Back in 1995, WCW was trying to step up its game against WWE. Nitro was a major aid to spark excitement and they still had the Clash of the Champions events in between the regular PPVs. Starting that fall, WCW began amping up monthly PPV events, with one of the first entries being the World War 3 show. Stuck between Halloween Havoc and Starrcade, this has become one of the most forgotten shows in WCW's history.
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The PPV was meant to be highlighted by an epic three-ring 60-man battle royale. But like many things in WCW, what should have been a huge deal turned into a mess. Over four years, World War 3 was the red-haired stepchild of WCW PPVs, not seen as a fun event and often home to some screwy finishes. While World War 3 had some interesting touches, these facts also show why it's become one of WCW's more forgettable PPV events.
10 It Was Supposed To Be "WCW's Royal Rumble"
Back in 1995, wrestling PPVs were rare and spread out. Eric Bischoff felt a good way to increase the value of WCW programming and get more attention was to have monthly PPV events.
They also knew they had to be special as Fall Brawl had WarGames, Halloween Havoc was an established event and Starrcade was a mainstay. With the Royal Rumble being a huge success, WCW wanted a version of their own to highlight their PPVs and, as usual, went wildly over the top with it.
9 It Built On An Older WCW Gimmick Match
Usually, you can pinpoint who came up with a specific idea in WCW, but no one has taken the credit for the three-ring concept. Bischoff simply says it "evolved over committee." It was built on the idea of Battlebowl, where guys had to throw opponents from one ring to another and then to the floor.
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Somehow, that transformed into adding an extra ring and the name fit. They also borrowed the idea of the winner getting a future World title shot from the Rumble. So, it's harder to tell who is to blame for this.
8 It Was Held In Only Two Arenas
Given its short life, it's not surprising this PPV wasn't held in too many places. Yet it's rather notable that only two arenas held the World War 3 event at all. The first two events were held at the Norfolk Scope in Virginia, a longtime WCW base, which helped with the crowds.
The final two were at the Palace at Auburn Hills, Michigan, as WCW was trying to attract a larger base. Maybe WCW didn't want to mess with what success they had with it, but the event was notable for the least amount of arenas seeing a specific WCW show.
7 The First Show Had Some Women Wrestlers
While Madusa's debut in WCW is famous for dumping the WWE Women's title in the trash, her following career wasn't as good. Yet for a very brief time, WCW did seem to be trying to push women's wrestling and the first World War 3 featured a good selection of female Japanese wrestlers.
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It was a tag team match as Mayumi Ozaki and Cutie Suzuki took on Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto. This was part of a deal WCW had with New Japan Pro Wrestling that would help set up Starrcade. Bull and Akira won the match for a brief showcase of female wrestling in WCW.
6 The Rules Could Be Complex
A battle royal should be a simple affair, but WCW, of course, found a way to make it strange. Originally, it was the obvious rule that if a guy was tossed over the top to the floor, he was eliminated. In 1997, that was changed to if a guy left his assigned ring even to go to another, it would count as an elimination.
Then 1998 had it that pinfalls or submissions could somehow count. Also, when a ring was cut down to just ten guys, they'd head to the central ring to continue until one man was left standing. Supposedly, that winner would get a WCW World title shot but of course, that ended up not working out as WCW could foul up this concept more.
5 The First One Had To Fill A Title Vacancy
The reason for the PPV in the first place was a messy World title situation in WCW. In the infamous Halloween Havoc 1995 main event, Hulk Hogan lost to the Giant by disqualification. After turning on Hogan, manager Jimmy Hart revealed he'd put it into the contract that Hogan would lose the belt by DQ.
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However, WCW officials decided this was too shady, so vacated the title and put it up for grabs in the battle royal. That ended up being won by Randy Savage, even though Hulk Hogan technically wasn't really eliminated but still okayed Savage as the new champion. It was a weird start for this supposedly "epic" match.
4 Only One Other Title Change Ever Took Place On The Show
While the first World War 3 was meant to fill the World title vacancy, the shows could have various other belts defended on the undercard. As the show could be a "placeholder" between Halloween Havoc and Starrcade, almost none of these titles changed hands and were just to push feuds.
The exception was in 1998 as Billy Kidman challenged Juventud Guerrera for the Cruiserweight title. It was a decent match ending with Kidman winning the belt to mark the only other title change in the PPV's history.
3 The Last One Didn't Have The Battle Royale As The Main Event
It seemed an obvious idea that this big event would be the last match on the show. That was true for the first three installments, which, in order, were won by Randy Savage, The Giant and Scott Hall. For the final installment in 1998, Kevin Nash (then the booker of WCW) ended up winning the battle royale to set up his Starrcade main event with Goldberg.
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The real main event didn't involve then-champion Goldberg but rather Diamond Dallas Page vs Bret Hart for the U.S. title. It was a mess of a match with two referees and an overbooked finish letting DDP retain. It was a strange choice for the main event, especially for the final installment of World War 3.
2 The Main Battle Royale Could Be Messy
A key problem with the World War 3 match was that trying to keep up with three battle royales at once was impossible. There were screens for each ring, with viewers unable to figure out which one deserved more attention.
It wasn't helped by the decision to have three different commentary teams for each ring for the first couple of installments which were yelling over each other. It was too easy to miss some eliminations, not to mention a lot of jobbers just to fill it up. There's a reason this is one of the worst gimmick matches in WCW and not fondly remembered.
1 It Was Never A Popular Show
A key reason why World War 3 only lasted four years was that it was one of the lowest-bought PPVs in WCW. The highest buyrate was for the final installment in 1998, a 0.63 or 200,000 viewers. The very first installment had the dubious honor of being the lowest-bought WCW PPV of the "Hogan era", until it was outdone by Starrcade a month later.
The live attendance could be okay with 17,000 for the last installments, but the buyrates didn't work well. That, combined with the poor reception to the actual battle royal, was why World War 3 was replaced by Mayhem in 1999 and let this show rank as one of WCW's biggest failed experiments.
