When Vince Russo hightailed the WWE for WCW, he took with him his sensibilities that helped make the Attitude Era what it was.ht he was by the time he got there. That meant a lot more humor coming to Where The Big Boys Play.
He wasn’t the first person to use comedy in wrestling and he hasn’t been the last either. WCW has had plenty of “haha” moments over the years. The territory was booked for years by Dusty Rhodes. The American Dream was a big fan of all kinds of cinema and knew that occasionally you needed some comedy. Whether or not it was intentional, here are 10 of the funniest matches in WCW history, ranked.
10 San Francisco 49er’s Ladder Match - Nitro, October 2, 2000
Yes, this matches winds up on a lot of “Worst WCW Match” lists out there. But if you look at the humor in the match, it’s pretty funny. First off, it’s the culmination of all of Russo’s “On A Pole Matches,” there’s a pole for every corner of the ring.
The rules were simple - one of these boxes contained the WCW Championship. However, in the other three boxes were ridiculous items, like an autographed picture of Scott Hall.
9 Chamber Of Horrors Match - Halloween Havoc 1991
Back when wrestling was “real,” the concept of watching a man get electrocuted on PPV created an element of danger. Especially when sickos like Cactus Jack and Abdullah The Butcher were in the match! All one of the teams (Steiners, El Gigante, and Sting vs. Cactus, Abby, Vader, and The Diamond Studd) had to do was put one of your opponents in the chair and pull the lever. But the lever itself had fallen during the match and watching Cactus try to fix the issue makes it so bad it’s good gold.
8 Martial Arts Match - Uncensored 1995
Eric Bischoff has grown up participating in martial arts and several times tried to integrate martial arts into WCW (Blood Runs Cold, anyone?). But the site of Hacksaw Jim Duggan doing his best Chuck Norris impression is worth the price of admission for his Uncensored ‘95 Martial Arts match with Meng.
7 Disco Inferno Vs. Jacqueline - Halloween Havoc 1997
Thanks to his gimmick, Disco Inferno sometimes gets a bad rap. But the guy was actually a fairly solid hand. He was able to parlay those skills into one of WCW’s silliest wrestlers.
At Halloween Havoc 1997, he would square off with Jacqueline in an Intergender match. Disco played slightly afraid of Jackie and ran from her from time to time helped to sell how tough Jackie was.
6 Madusa Vs. Paul E. Dangerously - Clash Of The Champions, November 18, 1992
If you like watching Paul Heyman squirming around whenever Brock Lesnar looks in trouble, then you should check out Paul E. Dangerously doing that same. He took on Madusa at the November Clash back in 1992. Despite not standing any chance at all, Paul E. was able to work Madusa to a time limit draw and as always, Heyman’s facial expressions and getting his butt kicked are always good for a laugh.
5 Disco Inferno Vs. The Giant - Thunder, June 18, 1998
The Disco Inferno strikes again with one well placed line of comedy. Meanwhile, The Giant mean mugging Disco Inferno was priceless, until he laid him out. The Giant at the time was working a smoker’s gimmick and puffing on a cigarette, during his match! Disco even had the audacity to tell the big guy that smoking stunts your growth! The Giant leveled him, pulled on his smoke and pinned him to win the match.
4 Paul E. Dangerously Vs. Jim Cornette - Great American Bash 1989
With a War Games match and Ric Flair defending the NWA title against Terry Funk, you’d think that’s enough to put a butt every 18 inches. It certainly was, but the Tuxedo Match between two of the greatest managers on the planet didn’t hurt either! The managers of both versions of The Midnight Express went at it exchanging terrible looking moves and powder for several moments was the kind of “popcorn match” that fans could enjoy waiting for the bigger matches on the card.
3 Chris Jericho Vs. “Goldberg” - Fall Brawl 1998
During the summer of 1998, Chris Jericho tried all he could to get a match with Goldberg, it should have ended with a big time Goldberg squash match. But big Bill didn’t want to work with Jericho.
When that became clear, Jericho pushed even harder, giving the world a Goldberg Impersonator vs. himself at Fall Brawl. This entire “feud” showed just how funny Jericho could be.
2 DDP & Jay Leno Vs. Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff - Road Wild 1998
In one of the most unintentionally funny moments in wrestling, the former late night TV king, Jay Leno mixed it up with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. In an effort to grab a big celebrity, WCW brought in Jay Leno who didn't quite replicate the athleticism of Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman just a month prior. But instead, in the world’s longest wrestling photo-op, Jay Leno was able to somehow grab Hogan in a wrist lock while photographers spent what seemed like 20 minutes taking pics.
1 The Giant Vs. Hulk Hogan - Halloween Havoc 1995
In less than a year from Halloween Havoc 1995, the entire world of WCW changed with the birth of the nWo. But for this night tragically and comically, the Dungeon Of Doom reign supreme. First off, Hulk Hogan tried to murder his competition in a monster truck sumo match. Then moments later, The Giant re-emerged to not only beat Hulk in his first match ever, but along with the Yeti, hug the guy into submission.