El-P

WEEK 59 (February 14 to 19, 2000) Match of the week : Terry Funk vs Lex Luger (Nitro). Funk looks old when he's doing anything else but crazy brawling. Well, he does look old anyway, but working wrestling sequence with lex Luger in 2000 will not end up looking smooth. But this is the match of the week for a rather great looking spot. Luger gorilla pressing Funk through a table at ringside (both were on the floor). Looks great and done fluidly. Both work reasonnably hard until the screwjob and Funk being saved only thanks to Arn Anderson. Routine match of the week : Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair (Nitro). Nitro was running unopposed and went 3 hours with some big matches, this being obviously the biggest. This is every Hogan vs Flair match you've seen before, and as routine as it is, it works for the crowd. Flair avoids the pinfall loss thanks to Luger and Liz (who gets physical with Jimmy Hart). In a rather cool post-match, after Hogan chased everyone away and was doing his posing, Luger came back and attacked him from behind, and did pillmanize him too. All the casts wearing guy on the roster look a bit goofy, but at least they kept Luger strong during this run. Promo of the week : Lex Luger & Ric Flair uniting (Thunder). Good stuff from the veterans, much better than anything we have to suffer though from Jarrett who is getting the main event spot against Sid. Terry Funk interrupts them with Dustin, who says nothing and whom Terry Funk called a boy, looking kinda stupid in the process. This led to a decent match, but it's real clear than Funk is not getting over strong, and this show was in Philly. Dustin has been totally lost in the shuffle. Had a good interview facing Flair the previous week, but doesn't look and seem like anything special, and he's not getting over either at this point. Random title match of the week : Jim Duggan vs Robert Gibson (Saturday Night). FOr the TV title that Duggan found in the garbages. Well, at least there's some sort of twisted continuity, if they wanted to bring the title back in some capacity. The match is about as "good" as it sounds, but the interesting part is what follows : Steven Regal challenges Duggan to a career vs title match next week. Garbage match of the week : Big Vito vs Crowbar (Thunder). Crowbar & David Flair ruined a family reunion on Nitro, in a scene that was as stupid and goofy as anything Russo wrote. At least we get that kinda cool garbage match backstage, with the two workhorses of their respective teams. They bump onto cars, break some windshield and get some legumes thrown at them by Daffney. Don't ask, I don't know. This little feud as been totally watchable if you except a few vignettes by the Mamalukes. Funniest match of the week : 3-Count vs Norman Smiley & Lane (Nitro). No idea why Lane is tagging with Smiley. Handicap match, building to the 3-1 match at the PPV. I can watch 3-Count all day long. Some cool and funny stuff of course, but teh highlight comes from outside the ring, as Miss Hancock wants to prove to Lane & Idol that they don't know what they lost with her, so she let her hair loose and does a sexy dance routine on the announcers desk. Schiavone had the best seat in the house that night. Funniest spot is referee Charles Robinson staring at Hancock as she was walking away instead of going for the count. Awful segment of the week : Oklahoma chief of the woman's division (Nitro). This shit just wont end, so now we get Mona vs Ronda Singh in what could be a decent match, but all the focus gets on Oklahoma at ringside. Plus we get Madusa to ref the match, some rather big fuck ups and a bad finish involving Ferrera. Why is this guy still on TV ? Oklahoma is a channel changing character. The build for the PPV was marred by a really bad scene on top. Sullivan wanted to build up Sid for Goldie eventually, but Sid sucked on every level and couldn't draw flies if he was a giant shit. The fact he's feuding with freaking Jeff Jarrett who's badly been exposed as a guy who just shouldn't cut tough guy promos every week on TV makes things even more painfull. The cruiserweight tournament ended up being terrible, with Lash Leroux and The Artist being pushed to the final, both shitty workers and characters, when Kaz Hayashi has done nothing since he got signed. Even WWF did more with TAKA Michinoku, which doesn't say much. Vampiro vs Kidman is a flat feud, most notable for the fact Vamp got his old music theme back since the Misfits wanted to sue WCW for some shit. Hell, everyone was suing WCW at this point, Bobby Walker, Soony Oono, the luchadors... Scott Hall threatened to hurt Terry Taylor on Thunder so he was sent back home. The whole thing is just a giant clusterfuck. The two fun feuds on teh undercard are 3-Count vs Norman and the Mamalukes vs David/Crowbar. KISS Demon jobs hard. So does Kanyon, which I don't understand. They are promoting the DDP book now, his whole angle with Kim was seemingly dropped, but he isn't on TV anymore which I don't get either. The company is dying.

That's the first thing that came to my mind too. Watched way too much wrestling.

Fulton, without hesitation.

This is fascinating. Love it. Dustin Rhodes sure escaped some really awful gimmicks apparently. Stargarte Egyptian Dustin Rhodes ? Holy shit. I want to see the skteches for Jeff Jarrett's aztec outfit.

WEEK 58 (February 7 to 12, 2000) Angle of the week : Terry Funk threatens to destroy David Flair if Ric doesn't show up to fight him (Nitro). Very good angle. Terry and David are supposed to face in a I Quit match. Terry doesn't want to put David through this and calls out Ric, who doesn't show up. So the match takes place, after a few head bashing with a chair on Funk, David gets his ass kicked big time, with Terry piledriving him on the floor twice, including on concrete. WCW did a good job as they showed a video from the infamous Flair vs Funk rivalry in 1989 beforehand. Funk kept on calling out Ric during the match, to the point where he put David on a table at ringside and threatened to finish the kid if Ric didn't show up before the count of five. He counted five. Ric didn't show up. Terry acted disgusted and said he was gonna quit for this time and this time only. Terry was pretty great during all this. following the match, Arn Anderson cut a disguted promo too, saying all of this wasn't necessary but that Flair had to stop acting like Ric Flair and had to came down the ring for his son. As a result, he refuses to take side with this mess. Great segment. Shoot promo of the week : Scott Steiner going off on Ric Flair (Nitro). And this is really a shoot promo, Steiner basically went into business for himself, calling Flair a jealous bastard several times, mentionning clicking to WWF TV when he showed up on Nitro the previous week, mentionning Steve Austin being fired because of him, talking about Flair having stolen everything from Buddy Rogers but his class. That was pretty ugly yet pretty glorious. The result is that Flair confronted him on Thunder and Steiner apparently threatened Flair. Steiner got suspended. Great, the best heel in the company is gone from TV now. Second best promo / angle of the week : Lex Luger breaks Jimmy Hart's wrist (Nitro). What the hell happened this week ? Why all this good angles and promos all of a sudden ? Luger was really good here, luring Jimmy Hart into the ring for him to deliver a message to his friend Hulk Hogan, putting him over as a great mind in the business and making things happen backstage. Jimmy Hart wouldn't have none of that though, and cut a very good promo on Luger too. Ends up with Luger attacking Jimmy and pillmanizing his wrist. Seriously, this is what should have happened in the WWF in 1993, or at least in WCW in 1995 when Luger showed up. Luger was excellent as a total chickenshit heel during Russo's run, and he's still very good in his more serious role here. Some of his best work character wise. That Liz was as foxy as ever doesn't hurt the visuals. Match of the week : Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Hall (Thunder). These two have a smooth chemistry dating back from 1995 in the WWF. They work your minimal Thunder match, but it's still quite enjoying as it's pretty heated, and Jarrett gets the most out of his requisite sleeper spot. His Stroke finisher still looks awful though, no idea why he thought that was a good idea. This goes into Dog & Pony show with a Dusty finish, a crooked referee, a false finish and a run in from Sid. Nothing special, but rather fun. Jarrett and the Harris Boys are all what's left of the nWo at this point, Hall & Nash having turned babyfaces of sorts after Jarrett prevented Hall from winning the title from Sid on Nitro. C-show match of the week : Norman Smiley vs Shark Boy (Saturday Night). Yeah, Shark Boy in WCW. TNA can't be too far ahead. On Thunder, Flair was confronted by Dustin Rhodes about how he treated David, and they had a short on-the-fly match which ended by Flair pinning Dustin after a rolex shot. Mmmkay. I like the idea of Dustin fighting against his dad's old nemesis though, but the pinfall was unecessary. We're leading into a Flair & Luger faction against Hogan, Dustin Rhodes, Terry Funk. This is the best the company can do at the moment on top, sadly, but the promos and angles of this week have been really good, better than any other angles in months. The undercard looks pretty sad, to the point I wonder if Ferrera & Taylor are not responsible for most of this while Sullivan is concentrating on the main event scene. Norman Smiley vs 3-Count is the funny part of the card, while the Mamalukes vs Crowbar & David Flair is a decent enough tag team feud. The rest is going nowhere. Kidman really shows his limitations working with anyone else but great cruiserweights, as he's used as the new "workrate" guy. The whole Harlem Heat deal is really bad and turing worse with each week. Another awful segment on Nitro with Oklahoma being confronted by Madusa after bringing his plastic surgeon into the ring. Jeff Jarrett cutting the same boring promos every week and still dropping "chosen one" and "I'm the guy with the stroke around here" is awfully grating. Bobby Heenan works on the B & C shows now, and seems much better off with Tenay & Hudson than he was next to Schiavone. Madden already gets on my nerves.

He can be seen doing a few jobs on Nitro in 1998, to Luger and Booker T.

You really want my brain to fry. This is harrassment !!!

WEEK 57 (Januray 31 to February 05) Match of the week : Crowbar & David Flair vs Mamalukes (Nitro). Okay, the roster is thin and good wrestling few and far between, so I'll settle on this, a hardocre brawl between the Mamalukes and the insane goofballs. Big Vito & Crowbar carry the load, with Johnny the Bull delivering a few impressive athletic spots but also his share of sloppiness. Miss Hancock always shows up during these tag team matches, so there is problaly something being built for the former Standards & Practices now renamed simply Lane & Idol (back to their older yet much less flashy look). Either that or they just want to show the greatest looking legs ever on wrestling TV. Anyway, the viewer is the winner. Promo of the week : Terry Funk getting on Ric Flair's case (Nitro). Flair coming back on Nitro kinda never gets old, but Flair throwing the same lines and acting hysterical and senile kinda does actually. Terry Funk on the other hand, cuts his best promo since he debuted in the company, berating Flair and asking if he's gonna align with him against the nWo at the same time. A Flair vs Funk program in 2000 ? Why not. Sounds reasonnably fun to me. Flair gets a clear babyface reaction while Funk's is 50/50. Awkward erotic spot of the week : Hulk Hogan doing the worst atomic drop ever on Liz (Thunder). So, Hogan comes back on Thunder and slashes those "young punks acting like they are superstars" and the guys making a comedy out of his sport. COnsidering how many goofy shit Hogan did in WCW since he came around, this part of the promo is pretty hilarious. Anyway, Luger and Liz show up to confront Hogan, then a fake Sting (which is probably Dustin Rhodes) makes an eerie appearance to distract Luger, who almost gets attacked from behind by Hogan, always the consumate babyface. The infamous spot comes next. So, Liz tries to hit Hogan with the bat, Hogan counters and delivers a pretty awful looking atomic drop, which Liz doesn't sell at all, rolling from the ring to the outside. The story Hogan told is that Liz didn't wear panties that night, hence the way she took the spot. Now, since it's Hogan, we can assume this has at least a 70% chance of being bullshit to begin with. Now, looking at the way Liz immediately puts one hand behind her back and holds her skirt right against her legs during the whole spot, the way she doesn't stretch her legs at all and keeps them retracted, then the way she "bumps" or rather doesn't bump at all, there's a possibility this might be true. And since the idea of Liz not wearing panties under her leather skirt while she was carrying a baseball bat is a pretty terrific erotic fantasy, I'll give the Hulkster a pass. Anyway, the result is that it looked like a horrible looking spot, and Liz not selling Hulk's offense was pretty funny. Funny line of the week : "Well, it's better than Metal Music Machine by Lou Reed." Scott Hudson (Saturday Night), refering to 3-Count's hit single. I can't get enough of Tenay being outraged by the fact some of his colleagues actually don't mind the song. One shot of the week : DDP vs The Machine (Thunder). The Machine was a big masked guy whose work seemed ok. He got a rather big entrance with eerie music and lights. That would be his only match under the hood. It's pretty sad, because he looked much better than The Wall. He died in 2006 at 36, while The Wall died in 2003, at 36 also. Hey, I outlived both these guys. Good for me. Goofy angle of the week : Norman Smiley hides in the KISS Demon's casket and transforms into a KISS Demon himself. (Nitro). I think this speaks for itself. Stupid angle of the week : Booker T can't use the Harlem Heat entrance song and is deprived of his "T". (Nitro) Speaks for itself too. Although I can live with the music part, this is actually something that makes sense in term of legal bullshit some crooked lawyer would throw out. But the "T" ? So, Booker will feud with Big T over a letter. Beats a shampoo commercial though. Okay, so the big news is that Nash hurt something along the way, so Jeff Jarrett takes over as commissioner. Awww gawd... I enjoy Jarrett as a worker, but he's a mediocre promo at best, and cutting long ass tough guy promos just don't fit him at all, especially when Scott Steiner is standing right behind him. So we are going toward Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett at the next PPV. No wonder it drew shit. The two biggest matches are Hogan vs Luger (straight out of 1995) and Flair vs Funk (straight out of 1989). Nice. Beats anything Russo did except putting Bret & Benoit together, but since both these guys are gone now, what could Sullivan do ? His booking still sucks though, especially on top, where we get more Sid vs Harris Boys matches. The Harris boys officially joigned the nWo, making them the most useless members this side of Vincent and Stevie Ray. The tag team scene consist of the Mamalukes vs Crowbar/David, with Lane & Idol looking to get thrown in. The cruiserweight tournament is an afterthought, although we get some brackets now. Madusa wants a woman division, and we'll get Oklahoma to supervise it. Why is this guy still employed, still on TV and still in the booking commitee ? Sullivan's booking is bad enough at this point, we don't need this fucker to make it worse. The Kidman vs Vampiro feud wasn't hot enough, so they have to deal with The Wall now. This guy sucks, has no charisma and no mic skills. He's like Mr. Hughes without the amazing athletic ability. Meanwhile, Berlyn has all but vanished. He was getting heat and had good matches, I guess that was a bad thing. Okay, I'm glad Russo is gone, and the TV is a hundred times more watchable without him at the helm, but it's still bad, Sid on top is atrocious, this nWo redux is a miserabe failure. Oh, and Mark Madden took the place of Bobby Heenan this week. Heenan has been worthless for a long time now, but Madden... really... this is gonna be really awfull really quick.

He certainly ended up doing better than Umaga... But yeah, like rovert said I'm not convinced he would have done that much better in the WWE at the time he was hot in TNA. It was a long time ago now.

Hum... isn't it time to break up the "soap-opera" discussion elswhere ? Just sayin'...

WEEK 56 (January 24 to 29, 2000) Series of the week : Kidman vs Vampiro (Nitro & Thunder). They are running a babyface program between those two, with them showing respect for each others and working a clean style. Of course it's Kidman and Vamp, so the matches aren't that good, as both need someone to structure their match. Kidman especially is exposed working in this kind of singles match. Vamp had much more upward potential. The first match is notable for, once again, Kidman actually getting powerbombed ! Kidman wins on Nitro, Vamp wins on Thunder. Well, at least it's a fairly simple wrestling program based around winning matches, who's gonna complain. Torrie is back at ringside with Kidman. New WCW champion of the week : Sid Vicious (Thunder). They worked a clusterfuck of an angle on Nitro with Sid having to beat one Harris brother to get to Nash, but since he beat the "wrong" Harris brother, after a switcheroo, and used the banned powerbomb to boot, he doesn't get the belt and has to meet Nash & a Harris boy in a cage on Thunder. He finally wins by making Nash tap out to the crossface. All that was pretty damn horrible. I don't get why Sullivan thought it was a good idea. They are building Sid to meet Goldberg eventually. Hum... didn't they just had a blood feud that dirn't draw already ? Building a monster for a returning Goldberg was a nice idea, but Sid is a proven failure. Challenge of the week : Lex Luger mentionning Hulk Hogan (Nitro). Good promo by Luger that sounds exactly what his Narcissisct stuff should have been in 93. Mostly based around him and Sting, but at the end he mentions Hulk Hogan, who hasn't been part of WCW's TV since Halloween Havoc and the entire Russo run basically. Cruiserweight tournament match of the week : Kaz Hayashi vs Psychosis (Nitro). So apparently there's a tournament going on. And we don't have any brackets. Back to the basics !! It's scary how little they got out of Kaz Hayashi. He's doing the job to Psychosis, who's been the ultimate JTTS cruiserweight since 1996. Psych looks a bit sloppy also at times here. Very short match, no intros. This is not looking very interesting sadly, not a great effort to rebuild the cruiserweight division. The company is slowly structuring itself back. Flair shows up at the end of Thunder to applaud Sid Vicious. Sting makes a phantomatic apparition after a Luger match on Nitro. Luger is pillmanizing everyone hes' facing, or trying to at least, with Liz playing an active role. 3-Count are legit the funniest wrestling act I've seen in a long time, and Shannon & Shane just take ridiculous bumps for their opponents. My favourite part of the show every week. DDP vs Buff Bagwell seems over and done with. Not too much happening, things are going slow (which I guess is why the ratings tanked even worse than during Russo's run, but it was the right way to do things, taking the time to rebuild things).

The reason why I didn't cover them was because I'm the most familiar with them, but I also kept them on the side to eventually come back to the good stuff.

It is exactly what it is. Over the past few years, I've watched the entire TV product of both ECW, SMW and WCW (almost). The only logical follow-up for me should be to dwelve into TNA. Either that, or going into wrestling rehab.

The same.

I don't just watch entire shows. I watch entire seasons of bad wrestling shows, bitches.

Well, Borga was supposed to be a main-event player. I thought this made a big deal out of Tatanka finally getting beat. A proof that the streak gimmick always works well done right. Plus I thought Borga's hollier than thou almost neo-nazi gimmick worked well. Probably because that's what Tony Halme was in real life...

WEEK 55 (January 17 to 22, 2000) Match of the week : DDP vs Kanyon. (Thunder). Russo is out and wrestling is back. How surprising ? Good TV match between the former Triad members. I'm definitely not crazy about the Champagne gimmick. These are two of the best guy in the company to have a smooth, all action match, with nice nearfalls at the end. And so they have. DDP and Kim seems to get along quite well here, after some bizarre happening on Nitro where Kim had to referee a DDP vs Bagwell match which ended when Kim tried to push Buff from behind but got hit accidentaly in the process. DDP still finds new cool way to apply the Diamond Cutter, which never cease to amaze me. Title change of the week : Mamalukes win the tag team titles from David Flair & Crowbar (Thunder). I enjoy Flair & Crowbar more than I thought I would, mostly because I like Devon Storm, and David Flair is improving a bit (couldn't get any worse anyway). Big Vito carries his team, as Johnny the Bull really is nothing more than an athletic spot machine at this point. Disco is quite funny at the booth, not really supporting his team then taking all the credit when they win the titles. Random appearance of the week : Sherri Martel jumping on Madusa (Thunder). I had no idea Sherri showed up in WCW that late. Oklahoma forfeited the title because he's no cruiserweight, but Madusa challenged him to defend his title against her when Sherri jumped her from behind. Nothing match followed, but it was cool to see Sherri back. Opening match of the week : Kidman vs Psychosis (Nitro). Let's open ur wrestling TV show with a wrestling match, how crazy does that sound ? And a cruiserweight match to boot, with actual cruiserweight, no intergender bullshit, no heavyweight showing up to interfere, just two cruiserweight having a fun little match together. I'm so glad Russo is gone the product looks like the best thing ever in comparison, really. Funniest moments of the week : Mike Tenay being disgusted at 3-Count (every show). Tenay just hates 3-Count and makes his feelings really clear to everyone. He's actually really funny showing real anger at this crap. 3-Count are awesome, getting thrown around by Luger or Norman Smiley, trying to dance after their match while still selling the beating they usually get. Fun stuff. How refreshing that was to get actual wrestling this week, with no crash TV bullshit, no women beating, no shoot interviews and no dozen WWF references. It's crazy how much getting rid of Russo immediately improved the TV a million time. Sure, there is still crap around, but it's so cool to get a normal wrestling show that I really enjoyed it more than I probably should. Kevin Nash acting like the big shot commissioner and having the whole roster in the ring listening to his bullshit was too long and not as funny as Nash probably thought it was, but it had the feel of a new beginning after the months of Russo crap. I know, it won't last, sadly. Also, the roster looks pretty depleted at this point, and WCW doens't look at all like the all-star company it once was. Crowd still chants Goldberg though. He was their only star. Sulli had not much to work with. Sid, Sting & DDP were the biggest active name on the babyface front, Nash & Scott Steiner on the heel front, although Steiner still had never been pushed to the top of the card. Not a pretty picture.

Oups, sorry. I type too quickly. Yeah, Spice, valet of Madusa. Now that was some twosome.

PPV 13 : Souled Out 2000 "What if ?" main event of the night : Chris Benoit vs Sid Vicious. They sure made it seem like a big deal. Grand intros by Michael Buffer, the entire locker room emptying to watch the match, and the emotionnal interview after the match backstage. The match itself is not much, because Sid has so little to offer, but the intent of Sullivan was pretty clear I thought, and Benoit getting paranoid seems a little bit out of touch, really in retrospect. I wonder what would have happened had he stayed in WCW. The next program was obviously gonna be him vs nWo (well, Nash & Scott Steiner I would guess, since Jarrett would not have gone to the top of the card without Russo). I wish he had stayed. Maybe things would have turn out different, on every level... Match of the night : DDP vs Buff Bagwell. Not a big surprise, as DDP excels in carrying inferior workers. They brawl in the stand for a while before getting back in the ring, and they do quite a nice job with the last man standing gimmick. DDP clearly is the one keeping teh pace and the intensity up. Intriguing finish with DDP putting the Diamond Cutter on Buff, but ends up being counted anyway because Buff used a riot baton to counter the spot. Also, Kim showed up at the very end but her attitude stays rather ambiguous. Honorable mention of the night : Vampiro vs David Flair vs Crowbar. More a two on one than a real thriple threat, but since David and Crowbar are insane they do get at each other at some points. Surprisingly enjoyable, with Vamp having to deal with the two nutsacks and getting some good babyface reactions. Spotty match, of course, but a rather fun one. Comical match of the night : Dean Malenko vs Kidman in a "Catch as catch can, no escape" match. Dean Malenko steps out of the ring, he loses. The confusion was pretty funny. Probably a subconscious decision of walking out of this ridiculous company. Slaughter of the night : Terry Funk vs Kevin Nash. This would be the fourth "garbage" match of the night, counting Kidman vs Saturn (which was a "Bunkhouse match"), the Hardcore championship match (which was as bad as it always is) and Kidman vs The Wall (in a Hell in the Cell-like cage, with a bunch of chairshot and stuff, really bad match too BTW). Nash powerbombs Funk through the announcers' table right from the start. Funk bleeds a lot. Lot of chairshot to the head. This shouldn't happen. "Feminist" match of the night : Oklahoma vs Madusa. I'm just kidding, but at least Ferrara basically got his ass kicked, and despite winning the title by slipping on a banana peel (and taking down Madusa's "trunks", she was wearing womething underneath of course), he was totally humiliated during the post-match by Madusa, Spice and Asya, so I guess it's a reasonnable payback. The PPV wasn't good, although DDP vs Bagwell and the Thriple Threat were fun. Too much shit already booked on the show to get anything from it. Harris Boys suck, Saturn vs Kidman was a heatless spot show (only notable for the fact that Saturn POWERBOMBED KIDMAN !!!), Stevie Ray vs Booker T was pretty bad too and we get the debut of Ahmed Johnson, with some extra pounds. It's worth noting though, that it felt like a pro-wrestling show for the first time in months, with very few distracting bullshit happening outside of your usual pro-wrestling bullshit. That was refreshing to say the least. If Benoit & Eddie had not left, maybe Sulli could have done something with them, he sure put the belt directly on Benoit (the finish was brillant in that he covered his ass in case Benoit would not accept to stay, with Sid's leg touching the rope just seconds after he tapped out, so you could argue he was already under the rope when he was put into the hold). Of course barely anyone saw the PPV, so it wouldn't have helped that much, but with Benoit leaving, Bret hart being done and Goldberg being out, Sulli was left with no-one on top. Since he was already burned out and knew WCW was a sinking ship, I can understand he went back to Hogan and Flair, after all, they had been their biggest draws ever. The company was doomed, Russo had destroyed what was left of it after the Nash run.

This is random as all hell. Vampiro ? New Jack ???

I can't believe the last Sullivan run is worse than what I just went through. Even if he didn't give a shit anymore. Even if he had Ferrara with him. We'll see. I have no problem believing the last Russo stint can be worse though, which scares the hell out of me. That's what I thought watching it. Snuka is a wonderful human being.

WEEK 54 (January 10 to 15, 2000) Career ending match of the week : Bret Hart vs Kevin Nash (Nitro). The last match of Bret's career, effectively. Him and Nash always work well together, so it's actually a pretty good TV match, sadly it ends up in a big schmozz with Arn Anderson attacking Nash with a crowbar, then Terry Funk burning him up with his flaming branding iron. Bret is trapped with Sid in a cage and gets powerbombed. Sad ending to a great career. Idiotic swerve of the week : Bret Hart denounces the nWo (Thunder). None of this makes any sense. Bret was forced by the commissionner to face Nash on Nitro, but here he cuts a promo like th other nWo guys actually did something to him. Serious WTF moment. Bret is apologetic and disgusted, but the crowd barely buys into it. Then the nWo threatens him, and kidnaps him backstage to "torture him" (Russo loved kidnapping, obviously), but in the end it was a swerve and Bret is still a member of the nWo. Whatever. This is so insanely stupid. On the pole match of the week : Kanyon vs Bam Bam Bigelow in a champaign on a pole match (Thunder). Wel, at least it's a good little match, they wrestler and don't care that much about the pole. Post-match, Lex Luger dressed as Sting comes down the ring and attacks Bam Bam (why ???), but then the lights go off and we see a crow on the ropes. Luger leaves, freaking out (same thing happened the previous week on Nitro). And finally Kanyon breaks the bottle of champaign on Bam Bam. Promo of the week : Kimberly (Thunder). Good interview adressing the issue between DDP and Buff Bagwell. Kim is actually very good here, staying ambiguous enough. Mene Gene sounds like a comple tabloid weasel though, asking her about how things are going in the bedroom and such. This angle finally works because DDP and surprisingly Buff did a good job on Nitro too with their confrontation segment. Buff denies he was hitting on Kim, but DDP doesn't want to believe him. Buff is still playing babyface at this point, depsite acting rather heelish during his first promo of this angle. Embarrassing angle of the week : The Old Age Outlaws (Nitro). Yeah, the big babyface front in WCW consists of Terry Funk, Arn Anderon, Larry Zbyszko and Paul Orndorff, calling themselves by a WWF referential name (which is already dated too, the New Age Outalws were hot in 1998). This is truly bad. Ornorff looks especially old and dated. At least Zbyszko adressed the fact that 2000 didn't mean a new century, which was nice. But anyway, this is bad. More hasbeen matches of the week : George Steele, Tito Santana & Jimmy Snuka vs Jeff Jarrett (Nitro) Wonderful idea. More old WWF guys (Snuka is the only one who has any link with the old WCW territory). Santana looks particulary bad. Snuka does his jump from the top of teh cage, followed by Chris Benoit, who for the fourth time in one month had to execute this ridiculously dangerous bump on fee TV for nothing. Yeah, Russo really took care of Benoit's career... Funny line of the week : "Is that a dance or a seizure ?" Mike Tenay, about Three Count dancing. (Saturday Night). Three Count are great and provide a thousand joke opportunities. This is it. After heavily building Bret and Jarrett for the PPV, neither of them could be there, Bret because of his concussion that effectively ended his career, Jarrett because of injuries I would guess came from the stupid cage match on Nitro (what the hell, I'll blame it anyway). The build to the PPV was terrible anyway, with only one match having been built decently in DDP vs Buff Bagwell. The whole Harlem Heat deal falling apart because of Midnight and Revolution having issues with Asya (yeah, those damn skanks again, damn those bitches hoes, uh ?) is fast forward material. Then you get the awful Oklahoma vs Madusa match which saw way too much woman humiliation for me to call it entertaining on any level. And seriously, this is a point I want to make, I'm honestly really put off by the insame amount of woman abuse, verbal or physical, that I have to go through during this show. It's not even one time a week or per show, it's actually 3 to 5 time per show that a woman gets beat up, insulted, molested or humiliated in some way. It's *really* offputting and actually quite creepy. Even in ECW at its worst it wasn't that bad. Add the fact it was done on a mainstream TV show, and really I was getting uncomfortable watching this at times. Russo has a fucking severe issue with women. In fact, women abuse is what is the most prevalent in Russo's booking along with making WWF references. The third element he uses the most is "shoot" comments, promos or angle. Well, since he couldn't use Bret against Sid on PPV, he wanted to put the belt on Tank Abott (who has been nothing short of unwatchable thus far, in any form or fashion). That idea didn't cut the mustard, Russo was sent home, and the booking went back to Sullivan (who knew the sink was already sinking), Taylor and Ferrara (no idea why they kept this idiot). This would of course make Benoit, Eddie, Dean & Saturn leave, for fear they would not get pushed anymore by Sulli, which in retrospect seems amazing to me. I can understand Benoit being weary, but the first thing Sullivan did to make him stay was put the freaking belt on him. But the really mind-blowing part to me is, these guys really enjoyed the way Russo treated them ? Sure, Benoit was pushed more than he was before, but he was also put in really dangerous situation every week on free TV. And the other three ? The Revolution vs Filthy Animals is hands down the worst feud any of these three was ever involved with in WCW, and it was just a mid-card feud with zero upward potential. Not that Saturn or Dean had any upward potential anyway, they are midcard performers. The Douglas case is interesting, as he also wanted to go to WWF, but since he was banged up and had burned his bridges, they weren't so interested in him (which is pretty stupid, even banged up, he had much more to offer than either Dean or Saturn to be honest, if only as a mic guy). Anyway, the first Russo stint is over. It's been worse than I remembered it to be. Just awful TV. Didn't help the ratings, killed the PPV buyrates more than before and fucked up the entire company. The most amazing, mind fucking blowing thing to me is why in the hell did they call him back a few months later after his catastrophic stint ? Oh, WCW... Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 21 Swerves : 9 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 20 On-a-pole matches : 4 WWF references : 37 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 34 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 28

Snuka, probably.

It's very good. Waltman is a consistently good guest.

Probably since Hall's last match was in January I believe. WEEK 53 (January 03 to 08, 2000) Debut of the week : Terry Funk is the new commisioner (Nitro). I love Terry Funk, but he gave a rambling promo that just didn't get over at all. His new enforcer is Arn Anderson. Cool, a retired guy with a bad neck who can't wrestle anymore. Long ass exchange with the nWo, with fake intensity all over. Whiner gimmick of the week : The "Standarts and Practices" gimmick (Nitro). So, Lenny & Lodi are now Standarts & Practices. Because you see, the only reason Vince Russo isn't setting WCW on fire is because of the TBS guys who are censuring his product. I still can't figure exactly in what ways S&P has hurt his wonderful ideas thus far. Oh, and there's Stacy Keibler in an über short miniskirt (I won't complain) and she's names Miss Hancock. Get it ? Anyway, they show up and cover Leia Meow, much to the boos of the audience. Varsity Clubs are heels, but I guess it doens't fucking matter what kind of response you get from the crowd. "Match of the week" : Konnan & Kidman vs David Flair & Crowbar (Thunder). Yeah, we've came to that point where the "match of the week" involves David Flair & Konnan. Flair & Crowbar won the tag titles on Nitro thanks to Terry Funk. This is watchable when Devon Storm is in the ring. Of course it ends with a screwjob when Arn Anderson shows up, all fucked up (he's been "tortured" for three days by the nWo, I kid you not) and helps his godson to win the match, using a crowbar. Daphney looks hot. That's about it. Stupid match of the week : Bret Hart vs Terry Funk (Thunder). Bret is working with a concussion, the one given by a Goldie superkick at Starrcade. And it's a hardcore match. Wonderful idea. Terry does his moonsault, kills himself, then Bret bashes him with an unprotected chair shot to the head. Better Funk than him I guess. Then nWo beatdown like it's 1997, then David Flair dressed as a referee stopped by Kevin Nash. Nonsense, boredom. Daphney taking a bump that the camera misses. Then Kevin Nash powerbombing Terry Funk through the Thunder set like he's Bischoff in 1996. I want to cry. Actual match of the week : David Flair & Crowbar vs Steven Regal & Dave Taylor (Saturday Night). Yeah, this is much better than the Thunder match, but it still involves David Flair. Regal & Taylor are stuck on the C-show, but at least they can wrestle a bit without having to take part in horrible angles and stupid skits. This is nice enough when Crowbar is in the ring, I enjoy his Sabuesque style quite a bit. Taylor beating on David is quite watchable too. The first week of tv in 2000 has been *unwatchable*. Despite the debut of Terry Funk and the fact Nitro is only 2 hours, it may have been the worst wrestling TV I've seen thus far, a new low for Russo. Just godawful. More kidnappings, more woman abuse, more nWo lame rehashed angle, the worst tag team tournament ever with 1 minute matches with shitloads of run-ins and bullshit, shitty angles galore. If I didn't know Russo would get fired in two weeks, I would probably throw the towel right now. Back then I already had thrown the towel, as I remember seeing the Bret vs Terry Funk match but none of the other stuff of the last few weeks. The last WCW match I watched as it happened was a tag match with Hogan, Flair, Hennig & Luger in February or March, I was channel flipping or something. In the last decade I went though some 2000 & 2001 WCW PPV's that I downloaded. All of this to say that as of now, I'm not familiar with the TV product at all, it's basically all new (although I have notions of the main angles since I've seen most of the PPV's I believe). I'm fearing for what's left of my brain... Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 20 Swerves : 8 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 18 On-a-pole matches : 3 WWF references : 34 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 31 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 27