83 Weeks - WCW Sin [Show Notes] (Patreon)

WCW Sin was the final January pay-per-view event ever for World Championship Wrestling. It was on January 14, 2001 at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was the first and only event in what was obviously planned to be a new January PPV series - since we hear it called Sin 2001 throughout the show.

The event replaced Souled Out, which had previously been WCW’s January PPV. It started, if you will recall, in 1997 as the first nWo PPV.

Do you think retiring Souled Out was a good idea?

A crowd of 6,617 fans came to the Conseco Fieldhouse, of which 4,631 paid $162,578. While still less than half full, this was a show with a weak line-up on paper promoted during a period with two straight Nitro pre-emptions.

This is the third to the last WCW PPV event ever. Despite that, it performed better than Starrcade (50K), Halloween Havoc (70K), Fall Brawl (75K), or Slamboree(65K) the year before. Sin did 80,000 PPV buys, reports say.

What’s it say that having two weeks in a row off the air caused more people to buy this PPV than had bought the last Starrcade?

Let’s take a look at how the buys averaged per year. Because at this point, WCW was on its worst year ever. And the year before had been the worst ever before that.

Year  Shows Average Buys

1988 3 180,000

1989 5 139,000

1990 5 172,000

1991 5 146,000

1992 6 110,833

1993 7 94,286

1994 7 144,286

1995 9 123,333

1996 10 228,000

1997 12 290,833

1998 12 357,500

1999 12 240,833

2000 12 78,750

2001 3 66,667

News and Notes

After nearly a full year of various rumors, negotiations, and several near finalized deals, the sale of World Championship Wrestling by Time Warner to Fusient Media Ventures was officially announced on 1/11, literally hours before the announcement that the final step of the Time Warner/AOL merger had been cleared.

Fusient Media Ventures, a one-year-old company headed by Brian Bedol and Stephen Greenberg, who are best known for starting up the Classic Sports Network, and then selling it to ESPN where it became ESPN Classics, for $175 million, is the parent company. The company, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, is an incubator type company that raises capital for media investments. The actual sale is expected to go through in 30 to 60 days, at which point the names of the various investors will likely be revealed. Change is expected to be gradual until the time the sale is finalized. Nevertheless, even days later, it was clear there was a greater emphasis placed on the cruiserweight division and on having a strong in-ring product with less run-ins, tables, garbage matches, and elimination of swearing as wrestlers were told specifically words like damn, hell and ass are no longer to be uttered on broadcasts. Bischoff described trying to get raunchy to compete with WWF as a failed experiment. While getting too raunchy can't work today because of the advertising climate, getting too tame doesn't come across as the needed cutting edge, although ultimately that's overrated as to sinking or swimming. A good wrestling product with soap opera that makes sense and good matches will, in time, since the company has strong television exposure, make gains in popularity, whether T&A or swearing is a strong foundation of the product or not. A bad product, littered with swearing and T&A, which was the Russo product, was a failure. If the good product had the T&A and the swearing, it would probably work best unless there is an advertiser backlash. WWF was successful with the latter formula, and then toned down, continued to be successful. Bischoff called Russo's excuses of blaming standards and practices for not allowing him to do certain things "a crock that Russo peddled" and said Russo's excuses were "a load of crap."

I’m fascinated by this because, based on what we can tell, you had figured out what didn’t work: competing with WWE on the raunchy side. Wrestling fans just wanted some good old wrasslin, darn it!

But did you also realize the need to end the screwy, cluttered finishes and give us actual outcomes to matches?

Time Warner, which was wanting to make sure the new company would be funded well enough to last at least one year, is maintaining a minority interest so it can retain the television rights. Terms of the sale were not revealed publicly, likely because the number was embarrassingly low, as someone very close to the situation described the figure as, figuratively, "pennies." It is ironic just how far the company's fortunes has nosedived, as it was less than one year ago, when SFX was interested in purchasing the company, that the negotiations fell apart because the Time Warner asking price was $600 million.

Bedol will take over as CEO of the new company and handle the finance side, with Eric Bischoff back in charge of the creative end as company President. Fusient describes itself as a media company focused on identifying, funding, developing and distributing next generation content and media brands….

Bischoff has done numerous media interviews over the past week since the purchase. He's been vague on a lot of subjects, in many cases because final decisions haven't been made. Wrestlers, some based on friendship with Bischoff and enthusiastic because a change of any kind would be a positive in a stagnant, dying company, and others based on fear for the future of their jobs, upped their in-ring work rate tremendously for the 1/14 Sin PPV and 1/15 Nitro.

Were you hoping for Sin to be a new beginning of sorts to the company as you looked to get it back on the right track?

Was the timing of this announcement on the same day as the Time Warner deal finishing just a coincidence?

Crazy enough, a few hours after that deal….

Lost amid all the hoopla of the WCW sale is that just a few hours later, Bob Meyrowitz and Semaphore Entertainment Group announced the sale of the Ultimate Fighting Championship to former Nevada State Athletic commission member Lorenzo Ferititta and Las Vegas-based company Zuffa.

Ferititta, 31, is the co-owner of the Station Casino in Las Vegas, and owns the Zuffa company with brother Frank Ferititta and brother-in-law Blake Sartini. Dana White, the former manager of middleweight champion Tito Ortiz, who is the most charismatic of the fighters that have been in the UFC recently, will actually run the company.

Unlike the WCW deal, which had been rumored for months, this deal was consummated rather quickly.

Looking back, do you wish you could have gotten Fusient to get into the MMA business here, instead? :)

The event itself

WCW SIN: Thumbs up 102 (60.4%), Thumbs down 31 (18.3%), In the middle 33 (19.5%).

BEST MATCH POLL: Jung Dragons vs. Jamie Knoble & Evan Karagias 105, Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Shane Helms 33.

WORST MATCH POLL: Scott Steiner vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Sid Vicious 137

1. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (Salvador Guerrero III) pinned Shane Helms in 11:14 to retain the cruiserweight title. There was a messed up headscissors takeover early, but mainly a well worked very strong opener that did its job getting the crowd into the show. Helms dropped Guerrero's head on his knee. Not much heat early and fans were into Guerrero, and not Helms, as the face. Helms did a cool running neckbreaker and the fans started to get into it. Guerrero did a high plancha outside the ring. Scott Hudson really tried to get this match over as being important. Helms came back with an equally strong plancha. At this point, people started accepting this as a real good match instead of prelim fare. All kinds of near falls including blocking each others' finishers. An interesting note is that Helms "vertebraker" is an offshoot of the Gori especial invented by Chavo's grandfather in Mexico. After a series of reversals, Guerrero got the pin after a brainbuster. ***½

Shane used the vertebraker until he went to the WWE, where we’ve heard stories he was told not to use it because of it being unsafe. Do you like the move or think it is too dangerous?

2. Reno (Rick Cornell) pinned Big Vito (Vito LoGrasso) in 8:41. Very Japanese style as the two just pounded each other. They really pushed Reno's roll the dice finisher, including a spot where Vito blocked it and reverse into a suplex for a near fall. Reno reversed Vito's implant DDT. Reno used a blizzard suplex and got the pin with the roll the dice. Both worked real hard. ***

Did these two surprise you with how well they performed?

3. Kaz Hayashi & Yun Yang (James Yang) beat Jamie Knoble (James Howard) & Evan Karagias (Evan Kavagias) in 9:21 in the show stealer. This was the Kaz Hayashi show, and if WCW doesn't realize that right under its nose it has its own Tajiri, they are really missing the boat. You knew it had to be WCW with the graphic reading Jamie Karagias and Evan Knoble as they came to the ring. The Dragons did a double Asai moonsault. Basically an excellent Lucha style match. Hayashi did an awesome drop toe hold on Karagias. Karagias & Knoble did the Doring & Roadkill finisher as a double-team. Karagias did a press slam into a spinebuster on Hayashi. At points Hayashi actually made Karagias look like a great worker. Not at all points. Karagias slipped on the top rope trying a quebrada. Yang, who got the big reaction as the face making the hot tag, came in with his sometimes inconsistent offense being on the good side. He did a quick dragon screw into a Yoshie version of the figure four but Karagias saved. Karagias did a springboard plancha on Hayashi. Yang blocked an attempted Frankensteiner off the top and turned it into a power bomb off the top on Knoble. Karagias did a firebird (450) splash on Yang. Knoble did a tombstone on Hayashi but another save, before finally Yang pinned Knoble after an inside cradle. Sensational match and hope they get their just rewards from it, although history tells us differently. With all the new enthusiasm up and down, the fact that none of these four wrestlers appeared on Nitro, nor were ever even mentioned on the show, nor was the match put over. This is going to lead to the same problems as before. If wrestlers don't feel they are being rewarded for putting forth extra effort and if great matches aren't worth being put over, it leads to that resignation factor that ruined the last group of young talent the company had years ago that in the end couldn't wait to leave for those very reasons. ****¼

It was a remarkable match. What did you like about it?

4. Cat (Ernest Miller) pinned Mike Sanders in 5:44 to win the commissionership and retain Ms. Jones. The storyline here is that Sanders tried to buy Brian Adams off, but Bryan Clark informed Adams there was bigger money behind another job. Considering who was in it, there was nothing wrong with the match, and it was much smarter to have interference in this one as opposed to the first three which were better matches left alone. Kronik came out and Clark instead shoved money in Sanders' mouth, and Cat gave him the feliner for the pin. **

What did you think of Mike Sanders, especially as an authority figure? In an era of Vince, Eric, and basically, the most epic authority figures of all time, was it impossible to succeed?

Flair was palling around too closely with Goldberg as they introduced this fan who Goldberg signed an autograph for. Flair also made the match no DQ. Goldberg was cooked.

5. Lance Storm (Lance Evers) & Mike Awesome (Mike Alfonso) & Elix Skipper beat Konnan (Charles Ashenoff) & Rey Misterio Jr. (Oscar Gutierrez) & Billy Kidman (Peter Gruner) in a penalty box match with Jim Duggan as ref in 13:07. This wasn't the disaster of the Storm vs. Awesome match at New Blood Rising, but it was a match that would have been far better without the gimmick. The box basically ruined momentum and for some reason, every match involving the FA's has messed up heel/face psychology. On two occasions, the FA's had a three-on-one but failed to produce. Using hockey psychology, when the home team has a two-man up power play and fails to convert, that isn't making the fans think the home team has good qualities. At one point Tygress sprayed a water bottle on Major Gunns and they fought, and were both put in the box. At one point when they were about to set up the bronco buster, Duggan did Misterio Jr. in the box because you can't attack someone on the ropes. At another point, when Misterio Jr. and Tygress did the bronco buster they weren't put in the box. Team Canada also got a power play spot. Finish saw Awesome give Misterio Jr. the Awesome bomb and Storm used the half crab on Kidman, so the face referee had to reluctantly raise the heels' hand, and the whole purpose of a face ref is supposed to be to screw the heels in the first place. Still, the effort of the guys was strong. **¾

If you had rebuilt WCW as plans had been hopeful to see, would you have done more with Elix Skipper?

6. Meng (Uliuli Fifita) won the hardcore title in a three-way over champ Terry Funk and Crowbar (Chris Ford) in 11:41. Your basic hardcore match with far too many chair shots to the head delivered on all parties. At least everyone was protecting each other with the chair shots. Funk and Crowbar ended up in the womens bathroom, where there were no women, and they dumped garbage. WWF just did the womens bathroom spot with a stronger punch line, so this came off as stealing an idea and not doing it as well, even though the guys beat each other up worse in the bathroom. Meng showed up in the bathroom. Crowbar used a fire extinguisher and chair on Funk. Crowbar came off the balcony with a legdrop on Funk through a table, which the cameras totally missed the first time but they did at least get a replay of it. Funk hit Meng with a shovel. Crowbar hit Funk in the knee with a chair shot and put on the figure four, but Meng splashed Crowbar off the top. After the near falls and saves, Crowbar laid out Funk with yet another chair shot, Meng kicked Crowbar and then Meng pinned Funk using the Tongan death grip. **

What’s most interesting is that, within days, Meng will return to the WWF in the Royal Rumble as Haku - while still hardcore champion. It’ll mean the death of the hardcore division. Was that one last F-U from Vince to Turner?

7. Chuck Palumbo & Shawn O'Haire won the tag titles from Kevin Nash & Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkinburg) in 11:16. The rest of the Thrillers came out with Sanders and Sanders announced that he could substitute people throughout the match. Flair came out and said Sanders had no power and ordered everyone away from ringside. Faced-paced match with Palumbo & O'Haire looking good. The announcers still haven't realized about credibility. Schiavone said O'Haire was 6-8 and Hudson later said Palumbo was 6-7, and anyone watching just said, they are so full of it. O'Haire did a backflip on the turnbuckles, landing on his feet and gave Nash a thrust kick which was real impressive for his size. Palumbo looked good, mainly doing all the Scott Hall stuff, although I don't think anyone has recognized yet that is what he's doing. Nash did the snake eyes on Palumbo. They did a double slingshot suplex on Page for a near fall. Page reversed a tombstone into one of his own on Palumbo. Finally Page, who worked most of the match, made the hot tag to Nash. He gave both side slams and high kicks. The Thrillers, Luger and Bagwell all descended upon the ring. Page ended up fighting with Luger outside the ring, the ref was distracted by the Thrillers, and Bagwell hit Nash with a wrench allowing O'Haire to pin him after a shawnton bomb. ***

Looking back, were Palumbo and O’Haire being pushed too hard here for how green they were? Or were they ready to be on this stage?

8. Shane Douglas (Troy Martin) won the U.S. title from General Rection (Bill DeMott) in 11:36. Jamie Tucker went down on Douglas and found a chain. Thank God he did. This was billed as a chain on a pole match but instead they hung the chain from the ceiling. They never said it was a ladder match but it was obvious a ladder would come into play, and I feared, after watching the ECW PPV and how the ladder standards lead to disappointment, that these guys may have trouble after WWF ladder matches. As it turned out, they never used the ladder until the finish, which made that chain hanging and nobody being able to tease getting it seem really weird. Douglas worked on Rection's left knee most of the way. Rection finally got the ladder out and climbed it. He got the chain but Douglas shoved the ladder and Rection took a big bump and the Tucker also went down. Douglas pulled a chain out of his boot and hit Rection, who juiced, and Tucker recovered, saw it, and signalled for the bell. *½

Did you like Shane Douglas’s run in WCW here?

9. Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl) & Buff Bagwell (Marcus Bagwell) beat Bill Goldberg & Dewayne Bruce in 11:00. Most of the match saw them getting heat on the Sarge. Match had the most heat of anything on the show. Goldberg made the hot tag and it wound up outside the ring. Luger argued with a fan that earlier in the show signed a Goldberg autograph. Goldberg went to save the fan, but instead the fan maced him and the heels celebrated. Luger nailed Goldberg with a chair to the back, a hard chair shot to the head, and put Goldberg on his shoulders for Bagwell to deliver the blockbuster and Luger got the pin. They sold the retirement huge for a few seconds, and then once the main event started, never talked about it again. They showed some fans who seemed shocked, and the building went quiet because people weren't expecting it. **½

How do you like this booking for Goldberg? What would you change?

10. Scott Steiner (Scott Rechsteiner) retained the WCW title over Sid Vicious (Sid Eudy) and Jeff Jarrett in 7:53. The show was way long at this point. The match consisted of them doubling on Sid, and Sid making the most pathetic comebacks. Steiner hit him once with the belt. Sid did a double suplex and nearly killed Jarrett in the process, dropping him almost on his head. Sid choke slammed Jarrett but Steiner saved, and cobra slammed Steiner but Jarrett saved. Flair's music played and the mystery man came out. By this time Sid had broken his leg and was on the ground immobile. The mystery man weakly attacked Sid and had Steiner pin him, then unmasked as Animal. -**

Have you seen the video of Sid breaking his leg and if so, is that one of the worst things you’ve seen?

With the new ownership, the WCW Sin show had a chance to be the start of a new beginning. With everyone nervous about their jobs, it figured to have the strongest workrate of any WCW show in a long time. And it did. About halfway through the card, it seemed like the show almost harkened back to the glory days of WCW (1996-98) with strong undercards. The question was the main events. The old WCW PPV shows often had bad main events, but they were matches that were built up well and drew money. WCW has no matches that will draw money, so it's important to have strong main events, which is what more often than not what WWF delivered as its buy rates climbed.

Instead, the main event was a disaster, and not just because Sid Vicious suffered one of the most physically graphic injuries in the recent history of sports. It was more sickening visually because of the angle the leg snapped into than even the famed Joe Theisman footage from another era which is something every sports fan who saw it will remember for the rest of their lives, and this isn't something anyone who saw it will ever forget. The injury ended up as a compound fracture of the lower leg, snapping both the fibula and the tibia, that required two hours of surgery the next morning which included inserting a 43 centimeter rod in his leg and will keep him out of action six to eight months. This forced the match to end two minutes after Vicious came off the top rope to deliver a kick to Steiner with his right foot, but landed poorly on his left foot and the leg snapped, and then bent sideways in a 45 degree angle, a sickening scene that aired on Nitro the next night. Bischoff went back-and-forth on whether or not to air the footage but ultimately decided to. The cameras not only missed it on PPV since at that point the focus was on Ric Flair opening up the car door for the mystery man. When the cameras got back in the ring, Sid was strangely laying on the ground immobile. There was no explanation for Sid's condition by the announcers nor was anything said about it before the show went off the air. The show ended revealing Road Warrior Animal instead of the originally planned Rick Steiner as the mystery man, a decision made largely because the feeling was too many people expected it to be Steiner, but that kind of booking because one or two percent of the audience knows and changing stories for that reason is a Russo mindset that they need to get away from. But the match was terrible before Sid was injured, with some of the most pathetic looking offense ever seen. Bischoff told the wrestlers the next day that they found out that Vicious had a broken back that he didn't even know about. Vicious was in incredible pain and his lower leg actually had to be held in place to keep it from flopping sideways. But forgetting about the injury, it's one thing to have a bad main event in the ring that draws money, although past experience shows that ultimately hurts in the long-run. It's another to have one even worse that doesn't.

The match, billed as a four-way, ended up as a three-way as the mystery man simply didn't arrive with Ric Flair announcing he would show up at some point. With Sid lying on the ground immobile with the legit broken leg, they had to send the huge man in the K-Mart Halloween costume out early. Once he got there, he weakly attacked Sid with a kick as a swerve and told Steiner to pin him, which he did. He then unmasked, revealing Animal. Fans seemed to recognize who he was, but there was no major pop for his identity. Probably people couldn't believe that was it for the main event after such a strong show up to that point. They did recognize that Vicious seemed injured legit and he was carried out on a stretcher, with the bone protruding through the skin and a lot of blood everywhere.

The original plan was for Sid to make a comeback, have Steiner up for the choke slam when the mystery man would come down. Everyone would freeze and the guy would tell Sid to choke slam Steiner, but when he did, he'd turn on Sid and do something that would allow Steiner to make the pin. Even with that original plan, it was still Animal (the older brother of WCW booker Johnny Ace), 41, as the big surprise, another 80s name, in a company that desperately needs to reinvent itself from its current perception as a company featuring outdated talent on top.

About the only other possible negative on what was otherwise a strong show was the Goldberg retirement, after being pinned in a tag match with Dewayne Bruce against Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell due to being maced by a planted fan whose identity was set up earlier in the show. Fans didn't expect the finish so it had the shock going for it. The problem is, the fake retirement angle is perhaps the most passe thing in wrestling, particularly in WCW. Nobody takes it seriously and it only reminds fans of the kind of booking that they hate. Like the Choshu-Hashimoto finish at the Tokyo Dome, this finish in the long-run may have done more damage than all the positive that the strong card delivered. If anything WCW needs to do now is create a bond with its audience by "playing fair." Don't advertise what isn't going to be delivered. The company has to consistently present good shows. They have to give the fans what they want ultimately in the storyline, that is, their favorites with whatever fans' today consider as cool qualities eventually prevailing over their enemies. Of course, enemies should build heat to lead to the end result, but the fans patience in waiting for the payoff has to be justified and there has to be an ending or fans will see it as the same old product that they turned away in droves from over the past two plus years. I don't know of anything worse than reminding people of the booking they hate with the fake retirement angle. Granted, they had to do something with Goldberg since the current angle was going nowhere, and they had booked themselves into a corner, but there is always justification for this stuff. The top babyface retiring and coming back was big business decades ago, but it's been bastardized so badly in the last 18 months to the point that the WWF's latest thought process is that even if Shawn Michaels is retiring, they won't promote a farewell match because they recognize that nobody will believe it anyway. Eric Bischoff talked about eliminating foul language from the shows. The word retirement right now in pro wrestling, because of the sins of past bookers, should be considered foul language more than the word ass.

The show exemplified what has become the conventional wisdom of people analyzing WCW with the new ownership. That the potential is there with signing some new people and mixing them in with wrestlers already on the roster to have great undercards. The company hasn't had them, but the talent is there if bookers booked people based on who likely would deliver good matches with each other as opposed to throwing people together without thinking about that aspect. A positive sign was the crowd. The crowd was hardly hot for the prelim matches with wrestlers that aren't over, but the workrate got the crowd into the show and fans enjoyed the good matches that were worked largely without gimmicks, and most without the interference that had been considered a staple of every match by the bookers. There was super heat once they got to the semifinal with Goldberg.

What did you think of WCW Sin? And did you watch it as it aired?

(OPTIONAL IF NEEDED: THE NEXT NIGHT ON NITRO)

WCW: Nitro from 1/15 in Fort Wayne, IN had both very strong and very weak points. The strong points were the work rate of the wrestlers. Everyone had their working shoes on. The guys who usually have lousy matches actually had decent to good matches. The guys you'd expect to have good bouts had closer to excellent bouts. O'Haire in particular and Palumbo to a lesser extent are starting to get over as real players and the crowd enthusiasm was strong, particularly for Steiner vs. Nash and 3 Count vs. Misterio Jr. & Kidman (who had an excellent TV match). The bad news is from a booking standpoint, the product showed no improvement or building for the future. The opening segment was just like the last Bischoff/Russo return with new sides being drawn. Instead of New Blood vs. MC, it's Flair's team against Nash's team. And all the big-time players on both teams with only two exceptions were either past 40 or closing in on it, but hopefully that will be rectified in particular with O'Haire moved up. The good guys were led by Nash, Page and Rick Steiner (with virtually no build-up as they just needed to find a slot for him after changing his angle) while the bad guys were Flair, Animal, Steiner, Bagwell, Luger and Jarrett. This was the perfect opportunity to put new faces, whether it be Awesome, Konnan (who should be apart from the FA's because they seem to be keeping the cruiserweights in their own division which is a positive), Rection or O'Haire in with the big boys instead of guys like Animal or Rick Steiner who serve no purpose and just serve as "blocks." This is a term from when New Japan was wanting to get rid of some good talent that had good matches and was closing in on 40 and I couldn't understand why and it was explained because their star power blocked the ascension of the younger guys and that's the life-blood of the business--by the way, they couldn't pull the trigger on those guys and the problems they expected kind of happened which stagnated in particular Iizuka until this year and Nogami, who is a great talent with lots of charisma although his problem is he's only working part-time, even to this day. The opening segment had all the guys mentioned come out, with the heels doing a mock funeral of Goldberg's career. Flair just showed up as a heel as if everyone had read the internet that he turned and he was the one who screwed Goldberg and it wasn't that Animal and Steiner conspired against Flair but that Flair was in on it. He did explain that much on TV, but he never explained to the actual fans why, although he did explain that it was a long-term plan. The segment lasted 30 minutes and could have taken half that time. The mic work couldn't touch WWF segments of the same length, and they're too long as well. Much of the show consisted of bumpers of Flair trying to recruit people to join the team. The problem is the last time Flair was commissioner (basic came sole, just a semantic change as CEO) and went heel in early 1999, that was the exact period the ratings and buy rates started their free-fall under Nash. Flair is great at the mechanics of being a heel because of all his experience and as an actor in that role is, when inspired, phenomenal. The only problem is, nobody wants to boo him, because he's in his 50s and everyone respects what he's done. Whenever they turn him, they just castrate his value. In 1999, he, as a face, was worth about a 500,000 viewer bump in audience every time he was a focal point of the show. As a heel, his value to the ratings was tiny, and the overall show ratings plummeted during that period. I always point to the Perro Aguayo comparison in Mexico. Aguayo was a heel most of his prime career, but when he got old and went face, even when they tried to turn him, it never worked, because he was the living legend by then so they never fought it and from his mid-40s to mid-50s was actually the biggest drawing card in the entire country most of that time. Right now he actually could go heel because he's finally got the people pissed at him over the bogus retirement deal, but this is the first time he could have effectively done that since probably the mid-80s. The biggest problem with the Flair as a heel role not working is the person who doesn't recognize it more than anyone is Flair himself, and since he can talk with management so well, he always convinces them he's ready for his next heel run because technically in that role he can put faces over better than almost anyone, which is true. It's just that it's not what people want to see. Watch next week in Winston-Salem and see how dead it is when they come to see a product where they are supposed to boo Flair. Ultimately, Steiner may end up as the leader of the group. Flair tried to recruit Crowbar, who turned him down. Guerrero pinned Crowbar with a brainbuster to keep the cruiserweight title. Guerrero came across like an undercard superstar in this match. Crowbar's punch/kick offense needs work, but he works hard and did a great Northern Lights suplex spot for a near fall as well as a splash off the apron to the floor. Daffney has got to go. Luger recruited Bigelow. Well, he does fit the age requirement. Misterio Jr. & Kidman beat 3 Count in about as good a match as you can put on in just 3:15. Incredible dives and great wrestling. Moore was the best performer on either Monday show, and Misterio Jr. did a corkscrew quebrada, the riskiest move he's done in a while, and with his knees, that was kind of scary to watch. Not only that, the crowd popped huge for the finish with Kidman using the Kid crusher on Helms. Team Canada came out for a 3-on-2 on the FA's and Konnan never showed up for the save. Storm tried to set up Awesome vs. Kidman in a hair vs. hair match for later in the show. Kidman agreed to it. After the commercial, Team Canada attacked Kidman some more. The doctor told Kidman he couldn't wrestle, so Konnan agreed to take his place. When it was noted that Konnan had no hair, he agreed to wrestle with Kidman's hair at stake. Flair tried to recruit Guerrero, talking about old-time drinking binges he used to go on with Chavo's father. He didn't make a decision. O'Haire & Palumbo beat Kronik in a tag title match. They got about as good a match out of Kronik as you can. To Kronik's credit, they worked harder knowing everyone's job is on the line. Adams even did his first high dropkick since the 80s and Clark did a rolling bodyblock off the apron. Match went 7:25, and if you consider the Misterio match went 3:15 and what makes sense for both matches, you see a problem. O'Haire looked great, in particular doing a backflip off the top rope and following it up with a crescent kick. Adams tried a super fisherman buster that was so clumsy that I was scared in the landing he was going to wind up like Sid. Jindrak & Stasiak came out and attacked Clark allowing O'Haire to give Adams a Shawnton bomb and Palumbo pinned him. O'Haire & Palumbo were ungrateful, yelling at them for getting in their spotlight and that they had the match won on their own. Konnan beat Awesome with a DDT off the top rope in the hair match. Earlier, Konnan kicked out of the frog splash. The announcers sounded pissed and shocked about that, forgetting that the stipulation had already been explained in an earlier vignette. Great heat and a really good match. Before the match started, Flair explained that if Konnan lost, Kidman would get his head shaved. The bad part is that Konnan took the scissors and started cutting a little of Awesome's hair in the back, then Team Canada saved, so Awesome really lost virtually no hair in the bargain. They still haven't understood about screwing fans on advertised stips means that stips stop drawing money. They now do stips just to jack themselves off not realizing the whole idea of stipulation matches is in some form to build to a blow-off that draws in some form, and if fans don't believe the stips will be upheld, the stips are rendered useless. Cat pinned Bigelow quickly with a crescent kick. The key positive in this one was the term quickly. Douglas pinned Rection after Guerrero hit Rection with a chain to keep the U.S. title. With Chavo as kind of the cruisers, it serves no purpose for him to work a program with Rection, but the interview seemed to indicate that was where they were going. Rection also said he didn't want to be either General Rection or Hugh Morrus anymore. The Steiner vs. Nash title match had amazing heat, but ended with the heel run-in DQ and face save involving everyone in the open of the show

Questions

Arguk the Butcher asks….Out of all the WCW superstars who’ve branched out on their own and left wrestling in their rear view, why haven’t more sold replicas of their genitals like Major Guns does these days? “Meng’s Thing” practically sells itself #AskEric

Jim asks... What makes a successful faction? #AskEric

Matt Guerra asks...Why did WCW decide to drop the Souled out pay per view name? #AskEric

Matt asks...What was with the red WCW logo? Was it a 2nd logo, an alternate or the eventual new logo? #AskEric

Chris asks...#AskEric what was WCWs biggest Sin