Entry #171
Booker T vs. Jeff Jarrett
San Francisco 49ers Match for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship
WCW Monday Nitro - October 2, 2000
Time for one last stupid pile of nonsense from this Nitro! And it's a pretty infamous stip match. Basically: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vince Russo has just vacated the title, and this is the match to decide the new champion. It's the first and only San Francisco 49ers Match! Four boxes on poles. One has the title, three have weapons. The man who finds the belt is the champ. This can't be good. It's a Russo special. Let's get this over with.
Mid-Jarrett entrance we get a recap on when the Chosen One smashed Beetlejuice with a guitar. It's a Beetlejuice episode, huh? Booker takes time out before the match starts to give a lady of a "certain age" at ringside his T-shirt, but this lets Jarrett attack him. The fan tries to whip Jarrett with the shirt, which is just that great territory shit I love. A bit of brawling on the outside, then on the inside. As if to portent the success of the match, one of the boxes falls down. Jarrett goes to retrieve it... and gets a blow-up doll. A blow-up doll as a weapon. And this isn't Bully vs. Dreamer, so they don't actually use it, Jarrett just tosses it.
Booker starts to dominate, slams Jarrett a couple of times, then goes for the second box. This box contains not the title, but a framed picture of Scott Hall. Scott Hall, a man who keeps being referenced but hasn't been seen in WCW at this point since February. So, we're zero for two on real wrestling weapons, but Booker slaps Jarrett over the head with the photo anyway. Booker kicks Jarrett out and tries to go for box number three, but Jarrett quickly recovers. On the outside, Jarrett is the first, somehow, to hit on the idea of using the boxes themselves as weapons. Snake Eyes on the barricade, then another box shot to the head. Jarrett tries to piledrive Booker on the announce table, but gets piledriven himself. The table doesn't even have the courtesy of breaking.
Booker grabs the third box, and it's not the title... but a Coal Miner's Glove! Bold of them to make a reference that far back when Russo seems to think that wrestling fans can't remember what happened a week ago. Jarrett crotches Booker on the rope, takes the glove, and hits him with it repeatedly, before smashing a bit of broken box over his head. He goes for the corner that he now knows has the belt, but Booker gets there and now they're brawling in the corner. Booker tries a dropkick but Jarrett grabs the ropes and gives him another glove shot. Instead of going for the belt, again, Jarrett puts on a sleeper. This is rapidly wearing out its welcome. Ref does the arm-raise checks even though THAT'S NOT HOW YOU WIN THE MATCH. Booker also goes for a sleeper but eats a back suplex.
Ref counts a double down despite THAT NOT BEING HOW YOU WIN THE MATCH. Jarrett goes up top for a glove-powered fist drop but falls right into a Book End! Booker T tries to go for it but he takes long enough that Jarrett's recovered. Jarrett teases the Stroke, but no, it's countered so Booker can hits a scissors kick and do the Spinaroonie. Booker goes for the top again but Jarrett hits him right in his Booker T-esticles. Booker then goes for a leg lariat but gets crotched on the ropes. Jarrett tries to find a guitar, fails, and goes up again to hit Booker with an electric chair suplex. He continues to fail to find a guitar, then changes his mind and goes up the ropes... before BEETLEJUICE comes out from under the ring and hits him in the taint.
And for one final insult... as Booker goes to get the belt, it falls out of its box. He has to have it passed to him by ring announcer David Penzer before his championship status is confirmed. So... does that mean Penzer's the champion? Apparently not as Booker is announced the winner as planned. Scott Steiner then comes out with a lead pipe, because you can't have shit as a babyface in Russoland. The ending shot of this show is not Booker T celebrating winning the title, but Scott Steiner putting BEETLEJUICE in the Recliner.
They did their best, honestly, but the stipulation was just too stupid and so many things went wrong in it.