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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF InVasion

WWF InVasion
July 22, 2001
Cleveland, OH

When Vince McMahon bought WCW it was obvious wrestling was going to change forever. Fans hoped that it would be in a good way. Afterall, the WWF had been doing amazing business for years behind Vince’s booking and the year 2000 alone received critical acclaim in the ring (compared to ’98 and ’99, where despite the great business there was some horrible wrestling out there).

Now it’s not Vince’s fault that he couldn’t get all of the big players in WCW. Because of the outlandish deals with Ted Turner, there was no Sting, no Goldberg, etc. The biggest names the WWF received were Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page. To be honest, with the WWF hype machine behind each of them both could have been major players and the disappointment of no top WCW guys could have been at least lessened. And while the WWF completely missed with Page with the whole stalker of Undertaker’s wife angle, the WWF actually did a really good job with Booker T for the most part. Booker came in at King of the Ring 2001, dropped Stone Cold on his head through a table (which probably was a big reason he didn’t get the super push, as he legitimately hurt Austin here) and actually looked like a big deal. He was clearly the wrestling leader of this pack. The only thing that went wrong really was that match against Buff Bagwell that was pretty awful. Why they couldn’t just put Booker against someone like Chris Jericho orKurt Angle early on is a mystery to me. We really needed to have “authentic” WCW guys? The failure of the Booker-Bagwell match changed the angle big time, but it should be pointed out that Booker T was the leader of this Alliance team heading into the PPV.

When ECW entered the picture, it seemed really cool for one night until we realized these were all WWF guys sans Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer. For the record, as underrated as Rhyno was at the time, it should have come as no surprise that Rob Van Dam would be crazy over. RVD in the main could have helped. Nonetheless, when Stephanie McMahon was introduced as owner of ECW…well, it should have been obvious that this angle just wasn’t going to be what we were all hoping for.

Still, InVasion posted one of the biggest buyrates in WWF history, so despite the mess of booking, WWF vs. WCW and ECW was the main draw here. So let’s see how it goes.

The Card

Lance Storm and Mike Awesome vs. Edge and Christian

One of the issues with the InVasion: some guys turning when their role was working out so well. Not sure, it looked like an Edge face turn was in the works, but we loved Edge and Christian as a heel team.

Christian nearly kills himself early on by not getting enough height jumping over the top rope onto Storm and Awesome.

One reason J.R. is amazing on commentary: he sees the botch and after explaining how important InVasion is, explains that Edge and Christian have pre-match jitters. Just really smart.

If there was ever someone who had all the physical tools but who’s mic skills held him back, it was Mike Awesome. His frog splash was just incredible.

Christian really works as a face-in-peril.

Edge and Christian win when Edge pinned Awesome in 10:10. Awesome went for an Awesome Bomb on Edge, but Christian speared him and Edge landed on top for the win. Good opener for sure. During the match, Michael Cole and J.R. really put over this match as one of the most important ever due to it being the opener for the InVasion. The effort is great. Problem is, as we’ll see later, those words were very overblown and made Cole and J.R. look stupid.

Pretty funny promo with Vince and William Regal as Vince wants Regal to be like the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Not only is it funny on the surface because Regal is British, but it’s also funny because the idea that the WWF is the underdog here is ridiculous.

Nick Patrick vs. Earl Hebner
Mick Foley is the Special Guest Referee

Vince had access to so much talent now that we needed referees to wrestle. Great.

In all those wrestling magazines, how many “dream WWF vs. WCW card” articles had Patrick vs. Hebner on there?

We get an referee brawl on the outside! Foley throws the WCW referees out.

Earl Hebner pins Nick Patrick in 2:50. Patrick argues with Foley, allowing Hebner to tackle him for the three. This was awful but at least short. What was Vince thinking here?! 2-0 WWF. Foley blasts Patrick afterward and gets Mr. Socko on him.

Tough Enough commercial! Weird that the first one was 14 years ago.

Ugh, stalker DDP was so awful.

Sara (Taker’s wife) calls Taker Mark when talking to Debra. That was pretty unexpected.

The APA vs. Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo

WWF vs. WCW Tag Champs here. I do like how the APA were like the midcard leaders on-screen. O’Haire and Palumbo were only the tag champs in WCW as WCW was finally trying to use their younger talent. They definitely had potential though.

Fun fact: Faarooq is a former WCW World Champion. I thought that could have been a fun little turn during the InVasion storyline.

The APA win when Bradshaw pins Chuck Palumbo in 7:17. Clothesline From Hell takes out Palumbo after Palumbo “hit” Faarooq with a superkick. This was okay I guess. I do think the wrong team won, but then again the WWF never went with Palumbo and O’Haire. 3-0 WWF, which seems ridiculous at this point.

Billy Kidman vs. X-Pac

Kidman was the WCW Cruiserweight Champion and X-Pac was the WWF Lightheavyweight Champion.

X-Pac is booed out of the building. And you know, that’s a good example of the WWF NOT changing someone’s alignment just because they’re team WWF. Not that they could at this point anyway.

It should be pointed out that it was a really good idea for the WWF to put the WCW Cruiserweight Title on Kidman. I considered Kidman to be in the top tier of WCW Cruiserweights, and in fact he was the last guy to get to that point in 1998.

Weird dynamic here as I think the fans want to cheer for Kidman…but can’t quite bring themselves to do it because he’s a WCW guy.

Another weird dynamic: X-Pac’s trying to wrestle a riskier, high flying style but can’t quite do it (he had stopped after his neck injury in the mid 90s). It really makes for a mess of a match unfortunately.

Billy Kidman pins X-Pac in 7:12. Kidman hits the Shooting Star Press and the fans pop. And rightfully so, that move is awesome. So much for not cheering Kidman. Give X-Pac credit too, he let Kidman kickout of an X-Factor and jobbed to Kidman’s best move. Still not a good match though.

3-1 WWF! The Alliance is on board!

DDP quote: “Debra is sweet but she’s no Sara.” Yeah, like we don’t know DDP is married to Kimberly. Come on now.

Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler feel disappointed for the fans that they’ll have to settle for seeing Trish and Lita in their panties. I mean, it’s win-win either way, but I do agree Torrie and Stacy are hotter.

William Regal vs. Raven

Before watching this I could predict that this would be a huge clash of styles.

And that’s exactly what we get. Face Regal wasn’t really working either.

The timing for everything is just off. A clothesline from Raven is timed incorrectly. A bulldog from Raven, same thing. It’s not actively bad, but it is noticeable. Crowd is completely quiet as well.

Raven pins Regal in 6:34. Tazz runs in and hits a T-Bone Suplex to Regal…and Raven hits a sloppy Evenflow DDT for the win. 3-2 WCW.

Big Show, Billy Gunn and Albert vs. Sean Stasiak, Kanyon and Hugh Morrus

I know the WWF was quite low on Big Show at this point, but Show on the WCW team would have made a lot of sense and helped the star power issue.

Nice Meat chants for Stasiak.

Morrus, Stasiak and Kanyon win when Morrus pins Gunn in 4:23. Match can be described this way: WWF guys destroy WCW guys, WCW gets a cheap win. What a joke. Also, the Big Show destroys the WCW guys after the match too. Real waste of Kanyon here too. But we’re tied!

Oh, sorry, WCW/ECW is up 4-3 now. Apparently Chavo Guerrero Jr’s victory over Scotty 2 Hotty counts. Way to ignore than when the WWF was up 3-0.

Tazz vs. Tajiri

Tazz is ECW, Tajiri is WWF. Isn’t it crazy how just two years prior this was an ECW PPV World Title Match?

By the way, I would have put Tajiri in X-Pac’s spot here.

Tajiri pins Tazz in 5:44. Tajiri gets the Green Mist and kicks Tazz in the face for the win. Fun little match here where Tajiri took a lot of Tazz’s offense. Too bad it wasn’t longer. 4-4.

RVD takes Matt Hardy out with a chair right in Jeff Hardy’s face. Pretty awesome segment.

Hardcore Holly berates a WCW fan at WWF New York. Also a funny segment.

WWF Hardcore Championship
Jeff Hardy© vs. Rob Van Dam

Really…the first match on this card that really makes of sense. RVD vs. Jeff Hardy in a battle of the daredevils.

I wish after RVD just took Matt Hardy out that Jeff ran down to take out RVD.

HUGE RVD chants.

A really creative start, including Jeff legdropping RVD in a way where RVD ends up crunched like an accordion.

With all the hotdogging he’s doing, I can’t help but think RVD would have made for an awesome WWF heel. Of course, he’d be cheered, but who cares!

Seeing RVD in the WWF for the “first” time was crazy. All these crazy moves that worked in ECW…worked in the WWF too! For example…a moonsault off the barricade in the crowd. This was true for Tajiri as well, but it really got RVD over big time.

Spinning heel kick off the apron onto a hanging Jeff Hardy on the barricade. Years later people would complain it was the same old shit with RVD, but in 2001 on a global stage: holy shit.

Jeff Hardy with a sunset flip powerbomb from the ring onto the floor! RVD just gets slammed on the floor. Sick spot.

In one of my favorite spots ever, Jeff beats RVD down with a chair, leading RVD to beg from his knees for Jeff to stop. In a split second, RVD hops to his feet and hits the Van Daminator and sends off flying off the stage. Just wow.

RVD takes a DDT and a German Suplex and sells it the only way RVD can. Great stuff here.

RVD pins Jeff Hardy to win the title in 12:24. Jeff misses the Swanton…and RVD hits the Five Star Frog Splash for the win. A really fun spotfest that seemed revolutionary at the time. Great match. The first (and ultimately, only) match on this supercard that really felt it belonged.

5-4 WCW/ECW!

Bra and Panties Match
Trish Stratus and Lita vs. Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler

In the funniest moment of the entire event Mick Foley comes out to referee. That was pretty good.

There’s a pretty good story surrounding this: Torrie and Stacy tried to seduce the Hardyz.

Lita and Trish win in 5:03. There’s actually some decent fighting in this, although clearly that’s not the purpose. Fun of course. Oh and we’re tied!

The Inaugural Brawl
Team Alliance (Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno and the Dudley Boyz) vs. Team WWF (Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Kane, Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho)

One of the big selling points of this match was that the old Stone Cold was coming to InVasion. After being a cowardly heel for four months, Austin’s return to being a bad ass was nothing short of amazing. Just listen to that crowd reaction on RAW. It’s crazy. Honestly, if you told me that really sold the show instead of the actual InVasion I actually might agree.

Obviously Austin’s pop is amazing, but Angle gets a big one too. One positive of the InVasion: Kurt Angle getting to that next level.

I can’t help but think that this InVasion could have worked with DDP as the top heel. He’s getting great reactions and he’s a huge name of course.

The match is about 20 minutes of back and forth and while it isn’t bad it is pretty boring overall. Crowd is really into it though.

The match takes a strange turn to get to the finish. Kurt Angle is your Team WWF member in peril, but oddly he’d never make the hot tag as Undertaker just runs in to attack Page. A huge ten man brawl breaks out from that.

Stone Cold hurt his knee! Oh no! Also, everyone else gets taken out somehow. Angle suddenly begins to kick serious ass and the crowd is electric for him.

Team Alliance wins when Booker T pinned Kurt Angle in 29:30. Angle has Booker T locked in the Ankle Lock and tapping, but Stone Cold comes in and hits Angle with a Stunner and turns on the WWF. Booker gets the pin, but it’s Austin who celebrates with Shane, Stephanie and Heyman. Man what a stupid decision that turned out to be for the storyline and Austin’s career (although it helped make Kurt Angle). Match was good I suppose, but it seemed a bit boring at times and the finish sucked.

The angle really could have worked if they went with Booker vs. Rock and Page vs. Austin, but Page apparently pissed too many people off, including Undertaker and it never worked out for him. Booker did go on to fight Rock but after getting beat twice he dropped to the midcard. As for Austin, this was his last chance to regain that babyface level only he and Hogan (and I guess Rock) ever reached, only it was thrown away with this re-turn. When Austin turns face again in December the crowd reaction for him isn’t the same as it once was.

As for this show, I feel like only one match really delivered and that was RVD vs. Jeff Hardy. Yes the opener was good and the Bra and Panties Match was fun, but everything else really left you disappointed. What a shame.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Greed

GREED

WCW Greed
March 18, 2001
Jacksonville, FL
Reviewed on March 2, 2014

Background: I think it is well documented that WCW was in deep trouble at this point. Buyrates had plummeted in 2000, and the word plummeted is no exaggeration. The company (smartly, I should mention) was riding on Scott Steiner as a top guy and giving him a lengthy reign. Whether you hate or like Steiner, it was nice to see someone get a steady reign at the top and actually be a new star. Now obviously there were a lot of other problems with Steiner, but this booking was a huge upgrade from the non-stable hot potato the WCW Title went through in 2000. It was too little, too late though.

I don’t know if the wrestlers knew at this point, but this would be the very last PPV for World Championship Wrestling. Vince McMahon would buy the company a week later.

The Card

Tony Schiavone: If it’s professional wrestling, it’s Greed. What does that even mean?

Kwee Wee vs. Jason Jett

Apparently this is an unadvertised bonus match.

Jason Jett kicks Kwee Wee but it’s blocked. Jett backflips out. That was cool.

Jett puts on a reverse crab and a surfboard combo move, which was a cool submission.

Kwee Wee with the suicide dive that had no chance even if Jason Jett stood in the same place. At least he tried I guess.

Jason Jett seems pretty good. Standing moonsaults, 180 springboard DDTs (I remember Matt Hardy having that). Not bad.

Just quickly looked up if Jason Jett was anyone, apparently he’s EZ Money. How about that.

I guess Kwee Wee’s gimmick is his temper? Angry Allan?

Top rope powerbomb reversed into a hurricanrana. Funny, I recall EZ Money doing a spot like that in TNA…although I think he was the hurricanrana giver there.

Jason Jett pins Kwee Wee in 12:17. Jett hits a suplex where he just drops the guy mid-plex. Pretty cool finisher honestly. Solid match too, even if I can’t take Kwee Wee too seriously. A lot of great spots, mostly from Jett.

WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship Tournament Final
Rey Mysterio Jr. and Billy Kidman vs. Primetime Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo

The idea of the Cruiserweight Tag Title would have been a lot more interesting in the mid 90s.

I am surprised Skipper never became a bigger deal. Has a cool entrance where he walks the ropes then backflips in.

I hated the Filthy Animals.

I hate this half-mask Rey Mysterio is wearing. I wish this version of Rey was just stricken from history.

I think it’s weird that all of Billy Kidman’s talent seemed to disappear when WCW did.

This has been a solid match so far. Kidman just hiptossed Skipper off the stage into Romeo, then Rey and Kidman both did running dives off the stage. Fun match.

Before this match I would have thought Romeo and Skipper were not in Rey and Kidman’s league, but Skipper and Romeo are showing otherwise.

Sitout powerbomb from the top is always a great spot from Kidman. I really didn’t understand how Kidman looked washed up 8 months later in the WWF.

Rey is taking over. Senton bomb rolls into a suicide dive through the ropes into Primetime!

Kidman with the springboard Shooting Star Press to the floor! Kidman-kaze? Whatever, great move.

We’re just ignoring the idea of a legal man here I guess. Whatever.

Wow, arm trap suplex from Skipper…top rope legdrop from Romeo. Poor Rey!

Powerbomb by Rey, top rope splash from Kidman! Skipper saves Romeo!

I always loled at Rey doing the Bronco Buster.

Kid Romeo and Primetime win the title when Romeo pinned Rey in 13:46. Romeo catches Rey’s springboard moonsault and hits the last kiss, which is a powerslam-brainbuster combo. Very fun match! Great start to this PPV so far!

We have Buff Bagwell backstage and he comes into CEO Ric Flair’s office. Jeff Jarrett, Flair and Road Warrior Animal are in there, hyping up how the Magnificent Seven is going to win all their matches and all that stuff.

Shawn Stasiak vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Stacy Keibler is so hot.

Shawn “The Star” Stasiak. Right.

The Mecca of Manhood is another Stasiak nickname. Right.

I didn’t even know Bam Bam made it to the end of WCW. I assume he doesn’t care at this point.

Stasiak has photos of himself for the fans! In case they forget him. Because they will.

Bam Bam still threw dropkicks at this point. Nice.

Shawn Stasiak pins Bam Bam Bigelow in 5:55. Stacy throws hairspray to Stasiak and he uses it to blind Bigelow. A neckbreaker leads to the win. Honestly, it wasn’t horrible, but it’s boring and not good either. But, if you are going with Stasiak, then Bam Bam put him over just fine.

Stacy makes out with Stasiak. His career highlight I’m sure.

Romeo and Skipper are very excited about their title belts. As they should be.

Team Canada (Mike Awesome and Lance Storm) vs. Konnan and Hugh Morrus

I always mark for the Canadian National Anthem. We don’t get it though as we get the maniacal laughter of Hugh Morrus. Morrus runs in without Konnan to start the match, but Konnan comes in soon thereafter.

Konnan tries to break up a Storm pin attempt, but Storm gets up and faces Konnan before he gets there. I don’t remember seeing that before and it was kinda cool.

Konnan with the rolling clothesline. That and the Tequila Sunrise are cool moves.

Team Canada is beating up on Konnan for most of this match, but it’s not really exciting or anything.

Lance Storm clearly misses a dropkick that Konnan sold.

Mike Awesome with an awful…awful piledriver on Konnan. Konnan landed on Awesome’s legs.

Storm not on his best game here. His top rope splash attempt was clearly mistimed and Konnan got the foot up.

Morrus is in. No drama here whatsoever.

Mike Awesome and Lance Storm win when Awesome pins Morrus in 11:28. Storm interrupts No Laughing Matter, and Mike Awesome turns that into a running Awesome Bomb for the win. Match was not good. Blown spots and downright boring at times. Storm was disappointing here, and the rest are who they are. Morrus and Konnan just seem like two guys thrown together, and not like a tag team at all.

We’re in the Rhodes’ locker room. Dusty ordered burritos! 240 of them! There is gonna be a match between Dusty’s ass and Flair’s face and he’s gonna smell the burritos! That’s coming from one of the best promo men in the history of the business ladies and gentlemen!

More of this Bagwell documentary. He’s interviewing US Champ Rick Steiner. I think Rick said the F-word here. Something about Midajah as well. Not notable.

Quick Natural Born Thrillas promo. Chuck Palumbo would be Chucky this time next year.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Chavo Guerrero Jr.(c) vs. Sugar Shane Helms

That theme song is absolutely awful. God damn.

Chavo has a cool remix of Eddie Guerrero’ theme.

Chavo Guerrero’s career peaked in 1998. Unless you were a Lt. Loco fan.

Some good chain wrestling here.

This has been a technical wrestling match with no highflying. Scott Hudson mentions this on commentary. It isn’t bad though.

Chavo kinda botches flipping Helms to the outside.

This match feels like a match that is happening because all the top Cruisers were unavailable.

Chavo with a nice reversal into a sitout Curtain Call. Nice move.

Nice block of the Tornado DDT into the Nightmare on Helms Street.

Crowd with a boring chant. Weird, because the match was boring earlier on but has picked up.

Helms with a frog splash press to the outside on Chavo. Very nice.

Shane Helms pins Chavo Guerrero Jr. in 13:57 to win the title. Top rope back suplex is blocked and Chavo goes for a Vertebreaker. Helms reverses and hits the Vertebreaker for the win. Alright match with some good moments. Felt like a poor man’s version of a WCW Cruiserweight Title match.

More Bagwell documentary. Flair is mad about what Dusty said.

Booker T interview. The US Title has eluded him for 8 long years! This is a former WCW World Champion here.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
The Natural Born Thrillers (Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire)© vs. Totally Buff (Buff Bagwell and The Total Package Lex Luger)

Luger and Bagwell may be my least favorite tag team ever.

Luger reminds us that Totally Buff were the ones that ended Bill Goldberg’s WCW career. What a nice thing to do.

Now Totally Buff are burying the Tag Champs but saying they don’t know who they and that they are rookies. Sigh.

The Natrual Born Thrillers retain the titles with a double pin at 0:54. You know what, that was very well done. Superstar diva heels talk trash about the young champs. Young champs kick ass. What a way to put over the young blood. Sean-ton Bomb is pretty nice.

Scott Steiner promo! Page is going down!

Wow they are really selling the ass kicking Totally Buff got. They reference the time Bagwell broke his neck three years ago.

Ernest Miller vs. Kanyon

Apparently Kanyon did a Kanyon Cutter to Ms. Jones, The Cat’s valet. Kanyon goes right after Ms. Jones after a Cat calls Kanyon ugly.

Kanyon looks like a demented stalker when he’s close to Ms. Jones.

Kanyon with a top rope Rocker Dropper. Not bad.

The Cat does some dancing and splits with uppercuts and elbows and stuff. I guess it’s not bad, but it takes away from the seriousness of the match a bit.

Kanyon somehow botches a Boston Crab, as the Cat ends up on his side.

Kanyon survives the Feliner, which looks a lot like Kofi Kingston’s Trouble in Paradise.

Ernest Miller pins Kanyon in 10:31. Ms. Jones tries to kick Kanyon, but he ducks and she knocks down The Cat. Kanyon then grabs Jones by the arm, and she misses a kick. She gets a 2nd kick though, and the Cat hits the Feliner for the win. Kanyon attacks The Cat afterwards, then MIA Smooth or something comes in with a chair and chases off Kanyon. Match was boring and the storyline is not good. I guess it wasn’t horrible overall though.

More documentary stuff. Luger and Bagwell arguing!

Dusty apparently ate all the burritos and he says he thinks they are down to ass. Seriously what the fuck.

WCW US Championship
Rick Steiner© vs. Booker T

Steiner is beating the crap out of Booker early on.

Ugly looking double underhook powerbomb. Still all Steiner. Booker got some punches that had no effect on Steiner.

Wow Steiner is no-selling everything here. Backsuplex and Steiner is right back up.

This is still all Steiner. Making Booker look horrible.

Booker T pinned Rick Steiner in 7:31 to win the title. Booker accidentally takes out the ref, and Steiner hits a German Suplex. No ref for the count. Rick Steiner goes up top, but Shane Douglas nails him in the head with a cast (and Rick lands on his feet!). Booker gets the Book-End for the win. Awful match. Steiner no sold everything and dominated the rest. Booker couldn’t win without help. Terrible.

Documentary time. Buff Bagwell has been knocked out! Luger accuses Animal.

Dustin Rhodes and Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett

Flair comes out with a shirt full of flowers and dress pants. He says he’s not wrestling and Jarrett will beat them both up by himself.

Ref sends Road Warrior Animal to the back.

Wasting a lot of time here.

It feels weird in 2001 to be chronicling the Rhodes vs. Flair feud over the last 20 years.

Jarrett and Dustin start us off.

Flair’s in there. Punching and chopping away at Dustin.

Flair just lets Dustin tag in Dusty. First thing I think Dusty does is fart. Ugh.

Crowd very into Dusty. I think he farts again. I mean seriously.

Dusty’s elbows are pretty good though.

Jarrett and Flair are doubling teaming Dustin. I guess that makes sense in the context of the match.

Dustin gets the tag, Flair vs. Dusty!

Bionic Elbow from Dusty…but Jarrett makes the save.

Dusty and Dustin Rhodes defeated Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett when Dustin pinned Flair in 9:58. Finish is botched as Dustin was supposed to take down Flair somehow for the win. It’s not clear how but it looks terrible.

Flair needs to kiss Dusty’s ass now.

The last thing this PPV needs is Dusty’s ass.

Stinkface to Jarrett. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

On the replay it looked like Dustin was going for an inside cradle, but Flair thought it was something else? Anyway, that match was a bit of a mess. I guess it was to get Dusty a pop? I don’t know. Whatever.

WCW World Championship: Falls Count Anywhere
Scott Steiner© vs. Diamond Dallas Page

The story is Steiner has taken out ever top contender, and all that is left is Page. Not bad honestly. Puts over both.

I wonder if Michael Buffer was embarrassed to be a part of this crap at this point.

Even though I know he had a heel turn somewhere in 1999, Page is basically the same exact wrestler he was in 1998. Just with shorter hair.

In 20 seconds Page had more offense on Scott than Booker T had on Rick.

Page is all out on the attack early on. Makes sense within the story, as Page said he was the hunter and not the hunted.

Some garbage can action. Steiner then takes a crutch from a fan and nails Page.

Page elbow drops Steiner through a table…although the table crumpled slowly. This has been a decent brawl so far.

Steiner was a good suplex-type guy. Those suplexes look vicious.

This match is better than I expected it to be. A solid brawl.

Diamond Cutter! 1….Rick Steiner pulls out the ref. DDP takes out Rick.

DDP shoves Scott into Rick and rolls him up…but a near fall only results.

Page gets busted open from a shot to the face with the WCW title.

Page is busted open badly. Jeez.

Steiner Recliner! Page gets to the ropes though.

Scott Steiner retains the title when DDP passes out in the Steiner Recliner. For some reason Midajah distracts the ref while Steiner nails Page with a lead pipe (it’s No DQ you know). Second Steiner Recliner ends it. Steiner continually nails Page with the pipe. Really not a bad match, it’s quite okay and better than I thought it would be.

Overall, I don’t think this is an awful Pay-Per-View at all. There are some good matches, some bad ones and some average ones. It is a bit sad that this is the last PPV we’d see from WCW.

I wanted to put it in C+ range, but you can thank Rick Steiner and Dusty Rhodes’ ass for me having to knock it down a bit.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Superbrawl Revenge

2001-SuperbrawlRevenge

WCW Superbrawl Revenge
February 18, 2001
Nashville, TN
Reviewed on April 25, 2014

Background: I wrote a little about where WCW was status wise in the Greed review. Basically it was on its last legs and were relying on Scott Steiner to get them out (actually not the worst plan, and I’d argue that it’s even a good plan). But it was too little too late. While WCW was actually showing signs of life in 2001, the damage of 2000 was just way too much for WCW to live through. Vince McMahon was about six weeks away from buying the promotion at this point, although I assume as of this date people still thought Fusient and Eric Bischoff were going to get it at this point. Maybe that’s why there was some motivated stuff going on here.

Alas, the dying days of WCW present Superbrawl REVENGE!

The Card

What a strange opening video. Hard to explain.

I don’t like the Revenge part of the title. Superbrawl is the 2nd biggest WCW PPV of the year. It’s like calling a PPV Summerslam Revenge or something.

Road Warrior Animal attacked Billy Kidman earlier in the show. Apparently he’s out of the Cruiserweight Six Man Match.

Cruiserweight Six Man Four Corners Elimination Match
Jamie Knoble vs. Evan Karagias vs. Shannon Moore vs. Shane Helms vs. Kaz Hayashi vs. Yun Yang

Um…this is just Three Count vs. The Jung Dragons. Although I guess neither of these groups are together at this point. There’s no reference to the history though, except a bit for Hayashi and Yang.

Shannon Moore is still introduced as a member of Three Count.

Maybe I’m wrong. Helms and Moore are still in Three Count. I guess Karagias just isn’t. And Knoble was masked before, so they probably just pretend he wasn’t part of the Dragons.

Helms replaced Kidman in this.

Winner gets a shot at the Cruiser title at Greed.

Nice double team leading to a powerbomb from Helms to Knoble.

Awesome camera work getting Moore going flying out of the ring.

All the history is being brought up now, even with Knoble. My mistake. Not used to WCW referring accurately to history.

What an awesome springboard Tornado DDT from Yang.

Awesome portion when everyone goes to the top and misses a huge move. Pretty cool.

Shannon Moore with an Asai Moonsault…but he springs off the TOP rope.

Just amazing spot after amazing spot here. What a great match and no one’s out yet!

Screwed up kick and Russian legsweep from Yang to Karagias.

Yang pins Karagias for the first elimination.

Knoble tombstones Yang to get rid of him.

Shannon Moore takes an awesome bump off a dropkick off the apron from Knoble!

Top rope Rocker Dropper (Bottoms Up from the Top!) from Moore to Knoble gets rid of him. Three Count vs. Hayashi here.

Backslide into Guillotine Legdrop. What? Crazy innovative.

Moore turns on Helms!

Nightmare on Helms Street takes out Moore. Down to 2!

Shane Helms wins when he pinned Hayashi in 17:30. Vertebreaker for the win. Wow. Just wow. Incredible match. Probably a top 10 all time PPV opener, that’s how good this is. Awesome dynamic having three teams with history be in an every man for himself match. Led to a lot of great double teams. Just amazing. Also makes me wonder if Helms could have been a bigger deal. And what the hell happened to Shannon Moore?

Video camera catches Chavo Guerrero striking a deal with Ric Flair and Animal.

Kevin Nash was hurt on Monday. WILL HE MAKE IT TO THE MAIN EVENT TONIGHT. Er…don’t they always?

Hugh Morrus promo. Ugh, whatever. This is the fallout of the MIA I think. Apparently Hugh Morrus is back TONIGHT. Um..woo?

Flair gives Scott Steiner an envelope.

Now Lance Storm and Kronik have a confrontation about doctors. This was Commissioner Lance Storm. I don’t remember that.

Hugh Morrus vs. The Wall

Couldn’t we just have given the Cruisers 30 minutes?

Morrus kicks the steel steps into the Wall’s head. Interesting spot which would be great…although it kinda shows the steps are a lot lighter than you’d think.

Somehow we’ve gotten to the laying down part of the match. We’re only like 4 minutes in.

Nice screwup on the stun gun. Not sure which that was on.

Hugh Morrus pinned The Wall in 9:43. No Laughing Matter for the win. I actually though this had a solid start, but then turned into a boring “brawl” with a lot of laying down. But I mean, this could have been a lot worse I guess.

Konnan attacks Animal because of what he did to Kidman. Security runs in to break them up…although it was implausible how all those security guards were just around the corner.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire© vs. Mark Jindrak and Sean Stasiak

I know these teams were matches differently at one point.

Four green guys in one ring, although there is loads of potential here. Who’s better anyway, Stasiak or Curtis Axel?

Stasiak makes fun of the Tennessee Titans not winning a championship. Um, wasn’t that 2000?

I actually forgot how solid of a team O’Haire and Palumbo were. Shame the APA buried them as fast as they did.

Mark Jindrak is pretty awful tough. Just got catapulted into his partner…and totally forgets to sell it.

Palumbo is your future Chucky in peril.

Palumbo and O’Haire win when O’Haire pins Stasiak in 11:37. Senton Bomb! Really well done tag match. I’m shocked. Put Palumbo and especially O’Haire over nicely. I know everyone says O’Haire was wasted in 2003…but he was wasted here too. There was huge potential here and he was someone WCW could have built the company around 2-3 years from this point. A shame. Pretty solid start to the PPV.

Dustin Rhodes trashes Rick Steiner and Ric Flair.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Chavo Guerrero Jr.(c) vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

While Chavo’s peak as a wrestling character was 1998…he was probably as his peak as a wrestler in 2001.

Ugh, Rey with devil horns.

A hard clothesline knocks the horns off. Best think Chavo ever did.

Tony says Rey has had four major knee operations. No wonder he can barely walk now.

Rey telegraphs a counter while in the tree of woe. Come on Rey.

Gory Special is a cool submission. I don’t like the Gory Bomb though.

Rey seems off, just not smooth climbing Chavo’s shoulders and the telegraph earlier.

Rey is even a bit low on the moonsault. He’s just off.

Maybe I’m just biased again non-masked Rey.

Really digging Chavo here. Nice heel stuff from him.

Chavo puts a Rey Jr. mask on Rey Jr. I expect a comeback now.

Rey now puts the mark on Chavo.

Nice over the top somersault from Rey.

We have a chair in the ring!

Rey with a cool Hurricanrana off the apron from a wristlock…but he unfortunately screwed up the setup twice.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. retains in 15:53. Rey tries to use the chair…but ref takes it and Chavo uses that distraction to hit Rey with another chair! Brainbuster wins it. Good match…but Rey actually brought it down a bit by being sloppy. Solid heel finish. This set up Chavo vs. Helms.

WCW US Championship
Rick Steiner© vs. Dustin Rhodes

Somehow Kevin Nash made this happen storyline wise. Dustin had problems with Owner Flair here.

Rick actually drops the US title on the way to the ring. Real nice Rick.

Rick actually sells some punches here. Already more than the Greed match with Booker.

I think it’s weird that 2014 Goldust is in twice the shape 2001 Dustin was.

Probably the worst looking jawbreaker ever by Dustin…it looked like Steiner hit a Rear Naked Choke Drop.

Rick Steiner retains in 9:11 by pin. Steiner slams Rhodes into an unexposed turnbuckle…then uses the ropes for the pin which is a good heel finish. Match sucked though. Expected from Rick Steiner at this point. Post Match Shattered Dreams owned though. Sorry Dustin, unless you are Goldust, no one cares.

Flair tells Commish Storm Dustin needs to get kicked out. Winner of Totally Buff and Kronik gets a tag title shot.

Page and The Cat are left from team non-Flair I guess. What about Nash? Page says they need the Cat to win back the Commissionership.

Totally Buff vs. Kronik

Luger rambles. Great. He even begins to imitate Flair.

Bagwell buries our Tag Champs. Although…the champs get their revenge at Greed.

Apparently Bryan Clarke isn’t medically cleared. So we have a handicap match.

Clarke comes out anyway. So what’s the point of the storyline?

Hey a fake Bryan Clarke. It’s Mike Awesome. I gotta say, that’s nicely done. He attacks Adams of course.

Totally Buff defeats Brian Adams when Bagwell got the pin in 6:45. Match sucked, but I admit I liked the finish. Put over Adams I guess.

Lance Storm tries to kick Kronik out of the building. Lance Storm does seem like an awesome Commissioner actually.

WCW Commissionership On the Line
Lance Storm© vs. The Cat

The Cat calls Lance Storm a fake Power Ranger. I don’t get it.

On one hand I feel like Storm deserves better…on the other it’s cool to have a storyline instead of just having matches.

They do tell a good story with Storm working on a knee he attacked on Thunder.

The Cat pins Lance Storm in 8:07. Mike Sanders causes a distraction and the Cat hits the Feliner for the win. Total mismatch of ability here. Okay for what it was.

We are supposed to get DDP vs. Jeff Jarrett…but Jarrett makes Page go through a warm-up. Oddly remixed video of DDP challenging Kanyon. Anywhere, anytime! So Jarrett says now.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kanyon

Kanyon attacks Page from behind and here we go.

Kanyon with a Rocker Dropper on the steel steps. Unique I guess. Page is bleeding.

Cool suplex where Kanyon was standing on the 2nd rope and Page was on the apron. Kanyon then suplexed him. Creative indeed.

KANYON CUTTER! Page survives!

Jarrett’s here. Ref is out. Stroke!

Kanyon pins DDP in 8:15. Flatliner for the win. I think that’s an odd choice since Page is gonna fight Jarrett now…but I guess the idea is that Kanyon wore down Page for Jarrett. Anyway, solid match. Pretty good back and forth.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Jeff Jarrett

Kanyon introduces the next match….a good line here here: “Scheduled for one fall, I don’t know, two hour time limit.”

I like how Jarrett just redoes his whole entrance.

Scott Hudson says “we’ll stay with this as long as we can”. Um..what?

I guess this is no DQ…since we have blatant chair action.

This is a pretty basic match with Jarrett beating on DDP and DDP coming back, but at least it is well done.

Page takes a straight chair shot to the head…but Page kicks out.

DDP pins Jarrett in 8:30. Jarrett accidentally nails Kanyon with a guitar…and Page gets the Diamond Cutter for the win. Another solid basic match. Told the story of Page having to go through two matches well.

IS KEVIN NASH HERE? CAN HE WRESTLE?

WCW World Championship
Scott Steiner© vs. Kevin Nash

President Flair comes to ringside! He’s on commentary!

Wow we get the Sid broken leg spot in a video. Was that necessary?

Flair makes it a retirement match! Those are always legit! That was what the envelope was all about.

Here comes Nash! Wheelchair with two hot nurses. Lol Kevin Nash is cool?

Scott Steiner can’t pronounce sympathy.

Nash is faking. Nash hits Steiner with the WCW Title and pins Steiner, 1…2…3! What a load of bullshit that is. Scott Steiner is supposed to be a MONSTER heel you know.
Flair turns this into best 2 out of 3 falls. It’ll take more than 2 falls to save Steiner’s credibility here. Also, wouldn’t it have made more sense for Flair to have DQed Nash there?

Totally Buff randomly attacks DDP in the back. Ok?

Steiner whacks Nash with a lead pipe…but Steiner can’t get Nash’s dead weight into the ring. So Flair says it’s Falls Count Anywhere. Steiner ties it up.

Kevin Nash just escapes the Steiner Recliner like it’s nothing. I don’t even like Steiner that much and I know that’s awful.

Pretty sure Midajah misses her cue on taking out the ref when Nash had a pin attempt. That was funny.

Jackknife but Midajah and Flair take out the ref.

Flair takes out the ref a second time.

Scott Steiner retains by ref stoppage at 12:29. Steiner Recliner after a chair shot gets it done. Horrible match, horrible booking. It’s crap like this that killed WCW. Not only did Nash pin Steiner in 16 seconds, but he then survived and escaped the Steiner Recliner with little struggle and had Steiner beat twice and got help to kill the count. Horrible main event ruined what was a pretty decent show. I defend Nash at times, but here is just indefensible.

The effort was there. It really was. WCW did some good stuff at the end. It’s too bad guys like Nash were still around hurting the product. WCW was missing some top guys here (Sting, Booker) and still put on a decent show. The first half of it sans Morrus-Wall had some awesome wrestling, especially the opener.

I was ready to give WCW the benefit of the doubt and a B, B- for effort and some legit good stuff, but Kevin Nash just had to come in his wheel chair and fuck that up. Still, for the first half and the DDP stuff, this is a decent PPV. A C+, C ending for WCW isn’t bad considering what 2000 was like for them.

Final Grade: C+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Spring Stampede ’99

Spring_Stampede_1999

WCW Spring Stampede ‘99
April 11, 1999
Tacoma, WA
Reviewed on July 4, 2014

WCW Spring Stampede interests me for one reason. It’s generally regarded that anything past late ’98 for WCW pretty much sucks. Yet, this card actually has very positive reviews. I’m really just curious to see what this show did as opposed to what WCW was doing in early ’99 (where it was pretty much awful).

WCW at this point was getting their ass kicked bad by the WWF in the ratings. While there were many reasons on why this was happening, the most recent was the Goldberg-Hall-Nash-Hogan Starrcade and Finger Poke of Doom debacle. WCW never recovered from that. Ric Flair also returned to the main event…and as great as Flair is, this is a perfect time to show that no new guys were getting pushed to the main event, sans for one (and he isn’t really even new).

How did Spring Stampede ’99 break through and actually be a good show for WCW? Is it actually good, or just good smelling shit? Let’s see.

The Card

This might be the first PPV with the new logo.

#1 Contender to the Cruiserweight Championship
Blitzkrieg vs. Juventud Guerrera

I like how if you watch Juvi here and back at Bash at the Beach ’98, you would have never known he had a heel turn with the LWO inbetween.

Commentary is making fun of Thunder? What?

Ha and they take a shot at Larry Z!

Some great sequences that Blitzkrieg impressively lands on his feet…but he does mess up a tilt a whirl backbreaker.

Juvi busts out the surfboard!

They do the flying off the top rope getting caught with a dropkick spot…but on the floor, which was cool.

Blitzkrieg with a crazy springboard moonsault onto Juvi on the floor. Wow.

They botch something off the top rope, it looked like a Blitzkrieg falls back on Juvi off the top spot.

Blitz misses one of the sicker top rope moves…the Sky Twister Press!

Crazy sunset flip off the top from Blitz.

Juvi hits a Juvi Driver off the top! Wow!

Juventud pins Blitzkrieg in 11:11. After the top rope Juvi Driver the pin was academic. I’m torn here. One on hand, they tried a lot of cool stuff and some of it was downright awesome. On the other, I hate high flying matches with messed up spots, as it looks like a performance as opposed to a wrestling match. In the end I’ll go with good, not great. Interestingly, some think this is one of the best matches of all of WCW. Let’s not go crazy here.

Hardcore Match
Hardcore Hak vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

I did think WCW trying to create a Hardcore Division with former WCW wrestlers was a great idea. Too bad it didn’t stick.

It is a bit of a waste for Bigelow though.

It is also interesting to note that Sandman got in good shape for WCW…he did the same for ECW 2K6.

Hak-ton Bomb off the stage wagon through Bigelow and a table! Eat your heart out Jeff Hardy.

For some reason Tony is explaining that the garbage can doesn’t really hurt but makes a great sound? What the fuck?

Ha, Tenay and Heenan make fun of him after a great garbage can shot.

Hak and Bigelow screw up a DDT I think? Maybe a suplex. I think Hak went for a suplex and Bigelow dropped for a DDT.

Another Hak-ton Bomb, this time on a ladder on Bigelow. Sandman is a sicko.

Hak goes flying off the ladder and throw the table!

Bam Bam Bigelow pins Hardcore Hak in 11:33. Bigelow is about to slam Hak with a safety rail, but Chasity causes a distraction but can’t get the fire extinguisher going. Bigelow gets it working and takes out Chasity. Hak hits the White Russian Legsweep on the safety rail, but eventually Bigelow hits a weird brainbuster through the table (which got a great reaction) on Hak for the win. Pretty entertaining Hardcore Match. Let’s quickly talk about why WCW blew it here and how frustrating it is to listen to the commentary here.

Tony Schiavone already buried the idea of garbage can shots (why?), but after the match all three are laughing about what they saw, with Tony giving a condescending “fans, don’t try this at home”. Not for safety reasons, it is more from a “this is stupid” standpoint. Why the commentary team wants to bury their own product just speaks volumes about WCW sometimes. Hak and Bigelow put on a good brawl and it’s basically laughed about. I hate this company sometimes.

Scotty Riggs vs. Mikey Whipwreck

I have no recollection of this Rick Marterl rip off gimmick Scotty Riggs is doing in WCW.

A lot of hip gyrations from Riggs. Well, two good matches was a good start to the PPV.

Mikey was pretty underrated as a wrestler.

Ouch, Mikey takes a bump off the apron and crashes back/head first into the railing.

Oddly Riggs looks like Randy “The Ram”.

“Boring” chant for Scotty’s offense. You know it’s bad when you are better off as a pirate.

Scotty Riggs pins Mikey Whipwreck in 7:03. Flying forearm for the win (is he just copying Luger from 92?). Out of nowhere win. Match sucked, although Whipwreck tried. Riggs didn’t last much longer. At least they tried to get someone new over though. Not sure why Riggs was the guy.

Disco Inferno makes fun of Konnan’s music video.

Konnan vs. Disco Inferno

Odd history here: Konnan was part of the Wolfpac…and Disco had some weird association with them.

Konnan calls Disco a straight up strawberry. Well then.

Konnan pins Disco Inferno in 9:17. Konnan hits Disco with his own move, the Chartbuster/Last Dance/STONE COLD STUNNER for the win. Interestingly, this match was to put Disco over and Disco dominated the match. Big difference from the Bash at the Beach ’98 “bonus match”. While the choices are odd, WCW does seem to be trying to push some guys higher up, Riggs and Disco are two examples so far.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Rey Mysterio Jr.(c) vs. Billy Kidman

They are the co-holders of the Tag Team Title. Winner faces Juvi on Nitro.

This is all post LWO (thankfully). Unfortunately this is the beginning of the maskless Rey era.

Commentary goes silent!

Some good sequences so far…but it does feel like they are going through the motions a bit.

Ref is fast counting everything for some reason.

Kidman actually does a running Shooting Star Press off the apron. No crowd reaction. Really odd match dynamics here.

Tenay with a funny slip: “Both men look like they’ve lost a step from the opening match…I mean opening part of the bout”. That’s probably true, Juvi vs. Blitzkrieg was better.

I am amazed that the crowd just does not give a shit about this match.

Really nice counter to a top rope bulldog from Rey.

The ref counts are really distracting.

Rey pins Kidman in 15:32 to retain. Top rope hurricanrana. This is like one of those EWR matches that got “bad show syndrome”. Everything looked nice, but crowd just didn’t care and it felt a little like they were going through the motions. My theory? They didn’t build up anything as they busted out hurricanranas right away in the opening sequence. Also, I think people may have been against maskless Rey. Kidman got some face reactions, and while he is, Rey didn’t get the same.

Seeing the replay on how they won the tag belts kinda killed my maskless Rey theory.

Raven and Saturn vs. Benoit and Malenko

I should say I loved the idea of Rey and Kidman (flyers) vs. Saturn and Raven (hardcore) vs. Benoit and Malenko (technical).

Benoit and Malenko are part of the Horsemen of course. So Double A is out here.

Raven and Saturn reconciling was pretty cool too. I forgot the story with that though.

Crowd is really hot here…like they know this is going to own.

Shame it isn’t being referenced, but there was history between Benoit and the Flock at one time too.

The Charles Robinson as the ref is an interesting part of this match as well.

Saturn kicks all kinds of ass at one point and takes out Double A at one point…but Malenko stops him.

Malenko dropkicks Saturn into a German Suplex by Benoit!

DVD from Saturn, cover is broken up by a Benoit diving Headbutt!

Raven droptoeholds Benoit on a chair…no DQs? Ah this is great, who cares.

Benoit and Malenko win when Malenko pins Raven in 14:11. Evenflow takes out Malenko and Raven covers. Double A puts a chair on Raven’s head and Benoit hits the Flying Headbutt on the chair (for fuck sakes Benoit) and blades no less. Malenko pins. Great back and forth tag match. Shoulda re-built the division around these two and Mysterio and Kidman.

WCW US Title Tournament Final
Booker T vs. Scott Steiner

In Jericho’s last great WCW moment, he actually got to be in this tournament twice via loophole, and he lost to both of these guys.

To be fair, these are the two (and Jericho, probably) that WCW should built towards the future with.

This is a rematch also, as Booker beat Steiner at Uncensored for the TV title.

“Steroids” chant midway through. Match has been pretty damn slow.

Time to bump some refs!

Steiner busts out the top rope frankensteiner!

Scott Steiner wins the title in 15:37. Steiner hits Booker with a hidden object for the win. Pretty meh match, although the frankensteiner was a nice touch. 13 minutes of nothing before that with unnecessary ref bumps.

Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg

Story here is obvious: Kevin Nash is the only man to beat Goldberg as he did at Starrcade. REMATCH TIME.

Match is ALL Kevin Nash early on.

Spear attempt…but Kevin Nash leapfrogs it and Goldberg takes out the ref! Lex Luger attacks!

Goldberg pins Kevin Nash in 7:41. Goldberg hits the spear and jackhammer on Nash after getting rid of Luger. Goldberg evens the score. Nash jobs clean! Of course the match isn’t much to write home about, but it was well booked. Made Nash look strong (even if he didn’t need it) and made Goldberg look strong too. That must mean Goldberg is slated for the title right? Lol.

WCW World Championship: Four Corners Match, Randy Savage is the Special Referee
Ric Flair© vs. Hollywood Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sting

One fall here.

Ah, the Savage comeback, roided up and all.

My god Gorgeous George…

Flair was a heel here, although it was the result of a weird double turn with Hogan.

Hogan was kinda a face? Came back with the red and yellow later in the year.

DDP also had turned heel.

Sting was the only one with a clear alignment, which was face.

Pretty action packed start!

Hogan is doing the Hulkamania stuff. No selling Flair’s chops, etc.

Page busts out the Bret Hart Figure Four around the ring post!

They carry Hogan out…which is a little hokey as it was just one move (although a devastating one). I guess it’s believable. Eric Bischoff, who has no kayfabe power at this point, shows up here to add legitimacy. See, they did this before Russo.

Tombstone from Page to Sting! Flair with the save!

Double sleeper….double jawbreaker. Never seen that before (well, the jawbreaker).

Sting has….Hulked Up!

Flair locks Sting in the Figure Four, but Sting gets to the ropes. Ref Savage kicks Sting’s hand off then drags Flair and Sting to the center…and drops the BIG ELBOW on Flair?!

Diamond Dallas Page wins the WCW World Title in 17:27 when he pinned Flair. All three get to their feet and Page drops Flair with the Diamond Cutter and wins his first World Title. Overall this was…pretty good! All four men gave it a great effort (even Hogan, for half a match). Action never really stopped. I don’t remember what the explanation for what Savage did was though. Still, a very good main event with the top guys in their giving it their all.

Let’s talk about the DDP decision for a second. I do think DDP could have won the WCW World title so I have no issues with that…but WCW absolutely wasted it here. Page was a big time face in 1998 and his building to the WCW World Title could have been a great story in 1999 (or even he could have been the man to beat Goldberg at Starrcade ‘98). But it was wasted here…and I think he only held it for a couple weeks before he traded it with Sting, then lost it to Nash (who lost it to a returning Hogan).

A pretty good show with little historical significance as Russo was only five months away. Somehow in a couple months we had Sid in the main event despite a roster with Flair, Sting, Savage, Hogan, Goldberg, Nash etc. Still, Scott Steiner moved up the chain a bit I guess.

Some really good matches here: Juvi vs. Blitz had its faults but had some great moments (and a bad ass finish). Hak vs. Bigelow was probably the last time either gave a shit, and it resulted in a good hardcore match. Kidman vs. Rey tried, just missed for some reason. Malenko and Benoit vs. Saturn and Raven owned. Nash vs. Goldberg was fine for what it was, and the main event was actually good for what it was. Only real miss was Riggs vs. Whipwreck. Even Konnan vs. Disco had a solid story to it.

Very good show, perhaps the last of the WCW era.

Final Grade: B+

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Fall Brawl ’98

fallbrawl98

WCW Fall Brawl ‘98
September 13, 1998
Winston-Salem, MA
Reviewed on November 13, 2014

What the hell is going on?

Ten months ago it was supposed to be over. WCW had gotten Bret Hart. WCW had the super hot Sting vs. Hogan feud. WCW had the NWO. Even the raw rookie Goldberg somehow became one of the biggest stars in pro wrestling.

And WCW…is losing?

This is the equivalent of an all-star team in sports without thought of making a “team”. It’s hard to find a top guy in WCW booked correctly except for Diamond Dallas Page at this point. Hogan? Stale. Nash? Acting half his age trying to be the “cool” heel or face or whatever (although he’d get mega over by the end of the year). Sting? Buried in Washington D.C. last December and replaced by some guy in red face paint. Don’t even get me started on Goldberg. All the momentum in the world and somehow Goldberg still plays second fiddle to Hogan. In fact, Goldberg hadn’t even wrestled a last match main event since his title win in July.

Of course there’s Bret Hart too. One of the biggest wastes in wrestling history was Bret Hart in WCW.

Most recently WCW signed The Warrior as well. He went right after Hogan and…

And well let’s get right to it. Fall Brawl means WAR GAMES! The Warrior in War Games! Who knows what will happen?!

The Card

Opening video reminds us that Team Hollywood in War Games is Hollywood Hogan, Stevie Ray and Bret Hart. One of those is not like the other.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” Well, wait a night.

Tony Schiavone talks about the new rules for War Games. Three teams! It can end before all nine men get into the ring (um…what? Why would that happen from an entertainment standpoint?). Also winner gets a World Title shot at Halloween Havoc. So much for the team aspect eh?

Ernest Miller being held by security. Fuck if I know the storyline there.

Gene Okerlund talks about the rest of the card. Why? We already sold the PPV, no?

It’s Chris Jericho! Jericho is one of the best parts of WCW 1998. He’s calling out Goldberg and says Goldberg accepted a match against Jericho tonight! Title vs. title!

Alex Wight and Disco Inferno vs. The British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart

I like how we get separate entrances for Wright and Inferno. Double the dancing!

USA chant to Alex Wright. The British Bulldog was in the ring opposing him.

A whole lot of nothing to start this thing…other than Anvil dancing.

Bulldog can still land on his feet after being monkey flipped from the corner. Impressive.

Bulldog screws up a stun gun. It’s amazing how different the Bulldog and Neidhart are in terms of giving a shit here. In WWF 1997, the Bulldog and Neidhart showed great intensity. Here? Meh.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” Yeah no one cares about this boring match.

Neidhart misses a slingshot shoulder block. I don’t think he was supposed to miss.

Bulldog actually screws up picking Disco up for the Running Powerslam. Sad.

Bulldog and Neidhart win when Bulldog pinned Disco in 11:03. Bulldog eventually gets the Running Powerslam for the win. Bad boring match. This match is also infamous for the Bulldog injuring his back on the Warrior’s trap door.

Not the typical WCW opening match goodness sadly.

Scott Steiner has a doctor’s note! No Steiner vs. Steiner tonight.

No wait! JJ Dillion calls him on his bs! The match is on!

Title vs. Title
Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg

JPS! Ralphus and the Jerichoholic NINJA!

Jericho is just absolutely brilliant here.

And it’s a midget Goldberg!

Chris Jericho vs. Mini-Goldberg

Mini-Goldberg gets a spear in! You know HHH stole this idea a year later on Smackdownm using Gillberg.

Chris Jericho wins by submission in 1:15. Liontamer! Jericho is brilliant.

Norman Smiley vs. Ernest Miller

Angle here? Smiley asked Miller what his problem was after Miller attacked The Armstrong Brothers. That’s it.

Miller pins Smiley in 5:07. Top rope feliner I think was the finish…but Smiley didn’t go all the way down. Smiley hits a 2nd for the win. A whole lot of nothing for five minutes. Not a good sign when the best part of the first 45 minutes of the show is a Jericho joke match.

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner

Angle began when Scott turned on Rick back in February at Superbrawl. Buff Bagwell’s serious injury was used as an angle between them as well, where Bagwell faked being friends. Scott did all he can to avoid fighting Rick, but Dillion said it has to happen at Fall Brawl. So here we are.

Crowd is very into this.

Really good brawl to start! Crowd is really into Rick Steiner. I’m starting to think they should have pushed Rick big as a face here. Too bad though as…

No Contest in 5:30. Bagwell tried to attack, but Rick Steiner slams him into the 2nd turnbuckle. Bagwell goes limp. The announcers treat it as a shoot. It takes about 10 minutes to get Bagwell into the ambulance…and then Scott and Bagwell attack Rick! It was a ruse! A great brawl turned into a bullshit angle. Ah well.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Juventud Guerrera© vs. Silver King

Silver King? Really?

Sunset flip botch! Woo!

Inverted top rope frankensteiner is pretty cool. Shocked it only got 2.

Juventud Guerrera retains in 8:36 by pin. Weak Juvi Driver, then the 450 for the win. Decent. Pretty low on the standard WCW Cruiserweight Title match quality tier. I don’t think anyone saw Silver King winning either. Best match of the night by default.

Drunk Scott Hall and Konnan have a confronation.

Raven’s Rules: If Raven wins, the Flock disbands, if Saturn wins, he becomes Raven’s slave. Kanyon is handcuffed to the ringpost.
Raven vs. Saturn

I enjoyed this match two months ago, so I am all for it again.

Back at Bash at the Beach, Saturn had broken free from the Flock. Now Saturn is trying to save the others from Raven. I don’t remember how Kanyon ended up officially in the Flock to be fair.

This one has more wrestling than the last…but Saturn picks it up with a tope!

One of the big shocks: The Flock comes to help Raven finish off Saturn…but Kidman takes out Raven with a missile dropkick!

That’s followed by a great false finish with the DVD!

Kanyon breaks free, Flatlines Saturn, the locks himself back up. I laughed.

Saturn kills Lodi with a DVD through the table on the floor!

A lot of great false finishes. Saturn survivies an Evenflow!

Saturn frees the Flock at 14:04. DVD wins it! Great second half of the match. I still prefer their July encounter though. Kidman would become a star instantly, winning the Cruiserweight Title the next night. Somehow, despite the big reactions for Saturn here…he would be getting pinned by Sonny Oono two months later. Whatever. Still a solid match.

Curt Hennig vs. Dean Malenko

For some reason these two had a cage match on Nitro. Doing things backwards…aren’t we.

“WE WANT FLAIR!” At least it makes sense, since Hennig turned on the Horsemen at this event in the same building last year.

This is a fun little match where Malenko beats the crap out of Hennig’s leg. I like it in terms of building up Malenko’s aggressiveness.

Malenko wins by DQ in 7:38. Malenko nails Hennig with the Hennig-Plex…but Rick Rude runs in to cause the DQ. Arn Anderson looks to make the save, but gets taken out. No Flair. He would come tomorrow. Still, not bad. The last three matches have at least taken this show past F potential.

Konnan vs. Scott Hall

The drunk Scott Hall angle. Horrible.

He actually gets a drink while applying an abdominal stretch.

Hall has it won, but wants another drink. Konnan kicks the drink out of Hall’s hand (and it hits a fan, nice) and hits a facebuster.

Konnan makes Scott Hall submit in 12:03. Tequila Sunrise for the win. Horrible. It’s still hard to believe something like that was on TV, much less Pay-Per-View.

#1 Contender War Games
Team Hollywood (Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart, Stevie Ray) vs. Team Wolfpac (Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Sting) vs. Team WCW (Roddy Piper, Diamond Dallas Page and The Warrior)

DDP is #1. Bret Hart #2. The team psychology is already non-existant.

Stevie Ray is next! Well…it was a good five minutes between Bret and Page I guess.

So 0 Wolfpac, 2 Hollywood and 1 WCW. Yeah that makes sense.

Here comes Sting! Crowd comes alive!

Sting kicks Stevie Ray’s ass, and leaps from one ring to the other with a flying clothesline!

Piper’s in, looking like a nut. It’s all punches and kicks though.

Here comes Lex Luger! There really isn’t a whole lot happening between each segment.

Kevin Nash next! Big reaction. Hogan and Warrior left.

Hogan’s out early! So much for rules!

Hogan slapjacks everyone but Stevie Ray.

For some reason, Hogan doesn’t go to pin anyone.

We’re just waiting for the Warrior here.

As soon as the pin attempt happens there’s SMOKE EVERYWHERE!

WARRIOR’S IN THE RING! Hogan nails him from behind!

More smoke….it’s a fake Warrior? Whatever, here comes THE WARRIOR!

A few punches and Hogan goes through the door of the cage to escape. Hogan locks himself out of the cage (well, Warrior goes for the door and it slightly opens…and Warrior avoids the door. Nice). Warrior gets all angry, kicks the top part of the cage to get out, blows his quad and then gets some more punches in. Even though it’s a match and both are participants, security breaks them up. Imagine if that happen at Bad Blood ’97.

Now that the angle is over, Stevie Ray accidentally hits (I think it missed and Bret knew it) Bret Hart with a slapjack, and a Diamond Cutter to Stevie Ray!

Diamond Dallas Page wins in 20:06 when he pinned Steve Ray. Bret tries to make the save but fails as Page pins Stevie Ray for the Title shot. Absolutely horrible. The worst War Games in the history of the match. It’s not even close really. One of…if not THE worst major PPV main event in professional wrestling history. Your match was a 5 minute solid Bret-Page match, entrances and punches (except for Sting, who did some good stuff). Kevin Nash’s entire night was a few forearms before getting hit with the slapjack and taking two legdrops. The Hogan-Warrior angle was an embarrassment. Page getting the win at the end was pure afterthought.

Here’s another thing about this PPV.

No Rey Mysterio Jr. or Eddie Guerrero (but Silver King!)
No Chris Benoit.
No….Goldberg. No fucking Goldberg.

At the end of Hennig-Malenko we were in D range. The show overall was a whole lot of nothing. The only real positive I saw storyline wise was Saturn vs. Raven.

Well drunk Scott Hall didn’t help. The show basically rested on the main event. Considering it’s possibly the worst main event in professional wrestling history, that should tell you all you need to know.

WCW somehow still hung in there ratings wise…although not for long.

Final Grade: F

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Bash at the Beach ’98

bashatthebeach98

WCW Bash at the Beach 98
July 13, 1998
San Diego, CA
Reviewed on March 18, 2014

Background: I wrote a bit about how WCW was going downhill in 1998…but to be fair they were still doing very well at this particular point. To Eric Bischoff the Monday Night War was everything. When he started losing in April of 98 he began to hotshot big main events that would have drawn big money on PPV. Eventually it would cost him. Yes, Goldberg pinning Hollywood Hogan clean for the World Title was a huge moment. But millions upon millions of PPV revenue was flushed down the toilet for that move.

WCW though, still had some aces up their sleeves. At Wrestlemania XIV, the WWF brought in Mike Tyson and it worked out handsomely for them. WCW had its own list of celebrities, and while the later crap with Jay Leno probably hurt the business in the long run, the big tag team match of Hogan and Dennis Rodman against DDP and Karl Malone seemed like it would work. Hell, Malone was in better shape than 80% of the roster, and Rodman at least was there the year before.

This card is missing some top tier guys, but hey, sometimes that’s how you get some undercard exposure. I remember this being a fun show, so let’s see if it holds up.

The Card

Mean Gene plugs the hotline of course.

Raven’s Rules
Saturn vs. Raven

Raven’s Rules of course means no rules.

Storyline here: Saturn is the one to break away from the Flock. It came to a head when Saturn needed to beat Kanyon at the Great American Bash and despite interference from a bunch of Mortis’s, Saturn still lost. Raven was one of the Mortis’s.

Saturn owns early on. Raven always knew how to sell guardrail spots.

Saturn falls off the top rope, but perfectly recovers and hits a dropkick. Mike Tenay puts it over as well, which was nice.

Somehow Tony Schiavone calls Raven getting a table “a chair”. Bobby Heenan kills him for it and it’s great.

Saturn misses a springboard…something…but it looked pretty rehearsed.

Raven with one of my favorite spots: The Russian Legsweep into the guardrail.

Springboard twisting legdrop on a chair on Raven’s face!

One of the better ref bumps, Saturn with Air Sabu and Saturn ends up kicking Nick Patrick in the face.

Bulldog headlock on the steps! Saturn has dominated.

Saturn makes a Raven sandwich with two tables, but Kanyon comes and pulls Raven out. Saturn jumps waaayyy too late to make that believable. Kanyon nails Raven with a Flatliner on an open chair though!

Raven pins Saturn in 10:40. Saturn superkicks Raven in the face while Raven was holding a chair. Cover, but Riggs runs in to break it up. Saturn hits him with the Death Valley Driver. Raven though, uses the interference to hit the Evenflow DDT for the win. Fun brawl. Great use of the chair. Shows that WCW didn’t need cruiserweights to have a hot opener every show.

Mena Gene brings out Eddy Guerrero! He puts over Chavo’s craziness, especially in regards to his decision to wrestle Stevie Ray before he wrestles Eddy. Eddy wasn’t a great promo man yet. Unless you like run-on sentences.

Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera

Here’s someone who got over from the Flock: Kidman. This was still the itchy heroin addict Kidman.

Small story: Who’s finisher is better? Juvi’s 450 or Kidman’s 7 Year Itch (the Shooting Star Press). Juvi also wrestled and beat the Flock’s monster Reese last month.

Apparently this is Kidman’s 1st PPV match.

Referee total ignores Lodi beating up Juvi. Kidman’s top rope dive though misses Juvi and he nails Lodi, then Juvi goes flying himself to take out Lodi and Kidman.

Awesome reverse catapult from Kidman to Juvi. I think that’s what it’s called.

Powerbomb/sunset flip off the apron from Juvi to Kidman. Nice.

Double leg underhook powerbomb from Kidman to Juvi off the top! Nice!

Juvi crotches Kidman on the top rope…then outside to inside hurricanrana for a two. Very nice!

Kidman German…but Juvi lands on his feet then hits the Juvi Driver! Only two!

Juventud Guerrera pins Kidman in 9:55. Kidman misses the 7 Year Itch…and Juvi follows with the 450 for the win. Very fun match. WCW smartly continued the Cruiserweight division with these two on top through the end of 98.

Lee Marshall and Konnan. Konnan asks if Skittles had a shirt give away. I guess that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard Konnan say.

Stevie Ray vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Story: Chavo challenges Stevie Ray even though he was already facing Eddy later.

Heenan calls Chavo Captain Cupcake. Imagine if they went with that for the MIA later on?

Chavo Guerrero Jr.’s insane 1998 run was great. Best thing he ever did.

Eddy makes his way down to watch the match, obviously rooting for Stevie Ray to pound Chavo.

Chavo dedicates the match to Eddy!

Stevie Ray makes Chavo Guerrero Jr. submit in 1:35. Chavo does some comedy spots…then submits to a handshake! He’s so tired now, I guess it’s time for him to face Eddy! Eddy is furious. Great booking here.

Hair vs. Hair
Eddy Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Eddy has major heat. Smh WCW, smh.

Chavo with more comedy. You know who Chavo reminds me of here? Santino!

Angry Eddy Guerrero is the best Eddy Guerrero.

This is just a well wrestled match here.

Perfect tilt a whil backbreaker on Eddy from Chavo!

Eddy Guerrero pins Chavo Guerrero Jr. in 11:54. Great ending. Chavo goes for Eddy’s finisher, the Frog Splash but Eddy gets the feet up. Eddy then plants Chavo with Chavo’s move the Tornado DDT (a move he should have kept). Eddy though goes for the scissors! Eddy misses a Frog Splash and Chavo hits his Tornado DDT. Chavo then goes for the scissors! Eddy rolls up Chavo for the win. Chavo scares Eddy away though…then cuts his own hair! Chavo was so over as a nutcase here. Three good matches in a row (not counting Ray-Chavo, lol).

Tony Schiavone and Mike Tenay talk about the Chris Jericho-Dean Malenko feud. You can tell he wasn’t told about the bonus match until that moment.

BONUS MATCH
Konnan vs. Disco Inferno

Alex Wright and Disco try to get with the “lingo” of the Hispanic scene. It’s pretty funny to be honest.

Only Wolfpac appearance of the show. But we get Lex Luger and Kevin Nash at ringside, so there’s that.

Konnan made Disco Inferno submit in 2:16. Disco throws Konnan outside for Alex Wright to attack. Wright dances afterwards and Luger comes around and racks him. This distracts the ref, and Kevin Nash comes in and kills Disco with a jackknife. Tequila Sunrise (awesome submission) for the win. I mean, it was 2 minutes and Disco got no offense, but it was fun at least.

The Giant vs. Kevin Greene

NWO time. This originally was Giant and Curt Hennig vs. Greene and Goldberg, but got split when Goldberg won the title.

The Giant pinned Kevin Greene in 6:58. Not much to say here. Smartly booked with a lot of hit and run from Greene but Giant’s power being too much. Greene finally knocks Giant down…but a mistake leads to him running into the big hand and the chokeslam for the win. Certainly not horrible. Greene could have been a solid wrestler I think.

Marshall is now with Curt Hennig. Hennig says he has the secret to beat Goldberg. Inexperience!

More recap of Jericho-Malenko, and how Malenko was suspended because he attacked Jericho even though he wasn’t supposed to. This feud was the highlight of Malenko’s career, and propelled Jericho to superstardom.

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: No DQ
Chris Jericho© vs. ???

Jericho comes out with a top hat and cane. Jericho equals buyrates afterall, so he’s gonna perform. JJ Dillion shows up and offers Jericho a local opponent (not before sucking up to Jericho. Good stuff all around). Jericho takes it. Huge pop for Rey Mysterio Jr., as he is from San Diego! Brilliant!

There is a story here too! Jericho injured Rey back at Souled Out, solidifying his heel turn.

Of course Jericho works on the knee. Good psychology.

Funny spots here. Jericho runs up the beach ladder in the set (which has tons of sand around). Rey pulls Jericho off the ladder into the sand, which Schiavone has to sell as “oh, that’s a soft landing, but the sand is irritating!” Mysterio then with the top of the ladder hurricanrana on the sand!

Jericho misses a top rope knee drop and lands on the chair…and now Mysterio works on Jericho’s knee! Dropkick to a chair on the knee as well!

Rey Mysterio Jr. wins the title when he pinned Jericho in 6:00. Jericho goes for the Liontamer, but Mysterio escapes! Here comes Malenko! This distracts Jericho enough for Rey to roll him up on a Liontamer attempt for the win! Jericho runs from Malenko, but Arn Anderson helps him get Jericho. This foreshadowed the Four Horsemen return. Because of the Malenko appearance, Jericho was awarded the title back on Nitro. Okay match, other than the top of the ladder deal you can tell Mysterio didn’t want to do any flying yet with the knee injury. Still, cool moments all around and Jericho is hilarious in the pre-match stuff.

TV Championship
Booker T© vs. Bret Hart

Story: Bret got involved in the Best of 7 Series that Booker T and Chris Benoit had. Booker challenged Bret.

Looks like unmotivated Bret here sadly.

Match I think is designed to put Booker T over with the upper-level guys, but this looks like Bret going down a level unfortunately.

Good psychology here…Booker T does his Spinarooni but doesn’t pop up, Heenan points out it’s because of the knee. Nice.

Booker T wins by DQ in 8:28. Booker with a dive over the rop…and Bret catches him midway with a chair! Bret bashes Booker’s knee with a chair…then my favorite hold…the Figure Four around the ring post! What an awesome move. Stevie Ray shows up slowly and Bret leaves. It planted seeds for the Harlem Heat problems later. Okay match, kinda boring. Finish is also meh but Bret made the beat down look good. Stevie Ray says Booker doesn’t need medical help and helps him back.

Video recap of Goldberg’s world title win. It was pretty damn awesome.

WCW World Championship
Goldberg© vs. Curt Hennig

Goldberg looks pretty damn incredible with the Big Gold Belt.

Goldberg is 111-0 here.

Goldberg retains when he pins Hennig in 3:50. Goldberg kicks out of the Hennig-Plex and wins with the Spear-Jackhammer combo. Hennig did something new here going for Goldberg’s leg, but it didn’t matter. Nothing wrong with this, helped Goldberg get that first title defense out of the way.

Hollywood Hogan and Dennis Rodman vs. Karl Malone and Diamond Dallas Page

A lot of stalling early on with the Malone-Rodman start.

Rodman is a great chickenshit heel.

Malone slams Hogan!

Rodman with the armdrag on Page!

Rodman messes up something leading to a collision of the heads. Rumors were Rodman wasn’t in great condition to perform here.

Surprising that Malone plays babyface in peril.

Now Page is the babyface in peril. Long tag match with not a lot happening.

Hogan and Rodman win when Hogan pins Page in 23:47. Page nails the Diamond Cutter on Hogan. Rodman runs in, but Malone Diamond Cutters him for a huge pop. Malone tries to pin Rodman out of inexperience, and The Disciple hits a stunner on Page for the Hogan pin. I mean, it was a spectacle. I think other than the Diamond Cutter a bodyslam was the biggest high spot. It’s supposed to be a spectacle though and I do think overall it’s booked well. Malone gets some moments. Rodman gets some moments. This could have been A LOT worse.

Bash at the Beach 98…is pretty entertaining overall. Good matches to start, big names to finish. Some good moments with Mysterio and Goldberg’s first title defense. There really isn’t a bad match on the card (although some boring ones), but everything had SOME entertainment value somewhere.

These were WCW’s last great days. They never ran with Page. They didn’t even seriously run with Goldberg somehow. They didn’t run with Raven. Or Jericho. Wasted talent all over the place that did some good stuff on this PPV.

But this show itself? It’s pretty good. Three good opening matches. Good comedy with Chavo and Jericho. Big main event. Goldberg squashing a high tiered guy. All good.

Final Grade: B+