This week on “Taskmaster Talks,” Kevin Sullivan and John Poz covered WCW’s World War 3 1995 pay-per-view. The show featured 60 wrestlers in 3 rings in what was supposed to be a concept that was a step above the Royal Rumble match. Randy Savage won the 3-ring 60-man battle royal to win the vacant WCW World Championship.
Sullivan was asked why Hulk Hogan dropped the WCW Title to The Giant by DQ instead of pinfall or submission. He said, “He (Hogan) was aware, I believe anyway, that Paul (The Giant) was green and that he had a long-range program set. He could see himself working with Paul for a very long time. I think, for him, putting Paul over would have hurt him and his long-range plan. I’m not saying he was right or wrong, but, if he had put Paul over, the returns I think would have been larger. But I understand why he didn’t because Paul was very green at the time and Hogan, you know, people can say what they want to say about Hulk, but Hulk is really smart and he looks a distance and him saying, well, if something happens and this kid doesn’t get over, it’s not going to draw. Let’s do something. I think that he saw that, I don’t want to beat Paul, but let me come up with something that we can switch the belt to him but he doesn’t get the 1, 2, 3. I think that was his design.”
Sullivan was asked if The Giant was originally supposed to win the 3 ring Battle Royal: “Originally, yes.”
Why didn’t he?: “Creative control.”
So Hulk pulled the creative control card and Macho Man got the victory? Is that what he wanted? “Yes. You know the thing is there was always that love/hate relationship with Hogan and Macho. One thing is, they drew money together. Just think about this. Doesn’t this solidify Hogan’s work rate better with Macho than with a big green kid? People can say what they want about Hulk, but Hulk’s a smart guy and with Randy, has there ever been a better match at WrestleMania than him and Steamboat? Randy is a super intense guy. With Hogan, he gave more than 110%. I think looking back at it, it was a hard way to get there. It’s not the cleanest way to get there, but for this time, for Hulk, it worked. Knowing he (Hogan) was not going to be on some PPVs, he thought, and I did too, that Randy was the best choice to keep it rolling. Then when he came back, he had two opponents to work with, The Giant and Randy. So he was stacking up opponents for him to work with. I look at it and think, yea, you can’t go wrong with Randy Savage as your World Champion.”
There was a lot more covered on this podcast. Sullivan and John Poz covered the rest of the card on WCW World War 3 and Sullivan talked about some of the other names on the show including Sting, Ric, Flair, and Lex Luger. He also talked about the comparisons to the Royal Rumble match.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Taskmaster Talks with Kevin Sullivan with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
