WCW 2001 - SSR buys WCW

[Jayden]

...[quote][size=4][b]SRR Buys WCW From AOL Time Warner's Turner [/size][/b] By Reshma Kapadia NEW YORK (Reuters) - SRR Enterprises on Friday said it bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from Turner Broadcasting Systems, surprising the world with a last ditch bid when many had believed that WCW's longest standing rival, the WWF, were set to make the purchase.. Financial terms for the money-losing WCW were not disclosed, but SRR Chief Executive Stephen Rivers said it was not a stock deal. Analysts had estimated WCW lost about $80 million last year. Shares of SRR closed down 1 cent at $12.10 on the New York Stock Exchange, off more than 40 percent from a high of $21.59 in late January. The purchase comes after a deal between AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting operations and Fusient Media Ventures for the WCW unit that was struck in January unraveled, an SRR spokesman said. This was followed by a late bid from Vince McMahon's WWF. While SRR wouldn't reveal the financial terms of the deal it is believed that they came in with an incredibly late bid that left Vince and the WWF (who had been hoping to pay under the odds for the cash draining WCW) ousted. ``Approximately three and half weeks ago we reengaged in conversations,'' said Stuart Snyder, president and chief operating officer of WWF. ``We were at the plate first and as things transpired, there was an opportunity to have a conversation again and our interest had always been there to work something out with AOL Time Warner.'' WWF had to pass on the deal the first time around because the arrangement had called for WCW programming to stay on the Turner network, which would have violated its exclusive strategic alliance with Viacom Inc. Once it was agreed WCW would be off the Turner network, the company reentered the negotiations, Snyder said. Pro-wrestling no longer fits the direction the Turner network is going in and the company thought it was the best time to part ways, a Turner spokesman said. But it would not be the WWF whose bid would be successful as they were pipped to the post by SRR, an enterprise founded in hit television in the United States. The deal gives SRR global rights to the WCW brand, tape library and other intellectual property rights. The WCW franchise includes WCW Monday Nitro Live, a popular program on cable television, home video, pay-per-view, Internet and live tours. ``This acquisition is the perfect creative and business catalyst for our company. This is a dream combination for fans of sports entertainment,'' said Stephen Rivers, who heads the company. "No true WCW fan would have wanted to see the company bought out by the World Wrestling Federation. We will do everything we can to ensure the longevity and success of this once great promotion" New WCW programming is expected to air on DirecTV in a unheard of weekly Pay Per View model until a regular television deal can be negotiated.. SRR will assume some of the contracts of WCW, Rivers said, but declined to comment further stating that the company was still ``dotting the t's and crossing the i's'' with AOL Time Warner over the next several days and weeks. ``They already have a lot of infrastructure to support similar products so they are going to have leverage and synergies,'' said Legg Mason analyst Breck Wheeler. Rivers declined to comment on the impact of the deal on earnings, but said it would likely pay out as the company expands its Internet business and its pay-per-view business down the road. Prior lawsuits against WCW will stay with AOL Time Warner, WWF executives said.[/quote] [quote]-----Original Message----- From: Snyder, Tracey Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 3:34 PM To: *WCW (TBS) Subject: Announcement March 23, 2001 To: WCW Staff From: Brad Siegel RE: SRR announcement Today, SRR Enterprises. is announcing that we have reached an agreement for the sale of WCW. This agreement with SRR holds tremendous potential for the WCW brand and assets. The press release announcing the news is attached. As we told you last week, WCW programming will not appear on TNT and TBS Superstation after March 27. We will share more information with you about the WWF's immediate plans for WCW in the all-staff meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 28, at 10 a.m. at the Power Plant. Thank you. [/quote] [quote][b]List Of WCW Wrestlers Included In Sale [/b] According to Jason Powell at PWTorch.com, the following wrestler's contracts were bought by the SRR as part of the sale: Lance Storm, Sean O'Haire, Mike Awesome, Chuck Palumbo, Miss Han****, Shane Helms, Shannon Moore, Mike Sanders, Hugh Morrus, Billy Kidman, Elix Skipper, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Shawn Stasiak, Kaz Hayashi, Yang, and Mark Jindrak. Any others are unknown at this time. All the above guys have non-guaranteed contracts that can be reworked into SRR style contracts. None of the big name guaranteed contracts are apparently included. Those who SRR would want, namely Goldberg, Flair, DDP and Booker T would need to accept buyouts from Time Warner and sign SRR contracts. Negotiations for such deals are expected to begin over the coming weeks.[/quote]

[The Ego]

could be a new take on WCW, you need any help you know where i am

[Jayden]

...[quote][u]Wrestling Newsletter Notes[/u] - It's reported that the WWF have made some serious roster cuts over the past week, most notably developmental contracts that they had for guys working in their developmental territories, mainly OVW. The cuts are listed below, but there were a number of surprises with guys who were expected to have big futures with the WWF released. It's called into question whether the WWF will cut ties with Ohio Valley Wrestling and its developmental programme. Non developmental contracts, including the Boss Man, and "the Kat" Stacy Carter have also been terminated with immediate effect. The list is as follows Doug Basham Rob Conway Damien Nick Dinsmore Chad collyer Seven Synn Payne Kenny Bolin Ron Waterman Mr Black Charlie Haas Russ Haas Eric Angle Kimo Queen Victoria OG Ekmo Debra Leviathan Jacqueline Damaja Russ McCullough Shelton Benjamin Steve Bradley Big Boss Man Brock Lesnar The Kat Scott Vick Mark Henry Chaz - Huntingdon Beach Bad Boy Tito Ortiz, straight off his win against Evan Tanner at UFC 30 has shocked the MMA world this week, announcing that he is relinquishing the Light Heavyweight title he won at UFC 25 against Wanderlei Silva, and will not be returning any time soon to fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championships. The news stunned the Mixed Martial Arts world at Ortiz's press conference this past week. As the reigning Light Heavyweight champion, and with a personality that connects easily with the fans unlike so many other fighters, Ortiz was starting to become a major draw for the UFC. Tito told the assembled journalists that he had other offers to look at right now but that he had made no decision on where his future lied, or if he would even further his career as an MMA fighter - It's back, WCW returns with Nitro this week after all the speculation following the buyout from under the nose of Vince McMahon and the WWF. With no television deal WCW are planning on running four weekly Pay Per View Nitro's while they try to establish a tv deal for a weekly national running of the show. There is a contingency plan to extend the Pay Per View's beyond four weeks if no tv deal has been signed, however it's not believed that WCW can survive long term with a weekly Pay Per View model. Furthermore the decision to run the PPV's on Wednesday night was made by SRR executives. The days of competing with the WWF on a Monday night, are for now, long gone and it's not believed that fans would pay for the PPV when they have Raw for free on another channel. Given the strength of the WWF's product right now that couldn't be more true. The show will air live this Wednesday night but as yet WCW have simply hyped it as a return, with the majority of the major stars on hand, no card has been named. - Contracts have been renegotiated with the majority of WCW's biggest stars. It was believed that some of the bigger names would use this time to take a break from full time on screen roles while Time Warner paid out their contracts, but negotiations with the company's top stars over this past week are said to have gone well and you can expect to see most of WCW's main event players remaining with the company on screen, most notably, Goldberg.[/quote] OOC: just a quick side not, I ran this diary with EWR at first as I couldn't find a decent scenario for TEW, but when when I did the first show realised it wasn't gonna work in EWR. So, hence the first show not being written out properly. The first "proper" show was when i transferred and created it all in TEW, and from tehre on in it's a TEW dynasty. so yeah, just wanted to clear that up in case all the first few posts seem a bit odd

[Jayden]

[quote][b][u]Wrestling Newsletter notes[/b][/u] - Initial reports suggest that the first PPV Nitro did a 0.31 buyrate. There is no way it's going to be enough to sustain the company long term and the alarm bells rang within WCW and SRR when the figures came in. If WCW doesn't seal a television deal once the four weekly PPV's have been run it will only be a matter of time before World Championship Wrestling is back where it started before the SRR buy out. How long SRR is willing to lose money on the project while they wait for a tv deal is at this time unsure, but a number of sources are starting to doubt whether WCW can survive unless a tv deal is secured quickly - For those who didn't see the PPV a brief report is detailed below. The show was not received well with no tag team, or cruiserweight champions on the show, many of WCW's top talents not attending, and the show having the feel of a television show rather than something people should be payin $9.95 for. [u]Show Results[/u] Jason Jett pinned Chavo Guerrero Jr in an excellent tv type cruiserweight match Ric Flair challenged Booker T for the world title later in the show Kronik pinned the Harris Boys in a surprisingly solid encounter The Shawn & Stacy show continued, leading into a match against Jim Duggan Shawn Stasiak pinned Jim Duggan in a horrible match James Vandenbury returned and debuted a new team, Sickboy & Machine (yes, the same Sickboy in WCW previously, and the same Machine that was working in WWF developmental territory OVW) Machine & Sickboy squashed Air Raid Barry Windham came out as a member of WCW's new Championship Committee and vacated the US title, promising an announcement next week Booker T pinned Ric Flair to defend the World title despite interference from Chris Kanyon. DDP made the save after the match but turned on Booker hitting him with the Diamond Cutter as the show ended - Speculation has been rife regarding the future of former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz. Most of the rumours right now suggest that he's negotiating a deal with World Championship Wrestling and could potentially debut somewhere down the road if contract negotiations go well[/quote]...

[Jayden]

[font=arial][size=4][b][color=red][img]http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/6961/wcwnitromp8.gif[/img] Wednesday 11th April 2001[/size][/b][/color] [i]STF Digest report by Jay[/i] So pre show notes this week, and email's to answer are all kinda rolled into one. Everything I've received over this past week has been asking what I thought of the show last week, so, I'll get to it. While I do agree that it wasn't great, and that it wasn't the kind of quality you'd expect to pay $9.95 for on Pay Per View, this is a temporary stop gap to get WCW back in front of the fans. It's kinda hard to see how it would ever work long term, but if they can get a tv deal I expect the quality of programming to improve a hell of a lot. In the meantime we're kinda stuck with what we got last week. It was ok. The DDP heel turn was nice, and kinda neccessary with no Steiner about right now. The Jett/Chavo match was outstanding too so it wasn't like it was a terrible show, but sure we could have expected more. One thing a lot of people have complained about is the lack of continuation of current storylines but like I said at the end of my report last week I dont' think they can be blamed for that. The last Nitro tied everything up and worked on the assumption that there would be no continuation of anything, plus with Steiner out who all the major main event storylines were focusing around I don't see what more they could do than take the clean slate and try and produce something big. I also understand that there was a lack of star power last week for a Pay Per View but in reality if you compare that to the past few Nitro's then it's not overly different. Yes there was no Sting, no Goldberg, no Nash, but then there'd not been any of them in the final Nitro's either excluding the very last one. I'm not trying to say I thought the show was great, I really didn't, and it needs to improve but as always I'd take WCW's worst show over WWF's best so I'm kinda hoping for some big improvement this week. The fact that SRR and the people backstage in WCW are said to have crapped all over last week's show has to be a positive too, it didn't do a good buy rate, and in that respect that all bodes well for them striving to improve so we'll see. Hey, I can be optimistic if I want, I'm just happy WCW's even still here. So, it's about that time, lets get on with tonight's show.... - Nitro opening music video with clips of some of the main stars - Recap video from last week, focusing on Booker and Flair, and the DDP turn at the end of the show - Off to the announce table in the arena as it's Hudson, Dusty and Zbysko again. They discuss the situation with Booker and DDP turning on him last week - And we're getting started with the Cruiserweight title [size=4][b][color=red]"Suga" Shane Helms Vs "Primetime" Elix Skipper: WCW Cruiserweight Title[/size][/b][/color] - No mention of Team Canada, Major Gunns or anything like that as Skipper comes out - Shane still has the dancing girls entrance, crowd are a lot more into him than they were Skipper - Feeling out process early, Skipper's stalling - Helms starts taking control, nice running neckbreaker - Helms tries a TKO but Skipper lands on his feet and hits a big roundhouse kick - Skipper gets a couple of near falls, this one's pretty fast paced - Announce team start talking about the challengers to the title, mentioning Jett's win last week - Skipper gets ready for the Overdrive but Helms ducks and rolls out hitting the Nightmare on Helm St! - VERTEBREAKER this one's over, man that move still looks awesome - Really solid opener, not as good as the Jason Jett match last week, and Skipper still looks a bit green but this was cool [b]"Suga" Shane Helms wins by pinfall[/b] - Space Mountain starts playing and out comes Flair with DDP and Kanyon either side of him. Crowd still seem kinda split, some heat, but still some cheers - Hudson reminds us yet again what happened last week with Booker as they get in the ring - Flair says the three men in the ring are better than the other six he used to run with - Flair says it's all about the belt and he wants it back - Booker might have beaten him last week, but it wasn't about getting the belt back last week - DDP's gonna be the one to take it off Booker - Page is on the mic, cheap heat insulting the fans - Page says there are no friends in wrestling, it's all about status - Page says when he got the call from Flair, he listened to what he had to say and knew he was making the right move - Page tells Booker he only beat Steiner because Big Poppa Pump was at 50%. Page is gonna be at 110% - Flair back on the mic, guess Kanyon's just there for show then. - Flair says WCW should never have stopped him running the show, so now he's taking matters into his own hands - Flair's taking the power back and he's doing it by force - Crowd give them loads of heat as they leave the ring, decent segment, pushes the three of them more as heels again as I'm sure half the people in the arena didn't see last week's show. - Back to the announce team, talking about what just happened with Flair, Page and Kanyon. - Hudson says we were promised an announcement last week regarding the US title and right on cue Barry Windham's on his way out to the ring - Windham comes out in jeans and a shirt with the US title belt - Windham says that the championship committee are starting a tournament next week - Three wrestlers, each wrestle each other over the coming weeks - 20 points for a win by pinfall, 15 for a win by any other means, 5 for a draw - Windham says the first guy is gonna be Rick Steiner, as the former champion - Second guy is gonna be Hugh Morrus as another former US champion - Third guy is Jeff Jarrett because of his various title reigns - LANCE STORM comes out and interrupts - Storm asks from the stage why he's not involved in the tournament - Storm says it's typical American bias - Windham says that mayybe they could make it a four way tournament - If Storm wants in he has to win a match later tonight, against..... Dustin Rhodes! - Storm seems happy with that as he leaves, Storm Vs Dustin tonght for the fourth spot should be ok and I like the tournament idea so we'll see how that develops but the crowd really aren't into Windham right now. Looks like it'll take a while [size=4][b][color=red]The Wall Vs Reno[/size][/b][/color] - Reno's already in the ring by the time we get there - Wall is back in his Sgt A-Wall outfit but again, no mention of the Misfits in Action - Reno charges out raining in rights and lefts - Reno's giving this a shootfight kinda feel - Reno connects with loads of strikes - James Vandenburg is out on the stage watching with a smile on his face - Reno's still laying in the blows as the Wall tries to shove him off - Wall looks like he's had enough grabbing Reno by the throat out of nowhere and driving him down with a chokeslam - Vandenburg claps before leaving backstage. Interesting match, was more like a fight than anything wrestling, but was fun, interested to see where Vandenburg fits in too [b]The Wall wins by pinfall[/b] - Camera shows Booker T in his street clothes arriving at the arena looking angry - Hudson and the guys talk about who he'll be looking for, Flair, DDP and Kanyon - Mike Awesome's out to the ring, no Lance Storm, or anything resembling Team Canada - Awesome says that he's not Canadian, he doesn't like Fat Chicks and he hates the 70's - Awesome says he likes killing careers by driving guys through tables though - Awesome asks if there's anyone in the back who wants a no rules beating - Terry Funk's out, I hope that old cretin gets a beating [size=4][b][color=red]Terry Funk Vs Mike Awesome: No rules match[/size][/b][/color] - Awesome catches Funk coming in with a massive clothesline - Awesome picks funk up like a rag doll and hits a big toss powerbomb on him - Awesome takes Funk to the outside and grabs a chair - Awesome batters Funk with the chair - Awesomebomb on the outside - Awesome goes under the ring for a table, Funk catches him off guard and connects with a few punches - Funk tries to set up the table but Awesome clubs him in the back of the neck - Awesome gets Funk up onto the apron - Awesomebomb from the apron through the table - Referee counts the three on the outside - Crowd were way more into this than the other matches so far, and any time Terry Funk's getting squashed I'm happy, but it's gonna take a while to get Awesome back on track, no matter how much they have him come out and diss his old gimmicks [b]Mike Awesome wins by pinfall[/b] - Another backstage segment, they're really padding the show out compared to last week - Flair, DDP and Kanyon are discussing what they'll do if Booker T finds them tonight - Bagwell and Luger!!!!!! ok, not excited? me either - Luger calls Flair "boss" and asks where he wants them tonight - Flair says that things have changed around here and Totally Buff need to wise up - Flair says actually he does have something for them tonight - DDP and Kanyon from behind, BOOM, synchronised diamond cutters in the hallway - Flair, DDP and Kanyon just left Totally Buff laying - Flair says they need to get ready for Booker - Really not sure what they're gonna do with Totally Buff after that, but it wasn't a bad segment - Some messages from the sponsor's, wooooo slim jim's, man i really want a funky beef snack right now - Show comes back and Disco Inferno and Alex Wright are in the ring together. - Guess all the Mike Sanders stuff has been dropped too then??? I really hope they're still gonna use Sanders somehow, he's great on the mic - Disco says that the Boogie Knights are back and want to party - Wright insists that the world tag team champions are sissies??? - Right on cue O'Haire and Palumbo are out - O'Haire says if they've grown some balls they can take a beating tonight - O'Haire and Palumbo start walking to the ring, Disco and Alex look scared as hell - Disco tries to back them up saying he'll only fight them if the belts are on the line - O'Haire and Palumbo lay the belts down in the ring in front of them and it looks like it's on [size=4][b][color=red]Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo Vs Boogie Knights: WCW World Tag Team Titles[/size][/b][/color] - Wright and Palumbo start it off - Wright takes Palumbo over with an arm drag - Wright's dancing in Palumbo's face - CRACK Palumbo with taht huge punch on Wright - Palumbo's dominating the dancing fool - Disco runs in and gets superkicked by O'Haire - Palumbo belly to belly on Wright - Disco's fumbling about on the apron trying to get something out of his tights - Disco's back in the ring, he's got powder - Wright distracts the referee and Disco chucks it in Palumbo's eyes - O'Haire's trying to get in but the referee's keeping him out - Wright goes up top, cross body but only gets a two count - Disco gets tagged in and starts dancing across the ring then drops an elbow - Wright distracts the referee again, low blow from Disco on Palumbo - Disco goes across the ring and starts dancing in O'Haire's face, as the referee tries to stop him getting in again - Wright goes back up top but misses with a splash - Disco tries to stop the tag but Palumbo brings in O'Haire - Disco ducks a clothesline but turns round and nearly gets his head taken off by O'Haire - Palumbo starts beating Wright up on the outside - O'Haire drives Disco down with a spinebuster - SEANTON BOMB!!!! Referee counts the three - Decent enough match for what it was, crowd really enjoyed it too [b]O'Haire and Palumbo win by pinfall[/b] - More backstage footage is shown, the Wall's walking backstage - James Vandenburg confronts him - From behind Machine puts a bag over Wall's head and him and Sickboy drag him through a door - Vandenburg follows closing the door behind him - Err, ok? - SCHEME GENE! Okerlund's backstage with Suga Shane - Helms talks about fighting himself out of challengers for the Cruiserweight title - He's barely been defending the belt five minutes, jeez - Okerlund asks him what about that new guy that's been getting all the wins. Way to put him over Geno - Helms asks if he means Jason Jett? - Helms says he's looked impressive but nobody's taking this belt off him - Meh, sucky segment - Some more talk at the announce table with the guys, they talk about the main event between Rhodes and Storm - They start talking about Booker being in the building somewhere and no doubt looking for Flair, DDP and Kanyon [size=4][b][color=red]Lance Storm Vs Dustin Rhodes: Winner advances to the US title tournament[/size][/b][/color] - Storm's out on his own, no Major Gunns or anything, not that I mind if they've ditched that talentless pair of tits - Rhodes needs to get into better shape. I know he's never gonna look buff, and he's not young anymore but he was ten times better back in the early 90's - By the way, Lance Storm's music is still the number one awesome - Feeling out process early on, Storm's getting the better of it - Rhodes is getting frustrated, he's getting outwrestled - Angry Rhodes just punched Storm in the face, the idiot fans are cheering him - Rhodes is taking it to the outside, trying to turn it into a fight - Storm sent in towards the guardrail but he leaps up onto it and springs back towards Rhodes with an elbow - OUCH, Storm sent into the ring steps hard - Storm's the heel here, I guess, but the role's are kinda reversed, even though the fans are cheering Dustin. Odd - Back in the ring Rhodes hits a lariat for a two - Rhodes superplex, looks like Dustin came ready to work, he's still good when he's trying - Storm small package out of nowhere but only get a two - This is actually turning into something pretty good - Announce team start putting emphasis on how important this is with the potential US title shot on the line - Announce team then ruin that by putting all the focus back onto Booker and Flair, there's presumably more to come once this match is over then - Rhodes steps it up trying to put Storm away but Storm keeps kicking out - Rhodes sends him into the corner and as he bounces back out hits the Bulldog - Storm kicked out at two, Dustin's looking frustrated as his finisher just didn't finish it - Rhodes has Storm in the corner and he's punching on him, he doesn't seem to want to stop - Storm staggers out of the corner and collapses on the mat - Referee's arguing with Rhodes - Rhodes clothesline, Storm ducks underneath SUPERKICK - Both men are on the mat, ref starts the ten counts - Rhodes is up at 8 to break it, he lifts up Storm - Rhodes sends Storm in for the ride but the Canadian slides under Rhodes legs and grabs a hold of one of his ankles, forcing him over into the Maple Leaf - Rhodes won't tap, he's inching for the ropes - Storm pulls back harder, it's over, Rhodes tapped out - Really decent match, Dustin was really trying out there and Storm looked great as ever. So it's Storm, Morrus, Rick Steiner and Jeff Jarrett in the tournament. Really interesting line up [b]Lance Storm wins by submission to advance to the US title tournament[/b] - More crappy messages from the sponsors. So, is the show over or what? - Show comes back and Booker T's music hits, the arena pops big for him - Booker's out in his street clothes again with the world title belt - Booker says last week one of his friends turned number one playa hata - Booker says he'd never trust Flair, or Kanyon, but Page was different - Booker thought Page knew how to bust his ass to get a break, just like Booker - Booker says Page sold out, if he wanted a shot at the belt he only had to ask - WOOOOOOOO here's Flair, Kanyon and DDP out onto the stage - Flair says Booker's only the champion because Steiner's foot's done - See, I'm really not evne sure half these fans know Steiner was injured, dumb insider comments like that get no reaction - Flair says Booker's almost DDP's equal, but there's something that sets them apart. Last week DDP proved what lengths he'd go to, to get that belt, turning on a friend - Booker cuts him off, saying they don't know the lenghts he'll go to, to keep it. They'll have to kill him if they want it - Booker says he'd never spit on a friend like that though - Page grabs the mic off Flair and calls Booker a kid, tells him there's no friends in this business and he needs to wise up. It's all about the belt - Booker lays the belt down in front of him and tells Page that it's right there waiting for him - Page laughs as Flair tells Booker it's not going down like that tonight, they'll get their time to take the belt - Flair, Kanyon and Page start stalking the ring - They take one side of it each as Booker's turning round trying to keep an eye on all three - Kanyon up onto the apron but Booker knocks him off - Flair up onto the apron, but same thing again - This time all three are up at once and as Booker goes for Flair, Page and Kanyon are in the ring - Kanyon and DDP send Booker in for the ride but he ducks a double clothesline and flies back with a flying forearm that catches both men. - Flair from behind, low blow - Kanyon and DDP start putting the boots to Booker as Flair grabs the belt - Kanyon holds Booker up as Flair hands Page the title belt - BANG! DDP cracked Booker's head with it - Booker's busted open - Page holds the belt in his hands staring at it for a moment before tossing it back down onto Booker - Flair, Page and Kanyon leave Booker laying and get a lot of heat as the show closes - Decent segment to end the show and the interaction between Booker, Page and Flair worked. Kanyon's still not getting to say a word but surely WCW have to let the guy break out at some point? THE GOOD: Storm Vs Rhodes, Booker, Flair, DDP, a lot of guys looked like they came to work tonight, oh and that stupid old fool Terry Funk getting squashed. Man I loved that THE BAD: Mean Gene not putting over Jason Jett properly was typically WCW, and while Rhodes and Storm was good in terms of ring work, for a Pay Per View, this show sure lacked a drawing main event THE UGLY: The Wall with a bag over his head getting dragged into a room by a guy in a gimp mask[/font]

[Jayden]

[font=arial][size=4][b][color=red][img]http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/6961/wcwnitromp8.gif[/img] Wednesday 18th April 2001[/size][/b][/color] [i]STF Digest report by Jay[/i] So going into tonight's show I'm a lot more optimistic than I was last week. There's no doubt that last week's show was a big improvement on the first Pay Per View so lets just hope that it's not typical WCW two steps forward, four steps back, with tonight's show. The US title tournament should begin tonight although I don't know which matches we're seeing on it plus we should get more development with the Booker T/Flair/DDP storyline so there should be enough to keep me interested. Had a few emails come in since last week so I'll try to get to the majority of the points made, the first one being comments on the lack of Tony Schiavone. Really, are you complaining? There is a certain "WCW without Schiavone's just not right" kinda deal, but as the 90's drew on, and even moreso once we got into the 21st Century, the guy's got worse and worse, he's a horrible announcer, a horrible man, and despises the industry he's working in. Hudson did more than enough in WCW's dying days in my eyes to warrant his spot on the team, and him, Dusty and Larry have been one of the things that have worked well enough for me so far. Also had a few emails regarding the US title tournament, mostly concerns that a straight single elimination tournament would have been better. One thing I'm not gonna knock this WCW for is being a bit more innovative and doing something different. Sure, a 16 man elimination tournament might have worked well enough, but this is something a little different and I actually think the mechanics of it all as it unfolds over the next three weeks are going to make it a major high point of the programming. One other thing, Starrcade 89, Future Shock, had an almost identical tournament featuring Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Sting and the Great Muta, and I'd be tempted to say that it was better and more exciting than any single elimination tournament I can think of in WCW's history. Admittedly with those four workers it would be hard to not produce something a bit special, but it sure worked back then, I don't see why it can't now. And finally, as it looks like we're about to get going, I had a few people commenting on Boogie Knights being back together and it not making much sense. It's something I mentioned in last week's report when I commented on Sanders not being out there with Disco. I've said this a few times over the past couple of weeks but as much as I'd have loved to see the existing storylines played out I don't really see how they could have done it. They had the chance for a clean slate and I think needed to take it. Personally I think there's more they can do with Mike Sanders than lumber him with Disco, and Alex Wright is never going to be entertaining unless he is with Disco, so for me it works all round really as long as they find something decent for Sanders. and yeah, as always any further emails are more than welcome over the course of the week, I'll address as many as I can in next week's report. - Same Nitro opening music video we've seen over the past couple of weeks - Show opens up with some backstage footage. Totally Buff, in their wrestling gear, heading into an office - It's the Championship Committee's office, and has Barry Windham sitting at a desk inside it - Bagwell says they want DDP and Kanyon tonight after they got laid out last week - Windham's more than happy to oblige. It's Kanyon and DDP Vs Totally Buff tonight - Sets something up for later I guess, and at least shows a bit of continuity. I've read a few people commenting that these backstage segments are too WWF, but I don't see that it's a bad thing. The business has changed and I don't see that they can survive simply on match/interview/match/interview all night long. It's not like they're doing anything stupid and insulting with all these segments like some of the more ludicrous WWF stuff. It's all just been logical progressions to shows and storylines - Announce table with Hudson, Dusty and Zbysko, mostly just focusing on what just happened - They talk a bit about Booker getting beat down last week - They also mention the US title tournament and that tonight we'll see Lance Storm Vs Hugh Morrus and Jeff Jarrett Vs Rick Steiner to kick that off [size=4][b][color=red]Jason Jett Vs Cash[/size][/b][/color] - Cash is already in the ring when we get there. If you saw the last Thunder, you'll know what he looks like. Or if you saw ECW before that died. The match he had on that last Thunder was great so hopefully more of the same here - They've put more effort into Jett's entrance this week, hard to explain, everything just looks bigger, bigger music, bigger pyro, just bigger - Action's fast right from the get go. - Announce team are talking about Jett's win streak so I guess he's going over - AWESOME! Massive frankensteiner off the top by Cash on Jett, and I mean MASSIVE! - They take it to the outside, Jett somersaults off the guardrail and hits a clothesline - Nice exchange of moves and reversals ending with both men going for a dropkick at the same time - Cash hits a splash off the top but only gets a two count - Cash goes for a vertical suplex but Jett floats over and gets him up for the Crash Landing - Referee counts the three, that was awesome for a tv match, Jett’s outperforming everyone in the cruiserweight division right now. Great chemistry between the two as well, their matches in ECW really helped here [b]Jason Jett wins by pinfall[/b] - Scheme Gene’s out in full effect with the Cruiserweight champion Suga Shane Helms - Gene asks him about potential challengers and says Jett was impressive in that opener. At least he actually mentioned his name this time - Helms says he looked good but nobody’s taking the belt off him - Didn’t we already have this same interview last week? It was meh then, it’s meh now - Camera goes to some video package, comes up “A day in the life of a Star” on the screen - Massive plush bedroom, someone under the covers and there’s a call from the bathroom “wakey wakey sexy boy” - Head pops up from under the covers, hahaha, it’s Stasiak, nice, he’s selling the “just woke up” thing nicely with his messed up hair - Stasiak raises an eyebrow as he looks at the camera from the bed - Cuts to a shot of him eating breakfast cereal, there’s a box on the table with a picture of him on it, and the name, “Stario’s” - Female voice comes from the kitchen again, “that ok for you baby?” - Cuts again, this time to Stasiak walking into a gym. Women everywhere are stopping and gasping, staring at him and whispering amongst themselves - Stasiak goes and stands next to one of the machines, the guy using it immediately gets up and out of the way - Another shot this time Stasiak’s home by the looks of it, lounging out on his couch in a pair of trousers, but no top - Stasiak says he thought about quitting wrestling after all the crap he’s been given to do - He says the business needed a star though - Someone convinced him that he was better than that - He says that he’s not easily persuaded, the only person usually worth listening to is himself but this offer was one worth listening to - Stacy comes on screen and kneels down in front of him with just a towel wrapped round her, her butt pushed up into the air pointed at the camera as she starts rubbing her hands over his chest - Stasiak looks at the camera raising an eyebrow again and asking “but how could I resist an offer like that?” before shoo’ing the camera away - That was fun, I guess? I kinda like them giving Shawn and Stacy airtime and oh my god did she look good in that towel - Scheme Gene time again, he’s got Hugh Morrus with him. He refers to him as Hugh Morrus - Okerlund ask Morrus whether he’s ready for the US title tournament match tonight - Morrus says he’s wrestled Lance Storm plenty in the past - Morrus promises to win this one tonight - Okerlund asks whether he has the belief to win the US title with so much talent in this tournament - Morrus just starts laughing, a little at first, then getting more ferocious as Okerlund makes confused facial expressions - Morrus walks off screen laughing as Gene sends it to the ring [size=4][b][color=red]Lance Storm Vs Hugh Morrus: US Title Tournament[/size][/b][/color] - Storm’s out first and his music is awesome as ever, still has the red and white Canada tights - Morrus gets a great pop from the crowd too, looks like they’ll be into this one - As they start the feeling out process Hudson runs down the tournament idea again - 20 points if you pin, 15 if you win by dq or count out, 5 if you draw and it’s a 15 minute time limit apparently - Storm starts taking control early outwrestling Morrus hold for hold - Zbysko talks about the importance of not losing the opening match and it being the reason for the cautious start, first mistake could lose the match - Morrus charges into the corner but misses, Storm goes straight to work on the shoulder - Storm drops a knee onto Morrus’ shoulder, he’s really selling the injury - Storm takes the match to the outside - Storm tries to Irish Whip Morrus towards the ring post but Morrus reverses it shoving Storm back against it - Morrus charges but Storm gets out of the way as Morrus hits the same shoulder against the ring post on the outside - Storm takes it back to the ring but can’t put Morrus away - Storm locks on a vicious armbar on the bad shoulder side - Morrus is fighting for the ropes, he’s really selling this - Ref’s asking if he wants to tap - Morrus finally reaches the ropes - Storm goes for the superkick but Morrus ducks it, and turns around, SUPERKICK, right into another one knocking him out - Morrus gets his foot on the bottom rope just before the three count - Storm’s furious and starts arguing with the referee - Crowd are loving this as Storm turns back to Morrus and goes to pick him up - Small package and Morrus holds him down, wow, didn’t see that coming - Really surprising, assumed Storm would go over and go through the tournament for the belt - Storm looks furious as Morrus is still on the mat holding his shoulder - Crowd were really into this and it came across well on tv [b]Hugh Morrus wins by pinfall[/b] - Mean WOOOO Gene comes out to the ring - He does the whole “at this time I’d like to bring out” spiel and brings out Booker T - Booker comes out in his street clothes with the world title belt over his shoulder - Crowd are loving Booker - Scheme Gene asks whether Booker ever gets tired of carrying that belt around - Booker says he lives and breathes the belt, it’s his lifeblood and what he’s worked for his whole life - Gene asks him about Ric Flair and DDP - Booker says he never trusted Flair, but Page was different - Booker says that being the world champion makes you a target - He says that now they’ve started the game he’s turning that around - Booker says he’s not just a fighting champ, he’s a fighting man - Booker says Flair, Kanyon and especially DDP are the targets now - Gene asks what condition Booker’s in after the attacks over recent weeks - Booker’s 110% right now, they’d have to kill him to stop him - Crowd lap all this up, pretty standard Booker T stuff though to be honest - Camera backstage shows Lance Storm in a hallway, looking disappointed - Jeff Jarrett, lacking a guitar, makes his way towards Storm - Jeff says he saw the match earlier and had expected more from Storm - Lance just looks at him - Jeff tells him to watch how a real US champion handles his business - Storm stares him down as Jarrett heads out to the ring [size=4][b][color=red]Jeff Jarrett Vs Rick Steiner: US Title Tournament[/size][/b][/color] - Rick Steiner’s already waiting in the ring when the camera gets there - Jarrett’s out next, still without guitar - Crowd don’t seem too interested in any of this as they lock up and get going - Steiner looks pretty intense, muscling Jarrett about early - Steiner roughs Jarrett up in the corner with stiff forearm shots - Jarrett gets his first bit of real offence in hitting an arm drag - Steiner gets straight up and drops Jarrett with a stiff Steiner Line - Mostly rest holds as this one develops - Crowd aren’t into this at all - Jarrett takes it to the outside and they brawl - Most of this match had been brawling to be fair - Jarrett hits a superplex back in the ring but only gets a two - Steiner goes for a Death Valley Driver but Jarrett wriggles out - Jarrett hits the Stroke, this one’s over - Jarrett and Morrus are the early favourites for the US title then, really can’t see Steiner winning it now, but I’d say all of the other three are still in there - This was ok but nothing special [b]Jeff Jarrett wins by pinfall[/b] - Brief bit with the announce team just talking about what’s happened so far tonight - Backstage somewhere, presumably, James Vandenburg is in a really dark room - There’s a kinda red mist, pretty atmospheric, Machine and Sickboy are in the background behind Vandenburg - Vandenburg says he came here to re-start what he never finished - He says he wants to control WCW - To control WCW he needs to control the belts - Vandenburg says he has his Machine and Sickboy ready to take the tag team titles - He says he has something waiting in the darkness to take the world title too - Someone steps out of the darkness at the back, behind Vandenburg - Hudson says exactly what I was thinking, “is that… wait…. Is that the Wall?” - It is the Wall, but he’s not got any top on and is covered in tattoos, his head’s shaved, and he looks completely different - Vandenburg refers to him as Malice as Hudson talks about them abducting the Wall last week - Malice flares his nostrils in the background as Vandenburg starts to laugh and the screen fades out [size=4][b][color=red]Rey Mysterio Jr & Billy Kidman Vs Jung Dragons: WCW Cruiserweight Tag Titles[/size][/b][/color] - The Jung Dragons, Yang and Kaz are already in the ring when we get there - Kidman and Rey Jr get a great reception from the fans as they come out with the belts - This looks set to go at a frenetic pace, Kaz and Rey Jr exchange kicks early - Rey starts to take control with a massive high impact arm drag - Spotfest, Kidman gets dropkicked off the apron. Kaz leaps up onto the top rope and sprinboards out onto him - Yang runs off the ropes and leaps out over the top swanton style onto Kidman and Kaz - Rey jumps up onto the top rope and springboard somersaults out onto all three as they land in a heap - Kidman eventually slingshots himself back into the ring with a legdrop but can only get a two count on Yang - Kaz and Yang cut off the ring and unload with a barrage of kicks to Kidman - Crowd are starting to warm to this a bit, it’s good for what it is - Yang’s up top, Yang time!!!!! - Yang hits nothing but mat and Kidman gets him up for the Kid Krusher - Rey intercepts Kaz from making the save and this one’s over - Really spotty match but it was cool and got the crowd going again after they were pretty much dead for the Steiner/Jarrett match [b]Kidman & Mysterio win by pinfall[/b] - World Tag Team Champions Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo come out to the ring in their wrestling gear with the belts - O’Haire says that they need a challenge, all great teams cement their legacy with great defences - Palumbo says there’s nobody in WCW that can beat them - O’Haire hands out an open challenge for next week’s show - Barry Windham comes out in jeans and a shirt, with a leather waist coat on - Windham says that the championship committee get calls from new wrestlers and tag teams every day wanting to be a part of World Championship Wrestling - Windham says the tag titles O’Haire and Palumbo hold are the most sought after in wrestling - Next week there won’t be any open challenge because the championship committee have had a better idea - They’re putting O’Haire & Palumbo in with the best the world has to offer - Starting next week will be the tag team world cup - Windham has teams from Europe, Japan, Mexico and all round the world waiting for a shot - O’Haire insists they can beat anybody - Windham asks them to prove it starting next week, if they really want to cement that legacy - Crowd weren’t into Windham too much once again but I like the idea, and it at least has me intrigued as to who they’re bringing in. I really hope they make the right choices and don’t disappoint - Back to the announce team, talking about the announcement for the tag team world cup - Hudson says it’s time for some tag team action now - Main event time, they re-run the footage of Totally Buff getting attacked by Kanyon and Page last week - Re-run of Totally Buff asking for this match earlier tonight - And we’re ready to go [size=4][b][color=red]Diamond Dallas Page & Chris Kanyon w/Ric Flair Vs Totally Buff[/size][/b][/color] - Both teams get a pretty lengthy entrance - Kanyon offers Bagwell a handshake but just gets slapped in the face - Bagwell hip toss, before posing in front of Kanyon - It’s all Totally Buff early on as Luger gets tagged in - Not long before Luger turns his attention to Flair outside, pointing and badmouthing him - Kanyon tags in DDP who turns things back their way hitting a sit out powerbomb on Luger - Flair becomes a nuisance at ringside, helping Kanyon get leverage on an abdominal stretch - After a big clothesline Buff gives the sign for the blockbuster - Flair knocks him off the top and Page hits a superplex - Luger’s trying to get into the ring but it only gives the heels more time to double team - Kanyon and Page double team suplex on Bagwell - Time to break out the restholds as DDP slows it down - Page misses a charge into the corner and Bagwell manages to tag in Luger - Clothesline, clothesline, running forearm, before Luger flexes - Luger’s in control and gives the sign for the torture rack - Flair’s up onto the apron but gets nailed by Luger and knocked back down - Luger turns around into a discuss lariat from DDP - DDP and Kanyon start to cut off the ring again - Luger eventually muscles his way up out of a camel clutch variation from Kanyon - Luger tags in Bagwell who comes in like a house of fire - The referee tries to get in the way to get people out of the ring as Kanyon and DDP are both in there, but he only gets knocked over by Kanyon falling into him - Bagwell tosses Kanyon through the ropes and goes up to the middle turnbuckle - BLOCKBUSTER!!!! On Page, but the referee’s still out - Luger’s trying to wake him as Flair gets up into the ring behind his back - Brass knucks out of Flair’s trousers, he cracks Bagwell with them - Luger wakes the referee up but turns around to see Bagwell laid out. - Luger charges in but gets tossed out over the top by DDP who falls down onto Bagwell to make the cover - The referee makes the count and this one’s over - Flair tosses Luger back into the ring and then slides in after him - Flair tells DDP and Kanyon to hold Luger up, before he punches him in the head with the knucks - Flair, raises DDP and Kanyon’s hands as the crowd give them a lot of heat - BOOKER T!!!! charging out from the back and sliding into the ring - Flair, DDP and Kanyon all slide out of the ring quickly - Booker stares down with Flair, DDP and Kanyon as he kneels over Bagwell and Luger who are down in the ring at the show’s conclusion - About as good as you can expect any main event with Luger in to be at this point in time, that was pretty enjoyable [b]DDP & Kanyon win by pinfall[/b] THE GOOD: They gave us two good cruiserweight matches, showed they’re trying to build new stars, announced the world tag team cup, and produced a decent main event THE BAD: They’re building to Helms Vs Jett presumably but I’m just not feeling it and getting excited right now THE UGLY: Certainly not Stacy in that towel, hubba hubba[/font]

[Jayden]

[quote][b][u]Wrestling Newsletter Notes[/b][/u] World Championship Wrestling are running a special Pay Per View programme all this week, right up until Nitro next Wednesday, showing some of the best Cruiserweight title matches in WCW's history. Some of you may have already purchased the show, at $5.95, via DirecTV but for any who haven't and were either big fans of the WCW Cruiserweight division, or newer fans who missed out on it over the years, I'd seriously recommend taking a look. I've put the match listing below but there are definitely a few points of note. The show starts with Pillman/Liger from Superbrawl II. Looking back at that match it's bizarre to imagine that WCW would soon after ban moves from the top turnbuckle, and drop the division altogether later that year. The first true "Cruiserweight" title match on the show is Malenko & Rey Jr from Halloween Havoc 96 and is definitely one of their better matches (although I'm not sure they've EVER had a bad match opposite each other). The Juvi/Jericho match from Road Wild 98 also has Dean Malenko as guest referee, and it's particularly interesting to see which modern day matches they've chosen on the Pay Per View. WCW have at least tried to push current champion shane Helms, showing his title win against Chavo Guerrero Jr, as well as showing the first ever Cruiserweight tag title match between Skipper & Romeo and Kidman & Mysterio Jr. Contact your local cable operator, or DirecTV to purchase the show at any point this week. It's definitely worth checking out. [u]WCW - Cruiserweight title wars[/u] Superbrawl II - 29/02/92 Brian Pillman Vs Jushin Liger (WCW Light Heavyweight Title) Halloween Havoc 96 - 27/10/96 Dean Malenko Vs Rey Mysterio Jr Starrcade 96 - 29/12/96 Ultimo Dragon Vs Dean Malenko Fall Brawl 97 - 14/09/97 Eddie Guerrero Vs Chris Jericho Halloween Havoc 97 - 26/10/97 Rey Mysterio Jr Vs Eddie Guerrero Road Wild 98 - 08/08/98 Juventud Guerrera Vs Chris Jericho World War 3 98 - 22/11/98 Billy Kidman Vs Juventud Guerrera Monday Nitro - 19/04/99 Psychosis Vs Rey Mysterio Jr Vs Blitzkrieg Vs Juventud Guerrera Greed 2001 - 18/03/01 Shane Helms Vs Chavo Guerrero Jr Greed 2001 - 18/03/01 Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo Vs Billy Kidman & Rey Mysterio Jr[/quote]...

[Jayden]

[font=arial][size=4][b][color=red][img]http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/6961/wcwnitromp8.gif[/img] Wednesday 25th April 2001[/size][/b][/color] [i]STF Digest report by Jay[/i] It’s Wednesday again already, I know, aren’t you excited? Well I am, Nitro was good last week and I’m hoping for more of the same tonight. The World Cup tag thingie starts tonight, the US title tournament continues, and there’s a lot going on. Had a lot of emails and questions in this week so lets get to them as I’ve not got long before the show starts Had a few emails saying they were surprised with the US title tournament. Nobody saw Storm losing, and I’ll agree that surprised me too. A lot of people thought Jarrett was gonna get jobbed to Steiner too, are you nuts? Come on, Jarrett’s always getting pushed, not that I’m complaining. I think they went interesting ways with the matches in the first week of the tournament and I’m not sure about picking a winner. I’d say anyone bar Steiner can pull it out right now Also had a few people commenting about Jett and Helms, as it looks like that’s what they’re building up to in the Cruiserweight division. I tend to agree mostly with the opinions that it’s been kinda bland so far. Helms can have a lot of personality when given the chance and so far we’ve just seen him and Jett winning matches. Hopefully that one’ll heat up and get the cruiserweight division really exciting again Had a few emails too talking about them giving Stasiak some air time, most people seemed happy with it, not only because they like him, as even those who admitted to not seeing much potential in him were at least happy that WCW was trying to create some new stars Lots of emails about the Tag Team World Cup. Sorry guys, I know as little as you at this point. I don’t know who the teams are or what format it’ll take so we’ll have to wait and see on that one And finally, as we’re about to start, a lot of positive feedback about the Cruiserweight PPV that’s been running all week. I’ve heard that they are thinking about running a few more similar ones, focusing on other parts of the company and its history so we’ll see what’s to come there, and right, starting, report, ok, go go go - Opening Nitro music video as always - Hudson, Zbysko and Rhodes talk through what’s on the show tonight. - Tag Team World Series begins tonight, they don’t know which teams are involved - Continuation of the US title tournament too, Hugh Morrus Vs Jeff Jarrett and Rick Steiner against Lance Storm tonight. - Zbysko gives us a US title history before getting cut off by Space Mountain - WOOOOOO it’s the Nature Boy, with DDP and Kanyon at his side - Crowd are giving them a lot of heat as they head to the ring - Page up first, just running the cheap heat stuff, insulting the fans - Page calls them “Baltimorons”. Yep, you guessed it, we’re in Baltimore tonight - HAHAHA, Kanyon stops Page, takes the mic off him and points to a fat lady in the front row, “hey Page, Page, look, it’s Judy Bagwell”. THEY GAVE KANYON MIC TIME!!!!!!! - Page says Totally Buff had the chance to walk away and should have took it - Page says he only cares about the World title, and he’s gonna keep breaking Booker T down until it’s his - Flair grabs the mic but doesn’t get any chance to speak as Booker’s music cuts him off - Booker’s out on the stage in his wresting gear, with the World title belt over his shoulder - Booker says they’re the number one playa hata’s, running around WCW taking him down three on one. - Flair tells Booker he’s out of his depth and to watch his mouth - Booker says Flair can’t go anymore, and it hurts him too much to let go. Booker wants them in a match tonight - Page says there’s three of them, and he only sees one guy looking back at them. - The numbers are evened as Bagwell and Luger come out and stand either side of Booker - Flair says it’s on tonight, and after they’ve beaten him down again Page wants his title shot - Booker says he can have it any time as he looks to Luger and Buff either side of him, not looking entirely sure he can trust them - Man that felt like the opening to Raw, but seeing as Hudson’s just telling us that the Cruiserweight’s are up next I guess I can deal with it [size=4][color=red][b]”Suga” Shane Helms, Billy Kidman & Rey Mysterio Jr Vs Jason Jett, Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo[/size][/b][/color] - Helms, Kidman and Mysterio all have belts as they make their separate entrances - Skipper & Romeo, together, and then Jett also get separate entrances. Nice to see them giving the Cruiser’s that little bit extra too - Skipper and Kidman start it off, pace is fast right off the bat - This one’s broken down already, Kidman off the top turnbuckle onto Skipper on the outside, Rey suicide dive through the ropes onto Romeo, while Helms goes swanton style over the top onto Jett - All 6 men are still fighting on the outside, Rey Jr Asai Moonsault onto Romeo, Skipper gets back in the ring and flips out over the top corkscrew style onto both of them. Kidman gets up to the top and hits a shooting star press onto everyone who’s already down - Jett and Helms are the only two to get back into the ring - Helms goes for the Nightmare on Helm St but Jett reverses and drops him with the Crash Landing - Jett just pinned the Cruiserweight champ - Romeo and Skipper are back into the ring, holding Helms up - Jett looks at him for a moment as they gesture for him to hit him, but Jett turns and walks out - What I said at the beginning about it being nice them putting the effort into the entrances and hyping them, I take it all back. That was too condensed. Forget the entrances and give them an extra four minutes on the match but the booking of it all was interesting enough [b]Jett, Romeo & Skipper win by pinfall[/b] - Mean WOOO Gene! Backstage with Alex Wright, and Disco Inferno - Disco’s dressed in one of those German/Austrian brown all in one kinda shorts and braces thingies with a white shirt, and a little hat. My description of the outfit is obviously terrible, but I’m not big on what German people call their weird outfits. - Gene asks Disco why he’s dressed like that - Disco says his name’s Glenn Gilberthold, not Disco, and he’s Austrian - Gene’s selling this great, the look on his face rocks and Disco’s dodgy accent is class - Gilberthold??? Says that they’re representing their homelands as Team Europe in the Tag Team World Series and will start their bid to win it tonight - Not really sure what to say about that segment but I was laughing through most of it and I guess that was the point. I just hope the rest of the teams they have in the World Series are a bit more exciting - Pre taped vignette airs next with a graphic coming up on the screen reading “A night in the life of a Star” - Shawn Stasiak is shown in a huge bathroom with shaving foam on his face - A voice calls out from the shower “can you pass me a towel baby” - Stasiak looks straight at the camera smiling and raising his eyebrow, “you better get that thing turned off, I’ll see you in town” - Shawn and Stacy are shown eating in a restaurant, Stasiak clicks his fingers and the waiter comes running, “skippy, this lobster’s off, skeedaddle and get it sorted” - Shawn’s shown in a posh club with half a dozen hot bimbo’s stood around him, the camera pans over and show’s Stacy with her hands on her hips looking peeved - Final clip shows Stasiak laying out on a king size four poster bed at home with his top off when a pair of legs in hold up stockings walk into shot and block the view of Stasiak - Shawn pops his head round the side, “time for you to go, man it’s tough being a star” - Those legs looked insanely good, if the next segment is a Duggan match I swear I’m going for a bathroom break to think about them some more - Barry Windham’s in the ring when the camera gets back there with a huge trophy - Windham says that the Tag Team World Series kicks off tonight with 6 teams going all out to win this trophy - Windham introduces the teams, first out representing Puerto Rico, Apollo and Prince Justice. Apollo looks to have a great physique, and I think is a heavyweight champion in the IWA in Puerto Rico but don’t quote me on it. Justice looks pretty big too, 6’7/350ish - Team number two representing Europe, Alex Wright and Glenn Gilberthold - The third team representing Canada, whoah, Jim Neidhart and Rick Martel. I’m gonna have way too many mark out Hart Foundation/Strike Force moments with this - The fourth team, and Windham doesn’t even tell us where they’re representing is the Headhunters. If you’ve not seen them before, two big fat guys who look a bit like Abdullah the Butcher, but move 100 times better, moonsaults and everything - The fifth team bought out are Palumbo and O’Haire with the world title belts - WHOAH Chono and Tenzan representing Japan. I suppose it kinda makes sense as they’ve both worked WCW before but man, that’s a really interesting lineup - Windham says that to kick things off tonight they’re having a battle royal - Windham doesn’t do a great job of explaining this but I think that basically the team members earn points depending on when they get eliminated - Windham, and the cup, exit the ring and we’re about ready [size=4][color=red][b]12 Man tag team World Series battle royal[/size][/b][/color] - This is gonna be a clusterf**k so I’ll try and keep up with the eliminations - ELIMINATION 1: Alex Wright’s gone, the Headhunters tossed him out. Wright scores 1 point apparently - Gilberthold’s getting tossed about all over the place, he’s nearly gone out twice already - ELIMINATION 2: WHOAH! Didn’t see that coming, Palumbo’s gone. Chono Yakuza Kick sending him out over the top. Palumbo also scores 1 point - Gilberthold gets tossed over the top by an angry O’Haire but he lands on the apron and holds on - ELIMINATION 3: Neidhart’s gone, charging at Gilberthold who held down the top rope. Neidhart scores 2 points - ELIMINATION 4: Carbon copy elimination as Prince Justice goes out over the top as he charges at Martel. Justice scores 2 points - Martel has Gilberthold in the Boston Crab but one of the Headhunters breaks it up - ELIMINATION 5: The crazy Austrian’s gone, Gilberthold out thanks to an O’Haire clothesline over the top. Gilberthold scores 3 points - Chono and Tenzan muscle O’Haire down and Chono locks in the STF - ELIMINATION 6: One of the Headhunters is gone, Tenzan, Apollo and Martel all working together to toss him over the top. Headhunter scores 3 points - ELIMINATION 7: Rick Martel’s gone thanks to Apollo. Martel scores 4 points - ELIMINATION 8: Chono goes for the Yakuza Kick on Apollo but the Puerto Rican slides out of the way and Chono’s leg is caught up on the top rope. Apollo bundles him out. Chono scores 5 points - ELIMINATION 9: The remaining Headhunter grabs Apollo as he’s dumping out Chono and pushes him out too. Apollo scores 6 points - Three guys left, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Sean O’Haire and one of the Headhunters - O’Haire’s down, Tenzan moonsault, Headhunter flying elbowdrop, O’Haire’s in big trouble with those big move off the top - ELIMINATION 10: Headhunter sends O’Haire into the corner and charges in but O’Haire almost powerslams him out over the top, that was impressive. Headhunter scores 7 points - Tenzan’s straight on O’Haire hitting him with kicks, knees and forearms - Tenzan snap suplexes O’Haire over and looks ready to toss him out - O’Haire comes back ducking a lariat and hitting a superkick - ELIMINATION 11: Tenzan’s gone, O’Haire beeled him over the top. Tenzan scores 8 points, O’Haire scores 10 for winning - I kinda liked that, and I’ll be honest I’m REALLY pumped about this World Series now too. This could be pretty fun as it all develops - A graphic is shown of the standings after the battle royal Chono & Tenzan 13 points Palumbo & O’Haire 11 points The Headhunters 10 points Apollo & Justice 8 points Neidhart & Martel 6 points Wright & Gilberthold 4 points - Quick backstage skit with Booker, Luger and Bagwell - Luger tells Booker he can trust them tonight - Bagwell, unconvincingly does the same thing - Booker tells them actions speak louder than words, so they better watch their actions tonight - Camera cuts straight to another backstage skit, Jeff Jarrett and Rick Steiner are seen down the hallway - The camera gets there just as Jarrett taps Steiner on the back and walks away [size=4][color=red][b]Lance Storm Vs Rick Steiner: US Title Tournament[/size][/b][/color] - As Steiner makes his way down Hudson and the boys point out that both lost their opening matches. A loss here and they’re out - They speculate as to why Jarrett, who’s in the tournament and beat Steiner last week, was seen with Steiner before the match - Storm gets the big entrance with his red hot music, anyone know where I can get it on mp3 or something? Email me - Steiner jump starts the match and tries to turn it into a brawl - Steiner’s all over Storm beating him around the ring - Steiner tosses Storm to the outside and reaches for a chair - Storm gets up and turns around into a massive chairshot - Steiner’s going nuts raining the chairshots down - The ref’s out there asking him to stop, bell’s rung - Steiner’s been disqualified but he’s not stopping - Steiner extends Storm’s leg and crashes the chair down onto it, Storm’s head’s also bust open - Storm’s clutching his knee as Steiner shoves him back down and crashes the chair into it again - Not really a match, just a beating, but storyline wise I have no problem with where it went. Hudson talks through the points, with Morrus and Jarrett, still to go tonight both on 20 points already, and Storm only picking up 15 for that win there. - [b]Storm wins by dq[/b] - More backstage stuff, Major Gunns is in her locker room or something, putting on makeup - Man, if they could do something with her face, that body is hot - Gunns turns round shocked as Machine and Sickboy barge through the door - Gunns cowers back even more as Malice (formerly the Wall) comes into the room snarling and staring at her - Gunns is screaming as James Vandenburg steps into the room behind the others with a cane and points it at her - HOOOOOO! Oh God it’s Duggan, “hey tough guy, what’s the deal?”. Lord, somebody break his neck already - Machine and Sickboy look ready to fight but Vandenburg tells everyone to get out of the room - Vandenburg simply points his cane at Duggan and tells him that he’s become an enemy - Eugh, Duggan hugs Major Gunns. Do we need to see that? - Umm, not sure where this is going, but it involves Duggan, so I can’t pretend I like it, sorry [size=4][color=red][b]Hugh Morrus Vs Jeff Jarrett: US Title Tournament[/size][/b][/color] - Morrus comes out first and his shoulder’s all taped up, presumably selling the injury he sustained in the Lance Storm match last week - Jarrett’s out, minus guitar again, crowd are giving him a lot of heat - Morrus opens up early hitting a couple of clotheslines, then a swinging heel kick that sends Jarrett out of the ring stalling - Hudson goes over the tournament rules again, and they show the points totals. - They’re working a pretty slow pace but it’s entertaining, it’s been mostly Morrus so far - Morrus has Jarrett in the corner and tries to Irish Whip him across the ring. Jarrett plants his feet and reverses it, Irish Whipping Morrus, but rather than send him across the ring Jarrett holds onto the arm and wrenchs on it as Morrus comes off his feet and starts writhing around on the mat holding his already injured shoulder - Jarrett puts the boots to the shoulder, Morrus looks in trouble - Jarrett’s wasting time playing to the crowd, they’re booing him pretty hard - Jarrett drops a knee onto Morrus shoulder, it’s the focus of all Jarrett’s offence right now - Jarrett goes for a vertical suplex but Morrus floats over. He goes for his own suplex but drops Jarrett away, holding his shoulder - It’s all Jarrett as Morrus arm looks shot, Hudson points out that there’s five minutes left - Morrus manages to fight up to his feet and charges Jarrett but Jarrett grabs the arm and takes him down with an armbar on the injured shoulder - Morrus is screaming out, desperately trying to get to the ropes. There’s still 3 minutes left, he won’t hold on - Morrus is desperately trying to get there, Jarrett releases the hold and drags him back into the centre of the ring, getting him in another armbar on the mat - Morrus finds the strength to roll over and get free but Jarrett’s straight onto him, chop blocking his leg and dropping him to the mat again - Jarrett gives the sign, and locks in the figure four, there’s only 45 seconds left - Morrus is wailing and thrashing around on the mat, trying to hold on - As the referee tries to ask Morrus whether he wants to quit, Jarrett leans back and grabs the ropes for leverage - Just 10 seconds left as Morrus struggles to hold on, the referee looks ready to stop it - The bell rings, time limit draw, Jarrett releases the hold but Morrus has passed out from the pain in the mat, at least that’s how Hudson calls it - Jarrett’s pissed, he tosses the ref out over the top - Dusty on announce runs through the scores, Jarrett and Morrus both on 25, Storm on 15, and Rick Steiner on 0 with just the matches next week left - I really can’t see how this is going, they’ve made Morrus look like a hero in both his matches, Jarrett presumably has the help of Steiner, and Storm’s still the guy that I would have expected to win it going into it, so next week should be hot [b]Time limit draw[/b] - Another pre taped Vignette, shown in some gym, I’m guessing this is what the Power Plant looks like - Johnny the Bull’s in the ring and nearly takes some jobber’s head off with a short arm lariat - Cuts to another clip of him doing exactly the same thing to someone else - A third one, you think Bradshaw’s clothesline from hell in the WWF is good? You need to see this, seriously, he’s pulling these guys into him and just driving through with his arm and sending them flying 360 as he holds onto them - A fourth short arm lariat from JTB - The vignette ends with JTB facing the camera, still in the training room, “I aint about to 450 off the top, and I aint about to make you tap, I just got’s the most brutal move in all of wrestling” - The footage ends with JTB pulling another jobber in and screaming out as he takes the guys head off with a massive lariat that sends him flying 360 - The camera comes back to the backstage area near a drinks machine. Someone’s there getting a drink but you can’t really see who it is - Mark Jindrak walks on screen, shoving the guy with his back to us, and telling him to get out the way - MIKE AWESOME, the guy turns round and stands up straight, it’s Awesome - Awesome hands Jindrak his drink and asks him if there’s a problem - Jindrak pauses for a second before throwing the drink in Awesome’s face, grabbing him and slamming his head into the drinks machine - Jindrak puts boots into Awesome on the floor before picking him up and tossing him head first into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway - Jindrak wipes his hands together and tells Awesome he’ll see him around, before walking off - Back with Hudson, Dusty and Zbysko before the main event. They talk about the trust factor with Totally Buff and Booker, and ask whether he has a cohesive team going into the match [size=4][color=red][b]Booker T & Totally Buff Vs Ric Flair, DDP & Chris Kanyon[/size][/b][/color] - This is gonna take ages, DDP and Kanyon come out first, to DDP’s “Self high Five” music - Flair’s out next and joins them in the ring, we might get to the action in a minute - Totally Buff come out but wait on the stage for Booker - Booker’s out with the World title belt and they head to the ring - Booker wants DDP but Page won’t start the match, it’s Booker and Kanyon - Feeling out process early, Booker’s out wrestling Kanyon hold for hold - Kanyon’s getting frustrated and eventually tags in Flair - WOOOO, the Dirtiest Player in the Game, after they lock up once Flair calls over the referee, insisting that he could feel something in Booker’s boot. The ref asks Booker to show him, and starts padding it down, but it’s just a ploy for Flair to be able to jump him and get on top - Booker manages to clear Flair out of the ring and tags in Bagwell - So far so good, Bagwell looks like he’s ready to go tonight - Kanyon and DDP go after Bagwell in the ring, bringing in Luger, as Totally Buff clothesline first Kanyon, and then DDP out before posing at them flexing their muscles - Flair, DDP and Kanyon call for a timeout on the outside, talking amongst themselves - Booker gets a couple of near falls on Flair after a standing side kick, and then the scissor kick complete with spineroonie - Booker wants DDP again, but Page still won’t tag in for him - Kanyon’s in with Luger, and he starts to get on top. Kanyon hits a cobra clutch side Russian legsweep for a two count - Luger gets in his sequence of running clothesline, running clothesline, running forearm but DDP’s in to break up the count - This one’s breaking down, Booker’s in and attacking DDP, they’re fighting in the corner as Totally Buff start to work over Kanyon. Flair’s still on the outside - The referee’s trying to get people out of the ring as Flair reaches into his tights on the outside - WTF??? SHANE DOUGLAS??? Douglas leapt the guardrail at ringside from the crowd and spun Flair around, grabbing the brass knuckles off him and cracking him in the head with them. Flair’s bust open, and out, as Douglas leaps back into the crowd, looking back with a huge grin on his face - Kanyon’s seen Flair down but didn’t see how it happened as Luger spins him around and gets him up in the Torture Rack - Booker takes a step back and hits the Harlem Side Kick on Page knocking him out over the top. - Kanyon gives it up, Totally Buff and Booker win - DDP, and eventually Kanyon, lean over Flair on the outside, arguing and unsure of what happened - Booker and Totally Buff celebrate in the ring staring them down as the show goes off the air - Man that was pretty good, Bagwell looked up for it, and Luger was as good as you can expect Luger to be at this point, plus the Douglas thing adds a hell of a lot to all this right now. Nice main event [b]Booker T & Totally Buff win by pinfall[/b] THE GOOD: Umm, Tag Team World Series, US title tournament, really good main event, there was plenty to be happy about here THE BAD: They need to get off weekly PPV, and fast. The shows are getting better but they’re still just tv shows, people aren’t gonna keep paying for these very long THE UGLY: Jim Duggan being on the show, and saving the silicone damsel in distress. Duggan, please, just f**k off, seriously, just… f**k… off![/font]

[Jayden]

[quote][b][u]Wrestling Newsletter Notes[/b][/u] - With the month of Pay Per View now complete WCW and SRR have managed to secure the much needed television deal at this month's end. The WB network have picked up the show and will be running it in a similar slot to the weekly Pay Per View's, running Wednesday nights at 8pm starting this Wednesday, 2nd May. It really can't be stressed how much of a neccessary and important deal this is for the future of World Championship Wrestling - It's believed that made a "substantial" financial loss in their first month of rebirth. The weekly Pay Per View's were not enough to generate revenue and support the company. SRR executives were expecting the loss but with the move to weekly tv and month PPV they'll be expecting a quick return on their investment. It will be interesting to see how much difference that move makes financially, and how long SRR will sit it out and cover a loss on their product - With the new weekly Nitro on the WB network promotion for WCW's first major Pay per view is underway. Sunday 26th May WCW will present Slamboree on Pay Per View from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. Expect a number of matches to be announced for the show over the coming weeks on Nitro[/quote]...