The only good thing about this gimmick is that Daniels' wore a mask so not everyone knows his shame. Not since Terry Taylor clucked his way into obscurity has a wrestler had to deal with such a millstone around his neck. While you could cut TNA some slack and say that they'd already done a great job turning "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels into a shell of the wrestling character he was, it's hard to imagine saddling him with a gimmick as bad as this one. Eventually, the nWo would go the same way as the goose that laid the golden eggs.Ĭurry Man: He's hot, he's spicy, he's Christopher Daniels? Leave it to TNA to take one of their best workers and reduce him to a joke with the slightest of ease. Unfortunately the powers that be at WCW failed to learn the lesson here. While there were highlights in terms of wrestling quality (it would be next to impossible to have all bad matches given that guys like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, and Syxx worked the card), there was little to justify ordering the show. As was the case at the time, the nWo ran roughshod on the WCW stars, defeating them in most of the matches. The show itself featured a mixed bag of wrestling. Viewers had to wonder if they hadn't died and gone to hog heaven both in terms of the contestants riding Harleys and their "looks". Bischoff ran down the competition throughout the show and one of the show's highlights was a Miss nWo Beauty contest featuring what looked like a contingent from Kevin Nash fan club. It was almost as if Eric Bischoff and friends wanted to see how bad of a show they could run and still make money. Watching the show, you almost get the feeling that the powers that be felt they could do no wrong (which, truth be told, really was the case up until this point). The nWo Souled Out PPV was a flop both in terms of buyrates and the reaction of the fans. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez speculate that Bischoff was testing the waters to see if there was enough demand for two PPV's a month (The show was also held on a Saturday, a rarity and probably an experiment to test the PPV waters for a night besides Sunday).Īpparently there wasn't. Furthermore, if the PPV proved to be a success, more nWo themed events were just a matter of time. If the nWo meant ratings, surely they'd translate into buyrates for a PPV.
The nWo was a runaway success in WCW, thrusting the company to the top of the wrestling game and crushing the WWF in the ratings war.
Looking back, it's hard to argue with Bischoff's reasoning. The PPV featured Eric Bischoff and Ted DiBiase on commentary, nWo referee Nick Patrick, and an nWo-themed set. The show featured the stars of the nWo and WCW but the PPV focused on the stars of the nWo. The result was Souled Out, a pay-per-view held on January 25, 1997. Whether you call it zeal, excess, or plain arrogance, Eric Bischoff decided that it was time for an NWO themed PPV.
#WCW NWO SOULED OUT 1997 FULL FULL#
While there's something to be said for damning the torpedoes and going full speed ahead, sometimes our zeal can get the best of us. NWO Souled Out: Oscar Wilde once said, "Nothing succeeds like excess". In the spirit of kicking a man while he's down, I've decided to take a look at some of wrestling's biggest flops of late Join me as I look at some of the biggest misfires in the history of the squared circle.
The book reminded me that for every Star Wars, there's ten Battle Beyond the Stars and that no artist has a perfect track record (Spielberg had 1941, Lucas had Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and Francis Ford Coppola had Godfather III). Recently, I had the pleasure of reading Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops.
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