______________________________________________________________________ I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - WCW had Greed on Sunday, 03/18/2001. Let's face it: moreso than ever before, this was a show that has to be judged purely on the match quality delivered because the future of this promotion is so questionable. Coming in to the show, I honestly wasn't all that stoked about the matches on paper. Scott Steiner vs. Diamond Dallas Page seemed like it could be a good match, but it could just as likely feature a lot of walking around, nonsensically brawling, and overbooked run-ins. Booker T vs. Rick Steiner also didn't seem all that promising, although they could surprise me. The Ric Flair match looked to be horrible, even if the live crowd was hot for it. The cruiserweight matches were really the only hope for me. Chavo Guerrero vs. Shane Helms seemed solid, and it was the only match I was looking forward. Chavo is just great. The tag tourney final just reminds me of how they blew the whole tournament. Consider that and consider how the brought back Booker T and one realizes that nobody in this promotion has any patience. It's depressing. On with the rundown: * Jason Jett beat Kwee-Wee: This was a special added opener. The commentators suggested that Jett has captured the imagination of the fans by beating Alex Wright on Thunder last week. I don't know about that. He's not really ready for national exposure, but he is fun to watch, which is a lot more than can be said about most of the pushed WCW roster. Which of course means that Jett is going to settle right into an unpushed position in one month. This is as good a point as any to say that the WWF isn't the only promotion to borrow from the dead ECW. While the WWF took Paul Heyman and a few wrestlers from the group, WCW has adopted the incredibly annoying commentary feature of giving ridiculous names to every move under the sun. In the case of Jett, he's got an "afterburner" and a "skyfire," because he's a Jett, see. Yuk, yuk. Well, this match was more entertaining, and actually much better, than I really expected it to be. Jett did a couple of spectacular spots, hitting a DDT outside the ring through a really neat set up, and later taking an amazing rana off the top rope. Kwee-Wee escaped the "crash landing," a release vertical suplex which Jett used a finisher. Johnny Ace's fingerprints were all over the final few minutes, as they did numerous near falls with unexpected reversals. After a collision which sent Kwee-Wee to the floor, Jett asked the crowd to be quiet so he could play possum. The joke, of coruse, is that nobody has to ask a WCW crowd to be quiet. Jett his the crash landing for the runway press and the referee lifted Jett's arm for the victory liftoff. This turned out to be a damn good opener. But it won't mean anything on Nitro the next night. * Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo beat Billy Kidman & Rey Misterio Jr. to win the Cruiserweight Tag Team Tournament: The match was very good, but I think they shouldn't have done the typical North American "heels choke the faces" spots that they did, because they really needed to differentiate this division from the heavyweight side. The commentators said that Romeo has significant Japanese experience, which is funny, of course, but also struck me as pointless. Here's an idea: why not have guys with potential, like Sean O'Haire, work a few New Japan tours to return improved, and then push them based on that improvement. In that way, hype about Japanese tour experience could actually mean something. I enjoyed the match, but it seemed to miss something, 'cause Rey & Kidman couldn't get greatness out of Skipper & Romeo. Kidman did a shooting star off the ropes to the outside, called the "Kidmakaze" and Romeo used the Northern Lights Bomb for the win, but they called it something annoying. Later on, Romeo & Skipper celebrated as they put their new belts on. They hugged, unclinched, and Romeo, in particular, did a great job of acting uncomfortable as he offered to shake hands instead. He actually showed some character there, so maybe he has more potential than I think. Well, it had to move downhill from here. * Sean Stasiak beat Bam Bam Bigelow: Stasiak is now accompanied to the ring by Stacy Kiebler, thanks to some weird writing by Ed Ferrera on Thunder (she came to the ring with a baby carriage, connecting things to her pregnancy story line, only to announce that she has a new baby: Sean...Ugh). I just can't believe that they are pushing Stasiak. I suppose they have to. Isn't "the Mecca of Manhood" a horrible nickname? Sean's pre-match interviews are brutal. Flashback to the 1980s, as Stasiak stalled like crazy at the start, finally hitting a cheap shot on Bammer to take control. Match was pedestrian. Schiavone actually yelled that Stasiak can really fly. If the company has any hope of having a future, Schiavone has to be fired. He represents so much of what is bad abot the promotion. As Bammer seemed to be set to score the win, Stacy hopped on the apron, distracted everybody, tossed some hair spray to Sean, he used it, and the match, not the mention the two-match streak of good matches, was over. After the match, Stacy & Sean kissed up a storm, in a move called the Decadent Meccadent. Man, this sucked. * Lance Storm & Mike Awesome beat Konnan & Hugh Morrus: If they have any brains, they'd put over Storm & Awesome here and elevate them both to the upper echelon somehow. Match was good, with all four working hard, but, again, the development of Storm & Awesome just seems off. Match amounted to a heat segment on Konnan. The crowd was into chanting "USA!" Hugh Morrus kept trying to save Konnan, with the referee chastising him. Lance did a horrible jump off the top rope, meeting a foot from Konnan. It was atypical to see Storm mess up. Morrus hit the hot tag to pretty much no crowd response. All four guys came into the ring. Awesome took a German suplex from Morrus, who tried to hit the moonsault. In a bit of a mess, Awesome hit the powerbomb for the pin. You'd think that they could have done something a bit more intricate, but maybe Morrus's brain isn't capable of that any more. Do you wanna bet that they don't do anything to push the winners tomorrow night? * Shane Helms beat Chavo Guerrero Jr. to win the Cruiserweight Title: In an "only in WCW" spot, the onscreen graphic said this match was the cruiserweight tag tournament final. Helms had traditional wrestling trunks on instead of the old Three Count pants. I'm glad he dropped the teeny bopper look. The chapiom dominated early on. Chavo worked to slow down the match, with a few leg submissions, which worked well for me, but didn't mean anything to the live crowd since almost all North American submissions are like that. They crumbled while trying to do the Flair-Steamboat bridging pin spot. "Wrestling is half mental and half physical" said Scott Hudson. Insert your own WCW joke here. Chavo hit a plancha. Shane finally rallied with his spot where he drops his opponent's head on his own knee. The commentators had all of these goofy names for standard moves in the earlier matches and here they just muttered "his move." Argh. Shane's offense was short lived. They did a really pretty sequence leading to Shane hitting the nightmare on helmstreet. But just like freddie, chavo was ready and used the ropes to get out. Shane hit a froggie plancha on Chavo to the outside. Helms tried a top spot, but Chavo shook the rooks. Helms not only dropped down to crotch himself but also tumbled head first right into the ring. Cool spot. The finish saw Chavo try the vertebreaker, with Shane flipping over and hitting his own for the win. Really good match. * Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo beat Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell to retain the WCW Tag Titles: Before the match, Buff & Lex talked for-frigging-ever to bore the hell out of us. The champs killed the challengers straightaway, hitting his Seanton bomb on the Totally Buff in a split second, getting the pin in no time at all. The commentators sputtered "That was a squash! We just saw a changing of the guard!" Why did I think that Totally Buff would win the tag titles on Nitro the next night? Well, considering that this match would have sucked if it was given any time, I, for one, liked this booking decision. They did an injury angle with Buff after the match, with both guys walking off "nursing their wounds." * Ernest Miller beat Kanyon: Cat dominated early on. Kanyon took control a couple of minutes in. That meant we were treated to Miss Jones (thought they didn't have money for all of these women) at ringside smacking the mat for a few minutes. Cat hit "the James Brown elbow," which I guess is supposed to poke fun at the Rock. Kanton scored a two count that he thought was a three. Kanyon used a Boston Crab. When Cat escaped, he hit the Feliner, but Kanyon put his foot on the rope. Kanyon used an object and caled Miss Jones in. Of course, Cat held Kanyon and Jones accidentally kicked Cat. She tried a few things, he dodged, and she finally kicked Kanyon. Cat followed up with a Feliner for the pin, counted by a just-recovered referee. Poor Kanyon. Afterwards, as Kanyon attacked Cat, Smooth ran in to save Cat. That final Feliner sure looked great, but this was a waste of time. And that it got this spot on the card while the Cruiserweight bouts happened matches ago. * Booker T beat Rick Steiner to win the US Title: It's hard to believe that Rick Steiner once had all of those great tag matches, isn't it? He's so bad now. Steiner hit a sucker punch and controlled the match to start. It's amazing that his gimmick is that he's super stiff and so whenever his stuff looks sloppy as all hell it's pushed as part of his gimmick. Booker hit an axe kick, which the commentators explained had been renamed the ghetto blaster. Finish saw Shane Douglas surface to whack Steiner with his cast so Booker could hit a uranage for the pin. * Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes beat Ric Flair & Jeff Jarrett: Throughout the show, they cut to the back to show the Rhodes in training. Since Ric Flair would have to kiss Dusty's butt if he lost, Dusty was hoovering down various bits of food while Dustin acted like his dad was farting up a storm. See, apparently the torture that Ric Flair would have to endure for a few seconds was perfectly reasonable for Dustin to endure for a couple of hours. Ric Flair came out in a tropical shirt and dress pants, saying that he wasn't going to wrestle, that Jeff Jarrett was going to beat them both. Referee Charles Robinson, who was a Flair stooge in a previous regime, right, sent Animal to the back and forced the match to get under way. BTW, Animal has it in his contract that he can only wrestle tag matches. Makes a lot of sense to keep him around and get rid of Crowbar, doesn't it? Dustin worked over Jarrett to begin. Jarrett finally tagged in Ric. It was smart to come up with a way for him to wrestle in dress clothes. The commentators pushed that the losing team member would have to kiss the butt of the guy who pinned him. Dustin tagged in Dusty, who drew a nice pop. The Observer reported that they had come up with a novel ending for this match. Flair degraded himself one more time. There was nothing technically wrong when Dustin came in and squared off with Jarrett, but there just wasn't any oomph. Dustin was put in the figure four and did the Rhodes' sell job of just lying there. He sold it a bit after that initial bit. Dustin made the hot tag. Dusty did his goofy spots. Poor Ric actually lay there yelling at Dusty not to drop the elbow on him, and then couldn't roll out of the way of the tub when he dropped it. The heels each tried a figure four, but the faces kicked them off so they smacked into each other. That led to Ric Flair getting pinned. Hey, you expected a different ending? The First Canonical Rule of Booking says that if Ric Flair or Chris Benoit is in a tag match, they do the job. Jarrett was knocked down in the ring, held in the corner by Dustin. Dusty rubbed his red underwear into Jeff's face. Jeff sold the smell. Jarrett & Flair hugged afterwards. Dusty kept standing there with his pants dropped down. Okay, let me get this straight: they were proud of coming up with this finish? * Scott Steiner beat Diamond Dallas Page to retain the WCW Title: The match was made a pinfalls count anywhere bout earlier in the show. During the hype package, DDP yelled out "I'm not the hunter, I'm the hunter." Well, the sad news is that DDP is no Hunter. Everybody reading this knows that I'm hardly high on HHH, but I'm less enamoured with DDP. They are both good workers, but neither is great in the ring. They might be close to equal in the ego department. Buffer: "...and the millions watching around the world..." That has to be lie. DDP came to the ring through the crowd. Buffer said that DDP was "the son of a Jersey whore," oh wait, that was "Jersey shore." I sure hope that Midajah is working for free, 'cause they surely could find better ways to spend that money. DDP took charge with brawling tactics. They went to the floor. Not one run in DQ finish tonight, and they surely wouldn't do that here, would they? They brawled back to the Spanish commentary table. Okay, who knew that WCW had a Spanish commentary table? Steiner used the crutch of somebody we were told was a fan. DDP used the other crutch. How is that guy going to get out of the building? DDP drove Steiner through a table. The came to the rampway and back to ringside. Steiner accosted a fan at ringside. DDP was crotched coming into the ring. Both guys were bleeding. Steiner hit some nice suplexes. DDP seemed to take charge. Steiner scored a two using the ropes. DDP hit a DDT on Steiner. He signalled for the diamond cutter, but Steiner hit him low and followed up with a DDT. DDP hit the diamond cutter, but Rick Steiner came out to pull the referee out of the ring. Cue the bullshit. DDP tossed the referee back in after laying out Rick. Scott bumped into Rick while hitting the ropes. Scott belted DDP for a two count. DDP was bleeding more. Boston crab, but DDP made the ropes. Steiner recliner. Schiavone said "crimson mask." Another rope break. Scott Steiner whacked his bat against the mat a few times, with DDP lying nearby. Recliner. The referee signalled that DDP was unconscious and unable to continue. A surprisingly good garbagy match. While Steiner is hardly the best worker in the world, he's at least a lot better than Nash, Hogan, Sid, or almost any of the other options they've tried. ______________________________________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________________________________