I was never into WCW. The 'Monday Night Wars' era brought WCW to the mainstream in Canada around '96, but I was never a fan. I just couldn't bring myself to watch it because I always thought the product was just plain awful. However, when they announced that they would be holding their first Mayhem PPV in my home town of Toronto (it was the first non-WWF PPV ever held in Canada), the wrestling fan in me just couldn't resist.

I went in to this show knowing very little about what was going on in the promotion at the time. The main draw of this card were the semifinals and finals in a 64-man tournament for the vacated WCW heavyweight title. A month before at Hallowe'en Havoc, Goldberg beat Sting for the title, but because the match was unsanctioned it didn't count (huh?).

Also, because Sting attacked the referee during this unsanctioned bout, he was stripped of the title the next night on Nitro (huh???). This setup a huge tournament for the strap, with the finals featuring Sting, Bret Hart, Chris Benoit and........Jeff Jarrett (not Goldberg?! Really, WCW?!?!).

The opening bout of Mayhem saw Benoit advancing to the finals by defeating Double J. Of course, being the face and being in his home country, Benoit needed to cheat in order to win the match (I'm beginning to remember why I disliked WCW so much).

In the other first round match, Bret Hart defeated Sting via the Sharpshooter, if memory serves me. This setup an amazing Hart/Benoit main event for the title in Canada (why didn't they just get the other matches out of the way before the PPV and advertise this as the main event?)

A great match was somehow ruined by an extremely unneccessary run-in by both The Outsiders and Goldberg. Bret Hart ended up winning the gold by making Benoit submit to another Sharpshooter.

One of the other "big" matches on this card featured David Flair versus Kimberly. No comment. Curt Hennig was also forced to "retire" after losing to Buff Bagwell, but this being Toronto and a long time WWF town, the fans gave Hennig one of the biggest reactions of the entire show.

My favorite part of the whole show was Norman Smiley. I had never seen him before, and I remember being thoroughly amused with his character. There was something about him screaming like a girl that I found hilarious (I wish I was joking).  

Smiley fought Brian Knobbs for the WCW Hardcore championship. Norman Smiley came out in a Tie Domi Maple Leafs jersey and full hockey gear. It was a total gimmick match with tons of props that ended up going through the entire arena. It ended up backstage in a food storage area and hilarity ensued. They even fought in an elevator at one point. Norman won the Hardcore title and it says so much about this show that this was what I remember the most.