Giant joins NWO, Bulldog almost joins WCW
Secret plans for Bulldog to join NWO fell through, Waltman’s debut delayed due to unresolved release
Some promoters book meticulously and with confidence, planning each progression of ongoing storylines months ahead. And others wing it. WCW is definitely winging it. Or at least they wing it when their best laid plans fall through.
The Giant joined the New World Order on Monday, and he and WCW’s bookers had all of 48 hours to ponder how he would turn. The subject of him joining the NWO had been discussed in the past, but discounted. After all, the NWO need someone to wrestle.
A week earlier WCW had at least two other ideas in mind, one of which would have been a major bombshell. Both fell through.
Sean Waltman (a/k/a 1-2-3 Kid) has been scheduled to join WCW as an employee and the NWO as part of the storyline for a number of weeks. The plans for him to finally debut on Sept. 2 fell through when legal matters weren’t settled yet. In fact, he had neither sent in his release to the WWF nor worked out the final details with WCW in time to debut on Monday.
In addition to the Waltman debut, WCW had a major surprise planned. “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith tentatively planned to join WCW without giving notice to the WWF. On the one year anniversary of Nitro’s debut, Eric Bischoff was going to unveil a jump of the same calliber as Lex Luger’s a year earlier.
Bulldog had not signed a contract with the WWF, although he had a verbal agreement to stay and his lawyer signed an “intent to sign” agreement. For the last two months Bulldog had been receiving contracts from the WWF front office, but he kept sending them back with minor changes. While it was aggravating for the WWF and McMahon, McMahon didn’t suspect Bulldog was playing a similar game as Luger. Bulldog hadn’t let any (or at least not many) fellow WWF wrestlers in on his plans, but did make a joke out of how he was messing with McMahon by sending the contracts back. Fellow wrestlers thought Bulldog was just ribbing McMahon in return for McMahon breaking a few promises. It was more than that.
Last week Bulldog’s original WWF contract expired and he still hadn’t signed the new deal. McMahon then found out about Bulldog’s secret plan and sources say McMahon blew his top and immediately called Bulldog and demanded he put on paper what he had already agreed to – a five year deal for $250,000 per year. Bulldog agreed with McMahon and flew to Stamford, Conn. on Thursday and inked the five year contract – with the promise from McMahon that he won’t be punished for his alternative scheme, but will instead get a major push, including a tag title run this year. McMahon, though, probably didn’t put that promise in writing, although it is not to his advantage to bury Bulldog now that he has him under a five year guarantee.
WCW tried once again to get Waltman’s deal done, but there just wasn’t time to work through all of the lawyers. Therefore WCW had to come up with a new plan. Aware that they cried wolf a few times early in the NWO storyline, WCW didn’t want to reneg on their promise – or more specifically, Ted DiBiase’s promise – of revealing a fifth man. That led to some brainstorming, considering all of the obvious (Lex Luger, Sting) and some not so obvious possibilities. The decision, obviously, turned out to be turning the Giant against WCW.
The Giant beat Brad Armstrong in a singles match on the Sept. 2 Monday Nitro. Jimmy Hart was in his corner during the match. Later in the show, The Four Horsemen battled The Dungeon of Doom (Kevin Sullivan, Big Bubba, Barbarian, and Meng). Late in the match, Hall, Nash, and Hogan interfered, jumping all eight competitors. Sting and Lex Luger were out of the picture having stolen a police car to chase DiBiase’s limousine around town. That left Randy Savage and the Giant as the two “WCW big boys” left to make the save.
Randy Savage ran to the ring, but was soon overwhelmed by the fresh NWO threesome. The Giant then made his way to the ring. The fans, who popped for his ring entrance and his chokeslam finisher earlier in the show, gave him another babyface pop. When he got to the ring, though, he chokeslammed Barbarian. As Eric Bischoff screamed “No!” from the announcing booth, Giant and Nash hugged. Giant explained afterward (or tried to, since Hogan interrupted him) that he was lured to the NWO after meeting with DiBiase. He said he was so impressed with DiBiase’s 25,000 square foot mansion and DiBiase’s lifestyle that he wanted to be part of that. Nitro then went off the air before there was time for any follow-up.
Throughout the first hour of Nitro Larry Zbyszko repeated that while the NWO have leaders in DiBiase and Hogan, WCW doesn’t have anyone who would be considered the coach of their side. That might suggest someone (Bret Hart?) is waiting in the wings, ready to join Team WCW and even the odds or that Giant is on a covert mission on WCW’s behalf, but actually Zbyzko was laying groundwork for a Dusty Rhodes-proposed idea that he (Dusty) become the on-air coach of WCW’s wrestlers against the NWO.Because the NWO originally was going to consist of just Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, and Jeff Jarrett, but now includes Hulk Hogan and The Giant, WCW is considering not having Jarrett join the NWO after all, although it appears Waltman is a lock because of his friendship out of the ring with fellow Clique members Hall and Nash. It does appear the idea of the Nasty Boys joining the NWO is on the back burner, but given WCW’s pattern of deciding on major shifts in storylines just hours before they go on the air, nothing can be said to be 100 percent. And while it’s not by design, that’s the way WCW likes it.
