83 Weeks - Spring Stampede 2000 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Spring Stampede 2000

Spring Stampede 2000 took place on April 16th from the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois. It sold 8,377 tickets for $272,930 and had another 4,179 comps. It did a 0.25 buy rate

The United Center could seat 16,267.

We recently did a show on the April 10th Nitro, which was the go-home Nitro before Spring Stampede, and we covered a lot of company news leading up to that Nitro.

That was the first Nitro that you and Vince Russo worked together. After that show was over, how did you think it went? Did it give you hope that you two would be able to work together successfully, or did you kind of know right away that this wasn't going to last very long?

On our April 10th Nitro show, we saw the debut of ECW World Champion Mike Awesome, when he attacked Kevin Nash. We talked about what led to him coming to WCW, but a week or so later, there was a lot more legal things that had to be worked out.

Meltzer reported - The legal controversies at first appeared settled on 4/10 when ECW and WCW came to an agreement where WCW paid ECW a reported six figure settlement regarding the contract of Mike Alfonso and agreed to certain stipulations regarding his portrayal on the Nitro program that evening, and that he would drop the ECW title on 4/13 in Indianapolis. Alfonso reportedly had a three year signed contract with ECW. Alfonso himself denied that to people in WCW, but if ECW had no legal hold on him, there would be no need to reach an out of court settlement and contract buy-out on ECW's claim. 

There were numerous specifics of the agreement between ECW and WCW that was worked out just before the show went on the air, as to exactly what Awesome would do and how the announcers would handle it. According to ECW sources, two stipulations were violated, the main one is that the WCW announcers were to say that Awesome was the ECW champion and had a title defense upcoming that would air Friday on TNN. The other was that Awesome would not do an interview on the show, which he did. The wording of what Paul Heyman demanded and what was scripted for the WCW announcers to say has been confirmed as being identical. From watching the tape, it appeared Scott Hudson was reading the wording, and was cut off by Tony Schiavone. 

Exactly who made that call in WCW is unclear, but a call clearly was made, since several people after the fact emphasized words to the effect that there was no way WCW was going to plug the ECW TV show on their first "new era" Nitro. This led to another round of legal problems which occupied much of Bischoff's time on 4/11, and resulted in Awesome's planned segment on Thunder being canceled and him being taken out of the building. As Heyman was aware of before the show started, a clip of Awesome attacking Kevin Nash from Nitro did air at the start of Thunder.

While this was going on, Heyman came up with the idea to bring in Tazz as a surprise opponent to win the title, apparently formulated while eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant with the ECW production staff. Whether the original deal included shooting an angle on Smackdown, which also resulted in a week where the ECW champ went into the ring and lost when challenging for three different WWF major and minor titles, is unknown. 

Heyman called Vince McMahon, who accepted the proposal as Heyman laid it out, which at the time was for Tazz to win the ECW title, then drop it on 4/22 in Philadelphia to Tommy Dreamer (although McMahon apparently was willing to have Tazz drop it to anyone), with the original suggestion being to further McMahon's storylines, having Perry Saturn cost Tazz the match so he wouldn't have to lose cleanly to an ECW wrestler and even could potentially use the footage to hype their own WWF angle. 

As of last reports, it wasn't clear whether or not Saturn would still be doing the run-in. Saturn was booked to appear on the WWF house show in Columbia, SC that night and WWF didn't appear to even consider it an issue as to the idea of needing an "excuse" for Tazz to lose to Dreamer, or whomever, in the title match.

The match itself was completely anti-climactic as compared to the back story. Awesome showed up in Indianapolis with Doug Dillenger of WCW. Because of the belief there might have been dressing room tension involving the way Awesome left the company, he never came into the dressing room. The scenario saw Jeff Jones as Awesome's manager challenge anyone from the back to take the title from him. The crowd was into a heavy "You sold out" chant. 

To explain why nobody from ECW was coming out for the TV audience, the announcers said Rhino had taken out the entire locker room, which made little sense given Dreamer came out seconds later. Tazz came out to a tremendous pop, at a show which up to that point had below average crowd reactions. Tazz was totally pushed as his WWF gimmick, with WWF music and even referred to as "the human wrecking machine" as opposed to his ECW "human suplex machine" and on TV given the two z spelling of the character. 

The two traded punches outside the ring with neither really selling. There was a ref bump 45 seconds into the match. Dreamer came out and DDT'd Awesome and Tazz used his Tazzmission finisher. The entire match lasted 1:13. Awesome got right up, not selling the finish at all, climbed the guard rail and left the building.

Tazz ended up dropping the ECW World Title to Tommy Dreamer at the ECW Arena, who then quickly lost it to Justin Credible

Did you ever think that Awesome was going to be able to keep the ECW World title belt in WCW with him? If that somehow was able to of happened, what was your plans for it?

When you guys took over, you started the New Blood vs The Millionaire's Club. Talk about that angle. 

Whose idea was it and what was the long term plan for it?

That takes us to Spring Stampede.

Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson & Mark Madden were the commentators

Ric Flair  & Lex Luger won the first round of the tag title tournament in a four-on-two match over The Mamalukes and Ron & Don Harris in 6:11. The Harris Twins weren't scheduled but Russo, who came out to the Road Warriors entrance music in Chicago (which means they'd be passing up an angle not to bring the Road Warriors in), announced it would be a four-on-two. After Disco Inferno interfered, Liz ducked Disco. Two guys who didn't look like wrestlers then dragged Disco away. Flair, who sold most of the way, made a surprisingly cold hot tag to Luger. Luger at one point waited for a month for Vito to come off the top rope. Vito hit Johnny on a spot and Luger racked Johnny. *1/4

Mike Awesome did an interview. Bam Bam Bigelow came out. Awesome seemingly backed down. Bigelow turned his back and left. How many times have we seen that one? Awesome jumped him.

Mancow Muller pinned Jimmy Hart in 2:48. Because this match had gotten no TV push, it should have been a pre-show dark match because Muller isn't known nationally. Hart, who played heel in this match even though he's a face on TV as Hogan's manager, came out with a bald-headed new physique Emory Hale as his bodyguard. Mancow came out with a million women, one of whom nearly killed herself walking on the world's most dangerous set. Mancow thanked Eric Bischoff, who is a heel. 

He then began kissing up to Chicago to the point you'd almost want to gag. Apparently a lot of the people there did because Muller got booed more than cheered even as he was kissing up to the fans. After a ref bump, Hale pressed Mancow over his head and threw him out of the ring onto some of his seconds, called Al Roker Jr. and Turd. 

Mancow ended up getting the pin after a chair shot. I've seen worse celebrity matches, which is about the nicest thing to say about this one. After the match Kidman came out and stomped the hell out of Hart. DUD 

Mancow was a radio host in Chicago and claimed he'd be a better manager for Hulk than Jimmy. Jimmy then attacked him in his studio, which led to this match

In the first round of the U.S. title tourney, Scott Steiner beat Wall via DQ in 3:53. Wall choke slammed ref Mark Johnson through a table, which was so devastating Johnson came back to be bumped later in the show. Billy Silverman called for the DQ. DUD

Ernest Miller was doing an interview for his upcoming match with Awesome, but Bigelow beat him up. During the interview, Miller said "I was told James Brown was going to be here. I want James Brown!" The Cat demanded. "What? James Brown can't be your opponent!" replied Mean Gene Okerlund. 

In another U.S. title tourney match, Mike Awesome made his in-ring debut for WCW pinning Ernest Miller, even though the match started as a singles match against Bigelow in 4:00. There was a loud ECW chant. Awesome, obviously, was never referred to as a former ECW champion. Awesome did his big dive over the top. Awesome after being whipped into the guard rail kept screaming at a spectator to get out of the way. Finally he got the message, allowing Bigelow to take the bump over the rail to where the spectator wasn't. Awesome did a running dive over the rail. They clearly had the chance to put on a good match. Not so fast. Miller came out and kicked Bigelow and started dancing while Awesome was selling. Awesome got up and destroyed Miller, pinning him with a high frog splash. **1/4 

In a tag title tourney match, Shane Douglas & Buff Bagwell beat Harlem Heat 2000 in 2:41 when Douglas pinned Ray with what was supposed to be a fisherman buster. About halfway into the move, Douglas lost Ray, but didn't hurt him. This was a real test for Douglas & Bagwell having to carry the worst tag team in wrestling, and it was better than it looked on paper. DUD 

Sting pinned Booker T in 6:34 in a U.S. title tourney first round match. Actually I'm not sure if Booker is Booker T or not. Dave Penzer announced him as Booker T. The TV announcers just called him Booker except in one instance when he was called Booker T. Sting got a huge pop, almost shockingly large. Booker did everything but carried it to a good match before Sting won with a scorpion death drop (reverse DDT). The two shook hands after the match, which was another instance for Russo and Bischoff to get mad at Booker. *** 

Vampiro pinned Billy Kidman in the final U.S. title tourney first round match in 8:28. A lot of big moves early but the match got no heat. Then Hogan showed up and was clearly the star of the show, which he should have been since he was responsible for selling most of the tickets, not selling anything as far as limping, but he was taped up in the ribs and shoulder. Hogan destroyed Kidman to the point because of the size difference and the manner it was done, it actually looked like child abuse. He gave him a neck hanging tree slam onto the announcers' table, which didn't break. He then bodyslammed him through the table and Vampiro pinned him. There was actually an attempt at an explanation as to why there was no DQ called, because Vampiro hadn't asked for Hogan to interfere. **1/2

Hogan then went after Bischoff. Russo told Bischoff he had a plan. Just before Hogan was going to throttle him, Russo came out with the police who all pulled guns on Hogan, and he backed off. Hogan sold the guns. I figured unless they had kryptonite he was just going to stand there and have the bullets bounce off his chest. The cops handcuffed him and dragged him out. Ever notice that in wrestling, the police never read guys their rights?

Terry Funk pinned Norman Smiley in 8:02 to win the hardcore title. The match started when Smiley wouldn't come out as he was hiding in the bathroom. Funk slammed him on a table. Smiley put Funk upside down into a garbage can. Funk destroyed Smiley with a lap top. Smiley climbed a pipe and was treed. Funk pounded him until he fell off the pipe through a table. Smiley destroyed Funk with all the chair shots. I hate watching Funk take chair shots to the head. They came back to the ring and Funk was bleeding from the elbow. 

He took a bunch more chair shots to the head. He must have been hurting because he was putting his hands up to block them, which he usually doesn't do. Funk pulled out a ladder. Dustin Rhodes came out and delivered more chair shots to Funk's head. At least Rhodes was pulling back a lot on them. Rhodes piledrove Funk on a chair. They set up what was supposed to be a teeter totter ladder spot with Rhodes and Smiley getting nailed but it was totally botched. Funk then had to take the ladder and throw it over the top rope onto Smiley on the floor and Funk pinned him on the floor. **3/4 

Steiner beat Awesome in 3:14 in the U.S. title tourney semifinal. Steiner was rubbing Awesome's face in the mat and being particularly vicious with him. Awesome made a comeback until Kevin Nash came out and hit him with a crutch and Steiner won with the Steiner recliner. * 

Russo fired Rhodes for screwing up the finish. He told Rhodes the only good character he ever had was Goldust and said he wrote all the words for him to say. Rhodes said he was the one who delivered the lines. Why didn't Russo just tell him he screwed up the teeter totter spot as well. 

Weird to say that a character that he did in the WWF was better than anything he'd done before? I thought this was a WCW pay per view?

Sting pinned Vampiro in the other U.S. title tourney semifinal in 5:59. Vampiro didn't sell well for Sting. There were clearly lots of problems in this match, but the announcers were trying to sell it like it was a classic. That's where they blow credibility is when they try and sell a classic that isn't there, then nobody believes it. That's another example of Jim Ross being the best at this, because if a bunch of spots are missing, he may not say it's a bad match (although he sometimes hints when it's really bad), but he won't say it's a classic either. Vampiro missed something. Who knows what it was supposed to be because it appeared Sting was totally out of position and Vampiro tried to change his idea and didn't make it. Sting used the scorpion death drop and scorpion deathlock for the submission. 3/4*

Before the cruiserweight title match started, Shannon Moore & Shane Helms came out to lip sync.

Chris Candido won the cruiserweight title in 5:12 over Moore, Juventud Guerrera, TAF KAPI, Crowbar and Lash Leroux. This was advertised as an elimination match, but without warning the rules were changed to first pin. The first hint of that was when guys were breaking up pins after the match had started. This was really disappointing. A bunch of spots thrown out there with not enough time to get anything over. Daffney did a flying huracanrana off the top onto Crowbar. Leroux did a pescado, Artist did a springboard plancha, Guerrera did a plancha, Moore did a crazy dive off Helms' (who wasn't in the match) back. 

David Flair, also not in the match, attacked Helms. Artist and Candido were both in the ring and Artist used a Samoan drop and went to the top when Tammy Sytch came out and knocked him off the top and Candido pinned him. This wasn't on camera, but Sytch was the victim of the world's most dangerous ramp, and fell flat on her butt when she came out for the run-in, which is why they were clearly on pause waiting for something to happen. 

It should also be mentioned that every time Elizabeth came out, they had carpeting put over the world's most dangerous entrance way so she wouldn't be embarrassed trying to navigate that thing in high heels. They did a Paisley/Sytch confrontation, which included Sytch giving Moore a low blow and Paisley giving ref Charles Robinson one. *1/2 

Douglas & Bagwell won the tag titles over Flair & Luger in 8:29. Russo came out with a baseball bat to do commentary. Did I mention there was tons of swearing on this show. You know things are bad when Schiavone starts swearing on the air. Flair's selling was good enough to keep the match decent, but when Luger worked with both guys, particularly Douglas, it was bad. Flair had Douglas pinned after Bagwell hit Douglas with a blockbuster. Russo pulled ref Nick Patrick out of the ring. Poor Patrick had to sell for Russo beating him up so Russo could steal his ref shirt. Bryan Clark & Brian Adams then came out and destroyed Luger so Bagwell could pin him with Russo counting the fall. **1/4 

Steiner pinned Sting to win the U.S. title in 5:33. These two are long-time friends and have had some great matches in the past. It was a hot match until, you guessed it, a ref bump. Vampiro came from under the ring and dragged Sting down to hell, as they said. Well, that's the same thing they said when Undertaker did it to Kevin Nash. Sting came up bleeding from the mouth. Apparently they wanted Sting covered in blood but that was as far as he'd go, and Steiner used the recliner for the win. **3/4 

That takes us to the finals of the World Title Tournament. Jeff Jarrett vs DDP

The other matches that took place in the tournament were 

DDP pinning Luger,  Sting beating Sid by C.O., DDP pinning Sting, Jeff Jarrett pinning Curt Hennig

Jeff Jarrett pinned Diamond Dallas Page in 15:02 to win the vacant WCW heavyweight title. Page, smart promoter that he is, littered the building with signs promoting his book. You don't actually believe fans would bring signs like that to a show, do you? He even had a spot where Jarrett tore up a copy of the book. Bischoff came out. This was a really good match. Jarrett had a long figure four. Page tried to reverse it but god a rope break. Page got a few quick cradles and a uranage for a near fall. 

Page moved amazingly well for someone who has been out of action for so long with a back injury that didn't even heel until his former next door neighbor was back in charge. 

Finish saw Bischoff distract Charles Robinson (who took a bump halfway through the match to tease a near fall from a belt shot by Jarrett) and Kimberly got in the ring holding the guitar and clocked Page with it for the pin. All the champs came to the ring to celebrate with Russo and Bischoff to end the show. ***1/2 

In reviewing this show, it seemed to be very overbooked in many different areas. Was that intentional, or did it just happen that way

Did you and Vince consider this show a success?

WCW SPRING STAMPEDE: 

• Thumbs up 81 (59.1%)
• Thumbs down 32 (23.4%)
• In the middle 24 (17.5%)

BEST MATCH: 

Jeff Jarrett vs. Diamond Dallas Page 60

Sting vs. Booker T 34

Sting vs. Vampiro 8

WORST MATCH: 

Jimmy Hart vs. Mancow 78

Cruiserweight match 8 

The next night on Nitro took place in Rockford, Illinois. It drew 4,345, with 3,177 paid) for a $98,990 house

The show opened with a celebration with Russo and all the new champs with confetti and balloons. It came off like an NWO party rerun. Russo and Jarrett cut a promo on Jim Ross 

Jarrett challenged DDP to a rematch at Slamboree on May 7th in Kansas City at Kemper Arena in the three tier cage that was in "Ready to Rumble." You & Kimberly came out. Kimberly called DDP "DD-Me."  Kimberly claimed she had to keep turning down opportunities because DDP was trying to keep her down.

Page showed up and security told him he wasn't allowed in. Page beat them all up and came in anyway. As he was going to the ring, he passed by Stasiak and Hennig, who were backstage talking over their match. Page ran in the ring but was attacked five-on-one however the helmeted Riot Squad at ringside turned out to be the Millionaires Club to even the score. 

You and Russo then yelled at Booker and guys like Morrus, Flynn, Chavo Jr. and Bigelow for not helping out backstage. Then the security quit. You then picked up a phone that never rang and it was Hogan's voice threatening you

Sean Stasiak beat Curt Hennig

With security gone, they had police officers guarding the back to keep Stone Cold Hulk Hogan from coming in. They were ready to pull their guns, but Hogan gave them a dirty look and they all backed off and let him in. Hogan went to the ring to beat up Stasiak. Hogan then did an interview and challenged anyone to come out. 

He challenged Kidman, who was shown on the video wall challenging Hogan to fight him in the back. Hogan ran off. 

Hardcore title: Terry Funk beat Wall - Funk actually did an Orihara moonsault off the top rope to the floor and Wall didn't catch him right and he made a scary landing. But no matter how bad he really hurt, he got up, took a piledriver on the table, and even got his head slammed several times on the cage door and took a bunch of more chair shots. The match ended when a whole bunch of tables fell from the sky on Wall and Funk pinned him. 

Brian Adams & Bryan Clark, the former Crush and Adam Bomb now called Kronik, demanded a title shot from Russo. Russo admitted he promised them a shot, but told him he didn't promise when, and to be patient. They beat up the Harris Twins backstage, and then beat up the Mamalukes in the ring. They used their double choke slam finisher on both Vito and Johnny and threw them out of the ring.

Vampiro did an interview. Sting then came down from the ceiling and beat up Vampiro, with a ton of bat shots and the scorpion death drop. 

This was less than one year after Owen Hart's death, and your next pay per view was May 7th in the Kemper Arena. May 7th was Owen's birthday and he died in the Kemper Arena. Why was Sting coming from the ceiling here...also, Bret Hart was still under contract to WCW at the time. This was extremely insensitive to do.

Diamond Dallas Page no contest Mike Awesome. Kanyon ran in when Page was out of the ring, and Awesome german suplexed Kanyon. Nash came in from behind and power bombed Awesome through a table

Abbott came out and went after Bruce MacArthur, MacArthur, whose family owns the United Center and the Black Hawks, was sitting with NHL tough guy Bob Probert. Abbott grabbed MacArthur and before he could do much, Probert hit the ring. They had a quick pull-apart

Lex Luger no contest Shane Douglas. The stips were if Russo interfered, then Luger & Flair would get the tag belts. Bagwell came out, but a fan dressed as Sting, who of course was Flair, beat up Douglas. 

Hogan found Kidman and beat him up. He then chased you, who was about to drive off in the hummer, but it wouldn't start. You left the keys behind and ran away. So Hogan started it immediately, and drove into the garbage bin Kidman was trapped in, destroying it. Kidman was left on a stretcher

WCW title – Scott Steiner beat Jeff Jarrett by DQ. Booker ran in and kicked Steiner while he had Jarrett just about beat for the DQ in 3:28 

Hogan was still chasing you and got you in the ring. Hart then showed up with a chair and swung it just as the show went off the air.  Hart hit Hogan with it after the show went off the air

Raw drew a 6.75 rating (6.24 first hour; 7.21 second hour) and a 10.3 share, largely built around Linda McMahon's announcement of the return of Steve Austin. Nitro its lowest live rating since the earliest days of the program with a 2.47 (2.86 first hour; 2.09 second hour) and a 3.7 share. The lowest Kevin Sullivan booked show did a 2.51.