twiztor Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 i think the biggest reason that this whole main event scene feels wrong to me, is that in the last couple months, every single person switched alliances (excepting Goldberg). Hogan has been the top heel for 3 years and now he's randomly a babyface? Flair can't buy a boo, but he's heeling it up. DDP comes out of an overlong feud with Steiner, where he clearly was not the one in the wrong, and he decides to be a jerk. Nash turned heel by booking himself over Goldberg gifting the belt back to Hogan. Bret Hart is still doing whatever the hell Bret Hart is doing. Sting and Lex Luger are afterthoughts. It just all feels so disconnected from what came before. also, Erik Watts doesn't deserve any hate for what he's doing in '99. He's been off TV for 5 years. Comes back and has fun meaningless matches for awhile. You should check out this segment from WCW Saturday Night (4/10/99). It takes place before Spring Stampede. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZUbVmvW6zs On 6/24/2024 at 7:37 PM, SirSmUgly said: I would have liked this better if Hogan had lost the story of WCW, 1994-2000. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted June 26 Author Share Posted June 26 3 hours ago, twiztor said: i think the biggest reason that this whole main event scene feels wrong to me, is that in the last couple months, every single person switched alliances (excepting Goldberg). Hogan has been the top heel for 3 years and now he's randomly a babyface? Flair can't buy a boo, but he's heeling it up. DDP comes out of an overlong feud with Steiner, where he clearly was not the one in the wrong, and he decides to be a jerk. Nash turned heel by booking himself over Goldberg gifting the belt back to Hogan. Bret Hart is still doing whatever the hell Bret Hart is doing. Sting and Lex Luger are afterthoughts. It just all feels so disconnected from what came before. I partially agree with you. For me, Flair and DDP have clear narrative through lines that make their turns make sense to me. Flair feels that he's gone so soft his own son doesn't respect him, which inspires his heel turn. Everything he's done and said to get to this turn makes perfect sense to me. Page's turn is abrupt, but he was out there getting booed against Steiner, who gets at least a few babyface pops every show. He got wheeled out of Uncensored to boos and DDP SUCKS chants. That he would turn heel on the fans for this reason, and that he would get more aggressive to combat Steiner's aggressiveness after Steiner beat him twice in a few weeks makes sense, too. Those two turning heel make perfect sense IMO. Flair can buy a boo; he just needs to be in Canada or aggressively insulting fans and their sports teams. HOWEVER Hogan turning babyface makes zero sense and has no juice except for in Canada and maybe New York. There is no reason to feel bad for him getting screwed out of the title considering what he's been doing to hold onto it over the last three years. He's completely unsympathetic. I think he's trying to do a Steve Austin-style "act like an aggressive heel, but against other heels" thing that he's very bad at. Nash should never have turned heel and the Wolfpac shouldn't have merged with Hollywood, but it looks like they're going to let him be a tweener who gets his share of cheers because he's fixing to split with Hogan again, and Hogan isn't getting cheered over Nash in most of the United States. Bret is doing a lot of worked shooting, but he was doomed from the jump by booking him as a babyface against Flair for his first WCW feud. The heel turn/faked babyface turn and re-establishing as a heel just finished things off. Sting apparently wanted to go back to doing what got him way over through most of 1996 and 1997 - standing in the rafters, holding a baseball bat. He'll be fine because he will always be a babyface to the WCW crowd, even when they turn him heel, which I'm sure they do at some point in 1999 because I had diehard WCW fan friends who were like WE ALL REFUSE TO BOO THAT MAN. I think that's why when Sting joined the Main Event Mafia in TNA, he would just sort of disappear while the rest of the group heeled it up. Lex Luger's booking has been terrible since he dropped the title back to Hogan. So yes, I think you're right about most of the guys you mentioned, but Flair and Page have turned for reasons that I, at least, find convincing and logical. But I'm also stepping outside of that and looking at it on a meta-level, where WCW is trying to do the sort of cool heel stuff that got Austin, Rock, Nash, and Hall over huge during this era, but with guys who aren't any good at it. Hogan is just not a relevant wrestler in this era anymore. He really needed to go away between 1999 and 2002. It was only when he went back to the WWE and turned into a nostalgia-fueled babyface that he was again a relevant pro wrestler (and it helped that he did jobs to the younger guys sometimes, like tapping out for Angle or getting murked by Brock). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted June 26 Author Share Posted June 26 I think that meta-level stuff is fascinating, is what I forgot to type. So I also enjoy it from the perspective of watching a bunch of vets try to adjust to what's contemporary in 1999. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 6 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: I partially agree with you. For me, Flair and DDP have clear narrative through lines that make their turns make sense to me. Those two turning heel make perfect sense IMO. yeah, storyline wise, i certainly can see how those two characters could logically turn. My issue is more that EVERYBODY turned at the same time, leaving Goldberg as the only constant throughline from the end of '98 to the spring of '99. it just created a hard disconnect for me, and i suspect others as well. I think you're getting close to the Great Rebranding(TM) and that, along with the face/heel dynamic shift, made it feel like a different WCW than i had followed for the prior few years. The nWo is effectively dead. Vanquished not by the conquering forces of WCW, but collapsing due to boring internal strife. the 4 Horsemen are also practically non-existant, with Flair completely apart (in storyline, in card placement, and in stature) from Benoit/Malenko. "Team WCW" was always a very loose affiliation of babyfaces, but that has long since evaporated. Stepping up to replace these lynchpins of the Nitro era we have........? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted June 26 Author Share Posted June 26 The nWo falling to internal strife is fine - if Sting definitively kills them off and is the clear trigger for their death. Or Goldberg. But yeah, that they just trucked along until apparently falling apart over Hogan and Nash having another power struggle, which we just saw a year ago, is the most underwhelming end to the nWo angle possible. I think your posts really highlight for me how bad things were on the babyface side of the ledger. Goldberg's the top babyface. Immediately beneath him are: Hulk Hogan, who isn't a strong babyface in most of the United States Sting, who doesn't yet have a strong direction (but hopefully will get one on the next Nitro that I watch even though I'm pretty sure they're going to turn him heel in the next couple months of shows) Rick Steiner, who was pushed past his ceiling as the number two champion in the company by 2001 Booker T., who is a year away from being a legitimate babyface main eventer Buff Bagwell, who is an entertaining midcard personality, but that's about it So yeah, I think I get where you're coming from, and part of it for me is that they turned four huge babyfaces in about three months (Luger, Nash, Page, Flair). Things do feel weird for that reason. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted June 26 Author Share Posted June 26 (edited) Show #184 – 5 April 1999 “The one that debuts this utter abomination of a logo, set, and opening” That video where Sting stands around in the rain looking bummed before jumping down from a windowsill and then wielding a baseball bat happens; it’s the one that ended the previous Thunder. OH NO OH NOOOOO WHAT THE FUCK IT’S THE UGLY WCW LOGO WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS OPENING WITH THE NITRO GIRLS ON GREEN SCREEN? WHAT IS THIS SHITTY NITRO THEME? I HATE IT MAKE IT STOP THAT WAS UGLY AND STUPID AND I DON’T WANT IT ANYMORE So now Goldberg is stomping through the backstage area holding a hopper like the one Flair used to draw a number last week. This new Nitro set is so fucking ugly. What the fuck? Nick Lambros, you fucking idiot. They have Heenan and Schiavone sitting ringside again, which is bullshit. I loved the commentary desk being back near the ramp. Wrestlers running up on the commentary desk is a Nitro staple, dammit! I am not a man against change. However, I am a man against stupid changes that are fucking dumb and ugly and shitty. Gene Okerlund is in the ring to talk to Goldberg. Goldberg comes out, and look at this logo that makes up the stage. You can’t read it! Who the fuck picked a logo that you can’t read as the logo for the number two wrestling company in the country? If Lambros is still alive, they should have dragged him onto camera for that Who Killed WCW? special to make him explain himself. Goldberg points out that he hasn’t been on PPV lately, which is true, but he blames it on President Flair rather than on the dummies who book these shows. He promises to pull a name from HIS hopper and then fight them on PPV. Kevin Nash comes down in a Red Wings jersey and says that he might be pulling a Bret Hart from last week, so spear him at your risk. Nash puts himself over for ending the streak, which gets boos even though he came out to a huge face pop. They face off and Nash says that there’s no need for the hopper because he’s going to fight Goldberg at Spring Stampede. Goldberg responds that he considers the chance to wrestle Nash again a nice Christmas present even though it is April, sir, and also, wouldn’t that be a nice Hanukkah present for you instead? Ric and Arn sit in the back and I guess are thrown off by the Nash and Goldberg thing? Or maybe it’s a ruse and they were actually watching something else on the monitor, but we’re supposed to assume that it was Nash and Goldberg? I'm unsure. No offense to Kimberly, but subtracting her from the Nitro Girls and adding Sharmell has made the dance routines better. Sorry, Kim. ☹ WCW insists on continuing to inflict Riki Rachtman on me. He shills the WCW hotline. It’s dawned on me that the bickering between Schiavone and Tenay and Heenan might have foreshadowed some commentary desk changes that were about to happen. Kendall Windham sucks, man. He’s got a kendo stick in his hand, and hopefully his opponent Hak (w/Chastity) uses his own kendo stick to beat the shit out of this jobber in like two minutes in this Kendo Stick match. I’m beginning to feel even more like I understand twiztor’s point about WCW right now seeming almost disconnected from what came before it, and it took the set and music changes to really drive home the feeling that he was talking about in the posts above this one. Kendo stick shots make a nice sound, so this is probably the best possible match between Hak and Kendall Windham that you’re possibly going to get in WCW. I guess Kendall’s kind of violating Hak with the stick, maybe? I don’t know, the camera cut is weird and shows nothing of what Kendall is doing, but the announcers’ response indicates that something particularly nasty is happening. Anyway, Chastity breaks that up with her own kendo stick shot. Instead of just hitting each other with the sticks, they try a bunch of wrestling moves with the stick, and I appreciate the attempt at creativity, but I’m not sure this was good. Chastity grabs both kendo sticks for a little while, and these fellas have a wrestling match, which is not what I want. This match isn’t good, but these fellas are trying pretty hard, so I can’t feel that much venom for their performances here. While the fellas at the desk perv on Chastity in her schoolgirl’s skirt, Hak and Kendall go back and forth until Hak lands a kendo stick shot to the face, then hits a kendo stick-assisted side Russian for three. Tony S. tries to let us know that Meng will face Scott Steiner in a semifinal match within the U.S. Championship tournament, but the levels on the new WCW music make it hard to hear him. The Meng hype video plays on the outro. Hey, we didn’t ever finish the first round of this tournament, unless Jericho/Adams was supposed to be the fourth and final U.S. Championship Tournament match. I don’t believe the commentators indicated that it was. And if it was, why the fuck would Chris Adams be getting a shot in this tournament? We get a shot of Goldberg storming into Ric Flair’s room and then being shocked to find Lex Luger and Liz there waiting for him. Then, it’s right back to break. [Editor's note: This blip of a segment went completely unexplained.] Arn comes up on Kevin Nash getting some coffee and tells Nash that Flair wants to see him in his office. Konnan comes to the ring to face Lizmark Jr. (w/jobber entrance). Konnan does some slightly awkward mat work to start, but you know, it’s pretty good work for him! Tony S. talks about Disco making fun of Konnan’s music video, and you know what, I’m going to pause and watch it since they’ve excised them from these recordings. OK, yeah, that video is still one of the funniest wrestling-related things ever. OIL OF OLAY, ALL DAY, EVERY DAY is the most quotable thing, but Disco’s off-beat rapping as he tries to read the inaccurate lyrics that he scribbled down is also super funny. People don’t mention Disco laying on his back and spinning like an overturned tortoise to try and mimic the B-Boys dancing in the video enough, either. That is genuinely one of the top five comedy things in pro wrestling, period. OK, back to the match. It’s an alright match, folks! Lizmark is a good pro wrestler. He hits a pretty springboard dropkick and feels like maybe he’s going to win this thing! Alas, he only scores a handful of two counts in this bout. After a requisite ringside brawl, Konnan trades slow flash pinfall attempts with Lizmark before drilling a back kick off a leapfrog, hitting a sit-out facebuster, and wrapping on a Tequila Sunrise for the win. Wrestlers really should be on alert whenever Konnan hits a leapfrog by this point. Ric hassles Arn about where Kevin Nash is. Nash knocks and is escorted into the room. We don’t see what they say to one another, but I assume that Flair is going to try and widen the Nash/Hogan split in their conversation with one another. President Flair is the best thing about the main event scene and pretty much everything he’s doing is logical and interesting from a character standpoint. A Scott Steiner hype video plays, and then Flair and Nash are walking through the offices in the backstage area and seeming pretty friendly with one another. Hulk Hogan spots them and wonders what’s up, but Nash blows him off. There are a lot more breaks in this formatting; there was a break both before and after that last short segment, which is the second time that I’ve been pelted with ads both before and after a short segment on this show. Kevin Nash sits in a stairwell and has a conversation with Charles Robinson; Hogan comes upon this convo; Robinson jets as soon as he sees Hogan. Hogan wants to know why Nash is talking to Robinson, and for that matter, why Nash won’t return his calls. He asks if they’re still on the same team; Nash mockingly says something like, Hey, don’t kick the crap out of me like you did in the first Nitro of the year, and Hogan’s like, C’mon man, Torrie was just talking, why are you so mad, women say a lot of things and you shouldn’t listen to most of them. OK, I elaborated that last part, but that really is basically what he said. Nash reaffirms his partnership with Hogan, but he makes a face as Hogan turns to leave that indicates that maybe he’s not being on the level with the Hulkster! Ric Flair comes to the ring for an interview with Gene Okerlund. Flair says that Goldberg can’t be the man without the belt, then says that he likes how Nash took initiative to call Goldberg out and that he was inspired by that to move the World title match off Spring Stampede and onto this Nitro. Hulk Hogan charges out immediately, and Flair ducks out of the ring. The fix is in, I’m pretty sure! Hogan gets a pop for threatening Flair; Flair says that if Hogan touches him before the match, said match is off. They both get in the ring and squawk at one another for a little while, when Diamond Dallas Page’s music hits and Page comes to join the conversation. Page butts in to demand entry into the title match for the night. Page has zero claim to a title match, and Flair rightly says he’s good with all that nonsense, though Hogan is into the idea. Goldberg’s music hits, and this feels just like a WWF Attitude-style segment. We cut to Arn in the back being annoyed about DDP and Goldberg blowing up this carefully planned spot. Goldberg wants in the match, and Flair is doubly disinterested in letting him in the match. Goldberg tosses Flair, and Flair says this after he dives out of the ring: YOU’RE IN A LOTTA TROUBLE, YOU’RE IN A LOTTA TROUBLE, YOU *suddenly stops and points at jeering child in front row* YOU SHUT UP KID *turns back to the ring as crowd laughs* YOU’RE IN A LOTTA TROUBLE, AND YOU’RE IN A LOTTA TROUBLE, AND I’LL SEE YOU THREE IN THE RING Unhinged mad-with-power Ric Flair is some pretty great television! Hogan and Goldberg threaten each other in the aisle, but also make an agreement: Hogan will take out Flair, Goldberg will take out DDP, and then they can face one another for the gold. Goldberg is fine with that! The commentary desk’s musings on what they just saw is interrupted by the Wolfpac theme. Tony S. was expecting a break at this point in the proceedings and didn’t get one. Yes, Tony S., it indeed is a new format for the show. Scott Steiner comes to the ring for his tournament match with Meng. Before the match, Steiner does his shtick. He calls the Las Vegas crowd “desert-dwelling, genetically-deficient scumbags” and then threatens DDP. He says that if Page wanted revenge against him, well why didn’t he, and I quote, “get in the U.S. tag tournament for the U.S. title.” Oh, Steiner. Then he declares that the stipulation getting to sleep with Kimberly as a result of their match would hold up in a court of law, but he’s got too many other ladies to knock down to press a case against Page. This is truly an objectionable man, and I’d like to see him get punched in the face. Scott Steiner has arrived! Steiner says he won’t wrestle DDP again until Page gives his property – that being his wife, I suppose, in this very retrograde man's mind – up for one night with Steiner. Meng enters the ring while Steiner threatens Tony S. and then a few fans. A kid yells YOU SUCK at him and he stops to yell back SHUT UP. It is some basic heeling, but performed at a high level. I think he’s got a few fans legit heated at him. He is entirely unlikeable in every way and is now killing it in this heel role. Steiner and Meng have an acceptable match while Tony S. relates an update from Ric Flair’s office about the main event. The update: No tags in this Four Corners match, thank goodness. All four men are going at it at the same time. Steiner meanwhile gets control of the match and hits a belly-to-belly suplex, then dumps Meng to the floor for an obligatory ringside brawl. These fellas don’t work particularly well together, but Steiner is a compelling worker with his yelling at people while he hits moves and stuff, so I like this well enough. And Meng hits multiple dropkicks, including one from the top! So that’s cool. Meng signals for the TDG, but Steiner escapes it with an eye rake and a low blow, then hits a belly-to-belly suplex and gets a leveraged pinfall with his feet on the ropes to send himself to Spring Stampede and the finals. I think I liked this enough that it’s a Charming Uniquity. I can’t say that it was good, but it was quite compelling, especially after the ringside brawl. Break. Nitro Girls. Tony S. hypes the show. Break. I really need to get the ad-free version of Peacock if this is the new format. For some stupid-ass reason, they do a bait-and-switch with some guy who rigs the set wearing a black coat and looking like he might be Sting, though when he turns around, he is decidedly not Sting. Then, there’s the Sting hype video again and another break. At least they don’t jam an ad into this one. Flair is back in his office prepping for his match later tonight talking about throwing a party on the company dime when he talks to someone just off camera, chastising them for letting themselves into his office without his invitation. They are just silent, saying nothing, and I guess holding a camera that films him? I don’t get this segment; it makes no sense. Flair tells whoever is there to “turn it off and go,” and we leave this weirdo segment that I hope has an explanation or purpose later. [Editor's note: Again, nope] A Hacksaw Jim Duggan hype video plays that recaps his successful battle against cancer. After that, Lenny Lane comes to the ring to do a clean job for ol’ Hacksaw. Alright, I'm glad you put the metaphorical 2x4 to cancer, but let’s move it along, Duggan. Enough with the flag waving and the U-S-A chants. The match stinks, as you’d guess. I do admit to looking forward to Duggan being forced to join Team Canada, which I remember happening. Or did he turn of his own volition? Either way, I guess I can suffer the occasional Duggan match to get to that angle. This one is far too long, and it probably only goes five minutes. Get Duggan in and out of the ring in three, and let’s move on. Duggan wins with the Old Glory kneedrop. Rachtman shills the WCW Hotline. He’s aware that no one likes him. I mean, he’s right, but don’t make that a part of your shill! We get a recap of Hogan working things out with the B-Teamers from last week. After that, the B-Teamer battle royal happens. I must once more remark on how “Rockhouse” is playing, and the crowd is dead. Can you imagine that? “Rockhouse” hit in 1996, and people lost their shit. Just under three years later, and look at the crowd. Think about what these fuckers in WCW's creative did to “Rockhouse.” At least Stevie Ray and the fantastic hat that he’s wearing made me feel a bit better. So, Stevie, Crush, Horace, and Virgil are in this thing. I love that Scott Norton decided that he was too good for any of this shit. He's right, too! That is absolutely a logical thing for his character to decide! This match is deadly dull. After what feels like a long time with lots of mediocre striking involved, Virgil is the first eliminated; I think he’s supposed to eliminate himself when he whiffs on a running lariat, but Crush grazes him with a boot to finally help him take his bump to the floor. Crush and Horace strike a deal to dump Stevie next; they double up on him for a bit, but Stevie fights back. Horace low-blows Stevie, but then he fights with Crush over who should dump Stevie. Crush tries to press Horace to the floor, but Horace eye rakes his way out, and Stevie clotheslines Crush to the floor. Horace tries to get the jump on Stevie, but he charges Stevie against the ropes and is backdropped to the floor. Good for Stevie! He’s the leader of a bunch of lower-midcard chumps! After a review of Billy Kidman and Rey Misterio Jr.’s tag title win on Nitro, we have the Nitro Girls dancing before Kidman and Misterio defend the tag titles against Raven and Saturn. This match could go either way, but it does make sense to put the belts on Saturn and Raven for the Spring Stampede match if they go that direction. However, I’m already bummed about all the title changes with the tag titles. They were just reactivated, but we’ve already had three different champions in about six weeks. We probably don't need four. Wouldn’t you know it? These teams start off hot and promise a good match with Rey getting caught trying a rana during an offensive flurry and Raven holding him up in the electric chair position so that Saturn can come off the top with a crossbody. Saturn drills Rey with a guillotine legdrop that ends up more like a senton splash. It gets two. Saturn whiffs on an actual senton splash after that, and Kidman comes in and lands a number of dropkicks, facebusters, and bulldogs. Rey and Kidman double-splash Saturn, and Rey makes the cover for two even though he's not legal. And then, get this, they run a commercial break. Why not break in any of the other matches tonight, none of which promise to be as good as this one? Back from break, Saturn wraps up a charging Kidman and belly-to-bellys him OVER the ropes and to the floor. Tony S. and Heenan are aghast at that wild bump that Kidman took. Raven grabs a chair, and as any match involving Raven is Raven’s Rules due to that contract that he negotiated, he drop-toeholds Kidman into the chair. Saturn and Raven put in work on Kidman, who is the FIP hitting him with a number of double-team moves that look great. Raven goes for a powerbomb for the first time in his whole WCW tenure probably, and Kidman hits a facebuster to counter and gets a hot tag. Rey and Saturn work an intricate sequence of counters that end with Saturn dropkicked into the corner. Rey dropkicks Raven into the other corner. He hits a Bronco Buster on Saturn, but leaps into a boot to the crotch from Raven; Raven’s cover gets two. OK, we’re in the finishing run. Both teams trade two counts. Rey crunches Saturn into the ref. Rey springboards toward Saturn, who catches him and hits a DVD (no VR), but the ref is out. Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit run down and destroy Saturn, culminating in a Benoit flying headbutt. They toss Rey on top of Saturn, and Kidman revives the ref to count the three. This was a great sprint, but they put a break in it and then rushed the rest of it, even for a tag sprint with a naturally quick pace. Was this as long as Duggan/Lane when you account for the break? Come on, man. Hulk Hogan does some squats backstage in preparation for his main event match later tonight. Chris Jericho comes to the ring; he seems unsure about the new ramp. Tony S. and Heenan note that they’re not on Thunder anymore, so yeah, I guess all the squabbling at the desk was a fucking angle so they could justify Tony S. and Heenan on Nitro and Tenay and Larry Z. on Thunder. Why not just, you know, make this change without all the shitty squabbling that ruined a bunch of matches? No one needs an angle for commentary changes. Well, I guess Chris Jericho’s match against Chris Adams was a first-round U.S. Championship Tournament match because he’s facing Booker T. next for the second slot in the finals of this tournament. Oh, WCW. Jericho starts out all cocky-like until he runs into a Booker dropkick. Booker hits a lariat and a hook kick, but charges into a Jericho boot and…jumps right out of a Jericho vertical suplex attempt. Jericho isn’t having that, jumps out of Booker’s vertical suplex attempt, and hangs him up, then follows up with a springboard dropkick. This is a pacey back-and-forth match. Jericho tries a Lionsault, but meets Booker’s knees. Booker follows up with an axe kick, then catches a leapfrogging Jericho on a rope run and drills a spinebuster for two. Jericho fights back with a pancake and celebrates, but Booker Spinaroonies up from the impact and lands a Houston Side Kick. Scott Steiner suddenly charges in and swings a chair at Book, but Book ducks it, dumps Booker, and then backdrops a charging Jericho over the top rope and into Steiner. Weirdly, the ref awards the match to Booker even though Booker avoided the chair shot and had things under control. Even Heenan points out how bad the decision is. Unless Jericho’s getting added into the final match after some (technically correct) rulebook posturing, that was a bad finish. Fun sprint, again! But a bad finish. Buff Bagwell faces off with Bam Bam Bigelow next. Bam Bam is headed to Spring Stampede to wrestle Hardcore Hak, if I heard Tony S. correctly earlier in the night. Buff learned a lot from Scott Steiner, as through the power of pantomime, he basically does a Steiner-like HE’S FAT in reference to Bammer. Then, he dances. The run of good matches is probably coming to a close, huh? Buff fights back and lariats Bigelow to the floor. Bam Bam gets back on top with strikes, but Buff uses his quickness to dodge Bam Bam and hit a bunch of his own strikes. He tries a body slam, but Bigelow shifts his weight and falls on top of Buff for two. Bammer chokes and rakes and headbutts. He goes up top for a senton splash, but misses. Buff makes his comeback and gets two on a crossbody before Bam Bam takes control again by blocking an elbow to the face. He tries to lift Buff and, yep, there’s a ref bump, and yep, here come Hak and Chastity. Chastity sprays Bam Bam with a fire extinguisher and blinds him. Buff follows up with a Blockbuster and the ref finds his way through the fog to count the three. That was probably the best possible Bam Bam/Buff match possible in 1999. Nitro Girls. Nash vs. Goldberg hype video. That match got made six days before the show! What could they have done in the build if they gave it three weeks of hype? It’s a shame that they didn’t. The crowd chants WE WANT STING as Buffer introduces the main event. Hmm, I’d forgotten about Sting until then. Oh no, is Sting going to turn heel and help Flair? Please, no. Nash joins commentary for this match. Now, it’s time for our first formal edition of Michael Buffer’s Ring Announcing Quality Control: Flair is “President and CEO of World Championship Wrestling” (nope, just the prez); Goldberg’s signature moves are the “power spear and inverted lift body slam and pin”; and I guess he calls Page the “People’s Champion” because he doesn’t watch Nitro and didn’t update his note cards. The match pops off immediately, and Hogan and Goldberg do indeed pair off with Flair and Page respectively. Hogan Hulks Up like thirty seconds into this thing. Page has to divert himself from fighting Goldberg at ringside to break up a Hogan pinfall attempt off a legdrop. Flair, having gotten himself killed by Hogan after a run of ineffective offense, gets himself killed by Goldberg after a run of ineffective offense. Hogan and Goldberg end up having a ringside brawl while Page beats up Flair with little effort. Page lands a rebound Diamond Cutter, and Goldberg has to hustle to the ring and yank Page off of Flair. This is a pretty fun match, actually. I’m not a huge fan of multi-man matches in this vein, but I’ve always preferred Four Corners matches to Triple Threat matches because you can pair wrestlers off and switch the pairings without having a dip in action, unlike Triple Threats where there’s always someone invariably laying around for awhile so we can have a one-on-one match. The crowd is very focused on where Sting might be, and yeah, where is that guy? Hogan and Goldberg reverse a sloppy small package back and forth for a series of two counts. Nash half-heartedly roots for Goldberg since Goldberg winning means that Nash gets a title shot at Spring Stampede, but he doesn't seem like he's really into the idea. Flair takes a chair from a poor old security guy who was sitting down, maybe he needs that chair to do his job Flair, you utter despicable heel. The chair gets dumped to the side, and I’m waiting for the storyline hook. The action leading to the hook is fun, though! Flair goes tumbling across the desk, and Hogan follows up and pummels him. This does get a bit of that “wild brawl” feel, so kudos to all these guys. While we see Goldberg beat up Page in the ring, we can hear Flair yelling OH MY GOD, OH MY BACK after Hogan hits him with a vertical suplex on the floor. It’s things like that which give this match that sort of wild feel. The MGM Grand crowd is into this, but they also have an eye to the rafters and the ramp, so I think the heat for this is slightly muted as a result. They are into Goldberg no-selling Hogan’s offense or hitting Page with a Jackhammer, but the crowd being trained so well that the finish can’t come before there’s fuckery has taken some of the heat out of things. I mean, they get hot for Goldberg spearing all three guys, one after the other. Goldberg gets two on that last spear to Hogan. Goldberg Jackhammers Hogan, and Nash is late on the run-in, so Hogan has to kick out. Then, somehow, we get a fucking DQ in a Four Corners match on Nash running in. Sting rappels down from the rafters to a huge pop, but oh man, that finish was so crappy that I can’t endorse this match for viewing. So, Sting points to the video boards, and there's a video in which Randy Savage (!!!) does the voiceover to announce that there will be another Four Corners match at Spring Stampede for the WCW World Championship: Ric Flair will face Hulk Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page, and Sting with the title on the line…and Randy Savage as the guest referee. Savage is very, very, VERY clear that there will be a winner in this match, which I thank him for after the shitty finish to this last Four Corners match. So, mixed feelings about this Nitro! I hate the new look, I’m not sure about this new format, but adding Sting and Savage into the title mix is actually pretty interesting! I have no clue where they’re taking this. Anyway, I won’t bump any Stinger Splashes off the score for the ugly Nitro set because we’re stuck with it until the show gets cancelled, but I do have trepidation about what Thunder might look like when I watch that next. Anyway, this was an imperfect, but interesting show that placed multiple matches in the good lists on my master document, so there’s that! 3.25 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. Edited June 27 by SirSmUgly 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 I believe Spring Stampede has a really good tag title match... speaking of tag teamers... what the hell happened to wayne bloom? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 I feel that DDP started getting booed after never really winning the big one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 8 hours ago, zendragon said: what the hell happened to wayne bloom? the Train mostly retired after his WWF run in early '93. He lived in Minnesota, so he did some spot shows for the next couple years. I have to imagine that WCW made him an offer he couldn't refuse, but according to cagematch his last match was in the summer of '98 at the ripe old age of 40. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 Crowd: "Diamond Dallas SCUM Page" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted June 27 Author Share Posted June 27 10 hours ago, zendragon said: I feel that DDP started getting booed after never really winning the big one I feel like it was once DDP kept... 1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said: Crowd: "Diamond Dallas SCUM Page" ...saying exactly stuff like this, but to other wrestlers. Page is a great babyface, excellent at fighting up from underneath, etc., but his babyface mic work is IMO legendarily bad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted June 27 Author Share Posted June 27 Thunder Interlude – show number fifty-eight – 7 April 1999 "The WCW Gang is sorta on fire going into Spring Stampede" Other than the new WCW logo at the front of the opening, everything else about Thunder looks the same…I’m sorta glad that WCW neglects Thunder in this case…Not everything sounds the same, as I get a break from Tony S. and Heenan on Thursdays now…Or Wednesdays sometimes, as is the case with this show…Though now that I think about it, this is a taped show, so maybe it’ll be post-Spring Stampede that we get a set update…We’ll see… I don’t think Tenay has a great voice for lead PBP…I like him as part of a three-man booth…But I’m just not a huge fan of his voice for long stretches…His pitch?...Timbre?...I don’t know enough about voices to pick out what my issue is…I much prefer Scott Hudson, and hope that by the end of this summer, I’ll be up to 2000 in this watch, which is when I think he joins the desk… Evan Karagias is back, and he has braids now!...Karagias opens the show against Rey Misterio Jr., who is carrying multiple belts around like he’s Ultimo Dragon…Hey, I miss Ultimo Dragon…Bring him back, WCW…Karagias loos like a million bucks, but he’s quite awkward…Rey is so good even at 24 (!) that he’s going to have a good match with anyone…Tenay promotes Bret Hart on the 1AM NBC talk show…You know, the thing you fall asleep in front of because you’re too lazy to go to your bedroom after Conan’s show ends… This match starts out solid…They have an obligatory ringside brawl…Back in the ring, Karagias works the arm and locks on a headlock…As I think that Karagias working on the arm makes no sense, Larry Z. happens to point out that maybe working a leg to kill Rey's running would be better…Yeah, and maybe starting that work on it earlier in the match…After a commercial break, Karagias continues to control with another headlock…Tenay encourages everyone at next week’s live Thunder to do the whole LARRY chant thing… This match hit a black hole of suck once Karagias was given a long control segment…OK, let me walk back my earlier “have a good match with anyone” comment about Rey…Karagias is so out of ideas that he goes into another chinlock after a bunch of strikes…Rey fights out of it, and they do a contrived springboard leveraged guillotine legdrop where Karagias has to hold onto the ropes so he can hang there to get legdropped…Yikes, that is some fake shit….Finally, Karagias starts working this match like he probably should have from the jump…Using his size advantage and vascularity to hit powerbombs or try for press slams…Karagias goes up top, gets caught, and eats a rana for the loss…Boy oh boy, did Rey give Karagias too much…I look forward to finding out how many matches Karagias won on Worldwide to get this title shot at Rey… Recap: Bret Hart calls out Goldberg, tricks the big dummy… Hype video: Nash vs. Goldberg… Wrath faces Damian 666…I think WCW does their Festival de Lucha show soon…Their goal to get a WWF Super Astros-style show going failed as badly as WWF trying to get Super Astros going did…I’ve gotten bits and pieces of the story from Bischoff and Konnan, but I need to look up a fuller accounting of what happened…Tenay stumps for the crowd doing LARRY chants again, this time at an upcoming Thunder at Penn State…Somebody in production really loves the energy of the LARRY chanting, which honestly I didn’t realize went on into 1999…It became a thing Nitro attendants did (except for in Canada, I guess)…Wrath dominates, Damian makes a comeback, Wrath settles things down with a Meltdown for three… Gene Okerlund interviews Konnan in the ring…You know, I wonder why the heck WCW didn’t wait until after Spring Stampede to make their set and logo changes…I mean, I get that they thought the Nitro at the MGM Grand in Vegas was a big Nitro, so they made changes for it…But it would make more sense to make any and all changes after a huge PPV, and at the same time at least in my opinion…Konnan hits his fucking Catchphrase Roulette…Finally, he talks to Gene…He can’t pronounce the word “stampede” correctly or understand how Disco got into the Wolfpac… Juventud Guerrera is a heel again (still?), I guess?...He leads down Disco Inferno in the La Cucaracha get-up…I guess Disco coming to the ring in that get-up at the Club La Vela had a point after all…Juvi interprets for Cucaracha, who can’t speak English, supposedly…Juvi says that Cucaracha says that Konnan stinks and so does his music video…Konnan opens up on both guys and clears the ring…Good for Tenay that he actually recognizes Disco almost instantly this time around…He was sure struggling on Nitro at Club La Vela to identify him… Recap: Goldberg and Nash have beef on the previous Nitro… For the first time since Uncensored, Mikey Whipwreck makes an appearance on a Nitro or Thunder…It’s an ECW reunion!...Whipwreck faces Hardcore Hak (w/Chastity)…A quick look at Cagematch says that this is Mikey’s first match since the PPV…The guy only spends five months in the company…Huh…I took care only to scan the logos on the left and the dates, but not the results…However, I’m feeling confident that I know who wins this one… There’s an obligatory ringside brawl…Whipwreck lands a side Russian to Hak against the guardrail…There’s a commercial break…We come back to Whipwreck putting Hak in the Tree of Woe and landing a dropkick to a chair across Hak’s face while Hak’s hung upside down…Whipwreck tries a corkscrew splash, but Hak rolls out of the way and Whipwreck wipes out right on top of the chair…Hak hits his own springboard legdrop with Whipwreck draped over the ropes…At least he dropped him gut-first, which doesn’t look as contrived… Hak lands another slingshot legdrop to Whipwreck with the chair on his face…Chastity tosses Hak a kendo stick, but Whipwreck grabs the chair and stabs at Hak’s knee in desperation…Whipwreck takes the kendo stick and batters Hak with it in the head…Hak ducks the third swing and grabs it, then yanks it back and lands a stick-assisted side Russian for three…Bam Bam runs down after the bell and drills Hak with a Greetings…Chastity hits Bam Bam with the kendo stick…It has no effect…She drops the stick and has to dive out of the way as Bam Bam swings it at her…That started out like it would be a nothing TV match and ended up being incredibly fun!... Hype video: Big Poppa Pump, Scott Steiner… Super Calo’s nutty ass is out next...Ooh, he’s facing off with Blitzkrieg…Calo and Blitz trade arm wringers, but it’s a tease, that’s all, they know what I want to see, and they’re making me anticipate it…Calo hits a wild springboard missile dropkick that sends Blitz to the floor…Blitz tries to re-enter the ring, but Calo puts double boots to Blitz and then lands a senton bomb from the ring to the floor…Calo locks on a sort of octopus hold back in the ring…He’s so awkward, but I dig him…Blitz scores a flash roll-up for two…They do a bunch of counters before Blitz hits his own missile dropkick, then gets absurd air on a flipping suicide dive… I LOVE THE MOVEZ~…It’s weird because I am usually left cold by a lot of modern matches full of dive after dive, but this rules, and I’ve liked a lot of the dive-heavy singles matches that I’ve seen during this watch…Ooh, Blitzkrieg/Juvi is on for Spring Stampede according to Tenay!...This is your chance, WCW…Put it on first as a truly hot cruiserweight opener!...Blitzkrieg flips himself into back suplex position and gets punished…Calo tries a shoulder charge in the corner and hits it, but goes back to the well and gets punished…Blitz tries a complex victory roll, but only gets two…Blitz tries another complex move and gets tilt-a-whirl slammed for two…Calo tries to run the ropes, but Blitz follows him in and trips him, then barely lands a Sky-Twisting Moonsault for three…Fun, fun, fun!... After a WCW wrestling figure ad, we get a cute little kid on his dad’s shoulders wearing a Wolfpac shirt…He realizes that he’s on camera and hits the 4 LYFE hand sign…That kid was adorable!... Recap: Raven, Saturn, Benoit, and Malenko have tag team beef… Someone fucked up with the Raven’s theme dub-over on this episode…I can clearly hear the “Come As You Are” knockoff playing beneath the dub…I actually think the Raven dub is alright, man…But “Come As You Are” is a classic…Even the knockoff version rules…Raven faces Chris Benoit (w/Arn Anderson) tonight…They are a good pairing with excellent chemistry…And of course, on my list of guys who I think way more of after this watch-through, Raven might have climbed the highest… Benoit walks in, walks right up to Raven slumped in the corner, and stomps him out…Heh, that’s pretty good!...Benoit controls and then locks a backbreaker on Raven…Benoit dumps Raven to ringside…Arn tries to attack, but Raven grabs him…Still, it distracts Raven and Benoit baseball slides right into Raven while he’s preoccupied…Here’s your obligatory ringside brawl…It doesn’t last long…Arn complains to Charles Robinson about Raven grabbing him while Benoit re-establishes control… Benoit hits a few stomps, but eats boot on a corner charge…Raven rushes him and slams his head into the opposite buckle…Raven hits rolling verticals (!!!) on Benoit, which is quite the visual for a couple of reasons…Benoit tries a flash Crossface when Raven picks him back up and tries to Irish whip him…Raven scrambles to the ropes, then jawbreakers his way out of Benoit trying to grab him…No, not a break at this point, come on, the match is very good so far… We’re back!...Benoit and Raven perfectly time our return by having Raven breaking up a sleeper, I think, by ramming Benoit backward into the corner…Benoit is tenacious and decides to target Raven’s leg…Makes sense, as Raven has hit some quick, explosive offense in this thing…Raven uses Benoit’s tenaciousness against him and grabs him by the tights and dumps him to ringside as Benoit advances…Raven grabs a chair and sets it up in the ring, then shoots Benoit in and lands a drop toehold on the chair…Raven tries to follow up, but Benoit blocks a bulldog-onto-the-chair attempt and then yanks Raven back, slamming Raven’s head onto the folded chair… Benoit tries a diving headbutt, but Raven moves and Benoit butts the chair…There’s a standing ten-count…Raven’s up first, so Arn jumps into the ring and attacks Raven…Arn sets Raven up for a DDT, but Saturn runs in and hits Arn in the back of the neck, then attacks Benoit…Raven sets Arn up for a DDT of his own, but Malenko makes the save…The numbers game gets to Saturn and Raven and the three Horsemen beat down the former Flock members…Malenko hits Saturn with a DVD while Benoit hits Raven with a DDT onto the chair…Ooh, move stealing, the most insulting of things you can do to an opponent…This Thunder has hit a third-straight TV match that was very enjoyable…After the match, Arn chastises the crowd for asking to bring the Horsemen back, but apparently not being pleased at the results… Recap: The Four Corners match from the previous Nitro…If Ric Flair is the president of the company, why would he agree to this?...Obviously, Sting and Savage went over his head to get the Spring Stampede match…But to whom did they go?...I’m sorry, but this plot hole is too big for me to ignore if they fail to address it at some point…The match itself should be interesting…I think it’d be a fairly big mistake to take the belt off Flair, though, and if it happens, I’m going to have to make a few backseat hindsight booking complaints… The Thunder main event is Chris Jericho attempting to wrest the TV title away from Booker T….Jericho does his whole thing where he gets the name of the city wrong…Or the state, actually, as he calls Richmond, West Virginia his favorite town…Even though this was shot before the previous Nitro, I like the idea that Jericho is getting this TV title shot as a make good for losing the previous match by DQ even though Booker didn’t actually eat an attack from Scott Steiner… Booker controls early with a headlock…Jericho tries a few things to get out of it, but fails…He finally uses momentum to shoot Booker out of it and into the ropes, but Booker runs right over him with a shoulderblock…Jericho gets out of a hammerlock and actually wins his own shoulderblock, but he soon eats a superkick…Booker gets two off a body slam…Jericho tries his best, but just can’t keep control for long…Booker hammers him with charging forearms and a roundhouse kick…Jericho tumbles outside and has decided that he’s good with the beating…Booker’s not done, though… This obligatory ringside brawl is short…It’s just Book bashing Jericho into both sides of the guardrail and then marching him back…Jericho cracks me up by charging Booker and yelling YAAAH in a high-pitched voice…Booker back bodydrops him to the floor, but follows up and gets sent into the guardrail…Jericho hits a top-rope back elbow for two…Finally, Jericho has a bit of purchase in this match…He scores a vertical suplex and a senton splash for two…Jericho tries to tie Booker up with strikes and chokes…Jericho’s got a shiner forming under one of his eyes…This has been a pretty stiff match in spots… Booker hops over Jericho on a corner charge and gets his signature counter-rollup for two…Jericho retakes control with a spinning kick, talks some smack to the crowd, then lands a backbreaker and a slam…Jericho takes a whole lot of time to go up top and dives right into a boot…Booker makes his comeback…Axe kick, nasty spinebuster, and uh-oh, Jericho counters a charge with a pancake right into the ref…The ref is out, but Booker hits a Spinaroonie and takes control…Scott Steiner runs down and slams Booker in the head with it when Booker goes up for a missile dropkick…Jericho tries to lock on a Walls, but Stevie Ray (!) runs down and hits Jericho with a slapjack…Booker rolls over and covers Jericho for three…Stevie’s feeling that he can bring Booker into the B-Team, I guess, and maybe re-establish some control over him…I wonder how Scott Steiner is going to address Stevie countering his plans in the nWo locker room...Hey, this was a fun match that was actually enhanced by the run-ins!... This Thunder was enjoyable as fuck…There was a straight hour-plus of awesome wrestling action on this show…I dug the hell out of it, and it somehow got me more excited for Spring Stampede as a taped show…That’s a heck of an achievement for a taped show…I give it a WOOOOOOO… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 If you like WCW neglecting Thunder wait till you check out WCWSN! I agree with you on Tenay, he was much better as the third man in the booth doing his professor gimmick than being the lead PBP man (especially in TNA) The whole Festival of Lucha Raw footage was uploaded onto youtube a while ago and I think the whole thing was on the network as a hidden gem at one point https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBbxAfKPMOI 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted June 28 Author Share Posted June 28 Spring Stampede ’99 notes: I am hyped as hell for this show! Let’s gooooooooo! Spring Stampede and Bash at the Beach must have the best hit rates for WCW PPVs. People always complain about how bad Uncensored and Souled Out were (which I think is somewhat unfair), but they never give enough credit to Spring Stampede and Bash at the Beach consistently being very good. Before I started this PPV, I went back and watched the segment from WCWSN on 4/10 that Twiztor posted. There’s another talky confrontation between Konnan, Juventud Guerrera, and Disco Inferno La Cucaracha. Before that segment occurs, Gene Okerlund is back in the locker rooms, and he is going to spill some shit on the WCW Hotline about Lex and Liz and ECW being broke as fuck, I think. I’m so proud of how much Juvi has improved his English, no matter how much Konnan or the commentators shit on him about it. Juvi accidentally admits that Cucaracha is Disco, and Disco has to quickly correct him. Juvi translates that while Cucaracha actually isn’t Disco, he swears, Cucaracha is a huge fan of Disco and Disco’s music videos. On the other hand, he speaks for all of Mexico in saying that Konnan’s videos are hot ass and that the whole country is awaiting Cucaracha’s beating of Konnan at Spring Stampede. This brings Konnan out to *sigh* hit his fucking Catchphrase Roulette, though it’s definitely over with this crowd. He also says that everyone in the arena except for Penzer is ‘bout it or rowdy. Konnan re-uses the same insults he used about Juvi’s English and Cucaracha’s Spanish and wrestling on Thunder. Like, exactly the same. The man is locked on saying the same shit over and over, just stuck on the roulette wheel of catchphrases. Disco attacks and celebrates like Disco before forgetting that he’s not supposed to be Disco. The crowd chants that DISCO SUCKS, but I think he’s good at stooging and has solid timing! Anyway, they have a short fight that ends with Konnan stealing Disco’s Chartbuster, which Disco stole from Stone Cold Steve Austin, and then unmasking him. I think they should have done this on Thunder instead of having almost the same segment, but without the unmasking, on Thunder and then doing the unmasking on SN. Weird choice on WCW Creative’s part. Back to Spring Stampede. Hey, it’s the ugly-ass Tacoma Dome! Someone paid attention to my pleas somehow, even though I am writing these 25 years in the future: We’re opening with Blitzkrieg vs. Juventud Guerrera! Blitz is billed as from “the Cosmos,” which Heenan declares is a half-mile outside of Yakima. Yeah, that’s more of a “Parts Unknown” sort of location, Heenan. This match is a number one contendership match for the Cruiserweight Championship. Calo apparently got a concussion on Thunder during his match against Blitz, but these bums Tony S. and Heenan are too busy clowning on Thunder as a show to really say anything useful about this. Juvi rolls up Blitz early for two, but Blitz squirms out and puts an ineffective looking ankle lock on Juvi, which Juvi rolls through for another two count. Blitz puts on a headlock, and I’m like, get to the reversals and the flips, dammit. They do! They have a couple of switches and flips out of moves that ends with a Blitz side slam that looks like it spiked Juvi’s ankle. Juvi shows no ill effects as he takes control, but then loses it again as Blitz lands a Muta-style handspring elbow. They continue to work in the corners of the ring, fighting over head smashes into the corner buckles. Juvi wins that fight and hits ten smashes to answer Blitzkrieg, who hit him with ten punches in the corner shortly before. Juvi hits a springboard dropkick, and Blitz rolls outside, where Juvi spears him with a suicide dive. Juvi takes matters back into the ring and lands a brainbuster for two. Juvi locks on a surfboard, but Blitz wriggles out of it and lands on top of Juvi for a flash two count. Juvi tries to regain control with a suplex, but Blitz hops out of it and lands a series of strikes that send Juvi spilling to the floor. Juvi is terrible about getting to his spot in a timely manner, just awful, almost like he forgot the spot he was supposed to do, so Blitz has to kind of chase Juvi around the apron so that he can leap off top and get counter-dropkicked on the floor. Juvi puts Blitz back in the ring and tries a tilt-a-whirl, but Blitz counters that with a rolling arm drag. Juvi slides back outside and gets caught with a lovely springboard moonsault on the floor. Back in the ring, they counter powerbomb and Juvi Driver attempts until Juvi finally gets the last flip out of a move and hits a neckbreaker. Juvi parks Blitz up top and tries a back suplex, and Blitz fucks up the counter, or maybe Juvi doesn’t lift him enough. The point is that Blitz counters by toppling onto Juvi. They counter again and again, including a counter of another Juvi Driver attempt, until Blitzkrieg hits a spinning sunset flip for two. Blitz puts him up top again, but Juvi grabs Blitz and hits him with a Super Juvi Driver that gets three. That was a sloppy and disjointed match, not nearly as good as I’d hoped it would be (and I’m not sure I’d actually call it “good” at all), but it served its duty well enough as a HOT CRUISERWEIGHT OPENER. Hardcore Hak and Bam Bam Bigelow are going to club each other with plundah, and maybe Chastity will do some cool shit too. Tony S. stops perving on Chastity prematurely because Bam Bam Bigelow wheels out a cart full ‘o garbage and slams it into the gut of a charging Hak. Hak pulls a table out from under the stagecoach on the set – why was a table there? Who knows? – and plants Bam Bam on it, then HOLY FUCK hits a somersault senton from the top of the stagecoach to Bam Bam and through the table. That was a better aerial spot than anything in the HOT CRUISERWEIGHT OPENER, and I can’t believe that I’m saying that. Bigelow fights back even though that’s the sort of spot that should end a match, IMO; it was a hell of a somersault senton and there was a nice CRUNCH when Hak landed. Bigelow bends a crutch around Hak’s spleen. I don’t know, these garbage brawls usually feel very same-y, but this one is quite fun for some reason. I actually think garbage brawls are booked too long. If you’re whacking people with crutches and putting them through tables on stagecoach dives in a sport where a single chair shot keeps guys down for three regularly, your fight should last like five minutes and go almost immediately to 2.9s once you drag the plundah out and start using it. That’s how I feel about it, but no one is giving me the damn book, so I guess I’ll just complain about things here. Very ineffectually. Bam Bam puts a salad bowl on Hak’s head and then punches it, and somehow, that rules. But oh no, I think Hak might have blown out his knee? Maybe not; there was a botched slam spot, and it really did look like he might have blown out his knee. He just grabs a ladder and puts it in the ring, though. I mean, you can walk on a blown knee, but you can’t do fucking ladder spots on one. Hak dropkicks the ladder into Bammer and then puts it on top of him and somersault sentons it from the top, too. Why the fuck not? Somersault sentons for all! Hak lands a bulldog on the ladder, and then gets yet another table, the nutty bastard. You know, I figured out what I like about this match compared to most other garbage brawls – Hak is in it. Hak is legit probably the best garbage brawler in this modern ECW style ever. I don’t know what it is about him. He just bosses it in these things. Chastity helps set the table up between the apron and the guardrail so that Hak can climb the ladder for no reason and get tipped off it and through the table. Bammer leans the ladder in one corner and a guardrail in the opposite corner, then hypes up the crowd before tossing Hak into the ladder and spiking him with a dented trash can. Hak fights back from underneath with a crutch. He drapes Bam Bam on the guardrail and tries a guillotine legdrop, but he busts his butt on the rail, literally. Chastity VERY BADLY mistimes a fire extinguisher spot as Bam Bam waits, holding the guardrail to slam it on Hak. Poor Bammer is peeking backward, like, Where the fuck is she?! Finally, she makes it into the ring and Bam Bam gets the extinguisher and turns it on her. Hak uses that opportunity to hit a cane assisted side Russian, but Bam Bam gets right the hell up from that so that he can drive Hak through a table with a Super Greetings from Asbury Park for three. What is up with folks fucking up key spots in matches tonight? Anyway, that match was stupid shit, totally illogical, but there were enough cool spots in it that I liked it well enough. Scotty Riggs is on this show for some reason. He’s got a mirror which says BETTER LOOKING EACH DAY on it. OK, buddy, you keep working through gimmicks. I’m sure one will stick eventually. Riggs faces Mikey Whipwreck in this unannounced bonus match that Riggs can use to establish his new persona and to steal the Rick Rude hip swivel. Though sadly, Rude won’t be needing it for much longer anyway since he dies nine days after this show. Whipwreck hits some opening offense and knocks Riggs to the floor. Whipwreck continues to dominate when Riggs re-enters the ring, puts double-boots to him when he falls back outside, and then leaps over the top rope and hits Riggs with a rana. He misses a leaping legdrop to Riggs on the apron, however, and Riggs barges into him, knocking him off the apron and into the guardrail.. Riggs puts the boots to Mikey and does some boilerplate offense in control. He strikes, he chokes, he poses, he draws BORING chants. There’s a nice top rope move in there, but yeah, Riggs stinks. He has a lovely-looking dropkick, to be sure, but most of his offense stinks. Riggs runs himself into boots on a corner charge twice in a row, then eats a missile dropkick from Whipwreck for two. Mikey follows up with a side Russian for two more. Whipwreck gets another two count off a Frankensteiner, and that’s as close as he gets to victory, as Riggs lands a flying forearm on a rope run for three. Yuck. The best thing about that match is that it ended, and relatively quickly, too. YEAH, this video package for the Disco/Konnan feud has clips of Disco’s mockery of said video. Their match is next. Look, Konnan, I’m tired of this Catchphrase Roulette. Change it up a bit, dude. Disco comes out here in a silver shirt and cowboy hat combo and fires imaginary six shooters, which got a good laugh out of me. What an idiot. Konnan calls Disco gay because of his outfit while a fan (probably from Puyallup or maybe Covington: See more about this in the Steiner/Booker segment of this review) holds up a sign that racially slurs Konnan, so, uh, not pro wrestling’s finest moment there. The match begins, and Disco hits Konnan’s rolling clothesline and mockingly dances in Konnan’s style. We proceed to get a Konnan match. In 1999, no less. Disco is very good, but he’s no miracle worker or anything near it. He’s a guy who a) is great doing comedy matches and b) can up his game against better workers than him. He’s not a guy who is having a good match with Konnan in 1999. I’m just super-bored by Konnan hitting offense at half-speed and Disco bumping for said half-speed offense. Disco hits a snapmare into a chinlock, and I’m good man, I’d rather listen to ten minutes of Disco and Konnan talking about AEW than watch this match, which really says something because that sounds like hell. Disco gets back to his feet, struts, and lands a swinging neckbreaker for two. Disco keeps cutting off Konnan comebacks; he cuts off another one, gets on the second rope, cabbage patches, and then drops the elbow for two. Cabbage patching? That’s not disco. It certainly is a future partial descendant of disco, but it’s not disco. Konnan tries another comeback, but jogs into a Disco sidestep and gets dumped outside for the obligatory ringside brawl in this match. Konnan actually does take and keep control out there, then gets back in the ring…and gets cut off with a boot. Disco lands a falling fist to Konnan’s dome and then goes back to the chinlock. Konnan fights up, gets slammed, and then dodges another second rope Disco elbow. Konnan finally makes a comeback, lands a rolling clothesline, and then drills a 1-8-7 (!!) that gets 2.9. Konnan hits a rollup for another two count, but Disco floats over on a clothesline attempt and hits a neckbreaker for two. They run the ropes again, and Konnan hits the back kick and…Disco blocks it. They counter-counter-counter, and Konnan shoves Disco out of a Chartbuster attempt and catches Disco with a Chartbuster of his own on the rebound that gets three. Wow, Konnan certainly got his revenge. You beat a guy with his own move, that’s like a win times a thousand. By the unspoken rules of professional wrestling, Konnan should probably get a shot at the winner of the Four Corners match later tonight. Let’s hope this show picks up a little with the Billy Kidman/Rey Misterio Jr. for the Cruiserweight title. It’s been, um, a bit less than I’d hoped for so far. Thy run the ropes to start and work an intricate sequence where they both hold a knuckle lock, get a stereo two count, and then Rey lands on his feet out of a monkey flip and gets a headscissors takedown. Oh man, this one is probably going to be pretty pacey, so let’s see how well I do to follow it. They counter, counter, and counter again until Kidman is able to backdrop Rey to the floor and follow up with a crossbody over the top. It's obligatory ringside brawl time! Kidman catches Rey on a face crusher attempt, drapes him over the rail, and then springs over the guardrail and lands a legdrop before taking it back inside and sticking on a headlock. We get another sequence after Kidman gets up; Misterio sends Kidman outside, tries a moonsault, gets caught, but slips out of the back of a charging Kidman who is attempting a powerslam and sends him into the rail. Rey takes a MASSIVE strike to the head when he rushes in, and counters a backdrop attempt against the rail from Kidman with a rana…that sends his head right into the upturned stairs next to the ring at high speed. I know that hurt like a motherfucker. Rey winces in pain and angrily kicks the stairs away. Maybe, um, keep it in the ring with the wild spots? Maybe? Rey gets back in the ring and hits a seated senton, but I’m wondering about Rey’s cranial health right now. He hits a springboard moonsault for two, but tries another rana and gets powerbombed out of it. Kidman takes some time to cover and gets two. Kidman hits a backbreaker, but holds onto Rey and lifts him up again for a big back suplex that gets another two count. Rey tries to counter on a rope run, but Kidman hits a Sky High for yet another two count, then tosses Rey to the floor and hits a running SSP off the apron. That had to hurt, too, because Kidman’s aim is off and he cracks knees with Rey. Tony S. notes that the match has slowed down. Yeah, I mean, Rey probably rung his own bell and has hurting knees, and Kidman definitely fucked his knees up on that SSP. Both of them are troopers, though, and Rey fights up to dropkick Kidman out of the air on a dive for two. Rey sits Kidman up top and hits a bulldog from the top for two more. Rey lands a wheel kick, but gets back body dropped out of what looks like a powerbomb attempt, maybe? This match is just two guys who look like they shoot hurt one another trying to do some cool spots, and now they need a long breath to try and gear themselves up for more high spots. Kidman hits a powerslam for two, then cinches in a headlock. Tony S. notes the welt on the side of Misterio’s head from when he cracked the stairs, and the camera even gets a shaky shot of it. Meanwhile, these fellas go back at it; Misterio hits a somersault senton from the ring to the floor, then rolls Kidman in and comes off the top, but gets clotheslined out of the air. Kidman goes back to the chinlock, and Rey fights out of it after getting some rest. They run the ropes, but Rey hits a Frankensteiner out of a Sky High attempt and gets two, then puts on a chinlock of his own. They work back up, but Rey clears himself out on a shoulder charge to the corner that Kidman dodges. Kidman shoots Rey into the ropes, but pops him up and eats a face crusher for it. They run again, and Kidman ducks through a Rey grapple and hits a double underhook face crusher. Kidman goes up for the SSP, but Rey catches him, and Kidman has to settle for a sunset flip powerbomb. Rey makes it back to his feet, and they go to the other corner, where Rey hits another top rope bulldog, but can only get 2.9. Kidman hits a rebound bulldog for 2.9. This is just moves on moves in between rest spots at this point, but in a way where it feels like guys just tossing offense out there. It doesn’t feel like a competitive match. It feels like a series of spots. These fellas are IMO clearly too hurt to really think beyond the moves and put together a compelling narrative. We should probably get to the end here, which we’re headed toward when Rey tries a powerbomb and eats a face crusher. Kidman goes up for the SSP, but Rey trips him and lands a top-rope rana for three. That was an okay match, but they had a much better match just sprinting for nine minutes on Nitro at Club La Vela. I think maybe they could have had something that one-upped that match, but they got thrown off by two spots that clearly injured them. Alright, so Spring Stampede has been okay, but underwhelming so far. However, the good news is that this card was built up so well that it’s always one match away from taking a leap into awesomeness. Next up: Raven and Saturn will face Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko (w/Arn Anderson) in what is probably an eliminator match for number one contendership to the tag titles. Hey, they didn’t bother to dub over “Come Kinda Like You Are” in the promo package, which is what I’m calling that knockoff. Saturn and Benoit start this match; Saturn is immediately dumped outside, where he takes on both his opponents and beats on them. He takes a tag and hits a rebound lariat sort of deal for two. Raven and Saturn do quick tags and cool double teams, like Raven front suplexing Benoit so that Saturn can splash him from the top for two. It’s not quite a PowerPlex, but it rules. They tag in and out, comboing Benoit until Benoit can C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER and dropkick Raven through the ropes and to the floor. Malenko and Arn don’t miss this time around and double up on Raven at ringside before dumping him back in the ring. Raven is the FIP, and Malenko and Benoit hit nice double-team moves, like a team spinebuster followed by a wishbone. These teams work so well together, I’m certain that they could have a good match against one another in their sleep. Raven gets a flash inside cradle, but Charles Robinson is conveniently too distracted by Malenko to do much counting. Then, it’s back to a beatdown for Raven, who eats suplexes and strikes while Arn yells stuff like OHHHH, THAT’S GOTTA HURT at ringside. Robinson continues to admonish Saturn for long periods of time so Raven can get double-teamed behind his back. Robinson as Flair’s crooked ref is in a weird space on this show. Crooked ref angles are a tired deal at this point in WCW, but this is by far the best worked of any of the rogue referee angles. Raven finally gets a hot tag to Saturn, who clears Arn off the apron and goes to town on Malenko and Benoit. He hits the dress punches on Benoit, but turns into a fist from Malenko, who manages not to tear Saturn’s groin hosting him up top. Raven comes from behind and lifts Malenko in the electric chair position, and Saturn hits a splash. Saturn signals for the DVD, but Benoit comes up behind him and cinches Saturn’s waist, then Malenko dropkicks Saturn backward as Benoit uses the momentum to land a German. Raven saves and then tumbles outside with Benoit, but Malenko is able to trip Saturn and put him in the Texas Cloverleaf. Saturn barely crawls to the ropes, then hits a DVD when back to his feet. Benoit dispatches of Raven and scrambles to the top to land a flying headbutt that breaks up the pinfall attempt; Malenko rolls over and gets two. This match fucking RULES, it’s just a stellar example of high-paced tag team wrestling, and the fans are more into the proceedings than they have been all night. Benoit chops Saturn down and hits a backbreaker for two. Benoit and Malenko isolate Saturn in their corner, double up on him with a drop-toehold/low dropkick combo, and generally continue to keep the offensive output up to the highest quality in this contest. Malenko wraps a sleeper hold on Saturn, and Raven has to rush in and break it up with a boot before Benoit jumps in and gets rid of him. Benoit covers Saturn – no tag – and gets two. He tries a Northern Lights with a bridge, but nope, only two again. He decides the hell with it and just tosses Saturn to ringside to get beaten down by Malenko. The Horsemen try a double-team in the ring again, but Saturn escapes and gets a flash rollup on Malenko that Benoit breaks up. Malenko goes to a headlock that Saturn fights up from and back suplexes out of. It’s a second hot tag segment! Raven throws forearms at both Horsemen and clotheslines Malenko to the floor. Saturn tosses Raven a chair, which Raven sets up and drop toeholds Benoit into for a pop. Meanwhile, Saturn tries to hit a splash on Malenko and through a table, but Arn yanks Malenko away and Saturn wipes out. Malenko gets in the ring and avoids a chair shot from Raven, but not an Evenflow. The chair drops onto the back of Raven’s head as he rolls over and covers Malenko. Arn gets on the apron and distracts Robinson while Benoit’s stupid ass DIVING HEADBUTTS THE CHAIR to break the pinfall and pops a gusher in the process; Malenko covers as Arn disengages from Robinson, and Robinson counts the three. Yeah, that was good enough to get on my favorites list. RUN IT BACK. See, it just took one match. I’m now properly hyped for the rest of the show, which continues with Scott Steiner and Booker T. ramping up their rivalry with their United States Championship match, which is next. I feel like the result of this match is telegraphed by one of the competitors already having a singles title, unfortunately. But you know, it’s about the journey, I suppose. Steiner spews invective at various fans as he makes his way to the ring. Booker T. shakes hands and kisses babies on his way to the ring. I’m sure Pump is disgusted. Yeah, he’s so disgusted that he has to get his rage out by yelling at Penzer for some reason. He yells at fans at ringside and looks like he might ‘roid rage on them. He cusses at dudes and swipes at their hats and shit. Half these fans are sauced, man, it looks like all of Puyallup pulled up on this show, and that Puyallup set is typically drunk and mouthy. Steiner and the Puyallup set yelling a bunch of homophobic slurs at one another is almost an inevitability, a natural consequence of getting those two parties in the same place and time together. Steiner hops the railing to yell at some dudes, and come on, that’s definitely Puyallup set instigating this stuff. Maybe some guys from Fife, Auburn, and Covington are sprinkled in there, too. Look, you’re not here for me to critically evaluate the crowd at this rare Pacific Northwest WCW show. You’re here to read about some wrestling, dammit! Steiner finally gets in the ring, where he gets top position on Booker and clubs him in between yelling at the front row. Steiner lets Booker back up and promptly gets dropkicked and arm dragged. Steiner falls to the floor, but Booker avoids the obligatory ringside brawl…for now. Steiner collar-and-elbows with Booker, backs him into the corner, and clubs him with forearms and elbows. Man, Steiner has figured out that secret sauce in the past two months. Also, it helps that he’s a ‘roid raging nasty piece of work IRL at the time, hitting construction workers with his car because the road is closed and shit. How did this guy not get suspended for long periods of 1999 and 2000? Oh yeah, WCW. Booker explodes with a flying forearm, and then he and Steiner spill outside and just throw shots at one another. It’s a brawl that’s actually a brawl! Back in the ring, Steiner begs off, but Booker boots him and then punches him. This match has some potential in the early going. They’re just throwing hard shots in here; Booker hits two corner lariats that hit with a nice smack, then tries corner punches and gets lifted and crotched, then knocked to the floor. Steiner flings Booker into the rail and chokes him. He grabs a chair and hits Booker with it, and, um, the ref sees it and it’s not a DQ. What the heck? Well, I guess it was on the floor. There’s precedent for the “on the floor, it’s not exactly match-ending levels of illegal” in this company. Steiner continues his control, with clubbing forearms, chokes, and celebratory push-ups and posing. Steiner pie-faces the ref inside the ring. Still no disqualification. This match has slowed down, so the crowd chants STE-ROIDS at Steiner for a while. Puyallup set always goes after your deepest insecurities! Steiner covers for two, then yanks the ref around because he didn’t count quicker. Steiner loads up and kicks Booker in the balls. Johnny Boone is like, I retired from wrestling and became a ref so I didn’t have to take suplexes from Scott Steiner; this match WILL CONTINUE! Steiner is such a contemptible piece of shit that I genuinely don’t see how anyone can cheer for him. He’s too much of a scumbag to even remotely hit “cool heel” status. Steiner locks on a bearhug and quickly transitions it to a belly-to-belly when Booker tries to break it. Steiner tries a vertical suplex, but Booker leaps behind him and hits a DDT, and we get a standing ten-count. This hasn’t been quite the level of the last match, but man, it’s been so good. It’s almost there. These fellas are excellent together. Wonderful chemistry. Both men get to their feet, and Booker wins a roundhouse kick, two lariats, and then wipes out the ref when Steiner pulls him in front of a third Steiner lariat. Steiner tries to take advantage of this, but Booker hits an axe kick and a pancake, then Spinaroonies up and hits a Houston Side Kick that would get three if the ref were awake. Well, Booker getting a visual three reinforces the likely finish of this match. Book goes to the ref and revives him, but Steiner clubs him back down. Still, Booker reverses a Steiner leap and hits a spinebuster, then goes up for a missile dropkick. In desperation, Steiner gets to his feet and topples into the ropes to crotch him. Steiner follows up and manages a top-rope Frankensteiner, then grabs the ref and uses his hand to count…but Booker kicks out at about 2.7. Steiner’s like MAN, FUCK THIS and loads his fist. Steiner misses with his first punch, but tags Booker in the dome when Booker has him up in a vertical suplex. Booker topples over, Steiner gets Boone over to count, and this time he gets three. Gonna be honest, this is a match that is on the borderline between my Favorites list and the Good Matches for a YouTube Playlist list. Steiner was such a despicable heel and Booker was a great fiery babyface who endured and then came back before falling to some nonsense and jibber jabber. Honestly, yeah, I’m throwing it on the top list. I really loved the fuck out of this thing. It’s not shocking that these fellas wrestled for the big gold on the final WCW show. This is the first time since SuperBrawl VII in 1997 that I’ve watched a WCW show in the Nitro era with two matches that I’ve placed on my Favorites list (which, huh, is only 21 matches long; I'm pickier than I thought). After an uneven start, this show really picked it up. Rey and Madden talk at the desk, but the levels are fucked up as usual. Oh, WCW. No one can hear a damned thing they’re saying. Kevin Nash (w/Lex Luger and Liz) faces Goldberg in the semi-main. I think we’ve peaked w/r/t this show's quality, and now we're on the downslope. Here’s Nash to do some mic work before the match, so yeah, we’ve peaked. Nash hits Scott Hall’s catchphrase, then his catchphrase. The crowd is very into all of this. They love everyone involved. Nash gets leverage on the collar-and-elbow and gets Goldberg in the corner, then hits a series of kneelifts and a few punches before going to the boot choke. The crowd looks to the entrance while Nash frames an elbow, but I don’t think it’s anyone relevant. It was just two dudes from Puyallup having a drunken fight, probably. Anyway, Liz gets on the apron to distract Mickey Jay so that Nash can kick Goldberg in the balls. Hey, this match stinks so far. A small section of the crowd starts chanting for Sting for some reason. Maybe boredom. Goldberg continues to eat offense and Nash gets two off a side slam. Seriously, Goldberg has gotten in zero offensive moves so far. We’re like three minutes in! I’m assuming that Goldberg explodes up and wins it anyway. Yeah, Goldberg ducks a big boot, hits a shoulderblock, and goes to town. He takes Nash over with that vertical suplex-y judo-throw-y sort of deal he does as a signature, then does a little rope-a-dope and scores punches while ducking Nash strikes. He sets up for a spear, and Nash leapfrogs it; Mickey Jay catches the brunt of the blow. Here comes the gaga: Luger hits Goldberg with a chair. Nash gets up, plus the straps down, and sets up for a Jackknife. Goldberg returns Nash's earlier ball shot and holds on to Nash’s lil’ berries while talking shit to him, which is rude. Luger tries to interfere, gets his ass kicked, and tumbles to the floor. Goldberg lands a spear on Nash and then Jackhammers him as Jay comes to his senses and counts the three. That wasn’t very good, but I didn’t want to claw my eyes out or anything. I’m good with future Goldberg/Nash matches, I think. The Starrcade match was better, but these two were never going to have a straight-up good match against one another. It's main event time! OK, while we wait for the contenders to enter, let me tell you that I fully believe that Ric Flair has been so on point as a greedy, grasping delusional heel that he should be spearheading the next great WCW storyline. Flair’s got the presidency for life, so Flair the despot is the obvious hot storyline that can carry the company through the next few months. He can forcibly disband the nWo, expand his backup by not only relying on the Horsemen, but bringing in a phalanx of wrestling security guys to do his bidding (which would also give some young guys a high-profile position on television). He’s got interesting matchups with Goldberg to return to, with a babyface Nash (since Nash is going to turn babyface soon anyway, almost certainly), and with Sting (their feud is eternal). Tweener Page is also an interesting feud possibility, and look, heel Flair vs. heel Scott Steiner is a worthy program, too. David Flair having to watch as his father goes completely insane with power over what he’s done is such compelling television that it even makes David Flair worth having in the company! They’re obviously not going to do that, but they should have. I sense that they’re going to start hot potato-ing the World Championship like they’re sort of doing with the tag titles right now, but that’s a huge mistake. This has been the first time in 1999 that they’ve had an angle that’s firing on, if not all cylinders, most of them. And look, Flair’s one of the few guys in the company who can consistently make magic when he talks, so they should center him in their main event angles in this era where talking matters a lot! He can talk, he works a style that WCW fans love, fucking run with him in this position! Okay, I’m done. Randy Savage has entered the post-“Pomp and Circumstance” era. Oh man, I’m feeling some feelings about that. Savage enters with Gorgeous George because Savage has watched enough episodes of RAW to understand where the business is going in the United States. Tony S. says that Flair was forced to make this match. HOW. TELL ME. I CARE ABOUT THESE PLOT ISSUES THAT YOU THINK MOST FANS DON’T CARE ABOUT. JUST SAY SCHILLER MADE HIM DO IT. GIVE ME SOMETHING. Look, it’s late, forgive me. Ric Flair is out first, which is nonsense, he’s the champ. Don’t make me go ALL CAPS again, WCW. But I get it, they want Sting out here last, which he is, after Page and Hogan. Sting and Flair pair off, but not for long, as Hogan and DDP wander over and throw punches. I don’t know, I’ll do my best to track things here. Like I said, it’s late. Hogan and Flair end up outside, and Sting tries to turn DDP for a Scorpion Deathlock while they’re indisposed, but Page gets to the ropes. Sting and Page are actually having an enjoyable, pacey singles match in here while Hogan and Page brawl in the aisle. Hey, is this the first Sting/Page match since their meeting in 1998 that was so promising? I am looking forward to them having more singles matches, and as I recall, they trade the World title back and forth on an upcoming Nitro, which is dumb, but whatever. I bet the matches will be good, at least. Sting and Page trade places with Flair and Hogan. Hogan steamrolls Flair. Get this guy outta here. Three guys trying to have a decent match, and one way over-the-hill goof who takes eighty-five percent of the offense and barely sells anything. Hogan is fucking terrible. Look at this goof Hulk Up on a few Flair chops. This routine stinks. Sting puts the Deathlock on Page in the ring, but Hogan hits the legdrop on Flair right next to him, so Sting has to let it go to break up the pinfall attempt. Flair starts to attack Hogan’s knee, and he’s gracious enough to sell it! Flair locks on a Figure Four while Sting and Page fight outside the ring. I don’t know why they did one of these matches on Nitro and then again on Spring Stampede; I fully believe that this match would have more impact and feel very fresh if they hadn’t done one six days ago! As it is, it feels like I’m sorta watching a repeat. Anyway, Page breaks up Flair’s Figure Four, but then he pops a Hitman-like ringpost Figure Four on Hogan! Sting has to come over and break it up. Dellinger and a trainer help the (kayfabe, I assume, but maybe he's got a legit injury that this kayfabe injury is covering for) injured Hogan away from ringside. Let’s get this bum outta here and make it a triple threat. Eric Bischoff is apparently at the show and comes to check on Hogan. Honestly, I forgot these two were still nWo buddies. Bischoff drove Flair to that beating in a random Florida field and pretty much vanished from television right afterward. Sting beats up Flair while Page chills out in the corner and lets it happen. Flair throws chops that Sting no-sells, but that’s okay because Sting rules. Sting disposes of Flair, and Page then jumps Sting and gets a quick two count off a lariat. Page works over Sting inside the ring while a young man in a baseball cap and sporting a goatee from a certain SeaTac exurb (probably) just goes OFF on the downed Flair at ringside, spewing all sorts of vicious invective at him while he lays there. Flair makes it back to the ring in time to see Sting hit a Stinger Splash. Page tries to hook a Diamond Cutter, but Sting blocks it and hits a face crusher. Sting dumps Flair again and tries a Tombstone, but Page knees his way out, reverses it, and drills it for two. Flair comes up from behind and dumps Page, but Sting continues to be his Kryptonite, and the Stinger, not Flair, is the one who lands a vertical suplex, then crawls over and covers for a 2.5. This has turned into the typical triple threat where two guys fight while one lays around, unfortunately. It’s not bad, but it’s what it is. But wait! They change the formula up. Flair locks a sleeper on Sting, and Page gets up and rushes in to lock a sleeper on Flair. Sting gets out of it by hitting Flair with a jawbreaker, which causes Flair to crack Page’s jaw against the crown of his head as he falls. That spot was kinda contrived, kinda creative, but the crowd dug the hell out of it. I think I liked it. Everyone’s down for an eight count before they all get up; Page and Flair attack Sting with strikes, but Sting, uh, Stings Up and lands a double clothesline and a bunch of strikes. Sting lands a Stinger Splash on Flair and locks him in a Scorpion Deathlock, but Page clubs Sting from behind to break it. Page tries to suplex Sting, but Sting hops out and lands a Scorpion Death Drop, then covers, but only gets two after Flair breaks it up. Flair locks Sting in a Figure Four while Page is still down. Alas, Sting is able to power up and turn the hold until he reaches the ropes. Flair refuses to break the hold no matter what Macho says, so Mach drags Flair back to the middle of the ring while he’s still got Sting locked up and drills a Savage Elbow straight into Flair's heart. When referee Savage tells you to break a hold, you fucking break it, Flair, you dummy. Sting is still hurt from the extended Figure Four, though, which is tough luck for him. He’s in no position to break things up when Flair swings at Page; Page ducks and then hooks Flair in a Diamond Cutter and lands it for three. There’s something poetic about Savage being the one to count the three for Page’s first world title win. But also, let’s be honest, WCW fumbled what was probably their last chance to catch fire with a hot storyline. Dammit, WCW. Anyway, this was a good show, but really, it was mostly uneven stuff that was bolstered by two awesome matches in Benoit/Malenko vs. Raven/Saturn and Booker T./Scott Steiner. It’s easily the best WCW PPV since Bash at the Beach 1998, but the undercard just didn’t bring enough quality for me to plant the “great” label on this sucker. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 On 6/27/2024 at 2:20 PM, SirSmUgly said: Thunder Interlude – show number fifty-eight – 7 April 1999 I look forward to finding out how many matches Karagias won on Worldwide to get this title shot at Rey… For the first time since Uncensored, Mikey Whipwreck makes an appearance on a Nitro or Thunder…It’s an ECW reunion!...Whipwreck faces Hardcore Hak (w/Chastity)…A quick look at Cagematch says that this is Mikey’s first match since the PPV… Someone fucked up with the Raven’s theme dub-over on this episode…I can clearly hear the “Come As You Are” knockoff playing beneath the dub…I actually think the Raven dub is alright, man…But “Come As You Are” is a classic…Even the knockoff version rules… Evan Courageous/Kourageous/Karagias has only had one match on WCW TV in the last 6 months: LOSS 4/3 Worldwide vs. Kidman but before that, he did get a (let me re-emphasize that: A SINGLULAR) win: 9/19/98 Saturday Night vs. Nick Dinsmore WCW was my first exposure to Mikey Whipwreck. I liked what i saw, but was confused because they hyped him up as a high flying cruiserweight in his debut at last month's PPV. i enjoyed the match, but he was definitely not on the same level as Rey Jr and the other luchadores. Once i went back and watched all of the ECW TV, i was surprised at how awesome Whipwreck really was. And not surprised at how WCW completely miscategorized him, to his (and their own) detriment. i have Raven's WCW theme on a playlist of '90s grunge/alt. rock music. it is THAT good. i posted the SN clip because i mistakenly thought it was Disco's only appearance as La Cucaracha. Apparently i forgot that you talked about the Nitro segment a few weeks prior and completely memory holed the subsequent Thunder appearance. i also didn't rewatch it before posting. glad it had some storyline relevance, at least. just an FYI, Sandman's cane-assisted leg sweep is called the "White Russian Leg Sweep". I actually love that all of his signature moves are named after booze. His senton is the "Rolling Rock", and his hurracanrana is the "Heinekenrana" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted June 29 Author Share Posted June 29 Show #185 – 12 April 1999 “The one with a main event scene that looks a lot different (for the worse) than it did a week ago” Diamond Dallas Page is chilling at catering with his title when Randy Savage and Gorgeous George walk up and Savage is like YOU OWE THE MACHO MAN FOR HIS EXCELLENT REFFING IN THAT MAIN EVENT LAST NIGHT, YEAH. Page blows them off and then is immediately jumped by Scott Steiner, who attacks him with a chair and screams about Page not being a real champion. I mean, Steiner did dog walk this dude Page twice in a row. Tony S., Bobby H., and a bottle of Surge all join us at commentary to introduce the show and hype our big main event: Diamond Dallas Page defending the World Championship against the new United States Champion Scott Steiner. What the heck? This is a logical matchup! Good for you, WCW bookers! We get video from a few weeks ago of stunt Kimberly tumbling out of the car that Scott Steiner carjacked, back when Nitro wasn’t an aesthetically displeasing nightmare of a show. They should have let me do the brand refresh. I would have done a much better job. Seriously, though, this show feels oddly cheap after the rebrand. I get that they’re chasing that ‘90s aesthetic, but they had a perfect logo already, and it’s hard to get another perfect logo immediately on a refresh. The WWF did it by going from the classic logo to the scratch logo, but that’s complete luck. Their current logo, a corporate, slightly polished version of the scratch logo, is a bag of seagull guano. It’s hard to get the logo right! At least with the WWE, I get the latest rebrand/slight updates – that scratch logo is very ‘90s and the company needs to look modern. I think the idea behind the WCW logo rebrand here is that the classic logo is very ‘80s, but no one was complaining about it in 1999. Still, of all the possible rebrand options, they picked the worst of a bad bunch. Not to sound like a thirsty Eric Bischoff who is desperately trying to rehab his image as an executive (to the point that he even got a little help from the Rock and the dopes who created Dark Side of the Ring), but read that Guy Evans Nitro book, and it has a page full of the logos they worked through (at least one of which ended up getting used on the branding toward the very end of the company). They are all so, so crappy. But they’re not all unreadable like this one is! I think ditching the classic Nitro theme was a complete mistake, too. RAW was lucky in a weird way because they didn’t really have a classic theme in the early days (or at least I don’t consider the early RAW theme to be much good). They could switch it up, and it didn’t hurt the presentation. But the Nitro theme is a classic, and if you change it, you need to get something comparable in quality. Anyway, Sting is here, so I’m going to quit bitching about this failed rebrand...for now. He comes to the ring and cuts a promo. He is super glad that he doesn’t look like an asshole in black and red anymore. He then says a bunch of stuff like a dork, but it’s impossible to hate on this guy. He’s so enthusiastic about it. He then says he’s the only one who has stuck around WCW the whole time, so it’s his house, his backyard, his domain. He says that one guy who doesn’t run a damned thing is DDP, and he’s calling Page out tonight, unless Page doesn’t have a penis and won’t answer the call. Yeah, seems like if Page is missing a penis, that warrants a trip to the ER and he might have to miss the show. Juventud Guerrera was able to take down Blitzkrieg the previous night at Spring Stampede, which gives him a title shot at double-champion Rey Misterio’s Cruiserweight Championship. Juvi and Rey do not care for one another, and after Rey disrespectfully boot-wipes Juvi’s face while Juvi has him in a leg grapevine, they get up and slap the shit out of each other in irritation. Juvi wins a spinebuster, and then they have a contrived slapping spot in a submission hold, but whatever, the crowd likes it. There is a thin line between “fiery” and “contrived” in fighting spirit or disrespectful slapping spots, and that spot crossed it for me. Juvi and Rey trade elbows and switches until Juvi hits a headscissors for two. Rey bails for a breather while Juvi harasses the crowd, which chants JUVI SUCKS at him. Juvi spots Rey at ringside, fakes a dive as Rey ducks, and then launches himself in a crossbody over the top. He continues to hammer Rey outside, sending him into the steps and dominating this match. OK, hold the hell on. I don’t want to give the impression that this match is bad, but commentary doesn’t know anything about this state. They’re in Yakima (at the SunDome) and Heenan notes that he didn’t see any sun. Well yeah, it’s Yakima in April! Visit again in two months and it’s 90 and sunny every day that month and for two months after (and probably a half-month before). Then Tony S. says that this is the Evergreen State, but he didn’t see many trees around Yakima. DOES NO ONE UNDERSTAND THE VARIED AND INTERESTING TOPOGRAPHY OF OUR GREAT STATE?! Seriously, Washington is on the “cool varied topography in a U.S. state” all-star team, along with California, Utah, and Arizona. I digress, but look, they never come out to the West Coast and especially not to Washington State, and then they comment on the state and I feel the need to write this down and share it with you, dear reader, and if you skimmed it and looked for Rey or Juvi’s name to continue reading, I can’t blame you. Back in the ring, Juvi wipes out on a splash, and Rey hits him with ten punches in the corner, then ranas his way out of Juvi trying to powerbomb him from that position. Rey tries a moonsault, get caught, and then slips out from behind and shoves Juvi toward the corner. Rey tries to follow up with a rana, but Juvi catches him, powerbombs him, and positions him for the 450. Rey gets up, crotches Juvi, yells HERE WE GOOO, gets a big pop from this spirited Yakima crowd, and hits a top-rope rana. He can’t even move to make a cover for the win, though, because Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit rush the ring and utterly destroy him. Raven and Saturn make their way down for the save. Man, Yakima is horny for a hot pro wrestling show because they have been loud this whole time. As we go to break, Tony S. wonders WHERE’S POOCHY KIDMAN? Rey shoves Raven away as Raven checks on him, so Raven says Fuck it and hits him with an Evenflow for his troubles. Oh please, can we get Rey/Kidman against Saturn/Raven again? Belts on the line, no belts, whatever. Just let it have a definitive finish. Also as we go to break, Jimmy Hart hypes up Hugh Morrus for a match later tonight against the man he calls “The King of Hardcore,” Bam Bam Bigelow. Hardcore Hak comes up and is disgusted at the idea that Bammer is the King of Hardcore, but he kindly offers Morrus some insight into how to beat Bam Bam. He does this by saying HERE’S HOW YOU BEAT BAM BAM and then rapping Morrus in the head with the kendo stick he’s holding. Morrus laughs, as is his way. Then he pulls a SEE, I JUST KICKED SHAWN SPEARS STAN by grabbing the kendo stick, asking Hak LIKE THIS, and then whaling away on some production guy that’s almost certainly a dark match guy in a WCW production shirt. I was entertained by this, actually, which is rare for a Hugh Morrus-related segment or match. The Scott Steiner hype video plays before we go back to commentary, which talks about the Hitman’s recent appearances both on the Nitro and Toronto and on that super late show on NBC. Tony S. very casually, very obviously, opens the Surge and pimps the now-dead soda brand before sending us to a package about all Bret Hart’s gripes. Fuck Surge; when it comes to '90s sugary drink brands, I miss Fruitopia. Review of the Hak/Bam Bam match from Spring Stampede. I have to give credit to them; that was the third-best match on the show, I think. I never would have guessed that going in. By the way, props to Twiztor for the notes on the names Sandman’s moves. As soon as I read Twiztor's post, I realized that I knew already, back in the recesses of my mind, that the stick-assisted side Russian was the White Russian Leg Sweep. Not so much for the name of his senton, which is crazy for me, as drinking a cold Rolling Rock in a bottle was like having fine wine when I was a broke college student. This apparent kendo stick match between Bam Bam Bigelow and Hugh Morrus (w/Jimmy Hart) just starts with these big dudes wiping out on their signature top rope moves, which I thought was cool. Also, there are tables laying in the ring. As soon as Bigelow grabs a table, the crowd pops. He tries to whip Morrus into the table, propped up in the corner, but Morrus reverses. Bigelow crashes through the table, but moves as Morrus tries to hit a cannonball into him. Tony S. all but confirms that we’ll have a WCW Hardcore Championship soon on commentary. Meanwhile, Hart trips Bigelow on a rope run, and Morrus hammers Bigelow with the cane. Then, even though I’ve enjoyed this match, Morrus does a very stupid spot that takes me out of things. He jumps from the top rope to spike the point of the stick into Bam Bam, but Bammer moves and Morrus jams the stick back up into his chin after he drives it into the mat. Maybe it’s his goofy sell of the move that gets to me more than the concept of the spot itself, as his sell recalls Macaulay Culkin’s aftershave scene in Home Alone. Anyway, Morrus re-takes control and tries a No Laughing Matter through a table. The good news: He hits it! The bad news: Bigelow has rolled off the table by the time he hits it! One follow-up flying headbutt later, and Bigelow is your winner. Jimmy Hart is (intentionally) late to the pinfall attempt and hits Bigelow with a kendo stick to unsuccessfully try and break up the pinfall; Hart runs away before Bigelow can give him what for with the kendo stick. Rey Misterio Jr. accosts an arriving Billy Kidman, who wasn’t in the building to make the save earlier. Misterio is kind of a whiny punk bitch about the situation; Kidman told you that he’s doing promotional shit, so maybe just accept the save from Raven and Saturn this once instead of pushing Raven away and eating a DDT. DDP is in the ring as we come back – timing issues – in the midst of an interview with Okerlund, talking about how he’s the champ. He tosses off a disingenuous apology toward Hogan about wrecking his leg with that ringpost Figure Four. Okerlund asks Page about Sting’s challenge, and Page continues to be disingenuous because he says that he’d just looooooove to give Sting a title shot tonight, but there’s that whole Scott Steiner issue he’s wrapped up in tonight. I mean, it's only partially disingenuous, I guess, as Sting made his challenge to a guy is already indisposed. Page has a good reason to turn Sting down. Page continues by saying that he’s got the belt, so he calls the shots. Tony S.: “I thought Flair did that.” Me too, but why not abandon a promising storyline for no reason? Finally, DDP finishes his interview with a flourish: He says that Scotty has a teeny peeny. Yeah, it’s 1999. WCW shows work so much better with three-man booths. So, so much better. [Editor's note: From 25 years in the past, Nitro somehow managed to troll me and this statement that I made later in this show. Fair play, WCW, you trolling bastards.] Gene Okerlund calls down WCW President for Life Ric Flair. Or at least he’ll be president until September of this year at the latest, probably. Tony S. lets us know that Roddy Piper drove up to the show from the Portland exurbs, probably stopped at the Burgerville in Centralia and had a marionberry shake to remember his Portland Wrestling running pal Buddy Rose by, and now he’s here and I’m bummed about it. Flair is very annoyed about losing the big gold and says that he’s going to hold the title up, which probably explains why Piper is here, because Piper’s still commissioner, right? No, wait, it’s Randy Savage’s disappointing new theme that hits the audio instead. Savage is fucking HUGE, man, especially considering that he’s a naturally lithe guy. He just looks wrong like this. Anyway, fuck it, I love Savage, I’m here for his last shitty year of competition. Tony S. speaks lasciviously of Gorgeous George, so I tune him out and think back to Savage’s very last match in TNA, where he moved like his joints were on hinges to do a simple flash pinfall attempt, and it bums me out. I snap back as Savage tells Flair LEMME JUST LAY THE SMACK DOWN FOR YOU RIGHT NOW. Savage has a piece of paper that I guess says that Savage’s ref decision stands because the WCW Executive Committee said it would before the match (THERE MUST BE A WINNER, remember) and Flair signed the agreement as president. Whoa, exciting television here, this discussion of a legal document. I do like that Savage is still ruining Flair’s life in return for all that shit in 1992 and then again in 1995/96. Flair says, Fine, well, then you can’t wrestle in my company, stupid! Pretty much, that’s what he said. I like that Flair learned from the Bischoff stuff; he specifically says, “You’re not reinstated to clean the bathrooms!” Good move. Now Charles Robinson speaks, which is unnecessary, and he runs down Macho’s refereeing style and then calls George a “bimbo.” George slaps the shit out of him. It gets a pop, but uh, please tell me that they’re not going to have George and Robinson feud. OH FUCK, THEY ARE. Savage says that he wants a Charles Robinson/Gorgeous George match at Slamboree, and if George wins, Savage is reinstated. Robinson is like YEAH I WANT REVENGE ON THIS LADY IN A WRESTLING MATCH, so Flair agrees. Kevin Nash, I love you, but you’re an idiot. I am 93.6% certain that this is your fault. Sting comes out here to interrupt. He calls Page DIAMOND DALLAS TRASH for refusing to wrestle him tonight, hahahahaha, Sting rules. Then he says since Page is ducking him (somewhat unfair) and Savage isn’t available, how about he beats up Flair again, just for the sake of it? Arn’s like, Watch yourself Stinger, I’ll be there with him, and Sting’s like, Yeah, yeah, I used to kick the shit out of you all the time, too. Sting and Flair have a WOOOOOO-off as we go to break. Tony S. mocks his own GREATEST NITRO IN THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT call. See, he’s at least somewhat self-aware! La Parka and El Dandy come to the ring, a legendary pairing of wrestlers if ever there were. They’re out here to wrestle the new Master Blasters (w/Jimmy Hart). Tony S. is like I REMEMBER THE MASTER BLASTERS, and I’m like, you gonna just pretend that you don’t know that Kevin Nash was one of them? And yes, he is. He’s just like, HEY THOSE ORIGINAL MASTER BLASTERS SURE WERE A COUPLE OF BIG DUDES. The new Master Blasters are wearing pantyhose on their head, Chainsaw Charlie-style. It’s Al Green, reprising his earlier role as a Master Blaster, and Chase Tatum. OK, here we go: Kevin Nash comes down here not a minute in, sipping from a Surge, no less. Nash cuts into the match, says he wants to cut a promo right now even though he’s not on the call sheet, and then destroys his former Master Blaster partner Greene, two lucha legends, and also Chase Tatum, all by himself. Wow, that’s the sort of inside baseball snarky reference combined with a dominant showing that you’d have if you were booking yourself on this show! Seriously, Nash is one hundred percent trying to book this show like he thinks Vinnie K. McMahon would book it, plus with a few cute references sprinkled in to amuse himself. He kicks us to the video board to see that clip from last week where Nash was talking to Flair and Hulk Hogan was cross about it. Nash, who is still gassed from taking out the two tag teams earlier, huffs for oxygen while explaining that the deal he cut with Flair was that if he helped Flair keep the title in that Nitro’s main event – which he did – then Nash could have a title shot at Slamboree. So Nash deferred getting a shot against Goldberg to get one against, as it turns out, DDP? Yeah, that was probably a smart move on his part. Nash swears to get DDP back for injuring Hogan if Page is still the champ by Slamboree. Billy Kidman faces off with the criminally underused Psicosis after the break. Psicosis immediately does a cool counter spot that I love by stopping short on a Kidman drop down and just basement dropkicking him in the head. Psicosis follows up with a running dropkick to a slumped Kidman in the corner. Man, Psicosis rules. Psicosis runs the ropes and pops Kidman up, but Kidman hits a Frankensteiner out of it. Kidman goes for ten punches in the corner and avoids being countered into an inverted atomic drop by sliding over the back of Kidman and getting a sunset flip for two. Psicosis takes back over by again stopping short on a rope run and hitting an elevated facebuster after a few kicks. Psicosis hangs Kidman over the top rope, then drills him with a running dropkick that knocks him outside and lands a suicide dive after that. Psicosis knocks him around, tosses him into the ring, and hits a pretty missile dropkick from the top for two. Kidman finally is able to turn things around by hitting a clothesline out of a rope run. He shoots Psicosis into the ropes again, but he should stop doing that, as Psicosis stops short again and then successfully backdrops Kidman to the floor when Kidman charges. Psicosis tries to follow up with a big dive from the top rope, but Kidman lands a counter-dropkick to Psicosis’s solar plexus, then rolls Psicosis inside and gets two off a huge crossbody of his own from the top. Kidman tries a corner charge, but eats boots and then a huge top-rope Frankensteiner. Psicosis is a bit slow to cover and only gets two. Psicosis looks a bit frustrated, and maybe he loses his concentration; Kidman backflips out of a back suplex attempt and hits a springboard bulldog for two. Kidman tries another corner charge, and whiffs yet again on a splash. Man, you’d think that Psicosis would take more advantage of these rope-running misses from Kidman, but nope – he tries to hit Kidman with a powerbomb, eats a facebuster counter in response, and falls to an SSP. I’m going to give Kidman more credit; I think he’s gotten better to the point that he can have very good or great matches when his opponent is very good or great. He can keep up with those guys now. He’ll never be the best guy in any of his best matches, but that’s okay. Anyway, the cruiserweights are having great nights in the ring tonight. There’s a promo for a new WCW newsletter: WCW’s Slam Society. In it, the ad claims that Disco Inferno’s favorite band is secretly Hanson, which is very ‘90s and also a very shorthand way to call Disco even cornier than he already is. My wife told me a while back that Hanson have their own line of brews now. I immediately asked if one is an IPA called MMMHops, and I’m pretty sure she laughed and said that one was. Gene Okerlund is back in the ring to interview Goldberg. Goldberg feels like he vindicated his loss to Nash at Starrcade, when he got “screwed," with his win over Nash at Spring Stampede. And yes, they bleeped the word “screwed.” Speaking of the word “screwed,” Goldberg is reminded of Bret Hart and promises retribution for the whole steel plate trick. But since Bret’s elsewhere right now, Goldberg prefers to focus on a guy who is still here, somewhere: Lex Luger, who he threatens for interfering in his previous matches with Nash. Hey, uh, is anyone ever going to explain that clip last week where Goldberg was called to Ric Flair's office and was surprised to run into Luger and Liz? Goldberg congratulates Page and then promises to get the belt back from the guy, but he’s also like, Because I got screwed out of the gold and because I’m so good anyway, we all know I’m the real champ. While I have a broad idea of where the World Championship goes even if I cannot possibly follow every title change over the next two years of WCW shows – actually fewer than two years of shows now (!!!) – I have no real memory for tracking the U.S. Championship until the very end of the promotion (Rick Steiner has it until the PPV before the last Nitro, IIRC, when he loses it to Booker T.). And the TV title? I mean, who the fuck knows what’s going to happen to that thing, other than it being dropped for awhile after Scott Hall dumps it in a bin and it magically teleports from one trash can in an arena to another one at a totally different arena for Hacksaw Duggan to find. I say this because Rick Steiner and Booker T., about 23 months before having that U.S. Championship tangle, are having a tangle tonight over the TV title, and I have no clue what’s going to happen there! While Booker and Scott Steiner are fantastic together, singles wrestler Rick Steiner stinks. I mean, I enjoyed him as a singles wrestler in JCP, and I think he had a little promise in the UWF, but he turned out to be a Dollar Tree Dr. Death as a singles wrestler in my opinion. Steiner hits a high-angled back suplex early on. They do a rope run, and Booker wins a roundhouse. Oh yeah, as much as Rick bums me out in singles, this match will be okay because these fellas are perfectly okay with working stiff and somewhat out of control with strikes and suplexes at times. Booker gets two off a superkick, but eats a short clothesline after a series of armdrag reversals. Booker is able to get control again with a hot shot, then superkicks Steiner to the floor and lands a double-axe on him from the apron. Booker tries to whip Steiner into the ropes, but gets reversed and clotheslined to the floor. Back in the ring, Booker hits a series of kicks, but gets his leg hooked on another roundhouse kick; Steiner drops him in a suplex for two. They run the ropes again, and again Booker gets caught, this time on a leapfrog that gets turned into a slam for two. This match is surprisingly pretty good, so of course, we get a fucking ref bump. Stevie Ray runs down and hits Rick Steiner in the head with a slapjack as Steiner goes up top to try a bulldog; Booker stumbles to his feet and lands a Houston Side Kick that gets three. I really wish they’d keep Stevie away from Booker in storyline. I’m surprised – Scott Steiner comes to the ring for his World title shot with fifty minutes or so left to go on this show. No, wait, Tony S. corrects my faulty assumption: Steiner’s just here to talk. He insults the looks of the ladies in Yakima, but he assures us that he will find one desirable lady and chain her up in his basement. I mean, that’s what I’m taking from what he just said. Also, I can quote that he uses the phrase “cherry poppin’,” but that doesn’t get bleeped somehow. So we can say “cherry poppin’,” but not “screwed” on Turner networks. OK, good to know. He insults DDP, calls him white trash – I’m pretty sure he once called Booker “white trash,” and maybe I’m wrong and it’s a false memory, but I cannot wait for it to happen, if it in fact happens. Steiner promises to take the gold from Page and then give Kimberly what probably would be at best a disappointing time in the sack and at worst a criminal sexual assault. Goldberg heads back out to the ring to destroy Kenny Kaos. Goldberg dominates and rolls Kaos into a legbar, but Kaos gets to the ropes and stands around outside re-thinking his life choices for awhile as he recovers. Back in the ring, Kaos does get a teensy bit of offense off an eye rake, but summarily gets pressed into a power slam, overhead pumphandle suplexed (!!), speared, and Jackhammered in short order. Though we haven’t heard him on camera tonight, Tony S. mentions that DJ Ran is here. That little experiment is not going to go well, as anyone with a cursory understanding of the bulk of WCW’s core audience would expect. Ric Flair (w/Arn Anderson) walks out to face Sting. Charles Robinson is the ref, so instead of a bog-standard solid enough Sting/Flair match, we’re going to get a bog-standard solid enough Sting-Flair match with a bunch of heel ref fuckery. I am really quite disinterested in heel ref fuckery in WCW, as I know I say over and over, but in my defense, WCW keeps doing heel ref angles over and over. I feel like Sting deserves more credit for being a worker who is awesome at spectacle. He’s a big dude doing leapfrogs and press slams. It’s almost the same as Goldberg’s appeal, but Sting is legitimately a great worker. Yes, I said “great.” He can wrestle Flair and overpower him or wrestle Goldberg or Vader and work as an undersized, underneath fighter very effectively. I think through this watch, I’ve discovered that I value the quality of working bigger against smaller guys and vice versa very highly in my pro wrestlers. It might be the thing that I most care about, actually. That quality makes for a worker who is quite versatile and can have a good match with almost anyone by adjusting how they work based on their opponent’s size. Scott Hall is another guy who I would flat out describe as “great.” Those are probably minor hot takes, but I stand by them. Sting is in the ring getting the best of Flair, who bails out after Sting yanks his tights to get him over for a schoolboy. Flair walks around and tries to collect himself, but he gets in the ring and get his ass kicked until he tumbles outside again and Flair flops right in front of a horrified Arn. This match isn’t particularly good (or particularly bad), but I think it’s instructive of why Sting rules. Flair plays Kenny Kaos to Sting’s Goldberg, gets some cursory offense in, but gets a kneedrop blocked. Sting keeps hold of the knee and locks on a Figure Four, but Flair is able to eventually make his way to the ropes. Sting scores a clothesline a short time later, but Arn puts Flair’s boot on the ropes during Sting’s cover. Arn next tries to interfere when Sting’s got Flair trapped in the corner, and though he eats a chop, he’s able to yank Flair out of the way of a Stinger Splash, and Sting leaps all the way over the buckles and to the floor. Arn puts the boots to Sting and then dumps him back inside. Flair hits a ball shot right in front of the ref, but Robinson is cool with it. Arn talks shit to the crowd and is too late to stop Sting from reversing an apron vertical suplex with one of his own. Sting eats knees on a splash, but gets a reprieve when Flair goes up top; Sting follows him and tosses him. Sting and Flair have a mat exchange in which Flair is able to get a two count, but Sting bridges up and gets a two count of his own on a backslide. Sting continues to control until Flair hits another ball shot right in front of a permissive referee. Flair hits a stalling vertical suplex that Sting no-sells, as he does in every Sting match. Why wouldn’t Flair stop doing the corner chops or the vertical suplex to Sting? It never works! He looks like a doofus in kayfabe. This is where his ideas about what the crowd wants in pro wrestling clash with his “master technician” persona, and that’s why I think I prefer Bret Hart. Bret has his signatures, too, but he doesn’t have signatures that always get reversed! Sorry, I don’t want to start a whole “Flair vs. Bret: Who’s Better?!” thing, but that’s really at the core of my preference for Bret. And yes, I do understand where Flair is coming from, especially as a guy who spent a lot of time as touring champ trying to make sure that everyone from Winston-Salem to Regina to Nacogdoches to Fresno got to see a classic Flair-style match. I completely understand why he does what he does and can see how it makes sense from that angle, but it doesn't fit with how he's portrayed, that's all, and it breaks the immersion for me personally. Sting looks like he’s about to win the match, so Arn distracts him, and Sting turns back to Flair and whiffs on a splash. Flair quickly locks on a Figure Four and gets leverage from Arn on the outside, so Randy Savage power walks down and pops Arn, helping his former compatriot in the Wolfpac turn the Figure Four. Tony S. is confused that Flair tries a bunch more chops that don’t work because they never work. Sting hits a Scorpion Death Drop, and though Robinson is reluctant to count, there’s not much he can do; Sting gets a three count, then locks Arn in the Scorpion Death Lock after the match to boot. If WCW were wise, they’d have Robinson wait for Sting to leave and then reverse the decision for the post-match attack on Arn. Michael Buffer is in the ring to introduce the competitors in our main event. Wait, before the match, Roddy Piper’s theme hits. I had forgotten about Piper being on this show. Piper joins the commentary table, which means that I might be in hell, maybe? Tony S., Heenan, and Piper in 1999. My goodness. And on cue, Piper starts talking about the Nitro Girls and their boobs. FUCKING KILL ME Hey, it’s Kimberly! She escorts DDP to the ring. Well, we’re into 1999, so I’m not ruling out Kimberly screwing over Page and joining Steiner. Page deposits Kimberly into a chair in the front row while Steiner harasses women and threatens to bitch slap Tony S. if Tony touches his sunglasses that he’s leaving on the desk. The match starts and Page kicks the hell out of Steiner to start. Steiner tries to dump Page to ringside, but Page catches himself, comes off the top, and the continues to kick the hell out of Steiner until Steiner ends up at ringside again. DDP tosses Steiner across the commentary desk and bashes him into the guardrail at ringside. Heenan looks legit irritated at the spot, so I guess they didn’t tell him they were going to do it beforehand so that he could protect himself. There’s a break, and when we come back, Stiner is in control somehow and lands a belly-to-belly suplex. Piper both pillories Page’s actions to become champ – sitting in the corner to let his opponents fight, using the ringpost Figure Four – and also cheers for him against Steiner. Piper is truly fucking awful. He shits on Page for hitting Flair with a Diamond Cutter after Savage broke the Figure Four with a Savage Elbow. What? That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Flair wouldn’t break the hold, so the ref broke it for him, and Page took the opportunity to follow up! Fuck off, Piper. Also, he tries to get over the catchphrase REALITY CHECK. God, this guy SUCKS. Steiner continues to keep control by forearming Page in the nuts when Page tries to make a comeback. He clubbers and bends Page around the buckles, but Page blocks some more clubbering with a jawbreaker. Still, Page goes up and gets crotched by Steiner, who follows with a top-rope Frankensteiner that gets 2.5. Immediately, Steiner accosts Randy Anderson for not counting quicker. Page gets a flash rollup for two, eats a bit more damage, and then finally gets some space by hitting a discus lariat. Page makes his comeback with kicks and a swinging neckbreaker. That last move only gets two, so Page hammers Steiner’s head into the buckles and hits a back suplex for another two count. Page drops Steiner with a pancake while Piper makes this fucking show unlistenable, and oh look, here’s a ref bump now. Steiner shoved Page into the ref on a Diamond Cutter attempt, then went and got some bolt cutters that he strapped to his belt. He unclips the buckles, knocks Page’s head into the bolt, and then hits an Oklahoma Stampede times two into the bolt. Steiner locks on the Recliner, but realizes the ref is out and lets it go. When he turns back around, Page hits a jumping DDT, then gets kicked in the balls AGAIN while trying to hit a backslide. Steiner hits a suplex and goes for another Steiner Recliner, but Page tosses his head back and headbutts Steiner in the balls a few times. Then, in the coolest spot of this match by far, Kimberly hops the railing, takes Penzer’s chair, and hits Steiner in the dome with it. Page quickly follows that up with a Diamond Cutter and the ref revives and counts to three. It's hard to say how I feel about this Nitro. It ended with two long matches – good! – that I really didn’t enjoy – bad! – other than that they confirmed how great Sting is and gave Kimberly a measure of revenge that she very much deserved in storyline. But I feel that the storytelling that was so interesting before Spring Stampede is now muddled. Flair has all this power, and all he can do is ineffectually book himself to lose to Sting? Page is a tweener, I guess, but we’re supposed to root for him to beat Steiner while also decrying him for *checks notes* using a ringpost Figure Four to take Hogan out of a match that was for the big gold? For taking a break and letting his remaining two opponents go at it? For hitting Flair with a Diamond Cutter and pinning him while Sting was unable to do anything about it? How dumb is that shit? Meanwhile, Kidman and Misterio are having a “dissension within the tag team” angle already? I don’t know, man. And look, I enjoy Kevin Nash usually, but his booking is both self-indulgent and a lazy copy of what he thinks VKM would do. I’m not a fan. That’s not to say the show was bad, and there’s still some intrigue around how Page will navigate being champion, but my excitement for seeing what will come next in the main event tangle of motivations and maneuvers has cooled considerably. They should have left Ric as the champ and built the Horsemen and the budding Four Horseman Security Corporation (that's what I would have called it) around fending off challengers to Ric's belt. 2.75 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted July 1 Author Share Posted July 1 Thunder Interlude – show number fifty-nine – 15 April 1999 "The WCW Gang does some decent wrestling, but let's not talk about the storylines" They did some minor updates to the opening to add the ugly new logo…The same is true of the set…I suppose the set refresh for Thunder comes later…The desk is new as well…Larry Z. doesn’t get a chant, but he bows anyway…Then he gives a stupid tax day-themed opening to big up the new champ DDP… Vampiro opens the show against Buff Bagwell…Buff’s episode of DSotR was so good that I think he should write a book…I’d read it…If he has one already, meh, write a new one…A better one…Maybe leave the “Mom shaved my taint” part out of it, though…Buff mocks Vampiro before the lockup…Also, he dances…You know, it’s strange that the rest of the nWo apparently didn’t know or care that Scott Steiner just kicked Buff out of the Wolfpac…This nWo angle is ending with the tiniest of whimpers… Buff hits some early offense…He tries a monkeyflip, but Vampiro lands on his feet and kicks him square in the jaw…Buff makes a comeback with a dropkick…They fuck up a powerbomb reversal, maybe?...Whatever it is, it ends up a high-angled powerbomb reversal…Vampiro kills Buff’s ten punches in the corner with a Hot Shot and takes control again…Vampiro tries a cross-arm breaker…He can’t seem to lock it on properly and gives up on it… There was a ten percent chance that this would be a charming uniquity and a ninety percent chance that it would be awkward and sub-mediocre…We are firmly in that ninetieth percentile…I’m not here for Vampiro cutting off Buff comebacks…Let’s move it along to the finish…Buff hits a sloppy slingshot suplex on his actual comeback, though!...That’s cool!...Buff goes to the middle rope, tries a double-axe, and jumps into a uranage…Vampiro sits Buff up top and tries a rana from there, but Buff blocks it...Vampiro tumbles to the mat and stands up just in time to eat a Blockbuster for the loss… Jerry Flynn comes to the ring…Well, I’m guessing his little push is over because he’s facing Wrath…Wrath’s a useful piece of the midcard, and I think it’s strange that WCW didn’t really do much of anything with him until 2000 (!!!)…He’s the sort of guy who could use the TV title way more than Booker T. at this point…He has solid TV matches and people love the Meltdown…I sort of feel this way about the Cruiserweight title…Misterio as tag champ or even TV/U.S. champ is way more interesting than him holding the Cruiserweight title again… As Wrath lands a diving clothesline, Tenay updates us on Hulk Hogan’s knee…Yep, Hogan legitimately had a torn MCL when he wrestled at Spring Stampede, which I only knew because it was mentioned on an 88 Weeks that I recently listened to…So, does the nWo actually break up at all, or does it just peter out?...Wrath has worked one of his typical matches with all of his nice spots in it in the meanwhile…They end up brawling their way outside of the ring and into a double count-out, but Wrath pretty much killed this dude… Well, Hulk’s sitting at home, but at least we still have Horace!...Maybe not for much longer, though, considering the MONSTA Meng is his opponent…Meng’s kick as he shadow kickboxes on the ramp actually hits the camera, and the camera shaking is a cool accidental effect…Horace tries slamming Meng’s head into the buckle…Nope, he's from Oceania and brown, so it won't work…This is all clubbers and chokes…Meng is one of many guys who have gone from consistently fun in the ring to a bit broken down as they’ve hit or progressed into their forties…It’s a stark difference from today, where people regularly maintain their athleticism at a high level into their forties… This isn’t bad…It’s just non-descript…Horace hits a series of lariats and even a suicide dive, but he can’t get a pinfall…Meng even has to try a flash pinfall during a Horace onslaught to try and stem the tide of Horace offense…Well, I have to give this match credit because it exploded into life, with Horace realizing that he’s wrestling Meng and needs to unload offense…He forced Meng into a desperation small package and then immediately clotheslined his way out of a Meng no-sell by clotheslining him again…Horace hits a Hulkster leg drop, but only gets two…He tries a sunset flip, but Meng blocks it and locks on the Tongan Death Grip for the win…The end run was genuinely quite good… Ric Flair and Arn Anderson sit in the back and wait for their secretary to bring some documents while Charles Robinson pours water into wine glasses…In a funny spot, Flair complains about having to sign so many documents and tells Robinson to get him a stamp…Then, he mutters out an invite to his party to the secretary…Arn gets on Flair for not even reading what he signed…Flair says that he’s POTUS, and Arn has to correct him that he’s just president of WCW…Look, if you’re going to be an old senile white-haired dude who forgets his own title, you can’t be POTUS, Flair…Hold on, I’m being handed a note…OK, strike that last sentence Flair, but you’re still not POTUS!... In seriousness, is this how they get Flair out of the president-for-life role, by having him sign some papers that give up the presidency without reading them?...And is this leading to that infamous angle that I’ve read about, but not actually seen with my own eyes, where Flair ends up institutionalized and randomly runs into Scott Hall?...Because YUCK if so…It’s weird because there are still a number of infamous angles and events that haven’t happened yet in the dying days of WCW, but there are only about 23 more months’ worth of shows, so they must pile up in the next year of shows or so… Mikey Whipwreck and Disco Inferno match up after that little backstage segment…Mikey and Disco are both solid workers who can work effectively in pacey matchups, which they do here to start…Whipwreck wins a series of arm drags…Disco escapes and snaps Mikey’s leg, but Mikey wins another arm drag…This match has slowed down, but it was much better when it moved quickly…We get moving a little quicker as Disco hits a second-rope elbow, then tosses Whipwreck to ringside as the show goes to break… We come back to Disco brawling with Mikey outside…Maybe not a great place for Disco to be against an ECW alum…And in fact, Whipwreck beats his ass and hits a side Russian into the guardrail…Mikey uses the ropes to springboard onto and guillotine Disco a couple of times, then hits a flying clothesline for two…Mikey tries a top-rope splash, but whiffs…Disco drills Mikey with a jumping piledriver, but Mikey gets his foot on the ropes…Disco dances, then hits a running spinning neckbreaker…He dances some more after that, takes a very long time to cover, and only gets two…Mikey’s able to make a couple of short comebacks, but can only get two counts on a Rocker Dropper and a swinging neckbreaker…Disco grabs Mikey in a gourdbuster position, then twists around and brings Whipwreck into Chartbuster position for three…That was a neat variation on his cutter… I think neckbreakers and neckbreaker variations are my favorite wrestling moves…The Rude Awakening and the Stone Cold Stunner might be my two favorite finishing moves…I can’t stand Randy Orton outside of the RKO (well, and the occasional punt or Garvin Stomp)…Heck, give me a nice looking TKO, and I’ll enjoy it every time…Every time I create one of my long-running custom wrestlers in a video game, which is unfortunately rarely at this point, they’re getting a swinging neckbreaker or two in their moveset… Stevie Ray leads out the B-Teamers…Horace is a little behind everyone else, but he’s clutching his throat and yells I OWE YOU ONE MENG into the camera, so that’s understandable!...Okerlund interviews Stevie…Stevie tells Okerlund to shut his little overpaid pie hole…Stevie, like Ric Flair, has let leadership go to his head almost immediately…He says Hulk is a chump for getting his knee injured and Nash is a chump for sneaking around making deals with Ric Flair…Stevie pretty much washes his hands of the Wolfpac and then decides that he wants to be the Black and White’s champion…He calls out Page for a title shot later in the show…Then, here’s what he calls Page: “You low-down, dirty, no-good modern-day beatnik FRUIT BOOTY”…After that, he threatens to pimp slap Page and Kimberly (!!!)…Well, it’s the ‘90s, I suppose…Can you believe that dope Bischoff thinks that Stevie was a good wrestler, but not a good talker?...Stevie ends by making fun of Page for using SCUM as an insult in everyone’s names and colorfully threatens him with a beating once more… So I guess that’s how they end the nWo angle…With a bunch of joke B-Teamers coming out to “Rockhouse” for a few more months while all the A-Teamers sit out injured or do their own thing…We’ve hit a new creative low… Page/Stevie is a GO for later tonight…Disorderly Conduct are going to catch a whooping from Raven and Saturn…Raven asks WHAT ABOUT ME, WHAT ABOUT RAVEN, and it gets a pop…I guess the face turn has taken…Saturn goes all Chris Benoit’s Keith Lee Memorial Vocabulary Extravaganza by mispronouncing the word indubitably and then throwing in an accessorize to boot…But I assume he’s poking a little fun at his feud partner by doing that…You all know how hard I think that Raven and Saturn rule… If I were booking Nitro-era WCW in EWR…Or in real life, for that matter…Raven would have gotten a world title run with a bunch of Flock members taking bumps for him as distractions while he won with interesting or different chair spots…I would have just given Raven one directive…Win each match with a new and different, but not too unsafe chair shot, and an Evenflow…And keep cutting dope promos…It wouldn’t have gone on too long…I’d have had someone like Nash or Goldberg walk through all that gaga and win the gold after two or three months…Anyway, Disorderly Conduct isn’t very good and get a heel control segment, so let’s skip past all that to the end…Raven hits a drop toehold into a chair, Saturn lands his dress punches, and Raven hits an Evenflow on one guy while Saturn overhead pumphandle suplexes the other guy to end the match… Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera hook it up for the Cruiserweight Championship once more…Technically, Juvi’s shot was spoiled by Benoit and Malenko, but in reality, Rey had him dead to rights…After an opening exchange, Juvi hits a headscissors and celebrates…Rey hooks the arm and hits an arm drag…Juvi counters after a rope run with a lariat…Wait, Scott Steiner is hurt, too?...Stevie mentioned it in his promo, but I thought he misspoke and was talking about Hall…Whoa, the Wolfpac all getting decimated by injury at the same time except for Kevin Nash is wild…Actually, more than decimated, if we’re being literal about that term… Rey lands a headscissors that sends Juvi to the floor as we go to another break…Juvi’s back on top when we come back to the show, but Rey dodges a splash, then kills a Juvi headscissors in the corner by pancaking him and hitting a Bronco Buster…Rey celebrates in the corner for awhile, and Juvi comes up behind and lifts him for a powerbomb, but Rey slips out and gets two on a schoolboy…Juvi stops Rey from doing some intricate shit by hitting a neckbreaker for two… They start running again, and Rey hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, but runs himself right into a lariat…Juvi stops to smile at the camera and blow a kiss at the crowd before covering, so yeah, it only gets two…Huh, WCWSN is getting a tag title match between the champs and Malenko/Benoit this week…Wow, we’re in the midst of a temporary flurry of making the B- and C-shows feel important…Juvi fucks up a springboard legdrop, jaws at the crowd, and gets countered out of, and then counters back into, a Juvi Driver…Juvi takes a while to go up for the 450, but Rey cuts him off and crotches him…Juvi shoves Rey away when Rey goes up after him, but Rey sprints back toward the corner, leaps up, and hits a rana for three…This was a decent match with an above-average finishing run… Ric Flair and Charles Robinson have a backstage conversation in which Robinson gasses up Flair…Arn busts in and freaks out about whatever it is that Flair signed…I am so bummed that they’re probably writing off the Flair’s presidency angle in a couple of segments on Thunder and (I'm guessing) a big segment on the next Nitro…Flair drops a pretty remarkable line that, in effect, while he’s indebted as fuck when it comes to his other investments, he’s doing great in WCW…Then he reminisces about how awesome he was in 1989 while Arn sighs… Stevie Ray (w/Virgil) comes to the ring for his title shot against Diamond Dallas Page (w/Kimberly)…Stevie tries to establish himself with strikes…Page establishes that he’s even better than Stevie with his own strikes before he clashes Stevie’s head with Virgil’s…Page brawls up and down the aisle with both Stevie and Virg…Back in the ring, Stevie takes control with some mostly decent, but occasionally questionable offense, specifically a very pro wrestling-looking throat thrust…He locks Page in a mediocre bearhug…Page comes back and lands a discus clothesline…Virgil distracts Page and Stevie comes back with a ick…Stevie tries a Slapjack, but Page backdrops his way out of it, then hits a floatover Diamond Cutter for three…Two of the other three B-Teamers (according to Stevie, Scott Norton is still a B-Teamer; he’s just in Japan right now)…Page fights them off and lands a Diamond Cutter on Virgil to end the show… This show was pleasant enough, so it’s not going to score poorly or anything…However, it strikes me that it’s a show where Flair’s president-for-life angle and the nWo angle both seem to start these underwhelming wrap-ups…It’s pretty ominous because “WCW defeating the nWo" and “Ric Flair’s presidency as he becomes consumed with power” were both very important story hooks that WCW needed to center on their upcoming batch of shows, in my opinion…It’s 1999, and I guess long-term storytelling is on its way out, and Crash TV is on its way in…I don’t like it…This show, though?...In a vacuum, I liked it just fine…WOOO… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted July 2 Author Share Posted July 2 (edited) Show #186 – 19 April 1999 “The one where some of the wrestling is SO GOOD that it easily overpowers the stench from the awful Ric Flair insanity angle” Apparently, damn near everyone in this company is injured: Hall, Hulk, Luger, Scott Steiner. Even poor old Wrath blew out his knee on the previous Thunder. Well, it sure is a good thing that WCW nurtured the next layer of stars to step up in this time of need like the Giant, Chris Jericho, and Raven instead of booking them nonsensically until they all decided to leave! Goldberg steps out of a car holding a briefcase and declares that he’s getting the next shot at DDP’s World Championship, and it’s goin’ down TONIGHT. Tony S. tells us that Scott Steiner is defending the U.S. Championship against Konnan, so then again, maybe Steiner isn’t injured and Tenay got confused by Stevie Ray getting confused and naming the wrong injured Scott. A couple of Armstrong Boys, but not the one who got over with stupid catchphrases or the one who peaked back in 1991-1992 WCW and has entrance music that fucks, come to the ring. Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko (w/Arn Anderson) are their opponents. This seems like it should be a reasonably decent opener. The Armstrong Boys take over and stomp out Benoit, but Benoit comes back with a little misdirection and sends one of the Armstrongs, I get Scott and Steve mixed up, out to the floor. Arn and Malenko put the boots to him and get a big pop because we’re in Florida, where everyone loves the Horsemen. OK, it was Steve they did that to, and Benoit and Malenko brutalize him during a series of tags. In between popping for Arn doing stuff, the crowd chants for GOLDBERG, who must be a superstar because he’s survived a lot of wonky booking lately. This is a classic WCW match that goes on a touch too long, but I’m not offended. Benoit’s in-ring reputation as some technical master when he’s really a pacey, upper-tier striker continues to baffle me. I guess we’re all using the nebulous term “technical” in different ways, but Benoit tends to try and mow right through his opponent rather than tie them up in knots (finisher aside) or play possum, target a limb, etc. Anyway, the Armstong Boys get a hot tag, but Scott falls victim to a double-underhook powerbomb and a Texas Cloverleaf while Benoit handles Steve at ringside. Hey, it’s that secretary from the previous Thunder! I guess she’s under the employ of Roddy Piper, who sees that this moron Flair signed all the forms and is derisive about Flair losing his mind and actually signing something that he didn’t read. It strikes me that it would have been cleaner just to have Piper show up, remind everyone that he’s still commissioner, have a power struggle with Flair, and then convince Flair to put up his presidency against Piper’s commissionership. The vaguely off-putting title sequence plays. Macho Man and Gorgeous George show up to the arena. George is wearing overalls because it’s the fucking ‘90s, baybee! Doug Dellinger makes to stop them from entering since Ric Flair barred them from the building, but Piper walks up and offers them safe passage. Diamond Dallas Page enters the ring to talk to Gene Okerlund. Page again disingenuously wishes Hogan the best with his surgery on his injured knee, rips off the Armstrong Boy who got over with stupid catchphrases, and then downplays Goldberg’s challenge from the top of the show. As much as Page says he’d love to face a kindred spirit like Goldberg, unfortunately, he’s just not available tonight. It is at this point that Goldberg’s music interrupts. I cannot express to you just how over this cat is. Goldberg walks up and is like FUCK YOU, GIVE ME A TITLE SHOT and Page is like OK, SHIT, COOL. So, get this – GET THIS – Piper’s sitting in the back with David Flair (w/sunglasses, bottle of Surge) and the papers are to institutionalize Ric Flair. David’s basically like, Hope the old man enjoys his 72 hours in the bin and signs the papers. Can you even do this as someone's son when legally, the decision should go to their spouse? That's a rhetorical question, by the way. This is dreadfully fucking dumb. Okerlund catches up with DDP in the back and verifies that Page agreed to put the title up against Goldberg. Okerlund also has questions about this frankly innocuous (in the context of a competitive match) ringpost Figure Four that Page slapped on Hogan back at Spring Stampede, which we see video of, but Page blows him off. Blitzkrieg enters the—wait, that’s not Blitzkrieg coming down to the Hollywood Blondes theme. That’s Psicosis…and then after that, Blitzkrieg comes to the ring to the same theme. You know, I’m not even going to think about it too hard. OK, I see, it’s a Four Corners Cruiserweight Championship match that also includes Juventud Guerrera and the champ himself, Rey Misterio Jr. I have no idea why they couldn’t locate and play Psicosis’s music, though. Do you want to know who else is extremely over? Rey. I can’t deny that the Nash feud basically made him look like he was three steps above the other cruisers and a potential main eventer. Hey, it’s Alex Wright Berlyn chilling out in the front row! I dig that look, I have to say. Meanwhile, the match in the ring explodes immediately into life. Juvi and Psicosis whip Blitz and Rey into one another and they smack the shit out of each other when they collide, my goodness. Maybe this isn’t going that long because everyone is moving at Smackdown 2: Know Your Role pace. Rey takes a huge bump off a back body drop, and Juvi and Psicosis, who worked together to get rid of the champ, now turn their attention toward destroying Blitzkrieg. This early story, where Juvi and Psicosis are trying to keep Ray out of the match, is quite good. Finally, Blitzkrieg wriggles out of an overhead backbreaker position while Juvi tries to land a top-rope legdrop, and Juvi drills Psicosis. That ends that partnership, as Psicosis pretends to make up, then lariats Juvi. Rey manages to crawl into the ring, and while Juvi catches a beating from Psicosis. Blitz manages an agreement with Rey, and they hit stereo baseball slides and then alternate on moonsaults to the floor. This match is straight up video game fun. With their opps on the ground, Blitz and Rey go at it. Blitz gets two on combo standing somersault splashes, but Juvi’s able to get back to the ring and springboard dropkick Blitz from behind. This leaves Juvi and Rey in the ring: Rey hits a headscissors and gets a HUGE FUCKING POP, holy shit. Psicosis makes the save when Rey hits an Asai moonsault and covers, and Rey returns the favor when Psicosis covers Juvi. Blitz and Psicosis tangle outside the ring; Juvi lands a bulldog on Rey inside the ring for two. Juvi takes a lot of time to follow up, and though he manages to hit Rey with a neckbreaker, Psicosis follows up with a splash while Juvi is recovering and gets two before Juvi breaks it up. Rey manages to stay in the ring and land a top-rope bulldog on Juvi while Blitz stomps Psicosis on the floor. Rey gets another two count on another moonsault, and we see Blitzkrieg hit a dropkick to both Rey and Juvi as we go to break. Well, I was wrong! We are getting a longer match, which is fine by me, as this has been very well worked on everyone’s parts. Back from break, they all work a double Irish whip spot that ends with Rey dumped outside and Juvi hitting Blitz with a wicked dropkick that dumps him to the floor. Juvi hits a somersault plancha to the men on the floor; Psicosis follows up with a corkscrew splash from the top onto all three of them. Juvi and Psicosis make it back to the ring; Juvi hits Psicosis with a diving rana from the top for two, but the pinfall attempt gets broken up. Rey spikes Juvi with a powerbomb for another two count that gets broken up. Blitz locks a Figure Four on Psicosis, and Rey busts that little move up with a springboard legdrop to Blitz. Juvi decides to copy Rey and hit one onto Psicosis, but only gets two on his cover. I’m nearly breathless here. Rey gets another two-count, then another after he covers Blitzkrieg off of Juvi’s powerbomb. Rey sits Juvi up top and hits the top-rope Frankensteiner, but Psicosis makes the save once more. Then, he goes over to Blitz and hits a vertical suplex that no one is in the position to make a save on, but alas, Blitz kicks out at two. Juvi hits Blitz with a neckbreaker, but gets cleared out by a Rey basement dropkick; Rey hits Blitz with a follow-up Bronco Buster, which seems like a luxury move in a Four Corners match like this. Rey does the same to Psicosis and then celebrates on the ropes. That allows Juvi to hook him from underneath and try to powerbomb him, but Rey escapes with a headscissors. Everyone tries La Magistrals, anything, to get a pinfall. I was thinking that flash pinfall attempts might be the kayfabe easiest way to sneak a win in this type of match. Chalk it up to my wrestling video game multi-man match strategy. Juvi and Rey end up outside, so Blitz takes the chance to hit a Sky Twisting Moonsault for two, but Juvi clambers back into the ring and breaks up the pinfall. Juvi follows up with a Juvi Driver on Blitz, but Rey breaks the pinfall up at two. Rey and Juvi get tangled after an exchange and Rey ranas Juvi (and himself) to the floor. Psicosis charges Blitz in the corner, whiffs, takes his wild corner bump, and gets set up on top. Psicosis blocks Blitzkrieg’s offensive attempt, shoves him down, and drills a guillotine legdrop while Rey and Juvi are indisposed outside the ring! YAY, PSICOSIS! That match was pretty fuckin’ sweet, man. I usually don’t even like these types of matches, but that was a Four Corners match with high spots and pace all the way through, intrigue, a lot of good near falls, and it somehow felt like an actual contest, even the more complex spots. I have to put that on the Favorites list; these fellas earned their way there by balancing high spots with drama and intrigue and even some solid kayfabe strategy sprinkled in there to make it feel like a competitive contest. And Psicosis won! He deserved the hell out of it; he’s been so consistently good for WCW for the last three years. After Tony S. does a pretty good read of some ad copy for Wendy’s, we kick it to the ring and+ Gene Okerlund, who introduces Ric Flair. They didn’t even run the “Flair is mad with power” angle for long enough to make any of this angle make sense! If it were seven months from now and a group of babyfaces and tweeners worked together to take the gold off him, and then he acted more and more erratically over a months’ worth of shows after losing, then yeah, this would still be dumb, but at least it would be logical. Flair is a massive babyface in Gainesville, and he’s wearing a UF shirt. Oh, and he will challenge any and all of the students in the crowd to a drinking contest, and he’s paying. So imagine what happens when Roddy Piper’s music hits. He’s supposed to be a babyface, but his music gets a mixed reaction. Roddy Piper calls Flair “the Dennis Rodman of WCW.” No, Dennis Rodman is the Dennis Rodman of WCW. Piper has also seen Sling Blade, just in case you wanted to know. And that Patch Adams movie. Piper alludes to a bunch of crazy stuff that Flair has done in the presidency off-screen that no one in the crowd or at home saw at any point. Piper is now drawing boos even though he’s the babyface. Piper keeps talking, and talking, and talking. He drops his dumb “reality check” catchphrase. OK, you know what? It’s time to add Roddy Piper is a Pop Culture Wizard to a review for the first time in a long time: Dennis Rodman, Sling Blade, Patch Adams, Al Bundy, President Clinton (maybe we should just stipulate going forward that he's mentioned Clinton every time he’s on television). Piper complains about Ric taking his pants off all the time and says that it’s a sign of Flair being nutty. Arn: “Listen, I’ve seen [Ric] with his pants off many times. It don’t mean anything.” Hahahaha, wow! Flair strips to his skivvies and his skivvies have the Gators logo on them. He yells a ton, and Piper yells a ton, and then Piper is like, So yeah, I’m still Commissioner of WCW and I got you committed, stupid, and also the judge says that you’re not President of WCW anymore. This is another point at which a) we read a document in the ring, and b) WCW does something that seems to me, in retrospect, to mark an indelible downturn in its creative and therefore financial prospects. Apparently, you can make someone have a wrestling match before you commit them, so Piper is making Flair fight Nash tonight. Flair responds by saying that he is firing Piper, but they’ll fight at Slamboree, and if Piper wins, Piper can have the presidency for life. Who the hell knows how WCW will handle the presidency going forward. They continue yelling and end up in a scuffle in the aisle. The B-Teamers surround Konnan in the back as he minds his own business. Stevie Ray, who washed his hands of Nash on Thunder, is now carrying messages for Nash on Nitro, so who the fuck even knows what’s up with them. Konnan doesn’t give a damn about Nash or his messages considering their recent past and tries to go on his merry way, so the B-Teamers beat him down. There’s a new set of graphics to promote the Goldberg/DDP match later tonight. Oh no, it’s Brian Knob(b)s. I went with double Bs for the spelling earlier in this thread, so that’s what I’ll go with tonight. Knobbs is wrestling Hardcore Hak (w/Chastity) in a garbage match. Point: Knobbs is the perfect guy to bring back for a spot in WCW’s nascent hardcore division. Counterpoint: Knobbs sucks ass and has sucked ass since about, oh, 1992? Well, I’ll give him since 1995 since he had that classic match teaming with Sag(g)s against Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne in ’94. These fellas hit each other with a bunch of crap in and around the ring for the first three or four minutes. I’ve come to the conclusion that these matches are now zeroes until someone either goes through a table or busts out a spot off of/onto a ladder. I can only see guys hit each other with different objects for so long. Actually, I need to revise that: It works in the free-flowing brawls that Sandman had in ECW, where the brawl felt like a real fight druing which they just happened to grab nearby weapons. In WCW and WWF, they feel more like staged “let’s hit each other with this item, and then we’ll do the same spot, but with this item instead.” Hak bulldogging Knobbs onto a closed ladder is the first move that I thought was notable in this sucker. Hak tries the senton through a table, but Knobbs rolls away and then comes back and covers for 2.9. Knobbs wears the ladder around his neck and swings it, nailing Hak; Chastity jumps in when Knobbs follows up with kendo stick shots. That distraction allows Hak to jump Knobbs with a trash can, then hit a guillotine legdrop to Knobbs as Knobbs’s head is laying against a chair. Hak goes up top for the coup de grace, but Bam Bam Bigelow sneaks down and shoves him off the ropes. Knobbs follows up with a trash can-assisted elbowdrop for three. Randy Savage cuts a promo in the locker room area to hype Gorgeous George versus Charles Robinson at Slamboree. Man, did it all fall apart quickly! There was reason for optimism for this company's creative direction just three weeks ago! So, Savage notes that George has never had a wrestling match and needs some training, so he went out and, DAMMIT, brought Madusa back. FUCK. Kevin Nash confronts the B-Teamers in the back and is like, I didn’t have a message for Konnan, and you said you were on your own anyway, what the fuck? OK, it's not a plot hole, just the B-Teamers scheming. It’s hard to tell with WCW. Nash is about to pontificate on the B-Teamers’ bullshit, but Scott Steiner comes up to him and demands that they talk right now. What they talk about is that Steiner wants Nash’s title shot at Slamboree on account of the one he got last week was partially decided by Kim’s spot-on chair shot. Nash is like, Um, no? and Steiner is like Um, yes, or I will ‘roid rage on you, so think it over carefully and leaves, to paraphrase it all. Nash and Stevie Ray mean mug one another before Nash also leaves. Then, Stevie decides to bring Scott Steiner in line by sending Scott Norton out there to send a message. I can’t believe this, but I think there is a tiny bit of intrigue in Stevie Ray of all people making a power play on the A-Teamers. Buff Bagwell comes to the ring. Ah, remember when it was nWo for life? Now dudes are just splitting the group every other week. Bagwell grabs a mic and notes that everyone’s calling their own shots, so he’s calling out Scott Steiner for a U.S. Championship match at Slamboree. How logical! There are moments of lucidity in this booking, which makes it all the worse when it suddenly goes off the rails. He sticks around to face Disco Inferno, who is in the Wolfpac still, maybe? Yes, he’s wearing the shirt. Disco jumps Buff at the bell, but Buff turns it around, rips Disco’s Wolfpac shirt off, and chokes him with it. They bring some pace in the opening, and Buff gets the best of Disco with a body slam and a dropkick that sends Disco bailing to the floor. Buff dances. Disco looks shocked at the offensive outpouring and says, confused and in pain, “What the hell was that?” Heh, Disco is so good at the little things. Disco rushes back in, tangles with Buff, and once again ends up outside the ring, deposited there by a Buff arm drag. When Buff tries to follow up, Disco yanks his throat down into the ropes and takes control. Disco hits his weird little stomping dance and then a swinging neckbreaker. Disco targets the neck with chokes and elbows while the camera cuts back to Berlyn sitting there. Dammit, Wright deserved a better career. Oh yes, the match. Disco goes up, shakes his booty, and badly misses the second-rope elbowdrop. Buff comes back, unloading with punches and hitting a back bodydrop. Buff lands a power slam, then goes up…and gets crotched. Disco tires to press his advantage with a Chartbuster, but Buff shoves Disco out of it and hits a ground variation of the Blockbuster for three. Decent stuff. Scott Steiner and three captive women (???) ladies come to the ring. Steiner does his own catchphrase roulette and then makes fun of Bagwell for being a stripper and says he kicked Marcus Alexander, not Buff out of the nWo and no one disagreed with his decision. He declares that Buff “has toys in the attic” because his mom actually wanted a girl. I don’t even know if that’s a real euphemism or if Steiner is just saying random shit. Steiner says that the Wolfpac is what made Marcus “Buff,” but now that Bagwell is out of the nWo, it’s time for another name change. He decides to call Buff “Boy,” and I’m glad he didn’t decide to bust that creative idea out for his feud with Booker! The crowd chants STE-ROIDS while Steiner does some typical toxic questioning of Buff’s manhood and then poses. Recap: Gorgeous George facilitates Randy Savage’s extremely obvious midlife crisis in general, slaps Charles Robinson specifically; Flair and Piper face off from just, like, a half-hour ago. Billy Kidman and Raven (w/Saturn) face off as the Flock POST-EXPLODES. They go at pace to start, and Raven just cannot deal with Kidman’s speed. Raven tries a powerbomb and gets facebustered almost immediately. Raven takes over for a bit with a front suplex and eventually kneelifts Kidman over the top and to the floor. Raven takes this opportunity to grab a chair and toss it in the ring, where he lands his chair-assisted drop toehold, then legdrops the chair as it lays across Kidman’s head. Raven tries to follow up with a superplex, but Kidman blocks it and drops Raven face-first into the chair. He tries an SSP from that position, but Raven grabs the chair and holds it up; Kidman crashes into it. Benoit and Malenko run down, clobber Saturn, and then attack Raven and Kidman. Rey Misterio Jr. soon follows and helps a recovering Saturn make the save. OK, that explains why that match was paced so quickly; it wasn't lasting very long. Rey and Saturn have an argument over who will help Kidman up, and Saturn attacks. Rey and Saturn tangle, and Kidman and Raven get involved, and in a neat spot, Benoit and Malenko see an opening and come back and attack all four guys while they’re beating each other up. They show clips of the Flair/Piper stuff from earlier again as we go into break. Come on, fellas. Scott Steiner faces Scott Norton in an impromptu matchup. Why not have it when Steiner came out earlier? I see: The B-Teamers jumped Konnan, who Tony S. reminds me had a U.S. Championship shot, so that they could get Scott Norton inserted into that spot when they injured Konnan. Huh. Yeah, that works. Oddly, they’ve handled the B-Teamers finally accepting Stevie’s leadership really well. He has credibility with them for uncovering Nash’s double-dealing with Flair (by being the only B-Teamer who apparently started watching the replay of the show) and then helped them execute a plan that got one of their own a shot at the second-most valuable singles title in the company. I think that if you put Nash on a booking team, but gave him an editor and much less power, he probably produces television that is at least solidly logical and interesting. But whatever you do, you don’t let him put this “Flair gets committed” crap on television or beat Goldberg first thing on his agenda. Steiner comes out, shakes hands with Heenan, and then threatens Tony S. That’s pretty funny, actually. I want to see some quality clubbering, and I get some from Steiner early. They stand off after a shoulder block, and Steiner yells DO IT AGAIN. Norton does and just runs the guy over, then lariats him until Steiner has to bail. OK, that was a fantastic spot. Steiner jaws at the crowd and recollects himself; he tries to get back in the ring, but Norton meets him with forearms immediately. He tries ten punches in the corner, counter’s Steiner’s attempted inverted atomic drop counter, and lands a lariat. He pounds away until Steiner can finagle a ball shot, and then we take a trip to ringside for an obligatory ringside brawl. It doesn’t take too long, and Steiner gets back in and controls with punches. Steiner poses, whips Norton to the corner, and charges right into a Norton boot, which sparks a comeback. Norton gets two off an impactful side slam, then signals for the end, which is when this match goes off the rails because Norton signals for the powerbomb by putting his arms straight out from his body once. Then he peeks to his right and puts them out again, looking for Johnny Boone to hurry up and walk into his hand so that Boone can feign an eye poke. *sigh*, these fucking ref bumps get dumber and more poorly executed all the time. Steiner hits another ball shot, lands a belly-to-belly suplex, and gets a pinfall with his feet on the ropes. I liked this match, but that ending was so crappy that it soured my opinion of what came before it. Kevin Nash speaks before his match with Ric Flair. He modifies his call-and-response: WOLFPAC BIG SEXY’S IN DA HOUSE. He promises to destroy Flair tonight and Page at some point if not at Slamboree, then wants a rubber match from Goldberg for the title at Slamboree if Goldberg wins the gold. The crowd chants GOLDBERG, indicating that Nash is the clear number two babyface in the company. Number three? I don’t know if he’s more over than Sting. Maybe he and Sting are tied. Nash ends his promo by telling the crowd that they have good taste. He’s being bitchy because they booed him when he said he was going to take down Flair and then chanted for Goldberg over him. Recap: This Flair/Piper segment stunk and won’t keep anyone from switching over to RAW, you imbeciles. Flair comes out here with Arn Anderson at his side. Hey, WCW refs wearing striped shirts with ugly WCW logos on them is a new thing that I just noticed. Anyway. Charles Robinson is the ref for this one. I think you know how most of this is going to go: Heel Flair tries a bunch of moves that don’t work and that Nash no-sells. It’s the typical heel Flair match. I’ll just tell you when we get to any key match points or narrative. Oh, wait, here’s one: Robinson gives Flair a time out when Flair bails and doesn’t start his ten count at all. Basically, Robinson surreptitiously cheating is the story in this thing. He yells WATCH THE HAIR at Flair, but immediately ducks down to check Nash’s headlock so Flair can yank Nash’s hair. He doesn’t count when Flair is chopping Nash in the corner, but he counts quickly when Nash has Flair trapped in the corner. It’s actually very well-timed stuff on his part. Nash tries a boot choke, so Charles Robinson pretends he’s been poked in the eye in a more convincing way than Johnny Boone did so that Arn can grab Nash’s plant leg and trip him. They post Nash crotch-first while Robinson “recovers.” Flair draws Robinson over so Arn can stomp Nash out. Flair targets Nash’s knee. He asks Robinson to check the match time, so Robinson yells at Penzer to check his watch while Flair winds up and boots Nash in the nads. OK, these ref spots are admittedly pretty creative. I’m liking this match in spite of myself, and that’s all thanks to the heel control segment and these crooked ref spots. Flair and occasionally Arn continue to work over Nash, with Robinson reffing in a way that gives him the thinnest veil of plausible deniability. It works so well that Nash actually gets some cheers on his comeback. Nash gets two on a side slam, then clotheslines Flair off the apron after shooting Flair into the corner and over the buckles. Back in the ring, Flair begs off, giving him room to land a counter back elbow when Nash charges in. Then, of course, he presses his advantage by going up top. You can guess what happens next. Arn gets on the apron to yell something at Robinson and eats a Nash forearm. The straps go down and Nash sets up for a Jackknife, which he hits. Robinson doesn’t even bother counting. He backs away from the ring, and Gorgeous George runs out, strips him of his ref shirt, and then counts a slow pinfall for three. If you like matches that go off the rails, this last hour has been for you! Some doctors in white coats are coming to take Flair away, haha, they’re coming to take Flair away! We see Flair get rolled out and into a special van and whisked away while Arn and Robinson demand neck braces and life support (!) for Flair. Piper closes the doors on the van, which read CENTRAL FLORIDA MENTAL HOSPITAL, and he crows about getting Flair sent away, and oh BOY, do I hate this fucking angle. Fuck this angle. Dusty Rhodes joins the booth and immediately improves it! Run him back out here every Monday if he’s willing to do it, please! We recap this Flair angle, and I both can and cannot believe how badly Nash and Company bungled the hell out of this Ric Flair heel turn. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me with this shit. And fire Eric Bischoff already! He’s mismanaged creative for about eighteen months now. A wrestler or two will come up with a great idea and then Bischoff, Hogan, and/or Nash dismiss or mangle them – or worse, let them on TV and then fail to follow up when the wrestler gets well over as a result. Goldberg faces DDP in the main event. Page got close to a victory the last time they met for the big gold at Havoc ’98, so he should feel confident theoretically. Hey, cool spot here: Page rushes in to collar-and-elbow twice and gets shoved back twice, but instead of that being because he’s a kayfabe strategic idiot like Flair, it’s so that he can do it a third time, but use his quickness to arm drag Goldberg and show him that he can out-quick him and bait him. Great spot. Unfortunately for Page, Goldberg is still Goldberg and thus is capable of mooting attacks simply by powering out of them. Page tries a Diamond Cutter early, for example, and gets shoved away. Page just struggles to deal with Goldberg’s prodigious power, really. He gets shoved around and knocked down and flipped into armbars and shit. They even fuck up a rope running spot that Page saves by stumbling up and shoulderblocking Goldberg, which surprises and angers Goldberg enough that Goldberg hits a spear. Page is able to yank Goldberg into the buckles when Goldberg tries to follow up, and he gets some control: a swinging neckbreaker here, a belly-to-belly there. He lays on Goldberg with a front facelock, but it’s not just a rest hold, but also that he’s trying to smother the guy and keep him from exploding up. It doesn’t work, and Page ends up getting suplexed for two, then side slammed. Goldberg works Page, who reverses and tries a Diamond Cutter again. He gets shoved away again, rebounds off the ropes, and gets drilled with a power slam. Goldberg shoots Page into the ropes and tries another side slam, but Page hits a headscissors to escape and ends up clotheslining Goldberg to the floor. He dumps Goldberg back in the ring and hits a flying clothesline from the top for two. Page is doing whatever he can think of, just unloading on this guy, but he just can’t keep him down. Goldberg comes back with a jawbreaker and then a sidekick, the latter of which sends Page into the corner. So, this match is fucking fantastic, let me tell you. It’s so fucking smartly worked. The spot they do next is an example of that. Usually, guys will stumble out of the corner and get speared by a waiting Goldberg. This time, Page slumps in the corner while Goldberg waits, so Goldberg decides to take the bait and try a spear that Page avoids; Goldberg goes crashing into the post. The only minor criticism I have is that they might have drawn out the spot a touch too long because you could feel the heat from the fans wane a bit as they were confused about why Page was in the corner for so long. This match is predicated on Page thinking back to the last match he had with Goldberg and deciding that he lost because he didn’t bait his more inexperienced and somewhat overly-intense opponent into making enough mistakes to land a Diamond Cutter. The layout in this match is a quite logical extension from the previous one: Bait Goldberg into mistakes, always threaten a Diamond Cutter because either a) you’ll hit it and you can win with your death move, or b) you’ll have it on his mind and maybe that gives you more space to hit some offense instead of always having to be on the defensive. Page also measures his offense so that if he hits one move, he’s following up immediately. Even the way he’s pacing his offense makes it clear that his strategy is to come in waves that might finish Goldberg or at least get him disoriented enough to actually land a Diamond Cutter. Back to the action: Page’s plan works! He hooks Goldberg after Goldberg post himself and hits a Diamond Cutter for one…two…and Goldberg powers out at 2.9, pressing Page onto the ref. Page is prepared, though: He has a contingency move for Goldberg kicking out of his deathblow. He grabs knucks from his tights, puts them on, and then positions Mickey Jay in front of him as Goldberg tries a spear. Jay cushions the blow, and Page rolls outside the ring and waits for his chance. Goldberg comes over and blocks Page’s punches on the apron, then Jackhammers him back into the ring. Jay is completely out, though, and Page is able to recover and hit Goldberg with his loaded fist; then, he dumps Goldberg on the floor and repeatedly punches him with the loaded fist. Page grabs the stairs, props them against Goldberg’s leg, and uses a chair to slam Goldberg’s leg against the stairs. Someone in the crowd yells at him after he drops the chair, so Page stops, yells ALRIGHT and grabs the chair, then swings it again. Johnny Boone runs down to try and stop the carnage, grabbing the chair on the apron as Page lifts it, so Page yanks the chair and sends Boone crashing from the apron all the way into the guardrail (!!!). This is some wild shit, reader, it’s fucking amazing. So, Page puts Goldberg in the ring and starts to lock on a ringpost Figure Four, but Kevin Nash runs down for the save. Nash punches Page away and starts to help Goldberg up, but Page comes back with a belt shot and slumps Nash, then makes his way out of the arena like the KING he fucking is, what a fucking performance on his part. If this match was mostly Page’s idea that he laid out in the back before he had it, well then BRAVO because it was even better than their Havoc match. You’d need to see the Havoc match and understand that Page went from face to tweener and is now about to go heel to get the full effect, so I think that’s one big reason why people remember the Havoc match more than this one. Obviously, WCW was also hotter in 1998 and the first match was on PPV, and this match didn't have a definitive finish, etc. But yeah, this match is a masterpiece of layout, IMO, and even the stuff that didn’t come off perfectly still worked incredibly well and I could see how the spot fit into the greater whole of the match narrative. Congratulations, Nitro! Somehow, it took until 1999 for any single Nitro to have two matches that hit my Favorites list. Also oddly, I’ve put four matches on that list in the last eight days of shows. This is like a sudden burst of in-ring excellence that’s maybe been spurred by the cosmetic overhaul of the show or the changes in the format or something. I would never have guessed that April 1999 was some sort of banner month for in-ring action in WCW, but here we are! Even as much as I hate the Flair angle, think that they’ve totally misfired on Flair’s heel turn, etc., etc., there is no way that a show with two matches like the Cruiserweight Four Corners match and Goldberg/Page can do worse than 4 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. Edited July 22 by SirSmUgly 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 (edited) Thunder Interlude – show number sixty – 22 April 1999 "The WCW Gang has Billy Kidman represent what it's like to try and stay sane in a crazy world" Ah, the summer…I love having more time to write (and to prep for the rest of the year going forward)…I think I’ve written before that I want to get up to 2000 by the middle of September… Let’s see if this Thunder is a collection of random wrestling matches or if they do a bit of angle progression… Ooh, we’re getting Benoit and Malenko against Raven and Saturn again!...I’m very into this idea… I am very meh on this new Slamboree logo… Hugh Morrus (w/Jimmy Hart) is in our show opening bout…He’s got Hardcore Hak (w/Chastity, who is w/a bin full of plundah) as an opponent…Hak came into the company and immediately started doing jobs for everyone…Maybe he can get a rare victory?...Larry Z. hates on the hardcore style, and honestly, I mostly agree with him…Hart tosses Morrus a mop, which is kinda cool, I guess…Morrus is wearing a shirt that WCW sold exactly zero of if they put it on sale…The back says: AMUSE ‘EM/CONFUSE ‘EM/ABUSE ‘EM…The last two-thirds of that mantra sounds pretty much like DeMott’s training style as part of the WWE system…Too much of the last part of this match is spent with the wrestlers either looking for weapons or setting up Rube Goldberg-style killing machines…This last spot is so contrived, but needless to say, Hak ends up punching Morrus off a ladder and through two tables…He follows up with a White Russian Leg Sweep into the remnants of the tables for the win… Recap: Stevie and the B-Teamers pull off a plan, beat down Konnan, and insert Scott Norton into a match for the U.S. title in his place…Unfortunately, that means we’re probably getting a Stevie Ray/Konnan match at best, and a full-on feud at worst… We’re getting a Konnan match next, that's for sure…Larry Z. doesn’t understand any part of Konnan’s Catchphrase Roulette…I did get a kick out of Eric Bischoff admitting that he went to look up what a “strawberry” is to try and understand what the hell Konnan was saying…Oh Konnan, always slipping in offensive shit under the Turner S&P radar like it’s a game…Konnan’s facing Dashing Scotty Riggs…I crap on Cody Rhodes all the time, but he did this gimmick about a billion times better…And Paul Orndorff did it even better than that… Konnan fires off on Riggs to start…Riggs has an okay heel control segment while commentary talks about exactly how much power an institutionalized Ric Flair still has…Riggs’s offense is uneven…He has a nice dropkick, but also hits soft hip checks…Konnan comes back with a rolling clothesline and sits down on a Riggs rollup attempt for two…Konnan drills a back kick and a sitout facebuster, then dodges a Riggs dropkick and wraps Riggs up in a tight little bow…Riggs taps out to the Tequila Sunrise… Recap: The end of that bonkers Four Corners Cruiserweight Championship match on the previous Nitro… Al Green hooks it up with Vampiro…The opening is, uh, not great…Some weak grappling starts us out…Tenay says that Ric Flair has added Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman to the main event tag match, putting them on opposite sides…Please, no, I don’t want some “feuding partners” angle between those two…Man, this match is doo doo…Vampiro is giving way too much offense to Green…Green gets two on a double-underhook suplex and a floatover…WCW’s got to figure out how to pipe in cheering that matches what the crowd appears to be doing visually…Vampiro eschews the Nail in the Coffin and completes a simple victory roll for the win… Mike Tenay sends WCW's condolences for the passing of Rick Rude as Bobby Duncum Jr. makes his way to the ring, which is quite the unfortunate coincidence…Duncum’s getting his first TV title shot since he took it to Chris Jericho toward the end of 1998…Tenay talks about Duncum's opponent Booker T. being a drum major rather than an athlete in high school...Drums are like honorary athletics, IMHO…Duncum’s just not very good, and since Booker’s the babyface, I’m just here waiting for him to do cool offense…He does!...Booker gets two off two corner lariats and a roundhouse…Duncum gets a little control, but Booker cuts him off with a flying forearm…Booker clotheslines Duncum to the floor…Duncum trips Booker and ties his boots with his bullrope…That should be a DQ, but whatever, it’s 1999 WCW… There’s a commercial break…We come back to a Duncum chinlock that Booker fights up from…Booker eats a boot and Duncum does some more offense…He gets a couple of two counts, then goes back to the chinlock…Tenay gives an update on Hulk Hogan’s knee…Dr. James Andrews tried to fix Hogan’s MCL…That’s the update…I feel like we already knew that…There’s an obligatory ringside brawl…Back in the ring, Duncum gets two off a diving clothesline and goes back to another fucking chinlock…These WCW matches always go 60/40 or 55/45, it seems like…That’s a problem when you’re trying to position one guy three levels above the other…We need more matches where the stars and (especially) the future stars guzzle lower-midcard fodder…Booker hits an axe kick and a spinebuster after dodging a bullrope shot…He hits the missile dropkick to end this sucker… Recap: Buff Bagwell challenges Scott Steiner to a title match…Scott Steiner pontificates on his own narrow concept of manliness… Finlay faces off with Buff Bagwell next…Zane Bresloff told Mike Tenay to tell all of us at home that tickets to Slamboree are still available…That show probably deserves a sell-out…Honestly, 1999 WCW got started off very poorly, but it’s gotten far better…March/April 1999 has been imperfect and sometimes dumb, but it’s certainly been entertaining in a way that WCW hasn’t been since the summer of 1998… Buff starts a U-S-A chant, so Finlay spits in his eye…Finlay was obviously in the right…Finlay eats an arm drag and then yells at someone in the crowd…Buff celebrates too much and allows Finlay to jump him…This match is okay…It’s predicated on Finlay cutting off Bagwell’s bursts of offense…I do wish Finlay had done more dynamic offense, though…Too much time in chin vises and headlocks and shit…Finlay counters a dropdown with a sitdown splash…Finlay ducks a Buff lariat and gets two off a flipping slam…Bagwell finally makes a short comeback…Very short…He sticks a boot up on a Finlay corner charge and gets out of dodge after a follow-up Blockbuster… Review: Roddy Piper gets Ric Flair committed… Disco Inferno is the sacrificial lamb to Rick Steiner for some reason…I mean, yeah, sacrifice Disco…Just do it to someone who is worth it…Disco isn’t very keen to hook it up with Steiner…Steiner has very few issues with Disco, which, as I said, is how it should be when you’re trying to push one guy to be obviously three levels above another guy…Funny that the only match on the show that properly does this is the match where the guy they’re pushing doesn’t warrant it…I don’t get a ton of joy from Steiner slowly and methodically mauling Disco…Disco bails again, gets some space and manages to get a swinging neckbreaker in…In a nice twist, he goes up for the second-rope elbowdrop and doesn’t stop to boogie because he’s in so much trouble…He hits it precisely because he doesn’t waste time dancing, but he hops right into a suplex shortly after that and doesn’t get another bit of offense in…Steiner hits a top-rope bulldog and then locks on a version of an Indian Deathlock for the win… Recap: The end of that awesome DDP/Goldberg match from Nitro… Goldberg makes a rare Thunder appearance in which he mows down Ernest Miller…Hey, it's only about four months after they should have had Goldberg do this!...Miller gives Goldberg five seconds to leave the ri—no, he throws a surprise back kick at the count of two, which is pretty smart on his part!...Miller hits a few forearms and a couple of kicks, but Goldberg is no mere chump…He comes back with strikes…Sonny Onoo tries to pull Miller from the ring and ends up pressed and tossed into Miller…Goldberg spears both of him and knocks Miller dangerously close to the ropes…He tucked his head in just enough to avoid possible injury…Jackhammer, SPLAT, three… I haven’t particularly loved this show (nor hated it), but boy, did it move right along…The six-man tag main event is next…Billy Kidman, Chris Benoit, and Dean Malenko (w/Arn Anderson) versus Rey Misterio Jr., Saturn, and Raven is our match…Tenay informs those of us at home that these three teams will have a triangle tag match for the tag titles at Slamboree…Yuck…We get a review of these teams tangling on the previous Nitro…The review means that we don’t even get to hear Raven’s theme music, as they’re in the ring once we come back…BOOOOO…Kidman acts like a dork trying to fire up the Horsemen…*claps hands* C’MON, LET’S GO…The Horsemen just look at him like he’s an alien from the outer reaches of the galaxy…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…Kidman starts clapping on the apron as Malenko starts the match…Benoit cuts a look at him and mumbles, “What the hell is wrong with you,” I’m pretty certain…That was funny as fuck… Poor Kidman, he’s just an enthusiastic, happy dude who wants to wrestle a good match and win a title or two…And now he’s getting booted and ground down by Raven…Kidman gets sent to the floor, and Rey tries to back Saturn off of the guy…Saturn jaws at Rey about it back in the ring and gets flash rolled up for two…Malenko and Benoit coordinate their offense on Saturn…Kidman is reluctant to tag in, so Benoit swats him in the back of the head…Benoit letting his inner psychotic bully out on Kidman is both compelling and faintly horrifying, knowing the real guy… Saturn and Raven now work over Kidman after they seize control of the match…This match isn’t quite good, but Kidman being reluctant to work with these guys after they were a dick to him is pretty amazing…He goes up top, then thinks Why am I flinging myself around for these jerks? and just jumps down and quickly tags Malenko before Malenko can react… We got to break, and when we come back, a) Rey is FIP and b) Saturn got a wig colored like Milla Jovovich’s in The Fifth Element from somewhere and plopped it on…Kidman is killing me, man…The crowd starts clapping for a Rey comeback, and Raven kind of does it, but Kidman really gets into it…Malenko double-teams Rey from the apron and then yells at Kidman THAT’S HOW YOU DO IT…I think the Horsemen got me feeling bad for Kidman…He’s a good dude, quit being a dick to him!...Malenko tags Kidman in and wants him to work Rey’s knee…Kidman instead tries to help Rey up, so Malenko stomps him and Benoit blind tags him…Arn reads Kidman the riot act outside the ring… Malenko eventually dumps Rey to the floor…Raven comes over and attacks Benoit…Kidman drags Rey out of the way of that brawl…Malenko gets Rey back in the ring and locks on a backbreaker…Rey finally hits a facebuster to counter once Malenko shoots him into the ropes…Rey gets a hot tag to Saturn…The match breaks down…Saturn tagged Rey back in before it broke down…Kidman and Rey team up on a Rey springboard rana…Kidman takes out Saturn as Rey goes up for a top-rope rana…Arn shoves Rey off the ropes, then enters the ring and plants him with a spinebuster…Kidman comes back in the ring to check on Rey and question ref Charles Robinson…Malenko hits Kidman from behind, which knocks him forward onto Rey…Robinson counts a fast three and heads for the hills…That match wasn’t strictly good, but Kidman cut such a compelling character in the whole thing…He was just a guy trying to stay positive and do the right thing while surrounded by a bunch of assholes…What a strange, yet delightful match… In fact, that match tips the show over to the positive side for me…WOOO… Edited July 22 by SirSmUgly 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 (edited) Show #187 – 26 April 1999 “The one that seemingly starts the trend of rapid title changes that happen for little or no payoff.” The show starts with a ring bell salute for Rick Rude. Review: Ric Flair is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, but somehow Roddy Piper is a sane and sober alternative. Also, DDP starts a trend of injuring the legs of main eventers. We are LIVE at the Central Florida Mental Hospital. A doctor and a nurse have a classic "As you already know" conversation about Ric Flair still being here past the 72-hour window to fill us in. In a cross between One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and that one mental health hospital that Brad Pitt was assigned to in 12 Monkeys, a bunch of dudes do some awful and frankly embarrassing acting as the nurse tells them that they can't watch Nitro tonight. Ric Flair, in robe and Gators boxers, walks in to his theme music – where exactly is the theme music coming from in this hospital?! – and dances around with a patient who puffs his cheeks out like Hulk Hogan doing ten Hulk Ups all at once. How did we get to this fucking point with this angle? Who allowed this to happen? J.J. Dillon and Charles Robinson sit backstage, look through some official documents, and talk about how Robinson is legally the WCW Vice President if the WCW President is incapacitated. Oh boy, this show is bleeding Stinger Splashes by the second. The Nitro Girls do a routine in the ring. Tenay’s filling in for Heenan on color. Roddy Piper comes to the ring. BLEEDING. STINGER. SPLASHES. BY. THE. SECOND. Roddy Piper is a Pop Culture Wizard: Patch Adams, the Jitterbug (at least he says “from back in the ‘50s,” so even he knows it’s an old dance), Goldilocks. Piper thinks he’s the most powerful man in the company, so he reinstates Randy Savage and Gorgeous George, then makes Savage vs. Scott Steiner for the U.S. Championship later tonight to see which of these volatile dudes can out-volatile the other. I’m expecting Charles Robinson to march out here soon, but Page comes out instead after Piper mentions him. DDP is wearing a Three Stooges shirt for some reason. We’re in Fargo, North Dakota, and this crowd has played nicely with the storylines: They cheered Piper, booed his mention of Flair, and booed DDP before chanting GOLDBERG. Piper suggests to DDP that he put his title up against Sting tonight. Meanwhile, Page keeps doing the thing Jesse Jammes is already doing about being the [NAME OF TITLE] CHAMPION OF THE WOOOOORLD, and he should stop. It’s low-rent. Page is like, Man, I’d love to, but eh, nah. Piper uses his commissioner’s power to make the match anyway, and well, well, Piper says that he’ll give him 45 minutes to prepare. I think I see where this is going: Sting wins the big gold around the top of the second hour, Page appeals to Charles Robinson for an immediate rematch, and Page wins it back at the end of the show [Editor's note: Not exactly, but close enough]. If I’m right, this is gonna be dumb as hell, a desperate and sad ratings ploy. Konnan opens the wrestling portion of this show a) fifteen minutes in and b) against Crush. What a bummer, man, I’ve enjoyed Nitro for the past few weeks for the most part. This show is trying its hardest to break that streak. Konnan opens up with the Catchphrase Roulette, punches, and a panicked cameraman trying to avoid a shot of Konnan grabbing his balls in celebration. Crush gets some stomps in, but Konnan comes back with a floatover bulldog and a basement dropkick and an ORALE. They end up trading control back and forth, throwing strikes on the floor, and doing all the stuff you’d expect, but at super-slow speed. Trust me, you don’t want a running account of this match. It’s not awful, but it’s too long and it’s really dull. Konnan hits a sit-out facebuster and starts to wrap on a Tequila Sunrise, but the rest of the B-Teamers run out and jump him for a DQ. Stevie Ray orchestrates a beating that is punctuated with a spike piledriver. THIS. IS. (a) STIIIIIIING (hype video). The Armstrong Boys face Raven in a handicap match because Saturn and Kidman were taken out by the Horsemen before the show in storyline. I hope that Saturn and/or Kidman are not legit injured. Tenay and Schiavone bitch at each other about who hosts which show and what things have to be plugged. It’s the opposite of charming. The Armstrong Boys are not good at hitting their double-teams, so Raven’s probably going to be okay. Hell, they actually stop to argue over missing their double-teams, and Raven takes the chance to double-bulldog them. They roll outside and continue to argue, which is a bad idea since this is a Raven’s Rules match, as all matches involving Raven are, and Raven can casually duck out of the ring, grab a chair, and stalk the brothers. Back in the ring, Raven continues to dominate and lands a drop-toehold into the chair on Scott for two, then again on Steve for two. The Armstrong Boys get some offense in, but Raven does a reasonable job of controlling the brothers, and in fact ducks a Steve Armstrong strike and hits Scott with an Evenflow for one, two, and Steve comes back with a simple chair shot to Raven that Scott rolls over and covers off of for three. Um, okay. I get that in general, two guys should be able to beat one, but Raven shouldn’t be losing to these guys in any context. Ric Flair uses a pay phone in the facility to yell at Charles Robinson about taking control of the show. Robinson is chill about things. This show insists on replaying the same Piper/Flair package from last week to explain this dumbass angle that I hate so very much. I’m convinced that WCW has to try to be this bad because even half-assed WCW in 1999 is usually okay with a handful of bright spots. Whenever they try a big swing on an angle, though, it turns into disaster – Fingerpoke of Doom, Ric Flair being committed, even the double turn because as well as Flair did to justify his half of the turn, there’s still no reason to like or cheer for Hogan. Charles Robinson is in the ring with Gene Okerlund after the package ends. Okerlund has apparently seen these backstage segments that Robinson has been in, which makes me wonder about who can see what, exactly. Robinson establishes himself as the man in charge, so Piper walks back out here because you can’t have enough Roddy Piper on your wrestling show in 1999! Robinson screams for security; Piper gets in the ring, calls Robinson a “leprechaun,” and says, “I could eat bowls of soup off of your head,” which I guess is an old-timey insult about how short the guy is? Robinson turns babyface by slapping the shit out of Piper. Oh, wait, that wasn’t a babyface move? Excuse me, then. J.J. Dillon and security come down and restrain Piper before he can retaliate. Charles Robinson was talking sort of stiffly to start, but by the end, he’s yelling WHO’S GOT THE POWER?! and then he says it, he says the thing that I hoped he’d say: CHARLES IS IN CHARGE! I was hoping he’d follow up by yelling OF YOUR DAYS AND YOUR NIGHTS! OF YOUR WRONGS AND YOUR RIGHTS! No dice in this segment, but there’s still two hours of show to go. Robinson fires Piper, excepting his participation in the Slamboree match with Flair. I cannot fucking believe that Charles Robinson going mad with power made for enjoyable television, but here we are! Sting and Diamond Dallas Page hook it up for the WCW World Championship next! These Fargo-ites chant WHITE TRASH at Page, which I guess is okay if they say it, but which seems like a racial and socioeconomic land mine as far as I’m personally concerned. Page is such a creative guy when it comes to spots that I wonder why no one hired him to work as an agent. I guess he had DDP Yoga and other interests. Here, he cheap shots Sting with a punch, but Sting no-sells, so he pats his cheek and challenges Sting to punch him. Sting does, and it staggers Page. They trade punches back and forth until Sting punches Page so hard that Page tumbles between the ropes. See, that’s a very cool spot, and it sure seems like the sort of thing Page suggested just based on me having seen so many of his matches. Page bails on a Scorpion Death Drop attempt, walks around outside, talks a ton of shit, and loses track of Sting, who beats him down outside of the ring, then inside of the ring. Sting goes for a Scorpion Death Lock, and Page scrambles to the ropes and bails again. He walks around the ring, takes a couple of swigs from Tenay’s water bottle, yells at the fans who are chanting insults at him, and gets in the ring. He finally trips Sting and is able to score a two count and even a hammerlock. Page looks totally outclassed, which makes sense. Page with time to plan = he survives a Goldberg match and dissects Goldberg’s leg besides. Page with no time to plan = Sting overwhelms him and he stalls, bails, and would have walked out on the match except that Sting caught up with him and beat him down outside the ring, the latter of which is the thing that is happening right now. Tony S. notes that this could be a double-count out – probably what Page wants in kayfabe – but that Mickey Jay is being lenient because it’s a world title match. Sting holds Page’s head by the hair, points at him, yells THAT’S WHITE TRASH RIGHT THERE, and bonks his head into the rails. I feel like this whole match is revealing two things to me: One, Scott Steiner is very over and can get his insults and catchphrases over without much trouble anymore. Two, there are socioeconomic elements to the relationship between Steiner, Page, and the fans that I don’t fully understand, being outside of this ethnic group, but that I am fascinated by. I should have gotten a sociology Ph.D so that I could teach classes on pro wrestling and social grouping. Page finally does get some more control back in the ring. No offense to Sting, and I’m not saying that he’s just some passenger in this match at all, but Page’s heeling is brilliant and once they let him be a full on heel instead of a tweener, he immediately started putting on great performances. Sting does the spot where he’s staggered and topples over into his opponent’s sack, but Page is back up first and locks on a neck vise, then rakes Sting’s eyes and digs an elbow into Sting’s eye socket. Wow, Page rules so hard as a heel. He was always good as a heel, and of course 1995 heel DDP was a much different character than 1999 heel DDP, but even accounting for those differences, you can see how good this dude got when he had some time to grow and to think about his craft. Page gets two and lightly shoves Mickey Jay when he doesn’t think the count is quick enough. He tries another pinfall, gets only two again, and decides to drop some elbows into Sting’s abdomen instead. Tony S. and Tenay have a useful conversation about how the big gold can change you over on commentary. I’d say what we’ve learned from the past couple of months is that if you’re already in emotional turmoil, the big gold and the desire to hold onto it as a way to compensate for whatever is causing you turmoil is specifically what changes you. Page tries a ringpost figure four, but Sting finds enough energy to kick Page backward and into the rail. Page tries a new tack and slides in the ring to hit a flash Diamond Cutter, but Sting is using the ropes to get up and just grabs onto the top rope to block it. Sting makes his comeback with punches and inverted atomic drops, then rips off a face crusher and a top-rope splash for a well-timed 2.9. Page immediately takes the match back outside to get out of danger, is able to retake control, and snaps Sting’s neck over the top rope. Page visibly feels like he’s got everything under control, which is when Sting fires up with a jawbreaker, strikes, and buckle bonks. It’s too laborious to write “head smashes into the buckles” every time. I’m going to use “buckle bonks” as shorthand. Page manages to reverse the flow of momentum and hit a sit-out powerbomb, but it only gets two. Both guys are exhausted and suck some air while Mickey Jay counts toward ten. They both get up at six and Page misses a corner charge; Sting rolls him up for two, but Page is up quickly and lands a lariat. Page tries a suplex and gets rolled up in a cradle for two. He tries to fire up with another quick lariat to regain control, but Sting clocks this one, ducks it, and hits one of his own for two. Nice series of spots! Sting is like, Man, fuck this, and fights with Page over a piledriver that he eventually wins for a 2.9. Sting figures maybe one more piledriver will work. So he tries a Tombstone this time, fights through a couple of reversals with Page, and sticks it for…another 2.9. Page’s timing on these kick-outs is crazy good. Sting has no idea what the fuck will put this guy away. He picks Page up and shoves him into the ropes, but Page rebounds with a jumping DDT for two. Page tries a backslide, but only so he can swing a leg back and slam Sting in the junk, which is a little trick he learned from Scott Steiner over the past couple of months. Sting stumbles back into the corner, and Page follows and tries another Diamond Cutter, but Sting hooks the ropes to block it, then hooks Page’s head as Page leans back to try again and counters into a Scorpion Death Drop for three and the gold. HOLY FUCK, WHAT A GREAT MATCH. Dallas Page is on one right now. Just wrestling out of his fucking MIND. Sting was awesome too, as usual, but Page is a goddam revelation. It’s wild how this last two or three weeks of WCW television has had a random burst of great matches out of what feels like nowhere. Now, the issue is whether they do book this match again for later in the night. After that epic match, how can you possibly follow up with another title switch? That would be a massive letdown. This is a weird Nitro already, and having Sting walk back out here and have what will likely be a worse match with DDP so that he can just lose the belt right back is deflating me even in the afterglow of this contest. Ric Flair gets on the pay phone at the mental institution, lauds Robinson for getting Piper tossed out, and feeds directions to the WCW veep: Make Sting versus Goldberg for the title at Slamboree. Wait, hold on, didn’t Flair already give that title shot to Nash? Well, if Okerlund can see these segments, then I guess Nash is probably watching as well. Rey Misterio Jr. gets a one-on-one rematch against Psicosis for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Rey doesn’t need it, man, even if it is logical. Please move Rey away from this division for now. He and Kidman both, as they’ve both dominated the division for the past few months and gotten over beyond it as a result. Where the heck is Chavo? Get him integrated back into this division and give him a push. Psicosis comes out and counters Rey early; Tony S. says that Psicosis is wrestling with a lot more confidence now that he’s champ, which is a nice comment that lines up with what happens in the ring in the early going. Of course, Rey is Rey, so he ducks out of the way of a wild Psicosis corner splash, then hits a diving headscissors from the top rope. Both men run the ropes, and Rey tries another headscissors, so Psicosis just drops him throat-first over the top rope to kill all that. Rey tries to fight off an Alley Oop into the buckles, but he can’t; Psicosis follows up with a tornado DDT attempt that gets blocked, but he settles himself, shifts his weight, and lands a gourdbuster that hands Rey over the top rope. This is pretty good stuff so far, as you’d expect from these two. Rey tries to cut Psicosis off as Psicosis climbs the ropes, gets kicked away, but bursts back up and shoves Psicosis to the apron, then hits a jumping Frankensteiner that Psicosis can’t quite take a flipping bump on even though I think he’s intending to. Malenko and Benoit wander down while Rey tries to survive Psicosis. They take his tag title – Benoit: “We’re here to reclaim what’s rightfully ours” – but Rey escapes and double-bulldogs them. Rey then grabs his tag belt…that Psicosis baseball slides back into his face. Psicosis takes control the match while the Horsemen recover and gets two on a sit-out powerbomb. He tries another one, but Rey counters with a facebuster and…gets three for the win and the gold in a confounding finish. What the fuck, man. What the fuck. Solid match, but Psicosis can’t be the fucking champ for more than a week? Benoit and Malenko attack Rey after the match. I don’t like all these rapid title changes. I don’t like them at all. It works in a controlled way, when you’re trying to get over one division with multiple guys at the same level as being ueber-competitive. When you do it with a bunch of different belts at the same time, it feels chaotic, and not in a good way. You can’t get excited for any one title change because it might not matter a week, two weeks, maybe a couple hours from then. Yep, Kevin Nash was smart enough to watch a monitor in the back; here he comes, looking dour, to yap on the mic. No, wait, he says that Charles Robinson just sent a guy to tell him what the new main event of Slamboree was. Nash decides to challenge Goldberg, Sting, and DDP to an impromptu Four Corners title match. Sting and DDP just wrestled a grueling twenty-minute match, but Page wants his belt back and Sting is a dumb babyface, so they’ll both accept. Ah, that is how we get the belt back onto Page. Welp, still dumb, but whatever. A bunch of invalids fake wrestle in the institution, and is that Asya overseeing the proceedings? I think it is. Flair calls Robinson collect and tells him to make the match that Nash just proposed, then tries to wrestle Asya after the call. By the way, Chyna was a singular ball of immense physical charisma, and it’s impossible to just sign a vascular lady and try to copy Chyna with any success. Erik Watts is on Nitro. Someone holds up a WHO IS THIS GUY? sign behind him as he walks the aisle. I see that particular fan doesn’t follow Louisville football. Bam Bam Bigelow is Watts’s opponent, and it’s now that I’ll mention that commentary has been hyping a Four Corners Hardcore match later in the night for a shot at facing Bam Bam Bigelow at Slamboree. Not for the Hardcore title, I don’t think. Just for a shot to wrestle Bam Bam. Watts does the shittiest Frankensteiner I’ve seen in awhile, and Bam Bam no-sells it, hits a lariat, and lands a diving headbutt and a Greetings for a quick three. Wow, did WCW just book a match between a midcarder and a jobber properly? Good for them! Gene Okerlund is at the foot of the ramp; he brings out the new WCW World Champion Sting for a quick conversation. Sting agrees to the Nash match, but it already got made, buddy. But yeah, Sting just reinforces his willingness to fight because he’s a dumb babyface, bless his pure dumb babyface heart. What is up with Nash and his booking committee falling in love with Four Corners matches lately? Meng gets a shot at Booker T. and the TV title that is actually well-deserved in kayfabe. Booker tries an arm wringer, so Meng just body slams him, which is pretty good! Booker quickly learns that he needs to keep the pace up, and he wins a flying forearm after a leapfrog and then hits a dropkick on another rope run before going back to the arm. That makes this match slower, which is bad for Booker; Meng backs Booker into the corner, breaks the hold, and clubbers and chops away while Booker is trapped. Meng eventually backs up and tries a corner splash, but Booker moves and hits a pair of slams. Meng tries to get Booker back into the corner, but Booker boots his way out and starts running again. Actually, he runs right into a powerslam for two. Meng gets Booker back into the corner to smother him and hits chops and chokes. This is actually a pretty logical match in which Meng knows he needs to keep Booker from running or hitting explosive offense, so he wrestles the whole thing in the corners. After one Irish whip to the corner too many, Booker leapfrogs Meng and then lands a side kick and a boot to the gut. Meng doesn’t realize that the boot to the gut indicates that an axe kick is coming, so he has to very obviously duck down again even though he's already standing up so he can take it. Booker hits a roundhouse that also clears out the referee. Booker keeps hitting offense, landing a back suplex and a Houston Side Kick. He covers for a visual three count, but there’s no ref, and uh-oh, here comes Stevie Ray. Stevie has a malicious look on his face. Meng ducks a Houston Side Kick, and Booker crotches himself on the top rope. Meng locks on a Tongan Death Grip, but Stevie hits him with a slapjack. Booker topples over onto a KO’d Meng and covers for three. Rick Steiner runs down and confronts Stevie, who did the same thing to him last week on Nitro, and Booker pulls Rick off Stevie. They bark you at each other for a bit, both figuratively and also literally on Rick’s part, before Booker leaves. We get a Kevin Nash hype video to take us into the break. Here’s a Hulk Hogan update: Hogan had knee surgery, and cameras were there! Dr. James Andrews gives a whole explanation of the injury. I know more about knee injuries from pro wrestling and sports in general, really, than I otherwise would. Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan show up to the surgeon's office and cut a little promo before the surgery. Do you know how refreshing it’s been not to have these two on television the last couple of weeks? There’s another reason that 1999 WCW has been surprisingly watchable in the past five weeks – almost no Bischoff and a dwindling amount of the Hulkster. Anyway, Hogan wants to take Page out before the surgery, but Bischoff convinces him that Nash can handle it and that Hogan needs to get his knee fixed up. Hogan also cuts a two-line promo on Page before he’s put under, and it totally charms the nurses in the room. Flair’s back on the phone to Charles Robinson to get him to book Rick Steiner versus Booker T. for the TV title at Slamboree. Yeah, Booker’s definitely grown past the TV title, so they’ll be moving him up to U.S. Championship level putting him in a feud with Stevie over his middle initial. Flair also tells Robinson to make the Four Corners match for later tonight a no disqualification match, which I sort of figured it already was. Flair hangs up, tells the one black invalid in the whole place “I’m gonna get you some soul,” which I think maybe Ric Flair of all people should probably not do, and then spots Scott Hall, also an invalid, as Hall walks up to him. Everyone does Hall’s “scary fingers” taunt to Hall, who tosses a toothpick at Flair, and nothing about this angle is good, nothing makes sense, there is no daylight or hope or fun to be had. No one even comments on Hall also being committed when we come back to Mikey Whipwreck, Brian Knobbs, and Horace Hogan facing off with kendo sticks. They wait for Hak to dive into the ring and all attack him instead of attacking one another. OK, so Tenay says that Bigelow is the reigning “King of Hardcore,” so this is a match to get a match against the King of Hardcore so that the winner takes/keeps that title. Boy, is that a meaningless title. Get the hardcore belt created, you rubes. Actually, I am guessing that a physical belt is awarded at the end of the Slamboree match, which would be fine, too. There’s a break while Knobbs hits everyone with Pit Stops, if you wondered how this match is going. We come back while everyone swings trash cans. Hak gets a giant novelty Surge can and tosses it into the ring. Well, that’s a clever way to promote a ‘90s brand positioning itself as an edgy alternative! This match is a bunch of trash spots that does keep this crowd entertained. Chastity is dressed like a school girl, complete with Winnie the Pooh backpack, which is somewhat uncomfortably weird, I have to say! Anyway, let’s skip to the finish: Hak plants Mikey through a table, but Knobbs follows up and dumps the ladder on Mikey and covers for three. That was a black hole of a match. I cannot believe that Brian Knobbs is getting a mini-push in 1999. Well, I can, Bischoff and Hogan are still in the company after all, but you know what I mean. Scott Steiner’s in the ring after the break. He says that if Savage wins their match, Savage can be the new ASS CHAMP (I think he means “U.S. Champ”), but if Steiner wins, Steiner will give the time (if you don't know what this means, I bet Roddy Piper can explain it to you) to Gorgeous George. Savage comes to the ring with Gorgeous George and MISS MADNESS! Poor Molly Holly. She’s a solid worker, but she came into wrestling during an era where work wasn’t paramount of importance for women. I also personally loved her little couple with Spike Dudley in the WWF. Anyway, Charles Robinson comes to the ring and makes himself the referee of the match, which makes sense in storyline. Macho’s first match back being on a random Nitro sure is interesting. Well, it’s not really a match, actually, as Steiner shoves Savage backwards into Robinson about thirty seconds in, and Robinson calls for an immediate disqualification. Gorgeous George yells at Robinson as he backs away from the ring, but Madusa comes out of nowhere, kicks Robinson, and tosses him to George. George strips Robinson to his Florida Gator boxers, ad I’m kinda impressed that Madusa threw a high kick in those very high heels. Tony S. and Tenay introduce a training montage in which Madusa and Miss Madness prep Gorgeous George for battle at Slamboree. The Four Corners match between Diamond Dallas Page, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, and Sting is next up. They show all the entrances even though most matches tonight have not had them because they’re running out of show. This is evidenced by the fact that after a short break, the match has already started; everyone but DDP battles it out. Page is apparently out there chilling in the crowd and waiting for his chance. This is only an eight-ish minute match, and it’s the booking mistake that I expected it to be. Page finally re-enters the ring, but his eventual pinfall attempt on Goldberg is easily broken up by Nash. Sting lands Stinger Splashes to every man in the ring, but can’t follow up effectively. The match breaks down a bit, and Page gets dumped outside, where he decides to pick his spots. He manages to grab Goldberg, who is against the ropes, and choke him, then run up on Sting when Sting is hitting ten punches and attack. Goldberg, however, only has eyes for Page in a non-romantic way, and he stalks Page and grabs him for a front slam. Goldberg wants to do an Irish whip to the corner, but Nash is in the way covering Page. It’s sorta awkward. Nash hits a side slam on Sting for two; meanwhile, Goldberg side kicks Page, and Nash scooches over for a pinfall attempt on Page. Goldberg breaks it up, but Sting covers Page and Nash breaks it up, and they go back and forth with pinfall attempts on Page a couple more times. After that little spot ends, Sting dodges a big boot in the corner and wraps Nash in a Scorpion Death Lock while Goldberg spears Page. Sting disengages, but Goldberg spears him too, then Jackhammers Sting and covers for not even a one count before Randy Savage runs back out, breaks up the pinfall, and lariats Goldberg to the floor. The crowd deflates as they love both guys. Savage tosses a pair of knucks to Page, who puts them on and hits Nash with a haymaker, then hooks Nash and lands a Diamond Cutter for three. I cannot imagine why Savage would help Page or what it does for Savage to turn him heel, but whatever. Boy did this show slide right off a cliff after the Sting/Page match in hour number one. It was full of segments devoted to angles that I don’t like – Flair in the mental institution, Gorgeous George versus Charles Robinson, Stevie Ray once again interfering in Booker T.’s life, the Cruiserweight title getting yanked back into the middle of this three-way feud over the tag titles just when it looked like Psicosis would break free and take the division in a different direction. This is going to be the lowest score that I give a show that has a match on my Favorites list, I’m pretty certain, and it probably will stay that way until late 2000, if it ever changes at all. 1.5 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. Edited July 22 by SirSmUgly 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted July 3 Share Posted July 3 That Page/Sting match is on the WCW Monday Nitro DVD and is sooo good. I wonder who came up with that finish? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 16 minutes ago, zendragon said: That Page/Sting match is on the WCW Monday Nitro DVD and is sooo good. I wonder who came up with that finish? I don't know, but it's the exact same finish they used for their 3/23/98 match, which I covered in Show #133. That match was very good, but this one in 1999 was flat-out great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted July 5 Author Share Posted July 5 Thunder Interlude – show number sixty-one – 29 April 1999 "The WCW Gang brings a few main eventers to the show and one of them, Randy Savage, reminds us of the ravages of time that come for us all" Let’s see what’s happening on Thunder… Unfortunately, Ric Flair in the asylum is still happening, and it’s happening on Thunder…Flair’s lunacy has apparently also affected the doctors and nurses…Someone tell the bookers how dreadfully unfunny and uninteresting this angle and these segments are, STAT… Oh no, Mike Tenay sends us right back into a “Ric Flair getting committed” package… I’m going to say it…Ric Flair winning the WCW presidency and turning heel is the second biggest booking miss so far in my watch…It’s only behind Sting not ending the nWo as a major threat…And it’s just in front of the Wolfpac + Goldberg and Page not ending the nWo as a major threat… Larry Z. gets some chants this week, so good for him…It took him coming back to Pennsylvania to get ‘em, but still…Larry Z. pretty much says that he went to Penn State to avoid the draft…I don’t knock it!...I would have been in college or in Canada, myself… Curt Hennig is wrestling again…Hennig hates on Larry Z.’s Penn State shirt as he enters the arena…He’s got some Big Ten beef, I guess…Larry Z. says Fuck the Golden Gophers, the Vikings can’t even beat Penn State…That’s some cold football shit talking there…Hennig gets a shot at Booker T.’s TV title, which I guess is fair since Hennig never even got his shot at the U.S. title…They’re at least going to be ending these institutionalized Flair vignettes because Nitro’s in Charlotte next week, as Tenay tells us… Tenay also notes all the title changes that have been happening lately…Yeah, let’s cool it on those, just a bit…Hennig bumping wildly for Booker’s explosive offense makes for a solid combination…Hennig bails after getting shoulderblocked, gets back in the ring and gets some chops in, then bails again after getting arm dragged…This opening leads into a break…We come back to Hennig throat thrusting his way back into control, I think…Hennig tries to punch it out, but loses that contest… This match is fine, ultimately…The issue is that the bookers are going to run this fucking Stevie Ray feud, so he’s out here once again to influence the finish…After Hennig has a just above average heel control segment (he hit a piledriver and did his best to work a sleeper spot in an interesting way), Booker’s comeback is interrupted by Stevie hitting Hennig with the slapjack while Booker’s got things completely under control…Booker's DQ'd...I’m just going to sit here and be perturbed about the year’s worth of shitty booking that my man Booker’s going to have to endure coming up… Wow, they brought Nash, DDP, and Goldberg in for this show…I am happy that this show will have at least a bit of progression on main event angles tonight and hope it continues going forward… Hype video: It’s the Kevin Nash hype vid one more time… Hardcore Hak and Chastity come to the ring…Hak talks up how extreme and hardcore he is…He stretches a few of his claims…They boo him until he calls Chastity over to talk…She gets a pop…Hak lets her pick who he’s going to fight…He claims that her first two (whispered) picks are too fat and too old, respectively…He wants her to pick a big opponent for him…Chastity: “You like ‘em big?”…Heh heh heh…She suggests that Hak challenge Kevin Nash…Hak does, then leaves with Chastity… We cut straight to the back where that dickhead Rick Steiner attacks Booker T. because of some shit Stevie Ray did… Hype video: Goldberg kills people, but in an entirely new video that lacks the countdown theme of the old one… Buff Bagwell comes to the ring made up like Scott Steiner…He does a few Steiner taunts, then grabs the mic…He does a babyface promo in the Scott Steiner style…It’s terrible…I hate it…Let’s move this shit along…Wait, he does call out Scotty Steiner for stealing lines from rappers…And also obliquely points out Steiner’s legal troubles by modifying a Big Pun line…Those parts were moderately interesting…This was very bad on the whole, though… Jerry Flynn wrestles Stevie Ray…Flynn has no shot with the rest of the B-Teamers surrounding the ring…Stevie Ray distracts the easily-distractible Charles Robinson while the B-Teamers tee off on Flynn outside the ring…Flynn makes a comeback, so Horace and Virgil run a distraction…Stevie uses it to hit a jumping front kick and then a Slapjack for victory… Kevin Nash agreed to beat up Hardcore Hak, so that’s next…Hak sure brought a lot of plundah for Nash to hit him with…What is the purpose of bringing Hak in as a hardcore match specialist and having him lose hardcore matches to everyone all the time?...Nash hits a side slam onto the closed ladder in the middle of this demolition…Oh, look, Nash was nice enough to run himself through a table that was leaned in the corner and to take a couple of kendo shots…This was just Nash killing Hak with weapon -assisted attacks in between Hak begging off like a dope, but I guess they let ol' Hak have some offense…Hak totally whiffs on a somersault legdrop onto the ladder as it lays against Nash…Or maybe he just doesn’t want to make the head booker uncomfortable and left it short… Nash comes back with a kendo shot, but Hak actually continues his offensive spurt…He lands a rolling senton onto the ladder which is laying on top of Nash…As cynical as I was to start, I’ll give this match some credit; Hak’s going to look like a threat in a loss…Chastity tries to fire off the extinguisher, but Nash yanks it away…Hak has set up a table and turns around right into Nash firing the extinguisher into his face…Hak takes a trip through the table on the Jackknife Express…If Hak hadn’t lost multiple matches to Bam Bam and also gotten rolled by Goldberg, this competitive loss would have come off better…It’s going on the Charming Uniquities list for the novelty of Sandman whacking Diesel with a kendo stick, though… Bam Bam Bigelow brings a chair to his interview with Gene Okerlund…Bam Bam is from New Jersey…So is Diamond Dallas Page…Bam Bam is like, What the hell man, if Hak can call out Nash, I can call out a fellow Jersey boy…He challenges Page to a hardcore match for the WCW World Championship later tonight…Bammer says that as kids, they agreed to help one another out when they got to the top, so he wants the help of getting a title shot, dammit!... Meng gets his shot at Goldberg…Meng could have been the guy to break the streak, but he broke the Tongan Death Grip of his own volition instead and got immediately speared, Jackhammered, and splatted…That was back on Nitro in Show #153…Let me try to predict the end of this meeting between the two men again…Meng gets Goldberg in the TDG; Goldberg breaks it…Spear, Jackhammer, SPLAT… Meng hits a slam, but Goldberg doesn’t have time for any of that…Goldberg pops up and hits a slam of his own and a lariat…Meng bails…After he re-enters, he eye rakes his way to some offensive control…Meng gets two on a backbreaker…Goldberg responds with a stalling slam and a series of punches, but gets eye raked again…A buckle bonk and some chops wake Goldberg up...Meng goes back to the eyes…He superkicks Goldberg for two…Goldberg is awkward on Irish whips…Anyway, Goldberg reverses one, hits a superkick of his own, and then there’s no TDG attempt at all, it’s just Spear, Jackhammer, SPLAT… Okerlund brings Diamond Dallas Page out to answer Bam Bam Bigelow’s challenge from earlier in the night…Page is proud of losing the belt, but winning it back almost immediately on the previous Nitro…Oh no, Page assures us that he's SHOOTIN' to should out all the guys who helped get him here…He shouts out Jody Hamilton, Jake Roberts, and Dusty Rhodes, as you’d expect…He manages to heel it up by saying that he’s now at a level of greatness formerly unknown because of those three…Page hits a TWO-TIME, TWO-TIME, TWO-TIME, GOOD GAWD, CHAMPION for the first time…What is up with Page yapping DX catchphrases lately?...Now he hits an I GOT TWO WORDS FOR YOU, followed by a NO, STUPID when the crowd faintly responds with SUCK IT…After forgetting what town he’s in for some cheap heat, he accepts Bammer’s challenge… Macho Man’s second match back is against the Disciple…Huh…Savage comes to the ring with Madusa, Miss Madness, and Gorgeous George…This match is very, very S L O W…Savage has no explosiveness anymore, what with the bad knees, and I know this, but it’s still jarring to watch him…It’s all buckle bonks and rope burns and headlocks in this one…Savage is going to be a presenter at that year’s Kids’ Choice Awards according to Tenay…This match stinks, so I looked up a clip of that…In it, Savage is standing between Gorgeous George and the lovely Chilli of TLC…They all get slimed…Back to the match, Disciple is working a chinlock…Yeesh…They have a boring obligatory ringside brawl…Madusa distracts the ref so that George can run into Disciple…George runs a distraction next so that Mona and Madusa can combine on a kick to Disciple and dump him back into the ring…Savage drops a Savage Elbow for three…Boy, did this match bum me the hell out… It's so weird that Savage is done with regular appearances in WCW in about six months, and I think by November of 1999, he’s only got one more televised match in him – one in TNA, in which he does a single move in the early aughts…This dude is one of my top two favorite wrestlers ever, and I actually am somewhat emotionally affected about seeing him go out like this…Savage and the Hitman both being cooked by early 2000 because of injuries…Wow, late-stage WCW really did showcase some considerable lows… Diamond Dallas Page comes to the ring for his hardcore match against Bam Bam Bigelow and gets overpowered for the first couple of minutes…He eats a press slam that drops him throat-first across the ropes…Bam Bam Alley Oops Page into the buckles, then goes for some plundah outside the ring while Larry Z. gets psychics and psychiatrists mixed up on commentary…Page slingshots himself over the ropes to keep Bigelow from grabbing and using that plundah…That takes us into a commercial break… Back from break, Bammer lands plundah shots…He claps Page’s ears with trash can lids and hits him with a cooler full of ice…Bammer puts Page on a table…Page is laying on some bananas that were on the table…The bananas get all mashed when Bammer dives through the table and squashes them…He missed Page, though…Page shatters a glass tray over Bigelow’s head and gets two…They wander back to the ring…They finally get back to the ring, where Bammer drills a diving headbutt for two…Bigelow gets another two off a side slam… It strikes me, having seen Bigelow’s WCW run for five months now, that at this points Bigelow’s matches vary in quality pretty much entirely based upon his opponent…He’s almost a net zero, league average, at this point in his career…But throw him in there with Page or Hall, and you’d think he was quite good…Until you see him wrestling an opponent who is just okay…Or worse thank okay…Page comes back with a lariat for two…The men trade two counts…Bigelow avoids one Diamond Cutter…He hits a vertical suplex for two even though he’s signaled for the Greetings From Asbury Park…Page punches Bigelow in the balls and gets two…Bigelow lifts Page for a Greetings off an Irish whip, but Page wriggles out and hits a Diamond Cutter…Both men are down, but since this is no DQ, Randy Savage trots down and drills Bam Bam with a Savage Elbow…The ref can do nothing except count to three when Page covers him…So, Savage is a babyface because the crowd likes him and because he’s associated with a babyface in Gorgeous George, who is standing against heel ref Charles Robinson…But he’s helping DDP, who is a heel, even though he and DDP had mega-beef fewer than two years ago…Bless you Nash, but you have no clue how to book shades of gray effectively… Despite the looming realization that Randy Savage’s legendary wrestling career is coming to an ignominious end, this show was perfectly cromulent…It scores a WOOO… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 "Bam Bam Alley Oops Page into the buckles, then goes for some plundah outside the ring while Larry Z. gets psychics and psychiatrists mixed up on commentary…" I don't remember this, I have no idea what exactly was said, yet somehow I can absolutely HEAR this in my head! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted July 6 Author Share Posted July 6 Show #188 – 3 May 1999 “The one that Ric Flair talks into a positive score” It is much hotter than it should be here in my neck of the woods, so I’m going to chill in my little office, run the air conditioner at 74, and write all sorts of things. I’ll get through a lot of wrestling in the next five days. It’s supposed to be in the 70s again in about ten days, which is about as hot as I feel good about. In the meantime, let’s Nitro, shall we? Ric Flair, (the as-yet unnamed) Asya, and Arn Anderson are in the back of a limo; they’re headed to Nitro in Charlotte along with a bus full of the patients from the mental institution *sigh*. Recap: Flair does WCW president shit from the institution while the big gold changes hands not once, but twice on the previous Nitro. We start the show with the Nitro Girls in the ring, Riki Rachtman on the mic, and DJ Ran on the ones, and I believe he’s also covering the twos as well. Rachtman asks the ham ‘n eggers in the crowd what they think about Ric Flair’s mental state before kicking it to the ladies in the ring for a dance routine. WE WANT FLAIR chants fire up as Tony S. and Heenan do a bad comedy routine and hype both this show and Slamboree. Hype montage: Gorgeous George trains with Mona and Madusa, is strangely sultry at points during the workout. Recap: Absolute power corrupts an already very corruptible Ric Flair absolutely. What the fuck, man, now Riki Rachtman is back on the mic to talk to some NASCAR dude. Fuck off, we’re twelve minutes in. Less talky-talk, more wrestly-wrestle. Finally, a wrestling match on this wrestling show about wrestling. Thanks, you fuckheads who formatted this show. And we start with the Armstrong Boys. Okay, whatever, fine. They even let them talk before the match (Tony S.: “Was [the Armstrongs talking] on your format?!”). I guess that, based on beating Raven in a handicap match, WCW’s Championship Committee has decided that they’ve earned a title shot against Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman. You know, considering the guys who got shots at the U.S. Championship in mid-1998 or the TV Championship pretty much this whole era, I guess at least there’s a tiny bit of logic in making this match a title match. The Armstrong Boys are perfectly cromulent workers, and this match as a whole also fits that descriptor as well. Kidman starts out hot, Rey takes some offense before using his agility to score a few moves, and eventually, the Armstrong Boys take control of the match by cheating. Kidman gets tossed around at ringside by the illegal Armstrong – I still forget which is which, sorry – and then endures a short time as FIP. He hits a rebound bulldog, gets a hot tag, and then Rey comes in and eventually shoves Scott, I think, into a Kidman Sky High that gets two even though Kidman is the illegal man. Kidman launches Rey into position for a top-rope rana that gets three just a few seconds later. The champs had few issues beating down the Armstrongs, and that’s how your champs should be booked, so good job there, WCW. Benoit and Malenko run down after the bell rings and attack the champs. Saturn and Raven run down for the save, but the champs get in their faces, so Saturn and Raven land their finishers on both guys. Benoit and Malenko come right back into the ring with a chair and destroy everyone just like last week. Hype video: Goldberg’s a killer. Ernest Miller (w/Sonny Onoo) is here, so give me a second to mute this Nitro and play his theme on YouTube. Ernest Miller is in a feud with that new ramp. Maybe he and Sting can align to do something about this dastardly ramp. Miller cuts a rug, and I cannot WAIT until he starts doing the James Brown “too tired to dance, please help me out of here, no, wait, I can feel the energy coming back” spot. I fucking LOVE that spot. His opponent is Buff Bagwell, which is too bad because Miller is almost the fully-formed fun babyface who I remember digging in late 2000. Let’s get that guy some wins! The Cat cuts a promo before the match. He runs down the crowd, calls Buff “little lady,” since as we’ve learned time and again from ‘90s pro wrestling in the U.S., being a little lady is the worst possible thing you can be, and then gives him five seconds to leave the ring before he unleashes fury on Buff Daddy. OK, maybe Miller's not quite “almost fully formed.” He’s much funnier as a wise-cracking babyface. Miller counts, and when he turns around and sees Buff posing, he throws a few strikes. Buff fires back with arm drags and a dropkick, so Miller bails and jaws at the crowd (fan holding a drink, looking confused: “What is your problem?!”) while Buff takes more time to pose. The Cat enters the ring again and is immediately put in a wristlock and tripped, but he comes back with a few wild punches. This is a Buff/Cat match in 1999, so just assume that it’s slightly below average. There are headlocks, wristlocks, punches, chokes, Sonny Onoo throwing a couple kicks, all that jazz. Oh, and poses. There are definitely poses. Buff gets two on a neckbreaker, but Onoo grabs the Cat when Buff tries to monkey flip him, and the Cat takes control. They work a silly sunset flip spot in there, but most of this is sub-average offensive work from Miller until Buff finally makes a comeback again and does his own sub-average offensive work leading to the finish. Said finish involves Sonny Onoo accidentally kicking Miller instead of Buff. Miller gets mad, stumbles after Onoo, and looks up to see Buff diving at him with a Blockbuster. That gets three; Miller chases Onoo to the back after the match. Ric Flair in his crew show up. Flair fires random people in the crew while he stomps to the ring. Flair almost kills himself coming down the ramp yet again. Seriously, that fucking ramp, what the hell is wrong with it? It sure hates dress shoes because not a week has gone by since the set change that Flair didn’t almost take a header trying to come down that thing. Okerlund interviews Flair, who only brings Asya, Charles Robinson, Arn Anderson, and J.J. Dillon into the ring with him. Flair calls out practically every main eventer in the company for an impromptu meeting. He keeps calling out Savage, who doesn’t appear. He switches his attention to DDP and gives himself a title shot at Page’s big gold for later tonight. Next, he yells at and about Piper and threatens to bang Piper’s wife because it’s 1999 and that’s sort of a thing to do on the mic right now. Flair threatens to strip if they go to break right at this point, so everyone dives on him to get him to stop. Before the break, Randy Savage (w/George, Mona, and Madusa) decides that now is the time to make his way to the ring to confront Flair. After the break, Savage comes down the ramp alone. The ladies come from the side and avoid the ramp entirely, which is a good idea since they’re in heels. No one wants to see Mona split her head while simply trying to get to the ring. Savage gets a muted pop from Charlotte that lingers a bit less than the boos do, actually. Flair fires Savage and his ladies and calls for security to escort them all out…except for George. Savage and Madusa fight off the yellow shirts until the numbers game gets to them. Hey, is that a Primetime Elix Skipper sighting as one of the security dudes? I loved the hell out of Team Canada and am looking forward to Lance Storm and Elix Skipper having wrestling matches on this show. Even if they’re all only three minutes long. Charles Robinson dresses down George in the ring after the melee is cleared: “My strategy at Slamboree” is to buy you a pack of gum! Because everybody knows that a BIMBO can’t walk and chew gum at the same time!” Dumb, but he turns his back, WOOs, and does a terrible Flair strut, and that part did get a laugh out of me. George clocks him from behind, but Asya grabs George and chokes her out. It’s like Chyna rag-dolling Marlena, but much less exciting. Flair calls security down to toss the beaten-down George out of the building, and yep, that’s my boy PRIME TIME, BABY. Flair continues his rant by threatening Page again and then threatening Nash considering that he’s planning to go into Slamboree as the champ; he ends it by turning his attention to calling Sting and Goldberg "punks," which draws Sting out. Flair repeats YOU AIN’T THE FRANCHISE as Sting calmly walks to the ring and then punches Flair in the head. Arn is pretty funny here; he hides behind Asya for protection while holding his neck, thinking about the Scorpion Death Drop that he might be fixing to eat; then, he freaks out when Goldberg’s music hits. Goldberg calmly walks down and also punches Flair, but then Goldberg and Sting go at it while security rushes the ring one more time. They all get pitched before Sting and Goldberg go back to it. I’m very excited about this match as their previous match on Nitro (Show #157) was pretty fun before it ended with run-ins. Doug Dellinger brings down more security and cops to clear the ring. They break away and brawl at ringside for a bit before finally being split up again. This was a VERY long pair of segments, but I did enjoy them, mostly because of Flair ranting and some of the funny stuff around the margins of the segment. I disagree with the argument that Goldberg needed to lose at Starrcade ’98, and part of it is because he hasn’t lost cleanly, still, and hasn’t lost a one-on-one match – he’s only lost multi-man matches in which he didn’t eat the pinfall or submission. He’s still indestructible; he’s just without the belt again. This is why a clean loss to Page at Havoc ’98 made more sense; a death move from a main eventer would have been established as the one thing that could beat Goldberg, and thus I would feel right now that Sting landing a Scorpion Death Drop could do the job. As it is, there’s far less drama in their match at Slamboree, which is going to be either a clean Goldberg victory or a shenanigans-filled victory for one of them. I don’t believe that Sting can beat Goldberg cleanly with either of his finishers. If they weren’t going to show any real weakness in Goldberg after his first loss, then there was no need to have him lose in the first place. Ric Flair talks to Stevie Ray in the back. He respects Stevie’s position as leader of the B-Teamers and offers Stevie 100K to put Nash out of the company tonight. Stevie: “I’m here for two things: Breakin’ necks and cashin’ that check.” Then, Flair tries to do his idea of an elaborate black dude dap with Stevie, and holy shit, it was hilarious. He asks while dapping Stevie, “How do you do this, man, show me,” and Stevie’s facial expression is HILARIOUS. It’s the facial expression of a black person who too many times in their life has had to gently brush aside absurd racial moments without harming the feelings of the too-eager white person who initiated that moment. Stevie mumbles, “T-that’s enough man, that’s enough” as Flair daps him up, then quietly says, “Don’t do that” as they walk off together. Holy shit, that could be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on Nitro. I played it back like five times. It’s either that or Raven ranting about Judy Bagwell influencing his mother to get some TV time. Anyway, that segment ruled. Hardcore Hak wrestles Bam Bam Bigelow yet again. I believe Penzer might have called Bigelow “the Hardcore Champion,” which has me expecting a proper hardcore belt to show up at Slamboree more than I already did. Bigelow brings a whole bin of plundah and starts chucking it into the ring. Hak gets tired of waiting for Bam Bam to empty the bin and baseball slides into him, and off we go! They hit each other with crap; you know how it goes. Hak goes through a table at one point, and then again at another point. It’s just another one of these matches. DDP wrestled one on the previous Thunder that actually had an ebb and flow and felt like a competitive match rather than a series of spots. I’ve seen Hak do that as well, but he's just resorting to weapon shots and bumps in this one. Hak and Bigelow hit an ugly-looking bulldog-onto-a-ladder spot. Then they go back to having a mediocre weapons brawl. Sandman finally goes back to his trusty kendo stick and hits some spots, and elbowdrops a ladder with Bammer’s leg sandwiched between the legs as we go to a break. Did this match need to be two segments long? That’s rhetorical, by the way. We come back to both guys laying around. Hak gets up first and bonks Bigelow with the Surge can standee and then does some more offense of the kind that you’d most likely guess. Hak also got two more tables during the break, and he gets superplexed through those. The use of tables is not his best strategy. Brian Knobbs comes down with a trash can and attacks Bigelow. Hak crawls over and hits him with the kendo stick, then turns on Knobbs with the stick and gets yammed with the can. This is interminable. This is the epitome of solid talking being better than a long mediocre match that doesn’t have a fucking point. Knobbs stands tall and the match just ends, I guess? That was a total crowd killer, and I did not like it either, dear reader. Stevie pulls a Sonny Onoo and tells his crew of B-Teamers that Flair offered him fifty grand to take out Nash and says he’ll split it with them if they help him. They agree. They leave, and the camera pans over to – you know what, let’s just fucking say it since that’s what this angle is – one of the lunatics from the bin, who was taking a shit in a bathroom stall and heard the whole thing. The lunatic shuffles off with a purpose. Hype video: Roddy Piper cuts bad promos. You can’t hype me for anything involving Roddy Piper in 1999, WCW. Don’t bother trying. The lunatic tracks Nash down and fills him in on the Flair/B-Teamer plot. Everyone involved in developing and performing this segment should be ashamed of themselves. No one was hurt more by the dissolution of the nWo Wolfpac in its initial form than Konnan. He still gets a decent return on his Catchphrase Roulette, but doing the roulette while standing next to Nash and Luger was huge for him, and without those guys associating with him, he’s gradually shed his overness. Konnan’s up against Horace Hogan tonight; Konnan informs Horace and the audience that he just signed for a match with Stevie Ray at Slamboree and then says that if the B-Teamers jump him tonight or any other night, he’s got backup. And soon comes Master P! The wrestlers throw a lot of soupbones at one another early, take it outside, and then come back in the ring. I dig one fan passionately yelling HORACE HOGAN, YOU STINK! YOU STINK, HORACE! Poor old Horace is okay, IMO. At least he works hard. Horace controls the match back in the ring and gets two on a vertical suplex. Konnan continues to take a beating, eating some soft-looking kicks and getting choked against the ropes. The thing about Horace is that he’ll bust out that suicide dive, and it looks great, especially as big as he is. Then he throws a kick or a lariat and you’d think he was just starting out in training. Konnan fires up out of a chinlock, but eats another soft lariat. Horace lands a splash for two, and this match feels pretty long in the tooth already. Konnan counters a gutwrench suplex attempt with a flash pinfall, but only gets two and gets dumped back outside the ring. He gets beaten up there, then dumped in the ring again, and please just go into the finish. Please. But no! Horace works a very loose chinlock. Very loose. Horace transitions out of it and tries a second-rope dive, but dives right into a boot so that Konnan can finally fucking make a comeback. Konnan does, and quite effectively, with a rolling clothesline, a sit-out facebuster, and a Tequila Sunrise. The B-Teamers run down and break that up. They beat down Konnan until Kevin Nash runs down for the save – aw, I was hoping for Master P and Swoll. And also southern white Baby Boomer Brad Armstrong as a rapping Road Dogg knockoff. But I guess this is fine, too. Nash wants to squash that beef with Konnan, who considers it before agreeing with a simple dap. See, Kevin Nash is a white guy, but he understands the concept of a simple dap. Ric Flair, you don’t have an excuse. There are some lunatics in the production truck. Oh, and besides Leathers and Company, also the patients from the mental institution are in the truck, too. Ric Flair calls David and Torrie into his office and Ric, who is the only fucking dude around here who understands the driving point behind his heel turn, thanks David for showing him the light, and says that he’s going to send David out there against a cupcake to get his first win on Nitro. David excitedly – well, for him, he doesn’t really do facial expressions or anything – leaves with Torrie, and Ric says this, face beaming with pride and love: “What a boy! What a son, huh? Arn…Arn…book him with Meng!” As Arn reacts in shock, Ric tells Charles Robinson to go tell Meng that David said that Meng was washed and an easy target, basically. Oh, man, that is too good. Ric Flair on the mic in 1999 has been one of the best things about professional wrestling. He's so good that he’s almost single-handedly keeping this show in the positive Stinger Splash range for a score, in fact. I do note that sending David Flair out to get marauded by Meng is a babyface move, at least to this writer. Someone pulls up in a Hummer Limo. It’s Piper. Yeah, Piper is tacky enough to take a Hummer Limo to a show by himself. That tracks. Piper angrily rants to himself as he walks through the backstage area. We follow him to Ric Flair’s office, where he attacks Flair with a trash can while the lunatics scream. Piper decks a cop who tries to stop him, then goes back to beating up Flair. He forcibly dresses Flair in a REALITY CHECK t-shirt, and that catchphrase is NOT. GETTING. OVER. Billy Kidman, Booker T., Hardcore Hak, and DDP cut an ad for a t-shirt with the new WCW logo on it. Sadly, I don’t think it’ll do quite the numbers that the nWo logo shirt did. Ric Flair, in a tizzy, finds Scott Steiner and asks Scott to take out Kevin Nash next. Scott’s into the idea since Nash hasn’t handed over his title shot, so Flair gets him all fired up and then goes off to find Piper. Lex Luger and Liz are in the next segment, which, um, is just a lot of snow, I guess? They just move away from that little segment after thirty seconds because of audio issues or something. Who knows if it’s actual technical difficulties or worked technical difficulties, but the fact that they smoothly slid in a well-timed promo for tonight’s main event before the cut to break makes me think it might be some kind of work. We come back to Scott Steiner storming through the backstage area. He asks Rey where Nash is, and Rey points him in the opposite direction and keeps walking. Smart! Steiner doesn’t run into Nash, but he does run into Buff Bagwell and attacks him, yelling AT SLAMBOREE BOY, I’M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS. The Nitro Girls and a few invalids walk down the ramp ahead of Meng. Meng destroys David Flair (w/Torrie Wilson). Torrie tries to plead with Meng before the match. She’s askin’ for a Tongan Death Grip, I’ll tell you that. David tries chops. They don’t work. Meng tries chops. They are quite effective! Meng no sells all of David’s offense…wait, no he sells a flurry of boots and chops just a bit. Too much, in fact. This would be way more fun if Goldberg were killing this kid, but no, Meng’s just commencing on a slow beatdown while David does his best to bump and sell effectively. Meng lands a vertical suplex and then locks on a Tongan Death Grip to end this one. Send your dopey son out here against Scott Norton on Thunder, Ric! Ric Flair comes to the ring after the match. He berates David for being a bad wrestler and then thrusts his junk at Torrie, which gets a pop. Ric yells SEND ME AWAY AGAIN as they roll his dopey offspring to the back on a stretcher. Hype video: THE TWO-TIME, TWO-TIME, etc. WCW World Champ is dropping Diamond Cutters and borrowing catchphrases from DX members. Hype montage: Is this the same Gorgeous George workout video, or a slightly different one? Who knows. Either way, I’m not sure we needed two of these on the same show. Gene Okerlund introduces Diamond Dallas Page for a little talk in the ring. Page talks up his journey from manager to champion as a unique one. He calls himself a legend and compares himself to a few elite stars across sports and also John Elway. Page is not significantly better as a promo when he’s a heel, but he’s at least passable. DDP at least steals a Ric Flair catchphrase (“To be the man, you gotta beat the man”) instead of another DX catchphrase. Booker T. defends the TV title against Curt Hennig in a return match from Thunder. Hennig wins a quick arm drag and tallies a point for himself. They trade hammerlocks and run the ropes, but Hennig cartwheels out of the way. He tallies a second point for himself, then spits out his gum and swats it while Booker chuckles. OK, that was a fun series of spots. In their next exchange, Booker outmaneuvers him for two successive arm drags and Hennig bails. Booker tries to follow up, but Hennig is able to hit a jawbreaker when Booker comes over and then clang his leg against the post. Hennig then works the leg for a short time, but Stevie Ray runs out and attacks Hennig, causing a DQ. Rick Steiner runs down and attacks Booker, and they brawl around ringside. Well, that was a far more interesting match than they had on Thunder, or at least it was shaping up to be before the DQ. I dig Stevie Ray as a talker, but there’s been way too much of him on this Nitro. A cop delivers stilted dialog to another cop about having to go round up the nutbars for a return to the hospital in Florida. That’s how this goofy angle has been portrayed, so that’s what I’m calling ‘em. Nutbars. Ric Flair and Diamond Dallas Page meet in the main event, and Charles Robinson is here to tilt the scales in whatever way possible. I guess that Lex Luger interview just got bumped for time. Maybe it was a legit fuck-up. Probably, I guess. It’s WCW, after all. Tony S. sounds confused about what was happening with that segment, at least. Page is on top of things in the early going. They eventually trade punches and chops outside the ring because every one of these matches needs to go outside the ring so that someone can take a bump into the guardrail. All of them. All the time. They go down the aisle, actually, while Charles Robinson chills in the ring and watches. As soon as Page is in control, Robinson decides that maybe he should go out there. Flair finally hits a low blow while Robinson applauds him. He then turns around so Flair can throw a straight right at Page’s junk. Page hits his own low blow and Robinson reprimands him. They make it back to the ring, where Page lands a swinging neckbreaker for two; Robinson makes a slightly slower count, but with enough plausible deniability in it that he can say that it’s a fair count. That swinging neckbreaker might have been the first move that wasn’t a strike in the match, or at least it wasn’t since the opening. Flair fires back, but Page hits a back body drop for 2.9 and then rightfully complains about the count. Page whips Flair to the corner and Flair goes up and over to the floor; DDP follows and chokes Flair with a boot. Back in the ring, Page dominates with punches. This is the least of Page’s title defenses so far, but it’s perfectly fine stuff. Page drops an elbow to the abdomen, then locks on a Figure Four in the center of the ring. The fans chant Flair’s name as he fights for the ropes and even whispers instructions to Robinson before he finally reaches them. However, Page drops another elbow on the abdomen and tries to lock on another Figure Four, which Flair blocks. Flair tries to make comebacks with chops and punches, but Page stays on top; he lands a discus clothesline for two and then unwraps his wrist tape to choke Flair out. The story is that Page thinks that he can out-cheat an elite cheater, but alas, Flair ducks a Page strike and makes a comeback. That’s when Gorgeous George and Randy Savage re-enter the arena. George crashes the ring and pulls Flair’s hair; Robinson chases her to the back. Meanwhile, Savage tosses some knucks to Page, who puts them on, punches Flair in the head, and covers him for a three that Scott Dickinson runs down and counts. That was an okay, but underwhelming match, but Page worked it reasonably well, I think. I just think that after the Goldberg and Sting matches, Page keeping up that level of match for another week was going to be challenging with a fifty-year-old Flair as his opponent. This wasn’t a good show, but Ric Flair’s talking (and the Flair/Stevie segment that killed me) kept this thing afloat. 1.75 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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