WCW's Highway to Hell

[El-P]

We should do a thread where we psychoanalyze the characters of various wrestlers throughout their careers. Should be fun.

It could. Or it could drive us insane.

[BruiserBrody]

I basically joined up here because I wanted to say what an awesome thread this was! It ALMOST (I repeat almost) has me wanting to do a tribute thread in which I watch all of 2000 WCW (You know from the period where they dumped Russo and everybody quit and the Wall became the top heel to the part where it looked like maybe they would turn it around after getting rid of Russo again) but I don't think I'd be able to make it.

 

ECW match of the week : Hardcore Hak vs Mickey Whipreck (Thunder). This is pretty surreal. Whipreck had injured an ankle in his debut match against Kidman, so he was off TV until then. Good little match. They had no idea what to do with Whipreck, no idea why they signed him.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe there was a story making the rounds at the time that Whipwreck was signed so they could get him to show them how to make the breakaway ring/platform that was used in ECW which was, apparently, Whipwreck's idea. Then again, outside of Kanyon being thrown off the Triple Cage through the breakaway platform, I don't remember WCW using the prop, so maybe that was untrue.

 

Torch or WON at the time said they wanted a cruiser weight who the announcers could say had beaten Austin

[goc]

. Anyway, the interesting thing in this match is that Benoit doesn't throw any chops *at all*. Weird uh ? It's not like Rick Steiner would care, but Sid would not take Benoit's chops and he requested that Benoit would not use them when he would work against him. What a giant fucking pussy. David Flair took Benoit's chops ! Sid's stock found a way to drop even lower than he was before with this project. Amazing.

All the other Sid criticism you've thrown out has been perfectly valid and legit, but I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I think stiff chops are really such a pointless trope in wrestling. The fans don't really buy it as a move that hurts, it's just something to woooo at. It's not worth the welts or the sometimes bloody chest.

[El-P]

All the other Sid criticism you've thrown out has been perfectly valid and legit, but I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I think stiff chops are really such a pointless trope in wrestling. The fans don't really buy it as a move that hurts, it's just something to woooo at.

It was not the case back then. It became that way in the 2000's when wrestling totally turned post-modern. I guess it was beginning to emerge by 1999 or so, but it was not the pavlovian chant-along spot it became later.

 

It's not worth the welts or the sometimes bloody chest.

I understand your point, although I never minded good stiffness. I'm a Tenryu fan, so... Now, did it became a short cut to get some heat in the 00's when even guys like Shawn Michaels were doing it ? Totally agree. But when a few workers do it, like Flair, Hennig and Benoit, it's a trademark that is as valid as any other stiff spot.

 

But anyway, that's beyond the point. Even if you think it's a useless spot, the fact is *everyone* was taking Benoit's chops, no one asked not to be choped except Sid. Nash took it. Sullivan took it. David Flair took it. That's just unprofesionnal and it shows what a complete bitch Sid was. It makes Benoit look stupid as all of a sudden he just doesn't use one of his primary weapon when it's something he can do to anyone no matter their weight or height. It doesn't make any sense at all.

[artDDP]

Stiff chops suck. Wrestling is fake.

That.

[El-P]

WEEK 35 (August 30 to September 4, 1999)

 

Really stupid angle of the week : Was Hogan driving the hummer ? (Nitro). SO, Lex has the proof that Hogan is an hypocrite. Mean Gene acts all outraged, seemingly having forgotten three years of nWo. I hate Gene the Hulkamaniac. Anyway, later in the show, Luger shows a stupid photo of Hogan standing next to a Hummer (a white one to boot) like it was the proof that Hogan was the one who was driving the Hummer that crashed Kevin Nash. Of course this is Luger being an lousy manipulator, but this is still so stupid for so many reasons. The funniest part is Hogan taking the photo from Sting's hands and hiding it like it was some kind of proof, and instead of just rationalizing things, which would be easy, is acting all hyped up and defensive, asking Sting to look into his eyes and believe him. Hulk Hogan is still a terrible character, Sting is still a complete dumbass and Luger is the only legit fun part of the whole deal, being obviously portrayed as a heel stirring shit up in a very awkward way. But man, what a load of crap.

 

Death of WCW match of the week : Hulk Hogan & Goldberg vs DDP & Bam Bam Bigelow & Kanyon (Nitro). Could be called "Death of Goldberg match of the week" also. Goldie being portrayed as Hogan's pal makes no sense whatsoever to begin with, has he forgotten the Starccade match and the Fingerpoke of Doom already ? But this isn't the worse part. In this match, Goldberg plays face in peril, selling for the Triad while Hogan is outside. Complete ass-backward psychology. At this point Goldie is nothing special anymore, he's just another guy who's playing along, and under, Hogan. This is brutal.

 

Squash of the week : Goldberg vs The Cat (Thunder). THIS is how to maintain Goldie over. The Cat calls him out. Spear + jackhammer. Who's next ? Goldberg was their only hope, and Hogan made sure he would just not make it because the future of the company certainly was Hulkamania 1999. Depressing.

 

Debut of the week : Berlyn (Nitro). I like the look, I like the Carl Orff's ripoff music, I like the idea of a blonde german woman being his interpretator. The issue is that Wright is not a very good promo, and it shows even when he speaks German (from the few things I can pick up). And the woman fucked up his catchphrase too. But at least there was some idea here for a fresh new heel. He calls out Buff Bagwell. Man, Bagwell's push surely dropped dead after the Piper program, now he's a bottom feeder to put over a newcomer. Can't say I disaprove.

 

Match of the week by default : Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio Jr. vs La Parka & Bliztkrieg (Nitro). Short match, sadly, but really sweet for what it is. La Parka is a JTTS. Meanwhile Lenny Lane doing a truly offensive homophobic baiting gimmick is the cruiserweight champ.

 

Stiffest match of the week : Chris Benoit vs Jerry Flynn (Nitro). Because stiffness is fun, especialy with two workers who are intense and know what they do.

 

Bad promos of the week (every week) : Revolution (Nitro & Thunder). This doesn't work. The whole idea behind Douglas aligning himself with Malenko, Benoit & Saturn was to feud with Ric Flair, who lost power on the same show he debuted. Now they are feuding with the First Family. Okay, this is not entirely true, Benoit is calling out Sid (who himself is calling out Goldie, so it works like a charm to make Benoit look like an afterthough) and Perry Saturn is calling out Rick Steiner. But they really aren't very good promos, Benoit & Malenko especially are wooden. Douglas is trying too hard to sell his group as something special, but they have no big issue at hand so it just doesn't work, especially since Douglas just hasn't been established to the WCW audience. And he's a heel at heart.

 

Sid is all over the TV, so is Hogan and he's as bad as he was in 1995. The Hulkamania comeback has overstayed its welcome after the second week. The Revolution crew doesn't catch up. Vampiro is working a bizarre angle where he interferes in JTTS matches then tells them that they owe him. And he gets challenged by the KISS Demon, which has been Brian Adams thus far actually. Don't ask me, I have no idea what the fuck this is about. So there it is, the whole "intrigue" on top is pretty awful. The undercard is not exactly exciting because the three single titles feuds involve Sid, Rick Steiner and Lenny "let's chant faggot at him" Lane. And the tag team situation still revolves around Harlem Heat getting a return match. So yeah. Not good.

[Ricky Jackson]

I usually think current WWE is pretty lacklustre, but God, compared to this era of WCW... :o :o :o

 

It really was just the most awful crap ever. I mean, just thinking of Hogan doing the Hulkamania schtick again and everybody pretending the NWO years never happened and Sting being such a dumbass and, fuck, IT GETS WORSE WHEN RUSSO TAKES OVER!!!!!!

 

El-P, I don't know how you do it. Or why. Makes for a great thread, though.

[BrickHithouse]

It's a helluva lot more fun to read about now compared to trying to sit through it back in the day.

[jdw]

WEEK 35 (August 30 to September 4, 1999)

September 1999 - Sullivan/Taylor/committee

October 1999 - 1/16/00 - Russo/Ferrera

1/16/00 - 4/1/00 - Sullivan/Taylor/Ferrera/committee

4/10/00 - a week after Halloween Havoc (I think) - Russo/Bischoff

11/00 - 3/26/01 - Ace/Taylor/Ferrera

 

 

 

John

[goc]

It's amazing how short Russo's first run was when you think about how much hype there was for him going to WCW to be the "savior."

[Tim Cooke]

10/18 Nitro is the first Russo/Ferrera show. Thunder that week had the absurd Nasg commentary for most of the matches.

[El-P]

Don't think I ignore that fact John, I'm trembling each time I check out the WCW booker calendar.

 

WEEK 36 (September 6 to 11, 1999)

 

Mark Curtis died on the day before Saturday Night. There was a mention at the beginning of the program.

 

Match of the week : Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman vs Juventud Guerrera & Psychosis & Blitzkrieg (Nitro). Juvy is dressed exactly like Kidman, which makes Kidman quite angry. No idea if that will lead to something or if it's just Juvy booking his own shit. There's few and few substantial wrestling matches on TV at this point, lot of JTTS matches actually, so this is the best match of the week. About as good a short Nitro match these six could have. They tease an angle with Chavo, as he gets angry with Kidman at one point because of a minor fuck up. They do the same thing on Saturday Night, with Chavo getting frustrated with Rey not watching his back. Uncle Eddie sees that everyone gets along at the end.

 

Random match of the week : Norman Smiley vs Disco Inferno (Saturday Night). Disco says that the Wiggle has been banned and that the ref should DQ Smiley if he tried it. Of course it's bullshit, but Disco still tries to prevent Smiley from doing the Wiggle during the match, which is pretty funny. The production crew makes the laziest effort ever to zoom in on Smiley's face when he actually does the Wiggle (they can't show it on TV). Nice little match. Disco overuses the counter to his finisher, but Steve Austin was doing the exact same thing at the time so it's no big deal. These two can be on my TV every week on every show against good opponents.

 

Hilarious bad timing/production fuck up/stupid idea of the week : The Maestro (not named) plays the piano descending from the ceiling on a large an expensive set-up while Sid Vicious is killing guys in the ring (Nitro). Yeah, we've heard the piano the previous week on Nitro, without knowing what it was all about. I have no idea why they would do this stuff exactly when Sid is coming down the ring to crap on another match. It all looks like a completely absurd and fucked up mix of terrible stuff all at once.

 

Honorable mention of the week : Steven Regal & Dave Taylor & Chris Adams vs Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn & Shane Douglas (Thunder). It's a shame that Finley's injury basically ended both his career in WCW and the semi-push for the UK faction. This is decent enough and at least we get some good action for a while. Shane Douglas is not catching up at all despite being really solid in the ring. You can see he's trying too hard to be a face cattering to the audience, and it's not what The Franchise character is all about. Miscasting. He needs to turn heel quick. The whole Revolution deal look more and more like the laziest way ever to try and build some "young" guys. And giving each of them the mic to cut promos is not a good ideas. Three of them are wooden and overly stern, and the fourth one is only really efficient as a heel on the mic.

 

Stupid main event angle of the week : Who attacked Sting in the dark ? (Nitro) So, Sting wants to talk with Hogan. I forgot to tell that the previous week, in an amazingly idiotic cliffhanger, Sting tried to get into Hogan's locker room only to see Randy Savage & Gorgeous George there. So, there is a lot of MYSTERY and INTRIGUE. Anyway... Hogan was talking with Bret Hart (yeah, Bret came back and said he needed to have this big match with Hogan that he always dreamed of) when Sting stormed into the locker room with Luger and asked to talk with Hogan. Hogan agreed, then all became black, and we hear a comotion. When the light goes up again, Sting is down and Luger accuses Hogan of having attacked Sting. Oh, great... After the main event (a cage match with Hogan & Goldberg vs DDP, Sid & Steiner which saw Hogan do a clean pin on DDP after Sting came to the aid of the babyfaces), Luger and Sting argued until Luger finally hit Sting from behind. My head aches. We have moved into 1996 territory, Lex & Sting having issues. Nice. Can Liz come back already ?

 

New West Texas Redneck of the week : Curly Bill aka Vincent (Nitro). Bobby Duncum is injured, so Vince propose himslelf because he's a redneck from the South. Okay... Maybe they have found a way to make me enjoy Virgil in WCW. Or not.

 

Goldberg has his old music theme back. That's excellent, because the Megadeath theme didn't fit him at all. That's the only really positive thing I can think off. Fall Brawl looks bad and boring on paper. I can't stand Lenny & Lodi. Saturn vs Rick Steiner will probably be bad. Sid vs Benoit will be depressing for many reasons. Douglas & Malenko vs Morrus & Knobbs is a Thunder match main event at best. Berlyn vs Bagwell will probably be bad too. Harlem Heat vs The Windhams will be as good a Heat match can be in 99, which doesn't mean much. The only interesting match on paper (as far as work goes) is Goldberg vs DDP, and it's a rehash of a rehash at this point. Goldie should be the champ and be fed fresh and dangerous opponents. Hogan vs Sting has been built in the most ridiculous way imaginable. Hulkamania died in 1996, and it was great. Its comeback in 1999 was cute for a week. Then it got completely ridiculous.

[caley]

Goldberg has his old music theme back. That's excellent, because the Megadeath theme didn't fit him at all.

I often found with the poor sound in many arenas, that Goldberg's Megadeth theme, if one wasn't paying a lot attention, sounded a lot like The Bodydonnas exercise theme and I used to often break out laughing as I'd heard the music and expected the Bodydonnas and only to see Goldberg come out looking ANGRY, it was great in an absurdist way.

 

Berlyn vs Bagwell will probably be bad too.

Don't despair too much

 

as the match never happens because Bagwell refuses to job to Berlyn

 

DO despair, though, because

 

he's replaced with Hacksaw Jim Duggan. According to wikipedia, Duggan no-sold all of Berlyn's offence and was generally uncooperative with Berlyn. I don't remember that at all

 

[El-P]

Goldberg has his old music theme back. That's excellent, because the Megadeath theme didn't fit him at all.

I often found with the poor sound in many arenas, that Goldberg's Megadeth theme, if one wasn't paying a lot attention, sounded a lot like The Bodydonnas exercise theme and I used to often break out laughing as I'd heard the music and expected the Bodydonnas and only to see Goldberg come out looking ANGRY, it was great in an absurdist way.

Ah ah ! It didn't occured to me, but now that you say it, I can totally see what you mean. Yeah, it was the same beat !

 

PPV 9 : Fall Brawl 1999

 

Match of the night : DDP vs Goldberg. Even in a company that is going down the drain, even now that is friend Eric Bischoff has been demoted, DDP refuses to comply and suck. He goes full fledge old-school cheating heel here, as the referee actually finds a chain when he checks him before the match. DDP would have yet another foreign object hidden in his trunks. So it's not an all action go-go-go match with cool counters and sequences like their 1998 match, it's DDP cheating his ass off to try to beat Goldie, who in the end will even take care of Kanyon and Bam Bam before getting the pin. Seriously, DDP is probably the VIP of the company, he's doing what's right, he's creative, he's working hard. Yes, he's doing lame "fat joke" before his matches as part of a heel routine that isn't the best, but I'll forgive him everything, he's been a trooper and kept himself fresh.

 

Bad main event of the night, with swerve : Hulk Hogan vs Sting. Sloppy, poor execution from Hogan. Kinda half-brawling babyface match, that is totally dominated by an old guy who works like an old guy. It's your turn my turn, but it's more Hogan's turn really. Doesn't get much reaction either. The finish sees DDP Diamond Cutting Hogan, then Sid shows up, but Hogan still takes care of them. Then Luger shows up with a baseball bat, which ends up in the hands of Sting. And he uses it on Hogan !! Huge pop from this, which is the clear sign the WCW audience had it already with Hulkamania 3.0. Sting wins the belt for the 9th time (really ?) and he and Luger leave the ring together. The announcers seems outraged by what they saw. Nice, I guess they forgot about three years of nWo brutally beating WCW guys (including Luger) down. This isn't short memory, this is pure senility.

 

Good but sad match of the night : Vampiro & ICP vs Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman. This was the opener, rightly so, as it was a rather quick moving and exciting match, although the ICP do work like indy self-taught workers, which they are. Violent J is pretty decent though. So, this is pretty good and Vampiro continues to make good figure. He's clearly a guy that they could push, he's got a distinct look and actually shows charisma. Works pretty hard too at this point. The sad part is Rey badly injures a knee, probably blowing it out. Once he gets injured, he can't even stand up, and stays the rest of the match outside. He'll have to be carried out by Eddie, Kidman and another guy after the match. Damn.

 

Shitty title match of the night 1 : Rick Steiner vs Perry Saturn. Rick Steiner has all the tools to be a good heel, but he just doesn't put it together. He's working a plodding deliberate style with spots thrown around seemingly without much reasons. I didn't remember that Scott was out for so long in 1999, and I can't wait for him to come back, this Rick Steiner push has been mostly unbearable, he's having bad, boring and heatless matches with everyone. Saturn certainly isn't a guy that will get a good match out of Steiner, as he's another spot worker who looks better working in tags (or with Raven...). This is pretty bad and also ends up by Steiner pinning Saturn clean with yet another extremely awkwardly set up top rope bulldog, one of the worst finisher ever as it requires his opponent to stand up his back turned to Steiner in the right corner. Revolution 0-1.

 

Shitty title match of the night 2 : Chris Benoit vs Sid Vicious. Sid is putrid. Comically bad. Benoit isn't allowed to throw any chops, which is frustrating because you're waiting for them like you would in a Ric Flair match. So he bumps around for Sid's godawful offense and works his legs too, which leads to hilariously shitty selling and bumping from Sid. Of course, Sid wins clean, getting the US title in the process. Revolution 0-2.

 

Average tag title match of the night : Harlem Heat vs Barry & Kendall Windham. The Windham brothers could have excellent matches with the right opposition. This isn't the case with the Heat, yet another case of nostalgia booking. Booker T was making waves as a single worker (although I never cared for him), so this is a step back. Ray sucks, but he doesn't suck as much as Sid. Nothing much to say about this; it was fairly heated while most of the matches of the night were cold as hell, so at least that says something about the Heat. They get the belts back too, which was pretty much garanteed. I think the Windhams would leave the company before the end of the year and work the Real Tag League in AJ.

 

Missed opportunity match of the night : Lenny vs Kaz Hayashi. Hayashi has done nothing in WCW since he debuted. He's one of the best worker in the company, could easily get over by his sheer work and charisma like Rey Jr. or Ultimo did, but they never saw fit to push him. He's having the best match possible with Lenny, who's the worst Adrian Street ever, and yet does not get the title. It's depressing.

 

Honorable mention of the night : Shane Douglas & Dean Malenko vs Hugh Morrus & Brian Knobbs. No DQ match that is worked first as a brawl outside then a regular tag match. Pretty good considering who's involved. Douglas has to be given props for working as well as he was, sporting his old plain yellow trunks like it's 1993 again, as Malenko doesn't particulary shine with this kind of opposition. And it ends up with the First Family losing. Revolution 0-3. Nice, they killed the faction dead already. And you wonder why they all wanted to leave when Sullivan was brought back as a booker in 2000 ?

 

"We're a bunch of unprofesionnal bitches" match of the night : Berlyn vs Hacksaw Duggan. Yeah, Bagwell actually refused to do the job so he "arrived late". Even in storyline, this reeked of "I'm a whiny bitch". This gets better, since Berlyn's debut has turned into a lame jingoist angle, who better than Hacksaw Duggan to do the job, right ? Wrong. This is seriously one of the most unprofessionnal outing I've ever seen. Amazing stuff. Duggan no-sells everything and at times simply doesn't cooperate with Wright, who's got a puzzled "What the fuck is this guy doing ?" look on his face. At one point it turns into a slight shoot with Wright trying to throw Duggan amateur style only to have Duggan refusing to bump and countering the throw with a facelock. Duggan went into business for himself and only did the job after a horrible looking neckbreaker that Wright had trouble applying. Nice job Duggan, you old sack of unprofessionnal shit, you jingoist cheap-heat whore, nice job. He should have been fired on the spot, like Kitao was by SMW after the Tenta debacle. After the match, who's coming down the right to "apologize" to Duggan but Buff Bagwell, probably wanting to get some sympathy heat ? Pathetic. Duggan pushed him back, legit pissed I guess. Two bitches and a new heel character dead in tracks.

 

Line of the night : "Saginaw, Michigan !" Shane Douglas adressing the fans, asking them if they were ready for a Revolution. They were in Winston-Salem, NC. Douglas did correct himself but still, pretty funny.

 

The PPV, only post-Bischoff & pre-Russo, was a disaster. The Revolution faction, with all the supposed younger angry guys, has been killed off. Rey Mysterio, the best worker in the company, is badly injured. Berlyn, a new heel character, has been killed because a little bitch didn't want to do the job and an old bitch went into business for himself instead of doing the job he's being paid for. The Cruiserweight title is still on a homophobic unover character/mediocre worker. The TV title is still on an old, bad, boring and not over Rick Steiner. The US title is now on an old, godawful and not over Sid Vicious. The tag team title is on Harlem Heat, a team whose "peak" was in 1995/1996, and which includes Stevie Ray, one of the worst worker in the company. Babyface champ Hulk Hogan being bashed by a baseball bat by Sting got a huge pop.

I'll use an expression I was using left and right about joshi puroresu back in the early 00's, WCW was now a zombi promotion, there's no two ways about it. I had underrated how much damage Nash had done to the company in the past, but going through it really makes the picture clear. I'm not sure it could have been saved. They had ONE star, not two, ONE : Goldberg, and he has been demeaned all year long since losing his title at Starrcade by being put in second rate feuds, far away from the title picture most of the time. The nail in the coffin was him aligning with Hogan and playing Randy Savage. Goldberg was a phenom in 1998, now he's just another guy. He's still the biggest star they have, but he's been damaged beyond repair to look like what he used to be again. Nash also killed the cruiserweight title, the TV title and the US title. When he stepped down from booking, you can see the commitee tried to salvage things up, but they did it all wrong by pushing Lenny, Steiner and having Sid pinning Chris Benoit clean. The main event scene is a bad parody of 1995, with the main guys being Hogan, Luger and Sting, with Goldie playing Savage. And Flair will come back.

I seriously doubt that anyone could save this company at this point. Maybe with the right guys at the helm right when Nash was demoted. But Sullivan, Taylor & co did a pretty horrible job to begin with. In 6 weeks Russo would leave WWF and jump to WCW, seen as the savior of the company. In the end, he would just finish the job Nash began, kill WCW dead and rape its corpse several time around. This will be a bumpy ride...

[ohtani's jacket]

You are secretly enjoying this, aren't you?

[caley]

Shitty title match of the night 1 : Rick Steiner vs Perry Saturn. Rick Steiner has all the tools to be a good heel, but he just doesn't put it together. He's working a plodding deliberate style with spots thrown around seemingly without much reasons. I didn't remember that Scott was out for so long in 1999, and I can't wait for him to come back, this Rick Steiner push has been mostly unbearable, he's having bad, boring and heatless matches with everyone. Saturn certainly isn't a guy that will get a good match out of Steiner, as he's another spot worker who looks better working in tags (or with Raven...). This is pretty bad and also ends up by Steiner pinning Saturn clean with yet another extremely awkwardly set up top rope bulldog, one of the worst finisher ever as it requires his opponent to stand up his back turned to Steiner in the right corner. Revolution 0-1.

This brings back terrible memories for me. I remember - and I wasn't all that concerned with psychology or ringwork, or star ratings or anything like that back then, and was just becoming aware of internet wrestling discussion - that every week I would dread when Rick Steiner's music would hit because I was in for another boring, slow, pointless, uninteresting match. That said, even excepting all his bland ringwork, the saddest thing was you had Scott Steiner come out and run his mouth and just about everything he said was gold, then Rick would come out and say "You want some? Come get some. You don't like me? Bite me." and he would say it EVERY DAMN WEEK.

[Death From Above]

You are secretly enjoying this, aren't you?

How could anyone not?

[Guest Andrews]

You are secretly enjoying this, aren't you?

How could anyone not?

 

Agreed. I'm enjoying reading these very much.

[El-P]

I'm enjoying whatever good and whatever so-bad-it's-good I get from this. I'm not enjoying watching the horrible shitty stuff.

 

WEEK 37 (September 13 to 18, 1999)

 

Match of the week : Eddie Guerrero vs Perry Saturn (Nitro). Nothing special but it's still the best I've seen from Saturn in single in a long while, maybe since the beginning of the year. It's also planting the seeds for the Filthy Animals vs Revolution feud which will developp under Russo. Yeah, the Revolution is doing lateral steps it's not even funny. The whole "let's put good workers together" feud in the undercard was a Sullivan trademark in Nitro's heyday, so they're getting back at it now.

 

Korakuen Hall/ECW Arena match of the week : Chris Benoit vs Dean Malenko (Nitro). They were the last two in a Battle Royal last week, so now they fight to get a World title shot. Yeah, very believable to have Malenko put in that situation. Anyway, this is your classic Malenko style exhibition match, the same kind he was doing in ECW in 95 with Eddie. Very smooth, very technical, but it would get over much better in a japanese setting. They still get cheers and claps, but to me it's the kind of purely technical stuff I've grown tired of ten years ago.

 

Angle/promo of the week : Sting & Luger fuck up Ric Flair (Nitro). Ric Flair is back and he's all happy and shit. Wonder why ? Basically, and without mentionning it by name, he's glad that Bischoff has been demoted, I mean as a shoot. He almost makes fun of his last six months bunch of nonsense angles like the heart attack and the crazy Ric stuff. Shooty-shooty isn't too far, but it's not bad. He's just good old Ric coming back. Where it gets good is when Sting & Lex Luger interrupt him and basically say that Flair never passed the torch to them ten years ago, so now they have taken the torch and Flair should just leave. They are actually quite good here, and Luger's attack on Flair from behind looks great and brutal. Since we're not building to the future anyway, having Sting & Lex reclaiming what they were "due" in the early 90's is a pretty nice touch. Hogan and his new pal Bret Hart run in to save Flair, as Hogan says he's got respect for him despite their past differences. Okay, this is as "fresh" as can be using those guys together, and I enjoy Sting as a heel, he's convincing on the mic thus far. On the other hand the announcers acting like Sting is an asshole when Hogan was the biggest douche ever for three years and Ric Flair has been a raving maniac for the last 6 months make no sense but whatever, I like this angle.

 

Main event of the week : Hulk Hogan & Bret Hart vs Sting & Lex Luger. (Nitro) Decent match. Luger and Sting attack Hogan's previously injured knee, so we have a story here, and Hogan sells quite a bit this time around. Bret looks as crisp as ever despite the long layoff. At the end DDP shows up to help the heels, and while the referee's back is turned, Luger bashes Bret with a baseball bat right in the face, and it looks pretty awesome, with Bret great selling. Hey, this whole main event scene is actually interesting me again, against all odds !

 

Charity title switch of the week : Chris Benoit wins the TV title from Rick Steiner (Nitro). So, Benoit supposedly will challenge Sting next week for the WCW title because he beat Dean Malenko following a goofy gimmick battle royal. Meanwhile, he gets the TV title after a short and bad match with Steiner, with a lousy cradle pin (which Rick almost kick out of anyway). At least Rick isn't the champ anymore, but really, what was the point of giving Sid, who's feuding with Goldberg anyway, the US title ?

 

Rebuilding match of the week : Berlyn vs Buff Bagwell (Nitro). Yeah, do the job, bitch. At least Bagwell worked pretty hard. It's sad they gave up on Wright, this character had potential at least on the upper mid-card, the audience hates his guts. Xenophobia always work it seems, and the arrogant interpretor was a nice touch (although she clearly wasn't ready for the role at this point).

 

WTF C-show angle of the week : Barry Darsow thinks he's Krusher Krushev (Worlwide). Yeah, they showed this on Saturday Night. Apparently Darsow was hit by Harlem Heat's title belt too hard and now he's confused. This week he's back at being the golfer guy. I would care if they could bring back Repo-Man. Otherwise, I don't.

 

Line of the week : "For the first time in five years, I have a real job ! I'm free ! Free ! Free! Free at last !" Ric Flair on Nitro, followed by "We can't go there !" from Gene Okerlund.

 

Well, Nitro was much better than the previous weeks thanks to the Sting/Luger heel duo which works well thus far. I enjoyed their angle with Flair and their match with Hogan and Bret. Sid is still shitting all over the product, it is unbearable, this is a TV killer. Bischoff being gone, so are the New Limit Soldiers Swoll & 4x4, and the KISS Demon gimmick is doomed. This is clear now that they won't push the younger generation as Sting & Luger are actually talking up the role of the guys Flair should have passed the torch to 10 years before. Let's pretend Macho Man in Hulk's locker room two weeks ago was an hallucination.

[Ditch]

The whole "let's put good workers together" feud in the undercard was a Sullivan trademark in Nitro's heyday, so they're getting back at it now.

In a shoot, he talked about his booking philosophy of doing workrate underneath and blood/brawling/freakshows on top to draw. Can't have all garbage or the main event won't stand out. The fact that he does appreciate the need for quality somewhat mitigates his often questionable taste in top angles (ie. Hogan vs DoD cartoonishness).

[El-P]

WEEK 38 (September 20 to September 25, 1999)

 

Match of the week : Sting vs Chris Benoit (Nitro). This is interesting because it shows the WCW audience were ready to accept Benoit as a credible guy working with Sting in a WCW title match. Match is very good too, which doesn't hurt. Begins slowly, Sting works a more deliberate style which suits his heel personna, but sells and bumps well for Benoit's intense offensive moves, including his hard suplexes. No close call like in the DDP match, but you can feel Benoit could have been pushed to the main event without much backlash at this point, he could only get more over working big matches like this regularly. He didn't need the whole ill-fated Revolution angle. This turns into a schmozz with a ref bump, Luger hitting Benoit with a bat leading to a pinfall. Flair shows up, get beats up by DDP until Hogan runs in. You know what, I enjoyed this very much. Sadly Benoit would not stick in this main event status, which he clearly belong in.

 

Brawl of the week : Ric Flair vs DDP (Nitro). Flair is back as a fiery babyface and he's programmed with DDP. This is good, as no one makes Flair look good better than DDP now, and this one exemplifies that fact again. They begin to brawl outside a-la WWF before going into the ring. Good short match which ends up with, guess what, a Luger baseball bat shot and a Flair beatdown. Hogan runs in again. Sting & Luger surely take out their frustration after three years of nWo crapping on them.

 

Heel turn tease of the week : Shane Douglas hits Eddie Guerrero with a chain (Nitro). Good, he wasn't getting over as a babyface, he really needed to turn, and the whole Revolution angle was a dead as soon as it was born. The story is that Saturn doesn't agree with those tactics, which fit his character of being a very loyal guy (which has been demonstrated before in the Raven & Jericho feud).

 

C-show match of the week : Norman Smiley vs Scotty Riggs (Saturday Night). Nothing special, but any Norman Smiley on my TV is good, and I enjoy Scotty Riggs too. Fun little match.

 

Promo of the week : Scott Steiner (Nitro). Yeah, Big Poppa Pump is back, and he's not happy with Hogan having left the nWo to get cheers from the fan. it made him "puke yellow and red !". Ah ah ah ! Steiner challenging Hogan was the right idea. I don't think it actually led to anything, but Steiner was to be put in the main event picture.

 

Again, Nitro was pretty decent this week. Sting & Luger as a heel duo helped by DDP is good thus far. Sid is still doing his amazingly annoying Millenium Man gimmick, but I pretty much now which match he'll interrupt so I can FF easily. Goldberg is given guys to squash quickly like it's 1998 again. In a very bizarre angle, the ICP have been attacked by a "fan" three times in a row now. I have no idea and I don't give a damn. Chavo Guerrero is apparently a heel and aligned himself with Juvy and Psychosis, and he managed to put together a Kidman vs Psych hair vs mask match for the following Nitro. Yeah, because they need to take off Psych mask for no good reason too. Damn, if you're doing the same shit Bischoff was doing, what is the point ? Mona is having fun little matches on Thunder & Saturday Night, while Madusa has been turned into a C-show interviewer, and not a very good one at that. Also, they are building Berlyn vs..... Brad Armstrong. Okay, I understand the point, they need Berlyn against a guy who can make him look good after the previous debacle, but Brad Armstrong, really ? Poor Wright, he was fucked since day one with this gimmick which had potential.

[Matt D]

Yeah, so i need to see that goofy Darsow angle.

[El-P]

WEEK 39 (September 27 to October 02, 1999)

 

Match of the week : Kidman vs Psychosis (Nitro). Started up pretty cold but developped into a nice match with some effort to draw the crowd into some effective nearfalls, despite Psycho never having been pushed to the level of Kidman. This was hair vs mask, and they had an actual barber with a chair and hairclippers at the entrance set. Kidman is nothing much of a worker as far as having low-end offense or holds to kill time, but he's truly effective as a sympathetic babyface because he's a hard bumper and he's got a connection with the crowd. Psych is Pysch, with all the good (good heeling, good offense, some insane spots, impressive bumping) and bad (tendancy to be spotty, use of awkward set ups for some spots). The match gets hotter when Juvy and Chavo helps Psych behind the referee's back, leading to some good nearfalls, before the predictable finish occurs. Psych loses his match on a throwaway Nitro match instead of building it with a real feud for a PPV. They learned nothing.

 

Grudge match of the week : Mona vs Brandi Alexander (Thunder) Mona gets interviewed by Gene O, when Brandi attacks her from behind and delivers quite the beating. The match takes place immediately and it's one of those good Mona matches. Alexander is a decent Sherri Martel 2.0 like worker, Mona bumps like hell. Solid stuff with the usual impressive Mona spots at the end, including a beautiful top rope frankensteiner.

 

Vignette and "debut" of the week : Lex Luger's funeral and The Total Package debut. (Nitro) What a bizarre concept. This screams Kevin Sullivan. We get this horror-movie like scene of Luger's funeral, with a woman in a black veil, with Luger's voice explaining that Luger was basically gone. We see the "soul" of Luger getting out of the coffin and standing next to the woman at the funeral, with the coffin going into the ground at the cemetary. And then cutting back to Nitro, the woman unveils herself as Elisabeth. She was 39 and she was at her absolute peak of foxyness. Just überhot. And then with the ominous music and the whole light show, Luger does a posing show like it's the Narcissist era all over again. Which it basically was, only done better. Nice way to "refresh" Luger I thought. He would also wear those new tights and kneepads with Total Package colored logo on it.

 

Lucha match of the week : Juventud Guerrera & Psychosis & La Parka vs Silver King & Villano IV & V (Thunder) This is the comeback match for Villano IV, or V, I'm not sure which, who was injured by Kanyon (and not Raven apparently since he's gone from the company) 11 months earlier. It's also the first unmasked match for Psychosis. They were a lot of these during Nitro's heyday, but these days it's a lot more rare, so it's nice to get a mexican spotfest with lots of dives and goofy comedy spots. It's the best use of these guys you can expect at this point, so I might as well enjoy it.

 

Barry Darsow of the week : Barry Darsow thinks he's the Blacktop Bully (Saturday Night). Nothing more to say.

 

Shitty vignette of the week : Tony hears a menacing voice calling him, then we see a window with some storm outside. (Nitro) WCW had signed Dustin Rhodes away from WWF (why did he leave anyway ? I don't remember the circumstances of him leaving, Goldust was still pretty over I think) and they had a terrible idea for him...

 

Moving along toward Halloween Havoc. They are building Sting vs Hogan return match, Flair vs DDP and Hart vs Luger on top. In a bizarre twist of fate, Vampiro did a clean job to Buff Bagwell, which seems totally illogical to me. Berlyn is packing up wins building to Brad Amrstong, whom they are pushing in B and C shows somewhat. Fit Finlay made his comeback at ringside to support Regal & Taylor against the First Family. Goldie has got his old intro back, I mean complete with security guys and long walk backstage. Shane Dougas "apologized" to Saturn on Thunder, and it looks like his left elbow is badly injured *again*. That's sad, Douglas was making nice showing thus far in the ring, but he was pretty banged up from ECW. Also, Coach Buzz Stern made his debut on Thunder. This is Glacier doing a wrestling coach gimmick beating down his inept student. Right out of mid-90's goofyness. And last but not least, Torrie Wilson is siding with the Filthy Animals.

[Johnny Guitar]

Mate. Fair play for doing this. I remember going fucking nuts watching WCW and WWF in 1999.

 

Made even worse that it was the year that I spent travelling the US. 12 years of watching American wrestling and wishing I could go out there.

 

And I picked fucking 1999!

[El-P]

Ouch ! Well there was still ECW but... yeah. Wrong year.

 

WEEK 40 (October 04 to 09, 1999)

 

Infamous match of the week : Chris Benoit vs Bret Hart (Nitro). Harley Race does the introductions because we are in Kansas City. This is probably the most famous match of the year in WCW. And really, as much as I would love to say it's great, if only because they were honoring Owen's memory, my opinion of this match has drastically changed (and this has nothing to do with Benoit). It is fine. Parts of it are great. The execution is the crispest you can find anywhere. But this has both the feel of an exhibition and of a match that went nowhere, like they didn't know what story to tell under those circumstances. It's not a pure babyface technical match (which it probably should have been), as Bret uses some questionnable tactics like strangling his opponent and punching him in the corner. This is not a mentor vs student kind of match, although Bret dominates the game. And it's too long, way too long since they don't build to an ending very well. There is some strong wrestling in this match, but it never really clicks together. They had a match earlier in the year that was much much better, because they told a simple story, with Bret as the heel. Don't get me wrong, it is a good match if only for the quality of the wrestling, but a great match it isn't, not even close. Some nice touches like the announcers staying silent after the ending of the match, until the replays (although Heenan cracking unfunny tired jokes during the match really felt like questionnable taste to me). And of course watching Bret looking up and saluting toward the sky is still pretty moving to see. The whole sharing the emotion with Chris Benoit is very awkward to watch in retrospect, of course, although at this point there was most probably nothing wrong with the guy, but still. It's like the ending of WMXX, it's a moment that has been emptied from the empathy you would have at first. Tragic story over tragic story.

 

Brawl of the week : Chris Benoit vs Brian Knobbs (Thunder). I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed this better than the Bret match. Shows how versatile Benoit was too. I doubt there's a better Knobbs match out there. Pretty simple stuff, Benoit actually kicks Knobbs ass pretty good, as Knobbs isn't afraid to go head straight into the ringsteps or take ridiculous bumps running down the stairs in the crowd. Even Jimmy Hart bumps for Benoit, like he's back in Memphis.

 

Swerve of the week : Perry Saturn prevents Shane Douglas from hitting Rey Jr. with a chain, only to do it himself (Nitro), at the end of a very good Malenko vs Rey match. Malenko sees what happens on the big screen and isn't happy with Douglas & Saturn. Hum... a swerve, uh. BTW the announcers mentionned that WCW has signed Vince Russo & Ed Ferrera. Obvioulsy although they aren't writing the shows yet, their influence is already showing.

 

Early 90's dream match of the week : Sting & Lex Luger vs Hulk Hogan & Ric Flair (Nitro). Talk about a dream match in 1990 or so. Is it me or Hogan and Flair have essentially never tagged together ? Hulk has a huge brace around his left knee, either to sell the angle or because he was really in rough shape, I'm not sure. Sting & Flair work most of the match, and it's better than when Flair was heel a few months ago. Sting is a complete tweener, as a portion of the audience still wants to cheer for him. Luger isn't, despite the überMILF at ringside, he's a total heel. It's decent but it's also a blast from the past, really, only Sting looks relevant as a worker here. DDP shows up, there's a screw up and Luger racks him instead of Flair, and at the end Hogan pins Sting clean.

 

Funniest match of the week : Norman Smiley vs The Cat (Saturday Night). As of itself it's already a fun match on paper. It gets better when the cat antagonizes a very agressive granny at ringside. She even shows a large cell phone (large even by 99 standarts) and says she'll call his mama !! Norman challenges Cat to a dance contest of sort, but The Cat blasts him. Wiggle, James Brown elbow drop, this is fun.

 

Hotshot tite change of the week : Psychosis loses the cruiserweight title to Disco Inferno (Nitro). Yep, Psych apparently won the title on the week-end over Lenny, and he does the job to Disco (who looks way too big to be a cruiserweight, that even was the entire point of the angle last time he competed for the belt). Good thing the whole Lenny thing was dropped, it was eye gouging. Too bad for Psych, who gives away his mask only to have the chance to lose a title we haven't seen him win on TV.

 

Stupid angle of the week : Goldberg reduces Sid's car to a little cube of twisted steel (Nitro) This is the kind of stuff I didn't care for in WWF when Austin was stuffing Vince's limo with concrete, don't expect me to care with Goldie and Sid. Plus it screams "we're imitating WWF" here, which isn't the right way to go. Sid screaming "Why me ?" was insanely ridiculous.

 

Dropped gimmicks of the week : KISS Demon & Maestro are written off (Thunder). On the same show we see Brian Adams as himself (and his knew leaner, more muscular look), The Maestro with zero fanfare debuting and doing the job to Dale Torberg doing a VIP baseball like gimmick. With Bischoff out of the picture, you can see they were writing off his lastest ideas, although they would contractually be obligated to go with the KISS Demon at some point. MAestro looks like a decent little worker, and he's wearing Kuniaki Kobayashi pants, which wins points with me.

 

Shoot line of the week : "Kevin is working a retirement angle !" Scott Hall on Nitro, as him and Nash showed up at ringside with two hot chicks to drink and watch the show. Hall also said it was boring and that they would come back when it would be fun again. Nash added that are putting the band back together. See where this is going ?

 

Bump of the week : Kidman launched like a dart over the turnbuckle to the floor by Devon Storm (Saturday Night). One of the most brutal Kidman bump I've seen. And yeah, Devon Storm was back in WCW. He'll soon get his five minutes of fame.

 

So, we learn that Russo & Ferrera have been signed (is it a first that creatives are actually referred on the air as as such ?), we have a swerve, we have a WWF-like backstage angle, we have a shooty-shooty promo, we have hotshot title changes... hum...