WCW Wednesday: Part XXVI – the Bad Guy Edition!

On May 27, 1996, during a match between Steve Doll (a.k.a. Steven Dunn) and the Mauler (Mike Enos) on the first 2-hour episode of Nitro, Scott Hall, fresh off the WWF curtain call, came through the Macon crowd and interrupted the match. Neither Tony Schiavone nor Larry Zbyszko name-dropped him, but they questioned his reason for being there.

Using his Razor Ramon accent, Hall then delivered this promo:

“You people…you know who I am. But you don’t know why I’m here. Where is Billionaire Ted? Where is the Nacho Man? That punk can’t even get in the building. Me, I go wherever I want, whenever I want. And where, oh where, is Scheme Gene? ‘Cuz I got a scoop for you. When that Ken-doll look-alike, that weatherman wannabe comes out here later tonight, I got a challenge for him, for Billionaire Ted, for the Nacho Man, and for anybody else in dubbaya-see-dubbaya. Hey, you wanna go to war? You want a war? You’re gonna get one!”

While I won’t touch on all the legal trouble WCW encountered due to this and subsequent promos by Hall, I will say that this was a monumental moment in the Monday Night War that brought more eyes to the WCW product and shook the WWF’s foundation.

So where did it lead: As we all know, it ultimately led to the nWo invasion of WCW; however, WCW, in an effort to create controversy, didn’t give either “Outsider” a name until forced to do so by the court. Yes, the WWF wanted to ensure that Hall and Nash were not using their trademarked Razor Ramon and Diesel characters respectively and filed a restraining order against WCW. By not revealing their names, WCW created a unique confusion that could have possibly led viewers to believe the WWF was invading WCW. From June 17, 1996 to April 13, 1998, WCW would not lose a head-to-head ratings battle against the WWF in part due to this angle. Now THAT’S what I call a best seller.

What do you think of the Hall interruption on Nitro in 1996?

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