#7. Hector Garza | September 22nd, 1997
On the same night that Bill Goldberg made his televised debut, WCW saw one of their most surprising upsets as Scott Hall suffered a loss to Hector Garza.
Garza had been a fixture of the WCW cruiserweight scene, which although they were no joke, they always lived a few runs below the ‘real stars’, such as Scott Hall.
On Nitro on September 22nd, Garza scored the upset of a lifetime, performing a schoolboy on a cocky Hall who was busy distracted by the referee. The crowd went wild for the shock, fluke win.
Hall quickly got his heat back, hitting a Razor’s Edge on both Garza and the referee. A rematch on the Nitro two weeks later saw Hall beat Garza in under two minutes. Whilst the initial win would not matter to Hall as he still proved dominant and the win was presented as a fluke, it would be the biggest win of Garza’s North American career.
On an interesting aside, the nephews of the late Garza are WWE superstars Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo – the latter’s forename a tribute to Hector’s father.
#6. Chris Jericho | November 3rd, 1997
Shortly after his loss to Garza, Hall again suffered a loss, this one unscripted and one that got him into some trouble.
Similar to Garza, Jericho was not ‘in’ with the main WCW scene, largely competing in the cruiserweight scene and lower/mid-card – wrestling the likes of Eddy (later Eddie) Guerrero, Alex Wright, and Chris Benoit.
Hall himself had not been in the top position by the time of Jericho and Scott Hall’s match, having lost the WCW World Tag Team titles and losing a PPV match to Lex Luger.
“Lionheart” Jericho later went on to comment on the heat between him and Hall over Scott’s condensing and arrogant tone with younger and smaller talent. Hall was booked to beat Jericho but believed the white-meat babyface character would not get over in Philadelphia, even in spite of the fact it was popular in ECW, based in Philadelphia. The nWo member pitched the idea for Jericho to win the match behind the back of creative.
In the match, when Scott tried for the Razor’s Edge, Jericho slipped out and instigated an inside cradle. Zbyszko came out afterwards to develop a feud with Hall.
Backstage, Bischoff was mad at Hall for changing the ending, booking not in his own favour and going against the script.
Similarly to the Hall/Garza situation, Scott Hall lost by roll-up which would protect him somewhat, attack after the match to regain dominance, and also win a rematch shortly after. Hall went on to win the World War 3 battle royal, so it did not hinder his career too much!
This win would not put Jericho on the map straight the way but it was an early big win in the career of a future megastar.
Leave a Reply