GSR

Quick backstage interview from the Haas brothers, Charlie saying how he and his brother have captured every title imaginable in amateur wrestling and today, on the Power Hour, they will capture the Southern tag team titles. The Dupps grab a word with Corey prior to the bout and Jack doesn’t take too kindly to his belief that they’ll have their hands full and wonders whether they’ll have to kill someone before he finally starts giving them some credit. They’ve been here for four months now and annihilated everyone that’s been put in the ring with them. He doesn’t care what kind of amateurs the Haas’ were as today they’re going to find out who the toughest team in pro wrestling is. Good promo from him. Dave compares the Haas brothers to the Fabulous Ones, in the way that they’ve lit up the territory since they arrived, which is some pretty hefty praise indeed. Corey on the other hand is struggling to identify which brother is which! Charlie with a series of nice arm drags. Double team slingshot shoulderblock. Double suplex on Bo and Jack is in to break up the cover. Charlie, on the apron, takes exception, but as he remonstrates with the referee the Dupps double team his brother behind his back. The champions look to have things under control when out strolls Blade Boudreaux carrying a giant teddy bear. Blade heads over to Dave and Corey and says how the Dupps like to talk about how tough they are, but look at what he found in their luggage. Bo spots him with the bear and immediately takes off after him, chasing him to the dressing room. Russ frees himself from the reverse chinlock and lands a flying forearm. Hot tag to Charlie but there’s no-one for Jack to tag, he’s all alone in there. The Haas’ hit their moonsault/corkscrew legdrop finisher and as it looks like we’ve got ourselves new tag team champions, Bo returns at the very last second, stomping the referee for the title saving DQ. Bo is pissed! He throws the official from the ring, drills the brothers with a chair and when Jack tries to reason with him, he throws him down too. Security get destroyed with a chair until eventually Jack does manage to calm him down and get him out of there, Dave and Corey fleeing the scene though as it appears he’s heading their way. All that destruction over a giant bear!

There’s a hoe down going on in the middle of the ring between Tracey and Harry Palmer! A “Tracey sucks dick” chant breaks out so he spits at the crowd, this after giving nigh on every one of them the middle finger as he made his entrance. ‘Sellout’ Smothers lets everyone into a secret, saying he was sent here by James E. Cornette to conquer IWA-MS and if he hears anyone chanting “I-W-A” he’ll “beat the fuck out of them”. He reveals that Suicide Kid was actually trained by Danny Davis but made his name in the IWA and helped build the company with all those assholes in the dressing room. Tracey is now calling the fan “Neanderthals”! He tells Kid that he’s just a stepping stone for next week when he gets to destroy his former FBI partner Little Guido. In fact Kid looks a little Italian to him, so he’ll “beat the fuck” out of him and think he’s Guido while he does it. Finally he asks the fans to keep the noise down while he takes his shirt off! Great stuff. Kid leads the “I-W-A” chants, a Smothers slap across the chops firing him up. He starts with seven straight high spots including a lovely Asai moonsault deep into the first row and a triple jump flip dive to the floor. As he goes for number eight. Smothers grabs hold of the referee so that Palmer can give Kid a shove off the top turnbuckle. After a quick roll up Tracey tosses him to the outside and then distracts the official again so Palmer can get some shots in. Smothers throws him into rows of unoccupied seats before blasting him in the head with a beer can. DDT. Kid transitions into a sunset flip from the attempted crucifix for a near fall, but any thoughts of a getting back into this are premature as he’s cut off by a clothesline. Tracey is garnering good heat here, continuing to flip the bird to anyone and everyone. The ref misses the cover on the running crossbody, Palmer keeping him occupied on the other side of the ring. Double thrust to the throat by Smothers. He slows things right down with a rear chinlock, using the ropes for some additional leverage. Russian legsweep. Kid gets his knees up on the splash but then fails to connect on the somersault legdrop. Tip up over the incoming Smothers, Kid ducks the clothesline and lands a twisting senton off the top. Reverse crossbody as he’s back doing his high spots again. ‘Air Sabu’, ‘Van Daminator’, Kid’s like a one man ECW tribute act. ‘Van Daminator’ to Palmer from the apron. He slides the chair back into the ring, right by Tracey, who yanks the middle rope up as he tries to get back inside himself. Smothers slams him on the chair for the win as chants of “bullshit” echo around the arena. No similar to last year on that front then! Tracey was excellent on the microphone pre-match, garners heat throughout and keeps you watching, your attention won’t drop when he’s involved. Kid is nothing but a spot monkey here though. Anyone else and things could’ve been different as there’s a clear clash of styles between the two. I ended up watching this twice and I’m still not convinced with my thoughts. At least we have the Guido match to look forward to in a week’s time.

Shank says that he has come to the IWA for one reason only, to make that fat piece of shit Ian Rotten his prison bitch. Ian doesn’t take too kindly to that, promising to welcome him with a steel chair that will compress his head down into his chest so far that he’ll be talking out his ass. Brutal clubbing clothesline from Ian, who then throws Shank out to the floor and dents a chair over his head. That was even more brutal. Shank comes up bleeding and I assume he must’ve bladed although I didn’t see him gig. I seriously hope it wasn’t hard way. Ian grabs a barbed wire covered tennis racket from a fan, presumably a rib on Cornette, which he grates on Dorsey’s face. They take a walk around ringside and Ian swings a plastic bat covered in thumbtacks at Shank, dozens of them getting embedded in his skull. Shank gets hold of the bat and returns favour. He breaks some light tubes over Ian who then does his regular thing of turning away from the fans, placing his head on the apron between his arms and blading out of view. Don’t think he drew as much blood as he wanted so goes for it again, this time the camera right on him as he draws the blade down his forehead. A great looking right hand from Ian before throwing Shank into a row of empty seats. Hard forearms to the side of the face. Ian places a pin tray on his back, which he strikes with a chair, and then gets hold of a broom which he tries to force up his backside. Shank shoves Ian into the ringpost as the action finally returns to the ring. Clothesline followed by a twisting legdrop. He collects his chain from the corner, which he wraps around his fist, but Ian ducks the shot, double armed leg and he makes sure to hook the leg for an early bath. Rotten says hat he had fun beating Shank’s ass so why don’t they do it again in front of 400 people (someone’s dreaming) in a fans bring the weapons, falls count anywhere match? I think that’s some sort of approval/show of respect as he gives Shank credit for taking that “chair shot from hell” and still be standing at the end. A bloody Shank tells him that if he wants it, he’s fucking got it. Shank did get in some licks but a fairly dominant Ian match overall. I’m always uneasy with these chair shots and it’s almost like some sort of weird imitation for these Death match workers (this was Shank’s IWA-MS debut) to have Ian blast them over the head with a chair. The outside portion also fell into the I hit you with weapons, you hit me weapons trope that tends to be quite commonplace. Can’t see how a rematch would go or fair differently to what we’ve seen, especially as they were using weapons bought by the fans here anyway. An improvement on the handicap match.

Sex Pistols in the ‘House of Hardcore’ courtesy of Baker’s entrance theme. Trent says that tonight marks the end of Corporal Robinson because last week he made the mistake of doing what Americans do so well, running their bloody mouths. He claims to fear no man; well tonight he faces not one man, but two. Corp’s response consists of making homophobic jibes at the two and getting his catchphrase over. Baker is announced as being from Liverpool, England, although surely if you’re doing a rugby gimmick somewhere like Leicester or Gloucester would be more apropos? Also I detected no Scouse accent whatsoever. The man advantage plays dividends at first until Corp levels Trent with a clothesline and then dumps Shadow with a German. The fight takes to the floor where Corp whips Baker into a row of chairs. You have to admire Ian’s optimism with the amount of rows he puts out every show. As he stalks the ‘Rugby Thug’ with some light tubes he’s handed by a fan, Kid nails him with a baseball slide dropkick through the ropes. The action returns to the ring where Trent drops an elbow from the second rope. Lovely looking middle rope moonsault by Kid. The heels get a raft of two counts, Baker even pulling out a Brad Armstrong style Russian legsweep. Suplex/flying crossbody combination. Kid chooses not to follow up, instead collecting a chair from ringside which he piledrives Corp onto. Facebuster onto the chair and Corp comes up bleeding. Rolling neck snap. Baker mounts and reigns down punches trying to open that cut up more. Shadow does Elix Skipper’s ‘Play of the Day’ finisher, of which I think he’s only the other person I’ve seen use. He sits Corp up top but it appears something goes wrong as Shadow slips on the ropes. Possibly trying to get their footing for a superbomb maybe? Anyway Shadow ends up low blowing Corp. He misses a top rope twisting senton and then Trent misses on the somersault. Baker accidentally blasts Shadow with his rugby ball, and as he tries to apologize, Corp facejams him into the match. ‘Bootcamp’ and Corp picks up the win. Strangely he doesn’t bother to stick around to celebrate, immediately heading to the back. Trent is sick and tired of the fans calling him a pussy and showing him no respect. If these people want hardcore he’ll show them what hardcore is and challenges Corp to a thumbtack death match on the next show. That turns into a tag match involving Shadow and Suicide Kid, the former not too happy, although Trent tells him it’ll be fine. The heat section went too long for my liking and felt even longer than it actually was. I found my mind wandering and was actually quite bored. Shadow is an incredibly irritating character too, and not in a good way, doing the horn hand sign after every move and constantly laughing “ha ha ha” throughout.

The first match of Show’s I’ve watched since his return to the WWF and it’s crazy to think that he went from OVW TV one day to a WWE PPV the next and then a top of the card position after that. The Rock is out before our two competitors, much to the surprise of Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler who wonder what he’s doing as he’s not scheduled for a match. He joins them at the announcing desk and when Cole asks him why he’s out here, Rock responds “since when does The Rock need a reason to come on his own show?” There is a reason though; he’s out here to get a closer look at the Big Show after Show chokeslammed him on consecutive days earlier this week. As soon as Show sees Rock he’s pointing and mouthing as the two exchange heated words. Jericho looks to use his speed advantage, although the flying forearm doesn’t even drop Show. He runs into a clothesline before a huge press slam. A big paw sends Jericho out to the floor. Show tosses him back inside but is slow as he goes to get in himself, getting nailed by a springboard dropkick. Baseball slide, however Show snatches and runs him into the steel post. Lawler is talking about being obsessed with pie in response to some comments from the Rock. FFS. Good stuff from Rock putting over Jericho’s ladder match with Chris Benoit as one of the best matches he’s ever seen. Y2J avoids an elbow drop and returns to using his quickness. Missile dropkick and Show’s finally down. Jericho tries for ‘the Walls’ but can’t turn the mammoth Show over. He catches him on the crossbody and hits ‘The Final Cut’, a new finisher, which is Shane Helms’ ‘Nightmare on Helms Street’. This looks like this is over when out runs Chris Benoit who attacks Show for the DQ, retaliation for what he did to him on Raw. Show stalks ‘the Crippler’ around ringside and when they pass the desk Rock gets up from behind it to an electric response. Rock clocks show with the IC title belt, Jericho with a flying shoulderblock from the apron and finally a ‘Rock Bottom’ on the floor.

Was anyone really clamouring to see this match up again? Taker meets Rikishi on the rampway as the two don’t waste any time in getting going. In typical dominant style he beats him around ringside before throwing him inside, the bell ringing to get this officially underway. On Raw, Rikishi had challenged Taker to a No Holds Barred match, however later reneged after the challenge was accepted. Old school rope walk. Rikishi reverses the Irish whip and dumps Taker with a Samoan drop. It’s not long before he starts his comeback, although Rikishi does pick up a two count following a belly to belly. Haku starts slowly walking out towards the ring and when Taker DDT’s Rikishi, jumps inside and attacks him for the DQ. He beats him down in the corner as it appears Haku and Rikishi have formed an alliance. Double headbutt. Rikishi drops his full weight on Taker’s chest while at the same Haku with a couple of falling headbutts. Kane makes the save and the ‘Brothers of Destruction’ send the two Islanders packing. Even in hindsight the Haku signing is mystifying. Was it anything more than Vince getting his own back on WCW for the Alundra Blayze situation? It’s not even like he was taking their U.S. champion, but the title holder of the least important belt in the company. I suppose In that respect though the equivalent of the Blayze belt. I bet Haku couldn’t believe his luck though, going from wrestling Bam Bam Bigelow in a nothing match on Thunder to a week later feuding with the Undertaker at the top of the card in the WWF. A nothing match.

I don’t know what Shane Helms’ music is (I’ve tried Google and YouTube to no avail, and it’s the one before ‘Vertebreaker’) but it’s extremely catchy. He and ‘Primetime’ Elix Skipper are the first two men in this Cruiserweight Gauntlet, the winner going on to meet Chavo Guerrero Jr for the title at Superbrawl Revenge. Shane with a big jumping neckbreaker for an early near fall. Skipper blocks the ‘Sugar Smack’ and lands a double arm overhead suplex. Graceful as spinning guillotine legdrop from the top. Helms blocks the ‘Play of the Day’, reverses into the ‘Vertebreaker’ and Elix is out of there. His former 3 Count partner Evan Karagias is in next, although doesn’t even last sixty seconds. He does connect on a springboard crossbody, but doesn’t on the quebrada and becomes the second man to fall to the ‘Vertebreaker’. Billy Kidman is number four, the first of the “big guns”. He ducks under a Helms swinging arm and clotheslines him over the top rope to the outside. Springboard crossbody to the floor. Kidman avoids the ‘Nightmare on Helms Street’ and hits a short powerbomb for a two. X-plex. Mike Tenay, while acknowledging his time in 3 Count, says how Helms has seemingly come out of nowhere as he makes a name for himself in the singles ranks. Kidman uses the top turnbuckle to assist on the bulldog. Shane reverse the ‘Kid Crusher’ into the ‘Vertebreaker’, however Kidman flips over, reverses again and hits the ‘Kid Crusher’ for the three. Yang is the fifth man out. He gets backdropped out onto the apron but manages to snap Kidman’s neck across the top rope with a reverse neckbreaker. It looks like he stumbles as he jumps off the top turnbuckle, coming up short of his intended target. Kidman dumps him with the belly to back. After being whipped into the corner Yang catches Kidman with a headscissors and propels him face first into the mat. That looked ugly. Huracanrana by Kidman. Pedigree and Yang gets a shoulder up just in time. Thrust to the throat turns the tide. Yang sets something up from the middle but Kidman fights free and hits a ‘Kid Crusher’ from the second rung. Tenay loses his shit on seeing that. Jamie Noble connects on a great springboard dropkick followed by a flying forearm, the strategy being to try and end this early. Inverted suplex by Kidman. He’s slow to follow up and as he heads upstairs Noble cuts him off. Top rope Frankensteiner. Kidman counters the bodyscissors with a wheelbarrow suplex, the previous two matches appearing to have taken it out of him as he can’t capitalise. Noble sits Kidman up top but gets caught and powerslammed to the mat. ‘Kid Crusher’ is reversed as is Noble’s tombstone, however he reverses one last time for the upset win, Tenay calling it the biggest singles victory of his career. Next man out is Rey Mysterio Jr, one of the”odds on favourites”. Huge backdrop sends Noble over the top rope to outside. Sliding tornado, under the bottom rope, to the floor. Noble counters the springboard rana into a sit-out powerbomb. Rey escapes the tombstone, springboard backwards off the ropes onto Noble’s shoulders and transitions to a bulldog. Springboard diving headbutt to the small of the back and Noble is gone. Neither Lash LaRoux nor Shannon Moore last too long, although a touch longer than Evan Karagias, LaRoux going down to a spectacular split legged moonsault. Our last man out is Kaz Hayashi and he takes Rey off his feet with some kicks followed by one to the side of his head. The rana is blocked and turned into a spinning powerbomb. Rey avoids the charge as Kaz goes shoulder first into the steel ringpost. He sits him upstairs, quesadora into a bulldog from the top and Rey moves onto Superbrawl Revenge to challenge for the Cruiserweight title. Shane Helms’ star continues to rise as he gets a couple of wins before falling to Kidman. Noble’s victory over Kidman is put over as the biggest win of his career, if the plan is to elevate him too I would have given him another, whether over Lash or Shannon it doesn’t matter, and then have him lose to Rey, whilst at the same time using the story of potentially beating both Filthy Animals in one night and how huge an achievement that would be. Rey, naturally, was tremendous and he and Chavo should tear the house down at the PPV. A few other comments; Skipper looked good, Evan was in and out, Yang looked green, which he has a tendency to do from time to time, Lash was forgettable and I wish Kaz and Rey were given longer.

Lex Luger thanks the fans for their warm reaction. He informs everyone that he takes his role as an official referee very seriously and, despite their scepticism, will remain totally unbiased and will call this right down the middle. Bagwell’s music starts for a second time, which I thought was some sort of snafu, but we’re just going to a commercial. Luger at least now looks the part, putting on a black and white striped top during the break. As much as I hate the whole concept of the “heel referee”, Lex is at least amusing with his selling and wincing while Nash pummels Buff in the corner. He physically involves himself, dragging ‘Killer’ off him, Scott Hudson justifying it saying that Bagwell was in the ropes and Nash was using them for extra leverage. Nash stalks Buff around ringside, Lex in pursuit, but as he steps over the rope back into the ring Luger grabs an ankle and he’s helpless as Bagwell unloads with punches. Unlike earlier there’s no stepping in from our unbiased official when Buff uses the ropes to choke ‘Big Sexy’. Reverse chinlock. Nash works his way back to his feet and as Buff throws a bunch of rights, he remains standing through each one, unable to be dropped. ‘Killer’ plants him with a side slam and we get a prime reason why I absolutely detest the “heel ref”, Luger holding his count up at two in order to give Bagwell additional time to kick out. ‘Snake Eyes’ and more of the same, Lex claiming a shoulder was raised when it wasn’t. Nash has had it with Luger but ends up on the receiving end of a mule kick. Spinning neckbreaker by Buff and now he’s trying to fast count the pin. Bagwell collects a chair from ringside, although surprisingly Luger snatches it away from him telling him that he can’t use it. Oh, he’s conveniently holding it in front of Nash’s face for Buff to dropkick. Lex lifts him up and carries him over to the corner for a ‘Blockbuster’ but Bagwell misses the target. That looked real bad. DDP shows up through the crowd and gives Luger a ‘Diamond Cutter’. Tony Schiavone says that’s all well and good but wonders how he can count? I think I know. Jackknife powerbomb and then he slaps the unconscious Luger’s hand to the mat three times as he moves on to Superbrawl for the World title match. Scott Steiner attacks Nash post-match which brings out Kronik, Road Warrior Animal, a returning Page and Jeff Jarrett as the show goes off the air with everyone going at it. Tedious.

Stipulations in place for this one are that the winner goes onto referee the Kevin Nash vs Buff Bagwell main event; a match Nash must win if he wants a World title shot at Superbrawl Revenge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Luger so happy, that grin permanently etched to his face. There’s a fair bit of overselling going on from ‘the Package’ here. DDP with a DDT. Discus lariat and Lex goes down like a felled tree. Luger stops Page’s momentum with a mule kick. Belly to back. He’s not broken a sweat yet, and that’s down to his lack of effort as opposed his cardio. After driving a boot into DDP’s throat, Page pulls himself up by the ropes and makes his comeback. More OTT selling and then some blatant foot stomping as DDP repeatedly slams his head into the turnbuckle. Top rope clothesline. Page doesn’t make the cover though, preferring to finish things with the ‘Diamond Cutter’. As he gives the sign for it he accidentally elbows the referee in the chest. With the official selling that, Jeff Jarrett is out and breaks a guitar over Page’s head. The ref apparently didn’t see any of that. Did he not see the broken bits of wood in the ring or wonder what Jarrett was now doing out there either? Lex then lifts a groggy Page up in the ‘Torture Rack’ for the submission. He and ‘Double J’ celebrate the win as it appears their plan is paying off. Luger was awful, every bit as bad as Sid at Sin, and dragged Page down to his level. More screwjobs and shenanigans at the finish, and I’m not holding out hope for anything clean come the main event either.

Jim Ross has spent too long sat next to ‘the King’ as Lawler’s smutty ways are rubbing off on him. When Trish makes her entrance, even though you don’t see him, you can tell that his eyes are popping out his head by his comments. Triple H ‘s focus is Angle’s knee which got damaged at the Royal Rumble and he’s methodical in his attacks of that body part, getting the initial jump after Kurt wasn’t paying attention on the outside. Swinging neckbreaker by Angle before tagging out to Trish. This will be interesting to see what the doctrine is at this time when it comes to man on woman violence. She comes off the top with a crossbody however ‘the Game’ catches her, Angle then assisting with the dropkick so she falls on top. Stephanie is in, wanting a piece of Trish, but Kurt instinctively grabs her by the hair and slams her backwards as she makes a charge for his partner. Immediately he’s apologetic although Steph is not in the mood for listening, slapping him twice across the face. Triple H gees back to working him over until he’s caught with an overhead belly to belly. A tag to Trish and he holds HHH while she again heads upstairs. Mule kick and Trish is stranded up there. Steph slams her to the mat while the men take it to the floor. The women roll around doing a sort of catfight, while Lawler has fits as they do so. Bulldog headlock but the official is with the men and misses seeing the cover. Hunter pulls her off his wife and gives her the ‘Pedigree’. As Angle climbs up onto the apron he goes over and decks him, leaving Steph to be the one to get the pin. It looks like HHH and Kurt are going to go at it again post-match when Steve Austin appears from behind ‘the Game’ and stuns him.

First time we’ll be seeing Shelton in singles action as opposed to being one half of the Stretching Crew. Spade has got no look, no physique and comes across as someone who has been pulled out the crowd to be a last minute substitute. I was thinking this is an odd TV main event but there is some back-story to this which Cornette explains. In Corny’s eyes he considered Spade a prelim wrestler at best, however Spade didn’t see it that way and ended up quitting OVW when Cornette wouldn’t put him in main events. Spade then started a vendetta against Corny, campaigning against him, trying to get the people to turn on him, showing up at spot shows etc. When he showed up at the arena today that was the last straw. He’d had enough of him disrupting his shows and decided to give him that main event he wanted, against Shelton Benjamin, and told him that should he beat him he’d give him a shot. Cornette’s not worried in the slightest though because he knows Spade, a man who couldn’t whip cream with an outboard motor, won’t win. Textbook belly to back suplex by Shelton who has dominated the match so far. He measures him for the superkick, which connects, and Spade takes a quality bump. After getting a couple of near falls Shelton leaps backwards in one motion to the top turnbuckle. Spade is crawling by the referee and it’s blatant what’s coming next. Yup, ref bump, Spade pulling Robert Brisco in the way of the flip dive. Shelton with a huge powerbomb but there’s no-one to count the cover. The Collector (Sylvester Terkay) is out, making his return to OVW, and he attacks Shelton. Chokeslam followed by a fireman’s carry slam before putting the unconscious Spade on top. Brisco comes around and despite Dean Hill and Cornette’s yelling from the booth for Benjamin to wake up, he can’t, and Johnny Spade is back on the OVW roster. He loses it on realising he has won, in the laid out Benjamin’s face as the footage ends. The best Shelton has looked so far. He did perfectly well in carrying this, even if it was admittedly short, and looks as though he has every bit as much, if not more, potential as a singles wrestler as he does a tag.

I’ve never seen Brian ‘No Neck’ Keck before, but remember Meltzer writing about him. Nothing overly positive I’m afraid, just someone with strong amateur credentials that tried his hand in the pro ranks but never went anywhere. Sadly he passed away last year at the age of just 48. Cornette and Dean Hill are joined in the commentary booth by Phil Fair as they go over the upcoming six-man tag match at Christmas Chaos and the various stipulations involved, the action in the ring playing second fiddle to all this. Nice overhead double arm suplex by Randy. There’s a really ugly miscommunication in there involving him and the Blondes where I have no idea what happens. Orton hiptosses Lee over the top rope, which should’ve been a disqualification, but isn’t called by referee Donna Derring. Corny covers for her, saying that the rookie ref deemed it unintentional so let it go. Lee telegraphs the backdrop and Orton with a sit-out powerbomb. Tag to Keck who runs through the Blondes with some clotheslines. Bushwhackers style battering ram. The Blondes reverse the double Irish whip sending Orton and Keck colliding into each other. With Orton dispatched out of there, a King facebuster on Keck followed by a Lee springboard elbow gives them the win. Post-match Sean Casey and Chris Michaels go after the Blondes, things fairly even until Fair’s timely low blow swings the fight in his team’s direction. He pulls out some hair clippers but before they’re able to shave King’s head Lee clears the ring with the aid of a metal chair.

Flash and Constantino do one of the most believable chases you’re likely to see, Rico running out the door and leaving his partner all alone as Flash tries to get his hands on the man who cost him the tag team title a fortnight ago. On his return Flash again makes a beeline for Rico however is kept at bay by referee Robert Brisco. Flash drops Black with a thrust kick and is happy to let him make the tag but Rico wants no part of it. Crossbody off the middle by Damaja. A Black knee to the gut stuns Damaja and seeing the man down, Rico tags himself in. Damaja with an up kick on the telegraphed backdrop. He tries to drag Rico over to Flash but he literally swims out the ring away from him. Black catches Damaja with a spinning sidewalk slam and Rico is wanting back in once more. He heads upstairs but Flash shakes the ropes causing him to crash to the mat. Damaja makes the tag and Rico immediately cuts off his escape route so there is no getting away this time. The match breaks down and Damaja and Black end up going at it out at ringside. Russ McCullough jumps Damaja, dumping him in the concession stand, and it’s two-on-one in the ring with Kenny Bolin distracting the official. Rico with the ‘Sudden Impact’, top rope splash by Black and this one’s over. The heels aren’t done, Nick Dinsmore, coming straight from the shower in only his trunks, making the save. Fun interactions between Rico and Flash.

Jim Cornette is still at it with Mark Henry being the man who mowed down the Big Show in that truck. The two will settle things at Christmas Chaos, while he reminds everyone that Nick Dinsmore is preparing for the biggest match of his life that night against Chris Benoit. One of the best things about Corny is the way he plugs these big shows (excuse the pun) multiple times weekly so they’re ingrained in your memory. Running crossbody by Dinsmore. Henry presses him off on the cover, through the ropes to the floor. As he climbs up on the apron to get back in the ring, Henry distracts the referee so Bolin can clobber him in the back with his briefcase. That changes the complexion of the match, Henry taking control and targeting ‘Mr Wrestling’s’ ribs. Huge press, elevating Dinsmore high into the air, and he comes crashing down, chest first, to the mat. Dinsmore avoids the big second rope elbow drop and starts jabbing away with some lefts. The backslide goes nowhere so he transitions to a rolling snap suplex, although Henry does block the third one. Flying forearm followed by a great looking missile dropkick. Bolin is up on the apron, unknowingly to Dinsmore though he’s slid the briefcase in the ring to his man. As Dinsmore grabs ‘the Star Maker’, Henry wallops him in the back of the head with it for the DQ. They both put the boots in when the Big Show makes the surprise save, running them out of there. Show says that everything Mark Henry has done won’t stop him (“the Show must go on”) and come Christmas Chaos he’s going to stomp a mud hole in his ass and walk it dry!

Williams establishes himself as the heel by telling the fans to “sit down and shut your mouth”. When he starts getting grief off some young kids in the front row he questions “shouldn’t you be in your bed?”, which is so British. Rock reminds me of a poor man’s Justin Credible, only with slightly more hair. Williams insults some “hard man” in a Metallica T-shirt, and then informs the crowd if they don’t keep the noise down and cheer for him he’s going to leave right now. Of course he doesn’t, although teases that he will on two separate occasions. After getting outmanoeuvred on the wrestling front Williams complains of a non-existent hair pull before going on another walk around ringside. Headstand escape from the headscissors. Single leg takedown by Rock and Williams does that ultra cool reversal of his where he turns it into a side headlock. I remember thinking that was so great the first time I saw it and it’s still cool as. Rock dumps him with a couple of belly to back suplexes. There’s clear daylight between the dropkick but Williams still takes to the outside for a breather. He’s stalling this one like a good ‘un, even taking a seat at the timekeeper’s table. When the referee starts counting him out he thinks better of it. As he’s about to return to the ring Scottie goes over to grab him but Williams snaps his neck across the top rope. The heeling continues as he uses the ropes for additional leverage on the Figure Four chinlock as well as the modified Indian Deathlock, the official catching him on the latter. There’s a nice added touch on the rear chinlock where he bends Rock’s own hand behind his head, grabbing his elbow to pull back and apply even more pressure. The crowd know as someone yells out “you’re hurting him!” Butterfly suplex for a two. Rock catches him with a headscissors, sending him out to the floor. Running flip dive over the top rope, although Scottie hits his heels on the metal barricade. Back inside, Williams with a snug European uppercut. He spends too long jawing with the crowd as he climbs the turnbuckles and Rock falls into the ropes causing him to crotch himself. Top rope Frankensteiner for a near fall. Rock struggles to get on Doug’s shoulders before hitting a side rana. Williams blocks the leaping rana, turning it into a sit-out powerbomb. A great looking ‘Chaos Theory’, however it’s only a near fall. I’m not sure about having folk kick out of that. Williams goes for it a second time but they end up running into the referee, bumping him. Rock counters anyway with a rollup, getting the visual pin as there is no-one to count the cover. He goes over to check on the official but as he turns back around turns into a swinging DDT that gets Williams the win. I didn’t watch any of Doug Williams when he worked in TNA so don’t recall ever seeing him work as a heel, even moreso as a heel in the UK. What he did here was basic stuff but effective for this crowd and environment. Interesting to see things like the headstand escape, the reversal into the side headlock and the ‘Chaos Theory’, all of which would become staples of his repertoire. I went and re-read what I wrote about his match with Maverick Wilde last year and the ‘Chaos Theory’ was also only a transitional move then. I suggested that maybe the reaction it got from the crowd would lead it to become his finisher. Not yet anyway. Enjoyable match all down to Williams and one that I’m glad I decided to check out.

I’m almost certain that’s a very young Jay Lethal in the white T-shirt shouting abuse at Nate Hatred as he makes his entrance. Wifebeater is dragging a barbed wire table out along with his manager, Mack Smack. I mean he and Smack are dragging the table, not he’s dragging the table and Smack! Smack rechristens his man ‘Natebeater’ for the night and then goes onto say a few words about Zandig as he’s concerned about his behaviour this evening, wondering if his fanny pack is cutting off his circulation or if he’s suffering from some tightjeanitis! He turns his attention to Hatred and while he does have some funny lines, this goes on for too long as he works his way through a self-help poster which he has bought as a gift for Nate. It’s not long before this one takes to the floor, RF getting trapped behind a bunch of fans as he makes his way around the ring to be up close. The crowd are heckling Hatred something rotten. Beater sends chairs scattering when he’s whipped into them, but then backdrops Nate into even more when he charges him. Hatred gets suplexed onto some upright chairs, at which point this tit in the crowd yells “is that the second bump you’ve taken in your life?” He drills Beater with a pair of hard chair shots to the head and now this other prat shouts “learn how to give a chair shot asshole”. Nate with a powerbomb onto even more chairs. RF is way too close to the action and almost gets taken out by a swinging leg on the powerslam. They return to the ring where Hatred gets a couple of near falls following a bulldog and a Northern Lights suplex. He ducks out the ring to collect that barbed wire table which he slides inside. Nate powerbombs Beater through the table and then gives him a fisherman’s suplex into the barbed wire, again both only good enough for a two. Hatred is in the face of the referee about his count when behind his back Smack empties a bag of crisps down Beaters throat. They must be his equivalent of spinach as he’s immediately got a second wind. On turning around Hatred gets planted with the ‘Choke-N-Stein’ into the barbed wire and the ref, presumably pissed at whatever it was he just said to him, fast counts the three. A lot shorter than I expected although both took some nasty bumps, both into the metal chairs on the floor as well as the barbed wire. Wifebeater’s back for one was all cut up from the barbed wire. Crowd were awful in their abusing and heckling of Hatred throughout.

Jericho is carrying a ladder out with him and Michael Cole wonders what he’s going to be doing with that tonight. Jerry Lawler calls him “a nut” and doubts he even knows himself. Y2J sets the ladder up in the middle of the ring and climbs up it. He tells Chris Benoit that he’s not going to do some twenty minute opening speech where he shows a bunch of wacky pictures, the Royal Rumble is this Sunday and the name calling is over. The only thing is he doesn’t want to wait until this Sunday, he wants him in a ladder match right now! It’s not the ‘Canadian Crippler’ who answers, rather his Radical brethren Perry Saturn, accompanied by Terri Runnels who ‘the King’ starts perving over. Saturn says that there is nothing more that Chris Benoit would like than to beat Chris Jericho up, like he always does, but after the cowardly attack on Monday night when Y2J hit him in the head with the ladder, he’s been under doctor’s care since. While he’s sure that come Sunday ‘the Crippler’ will get the job done, he’ll be more than happy to step in for him and do it right now. Jericho tells “Jupiter” to “shut the hell up” and as his ego is clearly more inflated than Terri’s chest, which leads Lawler talking about her breasts, to “step into the office”. Saturn makes his way around ringside and into the ring where the two exchange blows. A flying forearm sends Saturn out onto the apron where he’s then nailed with a springboard dropkick. Out rushes Benoit, but Jericho sees him coming and lays him out. As he stomps him down, Saturn from behind with a release overhead belly to belly. Benoit grabs Y2J’s ladder and rams it into his head, payback for Monday, before putting his arm in between the ladder and repeatedly slamming it down onto his shoulder. Finally he locks in the ‘Crippler crossface’, Jericho tapping wildly as Benoit has to be pulled off him by a bunch of referees. The damage is done though and ‘the Crippler’ takes a significant advantage into the PPV.

The Nationwide Heavyweight title is currently vacant and after the previous semi-final ended in some sort of non-decision (it’s never clarified what actually happened), this other semi-final is for the gold. Morton backs Lee into the corner and, as the ref gets between them to separate the pair, Lee slaps his own hand before grabbing his face, claiming Morton hit him on the break. While official Billy Biggs admonishes Morton, Lee laughs at the situation, however the moment he turns around he’s back holding his face. Inverted atomic followed by clothesline which floors Lee. Morton racks up a bunch of two counts until Lee pokes him in the eyes. DDT. That’s also only a two count and Lee is in the face of Biggs giving him an earful. Rear chinlock. Lee apparently had a big feud in the past with Buddy Landell where he ended up receiving 72 stitches in his arm. The crowd get behind Morton, rallying him to his feet, and he uses a jawbreaker to free himself. After being whipped into the corner Lee starts backing off. Morton moves in for the kill but Lee with a double leg takedown folding press. He hooks the tights, places his feet on the ropes and gets the pin to become the new NCW Heavyweight champion. I knew I remembered Lee from somewhere; he did enhancement work for WCW back in the mid-90s. Uninspiring action and the way this jumps around the various cameras that are filming the match is really off putting. Forgettable.

Even though he’s not here, Mr McMahon had signed the Dudley Boyz & Steve Austin to take on Edge & Christian & Kurt Angle in a six-man tag, however the Dudleyz were taken out backstage by a pair of ‘conchairtos’. Jim Ross thinks it’s not the wisest decision to come out and face Team ECK in a handicap match and wishes he’d tried to recruit a couple of partners. Jerry Lawler comments on Austin’s smirk, wondering why is he smiling when he’s got nothing to be smiling about? He does though, and here comes the APA. Bradshaw throws his weight around in there, launching Christian with a fallaway slam. The crowd are so hot for this. Faarooq carries on where his partner left off. Austin telegraphs a backdrop and after the Edge superkick Angle is wanting in. A pair of belly to back suplexes, he goes for a third but Austin flips over. Spinebuster, Angle getting a shoulder up just in time. E&C are in with chairs, although fail on the attempted ‘conchairto’. That brings in the APA and the two regular teams fight out the arena leaving Austin and Angle all alone. Superplex for a near fall. Triple H makes his way out, standing at the top of the entrance way, which distracts ‘Stone Cold’ and Angle gets in a low blow. The big thing is that HHH and Austin have been told they can have no physical confrontation with each other until Sunday night or they will be out of the Royal Rumble. Overhead belly to belly by Kurt. Austin blocks the ‘Olympic slam’ with some knees. He hangs Angle over the middle rope and comes charging at him, however even though Kurt moves out the way Austin puts on the breaks. Thesz press. Angle rakes him in the eyes. He comes off the middle with an axe handle right into a boot to the gut, Stunner, and this one’s done, ‘Stone Cold’ getting a pin on the World champion. We’re not done though! Austin’s staring a hole through Triple H who tells the audio man to “cut the damn music” as he makes his way towards the ring. He’s baiting ‘the rattlesnake’ and trying to provoke him into hitting him so that he will get kicked out the Rumble. Ross and Lawler are playing good cop/bad cop while this is going on, JR telling Austin not to be a fool while ‘the King’ wants to see him hit him. HHH continues to push his buttons and it looks like it’s starting to have the desired effect as Austin ducks out to grab a chair from ringside. ‘Stone Cold’ shows great restraint though, throws the chair down, flips him the bird and gestures that it’s all about the belt and that’s what’s important to him. As Austin is about to step back through the curtain Triple H calls him “a great big pussy”. That did it! Austin runs back to the ring but Angle lays out HHH with an ‘Olympic slam’ before he can get to him. Kurt starts celebrating and he ends up getting stunned, Austin left standing tall.

A quick recap of the events of last night where Goldberg’s career was ended and Road Warrior Animal was revealed as the mystery man. We then get some exclusive backstage footage, Ric Flair hanging out with ‘Totally Buff’ and waiting at the curtain, hi fiving and hugging Scott Steiner the moment he walks back through it. It’s explained that this has all been one giant swerve orchestrated by Ric Flair. Tony Schiavone gives an update on Sid Vicious, which includes graphic footage, from multiple angles, zoomed in and slowed down, of the leg break from last night. Fuck, did they have to. Sid was operated on earlier, had a rod put in his leg and is expected to be out of action for at least a year. I didn’t twig, but as well as Goldberg, last night was also the final match of Sid’s in WCW. A suited and booted ‘Totally Buff’ make their way to the ring. A funeral march plays as a bunch of Power Plant guys dressed as pallbearers wheel a casket out while a graphic on the Nitrovision reads “Goldberg: September 22, 1997-January 14, 2001”. Incidentally the pallbearers (including the likes of Robbie Rage, Chris Harris and Steve ‘Ali’ Sharpe) are the same guys who were acting as security last night and escorting Goldberg from his dressing room. Bagwell, feigning tears, opens the casket, in which are a copy of Goldberg’s autobiography, a spear and a jackhammer. “Totally Buff” each say a few words, neither of whom will win any awards for their acting ability that’s for sure. Luger invites anyone in the back who’s got some special memories that they wish to share to come out and do so. Only one person does so, Jeff Jarrett, who at least is doing a better job at pretending to be upset than the other two. Jarrett ends up changing tact, joking about how his memory is that Goldberg never beat him and he was never added to that long list of conquests. Scott Hudson notes how Jarrett ducked him the entire time Goldberg was in WCW! Next “the greatest WCW champion of all time” and “his favourite freak”, Scott Steiner and Midajah, join the party. Steiner says that Goldberg may have skyrocketed to the top but he wasn’t good enough to stay there, saying “good riddance” as he and Midajah then spit on the casket. Goldberg’s music starts to play, however it’s not him coming out of the dressing room door, rather Ric Flair and Road Warrior Animal. On returning from the commercial break Flair welcomes everyone to the new WCW. I think we get at least three “fat boy” jibes at various members of the audience in there as well. Without a hint of irony he claims that with him is the greatest collection of wrestlers ever assembled in one ring. A lot of thought, a lot of camaraderie went into their plans and in one night DDP & Kevin Nash lost the World tag team titles, Sid Vicious suffered a broken leg and they got rid of the supposed “franchise”, Bill Goldberg. He continues that as of tonight the men in this ring run the sport of professional wrestling and no-one can do anything about it. Kevin ‘the saviour’ Nash interrupts proceedings and states that he left ‘Big Sexy’ in Indianapolis, tonight in Fort Wayne, ‘the Killer’ is here! That gets a big response from the fans. He talks about driving a stake through Big Poppa Pump’s heart, taking his World title and then killing Ric Flair. Blimey! When Flair questions that he’s talking awfully big for a man standing all alone, he calls out some back up, DDP and a man who has been pounding on Scott Steiner ever since he was a kid, big brother Rick. Nash demands a title shot, but Flair informs him that he’s the one who makes the matches around here, not him. That brings out the Cat and Ms. Jones, Cat reminding them that, as Commissioner, he’s got some power too and thinks that Steiner’s booty needs to be kicked. He puts it to the fans and when they reply in the affirmative he books the match for later in the show. Nash gets some last minute advice from his back up prior to this World title match. ‘Killer’ has got an intense look on his face, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed with Tony Schiavone. Steiner reverses him into the corner but Nash comes back swinging laying in those rights. Ferocious running clothesline in the corner before clotheslining the champ over the top rope to the outside. Nash mounts him for a bit of ground & pound, however a Steiner low blow/headbutt to the groin stops him in his tracks. Back inside Steiner with a belly to belly suplex which Hudson has christened ‘Rolling Thunder’. Some blistering knife edge chops. He lifts Nash up with ease, dropping him across his knee. Double arm stretch/modified surfboard. ‘Killer’ fights his way up to his feet, Steiner goes to ram him into the turnbuckles but he puts the breaks on and slams Scotty’s head into them instead. Snake Eyes. The big boot connects and Hudson is convinced we’re going to have a new World champion and the reign of Ric Flair will end right here on Nitro. The words “right here on Nitro” make me not as confident. Nash pulls down the vest straps ready for the jackknife when the troops sprint out from the back for the title saving DQ. Just as the show goes off the air, Nash’s buddies runs out to even the odds. The opening segment did pick up when Ric Flair joined them, but it was longer than it needed to be and the first half dragged. Motivated Nash is so much more watchable than lazy Nash. I don’t think anyone other than Scott Hudson thought this was ending clean though.

Shannon accidentally clotheslines Shane right at the onset and Kidman, who hadn’t even stepped into the ring at that point makes his entrance with a slingshot legdrop. Double team sit-out chokeslam on Shannon. Helms counters the Kidman powerbomb by taking him over the top rope to the floor. Combination neckbreaker/powerbomb by 3 Count on Rey. Kidman with a flying headscissors back into the ring. Baseball slide dropkick to a seated Shane’s groin, Rey coming between Shannon’s legs as he was stood in front of his partner. Bronco buster. Shannon hot shots Kidman on the top rope and he falls to the arena floor. A Moore flip dive, a Rey corkscrew senton and finally a Shane froggy crossbody to finish the dive train. Rey backdrops Shannon from the apron over the ringpost. Kidman crotches Shane upstairs and hits a top rope Frankensteiner for a near fall. Shane ducks under the clothesline and flattens him with the ‘Sugar Smack’ (which I called something else last night). Rey saves his partner from the ‘Vertebreaker’ which Kidman reverses into the ‘Kid Crusher’ for the 1-2-3. “Amazing!” says Tony Schiavone. Team Canada jump ‘the Animals’ post-match until security are out to separate the teams. Lance Storm isn’t done, challenging Kidman to a hair vs hair match against Mike Awesome for later in the show. A non-stop spot fest from the moment the Filthy Animals slid into the ring. The wrong person did the job for their team though.

By the look of him here Crowbar is showing no adverse effects from yesterday’s PPV. Not bad though, a Hardcore title shot last night, a Cruiserweight title shot tonight. Lovely headscissors takedown. Outside of Chris Benoit Chavo may well have the hardest knife edge chops going. Leaping rana off the top, which is something I don’t recall seeing out of him previously. He mounts Crowbar’s shoulders, in an Electric Chair position, and takes him over the top rope to the outside. Plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Chavo is back in the ring first but Crowbar snaps his neck across the top rope. Slingshot splash followed by a Lionsault. Death Valley Driver. Crowbar sits Chavo upstairs, however he holds the ropes on the attempted Frankensteiner and Crowbar crashes down to the mat. The champion’s DDT is countered into a Northern Lights suplex for a razor close near fall. Chavo lands on the ropes, when he was meant to be backdropped out onto the apron, and Crowbar forearms him to the floor before splashing him from the apron. Back inside he’s about to head up top but has second thoughts, instead choosing to collect a chair. That goes down well with the fans. All of his posturing with that chair costs him though, for as he opens it up at ringside, not sure what he had planned to be honest by doing that, Chavo slingshots out to the floor and slams his face into it. On returning to the ring he’s easy pickings for the brainbuster. Good TV match and Chavo is one of the most consistent performers at the moment. I prefer the wrestling orientated version of Crowbar as opposed to the hardcore one.

As Michael Buffer is about to introduce the fourth mystery participant he’s interrupted by Ric Flair. ‘The Boss’ tells Scott Steiner that he said he had a mystery man for tonight but didn’t say when he would be here. He goes on to order the timekeeper to ring the bell as he wants to see the World champion start defending that belt. Sid’s punches are woeful, his clothesline not much better either. Belly to belly by Steiner, Jarrett happy to just stand by as he makes the cover, remaining true to his word of helping ‘Big Poppa Pump’ retain the title. Sid gets thrown to the outside and laughably ambles into and over the guardrail when whipped into it. Steiner uses his title belt as a weapon. Sid blocks having his head slammed into the turnbuckle and fights back with more shite looking punches. The champ saves Jarrett from a powerbomb as the two go back to working together. Sid counters the double suplex with one of his own; that looked nasty the way he spiked Jarrett on the top of his head. His big boots miss every bit as much as his punches do. Christ, now he’s visually calling spots on the chokeslam. Cobra clutch slam on Steiner. He pie faces Jarrett over the top rope to the outside and then launches him over the barricade into the front row. At this point we cut backstage to see Ric Flair bringing out his mystery man. Even though he’s masked and covered from head to toe, when you know who it is, you can see him anyway. When we return Sid is lay on the mat, his leg bent at a hideous angle. In reality Steiner should just pin him and end this, but he’s clearly buying for time waiting for the mystery man. Eventually he makes it into the ring, a doctor already in there checking on Vicious. The mystery man with a double axe handle to Sid, Steiner immediately covers him and that’s it. Scott Hudson and Tony Schiavone wonder what’s going on as the mystery man unmasks to reveal Road Warrior Animal. So the man Ric Flair bought in has double crossed him? Or has he? Even before the broken leg Sid looked absolutely dreadful in there; laboured, pulled punches, even worse looking clotheslines, visually calling spot, dangerously spiking Jarrett etc. Then the big lummox has to lay there in God knows how much pain while the match continues and they wait for Animal to arrive so they can run with the planned angle of the mystery man crossing Flair (?) and aligning with Steiner. There was one bizarre spot in there where Jarrett covered Sid and Steiner just stood by, so in theory he was happy to potentially give up his title. That made no sense. Bad match and that’s three bad finishes in a row to close out the PPV which had started out strong and showing the quality that WCW had in it’s undercard at this time.

The Goldberg streak stipulation remains in effect for this match, meaning if Team Goldberg loses, regardless of which man is either pinned or submits, Goldberg will be gone from WCW. I know I would not be risking my career in a tag team match with Sarge, a man who has probably won half a dozen televised matches at most over the past decade. ‘Totally Buff’ are hesitant to enter the ring when they see Goldberg is starting for his team. Scott Hudson wonders whether, with Sarge’s broken arm, he’ll just work the match on his own, thinking that may be the best strategy for him. A huge flying shoulderblock flattens the ‘Total Package’. Double underhook suplex as he launches Luger with ease. Bagwell fares no better, Goldberg no selling his suplex before this awesome overhead press dropped into a powerslam. Well he’s not taking all the match, tagging in Sarge who goes about browbeating Buff. Sarge walks the middle rope like he’s Gran Naniwa, dropping an elbow to the prone Bagwell for a two count. Buff stops his momentum with a jawbreaker and then spits at Goldberg to draw him into the ring, which allows Luger to clothesline Sarge across the top rope behind the referee’s back. Tony Schiavone reminds everyone that this is “No DQ” which is why Sarge was able to use his cast as a weapon. Poor timing on his part; reminding us right as they’re doing distraction spots which shouldn’t be necessary when disqualifications have been taken out of the equation. Goldberg breaks up a couple of pin attempts, clearly fully aware of Sarge’s won/loss record. Sarge blocks the suplex and counters with one of his own. That gets a big pop. Hot tag and Goldberg has his destiny in his own hands again. Release overhead pumphandle on Buff. Luger is out at ringside and grabs a “fan” in the front row who’s wearing a Goldberg T-shirt. Goldberg jumps out the ring to pull ‘the Package’ away from him, but as he checks on the “fan”, the “fan” maces him in the face. This was really badly disguised and it was obvious the guy was a plant the way the cameras were focusing on what was going on out there. Security does go after the “fan”, although Lex drags them off him and he remains at ringside for the rest of the match. Goldberg is swinging wildly, unable to see, and gets cracked over the head with a chair. Luger lifts him up onto his shoulders, Buff comes off the top with a super blockbuster and a hush comes over the arena as Goldberg is put down for the three. The crowd are deflated by what they’ve just seen, clearly not expecting that to be the end result, while Hudson and Schiavone talk in sombre tones about Goldberg’s career being over. Sarge helps him to the back as he gets a big hand from those in attendance. The finish made this end on a downer while it may have killed the crowd too. I generally have little time for ‘Totally Buff’ but was enjoying this until the rubbish with the “fan”. This was Goldberg’s final match in WCW so I wonder how they were planning on getting around the stipulation a few months from now, should the company not have died, when it was time to bring him back?

The Natural Born Thrillers have been operating under Freebird rules to keep ‘the Insiders’ guessing, so that they wouldn’t know which duo will be representing them. Tonight it’s Chuck Palumbo & Sean O’Haire, small mercies that they decided against Shawn Stasiak. After both teams make their entrances, ‘the Thrillers’ music plays and out walks Mike Sanders backed by the remaining members of the group. He says how Nash taught him to be a terrific coach, and when you’re a coach you can make substitutions, so any time he feels like it during this match he will be swapping members of his team in and out. That brings out Ric Flair, along with Doug Dillinger and a bunch of Power Plant trainees. He reminds Sanders that he’s not the Commissioner any more, he calls the shots around here, and orders them all to the back, otherwise they will be fined and suspended. The match kicks off with DDP and Palumbo. Page uses a ‘Rock Bottom’ which obviously isn’t called that. It’s all ‘the Insiders’ until O’Haire, after being whipped into the corner, runs up the turnbuckles, backflips over the incoming Nash and floors him with a superkick. ‘The Thrillers’ get in some double teaming before Palumbo is caught and dropped ‘Snake Eyes’ style. Flying clothesline off the top by Page. O’Haire knees him in the back as he hits the ropes and although DDP gets a shot in on him, he turns into a Jungle kick. Double slingshot suplex for a two. They continue to work him over, cutting the ring in half to make sure he is unable to make the tag. Page reverses the Palumbo tombstone piledriver in a cool moment before hot tagging Nash who cleans house. Big boots for both. He pulls down the straps at which point, from the dressing room, sprints the previously banished ’Thrillers’. Billy Silverman leaves the ring to prevent their interference when, through the crowd from the opposite side of the building, comes Lex Luger carrying a chair. Powerbomb on Palumbo. Luger is crouched below the apron but Nash spots him, Page then heads for Lex, the two fighting back through the fans to wherever Luger came from. Nash looks for the jackknife on O’Haire when he’s nailed in the back of the head with wrench by a badly disguised Buff Bagwell. O’Haire hits the ‘Seanton bomb’ to give ‘the Thrillers’ the win and the World tag team titles. All a bit too dull for me while the finish was overbooked. Where was Ric Flair when this was going on by the way? Out there in a heartbeat at the beginning of the match yet nowhere to be seen come the closing moments. Security also did a lousy job of restraining ‘the Thrillers’ or at least keeping an eye on them by how easy they were able to get back out. DDP’s tombstone reversal on Palumbo was cool but that’s it really.