Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!
We return to WCW for this week’s Stinker Review, as we look at the last pay per view the company held before bringing back Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff in order to reboot things again. WCW was in a pretty lousy holding pattern at the time, with Kevin Sullivan and Kevin Nash handling most of the booking and putting on crummy shows. Uncensored 2000 was already fighting an uphill battle by having to go up against WrestleMania 2000 during one of the WWF’s all-time hot streaks, but WCW practically threw the towel in with this event.
The Main Event of Uncensored 2000 was supposedly Jeff Jarrett challenging Sid for the World Title, although we’ll see how that turns out. Elsewhere we’ve got Ric Flair taking on Hulk Hogan in a strap match, as well as Lex Luger battling Sting in a lumberjack match where everyone has a cast on their arm. In something like 1997 you might have drawn quite a bit of money with a line-up like that, but by 2000 WCW was ice cold and the show was lucky to scrape a 0.13 buy rate.
I actually owned the VHS of Uncensored 2000 back in the day, as it was one of the rare occasions that my mother actively encouraged me to buy a wrestling tape as there was some sort of offer on at Woolworths and she thought it was silly not to take advantage of it. She’s a bit odd like that. I remember thinking the show was pretty awful back in the day, but maybe it’s aged well?
You can view the card for Uncensored 2000 by clicking below;
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1716&page=3
The event is emanating from Miami, Florida on the 13th of March 2000
Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Mark Madden
The opening video package focuses on Lex Luger Vs Sting, Flair Vs Hogan and Jarret Vs Sid. What a trio of Main Events that is!
Flair, Luger and Liz arrive.
Sid and Hogan have one another’s back later on.
Jeff Jarrett and The Harris Brothers arrive, and Jeff Jarrett has an insurance policy for later.
A mysterious limousine shows up in the car park, which is basically the same surprise angle they did on the previous pay per view.
Someone has a “I wish I was at WrestleMania” sign in the crowd. Ouch!
Opening Match
WCW World Cruiserweight Title
Champ: The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iaukea w/ Paisley Vs Psicosis w/ Juventud Guerrera
The Artist was doing a Prince parody here, with the future Sharmell Huffman playing his storyline manager/missus/fudge buddy. Psi had been unmasked in 1999, and it hadn’t done much for his hopes of superstardom. Quite a few of the Mexican wrestlers would get cut later in the year as a cost cutting measure, with Juventud then getting canned also for going crazy in an Australian hotel. Chris Candido joins us for some guest commentary before the match starts, leading to a parade of guest commentators throughout the night.
I’m watching this on the VHS from 2000, which means I get to listen to Prince’s “Purple Rain” knockoff theme, which I actually quite miss when I watch shows on the Network/Peacock. Prince was a so-so wrestler and this wacky gimmick didn’t really help out his work rate, but it did give him an actual character of some sort outside of just being “gutsy youngster who usually loses”. Psi gets a couple of high flying moves to start, but Prince just cuts him off back inside and works him over without really cheating.
Paisley gets some slaps in on Psi during the heat, just to highlight who the Heel tandem is supposed to be I guess, and Prince continues to work Psi over back inside the ring. Psi eventually mounts a bit of comeback, getting a rana off the top for a near fall, which leads to Juventud getting frustrated out on the floor. Things pick up a bit with Psi on offence, but he gets distracted by Paisley, which leads to Juventud dropping a kiss on her. I hope poor Paisley got her shots first. Psi pretty much has the match won with a leg drop off the top, but he stupidly yells at Paisley and that leads to a DDT from the second rope from Prince for the three count.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: THE ARTIST
RATING: *3/4
Thoughts: They didn’t give Psicosis much in the way of offence there, and the match itself was pretty short. It felt more like a match you’d see on Thunder rather than a pay per view offering. It wasn’t a terrible match or anything, but it didn’t really have much chance to be any better than it was. The finishing sequence was pretty messy as well. Prince would end up vacating the belt when Russchoff returned to the promotion, as did all of the current Champs
Mean Gene Okerlund is backstage with Bam Bam Bigelow. Bammer says he feels bad about The Wall’s recent path of rage, seeing as Bigelow helped Wall get into the business. This was a pretty generic promo from Bigelow, but it got the point across and Gene helped him along at points.
Match Two
XS (Lane and Rave) Vs The Screamin’ Demons (The KISS Demon and Nor-Man Smi-Lay)
Lane and Rave had previously been an overtly gay act known as Lenny and Lodi, which WCW ended up shutting down due to complaints. Lane had been the Cruiserweight Champ at the time, but they just stripped him off the belt and awarded it to Psicosis in typical slaphanded WCW style. Norman had gotten reasonably over towards the end of 99 by doing a cowardly Hardcore Champion gimmick where he would scream whilst getting beaten up. Demon is Dale Torborg dressed as Gene Simmons, and was an official KISS sponsored wrestler at the time.
XS’ theme sounds a bit like “Love in an Elevator” actually, so I don’t know if they left it in on the Network/Peacock for that reason. Miss. Hancock (Stacy Keibler) joins the revolving guest commentator list, with her feuding with XS at the time over something I don’t happen to remember or really care about. According to Madden she tried to manage them and they weren’t on board with it. She does say that the initials stand for “Xtra Small” though, which is a pretty good gag for 2000 WCW. Norman is actually dressed like Demon here, which makes them feel more like an actual team if nothing else.
I don’t normally find Madden’s shtick that funny, but he and Tony being a duo of losers whilst trying to get over with Miss. Hancock is actually quite humorous. This is another abbreviated contest, and the wrestling isn’t especially good. The crowd does like Smiley though, so they care when he’s in there at least. They get the heat on The Demon actually, which kind of seems odd seeing as he’s the bigger wrestler, but it makes sense seeing as the crowd will actually be into a Smiley hot tag.
Smiley’s hot tag segment is decent, owing to him staying mostly in the centre of the ring and letting the Heels come to him, which makes things run smoothly for the most part. Demon was pretty green at the time, so it’s quite rough whenever he’s in there, but he doesn’t do much once the hot tag is made and Smiley eventually puts Lodi away with the Norman Conquest (Crossface Chicken Wing).
WINNERS: THE SCREAMIN’ DEMONS
RATING: *1/4
Thoughts: The fans liked Smiley, but aside from that this was a rushed match that didn’t really have much going on
XS tries to bully Hancock following the bout, but Smiley and Demon rescue her and the three then have a dance party in the ring.
Booker and Kidman are trying to straighten out their previous issues ahead of a tag match later.
David Flair wants Daffney to stay backstage during the following match. She agrees, but then chuckles and shows that her fingers were crossed as to suggest that she won’t be upholding her promise.
Match Three
The Wall Vs Bam Bam Bigelow
The story here was that Wall was a previous protégé of Bigelow, but now he’s on a rampage and Bammer feels responsible for it, hence this match. There was also a secondary feud going on where Wall would keep destroying David Flair and Crowbar, leading to Wall defeating David in a super short squash match at a WCW House Show I went to see in Manchester around this time. It made you wonder why they even bothered flying both of them over for that in all honesty.
This is actually a decent big man slugfest for the most part, as it’s mostly basic power moves, punches and clotheslines, but it works for what they’re going for and it’s watchable, even if the crowd doesn’t really care that much about it. Like the two previous bouts, this one suffers from being really rushed, as they only wrestle for about three and half minutes until they brawl down to the entrance way, where Wall Choke Slams Bammer through a table for the DQ.
WINNER BY DQ: BIGELOW
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: This was fine for what it was, and on a show where all the other matches weren’t so rushed it would possibly have worked as something a bit different. As it was though, it was another match that was way too short and it was impossible for it to get a higher rating as a result. Is loads of short matches with rubbish finishes something WCW fans really wanted at the time or was it just the booking team having no clue as to what their audience liked?
David Flair and Crowbar try and attack The Wall following the bout, but he deals with them with reasonable ease. Eventually Wall and Crowbar brawl to the top of the Turner-Tron, where Crowbar ends up taking a very impressive bump from up there through the staging area. The spot looked safe at least, but it was a needless stunt bump that was pretty much forgotten when they did the “re-boot” of the promotion a few weeks later. Of course if this was done in the WWF they’d do it with top guys and replay the clip of it for years after so that you’d remember it, but in WCW they did it with some lower card guys and then never mentioned it again after the initial incident. Because WCW.
They try and make this a big injury angle, complete with guys like Lash LeRoux and Booker acting worried for Crowbar as he gets stretchered out of the building, but the crowd doesn’t seem to be buying into it that way.
Mean Gene is backstage with Brian Knobbs, who dedicates his match to Bigelow and Crowbar. If I ever fall from 15 feet through the staging area then please ensure someone better than Brian Knobbs dedicates their match to me. I know I probably couldn’t get a Kenny Omega level wrestler, but someone like Junta Miyawaki or Taylor Wilde would be perfectly acceptable. Just ABK (Anyone But Knobbs).
Match Four
Gauntlet Match for the WCW Hardcore Title
Champs: 3 Count (Evan, Shannon and Shane) Vs Nasty Brian Knobbs
3 Count were doing the boyband gimmick here, and they had all piled onto Knobbs in a Hardcore match and are now defending the belt Freebird Style, with Knobbs trying to bring “credibility” back to the belt by winning it back from them. Because when you think of the credibility of Hardcore Wrestling you ALWAYS think of Brian Knobbs! Knobbs has to defeat all three members of 3 Count to win here, whilst they just need to defeat him once in order to win. Knobbs has a trolley full of weapons to help him out here, with it mostly being metal bins and brooms.
Knobbs sends all of the Heels to Pity City early on, but Shane has a protective mask on and thus doesn’t sell it, which is a cute spot but I don’t think there’s enough protective fabric in the world that could prevent Brian Knobbs’ body odour from causing maximum damage to the recipient’s nostrils. 3 Count tries coming off a ladder onto Knobbs with high flying attacks, but he dodges the last attack from Shannon and sprays the Heels with a fire extinguisher before hitting Shane with a broom for the first elimination.
Shane Helms Eliminated
We get a table following that, which leads to the announce team cracking jokes, because Hardcore matches were exclusively the comedy break in WCW, which must have been great for the poor sods who were destroying their bodies in these kinds of matches. Case in point, Evan gets powerbombed from inside the ring through a table at ringside Mike Awesome style, and that’s our second elimination, meaning that Knobbs just has to pin Shannon in order to regain the belt.
Evan Karagias Eliminated
Shannon actually appears to pin Knobbs when Shane dropkicks Knobbs when he’s going for a slam. However, Knobbs’ foot is on the ropes (in a Hardcore match?) so they quickly restart it and Knobbs ends up kicking the belt into Shannon’s face before squishing him with a metal bin for the three count. The crowd boos this, although it could just be crowd sweetening by the Turner people as I can’t comprehend anyone actually caring about any of this.
Shannon Moore Eliminated
WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: BRIAN KNOBBS
RATING: *
Thoughts: You like watching Brian Knobbs destroy two vastly more talented wrestlers (along with Evan Karagias) in an aimless Hardcore match? Well then this is the match for you! For those amongst you who aren’t bordering on being criminally insane though, this match probably won’t do anything for you
Harlem Heat 2000 have promo time with Mean Gene. Big T yells a lot. Sadly WCW omits to use subtitles.
Vampiro does an ECW styled promo where he talks to the camera and appears to have a minor mental breakdown about his match with Fit Finlay later on.
Match Five
Harlem Heat 2000 (Stevie Ray and Big T) w/ Cash and Mr. Biggs Vs Booker and Kidman w/ Torrie Wilson
Stevie had kicked Booker out of Harlem Heat and replaced him with Big T (Ahmed Johnson), taking Booker’s “T” in the process in what Bryan Alvarez used to refer to as the Sesame Street Feud. Kidman had got roped into this as well, with the story being whether the ragtag babyface outfit can survive against the regular team, which is a story that would mean more if Stevie and Big T hadn’t only been a team for a couple of months.
This show could really do with a good match right about now. Heck, I’ll settle for “decent and longer than 5 minutes”. Mr. Biggs becomes the next person to hop on commentary, and he doesn’t care about what happened to Crowbar. Booker and Kidman work reasonably well as a team in the early going, as they get a babyface shine on the Heels and look good whilst they do it. Some of the bumping from the Heels isn’t on point, but the Faces do their part properly.
Eventually Cash provides a distraction and that allows Stevie to catch Kidman with an illegal clothesline and that’s the cut off. Kidman sells well in the heat, although some of the offence from the Heels is lacking somewhat, especially when Big T tries a running dive from the crowd to ringside and misses Kidman by miles. When Stevie Ray is demonstrably the better wrestler in your tag team, then you know your performances are below par.
Kidman eventually manages to catch Stevie with a desperation bulldog and that leads to Booker making the comeback, as he continues to look good. It’s no surprise they put the World Title on him in 2000, as he has been the most polished and talented guy on the show thus far. The crowd actually gets into the near falls down the closing stretch, with Kidman breaking up a pin on Booker at one stage, which actually pays off the “will they be there for one another” storyline the match has had. That is exampled again with the finish, as Kidman gets a Sunset Flip on Big T and Booker adds a kick to send Big T down to the mat, giving the babyfaces the win.
WINNERS: BOOKER & KIDMAN
RATING: **
Thoughts: Big T was AWFUL here, but Booker and Kidman looked good and Stevie was serviceable, so I’ll be generous with the rating, especially as the crowd was actually getting into it towards the end and they actually did spots that played into the storyline they were telling, so by WCW 2000’s low standards, this was okay
We get a video package for the next match.
Match Six
Falls Count Anywhere
Fit Finlay Vs Vampiro
This was a respect feud, with Finlay claiming he wanted to teach Vamp respect by clobbering him unmercifully, because WCW. Both of these guys have casts on their arm, owing to Lex Luger stomping a chair on them. They trade strikes to start, with Finlay eventually going for a chair and getting it kicked in his face by Vamp, which is the cue for both guys to leave the ring and fight into the crowd. Kevin Sullivan was handling the booking at the time, so of course they end up fighting their way into the toilets, with Finlay trying to shove Vamp’s head into one of the toilet bowls as he promised to do in the previous video package. They head into the concourse following that, and it’s bathed in red light for some reason which makes it close to impossible to make out what is going on. Vamp gets The Nail in the Coffin there amongst the people and that is apparently the three count.
WINNER: VAMPIRO
RATING: *
Thoughts: This really didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t mind them trading strikes in the ring, but once they started going on a tour of the building it became a generic brawl, and the lighting at the end was terrible. I don’t get why there was seemingly a rave randomly going on in the concourse, but there you go. Miami is clearly one big discotheque.
The Mamalukes and Disco have some promo time with Mean Gene backstage. It’s the usual promo from them, with Johnny threatening to break his opponent’s thumbs.
Match Seven
WCW Vs nWo
No DQ Match for the WCW Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Mamalukes (Big Vito and Johnny The Bull) w/ The Disco Inferno Vs The Harris Brothers (Ron and Don)
The Champs had won the belt thanks to Disco, even though Disco had originally been an unwilling member of the group. The Harris Brothers were part of nWo 2000 along with Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner. It wasn’t the faction’s greatest hour in all honesty. This was actually the Main Event of that aforementioned Manchester House Show I attended, and they actually brought in Michael Buffer for it. I think they closed the show with it because some local boxer or rugby player that I’d never heard of was the guest referee and he had a spot planned at the end. No one cared.
Disco becomes the next person to hop on the commentary table. Johnny was greener than grass at this stage in his career, although he had a good physique and was very athletic, so pairing him up with a solid journeyman wrestler like Vito was probably a smart move. Vito actually looks quite good in this one, whilst The Harris Brothers are competent if uninspiring, so the match is okay for the most part.
The Mamalukes get the babyface shine to start, and it’s mostly alright, with Johnny eventually getting distracted by one Harris Bother and then clobbered by the other for the cut off. The Harris’ look decent on offence during the heat and Johnny actually does an okay job selling it all considering how inexperienced he was at the time of this bout. This match has been serviceable thus far, although they haven’t really made much use of the No DQ stipulation.
Eventually Johnny and a Harris Brother catch each other with a clothesline, leading to the double down and the hot tag to Vito, who makes a solid comeback, leading to Vito dropping an elbow from the top onto a Harris Brother for two. A Hart Attack Clothesline gets another two for the Champs when the other Harris Brother breaks it up. The Harris Brothers get some near falls of their own, as this has been a decent closing stretch thus far.
Disco hits one of the challengers with the tag belt, which is allowed under the rules of the match, but the Harris Brother kicks out. The Harris’ end up using the tag belt that Disco brought in to destroy all three members of the opposing team before getting the H-Bomb on Big Vito in order to win the belts.
WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: THE HARRIS BROTHERS
RATING: **1/4
Thoughts: This was fine, as they got nearly 9 minutes to play with and they were actually able to tell a story in there. Johnny was green and it showed at points, but the three other wrestlers had plenty of experience by this stage in their careers and they did a solid job working the tag team formula
Fit Finlay says he now respects Vampiro following that earlier bout. Thanks, that’s good to know.
Mean Gene is backstage with Lex Luger, Ric Flair and Elizabeth. This is a fun promo, mostly due to Flair being all hyped up in his usual manner.
We get a video package for the next match.
Dustin Rhodes tells Mean Gene that Terry Funk will bite the dust tonight.
Match Eight
Texas Bull Rope Match
The American Nightmare Dustin Rhodes Vs Terry Funk
Oh yes, Dustin was the first to use that particular nickname! The story here was that Dustin and Funk had been aligned, but Dustin turned on Funk because Rhodes and Funks are seemingly destined to feud with one another. Funk responded by carrying around a roast chicken and calling it “Dusty”, which surprisingly was supposed to be interpreted as a babyface move, because WCW. I remember seeing these two wrestle one another on that Manchester House Show as well, with the match being pretty miserable, although the chicken spot got over at least.
Funk hasn’t just brought a raw chicken with him tonight (which is just salmonella waiting to happen by the way) but he’s also brought someone in a chicken suit to distract Dustin into a sneak attack. This appears to be pin or submission to win, but you can use the Bull Rope as a weapon if you want. This match is mostly the two of them punching one another and using the Cowbell as a weapon, with Funk taking a few trademark big bumps along the way.
It’s quite heatless to be honest, although as a brawl it’s fine and Dustin actually looks quite good at points when it comes to his offence. Funk spends most of the bout selling, until the guy in the chicken suit runs down to try and help him, which the crowd doesn’t really care about. Dustin kills the chicken, although sadly he neglects to choke it with the Bull Rope as that would have provided some easy low hanging fruit for me. The distraction allows Funk to mount a comeback though, as he clocks Dustin right in his Curtain Call with the Cowbell.
Funk tries to change the match into an I Quit contest mid-bout, which the ref seems against, although I think submission is a valid way to win this one, so I don’t see the problem. Dustin ends up quitting, but the ref says that it doesn’t count for some reason. You can verbally submit just fine, so I don’t see why you couldn’t recognise that as an official submission. Anyway, Dustin delivers something like the third or fourth low blow of this match whilst Funk argues with the ref, which leads to Dustin getting a piledriver onto the Cowbell for three.
WINNER: DUSTIN RHODES
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: This one dragged for me in all honesty, and the stuff where Dustin verbally submitted but the referee didn’t accept it was just weird. I think the ref might have been supposed to have been knocked out after getting bonked by Funk and the bell, but he was clearly awake when Dustin quit, so I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t think they knew what they wanted this match to be either, as it alternated between hate-filled brawl and wacky comedy match depending on what spot was next
Dustin tries a post-match beat down, but Funk fends him off and Dustin runs away.
World Champ Sid is backstage with Mean Gene, where he does his usual quiet-then-yelling promo, and it’s lame.
We get a video package for the next match.
Match Nine
Lumberjack Cast Match
The Total Package w/ Miss. Elizabeth Vs Crow Sting
Package and Sting had been a Heel team towards the end of 1999, but then Sting went back to being a babyface and Luger broke his arm with a chair, leading to Sting taking a couple of months off before returning for some revenge. Luger went on a streak of breaking arms, including the likes of Curt Hennig, Brian Knobbs, Finlay, Vampiro, Doug Dellinger and even Hulk Hogan. Thus some of his victims are the lumberjacks here, with casts on their arms in order to dole out some punishment. We’ve got Finlay, Knobbs, Vamp, Jimmy Hart, Dellinger and Hennig out there for this one.
Package tries apologising to the lumberjacks prior to the bout, but they aren’t buying it. Package expected that though, and brings down some of his own lumberjacks, which leads to Hugh Morrus, Harlem Heat 2000 and The Harris Brothers heading down to the ringside area. I’m not sure who in authority signed off on this, as WCW doesn’t seem to think that something like that needs addressing. I mean, how hard is it to have someone like Kevin Nash (the commissioner at the time I believe) show up on the video wall for a pre-tape where he allows Package to do this?
Sting shines on Package to start, sending him out to the floor so that the lumberjacks can get some licks in, and the crowd enjoys that. Sting ends up on the wrong side of Package’s lumberjacks, leading to some heat from Package, whilst Tank Abbot heads down to the ring and cleans Dellinger’s clock for some reason. I think it was due to Dellinger and security getting on Tank’s nerves previously. The lumberjacks end up fighting to the back, except for Vampiro who has remained at ringside.
Ric Flair comes down to the ring and actually gets inside to attack Sting, which the ref lets go for some reason. I guess because this match is No DQ? It would have been nice if they could have explained that of course. Jimmy Hart ends up dragging Liz to the back, and Vamp hits Package with a baseball bat, which allows Sting to bring this messy bout to a conclusion with the Scorpion Death Drop after an exhausting 7 minutes.
WINNER: STING
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: This was all kinds of rushed, with a handful of actual wrestling moves whilst the rest was melodrama with the lumberjacks. Not a good match
Sting and Vamp hug following that, although there isn’t much enthusiasm, and I believe they didn’t like one another in real life.
Tank Abbot tells Mean Gene that Doug Dellinger got him fined at one stage, so that’s why he punched him earlier.
Video package for the next match.
Mike Graham tells Sid that he’s up next, even though Sid thought he was on last. Sid awkwardly grabbing his belt and stumbling out of the locker room is possibly the most entertaining part of the show thus far. What a lummox.
Semi-Main
WCW World Title
Champ: Sid Vs WCW United States Champ The Chosen One Jeff Jarrett w/ Midajah, Shakira and Tylene Buck)
Jarrett was actively refusing to win the belt in real life at this stage because he didn’t want to go down in history as the lowest drawing World Champion in history. I think TNA sealed the deal on that one I’m afraid dearest Jeffrey. Sid was rubbish as per, drawing miserable houses and ratings, but the rubes seemed to like him, so they kept the belt on him. I think the plan was to feud him with Hulk Hogan after this. Jarrett says that the ladies will show some skin if he wins tonight, thus guaranteeing that he won’t win.
Sid clobbers Jarret to start, leading to a brawl in the crowd, but The Harris Brothers attack him in the aisle and that allows Jarrett to take over back inside the ring with a sleeper. They have been wrestling for something like five minutes but they’re selling like they’re twenty minutes into a thirty minute classic. Sid eventually makes the comeback and throws Jarrett into a belt holding Harris Brother for a two count. Jarrett responds by hitting Sid with the guitar (likely not drawing a single dime in the process) which leads to bent ref Slick Johnson running down to seal the deal for Jarrett. However, Hulk Hogan runs down to make the save, beats up all the Heels singlehandedly, and then drapes Sid on top of Jarrett for the three count.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: SID
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: 8 Minutes for your World Title match on pay per view? Ugh. The wrestling actually wasn’t that bad when you consider that Sid was in there attempting to do whatever he thinks wrestling is, but the silliness at the end took away any goodwill, especially when Hogan made everyone look like a chump with his run-in, including his supposed babyface buddy
Scott Steiner attacks Hulk Hogan following the match (I guess it was him inside the limo?) which leads to Sid brawling to the back with The Harris Brothers and Ric Flair coming down to start the next match.
Main Event
YAPAPI STRAP MATCH!!!!
The Nature Boy Ric Flair Vs Hollywood Hulk Hogan
The match Maffew made famous! This is round #681 between these two; with the idea being that you’re supposed to drag your opponent to four corners in order to win. Despite Hogan being hurt from the previous Scott Steiner attack, he quickly starts pummelling Flair, because of course he does. Flair does his usual begging off when his attacks don’t work, which is entertaining at least. The match actually has some decent crowd reactions as well, especially when Hogan does the old ten punches in the corner spot, as the crowd chants along and enjoys it.
Flair actually ends up bleeding at one stage, which is interesting as WCW didn’t do a lot of blood at the time, so they either got permission for this because Hogan wanted it for his match, or they just did it anyway because Hogan knew he wouldn’t be punished for doing it. Flair eventually manages to get a foothold in the bout when The Total Package rescues his partner with a chair shot to Hogan, leading to Hogan doing a blade job as well. Considering this match has mostly been punching, choking and strap shots, it’s actually been reasonably watchable.
Obviously at the time it was ridiculous that WCW was once again going to the Flair Vs Hogan well for a pay per view Main Event, and that contributed to the negative feeling towards this one, but viewed two decades on, it’s just Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan brawling and bleeding with one another, which isn’t an amazing match, but it’s still kind of fun just because these two have such great chemistry as opponents. I was expecting this to be absolute garbage, but it’s not been that bad. Don’t get me wrong, hasn’t been GOOD, but it hasn’t been awful either, and on this show I’ll take it!
For some reason they start doing pins, as they now magically count in this match in an unexplored nor explained plot twist. This is the point that the match actually becomes kind of bad, because they’ve just forgotten the rules and there’s no adequate explanation as to why. Hogan does the Hulk Up routine, and takes out Package in the process before pinning Flair for three and then touching the fourth corner, just so he could beat Flair twice in the same match I guess.
WINNER: HULK HOGAN
RATING: *1/4
Thoughts: I thought I might give it ** until they forgot the match rules and started trying to pin each other. I’m convinced that Hogan just thought it would be fun to get two wins over Flair for the price of one, and Flair was just generally so broken by how terrible WCW was at the time that he agreed to it just so he could get the show over with and get to the bar before last orders
Hogan poses and we’re out.
Is It Really A Stinker?
Yeah this show blows.
There wasn’t anything even touching *** by my watch, with too many rushed matches and a host of lousy finishes to boot. You can see why they rolled the dice on Russo and Bischoff after watching this, as they had to try SOMETHING to try and turn things around because this product couldn’t have looked more lame and behind the times when matched up to the WWF in 2000.
WCW, ECW and The WWF all put on shocking pay per views during this 30 day period actually, with Uncensored 2000, Living Dangerously 2000 and WrestleMania 2000 all being differing levels of cack (although Mania 2000 did at least have an excellent ladder match in order to bump up its overall rating).
Of course Russo and Bischoff ended up doing little better (outside of belting Booker T, and that was probably more a Russo call than a Bischoff call, as ol’ Sleazy E wanted his buddy Terry to get the belt again instead), but the car crash that was their stint in charge was at least more interesting than this. They didn’t draw a big crowd, but the crowd they did draw was willing to get into the show, and instead they got given this. This is one of those shows where even if you got your ticket for free you’d still feel like you got ripped off.
I’ll let Sir David of Melzter close us out with this excerpt from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (available at www.F4Wonline.com)
WCW Uncensored on 3/19 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami went back to being the Hulk Hogan show, as he won not only the main event–twice–but also the world title match that he wasn’t even in. It has almost become a dark comedy, that the worse things become for the company and the more obvious changes have to be made, the more they continue to go stronger in the wrong direction.
Amen, Brother!
Final Rating – Stinker
Ratings done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant
