[2000-09-04-WCW-Nitro] Sting & Booker T & Kronik & Goldberg vs Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner & Kevin Nash & Vince Russo (War Games)

[soup23]

Russo promos are such glaze worthy by this time. War Games was something I knew was coming and this triple cage bullshit already annoys me. What is worse is Russo using these insider terms like heel during his promo. OH shit, it’s a shoot. Russo explains the title will be on the line in War Games and that preliminary matches are going to be competed in. Nash comes out and is pissed at Russo. Well, Nash’s big heel turn lasted exactly one week. Sting comes through the ring and cuts a promo at Russo. Nash walks away and allows Sting to get in Russo’s face. Russo retreats and the match competitors pile into the cage to brawl. Russo is able to escape when Goldberg stares him down once they emerge from the entranceway. Sting, Booker and Kronik won their preliminary matches. Sting and Jarrett start out and have a good segment in the beginning. At least Russo gets the psychology right of the heels winning the toss as Steiner comes in next and it 2-1. Kronik is net and they just come in together. Well so much for psychology. Russo is out net in his New Jersey Devils jersey and helmet. The Harris Brothers come with Russo and have a plunder brawl on the second level with Kronik. Sting beats up Russo and has him in the Scorpion. Nash is out next and hopefully they explained all of this and how everyone can enter in because I have no idea why Nash is in after what he said earlier. Nash also chokeslams Sting which helps Steiner. Russo goes in for a high five but Nash grabs a choke. Steiner and Jarrett tell him not to and Nash lets go. Kronik and Harris Bros are fighting outside the ring. Now Nash teases choking both Steiner and Jarrett, who the fuck cares. Booker comes down. Booker runs through everyone including an ax kick to Russo. Nash gets one up on him though with the Big Rig boot. Crowd is clamoring for Goldberg and he enters but gets ganged up on and handcuffed to the cage. Sting is slipping all over the place on the second level and Booker is able to retrieve the title but now he has to go through Nash who is standing at the door. The announcers keep telling us just how smart Nash is. Crowd gets confused by the convoluted rules when Booker grabs the belt and thinks the match is over. Sting is handcuffed on the second level and we have Steiner/Jarrett beating up Booker with a guitar shot. The belt is dropped to Russo and Cat comes out and wipes Russo out with a kick. Nash gives Cat the jackknife and then grabs the belt. Goldberg breaks the handcuffs and goes nuts on everyone. Goldberg goes to walk out the door when Bret Hart slams the door on Goldbergs head. Steiner recliner is applied to Goldberg and Russo/Nash hug each other. SWERVE. Nash walks out to win. Way too complex than it needed to be and pretty stupid but hey that is Russo in a nutshell. Effort was there from workers at least. Put it with 95 and 98 as the worst War Games. **1/2

[GSR]

Vince Russo with the cheap easy heat option of making fun of the Dallas Cowboys football team. He explains the rules to the three tier ‘Russo’s Revenge - War Games 2000’ cage match, in that the WCW World title will be hanging above the third cage and whomever retrieves, and then leaves the cage holding the belt, will be the WCW champion. Mark Madden for once has a good point in that Kevin Nash can’t be too happy about this. After running down the two competing teams, he explains that he’s had a lawyer look at the contract ‘the Cat’ signed with Eric Bischoff, there’s an injunction out on it and tonight he has zero power. Russo then informs the ‘heel’ team (oh, please!) and he’s referring to Sting, Booker, Goldberg and ‘the Cat’ by the way, that they will have to wrestle qualifying matches in order to get into War Games, before guaranteeing that HE is walking out the cage door as the WCW champion. That brings out Kevin Nash and he’s not happy with Vinnie Ru. He says that he told him he’s not a fighting champion and only has to defend the title once every 30 days, he’s not doing it every night! Russo has grown some balls as he’s standing up to Nash, but after ‘Big Sexy’ grabs him around the throat, the lights go out, thunder clap sounds and Sting comes up through the ring. When Russo orders Nash to kick his ass, he gives him the bird and leaves him all alone in the cage with ‘the Stinger’. Sting doesn’t say much, just that he’ll be the new WCW champion come the end of War Games. As he exits the cage, he turns to see Russo acting all cocky and makes a beeline for him. Russo starts climbing the ladder to get up to the second tier with Sting in pursuit. Steiner and Jarrett rush to try and help Russo, following them both up there, as the ‘Natural Born Thrillers’ (who had again been guarding the aisle) remove the ladder to stop anyone from helping Sting. That doesn’t deter Booker and ‘the Cat’ who clear the ring of the Thrillers as Russo climbs back down one side of the cage wall. Goldberg’s music plays and Russo immediately high tails it out of there before he can get his hands on him.

 

Jarrett and Sting are the first men to enter the cage and they have a good two minutes of action. Of course the heels won the coin toss and Scott Steiner is in third. He’s followed by Kronik, who weren’t even originally on the ‘heel’ team, and the two of them enter together (note: it looks like Kronik beat ‘the Cat’ in his qualifying match, although why that means they’re now a part of the match and can enter at the same time I don’t understand). Russo, wearing a hard helmet, is fifth (or should that be sixth?) and he’s accompanied by the Harris Twins. It gets a bit tricky to follow as Kronik and the Harris’ head up to the second cage blasting each other with all the weapons that are in there, whilst action continues in the bottom cage too. Eventually Kronik and the twins head down, brawl into the crowd and disappear to the back. Nash follows Russo, with no explanation given as to why (surely it should be a member of the opposition instead?). Tony Schiavone mentions how he spoke with Nash backstage and his plan was to just stand by the cage door and wait for everyone else to do the work and once they’ve collected the belt, take it from them! You know that’s the truth though! Booker and Goldberg are the last two entrants. Nash really is doing the bare minimum here! Russo clocks Goldberg over the bat with his rubber baseball bat and they handcuff him to the ropes as everyone, bar Nash, then heads up to the second cage. Booker grabs the belt, but in amongst all this going on, Sting has somehow got cuffed to the cage wall. Jarrett breaks a guitar over Booker’s head, Steiner drops the belt through the trapdoor and Russo picks it up. ‘The Cat’ is out and levels Russo with a ‘Feliner kick’. Nash, sensing an opportunity, finally decides to get involved in things and ‘jackknifes’ ‘the Cat. At this point Goldberg breaks free of the handcuffs and runs rough shot over everyone. He picks up the belt and is about to leave through the door when Bret Hart has appeared from out of the blue and goes all Terry Gordy at Reunion Arena in 1982 on us. ‘Steiner recliner’ on Goldberg. Russo has got hold of the belt again when Nash snatches hold of him. SWERVE~ as the two of them hug, Russo hands him the title and Nash steps out of the cage to remain the World champion.

 

Considering we got yet another swerve, the finish was anti-climactic and at times this felt like it was being made up as they went along (Kronik appearing in the match, them entering at the same time, Nash following Russo, where on earth did Bret Hart appear from) this wasn’t that bad. Everyone, with the exception of Nash and Russo had their working boots on, and even Nash was funny with his promo about “not being a fighting champion” and then letting everyone else do all the work while he stood on the bottom tier. The Kronik/Harris twins plunder was better that I expected from those teams too.

[AstroBoy]

It's just so hard to care about any of this. The team structure is essentially useless and exists for the sake of a tired and pointless swerve. Russo, even with help and distraction, shouldn't be laying out Goldberg with a huge baseball bat shot. Kronik gets to enter as a dual person and the Harris Brothers also apparently exist outside of the rules. And grabbing the belt before having to escape, just the whole thing, nonsense.

 

Sting did look to be working hard and Jarrett is fine opposite him in the opening moments. Booker T continues to run with the ball but he doesn't feel important enough here. Goldberg gets a great reaction but he's just a bumbling idiot, although I enjoyed the Bret Hart disguise. All of Bret Hart's sleights of hand are very fun as he commits to them as a dastardly, curmudgeonly slimeball.

 

*1/2