Alright. American holiday, day off work... why do something enjoyable when instead you can watch this WCW show.

We just left off with Rey beating Kidman.

Next segment is a flashback to apparently the reunionification of the Raven / Saturn tag team while fighting Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit.

I guess between those 2 teams and Rey/Kidman there's been a 3 way rivalry recently for the belts.

This is actually pretty good stuff. All these guys are awesome.

Next match turns out to be Raven/Saturn vs Dean/Benoit.

This is the period when Saturn wore that patent leather skirt thing. Tonite's version is longer, but cut down the sides to let his legs move freely.

Heenan just said "what's Saturn wearing; mud flaps?"

lol.

Match ends with Raven getting laid out in the middle of the ring, Arn Anderson (he's there since Dean and Benoit are Horsemen) places a chair over Raven's head.

Benoit does the diving headbutt onto it and gets the pin.

Fun match!

i read a book on the demise of WCW (NOT the just released book) and i vaguely recall some Tacoma PPV being a real low point (or negative bellweather) for WCW. so far away geographically from its traditional base.

i will probably get the new book on WCW demise....... so many problems for that company. together with turner corp, they didn't seem to know what they even wanted to be (TV, PPV, running towns). not to mention Bischoff and Russo... not sure if this was highly feasible but i think they should have stuck to core southern-inspired product.

Is it the Guy Evans book? I heard on the Post Wrestling podcast that it's pretty good. And John Pollack reads all of them, so he's got a good basis for an opinion.

Okay, slight pause but we're back at it.

There's a tournament for the US Championship I guess, and this is the final match (?). The winner will wrestle he current champ (?).

It's Scott Steiner vs Booker T, who is oddly the current Television Champ.

I expect this to be garbage of the hot variety, but who knows.

Crowd is VERY interested in talking smack to Steiner.

Not very interesting to watch, but they look like they're having fun.

Lot of ref bumping, ball kicking, and other assorted shenanigans.

Booker T did hit an impressive looking vertical suplex, though.

Steiner wins eventually and becomes the US Champion. He hit a Frankensteiner off the top rope, but the finish was from a punch with something hidden in his hand.

I was not entertained, but the crowd seemed to like it well enough.

I know I said it before, but the lack of constant jump-cuts really is so much better than the modern style of camerawork.

Okay, next segment is an interview backstage with Rey where the sound is off and you can't hear anything he says. Beautiful.

Nash vs Goldberg on deck!

Wolfpac Nash out with Lex Luger and Elizabeth.

Weird.

yes, i believe it is. that's the newly released book...... i read an older book that was very popular. i will get the title.

i read JJ Dillon's book (i think it is pretty old and not that well read) and i think he did a great job on demise of WCW... turner wanted TV content/ratings, bookers gave away all their best stuff for free. all of that is fine but there wasn't enough money in that. needed direct revenue of PPV and running towns. i watching a 60 man battle royal from WCW and i'm wondering why they need so many wrestlers when they weren't running towns near as much as WWE. basically a very tight product would have worked really well on TV and not cost nearly as much as they spent.

the old WCW book i read did draw me to 1) ric flair mental hospital (i think this is brilliant. problem is that they moved on to new ideas too quickly), 2) "that's the Wall, brother", 3) shockmaster, 4) yeti sp?

for top 3 bad gimmicks of all-time, is there any competition to shockmaster, yei and gobblydegooker (i actually like him. good for kids)

They ring the bell to start the match right after Nash calls for the mic.

So we're live for the match, but Nash is on the mic telling us "Wolfpac is in the house!" ...then he gives the mic back. lol. That was it? He wanted to say that!?

Goldberg gets beat up for a few minutes, starts to make a comeback, goes for the spear and Nash leapfrogs it. Goldberg lands it on the ref.

Luger hits Goldie with a super weaklooking chair shot and the shenanigans are afoot. Lex actually held the folded chair backwards and hit him with the part that has the legs instead of the backrest portion.

Goldie ends up taking out Luger, then puts Nash in a TERRIBLE/SLOPPY/WEAK jackhammer. It was basically a suplex. Not sure what went wrong cause he's strong enough to do it, but failed miserably here.

Goldberg gets the pin in 7 minutes.

Not my thing, but this was probably fun at the time (?).

Edit- double post

Main event (?), 4 corners Texas Tornado match.

Hulk, Sting, DDP, and Flair with special guest referee Macho Man.

Rules are whoever gets the first fall is the new champ and ends the match.

Macho out first with Gorgeous George, who appears to be debuting. The announcers say we haven't seen Macho in a while, but I'm not sure what the deal with that is. He is not in NWO clothing. He looks like the Bonesaw from Spider-Man get-up.

Flair out next. He's apparently the President of WCW and the reigning champ. Makes you wonder why he put himself in this match where you can lose the belt without getting beat yourself, but 1999 WCW is not a thinking man's game.

DDP out and then Wolfpac Hogan. I did not remember red and black Hogan at all.

Time must be an issue, cause these intros are super rushed.

Sting out last.

Hogan is super bald. Macho is the ref but he's in normal wrestler clothes, which is lol.

Hogan and Flair get dumped to the outside and just live there for a while. DDP and Sting fight in the ring.

Sting with the stinger splash finisher at the 85 second mark on DDP; announcers sell it as the certain end when he goes for the follow-up pin, but someone breaks it up.

All these dudes look super old except DDP. Edit: I guess Sting doesn't look old, just out of shape and thin and tiny.

Probably what the Australia show WWE just ran looked like last weekend with Kane/Shawn Michaels/HHH/Undertaker.

At 3:30 Hulk hulks up, hits the boot and leg drop on Flair while simultaneously Sting has DDP in the submission deathlock.

At 3:30! It's like the match is on fast forward.

Flair botched taking a diamond cutter. Not really noteworthy in the big picture, but it was funny.

Crowd sounds dead.

At the 6:33 mark the trainer comes out and Hulk is taken to the back because of a kayfabe knee injury.

Eric Bischoff comes out wearing a jacket too big for his body and walks back with Hogan.

We proceed 3 on 3.

Flair had a sleeper on Sting, then DDP runs around and puts Flair in a sleeper. Double rest holds! Just what the crowd wanted!

Flair has Sting in the figure four in the middle of the ring at 16:30, but our ref Macho drops an elbow off the top rope onto him.

Tony Schivane says "I don't understand what just happened."

Crowd is dead. Macho goes back into being the ref, at 17:26 DDP hits the diamond cutter on Flair for the win and takes the world title belt.

Crowd seems to be confused. Macho and Gorgeous George leave, and the show ends it.

wtf.

I have to wonder if it was as good as Brock's at WM 33.



That tag match with Raven and co. looks like it'd be a fun match