SirSmUgly Posted March 16 Author Posted March 16 Promos, Spots, and Skits that Aren’t Quite HOLY SHIT MOMENTS that Are Worth Watching/Adding to Your Playlist WCW just isn't a promo or skit company, which really hurt it as it tried to match the WWF at the WWF's strength and failed miserably. Spoiler § Sting and Luger agree to a Chicago Street Fight against the Road Warriors; Luger is from the Chicago suburbs and doesn’t quite know what a Chicago Street Fight is (Nitro, 2/26/96) § Sting chews Luger out, shames Luger into better behavior (Nitro, 2/26/96) § Lex Luger has a grueling defense of his TV Title against Loch Ness (Nitro, 3/18/96) § The Giant chokeslams Lex Luger through a banquet table (Nitro, 5/13/96) § Ric Flair follows up a victory over Eddy Guerrero with a great run on commentary (Nitro, 5/20/96) § Lord Steven Regal interview with Gene Okerlund [BONUS: Video of Regal backhanding Sting’s very soul into dust] (Nitro, 6/3/96) § Scott Hall and Sting confrontation (Nitro, 6/3/96) § Kevin Nash wants you to look at the adjective verb PLAY (Nitro, 6/10/96) § Big Bubba is a real dick to John Tenta (Nitro, 6/17/96) § Hollywood Hogan’s first heel promo on Nitro [and WCW’s response] (Nitro, 7/15/96) § The Outsiders invade the control truck (Nitro, 7/22/96) § The Horsemen fuck up the Booty Man’s world and Arn cuts an awesome promo (Nitro, 8/5/96) § Early nWo paid-for promo/Sting and Luger run up on Craig Leathers in the production truck for playing the promo (Nitro, 8/5/96) § Hollywood Hogan and the nWo cut a promo backstage [and Hogan is good at it for maybe the only time in his whole nWo run] (Nitro, 8/12/96) § Sting and Lex Luger ask the Horsemen to be added to their War Games team (Nitro, 8/19/96) § Sting quits WCW because they really don’t appreciate him enough (Nitro, 9/16/96) § Hall and Nash formally invite DDP into the nWo for the first time (Nitro, 11/11/96) § Hall, Nash, Syxx, a Cable Ace Award, and some nWo sign-holding nerds harass Larry Zbyszko and talk themselves up in general (Nitro, 11/11/96) § Hall and Nash destroy two tag teams, then have a wild brawl with the Faces of Fear (Nitro, 11/18/96) § Masahiro Chono backstabs Sonny Onoo, starts nWo Japan (Nitro, 12/16/96) § Crow Sting shows up to help WCW, WCW is too stupid to accept it, Sting rolls out (Nitro, 12/16/96) § The Horsemen squabble after Benoit vs. Jarrett (Nitro, 1/13/97) § Scott Steiner tells Kevin Nash that “at Souled Out, there ain’t gonna be no basketball” in a promo (Nitro, 1/13/97) § The first of the “face comes to the ring and beats up jobbers” spots with Randy Savage, plus a bonus Sting appearance (Nitro, 1/20/97) § DDP fakes out the nWo again; the crowd loves it (Souled Out, 1/25/97) § The Giant appreciates Lex Luger’s faith in him, promises to win the tag belts for them both (Nitro, 2/10/97) § Mongo and Jarrett argue over Jarrett’s suitability for Horsemanship and the result of their SuperBrawl VII match (Nitro, 2/24/97) § Ric Flair saves a bad Piper promo segment with a very good promo about replacing Piper’s Family with the Horsemen at Uncensored ’97 (Nitro, 3/10/97) § Arn Anderson squashes beef with Kevin Sullivan, low-key retires (Nitro, 3/17/97) § Lord Regal cuts a promo, isn’t having any of those “planchas and hunnacanranas” in his matches! (Nitro, 3/31/97) § Debra is very mean, claims that Rocco Rock shaved his head because he didn’t know that a special shampoo for head lice existed, generally cuts a hilarious post-match promo (Nitro, 3/31/97) § Lord Steven Regal discusses the state of Sarah Ferguson’s vagina, job opportunities in the American Midwest, and Ultimo Dragon (Nitro, 4/21/97) § DDP dresses up as La Parka, surprises Randy Savage with a Diamond Cutter (Nitro, 7/7/97) § Stevie Richards negotiates Raven’s contract, does a poor job, means well (Nitro, 7/22/97) § Konnan insults Rey Misterio Jr., threatens Gene Okerlund, is generally hilarious (Nitro, 8/25/97) § Chris Jericho loses to Mongo, wakes up, throws a tantrum, and spoils Rey Misterio Jr.’s night with a sneak attack (Nitro, 1/12/98) § Kevin Nash cuts a fun promo on the Giant (Thunder, 1/22/98) § Kidman and Saturn jump Rick Martel backstage and toss him through a glass door, Barber Shop-style (Thunder, 1/22/98) § Randy Savage masters the art of sarcasm in what is a pretty great promo on Hulk Hogan (Nitro, 1/26/98) § Hall hits the sickest of burns on Larry Z. in his pre-match promo (“exposed like a pervert in a raincoat at a peep show”) (Nitro, 1/26/98) § Chris Jericho sends Lenny Lane out during a Juventud Guerrera match to pull a bait-and-switch on Dean Malenko (Thunder, 3/12/98) § Gene Okerlund verbally destroys Dean Malenko after Malenko’s loss to Jericho (Uncensored, 3/15/98) § 1) Nash and 2) Hall show up to Spring Breakout sauced, confront the Giant, and 1) escapes the Giant by bellyflopping into the pool while 2) is wedgied and tossed by the Giant into the pool (Nitro, 3/16/98) § Raven and Buff Bagwell have a match that is interrupted by Diamond Dallas Page, and everything up to Page’s promo is great (Nitro, 3/30/98) § Eddy Guerrero makes Chavo apologize to grandma for getting her kicked out of the Potluck Club (Nitro, 4/6/98) § Chris Jericho weighs Prince Iaukea, ends up attacking him with the weigh-in scale (Thunder, 4/9/98) § Chavo Jr. does a little slap-slap-kiss with Uncle Eddy after losing to Dean Malenko, but not in the usual romantic comedy way (Thunder, 5/21/98) § Lex Luger joins the nWo Wolfpac, the state of Indiana EXPLODES with joy (Nitro, 5/26/98) § Raven confronts Saturn after Saturn defeats Reese; Raven’s promo is both mean and compelling, and his Evenflow is devastating (Nitro, 6/29/98) § Be vewy vewy qwiet, Chavo’s hunting Uncle Eddy (and failing at it)! (Thunder, 7/2/98) § Lee Marshall interviews Konnan at the CompuServe desk, magic happens (Bash at the Beach, 7/12/98) § Chris Jericho baits-and-switches a gullible Fall Brawl crowd, beats up mini-Goldberg, celebrates with a foam world title (Fall Brawl, 9/13/98) § Chris Jericho makes his entrance to rematch mini-Goldberg, ends up having to hightail it away from the real deal (Nitro, 9/28/98) § Raven cuts a riotous promo in which he accuses his mother of aspiring to outdo Judy Bagwell on WCW television (Nitro, 12/21/98) § Chris Jericho and Ralphus put on a fashion show (Thunder, 2/18/99) § Ric Flair and Arn Anderson have a conversation in which Ric subtly realizes that he needs to get back to the tactics that made him a force in the 1980s (Thunder, 3/4/99) § Ric Flair attempts to dap Stevie Ray, Stevie is bummed about it (Nitro, 5/3/99) § Randy Savage asks Rey Misterio Jr. to join Team Madness, Rey declines, all hell breaks loose (Thunder, 5/20/99) § Ernest Miller trolls the Sturgis crowd during his bout against Buff Bagwell (Road Wild, 8/14/99) § Scott Steiner returns, cuts nutty and entertaining promo about his quest to sleep with more women than Wilt Chamberlain and his plans to get back at Hulk Hogan for leaving the nWo (Nitro, 9/20/99) § Lex Luger is dead, but the Total Package lives! (Nitro, 9/27/99) § James Brown and Ernest Miller cut a rug together (SuperBrawl X, 2/20/00) § Chavo Jr. explains how his attempt at being a salesman failed, steals Okerlund’s watch to recoup his material assets (Thunder, 3/1/00) § Kanyon drops Kanyon Kutters on random people (Nitro, Thunder, and PPV, summer of 2000) § Jeff Jarrett makes Dave Penzer read his screed about Booker T. not being in attendance at the show, KABONGs him immediately afterward (Thunder, 8/9/00) § Tony S. riles Orndorff all the way up by using his interview questions to dish all the dirt he can on the Natural Born Thrillers disrespecting their former trainer Orndorff backstage. (Thunder, 8/30/00) § Meng cuts an emotional, impassioned promo about needing to save his job by beating Goldberg (Nitro, 10/2/00)
SirSmUgly Posted March 16 Author Posted March 16 HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS DUMB (BUT ENTERTAINING) MOMENTS Hulk Hogan and Vampiro are two of the most unintentionally funny people ever. Spoiler v The Giant runs over Hulk Hogan’s motorcycle (Nitro, 9/18/95) v Old Woman Sullivan and the Giant beat Hulk Hogan up and shave a Hitler mustache into his face (Nitro, 10/2/95) v Sister Sherri/Colonel Rob Parker marriage ceremony (Clash of the Champions 32, 1/23/96) v Miss Elizabeth’s high heel starts a run of victories that even Goldberg would be jealous of (Nitro, 1/29/96) v Kevin Greene and Mongo McMichael talk wrestling strategy (Nitro, 6/3/96) v The Steiner Brothers commentate and also recite a few nursery rhymes as the BLUE BLOODS EXPLODE (Nitro, 8/26/96) v A Four Horsemen promo happens, and Chris Benoit tells Mongo McMichael to talk to the hand (Nitro, 12/23/96) v Renegade really dicks over his partner Joe Gomez on the hot tag (Nitro, 3/17/97) v The IT’S WCW/nWo UNCENSORED promo, complete with lots of dumb rhymes and Wrath mouthing the line RULES ARE FOR FOOLS (SuperBrawl VII, Nitro, and Thunder in February and March of 1998) v Florida Man jumps Raven while Raven sits in the corner of the ring and soliloquizes (Thunder, 4/9/98) v Randy Savage cuts a promo, appears to be confused about how “did” and “did not” are defined; also is unsure of which species of bird an “icon” is. (Thunder, 5/21/98) v Judy Bagwell confronts her fuck-up son, parents him in the only way a Southern woman in her fifties would know how at the time (through physical violence), scores a big pop (Nitro, 10/5/98) v Ernest Miller insults the crowd, insults Santa, is beaten up by Santa because it’s Saturn in the Santa suit (Nitro, 12/21/98) v Randy Savage and Sid try to get Gorgeous George back from Nash, are given multiple meeting points, generally freak out in a hilarious way (Thunder, 7/1/99) v Arliss – not Robert Wuhl, but Arliss – promotes a PPV match between Randy Savage and a purse-wielding Dennis Rodman while Mona and Madusa brawl in the ring. Must be seen to be believed (Nitro, 7/19/99) v Curly Bill proposes that he becomes the newest member of the West Texas Rednecks (Nitro, 9/6/99) v Stevie Ray mean mugs the camera at the end of a Harlem Heat promo, does it so long that he can’t hold his laughter in, creates classic GIF in the process (Nitro, 9/6/99) v Kevin Nash makes one of these overlong video package recaps worth it, does his best NFL Films commentator impression over a Sid/Goldberg package (Thunder, 10/14/99) v The Total Package tries desperately to get out of his match with Syko Sid Vicious (Thunder, 12/2/99) v Late-stage WCW blesses us with a Filthy Animals and Hacksaw Duggan vs. The Revolution mic battle that makes zero sense, is dumb and cringeworthy at times, and never fails to entertain (except maybe when Malenko is heeling) (Thunder, 12/23/99) v Ernest Miller makes Gene Okerlund crack after offering to “sell [his] foot to [Okerlund’s] ass” after Okerlund insists that Miller would be a shady used car salesman (Thunder, 2/9/00) v Hulk Hogan snarls out a lesson about the intricacies of the STRAPATION, DUDES; forgets that it’s the year 2000 and not 1985 (Nitro, 3/6/00) v THAT’S THE WALL, BROTHER (Nitro, 3/27/00) v Sting and Vampiro trade ridiculous dialogue in a proto-cinematic match set in a graveyard (Nitro, 5/1/00) v Tank takes over the DJ booth, fanboys over Three Count, does a running man that is so amazing in its terribleness that it needs to be seen to be believed (Nitro, 7/3/00) v Daffney/Ms. Hancock/David Flair love triangle video package (Bash at the Beach, 7/9/00) v Vampiro hypes the Juggalo Championship Wrestling title, is challenged by Tank “The Anvil” Abbott for the belt (Nitro, 8/21/00) v Vince Russo badly miscalculates how Canada feels about Goldberg (Nitro, 9/18/00) v Lenita Erickson and Bob Sapp attempt their first (and last) WCW interview, fail so badly that it’s actually pretty funny (Thunder, 11/8/00)
SirSmUgly Posted March 16 Author Posted March 16 THE ABSOLUTE DIRT WORST This list being this long is a genuine bummer. I mean, how does one company have this many awful misses creatively? Spoiler v Roddy Piper accepts Hulk Hogan’s challenge for SuperBrawl VII (Nitro, 2/3/97) v Randy Anderson wants his job back, needs to feed his fam’ly (Nitro 2/10/97) v Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan nonsensically insult one another (Nitro, 2/10/97) v Benoit ignores the cues to shut the fuck up, keeps cutting a terrible promo instead (Nitro, 2/17/97) v Roddy Piper in Alcatraz (Nitro, 2/17/97) v Roddy Piper tries out wrestlers to be members of his Family, some of the worst television of all time ensues (Nitro, 3/3/97) v Hogan responds to Piper; it’s bad (Nitro, 3/3/97) v Roddy Piper is heated about everyone hating the Piper’s Family Tryout segment, cuts an awful promo about it (Nitro, 3/10/97) v Randy Savage taunts DDP and Kimberly into shame and rage by pointing out a centerfold that Kimberly was super-excited and proud to do (Uncensored, 3/16/97) v Ric Flair, two ladies, and a dummy dressed like Roddy Piper (Nitro, 6/30/97) v The nWo dresses up like the Four Horsemen and put on a sub-Family Guy level skit (Nitro, 9/1/97) v Right after that sketch, everyone tries to get Chavo’s title shot; it’s incredibly stupid (Nitro, 9/1/97) v The Sting dummy falls from the rafters: Act I (Nitro, 9/8/97) v The Sting dummy falls from the rafters: Act II (Nitro, 11/24/97) v The unfortunate pilot episode of nWo Nitro (Nitro, 12/22/97) v Bret Hart’s Starrcade debut comes as part of a diabolically awful Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Bischoff match (Starrcade, 12/28/97) v Hogan vs. Sting, the “fast” count, and the Montreal Screwjob callback (Starrcade, 12/28/97) v The just-as-bad Hogan/Sting rematch the next night on Nitro (Nitro, 12/29/97) v Sting is visually pinned for a three-count in his third straight match back from a year-plus-long layoff (Nitro, 2/2/98) v I hated all the Nick Patrick, Evil Ref drama, so here’s one in-ring promo with Patrick and J.J. Dillon that stands in as a representative of all that garbage (Nitro, 2/9/98) v Sting finally gets his “huge win” over Hogan, but the focus is on Nick Patrick turning babyface, Randy Savage being nutty, and Sting selling a lot for Hogan’s offense (SuperBrawl VIII, 2/22/98) v Hogan proceeds to cut a vile promo on the Wolfpac while standing next to Dennis Rodman, doesn’t know any black people, compensates by coming up with substitute slang that sounds appropriate for a white guy from Florida with zero black friends or acquaintances (Nitro, 6/8/98) v Hogan, Piper, and Savage have what is a legitimate candidate for the worst promo battle of all-time (Nitro, 6/8/98) v Eric Bischoff insists on interviewing Scott Steiner; both men proceed to stink up the arena (Nitro, 6/15/98) v Eric Bischoff fails at being a late-night comedian: Act I (Nitro, 6/29/98) v Eric Bischoff fails at being a late-night comedian: Act II (Nitro, 7/20/98) v Eric Bischoff fails at being a late-night comedian: Act III (Nitro, 7/27/98) v Eric Bischoff fails at being a late-night comedian: Act IV (Nitro, 8/3/98) v Eric Bischoff roleplays a conversation between DDP and Kimberly after the nWo attacks them both, is a driver of traffic to the USA Network. (Nitro, 8/3/98) v Eric Bischoff fails at being a late-night comedian: Act V (Thunder, 8/5/98) v Eddy Guerrero threatens to quit, cuts a truly awful promo while doing so (Nitro, 8/17/98) v Buff Bagwell pretends to be Rick Steiner, joins Scott Steiner and a fake doctor in cutting a shitty promo (Nitro, 8/24/98) v Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart vs. Lex Luger and Sting (with “bonus” Disciple and Warrior run-ins) represents a new nadir for Nitro main events (Nitro, 8/31/98) v Silver King uses a chair as a springboard, gets DQ’d, everyone (except the ref) in the ring is confused because that wasn’t meant to be a spot that someone gets DQ’d for (Thunder, 9/10/98) v Buff Bagwell fakes a neck injury during the Steiner Brothers EXPLODING match; after an extremely long and extremely boring stretcher job, they finally do the swerve that everyone saw coming and attack Rick. (Fall Brawl, 9/13/98) v A War Games with three teams of three, pinfalls attempts allowed, and no Match Beyond (Fall Brawl, 9/13/98) v Warrior kidnaps Disciple, prepares to take him somewhere and defile him (Nitro, 9/14/98) v Scott Hall is a drunk while wrestling Lex Luger, spews all over Eric Bischoff, is booked to exploit his IRL illness (Nitro, 9/14/98) v Scott Hall’s alcoholism blows up a tag match with Stevie Ray against Konnan and Kevin Nash (Thunder, 9/17/98) v Warrior just misses the cutoff for “so dumb, it’s fun” and spearheads a merely dumb sketch with a disappearing Disciple and an obvious rubber dummy. (Nitro, 9/21/98) v Warrior does some Dollar Store Undertaker parlor tricks in the backstage area, freaks out that dope Hogan (Nitro, 9/21/98) v Ernest Miller and Lenny Lane suck at pro wrestling; Scott Hall comes out, does drunk shit, helps Ernest Miller and Lenny Lane torpedo this already awful segment (Nitro, 9/21/98) v Hulk Hogan just misses the cutoff for “so audaciously dumb, it’s fun” and cuts a merely dumb promo in which he claims to have gone to a neighborhood full of black people of his own free will and also claims that said black people called him “’Wood.” Also, he wants to be called “Woody,” like Allen, Harrelson, or what you might call an erect penis in slang. No, I did not make any of this up. (Nitro, 9/28/98) v Warrior’s response to the Hogan promo is merely bad without any of the audaciousness that got me to laugh incredulously (Nitro, 9/28/98) v In the latest nadir for Nitro main events, Bret Hart completes an obvious swerve, we get the only Hogan/Hitman match that we’d get from WCW, and that match is cut off halfway through so that Sting can finish it and we can get your typical nWo bullshit. (Nitro, 9/28/98) v After Hogan tails the Disciple following a bad Disciple/Lenny Lane match, the Warrior shows up in Hulk Hogan’s mirror; Bischoff is the only guy who can’t see him and therefore is the deluded one in this sketch that failed under even the most basic logical scrutiny (Nitro, 10/5/98) v Bischoff insists on dragging out this “Horsemen are banned” angle, loses a fight to Reid Flair in the center of the ring, keeps talking and talking and talking (very poorly) afterward until Papa Flair finally shows up to do something remotely entertaining (Nitro, 10/5/98) v Bischoff centers himself with interviews and angles and getting arrested, and every single promo and segment that he is a part of absolutely fucking SUCKS (Nitro, 10/12/98) v Chucky the murderous living doll just barely, and I mean just barely, misses the cutoff for “so dumb, it’s fun” and spearheads a merely dumb sketch in which he insults Gene Okerlund and Rick Steiner. (Nitro, 10/12/98) v Scott Steiner and the Giant vs. Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell, followed by Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner, followed by the WCW Tag Titles being booked into the ground (Halloween Havoc, 10/25/98) v Bret Hart vs. Sting is merely crappy and disappointing, but it directly precedes Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior, which is all-time terrible, so let’s just induct them as a duo of big match disappointments (Halloween Havoc, 10/25/98) v Hulk Hogan chooses to work out his jealousy toward Jesse Ventura’s then-vibrant political career by announcing his candidacy for POTUS, Part I (Nitro, 11/9/98) v The Disciple gets mic time for some reason, is joined by Horace Hogan, Stevie Ray, Vincent, and the Warrior for a disastrously bad segment (Nitro, 11/9/98) v Eric Bischoff puts himself over by beating up some guys from Turner legal (Nitro, 11/9/98) v Try as she might, Judy Bagwell can’t save a terrible segment in which she and Rick Steiner challenge Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell to a tag title match (Nitro, 11/9/98) v Hulk Hogan chooses to work out his jealousy toward Jesse Ventura’s then-vibrant political career by announcing his candidacy for POTUS, Part II (Nitro, 11/16/98) v There’s a Flair heart attack angle; it sucks (Nitro, 12/14/98) v There’s an angle where Bischoff feigns sympathy for Flair’s heart attack and then beats up David; it sucks (Thunder, 12/17/98) v Ric Flair vs. Eric Bischoff (Starrcade, 12/27/98) v Flair spends two segments shedding clothes and reading labels to get around to challenging Bischoff to a career vs. control of WCW rematch; Bischoff comes out and only makes things worse by being bad at talking during the second segment (Nitro, 12/28/98) v Liz accuses Goldberg of ra aggravated stalking across a series of vignettes that make everyone involved look like shit (Nitro, 1/4/99) v The Fingerpoke of Doom (Nitro, 1/4/99) v David Flair is bad, long nWo beatdowns are also bad (Souled Out, 1/17/99) v WCW runs a shambolic tag titles tournament (Nitro, Thunder, and [PPVs] in early 1999) v Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper [and also Will Sasso, I guess] (Nitro, 2/8/99) v Bret Hart vs. Will Sasso (with a random Debra Wilson heel turn] (Nitro, 2/15/99) v Ric Flair is beaten up by the nWo in a field, is driven to the arena by a random dude in a cowboy hat, is then beaten up by the nWo in the ring (Nitro, 2/15/99) v Scott and Buff work out, hit on ladies, threaten to beat up people in drag, generally are the worst thing about pro wrestling in February of 1999 (Nitro, 2/22/99) v Kevin Nash convinces himself that his Arn Anderson impression was funny, convinces Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan, and Disco Inferno to do impressions as well (Nitro, 2/22/99) v Ric Flair hangs out in a mental health institution; Scott Hall and Asya are there, too, for some reason. (Nitro, 4/26/99) v Roddy Piper tries to do a comedic top-ten list, should leave it to David Letterman. Should also leave talking to David Letterman or literally every other human because he fucking SUCKS at it. (Nitro, 5/17/99) v Hugh Morrus needs an angle, so let’s have him kill a bunch of cruiserweights! (Nitro, 5/17/99) v Randy Savage and Eric Bischoff combine on a segment that is damn near a hate crime (in the literal sense of the term) during a Randy Savage/“Kevin Nash” impostor match (Nitro, 5/24/99) v Kevin Nash fights Team Madness with the power of poop, dumb comedy voiceovers; in related requests, please stop letting Nash book television. (Nitro, 5/31/99) v Eric Bischoff is the worst color commentator in the world (Nitro, 6/7/99) v The White Hummer angle is just a bit too much for a wrestling show; beyond that, it gets speculated about, but never gets answered, which tips it onto this list (Nitro, 6/7/99) v Ric Flair vs. Roddy Piper (Great American Bash, 6/13/99) v WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?! That idiot Scott Steiner did, and it made for an extremely stupid finish to an otherwise dull Rick Steiner/Sting match (Great American Bash, 6/13/99) v Manly man Kevin Nash is a super-babyface who fights off like ten dudes and then, uh, kidnaps a woman to make her his sex slave, maybe? (Nitro, 6/28/99) v Roddy Piper can’t quite tell if he’s a heel or babyface, and then J.J. Dillon undermines his own executive partner by bringing in Judge Mills Lane to ref Piper’s BatB match even though Lane and Piper hate each other on sight; also, there’s a fake Sting involved in this segment, and oh yeah, they brought Mills Lane in six days before the show with little time to promote his appearance. Peak stupid-ass WCW, in other words. (Nitro, 7/5/99) v The West Texas Rednecks “perform” live. (Nitro, 7/5/99) v Randy Savage beats the shit out of Gorgeous George (Nitro, 7/5/99) v The Junkyard Hardcore Invitational: Finlay wins a shitty trophy, almost loses a leg. (Bash at the Beach, 7/11/99) v Roddy Piper vs. Buff Bagwell: A boxing match that ends with a wrestling move and a pinfall in which Judy Bagwell is the one who gets put over like a superstar (Bash at the Beach, 7/11/99) v Kevin Nash and Sting face Randy Savage and Sid in a tag match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship somehow, it stinks bad (Bash at the Beach, 7/11/99) v Eric Bischoff, Total Badass stands up to three pro wrestlers. Bonus: Kidman’s SSP ends up depositing him in nowhere-land (Nitro, 7/12/99) v Hogan beats Savage for the world title (again), but it’s no WM V main event or even close, and also Eric Bischoff is the WOAT at commentating. (Nitro, 7/12/99) v Buff Bagwell + blackface = *vomits* (Nitro, 7/19/99) v Gorgeous George gets kidnapped (again) after Randy Savage blows up another match and has a mic “battle” with Madusa, and also Jason Hervey is the new WOAT at commentating (Nitro, 7/26/99) v Sid Vicious ruins a half-hour of Nitro by busting up multiple matches for the “fake streak” angle (Nitro, 8/16/99) v Sid Vicious ruins a half-hour of Thunder by busting up multiple matches for the “fake streak” angle; even worse, brings Rick Steiner out to commentate his fake wins for a while (Thunder, 8/19/99) v Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Lenny Lane (Thunder, 8/19/99) v Sid Vicious > the whole WCW Cruiserweight Division (Nitro, 8/23/99) v After his match against Steven Regal, Buff Bagwell grabs a mic and stands up to Berlyn, stands up for America, could stand to stop sucking at pro wrestling (Nitro, 9/6/99) v Buff Bagwell stands up for America, refuses to lay down for Berlyn for real; Berlyn gets his gimmick killed off by Hacksaw Jim Duggan [emphasis on “hack”] (Fall Brawl, 9/12/99) v Disco Inferno vs. Erik Watts [including wonky production nonsense and the aftermath] (Nitro, 9/13/99) v Rick Steiner vs. Chris Benoit [including the aftermath] (Nitro, 9/13/99) v The debut of Coach Buzz Stern and his student Luther Biggs (Thunder, 9/30/99) v Seven apparently paid the troll toll, creepily seduces young child in child’s bedroom at night (Nitro, 10/11/99) v Seven is still creepy (Nitro, 10/18/99) v Buff Bagwell lays down for the dopey new creative team (Nitro, 10/18/99) v The Filthy Animals vs. Harlem Heat vs. The First Family (Halloween Havoc, 10/24/99) v DDP and Kimberly make a bunch of masturbation references in a vile promo as part of Page challenging Ric Flair to a Strap Match. (Halloween Havoc, 10/24/99) v Rick Steiner vs. Chris Benoit [plus dumb fucking swerve] (Halloween Havoc, 10/24/99) v WCW promotes its new Nitro scent by talking about how badly it smells in elaborate detail (Halloween Havoc, 10/24/99) v The Nitro Girls EXPLODE (Nitro, 11/1/99) v Kevin Nash does a terrible VKM impression, is dreadfully unfunny (Nitro, 11/1/99) v Sting vs. Goldberg (Nitro, 11/8/99) v Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Brian Knobbs (Nitro, 11/8/99) v Norman Smiley vs. Jimmy Hart (Nitro, 11/15/99) v Oklahoma debuts (Nitro, 11/15/99) v Pinata-on-a-Pole Match (Nitro, 11/15/99) v Asya vs. Kimberly [with jibber jabber involving Torrie Wilson and David Flair] v Vampiro vs. Berlyn Dog Collar Match [with Oklahoma commentary and Dr. Death post-match run-in] (Mayhem, 11/21/99) v Kimberly Page vs. David Flair (Mayhem, 11/21/99) v Sid and Goldberg are supposed to have an I Quit match; now that you know the stipulation, guess the finish! Quick, guess! (Mayhem, 11/21/99) v The secessionist Revolution has dumb mic battle with Disco Inferno and Lash LeRoux; the fucking mobster dudes get involved, Shane Douglas is hilariously bad on commentary, and it’s almost so entertainingly stupid that it avoided this list, but unfortunately, it wasn’t unintentionally funny enough to avoid being placed here (Thunder, 12/2/99) v Roddy Piper vs. Creative Control (Nitro, 12/6/99) v Vito vs. Lash LeRoux in a Body Bag Match (Nitro, 12/13/99) v Vampiro vs. Oklahoma (Starrcade, 12/19/99) v Kevin Nash vs. Sid Vicious (Starrcade, 12/19/99) v The whole fuckin’ episode (Nitro, 12/20/99) v Buff Bagwell and DDP have a terrible Springer-like segment over whether or not Buff slept with Kim Page (Nitro, 1/10/00) v Tank Abbott does mic work that is even bad for him (Nitro, 1/10/00) v Madusa. Oklahoma. Evening Gown Match. (Thunder, 1/12/00) v Madusa vs. Oklahoma (Souled Out, 1/16/2000) v Kevin Nash addresses the locker room in his first address as commissioner and channels Roddy Piper the whole time (Nitro, 1/17/2000) v Masa Chono and Super J. vs. The Varsity Club (Nitro, 1/17/2000) v Buff Bagwell vs. Diamond Dallas Page (Nitro, 1/17/2000) v Kevin Nash does evil commissioner bullshit, strips another title (Thunder, 1/26/00) v Oklahoma and Madusa continue the feud from hell; Dr. Haywood Jeter (FUCK OFF, WCW) is caught up in the madness (Nitro, 2/7/00) v Billy Kidman and Vampiro vs. La Parka and TAFKAPI, The Mamalukes vs. David Flair and Crowbar vs. The New Harlem Heat…actually, the whole show (Nitro, 2/14/00) v Mickey Jay vs. Slick Johnson…actually, the whole show (Thunder, 2/16/00) v Tank Abbott vs. Big Al (SuperBrawl X, 2/20/00) v The Dog vs Norman Smiley, Brian Knobbs vs. Terry Funk, and everything in between those matches (Nitro, 3/13/00) v Hulk Hogan vs. “The Total Package” Lex Luger and Ric Flair (Thunder, 3/15/00) v Dustin Rhodes vs. Terry Funk (Uncensored, 3/19/00) v Sid Vicious vs. Jeff Jarrett (Uncensored, 3/19/00) v Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair (Uncensored, 3/19/00) v Brian Knobbs dumps the Dog in an Orlando-area field (Thunder, 3/22/00) v You know what? Let’s just induct the whole Sullivan/Taylor/Dillon/Ferrara/Whomever-Else-is-to-Blame Era in early 2000 (Nitro, Thunder, and PPV from mid-January 2000 through March 2000) v The commentary isn’t interested in talking about the wrestling because the relationship between Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff and their ability to helm creative together as a team is the thing that’s bringing the ratings! (Nitro, 3/27/00) v The whole dang show (Nitro, 4/10/00) v The whole dang show (Thunder, 4/12/00) v Jimmy Hart vs. Mancow: Act I (Spring Stampede, 4/16/00) v The whole dang show (Spring Stampede, 4/16/00) v Hulk Hogan vs. Mike Awesome and Billy Kidman (Nitro, 4/24/00) v Vampiro vs. Sting (Nitro, 4/24/00) v Vince Russo, Shane Douglas, Buff Bagwell, and Team Package are all SHOOTIN’ and ruining Syracuse, New York’s love of pro wrestling (Thunder, 4/26/00) v Tammy Sytch vs. Paisley (Thunder, 4/26/00) v Hulk Hogan vs. Billy Kidman (Slamboree, 5/7/00) v Ric Flair, Vince Russo, and Dopey David Flair have a dreadful promo battle in which the ultimate prize is apparently a chance to go wrestle on RAW instead, at least according to Ric. (Nitro, 5/8/00) v Sting crashes bad Vampiro interview (Thunder, 5/10/00) v Kidman vs. Horace and the aftermath: The single worst segment to ever appear on WCW television during the Nitro Era (and quite honestly, maybe on WCW television ever) (Thunder, 5/10/00) v Billy Kidman and Horace Hogan vs Hulk Hogan (Nitro, 5/15/00) v Horace Hogan vs. Hulk Hogan [and aftermath] (Thunder, 5/17/00) v It’s another legendarily bad Nitro for the record books (Nitro, 5/22/00) v It’s another legendarily bad Thunder for the record books (Thunder, 5/24/00) v Chris Candido and Terry Funk are stupid enough to do a piledriver in the blind spot of a horse, and of course, someone almost gets seriously injured (Thunder, 5/31/00) v Vince Russo vs. Ric Flair (Nitro, 6/5/00) v Kevin Nash runs the gauntlet (Nitro, 6/5/00) v Daffney vs. Lt. Loco vs. Disco Inferno (Thunder, 6/7/00) v Goldberg is a super-mega-babyface and still a potential cash cow for WCW, so of course, WCW turns him heel. SWERVE, BRO. (Great American Bash, 6/11/00) v Ric Flair vs. David Flair and Vince Russo (Nitro, 6/12/00) v Vampiro promo and Vampiro vs. The KISS Demon (Thunder, 6/14/00) v Jeff Jarrett, fat ladies singing, and Turner S&P combine to make a segment that’s just bad enough to fit on this list (Nitro, 7/3/00) v Nash desperately feels a need to build himself as an indestructible main eventer, does so in a farcical battle royal (Nitro, 7/3/00) v Vampiro vs. The KISS Demon in a Graveyard Match (Bash at the Beach, 7/9/00) v Shane Douglas and Torrie Wilson cut a promo in which they are annoying as fuck and manage to possibly destroy the concept of sex as a positive thing; they also possibly destroy Billy Kidman’s neck with a dumbbell shot that should paralyze or kill the guy by all rights (Thunder, 7/19/00) v Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera vs. General Rection and Corporal Cajun vs. The Perfect Event vs. Mark Jindrak and Sean O’Haire in a Four Corners Caged Heat match that makes zero sense and should never have been booked (Nitro, 7/24/00) v 2000 Torrie Wilson embarrassed when Billy Kidman exposes that 1992 Torrie Wilson was really into cake, also hadn’t lost her baby fat yet on account of all the cake; Scott Hudson simultaneously makes his case for being the worst person to speak into a microphone ever in the history of microphones (Nitro, 8/7/00) v Ms. Hancock has a miscarriage or maybe fakes one to finish off a clothes-ripping match in a mud pit against Major Gunns because Vince Russo is a creative genius, bro (New Blood Rising, 8/13/00) v Goldberg works himself into a shoot, but actually it’s a work, but it’s supposed to be a shoot, in his Triple Threat Match against Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash (New Blood Rising, 8/13/00) v Vince Russo says that THIS is real unlike the other stuff, challenges Goldberg to come out to the ring and fight Tank Abbott, Goldberg wins the REAL fight with Irish whips into guardrails and moves like that; also, Russo thinks that cussing is RAD (Nitro, 8/14/00) v Scott Steiner threatens to rape Goldberg’s significant other, merely locks her in a Steiner Recliner instead (Nitro, 8/21/00) v Paisley vs. Tygress vs. Major Gunns (Nitro, 8/28/00) v WCW crosses its excellent Crowbar/Daffney storyline over with its awful Shane Douglas/Torrie Wilson/Billy Kidman storyline, and the results are predictably that the latter drags down the former. (Nitro, 8/28/00) v Bret Hart randomly shows up to a remote spot in a New Mexican desert with no kayfabe directions somehow; Goldberg is the most gullible (alleged) babyface ever (Nitro, 8/28/00) v You know what? The whole stupid fucking Nitro (Nitro, 8/28/00) v Torrie Wilson vs. Madusa [including BITCH-filled aftermath that involves Shane Douglas and Billy Kidman] (Nitro, 9/11/00) v Mike Tenay attempts to be a misogynistic, provocative heel commentator and interviewer, is laughably bad at showing any personality other than slightly-bland-if-knowledgeable third commentator (Various Thunder eps, August and September 2000) v Paul Orndorff has a stinger; a match happens around him as he’s laid out in the ring with a serious neck injury for another three minutes as Mark Madden doesn’t quite figure out that making jokes about him being old and injuring himself might be tasteless in this particular moment (Fall Brawl, 9/17/00) v The previous entry’s match is concluded on the following Nitro, where Tygress goes over four other Natural Born Thrillers, pinning three of them directly in an illogical and terribly-laid-out match (Nitro, 9/18/00) v The whole sorry-ass Nitro (Nitro, 9/18/00) v Jeremy Borash, Russo-boosting commentator (Thunder, 9/20/00) v Paisley vs. Tygress and all the nonsense surrounding that match (Thunder, 9/20/00) v Mike Tenay interviews Stacy Keibler, is basically Phil Donahue crossed with Jerry Springer crossed with a pile of dog shit (Thunder, 9/20/00) v The whole sorry-ass Thunder (Thunder, 9/20/00) v We’ve found our cumulatively worst Nitro in the whole run, folks! (Nitro, 9/25/00) v Here’s something that doesn’t have potential: The Misfits in Action putting on a dire interview with Mike Tenay (Thunder, 10/4/00) v The Misfits in Action do a terrible comedy segment in which they impersonate Team Canada, declare multi-pronged war on humor, laughter, and joy (Nitro, 10/23/00) v Konnan and Tygress vs. Shane Douglas and Torrie Wilson (Halloween Havoc, 10/28/00) v Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett (Halloween Havoc, 10/28/00) v Jimmy Hart vs. Mancow: Act II (Mayhem, 11/26/00)
SirSmUgly Posted March 16 Author Posted March 16 BEST FEUDS This list has had zero (0) additions since the end of 1999! Spoiler ü Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair (1995/1996) ü Eddy Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (1997) ü Raven vs. Diamond Dallas Page (1998) ü Raven vs. Saturn (1998) ü Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko (1998) ü Booker T. vs. Chris Benoit (1998) ü Saturn and Raven vs. Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko (1999) ü Sid Vicious vs. Goldberg (1999) 1
SirSmUgly Posted March 16 Author Posted March 16 WORST FEUDS This list has had eighteen (18) additions since the end of 1999! Spoiler û Nick Patrick vs. Chris Jericho (1996) û Kevin Sullivan vs. Chris Benoit (1996/97) û Hulk Hogan vs. Sting (1996/97) û Eric Bischoff vs. Larry Zbyszko (1997) û Eric Bischoff vs. Ric Flair (1998/1999) û Scott Steiner vs. Rick Steiner (1998) û Ernest Miller and Sonny Onoo vs. Kaz Hayashi (1998) û Bret Hart vs. Sting (1998) û Rey Misterio Jr vs. Eddy Guerrero [lWo feud] (1998) û Scott Hall vs. Kevin Nash (1998) û Jay Leno and Diamond Dallas Page vs. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff (1998) û The Ultimate Warrior vs. Hulk Hogan (1998) û Eric Bischoff vs. Ric Flair (1998/1999) û Scott Steiner vs. Diamond Dallas Page (1999) û Ric Flair vs. Roddy Piper (1999) û Sting vs. Rick Steiner (1999) û Buff Bagwell vs. Roddy Piper (1999) û Buff Bagwell vs. Ernest Miller (1999) û West Texas Rednecks vs. No Limit Soldiers (1999) û Team Madness vs. Kevin Nash (1999) û Diamond Dallas Page vs. Ric Flair (1999) û Buff Bagwell vs. The Powers that Be (1999) û David Flair vs. Kimberly Page (1999) û The Filthy Animals vs. The Revolution (1999) û The Mamalukes vs. Disco Inferno and Lash LeRoux (1999) û Dr. Death and Oklahoma vs. Vampiro and the Misfits (1999) û Buff Bagwell vs. Diamond Dallas Page (2000) û Tank Abbott vs. Jerry Flynn (2000) û Tank Abbott vs. Doug Dellinger (2000) û Madusa vs. Oklahoma (2000) û Booker T. vs. Stevie Ray and Big T. (2000) û Kevin Nash and his flunkies vs. Sid Vicious (2000) û Jeff Jarrett and his flunkies vs. Sid Vicious (2000) û Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair (2000) û Dustin Rhodes vs. Terry Funk (2000) û Sid Vicious vs. Jeff Jarrett (2000) û Millionaires’ Club vs. New Blood (2000) û Hulk Hogan vs. Billy Kidman (2000) û Sting vs. Vampiro (2000) û Vince Russo and David Flair vs. Ric Flair (2000) û Dale Torborg vs. Vampiro (2000) û Shane Douglas and Torrie Wilson vs. Billy Kidman (2000) û Major Gunns vs. Ms. Hancock (2000) û Jimmy Hart vs. Mancow (2000) 1
twiztor Posted March 17 Posted March 17 1 hour ago, SirSmUgly said: Thunder Interlude – show number one hundred and forty-one – 20 December 2000 OK, quick diversion here…Wrestlers in WCW Backstage Assault for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation One entertainment systems who are not being used on WCW programming in any fashion at the point that it is being shilled on this Thunder episode…Asya, Bret Hart, Chris Candido, Chris Kanyon (I sure hope he comes back for the last three months!), Elizabeth, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, Kimberly, La Parka, Madusa, Mona, Scott Hall, Tank Abbott, Torrie Wilson, Vampiro, and Vince Russo…Kanyon and Torrie have a chance of coming back, and of course, Bischoff shows up one more time over the phone toward the end of the company’s existence, but everyone else here is long gone…Honestly, only sixteen out of fifty-eight wrestlers on this game's roster not being on television isn’t too bad…How did Juventud Guerrera not get onto the video game’s roster, though?...We have space for Bischoff, Russo, Dellinger, and Sarge, but not THA JOOOOOOOOOCY ONE?...Ah, one more THA JOOOOOOOOOOCY ONE for the road before these reviews are finished…Glad I got that out… Back to the action, please don’t job Elix to fucking Konnan…This match is something of a Skipper showcase…Skip gets a handful of two counts, including on a lovely missile dropkick…Skip continues to counter the lumbering Konnan’s aerial attempts…As Skipper lands a springboard guillotine legdrop, I think, Wow, this guy is still wrestling in Jordans…Nutty choice…Why not just wrestle in Timberlands next?...Wait, I think Shad Gaspard actually did wrestle in Timberlands…Insane stuff from Shad Gaspard there (R.I.P.)…The crowd thinks this match is BORING, but I think it’s solid…It’s not fluid or anything, but look, it’s Konnan…Both men trade flash pinfall attempts for two until Konnan suddenly clears out Elix with a lariat and goes immediately into a Tequila Sunrise, a move that he's using on television for the first time in what feels like ages…It manages to make Elix tap out…Skipper was fun to watch in this one… …Elix Skipper cracks me up because after Awesome declares that he’s thrilled to be out of leisure suits and into maple leaf-decorated garb, Skip goes YAEEY YEAHHEEYYY like he’s Ice Cube at the beginning of “We Be Clubbin'”…Skipper is kinda on fire tonight… One of the strengths of trios tags are that they hide the deficiencies of the workers in them even better than standard tags do…I do like that Cpl. Cajun tries a Bourbon Street Blues, begs off when Adams eats his punches for lunch, and uses that space he gave himself via begging off to hit Adams with a punch to the balls…Someone’s been listening to Chavo Jr., huh?...Cajun actually gets himself out of a jam with a neckbreaker to Clark and a tag to SGT. A-WALL We’re off to 2001!...WOOO… i want to point out the absurdity of Elizabeth being in the game, but not Randy Savage. I know they had split, both on- and off-screen, but Savage last appeared in May. When did Liz last show up? i don't know if either were under contract, but only one of them had been an actual wrestler. for some reason, these points made me specifically want to see an Elix Skipper vs Lash LeRoux match. i'm definitely a high voter on both of them. per cagematch, they only faced off once in singles (on WCW Worldwide in May of 2000) but a number of times in multiman matches. i don't think i care enough to track down a match featuring Hugh Morrus, but here's that match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gUxK60RClg Congrats on making it to 2001! haven't peeped out your year end lists, but will at some point. 1
zendragon Posted March 17 Posted March 17 I'll have you know way down south on the Chattahoochee it gets hotter than a hoochie coochie! 2
SirSmUgly Posted March 19 Author Posted March 19 Thunder Interlude – show number one hundred and forty-two – 3 January 2001 "The WCW Gang enters 2001 looking to creatively consolidate around a handful of strong heels" WCW Worldwide still exists as a going concern in the year 2001, but does it have fresh matches, or does it mostly replay stuff from Nitro and Thunder and the occasional older match from JCP/WCW?...I looked ahead at a couple of results reports and that’s what seems to be the show’s format…This is strictly a Nitro/Thunder/PPV/Clash review from the Nitro Era, but I also don’t want to miss AJ Styles/Air Paris/Jason Jett/anyone else who randomly pops up in the last three months that WCW exists under the Turner banner… One more thing before we Thunderrrrrrrr on into 2001…Here are our final title change counts for the year 2000… WCW World Heavyweight Championship title change count: 25 (Hitman > VACANT > Benoit > VACANT > Sid > Nash > Sid > VACANT > Jarrett > DDP > Arquette > Jarrett > Ric Flair > Jarrett > Nash > Flair > Jarrett > Hulk Hogan > Jarrett > Booker > Nash > Booker > Russo > VACANT > Booker > Scott Steiner) WCW United States Championship title change count: 9 (Jarrett > VACANT > Jarrett > VACANT > Scott Steiner > VACANT > Storm > Rection > Storm > Rection) WCW World Tag Team Championship title change count: 17 (VACANT > David Flair and Crowbar > The Mamalukes > The Harris Bros. > VACANT > Buff Bagwell and Shane Douglas > KroniK > The Perfect Event > KroniK > Vampiro and Great Muta > Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera > VACANT > Jindrak and O’Haire > Boogie Knights > The Perfect Event > The Insiders > The Perfect Event > The Insiders)… WCW World Cruiserweight Championship title change count: 12 (Madusa > Oklahoma > VACANT > TAFKAPI > VACANT > Candido > Daffney and Crowbar > Daffney > Chavo Jr. > Lance Storm > Skipper > Sanders > Chavo Jr.)… I think it says something here that the United States Championship was both a) by far the best booked major title in the company, and b) didn’t have anyone win the belt directly from anyone else until about ten months into the year… I have, lined up from best to worst, these as the best and worst booked belts in 2000 WCW…United States Championship, World Cruiserweight Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, World Tag Team Championship…When a third of the title changes are either via vacancies, title strips, a team simply stealing the belts after winning a match that was not announced as a tag title match, or winning the belts in a team battle royal, I mean, come on…As bad as the big gold belt was treated, it at least ended the year within a period of stability… Okay, now let’s Thunderrrrrrr… Lance Storm is excited about subtracting Jim Duggan and adding Mike Awesome to Team Canada, and understandably so, in our cold open…He excitedly tells Skipper and Gunns to follow him because Awesome said that he had a surprise for them…The surprise, as we see, is that Awesome got his old ‘70s party bus repainted in the red-and-white colors of the Canadian flag…The rest of Team Canada thinks the bus is rad… And now we go to the typical Thunder opening roll…It’s cut off toward the end so that Tony S. can hype the year 2001 for WCW…CEO Ric Flair soon opens the show once more…We’re three shows from Sin, so let’s see how Flair builds the show to drive us toward that card… The CEO hypes the tag match at Sin as a career-threatening match for Goldberg because “that’s the way Bill Goldberg wanted it”…No, that’s the way Vince Russo wanted it…Flair misspeaks and says that Scott Steiner will defend the title against Jeff Jarrett “and a mystery partner,” which Tony S. quickly corrects as “mystery opponent”…Flair announces that Steiner has been suspended for the past two weeks ending tonight. Considering the holiday break, Steiner is only actually missing this show because he didn’t want to fly in for a Thunder recording is out of control!... Why is Jeff Jarrett so aggy as he walks out here?...Oh, he’s just tired of Scotty Steiner asking him about the mystery man all the time…Jarrett points out that he’d like to know too, considering he’s also in the world title match at Sin, and then threatens CEO Flair with a KABONGing if he doesn’t reveal who it is…Flair is incredulous that Jarrett is bold enough to threaten him, and when Jarrett clarifies that he is, Flair books him in the Thunder main event with the stipulation that he’s out of the Sin main event if he loses…His opponent?...Syko Sid Vicious…OK, this is making more sense now…So the masked man was always Animal, the fix is in to screw whoever Steiner’s other opponent at Sin was, and we’re going to switch Jarrett for Sid tonight… OK, so Flair says that he's decided that he owes Sid a chance to win the spot at Sin because if we go to the tape, we’ll see that Sid scored a visual three count on Steiner at Starrcade that wasn’t counted…True…Flair makes it clear that if Jarrett doesn’t wrestle Sid, he’s as out of the main event as if he lost it…Memphis finishes Sid’s King Parsons-inspired catchphrase for him…It’s strange that we took such a circuitous route to Steiner/Sid II, but okay… One thing I’ll say about the “Better Build Some Homegrown Stars, Whoops, Too Late” Era, or the BBSHSWTL Era going forward (let’s see if I ever use that acronym again) is that while the booking is markedly better than it has been for two years, it’s not exactly good…It’s fine, and most of it is more straightforward than it has been, which is a positive thing considering what we got out of the booking through two Russo eras and an interstitial era that mostly aped the Russo eras, but was even worse…However, it’s a bit convoluted, still, and this weird main event deal with Road Warrior Animal as the mystery man, Sid replacing Jarrett, and yet another pointless heel turn for Ric Flair is a perfect example of that… What this era signals to me is that building a hot heel and anchoring your division around them to eventually get over a babyface challenger works really well to patch over flaws in the booking…Scott Steiner is doing that right now, and I would go so far as to say that Booker T.'s victory over him on the final Nitro, as abbreviated as the match was, did more to get him over as a legit main eventer than anything else he did in WCW…That victory, combined with his attack on Steve Austin when he debuted in the WWF, meant more than even Kevin Nash blading in a cage to try and help establish him…And I could be wrong about this, but Shane Helms is going to feel like a legitimate rising star simply because they stuck the cruiserweight belt on Chavo Jr. for a couple of months and made him chase the competent heel… The one thing that WCW simply never had from the Russo-Ferrara Era through the Russo Endgame Period was a set of strong heel champions to anchor their shows around...And I’d say that in 1999, they had DDP and CEO President Ric Flair as those heels, which I know I’ve parroted too much…In 2000, there wasn’t really anybody unless they'd have stuck with the Goldberg heel turn and had him kill guys off until they put Steiner over him or something… Shane Helms, speaking of, opens the wrestling on this show…Helms cracks me up (and makes Billy Silverman laugh) by going over to the ref and demanding a consistent count as Jamie (K)noble walks to the ring to oppose him…They have a spirited affair with a lot of pace…What I didn’t expect was for Helms to still be heeling…The part where he’s got some dancing ladies with him while a song with the chorus VERTEBREAKERRRRR plays in the background is mostly what I remember about him from this time…Or at least, that’s the picture I have of Helms in my head from 2001 WCW... Tenay and Stevie argue over whether a Noble victory should change who gets the title shot at Sin…Meanwhile, control flips back and forth between the two in the ring…Ooh, Helms puts on a weird version of a chickenwing…It’s a standing one…Neat spot…Noble turns it into a backslide for two…They reverse their way through moves until Noble gets a Northern Lights with a bridge for two…Noble tries another one, but Helms sees it coming, escapes, and twists Noble into a Vertebreaker…He follows up with an individual Nightmare on Helms Street for three…That last move is duplicate to a Final Cut… Evan Karagias hits the ring after the match and attacks Helms, but Shannon Moore runs in for the save…Noble recovers and grabs Moore, then hits him with a jumping Tombstone…By this time Helms has recovered, and he puts Noble in place for another Nightmare on Helms Street…Chavo Jr. has been patiently waiting to pick his spot…He sprints to the ring and drills Helms square between the eyes with his title belt…Fun match (and aftermath) worth watching on YouTube…And our first match to hit a good list this year…It only took the first match of the first show to do it, hooray!... Elix Skipper, still upset over his loss to Konnan last Thunder, gets all up in Konnan’s face…Thet two trash talk one another before Skipper shoves Konnan and runs away, leading Konnan around the corner and right into a waiting Awesome for a beatdown…Skipper then asks Awesome for the keys to the Canada Bus…Awesome gladly hands them over… Is this a four-man or a six-man tag match coming up?...The desk doesn’t know…Commissioner Sanders lets us know that Nash and Page also didn’t want to come to a post-holiday Thunder taping,but under the guise that he gave them time off or fucked with their airline tickets or something…The idea here is that the Thrillers surround A-WALL and Cajun before the match, but we don’t know which two will be wrestling them until O’Haire and Palumbo are the ones to attack while Stasiak and Jindrak drop to the floor…The match that follows is decent…A-WALL does his best, but he turns right into a Jungle Kick that knocks him to the floor…An aggravated Rection yells YA GOT TWO GUYS IN THE RING at ref Charles Robinson, but Palumbo clears out after pulling Cajun into position for an O’Haire Seanton Bomb that gets three…The Animals attack the Misfits after the match…Chavo Jr. comes out to help save the Misfits…Shane Douglas came from the crowd at one point…Chavo seizes a chair and finally gets the other heels to back off…I am genuinely interested in seeing whether Chavo is able to peel Lash and TW,B away from Rection… Konnan laments getting played for a sucker as he sits with the rest of the Filthy Animals backstage…Rey suggests that they figure out a plan for revenge…After a commercial break, Rey comes back with a bag of “sticky icky,” but it’s not going to be weed, is it?...It’ll be, like, marmalade or marshmallow fluff or something…If it were weed, KroniK would probably have been drawn to it like moths to a flame…The Animals walk off to execute their plan… Crowbar (w/Daffney, who is w/sparklers and GOT PYRO? t-shirt) wrestles a…*sigh*…Steel Chair on a Pole bout against THA MONSTA MENG (w/Paisley)…I better get my final THA MONSTA MENGs in before he’s DA HARROWING HAKU on another show and another channel…Stevie Ray is extremely physically attracted to pop star P!nk, if you were wondering…Don’t ask, just trust me that his comment makes sense in context…Vince Russo leaving these shows with a) a dumb Goldberg nu-Streak angle, b) a tradition of On a Pole matches, and c) a group of referees who blatantly allow illegal nonsense right in front of their faces sometimes (but not all the time) is like a dog who craps in your bedroom, then drags his ass down the hallway, through your living room, and outside the door before leaving your house having stolen the expensive beef from your freezer… Anyway, Crowbar gets the chair, but it doesn’t come into play for a bit because Meng hits him with an Electric Chair Drop from there…And then, extremely pointlessly, Crowbar uses a second chair, just sitting at ringside, to choke Meng out…OK, so why even have a chair on a pole if any chair can be used without penalty…Meng does take a pretty sweet header into the ring steps at one point, though…Paisley and Daffney fight over the, uh, legal chair?...Paisley wins it, but Crowbar yanks it away…Paisley and Daffney go at it while Meng gets the chair and sets it up, seat out, on the top buckle…This is such a strange match…Crowbar charges Meng and gets boosted head-first into the chair instead…Meng locks on a Tongan Death Grip immediately after that to earn the victory…Well, it was dumb, but I didn’t hate it… A pacing Jeff Jarrett tries to figure out a plan for his match against Sid later tonight… Mark Jindrak gets slaughtered by Goldberg…Goldberg catches Jindrak on a springboard crossbody attempt and powerslams him before it’s all SPEAR, JACKHAMMER, SPLAT…Goldberg is fun to watch, but they’ve got him back in weekly squash mode after having had him in that mode for the first two years of his career…He’s spinning his wheels, and he’s one of the three or four biggest stars in the business…Memphis is pretty subdued for his act, as one example…Goldberg briefly speaks after the match…Mostly, it’s about his plans to put Luger and Bagwell out of pro wrestling at Sin… We’re back from break, and down the ramp walks the Cat (w/the lovely Ms. Jones)…He doesn’t want Reno as his opponent, but rather Mike Sanders…He tells Reno to get out of here “before I call my mama,” but Reno proceeds to attack him when he turns his back…Ms. Jones whiffs on a roundhouse kick to Reno on the floor, but it distracts him enough that the Cat can jump him…Still, Reno takes over back in the ring, though his staid offense isn’t enough to put the Cat away…He has to rake the Cat’s eyes to kill a comeback, but the Cat reverses a whip into the corner and catches Reno with a Feliner on the rebound for three…Ms. Jones has chaps on, and honestly, this particular post-match dance segment is burned into my brain because when I saw it as a teen, I vividly remember drooling over her on this exact show…Anyway, the Cat declares that he will, ahem “eat [Mike Sanders’s] ass like a pot of collard greens”…Wow, the Cat legit eats the booty like groceries, I guess…Good for him being so confident and open about what he likes!... Another thing about these most recent Thunder episodes on the network – and a lot of the recent Nitro ones – is that ads aren’t cut into them…We cut to what would have been an advertisement break, but we just come right back to the next segment of the show…So, after a few ghost ads, the Cat and Ms. Jones walk into a meeting with CEO Ric Flair… Team Canada joins us, is serious for a minute…Lance Storm threatens Jim Duggan over Duggan jumping Elix Skipper…Uh, when did that happen?...Was that this show?...We’ll find out when we explore what the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder, I suppose…Awesome calls Duggan a “weak old man” and then demands his presence for a career killing the likes of which we’ve never seen… Duggan gets out here and gets too much offense in…Look, whether you’re personally a fan of Mike Awesome or not, you have to admit that there was no point at which he was booked reasonably in this WCW run…Stevie is upset about Scott James’s reffing, but it’s not James's fault that the Russo directive (both kayfabe and shoot) to just let guys kick each other in the balls in plain sight of the official is still in effect…It takes a Team Canada distraction to allow Awesome to land a chop block and a top-rope splash for three…They stomp Duggan out after the match…The Filthy Animals aren’t too blazed to chase Team Canada away, though!...Konnan informs the retreating Team Canada that they have a surprise for them…We see that the bus has been tagged by Awesome’s opps…Again…I’m not going back to look for the episode number, but Vampiro and the ICP already did this… Someone let a Gene Okerlund interview slip through the cracks…He interviews an angry Team Canada in front of the bus…Storm challenges the Filthy Animals to a tag match at Sin…I do get a kick out of Awesome wailing that he “spent all day painting this bus"… Next up: A Marcus Bagwell/Buddy Lee Parker Buff Bagwell/Sarge match…Is this 1993 or something?...Buff survives an initial Sarge flurry and controls until he dives into Sarge’s knees on a splash attempt…Sarge’s comeback is cut off, and after Buff lays his opponent out with a double-arm DDT, he waves Lex Luger (w/chair) out…On the TurnerTron, the audience is able to see KroniK jump Goldberg as Goldberg leaves his dressing room to make a save…They dump him in a trunk and force the forklift guy to cart him on outta the arena…Apparently, this was set up by an earlier segment that we didn’t see on this Network recording on account of the morons…Luger and Buff destroy Sarge…Luger even takes the time to Pillmanize Sarge’s arm like it was early 2000 all over again… After some ghost ads, medics try to help an enraged and hurt Sarge with his wrist… Before we get to our main event, it’s time for…This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder: CEO Ric Flair, displeased about Commissioner Mike Sanders screwing with Nash and Page’s rental car reservation, gives the commissioner a dressing down…Meanwhile, Sanders gives Reno an opponent he thinks is an easy mark in the Cat…Gene Okerlund interviews Crowbar and Daffney about Crowbar's upcoming bouts with Terry Funk (at Sin) and Meng (tonight)…The Cat threatens both Reno and Mike Sanders in an interview with Mean Gene…Someone’s laid out the Harris Bros., and Jeff Jarrett isn’t happy about it (but I am)…Shane Douglas and Gene Okerlund chat about what will be a Chain on a Title on a Pole Match between Douglas and Rection at Sin…Yuck…Who booked this crap?...Is Vince Russo still faxing the office his ideas?...Anyway, Rection attacked Douglas at the end of that segment… More of This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder: Jim Duggan enters the bus to attack a singing Elix Skipper (he was singing his own theme; this would have been a funny spot, I’m sure)…Johnny the Bull, Big Vito, and the Cat talk about how much they think Reno STINKS…Totally Buff taunts Sarge in an interview with Okerlund…CEO Flair books Jindrak in a surprise match after they’ve all kicked the shit out of the Misfits, and he bans the other Thrillers from ringside for the rest of the night, to boot…Sid promos with Gene Okerlund, targets Jeff Jarrett…CEO Flair, uh, comes to an agreement with Totally Buff, which I guess would be teasing the heel turn?...Jeff Jarrett promos with Gene Okerlund, targets Sid Vicious…Totally Buff next cuts a deal with KroniK… Alright, now let’s do our main event thing…Jeff Jarrett walks to the ring as we review Jarrett’s win over Lance Storm to gain entrance into the Sin main event…Jarrett insists on talking…Jeff Jarrett “Slapnuts/Slapass” Count: Two…Boy, this guy talks and talks and talks…He basically tells the Mystery Man to consider his actions should he intervene in the main event… Before Sid makes it to the ring, we get one more segment…The Thrillers prepare to get in their limo and leave, but the Insiders pop out and swing weapons until they’re all laid out…OK, after a few ghost ads, we’re back…This is a five-minute WCW special…It starts with an obligabrawl, to my point…There’s a match, but as I have been trained to wait for fuckery in Nitro and Thunder main events, none of it engages me…Sid fights up from a sleeper and goes lariat, big boot, chokeslam attempt…Jarrett pokes him in the eye and hits the ropes, but he runs back into a boot and a powerbomb attempt…That attempt is stopped by a Mystery Man, who helps Jarrett beat down Sid as the ref calls for the bell…However, this particular Mystery Man is not THE Mystery Man, but is Scott Steiner in disguise…Aw, look, he traveled to a solo Thunder show after all!…So did the Insiders, for that matter...Those spots they popped up in on the show were actual surprises simply because I assumed these three really did take this show off... This show wasn’t great, but it stays on the good side of the ledger for being generally inoffensive and having a fun opener…WOO… 1
SirSmUgly Posted March 19 Author Posted March 19 On 3/16/2025 at 6:30 PM, twiztor said: i want to point out the absurdity of Elizabeth being in the game, but not Randy Savage. I know they had split, both on- and off-screen, but Savage last appeared in May. When did Liz last show up? i don't know if either were under contract, but only one of them had been an actual wrestler. Liz appeared into the back end of the Ruschoff Era, but eventually, she left television. Probably that's because frankly, Russo booked her in a creepy manner. In fairness to the team at EA who chose the roster, Savage's contract ran out in November of 1999 and his 2000 appearance was a one-off that wasn't followed up on because he and WCW tried and failed once again to come to an agreement. After Savage's win over Dennis Rodman at Road Wild '99, he only shows up twice in one-off appearances, one in October of 1999 on Nitro and then that May 2000 appearance. On that note, and considering how rapid the production of games were at this time, it makes sense that they wouldn't have him on the final roster. Quote for some reason, these points made me specifically want to see an Elix Skipper vs Lash LeRoux match. i'm definitely a high voter on both of them. per cagematch, they only faced off once in singles (on WCW Worldwide in May of 2000) but a number of times in multiman matches. i don't think i care enough to track down a match featuring Hugh Morrus, but here's that match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gUxK60RClg This match is a perfectly fine six-minute C-show match, but I particularly have to give props to the clever sign about the poor Canadian exchange rate driving down the value of (cruiserweight) gold. Hey, an actual clever fan sign!
twiztor Posted March 19 Posted March 19 4 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said: Liz appeared into the back end of the Ruschoff Era, but eventually, she left television. Probably that's because frankly, Russo booked her in a creepy manner. In fairness to the team at EA who chose the roster, Savage's contract ran out in November of 1999 and his 2000 appearance was a one-off that wasn't followed up on because he and WCW tried and failed once again to come to an agreement. After Savage's win over Dennis Rodman at Road Wild '99, he only shows up twice in one-off appearances, one in October of 1999 on Nitro and then that May 2000 appearance. On that note, and considering how rapid the production of games were at this time, it makes sense that they wouldn't have him on the final roster. This match is a perfectly fine six-minute C-show match, but I particularly have to give props to the clever sign about the poor Canadian exchange rate driving down the value of (cruiserweight) gold. Hey, an actual clever fan sign! thank you for the contract explanation, that does in fact clear that up. i kind of assumed Savage was on one of those long term Turner deals and just wasn't used for whatever reason. that Worldwide crowd seemed pretty jazzed up about the match. Way more lively than i remember the WW crowd usually being. 1
SirSmUgly Posted March 20 Author Posted March 20 Show #272 – 8 January 2001 "The one that makes me wonder if Terry Taylor is calling Vince Russo on a burner to pick his brain for some of these feud developments" Recap: The Cat is coming for the commissionership, a dumb top-rope spot that ends Sid’s career in big time wrestling is coming for Mr. Vicious, and the end of the road in WCW is coming for Goldberg. Oh, and another heel turn for Ric Flair, for some reason. No, I don’t get any of this storyline progression either, but at least the shows are watchable again! BRAMP BRUMP Disco Inferno is filling in for the recently departed Mark Madden. Here’s Madden’s epitaph in WCW: Hey, he wasn’t all that bad, man! In fact, sometimes, he was alright! CEO Ric Flair, flanked by a security team, enters the ring for his typical show-opening address. Flair mentions how talented the Vikings are to generate some goodwill from the crowd, and it’s kinda funny that they cut to the crowd, and the only NFL jersey I see is someone wearing a Marshall Faulk Rams jersey. Our fair CEO notes that Commissioner Mike Sanders is an unpopular dude – the crowd agrees – and then books him in a match against the Cat at Sin for his commissionership. Can we please just shitcan this commissioner’s role? Roddy Piper is long gone. Next, Ric Flair asserts that the main event at Sin is a Triple Threat, and it’s between Scott Steiner, his Mystery Man, and one of Jeff Jarrett or Syko Sid. Which man should I put into that last spot, he wonders? Jarrett resolutely walks to the top of the ramp and asserts that he should get the shot on account of Sid didn’t beat him last week, but didn’t Steiner blow up the match and cause Jarrett to lose by DQ? Is having your buddy come to the ring and jump your opponent in full view of the ref, who calls for the bell, not a disqualification loss anymore? The CEO and Jarrett go back and forth about their motivations toward the world champ for a bit when CEO Flair suddenly up and cancels that whole Triple Threat deal. I’m sorry, what? Scott Steiner joins Jeff Jarrett and indicates that he’s not a fan of this change as he and Jarrett want to take out Flair’s Mystery Man. Flair informs Steiner that actually, the match at Sin is now a Four Corners Match! Sid and Jarrett are both in the match! What a baffling build to this main event. Anyway, Flair tries to stir up dissension between the two nWo Silver running buddies by replaying the part from last week where Jarrett lied about not being in the contendership tournament; he further has the truck hit the playback of Jarrett accidentally KABONGing Steiner at Mayhem. To top all that off, the CEO books Steiner vs. Jarrett for the big gold belt tonight. Steiner makes to attack Flair, but Flair threatens him with a suspension and a title strippin’. Jarrett takes the chance to slip away without having to confront an angry Steiner. So, as part of his threats, Steiner said that one day, he was going to step through the rest of Flair’s roadblocks and get to Flair himself. You know what? That’s actually an interesting prospect for a long-term angle! Maybe the face-heel alignment is off from the norm, but I think it’s a potentially neat narrative development. That would be a case in the long-term where a double-turn might actually work and Flair could be the heel that he loves being. However, the dumbest thing of all would be to, you know, short circuit that by just having Flair turn heel and join Steiner a few days from now. Obviously, the creative masterminds at WCW would never do such a thing. Goldberg and Sarge arrive; we don’t hear what Goldberg says before he flips a table and gets in the faces of a couple of underpaid WCW employees on account of Scott Steiner’s music is still playing, but basically, once the audio kicks in, Goldberg is in search of KroniK. Mike Sanders talks out loud to himself about how much it sucks to have to wrestle the Cat again. Speaking of things that are happening again, the fucking Harris Bros. are working as suit-wearing flunkies for an official in power one more time, and Sanders sends them out to face the Cat in a handicap match. Shane Douglas gets in CEO Flair’s face backstage and asks WHAT ABOUT ME, WHAT ABOUT RAVEN THE FRANCHISE? in regards to getting a world title shot himself. What about you, you mediocre midcard chump? The CEO tells him that if he can beat Syko Sid tonight, maybe he can get put in place of Sid in the Sin main event. Three fans hold up signs with green dance circles drawn on them as Shannon Moore (w/Shane Helms) enters the ring. Aw, they’re down to two now, fellas. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (w/microphone) is Moore’s opponent. Helms joins commentary, and Chavo calls him LIL’ TROOPER over the house mic. July of 1998 is one of my favorite months in WCW history, and I appreciate the callback. Chavo, who has just watched CEO Flair try to divide Steiner and Jarrett like he was chief of a Russian disinfo campaign, decides to double-down on that sort of behavior and tells Helms that he’s happily going to make this match against Moore a title match, which means that if he loses the gold, he gets the first shot at a rematch at Sin and Helms will be sitting at home. Helms fucking cracks me up. Annoyed and unimpressed over on commentary, he says, “He did the same thing with me and Jamie Knoble,” but of course, he thinks the spelling of (K)noble’s name is as stupid as the rest of us do, so he pronounces it “Jamie Ka-noble.” I didn’t expect that, so it got me. Helms slaps Chavo in the face when Chavo wanders over to him at the desk, and Moore follows up with an attack of his own. Chavo once again is in deep trouble early; Moore hits a corkscrew moonsault and a leg lariat, but he gets caught and dumped when he tries that last one again. Chavo lands a nice back suplex for two. Chavo has a dope back suplex. Disco and Helms go back and forth over whether Helms is on Chavo Jr.’s level, and Helms says something about stealing the show at Starrcade. NO, BAD HELMS. Even though they did steal the show. Disco notes that “clearing a bunch of ladders” doesn’t make you championship material as a counter-argument. Correct! Wow, something that came out of Glenn Gilbertti’s mouth can be deemed “correct.” It’s like seeing Halley’s Comet. Meanwhile, Chavo tries to keep Moore grounded, but Moore fires back with punches and ends up running right into a dropkick for two. Chavo doesn’t keep control for much longer, though; Moore manages to hit a springboard Showstopper for two and then, uh, fuck up a springboard move. Chavo saves it by immediately following up with a diving axe and getting two before Shannon fires up again and manages a headscissors. They struggle over a suplex and Moore jumps behind Chavo to try his sleeper drop finisher, but Chavo runs him backward into the corner to break it. Chavo then charges; Moore hops over him and tries a sunset flip, Booker T. style, but Chavo rolls through, lands a kick to the gut when he gets to his feet, and drills Moore with a brainbuster for three. After the match, Chavo looks for another brainbuster, but he has to make a quick escape when Helms slides in the ring to stop him. Chavo circles the ring, seemingly about to leave, but he tries to jump Helms when Helms walks over to check on Moore. Helms senses Chavo trying a belt shot this time around, ducks it, and then back body drops Chavo to the floor on a cool bump in which Chavo got a ton of air. Look, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, but what you can take from this match is that Chavo Jr. absolutely fucking RULES. As Nitro finally checks in with a match that makes my Good Matches list for the first time since the crew was in Australia back in October of 2000, all I can do is implore WCW to give this Chavo Jr./Helms feud more time and more segments. Mike Sanders walks up on Kwee Wee and Paisley all friendly-like, but instead of giving Kwee Wee a booking, Sanders gives him a beating. Vito runs Sanders off. Exactly what dealings does CEO Ric Flair have with Totally Buff this week? The desk wonders, as do I. It’s the Cat (most importantly, w/the lovely Ms. Jones). The Harris Bros. are his opponent, if you recall, and I am baffled at why these two don’t get sent home to let their contracts expire already. The Cat tries to bargain with them before the match, but actually, it's a fake-out; he insults them and they attack him. Beyond that, the match is what it is. It’s short, there’s a Twin Magic spot, and they both H-Bomb him anyway when the ref is focused on Ms. Jones protesting that the Harris Bros. switched spots. After a ghost commercial break, the Cat proves that he’ll be okay for Sin by dancing for Gene Okerlund in a backstage interview-slash-danceathon. General Rection tells Sid to save a bit of Douglas for him at Sin; Sid answers with a dap, which is good, as opposed to answering with a goozle or a powerbomb, which is bad. Meanwhile, Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner are in a tizzy over their match against one another; Steiner wanders off to find the CEO. Back to Okerlund: Commissioner Mike Sanders and the Thrillers are with him, and Sanders complains about being “jumped by Big Vito and Kwee Wee,” so he creates a Minnesota Massacre Match in which Vito and Kwee Wee have to face some *wink wink* RANDOMLY SELECTED OPPONENTS, and if anyone interferes, the commish’ll fine ‘em, send ‘em home, and also maybe childishly insult ‘em. Totally Buff have a conversation with KroniK in which Totally Buff lets KroniK know that they got them booked in a match with Goldberg and Sarge. KroniK is not happy with this, so Luger and Bagwell really butter them up, but KroniK still expects to get paid. Luger lets them know that since the CEO booked this match, it’s WCW sanctioned and they’re working for a regular paycheck. He backs out of the room as he informs them of this, which is funny. Buff tries to dap up Clark. He gets no daps. At least he didn’t get powerbombed, though. Here's Team Canada, insistent upon keeping the spirit of Vince Russo’s WCW going in some small manner to the very end. Lance Storm informs everyone that Team Canada will be challenging the Filthy Animals in a Canadian Penalty Box Match at Sin. Everyone at the desk: “A what?” Anyway, after the Canadian National Anthem is played and interrupted, Storm wrestles Billy Kidman (w/the Animals). Oh no, Konnan joins commentary and picks up his feud with Disco again: “You’re a disgrace to our race, our profession, and our gender.” Meanwhile, Storm and Kidman have a fun little sprint in which they, oh yeah, pick up their feud from back in the middle of 2000 again. Storm is able to counter Kidman’s attempts at firing up until Kidman manages a counter-dropkick on a Storm springboard. Kidman shoots Storm in and wins a back body drop, then a dropkick. He is countered out of a springboard bulldog, but manages a Sky High for two more. His next move, a rebound lariat attempt, is countered with a superkick for two. They trade flash pinfall attempts, come dangerously close to smashing into a chair that the heels wedged into the ropes earlier, and then the Chekhov’s Gun is fired when Storm does get pushed head first into it. Kidman covers for one, two, and no more as Gunns and Awesome yank him to the floor. Of course, as it turns out, we get a veritable donnybrook as the Animals and Team Canada fight one another. Back in the ring, Kidman blocks a piledriver and hooks Storm in a Kid Krusher for three. You know what? I liked that match. Maybe not enough to watch again on YouTube, but it was solid stuff. Let’s get to goozle, chokeslam, powerbomb in this Sid/Shane Douglas match as quickly as possible. No need to talk, Shane! Aw, dammit, he fucking talks. Shut the fuck up. It’s the same shit all the time, including some of the worst catchphrases this side of, I don’t know, think of any of the other workers in WCW who tried and failed to get catchphrases over in the past five years. Sid makes it to the ring and gets SID chants because he is incredibly awesome. This match is your typical WCW TV match, obligabrawl and all, but Sid is incredibly awesome and Minnesota is vocal about that, so it’s more entertaining than if, I don’t know, Shane Douglas was wrestling Jeff Jarrett instead. Sorry, Jarrett, I like you, but *Konnan voice* you don’t got it like that. Anyway. Sid does some cursory selling for Shane, which is entirely too much selling to do, but he avoids a chain shot with a big boot. Legdrop, goozle, chokesl—no, wait, Douglas pokes Sid’s eye to escape. He tries a Franchiser, but Sid is like ABSOLUTELY NOT, shoves him away, and scores a chokeslam and powerbomb to what is one of the louder pops I’ve heard on Nitro in a long time. Of course, we can’t feel good about anything a babyface has done for even a second on Nitro; Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett backjump him after the match. CEO Ric Flair spends sometime with Gene Okerlund backstage. He’s not happy about the commissioner’s booking, but he doesn’t do a damned thing to alter it. Instead, he threatens to suspend Jarrett and Steiner if they beg off of their match later tonight. Finally, he assigns Hacksaw Duggan as the referee for that Filthy Animals/Team Canada Canadian Penalty Box match at Sin. Terry Funk cuts an in-ring promo in which he states that his possession of the WCW Hardcore Championship means that he’s the king of hardcore wrestling, but that banana-nosed CEO fuckface enemy of his is instead forcing him to fight a bum like Crowbar instead of being given only the finest competitors like the rad hardcore granddad that he is. He’s like Fuck Crowbar, he’s a lil’ bitch anyways, I’m calling out Goldberg, Scott Steiner, or DDP instead because I’m a fuckin’ rad hardcore granddad. Or hell, I’ll deign to fight Meng, I guess. Crowbar intervenes, and Daffney is here with more sparklers, and I do indeed HUNGER FOR UNGER. Who doesn’t? Crowbar is like, Nah fam, I think I can beat you, but I used to think you were so cool, man, what’s happened between us, but I don’t care about that because Daffney is doing a stupid dance while waving around the sparklers. Why don’t we let Daffney talk or do some nonsensical shit without this Funk/Crowbar feud getting in the way? Crowbar says that he thought Terry Funk was TIMELESS, but no, that would better describe you in about twenty years and then apparently Toni Storm a few months after that in what seems to be suspicious timing. Crowbar’s trying to elevate this feud out here, but Daffney is actually not helping by being entertaining in the background while Crowbar cuts an emotional promo that isn’t bad, but isn’t quite earned because he hasn’t been built to that point yet. Anyway, everyone mixes it up, including Meng, who TDGs Funk, kicks Daffney in the throat when Daffney tries to break it up with a chair shot, and then pokes through another chair that Crowbar is holding up as Crowbar follows up with an attack. Meng puts both his Sin opponents down with TDGs, then grabs the belt and tells them that if either of them want it back, they’d better come take it from him at Sin. This was actually a pretty solid talking segment for WCW, if maybe slightly below average for wrestling in the United States at the time. But it wasn’t bad! It worked well enough to heat up the Sin match. Pre-paid announcement: Jimmy Hart, please stop bumming me out, man. Hart says that this ad was paid for by the Jimmy Hart Committee to Promote Wrestling, and I have to ask, who in the blue hell is on that committee? Is it just made up of old Dungeon of Doom guys or First Family guys? Is it just, like, Austin Idol and Bill Dundee? These are the questions that I need answered. Commissioner Mike Sanders’s office is infiltrated by someone – the camera is acting as a first-person viewpoint in this segment – and that person slips the envelope of RANDOMLY SELECTED OPPONENTS out of Sanders’s jacket pocket and replaces it with an envelope of very carefully chosen opponents that we don’t have to pretend are randomly selected like Sanders did. The person who did it is a white dude, and that’s all we can tell about the perpetrator. Disco, obliquely pointing out how dumb it is to suddenly have the camera show a first-person perspective when it never, ever has been established as consistently doing that in this company: “Probably a production glitch.” Heh heh heh. KroniK faces Goldberg and Sarge in a Career Threatening Tag Match; Disco complains over at the desk about how much money he and Alex Wright spent to secure KroniK’s services in the past. Goldberg and Adams brawl in the aisle while Clark beats up Sarge in the ring. Sarge sells that Pillmanized arm, which KroniK targets as Sarge plays FIP. Sarge does manage to block a vertical suplex from Clark and turn it into a DDT, then manages to crawl over and score the hot tag. Sure, the guy is useless as KroniK use the numbers game to get to Goldberg, but Goldberg has already beaten these guys one-on-two, so it’s no problem. He busts out of a High Times attempt and spears Adams, then manages to spear and Jackhammer Clark while Totally Buff jump Sarge at ringside and fuck up his injured arm just a little bit more. Goldberg does manage to get out there after getting the pinfall; he wards off Buff, but Luger has ripped the cast off of Sarge and batters Goldberg with it, then swings it right into Adams’s head just for the fuck of it all. Huh. Are we going to get a KroniK face turn since that’s what everyone in WCW's live audiences have wanted this whole time anyway? We learn from Tony S. that CEO Flair has officially made that Triple Threat Match for the hardcore title between Crowbar, Meng, and Funk at Sin; meanwhile, Mike Sanders makes it to the ring to call out the RANDOMLY SELECTED OPPONENTS for this match against Kwee Wee and Vito. Sanders hands the envelope to Penzer, who sells bafflement as he announces Mike Sanders as the first wrestler in the bout. Second up: Chuck Palumbo. Third up: Sean O’Haire. Sanders is overjoyed that the three fans who were earlier holding up the Three Count dancing circle signs are now holding up signs that, when combined, say S.O.L.: AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. Hey, that actually finally got over somehow, he’s thinking, I'm sure of it. Fourth up: Oh lookee here, it’s Diamond Dallas Page! Fifth Up: You won’t believe this, but it’s Kevin Nash. Well, now this looks like a three-on-four disadvantage for the Thrillers just when it seemed like they had tilted the field in their favor! The Insiders start out hot before the numbers game gets to them, and where the heck are Vito and Kwee Wee? The crowd wants HALL, so maybe get Vito and Kwee Wee down here to give them the rub of working with Nash and Page instead of having the crowd demanding the appearance of a guy you fired two months ago? I’m genuinely confused by this match. It was supposed to be Vito and Kwee Wee against five other guys, but now it’s the Insiders against O’Haire, Palumbo, and Sanders. Finally, here are Kwee Wee, Vito, Paisley, and the Bull, who merely cut off the other Thrillers before they can invade, and the Insiders drop the Thrillers in the ring and are declared the LAST MEN STANDING and therefore the winners even though, as Disco points out, “What happened to the ten count?” Russo-esque fucking garbage, folks. Well, I guess we couldn’t realistically avoid the Dirt Worst list for this truncated year of television, could we? Though this is a mild addition to the list compared to most everything else between late July ’98 and December ’00. It's Nitro main event time! Scott Steiner (w/Midajah) defends his WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Jeff Jarrett. Steiner reminds us all that he put Sting and Booker T. out of wrestling, that he would love to beat up Sid, and that he refuses to wrestle Jeff Jarrett against the CEO’s orders. I think the most impressive thing about Jarrett’s run in kayfabe is that he managed to remain friends with Scott Steiner’s crazy ass in spite of Scott Steiner having a hair trigger temper and an inability to maintain long-term friendships. After a break, Jeff Jarrett walks out here carrying his KABONGer. He grabs a mic and agrees with Scott Steiner that he’s not interested in wrestling him tonight. Jeff Jarrett “Slapnuts/Slapass” Count: Entirely too many. Oh, fine, I’ll give an exact number. Two. It was two. CEO Flair walks out to respond by threatening to strip Steiner of the big gold and Jarrett of his title shot at Sin. Great, we whittled the time remaining down to about five minutes, which is all the time we need for a Nitro main event, right fellas? Jarrett sneaks toward Steiner and shoves Midajah out of his way when she steps in front of him. He looks like he might be considering a proper KABONGing of her, and we all know that you don’t mess with Scotty’s FAVORITE FREAK, so Steiner attacks him. The tiny Midajah walking around at ringside wearing chainmail that is sized for Scotty’s giant fuckin’ cranium is adorable. I digress; Steiner dominates the overmatched Jarrett. I am probably underplaying it, actually. He beats the utter shit out of the dude for four of the five minutes of this match; the first move Jarrett gets in is a ball shot after Steiner slams him on the commentary table, and right after that, Steiner goes back to punching Jarrett in the face. Back in the ring, Jarrett takes the first chance he gets to try a desperation Stroke, but he gets stuffed and belly-to-belly suplexed. Sid races to the ring and attacks Steiner; the CEO's Mystery Man soon follows and attacks Jarrett, which the fellas in the front row are convinced is Rick Steiner. That’s because it is Rick Steiner. Rick just has his particular way of slouch-standing, you know? It’s a huge tell. Other than that pre-main event segment, everything was basically pretty good, and then there was one segment or match that stood out over everything else. That’s the story of Nitro lately, and considering where we’ve been over the past two-plus years of programing, that’s still a good enough story for me. 2.75 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. 1
BobbyWhioux Posted March 21 Posted March 21 4 hours ago, SirSmUgly said: Terry Funk cuts an in-ring promo in which he states that his possession of the WCW Hardcore Championship means that he’s the king of hardcore wrestling, but that banana-nosed CEO fuckface enemy of his is instead forcing him to fight a bum like Crowbar instead of being given only the finest competitors like the rad hardcore granddad that he is. He’s like Fuck Crowbar, he’s a lil’ bitch anyways, I’m calling out Goldberg, Scott Steiner, or DDP instead because I’m a fuckin’ rad hardcore granddad. Or hell, I’ll deign to fight Meng, I guess. Crowbar intervenes, and Daffney is here with more sparklers, and I do indeed HUNGER FOR UNGER. Who doesn’t? Crowbar is like, Nah fam, I think I can beat you, but I used to think you were so cool, man, what’s happened between us, but I don’t care about that because Daffney is doing a stupid dance while waving around the sparklers. Why don’t we let Daffney talk or do some nonsensical shit without this Funk/Crowbar feud getting in the way? Not that there's ever been any shortage of evidence that The Funker was the best to ever do it, but, man, The Funker was the best to ever do it. 2
SirSmUgly Posted March 22 Author Posted March 22 Thunder Interlude – show number one hundred and forty-three – 10 January 2001 "The WCW Gang rides tag matches and fun commentary to a positive score" Let’s go on right ahead into the Thunder opening together, no time to waste… Well it’s our go-home show to Sin…I’ll stop here before the opening and wave an early goodbye to Sid, who had an extremely fun WCW run this go-round with one of my favorite feuds and matches (against Goldberg) in WCW history on his list of successes…He’s also got the Benoit match and in general was one of the rare bright spots in the worst three-month period of television that WCW ever put on in early 2000…Really, my overall conclusion regarding Sid’s use is that WCW didn’t get nearly enough out of him…His pairing with Savage had a ton of potential (and a funny little Thunder moment in which he demanded a driver OPEN THE TRUNK, STUPID on the somewhat aptly numbered Thunder show number sixty-nine)…That ended shortly because Savage left the company in August… Then, they had him sitting at home for most of 2000 after stripping him of the world title in April…He was a very over babyface on a show that desperately needed stars, so I don’t get it…Give him more dates and throw more money at him if you need to…At least he didn’t come back and heel it up as a member of the Millionaire’s Club, though…Between that ill-advised heel turn and the equally as ill-advised heel turn on Hulk Hogan back in March, WCW’s creative was doing the same shit it loved to do with Bret Hart, Ric Flair, and hell, even KroniK to a lesser degree…Just let your popular babyfaces be babyfaces, dammit…Anyway, this little period of Sid’s career is a certified check mark for his legacy, at least in my eyes…And he’s out of pro wrestling as a big-time player after this week is over…He was a young forty, mostly because he took so much time off television…I wonder, if not for the leg injury, would he have had a tiny WWF run in the mid-aughts that we’d fondly remember?... We go right to the commentary table, where Tony S. announces a Scott Steiner/Sid Vicious title match for tonight which makes no fucking booking sense…I hate, hate, hate these title match giveaways on free television a few days before the PPV…KroniK will also be wrestling Totally Buff… After a ghost ad break, we come back to Mike Sanders freaking out about something alongside the other Thrillers…Shane Douglas walks up and asks for some help with harassing the Misfits in Action into the ground…He’s got cash that he was going to use to hire the now occupied KroniK, and he offers it to the Thrillers if they assist him…That catches Sanders's interest… Stevie Ray continues to hate on his future sister-in-law Paisley, saying that she’s really driven down Kwee Wee’s stock since she joined him…He Man Wimmen Hater Mike Tenay agrees, obviously, over Tony S.’s protests…Anyway, Kwee Wee and Big Vito are tagging up against Palumbo and O’Haire…Paisley wears Vito’s jacket and big-ass hat at ringside…Again, adorable…Women wearing men’s clothing that is way too big for them is always a winner with me…Tony S., addressing Stevie’s persistent questions about Paisley’s sudden change in wardrobe: “You got yak problems, Stevie”…Hilarious… Oh yeah, you wanted to know about this match, probably…It’s perfectly cromulent, as you might guess…Stevie says that Kwee Wee “looks like a reject from that Dragonball Z show,” which is truly amazing, eleven out of ten, you can’t possibly do commentary any better than that…I swear that this match is solid!...It’s just that Tony S. and Stevie Ray are the best…Seriously, one of my minor disappointments in WCW’s coming death is that we didn’t get any more of Stevie and Tony on commentary… Vito is FIP…Stevie and Tony debate on whether or not Palumbo and O’Haire have the same level of continuity that they do when wrestling with their usual partners…Palumbo does some decent heeling, kicking Vito’s arm as he reaches helplessly for a tag…But of course, there’s a hot tag eventually…Russo’s not around, so the tag matches actually have all their typical segments now…Kwee Wee hits a fiery comeback…It’s pretty entertaining, actually…O’Haire stops a Kwee Wee run of offense…This causes the match to break down…Reno shoots down the ramp and attacks Johnny the Bull, who is standing at ringside, with a Roll of the Dice…Vito comes over to help, but gets hit with a stickball bat instead…That leaves Kwee Wee in a one-on-two situation, and he falls to a Seanton Bomb in short order…Decent opener!...After the match, the heels continue piling on the offense to make sure that they’ll leave ‘em laying when the segment is over… Hacksaw Duggan joins commentary…He says that he’s going to do his “gosh awful best” as referee at Sin…So he’s admitting even his best sucks, then, is what I’m getting from that comment…The Filthy Animals come to the ring…Konnan hits the roulette…Tygress demands that whatever their theme is be played so they can stand at attention, as Lance Storm does for “O Canada”…We get this ‘90s Eurodance dub and not whatever hip-hop theme they were using at this time…For once, Team Canada gets to cut off someone else’s music with their theme…It looks like this match will be a tag bout pitting Storm and Skipper against Kidman and Rey… Stevie asks the hard questions of Duggan on commentary regarding his heel turn from a few months ago…Tenay appreciates Stevie's approach to journalism…This is an even better match than the previous tag match…Rey and Kidman are a really fun team with quite a bit of experience tagging together at this point…They put Elix through the wringer in the shine segment…Kidman ignores the first spot that is supposed to end that shine segment (Storm kneeing him in the back on a rope run), so they just do that shit again, and Storm sticks a knee into Kidman’s back successfully in kayfabe this time around…Kidman is now the FIP, but I sort of wish that the shine was longer… One match after praising Jamie Tucker for being good at spotting interference in a tag match, Stevie once again tears into Scott James missing interferences…Holy shit, a U-S-A chant causes Duggan to ask if everyone hears it…He calls this inspirational chant one that evokes from him a BIG HO…Stevie, after a slight pause, hits a flat “What”…It takes Duggan a couple of seconds to get why Stevie was asking, after which he says OHHHH, I GOT IT…I get why some people wouldn’t like this commentary team, and it depends on how you take Stevie's work...Stevie is always making comments about the refereeing, asking for clarification on the matches that are coming up (like asking Duggan how this penalty box thing is going to work), and generally being entertaining as hell to me… There are many things in WCW that weren’t as good the second time around as they were the first time around…There are some things that I wasn’t a huge fan of before, but watching them now, I enjoyed them much more…There are too many things that sucked then sucked as bad or worse on rewatch…But Stevie’s commentary is a rare thing that I really liked back then that I think I like even more now…Coming out of that late ‘99/early ’00 period where nobody could find it in them to give a shit on commentary (understandably), Stevie has really livened things up again with his approach… The match in the ring is very good, particularly for a TV tag…Elix has a nice cutoff of a Kidman comeback in which he stops short and sticks Kidman with a DDT…Holy shit, Duggan is hilarious on commentary after Tony S. asks him how Team Canada acted behind the scenes…First, he gets a laugh out of me with this: “And Prime Time, all he wanted to talk about was **mocking high-pitched squeaky voice** HIS HOUSE, HIS HOUSE!” Then, Tony asks him about what Major Gunns was like, and Duggan's response is to chuckle lasciviously while Stevie, lawyerly in tone, informs Duggan that he doesn’t have to answer that…What the fuck, man… Meanwhile, Elix scores a NASTY Dragon Suplex with a bridge on Kidman for 2.8…Kidman manages to catch Elix when Skipper, of course, tries a powerbomb…That sparks the hot tag…Rey explodes with offense, but he and Storm fuck up a springboard spot…Eh, they save it well enough…The match breaks down when Skipper attacks Rey…Mike Awesome springs into action at ringside and attacks Kidman…Rey rids the ring of Skipper, but that delay allows Storm to stick a boot up as Rey leaps in for a Bronco Buster…Gunns and Tygress go at it…Stevie yells LOOKIT THE YAKS and Duggan’s crazy ass says, and I swear he did, “That’s a whole different kind of box! PENALTY BOX PENALTY BOX PENALTY BOX”…I…Did he mean to do that?...Was he double entendre-ing there?...I can’t even…By the time Storm catches a Rey springboard and eases Rey to the mat in a Canadian Maple Leaf, scoring a tap out, I am rushing to add this whole dope-ass TV segment to one of my good lists… We come back from what normally would have been a commercial break to Douglas and the Thrillers cackling about how their plan worked…We didn’t see that plan on account of a certain group of fucking morons who work at the WWE Network…Oh hell, let’s just do this now for the segments related to this angle… This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder which made it harder to understand this latest battle in the Shane Douglas/General Rection war: OK, so after Shane Douglas hired the Thrillers, Sanders booked the Misfits against Douglas, Stasiak, and Jindrak…Cajun and A-WALL still need to get a physical done to be cleared to wrestle…After that last tag match, Cajun and A-WALL went in search of the doctors, but were jumped by the Thrillers beforehand and taken out of the match… We’ll do the regular version of that section later on to cover the rest of what was cut… Okerlund interviews Rection, who says that he got two replacements for Cajun and A-WALL…Those replacements are the Insiders…Nash swats Okerlund on the ass… OK, that Shane Douglas, Shawn Stasiak, and Mark Jindrak versus General Rection and the Insiders match is next…I like all the tag matches on this show…More tag matches, please!...But first, less Shane Douglas doing pre-match promos, please!...Here’s another perfectly watchable match…It’s not as good as the previous match, but that’s obvious…Anything that makes guys like Stasiak and Rection watchable is good with me…Jindrak is totally outclassed by Page and throws a Christian Cage-like mat-smacking temper tantrum before tagging out to Stasiak…Stasiak calls out Nash…That goes poorly for him as you’d imagine…Of course the doofus who loses control of the match and ends up as FIP – both shoot and in kayfabe – is Rection…Tony S. informs us that the U.S. title match at Sin is now a First Blood Match, which is totally unnecessary…It doesn’t even make sense in the context of the feud, which started because Torrie got crushed in the corner…It should be a Dopey Valet With Bad Mic Skills on a Pole Match, logically…I mean, at least in the sense that Vince Russo defines the term “logic”… So, Rection takes some punishment…Douglas is so boring as a heel in control…Wait, hold on, just as I typed that, he cut off Rection as Rection crawled toward his corner with a weak boot once, then twice, but the best part is after that. He then backs up for one more targeted move and yells OHHHHH YEAH, HAHAHAAAAAAAA before landing his neck snap…That was pretty funny…The only thing I like about Shane Douglas is when he goes HAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…The Thrillers rush the ring and attack Nash and Page as Rection goes for a hot tag…Douglas tries a chain shot, but Slick Johnson catches his arm and causes him to drop the chain…Douglas, disoriented, shuffles forward into a Rection powerslam that gets three…Rection immediately rolls outside, grabs a chair, and wards off the Thrillers...That was the best possible trios tag with this combination of wrestlers… Gene Okerlund wants Stasiak to back the hell off before he interviews Mike Sanders, who speaks for the rest of the Thrillers per usual…Sanders is certain that the Insiders and the Cat are both going down at Sin…Stasiak mad dogs Okerlund, who chuckles and promises to send a few buddies back home who pack crowbars to do a number on Stasiak’s ACLs… I don’t get why the Harris Bros. pulling a Twin Magic was a spot in that Nitro match against the Cat…I thought it was supposed to be a handicap match…Maybe it was actually one-on-one…I didn’t register that during the watch, but you know what?...I don’t care that much…One or both of the Harris Bros. is next wrestling Meng…Tony S. tells us that it’s one of Da/oR, not both of them…Obviously, both of these guys get their shots in on Meng…I miss all the tag matches from earlier…They try another Twin Magic, but Ra/oD eats a back suplex for three (!!)…The Harris Bros. attack Meng after the match…Kwee Wee makes a failed save before the Harris Bros. see a chance to attack a black woman and grab Paisley (sorry, but it was on a tee)…Kwee Wee pulls her out of the ring to safety, and Meng is able to get back up and lock a pair of TDGs on these shitty-ass brothers…Meng goes buckwild and beats up a couple of cruiserweights who try to stop him from clearing out referees…The TDG is still over as a move, even considering that this is a taped Thunder with crowd juicing… The Cat’s in a suit tonight, so he’s not wrestling…He’s with the extremely lovely Ms. Jones…He promises to get his job back from Mike Sanders at Sin…Well, since CEO Ric Flair is about to turn heel, he probably needs a babyface commissioner as a foil, so I’m thinking the Cat actually might win…I mean, WCW doesn’t need a) Flair to turn heel or b) a babyface foil for Flair in the commissionership position or for that matter c) a commissionership at all…But you know what I mean, if you’re a booking committee that is way better than any other committee since like 1998, but your ideas are still kinda hinky sometimes, you’d need to balance that back out… A fam who may or may not be a plant – maybe he’s not – is a Sanders backer, and the Cat calls him out and insults him (while fans lean away and point at him, trying to stay out of the line of fire)…Stop telling people you will EAT THEIR ASS LIKE A POT OF COLLARD GREENS, Cat…Unless, of course, you are preparing to have consensual analingus with them, which I guess in that case, you should totally tell them that…Sanders hits the stage to respond…He does his whole facetious “grizzled vet” routine on the mic…He also drops a BOMBSHELL on the Cat…The crowd chants WE WANT FAT ASS at the poor fan who I sort of hope is a plant at this point, and the Cat says, HEY MIKE, THEY WANT YOUR MOM and fake laughs…Sanders does that whole AT LEAST I KNOW WHO MY MOM IS thing which is absurd…Unless the Cat is adopted, I guess?...Still, no shame in that…The bombshell, by the way, is that Ms. Jones is technically the Commissioner’s Assistant, so she should technically work for him…They have a tiny mic battle, it seems to be agreed that she will work for whoever wins at Sin, and then the Cat and Jones dance…Well, maybe the Cat loses since I think Ms. Jones is off television soon, so they could just have Sanders fire her off-screen...This mostly existed to eat up a chunk of programming run, but the Cat yelling at random fans is a decent time… Great, back to tag matches!...Totally Buff faces KroniK, who should at least be face-leaning tweeners at this point…The latter team rules the ring from the jump, as Clark sends Luger to ringside while Adams hits Buff with a side slam for two…Clark tags in and the match settles down…Buff gets ragdolled for the first couple of minutes, barely surviving until he can hit a jawbreaker on Adams and change the tide of the match…No, scratch that tide changing…Adams explodes with a double clothesline on Totally Buff…No, wait, scratch that scratch of the tide changing…Buff low blows Adams as he sets up a Full Nelson Slam on Luger…OK, so Goldberg pulls up to the arena and hustles into the building…Apparently, we missed CEO Flair giving Goldberg a call…We’ll get there in a paragraph or two… Meanwhile, there’s an Adams hot tag…Clark tries a Meltdown, but Luger attacks him…The match breaks down…Goldberg slides into the ring…He runs at Buff with a spear…Buff bails out and he crushes Adams…Totally Buff take the opportunity to head out…Goldberg’s fine with destroying KroniK too, though…He grabs a mic and offers them some more of that work…They don’t want some more of that work, so Goldberg instead threatens Totally Buff… OK, while we’re here, let’s also say an early goodbye to Goldberg…WCW fumbled the bag…That’s it, that’s all I have to say about Goldberg…Glad he at least went on to get a couple of nice WWE paydays, though… This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder that has nothing at all to do with the latest chapter in the Shane Douglas/General Rection war: I can't find anything about CEO Flair calling Goldberg, so who knows what the commentators were talking about with a Flair phone call...Here's stuff that apparently definitely happened...KroniK are focused on getting back at Totally Buff in an interview with Okerlund…Extended hype for the only WCW Sin card there ever would be…Scott Steiner attacks Sid backstage…That’s it, but I have to mention that WCW’s marketing or whoever was responsible for PPV names seemingly got so disheartened by the end that when they were asked to start thinking up new names for some of their PPVs, they were just like FUCK IT, LET’S SEND THE EXECS AN EMAIL LISTING THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, AND ALSO SIN GENERALLY, WHICH MAKES EIGHT NEW NAMES AND NOW WE CAN ALL GO TAKE LONG LUNCHES OR PLAY MINESWEEPER INSTEAD OF DOING WORK FOR THIS COMPANY THAT MIGHT NOT EXIST SOON…I’m sorry AOL Amalgamated didn’t just keep WCW and renew Nitro and Thunder…I would have really enjoyed the August 2001 PPV WCW Gluttony… Syko Sid Vicious wrestles Scott Steiner for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in our main event…Before the match, Vicious has more footage he’d like played…Where’s the footage?...Sid claims that he beat Scott Steiner at Starrcade, actually…He yells a lot…Basically, he’s going to win the title and keep it no matter how many opponents he has at Sin…We don’t get any footage, dammit… After a series of spectral sales ads, commentary talks about the Fatal Fourway not having all the men in the ring at once or something…I don’t know, we’ll find out when I watch this show…Sid rolls Steiner early, but when he goes outside to follow up his attack, Midajah pops him in the back with the lead pipe…Steiner takes over after that…He can’t get three on a belly-to-belly, though…Steiner manages to go low after leaping into a goozle, but he immediately gets caught on a duckdown and DDT’d (!!)…Sid makes his comeback and even wins an obligabrawl, but when he sets up for a powerbomb in the ring, a man in the Mystery Man costume attacks Sid…Sid wards off his attack and yanks off the mask…It’s Jeff Jarrett…Meanwhile, CEO Ric Flair walks onto the stage with the Mystery Man beside him…That’s our show… More tag matches, more Tony S., and more Stevie Ray, please…Thunder remains the most consistently watchable (non-WCWSN?) WCW television show in the Nitro Era to the dying end…WOOO… 1
SirSmUgly Posted March 22 Author Posted March 22 On 3/20/2025 at 7:37 PM, BobbyWhioux said: Not that there's ever been any shortage of evidence that The Funker was the best to ever do it, but, man, The Funker was the best to ever do it. Funk's WCW run is in a weird spot because he got overused early in 2000, like they ran the poor guy into the ground, and then sometimes he cuts these throwback heel promos that the crowd doesn't seem to get, but how can you not love the guy? He really does try his best; it's just that he's doing it in a dumb division within a company that doesn't creatively care about it.
SirSmUgly Posted March 23 Author Posted March 23 Sin notes: Before I write anything else, I have to tell you that there’s a big-ass banner that seems to spoil the result of the United States Championship match. What the heck is that all about, Peacock?! Though I’d get a huge kick out of Shane Douglas winning the title only to lose it to Rick Steiner the next night in Raven/Goldberg redux (except much shittier), so let’s hope that happens. OK, now to the show! We’re three PPVs away from the end (WCW’s end, not my Nitro Era reviewing end, as I still have to cover the four or five PPVs that I skipped at the start of this project when I was only planning to write about Nitro). I’m surprised that there are still things that I remember that haven't yet happened, and for that matter, things that are happening that I totally forgot even though I was watching the weekly programming again at this point. Shane Douglas wins the U.S. Championship? I must have blocked that out to save my own sanity. I can’t believe there’s going to be no more WCW soon! This is all a little surreal even though I lived through it and have had time to process the end of WCW since it was, y'know, 24 years ago. I’ll never get over it. Opening hype video: All the seven deadly sins are listed, with pictures of wrestlers flashing up after each one. Greed gets an early mention – see you in March for your own show, Greed! The sin of wrath pops up there, but bafflingly, they don’t show an image of Bryan Clark right after they show that one. Swing and a miss. Shane Helms tells Shannon Moore to chill backstage and let him take Chavo Guerrero Jr. one-on-one; then, he makes his way to the ring to challenge for the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship. Now, before I go any further, I should mention that I “watched” this PPV on scramblevision, mostly because I was absolutely not spending any of my relatively small high schooler’s paycheck on a frickin’ WCW PPV at this point. I’ve never actually seen this PPV, though, so this is a neat perspective from which to revisit this show. Chavo Jr. outworks Shane on the mat to start, but Shane works his way into things and manages to reverse his way into top position on the ground. He does it once, then twice, and lets Chavo know that he can beat him that way, too. Chavo, in response, chops the shit out of the guy. He shoots Helms in, but Helms maneuvers behind him and hits some arm drags. We’ve got a strikes vs. speed contrast going here as Helms ducks a clubbing lariat and hits a headscissors, then turns around an arm drag attempt, hoists Chavo into fireman’s carry position, and lands a facebuster across his knee. Chavo plays possum, though, and gets Helms to rush in, then sends him outside the ring. Chavo heads out there as well, but his plans to win an obligabrawl go awry, though he does get a spot of control when the match gets back in the ring based on my least favorite transition. I do mean only a spot of control, too, as Helms immediately scores one flash pin for two, then another. Chavo looks overmatched by a determined Helms, so that means it’s time to go to the sack shots! Chavo flapjacks the shit out of Helms to reverse a piledriver attempt and then knees him right in the balls. Scott James apparently did learn that you should stop a guy from doing that sort of thing in his classes at the Bronco Lubich school of wrestling, but Chavo ignores him and tosses Helms to the floor, then pounds his chest. Back in the ring, Chavo gets two. Earlier today, as Tony S. reminds me, the Raiders got Tuck Rule’d, as a way for him to talk about underdogs like Helms having a good day that Sunday. Ugh, Tommy Brady. That guy fuckin’ SUCKS. Except for at football, I guess. Helms soon makes his own underdog’s comeback and lands a reverse neckbreaker that puts both guys down for a ten count. Shane crawls over and covers at nine, but only gets about 2.5. Both men throw fisticuffs in the center of the ring after that, but a Chavo whiff allows Helms to get behind him with a bridging back suplex for two. Helms flings Chavo Jr, into the corner and Sugar Smacks him on the rebound, but Chavo gets his boot on the ropes when Helms covers him. Alas, Helms tries too much high-risk stuff; Chavo dumps him to the floor on a monkey flip attempt, then follows with a crossbody from the top to the floor. This match is actually – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – a HOT CRUISERWEIGHT OPENER. Chavo rolls Helms back in the ring and covers for two, then tries a brainbuster. Helms blocks it, so Chavo clubs him a bit and tries it again; Helms leaps behind him and then hip tosses Chavo to the floor when Chavo charges. Helms goes up and scores a frog crossbody from the top to the floor, paying Chavo back for the previous corner-to-floor dive that he ate a minute ago. Looking to put it away, Helms tosses Chavo Jr. back in the ring and attempts a diving sunset flip, but it only gets another 2.5. Time to unload with my impact stuff, Helms thinks (in kayfabe, at least), and he tries a Samoan Drop that only gets two. He calls for the Vertebreaker, but Chavo works out of it and into a weak full nelson that Helms easily breaks; Helms grabs Chavo for a Nightmare on Helms Street, which only gets 2.7. Helms sets up for another NoHS, but his pause to signal it allows Chavo to break away by kneeing Helms in the face and then driving Helms backward into the buckles. Chavo’s trying to get out of dodge with a win, so he tries his Tornado DDT, but Helms blocks it and hooks Chavo, who reverses, is reversed, and reverses Helms back into Brainbuster position, which he executes for three. That match ruled. Sorry young padawan Helms, you did your best against the vet, but you’ve clearly still got much to learn. Tony S. and Scott Hudson are a suboptimal PPV team, but I can deal with it. Hudson is better in a two-man booth rather than how they’ve been using him on color in a three-man booth. In the two-man booth, he doesn’t have to try and keep up with a quicker, wittier, and more entertaining color partner. Pre-tape: Mike Tenay tries to get some scoops as CEO Ric Flair arrives at the building. He asks about who the Mystery Man is. CEO Flair is like LOL no dude, shove off. This is a lot of hype for the less entertaining Road Warrior, man. Vito and Johnny the Bull interview with Gene Okerlund backstage. Apparently, Johnny the Bull is not allowed at ringside for Vito’s match against Reno. What was the point of bringing Marie/a in, and where is she? Wait, Vito says to Reno YOU EVEN TOOK MY GIRL FROM ME; DOESN’T MATTER. So were they related or not? Someone please explain! Ah, I bet Russo intended them to be related and also fucking one another when he set this story in motion and Taylor et al. were like Nah, we think that running incest angles is unnecessary, but that latter team also didn’t care enough to clarify any of these relationships. Vito and Reno have a headed match where they both work with energy and try hard, but ultimately, does anyone care about this feud? None of this heat they’re trying to pay off has actually been generated. These guys are acceptable pro wrestlers, so they put together something cromulent here. I think the extra effort and energy with which they work this bout really helps even if big picture, this match doesn't mean much; sometimes, just trying hard is meaningful enough. Some fans try to start a YOU FUCKED UP chant on a weird Irish whip spot into a weak Vito enziguri, but meh, it wasn't the worst blown spot. There is quite a bit of obligabrawling in this match. They even try hard at that, so it works for me. Vito is out there bouncing around, begging for a push. He’s one of those guys who is too corny for me to ever really like or take too seriously, but I respect that he goes out there and busts his ass every night. Reno also generally tries, but he has an anti-personality. The guy is a bore. Scott Hudson sounds like a jackass talking about how Reno paid KroniK to beat him up so that he could better throw Vito off the scent. No, please, don’t try to justify that. Just let us forget that it ever happened so that we can hold together the façade, the suspension of disbelief, the shimmering mirage that this angle has ever made at least minimal sense. So, after a fairly lengthy Reno onslaught, Vito lands a superkick to trigger his comeback. Vito lays Reno out and hits a Big Vito Special Savage Elbow, fuck you, you don’t rename the Savage Elbow, you absolute prick, and it’s a weak one that I have decided is the kayfabe reason that Reno takes back over and is able to try a Roll of the Dice. Vito blocks it and lands an overhead suplex for two, then tries a Paisan Plunge that get reversed into a suplex in turn by Reno. Who will finally win this decent brawl? It’s Reno, who flips behind Vito on a suplex attempt and scores a Roll of the Dice that lightly nestles Vito’s head against his pec for three. Why in the fuck is Reno winning so many matches? Still, this was decent stuff. Backstage, Commissioner Mike Sanders insults KroniK, which is probably one of the least wise things one might do. He asserts his leadership as commissioner, then pays Adams to help him out tonight. Alas, when that “brave little man” as Adams calls him leaves, Clark comes up with a bigger roll of cash and lets Adams know that Sanders has been outbid. The Jung Dragons (w/Leia Meow) resume their feud with Evan Karagias and Jamie (K)noble. The chyron lists them as Evan (K)noble and Jamie Karagias. Bless your hearts, WCW production crew. Kaz and Karagias have a fun opening that ends with Kaz landing a nice release German on Karagias; Noble enters the ring, but is taken care of by Yang, and both Dragons get on the apron and hit stereo Asai moonsaults on Karagias and Noble at ringside. Indianapolis seems to be interested in pacey wrestling and intricate spots tonight, so they’ve had a pretty good show so far for their tastes. This match is worked not quite arcade-style, but it is worked at a really consistent pace and with lots of nice counters. Kaz Hayashi is quietly one of the most wasted wrestlers on this roster and has been since he started working for the company. I’m baffled that Lenny Lane or Prince Iaukea spent significant amounts of time with the cruiserweight belt, for example, when you could just put Kaz with a talker and put it on him to at least have some dope matches. So, Kaz is deep in trouble as FIP after he dives into a Karagias counter dropkick. He manages to survive a series of combo moves like a guillotine legdrop/side slam combo; he also survives some really crisp Noble offense and a Karagias press slam into a spinebuster. Karagias going mini-Goldberg on the other cruisers is low-key one of the more fun things that happens in late-stage WCW matches. Of course, he immediately fucks up an Asai moonsault by slipping. He really needs to only leave the ground for power moves. That whiff doesn’t allow Yang to get a hot tag, but Yang kicking Noble square in the jaw does. Noble doesn’t make the stereo tag on his end; instead, he turns around to meet Yang and gets his ass kicked, eating a wicked Dragon Screw that leaves him incapacitated. Well, nearly incapacitated, as he gets up in time to back suplex Yang when Yang backflips away from Karagias in the corner. Karagias dives onto Kaz, so only Yang and Noble are left. We get a false finish that fools me; Yang turns a top-rope rana into a diving powerbomb for 2.9, but Kaz breaks that up just in the nick of time, then positions Yang and hits a perfect 450 Splash, which probably explains why he keeps trying complex aerial shit. Sometimes, he does actually hit it clean. I have found this match to be fun as hell, but the fun has got to be coming to an end. Kaz hits a leaping DDT and tries to transition into a submission, but Noble breaks that up and hits a jumping Tombstone that Yang breaks up. Yang hits a flipping fireman’s carry slam, but misses a top rope move. Noble tries to capitalize, hooks Yang…and Yang turns that into a desperation small package that gets a flash three count. Very good stuff! Karagias and Noble heel it up by attacking the Dragons after the bell, which is weird since the Dragons heeled on them first, but okay, sure, who cares? The match was very good, list-worthy in fact, and there are only two months left in this company, so I can’t get too fussed about the weird face-heel alignment nonsense. Note: The last nine matches to have made the Good Matches list at this point have included at least one cruiserweight. I think death’s door WCW and early days TNA were sniffing around a counter-programming strategy to settle in as a strong number two company that AEW finally got right, which is centering your company’s house style around pacey matches full of counter-counter-counter spots. The crowd has enjoyed this show so far, and so have I, though I do not dare hope that Sin is somehow the Last Great (or at Least Good) WCW PPV. This is usually where things head downhill, about three matches into the PPV. Totally Buff get out of a neat car and compliment one another. If that car doesn’t make it through the night because of an angle, that would be a damned shame. Luger and Bagwell get excited about sending Goldberg home for good; Luger lets slip that they’re going to have someone run down and attack them to get Goldberg disqualified intentionally if they can’t just finish Sarge off. That’s…a pretty good plan, actually. I have to give them credit for that one. Can Mike Sanders and the Cat put together, if not a good match, a decent match? I’m hoping so. I want this show to keep its momentum going. Actually, Sanders getting his comeuppance in a decent match would be good enough for me; Sanders really is a smug bitch, y’know? He’s a solid heel character. Sanders gets in the ring and does his typical deal, then calls the Cat (w/the lovely Ms. Jones) down to the ring. It’s pretty remarkable how into this show the fans seem to be. Maybe if Bischoff had bought this company, he would have been better off staying in the Midwest, maybe ranging between Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Denver, instead of going out to Vegas and putting on wrestling shows in front of dead crowds. The Cat gets a mic and asks for his mother to be called, which means he is serious, folks. The Cat is, like, very over as a babyface, and he and Sanders do a BOOOO/YEAHHHH spot. Wow, Indianapolis digs WCW even at this late stage of its existence. As for the match, it starts out decently. Sanders does everything he can to sucker the Cat in, cheap shot him, and so forth, and the crowd actually cares about the Cat’s comebacks, so Sanders’s cutoffs land nicely. The Cat launches a comeback that looks like it might stick, landing ten punches in the corner, so Sanders is like WHOOPS, TIME FOR A TESTES TAP, and he’s back on top with a kick and a Shinonomake that the Cat quickly fights up from. The Cat blocks a sunset flip, crotch chops, strikes Sanders, and then lands a Boogie Elbow. Sanders begs off; the crowd begs the Cat to hit Sanders. But it’s another ruse! Sanders grabs the Cat’s pants and tosses him to the floor, then goes after a chair, but Ms. Jones tries to rip it away. She fails, and Sanders backs her off, but he turns around. That’s a mistake, as Ms. Jones kicks him; the chair clatters to the ground, and Jones picks it up and stalks Sanders while wielding it while Sanders backs away. Sanders gets back to the ring and continues to beg off, but it’s yet another ruse, as Stasiak and Jindrak rush down and attack the Cat on the other side of the ring. Good thing that the Cat put a down payment on KroniK’s services! They make the save without Sanders’s knowledge, at least until Adams distracts the ref and Clarke attacks Sanders, stuffing the money Sanders paid them into Sanders's mouth. That makes Sanders easy pickings for the Cat’s follow-up Feliner, which gets three and a really nice pop. I cannot fucking believe that I’m typing this, but this match was more than decent. It was good! It was textbook heel cutoffs and jibber jabber, with the dastardly heel barely dodging his comeuppance until he couldn’t dodge it any longer. This is the third match in four that is on the Good Matches list, and the match that didn't make that list was at least solid. I’m starting to believe. That’s probably a mistake. I’ll tamp down my expectations. But man, this show has been quite enjoyable so far. Backstage, CEO Ric Flair plays a bit of audio back for Goldberg, and he hears about Luger and Buff’s plan, but since I know that our unfair CEO is secretly heeling, it’s obvious that this is actually a quite clever set-up in which CEO Flair can now make this match no disqualification, and Goldberg will have nary a suspicion that the fix is in. The CEO introduces Goldberg to a couple of fans backstage whom he knows and asks Goldberg to meet them; Goldberg signs a foam hand and takes a picture for the fan, and this very fan-friendly dude is being sent home soon, but of course, this serves to make us even madder at Flair, Luger, and Bagwell for screwing him over, GRRRRR. Which it does, at least for me, GRRRRR. Jeff Jarrett makes the first wrong step on this show by cutting a mediocre promo about the main event with Gene Okerlund in the back, but it’s not egregiously bad or anything like that. The Thunder tag match pitting Kidman and Misterio Jr. against Storm and Skipper with Duggan on commentary actually did get me excited for Team Canada vs. the Filthy Animals in this Canadian Penalty Box match with Duggan as the ref. WCW’s going to have to fuck up the layout of the match due to the gimmick for this match to be anything less than solid. Team Canada rolls up in their repainted bus; they exit and make their way to the ring while Tony S. runs down the history of the feud between them and the Animals so far. Storm grabs a mic before the match and says that they’ll be winning this match even though Hacksaw is obviously going to be in the tank for the Animals, like, come on, it’s so obvious. Halfway through “O Canada,” the Animals’s theme music cuts in; the Animals make it to the ring, and referee Duggan lays out the rules and promises to be a fair arbiter of this athletic contest. He won’t be having double-teaming, low blows, outside interference, or also anyone hitting him. Any rulebreakers have to get in the box and stay there until the red light cuts off (though for how long that light will be on, he is not clear about), which means that they can exit the penalty box and rejoin the bout. I actually think this match stip is interesting; you could build a neat little match around the babyfaces committing an infraction and struggling to hang on against heel onslaughts while they’re down a man. The first person to go to the box is Skipper, though, after he forgets himself and spells Storm without a legal tag. Awesome gets in Duggan’s face and jaws at him, then bumps up against him as he gives up on the argument; Duggan sends him to the box as well. OK, so the babyface shine is the faces trying to kill off Storm while they have a two-man advantage. Yeah, that’s also logical early-match layout. The Animals unload on Storm, tagging in and out quickly, but it’s simply too early in the match for them to put Storm down for good; after what is at most a minute, the light cuts off and Storm’s partners are let out of the box. Skipper makes a proper tag to Storm and then attacks Kidman; they work a nice sequence that ends with a Kidman side suplex. Awesome tries to help out by grabbing Kidman by the hair and yanking him down on a rope run, but that is very illegal, and Duggan sees it, so Awesome is back in the box. Storm yanks on Duggan’s sleeve , so Duggan sends him to the box, and it’s Skipper’s turn to endure hell. Konnan rolls Skipper up in a sweet octopus hold, but he can’t get a submission and moves on quickly; it’s so fun when a team has an advantage and up the pace trying to finish the match. I’m not sure if this is a better match than it would be as a straight trios tag with no stips, but this is a) still pretty good and b) interesting because of how they’re working the stip. Skipper actually makes a comeback on his own even without his partners, lands a missile dropkick into a standing position, and then tags to Awesome. Awesome drops Konnan and Duggan’s creaky ass takes a minute to get down there and count it (Awesome, aggravated: C’MONNNNN); he only gets two. The ladies argue outside the ring, and Duggan tells them to back away from one another; meanwhile Kidman and Rey try to link up on a Bronco Buster, which Duggan cuts off; since at least one of those men is not legal and have been in the ring for five seconds, I guess, Duggan sends them both to the box. Tygress grabs some, uh, water or baby oil maybe, and squirts it all over Gunns, which obviously gets a huge pop. Konnan could stop selling entirely in the ring and no one would notice. Gunns dives onto Tygress, but Duggan goes outside and pulls them apart, then sends them both to the box. Meanwhile, Elix is making a kayfabe mistake – and Tony S. points this out as I type this – by putting Konnan in a chinlock while his team has a three-on-one advantage. The desk does a good job of pointing out that Skipper is a rookie who doesn't always make the best strategic choices and that Konnan is getting a huge break. Indeed, the babyfaces get out of the box just in time for Konnan to nail Storm with a sitout facebuster and crawl toward a hot tag. Kidman manages the hot tag and rolls Storm; he can only get two on a Sky High, so he sends Storm outside the ring with a jawbreaker over the rope and tags Rey. Everything breaks down from here; the long and short of it is that a huge brawl at ringside, plus Tygress hitting a FACE FULLA STUFF, sends everyone to the box except for the legal men – Rey and Storm – and Major Gunns at ringside. Kidman gets back out of the box, tags in, and lands a Kid Krusher for 2.9 in a pinfall attempt that is only stopped when Awesome gets out of the box and breaks it up. Awesome lands an Awesome Bomb on Rey, but neither of them are legal competitors; meanwhile, Storm is a legal competitor, and he manages to duck legal competitor Kidman's enziguri and lock on a Canadian Maple Leaf that Duggan reluctantly recognizes Kidman submitting to, ending the match. What a strange, enjoyable little match. I think the stip was a challenge to work around, but for the first time that they’ve run this stipulation, it was well-worked and genuinely brought something new and interesting to this typical six-man tag style. I think it’s a good match, but a better fit for the Charming Uniquity list, especially since this is probably going to be the only one of these matches in WCW’s history. Maybe we’ll get one more in the next couple of months? We’ll see. Either way, it was certainly unique. Former Commissioner Mike Sanders is extremely downcast in his interview with Mike Tenay. He swears revenge on KroniK and the Cat, then kicks it over to Palumbo (who cuts a shitty promo) and O’Haire (who cuts a passable one). Palumbo, O’Haire, and Tenay all almost say “Outsiders” and manage to stop themselves and say “Insiders” instead. The Insiders are stretching in their locker room, bored by the reveal that Palumbo and O’Haire will be their opponents. I’m sure they guessed it considering Palumbo and O’Haire have been consistently tagging the last couple of weeks, but Jindrak and Stasiak have not. Hype video: Let’s get rid of this fucking WCW Hardcore Championship already! Meng is going to get rid of this fucking WCW Hardcore Championship already! I read that he handed it over to his Faces of Fear compatriot Barbarian at a house show after he left, but WCW chose not to do anything else with the belt or the division. Hold on, Daffney tosses a drink in Terry Funk’s face as Funk comes down the ramp, so Funk drags her over the railing by her pigtails, and Crowbar flies up out of nowhere and clobbers Funk with a few chair shots to the head. They smash, they trash, they go into the restroom in WCW’s favorite fucking trope that hasn’t been exciting since 1996. They try to mix up their approach to this match type by doing things like having Funk try to break Crowbar’s ankle and then having Crowbar give him that same medicine, but this is generally the same ol’ shit. I’ll just tell you the finish of this trash bout: Meng mostly lets Funk and Crowbar beat each other with plundah for the first few minutes, which probably keeps him fresh enough to win the match in the end. He kicks a chair into Crowbar’s face, then TDGs Funk to win it. In the middle of all that were actually some pretty cool non-trash-attack moves, including Meng coming off the top twice (!!), including with a sweet Frog Splash on the Funker (!!!). This was better than it had any right to be, and those Meng spots from the top meant more than Crowbar doing a stage dive in the same bout. Well, since Meng is rolling out after tonight, let me say that I have a soft spot for him and will miss him in the time we have left with WCW; this guy is one of my favorite gatekeepers. He was fun in that role in 1995 and still fun in that role in 2001. Enjoy being heel Rikishi’s ineffective back-up and wrestling four-minute Sunday Night Heat matches, buddy. You earned it. Commissioner Cat and Ms. Jones prepare to leave the building when CEO Flair meets him, congratulates him, and offers him his limo for the night, making sure to get him out of the way for later. Gene Okerlund interviews Sid. While the improved finishes on tonight’s show are, as far as I have found out, attributable to Johnny Ace working in creative, I would like to implore Sid to maybe raise a stink about Laurinaitis suggesting that Sid come off the top during the finishing run of his match. Hype video: The Insiders and the Animals look to put a definitive end to their feud over the tag titles next. Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire are alone as they enter the ring for their tag title shot tonight. We’ll see if it stays that way. DDP has some new nondescript rock theme that doesn't get me fired up. He stops on the ramp and waits for Nash to walk out to the Wolfpac theme, which still rules and also doesn’t give me hives anymore on account of it’s not playing while Hulk Hogan walks down the ramp holding the big gold belt and wearing flannel. The Thrillers' music plays again, and Sanders and the rest of the Thrillers make their way out. Sanders says that he’s learned how to be a coach from Nash and therefore will be making substitutions where necessary as the match progresses. CEO Ric Flair, who normally might think Sanders is being a funny sneak, actually doesn’t like this guy at all even though they’re both heels at this point. He walks onto the stage, security trailing him, and sends the rest of the Thrillers to the back. When the match starts, though, it’s solid. Palumbo is a decent worker and tries hard, and he and DDP have an energetic opening where they hock loogies at one another before Page stays one step ahead of Palumbo with a lariat and then a uranage for two. Palumbo figures out that he’s getting his ass beat in there, so he manages to bail and slow things down. Nash and O’Haire tag in next; Nash controls O’Haire with power, so O’Haire instead goes to the air, backflips over a charging Nash in the corner, and lands a superkick that allows the heels to get some control. Palumbo is really busting his ass in here, throwing nice rights with intensity, but he gets hoisted, eats buckle on a Snake Eyes, and eats a splash against the ropes before Page tags back in. Page is in control until O’Haire kicks him in the back on a rope run; though he dispatches of O’Haire, that allows Palumbo to jump Page and spark an extended FIP run. The young heels are cocky; they let Page crawl toward Nash, but kick him away from a tag while taunting Nash. This show has been good enough that I’m somewhat exhausted from all the energy that everyone is showing tonight. Maybe, as everyone thinks that Eric Bischoff and Fusient are taking over at this point, they’re all trying a little harder to position themselves for the new regime? Obviously, I couldn’t say, but I’d guess that it would be a factor. Page manages to stop the onslaught by reversing a Palumbo Tombstone attempt and hitting one of his own. Ref Billy Silverman counts all the way to eight before both men are able to move and hit tags; Nash tears through his opposition with fists, boots, and side slams. The other Thrillers defy CEO Flair's orders andpour down the ramp, but the real concern for the Insiders is Lex Luger, who hops the guardrail and grabs a chair. Page chases him off, but Luger leaves the chair in the ring (though it doesn't mean anything to the finish). Nash looks for a Jackknife, but Buff Bagwell runs in the ring dressed as a tech and clobbers Nash with a wrench; O’Haire follows up with a Seanton Bomb, and Silverman finally makes it back to the ring after trying to chase Page and Luger down and counts the three. The finish was the first weak one of the show, which is too bad as the match before it was really well-worked and full of intensity. I think what came before was so good that even with the wonky finish, I’d recommend that you pop it on a YouTube list full of good WCW matches. Mike Tenay interviews the celebrating Thrillers; Sanders feels a bit better about his night so far. CEO Ric Flair enters another limo, declaring to the nearby cameraperson that IT’S TIME. Alright, so we’re getting into the part of the night that is mostly going to be not great, but I feel okay declaring Sin to be, if not the last great WCW PPV, the last good one (at least for now, though I doubt Greed has much chance to be good since everyone in the company knew that Nitro and Thunder were cancelled by then). I’d recommend anyone watch this show for the first two hours of action. Shane Douglas comes to the ring for his United States Championship bout against General Rection, which is a) a First Blood Match and b) a Chain Hanging Over the Ring Match. Douglas talks like this feud with Rection has built even half the intensity of the Insiders and Thrillers going at it. It has not. I cannot believe they put the U.S. title on Shane! Why would they do that?! Then again, they put it on David Flair and, oh yeah, General Rection, so I suppose that actually, it’s whatever. Jamie Tucker is a competent referee unlike **Stevie Ray voice** that sorry Scott James, so he is smart enough to check Douglas for a second chain, which he finds and confiscates. These fellas then have a perfectly dull match that no one in their right mind would give a single solitary fuck about. It’s not offensive. It’s just between two guys who have the stench of mediocrity all over them. I’ve now written over 5,400 words about this show, so forgive me for not closely noting every knuckle lock, arm wringer, and choke in this match. They do a ton of limb work in a First Blood Match. I appreciate Tony S. and Hudson asserting that by working limbs, each man is trying to disable his opponent so he can take free shots at busting them open when they can’t move, but this is a dumb way to work this match. I will say that if this were just a regular-ass match, the bulk of it would have worked much better. That chain is very high above the ring, so Rection grabs a ladder, sets it up, and goes to get it, which he accomplishes – good for him! – but which allows Douglas to shove the ladder over – bad for him! – and then, since the ladder also takes out the ref – very bad for him! – Douglas is able to take a second hidden chain out of his boot and wallop Rection with it to bust him open and win the United States Championship. Gene Okerlund talks to Scott Steiner and Midajah backstage; Steiner says that he is GOING DOWN AS HISTORY AS THE GREATEST WORLD CHAMPION OF ALL TIME. He does correct himself, to be fair. A-WALL and Cajun try to comfort Rection, who is discomfited. Rection yells I GOT NOTHIN’ and storms off. **whispers** Hey, buddy, you know who’s still a champion? Yeah, that’s right. Chavo is. HAHAAAAAAA. Hype video: Are you ready for a result that completely shocked me when it originally happened? If so, here comes Totally Buff vs. Goldberg and Sarge! Michael Buffer introduces the first of the final two bouts of the night; he explains the stipulations, and you know what, WCW did hold to “Goldberg is banned for the rest of his life.” They didn’t go back on that stip, and I don't care about the circumstances, I have to give a wrestling company credit for holding to a retirement stip! I remembered this all wrong; I thought it was Goldberg versus Totally Buff in a handicap match and that Sarge turned on Goldberg and helped attack him from his spot in the crowd. That is obviously incorrect. Michael Buffer’s Ring Announcing Quality Control: If I ever lose all my marbles, my madness mantra will be this: INVERTED LIFT AND SLAM, INVERTED LIFT AND SLAM, INVERTED LIFT AND SLAM. HAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA This is a small thing that bothers me, but I’ll mention it while the heels stall and then Goldberg beats them up after they can’t stall anymore: Why wouldn’t Nash and Page come out here and screw over Luger and Buff after Luger and Buff did the same to them two matches ago? Unless they were stretchered out – which they weren’t – they should be looking for revenge. HAHAHAHA, so Goldberg tosses Luger toward his corner, then tells Buff to tag Luger so that he can catch a beating, too. Buff, worried look on his face: **points to himself** ME?!?! Yes, you, you dope. For some reason, Goldberg tags Sarge in after popping up from a Buff suplex and punishing Bagwell. This makes zero sense, man. Leave that bum on the apron. He’s got a broken arm and was a non-Giant, non-Meng member of the Dungeon of Doom. He’s a no-hoper at this point. Sure enough, Sarge loses control of the match and catches a beatdown. The crowd is into Sarge finally making a hot tag after enduring a beating, I’ll say that much. Goldberg pumphandles Buff into the lights. It’s rad. Meanwhile, Luger walks over and harasses that Goldberg fan from backstage. Goldberg peels off and saves the fan from a Luger attack; the fan responds by macing him. Luger then hits Goldberg with a couple of chair shots as the crowd dies. Are…are they going to job Goldberg to a spritz of mace? It’s not exactly a fucking taser, now is it? Goldberg still blindly fights back, so Luger lands a series of chair shots to the back and head, then positions Goldberg on his shoulders for a Super Blockbuster that actually keeps Goldberg down for three. This was, um, quite the finish! I mean, Johnny Ace tried, I guess! Indianapolis is bummed. Yeah, I have to say that this might be, after Hogan turning heel, the most surprising WCW result/finish during the Nitro Era. This whole deal would have been better if the fan was packing a taser, just for Goldberg's final WCW loss to include a callback to Goldberg’s first WCW loss. The fellas at commentary are so shocked as the crowd applauds Goldberg back up the ramp that they don’t even think to connect CEO Ric Flair with the kid…or remember that CEO Flair has been meeting with Totally Buff backstage at the last couple weeks of Nitro. But if you remember, dear reader, you might be guessing that a SWERVE, BRO is coming. And yes, it is a SWERVE, BRO because there is zero reason for CEO Ric Flair to turn heel. None. Zero. Zip, zilch, nada. Alright, I’ve been tense about watching this main event all night. I just do not want to see Sid’s leg jutting at a weird angle. Jeff Jarrett walks out first, followed by Sid, and followed in turn by Scott Steiner (w/HIS FAVORITE FREAK Midajah). Road Warrior Animal will be out here later, of course. CEO Ric Flair cuts into Buffer’s introduction to tell Steiner so. Steiner runs off to confront Flair, andJarrett has to stop him and explain that he might just use his title if he doesn’t get in there and defend it. Jarrett and Steiner work this like a handicap match in which they attack Sid and Jarrett doesn’t try to win. The match is fine, but Sid should absolutely not be getting on the top rope, which he does, and uggghhhh, and then Road Warrior Animal gets out here and CEO Ric Flair turns heel for some nonsensical reason. So, yeah. This match gets an incomplete grade for the injury. Poor Sid was laying there with a broken leg for like minutes, though, just painfully waiting for Animal to wander out here. Animal looks like a jackass in his face paint, by the way. IT’S 2001; REIMAGINE YOUR LOOK, YOU IMBECILE. Yeah, this show definitely petered out toward the end, but the first seven matches were collectively strong and the last three matches ranged from “fine” to “can’t be graded due to severe shoot injury,” which is easily the best that any WCW PPV has managed since the middle of 1998. If I could point to one show (again, so far) that epitomizes the feelings of goodwill that fans tend to have toward WCW's BBSHSWTL Era, it would be this one. 2
Curt McGirt Posted March 23 Posted March 23 Terry and Meng probably remembered each other all the way since Meng was Harley's young boy aid in Japan, so maybe he wanted to show he could still wrestle a little? 1
SirSmUgly Posted March 23 Author Posted March 23 5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said: Terry and Meng probably remembered each other all the way since Meng was Harley's young boy aid in Japan, so maybe he wanted to show he could still wrestle a little? I really like that idea! I thought it might be because he knew he was on his way out and wanted to mark the seven-ish years he was with the company. Maybe it was a bit of both, but I didn't think of your perspective. 1
Curt McGirt Posted March 23 Posted March 23 Trivia (for those that didn't know): Harley gave away his crown as the first King of the Ring by insistence to Haku, because of the Japan connection. And Vince wasn't gonna tell Harley Race 'no'. Nobody told Harley Race 'no'. 2 1
SirSmUgly Posted March 23 Author Posted March 23 Show #273 – 15 January 2001 "The one that confirms it; WCW did indeed have something positive going in early 2001" This feeling that I feel; what is it? After I finished reviewing Sin, I was actually looking forward to seeing what would happen next in multiple WCW storylines. Could it be? Do I actually look forward to typing LET’S NITROOOOOOOOO with a bit of anticipation now? Recap: Sin had some shocking events, both shoot and scripted. Goldberg, Meng, and Sid are out; Road Warrior Animal is back in. Yeesh, that’s a terrible trade for WCW programming. Exclusive footage: After Sin goes off the air, Road Warrior Animal celebrates with Totally Buff, the heel remnants of nWo 2000, and CEO Ric Flair. It's a well-earned celebration considering that they have successfully destroyed their opps in two matches’ worth of show time. The crowd is very quiet, mostly because they probably are pissed that they’re not getting Goldberg when they acquired tickets at a point where they probably expected to see him! Unnecessary fucking replay from multiple angles and at multiple speeds: They show Sid fracturing his leg again, but I sure as fuck didn’t look at the screen! You can tell that CEO Ric Flair has gone fully evil because he’s taken an idea that Vince Russo used on him by bringing out a casket and having a funeral for Goldberg’s career. They’ve got Goldberg’s visage on the screen with a birth and death date: 9/22/97 – 1/14/01. That doesn’t quite match up with the birth and death date of the Nitro Era of course, but it’s close enough that there is a bummer-ass parallel here, folks. Buff’s fake-ass sobbing over the coffin is hilarious, as is Luger pretending to comfort him. Luger actually pulls Buff away from the coffin as Buff tries to hang onto it, HAHAHAHA. By the way, inside the coffin are a literal spear and jackhammer as well as a copy of Goldberg’s book. These two scumbags are too much, man. As Luger eulogizes Goldberg’s career, here are some signs on the hard cam sign behind him: GOLDBERG WAS ROBBED; WHERE’S STING?; WHERE THE HELL IS THE ROCK?!; WWF: TNN’S POP, WCW: TNT’S FLOP. I mean, next week’s Nitro is getting pushed to Tuesday so that TNT can show The Pretender 2001 in its normal spot on Monday, so that last sign basically nailed how AOL Amalgamated’s TV division feels about things. Is that a Jamie Kellner family member waving that particular sign around? If there’s one thing kinda unfortunate about Sin that I haven’t mentioned, it’s that the Cat was the only unabashed babyface to win a match on that show (the Jung Dragons had not been established as faces until they were attacked after they won their match). I get that it’s meant to set up the CEO’s power stable, but it feels like this Fort Wayne crowd is already sort of beaten down, and the funeral, while entertaining to me, has sapped this crowd of its energy. After Totally Buff gets done pretending to be sad about Goldberg being cooked, they ask if anyone else has anything to share about Goldberg. Jeff Jarrett certainly does! Mostly, he wants to talk about how Goldberg never beat him. Really? Not even in 1997? I’m going to check this later. Also, he calls the guy a SLAPNUTS one final time, which of course he would. The crowd, which was booing these heels, halfway pops when Luger introduces Scott Steiner and HIS FREAK OF THE WEEK, HIS FAVORITE FREAK, MIDAJAH. Fantastic, Luger. I am bummed that Steiner didn’t retire Goldberg straight up, but okay. Steiner crows about putting Sid out of wrestling right along with Sting and Booker T. before giving his thoughts on Goldberg. In fact, the first thing he says is this: BILL GOLDBERG, AT FALL BRAWL, I MAY NOT HAVE HURT YOU, BUT I GAVE YOU THE WORST DEFEAT OF YOUR CAREER. What? Anyway, after telling Goldberg that he wasn’t “man enough to stay on top” (heh heh heh) and hocking a loogie into the coffin, Goldberg’s music plays! Goldberg’s locker room door opens! The crowd pops! And after CEO Ric Flair and Road Warrior Animal pop their heads out, the crowd’s pop dies down. But it’s okay! Flair is out here to heel it up – oops, no, wait, the crowd echoes his WOOOOOO. He calls a fan in the crowd FAT BOY, so that works to – oops, my bad, the crowd chuckles and one guy applauds appreciatively. He tells another fan that he or maybe Steiner might fuck his wife, which is so over the line that – oops, everyone in the crowd laughs. WCW and turning people heel who everyone wants to cheer: Name a more iconic couple. Oops, WCW and shitty finishes. OK, name another more iconic couple. CEO Flair is basically like, We run this bitch now, we’re the best, hey ladies, feel free to daydream about getting some dick from any or all of us. The CEO plans to interview everyone else in the back tonight to see what they produce in their jobs and to let the losers and chumps go as a cost-cutting measure. Huh, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Kevin Nash, who is no fan of Bill Goldberg and who should be really into joining this heel group, shouldn’t he, interrupts the proceedings. The crowd pops for a babyface finally showing up to cut into this heel celebration. Nash lets Flair know that he’s less “Big Sexy” and more “Big Beat the Shit Out Of Scott Steiner and Also Ric Flair Guy” and challenges Steiner to a title match tonight. Flair warns Nash that he seems to be talking big for someone who is all by his lonesome, so Nash introduces a couple of buddies to back him up: DDP, for one, and Rick Steiner for two. OK, hold on, wait up just one second. Why would anyone who had seen any of the television in the last eighteen months not assume that Rick is going to backstab Nash? Nash wants his title match; CEO Flair doesn’t want to give it to him. Alas, he forgot that in his hatred for Mike Sanders, he willingly let a cocky babyface seize the commissionership back. I do actually like the storyline beat that Sanders is so fucking annoying that Flair, who had dotted every other “i” and crossed every other “t” to make sure that he was consolidating power at Sin, decided to let Sanders dangle instead of bringing him into the fold and having a commissioner who would work with him instead of push back against him. I mean, Sanders is a supreme brown noser who loves proximity to power almost as much as he loves wielding power himself! Socially climbing his way up the Russo regime was how he got into that commissionership in the first place! This was a mistake by CEO Flair, though an understandable one because Sanders really is an unlikeable dick. The Cat and Ms. Jones make it out here, as I was alluding to earlier, and the Cat books the match against Flair’s wishes. This was twenty-plus minutes of talking across two segments that I actually enjoyed…and on WCW programming, no less. This has to go on a good list just for that. After a ghost ad break, CEO Flair asks Crowbar and Daffney if they’re on board with him and his crew. Crowbar wants to be a fence-sitter, but the CEO demands that Crowbar make the right decision before walking away. Our first match pits Chavo Guerrero Jr. against the aforementioned Crowbar (w/Daffney, whose shirt declares her to be a hellion. Wait, why is Crowbar lecturing Daffney in the aisle? I don’t like that. Tony S. mentions that Meng is the hardcore champion, which should be the last time that belt is mentioned on WCW television, or at least the last time it is mentioned on Nitro. Chavo and Crowbar wrestle for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship tonight; they have a solid TV match. Chavo outwrestles Crowbar to start and dives onto him from the top rope. Crowbar is frustrated, but he’s able to channel that frustration into a slingshot splash/Asai moonsault combo that gets two. Crowbar chops Chavo in the corner, which is a mistake, as Chavo is a chopping machine (he also has a nice European uppercut. Chavo tries to follow up with a whip, but Crowbar reverses it and yanks Chavo into a DVD (no VR) for two. Crowbar hoists Chavo into a sitting position up top, but Chavo holds the ropes when Crowbar tries a Super Frankensteiner. Crowbar stumbles to his feet and wanders toward the corner, where Chavo tries a tornado DDT that gets blocked; shortly after, Chavo tries a leaping DDT from the top that Crowbar turns into a Northern Lights with a bridge for two. There’s a nasty spot here where Crowbar backdrops a charging Chavo, but Chavo doesn’t make it over the ropes, lands on the top rope in fact, and then violently falls to the mat. Crowbar knocks Chavo to the floor, then follows with a running splash from the apron. After tossing Chavo inside, Crowbar goes up to the top rope to finish it…but man, he’s addicted to chairs after months of hardcore wrestling, so he gets down, grabs a chair, raises it to cheers, sets it up outside the ring, and is immediately facebustered into it by Chavo, who has had plenty of time to recover in the meantime. One brainbuster back in the ring later, and Chavo completes another defense of his gold. Forget solid, that was genuinely good. Totally Buff pitches Bam Bam Bigelow on membership in their elite group, and Bigelow’s proud smile as they gas him up is hilarious. He looks genuinely appreciative of their superlatives toward him. Bammer readily agrees to join them. Two Count is back together for a tag match against Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman (w/Tygress), and this match immediately pops off. All four guys go at it, obviously working at pace and landing counter after counter. Some of their stuff isn’t hit entirely smoothly, but most of it is well-worked. I’m not even going to try and capture every spot here, which should give you an idea of the pacing. Even the camera has a hard time keeping up with all the spots at one point. Moore lands a plancha to Kidman outside the ring and lands on his feet. These fellas all dive on one another. After all my complaints about not running more Tornado Tags, I’m going to be the typical unpleasable wrestling fan and say that I sort of wish this was worked more conventionally, though I guess since both of these teams are babyfaces, the heat section wouldn’t be as effective. Kidman hits Helms with a sweet top rope rana, but Helms scores a Sugar Smack and sets Kidman up for a Vertebreaker. Rey breaks that up with a fist to the solar plexus; Kidman follows up by twisting Helms into Kid Krusher position and executing it for three. That hits a good list just for being an incredibly fun video game sprint. I like empty calories sometimes, too. By the way, Rey and Kidman are still very over as a babyface tag team. Mike Awesome jogs down, followed by the rest of Team Canada, who are still interested in continuing their feud with the Animals even though they beat them at Sin. Team Canada lays them out before security backs them off; Storm gets a mic and challenges Kidman to a hair-vs.-hair match on behalf of his faux-Canadian compatriot Awesome. Well, since Mike Awesome ends this WCW with short hair, I’m guessing that Kidman goes two-for-two in hair matches in his WCW career. KroniK congratulates the Cat on winning the commissionership back and asks him nicely for a tag title shot at O’Haire and Palumbo, and the Cat gladly grants it (though oddly, he’s worried about having to pay them for, um, working a tag title match). They joke with one another before the Cat leaves. Team Canada isolates and jumps Kidman in the back. CEO Flair tries to lure Chavo Jr. onto his side with solid persuasive arguments and a fruit platter. Chavo is unsure – what he’s doing now as a lone wolf is working for him – but the CEO says that he used to slam back tequila with Chavo Sr. when they were working together back in the day, and he suggests that Chavo slam back some tequila himself and sleep on his decision. Wow, these two are all buddy-buddy. On the other hand, Mike Sanders is next into the interview room, and he’s immediately copping pleas and apologizing to CEO Flair for acting like a complete dickhead toward him. The CEO actually calls it all water under the bridge and in fact says he’d like to coach Sanders up to be the Next Dirtiest Player in the Game. Sanders is thrilled to be clinging like a barnacle, or like Virgil, to the next powerful person who is asserting that power. He mentions that the Cat booked KroniK against his guys in a tag title match, and the CEO assures him that things will work out okay. Totally Buff pitches General Rection for some reason; Luger mentions that Rection has been granted a rematch for the United States title tonight. Rection is baffled by their aggressive pitch, which Totally Buff takes as awed speechlessness. KroniK walks to the ring for their tag title match. Let’s see if or how CEO Flair spoils things. As Palumbo and O’Haire walk to the ring, I wonder if they are the final WCW tag champions. Palumbo and Adams throw sweet punches at one another before Palumbo shoulderblocks Adams to the mat. That was pretty rad, honestly. Palumbo runs the ropes, but Adams sidesteps him and tosses him to the floor; the disoriented Palumbo wanders into range of Bryan Clark, who runs the apron and hits a rolling senton that clears the cameraperson out. When Palumbo makes it back into the ring he wisely tags out; Adams throws a few hands, but he shoots Adams to the ropes and O’Haire does his spot where he runs up them and backflips over the charging Adams before following up with a jumping heel kick. Hey, this is also a pretty fun little match, I’m thinking, as Adams regains control with a full nelson slam that only gets two because Palumbo breaks the pinfall attempt up with a boot. Clark tags in and dominates O’Haire, who hits a throat thrust and dizzily stumbles over to Palumbo for a much-needed tag. This match seems to indicate that Palumbo and O’Haire are indeed threats, but KroniK’s experience advantage has them headed for victory; as I type that, Palumbo pops in and scores a Jungle Kick on Clark after a bit of team misdirection. This puts Clark in peril, but he survives a beating and makes a hot tag to Adams. Adams lands a pretty sweet dropkick where he got way the hell off the ground in the midst of that attack; Clark recovers and helps Adams score a High Times, but Palumbo snakes his way back into the ring and stops the count. That key save gives Jindrak and Stasiak enough time to walk down the ramp; Adams is distracted at their arrival, and Palumbo catches him with a Jungle Kick. He and Adams struggle over a top rope move as two things happen: 1) Jindrak and Stasiak jump Adams outside the ring, which should be a DQ, but isn’t, and 2) O’Haire goes up top in the opposite corner. He waits for Adams to win the struggle and hit a superplex, then immediately drops a Seanton Bomb on Adams that we miss because the production truck is on drugs and cuts frantically away from that so we can see Stasiak and Jindrak throwing soupbones. Palumbo covers for three, and you know what? That was another quality TV match. Did someone in charge suddenly remember that Nitro is WCW’s flagship television show and should therefore have multiple good matches on it each week? WCW’s trainer tells Billy Kidman that he can’t be cleared to wrestle Mike Awesome tonight; Kidman and the rest of the Animals chatter at one another. The Cat and Ms. Jones wander up and ask what all the hullabaloo is about; Konnan explains the issue and says that he wants to take Kidman’s place. The Cat eyes Konnan’s bald dome, but he allows it as long as Kidman’s hair is on the line. He also shows a complete lack of confidence in Konnan by tossing a wig laying on a table nearby at Kidman and suggesting that he may want to get it fit. Sudden turn alert! Sudden turn alert! Palumbo and O’Haire are upset at Jindrak and Stasiak giving them unwanted help in their matches. Where the fuck did this even come from? They gladly accepted outside help literally 24 hours ago. If I’d had more foresight, Sudden Turn Alert! would have been a consistent feature in these reviews. These four square up to one another until Mike Sanders and Reno show up and calm things down. Well, Sanders calms things down. Reno stands there like a doofus. Sanders tries to give an inspirational speech to keep the team focused and feeling togetherness, but Palumbo and O’Haire aren’t buying it. Konnan (w/Tygress) substitutes for Billy Kidman against Mike Awesome (w/absurd dub of whatever his theme now is) in this match where everyone’s hair is on the line. As that match starts, CEO Flair pops up on the TurnerTron to make it clear that Konnan losing will cause Kidman to get his hair shaved, but I felt that the Cat had already made that clear by tossing the wig at Kidman. I guess allowing Konnan to take Kidman's place was supposed to be a swerve attempt on the heels rather than a straight-up substitution with Kidman’s hair still on the line a couple segments ago? I don’t know, whatever, it’s fine. We got to the point that we were going to be at with this stipulation either way. I wish this were Awesome/Misterio Jr. instead. I mean, the match isn’t bad, but Awesome/Misterio Jr. would have had the drama of whether or not the giant killer Rey could find a way to beat the dynamic big man. But like I said, this match is decent. Konnan slips out of Awesome’s Awesome Bomb attempt and lands a facebuster for 2.8. Awesome slams Konnan to the mat as Konnan tries to follow up, then lands a Frog Splash for an immaculately timed 2.9 from Konnan. Awesome goes back to the well, but Konnan is playing possum and meets him up top. They struggle over a top rope move, but Konnan wins that struggle, lands an ugly top-rope DDT, and pins Awesome cleanly. Well, in tribute to Wesley Willis (R.I.P.), let me just type a few of his appropriate lyrics here: CUT THE MULLET! CUT THE MULLET! CUT THE MULLET! CUT THE MULLET! Konnan only snips some of Awesome’s hair before Storm and Skipper chase him off. So, in an angle that I am still quite interested in, Chavo Jr. walks up to General Rection. Chavo’s got his gold over his shoulder, too. He speaks in a conciliatory tone, trying to apologize to Rection. He attempts to broker peace between them and suggest that they go their separate ways, parting as friends rather than enemies, but Rection blows him off. What a dick. Mike Awesome is freaking out over his hair loss backstage while his stablemates try to calm him down. This poor guy has kayfabe struggled his whole WCW run with the exception of when he routinely beat the shit out of Vampiro and the Insane Clown Posse. The Cat and Ms. Jones are next in the ring; the Cat believes in the power of the fans to lift him to new heights and then tells CEO Flair that he can beat whomever Flair booked against him tonight. Flair booked Bam Bam against the Cat, and the eager-to-impress Bam Bam fires off plenty of offense to start, culminating in a back suplex that keeps the Cat down for two. Man, I sure hope the fans give their power to the Cat soon. Yep, he makes a comeback, hits his signature spots, and lands a sliding superkick for three. Ah, this is how Bigelow turns face, isn’t it? He’s going to be shunned by the elites for failing to be as elite as they are. The Cat dances and is maybe even more over than I remember him being as a midcard babyface. Look at this doofus Shane Douglas with his title belt. I can’t believe that I’m looking forward to Rick Steiner beating this guy for the gold. Douglas seems not to be allowed to say ASS on Turner Networks anymore, which actually improves his little catchphrase immensely because he now delivers it like this: COME ON AND GET YOUR HAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA FRANCHISED. Much, much, much better. Rection runs to the ring for this rematch, and as wthn their match at Sin, I find myself unoffended by any of it, which is basically a win for any singles match between these two. I will note that this is the quietest this crowd has been all night with the exception of being dejected during Goldberg’s funeral. Rection dominates, but whiffs on a Savage Elbow. Douglas lands a Pittsburgh Plunge and then goes for a chain, but he’s slow to pull it from his boot, and Rection cuts him off. Douglas loses the chain, and Rection tosses it away and chokes Douglas near the ropes. As ref Bronco Lubich Scott James tries to pull Rection off of Douglas, Chavo Jr. sneaks up, retrieves the chain, wraps it around his fist, and scores a knockout on Rection. James is baffled by what must have happened to cause Rection to go from choking someone to laying on the mat unconscious, but he didn’t see it, so it might as well not have happened! Douglas covers, gets three, and gets out of dodge with his gold. After a space for a series of sales pitches that Peacock simply didn't insert into this show, Mike Tenay interviews an emotionally overwhelmed Rection. If this guy Hugh Morrus-Rection had any likeability, I would feel bad for him right now, but he’s got the charisma and likeability of a sack of quick-dry concrete, so I just think it’s kinda funny that he’s back to being a sad sack fruit booty fuck up who can’t do anything right. Rection sells the accumulated head injuries he's take over the last fwe shows and declares Chavo Jr. to be entirely fucked when he lays hands on him. It's time for our Nitro Special main event! Scott Steiner (w/Midajah) is first out. Midajah spots a sign that is derogatory toward Scott Steiner or something because I can see her notice it, and then I can read her quick process of what she wants to do with it on her face; she decides to rip it away and trash it. I feel like she had a lot of fun doing that, and I'm glad that she made the decision to go for it. Kevin Nash walks out alone, and we get this thing started with about six minutes to go. Nash works with intensity, controlling the match early, and the crowd is very behind him. Especially the ladies, considering the pitch of the cheers. Steiner weathers the storm and gains control, scores a belly-to-belly, an elbowdrop, and push-ups. He then works a surfboard that actually looks good for once. Nash works up from it and then outbrawls Steiner in the corner before reversing an Irish whip and landing a side slam that he can’t keep the cover on because he’s selling a rib injury from Steiner’s earlier offense. They both get up at the same time, and Nash wins a punch-up and scores a Snake Eyes. Steiner even begs off, not that this stops Nash from scoring a big boot. Nash pulls down the straps, which means that it’s time for fuckery! Totally Buff, Road Warrior Animal, and Jeff Jarrett save Steiner’s title by spoiling the match; DDP and Rick Steiner charge down the ramp to make a save as the show ends. The crowd was hot for this entire thing. Call me crazy, but I liked this show an awful lot. It had good wrestling matches and baited a bunch of storyline hooks that I’m snapping at. Of course, a Nitro builds some serious momentum for the first time in a long time and is immediately moved off its regular Monday time slot the next week. What else would any wrestling fan who has watched this company expect, though? It is the history of the Tottenham WCW. 4 out of 5 Stinger Splashes. 1
Curt McGirt Posted March 24 Posted March 24 43 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said: Buff’s fake-ass sobbing over the coffin is hilarious, as is Luger pretending to comfort him. Luger actually pulls Buff away from the coffin as Buff tries to hang onto it, HAHAHAHA. By the way, inside the coffin are a literal spear and jackhammer as well as a copy of Goldberg’s book. These two scumbags are too much, man. I had to look this up and found it on Dailymotion under "Goldberg's Funeral" parts 1 and 2 (be careful because the Sid footage IS in there so skip ahead on part 1). As good as the crap in the coffin and the phony seriousness is probably Luger's Steiner-esque speech where he garbles damn near everything and has the exact same Minnesota accent 1
twiztor Posted March 24 Posted March 24 1 hour ago, SirSmUgly said: Show #273 – 15 January 2001 Totally Buff ask if anyone else has anything to share about Goldberg. Jeff Jarrett certainly does! Mostly, he wants to talk about how Goldberg never beat him. Really? Not even in 1997? I’m going to check this later. Also, he calls the guy a SLAPNUTS one final time, which of course he would. Monday Nitro, 12/6/99. Goldberg pins Jarrett in a Lumberjack match after a Jackhammer. 1
SirSmUgly Posted March 24 Author Posted March 24 (edited) 16 hours ago, Curt McGirt said: I had to look this up and found it on Dailymotion under "Goldberg's Funeral" parts 1 and 2 (be careful because the Sid footage IS in there so skip ahead on part 1). As good as the crap in the coffin and the phony seriousness is probably Luger's Steiner-esque speech where he garbles damn near everything and has the exact same Minnesota accent Luger's fumblemouth only makes some of his promos funnier. He'd gotten more fumblemouthed over the years, which of course culminated in the YOUR T-SHIRTS ARE TOO TIGHT, BILLY promo that is an absolute classic. Edited March 24 by SirSmUgly 1
Curt McGirt Posted March 24 Posted March 24 It's made even funnier that it's supposed to be a eulogy. He should have pulled out a piece of paper and read from it too.
zendragon Posted March 25 Posted March 25 I'm sad that we never got WCW Gluttony featuring Mark Madden on a throne over the entrance way like Mil Muertes 1
SirSmUgly Posted March 26 Author Posted March 26 Thunder Interlude – show number one hundred and forty-four – 17 January 2001 "The WCW Gang is simply better off wrestling longer television matches" WCW has lately dropped the pre-intro stuff they have been doing off and on for the past couple of years…We go right into the THUNDERRRRRRRR intro… Fort Wayne appears to be hot for even more pro wrestling… Commissioner Cat (w/the lovely Ms. Jones) has a few decrees to make…He declares himself the People’s Champion Commissioner…I’ve mentioned this before, but I love that the Cat’s story as a character is that he was an unserious scumbag heel until the point at which Russo and Bischoff put him into power, which is when the responsibilities of his job gradually turned him babyface…It’s like how some people are completely unserious adults until they become parents when suddenly, they lock in and seem like totally different people…That makes a nice contrast with Mike Sanders, who was immediately corrupted even further by gaining power…This is one of the low-key best character progressions that WCW has managed to pull off during the Nitro Era, right up there with turning Disco from a dancing comedy heel goof into a fiery fightin’ babyface in late ‘97/early ‘98… Our fair commissioner is sickened by Totally Buff, who he doesn’t mention by name for a large chunk of his rant against them, so Tenay has to clarify for the viewers on commentary…The commish threatens to use the violence of his feet and fists along with the violence of authoritarian power to bring these fellas to heel…Totally Buff don’t like the sound of this, and they walk out onto the ramp to say so…The Cat rudely indicates that he does not want to hear it, but Luger says that they only take orders from the WCW President, though Flair is now the CEO, not the President of WCW…He held the title of prez back in ’99…Easy mistake to make, though, considering WCW's love of confusing, overlapping authority figures…Totally Buff advances on the Cat, who is a fiery fightin’ babyface ready to take them on by himself, but KroniK rushes the ring and sends Totally Buff packing…The Cat books them against KroniK before they make a complete escape…The Cat then tries to teach Bryan Clark to cut a rug, but Clark is absolutely not trying any of that stuff while the cameras are rolling… As Kwee Wee (w/Paisley) enters the ring, I find out that Meng had one more WCW match before he signed a contract with the WWF…He’s defending the WCW Hardcore Championship against Bam Bam Bigelow in its swan song later tonight…Meanwhile, Kwee Wee is not going to give Paisley her usual pre-match peck on the lips because he's so focused that he is Angry Allan tonight…He yells about the CEO not inviting him to be part of the WCW Elite…He says that he’ll beat up anyone in the back to show how bad he is… Rick Steiner answers that challenge, chuckling about how he's going to kill this dude…So, Ricky Steiner’s in his “carelessly kill dudes until they all contemplate beating the shit out of him on the final Nitro” mode…Ricky Steiner only semi-carelessly kills Kwee Wee on this night…I am looking forward to Steiner semi-carelessly killing Shane Douglas soon, I have to be honest…Woooooof, Steiner barely gets Kwee Wee over on a belly-to-belly…He almost spiked him…Steiner pretends that he’s offended that anyone would want to join that mean ol’ CEO Ric Flair’s team, but he’s obviously just mad that a pink-wearing fashion designer like Kwee Wee would try to be on the same team as a bunch of *cough* REAL MEN…Ricky hits a bulldog from the top to end the match and follows up by also hitting his shitty catchphrase after the match, the latter of which is somehow over as a chant-along… Alright, let’s pack Meng and the WCW Hardcore Championship off for realsies and truesies this time around…Bam Bam Bigelow walks out expecting to win the title, but I suspect that he’s in the middle of a losing streak that will turn him babyface again…Bammer hurts his forearm trying to hit this Oceanic spectacle of cranial strength in the head…He tries a chair shot next…That doesn’t work…Here we are with some smashy and a bit of trashy…They spill across the commentary table…I have no idea why Meng is taking so many unprotected chair shots to the dome… Mostly, Bigelow does logical, if plodding, work on Meng’s knee to try and keep him down…It’s definitely different from the typical hardcore match…I appreciate that these fellas are trying something a bit different for this type of bout…Bigelow thinks he’s done enough work to keep Meng from popping up and lands a DDT, but Meng isn’t a mere mortal…He pops up and tries a TDG…Bammer blocks it, so Meng goes low while Bigelow is going high and scoop slams Bammer…He then goes up and hits a meaty frog splash for three…Yeah, that finish was actually good enough to tip this over into Charming Uniquity territory…I love that the last hardcore title bout was a weird little deviation from the norm… Hype video: I’d have thought they had dropped this Glacier/Norman Smiley angle even earlier than I know that they actually dropped it had this Glacier hype video not shown just now…They haven’t mentioned that angle on major television for a couple of weeks, now…Norm is so excited about Glacier’s return in the back…A WCW tech gives Norm a folder with a Glacier promo photo in it, signed with a note from Glacier that Norm can call on him anytime he needs him…This gives Smiley a newfound confidence… Mike Awesome is upset that his hair looks reasonably decent now…He’s more upset that the Animals forced him to get a haircut than he is at the haircut itself…Fair enough!... CEO Flair and a few skeezers who probably all share the same bottle of Dom gainfully employed ladies get out of a limo, along with Scott Steiner and Midajah…They make their way into the arena in a triumphant mood… These Jeff Jarrett t-shirts need to move, dammit, so they’ve put together a little Jarrett video package for Tony S. to pitch over the top of… I love that Norman Smiley got over as a midcard heel and then a midcard babyface, and all WCW Creative did in response was to put the guy into dumb angle after dumb angle…Screamin’ hardcore champ…Unemployed backyarder and less memorable buddy of Ralphus…Now he’s doing a thing where he has no faith in himself without Glacier’s support…And he’s going to be jobbing to Da/oR…One o’ them Harris Bros. is in a neck brace to sell a neck injury from Meng’s TDG a week or so ago…Norm walks Da/oR through a watchable match…It’s a really slow affair, though…Da/oR wanders around outside the ring when he can’t get control, and Ra/oD catches Norm’s attention so that he brother can jump the guy… There’s an obligabrawl, and it’s just a bit much, man…Let’s move this along…Back in the ring, Norm hits a trio of clotheslines and teaes a Wiggle…He lands a swinging slamand then teases a Wiggle before dropkicking Da/oR in the ass…That sends Da/oR outside the ring, and he switches places (and neck collars) with Ra/oD…Ra/oD hops in the ring and hits a quick side suplex for three…Fire the Harris Bros. and cut a little more fat before you sell, Turner… Totally Buff and KroniK tangle in the next segment…Tony S. teases General Rection vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. for later…I’m actually interested in a match involving General Hughton Morrus-Rection IV…I can’t believe it…I get a kick out of Luger and Buff hiding behind the fellas at the desk, but trying to play it off like they’re not hiding at all…Luger massages Tony S.’s shoulders and then pats him on the back…Then, when deciding who will start the match, Buff butters up Luger: I THINK YOU SHOULD GO FIRST, YOU’RE BIG **poses like Luger often does**…Luger's response is to gladhand Buff, hug the guy, and as soon as he turns around, roll his eyes…HAHAHAHAHAHA…I do remember liking Totally Buff, and it quickly has become apparent why I felt that way (and still do)… Of course, this match has to actually enter the ring at some point, but it’s also perfectly cromulent…The matchups tonight haven’t pitted the top tier of WCW’s workers against one another, but they haven’t been all that bad…And as much as I complained about how long these matches are, I do think that’s ultimately better than putting on a bunch of three-minute specials like they did throughout the year of 2000…I mean, you’re probably not too excited about Totally Buff having a heel control segment, sure, and you’d be right not to get too excited about it…But it's fine, you know?...Adams stays in FIP jail for quite a while, and that’s even though he manage to hit a double DDT and start a small comeback that gets stuffed by a Luger metal forearm… Eventually, Clark gets a hot tag, but as he sets up for a Meltdown, Jeff Jarrett jogs to the ring and KABONGs Clark…Slick Johnson is too focused on Adams and Luger going at it to notice it, so he simply turns around and counts three as Buff covers Clark…Jarrett and Totally Buff prepare to celebrate, but Diamond Dallas Page pops into the ring and throws punches at all three men…The heels bail and rejoin CEO Ric Flair at the top of the ramp…The CEO is not a fan of Page’s antics, and he books Page against Jeff Jarrett in tonight’s Thunder main event… Team Canada is, as usual, somewhat dour tonight…Major Gunns is pretty perky most of the time, and sometimes Elix Skipper has bursts of joy, but Awesome and Storm are habitual bummers…Storm declares that the Animals have won the most recent battle in their war with Team Canada, but (as Stevie Ray might say if he were here, which he is not, unfortunately) it’s still on like neckbones…The Animals come to the ring…Rey’s wearing a shirt with the initials of the Filthy Animals on it in that Ruff Ryders font style…You know the one if you were into late ‘90s/early aughts rap… Billy Kidman, with wrapped ribs, wrestles Mike Awesome in tonight’s bout…They have a decent big man vs. little man bout…Kidman actually drops a running SSP off the apron (!!) in his early shine segment…That’s the first time he’s dropped an SSP of any type on television in a long time...Back in the ring, Awesome targets the ribs, using his power and size advantage to attack them…Awesome tosses Kidman out to his compatriots at ringside, and Storm takes the chance to send him into the railing…Awesome soon follows and does his own damage, including a chair shot to the ribs outside the ring that the ref sees, and, uh, is that not a DQ?...I guess we’re back to an “if it happens outside the ring, it’s not illegal enough to disqualify someone for” deal like WCW did in 1998?...I wish that when CEO Ric Flair was still a babyface, he had set forth that we were reverting to an older, stricter way of refereeing matches… Awesome looks ascendant, but he takes too long to drop a top-rope splash…Kidman moves, then makes a spirited comeback in which he scores a series of punches and a sunset flip for a two count…Awesome is able to use Kidman’s momentum against him to land a Hot Shot into the buckles, then lands a diving lariat from the top for two…Awesome looks for an Awesome Bomb, but Kidman slides out of it and uses his position to hook Awesome for a rebound bulldog…It only gets two…Kidman gets caught trying a whip to the corner, but when Awesome reels him in for another Awesome Bomb, Kidman flips the calendar back to late 1998 and turns it into a facebuster, then immediately goes up top for an SSP…Alas, Awesome catches him and clubs him into a seated position…He hoists him from there into an Awesome Bomb for three…That was a very good television match!...Elix gives Awesome some scissors…The Animals chase them off…Konnan gets the scissors and teases that he’s going to cut Gunns’s hair, but Team Canada and ref Scott James stop him…This is the good thing about longer matches across the board…When two solid workers get in there, they’ll have something worth watching more often than not, rather than rushing through everything and leaving me feeling unfulfilled… It's Chavo Jr.!...I’m looking forward to watching him be a grizzled vet who just can’t keep up with the nutty, devil-may-care types in the Temple when I do my Lucha Underground watch…I should want General Rection to win this thing tonight based on the storyline, but considering the performers themselves, I obviously want Chavo to kick the shit out of this goof…Chavo Jr. immediately bails and considers his options, taunting this big goof all the time…Chavo finally gets the ring, eats a stiff back elbow, and scrambles back outside again… Chavo realizes that he’s got to get on his bike, but Rection catches his boot to the midsection after chasing Chavo down and then proceeds to beat the crap out of him…Chavo simply cannot figure out how to deal with the size and weight advantage of his opponent…But there’s one thing Chavo has over Rection, and that’s brains…Let’s see if Chavo can come up with a plan that would make his Uncle Eddy proud…Chavo lands a desperation DDT out of a bearhug for a close two count…Since Rection’s brain, besides being less impressive than Chavo’s, has also been rattled quite a lot recently, that DDT gives Chavo an opening to work Rection over…The cruiserweight champ is able to land a basement dropkick and then start working over Rection’s left knee… If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying, right?...Chavo tries very hard by using the ropes as leverage on a kneelock…Mickey Jay catches him and makes him give up the hold, but Chavo goes right back to work…That work, which is a series of chops, just wakes up the concussed Rection…Rection hits a few chops of his own and pursues Chavo into the corner…Chavo drops down and grabs Rection’s tights, then dumps him head first into the buckles…Chavo goes back to the knee (and occasionally the head) while Rection, when he’s got momentum, uses his power advantage to toss Chavo around and throw fists…Chavo Jr. might be lugging this guy to the best match he’s had on WCW television… Rection lands a sit-out powerbomb and looks for a No Laughing Matter…A-WALL ostensibly comes out here to cheer Rection on, but actually comes out here to chokeslam Rection off the ropes…Chavo gets the cover for three…Cpl. Cajun was the guy who teased a turn the most, so of course, THE WALL, BROTHER is the one to turn first…Despite this, I very much liked this match…It also helps that I am into the storyline…I don’t remember TW,B being Chavo Jr.’s heavy, but that also sounds interesting…I dig it, is what I’m saying!... After what would normally have been a series of ads, TW,B and Chavo Jr. talk with Scott Hudson in the back…TW,B is basically like, This dude Chavo is a baller, and Rection is kind of a doofus…But he says it worse than that…They should have finally popped the WCW Hardcore Championship on TW,B, Meng leaving for the WWF as the champion be damned… This week in stuff the morons at the WWE Network cut from this episode of Thunder: Dissension is teased as Cpl. Cajun and THE WALL, BROTHER do not see eye-to-eye with General Rection or even refer to General Rection by that name or title, opting to just call this doofus "Hugh"…One o’ them Harris Bros. sells the neck injury in an interview with hapless Scott Hudson that was sequentially before the match with Norman Smiley…I guess that WCW has stopped using both Pam Paulshock and Gene Okerlund at this point, possibly...I know for sure that Paulshock is gone at the very end of 2000, but I don’t know for how long Okerlund hangs on…Chavo Jr. talks to Scott Hudson before his match with the General and says that he attacked Rection to impress CEO Flair…Oh wow, I just realized that if the Fusient deal had closed, we were headed for yet another Bischoff/Flair feud with babyface Bischoff bringing back the deposed babyfaces to take out heel CEO Flair’s Elite…YUCK…Not as bad as what we got with the Invasion storyline, but at least that storyline did give us Austin/Angle, so it’s probably a (theoretical) wash…There wasn’t as much missing from this episode as from the past bunch of Thunders… Jeff Jarrett insists on talking before his match with DDP…It’s not great!...Jarrett does note that he’s once again on the side with all the devious heels who are happy to use numbers and nefarious plans to beat up the dopey fiery babyface…Here comes our dopey fiery babyface now!...By the time they hook up, there are only eight minutes of time left in this recording…They do my least favorite transition early on, but at least I can justify it that Jarrett was simply too fresh to toss in the ring before following after him under the bottom rope…These fellas sprint…They’re trading two counts almost immediately…There are also two standing ten-counts in here…They packed like twenty minutes of match into eight minutes…This main event is actually a great example of why I’ll live with the occasional aimless or boring longer match…A lot of these shorter matches are worked as sprints, but endless sprints are not fun!... So, Jarrett locks on a sleeper, but Page works his way out of it only to find himself locked back into it when Jarrett bounces off the ropes…Page works his way up, slings Jarrett into the ropes again, and this time locks Jarrett in a sleeper, but he immediately plummets downward, landing a sleeper drop that sparks what I’m pretty sure is a third standing ten-count from the ref…Page covers at Billy Silverman’s count of eight, but he only gets two…Page gets two more on a uranage, then goes up top and lands a diving lariat…Rather than going for the cover, he signals for a Diamond Cutter…Jarrett shoves him away but he strikes back with a lariat…That’s when CEO Flair’s Elite rush the ring and attack Page, sparking a disqualification…Kevin Nash, KroniK, and the Cat are soon in to brawl with the heels and even up the numbers…Tony S. as the show fades to black, overdramatically: THEY WON’T STOP UNTIL SOMEONE DIES…That call was absurd... It's too bad that War Games isn’t until Fall Brawl 2001 and that Fall Brawl 2001 doesn’t exist because I could absolutely go for a traditional War Games match between these groups…Ah, well, at least we got another good show…WOOOO… 2
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