83 Weeks - Starrcade 2000 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

The final WCW Starrcade show ever was Starrcade 2000, held on December 17 at the dawn of the new millennium at the MCI Center (later named the Verizon Center and now called the Capital One Arena) in Washington DC. 6,596 fans were reported in attendance. Of that, 3,465 paid $157,380 for the show on 12/17.

That’s right. Almost as many fans got in free as paid to get in.

In 1997, just three years before, Starrcade drew 17,500 fans. Now you might be saying, “Well what arena was that one in? Maybe it seated less?” NOPE. Same exact arena. The MCI Center. Starrcade 97 drew $543,000 for the live gate. Compared to $150K. Starrcade 97 also drew at least 640,000 pay per view buys.

Starrcade 2000 did an estimated 50,000.

There are TNA shows - although not a lot - that did better numbers. But the point is, that’s Starrcade.

This has to be a morale killer, right? Does it affect you when you hear numbers like that, at least, at the time?

The tagline for the show was Unedited! Unpredictable! Unreal! Which is nothing at all like Uncut! Uncooked! Uncensored!, Monday Night Raw’s first slogan.

The logo for Starrcade has been changed this year. The two Rs face each other over a small star. Plus we have the new WCW logo.

Looking back, what did you think of the new Starrcade logo and the version 2 of the WCW logo?

News and Notes

WCW for sale and more

Brad Siegel addressed the department heads at WCW on 12/8 for a meeting that many expected to either be the announcement of a sale or the announcement of someone being put in charge of the company, neither of which happened. It is believed that Terry Taylor, Johnny Ace, Craig Leathers and Tony Schiavone have all pitched to be in charge of the company. There is no done deal with Eric Bischoff's group at press time, but, for whatever this is worth, the feeling seems more positive that it will eventually happen than ever before because the AOL merger is expected to go through shortly. Unless someone is given full power to suspend wrestlers immediately who don't follow orders and exercises that power, running the company is a death position because the wrestlers will simply backbite whomever and ally with one of the others who will be sympathetic to their viewpoint and attempt a coup. We've been through this insanity for years now. Leathers would be a disaster. Taylor and Ace have the wrestling knowledge but also would have detractors and supporters unless they were given full support. I just can't see Schiavone being able to send guys home and until top guys are sent home, nobody is going to take anything seriously anyway. Siegel said for the first time directly to upper management that the company was for sale, although it had already come out in the newspaper a week earlier and everyone has known about it for months, and the deal was being seriously negotiated. He blamed the problems on the AOL merger and the company after the merger being too big to deal with the needs of a wrestling company, where decisions have to be made on the spot. He said the costs of flying talent and production costs make doing live events cost prohibitive. Well, they are when nobody buys tickets. It's not the expenses that are killing the company, although no doubt one could cut back on those. It's the lack of revenue. There was talk that if there isn't a sale, the company would spend a lot more time next year touring internationally, where they haven't burned out their business with bad shows as they have domestically. From talk, it now appears that even if there isn't a sale, and most feel there will be a sale, that they would move the tapings to one location, most likely Vegas although Orlando has been mentioned as well, to save on costs. The upside of going to a tourist place, particularly Orlando if they can get into Disney World or Universal, is that it's a young audience with energy. The bad side is there will be a lot of noise but no emotion behind the noise because you don't have wrestling fans, and the older guys like the Hogans and Flairs will get the most reaction because fans aren't there to see wrestling, they would be there to see celebrities. Vegas would skew older, and its success would be based more on the product being hot. It has been brought up wanting everyone to move to Vegas to save on trans, although nothing has been officially said on the subject. At Nitro, there were a lot of people grumbling about the idea they would be asked to move to the West Coast, although it still has not been officially said to anyone

QUESTION

David Copperfield makes Nitro disappear

There was a ton of internal heat over the 12/11 Nitro from Bossier City not airing until the next day because of the David Copperfield special on TNT. WCW never mentioned the time slot change on either Nitro or Thunder, and virtually nobody in the company was even aware of the switch until 12/7. As the story goes, Leathers sent Taylor a memo back on 11/6 to inform him of the one week time change, but Taylor never informed anyone. If Leathers knew and he's in charge of production, you'd think they'd have done some inserts for the show telling the audience about the time slot change. It's really sad when you compare one company where they have pride in the product they present and the rival company where people do as little as possible with no concern how the end product looks, and those who do have enthusiasm to present the best product, get shit on so badly and see the people who are the most manipulative and least caring rewarded the most, it's beaten out of them and they feel like marks for caring and ultimately, after a few months with the company, join the crowd and stop caring as well. Ultimately, apparently TNT had gone back-and-forth for some time before making the decision. WCW had gone back-and-forth about booking the show in Bossier City for either Monday or Tuesday, finally settling on Monday when that was the word when the show would air. Then, after the building was booked and pub was out, it was moved to Tuesday. That doesn't excuse why no announcement was made on television last week to alert viewers to the change

Is that on Craig Leathers or Terry Taylor?

There’s a lot more trouble for WCW on TNT, though. As Meltzer would report….

For Christmas and New Years week television, here is how things stand. Christmas was always going to be pre-empted for Nitro and the Thunder on 12/27 was going to be a "Best of Thunder 2000" highlights program. That may be intriguing to watch just to see if there are two hours worth of good or even decent stuff of the last 100 or so hours of that show. 1/1 Nitro was scheduled to be "Best of Nitro 2000" show, but then in the last week, TNT finalized the decision to air "Grease," the movie, in the Nitro time slot and pre-empt the show. The 1/3 Thunder will be taped on 12/22 in Memphis. Because WCW has international obligations to provide Nitro weekly, the shows for foreign consumption would be the "Best of Nitro 2000" that won't air in the United States, plus they will tape a Nitro for foreign consumption that won't air in the U.S., in Memphis. The idea is to tape top calibre match-ups but not further the storylines on that show. The fact that TNT is pre-empting the show three times in four weeks in its regular slot, basically giving up the go-home week for Starrcade and basically killing the promotion of the 1/14 WCW Sin PPV (which will only have one Nitro, airing live on 1/8, and two Thunders to get over all the angles), has led many to believe the deal to sell has to be all but done and Nitro's priority in the TNT universe has plummeted. Not that the company has any momentum, but this is really going to hurt because no doubt a lot of fans are one step from giving up anyway, and when they don't see the show for several weeks, they'll feel it's less important and start coming up with a new weekly routine.

Is this a sign of how much disdain Turner officials had for WCW? Preemptions three out of four weeks seems like an unheard of move if you want that program to survive…

Dustin Runnels making bank for sitting at home

Dustin Runnels was at Starrcade, being called by management to return. Runnels is reported being paid $750,000 per year but the company isn't using him, and he's mainly wrestling for his father Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling group which runs sold shows in the Georgia smaller cities. When he got there, they told him they had no plans for him, and he went back home

Was the company really paying him this?

WCW on...Charmed…

A show for little girls seems like the wrong place to put WCW wrestlers but that’s what was happening at this time.

Booker, Steiner and Bagwell taped an episode of the WB series "Charmed" for 2/1 air date. Steiner and Bagwell also have an appearance scheduled on the show "Jersey" on the Disney Network.

Is that just because of WB and WCW being Warner properties? Why would wrestlers be on a show about three sisters who are witches?

Goldberg suggests Russo is a WWF plant

Goldberg was on the Mancow show in Chicago and said...that what happened with Hogan and WCW was a travesty that he blamed on Russo, who he called an idiot for booking himself in a match while suffering from a concussion. He actually suggested WCW bring back Hall because he thought a match with he and Hall would draw money and he'd kill him, and actually said on the air that he thought Russo might have been a plant sent by the WWF to ruin the company. It's not like many people haven't suggested that, as other wrestlers have off the air told radio hosts the same thing, but I didn't think anyone seriously believed it as opposed to just something conspiracy theorists like to say

Did you or anyone close to you, brother, think that Russo might have been a double agent or infiltrator?

The Go Home Show (Nitro)

Nitro on 12/11 in Bossier City was an overall entertaining show. They drew a good crowd by current standards and the crowd was hot for most of the matches which helped a lot. Jarrett this time hit a Cajun cook with a guitar. Flair came out and gave his best interview since his return, really getting into his work and doing many of his old Flair mannerisms. He actually hinted that Sting and/or Booker and/or Arn Anderson may show up to get at Steiner. He announced Steiner vs. Awall as the main event and said that Sid and Steiner were banned from touching each other inside the building (parking lot brawl alert).

Steiner beat Awall with the recliner in the main event after a suplex through a table. Awall laid Steiner out with a choke slam, but instead of going for the pin, he grabbed a table. This match was pretty good as far as work goes to everyone's pleasant surprise, although nobody in the crowd, or for that matter, the world, thought Awall had a chance. Steiner put the recliner with a pipe on after until Sid magically appeared on the screen calling Steiner into the parking lot. Sid had beaten up a valet parking due and got all his keys, and drove the cars into a circle to copy the gimmick WWF used with Shamrock and Blackman. Steiner came out with a pipe and kept missing Sid and breaking car windows. They brawled, and strangely, Scott was beating the hell out of Sid on a car as the show went off the air.

Does that get you excited for this PPV or WHAT? /sarcasm

The Event Itself

1. Three Count (Shannon Moore & Shane Helms) won a three-way ladder match over Jung Dragons (Kazuhiro Hayashi & Yun Yang) and Jamie Knoble (Jamie Howard) & Evan Karagias (Evan Kavagias) in 13:51. This must have set the all-time record for numbers of ladders used in the match. It didn't start out good with Moore and Hayashi badly blowing their first spot, and the crowd less than one minute in starting loud "boring" chants. Chavo Guerrero Jr. did commentary and the announcers did their best, after destroying them for so many years, of trying to get the cruiserweight division over. Gimmick was whomever got the contract would get a title shot the next night. Yang was nearly killed with a messed up flapjack. They did a spot where Knoble & Karagias were arguing, since the idea is they are guys who have a high school grudge and are reluctant partners. They did the big dive series, Yung with a corkscrew, Helms with a running flip dive, Hayashi with Kaz special, Karagias with a springboard plancha and Moore with a top rope Asai moonsault. Knoble was pushed off the top of the ladder in mid-ring and took a bump over the top onto everyone. There was an awesome spot where Hayashi leaped up to the scaffold that Karagias was standing on and power slammed him off the ladder all the way to the ground. Moore did a famouser off the ladder on Karagias. Helms did a neckbreaker off the ladder on Knoble. Knoble power bombed Helms off the ladder. Moore clotheslined Yang off the near top of the ladder. The Dragons set up a scaffold like structure using three ladders. Moore did a head scissors on Karagias off a ladder. Match had a ton of innovative spots and big bumps. These guys deserve all kind of credit for putting this one together and hopefully they'll get their due from whomever is running the company. Bout had a strange finish where Moore and Helms were on top and won together, each holding the contract. ****

What did you think about the opening match? Were you surprised at the performance after the fans seemed to resist it from the beginning?

Did it seem like too many ladder spots in a row were happening here to you?

2. Lance Storm (Lance Evers) pinned Cat (Ernest Miller) in 7:24. The gimmick was that Jim Duggan wanted to be a face, but Storm told him the only reason he still had a job was because of the Team Canada gimmick and when he leaves, he'll be unemployed. Ms. Jones has the most charisma of any of the women left in this company. Cat at one point his Storm with a bottle. Ms. Jones high kicked ref Mark Johnson. Major Gunns did her decent dropkick to Jones. Finally Duggan came out with his 2x4 to a very big face pop. Duggan ran in to save Storm, changed his mind, put down the 2x4, then clotheslined Cat, who rolled over into Storm's maple leaf finisher. Cat actually tapped before Storm even got the hold on. To make things even more confusing, Storm & Elix Skipper attacked Duggan after the match, and guess who made the save? Cat. *¾

Talk about this match and how you reacted?

Major Gunns miraculously hits an excellent drop kick on the outside. Shout out to her Twitter!

The Duggan stuffed seemed confusing. What say you?

3. Terry Funk, at age 56, won the hardcore title from Crowbar (Chris Ford) in 10:21. Typical backstage weapons match. Probably due to Funk knowing what to do and when, it seemed a cut above the usual overdone backstage brawl. The announcers talked about Crowbar as a kid seeing the Flair vs. Funk match from the New York Knockout TV show, which was one of the hundred or so retirement matches Funk has had in his career. They brawled inside a truck and Crowbar took a bump out of the truck through a table. They traded slamming a door on each others' head. Funk slammed it on Crowbar's head five times. Then, borrowing the controversial spot in the Rock vs. Mick Foley match featured in "Beyond the Mat," Funk handcuffed Crowbar and started hitting him with chair shots. The shots weren't as brutal as the ones Rock delivered, and Funk paced them better (only delivering three at first, later two more). Crowbar came back with two chair shots to the head. Crowbar did a pescado onto a table for a near fall. Funk ended up winning with a chair to the head followed by a piledriver on a car door. **¾

Do you think Meltzer’s knock on Terry Funk for being 56 and winning championships was unfair - justified - or something else?

4. Who knows who won with Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) vs. Big Vito (Vito LoGrasso) & Reno (Rick Cornell) in that Reno pinned Vito to win the match in 8:18. The whole storyline here is that somebody was paying Kronik to take over Vito & Reno. The announcers brought up Marie, thereby eliminating her. The bookers have to be one step smarter than the predictable story, so it ended up being Reno. However, Adams throughout the match kept chasing Marie looking for the money, even though he job wasn't done, while Marie denied it. The crowd was totally dead for all of this and it was the second time they had done a swerve on the show and unlike the first time, nobody cared.. After Reno used his roll the dice on Vito and pinned him, he threw the money to Kronik, who weren't even the ones who got the job done, he was the one. DUD

Did you think this match had any redeeming qualities?

5. Mike Awesome (Mike Alfonso) beat Bam Bam Bigelow (Scott Bigelow) in 8:36 in an ambulance match. Awesome is apparently in the process of dropping the 70s guy gimmick for the "Career killer" gimmick. Bigelow's knees were clearly hurting. Crowd was dead for the match. At one point Bigelow punched his hand through a window and his forearm was cut up. I hope it was gimmicked because after what happened to Goldberg and seeing the cut, while only minor, I just couldn't stop thinking about all the unnecessary injuries due to wrestlers being asked to do dangerous things and how they've hurt company momentum constantly. Loud boring chant. They ended up on the top of the ambulance and Bigelow fell through the roof, supposedly, since we actually never saw it, to lose. *

Did you like the match?

Let’s recap Mike Awesome’s WCW gimmicks, starting with April 10, 2000...he debuted as Mike Awesome, still ECW champion at the time. Simple and self explanatory.

Then, he became the “Career Killer” Mike Awesome after throwing Kanyon off of the triple cage and through the ramp.

Then...he became The Fat Chick Thrilla Mike Awesome. It pretty much is self explanatory.

Then, on September 6 - same year - he became That 70s Guy. Yeah. At one point, he was even given a bus painted in the style of the one featured on The Partridge Family to drive into arenas for his entrance. That’s most famous for him nearly killing a member of Insane Clown Posse by throwing him so hard in a powerbomb, fell off of the top of the bus and onto concrete below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QieTaeaPtiw

As soon as 2001 began, he was the Canadian Career Killer.

Looking back now...how would you describe that booking?

We go backstage to hear an awful promo from members of the New Blood. Chuck Palumbo and Sean Craziak Stasiak go full Memphis. Their belts look awesome. Mean Gene says he wants to slap the wise ass Mike Sanders.

Out next is Shane Douglas. He makes a reference to it not taking 36 days to figure out the winner of the next match. That’s a reference to the presidential election between Bush/Gore in 2000 going to the courts before a winner was officially determined. Interesting how history seems to repeat itself all too often.

6. General Hugh G. Rection (Bill DeMott) beat Shane Douglas (Troy Martin) via DQ in 9:48 to retain the U.S. title. Another match which lacked heat. Both guys had small forehead cuts when it was over but the blood wasn't really pushed hard in the call. Rection missed a moonsault and Chavo Guerrero Jr. came out. See if this makes any sense. Chavo grabbed the chain that Douglas had dropped. He threw it to Douglas. Then he told ref Charles Robinson that Douglas had a chain, causing the DQ. Douglas then hit Rection with a chain. Guerrero then saved Rection, but Douglas hit Guerrero with a chain and did the franchiser on Rection. Awall and Cpl. Cajun ran in, with Cajun comforting Guerrero Jr. and Awall comforting Rection. Someone ought to teach the DOR (Disciples of Russo) that angles work only when they are done to mean something. Pro wrestling is not a series of endless angles that are meant to mean nothing except a pop that they usually don't get when presented in this manner. No matter how hard the talent worked, the scripting at this point was killing the show. 3/4*

How did a character named Huge Erection get on Turner television in the year 2000?

Was this finish a mess or did it make sense to you?

7. Jeff Jarrett & Ron & Don Harris beat Konnan (Charles Ashenoff) & Rey Misterio Jr. (Oscar Gutierrez) & Billy Kidman (Peter Gruner) in what was billed as a combination street fight and bunkhouse match in 12:32. Actually, based on the rules, the two are the exact same thing. It was an excuse to set up a bunch of gimmicked props like a portable bar, brooms, etc. to be used as weapons. Think about this. Is there anything sillier than putting Misterio Jr. and Kidman in a New Jack style match? After having already seen Crowbar vs. Funk do a weapons match, there was nothing these guys could do and the crowd was bored most of the way except when they shattered the bar putting Jarrett through it. Harris Twins did a good job in believably selling for guys so much smaller than they are. They spent a few minutes getting heat on Kidman as Misterio Jr. was thrown into a dumpster and Konnan was tending to him. This traditional three-on-one-heat led to a big pop for Konnan's comeback. They cut him off almost immediately with an H-bomb, as in the Harris Twins move and not the former drug of choice in the profession. Misterio Jr. made a comeback using a broomstick. Funny seeing people sell for the dreaded broom bristles. They H bombed him through a table. Kidman was on top for the shooting star when one of the Twins broke a bottle over his head and Jarrett pinned him after the stroke. *½

What did you think about the booking here?

Did you see any SS tattoos on anyone in the match just curious

Was the popcorn maker here as an homage to the Tupelo Concession Stand?

Lex Luger attacked Sgt. Dewayne Bruce during an interview. Bagwell did the interviews as did Gene Okerlund throughout the show. Okerlund was actually getting some of the biggest reactions on the shows with his crabby old man lines.

8. Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkinburg) & Kevin Nash regained the WCW tag titles from Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak (Shawn Stepich) in 12:05. Ric Flair came out and said that if Mike Sanders takes a step toward the ring and interferes, that the titles will change hands. Of course this meant Sanders would interfere, just not take a step toward the ring while doing so. Fans chanted "We Want Hall" with Nash acknowledging them. Nash also did a "Hey, Yo" after winning the belts, but he didn't mention the guys' name. The game is actually quite funny if the game is for the wrestlers to show insiders how inept the company is. Let's throw temper tantrums and go into business for ourselves on live TV and what's the punishment? The tag team titles. That said, this was the second best match on the show, probably because it was basic tag team wrestling psychology combined with good work. Page and Palumbo in particular looked really good. Although it wasn't obvious to most people or picked up on by almost anyone, Palumbo was told by Nash and perhaps Page to wrestle like Hall with the idea that since they can't mention Hall's name, if it becomes obvious Palumbo is doing Hall's moves (they want him to start doing the edge as a finisher under the guise it'll get heat and get him over, which it will, but more to keep the "We Want Hall" stuff alive to guarantee crowd reaction to the team, and also, figuring Bischoff will bring Hall back, and there is no guarantee that's the case, that Palumbo is set up as a natural feud to come back for the swerve angle where Hall comes back and immediately turns on Nash, who spent months trying to get him back. Can you imagine anything close to this happening in the WWF?). Page sold most of the way, made the babyface hope spots, looked damn good in the process, setting up Nash's hot tag. Crowd was largely into it, except this one guy who was on camera most of the way in the fifth row who was sleeping. Sanders gave Page a low blow and Stasiak hit Nash with a lame belt shot. Page gave the cutter to Sanders and Mark Jindrak. Shawn O'Haire laid Page out. O'Haire went up for the Shawnton bomb on Nash, but Page crotched him. Nash came back with a high kick and power bomb on Palumbo. ***¼

Let’s talk about the We Want Hall stuff and Kevin Nash’s reaction. Was this really a case of bad management or was this just Kevin Nash?

What did you think about the match?

9. Bill Goldberg pinned Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) in 7:19. Bagwell and Bruce came out. By this point, the question was which guy was going to turn on Goldberg. Luger pulled out Knux and hit Bruce and Goldberg with them, but Goldberg kicked out of the pin. Bagwell did the blockbuster on Goldberg, theoretically by accident. Luger went for the rack, but Goldberg blocked it. Bagwell then attacked Bruce, while Goldberg hit the spear and jackhammer for the pin. After the match, Bagwell hit Goldberg with several chair shots. Goldberg was fine a few seconds later. A lot better than their match last month. **

What were your thoughts on the match? What did you think of this iteration or version of Lex Luger?

10. Scott Steiner (Scott Rechsteiner) beat Sid Vicious (Sid Eudy) to retain the WCW title in 10:14. One of the few bright spots in the company right now is, moral issues aside, Steiner can be a strong champion to solidify and strengthen the belt. He also carried Vicious to a good match while getting himself over strong at the end. Vicious got out of the recliner twice, once with a rope break and once by powering out. Steiner survived a choke slam and a cobra. Steiner attacked ref Mark Johnson and hit Vicious with several shots with a pipe, but Vicious kicked out. Jarrett came out and went to hit Sid with a guitar, but by this point in the show, everyone knew Steiner was getting it, but Steiner still kicked out. Steiner won with two low blows and the recliner, with the match being stopped by the referee. **½

How about this match for a main event? Did you like it, hate it? How about the finish?

Here’s what Meltzer said about the show:

The show itself was better than most of the WCW PPV events this year. Kind of a mixed bag overall. The crowd started off wanting to hate the opener, but the work was so strong they couldn't. Somewhere in the middle, between the multitude of swerves that all looked the same, dead matches, and use of weapons that by late in the show had the crowd numbed, it was looking bad. But a strong tag title match and a main event that was far better than anyone had the right to expect ended it on a good note.

In bringing up history, the irony was, Tony Schiavone talked about the first Starrcade, where Flair won the NWA title from Harley Race, and talked about how far we've come since then before the tag title match. For anyone who actually remembers that show, it was not exactly the kind of comparison that would have been smart to bring up. Kind of like a Bengals announcer saying "look how far we've come since that Super Bowl year." In their attention to detail department, they said that Sid Vicious, who wrestled Scott Steiner in the main event, was having his first match since the spring, forgetting he had what was sort of a match just a few days earlier on Thunder, and had what absolutely was a match a week earlier at a house show.

The Aftermath

The anarchy that is the dressing room at World Championship Wrestling totally destroyed the last live Nitro show for three weeks on 12/18 in Richmond, VA.

A series of incidents resulted in three wrestlers walking off the show, Sid Eudy, Page Falkinburg and Kevin Nash, all of whom had key roles in the show, resulting in both Nitro and Thunder shows literally put together on the fly and finishing with a Nitro main event of Jeff Jarrett vs. Lance Storm TV main event before a largely dead crowd. How much of this is and isn't legit is the subject of speculation. With only a few exceptions, most within the company seem to believe all of the incidents were legit. The only overriding question mark is because of timing of certain things as well as the key involvement in all this of Falkinburg, who has done similar angles in the past, well set up, and in similar ways, and has always had a fascination with the late Brian Pillman.

The chaos started, and this clearly was not an angle, when Eudy had some sort of a problem with his role in the show. It isn't quite clear what the situation was. It is believed that Eudy expected the Starrcade match to be a double count out, but did agree to do the job in the end of Scott Steiner, and was not complaining about it after the fact. He was more upset about how he was asked, as when he came to the building expecting the double count out, he was given a piece of paper with his instructions for the show listing the actual finish. He was mad that Terry Taylor didn't come to him specifically to ask about the change rather than put it on a paper. Exactly what he expected or was told would be his retribution to get him to do the job without complaints apparently wasn't going to materialize on television. The plan was to use the TV, since Nitro is off until 1/8 due to pre-emptions, to build the show toward a main event on the Syn PPV on 1/14 in Indianapolis of Scott Steiner defending in a four-way with Rick Steiner, Jarrett and Sid Vicious. Vicious walked out before the show, after hearing what the plans were, and later claimed that his arm and shoulder were injured the night before. He was pulled from all bookings and plans were re-worked for the show, which he was a focal part of, to now build to a three-way title match on PPV.

Would Sid have been madder about the change of the finish to him losing in the main event - or learning about it on a note?

After the first live match, in a segment which was set up to start with Ric Flair doing an interview talking about the main event, and Steiner coming out in response, Steiner asked if he could tweak the segment and go out first. When he did, he cut a promo on DDP. From a fan perspective, it looked as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, just building for a Steiner-DDP match as the TV main event. Backstage, everyone "knew" Steiner was going against the script of the show once again, and when he said that Page didn't have the balls to fight him, and talked about Page needing a sex change operation, everyone in the dressing room started looking at Page. Page got up in front of everyone and basically said something to the effect that enough is enough, and stormed downstairs. When Steiner came through the curtain, they got into an argument and Page threw a punch, or Page simply sucker punched him, depending on the version of the story one chooses to believe. Either way, it wasn't a good enough punch, because Steiner recovered, took Page down with a bearhug suplex-like move, and was putting a terrible hurting on him for a full one minute with Page helpless on his back. It took seven people nearly the whole minute before they could even budge Steiner, and it was said to be a scary scene as he had a death like grip on Page. They were pulled apart and started swearing at each other. In the fight, Page's face was all cut up and bleeding with a deep scratch mark all around his eye and his face puffy and bloody. Steiner was going for his eye as he was pulled off. In the fracas, Steiner injured his ankle and also had swelling above the eye from the punch, but he was able to go out and do his scheduled promo and show closing angle, plus wrestle Cat in the Thunder main event.

Again, the eye could be the key, because what sold people on the Pillman-Kevin Sullivan original worked angle on a live Nitro is that Sullivan went for Pillman's eye, which is what wrestlers in the old days were taught to do immediately in street fight situations. Why Steiner would cut a promo on Page at this point is a question, although he was known to be hot at him, and going against the script by the major stars seems to be a weekly occurrence on a show where nobody has authority over the actors. It is true that Page had refused to work with Steiner because Steiner had insulted Kimberly a few months back, some people pointing out that their problem took place in the same building, "right here, in Richmond, Virginia," which resulted in Kimberly quitting the company because management didn't have the guts to insist Steiner apologize for uncalled for remarks. Many of the wrestlers sided with Steiner because Kimberly refused to work any angles involving Steiner saying she didn't want a mad man to put his hands on her, feeling that Kimberly's attitude was bad and was taking up so much TV time…

Meltzer went on to write, “Then again, who can blame the wrestlers, because every time Steiner has gone into business for himself, in the long run he's been rewarded, as has most of the unprofessional conduct by major stars in the company. All of the bookers at this point don't want to piss off any of the major talent because nobody knows who will be in charge, but the talent will always get another chance with new management no matter what happens now, and the bookers are all uncertain about their future because none of a longstanding good relationship with Bischoff. The fact the story that Page and Steiner wouldn't work together, causing a change in the main event of the 12/10 house show in Monroe, LA, had just come out, could have led to Steiner's actions, or also been something Page felt he could play on for a shoot angle, similar to his angle with Buff Bagwell many months back, which actually drew a 3.9 rating for a TV main event match before the angle was immediately cut off because it was getting over. Still, most, but definitely not all, believed it to be real, and that includes the ten percent or so who have seen through the shoot angles of the past that fool most of the wrestlers.

When it was over, Page walked out of the building saying words to the effect of "I'm out of here, f*** this place." Nash, surprising to some because he generally was one of the people who made fun of Page because Page takes himself and the business so seriously, left with him, causing more holes in the show since they were also to be doing an angle with the Natural Born Thrillers. Before Page left, Steiner said a few parting words to him, largely about his wife. Page & Nash told people on the way out that they weren't coming back until there was new ownership.

Did you hear about this fight from anyone involved? DDP has said he was lucky to walk away alive. What do you think?

Why do you think Nash left, too?

It wasn't the only backstage story involving Page of the night. Earlier, Page, who a week earlier vowed he would work with Mark Madden, but not ever talk with him outside of business, approached Madden diplomatically regarding their problems. One could speculate if he was trying to make amends with Madden all weekend, he may have tried with Steiner as well. Madden wasn't as forgiving, blaming Page for his being suspended on the Nitro nobody saw and claiming that Page had no reason to be mad at him, because it all started when Page called him to complain about his announcing and Page's wife Kimberly started swearing at Madden on the phone. Page denied having anything to do with Madden being suspended but Madden didn't believe him. When Page tried to shake his hand, Madden refused to shake in front of most of the dressing room putting his hands in the air and walking away. There was a lot of divisiveness on this issue as many were hot at Madden's behavior but others told him they thought he did the right thing. Page came off sympathetic to come, for standing up to Steiner in a fight that he had no chance to win, but a common reaction was that all these incidents that involve Page are because he's too much trying to constantly push himself and some noted that in a recent angle when he was supposed to diamond cut one of the Thrillers, he instead diamond cutted several of them.

The scripted ending of Nitro was that it would be revealed that Rick Steiner as the mystery third man in the PPV main event that was teased all show long by Ric Flair. However, due to a breakdown in WCW communication, Steiner never got the word he was supposed to be at this TV. So the show instead ended with Robbie Rage being put under a mask and pounding on Steiner as the mystery man, with the idea that probably on the next new TV show, which wouldn't be at this point until Thunder on 1/3 (unless changes are made and the "Best of Thunder 2000" is moved to 1/3 so the Memphis Thunder taping on 12/22, now scheduled for 1/3, is moved up a week because of all the problems), it would be revealed it was Steiner under the mask. Either way, it's a main event that appears to have zero box office appeal, but nothing in WCW these days has.