WCW 2K1

[Jesse Ewiak]

So, I started up a WCW 2001 game in TEW 2016, and I actually booked enough interesting stuff that I'd thought I'd put it out there for you guys to read and comment on. The basic gist is Bischoff and friends actually bought WCW, it's now May and I have a two hour show on FX, along with the entire old WCW roster, aside from folks like Goldberg & Hogan. I'm starting out with Eric's idea of starting out in Las Vegas, but I'm going from there. One quick note is for some reason (I forget 2001), Booker starts with an injury, so yes, the World & US Title is vacant.

 

Also, I came up with the idea of writing this all out before writing down all the exact times of angles & matches, so I'll note if something went real short or long. As a final cherry to this sundae, as kind of a lark, I've put in Piper as the head booker.

 

WCW Nitro

Live from The Hard Rock Cafe Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada - 2,000 - SOLD OUT!

 

In general, a stripped down look for WCW as they 'reboot' for seemingly the 19th time since 1999. There's a smaller TurnerTron (or FXTron now?) near the entrance gate, but that's been clamped down far closer to a lower cost entrance, but there's been a ramp added to give some amount of class to the proceedings. Announcers are still up at the top of the ramp, though.

 

The first Nitro in six weeks started out with Eric Bischoff coming out to a chorus of boos from the WCW faithful. He told the crowd he deserved those boos, but explained that the last few years had made him humble and made him learn that he had to go back to basics. In this new WCW, there'd be no new orders, no Wolfpack's, no Black & White, but a focus on what made WCW great - great in-ring action and talent that WCW fans cared about. Bischoff then said unfortunately, there was also business to tend too and out came Booker T, with his shoulder taped up and the WCW US Title on his other shoulder and World Title around his waist.

 

Booker explained that while training for his comeback, he'd injured his shoulder and as a result, would be unable to defend either title at The Big Bang, coming up this Sunday so he was relinquishing both titles. Just as Bischoff was about to announce something, Scott Steiner came out to the ring. He cut a quick promo on Booker T being something that had to be bleeped too, then demanded that Uncle Eric give him his World Title back.

 

Bischoff responded, "Scotty, this isn't the old WCW. You're going to earn everything, starting tonight. Now, you've earned a chance to become the next WCW World Champion. But, you're going to win an eight man tournament and your opening round opponent in tonight's main event here in Las Vegas will be...Sting!"

 

Steiner went nuts as the crowd reacted and the show cut to as Schiavone, Hudson, and Heenan welcomes us to the new, improved WCW Monday Nitro. They quickly went over the brackets, then hyped the other matches at The Big Bang, including Shane Helms vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. for the Cruiserweight Title, The Filthy Animals challenging Kid Romeo & Elix Skipper for the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Titles, and Team Canada looking to defeat Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo for the WCW Tag World Titles. - (85)

 

COMMERCIAL

 

In the 1st official match of the new WCW, Diamond Dallas Page defeated Buff Bagwell in about twelve minutes with the Diamond Cutter to advance to the semi-finals at The Big Bang. The prior DDP-Bagwell feud seems to have been dropped, as the announcers largely focused on Bagwell trying to move up to the next level and Page looking for one last run as the top of the promotion. Solid match, but nothing special. (74)

 

After the match, Page took the mic, welcomed the fans back to WCW, and said that whoever he had to face along the road, whether it was Flair, Sting, Steiner, or even Dustin Rhodes, they'd all feel the BANG! GOOD GAWD! (86)

 

COMMERCIALS

 

Backstage, Ernest Miller with M.I. Smooth and Miss Jones was upset Kanyon was in the World Title Tournament, but couldn't get Eric Bischoff to answer his door. (60)

 

In a tune-up match for the tag title match at The Big Bang, Sean O'Haire pinned Lance Storm in a little over nine minutes with the Senton Bomb after knocking Awesome to the floor as he attempted to interfere. O'Haire & Palumbo were pushed as the possible future of World Championship Wrestling as the match itself was pretty solid. (68)

 

COMMERCIALS

 

Coming back from commercials, in the 2nd match of the World Title Tournament, Ric Flair defeated Dustin Rhodes after Jarrett absolutely nailed Rhodes with a guitar after about thirteen minutes of action. As you'd expect, this was a solid old-school style brawl, as Flair is slowly feeling the effects of his age, but can still solidly work in the ring. (66)

 

After the match, as you'd expect, Jarrett & Flair took the boots to the fallen 'Natural' until WCW Officials could chase the devious duo away. (73)

 

Backstage, Shane Douglas was very upset with not being in the WCW World Title Tournament, so Bischoff acquiesced and put him in a match for the US Title, but waited until Shane agreed, then announced it'd be a 15 Man Battle Royal! Douglas blew his top about a conspiracy, but Bischoff simply explained that this was an opportunity for Shane to show his worth to the new WCW. (66)

 

COMMERCIALS

 

In a wild six-man match focusing largely on a bunch of spots, Chavo Jr., Elix Skipper, and Kid Romeo defeated Shane Helms and The Filthy Animals after about nine minutes of action when Chavo dropped Helms with the brainbuster after a double dive by Skipper & Romeo on to Rey & Kidman on the outside. (63)

 

In a segment that had to be on TV only to appeal to the horndogs, Stacy Kiebler showed up to Bischoff's office in a very tight skirt and blouse and offered to be Eric's official personal assistant all while dropping enough double entrendes to fill the opening minutes of a particularly clever adult film. Eric seems interested, but explained that she was still Jindrak and Statsiak's manager, it'd be very unprofessional for Stacy to be involved with the boss. Then, Stacy bent over to pick up something from Eric's floor and he suddenly had second thoughts. (65)

 

COMMERCIALS

 

In a shockingly good match, Kanyon pinned Konnan in a little over ten minutes with the Flatliner to advance in the title tournament. There was no hints of Positively Kanyon or even 'Champagne' Kanyon, but he's seemed to kept the newer intense look and leather jacket as he came to ringside. Konnan looked oddly motivated as he threw in a few big moves he seemingly hasn't done in years, but still did the J-O-B as Kanyon advanced to The Big Bang. (76)

 

After the match, Kanyon took the mic and declared that tonight proved, at the Big Bang, "Nobody would be betta' than Kanyon!" (68)

 

Quick cut to Sting somewhere in the arena where he cut a promo saying how there'd been more change in WCW in the past two years than the previous twenty, but he'd been here for all of it. "Ya' see, little Stingers, I don't bleed black & red, black & white, or even red, white, and blue. The only thing I bleed is WCW, so Scott Steiner, get ready because pal, it's Showtime!" - (89)

 

COMMERCIALS

 

In a solid main event. Sting pinned Scott Steiner after the Scorpion Death Drop after a nearly twenty minute bout after Booker T came down to ringside to watch the match. This led to Steiner breaking the Steiner Recliner, which allowed Sting to make his comeback and win the match. - (77)

 

After the match, as Steiner yelled at the referee, Booker rolled in and absolutely drilled the Big Booty Daddy with the WCW World Title belt! - (92)

 

The show ended with the trio of announcers hyping WCW's return to Pay Per View, in only six days where new WCW World & US Champions would be crowned.

 

Show Rating - 82

[SirEdger]

So far, so good! Gonna read this with a lot of interest as I was hoping back then for Bischoff to buy WCW.

[Jesse Ewiak]

World Championship Wrestling presents The Big Bang!

LIVE! on Pay Per View from The Hard Rock Cafe Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada - 2,000 paid - SOLD OUT!

After an Opening Video highlighting the four semi-finalists in the WCW World Title Tournament and the Dustin/Jarrett match tonight, the Terrible Trio of Schiavone, Hudson, and Tenay welcomes us to The Big Bang!

 

(88)

 

In the opening match of the night, Diamond Dallas Page advanced to the finals of the WCW World Title Tournament, defeating Kanyon in a little over fourteen minutes by blocking the Flatliner, and finally turning it into the Diamond Cutter to pick up the win! After the match, Ernest Miller along with his entourage came down to ringside to make fun of Kanyon for losing, telling the crowd in Las Vegas, “somebody should call my Mama so she can laugh at a punk like Kanyon!” The former member of the Jersey Triad chased the trio off, but not before Miller landed a solid karate kick to the mush of Kanyon.

 

(74/58)

 

Next up, Sting and Ric Flair basically went on auto-pilot, having a perfectly solid eighteen minute match that kept the crowd engaged, hitting all of their classic spots that have entertained fans all over the world for over a decade. Sting no-sell spot? Check. Flair Flip? Check. Figure Four Reversal? Check. There was no interference as Jarrett was busy getting ready for his match with Rhodes according to Scott Hudson, so the finish was clean as the Stinger was able to lock on the Scorpion Death Lock in the middle of the ring and pick up the submission win!

 

(76)

 

After that, in a high flying match that was all about the impressive moves going on, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Billy Kidman regained the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Titles, defeating Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo in a little under thirteen minutes when Kidman flew off the top with a Shooting Star Press on to Romeo, to get the win and take the belts!

 

(69)

Following a brief commercial for The Great American Bash, it was time for a bit of a brawl between Jeff Jarrett and Dustin Rhodes. The sons of two legendary wrestlers clashed one more time in a match that more resembled a brawl than a wrestling match. Near the end, it looked like Jarrett had gotten the win by applying the Figure Four in the middle of the ring, but Dustin reversed and went on a tear. After a ref bump, Jarrett went for the ole' El Kabong, but Dustin moved out of the way and the guitar blasted back in Jarrett's face! A few seconds later, in a little over fourteen minutes, Dustin Rhodes has picked up a big win! There wasn't much time for celebrating, as almost immediately after the bell rang, Ric Flair ran down to ringside, attacking Dustin and putting the boots to him. It looked like Flair & Jarrett were about to take Dustin out of WCW for good with a Spike Piledriver, but the crowd in Vegas came alive as Dusty Rhodes ran down to the ring to save his son! A few Bionic Elbow's later and both Ric and Jeff had high tailed out of the ring as Dusty attended to his son.

 

(72/61)

There wasn't much you could do to follow that up, so instead, WCW put forward a 15 Man Battle Royal for the vacant United States Championship! The highlights were Shane Douglas going out surprisingly early, Bam Bam Bigelow tossing out the most men, but the match ended with sometimes teammates Hugh Morrus and Konnan bonking into each other, allowing Buff Bagwell, who'd been sticking and moving almost the entire battle royal to pick up the win and become the man to bring the US Title into the new era of WCW! Bagwell then celebrated with the title, as Schiavone went over Buff's long history in WCW, starting from the time when he was barely graduated high school to now.

 

(69/60)

In a short, but hard-hitting eleven minute match, Chavo Guerrero Jr. used a belt shot and a brain buster to take the WCW Cruiserweight Title from Shane Helms. Early on, it looked like the athletic skill of Helms would allow him to take the win, but Chavo was able to avoid the Vertrebreaker and he even stun the fans with his own big-time manuever when he drilled Helms with a top rope superplex that almost got the win. However, a Guerrero knows he must do whatever he can to pick up the win, so after Helms missed a dive to the outside, the title belt got involved and shortly afterward, the youngest Guerrero was a champion!

 

(66)

Coming up next was supposed to be the WCW World Tag Title match between Team Canada and the former Natural Born Thrillers of Palumbo & O'Haire, but as the youngsters made their entrance, Storm & Awesome attacked them from behind, absolutely massacring them at the top of the ramp, before dragging Sean and Chuck down to the ring, telling the referee to ring the bell. Then, in a short four minute match, Team Canada won the WCW World Tag Team Titles from O'Haire & Palumbo after Awesome walloped Palumbo with the Awesome Bomb after a superkick from Alberta's Greatest Athlete.

 

(55/74)

Just as Team Canada began to celebrate, Rey Jr.and Kidman walked out of the entrance with Torrie Wilson. Kidman challenged Storm & Awesome to a match right now, where if Kidman & Rey lost, they'd retire the Cruiser Tag Titles and never challenge for the World Tag Titles as long as Team Canada were champs. After a moment, Storm & Awesome accepted the challenge and the match was on! Those four athletes then had the best match of the night, a nearly twenty minute near classic ended with Rey Mysterio Jr. cradling Mike Awesome, giving Rey & Kidman the WCW World Tag Team Titles. The match itself was back 'n' forth with the psychology swinging between Kidman & Rey hanging on for dear life essentially anytime Awesome was in the ring to a polished technical vs. aerial battle anytime Storm was their opposite number. The finish was Storm drilling Rey Jr. with a superkick, then celebrating and not seeing Rey somehow manage to cradle Awesome and keep him down for the three count to pick up the belts! After the match, Rey, Kidman, and Torrie all celebrated with all four title belts while the crowd cheered and Team Canada fumed at ringside.

(53/78/56)

Before the World Title Tournament final, Booker T came out to a good response from the WCW faithful, with the World Title still around his waist. He then joined the announce table for the finals, pushing Hudson out. Booker explained that whoever won, he wanted to be there to give them the belt.

 

(79)

In the finals of the tournament for the WCW World Title, there were two slight issues. First of all, it was set to go for nearly twenty five minutes and unfortunately, after wrestling earlier in the night, both Sting & DDP gassed out. In addition, despite both men being very over, the crowd had been primed for a face vs. heel final and instead was getting a relatively clean match. While the match itself was fine, the finish was what stood out as Sting went for the Stinger Splash in the corner, but Diamond Dallas Page got out of the way for the last minute, waited for Sting to eat the turnbuckle, stumble out – BANG! DIAMOND CUTTER!

Three seconds later, Diamond Dallas Page was WCW World Champion for the fourth time – (66)

After a moment of tension, Sting and DDP shook hands, then Booker T entered the ring with the WCW World Title. After a moment of looking at it, Booker put the title around the waist of Page as the crowd cheered. The decent response then went wild as the sirens hit and Scott Steiner came out of the entrance and pointed at both men in the ring, making the 'wanting the belt' motions and generally being a crazy man as Schiavone & Tenay thanked fans for watching the new WCW. (91)

 

Show Rating – 75/B-

Observer News & Notes

 

 

Originally, before the injury, the show was going to be main evented by Steiner vs. Booker, but with it being a reboot, new booker Piper and the brain trust thought it'd be best to let the crowd go home happy

 

Current numbers has The Big Bang doing around 50k in buys, which has to be seen as a success with the relatively low clearance and lack of promotion for the show.

 

Even though the company will stay at the Hard Rock through the Great American Bash, Bischoff and the rest of the business side of the company is already looking into smaller arenas on the West Coast and Texas to book for Nitro's in the upcoming months.

 

Along with it's current deal with FX & InDemand, various stations in Japan, Austraila, and Europe are being pitched on bringing WCW back to their shores at the moment. It's likely that WCW will have to go on a commercial station where they'll gain no real revenue in order to rebuild the brand

 

Piper has already stated he won't be an on-screen character “anytime soon” while booking, especially as part of his mission statement is to rebuild the company while also building newer stars

 

The Cruiserweight Tag Titles will be mothballed for the moment, as with only TV show and a smaller cruiser division, it seems like overkill to have two belts for the division.

 

Bryan Adams, Bryan Clark, and Road Warrior Animal have all been sent down to NWA: Wildside to help with training. In the case of Adams & Clark, it may be a hint for both men to simply quit while with Animals, there are various rumors that Piper wants to bring in a new worker as a replacement Road Warrior.

 

Current plans are far Clash of the Champions to return in August, replacing New Blood Rising as a PPV

 

 

 

 

 

[Jesse Ewiak]

World Championship Wrestling presents The Big Bang!

LIVE! on Pay Per View from The Hard Rock Cafe Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada - 2,000 paid - SOLD OUT!

After an Opening Video highlighting the four semi-finalists in the WCW World Title Tournament and the Dustin/Jarrett match tonight, the Terrible Trio of Schiavone, Hudson, and Tenay welcomes us to The Big Bang!

 

(88)

 

In the opening match of the night, Diamond Dallas Page advanced to the finals of the WCW World Title Tournament, defeating Kanyon in a little over fourteen minutes by blocking the Flatliner, and finally turning it into the Diamond Cutter to pick up the win! After the match, Ernest Miller along with his entourage came down to ringside to make fun of Kanyon for losing, telling the crowd in Las Vegas, “somebody should call my Mama so she can laugh at a punk like Kanyon!” The former member of the Jersey Triad chased the trio off, but not before Miller landed a solid karate kick to the mush of Kanyon.

 

(74/58)

 

Next up, Sting and Ric Flair basically went on auto-pilot, having a perfectly solid eighteen minute match that kept the crowd engaged, hitting all of their classic spots that have entertained fans all over the world for over a decade. Sting no-sell spot? Check. Flair Flip? Check. Figure Four Reversal? Check. There was no interference as Jarrett was busy getting ready for his match with Rhodes according to Scott Hudson, so the finish was clean as the Stinger was able to lock on the Scorpion Death Lock in the middle of the ring and pick up the submission win!

 

(76)

 

After that, in a high flying match that was all about the impressive moves going on, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Billy Kidman regained the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Titles, defeating Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo in a little under thirteen minutes when Kidman flew off the top with a Shooting Star Press on to Romeo, to get the win and take the belts!

 

(69)

Following a brief commercial for The Great American Bash, it was time for a bit of a brawl between Jeff Jarrett and Dustin Rhodes. The sons of two legendary wrestlers clashed one more time in a match that more resembled a brawl than a wrestling match. Near the end, it looked like Jarrett had gotten the win by applying the Figure Four in the middle of the ring, but Dustin reversed and went on a tear. After a ref bump, Jarrett went for the ole' El Kabong, but Dustin moved out of the way and the guitar blasted back in Jarrett's face! A few seconds later, in a little over fourteen minutes, Dustin Rhodes has picked up a big win! There wasn't much time for celebrating, as almost immediately after the bell rang, Ric Flair ran down to ringside, attacking Dustin and putting the boots to him. It looked like Flair & Jarrett were about to take Dustin out of WCW for good with a Spike Piledriver, but the crowd in Vegas came alive as Dusty Rhodes ran down to the ring to save his son! A few Bionic Elbow's later and both Ric and Jeff had high tailed out of the ring as Dusty attended to his son.

 

(72/61)

There wasn't much you could do to follow that up, so instead, WCW put forward a 15 Man Battle Royal for the vacant United States Championship! The highlights were Shane Douglas going out surprisingly early, Bam Bam Bigelow tossing out the most men, but the match ended with sometimes teammates Hugh Morrus and Konnan bonking into each other, allowing Buff Bagwell, who'd been sticking and moving almost the entire battle royal to pick up the win and become the man to bring the US Title into the new era of WCW! Bagwell then celebrated with the title, as Schiavone went over Buff's long history in WCW, starting from the time when he was barely graduated high school to now.

 

(69/60)

In a short, but hard-hitting eleven minute match, Chavo Guerrero Jr. used a belt shot and a brain buster to take the WCW Cruiserweight Title from Shane Helms. Early on, it looked like the athletic skill of Helms would allow him to take the win, but Chavo was able to avoid the Vertrebreaker and he even stun the fans with his own big-time manuever when he drilled Helms with a top rope superplex that almost got the win. However, a Guerrero knows he must do whatever he can to pick up the win, so after Helms missed a dive to the outside, the title belt got involved and shortly afterward, the youngest Guerrero was a champion!

 

(66)

Coming up next was supposed to be the WCW World Tag Title match between Team Canada and the former Natural Born Thrillers of Palumbo & O'Haire, but as the youngsters made their entrance, Storm & Awesome attacked them from behind, absolutely massacring them at the top of the ramp, before dragging Sean and Chuck down to the ring, telling the referee to ring the bell. Then, in a short four minute match, Team Canada won the WCW World Tag Team Titles from O'Haire & Palumbo after Awesome walloped Palumbo with the Awesome Bomb after a superkick from Alberta's Greatest Athlete.

 

(55/74)

Just as Team Canada began to celebrate, Rey Jr.and Kidman walked out of the entrance with Torrie Wilson. Kidman challenged Storm & Awesome to a match right now, where if Kidman & Rey lost, they'd retire the Cruiser Tag Titles and never challenge for the World Tag Titles as long as Team Canada were champs. After a moment, Storm & Awesome accepted the challenge and the match was on! Those four athletes then had the best match of the night, a nearly twenty minute near classic ended with Rey Mysterio Jr. cradling Mike Awesome, giving Rey & Kidman the WCW World Tag Team Titles. The match itself was back 'n' forth with the psychology swinging between Kidman & Rey hanging on for dear life essentially anytime Awesome was in the ring to a polished technical vs. aerial battle anytime Storm was their opposite number. The finish was Storm drilling Rey Jr. with a superkick, then celebrating and not seeing Rey somehow manage to cradle Awesome and keep him down for the three count to pick up the belts! After the match, Rey, Kidman, and Torrie all celebrated with all four title belts while the crowd cheered and Team Canada fumed at ringside.

(53/78/56)

Before the World Title Tournament final, Booker T came out to a good response from the WCW faithful, with the World Title still around his waist. He then joined the announce table for the finals, pushing Hudson out. Booker explained that whoever won, he wanted to be there to give them the belt.

 

(79)

In the finals of the tournament for the WCW World Title, there were two slight issues. First of all, it was set to go for nearly twenty five minutes and unfortunately, after wrestling earlier in the night, both Sting & DDP gassed out. In addition, despite both men being very over, the crowd had been primed for a face vs. heel final and instead was getting a relatively clean match. While the match itself was fine, the finish was what stood out as Sting went for the Stinger Splash in the corner, but Diamond Dallas Page got out of the way for the last minute, waited for Sting to eat the turnbuckle, stumble out – BANG! DIAMOND CUTTER!

Three seconds later, Diamond Dallas Page was WCW World Champion for the fourth time – (66)

After a moment of tension, Sting and DDP shook hands, then Booker T entered the ring with the WCW World Title. After a moment of looking at it, Booker put the title around the waist of Page as the crowd cheered. The decent response then went wild as the sirens hit and Scott Steiner came out of the entrance and pointed at both men in the ring, making the 'wanting the belt' motions and generally being a crazy man as Schiavone & Tenay thanked fans for watching the new WCW. (91)

 

Show Rating – 75/B-

Observer News & Notes

 

 

Originally, before the injury, the show was going to be main evented by Steiner vs. Booker, but with it being a reboot, new booker Piper and the brain trust thought it'd be best to let the crowd go home happy

 

Current numbers has The Big Bang doing around 50k in buys, which has to be seen as a success with the relatively low clearance and lack of promotion for the show.

 

Even though the company will stay at the Hard Rock through the Great American Bash, Bischoff and the rest of the business side of the company is already looking into smaller arenas on the West Coast and Texas to book for Nitro's in the upcoming months.

 

Along with it's current deal with FX & InDemand, various stations in Japan, Austraila, and Europe are being pitched on bringing WCW back to their shores at the moment. It's likely that WCW will have to go on a commercial station where they'll gain no real revenue in order to rebuild the brand

 

Piper has already stated he won't be an on-screen character “anytime soon” while booking, especially as part of his mission statement is to rebuild the company while also building newer stars

 

The Cruiserweight Tag Titles will be mothballed for the moment, as with only TV show and a smaller cruiser division, it seems like overkill to have two belts for the division.

 

Bryan Adams, Bryan Clark, and Road Warrior Animal have all been sent down to NWA: Wildside to help with training. In the case of Adams & Clark, it may be a hint for both men to simply quit while with Animals, there are various rumors that Piper wants to bring in a new worker as a replacement Road Warrior.

 

Current plans are far Clash of the Champions to return in August, replacing New Blood Rising as a PPV

 

 

 

 

 

[Jesse Ewiak]

WCW Monday Nitro

LIVE! on FX from The Hard Rock Cafe Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada

2,000 - SOLD OUT!

The first Nitro after The Big Bang started out with Diamond Dallas Page, with his newly won WCW World Title in hand. After thanking the fans for their support and putting over Sting for being a tough opponent, Page promised Booker a title shot once he was healthy and had taken care of his business with “Big Poppa Dump” and then issued an open challenge for any wrestler in the world to take him on at The Great American Bash! Page then continued, saying it was disgusting what 'Banana Nose' Flair and “No Talent' Jarrett had done last night, so he'd offered to team up with Dustin Rhodes to take on Flair & Jarrett tonight and show them that this was a new era of WCW and SCUM like them has no place in it. - (91)

 

Then, in a wild four-way cruiserweight match that was an unofficial #1 contenders match, Shane Helms pinned Kid Romeo in about eight minutes after the superkick, while both Shannon Moore and Kaz Hayashi were both indisposed after a series of dives and high flying moves. (51)

 

Coming back from commercial, Ernest Miller, with both Ms. Jones and M.I. Smooth easily took out Johnny Swinger in a little over five minutes with the Feliner. After the match, as Miller was dancing and celebrating with his entourage, Kanyon came out from the crowd and absolutely drilled the former Karate champion with the Flatliner! (44/56)

 

Next up, Jason Jett was led out to slaughter as Scott Steiner absolutely destroyed him in a little over four minutes by locking in the Steiner Recliner. Jett barely got any offense in and was all ineffectual. After dumping Jett over the top rope, Steiner took the mic and cut a intense focused promo, saying it was a joke he wasn't automatically the number one contender and that he'd just keep wrecking fools until Eric Bischoff “got his lips off DDP's ass” and gave him a title shot! (87)

 

Coming back from commercials. Team Canada were in the ring to complain about what happened at The Big Bang. After mentioning that it was terrible to be stuck in a den of sin like Las Vegas, Storm explained that it shouldn't have been a title match because there was no contract that both teams had signed. As a result, they still considered themselves the WCW World Tag Champions and would treat Kidman, Rey Jr., and Torrie as thieves who had taken their property. Then, in the actual match, Team Canada had a solid match with Hugh Morrus & Konnan, but after about eight minutes, Morrus went up top and missed his Moonsault, allowing Storm to lock in the Canadian Maple Leaf and pick up the win for his team. After the match, Morrus & Konnan got in a shoving match, before Konnan simply walked away. (53/70/56)

 

Fit Finlay beat Alex Wright in a little about six and a half minutes with the Tombstone. During the match, Schiavone announced that next week on Nitro, Morrus & Konnan would have a singles match and that Bischoff had spoken to Palumbo & O'Haire, who also claimed they should be next in line for a tag title shot as they got jumped and never really had a chance to defend their titles in the first place.

 

Backstage, Diamond Dallas Page was with Dusty & Dustin Rhodes, who thanked Page for agreeing to tag Dustin tonight and said it was important that good men such as themselves actually worked together for once, instead of being divided and conquered as in the past. Page said he was always happy to team with a WCW original and tonight, Flair & Jarrett would feel the bang! (75)

 

In a match that was more angle than match, Rey Jr. & Billy Kidman successfully defended the WCW World Tag Titles against the makeshift team of Rick Steiner & Shane Douglas in a little over seven minutes when Steiner ran into Douglas allowing Rey Jr. to hit the West Coast Pop to pick up the pinfall win. After the match though, Douglas went nuts, attacking Rick and yelling about “you're not going to ruin things for me.” (74/54)

 

Coming back to the ring. Buff Bagwell was already in the ring with his newly won United States title. After running down a list of the men such as held the belt such as Greg Valentine, Ric Flair, Magnum T.A., Nikita Koloff, and Ricky Steamboat, Bagwel then said, “for the first time, it's around the waist of a real man!” After soaking in the heat for that, Bagwell called for Penzer to announce the first victim of the Bagwell Era, but then was shocked as Bam Bam Bigelow came out!

 

In the actual match, which was sloppy, confusing, and just a bit off as Buff Bagwell pinned Bam Bam Bigelow in about ten minutes to retain the WCW United States Championship. There was a bit of listless brawling and a few big moves hit by Bigelow in the early going, but after a bit, Buff did a few restholds, then a quick dropkick, then a bodyslam and the Buff Blockbuster to pick up the win. (66/69)

 

In the main event of the evening, Dustin Rhodes & Diamond Dallas Page got a measure of revenge as they defeated Ric Flair & Jeff Jarrett when Page pinned Jarrett with the Diamond Cutter after about fifteen minutes of in-ring action. As you'd expect, Flair was still quite good in the ring despite his advancing age and both Rhodes & Jarrett know how to get heat and sympathy from an audience from their prior work. It was largely an old school Southern-style tag match for the most part, until the end when Page got the hot tag and things went a little bonzo gonzo, until Page managed to nail Jarrett with the Diamond Cutter before he could swing his guitar. It looked like Flair and Jarrett were going to try to get a measure of revenge, but Dusty Rhodes ran out, and stood together with the WCW World Champion and his son, making the two heels turn tail and head up the aisle as the babyfaces celebrated to end the show. (77/83)

 

 

Observer News & Notes

 

In pre-show action taped before the live show, Disco Inferno pinned Johnny the Bull and Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo pinned Air Raid (AJ Styles & Air Paris). According to reports, nobody had told cruiserweight unofficial cruiserweight booker Konnan that Romeo was booked for the dark match until showtime.

 

Positive ratings momentum as the show continued to do around a 1.0 for the evening, along with the news that both Nitro & PPV's would start to air in Australia, Mexico, the UK, most of Europe, and Japan starting the next week.

 

In backstage news, Bam Bam Bigelow was completely wasted as everyone saw on Nitro and Bagwell had to call an audible to change a match that had been booked to be a wild brawl into a much simpler match. Bigelow has supposedly been fined, but it's unclear whether this will change things at all as the new WCW still has the same drug policy, which is to say, not much of one.