Lance Storm v Mike Awesome

[Guest treble]

Mike Awesome vs. Lance Storm from New Blood Rising for the 'Canadian' title.

 

This is a really disappointing match. Storm comes out and the crowd is eating out of the palm of his hand as he cuts a pretty cool standard cheap heat promo. Seriously, this is the best stuff WCW did in such a long time, shame that Storm had his legs cut out from underneath him. Since it's in Vancouver, it's under 'Canadian Rules' which apparently calls for a guest referee to go along with the 'real' ref. There's a HUGE 'Bret!' chant, so when Jacques Rougeau comes out, the crowd obviously doesn't give a shit and is silent.

 

Onto the match, it's a trainwreck. Awesome pretty much dominates and gets a pretty early 3 count. But wait! Since it's Canadian rules, Rougeau points out you need to get a 5 count to win! So Awesome keeps getting 3 counts (and even 4 counts!) on Storm and then get him to tap out to a Dragon sleeper. But wait! In Canada, you can't win a title via submission, so the match continues! Thank God. So Awesome beats on him so more before getting a 5 count with a big splash. But wait! After the 5 count, you have until a count of 10 to answer the bell in Canada! So Storm gets up at around 8 and Awesome continues to dominate until Storm uses to a chair outside and rolls Awesome back in for the 4 count. This is so fucking stupid. Both men go through a table and Rougeau says that whoever's on his feet after a 10 count is the winner. So we get Rougeau and the actual ref counting to 10 in the ring, while Awesome gets up first, only to be knocked back down by Rougeau, which the other ref doesn't see, as Storm gets up just before the 10. Even after the all that shit, the crowd pops huge. I can't believe they didn't shit all over that, like you'd probably expect.

 

After the match, Bret Hart comes out to a huge pop, which begs the question, 'WHY THE FUCK WASN'T HE THE GUEST REF?', but oh well. About the only redeeming factor of the match is that Mark Madden is pretty funny on commentary, even if it just basic cheap heel 'Canada is better than the US' stuff.

 

Just a fucking trainwreck from start to finish. From Jacques fucking Rougeau being the guest ref when Bret Hart was RIGHT THERE to making a guy who holds 3 titles look like a schmuck who can't win on his own, Vince Russo's fingerprints are all over this. I think the fact that the crowd didn't turn on the match is proof of how over Storm was at that point, which is pretty incredible since it was over such a short period of time. Unfortunately for him, he probably got too over for his own good.

 

This match didn't do anybody any good when it would have been perfect to springboard Storm even higher.