Throughout the years, World Championship Wrestling (WCW, for short) has provided wrestling fans with some of the most exciting feuds, featuring the greatest pure-grappling matches to historic tag team battles to it's unique cruiserweight battles. Here are recaps of some of WCW's greatest feuds, in no particular order:
Sting vs. Ric Flair: Even before the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) became WCW, Sting and "The Nature Boy" were providing fans with classic technical bouts at the NWA and early WCW Clash of the Champions, StarrCades, and Great American Bash's, battling over the NWA/WCW World Heavyweight Title. These two wrestled on the first WCW Monday Nitro on Labor Day 1995, and wrestled the last match on the last Nitro on Before Sting donned the black ring attire and the white face-paint, these two legends were wrestling half-hour, and even hour-long, instant classics.
SuperCard/Pay-Per-View/Nitro One-On-One Match Results:
NWA Clash of the Champions #1 (3/27/88): Sting
& Flair go to a Draw; Flair retains the NWA World Heavyweight
Title
NWA StarrCade: "Future Shock/Night of the Iron Men"
(12/13/89) Sting d. Flair in the "Iron Man Singles
Tournament Final" to win the "Iron Man Tournament"
NWA Great American Bash: "The New Revolution" (7/7/90):
Sting d. Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title
NWA StarrCade: "Collision Course" (12/16/90): Sting d.
The Black Scorpion (Flair under a mask) in a "Steel Cage
Match" w/ Special Guest Referee Dick the Bruiser to retain
the NWA World Heavyweight Title
WCW Clash of the Champions #27 (6/23/94): Flair d. Sting to
retain the WCW World Heavyweight Title and win the WCW
International World Heavyweight Title
WCW Monday Nitro (9/4/95): Flair d. Sting via DQ; Sting retains
the WCW United States Heavyweight Title
WCW Monday Nitro (11/6/95): Sting d. Flair to retain the WCW
United States Heavyweight Title
WCW Monday Nitro (3/26/01): Sting d. Flair
Kevin Nash vs. Bill Goldberg: Whether you're a fan of Goldberg or not doesn't matter. In 1997 and 1998, "The Man" was the hottest thing in wrestling. For the last year, he had taken down almost every superstar in WCW for the 1-2-3 pin, and some even two or more times. He went undefeated for the whole year, and, on April 20, 1998, defeated Raven to win the WCW United State Heavyweight Title, to bring his record to 71-0 (wins-losses). From then on he was almost unstoppable, defeating everybody in his path, including such then-WCW superstars as Scott Hall, The Giant, and Sting. Then, on July 6th, 1998, with a winning streak of 106-0, he faced Scott Hall, once again. If he won, he would get a shot at Hulk Hogan's WCW World Heavyweight Title later that same night. If he lost, his U.S. Title was lost, but, more importantly, his legendary winning streak was over. He won...
Not only his match against Hall, but the World Title bout. That's right: "Da Man" pinned Hulk Hogan. With a Spear and a Jackhammer Powerslam, he was on top of the professional-wrestling empire, higher than Stone Cold, The Undertaker, pr any other grappler was at the time. Goldberg had accomplished what nobody thought was possible. He went undefeated through 108 matche and had won the World Heavyweight Title. For the first time in it's long and glorious history, WCW had a double-champion who held both the WCW U.S. Heavyweight and World Heavyweight Titles. Goldberg was 108-0, the WCW U.S. Champion And World Heavyweight Champion, and still alive and well. That was until, however, on December 6, 1998, which, like it's much more serious counterpart over half-a-decade before, will be a day that lives in infamy...that is...in the mind of WCW fans. This was the day that Kevin Nash unseated the champ from his thrown with( the help of Scott Hall and a Tazor-Gun, may I add). Nash had won the title with a Jackknife Powerbomb on Goldberg. StarrCade 1998 would live on forever as the night Nash ended Goldberg's legendary winning streak, which, due to his loss to Nash, at 173-0.
That wasn't the end of the Nash-Goldberg feud, however. On June 11th, 2000, at Bash at the Beach, Goldberg shocked fans and onlookers of the wrestling-world when he turned heel and joined Eric Bischoff, Vince Russo, and their group when he screwed over Kevin Nash in the main-event, killing his World Title hopes when he Jackhammered the 300 lb. giant, costing him is match against Champion Jeff Jarrett. While Goldberg's turn didn't last very long, as he would turn back good a few weeks later, he did feud with Nash. Scott Hall, Nash's real-life close-friend and real-life annoyance to Goldberg, had been off WCW TV for several months, mainly due to problems with the law and drinking. However, WCW, fully aware of Scott's drawing power, made his abscence into an angle. In the storyline, the bad-guy Goldberg stole Hall's contract, and threatened to tear it into shreds right in front of Nash. A match was made for the WCW Great American Bash Pay-Per-View, where a match would take place between Goldberg and Nash, with the stipulations that if Nash won, he would get Hall's contract and Hall would be allowed to return to WCW, but if Goldberg won, well, that contract would be ripped into shreds, erasing all hopes of the return of the "outsider."
At the Bash, "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner, who was on the verge of an all-out main-event World Title push and who had also been teaming with Nash in weeks before, attacked Nash, just after he Powerbombed Goldberg and was about to pin him and, almost undoubtedly, win Scott Hall's contract and his freedom. Steiner distracted Nash just long enough for Goldberg to lift the 300+ lb. goliath and slam him down in the Jackhammer for the 1-2-3 pin, stealing all hopes of the return of Hall. Hall would never be seen in the "Old WCW" again, but would eventually make an awe-inspiring return to the "New WCW," owned by the World Wrestling Federation, along with Nash.
SuperCard/Pay-Per-View One-On-One Match Results:
1. WCW StarrCade (12/27/98): Nash d. Goldberg to win the WCW World Heavyweight Title and end Goldberg's winning streak at 10
Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Psychosis vs. Billy Kidman: Rey and Juvi provided us with the greatest cruiserweight feud in the history of WCW. When Psychosis and Kidman were added into the mix, these triple-threat and four-way matches were transformed into instant classics. All four of these amazing athletes were Lucha-Libre at it's very, very best. They put their bodies on the line each and every night, providing the crowds with instant classics that were featured more than a few times in PWI's Match of the Year category. From Frankensteiners, swinging-headscissors, and planchas, to springboard senton bombs, suicide-dives, and somersaults splashes, to cross-body's, twisting-moonsaults, and Tornado DDT's, these four proved that the impossible was infact possible. The combinations of these performers produced some of the most talked-about and legendary Cruiserweight Title matches ever viewed. Manuevers never deemed possible were seen on a nightly-basis, such as Kidman's awe-inspiring Shooting Star Press, a move that Mexican legend Jushin Thunder Lyger stopped using it in the middle of his career because he realized how risky and dangerous it was! Athletecism is a gift that few have, but when one is lucky enough to be provided with it, it is something that can be used to do some of the most amazing things ever viewed. These four, along with the rest of WCW's Cruiserweights, were lucky enough to be provided with this athleticism, and they used it to keep fans in awe. However, these four were WCW, and, for that matter, the U.S.'s all-time best. Whether it was a one-on-one match, a three-way, or a four-way dance, fans that were lucky enough to these high-flying saviors live were guaranteed to get twice their money's worth, and sometimes much more!
SuperCard/Pay-Per-View Match Results:
WCW 3rd Annual Ilio DiPaolo Memorial (6/11/98):
Guerrera d. Kidman
WCW Bash At The Beach (7/12/98): Guerrera d. Kidman
WCW Road Wild (8/8/98): Mysterio Jr. d. Psychosis
WCW World War III (11/22/98): Kidman d. Guerrera to win the WCW
Cruiserweight Title
WCW StarrCade (12/27/98): Kidman d. Mysterio Jr. and Guerrera in
a "Three-Way Dance" to retain the WCW Cruiserweight
Title
WCW Souled Out (1/17/99): Kidman d. Mysterio Jr., Guerrera, and
Psychosis in a "Four-Corners Match" to retain the WCW
Cruiserweight Title
WCW Spring Stampede (4/11/99): Mysterio Jr. d. Kidman to retain
the WCW Cruiserweight Title