Mike Reviews WCW Sin – 14.01.2001

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’re filling out my WCW pay per view archives today with Sin, which was WCW’s first pay per view event of 2001 and was supposed to begin a “Seven Sins” theme for their events, which they followed up with WCW Greed in March 2001. Sadly the company didn’t live long enough to hold WCW Sloth, although there would have been plenty of candidates to complete in the Main Event of that particular show.

We’ve got WCW World Champ Scott Steiner defending his belt against Jeff Jarrett, Sid and the dreaded Mystery Opponent in the Main Event, whilst Goldberg is teaming up with his trainer against Totally Buffed in the Semi-Main. Thankfully we’ve also got the Cruiserweights in the undercard who are likely to deliver some good wrestling, which should keep this one out of Stinker territory if nothing else.

You can view the full card for Sin by clicking below;

WCW Sin 2001 Card

Sin is emanating from the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on the 14th of January 2001. There’s apparently 6,617 fans in the crowd and the show did a 0.17 pay per view buy rate

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson

The opening intro has dramatic choir music and doesn’t really do much other than come across as a bit pretentious. I do wonder why they just couldn’t keep the Souled Out name for the January pay per view?

Shane Helms asks Shannon Moore to let him wrestle the next match alone, which Moore agrees to.

Opening Match
WCW World Cruiserweight Title
Champion: Chavo Guerrero Jr
Vs
Challenger: Shane Helms

Helms and Moore won a ladder match back at Starrcade to earn a shot at Chavo Jr, leading to the two facing off in a singles bout where Helms picked up the win. This run as Cruiserweight Champion in 2000-01 was possibly the best work that Chavo Jr ever did as a singles act and he was never able to really recapture it going forwards. The story here is that Chavo Jr is the more accomplished singles star whilst Helms is more of a tag guy who is moving into the singles realm, so they try and do everything they can to show that Helms can hold his own against the top Cruiserweight in the company so that fans will buy him as someone capable of holding the singles belt. The work is generally good, outside of a few occasions where their timing is slightly off.

Helms gets an extended control segment to start, with him essentially filling the role of the babyface in this one despite him regularly being a Heel prior to this and Chavo Jr filling the sort of role that a touring NWA World Champ would, where he’s not an outright Heel but he kind of defaults to that role when facing a challenger because it’s easier to elevate a challenger that way sometimes, especially when they’re a good looking young wrestler like Helms who can do some cool looking moves and counters. Chavo Jr’s most overtly heelish thing is when he knees Helms in an area that is dangerously close to the nether regions, but it’s more presented as him being aggressive and skirting the line rather than being an outright villain.

Helms sells effectively and it does the job of getting the crowd to react positively when he starts fighting back after Chavo Jr has been in control. Helms gets a fantastic looking straightjacket German Suplex at one stage, which gets him a two count. Helms gets some more near falls, with Chavo Jr having to put his foot on the ropes to break the pin following a Super Kick, which puts Helms over as a tough challenger that Chavo Jr has to rely on something like that to survive. Chavo Jr ends up flinging Helms to the floor and following with a body press from the top rope, which pops the crowd and gets Chavo Jr a two count of his own back inside the ring.

Helms of course gets to do a big dive of his own at one stage, with him drawing mostly cheers and a few boos, which makes sense seeing as they hadn’t really done an official babyface turn for him at this stage yet and this match was supposed to plant the seeds for that, which would eventually happen later in the year with Chavo Jr doing a more pronounced Heel turn for their match at Greed two months later. They do some slick counters at the end leading to Chavo Jr managing to catch Helms with the Brain Buster for the three count to retain his belt.

11 Minutes

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: CHAVO JR
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was a really good match that elevated Helms in defeat whilst also making Chavo Jr look like a deserving champion by seeing off such a keen challenger in a hard fought clean manner like this. Scott Hudson (who did a great job on commentary for that one, as did Tony Schiavone) notes that he feels like Helms should still be considered a top contender after his efforts there, which seems totally reasonable considering how close Helms came to winning and how good the match itself was. This was a great way to kick off Sin and if WCW could have done more of this sort of booking over the previous years they probably wouldn’t have been in the position they were by the time 2001 rolled around

Earlier today; Mike Tenay tries to get answers from Ric Flair as to who the mystery man will be in the Main Event. Flair remains coy as to who the person will be.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Big Vito and Johnny The Bull. Johnny is banned from ringside tonight, but Vito doesn’t mind and cuts a passionate promo about how he will win the match. That was a decent promo from Vito.

Second Match
Reno Vs Big Vito

These two are related in storyline but have fallen out due to Reno paying off KroniK to attack Vito on multiple occasions, so they’re battling here in order to settle their issue. Reno’s finisher at the time was known as the Roll of the Dice, which was essentially a prototypical version of the Cross Rhodes, and it was the hot new move in WCW at the time, as the pre-match recap of the feud features multiple clips of Reno delivering the move to Vito. They have an intense fight from the opening bell here, with it having the desired snugness that you’d expect from two family members duking it out.

Vito works well as a fired up babyface, with the crowd getting behind him, whilst Reno plays the stocky slugger role well. You can tell that both competitors are working hard as well, making the most of getting a featured pay per view match here at Sin. Vito gets the better of things in the early going, but Reno sends Vito to the floor and throws him into the metal railings for the cut off. Vito sells well back inside the ring and adheres to the Ricky Steamboat rule of not getting beaten up too much without at least trying to fight back, which suits Vito’s scrappy babyface gimmick.

Vito eventually catches Reno with a stiff kick to the face for the double down and makes the comeback, with Reno bumping and feeding for it all well, as the crowd continues to react to this one, especially when Vito comes off the top with an elbow for a near fall. Reno tries to reply with the Roll of the Dice, but Vito is able to fight him off at first and goes for his DDT finisher, which Reno is able to slip out of. I’m liking that we’re seeing folks having to fight for their finishers here on this show, as it makes the bout feel like a genuine struggle. Reno is eventually able to counter a suplex attempt into the Roll of the Dice and that’s enough for our second clean win of the night.

9 Minutes

WINNER: RENO
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was a good intense fight, where Vito looked competitive in defeat whilst Reno looked resourceful for holding on and finally getting his dangerous and feared finishing move, at which point the bout was DONE. That’s how you protect a move and get it over. Again, if WCW had booked more like this in the previous couple of years they would have been in a much better position by the time Sin rolled around. It’s really quite frustrating because they COULD do this stuff properly, they just allowed the “name” talent to get away with not doing so

Mike Sanders is being arrogant to KroniK backstage and pays them to do a job for him, but Bryan Clark reveals that someone else has paid more for a different job, so KroniK will do that one instead.

Third Match
Evan Karagias and Jamie Knoble Vs The Jung Dragons (Kaz Hayashi & Yang) w/ Leia Meow

Karagias got kicked out of 3 Count and Knoble got kicked out of The Jung Dragons, so they’ve formed a dysfunctional team in hopes of getting revenge on the groups that cast them aside. This one is all-action from the opening bell, as they start at high speed and just keep running along at that pace throughout the bout, with all kinds of high flying moves and quick counters. It’s really just a parade of MOVEZ, so if that’s not a genre of wrestling you enjoy then this will do nothing to convert you, but if you find that type of wrestling to be entertaining then this one will definitely give you your fix. Neither of the teams is really playing the Heel role, with them both just trading offence, so the crowd mostly just reacts to the moves and has fun with it that way rather than getting engaged in any real story that’s being told. We get dives to the floor, big suplexes, crazy double team moves, flying attacks from the top rope, big head drop moves like Tombstone’s, and everything else in between. Sadly the finish goes a bit awry, as Yang is supposed to get a flippy doo from the top, but he misses, so they improvise with Yang catching Knoble with an Inside Cradle for the three count.

9 Minutes

WINNERS: JUNG DRAGONS
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: There’s definitely a place for this kind of wrestling and this was a good example of the genre. Would I want every match on a show to be this? No, probably not. Would I like a match or two like it as part of an overall balanced wrestling show experience? Absolutely! All four in the match put the effort in and kept up a frenetic pace throughout the bout that kept things exciting. WCW was guilty of just throwing these wrestlers out in there in random card fillers rather than actually trying to put them in meaningful storylines and feuds that would enhance the matches they were having, but the wrestlers themselves almost always delivered once the bell rang and these bouts remain something I always look forward to watching whenever I take in one of these late stage WCW shows. It’s a shame that the finish went awry, but up to that point they’d been having an exciting contest and they covered for it reasonably well

Knoble and Karagias attack Jung Dragons after the match, but little more comes of that for now.

Totally Buffed show up in a wacky purple car, with them hamming it up as usual. They are happy to have someone run down and attack them tonight so that Goldberg can get disqualified.

Fourth Match
WCW Commissionership On The Line
“Above Average” Mike Sanders Vs Ernest “The Cat” Miller w/ Ms. Jones

Cat seemingly spent most of 2000 and 2001 defending his commissioner status like it was a Title or something. He had lost to Sanders back at Halloween Havoc thanks to The Franchise, so he’s looking to get his status back tonight. Sanders cuts a pre-match promo saying that he wants to remain commissioner for the money, and that if he wins tonight he’ll also get the services of Ms. Jones to boot. Cat responds with a promo of his own. saying that he’s going to fight for the people as commissioner when he wins. Based on the reactions from the crowd, they seem fully behind The Cat here, leading to Sanders being able to draw some decent cheap heat when he jumps Cat before the bell.

Neither of these guys are especially great in-ring performers, but Sanders can do the basics and plays a cocky Heel well, whilst Cat makes up for his lack of wrestling ability with a healthy dose of charisma and character work, so this is a watchable, if rather basic, contest. Sanders mostly focuses on standard Heel offence like eye gouges and the like, whilst Cat sticks to punches and kicks. Sanders and Cat play their respective roles well, meaning that the crowd mostly remains invested throughout. Cat eventually fights out of a rest hold and makes the comeback, which leads to Sanders begging off and drawing the fight to the floor, where Jones stops Sanders from using a chair.

Sanders and Jones’ squabble distracts referee Mickie J, which means that Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak can run down and attack Cat. However, Bryan Clarke and Brian Adams of KroniK run down to stop Stasiak and Jindrak, with it being revealed that the better financial offer that KroniK got earlier was for Cat. Adams attacks Sanders behind the referee’s back and shoves Sanders’ money down his throat, setting up a big kick from The Cat for the three count.

6 Minutes

WINNER: THE CAT
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was decent. They had a devious Heel that the fans hated taking on a fun Face that the crowd liked, and they eventually had the Heel lose in the end when his own tactics came back to bite him in the bum. There wasn’t a tonne of good wrestling going on, but they told a decent story with the time they were given and it ended up being an entertaining outing

Ric Flair and Goldberg are watching the Totally Buffed segment from earlier on. Flair says that as the Heels are planning to get Goldberg disqualified later on, he’ll make the match No DQ so that can’t happen, which Goldberg is happy with. Flair also introduces Goldberg to two of his friends, who Goldberg gives an autograph to.

Mean Gene is interviewing Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett says that Scott Steiner can trust him in the Main Event tonight and that he’ll have Steiner’s back later on.

Fifth Match
Penalty Box Six Man Tag Team Bout
Special Referee: Jim Duggan
Team Canada (Elix Skipper, Lance Storm & Mike Awesome) w/ Major Gunns Vs The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman, Konnan & Rey Mysterio Jr) w/ Tygress

Duggan had been a member of Team Canada in 2000, but he’s now trying to repent and be a fair official here, in a match where you can be put in a Penalty Box should you perform an infraction, in a stipulation that feels needlessly complicated, but WCW tended to do that quite a bit. The Filthy Animals graffitied Team Canada’s bus in order to step this one up a level. Duggan insists that he’s going to call it right down the middle here, although he says that if anyone refuses to go into the Penalty Box he’ll stuff them in there himself, Tough Guy! They quickly establish the rules by having Skipper and Awesome both getting put in the box because Skipper came in without a tag and because Awesome shoved the referee.

Everyone in this match can work a bit (I know Konnan isn’t popular or often considered a good wrestler, but I think he’s good at what he does and can have decent matches in the right setting) so the wrestling here is decent, although I think just letting these six work a standard six man tag would have likely been better than having to do the whole Penalty Box thing, but that’s just my opinion. Sticking folks in the Penalty Box just doesn’t really add anything to the match for me and, if anything, it just makes the other team look ineffective that they can have as much as a 3 on 1 advantage at points but they aren’t capable of defeating the other team, especially when Skipper is all on his own against three people but The Animals can’t find a way to pin him.

There’s a great little exchange between Skipper and Konnan at one stage, as Konnan has spent most of his career up to this point being a base for smaller high flying opponents, so he knows exactly how to work that style with Skipper and they do a cool sequence where Skipper does the Matrix move to dodge a clothesline but Konnan waits behind and catches him with a reverse DDT when Skipper tries to bridge back up. Duggan shows that he’s going to follow the rules fairly, putting The Animals in the box when he has to. Gunns and Tygress end up having our contractually mandated cat fight, leading to Duggan send the ladies into the Penalty Box as well.

Konnan has to go against all of Team Canada by himself at one stage, but Skipper makes the mistake of going for a chin lock instead of going for the kill, which Hudson and Schiavone actually reference on commentary, as both of them continue to have a good night thus far. Konnan manages to catch Storm with a desperation face buster and that leads to the hot tag for Kidman, who runs wild on Storm, looking good in the process, whilst Storm bumps and feeds for him really well. Storm and Kidman could have probably had a great pay per view singles match for a major Title at one stage had WCW let them.

Eventually everyone but Storm and Rey Jr are trapped in the box, leading to Storm and Rey doing a fun bit together, and that’s another match that WCW could have done on a pay per view if they’d wanted to but never did. Things breakdown following that, with Storm catching Kidman in the Canadian Maple Leaf, which surprisingly gives us a clean finish to this bizarre contest. Honestly I quite like that as it gave Team Canada some legitimacy as a group, and Storm being a Heel who can actually win clean made him a more interesting character than just a standard conniving villain.

13 Minutes

WINNERS: TEAM CANADA
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: I didn’t really care for the stipulation, but there was some good wrestling in there. I would have preferred them to just do a standard six man tag, but then I’m a grumpy curmudgeon so what can you do?

Mike Tenay interviews The Natural Born Thrillers, who cut a pretty stilted just out of wrestling school promo. Well, they WERE right out of wrestling school in fairness to them…

Diamond Dallas Page and Kevin Nash are warming up in a dressing room that looks to be ludicrously too small for them.

Sixth Match
Triangle Match for the WCW Hardcore Title
Champion: Terry Funk
Vs
Challenger: Crowbar w/ Daffney
Vs
Challenger: THE MONSTER MENG

Funk and Crowbar have a feud of respect going on over Crowbar trying to prove his hardcore abilities to his hardcore hero, whilst Meng is an insane tough guy who just wants to wreck everything in sight. Meng stole the belt the previous week, and now he’s trying to win it for real. Funk attacks Daffney during his entrance, leading to Crowbar jumping Funk and the two brawling into the ladies restroom and Meng eventually joining them. This leads to the three all fighting with one another, with Funk and Crowbar eventually deciding to work together to bury Meng under a pile of tables to momentarily take him out of the proceedings so that they can focus on fighting each other.

It’s a decent enough wild brawl, although it falls into the trap that some of these matches sometimes do. They just rush from weapon spot to weapon spot, without really allowing those spots any time to really mean anything. A big chair shot should be a huge moment in a match for instance, but they just clobber each other with chairs here and keep going. Crowbar leg drops Funk through a table at one stage, although the director misses it originally and we have to see it via replay. This one doesn’t seem to be that over with the crowd, which is the first time a match on Sin hasn’t really captivated the live audience.

I think a problem might be that it isn’t really clear who the babyface in this match is supposed to be, as all three of them are just generally violent wild people with none of them really playing to the audience. Technically I suppose Crowbar is the babyface because he’s trying to prove himself as the hardcore star of the future whilst Funk has run him down in recent weeks despite Crowbar openly respecting Funk, whilst Meng is mostly just a violent lunatic, but the crowd doesn’t appear to have got the memo on that front.

They do finally make it into the ring, where we get one of the better sequences in the match where Crowbar has Funk in a Figure Four but Meng then splashes Crowbar from the top rope, leading to him pinning Crowbar whilst Funk is still in agony in the hold. Crowbar and Funk clatter Meng in the head with chairs, which is almost played for comedy in a bit of weird tonal dissonance, but Crowbar and Funk fight over who gets the pin, which means that Meng can survive and he eventually applies the Tongan Death Grip onto Funk for the three count.

12 Minutes

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: MENG
RATING: **

Thoughts: Meng wasn’t under contract at the time, so he jumped to the WWF later in the month whilst still champion, leading to WCW quietly retiring the belt. As far as the match went, it wasn’t terrible but it felt like it meandered and the crowd never really got that into it, despite the three wrestlers taking plenty of big bumps and losing a fair amount of brain cells with all the weapon shots. I think Funk as the aging gunslinger going down to the monster after a brave fight in a singles bout would have worked better here, and would have probably gotten more of a reaction from the live crowd

Ric Flair congratulates Cat on his victory and gives him the rest of the night off.

Mean Gene interviews Sid Vicious and his ill-fitting baseball cap. Sid does his usual whisper then cackle promo, and it doesn’t enthuse me.

Seventh Match
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champions: The InSiders (Kevin Nash and Diamond Dallas Page)
Vs
Challengers: The Natural Born Thrillers (Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo)

Nash used to be the mentor of The Thrillers, but they turned on him so he brought in DDP as backup so that the feud could continue. Nash and DDP won the belts near the end of 2000 and The Thrillers have been trying to get them back ever since. Four members of The Thrillers won a battle royal, meaning that Shawn Stasiak, Mark Jindrak, Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo can all challenge for the belts, with O’Haire and Palumbo seemingly getting the nod here. However, before the match starts, Mike Sanders brings out Stasiak, Jindrak and Reno to seemingly try something nefarious, which is subbing out a Thriller for another one at any time during the match. However, WCW CEO Ric Flair heads out with security to have the other Thrillers taken away.

So after all that we get a straight tag team match, with DDP and Palumbo doing a decent bit together to start, leading to Nash and O’Haire tagging in for a bit after that. O’Haire was the guy WCW looked to be betting the farm on for the future here, and he does a big Moonsault backflip to land behind Nash at one stage before kicking him down, with Nash taking a big bump for it, which helps make O’Haire look like a genuine threat. Nash generally worked well with bigger opponents, so he does just fine in this one slugging it out with the challengers, with DDP eventually being the one to get cut off and worked over by the Heels.

It’s a decent heat segment overall, with The Thrillers being careful not to try anything they can’t do whilst DDP sells well and does a good job of being a gutsy babyface who won’t give up. Eventually DDP reverses a Palumbo piledriver into one of his own and that gives us hot tag Nash, with The Kevster running wild. Smartly Nash just takes the middle of the ring and lets the youngsters come to him, as Kevin Nash in 2001 didn’t need to be chasing people around the ring with his knees. Stasiak and Jindrak head down to distract the referee before getting carted out by security again, but this allows The Total Package to run down and brawl with DDP. As the referee is distracted by the hijinks outside the ring, Buff Bagwell runs down to hit Nash with a wrench, leading to O’Haire getting the Seanton Bomb for the three count.

11 Minutes

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: NATURAL BORN THRILLERS
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Decent tag wrestling there. It was a cheap finish, but The Thrillers were competitive enough in the match itself that it came across as two Heels winning in an underhanded fashion rather than two no-hopers winning the lottery. That in part was testament to DDP and Nash treating the youngsters like an actual threat, whilst The Thrillers grew into their roles and worked like a competent tag team

The Thrillers say they had nothing to do with Totally Buffed helping them, but they’ll take it nonetheless.

Eighth Match
First Blood Chain Bout for the WCW United States Title
Champion: Captain Hugh G. Rection
Vs
Challenger: The Franchise

Franchise (Shane Douglas) got a dodgy win over Rection back at Starrcade but didn’t win the belt, so we’ve got a stipulation bout here to settle things, with it being one of the dodgiest stipulation bouts you can have where the usual finish is “Someone bleeds but the referee somehow misses it, leading to the other person then losing”. Let’s see if they go for that finish here at Sin or not. Franchise’s thing was that he kept hitting people with a chain during the build-up, so they’ve hung a chain above the ring that both wrestlers can try to grab and use as a weapon. So not only is this first blood but it’s also an item above the ring match as well. Any other stipulations we can tack on? Maybe we could have a volcano surrounding the ring with land mines and lava sharks in it?

Douglas of course has a chain inside his trunks already, which referee Jamie Tucker quickly takes away before the bout starts. They actually do some arm drags and holds to start, which seems kind of pointless in a First Blood match, although the commentary team tries to explain it as them wearing one another down. Neither wrestler looks bad in there, with the quality of the work itself being okay as both have a good handle on the basics, but it’s not especially thrilling and the fans don’t really care about it because they know that the bout is unlikely to end until someone has grabbed the chain, so everything prior to that doesn’t really matter.

It’s not like they can do near falls and the like either, as you have to win by making your opponent bleed. This is another example of how they could have likely had a better match if they’d let them just go out there and wrestle a normal contest without the stipulation. That really goes against the whole point of having a stipulation to begin with, as it should enhance a match or make it more interesting, but all this stipulation has done is dampen down the crowd and put the two wrestlers in a situation that makes it more difficult for them to have a good match. They do try and do some brawling in the crowd, but as the chain hasn’t been grabbed yet the fans know the bout isn’t going to end out there so they don’t get too excited by it.

Franchise works over Rection’s knee, which feels pretty pointless in a First Blood match, but Rection sells it well at least. Rection eventually makes a comeback and grabs a ladder so that he can climb up and grab the chain. Maybe they should have just outright made this a ladder match honestly? It would be better than First Blood at least. Rection climbs the ladder to grab the chain, to sadly no pop from the crowd, but Franchise shoves the ladder over and has a third chain in his knee pad, which he uses to punch Rection to bust him open and win the US Title.

12 Minutes

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: THE FRANCHISE
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: Despite some hard work from the wrestlers, the stipulation ruined any chance of this match being any good and the crowd didn’t really care about it. At least they didn’t go with the “Franchise bleeds, but the referee misses it” finish I guess

Mean Gene interviews Scott Steiner, who says he doesn’t trust anyone tonight apart from his freaks and that he’ll retain his belt. This was a decent promo.

Captain Rection is consoled by Sgt A-Wall and Corporal Cajun.

Ninth Match
Luchas de Apuestas
Goldberg Must Retire If His Team Loses
No Disqualification Tag Team
Totally Buffed (Total Package and Buff Bagwell) Vs Goldberg and “The Sarge” Dewayne Bruce)

Package and Goldberg had been feuding, with Package trying to end Goldberg’s career because there was a stipulation going on at the time that Goldberg would have to retire the next time he lost a match. The stipulation was introduced by Vince Russo, who I believe was out of power at this stage, but they kept the stipulation in place because reasons. Bruce was previously known as Buddy Lee Parker and was the trainer at WCW’s Power Plant (where he made Louis “Waldo” Theroux vomit in a BBC documentary) and he’s been roped into tagging with Goldberg here. They actually bring in Michael Buffer for this one, although I honestly think they should have been saving the money they paid for his fee at the time. seeing as the only people buying the pay per views were probably reviewers and the immediate families of the wrestlers themselves. Bruce has really wacky “VHS commercial” styled music here, which doesn’t suit the seriousness of the situation at all.

Goldberg gets the big star reaction from the crowd here, with them really coming alive after the previous bout flattened them out a bit. Bruce is coming into this one with a broken arm, so Goldberg starts things out for his team and shines on both of the Heels, including no selling a Bagwell suplex at one stage. Totally Buffed do a decent job bumping around and stooging for Goldberg, with the crowd enjoying it. Bruce does eventually get tagged in, and he looks okay in there, with Buff and Package being happy to bump for him and take his moves. Sarge doesn’t get the same reaction as Goldberg from the crowd, who treat his bits almost like an intermission between the Goldberg parts they actually care about, but Bruce wrestles just fine in there and eventually gets cut off so that the Heels can work him over.

It’s never really explained why folks are patiently waiting for tags in this one considering that the match is supposedly No DQ, but that was a regular issue when ECW did tag rules as well. I guess that, regardless of how evil they are supposed to be, Totally Buffed are still willing to work under the honour system here when it comes to making tags. Bruce sells and bumps well in the heat, and you’d certainly hope so considering that his whole job at the time was to teach young wrestlers how to do the basics at WCW’s training school. Bruce’s selling eventually gets the crowd to cheer him on a bit as he’s worked over, although they are clearly just waiting for Goldberg to get back in so they can be excited watching him destroy folks.

Goldberg does eventually get the hot tag, and the crowd likes that a lot. Bagwell takes a fantastic bump from a Pump Handle Suplex/Throw at one stage, whilst Package hassles the fan that Goldberg spoke with earlier. Goldberg of course comes to the fan’s rescue, but the fan ends up being a plant who is there to help the Heels, as he sprays mace or something in Goldberg’s face. This leads to a blinded Goldberg bravely fighting on against the Heels whilst Bruce sells out on the floor. However, Package ends up using a chair on Goldberg and that leads to Totally Buffed giving Goldberg a DOOMsday Device styled move with a Buff Blockbuster replacing the usual clothesline, and that’s enough for the three count.

12 Minutes

WINNERS: TOTALLY BUFFED
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: And thus Goldberg never wrestled a match in WCW ever again, mainly because the company died before he could make his glorious return when the Fusient deal went through. I understand the idea of telling the story that all the babyfaces were being systematically being taken out so that they could all eventually come back to save the day, but Goldberg was one of the few people on the WCW roster that the fans cared about and saw as an actual star, so really they should have been focusing on him rather than removing him from the board like this.

The fans really don’t like the result here, although it feels like it’s the sort of Heel heat that could have ended up drawing some money if the storyline had ever played out. As a match, this was a decent enough tag bout, with Goldberg doing a good hot tag whilst the Heels stooged around and Bruce sold well whilst getting worked over. It would have been nice to see Goldberg get to do a bit more of his hot tag before they went to the finish, as he only really got to cut loose a little but until the angle with the fan kicked in. Still though, the storytelling and character work both delivered here and it’s hard to really judge a storyline that was never allowed to reach its planned conclusion.

Main Event
Four Corners Bout for the WCW World Heavyweight Title
Champion: “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner w/ Midajah
Vs
Challenger: “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett
Vs
Challenger: “The Man of the New Millennium” Sid Vicious
Vs
Challenger: The Dreaded Mystery Challenger

Steiner had defeated Sid back at Starrcade thanks to help from Jarrett, but Sid remained WCW’s ostensible top babyface, so he’s still in the Title picture here at Sin, with WCW CEO Ric Flair promising that there will be a mystery fourth challenger in the bout to come along at some point. Jarrett is supposedly going to help Steiner win here, but there’s a suggestion that he’ll try and win the belt for himself should the opportunity arise. Buffer takes too long introducing Ric Flair at the start, so Flair has to cut him off to do his promo in a funny moment. You’d hate to be stuck behind Buffer in a queue at the bar. He’d take about 5 minutes just to order a Gin and Tonic.

Steiner and Jarrett do indeed work as a team here, leading to Sid lumbering around the ring trying to fend them both off. It’s mostly a basic kick and punch affair, although the Heels working together so openly does give it a bit of a different feel to a standard Three Way match. It also means we don’t get a lot of the “two guys fight in the ring whilst one sells out on the floor” trope either, which is a bit of a bonus as I normally think that stuff tends to drag these multi-person bouts down. If you’re going to have 3/4 people in the same match then it’s better to have them all interacting together as much as possible. Otherwise it just feels like a standard singles match where the contestants briefly rotate whilst one of them has a breather.

In a weird moment, Steiner lets Jarrett try and pin Sid at one stage, even though that would cost him the Title. I wonder if Steiner just briefly forgot the rules for real? Sid ends up nearly dropping both Steiner and Jarrett on their heads by making a hash of a double suplex, and that leads to Sid making the comeback. Thankfully Sid is at least smart enough to just stand in the middle of the ring and let the Heels come over to him, as him trying to chase the bad guys around the ring with his lack of coordination would have been a recipe for disaster. Sid sadly has the terrible idea of delivering a big boot from the second rope, which leads to him destroying his standing leg when he lands on it. This leads to the Mystery Man heading down to the ring and finishing Sid off with a weak looking strike so that Steiner can get the three count. The Mystery Man then unmasks to reveal Road Warrior Animal.

8 Minutes

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: SCOTT STEINER
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: I’m sure there was more match planned there, but Sid suffering such an horrific injury obviously meant they had to take it home sharpish. After reading the issue of the WON that covered Sin, apparently Sid was going to make a big comeback and have the contest won, at which point the Mystery Man would cost him the bout, but Sid suffered the leg break and we go the finish we got instead. That leg break is one of the worst of all-time too, with them replaying it in gory detail on Nitro the next night.

I don’t think Road Warrior Animal lived up to all the build and hype as the big mystery opponent, although I’m not sure who would have done outside of them bringing back someone like a Randy Savage, Sting, Hulk Hogan or Scott Hall level talent, none of whom were realistically going to be the choice for various reasons. I suppose it could have been Flair himself, and part of his Heel turn was him personally costing Sid? Apparently they were originally thinking of making it be Rick Steiner, but they thought that was too obvious so they went with Animal instead.

The match itself wasn’t terrible, as it was mostly Jarrett and Steiner working Sid over until Sid made his comeback, at which point they had to take it home due to an unexpected injury to Sid. It felt like a match you’d see on an episode of Nitro rather than the Main Event of a pay per view, and the injury just made things worse as it meant the match couldn’t go to it’s natural conclusion and they had to tack on the finish they did in the heat of the moment.

In Conclusion

Sin is a bit of a mixed bag. The last three matches aren’t really up to much, but there is some good wrestling on the undercard and the crowd in Indianapolis was up for most of the show and helped elevate some of the bouts because of it.

The booking was somewhat questionable, as it often was with WCW, but at the very least the company had a clear direction at the time, which was that all the babyfaces would get run off until Eric Bischoff brought them back and the Heels would be vanquished, likely with Scott Steiner and Goldberg Main Eventing a pay per view and possibly even drawing some money in the process.

Sadly for WCW, 2001 is all build with no payoff, which makes the shows a bit difficult to rate as you’re essentially reviewing a book that’s never going to have a final chapter.

As a wrestling show viewed in isolation, WCW Sin has some good action on it and I generally enjoyed it overall. The undercard in particular carries the event, so I’ll give it a thumbs leaning up.