Hate the Game

Beejus · January 1, 2017

The date is Saturday, December 23rd, 2000.

Our scene is a Christmas party, a rich man’s party. Champagne and caviar flows freely, as well dressed guests chatter amongst themselves about stocks, bonds, rental properties, vacations, and other general things that the “one percenters” care about most. One finely suited guest, the man throwing this entire shindig, floats around the room shaking hands and small talking as he moves past his fellow business owners. He then notices a man sitting alone at the in-house bar, not in a fine suit but clad in a leather jacket and blue jeans – which doesn’t suit the gray haired man wearing them.

But this is the man who was sent an invite, despite how many people said that it wasn’t a good idea. Our host walks over to him, watching him sip at a bottle of beer, before greeting him.

“Hey there, Eric; you look like you need some company.”

He glances up from his bottle briefly, a defeated look in his eyes. “What am I even doing here? I barely work for the company anymore, and once the merger goes through, I’ll be out the door even more; Hell, we probably all will be on our asses.”

“Well that’s why I invited you! Because you were the man who made it happen. You turned my baby into a profitable man for years, and I think you could do it again.”

“That’s just a pipe dream now. Vince is breathing down our necks. We won’t last until April at this rate. I spoke to that Kellner at the party earlier, and as soon as the merger goes through, he’s kicking us off the air.”

“It isn’t that bad. Our last shows were pretty good! The fans can come back, we just need to keep with what’s working.”

“With what? We barely have two dimes to rub against one another at this point.”

“That’s where I can come in, one final time, my friend.”

“What are you talking about? I thought your whole amount was tied up in legalities?”

“The company is still mine at this point, I don’t care what they keep pushing on the news. And that means I can still sell a part of it off if I want to, especially a part that they don’t want. Kellner knows some of the other guys, and they’re a little shady… I don’t want them to have the fate of my baby. You go home, and on Monday, stop by the offices. Come right into my office. I’ve had a paper drawn up for months now, just waiting for your signature. It won’t promise any money, but what it does promise is three months of hope.”

“I can’t pay anything for it. My investors aren’t guaranteed yet.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just come on Monday.”

“But why would you do this, when you can make more money by selling?”

“Eric, I’m getting to be an old man. My company is being merged out of my hands. Jane sleeps in a separate room, I think she wants a divorce. And the last thing I want to see is Vince’s faces on my networks ever again. What I want is to be able to sit down at the end of a long Monday and watch some ‘rasslin’.”

The fire is in Eric’s eyes, the defeated man gone, as he listens to the speech.

“I don’t want to lose my baby without having a say in it. So come on, Eric; make me some good ‘rasslin’ again.”

The date is Monday, December 25th, 2000.

A secret board meeting has just happened. There were only three people in the room.

Ted Turner, Eric Bischoff, and Sophie Burns, the secretary, as a witness.

As Eric heads back home, his signature on legal documents that sell him World Championship Wrestling as of January 2nd, 2001.

And all he had to give for it was one dollar and a promise.

That he would take the company and continue making good ‘rasslin’ for Ted Turner.

“Let’s get back to work.”

-----

The date is Monday, January 1st, 2001.

Vince McMahon is just biding his time, waiting for WCW executives to call him.

But the call has never come.

The ratings have been declining slowly, not enough to be a problem yet but also just enough to be a concern. He has cranked up the McMahon drama to unseen levels, knowing that is what the crowd wants for sure. That’s what he can count on. The crowd just doesn’t know it yet.

Why in the Hell hasn’t Kellner called yet? Heyman has already been on the phone, the deal is about as done as it can be without ink on paper yet. My monopoly is so close to being completed, but the major player hasn’t showed his hand yet.

The show for tonight has already been taped, and there is no new Nitro to oppose it. If fans want wrestling tonight, they’ll watch. And then next week, we can start building for the Rumble. That always brings them back around. And then WrestleMania, my baby, my greatest creation! They always come in droves for WrestleMania!

But why in the Hell hasn’t Kellner called yet? Vince appeases himself by sitting back and thinking about the past year.

“It should only be a matter of time.”

-----

So yes, this is my new toy. Is 1994 dead? Well, for now, yes. I needed something new, fresh, and shiny, and now I have it, thanks to MrCreative and his brand new January 2001 mod.

And yeah, a few people knew I had this planned out for a few months now... I did not rip off TFC by starting a WCW 01 diary!

The way I’m doing this is not as complicated as I’m about to make it sound. I am playing all three major American companies in this, WCW and WWF and ECW, as Eric, Vince, and Paul. But I am only going to be really giving a weekly write-up to WCW. The WWF will be given a brief, brief look, while ECW is only going to have one final show: the pay-per-view Guilty as Charged. I am only playing as Paul basically long enough to let ECW die, so that the AI doesn’t try to rescue it. I know that is likely to be an unpopular decision, but I hope you’ll stick with me despite it.

The stage is set for World Championship Wrestling and Eric Bischoff to make one more big go at the top here – so it’s time to see what they could do now that they aren’t on the chopping block.

Just remember; make sure you don’t hate the player. Just hate the game.

Beejus · January 1, 2017

World Championship Wrestling as of January 1st, 2001 <div style="text-align:center;">World Championship Wrestling Owner: Eric Bischoff Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia Figurehead: Goldberg Size: Cult Ranking: 2nd http://i.imgur.com/0Lh9W8w.png</div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;">World Championship Wrestling as of January 1st, 2001 Broadcast Information WCW Live Pay-Per-View Events Held Live at Primetime on Time Warner Announcers: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson, and Mark Madden (who was recently released) http://i.imgur.com/UiaGMOJ.jpg WCW Monday Nitro Held Live on Mondays at Primetime on TNT Announcers: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson, and formerly Mark Madden http://i.imgur.com/blAXzeJ.jpg WCW Thunder Shown on Wednesdays at Late Evening on TBS Announcers: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Stevie Ray http://i.imgur.com/r06q6I3.jpg WCW Worldwide Shown on Saturdays at Afternoon on Syndication Announcers: Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson</div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;">WCW Championships http://i.imgur.com/vVQclRt.jpg?1 WCW World Heavyweight Championship Current Champion: “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner Held Since: November 26th, 2000 (WCW Mayhem) Previous Champion: Booker T http://i.imgur.com/ZUzW6fC.jpg?1 WCW World Tag Team Championships Current 2-Time Champions: The Insiders: Kevin Nash (7) and Diamond Dallas Page (4) Held Since: December 17th, 2000 (WCW Starrcade) Previous Champions: The Perfect Event http://i.imgur.com/JBl4mtV.jpg?1 WCW United States Championship Current 2-Time Champion: General Rection Held Since: November 26th, 2000 (WCW Mayhem) Previous Champion: Lance Storm http://i.imgur.com/qBPvxQz.jpg?1 WCW Hardcore Championship Current 2-Time Champion: Terry Funk Held Since: December 17th, 2000 (WCW Starrcade) Previous Champion: Crowbar http://i.imgur.com/cndiFbh.jpg?1 WCW Cruiserweight Championship Current 2-Time Champion: Chavo Guerrero Jr. Held Since: December 4th, 2000 (WCW Thunder) Previous Champion: Mike Sanders</div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;">WCW Employees On-Screen Authority Figures WCW CEO: “The Nature Boss” Ric Flair WCW Commissioner: “Above Average” Mike Sanders Active Roster Alex Wright “The Beast from the East” Bam Bam Bigelow Buff “The Stuff” Bagwell Chavo Guerrero Jr. Crowbar, with Daffney “The Sarge” DeWayne Bruce Diamond Dallas Page Ernest “The Cat” Miller with Ms. Jones Evan Karagias The Filthy Animals: Konnan, Billy Kidman, and Rey Mysterio Jr., with Tygress “The Man” Goldberg The Harris Brothers: Big Ron and Heavy D Jamie Knoble “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan The Jung Dragons: Kaz Hayashi and Yang, with Leia Meow “Big Sexy” Kevin Nash KroniK: Brian Adams and Bryan Clark Kwee Wee with Paisley “The Total Package” Lex Luger The Mamalukes: Big Vito and Johnny the Bull “The Monster” Meng The Misfits in Action: General Rection, Corporal Cajun, and Sgt. A-WALL The Natural Born Thrillers: “The Main Event” Chuck Palumbo, “Perfect” Shawn Stasiak, Mark Jindrak, Sean O’Haire, and Reno, with Mike Sanders “Screamin’” Norman Smiley “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner with Midajah “The Franchise” Shane Douglas Sid Vicious Terry Funk Three Count: “Sugar” Shane Helms and Shannon Moore Team Canada: Lance Storm, “Canadian Career Killer” Mike Awesome, and Elix Skipper, with Major Gunns WCW Broadcast Team “Mean” Gene Okerlund “Iron” Mike Tenay Scott Hudson Stevie Ray Tony Schiavone WCW Officials Billy Silverman Charles Robinson Nick Patrick Scott Armstrong Backstage Road Agents Arn Anderson (occasionally seen on-screen with Ric Flair) Johnny Ace Terry Taylor Absent from Television Booker T (injury leave) Disqo (injury leave) Dustin Rhodes (suspension) Eric Bischoff (leave) Glacier (being promoted after a long absence) Kanyon (leave) Madusa (leave) Rick Steiner (leave) Stacy Kiebler (between storylines) Sting (leave) Vampiro (injury)</div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;">Current Storylines The Stories So Far The World Championship Cluster%@(# At WCW Mayhem, Scott Steiner finally achieved what people had been saying he should have had for years: The World’s Heavyweight championship. “Big Poppa Pump” put Booker T on the shelf in the process, as well as having put Sting on that same shelf. He felt that he had disposed of Sid Vicious at Starrcade as well, but reports say that Sid is not as injured as the champion would believe. “The Nature Boss” Ric Flair, in the interest of setting up a world class title match for WCW Sin, has announced a special three way dance for the World title. Steiner’s somewhat ally, “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett, won his way into the bout with a one-night tournament victory, but the third participant only Flair knows. Who is the mystery man? Can Steiner overcome these odds? And is Jarrett really in the match to help Scott as he claims, or is he out to win his fifth World championship? The Streak Redux When Vince Russo was in charge of WCW, he made Goldberg an ultimatum: if he can once again gain his 176-0 streak, then he will be given a shot at the WCW World championship, but if he loses along the way and he must leave WCW! This has led to plenty of men coming along to try and put down “The Man” so they can be the one who retires the former champion. Currently, “The Total Package” Lex Luger has laid his claim to trying to eliminate Goldberg, and he nearly did so at Starrcade with the help of a turning Buff Bagwell. Now, Totally Buff are pooling their resources to achieve their goal, and are doing so by placing Goldberg in an almost no-win situation: forcing him to team with his old Power Plant trainer “The Sarge” DeWayne Bruce at Sin against the two world class athletes! Standing now at 33-0 after a match on the final Thunder of the year, can “The Man” get through these incredible odds to get to the WCW World championship again? Inside the Thrillers Kevin Nash had been the coach of the Natural Born Thrillers, but when they turned against him, he knew that he had to look to his past to get through the onslaught in his future. Joining forces with Diamond Dallas Page, “Big Sexy” and he won the WCW World Tag Team championships from The Perfect Event and have been keeping ahead of the Thrillers since. However, Commissioner Mike Sanders has proven to be a thorn in their sides, wanting the belts back around his men’s waists. Ric Flair overruled Sanders trying to simply place his stablemates into contention, instead forcing them into a tag team battle royal, but Sanders stopped the match when it was O’Haire, Jindrak, Palumbo, and Stasiak remaining, and said that he will not reveal which two will take on Page and Nash until Sin. Mystery surrounds the evening as The Insiders have no idea which of these four young, hungry studs they will have to face off against! Blame Canada? Blame Yourself! Team Canada have just gotten a huge shot in the arm as of the final Thunder of 2000 when they dumped Jim Duggan and picked up Mike Awesome! Awesome, shedding his “70s Guy” persona, has dubbed himself the Canadian Career Killer, and he wants to get back all the time he wasted. The Canadians have been having some problems with the Filthy Animals, but this problem has just escalated with the addition of Awesome. Misfits No More? The Misfits in Action, after Lt. Loco left them, seem to be in the brink of collapse. General Rection, the reigning WCW United States champion, is trying to keep Corporal Cajun and Sgt. A-WALL banded together, but “The Franchise” Shane Douglas isn’t helping matters as he routinely attacks Rection. Douglas is simply after the championship gold, but he could help to tear the MIA apart in the process! Who’s Hardcore? Terry Funk won the WCW Hardcore championship from Crowbar at Starrcade. Crowbar, who was joined with Mike Awesome in the 70s getup, threw all that away the next night as he attacked Meng with a wrench in order to ensure that Funk would retain the belt until he got a shot at it! The old crazy Crowbar is back along with “The Scream Queen” Daffney, and they are looking to put that title right back around his waist! But… what about Meng? The Rematch Clause “Sugar” Shane Helms and Shannon Moore co-won the tag team ladder match at Starrcade, only for Helms to defeat Moore in singles action the next night on Nitro to secure himself the WCW Cruiserweight championship match at Sin. Or did he? Crafty champion Chavo Guerrero Jr. has made it clear that if he loses the belt between now and Sin, then Helms is out as Chavo would use his rematch clause to get his match back! Helms is now in a do-or-die situation, as he is forced to assist his opponent so that he doesn’t lose his hard-earned title shot! Brotherly Bonds When Johnny the Bull decided to turn on Big Vito, Vito brought in his brother, Reno, for backup against the Natural Born Thrillers. But it ended up all being a ruse, as Reno turned on Vito to join the Thrillers also! Johnny then turned right back against the NBT, rejoining Big Vito to reunite the Mamalukes, but one thing is left: showing Reno that if you mess with family, you sleep with the fishes! Blood Runs Colder Everyone has laughed as vignettes have begun to occasionally run again to redebut Glacier, now dubbed as “Blood Runs Colder”. Everyone, that is, except for “Screamin’” Norman Smiley, who feels that this is what WCW needs: a real hero! Matches Set Thus Far for WCW Sin WCW World Heavyweight Championship “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner © vs. “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett vs. ??? If Goldberg or Bruce get pinned, both must retire! Totally Buff vs. Goldberg and “The Sarge” DeWayne Bruce WCW World Tag Team Championships The Insiders © vs. Two of the Natural Born Thrillers WCW Cruiserweight Championship Chavo Guerrero Jr. © vs. “Sugar” Shane Helms WCW Hardcore Championship Terry Funk © vs. Crowbar</div></div></blockquote> Looking over all the information that he had gathered, Eric Bischoff shook his head. The days of the New World Order, of Hogan and Savage and Piper and Hart bringing in money and ratings hand-over-fist were long gone. Even the days of the exciting matches put on night after night by Benoit and Guerrero and the like were gone. Ugh, thanks a lot, Kevin. Hope you’re enjoying your miserable life on the unemployment line. <div style="text-align:center;">“Let’s face it… Vince won this battle.”</div> He sighs, sitting back in his chair and running his hands over his face. He had made a few stars over the years, but not many; they didn’t need to make new stars before, because why should they when they were promoting the legendary icons of wrestling? New stars were the people that those guys went over to stay on top! Or at least that’s what Terry and Kevin had instilled in him. Russo had his faults, but at least he gave new people a chance. People like Jarrett and Booker may not be the full answer right now, but at least they were talented enough to put on some interesting main events. And that’s what all the dirt sheet and internet whiners said, that main events in WCW were never any good because the main eventers were too old and broken down to put on good matches. Maybe we did let them coast on their name value a little too much, but there’s something to be said for known commodities. However, it’s a new day. Our ratings may stink, but Raw is slipping. Just like in 1995, that sort of slip could be just what we need to jump up and try to overtake them again. And this time there are not as many cooks in the kitchen from Turner to hold us back. <div style="text-align:center;">“He may have won this grueling five year battle. But the war is still coming.”</div> Thunder for the third of January was long ago taped and sent to TBS, there’s no way we could change anything about it. But Eric began jotting down notes and ideas on his personal roster sheet, crossing names and scratching arrows here and there with people who can start feuding. He looked at the clock to see that it was almost 2 AM, and at Loree who was long ago in bed. Tomorrow he needed to make a few calls to some people. He may not be able to change the world in one night, but the Xcel Energy Center was only a short drive away from home. <div style="text-align:center;">And he planned to have a brand new booking sheet ready to go for some people who are going to be very surprised to see his face show up backstage.</div>

Beejus · January 1, 2017

Important Story and Show Posts <div style="text-align:center;">Important Story and Show Posts</div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;"><hr><details><summary>January 2001</summary> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2210893&postcount=12" rel="external nofollow">Eric Bischoff watches New Years Raw</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2211095&postcount=15" rel="external nofollow">Eric Bischoff watches WCW Thunder: 1/3/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2211847&postcount=16" rel="external nofollow">ECW Guilty as Charged 2001</a> <a href="" rel="">1/8/2001: The Big Day</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2213243&postcount=21" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 1/8/2001 (Week 2)</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2213510&postcount=24" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 2</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2214397&postcount=41" rel="external nofollow">WCW Sin: 1/14/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2215473&postcount=46" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 1/15/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2216522&postcount=48" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 3</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2217142&postcount=51" rel="external nofollow">WWF Magazine: Royal Rumble Report</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2217486&postcount=52" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 1/23/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2219099&postcount=53" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 4</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2219352&postcount=56" rel="external nofollow">End of Month: January 2001</a><hr></details></div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;"><hr><details><summary>February 2001</summary> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2221131&postcount=57" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 1/29/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2221594&postcount=60" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 1</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2222551&postcount=64" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 2/5/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2225027&postcount=65" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 2</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2228677&postcount=75" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 2/12/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2235024&postcount=79" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 3</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2236629&postcount=81" rel="external nofollow">WCW SuperBrawl: Revenge: 2/18/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2238180&postcount=86" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 2/19/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2246061&postcount=87" rel="external nofollow">A few words with “Big Sexy”</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2246349&postcount=93" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 4</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2246645&postcount=94" rel="external nofollow">WWF Magazine: No Way Out Report</a><hr></details></div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;"><hr><details><summary>March 2001</summary> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2247106&postcount=95" rel="external nofollow">A Stranger Calls</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2247632&postcount=98" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 3/5/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2249002&postcount=100" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 1</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2254294&postcount=123" rel="external nofollow">WWF Results: Week 1, March 2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2249655&postcount=111" rel="external nofollow">A Not-So-Stranger Calls</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2250114&postcount=112" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 3/12/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2251148&postcount=113" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 2</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2253465&postcount=114" rel="external nofollow">WCW Greed: 3/18/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2253820&postcount=117" rel="external nofollow">Disaster or Blessing?</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2254538&postcount=124" rel="external nofollow">WWF Results: Week 2, March 2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2255242&postcount=133" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 3/21/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2256908&postcount=135" rel="external nofollow">WCW Thunder and WCW Worldwide: Week 3</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2257018&postcount=137" rel="external nofollow">WWF Results: Week 3, March 2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2257698&postcount=151" rel="external nofollow">WCW Nitro: 3/26/2001 + WCW Worldwide: Week 4</a> (Night of Champions; final TNT Nitro) <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2257821&postcount=154" rel="external nofollow">WWF Results: Week 4, March 2001</a><hr></details></div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;"><hr><details><summary>April 2001</summary> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2257826&postcount=155" rel="external nofollow">WWF WrestleMania X-7: 4/1/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2258207&postcount=156" rel="external nofollow">The Trials and Tribulations of Running a New WCW</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2259663&postcount=160" rel="external nofollow">WWF Results: Week 1, April 2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2260703&postcount=175" rel="external nofollow">First Week Away from Turner</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2261653&postcount=176" rel="external nofollow">WCW The Big Bang: 4/13/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2262073&postcount=180" rel="external nofollow">WWF Results: Week 2, April 2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2262166&postcount=183" rel="external nofollow">Big Bang Aftershocks</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2262316&postcount=185" rel="external nofollow">WCW.com / WWF.com: Official Rosters as of April 16th, 2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2263240&postcount=189" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 4/20/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2265368&postcount=203" rel="external nofollow">Worldwide Live Pre-Show</a> / <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2265611&postcount=208" rel="external nofollow">WCW Pride: 4/22/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2266045&postcount=216" rel="external nofollow">WWF: April 2001 Week 3</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2277629&postcount=219" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 4/27/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2278097&postcount=224" rel="external nofollow">WWF: April 2001 Week 4 + WWF Backlash</a><hr></details></div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;"><hr><details><summary>May 2001</summary> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2279791&postcount=233" rel="external nofollow">Just Business</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2280601&postcount=235" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 5/4/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2282113&postcount=244" rel="external nofollow">WWF: May 2001 Week 1 + WWF InsurreXtion</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2282723&postcount=247" rel="external nofollow">So Much News</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2284217&postcount=249" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 5/11/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2284949&postcount=265" rel="external nofollow">Worldwide Live Pre Show</a> / <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2285177&postcount=266" rel="external nofollow">WCW Envy: 5/13/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2285312&postcount=268" rel="external nofollow">WWF: May 2001 Week 2</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2285315&postcount=269" rel="external nofollow">"Envy"ous Week 2 Recap</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2287894&postcount=272" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 5/18/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2288558&postcount=274" rel="external nofollow">WWF: May 2001 Week 3 + WWF Judgment Day</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2288922&postcount=278" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 5/25/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2289383&postcount=281" rel="external nofollow">WWF: May 2001 Week 4</a><hr></details></div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;"><hr><details><summary>June 2001</summary> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2289400&postcount=282" rel="external nofollow">Beginning of June: Summer Daze</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2290176&postcount=287" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 6/8/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2290761&postcount=302" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: June 2001, Week 1</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2290969&postcount=303" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 6/14/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2291276&postcount=305" rel="external nofollow">Worldwide Live Pre Show</a> / <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2292063&postcount=307" rel="external nofollow">The Great American Bash: Gluttony</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2292942&postcount=311" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: June 2001, Week 2</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2294916&postcount=313" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 6/22/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2296260&postcount=314" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: June 2001, Week 3</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2296986&postcount=315" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 6/29/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2297051&postcount=317" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: June 2001, Week 4</a> <hr></details></div></div></blockquote> <div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2297650&postcount=324" rel="external nofollow">Six Month WCW Recap + Official WCW / WWF Rosters as of July 1st, 2001</a></div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;"><hr><details><summary>July 2001</summary> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2299267&postcount=334" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 7/6/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2299779&postcount=335" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: July 2001, Week 1</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2301794&postcount=336" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 7/13/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2307730&postcount=355" rel="external nofollow">Worldwide Live Pre-Show</a> / <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2308535&postcount=358" rel="external nofollow">WCW Bash at the Beach: Lust for the Gold</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2308626&postcount=361" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: July 2001, Week 2</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2309920&postcount=366" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 7/20/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2310172&postcount=368" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: July 2001, Week 3</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2312819&postcount=374" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: 7/27/2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2312987&postcount=376" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: July 2001, Week 4</a> <hr></details></div></div></blockquote> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><div style="text-align:center;"><hr><details><summary>August 2001</summary> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2315459&postcount=378" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: August 3, 2001</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2317257&postcount=380" rel="external nofollow">The Week That Was: August 2001, Week 1</a> <a href="http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2318973&postcount=381" rel="external nofollow">WCW Friday Nitro: August 10, 2001</a> <hr></details></div></div></blockquote>

crackerjack · January 1, 2017

Excited to see what comes out of this, Beej.

Uncrewed · January 1, 2017

Very excited to see what you do with WCW in it's later days!

2Sweet · January 1, 2017

I will be following; I gotta' thing for old school saves. Excited to see all of this folds out!

The Final Countdown · January 2, 2017

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>And yeah, a few people knew I had this planned out for a few months now... I did not rip off TFC by starting a WCW 01 diary! <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div></blockquote> Pfft, yeah, sure. That's a likely story! <img alt=":D" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> And here I thought I was going to be all alone in 2001, with a sea of dynasties (many of them excellent) set in the mid-90s. Way to crowd me, ya jerk. <img alt=":cool:" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/cool.png.f00d2562b2c1d873a09323753efdb041.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> Seriously, you know I'll be following.

Warhawk8492 · January 2, 2017

I am hyped

TheBigBad1013 · January 2, 2017

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this, man. 2001 is an interesting--not to mention challenging--year for WCW, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing your take on it.

Beejus · January 3, 2017

Thanks for all the warm response so far, I'm always glad to see that I have such a dedicated cult-um, uh, I mean, following <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/wink.png.686f06e511ee1fbf6bdc7d82f6831e53.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> around the board.

I have filled in the roster post now along with another brief backstory segment. Hope you enjoy! I will hope to have a show posted by the end of the weekend.

A quick note, there will be a prediction contest for Sin, even though there are really only like three shows until it's here. But the card that I already posted isn't full, so that will wait until I post a full card after the second Thunder.

Happy0wns · January 5, 2017

This somehow snuck past me. Subbing on up.

Beejus · January 8, 2017

New Years Raw 2001 Something that I hadn’t planned to do a week ago, I sat down and watched Raw on my New Year’s evening. Gotta get my head back into the game if I’m going to start competing again. They started by recapping what happened on SmackDown last Thursday, which is great because I certainly wasn’t watching. Seems like Stephanie was screeching all over that show too, with her playing evil boss and getting the Dudleyz and Jericho beaten up, but Steve Austin pouring beer all over her earlier in the night. She had Rikishi, Steven Regal, and Kane defeat Undertaker and Rock in a handicap match. Are we sure they didn’t rehire Russo? (B-) “Stone Cold” arrives and is met by Earl Hebner (who, as you all remember, helped screw Bret; but we’re in Texas and not Canada, so he gets a free pass) who tells him that Stephanie wants to see him. Thus begins The Stephanie Show. (B-) So “Good old JR” informs everyone that we’re having a mini tournament tonight, where the winners go to Thursday to wrestle and the winner of that gets Kurt Angle next Monday. Undertaker takes on Fatu and then Kane against Rocky. Not a bad lineup, that’s two pretty big matches. (B-) The show starts with Mark and Fatu? What logic is this? Did they not know that Nitro was running a New Year’s Special and aren’t live? Anyways, Undertaker wins with a DDT, which makes no sense because wrestling has said for years that Samoans have notoriously hard heads. Maybe they have hard heads but regular sized necks? I’m thinking that someone else in the WWF has a hard head, but he wasn’t on the show tonight. Undertaker moves on to SmackDown. (B-) The Stephanie Show sees Austin in her office, where she tells him that he has to be a beer and hot dog vendor. Wait… are they recycling my old material? Because it sure looks like it. Austin beats up the previous vendor to the apparent delight of Texans everywhere. (B-) And then we have a recap of the segment we just saw post-commercial break. (B) Kurt Angle, Edge, and Christian arrive at the arena and are met by an interviewer. He fills the three in on the mini tournament and that they have a tables match tonight. Basically just a hype segment so fans stay tuned. (C+) The Acolytes are out along with Jacqueline, and then Billy Gunn. I don’t know if there’s ever been a more misfire in wrestling history than Vince’s almost constant push of Billy, but if I were Gunn, I wouldn’t complain either. Ugh, that siren… they face three of Right to Censor, with Billy pinning Val after a lame duck match that only pushes this Ivory and Chyna feud forward. Bradshaw really was the star of this match, it looked like he was showing off for his hometown Texas crowd. Buchanan couldn’t keep up with everyone. It continues as Billy tries to hit a piledriver on Venis, but the RTC get away. So which of the gimmicks are deader in the water at this point; “The One” or the RTC? At least the APA are a hit, especially in Texas. (C+, D) Steve Austin is backstage again as we move into part three of The Stephanie Show. At least even in the nWo’s heyday, I tried to only book myself once an hour so it didn’t get overly repetitive. She harasses him about hot dogs, he sprays her with mustard. I chuckled. She at least does have her dad’s lack of shame about looking bad for the camera. (B-) After a break, Austin is sampling beer. I’m not sure if this is for storyline value or if they just left the camera on Austin backstage and then decided to air it. (B) The Stephanie Show is now in her office on the phone with Vince, whining about Austin. He tells her she’s a McMahon dammit until Trish comes in. She flirts with Vince on the phone, but once it’s hung up she and Stephanie snipe at one another. This whole family drama is so riveting… I suppose. (B-) Bubba and D-Von are backstage with an interviewer, and D-Von talks while Bubba spraypaints their opponent’s names on a table. They’re ready to “have wood” I guess. © The WWF Rewind shows Raven winning the Hardcore title. (C-) Scotty is out for a match, but he takes a microphone first and proclaims this The Year of The Raven. More like year of the drug orgies if Scott is allowed his way. Tazz’s music cuts him off from going on any further. (C+) The Hardcore title is defended, they go all over the arena including into the women’s restroom (Kevin? Did you get hired along with Russo?) when the Hollys and Blackman get involved. For some reason, Raven pins Crash to win the match against Tazz. Look, I don’t much mind when something like this happens, but don’t do it after roasting WCW for years about doing it. Raven runs away while the Hollys and Blackman fight among themselves. Anyways, there was a good match here somewhere, but it got lost in the overbooking of the whole mess. (C-) Austin now only has one beer remaining, and I guess he’ll pay for it himself as he brings it to the ring. (B-) But first, the WWF Slam of the Week, which is Austin pouring beer on Stephanie last Thursday. We saw this at the beginning of the show, remember? (B-) Austin hits the ring and demands his title shot. Stephanie says he didn’t sell all the food, but a cute nod to the other gimmicks of the company as he reveals he sold it all to the Acolytes and their poker players. Stephanie makes a third tournament match for tonight, which turns SmackDown’s match into a triple threat, between Austin and Steven- sorry, William Regal. Force of habit. Austin finds a way to rip Stephanie’s shirt off and she runs backstage covering herself. Ten minutes of my life I’m not getting back. (B) JR hypes the tables match, which he says is “Tonight” but is actually next. (C+) Well, after more Stephanie Show, as we recap her announcement and Austin ripping off her shirt. How many recaps can one show take? Find out on Raw! (B-) Chris Jericho comes out and runs down Stephanie on his way to the ring, as now even people not involved with the storyline are talking about her. Kurt, Edge, and Christian talk on their way to the ring about beating everyone in the ring last Thursday, but Jericho makes a crack about Stephanie that, for some reason, pisses them all off. (B-) Jericho and the Dudleys win the tables match, with a 3D on Edge through a table. Not a bad match, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Jericho is upset at not being pushed very well. He left us because he thought he was just spinning his wheels and not going any higher, but what’s he doing now? (B-) Test is backstage, and Trish tries to act. That’s all you really need on this one. (C-) During the break, Steven Regal leaves Stephanie’s office with a smile on his face. So either he saw her changing or he got good news about his match. (C+) Benoit defends the Intercontinental title against Test. Albert and Trish interfere to cost Test the title match. And so just like Jericho, who left WCW because he wasn’t getting anywhere, here stands Benoit, spinning his wheels just as much. (B-) Test chases Trish away and then brawls with Albert as JR gets a barbeque flavored hard-on about two big hosses fighting. At least he can’t go on about football backgrounds. (C+) William Regal – see, I’m slowly getting used to it! – is back with Debra McMichael – oh, there I did it again – and he tells her to tell Austin that there’s a surprise referee for their match tonight. (B-) And then we recap that William Regal talked to Debra about a surprise referee. So are we running the show for 5 year olds who don’t have long term memories, or is it for teenagers who are going to roll their eyes at all these time wasting recap segments? (C+) Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn with Terri join commentary for the next match. I know that one could say in WCW we never gave Malenko any personality, but what the hell is this ladies man crap? Ross immediately calls out on him being married, and the storyline should be ruined right there, but it goes on. (C-) Kaientai come out to put over their dubbing gimmick, the same one we gave to La Parka ages ago. © The Hardy Boyz defeat Kaientai pretty easily while Dean puts over this crap storyline. My WCW would have just had them put on great tag matches against one another, not have short matches and then spat about some married man wanting a piece of the rat at ringside. The crowd didn’t really care about this match at all. (C-) And then Lita and the Hardys jump Perry, Dean, and Terri, laying them out and leaving. Babyfaces, ladies and gentlemen. Cheer. © Kane and The Rock are seen heading for the ring for their match, so I guess Austin and Regal are now the real main event. (B) JR and Lawler take time to talk about the triple threat match on SmackDown, and how Kane or Rock and Austin or Regal will face Undertaker on Thursday. Something seems fishy; no way do they throw Mark, Rocky, and Austin in a triple threat when it isn’t on pay-per-view. That is way too big a level of guns for a common TV show. (B-) In a surprise move, Kane wins the match against Rocky when Angle runs in and hits Rock with the World title belt. I suppose that keeps Rock away from Austin now that he’s almost guaranteed a slot in Thursday’s triple threat. (B-) During the break, Angle runs to E&C’s getaway car, and we get another recap video of what we literally just saw two minutes ago before we went to commercial. (B) Regal comes out and shares some words of enlightenment to the crowd about being fat, stupid Texans in order to get all the cheap heat possible, before bringing out Stephanie as the surprise referee. I’m not all that surprised with this surprising development. (B) But first, a Royal Rumble Replay video, as Mick Foley entered the 1998 Rumble three times. I don’t remember that happening, probably because at the time I was too busy counting the money I was making off beating Vince’s ass every week. (B) So in the McMahon tradition of screwing people over, Regal defeats Austin via a fast count. So either something is getting changed on Thursday before the match starts or else Undertaker is getting the title match next Monday, because no way does Regal or a heel Kane get the match. (C+) Ugh, then Stephanie screeches over the microphone. I mute the TV, so I don’t know what she says, but she gestures at Austin so it must have been some sort of taunting. Show ends with Austin looking pissed off. (B) So that was a real s***show. Stephanie everywhere, Vince wasn’t on the show at all, a tournament that changed it’s rules without warning… are we sure Russo hasn’t gone back to the WWF while I was out of the loop? I can’t imagine fans, or TNN, being all that pleased with how this episode went off. If this is what they’re calling “top notch programming” then getting back to the top may not be as hard as I was thinking. WWF Jakked was taped before Raw and aired on 1/6/01. Raw/SD Recap: The McMahons conspire to put Steve Austin IN the World title match? (B) K-Kwik defeated Essa Rios (C-) D’Lo Brown defeated Grandmaster Sexay after Tiger Ali interfered on D’Lo’s behalf (C-) Scotty Too Hotty defeated Chaz when Grandmaster Sexay stopped D’Lo from interfering (D+) Too Cool dance for the crowd (B-) Raw Rating: C+ Jakked Rating: C <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I'm probably not going to have Eric recap WWF shows too often. But with no Nitro to book on that evening - I purposely didn't book one for the first of January, because WCW didn't have a Nitro until 1/8 - I felt like I wanted to get something posted. So consider this as a backstory post that I actually booked. It helps to lead into the things that are going on in the "big two", and you can follow along on things as Eric is re-learning what is happening. I would assume that he would have kept up with WWF and WCW after he was cut loose from running WCW in 2000, but it fits my narrative better that he didn't. This show, along with Thunder and SmackDown, I booked basically minute-for-minute with what happened on the show. I have first week of shows done, so I am at the point where Eric would be taking over WCW. So expect those and then another in-character backstage post before I get to the actual Nitro. Until then, I hope you enjoyed Eric Bischoff watching Raw is War on New Years Day 2001!</div></blockquote>

Dawn · January 8, 2017

I actually thought you hated the game. I'll be following this one, my friend.

BlueStar · January 8, 2017

All you need is .... The Gambler!

Beejus · January 9, 2017

WCW Thunder: 1/3/2001 I sat down to watch Thunder on Wednesday, despite Loree telling me that I was watching a little too much wrestling for not being on the road again yet. I told her that I needed to focus up since I’d been out of the game for a few months, to make sure that the transition can be as seamless as possible. Johnny has been more or less running things while I’ve been away, so let’s see how he was doing. <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="WCW Thunder, Taped 12/22/2000" data-cite="WCW Thunder, Taped 12/22/2000" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><ul><li> We open in the parking lot with Lance Storm, Elix Skipper, and Major Gunns. I wonder if having Tylene out in the freezing air was just to see if we could get a shot of pokey nipples? Mike Awesome shows up, and he looks like a whole new man without that damn mullet anymore. He shows them his 70’s bus is now repainted to be a Team Canada bus, which I am assuming will be destroyed either later tonight or is planned for demolition on Monday. (D+) </li><li> Inside the barely-halfway-full Mid-South Coliseum, Ric is out in the ring after the opening plays, where Flair talks about the two main events for Sin next Sunday. There’s the whole mess with the mystery man in the triple threat main event, and the bigger mess that has “The Sarge” in a major match on a pay-per-view. Scott Steiner is “suspended” Jeff Jarrett comes out to talk, so Flair books him to face Sid in tonight’s main event, and if Sid wins he gets added to the triple threat match in place of Jarrett. Sid joins us to chase Jeff away, and someone gives him a microphone. He doesn’t say anything embarrassing, just a generic “I’ll beat you and then get the belt back” type promo. (B) </li><li> After a break, Flair is talking to Mike Sanders about where The Insiders are tonight. He says he doesn’t know, but once Ric is gone and Sanders goes into the Thrillers’ locker room, we hear Shawn Stasiak talking on a phone and he reveals that Mike screwed up their travel plans. He tells Perfect Event, Jindrak, and O’Haire to go talk about the Insiders tonight, and tells Reno that he was going to book him against Johnny the Bull but instead he’s putting him against “The Cat” Ernest Miller tonight, since he’s already beaten Cat. (B-, C) </li><li> “Mean” Gene is back with Crowbar and Daffney, who talks about how he grew up idolizing Terry Funk and how much it hurts him to beat up his idol, but he’ll rip the Hardcore Torch away from Funk. He has a chair match against Meng tonight because he didn’t like seeing Terry get beaten up by Meng. (C-) </li><li> It’s been twenty minutes and now we are finally getting a cruiserweight match. The crowd already don’t care enough, which is why I always tried to put them closer to the top of the show than this. “Sugar” Shane Helms defeats Jamie Knoble in a pretty solid match. Maybe we can rebuild the cruiser division pretty easily, we just have to feature these kinds of guys a lot more and a lot smarter. Russo did some pretty big damage to them, but good matches can wash that away some. After the match, Evan Karagias attacks Helms, Shannon Moore comes out but gets attacked by Evan and Knoble, Helms rallies back to take down Evan and Knoble, and then Chavo Guerrero Jr. hits Shane with the title to end the segment standing over all of them. (D, D-) </li><li> A quick recap goes back to 12/20 when Konnan locked Elix Skipper in the Tequila Sunrise. This leads into Skipper running into Konnan backstage, bumping him and then running away to lead him right to Awesome, who lays Konnan out. Both Awesome and Team Canada really needed this shot in the arm. (D, C-) </li><li> Back to “Mean” Gene, who’s with The Cat and Ms. Jones. He just talks about his match with Reno and how he wants another shot at Mike Sanders. Miller is pretty funny here though, polishing Gene’s head and picking at Gene’s age. (D+) </li><li> Backstage, Jarrett finds the Harris Brothers laid out. No help from them tonight. (C-) </li><li> It feels like it’s been another half an hour and we get another match. Corporal Cajun and Sgt. A-Wall against Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire. Simple match, O’Haire wins it with the Seanton Bomb on Lash. After the match comes the heel beatdown, Hugh comes out to help, but Chavo comes out to help which causes a confusion, and Shane Douglas runs out to attacks Morrus. (D+, C-) </li><li> Gene talks to Shane after that, and he talks about having a Chain on a Pole match at Sin for the US title. Wait... did WE hire Russo back? (C-) </li><li> Elix Skipper is outside in the Team Canada bus, singing his theme music. Cute. Jim Duggan rushes into the bus and attacks him, which is not so cute. © </li><li> The Filthy Animals are backstage talking about Team Canada. (D+) </li><li> The Mamalukes are backstage talking when they run into The Cat, and they talk about Reno. (D) </li><li> “Mean” Gene is joined by Totally Buff. Bagwell meets “The Sarge” tonight, they talk about beating him up at Sin. (C+) </li><li> A montage video for Bruce? What? Who greenlighted this? (D-) </li><li> Team Canada are shown backstage tending to Skipper, and they announce Awesome against Duggan for tonight. (D+) </li><li> Back to the Filthy Animals, who want revenge on Team Canada for them beating up Konnan earlier. (D+) </li><li> The Thrillers are celebrating their victory earlier when Flair comes in. He tells Reno that he must be alone against The Cat tonight and tells Jindrak to be ready, he has a match tonight. © </li><li> More of “Mean” Gene! This is some crack induced time filler, none of these segments are going much longer than a minute or two. Russo? Is that you? Okerlund is with Sid, who blathers about Jarrett. I take a drink, because this show is only half over. I can’t wait to get back into the driver’s seat. © </li><li> Chair on a Pole match?! What?! Where is Russo? Meng beats Crowbar in the match. (D) </li><li> Ric Flair is shown backstage talking to and shaking hands with Totally Buff. Huh? (B-) </li><li> Mark Jindrak is out for his match, and he’s against Goldberg. Goldberg runs through him to move up to 34-0 in his new Streak. He takes a microphone to run down Totally Buff, saying that they’re next. (C-, B) </li><li> More of “Mean” Gene makes me realize we need more people to hold microphones. Jeff Jarrett talks about Sid and staying in the match against Scott Steiner and the mystery man. © </li><li> Kronik are shown backstage talking to Totally Buff. (B-) </li><li> Reno takes on The Cat in a fairly ugly match. Cat wins, we move on. (D) </li><li> Mike Awesome against Jim Duggan lasts slightly less time than Cat and Reno until Awesome hits the Frog Splash and wins. Team Canada attack afterwards until the Filthy Animals make the save. They graffitied the bus (there’s our bus destruction, I called it) and run through catchphrases at the Canadians. “Mean” Gene catches up to Team Canada backstage where they make a challenge to the Filthy Animals for Sin. That should definitely be a solid match. (D, D+, D) </li><li> Laurinaitis really backloaded the matches on this show. We head right back to the ring for The Sarge against Buff Bagwell. But before that starts, we see Kronik fighting with Goldberg backstage and loading him into a box, which they send out of the arena on a forklift. Luger hits the ring and Sarge ends up winning by DQ. They Pillmanize his arm, and I hope I can find a way to spin this match into something better next week. (B-, D, C-) </li><li> As the Natural Born Thrillers are leaving the arena, The Insiders appear from inside their limo and beat them up. So happy to see Kev, in his twilight years, letting the young guys get over on him like always. Yes, that was a little bit of sarcasm. I love Kevin, but we have to do something. © </li><li> In the main event, Sid defeats Jarrett by DQ when the mystery man runs down to attack Sid. He unmasks, and it was Scott Steiner. That was an alright little ending, now let’s see what I can do on Nitro to right this. (C-)</li></ul> Thunder Rating: C+ Worldwide Rating: C-</div></blockquote> I’m sure there have been worse shows that WCW have put out, some of them even under my watch. The thing is, at this point expectations are so low that this actually comes off like it’s a decent showing. The edges need ironed out again, and hopefully on Monday I will be getting that taken care of. They taped a match for Worldwide at the show too, Shane Douglas beating Norman Smiley (C-). I always felt Worldwide was worth keeping around as a recap and exclusive matches type show, so next week I plan on making it a little more worthwhile again. I didn’t catch SmackDown on Thursday, but I looked up what happened on the show. They started a feud between Jericho and Benoit – just goes back to what I said about the two of them spinning their wheels. Sure enough, Steve Austin attacked Regal to put him out, and then Vince put Austin in the triple threat main event. They booked their first match for the Rumble, Edge and Christian against the Dudleys for the Tag titles. Angle defeated Rock by DQ when Rocky went crazy on some refs. Vince and his family drama took up some time on the show, around him announcing himself as the “troubleshooting referee” for the main event. He counted the three to put Austin through, so now it’s Steve Austin getting a title shot at Kurt Angle on Raw. Seems like something you’d hold for pay-per-view, but I’m not a billionaire genius, so what would I know. But it does look like something we need to do some serious building toward to try and pull some ratings in Nitro’s direction, so it’s time to buckle down. <div style="text-align:center;">I have a big meeting to attend on Monday to inform some people that the boss is back.</div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Author" data-cite="Author" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>We are nearly through week one, which will be time for Eric to move in and take control. However, there is one more show to deal with: Guilty as Charged 2001. I wrote it up in this style (only without Eric, because I can't figure he would have watched it) so I will post it within the next few days. I'm still kinda figuring out how I want to write everything, I am definitely doing more pictures when I get to the meat of the game so it won't be this same wall of text in the future. Let me know what you think so far! I know there isn't a lot to go on given at this point I haven't changed anything, but I'm always interested in seeing what people think of where it is or where it could be heading.</div></blockquote>

Beejus · January 13, 2017

ECW Presents: Guilty as Charged 2001

ECW Guilty As Charged 2001

Held live at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York to 2,600 people

Dark Match: Simon and Swinger defeat Michael Shane and local talent Amazing Red (E+)

Joey Styles and Joel Gertner welcome everyone to the show, with Joel giving a very dirty limerick for the evening. He brings out Joey Matthews and Christian York, but they get attacked by Da Baldies. That really started the show strong. Cyrus and Jerry Lynn come out and chase Joey and Joel away, giving a promo about how Rob Van Dam isn’t here and Jerry Lynn is the Whole F’n Show now! He won’t be anywhere but the main event from now on. I don’t know if Lynn forgot the script or was trying not to use one, but wow his dialogue was awful. Cyrus did well, at least. (D+, C-)

Danny Doring and Roadkill defend the ECW Tag Team titles against Hot Commodity, EZ Money and Julio Dinero. The titles actually change hands when Elektra trips Doring when he goes for the Buggy Bang, giving Money a chance to hit Roadkill with the flipping clothesline and get the win! (D+)

Hot Commodity do a beatdown on the former champs, until “Bang Your Head” brings out Nova. He hits a leaping suicide dive onto Money and Dinero! (D)

Nova takes on Chris Hamrick, but in true ECW fashion it ends up being a tag team match when Chris Chetti returns to the company – after having lost a loser leaves ECW match last month – but Little Spike Dudley has Nova’s back. Also, when Elektra tries to interfere again, Doring and Roadkill pull her off the apron, with Roadkill spanking her. The crowd really didn’t care for Hamrick in this match. Nova pins Chetti with the Kryptonite Krunch as Spike hits the Acid Drop on Hamrick. (D)

Steve Corino and Jack Victory are backstage, with Corino talking about how he’s no joke anymore. He wants his belt back, he wants Justin’s girl Francine, and he’s going to get both of them tonight! Victory contributes his “high spot” catchphrase. (D+)

Joey talks about the “I Quit” match up next between C.W. Anderson and Tommy Dreamer. (D)

Dreamer wins the I Quit match over Anderson by wrapping table metal around his eyes to lock in a Crippler Crossface, which was a really awesome visual which got the crowd buzzing. ©

After the match, the two shake hands, ending this respect feud. (D+)

A comedy segment next as Corino wants to get in Francine’s pants, but not unless he has the title. Justin Credible comes out of the next room, apparently getting some from Missy Hyatt. Missy meets up with Corino and Victory in the hallway, where Jack asks if she remembers him. She references John Tatum before saying that if she didn’t f*** him, then he only managed himself. (C-)

Mikey and Tajiri defeat Kash and Crazy and the FBI in a three way dance. Kash and Crazy were eliminated first, then a pair of tiger suplexes eliminated the FBI. (C-)

The Sandman talks to the camera about how he’s the King of Extreme, the Extreme Icon, and that’s why he’s winning tonight in Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes. A good promo from Sandman. (C-)

Ballz Mahoney and Chilly Willy are out for a tag match, but Rhino rushes out and destroys both of them with a collection of Gores. He really came across as a remorseless monster there. Rhino then cuts a promo about how he loves violence more than anything, and that’s why he has plans for tonight. “Why do I have a TV title for a company that doesn’t have any f***ing TELEVISION?!” (C-, C)

The Sandman does a long entrance with the crowd singing along every word of “Enter Sandman”. (D+)

In Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes, The Sandman wins the ECW title when Corino and Credible take themselves out by falling through a table off a ladder, leaving it ripe for his picking. Match really got the crowd going. ©

But Rhino rushes him and hits a Gore! He threatens Sandman’s family backstage, telling him that he’ll kill them if he doesn’t get a title match right now! “Ring the f***ing bell” gasps Sandman. (C+)

In a title unification bout, Rhino defeats The Sandman with two Gores and a piledriver on a broken piece of table. How explosive. ©

Cyrus comes out to gloat about Rhino winning the title, when Rob Van Dam comes to the ring! RVD and Rhino have a staredown, but Jerry Lynn attacks Van Dam from behind! Rhino leaves with his titles as the bell is sounded for our new main event match. Man were the crowd pumped after all that! ©

In our main event, Rob Van Dam defeats Jerry Lynn. Cyrus gets involved, but Joel Gertner interferes with it, and he helps Van Dam deliver a Van Terminator. He finishes the match with the Five Star Frog Splash. Another great match in their long series. (B+)

RVD celebrates his win as the show goes off the air. (C+)

After the show, Paul Heyman came out and thanked everyone, for everything. Pretty foreboding stuff… (B-)

Show Rating: C+

Yeah, so most of this show was the same as real life, but I made a change here and there. Hope you enjoyed! We are getting into real shows soon, I promise!

Beejus · January 15, 2017

1/8/2001: The Big Day

“Hey there! Glad to see ya drop by. You never call, you never write. How will we ever make this relationship work?!?”

I’m almost immediately greeted by Kevin Nash as I got my entry into the backstage area, with him of course making a joke out of things. I greet him as well, but before getting chummy with everyone, I ask to be pointed toward Johnny. I have some business to attend to, and he’s the man I have to talk to first.

When I get into his office, his raspy voice greets me politely as he asks me if I’m here to talk to some of the boys and watch the show.

He has no idea the bombshell that I drop in his lap.

“You’re what?!”

“I’m sorry you had to find out about it this way, but it had to be kept a secret until after the first of the year.”

“So what, you’re just stepping in and pulling the rug out from under me? Gonna redo things like you and Russo did last year? Because that worked so well for the company!”

“John, calm down! We aren’t changing or rebooting anything. The only thing that changes as far as this goes is that I’m in charge. That shouldn’t be a whole lot of change compared to what we’ve worked with before.”

“Well, no, but what about Turner and his money?”

“Ted gave me the company, but unfortunately we don’t get any more money from him. Which really bothers me about what we’re doing running the Xcel tonight. John, why are we even here? WCW are so far in the red it’s not funny right now! Why are we running in a building we literally can’t afford and have next to no chance of filling?”

“It was set up at the end of last year, Eric! We couldn’t change it.”

“Well, we need to call the next arenas after Sin and tell them that we can’t run there. We need to downsize, and fast.”

“They won’t give back our deposits-”

“Johnny, come on! That’s unfortunate, but we gotta do things different. We won’t run far from there, but we gotta fit people into close yet smaller, and more importantly cheaper, venues. It certainly doesn’t seem like we’re selling enough tickets to make it worth our while. Just tell everyone their tickets are being honored at the new location, like Vince did a that one shitty Wrestlemania.”

“Eric, what are we going to do without Turner’s money? That’s all that kept this company afloat for the past few years, and then every year before that!”

This was one thing I knew how to answer.

“Survive, John. Survive on our own.”

He sighs, shaking his head. “That’ll be way easier said than done. I hope you aren’t expecting all of the boys to be happy to see you.”

“I’m not. But I hope I’ll be able to convince them that it’s better than the alternatives.”

With Ace’s help, I got a secret meeting called for all the staff; wrestlers, agents, if their name was on a WCW contract they were to attend. A buzz could be heard from all around the room as John called everyone to order. I had given him a short speech to read off, telling about how the AOL/Time Warner merger would have meant all of their jobs would have ended up down the toilet. Telling them that we no longer were operating under TBS’s braintrust, and that we only had three months of television coverage left on these stations before we were getting kicked off and had to find our own path. I made sure to make it sound as bad as possible, that there was almost literally no way that the company was going to survive. I was feeling a little nervous as he got closer to the end of his speech.

“But one man has decided that this company and all you in this room are worth stepping in to save. And that man has bought WCW and all it’s contracts directly from Turner himself. That man… is Eric Bischoff.”

As I stepped in front of everyone, Ric Flair’s voice rang out over everyone. “Are you f***ing kidding me?!” He nearly stampeded me as he got in front of the pack. “You? You?! I thought we were finally done with you! You’re one of the biggest reasons we are in the mess that Ace was just telling us about, and now you’re gonna come in here and turn things around? Is Hogan back here somewhere too? I’m sure he wants to drop a leg on Scott and wear the belt around some more! How about Master P? Is he gonna be around too? What World Order are we about to turn into?”

I had maybe this one chance to diffuse this situation before it became hostile. “Ric, please! I know I’ve made some huge mistakes, most of them involving you! But I never thought that I would see the day that WCW was in this shape. I thought we would have won the war by now, but I was blind, okay? All that was before I was forced to leave. Now I have a second chance, another shot to change my fate, all of your fates, by being the sole owner of the company. I’m not asking you to trust me right now. I’m just asking that you give me a chance.”

“We’ll see,” he says, walking off in a huff. Arn joins him, and the door slams shut behind them. Silence echoes around the room, as if waiting for someone else to step forward and air their grievances.

But it doesn’t come; instead, Nash and Dallas come to my side, shaking my hand and congratulating me on getting the company. “It won’t be easy though,” I tell them, addressing the group again before it disperses. “All of the things that John said are true. We are horribly in the red. We will be forced off of Turner broadcasting at the end of March. If we can even keep the banks off our ass by then. But we have a good thing going here. We aren’t finished yet. And as long as we can keep getting fans to keep watching and keep putting money toward us, then just maybe we can still turn this around. The company was offered to Vince McMahon, and he didn’t even want it. Are we going to stand for that? Are we going to be made to feel less than second rate by an asshole like Vince McMahon?! Well I’m not! And you shouldn’t be either! We may not be winning the war tomorrow or the next day, but if we all can work together, we can come back from this, I swear!”

The guys all seemed a little excited, I guess just knowing who to report to may be new for some of them. I will have to deal with Ric and Arn personally later, but for now, it’s on to other business. I posted up a brand new booking sheet for tonight and Thunder, and it left a lot of guys excited. They weren’t to get TV time before, but now they’re set to be featured right away on Nitro.

Behind the scenes, one of the first things I had to do – unfortunately – was go further into debt. However, it will save us in the long run. I toned down our production qualities; not so much that Turner’s execs were going to start breathing down our neck, but just enough to save money in the long run… and hopefully not so much that it will become a problem in three months when I have to have a new home for our programming. I had to buy off members of the staff who were being let go so we could bring our production value down to a professional level, move our live event experience to a large crew, our broadcast quality to simply an in-house crew instead of Turner’s people, and our music to smaller yet still licensed bands. If we are running enough shows to make our wage bill worth it, we are going to need all we can get. It was thirty grand that we really didn’t have the ability to spend, but it will come out in the long run. Also, and I hope this one will not come back to bite us on the ass, but I had to do away with drug testing. At least for now, because we just cannot afford the costs that come with doing it. Fortunately for me, being out of the Turner umbrella made the pending lawsuits disappear – but it sure didn’t help our company’s bottom line, as we are already struggling as the poorest of the poor as wrestling companies go in the entire world. That is quite a change from a few years ago, and is a first for WCW. We haven’t been this badly in debt since Crockett ran things. But there will be no rich man coming to save the day. With little money to myself to put into the company, there is no way I can throw cash around like I used to. Big money contracts are going to have to disappear. I just hope that the people who hold onto them will understand and stick around to rebuild the company.

I realize that I may be in way over my head. But we can’t just let Vince win.

It’s time for Nitro.

Alright, so that's all of my quote-unquote "backstory" posts. Nitro will be posted in the next day or so. I hope this doesn't seem too far-fetched; I know it would have been easier to just go with no real backstory at all, but I felt that Eric stepping into power would almost require a lot of things like this big backstage meeting. Hope you enjoyed, and I hope you all will enjoy the start of my own shows!

crackerjack · January 15, 2017

Sweet Update Beej. Hoping to see some ECW guys - specifically Rhino, Corino, Dawn Marie, and Tajiri/Whipwreck - make their ways to WCW

The Final Countdown · January 15, 2017

I thought Big Johnny was getting fired at first. Mr. Excitement must be relieved to have hung onto his job at least!

"If you don't got it, get it! If you don't get it, figure it out!"

I didn't think any of this was farfetched at all. I can see most of the boys being happy with Bischoff buying the company if they realized that they were basically finished otherwise. Flair was obviously going to be an exception. That's going to be a tricky one, because Ric IS WCW (along with Sting), but I have to imagine he's got hatred of Bischoff in the mod.

Beejus · January 15, 2017

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="crackerjack" data-cite="crackerjack" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Sweet Update Beej. Hoping to see some ECW guys - specifically Rhino, Corino, Dawn Marie, and Tajiri/Whipwreck - make their ways to WCW</div></blockquote> I can definitely promise some of the ECW guys will be heading to WCW in the future, but some will also head to the WWF. I'm still trying to figure out if and how I will be doing updates for the WWF, because I'm playing them like I'm trying to "win the game" as well as how I'm doing with WCW. So it will be worth seeing what they put on, but this diary is meant to focus more on Eric bringing WCW back from the brink. <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="The Final Countdown" data-cite="The Final Countdown" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I thought Big Johnny was getting fired at first. Mr. Excitement must be relieved to have hung onto his job at least! "If you don't got it, get it! If you don't get it, figure it out!" I didn't think any of this was farfetched at all. I can see most of the boys being happy with Bischoff buying the company if they realized that they were basically finished otherwise. Flair was obviously going to be an exception. That's going to be a tricky one, because Ric IS WCW (along with Sting), but I have to imagine he's got hatred of Bischoff in the mod.</div></blockquote> Flair is set to have a simmering tension with Bischoff, which I think would be fair for right now. By this time, it's been three years since the legal battle of 98, so while that would definitely still be a sticking point, it isn't quite the wound that it has been. As for Johnny, I had thought about making it so he was more upset about all this, giving him a tension relationship or giving him a negative starting morale or having him walk out... but, well, basically I felt I have enough problems to deal with. I chalk it up to saying there was more discussed in that office than just what was outlined, but we'll just say Ace is fine with going back to just being a road agent instead of trying to be a booker as well. Thanks for the comments guys, I will respond to more comments here and there, but for now I'll mostly just say that I have Nitro all written out, but I'm going to wait until I've taken time to book Sin before I post it. That way I am a little further ahead of myself.

Beejus · January 21, 2017

WCW Nitro: 1/8/2001 <div style="text-align:center;">http://i.imgur.com/GfAVMaj.gif</div> Last Week in WCW: With Scott Steiner suspended, Jeff Jarrett was in a do or die situation as he was forced to take on Sid Vicious! Team Canada were on top of the world with their new Canadian bus, but the Filthy Animals crashed their party by spray painting it! While Kronik took out Goldberg, Totally Buff destroyed The Sarge’s arm! When “Big Poppa Pump” returned to the building dressed as the Mystery Man, he and Jarrett beat Sid down, but that cost Jeff the match. What will Ric Flair do about this turn of events? <div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="320" height="180" src="<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oZmMMBjNHh4?rel=0" rel="external nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/embed/oZmMMBjNHh4?rel=0"</a> frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://i.imgur.com/UiaGMOJ.jpg WCW Monday Nitro LIVE on January 8th, 2001 (Week 2) Held at: Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota (Great Lakes) Announcers: Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson, and Disqo Attendance: 4,575 TV Rating: 2.31 Show Rating: C+ This show increased our popularity in 10 regions.</div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Way more fireworks than WCW should be able to afford go off around the Xcel Energy Arena, welcoming us all to the show that set the standard for Monday night wrestling (remember that, kids, back before six different World Orders and all the fingerpokes and swerves that sent you away?) as Tony shills that this is the first live Monday Nitro of 2001! <div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="220" height="124" src="<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uZITiFfFlPM?rel=0&showinfo=0" rel="external nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/embed/uZITiFfFlPM?rel=0&showinfo=0"</a> frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> It takes no time at all before the sirens of “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner open the show, with the champion coming out to talk. He talks about how he’s not only the freakiest, but also the smartest man in wrestling. “Y’all can talk all about yer’ C’rebral Assassins, but I make him look like Ass fashions! ‘Big Poppa Pump’ is the man wearin’ the gold. The man who took out Sting. The man who sent Booker T back to his back-ass hood in a bodybag. And the man who’s gonna send Sid to the hospital bed if he don’t bow down and accept that I’m the champ and I’m the baddest in the world! An’ if he’s still back after that beatin’ that we gave him last When-sday, then maybe we gotta send him to the morgue!” The sound of “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair’s music interrupts, to tell Scott that while he is still the champ, Flair is still “the man” and he will remain “the man” until the day he dies in the ring, wooo! He says that Steiner had better be prepared to back up those words against Sid, because since Vicious defeated Jarrett on Thunder, that means Jeff is out and Sid is in! That brings “The Cho-Cho-Cho-Chosen One” out to complain, saying that he can’t be out of the match! He won the tournament! Scott yells an opinion that we aren’t allowed to hear because it has to be bleeped out, but Flair stands firm. He tells Jarrett that he will give one final, final chance to be in the main event at Sin, one hundred percent. He and Scott will be on the same team tonight, and Sid on the other team! And if Jarrett and Steiner’s team wins, then Jeff will be in the match at Sin, making it a fatal four way instead of a triple threat – with Flair making sure to remind everyone about the Mystery Man who has his spot cemented because of how much he wants to get his hands on Scott. <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: B Eric’s Thoughts: This story is a mess. We’ve hyped up this mystery man to a point that the original idea just isn’t going to fly by the time he’s shown. Scott really delivers on the microphone though, especially with a talker like Flair to play off of. This got the show off to a strong start, getting the crowd hotter – maybe because they couldn’t heard Disqo’s weak commentary. Flair improvised well to the live crowd though, and Jarrett seemed to really enjoy not working with a script.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png After that, we go to the announcers booth for them to discuss the main event that we just heard about. Tony and Scott talk about how this is once again do or die for Jeff Jarrett, as being forced out of this match could be a disaster for his title aspirations. Disqo reminds them that the match isn’t filled out yet, as Flair never mentioned a partner for Sid! <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: C Eric’s Thoughts: Disqo is not going to be a full-time announcer in the future.</div> <div style="text-align:center;">Team Canada (Lance Storm & Elix Skipper) w/Major Gunns vs. The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman & Rey Mysterio Jr.) w/Tygress</div> After that it is straight to the ring for action, as The Filthy Animals take on Team Canada. The match is very fast paced and non-stop action, as they were told to have a high spot based match. Mysterio enters the ring off a hot tag and hits a series of dropkicks and headscissor takedowns before delivering the bronco buster to Skipper. However he is unable to do the same to Storm, as he’s yanked out of the ring and driven through a previously set up table by an Awesome Bomb! Charles Robinson calls for the bell to disqualify Team Canada. Team Canada take this moment of advantage to deliver a beating on two of their opponents for this Sunday at Sin. Storm locks Mysterio in the Canadian Maple Leaf and refuses to release it as Awesome and Skipper lay boots onto Kidman. Finally, their fellow Animal Konnan alongside “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, armed with a chair and a 2x4 respectively, charge down to the ring to make the save! They chase off the Canadians, but Disqo points out that there won’t be any weapons to save the day on Sunday! <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 11:59 Ratings: C / C- Eric’s Thoughts: Nitro had gotten away from the format I conceived back in 1995 and perfected throughout 1997. Sure, the show may start with the World champion once in awhile like this, but talented cruiserweights are the lifeblood of the show. Giving these guys 12 minutes was my way of showing – even if just this one time this evening – that something is different. We are coming back to what’s familiar. Hopefully the fans take notice. As for the match itself, Tylene did good work at ringside, but the match deserved better color than what Glenn could give. We set it up as a high spot-intensive match, and due to that Rey and Billy were well suited to it. Mysterio – as he tends to be – was head and shoulders above everyone else in the bout. I saw the devised idea for this “penalty box” match for Sin, but I threw it away.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Backstage, “Mean” Gene Okerlund is standing by with “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett and the Harris Brothers. Gene asks Jarrett about his match tonight, saying that he’s heard through the grapevine that Big Ron and Heavy D not only have a match to deal with tonight, but that they have been outright barred from ringside during our main event. Jarrett tells him that he’s happy about this turn of events! “Listen up you Geritol slapnut. I don’t care about these guys having a match tonight, because they need to step it up and prove themselves! They weren’t there for me last Wednesday, and they gotta show me why I’m paying them to be my backup if they can’t even stand up to some slapass attack backstage! So they better win that match, or else I might find someone else who can watch my back better! And as far as tonight goes, ha ha, it looks like we played Flair like a fiddle. I can still get into the match at Sin to watch Scott’s back or win the World title – and that’s exactly how we want it.” The brothers don’t look pleased about this ultimatum, but seem stoic about doing what needs done. Gene asks Jarrett if Steiner would agree about losing the title if he were to lose it to Jarrett, but he tells Gene to mind his own damn business. <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: C+ Eric’s Thoughts: Jarrett may not always maintain a level as a top heel for us – we saw how it went with Russo pushing him to the top last year – but he is definitely a solid hand, and one that I feel will have a nice home in WCW as long as he doesn’t have to job to any oversized women. As for Ron and Don, the time may soon be coming when being two large, twin wrestlers isn’t enough to keep a permanent job.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png We head to another backstage area where Totally Buff are staring at themselves in mirrors. “The Nature Boy” enters the room, greeting them as friends. However, their mood changes when Flair points out that he isn’t very pleased that they ruined one of his main events for Sin. The two start making excuses and reasons for what they did, but Flair silences them by saying that fortunately, he’s found a way to make the match even better. He tells them that Sarge is going to be out of commission, but tonight Goldberg is in a tag team match for revenge against Kronik. And the man who will be his partner tonight… is the guy who will team with Goldberg to face the two of them this Sunday night at Sin! Lex and Buff complain, saying they want to know who it is, but Flair tells them to watch the match! He also points out that to make sure they don’t want to come down to the ring and make any problems for Goldberg or his new partner, he is placing Totally Buff in tonight’s main event as Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner’s partners! Buff groans, with Lex trying to ask Ric to reconsider, but he “Whoooo!”s in their faces before leaving the room. More groaning and moaning from Totally Buff close the segment! <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: B Eric’s Thoughts: Ric didn’t want to have a script for any of his segments, and while that’s a fine blessing when working off Steiner or Jarrett, it’s a curse here. Buff may have done a great job improvising dialogue, but Luger didn’t do well, tripping over his words and stammering during the groaning. Never change, Lex. Thank God that I can use what happened on Thunder to write Sarge out of the match. It’s nothing at all against DeWayne Bruce himself, but in a major pay-per-view event? I just can’t leave it at that.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Back to “Mean” Gene, who is with the United States champion, General Rection. He screams for “Fall in!” and the camera pulls back to show Corporal Cajun with him. Gene comically stands in next to Cajun as Rection addresses his troops. “Lieutenant Loco has turned traitor! Sergeant A-Wall has been forced to the infirmary! That leaves only you, Corporal, left to carry on the fight. We will carry the fight against Shane Douglas, who only knows how to handle privates! We will fight the good fight, for America’s United States title! And that’s no laughing matter, Gene.” Okerlund points out that Corporal Cajun is set to take on Shane Douglas tonight on Nitro, asking if they are aware that this could simply be a trap. Rection says that they know exactly what strategy this is: it’s divide and conquer. But what he isn’t taking into account is that the Corporal isn’t just some stepping stone. He is going to embarrass Shane tonight, and then the General will take that chain and shove it where the sun don’t shine on Sunday! <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: D+ Eric’s Thoughts: “The infirmary” was a pretty clever way to clue in that after Thunder, Jerry was sent to rehab. Hopefully he can straighten things out, because he could be a solid midcard monster if he can stay clean.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Elsewhere backstage, Norman Smiley is very excited as he gets to meet his new hero… Glacier! He beams at Glacier’s appearance, telling him that WCW has needed a real hero like him for awhile now. Glacier is all smiles on this introduction, but a stagehand peeks into the room to tell Norman that his match is next. Smiley asks Glacier to please watch his match, because he wants to impress a man like him. <div style="text-align:center;">WCW Hardcore Championship Terry Funk © vs. Norman Smiley</div> Norman is barely out of the room when Terry attacks him, and the two brawl all the way to the ring. Tony points out that Norman isn’t screaming and running like in the past, perhaps the presence of Glacier is inspiring him on? Meng happens into the fight, and then so does Crowbar. Daffney dances around the area as Funk, Crowbar, and Meng fight, with each one hitting Norman as he gets close. Finally, help arrives… <div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="220" height="124" src="<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WEtyStwRJGc?rel=0&showinfo=0" rel="external nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/embed/WEtyStwRJGc?rel=0&showinfo=0"</a> frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> … as Glacier starts making his way to the ring! But despite Norman willing him to come and help with his martial arts, Glacier instead seems to be caught up in the fans’ adoration, as a collection of children charge the guardrail demanding autographs. Glacier fills each request, but by the time he gets to the ring, Funk has piledriven Smiley and gotten the three count to retain his title. <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 3:40 Ratings: D- / D+ Eric’s Thoughts: Look, I thought we had left Glacier back in 1998 too. But this storyline was planned out before I got here, and to be honest, I kinda liked it. So we are sticking with it, even if it won’t be a very long story. The match was kept short, because that’s what Russo has people used to anymore. Ugh. I want to change that in the very near future. Funk was well suited to the brawl and did great at going all out for someone who’s been on the downside of his career for years, but Norman couldn’t keep up. Fans didn’t know who to cheer for in a face vs. face match though. Smiley seemed to improve his performance.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png “The Franchise” Shane Douglas comes to the ring for his match, but first he takes time to grab a microphone. He calls out how he has yet to hold a title in his return to WCW, but that will change as of this Sunday. “The Franchise wants what he wants, and that’s gold around his waist. That’s something you Minnesota morons don’t understand, because your precious Vikings can’t win a game like my great hometown Steelers do! The Misfits in Action are just like your Vikings: a group of misfits. And misfits don’t wear gold that can belong to franchises. So come on down, Cajun, and when you go back to your general, you can tell him how it feels to get your ass franchised!” <div style="text-align:center;">Corporal Cajun vs. “The Franchise” Shane Douglas</div> Lash fights all he can, but it seems as though Douglas is simply toying with him. The announcers talk about how this is a disgusting display of Shane trying to make an example out of Hugh’s best friend, but about that time is when Cajun gets a quick rollup that nearly scores a pinfall! Shane then becomes deadly serious, demolishing LeRoux with stomps in the corner and hitting The Franchiser on him. But he isn’t finished, as he goes into his boot to pull out his concealed chain. As he wraps it around his fist, General Rection rushes out to the ring and attacks Shane for his actions! While he may have saved his friend, he costs him the match, as Cajun loses via disqualification. <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 3:10 Ratings: C / C- Eric’s Thoughts: This is a very easy story to tell. The MIA seem to be falling apart at the seams, and Shane isn’t helping matters. Simple, yet very effective. Throw the US title into the mix and we have some great things going on with this minor feud. In his promo, Shane really looked like he enjoyed being able to rile the fans up on his own, but in the match he seemed off his game. Lash also impressed with some new technical skills.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png “Mean” Gene is now back in the interview area alongside “The Cat” Ernest Miller, with Ms. Jones at his side. A pretty regular promo from Cat, as he talks about how much he wants to win back his commissionership, so he is going to talk to Ric Flair about getting a fair match against Mike Sanders soon. Elsewhere, “Above Average” Mike Sanders has heard this on a monitor, and he’s not very thrilled. He happens upon The Jung Dragons sitting nearby, and – using slow words and hang signals – tells them that there could be big American dollars for them if they take out The Cat in the ring, tonight! They agree, and Sanders signs off on a handicap match! <div style="text-align:right;">Ratings: C- / D Eric’s Thoughts: Mike is right up my alley; an evil authority character with smarm and a punchable face. Really reminds me of… well, me!</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Elsewhere backstage, we see Paisley and Kwee Wee, casually chatting about clothing. Kwee Wee looks shocked, and he comes up to someone’s back to point out how horrible their hair looks. The person turns around to reveal… … Fit Finlay! Finlay doesn’t take kindly to the accusation that his hair is “Like you’d shave on a dog if you didn’t like the dog,” and tells Kwee Wee that people “like him” don’t last long in Belfast. “Like me? What do you mean people like me?! You dare to insult The Kwee Wee?! That makes me so angry! I’ll see you up next in the ring!” <div style="text-align:center;">Kwee Wee w/Paisley vs. Fit Finlay</div> Finlay weathers the mild storm that Kwee Wee inflicts upon him before decimating him with a running clothesline. He picks him up and drills Kwee Wee with a Tombstone piledriver (with Disqo excited that it was “Right on that spikey hair!”) for the pin. <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 3:23 Ratings: D / C- Eric’s Thoughts: We intended to cool the crowd down, and this definitely accomplished it. Sharmell did a good job helping Kwee Wee.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png The wolf’s howl blares over the loudspeakers and the crowd cheer as the WCW World Tag Team champions The Insiders come down to the ring! Nash says that it looks like “Big Sexy is in the house!” He jokes that the Insiders were out of the house last Wednesday, but the Thrillers got what was coming to them by the end of the night. Page is handed the microphone, and he says that the Insiders don’t care which two of the Thrillers they face on Sunday at Sin, because they’re at the top of their game while those rookies are just that: wet behind the ears rookies. <div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="220" height="124" src="<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xusQQ0H1OPY?rel=0" rel="external nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/embed/xusQQ0H1OPY?rel=0"</a> frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> The Natural Born Thrillers come out to the stage, with WCW Commissioner Mike Sanders at the forefront of his menacing group. “So, you guys thought that was real funny last Wednesday, don’t you? Well we didn’t think so! And that’s why, since ‘Naitch’ didn’t sign off completely on the match yet, then I’m going to go ahead and close up our main event for the evening. You two old fossils will team up with another relic of the past, Sid Vicious, to take on Jeff Jarrett, Totally Buff, and Scott Steiner! That’s right, four on three! And if you guys try to get some other stooge to come down and join the match with you, then you’ll be S.O.L… and you all know what that means! You boys better stop cracking wise and go get your gear on.” <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: C+ Eric’s Thoughts: An hour into the show and our main event is finalized. That should get people to keep watching! However, Disqo continued dragging things down from the desk. We got the crowd hotter, at least. Nash looked good out there, clearly enjoying the lack of script. But Page didn’t come out quite right, his tirade about rookies struggling to sound like more than just some old timer. Mike also didn’t come off well on his own dialogue, sounding like he was rambling more than usual. Mike underperformed here, and it showed. Hopefully we can build him up to where he can stand next to legends better pretty quickly.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png At the top of the hour, we cut solely to commentary, where they hype the main event that has been set up now. Tony and Scott say that Sanders was being unfair, but Disqo sticks up for him, saying that Nash and Sid are bigger than most people so it would count as a handicap for them; if not for Scott Steiner! They call him a suck up. <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: C Eric’s Thoughts: Just a simple segment to hype those who we could have lost due to it being 9 and Raw coming on.</div> <div style="text-align:center;">Jamie Knoble & Evan Karagias vs. The Harris Brothers</div> A pretty harsh squash match here mostly, as Big Ron and Heavy D do what they can to prove their worth to Jeff Jarrett by taking out these two cruiserweights. Despite a few glimpses of promise, this one ends anticlimatically with Knoble being blasted by the H-Bomb and covered for the pin. <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 2:16 Rating: D Eric’s Thoughts: I know, I know, I shouldn’t be jobbing my cruiserweights to big lunks like this. But Ron and Don need built up if they’re going to be worth anything, and these guys aren’t going anywhere fast at this moment. I’ll make it up to them. We planned this match to calm the crowd down, and it did just that. Evan seemed to be flying around a little easier, but the crowd were giving it to Don a little. Ron, however, seems to be showing his age a bit.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Backstage in a dark room, we find Sid Vicious. He laughs, talking about how Scott Steiner is a fool to have thought that he had actually put him out. Sid says that tonight, he eliminates Jeff Jarrett from the Sin triple threat match once and for all, and if Totally Buff get in his way, they will suffer a fate normally reserved for treasonous, rabid dogs like Scott Steiner. “What you don’t seem to realize Scott Steiner, is that you have started a game that we have yet to finish! Bring all the mystery men and lead pipes you can! Because… when it’s over… and the game is finished… I’ll be standing… holding the World Heavyweight title… as the Master… and ruler… of the world.” <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: B- Eric’s Thoughts: Glad to see that Sid is just as I left him.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Elsewhere backstage, “Mean” Gene stands by with The Mamalukes. Vito and Johnny, so happy to be reunited again (“Always best to have the family togetha’ for the holidays, Gene”) but not so happy that Vito’s actual family, his brother Reno, wasn’t along for the deal. Vito says that he has a remedy for this, though, as he produces a smooth, two foot long stick with white and black stripes running down it. “Ya’ see Gene, this here is what we called a stickball bat. Now, you can play a good game of New Yawk street stickball wit’ it. Or, you can use it to beat some sense into your fellow man. What I propose is that since Reno and I ain’t been able to straighten things out in the ring, we take it to the streets with our stickball bats, and we see if we can beat some sense inta’ one another. Capisce?” Gene wishes them luck in their match against two of the Natural Born Thrillers tonight, with Johnny saying that they’ve probably faced every combination that’s been thrown at them, and they’ll be showing them how two paisans do business. <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: D- Eric’s Thoughts: I have nothing against these guys, and ECW have shown that there is a certain joy in having some light “mafia” style characters around for both comedic value and for something a bit more serious now and again. We just need to move on from this brothers deal and get them “back to business” so to speak.</div> <div style="text-align:center;">“The Cat” Ernest Miller w/Ms. Jones vs. The Jung Dragons w/Leia Meow</div> This is a comedic martial arts display for the most part, but it is a two on one handicap match. Despite Miller’s use of a string of hot dogs as makeshift nunchucks, Kaz and Yang are able to use their numbers advantage and win the bout with a series of kicks and dives that leave Miller’s head spinning. Tony and Hudson ponder if this is the kind of thing Sanders is preparing for the Insiders by putting them in the handicap match in the main event. <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 2:38 Rating: D Eric’s Thoughts: It’s tough to go against a good karate display, even if it’s done for comedic value here. Kaz struggled a little with that, not being much of a comedy performer. Jones and Meow did good work at ringside. What seems tough is that while Yang and Kristina are a good pairing, she and Kaz are very poor together.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Backstage, we hear the sounds of Goldberg preparing himself in his locker room to emerge! We know this because it’s the locker room that says “Goldberg” on the door and we hear banging and slamming around in there as he destroys the place to psyche himself up. But who is his partner? Kronik are just getting into the ring when we come back from commercial break. Goldberg’s entrance is cut short when he asks for a microphone. He says that between Kronik and Totally Buff, they put his trainer out of action, maybe even for good. So Ric Flair gave him an option to find a new partner – and he has. He may not be a trainer, but he is someone who you could call an inspiration for how he does things… <div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="150" height="113" src="<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y9AHejQQjSE?rel=0&showinfo=0" rel="external nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/embed/y9AHejQQjSE?rel=0&showinfo=0"</a> frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> … Animal! It’s Road Warrior Animal! He marches down to the ring with Goldberg, and the match is on! <div style="text-align:center;">Goldberg and Road Warrior Animal vs. KroniK</div> A wild brawl is the way of this match as four huge, musclebound men try to destroy one another. But it is only a matter of time until Adams gets the Spear and Jackhammer, and it’s all over. Backstage, we see Totally Buff watching Goldberg and Animal celebrating on their monitor, and they share a worried look at one another. How badly did they screw up by taking out The Sarge? <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 4:06 Ratings: B / B- / C- / B- Eric’s Thoughts: I think we made something better of both main event storylines with this one change. Goldberg’s great performance stood out, carrying the match in the ring. Animal was off his game though, and I’m not sure if that’s because he wasn’t happy with being changed storylines or not. I guess we’ll see. These four aren’t known for their great selling, of course. Adams looked all hopped up on pain killers though, and that doesn’t spell good things for Kronik’s push. If he’s got a chance of hurting people by performing under the influence, then I’ll have to step in.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Terry Funk, Meng, Crowbar, and Daffney are surrounding Gene when we come back from break. Crowbar is shouting that the title is his while Meng screams and makes Tongan Death motions, with Daffney skipping around playing with her pigtails. Funk finally gets their attention. “Listen up, you whining mongrels! You want the gold and you want the torch, and I don’t know what the hell you want girl, but maybe you need a nuthouse! If you want to be the new king of hardcore, the new Terry Funk, there’s one way you do it: you take on every challenge no matter how big or small, and you give it everything you got ‘cause it might be your last one! So it’s not just YOUR title shot anymore, it’s yours too! It’s anybody’s! Anyone who wants to come on down and be hardcore, now’s your shot!” <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: C- Eric’s Thoughts: Check one more feud that we can send elsewhere now. It’s like I’m a genius! Daffney helped Crowbar during this one.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Shane Helms accompanies 3 Count partner Shannon Moore to the ring for his match. Moore’s opponent, however, is Helms’s opponent for this Sunday, the WCW Cruiserweight champion Chavo Guerrero Jr. Chavo gets a microphone before coming to the ring and tells Shane that he had better watch and learn. “I’m not sure what you think you’re going to do from out here other than see your compadrie crash and burn, ese, but if you want to hang around, feel free, little trooper! But keep in mind: if somehow he were to pick up the win and get this beautiful gold, then you’re out of Sin while I get my rematch! Maybe you boys can sing a song about it?” <div style="text-align:center;">WCW Cruiserweight Championship Chavo Guerrero Jr. © vs. Shannon Moore</div> Shane Helms patrols the ringside area to make sure of what Chavo does to his friend. The two put on a fairly exciting yet ground based cruiserweight match, but referee Billy Silverman finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as he takes an errant flying forearm by Moore. With Billy down, Chavo goads Helms into the ring by grabbing the title and threatening to bash Shannon with it. Guerrero throws the belt to Shane, but when he attacks with it, Chavo moves and Helms hits Moore with the title! Chavo sends the shocked Helms out of the ring and makes the cover, easily picking up the win and retaining the title. Chavo has left the ring, but he takes a moment to look back before going through the curtain. Shane is helping Shannon back to his feet, but Moore is not very pleased with his partner, shoving him away when he tries to apologize. Guerrero laughs from the top of the stage as Moore leaves Helms standing in the ring. <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 5:05 Ratings: D / C- / D Eric’s Thoughts: This is a really nice little storyline, it’s almost too bad I can’t continue it beyond Sin very well.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png We go to a recap from throughout the evening of what led us to our main event. It starts with Flair putting Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett, and Sid Vicious into the match, and then him informing Totally Buff they would be teaming with Steiner and Jarrett as punishment for their actions on Thunder. Then Mike Sanders puts The Insiders into the match on Sid’s side. <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: B- Eric’s Thoughts: Simple recap video; and only one of them, which isn’t happening directly after it happened. Your crowd thanks you for not insulting their intelligence.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png “Mean” Gene is now standing by backstage alongside Midajah, who he tries to hold a conversation with, and our World champion, Scott Steiner. Steiner doesn’t let him converse with Midajah at all. “Big Poppa Pump” looks pretty irritated with how things have gone this evening, as Gene asks him for some thoughts heading into our main event in moments. “You want thoughts? Here’s some thoughts, old man. ‘Big Poppa Pump’ don’t appreciate a jealous ol’ bastard like Ric Flair tryin’ to screw with his title reign! I took out Sting, I took out Booker, and if Ric keeps lining ‘em up, then I’ll send ‘em all to the hospital! The Insiders better stay outside my field’a view or I’m gonna turn ‘em inside out!” <div style="text-align:right;">Rating: B- Eric’s Thoughts: Scott is on top of WCW for good reason. He may actually be outgrowing the World title, we just need the right person to hand it to. Someone who will get over big from beating “Big Poppa Pump”. Steiner improvises well here, while Gene also used that freedom to his advantage… even if that advantage was perving on Midajah.</div> <div style="text-align:center;">The Mamalukes vs. Mark Jindrak & Sean O’Haire</div> The two surprise Thrillers tonight are the two time World Tag Team champions, Jindrak and O’Haire. The teams put on an entertaining brawl that ends when Vito is attacked outside the ring by Reno, swinging Vito’s aforementioned stickball bat! “It looks like that match was accepted,” says Disqo. That leaves Johnny on his own, and despite fighting back as much as he can, Jindrak is able to hit a quebrada moonsault that gets a pinfall for the Thrillers. <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: 5:25 Rating: D+ Eric’s Thoughts: Just to make sure we don’t lose any interest in the idea of “Which Thriller team will it be” we made sure to use Jindrak and O’Haire together here. That might keep them all guessing. The fans were giving a negative reaction for Johnny and Vito, because they aren’t the best of wrestlers out there. Vito was really off his game here, while O’Haire was definitely the best of the match… not that this was saying much.</div> http://i.imgur.com/5EQ9iSq.png Backstage, we see Sid Vicious and The Insiders together talking strategy, while Scott Steiner marches backstage yelling at everyone while telling Midajah to keep up. Our main event is next! <div style="text-align:center;">“Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner, “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett, and Totally Buff w/Midajah vs. Sid Vicious and The Insiders</div> Tony wonders if a handicap match like this was what Ric Flair had in mind at the beginning of the evening. This match is all over the place though, as everybody brawls around the ring. Nick Patrick barely has control of these seven guys from the opening bell, and it’s so bad that he doesn’t even seem to notice when the Insiders aren’t fighting with Totally Buff anymore, instead they’re fighting off the Natural Born Thrillers! But it isn’t four on one, as Totally Buff are run off into the crowd by the appearance of Goldberg! This leaves Jarrett, Steiner, and Sid in the ring, and Jeff lines up his guitar. But he misses, and blasts Steiner with it! Sid gives Jarrett a one handed chokeslam before pulling a groggy Steiner up into the powerbomb! He makes the cover – and gets the win! That means Jeff Jarrett is locked out of the main event of Sin! And if Sid is able to do this to Steiner in six days, we will have a new World champion! The match may be over, but the fight isn’t! Totally Buff are seen backstage jumping into a car and speeding off to escape Goldberg, while the Insiders are fighting up the ramp with the Thrillers! But inside the ring, Sid stands tall, holding the World Heavyweight championship above his head! Will this be what happens at Sin? You can only find out on Sunday; but until then, make sure to join us on Wednesday for Thunder! <div style="text-align:right;">Match Time: Ratings: B / C+ / B Eric’s Thoughts: The match may not have been great, but all that star power in one place can’t have hurt us as we try to fight against Angle vs. Austin. Sure, it isn’t running directly against that, but it might have been exciting enough to make people remember who we are. The match had the crowd buzzing, but Disqo dragged it down hard. Jarrett was brawling better than previously, and Steiner was way above everyone else, as was pretty much figured. The closing segment got the crowd really hot, with Goldberg looking like a real star. Hopefully my plans can keep us running strong through Thunder and into a decent buyrate and payoff for Sin.[/right http://i.imgur.com/0Lh9W8w.png<div style="text-align:center;"></div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="OOC" data-cite="OOC" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Likely not going to remain the standard format for Nitro, this is a little more PPV quality. I say this about it because man it took me longer to write than I felt it should have. Thunder will be up tomorrow, along with the full Sin prediction card, but any comments about what we've seen so far will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading! 7/10 Update: After the fall of photobucket, I’ve kinda… combined the original format with the one that I ended up using for TV shows. So if you are just now joining us for Hate the Game, welcome, friend! I hope that the long show doesn’t cause you to not come back, because it gets more manageable, I promise!</div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote>

Briskout · January 22, 2017

Good show leading to Sin. I think you've captured the perfect combination of logic and nonsense to make it still WCW. Interested where you will go / push, if you survive past real life wcw.

TheBigBad1013 · January 22, 2017

I thought it was a very good first show! (as expected, of course)

The addition of "Eric's thoughts" after each segment was well done. It was both entertaining and fun, and I enjoyed getting a bit of a glimpse into where you are going with certain things. Looking forward to Thunder, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with Sin.

Beejus · January 23, 2017

WCW Thunder and Worldwide: January Week 2 <div style="text-align:center;">http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u628/beejus1/wcw-01/wcwintro.gif <iframe width="220" height="124" src="<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1EuMLiVyPLU?rel=0" rel="external nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/embed/1EuMLiVyPLU?rel=0"</a> frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://i.imgur.com/blAXzeJ.jpg WCW Thunder Aired January 10th, 2001 Held at: Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota (Great Lakes) Announcers: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Stevie Ray Attendance: 4,575 TV Rating: 2.04 on TBS Show Rating: B- This show increased our popularity in 10 regions.</div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>• “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair opens the show, talking about how WCW is the greatest promotion in the world because they deliver the greatest shows in the world for the greatest fans in the world. Scott Steiner interrupts, telling Flair that what happened on Nitro was bulls***, and he’s not gonna stand for Flair screwing him around. Jeff Jarrett comes out, saying that Scott isn’t getting as jerked around as he has been lately, with Scott pointing out that had Jeff kept that guitar to himself, he wouldn’t be in his “predickmint”. Flair gives the solution: he says that if Jarrett still wants in the triple threat at Sin, he has one final chance tonight – if he can defeat Scott Steiner for the World Heavyweight title, right here on Thunder! What a main event! (B+) Steiner and Jarrett enjoyed being off-script. Stevie Ray was pretty weak, but the angle got the crowd hotter, and off to a strong start. • Chavo Guerrero Jr. defends his WCW Cruiserweight championship next, this time against Evan Karagias. Shane Helms comes out to the ring to protest Chavo’s cheating, but Evan ends up more bothered than Nick Patrick is by it, and Chavo catches Evan with a brainbuster to close this title match at 5:30. (D+) Tony and Tenay are awkward on commentary together. Stevie Ray was pretty weak. • Chavo gets a microphone and tells Shane to “buck up, little trooper” because now it looks like he’ll get his title match at Sin. But how’s Helms going to be by then? As Evan attacks Shane from behind, dropping him to the mat with a wheelbarrow facebuster before hitting him with a corkscrew splash off the top rope! Chavo laughs all the way behind the curtain, just like on Nitro. (D-) • Backstage, The Natural Born Thrillers are in the commissioner’s office. Sanders delivers orders to each of them, telling Reno that he is to show what being a true Thriller is about by taking out Johnny the Bull in a Hardcore match; then saying that one of the remainders of them will face DDP, another two will face the Filthy Animals, and another will have a match against Norman Smiley. © • We find out who are in the tag match as The Filthy Animals take on Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak. Kidman and Mysterio use all the high flying in their arsenal, but their larger foes stay one step ahead. Kidman is about to hit the Kid Krusher on Jindrak at the end, but that’s when Lance Storm sneaks in and delivers a superkick, leading to a facebuster by Mark, who makes the cover for the win at 5:43. © Stasiak seemed off his game. Tygress did good work at ringside. Stevie Ray was pretty weak. As planned, this match brought the crowd down a little. • Gene Okerlund is standing by with the rest of Team Canada by the time Storm gets back to the interview area, with him saying that was just a taste of what Kidman and Mysterio will feel on Sunday at Sin. Skipper chimes in that Canadian training is way better than Latino training, and Awesome says that he doesn’t have to wait for Sin, as Konnan is going to feel the Awesome Bomb later tonight! Lance closes by saying that they can’t blame Canada, they only have themselves to blame. (D) Major Gunns helped Storm during this segment. • A short Nitro recap video shows what happened during the match between Shane Douglas and Corporal Cajun, as General Rection couldn’t control himself anymore and stepped in, but caused Cajun to lose by disqualification. (D) • While things on Nitro during their interview were more jovial, tonight when “Mean” Gene talks to The Misfits in Action, it’s a much more tense mood. Gene points out that while General Rection has his US title defense at Sin to worry about, he has heard that Cajun will be in a triple threat number one contender’s bout on Nitro for whoever is wearing the Cruiserweight title after Sin. Rection tries to apologize for what happened, but Cajun offers another solution. “We are still friends, still in this together, Hugh, of course; but maybe at Sin, I’ll leave you to your match, and on Nitro, you leave me to mine.” (D) • Norman Smiley isn’t screaming tonight because he knows Glacier is watching backstage, but maybe he should be as he takes on Sean O’Haire. Norman outwrestles the rookie monster briefly, but O’Haire is just too strong and agile, getting back in control and dazzling the crowd with the Seanton Bomb to score the victory at 3:46. (D+) O’Haire and Norman have great chemistry. Tony and Tenay’s awkwardness showed again, as did Stevie’s weakness. • The remainder of the Thrillers hit the ring to begin hammering on Smiley, sending a message. Norman cries out for Glacier, but a cameraman catches him backstage fixing his mask in a mirror. Ernest Miller charges out to the ring to try and put a stop to this, but five on one odds are too much, and he’s left lying on the mat next to Smiley. (C-) • “Mean” Gene interviews KroniK, who are not happy that they haven’t gotten paid in the past few weeks. Adams says that he is starting to think that Totally Buff are the cause of this. © • In a Hardcore match, Reno takes on the friend of his brother, Johnny the Bull. The two trade weapon shots for the bout, but Reno ends up on the receiving end of a stickball bat wielded by Big Vito! Johnny and Vito deliver their hip toss flapjack, and at 4:22 the Bull picks up a big win! (E) Stevie is just weak at the desk. • Backstage, “Mean” Gene stands by with Totally Buff, and he asks them if that was fear in their eyes on Nitro when they saw Goldberg with Road Warrior Animal. They assure everyone that look was not fear, it was two men changing their plans. They are not afraid of Animal, Goldberg, Kronik, anyone who wants some can find them anywhere! (C+) • The rest of the Thrillers being in matches earlier means that Chuck Palumbo takes on Diamond Dallas Page in our hour one main event. Palumbo stays one quick step ahead of Page for much of the match, but Dallas dodges a superkick to land the Diamond Cutter! But that’s when Sean O’Haire levels Page with a clothesline, causing referee Scott James to call for the disqualification in 6:13. (C+) This match got the crowd buzzing, despite Stevie’s weakness. • The match is finished but the action is not, as the rest of the Thrillers hit the ring to try and beat DDP down like they did to Norman and Ernest earlier. But this time, it’s Kevin Nash who comes to save the day, and the World Tag Team champions may not send the NBT running, but they hold their own until officials come to break them all up! (B) Reno was very underwhelming. Stevie keeps hurting the show with weak commentary. • We get a video recap of our opening segment, as Ric Flair books Scott Steiner to face Jeff Jarrett for the World title, right here tonight! (C-) • Tony, Mike, and Stevie discuss the match, talking about how this could be Jarrett’s last chance to get into a match for Sin, let alone the title match. But he would be walking in as the World champion, so what could that mean for Scott Steiner? We don’t know, but we do have “Mean” Gene backstage with Jeff Jarrett right now. © • “The Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett is with the Harris Brothers and “Mean” Gene. Gene asks Jarrett what he thinks of this match tonight, where he could become the World’s Heavyweight champion for a fifth time. Jarrett tells him that he knows all about that, and that his friendship with Steiner had more to do with business than personal. That’s why the two will fight tonight and see who the better man is, and the better man will walk out as champion. Gene prods Jarrett about his guitar shot on Nitro which wrapped around Steiner’s head, saying that Jeff didn’t seem very apologetic about it. Jarrett tells him to quit trying to cause trouble, before he gives him a new wooden necklace, “old man slapnut”. © • In another hardcore match, as a preview for the Hardcore championship match at Sin, Meng goes up against Crowbar. The two men brutalize one another with weapons all around the arena, until Crowbar smashes Meng with three consecutive chairshots and makes a cover, barely holding him down for the three in 4:14. (D+) This match got the crowd buzzing, with Stevie Ray’s weak commentary against it. • “Mean” Gene is back with The Insiders, with a fired up DDP saying that he doesn’t care who of the Thrillers they face at Sin, they’ll take on all six of them! Nash says that he’s always been more used to having the numbers advantage, but this time he doesn’t. But it doesn’t matter, because he always has something up his sleeve. Even if all he has is just being a seven foot tall “Big Sexy”, which is all he’s gonna need this Sunday at Sin. “And even if they get past this seven foot tall, handsome piece of hunk…” “They still are gonna feel the BANG!” © Page did a masterful job of improvising, while Nash and Gene improvised well. Page’s performance was fantastic, Nash looked good, but Gene was very underwhelming. • Konnan is out for his match, representing the Filthy Animals as he tries to take the fight to Team Canada. But he runs into a mountain of Mike Awesome, who barely gives an inch. “K-Dawg” is all kinds of rowdy-rowdy, but an Awesome Bomb cures that, as Mike picks up the victory at 6:59. © Konnan was really off his game, Tygress did good work, and Stevie Ray was weak. Two wild brawl, crazy matches in quick succession didn’t allow the crowd to catch their breath. • It would have been great to leave it at that, but the rest of Team Canada decide to try their luck on putting Konnan out of Sin with a post-match attack. But Mysterio and Kidman rush out to even the odds, with Jim Duggan coming out to help clear the Canadians out! They may have picked up the win, but the Filthy Animals leave with some big momentum heading into Sin! (D+) • Gene is back in the interview area this time with the boss, Ric Flair, who is all smiles. Flair and Gene get on like old friends, with Ric dancing around and talking about how his masked man is going to teach Scott Steiner a few things about respect, and if he doesn’t then Sid will! “The Nature Boy” says that til he’s done, “Big Poppa Pump” will be remembered as a great World champion – but he’s gonna have to fight his way to that claim! (B-) Gene was superb off-script, and Flair improvised well. • Totally Buff are walking backstage, when they happen to run into Road Warrior Animal! They seem like they are thinking about attacking him, but they turn around and see Goldberg in front of them! Lex and Buff tell him to wait for Sin, when it’ll be all fair… but as they’re backing up, they back right into KroniK! As soon as they realize how cornered they are, Luger and Bagwell take off running! (B) Buff performed poorly here, but Goldberg came out of it looking excellent. • When we return from a quick break, Goldberg and Animal are standing with “Mean” Gene. The two make jokes about how yellow Luger and Bagwell’s backs looked – and not to mention the smell – as they were running away. But on Sunday, there will be no running, and they will be next! (B-) • Terry Funk is seen backstage, and he is approached by Daffney, who is looking very vibrant in a pink wig and bright white shirt and boots. She tells him that he’s been a legend for a long time, but maybe it’s time to move on, and before Sin, he should just hand the title to Crowbar. When Funk rages at her about never giving up and never riding out into the sunset until he’s getting carried there feet first, Daffney whispers to him that he can suit himself, he isn’t booked to win at Sin anyways. Funk tells her to get out of here, so she skips away. (D) • “Mean” Gene has “Big Poppa Pump” himself in the interview area, with Gene asking for a few words about Jeff Jarrett’s title match tonight. Steiner says “It don’t matter who I fight for this belt! They gonna find that there nothing finer than Scott Steiner, ‘cause ‘Big Poppa Pump’ is gonna go into Sin, even if I got a sin on my resume! Jeff Jarrett! You been helpin’ me by helpin’ yer’self, but tonight, I help myself, to some’a your broke bones if I hafta! Don’t be thinkin’ that I forgot about that guitar ‘round my head on Nitro! Ric Flair thinks he’s being clever puttin’ us against one’nother, but I’ll be clever, when I keep this title from that jealous old bastard, ‘cause ‘Poppa Pump’ is yer hookup! Holla if ya hear me!” (B-) Scott was superb off-script, his performance fantastic. Gene looked dreadful. • In a cruiserweight showcase match, Kaz Hayashi of the Jung Dragons takes on Jamie Knoble, formerly of the Jung Dragons. The two put on a nice match that sees Knoble pick up the win in 5:12 by turning a headscissor attempt into a Tombstone piledriver. (D) Kaz and Meow are a very poor combination. Stevie was pretty weak. As planned, this match brought the fans down a little. • Backstage, Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett are getting their last minute preparations done! The main event is next! (B-) [*] In our World Heavyweight championship match, Jeff Jarrett nearly upsets Scott Steiner with a series of near-falls, but Scott is too powerful. Jeff tries to take the legs out from under “The Genetic Freak” but Steiner answers back with a belly to belly suplex that sends Jarrett out of the ring! The Harris Brothers enter the picture, drawing Charles Robinson away, which allows Jeff a chance to get his guitar. But Midajah slides Steiner his lead pipe, and he blasts the guitar apart with it before blasting Jarrett with it! “No honor among thieves!” shouts Mike Tenay, as Steiner makes the cover and retains his title at 8:43 to head into Sin! (C+) Tony and Mike were awkward, Stevie was weak. This match got the crowd hotter, despite being heel vs. heel. • Sid Vicious enters the ring, getting into a staredown with Steiner. Until Ric Flair’s music hits, and he comes to the top of the ramp alongside his masked Mystery Man! Tony says that it looks like these are our participants for Sin’s main event, but who will it be? When we come back next Monday on Nitro, who will be our World’s Heavyweight champion?! (A) Stevie Ray was pretty weak, but the angle got the crowd hotter.</div></blockquote> <div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="220" height="124" src="<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vs3n_PoAmyk?rel=0" rel="external nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vs3n_PoAmyk?rel=0"</a> frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://i.imgur.com/r06q6I3.jpg WCW Worldwide Aired January 13th, 2001 Held at: The Forum in Fishers, Indiana (Great Lakes) Announcers: Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson Attendance: 821 TV Rating: 0.06 on Syndication Show Rating: D+ The crowd were annoyed at not having more segments to watch.</div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><ul><li> Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson discuss the new issue of WCW Magazine, talking about Sting being on the cover and saying he should be back in WCW soon. They also bring up Goldberg’s recent featured article in Playboy magazine. © </li><li> “The Professor’s Pick of the Week” takes us back to Great American Bash 1998, when Booker T defeated Fit Finlay for the WCW Television title. (C-) </li><li> “Das Wunderkind” Alex Wright d. Kwee Wee in 8:59 with a German suplex (C-) Paisley did good work at ringside. Wright and Kwee Wee showed pretty good chemistry against one another. </li><li> Tenay and Hudson run down the card for Sin, telling fans to make sure they order before tomorrow night so they don’t get shut out of the action! (B)</li></ul></div></blockquote>

Beejus · January 23, 2017

WCW Sin prediction card <div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="220px-WCWSin2001.jpg" data-src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/34/WCWSin2001.jpg/220px-WCWSin2001.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> World Championship Wrestling presents Sin Held live from the Conseco Fieldhouse at Indianapolis, Indiana!</div> <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="43111" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>WCW World Heavyweight Championship – Triple Threat Match “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner w/Midajah vs. Sid Vicious vs. ???? Extra Point: Who is Ric Flair’s Mystery Man? Comments: Goldberg’s Streak vs. Goldberg’s Career Totally Buff vs. Goldberg & Road Warrior Animal Comments: WCW World Tag Team Championship Match The Insiders vs. Two of the Natural Born Thrillers Extra Point: Which Two Thrillers? Comments: WCW United States Heavyweight Championship – Chain on a Pole Match General Rection vs. “The Franchise” Shane Douglas Comments: Six-Man Tag Team Match The Filthy Animals w/Tygress and Jim Duggan vs. Team Canada w/Major Gunns Comments: WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. “Sugar” Shane Helms Comments: WCW Hardcore Championship Invitational Match Confirmed: Terry Funk, Crowbar, and Meng, with twelve other unknown participants! Not enough people confirmed to count this one for a full point, so there are two extra points for this match. So: Name three other participants, who could be from inside or outside of WCW, may or may not have had a match already at Sin, who will participate in this match: Two Extra Points: Who holds the title at the end of the match? Comments: Parking Lot Street Fight Big Vito vs. Reno Comments: Tiebreaker Question: How long does the World championship match last? </div></blockquote> 12 points to be had if anyone can get them all! Good luck!

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