Chapter 3: The Hype Builds Up - August 2nd and 9th, 1999

 AUGUST 2

WCW sure knew how to build a hype. They got me really riled up for the Kiss performance, and it was even that more heart pumping knowing it's going to be live. They built the event gradually, and to further illustrate how great they were at it, I knew and heard nothing about Kiss prior this, and within weeks I couldn't bear the wait any longer. I don't recall being as hyped for anything other than perhaps Star Wars' Episode 1 that same year. But you gotta understand, it wasn’t simply Kiss performing a song on TV. From my perspective, I didn’t know anything about Kiss and they sure looked like nothing I’ve ever seen, and certainly no musical group. Those very short glimpses of Kiss I saw (the promo videos varied in length, some were 5 seconds long, some 13) reminded me of otherworldly creatures with painted faces and with flashy costumes. Goblins or some Space creatures.

So I didn’t know what those Kiss characters are, and even what to expect. As I said in the earlier post, the Internet wasn’t nearly what it is today or what it even was a few months later, and the access to it wasn’t that widespread (where I was). Not that there was much in it anyway. I haven’t even been online once yet at that point. So for me, it was a countdown to seeing something, some kind of performance or something from bizarre sci fi characters. And I thought they might be WCW's new creation. Who were they, what will they do? What’s gonna happen? The mystique was there. It was the key. Nowadays anyone can just google anything they see on TV and know everything about it in a minute and see hundreds of videos and photos in an instant. But back then? Not at all. You only got what you saw on TV. It was a great unknown, exciting mystique.

Nothing was said yet at the time about Kiss introducing a new wrestler because within the storyline, that's not something that was planned ahead, but something that evolved naturally in time. 

There were a few music performances on WCW in 1999, and two months before, Megadeth performed "Crush 'Em" (screencaps below), but while I enjoyed it, they were just "regular" rock band, so you watch it, enjoy it, and then you don’t think about it again.


Megadeth Performing on WCW, July 1999

August 1999 began and my excitement level shot up significantly, because that was THE month. But it was still almost a month before the day of the performance. Promos continued, but in addition to the Shout It Out Loud 96 music video excerpts which were in heavy rotation, on the August 2 episode they changed things up a bit and had a flashcard with "War Machine" song playing in the background. It only appeared in this episode. 



And also, the hype talk from the commentators

Scott Hudson, one of the commentators on August 2: "Like hanging around in Las Vegas isn't fun enough, to be there with Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, Kiss in Vegas. I can't wait!"

Later in the show, Eric Bishoff himself joins the commentators' table and mentions the event as well: "Coming up August 23rd, Gene Simmons and Kiss are do in live, here on Nitro. ("Wow" answers Bobby Heenan). It doesn't get a whole lot bigger than that"

While Kiss was hyped continuously for quite some time, another music act was set to appear sooner on WCW, and it was country star Chad Brock, who had few promos for his appearance as well. Naturally that was nowhere near the level of Kiss' promotion



AUGUST 9

The wait time seemed like forever. A month is half of summer vacation, and if you factor in all those days in between the episodes filled with anticipation, it did seem like the whole buildup was even longer than it really was.  It was getting harder and harder to patiently await the next Nitro. 

The August 9th episode continued with the same promo - pieces of Shout It Out Loud '96 video, and mentions from the commentators. By that point whenever the Kiss promo started, I came alive. The hype got me real good, but I loved it.

Tony Shiavone, lead commentator on August 9 episode:"The Kiss Army will be be out in full regalia. It's gonna be August 23 of Monday Night, an unforgettable Monday Night in Las Vegas, with Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley. Kiss will perform. It's gonna be a night we'll never forget. Peter Criss the drummer. I'm not gonna paint my face but I have painted my face on many of their concerts I've been to throughout the years, starting back in 1978. Anyway, they're gonna be at Monday Nitro and it's gonna be exciting"

On the same August 9 episode, we got live music again -  Chad Brock, the country star, gave a live musical performance on Monday Nitro that evening.


 I liked those occasional musical performances on WCW. It gave you a wider range of entertainment, it gave it a feel of an even larger event. I mean, Oscars have musical performances. While country was never my thing and at a time, I was only interested in music passively, it was still fun to see and like I said, it added a scale to the show.

However, some fans were already eager to see Kiss and wished they played that date instead of Brock. “We should have got Kiss” message was on one of the banners.

Stuff like this adds to the anticipation, and it proved that the Kiss event was hovering above WCW all this time for the viewers and fans as well. And at that time, I still didn’t know that it will be so much more than a one-off performance

Next: Chapter 4: Brian Adams Forms Alliance With Kiss - August 16, 1999