A Moment in Time: WCW and MTV’s Ultimate Video Bash

Posted on June 20, 2018 by bdamage1

Brian Damage

MTV has had a long history in helping promote professional wrestling. Whether it was working with the WWF in helping launch the Rock N Wrestling connection or starting their own wrestling ventures like Wrestling Society X…MTV has been at the forefront of pro wrestling and sports entertainment. On May 9th, 1998….World Championship Wrestling began a working relationship with the music television cable network.

WCW was in the midst of having a couple of banner years against their rivals in the WWF. An agreement with MTV would surely put WCW way ahead of the WWF in the younger demographics. An event was booked and promoted by both WCW and MTV entitled, ‘The Ultimate Video Bash.’ I wish I could say the concept had several WCW wrestlers represent various music stars and their music videos. They would compete head to head in a series of matches.

Fans would be able to vote for their favorite wrestler and/or music video by calling the WCW hotline. The cost of each call was 95 cents per minute. Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko were chosen to call the action. Aside from all of the WCW stars in attendance in New York City (WWF’s backyard) for the Ultimate Video Bash….a host of musical guests and MTV personalities were there as well. The show was going to be outside with over 2,000 fans expected. To ensure it would be a full house…the tickets to the Ultimate Video Bash were free.

The matches were all set up in tournament form with the following wrestlers representing different artists.

1. Public Enemy (LL Cool J) versus High Voltage (Will Smith)
2. Booker T (Cannabis) versus Barry Darsow (Run DMC)
3. DDP (Van Halen) versus Brad Armstrong (Metallica)
4. Hugh Morrus (David Lee Roth) versus Sick Boy (David Bowie)
5. Ultimo Dragon (Madonna) versus Kidman (Salt ‘n Pepa)
6. Raven (Hole) versus Glacier (Pearl Jam)

The winner of the tournament would become the inaugural MTV champion and receive a title belt. On paper, the matches sounded decent and the fact that it aired on MTV and held in New York City seemed like this was going to be a big deal. The key word is “was.” You see, the day of the event garnered torrential rain storms and considering this was an outdoors show…it hampered things a great deal. The fans for the most part stayed out of the rain and didn’t show up. Instead of 2,000 rabid WCW fans….only about 100 braved the inclement weather.

The rain was coming down so hard and fast, that only one actual match took place and that was Public Enemy beating High Voltage. It quickly became apparent that the outdoor event had to be held indoors…but instead of wrestling matches….the wrestlers cut promos and showed music videos of stars they were representing. Ultimately, it was Diamond Dallas Page who won the Ultimate Video Bash and was awarded the title. A small angle was booked where Raven and fellow Flock member Kidman tried to attack DDP, but Page fought them off outside in the rain successfully.

The show was suppose to be like a pay per view that was scheduled to last for three plus hours. The rain, however, caused MTV executives to cut the show down an hour to roughly two hours. The Ultimate Video Bash was ultimately a disaster for both WCW and MTV.