Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WCW Great American Bash 2000

Happy Stinky Friday Everyone!

We’re back with another Stinker Review today, where we look at a show with a bad reputation and see if that reputation is deserved. Today’s topic/target is Great American Bash 2000, a show which enjoys a particularly naff 1.32 score over on Cage Match at the time of writing. WCW had essentially “rebooted” the promotion in April, starting a feud between the under-pushed New Blood group and the established Millionaires Club faction. Despite what the names might suggest, the hungry up and comers were the villains in this story whilst the greedy veterans who wouldn’t give up their spots were the heroes, because WCW.

Spring Stampede had been a decent enough show in a “throw a million things at the viewer and hope that some of it leaves an impression” style that Vince Russo is well-known for, and it looked like WCW’s new storyline direction might have had a chance of working. However, since then WCW had changed the World Title what seemed like hundreds of times, with even Scream actor David Arquette, better known as Deputy Dewey Riley, enjoying a World Title reign (no, I’m not making that part up) and most of WCW’s positive momentum had ebbed away.

One positive for WCW was that Goldberg had finally returned to the promotion from a long injury layoff, but going into Great American Bash 2000 the company desperately needed both a good pay-per-view and a central storyline that fans actually wanted to invest in. Did they achieve that? Well, this show is under Stinker consideration for a reason, but let’s see if the “inmates” on Cage Match have been a little unfair.

You can view the full card for Great American Bash by clicking below;

WCW Great American Bash 2000 card

Great American Bash is emanating from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland on the 11th of June 2000

The show supposedly did an 0.19 pay per view buy rate and had a live attendance of just over 7000 fans

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden

Opening Match
WCW World Cruiserweight Title
Challenger: The Disco Inferno w/ The Filthy Animals (Juventud Guerrera, Konnan, Rey Mysterio Jr. & Tygress)
Vs
Champion: Lt. Loco w/ The Misfits In Action (Captain Rection, Corporal Cajun, Major Gunns & Major Stash)

Is that enough extras at ringside for everybody? The Filthy Animals were members of the New Blood at the time whilst MIA don’t really have any set allegiance and were basically chaotic neutral leaning chaotic good. MIA were all supposedly fired by Bischoff and Russo, so they came back with new wacky military pun names. Major Stash (Van Hammer) ended up complaining about being called Private Stash though, so they bumped him up to Major in order to appease him. No, I’m not making that up. I wish I was, but it’s WCW in 2000, so sadly we just need to accept reality and move on I’m afraid. For those who weren’t watching the product at the time, Loco is Chavo Guerrero Jr, Rection is Hugh Morrus, Cajun is Lash LeRoux and Gunns is adult entertainment star Tylene Buck during her brief foray into the grapple game.

Loco has brought a grenade with him, but Rection takes that away. How on Earth did he get that past the stringent Maryland athletic commission? Disco’s character at the time was that he was essentially too lame to be tagging with The Filthy Animals and eventually they’d kick him out of the group later in the year. They don’t get given a lot of time to work with here, so it’s all-action from the opening bell, with the gaggle of goobers at ringside for each wrestler trying to get involved. The wrestling itself is decent, but the crowd doesn’t really get that into it.

The Filthy Animals swarm Loco at one stage, which allows Disco to cut Loco off and work some heat. During the heat segment, “Pops” makes his way down to ringside. I don’t know if they called him that because he was supposed to be the dad of someone in MIA or if they just called him that because he was an elderly gentleman who hung out with the group. Anyway, Pops tries to put the moves on Tygress but gets shoved down by Konnan. This causes a distraction and allows Juventud to come into the ring and attack Loco whilst the referee is dealing with the madness outside the ring.

Loco manages to fend off Juventud, but turns around into the Chart Buster from Disco. However, before Disco can make the pin, Cajun comes into the ring and gives Disco a Chart Buster of his own before draping Loco on top of Disco for the win. The “Heels cheat first, so it’s okay for the Faces to cheat in reply” works well enough if it’s executed well, but that wasn’t really the case here and the crowd doesn’t really react. It didn’t help that the referee clearly saw Cajun dragging Loco on top of Disco for the pin and just let it slide.

5 Minutes

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: LT. LOCO
RATING: *

Thoughts: This was a bit of a mess. When they let the two men in the match just wrestle one another, it was okay. However, the abbreviated run time and the ridiculous overbooking with all the outside interference and whatever the Pops thing was supposed to be dragged it down for me. If the crowd had at least been going nuts for it all then that’s one thing, but they mostly sat on their hands throughout the bout and the finish didn’t seem to get over with them at all

The two factions fight after the match, with The Filthy Animals seeming to win that battle. Pops is still down on the floor following his shoving from Konnan, leading to Gunns giving Pops mouth to mouth resuscitation, which eventually leads to the randy old man trying to put the moves on her like this is a Carry On film or something.

Eric Bischoff has a lot of security and is worried about the possibility of Goldberg showing up.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews The Mamalukes (“Hey, it’s Pasians!!”) and they don’t seem to be sweating KroniK up next. Gene queries who the Hardcore Champ is, seeing as Vito is wearing the belt, but Vito blows that off and takes Johnny down to the ring with him.

Second Match
WCW World Tag Team Title #1 Contender Status
KroniK (Brian Adams & Bryan Clarke) Vs The Mamalukes (Big Vito & Johnny The Bull)

Vito and Johnny had recently helped Eric Bischoff win the Hardcore Title from Terry Funk, leading to Sleazy E awarding them the championship and allowing them to decide which of the pair would officially hold it. This led to Vito essentially declaring himself champion and everyone just going along with it, because it was WCW in 2000 and there was already so much nonsensical silliness going on that a bloke randomly declaring himself Hardcore Champ was just an average Sunday at this point. KroniK had initially returned to WCW at Spring Stampede as henchmen for the New Blood, but they got angry at Vince Russo delaying them a promised Tag Title shot and switched allegiances to the Millionaires Club.

Vito decides to wear the belt whilst wrestling here, which you could make your Created Wrestlers do on the WWF War Zone game. Johnny was still pretty green at this stage in his career, but he had a good physique and impressive athletic ability, so it was certainly worth giving him a chance. Vito was an experienced campaigner by this stage in his career, so the dynamic between Vito and Johnny worked well, with the veteran brawler helping the athletic youngster learn his trade. KroniK mostly stick to slugging away on their opponents and doing power moves, which works for them and they could have an entertaining match in the right setting.

Johnny spends most of the early sections of the match getting beaten up by KroniK, which makes sense as Johnny can take some nice bumps for their offence. Eventually Brian Adams takes a cheap shot from Vito, and that leads to The Mamalukes working him over for a bit. Adams soon shrugs that off though and nearly kills Vito with a prototypical version of the F-5. The way Adams did it looked more like a head drop move, kind of like the Burning Hammer, rather than Brock Lesnar’s version of throwing an opponent onto their front. That could have been a stylistic choice from Adams or the move could have just gone awry. Vito eventually decides that he’d rather shine up his Hardcore belt than keep wrestling, which means that poor Johnny ends up getting doubled on by KroniK and pinned.

9 Minutes

WINNERS: KRONIK
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: The crowd seemed a bit more into this than the opener, and there was the occasional impressive looking move thrown in there. The match just didn’t really flow all that well, with the storyline about Vito being distracted by his belt overshadowing everything else in the bout. Johnny took some nice bumps and the crowd seemed to like KroniK, but the match itself just felt flat. I think it would have been better to make this match five minutes whilst adding some time onto the opener so that they wouldn’t have had to rush through all the parts of their bout

We don’t get to see much of what happens between Vito and Johnny following that as it’s TOO THE BACK, where Pamela Paulshock is interviewing Diamond Dallas Page. DDP says that Mike Awesome isn’t going to be the career killer tonight, as DDP is motivated to pick up the win and he has something special for Awesome up next. This was an abbreviated promo from DDP but it did a decent job of him getting across how mad he was at the people who were ruining his life at the time.

Third Match
New Blood Vs Millionaires Club
Ambulance Match
“The Career Killer” Mike Awesome Vs Diamond Dallas Page w/ Kanyon

Awesome threw poor Kanyon off a cage back at Slamboree to seemingly end his career, so DDP is looking to avenge his buddy here. This came during a period where everyone close to DDP seemed to be betraying him, including former friend Eric Bischoff and even his wife Kimberley. That probably tells you everything you need to know about how trustworthy Kanyon is likely to prove here. For those not familiar with an Ambulance Match, the stipulation is that there are no rules and to win you have to beat your opponent up and trap them in the back of an ambo. They immediately head out to ringside here, which does at least make sense as this is supposed to be a violent grudge match between two people that hate one another, so it wouldn’t really make sense to expect arm drags and headlocks in that scenario.

Kanyon is sitting on the ramp in his wheelchair so that he can watch DDP avenge him here. They have a decent energetic brawl, with Awesome seemingly getting the better of it and giving DDP an Awesome Bomb through a table. It looks like some ringside attendants will wheel the defeated wrestler to the ambulance in this one, as DDP gets put on the stretcher following that and has to roll off it in order to stay in the match. Awesome continues working DDP over following that, with DDP selling it all well and Awesome’s offence looking good. Awesome misses a Splash from the top rope, which brings Kimberley down to ringside with a pipe. Kimberley knocks DDP down with the pipe, but that brings out Miss. Hancock (Stacy Keibler) who brawls to the back with Kimberley to take her out of proceedings.

Awesome tries an Awesome Bomb off the top following that, but DDP clocks him right in his Awesome groin in order to stop that and brings Awesome down off the top with the Diamond Cutter. Awesome looks to be defeated following that, but this brings out Eric Bischoff with a chair. Bischoff threatens to attack Kanyon with a chair, which leads to DDP saving his buddy. However, Kanyon shockingly turns on DDP and gives him a Diamond Cutter off the stage through a table, which allows Awesome to stick DDP in the ambo for the victory. So was Kanyon not actually injured after all or did he just recover and decide he wanted to betray his friend? Did Kanyon arrange to be thrown off the cage back at Slamboree in order to make his betrayal of DDP all the more painful? Am I giving too much thought to a storyline twist that Vince Russo probably wrote on a napkin at a diner at two in the morning?

10 Minutes

WINNER: MIKE AWESOME
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was an okay brawl with an unnecessary SWERVE attached at the end. Kanyon even ripped off his shirt to reveal a New Blood shirt underneath it for goodness sake! It just felt cliché by the end and DDP as the man who kept getting betrayed by people was already passe by this point. DDP would leave WCW television following this and wouldn’t return until the autumn, at which point this storyline was essentially forgotten outside of one match between Kanyon and DDP on a 2001 pay per view event

Fourth Match
Boot Camp Rules
“Perfection” Shawn Stasiak Vs GI Bro

Stasiak had been Meat in the WWF and was eventually released after secretly recording conversations with fellow wrestlers backstage, something WWF management took a very dim view of. WCW snatched him up though, which did make sense as he had a really good look and also the pedigree of being part of a wrestling family. Stasiak never really improved enough as an in-ring performer to become a truly useful part of either WCW or WWF/E’s roster though, with him having a bizarre rhyming gimmick in 2002 WWE before fading away from the mainstream. GI Bro is actually Booker T playing a military themed character, complete with Shawn Michaels WrestleMania XII styled zipline to take him down to the ring. The GI Bro character was actually surprisingly popular with a small number of my friends who were actually still watching WCW at the time, but Booker was respected by the fans as a serious contender prior to getting the gimmick and it made sense to drop it the following month when he started going after the World Title.

Stasiak was one half of the Tag Champs with Chuck Palumbo at the time, and has his own set of camo pants in order to mock GI Bro. According to the commentary team, a Boot Camp Match essentially means that you have to knock your opponent down for a ten count in order to win. Anything goes, so they head straight out to ringside and into the crowd. Bro’s work looks solid ( a weak chair shot aside because Stasiak won’t get his hands up and Bro doesn’t want to seriously hurt him) and Stasiak takes some nice bumps for him, so it’s a decent enough brawl. The crowd seems to like GI Bro, but Stasiak is so un-over that he’s practically under, which was a bit worrying for WCW considering that Stasiak was supposed to be a big prospect for the future for them. Stasiak eventually catches Bro with the Stun Gun (the move, not the item) and that leads to a heat segment.

Bro sells and bumps well during the heat, whilst Stasiak’s work is fine, if unremarkable. Some of Stasiak’s punches look a little loose, which isn’t ideal when you’re working a brawl based match, but his other work is generally decent, including a very nice clothesline from the top rope onto Bro at one stage. Bro keeps managing to get up before the count of ten and makes sporadic attempts to fight back. Sadly the crowd has seemingly lost interest in the bout since Stasiak took control of things. Some fans even start a faint “boring” chant at one stage, which Stasiak responds to by applying a chin lock. Come on, a chin lock in a Last Man Standing bout?!

Bro thankfully makes his comeback after fighting out of said chin lock, popping the crowd with a Uranage Slam and heading up top for a nicely executed Missile Dropkick. This is the cue for Chuck Palumbo to run down to try and attack GI Bro with his “Lex-Flexer” in order to help his tag partner. Bro manages to fend off Palumbo, but that allows Stasiak to attack Bro with the Flexer. Despite Bro being a member of the MIA, none of them come to his aid here, meaning he has to make his own comeback before clocking Stasiak with the Lex-Flexer for the knock out. GI Bro essentially defeating the Tag Champs all by himself was an interesting booking decision I must say, but considering he would be the World Champ a month later it was good foresight to give him a big win here if WCW planned it that way.

12 Minutes

WINNER: GI BRO
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: This wasn’t terrible, it just went on a bit too long and the crowd didn’t really care about Stasiak. The Boot Camp stipulation probably didn’t help them either, as you need a good heated issue for folks to really get into a Last Man Standing styled bout. It felt like they added the 10 count stip just for the sake of it here, as this didn’t feel like a big feud that needed a big gimmick match to blow it off. If they’d given them 6-8 Minutes and had them work a regular match, this possibly could have gotten over a bit better with the live crowd. I do kind of question the booking a bit too. Stasiak and Palumbo were hardly great wrestlers at the time, but having them both get walloped by GI Bro there didn’t really help with making them look like future stars in waiting or deserving Tag Champs. I suppose I shouldn’t complain because it at least gave GI Bro a battling win against the odds, but he could have done that against two other Heels who weren’t the World Tag Team Champions

Mean Gene Okerlund wants to know why Kanyon turned on Diamond Dallas Page. Kanyon says that Eric Bischoff got in his ear when he was injured in the hospital and convinced him to betray DDP. Footage is shown of DDP climbing out of the ambulance, showing that he still has some fight left in him. In the background of that footage though we also see that the Goldberg Monster Truck is in the car park, suggesting that Goldberg will appear later on.

Fifth Match
Three out of Five Falls Tables Match
The Franchise Vs The Wall

Gee, do you think we’ve got enough stipulations on this Great American Bash pay per view? It seems like every bout has had some kind of wacky gimmick going on thus far. If you load up your event with too many stipulation bouts, then stipulation bouts lose their specialness and don’t really mean anything anymore. This match came about because Franchise left Wall hanging in a tag match, so now Wall wants vengeance. Technically both of these two are New Blood members, although I’m not sure if Wall was still hanging around with the other NB members by this point and was just off beating up whoever got in his way. Franchise cuts a pre-match promo in the ring, doing his usual thing of inserting swear words for cheap heat. This was supposed to be a standard Tables Bout, but Franchise lays down the challenge for the extra tables and Wall seemingly agrees.

The commentary team seems a bit confused by the new rules, initially thinking that you have to put your opponent through five tables to win, when it sounds like you only need to put them through three. I can totally buy that the booking committee wouldn’t actually explain the rules properly to the commentary team prior to putting this one together though. Wall was kind of a generic slugger and Franchise was past his physical best by the time 2000 came along, but they have a solid enough slugfest in there. You can hear and see Franchise talking Wall through it at points, and it’s one of Franchises’ better in-ring efforts from this time period actually, as his offence has good snap to it and he takes some nice bumps for Wall in order to make him look suitably imposing. Franchise ends up taking the first table bump though, as Wall gives him a Choke Slam through a table at ringside to go 1-0 up.

No sooner has Franchise dragged himself up to his feet, then he’s flung through another table, giving Wall a 2-0 lead. Thankfully someone has passed a memo to the commentary team and they now know what the actual win modifier is in this one. One problem of having this sort of stipulation is that it essentially takes the sheen away from a table bump. Normally a table bump is one of the peaks of a bout and you only get to see one of them. Here going through a table has basically become a transition move, a point that displays itself when Franchise has to be up and wrestling again mere seconds after taking the second table bump, which makes a big spot look almost trivial. Franchise kicks Wall in both his East and West Berlin before fleeing to the entrance way, whilst Wall slowly stalks him like a slasher movie villain. There’s a helpful ladder set up next to a stack of tables. Franchise decides to climb the ladder for reasons unknown, and that of course leads to Wall climbing the other side with his back to the tables. I’m sure you’re already three steps ahead of me here, but Franchise manages to knock Wall off the conveniently placed ladder with a brass knuckle assisted punch and Wall falls through the stack of tables, thus giving Franchise the “miraculous” 3-2 win.

9 Minutes

WINNER: THE FRANCHISE
RATING: *

Thoughts: This actually wasn’t a terrible brawl, but the stipulation and ludicrous finish really took it down a level in my opinion. The finish might be one of the most contrived things I’ve seen, and think of the ground that covers! The crowd didn’t really care that much either, as the stipulation itself intrinsically minimised the effectiveness of the table bump. I do like the idea of Wall being this monstrous big man and Franchise needing to find a spectacular unexpected way to get him to go through the required tables, but there were better ways of doing it than this. There’s also a question as to whether Wall’s fall actually broke three tables. From looking at the replay I think it did, but the fact it wasn’t clear cut is just another example of why it was a dumb spot to do for the finish

In a funny bit after the match, Franchise starts talking trash to Wall but then flees once he sees Wall twitching. Referee Mark Johnson isn’t so lucky though and ends up taking a Choke Slam from the revived monster so that Wall can get his heat back.

Hulk Hogan shows up at the venue in his Hollywood Hogan attire, showing that he means business tonight. Hollywood having some kind of random conversation with himself as he enters the building makes him look suitably unhinged.

Sixth Match
Two On One Handicap Asylum Bout for the WCW United States Heavyweight Title
Challengers: Rick Steiner & Tank Abbott
Vs
Champion: “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner w/ Midajah & Shakira)

Scott Steiner was ostensibly a babyface at the time, after seemingly dumping the New Blood and aligning himself with the Millionaires Club and Kevin Nash. You’ll notice that the New Blood was barely two months old and they were already doing storylines where the group was falling apart and couldn’t get along. By comparison, the nWo had roughly a 6 month period where they were a united front that destroyed everyone in their path, at which point small cracks then started forming which slowly paid off over months of further storytelling. This was a regular problem with Vince Russo’s writing though, with alliances lasting about as long as the average lifespan of a flying ant, meaning it was nearly impossible to get invested in the storylines because there was a possibility that EVERYTHING would be different in a month’s time. Rick and Tank are seemingly doing the New Blood’s bidding here, but I don’t think either is an official member. The Asylum is a very small circular cage that fits into a normal wrestling ring, which gives the wrestlers very little room to work with.

This was Shakira’s last pay per view appearance in WCW, as Scott had just Midajah with him by the time Bash at the Beach 2000 came around. I’m surprised the WWF didn’t make a play for her at the time, as they were in the beginning stages of their “Diva” age and I think she would have fit in quite well during that period. This is initially supposed to be just Tank Vs Scott, but Eric Bischoff adds Rick to the bout just to stack the odds against Scott further. Scott spends the majority of the bout getting worked over, whilst The Freaks cheer him on from the apron. There’s not much to the bout really, and it doesn’t even last that long. Tank and Rick have a falling out when Tank tries to punch Scott with a chain, which gives Scott a chance to fight back and lock Tank in the Steiner Recliner for the submission win.

4 Minutes

WINNER: SCOTT STEINER
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: There wasn’t really much to rate there, as Scott barely got to do anything until they took it home. Scott was actually a surprisingly effective babyface in this role, and they could have maybe done more with him in that alignment, but they needed some strong Heels so I get why they switched him later in the summer

Ric Flair and his family, sans David Flair, arrive at the venue.

Mean Gene interviews Hollywood Hulk Hogan, who cuts the usual Hogan promo ahead of his match with Billy Kidman. If you like Hulk Hogan promos, then you’ll be happy with this.

Seventh Match
New Blood Vs Millionaires Club
Luchas de Apuestas
Special Referee: Horace Hogan
If Hulk Hogan wins then he gets a World Title shot at Bash at the Beach
If Hulk Hogan loses then he must retire
Billy Kidman Vs Hulk Hogan

Hogan had made some derogatory comments about Kidman earlier in the year, saying that Kidman couldn’t draw at a flea market and should thus stop complaining about his lack of upward momentum in the promotion. Kidman had of course gotten angry about this, leading to Kidman and Hogan having a violent confrontation on the first Nitro of the New Blood Era, setting up a feud between the two. Sadly for Kidman, the feud did very little for him as he often found himself getting pummelled every week by Hogan and only ever winning due to someone running in or Hogan slipping on a banana peel of some kind. Obviously Kidman was supposed to be the Heel in the feud, so some nefarious tactics were to be expected, but Hogan always made Kidman look like a lesser star whenever they worked together and Kidman was arguably less over once the feud was over than when it started. Hogan was ultimately less over as well, as you could just feel his star aura ebbing away the longer this insipid feud raged on.

Horace is the referee here after apparently turning on Hulk because Kidman’s girlfriend, Torrie Wilson, began a steamy affair with the younger Hogan. Kidman, understandably, wasn’t thrilled about this development, meaning all three participants now hated one another and Wilson’s loyalties were anybody’s guess. Hulk was also starting to do a thing at the time where he would “morph” into Hollywood Hogan when he decided he needed to get really violent, with the idea being that he almost had a split personality deal going on where Hulk Hogan was his good side and Hollywood Hogan was his evil side. Kind of like how Mick Foley would switch between the Faces of Foley when the situation called for it. As it’s Hollywood entering the ring tonight, we get the nWo theme and the black and white tie-dyed tights for Hulk here, which is admittedly quite cool.

Once the bell rings we get the usual Kidman Vs Hulk bout from this timeframe, which boils down to Hulk beating the cheese out of Kidman whilst Kidman has no answer for it. This one has a bit of a 1980’s House Show feel to it as well, with Hogan making goofy facial expressions and playing to the crowd whilst he clobbers Kidman both inside and outside of the ring. Kidman’s bumping and selling is good, as usual, so it’s not dull to watch but it does highlight why ultimately no one benefitted from this storyline. Kidman does some classic 1980’s wrestling villain shtick with things like eye gouges to try and get a little bit of offence in on the “Woodster”, and Horace actually calls the bout fairly and gives Kidman a 5 count when he blatantly cheats in front of him.

I normally quite like Scott Hudson, but he does get a dumb line about how Hulk is clearly in his Hollywood persona here because he’s using a closed fist, whilst Hulk Hogan never would. Err, Scott, Hogan’s entire finishing sequence during his babyface days was punching his opponent in the face with a closed fist before sending them off the ropes for a Big Boot. Kidman just can’t get any sustained offence in on Hulk here, with even a Van Daminator only buying him a few seconds. Kidman finally manages to keep Hogan down for a bit with a DDT onto a chair and a Splash from the top rope, but this is all done to lay the table for the Hulk Up routine, as Hogan starts no selling and making the comeback. The crowd at least enjoys seeing Hulk play the hits, so this section of the bout has some good atmosphere.

Kidman just continues getting battered, taking a hip toss through the announce table. Honestly, if the roles were reversed here, with Hulk being a bullying Heel and Kidman being a gutsy Face fighting from underneath, then this might actually be a decent match. However, Hulk is supposed to be the babyface and he’s given Kidman basically NOTHING: here, so the match has felt like an elongated squash with no real dramatic hook. Part of being a good babyface is being able to sell and make your opponent look like a genuine threat, so that when you fight back it makes the bout dramatically satisfying. Hulk knows that because he worked matches with that in mind to great effect for years. Obviously Kidman can’t be beating Hulk up the same way a Hercules, Kamala, Orndorff or Bundy would, but they could have definitely found a way for Kidman to use speed and cunning to put Hulk believably on the backfoot and work some heat.

Torrie Wilson heads down to ringside following the hip toss and seemingly wants to pass Hulk some brass knuckles. However, Kidman knocks Hulk into Wilson to send her down to the floor, which distracts Horace and allows Kidman to punch Hulk with the knucks for the two count. I think they could have told a story point there that Horace delayed his count because he wanted to make sure Wilson was okay, which would have played into the idea that he was smitten on her and also would give Kidman an out for not winning because there was a delay. We’re past the point of actually trying to protect Kidman at this point though so I’m not surprised that they didn’t go with that. Kidman gets annoyed with Horace trying to call the match fairly and clocks him with the knucks as well, which brings Wilson in to clock Kidman right in his Shooting Star Press. This allows Hulk to clock Kidman with a knucks assisted punch and that’s the three count.

12 Minutes

WINNER: HULK HOGAN
RATING: **

Thoughts: Kidman was bumping his backside off in order to get this one over, and the crowd did seem to like Hulk Hogan so they were happy with the finish. However, Hulk seemed to have this one in neutral for the most part, giving House Show effort and essentially squashing Kidman for the majority of the bout. This ultimately made the contest quite dull to watch, even if the actual action in the ring wasn’t bad. If you make the villain look ineffective then vanquishing him doesn’t really mean much. Hulk probably had a harder time getting the lid of his jar of Creatine than he did polishing off Kidman here, and it left the match feeling empty and unimportant. Considering that Hulk’s career was supposedly on the line here, this one was seriously lacking in dramatic gravitas

Eric Bischoff yells at a cop and is worried about Goldberg, I’d be more worried about Vince McMahon trying to buy WCW out from under you in a few months there Sleazy E…

Pamela Paulshock interviews Vince Russo and David Flair, who are confident that Ric Flair is going to lose and be retired tonight.

Mean Gene is interviewing Ric Flair elsewhere, and Ric is fired up about keeping his career alive. Flair had a tonne of energy here, so if you like classic Ric Flair promos then you’ll enjoy this.

Eighth Match
New Blood Vs Millionaire’s Club
Luchas de Apuestas
If Ric Flair loses then he must retire
David Flair w/ Vince Russo Vs “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair

The storyline here was that David was bitter at Ric, thinking that Ric had always cared more about his other children than David, which had allowed Russo to ingratiate himself to the younger Flair as the father figure that David felt he had never had. Russo may have been a patchy writer, but as a performer he was very entertaining in this role, especially on an occasion where David, Russo and Daffney had headed to Ric’s house and stolen some of Ric’s property. The visit to the family home was the final straw for Ric, as he challenged David to a match here at Great American Bash and even put his career on the line to get it. In one of the last great promos of his WCW career, Ric had yelled at David that here at the Bash he wouldn’t be wrestling his dad, he’d be wrestling Ric Flair, and that nothing would make David feel any higher than wrestling Ric Flair. The Flair’s are at ringside for this one, including a young Charlotte, who looks pretty awkward about being there.

This might possibly be the best match that David Flair ever had in his career, as he seems genuinely fired up to wrestle against his dad on pay per view and Ric does a good job holding the bout together. David Flair was actually a pretty effective crazy guy at one stage of his WCW career and there did look to be some potential there with him. However, WCW rushed David into the ring way before he was ready and his burgeoning career never really recovered from it. However, here at Great American Bash, David plays his part in an entertaining match. Ric mostly gets the better of things, with David getting the occasional flurry, but Russo ends up clocking Ric with a baseball bat, which allows David to take over. Ric also has his hands handcuffed together at one stage, leading to him taking even more of a pummelling.

It’s interesting watching this one in contrast to the previous Kidman Vs Hogan match, as Ric is doing everything he can here to make David look good, and it’s certainly improved the match overall. Granted, Ric is working in there with his son, so you’d expect him to be a tad more generous than Hogan was with his opponent. Russo keeps interfering in the match, which causes David’s brother Reid to leap over the railings to ringside and clock Russo right in his Statue of Liberty before getting the handcuff keys and passing them to referee Charles Robinson. Robinson uncuffs Ric, who passes the cuffs to Charlotte so that she can handcuff Russo outside the ring. With Russo now neutralised, Ric is able to rally and eventually locks David in the Figure Four for the submission victory.

10 Minutes

WINNER: RIC FLAIR
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: Considering how green David was, and how difficult it was for him to work even a basic match during this timeframe, Ric essentially carried him to a good bout here. The crowd was certainly very pro-Ric and this was the most invested the audience had been all night. Ric Flair may have sullied his legacy due to his real-life actions and controversies over the years, but even in the dog days of 2000 WCW he could still be relied upon to turn in a pay per view quality effort when the need arose. Ric was part of some of the best matches of all-time in his prime days, but coaxing such a watchable contest out of someone as limited as David was almost equally as impressive

Russo threatens revenge on Ric following the bout, which ended up leading to Ric having his head shaved on Nitro and then going away for a bit.

Ninth Match
New Blood Vs Millionaire’s Club
Human Torch Bout
Vampiro Vs Sting

Vamp and Sting had been aligned as “The Brothers in Paint” but Vampiro had then stuck a knife in the back of his former ally to join the New Blood. This led to a very 50/50 style feud, with the pair constantly one-upping one another. The problem was that nothing ever seemed to stick. Sting would pin Vampiro, only for Vampiro to set Sting’s car on fire. Sting would batter Vampiro with a baseball bat, only for Vampiro to drench Sting in fake blood and hang him from the arena rafters. Eventually the constant trading of revenge attacks robbed the rivalry of any real momentum. A much more effective feud would have been Vampiro getting a series of dirty wins and always just escaping when it looked like Sting might get revenge, with it building to Sting finally destroying Vamp in a big gimmick match to give the fans a true sense of catharsis. The two reportedly didn’t get along particularly well behind the scenes, and Vampiro has since suggested that this made it difficult for the feud to develop in the way it perhaps should have. Whether or not that directly affected the booking is open to debate, but the rivalry never really managed to build sustained momentum. As a result of Vamp setting Sting’s car on fire on an episode of Nitro, we’ve got a human torch match here, where you have to set your opponent on fire to win.

Sting demands that the two have to climb to the top of the Turner-Tron to get the titular torch here, which Vampiro is seemingly really angry about for some reason. The commentary team posits that Vamp is afraid of heights, but I’m not sure whether that was an established aspect of his character at any point prior to this event. Sting gets the better of Vamp in the ring to start, but he misses a Stinger Splash and that leads to Vamp dousing him in some kind of flammable liquid. Tony Schiavone gets the line of the night on commentary at one stage here by saying “I’m not so sure anybody wants to see this”. Now Tony means that he doesn’t think the fans are barbaric enough to actually want to see someone set on fire, but it’s a statement that could easily be applied to other parts of this event. Sting and Vampiro do eventually fight to the top of the Tron, even after Sting takes a tumble off the side onto a gimmicked part of the staging. When they both finally make it up there, Sting switches out with a stuntman and said stuntman ends up getting lit ablaze before tumbling off the Tron and being doused with fire extinguishers.

7 Minutes

WINNER: VAMPIRO
RATING: DUD

Thoughts: This was absolutely awful. They had a nondescript brawl and then followed it up with a silly finish, where it was clear that Sting had switched places with someone, even with the lightning sounds and flickering lights atop the Tron in order to try and disguise it. Pro Wrestling can be an inherently silly thing sometimes, but this was dumb even for everyone’s favourite pseudo-sport. You don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel. Sometimes you can just have people wrestling in wrestling matches in order to settle issues and you don’t need wacky stipulations that involve people getting set on fire

The commentary team do their serious “someone is really hurt” voice as a gaggle of staff attend to “Sting”, which would only to serve to make people think the next real injury was phony.

Main Event
New Blood Vs Millionaires Club
WCW World Heavyweight Title
Champion: “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett
Vs
Challenger: “The Sexecutioner” Kevin Nash

Jarrett won the Title back at Slamboree 2000, but then subsequently went on to lose it to Ric Flair. Flair then did an injury angle, leading to the belt getting held up and Jarrett defeating Nash for it on Nitro. Nash then went on to defeat Jarrett for the belt on the following episode of Thunder. When Nash won it from Jarrett, he voluntarily gave it up to Flair, because Flair had never dropped the belt in the ring, only for Jarrett to then beat Flair to win the belt yet AGAIN. And this is only a FRACTION of the numerous World Title changes WCW had in 2000. Flair went off to have the previously mentioned feud with his son David, which left Nash as Jarrett’s opponent here for Great American Bash. Goldberg had only recently returned as a butt kicking babyface and it had injected a much needed bit of energy into the product. The expectations were that he’d show up here in some form, possibly to help Nash win, seeing as Jarrett losing World Title matches was the norm by this stage.

Eric Bischoff had been promising an Earth shattering surprise in the build up to the show, something so shocking in fact that it would supposedly turn the wrestling world on its head and even Vince McMahon couldn’t do anything about it. However, just before this match he tells Pamela Paulshock that the surprise is off because he’s too busy dealing with Goldberg possibly showing up to the venue. Once again WCW has deemed it necessary to bring in Michael Buffer to do the ring introductions here, even though the company was starting to bleed money by this stage and it’s not like Buffer was adding much to these shows. Do you think Michael Buffer talks in his announcer voice in real life? Does his wife ask him what he wants for breakfast, only for him to respond “The ongoing battle continues. Who will enter my belly this morning? Will it be eggs or will it be bacon? Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, let’s get ready to SCRAMBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEE!!!!!!!!!”

Anyway, Heel commissioner Ernest Miller decides to stack the deck against Nash by bringing down The Filthy Animals to play the role of corrupt officials. Konnan comes down to ringside to be the bell ringer, Rey Mysterio Jr is the timekeeper, Disco Inferno is the belt lookerafterer and Juventud Guerrera is the ring announcer. Miller then finishes this off by announcing himself as the special referee/enforcer. You can sure tell that Vince Russo was involved with WCW at the time can’t you? He loves this sort of stuff and used it regularly during his time in the WWF. When you’re so out of ideas that you start ripping yourself off it’s possibly time to take a step away from the creative process.

Mark Madden trying to get “Sexecutioner” over as a nickname for Kevin Nash ended in failure I believe, like when Michael Cole was desperately trying to get Los Guerreros over as “Jackals” in 2002 until finally giving up. Jarrett has a big elbow pad on his right arm, which wasn’t a regular part of his ring attire. Based on that, and how many wacky dangerous gimmick matches he was getting booked in at the time, there’s a chance that the elbow pad is there to hide/protect an injury. Many wrestling fans complain about Jeff Jarrett being a World Title contender, but he was a good in-ring worker in his day and was usually reliable. He’s just a step below what a guy in the top Heel role would need to be. Whatever intangible the likes of a Triple H or Ted DiBiase had in their day, Jarrett is just lacking, which is why he’s never really worked as a top guy in a major promotion despite being talented once the bell rings. As a result, this match isn’t bad at all, as Jarrett bumps around and sells for the bigger Nash whilst having all the Heels run interference for him.

The fight quickly heads into the crowd, because it’s a Main Event in the year 2000, and that leads to The Filthy Animals attacking Nash when the brawl heads back down to ringside. This allows Jarrett to cut Nash off for the heat segment, although it didn’t help with the perception of Jarrett as the top Heel that he was getting clobbered so easily by Nash and needed help from his buddies just to put Nash on the defensive. Jarrett targets Nash’s leg with a chair back inside the ring, which is allowed as this was during a period where WCW had “relaxed rules”. This essentially meant that hitting someone with a weapon in the middle of the match would only be a DQ if the storyline required it to be. If you want consistency in match rules then WCW 2000 isn’t the product for you I’m afraid.

Jarrett continues to work the leg over, with Nash selling it well for the most part, and Jarrett eventually hooks on the Figure Four Leg Lock. Nash is trapped in the hold for a while but finally makes the ropes, only for Konnan to hit him with ring bell so that Jarrett can sneakily claim a two count. Nash makes the comeback following that and gets a Side Slam for two, which leads to The Filthy Animals just outright climbing into the ring to attack the challenger. Nash manages to fight the lackeys off and clocks Jarrett with the Title belt, but Disco attacks the ref before the three count can be completed.

All the Heels swarm Nash after that and this allows Jarrett to roll on top for a fast two count from Miller. That kick out got a bit of a pop at least, as Nash is fighting off outrageous odds and is actually doing a decent job at it. Overbooking this way is a pretty cheap way of getting a pop, but I can’t deny that it usually always works provided you do it right, and they’ve been mostly doing it right here. Jarrett tries to break another guitar, and continue to not to draw a dime in the process, but Nash catches him with a Choke Slam, only for Miller to “get something in his eye” so that he can’t count. I believe the same happened to Pierluigi Colina when Athletic Bilbao played Everton in that Champions League qualifier back in 2005.

Nash disposes of Miller and then preps for the Power Bomb on Jarrett, managing to get it in the middle of the ring, but Rick Steiner now runs down to attack Nash, along with Tank Abbott. Scott Steiner continues to play the unusual role of gallant babyface by charging down to help his buddy and drag Abbott to the back, but that still leaves Nash facing close to 6 against 1 odds back in the ring. Thus we finally get an appearance by Goldberg in his monster truck, as he rushes down to the ring to send the Heels scurrying for a big pop. However, because WCW liked swerving people around this time in order to get them talking, they have Goldberg deliver a Spear to Nash, turning Heel in the process. Jarrett crawls over for the pin and gets the three count to retain his belt. Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff then step out of Goldberg’s truck, revealing that Earth shattering surprise was Goldberg’s Heel turn.

16 Minutes

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: JEFF JARRETT
RATING: **

Thoughts: At points this match was a little bit sloppy, but it ultimately achieved its aims of getting the crowd behind Nash by just throwing ridiculous odds at him until the crowd wanted to see him overcome them and prevail in the end. It wasn’t a terrible bout in-ring, but it wasn’t especially good either. Jarrett is a good hand between the ropes and Nash was decent when he put the effort in, but I never really felt like these two had much in the way of chemistry as opponents. Goldberg’s Heel turn ended up being a failure and he was back to being a babyface by the time autumn rolled around. Goldberg actually had a sound motive for his Heel turn, which was that he was bitter that WCW fans were now cheering former nWo members like Nash and Scott Hall when those people had done so much to harm WCW. It was a logical reason for a heroic wrestler to turn to the dark side, as it allowed Goldberg to believe he was morally justified in his actions. However, WCW fans didn’t want to boo Goldberg. He’d be away injured for months and fans wanted to see him come in and crush the Heels whilst they cheered along. Having the promise of that snatched away from them only served to turn more fans away, and even when they course corrected by turning Goldberg back some of the shine had been taken away from him along the way. Goldberg as a Heel could have worked, but this was the wrong time to do it and it ended up being one of WCW’s more infamous misfires at a time when they couldn’t really afford any

Is It Really A Stinker?

Oh my goodness, YES!

Great American Bash ticked basically every box in regards to what you wouldn’t want from a major wrestling pay per view. Little to none good wrestling, an unenthused crowd, bad storytelling, overbooked nonsense in basically every match and a big SWERVE at the end that sent the crowd home miserable and just further eroded interest in the product. Nearly every match was saddled with an unnecessary stipulation, which ultimately made none of the stipulations feel special. This was a show where supposedly both Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair could have had their careers ended if they lost, but it did a miserable buy rate and neither match really had the sort of drama that a match like that should have had. Stipulations are supposed to enhance a match or make a crowd more invested, but that wasn’t the case in any of the stip matches here.

The only stipulation that I felt justified its presence was the Ambulance Match, as at least that made narrative sense because DDP wanted to hospitalise the man who supposedly ended his friend’s career, whilst the Heels wanted to end DDP’s career as well. I’ll allow that one. But why was Stasiak Vs Bro a Boot Camp Match? Why did Tank Vs Steiner have to be in the Asylum and not just a standard cage match where they could have actually had some space to have a proper match? Why did we need to have a Human Torch match when they easily could have written Sting off for a month with something like coffin match or whatever? At least then you’d have the visual metaphor of Vamp trying to bury Sting’s career and take his spot as the face painted star of WCW’s product.

Great American Bash just highlighted the numerous issues that WCW had at the time. The New Blood Vs Millionaire’s Club was already essentially out of juice just two months after it started, with the group all but disbanded by the end of the summer. Hulk Hogan had no interest in really making any of the New Blood look good, with perhaps the exception of Mike Awesome who he would actually sell for on occasion. The match with Kidman was symptomatic as to why the storyline wasn’t working. Ric Flair was still over and could still have a good match, but he was about to be written off of TV. Jeff Jarrett was trying his best, but he was often presented as a weak champion and he needed help from Goldberg to sneak away with his belt here. The undercard was lacking the high level of workers that it had previously had, and the talented workers, such as the two in the opener, were often put in silly short overbooked matches that prevented them from delivering on their talent.

Ultimately, WCW was a mess around this time and Great American Bash was a good example as to why.

Final Score – Stinker
(Scores done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)