10 Best Wrestling PPV Cliffhanger Endings
7. The Old World Changes Forever (WCW Bash At The Brach 1996)
Both reveal and cliffhanger, the shocking, groundbreaking formation of the New World Order, the best-named faction ever, shook the foundations of the industry.
People will tell you that Bobby Heenan gave the game away with his famous “Whose side is he on?” call, but this was in character—Heenan always inexplicably suspected the motives of the babyfaces, because he was such a delight of a baddie—and a Hogan heel turn was so inconceivable that nothing was telegraphed.
And yet, at Bash At The Beach, the big man dropped the leg, and proceeded to cut an incendiary promo as the Daytona Beach crowd pelted the turncoat and his Outsider associates with garbage. As the show drew to a close, the wrestling fandom entered speculative meltdown. Nitro had defeated RAW in the ratings battle for the first time less than a month earlier on June 17, 1996; this audacious, perfectly-timed subversion of the Hogan character stole several more percentage points from the WWF.
Hogan had explained his motives, but how this would affect the complexion of Nitro created a surging interest among WCW fans—and the WWF turncoats who followed Hogan’a lead.