El-P

I won't go through the Invasion stuff. I suffered enough already.

Ah ah ! I do have a godawful French accent when I speak English, because I very rarely have the opportunity to do so. When I used to practice it regularly it was much better, but as I very seldom speak the language these days (and it's been that way for years now), it's usually not pretty when I do it. Sorry for the typos though, I type quite fast and re-read myself way to fast too I don't doubt it. And yeah, I'm ecstatic to report I only have two days to go. WEEK 113 (March 05 to 07, 2001) Debuts of the week : Kid Romeo & Jason B. (Nitro / Thunder). Romeo is doing the latino male stripper gimmick and looks quite good in the best match of the week with Skipper vs AJ Styles & Air Paris. The New Japan experience is showing. You can see also an influence from modern MPro stuff in his work. Jason B. is of course EZ Money from ECW, and he was my favourite worker of the last months of the company's extistence. This guy sure didn't struck much luck with the companies he worked for, basically being there for the last rites. Waste of money of the week : Kanyon pushing MI Smooth's limo upside down (Thunder). Yes, WCW is still pissing away dollars to execute stupid and unecessary angles requiring the destruction of expensive cars. And involving Ice Train in a limo-driver's gimmick. Nice. Up 'til the very end, guys. New entrance of the week : Shane Helms dancing with the Nitro Girls (Nitro). Quite the production, it's obvious Helms was gonna get pushed as the new single star of the cruiserweight division. His work still looks too indieriffic for my taste, or should I say Hardyriffic, down to the outfit style. Call me old-fashioned, I'm not a fan of this kind of look at all, nor this kind of "video-game" work. Helms does have talent though, and with a guy like Chavo at the helm (ah ! I'm so fucking funny), the potential for a really solid match is there. Redondant angle of the week : Jeff Jarrett vs "Dusty Rhodes" (Nitro). Okay, this time Flair is disguised as Dusty, and Jarrett is doing bionic elbows again. Not nearly as fun as the first time. Dustin runs-in, beats up Jarrett and Flair waits forever to jump on him. Then Dusty waits forever to make his run-in; then long, messy and unfocused promos from Flair & Dusty follow this pretty poor segment. I wish Flair & Dusty would stay oustide the ring and let Jarrett & Dustin do the work, really, as Dusty can't do shit anymore and Flair was fat and rusty as hell at this point. Midajah has been gone for two weeks straight, so I guess she's history too. Kronik seem to be gone (not that I will regret those two). Konnan & Hugh Morrus get paired against Team Canada in a very random way, but the match should be decent enough. Yeah, not much happening, a lot of green guys on TV working single matches which exposes them (both in the cruiserweight and heavyweight ranks) and lot of washed up guys working boring, plodding matches too (Luger, Bagwell, Rick Steiner). All in all, this gets more dry and dull with each passing week.

WEEK 112 (February 26 to 28, 2001) Match of the week : Kwee-Wee & Mike Sanders vs Jung Dragons (Thunder). First match of the cruiser tag titles tournament that really delivers the goods. Yang still manages to fuck up a sequence, which he seemingly does in every match, but it's mostly really good modern cruiserweight stuff with crisp work and cool stuff thrown around at a nice pace. Sanders doesn't even come down the ring to the NBT music anymore, so this is really done with. They split the group way too early to me. Honorable mention of the week : Scott Steiner & Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell vs DDP & Booker T & The Cat (Nitro) Booker is back, and the least I can say is that he's instilling some fresh blood and intensity back into the mix. Really heated match booked on the fly after a Cat single match which ended up way better than it should have. The execution was subpar with so many sloppy/washed up guys involved, but this was all about putting heat on babyfaces and retaliating with fiery comebacks, which the babyface team can deliver in spades. Cool finish too. One thing I'll say about this whole Mag7 feud, is that at least the WCW guys acted like a unit and showed solidarity against Flair and his croonies, something that should have happened a lot more during the nWo days. Cool stuff. Bad new gimmick of the week : Sean Stasiak is the Mecca of Manhood (Thunder). Who the fuck thought of that one ? It's just a tad less worse than Meat. And Stasiak is dull as hell and cut robotic promos. And apparently he'll feud with M.I. Smooth. Promising feud of the week : Dustin Rhodes vs Jeff Jarrett (Nitro). They have a nice little match with Flair acting as the heel ref. They could have a really good PPV match if they wanted, as they already did in 1999, but with Dusty & Flair involved, this match may end up the best of this current feud. Comeback of the week : Johnny Swinger (Nitro). Well not really, as Booker was the comeback of the week obviously. Swinger is the dullest cruiserweight I can think of. He never showed me shit in ECW and looks exactly the same here, only even duller since he's surrounded by really good workers. I'd rather watch Scott Putski, at least I can laugh at his small dick. The TV was better on Nitro and Thunder had also a good little Scott Steiner vs Booker T match. Sadly Booker is paired with Rick, so this pretty much garantees a terrible match.

I think this whole Invasion discussion deserves its own thread (plus it's a part of WWF history, not WCW).

WEEK 111 (February 19 to 21, 2001) Ironic angle or the week : Nash's funeral (Nitro) Just like with Goldberg, the Magn 7 are throwing a funeral for Nash's career. How ironic that there had been two burials on TV in the mast month leading to the actual burial of WCW ? Kanyon is in the coffin and does a DDP impersonation. It's fitting that DDP would headline the last PPV, he's the only star they created apart from Goldberg, and he's been the hardest working guy on the roster. Impersonation of the week : Jeff Jarrett does Dusty Rhodes (Nitro). A pretty good one, and Jarrett cuts a better promo as Rhodes as he does as himself. The funniest part is when he starts to wrestle a bunch of jobbers, dropping a million bionic elbows and not being able to get up once on the ground, moving around like a panicked turtle turned on her back. Upset of the week : AJ Styles & Air Paris get a win over the Boogie KNights (Thunder). AJ Styles first win on national TV. He probably would have been pushed pretty hard in the cruiserweight division. Promo for the feud that will never happen of the week : Shane Douglas explains his history with Ric Flair (Thunder). Very good, solid, serious promo wrapping up his entire history from being a young wrestling fan idolizing Ric to being very disapointed after meeting him, turning into a star in a promotion "up north in Philly" and venting his frustrations on Flair up there, then coming back to WCW and getting a hypocritical welcome from Flair. The best part is that all of this was mostly a shoot, but it just sounded like a classic wrestling promo. Again, this feud could and should have happened in WCW, it was easy to put together, and Shane could have a good match with Flair. Too bad. Turn of the week : Evan Karagias turns on Jamie Knoble and gets back with Shannon Moore (Nitro). All because Knoble was thrown into Evan who ended up crashing on the stairs. Not a huge turn since Evan was a tweener at best and remained heelish during his whole stint with Knoble. Shannon & Evan get together so they can be a tag-team in the upcoming cruiser tag-team tournament, so it's all good. Woman abuse of the week : Kanyon puts a diamond cutter on Miss Jones (Nitro). They made a big deal about it much like with Torrie, so maybe it's the end of Miss Jones too, which would suck. It's striking how differently woman getting hit has been treated since Russo has been gone. It happens rarely and is sold as a big deal and a really dastardly move. Geeky reference of the week : Scott Hudson calling a "Kobashi DDT" (Nitro). Ah ! Hudson was such a wrestling geek at times. Bagwell's version looks pretty awful though. The TV was a bit better this week thanks to a few decent matches and angle. Jarrett vs Dustin and Kanyon vs The Cat sounds fun enough. On the other hand, it seems like Team Canada will be paired against Kronik, and Rick Steiner is still crapping my screen. Dafney is also gone apparently, as Crowbar showed up alone on Thunder. Well, that's a loss too as she had a unique look and personality, and added to the Crowbar act. The big talk is all about the new owners incoming. If only they knew...

Ray Rougeau. Retired healthy at 35, made shitloads of money in real estate, still married to the same wife (I believe). And Bruno, of course.

I was driven away by this product from both WWF and then WCW in 1999. Never went back. So yeah, Attitude era drove some longtime fans (since 1989) away.

I will give my opinion about that when I'm done. Meanwhile, back to business. PPV 26 : Superbrawl Revenge 2001 Match of the night : Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs Rey Mysterio Jr.. Haven't seen a cruiserweight match like this since probably 1998. Chavo has really hit his stride as a heel, and I'd go as far as say he was better than Rey in this match. He's as smooth and elegant as Eddie was, and Rey screw up two times, one of which was immediately covered by Chavo. Don't get me wrong, Rey was mostly ace in the too, hitting some amazing crisp spots like a brutal hurricanrana from the top rope onto the outside, and Chavo took a masterful looking bump for it. As much as I loved this, in a way it's sad that Rey is back at working cruiserweight matches, but at least he's giving the rub to Chavo here. 1-2 punch of the night : DDP vs Kanyon - DDP vs Jeff Jarrett. Since DDP challenged Kaynon "nytime anywhere", Jarrett throws him into teh mix before his own match, so we ger two good matches instead of one, with the added drama of DDP having been double-teamed at the end of the Kanyon match and having to fight twice. The Kanyon match was more traditionnal high impact Kanyon stuff while the Jarrett one was more of a brawl mixed with old-school heat spots like an effective sleeper. Both were good, DDP's selling made the whole thing dramatic, and it was all done in a logical manner, with Kanyon cheating his way into the win then Jarrett putting DDP over after crashing his guitar by accident on Kanyon. Everyone goes home happy. Spotfest of the night : Evan Karagias vs Jamie Knoble vs Kaz Hayashi vs Yang vs Shannon Moore vs Shane Helms. Kidman was beaten down by Animal before the match, so Helms takes his place, and basically we get another variation of 3-Count & Jung Dragons. This is everything this kind of match should be, and the fact it was an elimination match and was given time allowed this to build into something really good despite some execution issues (Yang screwed up several times including badly blowing the first fall sequence with Evan). Tons of insane dives and cool lucharesu stuff mixed with modern X-division like spots. And it actually told a story too with Shannon Moore none too happy to see his partner involved, so he actually turns on him at the end. Cool match. Fun match of the night. The Cat vs Lance Storm. Fun = The Cat. Here he goes again, having his best match I can recall thanks to Storm delivering the little important stuff. They got tons of heat doing nothing at first, then it turned into an actual pretty solid match with Lance working on The Cat's weaker leg. Mike Sanders shows up at the end only to get slapped and kicked in the face by Miss Jones, which is always fun. Good stuff and again the crowd goes home happy. Decent tag match of the night : Sean Stasiak & Mark Jindrak vs Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo. Better than I thought it would be, but these guys are still far from being ready to carry a match on their own, especially Stasiak & Jindrak who really look like your typical 00's WWE worker : tall short hair guy with shorts and no charisma. Palumbo & O'Haire don't really work like babyface quite yet, which kinda hurt the dynamic a bit. Classic WCW bullshit main event of the night : Scott Steiner vs Kevin Nash. Nash shows up in a wheelchair and a fake cast, then KO's STeiner with one belt shot and "wins the match". Then Flair says it's a 2/3 match. Then Steiner pins Nash outside because it's now a "Falls count anywhere match". Get the idea ? I lost interest immediately after the first relaunch. This is every nash vs Steiner match already seen on TV. Damn, they sure fucked up Steiner's title reign with this kind of bullshit. Flair was cool as a babyface CEO, but as a heel he's not been good, overselling everything and doing crazy old Flair routines. The rest of the PPV was pretty bad, with plodding, boring matches between Morrus & Wall, Dustin & Rick (who won "clean", how depressing is that ?) and a ridiculous Brian Adams vs Totally Buffed match where Mike Awesome was disguised as Brian Clarke and stayed the whole match outside the ring covering his head after a chair shot that "injured" him, until the real Clarke came out of the dressing room. So yeah, a half of really good stuff and a half of really bad stuff. The cruiserweights being given time is the best thing coming out of this PPV. The main event scene is just as bad as it ever was, really, and Steiner already lost a lot of his luster to me because of the booking. Nash loses and must leave WCW. Another one bites the dust.

WEEK 110 (February 12 to 14, 2001) Awful angle of the week : Kevin Nash kidnaps and tortures David Flair (Nitro) Fuck Me. So we're back to this ? This product is rotten, I have no idea where the notion came from that WCW got good in 2001 before closing down. This is right off the worst Nash/Russo booking ideas, and it's been done a hundred times it seems in the last year or so. Confusing booking of the week : Qualifying matches for a 6 men 4 corners cruiserweight first contender match at the PPV (Nitro/Thunder). So, cruiserweight have to fight in matches to qualify themselves for a 4-corner match involving 6 people to determine a first contender for the title ? What ? What ? And then the qualifying matches are either a 4 corner match, singles matches or even a classic tag-team match ? Seriously, who books this shit ? Well, at least it gives us the best match of the week with AJ Styles & Air Paris making their debut against Karagias & Knoble on Thunder, which was a nice spotty match with Styles already showing a lot of potential. And Kidman vs Elix Skipper on Nitro wasn't bad either, but this whole deal is just a big mess that makes no sense. New Commisionner of the week : Lance Storm (Thunder) Yeah, he beat the Cat on Nitro in the match that should have happened at the PPV. So now we got yet another show with another heel authority figure putting matches together. Isn't this scary that this gimmick had overstayed its welcome in 2001 and that it's still the prevalent angle twelve years later ? Anyway, they'll have teh revenge match at the PPV, with the same stipulation. This is tired. Honorable mention of the week : Chavo Guerrero Jr. & The Wall vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Hugh Morrus (Thunder) Mostly Rey in the ring, so it was really crisp work against Chavo and some really impressive power spots with The Wall. This had a good dynamic with both of the opponents, and Morrus only had to show up to clean the ring at the end. Enjoyable match, and Chavo & Rey look like the two best worker in the company. Worst look of the week : Dustin Rhodes in a plain black singlet (Nitro). Pretty terrible look for him. Coudn't he use the cool red and black cow-boy outfit he was wearing during his first run ? Anyway, he's finally reinstated after defeating Rick Steiner with the help of Shane Douglas and his infamous chain. Turning Douglas back babyface was a bad idea that could have turned out good depending on how he would have been booked (and since the babyface side badly needed some fresh blood) but since he was injured, he wasn't gonna show up on TV again (I guess) before the end so it doesn't matter. The build to this PPV has really been flat at best, much like the TV. Crowbar and Terry Funk haven't appeared since Meng has left the house. The valets have gone. It seems like with each week the roster is getting thinner, despite the arrival of new young (but green) faces on the cruiserweight ranks, and it shows : everything looks more and more dry and samey. Rick Steiner is all over the TV, which really sucks, two weeks in a row working Thunder main events. DDP is working Jarrett at the PPV, with Kanyon on the corner. The NBT feud is extremely dull, and Sean Stasiak cutting promos is as interesting as watching paint dry. Then you have Kronik vs Totally Buffed, which will be bad. Now Nash is supposedly injured, so his status for the PPV is unsure. Way to build the match, especially when you've basically given up Nash vs Steiner two weeks in a row on free TV. So yeah, I have no idea why 2001 WCW has a good rep. Of course next to Russo's runs, it's much better, but in the grand scheme of things this is not good at all, and the last few weeks really have the feeling of a dying promotion.

That shit is hilarious.

Agreed. But Hogan is probably the bigger "wrestling" star, while The Rock is "only" the bigger star, as odd as it may sound.

Oh yeah, Chavo's new theme was boss. I also enjoy the cheesy Jamie Knoble theme, which those 80's synths. I don't think he was around that much after Halloween Havoc, where he most probably got a bad concussion from the Awesome top rope powerbomb. I already forgot.

From my realm of WCW 2001, I salute you people. Godawful booking still exists in 2013, and Trips is still an insecure douchebag. In a way that's comforting, some things will never change...

WEEK 109 (February 05 to 07, 2001) New title holder and swerve turn of the week : Rick Steiner (Nitro) So he beats Douglas as a babyface (in the most watchable single match he had in years, probably since he faced Benoit), then later in the show he betrays Kevin nash who asked him to be his partner to face Scott in a handicap match for the title. Mind you, Rick even waits for Kevin to apply the jacknife on his brother before he drops a single elbow which apparently is enough to pin Nash. So, this is pretty much depressing. How many times has Rick turned ny now ? New heel faction of the week : The Magnificient Seven (Thunder). Magnificient indeed, with Buff Bagwell, Lex Luger, Road Warrior Animal and Rick Steiner being a part of it. The whole Steiner being involved with heel CEO Flair really diluted his character. Classic angle of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. as El Nino defeats Chavo Guerrero Jr. in a non-title match (Nitro). You know the drill. Works every time when it's executed well, which was the case here, although it would have been fun to see El Nino do the Bronco Buster during the match, which would have been a cool give away. The match promises to be the best match on WCW PPV in ages. Departures of the week : Most of the valets are gone (Nitro/thunder). Leia Meow, Major Gunns, Tygress and Paisley are history. It's kinda odd when all of a sudden all of them just aren't around anymore at the same time, it really shows. Paisley is sorely missing around Kwee-Wee (whose entire act was that he's an effeminate guy with a hot girl), and Leia Meow had a distinctive look which made the Dragons a cool outifit, but the other two really didn't bring much (except that really awkard double Bronco Buster spot Tygress used to do, which always made me think she was rubbing her pussy on he opponent's face while Rey was fucking her ass. Ok, I said it). I could do without Midajah who really has no character and doesn't look that good (way to much surgery), but I'm sure glad they kept Miss Jones around. Comeback of the week : Kanyon, jumping on DDP in the crowd (Nitro). Too bad this angle couldn't have happened during the ridiculously fun Positively Kanyon gimmick time, although Russo would have fucke dit up, but it would have been much better when Kim was still around as a heel and Kanyon was fucking aroud DDP. It's nice to see him pop back on TV so we get some sort of continuity. Match should be fun too. Dustin Rhodes apparently isn't part of WCW so this time he was escorted out of the building by security. So basically they have him the same kinda outsider/loner gimmick he was doing the first time he showed up. They indeed haven't much idea what to do with Dustin after all. The Bill Demott push seems to be history, as his feud with The Wall really takes a backseat to most other undercard feuds. Shane Douglas was talking about using the US title as a stepping stone to the WCW title, and they even had him do a sit down interview with Tenay some time ago, so I guess the idea was to push him up the card at some point, but after losing the US title in a matter of a few weeks to Rick, he's pretty much done. He has been misused up until the very end. The build to Superbrawl is pretty bad on top, but the undercard is shaping to be pretty decent with stuff like Rey vs Chavo, DDP vs Kanyon, Storm vs Cat already.

No, there was no EMT involved in this angle. WEEK 108 (January 29 to 31, 2001) Angle of the week : Ric Flair vs the Rhodes family (Nitro). Ric Flair brings back Dustin Rhodes as the new big star of his WCW, but Dustin tells him to basically shove it. After a short beatdown by Flair & Animal, Dusty shows up to a huge pop, then the usual bionic elbow spot follows. Dusty cuts a promo and there we have something fresh on TV. Dustin was sure paid for a long time to sit at home, he hasn't been seen since the heatless Terry Funk feud. In a way it's a bit sad that he's saddled with only old workers as Dusty Rhodes Jr. at this point of his career, but he's a welcomed addition to a roster that badly needs it, especially on the babyface side. Match of the week : Mamalukes vs Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo (Thunder). Good little match that shows the improvements of the NBT team once again. It seems like they're going toward a babyface turn, as they are challenged by Stasiak & Jindrak in a pretty bad promo segment followed by a really badly timed "jump from behind" attack. I'm curious to see if these four will be able to have a good match together. Usually greenhorns are better off working with veterans. Honorable mention of the week : Kidman vs Shane Helms (Thunder). A little shaky at times, as always with Kidman, but they took the time to sell and didn't do a complete spotfest, which was enjoyable. I like Helms more and more in single, whereas Shannon Moore looks a lot greener and spotty. Funny insult of the week : Konnan calling Reno "Reno Riggins" (Thunder). I chuckled. I always think about Riggins at some point whenever I watch Reno. Awful worker of the week : Rick Steiner (Nitro/Thunder). Man, he looks really awful, and that's against über solid worker Shane Douglas and Jeff Jarrett who's no slouch either. Sloppy, stumbling around, bad timing. And he's getting the US belt the following week. And he's still spitting out his boring catchphrase every time. I don't see any redeeming quality to this guy at this point, and it's been that way since 1999. Stupid angle of the week : DDP gets arrested for "assault" on a fan at a book signing (Nitro). Of course this was a Jeff Jarrett ploy, and it's as stupid as it sounds, with another fake fan falling down "hurt" after DDP barely touched him by accident at the book signing. And when Flair & co went to "visit" DDP in jail on Thunder, he was already out and they got put in his cell. Just idiotic stuff reminiscent of Nash's booking. TV was a bit better this week thanks to a few decent matches and the big Rhodes angle, but there's still way to much terrible shit to call this a real improvement. Rick Steiner getting a push is depressing. Animal worked a tag match with Chavo against Rey & Kidman, and if anything it was fun to see his big power moves applied on the Filthy Animals who made it look like it was 1986 again. Team Canada seems to have no feud right now, which is really a waste since Awesome makes them much better. The top of the card is really marred by Totally Buffed and Kronik, and the Steiner vs Nash feud is flat as hell. They are still talking about Goldberg quite a bit on TV. The good thing I forgot to mention since the last PPV is that Madden seems to be gone for good. That makes the announcing just so much easier to listen to, although Stevie Ray is sorely missed.

No.

That's just perfect.

Well, she does have a large smile on her face.

WEEK 107 (January 23 to 24, 2001) Big news of the week : WCW is being sold by Time Warner (Nitro). This is the first thing they talked baout on the show. I guess they were all thinking Bischoff was coming to save the day, as they talked about it like it was another "angle" of sort, with them being in a transitionnal period again. How to not introduce new talent match of the week : Michael Modest vs Christopher Daniels (Nitro). Daniels had only been on the C-shows thus far. This is the infamous match were Daniels fucks up a few spots, nearly breaks his neck and doesn't leave a good impression. Modest on the other hand looks like he could be marketed as Kevin Sullivan's son, and he works like a much better version of Taz. None of this matters anyway since the match is interrupted by Scott Steiner who kills both of them. Nice way to present new talent. WCW : never learn. Split of the week : MIA are no more (Nitro) Finally, the last reminder of Russo's idiotic gimmicks is gone. Demott gets back to his roots which means he'll abandon his awful gimmick and name for a less but still bad and second rate gimmick and name that he previously had. I don't give a shit about this former MIA members feud with The Wall. WTF angle of the week : Kwee-Wee attacks guys from the security and fans in the crowd (Nitro/Thunder). He's pissed because Flair didn't asked him to be part of his new team. He's got a split personnality, and he's all man since he's got Paisley. I have no idea whatsoever on where this is going. Gawwwwd Noooooo push of the week : Rick Steiner (Nitro). This is it, they're going to push Rick into a feud against Shane Douglas for the US title. Ok, I surrender. White flag. Idiotic "comedic" angle of the week : Glacier comes back but doesn't save Norman's ass (Thunder). All of this is so stupid and reeks of awful modern WWF style comedy. I just won't go into details, it's garbage, and more ways to waste Norman. How to get pinned in 90 seconds match of the week : Cruiserweight Contender Countdown match (Thunder). You know the kind of match where every guys has to eat a pinfall in less than two minutes because it's a giant gauntlet which lasts until one guy pins all the up-coming opponents. Rey wins, which means he'll get Chavo at the PPV. That's the only good news of this week. Seriously, thus far WCW in 2001 has been *bad*. No good wrestling on TV (the highlight of the week must have been a three minutes sprint between Lance Storm & Konnan), tons of shitty bakstage segments, bad comedy, Rick Steiner getting pushed, the Harris brothers getting pushed in single (where one is supposedly hurt and they do the old switcheroo at the end of the match), Animal working tag main events against Kronik. Wow. This is seriously 1999 again, without all the good stuff. It's like Kevin Nash is booking again. I can't wait to be done, really, the product has been better for like three weeks in November before crashing down hard again.

Well, I wasn't going into it expecting anything, really. I've just gone through 24 months of the worst WCW TV since February, so it would take a lot more than a few post to get expectations from me. At this point it can only get better, unless it gets really awful again. Two months to go and I'm outta there.

Great picture ! How young was he then ? He looks just fantastic.

WCW Jan - March 2001 could be argued to be on par with any other period from any other US promotion in terms of in ring and being entertaining. (Obviously this is totally subjective). That's quite a statement and I'm intrigued to see what El-P says as he goes through it. Sorry to say, but thus far, it's not even *good*.

I did't know it was Goldberg's last appearance. It's even worse than I thought then. And yes, Micheal Buffer was still employed on PPV. WEEK 106 (January 15 to 17, 2001) "It was me all along" angle of the week : Ric Flair was the mastermind behind Goldberg's downfall (Nitro). Okay. It makes no sense whatsoever ocnsidering how Flair acted the last two months. Especially when it comes to Mike Sanders whom he forced into a Commisionner match against the Cat. Anyway, so know we have evil Flair + Scott Steiner + Luger + Bagwell + Jarrett as a super heel unit. Needless to say it totally dilutes Steiner's appeal, which was to be a psycho lone wolf of a man. Luger and Bagwell have nothing left I'm sad to say. And on a the babyface side we have now Nash + DDP + the Cat + .... Rick Steiner ? Awww gawwwwd.... And Kronik ? Fuck me. This is what was supposed to be *good* ? Seriously ? Ironic angle of the week : Goldberg's burial (Nitro). Yeah, really ironic considering they really have been burying the guy for two years now, and finally it's down, he's nowhere around. Good job people. You've pissed away the only legit star you created. Clap clap clap. Match of the week : DDP vs Jeff Jarrett (Thunder). Worked in a way where they got the most out of simple stuff, like doing an efficient sleeper spot with a final reversal from DDP into some sort of sleeper Diamond Cutter or something. Both looked good despite clearly not overextending themselves (although DDP always works pretty hard, even at this point). I could live with a single feud between those two. Cosmetic change of the week : Mike Awesome got a haircut courtesy of Konnan (Nitro) I liked the long hair better, added more visual effect to teh big power moves of Awesome. The match against Konnan was pretty decent all things considered, as Konnan isn't afraid to take Awesome's offense. On Thunder Awesome had a good match against Kidman, whom he was supposed to face on Nitro in a hair vs hair match. Team Canada is still the best heel faction on TV and they look good by winning matches without too much bullshit around. Whatever turn of the week : A-Wall turns on Rection. Cool, so these two will feud together and they will not drag good workers down anymore. I'm so tired of this stupid MIA gimmick. Rection is slowly snapping so a Hugh Morrus comeback is looming. Next opponent for Steiner will probably be Nash. They have no one else and at least Nash can have a good match with Steiner, as showed by the short sprint they had on Nitro. It's not fresh, but it's a good way to keep Steiner occupied before Goldberg comes ba... Ok, sorry. Rick Steiner coming back as a babyface makes no sense and since he was easily one of the worst performer of 1999 and 2000, it can only be bad news. Just pair him with Animal. Kronik are faces once again. Damn the babyface side looks bad. The Cat now can make matches as he wishes, despite the fact Flair was fucking around all the time with Sanders when he was commish, more logic hole than in swiss cheese in this Flair turn. A few good matches involving Chavo (against Crowbar on Nitro), DDP and Team Canada made the TV watchable, but really, this isn't good overall, and Goldberg leaving is just a huge blow to a company in life support.

Agreed.

Well, I wish Larry Z. would be somewhere on my TV screen actually, in any capacity. PPV 25 : Sin 2001 Death of WCW match of the night : Goldberg & Sarge vs Buff Bagwell & Lex Luger. I won't even mention that Goldie should squash these two by himself in about five minutes, hell he did squash freaking Kronik in about five minutes, and he was alone. I won't even mention the torture of going through a Buddy Lee Parker face in peril segment in 2001 in a semi-main event especially with the heat put on by way past their primes Bagwell & Luger. I will mention the fact that Goldberg got blinded by a fan whom he sign an autograph backstage earlier in the show and that he got pinned by Luger effectively "ending his WCW career". Wow. Just wow. Shitty match, shitty feud and now they actually kill Goldberg with a fake fan at ringside who swerved Goldie ? Of course the crowd died. It didn't get heat, they just died. And they were hot for most of the show before that point. Taylor, Ace & Ferrara (of course) were as much dumb fucks as the previous ones. This is garbage. And speaking of garbage... Worst surprise ever since Savio Vega match of the night : Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious. The mystery man will only show up when it's time, or so says Flair. Jarrett & Steiner basically work two on one on Sid. Match is awful and totally heatless. Not that the previous Sid main event got any reaction, but here the crowd has been killed and buried by what they saw before, they couldn't give a shit about this bad match. Sid breaking his leg in the most grotesque fashion would almost make it a perfect disaster, then Flair throws the mystery man into the mix. A few people bark, expecting Rick Steiner, which would be horrible in itself, but it's Road Warrior Animal ! Wow. Crowd would die again if they weren't dead already. In the words of Tony Schiavone, cutting his best line in years : "Road Warrior Animal, are you kidding me ?" Nonsensical match of the night : Shane Douglas vs Gen. Rection. I'm a Douglas fan, but this was really stupid. First Blood match with a chain suspended above the ring. Referee checks Douglas and finds a hidden chain in his tights. Rection uses some armdrags and the announcers are trying their best to explain why he would do so in a first blood match. Shane Douglas works the knee and the announcers are trying their best to explain why he would do so in a first blood match. Rection doesn't sell the knee. Rection gets a ladder, but doesn't use it as a weapon to bust out Douglas, you see, a chain suspended above the ring is a much safer choice. Dougas makes Rection fall from the ladder, but he doesn't take the chain that Rection had grabbed, he uses another chain he had hidden in his boots, hits Rection with it, then takes the official chain and shows to the ref that Rection is bleeding. My brain my bleeding too. Garbage match of the night : Terry Funk & Crowbar vs Meng. I take back what I said about Meng, they really work hard to make this look more brutal and special than most hardcore matches in eons. Good for what it was, with Terry going berzerk in the bathroom, Crowbar jumping from a balcony (not too high thankfully) through a table (which in total WCW fashion they missed), Meng taking trash can shots in the face and goofy stuff like this. Grudge match of the night : Big Vito vs Reno. Not much in term of selling, but they really pulled it off on the intensity aspect by beating each other up pretty nicely. I never cared ofr this feud, but this match got me into it thanks to the pacing and execution. Surprisingly good. Shitty run-in match of the night : Insiders vs Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire. Replacing Stasiak by O'Haire makes the match that much better. Still the same formula though, with DDP playing Ricky Morton and Nash coming up to clean the place. It was a decent match until the stupid run in by Luger and Bagwell (wearing a stupid wig) who cost the Insiders the title. What was the point of this ? The NTB look like geeks when they are six and they still need two other guys to defeat the Insiders. Anyway... Fun match of the night : The Cat vs Mike Sanders. You know the drill, Sanders and Cat are funny, Miss Jones is hot and throws a mean high kick. The most fun part is Kronik (yeah, the only time they have been fun thus far) running in to save The Cat, who paid them more than Sanders. They shove Sanders money into his mouth so it flies around when The cat kicks him in the head, making for a great visual. Fun, quick, with a good ending. This also got tons of heat. Good work/stupid gimmick match of the night : Team Canada vs Filthy Animals. Like I feared, the penalty box stip hurt the flow and the pacing of the match, and distracted the director to boot. Plus the reasons why people would be thrown into the boxes weren't always very clear. The work was mostly very good though, so it was enjoyable nonetheless, but it probably would have been the match of the night if not for the gimmick. Hot opener of the night : Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs Shane Helms. Better than I thought it would be, Chavo hold it together and Shane Helms showed his potential. This was a nice throwback to the days of good cruiserweight matches on PPV and launched the night on a very positive vibe. Match of the night : Jung Dragons vs Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble. Not even announced and yet it ends up being the best match of the night. Rather on the short side, but sweet all action match. It's obvious the Jung Dragons three man team was much better than three count, and it shows here as basically it's them + Evan, who looks pretty good in this setting too. He actually did a 450 splash, which they called a Firebird (a geeky tribute to Hayabusa from Scott Hudson ?). Yang fucked up the finish though, but apart from that, it was all good. Well, I really believed this PPV was gonna be really good after the first few matches. And he was mostly really good for the first half. But with the run in at the end of the tag titles match, things quickly took a nosedive so finally hit the pits of booking and work hell with the three last match. The Goldberg stuff is just mind blowingly retarded, and the final match... what to say ? Who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to build to the unveiling of Road Warrior Animal ? Apart from his brother who's booking this shit I mean. And the whole "It was me all along" shit we're gonna get from Flair on Nitro the next night will only make things worse to me. This was a swerve as stupid as anything Russo did, and Animal showing up in the main event is just the rotten cherry on the shitty cake. Sid breaking his leg made the whole thing even more a trainwreck and in a way diverted from the booking atrocity that was the last two matches, but man, they killed their live audience with this shit. So, a really good first half and a really godawful last third. Vintage WCW.