[2000-11-15-WCW-Thunder] Sting vs Scott Steiner

[soup23]

Big Poppa Pump lets Sting know he is beating his punk ass. Sting takes the fight right to him and I LOL’d at him saying “Hey Stevie” before he slams Steiner into the announce table. Steiner takes over and looks pretty awesome with his throws and bullying. Steiner is really coming into his own in this character and is exuding more aura at each appearance. Finish was weird and perplexing. I get that Sting is a big deal and the announcers present it as an upset. I also like sometimes the sudden big move that can put out anybody but it felt abrupt. Sting gets the title shot the night after Mayhem now. What if Steiner wins at Mayhem? Madaja lures Sting post match and Steiner attacks with a pipe and grabs a straightjacket. This set up the pretty goofy stip at Mayhem well enough. **

 

[GSR]

A recap of what happened on Nitro when these two put aside their differences to compete in the ‘London Lethal Lottery’, only for those differences to later surface after Steiner attacked Sting leading to tonight’s match.  Steiner hopes that Booker T is watching in the back as what he does to Sting here is a preview of what he’ll do to him at Mayhem, and the fact that Ric Flair has made it a cage match is to his advantage as no-one can come in and save his ass.  ‘Big Poppa Pump’ jumps ‘the Stinger’ before the bell, but after being whipped into the ropes he holds onto them and backdrops Scotty out to the floor where he then throws him into the guard rail and cracks him across the back with a chair.  They return to the ring and Sting with a face jam.  The first ‘Stinger splash’ connects, however when he goes for another Steiner gets a foot up that he flies into.  For some reason he then attempts a third, this time Steiner catching him mid-air and turning it into a belly to belly.  ‘Steinerline’ followed by an elbow drop, although rather than go for the pin he prefers to do a few push ups.  A second belly to belly gets him a two count and now he’s manhandling referee Slick Johnson over his apparent slow counting.  Sting powers out of the double arm stretch, starting to fire back on his opponent.  Scotty puts a stop to that sharpish by dumping him overhead, but Sting then blocks having his read rammed into the turnbuckles and slams Steiner’s into it instead.  He doesn’t have the momentum to take him down on the crucifix so transitions to a ‘Scorpion Death Drop’ which gets him the surprise and unexpected three.  Midajah climbs into the ring to prevent Sting from leaving, and when he calmly moves her out the way she grabs him by the hair to get his attention.  It was just a set up though to buy Steiner a bit of time as he then clobbers ‘the Stinger’ with a metal baseball bat that she’d passed him.  Midajah pulls out a straightjacket and as Stevie Ray talks about getting some help out there, Tony Schiavone says how Booker T has already left the arena.  Steiner repeatedly swings the bat at a helpless Sting, the show going off the air with him trapped in the ‘Recliner’ as the commentators plead for help.

The finish came completely out of nowhere and I’m not sold on Steiner losing cleanly this close out from Mayhem.  Yeah he gets his heat back in the post-match attack which goes someway to getting over the straightjacket stips for the PPV but I’m not convinced it was a good idea, even if it was too someone like Sting.