Mike Reviews WCW Greed

Happy Saturday You Greedy Gannets!

Seeing as we covered the last episode of Thunder a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a look at WCW’s very last pay per view as well, just to close the book on that particular era of the company and also because I remember it having some good matches. The reason they decided to call the show “Greed” was because they were doing some kind of Seven Sins thing at the time, with Greed fitting into that theme quite nicely. Sadly the company didn’t stick around long enough for us to get WCW Sloth, although the Main Event for that one would have surely had to be Lex Luger Vs Kevin Nash!

Ho Ho, we like to have fun here!

Anyway, if you’d like to take a look at the card for Greed then you can click the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1729&page=3

You can also read what Thomas Hall thought of the show by clicking HERE

Greed is emanating from Jacksonville, Florida (I wonder if a young Tony Khan attended?) on the 18th of March 2001

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson

The opening video package focuses on how DDP has a chance to win the WCW Title later on if he can just catch Scott Steiner with the Diamond Cutter.

Opening Match
The Kwee-Wee Vs Jason Jett

Kwee-Wee was Alan Funk/Angry Alan/The Funkster doing a stylist gimmick, with the twist being that he could get very angry very quickly. Jett would perhaps be better known as EZ Money from ECW, and he was enjoying a solid push here in WCW’s dying days. Interestingly they’ve finally started dubbing out Jason Jett’s theme on these now, and I’m surprised it took them so long because it really is just a Jackyl song without lyrics. Kwee-Wee tries jump-starting things by attacking Jett during his entrance, but Jett easily fights back and then gets the babyface shine with a mixture of strikes and impressive high-flying offence.

Jett delivers the Rocking Horse submission hold at one stage, and sadly Mike Tenay isn’t on commentary to give us the Lucha Libre backstory to it. Kwee-Wee keeps trying to cut Jett off, but Jett keeps preventing is, as this has been an excellent showcase for Jett thus far. Kwee-Wee has done a great job at being a tackle dummy here to be fair though, as he fully understands that his role is to make Jett look as good as possible and he’s fully committing to it by taking a number of big bumps and constantly allowing himself to be one-upped by Jett. It’s a very selfless performance in many ways and it really helps with getting Jett over with the crowd as the bout progresses.

Jett successfully delivers the Buckshot Lariat at one stage, as I ponder whether Jett invented that one or not? He’s certainly one of the first I personally remember seeing doing that, or though I do have it in my head that Too Cold Scorpio might have done it at one stage too, but I can’t confirm that. Kwee-Wee eventually taps into his inner rage in order to get the cut off by flinging Jett into the ringside metal railings like Jay White. Jett is understandably on the defensive following that, and he does a decent job selling whilst being worked over. Kwee-Wee looks solid on offence, and he plays a pretty believable psycho. Honestly, looking at Kwee-Wee’s wacky hairdo and psychotic behaviour it surprises me they didn’t try to give him a Keith Flint styled gimmick instead of this wacky stylist type one.

Kwee-Wee actually succeeds in drawing some good heat from the crowd here, getting multiple “Kwee-Wee Sux” chants as the match progresses. As it’s an EZ Money/Jason Jett match, we of course get Jett trying to powerbomb Kwee-Wee from the top rope at one stage, but Kwee-Wee counters it into a rana. Jett did that spot A LOT with Kid Kash in ECW. Jett does eventually manage to block a Piledriver with what looks like a low blow, but the ref lets it goes because WCW, and that leads to Jett making a comeback. Both wrestlers have chances to win it following that, as they are working super hard here and doing some nice near falls and counters. Jett and Kwee-Wee bump heads at one stage, which leads to Kwee-Wee taking a spill to the floor. Jett decides to play possum following that, and that allows Jett to dodge a Kwee-Wee elbow drop and then deliver his forward throwing suplex for the three count.

WINNER: JASON JETT
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was a great opener, with Jett looking like a star and Kwee-Wee doing a fantastic job of helping with that by being highly professional and essentially sacrificing himself in order to make Jett look good. It’s a shame for Jett that WCW went south so soon after this, as he was being booked really well and you have to think that he would have eventually found himself at the top of the Cruiserweight division.

We get a video package to hype up the next match, with the focus being on the high-flying and exciting action that you’ll find in the Cruiserweight division.

Match Two
Final of the WCW World Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship Tournament
Team Canada (“Primetime” Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo) Vs The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio Jr)

This was an attempt from WCW to showcase the Cruiserweight’s a bit more, and it led to some great matches for the short time it lasted. Everyone gets their music dubbed out here, as I think WCW was using a totally different set of stock music towards the end of it’s life and WWE either doesn’t own the rights to it or the songs sound too much like real ones (such as Skipper’s clear DMX rip-off) and they don’t want to risk getting in any legal bother by chancing it. It should shock no one that this match is all-action from the opening bell, with it essentially being an exchange of exciting big moves from both teams. The crowd is into the Kidman/Rey team, with Rey in particular getting some good reactions, showing that he was still a star to the WCW audience regardless of how badly he’d been booked in WCW from about 1998 onwards.

The fight soon spills to the floor, which leads to the Filthy Animals getting stereo dives off the stage onto Team Canada before working over Skipper back inside. Romeo provides a distraction to Kidman though, and that leads to Team Canada cutting off the BK Bomber for our heat segment. It should shock no one that Kidman is very good at selling, so the heat segment works well, with Team Canada looking good on offence and successfully getting the crowd to boo them whilst they beat Kidman up. Kidman eventually manages to counter some punches in the corner from Skipper into a powerbomb though and that gives us hot tag Rey, which leads to Rey running wild on the Heels and looking good whilst doing so.

That of course leads us to our parade of dives for this contest, which you knew was coming eventually. The highlight of that one is Kidman getting a Shooting Star Press out onto Team Canada at one stage whilst they are standing outside the ring. Rey tries putting Skipper away back inside the ring following that, but Romeo is able to make the save for his partner and keep the bout going. Both teams have chances to win it following that, but someone either manages to kick out or the tag partner is able to get there to break up the pin attempt before the ref can count to three, so we keep going. Romeo manages to catch Rey with some kind of piledriver move called the Last Kiss and that’s enough for the clean win.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: TEAM CANADA
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was an excellent way to inaugurate the belts, as Rey and Kidman were genuine stars in the division, so those two wanting to hold the belts automatically made the Titles look prestigious and worth having. The match itself had great wrestling, good heat and the clean finish showed that Team Canada were deserving Champions. It would have been so easy to have Skipper and Romeo cheat somehow in order to win the belts here, and it probably would have worked because they were Heels, but instead WCW did the right thing and had the match end clean. It was a close battle that Team Canada only just edged though, so there’s no reason why Rey and Kidman couldn’t get another shot down the line due to how competitive they were here. Overall this was a textbook example in how to start a new Title off on the right foot, and I’m almost amazed that WCW of all companies is the one that provided such an example!

The new Champs have a celebratory dance party following that big win!

Buff Bagwell is being annoying backstage by walking around with his own cameraman. Buff walks into the office of WCW Owner Ric Flair, where Road Warrior Animal and Jeff Jarrett are hanging out. The general gist is that the Heels are going to dominate tonight, although apparently someone has been going around attacking them and they don’t know who it is.

We get video clips of the events that led to the following match.

Match Three
“The Mecca of Manhood” Shawn Stasiak w/ Stacy Keibler Vs “The Beast from the East” Bam Bam Bigelow

WCW were trying to push Stasiak by giving him Keibler as his valet, with Bammer being selected as an established guy there to do some jobs for him. The thought of Shawn having any chance against The Beast is absolutely craziac! Oh wait, sorry, wrong gimmick. Keibler is the first person to not get their music dubbed out tonight, as she gets some cheap heat by insulting the crowd and then brings down Stasiak. Stasiak certainly looked the part here, and it’s not like Keibler was doing anything much at the time either since her storyline pregnancy angle with David Flair had whimpered to a disappointing non-conclusion, so putting them together as a duo was probably worth a shot. Stasiak’s generic promo and generic wrestling style was an obstacle in getting him over, but who knows, maybe WCW could have eventually brute forced it somehow?

When you consider that Bammer’s first big mainstream push came in the WWF in 1987, he was really starting to feel the result of nearly 15 years of working a high impact big man style. That being said, considering his size, age and years of wear and tear, Bigelow doesn’t move too badly here, and he sends Stasiak to the floor in the early stages so that he can get some consolation from Keibler. Stasiak can’t really get anything going on Bigelow, with The Beast bumping Stasiak around and just generally dominating things. It makes sense in that Stasiak is supposed to be the arrogant Heel against the bigger stronger babyface, but Bigelow hadn’t been pushed for over a year at this point, so Stasiak labouring so much to get a foothold in the bout doesn’t help with making him look like a star.

Stasiak does finally manage to cut Bigelow off by sending him into the ring steps, and he works Bigelow over back inside, including a blatant low blow that the referee just ignores. At what point did WCW just make low blows legal? Because it really feels like that was the case during this period. Bigelow sells well whilst getting worked over, and Stasiak doesn’t do too bad of a job of offence, but the crowd doesn’t see to be that into this. They do at least allow Stasiak to kick out of Bigelow’s top rope head butt, which helps somewhat with making him look like an actual contender. The finish following that though sees Keibler passing Stasiak some mace (I wonder if it was Bear Mace?) and Stasiak sprays that in Bammer’s eyes before getting the Rude Awakening for three.

WINNER: SHAWN STASIAK
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: The wrestling wasn’t terrible here, but I don’t think the match layout did much for Stasiak, as you were left with the impression that he was thoroughly secondary to Bigelow, when really you should have been thinking that Stasiak was the star on the rise and a level above the ageing Bigelow. Honestly I would have let Bigelow have a decent shine but then I would have had Stasiak just win it clean after kicking out of the head butt. It didn’t matter in the long run because WCW was going out of business, but Stasiak needed a stronger win here in order to make this push work

Stasiak goes for a kiss on Keibler following that, but she turns the tables by kissing HIM! Girl Power on full display there.

We get security footage, showing The Cat and Ms. Jones having a chat backstage. Cat wants Jones to stay backstage later on whilst he deals with Kanyon.

Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo goof around with their new belts. They hug but then settle on a manly handshake.

Match Four
Team Canada: Lance T. Storm and “The Canadian Killer” Mike Awesome Vs Hugh Morrus and Konnan

That’s a random team for the babyface side, but it highlights the dearth of babyfaces they had at the time I guess. Awesome’s nickname is supposed to suggest that he’s a Canadian who kills people, but to me it always just sounded like he exclusively killed Canadian’s. Storm sets up the next feud for Team Canada by saying that they will be coming for the tag belts once they’ve dealt with their opponents tonight. Of course the babyfaces interrupt the Canadian national anthem, giving Storm a chance to sneer, leading into a wild brawl to get us started.

They actually end up the wrong corners here, with the Heels being in the corner furthest from the hard cam, when it’s supposed to be the other way as it makes it look like the babyface has to fight upwards to make the hot tag. The babyfaces don’t really get much in the way of a shine here, as Team Canada cuts off Morrus following the initial opening brawl and then start working him over inside the ring. Morrus was a solid in-ring performer, so he does a decent job selling the heat, and eventually we get Storm and Morrus bumping heads to give us our Konnan hot tag.

Konnan gets a bit of a flurry, but then he gets cut off as well to give us our second heat, as they are essentially booking this match in a way to make Team Canada look like a strong threat, which makes sense as they are the established regular team whilst Morrus and Konnan are a thrown together alliance of disparate people brought together due to their mutual hatred of the Heels. Konnan actually looks great cosmetically here, with a good physique complete with abs. Konnan gets some stick for not being a particularly good wrestler in some quarters, but he had charisma and could tell a story in the ring, so I’ve never really had a problem with him.

There is a bit of miscue at one stage where Awesome accidentally knocks Konnan right over to his own corner, and Morrus has to pretend that he can’t easily reach down and make the tag. Whoops! Aside from that though, they work the formula well here. Storm in particular looks excellent in there, with his work being crisp and his Heel mannerisms being on point. We even get the old missed tag a one stage, with Morrus getting the tag but the ref not seeing it, meaning that Konnan’s battering must continue.

Konnan eventually gets a boot up when Storm tries coming off the top and that leads to a double clothesline for our double down spot. Morrus gets the tag following that, although sadly the crowd doesn’t react that much to it despite the build for it. Morrus does look good whilst running wild on the Heels at least. Things break down following that, with Awesome and Morrus going at it in the ring whilst their partners fight on the floor. Morrus heads up for a Moonsault onto Awesome, but Storm puts a stop to that and Awesome is able to get a Powerbomb onto Morrus for three whilst Storm holds back Konnan.

WINNERS: TEAM CANADA
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: They put Team Canada over really strong there, with the babyfaces struggling to really get any momentum in the bout. It made sense in that Team Canada was supposed to be in the Tag Title hunt following this, although it didn’t help with presenting Morrus and Konnan as two actual stars of the new WCW going forward. Whereas Bigelow in the previous match was someone whose best days were behind him and the best use for him would be to put other people over, Morrus, and especially Konnan, arguably had more juice in them as people WCW could push in the new era, so perhaps they should have been protected and given a bit more here?

Dusty and Dustin Rhodes are hanging out backstage. Dusty seems very relaxed about the match later, and he has 240 burritos to eat so that he can make Ric Flair kiss his smelly bum later on.

Buff Bagwell is berating the camera man and then asks Rick Steiner what’s going on with his brother Scott. Rick thinks that once Scott finds out who has been attacking folk then he’ll calm down a bit.

O’Haire and Palumbo cut a backstage promo, although they are looking at someone off screen and not into the camera for some reason.

Match Five
WCW World Cruiserweight Title
Champ: Chavo Guerrero Jr Vs “Sugar” Shane Helms

Chavo had been getting a solid push as the Heel Champ, with them trying to build up Helms as the heir apparent. Sadly Helms’ awesome “Vertebreaker” song is dubbed out here on Peacock/The Network. Helms holds his own with Chavo on the mat in the early going, so an angered Chavo gives his challenger a clothesline. This is a subtle way of showing Helms to be the better wrestler as it is Chavo essentially conceding the technical aspect of the bout and turning it more into a fight. It also gives Helms justification to then start throwing strikes at the Champion, as Chavo was the first person to break the social contract of the wrestling match (i.e. two people try to out wrestle one another using holds etc) which opens the door for Helms to fight back under the auspices of redressing the balance.

Chavo works over Helms following the clothesline, with Helms selling everything well and Chavo showing off some good intensity. Chavo is very good at being unlikable here, with a good Heel sneer going on. Helms keeps making attempts to fight back, but Chavo always manages to regain control and inflict more punishment. Helms eventually manages to catch Chavo with a Neck Breaker for the double down, and that should seemingly lead us to the comeback, but Helms did can’t get a sustained period of offence. We really needed a stretch of Helms getting a fired up comeback where he bumped Chavo around there, both to restore parity in the match in preparation for the closing stretch, but to also give the crowd something to get excited about.

I appreciate how the story of the match is that Helms is the underdog fighting from underneath against the more experienced Champion, but the crowd isn’t really that into this match and a big fiery comeback would have given them a reason to make some noise and get invested. Helms keeps getting brief flurries here and there, but every time he does it isn’t long before Chavo is right back in it. Honestly, the way this match has gone, Chavo is going to look kind of weak if he loses now, because he’s controlled about 80-85% of it and Helms has spent the majority of the match getting whomped, so if Helms ends up winning then it’s more because Chavo wasn’t good enough to put the challenger away rather than the challenger being so gutsy that he managed to persevere. And that kind of proves to be the case, as Helms gets the Vertebreaker (Gringo Killa) OUTTA NOWHERE for the three count.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: SHANE HELMS
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: I don’t think the fans really bought into this one that much, and the atmosphere felt a bit flat as a result, but the actual wrestling was very good and the two wrestlers played their respective roles well. It could have been that Chavo not only took too much of the match but Helms didn’t get enough of a shine at first either, so there wasn’t a lot for the crowd to get enthused by as the majority of the match was spent watching the babyface get clobbered. The story of Helms being gutsy and fighting from underneath against the more experienced Champion was a perfectly fine one, and the wrestlers did a good job of getting it across with the in-ring action, but I’m not sure it was the right story for this particular crowd on this night. Still though, the wrestling itself was to a professional and sturdy standard, so it wasn’t actively bad, but I’d stop short of saying it was good either just because of how the story they were telling didn’t work for me or for the live audience

Helms dances with the dancers from his entrance following that, as they do try and make the win seem like a big deal for him.

Jeff Jarrettand Ric Flair say that they won’t be kissing anyone’s butts later on, and if anything The Rhodes’ will be kissing their bums

Booker T has a backstage promo, although he isn’t looking into the camera either. The gist is that he’s going to be defeating Rick Steiner later on. This was a decent promo.

We get a video package for the upcoming World Tag Title match.

Match Six
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Natural Born Thrillers (Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire) Vs Totally Buffed (Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell)

Luger and Bagwell are part of the Magnificent Seven Heel faction, because if WCW liked anything it was having a dominant Heel stable that made the babyfaces look ineffective. Palumbo and O’Haire had been getting a solid push prior to this, with O’Haire in particular clearly being earmarked for big things. So this match is pretty infamous, as the bout was scheduled to go on for a standard length of time, but Totally Buffed were unhappy at being asked to put their younger opponents over, so they just do a quick job instead after disappearing earlier in the day. When Totally Buffed got backstage they supposedly blamed their opponents by saying that they couldn’t get anything out of them and that was why they did the quick job like that. All in all, it was yet one more example of unprofessional doofus’ going into business for themselves in WCW. Still, at least management stood firm and put The Thrillers over despite Totally Buffed’s sulking.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: THE THRILLERS
RATING: N/A

Buff and Luger mess around pretending to sell following that, taking for ages to get out of the ring and slowing the show down.

Scott Steiner cuts an angry promo backstage.

We get clips of Kanyon being awful to Cat and his associates. We can’t get to it yet though as Buff is still selling in the ring. Buff is suggesting that his previously injured neck is hurting again, which seems like it was something he was doing to try and put heat on the youngsters.

Match Seven
Kanyon Vs The Cat w/ Ms. Jones

Kanyon had attacked Cat’s valet, Ms. Jones, in order to set this one up. He was lucky that Rigsby wasn’t around at the time or he could have been taken out of commission permanently! The dubbed in music for Kanyon is so loud here that it’s straight up obnoxious. I know sometimes the music needs to be dubbed out on these older shows, but the way they mix it in with the original audio is pretty awful sometimes. Kanyon has an injured right hand from punching MI Smooth on an episode of television, so Cat targets that in the early going. Cat had some decent charisma and was passable enough as a wrestler by this stage in his career that he could have a watchable match when in there with a good worker, so this match ends up being okay thanks to Kanyon being so good.

Cat gets a good fired up babyface shine to start, with them getting across the idea that this is a hate filled issue quite well. Kanyon keeps trying to go after Jones, and that allows Cat to keep regaining control of the bout, including a section where he flings Kanyon into the metal railings at ringside. Kanyon does eventually take control of things and works some heat on Cat, with Cat selling it okay and Kanyon’s offence being on point. Kanyon was known as “The Innovator of Offence” at the time, and you can see that with all the moves he busts out here, although he still remembers to be a Heel by being a smug jerk whilst hitting all of his cool moves. The crowd seems into The Cat, and eventually he manages to stop Kanyon coming off the top with something before Superplexing him back into the ring two.

Kanyon tries to respond with a Sunset Flip following that, which gives an Aloha-Cat moment, but Cat manages to block the move with the incredible power of James Brown infused KARATE. Cat gets a very impressive big kick following that, which Kanyon sold fantastically, and that gets a two count in a good near fall. Kanyon tries a rope assisted pin attempt following that, but the referee catches him in the act and it doesn’t count. Oh my gosh, a WCW referee actually enforced the rules?!?! I think Satan will be going to work in a snow plough tomorrow! We get a nicely executed finishing stretch in all fairness, with both wrestlers having a chance to win it and the near fall game being done well, with Cat getting two from another kick whilst Kanyon uses an international object for a two of his own. Eventually the referee gets bumped, and this brings Ms. Jones into the ring, although she accidentally clocks Cat. This means that Jones is on her own against Kanyon, but she refuses to back down and manages to kick Kanyon in the face, which leads to Cat getting another kick of his own and that gets three from the revived referee.

WINNER: THE CAT
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was decent, with Kanyon being a good Heel whilst Cat and Jones were good babyfaces, so it worked quite well even though Cat was somewhat limited as an in-ring performer. I especially liked how Jones wasn’t some damsel in distress to be rescued. She bravely stood up to the villain and then helped her friend win the match. It was a decent match that told a story well

Kanyon attacks Cat following the bout, which leads to MI Smooth chasing Kanyon off with a chair. Smooth was another one of Cat’s friends during this period.

Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger are arguing backstage.

Meanwhile, Dusty Rhodes is still eating burritos.

We get a video package for the next match.

Match Eight
WCW United States Title
Champ: Rick “Shooter” Steiner Vs Booker T

Steiner had been an absolute nightmare in WCW around this time, beating up folks for real and being incredibly uncooperative in his matches. Booker had just returned from a storyline injury layoff and was looking to get a belt around his waist again. Steiner cheap shots Booker to start and immediately starts working on the challenger. So basically it’s every Rick Steiner match in WCW from 1999 onwards, where he just gobbles up his opponent and does very little in the way of selling when the opponent fights back. That might help if you’re a literal beast like Brock Lesnar, but Booker T is roughly the same size of Steiner, if not bigger, so it doesn’t really have the same effect to see Steiner killing someone the way a Brock or a Goldberg would. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Rick Steiner was a legitimate tough guy during this period, but wrestling is supposed to be a work and watching Rick Steiner batter his opponents and give them nothing whilst the crowd watches on nonplussed is not entertaining.

Booker sells well whilst getting worked over, and eventually manages to get the crowd to care about seeing him make a comeback, but whenever it looks like the crowd might be rewarded for still getting behind Booker in this match; Steiner just beats up Booker some more and refuses to sell anything. Again, you could somewhat forgive this sort of thing if Steiner was so over that this proved to be captivating viewing, but he wasn’t selling any tickets at the time and all this act did was ruin matches that would have had potential to be interesting if Steiner actually had any interest in selling for his opponents. Booker eventually makes the comeback, although Steiner completely dead weights him on a Spine Buster, making the move look awful. Thankfully Booker has the Spinaroonie to keep the crowd invested, although the ref ends up getting stunned and Steiner uses that as a chance to go low. This is Shane Douglas’ cue to run down and clock Steiner with a cast on his broken arm. Steiner doesn’t even really sell THAT either, but Booker is able to quickly hit the Book End (Rock Bottom) for the three count to end our collective miseries.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: BOOKER T
RATING: *

Thoughts: Booker was fine here. In fact, considering the lumbering no selling oaf he was working with, I think you could say that Booker was excellent in this match as he managed to get a comatose crowd to actually care about him. Steiner was just awful though, and it dragged the match WAY down. I also hate how Douglas needed to interfere so that Steiner could have an excuse for losing. Steiner wasn’t over or even remotely a star at this stage in his career, whilst Booker had been World Champ just 5 months previously. Booker should have won this clean in the middle after a back and forth match, he shouldn’t have been selling for 95% of it only to then win when another wrestler ran in to attack his opponent. In other instances on this card I can look at some of the booking or match structures and say that, though I disagreed with what they were going for, I could still understand why they were doing it and what stories they wanted to tell. This is one area where the booking made no sense. WCW didn’t need to be protecting Rick Steiner in 2001. He should have been doing jobs in the first half of the card, not battering Booker T for minutes on end and then losing to outside interference

Booker at least does the big celebration following the bout, which helps with making the belt seem important. They’ve done that with most of the Title matches tonight actually, which shows that the new booking regime wanted to make the belts seem like they mattered again after Vince Russo had spent the majority of 2000 trying to make them seem meaningless.

Buff Bagwell is laid out backstage. Lex Luger thinks that Road Warrior Animal did it, but Animal denies it.

We get a video package for the next match.

Semi-Main
WCW Owner Ric Flair and “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett w/ Road Warrior Animal Vs The Rhodes’ (Dusty and Dustin)

Jarrett had dressed up as Dusty and made fun of him, which led to this match taking place in order to resolve things, with Dusty saying that he was going to make Flair kiss his butt. Flair is dressed like Rodney Dangerfield from Caddy Shack here, and he says that he isn’t going to wrestle tonight, with Jarrett going one on two against The Rhodes’. However, the referee sends Animal to the back, and Flair eventually decides that he will wrestle after all. This match has some of the most crowd interest of the evening thus far, due to Flair always being over and Dusty being a big star in the Florida territory back in the day. When the wrestling starts it’s good fun, with Dustin bumping Jarrett around to start, with Jarrett selling all of that in his usual top level manner. If you want a Heel to stooge whilst getting beaten up by a babyface then Jeff Jarrett is your man!

Watching Flair wrestle in something bordering an Hawaiian shirt and slacks is actually kind of depressing, as it shows just how mentally broken he was at the time that he wasn’t comfortable wearing wrestling attire out there. He got over that when he went to the WWF in 2002 though. The crowd is of course super excited to see Flair and Dusty go at it, even though there aren’t really that many Flair Vs Dusty matches that I personally like that much. I guess the cage match from 86 where Dusty wins the NWA Title is pretty good, but aside from that I’ve never really felt like they were on the same page when they wrestled, as Flair wanted to do his thing and Dusty wanted to do his, and that meant you kind of got the worst of both worlds. I actually think Hulk Hogan was a better opponent for Flair in many ways, certainly when Flair was Heel and Hogan was Face.

Dusty is so over here that he just needs to breath and the crowd loses their minds, with Flair and Jarrett knowing just how to bump and sell in order to make Dusty look good. Jarrett and Dustin are kind of the side dishes here, even though they were the regular wrestlers at the time whilst Flair and Dusty weren’t working that much anymore. Flair eventually manages to clock Dustin right in his cowbell’s and that’s enough for the cut off. Dustin sells well during the heat, whilst Flair and Jarrett work well as a team as they get the heat on him. Had Flair jumped to the WWF in 1998 like he supposedly wanted to do at one stage, then teaming him up with Jarrett as a regular duo might have been quite fun actually. I could just see them getting really over as Heels during that time frame for some reason.

Dusty eventually gets the hot tag and he runs wild with punches and elbows as the crowd loses their shizzle. This is supremely entertaining I must say! Dusty almost has Flair pinned with the Bionic Elbow, but Jarrett breaks up the pin at two, thus denying Dusty one more pin fall victory over his longtime foe. Flair and Jarrett use stereo low blows on the babyfaces to even the playing field and try stereo Figure Four’s after that, but the babyfaces kick them off into one another and this allows Dustin to get a sloppy looking Inside Cradle onto Flair for the three count.

WINNERS: THE RHODES’
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This wasn’t a top level in-ring showcase or anything, but it was good old fashioned Pro Wrestling. The crowd loved Dusty and loved watching him beat up the Heels, so the match had a really good atmosphere. Dustin was kind of just there for this one, but he was fine, whilst Flair and Jarrett worked well as a tag team and the match flowed reasonably well. It was entertaining and the crowd enjoyed it, so that’s a thumbs up, even if the actual wrestling was hardly ground breaking

Dusty gives Jarrett a Stink-Face following that whilst Flair has a fit on the outside. Jarrett does forgive Flair following that though, showing that he’s kinder than most.

We get a video package for the next match.

Main Event
Falls Count Anywhere
WCW World Title
Champ: “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner w/ Midajah Vs “Diamond” Dallas Page

Steiner and DDP legit didn’t like one another at the time, and they were doing a storyline where Steiner was killing off all of the babyfaces with DDP being the last one left. This was all supposed to lead to the likes of Sting and Goldberg returning to finally put an end to the Magnificent Seven’s reign of terror, but the company didn’t end up lasting that long. Steiner and DDP had scuffled backstage a few months prior to this after DDP took exception to Steiner making comments about him in a promo. DDP has always been upfront about the fact that he was lucky the fight was broken up, which is admirable honesty on his part and also a testament to just how scary Scott Steiner could be during this time period. Thankfully both wrestlers are professional enough to work together here, which benefits the match. Michael Buffer is here for one last WCW pay per view, as I’m amazed that they could still afford him at this stage.

I must admit that I quite like DDP’s theme from this period. Better than any of his WWF/E themes at any rate, although nothing is ever topping Self High Five. This one is a wild brawl from the off, with the fight heading out to the floor and both wrestlers throwing punches at one another. We even get some crowd brawling, as was the style at the time. This is the first time we’ve seen wrestlers fight in the audience like this tonight though, so the trope doesn’t feel overplayed, which is good agenting from whoever was doing that in the back. I know that we saw a dive off the entrance way in the Cruiserweight Tag Title match, but these guys are using weapons and putting one another through tables, which makes it feel different and fresh. It’s good Attitude Era/ECW styled brawling for the most part too, and they are being careful with the weapon shots, which is nice to see.

Paul London actually makes a cameo at one stage, as a crowd member in the front row who gets into an argument with Steiner about something, which allows DDP to clock Steiner for two. Both wrestlers end up bleeding as they make it back into the ring, with Steiner taking over and putting the beat down on DDP. DDP sells that really well and Steiner looks like an absolute monster, but he will actually take bumps and register pain when DDP fights back, as I ponder how Scott could be so good at this whilst Rick was comparably so bad. DDP keeps fighting, showing off his usual great gutsy babyface tendencies, and he eventually makes a comeback, with Steiner trying a rope assisted pin in response for two. Both of these wrestlers know exactly how to play their respective roles here, and it really adds to the match. They are working a pretty darn quick clip as well, especially when you consider how big Steiner was and the fact he was carrying a back injury at the time.

DDP manages to get the Diamond Cutter OUTTA NOWHERE, but Rick Steiner pulls the referee out of the ring to save his brother. The crowd wants Goldberg to rescue DDP, but we were still a month or two away from Goldberg’s return if things had gone to plan, so DDP is on his own. I do ponder why Booker T couldn’t have run down to at least brawl to the back with Rick. DDP starts bleeding even more at this stage, which gives them a chance to ape the Bret Hart Vs Stone Cold match from WrestleMania 13, with Scott going to a Boston Crab and DDP doing the big dramatic sell job for it. DDP manages to survive both the Cran and the Steiner Recliner, but Scott won’t be denied and destroys DDP with a lead pipe before going back to the Recliner for the win when DDP passes out.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: SCOTT STEINER
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: Heck of a Main Event there, as DDP worked super hard and ended up convincing the crowd that he might win until the numbers game became too much. I do ponder why none of the babyfaces tried rescuing DDP though, as Morrus, Konnan, Booker and Dustin all hated the Heel faction and could have tried making the save. This was a good brawl between two wrestlers that knew their characters and how to tell a story in the match. Steiner came across as a huge star and a real monster here, and the eventual match with Goldberg later in 2001 would have probably done some business if promoted correctly

We get a video recap of the event, which is nice touch.

In Conclusion:

This was a solid show for the most part, book ended by some good matches to start and a good match to close. Throughout Greed the main thought I had was that this version of WCW had potential, and in some ways it’s a shame that we didn’t get to see where it went. Of course, they could have gone off the rails again eventually, but this show for the most part was very watchable. There were some fresh younger guys like Helms, Skipper, Romeo, O’Haire and Palumbo getting solid pushes.. More experienced skilled workers such as Storm, Chavo Jr, Rey Jr, Kidman and Booker seemed like they were reinvigorated by the new regime and were getting back to their in-ring best, and some of the bad apples such as Buff, Luger and Nash didn’t appear to be getting their way anymore. Of course there was still the issue of both Steiner’s being unpredictable maniacs who were liable to lose it at any moment, but overall WCW seemed to be in the best state it had been for going on 2-3 years during this period.

Whether WCW in 2001 could have fulfilled the promise shown during Greed is something we’ll never know, but if you do happen to sit down and watch the last WCW pay per view I think you’ll be generally pleased. The wrestling by and large is good, the booking isn’t bad (although there were aspects of it that I think could have possibly been changed for the better) and everyone seemed to care again (Totally Buffed aside). For that reason I’d call Green a pretty easy thumbs up!

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