[2000-07-18-WCW-Nitro] Mike Awesome vs Lance Storm

[soup23]

This was really the night where they tried to push Lance Storm as a big thing. Awesome still has been much improved in this role than in ECW even in the short snippets of the matches we have seen. Storm possibly could have been a decent factor of the upper mid card and we will track his plight from now until the closure of the company. *1/2

[GSR]

Final of the United States title tournament, although in his pre-match interview Lance kindly offers everyone one final chance to jump on his bandwagon before he becomes the Canadian Heavyweight champion. Awesome interrupts the playing of the Canadian national anthem, ordering the sound guy to “turn that shit off” otherwise he’ll turn it off himself. Storm charges out the ring to go and meet him, but Awesome gets in first with a boot to the mid-section. He drops Lance throat first across the guardrail before repeatedly whipping him into it from one side to the other. Chair shot to the back and he then throws Lance inside. He slides the chair into the ring ready to use again, however Lance snatches it and as Awesome climbs through the ropes, he jabs him with it. Legdrop across the back of the neck for two. Awesome blocks having his head rammed into the turnbuckles, a series of elbows to the bread basket and a huge sit-out powerbomb. Stiff looking lariat for a near fall. Running splash into the corner, big splash off the top, but he takes too long and Storm gets his knees up. Attempted tornado DDT, although something goes wrong; Lance is laid out, like he was the one on the receiving end of the move, and Schiavone claims Awesome hooked the rope to block it even though he clearly never did. Awesome heads upstairs for an ‘Awesome bomb’ off the top, but Lance fights it and reverses the situation, hitting a suicideplex instead. Storm with a springboard, however Awesome catches him mid-air and launches him with a belly to belly. Another ‘Awesome bomb’ attempt, but this time Storm counters into the single leg crab and he’s the new US Heavyweight champion. A couple of larger ladies enter the ring and help Awesome to his feet and he then leaves with one on either arm whilst grinning like the cat who just got the cream. Oh dear, no more ‘Career Killer’ and the start of the ‘Fat Chick Thriller’.