2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

WCW Halloween Havoc 1999

I've skipped a few shows because this is a special PPV. This is the first show under the booking excellence of one Mr. Vince Russo. You see, up to this point, WCW booking was occasionally shitty. But it made some kind of weird sense. Russo's booking was like having a 13-year-old with histrionic personality disorder in charge. Here are the highlights:

- Stylin' and profilin', spankin' and wankin' ... Ric Flair has turned up the volume on his teenage horndog gimmick. He's going around WCW sexually molesting anything with two X chromosomes. Because it's the 1990s and women are objects, right? First, he interferes with the Filthy Animals' match, making out with Torrie Wilson. Then, we have the situation with Diamond Dallas Page. We're reminded of a segment from a previous Nitro in which Page and his wife, Nitro Girl Kimberly, are shown getting ready for some marital delight in a hotel room. Kim gets the champagne and strawberries ready while Page is supposedly in the shower, but guess who walks out? The 14-time horndog himself, who then spanks Kim 14 times. At Halloween Havoc, Page and Kim cut an early promo about the strap match later that evening, and there are way too many references to whacking off. Once is funny, twice is lame, a dozen times turns it creepy. More to come (pun not intended).

- What's that smell? Medusa comes out in a stars-and-strips two-piece with a bottle of WCW Nitro cologne for men. Remember that? Because it was a real thing. You can find it on ebay if you're lucky: (http://www.ebay.com/itm/WCW-Nitro-For-Men-Cologne-EDT-Spray-3-4-oz-NIB-Rare-/160844592505). Anyway, she cuts a promo on the cologne and absolutely buries it. Shiavone and Heenan do the same, alluding to the fact that it smells like shit. Who the hell is in charge of marketing and promotion? They're burying their own product?

- Hogan and Laying Down for the Title, Part 2: Between January 1999 and July 2000, three World Heavyweight Championship matches involved Hogan and someone laying down for the title. Everybody remembers the Finger Poke of Doom from January 1999 (Nash goes down for Hogan) and Bash at the Beach 2000 (Hogan laid down for Jarrett in a worked shoot that went horribly wrong when Russo went into business for himself ... that is, if any version of this story can be believed), but Hogan also did the job for Sting midway through the Halloween Havoc show. Hogan, the challenger, refuses to come out first as his music is played, so Sting comes out. Hogan finally shows, talks with Sting, then gets on his back in the middle of the ring. Sting pins Hogan, and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship is again booked liked shit.

- Sid Bleeds. Goldberg and Psycho Sid Vicious were in a nasty rivalry in fall 1999, and if WWE had booked this it would be a brilliant double turn. The face Goldberg attacked Sid backstage early in the show, opening up Sid. During the match, Sid begins to bleed again. Goldberg is unrelenting in his attack, and the announcers put over Sid like this is Austin/Hart from WrestleMania 13. The ref stops the match for excessive blood loss, and Sid walks to the back under his own power. But he's still the heel.

- Flair/DDP, the conclusion. So the strap match is making the crowd go mild, and Flair is opened up. Near the end of the match, he's juicing just as much as Sid. The match continues. In fact, the finish is not stoppage for blood but a weird count from Charles Robinson (remember his stint as Lil' Naitch?). I had to re-watch the end and I'm still not sure what happened. These blood-heavy matches were booked back-to-back. Was anyone in charge watching this show with any sense of continuity or common sense? Of course not.

- Sting doesn't want the night off. Prior to the Page/Flair match, Sting came out to cut a brief promo: an open challenge for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. With five minutes left in the show (because OMG we had to give away last year's Halloween Havoc main event!), Goldberg accepts the challenge, and we've got ourselves a title match!

Schiavone: "Wait, it's not for the title? Thanks for telling us."

Okay, so it's not for the title. Three minutes later, Goldberg pins Sting and is awarded the title. What? Goldberg is now the champion. We think. Until Nitro the next night, when we're told the match was not sanctioned and Goldberg is not the champion. Whatever.

The clock is ticking on WCW: Seventeen months.

 

I watched Fall Brawl 2000 this week (read the long version by clicking the sig link), and it was just ... wow. Started with two decent matches involving cruiserweights (namely Elix Skipper and 3 Count), had a halfway-decent U.S. Canadian title match thrown in, but the rest was just bizarre. WCW decided to have Hacksaw Jim Duggan turn heel Canadian. For a 6-on-6 (!!!) elimination tag match, we have not only unmasked Rey Mysterio, but a cameo from Paul Orndorff that ends with him getting a legitimate stinger after struggling through his second piledriver on the night (not receiving ... giving). The best part? They wrestled around him for a minute or two before they mercifully called the match. There was a terrible scaffolding match involving Kidman, Shane Douglas, Torrie and Madusa. The Insane Cloud Posse showed up, and Sting, Muta and Vampiro had the worst triple-threat match I've ever seen. And they only gave 9 minutes for the steel cage title match main event.

Oh, and SO MANY LOW BLOWS. Grapefruits were definitely in season. :-X

 

Watching the Von Erichs vs. the Freebirds in a six-man tag match on the Network now. I'm thinking that with the PPVs thrown in, this is going to be $10 a month well spent.

 

That company was such a mess. Makes you wonder if they were a victim of their success with the NWO because they kept trying to top themselves.

 

So I stopped watching wrestling around late 2000 and didn't get back into it until late 2011/early 2012. As part of getting the Network, I've been trying to go back and piece together that gap in watching as best I can. Unfortunately they don't have all the Raws so I don't have the complete context of everything but the PPVs do a pretty good job of getting the point across.

This will not be a surprise to anyone but I watched Wrestlemania X-7 recently. Holy crap that was awesome. I have no idea how fans better than me feel but is that the best 'Mania and/or PPV event of all time? Benoit/Angle, TLC match, Taker-HHH, Rock/Austin, Shane/Vince were all very well done (I guess I missed the part when Shane became a total badass) and Jericho/Regal was good too.

I hope there are more things like this one in the time I missed to look forward to but that's going to be hard to top.

 

Shane was incredibly awesome. During that little run when he was wrestling, he was legitimately one of my favorites. He wasn't the most technically gifted guy but he almost never had a bad match and, a lot of times, stole the show. His match with Kurt Angle at the 2001 King of the Ring was simply incredible.
I really think the product would be exponentially better right now if he were involved.

 

Latest Observer stuff:

AJ Styles has signed with New Japan. It’s believed to be a one-year deal with a major push as a singles competitor. Apparently the final offer from TNA was $200k a year, which didn’t include travel costs and what not. Between $2,500 a shot for indie shows (and they pay for transportation) and the New Japan deal (terms undisclosed), he’ll probably make more than he would renewing with TNA or as a midcarder for WWE.

Prince Devitt has not renewed his New Japan contract, and it’s widely believed that he’s bound for the WWE. His Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Devitt

Both the WWE (Gerald Brisco) and various MMA leagues were heavily scouting the NCAA wrestling team championships for new talent. No official signings from either yet though.

There has been no communication between Punk and the WWE.

Christian suffered another concussion on the March 24 Raw, and it’s believed he will retire and became a trainer or agent for the WWE once his contract is up.

Dusty Rhodes isn’t sick – he’s just lost a lot of weight thanks to better eating habits.

Potential WWE Network shows, none of which are made up: 1) Blackman’s Bounty, which follows Steve Blackman in his new job as a bounty hunter in Pennsylvania. (Already filmed and being shopped by a non-WWE company.) 2) A “behind the scenes” show for NXT. 3) A “pros vs. joes” type show, which would have WWE legends and/or superstars in American Gladiators / physical competitions vs. regular guys. 4) A WWE travel show, with talent doing things in foreign territories. 5) Dirty Jobs with WWE talent. 6) Practical Jokers with WWE talent. 7) WWE Rescue, which will be Bar Rescue with WWE talent filling in the role of Jon Taffer. 8) WWE Scavenger Hunt, with the talent doing the hunt. 9) WWE Antique Roadshows, with super fan Michael Patterson evaluating and pricing items from other fans.

SPOILERS PORTION IN WHITE.

Rob Van Dam is scheduled to return on April 7 for several months.

 

Steve Blackman as a bounty hunter? Hells yes.

And I'm not interested in Punk anymore. I think he's done for a long time, if he ever comes back at all. That's fine, because everyone is replaceable. Otherwise the business would have stopped after Hogan left the WWF the first time. If my only options are seeing Punk half-ass his way through boring mid-card feuds or not see him at all, then it's no big loss to not see him.

Figured Christian was due for retirement soon. Guy can't stay healthy long enough to have a program anymore.

 

I think they were more of a one-hit wonder. If you look at the storylines prior to the NWO, they were terrible and schlocky. Hogan vs. the Dungeon of Doom, the infamous skits with Cheatum, the one-eyed midget ... those were WCW staples until May 1996. WWE was no great shakes at that point either, which allowed WCW to keep pumping out hackneyed crap.
The NWO was a great idea, but they never had another before or after. Eric Bischoff was no Vince McMahon. For all of his faults, McMahon has never been lacking for ideas and angles.
The NWO got stale, WWE got its act together with a once in a generation collection of talent, and fans gravitated to the new and fresh thing -- just like they had a couple of years earlier when the NWO was the hottest thing going. WWE was constantly throwing new ideas out there, and WCW was ending every Nitro with an NWO run-in and beatdown.
Once the financial chickens came home to roost for WCW, all that was left was a bunch of disgruntled mid-carders and aging stars who either didn't give a shit or were past their prime. If there was a good idea in WCW, the Powers That Be (so to speak) either never saw it or cut it off if it was going to take more than two weeks to play out. When they did finally decide to do a radical shift toward up-and-coming talent like Benoit, Jericho, Booker T, etc., it was too late to save it.

 

Quick hits

WCW Mayhem 1999
- What used to be World War 3 is now Mayhem. The finals of a 32-man tournament for the World Heavyweight Championship comes down to Benoit and Hart in what would be one of Hart's final matches. The all-Canadian final was a big hit as the show was held in Toronto.
- Cruiserweight champ Disco Inferno apparently owes a lot of money to the father of Tony Marinara because of unpaid gambling debts. Thankfully, creative did not make Disco so stupid as to bet on his own matches. Disco did lose a lot of money by betting on Duke to win the NCAA tournament earlier in the year. It's implied that Disco owes about $25,000 and will be killed if he loses the title to Evan Karagis.
- Screamin' Norman Smiley wins the first Hardcore championship.
- David Flair begins his psycho character, carrying a crowbar, stalking women. Scream Queen Daffney makes her debut. If you like 'em crazy, Daffney was your gal.

WCW Starrcade 1999
- Jim Duggan is a wrestling janitor.
- Vampiro makes his WCW PPV debut, having joined a faction called The Misfits ... who looked like a Misfits tribute band.
- Oklahoma, the shameful parody of Jim Ross, makes his PPV debut.
- Jeff Jarret defeats Dustin Rhodes, who made his WCW return as "Seven" (a stalker/pederast) in that fabulously absurd worked shoot. (

) (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkin5d_goldust-wcw-debut-as-seven_sport)
- Bret Hart wrestles his final match, suffering a horrible concussion from a kick to the head by Bill Goldberg.

WCW Souled Out 2000
- Kidman is scheduled for three matches. The first ended in less than three minutes as the ending was either screwed up or this was just more bad booking by Russo. Kidman faced Malenko in a match that could be won via pinfall, submission, or a wrestler leaving the ring and touching the floor (but not exclusively over the top rope). After a few minutes, Malenko slides outside to regroup ... and loses the match. Malenko re-enters the ring, is informed by Charles Robinson that he lost, and looks genuinely confused. Work or shoot? Beats me. Shit either way. The look on Malenko's face says, "This is why I'm quitting this company tonight and going to the WWF."
- Vampiro, David Flair, and Crowbar compete in a 10-minute match that goes seven minutes longer than needed. Remember Crowbar? Well, Flair has this fetish with his golden Crowbar. One night, while he and Daffney stopped for gas, they met a gas station attendant named Crowbar. It was love at first mpg.
- Oklahoma and Madusa fought for the Cruiserweight title. I'm not kidding. Ever wanted to see a fat, hairy man covered in barbecue sauce? Me neither, but I saw it anyway.
- Nash defeated Terry Funk to become WCW Commissioner. This was a part of the short-lived nWo 2000, because Nash and yet another lame version of nWo was sure to put asses in seats.
- Benoit wins the World Heavyweight Championship just in time to quit WCW.

 

I think the story on that match has always been that Malenko simply forgot the rules.

 

Well when you throw in so many damn stipulations. WCW was SO stipulation happy toward the end.