In a departure from the usual format, Dean and Liam venture into the world of live watchalong podcasting. And they begin with the start of Monday Nitro, the show that changed the face of wrestling television for better and for worse. Feel free to watch the first ever Nitro on the WWE Network while you listen, or just tune into the podcast on its own as usual. Either way, join us as we renact the wild five-plus-year-ride that was WCW on Monday nights in an unprecedented, unedited, unscripted, unf...
Oct 01, 2018•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 22
Very few wrestling 'dream matches' involved Hulk Hogan back in the day, but Superbrawl V was certainly main evented by one of them. Hogan vs Vader carried so much intrigue that WCW drew over 10,000 paid to an event for the first time since 1989, back when they were still the NWA. And those impressive ticket sales apparently had the company so scared that they were doing something right for once, they slapped a terrible non-finish on the big PPV clash after forcing the audience to endure one of t...
Sep 17, 2018•2 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Remember WCW's Beach Blast '92 show? Remember how critically acclaimed it was? Remember how awesome it was in just about every single way? Yeah, it turns out our minds have been lying to us for 26 years. The show isn't actually all that good after all. Either that, or it's aged rather horrifically. Probably the latter. But what better way to say farewell to this unfathomably hot summer than to look at WCW's very first foray into the beach-themed PPV concept? Joining us for this episode is Britis...
Aug 27, 2018•1 hr 56 min•Season 1Ep. 20
"Nobody gives a **** about the undercard," a famous boxing promoter once declared in front of the gathered press. It's an arguable point, especially in the non-scripted realms of combat sports. But when it comes to wrestling, it's rarely that simple. Welcome to GAB 90, a show bang in the middle of the NWA's transition into WCW and the event at which the company expected to kick start their own version of Hulkamania. Before that epic main event match, they had the small matter of two and a half h...
Aug 10, 2018•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 19
Jaws hit the floor all across the global wrestling community earlier this year when Jeff Jarrett was announced as an inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame. And Jarrett's years-long standoff with the dominant force of the industry isn't the only time 'Double J' has courted controversy. And ahead of Jarrett's no-holds-barred spoken word tour of the UK, Because WCW had the chance to speak to 'The Chosen One' about some of those moments, from his ill-fated stints with the Four Horsemen and the New Worl...
Jul 19, 2018•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 18
Sometimes wrestling shows are good. Sometimes wrestling shows are bad. And then there's Halloween Havoc 1992, which starts off harmlessly enough before falling off a cliff and landing rectum-first on a spiked fence with its infamous 'triple main event'. And if you think Dean and Liam had it rough rewatching and reliving this Bill Watts catastrophe of a PPV, spare a thought for their special guest, veteran MMA journalist Dave Doyle. Dave travelled from Boston to Philadelphia to attend Havoc 92 li...
Jul 06, 2018•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 17
The global wrestling community was deeply saddened by the news this week that Leon 'Big Van Vader' White had passed away on Monday at the age of 63. It's no exaggeration that if it wasn't for Vader, there probably wouldn't be a Because WCW podcast. In this special episode, Dean and Liam recall their favourite memories of Big Van Vader's WCW career which spanned from 1990 until 1995, including Dean's first-hand accounts of Vader matches across several UK tours. Arguably the greatest big man in wr...
Jun 22, 2018•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 16
Is it possible for a wrestling pay-per-view to be quite good and quite shit at the same time? Spring Stampede 1998 may well be the best example of this, if so. Dean and Liam welcome back friend of the show and Hooked On Wrestling head honcho Paul Benson to look back at a host of matches that polarise, have aged badly after a good first impression or sometimes just plain depend on your mood when you watch them. All at a time when the product was both at a commercial peak and about to fall apart i...
Jun 13, 2018•1 hr 44 min•Season 1Ep. 15
There was a time when WCW was not only successful, but cool and fun to watch. A good example of that time is the Slim Jim-sponsored event, Slim Jim presents Halloween Havoc 1996 in association with Slim Jim. Join Dean, Liam and special guest Mike Quackenbush as they look back at when the New World Order was the absolute best thing going in professional wrestling, flanked by a brilliant roster of big names, exciting performers and masterful workhorses. Then, re-live the turgid main event of Holly...
May 24, 2018•2 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Since it's April, Dean and Liam decided to treat themselves to one of the best PPVs WCW ever put out as they're joined by Darren Goss of Discovery Wrestling for one of the last major events pre-Hogan arrival. But hang on just a second: don't let a Flair-Steamboat main event, a retrospective dream match between Steve Austin and Great Muta and a trailblazing tag team war fool you: there's plenty of typical WCW numbskullery to be found amidst the greatness. Who wins the war between all-time great w...
Apr 26, 2018•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Dean and Liam are joined for Episode 11 by Ash Rose, member of top wrestling podcasting and media group Gorilla Position as well as the voice of Alive and Kicking, the 90s nostalgia pod. Of all the choices Mr. 90s had at his disposal, with most of WCW's existence occurring in that decade, he plumped for this absolute shower. BATB '99, where the 'war' pitting rap vs country gets outright confusing, the conflict between the old guard and the young lions fizzles out with a whimper, the WCW title is...
Apr 11, 2018•1 hr 49 min•Season 1Ep. 12
This month, WWE Network has finally begun to upload episodes of Thunder, WCW's ill-fated and corporate-mandated second major weekly show which ran from 1998 until the company's demise in 2001. So, what better time for Dean Ayass and Liam Happe to cover their first ever non-PPV on Because WCW? The very first Thunder, unsurprisingly, featured some real effort before the show became the poorly-produced afterthought it will forever be known as just weeks later. This bumper three-hour opening gambit ...
Mar 28, 2018•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 11
Some major professional wrestling events are forever known as "the show with that match". Uncensored 1996 is one of those events. And "that match" is the utterly reprehensible 8-on-2 Doomsday Cage debacle. Join Dean, Liam and special guest Paul Benson of Hooked On Wrestling as they attempt to answer several pivotal questions. Questions such as "how was Giant Haystacks' big Stateside moment?", "why did mid-90s promotions treat women so badly?" and "can four of the company's most established perfo...
Mar 07, 2018•1 hr 51 min•Season 1Ep. 10
We here at Because WCW have in just seven prior episodes covered some of the worst and most ridiculous PPV efforts that the company had to offer. And yet here, for the first time, we plunge deep into perhaps the most depraved overall period in the promotion's history: Early 2000. Head booker Kevin Sullivan, part deux, post-Radicalz. And who do we have to thank for this? Why, the podcast's very first special guest! Joining Dean Ayass and Liam Happe is British fed IPW's owner, Billy Wood. Tune in ...
Feb 21, 2018•1 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Dean Ayass and Liam Happe wrap up the opening chapter of the Because WCW project with Greed, the aptly-titled final pay-per-view in company history. In typical fashion, the product had improved in the promotion's dying months but with Fusient's takeover hitting a brick wall just days prior to the event, WCW's days were officially numbered just as Scott Steiner peaked in his world title reign, Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair brought the nostalgic comedy and the cruiserweights finally began their comeb...
Feb 01, 2018•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 7
Brace yourselves. This one's gonna be rough. After enjoying a nice WCW-free winter break full of festive feasts, Dean Ayass and Liam Happe return with episode six, covering perhaps the worst ever attempt at a major wrestling event and by far the most Russorific of all time. Sit back, relax and enjoy Dean and Liam reliving every elderly woman on a forklift, every fake miscarriage and every confusing attempt at reinventing the rules of a wrestling match. It's safe to say they may never put the sho...
Jan 11, 2018•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 6
WWE has recently revived the Starrcade brand name for a house show in the old North Carolina territory. So, Dean Ayass and Liam Happe look back to one of the reasons a rival company was in a position to revive the name in the first place. In their first look at a 'Vince Russo PPV', Dean and Liam endure all 13 - yes, thirteen - matches on a three hour show that gave us so much crap and snatched away the in-ring career of Bret 'Hitman' Hart all at the same time. NOTE: Our audio quality improved af...
Nov 30, 2017•1 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 5
WWE are bringing back the epic spectacle known as WarGames for the first time in almost 20 years at the upcoming NXT Takeover, so Dean Ayass and Liam Happe look back to a vintage WCW edition of the match. And as you the listener decided via Twitter, that show is WrestleWar 92! In addition to learning to cope with covering a PPV that is actually fun to watch, Dean and Liam break down what is seen by many as the greatest contest in the 1990-2001 history of the WCW brand. And, as a bonus, they prev...
Nov 10, 2017•1 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Yep, THAT show. One of the most infamous PPVs in WCW history and the inspiration for the Because WCW social media profile picture is the subject of episode three. Dean Ayass and Liam Happe endure Hogan vs Warrior II so, hopefully, you never feel you have to. Plus, join them as they break down exactly how a major entertainment company can possibly run over their alloted PPV time and deny paying customers their advertised main event, costing them millions of dollars. Oh, and the duo look back at a...
Oct 27, 2017•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 3
After their peak at Starrcade 1997, WCW enjoyed a red-hot 1998 at the peak of professional wrestling's popularity. Unfortunately for them, they also inflicted enough damage upon themselves in 1998 to fall back behind the WWF/WWE and begin their three-year tailspin from glory to oblivion. Join Dean Ayass and Liam Happe in looking back at BATB '98, a pay-per-view pitting basketball stars Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman across the ring from one another as WCW well and truly lost touch with what made ...
Oct 05, 2017•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Why has professional wrestling been in a mind-numbing monopoly for 16 years and counting? Because WCW. Why is a 350 pound man tripping up and falling through a wall the greatest thing the industry has ever seen? Because WCW. And why is there now a podcast series dedicated to the vast quantities of incomprehensible idiocy that one single company managed to unleash upon wrestling within the span of a decade? Because WCW. In the very first episode looking at the legacy of World Championship Wrestli...
Sep 15, 2017•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 1
