<> Wrath def. Glacier
<> Stevie Ray def. Konnan
Strange screwjob ending, which saw Vincent hit Stevie Ray with
the foreign object, and Konnan exploded onto his fallen foe. The ref
dq'd Konnan, and Booker ran down for the save on his brother. Konnan
voluntarily backed up from Stevie, as the brothers were wary of each
other and Stevie left with Vincent, arms raised high in the air.
<> Sonny Onoo & Ernest Miller def. Saturn & Kaz Hayashi
The match went back and forth, incorporating all members in a
surprisingly fluid tag team encounter. For the finish, Saturn hit a
couple of suplexes on Miller, and went after Onoo; but as the ref
attended to Kaz (a weak excuse, though often used), as The Cat took
out a distracted Saturn and gave the pin to his manager.
Surprisingly good match, focusing more on wrestling than the
idiotic playing to the crowd that often brings down matches involving
managers and otherwise. In fact, it beats the pants off of any match
the New Age Outlaws or Headbangers have been involved in as of late,
which shows, perhaps, how much untapped mid-card talent WCW has.
<> Kidman def. Juventud Guerrera (New Cruiser Champ)
About ten minutes in, the pair started making use of the three
rings for the night's Battle Royal exceptionally well; frankensteiners
and triple-jumps from one ring into the other, all incredibly well
performed with expert timing, all obviously practiced so as to look
believable, and as unscripted as possible. These guys knew their
stuff. If it wasn't obvious already that a lot more time for prepar-
ation than usual had gone into this match,which it was from the getgo,
there was no doubt by now.
Near the end, Kidman hit a fallaway suplex and went up top, as
Rey Mysterio ran down to ringside. Juventud went for the Hurricurrana
from the top rope, but Rey held Kidman's pants so Juvi took the bump,
with Kidman following up with the Shooting Star Press. New champ.
Class match. It was more than just a Nitro or Thunder Cruiserweight
match, featuring what many would say the two top luchadors in the
federation. The screwjob ending was a shame, but didn't detract too
much as it normally would from the match, particularly since it's
rare in a cruiser match and came with a legitimate reason to advance
storylines, instead of simply easing the egos in the back. Wonderful
match, well booked, solid storyline and good use of a screwjob; this
is the reason they were invented, not to solve political deadlocks.
Marshall and Madden continued throughout the ppv to rabble on
about the internet, perhaps a little less than usual, with Lee again
referring to all the online fans as "Garboons". It's rather remark-
able how stupid they sounded; the idea of broadcasting in front of
fans isn't new to either, but they were acting like children, beyond
the call of kayfabe (which is largely neutralized in the online
environment). I still don't get why they have to rip so harshly.
Even the biggest mark simply does not deserve to be insulted flat
out after purchasing WCW's product. All I can assume is that Mar-
shall and Madden are feeling somewhat violated by the internet inva-
sion; to back of that theory,both seemed to make a lot of historical
references, though not obscure, came across to an extent as being a
deliberate show of their knowledge. Take it easy guys, we know who's
sitting in the broadcaster's chairs, we don't have to hate you....
The bouncing duo Beat on Steiner for several minutes, before
Goldberg made the save to a huge pop. At least the mentality was
consistent; what was to be a very strong vibe throughout the
night, there was a total lack of swerves on the event; WCW has
been using FAR too many of those in recent months, which makes
all the characters seem shallow. Scott Hall, Buff and Scott, and
Bret had all suffered from the mentality of "if it doesn't work
100%, turn him immediately".Building up personalities takes time.
The best thing you can do with them is be consistent, so the
audience can, in one way or another, relate to the stars. They
teased a Scott - Goldberg match - They're *really* desperate for
opponents for Goldberg.
<> Hall and Nash go to a no decision
<> Chris Jericho (TV Champ) defeats Bobby Duncam
One of Jericho's "bodyguards" interfered, as Jericho hit
Duncum in the back with the title belt. A very 80's / early 90's
finish, for a match somewhere between 1998 and 1962.
I visited the WCW chat room on IRC (the same one Chad Damiani refers
to on his internet play by play with Mark Madden and Lee Marshall),
and perhaps to an extent it was evident from this example why there
was little initiative on the part of the latter two broadcast journal-
ists to give some credit to the online fans. One remark, which Chad
caught, was "Bret (who wasn't a participant) is going to win WW3, I
read it on the internet". That's the quote. No pages mentioned. Just
"On the Internet". While many others seemingly suffered from
tourettes syndrome,it was perfectly evident that the majority of the
smarter fans just didn't care to be referenced to on WCW television,
and didn't show up. Everyone, however,went crazy to see the progress
the Horsemen made (particularly Benoit) in the Battle Royal; he was
one of the last five guys.
<> Kevin Nash wins World War 3
The match started faster than ever. People were flying out of
the ring left right and center; Jericho was out early, as was to be
expected, and Duncum followed soon after. Kevin Nash went on a rampage
in ring #3, reminiscent of his astonishing '94 Royal Rumble perfor-
mance. After dealing with Van Hammer, he was escorted to another ring.
I've always been a mark for specialty matches which involve
the use of an asinine amount of talent, and WW3 is no exception.
Yes, the selling and sheer number of people who seemed to fly
over the top were questionable, but it was still a lot of fun.
Near the end, it broke down to the Wolfpack, Malenko and
Benoit, Scott Hall and like that. Down to five, it was Luger, Nash,
Hall, Malenko and Benoit. The Horsemen went to work on Hall as Kev
and Luger stood back; Hall broke out and fought back, as the Pack
got involved to help get rid of the pair.
From here, things got just a little strange, as Luger and Nash
seemed to decide that he'd either leave the ring (ala Juventud for
Malenko at Slamboree) or take on Hall first; but a few seconds
later, Nash got into it, taking out Luger. They would embrace at
the end. Nash did away with both his opponents (fitting, too,
considering Luger's great success in the '96 World War 3 where he
racked the Giant and Hall's victory last year) to claim the spot
to face Goldberg at Starrcade.
About half way through, Bam Bam did a run-in, but thankfully
it came to no avail in the overall outcome. They're still playing
Bam Bam as a non-WCW wrestler, just like Hall and Nash at first
(Did they ever actually sign contracts, in the mark world?). Berg
came in after him and put a stop to it. Little teaser, probably
for Nitro, didn't really interfere with what was going on.
<> DDP defeated Bret Hart (retains U.S. title)
At the end, Damiani talked about how no matter how good the performers
are, if they're not practiced at what's going on in the particular
match, something is missing; and my hand to god brother, I didn't
write my comments above about the Kidman/Juvi bout after hearing that,
those were written live, and it really, as Chad said,showed; the extra
preparation, the extra effort is what makes the ppv worth buying, not
the extra price tag, and it definitely made the cruiser title match
something to be remembered. It was a throwback to when the federations
used TV shows to build towards PPVs, and saved their big guns till
then.
© 1997 flawless316@usa.net
Glacier and Wrath started off the pay per view. Wrath got a huge pop
from the crowd, and carried on that momentum throughout the bout. The
former Adam Bomb dominated the match for the first five minutes, in-
side the ring, outside and in the crowd. Glacier finally mounted some
offense near the end and went for the Asianic Spike (sp), but it was
blocked as Wrath hit the pump handle powerbomb for the three count.
Solid big man bout. It seems, however, that WCW is developing a
dangerous trend of either continually jobbing or continually pushing
several wrestlers; both Goldberg and now Wrath are, in fact, being
held back by their win streaks being perceived a major part of their
character.Both men could get by without them (and would be a lot more
popular on the internet) so I hope they don't trap Wrath in the same
corner.
Stevie Ray and Konnan wrestled a solid, if unspectacular match. The
pace was slow, incorporating many rest holds and much interference
from Vincent on the outside of the ring. Both men at this stage seem
to be suffering from lack of direction; the match was swamped in an
overall fog of a lack of direction. Both guys did a good job, but
neither have been in a real feud in recent months.
Miller ducked out early, but the pace was faster than
expected. A few minutes in Saturn and The Cat had a good few minutes
of exchange. Onoo refused his second tag of the match, but finally
ended up in the ring against Saturn, who took him down. Saturn and
Kaz then double-dropkicked Miller.
This match was wrestled in a more traditional style; two luchador-
style wrestlers went at it more like a Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels,
which in my opinion, added to it's appeal; there was far less unbel-
ievable selling and bumps, long-winded setups and ridiculous spots;
instead, it was top quality wrestling of the same caliber of the
previous two athletes, with thicker traditional action, every move
pulled off exceptionally and a very, very consistent pace from the
two light-weight stars;when you start adding the luchador moves to
that solid a basis, the quality really begins to show. Easily a
nomination for match of the year. Deli Boy noted that Juventud was
playing a more ground based style.
At the start of the bout the NWO Black and White punked Hall
for how he insulted Eric Bischoff on Nitro. Kevin Nash ran down to
the ring and cleaned house; when Scott looked for the handshake,
Nash walked out on him. This, frankly,was the best they could have
done at this stage. Instead of any cookey swerves which make the
guys look like they stuff from multiple personality disorder, a
development in this line actually makes sense. That's a point to
be stressed, which I didn't agree with Survivor Series last week;
unlike the rest of this angle so far, this move really sat well
with me, it was a continuation instead of a roll of the dice event.
Hopefully the rest of the angle, even when the unexpected happens,
will be not predictable, but reliable and have flow.
Good move. Liked it.
Jericho vs. Duncam was long and unspectacular; the nagging
feeling during this match was, despite the effort, that Duncum's
style was very outdated. Should he have been wrestling against a
Harley Race, even Ric Flair, guys who pushed the "normal"
wrestling to it's limits years ago by way of excellent execution
and progressing match storylines by way of their wrestling style,
in the day before "spot fest" matches, it would have been a lot
more pleasing; but we're used to Jericho wrestling a cruiser-
weight style, and the whole thing moved at a very strange pace.
Not a bad match, by any means.
An item of note which was mentioned to me by Steve, The British
Bulldog's name popped up on the board at the start. Was he supposed
to be in it? Or was the board just several weeks (months?) old?Very
strange, considering he no-showed the last PPV. Though, with the
confusion already about how many people would be in the event from
WCW.com, it's not hard to imagine that he was gone from WCW and
still penciled in as a player.
Hart vs. DDP perhaps firmly re-established Page as a main event
wrestler, and one of the most adaptable performers in the history of
the sport He brought a slightly extended repertoire out of the usually
predictable "Hitman", and managed to emulate Hart's style too, with
the Sharpshooter (Madden, in one of his best moments, shouted "Ring
the bell!" in a Vince McMahon spin-off) and super-figure four. The
bout's ending was horrible, which really cast a shadow on the PPV;
it wasn't profound enough to turn you around on it, but it was dissa-
pointing to see the kind of booking that seemed missing from the
card still in there. Scott Steiner's fake referee, who was earlier
seen being tossed by Goldberg, showed up and awarded the match to
Hart while the original official was knocked out; The original re-
covered and DDP hit the Diamond Cutter. At least it was a pin. Great
match, very solid, hard work as usual. Hart need it, coming off the
very lackluster encounter between he and Sting at Havoc.
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