10 Times WCW Broke With Reality
9. The Whole Of Souled Out '97
WCW at one point considered the NWO to be not just a faction, but a potential whole new wrestling brand, with its own televisions shows, pay-per-views and roster. For the reason why this never happened, looks to Souled Out '97.
This all-NWO pay-per-view was so strange WCW never did it again, which was just as well as the whole thing wasn't just bad, it was bafflingly tedious.
The interminable opening sequence saw the NWO riding to the stadium on a fleet of garbage trucks. The unseen, droning ring announcer denigrated the non-NWO opponents while Eric Bischoff and Ted DiBiase gave fawning, chuckling, punchworthy commentary.
Most bizarre of all were the recurring 'Miss NWO' segments, where Bischoff interviewed women for the fake beauty pageant. The women seemed to be perfectly normal, housewifey ladies selected to give nonsensical answers to Bischoff so they could be laughed at, except Bischoff was the only one who thought it was funny. The audience certainly didn't.
The show was such a painful, drawn-out death of an already bad idea that Souled Out '97 killed any chance of the NWO getting its own brand. WCW kept the PPV name but subsequent Souled Outs were billed as joint WCW/NWO productions, in an attempt to banish the pungency of the first show's awfulness.