Mike Reviews WCW Souled Out 1999

Happy Friday Everyone!

I’ve only got three shows left when it comes to reviewing WCW shows from 1999, so let’s knock one of them off the list with Souled Out. If WWE Network is still a thing later in the year, or if the archives go to Netflix, then we’ll look at getting Fall Brawl and Mayhem done, as I’m always going to need topics for Stinker Reviews.

I don’t think Souled Out will fall into that category, as some of the matches on the card look promising and we’ve got Scott Hall working with Goldberg in the Main Event, so hopefully Razor will have his working boots on and will be able to get something out of “Da Man”

You can view the card for Souled Out by clicking below;

WCW Souled Out 1999 Card

Pics come courtesy of IMDB

Souled Out is emanating from Charleston, West Virginia, on the 17th of January 1999

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

WCW President Ric Flair tries to open the show with a press conference, although the feed gets interrupted a bit, possibly due to antics from the nWo Elite.

The announce team whitter on as usual, but it actually has a purpose this time, as the camera cuts to show Goldberg laid out in the locker room with an injured knee.

Opening Match
Mike Enos Vs “The Crippler” Chris Benoit

This is one of your standard thrown together pay per view matches from this era, as almost half the undercard wouldn’t have a storyline reason to happen most of the time. Benoit is really over with the crowd at least, so this one should have a decent atmosphere. Both wrestlers show some good intensity here, with Enos hanging with Benoit just fine and the action being enjoyable to watch. Benoit gives Enos quite a lot in order to make Enos look like a viable opponent, but he doesn’t overdo it either, which the more generous workers can sometimes do when in there with a lower ranked opponent. Ideally you want to raise the lower ranked wrestler up to your level rather than dropping yourself down to theirs by letting them beat you up too much.

Enos gets a few chances to draw some boos from the crowd in the early going by knocking Benoit down and posing to the crowd, and he’s actually drawing some decent heat in fairness. Benoit then unleashes some of his trademark chops and just generally beats the shizzle out of Enos for a bit in order to pop the crowd. Enos manages to get a back breaker and works a bit of heat, with Benoit selling it well, and Enos doing a solid job of working the babyface over. The heat might go on for a tad bit long considering that Enos wasn’t really a pushed commodity at the time whilst Benoit was a genuine star in the mid-card, but Benoit does eventually make the comeback and the crowd is into it. There’s one iffy moment where Enos throws a weak clothesline and Benoit takes too big a bump from it, but they quickly move onto Benoit getting the crossface and that’s the clean submission.

WINNER: CHRIS BENOIT
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: A solid opening contest there, with Enos doing some stuff to draw boos, Benoit doing some stuff to draw cheers, and then a clean babyface win to top things off and get the fans warmed up for the rest of the action ahead. WCW had many many many faults, but one thing they usually managed to do during this period was get the opener right. If you look at the first 5 shows of 1999 in particular, WCW started the show off with a well-worked strong babyface win, and that usually always gives the show a solid foothold upon which to build from

We get a video recap of the issues between Scott Hall and Goldberg. They’ll wrestle in the Main Event later on.

Match Two
Nor-Man Smi-Lay Vs Chavo Guerrero Jr

This match does at least have a storyline reason to exist, as Norman destroyed Chavo’s wooden horse, Pepe, who was a friend to Chavo in the same way that Head was a friend to Al Snow. Thus Chavo is annoyed that someone destroyed his inanimate object pal, and now he’s looking for some vengeance. It might be a somewhat dumb reason for them to wrestle one another, but it’s at least an actual reason where you can understand why you’re supposed to care about it, and for a WCW undercard in 1999; I’ll take it. Norman has brought poor Pepe’s remains in an urn, which will be important later. Heenan mockingly pretending to care about the “death” of Pepe on commentary is pretty funny. Chavo does a good job of getting across how angry he is at his pals demise, whilst Norman quickly realises that he’s poked the hornet’s nest and he tries to run away in the early going. It’s an effective babyface shine and a good start to the match that makes sense given the storyline.

Norman eventually manages to catch Chavo with a modified Stun Gun (the move, not the item) and that leads to Norman working some heat on Chavo, complete with his wacky wind-up body slam. Chavo sells well during the heat, and actually manages to draw a “Chavo” chant from the women and kids in the crowd, whilst the more rebellious dudes in the crowd start a “Norman” chant. If there’s ever a good example as to why the undercard matches on these pay per views should have a backstory of some kind, then it’s this bout here, as the Pepe antics have actually given the crowd a reason to care about this and it’s not just two random folks having a match with one another. I don’t get why WCW couldn’t do this sort of stuff with all of the matches on their pay per view undercards.

Chavo sells well during the heat, with Norman focusing mainly on putting Chavo in some nasty looking submission holds, somewhat like a prototypical Zack Sabre Jr almost. Norman keeps teasing that he’ll do his wacky “Big Wiggle” dance, which the crowd is very into the idea of, but then Norman always refuses to go full bore with it, which is a good way of drawing heat. It really does highlight WCW’s roster depth actually, that they had so much talent in the top half of the card that were over with the crowds, yet they ALSO had wrestlers in the lower mid-card like Norman and Chavo that had aspects to their characters that the fans cared about too. It’s just all the more annoying that WCW didn’t successfully manage to elevate those lower mid and mid-card acts sufficiently, because if they had then they could have easily asserted themselves as a successful #2 promotion to the WWF during this period and still been in the game when the WWF inevitably started to cool.

Norman finally busts out the Wiggle, and the crowd goes BANANA for it, as Norman has kind of overshadowed his babyface opponent here in some ways, which isn’t ideal but wrestling is a very competitive dog-eat-dog business and sometimes that kind of stuff is going to happen. Chavo just can’t get anything going against Norman, the odd hope spot aside, and his selling continues to be really good but he’s probably been beaten up a bit too much here, to the point that he’s starting to look like an ineffective babyface, which is NOT what you want to be when you’re trying to play the good guy. Norman even locks Chavo in the Gory Especial at one stage, and then even spanks the younger Guerrero to shrieks from the crowd. This does seem to finally fire up Chavo enough for him to make a bit of a comeback, but then Norman easily blocks a Tornado DDT and throws Pepe’s “ashes” in Chavo’s face before getting The Norman Conquest (Chickenwing) for the win.

WINNER: NORMAN SMILEY
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: As entertaining as Norman’s antics and technical wrestling were here, and they were both very enjoyable, there was just WAY too much Norman here and not enough Chavo, which made the match feel like it was bordering on a squash after a certain point. It’s great that Norman was so over with the crowd, but I think he heard that reaction and was almost intoxicated by it and decided to lean into it, and in the process he forgot that he was the bad guy here and he needed to give his babyface a bit more in the match. Chavo didn’t even get a proper comeback, and though they tried to protect him with the finish, it ended up feeling hollow. If Chavo had been making a big comeback, bumping Norman around all over the ring, and Norman threw the ashes in Chavo’s face as a last gasp attempt to save the contest, then the finish would have worked a lot better and would have actually protected Chavo somewhat, whilst leaving the door open for more matches between the two. Instead they had Norman easily dispose of Chavo, as he took roughly 90-95% of the match and then batted away Chavo’s finisher with relative ease before winning.

It didn’t help that the stuff with the ashes happened in full view of the ref either, as really it should have been a DQ, but they did give themselves a bit of an out as Norman just happened to have the urn in his hands and then Chavo swung Norman around, so Norman could conceivably argue that he had no intention of throwing anything in Chavo’s face and it was just the momentum of being swung around that caused it, hence there was no DQ. The commentary team could have perhaps done a better job of explaining that. Obviously Heenan, as the Heel commentator, would immediately declare it an accident, but you could have Schiavone and Tenay maybe ponder that as well, until seeing the replay and deciding that Norman meant to do it and that Chavo got cheated. These are the little things that you need to make stuff like this work, even for wacky undercard feuds like this one. Anyway, this wasn’t a terrible match, but it wasn’t great either, and some tweaks could have definitely improved it

Konnan is getting interviewed in the internet area.

Match Three
“The Belfast Brawler” Fit Finlay Vs “Far Out” Van Hammer

I don’t think there’s any reason for these two to wrestle one another, they’re just having a match here on this pay per view because Hammer was politically connected enough to keep getting chances like this and Finlay is a solid enough worker that he can be trusted to get the big goof through a live pay per view bout. Finlay is a mean Northern Irish bloke who likes beating people up, whilst Hammer is a smiling hippy, so you’d think that Finlay would have the edge in a throwdown, but let’s see if that proves to be the case. The crowd doesn’t really care about this one at all, which is the first time that has happened thus far tonight because we haven’t got someone in there that the crowd sees as a star.

As a match it’s not terrible, but it’s not really pay per view quality either. It feels very much like something you’d see in the early stages of a Nitro or Thunder television presentation. Hammer uses his power a bit in the early going for the babyface shine, but then Finlay cuts Hammer off and works the big hippy over with his usual array of snug punches, kicks and holds. Hammer sells it all reasonably well, and Finlay is always a very convincing and believable worker, so from an in-ring perspective it’s not a terrible outing, it’s just dull due to the lack of crowd heat and the match kind of meanders along. Hammer doesn’t ever really do a proper comeback, as they kind of just trade the advantage a bit and Finlay spikes poor Hammer with a Tombstone for three.

WINNER: FIT FINLAY
RATING: *

Thoughts: This was just a Thunder match that they stuck on Souled Out, and the crowd could not have cared less about it. The fans were so bored by the action in fact that some of them decided to entertain themselves by dressing up as chairs! I do like how Schiavone on commentary said that Finlay doesn’t do a lot of talking, when Finlay was talking smack all match and then cuts a promo into the camera following his victory. It’s like WCW simply existed to make poor Tony look dumb most of the time

We get a video package for the Hennig/Windham Vs The Flair’s match later on. For some reason they’d always play these videos early on in the show way before the match was due to happen and it never really made much sense to insert them into the show that way. Obviously when it comes to 1999 WCW that’s only a minor quibble though.

Match Four
“The Beast From The East” Bam Bam Bigelow Vs Wrath

Poor Wrath had actually been getting over with a winning streak gimmick, but then Kevin Nash defeated him in a match on Nitro with no build and Wrath’s momentum went up in smoke (pun marginally intended). Bammer was getting built for a match with Goldberg, so seeing as Wrath was already on the downturn he was selected as Bigelow’s victim tonight so that The Beast From The East could get a win in order to keep him warm for Goldy. Bigelow doesn’t get any entrance music, which was actually something they included when he was in the WCW Mayhem video game, which I always felt was a nice touch and showed that someone making the game actually watched the product at the time. These two apparently had a WWF House Show feud in the autumn/winter of 1994 if Cage Match is to be believed, but this is their first ever televised singles bout together.

It’s a decent power match for the most part, with Wrath getting a reasonable amount of offence in, and also getting the better of the crowd reactions too. Wrath gets to bump Bammer around a bit, with a very nice clothesline off the ropes at one stage. Bigelow manages to cut Wrath off with the Stun Gun (the move, not the item) at one stage though, and that’s our cut off, giving us the chin lock you see in the picture above. Man, that previous Finlay/Hammer match just wiped the crowd out, as they are pretty quiet here considering that both of these guys were recognisable stars who were generally protected in the booking (Wrath’s Kevin Nash run-in aside). Wrath is actually a decent seller in the heat, as he registers the pain but doesn’t overdo it, which means that Wrath gets to keep some of his big man mystique but Bigelow’s offence doesn’t look ineffective in the process.

Wrath gets to do a bit of a comeback, and even delivers an impressive looking dropkick at one stage, along with an Ultimate Warrior styled running shoulder tackle, but Bigelow soon manages to regain control. In a really annoying moment, Heenan tries to get Wrath over by pondering how big his shoes must be in an effort to get across the idea that Wrath is a big imposing dude, but Schiavone just totally blows it off because he’s already sick of Heenan tonight. How hard would it have been for him to say “I don’t know Brain, but he’s certainly a huge man and it’s very impressive that he can run the ropes the way he does” or just something along those lines? I know that WCW essentially broke Tony’s spirit and he’s way better in AEW because he’s actually having fun now, but at least TRY to take some pride in your work man!

Bigelow and Wrath both collide at one stage, which gives us the double down and Wrath’s proper comeback, as both of these huge men continue to move really well considering their size. However, as I type about Wrath making a comeback, Bammer sidesteps Wrath to send him into the corner and then follows up with the Greetings From Asbury Park (the wrestling move, not the album) and that’s enough for three. All in all that was a pretty easy victory for Bigelow, and essentially put the full stop on Wrath’s descent into lower card status after actually getting quite over in the second half of 1998. I’m not saying that Wrath was ever going to be World Champ or anything, but a US Title reign wouldn’t have been out of the question if WCW had kept him strong and hadn’t had him lose to both Nash and Bigelow in quick succession.

WINNER: BAM BAM BIGELOW
RATING: **

Thoughts: The crowd didn’t really care, but it was one of those “decent match for big men” bouts, with both Bigelow and Wrath being lighter on their feet than the usual oversized slugger. I do have to wonder why WCW felt the need to essentially kill Wrath off as any kind of threat to the guys in the upper reaches of the card here though. I mean, it’s WCW, so someone better politically connected than Wrath probably politicked for it to happen and it happened, because WCW, but I don’t see why it was so essential for Wrath to eat a loss here when they had roughly 130 people under contract that Bigelow could have squished instead. Heck, stick someone like Hugh Morrus or Barbarian in there, guys that had credibility because they usually defeated guys lower down in the pecking order than them but they were both mid-card for life, so you didn’t have to worry about hurting their star power if they showed up to Souled Out to a do a jobski for Bammer

Match Five
nWo Vs WCW
“The Total Package” Lex Luger Vs “The K-Dawg” Konnan

Both of these guys were in the nWo Wolfpac, but Luger ditched the group in order to join the new nWo Elite, which led to poor Konnan having no more stablemates and having to go it alone. Thus Konnan is looking for some revenge against his former friend here at Souled Out. Konnan delivers the “those are dressings” line before the match here, which ended up getting put at the start of his music on the WCW Mayhem CD. Luger’s Heel turn seems to have received a mixed response, as he does draw some boos but the nWo fans in the crowd are still cheering him because they like his Wolfpac entrance music. Luger offers to let Konnan walk instead of having the match, as Luger doesn’t hate Konnan, but Luger is A Team and Konnan is B Team, and this will only go one way should they actually wrestle. That would actually be a good pre-match promo if Konnan was to then go on and prove the cocky Heel wrong, but this is WCW in 1999, so I don’t like K-Dawg’s chances.

Konnan batters Luger around to start, with Luger at least taking a few bumps for K-Dawg, which probably constituted roughly 65% of Luger’s bump budget for the entire year. The crowd is into this one, due to both wrestlers being presented as stars and them having a clear storyline reason for wrestling. Luger eventually manages to dodge a Konnan attack and works some heat, keeping it simple with stomps, punches, rest holds and taunts. Konnan sells it all well and the crowd reacts to it, so it’s a dull, yet serviceable, heat segment. Luger mostly targets the back and neck area, which makes sense seeing as Luger’s finisher is The Human Torture Wrack, so the heat is on point from a psychology standpoint at least. Konnan even rolls out of the ring murmuring about his back at one stage, and Luger’s reaction to it even suggests that Konnan might actually be hurt for real. Konnan does manage to get back into the ring though and the bout continues.

Konnan eventually gets the boots up to stop a Luger attack in the corner and that gives us a Konnan comeback, which isn’t executed that well, but the crowd seems happy that Konnan is finally fighting back at least. Konnan actually looks to have things well in order but, sadly for him, Miss. Elizabeth bounces on down to the ring to bring a stop to that. Konnan manages to get the Tequila Sunrise locked in, but as the referee is checking on Luger, Liz sprays something in Konnan’s face and that leads to the hold being broken. Elizabeth scampers away before the ref can clock on to what happened, and The Human Torture Wrack ends it for Luger straight after.

WINNER: LEX LUGER
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: Say it with me folks; #LolNwoWins! This one started out okay, but it ran out of steam the longer it went on for. Luger did take quite a few bumps for Konnan and Elizabeth’s interference gave Konnan an out for losing, so if Konnan was going to lose then this was probably the best way of doing it. You can argue that Luger probably did need to win here seeing as the new nWo Elite faction had only just formed and they wanted Luger to have some steam for his Heel turn. The problem of course is that Konnan lost to Luger AGAIN the next month at SuperBrawl IX, which only compounded the negatives attached to this defeat. You can talk about how Konnan wasn’t good enough in the ring for a sustained push, but the dude was way over and WCW had enough talented guys on the roster that Konnan could easily hit his trademark spots and coast on his charisma, so there was no real need to have him get clobbered week after week by the new nWo group

Match Six
Luchas de Apuestas
Loser Must Wear A Dress
“The King of Loopholes” Chris Jericho w/ “The Head of Jericho Personal Security” Ralphus Vs Perry Saturn

These two had a three match pay per view series in 1999, with this being the first bout in the trilogy. Scott Dickinson is the referee here, and in storyline he didn’t like Saturn, whereas Jericho had been sucking up to Dickinson in recent weeks, so that will likely be a flashing neon light for anyone who has watched a wrestling show before.

They don’t seem to have much in the way of chemistry as opponents here, and the crowd seems to have been dampened by the previous bouts downer ending, so there isn’t much in the way of atmosphere and the match doesn’t really flow that smoothly. We get yet another case of someone using the Stun Gun (the move, not the item) for the cut off, with Jericho catching Saturn with it and then following with a Gourdbuster on the outside of the ring. Jericho’s cocky pin and Saturn’s resulting angry punches following it do at least get a bit of a reaction from the crowd, but the resulting Jericho chin lock flattens the crowd down again.

Jericho actually busts out a leg drop during the heat, and I wonder if that was a test to see if anyone important backstage was even watching this match, but Saturn starts making a comeback with some suplexes and high impact slams. That sequence was decent, but just as I’m about to type that they’re finding some form and chemistry with one another, they make an absolute dog’s breakfast out of Jericho’s double under-hook back breaker. Saturn does manage to get a nice splash off the top at one stage for a two count, as Dickinson appears to be calling it fairly thus far and not favouring either combatant. However, you just had to know that something eventually would happen on that front, and indeed, Dickinson sees his chance to roll Jericho on top of Saturn during an Inside Cradle attempt before delivering the fast count in order to give Jericho the win. I thought they were going to be more ambiguous there with the finish in order to give Dickinson the possible argument that he didn’t actually screw Saturn, but they instead decided to just be upfront with it.

WINNER: CHRIS JERICHO
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: Jericho stated in his first book that he totally expected to lose here and be humiliated with the dress, but apparently Saturn wanted to go with a scary goth look in the vein of Marylyn Manson, and wearing the dress was the first step in that, with the look finally coming together at Uncensored. Thus Jericho was spared a humiliation and Saturn was fine with it, so ultimately everyone was happy in the long run. These two just did not “click” as opponents, although they were working hard here to have the best match they could out there. Sometimes certain wrestlers just don’t work well together, and this was a good example of that here

Saturn agrees to put the dress on, with Jericho using Dickinson as a human shield in a funny bit. Heenan gets a good line in as well by stating that Saturn is going braless.

David Flair wows the internet interview area with his unmistakeable charisma.

Match Seven
WCW World Cruiserweight Title
Champion: Kidman Vs Psicosis Vs “The Juice” Juventud Guerrera Vs Rey Mysterio Jr

This is quite high on the card for a Cruiserweight Title match, which is nice to see. Two wrestlers start in the ring and other two wait on the apron for a tag, with it being one fall only, so no elimination rules. Psi and Juice appear to be the more heelish of the four, whilst Rey and Kidman are obvious babyfaces. There’s a funny moment early on where Rey and Kidman do a nice bit together but end up colliding for a double down, which leads to Psi and Juice quickly coming in to stomp away at both of them like the conniving jerks they are. Juice is actually really funny throughout this one, as he was really getting into a groove of being an airheaded cocky character at the time, which probably was just him turning up his real personality to 11. Psi and Juice end up doing a bit together in the early going, and it’s good action, as you’d expect from those two. All four of these wrestlers are talented high flyers, so the in-ring aspect of this one is strong in general, with the crowd digging the character work when it happens.

Character work and high spots seem to be what the crowd is most interested in seeing here, and they get a decent amount of both, especially when all four wrestlers are in there doing double and triple team moves. There’s another funny moment when Juice trips up Kidman at one stage, which leads to Psi yelling “Thank You Juvi!” before delivering a sit-out Gourdbuster. Psi and Juice look to be working together somewhat, whilst Kidman and Rey are doing similar, but of course it’s all building to the respective alliances crumbling when the allure of the Title becomes too much, with Psi and Juice being the first to crack when they argue over who gets to do a dive to the floor, which allows Kidman and Rey to powerbomb them onto the floor in a very nicely executed sequence. The crowd continues to be into the high spots and whenever there is some character work on display from the wrestlers, and the bout moves along at a decent pace so it never gets boring.

We get a parade of dives at one stage, with Rey accidentally catching Kidman with one, which sows the seeds for their alliance breaking down. Juice accidentally catches Psi at one stage too, which leads to Psi attacking Juice not-too-soon after, as now all four wrestlers are just going at it with any suggestion of alliances between them evaporated away. The end stretch of the match gives us Finisher Madness™, where each wrestler gets a chance to hit a big move to seemingly set them up for a victory, only for another wrestler to always just be there to prevent the ref slapping the mat for the third time. Psi gets an incredible TOPE CON HILO out onto both babyfaces at one stage, which leads to The Juice trying to steal the win back inside, but Psi is able to break up the pin. The eventual finish comes when Rey has a choice between attacking Psi or Kidman, and decides it will be prudent to target the former. However, that leaves the latter free to get the Shooting Star Press on The Juice, and that’s the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KIDMAN
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was great fun, as the action was fun throughout and the additional character touches from the pre-match alliances gradually crumbling kept things interesting from a storytelling perspective. It was also really gratifying to see the Cruiserweight’s allowed to go on so late on a pay per view like this, and the crowd gave them a reasonable response throughout the bout as well. If only WCW had kept presenting the Cruiser belt like that, instead of shuffling it back into the undercard again

Booker T is being interviewed in the internet area, and gets into an argument with Chris Jericho. They will have a match on Nitro it sounds like

Semi-Main
nWo Black and White Vs WCW
Barry Windham and Curt Hennig Vs “WCW President” Ric Flair and David Flair w/ “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson

Barry Windham had been brought back to WCW by Flair, but Big Bazza had turned on Flair and aligned with Hennig, leading to Flair challenging the two to a handicap match at Souled Out. However, Ric’s son, David, didn’t want his Dad to go it alone, so he’s volunteered to be Ric’s partner here. Honestly, considering David’s level of ability here, Flair may as well be in a handicap match. I had no memory of Windham and Hennig actually being in the nWo during this period and thought they were just hired goons for the group, but they enter to Rockhouse here and are announced as representing the Black and White (who were essentially the B Team to the Elite’s A Team) so I guess this constitutes an nWo Vs WCW bout. We get some pre-match mic work from both Hennig and Ric, with Hennig demanding that Anderson leave ringside, which leads to Ric saying that Hennig can get in the ring or he can find work elsewhere.

Windham goads David into starting the match, and David actually does okay for himself, which gets the crowd to react positively. It helps that Ric is doing such a great job of working the crowd on his son’s behalf here, as David isn’t really a fountain of charisma on his own. They are smart here and don’t try and make David do anything other than basic holds and moves, so he doesn’t have too many chances to get overly exposed and it doesn’t drag the match down too much. It’s probably similar to you using the “protect” road agent note on a game of TEW. Ric eventually comes in and he has entertaining scuffles with both of the Heels, seeing as all three know one another well and there’s some decent chemistry between them both as partners and opponents. Hennig in particular is bumping all over the shop like the Hennig of old here, as all three of the regular wrestlers seem really motivated to go in there and have a good match here at Souled Out.

Eventually the Heels cheat and get some heat on Ric, which Ric of course sells really well, because he’s Ric Flair. Windham and Hennig gel really well as a team, and they would actually get a quickie run with the Tag Titles the following month at SuperBrawl IX, so folks backstage clearly noticed that too. Ric’s desperation as he tries to get to his feet and fight back against the Heels is really well done, as it isn’t executed smoothly and has the feel of a guy in a brawl who is legitimately woozy but is trying to find a way back up in order to make a comeback. David ends up just getting into the ring, which distracts the referee and allows Anderson to drag Hennig out of the ring for an attack for a big pop. Hennig gets the better of that though, putting Ric back on the defensive. However, when the Heels try to double suplex Ric, David comes in to clock Hennig right in his Hennig-Plex, which the referee misses because he’s on the other side of the suplex, and that leads to Ric making the comeback. Hennig drags David into the ring and starts beating him up, but Anderson comes in a clocks Hennig with a tyre iron, which leads to David falling on top for three and a big pop.

WINNERS: THE FLAIR’S
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This was decent for the most part, as the crowd was into it and they kept David’s involvement to simple stuff that a guy with his experience level could manage. Windham and Hennig were a good team and Flair gave a solid performance, and the crowd was easy which helped with the atmosphere. This was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, although it was always going to have a ceiling due to David’s experience and ability level. The finish was well done and protected Hennig in defeat whilst also letting David get an unexpected victory

The Flair’s don’t have long to celebrate though as the nWo Black and White (Vincent, Horace Hogan, Scott Norton and Brian Adams) and nWo Elite (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Hollywood Hogan, Lex Luger, Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner) join us and put one heck of a beatdown on the babyfaces. David is left alone with the Heels, whilst Flair is handcuffed to the ropes, and David does actually stand up to the bad guys for the briefest of pops, but then they beat him down as well, with Hogan apparently really laying it in with stiff belt shots, which apparently legitimately upset Ric that they’d treat his son like like. This would have been an excellent heavy heat angle if Ric had actually managed to get revenge for it at SuperBrawl IX, but he not only lost at that show but David turned on him as well, so this was just yet another example of the many times that the WCW guys were made to look like chumps in order to make the nWo look good, which was booking that eventually led to the promotion’s demise. Fans were chanting for both Goldberg and Sting to make the save here too, and of course no one came out to help, because the nWo are smart guys who look out for one another, whilst the WCW guys are big dumb-dumbs who can never work together properly, which is why the nWo always regained the upper hand and WCW ultimately failed to vanquish them. Who wants to get behind such pathetic babyfaces?

Main Event
nWo Elite Vs WCW
Stun Gun (the item, not the move) Ladder Match
Scott Hall Vs “Da Man” Goldberg

Hall cost Goldberg the WCW Title back at Starrcade by zapping Goldy with a stun gun (the item, not the move). Thus Goldberg is out for revenge here, with a stun gun (the item, not the move) being hung above the ring. Claim it and zap your opponent to pick up the victory. So it’s a match where the loser doesn’t actually have to lose for “real” seeing as no one is getting pinned or made to submit. Goldberg is limping here due to the pre-show attack from the nWo Elite, and the left leg his heavily braced, so that’s our story for the evening, and it’s a good way to prevent the usually invincible Goldberg from just steamrolling Hall like he would against most opponents because he doesn’t have the speed to do it. Goldberg is all stoic in the early going, as he uses basic standing shoulder tackles and clotheslines to keep Hall at bay, which are moves that don’t require Goldberg to use his injured leg that much, so the psychology is on point. When Goldberg does finally use a move that requires leg strength, in the form of a body slam, Goldberg immediately starts limping and can’t follow up, which allows Hall time to recover.

Goldberg actually does a really good job selling the leg here, as selling was an underrated aspect of Goldberg’s game in some ways. It was always difficult in that regard, because no one ever bought a ticket wanting to see Goldberg sell, but to be a more complete wrestler he really needed to do more of it, and he was actually capable of doing it when asked. In a weird way, it might have actually been better for Goldberg if he couldn’t sell at all, because then he’d never be asked to do it and he probably would have gotten more over as just a killing machine. However, once people realised he could sell, then there was always going to be the desire to actually make him do it because then he could have more intricate matches, but fans didn’t really want to see him have those more intricate matches, and it kind of left Goldberg in a weird no-mans-land where no one really knew what direction to go with him in until Paul Heyman started agenting his matches and just had him do 6-8 minute sprints where he’d sell a little bit but mostly just do Goldberg stuff, and it worked a treat when he wrestled Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania in 2017.

This is actually a decent match considering that you wouldn’t naturally think that Goldberg was suited to this kind of match. The basic story structure is that Goldberg will beat up Hall a bit, Hall will target the leg to gain an advantage, and then Goldberg will drag himself up to his feet to fight back, but he’ll do it more gingerly every time. We don’t get the usual wacky ladder match high spots that you’d get from the likes of Shawn Michaels and Jeff Hardy, but we do get the occasional move off the ladder such as a back suplex from the second or third rung, Considering that neither of these wrestlers is known for high flying or taking huge bumps, it’s a solidly worked ladder match and the crowd gets into it, with most of the storytelling focusing on the drama of the climb, consistent selling and the two wrestlers using the ladder as a weapon to weaken the other. In some ways this is one of Goldberg’s better WCW performances, as he’s been put in a scenario that he really isn’t built for, and he’s held his own reasonably well despite that.

Goldberg looks to finally have it won at one stage, but The Disco Inferno (Hall’s lackey in storyline) runs down and shoves Goldberg off the ladder, leading to Goldy taking a very non-Goldberg like bump off the ladder onto the ropes. Urgh, that one did NOT look fun to take. Halls manages to grab the Stun Gun (the item, not the move) following that, but Goldberg makes a one legged comeback and manages to avoid getting shocked, so this bout will continue. Hall does a great job of desperately trying to get the item back, but Goldberg manages to get to it first, and he shocks Disco for good measure to pop the crowd. In a really cool ending to the match, Goldberg throws the item up in the air, and Hall of course reaches up for it, which allows Goldberg to Spear Hall out of his boots and deliver the Jack Hammer. With Goldberg now satisfied that Hall has been sufficiently punished for Starrcade, he shocks Hall and that’s the win.

WINNER: GOLDBERG
RATING: ***

Thoughts: “Goldberg” and “Ladder Match” don’t seem like they should remotely exist in the same universe, so the fact that Goldberg entered such a credible performance here is something he should be commended for. Goldberg sold the leg injury really well throughout the bout and both wrestlers did a great job of constructing a more slow-paced heavyweight focused ladder match. If ladder matches for you are all about big bumps and wacky high spots, then I can totally see this not doing it for you as the focus was way more on selling and dramatic climbing, which will probably not be what you’re looking for here. You’re not wrong for feeling that way as everyone likes certain stipulation matches for specific reasons, so if this isn’t your kind of ladder match then that’s fine. However, for two heavyweights who aren’t really built for this kind of contest, both Hall and Goldberg managed to put together a good match here, with Goldberg entering one of his better WCW Main Event performances and Hall doing a respectable job as the ring veteran holding things together

Bam Bam Bigelow attacks Goldberg following the bout in order to set up SuperBrawl IX, which leads to Hall shocking both of the big men, so even though Goldberg won we still end the show with the nWo standing tall. I really don’t get that ending at all. Why not end the show with Bigelow and Goldberg brawling whilst security and road agents try to hold them back? That would have been a far better way of teasing the big match between the two at SuperBrawl IX, and both monsters shoving them away to try and brawl would have caused the already fired up crowd to really lose it. Instead they had Hall get his heat back, which he really didn’t need to do as it wasn’t like he was pinned or anything. Can we not end one of these pay per views with the babyface standing tall for once?

In Conclusion

Do you like lots of two to three star matches? Well then Souled Out 1999 is the pay per view spectacular for you! In all seriousness, Souled Out actually wasn’t that terrible, especially when compared to some of the other pay per view events that WCW inflicted upon the world in 1999. It wasn’t a terrible show, and the Cruiserweight Title match was really good. Also, WCW actually did a good job of setting up some of the bigger issues for SuperBrawl IX the following month, with Bam Bam Bigelow getting built well for Goldberg and the Heel beatdown of David Flair putting some heat on the Hogan Vs Flair issue, and SuperBrawl IX ended up doing a good buy rate, so the seeds WCW planted here at Souled Out ended up sprouting into a decent crop. Of course WCW then ruined all of that by making SuperBrawl IX such a rubbish pay per view, but at least they got some of the building blocks in place successfully here.

If you take out the Enos Vs Benoit and Finlay Vs Hammer matches, then most of the contests on this show actually had a storyline reason for existing, and the Charleston crowd at least got into the former just because they liked Benoit, so it was actually one of the better undercards WCW had presented on that front during this period. You saw in the Smiley Vs Chavo match how having undercard matches with storylines and over guys in them really helped with making the first half of the card actually feel like it mattered, and it was really nice to see that the Cruiser’s got a chance to wrestle in a feature bout near the top of the card. There was real potential on display here at Souled Out, and it’s all the more annoying that WCW ended up going completely off the tracks at SuperBrawl IX with the nWo hyper-booking, as Souled Out was far more relaxed on that front and the show was a lot more digestible as a result. Heels mostly won when they should have, Faces mostly won when they should have, and the wrestling was mostly okay, with a great Cruiserweight match thrown in and a solid Main Event to close things. That’s enough to earn Souled Out a thumbs in the middle at least, and considering how crappy WCW could (and would go on to) be, I’ll take that

Souled Out is not recommended, but it’s not in Stinker territory either