#18 - Re-booking WCW in 1994

I am writing this blog after a few drinks of Golden Wedding Whiskey so please excuse my writing, even though I feel many of WCW's creative personnel could have used a stiff drink back in 1994 when booking. Everybody gives WCW credit for booking Hogan-Flair at Bash at the Beach and making it the "big deal" it should have been but I feel the aftermath could have been booked as good as the original match. Let's take a look ...

July - The Initial Match

Booked the same way as WCW booked it then, with Hogan winning the championship and WCW giving the fans what they wanted and that was a Hogan win

August - Clash of the Champions

Did we really need to see Hogan - Flair on TV? Sure it would have brought in ratings but why blow the 2nd battle of their feud on a TV special?  The Clash was WCW's answer to Saturday Night's Main Event so why didn't they book it the same as WWF booked SNME? The WWF booked Hogan on SNME against credible heels that fans believed MIGHT take the title from Hogan but wouldn't. I can look back at Hogan's SNME matches against Honky Tonk Man, Bob Orton, King Haku, and the Genius. All these opponents were credible heels but stood no chance at taking the Hulk's title.

I think Hulk's TBS wrestling debut would have been enough to draw ratings to this Clash of the Champions event. I look back now at the roster WCW had at the time and would have booked Hogan against Terry Funk. Funk was involved with a feud with the Rhodes family and could have easily been given a TV match against the Hulk. Hogan could have gone over easily with Funk still keeping enough credibility to keep his feud running with the Rhodes

September - Fall Brawl

At this event, we saw Flair and Hogan doing on-screen taped promos to promote their cage match at Halloween Havoc ... In retrospective, why couldn't we have Flair wrestle on this card? This event hosted the first mainstream Triangle match for a future WCW title match?

I would have had Flair wrestle instead of Ray Traylor (Big Boss Man, Guardian Angel) in the triangle match against Sting and Vader. Sting could have beaten Vader in the opening match then had Flair weasel his way to victory against Sting. This could secure Flair a title shot later in the year.

On this event, we also saw Ricky Steamboat forfeit the U.S. title to Steve Austin only for Austin to drop the title in 27 seconds to Jim Duggan. In addition, we saw Steven Regal drop his TV title to Johnny B. Badd ...

Why not book Regal to win the U.S. title, thus making him the No.1 Contender to the WCW title? Regal was really over back in 1994 in WCW. They had the confidence to book him against Larry Zbyszko and Antonio Inoki at the previous two Clash events ... so obviously they had confidence in his abilities. Why not give him a main event against Hogan like WWE had confidence to do in 2002 on RAW?

October - Halloween Havoc

Hulk Hogan vs Lord Steven Regal for the World Heavyweight Title

The positive sides of this match would be that ...

• Regal would receive a main event slot, which he deserved
• Hogan would be able to show off some of his true wrestling skill that he showed in Japan only
• WCW would put over young talent against an established face and make stars for the future
• They would have been able to save Flair-Hogan II for Starrcade

... There are no cons to this situation

November - Clash of Champions

Flair announces that he is sick of sharing the spotlight with Hogan and challenges Hogan to put their careers on the line at Starrcade ... similar to the storyline they did in reality at Halloween Havoc because ticket sales were down in Detroit!

December - Starrcade

Hogan vs Flair - The Rematch

- They could have booked this match the same, even down to the retirement angle
- They could have still had Vader earn a title shot at SuperBrawl by winning a match at Starrcade
- The biggest rematch in history would occur on the biggest event of the year! which equals ... MONEY!

I think this set of angles could have made WCW better during Hogan's first few months after entering the company! We could have been saved from the backstage politics between Hogan and Flair initially. We could have been saved from Ed Leslie (Brutus Beefcake) main-eventing Starrcade! AND we could have saved Steve Regal from becoming a Real Man's Man!

I will edit this tomorrow but this is the product of a whiskey on the rocks! I hope you enjoy