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- Live from Tacoma, Washington - Your hosts are the Usual Idiots.
- Opening match: Blitzkrieg v. Juventud Guerrera. Blitz
has Al Snow's old Avatar costume tonight. Awesome opener, with the boys trading mat stuff
and Juvy getting the first highspot with the tope con hilo. Blitz retaliates with his own
tope, but Juvy dropkicks him in mid-air, and he takes a nasty fall to the floor. Juvy goes
for the Driver, but they go into a complex reversal sequence that ends with Juvy hitting
an inverted DDT for two. Juvy takes Blitz to the top and tries an inverted suplex off the
top, but they fuck it up. Blitz goes for the sky twister, but Juvy moves. Then Juvy gets
the MOTHERFUCKING KICKASS FINISHER TO END ALL FINISHERS, a Juvy Driver off the TOP ROPE!
Wow. Wow. Wow. ****1/4
- Hardcore Hak v. Bam Bam Bigelow. They both bring
plunder to the ring, and we get right into the garbage wrestling as Hak puts Bigelow on
the table in the aisle and dives off the stagecoach, putting Bigelow through the table.
Pretty impressive spot. We head to the ring and they hit each other with weapons. And, uh,
yeah, that's about it. Good for what it was, but that's about it. ***1/2
- Scotty Riggs v. Mikey Whipwreck. Hey, Scotty has a
gimmick! He's the Narcissist II. This is your pretty standard 1st hour Thunder match.
Mikey is doing some nice bumping, however. Scotty is SO Val Venis/Rick Martel/Rick Rude
here, doing hip gyrations and being Mr. Arrogant. Crowd responds with a spontaneous
"boring" chant. Loud one too. The FLYING FOREARM OF DOOM from Riggs finishes it.
Yawn. **
- Gonnad v. Disco Inferno. Disco has the Urban Cowboy
look today. Huge heel heat for Disco as he uses a modified version of the rolling
clothesline and the crotch shake. Funny stuff. Standard 1st hour Nitro match follows.
Rest, stall, dance, you know the routine. Gonnad hits Disco's own Chartbuster on him for
the pin. Bleh. *1/2
- Okay, the two matches I had budgeting to suck have
sucked, so we're within budget.
- Cruiserweight title match: Rey Mysterio Jr. v. Billy
Kidman. Great gymnastic sequence to start. Rey takes the BUMP WITH CHEESE AND BACON,
getting backdropped to the floor and landing right on his side. Kidman hits a pescado for
good measure. Kidman drops him on his throat and legdrops him over the railing. Rey smacks
his head on the stairs on a flying headscissors on the floor. He gets in the ring and hits
another couple of highspots to work the kinks out. I dunno, they just seem to be going
through the motions here, doing an exhibition of spots. Kidman hits a shooting star press
off the apron, mis-called by Tenay and corrected by Tony. Pretty boring resting sequence.
Kidman hits a Pedigree but Rey pops up. Rey gets his killer bulldog for two. Kidman does
his finishing sequence, but Rey pops up before the SSP and hits the top rope rana for the
anticlimactic pin. The Nitro match was WAY better and the crowd response here showed it.
**1/2
- The Vanilla Midgets v. Raven & Saturn. The Flock
pulls out a ton of cool double-teams on Benoit to start. Raven gets triple-teamed by the
Horsemen outside the ring and the Midgets work over Raven. Arn is jawing with the fans the
whole time. Guess which team Charles Robinson favors. Fans completely turn on the
Horsemen, booing them mercilessly. Well, I'll take heel heat over no heat. Saturn gets the
hot tag and decks Anderson, which is a good sign for his healing. Malenko is just being a
motherfucker here. Saturn goes for the DVD, but Benoit gets a german suplex, but a
pier-six breaks out. Malenko gets the Cloverleaf on Saturn, but he escapes and hits the
DVD. Benoit makes the save. Wild stuff. Saturn gets caught in the corner and
double-teamed. Crowd is chanting "Horsemen suck" at various intervals. Malenko
is being a mega-jerk, something he's very good at. Raven gets the hot tag (big pop) and
cleans house. Big babyface reaction for the DROP TOEHOLD OF DOOM. Saturn goes for the
tabledive on Malenko, but misses and goes through the table. Back in the ring, Raven gets
the Evenflow on Malenko, and Arn casually walks into the ring (despite mild protests from
Charles Robinson) and places a chair on top of Raven. Chris hits the swan dive onto the
chair, sacrificing himself and doing a major bladejob for fun, and Malenko rolls on top
for the pin. Wow, great match. ****1/2
- US title tournament finals: Scott Steiner v. Booker T.
Scott walks around the ring drawing cheap heat before we start. If Ahmed Johnson and Scott
Steiner were in the same jail cell, who would be the bitch? Man, Scott should go to
Memphis, he'd be huge there. Pretty good match Scott with an overbooked ending. Ref gets
bumped and Booker goes through his ending sequence. Scott deliberately KOs the ref again,
and hits the top rope rana. It gets two. Then, in a Randy Savage Memphis moment, he pulls
an international object out of his tights and nails Booker with it during a suplex, and
gets the pin and the US title. All the ref bumps weren't really necessary, but the match
was good enough. ***
- Kevin Nash v. Goldberg. All I ask is that Nash jobs.
Nash actually dominates for most of the match, then the ref gets bumped. Lex Luger nails
Goldie with the chair, but when Nash goes for the powerbomb Goldberg counters with the
Steve Richards testicular claw, then hits a vicious spear on Nash and Jackhammers him for
the pin. Good for you Nash, take one for the company. That's all I wanted. **1/2
- Four corners match, WCW World title match: Ric Flair v.
Hulk Hogan v. Sting v. DDP. Hoochie mama, check out Gorgeous George. Sting and DDP start,
with Sting destroying DDP and Flair making the save. Flair and Hogan do a sequence next,
with the WEIGHTLIFTING BELT OF DEATH making an appearance. Sting and DDP fight outside the
ring meanwhile. Hulk does his thing and gets the legdrop, but Sting saves Flair. Now Flair
runs through his offense on Hogan. Flair gets the figure-four while Sting and DDP fight
outside again. DDP makes the save. Now it's the DDP and Hogan show, with Sting and Flair
fighting outside the ring. DDP gets the ringpost figure-four (you wish, buddy) and Sting
makes the save. Hogan gets helped back to the dressing room because he hurt his knee.
Awwwww, poor baby. Eric the Grey makes an appearance for some reason. Now we get a
Sting-Flair sequence that goes nowhere, then a Sting-DDP sequence. This is pretty
disjointed. Now Sting and Flair do their bit, and we of course work in the triple sleeper
spot. Sting hulks up and gets the deathlock on Flair, but DDP makes the save. Sting is
looking good here. Flair gives Sting two blatant ballshots and slaps on the figure-four.
Savage drags them to the center of the ring...and drops the big elbow on Flair! Eh? DDP
hits the Diamond Cutter...AND GETS THE PIN?????? What the holy flying fuck was that? WCW
World champion DDP? What are they thinking? WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?!? Can't really rate
it, it was too weird.
The Bottom Line: What a weird-ass ending to an otherwise
great show. There's absolutely no way DDP's title reign lasts beyond tomorrow night. Oh
well, dumb booking aside, this was still easily the best show of the year so far. See what
a little forethought can do?
Thumbs way up. |