______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - WCW had Spring Stampede yesterday, 04/16/2000. The promotion really needed to deliver something on this show to build word of mouth and interest in what they are doing. The show opened with an uncensored version of Vince Russo's Nitro rant against Ric Flair. Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson, and Mark Madden were on commentary, with Madden sporting a black eye after the attack by Tank Abbott. Eric Bischoff was excited that Hulk Hogan checked himself out of the hospital that he was in since the hummer incident on Monday. Overall, the show had better energy early on than any recent WCW PPV. I don't mean that to sound like it isn't saying much, because I thought the wrestlers were really trying hard. But they once again put way too many matches on the show, with the usual negative side effects: (1) the matches were really short, and (2) the crowd was burned out long before the main matches. There were some good elements in the booking of the night, but the uninspired run-in finishes (one after another after another!) were brutal by the tenth one. Is this really the result of inspired, or even good, booking? Based on the wrestling the show should get a thumbs down, without reservation. I guess I'm a bit of a mark for the general idea of finally giving the younger guys a chance to work against the established stars to try to get the rub, 'cause despite the fact that there wasn't anything noteworthy from a wrestling perspective, despite the terribly overbooked nature of the show, and despite the lack of crowd reaction, I enjoyed the show somewhat. It's probably just an artifact resulting from how bad the product has been in recent months. Really, the style of product they delivered on this PPV would have made for an awesome TV show: short matches, screw jobs to build issues, titles being decided, lots of opportunity for commercial breaks, profanity (that would be bleeped on TV). That would be a good TV show for building interest in a PPV that delivered satisfying matches. These matches weren't satisfy and really weren't PPV material. I don't think Russo knows how to put together PPV matches. * Ric Flair & Lex Luger beat Big Vito & Johnny the Bull in the Tag Title Tourney: Flair wrestled in his dress clothes. It's a little silly, but the reason for doing it is good. After Flair & Luger had arrived to the ring, "Iron Man" came up, and Vince Russo came out to cut an interview. He complained that two "crafty veterans" were facing "two rookies," making this an uneven playing field. Russo sent out the Harris Boyz, and, yes, this crap meant that it was four on two. In the intro, the commentators promised us that there wouldn't much wrestling this night...there would be fighting! Just what I wanted to hear. The idea seemed to be to position the old guys as the babyfaces. Again, during the pregame show, Vince & Eric cut a promo on the crowd to ensure that they would be heels. And here, the crowd couldn't help but cheer the comebacks of Flair & Luger. In Flair's case, no crowd would boo him anyhow. Still, half the guys in this match suck, so this was more than a little rough. No point in talking about the wrestling. It was a length heat segment on Ric Flair. It was noticeable that everybody was trying very hard, even the shitty guys. Disco posted Luger after the referee missed the hot tag. Disco was taken off by two guys, with the commentators not knowing who the guys were. It was a mess, with everybody in the ring. the commentators had promised that the referees would be lenient with respect to the rules this night, which is the same way that the WWF & ECW avoid having the stunt men and green guys in the promotion actually learn to wrestle a match. Johnny the Bull looked tremendous doing a highspot, hopping around on the top rope. Lex Luger ended up tripping him up, though, hitting the torture rack for the win. Okay opener. * Mancow beat Jimmy Hart: They couldn't let this angle just die a horrible death. Hart came to the ring with Hail; Hart was wearing a Howard Stern t-shirt. Mancow came to the ring with a squadron of women. Mancow thanked Eric Bischoff for giving a chance to avenge himself in the great city of Chicago. How confusing. Hart is with Hogan, so we should cheer for Hart, right? Mancow thanked Eric, so we should boo him, right? But, he said Chicago was great, so we should cheer for Mancow, right? Who knows. The crowd, like me, just waited and hoped for this to end. Hart did a horrible splash off the top, with the referee getting bumped. Hail came in, presslsamming Mancow onto his entourage. Hart sent Hail to the back, but Mancow recovered, used a chair, and scored the pin. At least it was short. During Mancow's celebration, Billy Kidman walked determinedly to the ring and killed Jimmy Hart, a message to Hogan. * Scott Steiner beat Wall in the US Title Tourney: I still can't figure out why Steiner is "new blood." I suppose that with all of the steroids coursing through his body, hit blood is something new to humankind. Schiavone explained that the New Blood members want to eliminate the old farts so that they can then fight amongst themselves without politics being involved. Wall stinks even when he tries hard. He drew heat (in theory) on Steiner. Wall sent Steiner to the rail outside and pulled out a table. Yeah, like Steiner will go through a table with his back. Wall blocked a suplex. Steiner gouged Wall's eyes as he tried for a choke slam. Steiner held the referee in front of him, Wall grabbed the ref, Wall choke slammed the ref through the table, a second ref ran in, and Wall was DQed. Creative and stupid ending all in one. The sad part is that we had to see one of these two guys in another match tonight. * Mike Awesome beat Bam Bam Bigelow in the US Title Tourney: Awesome was replacing Sid Vicious, who I guess decided it was a good time to get lost. Awesome was supposed to face Ernest Miller, but Awesome beat up Bigelow earlier in the evening, and Bigelow beat up Miller afterwards. The crowd chanted "ECW!" I thought that Bigelow might just be good enough to hide Awesome's weaknesses. The bell rang as Bigelod attacked Awesome, even though he wasn't supposed to be in the match. Awesomw hit a tope. They went into the crowd, with Awesome diving over the guard rail to go after Bigelow. Any crowd noise was a good thing, so they did nothing to mute the "ECW!" noise. Back in the ring. Awesome hit a clothesline off the top for a two count. Bigelow rolled over to land on top to counter a suplex. Head butt off the top by Bigelow. Bigelow signalled his finisher. But Miller came in to kick Bigelow out of the ring. Miller grabbed the microphone to say that he was going to dance. That's his act, I guess. Awesome clotheslined Miller out of his shoes. One froggie splash later and Awesome had the pin on Miller. Bizarre booking. Match ran 4:15. The short matches were killing me, but longer ones with all of the earlier pairings would have killed me more. * Shane Douglas & Buff Bagwell beat Stevie Ray & Fat T in the Tag Title Tourney: The result seemed obvious going in, although it would have been sickly entertaining to see Luger and Fat T square off. Buff had the stupid hat on again. It was short and sour. * Sting beat Booker T in the US Title Tourney: Booker cut a promo before the match saying that he doesn't see eye to eye with Eric Bischoff. If Sting felt like working, this seemed like it had potential. Booker is great. He took a great bump to the floor. Sting whipped Booker into the bell ringer's table. Booker rallied and sent them back to the ring. Booker slapped on a headlock. The axe kick got a two count. The side kick missed, and Sting hit a DDT. Booker nailed Stinger with a side kick when he tried a second Steiner splash. At about 6:40, Sting scored a quick pin. Booker went after him, and the two stared down before getting back in the ring. They patted hands in a show of sportsmanship. I guess Booker will get hosed by Vince & Eric. * Vampiro beat Billy Kidman in the US Title Tourney: Hopefully, these guys would get 15 minutes. Vampiro dominated for the first couple of minutes, with Kidman rallying with a rana and a dropkick. Vampiro dumped Kidman for a power bomb bump. Smart move, 'cause you can't power bomb Kidman the traditional way. Sure enough, Kidman came back by countering a routine power bomb. Kidman tried for the win a few times. Vampiro hit a good uranage for a two count. He signalled for the power bomb finish, but Kidman escaped it again for a two count of his own. They cut to an overhead camera shot, but not the funhouse mirror style shot that the WWF used in the ladder tag match. At five minutes, they were acting like it was long into the match. Kidman countered an armbar with a DDT for a two count. They cut to the back to show Hulk Hogan arriving at the building. They could at least have split screened it. As Hogan came out on the rampway, Kidman looked all greaked out. Hogan was all taped up. Kidman at least attacked him when he came in. But shit, Hogan hulked up right off the bat, dumping Kidman over the top. The referee talked to Vampiro during all of this. Hogan bounced Kidman around like he did the equally pinball-like Ted DiBiase twelve years earlier. Hogan dumped Kidman onto the commentators' table, which didn't give at all. So, Kidman ended up getting slammed through the table. Kidman got in literally no moves after that first string of kicks. Hogan dumped Kidman back into the ring, with the referee actually counting the pin. Schiavone explained that a DQ wasn't possible since Hogan didn't come in to help Vampiro. Hogan said he was going after Bischoff. Vince Russo said he'd take care of it. We were lucky enough to then watch Hogan walk around the backstage area lookinf for Bischoff. Hogan found Bischoff, but, as he was about to nail him, Vince Russo came in with the police, who pulled their weapons on Hogan. Bischoff yelled, "Don't cuff him, shoot him!" They cut to a crowd shot and then popped back to the locker room shot of the police taking Hogan away. Hogan yelled "son of a bitch" and "ass" a million times. * Terry Funk beat Norman Smiley to win the vacant Hardcore Title: The match started with Terry Funk tracking down Terry Funk in a backstage washroom. It wasn't pretaped. They brawled in the catering room. Norman screamed. Funk emptied a pop cooler on Smiley. They ended up in the kitchen. Smiley nailed Funk with a garbage can. Norman dumped Funk into a trash can, a symbolic truth. Funk used a laptop on Smiley. The commentators called it a "slaptop." Smiley climbed a ladder, with Funk knocking it away, leaving Norman straddling a pipe. Funk chaired Smiley, who dropped through a table. He could have just lowered his legs down and stood on the table. Funk took a few sick chair shots, with Norman at least not swinging full might. They finally brawling into the actual arena. They walked down the aisle to the ring, with Norman repeatedly chairing a staggering Funk. They actually got in the ring. Madden said, "Why would Terry do this? He is one of the greatest wrestlers ever." I've asked myself that a million times since he started all of this garbage crap. Funk chair Norman as Norman was wiggling him. At 6:00, it seemed like an eternity. Madden pulled out a ladder from under the ring. Out of nowhere, Dustin Rhodes ran in. The crowd booed. He beat up Funk in the ring. He piledrove Funk on a chair. Rhodes dtumbled onto the ladder which whacked into Norman somewhat. Funk dropped the ladder over the top rope onto Norman, getting the pin at 8:00. * Scott Steiner beat Mike Awesome in the US Title Tourney: Something tells me that Steiner is not the guy who can make Mike Awesome look good. Wait! Who does Steiner make look good? Steiner beat up Awesome to start, but Awesome hit a stiff shoulder tackle coming in. Clothesline off the top. The commentators didn't do enough to get over that Awesome does a lot of flying, especially compared to Steiner. Awesome hit a back elbow on Steiner, following it with a leg drop. As Awesome went to the top rope, Kevin Nash lumbered out and hit Awesome with a crutch on Awesome. Steiner hit the recliner, with Awesome submitting. Well, that sucked. All of the run-ins were getting way beyond repetitive. * Sting beat Vampiro in the US Title Tourney: I was hoping that this last semi-final match would mark the end of the five- or six-minute matches that we were force-fed all night. Sting pretty much dominated Vampiro early on. Vampiro rallied, hitting loads of stuff and getting some two counts. Vampiro went for a missile dropkick, with Sting avoiding it. It looked odd. Sting hit the scorpion death drop and the scorpion death lock for the submission. * Chris Candido beat Juventud Guerrera & Chris Candido & The Artist & Crowbar & Shannon Moore & Lash LeRoux for the vacant Cruiserweight Title: Shannon Moore & Shane Helms performed their song, without the green circles and without Evan Karagias. The other guys all ran in without any fanfare. It started a free-for-all match, but guys then stayed out and it turned into a match with four guys on the apron and two working in the ring. Thank goodness for that. This match promised to be the show stealer. Juvi had new tights on. Wrestlers switched without tagging. Daffney hit a rana on Crowbar. Lash hit a tope on Crowbar. Artist came out next. Then Juvi and Shannon. Candido got caught on top by the Artist. Artist tried for the DDT on Candido on a chair, but Tammy Sytch debuted to set up the win for Candido. They did a brief catfight afterwards with Tammy vs. Paisley. Tammy wore a thong. Did you notice that there were no Millionaires' Club members in this match? * Shane Douglas & Buff Bagwell beat Ric Flair & Lex Luger to win the vacant Tag Titles: More heat on Flair. Russo did commentary, signalling the screw job before the match even started. With Douglas mounting Flair in the corner, he yelled the f-word, with the camera catching it nicely. I guess they are going to try to be "edgy" like the WWF after all. Catfights and profanity, just the things that will make this product great. Luger hit the hot tag and not one fan at ringside reacted. Russo abandoned the commentary table. Buff missed the blockbuster, nailing Shane by mistake. As the referee counted, Russo pulled him out of the ring. As Russo decked Nick Patrick and stole his shirt, Bryan Adams & Brian Clark (Wrath) came in the ring to lay out the old guys and set up the win for Shane & Buff. Did they really do pretty much the same finish twelve times in a row? * Scott Steiner beat Sting to win the vacant US Title: The commentators said "bullshit" a halfdozen times. The crowd seemed to wake up for this match, at least for a minute or two. Madden: "This won't last long." Gee, how could I guess? Who was going to run in this time? Sting rallied and hit the splash on Steiner. The ref got sandwiched on a second splash. Sting kept on splashing. Vampiro suddenly burst through a small hole in the mat. He grabbed Sting and pulled him under the ring. When they came back up, Sting was spitting ketchup. Vampiro went back under the ring. Steiner hit the recliner for the win. That was so damn lame. The commentators said at least half a dozen times that Vampiro pulled Sting "straight to hell." * Jeff Jarrett beat Diamond Dallas Page to win the vacant WCW Title: They showed both wrestlers walk to the ring. Kimberly looked amazing. DDP opened hot. He even tried a plancha. Kimberly slapped Jarrett while DDP was holding him. They walked into the crowd. DDP at least delivered a few shots as they walked around. Since we couldn't see much of anything that they were doing, they might as well have just put the camera on Kimberly at ringside. The crowd did an ECW-like "DDP!" chant as he garbaged it up. They walked back through the fans. Jarrett pulled Kimberly in front of him, but he only ended up getting the cheap shot upper hand for a few seconds. They went back in the ring, trading spots. DDP got crotched on the top rope. Jarrett brought in a chair. Chair shots to the back. DDP sold the back hugely. Why did Kimberly have that lowest button open? Oh, yeah, gotcha. DDP finally hit a power bomb for a good near fall. Eric Bischoff surfaced in the aisle, looking concerned. Jarrett took a copy of DDP's book from a fan at ringside and ripped some pages out. Kimberly finally pulled Jarrett off of DDP. He lectured her, but went after DDP again. Ooops, DDP dragged Jarrett into the post. Jarrett celebrated too much throughout this match. DDP ended up crotching Jarrett. Jarrett held the ropes to counter the diamond cutter. Jarrett grabbed the title belt, using it on DDP. Two count only. Bischoff started sauntering down to ringside. Figure four on DDP. Madden immediately said "He's not going to quit," killing the meaning of the spot. Kimberly took the guitar and walked around ringside. DDP reached the ropes. Jarret went for the figure four again. They did some quick roll ups. DDP got another great two count. Jarrett hit the sleeper. I was waiting for Madden to say "He's not going to go to sleep!" As DDP broked out, Bischoff came up on the apron, holding the referee. DDP hit the diamond cutter. He told Kimberly to come in to guitar Jarrett. The referee was distracted. Kimberly wound up and finally whacked DDP. The stroke. Ref released. Three count. Bischoff smiled. Kimberly acted coy at ringside. Eric & Kimberly hugged in the ring. Russo came in for a group hug. New Blood has all of the titles, using the same finish in every match. This match was at least good. - 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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