GSR

Wolfie and Johnny start things off with Johnny wrestling in his hat. Wolfie tags in J.C. Ice and The Mamalukes get heat on him for the next five minutes. At one point Johnny starts doing overhead military presses with Jamie and I like their Bensonhurst Bomb (double hip toss and they then catch their opponent and drive him into the canvas), but The Mamalukes are both pretty bland characters. Southern style hot tag to Wolfie with J.C. crawling around the ring and through his opponents legs to make it. Big backdrop to Johnny, and an atomic drop with an assist from Jamie sends Vito out of the ring. Facebuster off the top on Johnny and Vito is back in just in time to break up the pin. All four participants are in the ring and with the referee seeing to Wolfie and Vito, J.C. waffles Johnny with a hub cap. He makes the cover but Disco Inferno drags Vito out of there to save the titles and J.C. follows with a flip dive over the top rope onto Johnny. Meanwhile in the ring Wolfie has climbed to the top turnbuckle, but with the referee otherwise engaged, Disco pushes him off and Vito hits the jumping DDT for the win. The final few minutes off this, from where J.C. tags in Wolfie, are great, but it was pretty boring up until there. I don’t think PG-13 ever picked up a win in WCW, but they’ve been entertaining in every match they’ve had. If this is the end of their run they’ll certainly be missed by me.

Kidman with a clothesline to Skipper who goes backwards over the top rope to the floor and follows up with a pescado. He throws him back in the ring and comes off the top with a crossbody for a two count. Bit of an awkward spot as Skipper tries to backdrop Kidman over the ropes but they eventually manage it. Kidman lands on the apron, Skipper dropkicks him and he takes a nasty looking bump to the floor landing flush on his side. Awesome springboard crossbody to the floor from Elix to Kidman. Skipper with a mule kick dropkick and a Northern Lights suplex into a powerslam. Ax handle off the top for two, but he then misses a dropkick off the top. Kidman reverses a powerbomb into a facebuster, and Skipper again pulls out his ‘play of the day’. He jumps to the top turnbuckle but slips, and Kidman is on him unloading with punches. Huracanrana from the top and that’s all she wrote. The best match Skipper has been involved in so far, but no surprise considering who his opponent is. He’s a ridiculously athletic wrestler, but even working against Kidman you can tell he’s green. He’s got some unique moves, but tends to go from high spot to high spot to high spot. No bringing the crowd down in between. Plenty of potential on display from him though.

Power Company are a couple of compact jacked up twins, while Skipper and Jindrak have clearly sorted out whatever beef that had last month. Jindrak is still doing the basketball gimmick, still looks green, but has a ridiculous vertical leap on him. Power Company with the heat on Elix, including a powerbomb/clothesline combination that Jindrak has to break up the pin for. A second miscommunication in the match sees one of the PC clothesline their partner when they were aiming for Skipper. The two of them argue amongst one another allowing Elix to make the hot tag. Jindrak goes to work on the PC but his punches look horrible. He whips the one member into this partner and tags in Skipper who comes off the top with a springboard dropkick for the win. While referee Mark Johnson was counting the fall, Jindrak hits a springboard clothesline to the other twin. Couldn’t take much from this one. The Power Company were basically buffoon like jobbers and what was the reasoning for Skipper and Jindrak even being a team now? Jindrak is still nothing in the ring, but with his athletic ability and his body, the guy physically looks like a million bucks (he needs a new wardrobe though!).

Another performance of ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Heart’ to open. Lucky us! 3 Count for this match are Shannon Moore and Shane Helms, backing up what I said in the previous six man that these two are here to carry the workload for the team. Hot, quick opening with a criss cross spot that sees PG-13 collide with one another and then Helms taking Wolfie over the top rope with a rana to the floor. Leg lariat by Shannon to J.C., followed by a suplex and a frog splash from Shane. Wolfie with a kick to the back of Shannon that slows 3 Count down and gives PG-13 their first opening of the match. J.C. clobbers Shano in the back and he takes a spill to the outside, from where Wolfie suplexes him on the floor. Wolfie with a nice spinning powerbomb and Shane is in there to break up the pin. Electric chair by Wolfie and a series of dives by everyone fail to hit their mark. Shannon dropkicks Wolfie to the floor followed by a flip five out onto him. Evan Karagias gets up on the apron holding one of 3 Count’s circles and takes a swing at J.C. who ducks out the way. Ice rolls Helms up, Nick Patrick counts to two (after being initially distracted by the action on the outside) and Shane kicks out propelling Jamie forward. Karagias clobbers him with the circle and this time Shane rolls him up and hooks the shorts for the pin. These teams were having a heck of an all action sprint until that god awful finish. Evan Karagias isn’t even involved in this match and he manages to ruin things! It was so obvious how this was going to finish and it didn’t look good at all with him stood on the apron waiting for his spot. A clean finish and this would’ve surpassed the La Parka & Silver King/Villano’s match as the best C-match so far, but that ending took it down a peg. Great stuff up until that ending.

No Squire Taylor with Regal this week. I don’t think anyone sells an arm wringer better than Regal; compare his face to Sierra’s when they’re both on the receiving end of one during the match. Sierra doesn’t even acknowledge the hold. Japanese stranglehold from Regal which Sierra powers out of and reverses in an old favourite World of Sport spot. I also really liked when Regal was arguing with referee Billy Silverman, but was driving his shin into Sierra’s throat as he was doing so behind Silverman’s back. Not the finest knee strikes from his Lordship as you can clearly see him pulling them. Sierra starts to fight back but Regal quickly puts a halt to that, putting him away with the chicken wing into a Hangman’s noose. Worth watching for Regal but that’s it.

I wasn’t a fan of this at all. It had its moments but LaRoux looked very hesitant at times, and it was the worse match of the three that Silver King has had on Saturday Night so far (although I would attribute that almost entirely to LaRoux). Lash hits a nice rana, jumping from the second turnbuckle to Sliver King, but King had to stand waiting for a couple of seconds whilst Lash prepared himself. Spinning DDT by Silver King for a one count, and a terrible miscommunication on a botched crossbody attempt by LaRoux when it looked like King was going for a clothesline. Lash tries for a Boston Crab but Silver King fights the hold in what looks like a bit of on the spot improvisation after the previous botch. Silver King misses his double springboard moonsault, and a crossbody off the top from LaRoux but he doesn’t even go for the pin (why do such a move then???). Crucifix by Lash for a two count and he then misses a splash off the top. Silver King with a powerbomb for a near fall. He misses a corkscrew senton and Lash catches him with his Whiplash 2000 for the pin. The Whiplash 2000 is a neckbreaker variation and I’m pretty sure he used it last week against Kaz Hayashi, although it wasn’t a finisher then.

Short all action match with Smothers getting in much more offense than I would’ve anticipated. Tracey drops the Barbarian with a kick to the back of the head, then comes off the top with an elbow to the throat for a one count. He runs the ropes, ducks a clothesline attempt from the Barbarian, but is met by a big boot to the face and that’s all for the ‘Wild Eyed Southern Boy’. Don’t know what Smothers contract status would’ve been with ECW, but after seeing him here, surprising that WCW didn’t make a play to bring him in when they were signing up anyone and everyone in late ‘97/98.

I think LaRoux is meant to be a heel here as there seems to be some audio sweetening and he teases giving his rosary beads to members of the audience before deciding against it. Hayashi is so smooth in what he does, and hits a real nice fireman’s carry takedown early. LaRoux counters a headscissors off the ropes with a side slam for a two count. Tilt-a-Whirl backbreaker on Kaz for another two and Hayashi reverses an attempted bodyslam with an inside cradle for a near fall. Always a fan of someone putting their forearm across their opponents face when they cover them, something that LaRoux does more often than not. Hayashi with an awesome standing huracanrana out of nowhere, an enziguiri and the two counts continue. A neckbreaker variation from Lash and then my least favourite move of his, three rights followed by a little dance, the splits and then a clothesline, or a poor man’s Road Dogg as I like to think of it. LaRoux dumps Hayashi over the top rope but he lands on the apron with Lash thinking he’s dumped him on the floor. LaRoux turns around and is met with a kick to the head and then a slingshot DDT from the apron back into the ring for the pin. Decent little match. A couple of sloppy looking spots (for example, at one point Kaz tries to slide through Lash’s legs but doesn’t quite make it), but both worked hard here with plenty of near falls to get you into the match. I said Kid Romeo was unlucky not to get a chance with the WWF when they initially bought those 24 contracts and LaRoux falls into the same category, although I don’t think he ‘looked’ right for what they were looking for back then. I popped for Kaz’s rana but can’t convey enough though how much I hate that poor man’s Road Dogg spot Lash does.

The Villano’s jump Silver King and La Parka at the bell and V5 catches King with a gorgeous scoop powerslam. He tags in his brother who comes off the top with a knee across Silver King’s chest, and the Villano’s continue to dominate until La Parka is tagged in. Great armdrag headscissors combination on the Villano’s from the apron to inside the ring. Tag to Silver King and a double dropkick to the Villano’s and the tide has changed in the match. The Villano’s step outside for a breather, but no such luck as Silver King and La Parka catch them with a springboard bodypress from the second turnbuckle, and a corkscrew plancha to the floor respectively. Silver King misses a splash in the corner and V4 with an abdominal stretch takedown for a two. Tony Schiavone starts to speculate that if The Mamalukes can become WCW tag team champions, then either Silver King & La Parka or The Villano’s could too. Not too sure on that one Tony! Silver King misses the double springboard moonsault, V5 with a forward rolling DDT but Parka is in there to break up the pin. V4 holds Silver King outside ready for a V5 dive, but when he runs the ropes La Parka catches him with a kick to the back of the head. Parka immediately follows with a twisting leg lariat off the top for the win. Best WCW Saturday Night match so far. La Parka is in the small bracket of lower/middlecard wrestlers who can actually garner some sort of response from the Saturday Night crowd. I never really appreciated the Villano’s when I was younger, considering them boring, but liked what I saw here.

I don’t recognise Williams. Is he a Power Plant guy or someone from Wildside? Regal has Squire Taylor accompanying him to ringside for this. Great facials from Regal as you would expect from him, and the story of the match is that the veteran is just too much for his young opponent. Regal gets the better of the early mat wrestling exchanges and when Williams has him backed up in the corner and Nick Patrick is in to separate them, the crafty veteran drills him with a left while the referee isn’t looking to gain back control. Nice knee strikes to the head and the Squire starts jawing with the crowd, telling someone that he’ll ‘rip their bloody head off!’ Regal gets the pin after a move I’ve not seen before, but which Scott Hudson describes as a chicken wing into a Hangman’s noose. He should use that one more often as it’s a cool looking finisher.

Rogers controls things early including a nice pump handle overhead release suplex. Romeo ducks a clothesline, kick Rogers in the mid-section and climbs to the top turnbuckle. He blows a frankensteiner off the top and Rogers rolls to the outside to try and recover. Romeo with a pescado over the top rope to the floor and the two of them fight on the outside. Back in the ring and Rogers goes for a powerbomb but Romeo rolls all the way over and counters with a sunset flip for a near fall. Rogers reverses an Irish whip into the turnbuckles and charges at Romeo. He leaps over him, hooks his arms with his legs, and rolls through for another sunset flip, this time it being enough to grab the win. Romeo was one of those guys I thought should have been given a shot by WWE but he looked real green here. Pretty athletic, but not much else. Rogers was the glue that held this together and even just about rescued that botched headscissors off the top. Whatever charisma the Fantastics had Rogers was lacking here, but that may because he was playing the heel to Romeo’s face. On the basis of this though, WCW should’ve hired Rogers to work with these youngsters at the Power Plant on a daily basis.

They play up the 1995 Rumble big in the pre-match to this where only one of Shawn Michaels’ feet touched the floor after the Bulldog threw him over the top rope. I didn’t pick up on it at the time, but if I was watching this for the first time I’d be thinking that there’s got to be a reason for showing this. Hmmm… while a new entrant will enter the match at 90 second intervals this year. D-Lo Brown and Grandmaster Sexay are the first two participants, and Jerry Lawler has a look of disappointment on his face seeing the Grandmaster out so early. Jim Ross jokes that some say Grandmaster Sexay got a bad break at birth, but that’s only a rumour! Mosh is number three and Kaientai are out for their first unscheduled appearance of the evening but both quickly get dumped over the top rope and sent packing back to the dressing room. Christian and Rikishi are the next two entrants, and the crowd comes alive after being pretty dead for the opening few minutes. Rikishi dumps Mosh, Christian and then D-Lo (following a Rikishi Driver) and it’s just himself and the Grandmaster left. Sexay looks to be doing all he can to prevent Rikishi from going after him, telling him that they’re friends etc, but Rikishi seems to be remembering that it’s ‘everyman for himself in the Royal Rumble’ and there are no friends. Before anything can happen Scotty 2 Hotty is number six and he gets between the two of them. They hand Rikishi some shades, the lights go down, the music starts playing and the three of them dance with the Madison Square Garden crowd lapping it up. Rikishi eventually gives Too Cool a double clothesline and eliminates them both, however apologizes saying ‘it’s only business’. They forgive him and all is good in the Too Cool camp. Rikishi dances until the next participant enters who is Steve Blackman. Another ‘Rikishi Driver’ and he’s gone and Viscera, who although fairs better, doesn’t last much longer either. The Big Bossman is number nine but he wants no part of Rikishi and doesn’t even get in the ring, waiting outside for the full 90 seconds. Test is next and he gets the second biggest pop of the match so far and goes right for the Bossman. The two of them fight on the arena floor, including Test giving him a backdrop out there, before throwing him in the ring. Davey Boy Smith, Gangrel and then Kaientai are back, but are again thrown out straightaway with Taka taking that awful looking bump right on his face which they replay several more times through the match. Edge is number thirteen and gets a good initial pop before the crowd dies almost immediately. Bob Backlund is a surprise entrant to another loud reaction, and everyone teams up to eliminate Rikishi. Chris Jericho is next and he puts an end to Backlund’s participation with a dropkick that sends him flying over the top rope. Crash Holly is followed out by Chyna and she doesn’t get anywhere near the response that you’d expect. She eliminates Jericho when she is stood on the apron and suplexes him from in the ring to the floor, however while she’s watching her handiwork the Bossman elbows her in the back and sends her tumbling to the floor too. Faarooq makes his entrance but the Mean Street Posse are on his tail and attack him. Once they’ve done their damage they quickly scarper, that though leaves him easy pickings for the Big Bossman who eliminates another. Road Dogg and then Al Snow enter the fray and we’re two thirds of the way there. Road Dogg eliminates the Bulldog, and Val Venis is out to a bit of a pop. Funaki returns for a third time, although it’s the same result as the previous two. No Taka as Jim Ross informs us he’s been taken to the hospital after what happened earlier, and of course that gives them a reason to show that bump again. Prince Albert is number twenty two, and Edge is eliminated after he charges at Al Snow and Val Venis who duck and backdrop him over the top rope to the floor. Bob Holly is followed by The Rock, who comfortably gets the largest reaction of anyone, and he eliminates the Bossman. Billy Gunn is next and he goes straight for The Rock who is now the focus of the Rumble. The Rock eliminates Crash and the Big Show is number twenty six and he starts to clear the ring getting rid of Test and Gangrel. Bradshaw is twenty seven, but just like Faarooq he is followed by the Mean Street Posse (look out for Pete Gas’ epic fail as he attempts to slide in the ring!). Bradshaw handles all three of them quite comfortably, but the distraction of the Posse allows him to be eliminated by the Outlaws. Faarooq is back out to help his partner and the Acolytes beat the MSP all the way to the back. Kane is next and like all the ‘big names’ he makes quick elimination, his being Val Venis. The Godfather is the penultimate entrant, but while he and his ho’s are making their way around ringside Kane eliminates Prince Albert. Funaki is back out for the final time (no need to guess what happens here), before X-Pac at number thirty is the last participant. With everyone now entered they quickly get rid of the dead wood; Al Snow eliminates Bob Holly, Big Show eliminates The Godfather, The Rock eliminates Snow, Billy Gunn eliminates his New Age Outlaw partner the Road Dogg, Kane eliminates Gunn and The Rock eliminates X-Pac with him sailing over the top rope and taking a hellacious flat back bump on the floor. It transpires that the referees were distracted by the New Age Outlaws and Kane fighting though. The Outlaws pulled Kane from the ring after they were eliminated, and while the officials were trying to separate them and get the Outlaws to the dressing room, they missed X-Pac’s elimination and he snuck back into the ring unnoticed. Kane with an enziguiri and bodyslam to the Big Show, however a leg lariat from X-Pac sees him eliminated and we’re down to three. Bronco Buster on Show but it has zero effect and he just gets to his feet, grabs X-Pac, presses him over his head and drops him over the top rope and straight to the floor. The final two and the crowd seem more into the match than at any point previously. The Rock with a ‘People’s Elbow’ and Show with a chokeslam. He puts Rock over his shoulder and goes to dump him outside, but Rock grabs hold of the top rope and Show’s momentum sends him over and The Rock is the winner of the 2000 Royal Rumble. This Rumble is really carried on the back of Rikishi and The Rock. If it were a graph there would be a peak when Rikishi enters a drop off after he is eliminated and a second peak when The Rock enters. I was surprised how dead the crowd were for the majority of this as well. Were they just burned out after the HHH vs Cactus match? A number of wrestlers get pretty decent initial pops (Edge, Backlund, Venis for example) but the crowd dies by the time they’ve got in the ring. Chyna especially got next to no reaction when I was expecting her to be over pretty strong. With the likes of Mosh, the Bulldog, Gangrel in this you realise how little depth there is in the WWF at the moment (although that will be rectified shortly with the soon to be arriving Radicalz). Rikishi and Too Cool were over huge and I got a kick out of Kaientai and the Posse’s involvement in the match. Props to X-Pac for that bump he took on the false elimination, but you only really need to watch this from the final four onwards.

Angle cuts a pre-match promo and tells the people of MSG that for one night only he’s decided to be their champion, because if they waited for Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks to bring home the title they’d probably be waiting forever! He knows that his unnamed opponent has to be pretty nervous coming out to face an undefeated American hero (the crowd are already chanting ‘We Want Tazz’) at this point, but wants him to take a deep breath, remember his three ‘i’s’, come out and give it his all. Tazz’s music plays and he gets an almighty pop. Backdrop over the top rope to the floor on Angle by Tazz with Kurt taking a wild bump out of there. Tazz with an attempted suplex on the floor, but Kurt reverses it and hits one of his own. Overhead belly to belly from Angle and he climbs to the top. He’s too slow though and Tazz runs into the ropes causing him to lose his balance. Overhead suplex from the second turnbuckle by Tazz, and Kurt gets his foot over the rope just in time even though the referee at first counts the three. As Tazz is arguing that call, Kurt kicks him in the mid-section and small packages him for a two. German suplex from Angle and an overhead belly to back from Tazz that a man who’s suffered a broken neck should never be taking. Two more suplex variations and Tazz locks in the Tazzmission. Jerry Lawler calls it a choke and says that it’s illegal, while Jim Ross says that it’s just a version of the sleeper. ‘The King’ is adamant that it’s a choke, claiming Tazz has got his hand around Kurt’s throat, but Angle ends up passing out from the hold. Angle does a stretcher job and JR adopts his Owen heart voice saying ‘we’ve got a problem here’ and ‘this is not good’. He then speculates that it might have been more of a choke than a sleeper after all. I remember enjoying this when I first saw it and nothing has change here. It’s fair to say that it was all downhill for Tazz in the WWF after this though. I winced seeing Angle take that belly to back suplex where he almost landed straight on his head. Excellent strong debut for Tazz and a great way to open the Royal Rumble. Could have done without JR going all Owen Hart on us at the end mind.

Flair jumps PG-13 on the outside as they’re doing their introduction and Crowbar then flip dives over the ropes to the floor on all three of them. David opens with J.C. Ice and he just looks plain awkward in a wrestling ring. Slingshot bodysplash by Crowbar and he tags Flair back in by hitting him in the head. As the referee tries to get Crowbar out of the ring Wolfie nails Flair in the back of the head and J.C. rolls out of there. Wolfie with a tilt-a-whirl slam on Jamie, dropping him on Flair for a two. Wolfie misses a senton off the top and David tags in Crowbar. He slams J.C. onto Wolfie and hits a springboard moonsault onto both. David and J.C. start fighting on the floor, and with the referee distracted by them, Wolfie nails Crowbar with a hub cap. J.C. gets back in the ring and starts celebrating, but while the referee tries to get him out of there David clocks Wolfie with a crowbar (the item not the wrestler!). Crowbar then drapes his arm over Wolfie and the ref counts the fall whilst a none-the-wiser J.C. Ice continues to celebrate thinking they’ve won. Of the four PG-13 matches in WCW that I’ve watched this was the worst. David Flair is just so bad and awkward in everything he does. I can understand Crowbar being the one you hot tag, but that leaves Flair playing FIP (not really sure if that’s the right term as a lot of these wrestlers on the C-show seem to flip between face and heel from week to week) and he’s no Ricky Morton that is for sure!

Armstrong has a look of Jeff Jarrett about himself here and plays heel throughout. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with this, I just found myself struggling to get into the match. Chavo turns the tide with a floatover facebuster, and then gets the pin after a tornado DDT. I always think of Scott as a skinny, slight man, so it was strange seeing him quite a bit bigger than Chavo.

This is a rematch from Souled Out last night where Buff got the win, but this time with Kimberly Page as the special guest referee. DDP looks pissed off, spits in Bagwell’s face and the best Buff can do is fire back with some pulled punches! An uranage from Page and Kimberly is reluctant to make the count. Collar and elbow tie up and they both fall through the ropes and brawl outside and into the crowd. DDP breaks a crutch over Buff’s back and Bagwell retaliates with a garbage can shot to Page’s. They return to the ring and Bagwell hotshots DDP into the top turnbuckle and puts the boots to him. He starts posing trying to impress Kim, but this gives DDP the few seconds he needs to recuperate and fight back. Buff holds the top rope to block the Diamond Cutter and a lousy looking double armed DDT follows. This time however Kimberly is reluctant to make the count when he‘s making the cover. A bunch of pinning reversals and each time Kim is slow with the count. Buff climbs the turnbuckles for the Blockbuster, but Page falls into the ropes causing him to lose his balance and crotch himself. DDP ascends himself for a superplex, Bagwell low blows him and hits the Buff Blockbuster. As Buff is celebrating Kimberly seemingly runs into the back of him knocking herself down, although Tony Schiavone claims she went to shove him and Buff accidentally knocked her down! He goes to check on her but Page with the Diamond Cutter and Kimberly counts the three. The effort of DDP aside this was terrible; although I suppose it was interesting and different seeing some brawling in the crowd on a Nitro. For someone who has been in the sport now for ten years, Bagwell does nothing that looks good and I struggle to see what he actually brings to a match. The finish was ridiculously contrived with Kimberly running into Buff and the slow, hesitant count of the falls was overplayed. The less I see of Bagwell in this project the better!

3 Count give us a rendition of ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Heart’ before the match begins and actually look like they are getting some response from the audience. PG-13 are out and that piped in crowd noise is back, whilst this appears to be a battle of the heels. Wolfie D with a lovely powerbomb on Shane Helms, and he then clotheslines him over the top rope to the floor. He jumps out after him but Helms hops back in the ring. When Wolfie climbs to the apron to get back in himself, he’s met with a dropkick and takes a bump from the apron straight into the guard rail. Helms then comes off the top with a somersault flip dive to the floor. While they continue to go at it on the outside, Shannon Moore and J.C. Ice get it on in the ring. Head scissors attempt by Moore, but Ice tosses him to the floor and Evan Karagias immediately comes off the top with a corkscrew plancha to Ice for the pin. This was a super, super quick sprint, too short to really amount to anything but fun while it lasted. It’s a shame that they didn’t cut Skipper/Jindrak and give this a couple more minutes instead. Evan Karagias didn’t do much, and whilst he might be the ‘face’ of 3 Count, it’s blatant Helms and Moore are the ones to carry the workload for the team. Wolife D looked the best in the match (followed by Helms) and no idea why PG-13 were kept to appearances on Saturday Night and Worldwide as they would’ve been a solid undercard act to open Nitro or Thunder.

You always got some totally random matches in the latter years of WCW Saturday Night and this is a perfect example. I didn’t spot it on the Jindrak/Skipper match, but the piped in audio is really noticeable here. Every time ‘Bad’ Barry Horowitz is on offense you hear booing (and pretty sizeable booing at that), although if you check the crowd you see they’re just sat down with their arms folded! Nice double knucklelock into a bridging suplex from Horowitz, and Silver King gets the win after a double springboard moonsault. Not much to this one. Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson spending most of the time talking about Souled Out, to go with the piped in audio, didn’t help. I expected a bit more from these two but they didn’t mesh as well as I thought they would.

Jindrak is doing a basketball gimmick and Scott Hudson says how he received a lifetime ban from the NCAA for rough conduct on the basketball court and then showed up to the Power Plant. Mike Tenay talks about Skipper and Jindrak having a bit of heat at the Power Plant and that being the reason for this match. The audience is really sparse for this. Skipper has a really smooth side headlock escape that he transitions into a cross armbar, while his future ‘play of the day’ finisher is just a transitional move here. Tilt-a-Whirl backbreaker from Jindrak and also a torture rack/reverse neckbreaker combination. He heads outside the ring and onto the apron then comes off with a springboard clothesline attempt. Skipper ducks out the way and comes off the top with a missile dropkick for the pin. Jindrak is clearly very green here, but has a few nice moves (including a running crossbody splash into the corner along with what I’ve also mentioned) and is a tailor made heel. I was much more impressed by Skipper who is the better wrestler (and also athlete) by some distance and looks as though he would be a fine addition to the cruiserweight roster. Match probably went a couple of minutes longer than was required.

Bret and Nash are both members of the NWO and the match has been made by Commissioner Terry Funk. After Nash has entered the ring we cut to Scott Steiner in the dressing room with the Old Age Outlaws (yuck!), and while Paul Orndorff and Larry Zbyszko hold his arms, Funks sticks a bar of soap down his mouth to wash it out. Bret’s focus for this match is Nash’s leg and to try and take one of his wheels out from under him. He’s got great intensity here and I liked the way he sold his own head when butting Nash. Nash also does a real good job of selling his leg; he doesn’t just forget about it and is either shaking it out or limping on it for the rest of the match. Nash with a low blow and then ‘snake eyes’ for a two count, before Bret retaliates with a low blow of his own. As great as his selling is, his offense is the pits. Nash with a side slam and he heads outside to grab a steel chair where he is attacked from behind by a pipe wielding Arn Anderson. Bret picks up the chair, sees Arn, and starts saying something to him, when Sid Vicious comes running down the aisle and into the ring. When Bret turns around Sid kicks the chair which he was holding and it goes crashing into his face (this looked bad). Arn gets in the ring and the cage lowers (this had been used for the Jeff Jarrett/Jimmy Snuka match earlier in the card). Sid with a chokeslam, powerbomb and Anderson counts the ‘pin’. Commissioner Funk and his flaming branding iron head out and he brands Nash with it as the show goes off the air. This one surprised me as I wasn’t expecting much but it was real good up until that stuff at the end. Bret worked hard and Nash’s selling was a pleasant surprise. He wasn’t on offense much either, so although his stuff looked ropey, it wasn’t a detriment to the match. He certainly didn’t phone in a performance which is what I was expecting from him. Shame about the ending, the outside interference and the non-finish, but guessing it was all done to try and build Souled Out main event and the belief that Sid will walk out of there the new Heavyweight champion.

Spike gets a ring crew member to help him put some tables up around ringside, although that backfires early as Awesome presses him overhead and throws him through the first of these. He crawls back in the ring but Awesome tosses him straight back out the other side and through two tables that had been stacked on one another. He whips Spike into the guard rail and he goes flying over it and into the crowd. Awesome then with a running dive over the rail onto him. Back in the ring and the beating continues until Spike reverses a powerbomb into a huracanrana over the ropes to the floor. Spike catches his legs on a tope, but Awesome is able to catch him in time and prevent him from landing head first on the concrete. Spike with a rana off the top and Awesome responds with a killer looking clothesline. He tosses him over the guard rail again, nails him with a chair and comes off with an impressive springboard clothesline from inside the ring and over the rail to Spike. Unfortunately on landing he loses his footing on the wet concrete floor and takes a nasty looking fall himself. Awesome sets up for a powerbomb from the apron through a table on the floor, but Spike blocks it and hits the Acid Drop instead. Acid Drop attempt inside the ring, but this time it’s Awesome who blocks it and tosses Spike over the top rope and through another table. Jeff Jones sets a table up in the ring, and after some back and forth action and with Awesome sat on the turnbuckle, he puts Spike over his shoulder, climbs to the top and comes off with an almighty Awesome Bomb through the table for the win. This match was tailor made for its audience, and while I can’t fault the effort of either man, it was sloppy, a tad repetitive and wasn’t for me (although I imagine me in 2000 would have lapped this up). The brawling on the outside and into the fans, the chair shots, the table breaking, it was exactly what this crowd wanted; so on that score they’re to be applauded. Spike took a right beating here although I found his selling infuriating as he’d be on death’s door one minute and perfectly fine the next. Feels more like a TV main event as opposed to a PPV main event.

Bret in black denim shorts and NWO shirt, as opposed to his traditional pink and black. Non-title match with the WCW Champion going one on one with Commissioner Terry Funk under hardcore rules. Funk throws some chairs into the ring and Bret rams him head first into one. He then makes the most of the hardcore rules, driving a baseball bat into the Funker’s mid-section before cracking him with an unprotected chair shot to the head after they end up outside. Funk with a chair shot, but at least Bret gets his hands up. He dumps the ‘Hitman’ in the cart with all the hardcore weapons and wears a garbage can out on him. Funk with a moonsault and he was lucky not to break his neck, landing almost head first on the canvas. Bret with another full force chair shot to the head and he then ties Funk’s leg up in the chair and comes off the middle turnbuckle with an elbow to it. I swear you can see his leg bend. Bret nails referee Charles Robinson while Funk hobbles around on his leg. We then cut to the dressing room and see Arn Anderson putting on a referee’s shirt when he is joined by David Flair. They exchange words and he gives Flair the referee’s shirt, David locks him in the dressing room to protect him from the NWO and then heads to the ring. Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash are out before him waiting and it’s an NWO beat down. Crowbar and Daffney try to help Flair but to no avail, while Nash ends up powerbombing Funk off the stage and through a table. You hear the names Bret Hart and Terry Funk and you have high expectations, so in that regard this has to be classed as a disappointment. It wasn’t terrible or anything, it just seemed like a run of the mill match to fill some time before the angle with the NWO at the end. I hated the chair shots to the head that Funk took and he was damn lucky he didn’t seriously hurt himself with that moonsault that he missed.

Terri is accompanying the Hardyz and she’s such a bad fit for them. Snow with his tribute to Dallas ’82 and he slams the cage door on Jeff. He pulls him from the cage and clobbers him in the back with a chair before throwing him back in. For some reason he grabs hold of Terri and shoves her in there too, and then padlocks the cage shut. Snow ties Hardy’s leg up in the steel chair, but Terri is quickly over to rake him in the back to prevent him from doing any damage. Snow stalks her down and Matt starts to climb the cage from the outside. Al however cracks the cage with the chair, catching his fingers and he falls back down. Jeff climbs up the cage to try and escape, but Snow catches him and executes something resembling an RKO. Snow with some chair shots to the gut and he then rams Jeff head first into the cage. He picks Hardy up and puts him over his shoulder ready to ram him into the cage again, but Jeff slips down his back and sends him careering into the cage instead. He then uses a prone Snow as a springboard to shoot up the cage, flip over the top and down to the floor to the win. Terri is left all alone in the cage with Snow after, but Matt is in there sharpish, grabs the chair, clocks Snow and carries Terri to safety. Below average TV match. All I could think of was how people used to talk of Al Snow as some super worker and just being bored rigid by him in this match. Finish was a surprise as it came out of nowhere.

Quick pre-match promo from Spanky wishing ‘good luck boy’ to the American Dragon who is challenging for his TV title today. Dragon comes out to ‘Born in the USA’, while Spanky is out to Britney Spears’ ‘Oops, I Did it Again’. Ooh, Shawn Michaels on commentary. Kendrick looks tiny and so young here. The two of them start out mirroring one another, and even back in 2000 Dragon lays his chops in. A lovely series of armbar reversals and escapes, ‘Spankensteiner’ and then Spanky whips Dragon into the turnbuckles, runs up him and flips backwards but is met with a clothesline. More stinging chops and a guillotine submission from Dragon which HBK refers to as ‘some sort of tarantula’. Spanky with a great dive over the top rope to the floor on to Dragon, missile dropkick off the top and a moonsault for a near fall. As they both end up on the outside, Spanky uses the steps to leap off and nail Dragon with a flying elbow. Dragon with a stiff forearm and a pair of clotheslines, the second folds Spanky over double. Dragon Suplex and Shooter Schultz is out to attack Dragon and break up the pin. He is quickly followed by Bonecrusher and Rudy Boy Gonzales, and Gonzales with a sweet as superkick to Schultz. Dragon and Spanky then team up to clear the ring of the three. From a historical point of view, probably the most interesting match of the month to open things, seeing these two at the start of their careers. Dragon looks like he’d be a star in the New Japan Junior division, and if you were to tell me one of these would end up the biggest star in the industry, I wouldn’t have said it would be him. Despite one miscommunication at the start, Dragon already looks like one very tidy worker. Spanky is clearly the flashier of the two, but he looks more raw than Danielson and doesn’t have much in the way of transitions (his moonsault also needs some work!). The two of them tried a lot here, and considering their level of experience and how short they had been wrestling I enjoyed this one immensely.