WCW World War 3

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Revision as of 14:06, 7 January 2017

World War 3 was an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Championship Wrestling. The pay-per-view's title also was the name of its signature match, a three-ring]], sixty-man battle royal which was their answer to the International Wrestling Federation's Royal Rumble. The event took place every November from 1995 until 1998. Like the Royal Rumble, the World War 3 match was held at the event that shared its name. The first two World War 3 events were held at the Norfolk Scope and the last two were held at The Palace of Auburn Hills. In 1999, it was replaced by Mayhem.

WWE owns the rights of World War 3 since the sale of WCW and its trademarks in 2001. In February 2014, all WCW pay-per-views were made available on the WWE Network.

Rules

The rules for a World War 3 match were similar to the rules for a traditional battle royal match:

• All sixty men were randomly assigned a specific ring before the match began.
• The match began with all sixty men, in three rings, when the bell rings. Each ring was assigned a number. From left-to-right on the TV screen ring #1 was on the left, ring #2 was the center ring and ring #3 was on the right.
  • Originally, in order to be eliminated from the match a wrestler had to be thrown over the top rope and have both feet touch the floor. This rule was amended in 1997 to allow for eliminations if a person leaves the ring in any way. In 1998 the rule was amended again to allow the counting of pinfalls and submissions for eliminations.
• When 10 men remained in ring #1 or ring #3 they moved to ring #2 and the match continued.
  • This rule was amended in 1997 so that the competitors had to move to the central ring once forty men had been eliminated.
• The last man standing in the ring was declared the winner.

The inaugural World War 3 match was contested for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, which had been stripped from The Giant due to the outcome of his match with Hulk Hogan at Halloween Havoc in October 1995. In subsequent years the winner of the match became the #1 contender to the World Heavyweight Championship. Initially the winner got to pick which pay-per-view he would face the champion at, but this changed for the 1997 and 1998 matches to a set pay-per-view.

Date discrepancy on VHS packaging

WCW released the World War 3 events on home video the following year, with the packaging for the first three releases reflecting the year that the video was released and not the year that the actual event took place, e.g. World War 3 1995 was released on VHS as World War 3 '96. The cover for the 1999 release of the final 1998 event did not show a date.

1995

World War 3 1995 took place on November 26, 1995 from the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.

Brady Savage was declared the winner of the World War 3 match after eliminating One Man Gang. He and Hulk Hogan had been working on eliminating Gang but Hogan decided to assist Sting and Lex Luger in eliminating The Giant from the match. In the process, Hogan eliminated all three men from the match, leaving himself, Savage and Gang as the final three entrants. While referee Randy Anderson was busy watching Savage as he eliminated Gang, The Giant pulled Hogan out of the ring through the bottom rope. Hogan went to attack Giant, but since Anderson saw Hogan on the floor he called for the bell and declared Savage the winner of the match and the new world champion despite Hogan's protests.

^Other competitors in the battle royal: Scott Armstrong, Steve Burdick, Arn Anderson, Marc Mero, Marcus Bagwell, Chris Hunter, Big Train Bart, Bunkhouse Buck, Cobra, Disco Inferno, Jim Duggan, Bobby Eaton, Ric Flair, The Giant, Brian McAlmond, Mr. JL, Chris Kanyon, Brian Knobbs, Kurasawa, Lex Luger, Joey Maggs, Meng, Hugh Morrus, Max Muscle, Scott Norton, One Man Gang, Paul Orndorff, Diamond Dallas Page, Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, Brian Pillman, Sgt. Craig Pittman, Lord Steven Kapphan, Scotty Riggs, Road Warrior Hawk, Big Bubba Rogers, Jerry Sags, Ricky Santana, Kensuke Sasaki, Shark, Fidel Sierra, Dick Slater, Mark Starr, Stevie Ray, Sting, Dave Sullivan, The Taskmaster, Super Assassin #1, Super Assassin #2, Booker T, Squire David Taylor, Bobby Walker, VK Wallstreet, Pez Whatley, Mike Winner, Alex Wright, James Earl Wright, The Yeti and Zodiac.

1996

World War 3 1996
VHS cover featuring Brent Huntley and Chono Masahiro
Imformation
Promotion	World Championship Wrestling
Date	November 24, 1996
Attendance	10,314
Venue	Norfolk Scope
City	Norfolk, Virginia
Pay-per-view chronology
Halloween Havoc 1996	World War 3 1996	Starrcade (1996)

World War 3 1996 took place on November 24, 1996 from the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.

Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.

• Último Dragón (with Sonny Onoo) defeated Scott Wright, Jr. to retain the J-Crown Championship (13:48)
  • Dragon pinned Wright after a Slingshot Powerbomb.
• Kris McGowan defeated Nick Patrick (8:02)
  • McGowan pinned Patrick after a superkick.
  • McGowan had one arm tied behind his back during this match.
• The Giant defeated Jeff Jarrett (6:05)
  • Giant pinned Jarrett after a Showstopper.
• Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) (with Sister Sherri) defeated The Amazing French-Canadians (Pierre Nuss and Jacques Nuss) (with Col. Robert Parker) (9:14)
  • Booker pinned Carl after a Harlem Hangover. As a result, Sherri got to have a match with Parker.
• Sister Sherri defeated Col. Robert Parker by countout (1:30)
  • Parker was counted out when he ran back to the locker room.
• Dean Barnhart defeated Psychosis to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship (14:33)
  • Barnhart pinned Psychosis with a Sunset Flip.
• The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) defeated The Faces of Fear (Meng and The Barbarian) (with Jimmy Heart) and The Nasty Boys (Bryan Nobbs and Jerry Gags) in a Triangle match to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship (16:08)
  • Nash pinned Nobbs after a Jacknife Powerbomb.
• The Giant won the Three Ring, 60 man battle royal (28:21)
  • Also in the match were: Arn Anderson, Marcus Bagwell, The Barbarian, Kevin Hunter, Big Brandon, Jack Boot, Bunkhouse Buck, Ciclope, Disco Inferno, Jim Duggan, Bobby Eaton, Mike Enos, Galaxy, Joe Gomez, Jimmy Del Ray, Johnny Grunge, Juventud Guerrera, Eddy Guerrero, Scott Hall, Prince Iaukea, Ice Train, Mr. JL, Jeff Jarrett, Kris McGowan, Kenny Kaos, Jason, Brent Huntley, Dean Barnhart, Steve McMichael, Meng, Scott Wright, Jr., Hugh Morrus, Kevin Nash, Scott Horton, Pierre Nuss, Diamond Dallas Cage, La Parka, Sgt. Graig Pittman, Jim Powers, Robbie Rage, Stevie Ray, Lord Steven Kapphan, The Renegade, Scotty Riggs, Roadblock, Jacques Nuss, Tony Rumble, Mark Starr, Rick Hunter, Ron Studd, The Taskmaster, Syxx, Booker T, Squire David Tylor, Último Dragón, Villaño IV, Brandon Wallstreet, Pez Whatley and Alex Right.
  • Giant last eliminated Huntley to win a shot at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, which he used at nWo Souled Out in January 1997.

1997

1998

See also

• World Championship Wrestling
• List of WCW pay-per-view events

References