Would You Go To This Show? Volume Nine
It’s the last official WCW house show to ever been produced. In less than thirty days World Championship Wrestling would be bought out by the World Wrestling Federation and any kind of competition in wrestling would vanish. The question is, would you go to this show?
Now, if I were to have been aware of it being the last show, I’d probably go just to be part of history. However, for this situation lets go with the assumption that we had no idea it was the end.
March 4th, 2001 from Johnson City, TN
Match #1: Evan Karagias & Shannon Moore vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. & Billy Kidman vs. Kaz Hayashi & Jimmy Yang vs. Mike Sanders & Kwee-Wee
Alright, you can never go wrong with a high flying opener with the cruiserweights. Sure, the level of guys is nowhere near the peak it was in 1997 or 1998, but Rey Jr., Kidman and Hayashi would have been able to display some spectacular moves. Thus, the match helps the card and certainly doesn’t hurt it in my eyes.
Match #2: Elix Skipper vs. The Demon
This one is rather remarkable to me considering I don’t believe the Demon was even on television for the company since September of 2000. It’s a complete waste of Skipper and his ability in the ring. Zero interest in seeing a match like this live.
Match #3: WCW Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Shane Helms
Probably the best match on the card as these two had some really entertaining matches in 2001. Helms was clearly being groomed as the next face of the Cruiserweight division and he would have excelled at it with the Verterbreaker finisher. Never seen it? Check it out, it’s basically the Cop Killa that Homicide made famous. A good match to have here and one I’d be interested in seeing as long as they got 10-15 minutes of time.
Match #4: Kanyon vs. Ernest Miller
I am a huge fan of Kanyon, and Miller is fine as an on-air talent, but not as great as a wrestler. I’m honestly mixed on this one as I want to say that a Kanyon match would actually interest me, but Miller doesn’t interest me that much. I’d treat it as a filler and nothing more, really.
Thus far I’m interested in half the show, which kind of surprises me considering the rough patch that WCW had during its dying days.
Match #5: WCW United States Champion Rick Steiner vs. Lance Storm vs. Hugh Morrus
Another match that I want to be interested in, but I just can’t find it. Morrus got his push in WCW mainly because someone had to be a midcard babyface chasing the US Championship and he was there. That’s pretty much a fact. Storm was a great worker and produced some really forgotten gems during this time for WCW. Steiner’s heel run in 1999 was enjoyable to me, but come 2001 it’s just played out. I’m not too big of a Morrus fan to see him try and win the strap from two heels. So, this is a skip over match to me.
Match #6: WCW World Tag Team Champions Chuck Palumbo & Sean O’Haire vs. Totally Buff
I kind of cringed at the thought of watching Lex Luger compete in a match in 2001, LIVE. No thank you. O’Haire was going to be a star, but he was handcuffed into a tag team situation and Bagwell just never had the same motivation he once had. I’d rather pass on that one, too.
Main Event: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner & Jeff Jarrett vs. DDP & Dustin Rhodes
This has to be one of the weakest main events in house show history that featured a full roster of guys. I mean, let’s take a look at this. Rhodes is out of shape and uninteresting at this time, and never got past a midcard ranking. DDP is a failed main event guy, Jarrett is only a main event guy in his own mind or if Vince Russo has the book and Steiner had just established himself as a main event guy in September of 2000, for the most part. The main event is supposed to be a star studded match that fans want to see, and this one fails that requirement horribly.
Final Thoughts:
WCW’s problem was always the inability to have a main event scene that produced good matches while their undercard was usually above average. As much as it pains me to say it, there isn’t anything on the show that would make me jump out of my house to attend live.
While I wouldn’t go to the show, would you go? Or, would you rather stay at home? Let me know below!
Thanks for reading.
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Bob Colling Jr. View All
34-year-old currently living in Syracuse, New York. Long-time fan of the New York Mets, Chicago Bulls, and Minnesota Vikings. An avid fan of professional wrestling and write reviews/articles on the product. Usually focusing on old-school wrestling.
Knowing that it would be the last WCW house show it would of been really cool to be there, but looking at the card I wouldn’t have wanted to pay more than 10-15 bucks for it.
I have always been a sucker for WCW so I would definitely have gone to see this. Heck, I’d go see this show right now if it rolled through my town and we had a time machine that brought these guys to my town at the level they were at in 2000.
Match #1: Aside from Mike Sanders, I enjoyed every single one of these guys. As stupid as 3 Count was, I loved it. As dumb as the Kwee-Wee character was, I thoroughly enjoyed him. This match looks like all kinds of fun.
Match #2: I might just be the only one but I got a kick out of The Demon. He was an average (I’m probably being generous) wrestler stuck with a dumb gimmick but for me it worked. I wasn’t even a kisss fan. Elix Skipper was a real talent. At this point he was putting on good matches but I think TNA is where he really blossomed and came into his own.
Match #3: Completely agree with you. I wish people would give Chavo Jr. a bit more credit. He really had some fantastic matches in his day. The series between these guys was one of my favorite parts of this time in WCW.
Match #4: I like Kanyon a lot but never really enjoyed The Cat. This is one match I could take or leave.
Match #5: This is another meh match for me. I like all the guys in it just fine but looking at the match up it just looks like filler. Hugh Morrus didn’t come into his own, to me, until he went by Bill DeMott in WWF/E.
Match #6: Again, I’m a sucker for this. Luger was pretty limited at this point in his career but I still enjoyed it. His team with Buff seemed like a perfect match and they played so well off of each other. Palumbo and O’Haire at this point were entertaining but bland. I was hoping for big things from both of them and neither really seemed to get as far as I thought they would.
Main Event: This certainly has the star power. DDP, being one of my favorites of all time, certainly does make this one appealing but it hurts the match that he is in a tag team… meaning less of him in the ring. It’s too bad they didn’t just do DDP vs. Jarrett or DDP vs. Steiner. Both of those matches are more appealing to me than this tag match.
Not a HUGE must see event here but I’d have been there if it was in my town.