83 Weeks - Slamboree 1996 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Slamboree 1996 took place on May 19th, from the Riverside Centroplex, in Baton Rouge, LA. It drew 7,791 fans (6,308 paying $104,760). It did a 0.44 buy rate (108,000 buys; est. $1.21 million company revenue).

Slamboree 1996 would feature the return of BattleBowl, Lethal Lottery. we hadn't seen Battlebowl since 1993. BattleBowl was held a few times in the early 90s, usually as apart of Starrcade. However, it had it's own pay per view, in November of 1993, a few weeks before Starrcade.

However, here it would be called The Lord of the Ring & it would be a tournament consisting of 2 rounds, then the members of the remaining teams would go into the battle royal.

For those of you who had never seen Battlebowl, every wrestler's name was put into a random drawing and tag teams were selected at random and the winning team of each match would then be entered into a battle royal later in the night. The winner of the battle royal would receive a ring

Why was Battlebowl brought back here, and who made that decision?

Who was for it's return and who was against it?

This would be the start of a few legendary months for WCW. Scott Hall would be returning to WCW in a little over a week and Kevin Nash not long after that. Had the deal with the two been signed at this point? Or had you not started negotiating with either yet?

If the deal had been signed with them at this point, what were some early ideas that were being talked about for them? Had the nWo already been decided upon come Slamboree?

Let's get to some company news heading into Slamboree

On April 19th, Brian Pillman was involved in a very serious accident, where he rolled his Humvee. Unfortunately, he suffered a crushed ankle. What's your memories of that?

On April 22nd on Nitro, The Giant beat Ric Flair to win the World Title. This title change came out of no where pretty much.

On the April 13th Saturday Night, Flair teamed with Giant to defeat against  The American Males. 2 days later on Nitro, Flair and Giant challenged Sting and Lex Luger for the World Tag Team titles, but lost by DQ.

The following week, on Nitro, Sting and Luger took on Flair and Giant in a title vs title match where Flair's World title, and Sting and Luger's World Tag Team titleswere on the line. The match ended after Flair inadvertently threw a powder into Giant's face which was intended for Sting and Luger. This of course angered the Giant and set up the title match on the April 29th Nitro, where Giant defeated Flair to win the title

Talk about why the decision was made to have this title change and do it on Nitro

In hindsight, was Giant too young and too green to be given the World Title here? He was 25 at this time

Speaking of The Giant, Meltzer wrote - The Giant, billed as Paul "The Giant" Wight, has been filming a movie in Portland, OR called "Reggie's Prayer," starring Reggie White (Green Bay Packers), Malcolm Jamal Warner (Cosby), Pat Morita (Karate Kid) and Rosey Grier (NFL star of the 60s). White is the star, playing a guy who quits the NFL to coach at-risk teens. Wight players a villain who takes one of White's players hostage.

A few more notes about The Giant. Apparently he played basketball at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville after leaving Wichita State, a Division II school, but only played about two minutes a game so he couldn't have been much of a player. Everyone liked him on the team and all he talked about was pro wrestling and Ric Flair. His height when he came in was listed at 6-8, but he grew and when he left it was listed at 7-0. I've been told that in reality, Kevin Nash, who is about 6-9 or 6-10 legit, is the same height as Paul Wight.

They better put major lifts in Wight's boots when they feud the two since Wight is supposed to be four inches taller. No biggie. I remember seeing Andre and Ernie Ladd wrestle and they always looked the same height to me, but they billed Ladd at 6-9 and Andre at 7-5 at the time.

Some ratings for May, heading into Slamboree -

WWF drew the second highest Raw rating in history on May 6th with the 4.1 rating and 5.2 share for the Undertaker vs. Owen Hart. WCW Nitro did a 1.9 rating and 3.8 share for the live show and a 1.1 rating for the replay.

Other weekend numbers for the weekend of May 4th saw Saturday Night do a 2.5, Main Event a 1.9 and Pro a 1.3. For the week ending 4/21, total audience for all WCW television was 5.06 million homes on 180 stations while WWF was 4.20 million homes on 155 stations.

May 13th - Monday Night Raw did a 3.5 rating and 5.1 share, while Nitro at 7 p.m. did a 2.3 rating and 4.4 share.  The Nitro replay did a 1.2 rating.

The other weekend numbers saw Saturday Night do a 2.5, Sunday a 1.5 and Pro a 1.3.

Nitro did a 2.3 rating and 4.5 share on 5/20 while Raw unopposed did a 3.1 rating and 4.7 share. Nitro replay did a 1.0 and 3.6 share. Saturday Night felt the warm weather for the first time falling to a 2.0, while Main Event before the PPV did a 1.9 and Pro a 1.2.

During this time on WCW TV, we started seeing the Blood Runs Cold vignettes, which would eventually mean the debut of Glacier. Talk about these vignettes, and the creation of the Glacier character

Rob Van Dam, who was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame with yourself has said that he was in negotiations with you to become Glacier. What's your memories of those talks?

Meltzer reported - Eric Bischoff said in an interview with Mike Mooneyham for the Wrestling Observer Hotline and Charleston Post-Courier that it was an outright lie regarding Johnny B. Badd's claim that after his contract expired that he was only making $150 per match. "We have never, ever paid Johnny $150. He knows it, and if it gets to it, I can supply copies of the checks to prove it. His contract was up, he was given a new contract, and he was being paid the same rate under his old contract. There was no change in his compensation. He's an emotional guy, and he may have meant something else when he said it.

Mero had gone to WWF and debuted at WrestleMania 12

There was some big news for WCW in mid-May. Nitro was expanded to 2 hours every Monday night.

First, talk about how that came to be. In fact, the first Nitro that was part of this was the May 27th one, which Scott Hall debuted at

Meltzer reported - World Championship Wrestling announced on 5/8 that it was expanding its Monday Nitro show to two hours, from 8 p.m. Eastern time, effective on 5/27.

The expansion of the show had been somewhat in the works for a while, but it wasn't expected to take place until the beginning of the fall television season in late August or early September. The decision to do so virtually immediately--the first week after TNT's commitments to the NBA playoffs are over--no doubt came as a response to the 5/6 television ratings where Nitro, in a 7 p.m. time slot, drew a 1.9 rating as compared to Raw, at 9 p.m., drawing its second highest rating in history, a 4.1.

What this means to the short-term future of wrestling is largely a matter of conjecture, but what isn't conjecture is that in some form or fashion it will have major implications. As a best case scenario for WCW, the hour lead-in will allow them to hard-sell a couple of main event matches, no doubt one of which would start nearly every week at about 8:53 p.m., so it would be in progress when Raw starts, and the other held off for the final quarter of the show.

It is believed WCW will add some new features to the show and expand the length of matches involving some of the more talented wrestlers, although that is pure speculation at this point. A worst case scenario is that the WCW booking committee isn't equipped to put on a two hour live show each week without diluting the product. The company has been struggling of late to put on quality television, Mondays have been hit and miss and the other shows have largely been awful.

Many believe the period where it built up to a slight edge on Monday over WWF was the result of weekly hot-shotting, and that the current ratings are (besides the obvious time slot deficit) the hot-shotting coming home to roost. WCW made a lot of long-term sacrifices by always featuring the same wrestlers and not building anyone new on its prime vehicle, whereas WWF rarely gave away PPV quality matches in response and bit the bullet while it basically stood even in a time slot it used to own.

The challenge for WCW to make the two-hour format work is it will have to be able to get over a lot more wrestlers as a two hour show won't be able to ride on the coattails of past reputations built by other promoters of people like Hulk Hogan (who isn't even around right now), Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Sting and Lex Luger. They'll have to create coherent storylines and get over to the mainstream the second rung of people such as Steve Regal, David Finlay, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, etc., and be able to get over the Japanese and Mexican talent as people who are important rather than just very active moving canon fodder for mid-level wrestlers, thus as talented as they are, having no credibility with the audience that sways the TV ratings in either direction.

From the standpoint of TNT, the move is a plus in that the second hour of Nitro, from 8 p.m., will surely do bigger ratings than "Thunder in Paradise," which TNT had in that time slot. TNT itself is in a prime time ratings war with other cable networks, most fiercely with USA, and any edge to boost ratings during prime time is very important. That's why, even if Nitro hadn't taken the tumble over the past few weeks due to the NBA commitments, TNT wanted the second hour come the new season.

To show how had TNT wanted it, it made the switch as quick as it could. From a WCW standpoint, TNT will be increasing its weekly compensation to WCW, rumored to be in the neighborhood of $2 million per year. Because of this, and because of the surprising profitability of running house shows this year that nobody expected going in, WCW is now a seriously profitable company for the first time in its existence, although some book juggling may account for at least some of that statement. Whether this is good for the industry as a whole for the long-term, and we still don't even know the long-term effect of Nitro itself, is something that is another story.

Most of the speculation is negative, but this is uncharted waters and while we can point to history for some answers, the world changes on a daily basis and history of what happened to pro wrestling in the 50s doesn't necessarily correlate to what will happen in the late 90s. There is still far less pro wrestling on television than sports like basketball, college football, baseball, etc. and pro wrestling on cable still generally draws better ratings at a fraction of the cost. The downside is that those sports because of reputation are able to charge more for advertising than pro wrestling, as even though pro wrestling still in comparative ratings looks good, the bottom line of television is selling ads and sports like figure skating because advertisers believe a higher class is watching, make stronger television programming.

In hindsight, was that the right decision at the time?

Meltzer reported - Akira Hokuto and Bull Nakano appeared at the 5/8 Disney tapings in Orlando. They wrestled each other on matches taped for WCW Pro, with Hokuto winning, and each lost to Madusa. Told Madusa looked rusty against the Japanese. Hokuto and Nakano had a really good match, although Nakano's knee is really a mess.

That brings us to Slamboree -

Talk about the booking of these teams that we'd see on this event. Who was in charge of pairing them up, what went into it, etc?

Dark - American Males beat Shark & Maxx (formerly Max Muscle, although announcer Eric Bischoff wasn't told that he's been given a new name with his new look, unfortunately same old working ability, so he continued to call him his old name) in 2:37 when Maxx knocked Shark down by accident and Riggs pinned him. After the match, Shark turned on Maxx and then went after Jimmy Hart. The Giant came down and choke slammed Shark. DUD

Road Warrior Animal & Booker T went to a double count out with Road Warrior Hawk & Lex Luger in 6:54 to eliminate all four from Battle Bowl. Hawk suffered a broken foot in Japan at the 4/29 Tokyo Dome and came to Baton Rouge with an orthopedic shoe and couldn't work. He never tagged in which meant Luger worked the entire match. It was real bad. The only good stuff was a break dance and kick by T. Finally Lex and Hawk broke up, and Animal and T broke up, and the Road Warriors brawled together against their foes and were all counted out. 1/4*

This was big, because this was the first time that we saw the Road Warriors on opposite sides of the ring. Were you guys considering breaking them up and this was done as a test? How did they feel about being opponents here?

Public Enemy beat Chris Benoit & Kevin Sullivan in 4:44. At one point Benoit saved Sullivan. Later when it came time for Sullivan to save Benoit, he just walked away, pretending to have hurt his knee and leaving Benoit to get the Public Enemy sandwich through the table and he was pinned by Rocco. A little sloppy, but overall not bad. *3/4

What was Kevin and Chris' relationship like at this point?

Rick Steiner & Booty Man beat Craig Pittman & Scott Steiner in 8:21 when Rick pinned Pittman with a German suplex. At least Rick and Scott worked against each other for a few minutes getting lots of heat and trading big suplexes. The fans booed when Booty tagged in. **1/4

Here we see it again, this time it's the Steiner Brothers facing each other. Same question, were you considering a feud between them here or was this done to pop the crowd basically?

V.K. Wallstreet & Jim Duggan beat Steve Regal & David Taylor in 3:46 when Duggan taped his fist and punched Taylor. Duggan was over more than just about anyone on the show because Baton Rouge was his old stomping ground (literally) going back ten years. The sad part is that it showed the only guys over on the show were from eight to ten years ago which shows how effective the WCW announcers have been at creating stars. Duggan is just awful. DUD

Dick Slater & Bobby Eaton beat Disco Inferno & Alex Wright in 2:56 when Slater hit Disco with his cowboy boot as Disco was dancing, and then pinned him. No heat at all. Disco looked bad trying to work as a face. -1/4*

Diamond Dallas Page & Barbarian beat Meng & Hugh Morrus in 5:15 when Barbarian pinned Morrus after a boot to the face. At the same time Meng had Page pinned but the announcers said it didn't count since Page had his foot under the ropes. It also didn't count because neither were legal men in the ring. Better than you'd think, particularly Meng vs. Barbarian was pretty stiff. *1/2

Scott Norton & Ice Train beat Big Bubba & Stevie Ray in 3:32 when Bubba and Ray collided, and Norton & Train gave Bubba a double shoulderblock and pinned him. Ray looked especially bad. What else is new? Norton didn't look good either. -1/4*

Ric Flair & Randy Savage beat Eddie Guerrero & Arn Anderson in 4:04 of a wild brawl. Flair and Anderson worked together much of the way beating on Savage. Guerrero saved Savage from Flair and Flair and Guerrero started working together which got great heat.

As Guerrero took over on Flair, Savage recovered and attacked Flair. Anderson then DDT'd his own partner and posted Savage and Flair pinned Guerrero. Flair & Anderson held Savage and Elizabeth slapped him in the face. Anderson then DDT'd Savage on the floor and Flair stomped on him. ***1/4

They had an ad for the Great American Bash PPV on 6/16. They had a brief clip of Hogan, which is highly misleading since he's not on the card, during the ad that'll appear on the barker channel. Since the opener was a double count out, and did a fake drawing and announced Norton & Ice Train got a second round bye and were in the Battle Royal.

Dean Malenko pinned Brad Armstrong to retain the WCW cruiserweight title. No heat at all. Obviously technically it was good. Fans treated the match as if it were intermission and they've already killed the cruiserweight title by putting over the idea of Armstrong being a contender for the belt. Malenko won using a stomach block while standing on the middle rope at 8:29. **1/2

Dean had just won the title on May 2nd from Shinjiro Otani, who was the 1st Cruiserweight Champion

Slater & Eaton beat Duggan & Wallstreet in 4:08 when Eaton schoolboyed Wallstreet after Duggan punched his partner. Worst match on the show. -*

Public Enemy was awarded a forfeit win over Flair & Savage when security had to keep the two of them apart before they could even make it to the ring

Page & Barbarian beat Booty Man & Rick Steiner when Barbarian pinned Booty after Page dropped an elbow on him in 5:05. 1/2*

Konnan retained the U.S. title pinning Jushin Liger in 9:30. Liger came out with Sonny Onoo. Mike Tenay got to announce this match and he pretty much did more to get new guys over than all the other announcers in the company have done with all the new wrestlers in the last six months combined. Liger hit a plancha when Konnan went after Onoo. Good mat work early followed by all kinds of big moves and near falls. After Liger came off the top, Konnan got his foot up. Konnan then put him away with a Splash Mountain, which he called a power drop. Very good match, easily the best on the show, and it wasn't as if it was all Liger's doing. ***1/2

Talk about Liger's return for this match

Flair, Anderson, Woman and Liz came out for an interview. Steve McMichael came out and Flair issued the challenge to him and a partner. Flair was incredible, but the idea of Kevin Greene being the mystery partner didn't get over well. First, everyone knew it since it's been in the news and they've talked about it on Nitro. Second, during the Main Event show, Bischoff said that McMichael and Greene would both be on the PPV. McMichael has tremendous presence and if he can learn to work a little bit can be a star in pro wrestling, although long term he needs to be a heel. The segment lost a lot when Greene showed up.

Page won the eight man Battle Royal. The first 6:00 were among the worst Battle Royals I've seen. No heat and nobody except Page had any idea what they were doing. Once it came down to Page and Barbarian, the final 3:30 was very good with big moves and near falls going back-and-forth until Page got the pin with the Diamond Cutter. Even though the finish was strong, there was no crowd reaction because nobody cared about these guys, even with all the TV time devoted to Page's angles. *1/2

What were you planning for Page coming out of this? He was definitely a surprise to win this at the time

The Giant pinned Sting to retain the WCW title in 10:41. This had great crowd heat and excellent psychology. At one point Giant went to choke slam Sting through a table but Luger put Jimmy Hart (who he was handcuffed to) on the table and Giant had to let Sting go. At another point, Luger pulled Sting out of the way when Giant went for a dropkick (when was the last time you saw a 6-10 guy do that?). Ref Randy Anderson took a bump and Sting made a comeback.

As Giant went after Luger, Sting hit him with three Stinger splashes but Giant didn't sell it hardly at all. Sting used a splash off the top but Giant kicked out and Sting landed on the ref again. Sting did a second splash off the top and put Giant in the scorpion. Hart tried to interfere but Luger grabbed the megaphone.

As they fought over the megaphone, it "accidentally" hit Sting in the head and Giant got up and choke slammed him for the pin. Good storyline and better action than you'd have any right to expect given Giant's level of experience and that Sting has never been known to carry people well. ***1/4

Did Sting have any problems doing the job here?

WCW SLAMBOREE FINAL POLL RESULTS

• Thumbs up 10 (04.8%)
• Thumbs down 174 (83.7%)
• In the middle 24 (11.5%)

BEST MATCH POLL

• Konnan vs. Jushin Liger 146
• The Giant vs. Sting 14

WORST MATCH POLL

• Battle Royal 47
• Hawk & Luger vs. Animal & Booker T 36
• Slater & Eaton vs. Duggan & Wallstreet 19
• Taylor & Regal vs. Duggan & Wallstreet 16
• Ray & Bubba vs. Ice Train & Norton 11

In hindsight, would you of done anything different on this show, or left everything as it was? Do you think there was too many matches on this show?

On a scale of 1-10; 10 being the best, what number would you give Slamboree 1996?

The next night on Nitro -

You and Bobby Heenan introduced the show. You pointed out Steve McMichael wasn’t there for a reason. After airing the angle from Slamboree, he said the tag match with Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. McMichael & Kevin Green was officially signed that morning

Rick & Scott Steiner fought Ice Train & Scott Norton to a DCO at 5:25

Ric Flair pinned Eddie Guerrero at 19:48. The storyline here was that Guerrero wanted revenge for the Horsemen’s double cross at Slamboree. During the match, Guerrero came off the top rope, but when Flair moved, Guerrero sold a knee injury. The finish saw Flair eventually got to his feet and applied the figure-four. Guerrero almost had it reversed when Woman helped Flair stay on his back. Guerrero then laid back in pain as the ref counted to three.

Gene Okerlund interviewed Flair who talked about Savage being banned from the building and Green becoming a former NFL star when he’s done with him

Flair joined you and Heenan at the announcing desk. Flair said Ted and Jane insisted he be there

Sting & Lex Luger beat Meng & Barbarian at 10:53. After a top rope splash by Sting, Lex pinned Barbarian

Okerlund interviewed Savage outside the arena where security kept him from entering. Okerlund said at that moment WCW officials were deciding his fate in WCW

Diamond Dallas Page pinned Brad Armstrong at 7:45 after the Diamond Cutter. Gene Okerlund interviewed Page. Page talked about the title shot he earned by winning BattleBowl. Okerlund informed Page the championship committee ruled his win was tainted and thus loses his title shot. Page protested.

Okerlund said Luger was awarded the title match instead, at the Great American Bash

Giant pinned Arn Anderson at 3:33 to retain the World Title after a chokeslam.