El-P

They probably had. Time to get the rumour flying (that Savage stuff is so mid-00's).

If not Rikishi drinving the Hummer, then who ? If not Savio Vega at No Way Out, then who ? If not HHH in Stephy's pussy, then who ? (the answer is clearly not Randy Savage, people, anyone responding that one would be banned) If not Vince Russo back in WCW in April 2000, then anyone else.

Only HHH would know about that.

Thanks for the laugh.

From Leilani Kai shoot interview, which was quite interesting : Moolah was a piece of crap. Not exactly a newsbreak, but damn that woman was an asshole. Sherri and Luna were great human beings. Cool story about training for 5 weeks before her big match with Chigusa Nagayo, whom she calls "Chico" during the interview ! Hates Vince Russo and totally goes off on him in a hilarious way like she was possessed by Jim Cornette. Moolah was a piece of crap (although she never says it that bluntly, but that's why you get out of hearing all those stories about manipulating young girls, taking their money and making sure they don't make it big).

WEEK 52 (December 27 to 31, 1999) Promo of the week : Scott Steiner's retirement (Nitro). Before the match we get a cool Steiner Brothers tribute video which looked legit and classy. Then the Steiners comes out to their old music theme, Rick wheeling Scott to the ring. The story is that Scott has to get under the knife for his vertebraes issues, and is forced to retire. Walks painfully with a cane and wears a back brace. Rick helps him into the ring and hugs him, again really looks legit. The promo itself is pretty terrific and emotional, with Scott stuttering a bit and not getting the words out very well. He kinda overdoes the crying bit, but all in all it's the best promo I've seen in months. Then the nWo shows up and chases him anway, Bret being particulary good as being an asshole. That could have been a great babyface turn angle for Steiner actually, as the crowd eats this shit up. Swerve of the week : Scott Steiner is not retiring and is still an nWo member (Nitro). So, Scott painfully walks toward the ring with a bat to avenge his humiliation. But of course he turns on Sid, gets rid of the brace and unveils an nWo T-shirt. Gets rather big heat for WCW in late 99, which shows that Steiner should be the N°1 heel guy in the company yesterday. Then we get a beatdown, Sid trapped into his car which gets run over by a monstertruck. Yeah, so it turned into complete crap in a hurry. Great news of the week : Nitro goes back to 2 hours in 2000 !!!!. Long time overdue. This 3 hours Nitro booked first by Nash then by Russo was the kiss of death of the show. The Outsiders have been stripped of the tag titles, as Scott Hall isn't showing up again. Smells like the end for the guy, he would only be there for a few more weeks. So we get a stupid Lethal lottery to determine new tag team champions, with Asya & Midnight tagging along men and makeshift tag team that don't get together. So there it is. What a year. The year that should have been spent to rebuild the company around Goldberg and push some of the most over fresh mid-card talent like Jericho, Benoit, Raven, Big Poppa Pump, Rey Mysterio Jr. but instead saw Kevin Nash book a terrible product for 8 months until they realized he was fucking things up bad. After the departure of Bischoff, it could have been salvaged still, if they didn't get the worst pro-wrestling offender ever as a "writer". It also exposed Russo for what it was, as without Vince filtering his thousands of stupid ideas (which still delivered a horrible TV product for the WWF but since it was carried by Steve Austin and The Rock it didn't matter) he was just the worst booker ever for a major company. At the end of the year, every title has been effectively destroyed, the wrestling fans have come to the realization they won't get any good wrestling matches from WCW anymore (and that was the big thing WCW had over WWF) and many of them would just stop going to the shows. So yeah, the ratings would very marginally improve because of the crash TV format which had been popular, but the last Nitro at the Houston Astrodome, with the gigantic stadium mostly darkened to hide the vast empty areas, was painting the picture of what the company had become. It didn't help that the biggest angle they had running was a very poor rehash of the nWo angle which made them N°1 more than three years before. WCW was slowly but surely and painfully dying. Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 19 Swerves : 8 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 18 On-a-pole matches : 3 WWF references : 33 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 27 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 26

WEEK 51 (Decembre 20 to 25, 1999) Revival angle of the week : The nWo reforms (Nitro). After Montreal redux at Starrcade, which got us back two years back in the WWF, this is what Russo's masterplan was to get WCW back on top, reforming the nWo bringing us three and a half years backwards. The announcers try to sell it as the biggest shock ever, although it comes off as a poor try to revive a stable that was dying already one year before. So here we go, baseball bats and spray paint, silvery this time around, probably because Jarrett is the chosen one. Russo infact really had zero ideas for WCW. Debut of the week : Three Count (Thunder). I'm not even sure if Russo is behind that one, as I thought Jimmy Hart actually put this gimmick together. Anyway, it's the only truly excellent idea of Russo's first stint, as Karagias really had a boys band look anyway, and the song is awful yet catchy enough. Really good modern heel gimmick for young guys like them. Jabronies debut of the week : PG-13 (Thunder). Treated like complete jobbers by the Varsity Club. These guys can't get a break in a major league, sadly. Brawl of the week : Chris Benoit vs Bret Hart (Thunder). World title match, worked as a brawling sprint since we don't have time for wrestling. Bret is much better as a heel at this point of his career. Good stuff, pretty intense, but doesn't get a chance to developp, they go into a spot where Benoit puts Bret into the crossface, Jarrett jumps in, guitar shot. Goldberg makes the save, leading to.... "I couldn't book a return match with Goldberg after Starrcade 98" spot of the week : Goldberg breaks his hand on a limo's window (Thunder). Goldie is a trooper. The ungimmicked window won't break, so Goldie insists until he breaks the window. And his hand. The scene was shown in black & white because of the blood Goldie left on the hood when he pounded on the car afterward. Gross. And stupid. Goldberg had been fucked at Starrcade 98, and nothing could make him back the phenom that could have saved the promotion. Stupid gimmick match of the week : Jeff Jarrett vs Chris Benoit (Nitro). Stupid on so many levels. First, it's a return ladder match the day after Starrcade : "Don't buy our PPV's, the result don't matter and you'll get a return match on free TV the following day.". Second, they proceed to kill the ladder gimmick off by doing a screwjob in a ladder match. Well, they already did one earlier in the month, but this one is even more stupider. The ladder Benoit tries to use was indeed "gimmicked", as told as such by one announcer because we need some smark talk on the air, and Benoit couldn't use it. So Jarrett busts him from behind and uses another ladder hidden under the ring to get the belt. Stupid and infuriating. Fun little match of the week : Kidman & Konnan & Jim Duggan vs Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn & Asya (Thunder). Duggan refused to turn on the USA on Nitro and the Filthy Animals came to his rescue when he was beaten down by Douglas & Co. This is actually a fun match not only because it flows rather well thanks to Kidman bumping around, but Douglas really does a great job working the angle at the announcing booth. Kudos to him, that's his best work since coming in WCW. He also gets in Duggan's face at ringside, shows ass when the Animals confront him. Really old-school heel work here, which is why it makes a goofy angle actually work to some extent. Nice touch when Duggan refuses to hit Asya. I can't believe I can get some enjoyment off this otherwise mess of a feud. Tons of horrible "shoot" promos and meta-comments on Nitro, one from Kevin Nash (which was a big swerve of course), another one from Piper, who's quitting the promotion and makes an "emotionnal speak" to the guys backstage, telling them to unionize and stuff. The Harris Boys are turning on the Powers That Be because... well, I'm not too sure, they used them when their intent was to bring back the nWo from the get-go, but why should they care anyway ? Hennig doesn't seem to care. One trait of Russo's writing is that *everyone* has to cut a promo, even guys like the Harris Boys. Great... They build a feud between Buff Bagwell and DDP, on the premises that rulours say that Buff had had an affair with Kimberly. Yawn. It's also a huge step back for DDP to feud with Bagwell. Also, that makes Bagwell a heel now I guess. From nowhere, for no reason. Russo just doesn't care about heel and faces, he just doesn't understand why it's important. Daffney & David Flair officialy are together, and they hook up with Devon Storm aka Crowbar on the road, before getting jumped by the Misfits (who are godawful babyfaces, acting like a bunch of thugs). Also, Hugh Morrus is back, and his crazy old man showed up on Nitro. Yawn... Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 19 Swerves : 7 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 18 On-a-pole matches : 3 WWF references : 33 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 27 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 26

Jealousy. I always liked him quite a bit, but his stock went way up with this 1999 watch.

PPV 12 : Starrcade 1999 Match of the night : Chris Benoit vs Jeff Jarrett. Ladder match. This is seriously good. Jarrett already had a match earlier on, which means in the end he'll be involved in the two best match of the show. Nothing cute here, use of the ladder as a weapon, but they don't go overboard and do ridiculously goofy shit with it. It's not cute with carefully pre-planned spot, it feels organic because it's awkward at times, as it should be. A few great spots like Jarrett dropkicking the ladder as Benoit is reaching for the belt. benoit does the requisite headrop from the top of the ladder, which would look a lot more impressive and special if he hadn't done this kind of spot/bump three times on free TV in the last month. But anyway, quite the match. Brawl of the night : Jeff Jarrett vs Dustin Rhodes. Bunkhouse match. The only thing it needs is blood, but apart from that, it's a pretty fun brawl with cowbell, rope, belt, powder and stuff. Curt Hennig tries to help Jarrett so we get some cool bumps from Hennig too as a bonus. Only the finish kinda suck, as they brawl down the alley to where the ladder is standing, and Jarrett's guitar is conveniently laying down here. Down where you ask ? Well, I'm caught up in Russo's bullshit writing. Anyway, Jarrett gets the guitar while DUstin is fighting off Hennig, climbs the ladder and bust the guitar on Dust's head. And pins him right there. What ? This is a bunkhouse brawl, it doesn't mean you can pin your opponent anywhere ? Well, aside from that, it was solid. Too bad there was a stupid comedic garbage match earier on, it made everything less special and violent. Miracle match of the night : DDP vs David Flair. DDP amazes me. First, he makes a great effort in turning himself back babyface, as David attacks him with his own crowbar (it's supposed to be a crowbar on a pole match) before the match and the match is supposed to be cancelled when DDP throws down the ring announcer and gets in the ring. Total babyface stuff, and very efficient. Then, he proceeds to have the best match ever David Flair can dream of considering his ability. The way he bumps for him is amazing to me, he makes David look *good*. And the match never gets lost either, it flows well until David grabs the crowbar (which hangs ridiculously low anyway) and DDP still applies the Diamond Cutter on him. Post-match, he gives him another one, from the second rope, and before he was gonna give him back the crowbar shot to the nuts, a girl jumps in the ring to protect David (she was seen on Nitro throwing a "Nitro Party" and looking deranged). Yep, Daphney just made her debut. DDP leaves. Really good stuff. Unexpectedly decent match of the night : Disco Inferno & Lash Leroux vs Big Vito & Johnny the Bull. The build was so awful I had no interest in seeing that one, but it was actually a fun little tag match with no bullshit happening outside. Big Vito carried his team and Disco did the same. Johnny's green as shit, and it showed especially when he worked with spot monkey Leroux, but there was some nice double team moments in this. Anti-swerve match of the night : Sting vs Lex Luger. Not much of a match, but Liz stole the show. The anti-swerve is that Sting expected to be betrayed, so he gave her a fake mace can before the match, so when she tried to turn on him she looked ridiculous. I thought Sting acted pretty damn cool at this point, not threatening to hit Liz (how refreshing) and just showing her to leave. Then when she was gonna use a baseball bat he just turned his back to confront her again and simply intimidated her until she dropped the bat. But of course, Sting being Sting, he didn't think she'd have the goal to actually take the bat back. Big mistake. She takes the bat back and hit him straight in the face. Those foam baseball bat sure made a great sound. Then she proceeded to encourage Luger to pillmanize Sting's right wrist while he was incouscious. What a jezebel ! So, as always with these two, not much of a match, but I enjoyed the angle. Swerve match of the night : Madusa vs Evan Karagias. Yeah, you read it right. Karagias was with Spike since last Nitro. So, they work some stuff. Karagias sucks. Straight punch to a woman. Ugh. At some point, Spike gets ringside, and both she and Madusa attack Evan. Swerve. After one week of being together. You can see Russo wanted to do a lesbian angle with these two. Poor guy, he couldn't go that far and that's why he failed to get WCW on top again. Bouh bouh. Stiffest of the night : Vampiro vs Steve Williams. Oklahoma in a shark cage at ringside, doing commentary. You can see Williams still has some good match in him, but this is a sad context for him, he should be feuding with Goldberg on top in a battle of monsters. Anyway, they work really stiff, this is watchable. Williams destroying the Misfits is kinda cool. WIlliams ending up DQed isn't, cheap way of giving Vamp the victory. He gets five minutes with Oklahoma but he's been really destroyed by WIlliams, so OK is all fired up. This is stupid, OK gets way too much offense on him, then Vamp and the Misfits gang up five on one on OK, so it gets zero reaction. Yeah, 5 guys beating up one isn't a babyface ending. Idiotic match of the night : Revolution vs Jim Duggan & Varsity Club. Yay ! The return of the Varsity Club, led by Kevin Sullivan. And Leia Meow bouncing around. Duggan as a janitor working the entire match without even trying to make a tag makes him look like a total retard or/and a complete egomaniac. Of course the Varsity Club turns on Duggan at the end of the match. You see, Liz turning on Sting was nice if predictable, but it was only the third time a partner/manager would turn on their guy that night. How stupid is that ? The only highlight is Douglas on commentary, working his ass off to make this watchable. I really enjoyed how outraged he acted at Kevin Sullivan hitting Asya. Anyway, this was so bad it was almost good. Almost. Death of WCW match of the night : Goldberg vs Bret Hart. Don't get me wrong, technically it's good. But the whole point is to get rid of all referees until a depressed looking Roddy Piper comes in the ring, makes the bell ring as soon as Bret puts Goldie in the sharpshooter and gives Bret the belt. Montreal, you see. Just terrible idea, very poorly done. Plus we know it leads to *another swerve* on Nitro. Just a complete shit finish what should have been a really solid main event. The Jarretts matches and DDP kinda saved this from being complete trash. The hardcore match and the six-person involving Harlem Heat & Midnight vs Creative Controm & Hennig were fast forward material. The announcing was much better than usual thanks to Scott Hudson being the third man, but actively taking over the show. I nearly didn't pay attention to Heenan, the guy just doesn't bother anymore *at all*, although at this point I wouldn't blame him. Main event was shit because of the booking. Watching Jarrett work, I wish he was the one who had marry Stephy, since she had to be with an overpushed high-midcarder level worker. He murders HHH on every level, and was much better looking too. Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 17 Swerves : 6 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 17 On-a-pole matches : 3 WWF references : 29 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 26 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 20

I feel I want to get it over as quick as possible. Although I now it will only get less worse until it gets really worse by mid-00... WEEK 50 (December 13 to 18, 1999) Stupid gimmick match of the week : Chris Benoit vs Jeff Jarrett in a bunkhouse brawl involving a ladder (Nitro). Way to spoil both your big gimmick match for your upcoming PPV. This is pretty good, unsurprisingly, but the fact Benoit took yet another bump from high places on free TV is cringe worthy. Russo was breaking down these guys for his stupid crash TV. Ironically, they would get together on PPV, as Scott Hall would do another one of his magic disappearance act, maybe because he was fucked up, maybe because he didn't want to do the job. Promo of the week : Shane Douglas (Nitro). This guy deserves all the credit in the world for cutting intense and heated promos to hype up this ridiculous angle and match with Duggan. He almost, almost makes me care about it, despite the fact it's another jingoist angle leading to more terrible matches. The Radicals sure did themselves a favor by jumping to WWF, but to me they should have jumped when Russo showed up, not when he was hired, I don't think Dean & Eddie had more bad matches than during this period and Benoit was breaking his body every week on free TV. This is also pretty much the worst period for Douglas in a major company, as I don't think even the infamous Dean Douglas nor the Dudes are lower than this Revolution crap. Comeback of the week : Chris Champagne Kanyon (Nitro). He's working a Hollywwod star wannabee gimmick now. This leads to him snubbing Bam Bam Bigelow and having a match with DDP, who seemingly is slowly turning back babyface I think, on Thunder. I like Kanyon a lot, but this is clearly not my favourite gimmick for him. Plus the involvement of Mr. Biggs only adds distraction and bad comedy to a product that doesn't need it. Don't remember Mr. Biggs ? Well, me neither. He was Clarence Mason in WWF. Because every former WWF scrubs must get a job it seems. Debut of the week : The Artist Formely Known As Prince Iaukea (Nitro). He actually debuted on the previous Thunder but what the hell. ANother gimmick that's just a not so funny pun that's already dated. The only good things about it is Sharmell, who looks gorgeous. Iaukea still is a mediocre worker rendered plain bad by him working the gimmick which consists of him licking his finger a lot and doing had gestures in the air. The main event scene is so terribly booked that it doesn't even need a mention. Bret & Goldie won the tag belts the previous week only to lose it this week to the Outsiders, in a match in which Goldie was alone for most of the match as Bret had been "jumped" in the back. They build the whole thing on Bret and Goldberg being allied against the evil Outsiders. We know where this is going. The undercard is wretched. Only good match on paper for Starrcade is... well, Benoit vs Jarrett, although we don't know that yet. The only match I care about is Lex vs Sting, because the build-up as been rather old-school and fun (although you can see where they are going from miles away). Madusa vs Evan Karagias has been a way to show lot of boobs and catfights and fondling on their way to an intergender match that will not be good. Vampiro vs Steve Williams is some of the worst TV of the year thus far. So is Disco/Lash vs Johnny the Bull/Vito, just downright putrid. The hardcore division is a joke that has overstayed its welcome. The tag match between Harlem Heat & Creative Control will suck and there is not title attached to that anymore, but they are already teasing some problems between Stevie & Booker *again*. All because of Midnight, because that's what women do, they split up teams, those bitches. Revolution vs Duggan & mysterie partners is awful and will be awful. Sid vs Nash promises nothing but a terrible match like they had earlier in the year, or in 1995. DDP vs David Flair is nothing, we've seen David been Diamond Cut already on Nitro, and David can't work a lick anyway. Starrcade looks just terrible on paper, and will of course end up being worse than that thanks to the infamous finish Russo is building to, that damn creative genius. Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 15 Swerves : 3 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 17 On-a-pole matches : 2 WWF references : 28 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 24 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 19

Am I hallucinating or did I reply to a post that Loss made about Ric Flair ?

WEEK 49 (December 06 to 11, 1999) Match of the week : Goldberg vs Jeff Jarrett (Nitro) This is a lumberjack improvised by guets ref Roddy Piper after a huge brawl involving everyone that would act as lumberjacks in this match. This is how far the standarts have fallen, this is nothing more than a nice very short match, and yet it comes apart in the horrible context as being much better. Jarrett is working a very old-school style, efficiently doing a sleeper spot of Goldie, that actually gets great reaction from the audience, clapping along the faces lumberjacks to cheer Goldberg on. Sid Vicious is at his best in this cheerleader role BTW. Solid work, a few explosive Goldie spots, Jarrett is always very smooth. Nice enough stuff. Honorable mention of the week : Chris Benoit vs Kevin Nash (Nitro) Nice to see Nash get some time with a great worker. The difference between and Sid is so striking after watching all those Benoit vs Sid matches. Hall is at ringside guest announcing, sitting on the top of a ladder. Good ending as Sid saves Benoit when Hall was gonna do the Outsider's Edge on the ladder. I'd rather have a long Benoit sv Nash match rather than Benoit vs Hall at this point, but I'll settle for this. Title change than never happened of the week : Jushin Liger wins back the IWGP title from Psychosis (Nitro). SInce Juvy hurt his arm, he can't defend the title, so Psych does the job. Again. Poor guy. Anyway, this is a throwaway match and a total afterthough. That title switch never happened. C-show match of the week : Chris Benoit vs Devon Storm (Saturday Night). There's really not much worthwile on Saturday Night anymore, but once in a while we get matches like this one. Devon Storm was better than I remembered him to be. Kinda crazy like Sabu, but not just a funky spot monkey like most of the young guys like Lash Leroux were. Benoit gives him a nice competitive match here. Guitar shot of the week : Jeff Jarrett crashes a guitar on Madusa (Nitro). Totally unecessary, comes from nowhere and serves no purposes as Jarrett just shows up in the ring to challenge Goldberg. The worst in this is that the audience pops for it big time. I hate the wrestling audience of the Attitude Era so much, popping for woman abuse *from a heel*. It's bad enough when babyface do it, but popping when a heel hits a woman with a freaking guitar, it's just retarded and shows that the audience just wanted this kind of stupid garbage spots. In a way, they deserved the shit Russo delivered to them. Yeah, I'm getting badly burned out quickly by Russo & co. With mostly zero good wrestling on TV and a majority of idiotic angles, this product is just testing my patience pretty bad. This week Liz aligned with Sting finally, although you can see the swerve coming. The undercard is so much filled with shit (Revolution vs Duggan, Lash & Disco vs the italian boys, Norman Smiley hardocre champion, Dr. Death used only as a backdrop for that petty joke that is Oklahoma, The Wall getting more attention than Berlyn, Harlem Heat & Midnight, Nitro Girls fighting with each others, and I probably forget some other crap) that there is nothing much you can grab onto to not give up. No wonder Russo and Ferrara were fired so quickly (the fact they were rehired is MIND FUCKING BLOWING). Only one month to go after Starrcade and the first step of that torture will be over (to some extent), but going through that shit is something I would discourage anyone from doing. It's just no fun. Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 14 Swerves : 3 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 13 On-a-pole matches : 2 WWF references : 27 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 24 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 19

Brian Pillman in WCW. Ridiculously over, yet never pushed seriously. Yumi Fukawa in ARSION. Their audience *loved* Fukawa. She never went past mid-card.

Not familiar with *Da business* I'd guess.

DANGAN !

Yep. Liger won it back the next week from... Psychosis. He was sent by NJ to work for WCW, I don't think he had much choice. I think I remember hearing New Japan was really pissed about it though, hence the fact they never recognized it. FWIW, when Muta was sent to WCW in 2000, he also had to deal with the shit Russo had him do and hated every minute of it.

I believe they started the gimmick of the lights going down during the Taker vs Taker match at SummerlSlam 94, for the real Undertaker only. They really began using light shows at WM 10.

Ugh... I remember that Shoot Interview he did where he talked about him running this "family operated" wrestling promotion with his daughter... Awful awful stuff. Piece of garbage.

WEEK 48 ( November 29 to December 4, 1999) Match of the week by default : Jushin Liger vs Chris Benoit (Thunder). Yeah, by default, as they work a decent little Thunder match while Juvy is on commentary talking nonsense and dropping The Rock and Chris Jericho's catchphrases. Because you see, Juvy won the IWGP title from Liger on Nitro, and injured his left arm in the process. The end of the match sees La Parka & Psychosis jump on Benoit & Liger. Van you picture the great match these four could have together, in a non-retarded wrestling comapny ? Insulting match of the week : Juvy wins the IWGP title by crashing a bottle of tequila over Jushin Liger's head (Nitro). I have no word. Oh, yes I have, the entire match was an afterthought, the main thing was Brad Armstrong on commentary doing the awful Buzzkill gimmick, refering to "Big Brother". On Thunder he would come out totally imitating his brother, complete with the NAO copycat music theme. Embarrassing on all front. Insulting spot of the week : The Outsiders dropping the TV title belt in the trash can (Nitro). Yeah, why not. It's our product and our history, but what the hell, titles don't mean anything, right ? This is shit, and it's not even a meaningfull heel action, it's just fucking with WCW wrestling fans. Funny spot of the week : Liz & Lex Luger in the mud (Nitro). So they had a mud pit, and Luger gently dropped Liz in it as a payback for the PPV screw up. The best part is of course Sting showing up behind Luger and pushing it into the mud. Luger is a trooper and finds ways to take like five bumps back into the pit. Liz fell on her ass as she got out, and Sting kinda helped her walk backstage. Awful gimmick matches of the week : Dr. Death vs Jerry Only / Outsiders vs Goldberg & Sid Vicious vs Bret Hart & Chris Benoit, cage matches (Nitro). The first one is a complete abortion, with BBQ sauce dropped on Oklahoma and shit like that. The second one in boring as all hell, nobody does anything until Jeff Jarrett shows up (because anyone can interfere in a cage match, of course), it all turns into a big schmozz and Benoit, you guessed it, does the headdrop from the top of the cage. Again. Can we somewhat blame Vince Russo for Benoit losing his brain or is it pushing it way too far ? I'm tempted though... Misogynistic bullshit and woman abuses of the week : Juvy "fucking" a fat girl from behind, Nitro Girls catfights, Jeff Jarrett busting a guitar on Mona, Ronda Singh in the mud pit with Roddy Piper, David Flair abusing Symphony (Nitro/Thunder). Pick your one. The worst by far was Juvy "reviving" that fat girl (I believe it was Leilani Kai but I'm not sure) after she choked eating some stuff form the catering table, and mimicking fucking her from behind. It went forever and was really really embarrasing. Ok, this week was really atrocious, and would be enough to throw the towel. The women stuff were just unseasy to watch at some point, as there were so many humiliating, abusing situations that my jaw dropped after a while. I don't put Liz in the mud with the rest since Luger really saved it by taking most of the attention and being the focus of the angle, but the other stuff... We know now that Madusa is actually manipulating Karagias (so she's a whore, basically, but it's a heel move, I guess) to guess a cruiserweight title match at Starrcade. Wait, isn't she, you know, a woman ? Who cares at this stage. Another really fucking idiotic angle is the Revolution taking their independance and bashing the USA, so we have to get more janitor dressed Duggan on TV. Great.... I'll pass on the whole Disco & Lash screwing around with Johnny thz Bull & Big Vito, or on Norman's Smiley's matches. Fit Finlay came back and cut off Brian Knobbs' mullet. This week was 95% complete shit, really. Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 12 Swerves : 3 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 11 On-a-pole matches : 2 WWF references : 21 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 22 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 18

WEEK 47 (November 22 to 27, 1999) Match of the week : Bret Hart vs Jeff Jarrett (Nitro). Earlier on, Jarrett had attacked Bret and stole the title belt. Didn't take long. This is solid brawling style. Jarrett channels Lawler at times with excellent looking fistdrops on the announcer's table. Didn't hurt that Bret's selling made them look awesome. Jarrett doesn't belong in the main event, at least not until he fucking gets over to that point, but as a worker he's right there, I'm really enjoying his work thus far, although I enjoy his earlier more chickenshit style more. Ends when Dustin Rhodes ko's Jarrett while Creative Control is being chased off by the referee. Bret's reaction to Jarrett being KO is pretty nice, going for teh sharpshooter but instead just pinning the guy with a "hey, whatever" expression. Awful special gimmick match of the week : International flag match : Dean Malenko vs Chris Benoit (Nitro). The winner must get his own flag. Dean goes for the Canadian flag because he wants to burn it down. At one point Benoit gets the gas can and the announcer wonder if he's gonna set Malenko on fire. Yawn.... Big schmozz, the Revolution jumps in, threaten to burn both the Canadian and US flag alltogether, but Bret saves the day and raises the US flag (while Benoit gets the Canadian one). This Benoit vs Malenko feud is an abomination. Goofy angle of the week : Liz, Meng and a shark cage (Nitro). Luger "books" a match between Liz and Meng to get revenge on Liz who screwed up at the PPV. Liz gets locks herself into a shark cage. Luger talks her into giving him the key, then betrays her and bring her into the ring with a forklift. This is goofy as hell. Meng acts like a beast trying to get into the cage until Luger actually offers him the key, while looking afraid as hell (Luger is really funny). Meng gets the claw on Luger and still tries to destroy the shark cage instead of using the key. The Sting runs in, beats up Meng with a baseball bat and frees Liz. Later that night, Meng gets Sting in a no DQ match. Liz wants to help Sting back with some mace, but Sting will have none of this, as he doesn't trust her. Luger shows up, Sting ends up in the claw, Liz wants to console him but he pushes her away. Although it doesn't deliver much in term of good matches, I enjoy this whole feud, Luger is excellent doing the funny chickenshit, Liz is hot as hell and does her job well, and Sting is actually quite good too. Monster main event of the week : Outsiders vs Goldberg & Sid Vicious (Nitro). Goldie was supposed to get a surprise partner. When Sid shows up behind him, the announcer act like he's allied with the Outsiders, forgetting the storylines of the previous weeks. Anyway, this is pretty decent considering who's involved, four big guys working a classic (meaning "traditionnal") tag match complete with fake hot tag and getting some heat on Goldie before the double spear. Nash bumps extremely well for Goldie's offense. Sid is comical. Nice enough stuff, really. Debuts of the week : Nitro Girl Skye, Johnny the Bull, Big Vito, Symphony (Nitro) Goofy skits galore backstage with the mafiosi, a swerve heel turn from Skye/Stacy Keibler (yeah, really) and Symphony (not named, she was Ryan "slap me" Shamrock) standing next to the Maestro playing the piano during every backstage segment (until David Flair destroys it in an access of crazed rage). Cruiserweight match of the week : Juventud Guerrera vs Villano IV (Saturday Night) These guys are releguated to opening the C-show, with a nice little match. It's both refreshing and sad. Let's split a faction up of the week : The Filthy Animals are falling apart (Nitro). During a tag match, Kidman sees Eddie fooling around with Torrie on the screens (Why ? Because.) Gets jealous, blah blah blah. They have a match, Eddie beats up Kidman pretty good, meanwhile the Revolution jump on Konnan and injure his right arm. Torrie, trting to signal it to Kidman prevents him from doing his finisher on Eddie. Eddie takes control and frogsplashes Kidman. Leading to the : Misogynistic line of the week : "I don't want to blame one person, but a woman has split up the Filthy Animals." Tony Schiavone. Wait, what ? The Revolution fuked up both Rey and Konnan and Kidman just acted like a stupid macho fool when Torrie and Eddie were doing nothing bad, but a *woman* split up the team ? Glorious. Really sums up Russo's way of treating women. What a loser. Funniest line of the week : "Is that supposed to hurt ?" Scott Hudson after Juvy did a People's elbow on Villano IV. So, Creative Control won the tag team titles, Russo had a hard-on for these two stiffs. Curt Hennig swerved Buff Bagwell and aligned himself with the Powers to Be. Midnight is still popping up to help Booker T. Tons of shitty backstage vignette, the worst being Duggan's as a janitor. Roddy Piper made a comeback but the Powers to Be made him a lowly referee. We're going toward a babyface match between Bret and Goldberg at Starrcade. Most of the undercard is FF material at this point, really, all the titles are dead except the world title. Luger/Sting/Liz are the most entertaining part of this wretched product angle wise. Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 11 Swerves : 3 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 9 On-a-pole matches : 2 WWF references : 18 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 15 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 17

You're not the only one : Line of the night : "Saginaw, Michigan !" Shane Douglas adressing the fans, asking them if they were ready for a Revolution. They were in Winston-Salem, NC. (Fall Brawl 1999)

PPV 11 : Mayhem 1999 Match of the night : Bret Hart vs Chris Benoit. If there's one thing positive to say about Russo, and believe me, it's a hard task, is that by putting these two at the top of a PPV, he indeed marked a difference with pretty much all WCW PPV since, well, since Hogan came in. This was extremely refreshing and was made to look like a big deal, with the long backstage walks (a la WWF), the screwjob frights essentially playing no role in the final decision (first Malenko ridiculously dressed like a Canadian clown or something, then the Outsiders, chased away by Goldberg), and the post-match celebration with Bret's family joigning him in the ring. It's also the best WCW main event PPV match since probably DDP vs Golderg in 98, ot even DDP vs Savage in 97. Too much back and forth to really be that great of a match, lackinga strong dynamic or storytelling to favour pure mechanic work, but in that respect it was head and shoulders abover everthing else in the company. My main issue is that there was no real great near falls, and Benoit never looked really close to win the title (maybe once after the flying headdrop). Anyway, this is very good, and Bret sold winning the WCW title as something really important, so it looked like it was. Honorable mention of the night : Jeff Jarrett vs Chris Benoit. Say what you will about Jarrett, but he's clearly one of the most solid worker in the company already, it's very obvious here. Doesn't get too much time, but it's really good for what it is. Decent match of the night : Curt Hennig vs Buff Bagwell. Not as good as the Benoit match on Thunder, but Hennig does a good job with Bagwell too. For a match that's supposed to be the last for one of these two, it totally lacks drama, showing the stip holds no water at all. Bagwell in particular shows no sign of concern whatsoever. Hennig brings some urgency to it though. He also does a decent job in the post-match looking like it's his last dance. Of course he would be back in the ring as soon as the next day. Bizarro match of the night : Goldberg vs Sid Vicious. Canada truly was bizarro world. Huge "Sid" chants. Huge "Goldberg sucks !" chants. Match is a complete throwaway. Sid is "better" as a babyface, but the match without any blood to make up for the lack of good work is nothing. Nitro segment match of the night : David Flair vs Kimberly. Why is this on PPV? Not much happens. Kim manipulates David a bit and takes away his protective cup. Kanyon jumps in, then DDP shows up. Okay. David Flair is a terrible performer. Arn Anderson jumps in the ring to protect him, then David Flair hits him in the back with his crowbar, because he's insane you know. Another long stretcher job. I swear there's a stretcher job every damn week. Disapointing match of the night : Lex Luger vs Meng. Yeah, disapointing because Luger has been really fun on TV. Meng no sell way too much for this to be anything more than a goofy match, with Luger wearing a neckbrace (again because of a fake injury). Bad timing at the end when Liz sprays Luger instead of Meng. It was kinda fun at times, but not as much as I thought it would. I blame Meng. Sting vs Bret was a watchable Nitro match, but the rest of the card was trash. The mixed tag elimination match was terrible, neither Torrie nor Asya belong in the ring. Berlyn vs Vampiro was awful and typical Russo overkill booking, with the Wall spliting from Berlyn and Oklahoma & Dr. Death at ringside taking all the attention. That joke wasn't that funny the first time around, it already overstayed its welcome. Doc attacks Vamp after the match. Disco vs Evan Karagias was bad. Karagias sucks. Brian Knobbs vs Norman Smiley was ridiculous, and I really don't like the whole Screaming Norman deal, so not for me. There was a double title match with Scott Hall defending the US & TV belts (yeah, he got the TV belt for whatever reason after Rick Steiner was injured by Sid...) against Booker T. Booker doesn't do shit for me at this point, and this was a Nitro match with Jarrett & CC running in, then Midnight making her grand and idiotic entrance with the lights going down and the gong. The main event and the few regular good little matches in the undercard saved it, but the more Russoiffic parts of the PPV were nothing more than glorified Nitro segments.

WEEK 46 (November 15 to 20, 1999) Match of the week : Goldberg vs Curt Hennig (Nitro). Hennig still tries to prevent from having to retire by not getting pinned, plus he can win a new contract if he beats Goldie, so he attacks him backstage during his long walk to the ring. They really beat the shit out of each other, and it's fun to see Hennig actually kicking some ass for once. Goldebg sells enough to make it seems like a brawl but not too much either to not look to vulnerable. Finally in the ring, Hennig does one slap to many which pisses off Goldie who puts him into a leg submission. Hennig taps out immediatly sensing bad things are coming up. He still saved his ass. Of course Goldberg still manages to spear and jackhammer him afterward. Good stuff. Honorable mention of the week : Chris Benoit vs Buff Bagwell (Thunder). This might be Bagwell's best match post-injury, for sure. Nothing special, but Benoit keeps the pace up and sells well for Bagwell''s limited offense. Some shenanigans by Hennig at ringside (him and Bagwell must face at the PPV with the loser being forced into retirement, yeah right) before Benoit makes Bagwell taps. Man, Bagwell sure fell down the drain quickly after the infamous Piper feud. Benoit also had a solid match with Scott Hall. Brawl of the week : Barbarian vs Jerry Flynn (Nitro). This is basically a boiler room match, because anything that was done in WWF must be done in WCW. Really stiff stuff, but they mostly use their fists and kicks, which makes it a hundred times better than the usual goofy hardcore stuff. Short and sweet, with Flynn surprisingly KOing Barbie. Special gimmick match of the week : House of pain match : Konnan & Eddie Guerrero vs Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko (Nitro). God this feud is rotten. This is a cage match with a bunch of handcuffs to which you have to attach your opponent with. Match lasts about 2 minutes or so before the Animals get handcuffed, then the Revolution handcuff Rey to the top of the cage and destroy his right knee. Rey must get a surgery. This is really awful. Best part was Saturn's promo before the match singing "Jump!" and making Malenko jump around with him. House of Pain you see... On the pole match + sleezy business of the week : Pinada on the pole match & Oklahoma (Nitro). So we get a racist cliché + Ed Ferrara making fun of JR which is amusing to some extent when he does the college sports bit and annoying Ross maneurisms but also pretty sleazy and totally counterproductive. Add to this that the pinata fell down about 30 seconds into the match, so the luchadors had no idea what to do with it and looked stupid. The only "positive" stuff about this whole embarrassing deal is Dr. Death throwing the luchadors around was a much better debut for him than anything he did in the WWF, for obvious reasons. Stiff, this is trash. Grudge match of the week : Lex Luger vs Sting (Nitro) Luger keeps in being quite entertaining. He offered Sting some flowers and also some brownies (with laxative, leading to a not funny at all vignette of Duggan stealing them and being sick as a dog later), to no effect, Sting kicks his ass and works his fake knee injury until it becomes a real one. Luger trips the referree while he's in the scorpion deathlock (which is a nice little chickenshit spot) and Liz maces Sting. Luger would have won if not for Meng who gets his revenge from a few weeks back and kills Luger. Fun stuff. Line of the week : "You're half the man I am. And I've got half the brain you do." Sid Vicious (Nitro). This is pretty legendary. To his credit, he stayed very serious while Nash & Hall were busting out in the ring, didn't blink and delivered the rest of his promo which was actually pretty decent since it was more of a serious babyface one. The line was one of the greatest fuck up you can think off though, especially since the whole thing about the Outsiders was saying Sid was an idiot. Since Russo is such a smart ass, they actually reshowed the fuck-up on Thunder in the video package for the PPV. What a bunch of... So, the final four are Jarrett, Sting, Benoit & Bret Hart, which means we have three babyfaces (including two über babyface since it's the first PPV in Canada for WCW) and the Chosen One. Russo sure wanted Jarrett to work the main event. The Revolution vs Filthy Animals is simply horrible. Totally ruined by rushing through gimmick matches every week on TV and involving Torrie and Asya as in-ring workers. What a waste of talent. Dean & Saturn vs Eddie & Kidman could have some really good match if given the time, but this is not what it's about. Berlyn vs Vampiro is too bad for Berlyn, as the seeds for a Wall puch are planted. Vamp got a bunch of anchors with the Misfits, who mean absolutely shit. Bagwell vs Hennig is decent on paper. Disco vs Evan look like it will be overwhelmed by out of the ring stuff, as they *already* tease that Madusa is fucking up with Evan's mind after *one* week of being together. Luger vs Meng sounds fun, because Luger has been the most fun character on the roster recently. Vince Russo Tally Title changes : 6 Swerves : 1 Special gimmick matches on free TV : 8 On-a-pole matches : 2 WWF references : 17 Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 13 Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 16

I love Woman, and she was easily the better promo, not to mention hot as hell, but Sherri was ridiculously good as a valet for Savage and DiBiase, she could add so much to matches. She was often the second best worker in the matches during that period.

Lawler was fine as a heel color guy, but really became unbearable during the Attitude Era. "Puppies !" was the beginning of the end.