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GOOD, BAD AND UGLY FOR WCW SLAMBORRE
INTRODUCTION
We were fed a WCW PPV coming off the back of some
interesting WCW developments. About a month before the
New Blood had arrived on the scene to feud with the
Millionaires Club (headed by Hogan). After a
reasonably good Spring Stampede PPV DDP was set up as
the main contender to Jeff Jarrett's world title. Over
the course of the next few Nitro's and Thunder's WCW
incorporated Ready To Rumble movie star David Arquette
into the JJ-DDP feud. This eventually culminated in
what all Online fans detested; the infamous Arquette
world title reign. On Nitro the week before, Booker T
was power bombed through a table by Mike Awesome,
injuring him and eliminating the Scott Steiner vs.
Booker T match from the show.
THE GOOD
Chris Candido. After a difficult start to his WCW
career Candido has finally found his own. He carried
The Artist to a pretty impressive opener which also
saw Tammy Sytch get stripped to her underwear (she was
wearing what can only be compared to grandma
underwear). There were numerous highspots in the
Candido-Artist match, but Candido's impressiveness was
really fortified when he had to improvise after Artist
blew sopt after spot. Top performance, by Candido,
here.
Incredible bump by Kanyon. I suppose you think I'm
some kind of a sadist in mentioning this, but it was a
decent bump. The Mick Foley-esque bump took place
after the Triple Threat cage match, after Mike Awesome
had literally thrown him off the top of the cage and
through the ring entrance ramp. The camera work was
less than impressive though, at this point, when the
camera men caught the spot on a bad angle.
Triple Cage match I'll admit to having thought this
one would be a pretty bad idea. The mere thought of it
having originated from the Ready To Rumble flop made
me turn off from the idea. Thankfully I was wrong. We
ended up witnessing a *** brawl which definitely had
its interesting moments. There were ladders and tables
in the cage. The ladders were needed to climb up to
the second cage. That cage had tables, chairs, garbage
cans, and other worldly items in it; they called it
the hard-core cage. The top cage was a little job with
several guitars in it. Well Jarrett won in the end
after Arquette turned heel. Looks like another
pointless Jarrett title reign.
THE BAD
Jarrett's title reign. I'm sorry but this is just a
plain bad idea. I do not think Jeff's the man to carry
the promotion, but then again is DDP? If I were WCW I
would strongly think about putting the title around
the waist of someone like Sting, Ric Flair or
Goldberg. At least then you know you've got it round
the waist of a company man, who can possible bring
back the prestige that the world title so justly
deserves. At least Jarrett won it in a decent match.
The Artist. Many people have ripped this guy a new
asshole recently, and rightly so. The gimmick sucks
and he's got limited wrestling talent. This was
evident in his crusierweight title match against Chris
Candido, when he blew spot after spot. I fthey insist
on promoting the Artist as a possible crusierweight
champion for godsake give him a new gimmick!
THE UGLY
Ralphus I'm opting for one person here. Needless to
say this guy almost makes you sick every time he's on
screen, but I suppose that's his gimmick. This time he
came back to side with Norman Smiley in a hard-core
match and against the hard-core legend Terry Funk.
Need I say more?
THE TOP PERFORMERS
1. Mike Awesome - Making leaps of progress since
arriving from ECW.
2. Kanyon - He's hard-core, he's hard-core. But don't
forget his good match against the aforementioned Mike
Awesome.
3. Chris Candido - Great wrestling ability. Should
start making real progress with his new role in the
New Blood.
THE RATINGS
This is what I thought of all the matches, ranked from
top to bottom.
1. DDP vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. David Arquette - ***
2. Chris Candido vs. The Artist - ***
3. Mike Awesome vs. Kanyon - **3/4
4. Ric Flair vs. Shane Douglas - **3/4
5. Shawn Stasiak vs. Curt Henning - **1/2
6. Sting vs. Vampiro - **1/2
7. Hulk Hogan vs. Kidman - **1/2
8. Terry Funk vs. Noman Smiley and Ralphus - *
9. Lex Luger vs. Buff Bagwell - DUD
10. Scott Stenier vs. Hugn Morrus - DUD
THE BOTTOM LINES
Two three star matches isn't all that bad for a WCW
PPV of late. But there is no excuse for some really
bad performances and two DUD (including the US
championship match). Hulk Hogan was carried to his
best match for three years. Thanks to another dodgy
title change by WCW, Scott Stenier really isn't doing
the US Championship any justice. I'm sorry Mr Russo
but renaming someone Hugh G Rection just isn't going
to cut it all in the PPV world.
Overall Show Rating: **
Chris Anderson
freelance
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