WCW's Highway to Hell

[Smack2k]

The Australia crowds were cool to see...they were really into the product....

[El-P]

WEEK 94 (October 16 to 21, 2000)

 

Match of the week : Shane Douglas vs Booker T (Nitro). Shane carries Booker to his best matches in eons. At this point Douglas really makes me think about an old Arn Anderson style worker. Not flashy but solid as hell, doing the deliberate tough guy yet showing ass routine, pacing the match better than most everyone in the company does. He's focusing his attack on the neck of Booker, using some streching moves and actually working them instead of just resting in it. Gotta like the little headbutt he did while doing the streching the arms in the back bit. It's a pity he's not used better, but he really has pleased me these past few weeks, he's working the best way possible with what it's thrown to him. Booker is the same boring, sloppy, robotic, unengaging worker he is all the time, a Booker match is only as interesting as his opponent. I liked that one quite a bit, all the credit goes to Douglas of course.

 

Bad injury of the week : Johnny the Bull hurt his *left* ankle. (Nitro). After being gone for a while, Johnny gets another injury, this time on a monkey flip move where he landed badly on his *left* ankle. Emphasis on *left* because that idioit Mark Madden insisted on calling it the right ankle despite two consecutive slo-mo. This guy is so inept at his job it's unbelievable he was maintened at his spot after Russo was axed.

 

Enjoyable tag match of the week : Mike Awesome & Crowbar vs Perfect Event (Nitro) Crowbar is now Awesome's buddy, and he dresses 70's style too. Well, I enjoy this team, very ECW/FMW style, so it's all good for me. The Perfect Event is engaged in a storyline where Stasiak and Palumbo don't get along anymore. Palumbo reminds me of an overgrown Dr. Tom Prichard for some reasons. He's improving somewhat too. Stasiak doesn't strike me as very much improved, but he's ok in a tag team setting. Nothing to write home about, but I found a way to enjoy every NBT at this point, so there's that.

 

C-show match of the week : Kwee-Wee vs Chris Daniels (WorldWide) This is as proto-TNA as it can be, although it's obvious Daniels would have had a future in WCW if it had not folded. I never got the hate toward this guy. He almost kills himself here on a very oddly executed dive from the top rope to the outside, where he doesn't get enough hights and nearly falls right on his head and neck. He was really lucky on that one. Kwee-Wee keeps on being fun in the ring, these two are spot machines, but smooth and (mostly) crisp ones.

 

Slow week in term of angle developpment, it's obvious they were transitionning toward the new booking team. I don't think Russo's name was ushered on TV. It feels so good to see him gone for good. On the next Nitro, Johnny Ace & Terry Taylor (with the help of Ed Ferrara sadly) would officialy take the spot of Russo of putting the show together. I can't believe it took so long for the company to get rid of that cancer. The shows in Australia have been immediately better without his presence, with more wrestling, no swerve, no shoot interview, no woman abuse (well, Jarrett still crashed a guitar over a girl, but he's *the* Russo goon around really so that is to be expected), no on-a-pole match. Feels good, really. In other news, they ran an angle and an interview with Sam Greco, which will lead to nothing. Kidman is back with the Filthy Animals, which ties up nicely with them feuding with Douglas (and since Juvy has been injured on Nitro a few weeks before then being arrested in Australia for assaulting a woman at the hotel or something). Ric Flair tried to get David Flair back on track, but David is insane. It seems like the idea of Ric being the father was still in the air somewhat but nothing concrete never really happened with this. They definitely go with Bagwell in a stupid DNA test match. Yeah, the Russo inheritance for a few weeks still...

[El-P]

WEEK 95 (October 23 to 28, 2000)

 

Match of the week : Scott Steiner vs Mike Awesome (Nitro). The two big guys beat the shit out of each other for my enjoyment. Awesome would be such a better champion than Booker T, apart from his bad promo skills. The announcers talk about Yokozuna's passing and say some nices things about him, which is a rather classy move especially when Yoko really never was a part of WCW. Midajah gets involved, Steiner looks like a monster. Best part, Steiner came to the ring with a freaking tiger (no idea why they didn't save this intro for the PPV though) ! He's the coolest heel since Steve Austin in 96, easily.

 

Goofy angle of the week : Mike Sanders beats the Jung Dragons (Nitro) This is supposed to be some sort of kickboxing match, as a training for his match against The Cat at the PPV, but Sanders drowns his boxing gloves with some sort of liquid which makes his opponent feel ill or something, so he can beat them up. This was not very well executed at all. The Cat KO's him afterward with one kick. The PPV match could be fun if well layed out, as these two are cool characters. It's obvious Sanders is going to win though, as he's been a complete bitch during this whole build, including on the next Thunder as he ended up with Lea Meow on his back riding him like a horse.

 

Brawl of the week : Vampiro vs Crowbar (Nitro). Stiff ECW like brawl which suits the poor worker Vampiro well, and since Crowbar is willing to do anything it's pretty watchable if not exactly good. They get more time than your usual Nitro match, and the announcers put over Crowbar's tolerance to pain quite strongly. Vampiro on the other hand is still a third rate Raven/Mankind character who "likes pain", and when they fight toward the Nitro Girls cages I have a flash forward to early TNA setting : Vamp is Abyss I guess. Druids bullshit setting two tables so Crowbar can take the huge bump (who else ?) like he's Tommy Dreamer in 1997. This kind of stuff really isn't fresh anymore, especially when Crowbar takes these ridiculous bumps every two weeks. At least the booking makes sense since Vampiro did that to Crowbar as a receit to Awesome who powerbombed him through a table on September 18.

 

Stupid line of the week : Vampiro says he had two months to think about it (Nitro) We're October 23. You were powerbombed by Awesome on September 18. You're an idiot.

 

Classic angle of the week : Shane Douglas can't wrestle because he's injured (Nitro) Shane is in a cast, again. His right elbow really is fucked up, it's been in a cast on and off regularly since 1998. So he cuts a good string serious promo about how he never is afraid to fight injured, but this time he's not allowed to. Konnan doesn't trust him and when Shane tries to jump him this turns into a match, cast and all. Konnan beats the shit out of Shane for a while until Torrie gets a chain out of her cleavage, passes it to the Franchise who knocks Konnan out then applies his new finisher (which looks like a better version of Danny Doring's finisher). This was good, solid promos for everyone involved, nice execution. Torrie is slowly improving too, she's become a nice bitchy heel valet.

 

Nice touch of the week : Kwee-Wee goes into a hardcore match with pink garbage cans (Thunder). That was visually interesting. As was Paisley's outfit. Match against Reno was run of the mill hardcore match, and Paisley actually got served with the roll of teh dice, which looked terrific. Woman abuse, but at least he's a dirty heel and he's not doing it every damn week. A-Woll shows up afterward, yawn.

 

The PPV is looking at least decent on paper, and the build since Russo has been gone is at least logical in term of booking. We got a classic 6-men tag on Thunder between Jarrett & Kronik and Goldie, Sting & Booker, simple stuff to get guys together and have themselves a tag match before their individual bout at the PPV. Halloween Havoc has always been a fixture of WCW since the early 90's, it's sad this one was gonna end up the last one.

[El-P]

PPV 22 : Halloween Havoc 2000

 

Match of the night : Scott Steiner vs Booker T. Steiner is awesome. Total maniac heel, going berzerk with the audience, going into Stevie Ray's face, intimidating the ref. Just an all-around great heel. And he brings the heavy offense too, isn't afraid to bump, and contrary to the popular belief, was still smooth and quick, as showed by the greatest spot that I thought I would never see : as Booker was taking his sweet time to set up his ax kick, Steiner got up at the last moment and lariated him into oblivion. I popped. Finally !!! This is Booker's best main event match, and since Goldberg had his best main event match against Steiner at the last PPV, I think it's safe to say there's a trend here. Match ends with complete chaos as Steiner snaps, kills Booker and the ref (and the refs and officials who jumped in the ring) with the lead pipe, confronts Stevie Ray. I can't wait until he wins the belt, he's totally makes the main event scene worthwhile.

 

Surprisingly fun bullshit match of the night : Shane Douglas & Torrie Wilson vs Konnan & Tygress. I won't call Douglas a miracle worker at this point yet, but damn if he's not delivering way above any expectations despite being served crap matches on paper. He's such a solid worker & promo and he's also a trooper as seen how he can make Tygress look somewhat credible. Really, except for a few obligaory awful spots by the ladies, this match was really fun, well built and ended on a satisfaying note. And Torrie Wilson looked smoking hot dressed as Wonder Woman (which was also totally bitching for a heel). Douglas & Steiner are the 1-2 punch heel characters & workers who carry this company on their back, really. Meanwhile...

 

Godawful bullshit match of the night : Sting vs Jeff Jarrett. Okay, is Russo still booking Jarrett's matches ? Is Jarrett now officially a Russoesque worker who can't do without idiotic bullshit ? My goodwill for this guy has just taken a nosedive like I never thought it would. So, the "idea" here is that a bunch of old-school Sting look-alike (from early 90's to nWo Wölfpack-crab Sting) interfere in the match until Jarrett wins with a guitar shot. It's as awful and terrible as it sounds, and the work sucks to boot. Complete garbage.

 

Hot opener of the night : Boogie Knights vs Mark Jindrak & Sean O'Haire vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman. Not a fan of three-ways at all, but this one was pretty fun. Jindrak & O'Haire paired up with the right people are really watchable at this point, and their athletic and power spot finally get a solid base to work from. Can I say again how happy I am with Alex Wright being back ? This had some cool triple-threat spots and some nice tag-team dynamic at some points, Mysterio being the obvious stand-out. I still don't understand how the swanton bomb is suposed to hurt anyone, but O'Haire doing it is much more impressive than Jeff Hardy.

 

Heated match of the night : Gen. Rection vs Lance Storm & Jim Duggan. Incredible heat for an undercard match, there's nothing better than a jingoist angle I guess. Jim Duggan is actually fine in this, but he overstayed its welcome for me already. Since he's the one eating the pinfall, hence losing a title he doesn't own, he should be gone from this angle, as he doesn't have much more to bring to the table. Lance's bumping really made this match to be honest, as Demott is good for hitting a few spots and that's it, he's not much of a worker. He totally overshot his moonsault at the end too. So there it is, the US title changes hand without the champ actually losing it, which always sucks. Got a great reaction, was decent for what it was.

 

Martial-arts match of the night : The Cat vs Mike Sanders. Basically, The Cat beat Sander's ass until Shane Douglas showed up and used his chain to KO the Cat and give Sanders the win. Not as fun as it could have been, but the beatdown on Sanders during the first three rounds (mercyfully only 2 minutes long each) was still nice.

 

Sloppy match of the night : Vampiro vs Mike Awesome. This was bad. Vampiro looks roided as all hell and blows up even quicker than normal now. This was more a spot match than a garbage brawl, so Vamp sucked at it, and it got really ugly at different points. Awesome gave Vamp his super Awesome bomb from the top rope, and I guess Vamp's sloppy bump gave him a concussion as he was still attented in the ring way after the match ended.

 

Well, there was also a bad garbage match between Reno & A-Woll, in which being dropped through two tables didn't mean shit, a bad Buff Bagwell vs David Flair DNA match, which was a first blood match of sort and a decent Perfect Event vs Loco & Cajun match carried by Palumbo & Chavo basically. The Goldie vs Kronik main event was a 5 minutes Nitro Goldberg competitive squash, which is totally stupid to end a major PPV. Kronik looked like jabronies, which they are. Not a good PPV, way to much crap or flat stuff with the nadir being that awful Sting vs Jarrett match. It's like Jarrett is carrying the Russo stench all over all his matches and angles. Scary to think the entire TNA promotion was built around *this*.

[jdw]

Not a good PPV, way to much crap or flat stuff with the nadir being that awful Sting vs Jarrett match. It's like Jarrett is carrying the Russo stench all over all his matches and angles. Scary to think the entire TNA promotion was built around *this*.

I see Jerome's next project:

 

"TNA 2002-2006: The Jeff Jarret Years!"

 

[jackwebb]

Heated match of the night : Gen. Rection vs Lance Storm & Jim Duggan. Incredible heat for an undercard match, there's nothing better than a jingoist angle I guess. Jim Duggan is actually fine in this, but he overstayed its welcome for me already. Since he's the one eating the pinfall, hence losing a title he doesn't own, he should be gone from this angle, as he doesn't have much more to bring to the table. Lance's bumping really made this match to be honest, as Demott is good for hitting a few spots and that's it, he's not much of a worker.

I have always been down on Storm. Watched him wrestle Mark Henry a month or two ago on Smackdown in 2003 and was impressed with his bumping and eye for minor details. So have been watching his matches every now and then since. Those qualities are definitely consistent. Weaknesses in his offense are the only thing hurting the matches. That bumping could work as a face but he just doesn't have the charisma to connect with the crowd for a good fiery comeback; though he does move well enough that he possibly hide that. He seems best suited as a heel in a tag team where his partner can build the heat. Have him be the guy that bumps for whoever receives the hot tag. He would definitely be smart with how he interferes while his partner is in the ring.

[El-P]

I see Jerome's next project:

 

"TNA 2002-2006: The Jeff Jarret Years!"

 

No fucking chance. I may be stupid and masochistic, but there's no way I'm getting into fucking TNA.

 

WEEK 96 (October 30 to November 04, 2000)

 

Match of the week : Boogie Knights vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman (Thunder). This tag team feud is the best in-ring thing going on in the company. I would prefer to still have Juvy instead of Kidman, but this flows really well once again, and Rey Jr. & Wright are the two standouts. The Boogie Knights are my favourite tag team I never knew about now. The Filthy Animals also had a good little match on Nitro with Jindrak & O'Haire again. These three teams are saving the tag-team division.

 

Split of the week : 3-Count & Jung Dragons lose a member each (Thunder) Evan Karagias the glory whore and Jamie San who fucks things up are booted out of their respective team. Hey, Jamie San without his mask doesn't look like an asian guy at all, what a shocker. I had no idea they had split the teams this early, I thought it happened just before Starrcade. In a sense it's a bit early to me, as we never really got the most out of a Dragons vs 3-Count feud.

 

New authority figure of the week : Ric Flair the new CEO (Nitro) Ric looks fat. He's retired, he's the new CEO, he's cutting a serious promo without going into crazy-old Flair. This was all good as long as he was in the ring with Mike Sanders. It also felt like a reset, as Flair was talking about building the company back. Now, the bad part began when Jeff Jarrett jumped in to cut yet another dull, boring, shitty promo. Why does this guy still refers to himself as the Chosen One anyway ? This makes no fucking sense whatsoever, like carrying a guitar. Damn, I'm dreading a Flair vs Jarrett feud. Infact I'm dreading anything involving Jarrett at this point, that's how bad the guy's stock has dropped with me.

 

Cruiserweight match of the week : Elix Skipper vs Lt. Loco (Thunder) Some sloppiness at times, but it was fine overall. Major Gunns is back with the MIA now, but here she's clearly the reason why Chavo lost the match, distracting the ref at the bad times. So, whe was penalizing Team Canada when they got her hostage, and now she's penalizing her own partners by being a tool. This girl really benefited from her huge fake boobs, because I don't see the point of having her around.

 

Overdone feel-good segment of the week : Gen. Rection gets the standing ovation from the locker room (Nitro) Okay, I understand the idea, to validate Rection as a guy everybody respects a lot and give him a superstar treatment, but it feels really overdone and overacted. I'm sure the backstage sentiment was genuine, as Demott was a good hand to make people look good, but having the entire locker room paying hommage to Gen. Rection winning the US belt was really coming off them trying way too hard to create a "moment". Goldberg showing respect to Hugh Morrus by saying "The streak had to start somewhere, and it started with you." was a nice "shoot" touch though. So yeah, it was nice, but it didn't accomplished its goal to me. Didn't help that the Nitro crowd was pretty dead.

 

The show is so much easier to watch now it's not even funny. They are putting together the pieces toward the next PPV in a logical, solid way from to to bottom. They are obviously going for Booker vs Steiner round 2, Lance vs Rection for the US belt (as Rection really didn't beat Storm), The Cat vs Shane Douglas (with a little woman abuse from Douglas on Miss Jones, but at least it was a dick heel move and sold as such) in what could be another fun promo/angle little feud, Goldberg vs Lex Luger (very obvious way to feed Goldie with a name he hasn't worked before, I have nothing against that one), and some tag-team match between Filthy Animals/Boogie Knights/NBT/ They broke away Sean Stasiak from the Thrillers, but he's still a heel apparently. Bam Bam is back, and I don't care very much since he's gonna be programmed with The Wall. Crowbar has been split from Mike Awesome and back to his old crazy personna. Not sure how I feel about that one since I was enjoying Awesome/Crowbar as a team and Awesome is not gonna recieve a main event push. Buff Bagwell wasn't the father of Stacy's child, mmmkay.

[jdw]

One of these years you need to do a companion piece on the "positive" side of WCW in the Monday Night Wars era: September 4, 1995 (first Nitro) - through December 28, 1998 (last Nitro before the Finger Poke). There was no Thunder in between that last show and the next Nitro. The main event of that is Flair vs Bischoff, and in the middle of the show is:

 

Eddy & Juve vs Rey & Kidman (16:23)

 

"Another GOLDEN match from these guys."

-CRZ

 

There's also a Fit vs Booker match.

 

Of course looking at Starcade the night before... uh... er... um...

 

 

John

[FLIK]

I see Jerome's next project:

 

"TNA 2002-2006: The Jeff Jarret Years!"

 

No fucking chance. I may be stupid and masochistic, but there's no way I'm getting into fucking TNA.

Ya know, that's actually not the worst era to try out. 04 - 06 is largely Russo free and even though it wasn't the most financially successfull there was a lot of good wrestling and the angles/feuds usually made sense.

[jdw]

I thinking the Jeffey Jarrett egofuck-centric nature of the company will drive Jerome nuts before "it gets better".

[El-P]

One of these years you need to do a companion piece on the "positive" side of WCW in the Monday Night Wars era: September 4, 1995 (first Nitro) - through December 28, 1998 (last Nitro before the Finger Poke).

Actually I already went through 1998 some time ago, I was posting my thoughts on the "WCW watching" thread.

 

I have put aside the glory days of Nitro (from the start to the end of 1997), so maybe I will come back to this stuff one day, but I'm not sure. I have spent the last few years going through ECW, SMW, WCW 1989-1995 (until Nitro) and 1998-2001 (I plan to finish this project in November or so if all goes well), with just a slight japanese pause watching UWF 1 & 2 shows. Watched more wrestling these last few years than I ever did.

Maybe I will go through the glory days of the MNW some day and post comments in the Yearbook threads like I used to do, but I may need a serious break too. Plus I'm not sure how motivated I would be to watch this stuff again, as I know this era pretty well now. And then there's the Benoit thing. It hasn't been an issue to watch Benoit matches, but I honestly can't watch without thinking about the murders, and in 1996/97 Benoit and Nancy were a lot together on TV, which may be a little bit more difficult to "enjoy" than just watching Benoit alone. I dunno.

 

I thinking the Jeffey Jarrett egofuck-centric nature of the company will drive Jerome nuts before "it gets better".

This. I have been a long time Jeff defender, but going through his WCW stint just shot that notion down. I's funny to re-read my comments when Jarrett showed up and had this excellent matches with Benoit and Dustin in late 99, because at the point I'm at now Jarrett really doesn't deliver for shit in the ring (I blame laziness, not lack of talent, as he still shows up from time to time) and has been plainly *unbearable* as a character.

 

The two guys I would watch TNA for eventually are Shane Douglas and Raven, maybe I would be interested to see how their career went down there. Strictly to keep on with their career arc maybe I would check out this period of TNA one day, as a fan of both guys, but that would be it. The Jarrett bullshit, the Abyss garbage and the X-division spot-monkeys I have no will to go through. And really I think I won't watch anything remotely associated with Vince Russo ever again. That shit is poisonous.

[Ditch]

Jarrett was so overwhelmingly forced as a main eventer. He was a midcarder in the first WWF run, during a low point for the company. A third-tier guy in the first WCW run. A midcarder again in the WWF return. Then he was EVERYWHERE in WCW, with a gimmick of "hits people with guitars and talks about powerful friends" and a god-awful finisher. Never, not once, was he over as a heel, or did he draw.

 

And then TNA makes him the center of the company for five years.

 

What in the hell.

[Loss]

Jerry Jarrett has since said he was guilty of loving his son too much.

[FLIK]

The two guys I would watch TNA for eventually are Shane Douglas and Raven, maybe I would be interested to see how their career went down there. Strictly to keep on with their career arc maybe I would check out this period of TNA one day, as a fan of both guys, but that would be it. The Jarrett bullshit, the Abyss garbage and the X-division spot-monkeys I have no will to go through. And really I think I won't watch anything remotely associated with Vince Russo ever again. That shit is poisonous.

Hmmm, i'd say go for 2005 then. Russo had no involvement in the company that year, Jarret was only part time main eventer after the 1st few months (I recall liking him vs DDP), Raven gets a final run on top, X-Pac has a fun run whear he was motivated for a bit, I liked the little bit that Shocker came in for, some good tag wrestling, Samoa Joe comes in, X-division is largely built around him AJ & Daniels which wasn't that spotty, Abyss is toned down compared to what he became later on, etc...

[Smack2k]

Glad to see you are starting to enjoy it...

 

Steiner as main heel and champ is so fuckin cool and I am glad you are loving it like I did when I saw it in 2000..

 

Sad enough, but I was still getting the PPV's for this stuff in 2000 - 2001...

 

I couldnt remember when, but it was a few weeks after Fall Brawl that things got better, I had thought it was from Fall Brawl on...

 

Do you like the Goldberg being forced to re-do his streak? I really loved that personally...

[El-P]

Hmmm, i'd say go for 2005 then. Russo had no involvement in the company that year, Jarret was only part time main eventer after the 1st few months (I recall liking him vs DDP), Raven gets a final run on top, X-Pac has a fun run whear he was motivated for a bit, I liked the little bit that Shocker came in for, some good tag wrestling, Samoa Joe comes in, X-division is largely built around him AJ & Daniels which wasn't that spotty, Abyss is toned down compared to what he became later on, etc...

Thanks for the advices FLIK.

 

Do you like the Goldberg being forced to re-do his streak?

I can't say I care about that. Although I never particulary cared for Goldberg's initial streak either.

 

But the company is very clearly getting better. As showed by :

 

WEEK 97 (November 6 to 10, 2000)

 

Match of the week : 3-Count vs Jung Dragons vs Mark Jindrak & Sean O'Haire (Nitro). Fun match, as both 3-Count and the Dragons fit very well with the big studds. Lot of cool tag team dynamics, mirror spots and impressive cool stuff like a mirror double suplex as 3-Count & the Dragons are all suplexed by the champs. Karagias fucks up the match for his former partners.

 

Comeback of the week : DDP (Nitro). Yeah ! He's back and he's jacked ! Funny how all the guys who weren't used (or used poorly) during Russo's last stint are showing up on TV again. I'm glad because DDP has been one of the best performer in the company since his heel turn in 1999, and no one is better at carrying a limited worker to a good match. Too bad Kim won't come back though (see also Luger, Lex : too bad Liz won't come back). It also brings some star power back to a roster that badly needs it.

 

Title change of the week : Crowbar beats Reno for the hardcore title (Thunder) Hardcore matches were so overdone at this point, but this one is really good. Crowbar is my little WCW version of Sabu, I love him for that. Sadly it means taking more punishment in garbage matches, but at least those will be fun again. They put him over pretty big, talking about his connection with Gen. Rection since the beginning of his career. Where the fuck is Daphney BTW (the stupid Ozzie angle just vanished, which is good) ?

 

Goofy angle of the week : Lance Storm has an issue with Meng (Nitro) Well, what an odd pairing, Meng & Kwee-Wee. And they are feuding with Team Canada now it seems, which leaves the Storm vs Rection PPV match with not much build thus far. Odd. The feud itself is rather fun though, in a goofy way. Storm vs Meng on Thunder was decent.

 

Bizarre turn of the week : The NBT turn on coach Kevin Nash (Thunder) After weeks of Stasiak not fitting in and then apparently splitting from the team, now we get a really bizarre turn of event, with the entire NBT turning on Nash and beating him up. Really didn't see that one coming, and although you can say it makes sense in a way as they used him for advice before dumping him, the whole Stasiak deal leaving Palumbo alone getting beat up and such really doesn't makes logic, as Konnan would say. So, is Nash turning back babyface ? Booker T came to his aid, which is another puzzling thing since Nash turned on him like two months before.

 

Funny segment of the week : Mark Madden interviews The Cat. (Thunder) The Cat is angry because he has to talk to Madden, who's fat and disgusting. The Cat is pretty funny here, being all confrontational and shit including saying Flair has been around for 75 years. The Cat making fun of Madden just never gets old. Miss Jones looked smoking, and I'd love to find that dress she was wearing for my girlfriend, she'd look damn good in it too (yeah, I actually have a sex life, go figure).

 

What the future would have been moment of the week : Bob Sapp promo (Thunder) Holy shit, I never knew Sapp actually got on WCW TV. Damn, this is so frustrating when you think about it ! He already showed a lot of charisma although the promo was shaky at times, and one could only figure what the future could have been if he had debuted in WCW instead of going to Japan. Here he talks about having a boxing match with Bill Perry and training with Sam Greco, who was also signed to WCW at the time. The interviewer was another blonde girl with cleavage showing, but she was a billion times better than Paulshock (which isn't hard, but still). Damn, WCW looked like it had some fresh stuff in store.

 

The week of TV was the best since the oddly good weeks that showed up from time to time in 1999. Really easy to watch, nothing really bad or eye-gouging, some decent enough in-ring matches (like a decent sprint involving Jarrett & Steiner vs Sting & Booker and a watchable Booker vs Awesome title defense on Thunder), some fun stuff (like Rey Mysterio Jr. vs David Flair or Konnan vs Disco on Thunder) and some solid promos (Luger, DDP, The Cat, Flair). It's obvious the company was trying to brush off the stench of Russo and going back to the basics, with more wrestling, more basic angles and logical build of feuds (for the most part). First positive trend in eons (and the first time in 2000, as Sullivan's stint was of course much better than Russo's but it was still pretty far from being good).

[ButchReedMark]

Only two months until it becomes a really great watch. 2001 WCW is booked in a basic fashion, but it works really well. 2001, or those three months) were really good TV. The dog end of 2000 is decent as well though. Basic booking works, and it's what WCW needed.

[El-P]

WEEK 98 (November 13 to 18, 2000)

 

Carry-job of the week : Lance Storm vs Booker T (Thunder). If there's one match to show that Lance Storm finally out things together, it's this one. Short Thunder style match against a rather poor and annoying worker, yet he makes it fun to watch, and it's probably the best Booker TV match of the year next to the Douglas one, although worked in a more go-go style. Big bumping, some thoughts put into counter moves, flows as well as a Booker match can (Booker is so sloppy and has a bad timing). The part part comes with the post-match, Booker T puts his finisher on Major Gunns (who's a heel now). Well, I didn't miss babyface beating on women.

 

Nonsensical turn of the week : Major Gunns is a proud Canadian (Nitro) From nowhere, Gunns betrays Gen. Rection and costs him the title. No explanation given apart that Major Gunns is a proud Canadian now. This is absurd, amkes no sense whatsoever and looks like a very artificial way to pump in some heat back into an angle that was quickly losing the audience (really, after Rection won the title, he wasn't going anywhere against Storm, so he had to lose it again).

 

Garbage match of the week : Crowbar vs Bam Bam Bigelow (Thunder). Yep, they put Bigelow back into that garbage match spot, where he doesn't shine. Crowbar makes up for it though, he's really makes these overdone matches rather fun to watch thanks to his willigness for crazy offense and bumps and his likeable character. Daffney is sorely missed though, they made a good duo together. Bam Bam is paired with Mike Awesome, which really doesn't work to Awesome's strenghts.

 

Squash of the week : Goldberg vs Boogie Knights (Nitro). Honestly I'm bored with Goldberg doing squashes again. That's not what I want from him at this point. But this one is very fun, for obvious reasons, especially when the Boogie Knights don't know who they are paired against. Alex Wright gets stiff Goldie a little before getting killed, which is always fun.

 

Stupid pinfall of the week : Sting beats Scott Steiner clean (Thunder) Whaou. Seriously ? This was the final of the Lethal Lottery tournament from Nitro for a title shot after Mayhem. Short Sting kinda match where he gets killed before making a comeback without bothering to sell. Clean pin. That was pretty stupid. Post-match sees Steiner put Sting into a straightjacket and beat him up. Not good, on any level.

 

Really not a good week, with Nitro having a bad lethal lottery gimmick tournament to decide a N°1 challenger for after Mayhem. The issue is that both Scott Steiner and Booker T were involved in this which doesn't make any sense. Having Scott Steiner eat a clean pin from Sting didn't make sense either. Major Gunns turning was out of the blue and made no sense either. They are teasing a MIA break-up (which is good). The Cat's program with Shane Douglas seems to have vanished, as it hasn't been mentionned on TV and Douglas is nowhere to be seen. Kronik doing the Boggie Knights dirty deeds (not done cheap) is getting old, really I wish these guys would get out of my screen. Kevin Nash is getting beatdowns after beatdowns from the NBT, he needs a partner badly which I guess will be revealed just before the PPV. Anyway, pretty bad booking this week, which took part in London and Manchester (so at least they had big and hot crowds as opposed to a totally darkened and cold United Center in Chicago the previous week). On the positive side, Mark Madden wasn't there, and Stevie Ray has become a lot of fun (and it sounds like Schiavone & Tenay really have a lot of fun working with him too).

[Sidebottom]

Jarrett was so overwhelmingly forced as a main eventer. He was a midcarder in the first WWF run, during a low point for the company. A third-tier guy in the first WCW run. A midcarder again in the WWF return. Then he was EVERYWHERE in WCW, with a gimmick of "hits people with guitars and talks about powerful friends" and a god-awful finisher. Never, not once, was he over as a heel, or did he draw.

I dunno, the one and only WCW show I went to, one of the stand out memories was me standing in line, and two nutters walking by chanting loudly "Acoustic Equaliser" waving their orange foam guitars in the air. I shit you not.

[El-P]

WEEK 99 (November 20 to 25, 2000)

 

Promo of the week : Shane Douglas & Torrie Wilson (Nitro). Shane is his usual self, meaning he's super solid as the Arn Anderson-like veterabn, but the surprising part came from Torrie, who was really funny insulting the "southern hicks" using a stereotypical southern accent. The progress she made since being paired up with the Franchise are pretty stunning, as she really was inept for the most part since her beginning. She actually gave credit to Douglas in interviews as being someone who really tried to help and teach her about how to work. This showed.

 

Squashes of the week : Goldberg squashed Kwee-Wee and Mike Sanders (Nitro). The best segment of the week. Sanders booked Kwee-Wee, his opponent at the PPV, against Goldberg. Amazing spear while Kwee-Wee was in mid air. Then Flair shows up at ringside and to even things up, books Sanders against Goldberg immediately. Sanders' acting is the best in the company, he's pretty great during the whole segment (including being dejected about DDP being Kevin Nash's partner against the TBN at the PPV). So, Goldie squashes Sanders too and spears him out of his boots. Fun stuff.

 

WTF spot of the week : Lea Meow doing a hurracanrana from the steel stairs to the outside. (Nitro) I really didn't see that one coming. She sure has taken some training course, and Jamie Knoble's bump for her was perfect.

 

Interview of the week : Stevie Ray interviews Scott Steiner (Thunder). Steiner is just great, he's can be a screaming psycho yet is just as convincing and menacing when he's cold. Another one that came a long way from his dull shouting promos ("Me and my brother !")and spot matches in the 90's. This is a setup for Booker T to attack Steiner from behind. I don't care at all for Booker, but the build for the PPV main event has been good.

 

Title change of the week : The Perfect Event wins the tag team titles from Alex Wright & Elix Skipper (Nitro). This is pretty much a clusterfuck of an angle. Jindrak & O'Haire lost to the Boogie Knights in Germany, which was a bone thrown to the loyal German audience with Wright getting the pin, but now Disco is injured and so Alex has to defend with a partner of his choosing. I hate this kind of stuff. And of course they ran another angle where O'Haire gets attacked in the locker room, so the Perfect Event replace Jindrak & O'Haire. The Filthy Animals cost Wright the titles, so now Stasiak & Palumbo are champs again, just so they can drop teh belts (I guess), to Kevin Nash & DDP. Well, color me disapointed that Jindrak & O'Haire have been thrown under the bus like this. I don't mind Palumbo, but Stasiak really doesn't do anything for me.

 

Not that much in term of good matches this week. They reignited the Cat vs Douglas feud so this has a one week build to the PPV, but they did a reasonnable job thanks to Douglas and The Cat's promos ability. Jeff Jarrett is working Buff Bagwell and at this point I would be surprised if this was any good. This is just a bump in the road for Jarrett who seems to be building a feud with Flair, I guess for Starrcade. Some really shitty angles include Jimmy Hart feuding with Mancow in short backstage vignettes (who the fuck cares about this ?) and Rick Steiner feuding with the Battledome guys. I have no idea what Battledome was, and I don't think anyone cared either. The PPV looks so-so on paper with no really good matches except a fun spotfest with the Dragons/3-Count/Karagias & Knoble, and maybe the Filthy Animals vs Boogie Knights. The Cat vs Douglas could be fun and the main event is 50/50 since the cage and straighjacket gimmick will probably hurt it. It looks like they are going toward the champ vs Goldberg at Starrcade, which is exactly what it should be, but...

[goc]

El-P, I know you are down on Booker T and I agree with a lot of criticisms, but who else do you think should have been in that spot of "top babyface who isn't Goldberg"?

[El-P]

No one. That's the issue. It's mind blowing that in November 2000, Goldberg still hasn't been given the belt back. They had essentially two choices : run with a babyface champ, Goldberg, feed him challengers and build toward Starrcade against Scott Steiner. Or : run with a heel champ, Scott Steiner, and build toward Starrcade against Goldberg. These two were the only ones who could have rebuilt the company on top.

 

Booker was "good" as cannon fodder, like Sting, Nash or DDP at this point. Jarrett wasn't even good as main event cannon fodder.

 

The one guy who should have been built up since 1999 and his giant killer stint so to eventually be elevated to main event status was Rey Mysterio Jr. He's feuding with Disco Inferno in November 2000. Okay...

[El-P]

PPV 23 : Mayhem 2000

 

Highspots match of the night : Jung Dragons vs 3-Count vs Jaime Knoble & Evan Karagias. This was messy at times, but fun in a goofy indieriffic lucharesu match, with some comedy from Yang, some great dives and Leia Meow jumping from the top rope to a crowd of wrestlers outside. Jaime and Hayashi are way above the pack here, while Karagias is the worst of the bunch but not bad like he was a year before. Don't expect much good storytelling here, it's all about jumping and running around and doing cool spots, bumping like maniacs and getting the crowd hot. A ladder is used at one point, foreshadowing what's to come.

 

Long overdue title change of the night : Scott Steiner vs Booker T. This was better than I expected (something I will say several times during this PPV) because they worked in a giant HITC-like cage which allows more in term of space, and they didn't focus on the straightjacket gimmick. Plus they did use it like it was a distraction and not an efficient gimmick, so I'd say they worked around quite efficiently. Still, the match lost steam toward the end, and it didn't get very much heat, which shows that Booker isn't that over. And really, Steiner was the star of the match and the audience knew it as they loudly cheered when he won the match. Steiner should have been given the belt sometime in 1999, he was ready back then.

 

Fun bullshit match of the night : Kwee-Wee vs Mike Sanders. The cruiserweight work was good enough, and the bullshit at ringside didn't detract. Basically Sanders got the help from the NBT, so Paisley got to the back and came back with a huge afro and Meng, who then proceeded to kick the ass out of 5 guys (like he can). Finally everyone is sent back and we get a cool little cruiser match. Fun opener. I dug the afro.

 

Swerve of the night : Bam Bam Bigelow is not injured and attacks Gen. Rection. Just after the finish of a dull and bad match against A-Wall, Bam Bam collapsed and they treated like it was a legit injury. And quite frankly, not knowing about what it was all about beforehand, I bought it hook line and sinker. I'm ambivalent about it though, as on one hand they did a great job with teh ange, but on the other hand it was so convincing that it's almost like crying wolf and it hurts the perception of when a real injury occurs (like with Orndorff). Anyway, Bam Bam was still on the stretcher when Gen. rection was coming down ringside and Bam Bam jumped him from behind, giving Storm the upper hand. I sure hope they will follow that up, although I'm not hoping much from a Rection vs Bammer match. The Storm match was the best they had together, and I give plenty of credit to Storm who hold it together. Rection totally overshot his moonsault and only his head touched Storm, which looked bad for the finish, but the match was a decent little sprint.

 

Requisite Douglas fun match of the night : Shane Douglas vs The Cat. Douglas is a swiss watch at this point. Three PPV's in a row with mediocre in-ring workers (or disabiliting gimmicks) and he delivers a super solid performance, carrying The Cat to his best single match. Shennanigans with the über hot Miss Jones at ringside only adds more fun (she can throw some good looking high kicks), use of a chain old-school style (and by this I mean hiding it from the ref), red dancing shoes. I enjoyed this a lot, more than I thought I would.

 

Better than expected match of the night : Jeff Jarrett vs Buff Bagwell. Damn that Jarrett, I was so tired of him and there he delivers his best performance in months, having probably the best post-injury Bagwell match I've seen. Buff worked hard and Jeff didn't do the sloppy go-go style he usually does, took his time and actually build a good solid undercard match. Even guitar crash was not bothering me this time as it had a goofy "how will he be able to use a guitar ?" element to it since Bagwell had crashed his guitar backstage before the match. Really pleasently surprised by this match, it felt like the Jarrett of late 99. Damn.

 

Veterans vs greenhorns match of the night. Perfect Event vs DDP & Kevin Nash. Stasiak really doesn't bring very much to the table, but Palumbo is fun in an overgrown Tom Pritchard way. DDP worked the bulk of the match and played Ricky Morton. Totally classic built tag team match, and the veterans really worked as such, which is good. Nash had a flurry at the beginning then came in to clean the ring like he was Robert. Despite the shaky at times heel control segment, this was good, simple tag team work. I like the veteran team of Nash & DDP, they already show good chemistry.

 

Comedic match of the night : Rey Mysterio Jr. & Kidman vs Alex Wright & Kronik. Disco is still injured, so they pay Kronik to take his place in a handicap match (originally it was supposed to be the Filthy against Boogie Knights 3 on 2). The joke here is that they don't have enough money so Kronik only work for 7,5 minutes. You guess the ending of the match.

 

Okay, so Mancow vs Jimmy hart was garbage no one cared about, A-Wall vs Bam Bam was bad (Mike Awesome was attacked by Bam Bam before their scheduled match, no idea if Awesome was actually injured) and the hardcore three way between Reno, Crowbar & Vito wasn't inspired. Goldberg vs Lex was basically a competitive squash, it shouldn't have been sold as a semi-main event. Outside of that, this PPV was really enjoyable and some of the matches were better than expected, especially the tag-team match, the main event and above all Jarrett vs Bagwell which looked downright bad on paper. The Us title match didn't seem like that much of a huge deal, and they are finally moving out of the whole MIA/patriotic deal, Rection was even wearing a Hugh Morrus singlet. Good for him, but he's clearly not getting over at that level, and his work level doesn't warrant this spot either honestly. The heels really carried the show, with solid to strong performances by Jarrett, Douglas, Steiner, Storm and Sanders. Overall a pretty good show with cool feel-good babyface title wins (Rection / DDP & Nash) balancing the mega heel (although cheered at the end) winning the WCW title.

[El-P]

WEEK 100 (November 27 to December 02, 2000)

 

Promo of the week : Scott Steiner, new WCW champion (Nitro) It took a hundred weeks after Starccade 98 for Scott Steiner to get the WCW belt. Way too late. He's in fine mood here, receiving the validation of CEO Ric Flair who also says he has an opponent for him. Steiner proceeds to namedrop Steve Austin and The Rock as unworthwhile opponents like it's ECW and he's Shane Douglas in 1996. Well, it doesn't matter at this point, and Steiner making fun of The Rock makes you think about the great feud these two could have had. Anyway, then it goes to an angle with Stevie Ray who puts his career on the line to avenge his brother.

 

Career ending of the week : Stevie Ray's last match in WCW (Nitro) Man Stevie sucks. He's truly an awful worker, there's no two ways about it, even Steiner can't carry his ass. I wish he would have stayed at the announcing booth until the end, but apparently he's actually leaving the company too (I know he'll show up a few times in the months to come but not as a regular). Too bad, I really enjoyed Stevie as a color guy, he was really fun.

 

Depressing comeback of the week : Sid Vicious (Nitro) There we go. The opponent for Steiner at Starrcade. Why couldn't they bring Sting back ? They have three weeks to build to Starrcade which is ridiculously short, and of course they can't put Steiner vs Goldberg because it's either too early for Steiner to lose the belt and impossible for Goldie to lose again to Steiner. Bad timing. They did the best they could to tie up the storyline of Sid giving away the WCW title in April and thus not having lost it in the ring, but Sid coming back is just not something I want to see. Sadly, they had no one else expect Goldberg. Maybe they could have elevate Mike Awesome who had worked some tag matches along Steiner and Booker, but Steiner already had beaten him in single a few weeks before in TV. To me Sting would have been a much better choice. Sid is just ratings and match-quality death.

 

Upset of the week : Rey Mysterio Jr. beats Jeff Jarrett (Nitro). Yes, sadly it's considered as an upset, it says a lot about Rey's standings in the company. Match was fun though, with Jarrett being quadruple teamed by the Animals until he got his guitar and crashed Rey in mid-air, getting himself a DQ (which is hilarious considering all the abuse he took from all the guys on the outside). Jarrett is so much easier to watch when he's working on the undercard.

 

Angle of the week : Gen. Rection feels sorry for injuring Torrie Wilson (Thunder). During his match with Douglas, Torrie jumped on Rection's back and he squashed her in a corner. Whiplash effect, she got injured, EMT's, Rection feeling bad about it. The cool part is that for once a babyface feels remorse about hurting a woman. The way they stopped the match was cool too, as Douglas was getting ready to use his infamous chain when he noticed Torrie was really injured so he just stopped and got to her side to attend her, having an argument with Rection who tried to apologize. Good stuff too with Chavo trying to push her outside of the ring and encouraging Rection to keep on with the match. This led to Chavo leaving the MIA and basically turning heel. Good stuff.

 

Match of the week : Lance Storm & Elix Skipper vs Jung Dragons (Thunder) Fun spot match, with usual comedy elements from Yang mostly (this guy is a funny cat). I got a kick out of the Dragons making fun of the Canadians by impersonating them. The storyline developping is that Team Canada doesn't work as well together anymore, with Duggan not doing his job like he should. The Cat showed up again like on Nitro where he cost Storm the match against Yang. Good little mix of characters and workers here.

 

C-show match of the week : Kwee-Wee vs Norman Smiley (Worldwide). This was taped in England, and Norman is over like crazy. Nice little match with Norman going over to please the crowd (hey, what a concept, putting the hometown guy over).

 

The build to Starrcade will be rushed as all hell. Goldberg vs Luger redux doesn't look interesting in the least as the first match was basically a competitive squash, and Steiner vs Sid, fresh as it is, doesn't look good or even fun on paper. Bam Bam is having bad and boring gimmick matches with A-Wall. Daffney showed up on Thunder, looking great, but Crowbar is living the good life as champ so he doesn't care that much about her at this point, he already got two girls. Stacy Keibler also showed up to attend David after a hardcore match because she was worried. And Mary is Reno's sister too. So I guess Vito & Reno are brothers. DDP & Nash cut a promo mentionning their history together, including the fact they "sucked" as the Vegas Connection, and talked about Scott Hall quite a bit. They got Jindrak & O'Haire at the PPV, which should be good.

[El-P]

WEEK 101 (December 4 to 9, 2000)

 

Angle of the week : Scott Steiner destroys Arn Anderson and chaos ensues (Nitro) In one segment they succesfully build some heat for two matches and a half for Starrcade, which saved an otherwise infuriating Nitro. After his win over Rection Steiner got backstage and attacked Arn Anderson, got him into the ring, beat him up and put him in the Recliner. As Goldberg was runnig to the ring, he was cut short by Luger who jumped him from nowhere, and Goldie took a great bump there. In the meantime, Shane Douglas showed up from the crowd to beat on Rection outside the ring. Security guys were all over the mess then, Sid Vicious finally showed up (and not caught on camera until Schiavone had to shout "in the ring !" to the production crew) and this was a hug pull-apart. Sid did look kinda ridiculous as he was restrained by the security guys, but you have to see it to understand why. Anyway, this got super heat and was very efficient in every aspect.

 

Awful angle of the week : Sid Vicious kills Oklahoma and gets arrested (Nitro) Why the fuck would they got Ferrara back on TV with that awful character to boot. And he cut a long, unbearable promo getting cheap heat by talking about football for ever. Anyway, Sid shows up, kills him, then gets arrested but Steiner isn't happy and wants Sid back in the building. This was awful and a waste of time.

 

Bullshit title switch of the week : The Perfect Event get their belts back (Nitro) Because the wrong guy was pinned at the PPV. In 2000 ? Seriously ? One week after the fact ? THis also took forever and is complete garbage. I hate when they do shit like this.

 

Title change of the week : Chavo Guerrero Jr. gets the cruiserweight title (Thunder) Good little match against Mike Sanders, and finally we get a cruiserweight champ that will be credible and work regularly. Chavo deserved the spot, and he's fine as a heel, having improved a lot over the years.

 

Funny match of the week : Team Canada vs The Cat & Jung Dragons (Thunder) These guys have a good chemistry together. Duggan screws up again. The funny bits were Lance Storm almost biting his lips during the national anthem to not crack up laughing (Elix Skipper must have been talking some funny shit) and the Jung Dragons dancing with The Cat after the match.

 

Sprint of the week : Jeff Jarrett vs Konnan (Nitro). What did I say about Jarrett being much easier to watch on the undercard. Super short sprint which works the best for Konnan and it flew well until Jarrett faked a knee injury and lured the ref outside the ring while the Harris boys destroyed Konnan. We'll get a 6-men brawl at Starrcade. I can't stand the Harris but with Rey, Jarrett and Konnan as a brawler involved, it could still be fun to some extent.

 

Not a very good week with some long, useless segments with guys on the ramp talking to a guy in the ring aka the WWE formula from the last 13 years. More bad Bam Bam vs Wall match. More Reno & Vito family drama (and the promise of a match against Kronik to ensure I won't care about any of this). Luger vs Goldberg now sees the involvment of Buddy Lee Parker whom Luger humiliated and attacked on Thunder. Yawn. The big angle at the end of Nitro really saved the show, because the booking and work as not been very inspired otherwise (and at times plain bad) this week.