[2000-11-08-WCW-Thunder] Booker T vs Mike Awesome

[soup23]

Real good tv match and maybe one of the better ones on WCW programming this entire year. Awesome is better than in ECW in ring as he was very one note in ECW as just throwing guys around recklessly. Here, he varies his attack and looks vulnerable when need be which helps Booker. I thought he was easily the better worker here with small touches like getting in Booker’s face when he enters the ring to put over the gravity of the title in a face vs face match. Booker for his part was mostly fine although a few of the more athletic spots like the roll through pin attempt looked sloppy. Stevie is the ultimate cheerleader on commentary. I could have done without the table getting involved but it was used well and once that was out of the way, Booker had the match in hand and picked up a hard fought victory getting the crowd more and more behind him as the match went on. ***1/4 (6.4)

 

[GSR]

Only a week late, but this is the title shot that Mike Awesome earned after winning the ‘Countdown to Armageddon’ battle royal on 10/18.  Something just doesn’t feel right with how this has been booked, like its being done on the fly with minimal long term planning.  Like why have Awesome in that three way?  If Steiner is throwing his weight around, just postpone the shot until a later date.  Also why would Awesome want to be involved in a three way when there is less chance of him winning the belt?  Anyway I’m clearly concerning myself way more with logic than the writers!  Booker starts out strong until Awesome reverses an Irish whip and then clotheslines him over the top rope to the outside.  He steps out to the floor himself where he cracks a chair over Booker’s back before ramming him backwards into the ring apron.  The back is clearly what Awesome is targeting, now bodyslamming his opponent on the ringside mats.  The fans couldn’t care less about the psychology mind, more interested in chanting “we want tables”.  Awesome throws him inside and a nice slingshot splash to the back for a two which he quickly follows with a DDT for another near fall.  Running lariat in the corner and he then collects a table from underneath the ring, something that should appease these mutants.  Stevie Ray on commentary mentions how by doing this he’s giving Booker the chance to recover and he should be staying on top of him as you can’t give a guy like Booker a second.  Awesome props the table up in the corner and the commentary team are wondering why Charles Robinson is allowing this in a title match.  Tony Schiavone must have had an epiphany as he mentions those “relaxed rules”, something that hasn’t been talked about for around five months now.  Booker frees himself from the running powerbomb, but Awesome ducks the spin kick and release German suplexes Booker through the table.  A pretty slack cover allows him to kick out, popping the fans who thought this one was over.  Awesome misses a top rope splash and we get a succession of two counts until a ‘Book End’ sees the champion retain his gold.

Good TV match and they did a great job of getting the fans into this with all those near falls at the end after it seemed like all they cared about at first was wanting tables.  Awesome looked better than Booker here and I really like the psychology of attacking the back, softening it up for the coup de grace ‘Awesome bomb’ through a table (which never came).  Some of Booker’s stuff didn’t look the best (the spin kick where he was supposed to clear Awesome and he rescued the sunset flip out of the corner as I thought he’d jumped too soon) but this is well worth checking out, especially if you want to see Mike Awesome work, as opposed to the garbage style you would normally expect out of him.