World Championship Wrestling by Jim Cornette

[Stojy]

So I’ve narrowed down the three BTB’s I want to do. I’ll continue WWE 2009, I’ll continue to repost ECW, and then there’s this bad boy. Honestly, I’ve wanted to do this for YEARS, but ECW took up to much time. I don’t want anybody to get fooled, this will not be a traditional WCW BTB. This will be recapping a bunch of stuff as per this below post, and then from there, I will be posting shows.

What recapping will allow me to do is get to a point in mid-2000 where I’ve crafted somewhat of a super roster. Yep, expect to see guys like Angle, Edge, Christian, Hardyz all debut in WCW instead of WWF/E. So there’ll be a few more posts like the below before I’ll post a PPV (the first proper show) which will detail the results of the first night Cornette was head booker, without having to deal with Bischoff.

Just to reiterate, unlike in the past with my BTB’s where I stick to realism, this will not be the case here. Plenty of outrageous stuff in the works…

World Championship Wrestling by Jim Cornette ​

The intro to the podcast is finished. Recently retired head of creative Jim Cornette sits in a room alongside Conrad Thompson. The two have finished shooting the shit, and it’s time to get into the point of the podcast, Cornette going over his time in WCW, the number one professional wrestling company in the world. The time now is 2023. The time then? Well, Cornette joined WCW in 1997, and the first question from Conrad is surrounding Cornette leaving the World Wrestling Federation for WCW.

“This probably isn’t a surprise to many, Conny, but I’m not exactly shy on givin’ my opinion on things. To put it frank, I was MISERABLE at the WWF. The old man has his funny ways for sure, but this is not a knock on Vince McMahon. I’ll tell you who it is a knock on though, Vince fuckin’ Russo. That brainless ass backwards magazine writer… Yes, because that’s what he is, a magazine writer, Russo is the main reason I left. I got sick and tired of the direction the company was heading. To me, the sport of professional wrestling was still important, but all the WWF and Russo cared about was tits and ass. Every idea I put out there got shut down for being to southern, so I eventually said to hell with it, I’ll join the southern alternative then.

Conny and Cornette go back and forth over the dealings with Eric Bischoff and WCW to get him over to the company. Conrad then asks Cornette what his initial duties were, as we all know he didn’t actually become head booker until 2000. In 1997, Cornette was just part of the team.

“I didn’t really like Bischoff either to be honest, but anybody who wasn’t as blind as Stevie Wonder could see that he’d struck gold with the NWO. Turning the biggest name in the history of the business heel the way they did? Hogan can’t work a lick, but this angle worked perfectly. When I first joined, I wasn’t really sure how it would work, and whether I’d need to run all my ideas by Eric, the way I was forced to with Russo in WWF. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Bischoff had complete control of the main events and the NWO, and look how that turned out, but I basically got free reign with the mid card. Guys like Booker T, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Kurt Angle, Edge, Christian, I’m sure there’s plenty I’m missing, but I got to do whatever I wanted with these guys and that suited me just fine. Sure, the NWO was where the money was at when I joined, but I much preferred the in ring wrestling and simpler angles that I could produce with the, well, back then at least, lesser names."

Conrad refers to the fact that at one point or another, Bischoff’s relationship with WCW soured, and that’s when Cornette got to step in and take control. We’ll go more in depth in on all of that later, but Thompson does wonder what stands out to Cornette in terms of storylines and angles in the early stages of his tenure in WCW.

“I mean, NOW wise, for the better part of a year and a half they had been building for Sting to come back and take the title off of Hogan at Starrcade. Sting was out of shape and blown up within three minutes and Hogan can’t work, but thankfully there was no way they could fuck that one up. One of the things I remember throughout 1997 though was to many unimportant people joining the NWO. It got convoluted and was already starting to lose it’s impact, but after having Scott Hall win War Games in November 97, I thought Bischoff played a really smart hand here. After Sting defeated Hogan at Starrcade, they met again at Souled Out the following month. Sting retained the title, putting a definitive end on that feud, but then The Outsiders or whatever the fuck they called themselves… Nash and Hall came in and turned on Hogan, beating him to a pulp. That really stands out to me because at the time it was clear WCW was a one trick pony with the NWO angle, and this was a good way to keep it fresh.

From my perspective, I was having the time of my life booking the mid card. I had Chris Benoit start to feel really important, he beat Jeff Jarrett at Halloween Havoc in a Loser Leaves Town match, and from there he went to Starrcade and beat Curt Hennig to become US Champ. Not long after Starrcade I had Benoit and Raven start a program over the US Title, meanwhile Eddie and Jericho traded the Cruiserweight title back and forth. That was crucial in the development of Jericho as he turned from happy go lucky, to a real paranoid champion with a mean streak. And I was using the TV Title to put over Booker T as well, I had him go over Syxx at Souled Out to retain, which took some battling with Bischoff because Syxx was NWO. Luckily, Waltman was a sport and happy to take the L at the time.

I guess it would be remiss of me not to call out that we also had Goldberg debut at this time and he begun squashing people with his two moves he could do well.

From there, Conrad stops Cornette and talks about all the great memories they’ve just rehashed there. Conrad promises there’s more to come and falls into one of his real estate scheme ads…

 

[Stojy]

We’re back and Conrad Thompson recaps what he went through with the awesome Jim Cornette before the ad break. He recaps some of the angles that Cornette has spoken about so far, before mentioning that Cornette hasn’t had a lot to say about the issues with Eric Bischoff. Conrad presses Jim a little as to when they started.

“You know, as much as people like to paint me a certain way, it might surprise you, but I’m the fuckin’ lunatic waving around a tennis racquet. I don’t chase drama and drama doesn’t chase me, and I’m lucky too, because god knows it would catch me. The point I’m tryin’ to make is I didn’t have any real heat with Bischoff. Sure, I took his job, he probably didn’t like that to much, but it wasn’t because I lobbied for it. It was because the company decided they wanted to go in a different direction. As much as I was complimenting Eric on his NWO angle early on, he didn’t have much else despite the talent on the roster. At this time, things were starting to get interesting to because Stone Cold was white hot, DX was white hot, The Rock was startin’ his run up the card, a lot of people in WCW were getting nervous, which is what eventually made them pick me over Bischoff. I truly believe if Bischoff remained in charge, Hulk Hogan would have still been running around with the WCW Title in 2008.”

Conrad can’t help but chuckle at Cornette’s way of words before taking his word for the lack of issues with Bischoff. As always the attentive host, Conrad does admit that he expects some more juicy rumour and innuendo around Bischoff as they go on.

“Believe me, Conny, when the shit started to hit the fan with Bischoff, I’ll tell you”.

From there, the conversation turns back to the actual product that World Championship Wrestling was putting on at the time. Conrad talks about how the latest results Cornette discussed previously were from Souled out in January 1998, and wonders what happened next.

“I know a lot of people listening to this are big WCW fans so I’ll start off with the NWO and World Title angles. One of the first big mistakes I felt Bischoff made was the booking of Sting’s World Title run. After ALL that build, and the well-executed main event at Starrcade ’97, Sting only held the title for four months, and he looked like a chump for a fair portion of that as well. Sting looked great when he beat DDP at SuperBrawl in February, but everything went down hill from here. Bischoff felt like after turning on Hogan, The Outsiders and the NWO were the hottest thing going. Scott Hall had just taken out War Games, turned on Hogan and then he pinned Sting in a tag team match when The Outsiders faced Sting and DDP at Uncensored. Sting looked terrible from here onwards and in April at Spring Stampede, Scott Hall beat Sting to become the new champion. I thought this decision sucked, but the one thing I’ll give Bischoff credit for, at least he chose the right Outsider. I don’t think I could have dealt with Kevin Nash as champion this early on in my tenure.

Of course, whilst we made the old champ look like trash, we couldn’t make the new champ look good either. Hall only won due to Lex Luger, Sting’s best friend, turning his back on him and joining the NWO. Because that’s what the NWO needed, another fuckin’ member.”

Conrad talks a little more about the main event scene before asking Cornette what he had going at the time.

“Similar to what I mentioned before, I was really enjoying booking some of the up and coming talent. Over a few months, Jericho had a heated feud with Juventud Guerrera which ended with Jericho keeping the title and taking Juvi’s mask. I then started a program between Jericho and Rey Mysterio, having Jericho lose by DQ at Spring Stampede to retain the Cruiserweight Title. We had Benoit still putting on classic after classic as US Champ, even beating Raven and Goldberg in a Falls Count Anywhere Triple Threat. Of course, Goldberg wasn’t the one to get beat that way we could still claim the steak.

Booker T was doing the same thing with the TV Title, so Jericho, Benoit and Booker T had a lot of my attention. I was loving the character work of Raven with The Flock as well, but we were managing to keep him over without needing a title to this point. I should call out that Bret Hart debuted at Spring Stampede and beat Lex Luger. Oh and of course on the same night that Lex Luger joining the NWO was the big swerve, Scott Steiner turned on Rick Steiner and joined the NWO as well. Great way to space out your big fuckin’ angles…

Conrad clearly enjoys Cornette’s frustration, pressing him further before they get off topic and begin rambling about something nobody cares about…

 

[Stojy]

The podcast between Conrad Thompson and Jim Cornette continues on, with Conrad seemingly ready for Cornette to continue his journey down memory lane.

“Well I said I’d start telling you when things were starting to get interesting with Bischoff and it was around mid ’98 when that started happening. Scott Hall went on this run where he beat the likes of Randy Savage, DDP, then the NWO lost to Team WCW in War Games which set up the memorable Clash of the Champions 36. God damn it, we recycled the hell out of that ‘Flair For The Gold’ tagline and even with all that hype, Scott Hall retained over Flair that night. Meanwhile, Goldberg had become US Champ, beating Raven for it, who took it off Benoit, and it looked like we will building towards the new consolidated head of the NWO in Scott Hall taking on Goldberg, the next big star at Starrcade. Instead, Halloween Havoc comes by, and inexplicably, and in a match that made no fucking sense, Bischoff decided to have Hogan return and beat Scott Hall for the title. I’m sure it lead to Hogan and Goldberg at Starrcade and Goldberg got his crowning moment anyway, but Hall had all the momentum, had all the hype, and had beaten Hogan previously. It just made no sense and was probably the second or third nail in the coffin for Bischoff.”

Conrad finds that as a really interesting way to end that sentence, so he asks for Cornette to elaborate on Bischoff’s coffin statement.

“Well, the word around the office was that Ted Turner wasn’t to happy with the amount of money Eric was throwing around. Everybody who had done even basic finance before knew that WCW was still making a profit, but we were over spending. Turner and his big wig execs weren’t overly impressed. Now Hogan became champ again, and recycling the same thing again, it saw ratings drop almost immediately. Bischoff was under pressure for the first time.”

Conrad talks about how the ratings drop was definitely interesting but wants to know what happened after Starrcade, when Goldberg won the title.

“I’ll tell you what happened, Bischoff felt himself getting run out of the company by the powers that be, so he decided to take a vacation. Or at least when he announced it in the WCW staff meeting, he called it a vacation, but we were pretty certain it was being enforced by a higher power… And no I’m not talking about Vince fuckin’ McMahon. You see, Souled Out ’99 was probably one of the worse mistakes Bischoff made. He messed up with crowning Hogan, fixed it at Starrcade with Goldberg rightfully taking the title, and then instead of having the new biggest star in the company in the main event, he still pushed his fuckin’ bum buddies. Goldberg defended the title at Souled Out against Kevin Nash of all people, but that went on in the middle of the night, with Scott Hall and Hogan battling in a Street Fight being the main event. People at this stage were sick and tired of the NWO drama, with the live crowd that night turning against the product. Enough was enough, something needed to be done, so Bischoff was put on vacation. In the meantime, I was approached and told that I was interim Head of Creative well Bischoff was off. I bet I wasn’t making the same amount of money that he was…

“What were the changes you made when you took over”?

“The changes were gradual but I started off by putting fresh match ups that the fans actually wanted to see at the top of the card. It had been months since WCW had done that. Of course, Goldberg had to beat Scott Hall because he was the number one contender, but after that, Goldberg had a pretty damn fun program with DDP, before I shocked the world and had him lose the title to Bret Hart at Spring Stampede in April. Bret Hart then jumped straight into a program with DDP, but unfortunately, Bret suffered an injury that is now known as the beginning of the end for Bret with this concussion business. At the time, we thought he’d come good so we just kept him out of the ring, and we built The Bash At The Beach as a PPV that didn’t need our champion. As a matter of fact, I did the most controversial thing which brought Eric Bischoff back out of hiding. I had Team WCW, consisting of Chris Benoit, DDP, Dean Malenko, Ric Flair and Sting beat Team NWO, which was The Outsiders, Curt Hennig, Scott Norton and Buff Bagwell. The controversial part was that the loss banished The Outsiders so Hall and Nash from WCW, and the NWO name was no longer allowed to be used in WCW. This caused a shit storm with Bischoff and he was back at work the next night”.

“We can touch more on the Bischoff stuff shortly, I’m just weary that you’ve just gone through around six months’ worth of angles. You took over the main event and made some changes, but did the fun you were having with the mid card continue”?

“You’re damn right it did. I truly believe the reason WCW stayed ahead and eventually won the wrestling war, even when the main events were getting stale, was because the mid card was amazing. We were doing some really great stuff, meanwhile the WWF had this awful Gang Warfare angle running for a year and a half. Once both teams main events were hot, it was the rest of the card that made the difference. Well, as you know Benoit and Malenko both got a run in The Horsemen which was why they were in that WCW vs. NWO match but I had been gradually building Benoit for a while. I had him lose the US Title to Raven, but he got his heat back with a Starrcade victory over Scott Steiner. Benoit and Malenko then had a tag title run for a few months, which ended with an awesome program with Fit Finlay and Regal, which lead them to the big match at Bash At The Beach.

Raven continued to get push with The Flock, however we had a minor hiccup with Jericho getting a hamstring injury, but we found a way around it. We had Jericho lose the Cruiserweight Title to Billy Kidman, and he was only able to get a rematch if he put his hair on the line. Kidman defeated Jericho again, but Jericho refused the haircut, so he was suspended for 90 days. Unfortunately he wasn’t back in time to make a real impact on Bash At The Beach, but it was around this time that we signed Edge and Christian two a deal. These two young Canadians were fantastic and I immediately put them over two big names in Scott Steiner and Syxx at Bash At The Beach to have them make a memorable impact with the fans.”

“Plenty happening here and you said by the next night, after you basically vanquished the NWO, Bischoff was right back. What was Bischoff like when he returned”?

“Let me just take a sip of water first…”

 

[Stojy]

“A sip of water? Are you building anticipation? Something tells me this next part is going to be good.”

“Yeah, so Bischoff must have pulled some strings with whatever connects he still had after nearly fucking everything up, because the next night on Nitro, here he fuckin’ is. Straight away, he takes me aside and says what I did with the NWO was the wrong call for the business, and that he plans on fixing it. I told him it doesn’t make a lot of sense to bring them back, but he told me not to worry about it, because that was his jurisdiction. I gave him my thoughts, telling him that he’d be stupid to ruin what I had started to rebuild, but again, it was up to him. That was basically it. Like I said, I wasn’t trying to get myself in another pissing contest like I had with that Russo mother fucker. I won’t say anything else about that slimy fuck because it’d probably take up the whole damn episode.

“So what happened that first Nitro with Bischoff back, because there was quite a change to the product right away.”

“Well, the fact is when everybody got to the arena, we had quite literally, a dazed and confused Bret Hart show up. We were a little surprised but he was under doctors orders to not wrestle. I had tried to book around his injuries, but there was supposedly no light at the end of the tunnel, so Bret had to forfeit the title. That wasn’t a Bischoff power move like some people thought it was, quite frankly, we just didn’t have a choice. The most logical option was to be honest about Bret’s injury with the fans and set up a tournament so that’s exactly what we did. We had a bunch of qualifying matches and it all resulted in the finals of the tournament taking place at The Great American Bash. I was pushing hard for Chris Benoit to finally get the strap, but Bischoff didn’t agree, instead putting the title on, surprise, surprise, another one of his buddies. I guess at least Diamond Dallas Page as champion felt fresh and different.”

“I remember as a fan being quite happy for DDP at the time, even if part of me did want to see Benoit win”.

“It took persistence and time, but Page became a great act. I think the issue here was that I felt Benoit was head and shoulders above everybody else in the world from an in ring perspective. Either way, Bischoff found himself in more hot water with the company, and with Bischoff busy, I got to pick DDP’s first challenger so I put him in a program with Scott Norton. Page retained and then just to stick it to Bischoff, at Fall Brawl I had Page lead a Team WCW, along with Sting, Flair, Benoit and Malenko and they beat the left over group from the NWO, which was Norton, Hennig, Vader, Bagwell and Scott Steiner. I did that so there was no chance of Bischoff coming back and making the NWO return. Then at Clash Of The Champions in September, Page dropped the title back to Sting, and then at Halloween Havoc, we went a different route again with Ric Flair beating Sting to win the title, thanks to interference from Raven who had ditched his Flock and kept referring to new followers. Havoc is important because Bischoff was in and out of creative with all his politics going on, and this was the night that I was appointed joint Head of Creative along with Bischoff. Now shit was completely 50/50, which means we had to fight for everything. Again though, Bischoff truly only really cared about the main event scene. The mid card and tag division was still mine to do whatever I wanted with it.”

“So what was happening with the mid card at this time for those of us that can’t remember?”

“Well, I went on a fuckin’ signing spree in this period. We brought in The Hardyz to battle with Edge and Christian, and along with Regal and Finlay, they were tearin’ down the house every single night, which culminated at Halloween Havoc when Edge and Christian beat The Hardyz in a Ladder Match to win the tag titles. Eddie Guerrero had the US Title, I brought in Val Venis to work his way into a program with Eddie, where Eddie retained the title at Halloween Havoc in a great match. I signed some Japanese talent which the WWF were misusing so Taka, Men’s Teioh and one of my personal favourites, Dick Togo came on board and helped further strengthen the Cruiserweight division. We put the Cruiserweight strap on Juventud, who beat Mysterio and Kidman in a Three Way at Halloween Havoc, Vader beat DDP, Benoit and Malenko continued to tear it up, so much was happening. And then we got some even better news… Bret Hart was cleared to comeback and compete”.

Conrad goes into another hard sell of his real estate scheme, giving Cornette the chance to take a breather before we move on…

 

[Stojy]

“So, Jim, I gotta’ ask, how did managing everything with Bischoff 50/50 work. To be honest, neither of you seem like the type to like to share booking responsibility, and your philosophies were the complete opposite”.

“Well, here’s the thing, Conrad. In this era of wrestling, WCW vs. WWF, there were on two things Ted Turner’s underlings cared about. Ratings and pay per view buy rate, because that meant we were makin’ cash. And well Bischoff left, and I took over, these things skyrocketed. The proof was in the pudding, I had Raven take over the NWO and rename it The Flock, I gave Ric Flair a title reign, focused on buildin’ other divisions and the public loved it. When Bischoff came back and started pushing for Hogan vs. Flair at Starrcade with Hogan taking the title, I reminded him that it wasn’t 199-fuckin’ 5 anymore. We clashed heads, Bischoff threatened to leave if he didn’t get his way, and well, they showed him the door and now I’m in charge of the richest wrestling company of all god damn time. And lucky for WCW they did this, because I guarantee if they kept Bischoff in charge, WCW would have been out of business in the next 18 months.”

“With the Eric Bischoff era being over from a booking and running the company perspective, did the mood change in the locker room”?

“It changed like you wouldn’t believe. The morale was through the roof and the work rate rose to levels we hadn’t seen in WCW since the early ‘90’s. The established, older guys wanted to keep their spots, and new they weren’t gonna’ be able to politic their way to it. And the youngsters new this was a chance to make a name for themselves.”

“From a booking perspective, what changed as soon as Eric left in terms of what we saw as fans of the product”?

“Not a hell of a lot. I’d already been running the show well Bischoff took his little sabbatical in paradise. The only difference was behind the scenes it was so much easier to do what I wanted now, and boy did I ever have some plans. First thing I did was have Raven and Vader strike up this relationship, and it resulted in them taking out Scott Norton, who was a previous member of The Flock. And that Scott Norton can go to believe me. Our tag division was so strong with Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz, we had Kurt Angle debut at World War 3 and go over Disco Inferno. Eddie Guerrero was US Champ, Juvi was Cruiserweight champ and had an awesome match at World War 3 with Jericho, and I had a returning Bret Hart win World War 3, last beating Chris Benoit. I thought this match was the perfect nonstrenuous match for a Bret return, because a lot of times in a Battle Royal you can get away with not doin’ much. On top of that, it still made Benoit look like a million bucks and we all know the way the future turned out for him.

“And correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s means the next PPV was your first Starrcade completely in charge of WCW…”

“That it was, and look, I thought Starrcade ’99 was good, but I didn’t really have a chance to build to the Starrcade I wanted. I wanted a fresh look in our main event scene, but it just wasn’t time yet, so I almost felt like we were treading water a bit, but I know a lot of fans still enjoyed the show. Val Venis took the TV Title from Regal, Booker T beat Kurt Angle in an awesome match, Kidman won the Cruiserweight title by beating Juvi, Rey Rey and Jericho in an Elimination match, and as far as I’m concerned, that match stole the show…

The shock debut of the New Age Outlaws saw them beat Edge and Christian for the tag titles, Sting beat Raven by DQ. This was a typical Sting angle, with him trying to save WCW from evil Raven and The Flock. Admittedly, I probably shouldn’t have gone with The Flock interfering for the non-finish on the biggest show of the year, but it felt like a necessary evil at the time. Guerrero beat Malenko to keep the US Title in a classic, Goldberg beat Benoit in a battle of two babyfaces fighting for a future title shot, Vader DESTROYED DDP in a Last Man Standing match, and FINALLY, Bret Hart beat Ric Flair to become the new WCW Champion. Who would’ve thought just a few months ago that we’d be kicking off the year 2000 with Bret Hart as the WCW Champion.”

“Certainly not me. Speaking of who would’ve thought, who would’ve thought you could save up to 20% on your home loan, all you’ve gotta’ do is call…”

 

[Stojy]

“Bret as champion was obviously a huge deal, but as I’m sure we’re about to get to, it didn’t last very long. Why was that”?

“I’m not gonna’ lie this initially kind of pissed me off, but the night after Bret was given the title, he came and saw me before Nitro. He walked on in and straight up told me that he appreciates the opportunity, but he’s ready to retire. I was furious. You couldn’t have fuckin’ told me this before I decided to put the biggest title in our industry on you. I’ve got a lot of respect for Bret, so I held a lot of that in, but that’s how I was feeling. He told me he wanted to retire in Calgary at Spring Stampede, which was still four months away, so I had to come up with a plan for that.

“I’d argue the plan you came up with was pretty damn good”.

“Well, I’d like to think so. First, I had Bret drop the title at Souled Out, only one month after he won it, we gave the title to Vader. Vader went on that epic World Title reign, meanwhile Bret ended up retiring at Spring Stampede after losing to his student, Chris Benoit. That Benoit/Hart match may be one of the best matches I’ve ever seen.”

“It may just be the best retirement match of anybody… EVER. At this time, it seemed like the company from a booking perspective was really firing on all cylinders.”

“We were starting to hit out stride now that we had a few months without Bischoff ruining things. We had plenty of long running angles in the works to. We had Scott Norton recovering from surgery on a torn tricep but having an angle where he’ll eventually want revenge on Raven for taking him out of the NWO, which Raven eventually rechristened as The Flock. Goldberg was going on another run, continuing to hunt the WCW Title after falling short with a Double DQ finish against Vader at Spring Stampede. In the mid card, we had Kurt Angle really honing his craft as a heel, currently a double champion, holding both the TV and US Titles. Jamie Noble and Perry Saturn were vying for the final spot in the Four Horsemen, with Noble winning, leading to Saturn getting frustrated and turning back to Raven and The Flock. Everybody was still wondering who attacked The Hardy Boyz back at Starrcade, which lead to The New Age Outlaws debuting and defeating Edge and Christian for the tag titles, and at SuperBrawl, Jericho seemingly finally ended his feud with Billy Kidman, destroying him in an I Quit match. Jericho actually lost the match though, quitting himself because now that he messed up Kidman, he no longer wanted the Cruiserweight title. Kidman would lose the title the next night because he was compromised due to Jericho’s assault, whilst Jericho was out injured after Benoit ripped his arm out of the socket in a match on Nitro. Plus, we had Sting return at Souled Out, ready to beat Raven and end The Flock, only for Hogan to return and cost Sting the match. This led to Hogan joining The Flock, with Raven being in charge, which was my way of saying Hogan won’t be the number one guy in this company again because it’s not the mid fuckin’ 80’s.”

“Blah, blah, blah, they continue to chat away…”

This is the final post in this format. Next post will be very brief recapped results of Spring Stampede, and weekly shows will kick off from the night after that PPV.

 

[Stojy]

This recap is probably a little briefer than I initially intended, but I’m just trying to get back into the swing of things here. Weekly shows moving forward will be a mix of both full and recapped promos and matches, depending on how important/interesting each individual segment is.

WCW Slamboree
May 7th, 2000
Kansas City, Missouri

Match One
Dick Togo and Taka Michinoku vs. The Dudley Boyz

Pretty generic tag feud here and despite the awesomeness of Togo and Taka, they are just here to put over The Dudleyz. Eventually Togo gets cleared from the ring, allowing the Dudleyz to drill Taka with the 3D to get the win. After the match, they make it clear that they are only in WCW for one reason, signalling they want the WCW Tag titles around their waists.

Winners: The Dudley Boyz @ 8:03

Match Two
WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match
Kaz Hayashi (c) w/CIMA vs. Billy Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Psicosis

An absolute spot fest here. CIMA interferes early and tries to take out Kidman, but the referee sees it and sends CIMA away from ringside. The battle continues with plenty of entertaining high-flying stuff. In the end, Kidman nails Hayashi with the Shooting Star Press, but Juvi breaks up the count with a 450 Splash! Juvi’s count is broken by a Guillotine Leg drop from Psicosis and Psicosis manages to pin Juvi and become the NEW Cruiserweight Champion.

Winner: Psicosis @ 13:36

Match Three
Booker T vs. Perry Saturn

The first match with some real story behind it for the night. Vader is the WCW Champion and has a weird relationship with Raven, who controls the monster, but still has eyes on the title. Raven seems content with just controlling the title at the moment through his affiliation with Vader. Booker T is hungry for a title shot; however Booker has been forced to consistently work through Raven’s Flock members to earn a shot. Saturn reminds us during this match that he isn’t just another member of The Flock, and he can go when required, but he still falls to a Book End!

Winner: Booker T @ 13:40

Match Four
WCW Tag Team Championship Match
Christian and Edge (c) vs. The Hardy Boyz

These teams have been feuding for months over who the best team in WCW is and they go at it again here. Late in this one, The Hardyz get on top with Matt able to drop Christian with the Twist Of Fate. Jeff then heads to the top rope to finish things off with a Swanton Bomb, but a previous ref bump comes back to bite The Hardyz, with Edge sneaking and nailing Jeff in the back with one of the tag titles. With Jeff incapacitated, it’s two on one and Matt fights valiantly, managing to snatch the tag title from Edge. He looks set to use it, but the ref has recovered and snatches it away. As the referee turns his back to remove the title from the ring, Edge nails Matt with a low blow! That’s enough for Matt to stumble into the Unprettier and that’s all she wrote.

Winners: Christian and Edge @ 15:19

After the match, The Hardyz are displeased but they remain in the ring, as Edge grabs a microphone. Edge refers to the fact that he and Christian promised that they would reveal the people who attacked The Hardy Boyz before Starrcade tonight. The Hardyz are definitely interested, as Edge motions for them to look towards the entrance way… AND THEN EDGE AND CHRISTIAN ATTACK THE HARDYZ FROM BEHIND!!! They beat down The Hardyz for a short while before announcing that they were the ones who attacked The Hardyz before quickly fleeing the scene.

Match Five A
WCW Television Championship Match
Kurt Angle (c) vs. Dean Malenko vs. Val Venis

Angle’s doing the whole double title thing here similar to what he did in real life with the IC and Euro titles. So this match covers the first fall which was for the TV Title. Surprisingly, Angle looked in complete control, nailing Malenko with an Angle Slam. Val interrupted though and was able to surprise Angle with a Blue Thunder Bomb, followed by the Money Shot for the win.
Winner: Val Venis @ 9:45

Val Venis is the NEW TV Champ and Angle is furious. There’s a 30 second rest period before the second and final fall.

Match Five B
WCW United States Championship Match
Kurt Angle (c) vs. Dean Malenko vs. Val Venis

This one comes down to Malenko and Venis battling it out on the tope rope, after Malenko stopped Venis from attempting another Money Shot. Eventually, Malenko wins the battle and nails a Super Tiger Driver! A sore Malenko makes the cover, but Angle comes out of nowhere, throws Malenko out of the ring, and Kurt gets the cover to at least retain one of his titles.

Winner: Kurt Angle @ 8:1

After the match, Malenko immediately slides back into the ring, only for Angle to forego a celebrating and hurry away. As Angle leaves, it’s safe to say based on Malenko’s demeanor that this one is not over.

Match Six
Eddie Guerrero vs. Ric Flair

This one is meant to be two relatively fan favourites going at it in a respectful, sportsmanship filled match, but that’s not exactly what we get here. Eddie has a cast on his arm due to an injury, and Flair works on it, but still gets cheered from the crowd. Towards the end of the match, Eddie decides he’s had enough and uses the cast to know Flair out. One Frog Splash later and Eddie’s the winner. It’s worth noting the fans aren’t at all impressed with Guerrero and his actions after the match.

Winner: Eddie Guerrero @ 13:58

Match Seven
No Disqualification
Bill Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page vs. Hulk Hogan and Raven

Goldberg and DDP are two more guys trying to take it to The Flock. The two faces look really strong early, but eventually the numbers catch up to them as other members get involved. Saturn and Scott Steiner interfere throughout, and the obstacles become to difficult for Page and The Berg. After an Evenflow DDT onto a pile of chairs, Raven is able to pin Page.

Winners: Hulk Hogan and Raven @ 18:22

After the match, Steiner, Saturn and Hogan continue to stomp all over the two faces. Raven doesn’t join in though, instead attacking one of the camera men for seemingly no reason. The Flock then chose to leave, including Raven as EMT’s run down to check on everybody.

Mean Gene catches up with Eddie Guerrero in the back and wonders why he cheated to beat Flair the way he did. Guerrero talks about how Flair worked on his injured arm, and Eddie was trying to be a good guy, but after Flair focused on his injury, Eddie says he sees nothing wrong with using the advantage given to me.

We get a hype video and some ringside reshuffling as we wait for the new cameraman to enter.



Match Eight
WCW Championship
Vader (c) vs. Chris Benoit

Similar to Booker T, Benoit is just a talent chasing a title shot yet he’s finally got one. Vader dominates and Benoit takes some pretty scary bumps but continues to fight back and remain resilient. As the match progresses, one can assume Vader gets tired, which leads to mistakes being made. Benoit fights his way back in and starts looking really promising on the run home, UNTIL the new camera man nails Benoit in the back of the head with the camera.

Just like that, the arena goes quiet except for heat. The camera man then drops his hat to really himself to be none other than Raven. As the fans focus on Raven, Vader nails Benoit with a Chokeslam but Benoit incredibly kicks out. With no remorse, Vader quickly follows up with a Vader Bomb.

Winner: Vader @ 22.26

After the match, Vader starts to celebrate, even if he’s limping a little due to the extensive knee work from Benoit throughout. It isn’t long until Raven gets back, the WCW Title that belongs to Vader, sitting on his shoulder.

Vader signals for Raven to hand over the title, and Raven hesitates….

He stares at the title for a few moments, before relenting and giving Vader the strap. The tension disappears and these two stand on top of the world as the show fades to black..

END OF SHOW​

 

[Stojy]

 

[Dubble J]

This is some really interesting alternate reality stuff, Stojy. I am having a super hard time imagining a world where Hulk Hogan is okay being second fiddle (at best) in nWo reimagined as The Flock, hahaha. But other than that, I love seeing Vader being a beast in WCW 2000 and Raven getting a huge push. Some of those WWF midcarders getting a chance in WCW is fun too. Enjoying this quite a bit bud.

 

[Stojy]

Thanks for the comments, Dubb. I completely understand the stuff about Hogan. It's completely unrealistic that he'd be in this sort of role. I will say he'll still be involved in some pretty high-profile stuff, but he's well and truly on the outer. Idea in my head is that Cornette hates him but is stuck paying for his contract, so will book him in a way to eventually force him out. Without spoiling actual plans, that's the best I can do. I expect the fact this alternate reality has just come out of nowhere, it might take awhile to be able to buy in completely, but I promise I do have some fun stuff planned. I think there's some stuff to come down the line (After I've set foundations) that will probably be better than anything I did in ECW but we'll see.

 

[Stojy]

 

[Stojy]

 

[Stojy]

 

[Stojy]

Predictions Contest

Final card for WCW Bash At The Beach
June 11th, 2000
Daytona Beach

WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match:
Vader © defends against Booker T

Winner of the Fall is Number One Contender for WCW World Heavyweight Championship:
Chris Benoit and Goldberg vs. Hollywood Hogan and Scott Steiner

Raven vs. Ric Flair

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddie Guerrero

WCW United States Championship Match:
Kurt Angle (c) defends against Dean Malenko

WCW Tag Team Championship Match:
Edge and Christian © defend against The Dudley Boyz

WCW Television Championship Match:
Val Venis (c) defends against William Regal

WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match:
Kaz Hayashi (c) defends against Billy Kidman

The Hardy Boyz vs. The New Age Outlaws

Bonus Questions​

1. What will be the longest match on the show?​
2. What will be the shortest match on the show?​
3. Which wrestler will pick up the fall in the Benoit/Goldberg vs. Hogan/Steiner match?​
4. Which wrestler will lose and take the fall in the Benoit/Goldberg vs. Hogan/Steiner match?​
5. Will there be any surprise appearances? If so, how many and who? (If answer to this question is yes, bonus points will be awarded if correctly answering amount of surprise appearances and who the actual wrestler/s is/are.)​

 

[Roy Mustang]

Predictions Contest

Final card for WCW Bash At The Beach
June 11th, 2000
Daytona Beach

WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match:
Vader © defends against Booker T

Winner of the Fall is Number One Contender for WCW World Heavyweight Championship:
Chris Benoit and Goldberg vs. Hollywood Hogan and Scott Steiner

Raven vs. Ric Flair

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddie Guerrero

WCW United States Championship Match:
Kurt Angle (c) defends against Dean Malenko

WCW Tag Team Championship Match:
Edge and Christian © defend against The Dudley Boyz

WCW Television Championship Match:
Val Venis (c) defends against William Regal

WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match:
Kaz Hayashi (c) defends against Billy Kidman

The Hardy Boyz vs. The New Age Outlaws

Bonus Questions​

1. What will be the longest match on the show? DDP vs Eddie Guerrero​
2. What will be the shortest match on the show? WCW TV title match​
3. Which wrestler will pick up the fall in the Benoit/Goldberg vs. Hogan/Steiner match? Benoit​
4. Which wrestler will lose and take the fall in the Benoit/Goldberg vs. Hogan/Steiner match? Hogan ​
5. Will there be any surprise appearances? If so, how many and who? (If answer to this question is yes, bonus points will be awarded if correctly answering amount of surprise appearances and who the actual wrestler/s is/are.) Yes but I'm not good as guessing who for this era​