[2001-01-14-WCW-Sin] Kevin Nash & DDP vs Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire

[GSR]

The Natural Born Thrillers have been operating under Freebird rules to keep ‘the Insiders’ guessing, so that they wouldn’t know which duo will be representing them.  Tonight it’s Chuck Palumbo  & Sean O’Haire, small mercies that they decided against Shawn Stasiak.  After both teams make their entrances, ‘the Thrillers’ music plays and out walks Mike Sanders backed by the remaining members of the group.  He says how Nash taught him to be a terrific coach, and when you’re a coach you can make substitutions, so any time he feels like it during this match he will be swapping members of his team in and out.  That brings out Ric Flair, along with Doug Dillinger and a bunch of Power Plant trainees.  He reminds Sanders that he’s not the Commissioner any more, he calls the shots around here, and orders them all to the back, otherwise they will be fined and suspended.  The match kicks off with DDP and Palumbo.  Page uses a ‘Rock Bottom’ which obviously isn’t called that.  It’s all ‘the Insiders’ until O’Haire, after being whipped into the corner, runs up the turnbuckles, backflips over the incoming Nash and floors him with a superkick.  ‘The Thrillers’ get in some double teaming before Palumbo is caught and dropped ‘Snake Eyes’ style.  Flying clothesline off the top by Page.  O’Haire knees him in the back as he hits the ropes and although DDP gets a shot in on him, he turns into a Jungle kick.  Double slingshot suplex for a two.  They continue to work him over, cutting the ring in half to make sure he is unable to make the tag.  Page reverses the Palumbo tombstone piledriver in a cool moment before hot tagging Nash who cleans house.  Big boots for both.  He pulls down the straps at which point, from the dressing room, sprints the previously banished ’Thrillers’.  Billy Silverman leaves the ring to prevent their interference when, through the crowd from the opposite side of the building, comes Lex Luger carrying a chair.  Powerbomb on Palumbo.  Luger is crouched below the apron but Nash spots him, Page then heads for Lex, the two fighting back through the fans to wherever Luger came from.  Nash looks for the jackknife on O’Haire when he’s nailed in the back of the head with wrench by a badly disguised Buff Bagwell.  O’Haire hits the ‘Seanton bomb’ to give ‘the Thrillers’ the win and the World tag team titles.

All a bit too dull for me while the finish was overbooked.  Where was Ric Flair when this was going on by the way?  Out there in a heartbeat at the beginning of the match yet nowhere to be seen come the closing moments.  Security also did a lousy job of restraining ‘the Thrillers’ or at least keeping an eye on them by how easy they were able to get back out.  DDP’s tombstone reversal on Palumbo was cool but that’s it really.

[soup23]

The finish sucks but I liked the match a ton overall and though DDP was a good FIP. The crowd has been way up for this show which helps and Nash didn’t look like it was his sole mission to bury the young talent. I continue to see big potential in O’Haire and feel I would have given him a Paul Heyman Esque push. Flair not coming out at end was really dumb. *** 1/4 (6.4)