WCW Sin (January 2001)

From Indianapolis, Indiana; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson.

Opening WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Chavo Guerrero Jr v Shane Helms: Chavo controls with a hammerlock early, and they fight through a series of reversals with each guy trying for an armbreaker. Chavo settles that by kicking him in the nuts and chopping him hard, but Shane escapes a bodyslam, and armdrags him a couple of times. Shane with a headscissors takedown, and he but a charge misses, and Guerrero clotheslines him over the top. Slugfest out there goes the challengers way with a whip into the rail, and inside, he cradles for two. Powerbomb, but Chavo counters into a whiplash for two, the tosses Shane out of the ring again. Inside, that's enough for two, and he adds a dropkick for two. Chinlock, but Shane escapes, and hits an atomic drop to set up a swinging neckbreaker - leaving both men down. Shane gets an arm across the chest for two, and hits a bridging German suplex for two. Superkick gets two, but he gets dumped again when charging Chavo in the corner, and Guerrero dives after him with a flying bodypress. In, that's worth two. Suplex, but Shane hiptosses him over the top as a counter, and hits his own flying bodypress after him. Flying sunset flip on the way back in gets two, and he drops him like a Samoan for two. Vertebreaker, but Chavo counters, so Shane switches to Nightmare on Helms Street for two. Frustrated, Helms goes for it again, but Chavo shoves him into the corner to block, and tries a tornado DDT, but Shane counters again into Nightmare - countered AGAIN by Guerrero into a brainbuster for the pin at 11:14. Good opener! Well paced, filled with believable nearfalls, and clean as a whistle. And guess what? The crowd was into it, and everything, proving how needless their usual overbooking really was. ** ¾

Big Vito v Reno: Slugfest right away goes Reno's way, and he hits a quick powerslam, followed by a kneedrop for two. To the outside for a brawl, and inside, Vito blocks a corner charge with a lariat. Superplex gets two, and an enzuigiri sets up a side suplex, but a blind charge misses, and Vito goes flying out of the ring as a result. Reno follows for another quick brawl on the floor, and inside, they slug it out again - Reno controlling with a clothesline. Backdrop, but Vito counters with a sunset flip for two, and the Mafia-kick follows. Trapping suplex sets up a flying elbowdrop for two, but Reno dropkicks him for two. Roll of the Dice, but Vito counters with a Northern lights suplex for two. DDT, but Reno counters into a capture suplex, then Rolls the Dice for the pin at 8:41. Decent little match, that again benefitted from avoiding overbooking. * ¼

The Jung Dragons v Jamie Knoble and Evan Karagias: Kaz Hayashi starts with Evan, and they slug it out - Kaz controlling. Long criss cross ends in Kaz hitting an ocean cyclone suplex, and he catches an incoming Knoble with a headscissors to clean house. The Dragons dive out after them with stereo springboard moonsaults, and inside, Yun Yang blasts Jamie with a clothesline. Powerbomb, but Knoble counters into an armdrag - triggering a nice reversal sequence that ends with Jamie flipping Yang out of the ring. Meanwhile, Karagias fights Kaz to the top rope for a superplex, but gets countered with a forward-falling version. Kaz with a flying bodypress to follow-up, but Evan dropkicks him in midair - only for a charge to get blocked with a drop-toehold into the turnbuckle. Knoble lends an assist with a sidewinder for two, and Evan powerslams him for two as they cut the ring in half. Drop-toehold/dropkick combo for two, and Jamie side suplexes him for two. Diving forearm for two, and a German suplex hits. Karagias with a press-spinebuster for two, and a powerslam sets up a springboard moonsault, but Kaz rolls out of the way... but is cut off from a tag by Knoble. Jamie with a sunset cradle, but Kaz escapes at a one count, and blasts him with a roundhouse kick to allow the tag to Yang. He's a dojo of fire to trigger a four-way brawl, and everyone starts reeling off crazy highspots like they're going out of style for a bunch of rapid nearfalls. Finally, Yang misses a twisting moonsault, so Jamie tries a suplex, but Yang counters into a simple inside cradle for the pin at 9:21. I actually liked this better than a lot of the gimmicky three-way matches these guys were best known for, because this actually had flow, and psychology. Plus, I really dug the ending, as they threw every crazy spot in their arsenal at each other, and then when Yang went basic with a cradle, Knoble didn't expect it, and got pinned. *** ½

WCW Commissionership Match: Mike Sanders v Ernest Miller: They take turns playing to the crowd to start, allowing Sanders to jump him from behind for a beating in the corner. Mike works him over for a long time, and slaps on a cobra clutch, but Miller escapes, and chops him. Split-legged punch, and they spill to the outside, where Ms. Jones prevents a chairshot, and forces Sanders back into the ring. That allows The Natural Born Thrillers to run out and attack Cat, but KroniK run out for the save. They destroy Sanders too for good measure, and Miller kicks him to finish at 5:44. Hey, at least they waited until the fourth match to do a run-in. And it was welcome, since the match wasn't at all good on its own. Plus, since they didn't burn the crowd out with overbooking already, they actually got a huge positive reaction for it. I never thought I'd say this about WCW towards the end, but the strength of this was good booking. DUD

Six-Man Penalty Box Match: The Filthy Animals v Team Canada: The idea here is that the referee (Jim Duggan, in this case) can send members of the teams to a penalty box at ringside if he catches them cheating. Okay, so Rey Mysterio Jr starts with Lance Storm, and quickly hits a headscissors, but a charge in the corner is blocked when Lance crotches him on the top. Elix Skipper runs in to double-team, but Duggan banishes him to the penalty box - thus establishing the rules for those not familiar. Mike Awesome argues with Duggan about it, and he goes to the Box as well - leaving Storm three-on-one. Rey capitalizes with a rana, and he tags Billy Kidman for a slingshot legdrop. Clothesline, and Konnan tags in with a bodyslam, then powerbombs Mysterio onto Storm. Rey with a springboard splash for two, as the penalty limit expires, and Team Canada rejoin the match. Storm tags to Skipper, and a reversal sequence with Kidman ends in Billy side suplexing him. Awesome fires a cheapshot from the apron, but Duggan catches him, and it's back to the box for Mike. Storm bitches about it, and joins him, as The Animals take advantage and work over Skipper. Team Canada returns as Konnan DDTs Skipper for two. Skipper manages a sloppy missile dropkick to allow the tag to Awesome, and Mike hits a backbreaker on Konnan for two. Sidewalk slam, but Konnan counters with a headscissors (popular spot tonight), as Major Gunns and Tygress tease a catfight on the floor. Rey and Billy threaten to dive out after them, but Duggan won't have it, and banishes them both to the box, with the women to boot. Well, that'll make things more tolerable at least, I'd imagine. Don't drop the soap, Tygress! Awesome running powerslams Konnan for two, and Skipper hits a springboard legdrop to set up a chinlock. Glad to see they're really capitalizing on the advantage there. Konnan catches Storm with a sitout facebuster to allow a tag to Kidman, and he comes in with a flying backelbow. Backdrop and a dropkick for Storm, and a sitout powerbomb gets two. Six-way brawl breaks out, but Duggan doesn't appreciate tag team formulas, and tosses a bunch of guys in the box - leaving Storm to take a bronco buster from Rey. Awesome decides enough is enough, and kills Rey with an illegal running powerbomb upon exiting the box - getting himself sent right back, but allowing Storm to finish Kidman with the Maple Leaf without interruption at 13:07. Didn't really work for me, as too much focus was put on setting up spots to get guys tossed in the box, but it wasn't bad. *

WCW Hardcore Title Triple Threat Match: Terry Funk v Crowbar v Meng: You know the drill: brawl around the arena, weapon shots, fight into a bathroom, etc. Into the ring, Crowbar tries to pillmanize Funk's leg with a chair, but Meng blocks a chairshot with a superkick, and puts Terry in the Tongan Death Grip for the title at 11:41. Meng celebrated his title in style - showing up at the Royal Rumble the next week, and abandoning the belt along the way. In fact, Meng was the last recognized champion, as they never got around to crowning a new one before the promotion folded two months later. ¼*

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: The Insiders v The Natural Born Thrillers: Diamond Dallas Page starts with Chuck Palumbo, and they trade spit wads to trigger a DDP won slugfest. Page with a short-clothesline and a uranage for two, then Cactus clotheslines Chuck out of the ring. Both men tag, and Kevin Nash bodyslams Sean O'Haire out of their initial lockup, so Sean tries a headlock, but gets the big boot for his efforts. Into the corner for the usual Nash abuse, but Sean springboards to avoid a cross corner whip, and superkicks the champ. Palumbo runs in for a double-team, but sadly Jim Duggan is not there to banish him. Nash shrugs him off with the snake-eyes anyway, and adds a short-clothesline before tagging Page with a flying version for two. Cheapshot from O'Haire allows Palumbo the jungle-kick, and the challengers cut the ring in half on Dallas. Page manages to reverse Palumbo with a tombstone, and makes the tag to Nash - who comes in hot. Big boots all around, Powerbomb for Palumbo, but here come the rest of the Thrillers. They lure DDP into a chase through the crowd, and Buff Bagwell whacks Nash with a pipe for O'Haire to Seanton Bomb at 11:16. Business as usual with this feud, though I thought the crazy amounts of overbooking was unneeded. Seriously, couldn't they have just cheated on their own? Did we really need five other guys? ½*

WCW United States Title First Blood Ladder Match: General Rection v Shane Douglas: Now that Shane doesn't have Torrie Wilson anymore, and Rection doesn't have Major Gunns, there's really no reason to get your hopes up here. The referee actually checks Shane for a weapon this time, apparently finally having caught on to his bullshit. Douglas beats him into the corner to start, but Rection takes over with a wristlock. For a long time. Look, if you book a brawl - BRAWL! It's First Blood! What's a wristlock gonna do for you? Shane comes back with a more logical punch to the face, and they have a slugfest - won by Rection. Rection with a 2^nd rope clothesline, Flying moonsault, but Douglas crotches him on the top rope to block, and brings the champ down for a kneebreaker. He works the knee with a leglock and slaps on a figure four, which I guess could make sense as it prevents Rection from climbing the ladder, but since the chain isn't necessary for victory, it loops right back around to pointless again. They spill out to the floor for a brawl, and into the crowd for a bit, where Rection tries a moonsault off the rail, and gets crotched again. Not a good night for his nuts here, I'd say. Back to the ring, Douglas goes after the knee again, but Rection press-slams him, and goes for the ladder. Finally! He goes right for a climb, and completely negates any point the knee work may have had by easily climbing. He grabs the chain, but Douglas tips the ladder over, hits him with a chain to draw blood, and wins the title at 11:36. Didn't make a lick of sense, and was really boring to boot. –½*

No Disqualification Match: Totally Buffed v Goldberg and Sergeant DeWayne Bruce: What a stupid team name. If Goldberg loses here, he retires. Lex Luger starts with Goldberg, since apparently we didn't see enough of them together at the last two pay per views. Goldberg kicks his ass in the corner, and suplexes him like a jobber - Luger passing to Buff Bagwell. Goldberg destroys him too, and hits a press-slam before tagging Bruce. Sarge with a slam and a side suplex for two, but he gets caught in a double-team behind the referees back, and Totally Buffed cut the ring in half. Why they bother distracting the referee in a No DQ match I'm not sure, but probably for the same reasons we were seeing figure fours in a First Blood match. Bruce manages to tag after reversing a vertical suplex from Bagwell, and Goldberg is a house of arson! It spills to the outside, where Luger has an altercation with a 'fan,' and when Goldberg comes over the save, the kid maces him. Security tackles the kid, but Luger quickly pulls them off and high-five’s him to hammer home what happened. He rolls the blinded Goldberg back in, and an electric chair/Blockbuster finish him at 11:00. The retirement was supposed to give Goldberg time off for surgery, but by the time he was healed, WCW didn't exist anymore - this being Goldberg's last appearance. DUD

Main Event: WCW World Title Four Corners Match: Scott Steiner v Jeff Jarrett v Sid Vicious v Animal: Animal is a mystery opponent, and we start with only the other three. Stalling to start, with less than ten minutes of total airtime left. Steiner and Jarrett double-team Sid to start, but he shrugs them off, and sidewalk slams Jeff. Clotheslines all around, and a ten-punch for Scott, but Vicious gets overwhelmed fighting both fronts, and worked over. Brawl on the floor allows Sid to do some goofy rail spots where they whip him into it from a mile away, and he just keeps running until he hits it, like some videogame. Inside, Sid starts no-selling and pinballing them with punches, but Scott saves Jarrett from the Powerbomb. Backbreaker/fistdrop combo gets Jarrett two, but Sid suplexes both of them - in sloppy fashion. Big boot for Jarrett, and one for Steiner. Chokeslam for Jarrett, cobra clutch slam for Steiner. Finally, the mystery man arrives in a hockey mask (Arrives as in, his car just pulled up. I guess the message there is that the WCW World Title isn't worth fighting traffic for?), but as he comes down, Sid jumps off the middle rope and lands wrong - legitimately snapping his leg. Everyone seems lost, so the masked man kicks Sid in the head, and Scott pins him at 7:53 as he unmasks as Road Warrior Animal. Really stupid, badly worked, badly booked main event all around, but at least it was short. –¼*

BUExperience: Very reminiscent of 1997 WCW, this show featured a really solid undercard, which got progressively worse as we moved up. Interesting to note how obvious WCWs glass ceiling was at this point, as the undercard guys who stole the shows in 1997 were almost all in the WWF by 2001, but the main eventers from 1997 were still headlining in WCW with new undercard guys to carry the load for them.

Overall, a couple of very good matches, but outweighed by the terrible uppercard, and entirely forgettable,

DUD