WCW Worldwide 01/08/00

WCW Worldwide – The One The Week Before Souled Out

Recorded 01/05/00
Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA
Winthrop Coliseum
Attendance 1,746

With Scott persisting with Monday Night Nitro 2000, I figured I’d do my bit and check out another essential WCW TV show from that year. No, not Thunder. Jesus, are you kidding?

No, instead I’ll be looking at Worldwide as I want to see how Tony Schavione and Bobby Heenan deal with explaining the bollocks on and off the screen to the casual audience while we get exclusive matches from the Saturday Night crew. Couldn’t find the 1st Jan episode so we’ll skip to the 8th Jan one instead.

Tony gently starts us off by explaining that the nWo is back! Again!

WCW World Champion Bret Hart, Tag Team Champions Kevin Nash & Scott Hall, and U.S. Champion Jeff Jarrett! Good on Jarrett for being a terrible Horseman *and* a terrible nWo member. And a crap Bullet Club member for that matter. That takes real consistency.

Bret explained on Thunder that he had this planned for months:

Bret Hart: You wrestling fans are such stupid idiots that you fell for the oldest trick in the book! You should look at yourselves and laugh! Cos you’ve been suckered in for a month! And the thing that (redacts) you people off, is that we did it directly to your face and there’s nothing you can do about it!

Scott Hall: Hey, can we say (redacted) on TV?

This was a spirited promo from Bret who was at his happiest when he was insulting fans. Goldberg (w/ cap) shows up to tell the nWo they’re all dead while the crowd very loudly chant “GOLDBERG SUCKS.” Goldberg curses to get them back on his side and the eventual threat of ripped out spines wins them over.

Goldberg was reportedly not happy about Hall playing to the crowd and getting the fans to boo him:

There was tremendous heat on Hall from Thunder and word backstage was that he was suspended for repeated disciplinary problems (although one report has it suspended with pay which considering what he earns and the fact he’s going have to miss two months getting his knee scoped, the suspension almost sounds cosmetic). If you watch the tape, you’ll notice a lengthy part of the opening interview on Thunder was cut out and in its place they aired crowd shots. One would think it was an overreaction to marginal language based on the controversy from Monday, but actually it was Hall doing the old NWO survey, which infuriated Goldberg in particular because he thought he was trying to be a babyface against orders.

That maybe explains why Goldberg went ballistic later.

Jarrett shows up to The Powers That Be (ughhh)’s office only to find it trashed by Goldberg who tells Jarrett to give Bret a message: He’s going to kill every other member of nWo and then rip out Bret’s heart and eat it! Got that? (Jeff nods). I think that was the last appearance of The Powers That Be’s office, I’m happy their last appearance implied Goldberg murdered them.

Hall is taken out in his locker room while Nash is washing his hair and singing Sinatra. Goldberg declines the offer to condition him (never trust a bald man with your hair) with the camera not showing the attack but daring to include a shot of Nash’s still arm in the shower like they’re remaking Psycho.

Still not the worst remake of that film.

Also that would be the kayfabe reason last Hall would be off TV for a few weeks as he was “punished” for going off-script (by getting sent home and still paid).

Goldberg apparently got in Hall’s face after he finished. Russo wanted the interview to establish them as full-fledged heels as not as cool heels that become faces because of it as in the last NWO incarnation, at least at this point. The feeling was that airing the survey deal would send a bad message to the rest of the wrestlers about not following expressed orders, plus it would result in fans seeing them get a decent amount of cheers so it was edited off the show. They ended up using the angle they had shot that night of Goldberg attacking Hall while posing as the trainer to explain both his injury and his not being on Nitro for a few weeks

Goldberg spears Jarrett in the ring while Bret does a runner to the back. Bret drives off in a car so Goldberg spots The Powers That Be’s limo and even though it aired on Thunder in black and white, it’s in colour here: Goldberg think he’s in the Street Fighter II bonus stage and shreds his tendons breaking windows with his bare arms because he dropped the small pipe he was supposed to use:

The actual blow which cut up Goldberg’s arm did air on television which was an elbow shot into the window of the limo that didn’t break the first few times. Hopefully there in the future on angles like this will be more consideration given to gimmicking windows.

The original angle involved Goldberg using a sledge hammer to break the windows and not his fist. It was changed to make it look more impressive to where Goldberg would hold a small pipe in his hands that wouldn’t be visible to television viewers when smashing the windows. However, on the first or second blow that broke the first two windows, the pipe flew out of his hand and into the limo and with the tape rolling he couldn’t very well open the door and get it.

He still had more windows to break and more time before they yelled cut so he decided to try and break the big window with his elbow which took a few tries and hurt himself in the process.

Tony informs us Goldberg required forty stitches and will be out of action for a while. Which sucks for WCW, and NJPW:

WCW is sending Randy Savage to replace Goldberg against Rick Steiner for the Tokyo Dome. It’s a big disappointment since Goldberg’s debut was one of the main selling points of the show, but at least Savage is considered a big name player who usually doesn’t work Japan even if he wouldn’t be a ticket seller there today, he’d be considered an acceptable replacement. Of course a Savage vs. Steiner match at the Tokyo Dome serves absolutely no purpose on the show.

New Japan made the announcement of the replacement as quick as possible after receiving word, sort of how WWF reacted when they got word Steve Austin wouldn’t be at, well forget it. Tatsumi Fujinami announced that they would play a taped interview with Goldberg on the big screens before the show started and that they’d work on bringing Goldberg in for the 4/10 Dome show.

Spoiler: Goldberg wouldn’t be at that Dome show either. Instead, Mona/Miss Madness/Molly Holly would be there to land a dropkick on Tenzan.

Anyway, Tony says don’t worry: Goldberg will be back! Eventually.

Tony segues Family Guy style by saying “you think that’s bad?” to talk about Scott Steiner’s fake retirement. Heenan think it’s one of the worst things he’s seen in thirty years. “It was brilliant.” Bobby claims he knew Scott was faking and Tony is a poor Gorilla trying to call Heenan a liar. Heenan looks so miserable being there that mocking him feels cruel. Piss off Tony, go make some more kids.

Anyway, Scott Steiner on the 12/27/99 Nitro does an amazing job pretending to be very upset about retiring. Lots of genuine sounding emotion and crying, especially with Scott admitting he’s most gutted about not being able to team up with his brother anymore. Crowd sounds like they believe it and give Scotty a lovely reaction. You’d think they’d be more cynical even this early into Russo’s run, but Scott was amazing out there and it’s almost a shame it was all for a swerve.

The nWo roll out to tell Scott to scram because there’s no room for has-beens. “I’ll be honest, you were never good anyway. Now get out before you get hurt seriously.” Nash lobs his wheelchair out the ring while the crowd boos the heels for a change.

Later on, with the nWo brawling with Sid and Benoit, Scott wanders out to turn on Sid and reveal IT WAS A SET UP ALL ALONG. Scott removes his shirt to reveal he’s joined the nWo! Uh, again! “The biggest con job in history!!”

Oh, then Sid is shoved into a Cadillac and driven outside where a monster truck flattens him because it wasn’t enough to have one big angle in one segment, Russo decried we need at least two and they need to be so dramatic that they cancel each other out.

Tony: (after watching footage of a man getting run over by a monster truck) Sid is OK, he’ll wrestle at Souled Out.

God bless Heenan who explains Sid survived because he ducked but was still stuck in the car for an hour while they rescued him. I’m glad Heenan put more thought into that than Russo did when scribbling it down in crayon.

Also regarding that segment:

It wasn’t Hart driving the monster truck nor was Sid in the car that was being run over, although both were the original plan. Hart was told what part of the car to drive over and where Sid would in the car so as not to drive over him. Hart refused saying that he wasn’t an experienced stunt driver and felt if they were going to use a monster struck and drive over a car and go to that expense, they should go to the expense to have professional stunt men do the stunt.

There was no problem with his decision and based on everything he was actually apologized to about even being asked.

I can only imagine the look Hart had on his face when someone asked him to safely run over Sid.

Heenan tells us he taught Tank Abbott to punch, but when Tony asks him to explain, Heenan stutters and says he meant the drink. Well if he forgot the ingredients, all Bobby needed to do was look on his sleeve.

We head to Thunder again for Tank Abbott vs. La Parka. Tank smothers Parka in the corner before slamming him “with no finesse” before no-selling a chairshot. Tank punches him on the outside and the ref ends the match because he saw Parka wasn’t moving and is a skeleton. Tank punches Doug Dillinger for reasons that weren’t explained.

Heenan: He got fined $10,000?
Tony: Yep, for hitting Doug Dillen-
Heenan: Come out, hit him again! It’s worth another $10,000!

On Nitro, Tank did the same to Shane (Vincent/Virgil/whatever) but didn’t punch Doug. Tank looks decent in edited segments while Tony yells “He was thrown out of UFC because they couldn’t control him! He’s a bit like Goldberg! I suppose!”

On the same Nitro, Bret Hart was somehow able to put away a jeans-wearing Jerry Flynn with help from the nWo. Bret cockily brushing his hair while he applies the Sharpshooter knowing his foe is already KO’d is a sweet look.

Jarrett spray paints Flynn as Tony really sells the moment by pointing out it’s silver now instead of white. It’s like a completely different stable. Tank wanders out after the nWo have finish to pick up Flynn and punch him because they’re wrestling at Souled Out. OK that was pretty funny and the crowd roared at the ridiculousness of picking up a beat-up dude for one more shot. Heenan can’t sell the concept of The Block because he probably doesn’t understand it so he explains to Tony how much it hurts getting punched.

Souled Out, next Sunday! Oh here we go.

• Bret Hart vs. Sid Vicious (If Bret gets DQ’d, he will lose the WCW Title)
• Chris Benoit vs. Jeff Jarrett (Triple Threat Theatre, Best Of Three Series: Dungeon Match (no ropes), Bunkhouse Brawl (come as you are), Caged Heat)
• Vampiro w/ The Misfits vs. David Flair w/ Crowbar & Daffney
• Perry Saturn vs. Jerry Flynn (The Block, even though Tony just said it’s Tank vs. Jerry.)

Four announced matches, zero of them would happen. Six if you count Triple Count Theatre.

Heenan slurs his words explaining Sid is worse than Goldberg because he doesn’t care about hurting people. Write your own joke.

Tony asks Bobby why he’s not talking shit about the production crew?

Heenan: They’re all here? You know what that means? Someone made bail.

That’s a good use of Tony, setting up a joke like he’s Johnny Carson.

Frankie Lancaster vs. Jerry Flynn

Mike Tenay calls Frankie “The Lumper” which thankfully doesn’t appear on his chyron. He looks like AI YouTube Thumbnail of Hogan.

Tenay says Frankie has the advantage because the match is taking place in the ring and not The Block. Weird having a jobber match for Flynn after we just saw him get beat up by the entire nWo and Tank. Especially when he was technically face against Bret? He misses a spin kick so Lancaster lands a multi-kick combo with Flynn yelling Luger-style after every strike. “Aaaah!!”

Flynn rolls to the outside so the crowd chant “Jerry Sucks!” as this crowd hates this karate guy who moves like Frankenstein. Frankie sells a simple shot to the face by walking on his knees like he’s been shot and is slowly dying. Flynn is doing nothing but strikes but the crowd is booing the life out of him. It helps Frankie is selling like his life is on the line. Flynn misses a high kick in the corner (“aaahh!!”) so Frankie can backdrop Flynn. Jerry comes back with a belly-to-belly (a wrestling move!) and a spin kick ends it at 3:28.

Winner: Jerry Flynn (Flynn was staggeringly limited but crowd loved booing him so well done. Frankie was very animated in his selling.)

Hardcore Match

Disorderly Conduct (Mean Mike & Tough Tom) vs. The Hardcore Soldiers (Knobbs and Fit Finlay)

Jabroniville‘s favourite C-grade WCW team!

Tenay announces the “Four the Hardway” match involving Knobbs for Souled Out. I guess Tony was only allowed to announce matches that weren’t happening.

This was during the time when Finlay took Knobbs under his wing as a hardcore guy because Knobbs was the reason Finlay was out injured for months. I think that was because of the Junkyard Match? Unsure. I think they got shoved together because WCW had no clue what to do with either of them, and they both had mid-life crisis spiky hair.

Knobbs brings a laundry bag full of weapons with him but as he enters the ring, he’s immediately set upon by Disorderly Conduct because he slid under the ropes directly at them. Ha! I liked the visual of DC ignoring all the weapons being thrown in to knacker Knobbs. Finlay saves with a kendo stick before dumping Mean Mike outside. This turns into your typical WCW hardcore match where everyone spams bin shots but the crowd is really into it. Tough Tom takes bin lids to the back of the head really well so it’s his own fault. Tom gets thrown outside and nearly lands in the laundry bin so Knobbs throws a bin on him. Finlay kicks Mike in the cock and balls, enabling Knobbs to land a bin-assisted splash off the second rope to win at 2:28.

Winners: The Hardcore Soldiers (Hey these matches are inoffensive when they only last two and a half minutes.)

Back in the studio, Tony announces the match Tenay already announced. Heenan tries to sell Triple Threat Theatre which segues into a rant about his ex-wife. It throws off Tony so much he says “what were we talking about?” and that’s how this episode ends.

Heenan: She used to sweat a lot.

Overall: Highlights only with exclusive D-level matches is the best way to watch 2000 WCW, thank you for asking. Right now, the new nWo look credible and Tank Abbott looks like a threat. Almost a big a threat as Russo but that’s a matter for next week.

Swerves so far: One (Steiner joins nWo)

Next week: The One The Day Before Souled Out. Oh boy.