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Stampede 2000
Date: April 16, 2000
Location: United Center, Chicago, Illinois
Attendance: 12,556
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mark Madden, Scott Hudson
The opening video focuses on Bischoff/Russo vs. Flair/Hogan respectfully.
Opening video showing clips of Russo and Bischoff. Good to know what matters here.
The goons keep the referee from seeing a tag as this is getting dangerously close to being a wrestling match. The beating continues and here are two guys to take Disco away. That would be your angle that has nothing to do with the match and has a 50/50 chance of never being brought up again. Luger gets the tag and everything breaks down but Johnny comes off the top with a spinning clothesline for two. Not that it matters as Luger Racks him for the win a few seconds later.
Mancow vs. Jimmy Hart
Post match Kidman comes out and punches Hart again.
US Title Tournament Quarter-Finals: The Wall vs. Scott Steiner
The Cat babbles about James Brown and rednecks until Bam Bam Bigelow beats him down.
US Title Tournament Quarter-Finals: The Cat vs. Mike Awesome
In a sign of the WCW way of thinking, instead of putting over Awesome as a monster, they talk about Cat dancing. The important stuff you know.
Russo tells Bischoff to chill out. Bischoff wants Kidman to do something instead of kissing Torrie.
Buff Bagwell/Shane Douglas are ready for Harlem Heat and Shane whines about Flair of course.
Tag Team Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Harlem Heat vs. Shane Douglas/Buff Bagwell
Harlem Heat yells at each other post match.
US Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Booker T. vs. Sting
Booker calls Sting back inside for a fist bump.
Kidman is ready for Hogan if he comes back tonight.
US Title Tournament Quarter-Finals: Vampiro vs. Kidman
The second powerbomb is countered into the faceplant. Madden: “We could have been seeing matches like this one years ago.” This is their fourth televised match this year alone, not counting a three way they had with the Wall a few weeks back. Add that to the list of stupid things said on this show. Kidman gets two off a side slam but Vampiro grabs a Rock Bottom (called a chokeslam, which to be fair is pretty much the same thing) to come back. We go to an overhead camera for no apparent reason and Vampiro grabs an armbar.
Rating: D+. This was a moment that brought me back to the days after Starrcade 1999 when Russo turned Nitro into a drama with wrestling involved. It started off as a match but once you have a two minute beatdown in plain sight of the referee, it stops being a match and becomes an angle.
Russo leaves Bischoff alone, promising to deal with Hogan.
We cut to the arena and come back with Hogan being arrested by promising to be at Nitro. So yeah, this was all a way to set up a TV story. As this is going on, Terry Taylor tells Terry Funk that Norman Smiley is waiting for him in catering to start the Hardcore Title match.
Hardcore Title: Norman Smiley vs. Terry Funk
Norman climbs a ladder to get into the plumbing but Funk chairs him down and through a table full of cookies. Some chairs to the head have no effect on Terry so Norman chairs him even more on the way into the arena. They get inside and Norman channels his inner Cat by dancing, but at least it makes more sense here.
US Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Mike Awesome vs. Scott Steiner
Russo fires Dustin Rhodes for letting Funk win the Hardcore Title. Russo takes credit for Goldust, which is the only time Rhodes was ever worth anything.
US Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Sting vs. Vampiro
Cruiserweight Title: Shannon Moore vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Crowbar vs. Chris Candido vs. The Artist vs. Lash Leroux
Paisley and Tammy have a catfight post match. Shannon breaks it up and gets his crotch grabbed.
Tag Team Titles: Team Package vs. Shane Douglas/Buff Bagwell
Shane gets caught in the Figure Four but Buff hits Luger low and makes the save. The Blockbuster takes Shane down by mistake but Russo pulls the referee out. Now freaking Kronik debut for High Times on Luger, giving Bagwell the pin and the titles with Russo counting the pin.
US Title: Scott Steiner vs. Sting
We recap Monday, which is another way to feature Russo. They throw in the World Title tournament stuff to try to make it sound interesting.
WCW World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Diamond Dallas Page
Rating: C+. Match of the night here which could have been better had they swapped the participants in the last two matches. Page vs. Jarrett sounds like a US Title match and Steiner vs. Sting could be a World Title match under the right circumstances. This match worked better because it had time and because the people in the match know how to work well enough to get around the lame booking ideas.
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