SirSmUgly Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 Thunder Interlude – show number eighty – 16 September 1999 "The WCW Gang is cancelled...Only by Hurricane Floyd and only for a week, not forever (yet)" Let’s not Thunder because it’s a recap show due to a hurricane canceling the taping…I already saw this shit once, and you can’t make me watch Randy Savage and Kevin Nash fling feces at one another again…You can’t!...I won’t allow it!... I just went right to the end of this show to keep the auto-play going, and you know what, it's on the Network and part of the catalog, so there's no reason not to add it here... This recap show gets no rating, which is a good thing for it since it’s mostly made up of all the garbage from Nitro over the past three months… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 I saw Riki Rachmans one man show earlier this year. no mention of his time in WCW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 10 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: Tony S. is always looking like a jackass due to shoddy production cues, and I feel for him. The one great thing about AEW (which I admittedly run hot and cold on) is that it gave Schiavone a nice little run where he can just be enthused about wrestling again without looking as much like a doofus. I do think he genuinely LOVES wrestling and he can just gush about it now without having to worry about the other BS (That is, when Taz isn't needling him which doesn't always feel playful IMO). 10 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: Lord Steven Regal and Squire Dave Taylor hit the ring for a tag match against the Windham Brothers (w/Curt Hennig and Curly Bill). I thought the WTR lasted about as long as the NLS so I'm baffled that they're still around. This is the definition of a late WCW match: two fairly heatless heel teams wrestling for no reason. WCW fans are never going to cheer for Regal so I thought maybe they were turning the WTR face but then they cheat to win so...no, I guess? 10 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: I’m just waiting for Booker T. to hit a bunch of crisp offense. My shameful WCW apology: when they were first a team, I didn't realize there was much difference between Booker T. When they first split them up and have Booker T go on a run, I was baffled then even more baffled when he was really good. Somehow in my mind, I thought HH offence was 50/50. Then when I started seeing Stevie solo matches, the truth dawned on me. Now I think back and the idea of Stevie doing a Harlem Hangover or even an Axe Kick tickles me greatly. My only possible explanation is we didn't really get WCW up here until well into the NWO era so I kinda missed the Harlem Heat golden era! 10 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: Eddy Guerrero Reading through these reviews gives me such an appreciation for how little WCW really did with Eddy. In my head, he started the LWO, had his accident and jumped to WWE. I didn't realize he had so many months in between where WCW did absolutely nothing with him. I mean, you have a stable of guys whining for opportunities, why not run a series of matches with them trying to win the US title off the friends and stablemates? A whole summer of some combination of Guerrero, Benoit, Rey and even Malenko, Douglas and Konnan trading wins trying to control the US title would be so much better than whatever the actual Revolution was (and even worse, what it becomes). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 On 8/8/2024 at 12:26 PM, SirSmUgly said: I know Terry Funk comes in. I remember reading something about the Old Age Outlaws years and years ago and rolling my eyes, and I think Funk was part of that. But I really don't remember Terry Funk vs. a horse, and I'm extremely excited about this. Does Pepe have a secret son? Tell me he wrestles Pepe Jr. in mid-2000 or something like that. It's a hardcore match with Chris Candido (dressed just like Terry) where they fight into a horse stable and the thing kicks him. He said in his book that was truly dangerous because he'd seen a horse break out of one of those metal trailers before just from kicking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 2 hours ago, caley said: I thought the WTR lasted about as long as the NLS so I'm baffled that they're still around. This is the definition of a late WCW match: two fairly heatless heel teams wrestling for no reason. WCW fans are never going to cheer for Regal so I thought maybe they were turning the WTR face but then they cheat to win so...no, I guess? They should absolutely just have turned the WTR babyface, especially spending so much time in the Midwestern and Southern United States. Quote My shameful WCW apology: when they were first a team, I didn't realize there was much difference between Booker T. When they first split them up and have Booker T go on a run, I was baffled then even more baffled when he was really good. Somehow in my mind, I thought HH offence was 50/50. Then when I started seeing Stevie solo matches, the truth dawned on me. Now I think back and the idea of Stevie doing a Harlem Hangover or even an Axe Kick tickles me greatly. My only possible explanation is we didn't really get WCW up here until well into the NWO era so I kinda missed the Harlem Heat golden era! Booker has a rep for being overrated that I think is unfair. The biggest knock against him is a long career with few "great matches," but you can say the same about Tito Santana, a guy who most people agree is pretty great. Booker has a high volume of very good matches and is rarely hard to watch, a lot like Tito, and he didn't exactly get a ton of shots at having great matches in his career. He was teaming with Stevie until 1998, immediately had a great match with Benoit and a few very good matches with guys across the board in the midcard, got injured, had what I think is at worst a borderline great match against Scott Steiner at Spring Stampede '99, got injured again, and then ended up back in a tag team with Stevie just in time for Vince Russo to show up and book the whole show into hell. Those circumstances aren't his fault. He also spent a chunk of time in 2000s TNA and was never put in the "have great matches" position in WWE, though something like his '06 run on Smackdown basically was him being a good match machine. I'm not saying that Booker's a super-worker, but he's consistently very good for a long stretch and has a physical charisma that, by itself, puts him a cut or two above your typical wrestler. Quote Reading through these reviews gives me such an appreciation for how little WCW really did with Eddy. In my head, he started the LWO, had his accident and jumped to WWE. I didn't realize he had so many months in between where WCW did absolutely nothing with him. I mean, you have a stable of guys whining for opportunities, why not run a series of matches with them trying to win the US title off the friends and stablemates? A whole summer of some combination of Guerrero, Benoit, Rey and even Malenko, Douglas and Konnan trading wins trying to control the US title would be so much better than whatever the actual Revolution was (and even worse, what it becomes). Eddy's WCW run is strange in that he's having awesome matches early, but his character work as a babyface is mediocre. The second he turns heel, he looks like a star, but Bischoff throwing hot coffee directly at Eddy (I hope this sentence gets back to Eric Bischoff and sets him off) leads to this weak lWo angle, and once he comes back, they have him come back as a heel even though the crowd desperately wants him to be a babyface. Per your point about the Filthy Animals/Revolution, I think this is exactly the sort of midcard morass that Eddy (rightly) thinks he's better than! He's very over and at this point is good for an awesome match every outing; the crowd loves him, he's better at working babyface, and he probably shouldn't be going 50/50 with Malenko or Shane Douglas at this point. I think that, while Eric Bischoff should get most of the scorn for driving WCW into the ground like this before Russo could even get a sniff at booking the shows into oblivion, it cannot be understated just how much blame Kevin Nash should get for using his booking committee tenure to drive off a whole bunch of future main eventers and upper-midcarders because they're too short for him. You can't really blame him for Jericho leaving - that's on Bischoff with an assist from Goldberg - but Nash booking Eddy and Benoit so wonkily made it much easier for them to leave when Kevin Sullivan shows back up in January to take over from that dope Russo. Benoit's booking as part of the Revolution alone should be a fireable offense. And again, I'm not some "Benoit was a superworker who should have been world champ forever" guy! If he was just a solid upper-midcard gatekeeper his whole career, that'd be fine with me. It's a good spot for him! But booking him like a midcard chump in a group for midcard chumps is malpractice. Don't even get me into how and his bookers he made Eddy and Rey feud for two months with the Dead Pool in a mostly heatless feud. 31 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said: It's a hardcore match with Chris Candido (dressed just like Terry) where they fight into a horse stable and the thing kicks him. He said in his book that was truly dangerous because he'd seen a horse break out of one of those metal trailers before just from kicking. I should have put a "no spoilers" tag on that post because I didn't know Candido showed up in WCW and would have loved to see this match with no foreknowledge of it happening. That's on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 I've always felt you put Booker in with someone decent at least you get something good to great, however he's not someone you can count on carry a bad worker. I even like a lot of things about his WrestleMania match with HHH although the finish is wrong (Him pulling out The Harlem Hangover should have been the finish, and HHH targeting the legs is really good psychology for how much of Bookers offence is leg based) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 35 minutes ago, zendragon said: I've always felt you put Booker in with someone decent at least you get something good to great, however he's not someone you can count on carry a bad worker. I even like a lot of things about his WrestleMania match with HHH although the finish is wrong (Him pulling out The Harlem Hangover should have been the finish, and HHH targeting the legs is really good psychology for how much of Bookers offence is leg based) This is probably fair. He has his moments (carrying a young Lashley to something fun at Judgment Day '06 is the first thing I thought of), but mostly he thrives off working with equal or better workers and having a volume of fun TV matches to his ledger. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 Show #207 – 20 September 1999 “The one that proves that Nitro can still be competently booked this late into 1999” I just can’t buy that Ric Flair is disappointed in Sting for clobbering Hulk Hogan with a baseball bat. Even in a genre on entertainment that features quickly-shifting alliances, there’s just no way I can get comfortable with Flair feeling this way about a guy who he’s pretty much off-and-on feuded with for the past five years. It worked to get the right crowd reaction in the moment, but come on, just thinking about it for two seconds reveals the absurdity of this storyline beat. Alas, it's what the holding committee has to deal with while booking this show. Also, that foam baseball bat made a heck of a foam baseball bat sound when Luger popped Bret in the face with it. Hype video narrated by a conspiracy-minded narrator: Sting’s been planning since like 1988 for this heel turn somehow! There’s a long game, and then there’s nonsense. I love that the narrator is like WOW, WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, HE JOINED THE WOLFPAC SO EASILY even though they were babyfaces trying to fight the Hogan-led nWo and WCW had failed miserably at that for two years, and also his best friend Lex Luger convinced him to do it. This narrator definitely thinks that fluoride in his local water source is an alien conspiracy to control our brains by attracting fluoride-dependent cordyceps to our bodies. If he mentions “Jewish space lasers” at some point, I won’t be entirely surprised. Sting and Hogan will face off for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Halloween Havoc. No title change, please. Tony S. and Heenan pretend that Sting has always been a grimy dude. Come on, you’re not going to sell that at all. Leave that nonsense to the conspiracy narrator dude. Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis come to the ring in a tag opener, and I just assume Sid’s going to come out here soon. Their opponents are Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman. Please don’t kill off four cruiserweights that have value by feeding them to Sid. Please. Tony S. promises that Goldberg will be out to wrestle right after this match, and now I’m even more suspicious. Is Goldberg going to bust in here to stop a Sid assault on these cruisers? There’s a pair of signs that say AUSTIN DROOLS, GOLDBERG RULES, and that is a little too close to something Hulk Hogan would say, come on, fellas. I am seriously on “does any of this matter” watch and don’t even want to try and talk through what’s actually happening in this match because I’m too focused on the crowd indicating that Sid is on his way out. Juvi’s tights say BABY JUICE on the seat, so either he and his significant other have just had a child, or he’s gettin’ real weird with it and shouting out to an, um, alternative version of the pro wrestling audience. The crowd is very into Kidman and Rey hitting offense and are hyped for Rey to fight up from the ass kicking he ends up getting as FIP, an ass kicking which includes a combo powerbomb/guillotine legdrop (!!!!!!) that puts him down for two. Rey manages to backflip out of a Psicosis suplex after evading Juvi and get a hot tag; Kidman dives on Psicosis while he and Juvi talk with one another frustratedly about letting Rey out of their grasp. This match is fun as hell, just three minutes of non-stop action. Kidman face crushes Psicosis out of a powerbomb and goes up for an SSP, but Juvi has dispatchedof Rey and slows Kidman by grabbing his leg. Kidman and Juvi fight while up top, and while Kidman shoves Juvi away, Juvi recovers enough to shove Kidman off the top and right into a Psicosis dropkick; Psicosis covers for three in quite the upset. Psicosis and Juvi back down the aisle, right into Eddy and Konnan, who kick the shit out of these dudes. There’s a huge EDDY chant as they stomp out Juvi, and Kidman tries to take off Psicosis’s mask. Chavo runs in to break that up in a babyface-seeming move that garners a CHAVO SUCKS chant. Psicosis says something about his mask in Spanish after Chavo makes the save, and Chavo translates by claiming that Psicosis said he’d put his mask on the line in a Luchas de Apuestas against Kidman. Psicosis is utterly confused by this inaccurate translation. Anyway, are they going to unmask Psicosis next? This company is very dumb. That’s even more apparent based on the fact that they look like they might be about to turn the Filthy Animals heel. I’m going to assume that even WCW’s booking committee can’t be that stupid, no matter who is running it. I know, I know, but I need to have faith for my own well-being. Chavo proposes that they have this match next week, but Kidman wants to do it now. Chavo and Psicosis refuse to have that mach now to loud boos. What the fuck? So, uh, who exactly is the babyface and who is the heel in this whole thing? The Filthy Animals came off as sore losers, and Chavo went from seeming like a babyface for stopping a petulant four-on-two beating in response to a clean loss to seeming like a heel for putting Psicosis’s mask on the line even though Psicosis didn’t want to do that. Meanwhile, Juvi and Psicosis wrestled that match like heels, but I guess are faces now? FIX THE BOOKING, KEVIN SULLIVAN Recap: Goldberg has put out a challenge to Sid, who suddenly isn’t willing to make his way out to the ring at any and every moment once Goldberg is around. Brian Knobbs (w/Jimmy Hart) is Goldberg fodder for the first time that I can remember seeing. Hart gets a mic and pretends that Jerry Flynn didn’t do anything at all last week and got speared for no reason, gosh, why is Goldberg such a meanie? Then, he gives the mic to Knobbs like the true heel prick that he is. Knobbs insults the Bengals – low-hanging fruit, but at least Jeff Blake was a fun QB there for awhile – and then says ASS because he’s edgy like his buddy the Hulkster. Goldberg gets a security detail on his way to the ring. Knobbs thinks that Goldberg’s scared when the latter takes a while to bust out of his locker room and make his way to the ring, but no, he’s just talking the long route. FUCK ME, this crowd in Cincinnati goes BANANAS when they catch a glimpse of Goldberg. They’re so loud, the audio gets scratchy because of the pitch of their cheering. Holy shit. Can you believe a company with a megastar like this managed to bleed profitability this badly? Goldberg goes right at Knobbs, so Knobbs grabs a chair and hits Goldberg square in the dome when Goldberg follows him to ringside, then peels off four or five more chair shots to the body. This is a sick obligatory ringside brawl. Knobbs is able to whip Goldberg to the rail, but he gives Goldberg too much time to recover while moving the ring stairs; Goldberg blocks a bonk to the post and whips Knobbs into it, then into the stairs at ringside before tossing him back in. Jimmy Hart jumps in the ring with his megaphone and drops it when Goldberg grabs him; Knobbs hits a few shots with the megaphone, then turns to the crowd and signals that he’s going for a Pit Stop. He turns back around right into a spear, Jackhammer, and SPLAT. That was kind of a batshit squash that was only enhanced by the crowd eating it up. I can’t tell if it was a charming uniquity or flat out a good squash. I need to consider this. After the match, Goldberg gets a mic and wonders where that soft punk Sid is. He calls Sid “a little girl,” a label befitting someone who is soft and weak and dodges challenges in the general opinion of 1990s pro wrestlers. Goldberg says that no one out-intimidates him and offers a challenge to Sid for Halloween Havoc. That was, while not great, an alright promo, mostly because Goldberg is so intense that he doesn’t have to be witty or the smoothest talker to cut a decent promo. Gene Okerlund interviews Ric Flair after a short video package and recap in which we learn that Sting is actually going to defend the big gold belt against Chris Benoit later tonight. Flair wants to fight Sting tonight. No, it’s Benoit’s turn. Get in line. I sat through a dumb battle royal two weeks ago to get this match. In fact, here comes Benoit, who gets slight boos when he says HOLD ON A SECOND HERE. Benoit thinks Flair getting a shot at Sting is cool and all, but he’s got a contract, dammit! Flair doesn’t care about Benoit's contract, which illustrates exactly why the Horsemen fell apart…again. Benoit talks into the camera as he addresses Sting and says he’ll be coming to his title shot alone because he wants to prove something to himself, so don’t bring Luger. Yeah, I’m sure Sting’ll hold to that. Benoit leaves, and Flair also leaves to find Sting. OK, let’s see if and how this segment pays off later tonight. There’s more Nitro Girls search stuff when we come back from break, specifically a video package of the search as it happened in Cincinnati earlier that day. After that, Gene Okerlund – no Rachtman, so an improvement – calls Kimberly and Tygress out to run through some more of this Nitro Girl search. There are two more ladies from Ohio who get video packages, etc. Chris Benoit faces Sting, which begins shortly after RAW would have started on USA, I think. Sting gets a mixed-ish reaction, probably 60/40 babyface pop? It’s hard to tell. Tony S. pimps a six-man tag for the next Nitro: Sting, Lex Luger, and DDP against Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and Ric Flair. Well, I appreciate that they’re trying to promote a week ahead to keep people coming back! Wow, forward planning. That’s how I know Bischoff’s not in the front office anymore. This opening rules, man. They run with one another; Benoit’s kick is caught and Sting ducks an enziguri. They run again and Sting blows right over Benoit with a shoulderblock. Benoit bails while Sting howls and the crowd mostly cheers. Benoit signals for a Greco-Roman knuckle lock then sticks a boot in Sting’s gut, but his follow-up Irish Whip only ends with two Benoit whiffed lariats before Sting hits Benoit with a lariat of his own. Benoit bails again and considers his options. Sorry, Benoit, you’re not on this level quite yet. Benoit re-enters the ring warily and circles Sting. He tries to engage again, ducks a lariat after getting behind Sting on a standing switch, and hits a release overhead suplex. Sting no-sells that and dropkicks Benoit when Benoit turns around. Benoit bails again, realizing that this is a lot different than wrestling Booker T. or Rick Steiner for the TV title. There are levels to this shit. This is actually really good stuff. I think Benoit’s facial expressions need work; he’s trying to sell the dawning realization that he needs to find another level within him, but he’s not any good at it. He does sell it with his work, as he gets back inside the ring and immediately goes at Sting’s leg with a dragon screw, kicks, and an Indian Deathlock/chinlock combo. Sting survives that, and Benoit changes tack and slams Sting’s knee into the mat. Benoit has Sting hobbled, so he starts leaning on strikes; he puts Sting in the tree of woe position and baseball slides into him to a mass of boos. Benoit tries it again, but Sting pulls himself up and Benoit slides into the post. The Stinger quickly goes outside and yanks Benoit by his feet into the post. I think it’s more 75/25, maybe 80/20 cheers-to-boos for Sting at this point. Sting lands an inverted atomic drop, then a regular one. He kicks at Benoit’s hamstring and thigh, then lands an elbow drop for two. Sting tries to hoist Benoit up into powerbomb position, I think, but Benoit is dead weight and Sting drops him. Sting goes back to another inverted atomic drop instead; Benoit tries to fire back with a lariat, but Sting is up first; his face shows surprise that Benoit had that in him. Sting goes to the chinlock, and I feel that some of the energy of this match has dissipated since the botch, but Benoit fights back up, chops Sting, and eats a knee when he follows up with a charge, and that brings the feeling back a bit. Sting sizes up Benoit and lands an elbow, then a second. He rolls Benoit away from the ropes and covers, but only gets two. Sting hoists Benoit up and hits a front suplex (!), but his cover once again only gets two. Sting shoots Benoit in and tries another knee to the gut, but Benoit hooks his leg and rolls him up for two; Sting, who is now a heel, responds to that flash pinfall attempt by getting up first and landing a lariat, as is the way of WCW heels everywhere. Sting goes back to the chinlock, and Benoit fights back to standing and elbows his way out of it, looks like he’s coming back, and…whiffs on a dropkick that Sting stops short on. This is a very good match, I think. Sting howls again and takes his sweet time covering, so he only scores two. Sting casually pulls Benoit up, but Benoit is playing possum, even falling back onto his face, to sucker Sting in for a small package that gets two. Sting is back up and in control; he stomps Benoit in the gut and goes up top for a huge splash that eats knees. Commentary is selling that Benoit is playing possum effectively and suckering Sting in. Benoit fires off a lariat, goes up, and lands a diving headbutt, then covers for about 2.7. Both men are down; they get up at roughly the same time, but Benoit lands a boot and then hits two rolling verticals; he sets up for a third, but suddenly snaps from that position into a Crippler Crossface. Unfortunately for him, Sting is right near the ropes. After a break, they get back to standing and switch until Sting shoves Benoit out of a sleeper and right into Nick Patrick for a ref bump. Man, that sucks. Anyway, Nick Patrick is out and fails to count when Benoit lands a piledriver and covers for a visual three count that the referee doesn’t see. Sting gets back up and whiffs on a lariat, then finds himself pinned by a bridged back suplex that gets another visual three count before Lex Luger runs down, waffles Benoit with the foam bat, and watches as Sting covers Benoit while Ric Flair runs down and a groggy Nick Patrick counts the three. Flair jumps on Luger, but DDP jumps in out of the crowd and hits Flair with a Diamond Cutter; Hulk Hogan runs down and clears the ring. Despite the fact that Sting is still getting oriented to working as a heel, there was one semi-ugly botch, and there was another tiresome ref bump spot (though it at least gave Benoit two separate visual three counts), this was good stuff, a nice long match in which Sting seems to be both a level above Benoit and Benoit seems to be slowly closing that gap. Sting always has the best matches with guys who are positioned as a level beneath him, but rising – see his match with DDP in 1998 (Show #133) as a prime example of this. Feud Sting with all the rising midcarders. Give me Sting/Eddy on Nitro soon. Shiiiiiit, Sting/Rey would be amazing. I bet none of this ever happens. Did we even get Sting beating up annoying heel Chris Jericho on a WCWSN or anything?! Scott Armstrong is out here, so maybe Sid will make his first appearance of the night? Nope, probably not, because Armstrong is facing Berlyn (w/THE WALL, BROTHER). Tony S. hypes a DDP/Flair match for later tonight. I yelled at Kevin Sullivan from the future a bunch of bulletpoints ago, and he’s apparently received the message because he's now booking and hyping reasonable matchups up to a week in advance. Good for him! I knew I’d talk some sense into him from 25 years later! I guess Uta’s performance on commentary last week finally got her bumped from the whole presentation because she’s nowhere to be seen. The crowd chants ALLLLLEXXXXXX while Berlyn freaks out, insistent that he is NOT Alex Wright, damn you, they’re two totally different people. I do think THE WALL, BROTHER has a great look in the suit and sunglasses. He’s got “white Mr. Hughes, except he looks like a serious bruiser instead of looking like he’s eternally constipated” energy. Berlyn dominates while THE WALL, BROTHER tries to pick his shot with his taped-up fist. Other than a roll-up and a flurry of offense off a Berlyn whiffed splash, Armstrong can’t get much of anything going. Berlyn dodges a dropkick and European uppercuts Armstrong into the ropes, then engages the ref so that THE WALL, BROTHER can land a sharp punch; Armstrong bounces back into a Berlyn reverse neckbreaker for three. Berlyn then locks on a chinlock after the bell rings until Brad Armstrong, who is no longer a No Limit Solder, runs down and backs them off. Pre-taped promo: In a pretty funny sketch, the Dead Pool gets off the ICP tour bus; Violent J and Vampiro coach up Shaggy 2 Dope before Shaggy’s Cruiserweight Championship match later tonight. I have to say that Violent J and Vampiro are legit funny. First, they tell Shaggy that in his match, he needs to “fly,” and Vampiro repeats that direction while waving his arms in the air to illustrate. Then, the portly J says that Shaggy isn’t even really a cruiserweight and that he, J, is more suited for the division. Vampiro looks at him, says, “You’re not a cruiserweight,” and then briefly glances at J’s gut and then looks back up at him to drive the point home. Holy shit, these dudes have genuinely good chemistry together. This Nitro has been quite good even since the confusing first match and its weird presentation of the character development and alignment for the wrestlers involved. I guess Sullivan and Co. needed to get the rest of Nash and Bischoff’s garbage ideas out of the way last week before trying to pick up afresh where the previous dudes left off. Recap: Sting/Luger and Flair end up beefing after last week’s in-ring confrontation. Gene Okerlund is in the ring to talk to Diamond Dallas Page. Well, not every segment can be a winner. Page garners some cheap heat by comparing Pete Rose to himself in an unfavorable light to Rose. Okerlund is so tiresome. Earlier, he mentioned the Trinidad/De La Hoya decision as a way to talk about the quality of judges in the Nitro Girls Search, which Tygress basically no sold while a flicker of confusion about how to respond to that comment went across her face. Just now, he mentions Jerry Springer running for mayor, and you’d have to really try to make it work in context. Just because you're in Cincinnati, you don't have to mention people from the city, stupid. Page ends up cutting a decent heel promo somehow. He compares himself to Ric Flair, claims that he’s done what Flair has done in pro wrestling in a shorter amount of time, and compares his moves and taunts to Flair’s, judging his to be better. Wow, Page was solid on the stick. This must be a pretty solid Nitro, huh? This Halloween Havoc promo includes footage of Randy Savage and Kevin Nash. It occurs to me that Savage is almost done. He’s about two months out from being out of WCW for (almost) good, excepting one small appearance in 2000. Why did he leave WCW? Did his contract expire? They couldn’t find something for this guy and his non-existent hips and knees to do? As for Nash, I wonder how he’s going to get back on screen after losing his career to Hogan, and I don’t mean “randomly shows up and does hilarious, but unprofessional color commentary on Thunder,” which I assume is coming up in the next couple of weeks. Blitzkrieg is also almost done with WCW; he’s facing Evan Karagias tonight. Oh WCW, you lost Blitz and kept Karagias. That’s how it goes for this godforsaken company, huh? This is a match for a Cruiserweight Championship shot on Thunder. Look, if we don’t get the Blitzkrieg/Shaggy 2 Dope title match we all want and need, I can safely say that WCW deserved to go out of business. Karagias grabs Blitz on a leap, then hits a powerslam for two; he catches Blitz on a run and press slams him for two more. I do like the idea that Karagias is the power worker who acts as a base for the flippy guys in the division, but unfortunately, he’s not very good. This match is also unfortunately not very good; at one point, Blitz backflips over a charging Karagias, then sells that he’s staggered and jammed his knee for an uncomfortably long time before Karagias figures out that he’s supposed to go over and kick the guy. Karagias does hit a nice dive to the floor, but he looks like a guy who is always thinking about what he should be doing next, especially on offense. Blitz tries a Sky-Twisting Moonsault and whiffs. Karagias tries his own top rope move, gets stopped, and blocks a Blitz rana. Oh, I see, here’s where they got me to let my guard down: Sid comes out here as Karagias lands a top-rope splash on Blitzkrieg for three. Sid beats up the number-one contender to the Cruiserweight Championship, so while he does his thing, let me say something that may be unpopular: Blitzkrieg does some cool stuff in the air and would maybe make an impressive gymnast, but he’s not actually very good at all the important things that make a wrestler good, like using his body to express emotions or the little connective things to tie together all his flippy-doo spots. He’s very young and inexperienced, to be sure, but I’m surprised at how much of his WCW run has been no more than cromulent. He had a good match with Rey and was in that awesome Four Corners match, but again, Rey, Psicosis, or Juvi might have been able to drag me to a watchable match at that point, so Blitz being in a good match with Rey and a great match with all three of those luchadores doesn’t really credit Blitz all that much. I actually think the fact that Blitzkrieg had good TV matches with Super Calo and Van Hammer means more than any of his highest-end matches in his run. There was something there, but he got out of the business before he could develop it beyond spot-monkey status for the most part. I also acknowledge that guys doing flippy aerial spots on TV every week is so common that watching Blitzkrieg in 2024 just doesn’t hit the same. Oh yeah, Sid basically said he wouldn’t fight Goldberg unless Goldberg backs up off him until Havoc, or he’ll back out of their match. Hype video: Benoit and the sorry-ass Revolution hit decent offense and lose a lot of matches. Perry Saturn (w/Dean Malenko and Shane Douglas) and Eddy Guerrero (w/Filthy Animals) have a rematch after Saturn eked out a win on last week’s Nitro. The RADICALZ PRE-EXPLODE ONCE MORE as Saturn presses Eddy, but gets rana’d out of another press in turn. Seriously, these fellas are on their Smackdown 2: Know Your Role shit tonight. They get in each other’s faces, and their respective stablemates get on the apron. Saturn tosses Eddy outside and into the guardrail, and Douglas tosses Eddy right back into the ring. Saturn applies a chinlock as we go to break again in yet another Saturn/Guerrero match. At least when we come back, Eddy is just fighting up from the chinlock. He hits an arm drag and a springboard tornado DDT. Eddy working at high speed, this crisply, every week after he returned probably earlier than he should have from a life-threatening auto accident is fucking insane. It might be one of the craziest ongoing athletic feats that I’ve seen from a wrestler ever in my life. Eddy hits a rope-walk rana for two, but tries to leapfrog Saturn on a corner charge and gets belly-to-belly suplexed for two; Saturn goes up and lands a gorgeous Savage Elbow for a perfectly-timed 2.9. Tony S. genuinely raves over Saturn’s form on that elbow. This match is rapidly moving up my “best sprints ever” list, even with the commercial break. Saturn signals for a DVD, but Eddy slips out of it and gets a victory roll for about 2.5; Saturn responds with a lariat, then sits Eddy up top. They struggle over a top rope move, and Eddy ends up punching Saturn into a seated position and landing a top-rope Frankensteiner, then going up for a Frog Splash that gets nothing but mat. Saturn gets up and charges at Eddy, but Eddy ducks and Saturn launches to the floor. Konnan comes over and tosses Saturn back into the ring, but Saturn takes exception to that and gets in Konnan’s face. Everyone on that side of the ring draws the ref’s attention, which allows Shane Douglas to enter from the other side of the ring and deck Eddy with a chain-wrapped fist. Saturn sees it and admonishes Douglas for doing it, then reluctantly pins Eddy before going back out to remonstrate with Shane: YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO DO THAT! Shane’s response: WHATEVER, WE’RE MAKIN’ MONEY. Huh, that was the first time Shane’s been entertaining during this whole run. Anyway, I loved this. Heck of a sprint, even with the break and all the end-of-match fuckery. Hulk Hogan comes out here to cut a bad promo on Sting. He keeps trying to get “train, say my prayers, kick your ass” over, and it’s so fucking goofy, man. I love that the Hitman lost teeth in last week's baseball bat attack according to Hogan, but somehow, he'll be back next week. Hogan declares that God is on his side (seriously!) and hypes next week’s Nitro main event. Gene Okerlund, who is trying to direct this interview, asks about how Hogan can be friends with Hart or Flair. Hogan is like The Hitman keeps shooting all over the internet how much I suck, but we still have a common goal, HAHAHAHA. This was bad, but I mean, for Hogan, it was semi-acceptable. I’ve enjoyed this Nitro, but yeah, at this point in the three-hour experience, I’m just out on sitting in front of a non-PPV wrestling show for this long. Even with limited commercials, I’m still here for two-and-a-half hours every Nitro. That’s too much of one show. I truly believe that ninety minutes is the perfect length for a wrestling show, but two hours will be nice, too. Thunder is generally more watchable than Nitro most weeks, and show length is a part of that. The Dead Pool brings their own signs to the ring in a mockery of the West Hollywood Blondes. A faint ICP chant starts up. It’s Shaggy 2 Dope! It’s Lenny Lane! It’s the WCW Cruiserweight Championship on the line! If you’re going to book a whole division into the ground, do it entertainingly, I say! That fucking plant runs into the ring before the match and eats a right hand from Lodi, then gets handcuffed and frog marched out of the arena. OH, THAT’S IT, I’VE HAD IT, AAAAAARGHGARH, yells the dorky plant as he’s dragged away. Shaggy’s hockey jersey has the name MOSTTASTELESS and the number 1 on it. I’m not sure that this is actually happening right now. I ask once again: Am I dreaming this ICP-related wrestling event? Shaggy hits a nice powerslam, but whiffs on a guillotine legdrop and nearly doesn’t turn all the way over on a sit-out powerbomb. Lenny does a Goldust cover for two. They run the ropes and Shaggy ends up finagling a bulldog for two. They awkwardly, at least based on the camera angle, both go up top, and Shaggy ends up landing a running powerbomb for two, then managing an awkward victory roll for two before Lodi ends up yanking him off the apron. Lane takes over momentarily, but Shaggy flips out of a back suplex attempt. We're at the finish now, so here’s how that goes: Lodi is on the apron, holding the belt threateningly as Vampiro stands in front of him on the floor, jawing at him for tripping Shaggy earlier. Meanwhile, Shaggy rolls up Lane for two, but Lane kicks away and Shaggy is propelled forward. His head hits the belt as he knocks Lodi off the apron and into Vampiro, and he falls backward into a Lane rollup for three. It didn’t get to the level of charming iniquity, but boy, was this stupid in a good way. They booked the wrong winner, though. Hype video: The lovely Nitro Girls dance, some better than others. Okerlund is in the ring again, now mentioning Marge Schott because we’re in Cincinnati, don’t you see. Then, he has the fucking nerve to call Rick Steiner to the ring for an interview on top of annoying everyone with random Cincinnati references. Rick says he only respects two men: Sid and his brother Scott Steiner, and look who it is! Scotty comes to the ring. Oh good, the Steiner who can talk is taking over for his far less entertaining brother. The contents of Scott’s medicine cabinet must be worth thousands and thousands of dollars at this point. Steiner says Fuck a home run record chase, I'm chasing Wilt’s record for sleeping with women. He invites any interested women to the back to help him chase the record and says, I swear to you, that he’s gonna “push the pink pony” all night. HAHAHAHAHA. That’s like the worst Ginuwine song lyric ever. Furthermore, Scotty is disgusted that the Hulkster’s all happy-go-lucky now and that he’s not allowed to leave the nWo until former leader Scott Steiner says he’s allowed. Then, he hits this gem of a line: SO I DON’T CARE WHAT GOD YOU’VE BEEN PRAYIN’ TO, BUT YOU BETTER PRAY HE STRIKES ME DOWN BECAUSE YOU CAN TAKE ALL THE VITAMINS YOU WANT, YOU CAN SAY ALL THE PRAYERS YOU WANT, BUT BY THE END OF THE DAY, YOU’LL BE KISSIN’ MY ASS. Holy shit, Scotty. So, is the Jersey Triad still a thing or what? Kanyon guzzles a Surge on this way to the ring, alone, to face Booker T. (w/Stevie Ray). Kanyon elbows his way out of a wristlock to start and throws a few punches, then wins a shoulderblock. He gets on his wheels again, but runs himself right into a dropkick and bails. Stevie mean mugs Kanyon, who backs away and re-enters the ring. The crowd fires up a KANYON SUCKS chant. I think he’s got good timing and some neat moves, myself. Kanyon shoots Booker in and really struggles to keep up with all the leapfrogs and duck downs; he eats a flying forearm and a roundhouse kick in short order. Booker tries to follow up once Kanyon bails again, but he gets whipped into the guardrail and bounced around at ringside a bit. Kanyon even spits liquid in the guy’s face. Gross. Kanyon suplexes Booker back into the ring and continues his assault. He lands a top-rope Rocker Dropper for two, but misses a lariat; he tries another, but gets hooked and pulled in by Booker, and we get our first appearance of the Book End on television! Booker follows up with a Houston Side Kick and an axe kick, then Spinaroonies up and goes to the top. Kanyon gets up and cuts Booker off, then attempts a superplex. Booker blocks it, super front suplexes Kanyon to the mat, and lands a missile dropkick for three. Nice little televised bout, that was! There are only about eight minutes left when we come back, and that’s before they play the Halloween Havoc promo again. Flair jumps Page in the aisle and they have an obligatory stage-side brawl in which they fight in the crowd a bit and Page bumps around for Flair’s punches. Flair eventually beats Page up down the aisle and back to ringside, transitioning this to an obligatory ringside brawl for a few seconds before Flair dumps DDP into the ring. Page makes his comeback here, landing a swinging neckbreaker and hitting strikes. Page continues to control the match and lands a Scumbag Elbow for two. I mean, between this and the Book End in the previous match, it continues to be wild how many wrestlers are cribbing one of their contemporaries right now. Has wrestling ever seen so many guys taking spots from one person? Page locks on a rope-leveraged chinlock and throws punches at Flair, but he’s too casual about pressing his advantage and lets Flair punch and chop his way back into control. Flair hits a back suplex, then runs the ropes, avoids a DDP boot and a DDP clothesline, and hits a low blow that allows him to lock Page in a Figure Four. Here comes Sting, who runs in and whiffs on an elbowdrop. Flair locks Sting in the Figure Four, which is when Luger runs down and wallops Flair in the solar plexus with the foam bat. Hogan runs down and takes on all the babyfaces, but Sting sticks Hogan in Hogan’s reconstructed knee with the bat and whales away until Flair chases him off. That was a solid show, and I appreciate that it actually paid off the Benoit title shot and did some reasonable progression of angles, even if I’m not sure exactly how we’re supposed to view the Filthy Animals after the segments they were in tonight. Still, they’re correcting course a bit and, importantly, they’re about to turn Shane Douglas heel, which is how it should have been from the jump. I feel good about Nitro for the next month or two! But only for about that long. 3.5 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanie Sparkleface Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 18 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said: Oh, I see, here’s where they got me to let my guard down: Sid comes out here as Karagias lands a top-rope splash on Blitzkrieg for three. Sid beats up the number-one contender to the Cruiserweight Championship, so while he does his thing, let me say something that may be unpopular: Blitzkrieg does some cool stuff in the air and would maybe make an impressive gymnast, but he’s not actually very good at all the important things that make a wrestler good, like using his body to express emotions or the little connective things to tie together all his flippy-doo spots. He’s very young and inexperienced, to be sure, but I’m surprised at how much of his WCW run has been no more than cromulent. He had a good match with Rey and was in that awesome Four Corners match, but again, Rey, Psicosis, or Juvi might have been able to drag me to a watchable match at that point, so Blitz being in a good match with Rey and a great match with all three of those luchadores doesn’t really credit Blitz all that much. I actually think the fact that Blitzkrieg had good TV matches with Super Calo and Van Hammer means more than any of his highest-end matches in his run. There was something there, but he got out of the business before he could develop it beyond spot-monkey status for the most part. I also acknowledge that guys doing flippy aerial spots on TV every week is so common that watching Blitzkrieg in 2024 just doesn’t hit the same. I think the thing about Blitzkrieg is that he was the forefather in a lot of ways to the style we see today. He was a critical part of the Southern California scene that beget Super Dragon (even his WCW tryout had him teaming with Super Dragon) and developing the style that became so prevalent in PWG. I don't think he's a lost great worker, but he could do some pretty amazing things, and he was a glimpse into what we'd see folks like the Young Bucks eventually do because they'd emerge from that scene as well. I guess the best way I can describe it is that he is to the SoCal scene as Cham Pain is to OMEGA. An important part of what made that scene tick, and an important part of what springboarded a lot of people to superstardom, but like Cham Pain mostly gets remembered for taking a Pedigree like a piledriver, Blitzkrieg gets his blink-and-you-miss-it WCW run and retires before the scene he was a major part of truly booms starting in 2001. He's a fun what if. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 (edited) 6 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said: I think the thing about Blitzkrieg is that he was the forefather in a lot of ways to the style we see today. He was a critical part of the Southern California scene that beget Super Dragon (even his WCW tryout had him teaming with Super Dragon) and developing the style that became so prevalent in PWG. I don't think he's a lost great worker, but he could do some pretty amazing things, and he was a glimpse into what we'd see folks like the Young Bucks eventually do because they'd emerge from that scene as well. I guess the best way I can describe it is that he is to the SoCal scene as Cham Pain is to OMEGA. An important part of what made that scene tick, and an important part of what springboarded a lot of people to superstardom, but like Cham Pain mostly gets remembered for taking a Pedigree like a piledriver, Blitzkrieg gets his blink-and-you-miss-it WCW run and retires before the scene he was a major part of truly booms starting in 2001. He's a fun what if. This is more than fair. I think my bias against the PWG go-go-go style is another reason that I'm underwhelmed w/r/t Blitzkrieg's run. I'm an annoyingly vocal detractor of modern American wrestling, and I think PWG is right behind WWE and ECW in terms of influencing what the modern American wrestling scene looks like, for good and ill. The Young Bucks seeing Blitzkrieg and Kanyon and deriving from that a sense that the best wrestling is in hitting unique spots, no matter how contrived or out of the flow of the match that they're wrestling, is pretty damning when it comes to how I see both those guys (and I like Kanyon, and it's not his fault that he worked the way he did to try and stand out and just happened to influence the evolution of what American wrestlers and wrestling fans think of as "workrate"). Anyway, you're absolutely right. Edited August 12 by SirSmUgly 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanie Sparkleface Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 6 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: This is more than fair. I think my bias against the PWG go-go-go style is another reason that I'm underwhelmed w/r/t Blitzkrieg's run. I'm an annoyingly vocal detractor of modern American wrestling, and I think PWG is right behind WWE and ECW in terms of influencing what the modern American wrestling scene looks like, for good and ill. The Young Bucks seeing Blitzkrieg and Kanyon and deriving from that a sense that the best wrestling is in hitting unique spots, no matter how contrived or out of the flow of the match that they're wrestling, is pretty damning when it comes to how I see both those guys (and I like Kanyon, and it's not his fault that he worked the way he did to try and stand out and just happened to influence the evolution of what American wrestlers and wrestling fans think of as "workrate"). Anyway, you're absolutely right. Yeah, and I think it's one of those things where to see Blitzkrieg in 2024, it really takes away from what blew folks away about him in 1999 - this guy coming out of nowhere wearing what was obviously homemade gear and being able to keep up with Rey Misterio. Nowadays we see that every week or two, where someone most of the audience hasn't heard of can compete with who's touted as one of the best in the world. That didn't happen all that often in 1999, and it seemed pretty clear guys like Rey and Juvi were excited to try and make something out of this kid. The combination of that, his raw athleticism, and how short his career was means he gets romanticized. Personally, I tend to think of it as a "only in WCW" thing, like when Greg Valentine was briefly pushed as so tough that the Giant needed to use a super chokeslam to beat him. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 15 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: . If he mentions “Jewish space lasers” at some point, I won’t be entirely surprised. Um I believe you mean 'Jiggly Jiggly Jewish space lazers'! 15 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: until Brad Armstrong, who is no longer a No Limit Solder, runs down and backs them off. I was just reading the part where Bischoff brought Jericho in and said he saw him as becoming their version of Shawn Michaels then how he was really excited to feud him with Brad Armstrong. Apparently Armstrong was rejected for debuting (or re-debuting) wtestlers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 Thunder Interlude – show number eighty-one – 23 September 1999 "The WCW Gang vacillates between surprising and unsurprising, good and bad, mundane and enjoyable, and ultimately comes out on the right side of the ledger" Let’s get a Thunder in here…I see 2000 looming and I know that once mid-September hits, these reviews are going to slow up considerably until the new year…On the flip side of things, I’m getting closer every day to BatB 2000, which I’m genuinely excited for…BatB ’98 is a long time ago, and that was really the last point during this watch at which WCW strung together more than a couple of weeks that got me excited to see what was next… Ah, a live Thunder…I love it… There’s some Nitro recap, which I don’t love, and some hype for both Halloween Havoc and the upcoming Nitro…Well, at least they’re doing some proper hypin’…I did not remember Psicosis losing his mask during his WCW run, by the way…I don’t even think he’s around WCW that much longer, anyway… Bummer, Eurodance music hits the speakers…The West Hollywood Blondes, so named on the chyron for the first time that I’ve seen, come to the ring…That dolt Lodi spelled Bret Favre’s name incorrectly on one of his signs…He also spelled the word “rules” incorrectly, but he did that on purpose and for the benefit of sign space…One of these guys is wrestling Billy Kidman, who I am pretty certain had long hair all the way throughout his run…It’s Lodi that Kidman wrestles…Some lady holds up her I LOVE KIDMAN, SOOOO SEXY sign, and this dude really was quite the heartthrob babyface...He and Rey both…I feel like heartthrob babyfaces don’t exist anymore in American wrestling, do they?...The heartthrob babyface feels like a prominently Southern affectation when it comes to wrestling… Anyway, Kidman springboards onto both of the Blondes on the floor and establishes a hierarchy in which he is definitely better than both these guys, and thus by association, better than the Cruiserweight Championship (also true, based on his booking lately)…Lane trips Kidman on a rope run, and Kidman throws, like, the weakest punches ever at Lane so that Lodi can hit him with a springboard legdrop…Lodi never really does a great job at keeping extended control…He does score a near fall on a bulldog...Lane does his best to help from his position outside the ring…Lodi even returns his own dive onto both Kidman and Lane standing on the outside… Lodi whiffs on a guillotine legdrop back in the ring…Kidman runs through his own little 4MoD, scores two on a rebound bulldog, but gets distracted by Lane on an SSP attempt and superplexed for two…Eddy comes down and keeps Lane from continuing to cheat…Kidman busts out a diving Frankensteiner for two…Chavo comes out and argues with Eddy…We already did this over a year ago…Anyway, Eddy and Chavo argue based on, I suppose, Chavo still having beef with Kidman from the tag tournament earlier in 1999...Meanwhile, Kidman doesn’t even need an SSP to down Lodi…He lands the Sky High, which is a better name for it than Rydeen Bomb, and gets three… Booker T. and Stevie Ray do a little walk-and-talk backstage…They split off, and Sid and Rick Steiner walk into the camera’s view coming from the same direction that Stevie went…Rick’s got a 2x4 that it’s implied he and Sid used on Stevie… Mike Tenay stands on the ramp, waiting to interview Harlem Heat. Uh, I’m not sure they’re both going to make it out here, buddy…Yeah, Booker’s out here alone, looking troubled…Booker says Stevie’s on his way to the hospital, and Stevie let Book know who gave him the business. Booker challenges Sid Vicious to a match later tonight…Book says Sid and his little streak are on FRAUD WATCH…That makes two wrestlers in this company who are on FRAUD WATCH… I sense that WCW isn’t sure what to do with the couple of women on their roster…They bumped Mona/Madusa from Road Wild…Was Madusa hurt or something?...Mona hits the ring to wrestle Brandi Alexander again…Look, Savage got Mona some TV time, and she was good with the time she got, but maybe it’s time for her to head on over to Stamford…WCW doesn’t have anything for her, though I sense that someone with influence with WCW's booking would like to give her something worthwhile to do…She’s re-matching Brandi Alexander again…I mean, it’d be nice to get the blowoff to the Mona/Madusa feud…The women trade flash two counts early on…Mona dropkicks Alexander, and Alexander bails… Mona walks over to follow up, and Alexander trips her, drags her to the floor, and hits her with a short-arm clothesline…Alexander takes Mona over to the bottom of the ramp, away from the protective mats, and slams her…Alexander brings the proceedings back to the ring and hits some chokes, strikes, and a hair whip…A snap kick puts Mona down for two…Mona tries to counter an Irish whip, but ducks down and into a gutwrench suplex for two more…Mona leaps over a charging Alexander in the corner and then hits a Sonya Blade-style headscissors…It’s time for a babyface comeback driven by chops and monkey flips…On the second monkey flip, Alexander dumps Mona and covers, then puts her feet on the ropes for leverage and gets three… WCW Mayhem for the N64 comes out in like three hours from the end of this show…I doubt that GameStop was staying open for a midnight release for this game… Next up: Perry Saturn…He’s facing Chavo Guerrero Jr., and thank goodness they’re giving Chavo something to do…I guess he’s still heelish?...There’s a lot of “shades of gray” stuff going on around him and Saturn…Larry Z. talks about Saturn taking a cheap win over Eddy even though he appeared to be upset about what Shane Douglas did to put him position for that win…There’s a nice, crisp opener worked around armbars, headscissors, and lariats that Saturn wins…Saturn whips Chavo in and Chavo manages to bail out of the ring instead of bounce back toward Saturn… I am still in awe that they got Chavo so over in the middle of 1998 and then just never really followed up on any of that…Chavo gets back in the ring and they get their spacing wrong on an Irish whip reversal…It’s fine, nobody’s perfect…Chavo keeps trying to leapfrog or duck down on rope runs, and eventually, Saturn gets wise to it and suplexes Chavo off a leapfrog attempt…Chavo bails again and tries to sucker Saturn in, but that doesn’t work either…Saturn gets two on a vertical suplex, then puts on Rick Steiner’s armbar/neck crank combo better than Steiner ever did before letting Chavo back to standing to try something else… Finally, Chavo is able to dodge Saturn and land a dropkick to he knee…Chavo hits another dropkick to the knee, then lariats Saturn to the floor and follows with a successful slingshot crossbody…Chavo gets two when he rolls Saturn back in the ring, then applies a headlock…Saturn fights up from that pretty quickly and whips Chavo from pillar to post, then lands an overhead suplex and a springboard forearm smash and a release belly-to-belly *whew*, all of which only gets two…Saturn sits Chavo up top, which is when Eddy comes down and tries to swing at him…Eddy accidentally hits Chavo, but Saturn backs away after dispatching of Eddy…He considers getting another cheap win, but that gives Eddy time to come into the ring from behind and knock him forward and into Chavo…Chavo topples over, bonks his head into Saturn’s jewels, and covers for three…Weak finish, but it did progress this feud, at least… Charles Robinson leads out the United States Champion Sid Vicious…I don’t know why some tastemakers (was it RD Reynolds most prominently?) take shots at Sid upping his streak numbers randomly…Sid is a fucking heel…Of course he’s going to lie and embellish…That’s not the issue with this angle…The issue is that they’ve killed off a lot of the value of their cruiserweight division by having Sid run in on them…Sid cuts a promo in which he takes the “Billy in Family Circus” path to accepting Booker T.’s challenge from earlier…I did laugh when Sid shared his disgust that Booker and Goldberg do hospital visits and “sob over these people” (looks at the crowd with disdain)…Charles Robinson laughs evilly in the background…Their insistence on making him a heel ref in this specific instance is strange… Blipmo: Coach Buzz Stern roughs up his student Biggs…He promises to show up on Thunder with his doofy student… Recap: Lots of Nitro main event stuff… Prince Iaukea is a babyface tonight…Van Hammer’s going to roll him, probably…Iaukea jumps on Hammer and even gets two on a rollup…Hammer blocks one whip, then another, but he ducks down and gets jabbed in the eye…Hammer keeps escaping Hammer power moves and even gets two after schoolboying Hammer out of a back suplex attempt…Once Hammer lands a boot, though, the tenor of the match changes…Hammer lands a big boot, then puts Iaukea in the Tree of Woe and boot chokes him…Hammer lands an elevated beal toss, a body slam, and a double sledge to the solar plexus, then puts on a chinlock from the camel clutch position…Iaukea only gets back in the match after kicking Hammer in the junk…He fires off as many strikes and moves as he can, and even hits a reverse slam for two…Iaukea tries buckle bonks, but Hammer shoves him off and lands a spinebuster…That’s all she wrote, as Hammer hits the Cobra Clutch Slam for three…Hey, that was a well-laid-out little nothing TV match…I enjoyed it… Someone holds up a GIVE FLAIR THE PENCIL sign…Nah, we tried that in 1990, didn’t work...Hammer grabs a mic and says that Leathers and Co. are “trippin’ in the production truck” because he’s grabbed a bit of interview time for his own…He wants the winner of Booker T./Sid on Nitro, basically…This guy is such a goof, but I enjoy him… I don’t enjoy Rick Steiner, though, and unfortunately, he’s up next…I legit zoned out when he talked before the match, and I refuse to go back and re-listen to what he said…Eddy Guerrero is his opponent…It really bothers me that Eddy’s going to sell a whole bunch for bad Rick Steiner offense…Eddy slaps hands like a babyface…Eddy tries to wrestle the guy and, uh, no, don’t try to shoot the leg…Dropkick him, stupid…Seriously, Eddy gets shoved around and launched after trying to get into a grapple-fest with Rick Steiner, which makes zero sense in kayfabe…Eddy eats a clothesline for two…Lots of face ripping and headlocking from Steiner…We get an obligabrawl outside the ring…Eddy can’t get anything going and is basically portrayed as a good level or two underneath Rick fucking Steiner…He finally gets a counter-rana in, and Sid runs in…You know what, I’m good, fuck this match…Billy Kidman runs down for the opposite of a save…He runs down for an endangerment…Kidman can’t face crush his way out of a Sid powerbomb…This sucked…Why they continue to treat their under 6’3 crowd like this, I don’t know…It’s unconscionable booking of multiple stars and useful pieces… Evan Karagias comes to the ring to face Lenny Lane for the Cruiserweight Championship as Larry Z. goes on a nutbar political rant regarding tax cuts…He wants a tax cut for everyday folks, but a new tax on criminals to offset it…He wants a fraud tax and an embezzlement tax…Um, so are we taxing the money that people actually embezzled?...That wouldn't make sense...If someone commits fraud and already has to forfeit the money they defrauded, what the hell else are you going to tax them on?...Maybe he’s thinking something like “also penalize them fifty percent of their net worth,” but what if they have little or no net worth?...What then, Zbyszko?… There’s an early commercial break in this match, so I’ll get back to paying attention to it as it picks up instead of considering Larry Z.’s proposal…This match stinks…Lenny Lane stinks…Evan Karagias stinks…Karagias does manage to powerbomb Lane, but he fucks around and finds out when, instead of covering, he celebrates and then takes his sweet time going up top…Lodi trips him and Lane covers for two…Lenny and Lodi run through some of their crappy gimmick-specific spots, then Lenny and Karagias badly fuck up a slingshot spot before Lane lands a Breakdown for three…Grab the Cruiserweight title and throw it in a dumpster right next to the TV title at this point…Chavo Jr. vs. Shane Helms seems farther away than ever… It's Booker T. and Syko Sid Vicious (w/Rick Steiner) in the main event…I don’t think Booker’s going to be replicating his off-TV clean victory over Sid tonight…They actually have a pretty good up-tempo brawl to start…It spills outside the ring, where Sid takes a bump into the crowd (!)…Hey, an interesting obligabrawl!...They fight into the crowd on a Thunder, no less…Booker bonks him off a table full of monitors out there…I didn’t expect this match to have that much energy…Booker tries to springboard off the guardrail onto Sid, but Sid catches him and eventually dumps him across the rail throat-first… Larry Z. calls for his “crime tax” again as Sid claws at Booker’s face in the aisle…Booker fights out of that…It goes back and forth, with Steiner cheating where he can outside the ring…They finally make it back to the ring, where Booker ducks a big boot, then hits a Houston Side Kick, an axe kick, and a Spinaroonie all in succession…Booker goes up for a missile dropkick, hits it, and covers for one…two…Steiner yanks the ref out of the ring and dispatches of him, and Charles Robinson runs down and helps Steiner and Sid as they double-team Booker into oblivion…Sid wins after a powerbomb…NO MORE HEEL REFS, PLEASE…Man, Sid worked his ass off for Booker, though…He must have liked the guy…I cant believe it, but this match made me want to see Booker/Sid in a longer feud…I never thought these two would have chemistry…I think, despite the dumb ending, I liked this a lot…Maybe it's more charming uniquity than straight up good match, but it deserves some love... Rick Steiner is terrible and the Cruiserweight title is in hell…The workrate midcarders are being oddly portrayed and used as fodder all too often…And yet, I enjoyed this show well enough anyway…WOO… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Re: Blitz, you have to think in context of seeing him for the first time during a time in wrestling where you still had a good number of big stiffs like Bobby Duncum jr and Rick Steiner hanging around. Real breath of fresh air during that point 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 (edited) 15 minutes ago, zendragon said: Re: Blitz, you have to think in context of seeing him for the first time during a time in wrestling where you still had a good number of big stiffs like Bobby Duncum jr and Rick Steiner hanging around. Real breath of fresh air during that point I do get this, but at the same time, Rey and Psicosis have been in the company for three years at this point and doing impressive stuff more cleanly than Blitz did. I'm not sure it was all that much of a breath of fresh air, and it's especially true when I see Blitz and then I see Eddy working more quickly and crisply against the same opponents that Blitz is working against. Blitz in WCW isn't as impactful as, say, seeing Taka ratchet up the level of work in 1997 WWF if we're talking about a wrestler's work in the context of the general pace and agility in the work of the rest of the roster. Edited August 12 by SirSmUgly 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 Si I had never seen that Sting v Benoit match before and thankfully someone had it uploaded to youtube! It's a great example of why people where so keen on Benoit at the time. To me he was similar to Rey or Bret in that you could credibly push him into main events despite being a largely subpar promo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 14 Author Share Posted August 14 (edited) Show #208 – 27 September 1999 “The one in which Sid makes up for weeks of ruining matches with some clutch dialogue delivery in his segments” We’re almost into October here in WCW, and we’re back in Atlanta, but not at the Georgia Dome. We’re at the Thrashers and Hawks’s new arena, the former-Philips-now-State-Farm Arena. Hogan gets out of a limo and a bunch of kids dressed in Hogan gear come from nowhere and flood the limo. You know what’s going to happen next, but it’s still funny that Sting sneaks up from behind and in a kiddie voice says, “Hey Hogan, can I have your autograph too, huh, huh?” and apparently, it tricks Hogan, who ends up casually turning around and taking an attack to his head and his knee. We go from there into the regular opening and then the recap, in a reverse of the typical order of those things for the past few weeks. The desk hypes the show. Heenan is confused about who exactly is wrestling Psicosis tonight. He shows off his Photoshop skills by presenting a picture of a bald Kidman. Mike Tenay’s outside to interview Hogan, who blows him off because he’s too busy selling a knee injury. Hogan decides that he’ll forgo an ambulance ride to the hospital and stick it out tonight. Suddenly, we cut to Sting in the back, who is disappointed that he didn’t send Hogan to the hospital. Even more suddenly, we cut back to the arena, where Ernest Miller (w/Sonny Onoo) makes his way to the ring. Sign: THE CAT LIVES IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD (NO, REALLY). OK, that made me laugh. The Cat gets a mic and says that even though this is his hometown, he’ll still whoop everybody in here because they suck. He suggests that maybe some of the ladies in the crowd have the stature to be effective offensive linespeople for the Atlanta Falcons, and then in a MEAN camera cut, they show one of the larger young ladies in the crowd. UNCALLED FOR, Leathers! Miller demands a title shot and calls out Sting, declaring that he won’t leave until he gets a title shot. I assume he’s about to get Sid instead, but no, he gets Chris Benoit. Miller grabs a mic again and says that he guesses he’s just going to have to work his way to the world title from the bottom, then turns around into a series of chops. Miller is wearing leopard-print tights with GODFATHER written on the seat; truly amazing. If we’re going to have a joke secondary champ in this company, let’s make it Ernest Miller instead of Lenny Lane, please. Miller bails runs around the ring, gets back in the ring, begs off, and gets kicked. The Cat is able to lure Benoit in and bonk him into the corner, then hit a head kick from the ground. Miller lands a standing side kick and chokes Benoit with his foot a whole lot. The Cat lands a beal, thrusts his hips, and goes back to a choke. I love the Cat, but Chris Benoit probably shouldn’t be selling for him for an extended amount of time. Benoit leaps over on a rope run and tries a sunset flip; the Cat thinks he’s chopped his way out of it, but goes over for two and has to get back on top with another stomp. The Cat continues to control, hits a pelvis-thrusting elbow, no moonwalking, for two; then, he dumps Benoit to ringside so Onoo can kick him. Miller follows Benoit outside after that, but his whip into the guardrail is reversed. Still, he comes back with a cup of liquid to the eyes and some strikes and chokes. Back in the ring, the Cat breaks a choke and puts on a headlock that he uses the ropes to get leverage upon. Benoit fights back to his feet, hits a chop, and then gets his eyes raked. Miller shoots Benoit chest-first into the corner, then tries a Feliner as Benoit comes back out of the corner, but Benoit ducks it and lands a lariat. Onoo jumps in the ring and hops on Benoit’s back as Miller goes for the ruby slipper; Miller just tries to clock Benoit in the head with it, but Benoit shifts and Onoo takes the blow. Benoit follows up with a release German, a diving headbutt, and a Crippler Crossface in short order for the victory. Miller’s not very interesting in heel control and Benoit is supposed to be able to hang with Sting, so this match was laid out completely incorrectly. Hype video: Sid kills Sting, The Public Enemy, and a bunch of cruiserweights. Vampiro stalks out alone to face Buff Bagwell. Buff strips off his overalls and a certain portion of the crowd shrieks. Bagwell grabs a mic before the match and does some boilerplate babyface nonsense talking. The match these two have is sloppy, but watchable, as you’d expect. Buff is in control for most of this. Some guy holds up a SUCK ME, BEAUTIFUL sign for some reason. This is a very late ‘90s wrestling segment. Who is the ref? It’s a bald dude with a goatee who I don’t recognize. Is that Slick Johnson, maybe? If it is, I guess they got him something to do after that dreadful nWo ref nonsense from a year ago. Anyway, after a lot of Bagwell domination, Vampiro gets some control, but Buff fights up from a headlock. Vampiro hits a slam and a diving lariat, but only for two. He tries a guillotine legdrop next, but whiffs. Buff hits a pair of atomic drops, one inverted and one not, then lands a crossbody, but walks into an enziguri. Vampiro sits Buff on the top rope and tries a superplex, but Buff front suplexes his way out of it and hits a Blockbuster, as is the way of babyfaces who use top-rope finishes – we just saw this exact finish in a Booker T. match, if I recall. HAHAHA, so the desk does some talking, and then I am reasonably sure that it is SEVEN who cuts in. Seven: TONYYYYYY. Tony S.: WHAT?! Then, we get a short vignette in which we see a window and some clouds and I’m suddenly reminded that Dustin Rhodes spent a bunch of time as Black Reign in the aughts. Oh my goodness, the post-9/11 aughts are so weird. Anyway, this is going to end up offering viewers some amazingly bad vignette work that I am totally here for. Semi-legendary hype video: Lex Luger is dead! No, seriously, it’s Luger in a coffin, and then his spirit leaves his body and is reborn. Also Ms. Elizabeth is there to bury the old Lex and welcome THE TOTAL PACKAGE. All hail the Total Package! I love Lex’s theme music from his TTP era. Ms. Elizabeth comes out here live on TV after the video ends and throws off her mourning clothing to reveal herself wearing quite the dress. I think seeing her in that dress caused my body to start producing testosterone at the levels that it did back when I was fifteen. Lex TTP stands in the center of the ring and poses like he’s in the Arco Arena back in 1993. Luger is indeed bigger and more shredded than he’s ever been, though as with Scott Steiner, that’s going to cause his mobility and overall in-ring work to falter quite a bit. Steiner was able to compensate with character work and by hitting a lot of suplexes, but I’m not sure about how Luger will fare. Hogan is in the back, having someone work on his knee, which Hogan claims that he can’t bend. Hogan: JUST CUT MY DAMN PANTS OFF SO I CAN GET GOING. Sting runs in and pops Hogan in the knee with his bat again. Rey Misterio Jr. (w/The Filthy Animals) comes to the ring, and Dean Malenko (w/The Revolution) is his opponent in a call back to a typical 1996 Nitro matchup. Eddy tries to square up with Saturn and gets backed away. Malenko wants the Revolution to go back to the dressing room even though Douglas wants to be there for back-watching purposes, and Rey does the same with the Animals. Rey and Dean then have a throwback to one of their 1996 matches, something Tony S. notes. Lots of counters and switches and fast-paced exchanges start the match, and they arm drag one another and then go chest-to-chest in what is the best possible “two guys work a speedy series of counters to start and then have a standoff” spot. They come together and tangle again, and they end up both fighting over position on the top rope and punching each other at the same time like they’re Superman and Doomsday; both men fall to the floor. When they re-enter the ring, they continue to counter and counter and counter, occasionally scoring two counts on flash pinfall attempts. After some more counters, Rey tries a springboard rana and gets snatched out of mid-air and powerbombed for two; soon after, Dean stuffs some more Rey razzle-dazzle and hits a backbreaker for another two count. We go to split screen as Sid and Rick Steiner pull up in their car, and I swear to sweet fuck, do not send these bastards out here to break up this match. Thankfully, Rey does finagle a counter roll-up for three before they can bust up the match itself. This, by the way, was the best possible type of counter-focused match. Good work from them. They shake hands after the match. Much like Blitzkrieg and Kanyon’s work, you can point to matches like the ones Dean and Rey had in WCW as forming the basis for what a lot of modern fans consider peak workrate, for good and for ill. We go right into another match, this time Hugh Morrus (w/Jimmy Hart) facing off with Goldberg as Goldberg continues his march through the sorry-ass First Family. Morrus hasn’t had much for Goldberg since the latter’s very first Nitro match. I love, as we follow Goldberg in from the back, that Doug Dellinger visibly winces at the sound of Goldberg bashing his head against the door before coming out of his locker room. I am never going to get sick of this whole presentation and Goldberg’s aura in general. You can say that he had a police escort and the sparklers and all this ga-ga to help him, but as far as I’m concerned, Goldberg has the most physical charisma of any wrestler ever, straight up. I don’t know who number two is, but it’s not a small gap between that person and Goldberg. It’s the little things, not just the big power stuff. For example, Morrus tries to fight up with forearms, so Goldberg looks at him like he can’t believe Morrus is even bothering and then jams two forearms into Morrus’s jaw for the one that Morrus throws back at him. Come on, that’s just an awesome spot. There’s more than one way to be a great worker. Sid comes out and hits Goldberg with a chair behind the ref’s back, but it’s a mere chair. Morrus lands a Savage Elbow and has Goldberg in jail for a bit; Goldberg tosses out a couple of wild haymakers that miss entirely. If only Morrus was any good, he’d toss out some impact offense that might make Goldberg seem like he’s remotely in trouble, but other than the elbow and the No Laughing Matter, he is completely worthless, just awful in control. I sure hope he’s better at selling offense for long stretches when he turns babyface in a couple of months. Finally, after a boring chinlock and some aimless offense, Morrus lands a No Laughing Matter that Goldberg kicks out of at two. Morrus has nothing left after that; Goldberg manages to ignore a corner charge and land a spear, then hits a quick Jackhammer for three and gets out of dodge with a victory. After the match, Goldberg gets a microphone and invites Sid out to the ring for a few fisticuffs; Sid declines the proposal. We see an ambulance take off, but we didn’t see Hogan get loaded into it, so I’m guessing we’re getting a bait-and-switch and we’ll find out later that Shane Douglas attacked Eddy Guerrero with a lead pipe off screen or something of that nature [Editor's note: Nope!]. It’s another Nitro Girls search section that I’m going to gloss over. I’m curious to know if they’re going to actually find someone through this contest or if nothing comes of it. I haven’t recognized any of the women who have been trotted out so far. No spoilers on this, of course, please. Gene Okerlund hosts again. Kimberly and Sharmell are out here, too, and um, JamesMcAvoysweatingprofusely.gif. Evan Karagias makes his way to the ring; Berlyn (w/THE WALL, BROTHER) shouldn’t have too much trouble with the future Three Count member. It literally just dawned on me that he’s called THE WALL, BROTHER because he’s bodyguarding Berlyn and is therefore Berlyn’s Wall. Fucking dummkopfs in creative, that is some silly wordplay nonsense. There is a shot of some random fans of Uta Ludendorff in the crowd. Who makes signs for Uta? I’m judging your fandom, four people in the crowd with Uta Ludendorff signs. Anyway, she’s not anywhere to be seen because she was all wrong for her role. Actually, Berlyn’s whole entourage has been shrunk down to just THE WALL, BROTHER. Berlyn, who is not Alex Wright at all, no sirree, demands total silence from the crowd while he wrestles via David Penzer, just like Alex Wright used to. Karagias actually has a little babyface fire, so Berlyn quells it by suckering him in and poking him in the eye; then, a few seconds later, Berlyn hits a sick high knee. Damn, that was such a good high knee that I would have bought it as the finish. He also tosses Karagias around with an overhead release belly-to-belly. Karagias hangs Berlyn up on the ropes and makes a tiny comeback, but THE WALL, BROTHER hits Karagias with a slightly mistimed punch as Karagias barely keeps his footing while trying a springboard move. Berlyn follows with a reverse neckbreaker for three and a post-match neck crank. Brad Armstrong runs down for the save and gets clobbered. HAHAHAHAHA, Goldberg busts into Sid’s locker room, accosts the poor guy (named Moses, as we find out) who valeted his car, and then rips the keys away. OH YEAH, I KNOW WHAT’S COMING, AND I LOVE IT. Dopey David Flair sits backstage and tries to track down Torrie Wilson through a series of phone calls. Why don’t you head off and try to find her, David? Spend the next eighteen months or so looking for her, and report back on whether you located her on the first Nitro of April, 2001. The rest of the WTRs escort the Windham Brothers to the ring for another shot at the WCW World Tag Team Championships; Harlem Heat make it to the ring, and Stevie Ray has apparently recovered from that Rick Steiner 4x4 attack from the previous Thunder. I’m sorry, but I can’t get up for another matchup between these teams. Kendall is so bad, man, his strikes are bad and his timing is shit and he doesn’t space himself very well to take moves. Booker and Stevie have no problem working over Kendall and then Barry. Stevie gets two on a spinning kick to Barry, but whiffs on a corner charge as we go into a commercial. We come back and it’s Booker in trouble and Kendall in the ring with him. Kendall slaps on a chinlock, and yeah, let’s move it along to the finish. Booker works up from it and gets a crossbody for two, but Barry makes the save and then reasserts control of the match by tagging in and landing a DDT on Book. Book gets tossed to ringside, where Hennig and Bill work on him, before Barry dumps him back inside the ring. This is a looooooooooong heel control segment, but eventually, Stevie Ray gets a tag belt and clobbers Barry in the knee with it, which, um, allows Booker to cover for three? That’s it. That’s the match. Even Tony S. is sort of confused by the finish. It's another phone call segment! We zoom in on the Yellow Pages, turned to the TOWING section, and see Goldberg make a phone call to one of the businesses on the page. WELCOME. TO THA. SNORE FEST. ZZZ ZZZ. ZZZ ZZZ. I think about getting another cup of coffee and making it very strong as Rick Steiner walks down the aisle. This dope insists on trying to talk before the match every time out, and it sucks every time out. Steiner’s out here to sub for Sid and take care of Van Hammer, who challenged Sid as the winner of Thunder’s main event. It wasn’t exactly hard for Steiner to take Van Hammer down back at this year’s Bash at the Beach, and it’s not that hard now. Other than an overhead release belly-to-back, this match is a total snoozer of a squash and ends with a diving bulldog for three after Charles Robinson helps Steiner moot a brief Hammer comeback by helping to block Hammer’s Cobra Clutch Slam attempt, and yes, that spot’s as stupid as it sounds. An un-scarred Bret Hart comes to the ring and tells Gene Okerlund that Package's full-swung bat to the face only gave him a couple of stitches. OK. This is almost as bad as HHH using a sledgehammer as a weapon, but never actually swinging it and only using the handle to hit guys. He lectures TTP about the history of wrestling, respect for greatness, etc., etc. Ric Flair walks down to the ring while Bret is talking about how much he respects Ric in what is certainly a work rather than a shoot. Flair goes into conniptions and declares that he and the Hitman will take out the heels tonight by themselves. Let me guess, Hogan’s going to limp back out here and save the day [Editor's note: Yup!]. The crowd loves this crazy man Flair shit as he pantomimes wrestling moves, but I’m not into it. Bret is irritated when Flair threatens to fuck Liz and thrusts his hips, hahaha! He was sort of smiling at all the pantomime until then. Oh, man. Just let Bret work Benoit and Booker and Rey and Eddy in the upper-midcard if you’re not going to use him effectively in the main event, WCW. Unfortunately, David Flair tracked down Torrie quicker than I’d hoped. She pretends to be at the airport, but she’s actually chilling with the Filthy Animals backstage. It was so nice when those two weren’t on television for a few weeks. So, so nice. Sid walks up to Moses and asks where his car keys are. Moses says that Goldberg took the keys. Sid: GOLDBERG?! AW, MOSES, GEEZ. Sid is fucking hilarious. I love the idea that Sid's the kind of heel who'll powerbomb wrestlers that aren't even bothering him, but he merely gets a bit frustrated at the valet, whose name he's bothered to learn and remember, for giving his car keys to his archrival. Konnan comes to the ring for his first match in a minute or two. I guess he got his legal issues cleared up. Konnan hits the Catchphrase Roulette, which is still over. He’s facing one of the Revolution guys; Perry Saturn’s his opponent, specifically. They do some okay mat wrestling to start and trade control back and forth. Saturn gets a bit of momentum by working the arm in a series of armbars and keylocks and such. Saturn hits a fine keylock takeover, then tries a cross-armbreaker. They end up standing again and crash into one another; we get a standing ten-count and then a Konnan cover for two as we go into break. After the break, Saturn’s got Konnan set up top for an overhead superplex; he hits it, then goes back to locking the arm up. Konnan doesn’t give up, and Saturn again tries something different instead of sticking with the submission hold. He slams Konnan and lands a Savage Elbow for two. Saturn has lovely form on his Savage Elbows. Saturn finally gets caught leaping over Konnan in the corner; Konnan hits a flapjack to get some space before getting overhead suplexed on the ground, this time for two. Saturn takes his time going up, but gets caught and pressed off the top rope for two. Konnan scores a rolling clothesline for another two count, then drives a mule kick into Saturn’s gut and hits a sit-out facebuster. None of that matters much; Chavo leads a group of luchadores, including Psicosis, Juvi, and Silver King out to attack Konnan. Alright, so as the bell rings, we get a bunch of ga-ga. First, the rest of the Filthy Animals come down to even things up, and Saturn helps them until Shane Douglas runs down and drags Saturn out of the ring. Saturn is irate that Shane interceded, and he and the rest of the Revolution bicker with Douglas, who says that Saturn needed his help and is too stupid to accept it. I mean, who gives a shit about the Revolution? They’re a shitty group. However, I am glad to see them breaking up and would encourage them to break up more quickly so that Shane can be a heel because he’s a terrible babyface. Sid storms into the parking lot and walks up to his car. Oh good, he found it! However, he doesn’t have his keys, so he leaves to find those. Right after that, the fine folks at Auto Fund show up to tow his car away. Auto Fund, the number one towing service serving the Greater Atlanta area! After a DDP/Ric Flair video retrospective, Goldberg shows up and tells the tow truck driver, “You know what you gotta do. Just make sure you have it back here by eleven tonight.” Auto Fund also sells and buys salvage. We do our own auto crushing and disposal on site! Auto Fund: Atlanta’s one-stop tow-and-salvage shop! Diamond Dallas Page interviews with Gene Okerlund at the bottom of the ramp. Page claims that Atlanta loves him because he managed to score a hottie like Kimberly. He also claims that’s why Atlanta hates him. However, the reason that they’ll never forget him is because he delivers the goods, two-time, two-time, etc. Well, he changed it up, so good for him. Okerlund asks where Page’s “guys” are, but Page talks about the Total Package and Sting, not Kanyon and Bam Bam. Page threatens his babyface opponents in the main event. Psicosis wrestles Billy Kidman in a Luchas de Apuestas match, and let me tell you, I don’t like Psicosis’s chances considering the record of luchadores in these types of matches here in WCW. I’ll never stop saying that Nash and Company wasting Psicosis’s Cruiserweight Championship win is one of the second-tier biggest WCW fumbles of the booking in the Nitro Era. There’s no suspense in this match at all even though I’ve never seen it. Kidman tumbles to the floor after charging at Psicosis; Psicosis ducks out of the way, then follows with a springboard seated moonsault to the floor. He tries to press his advantage back in the ring, but dives right into a counter dropkick. Kidman signals that he’s going to take off Psicosis’s mask, which is when Chavo Jr. and Juventud Guerrera run down to the ring. That distracts Kidman, and Psicosis DDTs him for two. Both men trade moves as I wonder why you’d bring a bunch of masked luchadores in as themselves and not just unmask them from the start and give them different names. Anyway, this match is fine, but it’s focused on jibber-jabber more than it is on anything else, which makes me just want to take things to the finish. Psicosis hits a top-rope Frankensteiner for 2.5. Kidman fires up with punches, so Psicosis dumps him outside, and Chavo stomps him out before tossing him back into the ring. Psicosis crotches Kidman on the top rope, then goes up and lands a diving wheel kick for two more. Can anything put Kidman away? Not in this match as far as Psicosis is concerned, who loses a punch-fest, but is able to dodge a dropkick. He ends up walking into a Sky High that gets two, but dropkicks Kidman’s legs out from under him on a rope run. Psicosis goes up, gets caught, but lands a diving facebuster from the top for yet another two count. Kidman is able to catch Psicosis coming out of the corner and hit a powerslam, but Juvi yanks Psicosis out of the ring and Chavo hits a tornado DDT on Kidman behind the ref’s back. Psicosis gets back in the ring…and still only gets two. OK, sure. Psicosis and Chavo distract the ref again, but Kidman kicks out of the Juvi Driver that Juventud delivers at two. This sucks. I can’t believe we’re pushing Kidman as multiple levels above all three of these guys. Kidman hits a facebuster out of a powerbomb attempt by Psicosis, knocks Chavo and Juvi off the apron, then hits an SSP on Psicosis for three. They put Kidman, a guy who can’t even talk and is like the sixth-best cruiserweight on this show, essentially over three other cruiserweights who are all better than him. I don’t care that he’s over with the crowd; he’s not a guy who is going to be anything more than a fairly over babyface at the top of the midcard. Chavo has that ceiling as well, but Chavo’s far more versatile. I hated this booking, and the match was barely worthwhile to boot. Kidman rips the mask off on a rebound bulldog after Psicosis resists, and the Filthy Animals run down and clear the ring. Diamond Dallas Page, the Total Package, and Sting (w/Ms. Elizabeth) face off with Ric Flair and Bret Hart in a three-on-two handicap match, at least until Hulk Hogan drags his worthless carcass out here. Sting still appears to be pretty much over as a babyface. Michael Buffer’s Ring Announcing Quality Control: “The best there is, the best there ever was…” It’s a tiny error, but hey, I’ll point it out. It's funny that even though Sting is a heel and Flair is a babyface, they manage to wrestle the exact same way they usually do. Sting no-sells all his show and howls. Flair cheats to get an advantage. The only difference is that Sting responds to Flair’s cheating with some cheating of his own, but then again, Sting’s done that before as a babyface against Flair, too. Flair is one of the least versatile workers I’ve ever seen, even if I know if he wanted to, he could be versatile. I’ve seen him do it. Bret and TTP get in the ring next, and Bret exacts a bit of revenge, but Page knocks him over when he locks on an early Sharpshooter. The heels commence upon a series of quick tags to work over the Hitman. Tony S. tries to get over that Sting’s secretly been a dick this whole time, which really is never going to work, but he does redeem himself a bit by being put out that Liz sent a memo to all of WCW’s announcers that Luger should only be referred to as the Total Package on commentary. Bret gets a flash pinfall attempt in there, but mostly just takes a beating. We’re coming to the end of Bret’s WCW run, and WCW’s absurd misuse of him over two-ish years is legendary, at least in my mind. They spent month after month trying to establish him as a heel for some dumb reason and barely put him in any dream feuds. Flair eventually gets a hot tag and actually hits a run of effective offense on Sting, of all people. Bret holds off Page and Package while Flair locks a Figure Four on in the center of the ring. That’s when Liz hands Luger the foam bat; Luger jumps Bret from behind and chokes him out with it, then gets in the ring and slams it down on Flair’s throat. The bell rings for a DQ; David Flair runs in and clears the ring. Oops, no, sorry, he’s immediately dropped and stomped out. Then we see a shot of an empty ambulance that has returned to the backstage area. The babyfaces, and I guess David Flair is included in that group, take more of a beating until a gimpy Hogan limps out here in a leg brace. Hogan knocks down all three heels, grabs the bat, and batters Page and Package with it; Sting bails. Wow, Hulkster, our conquering hero! I’m glad they made sure that Hogan looked strong! Sid walks out to the parking lot with his keys and his duffel bag, spots his crushed automobile, and then delivers this dialogue in the awesomest way possible: OH MY GOD! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CAR?! *hops on top of crushed car* GOLDBERG! WHERE ARE YOU? GOLDBERG!!! GOLDBERG!!!!!! *raises arms to heavens* GOLLLLDBERRRRRG!!!!!! I’m tempted to give this show five Stinger Splashes just for Sid’s performance, but alas, as much cheesy goodness and unadulterated joy as it provided me, it’s not going to carry this show over 3 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. Edited August 14 by SirSmUgly 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 The thing with Flair is that as a young man he saw a Ray Stevens match that didn't feature any of Ray Steven's signature spots and he was disappointed, so he put together a touring match with all his stuff in it. The problem is he started doing the touring match ever week on TV. It like the comedian who killed his career by doing his whole act on Carson one time 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just drew Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 I was at this show. It was mashed ass. Also, the "Suck me, beautiful" sign was in reference to one of the American Pie movies. I don't remember if it was the first or second... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 14 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: Show #208 – 27 September 1999 Psicosis wrestles Billy Kidman in a Luchas de Apuestas match, and let me tell you, I don’t like Psicosis’s chances considering the record of luchadores in these types of matches here in WCW. I’ll never stop saying that Nash and Company wasting Psicosis’s Cruiserweight Championship win is one of the second-tier biggest WCW fumbles of the booking in the Nitro Era. Both men trade moves as I wonder why you’d bring a bunch of masked luchadores in as themselves and not just unmask them from the start and give them different names. Psicosis unmasking was not WCW's choice (not totally anyway). Psicosis had lost his mask in Mexico a week or two before (edit: it was a month before, to Rey Mysterio [Sr.]) and i think they made the choice of having him also lose it on TV, rather than just show up unmasked. fully agree about Kidman being pushed WAY too strong. they should elevate him even more and get him in a feud with the Hulkster. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 (edited) 16 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: He suggests that maybe some of the ladies in the crowd have the stature to be effective offensive linespeople for the Atlanta Falcons, and then in a MEAN camera cut, they show one of the larger young ladies in the crowd. UNCALLED FOR, Leathers! If people have to defend their lives, Albert Brooks-style, there are going to be a lot of producers with a lot to answer for! Last night I was rewatching an episode of Hells Kitchen and during the teaser at the end, they showed two women fighting and the voiceover said something along the lines of "But will their fighting awaken a slumbering giant" and cut to one of the larger ladies in bed and added kind of a rumbling/hellbeast growling noise to the scene. 16 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: OH MY GOD! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CAR?! *hops on top of crushed car* GOLDBERG! WHERE ARE YOU? GOLDBERG!!! GOLDBERG!!!!!! *raises arms to heavens* GOLLLLDBERRRRRG!!!!!! Terrible influence that I am, I not only got my younger brother into wrestling but my wonderful sister into it, for a while, too. I think this may have been the episode where she quit. But for years afterward, whenever any of us experienced a minor frustration, it would often result in us raising our arms to the heavens and shouting "GOLDBERG!" Edited August 14 by caley 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 14 Author Share Posted August 14 Thunder Interlude – show number eighty-two – 30 September 1999 "The WCW Gang sheds another promising wrestler, barely stays on the right side of the WOO ledger" Let’s Thunder, and you know what, this show needs a new opening badly…They still have the HOLLYWOOD sign and nWo Nash and Hogan all up in the video… After a little bit of chatter from the commentary desk, Juventud Guerrera comes to the ring as part of a trios tag match…He’s teaming with La Parka and an unmasked Psicosis…Silver King and Villanos IV and V are their opponent!...Hey, Villano IV was last seen as Kanyon and Raven were spiking him into the mat (Nitro Show #158)…Tenay mentions only that Kanyon was a part of that match since Raven’s in E-C-W, E-C-W now…La Parka dances and gets a pop…PUSH LA PARKA, YOU IDIOTS…WCW has all this talent that they can’t be bothered to properly push who should be part of a vibrant, interesting midcard…They gave Parka a little storyline feud against Disco awhile ago and that was it for him… Parka has awesome physical charisma and gets the crowd laughing as he makes fun of the Villanos just by strutting…Psicosis and Juvi nicely combine on a tag and a Juvi springboard missile dropkick…I’m going to keep complaining…The tag titles would be better served on a Freebird-rule using trio of Chavo Jr., Psicosis, and Juvi than they are on Harlem Heat…This is a solid opener…I wouldn’t call it a HOT CRUISERWEIGHT OPENER as the crowd has been conditioned not to care about any cruiserweight who isn’t Rey, Kidman, or Eddy…I’m not sure a HOT CRUISERWEIGHT OPENER is possible anymore here in WCW unless at least one of those guys is involved… Lord knows the men in the ring work hard to engage the crowd, though…Lots of nice, impactful moves and fun taunting…To their credit, they do work the crowd into things by the end…La Parka is a big part of that, but the heels are scummy enough that the crowd is into the finish…That, and they hit a bunch of dives to build up to a Juvi Driver/Guillotine Legdrop that gives Psicosis’s team the pinfall victory…Solid stuff… Power Plant student Adrian Byrd gets a run-out for a squashin’, and the person doing the squashin’ is Norman Smiley!...Byrd actually lands a dropkick and some stomps to start…No offense, but ain’t nobody here to see all that…Smiley quickly lands a swinging slam and hits a Big Wiggle…Yep, that’s what we’re here to see...Byrd gets too much damn offense in…This is far too competitive for my taste…We want to see dancing and weird European suplexes and holds, my dude…Pack that all into two minutes or so and we’re good…Instead, this match sort of stinks because Byrd is green as grass…Smiley finally locks a Norman Conquest on for the victory… Mona cuts an interview with Gene Okerlund in the aisle…She gets a nice pop here in Chattanooga…I think it’s definitely in part because of her work and her ability to cleanly hit high spots, but also as an admission of our baser natures, it’s the dress…The dress has got me all fucked up…She’s fine as a promo, but whoever came up with the Molly Holly idea for her in the WWF got it spot on because she’s got a “golly gee shucks, nice young Midwestern woman” thing going on that made the whole Molly Holly gimmick perfect for her… Brandi Alexander jumps Mona in the aisle and goes to town on her…This match was supposed to happen later tonight, but Mickey Jay comes out here and signals for that match to start now…Mona fights from underneath while Alexander mostly stomps and chokes and pulls hair...And nostrils…Mona scores a couple of flash pinfall attempts, but mostly gets beaten up…Mona comes back and tries an Indian Deathlock/chinlock combo, but Alexander gets to the ropes…Mona pulls a Steve Austin and lands a Thesz Press, then bashes Alexander’s face against the mat rather than simply throwing punches…Mona tries a series of slams and suplexes, but can only get two…Stomps, buckle bonks, handspring elbow, but still no three count for Mona…Mona sits Alexander up top and drills a top-rope Frankensteiner that finally does get three…WCW should build a Thunder-specific women’s division and make this show feel special in some small way… A pre-Shark Boy Dean Roll comes to the ring for a match against, uh, Frankie Lancaster…I assume that Sid is somewhere in the building…Frankie Lancaster looks like if Sam Elliott’s half-brother decided to juice up and become a pro wrestler…Larry Z. is fixated on the multiple bottles worth of baby oil that Lancaster used for this television appearance…I don’t blame him because Lancaster looks a bit ridiculous!...Ha, it’s not Sid, but Scott Norton (!!) who comes out here…I was thinking that we’d seen the last of ol’ Flapjack on our watch…Just in case this is the last time, WCW never did get the most out of him…And maybe I’m one of the few people (only person?) around here who enjoys mid-‘90s Ice Train, but I thought that Fire & Ice had some real potential as a team and was broken up after only about a month for no good reason that I could tell…Those bomb-fests they had against the Steiners were a lot of fun...Anyway, Norton murks these fellas and hands out powerbombs…I guess if Sid did it, Norton can do it, too…Norton grabs a mic and says that if Sid got Goldberg’s attention by doing this, Norton wants Goldberg’s immediate attention in the ring…Cool, I guess Goldberg’ll send Norton on his way out of the company… Goldberg comes to the ring for an interview with Gene Okerlund…He accepts Norton’s challenge for later tonight… Hugh Morrus and Brian Knobbs (w/Jimmy Hart) tag up against Lord Steven Regal and Squire Dave Taylor (w/Fit Finlay [!!!])…Good to see Finlay up and about…And what a sparkly shirt he’s got on, too…Regal takes a Pit Stop and wobbles around, trying not to blow chunks…Heh, Regal finding ways to make Brian Knobbs interesting in 1999, even while Regal is drugged out of his gourd…What a talent…See, Taylor takes a Pit Stop and he reacts like whatever so that he can move on to the next spot…If you’re wrestling a cartoon character like Knobbs, you gotta roll with it and be a cartoon yourself…Finlay rips a chair away from Jimmy Hart, and security runs out, and, uh, ejects only Finlay…I guess Hart’s manager’s license gives him more leeway or something… Meanwhile, Taylor smacks Knobbs with his flagpole…Back in the ring, Taylor headscissors Regal up and over into a standing senton on Knobbs…Such a complex setup for a simple senton splash…Knobbs is the guy in peril in this thing…This control segment with Knobbs being too broken down to even sell very well goes on way too long…He finally gets a hot tag to Morrus…The match immediately breaks down…Knobbs lands a pumphandle slam on Taylor…Regal takes Knobbs out, but Morrus sees his chance, goes up top, and lands a No Laughing Matter on Taylor for three while Regal is distracted…DUD… Gene Okerlund interviews the Revolution in the ring…Shane has to coax the other three guys to come to the ring with him…Douglas walks out pretty much alone, while the other three members hang back and come out together…Saturn doesn’t like that Douglas is taking shortcuts, and if he doesn’t want to stick to the agreed-upon “clean athletics” approach that they all agreed upon the first time around, he says that Shane can get to walking…Shane Douglas, huh, apologizes…I keep waiting for him to do something to immediately break his promise, but no…There’s no tossing anyone through metaphorical barber shop windows…Maybe Douglas is just too outnumbered to do anything right now… *sigh*, Okay, let’s get this Coach Buzz Stern thing over and done with…He escorts Luther Biggs to the ring…Biggs is essentially playing the gimmick of a portly goofball, and I think to myself that if Louie Spicolli were alive, he might be able to get this somewhat over if he were in the Luther Biggs role…Maybe…Bobby Eaton comes to the top of the ramp, looking perturbed…From wrestling the Fantastics and Rock ‘n Rolls to this?!...Biggs wins a hip toss and celebrates…This match is built around Stern coaching his doofus student against a veteran who should probably be doing better against this guy, but is apparently over-the-hill and struggling…This whole thing belongs on Saturday Night, not Thunder…Thunder could be consistently very good if only someone cared about it…It’s not like WCW doesn’t have the talent to make this a must-see show…They don’t even have to run every star out on each Thunder…Just have, like one or two stars show up to continue major angles and then primarily use Thunder to build midcard angles…Stern fucks up the timing on a run-in, I think…After Stern and Biggs bonk one another, the ref counts two and not three on an Eaton neckbreaker and pin…He calls for the bell anyway as Stern attacks first Eaton, then Biggs with a full nelson…Oh man, this is some dreadful television… Brad Armstrong is out here to face Horace Hogan, who I sorta forgot existed…We’re a long ways away from Flock Horace…Armstrong’s a solid worker and Horace always tries, but this is pretty much Dullsville…Tenay announces a match for Halloween Havoc while this borefest drags on…The Total Package/Bret Hart seems like bad booking…Both guys probably need a win after their re-debuts and Luger’s re-packaging…Horace has no B-Teamer or Flock help anymore, so he’s basically food…He misses a corner charge, and Armstrong hits a floatover Side Russian for three off the mistake… Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman are actually over, and it’s nice to have wrestlers like that on Thunder…Their opponents: Kendall Windham and Curly Bill (w/Curt Hennig)…What a vile tag team…Looking forward to these last three guys disappearing from TV so we can get more time for Three Count, the Jung Dragons, the Natural Born Thrillers (except for that bum Shawn Stasiak), and so forth…Let me get excited about a bunch of young talent that unfortunately doesn’t really pan out in the end…Though I contend that Helms, Palumbo, and Jindrak are bigger stars in the United States if WCW lives on under the Turner umbrella and Bischoff doesn't get put in charge of it again… Rey and Kidman should probably be your tag champs sooner rather than later…Harlem Heat is definitely over as a babyface team, but it’s time for Booker to move on…Rey does some nice bumping for these two stiffs from the WTRs…Hell, Curly Bill lands a stalling vertical…It’s impossible to look bad if you’re hitting someone with a stalling vertical…Rey is a miracle worker…He makes a comeback, springboard dropkicks Bill, and gets the hot tag in to Kidman…Windham cuts off Kidman’s comeback by barging into him…Kidman takes a beating and takes over as FIP…A Kidman bulldog causes a second hot tag segment…Kidman is able to help Rey a bit and keep him from falling to the numbers game as happened to him earlier in the match…Bill is able to go up for a top-rope attempt on Kidman after he drops him…Rey, who took out Windham with a dropkick, watches as Kidman gets up and crotches the very slow Bill on the top, then has Kidman lift him into a top-rope Frankensteiner position…He hits it and covers for three… Cagematch tells me that this is indeed the end of the line for Scott Norton in WCW…Man, the heady days of 1995 Nitro seem so long ago…Pre-nWo Nitro was so exciting, livid with promise and possibilities…And now a lot of those guys with promise who offered such tantalizing possibilities in those early days have left or are soon to leave WCW (Giant, Chris Jericho, the future Radicalz, and now Norton himself)…Bummer, man…These fellas just punch each other in the center of the ring to start until Goldberg lands a short right that sends Norton spilling over the top and to the floor…That ruled, man…That ruled hard…They have an obligatory ringside brawl in which they just try to clobber one another…Goldberg eats the post a couple of times, but whatever, he eats posts for breakfast… There’s this narrative that I hear passed around sometimes that crowds were sick of Goldberg by this point in his run…NOPE…Chattanooga loves seeing this guy eat a few posts, then decide to forearm Norton and return the damage…I’m not sick of it either, honestly…No offense to John Cena, who I’m a fan of, but Goldberg feels like the last true top-tier star that American pro wrestling has made…Cena’s great, but IMO, he’s at the top of the second tier and Goldberg’s toward the bottom of the first tier when it comes to American pro wrestling stars…Anyway these big dudes crash into one another back in the ring…They get up and run the ropes, but Norton whiffs on his lariat and Goldberg lands a spear on the rebound…Goldberg sells that his shoulder is injured, but that’s not stopping him from hoisting Norton up for a Jackhammer and a three-count…I enjoyed this…That’s a nice way to go out for Norton… This show mostly stunk once we got past the trios tag opener, but they ran some stars out here in the last couple of matches and brought this show back from the depths and to a WOO…. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted August 14 Author Share Posted August 14 5 hours ago, zendragon said: The thing with Flair is that as a young man he saw a Ray Stevens match that didn't feature any of Ray Steven's signature spots and he was disappointed, so he put together a touring match with all his stuff in it. The problem is he started doing the touring match ever week on TV. It like the comedian who killed his career by doing his whole act on Carson one time I've heard him tell this story, and I think his approach makes perfect sense as a guy touring the world as NWA champion and making a bunch of untelevised title defenses. I'm not sure it makes so much sense when he's working on weekly television in the era where cable television is widely adopted. 3 hours ago, twiztor said: Psicosis unmasking was not WCW's choice (not totally anyway). Psicosis had lost his mask in Mexico a week or two before (edit: it was a month before, to Rey Mysterio [Sr.]) and i think they made the choice of having him also lose it on TV, rather than just show up unmasked. Well, that makes more sense. His unmasking just seemed to come out of nowhere without that context. Quote I fully agree about Kidman being pushed WAY too strong. they should elevate him even more and get him in a feud with the Hulkster. Have you heard this apparently previously unreleased interview that Hogan did after BatB 2000? I was going to pop it into the thread when I got there, but this seems like a reasonable place to put it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzskCeAwV_E 1 hour ago, caley said: If people have to defend their lives, Albert Brooks-style, there are going to be a lot of producers with a lot to answer for! Last night I was rewatching an episode of Hells Kitchen and during the teaser at the end, they showed two women fighting and the voiceover said something along the lines of "But will their fighting awaken a slumbering giant" and cut to one of the larger ladies in bed and added kind of a rumbling/hellbeast growling noise to the scene. I feel slightly better about being a pro wrestling fan when I look at reality television. It's nice that pro wrestling is somehow the programming type with more class for once! Quote Terrible influence that I am, I not only got my younger brother into wrestling but my wonderful sister into it, for a while, too. I think this may have been the episode where she quit. But for years afterward, whenever any of us experienced a minor frustration, it would often result in us raising our arms to the heavens and shouting "GOLDBERG!" I sometimes yell WHY ME?!?! in mock frustration like Sid is probably just about to do on the next Nitro, which I cannot tell you how much it excites me! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 man, it's weird that you mention that Adrian Byrd is too green for TV....he's been jobbing for WCW for 2 1/2 years! i had no idea that Dean Roll is the future Shark Boy...not that i would've noticed, i think this was his only appearance without the mask. 29 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said: Have you heard this apparently previously unreleased interview that Hogan did after BatB 2000? I was going to pop it into the thread when I got there, but this seems like a reasonable place to put it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzskCeAwV_E holy shit, i had not heard that before. Listening to Hogan talk about how he "made" Kidman and that Kidman should have been going on to beat Goldberg and Jarrett and win the belt is ridiculous! i hope you keep this in mind when we get to the actual Hogan/Kidman match(? series? i don't remember). because Hogan did NOT make Kidman look like a major star and main eventer. fucking ridiculous. oh god, then he goes on to say that he puts over everybody. to quote the Natural, FUCC HULK HOGAN! WAIT, now he's hating on Kidman because he's not deserving. JESUS, this guy is a real piece of shit. He says that Kidman gets no reaction. That seems like a direct divergence from your observations. it's all about the narrative, BROTHER. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 I just have to say this thread has become part of my morning routine: (weather permitting), I like to take a cup of coffee, some sort of breakfast deal (Bagel, Costco chocolate muffin, even once a bowl of watermelon), out to the patio with my tablet and hope to read one of these reviews before the sun gets above the treeline and incinerates me. So thanks again for this thread! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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