______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ My daughter was home with the chicken pox all last week. As a result, whatever extra time I used to have to put towards wrestling-related stuff (this update, tapes, and other projects) was lost. Sorry about that. ______________________________________________________________________ - WCW had SuperBrawl on PPV on this past Sunday, 02/20/00. Overall, I thought it was a horrible show that spoke to the terribly negative direction that the company is going to try to go. The only good thing I can say about the show in hindsight is that Billy Kidman is a great worker. That's it. Not one other good remark. I don't know that this was the worst PPV ever, even just from the big two, but it was the most demoralizing and disappointing for me as a fan. Why the promotion would choose to run with only old guys on top, when it is pretty obvious that none of them can draw any more and when that hardly builds for next year or the year after, is a mystery. Thankfully, unlike the AWA, this promotion isn't being run by the people that own it: that means that when things stay financially miserable for a while, hopefully somebody higher up will decide to either pull the plug (before it gets to the point that Verne Gagne got to) or, more likely, make a major change. Guessing for the change, at that point, the promotion will probably need at least two years just to rebuild from the damage that has been done in the past year. On with the rundown. * As the show began, they explained that Jeff Jarrett was back in as interm commissioner for the night, I guess, because he had whacked Kevin Nash on Thunder. It really makes sense that beating up the commissioner makes you the commissioner. One of the huge problems with this promotion is that they make the actual office look so stupid all of the time. The commentators do it. The angles do it. And egos that get in front of the camera and say how crappy WCW is do it. * TAFKAPI beat Lash LeRoux to win the Cruiserweight Title: Could you think of a better wrestler to put this belt on to make it even more worthless than it already is? Just asking. Instead of talking about the wrestlers, Mike Tenay, trying to salvage a little of his credibility, talked about Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, and Rey Misterio Jr. being in the division in the future. They flubbed a lot of spots and the match looked sloppy most of the time. The match was mostly fall attempts from Iaukea. Lash finally rallied and tried for a top rope Frankensteiner, but Paisley held Iaukea's ankles, so Lash took the bump solo. Iaukea then hit his DDT off the turnbuckles for the pin. Prince is tight with Kevin Sullivan, explaining why the tournament was designed for him to go over. It doesn't seem to matter that he isn't going to get over. Match ran 5:49, another bad sign of the times in WCW. * Brian Knobs beat Bam Bam Bigelow to win the Hardcore Title: They walked all over. They broke a table. It sucked. Knobs took everything. Finally, Fit Finlay came out, distracted Bammer, and Knobs used a weapon to get the pin. Terrible match, running a whopping 4:46. So far, this was a Nitro show, and things weren't about to change. * Three Count beat Norman Smiley: Here's Norman Smiley, one of the few guys left who, despite everything that they've done to him, somehow still seems on the verge of being over huge. The obvious thing to do with him is put him in with the guys who are getting negative heat and have him lose the match in a stupid manner. Norman came in with hurt ribs from an attack on Thunder. Norman was actually quite good for the little bit he got to do. The commentators pushed Three Count as being exceptional wrestlers, when they clearly are not. Notice that their former indy circuit opponents, the Hardy Boyz, actually get good heat in the WWF because that promotion got them over by actually pushing their bumping, not their wrestling. Match ran 4:06. * The Wall beat the Demon: Tony Schiavone had the balls to introduce this match as a "special main event." I'm not kidding. He said that "The Wall is one of the hottest wrestlers in WCW." When the commentators say crap like that routinely it becomes another nail in the coffin. Wall took a bump off the top almost directly on his head. Scary. He used the choke slam for the win at 3:46. * Backstage, the Harris Brothers wanted to get into a locked room to learn who was inside. Instead of breaking the door down to get their size over just a little, they ran off to find the key. * Tank Abbott beat Big Al in a Skins Match: The stipulation amounted to getting a jacket off a pole. Al used his belt to strap their hands together, and these two macho men then started punching each other stiffly. Tank went down from an elbow shot. This was beyond stupid on many levels. Al stood on Tank's face, clearly being careful before letting go of the ropes. Tank rallied with punches. Al was lethargic at this point. The commentators said "this is brutal," not really implying the double meaning that they should have implied. Tank was supposed to climb up the ropes with Al on his shoulders and then grab the jacket for the win. It didn't quite work. The ropes were loose and Tank was wobbly, so he ended up dumping Al off his shoulders to the floor. Realizing that this might look funny on camera, Tank decided to unleash his savage fury on Al at ringside to make the climb for the jacket more believable: he came off the top with a flying punch. Wow. The commentators didn't know what to say at this point. Afterwards, Tank pulled a knife on Al and put it at his throat, so the cameras cut to a wide crowd shot. The commentators explained he was going to cut off Al's goatee. Match ran 4:40 and was just horrible, making it the first enjoyable part of the PPV. The plan remains to build to Abbott vs. Goldberg for Starrcade this year. * Big T beat Booker T: Big T sucks. Booker tried to do a uranage. He hit the sidekick. Stevie interfered. The lights went out. The commentators talked about Midnight, who has been MIA because she asked for her release (and was given it) in the hope of going to the WWF. When the lights came on, a big black dude who looked like 4x4 from the famous Master P angle was standing on the apron in his gang duds. Speaking of duds, this match then ended when a distract Booker was pinned. Speaking of distracted Bookers, does anybody wonder why the only two guys on the show who seem close to being over (Smiley and Booker) had to lose in such embarrassing matches? Match ran 4:51. * Billy Kidman beat El Vampiro: Surely all of those 4:00-5:00 matches were on the show because this match was going to go to a 20:00 draw, right? Wrong. Tony had a mental lapse, saying that Kidman would likely challenge TAFKAPT for the Cruiserweight Title, with the other commentators sputtering to explain that Kidman had moved on from that division. Kidman should be US champion already, shouldn't he? Good wrestling in this match. Kidman bumped Torrie off the apron. He checked on her, as Vamp picked up a chair. Just to show you the fan mentality at wrestling these days, you could here several "Fuck her up" yells from the crowd. Charming. Kidman van Dammed the chair into Vamp. They blew a few spots during the quick exchanges, but always recovered without a hitch, so it might not even have been noticeable most of the time. Kidman countered a top rope spot with a Scorpion death drop sort of move for the pin just as the fans were starting to get into the wrestling at 7:14. * The Mamalukes beat David Flair & Crowbar to retain the Tag Titles: This was a stretcher match, where both members of a team had to be stretchered out in order for the team to lose. It was brutal, not in the good way. Daffney did a lame frankensteiner on Johnny, who didn't sell it. She sprayed Disco in the face. It was a total mess. Crowbar did his spots, which I guess is what this match was built around. They taped Flair to the stretcher with the thinnest tape known to man. It broke as they were taping him, but they did two revolutions of tape afterwards, so that was obviously enough to hold down a consummate athlete like Flair. Horrible. Flair was wheeled out. Crowbar was hit with a pipe by Johnny and tabled by Vito before being carted out. Daffney was also wheeled out. The Mamalukes still didn't get over and never will if this promotion has its way. Match was 11:22 of garbage. * Ernest Miller brought out James Brown. As a result, the Maestro will now have to enter the ring to rap music. That's a winning angle. I only mention this angle because it ran 12:05, making it the longest segment on the PPV so far. * Ric Flair beat Terry Funk in a death match: It was about what you would expect from two fifty-year old guys who weren't allowed to bleed. Flair did a really good job of selling his neck after Terry Funk did the piledriver on the floor. Even though this was hardly a great match, the elements of psychology and selling are things that are missing in almost every "hardcore" match, which actually these days includes most matches not even billed as hardcore. In my notes, I wrote that Flair's selling reminded me so much of the Rock, with a smiley face after the sentence. They each scored two falls on the other. Flair knocked Funk through a table in the ring and scored the pin. Even though the commentators then said that the 10 count that followed was only to see if Funk could get up (since Flair scored the pin), in the ring Flair clearly worked it as if he had to get up at 10 as well. He made this big effort to get up, did so, the ref observed that, and Flair got the win at 15:35. It was retarded that the match played out in the ring exactly opposite to the way that the commentators called the finish. * Hulk Hogan beat Lex Luger: This was introduced by Michael Buffer as a "co-featured main event" and an "ultimate grudge match." I think the latter label refers to Kevin Sullivan's grudge with fans who want to actually see some good wrestling. Hogan was total 80s here, making this among the worst experiences I've had watching wrestling in the past year or so. Of course, the same characters on the net who praised everything about Hogan in the 1980s will be laying into this match as well, with just about as much credibility as the WCW commentators. There was a mild "Hogan" chant, which really made me wonder about the fans. Hogan had a broken arm from an earlier angle. Of course, he promptly put all his weight on that arm while choking Lex on the mat. What a joke. The commentators tried to suggest that Hogan had an Austin-ish edge to him because hid horrible heel tactics (back rake, etc.) without apology. Luger finally hit an elbow and drew heat on Hogan. Hogan blocked his punches, though, and hit a clothesline with the cast. He banged Luger's head intot he cast in the corner. Liz gave Hogan a love tap with the bat, so he ran after her only to get cut off by Luger. Jimmy Hart came out. I was waiting for Ed Leslie to do the run in to save Hogan. He hulked up. Tony said "we've seen it thousands of times." If they know that and they look at the buy rate and TV ratings, why don't they call it a day? You know the routine from here on. Ah, but Luger got the weight belt and used it on Hogan. Jimmy Hart interfered. Hogan used the cast. Leg drop for the pin at 8:10 of hell. Ric Flair ran in, no longer selling the neck injury from earlier, I guess because he won that match. Maybe he's closer to the Rock than I know. As they set up Hogan for punishment, Sting came in with the bat to clear the ring. * Sid beat Scott Hall & Jeff Jarrett to retain the WCW Title: I didn't write any notes at all, totally deflated by the focus of this show and the previous match. Roddy Piper resurfaced as a referee, after numerous referees had been laid out, to stop heel referee Mark Johnson from helping Jeff Jarrett. Piper then counted the pin for Sid at 8:04 before walking off. The match lengths were depressing on this show. When the WWF had a few PPVs with these mini-matches on them, I complained about the match length then as well. I'm honestly not looking for reasons to complain. RAW RAW on 02/24/2000 was preempted for curling on TSN. We missed the first 25 minutes or so of the live broadcast. Although my TV guide reported that it would air in full overnight, I only ended up with a partial recording, likely because more curling coverage changed the start time of the show overnight. Since the first 20 minutes of RAW is all talking anyhow, I wasn't overly concerned. Highlights always get played later, right? We joined the show as Chyna & Chris Jericho each came to the ring. They faced Kurt Angle & Davey Boy Smith. You've got to give the WWF credit. Angle's act was getting old ("Three I's", blah, blah, blah), so now they've got him beating up women to give him some edginess. His character desperately needed a change to help him move up to the next level and that change came right when they started to move him. In some ways, it's just standard booking theory, but since their opposition prides itself on doing the opposite of the standard theory it seems smart. Bulldog is a waste of space. Sad to say. As Chyna and Angle brawled outside, Jericho had Bulldog in the Lion Tamer. Well, jeez, the referee decided to ask Chyna for some plastic surgery advice, so Angle was freed up to whack Jericho with the European belt and get the pin. That sets up Angle vs. Jericho for the IC belt. That could be a good match. Too Cool faced Al Snow & Steve Blackman. Snow told Blackman that Too Cool was over because they dance, so Snow & Blackman should dance too. Blackman didn't like Da Dip. During the backstage video of Snow & Blackman, Too Cool danced for the live crowd, I guess. Good lord, I'd hate to go to a taping. The fans made a lot of noise for Scotty's goofy worm. Between, that worm and Rock's elbow, I just shake my head. Then again, I always howled for El Gran Naniwa's rope walk into an elbow or splash, and it was just as goofy, if not more so. All four guys were in the ring inside a couple of minutes. Christopher & Snow went to the floor. As Blackman had control in the ring, Snow told him to moonwalk, so he did. Pretty funny. Taylor got a roll-up on Blackman for the pin. Godfather & D'Lo came to the ring. You know, I've received several e-mails complaining about my my comments regarding the characterization of black wrestlers in North American pro-wrestling. Godfather and, sadly, D'Lo are pimps. But as Vince says, they have "hoes" not "whores." Uh-huh. And, hey, they are fun-loving. So, I'm told that I left the Rock off my list of black wrestlers. And the Poontang Kid is a very positive character. In WCW, they've got Norman Smiley, the returning Ice Train and Bobby Walker. I guess we should be excited that the WWF has come a long way from the times when the black wrestlers were afraid of snakes. The Pimps faced Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn. Wouldn't you know that the Pimps had the upper hand for the whole match? Out of nowhere, Saturn hit the elbow drop off the top when the referee wasn't looking and got the pin. I've also received a load of e-mail complaining about me saying that the WWF blew the introduction of the four former WCW wrestlers. Really, did I expect them to come in and win all of their matches against the DX squad? Of course not. But notice that the DX guys escaped from all of their WCW finishers: cloverleaf, rings, crossface, and frog splash. Putting them in against DX was too rushed. It just seems like Chris Benoit, in particular, should have been saved and nurtured (and it isn't like they aren't doing that for Tazz and Angle) to build him up as a major threat for a title challenge in the summer. Instead, they did a screw job win over Rock last week, one would guess so that Benoit vs. Rock could take place after WrestleMania. None of this rambling is meant to ignore the fact that both RAW and Smackdown had their best matches in many months thanks to the influx of these newcomers. Edge & Christian & Hardyz faced Dudleyz & New Age Outlaws had an eight-man tag match. The paired teams each face their partners at the PPVs: Hardyz vs. Edge & Christian and Outlaws vs. Dudleyz. Jeff Hardy took a couple of bumps that weren't particularly brutal, but because of he always go for added elevation they seemed to be tough on the knees. While it is dramatic and gives the replay guys some work, I wish he'd save himself for PPVs. Matches can be great without needing that stuff, anyhow. Witness the great matches that we've seen from the Radicals that haven't had any dangerous stuff in them. Ironically, of course, it was a (non-great) Radical match that led to Eddy Guerrero's injury. The ending was chaos, with all eight guys fighting. Edge got the pin on Gunn after the Dudleyz turned on them. The Hollys & Viscera faced the Accolytes & Mark Henry. Viscera is just horrible. Viscera vs. Henry was something to witness. After the Hollys got beat, Mae Young came in and kicked Crash. Well, we saw lots of shots of the crowd while hearing the commentary. Apparently, US fans saw Viscera squash Young. They stretchered Young out; this time she didn't show an EMT guy her breasts. Chris Benoit faced Test. Gee, I was betting that Test would have his best match ever. Benoit debuted the Dragon screw in the WWF, with Jim Ross calling it a "leg lace takedown" 'cause the WWF commentators would never say the word "screw" lest it be taken out of context. Benoit hit some German suplexes, but Test blocked a final one. Eddy Guerrero crept down to ringside. Test kept trying for a pumphandle slam. It was ugly. The idea was that Test would get Benoit on his shoulder, but Eddy would pull Benoit down before whacking Test with an object. Well, Eddy couldn't reach Benoit, Benoit dropped down on his own, and the commentators credited Eddy with the save. Test then clumsily got himself into position to get whacked. Shit, Benoit can't even beat Test cleanly. Rikishi Phatu, with an injured left knee, hobbled out to ringside to face Eddy Guerrero, who still has his arm in a sling, in a no DQ match. Eddy was set to hit Rikishi with his object, but Rikishi used his crutch first. Rikishi then did the butt drop onto Eddy's arm, which I guess was a spot designed to give a reason for Eddy's injury and issue for his return. Unfortunately, all of the Radicals came in, with Too Cool following, and the heels were sent packing. These guys have a six-man at the PPV. Rikishi didn't sell his ankle at all after his entrance, until the heels ran off. He even did his dance afterwards. Jim Ross tried to explain that he had "sucked it up." Oh well, based on that heel fleeing, I guess the Radicals will at least go over at the PPV. I bet it won't be clean. Tazz and Boss Man sqquared off. Tazz hit the choke, which Jim Ross called the Tazzmission. Prince Albert ran in for the DQ. The laid out Tazz, who looks more exposed every time I see him outside of ECW. In the main event, HHH & X-Pac & Big Slow faced Kane & Cactus Jack & Rock. They brawled outside the ring in the obvious pairings. Even when it returned to the ring, it was pretty chaotic. When nothing particularly good happens, the WWF at least makes sure that a lot happens. The commentators did a great job of pushing the PPV matches; the hype job was phenomenal, almost making me ignore the general mess of the match. The crowd was incredibly hot for Rock. The match became a bit sensible when Rock faced HHH in the ring. Rock hot tagged Cactus. Cactus brought in a fire extinguisher. This led to the wrestlers pairing off with the PPV rivals. In the ring, HHH whacked Cactus with the fire extinguisher for the pin, which, in a rare mistake, was missed by the production crew. They brawled afterwards, and my tape cut off. Nitro Nitro on 02/21/2000 aired in Canada in brutally abridged form because of the curling on TSN. I don't have the stomach to do a rundown of the show. The main event was a cage match between Hulk Hogan & Lex Luger, with Ric Flair coming in as well. Depressing. - The WWF has No Way Out on 02/27/2000. Tentative line-up has * Hunter Hearst Helmlsey vs. Cactus Jack in the Hell in the Cell, with the WWF Title up against Mick Foley's career * Big Slow vs. Rock for the WrestleMania title shot * Kurt Angle vs. Chris Jericho for the IC Title * Too Cool & Rikishi Phatu vs. Chris Benoit & Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko * Dudley Boyz vs. New Age Outlaws for the Tag Titles * Edge & Christian vs. Hardy Boyz * Kane vs. X-Pac in a no holds barred match - WCW has Uncensored on 03/19/2000. - The WWF has WrestleMania on 04/02/2000. My PPV guide confirms that you can order the PPV itself, or you can order an "all day pass" for more money. - Scott Hall was hospitalized for a spinal bruise. He was also major trouble leading up the SuperBrawl PPV, but still worked the main event. - WCW will be bringing in Tammy Sytch and Chris Candido shortly. Things need to be worked out with ECW. - Kanyon and Buff Bagwell have asked for their releases from WCW. - The WWF has Backlash on 04/30/2000. - The WWF has Judgment Day on 05/21/2000. - The WWF has King of the Ring on 06/25/2000. - The WWF has Fully Loaded on 07/23/2000. ______________________________________________________________________ If you have any feedback regarding my web pages, please send me e-mail. Don't forget to delete the leading "x" from my e-mail address; that "x" is my web spider spam guard. ______________________________________________________________________