Great American Bash 2000

Legacy Review

Great American Bash 2000

June 11, 2000 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden

 

We've reached the point in WCW that it's time to start checking off the big last time events. This is the final original run Great American Bash. Starting out as an annual summertime house show/large stadium tour in '85, it became the #2 PPV after Starrcade before being supplanted in importance by Bash at the Beach in the Bischoff era. It would end up being the first WCW PPV name revived by WWE, running as the June or July PPV from 2004-2009, then as a yearly NXT event starting in 2020.

 

The big news coming into tonight's show was the return of Goldberg from injury a couple of weeks prior. When he returned he joined up with Kevin Nash as a new top guys babyface pairing. On the go home Thunder Goldberg was arrested. At the start of the show we see every cop in Baltimore is stationed outside the arena to keep him out. If anyone wants to commit a crime elsewhere in Baltimore, tonight's the night.

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Lieutenant Loco (c) (w/The Misfits in Action) def Disqo (w/The Filthy Animals) in 4:54- Don't let the crazy Russofied names fool you, this is Chavo Guerrero Jr vs Disco Inferno. Before the match Chavo pulls a (toy) grenade out of his pocket he threatens to use on Disco because he's LOCO. If that was a real grenade is was even more loco to keep it in his pocket. Disco's entrance looks like the Black Scorpion is coming out. Disco's wrestling in not just a Kobe Bryant Lakers jersey, he's got the full uniform on. In Baltimore. He never was the most on top of it guy. Chavo opens up with a crazy flippy clothesline. Equally crazy crossbody from Chavo. After some back and forth jockeying for position Disco gives Chavo a hot shot. Chavo floats over in the corner and flying headscissors Disco to the floor, right into the MIA. After thinking about it for a second they do the gang attack and slide Disco back in like it's a lumberjack match. Probably might as well be. Pumphandle slam from Chavo for 2. More counters and Chavo hits a back suplex for 2. Low bridge from Chavo and Disco falls out to the floor again, this time into his own teammates. Crossbody off the top to the floor from Chavo! Chavo ends up on the floor and the Animals work him over before MIA make the save. Disco poses forever then hits an elbow off the second rope for 2. Some older guy wearing an army helmet with general's stars on it makes his way down. Looks like dollar store Patton. Or Bradley. He does look more like a Bradley. Yes I'm shamelessly namedropping WWII generals off the top of my head to show off my knowledge of real history, not just wrestling history. Anyway, Disco hits an inverted atomic drop and clothesline for 2. Russian leg sweep from Disco while the general guy messes with the Animals' token woman whose name I don't even remember. Konnan comes over and shoves him and he becomes General Play Dead after a ridiculous delayed flop. The MIA take issue with that for some reason. Now Juventud Guerrera comes in the ring behind the ref's back. He gives Chavo a reverse DDT then goes for a Dollar General People's Elbow that Chavo dodges. Chavo dropkicks him out to the floor. Disco hits the Last Dance on Chavo, but then one of the MIA guys comes in, drops Disco, and Chavo covers for the pin. The predictable big gang brawl follows. Seen it a million times with Russo already. Then we get some "comedy" T&A hijinks with the general and Major Gunns. 1/2*

 

In the back, the Baltimore PD (half of whom are in this room) assure Bischoff they've got all the entrances covered and nothing will ruin Bischoff's "surprise" for Nash.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship #1 Contender's Match: KroniK def The Mamalukes in 9:20- The Mamalukes are also somehow collectively the Hardcore champ(s). Don't ask, it's Russo. KroniK's graphic says "Kronic". When they get in KroniK listlessly clears the ring and the Mamlukes stall on the floor for a bit. Reset with Bull and Clarke. Pretty much all Clarke to start and he hits a uranage. Flying tackle and Bull goes out to the floor. Clarke follows and Russian leg sweeps him back into the barricade. It's not nearly as cool as it sounds. Back in Bull puts Clarke down with a kick combo. Tag and the Mamalukes double stomp Clarke down. Vito takes over, wrestling with the Hardcore belt on. He's clearly very proud of it. Clarke gets Bull with a tiltawhirl backbreaker and finally tags out to Brian "Crush" Adams. Full nelson slam from Adams for 2. Someone in the crowd has a "Where is La Parka?" sign. Mexico? Running powerslam from Adams on Bull for 2. Bull manages to get Adams down with a clothesline. Adams blocks a suplex and press slams Vito. A distraction from Vito lets Bull DDT Adams. Vito tags in and continues to wrestle with the belt on. That thing must be stapled or superglued on. Adams dodges Vito in the corner and KroniK double backdrop him. Adams gets the Hardcore belt off Vito and tosses it aside. Adams puts Vito in a fireman's carry and then spikes his head right on the mat. Vito superkicks Adams, nearly falling down himself in the process, then looks lost before tagging in Bull. Vito does a sad example of a "hot" tag run, all this match deserves, then takes forever slowly maneuvering Adams into position in the ring. Then he can't do his spring up to the top rope, slipping off. He gets there the second time, then dives at an Adams that had gotten out of the way half an hour ago. Freaking ugly as hell. Double tackle from KroniK. They hit their double chokeslam finisher, Vito is too busy recovering his beloved Hardcore belt to help, and it's over. Two teams that absolutely sucked so it's pretty much what you'd expect, though I've seen worse from both. 3/4*

 

Ambulance Match: Mike Awesome def Diamond Dallas Page (w/Chris Kanyon) in 9:41- Kicking off the gimmick match overload most of this show will be. DDP wheels Kanyon in on a wheelchair and leaves him up on the stage. Kanyon's making his first appearance on TV since his big dive at the end of Slamboree. Instant slugfest at the bell, with both wrestlers taking turns to punch the ref out because they want to FIGHT. Spinning clothesline from DDP. Cactus clothesline! Brawl on both sides of the barricade. Both guys get chairs and have a classic chair sword fight in the ring. DDP punches Awesome's chair into his face. Swinging neckbreaker from DDP. Awesome goes up the second rope and hits a diving back elbow. Back suplex from Awesome, followed by a big splash. He gives DDP a hot shot. Awesome goes under the ring and sets a table up. He dodges a DDP baseball slide. DDP gets powerbombed through the table. Awesome calls for the stretcher guys to come down. They haul DDP up and put him on the stretcher. Should they do that in this match, legally? Isn't that the wrestler's job? DDP falls off the stretcher anyway. Awesome gives him a chairshot and rolls him back in the ring. Chairs to the gut from Awesome. Big splash off the top rope. A second. Awesome calls for one more, and puts DDP in a chair sandwich for some extra impact. DDP dodges and Awesome (theoretically) lands on the chairs. Kimberly makes her way out, armed with a giant lead pipe. Wasn't that Vampiro's? She nails DDP with it. Now Miss Hancock comes out and drags Kimberly out by the hair. Awesome does an elaborate setup on top, but DDP low blows him (amazingly the first one all show). Avalanche Diamond Cutter! DDP rolls Awesome onto the stretcher and the EMT's wheel him off. Music plays and now Bischoff is out here with a chair. DDP attacks him. KANYON IS OUT OF THE WHEELCHAIR! HE'S STANDING! IT'S A RUSEV DAY MIRACLE! Kanyon Cutters DDP! He then rips off his shirt and reveals a New Blood shirt underneath. Took them long enough but everyone saw this turn coming months ago. Kanyon gets DDP on the stretcher, puts him in the ambulance, and it's over. Meh. *1/2

 

Commentary spends WAY longer reasoning through Kanyon's turn than Russo did. 

 

Boot Camp Match: GI Bro def WCW World Tag Team Champion Shawn Stasiak in 12:10- Another silly Russo name change here, Booker T is now GI Bro. Booker does the Shawn Michaels Wrestlemania 12 entrance, rappelling down from the top of the arena. This is over a year after Owen Hart's death and WCW is still doing that. Both guys are in camo to go along with the match theme. Stasiak even has camo facepaint. Brawl in the aisle to start. Tony mentions this is "can't answer a 10 count" rules, like a Texas Death Match. Back and forth brawling on the floor leads to back and forth brawling in the ring. Booker hits a running forearm and slam, then clotheslines/punches Stasiak 360 back to the floor. Stasiak gets tossed over the guardrail literally into the laps of some ringside fans. Guy with a Ray Lewis jersey in there. The coming 2000 season the Baltimore Ravens would have one of the greatest defenses in NFL history, lead by Lewis. Booker gives Stasiak a chairshot. Back in Booker hits a double ax handle off the top rope. The ref starts a 10 count. So it's like a Last Man Standing match, not Texas Death. OK then. Stasiak tries to counter mounted punches with an inverted atomic drop. Booker blocks that, but then Stasiak hot shots him in the corner. Flying back elbow from Stasiak. Booker comes back with a boot up in the corner and side kick. Stasiak pants pulls Booker out to the floor, then suplexes Booker on the entrance ramp. As they go back in the ring I see a "Run in time" sign in the crowd, that makes me chuckle. Stasiak hits a clothesline off the top rope. Booker barely gets back up at 9. He fights off a Stasiak suplex and hits his own, but Stasiak puts him back down with a clothesline. Back out to the floor. Again. Booker takes a chairshot, with the padded end. Back in Stasiak hits a gutwrench powerbomb that gets a long 9 count. Sleeper from Stasiak that sets off some "boring" chants. They do arm drops even though that doesn't count in this match because it's Booker's sign to fight back up. He hits an Olympic slam on Stasiak. Kurt Angle already influencing wrestlers. Stasiak back elbows Booker back down. Booker counters a whip into a side kick. Book End! Booker goes up top and hits a missile dropkick. Stasiak's tag champ partner Chuck Palumbo runs in. Booker cuts him off and gives him the scissors kick. Stasiak uses the opening to low blow Booker. Another long 9 count. The tag champs straight double team on Booker. At least this match is actually no DQ. Booker counters a double team with a double tackle. Spinaroonie! Side kicks and clotheslines for everyone. He hits Stasiak with his own gimmick weapon, some kind of workout bar, and that gets the 10 count to end it. Dull as hell but technically competent. The whole boot camp theme did absolutely nothing. *

 

In the back, Mean Gene is INDIGNANT at Kanyon. Unfortunately, that means Kanyon has to talk to explain himself. We then get footage of DDP fighting out of the ambulance, but the main point from that is we see a Goldberg monster truck in the background skirting the crack local police force.

 

Tables Match: The Franchise def The Wall in 8:40- Like Lex Luger's name change to just The Total Package, Shane Douglas is now being called just The Franchise. Douglas takes a mic after his entrance and takes way too long to say he wants this to not just be a Tables Match, but a BEST OF FIVE tables match. Conveniently there's already four or five tables set up around the ring. Wall looks like he's morphed into a much taller and less pudgy Tommy Dreamer. Sluggy start. Wall hits a big boot. Press slam. Douglas goes for a swinging neckbreaker but Wall blocks it and hits a clothesline. Whip reversal and Douglas hits a high knee. Delayed front drop suplex from Douglas. Reverse neck snap! That always looks ugly. He 360 clotheslines Wall out to the floor, then baseball slides him over a table. Douglas looks like he's literally leading Wall around on the floor to where he needs to go. Wall blocks a suplex on the floor. He chokeslams Douglas through a table! 1-0 Wall. Douglas tries to fight back but Wall lifts him up and puts him through another table to go up 2-0. Back in Douglas kind of begs off, then lifts Wall up into a straight low blow. Douglas then goes to the floor and dares Wall to join him. He taunts Wall all the way up the aisle to a side part of the stage that has a Jeff Hardy Suicide Ladder set up and a platform that's clearly, obviously been set up for someone to fall through. Oh, and a couple of tables that have already been stacked up. In other words, none of this looks organic. Douglas runs Wall into the ladder, then climbs up it. Wall then climbs up to join him. There's a stack of two tables on top of a platform behind Wall. Both guys slug it out/position themselves on top of the ladder. Wall flops down through the tables! We then see Douglas has knucks or something on his hand. Douglas' music plays, so I guess he won. But that was only two tables? Or are they counting the platform they were on as a third? More importantly, why do we care? The match is over, which is a blessing for everyone. Textbook proof that breaking a bunch of tables does not automatically make things interesting. DUD

 

After the total lack of a bell Wall puts a ref through a table just because. Hey, that was 5. Wall wins, 3-2.

 

Back outside, one of the police cars backs up QUICK, squealing tires quick, but only to let a car in. It's Hollywood Hogan, back in full black and white mode. 

 

Handicap Asylum Match for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Scott Steiner (c) (w/Midajah and Shakira) def Rick Steiner and Tank Abbott in 3:30- This was supposed to be Scott vs Abbott straight up and they start fighting as soon as Scott's in the ring, but while that's going on Dave Penzer announces that "in the interest of fairness" Rick Steiner has been added to the match. Rick jogs in while Scott's pounding on Abbott and hits Scott from behind. So what's the whole Asylum thing supposed to be? Oh, here it comes. It's a cage that's being lowered down, but it's a small circular cage, like an MMA "ring" or the Den matches Ken Shamrock had in WWF a couple of times. Steiner's women shout from the apron while Scott gets pounded on in this very small circle that only takes up about three quarters of the inside of the ring. Another question, if Scott loses which of the other guys wins the US title? The one that gets the decision I guess. Not that WCW thought through it that much. Abbott gets a chain out, then immediately puts it away again. Then Scott ducks and Abbott punches Rick. Guess Rick didn't want to get hit with the chain. Now Scott gets the chain and hits Abbott with it. He puts Abbott in the Steiner Recliner and Abbott submits. Well that was beyond pointless, and as brutally awful as anything else Tank Abbott's done in WCW. Ken Shamrock he is not. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

Once again back outside and now there's a limo pulling up. It's only Ric Flair, along with his family. No BIG SURPRISE yet. After they get out we see the Goldberg truck lurking in the background again. 

 

Hollywood Hogan def Billy Kidman in 11:36- I'm honestly surprised this feud is still going. In addition to Kidman now facing black and white Hollywood Hogan instead of red and yellow Hulk, there's been a boatload of stipulations added onto this rematch. Horace Hogan, supposedly on Kidman's side against his uncle, is the special guest referee, and if Hogan wins he gets a World title shot "in July", I'm assuming Bash at the Beach, while if Kidman wins Hogan has to retire. So, dead giveaway of the result. Lockup! Hogan easily wins. Kidman runs back in and gets tossed right back out. Hogan then punches Kidman down, the last one sending Kidman all the way out to the floor. Hogan rolls Kidman back in and Kidman begs off. Hogan's not interested. Early big boot and Kidman rolls out again. Hogan chats with a couple of kids at ringside, like he's asking them if they want him to run Kidman into the barricade, then he does so. Pretty cool little moment for the kids, well done by Hogan. Back in Hogan goes to straight chokes, drawing the ire of ref Horace. Kidman eye rakes to turn things around. Horace then gets on Kidman for choking, trying to show he's impartial. Kidman's not happy about that. Hogan gives Kidman a sneaky style low blow. Learned that one from Flair. The weightlifting belt is off and Hogan makes a big show of it before starting to whip Kidman with it. It's clearly become a Thing. Kidman goes out to the floor again. Hogan gets a chair. Kidman dropkicks it into his face! When Hogan let go of the chair it damn hear hit a couple of ringside fans in the face. Kidman gives Hogan a couple of charishots, rolls him back in and covers for 2. Hogan goes back to the floor, drags Kidman out and goes back on offense. Now there's a guy with a "Where's Silver King" sign. With La Parka in Mexico? Hogan gets the chair and gives Kidman a shot with it. Back in Kidman avoids a slam and DDTs Hogan onto the chair for a long 2. Big splash off the top rope from Kidman for 2. He gets all over Horace for not being biased for him. The crowd chants "Hogan" while Hogan wanders around and Kidman hits him in the back with Hogan gradually hulking up. Point! Hogan punches Kidman down and gives him mounted punches. Corner clothesline. On the floor Kidman runs Hogan into the post. Hogan hiptosses Kidman onto the announce table! That was enough to mostly break it. Torrie Wilson, who'd apparently broken up with Kidman over his Hogan obsession, makes her way out. She gets on the apron, takes out brass knucks, and gives them to Hogan. Kidman knees Hogan in the back, sending Hogan into Torrie. Kidman gets the knucks and nails Hogan with them. Hogan just kicks out. Kidman gets the knucks out again and punches Horace out. Torrie gets in and low blows Kidman. SWERVE! Another one we all saw coming miles away. Hogan hits Kidman with the knucks, and that gets the pin. After the bell Horace and Hogan embrace. SWERVE! Usual overbooked overswerved nonsense, and like the last match Hogan either wasn't capable or wasn't interested in doing any of Kidman's moves. *1/4

 

The win means Hogan gets a title shot at Bash at the Beach. That will not go how anyone expects it to go. More on that when we get there, but it's one of those famous end of WCW moments I've been looking forward to writing up for a long time. 

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair def David Flair (w/Vince Russo) in 10:14- They'd faced off in tag matches during David's various turns, but this is the only time the Flair boys had a one on one match. Like the last match, if Ric loses he has to retire. Imagine if Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair really were retired on the same night. Under those circumstances Hogan really should have lost the last match, even if it got reversed on Nitro after, to add some weight to Flair potentially losing this one. I'm amazed this is the first time Russo's gotten himself on camera all night. Flair's family gets escorted on camera to ringside seats before the match, yes including daughter Ashley, AKA Charlotte Flair. Ric's back in regular gear after wrestling in street clothes the last couple of PPVs, but David's in his usual t-shirt and jeans. Hand jockeying after the bell and we get a little Slick Ric. Lockup into a headlock/top wristlock fight that Ric wins. Ric works around into a hammerlock, and when David goes into the corner to take a cheap break Ric slaps him. Another lockup. David backs Ric into the corner and lays in some forearms and chops. Flair Flip! Ric alllllllmost gets all the way over the top but can't quite do it and settles for rolling under the bottom rope instead. On the floor David gives him more forearms and whips him into the barricade. Delayed suplex from David back in. Sleeper from David. Ric works around into a back suplex counter. He tears David's shirt off in the corner and hits the first real chops. Plus a bit of Flair strut. Ric takes David out to the floor and gives him more chops in front of the makeshift replacement announce table. Back in David ducks and 360 clotheslines Ric out to the floor. Russo comes in and gives Ric some shots with the rubber baseball bat. Russo then gets handcuffs out and handcuffs Flair! More chops from David back in and he tries a Flair strut while ref Lil' Naitch seems supremely unconcerned that Ric's hands are handcuffed and he can't wrestle properly. David puts on a figure four! With leverage help from Russo. Eventually Lil' Naitch goes Earl Hebner and kicks David's hands off the ropes, allowing Ric to reverse. David quickly lets go and goes into some ground and pound. Lil' Naitch pulls David off by the hair! Russo uses that opening to get some more shots in. Ric's youngest son Reid jumps the rail and goes after Russo! He low blows Russo! Reid gets the handcuff keys off Russo. David grabs Reid and goes angry big brother on him, but Lil' Naitch gets the keys and uncuffs Ric. Ric hides the fact he's free and chops the hell out of David when he gets in range. Meanwhile, Ashley/Charlotte has Russo pinned down on the floor and is putting the handcuffs on him! Backdrop from Ric on David in the ring. Greco Roman Nut Stomp from Ric. David tries the Flair Flip! With difficulty he manages to get himself onto the apron, and Ric chops him down to the floor. Big delayed suplex from Ric back in and we get some more strut. David begs off and gets an eye poke in. Ric should have seen that coming. David goes up top and Ric slams him off! David should have seen that coming. Also, must have been very satisfying for Ric to be on the other end of that for once. Ric hits a kneedrop and a bunch of short jabs. Then Ric starts in on the knee work. Figure four! David almost instantly submits! After the bell Ric pulls apart Russo's Yankees jersey (BOOOO) and gives him a chop, then the whole family minus David celebrates in the ring. Shoot me, but that was actually kind of fun Flair family drama, with Ric walking David through the match as well as he could. Put that same match in a better era and I think it would have played just fine. **3/4

 

Russo takes a mic, swears a bunch like usual, then says tomorrow night on Nitro he's going to retire Flair himself. I think we all know that's not happening. 

 

Human Torch Match: Vampiro def Sting in 7:22- What is a Human Torch match you ask? To win you have to light your opponent on fire. I'm not joking. WCW has spent weeks building this up saying someone was going to be immolated like Anakin Skywalker after he lost the high ground. Literal snuff film stuff. During Vampiro's entrance a stagehand tries to sneak in to set a torch up for Vampiro to light up but is fully caught on camera. Vampiro lights the torch, then when Sting's entrance starts we see he's up on top of the NotTitantron and he pulls the torch up to him. Sting also has a mic. He asks if Vampiro's afraid of heights "because I'm not" (no shit, we've seen for years) and tells Vampiro if he wants to light Sting on fire he has to come up here. After a minute of Vampiro protesting Sting says never mind and rappels down the to the stage area. Reminder, over a year after Owen Hart's fatal accident. Sting gets in the ring and Vampiro is all over him. Sting comes back with a powerslam, followed by clotheslines and the faceplant. He goes for a Stinger Splash but Vampiro gets a boot up. Corner hot shot from Sting and he goes for the Splash again. This time Vampiro dodges. He has a gas can and pours it all over Sting. They slowly work up the aisle with Vampiro pounding on supposedly gas covered Sting. Sting fires back with, what else, a low blow. Commentary says the arena is "deathly silent" and "no one wants to see this". Unintentional shoot comments for the win. Vampiro starts climbing up the stage, followed by Sting. Vampiro kicks Sting and he falls off the stage! I don't think that fall was any higher than falling off the top rope to the floor. Sting recovers and both guys climb all the way up to the top of the tron/stage. The lights go all kooky for some reason, like lightning. Is Undertaker running in? Both guys vanish behind the tron, then pop back up still fighting. Vampiro goes for the torch but Sting cuts him off. The lights go out completely for a second, then Vampiro gets the torch. He lights the heavily covered and protected stuntman that's replaced Sting on fire while commentary acts like they're seeing a literal murder, then the fake Sting stuntman does the long fall off the tron all the way onto the padded platform I spotted back in the tables match. Everyone runs in with fire extinguishers even though the fire went out before he hit. Cut to shock face somber voice commentary. They got (in story) what they'd been hyping up all this time, I have no idea why they're so depressed about it. Whoever came up with the concept of a match where a wrestler gets lit on fire to lose should have been laughed out of the booking committee meeting, and nothing in the match made it any less atrocious. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

The new backstage interview floozie whose name I can't recall tries to get Bischoff to finally spill what the BIG SURPRISE THAT WILL CHANGE SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT FOREVER (their words, not mine) will be. Bischoff, still furious about the Goldberg themed monster truck stalking the arena, says "There's no surprise! There's your surprise". Bigger cop out than that PPV a couple of years prior where Bischoff tried to get Vince McMahon to show up. Which I think is what they'd been teasing on weekly TV leading up to this again, or something similar.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Jarrett (c) def Kevin Nash in 16:22- It's absolutely hilarious they go into this match barely two minutes after supposedly seeing someone murdered by external combustion. After both wrestlers make their entrance Ernest Miller's music hits and he comes out. The hell? Miller says Bischoff and the New Blood have some celebrity guests for this match. Konnan is the special guest bell ringer, Rey Mysterio is the special guest timekeeper (literally the same job but I understand if Konnan needed help with it because it was too mentally taxing for him), Disco Inferno is the special guest BELT keeper, Juventud Guerrera is the special guest ring announcer (a job Buffer already did), and Miller himself is the special guest outside enforcer. Basically, this is a ridiculously over the top deck stacking against Nash. They're trying so hard to duplicate the Austin/Vince stuff and making a complete dog's and pig's breakfast with it. Lockup! Nash easily tosses Jarrett out. Repeat that a couple of times and all the extra guys get on the apron to distract Nash and let Jarrett attack him. Nash fires back with kneelifts and tosses Jarrett across the ring. The usual Nash corner knees and elbows follow. Jarrett gets 360 clotheslined to the floor. Jarrett manages to push Nash into the post, then Nash whips Jarrett into the barricade. He gives Jarrett a snake eyes on the improv announce table. Jarrett gets tossed over the barricade and it's crowd brawl time. Another thing they blatantly copied from WWF. They do a quick half circle around that section of the floor and come back over. When they do Mysterio hits Nash in the knee with a chair. Jarrett then comes in the ring with a chair and continues to pound on Nash's knee with it until the real ref takes it away. Jarrett continues with the knee work. Eventually Jarrett puts on a half crab, but in the corner where Nash can easily get a corner break even though he makes it look like a struggle. Jarrett then hooks on a figure four. Near fall, long fight, then Nash very slowly tries to reverse but Jarrett cuts it off. After some more moment milking Nash finally reaches out for a rope break. Konnan gets on the apron and hits Nash with the bell. Jarrett covers for 2. Nash fights back up and hits a side suplex for 2. Knee's just fine. Nash proves that by running around the ring taking out all the extra riff raff. Jarrett tries for a belt shot, but Nash dodges it and hits Jarrett with the belt. Disco comes in and takes the ref out before he can count 3. Nash goes to the floor and gets ganged up on. Miller gets in to take the match over but both guys are down. Miller does a 10 count while yelling at Jarrett to get back up. Jarrett manages to get an arm over Nash. Miller fast counts but Nash still kicks out. Disco gets on Nash's back and gets slammed for his trouble. After Nash takes a couple of other guys out Jarrett grabs him and hits the Stroke, but he takes forever to cover and Nash still kicks out. Jarrett goes out and gets the guitar. Nash catches him coming off the ropes and chokeslams him! Miller counts 2 then pretends something got in his eye. There's a jackknife for Miller. Big boot on Jarrett and the straps are down. Jackknife on Jarrett. Lil' Naitch runs in to count but almost instantly gets pulled out by someone else. It's Rick Steiner. Because that's all this match needed, more random guys running in. Tank Abbott and Scott Steiner are out here still fighting because reasons. This is like a blurnsball game in a Futurama episode, with all kinds of crazy random shit happening just because. Blurnsball probably has more rules than wrestling in the hands of Russo too. The whole gang is in the ring beating down Nash. And, the final turd cherry on top of this shit sundae, Goldberg's monster truck finally rolls into the arena, as could be predicted by literally anyone. Goldberg's music hits and here he comes. Incidentally, we don't see Goldberg on camera until he's halfway down the aisle. Zero proof he was actually in or driving the truck. Goldberg sets up.....AND SPEARS NASH! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA SWERVE YOUR ASS. Russo should be writing comedy. Hell, he is, he just doesn't know it. Jarrett covers and gets the pin to retain. Bischoff and Russo both comes out while Goldberg gets in Nash's face and lets him know about what just happened. Goldberg then embraces Russo and Bischoff to cement the turn. That was one of the most insane, ludicrous excuses for a main event wrestling match you'll ever see. DUD

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The summer of 2000 fully cemented that WCW had slid down to a depth they were never going to crawl back up from. And the summer's not over yet.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: F