______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ Next week, I'll be visiting the in-laws for Easter, so there will not be an update on Thursday. I'll try to put together something short on Monday morning with my thoughts on WCW's PPV. ______________________________________________________________________ RAW RAW on 04/10/2000 opened with Rock coming to the ring to recap the events of last week's WWF TV shows. Is "licking a llama's anus" really a good line? He showed himself standing victoriously over Vince McMahon from Smackdown. On that show, he chaired Vince, and all of the DX members stood at bay because Rock, gasp, had a chair. Like they couldn't charge him, with maybe one guy taking a shot for the cause. That was ludicrously unbelievable in the WWF's current framework. Rock called Stephanie a "slut." I guess Vince would call the product "edgy." I was wondering how anyone could argue that this interview was acceptable for the younger RAW viewers, since Vince often suggests that the first hour of RAW is friendly to younger viewers. Anyhow, Vince came out with a chair. I figured he'd go chair the techie that aired the clips, but it is apparently okay for Rock to get the crew to air the bits he wants them to air. Rock offered to shine the chair up, turn it sideways, etc. Rock wanted his title shot on this night. Vince said that Rock would have to win his cage match tonight before he'd get the opportunity to challenge for the WWF Title again. The crowd did a family-friendly chant. Vince told Rock to ask himself "Who am I and why am I who I am?" That's easy! Because I eats my spinach. Vince said he made the Rock. He joked that Rock could have still been a star: a Doink the Clown, a Gobbledygooker, a Bastion Booger. Vince was sad that Rock never thanked him for his success, getting all choked up as he said it. And that's why he screwed him at WrestleMania. As HHH & Shane & Stephanie came out (why is Shane with them?), Rock chaired Vince, who fell out of the ring. Once again, everybody looked angrily at Rock, but they didn't attack because he had a, gasp, chair. Well, that was 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Don't get me wrong: it was good for what it was, but I find the WWF main event talking has gotten way too repetitive because the same guys are always involved. And the evil McMahons bit is also getting stale for me, not a good sign since Vince's turn just occurred. "RAW is talk, profanity, and breasts, with a dollop of wrestling" continued, as X-Pac & Road Dogg challenged Edge & Christian for the Tag Titles. X-Pac looked like a great worker, but I've come to the sad conclusion that these guys have a hell of a hard time putting together a match. That assessment is based on the past year of stuff that all of these guys have delivered. Anyhow, Tori tried to attack Edge outside, with Road Dogg sending Edge to the post or steps. Dogg belted Christian, with X-Pac getting the pin and the title win. And they say that titles mean nothing in the WWF. Earl Hebner ran in. Angle alert. He filled in the referee, who ordered the match to continue. Edge speared X-Pac for the win in less than one minute. When a match gets restarted in this scenario, why does the opposite ending always happen in less than a minute or two? Why do bookers think that's a good finish? At 9:34pm EST, the Godfather came out to his new theme song. "Grab your bitches...", it said at the start. With hos on hand, Godfather did his whole routine. Kurt Angle faced Godfather. Beforehand, he offered Godfather a condom. Everything Godfather does looks beyond horrible. Angle countered the Ho Train with a suplex for a two. God, the match had to continue. Another suplex came a minute later, giving Angle the win. Scott Taylor & Rikishi Phatu & Tazz faced Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn & Chris Benoit. They explained that Brian Christopher is out with a knee injury suffered after Big Slow splashed him last week. This match had a few good interactions, but I don't get into this Too Cool vs. Radicals pairing as much as some do, I would guess. This time around, they actually let Dean Malenko get a screwy pin on Taylor. HHH faced Taka Michinoku. Shane McMahon came to the ring with HHH & Stephanie. What does the Big Slow think about that? Who cares? That was last week's story line. Taka & Sho Funaki came out with the Acolytes. Taka still moves quickly and well, but in this promotion he's become a shell of his former Michinoku Pro self as a worker. Really, does he ever get to put together 15 minute matches against equally gifted opponents? No, and as a result he sure seems to have lost more than a few steps in the ring. He scoffed at the Super J tourney in Japan, saying that no stars were involved, but I wonder if he could hang with many of those guys now. Acolytes ended up pounding on HHH. Funaki hit a horrible missile dropkick which was instantly forgettable as Taka hit (missed?) a horrible moonsault, getting a two count. Shane & Vince came out on the ramp, but the Acolytes stopped them. Big Boss Man & Bull Buchanan attacked the Acolytes. HHH scored the win with a pedigree. Hardyz faced Test & Albert. I feel badly for Test & Albert. They are obviously trying to work very hard in all of their matches, but they really seem to stink. Hardyz got the quick win. The Dudleyz ran in. They laid out Test with the 3D. They put a table in the ring. Instead of running away, Trish Stratus got on the apron and lectured the Dudleyz. Albert attacked the Dudleyz from behind, sending Buh Buh through the table. This story line is built around Buh Buh's desire to drive Trish through a table. That's where we're at in the year 2000. Val Venis faced Big Slow. Slow came out dressed like Venis, even doing his microphone shtick. With the fake Venis hair, Slow looked like Jimmy Garvin or Terry Gordy. Venis insulted Slow, who pouted. Does Slow have Stevie Richard's gimmick? Slow is so horrible. I think the worst match on the planet would be Slow vs. Godfather going 10 minutes. Slow took a dump out of the ring. He yelled, "Where's my damn towel?" He had to think quickly, so he crawled back in the ring, grabbed his wig, and used it to choked Val for the DQ. Eddie Guerrero & Chyna came to the ring. It seems like Eddie is doing a really stereotypical squeaky Latino accent. Eddie faced Chris Jericho, with Eddie's European title on the line. Eddie whacked Jericho's knee a bit and went for the figure four leglock, with both guys acting like it was 20 minutes in. I really have trouble getting into the story line and psychology of a match in this fast forward era. In any case, Jericho's knee became a non-issue as he didn't sell it during the rest of the match anyhow. Eddie was tremendous. Eddie got a two count after Chyna distracted Jericho. The referee was bumped with the title belt. Eddie was laid out with the title belt. Chyna came in to hit the low blow on Jericho. She set up the cover for Eddie, and the ref just happened to recover on time. What a messy finish. I'm starting to feel a little badly for Jericho. He's still great, but with the arrival of Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit in the WWF, his in-ring failings are more apparent upon comparison. That's not to say that all of them aren't heads better than the Rock and HHH. During the show, they aired various bits with Terri Runnels setting up Cat. It led to Terri drugging Cat while she was in the chair at a salon. When Cat awoke, her hair had been butchered and her make-up was all funny. In the main event cage match, in a "must-win situation for the Rock," like that isn't the case every week, Rock faced Big Boss Man & Bull Buchanan. Was it my imagination or did they use Rock's old ring entrance music instead of the new Agression version? That new version led to a really poor reaction for Rock last time around. They had kept Rock's opponent(s) a secret during the show, so this was more than a little bit anticlimactic. Rock got pounded most of the way, but nobody could have expected a loss. Of course, he ended up hitting a Rock Bottom for the win. Afterwards, everybody came in the cage. HHH used brass knuckles on Rock. He hit a pedigree. Rock bladed big time. As HHH prepared to hit yet another pedigree, the Acolytes ran out to attack Big Boss Man & Bull Buchanan, chasing away the McMahons & HHH in the process. They showed close-ups of Rock bleeding like crazy. Nitro Nitro on 04/10/2000 featured the debut of the Eric Bischoff & Vince Russo regime. The commercials on WTBS said that we should forget everything we know, "because the world is about to change." Tony Schiavone & Mark Madden & Scott Hudson were on commentary, with Tony calling this a "landmark" evening. We'll see. All of the wrestlers came to the ring as the show opened, well, all of the wrestlers except Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and others. Jeff Jarrett spoke. He talked about "the old boys" derailing the new WCW vision and called Vince Russo to the ring. Vince, looking pudgy, came to the ring to cut a promo. They mentioned WWF and Vince McMahon a few times during this segment, since second spot can throw stones at first spot. Russo talked about the "good old boys network" bringing him down; he called them scum. I guess the story is that Russo's reign was never his reign because of these machinations. He said that the new direction that was proposed to him sucked, and everybody knew it. He mentioned the Radicals by name, saying they left because of it. This was ironic: if Eric would have his wits about him during his run or if Vince Russo put his fist down when he started his run, we would never have come to this point, right? Russo said that it will now be the era of the wrestlers in the ring. "Are you done yet?" Out came Eric Bischoff. Some of the younger guys were shaking their heads. Vince & Eric hugged, surprising the commentators. Eric said that both he & Vince were screwed by the "good old boys network." Eric listed Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Sting, Sid, Diamond Dallas Page, and Hulk Hogan as his mistakes. Backstage, Sting, Sid, DDP, and Lex Luger looked on. Eric said that he will do anything he can to help the new blood. I already felt a turn coming on. Out came DDP, Sting, Lex Luger, and Sid. Eric bashed their work ethic a bit. Kimberly looked awesome. "I'm really glad you all came to work." DDP & Eric traded barbs. Eric mixed a version of the truth into all of his remarks. "This time it will be a level playing field." Vince Russo called out Ric Flair, calling him a piece of shit on the bottom of his shoe. Vince Russo announced that all titles would be stripped tonight, asking Jeff Jarrett, the Harris Twins, and Brian Knobs to hand over the titles, that new champions would be crowned with an even playing field. Eric taunted Sid into surrendering his title. Eric said that a new world champion would be crowned at Spring Stampede. The commentators said that Hogan & Ric Flair had yet to arrive at the building. The crowd chanted Goldberg on and off during the segment. Backstage, Sting told Hogan that Eric was all over them. Hogan said he'd check it out. Tony Schiavone announced that Diamond Dallas Page, Sting, Lex Luger, and Sid Vicious would have a mini-tournament to determine who would face Jeff Jarrett at Stampede for the WCW Title. See, Jeff is not the US champion, but he's the number one contender to the WCW Title. Nice that the tournament includes all of those young guys. DDP's music and pyro were cut off, a money saving measure worked in as a story line element. Ditto Luger's entrance. Diamond Dallas Page faced Lex Luger. The poor commentators were trying to push the story line that the young guys were getting a push; they said that Eric & Vince were making the established stars jump through hoops to just wrestle Jeff Jarrett. Luger didn't get to pose, and he complained about it. As usual, DDP worked hard, but it did seem like he was having some trouble just moving around. And, as I've always argued, hard work alone can't make a match good. This match was better than the pedestrian crap that WCW in general had drifted towards due to the morale problems in the locker room, but it was hardly any good. In the middle of the match, Buff Bagwell came out to full pyro and music. Luger took a low blow from Page. Bagwell hit on Kimberly and then hit on Liz. He laid his hands on Lix. DDP hit a diamond cutter on a distracted Luger. Only a snippet of DDP's music came up. At least the guy that tries was put over. Hogan found Bischoff's dressing room. Eric pulled Hogan in, acting meek and trying to placate him. Billy Kidman came to the ring to talk about being held down by "egomaniacs trying to hold on to their fading careers." Kidman went after Hulk Hogan. He said that Hogan said he couldn't draw flies to a flea market, ending with "who'd know more about drawing flies than a piece of shit like you." Kidman called out Hogan. "It's time to see if your balls are as big as your bald spot." Hogan saw Kidman on the monitor backstage. Hogan's music kicked up. As the Observer pointed out, even if Kidman loses a PPV or major TV match between the two, if he shows a lot of fight it could increase his stock; the problem, the Observer says, is that the match would suck. Hogan came to the ring looking all shock. "Who in the hell do you think you are, Kidman?" The interchange was quite good, with Kidman cracking and attacking Hogan, who sold for the attack! Hey, they have black tarps draped over the metal guard rails. Hogan posted Kidman's shoulder and whipped him to the guard rail. Kidman needed to rally. Back in the ring, Hogan laid into him, talking trash like never before. Eric Bischoff snuck out to the ring with a chair. He chaired Hogan straight in the head. Hogan had bladed right before the shot. The crowd booed. Kidman covered Hogan and Eric counted. It left Kidman looking like the heel. Shit. And, boy, that's just the way that Kidman needed to put over, isn't it? And you know that Kidman will have to return the "favour" by looking at the ceiling after a clean finish. The whole thing became about Hogan & Bischoff, not Hogan & Kidman. Shit. Backstage, Hogan, already the politician, praised Kidman's performance and talked about doing a job for him on TV. Uh-huh. He apparently told the guys before the show that they all have to buckle down, work house shows, work hard, not disappear at the first little injury, etc., in a speech that was reportedly well-received. Ric Flair arrived at the building. I guessed that Russo gets to screw him. This was getting weird because the old guys were getting cheered more or less and the young guys were getting booed. Ric Flair came to the ring. He did his usual awesome microphone work. He didn't get old, he got great, he said. He had me with him, until he lumped Hogan, Sting, etc., into the "not old, great" club. Sigh. He called out Eric. Scott Steiner came out instead. Steiner & Flair traded barbs. I don't like Steiner at all any more. As Steiner did a Ric Flair imitation, Shane Douglas came in the ring, attacking Flair from behind. Flair acted like he was knocked out. We cut to the back as Steiner walked to the ring. What happened? I sure wish we knew. In any case, I'm damn amazed that they convinced these three (Flair, Steiner, Shane) to work a program. As Kevin Nash arrived, we were given a muted crowd shot of Bret Hart sitting in the stands. Next up in the Young Guns WCW Title Tournament, Sting faced Sid Vicious. They mentioned that Russo booked Jeff Jarrett vs. Curt Hennig to determine who the winner of this mini-tournament would face at the PPV. Odd, since I must have missed that announcement. They said that Mark Madden was attacked by Tank Abbott. Didn't see that either. Hmmm, TSN snipped the show. The match was pretty darned bad. Partway into the match, with Sting & Sid both resting (I know that description is too broad), the Wall came out with a table, which he apparently set up at ringside. The referee bumped. Wall chaired Sid after Sid powerbombed Sting. Wall choke slammed Sid through the table. Sting scored the count out win. Ric Flair came to the ring. He challenged Shane Douglas to a match this night. Backstage, a bloody Hogan continued his search for Eric Bischoff. TSN went to a commercial quite abruptly. The commentators said that David Arquette will be at Thunder on Wednesday. Apparently, he was around on Nitro. They talked about the movie. Jeff Jarrett faced Curt Hennig in the next match on Nitro is Talking. They started in the aisle. Scott Hudson mentioned that Eric Bischoff was in a skybox and that Hogan knew it. This match featured Shawn Stasiak coming to the ring during the match. They mentioned that Stasiak was Meat in the WWF. The ref bumped. Jarrett dropped. Stasiak actually came out to music that sounded like Mr. Perfect's old entrance music. Stasiak wanted to do a fallaway slam, I guess, on Hennig, but he couldn't get him across his back. Time stood still as Stasiak did this macabre dance in the ring with Hennig trying to move himself into position. Finally, Stasiak just sort of dumped Hennig, with the commentators saying he hit his move on Hennig. They tried to sell Hennig's back as being injured. Jarrett got the pin. Kevin Nash phoned somebody. Sting was interviewed, saying that he was going after Jarrett. Ric Flair came to the ring in his street clothes for an impromptu brawl with Shane Douglas. Being in his street clothes was a great idea, since Flair still has tremendous ability, but his physique is sagging. Douglas came to the ring in street clothes as well. Flair was pummelled early on by the "young" gladiator. Ric got the upper hand with chops outside. He hit a low blow in the ring. The commentators talked about the legit heat between these two. The commentators showed more credibility in this one night than they did in all of 1999. Flair dominated for a few minutes. Who could walk in on this one? You got it: Vince Russo. He walked straight in and whacked Ric with a baseball bat. The referee signalled for the bell, which rand and rang. The commentators had put some time into making sure we realized that this wasn't a match, which had to make you wonder why the bellringer went spastic. Russo took Ric Flair's rolex. He did a crotch chop. He hugged Douglas. Just remember that Ric Flair once said he would never do a job for Shane Douglas. "Never" in pro-wrestling means nothing from almost everybody. The only "never" I've heard in the past many years that I actually believed was Bret Hart saying he'd never return to the WWF. Kevin Nash entered the ring to the Wölfpac theme song. He drew a great reaction. More talking. He said that Vince & Eric owed him & Scott Hall. They seemed to be trying to return to the "what will they say on Nitro?" formula of old. Mike Awesome came in the ring, laying out Nash. They called Awesome the ECW Heavyweight Champion. The one extravagance they allowed themselves was buying out Awesome's ECW contract; Awesome will still drop his belt in ECW. Word is that Awesome contacted WCW, claiming that he had no contract with ECW and wanting to appear on WCW TV to trash the ECW Title a la Madusa years back. That's pretty unprofessional, and he'll surely have fun finishing up with ECW. He's an interesting addition to the mix in WCW, not really the kind of guy I would go after for my dream promotion. I don't really know what he'll offer to WCW, since he can't really cut a promo and he's only ever had a good wrestling match against one opponent (Masato Tanaka) and that was the same match over and over again. I'm not sure who in WCW will volunteer to be thrown from the ring through a table at ringside. Still, if handled correctly, he could mean something to the promotion, but he's hardly a guy that they can build around long-term. Even in ECW, Paul Heyman was essentially using him as a placeholder until the time was right to go with Rob Van Dam. There is already talk that Lance Storm may also leave ECW to come to WCW down the line, and it does appear that Paul Heyman's ability to book/plan long-term story lines has been affected the reinforcement of the message that anybody can be stolen by WCW. Despite WCW sinking below ECW buy rate level in recent times, WCW has deeper pockets, an easier style, and more TV exposure, which no doubt could help lure away the handful of guys in ECW who are worth stealing when the contract status with ECW allows it. And even if they are still contracted, like Awesome, it seems like a precedent has been set for a guy in the locker who wants to make the jump. Well, the crowd chanted "asshole!" Backstage, Hogan seemed to arrange a PPV match with Kidman. As he closed the door of his limosine, a white hummer started ramming the limo. Out came Bischoff as the driver of the Hummer, with Kidman in tow. "Bischoff was driving the hummer. We should have known that all along!" Huh? Talk about your weird past story line reference. I suppose you could conclude that they were poking fun at past inanity. Backstage, Hogan was put on a stretcher. Kidman painted "NB" on Hogan's chest. No, not for "Nota Bene," but for "New Blood." I don't know about the sense of making the young guys the heels in this feud, but it sure seems like that's their spot. It's easier to get a heel over. And if he gets over strongly as a heel, a good turn makes him an instantly hot babyface. They announced that the show was extended to 10:30pm EST. Ah ha, that's why TSN clipped the show; they only had a two-hour slot. Sting faced Diamond Dallas Page in the Young Guns WCW Title Tournament, with the winner facing Jeff Jarrett at Spring Stampede. Jarrett came to the ring with his guitar in hand. DDP worked hard again. I don't really like DDP's style that much, but for some reason think that he would be the better opponent for Jeff Jarrett at the PPV. Since WCW needs to put on good PPV matches to win back their fan base, and since neither of the possible title matches will draw a good buy rate, I was strangely hoping for DDP to win. Jarrett went over to Kimberly. DDP attacked JJ. El Vampiro attacked Sting in the ring. "That's his brother in paint!?!" DDP crawled back in the ring. The referee missed the interference of course. DDP hit the diamond cutter for the pin. Right afterwards, Jarrett went in the ring to whack DDP with the guitar. DDP moved and Kimberly took the shot. Jeff Jarrett smugly did an interview in the final segment. He said he'd win the title in six days. If DDP wanted to bring Kim with him again on Sunday, Jarrett offered to show her some more wood. They brawled. Scott Steiner came in, with DDP taking him out as well. Lex Luger ran in. Buff Bagwell ran in. Vampiro & Wall came in. The commentators called the old guys the "Millionaires' club." Sting ran in. It was a melee. Booker T & Ernest Miller came in. The old guys were laid out. The crowd chanted for Goldberg. As the show closed, Vince Russo & Eric Bischoff came out on the rampway to blow kisses to Jeff Jarrett. As the stood there, Bret Hart walked out from behind them, with his arms across his chest, looking like he had something to say about the developments of the evening. All in all, despite the occasional negative reaction I expressed above and despite the fact that the title tourney featured all of these old guys, I thought this was the first enjoyable Nitro in a long time. Of equal importance, it seemed to set the stage for the development of some of the younger guys into upper tier stars. That depends a lot on the old guys being willing to put the young guys over at the end of their programs; it also requires that the old guys put them over in the right way. Still, Nitro has sucked so badly over the past many months, including Russo's previous run, that I was shocked to be feeling rather positive about things after just one show. In that sense, I think that Vince & Eric did a great job. Time will tell. The actual wrestling was still pretty damn bad, but, unlike the WWF, all of the talking seemed somewhat fresh. They really did nothing to increase interest in the PPV, but I guess Thunder can still drum up some interest. Besides, they can hardly do worse than the last couple of shows and can surely blame a low buy rate on what happened before them. What's important for WCW is to change the perception of fans by putting on a kick-ass PPV this weekend. One final thing that deserves mention: Nitro ran 2:30 in the US with so many guys not even appearing on the show. They finally let a smaller numbers of guys have longer segments. I wish that there had been more actual wrestling (and that more of the wrestling was actually good), but I think it sets a good precedent if they don't try to cram too many guys into one show. Thunder on 02/12/2000 had to follow on the heels of what I'd have to believe was a well-received Nitro show. The show opened with a quick recap of Monday's Nitro, with frantic musical score, similar in a way to RAW's open. They showed Vince & Eric arriving in "their Porscher 911." I never watch the Thunder credits, but it seemed like they had been redone. They had a new set. As with Nitro, they had a huge jumbotron screen by the entryway. David Arquette was shown at ringside. Eric came out to a round of boos. You know, I hate to say it, but the rest appears to have done him some good. He looks nowhere near as weathered as he did when he was canned. Vince & Eric came to the ring with his New Blood wrestlers. Something's wrong about having Scott Steiner in that group. Hey, Torrie Wilson was with Kidman. The group actually consisted of Kidman, Vampiro, Steiner, Buff, Ernest Miller, Booker, Wall, and Douglas. Billy Kidman did a great smug heel look. He said he pinned Hogan on Monday. He said the fans wouldn't have to sit through any more of Hogan's boring matches. It was great because he told the truth, yet the fans booed him. Vince Russo insulted the local fans. They kept referring to Nitro as "last night," which I guess means that they aren't going to bother trying to fool anybody into accepting taped shows as live. Shane cut a promo on Ric Flair; talking is the best part of his act now, but I'm sure Ric will carry his ass to a really good match. Jarrett & DDP were given the night off, said Bischoff, to rest for the PPV. But, said Eric, Kimberly would wrestle Madusa on this night. They plugged that Kim has been Playboy. DDP came out. He challenged Eric to a match. Eric talked about Kimberly's "stripper outfit." As DDP marched to the ring to attack Bischoff, Bam Bam Bigelow emerged to attack him from behind. That's right! Bigelow is New Blood. All of the Millionaires' Club ran in to the ring, with the polive getting in to separate them from the New Blood. It was a melee that looked prety bad when they stayed on it for more than a few seconds. At Spring Stampede, they will have a six man elimination match to determine the WCW Cruiserweight champion. I sure hope they don't put all six in the ring at the same time. As a prelude, they had the six men pair up in a trios match, with Lash LeRoux & Crowbar & Shannon Moore vs. Artist & Chris Candido & Juventud Guerrera. They had a lot of energy. Fans bounced a beach ball into the ring. Candido is such an awesome worker; I still remember being amazed by him when I got to see him daily at SMW Fanweek a long time ago. At ringside, David Flair hit on Paisley, with Daffney hooking David's crotch with the crowbar. Flair tried to toss Crowbar back into the ring, with Crowbar throwing a punch at him. Candido dove on them. Artist dove on them. Then Lash, Juvi, and Shannon. Some of the dives looked too choreographed because the guys outside stopped what they were doing to catch the diver. But it was still so much better than what we are used to from Thunder. Match had no psychology or anything. Candido dumped Juvi after Juvi hit his driver on Crowbar. Crowbar & Artist did a double DDT on Crowbar but argued about who would get the pin. Candido did a top rope head butt, but Artist stopped the ref from counting. Artist actually hit his DDT on Candido. Everybody was fighting at ringside while Crowbar scored the pin on Crowbar in the ring. It was messy and rushed, but still a positive. Backstage, Vince & Eric met with Harlem Heat 2000. "The business tonight is all about Sid." Curt Hennig attacked Shawn Stasiak. Mike Tenay said, "Can you believe the nerve of Shawn Stasiak? He calls himself the Perfect One!" Sid faced Harlem Heat in a no DQ handicap match to qualify for the US Title Tournament. Cash finally tried to do something, taking a high-impact bump that blew him up. Crowd chanted for Sid. Fat T's tights kept slipping lower and lower as his belly strained the elastic. "Over half a ton of Harlem Heat" and that's just Fat T's belly. Sid kicked out after a big splash. There was already a "New Blood Sux" sign. Booker T came in and laid out all of Harlem Heat. "I don't understand this at all," said Tony Schiavone. "Could it be that his hatred of his brother is greater than the hatred of the Millionaires' Club?" Backstage, Bischoff & Russo said "Damn Booker!" Eric came to the ring with his microphone. He checked that Sid was unconscious before ruling that Sid was DQed due to Booker's interference. That was funny because the match was announced as being no DQ. The commentators were incredulous. It came off pretty well, with everybody knowing that it would be cleared up shortly. Somehow this new WCW has a similar feel in one regard to the old WCW: every match that they've put on since Monday except the Cruiserweight bout has ended with a run-in. Backstage, Jimmy Hart looked for Eric Bischoff. Maybe he wanted to know why Hail wasn't in the New Blood. Or maybe he was seeking him out on Hulk Hogan's behalf. Jimmy's all over the map. Bischoff lectured Booker. Shane Douglas faced Lex Luger. Hey, a New Blood vs. Millionaires' Club match. I don't have a high opinion of Shane, but I have an even lower opinion of Luger. Luger actually did a bit of his posedown routine before attacked Shane. Will Shane Helms have to change his name? How can there be three Shane's on TV wrestling? I've never known one Shane in real life. Shane worked pretty hard, but nobody in the world can get a good match out of Luger. As Shane was stomping on Luger after a few minutes of back and forth stuff, Ric Flair ran in to attack Shane. Flair hit the low blow. Douglas had to submit to the tortue rack. More screw jobbery. Flair's interference made Vince Russo irate. Vince ordered the commentators to announce that any interference in the later Ric Flair vs. Buff Bagwell match would lead to suspensions of Flair & Luger. Jimmy Hart came to the ring saying he needed some answers. Bischoff came out with Kidman, who charged the ring and attacked Jimmy Hart. Kidman laid out Jimmy and sprayed "Nota Bene" on his back. Actually, it was a red "NB," which obviously stands for New Brunswick, a province in Canada, which obviously means that they are interesed in getting Lance Storm. In a Royal Rumble style match, Booker T faced The Wall to start. Six New Blood members would enter the ring at 1:00 intervals. The commentators pushed that the New Blood members were trying hard to prove themselves to Vince & Eric. Booker hit a uranage on Wall after a nice side kick. Wall sucks. Axe kick. Ernest Miller came in next. Wall was already on the floor. Miller kicked Booker to the floor. Wall drove Booker through a table. Both of them were counted out. Good, we didn't have to watch Miller pretend he can wrestle. As Miller said he was about to dance, the clock an out. Nobody came. Finally, Scott Steiner lumbered down. Miller dodged a Steinerline, popped Scott with a pin, and, as Scott deflated, he flew through the arena. Well, that would have been good. Steiner pummelled Cat, but Cat hit a brutal side kick on Steiner coming off the ropes. Steiner hit the mat hard, looking like he should definitely have been concussed. Kidman came in next, pinned Cat, who had been laid out by Steiner. Kidman was press slammed. Belly to belly for the pin. Boy, Kidman sure seems like a star. Vampiro came in. From behind, Sting snuck in and hit the death drop. Steiner, sucking (okay, I was going to write "sucking wind," then I realized that the "wind" part was unnecessary), scored the win. Kimberly faced Madusa. As Kimberly came to the ring, it was easy to forget that there are any other women involved in pro-wrestling. Kimberly shoved Madusa, who shoved back. Madusa tried to tell Kimberly to leave the ring. Madusa had her way with Kim, so DDP ran in. Madusa attacked DDP with kicks, so he hit the diamond cutter on her. Kimberly left with DDP, but this could be the incident that planted the seed for Kimberly to be pissed at him. In a hardcore tag team amtch, we were given Knobs & Finlay vs. Terry Funk & Norman Smiley vs. Meng & Hugh Morrus. The winning tag team members would face each other for the title at the PPV. Meng & Knobs went into the stands. Morrus & Smiley brawled down the aisle, with Norman screaming. Morrus put Smiley on a table, took a running start, and crashed through the table on his own. Upstairs, Meng & Knobs went into the concession area. Since hardcore matches make no sense anyway, it didn't matter much that we jumped from one pair of wrestlers to the next. It was like three shitty matches in one. Meng got distracted and speared a stand up Goldberg poster. Do we count that as Goldberg's first appearance on TV under the new regime? Knobs charged Meng, missed, and went over a balcony. We didn't know what happened to him. Tony Schiavone said that it was hard to continue calling the match, but then proceeded to do just that. Hey, it was only Knobs. Finlay DDTed Funk on the concrete at ringside. They put a table in the ring. Funk whipped Finlay into the table. Oh, Dustin Rhodes jogged down to ringside. He attacked Terry Funk. Hardcore matches are no DQ, so this was okay. Tony asked about Brian Knobs. Finlay pulled out another table. Norman walked into the ring from the other side and pinned his partner. Oh god. That was the best finish they could come up with!?! Sting faced Villano IV & Villano V & a phony Villano. Well, I gather that that happened, but I didn't see it. We get the show on TBS here, so I don't know how I missed it, but when I started paying attention again, they showed a slow motion replay of the fake Villano guitaring Sting and then unmasking as Sting. Ric Flair faced Buff Bagwell. Flair wore street clothes, which is the right thing for him to do. He didn't have his watch on. All Buff can do is punch. He has just a few other moves. And he worked so unenergetically, unlike what everybody else was trying to deliver. If Vince & Eric are watching closely to decide who gets a spot and who does not, Buff should be on the "not" side of the list. Out of nowhere, Vince Russo climbed over the rail dressed as Sting and attacked Flair with a baseball bat. Shane Douglas ran in to attack Flair. Luger ran in for the save. Russo kept looking at the entrance way because Luger was late getting out. Luger got laid out as well. Russo crotch chopped. Hey, it was time for that Villanos segment that we already saw the finish of earlier. Ooops, the editors screwed up. So, Sting faced three Villanos. He beat the two real Villanos, pinning them simultaneously after one minute. You know, American fans don't want to see Mexican or Japanese wrestlers. The fake Villano hit a low blow, grabbed the guitar from under the ring, and whacked Sting. DDP made the save. DDP faced Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow looked motivated. He dominated after a fallaway slam. As he went for a power bomb, Page punched him enough to send him to the floor. The referee bumped. Bigelow missed a head butt off the top. Fans were sometimes looking down the aisle, already expecting the run-in. DDP hit the diamond cutter. Eric Bischoff scooted in, counted to two, and stopped. DDP attacked him, but JJ came in almost immediately and whacked DDP with the guitar. I guess we'll be getting more and more guitar shots again. David Arquette came in the ring. Jarrett killed him, with Arquette's selling being slightly worse than Elizabeth's. Chris Kanyon ran in to attack Jarrett. Some more New Blood members ran in. They attacked DDP, Arquette, and Kanyon, spraying "Nota Bene" on them. - Eric Bischoff was on Wrestling Observer Live on 04/11. I don't think he said too much that was all that revealing about his plans for WCW. Interestingly, Dave Meltzer brought up that wrestling was growing into a stunt man show with crazier and crazier bumps, a trend that you all know I just love. Eric said that Mick Foley wanted to do a balcony dive when he worked in WCW under Eric, but Eric vetoed the idea. He said that you have to think about the long term, that letting wrestlers kill themselves with career-shortening and health-risking bunps is taking the easy way out to get them over. I actually appreciate that sentiment. He also said that Thunder may be moved back to Thursday to compete directly with Smackdown. - WCW has Spring Stampede on 04/16/2000. The line-up would seem to have * Jeff Jarrett vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the vacant WCW Title * Terry Funk vs. Norman Smiley for the Hardcore Title * Juventud Guerrera vs. Chris Candido vs. The Artist vs. Crowbar vs. Shannon Moore vs. Lash LeRoux for the Cruiserweight Title in an elimination match * Stevie Ray & Fat T vs. Big Vito & Johnny The Bull vs. Ric Flair & Lex Luger vs. Shane Douglas & Buff Bagwell for the WCW Tag Titles * US Title Tournament involving Booker T, Billy Kidman, Vampiro, Wall, Sting, Sid Vicious, Scott Steiner, and Ernest Miller The TV Title would seem to be history. How does Jim Duggan fit into the New Blood vs. Millionaires' Club story? - I had the chance to see the tag title ladder match from WrestleMania. If you'll recall, the broadcast of the show in my area was screwed up during this match for digital cable subscribers. Turns out that one of my wife's coworkers had a good copy of the match because he watched it through an analog converter. It was another stunt man show that everybody will praise because of the effort and spots, even though for me it once again exhibited so much of what is wrong with wrestling these days. In the ultimate insult, the Observer wrote that " if you took the ladder match and the last three minutes of the main event off the show, it would be probably about at the level of a recent WCW event." - The WWF has Backlash on 04/30/2000. Line-up has * Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Rock for the WWF Title - The Observer reports that there was interest in WCW in bringing in Marc Mero & Rena Mero. - 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. 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