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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE No Way Out 2004

2004NoWayOut

No Way Out 2004
February 15, 2004
Daly City, CA
Reviewed April 17, 2014

Background: Eddie fuckin’ Guerrero.

I could end right there. This PPV is 90% about the rise of Eddie Guerrero. For the last year Eddie Guerrero was the most popular wrestler in WWE period. He’s a perfect example of a guy getting the World Title purely on how the crowd reacted to him. No one deserved it more at the time other than perhaps Benoit, who’d get it himself a month later.

WWE had been in their Brand Extension format for nearly two years now. It seemed that Smackdown was the “wrestling” show where RAW was WCW-lite (HHH wrestled Booker T, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner and Goldberg in PPV main events in 2003…nevermind that Evolution is a Four Horsemen ripoff anyway). And Eddie Guerrero was the perfect guy to represent the wrestling part of the company.

The other major thing to note is we do see a bit of the continued rise of John Cena here. Obviously, that would be important later.

The Card

Sable and Torrie kick off the PPV. They were not feuding here. They welcome us to the PPV. Nice waste of time.

WWE Tag Team Championship-Handicap Match
Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty© vs. The Bashams and Shaniqua

I usually hate this idea.

Rikishi gets a good reaction. To be honest…we are way past Rikishi being a guy that matters and in fact he’d be released a few months later.

I swear Scotty would have been way more successful is he didn’t have the WORM. He gets attacked during it or after it every time.

Nice slam from Shaniqua to Scotty.

Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty retain when Rikishi pinned Shaniqua in 8:16. Banzaii Drop for the win. This was the end of the Linda Miles era I believe. Match was pretty boring, and perhaps the most formulaic tag team match I’d ever seen on PPV. I mean whoever put it together didn’t even try.

Half Blindfold Match
Jamie Noble (Blindfolded) vs. Nidia

Ugh.

Story here: Noble and Nidia’s relationship went to hell. Tajiri blinded Nidia with the Mist and she was blinded for weeks. Noble treated her like crap. Nidia got revenge by putting a $5k mink coat in a woodchipper. And she got this match.

Noble takes off the hood early on and the ref says he would DQ him.

Match goes as you’d expect it. Nidia with a lot of funny hit and runs.

Nidia pants Noble.

Jamie Noble beats Nidia by submission in 4:23. Noble cheats and peaks under the hood and tosses Nidia off the top rope. Then he locks in a Dragon Sleeper which seems a bit excessive for the win. Obviously this was absolute crap. Tajiri, Sakota and Akio vs. Paul London, Billy Kidman and Ultimo Dragon was bumped to the pre-show for this crap.

Kurt Angle interview. John Cena interrupts. They had feuded and teamed in 2003. Cena slaps him and they go at it.

The World’s Greatest Tag Team vs. The APA

Someone want to explain why this isn’t for the Tag Team Titles but the earlier BS was? Even worse since these four teams would be against one another at Mania anyway.

Story: Bradshaw’s arm was injured on Smackdown. He comes out with a soft cast.

ONE OF THESE MEN WOULD BE WWE CHAMP IN FIVE MONTHS!

Benjamin works the arm. Go psychology!

Bradshaw basically ignores his injury after the hot tag.

The World’s Greatest Tag Team win when Benjamin pinned Bradshaw in 7:19. Clothesline from Hell…but he hurt his arm doing it and Benjamin got a superkick for the win. Not good. APA didn’t seem to really try. I guess it was matches like this that people pointed to when JBL won the title.

Goldberg is here. He has a front row ticket! Him and Lesnar had been feuding. Lesnar cost Goldberg the Royal Rumble match.

Paul Heyman is out here. He’s pissed about Goldberg.

Brock’s out here now too. Heyman wants to get Goldberg arrested.

Goldberg gets in there and gets a Jackhammer! Time for him to get arrested. I like how his theme plays when he gets arrested.

Hardcore Holly vs. Rhyno

Story: None, this match was made on Smackdown. Actually, half this card was.

Funny note about Hardcore Holly. Holly came back with that mini-feud with Lesnar. And once Lesnar beat him at the Rumble…that was it. Like they didn’t even think past that match for anything Hardcore could do. I don’t even think he’s on the Mania card.

Holly does come out when Lesnar is still in the ring, so there’s that I guess. Not that it went anywhere since Lesnar was leaving next month.

Cole tells us the match was made Sunday Night on Heat, so I gave WWE too much credit with the Smackdown origin then. (Cole says they wrestled on Smackdown though, so whatever).

I like Hardcore Holly and Rhyno…but no one cared about either of them at this point.

They are trying to do the whole smashmouth hard hitting match…but it just isn’t working here.

Rhyno with a great spinebuster there.

GORE…but Holly rolls out of the ring to avoid being pinned.

Hardcore Holly pins Rhyno in 9:54. Bad looking Alabama Slam for the win. Bad match. Very boring. No one cared. Bad first hour of wrestling here.

Rey-Chavo promo.

UNDERTAKER PROMO! Crowd popped huge for that. He’s coming in 28 days!

WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Rey Mysterio© vs. Chavo Guerrero

I feel like I just reviewed this match (I did, GAB 04).

Story focuses on Chavo’s heel turn and alliance with Chavo Classic.

Rey has famous boxer Jorge Paez with him. No idea why.

Chavo Classic breaks up a West Coast Pop, and gets knocked out by Paez. Paez gets thrown out. Big pop for the KO though.

Awesome Moonsault near the end from Rey.

Nice West Coast Pop reversal into the half crab.

Chavo Guerrero wins the title in 17:21 by pin. Chavo Classic comes back and knocks Rey off the top, and Chavo rolls Rey up and holds the tights for the win. I didn’t write a lot, but it was the standard Chavo’s mat game vs. Rey’s air game. A good match that this PPV dearly needed.

Not Chavo’s best post-match promo.

#1 Contender to the World Title
John Cena vs. Big Show vs. Kurt Angle

A lot of stories intertwined here to get to this point. Show and Angle had feuded in the past. Angle and Cena as well. They were all in the same match at Survivor Series where Cena pinned Show to win.

A lot of 1 on 1 stuff early on.

Angle actually tries to German Suplex Big Show off the apron. That would have been something.

Pretty sure Cena has FUed Big Show in every match he ever had with him.

Kurt Angle wins when he makes John Cena submit in 12:18. Angle dumps Show over the top rope…and he makes Cena submit to the Ankle Lock. Second half of the match was fun and the first half really wasn’t bad either. Surprised this wasn’t longer. Fans wanted Cena here to be honest. But, while Cena is hurt…Eddie chants start, so you know what the fans want.

WWE World Championship
Brock Lesnar© vs. Eddie Guerrero

Story: Eddie won a Smackdown Rumble to get a shot at the title. Then, the classic underdog story.

Lesnar owns early with power moves. Good start to this story.

Lesnar just drops Eddie on his head. Sure that might have been a botch…but it looked damn sick.

All Brock early.

Man Lesnar does the Shell Shock a lot better than Ryback.

Eddie gets some offense…but Brock takes him right back down. Love how this match is structured.

Eddie works on the knee…before he’s stun gunned into the top rope. Really making it look like Brock is far superior than Eddie…which works VERY well here.

STF from Eddie. Huge pop! People might have bought this as a finish as the STF wasn’t widely used yet.

Lasso From El Paso! Then back to the STF…which again gets a nice pop.

What a spinebuster! Ouch.

Great psychology with Lesnar selling the knee everywhere, even when he’s doing a vertical suplex.

Lesnar yells at Eddie to “JUST DIE”. Just a great match in every way here.

“GIVE UP LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO!” Lesnar is awesome.

Three Amigos to Lesnar!

Frog Splash…misses! I think everyone thought that was hitting.

F5…but Guerrero accidentally takes out the ref with his feet! Brock has Eddie beat, which was a great way to keep him strong (even though it wasn’t needed).

GOLDBERG. SPEAR TO LESNAR!

Amazing false finish as Lesnar kicks out!

Time for Eddie to cheat!

A great swerve as Lesnar actually ducks the belt shot and goes for a F5…the crowd loudly groans…but Eddie turns it into a Tornado DDT on the belt!

Eddie Guerrero wins the WWE Title by pin in 30:07. Guerrero hits the Frog Splash for the win and MONSTER pop. Great celebration follows. Incredible match, arguable Match of the Year for 2004. Great story, great psychology, great moments, great false finishes, just wow all around. And it furthered the Lesnar-Goldberg feud (also great idea that the Goldberg spear wasn’t what beat Lesnar, Eddie beat Lesnar). Shame that Lesnar left at Mania, as Eddie vs. Lesnar could have been awesome to go through the summer with.

I mean, this was basically advertised as a one match show, but wow did that match deliver. A lot can be forgiven when the main event is incredible.

The first hour and fifteen minutes of this PPV sucked. Four bad (or awful) matches. Rey vs. Chavo helped, and the three way was good. Main event was of course, awesome.

Something that hurts the PPV a little bit is that there’s no historical value here. Unfortunately, while it was great to see Eddie as champ, it didn’t last and it didn’t lead to an era of change for WWE. Cena and Batista were the champs 13 months later. Lesnar was gone. Cena had a role, but nothing big for him. Angle was a bit stale at this point. I mean the man who eventually beat Eddie for the title was pinned in a throw away tag match.

Due to the awesome main and awesome moment, I wanted to go B+, but the really crappy beginning and lack of historical influence knock it a little bit. Without the main though, this is a C at best.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE Summerslam 2003

SummerSlam_2003_poster

WWE Summerslam ‘03
August 24, 2003
Phoenix, AZ
Reviewed on August 2, 2014

We are in the era of Triple H and his wannabe Ric Flair run. The Brand Extension is off and running, although the talent level still hasn’t quite caught up. In June we just started with Brand-specific PPVs which led to a rather weak Bad Blood 2003 and Vengeance 2003 (although, neither show was really weak, it was just a clear talent dropoff from the combined PPVs from before).

The Smackdown Brand seems strongest wrestling wise, although holding them down a little bit was perhaps the weakest Undertaker year, the back in the main event Big Show and the injury to Edge. It still had Guerrero, Benoit, Angle, Mysterio and Lesnaretc., so not all was lost. RAW was the HHH vs. WCW show, as through 2003 HHH would go over Scott Steiner, Booker T, Kevin Nash, and now, he is matched up with Goldberg.

Goldberg wasn’t working as well as WWE liked, a lot of that was his booking. Goldberg is limited in that he is only really effective as a top guy destroying everyone. Remember that for the review.

Also worth noting that a some of the seeds of the future were planted around this time. Batista was injured (some things don’t change), John Cena was fighting Undertaker and Randy Orton is notably in the main event. In fact, Orton’s PPV debut was in a main event World Title match. You don’t see that often.

2003 was a tough year for WWE. Let’s see how they did with Summerslam!

The Card

I always approve of a Lilian Garcia National Anthem.

This is one of the best PPV intro videos for sure. Sadly, the Network doesn’t have the St. Anger theme.

World Tag Team Championship
La Resistance © vs. The Dudley Boyz

I could name probably three teams off the top of my head would should be in this spot other than La Resistance. But, when you got Pat Patterson connections it doesn’t really matter…(one of those teams would be The World’s Greatest Tag Team).

This feud did have the debut of Rob Conway, if that matters at all.

The Dudleyz were staler than stale at this point.

Nice telegraphed hiptoss by D-Von, although not sure who’s fault it was.

More mistiming between the two when a D-Von tackle is off.

Greiner and Dupree were just too young to be in this spot. Dupree would get better later on at least.

WASSUP! I can’t believe this was still a thing in 2003.

La Resistance retains when Dupree pins D-Von in 7:49. 3D to Dupree, but Bubba and Greiner go at it and the ref doesn’t see a cameraman nail D-Von with a camera. Totally killed the crowd. Camera man was Conway obviously. Match sucked and the fans really wanted the belts on the Dudleyz. And I don’t think it was just because they were the faces.

Coach interviews the Dudleyz and mentions that La Resistance was clever in their tactics. Bubba doesn’t have the strongest interview.

Christian questions Eric Bischoff about the IC Champion not having a match (great question!). Bischoff blames Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The Undertaker vs. A-Train

The A-Train run in 2003 was not a good one. Pretty horrible that this is Taker vs. A-Train and not Taker vs. John Cena.

By the way, who the hell thought this was a good idea? Taker vs. A-Train? DIdn’t Taker beat him AND Big Show in a handicap match at Mania?

A-Train brings out Sable with him. Sable’s 2003 comeback was a little funny considering her role and what she sued WWE for 4 years prior.

This feels like a Smackdown main event. Not sure if this is a compliment or not.

This match isn’t much so far. Basic Undertaker offense and A-Train doesn’t really offer anything unique.

Sleeper from the Undertaker! Woo! I don’t remember seeing a lot of that.

Blocked Snake Eyes looked botched to me. It wasn’t though.

Ref takes an awesome bump on the Taker clothesline.

Undertaker pins A-Train in 9:19. Taker goes for the Tombstone, but it’s countered and Taker gets a chokeslam for the three. Why tease the Tombstone? Sable postmatch saves A-Train from a Last Ride trying to seduce Taker, but Taker grabs her throat forStephanie McMahon to come out and take her out. Woo? Anyway, we are 2 for 2 in bad matches.

Eric Bischoff vs. Shane McMahon

This was a spinoff of the Kane turn after he tombstoned Linda. Bischoff put JR in a position to get burned alive, and this led to him having to face Shane. Shane was back obviously defending his mother as well.

This match seems like it should have many bucketloads of money. Shame that Bischoff’s name value was lowered too much at this point.

The idea that Bischoff raped Linda McMahon is pretty uncomfortable, although to his defense Bischoff isn’t presenting it that way.

Shane kicks Bischoff’s ass all over, leading to…

The Coach HEEL TURN! Coach smacks Shane with a chair twice, and Bischoff declares the match no DQ and Falls Count Anywhere!

Really, the Coach heel turn is so out of nowhere it’s awesome. Lawler and JR was in total shock.

Bischoff cuts JR and Lawler’s mics off. He lets Coach do play by play and he makes fun of JR. It’s not bad!

It does go a little too long. Shane gets a comeback, but Coach hits a low blow.

Here comes Stone Cold!

Coach reminds Austin he can’t touch him unless physically provoked, but Shane shoves him into Austin! Charles Robinson’s reaction is great here. Coach doesn’t last.

Shane makes Bischoff slap Austin, and Austin responds with a Stunner!

Shane McMahon pins Erich Bischoff in 10:33. Shane decides to put Bischoff on the announcer’s desk and drives him through with a top rope elbow drop. Sure why not? Match wasn’t really a match, but I got a laugh out of the whole Coach deal. Still, did the Coach heel turn need to be at the 2nd biggest show of the year?

Ric Flair tells Randy Orton that HHH has to leave the Chamber as World Champion. No what ifs.

United States Championship
Eddie Guerrero© vs. Tajiri vs. Rhyno vs. Chris Benoit

Guerrero had just won the new US Title beating Benoit. He also was part of a team with Tajiri when Chavo went down, but turned on him after Tajiri landed on his low rider. Benoit and Rhyno had also been feuding.

This Eddie heel run didn’t last. He needed to be a face at this point and the fans wouldn’t stop chanting “Eddie” until he was.

At least we should finally get some good wrestling here!

Funny Eddie stuff with him running from everyone, but sneak attacking everyone when he can.

Eddie just non-chalantly suplexes Benoit over the top and out of the ring.

The issue with this match is that it has no flow. It’s some good spots, but then someone breaks up something.

Lasso From El Paso!

Crossface! Nice spot.

Eddie breaks Benoit’s crossface by hitting a LOW dropkick to Benoit. Nice!

Tajiri goes for his handspring again but he runs into Rhyno on the apron, which leads to Benoit hitting a German. That spot woulda been better if Benoit just caught the normal move and Germaned him.

Tajiri with the best German Suplex of the night!

GORE to Eddie…but Eddie had the title belt and Rhyno hit his head!

Tajiri with an awesome save! He went from the Tree of Woe to stopping a pin in a second!

Eddie Guerrero retains when he pinned Rhyno in 10:50. Tajiri and Benoit fight to the outside and allows Guerrero to hit the Frog Splash for the win. What a shame. If this got five more minutes I’m sure the middle sequences would have been better and there woulda been more flow. Instead we get a disjointed four way with an awesome finish. Oh well. Still pretty good.

We see a video of Lesnar getting close to killing Zach Gowen.

Matt Hardy also made sure that Gowen lost by forfeit on Velocity.

WWE Championship
Kurt Angle© vs. Brock Lesnar

Angle won the title he lost to Lesnar at Mania XIX back at Vengeance in a three way. Lesnar turned heel and aligned with Vince as he felt Angle stole his title. Basically, the roles are now reversed from Mania XIX. Lesnar was a lot better as a heel.

Fun fact, the build-up contains the only Lesnar vs. Vince match ever.

This is a pretty action packed match, but I will say it’s not their Mania match so far.

Lesnar actually presses Angle over his head and throws him out of the ring. For someone with a fragile neck as Angle, I’m surprised they did that. Then again, Angle’s nuts, as we all found out later.

Crazy tilt-a-whirl from Lesnar.

Lesnar seems to be doing more power stuff and less technical stuff, probably because he’s a heel now.

Good psychology with Lesnar holding the shoulder as he’s German suplexed (he hit the post before).

Lesnar barely survives an Angle Slam!

Angle took off the straps for the Angle Slam. Hilariously, he puts them back on, just to take them back off for the Angle Lock!

Angle puts Lesnar in a crazy sleeper, but with his legs. Tazz calls it as a Figure Four which is incredible for all the wrong reasons.

Birthday Vince breaks up an Angle Lock when the ref was out.

Kurt Angle retains by submission in 21:17. Angle Lock gets it done. Lesnar tapping is an odd choice. Angle hits an Angle Slam on Vince through a chair, which had to hurt. A very good match, but not as good as Mania XIX. Lesnar tapping seemed pretty counterproductive, but it IS Angle and it didn’t matter in the long run at all.

Jaime Koeppe won the Diva Search. I have no idea who that is.

No Holds Barred
Rob Van Dam vs. Kane

This was the blow off for the Kane taking off his mask angle. I love RVD, but lol at this whole idea. The Kane taking off his mask angle could have made HUGE money.

This feud also already lost steam as Shane McMahon and Kane already began interacting.

The idea that the Kane mask angle had nothing to do with the Undertaker is ridiculous.

Moonsault from the barricade from RVD!

Some ladder action. RVD seesaws it into Kane’s face.

To be honest for a big monster they are having Kane give way too much here. This and Unforgiven 2003 were big reasons this Kane run went nowhere.

JR calls Kane and hideous and smelly monster. That B.O.!

Match really slows to a crawl with Kane’s offense.

It’s edited out, but Kane actually falls off the top rope going for a flying clothesline to the outside. He misses anyway.

RVD begins killing Kane. Rolling Thunder on a chair and a skateboard!

RVD actually goes for the Van Terminator, but Kane moved out of the way…JR calls it as it hit. Moving JR and Lawler away from ringside was a bad idea.

Kane pinned Rob Van Dam in 12:49. Kane tombstones RVD on the steps. That’s it for RVD. This match had some good spots a lot of meh inbetween. Like RVD was ever winning this anyway. Kane for some reason doesn’t make a convincing monster here, probably because Brock Lesnar looked a lot more intimidating as a monster earlier. At least he hasn’t yet been owned by a non-wrestler!

Linda gets a good slap on Eric Bischoff!

World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match
Triple H © vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Nash vs. Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg vs. Shawn Michaels

Fun fact about this match. It was supposed to be Goldberg vs. HHH, but HHH suffered an abdominal injury (we’ll get to that) and we got this instead. I wonder what this card would have looked like otherwise.

Also, there are 3 minute intervals between each entrant as opposed to five last November.

Nash had lost a hair vs. hair match with Jericho right before this on RAW. Needed it for a movie.

HBK and Jericho start us off!

HHH is wearing longer tights, so maybe it was a quad injury.

Jericho beating Rock and Stone Cold in the same night kept him over for a LONG time. I mean, he woulda stayed over anyway, but this only helped. I wonder what the last PPV that was brought up in is. This is 21 months later.

Good opening sequence but no one cares. They want Goldberg.

Here comes Orton.

Orton’s old finisher, the High Crossbody, comes out here!

Not much to say there. Here comes Big Daddy Cool!

Best sidewalk slam in the business!

Jericho eliminates Nash after a HBK SCM. Two minutes of work for Nash there. With one bump. This would be the last time we’d see him in a WWE ring until the Royal Rumble in 2011.

HHH is next! HBK promptly superkicks him and HHH falls back into his pod.

Nash powerbombs Jericho and Orton as his last act. The Nash 2002-2003 run wasn’t pretty.

A little preface here. HBK, Orton and Jericho (and HHH, kinda) are left. What is about to happen is the best 3 minutes of booking that WWE Goldberg has ever had.

Goldberg kills everyone not named HHH, as HHH is still in his pod.

Goldberg nearly breaks Orton in half.

He almost does it again as he spears Orton! Orton is gone.

Goldberg proceeds to destroy Y2J next, tossing him from the ring into the chain wall.

Goldberg actually breaks Jericho in pieces when he spears him through the pexi-glass! It wasn’t a clean break, but, um…yeah it looked awesome. Poor Jericho is 2 for 2 in being thrown through pod class walls.

We get some Goldberg vs. HBK, which is historic I suppose. Goldberg kills him too. Jackhammer and he’s gone.

Goldberg pulls what’s left of Jericho and spears him again for good measure. Jackhammer and we are down to HHH vs. Goldberg.

Fans are in a frenzy! Anything that went wrong with Goldberg before this show was fixed by those three minutes.

HHH hides in the pod, so Goldberg BUSTS through the glass!

Goldberg begins to whip HHH’s ass. This is like the rich man’s December to Dismember Chamber match.

HHH comeback! Er…what? Goldberg ends that quickly thankfully.

HHH retains the title when he pins Goldberg in 19:12. Goldberg goes for a spear, but Flair throws the sledgehammer into the ring through the chain wall, and HHH gets Goldberg in the head mid spear! HHH pins him for the win. Well, that put the nail in the coffin for Goldberg’s WWE run. He’d win the title the next month in a 20 minute boring match and the draw was just gone.

I mean isn’t this the perfect way for Goldberg to win the WWE Title? Destroying everyone, spears and jackhammers everywhere? That is what Goldberg is! What a horrible result of the reign of terror from 2003 HHH. Unreal.

Nevermind that HHH wrestled a total of 3 minutes here because of his injury! Once HBK superkicked him we didn’t see him until the end! Just horrible all around.

Historically, Goldberg won the title but no one cared anymore. Angle and Lesnar kept going and Lesnar would win the title, but he would be gone six months later. Kane was done after Taker beat him at Mania, although Benoit almost brought him back.

I mean, Eddie Guerrero won, that matters right? Oh and Randy Orton’s PPV debut (how many people have made their WWE PPV in a world title match? It’s him, Hogan and Piper, right?)

A lot of bad stuff, some good stuff, nothing really great or notable here. And that finish is just incredibly bad.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Halloween Havoc 2000

HH_00

WCW Halloween Havoc 2000
October 29, 2000
Las Vegas, NV
Reviewed on March 6, 2014

Background: Um…WCW was in full trainwreck mode at this point but they were going in a good direction with Booker T and Scott Steiner feuding for the World Title. This card overall looks like a disaster though. By looking at the results I see a First Blood DNA match, a Kickboxing match and two handicap matches. It’s going to be one of those shows…isn’t it…

WCW though, was nearing its end. Hollywood Hogan has departed a few months earlier. Guys like Scott Hall, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash and DDP are nowhere to be found on the card. Randy Savage is gone. The card is made up of young guys that never got the rub they needed from the generation before them. How bad can this be?

The Card

Video asking fans who’s gonna win between Goldberg and Kronik. Some actually said Kronik.

Apparently this PPV was brought to us by the game WCW Backstage Assault. Backstage Assault is the biggest ripoff ever in regards to wrestling video games. It was just the backstage portion of WCW Mayhem.

Sigh, I have to listen to Mark Madden.

WCW Tag Team Championship
Natural Born Thrillers (Sean O’Haire and Mark Jindrak) vs. Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. The Boogie Knights (Disqo and Alex Wright)

I like how Disqo and Wright look different, but they basically have the same gimmick they had 3 years ago.

Hm…Jindrak now. Why is it Palumbo and O’Haire later? Anyway Madden just said he sees Arn Anderson in Mark Jindrak.

Rey with devil horns! Just sigh.

Madden: Jindrak and O’Haire remind me of a white Harlem Heat. Mark Madden is the worst.

Just realize that’s Stevie Ray on commentary as well.

Konnan is also on commentary calling everyone a piece of crap. Ok then.

Nice springboard bodypress from Jindrak.

It’s notable that Jindrak and O’Haire haven’t completely grasped the art of selling. Jindrak especially looks raw.

O’Haire and Rey get into a weird punching sequence that O’Haire screws up.

Double toss from the outside INTO the ring on Kidman from NBT. That was cool.

This commentary is awful.

Alex Wright with some kind of attack on Rey…which ends up with Wright dumping himself out of the ring.

So many botches. Disqo misses a kick but still hits the Last Dance (Stunner!)

The Natural Born Thrillers retain the title when Sean O’Haire pins Disqo in 10:06. O’Haire nails Disqo with a Sean-Ton Bomb for the win. The botches really took me out of the match. It could have been fun. O’Haire and Jindrak were not ready for this level yet.

Wow talk about exaggeration. Mark Madden says this was one of the finest matches he have had the privilege of calling. Also, hilariously, Rey Jr. is getting beat up with a chair by Alex Wright…and Konnan debates helping him! I mean he does, but your best friend is getting beat up with a chair! Get in there! They hurt Konnan too, apparently injuring his knee.

Sgt. AWOL for the save!

WCW Hardcore Championship
Reno© vs. Sgt. AWOL

Add the The Briscos and The Midnight Express as teams Madden compared Jindrak and O’Haire to.

AWOL is already through a table.

Apparently WCW has instituted old school hardcore rules. Apparently new school rules meant matches started in the back. Um..ok.

Mark Madden: You can get old school hardcore rules anywhere in Vegas for $150. Thanks Mark.

I don’t know how hitting one another with kendo sticks and garbage cans could be boring…but this is.

Reno hits the Roll of the Dice on the floor! That’s Cody Rhodes’ Crossroads for anyone wondering.

Backstage Assault advert RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MATCH.

Reno through two tables. Even that looked boring.

I guess putting people through tables has no effect on anyone.

AWOL decks…Finlay? How random.

Reno retains the title via pin at 10:50. Roll of the Dice on a table. Reno wins. That might have been the most boring hardcore match I’d ever seen. It was basically the definition of going through the motions.

The Perfect Event (Shawn Stasiak and Chuck Palumbo) now attack AWOL. He comes Lt. Loco (Chavo Guerrero) and Cpl. Cajun (Lash LeRoux) for the save!

Hilarious backstage segment. It’s not supposed to be, but here is why it is. The Perfect Event was just in the ring attacking AWOL in their wrestling attire. Well backstage Shane Douglas is telling O’Haire and Jindrak good job on the attack on Konnan earlier, like it is a live backstage segment….except The Perfect Event is there too in different attire. Great planning WCW!

Video showing what happened with Goldberg hitting his head on the ringpost against Kronik.

Backstage, Kronik says that they don’t think Goldberg will show up.

Lt. Loco and Cpl. Cajun vs. The Perfect Event

Bonus match! You know, there doesn’t really seem to be enough time on this show for this.

At Greed, Chavo was normal Chavo. I wonder what the storyline progression was there.

Mark Madden: You know Stevie, as a member of Harlem Heat I know you were used to bad teamwork.

You know Mark, they only won like 7 or 8 (maybe more) World Tag Team titles. For fucks sake.

Apparently the Perfect Event are having problems getting along or something.

Backstage Assault ad AGAIN. In the middle of the fucking match.

Stasiak can’t even taunt naturally.

LeRoux basically no sells a big boot from Palumbo, that even seemed to surprise Tony Schiavone on commentary as he stuttered when it happened.

Mark Madden fawns over Chuck Palumbo’s chain wrestling. I wonder if Mark Madden has ever even watched wrestling before.

Chavo is by far the best wrestler in the ring. By far.

Lt. Loco and Cpl. Cajun win when Loco pins Stasiak in 9:23. Palumbo accidentally superkicks Stasiak into a Loco Tornado DDT. This match was boring and it sucked. Lash LeRoux is awful. Palumbo and Stasiak aren’t ready yet.

Konnan is tending to his knee. He asks other members if the Filthy Animals to take his place, but they all had a match already. Konnan gets mad and says whatever. Ok then.

The Franchise and Torrie Wilson vs. Konnan and Tygress

Torrie Wilson is in sexy Wonder Woman gear for no reason. A positive!

Mark Madden practically admitted to jacking off to Wonder Woman as a kid. Thanks Mark.

Tygress is willing to do a handicap match as Konnan is hurt. Didn’t Konnan say he was coming out?

Why is Tygress even in the ring. She’s already done a horrible armdrag and she can’t even do stomps correctly. Stomps!

Here’s Konnan(from the crowd for some reason)…and Douglas takes him out.

Apparently it’s a back injury and not a knee injury. He still got in the Rolling Clothesline though. Nice selling.

I feel like if DC Comics knew this match existed they would have sued WCW so fast.

Tygress misses a baseball slide. Totally misses. At least Torrie didn’t pretend to sell it.

Tygress is owning The Franchise. I guess Douglas wasn’t getting a main event run.

Tygress gets punched in the face by Douglas. You know it’s bad when I practically cheered that happening. Mark Madden said the punch was justified…and you know what, he’s right.

Stevie Ray calls the Camel Clutch the Boston Crab. Great stuff.

Tygress was in a Crossface Chicken Wing from Douglas, but she escapes by slowly running around the ring and then sending Douglas through the ropes.

Torrie with the Franchiser on Konnan! Good thing I hate Konnan.

Konnan and Tygress win when Konnan pinned The Franchise in 8:38. Konnan pins Douglas after they hit a double Stuff Buster (X-Factor) on Douglas. For some reason Torrie doesn’t break up the pin. Awful. Absolutely awful.

A little storyline behind this next match. Stacy Keibler found out she was pregnant at New Blood Rising (I think). She cheated on David Flair with Buff Bagwell. Now we get a First Blood DNA Match. Believe it or not, I don’t think that’s that terrible. I mean it’s bad, but it’s a creative way to figure out if Buff is the father!

First Blood DNA Match
Buff Bagwell vs. David Flair

“It’s time to find out if Buff Daddy is the real daddy!” Clever one Buff.

The first move is botched. Bagwell tries to slam Flair face first into the turnbuckle, but he lost grasp of David’s head.

Is Buff the face? He yawns, which is a heel thing to do, right?

Flair does his dad’s turnbuckle flip then is thrown off the top rope like his dad. Nice I guess?

Wow he just did the Ric Flair falling face first spot. That was a bit much though.

This match is Buff Bagwell beating up and mocking David Flair. This is practically a comedy match.

Weak chairshot from Bagwell, and David goes over the rope and clearly hides by the apron to blade. Come on.

Buff Bagwell wins in 5:37. Buff Blockbuster…and the ref sees the blood from the chairshot. Match sucked. I don’t even know what the point of this was other than to beat up David Flair a bit. Lex Luger is here….and he turns on Buff Bagwell! Bagwell into the post and he’s bleeding from the mouth. David Flair gets his sample!

Luger and Bagwell were friends again 5 months later.

I sense that because of Flair’s blood, the sample will be messed up or something.

For the record, Mark Madden used the terms spots and angle in this match. Reality Era 11 years early! Take that WWE!

Goldberg’s in the house!

Scott Steiner interview! Booker T will find out that size does matter!

Kickboxing Match for WCW Commissioner Position
Mike Sanders vs. Ernest Miller

Perfect Event is out there with Mike Sanders. I guess that whole angle with the Perfect Even not getting along earlier is being ignored.

I believe this will be contested with two minute rounds, three rounds total. This is what this PPV needed, a Kickboxing Match.

Mike Sanders: “This is no Tyson Fight, no Thrilla in Manilla, no Rumble in the Jungle…just me being dead in your ass.” What the fuck Mike Sanders.

This might be over in 30 seconds! Miller nails a kick to the face. Sanders makes it up at 8. Damn.

Sanders goes down again. Up at 9.

Round 1 is over. This match sucks.

Mark Madden: “Did the Cat bite Mike Sanders’ ear”? Shut up already.

Round 2 is all Miller. Sanders down again! Up at 7.

Miller with the dancing split uppercut! Sanders is down! Palumbo wanted to throw in the towel, but Stasiak doesn’t let him. Sanders is up at 9!

Shane Douglas is out here. I guess he needs to be involved in two shitty matches tonight.

Final round!

Cartwheel kick to Sanders! He still survives. End this shit please.

Douglas nails The Cat with a chain on a fist!

Miller gets up at 9? Ref stopped counting for some reason with 7 seconds left.

Match keeps going?

Mike Sanders wins. The Cat fights Douglas on the outside…and gets counted out. Literally makes no sense. The round was over. None. Zero. Horrible. Horrible. Horrible.

Backstage, Goldberg is tested by some doctors. Goldberg says he’s been a little dizzy since Monday. Even though the post thing happened Wednesday on Thunder.

Mike Awesome vs. Vampiro

That 70s guy!

It takes 30 seconds to see that Vampiro fucking sucks. No selling, and doesn’t even take a back bump correctly.

Vampiro takes out a security lady when he fails to land on his feet in a backdrop into the crowd.

A fan attacks Mike Awesome and Awesome and Vampiro kick the crap out of him. Nice.

Vampiro can’t even stand on a announce table. I wish I was exaggerating how bad this is. Flying clothesline looks terrible.

There is a chair in the ring and they used weapons in the crowd, I guess this is a no DQ match?

Vampiro tries a Van Daminator. Guess what? He fucked that up too!

A clothesline! Seriously. How does that not happen correctly.

Wow. Vampiro almost injures both himself and Awesome with a top rope belly to belly suplex. Vampiro fell of the top and threw Awesome over his head. Just wow.

Vampiro attempts to throw Awesome’s face into a table…but just lets go early and Awesome doesn’t complete the move. What? How?

Mike Awesome hits a really hard forearm on Vampiro in the ring. Vampiro doesn’t sell it. It’s so sad that this match would be one of those that would show a kid that wrestling isn’t real.

Mike Awesome pins Vampiro in 9:49. Awesome Bomb from the top for the win…followed by that terrible music. That was one of the worst matches I have ever seen, and by far the worst match on the show, which is saying something. Vampiro is absolutely terrible.

Mark Madden says that underneath the gimmick, Mike Awesome is one of the best wrestlers in the world. Well no shit (although that’s a little bit of exaggeration). It’s almost like the gimmick should go.

Great, a General Rection interview.

General Rection came back for everyone or something.

Vampiro being helped out. Tony Schiavone says that this is one of the most awesome spots we’ll ever see.

WCW Canadian (US) Championship: Handicap Match
Lance Storm© and Jim Duggan vs. General Rection

Major Gunns is being held captive by Team Canada. If General Rection wins, he wins the title and Major Gunns back.

Not usually a fan of the Handicap Match for the title idea, but it’s more unusual when the team has the title.

Lance Storm’s promo was the 2nd bright spot after Torrie’s outfit.

I assume the Misfits In Action theme is dubbed on the WWE Network. Because it’s awful.

At least the crowd is into it by chanting USA.

Duggan looks horribly out of shape here.

Stevie Ray asks on why she’s called Major Gunns. I think he seriously doesn’t know.

Just curious, any reason we just didn’t get Storm vs. Rection here?

Nice superkick from Storm.

Duggan is the legal man, but ref counts a pin on Storm anyway. Duggan embarrassingly stomps and misses Rection and gets Storm. It looked so bad, Schiavone tried to sell it as maybe Duggan meant to hit Storm.

Storm and Rection mess up a headlock spot. I’m gonna assume that wasn’t on Storm.

Crazy ref bump in all this too.

Duggan with a piledriver! Rection kicks out and sends Duggan onto the ref.

Primetime Elix Skipper is here, but Gunns knocks him off the apron. This distracts Storm.

General Rection wins the title when he pins Jim Duggan at 10:07. Duggan misses Rection with the 2X4 and Duggan gets knocked down. Duggan clearly throws the 2X4 out of the ring, only it doesn’t make it, so he clearly shoves it out. Rection hits No Laughing Matter for the win. Another really bad match. The Lance Storm match isn’t even good.

Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett

Story here is Jarrett has been mocking Sting and saying he has no heart.

Jarrett interview: He’s gonna show a metamorphosis or Sting’s career, from a nobody to a has been to a never was. I do think that’s a good line.

Sting with a chair! I guess this is no DQ.

This is all Sting early on.

Here comes someone dressed as the old Sting. Apparently it is specifically 1989 Sting.

2000 Sting hits 1989 Sting with a Scorpion Death Drop on the floor. Ok then.

Now we have 1990 Sting! Hair doesn’t work here!

1990 Sting botches going over the top rope. Well he got thrown over eventually.

Hiptoss on the stage on the 1990 Sting.

2000 Sting with a Scorpion Death Drop on the stage on 1990 Sting.

Wolfpac music! Wolfpac Sting in the house!

2000 Sting beats up Wolfpac Sting with a baseball bat.

2000 Sting Scorpion Death Drops Wolfpac Sting on the stage.

Jeff Jarrett gets his first offensive move in with a baseball bat shot!

It took three fake Stings and a bat, but Jarrett now has firm control of the match.

Sting’s making his comeback!

Scorpion Deathlock….NWO STING COMING THROUGH THE CANVAS.

Real Sting gets dragged into the hole…but he emerges and has bloodied the NWO Sting.

Two Stinger Splashes and the lights go out.

We get another fuckin’ Sting from the rafters! The wig almost falls off.

The crowd got the wig!

Real Sting puts the 5th fake Sting through the Announcer’s Table with a Scorpion Death Drop.

Scorpion Deathlock on Jarrett…where ANOTHER fake Sting smashes a guitar over Sting’s head. Oh, this is a bloodied fake Sting. So this is Sting #4.

Real Sting recovers easily…and Scorpion Death Drops the fake Sting.

Jeff Jarrett pins Sting in 14:38. Jarrett comes in and smashes Sting (the real one) with a guitar! 1…2…3! What was the difference between this guitar and the last one? Ok so wow. What the fuck was that? Why couldn’t we just run Jarrett vs. Sting? It probably would have been a solid match. This might have been the stupidest match I’ve ever seen. I don’t even know who this was supposed to put over, or what the point was. I’m so confused.

Plus they need to fix the ring.

Booker T interview. He respects Goldberg, so he wants to go on against Scott Steiner now so buy Goldberg a little more time to get cleared so he can face Kronik. I’m sure those 15 minutes are everything.

WCW World Championship
Booker T© vs. Scott Steiner

I feel bad for Michael Buffer.

Scott Steiner beats up an agent in the back because he wanted to go on last and main event.

Steiner just looks scary as hell beating up Booker.

Steiner’s trying to go into the crowd to beat up fans.

Booker with a nice leapfrog to spinkick combo!

Steiner is threatening Stevie Ray. I actually like that. It makes sense…he’s Booker’s brother afterall.

Steiner scarily threatens the ref when he only gets a 2 count.

Steiner with a Samoan Drop from the 2nd rope. Nice.

Booker’s making the big comeback!

Midajah pulls Booker on the top rope, crotching him. Booker recovers and gets a missile dropkick.

Axe Kick!

Steiner nails Booker with a lead pipe. Then he takes out the ref.

Steiner Recliner…then Steiner takes out ref #2.

Booker T retains by DQ at 13:26. Steiner takes out another ref right as he calls for the bell. For the record a chair was used earlier, so why the DQ? To be honest, this match is not bad at all. Best match of the night (that’s not saying anything though). But it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t particularly good, but it wasn’t bad. Really makes Steiner someone to be feared.

I like how Jarrett runs out to calm Steiner down. I’d guess Steiner had a beatdown planned, but with only 10 minutes or so left on the show Jarrett had to run down to cut that short for the main event!

Career Threatening Handicap Match
Goldberg vs. Kronik

Brian Adams promo. Cause that’s what this show needs. Kronik says there is no match, Goldberg isn’t cleared.

Hard to believe this was once Crush. Doesn’t really look like him.

Here comes Goldberg!

Here we go! Goldberg has to beat them both.

Adams gets a table!

Double Chokeslam though the table…no! He spears Clarke though the table! 2 minutes in he pins Clarke!

Goldberg thinks he won…I guess it wasn’t clear he needed to beat both. Adams attacks him from behind.

Goldberg wins when he pins Adams in 3:35. Um.it was 3 minutes. I get it was a Goldberg match, but come on. I guess it was the 2nd or 3rd best match on the show.

Okay.

This show felt like it went on forever.

This shit is the absolute worst. It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. Opener was below average with potential. Hardcore match was boring. Bonus tag sucked. First Blood DNA was bad. Kickboxing Match was awful and made absolutely no sense. Awesome vs. Vampiro was one of the worst PPV matches I had ever seen. US/Canadian Title Handicap Match was bad. Jarrett vs. Sting was unnecessarily stupid. Booker vs. Steiner was decent. Main event was rushed.

I haven’t seen all the WCW PPVs, but I have a feeling this one may be the worst.

It’s amazing how much better Greed was than this.

It doesn’t surprise me that this won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards for worst major show.

It does surprise me that they even made it to March of next year.

If you factor in expectations and the fact that there is a multi-billion dollar organization behind WCW, this PPV may be worse than Heroes of Wrestling.

Horrible.

Final Grade: F

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW World War 3 ’98

WW399

WCW World War 3 98
November 22, 1998
Auburn Hills, MI
Reviewed on March 1, 2014

Background: 1998 was the beginning of the end for WCW (it was probably really Starrcade 97…but whatever). With the WWF having their best year in probably 10 or 11 years, they had turned the tide and had been winning the Monday Night ratings war. This was still before WCW was dead in the water though, and they certainly still had the talent to overtake the WWF.

WCW had just been relieved of one of its biggest talent acquisition failures as The Warrior had just finished up. Hollywood Hogan also would be gone at this point…running for president!

I’m not sure what the official story is, but it is accepted that Kevin Nash was the booker at this point. Watching this show, I understand why (although I don’t actually think the booking of Nash is that awful here).

Even the card itself though…showed that WCW would probably never regain the lead. For example, Goldberg. WCW’s 1998 cash cow. He’s not on this Pay-Per-View. In fact, Chris Jericho ran an entertaining angle against Goldberg for months, hoping to put on “the greatest squash match of all time”. Jericho’s wrestling Bobby Duncam Jr. here.

It is also interesting to point out that one of WCW’s calling cards was that they had great action in its undercard, then big names in the main event. You see at this point, that while some of the undercard is solid, it isn’t nearly at the level as 96 or 97 (or even earlier in 98) WCW.

Also, the main event is in fact not the World War 3 Battle Royal…but a US Title match between Bret Hart and Diamond Dallas Page. Just a quirky decision there. I get putting Page in the main though, he has been in every main since Bash At the Beach.

The Card

The opening is something I would expect for a WCW Playstation game. That’s not a bad thing though.

Here comes a limo!

Oh, Goldberg’s here? I’m so confused since he isn’t on the match card.

Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay are your announcers.

Talking about Hogan not being here…and perhaps we’ll see him on Nitro! Already advertising Nitro.

Mean Gene Okerlund: WCW HOTLINE!

Wrath vs. Glacier

Sub-Zero vs. Smoke match coming up.

I like Wrath’s theme. I’m guessing this is post-Vandenberg Wrath, as he doesn’t even have that cool entrance attire.

I guess Glacier is the heel?

Wrath shoves Glaicer out of the ring. Crowd says that yeah, Glaicer is the heel.

Glacier hits some kicks. I’m sure Glacier is a legit martial artists, but he really never learned how to use those skills in professional wrestling. Glacier always looks really stiff before doing any martial arts moves and it usually takes away from his matches. Steve Blackman was really good at this.

Mike Tenay tells us that Wrath is going to be on the Mortal Kombat TV show. Shocking.

Wrath actually looks pretty good here. Surprised Vince didn’t give him a bigger run when Wrath was Adam Bomb. Not saying it would have been successful, but his size makes him seem like a WWF guy.

Glacier just did this terrible hook spin kick. Looked horrible.

Wrath pins Glacier in 8:22. Wrath blocks Glacier’s thumb spike submission and hits the generic big man finisher…the Pump Handle Slam! (The Meltdown). Best Wrath and Glacier match I’ve ever seen. Wrath actually looked solid. This was a glorified squash.

Bret Hart promo video. I always thought Bret Hart was at his best playing a bitter heel. He talks trash about guys like Lex Luger, Chris Benoit and DDP. Anyone who says Bret Hart can’t talk stopped watching him after 1996.

Stevie Ray vs. Konnan

NWO music! At this point it could mean anyone, and in this case its Stevie Ray. I guess this is a NWO B Team vs. Wolfpac B Team match?

I always thought Konnan had some unique moves…but I never saw any psychology from him whatsoever. His rolling clothesline is something you didn’t see a lot of guys do.

Stevie Ray’s offense usually includes a lot of clubbing blows and the random kick. And that’s what we get here.

A lot of rest holds 5 minutes in.

I never liked how often WCW would talk about other storylines and ignore the match in the ring. Right now they are talking about Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Goldberg. Hey, why isn’t that match on this card?

Stevie Ray defeated Konnan by DQ at 6:55. Vincent accidentally hits Stevie Ray with the slapjack. Konnan does some punches, than hits the ref out of anger or something to cause the DQ. Then Booker T comes out to save him, which angers Stevie Ray because he’s tough and doesn’t need help. Boring match, stupid finish.

Ernest Miller and Sonny Oono vs. Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi

How the hell did Perry Saturn get involved in this? Wasn’t he just fighting Raven?

The Kaz Hayashi-Perry Saturn theme mash-up is just strange.

Is there a weirder team out there for a PPV match than Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi?

Some time killing early on. Ernest Miller tells Hayashi to leave in 5 seconds then turns his back on him. Kaz tags in Saturn. Funny I suppose.

Miller beats up Kaz, and then tags in Oono. Hayashi no-sells Oono’s offense and Oono offers him money. I guess this is a comedy match then?

Saturn vs. Miller is pretty good. Saturn always had a good array of suplexes. Also a nice legsweep by the Cat when Saturn went for a side kick.

Cat sends Oono in to fight Saturn and of course Saturn gets the advantage.

This match has no flow whatsoever…and way too much Sonny Oono.

Oono just missed three chops to the ground and let Hayashi tag in Saturn. Looks a lot worse than it reads.

Ernest Miller and Sonny Oono def. Perry Saturn and Kaz Hayashi when Oono pinned Saturn in 8:04. Saturn is about to suplex Oono, and the Cat hits him with a kick to the throat. Oono lands on him to get the win. Match had no flow or chemistry whatsoever. Also, was the point to make Saturn and Hayashi look awful? Because that’s what it did.

Chris Jericho and Lee Marshall!

WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Juventud Guerrera© vs. Billy Kidman

This should be good!

Both Kidman’s and Juvi’s themes are awesome.

I guess Juvi is part of the LWO! Eddy Guerrero comes out to explain that Juvi is in the LWO!

Rey Mysterio Jr. comes out with a LWO t-shirt to say that he should have the Cruiser title shot, but because Juvi is champ, Rey shouldn’t have the shot. Guerrero explains that you need to make sacrifices for family.

Early rocker dropper form Juvi. He then hits a flying headscissors which Kidman sells like a million bucks.

Juvi is now a full blown heel after the LWO thing.

Top rope legdrop from Kidman. I really thought Kidman was going to be a star in pro wrestling watching him in 1998.

The Kidman vs. Juvi battles (and there are a bunch of them in 1998) is really a representative of the last great days of the WCW Cruiserweight division.

Kidman hits a perfect dropkick as Juvi was coming off the top. Great timing.

Juvi hits a perfect top rope hurricanrana to the outside! Very nicely done.

This match seems slow-paced compared to their Bash at the Beach 98 encounter. Maybe to put over that Juvi is a heel now?

Wow. Juvi tosses Kidman into a 2nd ring, and then does a double springboard dropkick! He kinda falls on the second jump, but it was still impressive enough.

Wow again. Kidman sends Juvi from one ring to another with a hurricanrana, then leaps ring to ring with a cross bodyblock. Great innovation with the two rings.

More double ring action. Juvi does a springboard hurricanrana…sending Kidman into a different ring again!

Juvi misses the 450…but he lands on his feet. Hurricanrana for a really close two count! (Looks like Kidman didn’t kick out in time). Juvi slaps the ref…but doesn’t get DQed.

Billy Kidman pins Juventud Guerrera in 15:27 to win the title. Rey Jr. holds Kidman on the top rope and Juvi crashes to the mat on a hurricanrana attempt. Kidman hits the Shooting Star Press for the win. Great match. Great spots from ring to ring.

Eddy Guerrero tells Rey Jr. to make a choice, in the LWO or out? Rey Jr. says no and runs from the LWO members in the ring.

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Steiner

Buff Bagwell and some guy dressed as a NWO referee come out with Scotty Steiner.

The NWO is beating down on Rick Steiner in the back. The Giant drags Rick out to the ring. Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell beat down on Rick Steiner.

Rick manages to make a comeback, but he’s selling the attack from the NWO.

Tony Schiavone mentions that it would be nice to see the Steiners go at it 1 on 1. I couldn’t agree more. Almost like they should save it for a PPV or something.

Scott Steiner and Rick Steiner wrestled to a no contest. Hey it’s DA MAN. Goldberg’s here to make the save. The World Champ makes the save on a middle of the card match. Not like he should be defending the title or anything.

Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall

Hall comes out with various NWO members.

Eric Bischoff is out here before Nash comes out.

Bischoff orders the NWO members to beat the crap out of Scott Hall. Nash runs out to make the save!

Big Outsiders chant breaks out. Hall makes a peace offering, but Kevin Nash leaves Hall in the ring. So I guess we aren’t getting the match?

Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall was cancelled.

WCW TV Championship
Chris Jericho© vs. Bobby Duncam Jr.

Of all the wrestlers in WCW, why does Bobby Duncam Jr. of all people get a TV title shot?

Ralphus is a stroke of genius.

Gotta be honest, you can tell Jericho doesn’t want to be there. The nixing of the Goldberg angle was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Jericho and a WCW run.

Jericho busts out one of my favorite submissions, the crossbow surfboard.

Bobby Duncam Jr. feels like the homeless man’s Curt Hennig.

Jericho is doing all he can to make the match entertaining. Jumps off the railing with a clothesline. Missile dropkick. I just don’t see why anyone should care about Duncam.

Jericho goes for the Lion Tamer and the crowd erupts. They boo when Duncam breaks it.

Chris Jericho retains when he pinned Bobby Duncam Jr. in 13:19. Jericho nails Duncam Jr. in the back of the head with the TV title for the pin. Jericho tried, but Bobby Duncam Jr. offered a whole lot of nothing. Match was pretty boring.

World War 3: The 60 Man 3 Ring Battle Royal

Winner gets a WCW World Title match at Starrcade!

I’m going to just name some random guys here.

Apparently you can be pinned in this match too. How about that.

Alex Wright is out first!
Barry Darsow!
Bobby Blaze!
Chip Minton!

I swear they should have hyped Chris Adams as Stone Cold’s trainer.

Hogan, Horace Hogan brother!

BARRY HOROWITZ!

Other than Jericho, so far Juvi has been the best heel on the show.

Wow The Renegade was really out of shape at this point.

Super Calo!
Villiano V…but not IV!
Kendall Windham!

I see most of the top WCW guys in this, only missing Sting and Ric Flair. I know Randy Savage was injured.

It’s hard to keep track of anything in these. Breakdown: 60 men, 3 rings. 1 WAR!

I’m rooting for Horowitz.

Normal Smiley was the first to go!

Kevin Nash is practically dumping his entire ring out.

Scott Putski is gone. WWF almost built their Lightheavyweight Division around him!

You can eliminate anyone by just throwing them from the ring. Over the top rope doesn’t matter.

Kevin Nash took out his whole ring in like 3 minutes. He stands there awaiting the other two rings.

We’re down to 35 people. 1 person in ring 3 (Nash).

We’re fighting down to 20 men for 1 ring.

The Giant begins to dump some, but then the entire ring jumps on him!

In WCW terms, Wright/Both Guerreros/Benoit/Saturn/Disco/ vs. The Giant is a huge advantage for the Giant.

Rey Jr. is the last man eliminated before we come down to 1 ring!

I like all the hype about Nash’s strategy. All he did was just dump people as fast as possible.

Saturn and Miller eliminate one another and go at it, bad blood from earlier! Down to 18.

So long Alex Wright and Chavo!

And there goes Eddie! And Disco Inferno!

And Kidman! Down to 13 just like that.

Nash and The Giant go at it. I predict those will be the final two. Or Nash and Hall.

Outsiders double team the Giant. Crowd gets into it.

Lex Luger dumps Stevie Ray.

Mongo dumps Scott Norton and Nash dumps Norton.

Nash, Giant, Hall, Booker, Benoit, Malenko, Wrath, Luger, Konnan and Scott Steiner left.

Bam Bam Bigelow shows up, and Goldberg comes out to attack Bigelow! It’s almost like they should have had a match or something.

8 guys left. I lost count somehow, but Scott Steiner is gone.

Oh, Wrath is gone too.

Booker T is gone, 7 left.

Konnan, Nash and Luger for the Wolfpac. Benoit and Malenko for the Horsemen. Giant and Scott Hall in there as well.

Konnan eliminates himself trying to get rid of Hall.

Nash becomes the ring general to 5 on 1 the Giant, which the crowd erupts for.

They do it! Giant is gone!

Luger and Nash get rid of Benoit, while Hall gets rid of Malenko. Luger vs. Nash vs. Hall. 3 WWF 94 mainstays.

Kevin Nash wins the 60 Man Battle Royal, last eliminating Lex Luger at 22:31. Luger tries to rack eliminate Hall, but Nash hits a big boot and both Luger and Hall go over the top. Weak ending as Luger didn’t go over the top well. I don’t particularly like the World War 3 Battle Royal in general as there are way too many guys who don’t have a chance in hell, but I do actually like the way this was booked, which I’ll explain later in the conclusion of this review. Short version, if you are going to want Nash to be strong for Goldberg, dominating the Battle Royal was a good way to make it happen.

WCW US Championship
Diamond Dallas Page© vs. Bret Hart

Michael Buffer is out to announce the main event!

DDP is wearing the US Title upside down….

DDP dives over the top rope on to the Hitman to get this thing going.

Bret does subtle small things as a heel that he doesn’t do as a face. I like how Bret wrestles with a sense of arrogance as a heel, like a “it’s obvious I’m better than you” style. Hard to explain.

I do like that the Diamond Cutter can be done at any point. It makes for a lot of great fakes and can suddenly get the crowd into it.

This match has been pretty disappointing so far. I think it is a combo of DDP not being a great wrestler, and WCW Bret Hart just not being the same Bret Hart.

Bret going for a tombstone and DDP reversing it into his own tombstone was a nice spot.

Match is picking up. Nice belly to belly from Page. DDP then busts out this weird piledriver-pedigree spot. A pancake maybe?

I actually like DDP’s version of the sharpshooter, the going down to one knee part of it. Looked kinda of cool.

The Figure Four around the ring post is one of my favorite moves in wrestling ever. Such an effective visual.

Bret continues to methodically work on the leg of Page. For whatever reason, this is missing the mark. It’s the standard Bret Hart match, but the crowd just can’t get into it.

DDP just busted out the post figure four. Turnabout is fair play!

DDP has a chair! Charles Robinson tries to grab it, and Bret shoves Page into Robinson, knocking him out.

Diamond Dallas Page pinned Bret Hart to retain the title in 18:31. NWO ref from earlier comes back. Bret nails Page with brass knucks and locks in the Sharpshooter, to which the NWO ref calls for the bell and awards the US title to Page (NWO ref has authority then?). WCW ref Mickie Jay says no, and Page nails Bret with the Diamond Cutter. 1…2…3. Finish is okay I guess. To be honest, match was lacking. It looked like two guys just going through the motions.

Very up and down card. Opener was better than it had any right to be, but I wouldn’t call it good.

Konnan vs. Stevie Ray was whatever and had a crap finish.

Miller and Oono vs. Hayashi and Saturn was non-sensical and stupid. And it buried Saturn. Why not just do Saturn vs. Miller?

Cruiser Title match was very very good. Juvi’s heel turn was great and he played it well.

Now here is where I have a lot of issues with the show. I’m sure both Scott Steiner vs. Rick Steiner and Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall were big matches for this show. Both didn’t happen. Both were non-matches. And to be fair, that’s pretty bs.

Chris Jericho vs. Bobby Duncam Jr. was a waste of space. Poor Jericho. 13 minutes too!

60 Man Battle Royal was what it was. I only really like one version of this match (the first one, 1995). That being said, it is booked rather well. While we can debate till we are blue in the face about Nash being the man to eventually beat Goldberg and all, if that is the route they are going, then Nash needed to dominate this match. And he did. I think Nash last eliminating the Giant on his own would have been a better finish, and the actual finish was a bit weak, but it was doable. Nash was also mega over here.

Nash being mega over makes me wonder why the World War 3 Battle Royal didn’t close the show. It would have made perfect sense.

The US Title Main Event was a bit lackluster and felt like both men was just going through the motions. The finish is okay I suppose. Unfortunately I think Bret Hart had been booked into oblivion at that point and he’s not cared for as a heel, even though he plays it quite well. I do think Hart vs. Page could have been a main event feud for WCW, and I guess this is the closest they’ll get.

A lot of stupid crap was a foreshadowing of WCW’s future. It’s an okay PPV at best. Undercard really needed some work and the main events were passable…but that’s it.

Final Grade: C

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+