The 1st Ever Episode of WCW Nitro Review

Yet another week so that means yet another review of a wrestling event this time it was wcw Monday night nitro's first ever episode which I sort of live tweeted on my @RantsWrestle account but first lets go back and take a little look that the brief history of WCW and what inspired them to go to war with WWF back in September 1995. As the death of wcw book opening paragraph said wcw wasn't supposed to die, according to insiders following the death of the promotion in March 2001. Many within the company believed that Owner Ted Turner would never allow his promotion to die regardless of how much money it lost in 12 years he had owned the promotion. Well why you ask well for that you would have to back to 1976 when ted turners then fledgling tv station (TBS/Superstation) needed programming and pro wrestling was a cheap alternative to producing live sporting events and big budget tv sitcoms. Ted gave Jim Barnett (a successful promoter in Australia and later booker in the WWF and wcw) then Georgia championship wrestling promotion. The promotion got a Saturday evening that 6.05 and on Sunday evening (where GCW run a best of programme) timeslot on Turners TBS superstation (which at this time was called UHF). Serveal years later turner had a small request and that was to change the name of the promotion and Barnett agreed and renamed his promotion to WCW which was the name of his old promotion in Australia. In 1985 during the WWF national expansion vince McMahon purchased barnetts promotion for 750,000 as apart of the deal McMahon purchased the then extremely lucrative Saturday evening 6.05 timeslot on TBS. The switchover from WCW to WWF programming was dubbed by many fans as black Saturday on July 14th 1985. The two shows were vastly different as on WWF shows the emphasis was on short mathes which were normally one sided and short promos while Georgia (WCW) was more based on long athletic matches and amazing promos both were normally delivered by ric flair. Over a 1,000 angry fans flooded the tbs phone lines with angry calls demanding to know where there version of pro wrestling had gone and what was this circus that had replaced it. Ted in fact listened to these angry callers and commissioned a show booked by Ole Andersson to air on a Sunday morning (reports vary some say 7am others claim 10am) under the name championship wrestling from Georgia which appeased fans for now. Over a year later turner turned to bill watts mid south wrestling and handed them the Sunday evening timeslot (were the best of Georgia championship wrestling shows used to air) and told Bill he would back him and mid south financially so he could compete on a national level with vince. Vince was irrate at this as he felt when he purchased the timeslot he had exclusive rights to be the only wrestling brand on tbs to which ted disagreed. In fact ted told vince that vince had regened on a stipulation in a deal the two had inked a year earlier. As vince had claimed to turner when requiring the timeslot he would run a separate weekly wrestling show from Georgia with Georgia's biggest stars and not use the timeslot as a dumping ground for his brand of wrestling. Obviously turner was unhappy with vince reneged on there deal and as vince wouldn't do the Georgia shows then ole or watts would. Vince meanwhile was obviously furious and so was ted and this began the near 15 year rivalry between the two businessmen. In 86 ted was so angry he threated to throw Vince's WWF shows off the air until Jim Barnett stepped in as he neogtiated a deal between McMahon and Jim Crockett (JCP) which would see Crockett purchase the timeslot for 1 million from vince, Turner was reportable ecstatic to get rid of vince. Eventually watts stepped aside and sold Mid South (watts had renamed the promotion to UWF universal wrestling federation by this point) to Crockett while all the other territory's all but died, the AWA was still there just hanging on as Crockett and vince went to war over the next few years. In 1988 crocketts promotion was in a financial mess as well and turned to ted for help (ted had always had a soft spot for wrestling in his heart and was a mark just like the rest of us) and turner brought JCP for 9 million. Then ted made the famous phone call to vince saying hey vince I'm in the wresslin business. Over the next few years WCW would be a horribly mismanaged promotion under the leadership (head booker) of ole Anderson, dusty Rhodes or bill watts and this mismanagement had many within turner to plead with ted to just put wcw out of business once and for all but ted never listened as mentioned above he was a mark at heart for pro wrestling. So in 1993 after 5 years of mismanagement the company turned to eric Bischoff an announcer at the time for wcw 3rd string shows and he was given the role as executive Vice President of wcw. Gone were the grumpy ring warriors that had proceeded Bischoff like ole and watts. Take for intense ole he was not well liked within the turner organisation and bill watts well Jim ross puts it best he weren't ever going to be a corporate guy while Bischoff was someone within the CNN towers turnerbemployees could approach without having there head bitten off. Bischoff took wcw out of the dingy lit arenas and transferred wcw tv tappings into the much more nicer looking and family friendly Disney studios in Orlando Florida and It saved wcw a boatload of cash in doing so. Bischoff also decided to save wcw more money he needed to do what vince had done earlier in the WWF expansion and Tape weeks worth of shows like WCW Saturday night and sometimes even months at a time but this horribly backfired for wcw. As tv tappings had indicated Sid vicious would dethrone Vadar at wcw starrcade 93 for the wcw title but this match never happened. As during a tour of England in late 93 Sid began to talk shit to Arn Andersson he has been reported as saying that Arn and flair were to old to draw and he was the future of wcw. The exchange between the two become more heated and escalated as a fight broke out between the two which ended with Sid taking a pair of scissors and stabbing Arn serveal times. Police and an ambulance were obviously called by staff of the hotel in Blackburn were this incident had taken place and it even made the national newspapers. Sid was fired and the starrcade 93 main event was no more. By this point ted turner had approached Bischoff asking him what would it take to compete with the WWF to which Bischoff replied he would need to sign hulk hogan. In June of 1994 hogan finally signed to wcw (on screen anyway but I believe wcw had secured hogans services before June as the promotion had been hinting since February of 94 that hogan was on his way to wcw), hogan was a short term success for sure as his matches with flair at wcw bash at the beach and wcw Halloween havoc bumped wcw ppv business by 40%. Hogans next feud with good buddy old pal ed lesile was a shambles and had no right headlining that years starrcade ppv. Hogan then buried Vadar in there feud which resulted in hogan no selling vadars  powerbomb which had crippled jobbers years earlier and it made Vadar look like just another guy and his killer aura was gone to never return in the USA at least. Hogan then entered into a dreadful feud with the dungeon of doom but it was so bad it was actually good but during this time hogans appeal was beginning to wear off with the hulkster now regularly being booed in arenas up and down the country. As for Bischoff he was again pulled into turners office and asked point blank by ted what do we have to do to compete with vince. Bischoff was put on the spot and blurted out the only answer he could at the time saying we need prime time. Bischoff says on the Monday night war DVD giving his best ted impression give eric prime time on Mondays head to head with Vince's WWF Monday night RAW show. Many within the industry felt this was an awful move by wcw and it wouldn't just result in there death but wrestling as a whole, yes seriously insiders thought that at the time. Obviously time would tell on that over the top comment and this review isn't about the death of wcw because I will touch on that next week when I sort of live tweet the final episode of wcw nitro. 

WCW Monday Night Nitro 1st ever episode on TNT 05/09/95 

The opening shot of this brand new wrestling show shows the skyline of Minneapolis minnasota and were live says Bischoff as we shoot to inside the mall of the America ( I here you ask why a mall well it was because wcw could cross co promopt hulk hogans resturant pasta mania) the site of the first ever wcw Monday night nitro live on TNT. Eric Bischoff welcomes us to the show and welcomes steve mongo mcmichael to the announce desk here on wcw nitro. In walks bobby the brain Hennan who had been on the build up to this show saying how much of a chicken mcmichael was among other things. Hennan tries to shake mcmichaels hand but he's having none of it as Bischoff throws us to the ring for opening bout of the evening. Brian Pillman vs Jusin Thunder Liger- liger goes for Pillmans arm at the bell and slaps on a side headlock onto flyin Brian, liger Irish whips Pillman to the corner and follows it up with a cart wheel kick to Pillmans shoulder. Liger serves the first plate of chops of the evening to Pillmans chest. liger goes to Irish whip Pillman again but Pillman counters it and sends liger into the corner but before liger ends up back first in the corner liger jumps up top and moonsualts into the awaiting arms of Pillman. During this sequences Bischoff utters his iconic tag line for nitro for years to come that this is where the big boys play. Liger covers Pillman for a two count and then slaps on a sleeper to Pillman to give the two a much needed rest. Liger whips Pillman into the far corner and then drives his knees into Pillmans head. Liger goes to whip Pillman again and follow him in but Pillman catches liger with a head scissors and it drives liger head first into the top turnbuckle. Pillman backs liger up into another corner and proceeds to chop liger serveal times with a knife edge chops. Pillman goes to Irish whip liger but liger counters it and Pillman ends up in the corner then liger charges Pillman but Pillman puts his boot up and liger runs face first into Pillmans boot. Pillman goes for a botched huancaina and covers liger for another two count, snapmere by Pillman to liger. Abdormal stretch by Pillman to liger while the two are in a seated position (sorry I don't recall the spots actual name) then Pillman rolls through on liger and has ligers shoulders pinned to the mat but only gets a two count. Pillman goes for another Irish whip but again liger counters it and sends Pillman into the corner as Pillman stumbles out he is taken down by liger with a scoop slam and liger applies the rarely seen in 1995 the Mexican surf board. The announcers meanwhile talk about how you won't see action like this anywhere else (verbal joust number 2 by wcw to WWF). Liger breaks the surfboard at 4 and reverts to a chinlock on Pillman then he breaks that and whips Pillman into the ropes which again Pillman counters with a headscissors. Liger is dazed by the ropes so Pillman runs at liger but liger sends Pillman up and over onto the floor on the outside. Liger on the ring apron now then runs and cannonballs from the apron into Pillman. Liger rolls into the ring and the referee counts but only reaches 6 as Pillman rolls back into the ring to break the count. Pillman rolls back onto the ring apron to get a breather but liger grabs him and tries to bring Pillman back into the ring the hard way via a suplex but Pillman counters the suplex and sends liger out onto the floor below. Pillman ascends the ropes and goes up top and dives out onto liger who is just recovering after being suplex from the ring to the outside a few moments ago. Pillman rolls liger into the ring and goes up top again but now liger is up as he drop kicks Pillmans feet out from underneath him and Pillman falls crotching himself on the top rope in the process. Liger then climbs up top and suplexes Pillman from the top to the mat below and liger covers Pillman but only gets a two count. Liger goes up top now and flys off into Pillman but Pillman is waiting for liger and dropkicks liger in the gut. Pillman covers liger and only gets a two count again, both men are up now and Pillman chops liger. Pillman whips liger into the ropes but liger counters and sends Pillman into the ropes. Pillman rebounds into liger who cuts him off with a right hand and then liger gives Pillman a powerbomb and covers him for the 1,2 no as Pillman just kicks out. Liger is frustrated and then puts Pillman up top and goes and follows Brian up top. Pillman pushes liger back down and gives liger a right hand and a swinging DDT but only gets a two count. Waist lock by Pillman but liger counters it and teases giving Pillman a German suplex but Pillman counters it with a standing switch rolls up liger and gets the 1,2 and 3 and your Winner is Brian Pillman to open up nitro proper with this excellent contest. Liger shakes Pillmans hand afterwards as Bischoff throws us to a pre tapped sting promo were sting shares with us there is no one better to scorpion death lock than the nature boy ric flair. After commerical easy e is in the pasta mania store with wcw champion hulk hogan and jimmy hart. Hulk seems more interested in plugging his resturant than his main event title defence against big bubba (the big bossman/Ray Traylor). Up next is Us champion sting facing the nature boy Ric Flair in a Non Title Match. The nature boy is out first and gets a big pop from the crowd and he's followed by the stinger who gets an even louder reception from the crowd. Mongo is then in the middle of saying something when Bischoff interrupts him with well what in the hell is he doing here and take the camera off of him as lex luger a recognisable WWF superstar and former wcw champion himself has arrived on nitro and live on TNT. The crowd that first is in some sort of a stunned silence then the reaction gets louder and louder. Security head Doug Dillinger and his security team escort luger away into the back as flair and sting even look on stunned by what they had just witness. Flair and Sting lock up and flair backs sting into the corner and they release the lock up as the crowd chant lets go stinger. Sting let's out a wooo that the nature boy so ric goes in for another lock up and flair sends sting into the ropes. A shoulder block by sting to flair who pops right back up and rebounds into the ropes while the stinger goes the other way and a kris cross by both men. Sting leapfrogs clean over Naitch not once but twice then sting catches flair and gives him a military press and hoists flair up into the air and flair goes and hits the mat stomach first. Flair begs off as sting stands over him but sting is having none of it and grabs flair by the hair and picks him up and does the same spot again to get a massive ovation from the crowd. Sting then gives flair a hip toss and then drops flair with a dropkick. Flair rolls to the outside as the crowd are at a fever pitch chanting sting. Flair gets back in the ring and the two lock up again this time flair proves why he is the dirtest player in the game and takes a short cut by poking his thumb into stings eye. Flair backs sting up into the corner and begins to chop at the stingers chest but it has little or no effect on the stinger as flair begins to back up begging off again from sting. Sting then whips flair into the ropes and does his 3rd military press slam to flair. Sting picks up Naitch and tries to whip flair into the ropes but flair counters it and kicks sting in the gut. Then flair whips sting into the ropes but Sting rebounds back into flairs path who goes for a chop but sting ducks it hits the ropes and flys back out at flair with a cross body block but flair ducks and sting hits the top rope and falls to the outside. Meanwhile Bischoff on the announce desk reminds us once again this is live and were the big boys play. Flair follows sting to the outside and begins to chop stings chest again and again it has no effect on sting. Flair begs off again then runs at sting but sting catches him and lifts him up into the military press slam again rather than dumping flair on the floor he tosses the flair back through the middle rope and into the ring. Sting gets back in the ring as flair begs off on his knees this time again sting Irish whips flair into the corner and goes for his stinger splash but flair moves and sting misses his intended target. Flair is dazed and can't recover in time while sting comes back to life and gives flair a bulldog. Sting picks up flair and whips him into the corner yet again and runs that Naitch but this time flair gets an elbow up and stings into it jaw goes flairs elbow. Then we go to commerical once back flair is in control of the contest. Flair then goes up top but sting recovers and catches flair who took a long time getting up there and sting flings nature boy from the top to the mat below. Yet another military press slam by sting to flair who then covers flair for a two count only. Then out walks Arn Anderson (at the time flair and Anderson were feuding and no longer buddies) to get a better view of the action. Back in the ring sting tries to splash flair but misses up pops flair who gives sting a suplex but sting pops right back up and clothes line flair not once but twice. Sting then whips flair into the corner and flair goes up and over landing on the ring apron but sting flairs long time rival knows this and chops flair off the ring apron and flair lands on the floor. Flair rolls back in the ring and flair and sting lock up, stings backs flair into corner and mounts him in the corner and gives flair the 90's baby face spot of ten punches in the corner which the crowd happily counts along too. Sting then gives flair a hip toss all the way from one side of the ring to the other side. Sting puts flair on the top rope, sting goes up top and the two exchange left and rights. Sting falls onto his feet to the mat and flair follows, flair then Irish whips sting into the ropes. Flair goes for a hip toss but sting counters it and sting goes for a hip toss of his own but flair cuts him off with a punch to the gut. Flair takes sting down with a side headlock, sting gets back and the two both tease the backslide which sting wins and has flair pinned for a two count only. Sting then puts flair on the top rope and follows flair up top and gives flair a big suplex from the top rope. Sting goes to cover flair but is distracted by Arn Anderson on the outside and flair has time to recover. Flair gets up and gives sting a chop block and applies the figure four as Arn Anderson jumps into the ring forcing the DQ. Winner By DQ the nature boy ric flair announces Dave penzer as double a removes his shirt and goes right after flair attacking him and the two battle to the back. Back in the ring stings music plays as he celebrates his lose(um ok), great match shame about the DQ finish. Moments later Arn comes back out and confronts sting but the two are cut off by Scott Norton who is on the outside shouting at mongo. The macho man randy savage comes out to the ring as well as sting and Arn leave. Savage then picks up a microphone while in the ring and says I want to fight you tonight Scott Norton. Bischoff then tells norton if he steps foot in that ring he will never work here in wcw and out comes Doug dillenger and his security team who lead norton away to the back. A video package airs on Sabu, yes the homicidal genecidal maniac Sabu on his impending arrival in wcw. When we return mean gene okerlund is in the ring and he announces the winner of the Harley Davidson sweep stakes challenge (pointless segment). Another video package airs this time on another newcomer V.K. Wall Street (get it) who basically buries WWF new generation and mentions his former character IRS. Up next is WCW World TItle Match as champion Hulk Hogan defends his title against Big Bubba. Before the bell can ring Bischoff announces that next week it's been signed and made official as Scott Norton goes one on one with the macho man randy savage. Both start the match with a lock up but the two quickly break it and both men pose (stalling tactics) to the crowd. Again they lock up and bubba slaps on a side lock to hogan which hogan counters by pushing bubba off an into the ropes and hogan shoulder blocks Bubba sending him down to the mat. Hogan poses while bubba recovers and both men lock up again and into a test of strength spot. Bubba takes the low road by kicking hogan in the gut while locked up and pushes hogan back into the corner. Bubba then begins to trash talk the hulkster and it fires hogan up who bursts out of the corner decking bubba with left and rights. Bubba goes low to cut hogan off again with a knee to the gut and powerslams hogan. Bubba backs hogan up into the corner and fires left and right hands at hogans mid section. Bubba then goes to splash hogan but hulk gets his boot up and bubba runs into the boot. Hogan fires more left and rights at bubba until referee randy Anderson can take no more and tries to pull hogan off of bubba. This gives bubba time to recover who gets up and decks hogan up side the head with a right hand and hogan bends over the middle rope and bubba sits on hogans neck. Bubba then goes out after jimmy hart but hulk comes out and saves harts bacon as bubba removes Jimmys jacket. Back in the ring hogan chokes bubba with the jacket (blatant DQ) and then Pummels bubba in the face with a right hand which sends bubba reeling back into the corner. Hogan then gives bubba a clothesline while bubba is in the corner, hogan beats on bubba some more in the corner. Referee randy Anderson has to step in to pull hogan off of bubba and hulk threatens to deck poor official randy Anderson for doing his job (this would be the start of quick tease by hogan that he might go heel). Hogan scoop slams bubba and drops an elbow into bubbas chest. Bubba gets the upper hand with an uppercut to hogans throat while mongo says on commentary you won't see wrestling like this anywhere else (yes mongo this match vince would have never booked during the new generation era because he knew how much it sucked). Hogan hits the ropes and rebounds into bubba who catches hogan and gives him the side walk slam, bubba covers hogan but only gets a two count. Bubba then punches hogan but by now hulk is hulking up and the crowd pop big time for this. Hulk whips bubba into the ropes and gives bubba the big boot leg drop combo and gets the 1,2 and 3. Your Winner and still wcw world champion hulk hogan. As hogan celebrates with jimmy hart the dungeon of doom (the taskmaster Kevin Sullivan, zodiac aka ed lesile or Brutus the barber beefcake, kamala and shark aka earthquake john tenta) who attack hogan. This leads to lex Luger coming out and luger and hogan take out the dungeon sending them packing. Then the two turn and see another and are ready to fight one another when out comes sting and savage who hold both hogan and lugar back respectively as Bischoff says did you hear that hulk hogan just said to luger, to go back from where he came from. We then go to commerical when we return mean gene okerlund is in mid ring he says to hulk I don't know what the hell is going on here. Hulk interrupts mean gene and says what In the hell are you Doing here. Lex then rambles on for a bit and hits his points by saying he was sick to death of playing with kids and wanted to play we're the big boys did. Luger then added the biggest boy of them all is hulk hogan and I want to fight you for that wcw world title weather that be next week, next month or next year. Hogan then tells luger he knows who Luger is and that they've traveled the same path so luger doesn't need to wait because next week with the title on the line, me (hogan) and you (lex) one on one. Mean gene then pops as hogan and luger square up to one another yet again and savage and sting have to step in to pull the two apart and we fade to black. 

Round Up 

Nitro started a trend not seen during this period as they wheeled out three big matches which were all of ppv quality something rarely seen during the mid nineties and this couldn't have been a better week to debut the show as WWF raw was pre-emptied for the westminster dog show so wcw had monoplay that evening and made a hell of a lot of noise as well. Fans who may have not have been aware of raw not being on that week may have flipped the channels and found there wrestling fix that night and wcw would have currently made an impression on those fans. It was so different to WWF raw during that period as raw consisted of one big star match sandwiched in between a bunch of one sided squash matches. In compassion wcw was fresh, hip and innovative. Now the question was would vince change with the times and try to catch up with the times and for once do something different. This is all sounding rather familiar isn't it. Anyway next week I will move onto the final episode of wcw nitro and take a look back at the vince Russo effect, creative control and the fall of wcw in 99 and try to answer went wrong with wcw and how this once innovative show meet it's timely demise. 

The wrestling round up: Cena v Orton 250

WWE

The month of October for wwe has been a rather average month yet again with the company yet again facing the prospect of trying to find a match suitable of warranting the hell in the cell stipulation. Back in September my thinking was Brock would headline the show inside the cell with Cena to end there summer long series once and for all. Even with word spreading in September Lesnar was due to sign extras dates to his current deal so he could appear on hell in the cell ppv and even possibly at survivor series in November. It seemed like the most logical choice of a main event wwe could go with, but alas the company didn't do this due to whatever reason. Now reports claim Lesnar hasn't signed any sort of extra dates to his deal which is a shame for wwe as they really need him at the moment. Instead wwe originally choose john Cena v dean Ambrose with the winner facing Seth Rollins in the hell in the cell while the loser would of Ambrose v Cena would face randy Orton also in a cell match at the wwe network special event (let's face it wwe claims it doesn't do pay per views anymore). Wwe had claimed that Ambrose v Cena would be a no holds barred pole match at the cell show but this match will not happen now. With very little explanation wwe rushed Ambrose v Cena onto free tv and remember this is the twos first single match together if built properly then maybe wwe could have poped a buy rate or as they call it these days a network subscription or two. Anyway the match ended after a ton of interference from the authority's goons Kane, randy Orton and Seth Rollins. The finish protected Cena as always but it did give wwe fans the match they wanted with Rollins v Ambrose and the match they didn't want to see again for the 250th time Orton v Cena. I'm guessing wwe thinking was they needed to announce a main event or at least have one in place to sell this show but it still raises the question why wwe decided to do Cena v Ambrose in this manner. Now on the eve of the show people are wondering who will main event this show will it be Cena v Orton a match wwe fans have seen countless times over the last 5 years or will it be the fresher feud between Rollins and ambrose. For me personally I'd like wwe to send a message to it's fans by having Rollins v Ambrose go on last and ram home to it's viewers it's a new era in this company and these guys are the next top stars. But like so many I think wwe will bottle it come show time and book Orton v Cena on top. This could lead to a better match between Ambrose and Rollins who will surely fill slited by wwe for doing this to them and go out that night and have a damn fine cell encounter that Cena and Orton could never follow. Also rumoured to be happening on hell in the cell show is wwe may turn randy Orton back face again. Some maybe fill a turn will give randys career a breath of fresh air because he's becoming more and more stale as heel with each passing week. I think this could be a good idea for wwe to do this at this time. If you think about it, it will Create a bunch of fresh feuds for Orton and will give wwe a chance to build a long term feud between either triple h or Seth Rollins for wrestlemania and even have Orton v Lesnar at the rumble. Lesnar v Orton is a fresh match up wwe are yet to do and with Lesnar going over Orton it sends message that this guy has now defeated takers streak, beat blood, urine and vomit out of Cena and had then destroyed the viper. That could make Lesnar pipping hot come mania with a new baby face star whoever that may be weather it's Ambrose, roman Regins or the even more unlikely now daniel Bryan (a second surgery is needed on his neck and he will likely miss mania at this point) beating Lesnar to usher in a new era on top within wwe. This new baby face star could lay claim to having beaten and sent packing the man who dominated wwe in 2014. For me I think the time is right for Ambrose to beat Lesnar at mania at this moment in time he is the most over baby face on the wwe roster. Wwe may have other plans for mania with the rumoured main event for months now is roman Regins vs Lesnar but I fill with Regins injury hitting him at this time once he returns there isn't enough time to sufficiently build him as a serious threat that fans will take seriously and his beating Lesnar at mania will mean nothing and Lesnar year of dominance may mean nothing and that in turn will mean wwe having undertaker lose at mania to Lesnar will also mean nothing. As for Lesnar as wwe champion I don't have a problem with it but still fill he needs to be back following hell in the cell for a survivor series match with Cena. Then for tlc he doesn't need to be there and then have him defend against Orton at rumble (as mentioned above). It seems feesable scanerio we could be heading to with the current champion being there up to every 3 to 5 weeks and I don't have a problem with that whatsoever. Rusev may be heading off onto bigger and better things once he's defeated the bully boy giants that are mark Herny and big show. Wwe sent a clear message by having the rock interrupt him on raw 3 weeks ago that they see big things for Rusev in his future and why not he's proved he's more than just another Vladimir Kolsov and worked very hard indeed to get himself over. As for what wwe have planned for Rusev at mania, who knows what they will do could he be matched up with Cena or could he wrestle the rock but only time will tell but it was clear during his segment with the rock wwe see rusev as a future main eventer. With all this talk of wretlemania believe it or not rumours are already going around that stone cold steve austin will wrestle at the showcase of the immortals for the wrestlemania 32 show in 2016. Austin has always said if he was given the right operant, stage and creative he'd be open to a return to wwe for one more match. Austins return to the ring will be a very big deal indeed espiecally if it takes place at mania 32 in front of 100,000 fans in Dallas Texas at the AT&T stadium. Austin who was without doubt one of wwe biggest draws ever could be line to face a number of wrestlers at this point but in my opinion a match with either triple h or Brock Lesnar would be the right match for austin as he wrestles what will then be his last match ever but there is still a long way to go yet before mania 32 even gets here so I'm probably getting ahead of my myself here with this one. We finally end this wwe section with news you will surely have read by now that the company has released popular ring announcer Justin Roberts. A move that was probably done due to the company cost cutting measures recently a shame as Roberts was respected by some fans who have grown up on his announcing there favourite superstars (personally I'm a Howard Finkel guy). Again it was wwe knowing they were paying him what they felt was too much and already had a replacement in Cody Rhodes wife Eden who was more cheaper than Roberts. Whatever it was it was probably also due to the fact next week wwe will be releasing there network subscriber numbers and if those reports as some have suggested then maybe his firing was because of this. 

TNA 

I had given up on TNA a long time ago at one point in 2005 while watching this exciting promotion you felt this promotion was onto something special and in 5 years it could be a real threat to wwe, but alas this never happened. Whoever you blame for TNA decline weather it's Dixie carter, vince Russo, Jeff Jarrett, hulk hogan, eric Bischoff or Bruce Prichard this company could have been something special. Note to Dixie why did you fire Scott demore the guys ideas where less storyline driven and mostly focused on in ring action. Never mind rant over. TNA went into this month with them telling the world week after week they would be announcing a tv deal soon. Each week has passed this month and still no deal of which to speak of and that's a shame because as we roll into November it's becoming clear to everyone expect Dixie carter of course that her promotion is in serious trouble. With no TNA the wrestling landscape will look very bleak indeed and as for all the talented workers yes some will end up in wwe but some will not and that will be very bad for the wrestlers who make a living off doing this as there chosen profession and career. At the end of the day I don't fill sorry for Dixie or TNA if they cease to exist I fill bad for wrestlers who may or may not have to leave the business altogether. As for TNA it's been depressing the last 3 months the company has been a shell of it's former self putting together nothing of importance well expect the finish to the Wovles, hardys and 3d feud but not a lot else. Take TNA bound for glory for instance once considered by TNA as there wrestlemania now this years addition was reduced to being a run of a mill house show which happened to be in japan. Wrestle 1 weren't exactly helped by TNA in the build up to the event as TNA pulled it's champion bobby lashley and popular wrestler Robert Roode and the final to the tag team series which was the mentioned above the Wovles v the hardys v the Dudley's. Why even bother calling it bound for glory if the company was just going to end up devaluing it's own show by pulling stars just imagine if Roode v lashley had taken place and the tlc bout it probably could have saved bound for glory and made it fill more like more of an important ppv but alas we got what we got for what could be the last ever bound for glory ppv. Sure it was great to see the great Muta wrestle but this crowd didn't seem to care about this former wcw world champion, multi time IWGP heavyweight champion and triple crown champion which was a shame if it was me I would have booked Muta vs angle but angle wasn't fit to return to the ring so we got Muta and Tariji vs storm and senada in a rather dull main event instead. Just imagine if TNA would have had Muta v angle as well as the tlc and TNA title match the review of this ppv and negative critical response it received May not have happened. I end this TNA section on a plus as TNA have brought back British bootcamp on challenge tv here in the uk and my pick to win this season is Grado but do I fill tna will not pick him to be the winner of the season 2? no I do not as I think TNA think that Grado gimmick won't work in front of a us crowd but they have nothing to lose as the company is all but dead and it's likely last shows will be taking place on these shores in January. So why not have Grado a BBC documentary star win the competition and at least give the fans of blighty something to shout about at the TNA shows as mentioned in the UK in the new year. 

ROH 

Over in ROH the company has announced that ROH final battle 2014 will be heading to New York for a 9th consecrative year in a row but rather than the Hammerstein ballroom it's going to be held at terminal 5. The event will also be ROH 2nd ppv event this year following on from the success of ROH best in the world ppv back in June. Talking of ROH best in the world which was headlined by micheal Elgin challenging for the ROH world title and defeating then champion Adam cole In a dramatic match. Elgin as you will probably know dropped the ROH title in September at the ROH all star extravaganza show to jay Briscoe. It's been rather clouded as to why Elgin dropped the gold. Some sources claim it's due to Elgin hinting in an interview he wanted to be a baseball player in the future which reportable upset some ROH officials who felt Elgin should have been talking about being a ROH world champion rather than his dream to become a baseball player. Other sources say it's down to Elgin and ROH not sorting out his visa issues which forced him to stay behind in Canada following the ROH all star extravaganza show but whatever it was it made Elgin take to twitter a few weeks back and publicly claim on the social media site he was done with ROH and had quit the company. Of course it's lead many to dealt the legitimacy of Elgin so called walk out and claim it was all a work (a storyline that both Elgin and ROH are working). Elgin also has gone as far as to do a shoot interview with highspots and tell all about situation. I for one am a little dissappionted Elgin is gone but I do expect him and ROH to sort some kind of deal out which will see him return to the company weather that be next week or next year or even many years from now. Poor old jay Briscoe couldn't have been happy with all of this attention Elgin was receiving as he's the guy ROH picked to take the strap (sorry vince) from Elgin in Canada last month. He couldn't be off to a more lacklustre start as champion as everyone seems more obsessed with this Elgin stituation rather than him as the ROH world champion and I'm sure he (if he cares at all) is aware a lot of people on twitter are already talking about who succeeds him as ROH champion with the fans and mine thinking Adam cole should get the belt back in time for ROH final battle ppv. 

Elsewhere 

New japan and global force wrestling (Jeff Jarrett's new on and off again promotion GFW) will be co promoting the wrestling kingdom event in the world famous Tokyo dome in the new year and the event will also be on traditional ppv. New japan and global force hope to cash in on the success of ROH ppv exploits and the fact there ippv provider ustream has dropped new japan from it's schedule. The show will likely draw over 40,000 to 60,000 fans to the dome and be a success in japan and with smarks across the world who will go out of there way to pay and watch this show no matter what and I will also be one of these people. Also good ole JR (Jim Ross) is reportable being lined up to do commentary for the show and that could be a massive news in it's self if it becomes a reality of course but it seems as if this is only rumours but ross has mentioned the show serveal times on his podcast the last few weeks, so take from that what you will. New japan recently held the NJPW king of pro wrestling event this month which was a very good show indeed. It featured Hiroshi Tanahashi beating AJ Styles to win his 7th IWGP heavyweight title on the show in a blistering main event and set up a dream rematch at the Kingdom ppv against Kazuchika Okada as Okada beat to retain his MITB breifcase against Tetsuya Naito on the same show. I for one am looking forward to this match (it will blow away anything else on mania next year) but if new japan wanted to make it's ppv appeal to jaded fans of TNA or wwe then I question why they've booked this Match on top surely the less spectacular AJ and Jarrett vs Tanahashi and Okada would have seemed like a more likely choice or even having styles v Okada and Jarrett vs tanahashi would have maybe appealed to those fans more than Okada v tanahashi. Yoshi Tatsu made his return to new japan on the kopw show he stopped Jeff Jarrett's interference during the styles/tanahashi match which will now likely set up Tatsu vs Jarrett for the kingdom ppv. Best of luck to Yoshi I say he deserves his chance to shine because he currently didn't get it in wwe. Kurt angle could be an amazing addition to the kingdom ppv and raise buy rates some more if he wrestled styles or shinsuke Nakamura on the show but again it's down to both sides to make something happen and I know it's just a dream and even maybe too much to ask angle to be back from injury the time the show rolls around on January 4th. Over here in England my thoughts and prays go out to British wrestler Kris Travis who had been diagnosed with cancer, PCW have started up an indie go go page to help the British ace in his hour of need, so go check it out. Finally it's over to Rey Mysterio who made a cameo on MLW podcast this past Sunday, Rey talked (not for very long I may add) about moving away from wrestling and into acting among other things. Then news broke this week Hugo savinovich has said Rey is dying to be let go by wwe so he can resume his career in Mexico with AAA a group Mysterio had worked for before he came to the us of a in the early nineties and had worked for recently in august at the promotions version of wwe wretlemania called triple mania where Rey appeared on the Titon tron to cut a promo. Again I'll say this Mysterio may have to go to court to get out of his wwe deal or return to wwe to work the rest of his deal before wwe let him go anywhere. I for one just wish this whole mess isn't dragged through the courts as it would mean Mysterio would face many more months and even years on the sidelines not being able to wrestle until this whole mess has been sorted out. So that's my two cents on the wrestling world this month and I will be back with another wrestling round up next month and thanks for reading peeps, seacrest out, did I just type that. 

The Wrestling Tag

Name Your Top 3 Favourite Heel Characters

Hayley Race - the kingpin of the NWA and the St. Louis territory. Harley was such a villain in my eyes after he tried to retire flair in the build up to starrcade 83.  

The Nature Boy Ric Flair - He was a kiss stealing son of a gun and his attack on ricky Morton in 85 and then later on against savage in the WWF was such a heeliish act I'll never forget it 

Raven - This character was cruelly under used in WWF/E but in ECW he turned Sandmans own family against him and screwed over poor old tommy dreamer over time and time again thoughout 95,96 and 97 

If you could create your own women's division, who would be your top 5 picks 

Paige, Gail Kim, Kharma/Awesome Kong, Sasha Banks and Bull Nakano 

You have to name and create (give it a theme) and choose various matches for a PPV. go ahead be creative. 

Well I would hold a ppv which solely based around pushing the best wrestler. I would name the event destiny or road 2 glory or something like that. The under card would feature 5 qualifying matches for the main event match which would be named after the ppv in question. It would essentially be a 5 man elimination match, two men would start the match then on the 15 minute mark a 3rd man would enter, then a 4th man on the 30 minute mark and finally on the 45 minute mark the final entrant would enter. I'd also give the match a 90 minute time limit and eliminations could only accrue when all 5 men where in the ring. 

Make Your Announce Team 

I want to put Gorden Solie in or lance Russell but my heart says JR and Paul Heyman, incredible partnership on the announce desk back in 2001. 

What Would Be Your Theme Song and Who Would Sing It

Well as I'm a hip hop fan and I'd be a heel I'm going with Nas - hate me now. 

Tag 5 Friends and Let it Grow. 

Michael Cook

Darren Dyer 

Steve Dawson 

Joshua Smith 

John Huxy Huxall

 

WWF Survivor Series 92 Review

WWF survivor series 92 was a strange show which failed to deliver that big card fill WWF were able to do so well thoughout the late 80's but due to a number of scandals that hit the fed in the early 90's. Shows had become stale and in 1991 ppv buys fell and live attendence also fell. At wrestlemania 8 hulk hogan made his final fed appearance until 1993 and business continued to decline. WWF did become better within the ring in 1992 due to vince McMahon pushing younger more athletic wrestlers like Bret hart, Shawn Michaels and the undertaker. So WWF was in a transisition for this show. New acts debuted who would go onto be major players during the WWF new generation era, the focus was on in ring action (espiecally for the main event) and not a hogan or warrior in sight and some guys who were stars years previously made there final WWF ppv appearance as well. As for the main event of the show it was originally susposed to be the team of the ultimate maniacs (randy savage and the ultimate warrior) vs ric flair and razor roman but that changed after warrior quit WWF for a second time over a pay dispute. So in a rather rushed fashion mr perfect then ric flairs on screen consultant was turned baby face and teamed with savage instead after savage offered warriors spot to perfect on prime time wrestling and perfect accepted. Perfect accpted in front of hennan who blow a gasket over this and lost his temper slapping perfect in a rage. Hennan know almost immediately he had made a mistake and backed up apologising to perfect but perfect made

Bobby get down on his knees and say sorry and of course hennan did and perfect dumped water on top of hennan telling him he accepted savages offer. Meanwhile the title picture suddenly changed in the summer of 92 after savage lost his second and last WWF title to ric flair following summer slam 92. Flair then lost to Bret hart out of nowhere on an coliseum home video exclusive match shot in front of brets fellow Canadians in Saskatoon Canada. Bret hart upset ric flair to become WWF champion for a first time, Bret was fed all comers thoughout the weeks in the build up to this show beating the likes of the Berzerker, papa shango, the Mountie, Virgil and others to showcase Bret would take on all challengers and was a fighting champion. Unlike hogan who rarely defended his title on tv and during his era. In WWF in 1992 a Bret hart was a breath of fresh air to WWF main event scene which had become stale main under hogan and Bret currently didn't look like a steroid user due to WWF at the time being involved in it's first major steroid scandal. Lower down the mid card a young talent was also catching vince McMahon's eye he like Bret was also a former tag team wrestler going solo. The man was HBK Shawn Michaels and HBK was booked on November 14th addition of Saturday nights main event to win the WWF intercontinental title from the British bulldog who had only won it 3 months prior in wembley stadium in England beating Bret hart on that night as well. Shawn beat Davey due to vince wanting a known steroid users off his tv shows due to the ongoing scandals at the time but also it was a step in the right direction for the WWF at the time. Shawn now believed in the storylines as he beat smith and smith had beaten hart that he was next in line for the title shot. A shot Hitman had no problem accepting and the two would now headline survivor series rather than the tag team match. Meanwhile A former heel and now baby face undertaker had a summer to remember or forget depending on how you look at it and had gained incredible support from the WWF fans in 92. Taker was one of a few of Vince's success story in 92, after taker had beaten Jake the snake Roberts at wrestle mania 8 he was placed into a feud with kamala that summer it didn't exactly set the world on fire but it was doing it's job of establishing taker a strong face the company would need going forward. So to this show after a lot of talk on how the WWF was clearly in a transisition and going in a new direction for this show and the foreseeable future. The 92 addition of survivor Series was held in Richfield Ohio at the Richfield coliseum drawing an impressive live gate of 17,500 and over 400,000 ppv buys (this was considered bad business in 92). To open the show on the live ppv itself was freshly turned baby face reverend slick who welcomed us to the show basically his promo was nothing of importance (this wasn't the start of the show I watched on coliseum home video it just immediately cut to vince and bobby hennan who were tonight's announce team). Then vince McMahon and bobby hennan welcomed us to the show, vince reviewed the main event between hart and HBK and the tag team Match as hennan called perfect an ingrate who would stab savage in the back tonight. Then we went to the fink who announced coming down the aisle was high energy the team of Owen hart and koko b ware. Already in the ring was the team energy would be facing this evening the team of the headshrinkers who were accompied by Afa. There wasn't much to like about this match it was on the ppv to simply showcase the headshrinkers team of Samu and fatu. The bell rang and Samu was all over koko and the team of the samon savages beat down koko convincingly. Koko eventually tagged in Owen who didn't fair to much better against the headshrinkers. It was over within in minutes as Samu hit Owen with a karate kick to the throat and pinned Owen for the 1,2 and 3 in a rather average outing. This match marked the end of high energy who broke up come 93 as koko was sent packing to WWF then unofficial developmental USWA and koko only made a few brief appearances in the fed basically putting superstars over in tv matches. As for Owen going into 93 he suffered a serious knee injury and wasn't seen again in the fed until summer slam 93. Up next was nails vs the big bossman in a night stick on a pole match. A very odd individual indeed was Kevin Wacholz who portrayed the nails character who was a man who claimed the big bossman had abused him while he was inside and bossman was a prison guard. A number of wired vignettes aired over May and June as nails vowed revenge on bossman for the abuse he had suffered under bossmans hands. Sean mooney is in the back with nails who grabs mooney and screams he will get his revenge this evening against bossman. Basically if you know how it all ends for wacholz in WWF then this was  fore shadowing how he choked a reportable scared shitless vince over his summer slam 92 payoff which he felt was a little less than he thought he would receive and basically disappeared from the business in the process. The two didn't really do to much but what they did elected a response from the live crowd at least. Nails had a fondness for choking people and he did it a lot here but if you've seen one pole match then you've seen them all I suspose. Basically the match goes a little something like this both wrestlers tease retrieving the wepeon which is attracted on top of the pole, then the wrestler retrieves the wepeon and uses to win the match normally unless your judy bagwell of course. This match was pretty much following that formula as bossman teases retrieving the night stick and nails follows suit. After serval pain stacking minutes bossman retrieved the night stick hit nails but only gets a two count. Nails recovers far to easily and nails bossman with a big boot. Nails has the stick now and wallops bossman with the stick. Nails then let's bossman recover and goes to hit bossman with the night stick again but bossman ducks and then catches nails and gives him a side walk slam to pick up the win over the convict. Afterwards nails storms off as bossman celebrates, in the back nails grabs mooney by his collar and screams at him next time bossman I will have my revenge and nails is gone forever but he did show up in a cup of coffee with wcw feuding with sting a feud that sting obviously won. Nails would stick around wcw but was almost never used and got paid to sit around at home for a few years before he disappeared from wrestling for good and retired by 2000. Ric flair and razor roman cut a promo on mr perfect as flair called perfect ungrateful and once him and razor were done with perfect that perfect would come crawling back to there side. A video was then shown on mr perfect accepting randy savages invertation to join him to face flair and razor at WWF survivor series which perfect accepted of course and turned full blown face by dumping a jug full of water on top of bobby Hennans head. Rick the model Martel took on the still undefeated tatanka next in what was another dire match on this ppv. Basically the model put over tatanka clean to carry on the native Americans undefeated streak. During this drab affair doink come out to make his ppv debut which took all of the crowds focus away from the match and onto wrestlings first ever clown character. Matt Boone portrayed doink early on and his portrayal was spot on as a child I believed he was one scary clown and I believe wwfs audience then also believed this. Doink smoked a cigar and blow up some kids balloons he then proceeded to pop them and run off into the back. Doink was back as the crowd was falling asleep during another chinlock by Martel to tatanka. This time doink teased throwing water on the audience and the brain couldn't have found it funnier. Doink leaves for the finish as tatanka gives Martel a back slide for another two count, tatanka follows it up with a Samoan drop and gets another two count. Tatanka dances around and lays in a war chop to martels head not once but twice and gives the model another Samoan drop for the 1,2 and 3. Mr perfect and macho man randy savage are in the back with Sean mooney they proclaim themsevles the perfect tag team and perfect vows to pin flair tonight. So up next is macho man randy savage and mr perfect the perfect tag team vs the nature boy ric flair and razor roman. This was pushed as the main event of the show and I must applaud vince for risking it and putting it on early so he could let the two new generation stars main event the show instead but if warrior had been savages partner then I'm guessing vince would have put that on last instead. Savage makes his way to the ring first and is clearly the most over guy on this show and at this time vince is seriously considering benching savage and making him an announcer what was he thinking savage was clearly still over and hot property in WWF in 1992/1993 savage turning heel and headlining mania 9 against hart could have been big business for the WWF but alas vince decided against it. Perfect starts the match with razor and shows early on he has lost none of what made him so perfect in the first place with a pair of arm drags to razor. In comes flair and perfect takes flair down with a side headlock, perfect follows it up with a perfect drop kick to flairs mouth. Perfect tags in savage and he goes to work on Naitch having flair back up and beg off from the savages dangerous right hand. Flair tags in razor and the newcomer never looked out of place after debuting months earlier he was thrown into this big money match and took it all in his stride as he more than held his own in there against these 3 experienced veterans. Savage is all over razor who backs up and tags in flair who drops to the outside and randy follows him out like a crazed man. Back in the ring savage drops flair with another right hand and goes up top and drops a big double axe handle down onto flair. Flair makes his comeback when he gets savage tied up with the referee and chop blocks savages bad knee (a knee savage had injured during summer slam 93 and then again against flair where savage dropped the WWF title to flair). Razor went to work on savages leg by stomping it and applying a leg lock. Flair was in as hennan claimed flair was better than perfect. Flair did a lot of woooo's as he wore down savages knee, quick tags between the two as McMahon cries a foul. Razor has savage in trouble with a single leg crab but savage gets to the ropes and razor is forced to break the hold. Eventually flair went up top and savage went up to join him and on one bad leg gave flair a second rope suplex. Suddenly perfect jumps down from the ring apron and teases walking out on savage but returns in time for the hot tag. Perfect is in and is a house on fire he nails razor with a big right hand and Irish whips razor into the corner. Razor steps out of the corners and he gets a knee lift to the face and in comes flair who receives the same treatment from perfect. Perfect is then cut off by razor who gets the upper hand with a fall away slam. Razor then gets perfect up into the razors edge but perfect wiggles out and when razor turns around he gets given a perfect plex but there is no referee as flair has him distracted on the outside. Savage goes loco and attacks flair but flair this time drives savages knee into the ring post. Back in the ring razor tags flair and flair gives perfect a back drop and teases the figure four but perfect powers out. Perfect is back up by now and boots flair in the gut and gives flair the perfect plex for a 1,2 no as razor breaks up the pin fall and the referee calls for the bell. Savage pulls himself back up onto the ring apron and into the ring with a chair and whilst hobbling swings the chair at razor and flair who are by now double teaming perfect. The heels retreat the ring and up the aisle way as the fink announces that savage and perfect have won by DQ, afterwards perfect and savage shake hands. In the back flair is irrate and says perfect this is just the beginning of the end for you as razor adds savage and perfect got lucky Chico. Up next was another big debut as the Japanese/Somoan Yokozuna made his ppv debut against Virgil. Lord Alfred is in the back and he meets with mr Fuji who asks Alfred to please sit and removes his jacket so the lovely geisha girls can rub him down it's over almost as quickly as it started and Fuji says Yokozuna number 1 as Alfred is thrown out of yoko's dressing claiming well I was enjoying that and how rude says Alfred who is comedy in my opinion. What can I say about Virgil vs Yokozuna it was just another match but it currently left an impression as yoko looked very impressive in victory indeed and Virgil all but disappeared from WWF after this. Early on Virgil tried but could not get yoko off his feet after hitting yoko with two drop kicks and fore arm smash. Virgil followed it up by going for a waist lock from behind and yoko just pushed Virgil off with his ass. When Virgil got up he walked into a thrust kick to the throat, yoko stalked the former million dollar assistant and dropped Virgil with a belly to belly and then a massive leg drop which the crowd ate up. Virgil then made a comeback rocking yoko with a drop kick he then went for a roll up but yoko just fell on top of him crushing virgils ribs in the process. Yokozuna then pulled Virgil over into the corner and hit the banzai for the 1,2 and 3. As for yoko he would go on to become a star of the new generation and Virgil disappeared from WWF tv until 2010 when Virgil got a short term comeback as ted dibease jnrs assistant. Backstage Virgil said he had never been hit like that before adding it felt like the titanic had fallen on him and warned the superstars of WWF about yoko and said even Bret hart should be on the look out of this guy, more foreshadowing of the mania 9 card here. Mr perfect and Macho man are in the back and as it's thanksgiving says perfect he's in a giving mood so he presents razor and flair with two turkeys and bobby hennan a tiny chicken. Next is the only traditional survivor series tag elimination match as the natural disaters team with the nasty boys to take on the new WWF tag team champions money inc and the Beverley brothers. Vince talks about how the disaters and the nasty boys have been teams that little runt jimmy hart used to manage and had stabbed in the back to align with money inc. early on quake and typhoon put a beating on Bo and Blake respectively with bear hugs and splashes and other variety of moves to down the Beverley's. Typhoon and quake do the double splash in the corner and it all but looks over for the Beverley's until irs breaks up the count (no DQ here though). The Beverley's and money inc gain the upper hand when they quadruple team typhoon and get the big man down. Bo and Blake go to work on uncle Fred's leg while hart mocks the Nastys and quake who are all chomping at the bit to get to either teams on the opposing side. Dibease drops a standing elbow onto typhoon for only a two and it's a big kick out which sends ted to the outside. Typhoon finally tag jerry sags and sags unloads on all four men as the crowd comes back to life. Sags then drills Bo with a pump handle slam for the 1,2 no as dibease had distracted the referee. Sags eventually loses his fire as the Beverley's and inc tag in and out whilst working over sags. Sags like typhoon before him finally makes it to his corner and tags in quake who goes right after the Beverley's he splashes both men in the corner and then hits the avalanche on Bo for the 1,2 and 3 and the Beverley's have been eliminated. Earthquake then targets irs and goes for the big splash in the corner but the taxman evades it and money inc give quake a big back body drop. IRS covers quake but only gets a two, dibease and irs double team quake for a bit. Then quake makes a comeback clothe lining both dibease and IRS, quake tags in typhoon. Typhoon goes for another splash as irwin is down and irwin moves again. Irwin gets up and then chop blocks typhoon and rolls up the big man for the 1,2 and 3. As soon as the fink announces The natural diasters have been eliminated knobbs sneaks up behind irwin rolls him up and gets the 1,2 and 3. The nasty boys win, beating the tag team champions in the process but like so many others the Nastys won't be around much longer as they also depart following mania 9 and this angle with money inc goes no where. Up next is the casket Match between the undertaker and kamala and we get a video review of kamala being scared of caskets. Kamala in my mind was facial expression during this feud were priceless and made me laugh he played it so over the top that I really enjoyed that video review but then remember what kamala in ring stuff was like. Moving on Kim Chee is telling a reluctant kamala backstage he must wrestle this match again the Memphis wrestling legend looked horrified. On the way to the ring kamala looks even more scared and when taker makes his entrance looks like he just crapped his pants. Taker gets ready as kamala retreats to the outside and into the aisle way. Taker goes after Kim Chee and Harvey whippleman and chokes both men as kamala attacks taker from behind. Back in the ring Kamala doesn't do to much all and then gives taker 3 slams and pins taker for the two. Kamala looks out at Kim Chee as taker recovers and goes to choke kamala. By this point I had lost interest they were not having a very good match in fact it was plain awful and was hoping it end as soon as possible. Kamala goes for the second rope and splashes taker as Paul bearer gets onto the ring apron and raises the urn up in the air and the taker man rose up from the dead. Meanwhile Kim Chee tripped Paul and the urn fell into the ring and rolled in front of prettified kamala how is so scared backs up and refuses to pick up the urn. Taker has no problems doing so and nails kamala with the urn. Taker covers kamala and gets the 1,2 and 3 then taker rolls kamala into the casket and proceed to nail the lid shut. Shawn Michaels is in the back with mean gene and he says I beat the man who beat Bret hart for the IC title and tonight he would defeat Bret to become both the IC champion and WWF champion. Kim Chee is shown backstage breaking into the casket he plies the lid open and kamala is shown scared stiff laying inside casket. Mean gene is now with Bret hart, mean gene really puts over Bret here saying over the two short months Hitman you've been champion you've defended more an anyone. Bret thanks gene and says he will take on all comers and he will never back down from a challenge and the more successful defences he had under his belt the better champion he would become, because he was the best there was and the best there ever will be. Bret gets a randy savage like pop from the crowd while Shawn gets all heat in the world for his cocky strut to the ring. The crowd is clearly behind Bret here (are you listening vince), early on Bret and Shawn go into some nice chain wrestling spots as Bret softens up Shawn's arm for the hammer lock. The two exchange the hammerlock and then Shawn has the hammer lock on Bret but Bret drops down and HBK falls through the ropes onto the outside. Back in the ring Bret locks on a arm ringer to Shawn and whips Shawn into the ropes Bret bounces back and launches at Shawn with a cross body press for a two count. Bret goes back to HBK arm and the hammer lock but Shawn takes a short cut and gauges brets eye to force Bret to release the hold. The crowd boos Shawn who does a cocky dance for the crowd who clearly don't like him. Shawn goes for a suplex but Bret counters it and goes right back to that hammerlock and Shawn is grounded again. Shawn gets up and drops down which sends Bret to the outside. Back in the ring Shawn cuts off Bret with a left hand and whips Bret hard into the corner then Shawn takes Bret down and slingshots Bret into the top turnbuckle chest first. Bret sells the vicious looking move perfectly and the crowd sense maybe just maybe the champ is in big trouble here. Shawn then goes to Irish whip Bret but Bret counters and Shawn ends up in the corner, Bret then goes to do the same to HBK but HBK counters it this time and Bret is launched shoulder first into ring post. Shawn stomps on brets hurt shoulder and chest and this time Irish whips Bret chest first into the corner. Shawn gloats over Bret and does some poses before he pins Bret for a two. Shawn goes and puts on a chin lock to Bret who battles out of it and bounces back into the ropes and runs directly into a drop kick by Shawn. HBK covers Bret again only a two count, HBK is smart and goes back to the chinlock to wear the Hitman down some more. Again Bret battles back with elbow shots to Shawn's gut, Shawn relinquishes the hold and Bret gives hbk a bulldog. Bret climbs to the second rope and goes to drop and elbow onto Shawn but Shawn moves and Bret hits the mat hard. Quickly Shawn jumps onto the Hitman and again applies the chin lock, again Bret battles back by rolling Shawn up for a 2 count. Bret then clothes lines HBK and gives Shawn a big back body drop for a near fall. Bret then slingshots Shawn into the top turnbuckle/post which knocks Shawn down and out. Bret goes to the second rope and this time drops his elbow into the bridge of Shawn's nose, Bret covers Shawn for another near fall on the boy toy. Bret puts Shawn onto the top turnbuckle and goes up to the top and gives Shawn a big (90's highspot) suplex from the top and both men hit the mat hard very hard indeed. Bret drops his arm across Shawn for the 1,2 no Shawn just kicks out. Bret goes for a waist lock but Shawn counters it and Bret goes crashing to the outside. The referee begins to count out Bret as Shawn begs the ref to count faster (why). Shawn then seems to realize this goes for the outside and throws Bret into the ring and Shawn covers Bret for the another near fall. Shawn shows his frustration and gets caught with a small package for Bret but again Bret only gets a two. Shawn is up faster than Bret and puts the boots to Bret then backs up as Bret gets up Shawn nails Bret with the sweet chin music (at this point it's still not referred to as that and isn't no finisher). Shawn covers Bret and gets another two count on the WWF champion, Shawn looks annoyed and grabs the referee as Bret recovers and bounces back off the ropes and try's a cross body but this time Shawn ducks and Bret ends up crashing into the ring ropes. Shawn then readys himself to give Bret another sweet chin music as the champ recovers but this time Bret ducks the super kick takes Shawn down and slaps on the shape shooter and Shawn screams I quit. Winner and still WWF champion Bret the Hitman hart in his first successful ppv title defence. To end the show Santa comes out and celebrates with Bret who puts on a santas hat as snow falls in the Richfield coulsiuem. Overall I felt this show felt like WWF were still in there transisition since hogan had 'retired' and warrior quit but with a main event as good as that I'm saying the future is bright for WWF and it's main event scene with Bret in it but as we all know vince goes and ruins it by turning back to the retired one himself hulk hogan. 

WCW Mayhem 1999 pay-per-view Review

If you follow my @RantsWrestle account you will hopefully know it's the account I do sort of live tweets on pro wrestling events every Sunday at 5pm GMT. Today after months of thinking I should really blog my reviews of these shows I've been watching I'm finally getting around to it. Today I watched wcw mayhem 1999 from Toronto Canada at the maple leaf gardens arena and I wasn't that impressed with the show but before I get ahead of myself and go into full on rant mode here's the results and all the major happenings from this show in my review. The show opened with a video package trying to explain how the wcw world title had become vacant a job wcw didn't do very well, basically they said sting actions at last months wcw Halloween havoc had caused the title to be declared vacant. Those actions where never explained properly but then the whole situation last month may have taken a whole month to explain. The previous month wcw had done a screwy finish (Russo favourite folks the worked shoot) between hogan and sting. I think I'm right in saying hulk laid down for sting after 3seconds. Later on (still the same ppv)  sting faced bill Goldberg in what was billed as an impromptu unsanctioned wcw world title. Goldberg beat sting in 3 minutes to win the title and the next night on nitro championship commitee member JJ Dillon declared the title had never changed hands because the match was unsanctioned and due to sting attacking match official Charles Robinson during his match with Goldberg. So the title was vacant and wcw booked a horrible 32 man tournament which wasn't a clean tournament, even the losers of 1st round matches somehow advanced. An example of this was that madusa was eliminated but thrown back in and a number of wrestlers won there matches by DQ or count out. Anyway wcw had a hard task of explaining this whole mess from last month and the nitros in the weeks leading up to mayhem, so i well let them slide on that. The announce team of tony schiavone and bobby hennan welcomed us to the show and began to plug the hell out of tonight's big matches like the two semi final matches in the wcw world title tournament, buff bagwell v curt Hennig in a loser must retire match, Kimberly vs David flair ( yes seriously wcw booked this as a main match on the show) and the Sid v Goldberg I quit match. Up first was the 1st semi final match of the wcw world title tournament as the chosen one Jeff Jarrett goes up against Chris Benoit, almost off the bat schiavone is talking about how Jeff is the chosen one of the powers that be (At this point the audience at home have no idea who these powers are but tony drops enough hints that if you were smark would know it's vince Russo and ed Ferrera). Both men start it off by going into a lock up, Jarrett like the great heel that he is knows he can't out wrestle Benoit so pushes Benoit off into the ropes Benoit bounces back at Jarrett and takes him down hard with a shoulder tackle. Benoit begins to chop Jarrett and follows it up with a swinging neck breaker and a DDT. Benoit goes and puts Jarrett on the top rope and gives Jeff an almighty snap suplex from the top rope to the mat below. Both men begin to brawl on the outside something your see quiet often on this show, honestly take my word for it almost every match ended up on the outside. Jarrett then picks up Benoit into an atomic drop but crotches Benoit into the ring post to get the upper hand on the crippler, Jarrett follows it up by whipping Benoit into the guardrail and chokes him in front of his Canadian fans who chant Jarrett sucks. Back in the ring Jarrett takes control with a powerslam and then suplexes Benoit for a 2 count. Jarrett slows the match down with a sleeper hold to Benoit which is on for just the right amount of time. while in the hold Benoit hand drops twice but not a third to the delight of the crowd and Benoit battles back on Jarrett by throwing his elbow into Jarrett's gut. Benoit slaps on his own sleeper to Jarrett but Jarrett drops down to his arse technically hitting Benoit with a stunner. Both men trade kicks, punches and chops which Benoit obviously wins and Benoit hits the 3 German suplexes on Jeff. The Harris twins Ron and don now creative control in wcw run out the ring (yep outside interference in the first match, thanks vince Russo), meanwhile back in the ring Jarrett knocks Benoit to the outside and Jarrett asks referee Charles Robinson to count him out and Benoit makes it back in by six. Jarrett goes to the top rope and hits a cross body onto Benoit but Benoit counters it for a very close two count. Benoit hits a back breaker for another 2 count then hits a second this time he cuts his throat to signal the impending arrival of the top rope headbutt. Benoit goes up top and flys off hitting Jarrett square in the chest, Benoit covers Jarrett for the 1,2 no as creative control pull the referee to the outside breaking up the pin in the process. One of control distract the referee as the other puts the boots to Benoit on the outside after Benoit went out after the Harris twins. Control roll Benoit into the ring and now Jarrett has recovered and hits Benoit with the stroke as dustin Rhodes comes from out of the crowd. Back in the ring Jarrett covers Benoit for the 1,2 but no dustin pulls Jarrett off of Benoit at 2 and control attack dustin. Jarrett grabs his gutiar at ringside as the referee is on the outside dealing with control and dustin who are now brawling in the aisle way, Jarrett goes to smash the gutiar over benoit's head but Benoit ducks then Benoit overpowers Jarrett takes the gutiar and smashes it over Jarrett's head and covers the chosen one to get the 1,2 and 3 and advance to the final of the wcw world title tournament. Afterwards control and Jarrett attack Benoit from behind and put the boots to him some more as the announcers wonder will Benoit be ready to go come tonight's main event. Overall it was a great opener Benoit and Jarrett worked there arses off and it helped the crowd was super hot for this one as well, it almost seems like wcw fans in the late nineties wanted Benoit to become the man or maybe it was just because the show was in Canada. We almost immendtly go to the back you know like what happens in TNA almost every week when Russo was booking there product. Anyway mean gene is with disco inferno who says the 25,000 dollars was more important to him than his wcw cruiser weight title, whoever wrote or come up with that line should have been shot it was so stupid talk about burying the title you currently hold what was Disco thinking. Anyway it was again never fully explained why Evan karagias was putting his 25,000 on the line and why this money was so much more important than the title. Moving onto the Match, almost off the bat the announcers are wondering why madusa is with Evan is it because of his money says tony yes says hennan. Moving on disco is suddenly attacked in the back by a irrate Jarrett and control (who is suppose to be the face and heel here). So disco stumbles to the ring very comically I may add and he was trying to be serious, Evan meets disco in the aisle way and the two brawl on the outside to start the match. Back in the ring Evan hits a cross body for the two and hits disco with a spin kick. Disco makes his comeback with a pair of weak looking clotheslines, backslide by karagias for another close two count. Disco cuts off Evan with a right hand and goes for a powerbomb but Evan counters it into a roll up for the 2 count. On the outside now and disco blows a kiss towards madusa, back in the ring disco gives karagias a snapmere then goes to the second rope and blows another kiss at madusa and drops a jerry Lawler fist drop onto Evan for a very near fall indeed, not that the crowd believed it was the finish. By this point disco buddy tony marinara had come out and was on commentary he suddenly got up and went over to madusa and started to chat up the veteran tough lady. Evan came out and decked tony as disco got on the ring apron and dived off but Evan was ready for him and drop kicked disco in the chest.  Evan rolled disco into the ring but disco was up first and hit Evan with a suplex and what looked like a Brain buster and gets a close two count on Evan. By now madusa has had enough of disco and Tonys advances and slaps disco while Evan grabs a chair and hits tony in the head while on the outside, Evan quickly climbs to the top rope and hits disco with a cross body to pick up the win and we have a new wcw cruiser weight champion in Evan karagias. Why so much happened in this match between madusa and tony on the outside it so distracting and took away from what was happening in the ring hence why this match didn't really deliver for me personally. Again it's straight to the back as Bret hart is shown arriving, Jeff Jarrett is shown talking to the powers that be but we don't ever see who is powers are but you can hear Russo ripping into Jeff while Jeff calls the powers a yanky bastard. Norman Smiley is with mean gene he cuts a silly promo declaring he may be scared straight of knobbs but he's hardcore for me it was so silly that it worked. Up next was brian knobbs with jimmy hart vs Norman smiley for the newly created wcw hardcore title, again I don't understand the logic in wcw introducing this title the hardcore division was something WWF were doing and here it screamed direct rip off of what WWF were doing. Norman gets a cheap pop for warring a Toronto maple leafs shirt and hockey attire for his match, mr big wiggle himself had some priceless facial expression on his face making his way to the ring he legit looked terrified. Knobbs almost took poor old Normans head off with a trash can shot and followed it up with serval more before knobbs broke a broom handle across smileys back as Norman screamed out in pain. Jimmy hart throws in a trash can lid but Norman catches it and decks knobbs over the head with it and goes for the hardcore wiggle but knobbs isn't having any of that. The two begin to battle on the outside exchanging trash can shots, The two battle to the back and knobbs throws Norman into the walls of the maple leaf gardens. Knobbs sets up a table up right and throws Norman into it hard OUCH that was stiff. The two are brawling now in the crating area and a food fight breaks out between the two, the two exchange trash can shots again and then knobbs grabs a crutch and breaks it over Normans head while Norman screams and cries, seriously I saw a tear in his eye. The two bounce off boxes and end up by an elevator and throw each other in. Then the lift closes and jimmy readys himself with a trash can Lid awaiting the two to fall out of the lift. The doors had closed by now. When the doors opened both men fell out and jimmy accidentally hits knobbs with his trash can lid and Norman covers knobbs and gets the 1,2 and 3. New and first time ever wcw hardcore champion Norman smiley. I don't know how you guys fill but I'm beginning to think crash Holly May have lifted most of his routine from Norman because the two are so alike, fun match but way to many silly trash can shots and a food fight, I'm sure Lou Thesz would have loved this match. Moving onto the feud between filthy animals and revolution as we get a video package explaining how this inter gender six person elimination tag came to be. In the back is mike tenay with revolution this was clearly recorded earlier in the day as dean and perry were wearing there street clothes and it didn't take them seconds to put on there wrestling attire, vince Russo strikes again I guess. The filthy animals are with mean gene and say nothing of importance in the 90 seconds there allocated to speak.

Disco is shown apologising to tony marinara in the back, tony simply just walks away from disco and then Jeff Jarrett and creative control are shown walking in the back as Jarrett is muttering to himself you want me to make an impact I'll make an impact. Up next was the six person inter gender elimination tag as the revolution team of dean Malenko, perry Saturn and asya took on the filthy animals team of Eddie Guerrero, billy Kidman and torrie Wilson. All six begin with a brawl to start out the match in fact there was so much going on I had quiet a hard time keeping up. Anyway Kidman is all over Saturn and clothes lines him to the outside, in the ring Eddie gives dean a big back body drop. Both men are battling in the corner and Eddie wraps on a head scissors and both dean and Eddie go to the outside, Kidman dives out onto both men on the outside. Dean is then suddenly attacked by some fan (plant) brandishing a Canadian flag and security escort the fan away(remember this because it's important for later), back in the ring asya is stalking torrie basically they tease the two will have a fight but Kidman tags himself in and is blindsided by dean who rolls up Kidman for the quick 1,2 and 3 and Kidman is eliminated. Dean and perry begin to double team Eddie and hit the impressive looking guillotine leg drop, dean covers Eddie for a 2 count. Asya is tagged in and she goes right after Eddie lifting him up into a vertical suplex, she tags in dean who gives Eddie a back breaker for a 2 count. Dean whips Eddie into the ropes and Eddie bounces back with a huancaina and gets dean with a quick 1,2 and 3 and dean is eliminated. Perry attacks Eddie from behind and scoop slams Eddie and tags in asya. Asya gives Eddie a sloppy looking double under hook suplex for a close two count. Asya holds Eddie in place as Perry lines up a super kick for Eddie but Eddie ducks and perry hits asya. Eddie then drop kicks Saturn to the outside and covers asya for the 1,2 and 3 and the big lady asya is gone. Now it's down to Eddie and torrie vs perry, perry attacks Eddie and gives him a t bone suplex for a two. Perry takes to long on the top rope and as he dives off Eddie catches perry with a drop kick to the gut while Douglas screams perry may have just broke his ribs. Saturn recovers and drills Eddie with a sit down powerbomb and Perry goes to the top rope and hits an impressive looking elbow drop but only a 2 count and Douglas is beside himself screaming slow count over and over. Eddie hits another huancaina this time he only gets a two then from out of nowhere perry locks Eddie in the rings of Saturn and Eddie taps, now Eddie is eliminated and it's down to torrie vs perry. Perry grabs torrie by the hair but she low blows him and seriously I thought it was over but only a two, torrie backs up into the corner and perry low blows torrie for the 1,2 and 3. That's all folks a rather anticlimactic finish to a match which was so far the second best match of the night, personally I really enjoyed this match. In the back Jeff Jarrett is making his impact as he attacks buff bagwell moments before buff is scheduled to face curt Hennig in a retirement match. So obviously up next is curt Hennig (Mr Perfect) vs buff bagwell in a loser must retire match, Hennig comes out but when buff is introduced he doesn't come out due to the attack earlier but Jarrett and creative control are back and they beat down Hennig, why I have no idea. Buff comes out and him and Hennig attack and send Jarrett and control packing, I have to question the logic of of this pre match angle as these two are about to enter a retirement match why would they team up wouldn't it be to buffs advantage to see Hennig get taken out before there retirement match and why would buff with his career on the line want to wrestle this match now with a bum knee it made no sense and the two teaming up made even less sense why would they want to do this moments before a massive retirement match. Anyway moving on Hennig almost off the bat grabbed a nerv hold on buff as the crowd chanted perfect at the artist formerly known as mr perfect. The two take the action to the outside and Hennig chops buff so hard that buff takes a tumble over the announcers table, buff then Irish whips Hennig into the guardrail and perfect of old takes a big bump over the rail and into the front row. Back in the ring buff works over Hennig as the crowd chant bagwell sucks (seriously leading up to this Hennig was a face as was buff and I've never understood the logic of baby face vs baby face matches), curt recovers and goes for the single leg but buff counters. Curt applies a sleeper and the crowd who were chanting perfect moments ago are now chanting boring, buff fights out of the sleeper after what seemed like forever with a pair of back elbows to Hennig's jaw. Hennig was dazed now but buff runs into a knee to the gut by Hennig. Hennig goes to Irish whips buff but buff counters it and Hennig ends up in the corner, buff charges Hennig but runs into a boot from Hennig then Hennig tried the same but buff this time counters and puts his boot up for Hennig to run into. Buff goes to the second rope and out of nowhere hits Hennig with a blockbuster and gets a 1,2 and 3 and now curt Hennig must retire, afterwards the crowd give Hennig a standing ovation I guess that's what they call respect brother. All in all this was a horrid match the two seemed to never hit top gear and it's a shame wcw retired Hennig and not bagwell because seriously who would you rather have in your promotion Hennig or bagwell, I don't think I even have to answer that for some of you. We cut to the back and sting is with mike tenay he tells tenay that the powers had unfairly stripped him of the wcw title and says he never lost the belt to begin with and tonight he would win back the title he never actually lost. So up next in the second semi final match of the wcw world title tournament is Bret the Hitman hart vs sting. During the introductions the crowd seem to be split 50/50 on both sting and Hitman but that would soon change. Both men start the match with a stare down and the crowd is electric for this stare down. Bret and sting then trade lefts and rights going back and fourth. Bret takes advantage with a headbutt to the stinger which sends sting crashing to the outside and both men begin to brawl on the outside. Back in the ring Bret works over stings right leg while the crowd chant lets go Bret. Sting comes back with a dropkick and is booed by the Canadian crowd, Bret battles back and the place comes unglued as Bret suplexes the stinger and covers him for a near fall. Sting battles back and goes all heel by low blowing Bret right in front of the referee but no DQ for some reason. Sting slams Bret and drops and elbow to the hart of hart and covers Bret but only gets a two count. Sting slaps on a rear naked choke to the Hitman and Bret sells it perfectly, Bret then gives sting serval gut shots to break the stingers grip. Sting then goes low on Bret again and whips him into the ropes and the Hitman sails over the top rope to the floor below. Sting follows Bret to the outside and throws Bret onto the announce table and tries a stinger splash but Bret moves and sting lands stomach first on top of the table. Back in the ring sting Irish whips Bret into the corner and goes for another stinger splash and again fails as Bret puts his leg up and sting crashes into brets boot. Bret asends to the top rope and flys off with a double axe handle but sting pulls referee Mikey Jay in front of him and poor old jay takes the handle shot by Bret (ref bump another One of Russo's favourite tricks). Lex Lugar runs out with a baseball bat in his hand but rather than deck hart he nails sting with the bat (again isn't sting a heel). Bret grabs the bat from lex and nails the total package and puts lex in a shape shooter. By now Jay has recovered and calls for the bell and Dave penzer announces that Bret hart had won DQ (never has a DQ been so popular). Valiant baby face Bret tells referee jay he doesn't want to win the match this way and gets jay to restart the match which of course sting has no problem with. The bell rings and the match is officially restarted, Bret gives a goggy sting the side Russian leg sweep. Bret asends to the second rope and drops an elbow into the stingers black hart and covers sting for another close two count. Sting battles back with a back breaker and a stinger splash and gets a near fall, sting then goes for the scorpion death lock but Bret counters his hold and now has sting in the shape shooter and sting who tries to battle out has nowhere to go and is forced to tap out. Afterwards sting and Hitman tease another fight but sting goes back face and extends his hand and both men shake hands to the delight of the crowd. Another quality match between two legit icons but this review isn't meant to go back and look at this Match though rose tinted glasses my only complaint was the silly restart but I guess it made Bret look like a honourable chap. In the back Chris Benoit is with mean gene he basically cuts a short and sweet promo and gets his point across in saying it will be an honour to face Bret this evening in the wcw world title tournament final. Lex lugar is with mike tenay in the back and he is now wearing a surgical collar he says there is no way he going to be able to wrestle meng tonight. Up next was a chain match between Vampario and Berlyn formerly the techno dancing Alex wright. Before the bell can even ring out comes Oklahoma and dr death steve Williams who join schiavone and hennan at the announce table. This reive will now turn into a rant as I was so disgusted by ed ferrera's send up of Jim Ross someone I respect a lot more than mr Ferrera. It was so horrendous and took away from this match which I paid no attention as the whole Ferrera thing was so distracting to me. The match was a bit of a mess as vampario basically battled both Berlyn and his hired goon the wall and most of the match made no sense to me as Vam-Pryo as Oklahoma called him basically battled two men why no one cared. At one point the wall walked out on the match and Berlyn, I guess the wall was sick to death of Ferrera calls at ringside but in reality it was the end of the wall/Berlyn pairing. Anyway there was no crowd reaction whatsoever I'm guessing they were as confused as I was to who was actually the man who was wrestling vampario. To end this complete and utter mess vampario raps the chain around berlyn's throat and wright simply passed out and no one gave a rats arse. Overall this match was dire and I may have taken ferrera's comments and impersation to heart more than jr probably but I really didn't like this match at all. We go to the back were Scott hall the wcw tv and us champion says if the boys have a problem with him holding two belts they can suck it (what promotion does he work for again). The announce team say officials in the back have ordered lex lugar to wrestle his match with meng which rather strangely is up next. To start the match lugar is still wearing his neck brace but meng is having none of it and attacks the total package before the bell even rings. Meng takes lugar down and puts the boots to lugar and strikes lugar with a karate thrust chop to lugar so called hurt neck. Lugar battles back somehow and suplexes meng but the savage no sells it and pops right back to the horror of lugar. Both men brawl to complete and utter silence from the crowd, lugar hits a clothesline on meng again to silence and again meng no sells it and pops right back up. Meng goes for the death grip but can't apply it properly due to lugar still wearing his neck brace so meng pulls the neck brace off as lugar slides to the outside and runs to Elizabeth as meng follows him out and lugar puts Liz in harms way. Lugar slides back in the ring and so does meng now and lugar puts the boots to him. Lugar whips meng into the ropes and hits a big powerslam and covers meng but only gets a two count. Lugar goes to hit meng in the head but as you know if you hit a Samoan in the head in wrestling it will have no effect (schiavone rightly points out this is a huge mistake). Meng strikes lugar with a karate kick and covers the total package for a 2 count. Meng now has lugar bent over on the second rope as Elizabeth bends down to pull something out of her pocket she does but it takes her an incredibly long time to get the device she retrieved from her pocket to work. She then sprays lugar 'accidentally' in the eyes which sends lugar back paddling into meng who applies the death grip and lugar passes out and your winner is meng. Again this was another stinker and didn't need to be on the card which was already stacked. Bret Hart is in the back with mean gene he tells gene he may be friends with Benoit but tonight he's putting there friendship aside so he can win his first wcw world title. David flair is shown in the back polishing his crowbar, I promise that's not a masturbation joke. Up next is Scott hall putting both his wcw us/tv title on the line against a replacement as he was originally susposed to face rick steiner in a unification title match. Rick had been stripped of the wcw tv title six days earlier on nitro due to an injury and hall was awarded the belt. Before ricks replacement came to the ring hall challenged any of the boys in the back to a match and also teased that Kevin Nash was on his way to the building (again remember this because it's important for later on). In the end wcw mainstay and former Harlem heat team member booker t accepted halls challenge. To start the match the two are about to lock up when hall stops and crotch chops at booker (your in the wrong company mate). The two eventually lock up and hall executes a big back body drop and booker hits a side kick as hall plays to the crowd who at this point are loving halls antics. Booker follows it up with a flying forearm smash which sends hall to the outside. Booker challenges hall to get back in the ring which hall does and the two go into a test of strength but hall takes a short cut and knees booker in the gut. Hall gives booker a fall away slam and rather arrogantly throws booker to the outside and challenges booker to get in the ring he does and hall charges booker and sends him up and over to the outside again. This time hall goes to the outside and hall Irish whips booker back first into the guardrail. Back in the ring hall slaps on a sleeper hold to booker to wear down the former Harlem heat member, meanwhile the crowd got temporarily is distracted by a fan being ejected by security. Booker makes his comeback with another flying forearm then Jeff Jarrett and creative control appear in the aisle way as booker hits another sidekick and pins hall for the 1,2 no as Jarrett pulls booker off hall control get in the ring and eat a pair of side kicks as Jarrett distracts booker. This gives hall time to recover who low blows (yep yet another low blow, talk about overkill) booker then gives booker the outsiders edge for the 1,2 and 3 and hall is declared the winner. Afterwards Jarrett and control attack a downed booker but then the lights go out and when they return a rather large lady (wcw billed her as midnight) is standing behind control and Jarrett she attacks them and sends the three packing as she tends to the fallen booker. All in all this was turning into a very good match but yet again Russo over does it with another cheap interference finish. In the back lugar is looking for Elizabeth by walking up and down the halls shouting Elizabeth, a video package airs on the dire feud between David flair and Kimberly. Up next was flair vs Kimberly, David comes to the ring with his crowbar while Kimberly walks out clearly not dressed to wrestle. David stalks Kimberly as the bell ring then the limber Kimberly does some stretching to distract David it works and she suddenly turns and low blows David but David no sells the low blow. David grabs his crowbar and nails referee nick Patrick sending Patrick to the outside. Kimberly sensing she was in trouble gets on her knees and puts are hands on David's crotch and puts her hand down David's pants and pulls out a jock strap. Kimberly gets up and hits David with the dirty looking jock strap (I'm seriously not making this up). Kimberly throws away the dirty jock and slaps David in the face but he seems to like it, she then takes David down and mounts him and slaps David over and over. David throws her off and gets up as Kimberly cowers in the corner. David walks up to Kimberly and out runs the returning Kaynon who jumps flair and gives him a Russian leg sweep. Kaynon then tends to Kimberly but before he can get her out of harms way he is low blowed by David. DDP then walks out he gets in the ring and diamond cutters David to save his wife. DDP grabs the crowbar and out runs Arn Anderson who stops the match and Kimberly and DDP leave. Meanwhile David recovers grabs the crowbar from Arn and smashes it into arns neck and David leaves. Arn is then tended to by EMT and strapped to a stretcher and taken to the back as the announces talk about how Arn had to retire due to a neck injury two years ago in fact Arn makes it look believable but it meant nothing. This match was nothing more than a frigging angle and not a very good one at that the crowd switched off almost immediately and entertained themsevles with we want flair chants (ric flair that is), EC-dub and we want Bret, it was utter nonsense and a waste of time. A video package airs on the Sid vicious/bill Goldberg feud, Sid is in the back with tenay he cuts one of his shouty promos and says there is two words he will never utter and that is I quit. So up next is in an I quit match is Goldberg vs sid, as Goldberg makes his entrance sid jumps him in the aisle way and the two brawl into the ring and are exchanging lefts and rights. The crowd almost immediately turn on Goldberg and cheer sid and his heeliish antics. Goldberg hits a running bulldog early on as Sid slides to the outside, Goldberg chases the back paddling Sid and goldie Irish whips sid into the guardrail. Back in the ring sid gauges goldbergs eyes and gives goldie a side slam, then sid poses for the crowd and by now the crowd is chanting les go sid and Goldberg sucks even louder than before. Goldberg takes down Sid and applies an arm bar but Sid refuses to quit, Goldberg whips sid into the corner but sid stops the charging Goldberg with a boot to the mouth and follows it up with a chokeslam and then hits a second chokeslam on Goldberg. Sid then chokes Goldberg as he lay motionless on the mat screaming at the referee ask him. Goldberg battles back and applies another arm bar to sid as the chants of Goldberg sucks gets louder yet again this time Goldberg gets up and just laughs at the crowd. Goldberg then puts on the million dollar dream but after mere seconds the referee calls for the bell and declares sid had said I quit, even know we never heard him say it. The crowd was legit hot by now and booed even louder as Goldberg left the ringside area. What a let down the match barley went 4 minutes and was susposed to be the semi main event but when there was so many matahes I'm guessing it was down to time constrains why this match was ended so early. Lex lugar is in the back with mean gene he tells gene he couldn't find Elizabeth adding I guess she knows she messed up but it's ok he said I'll deal with her tomorrow night on nitro. Up next is the main event and it's the final match in the 32 man wcw world title tournament as Chris Benoit faces Bret the Hitman hart. Both men got incredible ovations from there fellow countrymen as they made tree way to the ring, before the bell both men shake hands. To start the bout Bret and Benoit lock up and Benoit takes Bret down and goes for an arm bar but Bret gets out. Again the two lock up and Benoit goes to the arm again but Bret gets out again. The two then have a test of strength which Bret wins he then applies an arm bar of his own and Bret works the arm for serval minutes. Benoit and Bret exchange left and rights and

Then Benoit knees Bret in the gut. Benoit slaps on a headlock to Bret and Bret pushes Benoit off but Benoit rebounds and shoulder tackles which sends Bret onto his back. Bret gets back up and both men tease there finishing hold first Bret teases the shape shooter while Benoit teases the crossface. The crowd by now give both men a standing ovation and Bret and Benoit both look out at the crowd then each other. Suddenly that fan (I said it was important) who attacked Malenko earlier jumps in the ring and attacks Benoit now as Bret looks on bemused by all of this. Security drag away the fan who takes off his mask and it's dean Malenko (hold up so Malenko attacked himself earlier, try and work that one out because I couldn't). Back to the action and Bret gives Benoit the rarely unseen these days a piledriver and Bret covers Benoit for a 2 count only. Bret drops a standing leg drop onto Benoit and covers the crippler for another near fall. The two exchange chops and brenoit wins that battle of course and follows it up with a brutal looking back breaker and Benoit covers Bret but only gets a 2 count himself. Benoit hits Bret with a explosive back drop and covers Bret and again only gets a two count.

Bret battles back and hits Benoit with a DDT and Bret gets another two count on Benoit. Bret whips Benoit into the ropes and goes for a tilt-a-whirl slam but Benoit counters it and has Bret in a tombstone now and drops down to his knees spiking Bret in the process. Benoit climbs to the top rope and flies off with a diving headbutt and Benoit lands it. Benoit covers Bret for a 1,2 no as Bret just kicks out, then the outsiders run out and attack both men (again I said it was important). Goldberg runs out but he can't save the day as by now hall has a chair and hall wallops with the chair. Bret and Benoit team up to rid us of the outsiders and now in the aisle way Goldberg grabs hall and Nash and battles with them into the back. Back to the action and Beniot gives Bret a dragon screw leg whip, Benoit works over brets leg as we go to the back and see the outsiders take out bill Goldberg. Back in the ring Benoit continues his assault on brets leg and applies the figure four to Bret. Bret sells it perfectly and just makes it to the rope to force Benoit to relinquish the hold. Benoit is then going for the figure four again but Bret kicks Benoit off of him and Bret follows it up with a Russian leg sweep and back breaker to just get a two count. Both men battle back and fourth and Bret eventually puts Benoit on the top turnbuckle and climbs up to join Benoit and gives Benoit a massive top rope suplex (late 80's early 90's highspot). Both men sell the shit out of the move and Bret recovers first and crawls over to Benoit and pins him for the 1,2 no as Benoit just kicks out at two. A Heyman is god sign is held up in the front row as Bret begins to headbutt Benoit on the lower back and Bret suplexes Benoit again but this time Benoit counters it and lands on top of Bret for the nearest of falls (some fans in the front row felt it was

Over and poped big time). Bret went for the same suplex again and again Benoit countered and this time gave Bret the 3 German suplex spot. Benoit then goes for the crossface but can't hook it in and Bret counters the hold and now has Benoit in the shape shooter and Benoit is forced to tap out. The crowd explode as does some Pryo as Bret is presented with the wcw world title, Benoit gets up and hugs Bret then leaves as brets family join him in the ring to celebrate and we fade to black to end the show. After some awful crap in the mid card this main event more than delivered, I may get some heat for this but I felt after watching this that this match was better than there Owen hart tribute match. But as for the show itself it has 4 very good matches in sting v hart, hall v booker, Jarrett v Benoit and the Bret v Benoit but apart from that there wasn't a lot else I felt was must see. Overall I'd give this show a solid 6.5 out of 10 due to matches above as for the rest of the card that should be avoided because most of the matches were ranged from awful to just plain awful