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August Leftovers–WCW New Blood Rising 2000

The SK Rant for WCW New Blood Rising 2000

(Oh Christ, THIS show.) 

- Live from Vancouver, BC

- Your hosts are Tony, Mark and Scott.

- Opening match: Three Count v. The Jung Dragons.

WCW always does this -- they know they have at least one hot match, so they put it first and thus guarantee it gets forgotten by the fourth or fifth match. I've never understand that reasoning. Tank Abbott has a shirt with nipple-holes cut out, for those of you who are into that sort of thing. (Yes, that used to be a thing in WCW – Tank Abbott mentoring Three Count.)  Three Count bolts for the ladders right away and bring one in. Shane (Future star Hurricane Helms)gets backdropped into the ladder by Yang, who then gets crotched on it. Shane hits a lame splash on Jamiesan (Future star Jamie Noble / James Gibson), and then the Dragons get piled on a ladder and splashed. Nice spot as we get stereo Doomsday Devices. Yang climbs and gets pushed off. Jamiesan hits a bodypress off the ladder, onto Three Count on the floor. Cool. More spots follow, too many to note here. Dragons hit spinkicks on Three Count, but Evan powerslams Kaz on the ladder. Nasty spot as Shane catapults the ladder into the Dragons via the top rope. Dragons hit double splashes on Shane from the ladders, and Jamiesan grabs the gold record...which is then taken by Tank. I guess that counts as Three Count getting the first part? Dragons sandwich Shane in the ladder and Jamie legdrops him from the top. Ouch. Tony vainly tries to explain the logic of the potential finish, but it's a lost cause. Kaz & Shannon race up the ladders, but Tank pushes both of them over (?), and Evan climbs up and gets the recording contract for the win at 11:32. I don't quite get the logic of having that finish, but retarded booking and blown spots aside, there was more than enough high energy and suicidal stuff to entertain me here as they die for my pleasure. ***1/2  (These poor guys were stuck in such a holding pattern for the last few months of WCW’s life.  If I gave a crap about any of them at the time it would have been sad.) 

- The Cat puts the Filthy Animals into the tag title mess as special referees. Because THAT'S what it needs to make it better -- more participants.

- The Great Muta v. The Cat.

Kick, kick, kick. Tigress wanders out. More kicking. Outside, more kicking. Muta spits mist, but Tigress hits Muta with a chair and Cat gets two. More kicking. Nice to see both guys showing off their moveset. A big kick from the Cat finishes at 6:48. Thrilling. DUD  (Although Ernest Miller nearly saved his career with the Commissioner gig at the end, he was still awful in the ring.) 

- Judy Bagwell on a Pole: Positively Kanyon v. Buff Bagwell.

(Yes, when we joke about the Judy Bagwell on a Pole match, it’s a REAL THING and not just a running joke.  Kanyon was doing his impression of DDP as a motivational speaker at this point, and amazingly did not catapult himself to the main event as a result.  Remember, Vince Russo LOVES people doing imitations of other people.)  Judy's actually on a forklift. (I now think of the special Judy-Buff relationship whenever I watch Hoyt and his mom on True Blood.)  Brawl to start. Back in, Buff does some punching. Kanyon hits a russian legsweep off the second rope for two. He snips off a turnbuckle for some reason. A whiplash powerbomb gets two. Kanyon uses a cobra clutch for some inexplicable reason to waste some time as Buff sells it like a resthold and gives Russo another excuse to work in the sleeper arm-test spot. Buff escapes and comes back with a hotshot for two. Kanyon Kutter gets two...and David Arquette makes his triumphant return. Good god. Buff comes back...and Arquette of course turns on him, because it IS Russo booking this show. Buff takes both guys out with a Blockbuster and gets the pin at 6:46. (Vince Russo booking:  This guy’s gonna run in, but people would expect him to screw his enemy over, so we’ll swerve them and have him turn on his friend instead, but then people would expect THAT to end the match, so we’ll SWERVE THEM AGAIN and have the guy who got screwed over win anyway!) One or two Kanyon spots saves it from DUD, but not by much. 1/2*

- WCW World tag title match: Kronic v. O'Haire & Jindrak v. Perfect Event v. MIA.

Disco Inferno is the in-ring ref and the other Animals are lurking around ringside. He slow counts everyone throughout the match. Epic Palumbo v. Adams match to start. Hey, shouldn't Brian Adams be a massive babyface here? (I recall that one going completely over everyone’s head at the time for some reason.)  Hugh Morrus plays bad-pun-in-peril for a while. A long while, in fact, as the crowd completely goes bored out of their mind with yet another sleeper spot and some horribly mistimed stuff from everyone involved. There's just nothing happening. Finally, Kronik gets in and the match breaks down six ways from Sunday, as they try High Times on Palumbo, but now Vampiro and Muta add ANOTHER team to the match and run in. (Why was Muta getting such a huge push at this point?)  Kronik still pounds Palumbo, but Disco won't count. So now Chavo Jr. adds ANOTHER run-in to the match and steals the ref shirt, counting the pin for Kronik himself (and thus screwing over his own team) at 12:23. I think Kronik has actually gotten WORSE since getting this big push. You'd think that WCW would have looked at the horrible clusterfuck that was Thunder and realized that this was gonna blow goats, but I guess that's why I'm not in charge. DUD  (Vince Russo actually booking matches was such an unmitigated disaster that I’m frankly shocked most days that they didn’t just shut down the promotion and call it a day in July.) 

- Strap match: Shane Douglas v. Kidman.

This is standard pinfall rules, thus negating the entire point of having a stipulation. (WCW, ladies and gentlemen!)  Brawling outside to start. Back in, Kidman does some whipping, as does Shane. Kidman gets a rana and a pair of dropkicks. Rydien bomb gets two. More strappin'. Bulldog gets two. Torrie takes a swing at Kidman with her shoe, but hits Shane instead (what a shock) and Kidman gets two. Shane hotshots Kidman for two. Pittsburgh Plunge gets two. Kidman hits his version of the Tomikaze for the pin at 8:22. I hope Tommy Rogers is getting royalties for all the versions of that move floating around. (I think Christian pretty much has that one all to himself now.)  Match was your typical Nitro mess with a couple more minutes added on. *1/2 Douglas tries to hang Kidman after the loss, Vito makes the save, and Reno attacks Vito. Man, we don't get that Reno-Vito blowoff tonight? Bummer. (Is anyone else losing their mind just READING about all the bullshit packed into this show?  Just me?) 

- Meanwhile, Jarrett does a good job of punking Booker out as he leaves his car.

- ROTC match: Major Gunns v. Miss Hancock.

Catfight starts, then they go into a HORRIBLE wrestling match, and Hancock rips off Gunn's shirt for two. I don't know which is stupider -- Pinfalls in a stripping match or ripping off someone's shirt and getting a near fall. Gunns gets an X-Factor and tears off Hancock's shorts for two. Gunns gets a sunset flip for two. I apologize if my using actual wrestling move names to describe the "action" is misleading you into thinking that what they were doing is resembling wrestling, but it's the closest equivalent I could think of on short notice. Please, ladies, head to the mud now because this isn't working. Brawl outside, and Gunns is left in her bikini bottoms. Into the mudpit, where Hancock suffers "stomach pains" and gets pinned by Gunns at 6:43. Um, wasn't the point to strip your opponent? Whatever. Hancock keeps clutching her stomach, and I get a sinking feeling where this angle is going (ie, Terri Runnels and D-Lo 1999) and I don't like it one bit. –*** (I guess that’s what you call an aborted angle.)  Notice how all the worst matches we've seen in decades are coming under Russo's tenure? Just saying. To insult us even more, as Hancock gets carted off in an ambulance (still covered in mud), Tony has the gall to "break character" and insinuate that this is indeed a shoot. Right, SURE it is. (Here comes a historic line on my part!) I've said it before and I'll say it again: The entire crux of the Russo mentality is that "The entire show you are watching is a work, but what you are watching RIGHT NOW is a shoot" and that is repeated for every match. (Thumbs up, cheap pop!)  How can anyone older than 12 actually be expected to believe that Stacy was really pregnant and "had a miscarriage" over a few worked shots to the mid-section?

- The Demon v. Sting.

(Don’t forget this was a special main event!)  Faster than I can type this sentence, Sting finishes with the usual at 0:53. DUD Vamp and Muta attack, and Kronik saves, and they want a tag title match TONIGHT. I don't wanna see either Kronik or Muta wrestle twice in one night at this point, does my vote count?

- Canadian title match: Lance Storm v. Mike Awesome.

Storm has the Goldberg security escort. He appoints a special guest referee (crowd: "Bret! Bret! Bret!")...Jacques Rougeau (crowd: [silence]). Real smart there, guys. (Didn’t ANYONE slap Russo around and tell him that it’s fucking stupid to tease Bret Hart as the guest referee and then deliver the Mountie instead?  This shit is making me angry all over again and it’s 12 years later!)  Awesome gets a quick double underhook driver to start, and a legdrop gets two. Storm superkick and he tosses Awesome to the post, and gets some Canadian Violence in. Awesome dumps him and they brawl. Back in, Awesome slips on the top rope, but goes for an Awesomebomb, which is reversed to a backslide for two. Ligerbomb from Awesome gets the pin, but Rougeau overrules the ref on the grounds of Canadian Rules, which state a five-count is needed. Storm sunset flip is blocked for three. Awesome gets a Dragon Sleeper for the tap-out, but this is Canadian Rules, so submissions don't count. Sure, let's just job the champ two or three times in his home country, why don't we? Can you imagine Russo having that conversation with Bret in 1997? "Okay, so Shawn's gonna get a clean pinfall and submission over you in the first five minutes, but it's Canadian Rules..." and I bet it'd go downhill from there. Storm gets a few four-counts but takes a German suplex and flying shoulderblock for four. Awesome frog splash gets five, but now Canadian Rules state that Texas Death rules are in effect and Storm has to beat a ten-count. I know that Russo is going for the Over the Edge 98 thing here with Dude Love against Steve Austin, but that was a real good match even without the silliness, and this isn't. Besides, Storm is supposed to a BABYFACE here. Awesome brings a table in, but Storm chairshots him for four. They fight on top, both go through it. Rougeau declares first man up is the winner, then punks out Awesome just to make Storm look completely weak. Storm retains at 11:01, and I bet Meltzer's gonna get a call from that Awesome mark tomorrow on the show. The match was somewhat less than all that and a bag of chips. Maybe just a bag of chips. **1/4 Bret Hart makes a surprise appearance (Hello dipshits -- why not use HIM as the ref?) and we do the All-Canadian Hug.

- WCW World tag title match: Kronic v. Vampiro & Muta.

The inexplicable Vampiro push continues. Clarke overpowers Vamp for two. Powerbomb gets two. Adams slams Muta for two. He powerslams Vamp for two. Vamp reverses a powerbomb and Adams plays pothead-in-peril as the match completely dies. Hot tag Clarke, Meltdown follows, but he doesn't take the pin. Ref bump as Kronik hits High Times on both guys, but the friggin' HARRIS BROTHERS return as you can hear the crowd audibly groan, and punk out Clarke, putting Muta on top for the pin and the titles at 9:06. (Yes, more run-ins and screwjobs.  This ended up with Bret Hart, Jeff Jarrett and Harris Brothers as the nWo Silver, didn’t it?  And all the idiots on RSPW were like OMG THE BAND IS BACK TOGETHER for some reason.)  This is stupid on SO many levels, not the least of which is that we're gonna have to see Harrissssessssess v. Kronik on the next PPV, and Muta wrestling more. 1/4*  (Oddly, Muta would go on to have a career renaissance in Japan and I’d become a big fan all over again.) 

- Kevin Nash v. Scott Steiner v. Goldberg.

(Oh fucking kill me now.  I can’t even READ this show review anymore and there’s still this bullshit to get through.)  Tony tries to sell that Goldberg was in a motorcycle accident and won't be here, just to show how uncooperative he is. Nash gets a big boot on Steiner...and Goldberg runs in with taped ribs. Steiner drops an elbow on him for two. Are they shooting yet? I can't tell. Steiner gets dumped and Nash & Goldberg go. Slugfest goes Goldberg's way. Steiner suplexes Nash for two. Crowd gets into the "shoot" with a massive "boring" chant. I think I heard a few "Hogan" ones there, too. Goldberg pushes out of a Poochiebomb attempt and "walks out" on the match, meeting Russo in the aisle and "shooting" on him too, using naughty words. God, this is beyond idiotic. And now Tony is getting all upset, talking about how Nash and Steiner will have to "improvise" a new finish or some nonsense. As if Nash ever "improvised" anything not planned out for him move-by-move in his entire career. Steiner backbreaker gets two. Steiner's chick comes out and hits some lowblows on Nash. It gets two for Steiner. Steiner tries a sleeper, but Nash breaks and finishes with the big boot and Poochiebomb at 10:49. Was that a shoot? * God help us all, it's Nash getting ANOTHER title shot at Fall Brawl. I didn't think it was possible to drop a buyrate much lower, but I guess that theory will be tested in one month.  (Oh, it was possible all right.) 

- WCW World title match: Booker T v. Jeff Jarrett.

Quick rollup for Booker gets two, and a leg lariat leads to a powerbomb for two. He dumps Jarrett. Brawl on the floor and in for a posting of Jarrett. Missile dropkick misses ugly, and Jarrett works the knee, smashing a chair into it. Boston Crab, which Booker escapes, and gets a rollup for two. Double KO spot. Spinebuster gets two, axe kick follows, but the ref is bumped on the breakdance spot. Oh, joy, a ref bump. Sidekick is blocked with the guitar to the leg, which is a nice spot. Jarrett hooks the figure-four, but Booker makes the ropes. I was actually thinking that they might switch the title for about 0.5 seconds until Tony started declaring that there was going to be a title change. I really wish wrestling announcers would get into the 21st century and realize that fans have picked up on that trick. Jarrett makes the run at Booker with the title belt, but hits the ref instead. Great, TWO ref bumps. He sets up a table, but irony shows her hand again and Jarrett goes through it in a weak bump. Into the ring, another ref comes in but gets bumped on a Jarrett chairshot. Jarrett hits the Stroke on said chair, but no ref. Still another ref comes in and counts two. Booker gets an ugly neckbreaker for two, and the Book-End finishes at 14:31. I thought the company line was that Booker and Jarrett would have a blow-away match to erase the memory of last month's one? I actually liked the one at Bash at the Beach better than this one, which felt even more rushed and stuck together with chewing gum. **3/4 Fans pelt the ring with garbage after sitting through that PPV.  (I want to pelt my screen with garbage just for reading about it.) 

The Bottom Line:

Rome is burning while Russo is shooting. I think six months of this is pretty conclusive evidence that a) Reality angles don't draw money and b) The crowd doesn't care about them. A good match to start and a decent main event (but reminiscent of Summerslam 93, where the WWF literally promised a ****+ Michaels-Hennig match and couldn't deliver) but the chances of the Dragons/Three Count feud leading anywhere are nil (Yup.) and Booker's becoming a lame duck champion after a promising start (Double yup.), much like the entire dying promotion. (Bingo!)Next month: Kevin Nash brushes his teeth, live on PPV! It's REAL, baby!

Thumbs down.

Comments

  1. Don't you do the hot match first to warm up the crowd?

    Your point about Russo booking and shoots is exactly what annoyed me about Botch Lewie's Gut check promo on Impact last week.

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  2. What is an ROTC match???

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  3. I guess that only works if you have solid matches to follow it up?

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  4. Was it already revealed that Stacy's character was pregnant? Or was this the first they mentioned it?

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  5. nWo Silver was 1999.  This was after Bret's retirement.

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  6. Man, I mentioned Reno in another thread and it's like I f'ing SUMMONED him.  Blegh.

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  7. Two Stanley Cup riots.  An out of control homeless and drug abuse problem and a lack of affordable housing.  Historical events like interning hundreds of Canadian citizens during World War II because they were of Japanese ancestry.  All these things I could feel ashamed of as a Vancouverite, but none of them more so than Vancouver hosting this show.  

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  8. The Judy Bagwell On A Pole match had a run-in from David Arquette... amazing the combined suck force didn't kill the entire promotion on the spot.

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  9. Every time I read recaps of WCW I feel like I should be playing "Expecting to Fly" by Buffalo Springfield, the whole thing just reminds me of the Wave Speech in Fear & Loathing. Like standing among a bunch of twisted wreckage and reflecting on how something could go so wrong, so soon.

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  10. Whilst they never called it the nWo they did have Nash/Steiner/Jarrett/Bret/Russo all associated with each other leading up to Fall Brawl the next month giving us, amongst other things, another Nash world title run (for about a fortnight,) Bret Hart burying Goldberg in the desert, Tony shouting about how "THE BAND IS BACK TOGETHER" ad nauseum and one of the worst/finest clusterfucks in wrestling history.

    WARGAMES 2000!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un3xt6SuGHw

    Truly a golden period.

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  11. nWo silver debuted the night after Starrcade 99. Headed into 2000.

    Bret had those concussions and left for a while.
    Hall imploded
    Steiner got injured as well.

    It was Jarrett and the Harris's for a while and they dropped that by the April reboot.

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  12. That's fine in theory but when they literally ran the same six guys for about five months, it stopped being as impressive.

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  13. But it wasnt so soon.

    They were putting on bad shows on a regular basis as early at Late 97.

    Goldberg caught on with a shot in the arm and that was IT.
    Once they killed him it was a matter of time.

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  14. I remember sitting through like an hour and a half of awful WCW shows just to see Lance Storm go out there and kill it night after night. I also liked how he pushed Booker T. But, I must have had an incredibly high tolerance for bullshit back then. 

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  15.  True, but only 3 years from their peak and maybe a year or two from the time where they were still doing huge, insane business? Hard to fathom that they could've tanked like they did. Especially considering wrestling in general was so enormous in the year 2000, it seems insane that any promotion could die in that environment, yet two of the top three did just that.

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  16. Loved Storms arrival in WCW winning three belts in consecutive weeks.

    Challenging Booker should have been saved for PPV though.

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  17. I don't know how we all forgot this show when we were talking about the worst PPVs ever, unless it's because hardly anyone saw it. I can't think of any other show where the fans throw trash into the ring after the babyface won the main event. Honestly, my favorite part of the show was the Stacey Keibler match, and that's just because I wanted to nail her.

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  18. WCW actually got better right before the end.  Jarrett was kept away from the belt for about a year, match quality improved even though the stupid storylines stayed but eventually some decent wrestling started happening.

    I'm not going to say they turned the corner or anything but it wasn't THIS bad at the end.

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  19. Rip Off The Clothes

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  20.  Man, I'm SO glad I've never gotten around to checking this show out, and based on ALL the reviews I've read, it's certainly not worth the time.

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  21. I'm not gonna lie, Tank Abbott managing Three Count was awesome

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  22. "I don't quite get the logic of having that finish, but retarded booking and blown spots aside, there was more than enough high energy and suicidal stuff to entertain me here as they die for my pleasure."

    And not a single raging freak out was to be seen...funny that...

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  23. Yeah, anyone anybody talks about that ECW only ppv in WWF, GAB91, RR94, etc. for the worst show ever, they need to be reminded of this.  While other shows had horrid matches, this show had horrid matches and actively insulted every single person who ever wanted to suspend disbelief and enjoy wrestling for simply being wrestling.  This show should be the example held up for why Vince Russo is garbage.  As a fan, this ppv is absolutely offensive.  The swerves,  the lack of logic, and most of all, the jarring slap to the face of every fan to remind them what a moron they are for wanting to suspend disbelief.   

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  24. Yeah, In remember there were positive reviews for a lot of the 2001 WCW PPVs.

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  25. Shows like this really make you wonder how Vince Russo continued to work in the wrestling business for the better part of the next decade.

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  26. Agreed, a show like GAB 91 is sorta dull, but some of these Russo shows are like fantasy booking by a teenage meth addict.

    The total lack of restraint ("wouldn't be awesome guys if we like had 1000 swerves") paired with the spastic pacing where everything and yet nothing is happening, and nothing makes any sense even when he thinks it does...

    Seriously it's the wrestling equivalent of the characters in Spun.

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  27. equally awesome.

    and probably right

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  28. yeah sid broke a leg, im sure thesmarks then were raving at the time.

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  29.  You're right. I skimmed over it.

    i don't have the energy for a raging freak out right now but imagine me ranting about the usual.

    I kind of agree with whoever said the same thing about Scott using "gay": even if you don't care about the offensiveness, it's just lazy writing that sounds weak coming out of anyone old enough to not still need a cootie shot. Developmental disabilities are a medical condition that have nothing to do with willful stupidity, it'd be like calling something "crazy" by saying it's "psychosomatic". They're similar but not the same, it's 2012, find a new word.

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  30. How can you call it a PPV if there isn't a musical performance? What a ripoff!

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  31. I'm gonna have to stop reading the Blog of Doom if Scott keeps posting things like this...I spent the last 15 minutes pelting my computer with garbage, and now I have to clean it up.

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  32. An island of awesome in a sea of suck.  Kind of like Kane's introduction to Anger Management class on RAW.

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  33. Sad note about the Judy on the pole match:  Russo to this day, on his 2012 You Shoot Live, says he loved that angle and that there aren't "(blank) on a pole" matches today.  

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  34. Swerves. Poles. "Crash TV".

    Was Russo in some horrific car accident as a kid that manifested in his psyche in some weird way? It all makes sense now. 

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  35.  the whole "they will have to improvise thing" had me wanting to throw my TV out the window, and I already knew about it, I was just watching a tape a couple years later!!

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  36. But it's not slang.  It's got it's roots in fucking Latin Murphy.  The technical term for slowing down the tempo of a piece of music is a retard.

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  37. "I can't think of any other show where the fans throw trash into the ring after the babyface won the main event."

    I can.  The night after Road Wild 99, the match is Hogan vs. Sid for the title.  This was in the midst of Sid's lame ass "undefeated streak".  Anyways Rick Steiner runs in to break up Sid getting pinned.  Sting tosses Sid out of the ring, and Hogan big boots and leg drops Rick Steiner FOR THE PIN, to regain the title.  The fans KNEW that was bullshit, so they pelted the ring with garbage.

    And Eric Bischoff actually had the gull to bitch about Saturn beating Sid by DQ, after the piece of shit that I just described above, happened.

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  38. I watched WarGames 2000 for the first time just last week on the Best of Nitro DVD (which I've had since it came out, but for some reason never watched this match). It's truly scary at the things that Vince Russo believes are actually good ideas for presenting to a paying audience. To make it worse, I totally forgot that Nash/Steiner/Jarrett/Hart/Russo were in cahoots, so the ending made no fucking sense whatsoever. 

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  39. I wasn't watching at that time but what was wrong with Muta here ? I mean, I've always thought of him as an awesome worker, even in the most recent years wrestling in Japan as Keiji Muto but it seems he sucked at that time. 

    He was unmotivated because of the direction of the company maybe ?

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  40. It's "retardando", actually, and obviously that's not what people mean when they say it. It's used as insulting slang, semantics doesn't explain it away that conveniently. "Nigger" is a corruption of "negro" which is Spanish for "black", that doesn't mean it's ok to say.

    Or whatever. It's fine. Say whatever you want. Who fucking cares. I'm never gonna win this one, so why bother? Except of course that for so many other words people will post a million word rage filled rant against it but for some reason the developmentally disabled don't get the same considerations. Obviously they're all just a bunch of faggot nigger kikes, so who cares, right? They're just words.

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  41.  Yeah, my least favorite Russo-ism I think is...

    "THAT WASN'T ON THE FORMAT SHEET!"

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  42. Never saw that show, but I don't blame the fans for shitting all over that nonsense. Of course, the strap match with Hogan and Vader where Hogan pinned Ric Flair (Pin? In a strap match?) to win kind of sets a precedent for that ending.

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  43. FYI, if you'd like to see Major Gunns tits, she's showing them on a video cam site. I heard that from Meltzer. Is this a step up or a step down from the abortion? 

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  44. He had Illuminati connections.

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  45. A show like this makes you wonder how he continued to work in the wrestling business the next day, much less the next decade.

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  46. Did whoever was doing the interview ask him he wondered why there were no more "____ on a pole matches anymore?" Like because the matches fucking suck? 

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  47. Muta was really phoning it in at this time, and being paired with Vampiro didn't give him any motivation to step it up either. The only time Vampiro was remotely interesting was in the short lived Dead Pool with Raven and the Insane Clown Posse.

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  48. I think the only people who ordered the show were the ones who reviewed it for their websites/newsletters. 

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  49. The first Nitro of 2000, where that Bill Busch cronie (I think his name was Bob Garner but I've never heard of him and they didn't even bother to give him a name graphic, so don't quote me on that.) called The Powers That Be the writers, that was so stupid and insulting on so many levels.

    The only thing dumber than that was WCW trying to depict The PTB as heels and the corporate suits as babyfaces, even though the corporate suits were the ones who hired those two morons in the first place!

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  50. I have seen this show and trust me, it is not worth making your head explode. This is one of only four shows ever where I haven't found a single positive review anywhere (The other three being Heroes Of Wrestling, December To Dismember and Victory Road 2011).

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  51. The first Jeff Jarrett/Raven match.

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  52. IIRC, this was the first time they mentioned it. They later revealed that Stacy was pregnant, leading to a shotgun wedding of sorts between her and David Flair (featuring the return of Ric Flair after 6 months absence, in NORTH CAROLINA no less, where he was immediately thrown out of the arena. Good old WCW) which was SWERVED when they then revealed that they didn't know who the father was. This led to a DNA match between Buff Bagwell and David Flair at Halloween Havoc for some reason.

    The original plan was for Russo to be the father, but he was axed well before the conclusion of the angle (which ended up being Stacy going off of TV for months before returning with her new "baby" Shawn Stasiak)

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  53. "(Why was Muta getting such a huge push at this point?)"
    Shut up!  That's why.

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  54. Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title!

    SHIT!

    RUSSO!

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  55. Well, the last two shows (SuperBrawl Revenge and Greed) were pretty damn good with only a few bad matches, that's a huge leap compared to this point where EVERYTHING was 20 levels of atrocious.

    WCW under Vince Russo was basically XPW with a much bigger budget.

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  56. Here here! All of the WCW PPVs from 2001 are very much watchable, not good, but decent, and miles better than the crap from 2000.

    Well, the main events and main eventers sucked, but the guys who had a shot at getting jobs with the WWF went out there and gave great performances, and it shows

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  57. Equally baffling that the only good worker in that match is also the only worker in the match who is now dead.
    R.I.P. Chris Kanyon.

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  58. Didn't Jarrett and the Harris Brothers get back together for about a month at the end of 2000 under the name the Tennessee World Order?
    I remember Mike Tenay calling them by that name on a December 2000 episode of Worldwide

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  59. What did Vampiro and the Harris twins have on people that caused these lumps to get jobs, let alone pushes?  I don't think I've ever seen a good match involving any of the three.

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  60. Was Shane Douglas the babyface at Extreme Reunion?

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  61. Running Out of Terrible Concepts?

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  62. If only Russo thought about making Storm a weather based superhero wannabe and made Elix Skipper his "Super Hero In Training" while he was at it.

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  63. "Why did you think a giant bubble would stop them?"
    "SHUT UP! THAT'S WHY!"

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  64. Konnan on commentary burying all the other teams with shoot comments was easily the highlight of this PPV.

    "Ugh, these two jabronis to get a refund from their wrestling school because they suck."

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  65.  It was a live shoot with an audience and the worst thing of it all was the mutants in the crowd LOVED Russo.  It was sad, really.  The interviewer of those you shoots, I forget his name, really tries to respect the guest no matter how much he may disagree with them and stays out of it.  They counted 26 "blank on a pole" that Russo has booked.  26!!

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  66.  It really did get better and gave me hope that they'd sell to anyone but Vince.  They got rid of Russo and I think Bischoff was back in.  It was nothing ground breaking, but it was better than this dreck.

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  67.  I was never a Sid fan, but I felt really bad when Sid's leg cracked.  I never wish that kind of injury on anyone wrestling.

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  68. JEADTHRACK!
     
    http://www.wwe.com/inside/polls/smartest-superstar

    Oh...my...God...

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  69. I bought this show on Ebay(copied from live PPV, back before WWE became Nazis..I got a lot of unreleased shows on tape: Superbrawl 94', Road Wild 97', Stampede 98') Anyway.

    Its actually not that bad in ring. But I agree the Goldberg "shoot" was fuckin stupid because he was their draw, heel or face and went against his unstoppable character, it would have made sense for a guy like Nash to "shoot". But as a crowd you have no idea what's going on. Also the Mike Awesome-Storm match could have been a classic but was a fuckin mess. And no Bret Hart?

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  70. Bobby Heenan got 7% of the vote?

    Wrestling fans today (at least the ones that frequent the Facebooks, Twitters, and WWE site) are fucking morons.

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  71.  I should really check them out.  I was a big WCW fan even in their lean years, but I don't think I saw any of the PPVs in 2001 -- although I do have a few Nitro's on tape from that period.

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  72. I have to say, the name of the show itself is pretty awesome. 

    I remember quite a bit of this show was actually featured on the one actual official WCW release, which only ever got released in Japan I believe. 

    It's too bad they just missed the boat on the DVD craze, because they might have been able to make use of all of their original footage with the Turner music and TNT logos intact if they'd set up some video distribution service under the Turner umbrellla.
     

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  73.  LOL.  Geez Triple H is running away with it.

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  74. And I just realized it's probably some Major Gunns + Reserve Officer Training Corps joke. Out of context I totally didn't please the ROTC acronym. But, yeah, Rip Off The Clothes has to be right. *rolls eyes*

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  75. I officially gave up on WCW after this PPV. You think that Undertaker match where he gets shoved in a casket and spirited away was bad? I'm more embarrassed as a wrestling fan to admit I watched a fake storyline pretending to be a real altercation in a scripted fight. 

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  76. Three words:  Random Kanyon Cutters

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  77. I hear if you say his name in the mirror three times, he'll appear and give you a crappy neck breaker.

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  78. Was it the night after this when Goldberg "broke script" and pulled out of Nash's powerbomb and attempt and left?

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  79. You weren't a piano kid, were you?

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  80.  I think it's just a generational thing.  Bobby hasn't been active in over a decade and that was in WCW.  The bulk of the WWE audience, especially the ones that participate in these type of polls, are pretty young.

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  81. I HATE his youshoot.

    Along with Dixie's you can tell the questions were screened.

    Plus there was this annoying guy cheering everything he said in the auidence.

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  82. ...my god.

    This does explain everything.

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  83. That would Sean Oliver, and he is trying his damndest not to roll his eyes throughout the whole shoot.

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  84. Im not hip to much Mexican wrestling but i heard he was the poopoo down there in his heyday.

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  85.  Yes on both accounts.

    And also yes on this shoot sucking balls.

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  86. Well Triple H is the smarter wrestler in the WWE.

    -Hooked up with the Kliq, cuz he didnt do drugs and was the DD
    -Got by with minimal skill
    -Outlasted all the real draws
    -slept his way to the top.
    -Kept Steph barefoot and pregnant (no boys IRONY)
    -Will inherit company by default.

    LANDSLIDE

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  87. Heenan should at least have genius's 18% on top of his 7.

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  88. Is this like that WCW poll where if you voted for Ric Flair then Hulk Hogan actually got 3 votes?

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  89. Then Mark Madden could have said "That SHIT is the SHIT"

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  90. "Shut up, that's why!" is a probably my favorite comeback ever. It can be applied to so many things! (And is also probably Vince McMahon's favorite phrase, come to think of it.)

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  91. But the Harris Brothers are really tall! 

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  92. I think Mutoh didn't really re-invent himself and get a 2nd wind as wrestler until after this - sometime in 2001 and 2002.   I've never really followed Japanese wrestling, but I got the impression that many people thought he was just coasting on his reputation for a stretch there - especially when he wrestled as 'Great Muta' instead of 'Keji Mutoh'. 

    But he did have a revival in the early 2000's.  I think he jumped from NJPW to All Japan, and maybe the change of scenery did him some good. 

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  93.  I know Jericho trashed him in his first book - and in general Jericho always seemed to take the high road in his books (especially the first one). 

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  94. True, but seriously, look at the Facebook page...

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  95. In the words of Joey Styles talking about Mike Awesome at ONS: "Well, he *is* a human being."

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  96.  Exactly!  Based on precedence how was Hogan to know that you actually had to pin your opponent?

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  97. There was still a bunch of junk in the promotion (like the Magnificent Seven stable), but they did bring in a bunch of new people like the Natural Born Thrillers, and they even had a cruiser-weight tag title for a bit.  It was the first shot on national TV for many of the people that were brought it, so there was at least some effort and energy, even if they weren't always that good or ready for prime-time.  But it was still better than watching crap like the Varsity Club reunion or Shane Douglas rant on and on and on and on.  

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  98.  /act Kanyon Kuts Lerxst_Pratt

    ...

    BANG!!!

    /act jumps into a rental car and drives away

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  99.  I have removed retard from my vocabulary the way Scott used it, but it is a legit word.  You can say his progress was retarded and it's a valid way to say slowed down.  Gay?  not so much. 

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  100. Dude, it's 2012. EVERYONE wants their very own victim word. It's in the contract.

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  101. According to his Wikipedia page he tried jumping to the WWF around this time, so I'd say it's a safe bet that he was unmotivated due to WCW sucking balls around this time. Or maybe no one told him that the "Japanese guys should dog it to not make the WCW guys look bad" policy instituted by Bill Watts in the early 90s was no longer in effect, who knows...

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  102. I think Bret has said that he doesn't have any memory of this show at all (which is pretty sad, because Lance has called being in the ring with Bret one of his career highlights, and the guy was so wrecked from the concussions that he doesn't remember it). I can't imagine how much WORSE this would have been if Bret was actively involved.

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  103. SHIT!

    It just now DAWNED ON ME WHY they made Lance STORM The Hurricane's tag team partner in 2001.

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  104. XPW at least had full-frontal nudity, so I'd say they were one up on Russo's WCW.

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  105. Thanks to the Black Eyed Peas precedent, "retard" is now interchangeable with "it start".

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  106. I agree with that.

    But I will still call my friends fucking faggots.

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  107. It was at this show actually. The night after this was when Goldberg was ordered to "fight" Tank Abbott and to quote Russo "unlike last night, there's no script". That line by the way was followed by Russo calling out Goldberg and he didn't come out, which prompted Russo to say "What's the matter, Bill? You can't remember your lines?"

    Yes, Vince Russo seriously thought this was compelling television.

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  108. Gay is also a legit word.  You can say that someone is gay with the intent of saying that they are happy.

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  109. Yikes, that makes the polls for the 2004 Diva Search look legit by comparison.

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  110. I'm guessing that annoying guy was Elvy.

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  111. XPW also had something else that WCW didn't have: The always awesome Larry Rivera.

    In hindsight, WCW should have just every announcer except for Scott Hudson and Bobby Heenan and made Scott, Bobby and Larry Rivera the sole announce team. It would have been a trillion times better than having an unmotivated Tony Schiavone, a depressed Mike Tenay and the just plain borderline awful Mark Madden.

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  112. The fact that WCW didn't move Konnan to the announce table yet they kept idiots like Mark Madden, Larry Zbyszko and Stevie Ray not only gainfully employed but assaulting our eardrums on a continuous, neverending basis is a textbook example as to why WCW went in the toilet in the first place.

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  113. As terrible as this era was, one can't deny that Lance Storm was at his best then and Scott Steiner was finally a legitimate main eventer.  Too bad WWE proceeded to humiliate Storm and have their wrestlers cut him down at the knees by calling him boring every time he got on the mic.

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  114. Sean's YouShoots tend to be hit-or-miss, although the Cornette and New Jack interviews are five-star material all the way. And surprisingly, the one he did with Maria was really good.

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  115. Actually, he kinda did run out of terrible concepts, considering how his entire TNA run consisted of him rehashing the same terrible ideas about 150 times apiece.

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  116. I'm just goofing on you, but you raise an interesting point vis a vis "find a new word". I want your thoughts on this idea.

    How do you feel about the *old* words? Like...people weren't always calling those with developmental disabilities "retarded". They used to be dumb. Or stupid. Or slow. Or other things that I could remember when I was at the gym but now escape me...

    What about those words now? I mean, technically they *still* mean someone who is...that way. (Can you tell I'm walking on eggshells here? Haha) Why are those words okay now? Because there's a different word that's more popular? A more "current" word?

    I'm just curious. Because it seems like there's got to be some line where the sensitivity ends and after that a person just has to be realistic.

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  117. To say that Muta was "coasting on his reputation for a stretch there" is like saying "Great Khali is fairly limited in his technical skills" -- a giant understatement.  After 89, Muta literally only came to the US to collect a payday and nothing more.  And WCW was all too happy to give it to him based on his past work.  

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  118. Rip Off The Camoflage. Russo's attempt at a bra and panties match in WCW.

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  119. I'd love to criticise Russo for booking himself to impregnate Stacy Kiebler, but then I'd probably do the same thing if I had control.

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  120. Hi everyone, i started following wrestling around 2004 and ive never seen a Nitro or a Thunder in my life, so i was wondering if there are any more really funny examples of that Nash-Steiner-Goldberg thing where they're mentioning on air about shooting and scripts? how can anyone think that's a good idea??  Also i read somewhere that Russo actually gets involved with the wrestling but his on screen role was still as a booker??  

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  121. well, I don't blame him. if the refs don't care who he pins, why should he?

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  122.  Played guitar and viola as a kid, play bass now. I always heard "retardando" but never "retard". Regardless, the pronunciation is different, and you're just using Semantics.

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  123. Maybe that's why he didn't ref. Bret might've started slurring his words or something backstage, and they decided having a ref forgetting spots mid-match would be a bad thing. (Granted, considering this show, it might've improved things, but still.)

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  124. In their defense, Muta's past work kicked ass. 

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  125. There was an incident between Hogan and Russo at Bash at the Beach 2000 that sort of blurred the lines between shoot/not shoot and actually led to Hogan suing WCW. I'd recommend looking it up on Wikipedia/Youtube - it's too convoluted for me to do it justice in a paragraph.

    And then there's this infamous episode:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ArueKke1n8
    On his last day as booker Nash spends an episode of Thunder breaking kayfabe. It's actually pretty funny.

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  126. I oddly enjoy this show. I think the main event is over looked, one of Booker T's best matches.

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  127.  And then a bunch of dull white guys in short tights will give you that same neckbreaker over the next couple years.

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  128. It utterly perplexes how Vince Russo thought this type of stuff was actually enjoyable television. Guys talking about "the script" and all of that bullshit...it didn't make a lick of sense. What was the storyline, and what was "real?" Were they having real "feuds" but decided to settle them with scripted matches? Just complete bullocks, really.

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  129. Quit being so anti-semantic.

    And considering that we're literally discussing words here, semantics are very relevant...

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  130.  It's all relative, I guess. I always feel like any word that isn't specific to mental retardation or developmental disabilities is fair game, because it generally implies willful ignorance on the person's part, which is worthy of scorn in my book. But of course terms like "idiot" were considered medical terms before "retarded" took over (and now "retardation" is an extinct term itself, developmental disabilities are the current form). So I guess it's fair to say things change with the times, but there's no real hard line.

    Honestly dude I'll cop to being a hypocrite about it anyway, because I only get offended at "retard" because of my job and the people I know. Before I worked there I said it all the time and never gave a shit. And when it comes to most other words (faggot, nigger, spic, etc.), I don't necessarily like them (just for the fact that they generally denote ignorance in the other person, and if I can use political correctness to bully an ignorant jerkoff out of a conversation with me, well, I'm not above it, generally) but they don't make me mad, per se. I'd love it if I could go back to not giving a shit, because it's no fun being the persnickety asshole being offended by things other people are saying. But it's just too hard to ignore sometimes for a loudmouth like me when it cuts so deep because of the people I care about. There really is no good answer, I just wouldn't feel right if every now & then I didn't speak up on an issue that's so important to me. But generally I can let it go, so every conversation doesn't turn into that.

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  131. The opener is in the Ladder Match 2 DVD I just watched on Netflix... and while I was watching it, I enjoyed the action but I couldn't figure out for the life of me what the stips were for... there was a contract, and a gold record, and one did one thing, and... arrrrgh, I forgot how awful WCW was at this point (and the show obviously got much worse from there).

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  132.  but no one does.  except to try and be funny, which of course plays into the whole idea that being "gay" is demeaning

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  133. Well and to be fair, being the jackass I am, I of course went right after the open wound with a tureen of sea salt.

    I just find it interesting, I'm always weirded out when people take words seriously. They're just words. Tonight at the gym I was thinking about this (I'm not sure why, I've been sort of obsessed with this conversation since it started) and I was laughing at the idea of what Carlin would do as his "seven dirty words" now.

    I mean, first it would have to be extended to "48 dirty words" but the list gets hilarious. Fuck, shit, tits, cocksucker, motherfucker, faggot, retard, nigger, spic, kike, etc. etc. etc." The list these days would be damn near endless I think. George would be very much out of breath before the bit was even half over.

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  134. It was too bad he was getting the best heel heat of his life?

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  135. I attended that Kevin Nash Thunder!
    While Nash's commentary might have made it bearable on TV, it was hell for the live audience since you can't hear the commentary in the arena, so basically we were watching a cavalcade of go-nowhere mid-carders phoning in matches just to amuse Kevin Nash.

    Also had one of the weirdest main events of all time, even for Thunder: Lex Luger and Rick Steiner vs. La Parka and Buff Bagwell.

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