WCW's Highway to Hell

[El-P]

PPV 12 : Starrcade 1999

 

Match of the night : Chris Benoit vs Jeff Jarrett. Ladder match. This is seriously good. Jarrett already had a match earlier on, which means in the end he'll be involved in the two best match of the show. Nothing cute here, use of the ladder as a weapon, but they don't go overboard and do ridiculously goofy shit with it. It's not cute with carefully pre-planned spot, it feels organic because it's awkward at times, as it should be. A few great spots like Jarrett dropkicking the ladder as Benoit is reaching for the belt. benoit does the requisite headrop from the top of the ladder, which would look a lot more impressive and special if he hadn't done this kind of spot/bump three times on free TV in the last month. But anyway, quite the match.

 

Brawl of the night : Jeff Jarrett vs Dustin Rhodes. Bunkhouse match. The only thing it needs is blood, but apart from that, it's a pretty fun brawl with cowbell, rope, belt, powder and stuff. Curt Hennig tries to help Jarrett so we get some cool bumps from Hennig too as a bonus. Only the finish kinda suck, as they brawl down the alley to where the ladder is standing, and Jarrett's guitar is conveniently laying down here. Down where you ask ? Well, I'm caught up in Russo's bullshit writing. Anyway, Jarrett gets the guitar while DUstin is fighting off Hennig, climbs the ladder and bust the guitar on Dust's head. And pins him right there. What ? This is a bunkhouse brawl, it doesn't mean you can pin your opponent anywhere ? Well, aside from that, it was solid. Too bad there was a stupid comedic garbage match earier on, it made everything less special and violent.

 

Miracle match of the night : DDP vs David Flair. DDP amazes me. First, he makes a great effort in turning himself back babyface, as David attacks him with his own crowbar (it's supposed to be a crowbar on a pole match) before the match and the match is supposed to be cancelled when DDP throws down the ring announcer and gets in the ring. Total babyface stuff, and very efficient. Then, he proceeds to have the best match ever David Flair can dream of considering his ability. The way he bumps for him is amazing to me, he makes David look *good*. And the match never gets lost either, it flows well until David grabs the crowbar (which hangs ridiculously low anyway) and DDP still applies the Diamond Cutter on him. Post-match, he gives him another one, from the second rope, and before he was gonna give him back the crowbar shot to the nuts, a girl jumps in the ring to protect David (she was seen on Nitro throwing a "Nitro Party" and looking deranged). Yep, Daphney just made her debut. DDP leaves. Really good stuff.

 

Unexpectedly decent match of the night : Disco Inferno & Lash Leroux vs Big Vito & Johnny the Bull. The build was so awful I had no interest in seeing that one, but it was actually a fun little tag match with no bullshit happening outside. Big Vito carried his team and Disco did the same. Johnny's green as shit, and it showed especially when he worked with spot monkey Leroux, but there was some nice double team moments in this.

 

Anti-swerve match of the night : Sting vs Lex Luger. Not much of a match, but Liz stole the show. The anti-swerve is that Sting expected to be betrayed, so he gave her a fake mace can before the match, so when she tried to turn on him she looked ridiculous. I thought Sting acted pretty damn cool at this point, not threatening to hit Liz (how refreshing) and just showing her to leave. Then when she was gonna use a baseball bat he just turned his back to confront her again and simply intimidated her until she dropped the bat. But of course, Sting being Sting, he didn't think she'd have the goal to actually take the bat back. Big mistake. She takes the bat back and hit him straight in the face. Those foam baseball bat sure made a great sound. Then she proceeded to encourage Luger to pillmanize Sting's right wrist while he was incouscious. What a jezebel ! So, as always with these two, not much of a match, but I enjoyed the angle.

 

Swerve match of the night : Madusa vs Evan Karagias. Yeah, you read it right. Karagias was with Spike since last Nitro. So, they work some stuff. Karagias sucks. Straight punch to a woman. Ugh. At some point, Spike gets ringside, and both she and Madusa attack Evan. Swerve. After one week of being together. You can see Russo wanted to do a lesbian angle with these two. Poor guy, he couldn't go that far and that's why he failed to get WCW on top again. Bouh bouh.

 

Stiffest of the night : Vampiro vs Steve Williams. Oklahoma in a shark cage at ringside, doing commentary. You can see Williams still has some good match in him, but this is a sad context for him, he should be feuding with Goldberg on top in a battle of monsters. Anyway, they work really stiff, this is watchable. Williams destroying the Misfits is kinda cool. WIlliams ending up DQed isn't, cheap way of giving Vamp the victory. He gets five minutes with Oklahoma but he's been really destroyed by WIlliams, so OK is all fired up. This is stupid, OK gets way too much offense on him, then Vamp and the Misfits gang up five on one on OK, so it gets zero reaction. Yeah, 5 guys beating up one isn't a babyface ending.

 

Idiotic match of the night : Revolution vs Jim Duggan & Varsity Club. Yay ! The return of the Varsity Club, led by Kevin Sullivan. And Leia Meow bouncing around. Duggan as a janitor working the entire match without even trying to make a tag makes him look like a total retard or/and a complete egomaniac. Of course the Varsity Club turns on Duggan at the end of the match. You see, Liz turning on Sting was nice if predictable, but it was only the third time a partner/manager would turn on their guy that night. How stupid is that ? The only highlight is Douglas on commentary, working his ass off to make this watchable. I really enjoyed how outraged he acted at Kevin Sullivan hitting Asya. Anyway, this was so bad it was almost good. Almost.

 

Death of WCW match of the night : Goldberg vs Bret Hart. Don't get me wrong, technically it's good. But the whole point is to get rid of all referees until a depressed looking Roddy Piper comes in the ring, makes the bell ring as soon as Bret puts Goldie in the sharpshooter and gives Bret the belt. Montreal, you see. Just terrible idea, very poorly done. Plus we know it leads to *another swerve* on Nitro. Just a complete shit finish what should have been a really solid main event.

 

The Jarretts matches and DDP kinda saved this from being complete trash. The hardcore match and the six-person involving Harlem Heat & Midnight vs Creative Controm & Hennig were fast forward material. The announcing was much better than usual thanks to Scott Hudson being the third man, but actively taking over the show. I nearly didn't pay attention to Heenan, the guy just doesn't bother anymore *at all*, although at this point I wouldn't blame him. Main event was shit because of the booking. Watching Jarrett work, I wish he was the one who had marry Stephy, since she had to be with an overpushed high-midcarder level worker. He murders HHH on every level, and was much better looking too.

 

Vince Russo Tally

 

Title changes : 17

 

Swerves : 6

 

Special gimmick matches on free TV : 17

 

On-a-pole matches : 3

 

WWF references : 29

 

Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 26

 

Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 20

[Johnny Guitar]

I dropped acid before I went to this card.

[Death From Above]

Did it help?

 

Also, I don't get why there seems to be a whole group of workers that have run DDP down over the years. I always thought he was pretty good at building a big match for WCW.

[El-P]

Also, I don't get why there seems to be a whole group of workers that have run DDP down over the years.

Jealousy.

 

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

[Johnny Guitar]

Did it help?

 

Also, I don't get why there seems to be a whole group of workers that have run DDP down over the years. I always thought he was pretty good at building a big match for WCW.

Not really!

 

Regardless of how hard he worked. DDP liked to pre plan his matches out in detail, which would have drawn some heat from some guys. They would see it as proof he couldn't really work.

 

Plus being Bischoff's neighbour didn't help his rep.

[flyonthewall2983]

Randy Savage liked to pre-plan matches too, and nobody with at least half a brain said he couldn't work. I like DDP. He was good for WCW when his stock rose. He wasn't perfect at everything but there was a passion that came through, and still does. He has the charisma a professional wrestler should have.

[Loss]

Are there stories of Savage mapping out his matches with opponents other than Steamboat (and WM8 with Flair)? Did he do it regularly with everyone?

[flyonthewall2983]

The Ultimate Warrior matches were, I believe. They sure as hell didn't call it in the ring.

[El-P]

WEEK 51 (Decembre 20 to 25, 1999)

 

Revival angle of the week : The nWo reforms (Nitro). After Montreal redux at Starrcade, which got us back two years back in the WWF, this is what Russo's masterplan was to get WCW back on top, reforming the nWo bringing us three and a half years backwards. The announcers try to sell it as the biggest shock ever, although it comes off as a poor try to revive a stable that was dying already one year before. So here we go, baseball bats and spray paint, silvery this time around, probably because Jarrett is the chosen one. Russo infact really had zero ideas for WCW.

 

Debut of the week : Three Count (Thunder). I'm not even sure if Russo is behind that one, as I thought Jimmy Hart actually put this gimmick together. Anyway, it's the only truly excellent idea of Russo's first stint, as Karagias really had a boys band look anyway, and the song is awful yet catchy enough. Really good modern heel gimmick for young guys like them.

 

Jabronies debut of the week : PG-13 (Thunder). Treated like complete jobbers by the Varsity Club. These guys can't get a break in a major league, sadly.

 

Brawl of the week : Chris Benoit vs Bret Hart (Thunder). World title match, worked as a brawling sprint since we don't have time for wrestling. Bret is much better as a heel at this point of his career. Good stuff, pretty intense, but doesn't get a chance to developp, they go into a spot where Benoit puts Bret into the crossface, Jarrett jumps in, guitar shot. Goldberg makes the save, leading to....

 

"I couldn't book a return match with Goldberg after Starrcade 98" spot of the week : Goldberg breaks his hand on a limo's window (Thunder). Goldie is a trooper. The ungimmicked window won't break, so Goldie insists until he breaks the window. And his hand. The scene was shown in black & white because of the blood Goldie left on the hood when he pounded on the car afterward. Gross. And stupid. Goldberg had been fucked at Starrcade 98, and nothing could make him back the phenom that could have saved the promotion.

 

Stupid gimmick match of the week : Jeff Jarrett vs Chris Benoit (Nitro). Stupid on so many levels. First, it's a return ladder match the day after Starrcade : "Don't buy our PPV's, the result don't matter and you'll get a return match on free TV the following day.". Second, they proceed to kill the ladder gimmick off by doing a screwjob in a ladder match. Well, they already did one earlier in the month, but this one is even more stupider. The ladder Benoit tries to use was indeed "gimmicked", as told as such by one announcer because we need some smark talk on the air, and Benoit couldn't use it. So Jarrett busts him from behind and uses another ladder hidden under the ring to get the belt. Stupid and infuriating.

 

Fun little match of the week : Kidman & Konnan & Jim Duggan vs Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn & Asya (Thunder). Duggan refused to turn on the USA on Nitro and the Filthy Animals came to his rescue when he was beaten down by Douglas & Co. This is actually a fun match not only because it flows rather well thanks to Kidman bumping around, but Douglas really does a great job working the angle at the announcing booth. Kudos to him, that's his best work since coming in WCW. He also gets in Duggan's face at ringside, shows ass when the Animals confront him. Really old-school heel work here, which is why it makes a goofy angle actually work to some extent. Nice touch when Duggan refuses to hit Asya. I can't believe I can get some enjoyment off this otherwise mess of a feud.

 

Tons of horrible "shoot" promos and meta-comments on Nitro, one from Kevin Nash (which was a big swerve of course), another one from Piper, who's quitting the promotion and makes an "emotionnal speak" to the guys backstage, telling them to unionize and stuff. The Harris Boys are turning on the Powers That Be because... well, I'm not too sure, they used them when their intent was to bring back the nWo from the get-go, but why should they care anyway ? Hennig doesn't seem to care. One trait of Russo's writing is that *everyone* has to cut a promo, even guys like the Harris Boys. Great... They build a feud between Buff Bagwell and DDP, on the premises that rulours say that Buff had had an affair with Kimberly. Yawn. It's also a huge step back for DDP to feud with Bagwell. Also, that makes Bagwell a heel now I guess. From nowhere, for no reason. Russo just doesn't care about heel and faces, he just doesn't understand why it's important. Daffney & David Flair officialy are together, and they hook up with Devon Storm aka Crowbar on the road, before getting jumped by the Misfits (who are godawful babyfaces, acting like a bunch of thugs). Also, Hugh Morrus is back, and his crazy old man showed up on Nitro. Yawn...

 

Vince Russo Tally

 

Title changes : 19

 

Swerves : 7

 

Special gimmick matches on free TV : 18

 

On-a-pole matches : 3

 

WWF references : 33

 

Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 27

 

Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 26

[Guest TheGreatPuma]

I can't say enough great things about DDP. He was a fav of mine since I first saw him in WCW and I immensely enjoyed his inevitable organic climb to the top of WCW.

 

DDP vs Alex Wright was when I than felt like WCW was running with him and truly getting behind him.

[El-P]

WEEK 52 (December 27 to 31, 1999)

 

Promo of the week : Scott Steiner's retirement (Nitro). Before the match we get a cool Steiner Brothers tribute video which looked legit and classy. Then the Steiners comes out to their old music theme, Rick wheeling Scott to the ring. The story is that Scott has to get under the knife for his vertebraes issues, and is forced to retire. Walks painfully with a cane and wears a back brace. Rick helps him into the ring and hugs him, again really looks legit. The promo itself is pretty terrific and emotional, with Scott stuttering a bit and not getting the words out very well. He kinda overdoes the crying bit, but all in all it's the best promo I've seen in months. Then the nWo shows up and chases him anway, Bret being particulary good as being an asshole. That could have been a great babyface turn angle for Steiner actually, as the crowd eats this shit up.

 

Swerve of the week : Scott Steiner is not retiring and is still an nWo member (Nitro). So, Scott painfully walks toward the ring with a bat to avenge his humiliation. But of course he turns on Sid, gets rid of the brace and unveils an nWo T-shirt. Gets rather big heat for WCW in late 99, which shows that Steiner should be the N°1 heel guy in the company yesterday. Then we get a beatdown, Sid trapped into his car which gets run over by a monstertruck. Yeah, so it turned into complete crap in a hurry.

 

Great news of the week : Nitro goes back to 2 hours in 2000 !!!!. Long time overdue. This 3 hours Nitro booked first by Nash then by Russo was the kiss of death of the show.

 

The Outsiders have been stripped of the tag titles, as Scott Hall isn't showing up again. Smells like the end for the guy, he would only be there for a few more weeks. So we get a stupid Lethal lottery to determine new tag team champions, with Asya & Midnight tagging along men and makeshift tag team that don't get together. So there it is. What a year. The year that should have been spent to rebuild the company around Goldberg and push some of the most over fresh mid-card talent like Jericho, Benoit, Raven, Big Poppa Pump, Rey Mysterio Jr. but instead saw Kevin Nash book a terrible product for 8 months until they realized he was fucking things up bad. After the departure of Bischoff, it could have been salvaged still, if they didn't get the worst pro-wrestling offender ever as a "writer". It also exposed Russo for what it was, as without Vince filtering his thousands of stupid ideas (which still delivered a horrible TV product for the WWF but since it was carried by Steve Austin and The Rock it didn't matter) he was just the worst booker ever for a major company. At the end of the year, every title has been effectively destroyed, the wrestling fans have come to the realization they won't get any good wrestling matches from WCW anymore (and that was the big thing WCW had over WWF) and many of them would just stop going to the shows. So yeah, the ratings would very marginally improve because of the crash TV format which had been popular, but the last Nitro at the Houston Astrodome, with the gigantic stadium mostly darkened to hide the vast empty areas, was painting the picture of what the company had become. It didn't help that the biggest angle they had running was a very poor rehash of the nWo angle which made them N°1 more than three years before. WCW was slowly but surely and painfully dying.

 

Vince Russo Tally

 

Title changes : 19

 

Swerves : 8

 

Special gimmick matches on free TV : 18

 

On-a-pole matches : 3

 

WWF references : 33

 

Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 27

 

Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 26

[Death From Above]

3 Count were easily my favourite thing about WCW from here until the end, along with Scott Steiner's big heel run. They had entertaining matches which obviously was pretty important, but I was in love with the gimmick too. Three 20-something, waxed chest greasy haired assholes who look like "those three guys that show up at every college party trying to steal your girlfriend", doing a really good version of a "how can you not love us" boy band gimmick for added levels of hatred. It was the perfect gimmick for those guys and they were easily the highlight of many a show for me.

[artDDP]

This is around the time Scott Hall held up a Thunder taping for an hour or so and threatened to kill Terry Taylor leading to some sort of lawsuit, isn't it?

[El-P]

This is around the time Scott Hall held up a Thunder taping for an hour or so and threatened to kill Terry Taylor leading to some sort of lawsuit, isn't it?

Probably since Hall's last match was in January I believe.

 

WEEK 53 (January 03 to 08, 2000)

 

Debut of the week : Terry Funk is the new commisioner (Nitro). I love Terry Funk, but he gave a rambling promo that just didn't get over at all. His new enforcer is Arn Anderson. Cool, a retired guy with a bad neck who can't wrestle anymore. Long ass exchange with the nWo, with fake intensity all over.

 

Whiner gimmick of the week : The "Standarts and Practices" gimmick (Nitro). So, Lenny & Lodi are now Standarts & Practices. Because you see, the only reason Vince Russo isn't setting WCW on fire is because of the TBS guys who are censuring his product. I still can't figure exactly in what ways S&P has hurt his wonderful ideas thus far. Oh, and there's Stacy Keibler in an über short miniskirt (I won't complain) and she's names Miss Hancock. Get it ? Anyway, they show up and cover Leia Meow, much to the boos of the audience. Varsity Clubs are heels, but I guess it doens't fucking matter what kind of response you get from the crowd.

 

"Match of the week" : Konnan & Kidman vs David Flair & Crowbar (Thunder). Yeah, we've came to that point where the "match of the week" involves David Flair & Konnan. Flair & Crowbar won the tag titles on Nitro thanks to Terry Funk. This is watchable when Devon Storm is in the ring. Of course it ends with a screwjob when Arn Anderson shows up, all fucked up (he's been "tortured" for three days by the nWo, I kid you not) and helps his godson to win the match, using a crowbar. Daphney looks hot. That's about it.

 

Stupid match of the week : Bret Hart vs Terry Funk (Thunder). Bret is working with a concussion, the one given by a Goldie superkick at Starrcade. And it's a hardcore match. Wonderful idea. Terry does his moonsault, kills himself, then Bret bashes him with an unprotected chair shot to the head. Better Funk than him I guess. Then nWo beatdown like it's 1997, then David Flair dressed as a referee stopped by Kevin Nash. Nonsense, boredom. Daphney taking a bump that the camera misses. Then Kevin Nash powerbombing Terry Funk through the Thunder set like he's Bischoff in 1996. I want to cry.

 

Actual match of the week : David Flair & Crowbar vs Steven Regal & Dave Taylor (Saturday Night). Yeah, this is much better than the Thunder match, but it still involves David Flair. Regal & Taylor are stuck on the C-show, but at least they can wrestle a bit without having to take part in horrible angles and stupid skits. This is nice enough when Crowbar is in the ring, I enjoy his Sabuesque style quite a bit. Taylor beating on David is quite watchable too.

 

The first week of tv in 2000 has been *unwatchable*. Despite the debut of Terry Funk and the fact Nitro is only 2 hours, it may have been the worst wrestling TV I've seen thus far, a new low for Russo. Just godawful. More kidnappings, more woman abuse, more nWo lame rehashed angle, the worst tag team tournament ever with 1 minute matches with shitloads of run-ins and bullshit, shitty angles galore. If I didn't know Russo would get fired in two weeks, I would probably throw the towel right now. Back then I already had thrown the towel, as I remember seeing the Bret vs Terry Funk match but none of the other stuff of the last few weeks. The last WCW match I watched as it happened was a tag match with Hogan, Flair, Hennig & Luger in February or March, I was channel flipping or something. In the last decade I went though some 2000 & 2001 WCW PPV's that I downloaded. All of this to say that as of now, I'm not familiar with the TV product at all, it's basically all new (although I have notions of the main angles since I've seen most of the PPV's I believe). I'm fearing for what's left of my brain...

 

Vince Russo Tally

Title changes : 20

 

Swerves : 8

 

Special gimmick matches on free TV : 18

 

On-a-pole matches : 3

 

WWF references : 34

 

Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 31

 

Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 27

[El-P]

WEEK 54 (January 10 to 15, 2000)

 

Career ending match of the week : Bret Hart vs Kevin Nash (Nitro). The last match of Bret's career, effectively. Him and Nash always work well together, so it's actually a pretty good TV match, sadly it ends up in a big schmozz with Arn Anderson attacking Nash with a crowbar, then Terry Funk burning him up with his flaming branding iron. Bret is trapped with Sid in a cage and gets powerbombed. Sad ending to a great career.

 

Idiotic swerve of the week : Bret Hart denounces the nWo (Thunder). None of this makes any sense. Bret was forced by the commissionner to face Nash on Nitro, but here he cuts a promo like th other nWo guys actually did something to him. Serious WTF moment. Bret is apologetic and disgusted, but the crowd barely buys into it. Then the nWo threatens him, and kidnaps him backstage to "torture him" (Russo loved kidnapping, obviously), but in the end it was a swerve and Bret is still a member of the nWo. Whatever. This is so insanely stupid.

 

On the pole match of the week : Kanyon vs Bam Bam Bigelow in a champaign on a pole match (Thunder). Wel, at least it's a good little match, they wrestler and don't care that much about the pole. Post-match, Lex Luger dressed as Sting comes down the ring and attacks Bam Bam (why ???), but then the lights go off and we see a crow on the ropes. Luger leaves, freaking out (same thing happened the previous week on Nitro). And finally Kanyon breaks the bottle of champaign on Bam Bam.

 

Promo of the week : Kimberly (Thunder). Good interview adressing the issue between DDP and Buff Bagwell. Kim is actually very good here, staying ambiguous enough. Mene Gene sounds like a comple tabloid weasel though, asking her about how things are going in the bedroom and such. This angle finally works because DDP and surprisingly Buff did a good job on Nitro too with their confrontation segment. Buff denies he was hitting on Kim, but DDP doesn't want to believe him. Buff is still playing babyface at this point, depsite acting rather heelish during his first promo of this angle.

 

Embarrassing angle of the week : The Old Age Outlaws (Nitro). Yeah, the big babyface front in WCW consists of Terry Funk, Arn Anderon, Larry Zbyszko and Paul Orndorff, calling themselves by a WWF referential name (which is already dated too, the New Age Outalws were hot in 1998). This is truly bad. Ornorff looks especially old and dated. At least Zbyszko adressed the fact that 2000 didn't mean a new century, which was nice. But anyway, this is bad.

 

More hasbeen matches of the week : George Steele, Tito Santana & Jimmy Snuka vs Jeff Jarrett (Nitro) Wonderful idea. More old WWF guys (Snuka is the only one who has any link with the old WCW territory). Santana looks particulary bad. Snuka does his jump from the top of teh cage, followed by Chris Benoit, who for the fourth time in one month had to execute this ridiculously dangerous bump on fee TV for nothing. Yeah, Russo really took care of Benoit's career...

 

Funny line of the week : "Is that a dance or a seizure ?" Mike Tenay, about Three Count dancing. (Saturday Night). Three Count are great and provide a thousand joke opportunities.

 

This is it. After heavily building Bret and Jarrett for the PPV, neither of them could be there, Bret because of his concussion that effectively ended his career, Jarrett because of injuries I would guess came from the stupid cage match on Nitro (what the hell, I'll blame it anyway). The build to the PPV was terrible anyway, with only one match having been built decently in DDP vs Buff Bagwell. The whole Harlem Heat deal falling apart because of Midnight and Revolution having issues with Asya (yeah, those damn skanks again, damn those bitches hoes, uh ?) is fast forward material. Then you get the awful Oklahoma vs Madusa match which saw way too much woman humiliation for me to call it entertaining on any level. And seriously, this is a point I want to make, I'm honestly really put off by the insame amount of woman abuse, verbal or physical, that I have to go through during this show. It's not even one time a week or per show, it's actually 3 to 5 time per show that a woman gets beat up, insulted, molested or humiliated in some way. It's *really* offputting and actually quite creepy. Even in ECW at its worst it wasn't that bad. Add the fact it was done on a mainstream TV show, and really I was getting uncomfortable watching this at times. Russo has a fucking severe issue with women. In fact, women abuse is what is the most prevalent in Russo's booking along with making WWF references. The third element he uses the most is "shoot" comments, promos or angle. Well, since he couldn't use Bret against Sid on PPV, he wanted to put the belt on Tank Abott (who has been nothing short of unwatchable thus far, in any form or fashion). That idea didn't cut the mustard, Russo was sent home, and the booking went back to Sullivan (who knew the sink was already sinking), Taylor and Ferrara (no idea why they kept this idiot). This would of course make Benoit, Eddie, Dean & Saturn leave, for fear they would not get pushed anymore by Sulli, which in retrospect seems amazing to me. I can understand Benoit being weary, but the first thing Sullivan did to make him stay was put the freaking belt on him. But the really mind-blowing part to me is, these guys really enjoyed the way Russo treated them ? Sure, Benoit was pushed more than he was before, but he was also put in really dangerous situation every week on free TV. And the other three ? The Revolution vs Filthy Animals is hands down the worst feud any of these three was ever involved with in WCW, and it was just a mid-card feud with zero upward potential. Not that Saturn or Dean had any upward potential anyway, they are midcard performers. The Douglas case is interesting, as he also wanted to go to WWF, but since he was banged up and had burned his bridges, they weren't so interested in him (which is pretty stupid, even banged up, he had much more to offer than either Dean or Saturn to be honest, if only as a mic guy). Anyway, the first Russo stint is over. It's been worse than I remembered it to be. Just awful TV. Didn't help the ratings, killed the PPV buyrates more than before and fucked up the entire company. The most amazing, mind fucking blowing thing to me is why in the hell did they call him back a few months later after his catastrophic stint ? Oh, WCW...

 

Vince Russo Tally

 

Title changes : 21

 

Swerves : 9

 

Special gimmick matches on free TV : 20

 

On-a-pole matches : 4

 

WWF references : 37

 

Woman abuse/mysoginistic bullshit : 34

 

Shooty-shooty comments/angles : 28

[Loss]

As bad as Russo's run was, the Sullivan run immediately after this was even worse. But then, the second Russo run was even worse than that.

 

I think the mindset behind bringing Russo back, as bad of a decision as that was, was that Sullivan was even worse. Of course, they could have just gone in a completely different direction instead of choosing between two wrong ones, but that's WCW.

[Ditch]

IIRC, Jarrett was messed up by Snuka, then Snuka motioned for Benoit to do his thing anyway and that made things worse.

[El-P]

As bad as Russo's run was, the Sullivan run immediately after this was even worse. But then, the second Russo run was even worse than that.

I can't believe the last Sullivan run is worse than what I just went through. Even if he didn't give a shit anymore. Even if he had Ferrara with him. We'll see. I have no problem believing the last Russo stint can be worse though, which scares the hell out of me.

 

IIRC, Jarrett was messed up by Snuka, then Snuka motioned for Benoit to do his thing anyway and that made things worse.

That's what I thought watching it. Snuka is a wonderful human being.

[El-P]

PPV 13 : Souled Out 2000

 

"What if ?" main event of the night : Chris Benoit vs Sid Vicious. They sure made it seem like a big deal. Grand intros by Michael Buffer, the entire locker room emptying to watch the match, and the emotionnal interview after the match backstage. The match itself is not much, because Sid has so little to offer, but the intent of Sullivan was pretty clear I thought, and Benoit getting paranoid seems a little bit out of touch, really in retrospect. I wonder what would have happened had he stayed in WCW. The next program was obviously gonna be him vs nWo (well, Nash & Scott Steiner I would guess, since Jarrett would not have gone to the top of the card without Russo). I wish he had stayed. Maybe things would have turn out different, on every level...

 

Match of the night : DDP vs Buff Bagwell. Not a big surprise, as DDP excels in carrying inferior workers. They brawl in the stand for a while before getting back in the ring, and they do quite a nice job with the last man standing gimmick. DDP clearly is the one keeping teh pace and the intensity up. Intriguing finish with DDP putting the Diamond Cutter on Buff, but ends up being counted anyway because Buff used a riot baton to counter the spot. Also, Kim showed up at the very end but her attitude stays rather ambiguous.

 

Honorable mention of the night : Vampiro vs David Flair vs Crowbar. More a two on one than a real thriple threat, but since David and Crowbar are insane they do get at each other at some points. Surprisingly enjoyable, with Vamp having to deal with the two nutsacks and getting some good babyface reactions. Spotty match, of course, but a rather fun one.

 

Comical match of the night : Dean Malenko vs Kidman in a "Catch as catch can, no escape" match. Dean Malenko steps out of the ring, he loses. The confusion was pretty funny. Probably a subconscious decision of walking out of this ridiculous company.

 

Slaughter of the night : Terry Funk vs Kevin Nash. This would be the fourth "garbage" match of the night, counting Kidman vs Saturn (which was a "Bunkhouse match"), the Hardcore championship match (which was as bad as it always is) and Kidman vs The Wall (in a Hell in the Cell-like cage, with a bunch of chairshot and stuff, really bad match too BTW). Nash powerbombs Funk through the announcers' table right from the start. Funk bleeds a lot. Lot of chairshot to the head. This shouldn't happen.

 

"Feminist" match of the night : Oklahoma vs Madusa. I'm just kidding, but at least Ferrara basically got his ass kicked, and despite winning the title by slipping on a banana peel (and taking down Madusa's "trunks", she was wearing womething underneath of course), he was totally humiliated during the post-match by Madusa, Spice and Asya, so I guess it's a reasonnable payback.

 

The PPV wasn't good, although DDP vs Bagwell and the Thriple Threat were fun. Too much shit already booked on the show to get anything from it. Harris Boys suck, Saturn vs Kidman was a heatless spot show (only notable for the fact that Saturn POWERBOMBED KIDMAN !!!), Stevie Ray vs Booker T was pretty bad too and we get the debut of Ahmed Johnson, with some extra pounds. It's worth noting though, that it felt like a pro-wrestling show for the first time in months, with very few distracting bullshit happening outside of your usual pro-wrestling bullshit. That was refreshing to say the least. If Benoit & Eddie had not left, maybe Sulli could have done something with them, he sure put the belt directly on Benoit (the finish was brillant in that he covered his ass in case Benoit would not accept to stay, with Sid's leg touching the rope just seconds after he tapped out, so you could argue he was already under the rope when he was put into the hold). Of course barely anyone saw the PPV, so it wouldn't have helped that much, but with Benoit leaving, Bret hart being done and Goldberg being out, Sulli was left with no-one on top. Since he was already burned out and knew WCW was a sinking ship, I can understand he went back to Hogan and Flair, after all, they had been their biggest draws ever. The company was doomed, Russo had destroyed what was left of it after the Nash run.

[Cox]

Just checking, but you mean Nitro Girl Spice, right?

[El-P]

Oups, sorry. I type too quickly. Yeah, Spice, valet of Madusa. Now that was some twosome.

[Johnny Guitar]

As bad as WCW was in 1999. I'll always maintain that it could have been salvaged Pre Russo.

[artDDP]

Daphney taking a bump that the camera misses. Then Kevin Nash powerbombing Terry Funk through the Thunder set like he's Bischoff in 1996. I want to cry.

They were regularly missing stuff like this on taped shows.

[El-P]

WEEK 55 (January 17 to 22, 2000)

 

Match of the week : DDP vs Kanyon. (Thunder). Russo is out and wrestling is back. How surprising ? Good TV match between the former Triad members. I'm definitely not crazy about the Champagne gimmick. These are two of the best guy in the company to have a smooth, all action match, with nice nearfalls at the end. And so they have. DDP and Kim seems to get along quite well here, after some bizarre happening on Nitro where Kim had to referee a DDP vs Bagwell match which ended when Kim tried to push Buff from behind but got hit accidentaly in the process. DDP still finds new cool way to apply the Diamond Cutter, which never cease to amaze me.

 

Title change of the week : Mamalukes win the tag team titles from David Flair & Crowbar (Thunder). I enjoy Flair & Crowbar more than I thought I would, mostly because I like Devon Storm, and David Flair is improving a bit (couldn't get any worse anyway). Big Vito carries his team, as Johnny the Bull really is nothing more than an athletic spot machine at this point. Disco is quite funny at the booth, not really supporting his team then taking all the credit when they win the titles.

 

Random appearance of the week : Sherri Martel jumping on Madusa (Thunder). I had no idea Sherri showed up in WCW that late. Oklahoma forfeited the title because he's no cruiserweight, but Madusa challenged him to defend his title against her when Sherri jumped her from behind. Nothing match followed, but it was cool to see Sherri back.

 

Opening match of the week : Kidman vs Psychosis (Nitro). Let's open ur wrestling TV show with a wrestling match, how crazy does that sound ? And a cruiserweight match to boot, with actual cruiserweight, no intergender bullshit, no heavyweight showing up to interfere, just two cruiserweight having a fun little match together. I'm so glad Russo is gone the product looks like the best thing ever in comparison, really.

 

Funniest moments of the week : Mike Tenay being disgusted at 3-Count (every show). Tenay just hates 3-Count and makes his feelings really clear to everyone. He's actually really funny showing real anger at this crap. 3-Count are awesome, getting thrown around by Luger or Norman Smiley, trying to dance after their match while still selling the beating they usually get. Fun stuff.

 

How refreshing that was to get actual wrestling this week, with no crash TV bullshit, no women beating, no shoot interviews and no dozen WWF references. It's crazy how much getting rid of Russo immediately improved the TV a million time. Sure, there is still crap around, but it's so cool to get a normal wrestling show that I really enjoyed it more than I probably should. Kevin Nash acting like the big shot commissioner and having the whole roster in the ring listening to his bullshit was too long and not as funny as Nash probably thought it was, but it had the feel of a new beginning after the months of Russo crap. I know, it won't last, sadly. Also, the roster looks pretty depleted at this point, and WCW doens't look at all like the all-star company it once was. Crowd still chants Goldberg though. He was their only star. Sulli had not much to work with. Sid, Sting & DDP were the biggest active name on the babyface front, Nash & Scott Steiner on the heel front, although Steiner still had never been pushed to the top of the card. Not a pretty picture.

[flyonthewall2983]

3-Count would have been a much better gimmick in WWE. Especially around this time when it seemed they were aiming at the Nu-Metal crowd. Doesn't make it any less perfect for WCW around this time, but they could have given it way more heat up north.