GSR

After Booker and Awrsome make their entrances, Scott Steiner is out to provide guest commentary for the match. Awesome gets the better of a shoulderblock, Booker with a leapfrog, however Awesome catches him mid-air and an overhead belly to belly suplex. Booker comes back with a flying forearm and a clothesline which sends Awesome over the top tope to the floor. Whip to the guardrail is reversed and Awesome then nails Booker with a chair before throwing him into the ring steps. Clothesline off the top for two. Sleeperhold as Awesome tries to wear down his opponent. Booker counters an Irish whip with a modified belly to back suplex, ax kick, flapjack and he heads up to. As the official is checking on Awesome, Steiner leaves his position at the announcer’s table and nails Booker with his title belt. He crashed to the canvas and an impressive looking ‘Awesomebomb’ for the win. Steiner puts Booker in the recliner after the match, when out comes Lash LaRoux, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Hugh Morrus and Van Hammer to make the save. Mike Tenay refers to them as a ‘motley crew of misfits’ as a pre-cursor for the Misfits in Action, and the four of them clear the ring with Booker looking a tad surprised that they came to help. I said in the past when you’ve seen one Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka match you’ve seen them all, and I’m starting to think when you’ve seen on Mike Awesome match period you’ve seen them all! Steiner is terrible on commentary and the match was background for his obvious attack on Booker. Can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing more of the M.I.A.

Billy Kidman vs Vampiro Pre-match interview with Billy Kidman, Torrie Wilson and Eric Bischoff. Gene Okerlund suspects that Hulk Hogan may show up in Chicago tonight, but Bischoff thinks it’s just a rumour and as much of a glory hound as he is, he’s not dumb enough to step into the lion’s den. Kidman tells him not to worry as he crippled his ass Monday and if ‘brother man’ wants to come on down he’ll send him back to the emergency room. Kidman rushes at Vampiro, who sidesteps out the way and he goes flying into the corner where Vamp just unloads on him. Overhead belly to belly followed by a clothesline off the top for two. Kidman ducks a kick and comes back with a huracanrana and a dropkick. Vampiro with a release powerbomb, launching Kidman across the ring as he was punching him in the corner. Nice belly to back suplex but Kidman counters a second powerbomb with a facebuster. Slingshot legdrop for two. Vamp blocks the suplex attempt and delivers one of his own. Uranage for another near fall. He signals for his ‘nail in the coffin’ finisher, but again Kidman counters with a facebuster. Vamp drops him with an array of kicks and Kidman is just about able to roll his shoulder up. DDT from Kidman when the camera’s cut to the back to see a black Dodge Charger pulling up in the arena. It’s Hulk Hogan and he’s after Billy Kidman! A back kick low blow to Vamp and as Hogan walks down the aisle Kidman calls him on. Kidman tries to jump him as he gets in the ring, but his attack has no effect and Hulk just grabs him and tosses him over the top rope to the floor. Hogan completely dominates Kidman even picking up the ring steps to hurl at him. Fortunately he’s able to dodge them as they go crashing into the ringpost. He gives him a double handed chokeslam onto the announcer’s table (which looked stiff as hell as the table didn’t break) and then bodyslams him through it (guessing it should’ve broken first time around). Amazingly the match hasn’t been thrown out, Hogan puts Kidman back in the ring, Vampiro covers him and Charles Robinson counts the three. Tony Schiavone claims you can’t disqualify Vampiro because Hulk Hogan didn’t come in to help him. Not sure it works that way Tony! Hogan grabs the house mic and says he hopes Eric Bischoff was watching because he’s coming for him right now. The cameras cut to the dressing room and we see Bischoff with his hands praying. He wants to get out of there but Vince Russo tells him that he’ll take care of it. Hogan eventually finds Bischoff (tipping over some tables along the way), grabs him, but Russo has called the police who pull a gun on Hulk before cuffing and taking him away. The action between Vampiro and Kidman was good and I was enjoying the match they were having. The Hogan involvement was telegraphed by both the pre-match interview and Mark Madden’s comments that Hogan wouldn’t have the guts to show (Madden was again hideous on commentary). Hogan had some real intensity about him in his attack on Kidman (who bumped great for him), however the moment he headed off backstage to look for Bischoff it was Hogan’s hammy acting at its worst. I thought the same after Nitro, but not sure at all how this is benefitting Kidman at the moment who’s getting whipped at every opportunity by Hulk. How on earth this match wasn’t thrown out after Hogan’s involvement I’ll never know.

Tony Burton definitely isn't black by the way! I remember he did some WWF jobs back around 1990 but no idea whatever happened to him after that.

Billy Kidman is out with Torrie Wilson and he’s got his ribs taped up after what happened on Monday night. He says how he dared Hulk Hogan to meet him in the parking lot so they could settle it man to man, but Hulk Hogan realised that Billy Kidman is more of a man than he could ever handle and that’s why he tried to run him over with the Hummer. He calls Hogan ‘Terry’ and tells him that tonight he starts it and at Slamboree he finishes it. Backstage interview and Gene Okerlund wonders what Mike Awesome is doing with them. Eric Bischoff says how last week Hulk Hogan tried to kill Billy Kidman, he’s totally out of control, so Mike Awesome is here as his protection. Awesome is going to be in the ring with Billy Kidman and its upto Hulk Hogan to find himself a partner. Bischoff is convinced though that as Hogan has burnt so many bridges in the lockerroom that he won’t find anyone to team up with him. He then goes on to announce himself as the special guest referee for Slamboree. Kidman is wearing a yellow and red ‘Hulkster’ t-shirt whilst Hogan is in all black and his jacket has F.U.N.B on the back. Awesome and Kidman jump Hogan the moment he slides into the ring trying to stomp a mudhole in him. He fires back and a noggin knocker sends Kidman to the floor. Big clothesline from the Hulkster to Awesome before taking off his belt and whipping him with it. Belly to back by Hogan! He heads over to the New Blood corner several times to take a crack at Kidman, but he always jumps down off the apron out of his reach. Hulk starts choking Awesome with the belt, however he manages to wrestle it off him and starts to use it against him. Back kick low blow and Hogan is again on top. Awesome with a shoulderblock to the mid-section, and sensing his opportunity, now Kidman is in and wanting a piece of the Hulkster. Hogan ducks a double clothesline and comes back with one of his own. A couple of rights to Kidman, but this distraction allows Awesome to drop him with a huge right of his own and a big splash for two. He picks up the leather belt and whips Hogan with it getting some retribution for earlier. An eye poke halts him in his tracks, big boot, but Hulk doesn’t make the cover wanting to continue his attack instead. He tosses Awesome to the outside, rams his head into the announcer’s table then the ringpost and whips him into the guardrail, with Tony Schiavone saying how he’s never seen Hulk Hogan like this (even referring to him as Terry Bollea at one point). Awesome with an eye poke and Kidman with a stiff chair shot to the head busting the Hulkster open. Double team time again as Kidman whips Hogan with the belt while Awesome heads out the ring to collect a table. Powerbomb through the table! The camera’s cut to Kevin Nash watching on a monitor backstage and Kidman tells Awesome to get another table. They lay Hulk on it and Kidman with an assisted splash off the top puts Hogan through that one. He tears off his shirt, cups his ear, drops the leg and Kidman gets a clean three! Nash heads out after the match and is getting the better of the two of them until Torrie low blows him. They post Nash and Awesome takes a steel chair to his ankle as the New Blood leaves the Millionaire’s Club laid out in the ring. This was given a surprising long amount of time considering what this company is dishing out at the moment. This feud has been fairly one sided up to now, not the case here! Hogan gets busted open, is put through two tables and jobs clean to a legdrop from Kidman. I really dug Kidman in this match, as the cocky, brash, loudmouth chicken shit hiding behind his big buddy. Picking and choosing his spots and letting Awesome get his hands dirty while he comes in at the end to get the glory. Enjoyable stuff here.

Kidman has got himself another one of the Hulkster’s shirts to wear! He tears it off and then the camera cuts to Marc Mero watching in the front row. Kidman says that the legend is dead and no-one could put Hulk Hogan out of this business until Billy Kidman came along! He mentions how Hogan dogged him in interview after interview, said that he couldn’t draw in a flea market, but he’s the one drawing now as these people love him! Doesn’t sound like it mind! Hogan’s red and yellow ass is laid up in a hospital bed in Tampa and he’s the one who put him there. He issues an open challenge to anyone in the back and Hulk Hogan’s music plays, but it’s his nephew Horace Hogan answering the challenge. Guessing they played Hulk’s music so there wouldn’t be silence when Horace came out! Horace runs to the ring and Kidman attacks him as soon as he slides under the bottom rope. Whip to the corner is reversed, Kidman with a tip up, but Horace dumps him on the top rope crotching him before clotheslining him to the floor. He takes it to Kidman on the outside and drops him throat first across the guard rail. Back in the ring and Kidman slows Horace with a back elbow, but is then met with a big boot and another clothesline which sends him flying over the top rope to the floor. Horace whips Kidman into the guard rail, however he goes crashing into it himself when he moves as he charges him. Huracanrana and Kidman starts to unload on Horace. Snapmare and he heads up top only to miss the big splash. A ropey looking powerslam from Horace and Eric Bischoff heads out and down to ringside. Hogan just about gets Kidman up for a gorilla press and follows up with a powerbomb. Chair shot to Kidman’s injured back and Horace counters a sunset flip attempt with a chokebomb. Instead of making the cover though he sets up a table on the outside. Standing on the apron, he goes to suplex Kidman out the ring and through the table, but Torrie with a low blow to him. Although he lets go of Kidman it doesn’t seem to have any effect and he turns his attention to her. Bischoff is now in the ring and kicks referee Mickey Jay in the guts. Chair shot to the head of Horace, Kidman with a bulldog off the apron and through the table on the outside. He covers Horace on the arena floor and Bischoff fast counts the pin for the win. The start of this was great with Horace’s aggressiveness and showing plenty of intensity as he tries to get some revenge for his uncle, while Kidman bumped and flew around for him. Some of Horace’s offense did look rough (powerslam, gorilla press), but Kidman was really good throughout. From the moment Eric Bischoff came out though you knew some sort of screwy, interference laden finish was coming. When did this match become ‘falls count anywhere’ though as I certainly didn’t see that. I should just forget logic and trying to make sense of things when it comes to this company now. Crowd were pretty dead for this although they came alive for Kidman missing the big splash off the top.

Tag match for the WCW World Heavyweight title where the man who gets the pin wins the belt. After DDP and David Arquette make their entrance, Page enquires where the referee is. Some music plays and out comes Kimberly who it transpires is the official for this match. DDP and Arquette rush their opponents and pair off, with Arquette and ‘Easy E’ fighting to the back. Swinging neckbreaker by Page, Kimberly slowly gets into position to make the count but stops at one claiming to have broken a nail. Christ! Powerbomb and Kimberly dithers about not even attempting to count the pin. Jarrett blocks a sunset flip and drops down to cover DDP, Kim fast counts him, however Page is still able to get his shoulders up in time. Bischoff returns to the ring wiping his hands as though he’s taken care of Arquette and Karate Eric even gets in a few shots at Page. DDP with a double clothesline, he unloads on his opponents and here’s David Arquette hobbling back to down the aisle. Jarrett shoots DDP at Kimberly but just about stops himself from colliding with her, although for some reason starts kissing her. Arquette with a spear to Bischoff and Jarrett nails Page with the World title belt. Kimberly appears to be in great distress in the corner after having received a smacker from DDP so a second referee is out. Both men are making a cover, the official heads over to Arquette, counts the pin for him and David Arquette is the new WCW World Heavyweight champion. To cap this off, instead of being angry and annoyed that he lost his title Page finds it all hilarious. You’re not the only one mate! Where to start? Why would DDP even agree to a match like this in the first place? Defending his World title in a tag match where he could not only lose his belt by being pinned, but he could also win the match and still lose the title!!! The latter is what ended up happening and instead of being upset or devastated that he lost the most ‘presitigious’ title in his sport, DDP acts as if it’s all a joke. Which to be fair this is! Arquette at least looked like he was enjoying himself even though he’s not very good. I didn’t expect much from Bischoff, but he was worsed than I imagined with even his Karate kicks and strikes looking bad. I’ve not even started on Kimberly being the referee yet! Fast count the heels, slow count he faces. Yawn! Then to top it off we have DDP forcing himself on her. This has been one hideous month for WCW.

Sting drops down from the rafters for his entrance and seems to get stuck trying to free himself from his harness. Vampiro goes out to get (help?) him and they’re quickly back in the ring. They briefly fight, Sting throws him to the outside, Vampiro gets back in, rinse and repeat. After Sting throws him to the floor for the third time, Vampiro goes and stands on the announcer’s table, drags his thumb across his throat and a blood-like liquid falls from above and into the ring covering Sting. ‘Nail in the Coffin’ into the liquid and Shane Douglas, Chris Candido, Billy Kidman, Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner are all out. Six on one attack before they attach Sting back into his harness and get it raised off the floor a few feet so that the ‘blood’ covered Sting is left dangling as the show goes off the air. Utter shite. I should’ve known that this wouldn’t have been a ‘first blood’ match and Russo would find some way to get out of it. Absolutely nothing positive to say here and this is very quickly becoming one depressing watch.

Jarrett is accompanied by Vince Russo and it really is all about that guy. Pretty cool start to the match as DDP was out first and climbed atop the cage, Jarrett didn’t know where he was so as he was about to get in the cage, Page shuts the door on him from above. Instead of them getting in the cage, DDP throws Jarrett over the guardrail and they brawl amongst the crowd and around the arena. Kinda defeats the point of a cage match don’t you think? Eventually they make it in there and the second official locks the door. Page whips Jarrett into the cage, but in typical WCW fashion the camera is focused on the padlocked cage door so we miss it. This company! He unloads on him in the corner, but Jarrett with a low blow before dropping Page face first into the top turnbuckle. Now it’s his turn to launch DDP into the cage. Page with a reversal and rains down left and rights on ‘the Chosen One’. Discus lariat and he signals for the ‘Diamond Cutter’. Not sure what happens as Mike Awesome is out and lurking by the cage door and the camera shows him instead of the in-ring action. Jarrett with a DDT, bodyslam attempt, but Page escapes and hits the ‘Diamond Cutter’. Awesome ‘rips’ the door off the cage and stops Charles Robinson from making the count, however Chris Kanyon is out, pulls Awesome off the official and throws him into the cage. Robinson is able to finish the count and we have a new WCW World champion. The cage raises up and David Arquette is in to celebrate with DDP and Kanyon.

This is the final of the United States title tournament. Steiner bullies Sting back into the corner and unloads on him leaving him crumpled on the floor. Sting ducks a couple of lariats, lands two mediocre looking dropkicks and Scott rolls to the outside. Pescado! Sting throws him back into the ring and comes off the top with a big splash but Steiner gets his knees up. Gorilla press slam and a crappy clothesline for two. Nice release overhead throw. Scotty sits Sting on the top turnbuckles for a belly to belly, however Sting fires back and Steiner crashes backward to the canvas. A pair of clotheslines from Sting, ‘Stinger splash’, he goes for a second, but the referee is too close to the action and Steiner pulls him infront of him and he gets sandwiched between them. Third ‘Stinger splash’ and as he’s about to hit a fourth, Vampiro comes up through the ring, grabs his leg and pulls him ‘straight down to hell’. They re-appear around 30 seconds later and Sting has what looks like costume blood smeared around his mouth. Steiner wakes the official, ‘Steiner recliner’ and Scott Steiner is the new U.S. champion. Garbage. We’re not even a week in to the Bischoff/Russo era and I’m hating all this interference and nonsense in the matches. One match on the PPV to go and I reckon I know how that will end up if the rest of the show is anything to go by. It was obvious the ref bump was coming too just by how close he was to Steiner.

Match to determine who will be the participants in the Hardcore title match at Spring Stampede, where the winning team tonight will then go on to face each other at the PPV. They very quickly all pair off with Meng and Knobbs going into the crowd, Hugh and Smiley fighting up the aisle and Funk and Fit staying in the ring. Hugh lays Smiley on a table and goes for a running elbow drop off the stage, however Screaming Norman moves and he goes through the end of it himself. By now Meng and Knobbs have made their way to the back of the arena and to the concession stands. Knobbs hurls a plastic bin into Meng’s head before walloping him with a food tray. Meng fights back and throws Knobbs through a table. He spots a lifesize cardboard cut out of Goldberg, so forgets about his opponent and goes and spears that! Knobbs lets off a fire extinguisher, however Meng uses the speared Goldberg to block it. The two head outside and Meng sidesteps a charging Knobbs who flies over the balcony and surely to his death after Tony Schiavone claims “it’s a 30 foot drop!” Smiley and Hugh have made their way backstage whilst Fit uses a chair on the Funker in the ring. Hugh whips Smiley into a giant tiger’s mouth (which apparently is used as an entrance for the local hockey team), only to then crotch/impale himself one one of the tiger’s teeth, which allows Heenan to talk about “getting the horn!” Finlay DDTs Funk on the concrete before propping a table up in the corner. Funk with a low low and he whips Fit through it. Piledriver onto the table and here comes Dustin Rhodes (hopefully without a chicken in sight). Funk hasn’t seen him though and heads up top for a moonsault. Low blow on Funk followed by ‘Shattered Dreams’. Dustin repeatedly bashes Funk’s head into a steel chair and Fit and he head out the ring to collect a table. In the meantime Norman Smiley has returned, sees Funk laid out, covers him and gets the win for the Funker and himself. Oh dear… Atrocious finish which negates the purpose of the match. Why didn’t Funk just lay down and let Smiley cover him in the first place instead of wrestling for the best part of ten minutes? Are we meant to think that Meng is that thick that he mistakes a cardboard cut out for an actual person? What happened to Knobbs? On the same point what happened to Meng? Why didn’t he return to the ring after Knobbs had supposedly killed himself? In fact why didn’t he even go and cover the corpse of Brian Knobbs? No chance of a kick out and he and Hugh would’ve advanced to Spring Stampede! Norman Smiley made me laugh with his screaming every time he would get hit; there you go, there’s one positive thing I gained from watching this!

This starts with the opening from Smackdown and Cactus Jack heading to the ring with The Radicalz. Cactus explains they are here, not as members of the WWF, but as his guests, although they intend to try and change all that tonight. He says how they had Triple H flat on his back in the middle of the ring and they chose to leave; not because they’re after his blood, but because they’re after contracts. Foley says how there was a simple saying in Atlanta about keeping your mouth shut, you check your pride at the door and collect a big fat pay cheque. That wasn’t good enough for these four men because wrestling is much more than a pay cheque to every one of them. What they want to do is take on the best and the only place to do that is in the WWF. They want to be in front of WWF fans, and deep down they know no matter how good they were, how good there matches were, they were not quite old enough for WCW! Cactus asks Triple H to come out and they can have a contract signing or they’ll turn Smackdown into a two hour long sit down. Just as they collect some chairs HHH’s music plays and he’s out with the rest of DX. He says that the four of them are trespassing, and if he wanted he could just order two armed guards from the back to come and throw them out. Stephanie says how they may have been hot shots where they used to work but you have to earn your stripes here, and based upon their actions Monday night, they’re not worthy of working in the WWF. They’re not bad or anything, they’re just average! Triple H then claims that the McMahon-Helmsley era is all about fairness, so tonight they’re going to give them a chance, not a contract but a try-out. Dean Malenko will face X-Pac, Perry Saturn & Eddy Guerrero will take on the New Age Outlaws and Chris Benoit, who was a big fish in a small pond the last time he saw him, will if it comes to it, step in the ring with him. There are rules to the try-out though. If they can win two out of the three matches they will get their contracts, however he thinks that it won’t get to himself and Benoit. Cactus Jack then says he knows how DX works and to make sure everything is above board he’ll be watching from backstage and he’ll have a barbed wire 2x4 with him. X-Pac gets the better of a shoulderblock and crotch chops at his opponent. Back heel kick from Malenko who then reverses a whip to the corner. As he comes charging in X-Pac gets his foot up, although when he rushes at Malenko, he catches him with a lovely powerslam as DX watch on from the dressing room. X-Pac ducks a lariat and a spinning heel kick takes Malenko off his feet. Malenko escapes a rear chinlock, X-Pac goes for another spinning heel kick, but this time he catches the leg and hits a ‘dragon screw’. A series of kicks in the corner drop Malenko, X-Pac signals for the bronco buster, however Malenko rolls out the ring and he crotches himself. Running clothesline in the corner and a brainbuster for a near fall. Texas Cloverleaf but X-Pac is able to grab the ropes to force the break. Tori is up on the apron distracting the official, X-Pac with a low blow followed by the ‘X-Factor’ and it’s 1-0 to DX. Wise decision pairing the Radicalz with Foley, even moreso as it not only associates them with one of the top faces in the company, it also gives them somone to cut the long WWF promos for them. Cactus does an excellent job talking about how they’re here because they want to wrestle and not just pick up a pay cheque, whilst also getting in his jibes at WCW. I had pretty high expectations for this so the match was a tad disappointing. The work between the two wasn’t bad at all, but it just never fully connected with me.

Lock up, Bigelow powers DDP back and unloads on him in the corner. Page turns the table and responds in kind showing plenty of intensity as he does. Clothesline off the top for two. Bam Bam reverses the Irish whip and a Samoan drop for two of his own. He concentrates his attention on Page’s weakened back with headbutts to it and a modified camel clutch. A diving headbutt to the back and DDP gets his shoulder up at the last second. Page counters a powerbomb attempt with some punches to the head and lands on top of Bam Bam. Swinging neckbreaker for two. He goes for the ‘Diamond Cutter’ but Bigelow shoots him off and into the referee knocking him down. Bam Bam misses a second diving headbutt, Page escapes the ‘Greetings from Asbury Park’ and hits the ‘Diamond Cutter’. The official is still down and Eric Bischoff is out to count the fall but deliberately stops counting at two. DDP grabs him by the throat and here’s Jeff Jarrett who breaks a guitar over Page’s head. David Arquette leaves his position in the audience to try and help his buddy, but Jarrett just rag dolls him around and gives him ‘the stroke’. Chris Kanyon is next to try and help even hitting a swinging neckbreaker on Jarrett. As he continues to berate him, Bischoff is back and levels Kanyon with a chair. Jarrett and Bischoff are then joined by the rest of the ‘New Blood’ and they spray paint ‘NB’ on the fallen bodies as the show goes off the air. Decent action with Bigelow focussing his attack on Page’s weakened back, although we only get about five minutes before the ref bump and run-ins. This looks like the start of the David Arquette angle and he was perfectly fine in taking a beating from Jeff Jarrett, seeing him as World champion will be a different matter all together. Nice reaction for Kanyon, although the ending felt an awful lot like they were trying to recreate the NWO with the New Blood.

A dropkick from Shannon to The Artist and there is already dissension in both teams with team mates shoving one another. Candido blocks a LeRoux frankensteiner with a short powerbomb, then accidentally knocks Paisley off the apron (no idea what she was doing up there) and into the arms of David Flair. He starts dancing trying to impress her but Daffney’s not impressed, and uses the crowbar between his legs to pull him back to her. Juvi with some knife edge chops to Moore and he unloads with a series of punches in the corner. Shannon reverses the Irish whip, knee to the mid-section and a ‘Rocker dropper’. Nice Northern Lights suplex by Crowbar on Juvi. A headscissors sends Crowbar to the floor and a dive train ends with an awesome top rope quebrada from Moore. Shannon with a sleeper on Crowbar before dropping him to the canvas (yup, his own partner), and Shane Helms climbs the turnbuckles for a frog splash. David Flair low blows him and Daffney with a top rope rana that gets the loudest reaction of anything we’ve seen so far. ‘Juvi Driver’ to Crowbar, but Candido breaks up the pin and throws Guerrera to the floor. Double DDT on Crowbar by Candido and The Artist, and now The Artist is the one breaking up the pin. Candido with a diving headbutt off the tope and The Artist grabs Charles Robinson to prevent him from making the count. Artist with a jumping DDT to Candido, face first suplex by Crowbar and he picks up the win for his team. Considering the talent on show this was a huge disappointment. I know it is trying to build to the six way at Spring Stampede, but this was a cluster. Too many people at ringside, team mates fighting one another and the first time I’ve ever watched a match and by the end of it lost track of who was teaming with whom! The dive train was the lone highlight, although even there it looked like some of the wrestlers were just stood there waiting for the next one. Things don’t bode well at all if even the cruiserweights are having poor matches.

Don Montoya is out first and is accompanied by Nick Berk and Gabrielle Leigh. He takes a sign from the crowd which has ‘JAPW #1’ written on it and asks the crowd if they agree with this? Of course they do, and he says how he was recently with his good buddy Reckless Youth and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler, and the best promotion on the planet is in fact Memphis Championship Wrestling. Montoya moves on to talking about how all the ‘smart marks’ on the internet were wondering who he’d be wrestling tonight, whether it would be Cash, Homicide or even Low Ki (the crowd were already chanting Ki’s name before he’d even mentioned him). He goes on to explain that no-one signed his open contract so he wins by forfeit! Homicide’s music plays, he’s carrying a chair and is pissed. He cuts an expletive laden short promo calling Montoya ‘a bitch’ and ‘to fuck this wrestling bullshit’, before telling him to get his ass back in the wrestling ring. The two ‘shoot’ and go back and forth with Montoya saying how the only shooting Homicide knows about is the shit that got him put in jail last year! Homicide responds that he’s not a shooter, he’s a fighter, but he’s got someone in the lockerroom who loves to shoot fight. It’s Low Ki and he’s in MMA fighting gear, not his normal attire. Homicide gets the promoter in there and asks him to make this a shoot fight, to forget wrestling and just let them go and try and knock each other out, where the only way to win is by KO or submission. The crowd approves and the promoter turns to Montoya and says how he signed an open contract to defend his JAPW title in a ‘match’, he didn’t say what kind of match. Montoya tries to backtrack and claims to have no beef with Low Ki, and that he’s an ‘entertainer’ not a shoot fighter. The promoter asks the audience whether they want to see a ‘shoot fight’, and when they all cheer he lets them know that they will “as this is JAPW and it’s the fan’s promotion”. Montoya tries to get Nick Berk ‘a new member of the WWF developmental squad’ to take his place, and when that doesn’t work says he’s not under contract to anyone here so is just going to leave. That was all a ploy on his part as when Low Ki turns his back he jumps him, however Ki immediately flips him over and crossfaces him. Montoya cowers in the corner, but as soon as he’s back to his feet Ki starts kicking at his leg. Rear naked choke and Montoya just about gets his foot to the ropes. More kicks and strikes from Ki and a front chancery which Montoya escapes from and turns into a Fujiwara armbar. Kicks to the head by the big man and then he applies a rear naked choke. Ki with a straight armbar which he doesn’t initially break when Don again gets his foot over the ropes. Guillotine choke that Ki fights his way out of, and he even gets Montoya up for a release German before returning to the rear naked. Nice touch with Homicide pushing Don’s foot off the ropes when the referee wasn’t looking so Ki was able to keep it cranked on for a little bit longer. After appearing done for Montoya rolls through for an ankle lock (not greatly applied) and then transitions to a kneebar. Release German by Don. Ki with a kneebar into an almost Dragon sleeper/camel clutch combination. Montoya taps but the referee is distracted by Homicide, Berk and Leigh on the outside. As he tries to separate them and regain control, Mark Reil is out and nails Ki in the head with a chair shot off the top. He quickly disappears, the official gets back in the ring and Montoya orders him to count Ki out. He doesn’t beat the ten count and Montoya retains his JAPW Heavyweight championship. The ‘WWF developmental squad’ don’t stick around and Da Hit Squad are out to inform Ki about what just happened. As they continue to goad him on, Ki heads to the dressing room and brings Reil back to the ring. He crossfaces him, kicks him in the face, ‘Ki Krusher’ and then calls out Billy Reil for ‘dodging him’. A second ‘Ki Krusher’ off the top (which looks nasty as with Reil taking it right on the back of his neck) and Reil is carried out of there by the promoter. I enjoyed all of this tremendously. First time in seeing Montoya and I liked his ‘WWF developmental’ gimmick and the guy was also very good on the mic. Homicide is an intimidating chap and whether legit or not, you get the impression that he’s absolutely capable of shooting someone! I don’t know how much shoot fighting Montoya has ever done, but he and Ki pulled this off. It actually felt like a battle in there and they did an excellent job of incorporating plenty of legit MMA holds (rear naked choke, guillotine, armbars, kneebars etc). There’s also a real aura and intensity about Low Ki which works in a match like this. I liked how the finish both protected Ki and also resulted in Montoya retaining, but I wish they had done something other than the chair shot. It was so light that it’s stretching things to believe that it could have KO’d Ki. Maybe knock him out with a chain around his fist instead? Post-match beating on Reil looked as legit as these things come, and that ‘Ki Krusher’ off the top was nasty the way Reil took it on the back of his neck. Another great job from Ki and different so what we’ve already seen off him in the Ric Blade and Billy Reil matches.

Thanks. I wasn't keen on the other guy (he seemed to have patterned his style after early 2000s CZW commentary) but Brad was first rate.

Who is the quietly spoken commentator who did the play by play? I thought he was tremendous. This was the first Mid-Atlantic I watched, and while I don't give star ratings, if I did, I wouldn't be as high as everyone else. Someone described this as 'clunky' and that sums it up perfectly for me. I really liked Justice ramming Garrini's arm into the ringpost when he tried to drag him back in the ring, he works over the arm but as soon as he stops, Garrini immediately then stops selling it. A big pet peeve is when someone stops selling limbwork. On first viewing of both though, Garrini is the one who I'd search out to watch again.

Jamie-san and Wolfie kick this one off for us. Noble with a flying headscissors, but Wolfie then backdrops him over the ropes and onto the apron. Shoulder to the mid-section and Jamie leaps back over the top rope, catches Wolfie in a cool little bodyscissors and leans backwards taking him to the arena floor. Kaz unloads with some kicks to JC Ice, a slight miscommunication between them, before JC ducks another kick and assumes ‘the crane’. He goes all wannabe karate fighter trying to intimidate Kaz, but he just drops him with a spinning back kick to the chest! Yang plants Frog with a sort of chokeslam and goes for a Stinger splash in the corner, however Frog moves and drives him to the canvas with a facebuster. Jamie-san breaks up the cover with a dropkick that sees Frog roll to the outside, he then slingshots himself over the top rope and into a huracanarana to him on the floor. PG-13 are down to put the boots to Noble, but stereo Asai moonsaults from the Dragons to them. Wolfie with a spinning powerbomb and Kaz and Yang are in to make the save, which they then repeat after JC clobbers Jamie with the hub cap. Double sunset flip attempt and Frog grabs JC and Wolfie’s arms to stop them being taken down. Noble with a springboard sunset flip to Frog and all three men get the shoulders counted to the mat. Fun stuff here. One slight miscommunication, but Kaz and JC Ice are straight back into things. Looking forward to seeing the Dragons being given longer than five minutes at some point as this match doesn’t even go four. None stop action though and the Dragons are a breath of fresh air with their high flying offense, and Jamie Noble especially works so hard in these matches. I thought we had seen the last of PG-13 in WCW in February so glad we’ve had a couple of more matches from them. Don’t know how many more we’ll get now.

The Naitch is still in his street clothes, while Vince Russo walks out with Buff Bagwell and Shane Douglas and then joins the commentary team at the announcer’s desk. Buff offers Lex his hand, but Luger gets the cheap shot in first with a boot to the mid-section. He mocks Buff’s strut in something that was far funnier than it had any right to be. Bagwell with an eye poke and a tag to Douglas who starts working over Luger. Reverse on the Irish whip and Lex is only just about able to get Douglas up for a gorilla press slam. Flair pulls him to the outside and unloads with chops and punches on the arena floor before tossing him back inside. Thumb to the eye again halts Team Package in their tracks as Douglas and Bagwell look to wear down the Naitch. Side headlock, Flair shoots him off and both men go down after accidentally colliding heads. Douglas whips Flair into the corner but he’s not got the momentum to do his bump so they repeat the spot a matter of seconds later. Naitch manages it this time, Shane clotheslines him on the apron and then Lex gets a clothesline in on Douglas as the referee’s back was turned checking on Ric. Tag to Luger and he’s all over the ‘New Blood’. Flair with a figure four on Douglas and Russo leaves the announcer’s desk saying “this ain’t happening”. Bagwell with a low blow to Luger, and he drop an elbow on Flair to break the figure four. Douglas picks up the Naitch and drags him over for a ‘Buff Blockbuster’, however Flair moves and Bagwell hits the move on his own partner instead. Flair makes the cover but Russo pulls Nick Patrick out the ring at two. They get into a shoving match on the outside as Luger signals for ‘the rack’, when out through the crowd comes Bryan Clark and Brian Adams. Double chokeslam on Luger, Patrick is now KO’d on the floor, Russo takes the referee’s shirt off him and puts it on (badly!) and counts the three as Douglas and Bagwell become the new tag team champions. Just like the first Flair & Luger tag match this was better than I expected. The action was pretty basic with a simple structure to the match. Flair again worked hard and was motivated while Luger seemed the opposite (struggling on the press slam), although his Buff strut was tremendous. Bagwell is one of my least favourites, so whenever I’m able to get into a match he’s involved in, the wrestlers have done a good job. Like everything on his show the finish was overbooked with the Russo involvement, the attack on the official (which is something else we can add to the list of things the camera missed!), Kronik’s debut and interference and finally Russo counting the fall. I’m starting to think more and more that the whole ‘New Blood’ angle is about Russo pushing himself to the forefront.

This was scheduled to be Ric Flair & Lex Luger vs The Mamalukes in the first round of the tag team tournament. Flair is in his street clothes because apparently Vince Russo made it clear to them that this is a street fight. After Team Package make their entrance Russo is out and says it’s not fair to have two experienced veterans against two ‘rookies’, so to even things up he’s adding ‘the boys’ to the match; ‘the boys’ being Ron & Don Harris. The teams split off with the Mamalukes working on Flair and the Harris’ on Luger. Team Package start to fire back, Flair with a belly to belly on Johnny the Bull and the figure four. For some reason he just lets go of the hold only to get nailed with a thrust kick from Vito. Double boot from the twins on the Naitch for two. Clothesline in the corner and we get the obligatory face first bump. Back elbow to one of the brothers, Flair heads up top but is caught and slammed to the canvas. Naitch avoids a couple of elbow drops and makes the tag to Luger, however the official’s back was turned and he ushers him back out the ring. Johnny gives him a helping hand which sends Luger tumbling to the floor. 4 on 1 on Flair inside, and Disco Inferno rams Luger’s head into the ringpost outside. Apparently Liz slugged Disco in retaliation but the camera’s missed it. Two ‘Sicilian looking’ guys then show up and drag Disco to the back. The Harris’ and Mamalukes start fighting amongst themselves, forgetting about Flair, who’s able to tag in Lex. He runs roughshot over them all and clears the ring. Whip to the corner on Johnny, who in one motion, leaps to the top turnbuckle, turns around and comes off with a flying clothesline to Luger. Miscommunication sees Vito accidentally slug Johnny and Lex racks him for the win and to advance in the tournament. This wasn’t as bad as I feared, but was also fairly messy. In addition, there was so much going on that the camera missed out on parts of the action on more than one occasion. That wouldn’t have happened in the WWF, and ‘if’ it did, you could bet your bottom dollar there’d be a replay to show us. Not in WCW! Don’t start me on a tag team tournament where it’s four on two either and if this match is anything to go by, I have a hunch there will be an awful lot of overbooking in this Russo era. Not sure what happened with Flair just letting go of the figure four early doors, whilst there appeared to be little reason for the Harris twins and Mamalukes to start fighting amongst themselves. Just like Billy Kidman’s promo on Monday, Mark Madden’s commentary seemed to be playing to the newsletter readers with his inside comments.

Jung Dragons are Jamie-san and Yun Yang, as Kay Hayashi is apparently in Japan. JC Ice mocks the Dragons with some stereotypical Japanese bowing and face pulling, before slapping Jamie around the chops. He ducks a lariat, but Noble comes back with a flying headscissors. A dropkick sends Ice to the floor and Jamie with a somersault senton out on to him. Yang with some knife edge chops to Frog and a one footed dropkick where he flips all the way over and nearly lands on his feet. JC whips Jamie into the ropes, dropdown and Wolfie grabs his ankle from the outside. He steps out onto the apron, however JC causes a commotion distracting Yang and the official, which allows Toad to nail Noble with a legdrop off the top to the back of the neck as Wolfie is holding, and preventing him, from re-entering the ring. Back elbow and a double foot stomp from Ice followed by a double facebuster as they continue to work over Jamie-san. Russian legsweep/dropkick combination. Whip to the corner, JC on the charge but Noble gets his foot up. Missile dropkick off the middle and he’s able to make the tag. Yang unloads on the opposition until Ice is able to counter his punches in the corner with a powerbomb. Frog tries to suplex Jamie from the apron to the outside, however he blocks it with a shot to the mid-section and a sunset flip into a powerbomb to the arena floor (I felt the thud of that one myself!). As the referee checks on them, Wolfie is in the ring and goes to hit Yang with the hub cap but he moves and he clobbers his own partner instead. Rapid fire blows to the gut take care of Wolfie, and the Dragons with their splash and legdrop off the top finisher to JC for the win. Is Frog Toad from NWA Wildside? For a makeshift team, he and JC Ice worked well together and looked pretty seasoned, certainly moreso than XS, who’ve been together far longer and whom I was watching just prior. Yang for an 18 year old is super talented and his style, very much Bruce Lee inspired, is like no-one else. Crazy to think that today he’s only 36! Good little TV match here and PG-13 continue to provide plenty of entertainment on the WCW ‘C’ shows.

Lane leapfrogs over V5 and Rave nails him with a right from the apron. Frankensteiner but no cover as Lane does his terrible Grandmaster Sexay dancing again. Same ‘Poetry in Motion’/bulldog off the middle spot as before. A sloppy looking double leg trip from XS followed by ‘Total Elimination’, and you can now add The Eliminators to the teams they are stealing from (although XS’s version looked nowhere near as good or damaging!). Nice drop toehold from V5 sends Lane head first into the middle turnbuckle, then a double press slam from the brothers dropping him throat first across the top rope. V4 throws him to the floor and a suicide dive out onto him. Reverse neckbreaker and Lodi is in to break up the pin. Lane elevates one of the Villanos over his head and onto his brother (like the last match) and a ridiculously hammy looking crawl to make the tag. Rave with a double lariat off the top and all four men are in the ring. XS shoot the Villanos into each other and Lane with a dropkick that sends one of them to the outside. Suplex/crossbody finisher and XS come out on top again. Structure of the match is very similar to the previous one and you have the same main spots (‘Poetry in Motion’, bulldog off the middle, throwing one Villano onto the other, suplex/crossbody finisher), although they went with Lane as FIP this time. XS actually looked greener than the week before and it’s like they’re just regressing. Lane’s ‘hot tag’ was especially comically looking and their ‘Total Elimination’ was anything but. The Villanos at least seemed more motivated this time out. On a par with the first match, but I’d give this the slight edge due to the effort of the Villanos.

The big WCW reboot and the start of the ‘Russo-Bischoff era’ which was supposed to see ‘New Blood’ being pushed to the forefront of WCW. Billy Kidman is out, and feels he’s been handed a ‘get out of jail free’ card after being held down for years by the ego maniacs trying to hold on to their fading careers. Tonight is his night and the one person he wants to address is the biggest ego maniac of them all, Hulk Hogan. Kidman says how he’s been bad mouthing him for weeks, about his size, and while he might not be as big as him, he has two things Hulk Hogan will never have, heart and talent. Hogan claims that Billy Kidman couldn’t draw flies? Well who knows better about drawing flies than a piece of shit like him! He calls Hulk out and as luck would have it, Hogan happens to be walking past a monitor and see what’s happening. When Kidman wonders if his balls are as big as his bald spot? That line seals the deal and he heads to the ring. Hogan confronts him and says how he’s heard him crying and whining for months about “when’s he going to get a break? When’s he going to get a push?” and claims it’s punks like him that give the young guys a bad name. Kidman tells him he’s had a good run but that run is over. Hulk says if he was in the same league as him he might understand what this business is about, but he’s so peewhipped by that girlfriend of his… at which point Kidman jumps him. Kidman actually gets the better of things at first until he leaps off the apron, Hogan sidesteps, and he goes flying into the guard rail. He puts Kidman over his shoulder and rams him into the ringpost like a dart. As he unloads on him in the corner, Eric Bischoff walks down to ringside carrying a chair. He makes out he’s on Hogan’s side only to blindside him him with the chair, and then count the ‘three’ as Kidman covers him. Did anyone outside of newsletter readers and those who were on the internet understand what this was about? It felt like it was booked for the minority as opposed to the majority. Kidman did a good job, although his promo felt like a combination of legitimate grievances and lines Vince Russo had given him (‘balls as big as your bald spot’). Hogan outshone him the moment he arrived, both in the verbals and the fight. Surely if you wanted to try and give Kidman a push or the rub you would want him to be a bit more competitive in things? As it was he only got the visual pin after the help of Eric Bischoff and a steel chair and I’m not holding out much hope with this feud.

Lodi as Rave is one of those things that completely slipped my mind. Lane with a dropdown and a frankensteiner. He tags in Rave and they steal the Hardy Boyz ‘Poetry in Motion’. Bulldog off the middle and V5 is in to break up the pin. Real poor looking punch to the mid-section/knee lift combination, and now Lane is stealing Grandmaster Sexay’s dancing! Guillotine legdrop for two. V4 reverses an Irish whip and V5 with a knee to the back. V5 drives Rave’s face into the canvas and this time its Lane having to save his partner. V4 drags Rave to the outside, V5 with a dropkick through the ropes and the Villanos then pick him up and rams him head first into the ringpost. Legdrop to the back of the neck, V4 goes for a leglock submission but doesn’t stick with it for long. DDT on V4 and Rave is able to make the tag. A shoddy looking dropkick to V5 and he then elevates him over his head and onto his own partner. Lane clotheslines V5 over the top rope to the floor, Rave with a powerslam and a combination suplex/crossbody for the win. Whoa! Angle alert as the Villanos attack XS after the match, clear the ring of them and celebrate as if they’re the ones who won the match. Considering how long they’ve been a team (Lenny & Lodi, Standards & Practices and now XS), Lane and Rave look like they’ve been thrown together at the last minute. Lane is still real green and Rave is just plain bad, with his offence being especially soft looking. They try a few double team manoeuvres but none of them look crisp, and that includes their finisher. There’s also nothing worse that stealing moves or spots from two of the most popular teams in the opposite company; it makes you look second rate. Villanos surprisingly showed nothing and it could easily have been anyone in their place. Match, I think, would’ve benefited with Lane playing FIP (he’s the better of a bad bunch) and Rave being the hot tag, although in the grand scheme of things I doubt it would have made much difference. Amazed that we got a little post-match angle, which having already checked out the spreadsheet, must be the pre-cursor for the rematch.

Surely it falls under 'Armchair Booking' anyway?

Steve Corino is out and says how he wanted to give the people of Wichita an old fashioned bullrope match, but he doesn’t see any takers in the back and knows there isn’t a man or woman brave enough to face him in a match of this kind. Tommy Dreamer’s music plays and Corino tells him it’s nothing to do with him and if he gets in the ring he’ll kick his ass! It doesn’t have the slightest effect on Dreamer who ignores his words, gets in the ring and slugs him. Just as he’s about to clock him with the cowbell, out sprints Tajiri who nails Dreamer in the back with a kick and then another around the head. At this point Corino changes the match stipulations from a bullrope match to a Japanese death match. Tajiri chokes Dreamer with the bullrope and an early ‘Tarantula’. Dreamer counters the handspring elbow with a Russian legsweep and then tosses Tajiri to the floor. He throws him over the guardrail but we then lose the wrestlers completely due to Feinstein’s awful camera work. By the time he’s worked out how to switch on night vision the wrestlers are heading back to the ring. Dreamer places the ring bell on Tajiri’s groin and rings it with the hammer. Tajiri avoids a chair shot and then kicks it into Dreamer’s face. He slams his head into it and then kicks the back of the chair (like he’s been doing in recent death matches). Dreamer calls him on, but Tajiri unloads with an array of kicks in the corner that leave him crumpled on the canvas. Thrust kick for two. He sets him up in the ‘tree of woe’ and places a chair infront of his face, however when he goes for the baseball slide dropkick, Dreamer picks up the chair, lifts himself out the way and Tajiri ends up posting himself. Dreamer then turns the tables, puts Tajiri in the ‘tree of woe’ and stands on his balls. A fan passes him a crutch and he uses that to drive into his crotch area too. Chair infront of the head and Dreamer with the running dropkick. He drags Corino into the ring and nails him in the groin with the cowbell (Tommy sure does like his ball shots!). A table is passed in there and Dreamer sets up in the corner. I’m not sure what he’s got planned, but Tajiri puts a stop to it anyway blowing the green mist in his face with both Dreamer and Corino sat on the middle turnbuckle. Tajiri with a double foot stomp off the top to Dreamer who’s lay on the table for two. Corino goes to hit Tommy with the cowbell, but he moves and hits his own man instead. Double DDT and Dreamer covers Tajiri for the win. Post-match Rhino and Jack Victory attack Dreamer until Sandman’s music plays. He is quicker than last night but still takes his sweet time, stopping to smoke his cigarette as he makes his way through the crowd! Singapore cane shots all around and they make sure to emphasise Rhino’s toughness as it takes three of them to get him out of there compared to just the one for everyone else. Sandman invites a handful of fans into the ring to drink with him and Tommy, and one guy especially seems to be having the time of his life climbing the turnbuckles and jumping up and down. When one of the girls tells Sandman that she doesn’t drink, he claims to have a cure for that, then pulls her head back and pours some beer down her throat! Classy! This started off promising with the Corino promo and then him weaselling his way out of the match, however it lost everything the moment they headed out of the ring and into the crowd. I don’t know if you can blame it on RF’s camera work, but it certainly doesn’t help when you lose the wrestlers and can’t see what’s going on. I wasn’t bothered by the Corino interference as it only occurred at the end of the match, plus I’m a lot more liberal to things like the use of weapons, brawling in the crowd, outside interference etc in ECW than I would be in other promotions. Some cool stuff as always with a Tajiri match, but not much flow to this at all. One point, why in a ‘Death match’ when there is no disqualification, does Tajiri release the Tarantula so soon (even at all), when he could just keep the hold applied?