WCW Thunder 1/17/2001

Written by: Strobogo http://www.strobogowrasslin.blogspot.com

WCW Thunder 1/17/2001

Well, Nitro was fucking awful. Observer notes said that Bischoff thought this taping of Thunder was particularly bad and was very upset over it. The same Eric Bischoff who was allegedly in charge of the company again, but never officially bought the company, so he wasn’t really in any power to say shit.

Commissioner Cat and Ms. Jones start out the show in the ring. More power struggles. How great. Cat is going to clean WCW up. I think a CEO out powers a commissioner. Always and forever. Totally Buffed come out. Don’t fucking tell me they are going to do another half hour promo. Lex says Ric is the president. He’s the CEO. They are about to attack Cat when Kronik come out. You’d think Thunder would be as wrestling heavy as possible after Nitro. Cat books Totally Buffed vs Kronik. Thankfully this only went on for 7 minutes.

Kwee Wee vs Rick Steiner

Angry Allen ain’t playing. He won’t even kiss Paisley. He made an open challenge. Rick accepted. Now, Kwee Wee is a face. He’s been beaten down by all of the members of Flair’s group and they didn’t want him in their group. Rick has returned specifically to fight off Flair’s group. So why would Rick come out and beat up Kwee Wee? They should be on the same side. This is pretty much a squash. Rick no sells his offense any time he gets some. This is really dickish for a face on face squash. Top rope bulldog for the win. Rick does a short promo after the match.

Bam Bam Big Yellow vs Meng WCW Hardcore Championship

This is going to be awful. Bam Bam is bad and as much as I like Meng no selling, he wasn’t particularly good in the ring by this point. They fight over to the table early on. I don’t like Tony and Tenay being the only two out there. They don’t really get along and don’t have any chemistry. So when it is just the two of them, it’s really cold and uninteresting. Fuck. This sucks. They’re both in slow motion and blown up just from chokeholds. Meng wins with a Superfly Splash. That’s nice and all, but this match was awful. It would have been a fun match on Prime Time Wrestling in 1989.

Glacier hype video. This is like some Brodus Clay shit where they play hype videos for months.

TO THE BACK. Norman gets his fan letter back. He’s pumped.

Team Canada arrives with Awesome’s new hair cut. MIA meeting. They agree to stop protecting Chavo. Scott Hudson is with the Harris Brothers. One is in a neck brace. He says he can’t wrestle again and his head can literally fall off his neck. Ron Harris decides to embark on a singles career. Fucking seriously? Norman challenges him and shit talks because he knows Glacier is on his side. Ric Flair arrives with some YAKS. Animal is there to greet him. Steiner and Midajah were also in the limo. How does she feel about Steiner having 4 extra women tonight?

Norman Smiley vs Ron Harris

Sid was able to leave the hospital by Wednesday. How crazy is that? Doctors had even said he could put pressure on his leg with in a month. If you’ve seen that injury, and I’m sure most people reading this have, that’s fucking crazy. A long Harris Brother singles match. No wonder Bischoff thought this show was terrible. I would have fired everyone who agreed this would be a good match to book. I like Norman a lot, but this isn’t what I want to see him in for 10 minutes. Twin magic scores “Ron” the win. Why didn’t Glacier help?

Totally Buffed vs Kronik

Why can’t TB enter as a team? They’re best friends, they have an official team name. They should probably come out together. For real, who booked this fucking show? Another match where Buff is the best wrestler. Jarrett comes out and smashes a guitar on Wrath. Buff wins. DDP shows up OUTTA NOWHERE and fights them all off. Flair comes out and calls DDP a wannabe. He said that with Jeff Jarrett standing next to him? JJ vs DDP will now be the main event.

Mike Awesome vs Kidman

Mulletless Mike Awesome. Lance breaks the immersion that these are seperate shows. Kidman can wrestle, even though earlier in the night on Nitro he wasn’t allowed. Not only that, they tape the shows back to back and this match was supposed to be the original hair vs hair match. Kidman does a SSP off the apron. With injured ribs.

He hasn’t done a SSP for 8 months and the first time he tries it is while he has taped up ribs? Awesome misses a frog splash. Even Mike Awesome can’t powerbomb Kidman. He eventually hits the running Awesome bomb for the win. I don’t know what the point of having Awesome lose to Konnan and then beat a hurt Kidman was. They try to cut Kidman’s hair, but the Animals fight him off. Konnan tries to cut Gunn’s hair, which was of course not allowed to be shown on TBS.

TO THE BACK. Scott Hudson talks with Chavo. He’s going to prove his way is the right way.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs General Rection

This has a chance to be decent with a sneaky quick heel and angry big face. They do a triangle/powerbomb kind of spot. Kind of odd. Tornado DDT for a 2 count. Hugh had a bunch of concussions and brain damage. Of course, Chavo is actually on offense most of the match. Who has been booking Hugh’s matches for the past few months? They’re trying to make him a big star, but he got dominated in all the matches with Lance and since then he has lost every match like a total loser. Hugh hits a sit out powerbomb and goes for the moonsault. Wall SWERVES him and chokeslams him. Chavo wins. God damn, Hugh is such a putz. He loses every match and all his friends turn on him. If Twitter was around in 2001, he’d be the Zack Ryder of WCW.

TO THE BACK. Hudson is with Chavo and Wall.

DDP vs Jeff Jarrett

They better save the show. “Listen up you Hoosier-nuts!” Considering this is Jarrett in a WCW main event while in a big heel stable that says they will blatantly interfere in every match, I don’t expect much out of this. Tony says DDP is one of the best hitters ever. Is that like Taker being the best pure striker ever? What is a pure striker, exactly? Are hitters and strikers the same thing? Half the match is a sleeper. Why, all of Flair’s group come out? You don’t say. Kronik, Nash, Steiner, and Cat come out as well. The same fucking way they ended Nitro in the same fucking building on the same fucking night? How lazy is that?

Bischoff had good reason to be upset at this show. It is literally one of the worst possible cards WCW could put on at the time. A 10 minute Harris brother singles match. Totally Buffed vs Kronik. Rick Steiner in anything. Bam Bam vs Meng. A Hugh/Chavo match where Chavo is on offense most of the time. And then ending with the same ending that Nitro had just 2 hours earlier. Gross.