By: Brian Hoops PW Torch.com Special Contributor

This week's look a wrestling nostalgia takes us back to November 23, 1997 and a review of the WCW promoted PPV called "World War III." The event was promoted similar to the WWF Royal Rumble as the main event was a battle royal. However, in an attempt to out do the WWF, the WCW World War III would have the battle royal be a 60 man battle royal held in three separate rings. The winner of the 1997 battle royal was to receive a title shot at the WCW World Heavyweight champion advertised as taking place at Superbrawl 1998. However, the match wouldn't take place until Uncensored. The World War III PPV was held from 1995-1998 and then discontinued and replaced with the WCW Mayhem PPV. The buy rate for this PPV was a .56, nearly identical with the previous year's .55 buy rate. Despite WCW winning the Monday night ratings battle, this buy rate was well below the WWF November PPV, Survivor Series, which drew a .89 buy rate.

Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay are the broadcast team.

First match was a tag team match with Meng and the Barbaria vs. Earnest Miller and Glacier. Meng pinned Miller with the Tongan Death Grip in 9:09. Meng and Barbarian worked as heels but the crowd cheered them as they were seen as the stars of the match. Match was an average but not a must see.

Next match is for the WCW World TV Title. Perry Saturn, the defending TV champion, defeated Disco Inferno with the Rings of Saturn in 8:19. Saturn came to the ring with Raven, through the crowd. Lots of stalling early in the match, with Disco finally getting in some offense in the last 1/3rd of the match. Finish came when Disco came off the top rope with a body press and Saturn reversed it into the Rings of Saturn for the submission. Good match.

Next match sees Yuji Nagata defeat the Ultimo Dragon in 12:45. If Dragon would have won, he would have had 5 minutes alone with Sonny Onoo. Match was exciting when Dragon was on offense, while Nagata mostly worked a mat style. The finish was a mess as the Dragon tried to suplex Nagata but he was supposed to hit heads with Onoo and get knocked out. Instead Nagata's feet hit Onoo and Dragon was pinned.

Next match is for the WCW World Tag Team title. The Blue Bloods, Dave Taylor and Steven Regal lost to the Steiner Brothers in 9:45 when Rick pinned Regal after a top rope bulldog. Ted DiBiase accompanied the Steiners to the ring. The Steiners had just recently defeated the Outsiders for their 4th title reign on October 13, 1997. Steiners win it in a good but not fantastic tag team match.

Next match is a Raven's Rules match, meaning no DQ with Raven taking on Scotty Riggs. In typical WCW fashion, during the Disco Inferno match, Disco was interfered with by someone from the crowd (Billy Kidman); Schiavone didn't know who it was. Now three matches later, the same person from the crowd gets on the house mic for Raven and Schiavone acknowledges Kidman by name. Crowd was dead until Raven brought a chair into the ring. Story of the match was Raven wanted Riggs to join his flock and Riggs wouldn't do it. After three DDT's the ref counted to 10 and counted Riggs out in 9:43.

The next match was supposed to be Steve McMichael vs. Goldberg. However, after McMichael came to the ring, a video of the back showed Goldberg was knocked out with a lead pipe. Alex Wright was Goldberg's replacement. The crowd booed this match as well they should have. McMichael hit Wright with the standard ex-football players 3 point stance, a forearm and a piledriver for the short win in 3:24. It wasn't horrible because it was short, but basically a squash.

The next match is something special and a must see. WCW World Cruiserweight Champion, Eddie Guerrero defeated Rey Mysterio Jr. in 12:42 with a frogsplash to retain the title. This was a rematch from their great match at Halloween Havoc. Eddie got great heat from the crowd early in the match. Lots of high flying and exciting moves combined with several, believeable near falls made this match a very good match.

A video package for Starrcade 1997 aired, advertising Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan.

Next match is for the WCW U.S. Heavyweight Title and is no DQ. The current champion is Curt Hennig and he is defending against Ric Flair. Hennig turned on Flair and the 4 Horsemen at the Fall Brawl PPV, held in September and Flair was not only trying to win the title from Hennig, he was also trying to gain his revenge. Hennig was in the middle of his first and only WCW U.S. title run. They wrestled a great match, most of it old style, but very entertaining. Finish came when Flair had Hennig in the figure four, but Hennig grabbed the belt and hit Flair and covered him for the pin. Best match on the card.

Final match of the evening is the 60 man battle royal. Apparently this wasn't even an over the top battle royal as guys were being thrown out between the ropes. They had three rings set up and it is just a mess. There is so much going on that there is no way to visualize or call this type of action. After the numbers got down to 10 or so, they all moved into one ring and it got a little better. It came down to 5 WCW members and 5 NWO members. Randy Savage, Dallas Page, Scott Hall and the Giant are the final four. Giant and Page eliminated Savage, however, Hogan came out to even the odds. Finish came when Kevin Nash, dressed like Sting repelled from the rafters and Hogan eliminated himself. Nash hit the Giant in the back and the Giant went out of the ring and Scott Hall was the winner. If Hogan was part of the NWO, then he should have known it wasn’t Sting but Nash, and then why did he eliminate himself? A mess.

Summary: Another PPV that sets up NWO as the dominate and cool faction. It is effective in that it sells the StarrCade PPV if their goal is to get fans to pay money to see the leader of the NWO (Hogan) take on the leader of the WCW (Sting). Flair and Hennig put on a great match and the Mysterio/Guerrero match was very good and worth seeing.

Next week we will go back 20 years to the 1987 NWA/WCW Starrcade PPV that saw Ric Flair defend the heavyweight title against Ronnie Garvin.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this week's look back at nostalgia. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at bhoops@iw.net.

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