Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
There is no question, that the European market is very important to a global wrestling company.The great turnouts at arenas and the passion European wrestling fans exude during shows is second to none. Europeans love their professional wrestling/Sports Entertainment. The only really unfortunate side note to that statement is usually global brands like WWE and formerly WCW and even TNA have only made it their mission to travel to Europe, when business in the United States is slow and/or hurting. That’s when you’ll most likely see a promotion venture out of the country.
It is when things are bad, that promoters look elsewhere to make money and keep their companies looking strong. The WWF rewarded their loyal European fans by holding a tournament and crowning a European champion. World Championship Wrestling would do the same…only it wasn’t a title they created, but a trophy. It was called the ‘European Cup’ and to win it….you had to win a tournament.
The very first WCW European Cup tournament took place in March of 1994. It went for eleven days with sixteen different competitors. Some of the names involved in the inaugural tournament were Ric Flair, Sting, Harlem Heat, Steven Regal, Vader, Marcus Alexander Bagwell, Steve Austin, Ricky Steamboat and even Paul Roma. There are those that believed that this tournament was a big apology to the European fans because roughly seven months prior….there was the whole stabbing incident between Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson.
In any case, the winner of this grueling tourney would receive a very attractive looking trophy and be declared the European Cup champion. This tournament was notable for one infamous incident. It was during this tournament where Cactus Jack aka Mick Foley lost his ear in a match against Vader in the quarter finals in Munich, Germany.
The eventual final would see Vader go one on one with the company’s franchise wrestler Sting. Sting would defeat his rival and become the first ever European Cup champion. After Sting’s victory, you would think that the European Cup would become an annual event within Europe. Unfortunately, that was not the case at all. The European Cup trophy was placed in storage and remained there for over six years.
The Cup would make its triumphant return on a WCW Germany exclusive pay per view entitled ‘Millennium Final’ in November of 2000. Sting would be “defending” the Cup for the very first time. This time however, there was no tournament, but rather a battle royal and a three way match to determine Sting’s opponent. First, Mike Awesome won a 17 man over the top battle royal to qualify for a match to determine Sting’s European Cup opponent. Awesome then wrestled in a three way match against Germany’s own Alex Wright and ‘Big Sexy’ Kevin Nash with Nash getting the win.
The 2000 European “finals” match was set with Sting defending against Nash in the main event. Famed German boxer Axel Schultz was the special guest referee for the match. In the end, Sting successfully retained the cup by making Kevin Nash submit to the Scorpion Deathlock. After the match, Sting and Nash shook hands, while confetti fell from the rafters.
Just four short months later….WCW was bought by the WWF and the European Cup was no more. It is believed that the actual trophy is in WWE’s storage facility collecting dust.
Alexander Arce 6
Maybe WWE can always ship it to Sting