Mike Reviews: WCW Souled Out 2000

I hope everyone has had a pleasant holiday season. Sadly for me, severe asthma and a gnarly cold saw me taking a brief trip to the hospital due to breathing difficulties. Thankfully they didn’t have to keep me in overnight and sent me on my way with a new inhaler and some steroids (No, I haven’t leant any of them out to Jon Jones)

Unfortunately I’m still suffering with a terrible wheezy chest and a mother grabber of a cough, which is pretty much stopping me from sleeping, so I’ve been spending most of my nights watching WWE Network until I pass out from exhaustion. I decided to start work on Six of the Best for the WCW Souled Out pay per view (Spoiler; 1998’s event will feature heavily) and whilst skimming the 2000 show I decided to recap it.

For those unaware, WCW was in the midst of one of its many periods of dysfunction in January 2000. Head writer Vince Russo had been writing some pretty horrible television and pay per view buy rates were crashing, so then WCW head honcho Bill Busch decided to make Russo part of a committee instead. Russo wasn’t having that however, so decided to go home. Meanwhile, Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett both dropped out of the show due to concussions, so a large chunk of the card had to be rewritten on the fly, which led to a WCW Title match between Sid Vicious and Chris Benoit hastily being put together.

Another issue loomed on the horizon however, as the man scheduled to replace Russo was Kevin Sullivan, a man who was hated by Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Shane Douglas, Billy Kidman, Rey Mysterio Jr and Konnan. Indeed, he was hated so much by this crew that they actively threatened to quit the company if he acquired the role. This was mostly due to them thinking he’d held them all down during his previous stint as booker. Despite all of this, WCW still booked Benoit in the main event of this show, even though he was liable to leave at any moment. Now that’s some classic WCWing if I ever saw it!

Could WCW still find a way to put on an enjoyable pay per view event despite all of this madness? Let’s read on and find out!

The event is emanating from the Firstar Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio on the 16^th of January 2000

Calling the action are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

The commentary team start us out by recapping all the card changes. Chris Benoit will now face Sid Vicious in the main event for the vacated WCW Title following an injury to Champion Bret Hart. Meanwhile, with Jeff Jarrett injured and Benoit now in a different match, the 3 match series between the two will now be covered by Billy Kidman taking on The Revolution.

Opening Match
Triple Threat Theatre – Part One
Catch As Catch Can rules
Dean Malenko Vs Billy Kidman

So the rules here are that you can’t leave the ring or you will be disqualified. Both men do some lovely wrestling to start, with Kidman getting the better of things. Kidman hammers away on Malenko with rabid punches, which causes Malenko to roll outside for a breather, thus causing the match to end as he left the ring.

WINNER: BILLY KIDMAN
RATING: DUD

Malenko actually forgot the stipulation for real there, hence the abruptness of the match. Why even bother hamstringing two such talented wrestlers with such a silly stipulation? Why couldn’t they just have a normal match instead?

Scott Hudson is with Vampiro, who was feuding the insane trio of David Flair, Crowbar and Daffney at the time. He was scheduled to face David Flair tonight but, after getting jumped by the heels earlier in the pre-show, he demanded it be changed to a triple threat match instead. Before Vampiro can say anything of significance, Masahiro Chono randomly storms in and grabs the mic to cut an angry promo in Japanese. He and Vamp face off as we cut to Mean Gene Okerlund with David, Crowbar and Daffney. They cackle in a creepy fashion and threaten Vamp. This show is all over the place, and not in a good way.

Match Two
Vampiro Vs David Flair w/ Daffney and Crowbar

Vamp was actually getting pretty over as a bayface during this period, although it wouldn’t last. David and Crowbar were actually the tag team champions at the time of this show, which is pretty scary when you consider just how bad David was in the ring. He was reasonably good at playing a giggling crazy person, but his actual work in the ring was nothing short of abysmal. I wish they’d just cut their losses and decided to make him Crowbar and Daffney’s insane manager, rather than forcing him into the ring all the time, but I guess he was on a decent wedge at the time and WCW wanted to “justify” the contract by making him wrestle.

Vamp hits a double face buster to start for a big pop and then works over Crowbar in the ring whilst David rolls outside. After alternating between beating up both Crowbar and David in the ring (I’ll leave it to your imagination which of the two segments was better) Vamp sends both the heels outside and hits them with a double baseball slide. TOUCH DOWN!!! Oh, wait, wrong sport, sorry. POWER PLAY!!! There we go, got it that time! This has been all Vamp so far. As I type that however, Crowbar catches Vamp with a dive of his own and throws him back inside the ring for some heat.

The director seemingly gets bored of the heat however and instead plays three replay double features instead. Surprisingly the heels allow each other to make covers on Vamp without breaking them up, which leads me to wonder why they didn’t just make this a handicap match, seeing as that’s how they’ve decided to work it. Crowbar and Vamp botch the old Kidman powerbomb counter spot, but Vamp is soon up on his feet and delivering kicks to the heels. Heenan makes googly eyes at Daffney, as I must confess that I personally never understood all the fuss over her. She’s not bad looking or anything, but she just does nothing for me.

Anyway, Crowbar cuts Vamp off and gets a splash from the top rope, before offering him up to David for a Figure Four Leg Lock. David locks the hold in and Crowbar comes off the top with another splash onto Vamp for the double pin, but David inexplicably breaks it up though. Err, David, you both had him pinned there and would have both won the match. Idiot. David hits Crowbar with a back suplex and makes out with Daffney, which gives Vamp time to recover. Vamp hits Crowbar with a big powerbomb and then follows up with the Nail in the Coffin onto David for the pin fall victory.

WINNER: VAMPIRO
RATING: **

They kept David out of this as much as possible, and the match was better for it. Vampiro and Crowbar would have probably had a decent match if it’d just been the two of them.

We cut backstage to see Buff Bagwell arriving at the arena.

Meanwhile, Men Gene is with The Mamalukes, Disco Inferno and Tony Marinera. Marinera leaves Disco in charge and jumps to ECW. The Mamalukes demand that Disco start making himself useful.

Match Three
Ron and Don Harris Vs The Mamalukes (Big Vito and Johnny The Bull) w/ Disco Inferno

The Harris’ had previously been Vince Russo’s heavies as “Creative Control”, but with him gone they’re back to being gruff skinhead bikers again. They would soon join the nWo and become heavies for Jeff Jarrett. The Mamalukes had only recently debuted in WCW and were forcing Disco to manage them due to gambling debts that Disco owed to a mafia boss. No, I didn’t make that up, that was actually the storyline.

Seeing this match reminds that I once went to a WCW house show in Manchester (March 2000 I think it was) in which these two teams were actually in the main event. Not only that, they actually bothered to pay for Michael Buffer to fly all the way over to England to ring announce a main event of Harris Brothers Vs Mamalukes on a house show. No wonder WCW eventually went out of business! I’m personally shocked it didn’t happen sooner quite honestly.

Johnny and one of the Harris’ start us out, with the Harris Brother getting the better of things. The Harris’ have actually bothered wearing different shirts at least, so once one of the commentators clues me in to which one is which I’ll be able to tell you. Anyway, The Mamalukes use double teaming to shine on The Harris’, but keep yelling at Disco to do something. Err, why would you want him to do something when you’re already winning? Wouldn’t that just lead to you getting disqualified?

The Mamalukes actually hit some nice double team stuff. Big Vito was a perfectly fine mid card hand and he had possibly the best run of his career during this time in WCW. Johnny eventually gets cut off by The Harris’, although they try to distract him with a hair pull when he has very short hair, and it doesn’t quite work. The heat on Johnny follows, and it’s basically fine. The Harris’ were pretty unremarkable but they were fine as a heavy hitting heel team. If you put them in there with a decent face team then they could carry their end of an enjoyable bout.

The heat on Johnny probably goes on for a bit too long in all honesty, and The Harris’ don’t really give him much in the form of hope spots to keep the crowd invested. They just clobber him remorselessly with punches and power moves. The execution is fine but it’s not especially engrossing. Johnny does get a desperation sunset flip at one point, but the Harris he pins is in the ropes. The Harris’ eventually decide to just knock Vito off the apron and go for a spike piledriver on Johnny. Vito fights back however and sends Ron (At least I think it’s Ron, Tony has changed his mind a couple of times over which Harris is which) to the floor before heading up top. Disco tries to actively screw his own team by shoving Vito off the top rope, but Vito actually lands on Don and gets the pin.

WINNERS: THE MAMALUKES
RATING: *

The Mamalukes didn’t get a proper hot tag segment there, which left the match feeling pretty flat. The execution of the moves was fine, but the match had nothing special to it to make it worth any more.

Madusa is backstage with Spice. She says she’s sick of Oklahoma

Match Four
WCW Cruiserweight Title
Champion: Madusa w/ Spice Vs Oklahoma

Heel announcer/manager Oklahoma stole the title from Madusa to set this up. For those unaware, Oklahoma was writer Ed Ferrara doing a Jim Ross parody. Normally I wouldn’t mind a parody if it had some charm to it, but Ferrara had openly mocked Ross’ Bell’s palsy by scrunching up his face when debuting the character, which had taken it from being a light hearted parody to being a genuinely nasty act of bullying.

Thankfully Ferrara was able to eventually negotiate his way out of scrunching up his face and just doing the parody, but by then the damage had been done and the character just left a sour taste in the mouth. In his defence to a certain degree, Ferrara has always claimed that he never wanted to mock Ross’s affliction and just wanted to do the parody without it, but Russo had insisted upon it, so Ferrara relented, although he says he regrets it now. He could have just refused to do it of course, but I guess being on TV mattered more to him than good taste.

Oklahoma cuts a promo pre-match, where he insults all the women in the crowd by being a misogynistic jerk. Ferrara had wrestled a little bit on the indies before getting a gig writing for the WWF. To be fair to him, the promo delivery isn’t bad, but the content is as cheap and by the numbers as you could get. Medusa hammers away on Oklahoma with kicks to start, which he sells pretty well, but then ends up on the wrong side of some hairmares.

The story of Madusa, the woman, doing actual wrestling whilst Oklahoma, the man, does the stereotypical Fabulous Moolah 1970’s women’s wrestler offence is actually pretty funny. Oklahoma takes his licks, including a dropkick from the second rope. Madusa misses another dropkick however and Oklahoma gets a DDT before heading outside for his barbecue sauce. Spice takes the bottle off him however, at which point Aysa runs down to help her. They roll Oklahoma back in, but he’s able to catch Madusa with an ugly looking school boy roll up for the three count.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: OKLAHOMA
RATING: ½*

Oklahoma’s bumping and selling were decent enough, so I won’t give it a DUD for that reason. This was one of the many low points of the Cruiserweight Title. They didn’t even have Oklahoma transition the belt to someone else either, he just vacated it on TV and they held a tournament instead. Could they seriously not just have had Lash Leroux or Juventud Guerrera pin him in 30 seconds on Nitro to get the belt off him? The women gang up on Oklahoma at the end and cover him in barbecue sauce to get a bit of revenge at least.

Mean Gene Okerlund is with the WCW Hardcore Champion Brian Knobs. Knobs credits Fit Finlay for helping him out, but says he’ll defeat him tonight to prove that the student has now become the master.

Match Five
WCW Hardcore Title
Champion: Brian Knobs Vs Fit Finlay Vs Meng Vs Nor-MAN Smi-LAY

Norman had actually gotten quite over as the hardcore wrestling coward, whilst Finlay and Knobs had formed an alliance. Meng destroys everyone to start, but eats a double clothesline from Finlay and Knobs. Finlay and Knobs team up on the other two, as the fight spills to the outside. Norman screams in a cowardly fashion every time he gets beaten up, which is for most of the match. Everyone just walks around ringside hitting each other with different types of weaponry, with Meng mostly no selling it all and being all scary.

Norman bails into the crowd after going crotch first into the ring post, but he is hotly pursued by Finlay, who drags him back to ringside. Why not just let him run away? Surely it would make the match easier to win if one of the competitors flees? Norman ends up in the ring with a downed Knobs and tries to hit him with a nightstick from the second rope, but Knobs catches him with a riot shield on the way down and that’s enough for the win.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: BRIAN KNOBS
RATING: *1/2

It was watchable at least, but didn’t really have any flow or psychology to it

Match Six
Triple Threat Theatre – Part Two
Bunkhouse Brawl
Billy Kidman Vs Perry Saturn

Bunkhouse Rules essentially means No DQ’s, but I’m not sure if that will play much of a role in the match. Saturn overpowers Kidman to start, but Kidman replies with highflying and a ten punch to get himself back into things. Saturn counters a bulldog attempt by crotching Kidman on the top rope and then clotheslines him to the floor. Saturn works Kidman over back inside, but it’s pretty pedestrian stuff.

Saturn was one of those guys who had decent high impact moves in his arsenal, but just didn’t really have the depth to his work to carry a match as a heel. He was much better as a face; as he sold well and could then hit all of his exciting moves in the comeback to pop the crowd, but as a heel he just came across as a bit dull. Saturn sets up a table outside the ring, but Kidman manages to fight off his tabling attempt, only to get cut off again back inside.

Saturn heads up top for a lovely elbow drop, but Kidman is able to kick out at two. Saturn stays on top of Kidman and actually manages to successfully powerbomb him, but the resulting pin fall attempt only gets a two. Saturn misses a moonsault from the top, which allows Kidman to get a bulldog and short powerbomb for two. Saturn replies by suplexing Kidman over the top rope through Chekov’s Table™ and goes for the cover out there, but Kidman amazingly is able to kick out.

Saturn throws Kidman’s carcass into the ring, but stops to taunt the crowd before heading up top, which gives Kidman time to recover and bring him down with a back body drop. Saturn tries another powerbomb, but Kidman manages to counter it into a face buster and that’s enough for the flash pin fall.

WINNER: BILLY KIDMAN
RATING: **1/2

It was quite dull in the early stages but the last couple of minutes did a good job of establishing Kidman as a gutsy babyface by absorbing all of Saturn’s offence and still managing to eke out the victory at the end.

The commentators hype up the following match between Booker T and Stevie Ray. We see clips of Stevie Ray going back to “the hood”, where he talks about how Booker has forgotten his roots.Following that, we go to Mean Gene with Stevie Ray, who says he’s going to give Booker T a lesson tonight.

Match Seven
Booker T w/ Midnight Vs Stevie Ray

This was a weird situation, as Harlem Heat had only just gotten back together in the summer of 1999, but here they were feuding again just a few months later. I guess that’s what happens when new writers come in midway through a storyline. I’m not saying they should have kept them as a regular team, but if they wanted Booker T as a singles guy they could have easily just had them part ways amicably and given Stevie a new partner.

Booker cuts a promo before the match, where he says he hasn’t forgotten where he came from and that he has Midnight to watch his back from now on. Booker is wearing a truly ugly red singlet here, which would even look garish and out of place in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, let alone a wrestling match. Booker sends Midnight to the back prior to the match and runs wild on Stevie early, only to get caught with a clothesline from his brother.

Stevie works Booker over outside the ring, as I prepare myself for the impending chin lock when we get back inside. Thankfully, Booker fights back outside and then hammers away on Stevie back inside before running into a powerslam. And indeed, now it’s time for a chin lock. I swear if I’d been regularly online back in 2000, Stevie Ray’s chin lock would have been my pick for worst wrestling move in the RSPW awards. I mean, it’s not even a well applied chin lock FFS. At least Randy Orton’s chin locks look they actually apply some semblance of pressure to the person they’re applied to.

Stevie keeps the “exciting” heat segment going for a while until Booker mercifully hits a side kick to start his comeback. Booker hits the Book End, at which point Ahmed Johnson, carrying probably an extra 50-75 pounds from his WWF stint, comes down to the ring to attack Booker.

WINNER BY DISQUALIFICATION: BOOKER T
RATING: *1/2

Booker’s stuff looked good and popped the crowd, but Stevie Ray’s interminable chin lock ruined the middle portion. Stevie and Ahmed beat down Booker post-match. This would lead to a match at SuperBrawl 2000, where Ahmed would defeat Booker in a match that meant Booker could no longer legally put “T” at the end of his name, because WCW.

Mean Gene is with Sid Vicious. Sid says he and Benoit are going to have a war for the title later, which will end with Sid becoming the champion.

Match Eight
You can only win by Knock Out or Submission
Tank Abbott Vs Jerry Flynn

Abbott had been in the UFC, whilst Flynn was a legit karate guy, so WCW tried to play up this as a battle between two legit hard men. It probably would have worked if Flynn had any charisma or personality to speak of, but he was blander than flour mixed with water. I expect this will be a pretty quick KO victory for Tank. Tank flings Flynn around to start, so Flynn replies with martial arts kicks and tries for a cross arm breaker.

Tank fights out of that however and actually tries to goes for a leg lock, but Flynn easily slips out of that and goes for another arm bar. Tank powerbombs his way out of that and then clocks a grounded Flynn with a series of right hands to knock him out. Just call me Nostradoofus!

WINNER BY KO: TANK ABBOTT
NO RATING

Too short to really rate, but it did a decent enough job of making Abbott look like a killer, so I’ll give it a pass.

We get a video package for the upcoming Buff Bagwell Vs DDP match. Basically Buff had been friendly to Kimberly, which caused DDP to go into psychotically jealous husband mode and try to destroy him. Tonight we have a Last Man Standing match scheduled between the two.

Match Nine
Last Man Standing
Diamond Dallas Page Vs Buff Bagwell

In a nice touch, both men forgo their usual entrances and just walk down to the ring with serious looks on their faces. The brawl is on right from the off, as they take the fight into the crowd. After fighting out there, we go back into the ring, where DDP gets the better of things and clotheslines Buff over the top to the outside. The fight now spills up the aisle way and over to the WCW.COM table.

Both men have a joust with big CRT monitors, in a spot that would have been better if both of the monitors hadn’t clearly been turned off and just there as props. DDP becomes a keyboard warrior by smacking Buff with one, but Buff fights back and then delivers a big elbow drop through the internet table. The camera was focused on just DDP there, so it seemed like Buff literally came out of nowhere with the elbow in a good bit of directing.

Back inside the ring, Buff finally feels confident enough to strut and pose, which gives DDP time to recover and pull Buff crotch first into the ring post. The women in the crowd gasp in horror at that, which is pretty funny. The guys in the crowd are behind DDP here whilst the women are clearly behind Buff, which makes for an interesting dynamic. Buff hits a pump splash and both men are down, but manage to make it back up at eight. We get some more double downs, with both guys managing to get up, as the fans are really into the finish teases and count along with the ref.

Buff gets a T-Bone suplex on DDP, but he beats the count, so Buff follows up with the Buff Blockbuster, to seemingly bring the match to an end, but DDP is able to drag himself up at nine. Buff pulls a riot baton out of his boots and hammers away on DDP with it, but DDP is once again able to break the count and hits the Diamond Cutter out of nowhere, but he’s so beat up that he can’t beat the count, whilst Buff has just enough to make it to his feet before ten.

WINNER VIA LAST MAN STANDING: BUFF BAGWELL
RATING: ***1/2

This was a great intense brawl. Sadly they just decided to drop the storyline not soon after, despite it getting great reactions at the arenas and actually drawing some decent TV ratings. Kimberly comes down to the ring following the match, and Buff actually apologises to her for everything that has happened. However, this allows DDP to attack him with the baton. Kimberly watches on embarrassed as DDP hammers away on Buff and then escorts her husband to the back.

The commentators talk up the match we’ve just seen as a cage is lowered for the last match in the Triple Threat Theatre.

Match Ten
Triple Threat Theatre – Part Three
Cage Match
Billy Kidman Vs The New Member of The Revolution

Shane Douglas comes out and introduces The Wall as the new member of The Revolution. He really didn’t fit in with the other members. Bam Bam Bigelow would have been a much better choice due to his past history with Douglas in ECW, but big plans were in store for Wall, so he got the gig instead. Kidman takes the fight right to The Wall to start with a steel chair. Wall shrugs all of this off and sends Kidman into the ring for some punishment.

Wall actually heads up top, but Kidman catches him with a dropkick on the way down for two. Kidman tries to hit and move, but Wall boots him in the head to put a stop to that and takes him outside, where he drives him into the cage. I should point out that the cage is set up like a Hell in a Cell here. Wall gives Kidman a gigantic wedgie as he heaves him into the ring and then chokes away. The crowd reaction seems unreasonably loud for this, which makes me think a fight might have been going on out there.

Wall works over Kidman with basic big guy stuff, but Kidman gets a desperation sunset flip bomb for two. Wall has taken a fair amount of offence from Kidman here, but he’s neglected to really sell any of it, which kind of defeats the purpose. Kidman counters a choke slam into a nice rana before heading up top. However, Wall catches him on the way down and hits a big choke slam for the win.

WINNER: THE WALL
RATING: *

This was a total anti-climax, as Wall wasn’t over with the crowd and the match had to be cut short for time due to there being so many matches on the show.

We get a video package to hype a match between Terry Funk and Kevin Nash. If Nash wins, he becomes the commissioner, but if Funk wins then the nWo must disband.

Match Eleven
Hardcore Match for control of WCW
Kevin Nash Vs WCW Commissioner Terry Funk

Ric Flair was originally meant to be the person in Funk’s role, but he turned it down so Funk got the spot instead. The fans seem much more into Nash than Funk here, despite Funk supposedly being the face. The fight starts in the aisle way, with Nash wearing Funk out with a chair. After a couple of chair shots, Nash powerbombs Funk through the commentators table, to a big pop from the crowd.

Nash grabs a mic and says that if Funk can pull himself back into the ring, he’ll let him stay on as commissioner. Funk does manage to do it, but Nash was lying and continues the beat down, to another pop from the crowd. This is just a weird crowd dynamic. Funk has somehow been busted open when he went through the table, which leads to the hard camera going to wide shot.

Nash continues to just destroy Funk, with Funk just absorbing numerous chair shots. Funk gets a low blow and some chair shots of his own to noticeable boos from the crowd, and hits a DDT for two. I think it’s a testament to how badly they booked Funk’s commissionership that the fans would rather lead heel Kevin Nash have it than him.

Nash hits Funk in the head with more chair shots, which leaves Funk staggered but not down. Nash at least seemed to be pulling those shots, but man, how is Terry Funk even alive these days after suffering so much punishment like this in his career? Funk actually gets a brief period of offence on Nash with punches, but Nash replies by powerbombing him through two chairs to claim the commissionership, again to another big pop from the crowd.

WINNER AND NEW COMMISSIONER: KEVIN NASH
RATING: **

Funk’s bumping was incredible, especially for a man legit in his mid-fifties at the time. The crowd reaction to the match was really troubling however, as they revelled in the heel Nash utterly destroying the babyface Funk. It just highlighted how bad the booking had been in recent weeks, as the reactions should have been completely different.

We see Chris Benoit warming up backstage ahead of the main event, whilst Sid stomps around a room talking to himself.

We cut to Scott Hudson with Arn Anderson. He’s obviously very unhappy that nWo leader Kevin Nash is now the WCW Commissioner. He says that everything in WCW will now change, but points out that at least the WCW Champion won’t be an nWo guy at the end of the night.

Main Event
WCW World Title
Guest Referee: Arn Anderson

WCW had actually made a reasonable attempt to make Benoit into a top guy during this period, and it had worked to a certain extent. I does amuse me how Michael Buffer refers to any man over six and half feet as “one of the best big men in all of wrestling”. Both men shake hands before the match, after the most stirring referee instructions of all-time from Anderson, and we’re off. Sid uses his power in the early stages, as we see the entrance way start to fill with the rest of the WCW roster, who want to see who will win.

Benoit goes after Sid’s legs to get himself back in the match after being thrown around by Sid in the early stages. Benoit actually dropkicks the ring steps into Sid’s leg a couple of times, which earns him a telling off from Anderson. Benoit goes to a Figure Four back inside the ring, but Sid manages to turn the Figure Four over. Benoit is pretty close to the ropes however, and he grabs them to break the hold

Benoit kicks away at Sid’s legs in the corner and gets a Dragon Scew leg whip. Sid strangely sells that by lying flat on his back like it was a slam of some kind, instead of selling it like a leg whip and grabbing the leg in pain. Does anyone else think that Sid really didn’t understand how to work? I mean, when you don’t know how a move should affect you or how to effectively sell it, you kind of suck as a wrestler.

Benoit goes to a bridging Indian Deathlock next. Sid sells it by yelling “No!”, but then throws in a “Huh?” at some point, which suggests to me that either Benoit or Anderson were trying to pass a cue to him and he didn’t hear/understand it. We’re live big feller. Benoit breaks the hold when Sid doesn’t tap and stays on the legs with a dropkick to a grounded Sid. The force of one of the dropkicks sends Sid rolling outside the ring, where a nearby beered up fan in a backwards cap yells encouragement to him.

After getting a rousing pep talk from the fan, which mostly included said idiot yelling “Kick his ass Sid!”, Sid rolls back into the ring and starts Viciousing up. Sid unloads with some punches, but misses a big clothesline and takes another dropkick to the leg to halt his momentum. Sid blocks a Benoit kick but misses a follow up shot. Benoit manages a German Suplex, but Sid fights off another one and gets a nice power slam for two.

Benoit goes to another leg submission hold, but Sid refuses to tap and starts calling for support from the crowd. Sid uses the support of the crowd to grab the ropes, as you can just see Benoit spoon feeding him through this entire match. Benoit gets a German Suplex and comes off the top rope with a diving headbutt, but Sid presses him off and drills Benoit with a HUGE choke slam. Benoit sold that choke slam incredibly. Sid goes for the cover, but Benoit gets his foot under the ropes to stop the count. Benoit quickly applies the crossface and Sid taps, even though his foot was under the rope as well, but Anderson missed it.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: CHRIS BENOIT
RATING: ***

That was an amazing carry job from Benoit, as he took a thoroughly bobbins Sid and got a very enjoyable match out of him. Probably Sid’s best match since his battles with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels in the WWF actually.

Mean Gene is backstage with new champion Chris Benoit. Benoit cuts a very heartfelt promo about how people doubted him but he worked hard to finally become champion. Arn Anderson comes in and puts both men in the match over, before congratulating Benoit on the victory. Kevin Nash comes over to cause trouble but Benoit tells him to bring it tomorrow night on Nitro. Sadly, Benoit, Malenko, Saturn and Eddie Guerrero would never appear on a WCW telecast again, as the latter three were sent home the following night. Benoit decided that if they were going then he was going as well, so offered to drop the belt before leaving. WCW stupidly just decided to let him leave without transitioning the belt, so he did. WCW staffer Mike Graham then added to the stupidity by cornering Benoit and threatening to kill him, which then gave the group the ammunition they needed to demand releases. Terrified by a possible lawsuit, Bill Busch gave them their releases, and thus WCW’s last claim to fame of being the American company with the best in ring workers went out of the window.

Final Thoughts

I’ve never said this before, but I’m actually disappointed that The Radicalz jumped to the WWF, because Benoit taking on the nWo and possibly working with the likes of Guerrero in title matches would probably have been pretty awesome. That being said, once Hogan came back it would have probably all gone to crap anyway, so they did the right thing in jumping.

One thing I will definitely say about this show was that twelve matches were far too many for a three hour pay per view. They could have easily cut a couple of the matches and given some of the others more time to breathe. The amazing thing is that Kidman/Malenko ended up going accidentally short, so who knows how the rest of the card would have been affected if they’d gone their allotted time?

There were some pretty lousy matches on this show, but Buff/DDP and Benoit/Sid were good enough to make it somewhat worthwhile, whilst some of the biggest disasters (Kidman/Malenko and Oklahoma/Madusa) at least had an entertaining car crash quality to them. I’d stop short of recommending the show as a whole, but I’d certainly encourage you to at least watch the Buff/DDP match on the WWE Network, as that’s a genuine hidden gem.

Thanks to all for reading and take care till next time!