The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Superbrawl Revenge

The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Superbrawl Revenge

Well that main event didn’t totally screw over the fans who paid out their hard earned money for some great wrestling action.

I know there’s another PPV after this one, “Greed”, but I’ve already reviewed that show. If you’re interested my review is here. As with that review on this show I’ll be doing an updated “where are they now?” feature after each match.

Going into the Sin PPV the month before this WCW was on the verge of being sold to Fusient Media Ventures and Eric Bischoff for an enormous fee of $68M. However as soon as Fusient and its legal guys started digging into what made the company tick they were absolutely horrified. WCW was in huge debt with limited assets and a dwindling fanbase. The offer changed from the monster bid to a paltry $5.7M plus millions each year for the following 20 years of operation. It sounds like the kind of bid that ENRON would make. But things were to get worse and here’s a name to remember as it’s the name of the man that killed WCW; Jamie Kellner. He took over programming for Time Warner in early 2001. During his first week in the job he cancelled all WCW programming. Cancelled, permanently. No TV for WCW. Ever. Not on Billionaire Ted’s networks. Without TV there was no deal. Fusient walked. The only remaining buyer was Vince McMahon and he picked up WCW for less than $3M and it only cost that much because he was buying out the rights to show old footage of WCW shows on his DVD releases.

Back to the show at hand though and a few chucklesome stories from WCW at the time. This promo from Sid before Sin; “See, there’s only two things I care about and I’m gonna see who wins the title and the belt and that man will be me”. Erm. What? Also there was a great angle where a guy dressed as a masked bumblebee man attacked Rick Steiner and then unmasked the next week as Rick Steiner. I can’t actually believe they were still running angles this bad but there’s the proof. And not to mention Don Harris who claimed, as part of an angle admittedly, he had such a severe neck injury that his doctors had told his head might actually fall off if he wrestled again. And he said that on the air and was serious about it.

Before heading into this last crapfest of a PPV I’d like to extend my thanks to RD Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez for having written the book the “Death of WCW”, which is where the majority of my funny little stories came from including those above. It’s a fantastic read and is available from all good book sellers. If you enjoyed WCW or even hated WCW or a combination of the two then you should pick up a copy. Here’s the link for Amazon.

We’re in Nashville, Tennessee. Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson. The serious trimmed down announce team is significantly better than those that preceded it. And they owe all that to just copying the WWF’s successful formula. Less than 5000 people in attendance for this show. We go backstage to see Roadwarrior Animal beating up Kidman and thus eliminating him from the forthcoming cruiserweight match.

Cruiserweight #1 contenders match – Evan Karagias v Jamie Noble v Kaz Hayashi v Jimmy Yang v Shannon Moore v Shane Helms

Helms is a last minute replacement for the injured Kidman. Normally all these guys are in tag teams with each other but this is the first time they’ve outright put them in as singles and admitted it was an attempt at resurrecting the cruiserweight division. Noble and Moore run some nice reversals to start with. Helms tags in blind for Three Count to run the flip up powerbomb spot. Moore take a sick bump through the ropes courtesy of Evan. The Dragons hits tandem Asai moonsaults that the director manages to miss. Noble seems to be the glue holding everything together by taking everyone’s offence. No wonder he got signed by the WWF. He does some great stuff with Yang’s lucha style and counters into a neckbreaker. Evan tags in and that provokes some blown spots. He and Yang is a particularly bad mixture of blown spots. Evan misses with a moonsault and then hurts himself. He fucked that up. Hudson makes excuses for him but Evan is really the weakest link here. Helms tags in to give him a kicking to teach him a lesson. Shannon comes in blind to allow double teaming on Yang but then Kaz saves to preserve their teaming advantage. Hudson comments about how anyone would save to prevent the guy winning but its elimination rules. I guess no on told him. Evan wants a superplex but Kaz crotches him. Helms takes over and they hit a superplex from way up there. Everyone hits top rope stuff but everything misses making everyone look like a dumbass. The Dragons pick off Noble but there’s no room in there so Kaz gets murdered by Three Count’s X-Plex/spin kick combo. Moore goes to dive but Evan sees him coming and back elbows him. The dives spot follows and Shannon goes top rope for his moonsault. Noble with a friggin’ senton. Everyone is down. Evan with the press spinebuster on Kaz for 2. He thinks he’s got Kaz set up and Noble missile dropkicks him off Evan’s shoulders but Evan gets an ego problem and wants the pin. Jackass. Yang blows a couple of kicks on Evan and then blows the quebrada as well. Crowd boo. Yang goes for some improvised reverse Tombstone for the pin on Evan at 10.23. Blowing three straight moves really isn’t good news. Yang looked like crap there. At least Evan is gone. Crowd boo, not Evan leaving but all the mistakes.

Noble gains popularity points by hitting a Tombstone and dumping Yang at 10.58.

Shannon decides to take another sick bump off the apron this one courtesy of a Noble dropkick. Was that really called for? It was a Tony Mamaluke bump. Noble gets caught up top and Moore hits the Rocker Dropper off the top at 11.59. Noble is eliminated. In fact that’s the exact same way Moore got into this match.

Three Count and Kaz left. The heels gang up on Kaz and hit the backslide/legdrop spot. That’s nasty. Double team neckbreaker and Kaz is finished but Three Count want something more violent. Helms looks for the Vertebreaker but Moore heels on him with a Rocker Dropper. Kaz breaks up the pin thinking these guys will kick shit out of each other now. That and Moore was wide open. He goes for the pin but the ref took a knock. Helms is up and he’s pissed off with Moore and wails on him. Moore boots Helms in the nuts and gangs up with Kaz. Geez, what a sucker. Except he agrees and then sucker punches Moore over the top. Kaz misses a moonsault and Moore wants the Rocker Dropper. Helms picks Moore off with the Nightmare on Helm Street and Moore is pinned and gone at 15.12.

Kaz with a basement dropkick and he goes after the leg for a while. Slingshot DDT is blocked and the counters continue as the Nightmare on Helm Street is blocked into a German suplex for 2. Helms with a TKO over his knee and a neckbreaker gets 2. Kaz kicks him in the face…for 2. VERTEBREAKER! Helms wins the match and is once again the #1 contender for the cruiserweight title at 17.31. ***1/4. Nice to see them get so much time. Shame Yang and Evan blew so much stuff in the middle section.

UPDATE – Evan actually made it to the WWF but only lasted 9 months before being released. He was never used on camera. He went on to become a 2-time AWA world champion. No, really. Noble went to the WWF and had a successful run there with Nidia before being released. He was the ROH champion before returning to the WWE to run angles with midgets. Kaz went to Japan where he works for AJPW and is one of their big name stars although he mainly competes as a cruiser still. Yang went to the WWF to run a cowboy gimmick. Moore also went to the WWF where he had some success as an MF’er. He’s now back there as a jobber. Helms was the most successful of this group being a WWE mainstay for several years as the Hurricane before turning heel and holding the cruiserweight title for a year. Currently injured.

BACKSTAGE We see Ric Flair talking to Animal and Chavo comes in to talk to them. This is all off CCTV. I’m guessing Chavo wanted Kidman jumped but why would Animal do it for Chavo?

The Wall v Hugh Morrus

Looks like the Misfits in Action is over then. Wall turned on Morrus as the group imploded. This is an ugly brawl, which Bill DeMott looks miserable throughout the course of. He’s clearly not thrilled about not only being demoted on the card but also being forced to work with a no talent. Which is funny really because Wall improved after WCW folded and probably ended up as the better worker. They hit the fatigue selling alarmingly early into the proceedings. Wall tries for a sleeper off the buckles but Morrus is too heavy. Wall misses a leg jam but connects on a spinebuster. Morrus goes low and they blow a Hot Shot. No idea what they were thinking there. Then they do the spot again getting it right this time because a Hot Shot is SO crucial to the way a match fits together. Then we get a flapjack and they lie around doing nothing. Backdrop. More lying around. Morrus with a German suplex and slowly mounts the buckles for the moonsault to finish at 9.43. DUD. Wow, that really did suck something fierce.

UPDATE – Morrus went to the WWF as part of the Invasion angle. He hung around as a jobber for a while before a serious motorcycle crash threatened his career. He returned as a trainer on Tough Enough (season 3 where they got all the good guys like Johnny Morrison and Matt Cappotelli and Melina Perez). He retired in 2003 and worked as a trainer in Deep South before his release earlier this year. Jerry Tuite, aka the Wall, made a series of strong appearances for TNA wrestling as Malice and worked in All Japan until his death in 2003 from a heart attack.

Sean O’Haire/Chuck Palumbo v Mark Jindrak/Shawn Stasiak

The Natural Born Thrillers explode! Basically everyone thinks they were the best part of their team when O’Haire/Jindrak and the Perfect Event were tag champs. So we get the jealous challenge from Jindrak & Stasiak. Stasiak runs down the local sports team for cheap heat. Could that have been any more vanilla? “Your sports team isn’t very good and you are all stupid”. O’Haire cuts a campy promo about turning the ring into a murder scene. Why did WCW feel the need to have everyone cut promos pre-match like that? Most of these guys were too green to cut promos in front of a live crowd. These guys manage a slightly less blown Hot Shot than the one in the last match. Doesn’t help that Jindrak held onto the ropes the whole time. I’m sure this match sounded like a good idea on paper but I really don’t like watching really green guys wrestle. It’s something I see in the Indys; I don’t need to see it in a big company. The stomping from Jindrak and Stasiak is particularly bad. At least Palumbo can throw a decent punch. I have to sit through Stasiak’s ugly looking bulldog right afterwards though. Palumbo eats up some heat and the crowd sort of bites on it because O’Haire is a machine and they want to see him wrestle. Jindrak uses that to try and draw O’Haire in. Stasiak by the way is proof that second generation wrestlers aren’t necessarily good. More heat on Palumbo. They’re sure laying it on thick. Palumbo is the right guy to do it with as well because his selling is better than the other guys. Stasiak wastes time up top being arrogant and misses. Palumbo does a great job of crawling the wrong way to show how disorientated he is. He rolls into his corner and O’Haire is in. Lots of clotheslines follow. He sure is sloppy. I never noticed that at the time. Palumbo hits the Jungle Kick on Stasiak and the Seanton finishes at 11.35. **. Well it was bland but inoffensive. Not bad for a bunch of rookies. Getting formula down is a good start.

UPDATE – O’Haire went to the WWF and should really have been a success but the WWF dropped the ball on his Devil’s Advocate gimmick sticking him in with Roddy Piper and then releasing him despite the push not having reached its pinnacle. He went over to Japan to work for New Japan after that and has since become a shoot fighter although his record currently stands at 1-2 and last time out lost to Butterbean. Palumbo went to the WWF and was nearly involved in a gay wedding to Billy Gunn before being released. He’s now back with a biker gimmick. Jindrak was hired by the WWE for presumably being tall. After his release he went to Japan where he had a little success. He’s also now competing for CMLL in Mexico. Stasiak, already fired once by the WWF, managed to get himself shitcanned again in September 2002. Stasiak is now semi-retired and working as a chiropractor.

WCW Cruiserweight title – Chavo Guerrero Jr (c) v Rey Mysterio Jr

I like Rey but what was he thinking with those horns? Rey starts fast and dropkicks Chavo outside. Chavo gets back in and looks for the sunset flip bomb but Rey blocks into a rana to the floor. Sweet. Sunset flip back inside from Rey but that’s countered into a gutbuster. Chavo dumps Rey on the ropes continuing to work the body part for 2. Crowd chant “Eddie” at Chavito. He hooks Rey in a tree of woe and kicks one of his horns off. Rey dodges a big charge though allowing Chavo to post himself. Gory Special from Chavo as Rey is still beaten down. Gory Buster! That gets 2. Chavo walks Rey through some reversals and dropkicks him in the guts on a springboard Alley Oop. STF from Chavo. Rey gets out and hits a spinning heel kick. Outside and Rey gets railed and ring stepped HARD. Chavo steals a fans Rey mask and puts it on Rey before hitting a big back suplex for 2. Chavo climbs but Rey crotches him and puts the mask on Chavo. SUPER RANA! That gets 2. Rey headscissors Chavo outside and takes a breather. Chavo decides to take advantage of that by getting the belt but Rey hits a senton on him. Springboard Alley Oop going back in but Rey blows a Lionsault or something along those lines. Chavo, without missing a beat, pins him with his feet on the ropes for 2. Now THAT is great wrestling. Covering for mistakes. Chavo gets a chair and hot shots Rey in the guts. Chair set up in the corner but Rey ducks it. He fakes with the 619 and tries a really hard double spring rana to the floor. He doesn’t hit it clean until the end but the ropes look slippery. Chavo’s sell makes the move. Back inside Rey hits a diving slingshot headbutt for 2. Swinging DDT from Rey connects leaving Chavo weakened in the corner. Broncobuster from Rey and he goes after the chair. When the ref takes it away Chavo bails for another chair and WAFFLES Rey in the gourd with it. SLINGSHOT HILO!! BRAINBUSTAAAAA!!!! Chavo wins at 15.54 and BOY did he look great doing so. ****. Probably Chavo’s single best performance because he made a great wrestler who was off form look like a great wrestler anyway.

UPDATE – Both guys went to the WWE and made a tonne of money. Sometimes good things do happen to hard workers in wrestling. Maybe not in WCW but hey.

US title – Rick Steiner (c) v Dustin Rhodes

So much for Shane Douglas’ US title run eh? Steiner took the belt off him on a Nitro, which makes little sense other than Flair wanted the belt in his stable. Why not simply have Shane in the stable rather than Steiner? Well, Flair and Douglas hate each other. So Shane’s heat results in him losing the title in short order and getting shipped off to nowhere. This match is just terrible and indicative of how bad WCW could get in its later years. Dustin is wearing red leather trousers and Rick is showing about as much effort as usual. The match is tantamount to a chinlock and lousy wrestling around it. Rick’s languid style is a real contrast to the cruiserweights that have already stolen this show. Dustin must be kicking himself for being booted out of paradise at the point where ‘the other place’ was on its last legs. Rick finally warms up enough to take his t-shirt off after five minutes. They make a right mess of a jawbreaker although to be fair the mistakes in the earlier matches looked worse. Dustin’s comeback is by the numbers as well. Running bulldog from Dustin but Rick realises how devastating that move is and he bails out. The brawling around ringside isn’t any more energetic. Dustin thinks about a chair shot but the ref stops him and Rick uses the distraction to expose a turnbuckle. Dustin goes for the 10 count punches but predictably Rick dumps him on the exposed buckle and that’ll do it at 9.15. Rick sportingly puts his feet on the ropes to make it look like he had to cheat twice to win. ¾*. It’s not terrible but it’s pretty drab.

UPDATE – Dustin was back in the WWE as Goldust before too long but they had no long terms plans for him and he’s since made a couple of stop offs in TNA the latest as Black Reign. Rick Steiner has been quieter but recently reformed the Steiner Brothers with Scotty in TNA.

POST MATCH the fight continues and Dustin hoof’s Rick in the balls for a spot of Superbrawl Revenge.

Totally Buff (Lex Luger/Buff Bagwell) v Kronik

Totally Buff somehow made its way into the Magnificent Seven. Luger gets a ridiculously long rambling promo before the match where he says nothing in particular. Why on Earth did they allow all their talent to cut promos pre-match anyway? Shouldn’t you have heat on the match/show by the time a PPV rolls around? Bryan Clark is injured so Adams has to go it alone. Clark then shows up anyway and Bagwell lays him out with a chair thus ending his participation. Adams is left alone and kicks off things with a lousy double DDT that everyone in the ring should be ashamed of. The crowd aimlessly chants for “Goldberg”. That’s one Jew you’ll not be seeing anytime soon. Oh, he so should have formed the Jew World Order. Adam Sandler could have sung their entrance music. Clark does slightly less in this match than usual as he lies totally motionless on the floor the whole time. Adams can’t carry himself let alone these other two jokers so this match totally sucks. Adams nearly blows a powerslam on Luger as part of his comeback. Buff gets pressed onto Luger but the weight of numbers overcomes Adams. Luger hits a horrible clothesline, which he should be ashamed of. Adams has to help Luger out on setting up the finish and then makes a hash of a back suplex. Mike Awesome disguised as Bryan Clark runs in to take Adams down. Luger gets the Rack and the Blockbuster finishes at 6.24. DUD. Horrible. At least Mike Awesome’s disguise was really good.

UPDATE – Luger went to the WWA where he had a run as their champion. He’s also been around the Indies struggling with his promos/removing his shirt. I like how he botches the first line, then the name of the show and then can’t get his shirt off. The interviewer cracking up is the icing on the cake. Bagwell had a cup of coffee in the WWF where he totally stunk up the joint in fine fashion. He was fired after complaints about his attitude (I know, I am SHOCKED) after one match. He still works for whatever Indies are dumb enough to pay him and makes the odd appearance on TNA. Bryan Adams is dead. Kronik had a short run in the WWE where they worked one match against Taker & Kane, which sucked beyond all belief. The WWE told them to report to OVW and apparently they were too good for that and got fired as well. WCW was just full of assholes wasn’t it? Clark had back surgery last year. No details as to when he’ll be back, if at all.

BACKSTAGE Storm tries to throw Kronik out but they’re not particularly receptive. Storm legs it.

Commissioner match – Lance Storm (c) v Ernest Miller w/Miss Jones

Yes, they switched the commissioner AGAIN last week. Storm has a new catchphrase here; “don’t blame Canada, blame yourself”. Miller isn’t happy about Storm’s position calling him a fake Power Ranger. Looks like Major Gunns got cut loose. They run some decent basic stuff with Miller throwing a lot of armdrags and kicks. Storm bumps around to keep the crowd happy then argues with some ringside fans as well. He’s all about the interaction. Miller throws a fizzy pop on Storm but that just pisses him off and Storm takes the leg. He methodically works at that, which would be fine if this match was going long but it’s not. They go back to the cheap stuff with Storm being thrown off the top rope. Will he go for the figure four next? Nope, he posts the knee instead. Say, Miss Jones has a superb ass. Cat’s selling is a little inconsistent on that knee especially when he’s dancing, which would work if he hurt himself in the process (ala Rick Rude grinding injured ribs). Miller goes for the Feliner but gets caught into the Maple Leaf. Too close to the ropes though. Miller comes back with an Enzuigiri and he’s still not selling that leg. Out comes Mike Sanders who’s now…nothing, really. Miss Jones points this out by kicking him in the head. The director nearly misses it but in the background Miller lays out Storm with the Feliner out of nowhere for the pin at 8.07. *1/2. Started off just fine but as soon as Miller had to be consistent with anything it fell apart. Although his celebrations, as per usual, are really fun. I also enjoy the slo-mo replay of Miss Jones kicking Sanders in the mush.

UPDATE – Storm went to the WWF where he held the IC title once and had a few tag title runs as well. After that he was dramatically underused including a spell where Steve Austin encouraged the crowd to chant “boring” at his matches. He went into semi-retirement in 2004 but came back to work the odd match here and there in particular challenging ROH champion Bryan Danielson in 2006. He’s now officially retired and spends his spare time as a pundit on his website. Ernest Miller got hired by the WWE but was used more as a commentator than a wrestler on Velocity. He had a few chances to wrestle but got released with the WWE citing his lack of willingness to improve, something a lot of WCW wrestlers were accused of. He’s not caught on anywhere since.

Jeff Jarrett v DDP

Because Kanyon is also involved in this feud with DDP, as well as Jeff, Page ends up wrestling him first. Jarrett’s specific reasoning behind forcing him to fight Kanyon is that Page said “anywhere, anytime” to Kanyon on Nitro. Choke on that slapnutz.

”Diamond” Dallas Page v Chris Kanyon

Kanyon is under the ring thus allowing a sneak attack. DDP comes back by punching Kanyon in the ass. Well, I don’t want to make any gay jokes when there’s such an easy target for them but they’re making it hard for me to avoid the subject. Kanyon does a Rocker Dropper onto the ring steps, which is pretty cool and busts DDP open. Kanyon suplexes DDP back in off the second rope. That was also pretty cool. Got to appreciate Kanyon’s innovation. Northern Lights gets 2. Kanyon isn’t really pushing home his advantage. He’s got DDP hurt and bloody and yet there’s no attempt to stay on top and go for covers. Kanyon, ever the innovator, comes up with a short reverse version of the Pedigree. I don’t even know what the hell you’d call that. That gets 2. DDP either did a great side bladejob off the steps or he got busted hardway off the corner. The fact I think it might be hardway shows what a good bladejob it must be. Either way its good stuff. Page starts showing signs of life and hits his version of the clothesline (the discus, ducked, then a lariat the other way). Discus clothesline. Rock Bottom and Kanyon hits hard on that but it’s only a near fall. Kanyon comes back with a sit out powerbomb for 2. This is certainly a very energised performance. Kanyon hasn’t been particularly clean though. DDP shows him how you do a sit out powerbomb hitting it much cleaner for 2. Kanyon switches and hits the Kanyon Kutter…for 2. Kanyon calls Jarrett down for the patented acoustic equaliser but the heels miscue and Kanyon gets rolled up for 2. Jarrett jumps in there thanks to a lame ref bump and DDP takes the Stroke. Kanyon hauls him back up for the Flatliner and that finishes at 8.14. **3/4. Lots of energy and it was a nicely set out match until the weak finish.

UPDATE – Kanyon retired. He then came out of retirement and out of the closet. He’s now back in retirement but still “out”. The most interesting note being his claims the WWE fired him for being gay. Not for being on pills for depression and sloppy then? As if the WWE fired someone for being gay. This is the same company Pat Patterson has worked for since the 60’s.

”Diamond” Dallas Page v Jeff Jarrett

Page tries to get his shit together as Jarrett comes out here but he’s fatigued and bloody. They brawl out into the crowd for a while. That’s something I don’t miss. The crowd brawl is so 1998. I know it’s easy and everything and the fans in attendance gets cheapies off it but it looks like crap. They head towards the announce table and DDP has gotten enough energy back to DDT Jarrett on the table, which doesn’t move. DDP considers a Diamond Cutter but Jarrett shoves him off dislodging Schiavone from the announce position in the process. Hey, I’m happy with that. Jarrett is dumb enough to fall for the discus lariat out of the leg catch though. How? How could any high card guy fall for that old chestnut? It’s basic scouting of your opponent and their moveset. But then psychology and WCW weren’t often used in the same sentence. Jarrett cranks it up with a main event sleeper. No wonder he’s had like 10 world titles with that dynamic main event style. DDP gets out and it’s not a back suplex or a sleeper reversal it’s a reversal into a DDT. How about that for originality? It looked awkward but I appreciate the avoiding of the derivative moveset. As if he felt that back suplex belonged in there somewhere DDP hits one. Belly to belly gets 2. DDP sure looks fresh all of a sudden. He hits that shitty pancake slam, which is similar to the Pedigree. Kanyon runs out to pull DDP out of the ring. That distraction allows DDP to get bashed in the head by a Jarrett chair shot. Jarrett sloppily positions him too close to the ropes providing DDP with an out but he kicks out anyway. Like I said, who cares about psychology? Jarrett accidentally kills Kanyon with the balsawood equalizer and the Diamond Cutter finishes at 8.38. **1/4. Solid effort but some of the stuff they put in there was totally daft.

UPDATE – DDP went to the WWE where he was Sara Taker’s stalker, which made no sense because although she was a BOBFOC DDP’s own wife Kim is uber-hot. He was there about a year running his positive gimmick until a neck injury looked to have finished his career. He moved out to California with his wife but they then split up and DDP went back into wrestling with TNA where he lasted about a year again. He’s currently in between jobs. Jarrett went on to form TNA and win the NWA title a gazillion times.

WCW title – Scott Steiner (c) w/Midajah v Kevin Nash

With Steiner running out of challengers up steps Nash. After him there’s only DDP. Ric Flair joins the commentary team. He talks over Michael Buffer’s introductions. Again, no issues there. Steiner grabs the mic and tells Buffer he doesn’t need him out here anymore and to hit the bricks. Steiner has already railroaded Sting, Booker T, Goldberg and Sid. We get a few more replays of Sid’s leg break. Tasteless! I never want to see that footage again. Steiner invites Naitch into the ring. He has stipulations. Crazy ones. The loser of tonight’s title match is out of WCW forever (WCW’s forever is usually about 8 days). Steiner rambles on some more and wants Nash counted out before he even gets out here. Flair is concerned about Nash’s music kicking in. He’s actually taken far longer than 10 seconds to get out here. Nash attempts to fake out Steiner by being wheeled out in a chair with a cast on. Crowd wants Goldberg but they should know damn well a fake out is coming and Nash is fine. He strolls into the ring and nails Steiner with the belt. In a ludicrous spot Nash pins Steiner, after cutting a promo, and wins the match and the title at 0.17. *slow clapping*. Yeah, they actually booked that. I would question the legality of this whole situation. Flair grabs a mic and screams into it incoherently. Crowd seems happy but their balloon is about to burst. Flair points out this was a 2/3 falls match. Hey, even with one month of their existence left they still had time to fuck the fans over one more time. DDP tries to come out here to help out but Totally Buff throw him into an equipment case.

Ok, so second fall. Steiner is bleeding. Flair threatens to fire Tony and Hudson. Midajah interferes and Steiner waffles Nash with the lead pipe. He’s dead weight though so Flair makes this falls count anywhere. Nash gets pinned on the floor at 3.53. Wouldn’t booking a COUNT OUT make more sense there? It’d still be a perfectly legal fall. Flair heel act here is embarrassing. It doesn’t make sense. He says the “first fall didn’t count”. What? It seems like WCW are just incapable of doing anything sensible.

Nash blades as well. Much like Steiner’s bladejob it’s pretty weak. White Thunder belly to belly gets 2. Bicep kiss elbow and the push up’s. Shitty backbreaker gets 2. Steiner gets pissed off about the cadence of Little Naitch’s counting. Exploder gets 2. This is so slow. Steiner hits a move and Nash lies there while Steiner argues with the crowd or the referee or poses. They ran that for like 5 minutes. Nash hits a sideslam but Flair slips a chair to Steiner. Nash gets held in place by Midajah and Steiner chair shots him. Flair then bullshits an excuse as to why he was near the ring making him sound like a total idiot. Steiner Recliner. Nash fucks up the escape and Steiner falls over and through the ropes. I just wish the crowd gave up on this. They’re too enthusiastic. They should be shitting all over this terrible match. Nash hits a chokeslam for 2. Midajah jumps in to knock the ref over. Nash hits Snake Eyes and the big boot. He’s out of moves bar the big one. Jack Knife. Midajah jumps in there and stops the count. Nash grabs her and sideslams her but Flair pulls Little Naitch out and decks him. What the fuck? How about a little continuity? And why would he have to hit the ref? He’s already stopped the count. Flair throws the chair in there again and this match is begging for negative stars. Steiner with another chair shot and the Recliner finishes at 12.19. So Nash is out of WCW forever, which actually stuck because the company went tits up the following month. -**. A good solid negative star performance to round out WCW. Shitty wrestling, shitty booking and idiotic storyline. WCW in a nutshell.

UPDATE Steiner jobbed the title to Booker T on the final Nitro because the WWF wanted to hire Booker. Steiner was actually professional for once and got a contract with the WWE for it down the line. Although when he got elevated to the main event to fight Triple H he sucked ass and didn’t last long afterwards. He’s shown sparks of professionalism since joining TNA and you’d think perhaps he learned his lesson from his misbehaviour in WCW. Nash also got a run in the WWE where he tore up his quad. He’s since done some fine comedy work in TNA returning to his Coach Nash persona.

And that’s it for WCW. Like I said up the top I have reviewed the final WCW PPV Greed. It’s available for your reading pleasure elsewhere. It’s also much better than this show with less depressing conclusion. The last Nitro aired on March 26th 2001. The season finale marked the end of WCW as a separate entity. Vince McMahon appeared on both Raw and Nitro that night before the WWE began their angle whereby Shane McMahon became the new owner. WCW couldn’t get a separate TV deal even with the McMahon’s backing it though and instead the WCW talent was brought into the WWE bit at a time. The WWF v WCW Invasion angle was hugely successful for about 3 months bringing in huge PPV buys but the storyline was unsatisfying and poorly booked. As a result fans tuned out and the WWF scrapped WCW altogether after a brief “Alliance” between them and a bunch of ECW guys.

The 411: Hey, the cruiserweights tried really hard and got nowhere for it. The main eventers dogged it in a badly booked title match and the show left a bad taste in the mouth. Without the main event this isn’t such a bad show but the vibe it gave off was just unpleasant. And the crowd was awesome. They just didn’t deserve that. They were so optimistic. I guess you get shit on by WCW when you go into a show expecting something good. Basically I feel the main event went beyond the good will the crowd had for a WCW revival and they probably went home thinking “there goes that company”. Actually recommended as long as you stop before the last match but WCW’s very final show Greed is more entertaining than this. Kinda weird that the shows would get progressively better when the company was dying.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]