JULY 11TH — FT. LAUDERDALE, FL — NATIONAL CAR RENTAL CENTER
MATCH #1: DISCO INFERNO VS. THE CAT
NOTE: Before the match, Cat insults the fans and demands another dance contest with Disco. They dance and Cat fails at a cheap shot before the match begins.
FINISH: Late in the match, Cat puts his red shoe on and kicks Inferno to pickup the victory.
Bob’s Take: The reason for this match to be on PPV is rather lame and uninteresting. Whose the better dancer? That’s the issue. It’s not whose the better wrestler, but rather dancer. WCW is actively trying to make a lot of stuff not even about wrestling that this point. I was not expecting Cat to pickup the victory. I think this confirms that WCW sees value in Cat as a heel and he’s building momentum. As for the match, there were a few decent spots by Cat delivering some nice kicks, but that’s about all. The crowd was rather silent upon the finish. That may not be a good sign. 0 for 1
JUDGE MILLS LANE INTERVIEW
CONTEXT: Lane is interviewed by Mark Madden for the website. Madden suggests that Bagwell vs. Piper could be crazier than Holyfield/Tyson and asks how Lane is going to maintain order in the ring. Lane isn’t going to put up with any crap. Lane says he respects the athletes, but doesn’t put up with crap. Lane talks about how people make a good case for he should have ended the Tyson fight after the first bite, but the doctor said he could go. Lane will give up some slack, but he won’t cut them a lot of slack.
Bob’s Take: It’s kind of ridiculous to suggest that Bagwell vs. Piper is going to be crazier than Tyson biting another boxers ear off. You’re almost setting them up for failure if anyone could read into that as if someone’s ear could be bitten off. As I said before, Lane being involved in this match doesn’t drive my interest, at all. 0 for 2
MATCH #2: WCW TELEVISION CHAMPION RICK STEINER VS. VAN HAMMER
FINISH: Steiner low blows Hammer and hit the top rope bulldog to win the match.
Bob’s Take: Nobody cares about Van Hammer, which is a harsh reality. There’s no interest or care for Hammer to beat Steiner for the title. Sure, Steiner is a hated guy, but Hammer hasn’t developed any kind of support from the crowd for there to be interest in this title match. Steiner is getting a big time push for whatever reason. There wasn’t much to this at all and was mostly just a brawl until the finish. I hope this is the end of Hammer in a meaningful role. 0 for 3
MIKE TENAY AT THE JUNKYARD
CONTEXT: Tenay is standing outside the junkyard and promotes the match as being a unsanctioned match. Tenay says there’s no telling who will be involved in the match, and proceeds to mention several wrestlers who he has seen there. The way you win the match is by climbing the fence to escape the junkyard.
Bob’s Take: This seems like a dumb idea. Sure is going to be fun being in the crowd and having to watch a match on a big screen. 0 for 4
MATCH #3: WCW UNITED STATES CHAMPION DAVID FLAIR VS. DEAN MALENKO
FINISH: Late in the match, Arn Anderson hits the referee with a spinebuster and Charles Robinson puts on the referee shirt. Malenko put the Texas Cloverleaf on Asya. Ric hit Malenko with the championship and David steals the win.
Bob’s Take: I’m sure at some point these kinds of decisions had to play a role in guys like Malenko asking for their release in just a few months. I understand wrestling is an entertainment business and often times the better wrestler isn’t going to get the big push. But, what are we doing here? David Flair is horrendous and makes WCW look less than in so many ways. Again, I understand what they are trying to accomplish. But, it feels like it’s doing far more harm than good. We’ve had three matches thus far and this is shaping to be the worst WCW PPV I can remember ever watching. Also, I saw Torrie Wilson with David Flair, but was she not with Kevin Nash recently? What are we doing here, folks? 0 for 5
MATCH #4: NO LIMIT SOLDIERS (BA, KONNAN, REY MYSTERIO JR. & SWOLL) VS. WEST TEXAS REDNECKS (HENNIG, DUNCUM JR. KENDALL & BARRY WINDHAM) — ELIMINATION MATCH
FINISH: Mysterio leaps off Swoll’s shoulders to hit a splash to pin Hennig and win the match.
Bob’s Take: This is the first match of the night where there is actual substance and purpose behind it since they’ve been feuding for nearly two months now. There’s noticeable increase in crowd reaction to the action, as well. So, I will give them credit for succeeding in getting the crowd to actually care about this feud. It’s a bit bizarre booking to have Hennig at the disadvantage towards the end wrestling Swoll and Mysterio as his other teammates were eliminated. I think the elimination stipulation hurt the match and this felt a bit dragged along. Compared to the other three matches, though, it was mildly entertaining and served a purpose on PPV. 1 for 6
MATCH #5: JUNKYARD HARDCORE INVITATIONAL MATCH
NOTE: The wrestlers involved in this match were the following: Steven Regal, Silver King, Rocco Rock, Mikey Whipwreck, La Parka, Johnny Grunge, Jerry Flynn, Hugh Morrus, Horace, Hak, Dave Taylor, Ciclope, Brian Knobbs & Fit Finlay.
FINISH: Fit Finlay is able to escape the junkyard and wins the match.
Bob’s Take: It’s literally a group of guys trading weapon shots in a junkyard. That’s all this is and I got bored of it within about thirty seconds. At the end of the brawl there was a car explosion to essentially allow Finlay to escape. I didn’t like this and it was a waste of time. Hopefully the crowd has some energy for the remaining matches on the card. 1 for 7
MATCH #6: WCW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE TRIAD (DDP, BIGELOW & KANYON) VS. CHRIS BENOIT & PERRY SATURN — HANDICAP MATCH
FINISH: Bigelow lifts Saturn into the air and DDP hits an elevated Diamond Cutter to win the match and retain the titles.
Bob’s Take: By this point the crowd had witnessed about two hours of mostly horrible professional wrestling. It is a difficult task to get the crowd to care about these two teams despite it being the only truly interesting match on the undercard. I tend to dislike handicap matches, but these guys put forth a good effort and it is easily the match of the night. I truly doubt the final two matches would get anywhere near this match in terms of quality. Triad retaining the titles does not bother me as they are the most entertaining act in WCW. WCW needs a strong babyface team to chase them as I’d rather Benoit and Saturn be competing in single roles at this point. Bravo to everyone involved to win the crowd over and get good reactions especially towards the ending sequence of the match. 2 for 8
MATCH #7: RODDY PIPER VS. BUFF BAGWELL — BOXING MATCH
NOTE: Buff brings out his mother, Judy, to be in his corner to combat Flair being in Piper’s corner. During the match, Flair sprays something onto Piper’s gloves after the first round.
FINISH: Bagwell hits the Blockbuster to win the match
Bob’s Take: I have zero interest in this being a boxing match. I’m not sure why they would even bother going in this direction. Maybe it’s because Piper can avoid doing a job in a wrestling match? That’s the only thing I can think of. It ended up being a boxing match for a little while, but then Bagwell hits the finishing wrestling move anyway and pins Piper. It comes across rather odd and unnecessarily ridiculous. I’m glad Bagwell didn’t job out, but it wasn’t good. 2 for 9
MAIN EVENT: WCW WORLD CHAMPION KEVIN NASH & STING VS. RANDY SAVAGE & SID VICIOUS
NOTE: Gorgeous George walked over to be in Nash’s corner. She is sporting a black eye to suggest she’s been abused by Savage.
FINISH: Late in the match, Gorgeous George low blowed Nash to prevent a Jackknife on Savage. Savage ends up hitting the top rope elbow drop and pins Nash to win the title.
Bob’s Take: The most interesting aspect of this match is whether or not Nash can trust Sting. Savage and Sid are not the threats here to take the title from Nash. Naturally, they do a swerve to reveal that George had been with Savage the whole time and the suggested domestic abuse was a ruse all along. As much as I love Savage, he is probably the worst option to be champion coming out of the event. One of the biggest pops on the night was Sting sending Miss Madness and Madusa into each other and hitting splashes on both women. The crowd seemed to deflate when Savage won the title. This is a dreadful decision. They needed to do a singles match between Nash and Sting for the title. 2 for 10
Well, that was the worst PPV of 1999 to this point, and I’m not sure if any of the remaining ones will be this bad. This is truly a horrible show. Of course there were a couple of entertaining moments, but there’s no way people found value in spending money on this and getting this level of entertainment.
The Triad are the best act going for WCW and I’m glad they are still the champions. My only fear is that they don’t have a lot of challengers to defend the titles against. I’d guess that the No Limit Soldiers would shift into that role moving forward.
They’ve got to get the WCW United States Championship off of David Flair and do it quickly. The bit was funny for a week or two, but having David go over anyone of quality even with interference is a bad look.
I’m not excited about Savage being the champion. In fact, there’s nothing right now to be excited or interested in about WCW. This has been the worst WCW has been all year.
Buy-rate: 175,000
Thanks for reading.