SirSmUgly

He should have straight stolen it, but the Greetings is a good finisher already. I think Steiner's ability to put on solid matches even with his consistent foot injuries and while being very immobile speaks to what a good worker he became. He was also probably much better off in TNA and away from Vince's increasing scripting of promos. You don't script a Scott Steiner promo. You give him a couple of talking points and then let him rip (and apologize to your sponsors later if necessary).

Show #276 – 5 February 2001 "The one that is a Nitro from February of 2001, but feels a bit too much like a Nitro from February of 2000" Eric Bischoff must be back in a position of oversight because we start the first show of February in media res for the first time in a long time, with CEO Flair (flanked by Road Warrior Animal) and Kevin Nash in the midst of a mic battle. The talking soon transitions to physical attacks as Nash easily disposes of Animal. The CEO tries to beg off, but eats a big knee and a boot choke. In the back, Mike Sanders runs up to the arriving limo with Flair’s Elite in it and lets them know what’s going on, but they’re too late to keep Flair from taking a beating. Then, even though he’s supposed to be a babyface, Nash declares that he’ll be stripping the wrinkly old CEO naked on live television. Yuck. I will say that in what I personally think is a pretty amazing callback, Flair is wearing those Florida Gators boxers from back when he was last stripped to his skivvies while in an authority position on Nitro (Show #186) and that he was still wearing while being an authority figure who was also committed to a Central Florida mental hospital (Show #187). Tony S. seems like he has an inkling of those boxers being maybe notable, but he doesn’t quite make the connection on commentary. OK, so Nash prepares to Jackknife our Gainsville-loving CEO when Scott Steiner and the rest of Flair’s allies rush onto the ramp. Nash holds the heels off by threatening to destroy Flair and then checks on if the CEO would like to negotiate for his safe release. The CEO: ARAGARAYYYAYESSSS, which I think is an affirmation that he in fact would like to do so. Nash calls out the Cat (w/the lovely Ms. Jones) as his negotiator; the commissioner is smart enough to come through the crowd and avoid the crowd of heels on the ramp. Totally Buff have a lot of work to do to hold an irate Scott Steiner back. Meanwhile, Nash holds a neck vise on CEO Flair while the Cat checks to see if the CEO will transfer power to him for one night. The CEO: AUHAUTAYAYAHAYUAHA. That’s another “yes,” I do believe. The Cat books Scott Steiner to a) kill off four cruiserweights in a handicap match, b) wrestle mortal enemy Diamond Dallas Page, and c) work a main event bout in which he defends his world title against Kevin Nash. Wait, this is dumb. Nash is wrestling Steiner at SuperBrawl already, so there's no need to burn that match now. The Cat adds the stip that Flair has to resign from his position as CEO if Steiner loses and also that Nash gets a partner for this match, so at least they’re not doing a one-on-one match. The crowd really wants GOLDBERG, but no, that’s not happening. I am going to guess that Rick Steiner will be Nash’s partner. I keep predicting this Rick Steiner heel turn, and it keeps not happening, but we're running out of runway here. I have to be right eventually! I don’t love cruiserweights being used as fodder, I have to say. Bischoff wants to remake this division because he rightly understands how important it is to WCW’s modern profile as a company, but he still is fine with having heavyweights just murder them when he needs to get one over as a threat. The Jung Dragons, Evan Karagias, and Jamie (K)noble get wasted for some fucking reason. Kaz and Noble especially should be treated better than this. I don’t give a fuck how awesome your champ is; he should not be kicking out of a dogpile pin (unless maybe he’s the Giant, but even then), and four second-level cruiserweights should be probably managing to defeat him instead of getting stack-Steiner Recliner’d and losing. BOOOOO, this is going on the Dirt Worst list on principle. Fuck off, WCW. Bumper: This main event is going to be as swerve-filled as the roads in the Monaco Grand Prix. CEO Flair and his crew yell at one another about whose fault it is that Steiner is in this predicament and settle on Mike Sanders for booking two separate limos instead of one big enough to bring them all to the arena at the same time. Heh. In the babyface locker room, the Cat continues to book the show. He agrees to pit Brian Adams against Buff Bagwell later tonight at Adams's request. According to Gene Okerlund, the Cat has also booked Rick Steiner and Shane Douglas in a return match for the United States Championship tonight rather than waiting until SuperBrawl (at Steiner’s request, as we find out in this Rick Steiner interview with Okerlund). Hmmm… Bryan Clark is out tonight on account of Road Warrior Animal bashing him in the back of the head on Thunder and then getting banned from the building tonight by CEO Flair’s lawyers, so Brian Adams is here alone, but he’s not sweating it. I assume Clark is legit injured [Editor's note: Nope!]. CEO Flair and Totally Buff laugh about Bryan Clark being out for the next three weeks because of Animal’s home run swing; then, they suggest that the CEO book Totally Buff vs. KroniK for SuperBrawl with the caveat that neither team can substitute a member, obviously hoping that it will be a defacto handicap match. Isn’t SuperBrawl almost exactly three weeks out, though? Clark will probably make it back in time, at least from a kayfabe perspective based on what the announcers are saying about his injuries. Anyway, CEO Flair cackles at such a devious idea and then books it. OK, let’s get this belt off of Shane Douglas. At least Rick Steiner will recklessly kill young boys for the next six weeks, which is at least potentially entertaining. Rick Steiner is actually quite over as a babyface, so turning him heel is probably a mistake at this point. This fraud Douglas has a cast on his wrist to augment his strikes, but he’s still just Shane Douglas, so it’s not going to win him this match. Neither are these chair shots. The thing about it is that Rick Steiner’s mental function is already so low that these shots aren’t even rattling him. This match sucks, by the way, as should be obvious. Most of this is an extremely slow wandering brawl. When it gets back into the ring, it’s better, but that’s not saying much. Ricky kicks out of a cast shot and a Franchiser, then wins the gold shortly after with a DVD. I watch Rick Steiner strap on the gold and wish it were Scott Norton in his place. Steiner fucks up his own catchphrase after the match: YOU KNOW HOW IT GOES! YOU WANT ME—YOU WANT SOME? COME GET SOME. Pair Ricky Steiner and Major Gunns together as a power couple who can’t say their own catchphrases properly, please. Just for funsies! It’s not like this show will exist in two months anyway [Editor's note: There was no Major Gunns with Team Canada tonight, so I checked and she was released in February. Missed opportunity!]. Boy, this Nitro has harkened back to the bad old days from May 1999 to mid-October 2000 so far. Let’s pick it up, WCW. Chavo Jr. and CEO Flair talk each other up in the CEO’s office; CEO Flair promises Chavo Jr. an elite opponent for tonight whom he and Chavo Sr. have personally scouted, but he’s distracted when his monitor shows the image of Dustin Rhodes walking onto the ramp. He takes off to confront Rhodes the Younger. Meanwhile, Dustin gets a decent reaction, but we are in Tupelo, so I'd guess that they’re more likely to recognize those early ‘90s WCW stars. Dustin gets completely lost in there while talking, awkwardly pauses a few times, cribs his Goldust catchphrase, and then is saved by CEO Flair popping up on the TurnerTron and going into conniptions while firing Dustin and demanding his removal. CUT THE TRUCK, CEO Flair yells, so they do. When we come back from break, they show a replay of his removal, but that gets cut, too. I actually think the idea for portraying CEO Flair as a power-hungry nut is neat, but probably it wasn’t done with the right guy – no one really cares about 2000 Dustin Rhodes – and at the right point in this show. I also feel robbed because I was hoping that Dusty would show up, but I suppose that won’t be happening tonight. Diamond Dallas Page is next up to face Scott Steiner. This, if I recall correctly, is also our main event at WCW Greed. That’s not the worst way to close out the final WCW PPV. This matchup is pretty good, too! They work really quickly, and Page avoids Midajah’s feeble attempts to grab his ankle to dominate early. The match goes outside the ring, which is probably a mistake on Page’s part from a kayfabe standpoint; in fact, he briefly loses control of the bout here, but is able to take over and dump Steiner in the ring. Page goes up to follow him in with a diving lariat, but Midajah manages to somewhat less feebly trip Page as he stands on the top rope. Steiner takes over from here, but he does an awkward pose as he pins DDP and gets rolled up for two; Steiner kicks out and gets back on top with an inverted atomic drop and a rib breaker for two. Clothesline, elbowdrop, pushups, and Steiner’s mouth is busted open. Page continues to score flares of offensive activity, but Steiner manages a belly-to-belly to stop one flare. It only gets a two count, so Steiner clubs ref Billy Silverman down before turning around and getting hit with a floatover Diamond Cutter. Silverman calls for a DQ victory for Page. As Page escapes through the crowd, Jeff Jarrett and CHRIS KANYON jump him and stomp him out. Wooo, Kanyon is back! It’s nice that they didn’t forget how much Page and Kanyon detest one another, by the way. Back in the ring, Steiner sells that the Diamond Cutter rang his bell. After a break, the babyfaces help DDP into the hallway, where he sells a kidney injury and gets some help from a trainer. Jeff Jarrett and Kanyon flee the scene in a limo. Alright, so Chavo Jr. is going to wrestle the body-suited El Nino. Not El Niño. El Nino. I don’t want any of you Spanish speakers thinking I fucked this up when it was WCW that fucked it up. I fuck up a lot of things, as I am finding as I edit these earlier reviews yet again, and I refuse to take heat for the stuff that isn’t my fault. So, as soon as El Nino – not El Niño – takes a bump, that combined with his height reveals that it’s Rey Misterio Jr. in the suit. Misterio tried to hide himself by moving differently on his entrance, but once the match started, it was obvious. I think this sort of gimmick only works when you hide the guy in a multi-man match. Like, I had no chance to even register that Ciclope was actually Dean Malenko because in a battle royal, a) you can mostly just punch dudes, which makes it easier not to reveal yourself and b) there was so much to focus on that I wasn’t laser-focused on Ciclope. And I suppose that c) Ciclope being an established worker on the show already definitely helped. Anyway, Rey and Chavo have a decent television match, as you’d guess they would, but why are we giving away another PPV match two weeks before it actually happens on the PPV? Strange. The bottom half of Rey’s mask comes loose, so yeah, that’s another strike against this whole deal. How do Tony S. and Scott Hudson not notice that it’s Rey? Chavo is a good base for Rey’s offense. The commentators finally figure out Rey's ruse at the point where Rey lands a bulldog and a springboard dropkick for three. Rey pulls off the mask, celebrates a bit, and then metaphorically spikes the football by dodging an angry Chavo Jr. and then landing a Bronco Buster. Solid match, but I didn’t like the execution of the gimmick-slash-angle at all. Lance Storm (w/Mike Awesome) and Team Canada are in good with CEO Ric Flair, and Storm takes some time before his match to remind everyone that he supports the CEO in all his endeavors. Then, he asserts that after he beats the Cat at SuperBrawl, he will be WCW’s first Canadian Commissioner. Nice try, Storm, but you won’t make me forget those horrible days when Roddy Piper was in charge. The Cat responds on the TurnerTron: He books Storm and Awesome against Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo for RIGHT NOW. This seems like it’ll be pretty fun, and yeah, it is. O’Haire throws some terrible chops, though. My gosh. Throw a forearm instead, please, and lay it in. Anyway, I like watching big dudes punch and release suplex one another and do the occasional dive, so this is enjoyable stuff. Palumbo does a Chris Jericho-style corner springboard dropkick at about the same level of smoothness that actual Chris Jericho did it at the time, which is impressive for a guy that big (and entirely unimpressive for a guy Jericho’s size). Lance Storm, as the smallest guy in the ring, ends up taking quite a bit of punishment from the (former?) Thrillers members. Storm hits an eye poke like our previous Canadian commissioner, but runs himself right into a huge powerslam and re-thinks his strategy. He tries a flash pin for two, but gets up and is put back down by a Palumbo overhand right. Weirdly enough, the (former?) Thrillers are working like the heels, bullying Storm, doing a little light illegal double-teaming behind the ref’s back, and keeping him as the guy in peril. Since Tupelo isn’t a fan of people from the United States – especially ones proud to be from somewhere else – this match doesn’t really get the reaction that the work warrants. Storm finally tags out, but Awesome struggles against the (former?) Thrillers until he bails himself out with a springboard back elbow that he practically yells out is coming before the spot actually happens. Shortly after that, the match breaks down and in a stupid spot, Awesome gets whipped into Storm, and Storm blindly rolls through the collision and locks a Canadian Maple Leaf on his own partner. That was just awkward, man. Anyway, shortly after Storm finally realizes his mistake, he is ejected from the ring with extreme prejudice, and Awesome is easy pickings for the champs. A Jungle Kick/Seanton Bomb combo puts him away. Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak watch this dominating performance on a monitor backstage and try to convince themselves that they’ll be winning the titles at SuperBrawl, but honestly from a kayfabe standpoint, that match made Palumbo and O’Haire look a clear level or two above their former tag partners. Well, the show stabilized a bit, and I’ll tell you that Palumbo and O’Haire are at the point where they’re a clear and constant positive in-ring and have the ability to go out there and perk up a mediocre show by having a good tag match at will. That makes this Brian Adams/Buff Bagwell match that follows it easier to live with. DDP, Scott Steiner, Chavo, Rey, Awesome, Storm, Palumbo, and O’Haire really saved this show from putting up January of 2000 numbers in the final rating. Buff and Adams have a watchable match even though Buff puts on one of his shitty chinlocks at one point. It’s not as bad as Bam Bam’s chinlocks, but it’s not that far off. Adams makes a comeback after that chinlock, so Lex Luger walks out to help his buddy Buff, but Bryan Clark hops out of the crowd and cuts him off. Clark and Luger brawl outside the ring while Buff tries to finish off Adams inside the ring. Road Warrior Animal blindsides Clark, which frees Luger up. I’m fairly certain that the timekeeper fucks the finish up by calling for the bell before Luger gets in the ring and causes the DQ; Mickey Jay freezes for what feels like a long second, then points at his watch like there was a time limit on this match. Not the best save – when are there ever time limits on random matches between heavyweights? – but look, you work within the parameters that you have, and WCW’s parameters are often fucked. CEO Flair is worried about Scott Steiner’s ability to win in tonight's main event, but Scott Steiner isn’t worried. He indicates that he's not worried because of his peaks, but he's also probably not worried because he's got his idiotic brother in his back pocket. Brian Adams should not be allowed to talk, but alas! Here he is, cutting a bad promo on Totally Buff while Gene Okerlund holds the microphone. Adams challenges Lex Luger to a match on Thunder. OK, sure, that's a suboptimal match, but I can live with it. Maybe Luger will have some funny facial expressions and beg off in a way that makes me chuckle. Let’s have a Nitro Special of a main event! Scott Steiner (w/Midajah) defends both the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and Ric Flair’s CEO position against Kevin Nash and Rick Steiner. You know the drill: The Steiner Brothers are back together! Again! They beat each other up a bit first to make it look legit or something. I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t you immediately backjump Nash if you were in their position? Anyway, Nash looks like he might win it after a Jackknife but Rick Steiner drops an elbow on him as he covers and that's enough for Scott to get the pinfall and Nash challenges them after the match and then DDP walks down with a chair to help attack the heels and WE’RE OUTTA TIME, FOLKS! That sentence reads more breathlessly than I felt as I watched it all unfold. I wish pro wrestling would put a moratorium on one heavyweight being equal to about three cruiserweights or overly-complicated finishes. This show would have been badly helped by ditching those particular wrestling tropes. 1.75 out of 5 Stinger Splashes.

The most offensive pricing in the whole presentation was making their tech demo for the console a paid game in a post- "Astro's Playroom as a free PS5 pack-in" world.

That's been true for a while. NBA 2K on Switch, for example, is partial download, and a number of smaller games on cart at retail are keyed to download completely.

I'll pay the extra thirty bucks for physical because I prefer it. Nintendo games hold re-sell value anyway.

No price info, huh? People who grew up on N64 are losing their minds over a new 3D Donkey Kong, that is for sure.

Watching through these Botchamanias makes me I think I'd like Excalibur, Taz(z), and Tony S. to commentate everything all the time.

Since we're at the end of the month anyway, I will go ahead and suggest that the more pertinent question is whether or not Natural was using the word "fucking" as an interjection or a verb.

I wonder if there is one in the Meltzer newsletter era, then.

I'm surprised that the Bushwhackers aren't in the WWE HoF.

Thunder Interlude – show number one hundred and forty-six – 31 January 2001 "The WCW Gang attempts to put on a solid show, careens wildly between 'good' and 'kinda stinks,' but is okay in the end" The Thunder intro seems a bit different this week, too, maybe?...I think they’ve reshuffled the sequence a bit…There’s no more Tank Abbott or Juventud Guerrera, to be sure, but were they taken out earlier or not?...I think I see more Sean O’Haire in this opening as well, so let’s just call it a reshuffle… Shane Helms should be in Thunder openers for the rest of WCW’s existence as a Turner entity, in my opinion…His opponent is Billy Kidman (w/Tygress)…We get flashbacks to last week’s Gauntlet Match to show highlights for both men…Note that Kidman knocked Helms out of the match last week…Tony S. mentions a ten-minute time limit almost off-handedly, so I’m guessing that we’re going to get a time-limit draw and a rematch at SuperBrawl...Yeah, Tony S. is now pushing that these two are the next men up for a shot at cruiserweight gold… Would you believe it, but these fellas have an enjoyable and energetic opener…Helms even takes a bump over the guardrail…Kidman follows with a springboard dive over the rail and onto Helms…Helms reels off a run of offense back in the ring after turning things around with a big knee out of TKO position…Kidman sneaks a schoolboy for two in there, but Helms controls with a front facelock and then a regular old chinlock…Well, they can’t run for ten minutes straight, right?...Helms at least switches it up, moving to a headscissors…I like this way of working rest holds…It reminds me of how Ultimo Dragon would transition from hold to hold because if one wasn’t getting a submission, another might… Kidman back suplexes his way out of trouble, but eats a shoulderbreaker and is then locked in a weird-looking underhook chicken wing…He fights out of that and trades rights with Helms…After winning that battle, Kidman manages a Sky High for two…Kidman next tries a lariat that initiates a series of counters which finally ends with Helms blocking a superplex and hitting a super front suplex, then diving onto Kidman with a sunset flip that only gets two…Helms, hunting victory, sets Kidman up for a Nightmare on Helms Street, but Kidman twists out of that and reverses into gourdbuster position, which he successfully executes…Kidman attempts a Kid Krusher, but helps reverses into a Vertebreaker that Kidman hops out of…They both hop out of back suplex attempts and end up in the corner after Helms hoists Kidman up top, then uses that leverage to once again put him in Vertebreaker position and this time drop him for three…I really liked this!...I actually sort of wish it did go to time limit, though, as now I wonder what Helms and Kidman will be doing at SuperBrawl…They both need to be on that card… Scott Steiner (w/Midajah) was barely on Nitro, which I suppose is because they wanted to save an appearance or two for Thunder and not burn the crowd out on him…Steiner runs down Dustin Rhodes’s decision to go against the CEO with a nice line, and I quote: “Dustin Rhodes, Ric Flair made you an offer that quite frankly, I don’t think you deserved. And now that you’ve listened to your father, you have no job, no career, no American Dream”… C’mon, that’s a cold line…Steiner rips up Dustin’s contract to punctuate his point. After that, Steiner says that Nash looks pretty confident to go against him, but he notes that Sting, Booker, and Sid were all confident before they wrestled him as well…He also claims that Goldberg knew better than to even try to fight him…Steiner is cutting a really good promo right now: “So Kevin Nash, I’m gonna tell you to change your strategy, change your gameplan. Stop thinking about winning and think about surviving”…I mean, it really is too bad that this guy was an incorrigible douche with a lengthy injury history because they needed to rocket him to the top earlier…Yes, I know I’ve said this many times before, but it’s made more apparent with each show… KroniK interrupts Scott Steiner, and let’s just say that Brian Adams comes up with a response that makes me once again wish someone would stick a manager with these guys to do all the talking…Anyway, they offer a challenge to Steiner, who points out that he has backup with him just as Totally Buff jumps KroniK in the aisle…Rick Steiner wanders onto the ramp to check things out, but Jeff Jarrett sneaks up behind and drills Rick with the ol’ EL KABONG…The heels stand tall… After a place where ads would normally be, CEO Flair and his elite celebrate their victory in the previous segment…Jarrett thinks that he’s done a job on Rick Steiner that will keep him out of their match later tonight…They all plan to go visit DDP in the county jail after they’re done terrorizing this show… Spaceman Spiff mentioned that while I shot down (heh, see what I did there, Spaceman Spiff?) that Starrcade 2000 opener, he saw it as a “man, what if” sort of match…I agree completely about that…Shane Helms especially would have been better off in WCW had it kept existing, but Shannon Moore, Jamie (K)noble, and Kaz Hayashi are also “what-ifs” for me…I know that the latter two did some stuff in Ring of Honor and All Japan that people enjoyed, but still…There’s another guy coming to the ring right now who I don’t see as a big “what if,” but whose career really hinged on WCW continuing to exist, and that’s Lash LeRoux…I actually think that the only guy to come out of the Misfits in Action better off than when he went into it is Chavo Jr….It’s especially wild that the MIA was created to get Hugh Morrus over and completely failed to do that…Lash seems completely lost in the shuffle at this point, but who knows how he would have been deployed in Fusient’s WCW...I think there probably would have been a fairly prominent place in the cruiserweight division for him… As it is right now, Lash is just here to get Twin Magic’d by one or both of the Harris Bros….I don’t get why these two are still on television…One of them talks about having a doctor’s note, and I don’t give a shit…Just hurry up and get this over with…The ref draws an X on one of their hands to keep them separate, but then he drops the marker and the other one gets hold of it…Why is television time being spent on this shit?...Anyway, you know how this ends…It goes on entirely too long before it does, though…There’s an audible BOOOOORING chant for a huge chunk of this segment…It’s not quite bad enough to make a bad list, but the Harris Brothers’ Twin Magic gimmick might just earn itself a spot as a whole if it goes on much longer… Wow, Gene Okerlund interview segments are allowed on these Network versions of Thunder episodes?...Actually, this is the longest Thunder episode on the Network since maybe November, so maybe they cut out less than they normally have been…Okerlund asks Palumbo and O’Haire why their buddies Stasiak and Jindrak are all aggy…Palumbo thinks that it’s a case of professional jealousy…O’Haire, who is a more than a little goofy in his delivery and needs to be produced by the WWF to come off as threatening rather than somewhat corny, suggests that they have an all-Thrillers tag title match…Mike Sanders views this on a monitor backstage…He looks worried, but CEO Flair walks up to reassure him…The CEO has booked Sanders against Konnan to help train him at getting out of jams by being wily and out-thinking everyone else… Norman Smiley is another guy who was hurt by WCW going under, though I’m not sure that WCW was ever going to use him well anyway…Maybe he’s better off working as a trainer for the WWF, but we lost out on a lot of awesome Smiley matches…I again apologize for repeating myself, but the WCW World Television Championship was made for a guy like Smiley…I don’t know why Russo was so hellbent on getting rid of that belt…Actually, since it was a belt made for a good worker to have solid ten-minute matches on all the weekly shows, I do know why Russo was so hellbent on getting rid of it, come to think of it further… Anyway, Smiley gets mauled by Bam Bam Bigelow…Norm desperately wants Glacier to get out here and give him a bit of inspiration…That doesn’t happen, though Norm does manage to dropkick a chair into Bammer’s face…Smiley gets some momentum, but is gently Boss Man Slam’d…Glacier finally walks down the ramp as Bigelow lands a Greetings from Asbury Park and scores a three count…Tony S. is disgusted at the front row fan holding a GLACIER IS MY HERO sign, hahaha…Glacier only hops in the ring after Bigelow is long gone, of course, and then reiterates his continuing support of Smiley before doing his routine while Norm writhes in pain on the mat… Jeff Jarrett always talks before his matches for reasons that I still can’t quite grasp…He never says anything memorable… Jeff Jarrett “Slapnuts/Slapass” Count: 2…Jarrett wants ref Mickey Jay to count Rick Steiner out if Ricky can’t make it out here for the match, but Steiner doesn’t have a brain to concuss, so he’s out here to wrestle Jarrett before the count of six…Jarrett jumps the elder Steiner as he comes through the ropes, but it’s not enough to stop him from getting worked in an obligabrawl by Ricky…Back in the ring, Jarrett and Steiner proceed to have a decent match…There is, of course, a ref bump when Jarrett nails Jay with a forearm…Shane Douglas tries to interfere, but accidentally hits Jarrett with a chain-assisted punch…Steiner clears out Douglas and puts Jarrett down for the count with a DVD as Jay recovers and counts three…WANT SOME, COME GET SOME, etc., after the match… Kwee Wee (w/Paisley) beats up jobber Scotty O…Paisley is GORGEOUS tonight…I’m settling down, I promise!...CEO Flair is never going to notice your punk ass, Kwee Wee, so stop trying…Apparently, Scotty O. laughed at Kwee Wee backstage in some cut content because Kwee Wee tells him to try that shit again…Scotty O. does, which brings out Angry Allan to squash him…Scotty gets a boot up on a corner charge in there, but otherwise, he’s cooked…Kwee Wee ends a slightly-too-extended squash with a piledriver that scores a three count…Kwee Wee sure hopes that this performance convinced CEO Flair, but I’m not sure the CEO even knows that this guy exists… Let’s get some tag action going…The Mamalukes wrestle Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire as Tenay narrates the wrong B-roll footage (it’s supposed to be of last week’s DQ win over Stasiak and Jindrak, but it’s actually of KroniK winning last week’s Thunder main event)…I will say that I agree with whoever posted in this thread that they like Palumbo’s punches…He does throw a sweet right hand…This is a solid match…It goes back and forth, with the current tag champs and the former tag champs trading offense…I don’t know if it was laid out like this on purpose, but the Mamalukes derive their early advantage from dominating with double-team moves, which makes sense since they’ve tagged together longer…I don’t think the champs get a double-team move in until they are able to sneak one behind the ref’s back… If you take someone by their legs on a leapover and slam them back-first to the mat, is that a spinebuster or a flapjack?...I ask because Palumbo kills a Johnny the Bull leapover in this way…Either way, that move finally puts the Bull in FIP jail…Not for long, though!...The Bull quickly works out of a sleeper with a back suplex and scores a hot tag…Vito reels off a series of moves on the champs…I’d say the match breaks down, but it never exactly gets back into order after the hot tag…The Bull and O’Haire brawl at ringside while Vito drops a Savage Elbow on Palumbo for two…Vito tries to follow up with a Mafia Kick, but Palumbo ducks it and drills Vito with a Jungle Kick…O’Haire has dispatched of the Bull in the meantime…He’s able to leap to the top rope and follow with a Seanton Bomb on Vito, then cover for three...That was a good time… After the bout, here come Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak…Stasiak mockingly congratulates the winners before claiming that they deserve a title shot on account of having carried their former partners to gold in the past…These teams proceed to be awful at working a mic, but look, it’s okay…The point is that the tag title challenge is made for SuperBrawl…Stasiak and Jindrak pretend to walk away, but everyone sort of fucks up the spot, so they telegraph that they’re going to jump them before they’re actually supposed to…Anyway, the champs deposit the challengers outside the ring with extreme prejudice… We missed something because Konnan (w/Tygress) is supposed to be wrestling Mike Sanders, but Tony S. intimates that Sanders won’t be in this match…Konnan informs us via his opening mic work that Sanders outsourced his in-ring work to Reno at some point earlier tonight…If you want to know how this match is going, just imagine Konnan and Reno doing V E R Y S L O W mat work to start…That’s pretty much an indicator for this whole deal…Konnan is V E R Y S L O W and A W K W A R D, which puts a hard cap on this match…At least it’s short…Konnan wins it with a Tequila Sunrise…Mike Sanders walks out to the top of the ramp and draws Konnan’s attention…Reno tapped out immediately for the purpose of jumping Konnan and hitting a Roll of the Dice…Uh, okay…Losing a match is apparently how to be the NEW DIRTIEST PLAYER IN THE GAME in Sanders’s mind, I guess… This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder: Even before the opening montage, the Cat gives Rick Steiner another U.S. Championship shot at SuperBrawl, but he asks Steiner to keep it on the down low…I mean, CEO Flair can just watch a recording of this show and find out about it, but whatever…Scotty O. insults Kwee Wee and is in turn challenged to a match later in the show…CEO Flair’s Elite (minus Totally Buff) leaves for a trip to the local jail…Mike Sanders switches up the participants in the Konnan bout… Totally Buff meets KroniK in tonight’s main event…This is very brief because we still have that jailhouse segment to get to…Basically, KroniK tosses Bagwell around (Buff, after taking a gutbuster: AWWWW SHIIIIT)…Luger doesn’t fare much better until Buff is able to help out with a bit of light cheating from his spot on the apron…Bryan Clark does a bit of selling while in peril, but that comes to an end pretty quickly…Adams gets a hot tag, and eventually he and Clark set up Luger for a High Times…Buff clips Adams’s knee…Luger and Clark fight along the railing, but Road Warrior Animal has actually stuck around and hits Clark with a chair from a spot in the crowd…Adams is left alone to try and survive, but he can’t hang on long enough for Clark to make it back to the ring…Buff manages to land a Blockbuster and score three… We end Thunder with our little jailhouse visit…DDP has already made bail, so Scotty Steiner threatens to beat the cop at the front desk with a lead pipe…The heels go check out the cell…Page left a note behind to mock Jarrett…Of course, another cop comes up and slams the door on all of them, telling them that they’ll need good lawyers…I mean, this was hokey as hell, but at least a babyface got one over on the heels to end the show… This was one of the more uneven Thunders lately, but it was still generally easy to watch…WOO…

At home with a heart issue until later in 2001, based on what I can tell.

Show #275 – 29 January 2001 "The one that wisely brings the eternal Dusty/Flair feud into a new millennium" They have switched up some of this Nitro intro as we head out of January, including more Sean O’Haire and a lot more Crowbar, if I’m seeing right. I see that I was wrong a few reviews ago: Tom Brady and the Patriots won next year – right, that was the 9/11 season – and oh yeah, Trent Dilfer was carried by his elite defense headed by Ray Lewis and Ed Reed to a Super Bowl victory to cap off the 2000/01 NFL season. We’re in Baltimore tonight, and it's almost needless to say that there are quite a few Ravens jerseys visible in the crowd pan. Jamie (K)noble wrestles Shannon Moore, Elix Skipper, and Jimmy Yang (w/Leia Meow) in a Four Corners match, which would be good except that there are tags, which makes it bad. My enthusiasm for this bout has been dampened. Everyone does many dives and counters to start, but man, I don’t get why WCW had three hot Four Corners bouts in the spring of 1999 in which all four men were legal at the same time from the jump and then went away from that style of Four Corners bout again. Who is even legal now? All four men are in the ring and attempting pinfalls that are being legally counted. Shannon Moore fucks up a spot while trying to use Skipper as a step stool, so he makes up for it by taking a mean back bump all the way to the floor. That sets off another round of dives to the floor. Baltimore, feeling themselves, chants NEW YORK SUCKS. This show actually could use Vince Russo, who I’d hope would have the wherewithal to tell this crowd that he doesn’t care about the Super Bowl because he’s a Jets fan anyways. Wait, what am I saying; this show couldn’t use Vince Russo at all. No wrestling show could. Meanwhile, the rules of this match that were set out at the start don’t matter anymore. Shannon Moore lands a Super Showstopper on Noble while Skipper and Yang are indisposed at ringside; that move gets three. That was a nice, mindless MOVEZ exhibition to start this show. CEO Ric Flair and Road Warrior Animal are here for the CEO’s weekly proclamation. The CEO tries to show the camera the Armani label on his tie before he gets in the ring and attempts to heel on the Ravens. It’s weak heeling. He finally moves on to complaining about Commissioner Cat; he’s going to send opponent after opponent after the Cat in matches for the commissionership, which honestly, I almost hope the Cat loses because they need to retire that position already. The CEO moves on and, can you believe this, pillories Nash and Page for being hungover and maybe even still a bit drunk at Thunder. Now, that’s heel hypocrisy! He shows selective footage of Page and Nash laid out last week on the TurnerTron, which he pretends is proof of his accusation. CEO Flair feels that this sort of behavior is a demerit against Nash’s status as a number one contender, so he books the big man against Totally Buff in a handicap match to keep that number one contender’s position; any interference on Nash’s behalf, the CEO declares, will lose him that title shot. We cut to Nash tossing stuff around in anger in his dressing room. Finally, Flair addresses a WCW contract that he’s been holding the whole promo. He says that he’s going to offer someone an important opportunity to join his team, but he doesn’t say who that person will be; instead, he heads back down the ramp and to his office, WOOing and claiming that he will sleep with many of the mothers of the fans in this crowd all the while. Promo: SuperBrawl: Revenge is coming, and it’s probably going to be pretty good! Bischoff really settled on Tony S. and Scott Hudson as his Nitro team going forward in the short term? Insanity. This is a mediocre team on its best day [EDITOR'S NOTE: Hudson was flat-out awful all night once again in my humble opinion]. Tony S./Tenay is somewhat better on commentary over on Thunder, but I would hope-slash-assume that Bischoff was planning on Tony S./ almost anyone else for the Nitro reboot that he was planning. Jeff Jarrett does a classic Aaron Sorkin-style walk-‘n-talk with CEO Flair and Road Warrior Animal; he wants DDP on Nitro tonight, but CEO Flair wants him to wait for the PPV. Jarrett is an irritable guy though, so he refuses. Some unconvincing WCW tech awkwardly bumps into Midajah and even more awkwardly checks on her just so that Scott Steiner can do his shitty leg breaking maneuver with the pipe. The tech, woodenly: AW, MY LEG. Let’s stop it with the bad pipe leg breaking deal, WCW creative team. It’s not working for me. Commissioner Cat (w/Ms. Jones) defends his commissionership next; why wouldn’t he use the power of his commissionership to alter the match rules as he goes along to counter CEO Flair? Oh, here we go, he gets on the mic and says that if anyone comes out here along with his opponent, they’re suspended for thirty days. OK, that’s fine, I guess, but the issue is that CEO Flair would immediately reverse that suspension after the Cat lost. Sean Stasiak comes out here with Mark Jindrak; Stasiak is allowed to talk for some reason; he's the Cat's opponent and says that when he becomes commissioner after winning this match, he’s giving himself and Jindrak – who “carried those damn teams anyway” – a tag title shot at SuperBrawl. Boy, this is a sudden breakup of the Thrillers, which is a shame. They’ve been together long enough that something more long-term in the build to the breakup was probably needed. As Stasiak tries to get the catchphrase AW, DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT over, you and I both know that shit would never have happened even if WCW stuck around for a million billion years. Ms. Jones gets so agitated by his shitty stick work that she kicks him right in the head; the bell rings, and we cut to a monitor, where an unhappy Palumbo and O’Haire are annoyed with Stasiak’s pre-match boasting. As for this match, it’s Stasiak/Cat, so it’s not good or anything, but they try hard, have an entertaining obligabrawl with a couple of spots around the commentary table, and then work a solid finishing run. There are a couple of close two-counts, the Cat stuffing a sunset flip with a hip swivel and a chop, and a Stasiak counter of a Feliner with a nice lariat. Can Stasiak actually put the Cat away and become commissioner? No. He whiffs on a senton splash from the top and gets drilled with a Feliner for three. I mean, maybe it was kinda good, actually? I enjoyed it well enough, at least. Bumper: Nash vs. Totally Buff, later tonight and a Randy Savage sighting in a Slim Jim commercial. Hugh Morrus jumps THE WALL, BROTHER as TW,B stands sentinel outside Chavo Jr.’s locker room. He tosses TW,B right through the door itself, cracking it into splinters, and laughs maniacally as he leaves. Chavo Jr. hears the noise and finds his bodyguard decimated. Well, not literally. He hasn’t lost ten percent of his bodily functionality. But you know what I mean. Supreme toady Mike Sanders tells Crowbar that he’s blown his chances to join the CEO’s elite team so far, but Sanders has gotten one more chance for Crowbar to impress the elite: a match against Lance Storm. Earlier today: DDP has an autograph signing for his book, and in his WCW debut, AJ Styles DESPERATELY wants to skip to the front of the line. Acting like a dopey frat boy sure does come easily to ol' AJ. Styles tangles with another person in line - Air Paris, I’m thinking, though it’s kinda hard to see his face - but it’s a whole insurance fraud sort of deal where the presumed Paris takes a dive when Page comes over to break things up. Styles loudly claims that Page punched Paris. OK, sure, let’s see where this goes. The guy CEO Flair signed to that contract shows up, but we cut to break before we can see him. When we come back, Chavo Jr. freaks out about not having a tag partner now that THE WALL, BROTHER is incapacitated, but Totally Buff try to settle the guy down. They tell him that they have a partner for him and that he just needs to trust them. If I’ve learned anything from Jake Roberts, whenever a wrestler tells you to trust them (whether as a shoot or in kayfabe), you probably should do the opposite [EDITOR'S NOTE: "Probably" does not mean "definitely!"]. As Gene Okerlund opens his interview with Jeff Jarrett, he reminds Jarrett that CEO Flair has warned Jarrett away from DDP until SuperBrawl. Jarrett blows off Gene's concern trolling and then challenges Page to a fight in the middle of the ring tonight. Billy Kidman and Rey Misterio Jr. (w/Tygress) walk the ramp to face Chavo Guerrero Jr. and someone. Who might that someone be? It turns out to be Road Warrior Animal, actually, which surprises me. Flair's elite didn’t screw over Chavo. Chavo, upon finding out who his partner is, goes from nervous to thrilled in the space of a couple seconds. Still, these are the former WCW World Tag Team Champs in the other corner. They are a formidable foe, and they get off to a quick start against Chavo Jr., culminating in a Misterio springboard legdrop for two. Chavo reverses a whip into the corner and tries to slow things down, but he soon finds himself pancaked, baseball slid right in the groin, and hit with a Bronco Buster. Chavo is in deep trouble; he tries to slow Kidman with chops and European uppercuts, but he runs again, eats a Kidman lariat, and then has to kick out at two after Misterio tags in and immediately scores an Asai moonsault. Discretion is the better part of valor, it finally dawns on Chavo, and he does the Eddy knee scootch over to Animal to hug his leg and get a tag. Now, look, Animal killing these smaller dudes is necessary considering Animal’s role as the heavy in this angle, and Rey and Kidman do some excellent bumping for him, but he should have a bit more trouble with the former tag champs, though they do double up on him, take out his knees, and land a double dropkick to his head. Animal survives that, dispatches of Kidman, and counters a Rey springboard rana attempt with a sitout powerbomb. All that’s left is for him to tag Chavo back in so that Chavo can get an easy three count. That match was fun as hell, I must say. I think this counts as a WCW-ass WCW matchup, too, so it sits right in the center of that awesome Venn diagram that charts good matches and WCW-ass WCW matchups. Outro tease: Who will sign with CEO Ric Flair's elite group? Outro reminder: CEO Flair has stacked the deck against Kevin Nash…again. I see that Bischoff being back in charge of these shows has led to all these outros and bumpers coming back. Bisch really liked using them in 1995 and then updated them and put them back in the rotation in 1999 when they changed to the new logo and set, so I’m not surprised that they’re back once more. CEO Ric Flair (sans Road Warrior Animal) re-enters the ring to unveil the CEO's new signing. Speaking of Road Warrior Animal, after his reveal at Sin, my expectations are extremely low. But wait! CEO Flair leapt right over that low bar by bringing out Dustin Rhodes! Well, I know that Rhodes and Flair end up feuding, so this alliance won’t last long. Our crooked CEO harasses Scott Hudson for a pen while Rhodes peruses the contract and endures a few GOOOOOOOOOLDUST chants. Maybe those chants put him in a bad mood because he informs the CEO that he thinks the CEO is an unworthy partner, much as his father does. The CEO suggests that Rhodes leave the ring immediately rather than put hands on him, which of course leads Rhodes to put hands on him. CEO Flair is like, Unhand me, you brute, and Dustin is like, Nay, I shall give you quite the beating, and then here is Road Warrior Animal. Hey, Animal is using Vince Russo’s theme, I just noticed, as he runs to the ring and brawls with Rhodes. Eventually, the numbers game gets to Dustin, but he actually fights back and turns the tide before Animal is able to punt him low. The heels start putting in work on Dustin until papa Dusty Rhodes comes to the ring for the save (and gets a very nice babyface pop besides). I remember some of the online discourse at the time lamenting another Dusty/Flair feud in 2001, but I think this is a poetic feud upon which to wrap up WCW’s existence, and I both enjoyed it on original run and am looking forward to watching it again now. Dusty winds up Bionic Elbows for everyone’s heads while the crowd chants DUSTY DUSTY DUSTY. I wonder if Dusty remembers that when Ric Flair was WCW President rather than WCW CEO, Flair (allegedly) promised him a lead commentary position and then failed to come through on that promise in storyline. Baltimore thinks that RIC FLAIR SUCKS as Flair throws a conniption outside the ring. Dusty says that this feud AIN’T ABOUT [HIM], so I guess he won't be referring to his beef with Ric in '99. Dusty instead indicates that Dustin has been sidelined by the same WCW brass that CEO Flair is buddies with and warns the CEO that the new ownership isn’t going to be having any of that “holding the Rhodes Family back” stuff. He also goes against Eric Bischoff’s directive and drops a cuss when talking about kicking CEO Flair’s ass in Baltimore throughout the ‘80s. Baltimore loves the hell out of Dusty, who is a walking charisma machine. The heels hit the ring again after Dusty dresses them down, and the heels get their asses beat again. That segment ruled. Say what you will about Dusty and Ric, but they can still talk, and when they turn it on even a little bit on the mic, they are compelling. Bumper: More Nash/Totally Buff hype. Lance Storm (w/Team Canada) gives the office of World Championship Wrestling’s CEO his full support. Then, he stands at attention for the Canadian National Anthem, which Crowbar (w/Daffney) figures is a good time to get the jump on him. Alas, the bell has not yet rung, so Mike Awesome and Elix Skipper stomp him out and Storm doesn’t get disqualified for it. Once the bell actually rings, Crowbar and Storm proceed to have a fun little bout. This contest seesaws back and forth; the end comes after a fairly lengthy display of counter wrestling for television. Both men counter into and out of Tombstone piledriver attempts and Crowbar ends that exchange of counters with a reverse DDT. This gets a close two count, as does Crowbar’s follow-up back elbow and springboard splash/springboard moonsault combo. Crowbar is on the hunt for a big win; he even drops that running apron splash to the floor which has to have destroyed his knees by now. Back in the ring, Crowbar stuffs Storm's attempt at multiple Germans and then looks for a super Frankensteiner that is countered (in a fairly ugly spot) into a Canadian Maple Leaf that induces a Crowbar tap out. Ending aside, that was fun stuff. Outro bumper: You can probably guess what’s being hyped for later tonight by now. CEO Ric Flair wants Lance Storm, after that showing, to wrestle the Cat for the position of WCW Commissioner at SuperBrawl. Storm agrees, pleasing the CEO, but that pleasure turns to consternation when Jeff Jarrett walks by and shares his determination to confront DDP tonight no matter that CEO Flair wishes otherwise. Here is Jeff Jarrett now! I’m looking forward to Jarrett/Page, which will probably get about fifteen minutes at SuperBrawl and almost guarantees to be good. However, Jarrett as a character is just so lost in this WCW run. It’s funny that he looked more like a guy who might belong in WCW’s main event in 1997 than he has at any point since he came back to be cemented into that position in 1999. Anyway, Page comes down, but some cops cut him off and cuff him, which explains the whole setup that Styles and Paris were in on earlier. Air Paris is pressing charges, y’all! Jarrett demands that the ref count Page out as the cops lead Page to the county jail. Moments ago: CEO Flair loves the inequitable policing system that is taking DDP to jail for no fucking reason, just like a true heel. HAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Shane Douglas has to defend the WCW United States Championship against Rick Steiner tonight. The Cat apparently booked this match, and CEO Flair probably still hates Douglas deep down, so this match stands! Douglas tries to insult the Ravens, but he can’t effectively heel on a team that just won, you know, the fucking Super Bowl, so his heeling falls flat. Wait, hold on, CEO Flair apparently changed this to a non-title match. Remember how the United States Championship was the least badly booked WCW title in 2000? Well, it’s ending its run in WCW proper (I don’t count the WWF Invasion version) like so: Hugh Morrus > Shane Douglas > Rick Steiner > Booker T., with three title swaps in three months. Bless your hearts, WCW bookers. Rick Steiner walks down here and beats unholy hell out of Douglas. Douglas gains control on an ugly counter inverted atomic drop spot in which he pushed the ref in the way of Rick Steiner to delay Steiner’s dive. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy isn’t this a DQ? They soon fuck up another spot, this time a simple hip toss. Shane Douglas sucks, man. He’s just awful. I don’t see how that second one was Rick Steiner’s fault at all. The earlier spot just seemed like everyone was slightly off. This match is too long. That’s really the issue here. Ricky kicks out of a Pittsburgh Plunge and counters a chain-assisted haymaker with a Steinerline and a diving bulldog for, uh, 2.9. Why are we wasting a kickout on that move, which has been treated like death, on Shane Douglas of all people? Ricky Steiner follows up with a Death Valley Driver (no VR) for three, and no, I am not calling it a Steiner Driver no matter how much you insist upon it, Tony S. and Hudson. Steiner plays call-and-response with the crowd after the match. Outro bumper: It’s almost time for the main event! It’s time for the main event! Totally Buff duels Kevin Nash, with Nash’s title shot at SuperBrawl on the line. I forgot to mention earlier that Totally Buff were wearing Ravens jerseys when they were talking to Chavo Jr. backstage, and they come out here in those jerseys, waving Baltimore Ravens pennants. Lex Luger finally heels on Baltimore's football team properly by passionately arguing that actually the Cleveland Browns won that Super Bowl and that the Colts left town in the first place because Baltimore sucks. Then, he points out that Ray Lewis stabbed a dude to death and shouldn’t have even been able to anchor that championship defense from his home in Cell Block D (true, actually). The Ravens’ Special Teams Coach comes over the railing to confront the heels, but he doesn’t even get on the apron and throw a punch. Finally, a heel actually managed to tick off the crowd by effectively insulting their championship team tonight! By the way, these fellas are complete idiots in the best of ways. Luger: “I’m the Total Package!” Buff: “And I’m Buff!” Luger: “And that’s why we’re called…” Buff, with a stupid look on his face: “TOTALLY…BUFF! **cackles like a dipshit**” Apart from a short period of time right after he injured his neck, Buff should never have been anything but a heel past 1996. After ads, Kevin Nash walks out for this six-minute Nitro Special. It’s not a great match, nor does it need to be. It’s just a short match for Nash to endure punishment and overcome it so that he looks like a threat against Scott Steiner. In fact, Nash avoids a Luger Torture Rack, makes a comeback, and hits Luger with Snake Eyes and a Jackknife. He covers, but Buff Bagwell hits a double-arm DDT on the ref. A new ref comes to the ring, which is good for Nash. On the other hand, Alex Wright is the ref, which is bad for Nash. Wright refuses to count to three and then attacks Nash, but Nash is able to fight him off, dump Luger to ringside, and Jackknife Buff for three. The Cat runs to the ring, having wisely assigned himself as a backup ref, and counts one…two…and Alex Wright yanks him out of the ring. The Cat quickly tosses Wright into the guardrail, then slides right back into the ring and completes the three count. Pretty good gagaful finish, and if Nash is going to kill off dudes in a one-on-two, Buff and Luger are the right guys to kill off. Nash hits a Scott Hall catchphrase to celebrate after the match and then calls out Scott Steiner for a show-ending brawl that we don’t even get to see as the show fades to black, dammit! I wish WCW could have stayed in a Fusient-might-acquire-us holding pattern for a full 2001/2002 season of Nitro on TBS. It might have all fallen apart at some point, but Bischoff overseeing this show again with a fresh look at the television and a clear direction for Nitro's production and presentation and giving generally solid directions to the creative team – establish the cruiserweight division again, mix legends into midcard angles for the older fans in our audience alongside some of the newer faces that are to be pushed – makes for a decent show. The problem is that if Fusient had bought the company and Kellner had given Nitro a spot on TBS for a year to see if it was worth keeping the show for the longer term, Bischoff would surely have brought his old buddy Hulk Hogan back and ruined this very nice moment that WCW is having right now. 3 out of 5 Stinger Splashes.

Thunder Interlude – show number one hundred and forty-five – 24 January 2001 "The WCW Gang is adept at building threats again" A Peacock glitch keeps kicking me back to the page full of 2000 WCW shows on both Nitro and Thunder’s landing pages…Even this app doesn’t want it to end…Let’s Thunder, folks… After our opening, Tony S. welcomes us to another Wednesday night of wrestling on TBS…Wait, is this 2001 or 2025?...Anyway, I guess the “Stevie Ray on commentary” experiment is over, and WCW is worse off for it… Ooh, a Shane Helms/Elix Skipper opener!...No, wait, this is a Gauntlet Match for number one contendership for the cruiserweight title…BOOOO, maybe? [Editor's note: No, it's YAAAAAY]...Helms and Skipper start, and after one is pinned or submits, another contender comes out and takes his place…Skipper and Helms work at the speed of the WWF Royal Rumble game built on NAOMI for arcades and a faithful Dreamcast port…I just wanted to see these two wrestle each other for ten minutes…Helms twists away from a Play of the Day attempt and hoists Skipper up for a vertebreaker that gets three… Evan Karagias is the next guy out…Helms knows that he needs to end it early, so he immediately scores a Vertebreaker for three after Karagias misses a crossbody…Billy Kidman is our next competitor…Helms and Kidman work a series of quick counters…Kidman escapes a Nightmare on Helms Street and gets two on a Sky High…Helms hits an X-Plex (bridging German with arm trap) for two…Kidman and Helms do nice work to reverse into and out of a Kid Krusher > Vertebreaker > Kid Krusher finish that moves Billy Kidman into a match against Jimmy Yang (w/Leia Meow) after a ghost commercial break… This has been pretty enjoyable stuff. I am surprised that Helms isn’t getting a return match against Chavo Jr. at SuperBrawl, though…My memory had them feuding for three months straight, not off and on for three months…What I liked about Helms’s run in this match is that he looked like a threat and really established that Vertebreaker…If I were booking this, I might have flip-flopped Yang and Kidman and had Helms beat Yang with one of the secondary finishers that he’s trying to establish before eating a pinfall… Yang trips Kidman and drives his head into the buckles, giving him control, but Kidman turns things around with a double-underhook sit-out facebuster…They trade close two counts and a series of counters…All of these matches would be interesting ten or fifteen minute matches…The cruiserweight division looks interesting for the first time in a long time…After a struggle on the top rope, Kidman hooks Yang and drops a Super Kid Krusher for three… Jamie (K)noble rushes down the aisle and immediately unloads on Kidman scoring a couple of two counts, but Kidman manages to land a gourdbuster after flipping behind Noble on a slam attempt. Kidman goes up, but Noble is simply too fresh…He quickly recovers, catches Kidman, and lands a Super Frankensteiner for two…They do a fun as hell reversal sequence around swapping in and out of Kid Krushers and jumping Tombstones before Noble wins that battle and lands one of the latter for three…Rey Misterio Jr. (w/Tygress) is the next man out…There are ten men in this thing, by the way…I think Rey is number seven, and I fully expect him to make it to the end, at least…The ace of this division drops Noble with a bulldog and hits a springboard diving headbutt to cap things off and win a pinfall… Alright, I can confirm that I very much like this match…Lash LeRoux is next out, but he doesn’t last long…Rey puts him away with a split-legged moonsault before Mike Tenay can even hype a potential Chavo Jr./Lash grudge match…Here’s Shannon Moore…We’re at nine right now, so there should be one more cruiserweight left after we get a pinfall here…Rey, as the ace of this division, counters a Shannon Moore dropdown attempt and leaps on top of Moore, bridging over for three.. OK, so Kaz Hayashi is the last man out…Kaz buries Rey with a spinning sitout powerbomb for two, but Rey uses his pace against him…He induces Kaz to charge and then dodges...Kaz wraps his shoulder around a post; then, Rey sits Kaz up top and lands a super bulldog for three…This was a really well-booked scramble that accomplished a number of things…It showcased this diverse group of cruisers, established a pecking order, and got a couple of midcarders who they might want to push more later on some shine (Helms winning two straight matchups, Noble getting a pinfall on Kidman and having that be treated like a big deal at the desk)…This is the type of thing that helps people remember this final era of WCW fondly…They’re actually bringing structure and coherence to this division, which we haven’t really had since Nash was put in charge of the booking… Glacier is here to help Norman Smiley find his way in WCW again!...Glacier: “Norman, always remember – I WILL WATCH YOUR BACK”…I was a teenager when I originally saw this, so I will respond to Glacier’s proclamation while watching it here in 2025 by using the colloquialisms of today’s teens: That’s straight cap…Glacier’s cappin’… The Cat and Ms. Jones enter the ring to discuss how he is (kayfabe) building the SuperBrawl card, which honestly sounds (shoot) awesome: Scott Steiner vs. Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett vs. DDP, and Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Rey Misterio Jr….For tonight’s show, the Cat books Jarrett against Hugh Morrus and Steiner/Road Warrior Animal vs. KroniK…The Cat is so proud of the cards that he’s booking that he dances before leaving…We cut to CEO Ric Flair’s office backstage, where he tells everyone in his Elit not to worry because they have a master plan to counter the Cat’s booking…Someone sticks a middle finger right in the camera as the segment ends… OK, I think I hazily recall watching this Thunder on original run now…That Gauntlet Match seemed vaguely familiar as I watched through it, and I definitely remember this Norman Smiley match against Mike Awesome (w/Major Gunns)…Smiley has enough confidence to dance right in front of Awesome, whose face shows consternation before he just decides to lariat this guy…Norm basically gets rolled out here…Awesome lands a bunch of aesthetically pleasing offense, but cannot put Smiley away…Awesome pelts Smiley with punches, but here’s Glacier to watch Norm’s back!... Norm gets so excited to see Glacier that he forgets that Awesome is behind him…Awesome lands a huge release German…Glacier is too busy slapping hands and taking pictures at ringside to even notice that Norm is getting his ass whipped in there…Awesome tosses Norm to the floor right at Glacier’s feet, but Glacier is waving at a few fans and doesn’t notice…I mean, I love this dumb angle…Glacier is busy shaking hands with Tenay and Tony S. while Norm fights for his life...Norm is again distracted as he begs Glacier for help, so Awesome simply plants himself up top, drops a diving lariat, and then scores an Awesome Bomb for three… After the match, as Awesome is all the way back up the ramp, Glacier jumps in the ring and strikes a battle pose…He’s all like YEAH, YOU BETTER RUN…Then, he congratulates himself for watching Norm’s back and does his whole kata routine, I think is what you call it…Smiley tries to get Glacier to help him up, but Glacier shoves him away so that he can continue his routine…I don’t care what anyone says…I unabashedly love this soon-to-be-aborted angle… Totally Buff runs down Crowbar for losing to Chavo Jr….That’s not elite, dammit!...But they offer Crowbar one more chance tonight…They encourage him as he walks off, then immediately shit-talk him as he leaves…Luger is not a fan of Crowbar’s look, which is almost needless to say… Alright, we have Kwee Wee and not Angry Allan tonight…He’s all lovey-dovey with Paisley…Kwee Wee still wants to be part of CEO Flair’s Elite…He offers an open challengeanyone in the audience…Some plant in a Goldberg shirt wants to take the challenge…Kwee Wee goes all Angry Allan and beats the shit out of this fan while Paisley pleads for him to stop…I don’t think this fella's character work is quite good enough to pull off the dissociative identity disorder gimmick…I don’t hate the idea itself, but it’s not right for him as a performer…I don’t buy it when his personality changes at all… Next up: Jeff Jarrett KABONGs Hugh Morrus, probably, which is going to give the big guy another (kayfabe, this time) concussion…Tony S. teases the unnamed Eric Bischoff’s plans on commentary by asking no one in particular what the new ownership thinks about all the KABONGINGs and then musing on what they must think about this Goldberg forced retirement deal…Maybe they might want to address that issue, Tony S. ponders...Meanwhile, Jarrett cuts a mediocre promo before the mach…Apparently, in stuff we missed on his show, Morrus attacked Jarrett backstage…We’ll collect any and all cuts together in a list later on in this review… This match is a cromulent televised bout…Morrus takes advantage early, so Jarrett baits him into an obligabrawl outside the ring…Jarrett kicks his ass, even jabbing him in the ribs with a chair...Jarrett continues his assault inside the ring, stuffing a couple of Morrus comeback attempts with quick counterattacks…Morrus gets a boot up on a diving fist and finally gets a comeback to stick…He goes up and drops an elbow as THE WALL, BROTHER sneaks his way down to the ringside area…TW,B tries another chokeslam as Morrus goes up for a No Laughing Matter, but Morrus blocks it…However, he doesn’t block a chokeslam that the ref doesn’t see because he's wrenching Jarrett’s guitar away from him…Jarrett’s like, OK, fine, ref, I’ll put down the guitar; you’ve convinced me that this is wrong and an unsporting thing to smash my opponent with, then simply walks over and drills a down-and-out Morrus with a Stroke for three…The heels prepare a Morrus KABONGing, but DDP runs in from the crowd and makes the save…Aw, I wanted to see Morrus get KABONG’d, dammit!... There’s a Tenay interview that addresses Sid’s injury that I bet the morons at the WWE Network cut from this Thunder of episode…I am interested in that…Crowbar (w/Daffney) wrestles Da/oR (w/Ra/oD)…You can guess what happens in this match…Wait, before the match…Daffney: *screams into a (broken, or the spot would have been even better) megaphone*…Ra/oD: *walks over to rip that megaphone out of her hand and stomp on it*…Daffney: *screams even louder, runs away*…My comparatively dull description doesn’t do justice how funny I found that little spot…Daffney does her little call-and-response spot where she screams at the crowd and the kids in the crowd scream back…I just really like Daffney…She’s a fun character…Oh yeah, the match…Crowbar gets killed, makes a comeback, gets Twin Magic’d, takes the L…Just as you probably guessed… Here is Bam Bam Bigelow for a match against Rick Steiner…Ugh…Honestly, this is fine for what it is…It’s not good, but Steiner throws a mean forearm in there…Bigelow sells the shot throughout the match, though he probably doesn’t need to sell it all that much…OK, there’s a neat spot where Steiner hoists Bigelow into an overhead suplex…Yeah, this match is just fine and didn’t deserve my initial ugh reaction…Steiner eventually finishes Bammer with a couple of DDTs and a diving bulldog from the top…He threatens CEO Flair after the match… The heels come out of a dressing room, having given someone the business…When the Cat walks up to see what’s going on, CEO Flair pretends to mollify him…While he’s pretending to do that, he slips some brass knucks on and sucker punches the Cat…The camera shows us that the Insiders have been laid out…After a ghost break, Rick Steiner and KroniK are checking on the Insiders…Steiner tells KroniK to go to the ring for their main event, and he’ll watch over the fallen Insiders…KroniK leaves, and that’s when Shane Douglas pops in and hits a chain-assisted rabbit punch on Steiner… This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder: Jeff Jarrett makes fun of Hugh Morrus for being a sad sack fruit booty; Morrus responds by attacking Jarrett…Shane Douglas asks Bam Bam Bigelow to take Rick Steiner down, saying that he’ll put in a good word for Bammer with CEO Flair if Bammer pulls it off…Gene Okerlund interviews a delusional Glacier and his “deserves better even though this is a funny angle” sidekick Norman Smiley…KroniK tells Gene Okerlund that they’ve got their own elite running buddies and are joined by Kevin Nash and DDP…Rick Steiner promises Bigelow a beating in an interview with Okerlund…The Sid medical segment happens; Tenay interviews Sid’s doctor…I’m still sad that Sid is done in big-time wrestling as a result of this injury and WCW’s death… Alright, our Thunder main event pits Scott Steiner and Road Warrior Animal against KroniK…Steiner gets a mic before the match and laments KroniK’s choice to align with the Cat over aligning with both he and CEO Flair…Then, he promises to put Kevin Nash out of wrestling at SuperBrawl…This is your typical WCW major TV show main event…I do like that Clark hits his apron senton and takes out both Steiner and Animal…That’s a lot of meaty men crashing into one another on that spot…There’s some good work in here, especially between Steiner and Clark…They do a neat Meltdown > overhead suplex reversal spot…Clark does hit a Meltdown on Animal, but Steiner makes the save on the cover…I feel like this match, and what Steiner has given to KroniK during it, has made KroniK legit look like they’re at that upper level more than any of the midcarder squashes they’ve done…Totally Buff and the Cat run down…I don’t love that Animal elbows his way out of a High Times, but whatever, you’ve got to make him seem capable and not like a face-painted Virgil…Scotty is distracted by attacking the Cat outside the ring, so he can’t save his tag partner when KroniK traps Animal again and completes a High Times the second time around that gets three…However, the numbers are not on the babyfaces’ side, and they’re destroyed by the heels after the match… This was another breezy show that actually accomplished building guys as threats…(K)noble, Helms, and KroniK all came out of this show looking stronger…I genuinely enjoyed it, with my only complaint being that Chavo Jr. didn’t get booked…WOOOOO…

I just want a new 2D Rayman. Or a new 3D one. Go ask Nintendo to help you fund one, Guillermot.

Dammit, I'm in.

I don't respect deathmatch wrestling or cornballs who tell me that I have to love all the parts of something to love the thing in general. Don't @ me with this kind of nonsense again, you goof.

The bumps in which Foley's head smacked against concrete or the guardrail were harder to watch for me than the Cell bumps, and that's saying something considering how hard I now find it to watch the chokeslam bump through the roof.

Cornette explaining what the doctor said about Foley's tooth getting into his nose squicked me out badly. Oh man, his explanation made my teeth hurt. Assuming you, like me, are not a deathmatch person: Is Hell in a Cell the most destructive pro wrestling match stateside in terms of its negative influence on modern workers? It mixes destructive Japanese deathmatch violence and destructive American style bumps from high places with such potency, and it happened on PPV for a hot company in an extremely hot period for professional wrestling. At the point where Mick pulls out the thumbtacks, I always feel exhausted in a bad way by this thing. Guys kill themselves for a five dollar bill and a hot dog in random gyms doing this sort of nonsense because of this match.

If we're talking "favorite luchador who never got a sniff at a push in WCW," Silver King is my answer. Really fun working big against smaller wrestlers and really fun working small against bigger wrestlers. I love a wrestler who knows how to make themselves bigger or smaller depending on their opponent (it's one of my favorite things about Scott Hall's work). If you count the two weeks' worth of push that Silver King and El Dandy got as the WCW version of Los Fabulosos (managed by Stacy Keibler, no less) as "a sniff at a push," then I think my answer is probably Lizmark Jr.

Nothing much in this Nintendo Direct for me, but happy for the Rhythm Heaven and Tomodachi fans. That Dotemu Marvel brawler looks interesting, and of course, I'm in on a new Hot Shots Golf.

And to top it all off, Foley did a run-in on the main event later that night. Bananas.

Show #274 – 23 January 2001 "The one with a glimmer of hope for WCW's survival (that gets stamped out in about six weeks, but it was nice while it lasted)" The original post date for this episode is 24 years after the final Nitro ended. I would have tried harder to line up the final Nitro review for the thread with this date had I any foresight. Alas, I have none. Recap: Goldberg is gone, but Kevin Nash is still here and the Cat is in charge again (though only somewhat, since there’s also a CEO). The top heels and faces are grouping together for one more big feud built around a heel stable. Last week: CEO Flair’s Elite sit around, having guzzled a ton of chicken wings and watching Sid injure his leg on repeat; they snap a few chicken bones after seeing the injury one more time and laugh uproariously. They also show this fucking injury again, but it’s on a CRT television that is being recorded on a camera that isn't in 4K, so it's not that graphic. This is extremely despicable heel nonsense, by the way, in an old-school way. We don’t need heels kidnapping people and torturing them in the bowels of the arena for them to act irredeemably. Tony S. lets us know that Eric Bischoff and Fusient are transitioning into the ownership role here in WCW. HAHA NOPE. Tony and Hudson think that CEO Flair heard about the pending sale of the company and suddenly decided that he needed to consolidate power because his mortal enemy Eric Bischoff is on his way back (though they don’t mention Bischoff’s name directly). That is actually a fantastic way to justify this heel turn. I have to give WCW Creative credit for using this Bischoff deal to explain what was a nonsensical heel turn. I just wrote “I have to give WCW Creative credit” and sincerely meant it. Spooky. CEO Flair and his team of elite stars and also Road Warrior Animal open the show with an address of the crowd. Actually, Scott Steiner isn’t here nor Jeff Jarrett, but I’ll leave the opening line unedited because what the fuck is Road Warrior Animal doing in this group, with his face-painted Virgil-of-the-group ass? Our unfair CEO gives his own reasoning for turning heel: “When you surround yourself with greatness, YOU. STAY. GREAT.” Sure, that can also be true as well. My headcanon says both are true. The CEO teases an announcement of Scott Steiner’s opponent for SuperBrawl Revenge. He tosses out Goldberg’s name as a possibility, then remembers that he’s been forcibly retired. He tosses out Sid’s name as another possibility, then remembers that he’s sitting at home healing his leg. He eventually settles on Alex Wright as the number one contender, which is pretty funny. Wright dances onto the stage while Buff and Luger do terrible versions of his dance. Wright yells ACHTUNG, ACHTUNG, HIER IST ALEX WRIGHT, and before he can even enjoy his moment in the spotlight, a somber Kevin Nash interrupts him. Wright is like THIS IS MEINE ZEIT, but he’d better get geist before Nash destroys him. In fact, Nash ignores him until Wright throws a punch, at which point Nash Jackknifes Wright through the stage to a pop. Big Kev thinks that this makes him the number one contender, which is reasonable in the context of this traveshamockery of a contendership choice. The CEO disagrees, but Commissioner Cat agrees with his disagreement. I get a kick out of Luger stepping between the ropes, the Cat telling Luger to come down here so Nash can powerbomb him on top of Luger, and Luger considering it briefly before stepping back into the ring. The Cat says that he has already booked Nash/Scotty Steiner for SuperBrawl, so the CEO counters with a stipulation that to keep his place in the match, Nash has to beat Buff Bagwell tonight – and Lex Luger will be the special guest ref for the bout. The commissioner counters by noting that he’s already booked Luger for the night, and Luger’s opponent DDP appears to join the babyfaces at the top of the ramp. The Cat likes the idea that maybe whoever wins between Page and Luger should fill that special guest ref spot. Then, he crotch chops. The CEO says that if Nash or Buff interferes in that match, they’re suspended – Flair, to a surprised Buff: “I’m the CEO; I gotta be fair” – and this screams that a non-Buff heel will be interfering. Maybe this offers an opportunity for Rick Steiner’s final WCW heel turn? [Editor's note: It absolutely does not.] Mike Sanders, in his new role as CEO Flair’s lackey, lets Chavo Jr. know that while the CEO sees a lot in him, he’s also brought in two new cruiserweights that might be future competition for Chavo and advises that Chavo watch the match closely. Chavo agrees, then mentions something about a little “problem” he mentioned to CEO Flair that Sanders says is taken care of; he lets Chavo and THE WALL, BROTHER know that they’ve got a chance to solve that problem in a tag match against General Rection and Lt. Loco later tonight. TW,B is fired up to destroy his former squad mates. Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett, and Midajah arrive, and the rest of CEO Flair’s Elite rushes up to them and lets Steiner know what went down while he was en route to the building. Mike – oh, excuse me, Michael - Modest is back for another cup of coffee in WCW. His opponent is a young Christopher Daniels, though the guy looks pretty much like he does now facially. He has hair, is the big difference. I love that WCW is trying to rebuild its Cruiserweight division. Daniels leapfrogs to the top rope, slips, and piledrives himself. That’s the Christopher Daniels that I know and am able to mostly tolerate! It’s at least fun to watch Modest bully Daniels, who looks fucking awful out here tonight. Modest looks solid as usual, though. After an obligabrawl, Modest tosses Daniels around inside the ring, eats a bit of offense on a Daniels comeback, and then lands a Sonya Blade-style headscissors as Daniels is on the top rope. Both men trade bombs, but it’s Modest’s cradle neckbreaker that – no, Daniels gets a boot on the ropes, then slips behind Modest as Modest tries to run with him on his shoulders and hits an Angel’s Wings for a close two count. Both men trade chops before they tumble to the floor on a Modest crossbody against the ropes, which is when Scott Steiner’s music hits and Steiner kills him some cruiserweights. Is this the middle of 1999 or something? Fuck off, WCW. Steiner does a shitty looking leg-breaker move with his lead pipe to both guys, then grabs a mic and complains about the desk calling Sid’s broken leg a freak accident (which it was). He pretends that Sid crashed into his well-built chest while diving off the top rope, and let me get what he said about Sid in staccato, *ahem*: HE FELT THE POWER, AND THAT POWER SENT HIS LEG DOWN TO THE MAT, SHATTERED HIS LEG AND HIS DREAMS OF EVER BECOMING WORLD CHAMPION AGAIN. Scotty claims that he has destroyed the legs of these two “bu-br-ju-jabronies” in the ring so that Sid has company in the hospital, lists off all the other guys he has put out of WCW, and warns Kevin Nash that he well may meet the same fate at SuperBrawl. Unhinged Scott Steiner on the mic is very good, and you know what, Daniels kinda sucks, so I don’t actually care that this cruiserweight match was ruined. This happened during the break: Steiner clubbed an EMT and knocked Daniels off the stretcher and onto the floor *sings* JUST BECAAAAAAAUSE. Kwee Wee is once again in Angry Allan mode tonight and therefore is all outta smooches for his cute valet Sharmell. He yells out another open challenge and is probably going to get his ass kicked again while Sharmell thinks, I bet I could upgrade from this chump to a real-life world champion. Yes, you could, Queen. He gets in the face of a worker whom I don’t recognize acting as a security mook and slaps him. The security guard advances and gets his ass beaten. Kwee Wee's manhood has been restored after he was annihilated on Thunder and therefore he has replenished his smooches for Sharmell, but c’mon, she can do better, dude. It's lecture time with Lance Storm, who is serious about this feud between Team Canada and the Filthy Animals. He talks about it like an actual war – “both sides have suffered casualties” – and I’m thinking that having to wrestle General Rection for month after month has turned his poor brain to Jell-O. He challenges Konnan to a match tonight, and Konnan and the Animals respond about halfway through the playing of “O Canada.” Oh no, Konnan is doing mic work. Here’s the roulette, placed after he fails to recognize Canadian contributions in pretty much every major war in the modern era. Then, he tries to do intricate mat work with Storm. If you like counter-wrestling holds moved into and out of at quarter-speed, then have I got a match for you! The seconds all brawl at ringside, including the ladies. Meanwhile, Storm shoves his way out of a sit-out facebuster, then scoots under Konnan on a rope run and grabs Konnan’s leg, rolling up and into a Canadian Maple Leaf in the center of the ring that induces a tapout from Konnan. Inoffensive stuff. Shane Douglas asks Totally Buff if CEO Flair is considering adding him to the team of elites, and Totally Buff totally says he is, but Douglas needs to take Commissioner Cat out of the picture first. General Rection is seeing ghosts, man, it’s like he was in Vietnam, or at least saw the director’s cut of Apocalypse Now, and his psyche is fucked, fellas. Gene Okerlund still works here; he asks Rection and Cpl. Cajun about recent developments in the slow death of the Misfits in Action. Rection is too out of it to talk, so Cajun talks first, and even though he’s wearing glasses, I can see his eyes flit around as he tries to stay on track with his comments. He manages to do so, basically saying that he's sorry about giving Chavo a friendly ear the past few weeks. As soon as he says that he’ll stay with Rection until the end, Rection disbands the MIA (yesssssss!) and then tries to pretend that the reveal that he’s going back to being Hugh Morrus means that shit’s going down (hahahaha NO). Imagine that Mankind decided to go back to being Cactus Jack, but then take it down about a billion notches; you now have imagined the emotional heft of Rection's declaration in this promo segment. Who shall guest star as referee in the Kevin Nash/Buff Bagwell match for later tonight? Well, there will be more drama in the thing if Lex Luger does, so I’m going to guess that he wins this match against Diamond Dallas Page that is next up. Luger walks over to the desk and intimates that he’s got his own little backup plan for this bout off-mic. Luger is physically done, but he’s so good at the little things that I think he’s fun to watch. For example, after Page bullies him and Luger has to step through the ropes for a rope break, Page pushes him and smiles at him. The look on Luger’s face is one of pure chagrin, and it makes me laugh. I’ve been underrating Lex Luger’s facial expressions for years, and that’s on me for not being observant enough. Luger is entirely overmatched early on, so after kicking out of a couple of covers at two, he goes to Plan A – Attack Page’s Balls. A back kick and an inverted atomic drop give him a bit of offensive control. Page quickly comes back, but Luger is able to stick a boot in and then land a clothesline for two. I mean, it was technically a lariat, but he barely moved his arm. He lands a lariat to stuff another Page comeback attempt, and that was an actual lariat where his arm appreciably moved. For some reason, Luger thinks that his ministrations on offense have worked, so he takes time to pose and is immediately beaten up and pulled crotch-first into the post by Page. DDP lands a few buckle bonks, then goes up and hits a diving lariat. Rather than covering, he calls for a Diamond Cutter, and we cut to a camera shot that shows Jeff Jarrett (w/KABONGing guee-tar) walking down the ramp. Ah, Plan B - KABONG is Jeff Jarrett's favorite backup plan, and actually is also his primary plan half the time in these matches. Slick Johnson takes a ref bump off of, get this, Diamond’s taunt. I am not fucking kidding about this. Page goes BANG and moves his arms backward, and Slick has to position himself to take an elbow to the solar plexus. You know what happens next – KABONG, Torture Rack, match over. WCW and shitty ref bumps: Name a more iconic duo. Wait, okay, hold on. Name a WCW duo that is third-most iconic. The Mamalukes are back together after having basically been destroyed in their feud with Reno for some reason. No one cares about any of these guys, of course, but Vito got over as a babyface with the crowd and probably needed to win that feud. Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak are their opponents tonight. For a match mostly worked by guys who I don’t think very much of at all, this is pretty fun. Vito and Johnny the Bull quick-tag and double-team their way through a fun little opening shine segment. Jindrak is out here doing Asai moonsaults in the heel control segment, and look at this, Stasiak and Jindrak hit a dual side slam/kip-up/elbowdrop combo that I really like for a cocky heel team. What I’m saying is that this match is straight up good, and I’m somewhat surprised at this. Vito and Jindrak both try arm drags at the same time, which takes them both to the mat and leads to the hot tag. Vito disposes of Stasiak with a lariat that sends Stasiak spilling to the floor – good! Vito talks to the ref and causes him to miss Stasiak saving Jindrak with a diving fist to the back of Johnny the Bull’s head – bad! The finish is awful and almost spoils the whole thing despite the good work in the match itself. Vito pins Stasiak as Jindrak pins the Bull. OK, so the ref is unsure of who is legal, but remember that it’s Jindrak and the Bull after the hot tag. Palumbo and O’Haire run to the ring, get on the apron, and try to tell the ref that yes, it’s Jindrak who is legal. They grab him while making their case. He, uh, disqualifies Stasiak and Jindrak because not they, but a couple of guys they know, grabbed him and shook him a bit. That is nonsensical. I want to suggest this match as worth watching, and I will because I genuinely enjoyed it and would watch it again on YouTube, but that finish is dreadful. Some ads that would normally play here don’t, and we’re back to the Thrillers arguing with one another in a backstage hallway while Mike Sanders laments the lack of teamwork within the group. CEO Flair walks up to Sanders and peels him away; he suggests that Sanders step back from the argument and figure out how to out-think them to bring them back in line. Put the United States Championship on the Cat! Then, let him transition it along to Rick Steiner if you must. I’d prefer transitioning it to a heel who was actually hot, but I’m not sure they have any at that U.S. title level right now. Blah blah DEEP FRIED HICKS blah blah I LIKE RIC FLAIR NOW blah blah COMMISSIONER THE CAT, GET YER HAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA FRANCHISED. The Cat, joined by Ms. Jones, slaps hands on the way to the ring before responding to Douglas. The Cat insults a fan, books Jeff Jarrett against DDP at SuperBrawl, and apparently seems to think that he’s going to wrestle Douglas for the U.S. Championship. CEO Ric Flair pops up on the TurnerTron and is like LOLOL NAH, THIS MATCH IS FOR YOUR COMMISSIONERSHIP AND ALSO IT'S NO DQ, STUPID. Douglas and the Cat proceed to have a watchable enough match, mostly because it’s short. I like that the Cat uses all the buckles in the corner for his buckle bonks spot. Mike Sanders tries to interfere; it goes poorly for him. Sean O’Haire tries to interfere, and as one of the two competent Thrillers, he actually lands a kick on the Cat. However, Rick Steiner stops Douglas from using his chain and gives the Cat space to drill Douglas with a Feliner for three. The sweetening on this audio is entirely incommensurate with the shorts of the crowd. Rick Steiner tries to dance along with the Cat after the match, and it is fantastic. Can Chavo Guerrero Jr. and THE WALL, BROTHER put Hugh Morrus and Lash LeRoux down for good? Hell, I’m rootin’ for ‘em! TW, B works hard in there, but really, everyone does. Morrus himself has probably had the best run of matches in his life over the last month, for whatever that amounts to, and I’d say that it’s in large part because he tries his ass off in there every night. I assume a lot of the shitty ways he acted as a trainer at the WWE Performance Center is because he really did bust his ass every night and never got over because no matter how hard he tried, he’d never be anything more than a nondescript midcarder. I bet watching a steady stream of charismatic athletes in great shape show up in Orlando and immediately be better at everything than he was just because they had raw talent without much development was rough. Not to play pop psychologist on the internet, but I’m going to play pop psychologist on the internet: I bet that had him all fucked up mentally. Chavo Jr. is so good at making blown spots come off okay. In this particular example, he and Lash can’t execute what looks like a backbreaker spot, but Chavo smoothly moves to the next spot. Anyway, Morrus is over-emotional and goes at TW,B outside the ring; Chavo is left alone with Lash and rolls him up for three. Morrus gets a measure of revenge after the match by pressing Chavo onto TW,B after the match, but it’s another L for Brigadier General Hughton DeMott Morrus-Rection VI, and I, for one, am getting a huge kick out of that. Lex Luger enters the ring to referee the match between Buff Bagwell and Kevin Nash while the fellas on commentary point out that Goldberg didn’t ask to have to recreate his original winning streak while also not stating Vince Russo’s name. According to the deep dive on the WCW sale done by the fellas over at Between the Sheets, Eric Bischoff was actually in charge from around Sin to the final Nitro, so if that’s true, I’m assuming that Vince Russo is persona non grata for that reason, even down to mentioning his name. Lex Luger promises to be fair (lies) and to get physically involved to make sure that he calls it as he sees it (true). Kevin Nash enters the ring to start the final segment of the night, and Buff Bagwell misreads the situation. Nash isn’t making stupid jokes, but Buff wants to pose and giggle, which would be fine if Nash were inclined to pose-offs. As it is, he’s pissed at Buff for costing him the tag titles and generally being a pest, so he knees Buff as Buff is mid-pose. This is fine as a Nitro Special main event, with Luger being the opposite of even-handed, which is the only way that Buff stays in the match at all. Luger’s count on a Nash pinfall attempt is probably a five- or six-second two-count, which is pretty good heel nonsense. Strangely, though, when Nash comes after him and yanks him a bit, he doesn’t DQ him; instead, he mule kicks him in the nuts. Buff gets a chair, and Luger takes it away from him, but holds it in front of Nash’s face while yelling NO CHAIRS so that Buff can dropkick it into his face. Lex tries to get Nash into place for a Blockbuster, but Nash moves, and Buff misses. Nash lands a Jackknife on Buff and pulls a Steve Austin by using an unconscious Luger’s hand to make the pinfall. The babyfaces from last week head back out here this week to brawl after the match is over. This was an illogical finish – why would CEO Flair let this stand? Why didn’t Luger DQ Nash when he had the chance – but the wrestling itself was perfectly cromulent. This was the weakest Nitro probably since December of 2000, but it was watchable enough and advanced storylines, so I have no major complaints here. I’m looking forward to SuperBrawl, actually. The card is shaping up nicely so far. 2.25 out of 5 Stinger Splashes.

This was one of the more sensible signs that made it into a video - off-topic, but not some sort of hating-ass sign about inferior games and characters. I'll actually give you an example of a sign that I agreed with, but didn't like at all, and a sign that I thought was a clever way to mix video games and the actual wrestling show the fan was at. I'm a ten-pin and Canadian five-pin bowler and a conoisseur of bowling vidya games. Some guy had a sign in one of these that said Nestor's Funky Bowling > Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley. This is entirely true - and I'm one of probably nine people to own Nestor's Funky Bowling for the Virtual Boy (which had TWO bowling games in its American release lineup of, like fourteen games). Ten Pin Alley has terrible pin physics even for its day, but that's not the point. The point is that it's a deep-pull wink and nod about how dumb these comparison signs trying to catch Maffew's attention are while also being a dumb comparison sign that is trying to catch Maffew's attention. Annoying. On the other hand, someone made a replica of the Sting fan sign in WCW/nWo Revenge. That was neat, especially considering that Sting was actually on AEW's roster! More wrestling signs that call out wrestling games in a relevant way, please!

Thunder Interlude – show number one hundred and forty-four – 17 January 2001 "The WCW Gang is simply better off wrestling longer television matches" WCW has lately dropped the pre-intro stuff they have been doing off and on for the past couple of years…We go right into the THUNDERRRRRRRR intro… Fort Wayne appears to be hot for even more pro wrestling… Commissioner Cat (w/the lovely Ms. Jones) has a few decrees to make…He declares himself the People’s Champion Commissioner…I’ve mentioned this before, but I love that the Cat’s story as a character is that he was an unserious scumbag heel until the point at which Russo and Bischoff put him into power, which is when the responsibilities of his job gradually turned him babyface…It’s like how some people are completely unserious adults until they become parents when suddenly, they lock in and seem like totally different people…That makes a nice contrast with Mike Sanders, who was immediately corrupted even further by gaining power…This is one of the low-key best character progressions that WCW has managed to pull off during the Nitro Era, right up there with turning Disco from a dancing comedy heel goof into a fiery fightin’ babyface in late ‘97/early ‘98… Our fair commissioner is sickened by Totally Buff, who he doesn’t mention by name for a large chunk of his rant against them, so Tenay has to clarify for the viewers on commentary…The commish threatens to use the violence of his feet and fists along with the violence of authoritarian power to bring these fellas to heel…Totally Buff don’t like the sound of this, and they walk out onto the ramp to say so…The Cat rudely indicates that he does not want to hear it, but Luger says that they only take orders from the WCW President, though Flair is now the CEO, not the President of WCW…He held the title of prez back in ’99…Easy mistake to make, though, considering WCW's love of confusing, overlapping authority figures…Totally Buff advances on the Cat, who is a fiery fightin’ babyface ready to take them on by himself, but KroniK rushes the ring and sends Totally Buff packing…The Cat books them against KroniK before they make a complete escape…The Cat then tries to teach Bryan Clark to cut a rug, but Clark is absolutely not trying any of that stuff while the cameras are rolling… As Kwee Wee (w/Paisley) enters the ring, I find out that Meng had one more WCW match before he signed a contract with the WWF…He’s defending the WCW Hardcore Championship against Bam Bam Bigelow in its swan song later tonight…Meanwhile, Kwee Wee is not going to give Paisley her usual pre-match peck on the lips because he's so focused that he is Angry Allan tonight…He yells about the CEO not inviting him to be part of the WCW Elite…He says that he’ll beat up anyone in the back to show how bad he is… Rick Steiner answers that challenge, chuckling about how he's going to kill this dude…So, Ricky Steiner’s in his “carelessly kill dudes until they all contemplate beating the shit out of him on the final Nitro” mode…Ricky Steiner only semi-carelessly kills Kwee Wee on this night…I am looking forward to Steiner semi-carelessly killing Shane Douglas soon, I have to be honest…Woooooof, Steiner barely gets Kwee Wee over on a belly-to-belly…He almost spiked him…Steiner pretends that he’s offended that anyone would want to join that mean ol’ CEO Ric Flair’s team, but he’s obviously just mad that a pink-wearing fashion designer like Kwee Wee would try to be on the same team as a bunch of *cough* REAL MEN…Ricky hits a bulldog from the top to end the match and follows up by also hitting his shitty catchphrase after the match, the latter of which is somehow over as a chant-along… Alright, let’s pack Meng and the WCW Hardcore Championship off for realsies and truesies this time around…Bam Bam Bigelow walks out expecting to win the title, but I suspect that he’s in the middle of a losing streak that will turn him babyface again…Bammer hurts his forearm trying to hit this Oceanic spectacle of cranial strength in the head…He tries a chair shot next…That doesn’t work…Here we are with some smashy and a bit of trashy…They spill across the commentary table…I have no idea why Meng is taking so many unprotected chair shots to the dome… Mostly, Bigelow does logical, if plodding, work on Meng’s knee to try and keep him down…It’s definitely different from the typical hardcore match…I appreciate that these fellas are trying something a bit different for this type of bout…Bigelow thinks he’s done enough work to keep Meng from popping up and lands a DDT, but Meng isn’t a mere mortal…He pops up and tries a TDG…Bammer blocks it, so Meng goes low while Bigelow is going high and scoop slams Bammer…He then goes up and hits a meaty frog splash for three…Yeah, that finish was actually good enough to tip this over into Charming Uniquity territory…I love that the last hardcore title bout was a weird little deviation from the norm… Hype video: I’d have thought they had dropped this Glacier/Norman Smiley angle even earlier than I know that they actually dropped it had this Glacier hype video not shown just now…They haven’t mentioned that angle on major television for a couple of weeks, now…Norm is so excited about Glacier’s return in the back…A WCW tech gives Norm a folder with a Glacier promo photo in it, signed with a note from Glacier that Norm can call on him anytime he needs him…This gives Smiley a newfound confidence… Mike Awesome is upset that his hair looks reasonably decent now…He’s more upset that the Animals forced him to get a haircut than he is at the haircut itself…Fair enough!... CEO Flair and a few skeezers who probably all share the same bottle of Dom gainfully employed ladies get out of a limo, along with Scott Steiner and Midajah…They make their way into the arena in a triumphant mood… These Jeff Jarrett t-shirts need to move, dammit, so they’ve put together a little Jarrett video package for Tony S. to pitch over the top of… I love that Norman Smiley got over as a midcard heel and then a midcard babyface, and all WCW Creative did in response was to put the guy into dumb angle after dumb angle…Screamin’ hardcore champ…Unemployed backyarder and less memorable buddy of Ralphus…Now he’s doing a thing where he has no faith in himself without Glacier’s support…And he’s going to be jobbing to Da/oR…One o’ them Harris Bros. is in a neck brace to sell a neck injury from Meng’s TDG a week or so ago…Norm walks Da/oR through a watchable match…It’s a really slow affair, though…Da/oR wanders around outside the ring when he can’t get control, and Ra/oD catches Norm’s attention so that he brother can jump the guy… There’s an obligabrawl, and it’s just a bit much, man…Let’s move this along…Back in the ring, Norm hits a trio of clotheslines and teaes a Wiggle…He lands a swinging slamand then teases a Wiggle before dropkicking Da/oR in the ass…That sends Da/oR outside the ring, and he switches places (and neck collars) with Ra/oD…Ra/oD hops in the ring and hits a quick side suplex for three…Fire the Harris Bros. and cut a little more fat before you sell, Turner… Totally Buff and KroniK tangle in the next segment…Tony S. teases General Rection vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. for later…I’m actually interested in a match involving General Hughton Morrus-Rection IV…I can’t believe it…I get a kick out of Luger and Buff hiding behind the fellas at the desk, but trying to play it off like they’re not hiding at all…Luger massages Tony S.’s shoulders and then pats him on the back…Then, when deciding who will start the match, Buff butters up Luger: I THINK YOU SHOULD GO FIRST, YOU’RE BIG **poses like Luger often does**…Luger's response is to gladhand Buff, hug the guy, and as soon as he turns around, roll his eyes…HAHAHAHAHAHA…I do remember liking Totally Buff, and it quickly has become apparent why I felt that way (and still do)… Of course, this match has to actually enter the ring at some point, but it’s also perfectly cromulent…The matchups tonight haven’t pitted the top tier of WCW’s workers against one another, but they haven’t been all that bad…And as much as I complained about how long these matches are, I do think that’s ultimately better than putting on a bunch of three-minute specials like they did throughout the year of 2000…I mean, you’re probably not too excited about Totally Buff having a heel control segment, sure, and you’d be right not to get too excited about it…But it's fine, you know?...Adams stays in FIP jail for quite a while, and that’s even though he manage to hit a double DDT and start a small comeback that gets stuffed by a Luger metal forearm… Eventually, Clark gets a hot tag, but as he sets up for a Meltdown, Jeff Jarrett jogs to the ring and KABONGs Clark…Slick Johnson is too focused on Adams and Luger going at it to notice it, so he simply turns around and counts three as Buff covers Clark…Jarrett and Totally Buff prepare to celebrate, but Diamond Dallas Page pops into the ring and throws punches at all three men…The heels bail and rejoin CEO Ric Flair at the top of the ramp…The CEO is not a fan of Page’s antics, and he books Page against Jeff Jarrett in tonight’s Thunder main event… Team Canada is, as usual, somewhat dour tonight…Major Gunns is pretty perky most of the time, and sometimes Elix Skipper has bursts of joy, but Awesome and Storm are habitual bummers…Storm declares that the Animals have won the most recent battle in their war with Team Canada, but (as Stevie Ray might say if he were here, which he is not, unfortunately) it’s still on like neckbones…The Animals come to the ring…Rey’s wearing a shirt with the initials of the Filthy Animals on it in that Ruff Ryders font style…You know the one if you were into late ‘90s/early aughts rap… Billy Kidman, with wrapped ribs, wrestles Mike Awesome in tonight’s bout…They have a decent big man vs. little man bout…Kidman actually drops a running SSP off the apron (!!) in his early shine segment…That’s the first time he’s dropped an SSP of any type on television in a long time...Back in the ring, Awesome targets the ribs, using his power and size advantage to attack them…Awesome tosses Kidman out to his compatriots at ringside, and Storm takes the chance to send him into the railing…Awesome soon follows and does his own damage, including a chair shot to the ribs outside the ring that the ref sees, and, uh, is that not a DQ?...I guess we’re back to an “if it happens outside the ring, it’s not illegal enough to disqualify someone for” deal like WCW did in 1998?...I wish that when CEO Ric Flair was still a babyface, he had set forth that we were reverting to an older, stricter way of refereeing matches… Awesome looks ascendant, but he takes too long to drop a top-rope splash…Kidman moves, then makes a spirited comeback in which he scores a series of punches and a sunset flip for a two count…Awesome is able to use Kidman’s momentum against him to land a Hot Shot into the buckles, then lands a diving lariat from the top for two…Awesome looks for an Awesome Bomb, but Kidman slides out of it and uses his position to hook Awesome for a rebound bulldog…It only gets two…Kidman gets caught trying a whip to the corner, but when Awesome reels him in for another Awesome Bomb, Kidman flips the calendar back to late 1998 and turns it into a facebuster, then immediately goes up top for an SSP…Alas, Awesome catches him and clubs him into a seated position…He hoists him from there into an Awesome Bomb for three…That was a very good television match!...Elix gives Awesome some scissors…The Animals chase them off…Konnan gets the scissors and teases that he’s going to cut Gunns’s hair, but Team Canada and ref Scott James stop him…This is the good thing about longer matches across the board…When two solid workers get in there, they’ll have something worth watching more often than not, rather than rushing through everything and leaving me feeling unfulfilled… It's Chavo Jr.!...I’m looking forward to watching him be a grizzled vet who just can’t keep up with the nutty, devil-may-care types in the Temple when I do my Lucha Underground watch…I should want General Rection to win this thing tonight based on the storyline, but considering the performers themselves, I obviously want Chavo to kick the shit out of this goof…Chavo Jr. immediately bails and considers his options, taunting this big goof all the time…Chavo finally gets the ring, eats a stiff back elbow, and scrambles back outside again… Chavo realizes that he’s got to get on his bike, but Rection catches his boot to the midsection after chasing Chavo down and then proceeds to beat the crap out of him…Chavo simply cannot figure out how to deal with the size and weight advantage of his opponent…But there’s one thing Chavo has over Rection, and that’s brains…Let’s see if Chavo can come up with a plan that would make his Uncle Eddy proud…Chavo lands a desperation DDT out of a bearhug for a close two count…Since Rection’s brain, besides being less impressive than Chavo’s, has also been rattled quite a lot recently, that DDT gives Chavo an opening to work Rection over…The cruiserweight champ is able to land a basement dropkick and then start working over Rection’s left knee… If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying, right?...Chavo tries very hard by using the ropes as leverage on a kneelock…Mickey Jay catches him and makes him give up the hold, but Chavo goes right back to work…That work, which is a series of chops, just wakes up the concussed Rection…Rection hits a few chops of his own and pursues Chavo into the corner…Chavo drops down and grabs Rection’s tights, then dumps him head first into the buckles…Chavo goes back to the knee (and occasionally the head) while Rection, when he’s got momentum, uses his power advantage to toss Chavo around and throw fists…Chavo Jr. might be lugging this guy to the best match he’s had on WCW television… Rection lands a sit-out powerbomb and looks for a No Laughing Matter…A-WALL ostensibly comes out here to cheer Rection on, but actually comes out here to chokeslam Rection off the ropes…Chavo gets the cover for three…Cpl. Cajun was the guy who teased a turn the most, so of course, THE WALL, BROTHER is the one to turn first…Despite this, I very much liked this match…It also helps that I am into the storyline…I don’t remember TW,B being Chavo Jr.’s heavy, but that also sounds interesting…I dig it, is what I’m saying!... After what would normally have been a series of ads, TW,B and Chavo Jr. talk with Scott Hudson in the back…TW,B is basically like, This dude Chavo is a baller, and Rection is kind of a doofus…But he says it worse than that…They should have finally popped the WCW Hardcore Championship on TW,B, Meng leaving for the WWF as the champion be damned… This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder: Dissension is teased as Cpl. Cajun and THE WALL, BROTHER do not see eye-to-eye with General Rection or even refer to General Rection by that name or title, opting to just call this doofus "Hugh"…One o’ them Harris Bros. sells the neck injury in an interview with hapless Scott Hudson that was sequentially before the match with Norman Smiley…I guess that WCW has stopped using both Pam Paulshock and Gene Okerlund at this point, possibly...I know for sure that Paulshock is gone at the very end of 2000, but I don’t know for how long Okerlund hangs on…Chavo Jr. talks to Scott Hudson before his match with the General and says that he attacked Rection to impress CEO Flair…Oh wow, I just realized that if the Fusient deal had closed, we were headed for yet another Bischoff/Flair feud with babyface Bischoff bringing back the deposed babyfaces to take out heel CEO Flair’s Elite…YUCK…Not as bad as what we got with the Invasion storyline, but at least that storyline did give us Austin/Angle, so it’s probably a (theoretical) wash…There wasn’t as much missing from this episode as from the past bunch of Thunders… Jeff Jarrett insists on talking before his match with DDP…It’s not great!...Jarrett does note that he’s once again on the side with all the devious heels who are happy to use numbers and nefarious plans to beat up the dopey fiery babyface…Here comes our dopey fiery babyface now!...By the time they hook up, there are only eight minutes of time left in this recording…They do my least favorite transition early on, but at least I can justify it that Jarrett was simply too fresh to toss in the ring before following after him under the bottom rope…These fellas sprint…They’re trading two counts almost immediately…There are also two standing ten-counts in here…They packed like twenty minutes of match into eight minutes…This main event is actually a great example of why I’ll live with the occasional aimless or boring longer match…A lot of these shorter matches are worked as sprints, but endless sprints are not fun!... So, Jarrett locks on a sleeper, but Page works his way out of it only to find himself locked back into it when Jarrett bounces off the ropes…Page works his way up, slings Jarrett into the ropes again, and this time locks Jarrett in a sleeper, but he immediately plummets downward, landing a sleeper drop that sparks what I’m pretty sure is a third standing ten-count from the ref…Page covers at Billy Silverman’s count of eight, but he only gets two…Page gets two more on a uranage, then goes up top and lands a diving lariat…Rather than going for the cover, he signals for a Diamond Cutter…Jarrett shoves him away but he strikes back with a lariat…That’s when CEO Flair’s Elite rush the ring and attack Page, sparking a disqualification…Kevin Nash, KroniK, and the Cat are soon in to brawl with the heels and even up the numbers…Tony S. as the show fades to black, overdramatically: THEY WON’T STOP UNTIL SOMEONE DIES…That call was absurd... It's too bad that War Games isn’t until Fall Brawl 2001 and that Fall Brawl 2001 doesn’t exist because I could absolutely go for a traditional War Games match between these groups…Ah, well, at least we got another good show…WOOOO…