10 Bizarre Wrestling Epics That Didn’t Live Up To The Hype
4. World War 3 (WCW World War 3 1995)
It was one of Eric Bischoff's funniest early flexes, even if it wasn't entirely intentional.
Brilliantly obsessed with tackling and toppling Vince McMahon under orders of Ted Turner in 1995, Bischoff's cheeky Nitro/Raw tampering extended to the pay-per-view schedule when he took a run at a WWE institution.
Ahead of 1996's 30-man Royal Rumble (and in the shadow of 1995's worst ever version of the event) which had promised the debut of Vader, the fairytale comeback of Shawn Michaels and even hinted at a possible Ultimate Warrior return, 'Easy E' presented a 60-man battle royal one month before WWE even stumbled out of the blocks delivering two out of the three.
Inspired on paper, it collapsed in execution under the weight of the concept and the company's inefficient production. Three rings were enough to house the field, but separate announcers and camera teams made it an audio-visual sh*tshow for viewers at home and those in the arena that could only view what immediately stood in front of them.
It was a typically admirable attempt to innovate from WCW, but an equally typical act of bone-headedness for the company to repeat the feat for three more years after the inaugural clusterf*ck.