Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!
Yes, today we’re doing WCW New Blood Rising 2000. For those of you that have never read one of these, I look at a show with a bad reputation and see if that reputation is deserved or not. New Blood Rising 2000 is a famously awful show from when WCW was going off the deep end into the excrement filled swimming pool, as Vince Russo put together one of the most anger inducing messes of a wrestling show ever conceived.
We’ve got Jeff Jarrett taking on Booker T in the Main Event, but it’s the bollocks in the under card that we’ll be mostly focusing on here. Let’s see just how bad New Blood Rising 2000 really is.
You can view the card by clicking below;
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1721&page=3
The event is emanating from Vancouver, British Columbia on the 13th of August 2000
Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden
We get the opening video package focusing on the WCW Title match and the #1 contender match.
Some fans talk about who they think are going to win later on, there’s not surprisingly an even spread. Almost as if they gave the fans the answers they wanted before they recorded their bits.
Opening Match
Double Ladder Match
Gold Record and Recording Contract
3 Count (Evan Karagias, Shane Helms and Shannon Moore) w/ Tank Abbott Vs The Jung Dragons (Kaz Hayashi, Jimmy Yang and Jamie-San)
The Jung Dragons had stolen 3 Count’s vinyl record, so now we have a ladder match to decide who can claim it. Tank Abbott had entered the company as an MMA bad ass, but now he’s a wacky dancing goof who enjoys the music of 3 Count. Abbott cuts a promo before the match, being super wacky and seemingly having a lot of fun with it. Jamie-San is Jamie Noble under a mask, doing the tried and tested faux Japanese masked wrestler gimmick, as played by Paul Diamond in the WWF.
This one is all action, with all six wrestlers brawling and doing wacky high spots, with Abbott getting involved at points as well. It has some really inventive fun stuff in it, such as all of the Dragons getting stacked on a ladder in the corner before getting splashed by Karagias. These teams opened up a few pay per views in 2000, as they were usually guaranteed to deliver a fast paced exciting match. Of course, they never moved out of the early sections of the card and quickly became typecast regardless of the good matches they were having.
There is so much action in this one that Play by Play would be next to impossible, but the crowd responds well to the big spots and thankfully no one seems to get hurt by the end. It’s interesting watching Hayashi do this as he would end up getting bulkier for his All Japan run in the 00’s and he wouldn’t work this relentless high spot styled match anymore. He probably added considerable years onto his career by making that switch.
Everyone mostly delivers a good performance here, the odd instance of sloppiness aside. Eventually Hayashi and Yang come off the ladders with splashes onto Moore, which leads to Jamie-San grabbing the gold record. However, Abbott quickly clobbers Jamie and takes the record for himself, which seems to be allowed, because WCW. If Abbott can just take the record like that then what’s even the point of having the match to begin with? There’s still a recording contract atop the ladder though, so they keep fighting for that.
Schiavone stresses on commentary that The Dragons don’t actually want the contract for themselves; they just want to deprive 3 Count of having it, which is kind of a jerk move for a babyface to pull in all honesty. Also, what’s stopping Abbott just clobbering one of them and taking the recording contract as well seeing as we’ve established earlier that he’s seemingly allowed to do that? Anyway, as I was musing that, Abbott knocks the ladder over when The Dragons are going for the contract and that allows Karagias to grab the contract for the win.
WINNERS: 3 COUNT
RATING: ***1/4
Thoughts: Some very impressive bumps and spots in this one, but the match was undermined by the babyfaces claiming the record, only for Abbott to just take it, thus making the whole match pointless. The crowd notably stopped caring about the match after that as well as they realised there was no real point to it. Still, for this show, that rating puts this contextually on par with Flair Vs Steamboat, so I guess we should be grateful.
Tank Abbott runs off with both the record and the contract following that, at which point it’s TO THE BACK
The Filthy Animals are hanging out in an office backstage, which leads to The Cat coming in to complain as this is apparently his office. The Animals want to referee the Tag Title match later and also get a Title shot. They also promise Cat a win in his match later, so he agrees.
Match Two
The Great Muta Vs Ernest The Cat Miller
This was possibly the lowest ebb of Muta’s career, as he came over from Japan to a company where he had historically been very popular, and ended up in a terrible feud with The Cat. Muta was physically knackered by this stage and was balding terribly at the back of his head, which led to him finally giving up the ghost in 2001 and shaving his head before switching to a more technical ground based style that allowed him to become the wrestler of the year for 2001.
Cat clonks Muta with a microphone prior to the match starting and goes to the 10 punch, which the crowd enjoys. Muta fights back with the Power Elbow at one stage, which always looks cool regardless of how old and beaten up Muta gets. Muta works an arm bar following that, getting it fully applied at one stage. That would be an instant submission in MMA, but Cat just lies there in the hold for a bit and Muta eventually has to just let go. Honestly, someone applies that in the Octagon and the fight is over. In a world where you know that’s an instant tap it’s very hard to suspend your disbelief when someone just essentially no sells it.
Hudson tries to put Muta over by naming all the belts he’s won in his career, which is a standard thing for a commentator to do when trying to make a wrestler seem important, but Madden is of course too cool for school for that and has to make fun of Hudson for doing it. It’s called doing your job properly Mark, something you might be capable of doing if you actually did some research prior to these shows rather than organising a daring raid on catering.
Tygress joins us, whilst Cat makes a comeback and starts choking Muta with a television cable. Again, I think Cat is supposed to be the babyface here, but he’s certainly not wrestling that way. This match has had close to zero crowd heat by the way. Cat does take a nice bump for a Dragon Screw at one stage, and actually knows to sell the leg rather than taking a flat back bump for it like I actually saw Sid do once. Muta gets the dreaded green mist on Cat following that, but Tygress comes off the top with a chair whilst the ref is distracted by trying to help out Cat and that leads to Cat getting a big kick on Muta for the three count.
WINNER: THE CAT
RATING: ½*
Thoughts: Yes, they actually let Ernest pigging Miller defeat Keiji Muto. No, I don’t know how to justify or explain such a decision, but it happened. The match was pretty awful as well, as they had zero chemistry and Cat was supposed to be babyface but kept working it as a Heel for reasons that elude me.
Buff Bagwell is looking for his mother backstage ahead of the next match.
Match Three
Lucha de Apuestas
Judy Bagwell On A Pole
Positively Kanyon vs Buff The Stuff Bagwell
Kanyon had kidnapped Judy, with the idea being that he wanted to force her to be his valet. Thus Buff has to win here in order to liberate his mother. Kanyon says that there isn’t a pole big enough for Judy Bagwell though, so he’s stuck her on a forklift instead. For those who don’t remember this terrible Era of WCW; Kanyon had turned on DDP in storyline and had started doing a DDP impersonation, complete with Kanyon Cutter finishing move.
This is one of those situations where they take what would have been a perfectly solid mid-card match in Kanyon Vs Buff but then add unnecessary bollocks like the stuff with Judy that just detracts from the whole thing. It’s Kanyon and Buff Bagwell guys. Kanyon is a good worker and Buff is popular with the fans. You really don’t need to overthink this. Just give them a sensible storyline and let them do their thing.
The crowd kind of gets into this one, as it’s a decent match for the most part, with Buff being all fired up in the early going until Kanyon is able to cut him off and work some heat, including a Cobra Clutch at one stage. For some reason they’re doing pins and submissions here, even though you’d think the pole/forklift stipulation would suggest you’d have to climb up to retrieve Judy in order to do win? Or maybe it’s one of those pole matches where you can climb up and use the item if you’re the first to retrieve it? I must say, Kanyon using Judy Bagwell as a makeshift battering ram in order to clobber her son would be entertaining in a coarse kind of way.
Kanyon eventually manages to apply the Kanyon Cutter, which leads to former WCW World Champion David Arquette joining us in order to try and help Kanyon, which is at least narratively consistent as Arquette had been a Heel for turning on DDP the last time he’d been on WCW television. Arquette was filming a movie in Canada, so they brought him in for the night. Buff manages to fend off both of the Heels though and gets a double Buff Blockbuster leading to the pin on Kanyon for three.
WINNER: BUFF BAGWELL
RATING: **1/2
Thoughts: The gimmick was outrageously stupid, but the match itself was decent
Buff rescues his mum following that, leading to Kanyon attacking Arquette with the Kanyon Cutter in order to get his heat back.
Lance Storm arrives at the arena, complete with a police motorcade.
Meanwhile, the commentary team tell us that Goldberg hasn’t arrived yet, with the suggestion being that he was involved in a traffic collision of some kind on his motorbike in Sturgis.
Match Four
Guest Referees: The Filthy Animals
WCW Tag Team Titles
Champs: KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clarke) Vs The Perfect Event (Perfection Shawn Stasiak and Main Event Chuck Palumbo) Vs Sean O’Haire and Mark Jindrak Vs The Misfits In Action (Corporal Cajun and General Hugh G. Rection)
The Filthy Animals all hate all of the other teams in this one; meaning that they won’t be fair referees. Konnan is also with the Filthy Animals and joins commentary, where he buries pretty much everyone in the match in an extraordinary display of unprofessionalism. I think he legitimately angered a lot of the wrestlers, but WCW didn’t really do anything about it, because WCW. I think Rick Steiner clobbered Konnan towards the end of the company and he didn’t find much sympathy though, so this might have had something to do with that.
The music dubbing is in overdrive here as basically everyone involved in it needs their music dubbed out except for The Perfect Event, whose theme is a Jimmy Hart styled re-cut of the Mr. Perfect theme, which is itself heavily modelled on the theme from Exodus. Music rights are a confusing rabbit hole is my general conclusion on all of this. The Animals will get a Title shot the next night on Nitro, so they are going to want to mess with the other teams so that they have a better of chance of winning in the Title match. Disco grabs a mic before the match starts and threatens everyone to behave.
This one is pretty sloppy, with there being a lot of inexperienced guys in there, meaning that Brian Adams and Hugh Morrus are the two veterans expected to hold it all together. Despite the sloppiness and the chicanery with the referees, everyone is putting the effort in here and Kronik are over at least, so it’s reasonably watchable despite the shortfalls. The commentary is pretty atrocious, with Konnan focusing on insulting everyone and Madden focusing on kissing up to Konnan so he can appear cooler than he really is. O’Haire shows off some impressive athletic ability and power, as he looked like a can’t miss prospect until he went to WWE.
Disco keeps giving slow counts, which takes a hammer to the match’s momentum, as we see that the two younger teams are working together at points, teasing their eventual alliance as The Natural Born Thrillers. The crowd soon loses interest as this is just guys doing stuff with a lame crooked ref gimmick, something that becomes painfully obvious when Palumbo knocks Morrus down at one stage and taunts to the crowd, receiving absolute silence in return. Oof, that was brutal. I think the fans actually chant for Bret Hart at one stage, although I couldn’t quite make it out. Either way, they didn’t seem that interested in the actual match going on.
Vampiro and The Great Muta show up at one stage and attack KroniK, but Kronik manage to survive that and Clarke gives Palumbo The Meltdown straight after, only for Disco to refuse to count. Things fall apart even further following that, as everyone crashes and burns, leading to Chavo Guerrero Jr taking the referee shirt from Disco and then counting Palumbo down when KroniK has him pinned. This of course costs his own team the match, which makes little to no sense, but this is a WCW show in 2000 so that sort of thing is to be expected.
WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: KRONIK
RATING: *
Thoughts: This one started out like it might be okay but then it got progressively worse as it went along, with terrible commentary and a dead crowd making it hard to watch after a certain point. The finish made no sense as well, as Chavo was aligned with The MIA in storyline but essentially cost them the match by counting down Palumbo so that KroniK could retain
KroniK and The MIA make nice following that, which only really makes The MIA look like considerably lesser stars in that they’re fine with losing so long as their bigger, stronger and more impressive buddies won instead, with help from their own stablemate no less. This doesn’t make any sense!!!
Pamela Paulshock is backstage with Jeff Jarrett tonight. Jarrett insults Paulshock and then uses the words “slap”, “slappy” and “slapnuts” a lot, as was the style at the time. This was the usual Jarrett promo and it was long past the point of being original or interesting by this stage in his WCW career.
Match Five
Strap Match
The Franchise w/ Torrie Wilson Vs Billy Kidman
Yes, Shane Douglas was just going by The Franchise name at this stage. The story here is that Torrie and Kidman used to be an item, but she has since dumped Kidman and has shacked up with Franchise, thus leading to a feud which saw, amongst other things, Kidman stealing some Viagra so that Franchise and Torrie couldn’t have some romantic fun together. Did I mention just how awful the WCW product was at the time? Because it really was just the pits!
Franchise cuts the pre-match promo where he threatens to “franchise” his opponent’s derriere, which reveals that he doesn’t actually know what the word means. This one is pin and submission rules, instead of the drag to four corners stipulation sometimes found in this match type. Franchise actually manages to draw a “Franchise Sucks” chant here, which shows he at least was somewhat over to a certain degree.
The match itself is a brawl with not much wrestling going on, as the two fight in the ring and around ringside, occasionally hitting the other with the strap. Kidman does at least use the strap in some interesting ways, such as pulling Franchise into the ring post and using the strap to prevent Franchise from getting away when Kidman is on the offence. Wilson provides a distraction at one stage though, and that allows Franchise to get the cut off and work some heat, mostly using the strap to hit and choke Kidman.
Kidman does a good job selling in the heat segment, whilst Franchise makes the effort to work as a Heel and talk smack, targeting the arm and wrist of Kidman at points. Franchise has an injured wrist himself by the looks of things, so going after Kidman’s wrist might be a retaliatory action of some kind, although the commentary team never really references it if it is, with them more interested in squabbling with one another. Schiavone makes an effort to keep them focused on the call at least.
Kidman eventually makes the comeback, although the crowd isn’t really that into it. We get some more shots from the strap, leading to Franchise heading up top only to get thrown off Flair style in a moment of irony seeing as Shane Douglas hated Ric Flair in real life. Franchise sells well now he’s on the defensive, leading to Wilson trying to help him out with a shot from her shoe. That goes awry though and Kidman gets a two count from it.
Wilson climbs into the ring following that to break up a Kidman pin, which makes sense I guess seeing as this will probably be a No DQ match. Kidman runs the Heel couple together though, although Wilson doesn’t take a bump off it, and that leads to Kidman getting the Tomikaze for the three count.
WINNER: KIDMAN
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: This wasn’t actively bad or anything, but it wasn’t especially exciting either, with a flat crowd that didn’t get into it. The finish looked horribly botched as well, as you’d think Wilson should have taken a bump off the apron there if her and Franchise were getting shoved into one another by Kidman. It was mostly just two blokes hitting each other with a strap in front of an apathetic crowd, so that’s always going to have a ceiling
Kidman tries to batter Wilson with the strap following the match after easily disarming her when she has a chair, which is of course a babyface move because this is a Vince Russo show that we’re watching and you could probably fill two books worth of stuff covering Vinnie Ru’s issues with women based off his wrestling booking. Franchise ends up making the save though and leaves Kidman lying, to which I think “good” in all honesty. Big Vito ends up making the save for Kidman though, seemingly setting up some exciting matches with Franchise down the line. Vito got a good reaction from the crowd at least. Anyway, Reno then runs out to attack Vito, who was his storyline brother I believe.
Booker T arrives at the arena 75 minutes into this 165 minute telecast. Anyway, Jeff Jarrett attacks Booker and traps his leg in a car door, all whilst calling him “boy” just to make sure to hit all the disagreeable beats that we can. At least he didn’t call him anything stronger than that I suppose.
Match Six
Rip Off The Camouflage Mud Pit Match
Miss. Hancock Vs Major Guns
Yes, that’s the match Vince Russo booked here. Brace yourself; to win you have to throw your opponent in a mud pit and then rip off their clothes. You know when people who don’t watch wrestling like to talk down to you about how sleazy and scummy it is? Matches like this kind of show that they have a point. Madden of course makes sure to work “Snootchie Bootchies” into this, because heaven forfend that he ever have an original idea.
They start off in the ring, where Hancock delivers a handspring back elbow in the corner at one stage, on the same event where Great Muta is also booked. To her credit, it actually looked okay. They start going for pins in the ring, even though I thought you were supposed to rip off the camouflage to win? They can’t even keep the rules consistent in their own deplorable gimmick matches!
Now, I like looking at attractive women as much as the next straight bloke, but there are many more convenient avenues for me in which to do that and I kind of watch a wrestling show in order to watch wrestling. Shocking I know. That all being said, the wrestling segment at the start isn’t great but both wrestlers are working very hard and the crowd responds to it, so I can give it some leeway and I appreciate the effort shown by both seeing as neither is or was a regular wrestler.
Hancock seemingly wins by ripping off the rest of Guns’ outfit to leave her in a bikini, but the match continues, as I guess you have to rip off the entirety of the outfit in order to win? The commentary team doesn’t really explain. Anyway, both women do end up in the mud, where Hancock ends up holding her stomach and gets pinned by Guns, which was a tease for a pregnancy angle.
NO CONTEST
RATING: ½*
Thoughts: They tried very hard and had as good a match as two inexperienced wrestlers would on a major pay per view setting, but the rules made no sense and the finish was in severe poor taste. The bit in the ring whilst they actually tried to wrestle wasn’t good as such, but I respected both wrestlers for really trying to have as good a match as they possibly could, as it wasn’t their fault they were out there and they committed to the task
David Flair, Hancock’s storyline and real life boyfriend, runs down to check on Hancock as this has now become a “everything else on the show is fake except for this moment you’re watching right now” segment, which frequented the WCW product at the time. Blog of DOOM supremo Scott Keith was the first person to coin that one I think.
Pamela Paulshock is backstage with Vampiro, Great Muta and The Demon, who were a Heel stable called The Dark Carnival. Vamp says that Demon will be tested tonight by whether he can take out Sting, seeing as Vamp has been feuding with the Stinger recently.
Tony Schiavone reveals that what happened to Miss. Hancock wasn’t part of the match, as we see her getting taken out of the building on a stretcher. Tony goes as far as to use Hancock’s real name of Stacey Keibler, just so we know it’s definitely real and not an angle.
Match Seven
The Demon Vs Sting
Demon had turned on Sting to side with Vampiro, so tonight Sting is coming for revenge, which he does super quickly. What a pointless match. They actually paid for a plane ticket to bring Sting to Canada just for an absolute nothing outing like that? The most notable part of the match was that they dubbed out “God of Thunder” for Demon, which they went through a period of leaving unedited on WWE Network/Peacock for a while. I guess KISS started threatening some legal action?
WINNER: STING
RATING: SQUASH
Vampiro and Great Muta attack Sting following the match until KroniK run down to make the save in order to set up a match for later between Dark Carnival and the Tag Champs. Interestingly, Demon just walks past and lets his stablemates getting clobbered.
Meanwhile, backstage the doctor is checking on Booker T’s injured leg.
Match Eight
Canadian Rules for the WCW Canadian Championship
Special Enforcer: Jacques Rougeau
Champ: Lance T. Storm Vs The Fat Chick Thriller Mike Awesome
The wacky stipulations keep coming! The idea here is that Vince Russo is just rehashing the Dude Love Vs Stone Cold match we watched last week, where Rougeau is a dodgy official who will keep restarting the match and changing rules on the fly in order to favour Storm. Storm is of course super over in Canada, so doing all this lame Heel booking for him makes about as much sense as building a saucepan out of chocolate, but who am I to tell WCW in all their imminent wisdom what to do eh? Storm was actually the US Champ, but he renamed the belt for cheap heat after winning it.
Storm’s entrance here, resplendent with three Title belts and true superstar presentation, might have honestly been the highlight of his mainstream Pro Wrestling career. Apparently Vince Russo had no idea what to do with Storm, but Johnny Ace had some sway in WCW at the time and decided to prove Russo wrong by booking Storm super strong, leading to Storm getting over, mainly because so many wrestlers in WCW were booked to look incompetent so one guy coming in and winning three belts was always going to get over. It was sadly all downhill for Storm following this show though.
The fans are actually disappointed to see Rougeau because they were hopeful that it would be Bret Hart as the enforcer. I think Bret Hart was legitimately worried that the fans would turn on him if he went out there with Storm due to his arse backward the booking was. The actual wrestling in this match is good, as these two worked well together and Awesome could have good matches when in there with a talented guy who could carry him. Awesome wasn’t going to carry anyone else, but he could be very effective when in there with the right guy.
Awesome grabs a table at one stage, which gives us an “EC-Dub” chant from the crowd, showing that Vancouver was hip to the room. Storm manages to avoid getting tableised, but Awesome continues to control things back inside, even though he slips off the top when attempting a clothesline, drawing jeers from the crowd. Awesome follows up with an impressive looking Powerbomb following that though, which would appear to be three. However, Jacques Rougeau demands that the match be restarted as under Canadian Rules you need to win with a five count, meaning that the match must continue.
The match kind of goes off a cliff at this stage, with the stipulations and silliness weighing it down. Awesome gets a Dragon Sleeper for seemingly a clean submission win, but Rougeau once again demands that the match must continue, as Canadian Rules state you can’t win a belt by submission. I should point out that Storm is getting progressively less over with every defeat here whilst the crowd gets less and less invested in the contest due to all the chicanery. Awesome does eventually manage to get a five count with a splash off the top, but Rougeau now declares that Storm has to answer a ten count before Awesome can win.
The table from earlier gets brought into the ring and both wrestlers end up tumbling through it from the top rope, leaving them both knocked out on the mat for a double down. Rougeau states that the first man to hit feet before a ten count will pick up the win, and of course decks Awesome when the other official isn’t looking, thus leading to Storm making it to his feet first in order to pick up the win whilst Schiavone and Hudson are disgusted on commentary.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: LANCE STORM
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: It’s amazing how they had such a hot crowd for Storm and then basically killed them off with all the nonsense in this match. Sometimes you don’t need to overthink things you know? Just have Lance Storm wrestle Mike Awesome as a babyface in Canada whilst Awesome plays Heel for the night and have Storm win it clean in 10-15 minutes in order to pop the crowd. That’s easy. That basically writes itself. Instead we got a match that was good up until the silliness started and then basically unwatchable once it kicked in, so let’s go between three stars and a DUD for the rating
Bret Hart joins us following the match to endorse Storm, which is a nice moment at least. It’s also interesting to see Bret and Rougeau co-existing when I don’t think they like one another in real life due to Jacques attacking Dynamite Kid backstage once.
Pamela Paulshock is backstage with Kevin Nash, who says that he thought Goldberg wouldn’t show up tonight and that he’s “going over” Scott Steiner later on. Oooo, inside terms, that’s how you know this part of the show is real!
Match Nine
WCW Tag Titles
Champs: Kronik Vs Vampiro and The Great Muta
Interestingly Insane Clown Posse remains as entrance music for Vampiro here, even though I think The Oddities theme always has to get dubbed out on the WWF shows from 98/99, despite them both being performed by the same group. I’m sure there’s some sort of legal issue that allows one to be played whilst the other has to be dubbed out.
KroniK gets the shine to start, flinging the challengers around with ease, and it’s actually quite watchable, even if the crowd doesn’t really care about it. I think KroniK ended up getting a run in All Japan when Keiji Muto was booking there so I’m guessing they made a good impression on him here and he decided to give them some work?
Eventually Vamp kicks Adams down for the cut off, leading to the challengers working some heat. Adams does an okay job selling it and the Heels keep their offence simple, so everything works and the crowd does eventually start clapping for Adams to make a comeback. Clarke eventually gets the hot tag and runs wild, although the crowd doesn’t make a lot of noise.
Muta tries to spit the green mist at Clarke, but ends up catching the referee instead. This leads to The Harris Brothers running down in order to cost KroniK the match and setting up a feud that nobody wanted to see. Muta comes off the top with a Moonsault onto Clarke and the ref regains his sight long enough in order to count the pin and crown new Champs.
WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: VAMPIRO & MUTA
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: A pretty heatless match, but wrestling wise it wasn’t terrible. They were clearly very preoccupied with keeping KroniK looking strong in defeat above actually having a good match.
Pamela Paulshock is with Booker T, who says his knee won’t stop him later on.
We get a video package for the next match.
Semi-Main
#1 Contender for WCW Title
Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner w/ Midajah Vs Goldberg Vs Big Sexy Kevin Nash
Steiner helped Goldberg defeat Nash at the July pay per view, but now everyone hates each other with a Title shot on the line. The build for this one was that Nash outright said in the TV building up to it that he was “going over” here, regardless of what the plan is. They sold a pay per view on one of the wrestlers promising not to follow the script. Essentially they are saying that wrestling as a whole is a work, but this particular segment is a shoot. That’s a silly idea at the best of the times, but it’s even sillier when you do stuff like that for multiple segments on the same show like they’ve done here.
It’s a shame because these three would be capable of having a decent match without all the other nonsense going on with it, which is displayed when they focus on wrestling, as it’s always impressive to watch three massive wrestlers fling one another around with comparative ease. Goldberg doesn’t show at first, but then he runs down with taped rips and a chair to attack Nash, which I guess we’re supposed to believe is real? I mean, in kayfabe, all of this is real, but this is supposed to be a shoot, so it’s even more real. Can you see why this doesn’t make any sense?
The poor ref has to keep trying to get out of the way of these huge men at certain points, kind of like someone trying to avoid getting squished whilst Godzilla and King Kong tear down the City. Anyway, Nash preps for the Jack Knife Powerbomb on Goldberg, but Goldberg shoves him off and walks away, with the idea being that the finish of the match was supposed to be Goldberg getting Powerbombed and pinned, but Goldberg didn’t want to do a job and stormed off. Thus Tony Schiavone delivers the infamous line of “if that Powerbomb was part of this match’s design, what are they going to do now? Improvise?”
So yeah, the commentary team are outright saying that the planned finish for the match couldn’t go ahead, so now the two wrestlers are going to have to cook something else up. Madden even says on commentary that Nash could have punched Goldberg out and made him do the job if he wanted, which is just a bizarre thing to hear a commentator to say on a wrestling show. Goldberg makes sure to yell at Vince Russo on the way out, just so we definitely know this is real. Anyway, Midajah tries to help her man with some low blows to Nash, but Nash shrugs that off and gets the win with the Powerbomb whilst the commentary team puts over how professional Steiner is for taking the move.
WINNER: KEVIN NASH
LOSERS: THE REST OF HUMANITY
RATING: DUD
Thoughts: Where this match really falls down is that we’re supposed to believe that Scott Steiner, the guy who had numerous backstage fights and suspensions during his time in WCW, was a bastion of professionalism. When that’s the crux of your worked-shoot storyline, it’s not going to be a success. The match itself didn’t have terrible wrestling, but goodness me was the storyline pathetically awful in so many ways, making this one of the worst matches I think I’ve ever seen
The commentary team bags on Goldberg further following that.
A video package plays to hype up the Main Event.
Main Event
WCW Title
Champ: Booker T Vs The Chosen One Jeff Jarrett
Booker defeated Jarrett for the belt back in July, so Jarrett has a rematch here so he can try and win it back. Jarrett had smashed a guitar over someone who was supposed to be Booker’s wife in the build-up, although I don’t know if it was his real wife or not. They hadn’t really been booking Booker that strong since he won the belt, with him regularly getting pinned and made to look stupid. That’s kind of been forgotten though thankfully and most people just remember that he won the belt, possibly because WWE didn’t harp on it and just played up the whole “Five time” aspect of Booker’s WCW career without going into detail.
Booker gets the babyface shine to start, looking good on offence whilst Jarrett bumps around well for him. Booker eventually misses a dropkick off the top though and that leads to Jarrett attacking the injured right knee, which Booker sells well. It’s mostly a solid outing from both wrestlers here, as they hit the beats they need to and the match makes sense from a storytelling perspective, with Jarrett trying to take out the knee whilst Booker tries to find a way around his injured appendage in order to pick up the win.
Booker eventually makes the comeback, with the crowd getting into it, although Booker pops up with a Spinaroonie at one stage, which trivialises the knee injury a bit. The ref ends up getting bumped following that, leading to Jarrett clonking Booker in the knee with the guitar and applying the Figure Four for the submission tease, which gets the crowd to clap for Booker. Booker sells the Figure Four really well, although I’m not sure how many of the crowd really buy it as a possible finish. The crowd kind of treats it more as late match rest hold rather than something where Booker is in real jeopardy.
Booker eventually manages to get to the ropes in order to break the hold, although he waits till the very end of the five count before letting go in a good display of Heel viciousness. Jarrett tries to bonk Booker with the Title belt following that, but Booker ducks and the ref gets it instead. This leads to Booker giving Jarrett a Book End off of the apron through a table though, and both wrestlers are down and hurt following that. Another ref gets bumped following that when Jarrett accidentally chairs him, as this has just become a Jeff Jarrett TNA Main Event now. Booker and Jarrett trade some near falls following that, with Booker eventually catching Jarrett with a Book End for three after a solid effort from both men.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: BOOKER T
RATING: ***
Thoughts: A good match, with Booker doing a bit of spotty selling on the knee at times, but aside from that both wrestlers worked hard and it ended up being an entertaining effort. The silliness with all the ref bumps and weapon shots got a bit OTT towards the end as well, but it’s a Jeff Jarrett Main Event, so what can you do?
Some fans are unhappy about that and actually throw garbage at the ring, which is harsh on the two wrestlers in that particular match but apropos for the show itself.
Is It Really A Stinker?
Not only is this a Stinker, I think it might honestly be one of the worst pay per views from a major American company ever. It’s certainly one of the worst events from WCW’s dying days, with some terrible storylines and subpar wrestling outside of a few exceptions. The opener was good and the Main Event was good, but everything else was below average or outright terrible. There were way too many silly stipulations and ridiculous “worked-shoot” angles, with the absolute lowest moment being the Semi-Main.
WCW had a great chance to put on a good show here, as the Canadian crowd were willing to cut them some slack and if they’d just delivered a solid wrestling show they probably would have been fine. Instead they delivered a show with a lot of meh wrestling and then made the home nation hero Lance Storm look like a chump in his match. If they’d just let the good wrestlers do what they did well and not bothered with all the bogus overbooking, then this show could have been a decent event that delivered solid entertainment.
As it is, it’s so Stinky you could probably smell it halfway down the street. Now THAT’s Stinky!!
Final Rating: Stinker
