NWO Souled Out (1997 TV Special) User Reviews

Not Worth Ordering, NWO Souled Out! It was awful!

[ironhorse_iv · 4/10 · 22 July 2017]

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.

It's clear why there wasn't a second NWO PPV

[tbm1185 · 4/10 · 7 January 2017]

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.

Crappy Miss Nwo, Shi*ty Main Event

[amanwhorocks · 5/10 · 28 January 2014]

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

Awful show and poorly booked.

[morantjavonte · 3/10 · 16 March 2022]

Souled Out 1997 Thoughts

Souled Out 1997 was the inaugural Souled Out event produced by WCW. It took place January 25, 1997 from the Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The attendence was at a low of 5,120 which was mostly said to the poor decision of WCW agreeing to host this event in this location. Few key notes, the PPV was held on a Saturday due to the rival WWF having a PPV on Sunday week before and the Superbowl taking place the very next day of this PPV. The company was coming off a big success from their flagship PPV Starrcade and you could argue the ego started to come up with them for the booking of this show.

The concept of this PPV was an experiment and backdoor pilot of WCW attempting to divide it's promotion as 2 big rosters. Member of WCW or NWO. Of course the NWO was the highlight of wrestling during this period and WCW was entering perhaps one of it's top 3 years of success. This was promoted as an NWO PPV as everything in Kayfabe was under the NWO which includes commentary, officiating, and security. How did it go?

The Good - Well the design of the arena looked unique and it did have a feeling different vibe to it like this was a stable controlling the show. The best match was the ladder match as Guerrero and Syxx actully had a great encounter. There were a few messed up moments and it wasn't one of the greatest ladder matches in history, not even the year, but it was fun. Dumb finish didn't really bother.

The Meh - The tag team title match was getting very interesting and looked to be something good finally executing but unfortunately the finish was a downfall. Another screwjob (before it was named) caused this to be a above average match. The opening was a okay but not that great.

The Bad - Well majority of the card was just all around bad. Every match felt repetitive. WCW member in control, NWO ref (Nick Patrick) finds a way to stop it. The main event was a Trainwreck as it was a brief repeat of WCW trying to add in some nostalgia of Hogan slamming a giant and the finsh made it even more terrible. The cheap segments of women joining the NWO was cringy and they were all really just housewives and actresses. My last complaint was the idea of WCW guys not having entrance music. It clearly was a show quality kill. Thankfully that hasn't happened again.

Overall - Pretty awful show. Been regarded as one of the worst PPVs in history. I've seen worst but this show's concept was a failure. All around the matches, theme, commentary, everything sucked with the exception of the ladder match. Eventually NWO went back to just being a stable but with a lot of power over the promotion.

Score - 3 out of 10: Bad

0 = Terrible : 1 = Bad/Lackluster : 2 = Decent : 3 = Good : 4 = Awesome : 5 = One of the Best of all Time :

1. Chris Jericho vs. Masahiro Chono - 2/5

2. Big Bubba Rodgers vs. Hugh Morrus (Mexican Death Match) - 1/5

3. Jeff Jarrett vs. Michael Wallstreet - 1/5

4. Buff Bagwell vs. Scotty Riggs - 1.5/5

5. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Scott Norton - 1.5/5

6. The Outsiders vs. The Steiner Brothers: WCW World Tag Team Championship - 2.5/5

7. Eddie Guerrero vs. Syxx: WCW United States Championship (Ladder Match) - 3.5/5

8. Hollywood Hogan vs. The Giant: WCW World Heavyweight Championship - 0/5

Best Match - Eddie Guerrero vs. Syxx

Worst Match - Hollywood Hogan vs. The Giant

Most Memorable Moment - The ending. Mostly because WWE shares this moment every January.

Top 5 Performers

1. Eddie Guerrero - Great Performance

2. Syxx - Great Performance

3. Nick Patrick - Ref for 3 hours. Got to be tired

4. The Outsiders - Great Performance

5. The Steiner Brothers - Great Performance.