El-P

Okay, thanks. I was thinking, watching Booker T vs Mike Awesome on Nitro, that he must have been there already.

Didn't Johnny Ace joigned WCW and helped book as early as July ? There has been a distinct change in the way the matches are booked during the period Russo was gone before Bash at the Beach, with more clean finishes and a lot more near falls leading to a pin.

Thanks for the hug. I needed that. PPV 19 : Bash at the Beach 2000 Discrimination lawsuit on a pole match of the night : Booker T vs Jeff Jarrett. Well, not exactly, but in a way that's about it. Booker T was a undercard act in horrendous angles and bad matches for ever, and all of a sudden he's WCW great hope. Mmkay. The seeds were planted on Thunder for this one, and this match is not much better. I find Jarrett extremely uninspired these days, and Booker is Booker. Mediocre match with several "hot" nearfalls, which is why I guess it's supposed to look like some sort of epic, which clearly it isn't. Booker gets the belt because they aren't discriminating black people, well, at least it's fresh, but I can't say I'm excited about this one. Match of the night : Juventud Guerrera vs Lt. Loco. Hey, a rather hot cruiserweight opener ! Haven't seen this in ages. This is nothing spectacular, but it's a decent cruiserweight match getting some time to developp, which is increasingly rare. Basically it's the best cruiserweight match since the division was killed dead in tha Fall of 99. Juvy stooges like crazy, and despite his sloppy at times execution, he's really fun again. Madden is atrocious on commentary, and it shows even more during a serious match like this. Well, we do get some shennanigans at ringside for a while, but nothing that gets in the way of the match really. Actually Chavo was still the champion, as Juvy only had stole the belt. Nothing special but pretty cool stuff at least. Sleeper of the night : Kanyon vs Booker T . And this is much better than the Jarrett match. Kanyon was so underrated, both as a performer and as a worker. He gives Booker T an enjoyable match and does his hilarious DDP maneurism during the intro and the post-match. Thanks to Jarrett busting a guitar on Booker, Kanyon gets a pinfall on the next WCW champion. Well, he should get a title shot next, right ? Right ? Heel turn of the night : Scott Steiner turns heel on Kevin Nash. After a decent match with Mike Awesome earlier on, Big Poppa Pump finally turns back heel, a role he should never have abandonned. Needles to say the turn was obvious as hell, and the fact he was only a babyface for a few weeks didn't make it seem like a huge deal, but at least we get what we should from Steiner now, a strong heel to work the main event. The match between Goldie and Nash was decent for a short big guy power offense match. Swerve match of the night : Shane Douglas vs Buff Bagwell. As solid a match you can get from a Bagwell match in 2000, which is a credit to Douglas. Not going long, the big news here is Torrie Wilson being aligned with Shane Douglas after "swerving" the audience by slapping him in the first place, before interfering on his behalf. Good, Douglas worked wonders with Francine, and the Franchise character was at his best with a valet around. At least Torrie will finally serve a purpose. Shoot match and promo of the night : Jeff Jarrett laying down for Hulk Hogan / Russo "shoots" on Hogan. Hey, more shooting nonsense. The fact the announcers tells us "this is real life" every two seconds confirm it's a big work. Russo's promo is odd as hell because he comes off, or wants to, as a babyface trashing down Hogan, while being a heel character. I'm sure lot of what he said was actually heartfelt, and it's kinda cool, in a way, to hear the shit we've heard about Hogan for years, being exposed on TV. Still, as a wrestling angle, it was shit because it could not lead to anything, and it basically turned into a shoot (like Pillman getting himself fired by WCW). After six long years, the history of Hogan and WCW comes to an halt in the most grotesque fashion imaginable. Can't say I'll regret the guy, WCW would be better off without him anyway. For all the good he has done for the company, he did was a much more destructive force in the long haul. Comedy match of the night : Big Vito vs Norman Smiley & Ralphus. So, after all the build up, Johnny the Bull was injured. I'm glad to see Norman back, but I can't say the same for Ralphus. This guy overstayed his welcome for a long, long time. Usual hardcore fare, and they don't do anything very creative, but Norman getting stuck in the elevator while Vito was destroying Ralphus was a nice touch. Vito's got a great looking and sounding punch. There was also some really boring stuff like Kronik vs Perfect Event, a clusterfuck of a "match" in Daffney vs Miss Hancock, with the involvment of David Flair and Crowbar and ridiculous Graveyard match with Vampiro vs Demon and more 5th rate Kane/taker angle with druids and caskets building to Sting's return. Not what I'd call a good PPV, but there was enough watchable stuff to make it bearable. The Jung Dragons attacked the Cat backtage, which made for a funny little running gag. Hulk being gone, it's really the start of the penultimate period for WCW. Booker T on top doesn't please me more than Jarrett did though. Goldberg or Scott Steiner are the only two that would look right with the belt at this point.

Good solid worker. Nowhere near the top, but underrated for the longest time to me.

WEEK 79 (July 3 to 7, 2000) Match of the week : Lance Storm & Kidman vs Rey Mysterio Jr. & Juventud Guerrera (Nitro). No, it's nowhere as good as it should be. Storm is decent as a highspot mechanics, but damn he's got less charisma than Joe Malenko, and the way he throws some of his moves (including punches and kicks) is just awkward as hell. The funny bit is Rey being dressed as Storm and Juvy being dressed as Kidman (circa 99, with the white tank top), which makes for an odd visual effect at times. It's not much to brag about, and Rey playing heel in vinyl overhalls is just wrong, but it's better than nothing at least. WTF segment of the week : Jeff Jarrett and three fat woman dressed as vikings (Nitro). Don't ask, I don't know, I fast forwarded. I was always a Jarrett defender, but watching this stint has been just painfull despite a few good performances early on. Line of the week : "It seems like DJ Ran lived up to his name." (Nitro). Tank Abbot on Nitro, as he was going toward the DJ set up to play 3-Count's music. Tank is so absurd in this role, yet it's the first time he's really entertaining to me. The best part is that depsite being a fan of their music, he's actually kinda bullying 3 Counts, forcing them to sing after their match, telling them to shut up and sing instead etc... Main event push of the week : Booker T (Thunder). It was obvious they were going away from Hogan when he wasn't part of the PPV build at all. Now they finally got Booker in the mix via a tag match. The winner would get a title match at the end of the show. Booker had been a midcard act in awful angles for ever at this point (Harlem Heat redux, feud with Stevie Ray & Big T over a letter, GI Bro), he's over to a degree but shows not sign of actual solid work, he's fomulaic as all hell and quite frankly annoys me more than anything else. So really, there's no good reason he should be put in that spot when Scott Steiner or Goldberg are on your roster. But of course, there were other, more political reasons why... The build to the PPV has been rather painfull, with absolutely zero match holding any interest to me. The cruiserweight belt has been switched again in a mixed tag match, now Juvy is the champ for those who care. The Perfect Event have been fooling around with a guy in the TV truck for weeks now, another fast forward material. More awful stuff with Vampiro and the returning Sting, druids and magic dissapearance. Oh, Vamp also did a terrorist attack on Asya before the show on Nitro, with a pyro explosion injuring her badly. This shit is atrocious. The whole David Flair/DAffney/Miss Hancock deal is equally stupid. The Triple Threat comeback laster a solid two weeks before it was dropped, I guess because Candido got fired following the lead of his girlfriend. Sad. Terry Funk mentoring Johnny the Bull is very midly entertaining. I'm bored to tears to be honest, as showed by the recaps getting shorter.

In others words, sex with foreplays is better than sex without foreplays.

They killed the character right there.

Wait, what ? Maekawa sucked, she was a mediocre wrestler at her very best, and quite bad most of her career. Watanabe carried her ass for years.

WEEK 78 (June 26 to July 01, 2000) Match of the week : Goldberg vs Jim Duggan (Nitro). More an angle than much of a match, but this was good in establishing Goldberg as an evil killer. Duggan ended up in a match with Goldberg and then play up teh afct that he's not in good shape enough to sustain the challenge, with his wife trying to convince him not to do the match. Match itself got a lot of heat, as Duggan still is very over, especially in special attractions like these, and the face off he has with Goldie is quite good. Short, intense match ending up with Goldberg attacking Duggan's kidney. Stretcher job, sadistic grin on Goldie, good stuff. In-ring debut of the week : Lance Storm vs Disco Inferno (Nitro). Disco is rather funny as the Filthy Animals dork. Man, I forgot how wooden Lance Storm was, this guy really had no presence at all, especially as a babyface. Where is Dawn Marie anyway, her boobs, legs and ass were 90% of why you'd pay attention to this guy's entrance. They manage to fumble a spot, which rarely happens in a Disco match (hum...). Post-match has Kidman showing up to save Lance from a gang attack from the animals. Why would Kidman feud with his former partners which he never turned on, I have no idea. Why would he align with stone face Lance Storm I have no idea either. This is so random. Funny spots of the week : Kanyon Diamond Cuttering random people backstage (Thunder). BANG ! A-show debut of the week : Mark Jindrak & Sean O'Hare (Nitro). Cookie cutter big guys with short hair, short trunks and big muscles, some athletic ability, green as fuck, unable to properly work and with bad names. Wait is this the 00's WWE already ? I couldn'g care less about those two guys, but they are already getting pushed right down the throats of the audience. At least they put them against Rey & Juvy who make them look "good" (and against 3-Count on Thunder) Tease return of the week : Sting is coming back, assaulting Vampiro (Nitro). Gawwwd. This angle refuse to die. Promo of the week : Daffney (Nitro). She cut a rather decent one on Miss Hancock. They are going toward a Wedding Gown match at the PPV. No Russo or Bischoff either this week. Again, this made the TV that much easier to watch, and it seems the absence of Russo also means more wrestling matches. The problem is that 90% of the product is either deadly boring or stupid or involves bad workers. The two funny bits are Tank Abbott 3-Count fanboy and Kanyon. Kanyon is feuding with Booker T, and there is zero clue that this guy is gonna be pushed at the top of the card at the PPV. Horace has been doing Hulk's deeds for weeks now, it's both predictable and totally dull. Lance Storm was I believe the last "big" signee off another promotion, and his debut has been unimpressive. This promotion is so dead already.

WEEK 77 (June 19 to 24, 2000) Match of the week : Jeff Jarrett & Mike Awesome vs Scott Steiner & Kevin Nash. (Thunder). Decent short match with Jarrett bumping well for his opposition and some nice little dynamic between the two teams, but really it says a lot when *this* ends up being the most watchable wrestling stuff on WCW TV. Steiner gets a clean pin on Jarrett the World champion, which should be a huge deal but wins and loss don't matter anymore. Steiner looks like he's totally ready for the top spot, while Jarrett stills looks awfully out of place with the big gold belt. Shakira is done, sadly. Post match has Goldie showing up with Scott Hall's contract in his hand, challenging Nash. Hall was nowhere near the shape to come back, but they were using him in storylines anyway. Whatever debut of the week : Lance Storm (Nitro / Thunder). Showed up from the crowd, in street clothes, to attack 3-Count on Nitro, do some highspots, then jumps on The Artist on Thunder. Usual "he doesn't even work in WCW, what is he doing here ?" deal that's totally overdone and bland at this time. Notice Storm is introduced as a babyface, when of course his entire run will consist of being a heel. Funny spot of the week : Tank Abott is a 3-Count fan (Thunder). He's grooving to 3-Count new song, which is even worse than the previous one. Kinda funny but not ah-ah funny either. Awful angle of the week : Vampiro has kidnapped Asya and drives Dale Torborg to a graveyard. (Thunder). Vampiro is the worst wrestling freak ever, his 5th rate Raven wannabe act is eye gounging and his angles are up there with the worse Kane stuff. He's been fast forward material for months now, essentially since he turned heel, he was at least semi-watchable as a fiery babyface. Things are moving slow. Russo and Bischoff not on TV this week was a nice break, as The Cat is a fun commissionner character at least. Buff Bagwell is feuding with Shane Douglas. Poor Shane. Rick Steiner apparently turned babyface again and got a clean pin on his former partner Tank Abbott. Lots of nothingness and boring stuff involving Kronik, Booker T abandonning the MIA and his brand new GI Bro identity, David Flair and Daffney soap opera... Hogan is scheduled to face Jarrett at the PPV, yet they don't build toward that at all, as he doesn't even appear on TV anymore. The cruiserweight title scene is marred with useless mixed tag matches involving Major Gunns, Tygress and Paisley. Poor Rey Jr... Poor WCW.

True. Along with "This match turned into a shoot."

The thing that cracks me up is that *every* wrestler ever interviewed in a shoot said something to the effect of "those young guys don't know what they are doing, they just do spots, they have no psychology.", even people like Maria Kanellis or Billy Gunn.

Yeah, those damn wrestlers lie their ass off all the time, especially when talking about the good ol'days when they were selling out everywhere and going sixty every night. So there it goes.

Often it's even better, it's "Were were going sixty every night, and twice on Sunday." Indeed.

We have a winner.

Exactly my thoughts. I watched the thing. 2 hours and a half of the most glorious bullshit imaginable, to the point it was actually somewhat fun to watch. Basically, Russo is the guy who saved the WWF, Russo is a guy who cared when no one did in WCW, butv everybody was out to get him since day one. He paints himself as the ultimate good guy, contradicts himself a thousand times, lies his ass off in a way thay Paul Heyman would be jealous off. Funniest part to me all the brutal talk about how wrestling is fake, then at one point hear him talk like some grizzled old WCCW veteran about how young wrestlers don't work hard (and stiff, apparently) enough to make it look real. The most interesting part is the whole Hulk Hogan debacle, which is rather fascinating no matter what percentage of it is true (in dealings with other world class bullshitters like Hogan and Flair, I would give anyone the benefit of the doubt on those matters). So, this was his "last wrestling interview", and he would tell the whole truth here (as opposed to other interviews in which he had to lie because he didn't want to bury anyone, the good guy he is, or maybe it's the Tammy syndrome), and he does shoot on some people like Chris Daniels (basically an idiot who doesn't understand that having ***** matches is less important than showing character, a point I totally will concede to Russo), Hacksaw Duggan (an ungrateful guy who bashes Russo when he was the one who put him back on TV in a meaningfull feud, which, well, is actually true), Lance Storm (again, a guy who doesn't appreciate the fact that Russo pushed him more than anyone else in any major company and who bashes him regularly on his "little blog or something"), Meltzer and a few others. Oh, and *us* of course, the marks with the "biggest keyboards", the micro-minority who aren't entertained by Oklahoma or Judy Bagwell-on a pole matches, which are, by all acounts, hilarious. So anyway, yeah this was pretty glorious and Russo is a rather likeable guy as a bullshiter, and the fact he actually goes off with a bit of venom (pun intended) at times makes the whole thing totally watchable. He's truly a pro-wrestling carny at heart when you thing about it.

Yeah, to me Triple H is the answer. His biggest accomplishments were featurings on other big stars major hits. He's like one of those decent second rate MC's on The Chronic and Doggy Style. Never did shit by himself that would have him being called a "big star". Not to mention wouldn't have sustained the push without the wedding ring. So yeah.

So was this the project KC did with Vince Russo that pissed off Jim Cornette to the point of not wanting anything to do with them? Or was that something else? Nope, it was the Youshoot with Vince Russo a few years ago that set Cornette off (rightly so, it was godawful and 100% bullshit). But they apparently patched things up now.

I used to be a "joshi expert"... Well, a huge joshi fan at the very least. So. There it goes, in no order : Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, Mayumi Ozaki, Megumi Kudo, Bull Nakano, Chiggy, Devil Masami, Jaguar Yokota and my all-time favourite pro-wrestler ever, Mariko Yoshida.

I need to watch this. Well, I don't *need* to, but I need to. And I will. Vacations are over. Back to business of watching terrible pro-wrestling so you don't have to do it youselves. Soon.

Ok, so this will be put on hold until late August/early September at best, as I won't be able to watch much wrestling at all during the upcoming month. But I intend to finish this before the end of the year.

I never got why Mustafa was basically doing the Bushwhackers walk...

Flair should have done the job to Luger in 90, it was the right time.

Bossman was put in awful angles one after another, but what bothered me even more was his outfit. This stuff was supposed to stop bullets, so those damn punches had to hurt the guy... Most interesting thing I heard about Bossman during those years is the close friendship with Terri Runnels.

Great article.