Vamp confronted Chono, but before the two could come to blows, we cut to another part of the arena where Mean Gene Okerlund was standing by with David Flair, Crowbar, and Daffney. Out in the back, Scott Hudson tried to interview Vampiro about the rivalry, but instead Masahiro Chono, of all people, randomly arrived on the scene and began ranting in Japanese to the camera. The video package was supposed to help us understand the story between them, but alas, it made about as much sense as, well, as anything else in WCW at the time. Prior to the next bout, we were shown a video package which recapped Vampiro's feud with David Flair, Crowbar and Daffney.
#HOW WCW SHOULD HAVE BOOKED SOULED OUT 1997 PRO#
I'm normally a believer that everything I see on a pro wrestling show is a work, but this was clearly two men who were irate that the finish of their match had been screwed up. Post-match, both Kidman and Malenko looked furious and stormed off backstage. Your Winner via Disqualification: Billy Kidman When he returned, referee Charles Robison called for the bell. Reacting on instinct, The Man of 1,000 Holds obviously forgot the entire concept of the match and bailed to the outside. Kidman could have been a classic, but in January 2000, it was barely a match at all.Īfter about a minute and a half of action, Billy caught Dean with a flurry of offence. The announcers told us that this was to stop Kidman running away, even though he was the babyface.Īt any other time in the company's history, Dean Malenko vs. If both feet touched the floor, you lost the match. The stipulation here was 'catch-as-catch-can,' or in Plain English - actual wrestling.Īs part of catch-as-catch-can rules, one stipulation was that you couldn't leave the ring. Instead, they would be split up throughout the show, with a different stipulation for each one. However, these weren't one after the other, gauntlet style, because that would make too much sense. Triple Threat Theatre basically meant that Billy Kidman had three separate matches tonight. Triple Threat Theatre: Match 1 - Catch-as-Catch-Can Still, at least the opening match looked promising: With each match represented by a crappy graphic that looked like your technology-illiterate grandma had knocked it up on Microsoft Paint, we were told to look forward to such highlights as Tank Abbott vs.
was hurt couldn't ruin the optimism that this just might be a good show. The injury to The Hitman, was, of course, the one that would bring his career to an end that year, though for now, even news that The Best There Is. Those two had been taken off the card and their respective opponents, Sid Vicious and Chris Benoit would now face each other for the vacant WCW title. The trio told us that the card had changed slightly due to injuries to Bret 'The Hitman' Hart and Jeff Jarrett. Instead, we got a cold open that took us straight to the announce table.Įven more good news came in the form of Mike Tenay, who was back where he should have been, taking his rightful place next to Tony Schiavone and Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan after being replaced by the mediocre Scott Hudson at last month's Starrcade 1999. Still, if I'm ever going to survive, I need simply to live in denial about this and hold on to the hope that somewhere, among all the garbage, there's a few gems.Įven at their creative peak, WCW's opening video packages had always been pretty terrible, so it was a good sign that Souled Out 2000 didn't have one.
#HOW WCW SHOULD HAVE BOOKED SOULED OUT 1997 FULL#
WCW's last full calendar year of shows has been universally panned as one of their worst ever. Still, it's the start of a new year, so maybe, just maybe, the company could turn it around for one last creative hoorah before they shut up shop a year or so later. Honestly, watching them was just a trying experience that I almost gave up on this blog altogether. The majority of the matches ranged from mediocre to atrocious, and many of the booking decisions were either dumb, nonsensical, or completely frustrating. Throughout the year, most of the company's top stars mentally checked out. One by one, each successive pay per view somehow got worse and worse. The company had started the last year of the decade pretty well but, by December, they were in a creative mess. Anyone who regularly follows Retro Pro Wrestling will know that reviewing World Championship Wrestling's 1999 PPVs just about killed me off.
0 kommentar(er)
