Mike Reviews WCW Worldwide – 08.07.00

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some WCW Worldwide from 2000 this week, as we take a look at what was essentially the go-home show for Bash at the Beach 2000. We’ve got assorted highlights from Nitro and Thunder, along with three matches taped especially for the Worldwide broadcast

You can view the full card by clicking below;

WCW Worldwide Card

Worldwide was taped from the Pershing Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska

Scott Hudson and Larry Z are our hosts in the studio whilst Mike Tenay and Tony Schiavone are calling the action

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Terry Funk and Johnny The Bull in the interview area. Funk shows that Johnny is taking his training to heart by showing that Johnny won’t turn his back no matter how much Funk yells at him. Funk was good at doing his usual thing of going from being kindly grandpa Terry to a yelling madman at the drop of a hat

We get clips from Nitro, as Jeff Jarrett defends the World Title against Goldberg, Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner in the Main Event. Mike Awesome drags Steiner out of the ring to cost him the match and Goldberg ends up helping Jarrett win by kicking Nash in the face

Scott Hudson and Larry Z recap Jarrett’s match with Horace Hogan on Thunder, leading to us getting some Thunder footage. Didn’t Horace turn on Hulk Hogan at some point in WCW? Was this before or after this? Jarrett ends up defeating Horace at any rate and then drapes a Hulk Hogan shirt on top of Horace. I’m sure that Hulk Hogan Vs Jeff Jarrett match at Bash at the Beach will be a truly memorable one. Larry keeps calling Jarrett a “paper champion” and scrunches up some paper to illustrate what Hogan will do to Jarrett at the pay per view

Scott and Larry run down the Bash at the Beach card, and I’m amazed they actually knew what the card was going to be by the time Worldwide aired. Scott and Larry actually manage to make the show sound interesting, so fair play to them for that

In our Worldwide fan question segment; Brian Gross from Durham, North Carolina asks Disco Inferno if Disco has ever considered acting? Disco says that he was the star of Ready 2 Rumble, so he’s already an actor

Match 1
Crowbar Vs Jason Wheeler

Wheeler seemingly wrestled mostly in Florida as Warlock. Crowbar was a WCW regular at the time after quite a few years on the indies as Devon Storm. The crowd is in to Crowbar and he mostly does Sabu styled moves, including a springboard splash and a Lionsault at one stage. The crowd seems genuinely quite into this whenever Crowbar is on the up, although they don’t seem to care that much about Wheeler. Wheeler’s offence is mostly bower based, and it looks good for the most part, thanks to Crowbar taking some good bumps. Wheeler ends up missing a nice looking flipping senton splash from the second rope and makes the comeback, with the crowd still being shockingly in to this. Crowbar gets another Sabu move with a springboard flipping leg drop into the ring, and that’s enough for three after about 5 minutes.

WINNER: CROWBAR
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was a decent match for Worldwide. Wheeler moved well for a big dude and Crowbar was very over with the crowd, so it ended up being an entertaining watch for a five minute quick Worldwide match

Match 2
No Disqualification
“Above Average” Mike Sanders Vs Johnny The Bull w/ Terry Funk

Sanders looks a lot different from how he’d look later in the year, as he has bleach blonde hair and is wearing white shorts. Johnny was originally in a team with Big Vito, but they’ve broken up and Terry Funk has been preparing Johnny for a match with Vito at Bash at the Beach. Sadly for Johnny, prior to this episode of Worldwide Johnny decided to do an insane leg drop from inside the ring to the floor and ended up separating his bladder from his urethra, meaning that the pay per view match didn’t end up going ahead. Johnny does okay in the early going, but Sanders catches Johnny with a suplex so Funk clatters Johnny with a chair a few times in order to fire Johnny up. Sanders tries an Asai Moonsault off the apron, and I think that Johnny was supposed to catch Sanders and do a move there, but it goes awry somehow and they both awkwardly get up and keep going. Sanders works some heat in the ring, keeping it basic for the most part and looking okay. Sanders’ problem was that he was too small to really be a heavyweight in this era so he had to be a Cruiserweight, but he didn’t have the in-ring style to work in that division so he was a bird without a nest in that regard. Funk ends up passing Johnny the same chair he hit Johnny with earlier and Johnny hits Sanders with the chair for a three count in around 4 minutes

WINNER: JOHNNY
RATING: *

Thoughts: This wasn’t very good, as they had seemingly no chemistry as opponents and Johnny looked kind of lost out there. Johnny had good athletic ability and a decent physique, so I can see why he kept getting chances across WCW, WWE and TNA, but he just never really got it together in the ring

We get an advert for the Nitro Girls website. Were they even still a thing by this point in 2000?

Match 3
“The Franchise” Shane Douglas Vs The Wall

Douglas was being called “The French Fries” by Scott Keith at the time in one of Scott’s funnier snarky insults for a wrestler. Douglas was feuding with Buff Bagwell at the time but he had a side feud going on with Wall as well after Douglas abandoned Wall in a tag team match with KroniK so this is a continue of that issue. This one is your typical smaller Heel Vs bigger babyface match, with Douglas trying to use nefarious tactics such as attacking Wall from behind and going to the eyes as a way to keep the big man away from killing him, whilst Wall tries to get hold of Douglas so that he can destroy him. It’s not the most thrilling match that you’ll ever see, but Douglas is clearly working hard and the crowd enjoys it for the most part. It’s totally fine for a match on Worldwide, which was essentially the lowest rung of the WCW television ladder in the summer of 2000. Wall manages to catch Douglas with a Choke Slam, but Wall is too injured to make the pin right away and Douglas is able to kick out. That doesn’t really work 3 minutes into a quick TV match, but I appreciate the effort in trying to not kill Wall’s finish at least. Sadly the finish is all kinds of botched, as Douglas tries for The Pittsburgh Plunge but can’t deliver it properly, leading to both wrestlers lying around in the ring for a few moments until Douglas just drops an elbow for the three count after about 4 minutes.

WINNER: SHANE DOUGLAS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was a fine quick Worldwide match until it completely fell apart at the end

The lads in the studio do the last big hype job for Bash at the Beach and that’s it for Worldwide this week

In Conclusion

This was an okay episode of Worldwide, although I would have spread the matches and studio segments out a bit rather than just having the first have been studio segments and the second half being matches. They did a reasonable job of hyping up the pay per view on Sunday and none of the matches were particularly offensive