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Episode 42: Spring Stampede 2000
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The stagecoach keeps on rolling, but the end of the trail approaches...as WCW Spring Stampede 2000 looms. Ironically, the final Spring Stampede brings a new beginning for WCW as they establish all new champions in a whole slew of tournaments. Plus...Norman Smiley vs. Terry Funk, because we love that pairing so much. DDP vs. Jeff Jarrett for the World Title...and revenge. And, at least seven quintillion cruiserweights pile into the ring for a supposed six-man match! For all this and more...let's go to the ring!
Music by Michael Gary Brewer at https://www.instantmusicnow.com/
Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/letsgo2thering , or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LetsGo2theRing/
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Transcript
Scott Hall's Legacy in Wrestling
00:00:00
Speaker
On March 14, 2022, Scott Hall passed away. He was 63 years old. With a multi-decade career in professional wrestling that spanned the NWA, AWA, New Japan, WWF, WCW, TNA, and more, Hall's talent in the ring and tremendous charisma made him an absolute superstar.
00:00:28
Speaker
He was central to both the WWF and WCW in the 1990s especially, as Razor Ramon in the former and as a founding member of the NWO in the latter. With his shocking appearance to declare war on WCW on Nitro to kick off the NWO angle on May 27, 1996, Hall was one of a very few people who could truly claim to have changed the direction of the wrestling business.
00:00:56
Speaker
He will be dearly missed by his friends and family, and by his many fans. We pray for peace and comfort for those he leaves behind. May they share in the joy of his memory.
Introduction to the Podcast
00:01:42
Speaker
Hello everyone, and welcome to Let's Go to the Ring, where we take a look at the good old days, and not so good old days, like tonight, of World Championship Wrestling, series by series. I'm your host Bob Moore, and here to challenge me for the World Championship Podcasting title while also being half of the tag champs with me is Alec Bridget.
00:02:07
Speaker
Al, no matter how our match turns out, I just want you to know that I value your friendship and I won't hit you with a chair shot to the face. I'll go for the back. It's easier to ambush you that way. I appreciate your honesty. And your practicality. It is very practical. It is, yeah. Tonight, we are taking a look at Spring Stampede 2000 Stomp of Approval.
00:02:32
Speaker
Well, this show may make you want to stomp something, so it's half right at least. This may be more a group therapy session than a review. Yeah, probably.
Spring Stampede 2000 Attendance Issues
00:02:45
Speaker
Spring Stampede 2000 was held on April 16, 2000 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, in front of a very much not sold out crowd of 12,556. 8,377 paid.
00:03:01
Speaker
The United Center is recorded as holding between 19,000 and 23,500, depending on the event. So we are well, well, well below full. And this isn't one of the shows like the previous ones where they have all this elaborate stage dressing and stuff in front. No. And actually, in this case, we have some evidence of what the crowd could be for a wrestling show specifically as the WWF sold out the same arena for SummerSlam 1994. Oh, OK.
00:03:31
Speaker
That's the Undertaker versus Under Faker show, of all things. Yeah. And that was recorded at twenty three thousand. OK. So, yeah, WSW missed selling out by over 10,000 people. Yeah, I was. If you get paid, so it was eight thousand something, right? Yeah, yeah. Only only eight thousand actually pay. So they sold what, 33 percent of the building, roughly eight thousand out of possibly twenty three thousand. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. About that. That's not good.
Pay-Per-View Decline for WCW
00:04:01
Speaker
Spring Stampede 2000 earned 100,000 pay-per-view buys. That's about 120,000 less than last year. Yeah, it's one of the things that comes up we really don't address, which is that you say 100,000. That sounds like a lot. But again, you have to put it in context of, you said it was 220,000 last time. Yeah, WCW's highest show ever, I believe, is Starrcade 97, which is like 650,000. Something big like that, yeah. This is less than a six of that. Right.
00:04:31
Speaker
Sadly, it is the highest amount of pay-per-view buys in 2000. Or 2001. Oof. Ouch. Only sold out in January gets even close at $95,000. And after Spring Stampede, WCW never even reaches $80,000 again. Oh man. Not to spoil anything, but I could certainly see this show being responsible for over 20,000 people deciding to never watch WCW pay-per-views again.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah, I could see the whole sort of car crash appeal of this as well, because the new owners and all this stuff is we're going to cover. So I could see it drawing more people than it might not. Maybe you might have drawn in before, but those people did not stick around. Right. Yeah, I think with the concept of it being like a reboot. Yes. I think you can see because of that it bringing in some more people. Yeah. But at least 20,000 people gave them a chance tonight and decided never to again. Yeah, that's not good. Yeah.
00:05:29
Speaker
But it can't be all bad, right? To find out, let's go to the ring.
WCW's New Blood vs Millionaire's Club
00:05:37
Speaker
So we cut back to the beginning of April 2000, when the company announced that a big change was coming. The April 3rd night show was a recap show, highlighting stories and feuds of the past. The stated reason was to prepare fans for what was come to remind them of the past to see the future.
00:05:56
Speaker
The unofficial reason and the real reason they did it was to set a low baseline rating. If you aren't wanting to watch clip shows, so then Bishar Russel will come back and it's like, wow, the ratings are twice as high as they were. That's been stated as true. So it's not conjecture. That is actually the point. Okay. The April 10th Nitro opens up with every WSW star except the real big ones.
00:06:20
Speaker
which is highlighted to be fair. Hang around the ring, some of which get their own intro. So many people, so not everyone gets to be in the ring for this. A bunch of them are stuck around the outside. Could he might boil a parka who does make an appearance? As Jeff Jira, of course, gets the last entrance of the heels because he's the US champion at this point. Now, obviously, he's going to be important to show.
00:06:42
Speaker
It's actually a point where he's coming out to the ring and Doric has to move out of his way and the cameraman's away to let him cross his path. They just bunched so many people in this area, there's no room. I noticed him one because I love the park, but also because he's wearing his lucha mask and normal clothes. So that kind of stands out. It's just a bit. Yeah.
00:07:01
Speaker
So this initially brings out Vint Russo, who would make a point of saying, when he joined the company, said he would never appear on camera. So right off the bat, that's not true. He's been on at least one show we've covered. I distinctly remember him being on camera for Starrcade 1999. Yes. Although he was, at least in most of that, shown Dr. Claus style. Yes.
00:07:23
Speaker
He does a big spiel about how the power is a bee, you know, that got him fired. Weirdly, he name drops the World Wrestling Federation, which is always good to name your competition. The one who is whirly beating you, by the way, at this point. He wants to take credit basically for how much you all like them to be asked, so you should watch this show. We're running everything. And state that with a clue at the point.
Complex WCW Storylines and Factions
00:07:46
Speaker
This brings out Eric Bischoff, who the commentators initially think is going to be a rival to Rousseau. Yeah, Viteruso, the guy that backstage wrote for Raw. Oh, he definitely hates Eric Bischoff, I guess. Yeah, yeah. It weirdly thinks you know everything and also doesn't think you know anything. It's a very weird storytelling device. So Bischoff comes out and they tease like there's going to be a big fight. Then they hug in the ring.
00:08:14
Speaker
I kind of make the case that I think they did this too early. I get the idea that you need that to be aligned for this pay-per-view. But you have, at this point, a three-hour night try, I believe. It felt like three hours. And you have a two-hour thunder. So you're giving everything away right off the bat, and there's no intrigue for the rest of the show, as far as they're concerned.
00:08:37
Speaker
So when he comes out to Hogan later, you're like, well, obviously he's aligned with Russo. We saw that earlier. Right. Yeah. Not a shock. Yeah. This is a weird idea. Yes. They talk all about the new blood. That's everyone in the ring, basically, except the big stars in the back, which includes Hulk Hogan, DDP, Lex Luger, Rick Flair, who, by the way, shows up an hour late for the show. As one does. Yes. As Rick Flair does, especially I guess. And Sid Vicious, as well as Ms. Elizabeth.
00:09:07
Speaker
You've heard of them as the Millionaires Club. It's a sort of derisive term that they're rich and they're not like you. But of course, they're also the most popular people are in the company. Right. So are they expecting you to hate Hogan and them? I really can't follow the logic of the story already. I haven't even started the show yet.
00:09:26
Speaker
That's always the interesting question with this angle is, obviously what it turns out is the Millionaires Club are the faces and the New Blood are the heels. I would guess that that was always the plan, judging from the fact that the New Blood basically always act like heels. But I could see it being the opposite. The only thing that really stops me from saying that it could be the opposite is that they play Sting in the Millionaires Club. And if you think that anyone is ever going to boost Sting, you are a absolute moron.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, they try a couple of times. Yeah. I should also note, absent from Millionaire's Club is Terry Funk. Yeah. Did he not manage his money, Will, I guess? I guess so. I mean, he spent it all on various weapons for his hardcore matches. Yeah. Money well spent, I want to say. I mean, just tonight, he probably spent $100,000 in soda. Yeah, he wasted a lot of coke. That's true.
00:10:20
Speaker
The big moment, however, is that Bischoff and Russo declare that all titles are vacant. It's going to be a clean slate for the company. All the champions lose their titles. I feel like she mentioned this now because he doesn't appear at all in the show. They started a really dumb angle that ran only on Saturday night, and I think maybe once on Nitro, where Haxo Jim Duggan, who was the janitor, he definitely wasn't poised to rest, he was a janitor.
00:10:48
Speaker
He found the TV title of Scott Hall through the trash like three months earlier. The logic is that the trash from their show is transported from arena to arena, which is the kind of expense that WGB might actually do. I was gonna say like I would call BS on that if this were any other company. Yeah.
00:11:07
Speaker
But yeah, so Hax with him is a TV champion. He defends it a bunch of times on the sea shows. And he's definitely in the crowd of people, but they don't mention the TV title ever again. It's just actually gone for all. I know. If you thought it was sad that they threw it away, which it was the fact that it's taken away and never even mentioned in the reboot is really sad. Yeah, yeah.
00:11:29
Speaker
The big moment in Bischoff's head, but definitely not to the crowd. So at this point, Sid Vicious is the world champion. He tells Bischoff, if he wants the world title, he's got to come down and take it from him. Vicious goes, okay, and walks really calmly down there. Because at this point, all the faces are on the front of the ramp. So he walks up and starts trying to belittle Sid and get him to attack him. He goes, what's the matter, Sid? Forgot your scissors?
00:11:58
Speaker
Pause. Nothing. Dead silence. Should I say it again? Yeah, I'll say it again. Nope, still nothing? Okay, move on. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's really bad. Yeah, because not everyone that goes to a wrestling show live knows every little story, even every major story that was reported by the Dirt Sheets several years ago.
00:12:19
Speaker
Yeah, there's a bunch of really silly insider stuff they do, like, there's a bit with the Millers' Cup when they first come out, where Bischoff and Russo were like, joking that they decided to show up and they weren't busy, they're like, what's the matter, they didn't have a softball game today or something? And they go, what's the matter with Sting, not a Hollywood premiere? Which I guess they're referring to Sting going to the premiere of Ray the Rumble.
00:12:46
Speaker
Which is weird for them to be little, by the way. Yeah, because that'd be their movie. Yeah. In fact, they run footage of Sting on the red carpet on Thunder. Anyway, so that's where we are now. We have Bischoff and Russo fully in charge, like 80 people at this point, barely in that duration, given the roster, that are all against like six people.
00:13:06
Speaker
And they're all new blood, which is a term they give for both younger wrestlers, or at least new wrestlers to the company, like say, Ernest Miller, Vampiro. But then there's other people that don't quite make as much sense, like longtime employee Scott Steiner. Yes. And boy, it's into at least 1991. 1989. Thank you. That's his first Star Gate, is Star Gate 1989. Oh, you're right, yeah.
00:13:29
Speaker
New blood. The idea that Scott Steiner, who is not only employed by WCW on and off since 1989, but also a globally successful wrestler, is part of the new blood, seeking new opportunities. Alongside Buff Bagwell. These rookie guys. Oh, yeah, Buff Bagwell, I think at least 1990, 1991 himself. The idea that these guys are part of your new blood is patently ridiculous. Yes.
00:13:56
Speaker
But yes, so all tiles are vacant and a bunch of stuff has been set up to have everyone qualify. So the big one is the main event. So they set up the world title match. So they established that Jeff Jarrett is automatically going to be at the finals. Internally, the logic that Jeff Jarrett is no more contender is because he was US champion.
00:14:19
Speaker
Okay. The problem is, of course, you just dripped him of the US title. This is fair as well. Before you said he was no more contender. So anyway, so they took for the Millionaire's Club, which was Sid, Lex Luger, Sting, and DDP, made them all fight each other in a series of matches, which is won by DDP. Whoever won that got to be in the World Title match at the end. Which is interesting because for the World Title tournament, they had
00:14:49
Speaker
one New Blood member, Jarrett, and the rest of the tournament is all Millionaires Club. For the other tournaments, they have one Millionaires Club member, and the entire rest of the tournament is New Blood. Because that's the storyline tonight, is Russo and Bischoff have stacked the deck in favor of the New Blood, but they didn't do that for the most important title. That is very strange.
00:15:14
Speaker
They stacked it in the sense that they had all four of them and only one guest to be there, but yeah. But that is how a tournament works. Yeah, I know.
00:15:22
Speaker
It might mean the sense that they will down all the main people into one single match and get their own guy automatic buy. I mean, there's certainly, yes, they ensured a New Blood member would be in the final. Yes. But it just feels like you could have stuck also a New Blood member in among the Millionaires Club guys fighting their way through just to see, hey, can we get it to be New Blood versus New Blood? Yeah, right?
00:15:46
Speaker
Although we're noting that Lex Luger loses his match due to outside interference, of course. So he's out of the world title tournament, but him and flair are just in the tag title tournament. Yeah. They don't qualify for that, by the way. Oh, okay. Yeah. Only qualified in the millionaire club has to do to be on the show, other than DDP winning two matches is they made Sid and Sting wrestled matches to try and qualify for the US title tournament.
00:16:12
Speaker
They both had to win three in one handicap matches, which were also no DQ. So they made Sid fight both members of Harlem Meet 2000 and their bodyguard, Cash, I believe the name is. Yes.
00:16:27
Speaker
They actually lost, by the way, to Sid Vicious when Booker T, who suddenly knew blood but clearly not aligned with them in spirit, sort of got involved because his brother's there and the guy that kicked him out of the group is there. So Sid to be on the show, right? He's in the US title tournament.
00:16:43
Speaker
Well, after this victory, he's knocked out by an unbelievable people, but Bischoff walks out afterwards, walks over, makes sure he's unconscious. He like kicks him a bit to make sure he doesn't get up. And then declares that Sid lost via DQ. Okay. Sid lost via DQ in a no DQ match. Oh, this company.
Sting in the US Title Tournament
00:17:06
Speaker
As far as Sting goes, he had to fight. There was supposed to be three Vianos. However, one of the Vianos is clearly not a regular one of them. Okay. And it's Jeff Jarrett. Oh, okay. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that Sting lost that match because Sting is on the show in the U.S. title tournament. So Jeff Jarrett came out, got involved in the match in disguise, but also didn't stop Sting from winning this match to be on the show. So he's not very good at being a bad guy. No, no, no, not particularly.
00:17:36
Speaker
We also have Cruiserweights going for the title, and we have two people going for the prestigious Deb said to be a hardcore title as well, right? Rick Flair, you are a piece of shit on the bottom of my shoe. I'm gonna scrape off that shit.
00:17:56
Speaker
and flush your down the toilet personally.
Reality vs Fiction in Wrestling Storylines
00:18:00
Speaker
Russo's come out wielding a baseball bat. They're out there in his career right now. I am the Batman. Russo just grabbed Ric Flair's watch. That's a $15,000 Rolex. That is the face of a man in complete control of the new blood. Complete control of the new blood. Complete control of WCW. And Ric Flair.
00:18:23
Speaker
When all is said and done, you will be my New York...
00:18:29
Speaker
In one fell swoop, the focus of the entire company has changed. The biggest mistake I've ever made. I mean, this is a real big one. Hulk Hogan. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. He hit Hogan. Bischoff just waffled Hogan with a chair. He waffled Hogan with a chair. Kidman Ben Hogan. Billy Kidman Ben Hogan and Eric Bischoff counted the fall. I never thought we would see the day.
00:18:59
Speaker
Oh my god.
00:19:26
Speaker
WCW's 1999-2001 logo glares at us again, and we cut to the opening video package, which is a jumble of clips from WCW's TV shows, showing Vince Russo assaulting Ric Flair, The New Blood ripping off the NWO's spray paint gimmick, Eric Bischoff hugging Vince Russo and betraying Hogan in favor of Billy Kidman, and Eric Bischoff attempting vehicular homicide against Hulk Hogan.
00:19:51
Speaker
We cut backstage and see Eric Bischoff, who's with Vince Russo, Tori Wilson, and Billy Kidman. A very worried Bischoff says Hogan checked himself out of the hospital, but Kidman assures him that it's no problem because all they have to do is do vehicular homicide correctly this time. Well, this recording would provide exceptional evidence at their surely upcoming trial. Yeah. Fortunately, no one watches these shows, and they're probably okay. True, true.
00:20:20
Speaker
Seriously, though, this is one of those things that hurts wrestling in this era. Is this being filmed from the character's perspective or not? Yeah. I have to assume not, since Kidman, now that he's not in his heroin addict gimmick, doesn't strike me as dumb enough to confess to attempted murder live on TV. Yeah. It's just another example of the running question in this era. What is actually on camera?
00:20:44
Speaker
We cut back to a TV-style title sequence showing clips of the wrestlers fighting. It ends with Bischoff's white Hummer slamming into Hogan's car just to drive home the point that some of the people appearing on this show should be in prison awaiting trial. Yes. Host Tony Schiavone welcomes us to the show as we scan over this year's stage, which sucks. Yes, a lot.
00:21:07
Speaker
It's just a basic metal entryway with a white backdrop on which the Spring Stampede logo, which at least reused last year's nice bull horns logo, is projected. There's no Old West buildings, no barns, no bulls, no stagecoaches, not even the wooden fencing from prior years. It's so boring. Yeah, it is.
00:21:32
Speaker
They do at least have kind of country-sounding music playing, but that's the only sign of the show's prior excellent cowboy theme. Tony, laughably, calls this a capacity crowd. I think we've gone over what the definition of capacity is. Yes. Yeah, as mentioned before, it's about 10,000 away from capacity. And boy, can you tell. Yes. He builds up the multiple title tournaments tonight and introduces co-host Scott Hudson and
00:22:02
Speaker
Yeah. Mark Madden. Yep. The sad thing is they didn't angle on Nitro, where Tank Abbott, who's by the way not on the show despite big buildup is important, beats up Mark Madden at ringside. And I'm like, oh good, he's not going to be on the show. And here he is. Tony says Madden got tanked. And for a second, I thought he meant fired, but he actually means as in beat up. Beat up by Tank Abbott, yes.
00:22:31
Speaker
Hudson says Bischoff and Russo have stacked the deck, with most of the participants in the U.S. in tag tournaments being their new blood allies. Madden bellows about wanting Jeff Jarrett to beat D.D. Mee, a nickname so clever it's not. Yeah, if you hate the D.D. Mee line, you'll really hate the show because they say it about ten thousand times. Yeah, to be fair, it's almost exclusively Madden. Oh yeah. But yeah.
00:22:56
Speaker
Tony says Bischoff and Russo have told the referees to relax the DQ rule tonight, so at least we're openly stating the rules will barely matter tonight. Hudson calls it playground rules for some reason. I'm not sure where he grew up, but on my childhood playgrounds, there weren't any chair shots. Did he go to the Battle Royale high school? That's all I could figure. Arrows are legal, kids. Have fun. Tony tells us to forget about seeing wrestling matches, which is a bit of an odd advertisement for a wrestling show.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, it is WCF like world championship fighting now. I guess so Our first match is The mama Luke's that's Johnny the bull and big veto accompanied by disco inferno Versus team package the nature boy Ric Flair and the total package Lex Luger with Elizabeth in a WCW world tag team tournament semi-final match Referee for this is slick Johnson
00:23:56
Speaker
We get a pretty cool overhead shot of Dave Penzer doing the announcing that really highlights the alighting during the Mamalux entrance. They come out to their Godfather ripoff theme, led by Disco. By the way, this is about four months after this team kidnapped Disco in a clear attempt to give him some concrete galoshes. Yes, that's true. He got over it, I guess. Yeah, you do. We cut backstage to Gene Okerlund, who is with Team Package.
00:24:24
Speaker
Indeed, I thank you very much Tony Shavati, Lex Luger, the total package along with the lovely Elizabeth, Lex all set to go. Nature boy Ric Clear, you're hearing your streak here, what does that mean? I'm here because Russo's made it clear to me. It's a street fight, it's survival. Team package, look at us all, we can look. Russo, we're ready to go. Street fight rules, baby. Russo.
00:24:52
Speaker
Uh, this was short but wonderfully manic. Yes. Flair seems to think that Luger alone is team package. And also that dress pants and a nice colored shirt qualify as street fight clothes. Yeah. It's hilarious, by the way, watching Luger and Liz in this especially, as both of them clearly lose it and start laughing. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they do.
00:25:12
Speaker
Luger manages to cover a little by flexing and nodding his head as well, but both clearly have the giggles. So you can actually see Gene kind of start to turn towards Luger late in the promo, like does Lex want to say something and realize he's not going to be able to because he's just holding in the giggles. Yeah. So he wisely decides to leave that to just flair. That's good. It's a wonderfully manic brick flair. It's definitely funny that his golf attire is a street fight. Yes, yeah.
00:25:42
Speaker
Have you played full contact golf? Is that the idea? Well, he took Keenan up on his suggestion from last year. Golf should involve run-ins. Oh, yeah. That's true. Luger and Flair enter separately. We get no Flair robe, which is always really sad. But there is one teenager in the crowd that came in a Flair-style robe, so there's that. That's something. It's kind of sad when members of the audience are dressed better than Rick Flair. Yeah, I'll bet.
00:26:08
Speaker
The two get in the ring, but Russo's music hits, and he comes on the stage to let us know that Slick Rick and Very Small Package are two veterans facing two rookies, so he's adding the Harris brothers to the match. Big Vito has been wrestling since 1990. He is hardly a rookie. The Harris twins come out and join the match, making it four on two. Their shirts say, I survived the H-bomb, referencing their finisher.
00:26:38
Speaker
So, wait, does that mean they survived their own finisher? I guess they have to practice it, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And presumably they were selling those shirts, in which case there's fans walking around with shirts proclaiming that the Harris's finisher is no big deal. It's kind of a strange shirt idea. Yeah, the more you think about it, sure. So, question. If the Harris's win, who advances in the tournament?
00:27:04
Speaker
That is a good question, yes. Are they just part of the Mamalux team for this match and the Mamalux advance even if the Harrises win? Or are the two new blood teams also kind of competing with each other? It's really unclear. Yeah, like if one of the Harris brothers is counted out, does that mean the other three lose or just the one Harris brother? Yeah, yeah. With it being randomly extra teams in here, it's really unclear what that means for tournament rules.
00:27:31
Speaker
Oh, FYI, the Harris brothers were the tag champions before the reset. So they were rewarded for giving up their championships by being tossed in a match with two other people and not placed in tournament properly. Yeah. Oh girl. Meanwhile, Harlem Heat 2000 failed in their goal to actually beat Sid properly and are put in tournament. Okay.
00:27:57
Speaker
The Harrises charge in, and everybody brawls. The Mamalukes and Harrises overwhelm Luger and Flair at first. The Harrises with some very awkward-looking, uh, rib blocks? It's like he does a shoulder block, but with his ribs in the corner. It's a really strange spot. That is weird. Luger and Flair power back. Luger fights the Harrises outside, and Flair gets the figure four on Johnny, but suddenly breaks on his own for unclear reasons, and eats a veto sidekick.
00:28:28
Speaker
The new blood wear Flare down, including the worst double big boot of all time, are the Harruses. It's so, like, it barely makes contact. That gets a couple undeserved two counts. Luger tries to help, but inadvertently distracts the ref, though it actually looks like Luger has to remind the ref to usher him out at one point.
00:28:52
Speaker
Flair flop, Flair karma, but Flair dodges some elbow drops. Credit to a heiress for actually really going for those, they looked good. Yeah, sure, yeah. And makes the tag to Luger. But the ref misses the tag and sends Luger back out, and the new blood continue beating Flair down. The heiresses kind of wander in and out without doing anything at one point, it's a weird bit. Mhm, yeah.
00:29:14
Speaker
Suddenly, Disco is kidnapped by two mobster-looking guys, distracting the Mamaloocs, and the Harruses argue with them, I guess, about their distraction. The Harruses and Mamaloocs brawl, and Flair dramatically tags Luger, who runs wild with clotheslines and a diving forearm. Flair joins the brawl. Funny bit as Vito goes up top, but Luger just calmly watches the whole time, then slugs him in the gut, obviously, on the jump.
00:29:41
Speaker
Johnny gets a nice but kind of slow top rope rebound flying clothesline for two. Luger has to stand there looking shocked for just a bit too long. Yeah, because he does this thing where he runs, jumps to the top and one jump, which is impressive, I'm wrong. But then he has sort of shuffle around facing the direction. Right, yeah. If he had been able to jump up there and jump back really quickly, sort of rotate while he's jumping, backwards, that would have worked. Yeah, then it would have worked, yeah.
00:30:07
Speaker
Vito gets to the apron, and Johnny tries to whip Luger at him, but Luger reverses and Johnny crashes into Vito. Luger scoops Johnny up in the torture rack for the submission and the win. Flair comes in and hugs Luger, and team package celebrates in the ring as Tony builds up their victory over two teams. Thoughts on this one? Chaotic, punch-filled match.
00:30:31
Speaker
There's a lot of punching and a lot of just hitting and not really... If you're watching a match for like suplexes and holds and that kind of stuff, this is not the match for you. Yeah.
00:30:43
Speaker
It kind of works in a sense that this and another match we'll see with Flair and Luger later. They definitely try to give us sort of an old-school tag team match feel with the rep missing the tag and all that stuff. The problem is they're kind of fighting against the sort of new school, constant cheating, brawling mentality that clearly Vito and Johnny and the Harris brothers were sort of taught to do.
00:31:11
Speaker
So it's not quite work because they're not in on the idea. Yeah, so it's a fairly effective but a bit of mesh of styles and quite good together. Obviously, it's good to see flair and lugar win because they being millions club obviously didn't make it to the finals for this kind of thing. Otherwise, this whole tournament has drama. Right? Yeah, you pretty much have to have them reach the finals at least. Yeah.
00:31:36
Speaker
I found this entirely a mess. Oh, great. The 4-on-2 gimmick used constantly makes this just basically a big punchy, kicky brawl, with only the slightest pauses for any actual wrestling moves. The timing seems off on quite a few of the moves, so it looks sloppy besides. With no sense of order or any plot besides the basic idea of 4 versus 2, it just becomes really hard to follow, made worse by some very poorly timed camera cuts at important moments and the outside mafia shenanigans.
00:32:07
Speaker
They did have energy, but energy alone does not make a great opener. Agreed, yeah. I think this would have worked better if the idea was the Harris Brothers were just also the match. It was like a three team match. So you get done, the heels work together, then once they go for a pin, they all start fighting thing. It'd make more sense why they start brawling. Yes. Where this is like, you guys are all one team, apparently. Why are you fighting? Yeah, right? Yeah. It's bizarre.
00:32:33
Speaker
They had an idea from the beginning, like, what if there's four and two in the ending? Well, obviously, if one of them would win, they didn't quite fill the middle improperly. Yeah, yep, yeah. We cut backstage where Mean Gene is with Mike Awesome.
00:32:51
Speaker
We have just learned that tonight you're gonna be the surprise eighth man in the US title tournament first round opponent Ernest the cat Miller Yeah, you're right. And you know what they say cats got nine lives Well, that's good because I plan on taking those nine life and beat the hell out of each and every one of them
00:33:34
Speaker
Awesome slugs bam-bam from behind as he goes to leave and beats him up.
00:33:48
Speaker
Oddly, Awesome's Cadence here really reminded me strongly of Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Oh, I kinda hear that, yeah. Yeah. Either that or, um, shoot, what's the one guy from the Freebirds? Michael Hayes, yeah. Yeah, a little bit of Michael Hayes, too, for some of his promos.
00:34:03
Speaker
This was, I thought, developing into kind of an OK-ish promo at least, despite some odd wording at times. Sure, yeah. But of course it was cut short because a Russo show assumes that if we hear someone talk for more than four sentences, our brains will melt, and we need action now. So nothing notable here, ultimately. Although we're noting that on the Thunder before this show, Bama Bigelow turned heel joining the New Blood by attacking DDP.
00:34:32
Speaker
So here he is, randomly feuding with another guy who's also in the New Blood. Yes. Just because. I guess you figure it's a big faction, they don't all get along, but yeah. Yeah, they maybe do that a little bit too much tonight. A bit, they're kind of dumb. Yeah. It's good that you see awesome speaker leaves, because you didn't get a lot of awesome promos in general. And yes, the pun was actually intentional. Yeah, yeah. At the very least, every promo of his is an awesome promo. That's right.
00:35:00
Speaker
We cut to a quick video package, setting up the upcoming Jimmy Hart vs. Man Cow match. Which is second for some reason in the show. My name is me, I have a number one radio show in Chicago. Hulk Hogan is the biggest wrestler there's ever been and I think he could do a little better than you. Some clown in a stupid little jacket. You think you're the next Howard Stern? Well baby you're not! I got Jimmy Hart, he happened in my ear and he sucker punched me and hurt my eyes. I like Jimmy Hart.
00:35:33
Speaker
For revenge for my eyeball, Jimmy Hart. Eye for an eye, spring stampede, you jack. Hopefully, Mankau knows the same therapist that Scotty Riggs is. He got over his eye injury and really fell in love with himself, so hopefully that worked out. Yeah, yeah. Body positivity, Mankau. Yeah. I was like, okay, I get you're mad that someone inches their eye, totally.
00:36:02
Speaker
But it's like, you also run a radio show. You're probably not affected that much by it. Reading, but yeah. Yeah, I didn't seem like the scripted kind of guy. A little bit I've seen of him. So our second match is Jimmy Hart, accompanied by Emery Hale, versus Matthew Mancow-Muller, with Al Roker Jr., Big Turd, and The Freak. The referee for this match is Slick Johnson.
00:36:33
Speaker
Heart comes out accompanied by Emory Hale. Heart is wearing a Howard Stern shirt and a Hale jacket. Shouldn't Hale be wearing a Jimmy Hart jacket in this case? Hart's the competitor. True, yeah. The jacket shows Hale breathing fire, but he should really have frost breath given his name.
00:36:52
Speaker
Hart gets a microphone and says, after this match, he's still going to be the greatest manager and Mancow will still be a Howard Stern wannabe. Mancow comes out wearing a trench coat and big shades to his own show's theme, accompanied by several unnamed ladies and several other characters from his show. Tony actually lists the characters as Al Roker Jr. Turd and Brian the Whipping Boy, so I'm not sure which is correct.
00:37:17
Speaker
I didn't find the latter on Mankow's wiki page, but that's as far as my knowledge of his show goes, so Tony may well be right. Mankow also gets a microphone, and, swearing profusely, thanks Bischoff for the chance to avenge his honor. So, who is the good guy here?
00:37:36
Speaker
Because Mancow is the Chicago local, and he does get cheers from the hometown crowd. But he also thinks Eric Bischoff, who's a bad guy, for setting up the match. And Hart is acting heelish and getting booed, but he's also pals with Hogan, who is clearly a good guy on this show. Yeah, that's true. That's all true. It's all kind of backwards. A bit. It is indeed.
00:38:01
Speaker
They roll around punching each other like a couple angry third graders, fighting over who gets the last available swing. Hail distracts Mancow, and Heart punches Mancow in the balls. Madden jokes that he's surprised that hurt Mancow, and Hudson bizarrely misunderstands the joke, wondering why it would hurt Mancow if he's a cow. He's not a cow, Hudson.
00:38:25
Speaker
The commentators claim that Hart has learned from the wrestlers he has managed, which is an insult to every wrestler that he's ever managed. Hart falls on Mancow for a slam, and someone, Hudson I think, claims it was almost a lama heistraw cradle. What? Seriously, what the heck? Hart does one of the worst top rope splashes ever, clearly landing Ds first.
00:38:53
Speaker
Mancow uses the ref to block. Hale flings Mancow over the ropes onto his entourage. Credit to Mancow, at least, for being willing to do that. Hart sends Hale away and goes to revive Johnson. But Mancow's entourage gives him a chair, and Mancow hits Hart with it and sloppily pins him for the three count and the win. Mancow and his pals celebrate, but disappear as Kidman comes down. Kidman beats the heck out of Jimmy Hart and yells at him. The commentators say he's sent a message to Hulk Hogan.
00:39:24
Speaker
Thoughts on this one? It's very ugly. Very, very ugly. I mean, it's a manager with this point is like, I think around 50. Yeah. Who never really wrestled outside of the sort of matches where the heel manager is sort of forced to tag with his team. I can't even like name it doing hurt match up top my head. I don't know that he's ever had to do offense before at all. That's true. Yeah.
00:39:48
Speaker
And Mancow is a guy that dislikes watching wrestling, which doesn't make you a wrestler. Believe me, I know this for a fact. But yeah, the one positive I can take from this is that Hale does that press lamb to Mancow and his people, which is kind of nice. Yeah, they actually do that spot very well. His guys catch him quite well as well. They do, yeah. So they're nice and centered and land very well, yeah. That's all I can really pray for this.
00:40:13
Speaker
Yeah, as you said, credit to Mancow for being willing to take the throw to the outside, but that is all I can compliment as well. This was a truly abysmal farce with completely mixed uphill and face rolls. It's completely awful. Let's move on. Agreed. I have some bad news for you, Bob. There's a rematch. Are you kidding me? Not kidding. That was the enemy mayhem. 2000. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
00:40:42
Speaker
Oh, geez, that's wow. Yeah. And that shows in November, by the way, they I guess they wait till they're back around back in Chicago, presumably. Yeah. But still, it's like, oh, yeah. I can't believe they did this twice. Yeah, I was like, I remember something happening with Ben Cow leaving the ring. I didn't see it. So I'm like, did I miss it? I'm like, oh, let's send the other time. You know, he appears the second time of the show. That is horrible. Yeah.
00:41:07
Speaker
According to Bischoff on his podcast, I opened the club a bit, he says the match isn't as bad as he thought it would be, which I don't know what he expected. Clearly, if that's the case, and he says- Did he expect someone to self-immolate in the ring? Yes, like they'd lock up or just explode, I guess, yeah. And he says that mankind, how he promoted the show locally, so that helped, but- Not that much, you didn't fill the arena. Also true.
00:41:33
Speaker
Maybe the extra 200 people that actually bought tickets from him. Maybe he's the entire reason that they sold any tickets at all. Very responsible, yeah. But you could have just had him as the guest host for the show or something. You need to have him wrestle a match against Jimmy Hart. Yeah. If you're going to do this stupid nonsense,
00:41:57
Speaker
Have him find a wrestler he likes and have them wrestle Halo for like two minutes. Yeah, it would be to have him, you know, lunge into the ring and get inhales face and get chucked out if he wants to do that spot. But yeah, don't have a manager versus a radio personality. Yeah, I agree. As your match.
00:42:16
Speaker
Uh-huh. And again, the second match on an all tournament show. Yeah. Put it like six or seventh or maybe eighth on the show. Just about in the time that people start, you know, feeling like they need to go use the restroom or go get snacks and stuff. At the very least, it's a break from the, here's our big tournaments. Yeah. Kind of thing. Yeah, exactly. Backstage, Russo yells at the Harris's and the Bama Lutes about wasting opportunities, calls them losers, and throws a tantrum with his baseball bat.
00:42:47
Speaker
Our third match is The Wall versus Scott Steiner in a WCW United States Heavyweight Championship tournament quarterfinal match. Referee for this one again is Slick Johnson. It didn't hurt that bad getting hit by Jimmy Hart, I guess. No, not really. The Wall's entrance video constantly shows him in a suit and sunglasses, so of course he comes out in generic black jeans and a black muscled shirt outfit. Yeah.
00:43:13
Speaker
Couldn't update the video at all, guys. Elvis reaches this famous moment where he decided to confront Hulk Hogan at one of the Spring Break shows, I believe it is, from the year before. And Hogan sees him, even though he's in a building, like, across the street. That's the wall, brother! That's in the video package, like, three times. Hulk Hogan has eagle eyes. Yeah. The wall is, like, standing on top of, like, a 20-story building pointing ahead with a spotlight put on it while Hogan's in the ring.
00:43:41
Speaker
Steiner comes out to Steinerized, even though there's no sign of Rick. Yeah. Steiner's rip-off Superman logos have become circles now, so I guess they may have heard from DC over the last year. Yes. A guy in the crowd has a sign reading, R.I.P. Andre the Giant. Very nice, but he died in 1993. Did you just now hear? Yeah, he's been in a living in a cave. I guess so. Why else would he pay to go to the show?
00:44:08
Speaker
Fair, fair. Maybe he thought that Paul White actually was Andre, and now that Paul White's gone, he thinks that's when Andre passed. Because he only knows about WCW. That could be. Both of these guys are New Blood, as the only non-New Blood wrestler in the entire United States tourney is Sting. They trade off doing basic strikes until Steiner punches Wall in the nuts and belly-to-belly suplexes him.
00:44:34
Speaker
Wall resists a German suplex and gets revenge, slugging Steiner in the nuts, and gets two off a respectable leg drop. Double-handed choke slam, and Wall makes good crazy eyes. Steiner drops Wall in the ropes, and they both roll out. Wall does a barricade whip, and Hudson claims he almost threw Steiner into Lake Michigan. What? Uh-huh. I mean, really, that's the move you choose to overemphasize, a barricade whip? Really? That is a little weird, yeah.
00:45:02
Speaker
Wahl sets up a table, but Steiner attacks. Wahl resists a suplex and sets for a chokeslam through the table, but Steiner gouges his eyes and pushes Johnson in the way, so Wahl accidentally chokeslams Johnson through the table. I'm pretty sure you could tell the difference between super muscular Scott Steiner and a ref by touch alone, man. Billy Silverman runs down to replace Johnson and disqualifies Wahl, awarding Steiner the win.
00:45:29
Speaker
Angry, Wall gets in, but Billy Silverman scampers away and sprints off down the ramp faster than I have ever seen him move. Yes. As Wall gives chase. Nick Patrick, Charles Robinson, and Mickey J come down to check on Johnson while Steiner celebrates. Thoughts on this one? It's decent at the first bit of it at least. There's a certain draw of these two big scary looking guys fighting each other. You know, a Haas fight is like to say.
00:45:55
Speaker
There's not a lot of depth in this, obviously, and it's very short before they get to the bizarrely stupid finish. So aside from the fact that Scott Steiner is not the same body mass as the referee, he's also wearing a shirt. Yeah, yeah, the ref has a rough shirt on which you would probably brush against the collar because it's a colored shirt. Steiner is obviously not. So I get the idea. Wall is being pushed as this big star in theory, so they don't want to have him lose.
00:46:26
Speaker
But what a stupid way to do it. Yeah, it's really dumb. Is this dumber than the powerbomb match finish between Sid Vicious and Kevin Nash? No.
00:46:39
Speaker
Okay, just trying to get a baseline. That one is still a person saying he won the match and the referee believing him. This one, at least someone, even if it's a dumb reason, someone does do something clearly DQ worthy. Okay, so like if Scott Diner would punch the ref and then set him on like what a table debris and then said the wall chokes landed, that'd be- That would be- Okay. That would actually exceed the powerbomb match. Because the ref's amount has to be not watching what's happening and just believe that based on evidence. Right, yeah.
00:47:07
Speaker
Okay, I just want to set a baseline for stupid. Yes. We need it on a show like this. Okay. Yeah, I thought this was a pretty basic match. Steiner and Wall just kind of traded strikes. They hit one or two wrestling moves and then they moved right to the finish.
00:47:22
Speaker
It's only four minutes long and they're not cruiserweights, so I'm not sure there's a lot more we would have gotten out of them. At least Steiner did keep things moving. The crowd was cheering him, which meant he didn't have a good excuse to go yell at them. But it was too simple and too short to be of note and then had a really dumb ending.
00:47:38
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if they could have had a much better match if they had a few more minutes and not this finish. I feel like they could have bite. I don't know what the level would have been. Yeah, I've seen some of the other wall matches and I'm not sure that there's a good chance at it. But if anyone could do it, honestly, Scott Steiner is a pretty good guy for him to work with because, yeah, whether you want to or not, he can suplex you. That's true. Yeah. A.J. Stiles can attest to that, yes.
00:48:12
Speaker
Hold that if I steal your woman. Ernest the Catler, if I may, Mike Gossum, we found out is gonna be your first round. Do stop that, right? Now, they told me James Brown was gonna be here, and I want James Brown. James Brown's not gonna be your opponent. Mike Gossum is the name. Can he dance? Hell no. I'll tell you what. That's just like WCW, the biggest redneck company in the world to go get another big redneck to try to do his dirty work. But you, your own... Get out of here. Taylor, this is your fault. Hang on a second, man.
00:48:27
Speaker
We go backstage, where Mean Jean is now with Ernest the Cat Miller.
00:48:43
Speaker
Bam Bam Bigelow suddenly attacks during Cat's promo and beats him up. There's nothing to this. Cat won't even discuss his opponent. It just exists to let Bam Bam attack Cat. Yeah. Our fourth match is Mike Awesome versus Ernest the Cat Miller in a WCW United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament quarterfinal match. Referee for this one is Mickey J. Awesome is out first. Tony notes this is Awesome's first official match for WCW.
00:49:14
Speaker
and we see a clip of Awesome beating up Kevin Nash on the prior Monday Nitro. Suddenly, Bam Bam Bigelow runs out and grabs Awesome as he climbs up the apron. The bell rings, so I guess. Our fourth match is Mike Awesome versus Bam Bam Bigelow in the WSCW United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament quarterfinal match. Referee for this one is Mickey J. Yes. I didn't know that you could qualify for a tournament spot just by beating up the actual entrant backstage. Evidently so. Good to know. Yeah.
00:49:44
Speaker
Bigelow runs Awesome into the post and Barricade, but in the ring, Awesome hits a gentle big boot, clotheslines Bigelow out, and dives onto him. Normally I'd say it was pretty early for that, but this match is going like four minutes, so fair enough. Yeah. Bigelow runs Awesome into the Barricade, and Awesome warns a fan near the Barricade to move before Bigelow charges, and Awesome dumps him over the Barricade into the seats.
00:50:06
Speaker
I'm glad you caught that, too. I was wondering, did Bob notice some clearly-taught-in-the-guys I hate you jumping out of the way? Get out of the way. Get out of the way. Yeah. It's pretty great. Yeah, because that would have been lethal. Yes. Awesome dives over the barricade onto Bigelow. Back in, awesome flying clothesline gets two. There's a rare, good Madden line. He describes Awesome as combining cruiserweight style with heavyweight power. I think that's very accurate. It is very accurate, yeah.
00:50:32
Speaker
Piccolo falls on top on an awesome suplex for two, and builds to the greetings from Asbury Park. But, Cat suddenly springs into the ring and sidekicks him out, so apparently... Our fourth match is Mike Awesome vs. Ernest the Cat Miller in a WCW United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament quarterfinal match. Referee for this match is Mickey J.
00:50:57
Speaker
Cat shows off with rapid kicks, grabs a microphone, and says that he beat everyone in the ring. He dances, briefly selling pain from the backstage beatdown in a nice touch. Yeah. Awesome clothes lines him down and hits a great top frog splash for the three count of the win. Awesome celebrates and tells us he's the best. Thoughts on these ones? These thatches? Yeah. OK, so separating the two parts.
00:51:22
Speaker
I thought awesome and big little work pulled together. Obviously they will work together again, as we note, in Starrcade 2000 and the name of its match. So this is sort of precursor to that. Although it's WWE, so they probably forgot the single happened when they booked the match months later. So it's very, it could be a coincidence. I don't know if they ever worked together in ECW, but they definitely have that shared connection. Yeah. I kind of wish they could have a longer match because I think they could do some really good. And again, they, they do later in the year, have a pretty good match. I thought.
00:51:52
Speaker
Then you have the Ernest Miller part where he comes back in, decides to dance after doing like two kicks, and then really loses. Yes. I liked it. Awesome, man. Good in that. Awesome provided a good high energy performance that perfectly suited the short time frame he was going to be given here. Yes. But unfortunately, he was saddled with one of the stupidest, most confusing match setups in recent memory. Yes. Seriously, WW, you pulled this with the guy's first official match. Uh-huh.
00:52:22
Speaker
In any kind of reasonable sporting event, you don't get to insert yourself into a tournament by knocking out the actual participant backstage and coming out in his place. Why would the ref accept that? Why would he let the bell ring to start the match? And if he did, why would he then just turn around and accept the original guy coming out to replace the new guy?
00:52:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. These are all good questions. This makes absolutely no sense at all. It is a massive disservice to all three men. Poor Kat, especially, who gets beaten down in two moves. True, yeah. Good performances, actually, from all of them for what they were given, but awful concept, awful, awful concept.
00:53:04
Speaker
Yeah, they paid a good six, probably close to seven figures to find Mike Awesome. Oh my gosh. Because they paid him a bonus to Lead Wall Champion. And he can be worth it. Yeah. The guy's good. Very. But you're wasting him here. Yeah. The idea that this is his first official match, and it's this screwed up, confusing disaster. Uh-huh. Oh, and none of this is on the performers. No, no. None of this is on the performers.
00:53:34
Speaker
We cut backstage, where Bischoff is still worried, knocking his head against the wall. Russo tells him to calm down, and Bischoff criticizes Kidman for making out with Torrey Wilson instead of taking care of the Hogan situation. Kidman says he did take care of it, sending a message with Jimmy Hart, but Bischoff says that handled nothing. In fact, if Hogan wasn't coming, he definitely will come now. Russo tells Bischoff to relax, looking amused by the whole situation.
00:54:02
Speaker
I thought Bischoff actually was doing a great job with this, and actually throughout the night on this storyline, he does a good job looking seriously on edge the whole time. Yeah, absolutely. It's some genuinely good acting from him. Yeah. And it can be a defense. If you have one option is make out with Tori Wilson. Doesn't matter what the second option is. What are you going to pick?
00:54:26
Speaker
We cut to Mean Jean, who is with Shane Douglas, Buff Bagwell, and Buff Bagwell's ridiculous hat. Yes.
00:54:35
Speaker
Buff Bagwell, the franchise, Shane Douglas, gentlemen, the winner of your match with the Harlem Heat will be going on to the finals of the WCW Tag Team Tournament as you face team packing. It's real simple, Mangin. Harlem Heat is just a little roadblock for the New Blood. It's a new day at WCW. It's a new time. And it's all about the New Blood. And you're looking right at it. Just think about it. Franchise and Buff Daddy, you figure it out.
00:55:03
Speaker
Nature boy Rick Flair Space Mountain is officially closed as of tonight That limo riding jet fly and son-of-a-gun bullshit is over. Good riddance We are the future we are the new blood and our time is now Oh, look Shane Douglas hates Rick Flair what a surprise I am shocked
00:55:31
Speaker
This was short, but it did have personality, and I like that they managed to address both their current match and one of their future opponents if they won against the Heat. True, yeah. They could stand to say New Blood several hundred fewer times, though. Yeah. And again, going back to earlier, how long has St. Douglas been in and around this company?
00:55:51
Speaker
Yeah, he was definitely at Starrcade 92, I believe, with Ricky Steamboat, correct? Yes. Yeah. So he's been in wrestling at the very least for a long time. He at least has the fair argument of having very recently returned to the company. Right. So at least maybe with him. But Buff Bagwell has been in the company since at least 1991, I believe. Steadily, yeah. Yes, steadily in the company, yeah.
00:56:15
Speaker
Yeah, because Shane goes back even further. Shane comes in with endemic dudes. Right, yes. Yeah, it's kind of ludicrous that either of these guys is new blood. But as I said, Douglas at least kind of has the argument of I have recently returned. Right. That was never a great promo, but he's usually energetic. And this is one of those cases.
00:56:33
Speaker
Not that Hollywood 2000 is a good team, as we'll see, but it definitely kind of serves to just push them aside like that. But he is a heel, so that kind of makes sense. He'd be a bit dismissive of it. And they've got like 30 seconds to do their promo. No, yeah, true. So you can't address anything in the promo for long. That's very true, yeah.
00:56:53
Speaker
Our fifth match is Harlem Heat 2000. That's Stevie Ray and Big T with Jay Biggs and Cash versus Buff Bagwell and Shane Douglas. The referee for this one is Billy Silverman. They did a whole angle earlier in the year where Stevie Ray turned on Booker T. They brought in Jay Biggs, who was playing basically the same character as a fake lawyer in WBF under Russo. He was a lawyer behind the Nation of Domination.
00:57:21
Speaker
Oh, I thought I recognized his voice. They sued Booker T over the rights to Harlem Heat. So he couldn't wear his cool flame types, couldn't use the entrance music, and couldn't even call Booker T because they claim they own that. They claim they own the letter T, basically. They do, yes. Yeah, I'm not sure how you can make a copyright claim on the letter T, but apparently they could. Yeah. Jay Biggs, good lawyer. He's a very good lawyer, apparently, yeah.
00:57:50
Speaker
Yeah, it comes down to a match with Booker T versus Big T, which is Ahmed Johnson, who came from WVF, like Vince Russo. Booker would lose, so at this point he's just Booker, but he's gotten better fill in music. They definitely gave him really goofy fill in music for one show to go, look at how much power we have over you. They gave him better filler music now. Yeah, it's a decent tune now, yeah. Yeah. It was like the leave it to Beaver thing, they gave him, I think, as a joke on one show.
00:58:18
Speaker
By the way, I promise I will accidentally call him Booker T for the duration of this show. Oh, it's fine. Big T is appropriately named. As you mentioned, he used to be in the WWF as Ahmed Johnson. He's not in quite as good a shape as he was then. That's generous, yes. But he is actually still a big, tough-looking dude. My problem, though, is that they also have Cash, who is even bigger than both of them. Yes, they do.
00:58:46
Speaker
So it's like, you have Stevie Ray, Big T, and Bigger T, I guess. Oddly, Stevie has his name written across the back of his tights, but Big T doesn't. Maybe Stevie's secretly hoping the Booker's going to come back so he doesn't want to make it official. Oh, yeah, could be. Should have just made some tights, but had just the T written on them, so he could fill in Big or Booker, depending on which one came in.
00:59:15
Speaker
Cash, following both, as you noted, is an even bigger, bulkier dude, whose arms are so huge he cannot comfortably rest them at his sides. Correct. And walks to the ring with his arms hanging out a little bit. Yes, he does. Oh, girl. Yeah, he was brought in earlier in 1999 as part of the No Limit Soldiers in England. We will definitely cover it when it comes out. Oh, girl. Douglas' music remains great, and he continues to do absolutely nothing cool in his entrance to go with it. Yes.
00:59:45
Speaker
Bagwell, meanwhile, lives it up and dances around, then does finger guns to his Pyro. How did these two get paired up? Yeah. As they said, you figure it out.
00:59:58
Speaker
Douglas and Bagwell charge, and everybody brawls until Silverman gets Bagwell and Big T to take their places on the apron. Douglas almost immediately tags out to Bagwell, who does well against Stevie until Big T sneaks in a tag and spinebusters Bagwell. Stevie leg drop before he's ushered out, but Bagwell gets an elbow up on a Big T charge and hits a second rope corner splash for two. Then both guys crawl for the tag like they've been fighting for ages. Yes, they do.
01:00:25
Speaker
Tag to Stevie, but Bagwell tags Douglas, who runs wild with punches until the Heat no-sell a double knock-and-knocker, and show the Harrises how a double big boot is actually done. It's much better. It is, yes.
01:00:38
Speaker
Outside, Cash beats up Bagwell. Silverman tries to usher Stevie to the apron, though I think Stevie was legal. I think so. So Mrs. Douglas booting Big T in the little T. Stevie turns and Douglas hits the Pittsburgh plunge of Fisherman's Buster on him for the three count and the win.
01:00:56
Speaker
Cash angrily runs in, but Douglas slides out, and gives a recovered Bagwell a hug. Tony says, that wasn't the Pittsburgh plunge, but a vertical suplex. But it looked like a fisherman's buster, or at least a fisherman's suplex to me, so splitting hairs a little. Yeah. They're trying to push like he has a new finisher, but that's like not until later. Oh, okay. Because he has Gavin, I think he does it at Slampery. If I'm correct, I blocked a little of that out, to be honest with you.
01:01:27
Speaker
Big T and Stevie Ray argue, but Jay Biggs and Cash make peace. Madden claims he grew up with Harlem Heat. According to Wikipedia, at least, Stevie Ray grew up in Texas, Big T in Florida, and Madden in Pennsylvania. So, uh, no. Long distance friendship, I guess? Like, before the internet? Probably not.
01:01:47
Speaker
They were pen pals. Yeah, correspondence. Yeah, exactly. Thoughts on this one? I mean, it's pretty nothing. Like he said, they work the match like they worked like a 15-minute match in this really condensed timeline. Like it's a bit where it's not super terrible, but like Buff Bagwell hits Stevie Ray and runs off, the ropes comes back. Stevie just sort of stands there the whole time, like he's been fighting for five minutes and like recovering his breath. Yeah.
01:02:14
Speaker
He has to wait for the run, bounce off the rope, come back, and do a sweaty neckbreaker. The move is good, it's just, it doesn't make any sense that he's so stunned already. My problem is, for better or for worse, Harlem Heat 2000 looks really bad in this match. They also have their manager on their side cheating for them, taking out half their opponents.
01:02:34
Speaker
And they still lose. Yeah. Yeah. It's a thing that would work if it was indeed the end of like a 15, 20 minute match or something like that. Yeah. And you just have the fired up babyface finally fights back against them. But you actually have the accumulated injuries of entire match to explain why they actually go down. Yeah.
01:02:52
Speaker
But with it being, I believe I have it recorded as two minutes and 40 seconds, I did time it. Okay. Yeah, it's about two minutes and 40 seconds long. They do the double crawl for the tag, in fact, at a minute and a half. Wow. They're selling like Bagwell's been the face in peril for like five minutes, six minutes, seven minutes. It's a minute and a half into the match. He's taken like two moves. Yeah, how bad is your cardio? That's what you're at. Yeah, it's not good.
01:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, it basically feels like they took a normal tag match formula and just massively, massively compressed it to the point of being ludicrous. Yeah. At the same time, that does mean it actually does have a plot. Yeah. Which puts the leg up on some of the other matches tonight. That's fair, yeah. I felt like the action was fine. It's just so short. I didn't really have a chance to decide if I was enjoying it before it was just done. Yeah. And is there a face shield dynamic in this match at all?
01:03:50
Speaker
Like, if anything, maybe Bagwell and Douglas are kind of short of faces, because the other team's doing more cheating. Yes. But, I mean, again, you have two minutes and 40 seconds, so unless someone grabs a chair and just goes to town, you're not really going to be able to do any kind of face heal dynamic either. Yeah, but from the get-go, though, none of them is really a face. Right, yeah, all of them are part of the heal faction, yeah.
01:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, there's this another match we'll cover later that they aren't like really terrible, but it's hard as an outside fan to care who went to lose the match because they're both bad guys. Yeah. Does it matter to me really who wins? Yeah, the crowd in most of the New Blood versus New Blood matches, the crowd kind of seems to elect to take one of the competitors as a face. Yeah. Like Steiner in his matches leading up to his final match tonight. Steiner is taken as a face by the crowd. True, yeah. Which is part of why we don't get stalling Steiner for those matches, I think.
01:04:46
Speaker
That's a positive, yeah. Yeah. Back to main Gene, who is with Booker T, or Booker, sorry.
01:04:56
Speaker
Tony, I thank you very much Booker T. I should point out tonight, very crucial, this United States title tournament, your match is coming up with Sting, a very important hurdle for you that you must climb.
01:05:28
Speaker
For, again, a very short promo, I thought this was actually terrific. Yeah, it was good. Distinct. In a few short sentences, Booker quickly gets across his ambition, his disagreements with the New Blood, and his focus on his current match. Given a bit more time, this could have been even better by delving a bit more deeply into each of those things, but considering he had, I don't know, 15 or 20 seconds to talk, Booker did an incredible job and came off like a huge star.
01:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good bullet point promo, which is always given time for you. Total promo time, including main gene asking the question 32 seconds. Oh, there you go. Yeah.
01:06:07
Speaker
So our sixth match is Booker T. Dang it. Booker. To be fair, even Oakland said. Yeah, I think he said, yeah, okay, Booker T. Our sixth match is Booker T versus Sting in a WCW United States Championship Tournament quarterfinal match. Referee for this one is Mickey J.
01:06:27
Speaker
As Booker Team makes his entrance, the commentators discuss the tension between him and the New Blood, and also mention that his opponent, Sting, is the only member of the rival Millionaire's Club faction in the United States tournament. We're in a hurry, so Sting's entrance music just starts on the fast part instead of slowly building to it. He's still got that great trench coat with the Mortal Kombat style scorpion on the back.
01:06:49
Speaker
Someone in the crowd holds up a Sting sign, but the Sting face they've drawn looks rather like it was flattened out by a steamroller. Not particularly flattering. No, no. They square off in the middle of the ring and talk, until Sting shoves Booker.
01:07:04
Speaker
Booker keeps his cool. Sting gets the better of an early exchange with a hip toss and gives a Stinger call, but Booker lands multiple strikes only for Sting to slam him and clothesline him out of the ring. Sting follows and reverses a Booker whip into the barricade. Booker runs right into an unfortunate cameraman. You can catch Sting getting a little chuckle out of that. Yeah. Sting smashes Booker into the commentary table, but Booker flapjacks him onto it.
01:07:30
Speaker
Back in, Booker back elbow earns two, and he excellently nails Sting with a fake-out clothesline into a knee strike, then clubs Sting down for two. Hudson says, it's Sting with a hard right hand to the back of Sting's head. Sting's the worst enemy. After last year, I sympathize. Yeah.
01:07:49
Speaker
Booker earns more two counts with a knee drop and a jumping axe kick, as the commentators claim he's hit Sting with everything he has when he hasn't even used most of his signature spots. Sting counters a Harlem sidekick with a DDT, as Hudson claims he's used everything too, moments before Sting proves him wrong with a stinger splash. Booker counters another in mid-air with the Harlem sidekick. Beautiful.
01:08:12
Speaker
Sting dodges a clothesline and crossbodies Booker for two, but Booker floats over a suplex only for Sting to return the favor and hit the scorpion death drop for the three count and the win. Sting celebrates with a stinger call and leaves, but Booker chases him down, beckoning him back to the ring. Sting gets in and they stare each other down, but Booker extends a fist, and Sting gives him a fist bump and leaves for real. Thoughts on this one?
01:08:40
Speaker
That was a pretty good match. Like a lot of the show, Ed has done with no time to do anything. It's a real condensed match, which is a shame because it's two really good brusselberg together. And with the kind of interdynamic where one is definitely a face and one is aligned with bad guys, but still trying to try not to lose himself, basically his idea. Yeah. Booker does nothing actually heal us during the match. Yeah. He's just aligned with the new blood because he shares their goal. Yeah.
01:09:07
Speaker
You get a good feeling of tension from him about wanting to remain who he is, like you put it. Yeah, exactly. For the most part, they work really well together. They seem pretty well in sync. There's some uneven bits here and there, but nothing like really badly botched or anything. The ending is good, but it definitely feels kind of abrupt. It's not like Booker was going for like a big move and it's counter into the death drop, like is often done.
01:09:35
Speaker
So it's weird that it's just a normal transition move like Suplex is set up for the finish. I like that it's a double counter though. I thought that was cool. Yeah. That Booker does the float over, then Sting does the float over into the death drop. Yeah, it's well done. It's just not the drama you expect it to happen. It's a strong TV match, but they don't have quite the extra element to the match in the story that you'd want for a match you show you're paying for like this. Okay.
01:10:03
Speaker
They gave these guys a little more actual time than some of the other matches, and they made an actual match out of it. It still felt like it was on fast forward. The listed match time is about 6 minutes 34 seconds, but that's way better than 2 minutes 40 that our last one was. Agreed, yeah. But they managed to get in a variety of action, do some actual selling, and put in some clever ideas and nice counter sequences to make a fun contest.
01:10:29
Speaker
To me, it felt like an actual full-fledged, pay-per-view-worthy match just done quickly. So, kudos to Sting and Booker T for this. Nice post-match storytelling, but the defeated Booker still showing respect to his opponent, too. It left Booker in an interesting place with the New Blood.
01:10:46
Speaker
The only mark against this in my book is Hudson and Madden's commentary. They keep acting like we are watching an hour-long, feud-ending epic, and repeatedly laughably claim the guys have thrown everything they can at each other when they clearly still have several of their favorite moves left. It cheapens a good match.
01:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, because I don't think Booker even does book even go to the top rope at all. He never goes to the top rope. Yeah, he never does the Harlem hangover. They not even like stop from doing the move. No. Yeah. He hits the Harlem sidekick and the axe kick, but he doesn't do the missile drop kick or the hangover. So yeah, cheapens a good match, but it's still a good match.
01:11:23
Speaker
No, it's good. It's just abrupt and not quite given. They do what they can with it, but yeah, it's not quite given enough. You give these guys 10 minutes instead of six and a half, and they take this exact formula and just expand it a little, and it'll be just great with these two. Absolutely, yeah, agreed. But what we got was still fun. Yeah, that's fun. We go to Mean Jean, who is with Billy Kidman, Eric Bischoff, and Tori Wilson.
01:11:52
Speaker
Corey Wilson, Billy Kidman, and especially you, Eric Bischoff. I get the impression there's tremendous concern that Hulk Hogan might show up here in Chicago tonight. It's a rumor. It's just a rumor. I don't think for a second I'm going to let a stupid rumor rain on my parade. Look, Hogan may be at glory hour, but there's no way in the world he's dumb enough to step into the lines.
01:12:31
Speaker
Bischoff is great here. Doing a perfect act of a guy trying to look confident while he's actually terrified. Kidman nicely gets across his overconfidence in return, downplaying the threat so much it's clear he just doesn't understand what he's gotten into.
Kidman vs Vampiro Match
01:12:46
Speaker
Unfortunately, none of this discusses Kidman's actual next opponent, Vampiro, or the US title tournament that Kidman is involved in. At all. Yeah. Add at least another few seconds to this for Kidman to at least mention that he happens to be in a match tonight, and it'd be quite good, I think.
01:13:04
Speaker
Yeah, Stacey's my vampir being part of the new blood, but he's not as good as him or something. Bischoff could like gloat about how he's stacking the deck in this. Which, that's mentioned a lot by commenters, they never provide them. Yeah, yeah. All the promos need more time tonight, but this one especially, they only get to address one of these several storylines that they're involved in. That's unfortunate.
01:13:26
Speaker
What's the other thing I was just thinking about? So Jeff Jarrett gets to go right to the main event of the show. He's like their golden boy. The chosen one. Yeah, exactly. But Kidman has to do at best wrestle two matches.
01:13:42
Speaker
or possibly three to get the U.S. title. Yeah. Yeah. I think they'd like Bompamo ahead somehow. But no, I don't. I don't care about him. They don't. They don't actually like you, Kidman. Yeah. Don't worry. He'll learn. Eventually. Probably. Yeah. Maybe. Our seventh match is Vampiro versus Kidman with Tori Wilson in a WCW United States Championship tournament quarterfinal match.
Hogan's Interference Chaos
01:14:10
Speaker
Referee for this one is Charles Robinson.
01:14:13
Speaker
So this is again, new blood versus new blood. Vampiro is out first, as the commentators discuss Kidman kind of overlooking him in the promo backstage. So at least they took the time to build up what Kidman's actually doing tonight. Yeah. Kidman and Wilson walk out arm in arm. Kidman's entrance video shows him with the white muscle shirt, which he isn't wearing anymore. So yeah, again, update. Yeah, right. Kidman and Wilson share a kiss.
01:14:40
Speaker
Kidman charges, but Vampiro dodges so he eats turnbuckle. Vampiro lands loads of strikes and hits a flying clothesline for two and nine tenths. Madden claims Vampiro is so intense it's like a scene from The Exorcist. How? Yeah, how. Go explain.
01:14:57
Speaker
Kidman slides under a knee strike for a Herkumrana and a drop kick, but Vampiro can powerbomb Kidman. Or at least throw him from powerbomb position. I guess maybe that's why it counts. That's why he tricks him, he throws him and throws him trying to drop. There you go, okay. Belly to back suplex, and now Vampiro can't powerbomb Kidman. And all is right with the world. Yes. Kidman slingshot leg drop for two, but Vampiro rakes his eyes. Tony calls a Vampiro kick a back leg front kick.
01:15:26
Speaker
He's been possessed by Bischoff. Yes. It is like The Exorcist. Right? Kidman's sidewalk slam earns two, but Vampiro counters a suplex with his own and hits a one-handed choke slam for two. Vampiro actually signals to the crowd for the nail in the coffin, but then goes for a powerbomb instead. But still can't powerbomb Kidman. Duh. I'm not quite sure what happened there, like he just forgot to spot it in his mind, it's very weird.
01:15:53
Speaker
He goes down wrong for the facebuster and seems to collide with Kidman's knees. Ooh, he gets two. Outside, Vampiro evidently has never taken a ramp to the steps before and just walks knees first into them.
01:16:07
Speaker
Hudson tries to at least cover that as a possible leg injury that could affect his kicks, so Vampiro immediately lands a kick combo for two and a half. Poor Hudson. Kidman DDT for two, and Vampiro takes it on his knees. I kind of wonder if he actually did get hit solid by Kidman's knees there, because he then immediately resists taking face bumps. Immediately following that twice. That's very possible, yeah.
01:16:32
Speaker
Suddenly, a Dodge Charger pulls in backstage, and Hogan rushes to the ring, as Vampiro hits a distracted Kidman with a one-handed bulldog, but Kidman punts him in the balls. Hogan charges, and after some brief Kidman punches, beats the crap out of him. Kidman shows Vampiro how you take a face smash to the stairs. Yes. Hogan finishes off with a double-handed choke slam off the ring steps onto the commentary table, which doesn't break. No. So poor Kidman falls off onto his neck.
01:17:00
Speaker
Yes. Ow. Yeah. Hogan slams him through the table more fully a second time and rolls him in, telling Vampiro to pin him. Vampiro obliges for the three count and the win. Tony at least tries to justify that not being a DQ by saying that Hogan hadn't come in to help Vampiro, but normally all that matters is who you hit, not who you intended to help. But beyond that, he did help Vampiro.
01:17:28
Speaker
There. He literally tells him to pin kid. Yes. There's a bit where Vampiro see that he's trying to extract the referee from what's happening. I don't think it's successful, but he's always trying. Like he's trying to talk to her for like point of way while the rough, just like your Vampiro, you have no personality. I'm not talking to you. Right. But creative a peer release trying to cover up for that. Yeah. Okay.
01:17:53
Speaker
Hogan comes over and takes Hudson's headset, but is handed a microphone to use instead. He tells Bischoff he hopes he was watching, because he's coming for Bischoff now. Thoughts on this one? That was a pretty good match up until the end.
01:18:09
Speaker
They have a good sort of pattern, I think. They work together pretty well. They have the sort of same energy. Kidman can speed things up. Well, obviously we need to. Vampiro can keep pace pretty well. Vampiro with someone like Kidman can do the power stuff, I think, realistically. Yeah. That was an interesting part of this match, seeing Vampiro occasionally wrestle more like a power wrestler. Yeah.
Hogan's Dramatic Confrontation with Bischoff
01:18:31
Speaker
Much like Kidman with Rey Mysterio last year. Yes, exactly. Was that last year? Yeah, it was. It just seems so good that I can't believe that
01:18:38
Speaker
to make a different company put the show on. Yeah. But yeah, because I think it's one thing that can work with Kidman, but it can't work with other wrestlers. Yeah. A lot of guys you can't do that realistic with. He has to rely on the kicking, I think more than anything else. The ending is a lot of nonsense. I mean, they stop wrestling when the camera cuts the back for no apparent reason. Knowing the car is going to get there, apparently. Yeah. Oh, did you spot the Terry Taylor cameo?
01:19:08
Speaker
Um, not at this point. I didn't spot it, but I did spot it later. Terry Taylor is the guy at the grove position at the table that Hogan asked with a ring. Like, Oh, they're the ring. Okay. He's the blunter guy with the headset on. Yeah. Cause this point he's a backstage guy. He shows up later. He said, yeah.
01:19:24
Speaker
I think Vampiro realizes anything. You realize that this extended beatdown of Kidman shouldn't count. Should he take a Dequalified, which honestly would have been funnier if they just had that kind of disqualification. I know it ruins the Vampiro Sting matchup, which is the problem. Yeah. We kind of came in like laid out and then the next guy's match against Kidman is now he sort of walks out and just pins him.
01:19:49
Speaker
just literally have for the next four matches Kidman lying there in the shattered remnants of the commentators table and then it comes to his next match the guy picks him up carries into the ring sets him down and pins him yeah right go whole hog with it right yeah
01:20:05
Speaker
The big problem has to be said before though, this is a new blood versus new blood. I don't really care in storyline who wins. I don't either than the vent because I'm the fan at home or in the arena that wants to see Sting win.
01:20:20
Speaker
I don't want to see either of these guys. And again, you could have made it interesting too with It's New Blood versus New Blood. So when Hogan comes out, Vampiro should help Kidman. True. You could do something where Hogan beats up Kidman, but then Vampiro breaks it up. Yeah.
01:20:37
Speaker
But then still, sneakily chooses to steal the pin or something like that. You could play with the group dynamic a lot more, where Vampiro behaves as though none of this involves him at all. Yeah. Rather than realizing, hi, I'm in this faction with the guy that's getting his butt kicked at the moment.
01:20:52
Speaker
What I think would have made this work is if he got a short Vampiro promo, which I know you would have really loved. But okay, hear me out. At least like have him say why he didn't help. But you know, have Vampiro kind of 22nd promo like everyone else in the show, saying he doesn't care about the U.S. tournament necessarily, he doesn't care about Kidman, he just wants to get Sting. Right. So that's why he'd be willing to ignore Kidman being beaten up by Hogan. Because he knows if I get past Kidman, I get to face Sting. Correct. That's all he cares about. Yeah.
01:21:20
Speaker
Yeah, you can make a point of him moving out of the way for Hogan like they hear you go ahead and have him Hogan go, huh? Okay, and then just going for it. Yeah, exactly. I think something like that would have helped a lot. Yes Yeah, I thought this was another match that got some actual time It's listed as eight minutes and 28 seconds and lo and behold. It's another match. That's actually reasonably entertaining. Yeah, I
01:21:41
Speaker
These two told a fun story of the initially casual and overconfident Kidman just being overwhelmed by a heavily aggressive Vampiro, but being able to fight back to even ground once he started taking things seriously.
01:21:53
Speaker
leave aside the stupidity of Vampiro trying to powerbomb Kidman after already taking Kidman's usual counter, and Vampiro's seeming unfamiliarity with how to take some fairly standard bumps, and this was a fun little match. It was neat to see Vampiro, as you said, get to go full power wrestler in this one. He's never full cruiserweight, but usually he doesn't pull as many strength moves as he got to do against Kidman, so I agree, that was really cool.
01:22:18
Speaker
I'm also torn on Hogan's late match entrance. Aside from it really should have been a DQ, it does rob us of a clean finish to what had been a great match, but it also does get a heck of a reaction from the crowd and nicely escalates the Hogan-Kidman-Bischoff plot, which is really the focus of Kidman's story at the time.
01:22:38
Speaker
And if they don't want Kidman winning the US title, I do think it's a fairly good way to remove him from the tournament without having him actually lose. Yeah. So, I don't have a huge problem with it, but I think there's better ways they could have done it. I think using more modern booking, admittedly it's overused now, but this is, you know, 2001 when the show happened, or 2000 when the show happens, do the Hogan's music plays and while Kidman's at the top, he's distracted and hit with a nail with a coffin.
01:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, Vampiro just wins the match in part because Hogan provided a distraction, but then you have Hogan come down and beat the ever-living crap out of Kidman. Yeah, giving you still what felt like a complete match. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out, maybe you're opinioning this. I'm trying to figure out there was a miscue with Kidman and Vampiro at the end. Because when Hogan comes out, Vampiro tries to keep wrestling. Yeah, he does a one-handed bulldog and then Kidman boots him in the balls. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like he did get the idea that our match is stopped now because this is happening.
01:23:35
Speaker
Like I said, there's a few points in this match where Vampiro doesn't quite seem to get what's going on. And I kind of do wonder if he got knocked a little bit loopy by that one point where it looks like he runs into Kidman's knees. Maybe. But it doesn't impact his performance that much, but there's some sloppiness that starts happening after that point in
Funk and Smiley's Comedic Hardcore Match
01:23:53
Speaker
the match.
01:23:53
Speaker
Because he's compensated for what's going to happen. Yeah, so I can't say for sure, but that that feels like maybe an explanation to me. I just weird because the match stops for Hogan coming out. Then Kim has to forcibly stop it again. Yeah, I can get beat up by Hogan. Yeah. We know where this is going. This is going towards a hardcore match with Hulk Hogan and Billy Kidman. Yeah. Yeah, it's slippery. Yes. I heard in the buildup or in the follow up because I watched that enter after as well.
01:24:23
Speaker
Hogan talks about how he's not Hulk Hogan anymore, he's a terrible Leia, and he's going to have a fight. I think that's building upSlambori, I believe. I think that's towardsSlambori more, yeah. Hogan getting rid of all his interesting colors and just being a big guy in all black. Yeah. With F-U-N-B written on his vest. Yes.
01:24:45
Speaker
We cut backstage where Bischoff is praying. Bischoff says he's getting out of there, but Russo says if he leaves, he's a sitting duck. No, maybe a walking one. Yeah, if you're sitting, you're a sitting duck. Yeah. Because Hogan will find him because the building's not that big. It's the largest arena in the United States, actually. Literally, the largest arena in the United States, yes.
01:25:09
Speaker
Russo says he'll take care of things and leaves as Bischoff desperately pleads for him to stay. Bischoff continues to be great in these segments. Hogan stalks backstage and bellows at people, threatening to drag Bischoff behind his car until he smells as bad as Rodman. What did Dennis Rodman do to you, Hogan? Yeah, wow. He swears a lot as he searches until he finds the room with Bischoff's name on the door, which seems like it might have been a good first place to try. Yeah, maybe.
01:25:38
Speaker
He boots the door in and goes to choke Bischoff, only for Russo to return and reveal his earlier plan was, in fact, to summon the police. Normally, I would call that sensible, but Russo recently committed assault and theft, and Bischoff recently attempted vehicular homicide live on TV. So I kind of feel like the cops would have questions for both of them as well. The cops drag Hogan off Bischoff and pulled their guns on him. Holy crap, this got way too real all of a sudden.
01:26:08
Speaker
You thought Doug Dellinger may sing. I think this guy's tired with something. Yeah. A legitimately terrified looking Hogan doubles back and falls on the couch. And Madden yells for the cops to shoot him, but they go for their cuffs as someone, I think Bischoff, yells as well for them to shoot Hogan rather than cuff him. We cut away for a second and cut back to Hogan being dragged away in cuffs as he and Bischoff continue screaming at each other. That got dark fast.
01:26:36
Speaker
Oh, it's even better. So the following night show after this show, the Du Bois people are in the building and they said no one else is allowed in, like they barricaded people out. Like they have actual police watching the doors and everything. Hogan shows up, the police say, they'll let him in and then he asks them again and they just let him in. The night after they pull guns on. Oh my gosh. Like he got the one nice cop. Yeah. Jeez. Consistency.
01:27:05
Speaker
This is certainly an intense confrontation, but the cops actually pulling their guns went way, way too far. Yeah.
01:27:12
Speaker
The image of Hulk Hogan staring down the barrel of several guns, I think I counted six or seven cops, is downright disturbing. And Shakespeare's wrestling's normal, largely consequence-free reality. I mean, this is the same company that just had, again, the very guy summoning these cops commit assault, theft, and attempted vehicular homicide and just go on their merry way. And where other people have committed backstage assaults and just waltzed on out to take matches that weren't even theirs.
01:27:39
Speaker
But Hogan is suddenly at gunpoint. It's insane. Yeah. All you really need here is Hogan tries to attack, but gets interrupted by security slash police. Like you said, maybe have Dellinger come in and mace him if you feel like you need a justification for him being dragged away. But yeah, no less than six cops all drawing guns on a single man is just unnecessarily frightening to watch.
01:28:03
Speaker
That cutaway is very interesting, right? Where they just blank for a second to, I forget, like the announcers for a second or something like that. And then back again, I kind of wonder if Hogan needed a couple seconds to compose himself because he looks legit scared when the guns first come out. Because I've seen him in movies. He cannot act. No, yeah. That felt like maybe they forgot to tell Hogan guns would be drawn.
01:28:25
Speaker
Very possible. In which case, yeah, my heart would stop for a second when that happened. Because he completely stops moving and just falls back on the couch and sits there for a second. Yeah. So I wouldn't be surprised if they needed to cut and say, Hulk, it's OK. And then he could get back into things. Yeah.
01:28:44
Speaker
You go back a couple years, you add to the era that it's peak, they're doing all sorts of nonsense under Bitrusa, of course, among other people. Vishof and BackstageBits talking to the wrestlers says, you know, these guys, they're doing all this crazy stuff on the show. They're gonna alien all these sponsors. But yeah, Pillman famously draws a single gun on Steve Austin they cut away. That's 1996. And he ran a few thousand in there. And cops throw several guns on man.
01:29:15
Speaker
Oi. It's bizarre. Well, we've showed the deadly serious consequences of an escalating feud between people, so now of course is the best possible time for a cartoonish hardcore match. Sounds good. So our eighth match is Terry Funk vs. Screamin' Norman Smiley for the vacant WCW Hardcore Championship. Referee for this one is Nick Patrick. But wait Bob, you have to know how we got this match. Oh do tell.
01:29:44
Speaker
Oh, it's great. First, bear in mind, the champion who gave the title was Brian knobs. Let's get that out of the way. At least he's not champion anymore. He's not yet. Yes. So on thunder, they announced they have a three team match where the winning team would qualify for spring stampede to battle for the vacant title. Okay. So it's a six person match with three teams. Okay.
01:30:10
Speaker
So we have Brian Knob, four champion, and his buddy, Fit Finley, back when they had matching crew cuts and camo. Worst thing to happen to Fit Finley in years. Yes. You have the almost a real team of Hugh Morris and Ming. They did Dungeon of Doom stuff together. Were they ever tagged together, though? I associate Morris and Barbary in more than Ming. I could be remembering it wrong, though. Maybe. And of course, the final team is Terry Funk and Norman Smiley.
01:30:39
Speaker
Okay. So it's a lot of what you expect. It's hitting and crowd brawling. There's a really awkward moment where Norma Smiley is set in a table by the other ramp area. So he let the record show audience that this required visual aids. Yes, it does. So this is Hugh Morris' cue to run and stage dive off to splash him. However, I don't know if he messed it up or he was worried about hitting Norman.
01:31:08
Speaker
He jumps, Norman moves, he doesn't splash the center of the table. He hits like the very front edge of the table. Oh! And there's a concrete floor there, so...
01:31:20
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure he could have competed in this match after that. It looked like a really pleasant bump. Oh, geez. He basically takes out the edge of the table and Smiley groans off. Oh, geez. So ultimately, you get to where Norris Smiley is down in the ringside area. Terry Funk's fighting the ring with, I think it's Finley and Knobbs or some form of them. Suddenly, Dustin Rhodes shows up, beats him up.
01:31:43
Speaker
and then he gets in the fisticuffs with knobs on the outside of the ring. I don't know why they're mad at him, but they are. While that's happening, Norris Miley slides over and pins Terry Funk. Come again? Yes. Norris Miley pins Terry Funk. They're the tag partners, right? Yes. That seems like that shouldn't be allowed. So, to summarize, Norris Miley won a three-team tag team match by pinning his own partner.
01:32:16
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's the real thing that happened. I didn't think... Spoilers, I didn't like this match, but I didn't think that this match could get any worse, but knowing how we got to this match makes it actually somehow worse. Yeah. That is so stupid. I know. Did they not understand what a tag team is? No, barely not. Oh my gosh.
01:32:45
Speaker
Oh, man. Oh, that explains so much. Yeah. Wow. Why doesn't someone try that earlier? Yeah. Just grab your own grab your own buddy, pull him into the ring and say, hey, lay down and just pin him. First team to do that wins. Yes. It's a race. Yeah, exactly. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Yes, yes. Putting it inside that insanity, which is a lot.
01:33:14
Speaker
Norah Sibaeli is still putting this gimmick of, he doesn't like hardcore wrestling and put involved in it. So he enters a match to qualify for the hardcore title match. I know, it's like... Yeah, they at least had someone constantly like forcing him to do it. Yeah. Like he was reluctantly part of the New Blood and Bischoff didn't like him and kept pushing him into these or something like that. The only way you'll get to stay in the New Blood is if you fight for hardcore titles. Yeah. We need someone in here. Yeah. Oh, wow.
01:33:43
Speaker
Oh man, that's so dumb. Terry Taylor and Terry Funk. Terry and Terry. Terry's in law. Are looking odd as Hogan's dragged away. Someone can be heard breathing heavily. I think it's Bischoff. As you can hear someone say, relax, Mr. Bischoff. I've got it taken care of.
01:34:04
Speaker
Taylor, meanwhile, calmly explains to Funk that Smiley's nervous about fighting, so he's not going to the ring. And Funk can find him in catering. Taylor gives directions. Turn right at the Doritos. What a massive tonal shift from the last segment.
01:34:20
Speaker
You can still hear Bischoff ranting about Hogan as Funk wanders down the hall, finds the Doritos, and heads into catering. Funk asks after Smiley and everyone points to the restroom. I feel like we've seen this before or since. Yes. So Funk heads in and finds Norman screaming and cowering in the stall. Funk boots in the door and drags Smiley out. Smiley is dressed in most of a baseball catcher's outfit, sans headgear.
01:34:47
Speaker
In the lunch area, Funk sprays him with fire extinguisher, slams him on a very solid table that does not break at all. He just tips it over because he's anointed. Dumps soda cans on him, and throws him through a kitchen serving window. When he follows, Norman sprays him with something from an overhead nozzle. It's like, it's totally used to clean the dishes. Yeah, yeah, I think it's just water, but... Yeah, no, it's just a water, yeah.
01:35:11
Speaker
Smiley beats him up with a plastic trash can, metal trash can, metal table, and a cookie sheet, as referee Nick Patrick finally arrives, then dumps Funk into a trash can and tips it over. Funk nails Smiley with a laptop in the head, thrice, for two. As a reminder, this was well before ultralight laptops were a thing. That looked solid. Smiley kind of like leans into each hit, too, which couldn't have felt great. Yeah, I was thinking, you could have done a funny spot with the, uh, they definitely, you know, need more funny spots in these matches.
01:35:42
Speaker
Put Terry Funk in the trash can and knock it over. Go to pin him. And as you lean on the pin, the trash can rolls forward. So you gotta go again. You keep doing it like two, three times. It's not dumber than what they do in this match. No, no, it's not dumber. It's not smarter, but it's not dumber. It'd be funny once. Okay.
01:36:03
Speaker
Smiley stuns Funk and climbs the ladder to a ceiling pipe to hide. Even though, one, Funk watched him do it. Yes. And two, the pipe is barely higher up than Funk's head so he can easily reach. Yes. Funk puts a table full of cookies under him and hits him with a chair so he falls through the table. Now I want cookies. I've still got a brutal Diet Coke back there. Although they do yell like, oh no, he's dumping Diet Coke on him when it's mostly regular Coke cans. Yes, that's true.
01:36:33
Speaker
Funk and Smiley brawled towards ringside, and Smiley takes control with chair shots and rams into containers. As Funk crawls into the ring, Smiley nails him with the edge of a chair right on the back of the skull, which had to suck. Smiley smashes Funk's face into the chair on the mat, then dances suggestively around Funk's butt, until Funk swings the chair back overhead to nail him, then flings it at his face, which also had to suck.
01:37:01
Speaker
Smiley rolls out and Funk props a ladder tilted between the ropes, as Dustin Rhodes runs out and attacks Funk, pausing to fix the ladder's position for some reason.
01:37:10
Speaker
Rhodes pile drives Funk onto the chair, but Funk gets a boot up on a second rope chair shot, and Rhodes awkwardly rebounds onto the ladder that he'd been nice enough to ensure was pointing exactly as it needed to be for him to fall into it. That's nice. I hate this match. Yes. Smiley to the apron, but Funk hits him with the ladder, then throws it out onto him for the three count, the win, and the title.
01:37:33
Speaker
Funk accepts his hardcore title belt and celebrates as we cut to an ad for the WCW mousepad, which Tony says is free to people who ordered Spring Stampede. Tony oddly notes that yes, you get a mousepad, not a chair, ladder, or fight in the back. Are those normally mail-in rewards for ordering pay-per-views? Yeah, Tony Funk glares them to you.
01:37:55
Speaker
However, Al, a great injustice appears to have been righted this year. Really? The mousepad also bears WCW's website address. Oh, good. Which is now WCW.com. So for some reason, it was WCW Wrestling in prior years, but now it's actually just WCW.com.
Booker T and Russo's Tension
01:38:15
Speaker
They finally, I guess, worked that deal out. Got it from the internet squatter that took it, I guess. Yes. I don't know if that was even going on in the 90s, but... Probably, honestly.
01:38:24
Speaker
Thoughts on this one? Oh, let me get my comfort of notes out here. Bad comedy. Weapon shot. A concussion or two. Yep. That's it. This was, at least, a little better than their later match at Slamberry 2000 that also involved Ralphis, but not by much. No.
01:38:49
Speaker
It's just more ridiculous hardcore crap, full of spots that are downright stupid in a variety of ways. People do things that just make no sense. Spots are overly complicated and doomed to fail. And through it all, the wrestlers take ridiculous risks with each other's safety, nailing each other repeatedly in the skull with heavy objects and getting really, really careless with their chair shots in particular.
01:39:13
Speaker
Funk just starts hurling chairs at Smiley, and that one time Smiley caught him solid in the skull with the edge was just awful to watch. Yes, this did have some small moments of amusement, but it's just simultaneously far too silly and far too dangerous to be entertaining. I very much wish they had not had this on the show.
01:39:35
Speaker
I'm torn on the idea that they have, here's the tournament for US and tag titles. And then here's one hardcore match. It is disrespecting the title a bit that I guess gets one throwaway match in the middle of the show. I'll agree with you. Although I feel that this title deserves to be disrespected. Fair enough. But it's just funny. Like here's this big tournament show and you get one match for your title. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I definitely don't want more matches, but also one match is insulting. Yes. Yeah.
01:40:06
Speaker
Backstage, Russo is confronting Booker T, who has changed from ring gear to nice slacks, button-down shirt, and even a tie. Got a date after this, Booker? Russo tells Booker that Russo is the nice guy, and he's trying to help Booker, but Bischoff is angry. Russo says they can overlook what Booker did with Sting, or at least I assume that's what he meant by this potato crap. That's what he says. I don't know what it means. As long as Booker does him a favor.
01:40:38
Speaker
Our ninth match is Mike Awesome versus Scott Steiner in a WCW United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament semi-final match. The referee for this one is Billy Silverman. Awesome's music is so loud that it drowns out the commentators trying to discuss what just happened with Booker T. So is Steiner's. The commentators seem to move on to discussing Hogan telling Bischoff that he'd show up on Nitro or something, but that's all I could hear. Yeah. Not a big loss.
01:41:08
Speaker
Steiner beats Awesome up, including a Steiner line, and throws him through the ropes, where Awesome takes a brief walk to recover while Steiner does push-ups. Awesome
Awesome vs Steiner Match
01:41:16
Speaker
tries to get back in and Steiner hits him, but when Steiner bounces off the ropes, Awesome hits a flying shoulder block over the ropes to his face, actually catching his legs on the ropes on the way down.
01:41:27
Speaker
Awesome jumping splash off the mat with great hang time for two, and another two from a top rope flying clothesline. Steiner boots him in the nuts, and hits a belly-to-belly suplex. Hudson brings up the loose and DQ rules, and Madam bizarrely says, the cops had guns and weren't DQ'd. Tony pauses, then says, that's a good point, and precisely the tone of voice one uses when it was not, in fact, a good point.
01:41:55
Speaker
Awesome counters a corner whip with a rebound back elbow for two, more back than elbow there, and gets another two with a great jumping leg drop. The crowd cheers, looking to one side, and as Awesome goes up top, Kevin Nash runs down and nails him with a crutch. The handle cover goes flying into the crowd. It's a death. Steiner stares confusedly at Nash, but turns and locks in the Steiner recliner on Awesome for the submission and the win.
01:42:24
Speaker
We get a glimpse of a satisfied-looking Nash, and Steiner poses in victory on the ropes. Thoughts on this one? It's less of an actual match than the last one was with Awesome, unfortunately. I think these two could work together well.
01:42:41
Speaker
I think awesome. He has the real good offense, leaping ability. He's got all the physical stuff you need for a match. I think give him a good story with Steiner and give them a lengthy time and not a sweet finish. I think they can actually have a real good match together if Steiner is motivated, which for the bits he tries to control does seem fairly motivated on this show, which is good. Yeah. He's not distracted by all the nonsense.
01:43:06
Speaker
It's disappointing that this is my awesome second match. Right, yes, exactly. He is protected in the loss because he's attacked from behind when it's something he's about to win. But at the same time, like we'll see the other part of the show and I've seen on build ups.
01:43:23
Speaker
Steiner will get help from someone cheating on the outside, and then he'll lock on his submission hold, rather than just pinning a
Awesome's Departure from ECW
01:43:30
Speaker
guy. And it's like, you could have just pinned a guy, he was actually out. Yeah, I actually would have preferred a pin in this case. Or one of two things, one of two things. One, he pins him and just gets a normal three count, and that's the guy's unconscious, he loses really nothing in that case. Or two, he puts on the Steiner recliner, but the guy is out.
01:43:51
Speaker
the guy's just actually unconscious, so he doesn't actually submit. Right. He just passed out and the guy lifts his arm and checks three times and that's it. Yeah, or even as the one where Lucky's completely dead and they do that. Yeah. I think one of those two options works, but Awesome actually does submit. Yes. Which in second match in, I don't know. Yeah, they say his back's already damaged from being hit by the crutch, but again, just pin him, man. Yeah, yeah.
01:44:20
Speaker
Yeah, I thought this was another super short, very basic match. Each got a couple minor highlight points for their stuff, but then we went straight to the finish. It's the Cliff Notes version of a Scott Steiner Mike Awesome match. It was nice to once again avoid the usual heel Steiner stalling, if only because the match was so short.
01:44:39
Speaker
They did have some chemistry though, like you said. I feel like these two could have a very nice match if they actually got time. Yes. So this was fine as an audition, but underwhelming as an actual match.
01:44:50
Speaker
I don't mind Nash's actual interference as it progresses the Nash Awesome story and that's Awesome's actual feud. And it's a way like with Kidman to get Awesome out of the title tournament without a clean loss. But like you said, it's a shame that they have him submit. Yeah. And it is a massive shame that what's evidently Awesome's first two actual WCW matches are both short and complicated by weird outside interference. True.
01:45:18
Speaker
at least this one was less stupid. Yeah. For what worth awesome got to do his big splashes and jumps and show off a bit in his limited time. Yeah, he gets to showcase like awesome is actually a really good guy for the short matches. Yeah, I think if you didn't have.
01:45:35
Speaker
The interference spots and you didn't have the super weirdness of the first match awesome would actually be Capable of having match of the night stuff. Yeah on a show like this where everything's like sub five minutes sure because he's so good at like just blazing through his stuff, right which is part of the Somewhat problem for him when he goes to longer matches at times. I've even made that case Yeah, just like decides to go steamroll like it's a five-minute match anyway, right but
01:46:04
Speaker
on a show like this, he's like the perfect guy. So why don't you use him? Yeah, like they they they have one of the guys that can honestly handle super duper fast matches. And they don't let him really show what he can do with that. Yeah, they have to over complicate things. It's a real shame. I agree.
01:46:26
Speaker
This might surprise you, but there is no... I had to check. I feel like I must have missed something. There is no pay-per-view match between Kevin Nash and Mike Awesome. What? No. What? I looked. I can't find one. What? I Googled it. I Googled Kevin Nash versus Mike Awesome. I found them on Nitro Wrestling, a match. Oh, jeez. This is the post-slavery Nitro.
01:46:50
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, they've actually been building to it fairly effectively. I don't know if I could find something I'll talk about, but there's no reason this doesn't exist. That is very strange. Yeah. So he's the only thing I talk about. So Mike Austin debuted in Nitro before Spring Stampede, attacking Kevin Nash the bit they saw where he hit him with the crutch. So the bit where Nash hit him with the crutch is payback. That's fine.
01:47:18
Speaker
Mike Awesome is at this point, the current reigning ECW heavyweight champion. He's reigning champion for ECW under Paul Heyman. If you believe anyone that's talked about, and there's several sources to say this, Paul Heyman was not paying them. Or at least not paying them regularly. We've heard that about several performers at this time as well.
01:47:39
Speaker
Normally, you criticize a guy for leaving a company the way that Mike Awesome does. Yeah. But if you're not being paid, I mean. You're the top store in the company. You're not being paid. And you have a family, and you're doing all these shows for me. Yeah, just this is dangerous work. Yeah.
01:47:55
Speaker
This guy is going out there day in, day out, doing dangerous work for you. I'm totally on awesome sight in this one. Yeah. So he took a big payday from WCW and they gave him a bonus to leave now rather than show up after this pitch view ends and that the four ECW could set up him losing the title. Yeah.
01:48:15
Speaker
That's where he's going to take four more of this. Famously, the East of You One Night Stand Show 2005. Joey Styles hates Mike Awesome for that. He's made the whole match critiquing. He has some really off-putting stuff. Yeah, because he's mad. I get it, but it's really rough. Yeah, yeah. So Mike Awesome is champion. It only was an injunction by a judge to stop him from showing up on Nitro wearing the belt. They said you can't do that.
01:48:43
Speaker
So they had to work out a deal now to get the title of Mike Awesome and back to UW. This is stuff of life and I've seen a whole video just on this. It's really interesting to forget the full story, but this is what happens. They work out a deal to have Mike Awesome show up at an ECW house show, not pay-per-view mind you, house show taken in film for ECW and TNN.
01:49:05
Speaker
My awesome opponent in his title match, Taz. Taz works for the WWF at this point. Having just left ECW maybe six months earlier. Less than that, I think. Wow.
01:49:19
Speaker
So this is a weird point in history where a WWE contracted employee is defending the ECW title at an ECW show against a WWF star. That is an amazing confluence of things, isn't it? Yeah. That's one of the rare times, or perhaps the only time, that all three companies are involved in a single match. Yeah, I can't think of one top in the head. If it's more, they're pretty rare.
01:49:45
Speaker
All three in
Russo Fires Rhodes
01:49:46
Speaker
one place. Yeah, that's a that's a really interesting historical foot. Yeah, maybe one of those Brian Hilda brand more shows maybe a bunch of people, but I don't know. Then it's a house show. It's a special event show. It's not airing on the company. Yeah, it's literally this is for this company with a guy from this company and this company. Yes. That's interesting. Mm hmm. It's bizarre that he got to this point. Yeah, so they wrestle a very short match because I mean, just to be honest,
01:50:13
Speaker
Would you wrestle a lengthy Dana's match? No. Have you heard Awesome? No, I wouldn't. Absolutely not. Nor if I were Taz. Yeah. Because you clearly left for a reason earlier as well. Yes. I think it was very big of both of them to be willing to come back and do that. Yeah. Yes, I wrestle at 90 seconds and he taps out of the Taz mission and drops the title of the Taz.
01:50:35
Speaker
This leads to Taz going on ECW Pay Per View, again as a WF employee still won the championship, where he loses to Tommy Dreamer. Okay. It gets better. If you think WCW is alone in devaluing their titles, you are mistaken. The main event of the show is CyberSlam 2000. Tommy Dreamer fights an actual lengthy match against Taz, probably Vince paid Taz for that.
01:51:00
Speaker
He drops the title to dreamer. It's a big thing. Cause he's the original guy. They expect him at this point, Justin credible runs out. Doesn't credible was one half of the, at this point, ECW tag champions with Lance storm. He throws down his own tag belt, which he defended earlier in the same show spits on it. And says he wants a title match against dreamer who just wrestled the match dreamer. Cause he's a wrestling babyface is a moron and says, yes.
01:51:30
Speaker
And because it's 2000 wrestling, he's betrayed by his own valet and drops the title. Oh my gosh. And to put a nice big bow on this insane sandwich involving these titles. So the ECW title tag titles are obviously not on the team anymore because we're going to get spit on them. Yeah. This leads to Lance Dorm, credible tag partner, getting a title match against him on the negative review because he's upset at everything.
01:51:57
Speaker
whereupon Credible beats him and Lance Dorm leaves for WCW. So, all that happened.
01:52:06
Speaker
I feel like isn't there a midpoint in there, too, where like Taz briefly, well, ECW world champ actually shows up on a WWF show with the belt and gets his butt kicked? By Triple H, who's the WWF champion at the time. Yeah. So the thing that they had an injunction against WCW specifically to avoid, they beg a WWF guy to come in to save their title and then suffer the very thing that they wanted to avoid against WCW. Correct.
01:52:33
Speaker
It's not exactly a surprise that ECW is not around anymore either, is it? No, no. I realize this is not a show about bashing ECW, but that's fairly bashable. Yeah, absolutely. Oh geez, okay. We cut backstage, where Vince Russo screams at Dustin Rhodes while Booker T looks on. Russo is peeved that Rhodes let Funk win the hardcore title, as Russo wanted the New Blood to win every title.
01:53:02
Speaker
Russo says, Rhodes is fired. Rhodes tells him to get out of his face. Booker quietly tries to calm Rhodes, as Russo says, Dustin and Dusty were never anything. The only time Dustin was something was as Goldust, which Russo claims credit for, including writing Goldust lines. Seriously, Russo, don't try to make me care about your storyline by admitting that your other storylines were fake. Yeah, that's true.
01:53:30
Speaker
Russo walks off, leaving Booker to sue the Angry Roads. Yeah, it's a weird segment. It's kind of interesting to note that, I don't know if it's the first time they've interacted, but we get a Booker T Future Goldust. Right, they are eventually tag partners or something. They are, yeah. Yeah. It never be, yeah. Yeah, it's a weird segment. It's weird for a number of reasons. This would be a nitro, for one thing.
01:53:58
Speaker
For one, it should be on Nitro. For another, why is Russo yelling at the guy who interfered in the match, not the guy who was actually in the match, but too busy dancing and climbing on pipes to win it? Yeah, true. Yeah. It's not like Rhodes' interference gave Funk the means to win the match. Yeah. It's not like he screwed up his interference spot and therefore Funk knocked him into Smiley and caused Smiley to lose or something like that. True, yeah. In that case, I could totally understand going after Rhodes for that. Right, yeah.
01:54:28
Speaker
But Smiley was totally going to lose that match until Rhodes interfered. Yeah. Funk was, I believe, fully in control of the match at that point. Yes. Rhodes gave Smiley time to recover, and you fired him for it. Yes. Yeah, it makes very little sense as a storyline. I realize that heel managers are not supposed to make sense in who they punish. They're supposed to be unfair about it. Yeah. But this goes beyond that to being actively dumb. It does, yes.
01:54:57
Speaker
Our 10th match is Vampiro versus Sting in a WCW United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament semi-final match. The referee for this match is Mickey J.
Sting Defeats Vampiro
01:55:11
Speaker
Vampiro is out first, as the commentators discuss Rhodes firing. Madam brings up Goldust again, though not by name, which is probably smarter legally. Yes. And Hudson bizarrely claims that Rhodes threw a monkey wrench into the New Blood's plans by interfering on their behalf? Yeah. Again, it's really stupid.
01:55:31
Speaker
Thunder crashes, then the lights go out, and then strobing lights start up for Sting's entrance. Sting has put the trench coat back on but has not repaired his face paint, though to be fair it's actually still mostly intact at this point. Sting charges, but Vampiro hits a spinning wheel kick and lands strikes as Sting tries to get his coat off. Sting fires up, absorbing his blows, and floors Vampiro with one punch.
01:55:58
Speaker
Sting beats Vampiro up, inside and outside the ring, where Vampiro trips over a camera cable, but Sting smashes him face first into a nearby chair. Pretty sure that was an improvisation at Sting's point. Yeah. Sting hits Vampiro with the chair, then rolls him in for a great top rope splash for two. Back outside, Stinger call, but Vampiro dodges the Stinger splash and Sting eats barricade. What a shock.
01:56:22
Speaker
Vampiro gets revenge for the chair seat ram, superkicks Sting, and sends him into the ring, climbing up top, but Sting rolls towards the ropes, and Vampiro awkwardly just climbs down. Tony nicely covers it as a defensive roll on Sting's part. Vampiro flying shoulder block and leg drop for two, and Madden says they might seem like they're overselling matches by yelling all the time, but the matches are just that crazy. Which is something that you only say if you are overselling things.
01:56:52
Speaker
Vampiro gets two counts off a back suplex and a suplex. Hudson notes that Vampiro's lost most of his face paint. Stings is still actually pretty intact. Vampiro should ask where he buys his. Clearly, yeah. Vampiro slams Sting and goes up for, I think it's a dropkick? Sting tries to grab and counter into the Scorpion Deathlock, but they don't get the timing or position right and just collide and fall. Yeah. Tony nicely covers by saying that Sting swatted him down.
01:57:21
Speaker
I think Vampira's legs just didn't end up high enough for the grab that Sting was going for. Yeah, I think so. Sting quickly just goes and hits the Scorpion Death Drop, then locks on the Scorpion Death Lock for the quick submission and the win.
Diamond Dallas Page vs Jeff Jarrett
01:57:34
Speaker
Hudson builds up that this means the Millionaires Club has a man in the finals of the US title tournament, and Tony points out they've got a team in the tag finals as well. Madden says they haven't won yet. That's objectively true, yes. Yes, yeah, that is true.
01:57:49
Speaker
Thoughts on this one? I thought it was pretty good. My only issue is they seem like they're a bit out of sync in quite a few bits here. The dropkick bit, the roll towards the ropes, and then sort of reconvening, I guess, the side was due next.
01:58:03
Speaker
There's definitely a good match in here. I think you don't ever quite get it fully there. They have the good match story intensity. Yeah. Even if we didn't watch all the night shows and know the whole president paint thing and the betrayal thing, Vampiro, you know, from seeing them, they don't get along. There's intensity to the match itself. When they're in sync, I think that's quite crisp and it's this good that contact and everything. And there's not interference at the end. So that's a bonus. Yes.
01:58:33
Speaker
Yeah, this got a little more time than the previous match, so it got a bit more developed. It's still a Sting match on Fast Forward. It goes through some common Sting spots in record time, but I definitely liked little touches that they added, like how Sting sent Vampiro face-first into a chair, which again, I'm pretty sure was an improv to cover Vampiro tripping, and Vampiro nicely made sure to send him face-first into a chair and revenge later. Sting felt powerful in this, and the commentary did a fairly nice job of building up his legend.
01:59:02
Speaker
which unfortunately does make Vampiro look a little weak at points. Yeah. He does get into nice good bits of offense to feel like he at least has a chance at victory, but still comes off looking weaker compared to Sting. Yeah, that's a recurring thing, I think throughout their feud. Yeah. I remember us saying similar stuff at a Slamberees match. Yeah.
01:59:23
Speaker
There's some awkwardness to this, as you pointed out. Aside from the botched ending spot, which they do at least recover from very quickly, there's at least a couple other points where they just seem on a totally different page about what's supposed to happen, leading to Vampiro starting to set up for something but just stopping to go do something else. Yeah. So it's quite a bit sloppier than I anticipated, but they added more depth too, and that's appreciated. Yeah. And like you, I appreciate that this at least ends clean. It's a rare thing tonight. It is very, very, yeah.
01:59:55
Speaker
We cut to Mean Gene, who is with Diamond Dallas Page and Kimberly.
02:00:25
Speaker
Jeff Jarrett from one side of Chi-town to the other. He wants to hit my wife for the guitar. Baby doll, before the night is over, you're going to get your shot at Jeff Jarrett. If you get the big picture, let me connect the dots for you, Jarrett.
02:00:48
Speaker
Another short promo here, but DDP very effectively got across his anger at Jarrett, acknowledging that he's coming for the title, but making clear his focus is revenge for himself and his wife. I'm sure that this promo could be better with a little more time to it, but I thought Paige did a good job with the little time he got.
02:01:06
Speaker
Agreed, yeah, he definitely has the right energy for this kind of thing. Yeah. Knowing Page, he probably had it written on a little notecard that he went through several times before the thing, but hey, whatever works, right? They've done actually a fairly good job with the short promos tonight, but it doesn't change the fact that they're very short promos.
Disorganized Cruiserweight Match
02:01:21
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. It basically means he says, I have a question for you, and then they answer it and then leave. Yeah.
02:01:29
Speaker
Our 11th match is a six man match for the vacant WSW Cruiserweight Championship. The referee for this one is Charles Robinson. So fortunately for you, Bob, there is no insane six person match to set up this match, like with the hardcore title match. They pretty much just said, hey, we're doing this six person match on Spring Stampede. And as a warm up, here's the six people in a three and three tag match.
02:01:55
Speaker
But it's not like a qualifying one, it's just like all these people are in there. Okay. Yeah, here's the people that are in the match, and here's another match with them also here. Okay. Shannon Moore and Shane Helms of Three Count enter first, taking microphones. Moore says he knows the crowd came to see Three Count, but only two could make it. But the two of them are better than anything else. Bit of an insult to the guy that's not there now that I think about it. It's having courageous, though. Fair enough.
02:02:22
Speaker
Helm says everyone goes down for the three count. But suddenly, Crowbar, Lash Larue, and the artist formerly known as Prince Iakea, rush the ring, and the match is on.
02:02:32
Speaker
LaRue, Crowbar, and Artist beat up Moore and Helms, and LaRue throws Helms out and follows. Paisley appears outside the ring. Inside, Artist schoolboys Crowbar for one, as Hooventook Guerrera appears, soaking wet, and with a sweet hat, with which he smacks Moore. It was a nice hat. It was, yeah, yeah. Chris Candido appears and attacks Guerrera. Everybody ends up outside but Candido and Moore, and Candido gets two with a slam as Crowbar returns to break.
02:03:02
Speaker
Artist, LaRue, and more go to the apron and apparently this is now a tag match but with no teams.
02:03:10
Speaker
Helms has revived what stays on the floor, as does Guerreira and now Daphne and David Flair, as Crowbar and Candido fight. Crowbar bridging Northern Light's suplex for two, and LaRue breaks. Guerreira decides to stand on the apron as well. Crowbar slingshot Summer Slaw Leg Drop on Candido for two, as LaRue breaks again. Tony explains that any man can make a tag to get in, as Candido rolls out and LaRue just stays in even though he didn't tag anyone. What the hell is going on?!
02:03:40
Speaker
It's a Suicide Six match, you know? These things happen. Oh my gosh. By the way, you just call it Suicide Six match. It is? Yeah. No one says that. Yeah, they say it on Thunder. Okay. That's it. Thunder is not this show. That's true.
02:03:52
Speaker
Crowbar decks LaRue and falls over for no reason, twice. I'm not sure what he was doing there. Yeah, he's doing like, I'm a crazy guy thing. So he's like taking fake back bumps, like, ha ha. It's very strange. And LaRue is doing his dance like a crazy off. He randomly does splits. Yeah. Then clotheslines Crowbar for two. Lash uses his signature maneuver per Tony for two as artist saves. Did Tony forget what it was called?
02:04:38
Speaker
Candido gets suplexed by LaBru on the floor mats. Inside, Crowbar gets in and throws artists out, then holds Guerrero for a Daphne Frankenscreamer. But Guerrero dodges, so Daphne nails Crowbar, who reels outside. LaRue gives chase, then just kind of comes back. Daphne screams at Guerrero, and he actually sells it like a sonic attack. Good man. It was pretty funny.
02:04:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
02:05:01
Speaker
He tries the hoovy driver on her, but Crowbar helps her escape. Gerrera gets drop-kicked and falls into Daphne, but Crowbar catches her. Larue, Artist, Gerrera, and more with an assessor from Helms, each two outside dives onto people. Helms does a dance, and David Flair charges in to chop him once. Helms flees, and he and Flair fight outside.
02:05:23
Speaker
Candido goes up top, the artist runs into the most distant rope possible, so Candido crotches himself on the turnbuckle. That doesn't feel like that should have happened to that.
02:05:34
Speaker
Yeah. Artist and Candido muck up a fight on the top rope, so they repeat it, and Artist dodges a top rope headbutt and hits a Samoan drop. Paisley puts a chair in the ring, and Artist goes to the second rope, but Tammy Sitch suddenly appears and pulls Artist's hair, which makes him jump forward and fall on his back on the chair in defiance of all known laws of physics. Yes. Tammy shoves the reeling Candido on top for the three count, the win, and the title.
02:06:02
Speaker
Tammy celebrates with Candido, but Paisley comes over and gets in Tammy's face, and they roll around fighting as Madden screams about catfights. Candido comes over but does nothing, as Robinson, Moore, and LaRue get Paisley and Tammy away from each other. Robinson and Moore get iron-clawed in the balls by Paisley and Tammy, respectively. Robinson sells that like a champ. Candido finally gets Tammy out of the ring and celebrates with his new belt as Paisley yells at both of them.
02:06:31
Speaker
You may have noticed that there were eight guys actually featured in this six-man match. Yes. And the competitors just charged the ring rather than being announced, so it was only after the match that I actually figured out who the actual competitors were. Uh-huh. So here's the list. Okay.
02:06:47
Speaker
Shannon Moore, Chris Candido, the artist formerly known as Prince Iakea, Hooventook Guerreira, Crowbar, and Lash LaRue. Correct. For non-participants, we had Shane Helms accompanying Shannon Moore, Tammy Sitch accompanying Candido, Paisley accompanying artist, and Daphne and David Flair accompanying Crowbar. Yes. So our sixth man to monetize 11 people. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
02:07:14
Speaker
Tell people who's in the match. Like, actually announce them. Yes. Good gosh. Thoughts on this? So, I guess this is not your match tonight, Bob. Um, this may well be showing up in my worst three matches of the series. Yeah, I feel it.
02:07:31
Speaker
I get the idea of this match. In theory, like I'm broad strokes. Oh, there's a lot of nonsense in this match and confusion. So the idea is, okay, we have six guys that in theory kind of these big flashy moves. Although lash doesn't really do much. He's not bad, but he has no oomph to what he does. He does his signature, whatever the heck it's called twice. That's true. He does. It's like a Michinoku driver type of thing. Yeah. It practically who we drive her almost.
02:07:59
Speaker
That it's very close. Yeah. Which is why he counters it. He knows exactly how that. He's like, Oh, that we, yeah. The idea is that we've all these guys, we don't have a lot of time, clearly could be have too many matches on the show. Let thermal one match. This is like a highlight reel. Fans can see like their two, three big moves, their signatures. And they want to see more of these guys. So look at this cool stuff. I guys see little, I want to see a whole match. That's the idea. I'm pretty sure. Okay.
02:08:28
Speaker
In reality, everyone gets like 45 seconds to shine, before we get another run and finish involving someone else debuting for the company. And a shock. I think for me, the highlight for sheer stupidity, I hope I don't take it from you. Carver is holding the railroad. Daphne dumps it and she's gonna do her jumping Frankensteiner. And lands on crowbar instead. Could just stop.
02:08:52
Speaker
It's a two-part move. She jumps and lands on you and then does the rotation. She can go, oh wait, then let him set her down. But then she does it anyway. She just does it anyways. The one thing I will say in her defense
02:09:06
Speaker
It doesn't fully remove the stupidity, but she at least actually does a fair job of not looking at his face. She lands and just does it rather than landing and looking down. You can at least buy that she actually didn't see, though. Why would you not look at their face? You should look at their face. Yeah.
02:09:24
Speaker
I can appreciate at least like, you can sell that based on what she did, she wouldn't be able to tell but she should have looked. Yeah, it all could have worked if she like briefly, like has a realization look and then whoever you're someone else pulls her and makes you go. Yeah, like, yeah, that actually be kind of cute as a Yeah, option. Yeah, it should get down. They pour it in with but yeah, I just love that she could be easily stop the movie now anyways. Yeah, I'm crazy.
02:09:50
Speaker
What a complete and total mess. Yeah. Well, individual moments of this match contained some cool moves. Nothing flowed together at all. And it was impossible to follow. They don't even tell you who's actually in the match.
02:10:03
Speaker
At no point does anyone think to mention that Helms and Flair, for instance, are not actual match competitors. You just have to figure it out from the fact that they just never stand on the ring apron. Because apparently that's a thing. Even though they totally get involved in the action multiple times. Heck, Medusa recently held the cruiserweight belt so Daphne, Paisley, and Tammy could easily be competitors as well as they get involved. I'm surprised Robinson didn't start fighting too. That's about the only way this could have been more confusing.
02:10:31
Speaker
It really makes you value normal match entrances or even just basic ring announcing.
02:10:36
Speaker
Worse, there are loads of awkward spots in this match, from outright botches to people just seeming unaware of where they're supposed to be when. It adds to the sense of this just being incredibly unpolished. Not even the competitors seem to really grasp what's going on everywhere, or what the story of the match is supposed to be. Add the flat-out stupid rules, or what I was able to figure out about them anyway, and you have a recipe for disaster.
02:11:03
Speaker
I mean, who thought it was a good idea to do a tag format for a six man match in the first place? And once they did that, who thought it was a good idea to not actually require tags so we can't tell when guys are supposed to be in? If you're doing that, why not just let everyone fight at once? They basically do anyway. Yeah, I think part of the confusion might be a combination of people being involved. Because you have people that as far as I know, like Lasharu and Cobar, for instance, don't have a lot of international experience, at least at this point. Yeah.
02:11:33
Speaker
If who would take Guerrero obviously worked in Mexico. So he knows how the luchador tag match is where if you dive out that that count is UX in the ring. So when takes your place. Yeah. So he's acted like that's the rules, I think.
02:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, but he's like the only one. But I mean, they're not even doing that because like people will just get in the ring, then stay there. And you got three guys in the ring. And then finally, the one that was down just decides to roll out. Right. They don't wait for the guy to get out of the ring. No, they just are in there. Yeah, you're like one guy treating like I think it's supposed to be, which is a constant and now sort of match that a bunch of guys treating it like a sick man that they don't tag out. And then like one other guy thinking it's a regular tag match. Yeah, it's so bizarre. Yeah.
02:12:17
Speaker
It's just poorly thought out in every possible way. It's rare for me to so strongly dislike a Cruiserweight match. They're normally good fun. But at a bare minimum, I have to know who's fighting and what's going on. And I got neither of those things here. So it was awful.
Critique of the Cruiserweight Division
02:12:33
Speaker
puts the point really where cruiserweights are an afterthought in the company. It's really sad. Because I mean, even people that are treated for more cruisers, like Billy Kidman, his angle is Hulk Hogan calls me a flea market champion and beats me up every time I see him. Unless Eric Bischoff hit him with a chair, Mike Austin power bombs him for me. So he is not being pushed like a big star on the rise in this angle, because he's a cruiserweight guy. And they go, well, he's like, oh, small, he can't be blah, blah, blah.
02:13:03
Speaker
And a bunch of guys that could and did really shine in this, like the Milenko and Perry Saturn and Eddie Guerrero famously left in January to go to WWF. Yeah. Yeah, it's a massive, massive shame. I mean, and I do have to say, unlike the awesome Bigelow cat debacle where I said, you know, there's no fault of the competitors in this one, I do have to fault the competitors as well. It's a terrible concept, but they also do a bad job with it.
02:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's a case of them all trying to get their stuff in, and it's so condensed, and so many things happening at once. All the little parts, I think, for most part, work if you watch them all separately. Like, if you get someone to watch segments of this match, like I said, it's like a highlight reel match. But ultimately, it's still an actual match. And together, it doesn't work. Not a single one of them has bothered to tie it together. Correct. Or like come up with anything that gives it an actual story. Yes. So, yeah.
02:13:59
Speaker
You're getting this sort of future indie stunt show style wrestling. Here's my list of 25 things I want to do in the match. Here's your list of 25 things to do in the match. If you figure out a way to connect move to move, that's fine. If not, whatever. Yeah. It's a shame.
02:14:16
Speaker
As we know from our next show, Candido defends the title against the artist, which also leads to post-Slim release doing Strange a bit where Korber and Daphne become co-champions. So you're not wrong about her being in the match. She's a future champion, like four weeks out from the show. They're doing the Chris Jericho, China thing. Yeah.
02:14:40
Speaker
And by the way, is that not amazing? Like if you had to highlight a part of this match that was like legit the worst part of this match, am I wrong or would you also probably pick the Candido versus artist bit at the end of it? Yes. And that's the one they decide to go with as a singles match. That says about all you need to say about WCW as a company at this point, I
Jarrett's Confident Promo
02:15:02
Speaker
think. Yeah.
02:15:05
Speaker
Tony quickly advertises Slambury 2000, brought to you by Western Union Money Transfer. Please, we need the money. We cut to Mean Gene, who is with the chosen one, Jeff Jarrett. Jeff Jarrett, earlier on tonight, Diamond Dallas Page made a threat that not only would he win the WCW World Heavyweight title, but that indeed paybacks would be a important
02:15:30
Speaker
for what you did to Kimberly. Don't be a wise a** with me, old man. I'll smack your liver spots right into tonight. Now, as far as DDP goes, what doesn't he get? I am the chosen one. I've got Russo and Bischoff behind me. I've got the new blood on my side. And after tonight is all said and done, I will be the new WCW World Champion. So why don't you choke on that, you old Geritol slap a**?
02:15:59
Speaker
Random side note, that bit of Jarrett saying, ah, and the chosen one, that is definitely featured in one of the Slamboree video packages. Oh, I think so, yeah. Because that exact cadence I recognized very well.
02:16:13
Speaker
I thought Jared did pretty much fine with this, but the only problem I have with it is he doesn't really tell us anything we don't already know. He just kind of goes over the basic elements of this version of his character, if rather aggressively. I felt like it needed to more directly address the particulars of tonight's story with Paige, like Paige's did more directly. He just kind of makes it general, I'm a bad guy, rather than
02:16:35
Speaker
Paige is mad at me for this. Well, I'm mad at him for this. There's like bringing something more personal. Yeah, I see. You could do like, you know, he's mad at me for and Kimberly. He's mad at that, which is which is who I do tonight or something. Right? Yeah. Like reference the storyline a little bit more. Yeah. But as far as the personality, he gets his personality across. Yeah.
02:16:57
Speaker
Our 12th match is the Total Package Lex Luger and the Nature Boy Rick Flair Team Package with Elizabeth versus Buff Bagwell and the franchise Shane Douglas with Vince Russo in the finals of the WCW World Tag Team Championship Tournament. Referee for this one is Nick Patrick.
02:17:19
Speaker
As Luger enters with Elizabeth, Tony discusses the results of the title matches so far. Oddly, he seems a little unsure whether Funk is part of the New Blood, despite one, Funk having such a long career he's already retired multiple times, and two, Russo screaming at Rhodes earlier because Funk won, and therefore the New Blood didn't. So it's not really that confusing, Tony. Yeah. If memory serves correctly, the first time Tony Funk retired was the year I was born.
02:17:45
Speaker
I believe so. So, spare that in mind. Not exactly New Blood. No. Madden makes horrible comments about Tammy. Yeah. Flair is out next. The commentators keep selling these street clothes as symbolic, and I still hate it. Buff is out next, and he has even more fun with his entrance than last time.
02:18:07
Speaker
Look, it's rare for me to compliment Bagwell, but he's like the only guy tonight that really seems to give a crap about showmanship during his entrances. So, yeah, I'm happy with him. Sure. Even with the hat. Douglas is last, and he's accompanied by Vince Russo with a baseball bat. Russo joins the commentators. Surprisingly, he predicts Bagwell and Douglas will win. I thought.
02:18:31
Speaker
Bagwell offers a handshake and Luger looks questioningly at him, but then smiles and shakes hands, before booting him in the stomach. Luger beats Bagwell up, but Bagwell gets a boot up on a corner charge and clotheslines him for a wonderful Luger cell. Bagwell slams him and does a dance, but Luger no cells. Douglas hilariously tries to signal to Bagwell, and when Bagwell finally turns, Luger roars at him, imitates his dance, and beats him up.
02:19:00
Speaker
Who knew that Luger vs. Bagwell was what I needed right now? Yeah. It's like, has the Cruiserweight match felt me so low that one of my least favorite matches from the Starrcade one is pleasing me? Yeah. Bagwell manages an eye rake and tags in Douglas for some strikes and choking, but Luger press slams him, and Flair dumps Douglas out and gets a tag from Luger. Flair and Douglas fight outside as Hudson sneaks in a Dynamic Dudes reference.
02:19:30
Speaker
Back in, Douglas pokes Flair's eyes, and Bagwell and Douglas trade off wearing Flair down, with Bagwell angering Luger to get him to accidentally distract the ref for some cheating. Flair whips free of a Douglas headlock, but they knock heads and go down, up at four. Douglas puts Flair in the corner for punches, yelling, f*** you, Flair. Yeah. That said it all right there, Tony Notes.
02:19:54
Speaker
Douglas flings Flair to the corner for a Flair flip, and clotheslines him down on the apron, but Luger clotheslines Douglas from the apron. Flair and Douglas crawl, and Douglas tags Bagwell, but Flair makes the tag to Luger. Luger runs wild with clotheslines, a diving forearm, a double noggin knocker, and a double clothesline. Flair and Two and they all brawl. Flair locks the figure four on Douglas, and Russo proclaims, this ain't happenin', as he grabs his bat and goes to ringside.
02:20:23
Speaker
Bagwell saves Douglas, and Douglas holds Flair for the buff blockbuster. But Flair ducks, and Bagwell blockbusters Douglas for two for Flair. Kind of. He definitely hits them, but he doesn't really hugbuster. Yeah. At least with that move, it's one motion to hit, rather than Daphne's where you have to pause in the middle, so it's a little more forgivable. Understandable, yeah. Crusoe drags Patrick out mid-count. Luger, though, was the legal man during that, so shouldn't have been counting at all anyway.
02:20:53
Speaker
Russo and Patrick argue and shove each other as Luger power slams Bagwell, accidentally kicking Russo's bat all the way across the ring. Patrick clearly sees Brian Adams and Brian Clark entering the ring and rapidly turns away pretending Russo had distracted him. Adams and Clark double slam Luger and Russo knocks Patrick out off camera and steals his shirt.
02:21:17
Speaker
Bagwell pins Luger, and Russo completely fails to put the referee shirt on. He settles for having it inside out and only over his head and one arm. Yeah, if you'd have a list of fails for Wrestling Show and include putting on a shirt. That one is new. That's new. We've had a fail-off taking off a shirt before. That's true. But not putting on.
02:21:41
Speaker
Russo slides in and delivers a weirdly exceptionally fair, even slow, three count for the win in the titles. Yeah. He doesn't fast count it. No. What? He's just so confident and chronic, I guess. Yeah. I should note, though, that he counted with the arm that wasn't in the ref shirt sleeve, so that should mean it doesn't count, right? Yeah, probably. Otherwise, it'd be totally fine. Sure, sure, yeah. Despite Bagwell getting the pin, Douglas music plays.
02:22:11
Speaker
Russo retrieves the belts and celebrates like he's the champ himself before finally delivering one to Bagwell. Douglas has found Russo's bat and drives it into flair, then kneels next to him as we cut. Thoughts on this one? Lots of punching and fighting in this one, definitely even more than the last one. It's definitely more organized, because then I have the whole weird four and two angle. Not till the end, obviously, with people running in.
02:22:37
Speaker
It's a more structured version, I think, of what the opening match was with these guys. It's still not great. It's sort of autopilot flair. It's like he's wrestling with his art that in it. Yeah. Well, where he's not wearing his gear and not coming to the whole look, they try to cover again, try to cover with a little street fight thing. But yeah, he's. It feels like he's a traffic obligated to wrestle these shows, which is kind of a shame that you shouldn't be doing that to people. Mm hmm.
02:23:06
Speaker
Like you said, the Luger definitely delivers here, which is nice. Yeah. He has a lot of fun here. It's a shame he takes the fall, but I guess it kind of makes sense because with the whole Douglas and Flair thing. Interfered for the win. What a shock.
Douglas Confronts Flair
02:23:22
Speaker
Yeah. A debut interfered for the win. Also a shock.
02:23:26
Speaker
Oh man. By the way, I should mention this because I forgot to mention earlier. As soon as Douglas shows up, they play up this angle where supposedly he's made a flare for dodging him for seven years and all this nonsense. We cover on the same brief show. Yes. Yeah.
02:23:41
Speaker
What actually happens in the buildup to this show is at the end of 1999, beginning of 2000, Saturn, Milenko, Benoit, and Guerrero leave. And apparently, Douglas also asked to leave, but they wouldn't let him out of his contract if he let the other guys out of theirs. They said, just stay home. We don't have anything for due right now. So he comes back right before the show. That's where he's been. He's just been on paid vacation.
02:24:08
Speaker
Okay. On the same show where he comes back and they suddenly do this whole I hate flair for everything. They gave you a singles Douglas Claire match. They don't keep them apart and like six days until their first competition is in this match. Yes.
02:24:27
Speaker
Same within the hour of the story happened, they already wrestled singles match, which of course ends in DQ and the whole thing as you can guess how that ends. Jeez. That's where the whole steal and the watch thing happens.
Luger and Bagwell's Fun Match
02:24:40
Speaker
Okay.
02:24:42
Speaker
Yeah, this was almost entirely basic striking with very few actual wrestling holds or slams, but the big character bits featured, particularly from Luger and Bagwell, still actually made it a pretty fun watch. Not too deep, but fun. It surprises the heck out of me that I'm praising Luger and Bagwell there, by the way, not Flair. True. It's not that Flair was bad, but he wasn't the highlight here, surprisingly.
02:25:05
Speaker
I don't want to oversell this. This was just a basic average tag match. But on this show, that puts it on the upper tier of matches. Yeah. It has the same sort of feel they were going for with the first one. I'm guessing the Luger Flare influence. They like successfully manage it on this one, where they tried and failed on the point. Well, yeah. They go for that old school tag match feel. And Bagwell and Douglas, also being old school guys, despite being in the new blood, can manage that. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
02:25:35
Speaker
The ending, I agree, was goofy. It goes wrong in all sorts of ways, too. Russo seems like he actually came over early. Yeah. The bat that he brings in never figures into things. Correct, yes. They totally muck up distracting Patrick from Adams and Clark. Russo can't figure out how to wear a shirt. No. And why does wearing a referee's shirt make your pin count valid? Yeah.
Chronic's Confusing Character Portrayal
02:25:59
Speaker
So average match, but fun, but with a flat out stupid ending.
02:26:05
Speaker
I just realized we missed the great ref wall as well. We have Nick Patrick who does that. Knocked out, but he doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. He's that really goofy cell. I'm going to get to see it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, with Slamboree, we would get singles match pairing with these two, which means the tag titles are not offended despite just having a show about crying new champions. You know, why have that happened? Yeah.
02:26:32
Speaker
In the short time following St. Marie, we will also have a toutained where Chronic could win the titles. To take a point on the fall of Nitro to the show of attacking the Harris brothers and basically saying, we're new blood, but we just want to become champions. We're not aligned with you ideologically. Yeah. So the thing with Chronic has never quite made sense after you've been to CIV before.
02:26:57
Speaker
They're the two big, bustly guys in, like, vinyl. And their name is based as, you know, a marijuana reference in case you didn't get it. They don't look like potheads. No.
Steiner's Lone Wolf Persona
02:27:08
Speaker
Or even go that partake. Like, at all. Because there's the levels of that, obviously.
02:27:12
Speaker
So on the nitro after this, they try to make chronic like their catchphrase. They have a thing about how, you know, if you fight us, you'll be in chronic pain and it will be a chronic time. They take like three or four of them. They throw all these ideas at what chronic actually means. Wow. That's a pure bruce of nonsense. That is a stick. It just goes. Yeah, you're a big guy. There's chronic. They're just called the high times. You know, clearly don't smoke pot.
02:27:40
Speaker
Back to Mean Gene and he is with Scott Steiner.
02:27:44
Speaker
The finals for the United States title tournament is all set. You're going to be representing the new blood against Sting for the gold. Me and Gene, I represent myself and keep that straight. You're looking at a physical phenomenon. You're looking at a genetic freak. I tell you what, you see that vein in that arm right there? That's larger than Sting's arm put together. So I want you to do something. You go find Sting and you tell him his **** is mine.
02:28:12
Speaker
Another short one, but Steiner does reasonably well with this, aside from oddly claiming that his vein is bigger than Steing's arm put together. I mean, it'd be weird even if he worded that correctly, but he also words it wrong.
02:28:26
Speaker
But Snyder lets us know that he's for himself before the New Blood, separating from them, but in a different and more selfish manner than Booker earlier.
Sting's Energetic Promo
02:28:35
Speaker
So I like that they actually managed to do two guys that are in the New Blood, but kind of outside the New Blood as well, but in different ways. One feels honorable and the others feels more selfish.
02:28:47
Speaker
I think my only problem with that is this idea that he's this like crazy loner guy doesn't fit with the last like two years of Scott Steiner. Yeah, NWO NWO elite.
02:29:00
Speaker
Before that, hell, tagged him with his brother. Though I will say they make a bit of a habit over the last few years of having him repeatedly demonstrate that he's more interested in his own safety and his own achievement than whatever group he's in. Yeah. So that part of it feels legit. What feels least legit is that people haven't recognized that by now and continue to let this guy join groups when he's clearly only in it for himself. True.
02:29:27
Speaker
It is terrifying to see him actually point out the massive disturbing veins in his arms as well. They look ready to pop. Yes. To quote Stewie, chicks dig vascular men.
02:29:40
Speaker
So our 13th match, can't believe we've got so many matches on this show, is Big Papa Pump Scott Steiner versus Sting in the finals of the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament.
Steiner vs Sting Championship Setup
02:29:55
Speaker
Referee for this one is Billy Silverman. As Steiner enters, Tony updates the score for the night. New blood 2, Terry Funk 1, millionaires club 0.
02:30:06
Speaker
At least now he's figured out that Funk is not part of the new Blood. Specifically, he cites Rhodes as firing, so I guess that finally occurred to him. Oh, okay. Steiner lets some fans feel his muscles on the way to the ring. We cut back to Jean again, and now he's with Sting.
02:30:23
Speaker
of course your opponent was in here just a moment or two ago and big pop a pump scott steiner right now in my estimation a loose cannon a couple of moments from now you're going to be facing him for the united states title big opportunity bischoff and russo they want war well guess what you got yourself a war and scott steiner you are going to be the next casualty you want to try to run from
02:30:50
Speaker
DDP from Flair, from Luger, from Hogan, from me. It's not gonna get you anything, you know why? Because WCW's blood runs through our veins! It's showtime! Again, a pretty short promo. This one felt a little weird to me because it's modern crow sting, but he delivered the promo very much in the old colorful early 90s sting style. For sure, yeah.
02:31:19
Speaker
I just associate this sting with the dark, broody hanging silently in the rafters act. It's also a little funny watching Sting deliver a promo with half his face paint worn down. Still, this did inject a little extra energy before the match at least.
02:31:34
Speaker
I like that we're finally getting a Sting promo on here. I get the idea that you maybe don't interview people before they're in the finals of a tournament, but it's kind of weird that just haven't talked to them at all until now. Yeah. Yeah. They appear twice in the show already. They're like, now we'll talk to you. Yeah. Does it feel a tad weird by the way that we got these promos just before the US title match, but well after the promos for the world title match, which comes later? Yeah, that's true. Kind of a strange promo order to me.
02:32:05
Speaker
Back to the ring, and Sting makes his entrance to strobe lights after a false start where the strobes come on far too early.
Steiner vs Sting Match Dynamics
02:32:11
Speaker
Oh no. Madden builds up how insane it is that both of these guys are fighting three matches on the same night. Yeah, that's never been done before, except Starrcade 1989 for both, Starrcade 1990 for Scott, and Starrcade 1992 for Sting. So maybe not that surprising. Yeah. Sting gets the crowd cheering, and Steiner makes a rude gesture at them.
02:32:35
Speaker
Steiner attacks, but Sting lands closed lines and dropkicks and Steiner rolls out. Oh Scott, you were doing so well. Yeah. Steiner signals for a timeout, but Sting dives over the top rope onto him, rolls him back in and tries his top rope splash, but Steiner gets his knees up. Steiner press drops Sting, then yells at the crowd.
02:32:55
Speaker
Steiner line and elbow drop for two, and he threatens Silverman. Steiner suplex and he goes outside and yells at the crowd. He's back in fast, but it's really annoying to see this coming back after he's avoided it all night. Steiner tries a top rope belly to belly, but Sting escapes and builds to the stinger splash. But on a second one, Steiner pulls Silverman in the way.
Vampiro's Interference
02:33:17
Speaker
Sting just shrugs that off, I guess he's used to that by now.
02:33:22
Speaker
He hits a third stinger splash to Steiner, but on a fourth try, Vampiro suddenly bursts through the mat and grabs him by the leg. Steiner charges, but Sting boots him in the face. But Vampiro drags Sting down through the mat under the ring. Madden preposterously proposes that Vampiro got down there by tunneling through the arena floor. What? Well, you know, like vampires do, Bob. No!
02:33:52
Speaker
Vampiro surfaces with an unconscious, slightly bloody sting. Madden says he's covered in... What is he covered in? Okay, first off, blood. It's blood. Second, he's not covered in it. It's on his mouth and a little bit on one arm. Yeah. Vampiro hides under the ring and Steiner revives Silverman and locks Sting in the Steiner recliner.
Critique of Match's Realism and Storytelling
02:34:14
Speaker
Silverman checks the arm, only once, and awards Steiner the win and the title.
02:34:20
Speaker
Like we said earlier, that would have been a better ending to the awesome match. Yeah. Not including the Vampiro bursting from the ring, to be clear, but that basic concept anyway. Steiner celebrates with the belt, then spits on the barely-conscious Sting and makes rude gestures of the crowd. The commentators, somewhat clumsily, question why Vampiro would help Scott Steiner and how he got under the ring. Thoughts on this one? It's a decent match, but it's more of a punch-cake kind of match than the other Sting matches, unfortunately.
02:34:50
Speaker
I think it's a combination of obviously different opponents in all three matches, but it's also the fact that I think it's later in the show. So they've wrestled a bunch of matches. Diane Steyer's case, not long matches. Yeah. So it's not like he's actually worn down, but it's definitely, this is my third match. I'm doing these things here. Yeah. I mentioned these guys have both done this before, but it has been close to 10 years since the last time that one of them did it.
02:35:16
Speaker
Yeah. It makes sense that they may not be as capable of having three great matches as they used to be. Sure. And that might impact the caliber of performance that they're able to put onto this point. Yeah. I know was that Sting's refusal to stop doing stinger splashes is downfall forever. Yes. In fairness, it looks really fun. It does. You know, I would want to continue doing those if I were capable of doing them. Yeah, true.
02:35:43
Speaker
Yeah, just funny because like here a reference thrown in there and he's like, I'll keep doing it. Yeah. Which now it's weird, too. So Steiner is recovered enough to pull a full grown man in front of the move. But then afterwards, not recovered enough to move out of the way of the third one. Yeah, yeah. I guess you figure that Silverman being a read thin referee is not enough to fully block the Stinger Splash.
02:36:09
Speaker
I'm thinking it's either that or maybe Vampiro is late on his entrance. That's possible. Yeah. Sting maybe wasn't supposed to have to hit a third one, but Vampiro was late. So he just had to go for it. Cause Sting was back in the fourth one. Then he stopped. That's my guess. I could see that. We've been blaming Vampiro for all sorts of stuff tonight. We might as well lay one more. Sorry if you hear over here, this Vampiro. I'm sure you're a nice guy in person. Yeah.
02:36:35
Speaker
Oh, think about doing the ref bump. So we have actually covered the show officially, but Batch to the Beast 96, the yeah, the most famous WWE show ever, for obvious reasons. They do the angle where Luger is pulled in between a singer splash and somebody. He's taken out and can't work the rest of the match. Like they take him in the back and like on a stretcher, they got to check him in the back for everything. Yeah.
02:36:59
Speaker
Meanwhile, the ref, he is out, but he's revived and fine. I think in fairness, I think with Luger's spot, they also say that he connects with the ring post. Okay. I don't want to think that Luger is less durable than the referee. I get your point. Yeah. It's just, I had flashbacks that I'm like, wait a second, that took out the ref a lot less I did, less Luger. Maybe the stinger splash is more powerful if there's more color in the face paint.
02:37:26
Speaker
Okay. So because he went, you know, just black and white face paint, it's depowered the Stinger Splash somewhat. Wasn't Luger wearing face paint too though? Yeah, but that actually enhances the Stinger Splash effect even more. It gives Luger power, but it it's like an effect face paint plus power to sting. So the more face paint is out there, the more powerful Sting is. Gotcha. So his max power was higher for him. Yeah, so unfortunately that worked against them in that one moment. Gotcha.
02:37:56
Speaker
Yeah. Obviously Vampyr interfering was gonna happen. Yeah. That was a kidney.
Impact of Vampiro's Interference
02:38:03
Speaker
At least they did differently than just someone suddenly runs and jumps in the apron attacks them like two matches we've seen like in a row. It's still a little silly. The whole cut through the ring thing. It's been done a bunch of times. A little a lot. Yeah. Yeah. It was starting to become a trend around this point I want to say but yeah.
02:38:22
Speaker
It's a thing that should never have become a trend, but it was becoming a trend, yes. Once the cane started, I'm pretty sure, yeah. By the way, they're like, they just dragged Sting straight to hell. I'm like, I think you're looking for a big red guy when you're talking about him that way. The devil's favorite vampire, I guess. Maybe Dracula's favorite vampire. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I feel like I'm saying stuff like this a lot, but this is a Cliff Notes version of a Sting versus Steiner match.
02:38:51
Speaker
They get a couple big moves each and boom into the quite weird finish. Sting does what he can, and Steiner mostly does what he can between minor bouts of stalling, but there's only so much they can do in the short time that the match gets. As for the ending, I've, as you may have noted, I've never gotten the whole pull the guy under the ring thing. Just try to picture two guys fighting down there. I mean, there's not much space to begin with, and we've seen that there's other stuff down there that takes up a lot of it.
02:39:19
Speaker
It's kind of an amusing mental image than both trying to fight hunched over against spare tables and ladders and stuff. I found it a little bit weird that Silverman didn't do the usual three hand drops thing, he just goes once. Maybe because of the blood? Yeah, yeah, I guess it just is so obvious that Sting is out, but I'm used to seeing the three drops regardless. Yeah, no, I got you. This did what it had to do, but nothing more. Yeah.
02:39:45
Speaker
I think it's so funny too about this. So the whole point of this new blood millionaires club thing is that the new blood were held down. They didn't have any chances. Now we're giving them chances. They didn't have. So here we are at spring, 17,000 new US champion, Scott Steiner, who fought last year. Where were we at? Where were we last year? It's pretty nice. 99 new US champion.
02:40:07
Speaker
Scott Steiner. Yeah. And a tournament. Yes, yeah, yep, absolutely. And a tournament called Booker T. Uh-huh. It's not in the same ad system. Yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous, isn't it? Like, the entire idea of the angle is guys trying to fight for opportunities that they never got. Scott Steiner gets the opportunity he's already gotten.
02:40:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it would make sense if another guy reached the finals, but that was Scott Steiner. To your point earlier about them having more new blood people, they should have had Scott Steiner involved in qualifying for the world title bit. Yeah. Because why would he not want that? That's the one that he hasn't had yet. Yeah, exactly. We cut to the commentators, and Tony has a fascinating expression on his face. It's kind of a, I really have to talk about this face.
02:40:54
Speaker
Tell me what's going to happen next," he asks, and goes over some of the ridiculous events of the last couple matches. He's trying to make it sound like he's building up an Anything Can Happen atmosphere, but there's a bit of a, yeah, I can't believe it either, in his eyes. Madden says the New Bloods set a level playing field and now Jarett will fight D.D. Me. Tony ignores him, playing with the papers on his desk. Yeah. Just blatantly ignores him completely.
02:41:20
Speaker
Tony almost has his Hawkeye and Age of Ultron moment, where he's like, we're a flying city and such a robot that I have a bow and arrow. So that's, you know, good. Hudson builds up the next match being Millionaire's Club versus New Blood and says, Paige will get his revenge for Kimberly. You tell him, Scott, Tony says, and throws to a video package. I think Tony has reached the eye of no longer give a crap. Tony has left the building. Yeah.
02:41:50
Speaker
Tell you not here anymore. It is my honor and my privilege to introduce you to the man who will once again change the game. The power is Vince Russo. All titles will be stripped tonight.
02:42:14
Speaker
It'll be a brand new playing field. New beginning. We have no champions. Four men are going to compete in a mini tournament to determine who will face the chosen one, Jeff Jarrett, at Spring Stampede for the now vacated WCW World Heavyweight title. This is our first tournament match-up. Diamond, Dallas Page. Coming off of lower back injury. And the total package. The winner of this match will face the winner of his sting against former World Champion
02:42:44
Speaker
Bob Bagwell making time with Elizabeth Ann Kimberly.
02:42:51
Speaker
He's wins, but it was the main well that turned the tide. Sid Fishes, the former heavyweight champion of the world, stalks to the ring to face his destiny. Sting is making a case that he should wear the gold. Big Stinger's flash on to Sid Fishes. What on earth? The wall just wiped out, Sid with a chair. He took swimming on that table. Sting's gonna win this thing by count out.
02:43:16
Speaker
And for the second straight time, someone from the New Blood has paused the tide to turn in this mini tournament. Who will face Jeff Jarrett? The chosen one realizes his destiny when I am crowned the new
02:43:34
Speaker
WCW World Heavyweight Champion. What is he doing with Kimberly at ringside? Vampiro hit the nail in the coffin on Stink. Diamond cutter on Stink who's already down. One, two, three. Jeff Jarrett. Well, FaceTime of Dallas Page and Spring Stampede. Jarrett's in the ring. Oh my God. Oh my God. Kimberly needs medical attention.
02:43:56
Speaker
He wants to take my wife's head off of the guitar. I'm gonna rip his head off at St. Sandy. Bada bing, bada boom, bada bang! Looks like the chosen one is gonna serve up a little double dose of payback. Jeff Jarrett! Will he realize his dream on Sunday? Or can Paige rise above the weekend back?
02:44:18
Speaker
This video package had the manic energy of WCW video packages around this time with lots of quick cuts, but it did do a reasonable enough job of showing the tournament story, I guess. It is a little weird to hear Jarrett talk about getting payback when Paige is the one with a revenge story. Yeah. I guess it's for Paige hitting a diamond cutter on him at some point. That's all I can figure. Sure, why not?
02:44:41
Speaker
Yeah, there's a real manic injury. It's like two, like, hyped-up kids describing a movie to you. Yes. This happened. This happened. These people were like, what happened? You still get it. You just referenced one of the Avengers bits. Yeah, it's like that bit at the end of the first Avengers film where they cut to, like, the 10-year-old kid describing the battle. Oh, yeah. It feels like that. Yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm.
02:45:05
Speaker
Seeing the video package of the mini tournament really highlights the theme of WCW, which is three matches, all three which have outside interference to cost someone the win. Yeah, yeah. It also means we see setup for a Sid Vicious, the wall match that we don't get on the show. I know you're disappointed about. No, I'm not disappointed at all. That's the best booking decision WCW has made all night.
02:45:30
Speaker
It's a little strange, by the way. We get multiple matches in the US in tag title tournaments tonight, but only the final match of the world title. Yeah. Not that I wanted more matches on this show, but it feels backwards. Yeah, I think it kind of works in the sense that they want to make things easy for Jeff Jarrett here, but they're also making it easy for GDP as well. Yeah. They should have found some way of GDP, you know, forcing them on the matches as well. Maybe. I don't know how that would work with something.
02:45:59
Speaker
So, at long last, our final match. The chosen one, Jeff Jarrett versus Diamond Dallas Page with Kimberly in the finals of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Tournament. Referee for this one is Charles Robinson. Yeah, it's good to see Kimball out here because I heard she got her head cut off earlier. Apparently, yeah. I still don't like Jarrett's country rock entrance theme.
02:46:30
Speaker
We get to listen to it for a long time too, as Jared pulls a Goldberg and walks all the way from backstage on camera. At least he didn't headbutt a door. Yes. Did we determine whether his theme is the Kid Rock song? It's practically like that Kid Rock song. It's probably another one of the Jimmy Hart ripoffs or something.
02:46:50
Speaker
He poses on the stage like there should be pyro but there's no pyro. Yes. Madden makes disgusting comments about Kimberly. Mm-hmm. Jarrett finally gets pyro when he poses on the ropes. Paige is out next as we see someone with a positively paged book cover sign. Paige also walks from backstage after first looking for Kimberly who was retrieving a water bottle for him.
02:47:11
Speaker
They pass a broken table on the way. I'm pretty sure it's the one that Smiley fell through from the overhead pipe. It is. I was wondering if you noticed that, yeah. Yeah, so thanks for that reminder. Yeah, right. We get some extra bass in the sound for a little bit as they reach the ramp. I think maybe we're hearing some of the backstage version of the audio, so we're getting the thud from being closer to the speakers or something. Yeah. And Paige gets stage pyro. So he's one up on Jared there.
02:47:38
Speaker
The extra bass comes back when he gets to the ring as well for a second. So, weird bit. As the camera pans over, we can see that they've taped up the hole that Vampiro put in the ring. That's nice of them. Paige decimates Jarrett, and Mox Jarrett's yells of pain. Paige smoothly counters a hip toss into a float over DDT for two, and Tony has some fun with DDT by DDP. Good that he's finding some moments of amusement tonight. Yeah.
02:48:05
Speaker
I still wish we'd gotten a Jake Roberts DDP feud at some point for the inevitable crowd chance. Oh yeah. Jarrett rolls out, and Paige vaults over the top rope onto him, then calls Kimberly over to slap Jarrett. Paige flings Jarrett over the barricade, and they brawl through the crowd for a while, using various weapons against each other. A fan hands Paige a drink, and he takes a sip, then wonderfully spews it out when Jarrett slugs him in the balls. Crowd fighting a Jeff Jarrett, Matt. That's a unique idea.
02:48:34
Speaker
You can hear a page tell Jarrett to get ready before he flings him back over the barricade. Oh, yeah. They've got the camera bikes turned up very loud during this match. So you can hear a lot of them talking to each other and especially them yelling in pain. Yeah.
02:48:49
Speaker
Jarrett grabs Kimberly and shoves her into Page, distracting him for a cheap shot, but Page gets him into the ring and Sunset flips in, but Jarrett hangs on the ropes and sits down for two. Page rolls Jarrett over for two. Jarrett crotches him on the top rope for a superplex, then bashes Page with a chair until Robinson takes it away. Jarrett works Page's back, but Page counters a whip with a back elbow, and both are down, but up at six. Page Powerbomb gets two and a half.
02:49:16
Speaker
Bischoff appears on the ramp with a neutral expression. Paige and Jarrett brawl onto the ramp and a round ringside, and Jarrett rips up a fan's positively paged book. I hope the guy expected that to happen because hardcovers are pricey. They think it was positively a plant. Probably, yeah. Jarrett does miss an opportunity to also hit Paige with the book, though. Yeah, it's weird. He teaches that he's going to use the book as a weapon and then rips it up instead. Yeah. I guess that would make the fan more upset.
02:49:43
Speaker
Jarrett pulls Page crotch-first into the ring post, but Kimberly stops a second attempt, and Page counters a third. Page flings Jarrett corner to corner, and perfectly slides under Jarrett's kick to land outside where he pulls Jarrett crotch-first into the ring post. Page tries the diamond cutter, but Jarrett grabs the ropes and Page goes down hard, as Jarrett's flailing arm knocks Robinson reeling. Jarrett clubs Page with a world title for two and a half. Jarrett locks on the figure four, and earns a two count.
02:50:13
Speaker
Paige can't quite turn the holdover. Madden actually nicely attributes that to the injured back, but Paige uses the fight to scoot to the ropes and force a break, then counters another figure-four attempt with a roll-up for two, and another for two as Jarrah yells at Robinson.
02:50:29
Speaker
I like that bit. It looked like Paige was unable to get the figure four turned over, but he tricks Jarett into fighting that instead of fighting him sliding towards the ropes. They actually really nicely portray that. Yeah, that's pretty good. Paige is able to scoot himself without Jarett realizing he's scooting himself. Right, yeah. Paige rock bottom gets two and a half. Yes, we got a rock bottom this year, pedigree last year. Yeah, right.
02:50:56
Speaker
Jared gets a sleeper hold, but Page fights free and uses a sleeper slam. Bischoff grabs Robinson, and the commentators theorize that he's helping Page, even though Page just hit a move on Jared that could have led to a pinfall. It's based on nothing, too. Yeah, yeah. Robinson actually tries to deck Bischoff, which I don't think I've ever seen a referee do.
02:51:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's weird. He has like... Robinson's like one arm locked up and he's like blocking his other arm from hitting. Yeah, and Robinson is aggressively punching at him. It's really surprising. Yeah. Paige hits the diamond cutter on Jarrett and calls to Kimberly, who brings in Jarrett's guitar. Paige holds Jarrett, but Kimberly hits Paige.
02:51:41
Speaker
And Jarrett hits the stroke, as Bischoff lets go of Robinson so he can count three to give Jarrett the win and the title. Bischoff gives a wonderfully smug smile, and Madden proclaims Kimberly as New Blood. Kimberly comes in and shares a hug with Bischoff. Russo, Douglas, and Bagwell come down too when Kimberly shares a hug with Russo and Bischoff, as Steiner, Candido, and Tammy Sitch appear as well. Thoughts on this one?
02:52:08
Speaker
It's a pretty good match. I thought these two work well together pretty decently. They both serve can work an old school match is definitely Jared's thing. Yeah. They work in some good new school stuff as well. Newer moves and counters. As we see in the, even with the nonsense of next year's triple cage match and the other person involved, these two were a good pair. It's clear why they work together so much. Yeah. They definitely have same sensibilities.
02:52:37
Speaker
That said, I thought some parts kind of dragged. The submission stuff especially drags a bit for me. It's one of those things I know you'll say, and rightly so, that GDP doesn't just like sit there in a hole, he's always fighting. Even if it's fighting, it's kind of just like shadow punching, like being attacked by bees. Yes.
02:52:57
Speaker
Especially when he does this fight to get to the ropes. I like to picture that that's how DDP actually goes to sleep at night because it was a sleeper hold that he did that on. Oh, that's true. Just like him falling asleep is lying in his bed punching wildly at the air. For his part, DDP makes a really good face in all the right way. He's constantly finding him underneath. He's able to time his offense really well and get his strikes in, get his hope spots.
02:53:24
Speaker
He has that ability that the best faces have of being able to look powerful, but vulnerable at the same time. So he can convince you, yeah, I've got this, but also get your sympathy when he needs to. The second thing he gets countered, yeah, you go the same way. The top faces are able to do that really well. The guys like Sting, Ricky Steamboat, DDP.
02:53:47
Speaker
more like rock for instance rock as well yeah great great example yeah yeah any of the top faces in the business are always able to do that where they're able to sell you simultaneously on the fact that they are really powerful and you know they can win right but also that they can get in trouble and make you are honestly worried for them and page is exceptional at that yeah unfortunately there's two sides to this the other side is that ddp is a
02:54:15
Speaker
really good face. So he's also a really dumb face. That's true. My problem with the ending is that it works as it's all his idea. I mean, he said to him earlier that he's gonna let her get a shot at him. I get that. But then he hasn't beaten. If he really thought he could win, he could just pin Jeff Deere become a champion, then pick him up and let his wife hit him. Yeah, because what he wants.
02:54:41
Speaker
I think it would have worked if, like, he'd go for the pin. But Kimberly signals, wait, honey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like waves of guitar or something.
02:54:50
Speaker
Making clear that she needs this to happen, because she does. She needs to get in the ring and hit him for death to win. And they don't quite do enough with it, but in fairness to them, she does actually, I didn't mention in my recap, but she does actually have the guitar earlier in that. She does, yeah. She's shown standing outside with the guitar. I agree. I think they should have had her signal for it. Yeah. But at least you could maybe reason, oh, he saw her holding the guitar there and was like, oh, yeah, I promise that I'd let her hit Jared.
02:55:15
Speaker
It almost works. I mean... It gets closer than you honestly think it should for this angle, but yeah. Yeah. The problem with Russo booking and even people that book like Russo, because obviously he didn't book that long when he really looked at how many months he booked, is you immediately expect the turns and surprises. You know there's going to be a twist, so the twist isn't surprising, which is hopefully the execution is good enough if you accept it.
02:55:43
Speaker
So, I mean, the second she grabs the guitar, I'm like, oh, he can hit DP. No matter how good they try to sell on their part for her part or Kimberly's part, it's obvious from the get-go that she's going to betray him.
02:55:55
Speaker
And it's it's one of those twists that's also a little hard to justify. Yes. I mean, because she's not his manager. She's not his tag partner. No, she's his wife. Uh-huh. You don't have to have it on this show. You can have that just be the shock ending to it. But their darn well better be an amazing explanation for this the next night on Nitro. And you know, there won't be. They try.
02:56:19
Speaker
No, they do a very lengthy look how great we are opening thing. It takes like 30 minutes on Nitro. Yeah. She used the DDME line because I know you look that one. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it doesn't really work. Okay. Aside from a longer than necessary brawl in the crowd and another disappointing finish, this was the sort of match that I've been hoping for all night.
02:56:43
Speaker
It got a reasonable amount of time, it had a lot of variety, it worked in some good counter sequences and back and forth swings of momentum, and it told a nice story of the dominant, angry babyface page fighting against Jarrett's dishonorable and manipulative tactics, ascending from early emotional brawling to more focused and intricate sequences in the late match, as both guys tried to outthink the other. Trust DDP and Jarrett to give us something with an honest-to-goodness plot. Yeah, right?
02:57:09
Speaker
The ending does hurt it. And the interference takes way too long to resolve, I think. To go back to what I said before, it feels like it's something that's just done to be shocking rather than because there's actually a good plan for it. Yeah. But still, it doesn't ruin the match. No. It's too well put together otherwise. So it's a good match to end the show at least. I just wish it had a slightly better ending. Right. I agree with that. Yeah.
02:57:34
Speaker
And also has, well, the problem with Jeff Jarrett matches is when he shadows the guitar and debris is everywhere and the ref's like, huh, Oh well. Yeah. Yeah.
02:57:45
Speaker
And that comes like a 10-year plus Jeff Jarrett. Yeah. At least with this one, again, they did say from the beginning of the show, the DQ rules have been not entirely gone, but heavily loosened. And we saw Jarrett attack Page with a chair in full view of the rep earlier and not get DQ'd. So. That would be a good rule question, by the way. If the ref sees her hit DP, is it DQ? Yeah, I think that's a good question. Yeah. Because she's his manager functionally here. Yeah.
02:58:15
Speaker
I would say it's on the nitro when all this reboot stuff happens. So before this show? Yeah, before this show. On that one, there's a bit where DP, of course, is fighting Jeff Jarrett, and they make sure to highlight the star of Raid of Rumble, who's in the crowd this show to promote the movie. And he does get pulled over the, I think they show it on St. Marie. I think so, yeah. They pull him over the barricade and him with the guitar.
02:58:40
Speaker
Okay, so this is the start of that angle. Yeah. Okay. That's a long angle for WSW at this point. Yeah. That leads to eight days later on the night show after the Salvatore Look How Great We Are show, where DEP went to world title. So yeah, Jeff Jarrett's crowning has chosen one last eight days. Yeah. Yeah. They never promised you a rose garden, Jeff. It's true. They did, however, promise you a world title. So you have a right to be pealed about that. That's true.
02:59:11
Speaker
So this leads to the Thunder after DP title win, where he's put in a tag match where he's defending his world title. So it's DDP and David Arquette, his buddy versus Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. Tag team match with world title on the line on Thunder. David Arquette spears Eric Bischoff. So now Arquette wins the world title off of his partner by pinning someone else in the match. Yeah, it's very strange.
02:59:41
Speaker
Almost adds a slight little clarity to the crazy hardcore thing. Almost. Sadly, not the first time they've had a tag team match where the world piled on the line. Not even like the third time they've done it. Oh, God. Yeah. So we, of course, that leads to Slambry2000. Great episode, by the way, if you haven't listened yet. Where are we at the Triple Cage of Doom? Jeff Jarrett, DEP and world champion David Arquette. Yep.
03:00:09
Speaker
Recreating the hate match you didn't watch because you didn't watch rated rumble when it came in theaters and because you're smart Unlike us unlike us. Yes, I Thankfully as a kid did not watch it in theaters. I watched no get I definitely watched it on TNT or TVS and they played it at some point in like suing decades Because I watched it again willingly. So go figure yeah But that's life. It's a series of terrible decisions. I
03:00:39
Speaker
It's true. With the new blood celebrating, Tony quite rapidly signs off, and Spring Stampede 2000 is done. Thank goodness. Yes. So overall thoughts on Spring Stampede 2000.
03:00:57
Speaker
A lot of matches, none of them are great. There are some that are okay, some that are decent, some that are just confusing as hell, and some of the hardcore match, which is above and below everything else. When I was putting my notes together before I printed them, because I have a lot of things on here.
03:01:16
Speaker
With 14 matches. Yeah. I put matches that don't have interference at all in black, but interference on them fully in red. And there's some where it's a little more nebulous. I put purple. I didn't know what code to go with. There is a lot of red, especially on page three of my notes. Oh my gosh. Yes.
03:01:37
Speaker
It's just a recurring theme where if it happens once in a show, you're like, man, you know, it's disappointing because you love so-and-so babyface and you could have won except this happened. But when it happens so many times on the show, you begin to wonder why am I rooting for DDP or Ding or anybody? Because they're going to work really hard and then so-and-so is going to pop out him with a chair and then the other guy's going to win.
03:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, either becomes completely demoralizing, or it just loses all impact. Meaning, or both. Yeah, or both. It definitely both. So that's a problem they ran into as a company. He relied on that so much. One, they did tile switches on nitro and thunder on nonsense happen. And then you go, why should I bother being happy when Sting wins this title? He's gonna lose at the same night nitro, which thing that happened last year, right? Yep.
03:02:33
Speaker
There's some good stuff in here worth watching, but it's not worth like civically going, let's watch the show because it's not good. No, yeah, that's bad for your health. Yes. The series stage coach was rolling along just fine. Then the horses stampeded and the thing drove right off a cliff. Yeah.
03:02:55
Speaker
It's like WCW forgot everything they knew about making a wrestling show. All of the skills they demonstrated quite nicely over the preceding four shows. Just about everything that we praised on the rest of the series is gone here. It really saddened me to watch this. With the rest of the series being so great, this show feels even worse.
03:03:18
Speaker
The show is just so poorly thought out, so poorly put together. There's too many matches, and too many promos, and too many stories going on, so nothing gets anywhere near enough time to develop. It's not quite as hyperactive as Starrcade 99 was, but it gets really close.
03:03:42
Speaker
They really should have cut all the quarterfinal U.S. tournament matches, do those on TV, and start at the semifinals. That would cut the show to 10 matches instead of 14. Also, cut Mancal vs Hart to bring it to 9 because, really? Yeah, make a dark match like you do other matches like this. Yeah. There's just too many matches on this, so they get very little time.
03:04:06
Speaker
Because of that, most of the matches end up basic at best and sloppy messes at worst. And worse, the majority of them are plagued by bad booking and flat-out silly angles. Bam-bam, replacing Kat, only to himself be replaced by Kat. Wall being unable to tell the difference between a skinny ref and a muscle-bound Steiner. Russo, half wearing a stolen referee shirt, can count to pinfall.
03:04:30
Speaker
Vampiro dragging Sting under the ring, Kimberly hitting DDP for no clear reason and with no clear buildup. The entirety of Funk vs. Smiley, just all of it. Yeah. Oh, and whatever the heck the Cruiserweight match was. There's quite a few botches besides. The performances tonight are often, though not universally, sloppy. There's just so much wrong on this show that it's hard to see if they get anything right.
03:04:59
Speaker
promos get next to no time. Everyone feels like they really need at least another 15 or 30 seconds more to really make the point they were trying to make and draw out the emotion they want us to feel. They go better than on Starrcade 99 at least, but probably just because wrestlers are more used to Russo asking than to convey an entire storyline in half a second now. Yeah, more practice at that point, yeah. Commentary is mostly awful.
03:05:23
Speaker
They get in a few good lines here and there and very occasionally have a decent discussion, but I honestly spent most of the show actively ignoring them. Much like it seems Tony. Yes. They rarely contribute to the match or show storylines much at all and more often distract, usually by way of Madden's offensive jokes or just some plain bizarre statements by Hudson.
03:05:47
Speaker
Tony tries to hold things together, but it feels like he's just going through the motions here, acting excited when he's not really feeling it. Other shows this series, Tony has sounded genuinely into things, which helped raise the shows up. This one, he tries for that feel, but too much is working against him and it doesn't feel legit. And what the heck happened to the set?
03:06:09
Speaker
Yeah. Where did all the personality of this series go? It's still Spring Stampede. Where's the cowboy stuff? Where's the fun video effects? Actually, where's the fun? Yeah. That's the central question for the show, I think. The previous shows in this series were fun. Fun for us watching, fun for the performers, fun for the commentary team. Lots of fun for the set designers and graphics guys. Oh yeah, sure.
03:06:38
Speaker
It's just slapped together. It's like WCW staff woke from a week-long bender to realize the pay-per-view was tomorrow and they'd done no prep. The care and love that went into the earlier shows is gone. And so, unsurprisingly, is the quality. Yeah. Spring Stampede 2000 exists to exist. I'd be much happier if it didn't. Yeah.
03:07:10
Speaker
So I almost didn't put the segment on the show. Wow. But I think we still need to ask Match of the Night and MVP. So Al, you're Match of the Night. Oh, man. I mean, there's one where if there were good matches throughout, I'd be like a breath of content out here. You'd be like, oh, that's six really good matches. I got to pick it so hard.
03:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, I actually did run it down interesting on here. I really, I was trying to see if you'd going through enough testing will push me more to the side. Honestly. You thought that you would get something that would convince you that a match was good for me tonight. Maybe your recap would help me somehow. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, it's, uh, it's not on there. I didn't write it out. I mean, there's matches people I like, like Mike Awesome and Sting and DDP, I mean, just interested in Jeff Jarrett.
03:08:03
Speaker
And there's people that I like, but I know not to expect too much from, especially in 2000. Like, unfortunately, Flair did a number of reasons, Bagwell, even St. Douglas, to a certain extent.
03:08:16
Speaker
As good as a lot of DDP Jeff Jarrett was, the finish hurts it for me because it's so abrupt and nowhere. It's silly. And this long part where it feels like they were told it makes Matt go longer, which is weird on a show where they constant cut, cut, cut.
03:08:34
Speaker
It's like they cut so much and didn't realize that they were now under time. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. So like, no, no, do like two more minutes in this figure four hold, guys. TDP is desperately scribbling two more pages of notes on it. Exactly. Stretch it out. Stretch it out. So purely unnatural merit, I had to go stink booker team. I honestly kind of thought that would be the one that would get you. Yeah. Not perfect, but it's good. That was the best of the short matches tonight. Yeah.
03:09:03
Speaker
For my part, there were a few decent matches among the earlier set. Booker T versus Sting, I think. I agree, that's the best of the shorter matches tonight. But I have to give this to Paige versus Jarrett. Got to figure that out, yeah. Ending aside, it was just a good, hard fought, well plotted match with the kinds of twists, turns, and escalating action that I've been looking for all night. It's the only match on the show that gets more than 10 minutes. No, yeah, it's 15 on a show that's like... Yeah, five, six. I'll say one thing I didn't mention just to talk about matching quickly.
03:09:33
Speaker
The hardcore match with all the nonsense goes eight minutes long. It feels like roughly five hours, but yeah. That's longer than both of my glasses matches combined. Yes. So that's my thought on this show. As far as that goes.
03:09:48
Speaker
The Knight's other decent to good matches feel like an audition for a later, actual match. Yes. This one feels like a more polished, actual match. Yeah. It feels like pay to watch Spring Stampede and then watch Thunder and Nigel for free. Yeah. That's, I think, what makes it the match of the night to me is, honestly, just because it's the only one that I actually feel like I can truly call a match. No, I get that. All the rest of them feels like, let's try out things that we're going to do later. Yeah. So. I think with less fluff, I'm 100% with you. Yeah.
03:10:17
Speaker
MVP. In my heart, I really want to give it to Mike Awesome. I thought when he's allowed to just actually wrestle, he's really good. His dives are good. He has good impact on his moves. He gets the one promo second, which is not amazing. I almost said Awesome, I didn't. It's good though. It just, he doesn't get the extra thing in his promo because it's so, as he said, so short, so cut off.
03:10:44
Speaker
I think if I could disconnect him from all the nonsense that he's wrapped in, he's my MVP. He shines in his little bits, but there's not enough there, I think, to really say show MVP. So we're looking at people that form neither a long match like Jeff Jarrett, DP, who argue I wrestled some people in total match length for the whole show, which is crazy.
03:11:06
Speaker
And people that had will do everything, you know, their matches had issues on their own. I had to go with the easy, but honestly, always reliable choice and stay. Okay. Like with Sam Ray for me, go watch that show. Seriously.
03:11:20
Speaker
He retains his character with all the stuff that's happening, with a natural specialty where they're trying to demystify and take all the color and fun out of everything. Hogan's wearing all black and it's like, ah, swearing and everything. Sting is still, he's croasting, but he's got the energy of pre-croasting. Yeah. Even if his matches don't always work, I don't think it's ever his fault. No, no, I think he's giving his best out there still. Yes. Despite the situation the company's in, he's still giving his best.
03:11:51
Speaker
We did have some good performances tonight that rose above the bad booking and the short match times. I'll give some credit to Eric Bischoff for some great acting throughout the show during the Hogan angle. To Scott Steiner for actually wrestling instead of stalling for most of the night, as well as differentiating himself from other New Blood members. And again, as you said, for Sting, call out Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell as well for actually blessedly having some character during their entrances and matches.
03:12:20
Speaker
But I'm gonna give this to Booker T. He just has the most interesting arc tonight. Technically part of the new blood but behaving with honor and respect for his opponent Sting as he makes clear where he agrees with and disagrees with the faction to which he belongs. It's a complicated performance and Booker does a darn good job with it in a very short time that he's actually given. Very true, yeah. So it's quite a good job of capturing
03:12:46
Speaker
A very complicated character element without getting the time that you actually need to portray it. I was impressed by that. Sure. And that, finally, wraps up our review of Spring Stampede 2000. If you've enjoyed listening to us tonight, you can find us on Twitter or Facebook, as let's go to the ring. Links will be available in the episode description.
03:13:10
Speaker
Follow us for episode announcements and other show details, and share your own thoughts about each show as we go through. You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, High Heart Radio, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, Verbal, or Audible. And please, if you've enjoyed this show, give us a rating or review and share the show through your favorite social media platforms to help others discover us. Many thanks to OSW Review for attendance and pay-per-view figures, and to Gina Trujillo for our logo.
03:13:41
Speaker
We've finished the final Spring Stampede. So next up, we'll take a look back at the series as a whole, remembering better days. Oh yes. We'll have a fun discussion about the series' themes, try to figure out its identity, and discuss our favorite, at least favorite, the show, at moments from the series. We'll play some games and hand out our series awards. And of course, we'll announce what we're covering next.
03:14:11
Speaker
These are my favorite episodes to do. So I very much hope that you have fun listening. This is Bob Moore for Alec Prigen, signing off. Good night, everybody. Happy wrestling.
03:14:37
Speaker
Hello everyone, and welcome to Let's Go to the Ring, where we take a look at the good old days, and not so good old days, of World Championship Wrestling. Wow, I think that's the first time I've ever screwed up that line. I think you did their website though, because their website is www.wrestling.com.