SirSmUgly

I will say this about Tony Khan - he targeted the whales in the wrestling fandom effectively (probably because he is one on the ultimate level, financially). Who cares if you only get 650K watching your show if those ratings make your network happy AND most of that 650K is happy to spend their spare entertainment dollars on your wrestling show because they are deep into the hobby as you are? It'd be too easy to say that TK was just the guy with using his inheritance money and connections to do wrestling for hardcores at a better production level, etc., than others. That's a risk he took with that money, this idea that he could get a sizable group of modern hardcore fans to stay invested in his proudct, and he did well to capitalize on his cash and connections and basically develop a stable second national wrestling company to fill what was a nearly two-decade-long vacuum.

Show #272 – 8 January 2001 "The one that makes me wonder if Terry Taylor is calling Vince Russo on a burner to pick his brain for some of these feud developments" Recap: The Cat is coming for the commissionership, a dumb top-rope spot that ends Sid’s career in big time wrestling is coming for Mr. Vicious, and the end of the road in WCW is coming for Goldberg. Oh, and another heel turn for Ric Flair, for some reason. No, I don’t get any of this storyline progression either, but at least the shows are watchable again! BRAMP BRUMP Disco Inferno is filling in for the recently departed Mark Madden. Here’s Madden’s epitaph in WCW: Hey, he wasn’t all that bad, man! In fact, sometimes, he was alright! CEO Ric Flair, flanked by a security team, enters the ring for his typical show-opening address. Flair mentions how talented the Vikings are to generate some goodwill from the crowd, and it’s kinda funny that they cut to the crowd, and the only NFL jersey I see is someone wearing a Marshall Faulk Rams jersey. Our fair CEO notes that Commissioner Mike Sanders is an unpopular dude – the crowd agrees – and then books him in a match against the Cat at Sin for his commissionership. Can we please just shitcan this commissioner’s role? Roddy Piper is long gone. Next, Ric Flair asserts that the main event at Sin is a Triple Threat, and it’s between Scott Steiner, his Mystery Man, and one of Jeff Jarrett or Syko Sid. Which man should I put into that last spot, he wonders? Jarrett resolutely walks to the top of the ramp and asserts that he should get the shot on account of Sid didn’t beat him last week, but didn’t Steiner blow up the match and cause Jarrett to lose by DQ? Is having your buddy come to the ring and jump your opponent in full view of the ref, who calls for the bell, not a disqualification loss anymore? The CEO and Jarrett go back and forth about their motivations toward the world champ for a bit when CEO Flair suddenly up and cancels that whole Triple Threat deal. I’m sorry, what? Scott Steiner joins Jeff Jarrett and indicates that he’s not a fan of this change as he and Jarrett want to take out Flair’s Mystery Man. Flair informs Steiner that actually, the match at Sin is now a Four Corners Match! Sid and Jarrett are both in the match! What a baffling build to this main event. Anyway, Flair tries to stir up dissension between the two nWo Silver running buddies by replaying the part from last week where Jarrett lied about not being in the contendership tournament; he further has the truck hit the playback of Jarrett accidentally KABONGing Steiner at Mayhem. To top all that off, the CEO books Steiner vs. Jarrett for the big gold belt tonight. Steiner makes to attack Flair, but Flair threatens him with a suspension and a title strippin’. Jarrett takes the chance to slip away without having to confront an angry Steiner. So, as part of his threats, Steiner said that one day, he was going to step through the rest of Flair’s roadblocks and get to Flair himself. You know what? That’s actually an interesting prospect for a long-term angle! Maybe the face-heel alignment is off from the norm, but I think it’s a potentially neat narrative development. That would be a case in the long-term where a double-turn might actually work and Flair could be the heel that he loves being. However, the dumbest thing of all would be to, you know, short circuit that by just having Flair turn heel and join Steiner a few days from now. Obviously, the creative masterminds at WCW would never do such a thing. Goldberg and Sarge arrive; we don’t hear what Goldberg says before he flips a table and gets in the faces of a couple of underpaid WCW employees on account of Scott Steiner’s music is still playing, but basically, once the audio kicks in, Goldberg is in search of KroniK. Mike Sanders talks out loud to himself about how much it sucks to have to wrestle the Cat again. Speaking of things that are happening again, the fucking Harris Bros. are working as suit-wearing flunkies for an official in power one more time, and Sanders sends them out to face the Cat in a handicap match. Shane Douglas gets in CEO Flair’s face backstage and asks WHAT ABOUT ME, WHAT ABOUT RAVEN THE FRANCHISE? in regards to getting a world title shot himself. What about you, you mediocre midcard chump? The CEO tells him that if he can beat Syko Sid tonight, maybe he can get put in place of Sid in the Sin main event. Three fans hold up signs with green dance circles drawn on them as Shannon Moore (w/Shane Helms) enters the ring. Aw, they’re down to two now, fellas. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (w/microphone) is Moore’s opponent. Helms joins commentary, and Chavo calls him LIL’ TROOPER over the house mic. July of 1998 is one of my favorite months in WCW history, and I appreciate the callback. Chavo, who has just watched CEO Flair try to divide Steiner and Jarrett like he was chief of a Russian disinfo campaign, decides to double-down on that sort of behavior and tells Helms that he’s happily going to make this match against Moore a title match, which means that if he loses the gold, he gets the first shot at a rematch at Sin and Helms will be sitting at home. Helms fucking cracks me up. Annoyed and unimpressed over on commentary, he says, “He did the same thing with me and Jamie Knoble,” but of course, he thinks the spelling of (K)noble’s name is as stupid as the rest of us do, so he pronounces it “Jamie Ka-noble.” I didn’t expect that, so it got me. Helms slaps Chavo in the face when Chavo wanders over to him at the desk, and Moore follows up with an attack of his own. Chavo once again is in deep trouble early; Moore hits a corkscrew moonsault and a leg lariat, but he gets caught and dumped when he tries that last one again. Chavo lands a nice back suplex for two. Chavo has a dope back suplex. Disco and Helms go back and forth over whether Helms is on Chavo Jr.’s level, and Helms says something about stealing the show at Starrcade. NO, BAD HELMS. Even though they did steal the show. Disco notes that “clearing a bunch of ladders” doesn’t make you championship material as a counter-argument. Correct! Wow, something that came out of Glenn Gilbertti’s mouth can be deemed “correct.” It’s like seeing Halley’s Comet. Meanwhile, Chavo tries to keep Moore grounded, but Moore fires back with punches and ends up running right into a dropkick for two. Chavo doesn’t keep control for much longer, though; Moore manages to hit a springboard Showstopper for two and then, uh, fuck up a springboard move. Chavo saves it by immediately following up with a diving axe and getting two before Shannon fires up again and manages a headscissors. They struggle over a suplex and Moore jumps behind Chavo to try his sleeper drop finisher, but Chavo runs him backward into the corner to break it. Chavo then charges; Moore hops over him and tries a sunset flip, Booker T. style, but Chavo rolls through, lands a kick to the gut when he gets to his feet, and drills Moore with a brainbuster for three. After the match, Chavo looks for another brainbuster, but he has to make a quick escape when Helms slides in the ring to stop him. Chavo circles the ring, seemingly about to leave, but he tries to jump Helms when Helms walks over to check on Moore. Helms senses Chavo trying a belt shot this time around, ducks it, and then back body drops Chavo to the floor on a cool bump in which Chavo got a ton of air. Look, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, but what you can take from this match is that Chavo Jr. absolutely fucking RULES. As Nitro finally checks in with a match that makes my Good Matches list for the first time since the crew was in Australia back in October of 2000, all I can do is implore WCW to give this Chavo Jr./Helms feud more time and more segments. Mike Sanders walks up on Kwee Wee and Paisley all friendly-like, but instead of giving Kwee Wee a booking, Sanders gives him a beating. Vito runs Sanders off. Exactly what dealings does CEO Ric Flair have with Totally Buff this week? The desk wonders, as do I. It’s the Cat (most importantly, w/the lovely Ms. Jones). The Harris Bros. are his opponent, if you recall, and I am baffled at why these two don’t get sent home to let their contracts expire already. The Cat tries to bargain with them before the match, but actually, it's a fake-out; he insults them and they attack him. Beyond that, the match is what it is. It’s short, there’s a Twin Magic spot, and they both H-Bomb him anyway when the ref is focused on Ms. Jones protesting that the Harris Bros. switched spots. After a ghost commercial break, the Cat proves that he’ll be okay for Sin by dancing for Gene Okerlund in a backstage interview-slash-danceathon. General Rection tells Sid to save a bit of Douglas for him at Sin; Sid answers with a dap, which is good, as opposed to answering with a goozle or a powerbomb, which is bad. Meanwhile, Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner are in a tizzy over their match against one another; Steiner wanders off to find the CEO. Back to Okerlund: Commissioner Mike Sanders and the Thrillers are with him, and Sanders complains about being “jumped by Big Vito and Kwee Wee,” so he creates a Minnesota Massacre Match in which Vito and Kwee Wee have to face some *wink wink* RANDOMLY SELECTED OPPONENTS, and if anyone interferes, the commish’ll fine ‘em, send ‘em home, and also maybe childishly insult ‘em. Totally Buff have a conversation with KroniK in which Totally Buff lets KroniK know that they got them booked in a match with Goldberg and Sarge. KroniK is not happy with this, so Luger and Bagwell really butter them up, but KroniK still expects to get paid. Luger lets them know that since the CEO booked this match, it’s WCW sanctioned and they’re working for a regular paycheck. He backs out of the room as he informs them of this, which is funny. Buff tries to dap up Clark. He gets no daps. At least he didn’t get powerbombed, though. Here's Team Canada, insistent upon keeping the spirit of Vince Russo’s WCW going in some small manner to the very end. Lance Storm informs everyone that Team Canada will be challenging the Filthy Animals in a Canadian Penalty Box Match at Sin. Everyone at the desk: “A what?” Anyway, after the Canadian National Anthem is played and interrupted, Storm wrestles Billy Kidman (w/the Animals). Oh no, Konnan joins commentary and picks up his feud with Disco again: “You’re a disgrace to our race, our profession, and our gender.” Meanwhile, Storm and Kidman have a fun little sprint in which they, oh yeah, pick up their feud from back in the middle of 2000 again. Storm is able to counter Kidman’s attempts at firing up until Kidman manages a counter-dropkick on a Storm springboard. Kidman shoots Storm in and wins a back body drop, then a dropkick. He is countered out of a springboard bulldog, but manages a Sky High for two more. His next move, a rebound lariat attempt, is countered with a superkick for two. They trade flash pinfall attempts, come dangerously close to smashing into a chair that the heels wedged into the ropes earlier, and then the Chekhov’s Gun is fired when Storm does get pushed head first into it. Kidman covers for one, two, and no more as Gunns and Awesome yank him to the floor. Of course, as it turns out, we get a veritable donnybrook as the Animals and Team Canada fight one another. Back in the ring, Kidman blocks a piledriver and hooks Storm in a Kid Krusher for three. You know what? I liked that match. Maybe not enough to watch again on YouTube, but it was solid stuff. Let’s get to goozle, chokeslam, powerbomb in this Sid/Shane Douglas match as quickly as possible. No need to talk, Shane! Aw, dammit, he fucking talks. Shut the fuck up. It’s the same shit all the time, including some of the worst catchphrases this side of, I don’t know, think of any of the other workers in WCW who tried and failed to get catchphrases over in the past five years. Sid makes it to the ring and gets SID chants because he is incredibly awesome. This match is your typical WCW TV match, obligabrawl and all, but Sid is incredibly awesome and Minnesota is vocal about that, so it’s more entertaining than if, I don’t know, Shane Douglas was wrestling Jeff Jarrett instead. Sorry, Jarrett, I like you, but *Konnan voice* you don’t got it like that. Anyway. Sid does some cursory selling for Shane, which is entirely too much selling to do, but he avoids a chain shot with a big boot. Legdrop, goozle, chokesl—no, wait, Douglas pokes Sid’s eye to escape. He tries a Franchiser, but Sid is like ABSOLUTELY NOT, shoves him away, and scores a chokeslam and powerbomb to what is one of the louder pops I’ve heard on Nitro in a long time. Of course, we can’t feel good about anything a babyface has done for even a second on Nitro; Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett backjump him after the match. CEO Ric Flair spends sometime with Gene Okerlund backstage. He’s not happy about the commissioner’s booking, but he doesn’t do a damned thing to alter it. Instead, he threatens to suspend Jarrett and Steiner if they beg off of their match later tonight. Finally, he assigns Hacksaw Duggan as the referee for that Filthy Animals/Team Canada Canadian Penalty Box match at Sin. Terry Funk cuts an in-ring promo in which he states that his possession of the WCW Hardcore Championship means that he’s the king of hardcore wrestling, but that banana-nosed CEO fuckface enemy of his is instead forcing him to fight a bum like Crowbar instead of being given only the finest competitors like the rad hardcore granddad that he is. He’s like Fuck Crowbar, he’s a lil’ bitch anyways, I’m calling out Goldberg, Scott Steiner, or DDP instead because I’m a fuckin’ rad hardcore granddad. Or hell, I’ll deign to fight Meng, I guess. Crowbar intervenes, and Daffney is here with more sparklers, and I do indeed HUNGER FOR UNGER. Who doesn’t? Crowbar is like, Nah fam, I think I can beat you, but I used to think you were so cool, man, what’s happened between us, but I don’t care about that because Daffney is doing a stupid dance while waving around the sparklers. Why don’t we let Daffney talk or do some nonsensical shit without this Funk/Crowbar feud getting in the way? Crowbar says that he thought Terry Funk was TIMELESS, but no, that would better describe you in about twenty years and then apparently Toni Storm a few months after that in what seems to be suspicious timing. Crowbar’s trying to elevate this feud out here, but Daffney is actually not helping by being entertaining in the background while Crowbar cuts an emotional promo that isn’t bad, but isn’t quite earned because he hasn’t been built to that point yet. Anyway, everyone mixes it up, including Meng, who TDGs Funk, kicks Daffney in the throat when Daffney tries to break it up with a chair shot, and then pokes through another chair that Crowbar is holding up as Crowbar follows up with an attack. Meng puts both his Sin opponents down with TDGs, then grabs the belt and tells them that if either of them want it back, they’d better come take it from him at Sin. This was actually a pretty solid talking segment for WCW, if maybe slightly below average for wrestling in the United States at the time. But it wasn’t bad! It worked well enough to heat up the Sin match. Pre-paid announcement: Jimmy Hart, please stop bumming me out, man. Hart says that this ad was paid for by the Jimmy Hart Committee to Promote Wrestling, and I have to ask, who in the blue hell is on that committee? Is it just made up of old Dungeon of Doom guys or First Family guys? Is it just, like, Austin Idol and Bill Dundee? These are the questions that I need answered. Commissioner Mike Sanders’s office is infiltrated by someone – the camera is acting as a first-person viewpoint in this segment – and that person slips the envelope of RANDOMLY SELECTED OPPONENTS out of Sanders’s jacket pocket and replaces it with an envelope of very carefully chosen opponents that we don’t have to pretend are randomly selected like Sanders did. The person who did it is a white dude, and that’s all we can tell about the perpetrator. Disco, obliquely pointing out how dumb it is to suddenly have the camera show a first-person perspective when it never, ever has been established as consistently doing that in this company: “Probably a production glitch.” Heh heh heh. KroniK faces Goldberg and Sarge in a Career Threatening Tag Match; Disco complains over at the desk about how much money he and Alex Wright spent to secure KroniK’s services in the past. Goldberg and Adams brawl in the aisle while Clark beats up Sarge in the ring. Sarge sells that Pillmanized arm, which KroniK targets as Sarge plays FIP. Sarge does manage to block a vertical suplex from Clark and turn it into a DDT, then manages to crawl over and score the hot tag. Sure, the guy is useless as KroniK use the numbers game to get to Goldberg, but Goldberg has already beaten these guys one-on-two, so it’s no problem. He busts out of a High Times attempt and spears Adams, then manages to spear and Jackhammer Clark while Totally Buff jump Sarge at ringside and fuck up his injured arm just a little bit more. Goldberg does manage to get out there after getting the pinfall; he wards off Buff, but Luger has ripped the cast off of Sarge and batters Goldberg with it, then swings it right into Adams’s head just for the fuck of it all. Huh. Are we going to get a KroniK face turn since that’s what everyone in WCW's live audiences have wanted this whole time anyway? We learn from Tony S. that CEO Flair has officially made that Triple Threat Match for the hardcore title between Crowbar, Meng, and Funk at Sin; meanwhile, Mike Sanders makes it to the ring to call out the RANDOMLY SELECTED OPPONENTS for this match against Kwee Wee and Vito. Sanders hands the envelope to Penzer, who sells bafflement as he announces Mike Sanders as the first wrestler in the bout. Second up: Chuck Palumbo. Third up: Sean O’Haire. Sanders is overjoyed that the three fans who were earlier holding up the Three Count dancing circle signs are now holding up signs that, when combined, say S.O.L.: AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. Hey, that actually finally got over somehow, he’s thinking, I'm sure of it. Fourth up: Oh lookee here, it’s Diamond Dallas Page! Fifth Up: You won’t believe this, but it’s Kevin Nash. Well, now this looks like a three-on-four disadvantage for the Thrillers just when it seemed like they had tilted the field in their favor! The Insiders start out hot before the numbers game gets to them, and where the heck are Vito and Kwee Wee? The crowd wants HALL, so maybe get Vito and Kwee Wee down here to give them the rub of working with Nash and Page instead of having the crowd demanding the appearance of a guy you fired two months ago? I’m genuinely confused by this match. It was supposed to be Vito and Kwee Wee against five other guys, but now it’s the Insiders against O’Haire, Palumbo, and Sanders. Finally, here are Kwee Wee, Vito, Paisley, and the Bull, who merely cut off the other Thrillers before they can invade, and the Insiders drop the Thrillers in the ring and are declared the LAST MEN STANDING and therefore the winners even though, as Disco points out, “What happened to the ten count?” Russo-esque fucking garbage, folks. Well, I guess we couldn’t realistically avoid the Dirt Worst list for this truncated year of television, could we? Though this is a mild addition to the list compared to most everything else between late July ’98 and December ’00. It's Nitro main event time! Scott Steiner (w/Midajah) defends his WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Jeff Jarrett. Steiner reminds us all that he put Sting and Booker T. out of wrestling, that he would love to beat up Sid, and that he refuses to wrestle Jeff Jarrett against the CEO’s orders. I think the most impressive thing about Jarrett’s run in kayfabe is that he managed to remain friends with Scott Steiner’s crazy ass in spite of Scott Steiner having a hair trigger temper and an inability to maintain long-term friendships. After a break, Jeff Jarrett walks out here carrying his KABONGer. He grabs a mic and agrees with Scott Steiner that he’s not interested in wrestling him tonight. Jeff Jarrett “Slapnuts/Slapass” Count: Entirely too many. Oh, fine, I’ll give an exact number. Two. It was two. CEO Flair walks out to respond by threatening to strip Steiner of the big gold and Jarrett of his title shot at Sin. Great, we whittled the time remaining down to about five minutes, which is all the time we need for a Nitro main event, right fellas? Jarrett sneaks toward Steiner and shoves Midajah out of his way when she steps in front of him. He looks like he might be considering a proper KABONGing of her, and we all know that you don’t mess with Scotty’s FAVORITE FREAK, so Steiner attacks him. The tiny Midajah walking around at ringside wearing chainmail that is sized for Scotty’s giant fuckin’ cranium is adorable. I digress; Steiner dominates the overmatched Jarrett. I am probably underplaying it, actually. He beats the utter shit out of the dude for four of the five minutes of this match; the first move Jarrett gets in is a ball shot after Steiner slams him on the commentary table, and right after that, Steiner goes back to punching Jarrett in the face. Back in the ring, Jarrett takes the first chance he gets to try a desperation Stroke, but he gets stuffed and belly-to-belly suplexed. Sid races to the ring and attacks Steiner; the CEO's Mystery Man soon follows and attacks Jarrett, which the fellas in the front row are convinced is Rick Steiner. That’s because it is Rick Steiner. Rick just has his particular way of slouch-standing, you know? It’s a huge tell. Other than that pre-main event segment, everything was basically pretty good, and then there was one segment or match that stood out over everything else. That’s the story of Nitro lately, and considering where we’ve been over the past two-plus years of programing, that’s still a good enough story for me. 2.75 out of 5 Stinger Splashes.

Larry Bird!

People are just too fuckin' online, which really is where the "mindless zombie fan" stuff originates. Well, except for DVDVR. This place isn't just the exception online, it is better described as exceptional.

Though the first one of those I saw was Kidman/Madusa vs. Franchise/Torrie, and uh, Kidman's bg bump through the gimmicked stage wasn't all that spectacular. On reflection though, I'd rather watch a wrestler dive onto some crashpads than have a ladder match. As body slams are the most painful move to take with the least benefit of popping the crowd, ladder matches are the most painful matches with the least benefit of popping the crowd, I'd think. Maybe an actual worker who posts here can tell me if I'm off with that take.

Fair, but they also booed Hogan. I guess the point is, to quote the great Syko Sid Vicious, I don't know shit.

Liz appeared into the back end of the Ruschoff Era, but eventually, she left television. Probably that's because frankly, Russo booked her in a creepy manner. In fairness to the team at EA who chose the roster, Savage's contract ran out in November of 1999 and his 2000 appearance was a one-off that wasn't followed up on because he and WCW tried and failed once again to come to an agreement. After Savage's win over Dennis Rodman at Road Wild '99, he only shows up twice in one-off appearances, one in October of 1999 on Nitro and then that May 2000 appearance. On that note, and considering how rapid the production of games were at this time, it makes sense that they wouldn't have him on the final roster. This match is a perfectly fine six-minute C-show match, but I particularly have to give props to the clever sign about the poor Canadian exchange rate driving down the value of (cruiserweight) gold. Hey, an actual clever fan sign!

Thunder Interlude – show number one hundred and forty-two – 3 January 2001 "The WCW Gang enters 2001 looking to creatively consolidate around a handful of strong heels" WCW Worldwide still exists as a going concern in the year 2001, but does it have fresh matches, or does it mostly replay stuff from Nitro and Thunder and the occasional older match from JCP/WCW?...I looked ahead at a couple of results reports and that’s what seems to be the show’s format…This is strictly a Nitro/Thunder/PPV/Clash review from the Nitro Era, but I also don’t want to miss AJ Styles/Air Paris/Jason Jett/anyone else who randomly pops up in the last three months that WCW exists under the Turner banner… One more thing before we Thunderrrrrrrr on into 2001…Here are our final title change counts for the year 2000… WCW World Heavyweight Championship title change count: 25 (Hitman > VACANT > Benoit > VACANT > Sid > Nash > Sid > VACANT > Jarrett > DDP > Arquette > Jarrett > Ric Flair > Jarrett > Nash > Flair > Jarrett > Hulk Hogan > Jarrett > Booker > Nash > Booker > Russo > VACANT > Booker > Scott Steiner) WCW United States Championship title change count: 9 (Jarrett > VACANT > Jarrett > VACANT > Scott Steiner > VACANT > Storm > Rection > Storm > Rection) WCW World Tag Team Championship title change count: 17 (VACANT > David Flair and Crowbar > The Mamalukes > The Harris Bros. > VACANT > Buff Bagwell and Shane Douglas > KroniK > The Perfect Event > KroniK > Vampiro and Great Muta > Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera > VACANT > Jindrak and O’Haire > Boogie Knights > The Perfect Event > The Insiders > The Perfect Event > The Insiders)… WCW World Cruiserweight Championship title change count: 12 (Madusa > Oklahoma > VACANT > TAFKAPI > VACANT > Candido > Daffney and Crowbar > Daffney > Chavo Jr. > Lance Storm > Skipper > Sanders > Chavo Jr.)… I think it says something here that the United States Championship was both a) by far the best booked major title in the company, and b) didn’t have anyone win the belt directly from anyone else until about ten months into the year… I have, lined up from best to worst, these as the best and worst booked belts in 2000 WCW…United States Championship, World Cruiserweight Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, World Tag Team Championship…When a third of the title changes are either via vacancies, title strips, a team simply stealing the belts after winning a match that was not announced as a tag title match, or winning the belts in a team battle royal, I mean, come on…As bad as the big gold belt was treated, it at least ended the year within a period of stability… Okay, now let’s Thunderrrrrrr… Lance Storm is excited about subtracting Jim Duggan and adding Mike Awesome to Team Canada, and understandably so, in our cold open…He excitedly tells Skipper and Gunns to follow him because Awesome said that he had a surprise for them…The surprise, as we see, is that Awesome got his old ‘70s party bus repainted in the red-and-white colors of the Canadian flag…The rest of Team Canada thinks the bus is rad… And now we go to the typical Thunder opening roll…It’s cut off toward the end so that Tony S. can hype the year 2001 for WCW…CEO Ric Flair soon opens the show once more…We’re three shows from Sin, so let’s see how Flair builds the show to drive us toward that card… The CEO hypes the tag match at Sin as a career-threatening match for Goldberg because “that’s the way Bill Goldberg wanted it”…No, that’s the way Vince Russo wanted it…Flair misspeaks and says that Scott Steiner will defend the title against Jeff Jarrett “and a mystery partner,” which Tony S. quickly corrects as “mystery opponent”…Flair announces that Steiner has been suspended for the past two weeks ending tonight. Considering the holiday break, Steiner is only actually missing this show because he didn’t want to fly in for a Thunder recording is out of control!... Why is Jeff Jarrett so aggy as he walks out here?...Oh, he’s just tired of Scotty Steiner asking him about the mystery man all the time…Jarrett points out that he’d like to know too, considering he’s also in the world title match at Sin, and then threatens CEO Flair with a KABONGing if he doesn’t reveal who it is…Flair is incredulous that Jarrett is bold enough to threaten him, and when Jarrett clarifies that he is, Flair books him in the Thunder main event with the stipulation that he’s out of the Sin main event if he loses…His opponent?...Syko Sid Vicious…OK, this is making more sense now…So the masked man was always Animal, the fix is in to screw whoever Steiner’s other opponent at Sin was, and we’re going to switch Jarrett for Sid tonight… OK, so Flair says that he's decided that he owes Sid a chance to win the spot at Sin because if we go to the tape, we’ll see that Sid scored a visual three count on Steiner at Starrcade that wasn’t counted…True…Flair makes it clear that if Jarrett doesn’t wrestle Sid, he’s as out of the main event as if he lost it…Memphis finishes Sid’s King Parsons-inspired catchphrase for him…It’s strange that we took such a circuitous route to Steiner/Sid II, but okay… One thing I’ll say about the “Better Build Some Homegrown Stars, Whoops, Too Late” Era, or the BBSHSWTL Era going forward (let’s see if I ever use that acronym again) is that while the booking is markedly better than it has been for two years, it’s not exactly good…It’s fine, and most of it is more straightforward than it has been, which is a positive thing considering what we got out of the booking through two Russo eras and an interstitial era that mostly aped the Russo eras, but was even worse…However, it’s a bit convoluted, still, and this weird main event deal with Road Warrior Animal as the mystery man, Sid replacing Jarrett, and yet another pointless heel turn for Ric Flair is a perfect example of that… What this era signals to me is that building a hot heel and anchoring your division around them to eventually get over a babyface challenger works really well to patch over flaws in the booking…Scott Steiner is doing that right now, and I would go so far as to say that Booker T.'s victory over him on the final Nitro, as abbreviated as the match was, did more to get him over as a legit main eventer than anything else he did in WCW…That victory, combined with his attack on Steve Austin when he debuted in the WWF, meant more than even Kevin Nash blading in a cage to try and help establish him…And I could be wrong about this, but Shane Helms is going to feel like a legitimate rising star simply because they stuck the cruiserweight belt on Chavo Jr. for a couple of months and made him chase the competent heel… The one thing that WCW simply never had from the Russo-Ferrara Era through the Russo Endgame Period was a set of strong heel champions to anchor their shows around...And I’d say that in 1999, they had DDP and CEO President Ric Flair as those heels, which I know I’ve parroted too much…In 2000, there wasn’t really anybody unless they'd have stuck with the Goldberg heel turn and had him kill guys off until they put Steiner over him or something… Shane Helms, speaking of, opens the wrestling on this show…Helms cracks me up (and makes Billy Silverman laugh) by going over to the ref and demanding a consistent count as Jamie (K)noble walks to the ring to oppose him…They have a spirited affair with a lot of pace…What I didn’t expect was for Helms to still be heeling…The part where he’s got some dancing ladies with him while a song with the chorus VERTEBREAKERRRRR plays in the background is mostly what I remember about him from this time…Or at least, that’s the picture I have of Helms in my head from 2001 WCW... Tenay and Stevie argue over whether a Noble victory should change who gets the title shot at Sin…Meanwhile, control flips back and forth between the two in the ring…Ooh, Helms puts on a weird version of a chickenwing…It’s a standing one…Neat spot…Noble turns it into a backslide for two…They reverse their way through moves until Noble gets a Northern Lights with a bridge for two…Noble tries another one, but Helms sees it coming, escapes, and twists Noble into a Vertebreaker…He follows up with an individual Nightmare on Helms Street for three…That last move is duplicate to a Final Cut… Evan Karagias hits the ring after the match and attacks Helms, but Shannon Moore runs in for the save…Noble recovers and grabs Moore, then hits him with a jumping Tombstone…By this time Helms has recovered, and he puts Noble in place for another Nightmare on Helms Street…Chavo Jr. has been patiently waiting to pick his spot…He sprints to the ring and drills Helms square between the eyes with his title belt…Fun match (and aftermath) worth watching on YouTube…And our first match to hit a good list this year…It only took the first match of the first show to do it, hooray!... Elix Skipper, still upset over his loss to Konnan last Thunder, gets all up in Konnan’s face…Thet two trash talk one another before Skipper shoves Konnan and runs away, leading Konnan around the corner and right into a waiting Awesome for a beatdown…Skipper then asks Awesome for the keys to the Canada Bus…Awesome gladly hands them over… Is this a four-man or a six-man tag match coming up?...The desk doesn’t know…Commissioner Sanders lets us know that Nash and Page also didn’t want to come to a post-holiday Thunder taping,but under the guise that he gave them time off or fucked with their airline tickets or something…The idea here is that the Thrillers surround A-WALL and Cajun before the match, but we don’t know which two will be wrestling them until O’Haire and Palumbo are the ones to attack while Stasiak and Jindrak drop to the floor…The match that follows is decent…A-WALL does his best, but he turns right into a Jungle Kick that knocks him to the floor…An aggravated Rection yells YA GOT TWO GUYS IN THE RING at ref Charles Robinson, but Palumbo clears out after pulling Cajun into position for an O’Haire Seanton Bomb that gets three…The Animals attack the Misfits after the match…Chavo Jr. comes out to help save the Misfits…Shane Douglas came from the crowd at one point…Chavo seizes a chair and finally gets the other heels to back off…I am genuinely interested in seeing whether Chavo is able to peel Lash and TW,B away from Rection… Konnan laments getting played for a sucker as he sits with the rest of the Filthy Animals backstage…Rey suggests that they figure out a plan for revenge…After a commercial break, Rey comes back with a bag of “sticky icky,” but it’s not going to be weed, is it?...It’ll be, like, marmalade or marshmallow fluff or something…If it were weed, KroniK would probably have been drawn to it like moths to a flame…The Animals walk off to execute their plan… Crowbar (w/Daffney, who is w/sparklers and GOT PYRO? t-shirt) wrestles a…*sigh*…Steel Chair on a Pole bout against THA MONSTA MENG (w/Paisley)…I better get my final THA MONSTA MENGs in before he’s DA HARROWING HAKU on another show and another channel…Stevie Ray is extremely physically attracted to pop star P!nk, if you were wondering…Don’t ask, just trust me that his comment makes sense in context…Vince Russo leaving these shows with a) a dumb Goldberg nu-Streak angle, b) a tradition of On a Pole matches, and c) a group of referees who blatantly allow illegal nonsense right in front of their faces sometimes (but not all the time) is like a dog who craps in your bedroom, then drags his ass down the hallway, through your living room, and outside the door before leaving your house having stolen the expensive beef from your freezer… Anyway, Crowbar gets the chair, but it doesn’t come into play for a bit because Meng hits him with an Electric Chair Drop from there…And then, extremely pointlessly, Crowbar uses a second chair, just sitting at ringside, to choke Meng out…OK, so why even have a chair on a pole if any chair can be used without penalty…Meng does take a pretty sweet header into the ring steps at one point, though…Paisley and Daffney fight over the, uh, legal chair?...Paisley wins it, but Crowbar yanks it away…Paisley and Daffney go at it while Meng gets the chair and sets it up, seat out, on the top buckle…This is such a strange match…Crowbar charges Meng and gets boosted head-first into the chair instead…Meng locks on a Tongan Death Grip immediately after that to earn the victory…Well, it was dumb, but I didn’t hate it… A pacing Jeff Jarrett tries to figure out a plan for his match against Sid later tonight… Mark Jindrak gets slaughtered by Goldberg…Goldberg catches Jindrak on a springboard crossbody attempt and powerslams him before it’s all SPEAR, JACKHAMMER, SPLAT…Goldberg is fun to watch, but they’ve got him back in weekly squash mode after having had him in that mode for the first two years of his career…He’s spinning his wheels, and he’s one of the three or four biggest stars in the business…Memphis is pretty subdued for his act, as one example…Goldberg briefly speaks after the match…Mostly, it’s about his plans to put Luger and Bagwell out of pro wrestling at Sin… We’re back from break, and down the ramp walks the Cat (w/the lovely Ms. Jones)…He doesn’t want Reno as his opponent, but rather Mike Sanders…He tells Reno to get out of here “before I call my mama,” but Reno proceeds to attack him when he turns his back…Ms. Jones whiffs on a roundhouse kick to Reno on the floor, but it distracts him enough that the Cat can jump him…Still, Reno takes over back in the ring, though his staid offense isn’t enough to put the Cat away…He has to rake the Cat’s eyes to kill a comeback, but the Cat reverses a whip into the corner and catches Reno with a Feliner on the rebound for three…Ms. Jones has chaps on, and honestly, this particular post-match dance segment is burned into my brain because when I saw it as a teen, I vividly remember drooling over her on this exact show…Anyway, the Cat declares that he will, ahem “eat [Mike Sanders’s] ass like a pot of collard greens”…Wow, the Cat legit eats the booty like groceries, I guess…Good for him being so confident and open about what he likes!... Another thing about these most recent Thunder episodes on the network – and a lot of the recent Nitro ones – is that ads aren’t cut into them…We cut to what would have been an advertisement break, but we just come right back to the next segment of the show…So, after a few ghost ads, the Cat and Ms. Jones walk into a meeting with CEO Ric Flair… Team Canada joins us, is serious for a minute…Lance Storm threatens Jim Duggan over Duggan jumping Elix Skipper…Uh, when did that happen?...Was that this show?...We’ll find out when we explore what the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder, I suppose…Awesome calls Duggan a “weak old man” and then demands his presence for a career killing the likes of which we’ve never seen… Duggan gets out here and gets too much offense in…Look, whether you’re personally a fan of Mike Awesome or not, you have to admit that there was no point at which he was booked reasonably in this WCW run…Stevie is upset about Scott James’s reffing, but it’s not James's fault that the Russo directive (both kayfabe and shoot) to just let guys kick each other in the balls in plain sight of the official is still in effect…It takes a Team Canada distraction to allow Awesome to land a chop block and a top-rope splash for three…They stomp Duggan out after the match…The Filthy Animals aren’t too blazed to chase Team Canada away, though!...Konnan informs the retreating Team Canada that they have a surprise for them…We see that the bus has been tagged by Awesome’s opps…Again…I’m not going back to look for the episode number, but Vampiro and the ICP already did this… Someone let a Gene Okerlund interview slip through the cracks…He interviews an angry Team Canada in front of the bus…Storm challenges the Filthy Animals to a tag match at Sin…I do get a kick out of Awesome wailing that he “spent all day painting this bus"… Next up: A Marcus Bagwell/Buddy Lee Parker Buff Bagwell/Sarge match…Is this 1993 or something?...Buff survives an initial Sarge flurry and controls until he dives into Sarge’s knees on a splash attempt…Sarge’s comeback is cut off, and after Buff lays his opponent out with a double-arm DDT, he waves Lex Luger (w/chair) out…On the TurnerTron, the audience is able to see KroniK jump Goldberg as Goldberg leaves his dressing room to make a save…They dump him in a trunk and force the forklift guy to cart him on outta the arena…Apparently, this was set up by an earlier segment that we didn’t see on this Network recording on account of the morons…Luger and Buff destroy Sarge…Luger even takes the time to Pillmanize Sarge’s arm like it was early 2000 all over again… After some ghost ads, medics try to help an enraged and hurt Sarge with his wrist… Before we get to our main event, it’s time for…This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder: CEO Ric Flair, displeased about Commissioner Mike Sanders screwing with Nash and Page’s rental car reservation, gives the commissioner a dressing down…Meanwhile, Sanders gives Reno an opponent he thinks is an easy mark in the Cat…Gene Okerlund interviews Crowbar and Daffney about Crowbar's upcoming bouts with Terry Funk (at Sin) and Meng (tonight)…The Cat threatens both Reno and Mike Sanders in an interview with Mean Gene…Someone’s laid out the Harris Bros., and Jeff Jarrett isn’t happy about it (but I am)…Shane Douglas and Gene Okerlund chat about what will be a Chain on a Title on a Pole Match between Douglas and Rection at Sin…Yuck…Who booked this crap?...Is Vince Russo still faxing the office his ideas?...Anyway, Rection attacked Douglas at the end of that segment… More of This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder: Jim Duggan enters the bus to attack a singing Elix Skipper (he was singing his own theme; this would have been a funny spot, I’m sure)…Johnny the Bull, Big Vito, and the Cat talk about how much they think Reno STINKS…Totally Buff taunts Sarge in an interview with Okerlund…CEO Flair books Jindrak in a surprise match after they’ve all kicked the shit out of the Misfits, and he bans the other Thrillers from ringside for the rest of the night, to boot…Sid promos with Gene Okerlund, targets Jeff Jarrett…CEO Flair, uh, comes to an agreement with Totally Buff, which I guess would be teasing the heel turn?...Jeff Jarrett promos with Gene Okerlund, targets Sid Vicious…Totally Buff next cuts a deal with KroniK… Alright, now let’s do our main event thing…Jeff Jarrett walks to the ring as we review Jarrett’s win over Lance Storm to gain entrance into the Sin main event…Jarrett insists on talking…Jeff Jarrett “Slapnuts/Slapass” Count: Two…Boy, this guy talks and talks and talks…He basically tells the Mystery Man to consider his actions should he intervene in the main event… Before Sid makes it to the ring, we get one more segment…The Thrillers prepare to get in their limo and leave, but the Insiders pop out and swing weapons until they’re all laid out…OK, after a few ghost ads, we’re back…This is a five-minute WCW special…It starts with an obligabrawl, to my point…There’s a match, but as I have been trained to wait for fuckery in Nitro and Thunder main events, none of it engages me…Sid fights up from a sleeper and goes lariat, big boot, chokeslam attempt…Jarrett pokes him in the eye and hits the ropes, but he runs back into a boot and a powerbomb attempt…That attempt is stopped by a Mystery Man, who helps Jarrett beat down Sid as the ref calls for the bell…However, this particular Mystery Man is not THE Mystery Man, but is Scott Steiner in disguise…Aw, look, he traveled to a solo Thunder show after all!…So did the Insiders, for that matter...Those spots they popped up in on the show were actual surprises simply because I assumed these three really did take this show off... This show wasn’t great, but it stays on the good side of the ledger for being generally inoffensive and having a fun opener…WOO…

Seems like a risky move considering their main audience is different in demographic from UFC's. But what the hell do I know?

I've noticed that. If you talk to someone fifty or older who grew up in Portland, Vancouver (WA), Beaverton, Milwaukie, etc., they basically think Piper and Buddy Rose are the greatest wrestlers ever. It's pretty awesome, honestly, that if I wear the lavender Savage shirt, I'll get a reaction from a random person more often than not, almost always older than me. As bad as wrestling shirts usually are in terms of design, the right ones can spark a small, but instant connection with strangers, especially in certain parts of the continent.

Not quite, and one of my regrets is that I wasn't born soon enough to go to a show with my grandma, who used to go when they'd venture up this way in the '60s and '70s.

Nope, I'm farther north than that, which is the only thing I'll say publicly - though I didn't go to high school in this state. I only mostly grew up here and then got back here as soon as I could!

I grew up in that SeaTac I-5 corridor, let's say, but not in the actual town of SeaTac.

The Bellingham M's were the Mariners' farm team and the Tacoma Tigers were the A's farm team. Watching Tigers games as a very young kid were the only times I saw Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco in person.

Are you old enough to remember when they were the Tacoma Tigers or am I the only one here that ancient?

The best thing about a minor league game is that you can keep a scorecard and read a paperback during all the down time. Though when I go to the odd Mariners game, I pretty much do that too on account of they suck.

WORST FEUDS This list has had eighteen (18) additions since the end of 1999!

BEST FEUDS This list has had zero (0) additions since the end of 1999!

THE ABSOLUTE DIRT WORST This list being this long is a genuine bummer. I mean, how does one company have this many awful misses creatively?

HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS DUMB (BUT ENTERTAINING) MOMENTS Hulk Hogan and Vampiro are two of the most unintentionally funny people ever.

Promos, Spots, and Skits that Aren’t Quite HOLY SHIT MOMENTS that Are Worth Watching/Adding to Your Playlist WCW just isn't a promo or skit company, which really hurt it as it tried to match the WWF at the WWF's strength and failed miserably.

HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS CLASSIC Promos, Spots, and Skits Very few additions here, but two things: One, WCW stumbled into a satisfying reveal of who impregnated Ms. Hancock, and then they dropped it anyway. Two, Bret Hart should be considered one of the elite worked-shoot promo guys in wrestling. CM Punk wishes that he could cut worked-shoot promos half as good as the Hitman does.

Charming Uniquities WCW was not very charming in 2000, which is a sign that not only were the wrestling matches not long enough or eclectic enough in talent matchups to get interesting matches, but also that the matches built around angles were failing. That last part was mostly because the lion's share of WCW's angles this year were flaming basura. On the flip side, Terry Funk/David Flair might haev been the best angle-focused match on this list overall, which is especially impressive as it came in the worst three-month run of creative that I've seen this whole watchthrough.

Very Good (and Sometimes Pretty Great) TV and PPV Matches that Make Entertaining Candidates for a Nitro-era Playlist on YouTube Two observations. First, Thunder has been the better show for wrestling matches since 1998. Second, the infusion of young talent - including from the Power Plant - helped add to this list, especially in the second half of the year. As much as the Power Plant gets (deserved) mockery, it did bear fruit outside of Goldberg as the company started to wind down.

It's time for our end-of-year updates! First: SmUgs’s Standouts – My Favorite Matches This list didn't change very much! Only one match was added since last year, but at least it's a top-level PPV opener.