Match of the Day - Kevin Nash - The original streak ender #wcw

Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg - WCW World Heavyweight title match - Starrcade (1998)

Undertaker's streak may be over, but at least he wasn't tasered by Paul Heyman for Brock Lesnar to pick up the unexpected win. How about being tasered by Scott Hall? Well, that's exactly what happened to Goldberg while defending not only his World Heavyweight title but his 173 win streak (despite most of those wins being squashes) here at Starrcade '98.

Goldberg would eventually try to duplicate his streak in the later half of 2000 in order to earn himself a title shot at the World Heavyweight title. Unfortunately, he only made it into the double digits, 35 to be exact, before being defeated in his last match in WCW at Sin 2001.

Match of the Day - The Nash/Hogan vs. Piper/Giant bat match?

Kevin Nash & Hollywood Hogan vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper & The Giant - Baseball Bat on a Pole match - WCW Spring Stampede (1998)

It's the first day of Spring and that can only mean one thing: A Spring Stampede match is in order for today.

This match here is from Spring Stampede 1998, the year I started collecting WCW action figures apparently because every wrestler in this match looks exactly like the plastic form of themselves I had when I was growing up.

Despite the rules of the match, a tag team pole match where anyone who pulled down the baseball bat could use it anyway they wanted, Vince Russo was not working for WCW at this time. Even with the painfully bad "bat switch" towards the end of this match, I must remind everyone, Vince Russo was not working for WCW yet.

If you don't know who Vince Russo is, look up the San Francisco 49ers match, or the Viagra on a pole match, or the leather jacket on a pole match, or the Judy Bagwell on a pole match. The man loved his object(s) on a pole matches. Except for the last one there on the list, the Judy Bagwell one, she couldn't fit on a pole so they used a forklift instead. 

Match of the Day - The one where Diesel tries to use Mad Dog Vachon's fake leg as a weapon

Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels - No Holds Barred match for the WWF Championship - In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies (1996)

Today, Canadian wrestling legend, Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon passed away at age 84. Maurice, along with being part of the Vachon family, was also a multiple time heavyweight champion in AWA and WWE Hall of Famer. No disrespect to the man what-so-ever, but - despite all these accolades and accomplishments and rivalries with guys like The Crusher or Dick the Bruiser - I will always remember him most for his participation in the Diesel/Michaels match at In Your House 7 in 1996.

The match between Diesel and his former tag team partner, Shawn Michaels is a notable match in of itself as it serves as the last match that Kevin Nash ever played the character of Diesel in WWF before jumping ship to WCW (not counting a couple of years ago where Nash was dressed in the Diesel gear during his Royal Rumble return). The match was also a "No Holds Barred" match for Michaels' WWF championship and the first PPV or televised match Mad Dog Vachon ever got involved in. Well, a part of him got involved at least. See, Mad Dog Vachon was just a spectator in the audience that night until Diesel got out of the ring mid-match and threw the 67 year old man over the guardrail. Diesel then grabbed at Vachon's leg and ripped it off revealing an artificial leg that Vachon had from losing his real leg in a hit-and-run accident. That's when Diesel took Vachon's prosthetic leg and brought it into the ring to use against Michaels.

Unfortunately for Diesel, the leg was snagged away from him by the Heart Break Kid - who ended up using it to tune up the band and harness super "Mad Dog" powers for a devastating Sweet Chin Music. So devastating in fact that Kevin Nash was never seen in the WWE again until 2002. In a way, one could argue that it was the power of Mad Dog Vachon (and his fake leg) that drove Kevin Nash away all along.

Match of the Debut - The debut of Oz

Oz w/ The Great Wizard vs. Tim Parker - WCW SuperBrawl (1991)

In honor of the new Oz movie coming to theaters near you, I present wrestling's answer to the classic tale of The Wizard of Oz: a young 7 foot tall and very green (both in attire and experience) performer named, yep, Oz.

If you are thinking this is one of those gimmicks where the wrestler behind the old wizard mask and cape was eventually phased out of television and never seen again, you would actually be very, very wrong. Yes, Oz flopped like most of Dusty Rhodes's wildly bad ideas, but the man behind the wizard gimmick actually ended up becoming quite the star in both the WWF and WCW after a few more failed attempts at superstardom. Turns out, Oz is one of Kevin Nash's earliest gimmicks in his first run of WCW.

Kevin Nash, like a lot of other wrestlers around his time, recovered from a lot of bad gimmicks to become big name stars. Nash might be the biggest success story as no one else can say that they had to play the wrestling equivalent of Oz: the Great and Powerful.

Hopefully James Franco will have the same luck as Nash and start getting good roles eventually. And hey, I never said Nash was any better at wrestling after this...

Also, why was Nash's manager Merlin the Wizard? This is a question a see a lot online and something that still baffles me today. Maybe the new movie will explain it...

But probably not.

Kinda fun fact: Timothy (Tim) (Britten) Parker is also the name of a stage actor who played Doctor Dillmond in the Broadway production of Wicked, a musical about The Wicked Witch and other pre-Dorothy Wizard of Oz themes.

Match of the Day - Special guest referee 4-way ladder match... must be WCW

Bret Hart vs. Scott Hall vs. Goldberg vs. Sid Vicious - Texas Tornado Ladder Match for the WCW US Heavyweight Championship WCW Nitro (1999)

Today is the first time I have actually heard of this match. It's a four man ladder match featuring Razor Ramon - I mean Scott Hall, Bret Hart (who was in the first WWF ladder match - though Hall's ladder matches are more recognized as firsts), Sid Vicious, and Bill Goldberg. Oh yeah, and the special referee was Kevin Nash because fuck it this is WCW and there needs to be a special referee in a match where one person wins by climbing a ladder to retrieve a belt hanging high above the ring and that's it.

One must also put into account that WCW at this point was essentially the Kevin Nash/Scott Hall show and lacked a lot of substance. So, in a not so surprising turn of event, Nash knocks out Bret Hart who has the title in his grasp with a nightstick at the top of the ladder... Nash then miraculously catches the title as Hart drops to the mat which allows Scott Hall to climb the ladder and snag the title from Nash's hands.

There was also a bit with Rick Steiner and his heel run as he comes out to attack his former friend, Sid Vicious. WCW wasn't the Rick Steiner show though so his little spotlight and impact was overshadowed by what Nash and Hall were really up in this match. Steiner, who was the TV champ at the time would soon lose the title at Mayhem because he was too injured to compete. The title was then given to, yep you guessed it, Scott Hall. 

Scott Hall eventually throws the TV Championship away a week later...

Literally though, he throws it into a trashcan on Nitro.

All in all, this is not one match you will be seeing on a ladder match compilation anytime soon (unless the next Ladder Match DVD runs out of good or legitimate ladder matches). 

It is however a hell of a good look at what WCW was like in 1999.