Just finished watching the first 2 episodes of NWA Powerrr (rrrrrrrrrrrr................). Good shows! Old school feel, not exactly Saturday Evening, at 6:05, on WTBS; but, still quite good. The match between Tim Storm and Nick Aldiss had some actual psychology, wasn't a spot fest, had a backstory, had some emotional content. Opening match was too much on spots, they had an actual squash match, or two. Some good promos; they got some guys who can cut an entertaining promo; they just need to have something to say. Nothing too outrageous in the aerial front, nothing overly complicated that took 10 minutes to execute. Cornette was good on color, interviewer Dave Marquez had some good facials that add some nice touches. Announcer Joe Galli is fine; a bit green; but Cornette helps keep it going. Dave Marquez is from Championship Wrestling From Hollywood, which was the NWA tv platform, before Corrigan bought the trademarks.

The set is a throwback, though their interview area has a "Powerrr" graphic that looks like a DIY sign kit, on a convenience store. I expected to see a beer sign to one side and a decal that says they sell lottery tickets. Crowd was enthusiastic and they didn't drag things out. The commercials are a bit goofy, with one for Austin Idol's Universal Wrestling College (Daddy!) and another for Tony Falk's Waffles and Tire Irons, in Paducah, KY. Idol's old enough now he probably doesn't need to bleach his hair. Falk is an old favorite from the Poffo ICW, Memphis and Dallas. Never more than a mid-card guy; but, solid worker.





The school is legit (well, it exists; but, I don't know how good it is or isn't), the Tony Falk thing is comedy, probably done with Corny's input.

They need to improve the ring intros. They kind of lacked energy, didn't announce weights or home towns. The fell a bit flat. At least one of the squash guys was said to be trained by Robert Gibson and the RNR Express were there for the tapings (haven't appeared yet on the tv); so, they may be providing enhancement talent. Lot of the guys were involved in Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, which isn't surprising.

I don't know if this is a model for long term success; but it was pretty entertaining.

I did notice they beefed up the size of the Domed Globe Belt (aka the "Ten Pounds of Gold") Here is the size, in Flair's day...





and the current version...



The National title belt is a replica of the old US title belt, from Chicago (and copied by Detroit and Mid-Atlantic...



The Women's Title belt is a replica of Mildred Burke's





Tag titles are based on the old Mid-Atlantic World Tag belts (before they updated them...)





Everything on it screams 1980s, from the Dokken music, to the sound effects and graphics. Only things missing are a Rubik's Cube and a can of New Coke.

The World Wildlife Fund trademarked the initials WWF, before Vince McMahon tried to. They had a settlement that Vince did not uphold and the World Wildlife Fund took then to court, necessitating the change. Blame Vice for not being a man of his word.

I agree with you regarding retroactively applying the name to the past; but, Vince's past is mostly fiction anyway, so I don't put much thought into it. Orwell never dreamed of Vincent K. McMahon.

Sting would have likely done very well in the WWF; he could talk, he was exciting, and he could work a match. Warrior I don't think would have got over in the more work-oriented WCW. Vince had a thing for muscleheads and pushed them to the moon. WCW was built on the foundation of Southern-style wrestling, where exciting matches were the bread and butter. Flair did wonders with people; but, I'm not sure he could have pulled a good match out of Hellwig.

An interesting twist to the idea is at what stage would you switch their destinations? They both got their first real exposure in Memphis, as the tag team The Freedom Fighters. To put it mildly, they sucked. They had learned to bump and not much else. Sting was way bulkier as the original group, Power Team USA, was a foursome of power lifters. They were mildly better by the time they left; but not much. At that stage, either going anywhere as a solo is not likely to lead to anything beyond a midcard status. They just didn't have the skills and would have been lost in the shuffle of other steroid goofs.

They went to work for Bill Watts, in the UWF, as the Blade Runners, in an attempt to create his own Road Warriors. They stunk and Watts wasn't one to put up with a bad product. He laid down an ultimatum: learn to work or leave. Sting stayed, learning to work, with Eddie Gilbert as manager, partnered with young Rick Steiner (who was using his real name, Rob Rechsteiner, at one point, in the UWF). He got better and even started turning face, as he split with Hot Stuff & Hyatt International (Gilbert's stable, with Missy Hyatt also in the mix). Meanwhile, Hellwig went to World Class, which was desperate for a babyface, with Kerry Von Erich out from his motorcycle injury and Kevin having his own injury issues. They had introduced a fake cousin, Lance Von Erich, which wasn't working. Rick Rude had just left, taking most of the crowd interest with him. Hellwig came in as the Dingo Warrior (I guess because Crocodile Dundee was out, or something) and stunk up the joint; but, he looked impressive. While in UWF, both Sting & Warrior had gotten more cut, reducing the bulk and increasing definition. He looked like a Road Warrior clone and it was good enough for World Class, as he was something different. World Class went through big problems, as booker Ken Mantell left and took a bunch of guys to create a rival promotion, Wild West Wrestling, including Lance Von Erich. Fritz, himself exposed that he wasn't family. Hellwig continued for a bit, but got the call from the WWF.

Looking at the UWF stage, again, I think Sting could have flourished, provided we are talking after he had been learning from Gilbert and others. That is where he got his real training. Hellwig still didn't know how to work and his matches were pretty simple affairs, with other people trying to make him look good. Send him to WCW with that and maybe you have a Nikita Koloff level of a guy who can't work, but looks impressive.

For Hellwig, someone like Flair would really have to take him under their wing and emphasize his positives, while hiding the negatives. Flair was high on Sting and tapped him for the first Clash of Champions, which made Sting as a main event guy (plus he was having great matches with Muta). With Warrior, you have a whole different dynamic. You also don't have Dusty Rhodes as a booker, who helped shape Nikita. If you have Warrior working with guys like Flair and Steamboat, Rude, Kevin Sullivan or Barry Windham, you might get him closer to a Nikita level. Thing is, even without being able to work, Nikita had learned to execute one really wicked looking move well and they built around that. Hellwig really didn't have any kind of signature move, prior to that. He did muscle spots, punches and slams and that was about it. He would really need a lot of polishing for that environment. I see maybe a tv title, possibly US title; but, I don't see them putting the World title on him, without him vastly improving and he had already show an indifference to that.

Meanwhile, Sting goes into the WWF. He's got size, can move well in the ring, has a personality. However, he hasn't learned from Flair and Muta. So, someone else needs to fill those roles. Warrior worked a bit with Rude and Sting could do a bit of that, which would help; but, it would really take guys like Bret and Shawn Michaels to do the equivalent of learning from Flair. Sting had the motivation and I think he would have grown, if those circumstances happened. I do think he could have gotten more over than Warrior, with a similar push. For one thing, he could deliver a much better promo. Definitely see the IC title coming his way and could see the World title, with Hogan leaving and Vince still stuck on size (though Sting wasn't as defined as Warrior). It would depend on Vince really getting behind Sting and pushing him, like he did Warrior. Perhaps Sting would put more emphasis on his cosmetics, in this environment.

Their careers really paralleled one another; but, both were not draws as champion. Warrior sold a ton of merchandise, which is part of why Vince loved him. Sting could have conceivably filled that role; but, I doubt he would have drawn that much better. In that period, no one really was. The days of Hulkamania were over and too much of that audience was gone. Things had gotten expensive and the WWF was mired in scandal. WCW suffered under poor leadership and bad marketing. I could see Herd pushing Warrior, in the absence of Flair and I can see it being a huge flop. I think that would have killed him as a future draw, more than it did Sting. What helped Sting was Vader coming to work full time, and their series of matches helping to maintain some draw, with Flair gone. I don't see Hellwig having those same kind of matches. I kind of think Vader would have eaten him up.

A lot of the Warrior's mystique was in keeping his matches incredibly short, to disguise the fact he couldn't do much. He came in right as Hogan was leaving, was pushed as unstoppable, and Hogan did a clean job for him, making him look like a superhero. Kids were especially fans for those reasons. That sold merchandise; but, it didn't sell tickets, in part because Vince didn't have the guys to carry Warrior and help him grow (because he wouldn't put him against Shawn and Bret). They liked seeing him on tv, liked buying merch with his face; but didn't really care enough to come to arenas, in droves. Would Sting have filled that role better? I kind of think so; but wonder if Vince would have taken to him the same way.

Sting really got to the top through a lot of hard work, learning from Watts and Eddie Gilbert, Muta and Flair. He got good pushes but he had worked hard to get to those spots, which is why Flair wanted to elevate him. He saw his work ethic. He saw how fans reacted to him. In a period where WCW was abysmal, there was always Sting to comfort us. When WCW got Hot, all Sting had to do was stand outside the ring and point and fans went nuts.

Yeah, I see Sting still being a major star; but think Warrior was, at best, a 50/50 proposition, in WCW. Way more "ifs" than Sting.

codystarbuck ... I need to do a little research on Sting and Ultimate Warrior career paths and get back with this thread by end of the week or next Monday at the latest. Excellent Recap ^^^ here.

Davey Boy Smith was the 1st and only one other European Wrestler did win this belt was William Regal that won it in the Attitude Era. Personally this belt is practically useless because it's did not do anything good for WWE at all.  To most people the European Championship is basically a Junior Title to the Intercontinental Championship and that why they dropped the belt because it was declared useless.  This belt had a bad ending and I believe that Rob Van Dam was the Final Champion.

WWE did a very poor job promoting this belt and did not even bother bringing in European Wrestlers at all.

WCW Television Championship Belt is more prestigious than this joke of a belt; and WCW did not even care about this belt at all.  I was hurt when the belt got thrown in the garbage can by Kevin Nash. Basically, the European Title was basically the WWE version of the WCW TV Title.


 



Hacksaw Jim Duggan was the Final WCW Television Champion.

The European title was created for Davey Boy to win, then defend while they ran tours of the UK and Europe. With business down in the US, they tried foreign tours (as did WCW) which sold quite well (since it was special, to them). However, when business picked up in the US, they didn't tour Europe as much and did single shows, rather than a string of dates. So, the European title became just another belt to feud over. It was united with the Intercontinental title. Now, they have a UK title, for the UK branch (which, last I heard, was being run by British wrestling legend Johnny Saint).

The WCW tv title had prestige when it was held by Arn Anderson, as he and Dusty feuded over it. In the early days of the 4 Horsemen, it was Flair with the World title, Tully with the US title, and Arn & Ole with the National tag titles or Arn with the World TV title. It kind of went up and down according to who held it and if they were being pushed by the bookers. Steven (William) Regal got long runs with it and it had some cache, as it did when it was Sting & Muta fighting over it. It was used well with Jericho, then just became a toy when Nash and Russo were booking. When Arn had it, it had the cool-looking red leather...



Funny thing was, before Crockett ook over World Championship Wrestling, they had their own World's Television Title.....



When Crockett took over, they called it the National Television title, then just dropped it.

The one on the bottom is one of the ugliest belt that I ever seen; the other one is unique and distinctive and I do remembered it briefly and it's stands out in a crowd and you know that you see the WCW Television Champion walking your way.  I just find that belt so cool and it's an eye opener in my mind.