Luger v. Sting v. Flair and Flair v. Savage for the World title in the main event make this one a keeper. Strongly recommended.

1996.

WCW got back into a groove again with Superbrawl VI, featuring a double cage main event, with Flair v. Savage and Hogan v. Giant. Nothing too cerebral, just a fun show complete with shock Liz turn. And the bookerman comment is here, too. Recommended.

Many people hate Uncensored 96 because of the preposterous main event, but the undercard is bordering on excellent at times. Witness Fit Finlay v. Steve Regal in the stiffest match you'll see this side of the UFC, for instance. Recommended.

Slamboree 96 was the tentative start to a DDP push, as he won Battlebowl (but didn't get his title shot), but the rest of the card is forgettable. Not recommended.

Great American Bash 96 took shock booking to the next level: Eric Bischoff got put through a table by Kevin Nash, and Steve MacMichael joined the Four Horsemen in an out-of-nowhere storyline twist. A very good brawl between Chris Benoit and Kevin Sullivan makes this a keeper. Highly recommended.

Bash at the Beach 96 had one of the best opening matches ever in Rey Mysterio v. Psycosis (****3/4) and some other good stuff. Oh yeah, that Hulk guy turned here and created the nWo. Almost forgot about that... Strongly recommended for sheer historical value.

Hog Wild showed the emergence of two paths in WCW booking: Hulk's world and everybody else's world. Hulk defeated the Giant to win the WCW World title, the Outsiders had their first real match against Luger & Sting, and everyone else was relegated to the undercard and buried. Still, an interesting show. Recommended.

Fall Brawl 96 was pretty good. Sting walked away from WCW for the first time here and Chris Jericho debuted in a kick-ass match against Chris Benoit. Good stuff. Recommended.

Halloween Havoc 96 featured Hulk Hogan v. Randy Savage. Again. And Roddy Piper made a surprise appearance at the end, guaranteeing bad matches for months to come. Mild recommendation to avoid.

World War III 96 had a few technically solid matches on the undercard, but nothing of any importance in the long run. And Nick Patrick wrestled. Need I say more? Recommendation to avoid.

Starrcade 96 featured Hulk Hogan v. Roddy Piper in the "Geriatric match", which WCW didn't bother to mention was non-title until after Piper had won. Recommendation to avoid.

1997.

The nWo got their first PPV with Souled Out in 1997, and not surprisingly never got another. It's a bad PPV, but I'm going mildly recommended just because it's a unique experience to watch and is totally different from anything else ever put on by WCW. And the set bears an eery resemblance to today's RAW is WAR.

Superbrawl VII was back to the status quo again, with Hulk Hogan facing Roddy Piper in Geriatric Park: The Lost Workrate. Randy Savage's nonsensical turn completely overshadows the interesting stuff happening on the undercard with Guerrero, Malenko, Syxx and Benoit. Mildly recommended, but don't watch the main event.

Uncensored 97 featured a goofy three-way, 12-man elimination match which served to put the nWo over for the millionth time. Again, some good stuff on the undercard from the cruisers and the Holy Trinity saves the show, along with Sting's super-hot entrance to close the show. Recommended.

Spring Stampede 97 was an attempt to turn DDP into a main eventer, and it didn't really work. An okay-ish card at best with a lot of tossed-together stuff. Neutral feelings on this one.

Slamboree 97 was another booking-in-cruise-control card, with a Horsemen team beating an nWo team in the main event and nothing else of any note on the undercard. Recommendation to avoid.

The Great American Bash 97 was okay at best, with yet another Savage-DDP main event and the Outsiders defending the tag titles against Piper and Flair. Nothing that needed to be on PPV, to be sure. Mild recommendation to avoid.

Bash at the Beach 97 featured Dennis Rodman in the main event. 'Nuff said. Strong recommendation to avoid.

Road Wild 97 was the end of Lex Luger's epic 6 day title reign, as Hulk Hogan took it back to the nWo and everyone else phoned it in long distance. Recommendation to avoid.

Fall Brawl 97 was a bit better, with a good undercard at times and an intense WarGames, although Buff Bagwell and Chris Benoit carried the match. The Curt Hennig turn was broadcast from a mile away, though. Neutral feelings on this one.

Halloween Havoc 97 featured the Age in the Cage main event between Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper (yes, those two again). Even a ****3/4 Guerrero-Mysterio match couldn't save this one for me. Mild recommendation to avoid, but watch the cruiserweight title match.

World War III 97 was yet another meaningless PPV, with Scott Hall winning a non-sensical main event to earn a title shot at Superbrawl (which didn't happen until Uncensored). Nothing horribly bad, just another phoned in show. Mild recommendation to avoid.

Starrcade 97 was the blowoff show for the year-long Sting-Hogan feud, and it was a major bomb. How WCW screwed it up on this one, I'll never figure out, but somehow they took the easiest thumbs up show in history and flushed it. Recommendation to avoid.

1998.

Souled Out II was much better, with good solid wrestling throughout and lucid booking on the undercard, a new innovation for WCW. The main event ended up being Lex Luger v. Randy Savage (yeah, I didn't care either) but the undercard was super. Highly recommended.

Superbrawl VIII was a sharply divided show. Some parts were really neat, the rest was junk. I've seen it a couple of times and I'm still not sure how exactly I feel about it. Sting regains the World title from Hogan in the main event with a screwy finish. It's either recommendation to avoid -or- recommended, depending on my mood, I think. ;)

Uncensored 98 was a step down, again, with World champion Sting getting bumped down to undercard and Hulk Hogan's match with Randy Savage earning the main event. Nothing terribly exciting here. Recommendation to avoid.

Spring Stampede 98 was positively reviewed by quite a few people, but it left me cold, with dumb brawls from Raven/DDP and Sting/Savage disguising injuries. I don't buy it. Mild recommendation to avoid.

Finally, Slamboree 98 was a good show, with the Outsiders splitting in the increasingly-silly nWo breakup angle, and a good undercard saved by Chris Jericho's godlike interview powers. Recommended.

And that's that.

This rant and the WWF one will shortly be converted to my web page for viewing any time. Comments or your thoughts on these shows are welcomed at skeith@mindless.com.