The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Halloween Havoc ’99

The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Halloween Havoc ’99

Russo F’n Rific

Following Fall Brawl it had become abundantly clear that WCW was a directionless juggernaut with a booking committee that didn’t function at all. Almost every major decision being made regarding the on air product was wrong. In particular they’d mistakenly attempted to turn Sting, one of the companies leading babyfaces for the previous decade, into a heel world champion. On October 3rd (according to Bryan Alvarez – I’ve seen sources that claim the 5th) came news that shocked the wrestling world. WCW hired away Vince McMahon’s top ideas man and lead writer Vince Russo. While the name Russo meant very little to people in the audience before October 3rd afterwards the name became commonplace in wrestling discussion. It was clear, from the reaction of both companies, that Russo was the biggest coup since Hall & Nash. There were people in the WWF camp, and this sounds hard to believe but it’s true, who credited Russo with the Attitude era and believed he was solely responsible for the WWF being a success. One thing is for sure and that was Russo was full of ideas. He went on an AOL chat with crony Ed Ferrara and they talked at length about what they’d done in the WWF and what they intended to do with WCW. One thing was clear; Russo was intent on ensuring that wrestlers who’d previously gone unrewarded would receive the pushes they deserved. He listened to the names the Internet fans kept bringing up: Chris Benoit and Booker T were the two most consistently under pushed wrestlers according to the Internet. Which was true. Russo listened to the Internet. He regarded smarks as part of his core audience in WCW. Now, I considered watching some WCW after the news that Russo went there but the WWF was so hot at the time that there was really no need to switch over from a solid Raw to watch anything on Nitro. So I didn’t. Luckily for the WWF they hired a new head writer. A man called Chris Kreski. He was an actual writer, unlike Russo who was a video store clerk/wrestling fan, who paid close attention to the history of the business. His storylines during 2000 were so strong that the WWF ended up crushing WCW even more so in the ratings. Kreski was a bright guy and only lasted about a year as head writer before handing over to Stephanie McMahon. He loved continuity and provided a shocking amount of it during his tenure. 2000 in the WWF is widely regarded as one of the best written years of wrestling, ever.

2000 in WCW is something else entirely. Russo took over the reigns without any kind of supervision. While WCW had made some mistakes in the past, this has to count as one of the most shocking. Because no one at Turner trusted the likes of Kevin Sullivan and Kevin Nash they were pushed back into the pack and Russo was accountable to very few people. Keep in mind his WWF success came because, while he was highly creative, his spewing forth of ideas always ran into the editorial control of Vince McMahon. It was McMahon, not Russo who had the final say. So while Russo came up with hundreds of different ideas a week, McMahon would pick and choose those that would work. He was a writer, nothing more. In WCW Russo was not only a writer but also head booker. The idea behind the procedure wouldn’t be an immediate takeover though. Russo was lined up to take over WCW programming from the next PPV; Halloween Havoc. Worryingly Russo went on Wrestling Observer Live the week beforehand and claimed we’d never again see Japanese and Mexican wrestlers in WCW because he was an American and didn’t give a shit about foreigners. I’m paraphrasing but that’s not far off verbatim. Russo ended up starting early and booking some truly awful TV leading up to Halloween Havoc. In particular a match where Buff Bagwell deliberately jobbed to La Parka and then got the mic and asked Russo if he “did a good job”. Well yeah Buff, you actually took a job for once. As I mentioned Russo read the Internet. Unfortunately most of WCW’s actual fan base didn’t. So most of Russo’s smarky booking tactics didn’t go over well at all. As say compared to a more modern example like Samoa Joe and Jay Phoenix in 1PW.

We’re in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan. Tenay is axed from play by play rather than Tony. BOOO! Tony tells us that the tag champs (Rey & Konnan) are stripped of the tag titles resulting in a 3-way tonight. Rey was injured. Kidman subs in for him. Hey, the tag titles changed again! Tony makes a point of shilling Hogan-Sting in a re-match from last week. Keep that one in mind.

Cruiserweight title – Disco Inferno (c) v Lash LeRoux

Now here’s a title on its way down the pan. Rey held the belt for a fair chunk of the year before Lenny Lane got a brief run. That was until the Gay and Lesbian Alliance complained about him and he got pulled off TV. Psicosis won the belt on a “house show” because the departure of Lenny was so sudden. He reign lasted all of two days before Disco won it. So why not just book the title on Disco? Lash gets his name from the star of Westerns Lash Le Rue. He’s ok and one of the new of WCW stars drafted in to replace guys who they can’t afford anymore. Disco DDT’s him early and the beating continues until Lash manages a dropkick. Powerslam gets 2. Lash is ok but he looks really green out there. For all my complaints about Disco he does look like a wrestler most of the time. Lash does the Exploder Slam that Shelton Benjamin uses as a finisher now. I didn’t realise he used that. Of course it didn’t have a name and Tony doesn’t get excited about it. I miss Tenay. Tony gets confused as to why Lash is using a chinlock and Heenan tries to cover for the wrestlers, as opposed to the idiot commentator, claiming Lash is thinking about his next 3 or 4 moves. Disco tries for the Last Dance but Lash counters into a backbreaker. Lash has a bit of taunt and that doesn’t go well with the crowd luke warm at best. Disco with a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Russian legsweep. Second rope axe handle gets 2. Piledriver. Disco is just hitting stuff here. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it. It’s not as bad as say Insane Clown Posse doing the same thing but that’s the direction it’s going in. Lash with Blue Thunder for 2. That could easily finish in the Russo era. Title changes mean very little. Lash looks really bad letting Disco atomic drop him and less bad but still bad when he follows up with the Last Dance at 7.35. So Disco retains and Lash looked really green. About a two year pro at the time he’s never really improved. I guess you never get over that bad Power Plant training. Very few have. *1/2 for the match btw. LeRoux has twice been under WWE contract since WCW folded and twice hasn’t made it out of development. That should tell you something.

POST MATCH Lash hits the Whiplash (a version of the Michinoku Driver) to heat despite being booked as the babyface. Tony calls it a short powerbomb, much like he did the Blue Thunder.

BACKSTAGE Malenko and Benoit tell Saturn to shove the Revolution up his ass. And Shane’s too. Basically the group got dropped because Nash wrecked it and Russo wanted to push Benoit at some point.

Tag titles – First Family (Knobbs/Morrus w/Jimmy Hart) v Harlem Heat v Filthy Animals (Konnan/Billy Kidman)

First Family have masks on for some reason. This is a street fight for some reason. Heenan talks about how under the “Powers That Be” (IE Russo & Ferrara) things change quickly. Yeah, because the “Powers That Be” have ADD. Despite the titles being vacant the Animals have the belts. Kidman is videotaping the fans on his way out here for some reason. That’s a phrase I may be using quite a lot during Russo’s run. Not everything makes sense. This is a total clusterfuck. Hey, it’s Bill Apter! Pin someone Bill! Get yourself some championship gold. Everyone hits each other with plunder. Knobbs miscues badly on Morrus with a trashcan. Stevie Ray is standing there waiting for a tag like an idiot. Everyone else isn’t tagging, they’re just fighting. But then he’s not the sharpest knife in the draw. Hart jumps in there so Booker runs him off. Nice to see Morrus barely even sold the one plunder shot. Kidman reminds him what’s going on with another garbage shot. Harlem Heat drag Knobbs into the Havoc set, which is full of caskets and whatnot. He gets thrown through a few. Stevie gets kicked on a miscue. They’ve brawled backstage while Morrus works with Konnan in the ring. *Shudder*. Jimmy Hart pulls out a table in the hopes of killing Konnan. It’s almost a race between the two teams to see who can pin one of the Family. Morrus moonsaults Konnan through the table to keep the crowd amused while backstage Stevie bashes Knobbs with a paper mache mummy and Knobbs jobs to it at 5.01. HAHAHAHA. LAME~! ¼*. Just a bunch of garbage. If Russo was looking to capture the atmosphere it was a fair job though. Oh, in the ring someone gets pinned but the match is already over. Unlucky chaps! The crowd reaction for the second straight match is a chorus of boos. You had the pin backstage where the fans couldn’t see it. Another babyface just got booed btw. That’s two matches where Russo can’t even fathom the age old heel/face alignments. Konnan has a shoulder injury but that could just be a work because Russo loves his worked shoots and shoot-works.

POST MATCH Torrie Wilson, dressed like a 13 year old, and Rey, looking about 13 years old come out here. For some reason.

BACKSTAGE Ric Flair and David Flair, heel turn forgotten, arrive.

PROMO TIME – Diamond Dallas Page. Oh yeah, promos on PPV. You KNOW Russo is booking. At least Kim Page is out here. Russo, loving tits and ass, books Kim to be the star. She’s the one that gets to cut a promo. She complains about Flair spanking her butt. WOOOO! SPACE MOUNTAIN! SPANK IT! WOOOO, BABY! SPANK! WOOOOOOOO! She says that’s just a warm up when she’s with Dallas. Yanno, because he fucks her afterwards. In case Russo’s subtle booking escaped everyone. DDP takes the cheap heat route. Oh, so he’s a heel then. At least we have one match tonight with heel/face set up so the fans can enjoy themselves. And yet DDP still has catchphrases. If you can call “TWO-TIME, TWO-TIME, TWO-TIME” a catchphrase. He tells Flair that if he likes to “spank it” they can have a strap match tonight. You see because he’s saying Flair masturbates a lot. DDP says something about whacking Flair off later. Jesus, Dallas, could you get more innuendo into that promo? Strap match then eh? But is it a YAPPAPI INDIAN STRAP MATCH?

BACKSTAGE Goldberg mimics Steve Austin. Possibly unintentionally.

ELSEWHERE Kidman and Eddie Guerrero cut a heel promo. So they’re heels? Eddie has stolen Flair’s watch and he’s wearing it. Isn’t Flair feuding with DDP? I guess it gives us layers to the storylines but can Russo keep his ADD under control enough to book a match out of it?

Perry Saturn v Eddie Guerrero

Eddie shines his new watch up on his tights. He gets Bobby Heenan to take care of it because he doesn’t trust Tony as he’s “a thief”. Eddie flips around a bit but Saturn dumps him on the ropes. They sort of brawl to the floor but there’s very limited brawling. Eddie gets the ring steps. I think the problem they’re having here is the fans want to see Saturn v Malenko or Benoit. Or Eddie v Flair. This is neither. And this IS the PPV. Eddie gets the steps on the floor and Saturn powerbombs him for 2. Heenan considers pawning the watch that Eddie let him look after. Crowd is bored. But not because it’s a boring match so much but there’s no reason for them to be fighting. If they were going balls to the wall then it’d probably be ok but they’re not. Saturn has been booked into the ground for some time and should be booked heel realistically because if you’re booked like a bitch as a face you might as well turn. Saturn works the knee and happily ignores Eddie trying to kick him off. Communication breakdown. They decide to let Saturn work the leg a bit more so they can talk through what to do next. Which the crowd aren’t thrilled with either. Eddie hits a Saito suplex for 2. As much as I love these guys they’ve got no plan out here. Eddie with a short arm scissors and the fans just turn on the match. A little soon though as Saturn powers up out of it into a fallaway slam. Quebrada follows for 2 and Saturn just got the crowd back in 10 seconds. Eddie breaks out the brainbuster. He’s feeling froggy but the splash misses. They have another chat about what to do next. Some sort of plan would have been nice here. Saturn springboards but Eddie catches him with a dropkick. Sure is a lot of talking in this match. Eddie goes up but Saturn superkicks his leg away. They work on a superplex and Saturn hits it belly to belly style. Tony has a hell of a job trying to call it. “Back overhead belly suplex”. Yeah. Saturn goes for Splash Mountain to steal it off Latino Heat but Eddie counters out into a superplex. Eddie’s superplexes always looked great because he gets so much push off on them. Ric Flair strolls in here with a crowbar and works over Eddie for the DQ at 11.12. Hmm, odd finish. Couldn’t Flair distract Eddie allowing the Death Valley Driver to finish then jump in there? Well, both the participants were past the point of caring anyway. **1/4. It was passable and at times interesting but not consistently so.

POST MATCH Flair uses the crowbar on Eddie. Kidman runs out for the save but he gets the crowbar too. Torrie is in there to protect Mr Torrie Wilson. Flair thinks about bashing her with the crowbar but offers her a ride on Space Mountain instead. LIPLOCK! And she likes it. Well, it beats being nailed by a bisexual I guess. Flair then comes back out here for the Rolex.

BACKSTAGE Goldberg beats the crap out of Sid. Well, the blood anyway. “Is that all ya got?” screams a bloody Sid.

PROMO TIME – Buff Bagwell. ANOTHER promo on PPV? He says he has a problem with the two new writers from up North. Crowd lets out a collective “huh?” He also has a beef with Jeff Jarrett; WCW’s latest signing from the WWF. That was when he let his contract expire and Russo stole him away. Jarrett stopped off to collect a $150,000 pay day from McMahon for dropping the IC title after his contract was up. McMahon changed his contract set up shortly afterwards to prevent himself being screwed again. Jarrett runs out here for an uninspired brawl before Lex Luger makes the save. He fucks that up by hitting Bagwell and not breaking the balsawood guitar. He breaks it over the turnbuckle instead. Congratulations Lex, you are now totally and utterly worthless to this company.

BACKSTAGE Mike Tenay’s only moment on the show is disrupted by a ranting and bleeding Sid.

ELSEWHERE Eddie gets on the phone to Rey to get him to come back to the arena. He’s selling the rib shot from the crowbar with intensity.

Brad Armstrong v Berlyn w/The Wall

Here he is: Arachnaman, Badstreet, Candyman, Buzzkill. It’s the Don of Failed Gimmicks; Brad “Jobber of the Armstrong Family” Armstrong. This would be the official burial of the Berlyn gimmick. This would be another Evil Foreigner v America feud as Armstrong is billed as an every day American dude. Because every day American dudes wear jackets with the Stars and Stripes on. Crowd bites and chants “USA”. Berlyn generally controls with some basics. He catches Armstrong and powerbombs him for 2. Spinning heel kick gets 2. Berlyn stopped being over as concept because of the slack way he debuted. Although it still could have worked. He was a competent wrestler and the crowd hate the anti-America gimmick. Maybe there’s just not enough heat on it. But there wasn’t that much on Triple H’s blueblood gimmick either. Sometimes it helps to let something go for a while. Of course Russo and his ADD wouldn’t allow that. Heenan spots some mat burn on Berlyn’s elbow so the cameraman zooms in on Armstrong’s elbow. Oh, for fuck’s sake. How hard is it to know which guy is which? Armstrong gets a fluke roll up and the Berlyn gimmick dies on it’s ass at 4.22. ½*.

POST MATCH The Wall gets in there and lays out Armstrong. Should have made them a tag team. Or tried anything over an extended period of time. Wright was a decent talent who never really got a chance to go anywhere. He could have been a big star.

BACKSTAGE Mike Tenay has Ric Flair. He WOOO’s his way through a promo about how the Animals thought they were big time but he’s took his stuff back. He’s here all night. The Animals can find him if they want him. He says he’s ready at any time WOOOO, diamonds are forever. Strap match. WOOOOO. Big dog. Spank your wife. NAITCHAAAA BOY. WOOOOOO. NAITCHA BOY. WOOOO. Kim went WOOO, NAITCHA BOY. She said I hurt her Page. WOOOO. She went WOOOOO. Tonight Kim, TWO TIMES, WOOOO, TWO TIMES, WOOOO, TWO TIMES and ONE TIME FOR THE NAITCHA BOY. WOOOOO!

Best. Promo. Ever. Odd that my mock Flair promo from earlier was actually more tame than the one Flair himself delivered. Good old Naitch!

TV title – Chris Benoit (c) v Rick Steiner

Benoit beat Steiner for the belt last month. We have a workrate gulf between these guys. Steiner is about four years over the hill. Benoit is having a strong year. Rick demonstrates how much he sucks with some lousy striking right off the bat. Rick makes a hash of a powerslam after that. Benoit opens up with a few chops with Tony talking about how much punishment Benoit can take. Yeah, a clothesline AND a powerslam. He’s resilient. Benoit with a nice superplex, which Rick doesn’t bother selling. Rick bails so Benoit hits a tope. I think Benoit is intent on showing he’s the better man. He might even be considering making Rick look like shit in the process. At least he should because Rick doesn’t care about his opponent. Even though he’s the heel and that’s his job. Nothing like getting yourself over, eh? Rick with more lame punches. He looks so winded its unreal. We’re four and half minutes in here and he’s totally blown up. He bails for a rest. Jesus, Rick, have some fucking pride. This is a PPV. Rick shoves the referee, which is a blatant DQ, and kicks Benoit in the nuts behind the ref’s back. The ref asks the question and Rick ignores him. Rick bizarrely then attacks Benoit’s right leg. This match is terrible and the crowd is completely gone. Benoit’s selling is quite nice as he struggles to get up with a bad leg. Rick goes to the psychology by punching him weakly in the back of the head. Oh wait, psychology wasn’t the word I was looking for. I think bullshit would be closer. Rick with a release German. He looks happy about it. Benoit looks bored because he’s got nothing to work with here. It’s like last month where he stuck with that big lump Sid. Crowd is thrilled with this plodding offensive display from Steiner. Benoit catches him with a DDT. Crowd still doesn’t care. When a crowd is dead, it’s dead. Benoit with the Rolling Germans for 2. Rick deliberately bumps the referee. I hate ref bumps. It makes them look like WWF Light. Rick tries for a chair shot but Benoit hits him with an Exploder. Benoit goes up top but Rick smashes him in the face with the chair on the way down. It was sideways and unbelievably dangerous. Malenko runs out here and turns on Benoit with a chair shot. And that doesn’t make a fucking jot of sense. Thanks for that Vinny Ru. Oh by the way, this is all irrelevant because Rick should have been disqualified for the push on the referee that lead to the ref bump. Obviously referee Mark Johnson got hit really hard in the head because he’s forgotten that and counts the pin at 12.49. DUD. I really couldn’t have hated that more.

POST MATCH Malenko hugs Saturn.

BACKSTAGE Mike Tenay chats with Bret Hart. He has a severe ankle injury thanks to Lex Luger blasting him in the leg with a baseball bat. He says if the fans are behind him he’ll overcome the pain.

Lex Luger w/Miss Elizabeth v Bret Hart

This is after Luger changed his name to Total Package. Yeah, that worked out well for him. Keep in mind that before this match Bret Hart had NEVER, ever, submitted legitimately. Unless you’re Chris Reynolds and you still claim you can hear him shout “I Quit” at Montreal. You’d think there would be some sort of build up if they wanted Bret to submit in a match. Like, I dunno, making this a submission match? The booking for me makes very little sense. There’s no thought gone into it. I blame Russo for his goldfish like memory. Bret dominates the early minutes with some half assed brawling. It doesn’t help he’s in there with Luger, the latest in a string of lazy heels. Bret does some little bits of selling that tell the story in this one without Luger having to do anything. Bret would be better off wrestling a sack of potatoes. Luger still doesn’t work the leg at all, even after taking over briefly. Bret continues to sell it but Luger just isn’t interested. So Bret is telling a story but Luger isn’t. Unless Luger’s story is that he’s completely incompetent. Bret with the Russian legsweep and the backbreaker. 2nd rope elbow drop follows for 2. Luger goes to the eyes to block the Sharpshooter. Still no sign of Luger looking at the leg. They both spill over the top and Bret lands hard on his leg. Again, he’s doing the entire story telling on his own. It would be nice for Luger to, yanno, wake up and do something. Bret is selling that he can barely even stand on that leg. Just telling everyone in the audience that he’s in incredible pain. FINALLY, after SEVEN MINUTES, Luger has the little light bulb go off in his head and attacks the leg. Luger works a half crab and Bret gives up for the first time in his career at 7.46. Words fail me. * for Bret’s selling and attempts to make the match no suck. Another wonderfully clueless Russo booking decision by the way. I’d question the wisdom of putting Luger over anyone. Yeah, WCW had a few useful guys who were up there in terms of years (Hogan, Sting, Flair) but guys like Luger just needed to be shipped off ASAP.

POST MATCH Madusa comes out to shill a perfume in a bikini. In another wonderful shoot moment she calls this whole thing “bullshit” and dumps the cologne on Heenan. Seems she doesn’t like the two “higher echelon guys from New York”. SHOOT~! SWERVE~! Or something.

WCW title – Sting (c) v Hulk Hogan

Hogan doesn’t make an appearance the first time his music plays. Sting has to come out instead. Keep in mind he’s the companies #2 babyface enduring a terrible heel turn that the fans simply aren’t biting on. Then there’s Hogan who’s the companies #1 face since going back babyface a few months beforehand. So guess what Vinny Russo has in store for us here? If you guessed SHOOT~! Then award yourself 10 points. Hogan finally gets his ass out here but he’s not ready to wrestle. He’s wearing jeans and a vest. He looks like he doesn’t care, which is about right. The idea here is that Russo wanted everyone to get talking about WCW and the controversial attitude of Hogan not wanting to job. He lies down and Sting pins him for 3 at 0.03. -***** for putting that bullshit on PPV. They cut right away with the crowd booing the hell out of this. It should probably be pointed out that WCW’s buyrate for this show was a decent 0.52. Well, decent for WCW. But the crowd were so pissed off with this bullshit that they simply stopped ordering shows. Russo’s straw of crap had broken the fans spirit and the donkeys back.

US title – Sid (c) v Goldberg

Now all this show has remaining to save it would be Goldberg going out and winning the US title in terrific fashion. Although quite how they expect to get a good match out of Sid is beyond me. The Outsiders run out here to jump Goldberg before the match. Nash boots him in the face and Hall dances around crotch chopping. Seeing as they’re pretty much booking Sid as a gutsy babyface, even though he’s the heel, it wouldn’t have shocked me if they baited and switched this into a tag match on the spot. Goldberg takes a further ass kicking from Sid but soon shrugs that off and goes after Sid’s cut. Sid blades again using the referee to block the view of the fans. Sid fires back with clubbing right hands and a big boot. Sid is getting booked to look like a total badass here. Crowd still chants for Goldberg as he get slapped in a camel clutch. Sid bleeds all over him until Goldberg just stands up into a fallaway slam. Sid’s manic facial expressions are helping that blood to just pour out of him. Goldberg continues to punch at that cut and the referee checks it for the first time after four minutes. Goldberg starts to freak out a bit because he’s given Sid one hell of a beating to draw all that blood. No one has bladed against Goldberg before so he’s probably a little legitimately freaked. Especially with Sid’s blood spraying all over him with every strike. Sid has the crimson mask now and it’s a great bladejob. Half his hair is red, his entire face is covered and there are flecks all over Goldberg. The referee has seen enough as Sid is no longer answering him and rings the bell at 7.11 for excessive blood loss. I’d have let that go on a lot longer. Twice the length ideally to really sell the blood loss. *1/4. Crowd response is mixed but they’re generally happy because at least the booking decision is right.

POST MATCH Sid is back up and he wants more. Rick Steiner comes out here to help him because he’s still staggered from blood loss. The blood loss should have been the cause of the spear/jackhammer.

PROMO TIME – Sting is back out here. He says he didn’t come here for a night off but rather a fight. Sounds like a babyface promo there, Stinger. He challenges anyone backstage to fight him tonight.

Strap match – Diamond Dallas Page w/Kimberly Page v Ric Flair

Tony points out this match isn’t a four corners style match but rather will end by pinfall or submission. Referee is Charles Robinson, presumably back to mere officialdom now. DDP plays mind games and won’t come into the ring. Flair whips away with the strap until Page bails. Page gets strapped some more but I’m sure he can’t feel that. He has such leathery skin. Into the crowd as we get an extreme crowd brawl. DDP almost goes back to the people’s champion role with the Self High Five in the crowd. Back to ringside where Flair goes after Kim with a liplock. Lucky bastard. DDP gets all riled up and jumps Flair from behind. Now Flair decides whatever Sid can do he can do too by blading excessively. Of course Sid’s match was stopped for blood loss after seven minutes. Here we’re six minutes in and Flair has a gusher on the go with no end in sight. Page wails away and opens Flair up some more. Onto the announce table for a strapping. Hmm, WWF Junior anyone? Back inside Flair goes low. Kim gives off some weird looking facial expressions. FEEL THE ACTING~! Would it be cruel to suggest that I wasn’t shocked that her acting career didn’t work out? Flair works over the leg to set up the Figure Four. DDP rolls around screaming in that for a while and nearly gets pinned. Page manages to get the strap off from around his neck and then turns the Figure Four over and gets the ropes. Robinson orders him to break the hold. Keep that in mind. The ropes broke the submission. This is one of those rules that remains a constant. DDP goes low twice as revenge for the earlier nut shots. DDP chokes away into the Diamond Cutter for the 3 at 12.46. Robinson doesn’t count three but calls for the bell. Er, what? DDP thinks Robinson was crooked and gives him the Diamond Cutter too. **. Actually one of the better matches on the card but it was still dull. The finish was supposed to be Flair getting his foot on the rope but he couldn’t get to it for the screwy finish, which is why Robinson came up short. It’s everyone’s fault.

POST MATCH David runs out here with the crowbar but Kim knees him in the happy sacks and steals it. DDP destroys Flair with the crowbar. David Flair gets a few Diamond Cutters too. Ric does a stretcher job but when he gets backstage the Filthy Animals attack Ric on the stretcher and kidnap him in the ambulance. Aren’t they meant to be faces? Erm. I think. Kidman and Rey are. They steal an ambulance with Flair in it and drive off. WWF Junior.

WCW title – Sting (c) v ?

Here’s the main event then. A smart man would have someone come out here and they brawl all over the building for a double count out. Therefore not blowing any potential marquee matches for future cards and setting up another big main event in the future as well. Sting once again calls out anyone and it’s answered by…GOLDBERG. The announcers suspect this is no longer a title match because nothing was agreed beforehand. There isn’t even a referee out here for crying out loud. Keep in mind there’s about five minutes left on show. Charles Robinson is back in here and we have a match. They fuck up a clothesline in the early going. Goldberg still has Sid’s blood on him. Sting takes over on the floor before hitting a splash off the top for 2. Spear from Sting! Goldberg gets somewhat miffed, totally no sells it and charges only to hit the buckles. Stinger Splash. Make that two. Three. Goldberg drops. He’s back up though with a nice leapfrog into the spear. Sting is down so Goldberg hauls him back up and hits the Jackhammer for the pin at 3.08. ½*.

POST MATCH Robinson raises Goldberg’s hand and gives him the world title, which would be an error as this wasn’t a title match. The screwy business lead to a title tournament, which took the company in to Mayhem (replacing World War III).

The 411: Boy did this show ever suck. It’s truly terrible stuff to watch as you see the company blow its main events off in lame fashion and fail to deliver anything worthy of a PPV. Russo was probably thrilled with the debut on PPV but in the long run no one would be as these kind of shows killed WCW’s PPV buyrates. Even though this is car wreck TV and the kind of thing any potential booker should watch as the ‘how not to do it’ version of a bad show it’s not recommended that anyone else sit through it because it’s Russofuckinrific. Thumbs way down. Avoid.

Final Score:  2.5   [ Very Bad ]