WCW's Highway to Hell

[Smack2k]

For me, the following were things I enjoyed immensely...taken for what they are, 2000 / 2001 WCW (end of August through March 2001) (IN random order off the top of my head)

 

Scott Steiner from the Night After New Blood Rising to the last Nitro (Which I dont count) is fuckin GREAT....he's such an arrogant asshole..sure he blows lines and shit...who cares...he's scary as hell

 

The Goldberg / Steiner feud leading to Fall Brawl 2000 - some cool shit they do to each other. Then the match is GREAT. Power moves and fuckin each other up...the end is a little bad, but who cares.

 

Russo forcing Goldberg to have repeat the Streak to get another WCW Title match or be fired. Watching Bill go through guys is cool and its really starting to make him the killer again

 

Totally Buff - Fuckin great...the ONLY time I have ever really liked Buff. Luger is good here as well in this team. And they finish off Goldberg..

 

Scott Steiner's WCW Title matches on TV...I like the ones he has with General Rection / Buff Bagwell / Stevie Ray (for Stevie's career). Are they classics? Shit no, but they are fun...

 

Steiner / Booker T Feud from after Fall Brawl through Mayhem. Steiner is awesome talkin shit on Booker and makin fun of him during this to the point you want to hate him...Booker holds his own.

 

Lance Storm - US (Canadian) Champ / Cruiserweight Champ (which he renames) and team Canada as a whole with Elix Skipper and Mike Awesome eventually

 

Lance Storm / General Rection US Title feud...I like this couple month feud and the turns it takes. The end is cool and WCW tries to make it a big moment on the Ntiro after Rection wins it.

 

The Natural Born Thrillers - I like this group of new, arrogant guys led by "Above Average" Mike Sanders (one of the great nicknames ever). Their tag teams are cool and go through several variations. Great wrestling? No..but fun nevertheless, even better when Nash starts working with them in the back...funny stuff.

 

The Insiders / NBT feud over the Tag Titles - Has its moments

 

The WCW shows in Australia - Hot crowds

 

Chavo Guerrero Heel Turn / Feud with "Sugar Shane" Helms. They have a couple good PPV matches over the Cruiserweight Title that makes both guys look good.

 

The Cruiserweight Tag Title tournament...really dumb title idea...but decent matches with newer gusy like Daniels / Air Parris / AJ Styles...

 

The Magnificent Seven - Flair turns heel and gets this group together headed by the champ Scott Steiner. You can see this group coming and Flair's turn, but still the group itself is pretty cool.

 

SCOTT STEINERS WCW TITLE RUN...On pure booking alone, this HAS to be the greatest 4 Month run ever...he puts Booker / Sting / DDP / Nash / Sid (kind of) in the hospital story-line wise. Who else has EVER done that much destruction and not had a stoppage somewhere in the middle...and he does it by cheating, beating them with pipes and then bragging about it the next night...AMAZING SHIT!!! What a dick....

 

If you are looking for ONLY great matches and nothing else, you will hate this...but take it as a whole, and its really not that bad...its my biggest "Guilty Pleasure" as a fan....

[El-P]

WEEK 82 (July 24 to 29, 2000)

 

Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. & Juventud Guerrera vs 3-Count (Thunder). Finally Rey & Juvy against guys that will bump for them. Not exactly a cruiserweight classic, but it was a nice change of pace from the horrible Filthy Animals matches that have been booked lately against Jindrak/O'Hare and Kronik.

 

Title change of the week : Lance Storm, hardcore champion (Nitro). How has Lance Storm found himself a character that totally suits him and makes him one of the best heel in the company and actually gives him some presence and promo skills, I don't know. So he works a fine little mtach with Vito and grabs a second belt. I'm all for it. Love the look he gives during the Canadian national anthem too. Funniest part of the whole match is the announcers talking about American role model out there and dropping the names of Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong. Holy shit, times shows no pity.

 

Idiotic angle of the week : Goldberg beats Booker T but doesn't get the title / Booker T pins Goldberg clean (Nitro). Yep. They work two short match, the first of which ends up when The Cat stops the match because Booker can't defend himself, but since Booker didn't quit he doesn't give the belt to Goldie. Wait, WTF ??? Then later in the evening, Booker actually pins Goldberg clean on free TV in a throwaway short main event. Nice job.

 

Retarded shoot interview of the week : Goldberg "shoot" interview (Thunder). It's even worse than Nash's. They talk about turning heel. Goldberg says he didn't like turning fucking heel ! I guess it's the only case in wrestling history of a face turn by effect of saying in an interview that you don't like to play the heel. And then talks about how Nash beat him at Starrcade after getting in the fucking booking commitee ! And more shitty nonsense about booking and finishes at the next PPV. Russo is a fucking retard, seriously. Sorry, there's no other word.

 

Embarrassing angle of the week : Torrie Wilson's sextape (Nitro). Yep, what could have been a nice little feud already turned into complete crap, with Kidman using his sextape with Torrie to embarrass her and the Franchise. Then on Thunder it would get even more stupid, and I won't go into it. Crap crap crap. Douglas was a trooper, but what can you do when fed with stupid material ?

 

Really stupid angle of the week : Kanyon vs Judy Bagwell (Nitro / Thunder). Talk about ruining a character and turning everything into a joke. Judy kidnapped on Nitro (hey, what would a Nitro be without a wrestler kidnapping a woman ?), then a "match" between the two on Thunder. More Diamond Cutter. Hey, at this point, Judy Bagwell should be at least paralysed after all the neck shots. This is godawful.

 

Useless catfight angle of the week : Miss Hancock vs Major Gunns (Nitro /Thunder). Well, Stacy Keibler has soon become unbearable to me in her role. Major Gunns has zero value, she looks like a third rate porn actress. So we get an actual feud between those two. Great.

 

Annoying and nonsensical turn of the week : Great Muta is "brother in paint" with Vampiro (Nitro). I hate this wrestling show.

 

Ok, this week was rotten. ROTTEN. Jarrett and Booker T had an excessively uninspired and dull "bunkhouse brawl". Ok, Booker on top seems fresh, but he's not showing me shit in the ring thus far, really, and the short match he had with Goldberg on Nitro only underlined the fact Goldie should have the belt and feud with Steiner until Starrcade. Skip Over debuted on Thunder, getting a win over The Artist. Who the fuck thought it was a good name ? Mike Awesome vs Lance Storm is the only promising thing running now, and it's kinda hurt by Awesome sad and embarrassing Fat Chick Thriller gimmick. The "good" stuff can't come soon enough...

[flyonthewall2983]

Someone brought up accidentally locking the Flair thread. It made me think what would happen if someone erased this thread and you had to start all over again.

[Kevin Ridge]

I hope El-P is a special guest on the 99-01 yearbooks PWO podcasts. He's probably shortened his own life expectancy by ten years doing this project.

[Jimmy Redman]

Retarded shoot interview of the week : Goldberg "shoot" interview (Thunder). It's even worse than Nash's. They talk about turning heel. Goldberg says he didn't like turning fucking heel ! I guess it's the only case in wrestling history of a face turn by effect of saying in an interview that you don't like to play the heel. .

Sting did something kind of similar on TNA TV in 2008 or 2009. Basically they tried to turn him heel, he didn't act much different and it didn't work, and so he basically came out and cut a promo saying his heel turn didn't work (not using that word though) and went back to being a face, while remaining in the heel group he joined, which was probably the Main Event Mafia.

[Sidebottom]

See I remember the Nash Thunder "shoot" but I don't recall Goldberg ever doing one? I'll have to dig it out.

 

And for the record, 2001 WCW was excellent, I was excited o see where it was going until, well you know.

[El-P]

WEEK 83 (July 31 to August 5, 2000)

 

On-a-pole match of the week : Shane Douglas vs Kidman Viagra on-a-pole match (Nitro). How sad is it that it's actually the best match this week ? How stupid is it that these two are building to a regular PPV match by having a gimmick on free TV ? Credit to Shane Douglas for holding this together, but really, I have zero interest in this feud anymore, not that Kidman is a guy I want to see much of to begin with.

 

Title change of the week : Lance Storm wins the Cruiserweight title (Nitro). Not much of a match, but finally Storm gets his third title. He has renaimed the Hardocre title S.H.I.T., because we know how much of an acronym mark Russo is, which is too goofy for the character.

 

Angle of the week : Lance Storm defends his three titles in one night (Thunder). This was the only watchable thing on Thunder. Defeated Juventud Guerrera, then Norman Smiley (in a Canadian rules match so it wasn't hardcore, although Storm did use a flag pole to get his win) and finally The Cat.

 

Sad promo of the week : Mike Awesome (Thunder). Man, now he's saddled with an awful gimmick, has an ugly fat woman at his side and is forced to cut stupid promos before his matches talking about fat love and such. You can see the guy is dying before our eyes, he gets less and less reaction every time, he obviously hates this nonsense and delivers his awful lines in a very awkward way (not to mention he's not a good promo to begin with). Poor, poor guy. With this shit, the sextape deal and Judy Bagwell, Russo managed to kill my interest in Shane Douglas, Mike Awesome and Kanyon, who are on paper three of my favourites.

 

Stupid Kane shit of the week : Vampiro setting the Demon's casket on fire with Sting inside (Nitro). I have no more word about Vampiro, his godawful angles, promos and matches. Russo probably was a mark of the most stupid, grand guignol aspects of the Taker/Kane angle because he's recreating each and every one of them.

 

Another rotten week of TV. The PPV build is awful, one of the worst ever. Sextape and Viagra angles, Judy Bagwell-on-a-pole match, shoot interviews talking about booking, finishes and turning heel, more Vampiro bullshit. Lance Storm is the only thing watchable on TV at this point. Just awful stuff. It's obvious Russo is back in full control now, and he's again testing my patience BADLY. I am also totally sick of Jeff Jarrett at this point. I can't stand his shitty promos and his matches have been amazingly uninspired. He had two good months when he returned, but maybe I overstated how good he looked then. Get him off the main event scene yesterday, for fuck's sake.

[KanadianKrusty]

This last post brought back pain from 13 years ago uncomfortably close to the surface. God that was bad... though I did have the luxury of watching it in french with a 3-man commentary team very much aware that this was complete crap.

[El-P]

Really ? Who were the announcers then ? I remember Marc Blondin and his acolyte during the Nitro glory days, and they weren't good.

 

WEEK 84 (August 7 to 12, 2000)

 

Match of the week : Lance Storm vs Booker T (Nitro). Not very good, but at least pretty dynamic thanks to Storm. It highlights the fact Booker T works like a robot and really hasn't showed zilch in the ring since his feud with Benoit in 1998. The whole story about Booker these days is that he's got a week knee, complete with a brace. Add the fact Lance Storm wins every match with a half-crab, and you've got a super simple story to tell, even in a rushed Russo-era Nitro style match. So we get Lance putting his hold on Booker's week knee, we get Booker being the very first not to submit and get to the ropes, and then Booker doesn't sell his knee, not for half a second. And he does the longest delayed ax kick ever to boot, in a classic RVD waste your time and telegraph your spot moment. I fail to see what anybody saw in Booker as a worker at one point.

 

Hardcore match of the week : Mike Sanders vs Norman Smiley (Thunder). Fun match with some good spots involving Sanders, whose already much better on the mic and in the ring than any of the "young lions" that have been pushed in the previoous month. The new rules states you have to win inside teh ring, which makes the whole idea of brawling backstage stupid. We get an idiotic spot with Jarrett breaking a guitar for no reason on Norman Smiley, but apart from that spot, this was pretty fun.

 

Beatdown of the week : Reno beats up Kidman (Thunder). I already enjoy that Reno guy. Good bumper it seems, some impressive and crisp looking offense (which is refreshing). Kidman I couldn't care less at this point, and he has regressed as a worker since his overrated cruiserweight days, but hey, he can take a beating. We get the involvment of yet *another* girl, a new Nitro Girl who's suppsed to be Reno's girlfriend but who has been flirting with Kidman. This is insane, there's a woman involved in about every angle at this point, and they are all bimbos/whores/cunts/fat-girl-you-can-make-fun-of. Reno and Douglas beats up Kidman after the match, and Big Vito runs in to save his ass, because apparently he's got an issue with Reno. Ok, I like Vito too, so that could lead to something good. Probably won't though.

 

Shoot interview of the week : Vince Russo (Nitro). If you're heard any interview of Russo in the past 13 years, this is exactly the same stuff. Made WWF successful, got screwed by politics in the back in WCW, cares about all the young talent here, doesn't want to be on TV because he's not "one of the boys" and only did it because it was needed. And he's playing the shoot card, so he's out of character and comes off as a babyface. Crap

 

On-a-pole match of the week : Scott Steiner vs Sting. (Nitro). Lead pipe on-a-pole match, because Steiner is using a lead pipe now (which also happens to be Crowbar's gimmick). Same finish as last week's match : ref gets bumped, the heels gets help and when the ref gets up the heel got the object in hands so he wins the match. How creative.

 

Swerve of the week : Fat girl Heidi is Canadian (Thunder). So she screws Mike Awesome in a flag vs flag match against Lance Storm. Man, that is more creative and interesting booking. Russo finally did it, he also turned this feud into complete bullshit. Well done.

 

And we also got Miss Hancock and Major Guns in a mud pit, Kanyon & Mark Madden vs Bagwell & Gene Okerlund, more and more Vampiro crap, more multi team matches with Kronik, more bad Jeff Jarrett promos with multiple use of the word slapnutz. The build to this PPV has been godawful, I swear these few weeks following the US tournament show were some of the most boring and horrid I've ever scene. Just eye gouging stuff.

[KanadianKrusty]

Yep, Marc Blondin with Michel Letourneur who was doing a heel schtik while not knowing a thing about wrestling. Also they had a local indy guy I've never heard of named Thor who had a Goldberg fetish. I vividly remember him doing a segment on why Goldberg needed to work on his abs using a life-sized cardboard cutout. Before these two, Blondin was working with Richard ''Le Magnifique'' Charland, some old timer from Grand Prix Wrestling.

 

Also of note: with the exception of a few months in late 2001 (when RDS was presenting the last 10 or 12 WCW PPV's announced by two other guys) and 2002 up until they started airing TNA with a few weeks delay, Marc Blondin has been doing WCW/TNA continuously since 1995 or 1996, he's the iron man of shit wrestling.

[El-P]

The French announcing scene was pretty bad during the Monday Night Wars. Bondin & Letourneur were terrible, and on the WWF side, Rougeau and Brassard really weren't much better at this point. I all but gave up on French broadcast in 1997, as I switched to satellite English channels that year. I'm really a product of the Guy Hauray / Eddie Carpentier announcing team, they were probably half of why I became a wrestling fan to begin with.

 

Blondin has been doing TNA since the beginning ? Holy shit ! He must have gone insane by now...

[El-P]

PPV 20 : New Blood Rising

 

"What are they gonna do now ? Improvise ?" match of the night : Goldberg vs Kevin Nash vs Scott Steiner. I'll make it short. At one point, Goldie is set up for the jacknife, he just pushes Nash away and leaves the ring, while Russo is screaming to get his ass back in the ring. Because your see, he's *not following the script*. Hence the Tony Schiavone comment I quoted. I fast forwarded through the rest of this abortion. Fuck you Russo, fuck you very much.

 

Would-be match of the night ruined by stupid gimmick : Lance Storm vs Mike Awesome. This could have been really good to excellent, really. These two cliqued right away. The work here is the crispest of the whole show, Lance makes Awesome's offense look killer and Awesome works smoothly, including saving a botched spot where he stumbled from the top rope yet managed to fall on his feet and run to lariat the hell out of Storm. But still, we have to have a stupid gimmick so we get Jacques Rougeau (to the vast disapointment of the fans who were chanting "We want Bret" all night long) making rules on the fly to save Lance's ass. They work the best they can around it and actually do the best job possible with such an awkward heel gimmick, but it still kills the pace of the match and turns it into some kind of joke. Bret Hart showed up afterward. Biggest pop of the night. They couldn't have Bret Hart do the ridiculous heel stuff, but he still embraced with Rougeau and Storm afterward. It's amazing that the Hart vs US angle from 1997 was basically still resonnating with Canadian audience in 2000, as they were totally cheering the heel bullshit.

 

Match of the night by default : Shane Douglas vs Kidman. So there it is, since Awesome vs Storm was ruined by a stupid gimmick, this is the most solid match of the night, entirely thanks to Shane Douglas who works maybe his best stuff since his Justin Credible PPV match in ECW in 1999. Too bad Kidman is a sloppy-ass babyface, otherwise it could have been really good. It's interesting also to see that Kidman rushes his comeback so badly that the heat the match had until that point totally dies down until the finish, which is kinda sad for Douglas who was getting good reactions. It's a strap match BTW, but not a "touch 4 corners" strap match, just a "strap the shit out of your opponent" match. Mark Madden, who's torturous to listen too, thinks he's probably pretty damn smart saying "She's turning heel" when Torrie Wilson grabs her shoe to hit Kidman. Yawn. Post match sees a pretty nice beatdown and hanging (although the announcers are just ridiculous implying Douglas was actively trying to kill Kidman) then a short Reno vs Vito exchange.

 

Spotfest of the night : Jung Dragons vs 3-Count. I find this combination much more fun than the vastly overrated "classics" that the Hardys/E&C/Dudleys were having in the WWF at the same time. It's totally goofy and full of huge spots, but it is paced like a lucharesu match. Tank Abbott goofying at ringside is always enjoyable. The only bad thing about this match is that two items were suspended above the ring, the golden record and the recording contract, and it isn't clear what the goal is. Apparently only the recording contract mattered since 3-Count finally won the match. Fun opener.

 

Really ? This is the main event ? match of the night : Jeff Jarrett vs Booker T. Micheal Buffer introducing Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair or Randy Savage had a big feel to it. Micheal Buffer introducing Jeff Jarrett and Booker T just seems like a WTF moment. This is a very mediocre TV title level match blown up to main event status by virtue of using usual Attitude era bullshit like a ton of ref bumps and garbage spots. Doesn't work either. Earlier in the show Jeff Jarrett embushed Booker in his car and slapped the door on his already injured knee, Larry Z. on Barry Windham style. You'd think Booker T would figure out milking the hell out of his injury would be the only way to go, especially when Jarrett actually works on his knee (in a very boring, not crisp and dull way, but still). Nope. Booker will basically never sell his knee after the beatdown it took during the match. Man, Booker sucks. Jarrett doesn't look that good either. They fuck up a neckbreaker spot pretty horridly at the end. Blah.

 

Clusterfuck of the night : Kronik vs Jindrak & O'Hare vs Perfect Event vs M.I.A. With special referee Disco Inferno and Rey, Tygress & Juvy getting involved freely as they also are enforcement referees. Yep, four actual referees in a match. Heel referees. So, there's an alliance of sorts between the Perfect Event and the two other greenhorns. Whatever. The highlight is Konnan making fun of them on commentary. The lowlight is Mark Madden being just unbearable. He's also calling Konnan "Carlos", because he's shooting I guess. Just whatever. Vamp & Muta get involved, because we don't have enough outside people apparently, and they get a title shot later against Kronik. This match sucked too BTW.

 

Really embarrassing match of the night : Miss Hancock vs Major Guns. In the mud. Hancok has pain in her tummy. Goes to the hospital. You'll guess the rest.

 

Ok, this is enough. There was also the Judy Bagwell on a forklift match, which was as "good" as a Bagwell match could be. David Arquette showed up. For a second or two I thought he was gonna swerve everyone again and turn on Kanyon, but no such luck. A useless Cat vs Muta four minutes match to kill time, a useless two minutes Sting vs Demon match to go to the bathroom. Basically, this PPV was shit after the opener. Douglas vs Kidman was decent thanks to Douglas, and the promise of Reno vs Vito looks good enough, and Lance vs Awesome was as "good" as it could in the circumstances, but it was still a ruined opportunity to have a real strong match. Two more months of Russo, I have no desire to watch WCW anymore at this point, it's 90% complete shit. It's very obvious why nobody was buying the PPV's anymore. Still waiting for the "good stuff". I don't see it coming yet.

[Smack2k]

Things get better starting after this show....I promise......

 

Again, from the point you are at now until the end of WCW is one of my guilty pleasures..

 

It wont be workrate great, it wont be "OH my god, this is amazing stuff"....but its fuckin enjoyable from all the things I listed..

 

Plus, Steiner and Goldberg feud starts next and that is good shit...

[El-P]

WEEK 85 (August 14 to 19, 2000)

 

Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. & Juventud Guerrera & Disco Inferno vs Jung Dragons (Worldwide). The show is a few weeks behind in terms of storylines, and considering how fast things change now, it's kinda awkward. So the Animals are still heelish here, whereas they turned babyface de facto this week on the main shows. I like the stable, although thus far they have been fed shitty feuds and matches. So here we get a nice cruiserweight style sprint with crisp work from Rey and Hayashi, and the rest of them go along for the ride. Konnan has been regularly entertaining at the announcing booth, much more than he was in the ring. He should replace that useless fuck Madden yesterday. Reminds me the old random mexican sprints you'd get on Thunder in 98, with some nice flying around, impressive dives and a few bits of comedy.

 

Rematch of the week : Booker T vs Jeff Jarrett (Nitro). The few people who bought the PPV's much be glad to see they get the rematch on fee TV the very next day. And it's a much better match to boot. Short TV match suits these two much better than failed epic main-event. The knee isn't a factor before the very end, leading to Jarrett almost winning, only to be beat up by Goldberg, who's going after Russo.

 

Worker-who-gets-used-only-a-week of the week : Carl Oulette (Nitro / Thunder). So yeah, Lance Storm has formed Team Canada, a would-be-cool stable with Elix Skipper and Carl Oulette who showed up from nowhere to help Storm in his rematch with Mike Awesome (yes, another PPV rematch straight on free TV). Happy to see Oulette get used. So Lance gives the cruiserwight title to Skipper and the hardcore title to Oulette, because titles don't mean shit of course. What's sad is that Oulette is only used because they are in Canada for the tapings, he won't be around anymore after that week. He loses the hardcore title to Norman Smiley (who doesn't want it.... mkay, so why was he involved in this match anyway ?), and then does a clean job to Big Vito on Thunder. Missed opportunity. Oulette was an interesting spot worker with a singular look, he could have been a nice Buzz Sawyer like figure in Team Canada. Between his short appearance in WWF, ECW, WCW and All Japan, Oulette was the most elusive forgotten worker of the late 90's/early00's.

 

New stable formation of the week : Mark Jindrak, Sean O'Hare, Perfect Event, Reno & Mike Sanders (Nitro / Thunder). On Nitro the four uncharismatic musclehead jump in to help Reno against Kidman & Vito, and left the ring with him, ending the Douglas / Reno partnership. On Thunder, Mike Sanders who was trying to get on the cool side of the Filthy Animals while they were facing Jindrak & O'Haire, turned on them and finally the six young guys beat up everybody. Well, at least this is fresh, and I like Sanders & Reno, but the four other guy really have showed me nothing I want to see, so I'm not expecting anything that good from this stable.

 

Misogynic angle of the week : Miss Hancock is pregnant but she's still a golddigger cunt (Thunder) Before he could propose to Miss Hancock, David Flair gets beat up by the MIA (yawn), so afterward Miss Hancock goes into David's pocket to find the ring, which doens't seem to be good enough for her, but she still takes it and dances over David's limp body. How nice.

 

Useless feud of the week : Kronik vs Harris Boys (Nitro). Yeah, the Harris Boys showed up at the PPV. Here are two guys I really didn't want to see back on my TV. Well, at least they are feuding with Kronik, so they won't drag down two good workers I care about at least.

 

WTF moment of the week : The Artist doing a Raven impersonnation (Worldwide). Complete with Mr Wrestling II kneelift. I have no idea what the hell is going on here.

 

So, Skipper is the new cruiserweight champ as he was given the belt, Rey & Juvy are the new tag champs as they beat Vamp & Muta on Nitro. Russo is back on TV, calling out Goldberg and making idiotic shooty-shooty remarks like "If this was real, Goldberg thinks he could beat anybody.". If this was real ? Really ? Anyway, so Russo wants to fire Goldberg but can't apparently. And Goldie is going after him. On Thunder Nash attacked Booker T after cutting a "I respect you" promo, so I guess it's a heel turn of sort. Or not, who knows anymore ? This was marginally better than the godawful product of the last few weeks, witha few watchable match and some more fresher stuff.

[Hollinger.]

Blondin has been doing TNA since the beginning ? Holy shit ! He must have gone insane by now...

[goc]

Amazing pic. I do miss heel Don West though, I actually think replacing him with Tazz is TNA's biggest mistake, and that's saying a lot.

[fakeplastictrees]

PPV 20 : New Blood Rising

 

 

Would-be match of the night ruined by stupid gimmick : Lance Storm vs Mike Awesome. This could have been really good to excellent, really. These two clicked right away. The work here is the crispest of the whole show, Lance makes Awesome's offense look killer and Awesome works smoothly, including saving a botched spot where he stumbled from the top rope yet managed to fall on his feet and run to lariat the hell out of Storm. But still, we have to have a stupid gimmick so we get Jacques Rougeau (to the vast disappointment of the fans who were chanting "We want Bret" all night long) making rules on the fly to save Lance's ass. They work the best they can around it and actually do the best job possible with such an awkward heel gimmick, but it still kills the pace of the match and turns it into some kind of joke. Bret Hart showed up afterward. Biggest pop of the night. They couldn't have Bret Hart do the ridiculous heel stuff, but he still embraced with Rougeau and Storm afterward. It's amazing that the Hart vs US angle from 1997 was basically still resonating with Canadian audience in 2000, as they were totally cheering the heel bullshit.

 

Ok, this is enough. There was also the Judy Bagwell on a forklift match, which was as "good" as a Bagwell match could be. David Arquette showed up. For a second or two I thought he was gonna swerve everyone again and turn on Kanyon, but no such luck. A useless Cat vs Muta four minutes match to kill time, a useless two minutes Sting vs Demon match to go to the bathroom. Basically, this PPV was shit after the opener. Douglas vs Kidman was decent thanks to Douglas, and the promise of Reno vs Vito looks good enough, and Lance vs Awesome was as "good" as it could in the circumstances, but it was still a ruined opportunity to have a real strong match. Two more months of Russo, I have no desire to watch WCW anymore at this point, it's 90% complete shit. It's very obvious why nobody was buying the PPV's anymore. Still waiting for the "good stuff". I don't see it coming yet.

 

One thing I LOVED about WCW 2000/2001 was that it was just whacky and random and the random whackiness worked. I remember watching the Storm/Awesome match back in 2000 and thinking it was perfectly executed. Storm just worked a normal match (without any heel tendencies) while Rougeau took care of all the heel work. It was funny and entertaining. I just finished watching NB Rising (got to admit I am a mark for this thread) and it was a good show. WCW 2000/2001 works best if the viewer goes into the viewing just wanting to see things escalate to its most ridiculous and non-sensial conclusion possible. NB Rising in 2000, I am not sure how it was received, but NB Rising being viewed in 2013...an entertaining show.

[cm funk]

According to wiki Oulette had visa problems and WCW couldn't use him outside of Canada, but the article sourced (by Greg Oliver @ Slam.ca circa July 2000) doesn't actually say that. It's about him doing shots for ECW and in fact says the opposite, that he has all his working papers by virtue of working in the states since 93, and that he was hoping for a contract with ECW. I guess it's possible his papers were going to expire which is why he was looking for work with ECW/WCW, but the article doesn't actually say any of that

 

I've read/heard that he had attitude problems, perceived or imagined, similar to his mentor Jacques Rougeau. Part of that might have been guilt by association since Jacques wasn't exactly the most popular guy. There was that one incident where he refused to job to WWF Champion Diesel in Montreal that basically killed his WWF career, but they did bring him back a few years later (and barely used him) when the Kliq wasn't around, so he couldn't have been that hard to deal with.

 

Personally I loved the Quebeccers gimmick with Johnny Polo as their manager, and the rehash in WCW with Col. Parker as The Amazing French Canadians. WCW had a strong tag division at the time with Harlem Heat, Road Warriors, Steiners, Nastys, Blue Bloods, Public Enemy etc. They could have done more with the French Canadians. A programs between them and the Blue Bloods would have produced some great comedy and fun matches

[El-P]

WEEK 86 (August 21 to 26, 2000)

 

Match of the week : Filthy Animals vs Natural Born Thrillaz (Nitro). Surprisingly enjoyable considering I don't care at all about the NBT greenhorns, but Rey and Juvy are the perfect opponents for them, making their power and athletic offense look great. Mike Sanders is head and shoulders above the rest of his group, Reno excluded. He cut a good promo beforehand introducing the new stable, and his charisma and promo skills are enough to make me hope it'll be kinda fun. Post match, O'Haire does his swanton dive on Tygress. Abusing women will be the thematic of this week.

 

Woman abuse angle of the week : Scott Steiner kidnapps Goldberg's girlfriend (Nitro). How many woman kidnapping can Russo write already ? This guy not only sucks, but he has about three "ideas" at best : shoot promos, kidnapping and abusing women and swerves. The killer point here is that the announcers act like Steiner is a monster despite not doing anything physical to Beth (not until the end at least), while the previous week had babyface Goldberg (yeah, the heel turn ended in a blur like most turn do with Russo since he doesn't understand the concept of heel and faces) jackhammering Midajah through a table. What a babyface. So yeah, really, Steiner was all but justified here, and he actually didn't hurt Beth. Well, until he put her in the Steiner recliner that is, making Goldie who was handcuffed watch the horror (and I don't mean the usual terrible execution of the hold). So yeah, two weeks of both heels and babyface abusing women.

 

Chauvinistic ass-backward interview of the week : Mike Tenay calls Midajah "eye candy" (Thunder) One of those creepy Tenay interview that are half-funny because of the way Tenay acts. Midajah is at home injured, and she talks just like a babyface would, about getting more involved and wanting to show that woman have a place in wrestling other than just showing their bodies (with direct refereces to those who are doing the Playboy deal). And Tenay acts like a chauvinistic pig, patronizing her and telling her she's basically nothing but Steiner's eye candy. The whole thing is just ass-backward, as Midajah is supposed to be the evil valet of the most eveil heel on the roster, yet she comes off like a babyface while Tenay (who has every right to show no mercy to her since he was almost killed by her man a few weeks before) comes off like a heel. Another sign of complete and total lack of understanding of pro-wrestling by that idiot Russo. The best part is Tenay calling Midajah "honey" as he leaves the room. Midajah comes off uncharismatic and really isn't particulary attractive either (looks way older than she probably was, due to way too much makeup or bad surgery, or both). I miss Shakira, who was the only freak that had a character and who looked wonderful to boot.

 

Comeback of the week : Leia Meow takes the Jung Dragons under her wings (Thunder). I wonder if she was paid to do nothing during all those months, or if she trained at the Power Plant. Anyway, more valet, but at least she won't be involved in stupid TV drama angle not catfighty feuds, so I can live with it.

 

Spotfest of the week : Crowbar vs Reno (Thunder). Nice spotfest match, Reno is a nice little buzzsaw. The storyline here is that Crowbar is in love with Daffney but hasn't told her yet. And now he's dejected because she told him before the match she met the perfect man for her. Late in the match, a guy shows up and he looks exactly like Crowbar. Get it ? Yeah, those girls are stupid hoes who can't see love when it's right in front of them. I have no idea who plays the part of Crowbar's lookalike. I like Daffney, but this is another stupid angle, and a rather misogynistic one again if you think about it.

 

So much useless feud son TV. Vampiro and the ICP are the Dark Carnival again. Well, that beats the gothic shit he's been doing for months now. Called Sting "Steve Borden the actor who plays the role of Sting" on Thunder. Shooty ! When is this feud gonna die ? Seriously ? I remember reading that Muta hated his WCW stint so much that it played a part in him totally revinventing himself in 2001. Well, that's the only positive I can think of being settled with Vamp & ICP. The Harris Boys are back on my TV, which allows me to fast-forward even more stuff. Bizarre angle on Thunder where the entire roster wanted Disco Inferno to be fired by The Cat. I have no idea. Norman Smiley is doing the Mickey Whipreck reluctant champion deal, but it's not half as funny or good. I just realized that limo driver M.I. Smooth is actually Ice Train. I had no idea this guy was still employed. Amazing. Lance Storm keeps his belt thanks to Elix Skipper being a sneaky bastard, and it seems like they are gonna move into a feud with Gen. Rection, which doesn't sound good to me. I never cared for Hugh Morrus, who apart from being a good bumper was never much of a worker, and the MIA gimmick is crap. Kwee-Wee is now with Paisley. So we get more catfights with Major Guns. Yawn. The hottest girl on TV is now officially Miss Jones, The Cat's assistant.

[Bix]

Ashley Hudson was Ozzie the Crowbar lookalike. He just happened to look like that back then, and as far as I know the angle was because he happened to be a guy who looked like that and worked WCW shows, not someone convincing him to change his look.

[PeteF3]

Russo actually has four ideas. Shoots, misogyny, swerves, and blatantly lifting shit from TV and movies: Natural Born Killers for Flair/Crowbar/Daffney, Saturday Night Live for Kwee Wee, and this Daffney/Crowbar/lookalike thing I only vaguely remember, but from the description here it was clearly lifted letter-for-letter from an episode of Frasier.

[Death From Above]

Reading this is amazing now as it seems clear El-P is past his breaking point but simply refuses to let Russo defeat him.

[El-P]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel. There was times I knew I could quit right there and not regret it, but still had interest in watching the followup to the car crash, but weeks 82 to 84 really broke my spirit and will to go on. New Blood Rising was the piss on the shit cake.

 

WEEK 87 (August 28 to September 2, 2000)

 

WCW title change of the week : Kevin Nash wins the WCW title (Nitro). Steiner was the enforcer at ringside and Jeff Jarrett the guest referee. Early on the show Russo told the audience that "the band was back together". This was preceded by a montage of the glorious nWo 2000 days. They don't use the name anymore but that's the idea. So, during the match Jeff Jarrett acts in a odd way, basically preventing Russo from interfering and calls it right down the middle, to the point Russo was screaming about what a traitor Jarrett was. At first I thought it was gonna be one of those hilarious "team breaks up after one week" deals, but I figured soon enough that it was gonna go in the classic direction of the swerve. And swerve it was, at the end Jarrett busted a guitar on Booker T, and Nash won the title. Match was ok, Nash still bumps really well and made Booker look good. Madden was particulary unbearable here. Well, he's always unbearable, but that match was an apex of annoyance.

 

Match of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. & Juventud Guerrera vs Mark Jindrak & Sean O'Haire (Thunder). Damn, Rey & Juvy are making these guys look a million times better than they are. Some cool double power spots, nice big men vs small men dynamic, they kept things moving so the greenhorns don't get lost. I enjoy this feud a lot more than I thought I would, the Animals as pure babyface are right where they should be. On Nitro they had a 5 persons elimination match against the NBT, ending with 8 guys getting counted out to leave Mike Sanders and Tygress alone in the ring. Sanders actually bumped and showed ass really well for Tygress, before doing his finisher on her. Beating up women is fun. But hey, it was a fun match too.

 

Woman kidnapping angle of the week : Lance Storm kidnaps Major Gunns (Nitro). Team Canada wins a "Prisonner of war" match against the MIA when Sgt. Awoll is put through a table (that giant doofus falls on a table every week it seems nowadays), so Storm storms off with the blonde bimbo. She's now supposed to be part of Team Canada, but of course on Thunder she would tear apart her Canada shirt to show her USA bra and cost Storm the victory. Why in the hell would you want to carry around someone who's gonna play against you anyway ? Storm was efficient enough on his own, he didn't need a bimbo like he did in ECW (where he really wasn't showing much presence at all).

 

Random Bret Hart appearance of the week : Bret Hart swerves Goldberg in the desert (Nitro) Goldberg had dragged Vince Russo in the desert to beat him up and bury him alive (yeah, I know...), and all of a sudden Bret Hart shows up, in a very rushed and badly produced vignette. At first he convinces Goldie that no-one hates Russo more than him, dropping "Montreal" and "Survivor Series" again, but of course it's a swerve, and Bret attacks Goldie with a shovel. Hey, Bret was part of nWo 2000, so that kinda make sense. It's still stupid as hell.

 

C-show match of the week : Elix Skipper vs Chris Harris : solid cruiserweight match that actually gets some good heat thanks to the basic Canada vs USA dynamic. Harris definitly shows potential, and Skipper is a good little grating character. I dig that Matrix spot he does, it usually comes off way less awkward than it should.

 

Stupid bump of the week : Crowbar gets bodyslammed from the balcony through a table by Shane Douglas (Nitro). All because Douglas challenged Kidman to a scaffold match at the PPV. There's exactly zero reasons for Crowbar to jump on Douglas from nowhere, except from the fact he's the only guy crazy or dumb enough to take that kind of bump. They work Daffney & Ozzie into the deal, as Crowbar getting distracted ends up being why he gets thrown off the balcony. The followup of the angle is better as Douglas, pumped up as all hell, challenges anyone in the locker room. Of course Goldberg walks to the ring. The way Douglas sells it is classic. Spear, jackhammer, Russo you're next. Good stuff.

 

Promo of the week : Paul Orndorff (Thunder). Sit down interview with Orndorff, who is being ridiculed backstage by his former students. Orndorff is outraged as he hears the news for the first time. Good, solid old-school promo, the kind of serious stuff very few seems to be able to do anymore. The followup will be a arm-wrestling match against Sean Stasiak where Orndorff, looking all ripped-up, sucker punches the young punk and sends all the NBT packing with the help of a chair. Good stuff. Sadly it won't end well for Paul.

 

Funny line of the week : "And no one remembers the previous four". Stevie Ray (Thunder). Just after Nash said he was the WCW champ for the 5th time. I dunno, it kinda cracked me up. Damn, why can't Stevie Ray be on Nitro and PPV's too ? He's more enjoyable than he ever was, and found his pace pretty quickly on color commentary. Same thing can be said about Konnan who's enjoyable each time he's announcing a Filthy Animals match,mixing insults at his opponents and insightful, more serious classic wrestling announcing. Kinda odd for me to say that I enjoy Stevie Ray & Konnan a lot these days.

 

More Vamp & Sting crap. This feud never, ever ends and refuses to even progess one way or another. Muta looks more miserable than when he had to do the job for Takada at the Tokyo Dome in 96. Tank Abbott and 3-Count are no more, and I wonder if that's not the end of Tank period. Well, it was time to move on. The Jung Dragons are trained by Leia Meow, whose playing a SM mistress character. Won't complain about her look. The Cat is just as good cutting serious babyface promos as he was playing chickenshit heel. Miss Jones is hot as hell. They got a good beating on Thunder, including Jarrett crashing a guitar on Miss Jones, because woman abuse is always fun, and really fresh at this point too. Mike Awesome is wearing a 70's leisure suit. Well, it's less horrid than the Fat Chick Thrilla, but he's clearly the wrong guy for that gimmick. Awesome was a killing machine and that's it. Well, at least the idea of Nash/Steiner/Jarrett & the NTB vs Goldberg/The Cat/Booker/Awesome/Vito & Filthy Animals sounds rather decent as far as heel/face structure. No more flagrant miscast. Next week is the Wargames edition of Nitro, and the following has David Flair & Miss Hancock's wedding. Am I really obligated to go through this ? Really ? Awwww fuck me.

[Ditch]

WCW title change of the week : Kevin Nash wins the WCW title (Nitro). Steiner was the enforcer at ringside and Jeff Jarrett the guest referee. Early on the show Russo told the audience that "the band was back together". This was preceded by a montage of the glorious nWo 2000 days. They don't use the name anymore but that's the idea. So, during the match Jeff Jarrett acts in a odd way, basically preventing Russo from interfering and calls it right down the middle, to the point Russo was screaming about what a traitor Jarrett was. At first I thought it was gonna be one of those hilarious "team breaks up after one week" deals, but I figured soon enough that it was gonna go in the classic direction of the swerve. And swerve it was, at the end Jarrett busted a guitar on Booker T, and Nash won the title. Match was ok, Nash still bumps really well and made Booker look good. Madden was particulary unbearable here. Well, he's always unbearable, but that match was an apex of annoyance.

What makes these swerves even worse is that they have zero internal logic. Why is Jarrett acting that way during the match? ONLY to swerve the viewer at home. They can just do the screwjob immediately and go home, but noooo, have to drag it out.

 

(although NOAH did the same thing in fall of 2000, one of their first angles, so Russo isn't alone)

[Smack2k]

Sorry you arent starting to enjoy any of this....like I said, once this started (night after New Blood Rising...) I started to like things more and more...I didnt care about the actual working in the ring, just enjoyed the storylines and new things popping up...sure, there are huge bumps in teh road, but things gradually got better and better from this point on....I know once you get to Dec - Mar you will definately like it, but from reading your stuff, I dont think Sept - Dec will be as enjoyable for you.....but just take it for what it was and its not that bad!

 

The NBT I enjoyed as something new, knowing they were fresh though was cool, and they had a great mouthpiece with one of the best Nicknames ever = "Above Average"...LOVE it. O'Haire had that sadistic look in his eyes and the two tag teams they had were fun.

 

The Goldberg - Steiner stuff to me was in gear. I didnt give a fuck about the babyface / heel dynamic, just loved that they wanted to KILL each other and did shameful shit to each others loved ones to get what they wanted...props to Midajah for taking that bump..

 

The Rection - Lance Storm US Title feud I think builds better and better to a decent climax...but I like Hugh Morris's character at this time as he is only General Rection by name, but really he's Bill Demott in his promos, and I thought they were good...good mid-card feud to me...

 

More and More to come that really starts to make it better and better...

 

I forgot abot Nash's title win, but the ping ponging of the title comes to an end here soon and only two men will have it the rest of the way once Booker gets it back and then "the Man" Gets it!

 

I had just graduated college and working at my new job at this time (Sept 2000) so I clearly remember being home Monday Night using NItro as a warm-up to RAW as Nitro was on at 8...I will say that I smoked "A LOT" of green stuff back then (and did until 2008), so that may have swayed my opinion...but I've watched it since and still enjoyed it for what it was since 2008....

 

One last thing that sticks out was the general look of Nitro...hard to explain, but they were in smaller buildings and it had a cool look to it of being not as big and not as flashy as their heyday anymore. Loved the mini tron as well...Stolen from WWF? Sure, but I didnt care...