El-P

DAY 0 (March 26, 2001) Death of WCW : Vince McMahon on Nitro : "I just bought my competition". The most surrealistic moment in modern wrestling history, Vince opening Nitro. Match of the night : Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman vs Kid Romeo & Elix Skipper. The tag match involving Team Canada was pretty nice too, but really, and as said Tony Schiavone, the cruiserweights is what separated WCW from all the other promotions, so this gets the nod. Promo of the night : Ric Flair. Chilling, intense, great promo from Flair, talking about the history of WCW going back to the NWA and the days when Vince McMahon Sr. was on the commitee who voted him as the world champion. Flair says that McMahon can't hold their lives in his hands. Sadly, he could. But this promo was exactly what the invasion angle should have been, Flair leading WCW against Mr. McMahon. But before the night was over, all would be forgotten. Classy tribute of the night : DDP adressing and thanking the WCW fans. That was cool, Page out of character (well, which means he was still in character in a way) thanking the fans (and his wife) for allowing him to become a wrestling star despite being told he would never make it. Inspirational speach from Page. Sign of the night : "Vince 1st XFL, now WCW, you're a dumbass" I laughed. Tribute match of the night : Sting vs Ric Flair. Flair is wearing a Nitro T-shirt because he got fat. This is every Sting vs old Flair match. The post-match was cut short so we didn't get to hear Schiavone and Hudson say goodbye, which sucked. You can feel the emotion was genuine during the night, as most of these guys really didn't know what would happen with their jobs, and it was the end of a long story they lived through together. Death of WCW Invasion angle : Shane McMahon has bought WCW before Vince. (Raw) So there we go. Long winded promo by Vince which reminded me why I didn't care for what the WWF format had become (the same format they're using to this day), with some funny parts like the "up/down" stuff. Scott Steiner and Goldberg got the two biggest pop. Wonder why. It was also striking to see Raw in a huge building like Nitro used to be up until early 99. The second striking thing is to hear Paul Heyman on commentary, a reminder that ECW has died too a few months before. Anyway, Shane shows up on Nitro, and the entire angle is all about the McMahon name. The ego stroking has begun. Flair wouldn't be around for the angle. Nor Sting. Nor Scott Steiner. Nor Goldberg. Nor even Rey Mysterio Jr. The following week, Wrestlemania X7 would happen, with the anticlimatic Steve Austin heel turn, putting an effective end to those glory days of pro-wrestling that started with the Monday Night Wars in the second half of the 90's. ECW was dead. WCW was dead. WWF was the only promotion in town, with no competition left. Game over. And the long road to stagnation, post-modern corporate sports-entertainment, revisionnism history (as always, written by the winners) and nostalgia shows could begin. I began this project exactly nine months ago. You could say I got pregnant with shitty wrestling and I delivered 27 months worth of reviews of the worst, most painfull, booking fuck up you could think of. In 1998 WCW was still making shitloads of money. They had found a golden goose in Goldberg. They chopped its head off at the end of the year, and began 1999 with the two worst possible ideas imaginable : the Fingerpoke of Doom and directing their audience toward the competition. Since January 1999 it's only been a downward spiral. At no point the promotion could have been called good. Kevin Nash's booking was awful, a lot worse than I remembered it to be. But I still believe the company was salvageable when he was demoted. Of course they made the worse choice possible, and Vince Russo was soon exposed as the worse booker/writer (whatever you want to call it) ever, showing a total lack of understanding of what the WCW audience wanted, and of every basics of the business of pro-wrestling. His "writing" quickly made Nash's shit look like Riki Choshu booking New Japan in the early to mid 90's. After his first stint, it was done. A tired Kevin Sullivan having to work with a depleted roster couldn't save the day. Hulk Hogan and his creative control fucked the company a hundred time over too during the past two years, and he was still an egoistical, destructive asshole at this point. The second Russo stint is just the worse, eye gouging stuff I have ever seen. The kind of stuff that would make anyone hate pro-wrestling. The long, painfull road until he was removed nearly made me go crazy watching so much stupid shit. And by then, it was all too late, especially since the remaining booking team quickly showed their own incompetence by still not understanding that Goldberg was the *only* saving grace of the promotion. Of course by then it was too late anyway, and the promotion had been doomed for a long long time. And if Bischoff had bought it instead of Vince, hindsight shows it would have turned into Hogan-era TNA. So yeah, WCW deserved to go under, because of the upmost incompetence of the people who ran it into the dust. It's a pretty pathetic story. And when you think of how Vince McMahon screwed up the WCW Invasion, it's only poetic justice because when you think about it, the whole angle was fucked up in a way only WCW itself could have fucked it up. I'm done. The pleasure wasn't all mine. And BTW, one last time : fuck you to Kevin Nash, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, and especially fuck you so much Vince Russo. I'm really done this time. FUCK YEAH !

Nein. Hey, I have gone through 27 months of WCW bullshit in 9 months, cut me some slack will you ! I deserve to get laid. Now. Final episode later tonight. (I can't believe I *actually* went through this)

I don't have the Worldwide 2001 shows on my hard-drive. And really, I couldn't care less at this point. I'm doing the last Nitro later tonight and I'm done. Nine months exactly after my first post !!!!

WEEK 115 and last week of WCW TV (March 19 to 21, 2001) Match of the week : Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo & Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman & Shane Helms. (Thunder) Good stuff involving the fresh cruiserweight talent mixed in with the godfather of the genre, Rey Jr., and Chavo who has become the most solid worker of the division over the last months. Despite the grand intro, Helms really isn't over yet. Kid Romeo definitly had the most potential of the young guys. Cool dive sequences. This was what the cruiserweight division was all about and why WCW looked so different five years earlier. Idiotic angle of the week : Ric Flair has to kiss a donkey's ass. (Nitro) What would a WCW TV show be without a really stupid angle, and most preferably a Ric Flair humiliation ? So here we go, Dusty Rhodes brings a donkey with "Dusty's ass" written on its rear end, and Flair ends up with his face rubbed in it. ECW match of the week :Jason Jett vs Cash. (Thunder) After EZ Money, now Kid Kash shows up on WCW TV, and they get the ECW chants. These were two of my favourites late ECW performers, so I enjoyed this both as a match itself and a cool hommage to that other little promotion that could and went down a few weeks before. Random match of the week : Kanyon & Road Warrior Animal vs The Cat & MI Smooth. (Thunder) Ah, the old "random pairings" that only WCW (and WAR) could deliver. Really, this is Ernest Miller, Mortis, Animal & Ice Train in the last ever real WCW TV show, how glorious is that ? Animal looks like The Missing Link these days, and his work is nearly as bad. Promo of the week : Eric Bischoff announcing the Night of Champions.(Nitro) So, I understand that WCW already had been cancelled by then, as they already talked about the "season finale" for both the following Nitro and Thunder, and Bischoff deal had fell through because of it. It's surreal to think none of these guys (expect the one who cut the deal…), knew what would happen at the end of the week and what the last show would actually reveal. Anyway, Bischoff invites any former WCW champion to show up. Last real WCW TV match ever : Scott Steiner & Jeff Jarrett vs Dustin Rhodes. (Thunder) Yes, I consider this the real last WCW match since the following week was already a WWF broadcast in a way. After the end of the show, they showed a picture of the crew with a big Thanks graphic, which I thought was a nice touch. So there it is. Thunder was a pretty good show thanks to the cruiserweight matches and the random tag, but you can see the crowd is sitting on their hands. There's a sense of sadness when Tony talks about the season finale and when you see the picture of the crew, really it's already over. WCW was a messy promotion, but it brought a lot of really good stuff over the years. Well, before 1999 I mean. One last stop before the end.

Yes, that's the angle, with Stasiak's publicity shots. PPV 27 (fuck yeahhhhhhhh!!!!!) : Greed 2001 Match of the night : DDP vs Scott Steiner. There you go, the last ever WCW PPV main event, and DDP surely deserves to get the shot. And once again, he delivered, having Steiner's best match since his the Booker feud. Since a "falls count anywhe" stip had been added at the last moment, they worked a bit of garbage brawling stuff early on, but didn't go overboard with it. Then they basically stayed inside the ring and had a very solid, well built match, leading to one false finish interrupted by Rick Steiner (which sucks, since Midajah was here to do the job). Page was all bloodied at the end, although I'm not sure if this wasn't hardway, but it only made the finish look better. Good job guys. Hot opener of the night : Kwee-Wee vs Jason Jett. Bonus match which launched the PPV on the right track. Fairly exciting match, and Jason Jett's offense is quickly winning him the support of the fans. I got a kick out of Jimmy Hart giving him a rip-off of his ECW theme song too. Jimmy rules. Build to the future match 1 : Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman vs Kid Romeo & Elix Skipper. Good stuff. Skipper is a bit sloppy at times, but Romeo is holding things together on the heel side. The fact that he pinned Rey clean made it a very satisfying end to a strong cruiserweight match. Exactly what the new cruiser tag-team division needed for a good, exciting start. Build to the future match 2 : Shane Helms vs Chavo Guerrero Jr. Helms gets the supertar entrance, and he's got a new look with classic wrestling tights. The audience didn't get into this match, I would presume because Chavo built a slower-paced bout with more emphasis on actual wrestling instead of doing a spotfest. They even chanted "boring" at one point, which is infuriating since the match was very good. Anyway, Helms wins the belt with his dangerous finisher. Once again, exactly what the promotion needed. Grudge match of the night : Kanyon vs The Cat. Kanyon's got a new theme song too, which sounds good although I always loved his classic one. He also gets a new entrance coming from under the stage a-la Gangrel. They sure put some real effort here to make things look fresh and important. Good match again, with Kanyon's bumping being always impressive. His new character is a sociopath, we get it, kinda like a newer version of heel Jake Roberts. Post match sees a run in by MI Smooth to save Miss Jones from another beating. Random match of the night : Lance Storm & Mike Awesome vs Konnan & Hugh Morrus. Not much heat early on, but Team Canada always manages to get some at some point. Hey, Hugh Morrus and Konnan together like it's 1997 again, and here they look exactly like the two JTTS they were during the Dungeon of Doom days. Tough luck for Konnan, who'd have been better off doing the announcing during the Filthy Animals match. Decent little match. Better than expected match of the night : Jeff Jarrett & Ric Flair vs Dustin & Dusty Rhodes. Jeff vs Dustin was good, Flair, in street clothes, basically chopped, punched and sold, and Dusty only came in to drop elbows and do some comedy dual spots. So yeah, it was a lot of fun actually. When Dusty dropped his pants down Flair went crazy, leading to the best line of the night bu Scott Hudson : "Flair sold the underwear !" Squash of the night : Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire vs Totally Buffed. Ten seconds match and double pin by O'Haire & Palumbo. I have no idea why this happened, but it sure put the young team over strong and prevented a bad match from happening, so I'm cool with this. Failed build to the future match of the night : Sean Stasiak vs Bam Bam Bigelow. Wow, they put a lot of effort to get Stasiak over. Introduction by Stacy, brand new music and tights and brand new bad haircut. The guy still shows no improvement in the ring though, and no charisma nor promo skills. Stacy looks like she's channeling Sunny, and it's obvious she would have gone over strong, letting the guy in the dust. And really, this gimmick was Meat 2.0, since the idea is that despite Stasiak calling himself the Mecca of Manhood, she's wearing the pants and controlling him. Bam Bam doesn't do much anymore. I appreciate the idea of producing a brand new single heel though, but Stasiak just wasn't the right guy. Bad match of the night : Rick Steiner vs Booker T. Hey, what did you expect ? Plus they re-did the exact same finish than on TV, with Booker winning thanks to Shane Douglas sneaking up. Well, that was a pretty damn good send-off for WCW PPV's, as this one probably was the best of the last 27 months. How ironic. Plus it showed a true will to actually do what should have been done back in 1998 : build the new talents up by giving them time, solid matches, wins that mattered and a production effort. All of that was there, they did more to elevate new talents here than they ever did in the past four years. In a way it's sad that it finally happened just before the end, but on the other way with Bischoff buying the company, we know what it would have meant eventually : Hogan coming back and WCW turning into what TNA became. So yeah, as it is, it was a really fun PPV to watch, with very few bad stuff really and some really strong and fun matches. The fact that it had Flair vs Rhodes for a last ride on PPV was kinda cool too. So there you go, you couldn't expect a much better PPV, especially considering how not-so-good the TV had been.

That's glorious. I believe Dwayne Johnson would be perfect to play The Rock.

I don't remember in which interview I heard it, but basically the guy said "If Vince McMahon wants to get something over, he'll get it over." And it's pretty much it. Look at HHH. It took years and years of push, feeding him the biggest star of the new golden days and being paired with the boss' daughter, but eventually he got over. 2001 WCW was not the promotion that had killed WWF in the ratings, but still, people remembered what WCW used to be, and if they only got Flair, Steiner (I mean Scott), Booker T, DDP, Konnan, Jarrett & Dustin (who were a known WWF figure too) from the get go with the support of guys like Awesome, Storm and a few cruiserweights that were "stars" like Rey & Kidman, with an agressive booking a-la nWo, of course it would have worked. And you could have make it last and bring up guys like they eventually did anyway with the nWo, Goldie and such. Yeah, even when looking at what WCW had become, to me it's obvious it would have worked because everything is a matter of perception. The nWo worked with three people "invading" a promotion and wrecking havoc. WCW lead by Flair with the figureheads of DDP, Steiner & Booker on top supported by other cast members was enough to make it work, because it was fresh, and no matter what, watching WCW guys showing up on WWF TV was surreal in itself. There was so much that could have been done too with Jarrett & Dustin, disgruntled former WWF employees (not to mention Shane Douglas), X-Pac rejoigning the original nWo, the Radz getting thrown in the mix as "the guys who betrayed WCW" etc... The one thing that mattered was the will to do business and not stroke your ego. From the very first day, it was all about the McMahon name. The failure was already in the concept as early as the last Nitro.

Thanks Loss.

WEEK 114 (March 12 to 14) Mystery of the week : Who attacked Midajah ? (Nitro) Midajah was back with the Mag 7, but she was mysteriously attacked and Steiner suspects one of the Mag 7 is responsible. Well, this was different. The good idea is that instead of using the infamous "invisible camera", which is an atrocious device, they used a camcorder Flair was using to film a "documentary" about himself for all those sequences. And for other backstage stuff, they only used "security cameras" (with sound), which I thought was pretty neat too. Couple of the week : Sean Stasiak & Stacy Keibler (Nitro). Since Stasiak shows no personnality nor charisma and yet they want to push him as a single star, they put him with Keibler, who carried a crib to the ring. And when she wanted to show her new baby, she introduced Stasiak. This was pretty embarrassing, and Stasiak just sucks on the mic and as a character, really. So, no word on who the father of the baby was after all. The crib was empty, Bam Bam showed up because they insulted fat guys with tatoos in the crowd. Bammer is supposed to get this guy over. Good luck. Meanwhile, poor Mark Jindrak seems to be forgotten while Mike Sanders teams with Disco. Match of the week : Jung Dragons vs Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo (Nitro). The usual deal. Fun, but nothing special really. Rey & Kidman had the same kinda match with 3-Count on Thunder. Maniac of the week : Kanyon concussing MI Smooth (Nitro). So, MI Smooth is all fucked up from the limo incident the previous week, but he still wants to fight Kanyon, who just punches him repeatedly in the head then delivers several hard chair shots. MI Smooth sells like a zombi and they make it seem like Kanyon is a complete sociopath. I guess Smooth was supposed to finally get used as a regular in the ring after this angle as a babyface. The use of the camera devices backstage was at least fresh, but the TV is pretty dreadfull still, with a really shitty Rick Steiner big match on every show. Animal has been pretty nonexistent after all, way to throw money at your brother and get him a paycheck to basically do nothing. Flair & Jarrett vs the Rhodes is a kiss-my-ass match now. Wonderful. The tag title match and the Team Canada stuff seem like an aftertought, with much emphasis being put on the cruiserweights which is nice thing. The build to this last PPV has been marginally better than the previous one, but the TV is still pretty sad to watch. This is a company waiting to die here, there's nothing dynamic left, much like during the last months of ECW. Ironically enough, the only "saving grace" of both dying products were the tag-team cruiserweight matches and Jason Jett (EZ Money) (and both had a Dusty Rhodes PPV match too during their last year). Let it be over now with the last hope of a fun show being the last ever WCW PPV.

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.