[2000-10-16-WCW-Nitro] Booker T vs Shane Douglas

[soup23]

Solid match but I am still waiting for that Booker performance that blows me away. This was a good opportunity to have one as Douglas seemed capable tonight and the best aspects of the match were when Shane was on top. Scott Steiner is on commentary and is alright although he does have some weird lines throughout this. Kidman runs out to distract Douglas/Torrie but accidently runs into Madaja. That gets Steiner involved and we have a weird floor brawl with Konnan coming out as well as Jarrett. With all of this happening, Booker hits the Book End to pick up the win. **

[Migs]

It's always a little weird to see Shane do the act he perfected with Francine with Torrie.

 

Booker's a bit sloppy early on, which hurts this. Tremendous WCW camera work completely misses a trip spot. Shane is pretty solid but vanilla in control here. The finish is a schmitz with some decent ideas behind it, but such poor camera work again that we miss key points. Nice to see Shane getting past the injuries to have better performances, but the match isn't much to write home about.

[GSR]

Before the action kicks off we head backstage to see Tygress chasing after Konnan as he tells her to wait here he’s got something to do.  Scott Steiner is on guest commentary for this.  Douglas runs into a back elbow after whipping Booker into the turnbuckles and then gets dropped by a superkick.  Torrie Wilson grabs Booker’s ankle as he comes off the ropes, however for some reason the camera cuts to a shot of the crowd so we miss seeing what happens next.  I can only assume that he put his hands on her and the powers that be weren’t too keen on showing any man on woman interaction.  We cut back to the match just in time to see ‘the Franchise’ dumping Booker over the top rope to the outside.  Double axe handle off the apron but Booker is ready, getting in first with a shot to the mid-section.  His dominance doesn’t last long though as Shane reverses the Irish whip on the floor sending him crashing into the guard rail.  He throws Booker back inside and comes off the top with a lariat for a two count.  Rear chinlock by ‘the Franchise’, digging his knee into the back for added pressure, which is the start of some focussed attention targeting Booker’s neck.  Face first suplex followed by a reverse neck snap.  Booker ducks a clothesline and catches Douglas with a neckbreaker which Mark Madden points out isn’t the wisest of moves as he was leaving his own neck open in the process.  Spinebuster, axe kick, spinneroonie and Steiner is calling these spots in advance, almost as if he’s proving that he’s been scouting his opponent in preparation for the upcoming PPV.  Harlem side kick flattens ‘the Franchise’ and Torrie leans in to wrap a chain around her man’s wrist.  Billy Kidman runs out (going the long way around to get into position for the next spot) and tries to grab the chain away, however Douglas elbows him and he falls from the apron and into Midajah.  Steiner gets up from the commentary desk and attacks Kidman, which leads to Konnan and Jeff Jarrett both getting involved too.  Meanwhile inside Booker catches Shane as he leaps off the middle and plants him with ‘the Book End’ for the win.

I wasn’t really looking forward to this as Shane Douglas isn’t the most interesting of guys to watch, although it was better than my expectations and I especially liked the focussed neck work.  The finish, from Billy Kidman running out, was a bit too convoluted though with him having to run all the way around the ring to get into position so that he would fall into Midajah when naturally he would have taken the quickest route possible to stop him using that chain.