WCW Worldwide 01/29/00

WCW Worldwide 01/29/00 – The One Where They Have To Talk About Souled Out

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

Bobby and Tony start with a desk filled with various toys and videos to disguise the fact that we had a THQ cup on the show last week. There’s also a Kevin Nash standee looming in the corner. After being told it will be here every week, Bobby salutes it and tells off Tony for going down on one knee in front of it before the show.

Anything else is happening? Oh that’s right, Bret Hart had to vacate that little title of his.

It all started when WCW was told officially late Thursday or early Friday that Hart’s doctor had diagnosed his severe migraines and inability to focus as the result of a severe concussion and not only ruled out wrestling on the PPV, but even flying in for television this week or doing any lifting this week. Hart was hopeful of being able to fly in for the Los Angeles/Las Vegas tapings on 1/24 and 1/25, but he wouldn’t be able to wrestle at those shows. He was scheduled for another exam this week to determine an estimated time he’d be medically cleared to wrestle but it was believed to be three weeks minimum. As shown on the PPV, it is believed the concussion stemmed from the Starrcade match on 12/19 when Goldberg kicked him extremely hard with a side kick, although Hart also took a bad hit when Goldberg didn’t hold his leg while he executed the figure four around the post, causing the back of his head to crash on the floor while executing the move. Hart had continued to wrestle since that point, but was not himself, and recognized days later he had a concussion but kept working not realizing how severe it was until seeing a doctor about it on Thursday morning.

We get still photos of Chris Benoit tapping out Sid Vicious for the WCW World Heavyweight Title even though Sid’s foot was under the ropes as a precautionary measure in case Benoit decided to leave the company after telling everyone he was going to do just that.

Oh on Nitro, special guest ref Arn Anderson admits he missed the foot under the rope. Lengthy promo to sum up the situation but God love Arn for putting his whole arse into something everyone knew was a cover story at this point. Bobby sells it by reading the Nitro Girls calendar.

Heenan: Never admit to anything!

Oh also Terry Funk lost to Kevin Nash so Nash is the new commissioner, even though the nWo do what they want anyway. Bobby plays with the talking Nash action figure to annoy Tony.

On Nitro, Commissioner Nash addresses “the sea of underachievers” (the entire locker room) and puts the U.S. Title back on Jarrett. Jeff would simply hold the belt until his concussion wore off. It’s still counted as separate reigns. Nash doesn’t have a plan for the WCW World Title yet but assures everyone that the nWo is running things! Again!

On Thunder, Terry Taylor (looking a lot like Jerry Springer) announces on next Nitro we will be crowning a new champion. Taylor picks Sid to take on an opponent of Nash’s choosing. Crowd demands Goldberg but he’s still injured, so Nash picks Jarrett for Sid to pass the test, and if he wins he’ll get Nash for the belt. But Jeff is still injured so I don’t think it happened that way.

Tony: There is a trainwreck a-coming.

Heenan can’t decide on who to suck up to so Tony goes to commercial.

We’ve got brand new WCW Tag Team Champions, with David Flair & Crowbar losing to The Mamalukes…on Thunder? That’s bad. I think this was too much too soon for the Mamalukes, they’d get far more over later on in the year. Crowbar is pushed out of an O’Connor Roll and ends up in David’s crowbar (object) and that’s somehow enough for the titles in a finish that the crowd don’t pop for.

Heenan: Disco could go down as the second greatest manager of all time.

Tony looks at all the merchandise and reminds us all we’ll be seeing new stuff every week. Oh, someone *definitely* had a word after seeing the THQ cup from last week.

We move onto Oklahoma beating Madusa for the once-proud WCW Cruiserweight Title because we need to fit Russo’s quota for men on women violence.

Oh and then on Thunder, Oklahoma vacated the title rather than put anyone over to stamp a foot on the Cruiserweight division forever. He attempts to put over the “deserving men” in the back who should be holding this instead of him and comes across like he’s face, even as he’s still occasionally doing the “J.R. face” in his promos. No-one reacts.

And then Madusa shows up and someone in WCW must have hated her as they leave in the bit where she stumbles over her lines. That would never happen in WWF. Sherri Martel of all people shows up to a lovely “hey it’s Sherri!” pop before attacking Madusa. None of the match is shown, but she’d lose to Madusa and then to Mona and then be gone.

Tony asks Bobby about what he just saw and Heenan pretends to not know so Tony can re-explain it for the fans but that was the wrong comedy style for that, because I imagine plenty of people *did* zone out watching that recap. I struggled and I’ve got notes in front of me rather than the bottle of Thunderbird Heenan is using as reference.

When we come back from break, Bobby complains about the size of his cup which is comedically small. Oh that Bobby.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Kid Romeo

Chavo heads out with a briefcase full of hair spray and tries to sell some to Charles. He actually does, as Tenay explains Chavo’s gimmick is a MLM guy.

No memory of Chavo being an Avon lady, no wonder he was happy to join MIA.

Kid Romeo would make an impact at the very end of the year, when it was too late to mean anything. The lights go out and he dances with glow sticks, similar to Steve Blackman’s titantron. Crowd likes it.

Romeo lands a spinning wheel kick so he can armbar Chavo. Hudson says “well we have to choose between Oklahoma as champ and no champ at all.” Tenay thinks that’s an easy choice. Again, this is the Cruiserweight title we’re talking about. Chavo suplexes Romeo onto the top rope but changes his mind/Romeo didn’t help with the spot so Chavo dumps him in the middle rope for a dropkick instead. Tenay talks about “our sister promotion in the Orient, NJPW” running the Super J Cup so WCW should do a tournament too, name-dropping Ohtani and Liger. You can’t name those guys and then hold a tournament and have it won by TAFKA Prince Iaukea.

Romeo kind-of-but-not-really lands a DDT out of a TKO with Romeo wondering if he should be on top or not. Out of revenge for that messy spot, Chavo hits a Tornado DDT for the win seconds later and makes sure to put some stink on it. They called him Romeo because he died horribly in the end.

Tracy Smothers vs. Barbarian

What the- Tracey Smothers was here in 2000???

According to cagematch, this is a one-off. This is one of Barbarian’s seven televised matches this year, one of those “he’s on the books but we have no plans for him” guys.

Tracey claps to get the crowd into it, before using his youth and agility to flabbergast Barbarian. I love Tracey still acting like he’s in The Young Pistols. Tracey is flying around and bouncing off of O’Connor Roll reversals and roll-ups until Barbarian turns a hip toss into locked headbutts. Tracey makes a plucky rookie comeback with his dropkicks turning into enziguris depending on how Barbarian wanted to take it. Tracey lands an elbow off the top for two (but looked like a rubbish splash) before walking into the Kick Of Fear for the pin. Tracey was incredibly game here, God love him.

We close off in the studio with Heenan knocking over all the merch to find his mug.

Turns: Scott Steiner to nWo, David Flair turning on Arn Anderson.

Title Changes: Vacant Tag Titles won by David Flair & Crowbar, Bret vacates the WCW Title, Benoit wins vacant WCW Title, Benoit vacates WCW Title, Jarrett vacates the U.S. Title, Mamalukes win Tag Titles, Oklahoma wins Cruiserweight Title, Oklahoma vacates Cruiserweight Title.

Men On Women Violence: nWo 2000 kidnapping Daffney, Stevie vs. Midnight, Oklahoma beating Madusa.

Overall: Still behind the times and with a limited run-time we couldn’t cover all the other crazy shenanigans such as oh I don’t know: Russo being sent home for suggesting Tank Abbott win a battle royal to become the new world champ? Kevin Sullivan taking over from him? Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero, Saturn all being granted unconditional releases because of Mike Graham’s dumb ass comments? Shane Douglas and Konnan also being granted their released but not leaving because WWF doesn’t want them? Allegedly because Konnan rang up Titan Towers and was in character so no-one knew who the fuck was ringing up yelling “yo it’s the K-Dawg, Orale! Arriba la Raza!” Ric Flair’s return being brought forward? And etc etc, you get the idea.

I’ve been Maffew