THE WAY WE WERE
As I jump back into the spine-tingling endeavor that is talking wrestling via the miracle of Internet audio, I thought it might be fun to look back at some stories from WCW LIVE!, still the most entertaining – by far – show in the history of the genre.
What made WCW LIVE! good was that wrestlers would often let their guard down during appearances or, better yet, show up with an ax to grind against the company or a co-worker. Eric Bischoff wasn’t always happy, but it was compelling stuff. WCW wanted WCW LIVE! to provide notoriety, but no controversy. Good luck with that.
When WCW was at its peak, the Internet crew would get sent to non-televised sold-out house shows to do audio play-by-play. I shared that task with a rotating series of partners, including Chad “Deli Boy” Damiani, Gene Okerlund and Lee Marshall.
Some highlights:
*In Boston, the Outsiders wrestled a tag match in a cage, winning when Hogan got inside the cage and interfered. The broadcast team – at ringside – was Deli Boy and me. The fans went nuts in the aftermath, throwing everything they could at the cage. Hall and Nash intentionally stood right in front of us, thereby guaranteeing that most everything tossed at them would ricochet off the cage and hit us. I have never been drenched with such slop. God knows what most of it was. That was pre-Hawaiian shirt days, too. It ruined a suit.
*At one house show, Deli Boy and I weren’t at ringside. For some (stupid) reason, we broadcast off a monitor backstage. At one point, the monitor cut out during a match between Savage and Sting. Deli Boy covered his mic and said, “What should we do?” I replied, “Well, we can’t see it – but neither can the listeners.” Next thing I knew, Deli Boy was saying, “Sting is somehow levitating above the ring! His head is spinning around like the little girl in The Exorcist!”
*Chris Jericho coined the term “spinaroonie” during a WCW internet broadcast. Jericho joined us on color and, when Booker T came to his feet breakdance-style, yelled “Spinaroonie! Spinaroonie!” in classic overwrought Jim Ross style. When I did TV, I stole it.
NOTE: Be sure to catch Mark Madden live this Monday from 7:30-8:30 EST as he officially joins the Voice of Wrestling radio show. Also, you can now email your comments and questions to Mark for use in his future WZ.com columns by submitting them to wzmarkmadden@hotmail.com.
