[1997-11-23-WCW-World War III] 60-Man Battle Royal

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes. The NWO stands around and looks at everyone just like they did the year before. The NWO beat up the referee when he tries to move everyone to the same ring. WCW finally has enough and storms the ring to attack the NWO guys. The Giant looks blown up and actually stops to rest for a long time. It's eventually DDP, The Giant, Scott Hall and Randy Savage. Wow Giant looks awful. Then, it comes down to Scott Hall vs both WCW guys and Hall points to the entrance ramp where the NWO music starts and no one comes out. Then we switch to Hogan's music and everyone booking WCW is on massive amounts of cocaine. I hope WCW gave the guy his 25% cut for a surprise appearance for a few minutes on a show where he wasn't even advertised to appear. Sting eventually comes down from the rafters and it's clearly Kevin Nash but the announcers suddenly believe Sting is 7 feet tall. Hall wins World War 3 and earns a title shot that he joked for years he never got, even though he did at Uncensored '98. This is such cocaine. That's the only way I can describe this mess.

[Gregor]

The best part was that, even when pretending to be Sting, Nash couldn't bring himself to step through the ropes. Tenay deserves credit for sounding puzzled when Sting came in over the top.

[FLIK]

It's eventually DDP, The Giant, Scott Hall and Randy Savage. Wow Giant looks awful. Then, it comes down to Scott Hall vs both WCW guys

Fuck, they switched so many times that between Giant & Savage I have no clue who the hell was on the WCW side & who was NWO at the time here....and this is a PPV I own and have watched multiple times....

[Strummer]

I did not see this show but called my cousin up to find out who won. He was unsuccessful in trying to explain this clusterfuck but eventually blurted out "Hall won, I think"

[Kevin Ridge]

What a horrible mess. I don't think I've yet to see a full WW3 battle royal from WCW. I may have to just to see how things start out. So hard to follow what is going on in all three rings. You also seem to be able to roll your opponent out of the ring to eliminate them which is what the Divas use currently. Hogan is allowed to enter match at the end which is just dumb. Nobody questions this. Announcers miss DDP’s elimination. That’s clearly Nash and not Sting. With 60 guys in the, WCW wreslers couldn’t just team up on all of the NWO?

[soup23]

Wow, what a misfire this was coming off the great Nitro with NWO looking hugely strong. The battle vs. WCW was good stuff and Savage was sweating like crazy. I even popped for the Hogan surprise as they could say it was insurance in case he lost to Sting for a rematch. Then things go really off the rails when Nash comes out as Sting AGAIN and the announcers have to act incredibly stupid when nothing adds up. Throughout all of this, Hall wins the match and Hogan and the Outsiders celebrate by beating up DDP. Big thud to the end of the PPV.

[El-P]

You gotta love Savage. He jumps right into the arms of the Giant. Then he gets a Diamond Cutter. Then a chokeslam. Then gets eliminated. Outside of that, yes, the Giant looks totally blown up. And the ending is complete garbage, I mean 1999 like garbage. Hogan gets to bodyslam the Giant and Diamond Cut DDP. Of course. The announcer think Sting is 7 feet tall. Well, if it had been Barry Windham, maybe I would have popped somewhat, only because it would have been a nice and idiotic throwback. Complete utter garbage. WCW has totally jumped the shark already. You can see whatever great build they did before for Hogan vs Sting was gonna end up in the crapper eventually in the end. Scott Hall winning made no sense either and was only a way for Hogan to eventually cut his evil promo in the beginning of 1998 : "The title doesn't matter, Hall can manage that stuff.". Awful awful awful.

[cowboy hats]

The end is indeed garbage, but I watched the rest for my first WW3 experience. I assume all other years are unwatchable as well, yes? This just seems like a terrible concept with both viewer and announcer having no shot to follow anything in the first twenty minutes.

 

'rey mysterio just eliminated someone from ring six. i'm not sure who it was.' - the professor

 

Bischoff with the weirdest looking cigar at the end

[El-P]

I assume all other years are unwatchable as well, yes?

 

The matches themselves are always unwatchable, but the ending of the 96 one is actually really good. Just fast forward until the last ten guys are in the ring and from there it's really well done.

[PeteF3]

You're eliminated if you hit the floor at all this time, regardless of how. Not sure what the point was of that rule change. I was actually into this for a bit, then I got confused with the Nash fakeout and Hogan entrance, then I got frustrated as the cameras were missing eliminations and pivotal spots, then I was just rolling my eyes at yet another obviously fake Sting that the announcers fell for. Then I just shook my head as they attempted to get over the "biggest plan yet" which amounts to the same plan they've had for like the past 8 PPVs. Hogan does execute a decent-looking Diamond Cutter (which is *also* missed the first time). WCW still looks untouchable from a business standpoint but this was...not good.

[JKWebb]

I remember watching this live and not understanding why Hogan got to come out at the end and be fresh, and why they would allow him to do that ha.  Also, I thought Hall was cool and I was glad he got a big win like a World War 3 win.  I think this could have worked had the announcers not pretended to not notice the Sting mask and how large Sting was.  I mean, it was fine.  At the time, we were just ready for the huge main event at Starrcade 1997.