The Best Night in WCW History....

I dunno about the greatest night in WCW history, but it's definitely one of the most under-appreciated moments in wrestling history.

The Best Night In WCW History: March 21, 2001.

Five days before they were bought out?

It just came out of nowhere though, Simmons had no real build as even a genuine contender, just won a lottery & surprised the champ for the strap.
The crowd emotion seemed to me at the time to be shock rather than genuine emotion, in away similar to Booker's first title run. Went from wrestling as GI Bro on previous PPV to no reaction to winning the strap. However Booker T had ability to build himself from there, Simmons didn't.
Seriously devalued Vader losing to a guy who wasn't over or acknowledged as a main eventer and in fairness apart from having a genuine tough man gimmick had little else & so his top line run didn't go anywhere.

It was great that after years of being held back a coloured wrestler got a world title, I just think WCW were in such a rush to achieve that they didn't stop and think if he was really the right man for the job longer time.

There are a few points I have to respectfully disagree with.

You were right when you said the emotion from the crowd was of shock rather than pure emotion and I think it was a good kind of shock due to the fact that for close to a year, WCW had done a tremendous job in taking Simmons, a former tag team wrestler, and making him a legitimate threat to the heavyweight title.

Before that match with Vader, Simmons had been oh-so close to winning the strap on a plethora of occasions and been heavily established as a Main-Eventer by having a terrific feud with Lex Luger over the title in 1991, culminating in their 2-out-of-three falls match at Halloween Havoc of that year.

When Simmons did finally win the strap, I believe it was a combination of fans emotions and the good shock value, something they didn't see coming but made them happy because of how close Simmons had come to winning it as previously mentioned.

Now as for Simmons not being over, I again have to disagree. Sting was without a doubt the most over guy in WCW, ever. Simmons, in my opinion, was the second most popular babyface in the company, despite the company's attempts to push Dustin Rhodes and Erik Watts to the moon during the time. On a side not, Rhodes did have a popular tag team run with Barry Windham as WCW Tag Team Champions.

As for Simmons not building himself after winning the title, I think that had more to do with their not being good challengers for him to go against, the same as when Sting first won the title from Ric Flair at the 1990 Great American Bash.

When you compare Sting and Simmons opponents from their initial title runs, they are quite similar. I mean, Sting faced Sid Vicious at the 1990 Halloween Havoc, Black Scorpion (Ric Flair) at Starrcade 1990 and then lost the title to Flair in January 1991.

For Simmons, he faced the Barbarian at the 92 Havoc while all the other main opponents he could have faced were in other feuds, such as Jake Roberts feuding with Sting, Rick Rude feuding with Chono and Vader facing Nikita Koloff.

In addition, he helped bring in 2 Cold Scorpio on a Clash of the Champions event as he was feuding with Barbarian, Tony Atlas and Cactus Jack.

But he said in any company, Lashley would have been teh first Coloured ECW Champion

GOLDBERG BEATS HOGAN on Nitro...great nite!

I think that would have to be it.

May 27, 1996.......without this night, Hogan never joins the nWo

Nothing is better then that black kid/guy marking out in the front row when Simmons gets the 3 count