[1998-01-26-WCW-Nitro] J.J. Dillon bans the powerbomb

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[soup23]

Clips are shown of the powerbomb at Souled Out. JJ comes out and has a discussion about sports injuries that could play in 2014. JJ says tests on The Giant have been performed but more are scheduled and he really can't give an update on his situation. JJ is taking action and effective immediately, the powerbomb is barred from WCW. Boos rain down on JJ at that announcement. JJ gets fired up and offers a stern warning to Nash not to use the powerbomb again.

[Zenjo]

Couldn't someone just ban JJ Dillon instead?

[Migs]

JJ was just so painful around this time. Probably just bad material, but hard to believe he's the same guy that managed the Horsemen.

[Loss]

They are so lucky that powerbomb didn't result in a far more serious injury. JJ Dillon gets booed like crazy even before making the announcement, but I like the focus on wrestling that fuels all of this. Criminal prosecution? For a powerbomb?

[bradhindsight]

I give them credit for immediately writing and working an angle around this and since the Giant was "ok" it was less cringe worthy to see the replay 400 times.

[flyonthewall2983]

I mentioned this in a related thread, but if I remember correctly, the audience was booing because nothing was being shown on their huge TV screen where they would normally have replays and such on. It was either not functioning or they just didn't show it to get a more negative reaction that could play well on TV.

[PeteF3]

JJ delivers some remarkably prescient talk about how other sports have passed rule changes designed to mitigate the bigger, stronger athletes of today. This isn't a terrible idea in a vacuum, but

 

a.) Dillon was completely emasculated from day 1 on WCW TV and has absolutely no credibility,

b.) WCW had ignored and flouted its own internal logic for so long, sometimes by design and sometimes not, and

c.) We were past the days where a guy like Bill Watts could really get this angle over *and* have the necessary quality-control for his announcers to get it over,

d.) Late-'90s wrestling was all about breaking the rules, not getting heat by doing it.

 

Dillon threatens criminal prosecution toward Kevin Nash if he uses a power bomb, to a chorus of boos. Just more stupid, convoluted shit in the main event--I don't recall if this ruling ever got resolved or if it was just forgotten about like a lot of things in WCW. The only other positive to this is that it is at least something different, in a main event scene that's been very same-old, same-old for the past several months.

[TravJ1979]

Long winded JJ finally gets around to telling us the power bomb is banned. The crowd turned before he even made the announcement and erupted in boos once he got around to it.

 

RATING: Did he say Terminal Prosecution?

[Zero]

I thought this was an awesome follow up to the botch. Making the jackknife the most dangerous move in wrestling. This will now lead to a giant pop once Nash says screws it and hits it months later..... (well, that's how it should've gone) Instead, Nash just continues to do it disregarding any punishments that might be brought to him, including on this very Nitro.