One of the highlights of the final days of WCW was the ascent of Lance Storm to the top of the card. Storm arrived in WCW and quickly became a main figure on television, forming his own Team Canada faction and capturing the US, Hardcore, and Cruiserweight Title. To add to the heat he got as a villain, he went as far as renaming the belts to make them more Canadian.
But the decision to put three titles on Storm wasn’t a long term booking plan. In fact, Storm may have lucked into it.
Storm spoke to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful and recalled that period of his career, including the details on the lead up to him winning the US Title.
“Well, the thing is, that was never pitched to me. Because they were making it up as they went along. So, it’s, ‘Okay, you’re going to win the US title.’ ‘Okay, cool.’ That one I knew about several days ahead because Johnny Ace, who was the agent at the time for it, he called me with, ‘You’re getting a big push, you’re winning this tournament. We need to come up with what your finisher is going to be.’ ‘Cause I had been using the half-crab up until that and he was undecided or unsure whether he would be able to convince all of these guys to tap. So, he was thinking we should probably do a pinfall finisher. But, after several minutes of debate he was finally like, ‘Ah, screw it, I’ll just make them all tap out.’ I was like, ‘Okay.’
The memory of winning the Hardcore Title, however, seems like it was Storm being the beneficiary of someone else losing out politically backstage.
“I think it the day before, because I know there was still argument going on. Because Big Vito, who I beat for the Hardcore title, he was really tight with Russo and he had talked to Russo the day before and at that point I was beating him in a US title match on Nitro and he was beating me in a Hardcore match on Thunder or vice versa. We were each going to defend our titles against each other and successfully retain. It was that day of that they decided, ‘No, let’s put two titles on Lance.’ Because he was arguing and complaining about having to lose the title at the show.”
As far as Storm rechristening the Hardcore Title the Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title? Storm recalls his feelings on that as well.
“I hated that name.”
We can only wonder if he knew the potential future of the man he handed that title off to in storyline after winning it, current ROH star PCO.
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