WCW's Highway to Hell

[artDDP]

WCW was starting to look somewhat cohesive again and the WWF was doing it's best business yet with a toned-down "crash TV" format and longer actual matches on TV. During that period Vince Russo gave some interview where he said the WWF product was stale because they were still pushing guys like Kane. I think he was trying to say the boom wouldn't last because he wasn't there to create new stars.

[El-P]

WEEK 56 (January 24 to 29, 2000)

 

Series of the week : Kidman vs Vampiro (Nitro & Thunder). They are running a babyface program between those two, with them showing respect for each others and working a clean style. Of course it's Kidman and Vamp, so the matches aren't that good, as both need someone to structure their match. Kidman especially is exposed working in this kind of singles match. Vamp had much more upward potential. The first match is notable for, once again, Kidman actually getting powerbombed ! Kidman wins on Nitro, Vamp wins on Thunder. Well, at least it's a fairly simple wrestling program based around winning matches, who's gonna complain. Torrie is back at ringside with Kidman.

 

New WCW champion of the week : Sid Vicious (Thunder). They worked a clusterfuck of an angle on Nitro with Sid having to beat one Harris brother to get to Nash, but since he beat the "wrong" Harris brother, after a switcheroo, and used the banned powerbomb to boot, he doesn't get the belt and has to meet Nash & a Harris boy in a cage on Thunder. He finally wins by making Nash tap out to the crossface. All that was pretty damn horrible. I don't get why Sullivan thought it was a good idea. They are building Sid to meet Goldberg eventually. Hum... didn't they just had a blood feud that dirn't draw already ? Building a monster for a returning Goldberg was a nice idea, but Sid is a proven failure.

 

Challenge of the week : Lex Luger mentionning Hulk Hogan (Nitro). Good promo by Luger that sounds exactly what his Narcissisct stuff should have been in 93. Mostly based around him and Sting, but at the end he mentions Hulk Hogan, who hasn't been part of WCW's TV since Halloween Havoc and the entire Russo run basically.

 

Cruiserweight tournament match of the week : Kaz Hayashi vs Psychosis (Nitro). So apparently there's a tournament going on. And we don't have any brackets. Back to the basics !! It's scary how little they got out of Kaz Hayashi. He's doing the job to Psychosis, who's been the ultimate JTTS cruiserweight since 1996. Psych looks a bit sloppy also at times here. Very short match, no intros. This is not looking very interesting sadly, not a great effort to rebuild the cruiserweight division.

 

The company is slowly structuring itself back. Flair shows up at the end of Thunder to applaud Sid Vicious. Sting makes a phantomatic apparition after a Luger match on Nitro. Luger is pillmanizing everyone hes' facing, or trying to at least, with Liz playing an active role. 3-Count are legit the funniest wrestling act I've seen in a long time, and Shannon & Shane just take ridiculous bumps for their opponents. My favourite part of the show every week. DDP vs Buff Bagwell seems over and done with. Not too much happening, things are going slow (which I guess is why the ratings tanked even worse than during Russo's run, but it was the right way to do things, taking the time to rebuild things).

[El-P]

WEEK 57 (Januray 31 to February 05)

 

Match of the week : Crowbar & David Flair vs Mamalukes (Nitro). Okay, the roster is thin and good wrestling few and far between, so I'll settle on this, a hardocre brawl between the Mamalukes and the insane goofballs. Big Vito & Crowbar carry the load, with Johnny the Bull delivering a few impressive athletic spots but also his share of sloppiness. Miss Hancock always shows up during these tag team matches, so there is problaly something being built for the former Standards & Practices now renamed simply Lane & Idol (back to their older yet much less flashy look). Either that or they just want to show the greatest looking legs ever on wrestling TV. Anyway, the viewer is the winner.

 

Promo of the week : Terry Funk getting on Ric Flair's case (Nitro). Flair coming back on Nitro kinda never gets old, but Flair throwing the same lines and acting hysterical and senile kinda does actually. Terry Funk on the other hand, cuts his best promo since he debuted in the company, berating Flair and asking if he's gonna align with him against the nWo at the same time. A Flair vs Funk program in 2000 ? Why not. Sounds reasonnably fun to me. Flair gets a clear babyface reaction while Funk's is 50/50.

 

Awkward erotic spot of the week : Hulk Hogan doing the worst atomic drop ever on Liz (Thunder). So, Hogan comes back on Thunder and slashes those "young punks acting like they are superstars" and the guys making a comedy out of his sport. COnsidering how many goofy shit Hogan did in WCW since he came around, this part of the promo is pretty hilarious. Anyway, Luger and Liz show up to confront Hogan, then a fake Sting (which is probably Dustin Rhodes) makes an eerie appearance to distract Luger, who almost gets attacked from behind by Hogan, always the consumate babyface. The infamous spot comes next. So, Liz tries to hit Hogan with the bat, Hogan counters and delivers a pretty awful looking atomic drop, which Liz doesn't sell at all, rolling from the ring to the outside. The story Hogan told is that Liz didn't wear panties that night, hence the way she took the spot. Now, since it's Hogan, we can assume this has at least a 70% chance of being bullshit to begin with. Now, looking at the way Liz immediately puts one hand behind her back and holds her skirt right against her legs during the whole spot, the way she doesn't stretch her legs at all and keeps them retracted, then the way she "bumps" or rather doesn't bump at all, there's a possibility this might be true. And since the idea of Liz not wearing panties under her leather skirt while she was carrying a baseball bat is a pretty terrific erotic fantasy, I'll give the Hulkster a pass. Anyway, the result is that it looked like a horrible looking spot, and Liz not selling Hulk's offense was pretty funny.

 

Funny line of the week : "Well, it's better than Metal Music Machine by Lou Reed." Scott Hudson (Saturday Night), refering to 3-Count's hit single. I can't get enough of Tenay being outraged by the fact some of his colleagues actually don't mind the song.

 

One shot of the week : DDP vs The Machine (Thunder). The Machine was a big masked guy whose work seemed ok. He got a rather big entrance with eerie music and lights. That would be his only match under the hood. It's pretty sad, because he looked much better than The Wall. He died in 2006 at 36, while The Wall died in 2003, at 36 also. Hey, I outlived both these guys. Good for me.

 

Goofy angle of the week : Norman Smiley hides in the KISS Demon's casket and transforms into a KISS Demon himself. (Nitro). I think this speaks for itself.

 

Stupid angle of the week : Booker T can't use the Harlem Heat entrance song and is deprived of his "T". (Nitro) Speaks for itself too. Although I can live with the music part, this is actually something that makes sense in term of legal bullshit some crooked lawyer would throw out. But the "T" ? So, Booker will feud with Big T over a letter. Beats a shampoo commercial though.

 

Okay, so the big news is that Nash hurt something along the way, so Jeff Jarrett takes over as commissioner. Awww gawd... I enjoy Jarrett as a worker, but he's a mediocre promo at best, and cutting long ass tough guy promos just don't fit him at all, especially when Scott Steiner is standing right behind him. So we are going toward Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett at the next PPV. No wonder it drew shit. The two biggest matches are Hogan vs Luger (straight out of 1995) and Flair vs Funk (straight out of 1989). Nice. Beats anything Russo did except putting Bret & Benoit together, but since both these guys are gone now, what could Sullivan do ? His booking still sucks though, especially on top, where we get more Sid vs Harris Boys matches. The Harris boys officially joigned the nWo, making them the most useless members this side of Vincent and Stevie Ray. The tag team scene consist of the Mamalukes vs Crowbar/David, with Lane & Idol looking to get thrown in. The cruiserweight tournament is an afterthought, although we get some brackets now. Madusa wants a woman division, and we'll get Oklahoma to supervise it. Why is this guy still employed, still on TV and still in the booking commitee ? Sullivan's booking is bad enough at this point, we don't need this fucker to make it worse. The Kidman vs Vampiro feud wasn't hot enough, so they have to deal with The Wall now. This guy sucks, has no charisma and no mic skills. He's like Mr. Hughes without the amazing athletic ability. Meanwhile, Berlyn has all but vanished. He was getting heat and had good matches, I guess that was a bad thing. Okay, I'm glad Russo is gone, and the TV is a hundred times more watchable without him at the helm, but it's still bad, Sid on top is atrocious, this nWo redux is a miserabe failure. Oh, and Mark Madden took the place of Bobby Heenan this week. Heenan has been worthless for a long time now, but Madden... really... this is gonna be really awfull really quick.

[Blehschmidt]

Who was "The Machine"

[tomk]

Emory Hale was a Jimmy Hart project to build up a monster opponent ( for I think Hogan in the long term).

[El-P]

He can be seen doing a few jobs on Nitro in 1998, to Luger and Booker T.

[El-P]

WEEK 58 (February 7 to 12, 2000)

 

Angle of the week : Terry Funk threatens to destroy David Flair if Ric doesn't show up to fight him (Nitro). Very good angle. Terry and David are supposed to face in a I Quit match. Terry doesn't want to put David through this and calls out Ric, who doesn't show up. So the match takes place, after a few head bashing with a chair on Funk, David gets his ass kicked big time, with Terry piledriving him on the floor twice, including on concrete. WCW did a good job as they showed a video from the infamous Flair vs Funk rivalry in 1989 beforehand. Funk kept on calling out Ric during the match, to the point where he put David on a table at ringside and threatened to finish the kid if Ric didn't show up before the count of five. He counted five. Ric didn't show up. Terry acted disgusted and said he was gonna quit for this time and this time only. Terry was pretty great during all this. following the match, Arn Anderson cut a disguted promo too, saying all of this wasn't necessary but that Flair had to stop acting like Ric Flair and had to came down the ring for his son. As a result, he refuses to take side with this mess. Great segment.

 

Shoot promo of the week : Scott Steiner going off on Ric Flair (Nitro). And this is really a shoot promo, Steiner basically went into business for himself, calling Flair a jealous bastard several times, mentionning clicking to WWF TV when he showed up on Nitro the previous week, mentionning Steve Austin being fired because of him, talking about Flair having stolen everything from Buddy Rogers but his class. That was pretty ugly yet pretty glorious. The result is that Flair confronted him on Thunder and Steiner apparently threatened Flair. Steiner got suspended. Great, the best heel in the company is gone from TV now.

 

Second best promo / angle of the week : Lex Luger breaks Jimmy Hart's wrist (Nitro). What the hell happened this week ? Why all this good angles and promos all of a sudden ? Luger was really good here, luring Jimmy Hart into the ring for him to deliver a message to his friend Hulk Hogan, putting him over as a great mind in the business and making things happen backstage. Jimmy Hart wouldn't have none of that though, and cut a very good promo on Luger too. Ends up with Luger attacking Jimmy and pillmanizing his wrist. Seriously, this is what should have happened in the WWF in 1993, or at least in WCW in 1995 when Luger showed up. Luger was excellent as a total chickenshit heel during Russo's run, and he's still very good in his more serious role here. Some of his best work character wise. That Liz was as foxy as ever doesn't hurt the visuals.

 

Match of the week : Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Hall (Thunder). These two have a smooth chemistry dating back from 1995 in the WWF. They work your minimal Thunder match, but it's still quite enjoying as it's pretty heated, and Jarrett gets the most out of his requisite sleeper spot. His Stroke finisher still looks awful though, no idea why he thought that was a good idea. This goes into Dog & Pony show with a Dusty finish, a crooked referee, a false finish and a run in from Sid. Nothing special, but rather fun. Jarrett and the Harris Boys are all what's left of the nWo at this point, Hall & Nash having turned babyfaces of sorts after Jarrett prevented Hall from winning the title from Sid on Nitro.

 

C-show match of the week : Norman Smiley vs Shark Boy (Saturday Night). Yeah, Shark Boy in WCW. TNA can't be too far ahead.

 

On Thunder, Flair was confronted by Dustin Rhodes about how he treated David, and they had a short on-the-fly match which ended by Flair pinning Dustin after a rolex shot. Mmmkay. I like the idea of Dustin fighting against his dad's old nemesis though, but the pinfall was unecessary. We're leading into a Flair & Luger faction against Hogan, Dustin Rhodes, Terry Funk. This is the best the company can do at the moment on top, sadly, but the promos and angles of this week have been really good, better than any other angles in months. The undercard looks pretty sad, to the point I wonder if Ferrera & Taylor are not responsible for most of this while Sullivan is concentrating on the main event scene. Norman Smiley vs 3-Count is the funny part of the card, while the Mamalukes vs Crowbar & David Flair is a decent enough tag team feud. The rest is going nowhere. Kidman really shows his limitations working with anyone else but great cruiserweights, as he's used as the new "workrate" guy. The whole Harlem Heat deal is really bad and turing worse with each week. Another awful segment on Nitro with Oklahoma being confronted by Madusa after bringing his plastic surgeon into the ring. Jeff Jarrett cutting the same boring promos every week and still dropping "chosen one" and "I'm the guy with the stroke around here" is awfully grating. Bobby Heenan works on the B & C shows now, and seems much better off with Tenay & Hudson than he was next to Schiavone. Madden already gets on my nerves.

[El-P]

WEEK 59 (February 14 to 19, 2000)

 

Match of the week : Terry Funk vs Lex Luger (Nitro). Funk looks old when he's doing anything else but crazy brawling. Well, he does look old anyway, but working wrestling sequence with lex Luger in 2000 will not end up looking smooth. But this is the match of the week for a rather great looking spot. Luger gorilla pressing Funk through a table at ringside (both were on the floor). Looks great and done fluidly. Both work reasonnably hard until the screwjob and Funk being saved only thanks to Arn Anderson.

 

Routine match of the week : Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair (Nitro). Nitro was running unopposed and went 3 hours with some big matches, this being obviously the biggest. This is every Hogan vs Flair match you've seen before, and as routine as it is, it works for the crowd. Flair avoids the pinfall loss thanks to Luger and Liz (who gets physical with Jimmy Hart). In a rather cool post-match, after Hogan chased everyone away and was doing his posing, Luger came back and attacked him from behind, and did pillmanize him too. All the casts wearing guy on the roster look a bit goofy, but at least they kept Luger strong during this run.

 

Promo of the week : Lex Luger & Ric Flair uniting (Thunder). Good stuff from the veterans, much better than anything we have to suffer though from Jarrett who is getting the main event spot against Sid. Terry Funk interrupts them with Dustin, who says nothing and whom Terry Funk called a boy, looking kinda stupid in the process. This led to a decent match, but it's real clear than Funk is not getting over strong, and this show was in Philly. Dustin has been totally lost in the shuffle. Had a good interview facing Flair the previous week, but doesn't look and seem like anything special, and he's not getting over either at this point.

 

Random title match of the week : Jim Duggan vs Robert Gibson (Saturday Night). FOr the TV title that Duggan found in the garbages. Well, at least there's some sort of twisted continuity, if they wanted to bring the title back in some capacity. The match is about as "good" as it sounds, but the interesting part is what follows : Steven Regal challenges Duggan to a career vs title match next week.

 

Garbage match of the week : Big Vito vs Crowbar (Thunder). Crowbar & David Flair ruined a family reunion on Nitro, in a scene that was as stupid and goofy as anything Russo wrote. At least we get that kinda cool garbage match backstage, with the two workhorses of their respective teams. They bump onto cars, break some windshield and get some legumes thrown at them by Daffney. Don't ask, I don't know. This little feud as been totally watchable if you except a few vignettes by the Mamalukes.

 

Funniest match of the week : 3-Count vs Norman Smiley & Lane (Nitro). No idea why Lane is tagging with Smiley. Handicap match, building to the 3-1 match at the PPV. I can watch 3-Count all day long. Some cool and funny stuff of course, but teh highlight comes from outside the ring, as Miss Hancock wants to prove to Lane & Idol that they don't know what they lost with her, so she let her hair loose and does a sexy dance routine on the announcers desk. Schiavone had the best seat in the house that night. Funniest spot is referee Charles Robinson staring at Hancock as she was walking away instead of going for the count.

 

Awful segment of the week : Oklahoma chief of the woman's division (Nitro). This shit just wont end, so now we get Mona vs Ronda Singh in what could be a decent match, but all the focus gets on Oklahoma at ringside. Plus we get Madusa to ref the match, some rather big fuck ups and a bad finish involving Ferrera. Why is this guy still on TV ? Oklahoma is a channel changing character.

 

The build for the PPV was marred by a really bad scene on top. Sullivan wanted to build up Sid for Goldie eventually, but Sid sucked on every level and couldn't draw flies if he was a giant shit. The fact he's feuding with freaking Jeff Jarrett who's badly been exposed as a guy who just shouldn't cut tough guy promos every week on TV makes things even more painfull. The cruiserweight tournament ended up being terrible, with Lash Leroux and The Artist being pushed to the final, both shitty workers and characters, when Kaz Hayashi has done nothing since he got signed. Even WWF did more with TAKA Michinoku, which doesn't say much. Vampiro vs Kidman is a flat feud, most notable for the fact Vamp got his old music theme back since the Misfits wanted to sue WCW for some shit. Hell, everyone was suing WCW at this point, Bobby Walker, Soony Oono, the luchadors... Scott Hall threatened to hurt Terry Taylor on Thunder so he was sent back home. The whole thing is just a giant clusterfuck. The two fun feuds on teh undercard are 3-Count vs Norman and the Mamalukes vs David/Crowbar. KISS Demon jobs hard. So does Kanyon, which I don't understand. They are promoting the DDP book now, his whole angle with Kim was seemingly dropped, but he isn't on TV anymore which I don't get either. The company is dying.

[artDDP]

Next is that god-awful SuperBrawl where Tank Abbot pulls a knife on his opponent and Tony has no idea what the fuck to say. The next night would be the last time I saw WCW live. I don't remember what the tickets cost but they were pretty cheap.

[cm funk]

I'm so glad Russo is gone the product looks like the best thing ever in comparison, really.

Haven't watched any of this since it aired, but this is how I felt at the time. Anything was better than Russo at that point. It may not have been very good, and the roster had been decimated by injuries and defections, but it was still far easier to watch than the months of Russo.

 

As far as Benoit & those guys and Russo goes, I got the feeling that even though they had to know how terrible he was as a booker that he at least made them feel like they mattered and that he was going to take care of them. One thing everyone says to Russo's credit is that he talked to guys about what they were doing and wanted to give everyone a direction. I'm sure Eddie, Perry and Dean saw Benoit getting this huge push from Russo and figured they might get similar treatment (and even the awful Revolution vs. Animals stuff was more of a featured role on TV than any of them had had in the past). After years of being treated like they didn't matter by Bischoff et. all it had to nice for them. I think they overreacted to Sullivan and probably just wanted out by any means necessary at that point, but you can't blame them for thinking the return of Sullivan to power would usher the same old guard in again......and really, it kind of did. He went right back to Hogan and Flair, and he probably would have done that even if those guys had stuck around. I don't believe he would have buried them though. Sullivan always seemed to treat Benoit with a lot of respect as far as giving him things to do and building him up while he was in the midcard. It was during Sullivan's time as booker that Benoit really got over with the WCW crowd after all.

[El-P]

As far as Benoit & those guys and Russo goes, I got the feeling that even though they had to know how terrible he was as a booker that he at least made them feel like they mattered and that he was going to take care of them. One thing everyone says to Russo's credit is that he talked to guys about what they were doing and wanted to give everyone a direction. I'm sure Eddie, Perry and Dean saw Benoit getting this huge push from Russo and figured they might get similar treatment

That's probably how they felt although really Eddie was the only one who could have been pushed to that level.

 

(and even the awful Revolution vs. Animals stuff was more of a featured role on TV than any of them had had in the past).

I have to disagree with that. Yeah, they got more *promo time* an angles, but these were terrible angles. In term of placement on the card, they weren't higher than they were before, and they were put in a dogshit feud with dogshit intergender and gimmick matches every week. In 96 and 97, Dean Malenko had been an anchor to the then very hot cruiserweight division. In 98 he had the Jericho feud. In 1999 he was anchoring the hot (in term of crowd reactions) tag team division until Nash took it down with the return of Harlem Heat. Same thing for Saturn, whose highest point in WCW was the feud with Raven in 1998 then his time in the tag-team division in 99 along Benoit & Raven. All of this was better than this awful Revolution angle. They were under the impression they were getting more respect because of angle and promo time, but really, they didn't get over better than before, in a sense it hurt them because the matches nor the angles really didn't get over. And when you think about it, what did they do of note in WWF that was better than their highlights in WCW, really ? Nothing. Dean couldn't work with great cruiserweights, he had a good match with Scotty 2 Hotty which got overrated like hell because of a hot finishing move and that's it. Saturn's most famous angle from this time is the Moppy angle which was a rehash of Chavo's Peppe angle in WCW. Eddie Guerrero is probably the one who benefitted the least from Russo, having some of his worst matches ever during that period, despite being the one who had the most upward potential.

 

Meanwhile, Jeff Jarrett who was coming right from WWF, where he never got over until he had Debra showing her boobs and then when he abused women, was skyrocketted right at the top of the undercard near the main-event scene despite not getting over either, simply because he was the buddy of Russo.

 

I think they overreacted to Sullivan and probably just wanted out by any means necessary at that point, but you can't blame them for thinking the return of Sullivan to power would usher the same old guard in again......and really, it kind of did. He went right back to Hogan and Flair, and he probably would have done that even if those guys had stuck around.

Not so sure about that. His main idea was to go back to Goldberg, which was the only sane thing to do anyway. His plan was Benoit > Nash > Goldie. But anyway, after they left, Sullivan really had nothing left to work with on top nor in the undercard. Bret was gone, Goldie was injured, Rey was injured. He wanted to build a monster champion for Goldie to defeat when he would come back and choose Sid, as he was still fairly "new" to the company at this point (instead of going for Nash, which would have been much better still though).

 

I don't believe he would have buried them though. Sullivan always seemed to treat Benoit with a lot of respect as far as giving him things to do and building him up while he was in the midcard. It was during Sullivan's time as booker that Benoit really got over with the WCW crowd after all.

Right, and it's something that seems to be overlook. Sullivan made what Benoit was in WCW. And really, When the Radilcals showed up on a red hot RAW product, they were already over because they had been featured on a red hot Nitro product the previous years. If they had been jabronies for all this time in WCW, they would never have got the treatment they got when they first showed up. Damn, if I need to get through something eventually, it's those good WWF years I missed because of Russo making me give up on the company in 99.

[El-P]

PPV 14 : Superbrawl 2000

 

Car crash match of the night : Tank Abbott vs Big Al. Yeah, Tank Abbott vs his former bodyguard, in a match no one gives a fuck about. They sure beat the shit out of each other, it's ugly, it looks stupid, no one cares. Oh, the best part is that's it's a "skin on a pole match". Russo is back already ? Abbott's leather jacket is hanging off a pole. Anyway, the best finisher is Abbott KOing Al, then putting him on his shoulder, climbing the ropes, losing his equilibrium and dropping the poor guy to the floor ! That was awkward and really looked like Al could have killed himself. But it's not the best part yet. Tank gets a fucking knife and applies it to Al's throat !! The camera cuts off to a crowd shots. Madden "Does he have a knife to his throat ?!!". Schiavone "I think it was a pair of scissors, he was gonna cut off his beard or something." Glorious !

 

Nothing match of the night : Hulk Hogan vs Lex Luger. As much as I enjoy Luger's character, he just doesn't have good matches anymore. Hogan is not especially vicious though he promised in the pre-match promo he was gonna destroy Luger and turn into Hollywood. He also said he was gonna break Liz's body if she came too close. What a babyface... This is standart Hogan stuff, Lex bumps for him a whole lot. Post match, Flair runs-in and jumps on Hogan, then Sting runs-in to save Hogan. Okay, so we're somewhat back in August 99 before Sting's heel turn.

 

Brawl of the night : Terry Funk vs Ric Flair. Better than it looks on paper. Ric was fired up here working against Funk, and it's his best match on a long time. Old guys beating the hell out of each others, Flair's chops are vicious like it's 1989 again. Okay, it's not exactly 1989, but Terry does piledrive him through a table again, and doens't break his neck this time around. Those tables back in the days were much stronger. It's a deathmtach so we get pinfalls and ten counts afterward, which isn't a gimmick I enjoy much, but they work it decently, except at the end where Flair pins Terry but the referee does a double count for whatever reason. The key to this match working is that they were intense and they sold the beating well. Surprisingly good.

 

Dog & Pony show match of the night : Jeff Jarrett vs Scott Hall vs Sid Vicious. Enjoyed this much more than I should have probably. They work a short, all action match full of nonsense like Jarrett going thorugh every referee until the crooked one would show up. Since Hall & Jarrett kept it moving it had a nice flow to it, and they made Sid look like a monster, which was the idea. It was too short to eventually suck with Sid around, but long enough it didn't feel like a total throwaway match. At the end Hall gets screwed by the crooked referee, then Roddy Piper shows up (made a referee by the Powers That Be, continuity folks) and prevent Jarrett from winning. Hall does the job. Really, that was an enjoyable match after such a boring build.

 

Comedy match of the night : Norman Smiley vs 3-Count. And this is actually funny thanks to 3-Count launching themselves like darts and Norman goofying around. Still, in the end 3-Count win by taking advantage of Norman's injured ribs. So we get some good comedy spots and a logical finish. Won't complain about any of this.

 

Failed "workrate" match of the night : Vampiro vs Kidman. So, this was supposed to be the hot match of the night work wise, but Kidman and Vampiro aren't able to build a match by themselves, so it's a spotfest without much storytelling, and the execution isn't stellar either, especially from Kidman. I'm not sure Vampiro was better or worse than Saturn but he had nice power spots like the double powerbomb he actually applied to Kimdan, in the highlight spot of the match. Watchable, with some hot moves at the end, but a Benoit or Eddie match (or even a Malenko match) it isn't. True highlight was Torrie's outfit. She got involved at some point but her timing before she took a bump was all screwed-up. Not that she was to blame, these weren't ring generals in there to help her around.

 

Match of the night : Mamalukes vs David Flair & Crowbar. This is a stretcher match so we get a awkward finish involving athletic tape, which never ever looks any good. Apart that fact, this was a very fun garbage brawl in which Devon Storm totally sabued the ring (which is a compliment coming from me, BTW Sabu was supposed to get signed by WCW at this time too, which would have been pretty great for me). Daphney does a surprise hurricanrana on Johnny, losing her electric blue wig in the process, which makes for a cool visual. This is the best ECW match I've seen in a long time. Plus add Disco Inferno who was quite funny at the both, and the result is the highlight of this PPV, involving young and fresh workers, some brutality, some fun stuff, a hot girl who could work and who had a singular look and personnality. Yep, I liked that one very much.

 

Living legend of the night : James Brown. First The Cat brings out a very fake J.B., to the outrage of the Maestro. Then James Brown comes to the ring witha whole deleguation, and he has a dance contest with The Cat, which is actually really cool to see. The Cat could have been a major player with the right push, he had ridiculous charisma. This didn't accomplish anything since it wasn't anounced beforehand (Sullivan pretends J.B. no showed them a few times before that date which is why they couldn't take the risk, I have a hard time believing this one...), but it was still a cool moment. J.B. got the biggest pop of the night, as he should.

 

The PPV was hit and miss, with a lot of crap in the first half. The cruiserweight match was bad, The Artist gets the belt. Yawn. They are still pushing The Wall, I guess to feed him to Goldie eventually. This time around the KISS Demon was his victim. Crap match. Then you got the awful Booker vs Harlem Heat feud. Man, Ahmed Johnson looked like the next big thing back in 1996, and he just became fat. He looks like a whale when he's on the floor. A big fat whale. He's still better than Stevie Ray, which is scary. I was thinking, why didn't they just bring back 4X4 if they wanted a fat fuck with freaky looking arms ? Well, who shows up at the end (with the Midnight gimmick that makes no fucking sense !) ? A fat fuck who looks exactly like 4X4. And he's the next member of Harlem Heat Inc. This feud is wretched. Poor garbage match between Knobbs and Bam Bam. This stuff had so overstayed its welcome. Anyway, the last half of the PPV wasn't that bad, with the tag team match, Flair vs Funk and the surprisingly fun main event saving the day.

 

PPV 14 ? Hey, I've turned the corner ! I've done more than half of it ! If only the Russo/Bischoff era wasn't in front of me...

[s1rweeze]

Great job as always El-P, I just have to comment on one silver lining for this era of WCW: Liz, Miss Hancock, Torrie Wilson and Daffney might be the most attractive lineup of valets at any point company history. So there's that, at least.

[Death From Above]

Funniest thing anyone ever wrote on DVDVR was the guy that called Stacy Keibler "an average blonde".

 

I mean I know it's DVDVR, and any time someone says they find a woman attractive it's part of the code that someone has to be contrarian to show how cool he is that he hates girls and loves comic books, but Jesus Christ.

 

Also, I hated almost everything about this show other than Norman Smiley and 3-Count just doing what they do. I agree going over this stuff, Luger had a lot of cool promos and out of the ring stuff, but I find him really hard to watch as a wrestler at this stage. Also, I think Vampiro sucks, so there's that. The main event isn't very good, but at least they were sensible enough to keep it short. The Booker T match is really bottom of the barrel stuff, and I felt sorry for him being stuck in this program. I know you don't think as much of him as a worker El-P as some did, but the fans really wanted to give a shit about him and for now they just weren't getting any reason to. And The Maestro cut a promo on this PPV so bad it had to be seen to be believed. Flair and Funk I love but they're too old to be asked to pull off that kind of match, though bless them they certainly tried. Funk really didn't get over a ton in this period. Tank Abbot and some dude punched each other a bunch, and I thought it might have been one of the three best matches on the show. That's more because I hate almost everything else than because I'm defending Tank Abbot or something. I think you've officially lost your marbles if you thought that Mamalukes vs. Flair/Crowbar match is good, though I'll admit it's an entertaining clusterfuck. Plus there's a hilarious moment where the athletic tape breaks while they're taping someone down so they just have to pretend it worked anyway even though everyone can see it didn't.

 

I thought this show was really in the depths of despair. Way too many matches, very little of it worked, and it really felt like a company in real trouble to me. All the older guys don't have any upper gear anymore and so much of the rest is just "ok... this is happening? Really?" They felt pretty bottomed out to me here.

[Johnny Guitar]

I think it's always worth reiterating how it took Vince Russo only 3 months to completely bypass the worse scenario in an already bad situation and head for straight out catastrophic clusterfuck!

 

The stench of death was all over WCW at this point.

[El-P]

Great job as always El-P, I just have to comment on one silver lining for this era of WCW: Liz, Miss Hancock, Torrie Wilson and Daffney might be the most attractive lineup of valets at any point company history. So there's that, at least.

Indeed. Only Woman on TV would have made it even more perfect.

 

The Booker T match is really bottom of the barrel stuff, and I felt sorry for him being stuck in this program. I know you don't think as much of him as a worker El-P as some did, but the fans really wanted to give a shit about him and for now they just weren't getting any reason to.

To me Booker really has done zilch workwise since the best of 7 series with Benoit. He's been worse than he was before when he came back from injury in 1999, and he hasn't stepped up his game one bit since then. Was he put in bad situations ? Sure. A whole lot of them since basically they put him back with his brother. But as a worker, I think less of Booker than I ever did before at this point.

 

I think you've officially lost your marbles if you thought that Mamalukes vs. Flair/Crowbar match is good, though I'll admit it's an entertaining clusterfuck.

I'm a Sabu fan. Most of my favourite matches of his have been called that.

 

Plus there's a hilarious moment where the athletic tape breaks while they're taping someone down so they just have to pretend it worked anyway even though everyone can see it didn't.

Spot involving tying someone up with athletic tape never ever look good. That's the only thing that bothered me in the match.

[El-P]

WEEK 60 (February 21 to 26, 2000)

 

Match of the week by default : Mamalukes vs PG-13 (Saturday Night). It's both sad and ridiculous that a semi-competitive squash would be the best wrestling match this week on TV. And it's both sad and ridiculous that PG-13 would have been signed to do jobs on C-shows while a bunch of no-talent, uncharismatics stiffs like The Wall, The Artist and the Harris Boys would be all over the TV getting pushes up their asses.

 

Turn of the week : Dustin Rhodes turning heel on Terry Funk (Nitro). Dustin was going nowhere as a babyface sadly, after a good enough promo facing Flair a few weeks before, so they turn him heel against a barely over Terry Funk. Won't do any wonders. Dustin's promo on Thunder was rambling and going nowhere, mixing "shooty" stuff like talking about his broken home (who in the audience catched that reference anyway ?) and a closet full of golden costumes. The reason why he turn on Funk weren't clear either. Dustin is acting all frustrated and agressive, but it seems like he's gonna have trouble getting over.

 

Russo angles of the week : Madusa dressing up in La Parka's costume, Buff Bagwell hitting on Symphony & Daffney while being filmed by the Kidcam, Kevin Nash losing his mind and calling Ralphus on the phone. (Nitro -Thunder). And these are only a few of the bullshit that was straight out of Russo's alley. Did Ferrera book this entire week of TV or something ? Does Sullivan washes his hands of the undercard at this point ? A lot of matches were interrupted by run ins a few minutes in too, including really annoying assaults by the Harris boys on Kidman & Booker T, leading to a clean Harris win on Thunder on two of the most over babyfaces in the roster. Why the fuck are these guys getting TV time ? La Parka also got the voice over treatment on Thunder again. Really, this week is like Russo was back.

 

TNA flash forward spot of the week : Nitro Girls dancing in cages (Nitro). I swear I thought this was an early TNA broadcast for a few seconds. Then I realized DJ Ran was all up in my area, and that the girls didn't look skanky.

 

It's been an awful week, one of the worst I've seen, up there with Russo's run. No good wrestling at all, a bunch of horrible workers being pushed, Steven Regal doing his last job to Jim Duggan on Saturday Night (good job, they signed him back to be a jobber and now that he's back in shape he's gone), Berlyn reduced to a jobber while his no-talent bodyguard is getting a push, Jeff Jarrett doing the same shitty promo and guitar smashing stuff on every show. The big match of the week was Hogan vs Luger in a cage, which was basically the same match they had on PPV with a post-match beating by Flair & Luger. Not before Hogan gets a visual pin on Flair though. Creative control. They also beat down Sid on Thunder. Major yawnfest all week long. This was at this time that Terry Taylor resigned from the booking team, and that Sting wasn't happy with the direction of his character anymore and didn't want to work. Sullivan was so fucked and apparently he knew Brad Siegel wanted to get rid of him before long. He had asked for 7 months to build, but Siegel wanted immediate results and a "big idea". The big idea would be Russo & Bischoff in a few weeks.

[Death From Above]

I was a huge Sabu fan as a teenager so I hear you. I mean when I first saw ECW when I was 16 (in the days of paying $$$ for individual bootlegged shows on VHS, lol) it was so absolutely different from WWF and WCW that it, by default, seemed like the coolest thing. And Sabu was all of that, in spades.

[cm funk]

 

this is still one of my favorite WCW matches ever. Sullivan made Benoit in this match.

[El-P]

WEEK 61 (February 29 to March 04, 2000)

 

Stupid promo of the week : Hulk Hogan and the yappapi indian strap match (Nitro). Hogan and his creative control leads to this. For all the good he contributed during the peak of the nWo, Hogan also did a lot to drag this company down the drain. Another Hogan vs Flair feud, but this time no one cares anymore. They are both done.

 

Heatless angle of the week : Dustin Rhodes and Terry Funk beat each other up (Thunder). An abrasive promo by Dustin adressing the "smart marks" garnering mostly indifference, then a beatdown involving lots of stiff head shots on both parts. They want this to be a blood feud, but neither guy are really over, Dustin especially just doesn't connect at all on any level. His promo on Flair the other week was good, they should have gone this way. Or get back to Seven. It's sad, as I like both these guys a lot, but this doesn't work and they get barely anything out of really brutal stuff.

 

Match and debut of the week : Jung Dragons vs Jeremy Lopez & Villano IV & V (Saturday Night). Yes, Jimmy Hart is unveiling the Jung Dragons, finally they are doing something with Kaz Hayashi. Lopez is some indy guy (like Shark Boy who worked Silver King on the same show and was actually put over). Watching the Villanos working with Kaz is a pleasure. Jamie San is right from the tradition of american masked wrestler portraying Japanese guys, like good old Kato. And Jimmy Yang looks like the perfect foil to 3-Count, which Hart knew since he made 3-Count show up at ringside depsite being involved with a totally different storyline on the main shows. Good stuff.

 

Trooper of the week : Lex Luger (Nitro - Thunder). This guy was far removed from his working peak, but damn was he Sullivan's trooper at this point, delivering solid promos and bumping as all hell for everyone. This week he tried to have good matches with Buff Bawgell and Vampiro. What's interesting is that Flair had matches with them too in the same timeframe, and the Luger matches made more sense, hence were better in my book. And Liz is still swinging a mean bat.

 

Funniest match of the week : Mamalukes vs Lane & Idol (Nitro). This is really nothing as far as a match, but its' all about Miss Hancock dancing on the table to distract the men. Total comedy when Johnny the Bull watches her with Lane & Idol at ringside, acting like college students in a strip club. Disco being totaly brushed off by the announcers was pretty funny too. Yeah, I know, this isn't good wrestling, but no one can deny them legs...

 

Goofiest segment of the week : David Flair vs The Artist (Nitro). David Flair dances like a fool with the Nitro Girls - Daffney looks mean - David kisses her feet and makes up with her - Crowbar talks like Gordon Solie at the booth - catfight between Daffney & Paisley - Artist does his great finisher (the only good thing about his entire act and work). Okay. Maybe I spoke too soon about the comeback of cruiserweight wrestling a few weeks back.

 

Almost compelling match of the week : Sid Vicious vs Tank Abbott (Nitro). Yeah, almost. Sid was selling the beating from the previous Thunder and a guitar shot from earlier, so Tank basically beat him up for a while, and that part was actually pretty decent. Then from nowhere Sid comes back and applies a sloppy looking crossface, to make Tank tap out. I get the idea, but Sid's comeback was so terrible and rushed, it really didn't do shit for me in the end, despite a good looking beatdown during the first few minutes.

 

The Wall is chokeslamming people from the apron through tables, beginning with Crowbar on Thunder, doing a stretcher job. The Harris Brothers will challenge for the tag belts (yawwwwwwwwn). The Artist can't work a decent match to save his life. More boring stuff on top. They are putting Kidman & Booker in a babyface feud, in which they are teaming together but screwing up and blaming each other. The "hot" undercard angle seems to be Dustin vs Terry, but it isn't catching up at all. Nash & Hall are nowhere to be seen, so Jarrett acts like the commish again. Buff Bagwell is hitting on every woman around, but fails miserably. They also made Curt Hennig a babyface since they were in Minnesota, so he challenged Flair who was bashing the State, resulting in a rushed match ending with Flair getting the pin. Everything is very, very flat.

[Strummer]

Funniest thing anyone ever wrote on DVDVR was the guy that called Stacy Keibler "an average blonde".

 

I mean I know it's DVDVR, and any time someone says they find a woman attractive it's part of the code that someone has to be contrarian to show how cool he is that he hates girls and loves comic books, but Jesus Christ.

 

Also, I hated almost everything about this show other than Norman Smiley and 3-Count just doing what they do. I agree going over this stuff, Luger had a lot of cool promos and out of the ring stuff, but I find him really hard to watch as a wrestler at this stage. Also, I think Vampiro sucks, so there's that. The main event isn't very good, but at least they were sensible enough to keep it short. The Booker T match is really bottom of the barrel stuff, and I felt sorry for him being stuck in this program. I know you don't think as much of him as a worker El-P as some did, but the fans really wanted to give a shit about him and for now they just weren't getting any reason to. And The Maestro cut a promo on this PPV so bad it had to be seen to be believed. Flair and Funk I love but they're too old to be asked to pull off that kind of match, though bless them they certainly tried. Funk really didn't get over a ton in this period. Tank Abbot and some dude punched each other a bunch, and I thought it might have been one of the three best matches on the show. That's more because I hate almost everything else than because I'm defending Tank Abbot or something. I think you've officially lost your marbles if you thought that Mamalukes vs. Flair/Crowbar match is good, though I'll admit it's an entertaining clusterfuck. Plus there's a hilarious moment where the athletic tape breaks while they're taping someone down so they just have to pretend it worked anyway even though everyone can see it didn't.

 

I thought this show was really in the depths of despair. Way too many matches, very little of it worked, and it really felt like a company in real trouble to me. All the older guys don't have any upper gear anymore and so much of the rest is just "ok... this is happening? Really?" They felt pretty bottomed out to me here.

 

Years ago I was chastised at a board (not DVDVR) for saying that I found Torrie Wilson attractive. It's not just DVDVR, it happens at a lot of boards and I've never understood it. It's totally weird

[Death From Above]

In fairness I avoid a lot of forums, not just wrestling ones, because they aren't generally that good or constructive. A lot of arguments over nothing where people don't listen to each other, just post the same response ten times. So it could be a much wider trend than I'm giving credit for. Places where adults can actually disagree with each other but still get on with their day are sadly much rarer than they should be. DVDVR, for its size, is pretty good on that front really. This place is also excellent in that there's a very wide range of opinions but it's rare that someone who brings anything to the table is flat out shot down.

[BrickHithouse]

What exactly is the Standard For Hotness if Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler are considered dogs?

[Ditch]

Match and debut of the week : Jung Dragons vs Jeremy Lopez & Villano IV & V (Saturday Night).

I vividly recall the announcers putting over that the Dragons were facing tough competition, and then out walk two of WCW's jobbingest jobbers and a guy who wasn't even established as a WCW jobber. I mean yes, Villanos are talented, but in kayfabe terms it was hilarious.

[goc]

At this point, people can say what they want about a good booker coming in, but it would have taken YEARS to rebuild WCW to the point of really competing again. They had no one fresh that was ready to move into the main events, so you were pretty much stuck with rotating line-ups of Hogan, Luger, Sting, Sid, Nash, Flair, etc. I guess you could try to build around Goldberg again when he comes back from injury, and maybe try to build a new monster heel while he's out for him to slay on return but I don't think they could have ever got him back to his peak.

 

Losing Eddie & Benoit really hurt. Along with losing Jericho & The Giant earlier. They'd lost 4 guys that had potential to be true main eventers. The Giant could have been one through his whole stint there but they killed him to make him an nWo member. They only really had Booker T & Scott Steiner left as fresh guys to move up, but they could have had a lot more.