Scott Steiner deserves an Emmy for that "retirement" speech he gave Monday night. I didn't know he could act that good.

Big Poppa Pump really had me going as he shed tears accompanied by a "Scotty, Scotty" chant from the Astrodome crowd. Well, he had me for a few minutes anyway. That is until the NW0 came out and mocked him. Then I knew it was a work. I just figured that later on in the show, Steiner would turn heel and join NW0. So when it did happen, it sort of felt anticlimatic to me.

It was a fun swerve and WCW has gotten a fair amount of praise for it. In the short term, I think it's going to help. But in the long term, I don't think so. First of all, it would have been much more effective without the NW0 mocking Steiner's apparent shoot interview. The shock value of the heel turn would have been more dramatic. Yeah, I know the fans showered the ring with beer. Even so, it just came off flat to me. I think this yet another case of Vince Russo playing to the Internet fans.

Let’s look at the big picture for a moment. Russo blew a big chance to make Steiner a huge babyface. The crowd was ready to accept him as such. The stage had been set because Steiner had a legitimate injury. He did a shoot interview from his home a few months ago. But just like with Buff Bagwell, WCW decided on a swerve. Now the opportunity is gone.

Also, this swerve was not near as compelling as the one last week in which the NW0 was reborn.

Furthermore, it ruins any chance of a heel coming back from a legitimate injury as a babyface. The said heel could give a "real shoot" (as my friend Lady Diamond Cutter would put it) interview and the crowds aren't going to buy it. Not anymore. You can only swerve the fans so much. Look where Bagwell is now. He's mired in the mid-card. Sure he has a program going with DDP, but he's going to be jobbed out. Steiner is now the fourth or fifth banana in the NW0.

Perhaps the motivation of Russo was to get the reformed NW0 over as heels. I don't know. But WCW is a little short on babyfaces with Bill Goldberg and Sting on the shelf. Steiner would have been an effective addition. The fans were ready to accept him as a babyface. Now it's too late.

As usual, Nitro had its share of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Since I tend to be sarcastic, excepting my "real shoot" above, let’s start out with the ugly. That match between Bam Bam Bigelow and Brian Knobbs was as bad as it gets. Actually, it probably wasn't that bad if only we could have SEEN it. Where on earth were the cameras when the match went up into the crowd? The only thing entertaining was Chris Kanyon's roving commentary, especially when he told the "marks" to get out of the way.

The Lethal Lottery was simply horrible. Of course it was anything BUT a lottery. The formula had established tag teams pitted against teams whose members have angles with each other. This came across as obviously contrived and clumsy. Russo appears to be saying the tag team titles are worthless. He's already dumped the TV title, which has been around for decades and kept the cruiserweight title, which really IS meaningless.

Poor Vampiro. One of the best workers in the business, he keeps getting put in some awful segments. That match pitting him and Evan Karagias against David Flair and the Maestro was as bad as it gets. I would have liked it better if Vampiro had simply laid out Three Count as it looked like he was going to do before the match. I don't see what Flair's gimmick has to do with wrestling. I just hope this angle doesn't ruin Devon Storm, who has tons of talent.

As for the good, the pair of legs on Lenny and Lodi's "secretary" is as good as it gets! I can only hope that Lenny and Lodi are used in a more effective fashion than their Standards and Practices gimmick.

More good news is the apparent end of the Powers That Be angle. Russo and Ed Ferrara need to do the booking and stay off the camera. At least they won't be putting themselves over at the expense of the wrestlers.

The Lethal Lottery matches were train wrecks with teammates fighting each other as well as their opponents. So in the midst of what I think is an awful concept, there were some real nuggets. I liked Jim Duggan's run in that helped Buzzkill's team advance. Duggan really is over with the crowds.

Midnight looked good in her team's win over Harlem Heat. But enough with the Booker T and Stevie Ray crap. How many times are these guys going to split and make up?

PG-13 really bumped good for Rick Steiner during and after the match. Billy Silverman reversed the decision and awarded the match to PG-13 after Steiner refused to quit pounding on them. What? Postmatch beatings take place all the time. Why a DQ in this one?

That was one cool belly-to-belly suplex Asya did on Norman Smiley after their team was victorious. Smiley's gimmick is working. It's just that funny.

The Harris Boys winning over Meng and Fit Finlay was lame. Creative Control was working big time. So why change these guys from suits into bikers? We get a count out because Meng and Finlay fight all the way to the back. What a waste.

Buff Bagwell and Kanyon advanced after Disco Inferno nailed Big Vito with a rolled up chain meant for Bagwell. Kanyon had walked out on Bagwell earlier in the match. The postmatch festivities saw Disco wonk Bagwell with a chain on orders from Tony Marinara. So much pointless action.

We all know what happened in the main event tag team match. The Wall needs to go. He's couldn't be more unover. Kevin Nash won with the compulsory NW0 interference. Well, who is his partner now? Chris Benoit tried to help postmatch but Scott Steiner's turn made the heels rule.

Back to the good things. That was a cute little segment when Nash had words with a ringside production assistant about not going to a commercial. Then the Jeff Jarrett guitar shot on the poor guy topped it off.

They're obviously trying to get Tank Abbott over as a shoot-fighting nut that destroys opponents. Kind of like his real life UFC backrground. It just might work as long as he doesn't hurt anyone.

What was the point of having Curt Hennig run in on the NW0 and getting tossed onto the hood of Sid's vandalized rental car? Hennig must be in the doghouse, too. It sure does seem like a lot of the good workers are getting buried.

And what did Jerry Flynn do to earn a title shot against Bret Hart? Come to think of it, none of the titles really mean anything anymore. The only important "title" is being over. Now back to the match. Someone in WCW please explain why Hart needed a run-in to defeat a glorified jobber. That's what you call bad booking.

I like Perry Saturn's goofy gimmick within the Revolution's anti-USA gimmick. In fact, I almost like Dean Malenko's reactions to it even better. Malenko has improved leaps and bounds in developing charisma.

Billy Kidman versus Jarrett for the U.S title was well worked but you just knew it would be spoiled by the NW0 run-in. The funniest part of the match was Bobby Heenan's commentary when Kidman reversed a Jarrett powerbomb attempt. Heenan gushed that he had never seen anything like that before. Heenan has taken some heat over that from other Internet writers but I think he was just being sarcastic.

Lex Luger was hilarious in his Sting gimmick again, saying, "the Total Package kicked my ass." The black roses must mean an impending return by Sting. Hurry on back.

Finally, the new NW0 monster truck was running over Sid's car as the show went off the air. Did Sid survive? Stay tuned.

Happy New Year to all of you.