Wow! Such a good movie.

Great Film overall

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I can understand why WCW would decide to do a show like this. The nWo were huge at the time, they were still beating WWF in ratings, and they had some good names on board. But I guess they didn't factor in how horrible of a show this could be. The entire show is in the nWo's favor. Nick Fatrick is the only ref, so all the counts for the WCW guys are slow. The commentators are Bischoff and Ted DiBiase, both heel nWo commentators who bury the WCW guys. The ring announcer is pro-nWo. This is a three hour show, and this gimmick gets old after the first match. No real match on this show is memorable either, because the previous things I mentioned overshadow all the matches. It's hard to enjoy a match when the commentators are both one-sided, the ref is one-sided, and the entire show is one-sided. The only two memorable things about the show is Hugh Morrus getting run over by a Harley, and Guerrero's Ladder match with X-Pac. The Ladder match is decent, but not nearly as good as you'd expect from these two guys. This show is a joke, and it hurt the nWo more than anything. An exercise of ego for three hours, with one match that's decent. No thanks.

In late 1996, the New World Order angle was perhaps the hottest thing in pro-wrestling at the time. The idea of seeing a rebelling stable of wrestlers going against the corporation establishment was entertaining to see. It was the main driving forces behind World Championship Wrestling promotion rise on topping the World Wrestling Federation, back in the Monday Night Wars, for a while. However, the first missteps in direction, became to show in early 1997, when then-president, Eric Bischoff, had the idea of making the NWO, its own entity or brand, by, giving the heelish group, its own PPV, without much deep thought. Taking place at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the Five Seasons Center, in the cold midst of the winter, the PPV opens up, with the NWO wrestlers riding the backs of garbage trucks. Why, garbage trucks!? I guess, everybody knew, this PPV would be trash. Honestly, the symbolic would be, better, if they were riding the semi-trucks! At least, that makes sense with the story, they were originally trying to tell, with the NWO taking over the production of WCW. Despite that, at least, the opening video with a dictatorial speech from Bischoff, was kinda cool. Plus the stage for the PPV was unique, with new light up staircase, trio of titan-trons, and live band. Yet, I can't say, with the aged dancers that can barely dance, & the three random fat guys, sitting on the stairs. Are they supposed to be bouncers!? They look like greasy sweat hogs! You would think, NWO would hired bodyguards with some muscle. It looks out of place, like the Miss NWO pageant of questionable women of beauty. Another thing, I hate about the layout of the PPV is the camera shots. The hand held camera on the stick, really don't mix, well, with the studio cameras. The shots, they product, look shaky, grainy, dark, and awkward. Talking about awkward, the commentary for the show was just as bad. The idea that all the audiences is only going to hear, from heels doesn't make the PPV, any easily to listen to. You need babyfaces to couther all the juvenile crapping, of wrestlers, outside of the NWO stable. If not, it will make, the wrestlers, look weak, because there isn't much, praise about their athletic abilities or style. This is what happen, before, during and after the matches most of the night. To make it worst, throughout the show, Ted DiBiase and especially Bischoff talk about, way too much about bland other subjects like motorcycles, and not enough on what's happening in the ring. It was very distracting. It really alienation, a lot of the fans & talents that love in ring work. It didn't help that every match on the card, featured the in-story crooked referee in Nick Patrick. No wonder, why nobody paid to watch this 3 hours show. Nearly every match in the card, ended with some BS farcical means. Without spoiling the show, too much, I have to say, the opening card, between (WCW) Chris Jericho Vs Masahiro Chono (NWO) was not that bad. However, both men could do, better. It seem a bit lazy at parts. Also, sadly, the crowd didn't really, seem into it, as nobody had a clue, who Chono, was. The next match, wasn't any better, with (NWO) Big Bubba Rogers AKA Big Bossman fighting (WCW) Hugh Morrus (with Jimmy Hart) in a 'Mexican Death Match' AKA 'Last Man Standing', replacing Konnan who has travel problems. Because of the last minute replacement, the stipulation for this match, doesn't make a lick of sense. Why would an ex-prison guard fight a laughing man? None of the weapons, use, relate to anybody persona or the gimmick of the match. Instead, an odd motorcycle hit and run, was the highlight of, what can be, called, as a below average Crash TV hardcore match. This brings us to the next match, which was (NWO) Mr. Wall Street AKA 'I.R.S', Irwin R. Schyster versus Jeff Jarrett. It was a nothing, of a match that made no sense, with a horrible ending. Moving on, (NWO) Buff Bagwell and (WCW) Scotty Riggs faced each other in fourth match of the night, stemming from Bagwell's betrayal of Riggs to join the NWO, thus breaking their tag team. The two men had a lengthy match, which sadly, was alright, but not very memorable. At least, it was a full match, and not a half of a fight, like Diamond Dallas Page (WCW) match with (NWO) Scott Norton. That contest was cut way too short. Despite that, the ending was somewhat memorable. It really made DDP, into a bigger baby face. This brings us to the next fight, which had 'The Outsiders' (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) defended their WCW World Tag Team Championship against the 'Steiner Brothers' (Rick and Scott). Considering that, this was the first title match of the night. It was fine, even with weird ref bump. All wrestlers did, what they could, to make the match, fun to watch. The final match on the undercard was a ladder match between champion, Eddie Guerrero and challenger, Syxx AKA X-Pac for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. Like most ladder matches from the 90s, it doesn't quite stack up to the crazy stunts, we seem since then. Yet, the match was rather good. It beats the somewhat predictable main event, between World Champion, Hulk Hogan versus the Giant AKA the Big Show, ten folds for the title. Overall: I wouldn't call, this show, 'mildly exciting'. It was too much of a headache to watch with the repetitive BS finishes and lazy ringwork. It's just a worse version of the Nitro episode with the same gimmick. Because of that, it's 'not worth overseeing' even for nostalgia reasons.

I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time but, this was pretty much a disaster. None of the matches were very entertaining. I know the production value was supposed to be unique from typical WCW shows but, it just came across as low budget. Perhaps it was supposed to feel that way but, it just hurt the overall feel. Another low point was how the announcers especially Bischoff, tried way too hard to convince the audience that the NWO were upstanding good guys. DiBiase did his best but, Bischoff had me wanting to hit the mute button more times than not. The biggest problem can be summed up by pointing out that the entire PPV felt unnecessary. It was a NWO PPV with NWO wrestlers, announcers and referee, so how could anybody affiliated with WCW actually win a match? They shouldn't have but, they still did. This show goes down as one of WCW's infamous bad ideas.

1. Chris Jericho Vs. Masahiro Chono - Jericho wasn't good face in WCW. But in that match crowd was DEFINITELY behind Jericho. 7/10 MISS NWO wit Mulleted-hair ugly girls, omg what was that. Skip that, guys.2. Hugh Morrus Vs. Big Bubba - Extremely ugly match, with stiff, which nobody is equal to. Superidiot Rogers won that sh*tty thing. 4/10 3. Jeff Jarrett Vs. M. Wallstreet - With the Help by Mongo Jarrett won. 6/10 4. Scotty Riggs Vs. Buff Bagwell - Decent bout, long enough. Bagwell always won over Riggs. Always! 6.5/10 5. Diamond Dallas Page Vs. Scott Norton - Count Out ending in an normal match. 6.5/10 6. WCW Tag Team Title Match: The Steiner Brothers Vs. Champs-The Outsiders - Nick Patrick was knocked-out and Randy Anderson counted the pin. Match was average. 6/10 7. U.S. Heavyweight Title Match: Syxx Vs. Champ-Eddie Guerrero - Weak "ladder" match, normal single match. Both of them didn't want to fly much. And I know they are good performers. 6.5/10 8. WCW WOrld Heavyweight Title match: Giant Vs. Champ-Hollywood Hogan - In one word: Tragicomedy. DQ ending, that Giant could clearly won. 5/10