WCW Thunder 8/30/2000

Written by: Bob Colling

World Championship Wrestling presents Thunder
Date: 8/30/2000
From: Tuscon, AZ

Matches:
1.) Kronik defeated WCW Canadian Heavyweight Champion Lance Storm & WCW Cruiserweight Champion Elix Skipper
2.) Mike Awesome defeated Reno
3.) Rey Mysterio Jr. & Juventud Guerrera & Disco Inferno defeated WCW World Tag Team Champions Mark Jindrak & Sean O’Haire to win the titles
4.) Booker T defeated Mike Sanders
5.) Big Vito defeated Chuck Palumbo
6.) Hugh Morrus & Sgt. AWOL defeated The Harris Brothers
7.) Jeff Jarrett defeated Kwee-Wee
8.) WCW World Heavyweight Champion Kevin Nash fought The Cat to a no contest

Angle Developments/Notes:
1. Kronik gets the early advantage on Team Canada when Bryan Clarke chokeslams Skipper in the early moments. Skipper is dropped by a double clothesline and Adams hit a spinning backbreaker. Storm gets involved by hitting Adams with a springboard clothesline off the top. Skipper and Storm plant Clarke with a double team DDT. Clarke gets the hot tag and delivers the Meltdown on Skipper but Storm broke up the pin attempt. Storm tries to use the Canadian flag but Major Gunns prevents him from doing so. Moments later, Lance suffers the High Time and Kronik gets the win to open the show. After the match, Elix Skipper yells at Gunns until Hugh Morrus runs out and attacks him. This leads to Team Canada and the Misfits in Action going at it briefly. (**. A decent bout but I was expecting a DQ finish or something.)

2. WCW World Heavyweight Champion Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett and the Natural Born Thrillers come down to the ring to talk. Steiner starts off by saying he is pissed about what Goldberg did to him on Nitro and reveals that his eyes are black and blue from the attack. Steiner is going to take care of Goldberg at Fall Brawl. Nash chimes in to say that he realizes that Jarrett was being fair on Nitro because he didn’t want to tarnish his victory over Booker T. Nash brags about being able to get fans to take pictures with him for $30 or $50. Nash puts over the Natural Born Thrillers as the future of the business. Nash notes that babyfaces are hurt or gone and they can’t be stopped. Booker T comes out with some backup. He has the Filthy Animals, Big Vito and Mike Awesome by his side. Booker declares they will have to kill him and his crew in order to take over WCW. They end up brawling with Booker getting a few shots on the champ before it’s broken up.

3. Backstage, Hugh Morrus makes it clear that he wants to wrestle Lance Storm for the WCW Canadian (United States) Championship at Fall Brawl.

4. Awesome is able to beat Reno following the running Awesome Bomb. That gives Booker T’s squad the advantage over Kevin Nash’s buddies as they appear to be going at it over the course of the show. After the match, Reno attacked Daffney’s boyfriend.

5. Backstage, Jeff Jarrett attacks Mike Awesome while Jimmy Hart and Fit Finlay tried to pull him off.

6. Tony Schiavone recently sat down with Paul Orndorff. Paul is proud of the Power Plant guys because he considers them to be his kids. Schiavone believes that Sanders and the Thrillers don’t respect Orndorff. Paul tells us that Sanders was a nobody prior to meeting him. Paul notes that he gave the Thrillers a job and they are ungrateful. Orndorff is pissed knowing that the Thrillers aren’t grateful.

7. Backstage, Scott Steiner attacks Reno for losing earlier. Also, Booker T is interviewed. He assures the fans that he will beat Mike Sanders tonight!

8. The tag team champions are nice enough to allow Disco Inferno into the title bout to make it fair for the Filthy Animals. O’Haire hits a spinning side slam on Disco early on and followed up with a springboard clothesline. Inferno fights back with a bulldog before tagging in Juventud. The Animals work over O’Haire by delivering legdrops. Sean stops Rey with a backbreaker and Jindrak tags in to clothesline Rey. O’Haire gets a near fall following a reverse neckbreaker after having Rey on his shoulders. Juventud gets involved by hitting a bulldog on Jindrak but is soon powerbombed by O’Haire. Mark tosses Juventud to O’Haire who delivers a powerslam. The champs hip toss Juventud from the floor into the ring! Late in the bout, O’Haire tries for the Seanton Bomb but Guerrera crotches him. Juventud hits a hurricanrana and Rey delivers a leg drop to Sean’s groin to win the match! (**3/4. A solid match here as it’s obvious that the Thrillers can work so much better with smaller guys.)

9. Backstage, Nash wants Sanders to get the job done on Booker tonight. Jeff Jarrett enters the room to show Kevin he has a match and it may risk his career tonight.

10. It takes Booker about one simple minute to beat Mike Sanders with the Book End.

11. Backstage, Scott Steiner attacks Mike Sanders for not winning.

12. Big Vito manages to get a win as he gets more television time in WCW. He pins Chuck Palumbo after about a minute and half with a Implant DDT. After the match, Scott Steiner attacks Palumbo for losing again.

13. Team Canada got involved in MIA’s match with the Harris Brothers. Elix Skipper hit Morrus with the flag but that wasn’t good enough to keep Morrus down. Well, it helped that Kronik came out and hit the High Time on Ron Harris. Morrus hits the Raging Climax for the win.

14. The match that Jeff Jarrett had been hyping about being the hardest one of his career ends up being against Kwee-Wee. Mike Awesome distracts Jarrett during the match, but Jarrett was able to get the victory after getting out of a back suplex and hit the Stroke for the three.

15. Shawn Stasiak calls out anyone to have an arm wrestling contest with him. Paul Orndorff answers the challenge and ends up punching Shawn in the face during the contest and plants Shawn with a piledriver! Mike Sanders comes in only to be backdropped and is hit with a chair as well. Orndorff hits the Thrillers with chair shots!

16. The Cat is attacked by Nash, Steiner and Jarrett as we aren’t getting a main event this week on thunder. Booker T runs down but he is attacked by the Natural Born Thrillers. Nash low blows Booker while Jarrett hits Cat with the Stroke. Steiner locks in the Steiner Recliner and Nash low blows Booker again.

Final Thoughts:
I’d say it was an average show that featured a couple of solid tag team matches. I feel like the Thrillers needed to get a win or two over the babyfaces otherwise they are going to lose creditability. The Paul Orndorff segment was entertaining as well, but there wasn’t a lot of entertainment overall on this one.

Thanks for reading.