WCW Nitro 6/21/1999

Written by: Kevin Kindelberger

WCW Monday Nitro 6/21/99

I describe below my thoughts of the show and the Master P stuff. I am finishing this a day later…..ratings were way down with a 3.0 off of a 3.6 and dropped down to a 2.9 and 2.6. Not good. RAW did not get a great rating for him as it received a 6.0 off of a 5.9 and 6.1 but it is easily doubling the head to head.

A Hummer has pulled up and Team Madness exits. A limo pulls up behind and it is Nash and he chases the Hummer as it takes off. Macho and friends had already departed and for some reason they did not look behind them and see the limo.

Penzer introduces NO’s own Master P and they are up on the stage and trying to rap. Well they are rapping. At first it seems that the crowd is against them but as they sing they pan in on the fellow brother’s and sister’s and they love it. Now more are getting involved. Hoodie-Hoo is a bit annoying but it is quite catchy at the same time….the song. Master P will blame part of the failure of the angle due to the lack of hip hop fans and/or blacks and Hispanics in the audience, as well as being a minor part of the demographic for wrestling. Remember WCW is a Southern based organization and many enjoy country music therefore they are fighting an uphill battle. Honestly they did get the crowd involved….I actually did not despise it. Of course I am buzzed right now. We will see how it plays out but I have only read that the angle was an utter debacle and last week it did not quite pan out. This week, so far, seems a bit better.

Lenny is trying to decide what kind of trunks to wear. Lodi likes both and gives him a shoulder rub….Lenny is facing Meng and talks about stamina and how he lasts a long time and how Lodi has nice thumbs. Jesus Christ….please do not try and become the WWF. The acting was utterly atrocious.

Match 1: Kidman v. Psychosis

Psychosis puts him in a headlock and is shoved off into the ropes and runs over poor Kidman. He stomps a hole in him and uses his boot to choke him out in the corner. Kidman counters with a headscissor takeover and a dropkick and then clotheslines him to the floor. Kidman springs off the top rope into a plancha. He rolls Psychosis back into the ring and gets two after a slingshot legdrop. Kidman places him up top and he is front suplexed up top and Psychosis gets two. Psychosis stomps on him and then poses for the crowd. He is booed. Kidman reverses the whip into the corner and clotheslines him off the rebound. Kidman is now whipped into the corner but he gets the boot. However he charges right into a powerslam. Kidman is tossed to the floor, and Psychosis heads after him and thrusts him into the barrier. He rolls him back into the ring.
He keeps after him and sends him into the ropes and lowers his head, Kidman strikes with a kick to the head but he is sent to the apron and dropkicked to the floor. Damn, Psychosis uses the ropes to unleash a split-legged moonsault. Back in the ring Psychosis leaps right into a dropkick. Kidman is grabbed and floats behind and he gets a near fall after a powerbomb. Kidman whips him into the corner only to miss the charge. Psychosis puts him up top and Frankensteins him from there getting two. He goes up top and strikes with a corkscrew kick getting two. Kidman counters back….damn he is over! The crowd is cheering everything he does. He goes up top and he is moving like me trying to go to the gym: Molasses. Psychosis turns but Kidman leaps on him and and then slams him. Sid and Macho come down and Sid buries him with a chokeslam. Psychosis gets booted to the floor. The fans chant Sid. He appreciates it. Kidman is slammed and Sid powerbombs Psychosis. But Sting comes down and Sid retreats.

***1/2 Great match. Kidman was attacked while taking care of business but it certainly does not help him. Like I said when he was with the WWF how the fuck is Sid so damn over.

Right as Savage disappears into the back, Nash waltzes out. He comes into the ring to a nice pop and Sting gives him props. Nash has a question for Sting and he wants to know why Savage and Sid just left without Sting touching him. Nash also wants to know why he grabbed Rick Steiner from a black Hummer. Sting assures him that he was not the driver. Nash responds that he is not accusing him but if he finds out that it is him then he will have to deal with him: “Franchise Boy.”

Piper and Flair are sitting on a couch preparing the main event for the PPV. A tag match: Sid and Savage v. Sting and Nash. Piper wants to put them in the ring tonight for free. They spaz out and leave all excited.

Match 2: Lenny Lane v. Meng

Fans call Lane a faggot and he begs off. Well he is getting heat. Tony just says that Lodi has paid a lot of attention to Lenny. Meng tosses Lenny and absorbs a flurry and chops his skin off in return. He has him in the corner where he destroys him. Here comes Lodi. Meng is still annihilating him and tosses him from the top with the Deathgrip applied. It is over.

*1/2 Squash.

Lodi is fanning Lenny with a shirt to wake him up and helps him up. Fans chant faggot. Lovely.

Master P is in the ring. He wants to know where the Soldiers are at. It is someone’s birthday in his entourage. They bring out a dude from the crowd to sing Happy Birthday. Some sing a long and some boos. Hennig comes down with a present and jaws with Master P. Hennig comes in peace and P tells him not to be playing any games but he lets him through. Hennig comes in and apologizes and for accidentally dropping his CD. He wants to make peace and Master P wants to make sure there are no games. Hennig opens the gift and it is a cowboy hat. The birthday boy takes it and stomps on it. Master P throws the cake into Hennig’s face. Hennig falls to the floor and the remainder of the cake is tossed on him. Master P reminds him that he told him not to mess with the Soldiers. After a sad Hennig departs Master P tries to get the crowd rallied and they do not seem to care, nor does Hennan and Schiavone.

Match 2: Juventud Guerrera v. Eddie Guerrero

This is Eddie’s return to the ring? They could make it so much better….get involved in an angle. Hennan and Schiavone are trying to make sense of the previous segment.

Juve hugs him….happy that he is back. Eddie slaps him. Eddie is ripped: Natural of course. Eddie chops him a couple of times and sends Juve for the ride striking with a spinning backbreaker. He pulls him up after some taunting and whips him into the corner but Juve elevates him into the top buckle. They go back and forth and Juve turns a powerbomb into a faceplant. After a hurracarana he gets two. Juve slaps him and Eddie retreats to the floor. Eddie gets back into the ring and complains that his hair was pulled. Eddie low dropkicks him and then back suplexes him. He non-chalantly dumps him to the floor and pushes him into the post. Eddie yells at Tony and Bobby that he is back. Juve is rolled back into the ring and Eddie applies a sleeper.

Commercial.

Eddie bodyslams Juve and rolls through off the missed slingshot dive. They counter a few moves and Juve is able to spike him. But Eddie counters by attacking the leg and keeps him grounded. He pulls him up and gets two after a brainbuster. Eddie uppercuts and then chops Juve. He puts him back in the sleeper. Juve elbows free and back suplexes Eddie. After a delay Juve rolls on top getting two. Juve grabs him but is rolled up and nearly pinned. The fans chant that Eddie sucks as he glares at them. He gives them the universal signal for displeasure and goes back to work. But after a few shots he misses a clothesline and is bulldogged and headscissored over, or Juve was….sorry. Juve is sent to the apron, and he pulls Eddie down by his hair and strikes with a missile dropkick. Eddie falls to the floor and Juve suicide dives over the top rope driving Eddie into the railing. He rolls him back into the ring and strikes with a springboard heel kick. He calls for the Driver but Eddie floats behind and places him behind him and spins him around and drops him and gets the with with a Frog Splash.

**** Extra half for the return of Eddie. The fans loved it when he went up top. PUSH HIM!

Match 3: Prince Iaukea v. Cat

Cat has his slippers on and does a dance for all of us. He holds up a shoe and has the mic and demands the Rednecks in the audience to shut up, so he can finish off Iaukea. He challenges a fan to a fight. He is going to give Iaukea five seconds before he sticks the shoe in his….he pauses and looks at the crowd. He shoves Iaukea with the shoe and gets knocked down by him and the pummeled. A dropkick sends him to the floor. He slowly gets back in and misses a wild shot and Prince does not miss but off the whip he walks into a thrust kick to the chin. He gets a  two count. Cat mounts him in the corner and rakes his eyes and then tosses him to the floor where Sonny stomps a hole in him. Cat goes out after him but Iaukea fires back but that is stopped as Cat tosses a drink in his face and Cat runs him into the railing. Back in the ring Prince rakes his eyes and then kicks him in the chest. Cat dances around his prone body and then bodyslams him. He lowers the boom with a throat punch. Prince fights back and gets a near fall after a Samoan Drop but the heel kick finishes him.

**1/2 Hard to dislike the Cat.

Kanyon comes down and speaks a faux Cajun accent to mock the fans. Classic.

Match 4: Kanyon v. Booker T

Booker has been injured….or said to have been. Booker starts strong and knocks him down and then to the floor. Kanyon fights back with some gut punches and clubbing blows to the back. Kanyon works him over in the corner, gouges the eyes and then keeps after him with stomps and punches. Kanyon misses the lariat and is dropped after a flying forearm. He rolls to the floor in order to regroup.

Commercial.

Booker chases him into the ring and Kanyon lures him in and sledges the back. Booker mounts and pounds him in the corner after making a comeback. Kanyon reverses the whip and both miss blows, Kanyon connects with a kick to the gut and muffs the move but he does recover and strikes with a swinging neckbreaker. Kanyon scoops him up and slams him down. He goes up to the middle rope and gets two after a guillotine legdrop. Kanyon puts him in a reverse Boston Crab but Booker powers out, sits on him and gets a two count. Kanyon knocks him to the floor and goes after him and they tussle and Kanyon gets flung into the railing. Booker stomps on him and shoves him back into the ring. Booker slingshots over the top into a sunset flip. Jesus, Kanyon turned that into a bridged suplex! He nearly got the pin too. Kanyon is pulling back on his arms and then sideslams him. Kanyon keeps up the pressure and stomps on his chest. He pulls him up and flings him into the corner and uses his boot to choke him out. Kanyon takes him down and drives his knee into the back and after an elbow drop he gets two. Booker is able to counter by falling on him and he gets a near fall. But he turns right into a neckbreaker and Kanyon gets two. Kanyon puts him in a chinlock to keep him grounded. Booker rises to his feet and elbows free, but he runs right into a Russian sweep. Kanyon is slow to turn him over and he gets a 2.6 count. He keeps him down via the chinlock. Booker is up but is pulled back down and it occurs again. This time Booker is able to whip him over but he is poked in the eye. Booker fights back and knocks him into the corner. He kicks him, and then sends him for the ride. Kanyon ducks but not the second time and the sidekick connects. He pancakes him and after spinning to his feet the Harlem Kick connects.He heads up top but the Triad runs down and they dismantle him.

***1/2 Both had to remain strong. After nearly 15 minutes it is a shame but it works to keep them strong.

Nick Patrick eats a DC and Bigelow and DDP do their doubleteam one.

Piper and Flair come down. Piper shouts out for the Saints and then kind of makes fun of them stating he could have helped them. He makes fun of Buff and all his tanning and compares him to Austin Powers and Piper is no Vampire and Buffy has no stake. He is tired of his whining and lying as he never beat Flair. If he sees him he will slap the snot out of him. Flair grins about having a lot of grandchildren in the audience or they still want to ride Space Mountain. Buff is what he detests and his whining. He screams at fans and tells them to shut up. Buff’s girl called his room, and she wanted to know why he is called Space Mountain and her man is Buffy. He talks about eating chicken breasts and drinking Coke and then she wore him out all night! Buff comes down and attacks them but is quickly overwhelmed. They stomp the shit out of him. Flair yells that Buff thinks he beat Ric Flair and will have to face both Flair and Piper. He wants to hear the noise his girlfriend made last night and chops away….a match.

Match 5: Ric Flair and Roddy Piper v. Buff Bagwell

After a couple more chops Buff turns it around and it is his turn to chop away. Flair turns it right around but Buff stares him down and fires back. Piper blindsides him and down he goes. But it does not stop Buff for long and he backdrops Flair. Buff is knocked to the floor but he decks AA. He then cleans house. Flair is tripped up and he goes for the Figure Four and Piper belts him from behind. Piper is in and Buff fires away and he strikes with an inverted atomic drop. Piper tries to fight back but he is snapped over and put in a reverse chinlock. Piper is up and fights free and it is sleeper time! Buff finally fights free and knocks Piper down but he is struggling to get up himself. Flair runs in and chops him and then goes up top but is tossed off the top rope. After three clotheslines he misses the dropkick and Flair goes for the Figure Four but he is rolled up and nearly pinned. Buff and Flair exchange blows and the latter is dropped and whipped into the corner where he flips to the other side. Buff clotheslines him on the apron and Piper tries to intervene and this allows Flair to nut him. Piper is in and he is using the ropes to choke him out and then he leaps on the back of his neck. He pulls him into the center of the ring and Dean Malenko has come in but he is held back by the ref and Buff is busy getting dismantled. Flair chops him in the corner. Dean is finally allowed to stay and make this two on two. Flair is mocking Buff’s strut and now they exchange chops and punches and Buff unleashes a flurry. Buff reverses the whip and he clotheslines Flair but both are down. Dean gets the hot tag and he destroys Flair. AA is kicked down and Flair tries to fend him off but is chopped to pieces. He lowers his head and is kicked but he recovers and kicks Flair. He goes for the Cloverleaf and Piper runs in and he is knocked back. AA is in and he is stuck in the Cloverleaf. Piper pulls knucks out and he knocks out Buff and rolls Flair on him for the win.

*** This was another long match. Now it is one to one: Time for the rubber match.

Match 6: Rey Mysterio and Konnan v. Jersey Triad (c) for WCW Tag Titles

Konnan does his thing. Rey asks for a shout out for the Soldiers. Crowd was not cold and gave the shout out a decent if not spectacular response.

Rey and DDP start off and DDp talks trash. DDP picks him up and spikes him and then decks Konnan. Bigelow chokes out Rey. Konnan is doing double duty tonight it looks like. The Soldiers give Kanyon the evil eye. Rey nails DDP with a moonsault and hits Kanyon. He springs into a double kick and now Konnan is in and he tosses Rey into DDP. Konnan nails him with the rolling lariat but when he goes to pick him up he is given a jawbreaker. But Rey springs in and connects with a guillotine legdrop. Rey and Kanyon are in and Kanyon is taken over with an armdrag and then he leaps on top of Bigelow. But after he gets up DDP is right there and flings him into the steps. Back in the ring Rey is getting worked over by DDP as the fans get behind Rey but is stomped on like a bug. DDP slams him and gets a two count. He whips Rey into the ropes but is scissored over. Kanyon and Konnan are in and Kanyon is bulldogged and DDP is Bronco Busted. Kanyon is getting hammered in the other. Bigelow is allowed in now….okay. Flair and Piper allowing it according to Tony and Bobby. Bigelow is destroying Konnan. He covers him and gets two. DDP is in and has Konnan in a facelock. Konnan is up and is trying to lift him up but cannot quite get free. He is driven into the corner and stomped on by both Kanyon and DDP. Kanyon was not tagged in but comes in anyway and misses the moonsault. Rey gets the hot tag and springs into a senton and flies into a crossbody into Bigelow sending him into the railing. Here comes the Rednecks and it is breaking down. Here comes Benoit and Saturn too! Kendall is part of the Rednecks. It is a full on war as bodies are flying and fists too. Here comes all the Soldiers and they reign supreme in the ring. They need to stop with the Hoodie-Hoo it is not working. Master P challenges the cowboys and he tries to rap and now he is getting booed.

*** Another long and solid match.

Match 7: Sid Vicious v. Sting

Sid tries to get the crowd behind him. Nope. They lock up and Sting is shoved into the corner but ducks the clubbing blow. Savage has come out. Sting wants Savage and the girls to leave. Savage gives Sid some advice. Sid gets in and Sting awaits him. They circle around one another and warily so. Savage is lurking and he grabs Sting and this allows Sid to kick Sting and slowly measure him with heavy rights to the chest. Sid lays him out with the big boot and works over the neck and uses the ropes for extra leverage. Madusa punches Sting and Sid goes back to work. He punts the head and measures him for another running stomp to the head. Sting tries to fend him off but he is run over with lariats. Sid pulls him up and stands him in the corner but he gets hung up there and Sting kicks him several times and Splash time! Savage runs in and attacks. The ref is tossed. Sid runs him down with a big boot. Sid goes to powerbomb Sting but Luger runs out with a chair. Savage and Sid both brandish chairs now. They have squared off the last minute with nothing going down. Just staring at each other. Savage has the mic and he calls Sting low and Luger is hanging out with a dead man. Both men will become statistics and Sid screams nonsense. Sting lays out the challenge and he has two words for them: The crowd yells “Suck It.” And we fade….

** Sheer angle advancement. I forgot how terrible Sid is in the ring! Where the fuck was Nash.

**** This was better than last week. I loved that they spent so much time wrestling. The promos were not long and drawn out. The Master P segment dragged it down and hurt the show but not drastically so. A birthday party segment? That is what they came up with. Look the Rednecks are established as the heels, and Rey and Konnan as the faces. Yes the lines do blur between heels and faces but they attempted to make the Soldiers as faces and that is fine as Bischoff talked about all the positive things they bring etc. But the birthday cake incident was befuddling because Curt did nothing but give him a gift. He should have done something heelish first and then get assaulted. Maybe WCW is unsure as the fans are starting to dig the Rednecks and the response for the Soldiers has been tepid therefore they are trying to juggle between who is heel and who is not….I am not really sure what they were thinking. I have heard many were against the angle tonight but then again it is not a deal breaker as it had been established who the heel and face is. Also in the late 90s faces are usually tweeners now and so attack without provocation. Was the segment good? No. Is it a dealbreaker? No. I understand why WCW brought in Master P, they are trying to woo some of the younger fans away from the WWFWWF did it with Cyndi Lauper, Lawrence Taylor, Mike Tyson, Butterbean and more. Master P has not been handled terribly but then again it has not garnered the proper response from the fans and tonight’s segment certainly did not help matters. Also, screaming Hoodie-Hoo is clearly not working. Just have him speak and not be repetitive and have his henchmen kick some ass. Get him in the ring and do some bodyslamming…..Overall though I enjoyed the show. But they need to do more with Nash, he is a weak champ and has been rarely seen or heard. Not sure why he did not run down at the end. Perhaps because of his lack of trust with Sting but then again he is feuding with Savage. Before I forget. Eddie was at the announce table either last week or the week before, playing the face. He is back as a heel. I am fine with that, but give him something to do for crying out loud the fans were into him. He could have made a big splash by going after Nash or someone for dismantling the lWo and we could have had a minor feud or he could have attacked Luger. The match was good but it is clear that WCW has nothing to do for him, and that is just plain sad.