Thunder
Date: August 26, 1998
Location: Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, Illinois
Attendance: 7,128
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone

For once in a very long time we’re coming off a strong ending to a Nitro. We’re heading into Fall Brawl and WarGames with Team WCW fully in place and two members of the Black and White set. The Wolfpack hasn’t been announced yet but with only four members it’s not like they have a lot of options. Let’s get to it.

We open with a chat about WarGames with Lee Marshall saying Hogan has never pinned Piper or Page because Lee Marshall is bad at history.

Wrath vs. Scott Putski

Total squash with Wrath winning in less than a minute with a top rope clothesline and the Meltdown, though he didn’t turn Putski all the way and it was more of a Dominator. I was always kind of a Wrath fan as long as he didn’t talk.

Here’s Stevie Ray for his first interview since joining the NWO. He owes Hogan and Bischoff a debt of gratitude (for costing him the TV Title?) for standing up for him three years ago and will serve them up DDP tonight, as per Hogan’s orders.

Mike Enos vs. Bull Pain

Bull Pain has been kicking around the indies and smaller promotions for years now. Enos starts fast and pounds away before hitting a nice side slam. Lots of walking around and posing by Enos. Pain comes back with some right hands and kicks to the ribs but that’s about it for him. A middle rope fall away slam is enough to finish Pain and gets Enos the only pop of his WCW career.

Rating: D. The fall away slam was good but we’re seriously having Mike Enos squashes now? This is how far Thunder has fallen? Bull Pain is a good name for someone but when you get a jobber’s entrance to face Mike Enos, it might be time to look for a new line of work. Nothing to see here.

Disco Inferno vs. The Cat

Disco says everyone is here to see him dance but he turns around into a spinning kick to the face for the pin in 12 seconds.

Post match Miller complains about WCW trying to make him a wrestler because he’s a three time world karate champion and there’s nothing we can do about it. So he turns heel by attacking a heel?

Konnan vs. Silver King

Somehow this sounds better than anything we’ve seen all night. Konnan starts fast with the nicest hurricanrana I’ve ever seen him use to send Silver King out to the floor. Back in and Konnan works on the knee to set up the Tequila Sunrise before going to his signature stuff. After the rolling clothesline and X Factor, it’s the 187 and Tequila Sunrise for the win.

Rating: D. Just a squash but it’s nice to have something to rate tonight. Silver King is yet another name on the list of jobbers with more talent than they’re given credit for. Konnan got the crowd into the match which was his main job in the Wolfpack. It wasn’t anything to see but that hurricanrana was nice.

Post match Rude and Hennig come out to make fun of Konnan before asking who he’d rather get his beating from. Konnan calls out the rest of the Black and White but runs away and laughs on his way out. Nothing to see here again.

Here’s DDP to talk a bit about WarGames. After running down Bischoff, Page praises the Warrior for helping him take down Hollywood SCUM Hogan. Page says we’ll find out who the third man for Team WCW is on Nitro. Wasn’t that covered already? He’ll make Stevie Ray feel the Bang soon enough.

Hour #2 begins.

Kaz Hayashi vs. Evan Karagias

Hayashi starts fast with a cross body and kick to the jaw. Before we get very far, here’s Sonny Onoo to give advise to Kaz. The distraction lets Evan take over with a quick suplex followed by a slam. Not that it matters though as Karagias spends the time Hayashi is down yelling at Onoo instead of following up. He finally goes up for a top rope splash but hits Kaz’s knees. Hayashi yells at Onoo as well before going up top for a senton backsplash for the pin.

Rating: C-. Well I guess rehashing Sonno Onoo’s Japanese team is better than no story at all. The high spots here were decent but they didn’t do enough to carry the match into good territory. Karagais was a good example of someone with the right look but no substance to him for the most par.

Lodi comes to the ring and says that Saturn broke his fingers (it was Raven) so he wants a piece of Saturn right now. This brings out Saturn who points out that it was Raven, but Lodi says Raven would never hurt him because they’re friends. Raven even bought him a new rubber ducky. Lodi even sweetens the pot a bit: if Saturn beats him, he’ll leave the Flock, but if Lodi wins then Saturn has to be Lodi’s slave until Fall Brawl. Saturn jumps him and it’s on.

Lodi vs. Saturn

Saturn pounds away to start and destroys Lodi like the sign carrying goof that he is. A suplex and short arm clothesline have Lodi in big trouble but here are Sick Boy, Riggs and Raven for the save. It’s Raven’s Rules so the match keeps going with Saturn cleaning house. The Death Valley Driver looks to end Lodi but here’s Kanyon to hit the Flatliner on Saturn. Kanyon shakes Raven’s hand as Lodi is able to pin Saturn in a huge upset.

Rating: D+. This was all about the storyline instead of the match which is fine as this story is FINALLY going somewhere. Now to be fair it doesn’t make much sense and is taking out one of the most interesting characters on the roster but at least it’s something instead of what we’ve been seeing for months now.

Scott Norton vs. Jim Neidhart

Norton runs Jim over with a shoulder to send Neidhart out to the floor. Jim goes after Vincent instead of getting his head handed to him by Norton, but Scott just goes to the floor and lays him out. Back in and Jim tries a second rope shoulder but just bounces off of Norton. That was impressive. Norton powerbombs him half to death for the pin.

Rating: D. They’re doing a good job of making Norton look like a killer before he’s fed to Goldberg. They did the same thing with Meng a few weeks back and the result was far better than I was expecting. I can’t remember the last time he lost a singles match and that powerbomb is awesome.

The announcers talk a bit.

TV Title: Chris Jericho vs. Alex Wright

This has to be good right? Jericho is defending of course. Both guys play to the crowd for a bit before we’re ready to go. They fight into the corner before being separated with Wright complaining of a hair pull. Alex bails to the ropes to get out of a wristlock and Jericho does the same to avoid a German suplex. Chris complains about a hair pull and Alex heads outside for a breather. Back in and Alex clotheslines him down before stomping Jericho out to the floor.

Chris is whipped into the barricade but comes back up with chops before sending Alex into the barricade as well. Back in with Wright hitting some European uppercuts. Heenan: “Tony do you know why that is called a European uppercut?” Tony: “I’m scared to ask this but why?” Heenan: “I was hoping you knew.” Alex hits a nice overhead belly to belly suplex for a near fall but Jericho kicks him in the chest to take over again. The champion gets two off a suplex as the announcers talk about the good Hennig vs. Jericho match from Monday.

Wright snapmares Jericho down before throwing him to the outside. An ax handle off the apron has Jericho staggering but he grabs a quick chinlock back inside. Jericho shifts over to a stump puller before rolling backwards so Wright is on Jericho’s stomach. It doesn’t last long and I think the hold would be more effective on the mat. The Lionsault connects but Jericho does the long walk around the ring instead of covering. Alex comes back with an elbow to the jaw and a backbreaker for two.

A spinwheel kick gets the same and there’s a chinlock on the champion. Jericho fights up with a jawbreaker to put both guys down but it’s Wright with another spinwheel kick to take over. They seem to botch a spot with both guys coming off the ropes but Jericho hits a butterfly backbreaker, only to have Wright come back with a backbreaker of his own. Wright misses a top rope ax handle but goes right back up for a sunset flip. It’s all for naught though as Jericho rolls through into the Liontamer to retain.

Rating: C+. This was good but it’s nowhere near enough to save the show at this point. Wright was trying here and Jericho has been on a roll as of late with the Hennig match being a high point. Alex continues to be a guy that could have been something special if he was treated seriously for a longer stretch.

Curt Hennig vs. Van Hammer

Haven’t seen Van Hammer in awhile. Hammer grabs a very quick rollup for two and Hennig is frustrated on the floor. He comes back in and just blasts Hammer in the face with a right hand to put him down. Rude gets in some choking from the floor like any good heel manager would. Hammer ducks a clothesline and fires off some sloppy right hands of his own but misses a knee in the corner. Curt kicks at the knee a bit before getting bored and hitting the PerfectPlex for the pin.

Rating: D. Hammer looked lost out there and could barely throw a decent right hand. It’s pretty clear why we hadn’t seen him in a few months. Rude was the highlight of the match as he punched Hammer in the face and then checked to make sure his nails were still clean. I miss managers that were actually effective.

Stevie Ray vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Tony calls this a bounty match, whatever that means. Ray shoves Page around to start and Page gives him a wry smile. Page comes back with right hands and the driving shoulder blocks to send Ray outside. DDP follows but Vincent grabs the leg to let Stevie take over. Back inside and Ray hits a nice backbreaker before choking a lot. We hit the nerve hold and bearhug for a bit but Page is quickly in the ropes. The Slapjack is countered with a backdrop and Page scores with a neckbreaker. He calls for the Diamond Cutter but hits it on an interfering Vincent, drawing the DQ.

Rating: D+. For a Stevie Ray match this wasn’t completely terrible. They backed themselves into a corner on the ending though as Page isn’t getting pinned and you don’t want Ray getting beaten clean in his first match wearing the Black and White. When all else fails, call for Vincent and the DQ.

Giant comes out to help Stevie with the beatdown but Konnan makes a save to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Another below average show as Thunder gets less and less important every week. The main story tonight was focused on Stevie Ray which isn’t something that is going to draw in an audience. There was a lot of talk about WarGames, but why say Piper isn’t confirmed as a member of the team when he and Page agreed to an alliance on Nitro? Bad show for the most part but there were a few bright spots sprinkled here and there.

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Millennium Final
Date: November 16, 2000
Location: Arena Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany
Attendance: 9,000

Most of you likely haven’t heard of this show and I can’t say that I blame you. In the dying days of WCW, they woke up and did what WWF had been doing for years: going after Europe, and this was the result. It was only aired in Germany and parts of Europe and never once mentioned on American TV or put released to the American market.

There’s a weird and over the top thing for the European Cup which hasn’t been around since 1994 and a world title match with Booker T and Scott Steiner. I’ve never seen this so let’s get to it.

It’s never explained why the Millennium Final is being held 11 months into the millennium but I think that might be too much for WCW to get so I’ll leave it alone. Ah apparently it was the Millennium Tour and this is the FINAL night, even though I’ve found matches dated from December so whatever. Mind you that commentary here is all in German so I’m kind of on my own here. There’s no intro or anything other than pyro and we’re right into our first match.

Rey Mysterio/Billy Kidman vs. Kronik

Naturally the commentary is in German but the announcer speaks English. They were out of business in five months and it’s not hard to see why at this rate. The small guys are actually heels here. Make sense out of that. Kronik are Crush and Adam Bomb. I loved them but they just kind of sucked. Kronik’s finisher was a double chokeslam called High Time.

Why they made a ton of pot jokes is beyond me but whatever. Adams and Kidman start and I have no idea who the faces are all of a sudden. The big guys were way over but they’re being booed here. Oh how I love WCW from this era. Nothing makes sense and they have no problem with it at all. What do you really expect to happen here? Rey didn’t become a big deal until WWE so he’s a regular cruiserweight here.

Tygress, the manager of the Filthy Animals, and yes that’s really their name, was just disturbing looking. She wasn’t hot at all but they decided she was I guess. And hey look here, the faces are dominating and then Kidman walks into the double chokeslam for the pin. That was freaking stupid.

Rating: D. Holy goodness this was BORING. I never thought an 8 minute match could be so stupid but I was wrong. I mean just NOTHING interesting happened here. This was so uninspired it was pathetic. No one cared at all and it just was painfully obvious. The crowd was into it but that’s all they had going for it.

Watch WCW television. Or try the veal. I’m not sure what was actually said here.

Battle Royal

Apparently the winner here qualifies for another qualifying match later on to fight in the Europe Cup Title Match where Sting is already in. The winner here gets into a triple threat with Nash and Alex Wright, who is already in this match, making his entry completely pointless but then again it’s WCW so there we are. And apparently this is Royal Rumble style. Ok then. We start with Elix Skipper and Lance Storm as this continues to make less and less since every few seconds.

They’re teammates here so they just kill time until the next guy shows up and it’s General Rection, more commonly known as Bill DeMott. Rection and Storm were feuding over the US/Canadian Title so it fits perfectly. It’s it funny how that always happens? The time is like a minute here as Ernest Miller is 4th. He was commissioner on and off around this time as control changed about once a week literally.

And there’s your obligatory stupid USA chant in a non American country. Mike Sanders who is apparently Commissioner of the Week is 5th. The guy could talk and that’s it. Skipper throws the WORST kicks I have ever seen. That 70s Guy Mike Awesome is 6th. Now let’s stop for a second here. For those of you that saw Awesome in ECW, you know he’s a killing machine.

He’s 6’6 and could fly like a cruiserweight. The guy was a freaking monster. So what did WCW do with him? They turned him into a guy obsessed with the 70s and made him love fat women. WCW, you deserved to go out of business. You know what his original gimmick in WCW was: The Career Killer. Think of Orton but in Swagger’s body and TICKED OFF. No we can’t have that. That kind of gimmick could be, and perish the thought, GOOD!

We can’t have that, so we’ll turn him into the Fat Chick Thriller. WCW stuns me to no end at times. Actually make that all the time. At least he’s in his regular attire here. Kwee Wee, another gay character that never says he’s gay, is 7th. The music in late WCW just plain sucked. Storm goes out. Nothing of note is happening at all, meaning it’s a traditional battle royal. Disco Inferno, a face believe it or not, is 8th and there goes Miller.

The time thing is completely off as usual. Ninth is Kidman who is holding his ribs from all of 15 minutes ago. Again, this is just boring. Nothing of note is going on and the crowd is dying. This really shouldn’t have been Rumble rules. Apparently Kronik come out as a unit, so we’ll call them ten and eleven. They throw out Rection, Kwee Wee and Skipper. Sanders and Disco are out too and it’s Rey out at 12.

Awesome goes through the ropes, so they actually go with the same match we saw LESS THAN TWENTY MINUTES AGO. The stupidity here is astounding. Sean O’Haire is thirteenth as we have five to go. Kidman is out and so is Rey. AND WHAT A SHOCK it’s Sean’s partner Mark Jindrak in next to give us another tag match. Awesome is just hiding on the floor which is smart if nothing else, even though he’s supposed to be a monster but when would WCW use intelligence.

Norman Smiley is 15th to a huge pop. The four guys gang up on him and with little trouble after the worst piledriver this side of a backyard wrestling fed. Alex Wright, the hometown boy, gets a fairly weak pop at number 16. He’s bald now as he had been Berlyn recently. Out last is Konnan for no apparent reason. Ok so the final group is Adams, Clark, Jindrak, O’Haire, Smiley, Wright and Konnan.

Oh and Awesome who is hiding. And I miscounted so the final guy is Finlay. Well he get a good pop if nothing else so that’s good. He puts Kronik out so he’s a superhero. And we have a chair in there for no apparent reason. Smiley puts O’Haire out. Jindrak is out. Finlay puts Smiley out so it’s Konnan, Finlay, Wright, and Awesome and there goes Konnan.

Finlay has the chair but throws it down due to stupidity I guess. Wright puts Finlay out with a dropkick and celebrates to a sweet pop as the hometown boy winning the match. And then here’s Awesome to say SCREW YOU to the fans and win the match. Good night WCW was freaking stupid.

Rating: D. It’s a battle royal so it’s hard to grade, but the booking was just stupid here for reasons already explained. Awesome was fine but then again I mark for him so it’s not that easy. The booking for this show is just all over the place as you’ll soon find out.

Kwee Wee vs. Elix Skipper

Since his real name is Alan Funk, we’re calling the first guy Alan. He was a character that was kind of a combination of Rico and something else resembling Rico that lacked the talent or the intrigue. Skipper was more or less just a regular cruiserweight at this point so this is really just filler. Alan and Skipper actually feuded but it went nowhere given the whole going out of business thing.

For some reason I was always a mark for Skipper. I have no idea why but I was. Surprisingly this isn’t bad. Also much like Rico, Alan was a guy that couldn’t get a break because of his gimmick. He was far more talented than he was made out to be and he shows it here. They do some solid chain wrestling that I like. A common thing tonight is that these matches are getting a good amount of time and that’s rather nice.

Guys like these two that don’t often get to showcase themselves are getting to do so, but they’re a bit tired after the battle royal which sucks. This is pretty good stuff, but Skipper looks terrible as he has to job again. The guy had talent but he was always jobbing. To be fair though the gimmick didn’t help things at all. He almost hits the Playmaker but it’s countered and Alan gets a quick rollup for the pin.

Rating: C+. Ending kind of sucked but WCW’s strategy with small guys was simple: let them wrestle and it’ll work. They never messed with these guys and it helped a lot, but at the same time they just left them there when they were ready to move on up and that’s what killed the company off in the end, at least for me.

Ernest Miller says he runs WCW. Good to know.

Ernest Miller vs. Mike Sanders

This is for the Commissionership, which of course makes sense in a major company: have two men fight to see who the boss is. This was another of the mindlessly dumb feuds they had over who got to be boss like 18 or whatever. I think Sanders is commissioner coming in here. And it’s a two minute match with the Cat winning with a spinkick. I hated these things back then and I hate them now.

Rating: N/A. It’s stupid so it must be WCW. Miller was a guy that I never got the appeal of so he kept getting pushed further and further up the card. I was surprised he never won the world title because it would have failed that much better.

US Title: General Rection vs. Lance Storm

Storm had been pushed as the greatest thing on the planet, winning every singles title other than the World all at once, but now this was all he had left. This was allegedly a hot feud back in the day but I never saw nor felt any of said heat. Morrus starts off hot. Ok that’s a lie. He starts off moderately not cold as I don’t think hot was something he was capable of ever reaching.

This is as much of a cookie cutter of a match as you could ask for. Oh and Major Gunns is at ringside. She thought she drew what Booker and Steiner did. That’s just amusing. You can see the stupid ending coming from here so let’s just skip to that. The flag hits Morrus as he’s about to win the title. There’s about 4 minutes of Storm winning and the half crab and a comeback thrown in there but it was all boring stuff.

Rating: D+. This could have been on any house show and it still would have sucked. Morrus won the title ten days later at Mayhem so it’s not like this was anything more than practice I guess.

Random hot girls come out and dance to what sounds like a German singing a bad English song.

Norman Smiley vs. Fit Finlay

This is a hardcore match. WCW tried to have a hardcore division and it failed worse that a condom for Jon and Kate. Both guys are far more famous in Europe so this makes sense if nothing else. Smiley is over as all goodness here and is dressed like a Swiss guy. This is an Oktoberfest match apparently. It’s a standard basic hardcore match to start out as it’s just random weapons and Norman screaming.

I think by this point Meng had left with the hardcore belt and ended the division once and for all but I’m not sure. It was another case of WCW just putting a title on a guy with no contract and thinking that was ok. He was in WWE about two weeks later and there wasn’t a thing WCW could do about it. They brawl up to the concession/merchandise area (read as Finlay beats on him and Norman conveniently walks that way).

They’re in the crowd now and this is boring yet not awful stuff. Ah good they’re back on camera now. Yeah go ahead and chant for ECW. It’ll die in like two months anyway. Norman takes over in the ring and we hit a chinlock. We have a chinlock in a hardcore match. I don’t know what to type. Ok now I know. That’s freaking stupid. Wow how did I not get that faster? Naturally it turns into nothing but a weapons match.

Finlay keeps getting booed so he gets on the mic and yells in German which is kind of creepy in a way. We hear about Flair for no apparent reason. It’s sad that guys with this much talent have to do stupid stuff like this. We get a crossface chicken wing but Finlay goes through a table.

Finlay goes through a table feet first which looked cool and apparently is good for a pin. Norman dances for awhile and then goes to the back where he does an interview in English but Finlay jumps him. This also went nowhere.

Rating: C. It was a long TV match but that’s fine for something like this. Norman was incredibly over in America for no apparent reason and that translates worldwide I guess. This was a decent match but rather boring. There were just so many of these things that it was hard to really find one that stood out and this one didn’t at all.

Tag Titles: Boogie Knights vs. Mark Jindrak/Sean O’Haire

So the non dancers are the champions here, but Disco Inferno is hurt. Since we need to have a German win the belts though, we have Alex Wright teaming with General Rection for no apparent reason at all and he’s wearing a sweatshirt despite wearing tights in the previous match. Rection isn’t US Champion here as you saw a little bit ago but he’s announced as it and holds up a German flag. He and Jindrak start us off.

We hear that Wright has been inserted into the Triangle Match later on to qualify for the Europe Cup with Awesome and Nash. It’s weird but slowly and surely you get to understand German to an extent. Wright hits a sweet double nip up to get back up. That was awesome. They mention the Dancing Fools and Berlin but say tonight it’s just Alex Wright. Now why couldn’t we get this Alex Wright in America? This guy is freaking awesome.

The heels take over on Rection to set up the insanely hot tag that’s coming soon. The General looks like a fat Jeff Hardy. And we hit an arm bar ten minutes into the match. That fails to make sense but it’s WCW so whatever. The Seanton Bomb misses and there’s the hot one. Actually make that a slight fever one.

There was a tiny pop at best. And he’s getting beaten up now. This is already making my head hurt badly. I think Alex forgets to kick out of a rollup meaning that Mark has to just kind of let it go which looks completely stupid. Wright hits a missile dropkick from the top for the pin and the titles for him and Disco and a huge pop.

Rating: C-. Odd booking aside, this was all so that Wright could get a huge pop and that’s fine. He’s the hometown boy and he deserves a moment like this. I think it was mentioned on TV as a European match but Rection was never mentioned so there we are. This wasn’t bad but it wasn’t anything worth watching either. It’s your standard TV match which is fine. Not a great match but a cool moment.

Kevin Nash vs. Mike Awesome vs. Alex Wright

Dang Alex has to be getting tired out there. This is his third match tonight. The winner fights Sting who for no apparent reason is in the final match already. Oh that’s right: he drew money at one point in his career. Nash just kind of stands around because moving more than that might cause his spleen to rupture or something and he would be out two days before he could come back and get an easy win.

It amazes me that Awesome went from being a great character to such an awful one in just a few months. That’s WCW for you though. Alex is clearly tired but he’s doing what he can I guess. This is called a triangle match but it’s just a triple threat. Sorry if I don’t seem that interested in these matches but they’re just not interesting. I would guess that it’s because of the lack of commentary. Or maybe it’s just that WCW sucked so badly at this time.

Nash is in the ring now and Awesome is dominating for the most part. Wright is easily the fans’ pick to win but that’s simply not going to happen. That would mean a young guy would get a push and even in a country where that’s never going to be seen we can’t allow that right?

Nash just looks completely out of his element in there and it’s bad. With Awesome taking Nash down, Wright makes his comeback. The fans are barely popping for it. Even in another country WCW was crap. Wright puts him down with the neckbreaker but Nash is waiting. He takes Wright out and pins both guys at once to advance.

Rating: D+. They were just completely out of their element here and it hurt them badly. Wright was the only one the fans cared about but that was just because of the hometown aspect. In retrospect they should have just put him into the main event, if nothing else to give him a chance to catch his breath.

WCW Title: Scott Steiner vs. Booker T.

I believe this is match number 8000 in their eternal series. These two are more or less joined at the hip everywhere they go other than WWE and that’s probably not a good thing. Naturally the title isn’t going to chance here as Steiner would get it at Mayhem in ten days just like Morrus did earlier. This is about as formula based of a match as a human being could possibly ask for here. It’s not very good but it’ll do I suppose.

Booker starts in control and Steiner takes over. He moves. Incredibly. Slowly. Naturally he works on the back which is the closest thing to psychology you’ll get out of that roided up mess. He busts out the Frankensteiner which allegedly is a big move but I fail to see it anymore.

When you have Rey and Juvi jumping all over the place it’s just not worth much anymore. We get the Booker comeback but Steiner manages to get him down and gets the Recliner. Booker gets the ropes and then the kick to end it.

Rating: C+. Like I said this was the standard match for these two and it was ok I suppose. With about ten minutes to work with what more would you ask of them? At least it was a clean pin. It wasn’t bad I guess but they would have a, I guess you could say this, better match, in ten days anyway so this was fine for practice.

Axel Schulz is refereeing the main event. Naturally he was someone that hadn’t meant anything for about three years. You know the jokes that I’m thinking of.

Europe Cup: Sting vs. Kevin Nash

And again it’s two guys in their 40s in the main event instead of pushing a young guy to something. This match is a microcosm of everything that was wrong with WCW for its last two years: the match is sloppy, nothing new is attempted, Sting and Nash don’t really try that hard, and this pales in comparison to some of the other stuff we saw earlier, yet they’ll get their huge checks anyway. This goes on about 9 minutes and is the same thing you saw before. Sting wins by submission and holds up the cup to end the show.

Rating: D-. For all the reasons listed above plus the fact that no one cared at all. This was crap. What a shock, two old guys get to go on for a match that no one is going to care about. Why is this not surprising?

Overall Rating: D+. This was just not that good. To be fair though, most European shows aren’t. The fans were kind of there but this had nothing on an English crowd. The guys on the lower half of the card worked very hard and the guys on the main event didn’t, so it fits very well. There’s a lot of house show stuff in here and it’s just not that interesting. If you can actually find this, don’t bother watching it unless you speak German or just REALLY like WCW.

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I’ve touched on this before.I was watching a Nitro last night and Alex Wright put his feet on the ropes to cheat.  At Genesis this past week, there were multiple instances where a heel pulled the trunks to win.  Why don’t we see these kind of things more often?  It’s so simple and it’s almost a guaranteed way to make the people boo you, but instead it’s almost always interference or something like that.  In WWE, when is the last time we got a belt shot to the head?  It may be easy heat, but it’s better than no heat.