Wrestlespective: WCW Bash at the Beach 2000

[Jason Mann]

I talk about Hulk Hogan vs. Jeff Jarrett, the infamous Vince Russo promo insulting Hogan, and Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T at WCW Bash at the Beach 2000 with Rich of Calling Spots. We talk about the confusing nature of Hogan lying down for Jarrett, how well it was presented to the audience and by the commentators, what seemed real and what seemed like part of the show, Russo's strengths and weaknesses as a character, whether Jarrett and Booker were good choices as WCW's champions, and more.

 

Link: http://gredunzapress.com/wrestlespective/?p=953

Subscription feed: http://wrestlespective.com/episodes

[SteveJRogers]

Psst...Mark Henry won the World Title for a while in 2011.

 

Though I think WWE would point out the Reys, Eddies and Del Rios (with slight nods to Great Khali and Yokozuna) to point out diversity among the WWE or World Heavyweight title lineages.

[goodhelmet]

I haven't listened to this yet but what was Russo's strength as a booker or character? I can't think of any. After I listen this weekend, I will give more thoughts.

[Jason Mann]

Yeah, forgetting Mark Henry was unforgivable. And yeah there's certainly been more diversity than we could come up with at the time.

 

Russo was probably 95% negative and 5% positive, but he at the very least had innovative ideas at first (that he'd run into the ground), tried to get everyone on the show involved rather than letting guys languish, and generally put together good promos. The promo on Hogan did a good job of explaining a confusing situation and got much of the crowd behind him and more importantly excited about the Jarrett-Booker match. I think if Russo had never written TV but had been a random manager in WWE/WCW who had been pushed at the level of, say, Slick, he'd be somewhat fondly remembered.

[soup23]

I really enjoyed this podcast. It gave a great overview of the attitude and temper of WCW at this point. The note you said Jason about them having 9 world champions in 7 weeks is just embarassing. I also was unsure whether the Jarrett/Booker match was any good because I was so deflated by what had happened with Russo/Hogan. Good to know that even in essentially a vacumn, that match is not very good.

[JerryvonKramer]

Jason, listening to your Shane McMahon show and your guest's mini-rant about how we should make a distinction between commercial and creative success in wrestling like we do in film criticism is pretty great stuff.

[Jason Mann]

Jason, listening to your Shane McMahon show and your guest's mini-rant about how we should make a distinction between commercial and creative success in wrestling like we do in film criticism is pretty great stuff.

It's a point I wholeheartedly agree with.