Sin

Legacy Review

Sin

January 14, 2001 from the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson

 

We've hit 2001 and the final months of WCW. By now Russo had been out of the picture for a few months and the new committee running things was getting firmer footing. One of the things they decided to do was revamp some of WCW's PPV names, starting here with Souled Out becoming Sin. We have yet another change in commentary as MARK MADDEN IS GONE PRAISE THE LORD. Not long after Starrcade he managed to get himself fired for, essentially, being a dick. There's more detail to it than that but that's the gist of it. There's no replacement for him, Tony and Hudson will man the desk by themselves for all of the final WCW PPVs. It's a bit redundant to have two straight play by play guys without anyone that's a more natural color commentator, but after having to listen to Madden's drivel for most of 2000 I'm not going to complain.

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chavo Guerrero Jr (c) def Shane Helms in 11:14- Lockup into some nice basic exchanges. Chavo gets a couple of headlock takedowns and they do the headlock/headscissors exchange. Quick snap mare from Helms into a Fujiwara armbar attempt. Chavo quickly gets to the ropes. Chavo grabs a full nelson, then tries an arm takedown that Helms blocks and reverses. Another rope break for Chavo. Chavo gets the match's first strikes in, including some hard chops and a European uppercut. Helms dodges and gets a couple deep armdrags. Flying headscissors from Helms that they kind of lose direction on and Chavo almost inadvertently falls into the ref. Both guys block hiptosses and Helms gets Chavo up in a fireman's carry, then drops him with a cutter type move onto his knee. Chavo dodges and 360 clotheslines Helms out to the floor. Chavo takes the mandatory guardrail shot before they get back in. Another series of dodges and Helms gets a roll up for 2. He tries a backslide that Chavo blocks, so Helms drops down and cradles him for 2. Helms hooks up for a piledriver but Chavo counters into an Alabama slam. Straight up knee to the nuts from Chavo. One thing hasn't changed, WCW refs still aren't doing anything about that except arguing. He scrapes some forearms across Helms' face on the mat then tosses Helms over the top rope to the floor. Back in Helms gets a boot up in the corner but walks into a Chavo dropkick for 2. Chavo grounds things for a bit with a chinlock. Long counter run and Helms atomic drops Chavo (haven't seen that for a while), then hits a running neckbreaker. Straitjacket German suplex for 2. Superkick! Or the Sugar Smack as Helms calls it right now. Chavo gets a foot on the rope before 3. Helms hops on Chavo in the corner, but Chavo dumps him out to the floor! Dive from Chavo off the top rope to the floor. Cover back in for 2. Helms blocks a brain buster attempt, then flips out and hiptosses Chavo out to the floor. I smell a return dive coming. And there it is. Back in Helms gets a sunset flip off the top rope for 2. Samoan drop from Helms for 2. Helms calls for the vertebreaker. Chavo blocks it, but Helms uses that to reposition and hit a GTR for 2. Helms goes for it again. Chavo hits a knee to the head to block it and backs Helms into the corner. Helms blocks the tornado DDT. Another counter sequence that ends with Chavo hitting the brain buster and that gets the pin to retain! Hell of a match. A throwback to the great show opening Cruiserweight title matches of old. ***3/4

 

Thankfully it looks like they've realized that all those short, rapid fire backstage segments between matches weren't working and done away with them. There's still a lot of backstage segments, but they're longer and easier to follow. After some commentary discussion we cut to footage from earlier tonight of Mike Tenay tracking down WCW CEO Ric Flair arriving at the arena in his limo to try to find out who the mystery man in the World title match will be. Flair refuses to give anything away. 

 

Reno def Big Vito in 8:43- The Mamalukes have reunited, but Johnny the Bull has been banned from ringside tonight. This is supposedly brother vs brother. Reno turned on Vito back at Starrcade. Reno charges in and they go nose to nose. Vito slaps. Reno puts him down with a kick. Powerslam from Reno, followed by a kneedrop for 2. To the floor and Vito takes guardrail and stair shots. Back in it's still all Reno until Vito pops out of the corner with a clothesline. He puts Reno in the top rope and hits some big right hands. Superplex from Vito for 2. Reno kicks at Vito's hammy to get some space. He grabs a leg but Vito uses it to hit an enzuguri. Who are these two guys and where are the immobile slugs we've been seeing in their place for months? Back suplex from Vito. Reno dodges a charge and Vito crashes shoulder first in the corner and falls to the floor. Reno knocks him around ringside again. They trade some fairly stiff shots on the floor. Back in Reno hits a diving headbutt and kneedrop. Clothesline from Reno. Vito manages to get a sunset flip for 2, but takes another clothesline. Reno comes off the ropes but runs into a big Vito kick. A mafia kick per Tony. It did look a little Yakuza kick like, Tony always called that the "mafia kick". Vito fully comes back with right hands and hits a clothesline. Double underhook suplex and Vito goes up top. The elbow drops hits for 2. Reno buts Vito back down with a couple of kicks. Vito counters Roll of the Dice into a northern lights suplex for 2. Reno blocks a DDT and hits an exploder suplex. Straight up slugfest. Reno flips out of a suplex, hits Roll of the Dice, and it's over. A shockingly decent energetic and stiff brawl considering who was in there. **3/4

 

In a poorly lit backstage area, Mike Sanders pays Brian Adams of KroniK for future services unknown. Unfortunately for Sanders, Bryan Clarke then walks in with a huge wad of cash from someone else. Sanders loses the bidding war. 

 

The Jung Dragons (w/Leia Meow) def Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble in 9:25- 3 Count was otherwise engaged earlier, so these two teams get each other to themselves tonight. I guess the idea of them wrestling anyone else was too complicated to handle. Karagias and Hayashi start with a slugfest. Crazy long speed run and Hayashi hits a wheelbarrow slam. Knoble comes in and gets flying headscissored down, then the Dragons stereo shotgun dropkick K&K to the floor. Stereo asai moonsaults from the Dragons! Back in Yang decapitates Knoble with a clothesline. Knoble counters a powerbomb into an armdrag. Another long speed/counter run and Knoble flips both Yang and himself over the top to the floor. Hayashi blocks a Karagias superplex attempt and drops him into the ring. He goes for a crossbody but Karagias dropkicks him out of the air. Hayashi drop toe holds Karagias into the middle turnbuckle. Karagias grabs Hayashi coming off the ropes and K&K hit a Decapitation Device like double team, Knoble hitting a legdrop off the top rope. Yang breaks the pin up. Powerslam from Karagias on Hayashi for 2. K&K hit the old drop toe hold/basement dropkick combo for 2. Back suplex from Knoble for 2. Flying forearm for 2. Knoble powers Hayashi up for a German suplex. Karagias presses Hayashi up, then drops him into a spinebuster! Fantastic. Karagias springs to the middle of the top rope, loses his footing on one foot but still manages to fire a moonsault off. Nice recovery. Hayashi was dodging it anyway. Tag to Knoble and he wipes Yang out to cut off the tag. Knoble gets on Hayashi's shoulders and tries a victory roll. Hayashi counters free and hits a huge decapitation kick to Knoble's head! Tag to Yang! Hot tag run. Dragon screw on Knoble and Yang goes for some variation on a figure four. Karagias cuts him off before it's on. Yang mounted punches on Karagias, but he does a fancy backflip out of the corner, right into a Knoble German! Hayashi cuts that pin off and it's full on DONNYBROOK time. Karagias tosses Hayashi out and hits a springboard crossbody to the floor. Knoble tries to hurricanrana Yang off the top rope. Yang blocks it into an avalanche powerbomb! Karagias just barely cuts the pin off. Hangman's neckbreaker from Karagias on Yang. He goes up top. 450 splash! Another last second pin breakup. Hayashi slingshot DDT on Karagias. Knoble leaping tombstone on Hayashi! Yang rolling slam on Knoble. He goes for a corkscrew senton off the top rope but Knoble was too close and he completely misses when it was supposed to hit. Whoops. Knoble, very smart and ever aware, quickly grabs Yang so Yang can Paul Smackage him for the pin! K&K beat on the Dragons a bit after the bell in frustration. Amazing sprint. All four guys were absolutely on fire. This should be your tag title feud right here, but as many positive changes WCW's had since Russo left, the entrenched old guard was still never going to agree to work with these guys. Especially with Nash in the current tag title feud. ****

 

Those first three matches had as much energy as we saw from WCW for all of 2000 combined. 

 

Ernest "The Cat" Miller (w/Ms Jones) def Mike Sanders in 5:45- I suspect this match won't keep up the standard we've set so far. This is for the WCW Commissionership, a position Sanders took from Miller a few months back. In return, Miller has put Ms. Jones on the line. They get into a crowd support battle and Sanders jumps Miller form behind. Straight choking from Sanders. Miller comes back with a shoulderblock and some ground and pound. Sanders immediately escapes to the floor and jumps Miller getting back in. Miller starts to hulk/dance up. Sanders eye pokes to cut it off and chokes him again. Miller comes back up with a kick combo, followed by mounted punches. Nice flop from Sanders after. While he's down there he hits Miller in the gut to put him back down again. Snap mare/PK combo for 2. Sanders puts on a cobra clutch. When Miller gets back up Sanders tries to turn it into a short clothesline but Miller ducks it. Speed run and Sanders tries a sunset flip. Miller fights and punches free. Elbow drop. Splits punch. Sanders begs off, then pants pulls Miller out to the floor. He gets a chair but Jones cuts him off, then kicks him in the back. Jones chases Sanders around with the chair! Miller sets up behind. Sanders' Natural Born Thrillers teammates run in and attack Miller. Wait, KroniK take out the NTB guys! I guess Miller was the one that outbid Sanders. Adams stuffs the money in Sander's mouth. Miller hits the Feliner kick and gets the pin to become Commissioner again! Not too shabby. I've seen way worse Miller matches. There's definitely something good in the water so far tonight. **

 

Penalty Box Match: Team Canada (w/Major Gunns) def The Filthy Animals (w/Tygress) in 13:10- In another post-Russo reset Duggan's silly heel turn to Team Canada has been reversed and he's back with the US of A, and he's the special guest referee for this match. Team Canada arrive in the arena in the "Team Canada Bus", a school bus painted white with a Canada flag on it. That's hilarious to me. Since Starrcade Mike Awesome has turned heel and joined Team Canada despite being from Florida. The "That '70's guy" gimmick really made him snap. This match is actually reviving an old WCCW gimmick the Von Erichs used to use. Anyone that breaks a rule, or more specifically gets caught breaking a rule, goes into their team's penalty box "until the red light goes off", so no set time. That will give the other team a "power play" advantage. It is still a one fall match, not elimination. Both boxes are a couple of the old manager holding shark cages with some plastic thrown on them. Duggan lays down the law and the rules before the match starts, and makes sure to include the two valets at ringside can also get sent to the box. Storm and Mysterio start with a quick Storm start. Mysterio comes back with a flying headscissors. He goes for the shitty bronco buster but Storm lifts him up and drops him crotch first on the top rope. Skipper comes in without a tag and stomps Mysterio down in the corner. Duggan stops him and sends him off to the penalty box. Awesome comes in to protest, bumps Duggan, and he gets sent off too! That makes it 3 on 1 with Storm being the one. The Animals quick tag on him to try to quickly wear him down. They double team, but they all stay within the 5 seconds. Mostly. The light goes on, or off, and Skipper and Awesome rejoin the match. Mysterio hits the slingshot splash on Storm for 2. Storm tries a pop up powerbomb on Kidman and that goes as well as usual. Storm switches gears with a knee to the gut, snap mare and legdrop. Skipper tags in and pounds Kidman on the mat. Kidman gets a flying headscissors counter. Big counter run and Kidman hits a back suplex. Storm tries to distract Duggan and Awesome pulls Kidman down by the hair from the apron, but Duggan still sees and it's back to the box for him. Storm also gets sent off for arguing. I didn't see any contact there. Kidman hits Skipper with a DDT. Konnan hits the rolling clothesline, then rolls Skipper into what I'm pretty sure is the actual hold Joey Styles coined a "Mr. Salty" in ECW because even he didn't have a name for it. Mysterio legdrop for 2 as the other Team Canada guys are released from the box. Skipper works around Konnan and hits a flying headscissors, then does a Matrix dodge of a clothesline. Konnan says screw that and hits a reverse DDT for 2. Skipper gets a drop toe hold and goes up for a missile dropkick. Tag to Awesome, in for the first time legally. Backbreaker from Awesome for 2. I really wish Konnan would pull his pants up. Konnan hits about the 50th flying headscissors in this match. I'm exaggerating. Slightly. Meanwhile, the women have decided to get in each other's faces. That gets Duggan's attention, and when he turns back around he cuts off Mysterio's bronco buster attempt on Awesome. Duggan didn't see a tag so he sends both Mysterio and Kidman to the box. Awesome hits a British Bulldog style running powerslam on Konnan for 2. On the floor, Tygress has decided to douse Gunns in water for some reason. Gunns attacks her and it's a full on cat fight on the floor. Duggan goes to the floor and orders them both to the box. Now Konnan is on the wrong end of a 3-1 advantage. Skipper takes advantage of it by....hooking on a chinlock. Even commentary calls that out as bad strategery. Awesome tags in and hits a tackle off the top rope. Everyone in penalty boxes are released. Konnan hits a back kick and faceplants Storm. Tag to Kidman. Diving elbow off the top rope on Storm. Backdrop and dropkick. Sit out powerbomb for 2. Jawbreaker from Storm. Kidman tosses Storm out to the floor and Mysterio backdrops him over the top onto him! That sets off a run of everyone jumping everyone else on the floor. Duggan throws everyone but Mysterio and Storm in the box. Mysterio gets Storm down in the corner and hits the shitty bronco buster. So does Tygress. That gets her a spot in the box. Mysterio hangs Storm on the ropes and hits the springboard legdrop for 2. Kidman is back, tags in, and hits the Kid Crusher on Storm. Awesome gets out of the box just in time to break the pin up. Awesome blocks a Mysterio sunset flip and plants him with the Awesome Bomb. Duggan waves a bunch of guys into the box because they're not legal. Storm gets Kidman into the half crab. Kidman taps and it's over, despite something or other Duggan is protesting. That was the first match tonight that really reminds you this is end of life WCW. The wrestlers' work was just fine, no issues, but the rules and match execution were an all over the place mess. *1/2

 

Three Way Dance for the WCW Hardcore Championship: Meng def Crowbar (w/Daffney) and Terry Funk (c) in 11:39- Oh yay, another stolen belt angle. Meng appropriated Funk's Hardcore title belt on Nitro, and being Meng no one is going to take it away from him. During Funk's entrance Daffney is in the crowd and she throws a cup of water on him. Funk drags Daffney over the guardrail and Crowbar jumps him with a chair. Crowbar works Funk over with the chair past the stage and all the way into the back. Into a bathroom. A WCW all arena brawl classic. Funk tosses a full trash can on Crowbar. What looks like legit trash goes all over the bathroom floor. Funk slams Crowbar into the stall doors one by one. Still no sign of Meng in the fight by the way. He came out first and I guess just stayed in the ring. Oh, there he is. Finally figured out where the bathroom is. He jumps Funk and knocks him back out of the bathroom. Back out to the stage area. Crowbar jumps Meng and runs him into a rolling door. Funk joins the party, tossing a trash can right in Meng's face (he can take it) and helping Crowbar slam him against the door. Everyone takes shots against the door. Funk and Crowbar team up again to dump a bunch of tables onto Meng. Crowbar then tries to cover Meng, which Funk doesn't like. Crowbar gives Funk the mandatory fire extinguisher blast, then some more chairshots. Funk gets set up on a table in the stage area. Crowbar climbs up into the stands and comes down with a splash, sending Funk through the table! Meng comes back to pick the bones. Meng low blows Crowbar and they exchange chops on the stage. Crowbar gets out of a suplex attempt. Meng superkicks him and he rolls all the way down the entrance ramp. Funk is back and attacks Meng with....a snow shovel! Funk gets an extra piece of guardrail and sets it up in the aisle. When it's propped up we can see it's been pre-bent before the cameras try to keep that part out of shot. Crowbar gets slammed through the guardrail and it breaks! Funk gives Crowbar chairshots back up to the ring. In the ring Crowbar gets the chair and lays into Funk with it. He Pillmanizes Funk's knee! Funk manages to stand back up and Crowbar slaps him, begging him to fight back. Funk slugs back. Crowbar puts a figure four on Funk despite Meng's attempts to stop him. I think Meng is off script here. Finally Meng realizes it, lets Crowbar put the figure four on, and goes up top. Yes, Meng, up top. Big splash on Crowbar! Piledriver on Crowbar to really finish him off. Funk pulls Meng off the cover. Meng slams Funk and gives him a big splash off the second rope. Now Crowbar breaks the pin up with a chair. Both guys take turns pummeling Meng with chairshots and Meng eventually goes down. Funk DDTs Meng. He wants Crowbar to hit Meng with a chair while he DDTs him again. Crowbar says yes, then hits Funk right in the head with the chair. Meng superkicks the chair into Crowbar. Tongan Death Grip on Funk! Meng gets the pin to win the Hardcore title for real! Another solid Hardcore match that, for the second PPV in a row, actually tried to have a story and purpose. **1/2

 

The funny part of all this, after racking up one title defense against Bam Bam Bigelow on the next Thunder, Meng would take off back to WWF and make his official return, as Haku again, in the Royal Rumble just a week after Sin. WCW would decide to scrap the Hardcore title entirely after that defection, making Meng the final champion and this the title's final PPV appearance.

 

Backstage, Mean Gene is with Sid. I only mention it becasue Sid is wearing a cap that looks like it's five sizes too small for him. It's barely perched on the very crown of his head. I know he likely had a hard time finding hats that fit him, but still, damn. 

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Natural Born Thrillers (w/Mike Sanders) def The Insiders (c) in 11:20- Mostly a rematch of the last two PPVs here, but after going 0 for 2 the Thrillers are trying to throw DDP and Nash a curveball by swapping out Shawn Stasiak for Sean O'Haire to team with Chuck Palumbo. Before the bell all the rest of NTB come out. Sanders says he reserves the right to make a substitution at any point in this match. Flair then comes out and rightly says that's bullshit, and has security drag NTB out. Once everyone clears out DDP and Palumbo start. Lockup! A Palumbo cheap shot leads to a stand up slugfest. Palumbo goes down first. DDP hits a clothesline. Uranage for 2. DDP with a Cactus clothesline! DDP gets back in quickly but Palumbo takes his time on the floor. When he gets back in both sides tag. Easy scoop and slam from Nash on O'Haire. O'Haire grabs a headlock. Speed run and Nash hits a big boot. O'Haire hops up to the top rope, moonsaults over Nash, and hits a superkick! Flashy. O'Haire had the look and athleticism, but WWE would quickly discover there was nothing beneath the surface. The NTB guys double stomp on Nash as long as the ref will let them. Holy crap, is Nash actually going to be the in peril guy in this match? That's a change. I guess not, because Nash quickly grabs Palumbo floating over in the corner and hits snake eyes. Short clothesline and DDP tags in. He comes in with a clothesline off the top rope for 2. O'Haire distracts DDP and Palumbo hits a superkick for 2. OK, now for the real in peril segment. NTB hit a double slingshot suplex for 2. DDP runs into a back elbow and Palumbo whips out the old Randy Savage leaping over the top rope clothesline. The NTB guys keep DDP in peril in their corner, and even mockingly almost let DDP make a tag before pulling him back. Nash has a slightly furrowed brow so commentary thinks he's beside himself with rage. That is about as much as you can expect him to emote. Continued heel corner beatdown of DDP. DDP tries to fight out but Palumbo scoops him up for a tombstone. DDP reverses and hits it! DDP is on top of Palumbo's arm, that should be a pin. Useless WCW refs. Despite O'Haire's best attempt DDP just barely gets a tag to Nash. Usual Nash hot tag run that we've seen in three straight matches now. The straps are down. Stasiak has evaded security and runs back out to ringside. On the other side, we see Lex Luger sneak in through the crowd. Jackknife to Palumbo. Security comes in to get Stasiak, which I guess ties up the ref too because he vanishes for a bit, and Nash (off camera) hits Luger. DDP goes after Luger all the way through the crowd. Nash hooks O'Haire up for the jackknife. Now Buff Bagwell runs in and hits Nash from behind with a giant wrench. O'Haire hits the swanton bomb, the ref is back, and that gets the pin to give NTB the titles back. OKish but not to the level of their prior matches. *3/4

 

That would end up being the final tag title change under the WCW banner. Palumbo and O'Haire will be the ones to carry the titles into WWF and the Invasion angle, minus the Natural Born Thrillers name.

 

First Blood Chain Match for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: The Franchise def Gen. Rection (c) in 11:35- Stip overload here. Want some more? The chain isn't on a pole, it's hung above the ring in ladder match position, where it'll take a ladder to get to it. Douglas' gimmick weapon of choice lately has been a chain so that's why that's in play. And all the smoke and mirrors can't hurt, because neither of these guys have exactly been lighting it up in the ring for a while, unless they were setting farts on fire or something. Don't add that as a stip. The verbal blowjobs from commentary for Rection have gotten so ridiculous Tony is admiring the cut of his jaw during his entrance. After the bell Rection wants wee ginger ref to check Douglas for a backup chain. And he finds one! Good call Humorous. That sets Douglas off and he jumps Rection. Bad call Humorous, how were you not ready for that. Rection comes back with a choke lift and slam, then twists Douglas' hand in a knucklelock. Armdrag into an ARMBAR from Rection. Reminder, it's a First Blood plus extra gimmicks match. And Rection's spending minutes doing arm work. But his jaw is cut well or something. He finally gives Douglas some ground and pound before looking up at the chain. Yeah, you're not reaching for that. Douglas goes to the ol' eye poke to turn things around. Rection hulks up off punches and hits some chops. When he turns around Douglas gives him a Reverse Greco Roman Nut Punt. Rection recovers to hit a clothesline off the top rope. He decides to go up top for the moonsault. That's not going to get you the chain. Douglas hits the ropes to crotch him. Now Douglas hits a kneebreaker and starts working on Rection's knee. Another reminder, it's a FIRST BLOOD match. Tony says Reggie Miller and Jalen Rose from the Pacers are in the arena tonight. Clearly they were too embarrassed to want to be shown on camera. Now Douglas does some step over toe holds and Tony flat out says "submission holds aren't going to win this match". Figure four, why not. Douglas lets go of that after about 10 seconds to jaw with the fans. Douglas tries to tackle Rection but gets dumped over the top to the floor. Both guys take guardrail shots. Douglas hits a crossbody off the guardrail into the crowd and does some more ground and pound. Coming back over Rection obligingly gets on the guardrail so Douglas can crotch him again. Back at the ring Douglas goes for the knee again. Rection fights back up and hits a press slam. He goes under the ring and finally gets a damn ladder to go for the chain. Douglas takes a shot in the head from the ladder. Rection climbs and gets the chain. We get a camera shot that Douglas was clearly waiting for him to get the chain, then he tips the ladder over. It falls right into ginger ref, probably killing him he's so tiny. Douglas goes into his boot and gets a THIRD chain out! Dude went to the chain surplus store. Chain punch to Rection. He's busted open and it's over. It's a relief they didn't do the "heel gets busted open but the ref doesn't see it" crap. Douglas adds the US title to his career trophy case. It's better than their Starrcade match, but still pretty shit and made all the worse by the fact most of the match neither guy seemed to have a bloody clue what kind of match they were having. 3/4*

 

No DQ: Totally Buffed def Goldberg & DeWayne "Sarge" Bruce in 11:30- As has been the case for months, if Goldberg loses, even in a tag match and even if he doesn't take the fall, he will be fired. Buffer has a hell of a time working his way through all that. Sarge, the former Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker from early '90s WCW and the longtime lead trainer at the WCW Power Plant, got involved in this for reasons I've never really fathomed. Someone in the new regime wanted to give him some TV time I guess. Hudson calls Bagwell "the president of the Buff Bagwell fan club". Truer words were never spoken. Sarge comes in with a cast on his arm. I guess Luger's breaking arms again, but if the cast gets explained I missed it. Goldberg and Luger, who've had singles matches the last two PPVs, start. Lockup and Goldberg pushes Luger into the corner, then goes to town on him. Flying tackle. Double underhook suplex. Goldberg deposits Luger in his corner and tells Bagwell to tag in. Bagwell gets the jump and hits a suplex. Goldberg pops right back up. Press powerslam on Bagwell. Goldberg tags Sarge in. Sarge yells a ton and hits some punchy/kicky stuff. Slam and back suplex from Sarge, then he walks the middle rope to hit an elbow drop. OK, he's already shown me more than I was expecting. Sarge decides to take a swing at Luger, allowing Bagwell to jawbreaker him to turn things around. That gets Sarge, predictably, in peril. Big clothesline from Luger for 2. Leaping DDT from Bagwell and Goldberg saves the pin. Every time Sarge takes a big bump on the apron or floor I worry for his health. It's never pretty. The heels continue to pound in him in the corner. Luger hits the running forearm that may or may not have a steel plate today for 2. Sarge finally blocks a Bagwell suplex and hits his own. Tags on both sides. Goldberg is here to murder people. He pumphandle deadlifts Bagwell up and just tosses him backwards. Luger goes up the aisle a bit and gets in the face of a early 20s looking guy in a Goldberg shirt. Oh yeah. I didn't mention it because it didn't seem important at the time, earlier in the show TV made a big song and dance about Goldberg signing an autograph backstage for this "19 year old" kid. Now Luger's accosting him. Goldberg runs Luger over to make the save. THE KID SPRAYS SOMETHING IN GOLDBERG'S FACE! HE'S A PLANT! A RUSE! A SETUP! Security immediately tackles him like it was real, which is well done but it was all planned. Luger saves him and they high five. Goldberg tries to fight blind in the ring and manages to clothesline Bagwell. Now Luger comes in and gives Goldberg two chairshots, one in the back of the head that is nasty looking. Luger then puts Goldberg on his shoulders and Bagwell goes to the top rope. Doomsday Device Blockbuster! That was good too. Luger covers, and gets the pin. Goldberg. Is. Done. The crowd is SHOCKED. All the air goes out of the arena. The match was eh but it gets bonus points for the genuine shock ending. *

 

This was done to write Goldberg off so he could get shoulder surgery, with the plan I assume to find the usual loophole to bring him back when he was healthy. But as it turned out, WCW would sell to WWF before Goldberg healed up, making this Goldberg's last WCW match. WWF slow walked on bringing him in, rightly in my opinion because he'd clearly shown himself to be Ultimate Warrior 2.0 in the ring, with probably even less ability to be carried in his prime. At his short lived best Warrior could still have great matches with good wrestlers that could carry him (Savage, Rude). Goldberg would go to Japan and work a handful of matches in All Japan in 2002, then WWE would finally decide to take a swing on him in the spring of 2003. 

 

Four Corners Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Scott Steiner (c) (w/Midajah) def Jeff Jarrett, Sid Vicious and a mystery opponent in 7:58- I'm not generally a fan of them, but it might have been a good idea to run a junk match between the last one and this to try to get the crowd back into things. A reminder, there's an unannounced fourth "surprise entrant" that's scheduled to be in the match. After the first three guys come out Flair's music hits. Flair flat cuts Buffer off, love it, then says he didn't say WHEN the mystery man would come out and tells Steiner you're the champ, start defending that title right now! Ring the bell. Angry Steiner walks out to chase Flair down. Jarrett, Steiner's new partner in all this, tries to get him back in the ring but, well, you never reason with Scott Steiner. Nothing up there to reason with. Steiner does decide to get back in the ring though. Sid tries to jump him but Steiner dumps him out to the floor while Jarrett, being Jarrett, poses to the crowd. Sid takes Steiner out on the floor, then starts working Jarrett over in the ring. Jarrett eye pokes out of a chokeslam attempt but Sid side suplexes him. Clotheslines for both guys from Sid. Jarrett whips Sid into Steiner's boot and Steiner belly to belly suplexes him for 2. Jarrett was going to let him get the pin too. They start to double team Sid. Steinerline/elbow drop combo. To the floor and Sid gets knocked around out there. Steiner hits him with the World title belt. Back in Sid starts to fight back. He goes for the powerbomb on Jarrett but Steiner saves him. Steiner backbreaker/Jarrett fistdrop off the second rope combo. Jarrett covers for 2 and Steiner lets him. What? Is he OK with Jarrett winning the title? Sid blocks a double suplex and suplexes (barely) both guys. We had a bad angle but I think Steiner landed on his head, which fortunately wouldn't hurt him too much. Double clothesline from Sid. Big boots for both guys. Chokeslam on Jarrett! Steiner saves the pin. Sid cobra clutch slams Steiner and 360 clotheslines Jarrett to the floor. Jarrett gets whipped over the guardrail. We cut to the back. Flair is back at the limo from earlier, opens the door and says "Go now!". A completely covered man comes out so we still don't know who it is. We cut back to the ring. Sid is down and his leg is clearly broken. Yup, this is that match. That thing is dangling. Tony says "it looks like he broke his leg". Freaking understatement. But for some reason the ref or whoever else is in charge just lets him lie there and continues the match. Steiner kicks Sid in the chest a couple of times then does some push ups to kill time. Then he chokes Sid with his boot. Finally Flair's music hits again and the mystery man comes out. The mystery man then hits Sid once to make his allegiance and the SWERVE clear, then Steiner pins Sid. I'm sure something more elaborate was planned but they couldn't do it now. As soon as the bell rings trainers are finally in to help Sid and his Joe Theismann'd leg (look it up kids). The mystery man takes off his mask, and it's.....Road Warrior Animal. Seriously? Look, the Roadies were one of the greatest tag teams of all time, but this is 2001 and that's serious scraping of the bottom of the barrel. End show. This match already sucked before Sid broke his leg, and with that ending and reveal it was always going to suck. The leg break is just a cherry on top. DUD

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- This isn't unlike an NWO era show, with the first half full of undercard guys working their asses off to put on good matches, then the top guys hit and it all goes to hell with minimal effort and, in some cases, terrible booking. Still, with some more space between the company and Russo you can see improvement being made and the overall feel and atmosphere is definitely better than it was. Too bad too much damage had already been done. By this point everyone knew the company as it currently existed was done for. The only question was, when would the inevitable hit and exactly what form would it take? It also didn't help them that WWF was about to have one of its hottest three month stretches ever (Royal Rumble '01 to Wrestlemania 17) to finish off WCW once and for all.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C- 

Starrcade 2000

Legacy Review

Starrcade 2000

December 17, 2000 from the MCI Center in Washington, DC

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden

 

Our end of WCW journey has brought us to the final Starrcade. The real granddaddy of them all, Starrcade was the very first made for closed circuit TV (later PPV) supercard in November 1983, predating the first Wrestlemania by a year and a half. It was the unquestioned biggest show of the year for Jim Crockett Promotions, but following the sale to Turner and creation of WCW it was slowly diminished in importance, in no small part thanks to a run of gimmick based shows (the Iron Man tournaments in '89, the Lethal Lottery and Battlebowl in '91 and '92), and being forced to move from its traditional Thanksgiving slot to December thanks to WWF's hardball scheduling of the first Survivor Series. An attempt was made to push Starrcade back to its former prominence in '97, but we all know how that one turned out. Since then it's continued to be one of several PPVs that could be considered among WCWs top shows with no single one ever getting a clear edge. One of the company's biggest long term mistakes in my opinion, every company needs a definable biggest show of the year.

 

The commentary change from a couple of months ago has been reversed, with Stevie Ray out and Scott Hudson back in. With a somewhat new regime taking over post-Russo the look is getting an overhaul again, with a new Starrcade logo, different looking ring skirts, and even a new simplified WCW logo being used in conjunction with the established (and awful) giant oval with two wings logo. That's what it looks like to me at least.

 

Ladder Match: 3 Count def The Jung Dragons and Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble in 13:17- I said in my New Blood Rising review that the 3 Count/Jung Dragons 3v3 "Gold Record" ladder match was the last WCW match really remembered for being anything close to good. I think I was thinking of this match instead. Despite the fact this is a team match, the item they're all fighting for is a single reward, a contract for a Cruiserweight title match with new champ Chavo Guerrero Jr (thankfully no longer Lt. Loco). Chavo comes out first and takes the #4 spot in commentary. They start out like a regular tag match, Hayashi and Moore in the ring with everyone else on the apron. Nice quick basic start, until they fluff a running move and Moore drops Hayashi right on his head. Oof. After they visibly check on each other and recover Moore grabs an armbar, then they turn on the jets again. Another muff when Moore has a hard time getting full rotations on a tiltawhirl, then Hayashi falls hard into the bottom rope in a way I don't think he intended. Moore goes for a ladder but Karagais cuts him off. Tags and Yang and Helms take over. Instead of locking up everyone goes for ladders instead, ending the faux tag portion of the match. 3 Count sucker everyone, zigging when everyone else zags, getting a ladder from near commentary instead of in the entrance aisle and making a climb for the contract with no one else around. The Dragons see, push them off the ladder and 360 clothesline them out. K&K then pull the Dragons off the ladder. Yang shotgun dropkicks the ladder into K&K, then Hayashi hits it with a springboard moonsault! Helms comes in with ladder #2. K&K drop toe hold Helms into a ladder propped up in the corner. They go to double flapjack Hayashi onto a ladder but it's another partially blown move that only half hits. Knoble sets the ladder up and starts to climb. His partner Karagias pulls him down! There's only one contract up there. Knoble then pulls Karagias down and they argue and shove. Yang goes up top and missile dropkicks both of them! Knoble gets whipped into a ladder. Yang punches Moore into a sitting position on the corner ladder. Moore tries coming off it, but falls right into a Yang gutbuster. Yang short phoenix splash off the ladder! Helms comes in, tosses Yang out, and hits him with a tope con hilo! That kicks off the EVERYONE DIVE run. Knoble is the smart one, saying screw that and climbing the ladder instead. Until Yang pushes the ladder down and Knoble falls onto everyone on the floor! Yang sets up a ladder bridge from the upright ladder in the middle of the ring to the top rope. Before he can do anything Karagias comes in and back suplexes him down. Karagias gets up on the ladder bridge. Hayashi tries a springboard move, but Karagias catches him and powerslams him! Moore springboards onto the ladder bridge, and comes off going for what looks like a fameasser, but Karagias doesn't know it's coming and Moore flat runs him over right in the back of the head. Helms and Knoble get up onto the bridge. Helms swinging neckbreaker off the bridge! Moore takes the bridge down and we have two ladders side by side. He and Yang fight up them. Helms and Knoble join them in the slugfest. Knoble sunset bombs Helms. Yang and Moore both get to the ladder tops, but are more interested in slugging each other than going for the contract. Moore hits a neckbreaker off the ladders. Knoble climbs again. Leia Meow comes in and pulls him down! Karagias runs her off. He's also introduced a third ladder. And Yang has a fourth. Karagias props a ladder up in the corner and climbs up to go for something crazy. Yang cuts him off with a shotei (hi Jushin Liger) and the Dragons double team powerbomb him back down. Now the Dragons use all four ladders to made a scaffold like structure in the middle of the ring. 3 Count attack them after they're finished. They throw Hayashi into the structure and the whole thing nearly collapses. 3C manage to save it. Yang into it and this time they knew to hold it together. K&K cut 3C off before they can really start to climb. Knoble and Hayashi get on the bridge part. Hayashi kicks Knoble down, but Karagias knocks him down. Now Yang pushes Karagias, who FLIES off over the top rope down to the floor! Hayashi and Helms wobble fight on the bridge. Moore does a skin the cat on the bridge to headscissors Hayashi down! Then skin the cats himself onto the bridge! Helms dumps Knoble down. Both 3C guys are on the bridge under the contract. They take it at the same time! A team to the end. Chavo and Madden bitch about it, but I think they found a genius loophole to make it a triple threat. That was a fantastic train wreck spotfest. They had a few really ugly botches, but the overall hit/miss ratio was much more to the good side. The first, and likely only, WCW ladder match that came close to the all time classics the Dudleyz, Hardyz and Edge & Christian were putting on in WWF at the same time. ****

 

Looks like we're doing the crazy rapid fire backstage segments between matches like the last PPV. Like last time, I have no idea what the story is supposed to be on most of these and they're too short to figure it out. The clearest one has Jim Duggan polishing his board (not a euphemism) and Lance Storm trying to convince him that he needs to stay with Team Canada for the good of his career, Americans will never take him back.

 

Lance Storm (w/Major Gunns and Elix Skipper) def Ernest "The Cat" Miller (w/Ms Jones) in 7:24- After spending the middle part of the year as a triple champion Storm's fallen to this, a match with Ernest Miller. Storm goes the obvious route in his usual prematch promo, chastising the US needing 37 days to decide the presidential election. Don't blame us, that was all Al Gore refusing to accept he lost. It was extremely close, but he lost and every recount and rerecount he asked for showed it. Miller comes out with the Red Shoes of Dancing Death already on, which I guess means he's super serious or something. He and Jones dance before the bell. Jawing and shoving after the bell while commentary wonders where Duggan is. Finally we lock up. Storm grabs a waistlock. Miller armdrags free and celebrates. He should, he actually pulled off a wrestling move. Arm wringer exchange that turns into Miller strikes. Gunns grabs Miller's foot and Storm back elbows him. He slides out to keep Jones from going after Gunns, leading to another chest bumping exchange with Miller on the floor. Is that all they're interested in doing or are we going to have an actual match? Oh, they're killing time for the women to get in the ring. Storm and Miller get back in to keep them from fighting, angering the crowd. Storm then jumps Miller from behind. Clothesline from Storm. Miller tries to fire back with more strikes but Storm jawbreakers him. He goes for a suplex but Miller counters with a small package for 2. Angry clothesline from Storm for 2, then he hooks on a chinlock. Miller comes back again and pops Storm up for a very unconventional inverted atomic drop. Skipper hops up on the apron, attacks Miller and drags him out to the floor. Miller unloads on him but Storm jumps him from behind again. Jones tries to kick Storm, but Storm ducks and bald ref gets decapitated. That's all this match needed. Gunns comes over and dropkicks Jones and here's the cat fight. Back in Storm hits a springboard missile dropkick but there's no ref. Miller hits a kick combo for 2. Storm hits a northern lights suplex for 2. Here comes Duggan. He still looks conflicted. He gets in the ring behind Miller's back, teases hitting him with the 2x4, drops it, then hits Miller in the back anyway to the boos of the crowd. Storm puts on the half crab and Miller submits. Usual Miller overbooked smoke and mirrors match with almost no chance for Storm to try to carry him to anything decent. 1/2*

 

After the bell a still very conflicted looking Duggan reluctantly poses with Team Canada. The rest of the team jump him from behind! They turned on him before he could turn on them. Smart. That's what happens when you have a leader like Lance Storm. Miller fights off all of Team Canada, but is still upset with Duggan for costing him the match and leaves.

 

Buff Bagwell is doing backstage interviews now. Wonder if he got hurt again. Still, it's a better spot for him if he has to be on TV. 

 

WCW Hardcore Championship: Terry Funk def Crowbar (c) (w/Daffney) in 9:17- Funk's back after a short time away. This is also the first PPV Daffney's been on in a bit. This starts with Daffney and Crowbar arguing in the back because Daffney refuses to match Crowbar's '70s outfit (Mike Awesome should have called gimmick infringement). When Crowbar walks away from her Funk ambushes him with a fire extinguisher shot. Guess we're doing that "start in the back and fight to the ring" thing again. Funk pounds Crowbar against one of the 18 wheeler truck trailers and covers him for 2 while Daffney screams in the distance. He puts Crowbar on an anvil case and meekly rolls him toward...nothing. They get in the back of a trailer and Crowbar hits Funk with something that was in there, then bounces him off the trailer walls. Crowbar then pulls the not at all gimmicked ceiling off and a bunch of stuff falls on Funk. Including what looks like a picnic basket, which is freaking hilarious. Funk does some of his classic wobbelegging, teasing falling out of the trailer to the floor. Then he hiptosses Crowbar out and through a table! Low blow from Crowbar to turn things back around. He has what looks like a van door and hits Funk with it. He slams a door on Funk's head. Daffney gives Crowbar handcuffs. Funk fights him off and smashes Crowbar's head in the door. Funk gets the handcuffs and puts them on Crowbar, then gives him a bunch of chairshots to the head. Through the curtain to the stage and Funk has the van door, hitting Crowbar with it. And more chairshots to the head. Funk goes under the ring and gets a table that's clearly been shall we say loosened in the middle to break easier. Crowbar gets set up on it and Funk goes up to the apron. Daffney gets Crowbar off the table before Funk can do anything. Funk chases Daffney down and grabs her. Crowbar comes from behind and gives Funk some chairshot receipts, then chokes him with the handcuffs. Now Funk is on the table. Crowbar slingshot splash from the ring puts Funk through the table! But it only gets a 2 count. They get in the ring. Daffney gets a chair and throws it in Funk's face. Crowbar covers for 2. Funk gets the chair and works Crowbar over again. The van door is in the ring too. Funk piledrives Crowbar onto the door! As Daffney cries Funk covers and gets the pin to win the Hardcore title back. Decent little plunder brawl that unlike a lot of WCW hardcore matches was logically laid out with a flow and story instead of just a bunch of random weapon shots. One of Funk's better 2000 WCW matches for sure. **

 

Big Vito & Reno (w/Marie) and KroniK no contest in 8:18- My hopes are not high here. There's a longer term story going on of KroniK acting as hired mercenaries, being paid by persons unknown to take people out. Wonder if it's Sean Peyton. Before the match Adams takes a mic and implies it's Marie, which means it's not. Back and forth double teaming start. Vito powerslam/legdrop combo on Clarke for 2. Oh, Reno and Vito are being billed as brothers now. That's nice. After a couple of minutes in peril Clarke decides he's done enough selling and takes over with a double underhook suplex on Vito. Vito then fires back with a couple of kicks as Adams starts to stalk Marie on the floor. Vito sees and goes out to help, which lets KroniK take him out again. Adams seemingly doesn't care at all about the match, he's still arguing with Marie. Clarke is doing all the work. Oh, then Adams gets in the ring with Vito without a tag. Wee ginger ref is completely overmatched here. Vito takes the full nelson slam and Reno saves the pin. Double tackle from KroniK. Clarke back suplex for 2. Natural Born Thrillers make their way out as Vito fights out of a chinlock. Adams cuts the tag off to keep him in peril. Vito fights off a double team and tries to hit a double DDT, but KroniK fight it off and hit a double big boot. Clarke and Vito try to do the simultaneous crossbody spot. It doesn't go well. Both sides tag. Reno turns around and hits Vito with Roll of the Dice! HAHAHAHAHA all that for that freaking swerve. Did Russo sneak into the building and scribble that on the rundown sheet in crayon? Then Reno covers his own partner and ginger ref counts the pin and calls for the bell. Fire his ass. Marie is beside herself and no one seems to know what's going on. Then Reno tosses what commentary assumes is an envelope of money to KroniK. Guess that answers that. Reno then joins Natural Born Thrillers, also explaining their appearance. KroniK then hit their big moves on Vito to get some heat back after all that. 1/4*

 

Mean Gene is with 3 Count, trying to get an answer on which one will get the Cruiserweight title shot tomorrow night. Helms says 3 Count won, so 3 Count get the title shot. Chavo storms the interview and attacks them both. 

 

Ambulance Match: Mike Awesome def Bam Bam Bigelow in 8:35- After introducing the ambulance Awesome slides in the ring and pretty much lets Bigelow jump him. Commentary says it's typical throw your opponent into the ambulance to win rules. We'll see if that sticks or not. Avalanche from Bigelow. Awesome fires back with a fallaway back elbow off the second rope (same kind that Ted DiBiase always missed) and 360 clotheslines Bigelow out. Weak floor brawling follows with Bigelow, as good as he was in his prime, continuing to look completely past it. Awesome hits Bigelow with the bell, then gets a chair and whacks Bigelow with it. Bigelow literally picks up someone's drink off the floor under the guardrail and tosses it in Awesome's face, then gives him a chairshot. Some more really awful back and forth chair brawling in the aisle. They go up and Awesome knocks Bigelow against the ambulance. Both guys fight off attempts to get them in the ambulance, with Awesome hitting a low blow to get free. Push from Bigelow and Awesome takes a halfway decent shot against the ambulance. Awesome ducks and Bigelow punches a back window out! Fortunately gimmicked glass, unlike that car window Goldberg tore an artery open punching last year. Bigelow wanders back down the aisle and gives Awesome some more chairshots as a "boring" chant gets going. All the way back to the ring as we sadly reset the match, which can only be won at the ambulance. Bad layout. Even commentary calls it out. DDT from Bigelow. Awesome takes some shots on the announce table. Bigelow slips and falls while trying to take a bump against the stairs. Awesome goes under the ring and gets a table. He props it up vertically against the ring apron, then sets Bigelow up in front of it. Charge and Bigelow backdrops Awesome into the table. Bigelow sets Awesome onto the ambulance hood, then tears the siren lights off the roof and tries to use them as a weapon. Awesome gets the lights and hits Bigelow with them. Bigelow falls THROUGH THE ROOF into the ambulance! Well, he's in the ambulance. Awesome wins. Total trash match, but pretty clever finish. 3/4*

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Gen. Rection (c) def The Franchise by DQ in 9:46- Given what these two have been doing separately in the ring lately this is looking like the anti-worker's title. Random crowd jersey observation: dude in the Emmitt Smith jersey in Redskins country. Bravest man in Washington. Though not as much as my recent Disney World trip. Guy wearing an Acolyte shirt in Batuu, that was the bravest man in Disney, Orlando and probably central Florida that day. Respect for him standing up for his opinions, even if The Acolyte is irredeemable trash and a cancerous polyp on the ass of Star Wars. Anyway. Sadly that rant will probably be more entertaining than anything in this match. Douglas attacks Rection from behind before the bell. Stomps and chokes in the corner. Chops start to fire Rection up and he gives Douglas some receipt chops. Clothesline from Rection and THE MIA SHIRT IS OFF. Not on the level of Angle, or even Nash, taking the straps down. Rection gears up for a big avalanche or something in the corner. Douglas pulls ref Lil' Naitch in the way and Rection hits the brakes. Going the other way Rection hits a corner clothesline and they go to the floor for some of the usual ringside knockaround. Douglas pulls the middle rope up into Rection's crotch as he's getting back in the ring. Three times in case anyone missed the point. Rection quickly starts to hulk up again and hooks on a bear hug. Once again, it's so hilarious commentary trying to hype up Hugh freaking Morris as some kind of super babyface. Douglas bites to get free, but runs right into another bear hug. Douglas falls on his shoulders and Rection gets a near fall, then lets go of the hold. No, just a reposition. It's back on. Douglas again bites and bell rings out, then tries a slam but Rection falls on top of him for 2. Setup slam and Rection goes up top. Douglas pops up and knocks him back down into the ring. Reverse neck snap from Douglas. Piledriver. Swinging neckbreaker and an extremely slow cover for 2. Now Douglas puts on the neck crank. After Rection gets free he hits the ropes and Douglas flat misses a clothesline swing that Rection sells anyway. Press slam from Rection and Douglas goes to the floor. Rection picks Douglas up on the floor, then it looks like inadvertently hits Douglas' head against the ring post. And WCW at this time didn't have those smooth posts, there's that little bit on the back like an extra leg or something. That's what Douglas hit, and it cut him open. Planned or not, Rection runs with it and pounds on the cut. Another weak slam from Rection. He goes for the moonsault but Douglas dodges. He gets his chain out of his tights. Rection ducks a chain shot and hits a back suplex. Now ex-MIA member Chavo comes out. He picks the chain up and tosses it to Douglas. Douglas goes to use it, but Lil' Naitch sees it and calls for a DQ. Think Douglas fell for one of the classic Guerrero setups there. After the bell Douglas attacks Rection with the chain, then punches out Chavo when he tries to get involved. Franchiser for both guys. Now what's left of MIA runs in to make the save. Right on the level of the matches these two have been putting on the past 6 months or longer. DUD

 

Hahahaha another 1997 style Glacier promo, just like at Mayhem. "Glacier is coming.....again". At least it's self aware. 

 

Bunkhouse Brawl Street Fight: The Harris Brothers & Jeff Jarrett def The Filthy Animals (w/Tygress) in 12:35- You read that right, this is an attempt to merge a Bunkhouse Brawl and Filthy Animals themed street fight into one genetic freak of a match, like a crazed science experiment. There's all kinds of crap around the ring, including a chair with some weapons under it, a wheelbarrow, I kid you know a full popcorn machine, and a graffiti covered trash can. To top it off there's a literal bar inside the ring, with two stools. Oh hell, there's a shopping cart full of smashed aluminum cans too. Who put this together? Jarrett tosses the trash can at the Animals during their entrance and it's on with everyone brawling all over the place. The Harrisies break the bar stools over Konnan and Kidman's heads. Someone tosses the shopping cart toward the ring and the smashed cans go freaking everywhere. Oh great, Tygress is on commentary again. That went so well last time. Turns out there's two graffiti trash cans and Mysterio and Jarrett get in a sword fight with them in the ring. After a couple of minutes it reaches a point where they've already used so much stuff everyone's kind of wandering around not sure what to do next. Kidman stuffs Jarrett's face in the popcorn machine and the popcorn goes everywhere. Pity the ring crew having to clean all this up. Mysterio hits the shitty bronco buster on both Harrisi. Jarrett blocks it with a boot to the crotch. Jarrett sets Kidman up for a superplex through the bar. Mysterio low blows Jarrett, then he and Kidman slam Jarrett through the bar! Another big one for the cleanup crew. That thing was not small. I don't understand how they didn't save that for the finish, now they have to clear all that debris out of the ring before they can do anything else. One of the Harrises gets bulldogged into a trash can. Mysterio splashes a large wrong way sign into the Harriseseses. Kidman and Mysterio hit a few of their double teams, with the ref having to do a crazy dance to get out of the way. Madden says it's "lucha spots in the middle of Vietnam", his one decent line for the night. Overall he hasn't been *quite* as bad as usual tonight though. Still painful to listen to most of the time, but not quite as painful. After some cool back and forth stuff Jarrett drops Mysterio out of the ring into a plastic dumpster! The heels get Kidman isolated and works him over. For some reason the ref decides to start enforcing tags and the heels start doing it. Tony thinks it's ludicrous and I'm with him on that. Kidman stays in peril as they start to work a more normal tag match because they've already run out of weapons. Kidman does his faceplant powerbomb counter but the tag is cut off. I still can't believe this has suddenly turned into a normal match out of nowhere. Jarrett puts the sleeper on. Arm drops and Kidman fights back up. He puts a sleeper on Jarrett, flips out of the counter, and hits a Dudley Dog style bulldog. Tag to Konnan. Mysterio is still dead in the dumpster by the way. Hot tag rolling clotheslines on everyone from Konnan, but then the Harrisi hit him with the H-Bomb. Here comes a table. Already smashed that whole damn bar, I don't think a table is going to impress anyone now. Mysterio is alive and out of the dumpster with a broom. He clotheslines the Harriseseses off the top rope with it. Guess we're back to the plunder brawl. Jarrett gets set up on the table, after some repositioning. The Harrises catch Mysterio and slam him through the table! Kidman comes in with a missile dropkick on Jarrett, then he low bridges the Harrises out. Sit out powerbomb on Jarrett. Kid Crusher! Kidman drags Jarrett to the corner. A Harris hits Kidman with a bottle! Jarrett hits the Stroke and gets the pin. A decent chaos plunder brawl, but it needed some serious rethinking and massaging in the layout department. **1/4

 

Bagwell is in the back with DeWayne Bruce. In early '90s WCW he wrestled under the name Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, but for years now he's been the head trainer at WCW's Power Plant wrestling school, where he's affectionately, or "affectionately", known as Sarge. Sarge hypes up the young guys in general, but specifically calls out Goldberg for extra praise. Before he can get much further Lex Luger comes in and attacks him! Bagwell quickly ushers Luger off. 

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Insiders def The Perfect Event (c) (w/Mike Sanders) in 12:04- Nash and DDP defeated Perfect Event for the tag titles at Mayhem, but right after on Nitro WCW Commissioner and Perfect Event's Natural Born Thrillers stablemate Mike Sanders reversed the decision and handed the belts back to his partners in a blatant show of heel corruption. So we're running the exact same match back this PPV, no additional stipulations or anything. Well, I spoke too soon. After all the entrances WCW CEO Ric Flair comes out and tells Sanders that he may have a manager's license, but if he takes "one step toward the ring" then Perfect Event forfeit the match and the Insiders win the titles. Managers usually stand right next to the ring, how could he take an additional step toward the ring? Then as he's leaving Flair quickly corrects himself to "one foot in the ring". Better. Of course Sanders interfered in the last match without ever getting in the ring. Nash and Palumbo start. Lockup! Palumbo takes the corner cheap shot and pounds Nash down. Nash reverses a corner whip and hits a trio of corner clotheslines. Usual Nash corner knees and elbows. Palumbo fires back with a clothesline and celebrates. Nash dodges an elbow drop, tags out, and DDP comes in with a clothesline off the top rope on Palumbo for 2. Palumbo grabs the ropes and bails to regroup. Back in Stasiak and DDP do some back and forth stuff with a ton of corner whip reversals. DDP slides down and crotches Stasiak on the post, but then Stasiak jumps him getting back in the ring. DDP belly to belly suplex for 2. Stasiak pushes out of a Diamond Cutter attempt, but coming back off the ropes DDP hits a uranage for 2. DDP calls for the Cutter. Palumbo comes in and superkicks him to save Stasiak. That puts DDP in peril, just like the last match. Like Nash was ever going to do this part of the match. DDP tries to fight off a double team but Palumbo belly to bellys him for 2. Another comeback attempt is cut off by a Palumbo knee to the gut. He mockingly lets DDP get halfway across the ring before kicking him back, then they work the ref so Stasiak can choke DDP in the corner. DDP tries to fight out of the corner, then falls on Stasiak's crotch. Another DDP fight out of the corner. Discus lariat on Palumbo. Stand up slugfest and both guys hit punches and go down. That got the crowd into it. Palumbo goes to a desperation low blow to keep DDP from tagging. One last push off from DDP and the tag is made! Nash hits side suplexes on both guys. 360 clothesline on Stasiak. Big boot for Palumbo. Sanders low blows DDP on the floor. Didn't get in the ring, still got involved. Stasiak hits a clothesline off the top rope on Nash and Palumbo jackknife covers him for a long 2. Sanders has also put one of the tag belts in the ring. Sanders gets on the apron and Nash punches him off. Was that one foot in the ring? Nash should have let him in, that would have been the match. Belt shot from Stasiak on Nash. DDP blocks a belt shot on the floor and Cutters Stasiak, then pulls Palumbo off Nash. The other Natural Born Thrillers guys come out. DDP overcomes the numbers to take them out. Another Nash big boot on Palumbo. The straps are down. Jackknife and the Insiders win the titles again. Good formula tag stuff, definitely better than the Mayhem match. The crowd was even into most of it, very much a rarity in 2000 WCW. DDP makes a great Ricky Morton in tag matches. ***

 

No Holds Barred: Goldberg def "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 7:17- Last month they seemed to be building to a Goldberg/Steiner World title match for Starrcade, which would have been as much a Starrcade worthy main event as the company was capable of putting on right now, but in the interim Sid decided to come back and got thrown right back in the title picture, so we're getting this rematch from Mayhem instead. As was the case the last couple of PPVs, Goldberg is still under old orders from Russo that he must match his original streak or he's fired. Luger tries to hide on the floor but Goldberg tracks him down and attacks him to get things going. Announce table shots for Luger as Goldberg gives him the usual ringside knockaround. In the ring for the first time, Luger tries to reverse a whip but Goldberg just short clotheslines him instead. He hits his armdrag suplex and Luger begs off. Powerslam. Luger rolls out and says he's done. Goldberg jumps him again in the aisle. Luger slips off Goldberg's shoulder and pushes him into the post, literally Luger's first offense the whole match. Goldberg dodges a chairshot. Sarge makes his way out to ringside, looking for revenge from Luger's earlier attack, with Bagwell trying to talk him out of it. While they argue Goldberg hits a tackle in the ring and sets up for the spear. Like the last match, Luger pulls the ref in the way, but this time Goldberg sees and stops. Bagwell pulls the ref away from Luger, but Luger hides in the ropes to avoid the spear. Sarge tries to take a shot at Luger but Luger beats him to it. Oh, Luger's got his brass knucks out. That's why Sarge went down so quick. Knucks shot for Goldberg while the ref is still with Bagwell. Cover and Goldberg, of course, kicks out. Now Bagwell is in the ring set up for the Blockbuster. Gee, I wonder what's going to happen here. Luger ducks and Bagwell Blockbusters Goldberg. It seemingly wasn't intentional, Bagwell is pissed at himself for missing. Luger tosses Bagwell out. Luger calls for the Torture Rack. Goldberg hooks the top rope to block it. Swinging neckbreaker. Meanwhile on the floor, Bagwell takes Sarge out. Maybe he meant it after all. Spear on Luger. Bagwell is choking Sarge. Jackhammer and LOL Goldberg wins again. They saw how much the last match sucked so they overbooked the shit out of this one. I suppose it moderately helped. 1/2*

 

After the bell Bagwell lays Goldberg out with a chair to officially turn back heel. Yes, this is setting up a tag match at the next PPV believe it or not.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Scott Steiner (c) (w/Midajah) def Sid Vicious in 10:12- That's a lot of unhinged crazy in the ring. I'd like to say the promos leading up to this match were train wreck entertaining horrible, you'd think so with these two, but sadly I don't think there was anything memorable in them. Sid's switched to long tights. Weird. Sid did have a small claim to a title shot after coming back, he was the World champion when the infamous reboot took place in the spring so technically he was never defeated for the title. Quick start from Steiner at the bell and he lays in some fairly stiff looking shots. Sid reverses in the corner and Sid hits mounted punches, then blocks Steiner's counter attempt and hits a clothesline. Another clothesline and side suplex. Steiner quickly gets out of a cover before 1 and gets the hell out of town to get some space. Back in Steiner wants a test of strength. Sid goes for it and Steiner quickly puts him down. And there we stay for a while. Guess that start was too quick for them. Eventually Sid gets up and uses the position to hit a northern lights suplex for 2. A smart counter? From SID? I'm aghast. Flummoxed even. Legdrop from Sid for 2. Big boot and Sid clotheslines Steiner 360 to the floor. Out there Steiner begs off and Midajah hits Sid with the lead pipe. Steiner gets a chair and works Sid over with it. Is that a kid in the front row with a Kordell Stewart jersey? Slash! Loved that guy. Back in Steiner hits the Steinerline/elbow drop combo and does some push ups. Backbreaker and Steiner poses and jaws with the fans. Belly to belly suplex. The Steiner Recliner is on. Sid's too close to the ropes and gets a rope break. Suplex from Steiner and he puts the Recliner on again. Sid starts to power up. Midajah get on the top rope and goes for a crossbody, but Sid ducks and Steiner takes it. Sid hits the chokeslam, but can't cover right away and Steiner kicks out. Commentary is definitely in "we know this sucks so we're trying even harder to act like it's some huge epic" mode. Sid puts on a cobra clutch. Steiner's lead pipe is also laying in the ring. Steiner flat punches out bald ref so he can't submit, then Sid slams him. Cover but no ref. Midajah distracts Sid and Steiner whacks him in the back with the pipe. More pipe shots. Lil' Naitch runs in to count and Sid kicks out. Now Jeff Jarrett is out here. Sid ducks the guitar shot and Steiner takes it. Jarrett pulls Lil' Naitch out before he can count 3, but Naitch does an awesome little dodge to slide back in the ring and count again. The extra time let Steiner kick out. Sid hooks up for the powerbomb. Steiner low blows to get free, then hits a straight Greco Roman Nut Punt. Again, WCW refs letting all that go. T-bone suplex. The Recliner is on again. Sid passes out and Naitch calls it. Typical Sid main event, and Steiner wasn't exactly setting the world on fire either. 1/4*

 

OVERALL SHOW GRADE- This show was actually fairly well received when it took place and even gets some decent more modern reviews, but the only real plus I can see is it's slightly better than most of the rest of 2000 WCW. Not a ringing endorsement. It does have one of the best ladder matches in WCW history, which isn't nothing, but the bulk of the show is some variation or another on the usual end of life WCW trash. So closes WCW's final full year of existence. The company will zombie lurch into 2001 with a few more months of life, while rumors started to swirl about exactly what the future held.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

Mayhem 2000

Legacy Review

Mayhem 2000

November 26, 2000 from the MECCA in Milwaukee, WI

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Stevie Ray and Mark Madden

 

We're now officially into the post-Russo portion of end of life WCW. As I mentioned the last review, Russo suffered a concussion after booking himself to be World champion for a week in October (the less said about that the better), knew the company was in an irreversible death spiral and decided the best long term move for him was to stay home and milk it for all it was worth. He'd never return to WCW. In his absence, booking has been undertaken by even more of a committee than usual for the company. Reports vary, but I think most agree the most prominent figures putting these final PPVs together were John "Johnny Ace" Laurinaitis and Terry Taylor. Not a bad combo really. Both were successful veteran wrestlers, Taylor in particular was one of those guys that almost never had a bad match in his life, and both would go on to have prominent and longtime backstage roles in WWE. But these ships are not course changed overnight.

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Mike Sanders (c) def Kwee Wee (w/Paisley) in 7:47- Sanders' nickname is "Above Average" which is so hilarious. It's like if Daniel Bryan started proudly calling himself a B+ player instead of having it put on him as an insult. Double hilarious because if you look at Sanders' career calling it even average is a stretch. Sanders takes a mic before the bell, says some stuff and slaps Wee. Wee responds with a running Thesz press as the bell rings. Speed run and Wee hits a hiptoss/dropkick combo and clotheslines Sanders 360 to the floor. Sanders has already had enough and teases taking a walk, then calls out his Natural Born Thrillers stablemates. All 28 of them. Mark Jindrak hits Wee with a clothesline off the top rope and the group work the ref to do the gang beatdown. Jindrak and Stasiak lift Wee up on the floor and Sanders grabs him in the ring and powerslams him! OK, that was pretty cool. Meanwhile, Paisley's gone to get some help and here comes Meng, complete with the huge '70s afro he was sporting at the time. All of NBT against Meng? NBT's gonna need some more guys to make it even. If it was a real fight. The complete focus on TV is Meng fighting off the NBT guys and we see nothing of what's going on in the ring. Now new WCW CEO Ric Flair comes out with security to break the fight up and get everyone but the wrestlers in the match back to the back. Finally cut back to the match with Sanders hitting a snap mare/PK combo. And then it's chinlock time. Couldn't you have done that while all the outside fighting was going on? That's below average planning, not above average. Wee hits a springboard sunset flip for 2. Sanders pops back up with a clothesline and puts on a cobra clutch. Wee gets free and hits a Saito suplex. Slugfest while Madden and Ray bitch at each other to the point I'm already sick of them one match in. Kneelift and clothesline from Wee as he starts up the comeback. Mounted punches. He goes for a sunset bomb on the floor. Sanders blocks it and turns it into a hurricanrana on the floor! Two cool moves in this, I'll give them that. Paisley gets on the apron and slaps Sanders. Then she takes off her afro wig, gives it to Wee, and Wee tries to put it on Sanders (it falls off) and punches him. I guess that's a thing for Wee but not watching weekly TV I don't get it at all. Paisley then comes in and hits a handspring elbow in full view of the ref. Guess we're still doing the Russo "relaxed DQ" thing. Sanders flips over Wee, hits the 3.0, and that gets the pin. We only saw half the match because of all the focus on the extras brawling on the floor, and the second half we did see was only passable at best. Not above average. *1/4

 

Mean Gene is in the back with Flair, who declares from now on "unless you're in a featured match" (definition?) there's no one allowed at ringside, other than valets and managers. Any more caveats you want to throw in there?

 

Elsewhere, Disco Inferno (in a Randy Moss jersey) is complaining that his back is hurting and is negotiating with KroniK to replace him teaming with Alex Wright tonight. KroniK says he's got enough money to get one of them for 15 minutes. Disco splits the difference and says he'll take both of them for 7 minutes and 30 seconds tonight. KroniK agrees, but not "one second more".

 

Back with Mean Gene, Evan Karagias and Jamie Knoble bond over their shared North Carolinian heritage, until Knoble realizes the hot cheerleader Karagias is bragging about boinking in high school is Knoble's sister.

 

Three Way Dance: 3 Count def The Jung Dragons (w/Leia Meow) and Evan Karagias & Jamie Knoble in 10:54- These two eternally feuding trios have broken apart to form three regular sized teams, with Karagias leaving 3 Count and Knoble unmasking, revealing himself as not at all Japanese and leaving the Dragons. There's a loud "boring" chant during the remaining 3 Count members' prematch promo. The Dragons jump Knoble & Karagias (K&K) during their entrance and the big brawl is on. The Dragons and 3 Count do some fun stereo back and forth stuff in the ring for a bit until the Dragons backdrop 3C over the top to the floor. Knoble hits a plancha while Karagias takes over on Yang in the ring as things settle in. Powerslam from Karagias for 2. Then he decides to do some dancing, allowing Yang to tag out to Shane Helms in this tag anyone three way match. The former partners go nose to nose, shove and slug it out. Thesz press from Karagias. It's so cool how Austin made that an in vogue move again for a bit. We need more of it today. Big "3 Count sucks" from the crowd. K&K double back elbow Helms and Knoble does some arm work on him. The future Hurricane and trailer trash Noble do some decent back and forth stuff. Knoble has to fight out of the 3C corner. 3C hit a back suplex double team for 2. Noble counters a Moore fameasser attempt into a powerbomb, but then quickly gets taken out by Yang as the Dragons take over on Moore. Hayashi does some nice dodging and hits a spinning backbreaker. Moore hits him with a fameasser and tags out to Helms. Helms hits a straitjacket German suplex for 2. Hayashi gets a small package, but the ref is distracted. Moore comes in and reverses it for 2. Gutwrench suplex from Helms. He goes up top and gets a sunset flip, but Hayashi rolls through it and hits a great KO kick to Helms head. Tags to both teammates. Yang goes full on hadouken on Moore. He hit the pose for it. K&K come in and Yang takes them both out, but then gets neckbreakered from behind my Moore for 2. We go into a "hit a move, cover, pin broken up, that guy hits a move, repeat" sequence. And then we smoothly transition into EVERYONE DIVE time. Leia Meow even gets in on the action, diving off the top rope onto everyone. Knoble goes under the ring and gets a ladder. Yang tries to keep both K&K guys from bringing the ladder in, then DDTs Moore in the ring. Helms uses Yang on the top rope and a launch to big splash Knoble! The Dragons go for a Doomsday Device that gets countered into a double pin situation that was a bit of a mess and even had the ref confused. Thankfully everyone kicked out. 3C hit a double team neckbreaker on Hayashi and that gets the pin. Fun spotfest from six motivated young guys that, unlike the rest of the roster, have mostly delivered every time out. ***

 

As soon as the match ends Tony says "Hang on, we have something going on in the back". Cut to the back and Bam Bam Bigelow is assaulting Mike Awesome with a chair. Sgt. AWOL makes the save. 

 

Mancow (w/entourage) def Jimmy Hart in 1:38- Lord help us we're really doing this again. Back at Spring Stampede in Mancow's hometown of Chicago these two had a "match". I can't believe we're running this back again. Copy and paste from my Spring Stampede review because that's all he deserves: "Thankfully he's faded into obscurity now, so for the 95% of those reading that blissfully don't know, Mancow was one of the more successful Howard Stern wannabe shock jocks in the '90s. Just hearing his name could almost force me to have an involuntary eye roll strong enough to cause whiplash, much less hearing his voice". Mancow's got his clan of freaks with him again, and again I don't give a rat's testicles who any of them are. Hart comes out with a cast on his leg trying to claim he's hurt from their last match. Taking as long to heal as Cowboy Bob Orton's arm. Or Bianca Belair's finger. Seriously, what the hell is going on with that? Mancow says "You're just like Al Gore, you don't know when the hell to go away. I'm George W Bush and I already beat your ass!". Topical. And proof that just because I agree with someone politically doesn't automatically mean I like them. And vice versa. He also blows his "hanging chad" line. Hart tries to attack with the crutch and Mancow's goons swarm him. 3 Count then come out to help Hart, allowing Hart to get on top. Mancow hits Hart with a crutch and takes Hart's fake cast off. With extreme difficulty. Classic Bob Orton cast shot to Hart's head and Mancow wins. Let us never speak of this again. NR

 

After every match so far there's at least three or four rapid fire backstage segments. Nothing has time to breathe and it's almost impossible to stay on top of every little thing that's going on. It's Russo ADD with ADD.

 

Three Way Dance for the WCW Hardcore Championship: Crowbar (c) def Big Vito and Reno in 7:22- Vito and Reno start fighting before Crowbar makes his entrance. Crowbar still looks like a poor man's Kanyon. Vito takes control early with kendo stick and belt shots. He then goes in his bag and gets.....a traffic cone? And a baseball bat. He puts the cone in Reno's crotch and hits it with the bat. Oh, I guess that's how you use a traffic cone in a hardcore match. Fair enough. Then he puts a trash can lid over Crowbar's groin and hits it. I'm sensing a pattern. Reno then hits some can lid shots, and Crowbar actually pulls out a wrestling move, German suplexing Reno. More back and forth weapon shots. Crowbar and Reno decide to team up on Vito. They have a hell of a time setting up and getting in correct position before double flapjacking Vito into a trash can. Vito takes control back with kendo shots on the floor as some "boring" chants echo around. Reno and Vito go through the curtain to the back. Reno clears off a catering table and powerslams Vito through it. Some woman stops Reno from hitting Vito with a chair. Commentary says "That's Marie!". Who the smeg is Marie? Crowbar comes from behind, hits Reno with a chair, and gets the pin. 3/4*

 

Handicap Match: The Filthy Animals (w/Tygress) def KroniK & Alex Wright (w/Disqo) in 7:48- Earlier tonight Mysterio said Konnan isn't here because he partied too hard last night. I'm not joking. That makes it him and Kidman in a handicap match. Remember, Disco paid KroniK to wrestle for exactly 7 minutes and 30 seconds in his place tonight. Tygress is the first person to take the #4 spot in commentary tonight. Wright and Kidman start. No, Wright tags out to Adams. Adams tosses Kidman around when he can get his hands on him. Kidman gets his pop up hurricanrana and an armdrag. Between hitting on Tygress and being annoyed by Disco commentary is paying zero attention to the match. Adams tosses Kidman again out of the corner and presses him up. Kidman eye rakes to get free and puts a sleeper on. Adams easily flips him over into a full nelson and slams him. Now Wright wants to tag in. He covers Kidman for 2. Wright knocks Kidman around and hits a nice dropkick. Kidman dodges in the corner and hits a springboard flying headscissors. Tags on both sides. Now Clarke tosses Mysterio and his stupid devil horns around. Mysterio uses his agility to faceplant Clarke and hit a springboard legdrop for 2. He goes for another springboard and easily gets caught and slammed. KroniK has a stopwatch in the corner, keeping track of the time they've worked. Sit out powerbomb from Clarke on Mysterio, but he doesn't go for a pin. He hooks Mysterio up for the Meltdown, but again Wright wants to tag in now the opponent is down. Vertical suplex from Wright, and he tags right back out. Big boot from Adams on Mysterio. Wright tags in just to cover again. Mysterio comes back with a flying headscissors but Wright puts him back down with a clothesline. Wright goes to tag out, but the clock has expired! KroniK's work is done tonight. The Animals take advantage and double team Wright. The ref doesn't even try to stop it. Kidman hits a sit out powerbomb. They hit their version of the Dudleyz Whazzup Drop, and that gets the pin. Predictable, stupid and commentary the whole match was almost physically painful. *

 

Scott Steiner tells Booker T "death is ratings". I think he meant waiting. Little known Steinerism for you there. 

 

Ernest "The Cat" Miller (w/Ms Jones) def The Franchise (w/Torrie Wilson) in 8:01- To say my expectations are low for this match is an understatement. Douglas, normally an OK wrestler, has been the drizzling shits lately and Miller has never been anything else, at least in the ring. We don't even have Torrie in a Wonder Woman outfit to help us get through it this time. Jump start with Miller in control, kicking Douglas out to the floor. Douglas gets in Jones' face and takes a kick to the head from her. Miller tosses Douglas on the announce table, then goes after Madden! Hell yes, get his ass! If Miller gets Madden off commentary I'll take back just about every bad thing I've ever said about his wrestling acumen, or lack thereof. Torrie grabs Miller's foot as he gets back in the ring, allowing Douglas to ambush him. Ray is still laughing about Madden getting taken out. Douglas hits a suplex, then continues the trend tonight with a straight Greco Roman Nut Stomp right in front of the ref. Torrie gets another shot in. Sadly, Madden is back on commentary. Snap mare into a neck crank from Douglas. After some more dull Douglas offense Miller fights back with throat thrusts and does some mounted punches. Douglas counters with an inverted atomic drop. Another suplex from Douglas and he takes forever to cover for 2. Back to the neck crank. Two way speed run, Miller damn near clotheslines himself on the top rope by ducking too low, and Douglas gets a sunset flip. Miller fights it off, dances and hits an elbow drop. A couple more shots from Miller for near falls. The Feliner kick hits! But Miller doesn't cover, he just collapses next to the ropes. Jones literally pushes him on top for 2. Torrie goes over to Jones and we have our cat fight. They get all the way in the ring and Jones puts Torrie in a chokehold. Ref Lil' Naitch gets her out and we see Douglas has a chain in his hand. He waffles Miller with it. Miller barely gets a foot on the rope before 3. Lil' Naitch pushes Douglas into a roll up for 2. Douglas stomps away on Miller. He goes for a DDT but Miller uses the ropes to block it. Jones goes in her briefcase and puts the Red Shoe of Dancing Death on Miller. Feliner kick with the shoe and that gets the pin. I suppose that could have been a hell of a lot worse, so expectations met I guess. 1/2*

 

Jeff Jarrett discovers ALL HIS GUITARS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED backstage! He has no idea what the hell to do now.

 

PROMO FOR GLACIER! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, 1997? The funny thing is that's exactly how commentary reacts too. Madden actually has some pretty decent shoot comments about Glacier and his history.

 

Bam Bam Bigelow def Sgt. AWOL in 5:42- Bigelow was supposed to wrestle Awesome but Bigelow took him out earlier tonight. Bigelow comes out, gets a mic and says Awesome's in the hospital so he wins by forfeit. CEO Flair comes out and says that's not happening, calling in AWOL as a replacement. Lockup! First one tonight. AWOL pounds Bigelow down and bites him in the corner. Bigelow comes back with a knee to the gut and Samoan drop for 2. Awesome gets a boot up in the corner to get control again with his scintillating kicky chokey offense. He hooks on a chinlock and climbs up the ropes for leverage, then hits Bigelow with a clothesline off the second rope for 2. AWOL goes for a Saito suplex but Bigelow twists into a cover for 2. DDT and Bigelow goes up top. AWOL dodges the headbutt. Slow motion back and forth stuff follows. Bigelow scoops AWOL up for his finisher but AWOL slips free and hits a heart punch. Instead of covering, AWOL goes out and gets his table. Spinebuster from AWOL. He hooks up for a chokeslam. Bigelow gets free, hits Greetings from Asbury Park, and gets the pin. The table stays unbroken. Bigelow drops to the mat after and the ref calls for help. They do the full stretcher job for Bigelow. Legit or not, I don't know, but Bigelow certainly looked past it during the match. Given the fact Bigelow wrestled again at Starrcade I'm thinking it's all a work. 1/4*

 

Buff Bagwell says that Jarrett has no guitars, and that means he has no game plan. Smartest damn thing Bagwell ever did in his life.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Gen. Rection def Lance Storm (c) (w/Major Gunns) in 6:24- This is one of the longest running feuds in the company right now. Jim Duggan did his silly turn to Team Canada in their first match at Fall Brawl, then Rection won the title in a handicap match by pinning Duggan at Halloween Havoc. Storm's since won the title back again on Nitro, and after being a "captive" for months Gunns is now fully on his side. Canadian Stockholm Syndrome. He's also coming in with taped up ribs. Storm claims he's wrestling against doctor's orders, with cracked ribs and a bulging disc. He said disc. No one knows where these supposed injuries came from. Maybe he got in a bar fight with a bunch of Marines. BIGELOW POPS OFF HIS STRETCHER AND ATTACKS RECTION! HE'S ALIVE! Guess that really answers the work or not question. The bell rings and Storm picks the bones of Rection's carcass on the floor. Back in Rection tries to fight back but Storm eye rakes him, then hits a basement dropkick. He starts working on Rection's knee. Post shots for the knee. Rection uses that to push Storm into the barricade and get his first shots in. Storm kicks the knee out again. Back in Storm goes for the half crab to finish it but Rection gets to the ropes before it's on. Storm stays 100% focused on the knee. He tries some kind of corner slide but misses and crotches himself on the post. Gunns doesn't like that and grabs Rection, allowing Storm to clip the knee again. Suplex from Storm for 2. He hits the superkick, but then runs into a powerslam. Guess the knee's OK. Rection goes up top for the moonsault. Gunns gets up and shakes the rope to crotch him. Rection fights Storm off, goes up again, hits the moonsault and gets the pin to win back the title. Lame. It's a testament to how desperate WCW was at this point that they were trying to push Hugh f'n Morris to the moon as some kind of incredible, all-American never say die babyface. The match layout was as basic as you could get too: good guy gets attacked before the bell, spends the whole match having his knee worked on, then shakes it off and comes back to win with a handful of moves. 3/4*

 

Jeff Jarrett def Buff Bagwell in 11:08- Jarrett looks naked without a guitar. Random crowd observation: being in the middle ground of Milwaukee there's both Packers and Bears jerseys in the crowd. Good thing they're not sitting next to each other. Lockup! Bagwell easily wins and does his usual strut and pose. Jarrett gets the first real shots in. Bagwell fires back with the running swinging neckbreaker. Vader bomb for 2. They do a hiptoss reversal sequence and Bagwell hiptosses Jarrett over the top to the floor. Bagwell takes one of Jarrett's foam guitars from a fan and hits Jarrett with it. Jarrett sort of sells it. TV cable choke from Bagwell. Jarrett low blows to get free. He gets a chair and works Bagwell over with it. Back in Jarrett hits a Jerry Lawler shoutout fistdrop off the second rope. He hooks the sleeper on. We go to arm drops and Bagwell fights back up. Sleeper from Bagwell and Jarrett quickly back suplexes free. He goes for another fistdrop off the second rope but falls into Bagwell's boot. Running forearm and clothesline from Bagwell. Double underhook DDT. Bagwell calls for the Blockbuster and goes up. Jarrett ducks and Bagwell splats on the mat! That actually looked good. Bagwell gets a boot up in the corner, hops up again, but instead of the Blockbuster grabs Jarrett for a tornado DDT for 2. Jarrett slides under Bagwell and takes the ref out. Bald ref selling the HELL out of his leg barely getting grazed. Jarrett grabs another chair. David Flair randomly comes in and DDTs Jarrett onto the chair. Bagwell comes back in and covers for 2. Bagwell goes up top and hits a crossbody, but Jarrett rolls through it for 2. Reverse DDT from Bagwell for a long 2. Bagwell ducks a Jarrett crossbody attempt and Jarrett falls out to the floor. But it seems planned as he goes under the ring and gets....a frakking guitar. Of course. Guitar shot, cover and Jarrett gets the win. I quote again: "Broke ten thousand guitars, never drew a dime". *3/4

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Insiders def The Perfect Event (c) in 14:54- DDP recently returned from injury and formed a new superteam with Kevin Nash called the Insiders. Double meaning here, both playing off the Nash/Hall Outsiders name, and one of those insider term references that were all the rage in these days. This is also a deep cut for longtime fans. Way back in 1991 DDP was a full time manager and part time still in training wrestler, and he led a stable in WCW called the Diamond Mine. Nash, in his Vinnie Vegas persona, was part of that group. Who else was? Scott Hall, then known as the Diamond Studd. Perfect Event NTB teammate and, as much as it mattered, current WCW Commissioner Mike Sanders joins commentary before the match. Nash has finally ditched the Wolfpac colors and looks more like Diesel again. The other members of NTB come out with Perfect Event despite Flair's edict. Can a Commisioner overrule a CEO? Oh, the NTB guys are all wearing security shirts. I guess that's the loophole. Big "We want Hall" chant from the crowd after the bell. Sorry, he's looooooooong gone. Nash and Palumbo start. Lockup and quick Nash start. He goes for the jackknife right away and Palumbo gets the hell out of town. Another lockup back in, much more contested this time. Palumbo gets a cheap shot in the corner and goes wild on Nash. Nash responds with his own usual corner shots. Corner clothesline. He catches Palumbo floating over and hits snake eyes. His old Vinnie Vegas finisher. Stasiak tries to come in but the Insiders clear the ring. Madden says Nash "only has three moves". He's insufferably annoying 95% of the time, but he's had a few good shoot comment nuggets tonight. The NTB "security" guys try to come in but the Insiders fight them off. Here comes CEO Flair with Doug Dellinger and the REAL WCW security team. They get most of the NTB guys out, but Sanders shows Flair a card and Flair lets him stay out. Apparently he has a manager's license now. After all that reset in the ring with DDP and Stasiak. DDP works around into a hammerlock. Stasiak crouches down and gets a leg takedown to get free. Speed run and after some counters DDP hits a clothesline. The Insiders bounce Stasiak around with punches. Palumbo then hits DDP from the apron, distracting him enough to let Stasiak hit a DDT for 2. Swinging neckbreaker. Double slingshot suplex from Perfect Event for 2. Discus lariat from DDP but Stasiak breaks the pin up and the champs keep him in peril. Superkick from Palumbo and Nash literally tackles him out of the cover. DDP sunset flips Stasiak and pulls his tights down. Way more than any of us needed to see. Clothesline from Stasiak for 2. Leaping back elbow for 2. Palumbo hits a tackle off the top rope for 2. DDP gets trapped in the wrong corner and tries to fight out, but Palumbo drop toe holds him to keep him from tagging. Stasiak hooks on a front facelock so we all see what's coming. Yup, there's the phantom tag spot. Palumbo puts on a sleeper. DDP fights free and puts on his own sleeper, then hits some kind of slam for 2. Commentary's "What was that?" was a pretty legit reaction I think. DDP barely gets a tag to Nash. Hot tag run time. Side suplexes for everyone. And big boots. The straps are down. DDP comes in and Diamond Cutters Palumbo while Nash hits Stasiak with the jackknife. Sanders pulls the ref out before 3. DDP Cutters Sanders, the ref gets back in and Stasiak has been so killed by the jackknife Nash still pins him to win the titles. OK formula tag stuff once they got all the NTB stuff out of the way. **

 

Goldberg def "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 5:50- They're paying Buffer to work two matches tonight. The way this is set up it seems like a de facto #1 contender's match for the World title. With Russo gone Luger's gotten his real name back. They're still doing the angle where Goldberg has to match his original undefeated streak or he's fired. Lockup and Goldberg cranks arm wringers that are SO CRANKED that Luger takes a rope break. Reset lockup and Goldberg goes to the arm again. This time Luger fights free and hits a back suplex. Goldberg pops right back up, completely no selling it. Luger begs off and tries to hide in the corner, then eye rakes Goldberg and hits a clothesline. Again Goldberg shrugs it off and pounds Luger down in the corner. Luger hits a running forearm with the STEEL PLATE OF DOOM that is either there or not there depending on what the story calls for. Then he clotheslines Goldberg 360 to the floor. Back in Luger hits some more shots until Goldberg reverses a whip, hits a powerslam and does some ground and pound. Goldberg goes for the spear but Luger pulls the ref in the way to take it. Goldberg says fuck it and hits the jackhammer anyway. Bald ref runs in as a backup and counts the pin. That might have been the most pointless ref bump of all time. Just another Goldberg squash match. The bookers are desperately trying to recreate the magic of 1998, while more and more Goldberg proves that's all he is. DUD 

 

Straitjacket Caged Heat Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Scott Steiner (w/Midajah) def Booker T (c) in 13:10- This is a rematch from Halloween Havoc, a match that ended in a DQ when Steiner, brain trust that he is, kept murdering refs before they could give him a win. I said before, but this is a feud that in a different time and place could have been pretty good and something a company in better shape could have built around. Unlike last time it was advertised, Caged Heat is actually taking place in the near HIAC sized Caged Heat cage (not as tall but wide enough to enclose the whole ringside area). The straitjacket part is there's a straitjacket in the cage, but commentary is unclear as to what its purpose is. Steiner attacks Booker as soon as he gets in the cage. As usual, that does not stop Buffer until he's completely done. Booker fights back and runs Steiner into the stairs. He looks under the ring but doesn't find anything, wanders around and finally attacks Steiner again. Getting in the ring Steiner takes back control and pounds Booker down in the corner. We get a fleeting shot of the straitjacket hung off the roof of the cage, purpose still unknown. Booker fires back with a side kick for 2. Steiner blocks a suplex, drops Booker on the top rope and Steinerlines him down to the floor. Booker takes the first cage shot. The bottom is secured much better than previous times they've used it. Steinerline/elbow drop combo back in and Steiner does some push ups. Backbreaker from Steiner. Belly to belly suplex for 2. He hooks on his Steiner Recliner setup butterfly hold. Booker powers free, hits a kick and goes for the scissors kick but it's cut off by a Steinerline. I think they did that exact sequence in the Halloween Havoc match. Steiner puts Booker up to and hits an avalanche Olympic slam. Hi Kurt Angle. Bear hug time. So, anyone going to do anything with that straitjacket thing? No one's even tried for it. Booker tries to fight out so Steiner inverted atomic drops him and hits another Steinerline. Booker comes off the ropes with a running forearm and goes up top. Missile dropkick for 2. Booker puts Steiner down with a forearm and is the first to go for the straitjacket. Steiner grabs him and gives him another Olympic slam. Steiner goes up, slips off, goes up again and gets the straitjacket. As soon as he does Booker grabs him and drops him in an electric chair. Side kick and Booker gets the straitjacket. He starts putting it on Steiner, realizes he's putting it on wrong and takes it off again. Kneedrop and this time Booker starts putting the jacket on Steiner the right way around. He closes the back but doesn't tie the arms, the whole point of the jacket. Booker goes out, gets a chair, and waffles Steiner in the head with it. Steiner tears the arms off the jacket! He was never fully trapped in it in the first place. Steinerline with a 360 sell. The Steiner Recliner is on! Booker grabs a rope, but Steiner pulls him back away. Booker lifts Steiner and drops him on the top rope. Suplex from Steiner. He comes off the second rope...into a Book End! Slow cover and Steiner kicks out! Clotheslines from Booker. Swinging neckbreaker. Another clothesline for 2. The scissors kick hits! Booker's down too and Steiner goes over and gets the chair. Spinaroonie! Chairshot to the head from Steiner! Full nelson slam. The Recliner is on again. Booker goes out! Lil' Naitch calls it and Scott Steiner wins the World title for the first time! Steiner punctuates his win with some chairshots to Booker's bad knee. Fairly decent match, but the whole straitjacket thing was completely pointless other than to weakly tie into the show's promo material, which featured Steiner breaking out of an insane asylum. They also might as well have put the jacket on a pole because the cage barely factored into the match. **1/4

 

That would turn out to be the final World title change under the full WCW banner. The departure of Russo would finally bring some stability here, as Steiner would hold the title for 120 days, the longest World title reign since Goldberg's first one in '98, before dropping it back to Booker on the very last Nitro, after the WWF sale. Booker would then carry it into WWF for the Invasion angle.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Even though Russo is gone, many of the typical 2000 WCW issues persist. On top of that, the biggest problem with this particular show is volume. 12 matches on a B PPV with a strict 3 hour runtime is already too much without some kind of hook like a large tournament, and on top of that there's the multiple rapid fire backstage segments between most every match, some as short at 5-10 seconds. By the time you figure out what you're looking at it's already over and off to the next one. It's like they were trying to cram 2 PPVs worth of material into a single show, which was never going to end well.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D