War Games: A Professional Wrestling Timeline

"...This is where it all began, Hogan. Three years ago. This is where it all started. This is where you betrayed them all. All your fans, all the little Hulkamaniacs, everyone. Everyone who ever believed in you. This is where you spat in their collective faces. And tonight, Hulkster, this is where it's all gonna end. Tonight, it's gonna end the only way that this ever COULD'VE ended; with you and me. With WCW and the nWo. You got your friends...and I've got mine. As the old saying goes: it's showtime, folks."

--Sting (opening video teaser, WCW Bash at the Beach, July 11, 1999)

WCWBashbanner.jpg



July 11, 1999 was to be the day that fans of professional wrestling would never forget. That night World Championship Wrestling, rallied by its greatest defender, would finally stand up together, unified against the New World Order, and drive the invaders from their shores. The entire event had been promoted as the final showdown between the nWo and WCW.

While United States Champion Diamond Dallas Page faced off against Scott Hall, the World Tag Team Champions "The Dog Pound" Rick Steiner and Konnan would defend their titles against "Fire and Thunder" Scott Steiner and Scott Norton. Later that night, Goldberg was to take on Bret Hart for the final time. With Ric Flair challenging Eric Bischoff for undisputed control of the company and Sting set to reclaim his rightful possession of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from Hollywood Hogan, the nWo's days appeared to be numbered. The three year long war would end where it began.

But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Maybe I should back up a bit...

On May 27, 1996, Scott Hall (formerly the World Wrestling Federation's Razor Ramon) appeared on World Championship Wrestling's Monday Nitro program declaring the coming of an invasion. Soon thereafter, Hall would debut his friend and cohort Kevin Nash, formerly Diesel in the WWF. Collectively known as "The Outsiders" the two promised to destroy WCW and proceeded to run roughshod over much of the WCW roster who proved to be incapable of warding off their attackers.

Soon a "Hostile Takeover" match was arranged by WCW Executive Vice President Eric Bischoff and the Outsiders. WCW would present a team of three men and the Outsiders would find their own third man and the two teams would do battle at the annual Bash at the Beach pay-per-view event. "The Macho Man" Randy Savage, Lex Luger, and Sting quickly rose to the challenge and agreed to represent WCW in the match. Meanwhile, the Outsiders refused to reveal the identity of their third partner, a tactic which continued even until the event itself.

On July 7, 1996, the two sides met in brutal confrontation during the main event of Bash at the Beach. Though the WCW heroes proved capable of holding their own against the two invaders, Lex Luger was sidelined with an injury midway into the match and was taken away from the ring by paramedics. With the odds now evened, Sting and Savage struggled to defeat the Outsiders and found themselves somewhat overpowered. However, to the delight of the viewing audience, the WCW soon found wrestling's greatest champion Hulk Hogan making his way to the ring as what initially appeared to be a replacement for the injured Luger. But in a move that shocked the wrestling world, Hulk Hogan, betrayed WCW revealing himself to be Hall and Nash's partner. Following the match, Hogan gave the promo heard 'round the world. The New World Order of Wrestling was born.

In the months that followed, the nWo continued to dominate WCW meeting resistance consisting of a recovered Luger, Sting, Ric Flair, and Arn Anderson. As a War Games match between the two sides was signed for the Fall Brawl event in September, the nWo attempted to sow distrust among the WCW team by having a man dressed as Sting attack Lex Luger on Nitro. This caused Sting's allies to question him and his loyalty though Sting vehemently denied attacking his friend.

At Fall Brawl, the nWo revealed that "Sting" would be joining their team in the match against Team WCW. While the real Sting DID come to Team WCW's aid briefly, he quickly left the match disillusioned by his friends not trusting him. His absence would cost Team WCW the match. Soon thereafter, Sting announced that he considered himself officially a free agent, no longer representing the company that he felt had turned its back on him.

While this only further placed Sting's allegiance into question, Sting (sporting a radically different look) made his stance clear on the October 21, 1996 edition of Nitro by first attacking the nWo's Sting impostor and then by refusing to join the group. Over the months that followed, Sting began appearing in the rafters during WCW programming, watching the nWo and WCW battle one another.

Though questions about his allegiance persisted into 1997, at WCW Uncensored in March of that year, Sting made his allegiance very clear by rappelling down from the rafters into the ring and attacking the whole of the nWo, laying waste to its key members, Hogan, Hall, Nash, and Savage. Thus began Sting's crusade against the nWo. Over the course of that year, Sting frequently battled the nWo playing mind games with them and attacking them when they least suspected him. Without ever saying a word, Sting made it clear what he wanted: a match against one man, Hollywood Hogan.

At Starrcade on December 28, 1997, Sting finally got his match. Sting would meet Hogan for the World Heavyweight Championship in the most anticipated match of the year. And Sting won. After ten solid minutes of viciously and systematically disabling his opponent, Sting forced Hollywood Hogan to submit to the Scorpion Deathlock. Hollywood Hulk Hogan lost cleanly to Sting that night in Washington DC. To this day, it is considered one of the most amazingly well booked feuds in professional wrestling history.

But it didn't end there. It couldn't end there. WCW wasn't ready for the nWo to end. WCW might have never been ready. And so the disaster and stagnation that followed shouldn't have surprised anyone.
 
For the most part I'm gonna attempt to maintain kayfabe. That being said, this is still WCW I'm focusing on early on. There will be some things that break kayfabe and, if I proceed into the millennium, I'll probably focus A LITTLE on non-kayfabe things. But for the most part, I intend to focus on just what you see on TV. The scope is actually even more narrow than that, I'm just focusing on the main storyline of WCW versus nWo. I don't even plan to cover the rest of the roster. I might focus on the rest of the company once the nWo is finished, but probably not before then. I have some vague ideas of what happens with everyone NOT involved in the main storyline, enough to sufficiently know what's going on in this world, but I won't be focusing on them like I will the main storyline.

It's also worth mentioning that this is not how *I* would book WCW. This is not a "what if modernoni woke up as some kind of weird Eric Bischoff/Hulk Hogan hive mind" timeline. This is just my supposition of what MIGHT have happened if Sting had won cleanly at Starrcade. I've tried to be as realistic as possible with it.
 
In that case, I think I'd suggest sticking with kayfabe and ignoring backstage stuff altogether: it lets you maintain consistent tone to your story-telling, and won't confuse readers as to what's scripted and what's "real".
 
Top