This just in. In a interview with ESPN SportsCenter, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar has announced that he has resigned to a “multi-year” contract with WWE.
This is HUGE news heading into Wrestlemania. With Brock Lesnar being booked seemingly to pass the torch to Roman Reigns, this news now suddenly changes the picture. Now in a recent report by wrestling sites, WWE is said to be debating with the idea of having Brock retain the championship at the biggest show of the year. It’s said that with Roman Reigns’ push going badly, that Triple H is thinking of possibly postponing the win and having Lesnar go over to add shock value to this seemingly predictable main event. Particularly if Lesnar was resigning as we now know, is reality.
This is a fantastic deal for WWE. If WWE do in fact see UFC as competition, then retaining such a huge draw like Brock Lesnar is a major coup for the WWE. This also provides Lesnar with a lot of opportunities with wrestlers to work with. Two be honest, there were a lot of opportunities for him to wrestle all kinds of guys. Instead, he’s wrestled Cena and Triple H 3 teams, veterans like Big Show and Undertaker. The only stand-out performers he’s been able to work with are CM Punk and Seth Rollins. The new talent coming through NXT now have a huge chance to wrestle Brock Lesnar. Randy Orton, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt and even Dolph Ziggler all have this amazing chance to get in the ring with the Beast Incarnate.
Now the question is… will this heavily impact the main event of Wrestlemania? How do you think the Wrestlemania main event will finish? Leave a comment below and vote on the poll on what YOU think will happen?
2006 was a… odd year in WWE. Odd in that there was a lot of noise and buzz to get excited about, but not a lot of action. I mean, it was a momentous year with DX reuiniting, the Rey Mysterio underdog title reign etc. But ultimately, it didn’t pay off as well as WWE anticipated. Mysterio look incredibly weak as champion and DX wasn’t quite the same as it was before. And with the exceptions of like Kurt Angle vs Undertaker at No Way Out, there wasn’t a lot of marque quality matches to shout about in WWE at this time. However, one match that really stood out from this year was perhaps the genesis of the completely new direction for John Cena and the spawn of something that was supposed to be… EXTREMELY beautiful. Yes, it was the Hammerstein Ballroom. Yes, it was One Night Stand. And yes, it was Rob Van Dam vs John Cena for the WWE Championship.
With ECW coming back full-time, WWE had to do something in order to make seem as legitimate competition to RAW and SmackDown! So along with big-names like Big Show and Kurt Angle, they returned Rob Van Dam to the land of extreme. But there was one HUGE factor that made this move all the more interesting, RVD’s Money In The Bank contract.
RVD successfully captured the Money In The Bank briefcase at Wrestlemania 22, with the chance to cash in for any world championship at any time. But what made this cash-in all the more intriguing was the decision by Van Dam to let the champion he planned to cash-in on, John Cena, know in advance when the title match would take place – ECW One Night Stand 2006.
With the title match for the WWE Championship in the place, Van Dam had the chance to not only become the first ECW Champion of the new ECW but also win the WWE Title for the first time and hold both belts at the same time. John Cena was not gonna let that happen, but the Doctor of Thuganomics got more than he bargained for at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Sometimes the crowd really does make the match. Sometimes a match can be considered a five star match, purely because of the fan response to it. Think of Hollywood Hogan vs The Rock at Wrestlemania 18. One of the most memorable matches in Wrestlemania history. A technical classic? Far from. But the fans didn’t care. The fans MADE that match extraordinary. The anti-Rock crowd and the extremely over Hogan set a new standard into fans cheering who they wanna cheer for, no matter if they’re the good guy or the bad guy. However, Van Dam vs Cena was not good vs evil and they just didn’t like the god guy, the fans just REALLY didn’t like Cena!
Cena had been booed at the Hall of Fame that year and was the less-than-favorable fan favorite in his match with Triple H at Wrestlemania, but these fans oozed with hate for Cena. A true indicator of a huge minority that disapproved of good old John Cena. These fans MADE this match.
However, I’m not taking away anything from Cena or RVD. This match was a very good match. Even if a lot of the match was just them standing and responding to the fans, there was a lot to like about this one.
Now the finish. The referee was down when the table was set up in the corner. As Cena was getting Van Dam up, a man in a biker helmet and jacket speared Cena through the table. Surprise, surprise, it was Edge!
Edge was the number one contender for the WWE Title for the Vengeance PPV and earlier on in the show, led an anti-ECW tirade with Lita and Mick Foley. So it was amazing how the ECW faithful had suddenly forgiven him with “Thank You Edge” chants! But this moment wasn’t Edge’s, it was Van Dam’s…
As RVD hit the Frog Splash and Tazz pretty much said “Alright, we’ll take it!”, there was no referee. That was when the creator of ECW, Paul Heyman, ran down to make the count and Van Dam was declared the winner.
Van Dam had won his first World title and what a night to do it on. This was a TRUE ECW moment, even if it was a WWE product at the time. At this moment, ECW was on top of the world, and Van Dam was the King of Extreme!
If you were to ask me what I thought the match of the year was in 2006, I’d tell you it was this one. Strong contenders include Kurt Angle’s matches with Samoa Joe and Undertaker this year, but this match had the good in-ring action, a quality finish and a fanbase that just made this moment magical. And it was a true game-changer for the Cena character. Gone was the idea that Cena was beloved by all. The only thing that was beloved at that moment was ECW…
So the developmental territory for my game has been a huge success with regards to a few wrestlers that I signed at the start of the game. Guys like AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy and Jamie Noble that started off with little overness but quickly became the top stars of the business. Hell, AJ Styles is the WCW Television Champion and a completely game-generated character, Silvio Maldini, is the WCW Cruiserweight Champion (as of Fall Brawl 2000). It’s been a huge success for me.
However, the developmental is currently low on numbers with regards to the talent. So I went into free agency and picked up some guys that I legitimately felt could become valuable assets to the product. A lot of those guys I wanted had Japanese bookings which was annoying, because wrestlers with those bookings are limited to how much they can work for you. Say if I wanted to sign Taz, who’s signed with Zero-One in the game. For the dates that Zero-One is on, I wouldn’t be able to use Taz on my show. That would come to be a pain if Taz was in a feud and becomes unavailable for a PPV or something.
Anyway, I was looking around the free agency. Then I found a wrestler called Daniel Biggerstaff… Yep, this was a real wrestler that I found on this mod! This man had the WORST ratings in the game, regarding speed, charisma, technical skill etc. Check him out below.
Now the US calls itself the Land of Opportunity, so it would be great for old WCW to give Biggerstaff a shot. After all, he has the marque name. The type of name that you could put on a T-Shirt. The type of name that will strike fear in the hearts of wrestler everywhere. Everybody would want a bit of the Biggerstaff….
So I decided to give Biggerstaff a 12 month Developmental deal with WCW at the Power Plant. The developmental territory that got so many stars in my game to stardom. Can they do the same with Daniel Biggerstaff?
So starting after Halloween Havoc is posted up, we will be having a Biggerstaffometer. We will be updating you with the ratings of Biggerstaff in developmental as they are updated by your head writer at the start of each month. We will see how far the worst wrestler in the game can rise in WCW!
Halloween Havoc has been booked by the way in my game, so expect to see that uploaded this week some time.
—————————————
Before I leave, thoughts and prayers to the family of Perro Aguayo Jr, the wrestler that died in the match in AAA featuring Rey Mysterio. It’s a tragic event in the world of professional wrestling. It’s a reminder that wrestling is a hard-hitting, dangerous profession who take real risks that unfortunately can end badly. So to those people STILL saying that wrestling is fake, try telling that to the family of this talented athlete. Wrestling is one of the most physically demanding professions out there and these wrestlers give it their all just to make sure we get a good show.
Now I’m sure you’re well aware that the results for the last match is blocked out. Well for a match this important, I feel I have to build up the suspense for it!
Pre-Show – Kensuke Sasaki def. La Parka in a hardcore match
Yep, Kensuke Sasaki vs La Parka got a 87% overall for me! That’s pretty insane! Like with the Road Wild pre-show, this did well on TV so I gave them the chance to shine on the pre-show. And it was a pretty strong showing. La Parka is getting really over and with Sasaki’s overness dropping, this is a great way to build him back up. If it weren’t for the rest of the card, this would have been one of the strongest matches! It beat two matches on the actual show in the ratings and got a 100% match quality! Well done guys!
Match 1 – Piper’s Pit w/Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair
Piper’s Pit with the two Co-Presidents just before the big main event tonight. A bit of an debate with Piper moderating… that’s probably the first time somebody’s ever said that! It gave me a 97% so an actual angle on a PPV gave me ratings for once!
Match 2 – Jeff Hardy def. Keiji Mutoh. If Jeff Hardy wins, Keiji Mutoh is no longer the leader of Asian Invasion. If Keiji Mutoh won, Jeff Hardy must be his servant for one year.
I figured that since their match did so well last time, that it would be cool to do it again on PPV. I also added the Asian Invasion stipulation because Mutoh’s been really surpassed by the other members of the group in overness. They’ll had a bit of hit (except Low-Ki which we’ll get onto later) but Mutoh’s has been REALLY bad! So I put in the stipulation so that someboby like Tajiri could take over maybe. But I just felt Mutoh had to be demoted or something. I’m not sure what to do with the group to be honest, so Mutoh being dropped as the leader might freshen things up again. We’ll see.
Match 3 – Tajiri and Low-Ki def. Ultimo Dragon and Dean Malenko
You guys like cruiserweights? The Asian Invasion members Tajiri and Low-Ki knock off Ultimo Dragon and Dean Malenko in a tag team match. Low-Ki’s really sprung up the rankings in WCW and Tajiri was kinda maintaining his overness as well, despite losing the cruiserweight title at Road Wild. I’d like to see if this Tajiri/Low-Ki tag team goes anywhere because there’s a lot of potential and could make a good feud for the tag team titles.
Match 4 – “Diamond Enforcers” Diamond Dallas Page (c) and Arn Anderson (c) def. Scott Steiner and Jamie Noble in a hardcore tag team match to retain the WCW Tag Team Championship
Sadly the Steiner System weren’t able to bring home the gold for the stable, as Arn Anderson and DDP retained the tag titles. However, both teams are now really over after this feud. Jamie Noble especially is insanely over at the moment. The young stud of the Steiner System could be coming into his own…
Match 5 – Silvio Maldini def. Rey Mysterio (c) to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Just to let everybody know, Silvio Maldini is actually an original EWR wrestler that was actually generated from the company’s training camp. I shot him into developmental as soon as he arrived and he just got insanely over quick when he debuted on WCW. He’s a European cruiserweight with a lot of pace but not really much of anything… except charisma. This guys a very cocky son of a gun!
So this new developmental guy is now my cruiserweight champion! You may not know who he is, but his in-game stats are pretty incredible… even if he isn’t a really wrestler. He’s got a lot of potential and is more over than Mysterio so why not have him win the title? Not sure how long it’s going to last. All I know is that with a 90% overall including a 100% match quality, Silvio Maldini has got the potential to be a big star…
Match 6 – AJ Styles (c) def. Steven Regal via DQ to win the WCW Television Championship
99%! Yes! A 99% crowd reaction, but a 100% match quality! Insane results from these two! This might actually be the highest rated match we’ve ever had in the series! AJ and Regal… are money! So about the finish, Piper inadvertently cost Regal the match by attacking AJ with the belt, causing a DQ. AJ would then lay them both out and pose with the belt at the event!
Match 7 – Raven def. Rob Van Dam (c) to win the WCW International Championship
NEW CHAMPION! Raven ends the glorious reign of Rob Van Dam as International Champion! Now I know what you’re thinking… why is Raven going after the International title right after losing the world title? Well it’s not really a demotion in my eyes. The International title is just as over as the WCW Title in the game! So Raven holding onto that belt improves the prestige of it and it doesn’t take away from RVD’s reign either. 93%
Match 8 – “Team Flair” Hollywood Hogan, Sting, Chris Jericho and Booker T vs “Team Bischoff” Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit in an elimination match. Winner Takes All.
So the match. Hennig is eliminated like right away after Hogan quickly delivers the boot and the Leg Drop for the three count. Team Bischoff is in shock as they are already down a man in this elimination match. Sting is eliminated after a trip by Hennig allows Eddie to capitalize and deliver a brainbuster to even the score. Booker T pins Eddie after Jericho takes out the rest of the team flying off the top. Hogan is counted out after Bret nails him with the piledriver onto the stairs. Booker is pinned by Benoit who hits him with the WCW Title and makes him pass out with the Crossface. Jericho beats Benoit with the moonsault leaving just him and Bret. Jericho hits the lionsault but Bischoff takes out the ref and Bret capitalizes with a low blow to Jericho. Bischoff is about the hit Jericho with the chair but the lights go out. We hear this familiar sound next….
“Ooooooooooooo Yeah!”
The fans mark out as Randy Savage returns. He climbs to the top rope with the ref, Bret and Jericho all out. He delivers the elbow drop… to Hart! The fans cheer as Savage then drops Bischoff. He smacks Hennig and Eddie with the chair. He goes for Benoit but inadvertldy smacks Jericho. Savage and Benoit brawl to the back but as that happens, Bret covers Jericho. The ref gets up, makes the count and it’s over.
Booker T won the WCW Title at Bash At The Beach, when he knocked off Raven. Raven was incensed that he lost the WCW title again and said that Booker robbed him of his chance to leave a legacy behind as the most dominant champion of all time. Raven invoked his rematch clause for Road Wild which Flair allowed. But Flair wanted to spice up the WCW Title picture and decided to book Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho on Nitro – the winner would be added to the match and it would be a triple threat. Jericho won after Flair distracted Benoit. Jericho and Booker had problems working as a tag team which Raven has been taking advantage of for his own ends. Raven insists that their egos will be all the edge he needs to become champion once again.
Chris Benoit was incensed that Flair’s distraction cost him a shot at the WCW Title. Despite protests from his manager Paul Heyman, Benoit called Flair out for a brawl on Thunder, which spilled out to backstage and was later broken up. Benoit tried to goad Flair into facing him at Road Wild. Bischoff came out on Nitro and decided to allow Flair to have his match, as long as Bischoff had total control of WCW… until after the Flair/Benoit match. Flair agreed and Flair and Benoit was booked for the PPV.
Bret Hart won his match with Hollywood Hogan at Bash At The Beach, after Hogan got himself disqualified by hitting him with the chair. Per pre-match stipulation, Bret would be the special guest referee for the WCW Title match later on. As Bret was about to screw Booker T, Hogan made the save. Hogan would put on the ref shirt and deliver the count that crowned Booker T as the new champion. Bret decided that WCW wasn’t big enough for the both of them and that they should settle things until one of them is truly the last man standing. Hogan accepted the challenge, and the last man standing match was made for Road Wild.
Tajiri defended the cruiserweight title successfully in a hell of a fatal four way match against Ultimo Dragon, Rey Mysterio and Jamie Noble. However, the four decided to have an elimination match at Road Wild to decide just who truly is the greatest cruiserweight in WCW!
Pre-Show – Edge, Christian Cage and Jeff Hardy def. “Asian Invasion” Keiji Mutoh, Kensuke Sasaki and Low-Ki
So I kind of wanted to continue the pre-show little rivalry from Bash At The Beach. If you’ll recall, Jeff and Mutoh produced one of the best matches of the night with their pre-show match at the last PPV. This time, I wanted to spice things up. Edge and Christian were starting to get over on TV, so I had them team with Jeff in a six man tag against Mutoh and two of his Asian Invasion stable members Low-Ki and Kensuke Sasaki. Sadly, the pay-off for this wasn’t what I was hoping for. It was an OK rating for a pre-show match, but I was kind of hoping for a bit more. However, this gives Edge, Christian and Low-Ki PPV time, three guys who properly needed it.
Match 1 – Rob Van Dam (c) def. Curt Hennig in a Falls Count Anywhere match to retain the WCW International Championship
RVD retains in the rematch between these two from Bash At The Beach. With it being falls count anywhere match, these guys have the freedom to just do all kinds of special spots. I think this could be a great match for the International Title. RVD retains once more. Rob Van Dam has had a hell of a run as International Champion. Can anyone take the title from him?
Match 2 – Scott Steiner def. Sting
Sting taps out to Steiner. Now if anybody out there knows how many people have made Sting tap out in his career, I’d like to know. I know Kurt Angle tapped him out at TNA Sacrifice 2007 in the triple threat with Christian. Bret Hart at WCW Mayhem 1999 (talking about real WCW btw!). Flair might have made Sting tap out during their feud in the 80s. Other than that, I’ve drawn a blank. It’s hard to imagine someone like Sting tapping to anyone, to be honest. Steiner making him tap puts him over amazingly!
Match 3 – “The Diamond Enforcers” Diamond Dallas Page (c) and Arn Anderson (c) def. Rowdy Roddy Piper and Steven Regal in a hardcore tag team match to retain the WCW Tag Team Championship
DDP and Arn go over in their feud with the Legion. I don’t mind having DDP and Arn being the champions for now but I think when they drop the titles, it should be to a young and up-and-coming tag team. Someone like Edge and Christian, who are both getting over on TV. I think with Bigelow/Hennig, Hogan/Sting, Piper/Regal and now DDP and Arn Anderson winning the titles in the last year, a lot of old-timers are holding the tag titles. I think we need to look to the future a bit.
Match 4 – AJ Styles (c) def. Eddie Guerrero w/Paul Heyman in a ladder match to retain the WCW Television Championship
The Phenomenal AJ Styles retains the WCW TV title in a dramatic ladder match with Eddie. I assumed that Eddie might have been willing to take a sick bump, I really didn’t want to risk it with him. Eddie’s REALLY over and has a great thing going with Paul Heyman. But AJ goes over in what was the best match of the night as far as in-game ratings. A lovely little feud between AJ and Eddie that has helped elevated the TV title.
Match 5 – Rey Mysterio def. Yoshihiro Tajiri (c), Ultimo Dragon and Jamie Noble in an elimination fatal four way match to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Eliminations: Ultimo Dragon pins Jamie Noble (Rey takes out the interfering Haas Brothers which leads to Dragon hitting the Asai DDT for the pinfall), Tajiri pins Ultimo Dragon (Tajiri does the Green mist and the roll-up for the elimination, after Jushin Thunder Liger and Low-Ki tried to interfere), Rey Mysterio pins Tajiri (As all the stables and that brawl to the back, Rey hits the 619 for the win)
NEW CHAMP! Finally, we see the Cruiserweight title change hands on one of these PPVs! It’s so rare as I usually just do them on television. But with this feud, I figured that we needed to crown a new champion at Road Wild and Rey got the win. Dragon was highly considered because he was the most over wrestler in this feud I think. But Rey’s somebody that I’ve never really given anything to. He’s had feuds and stuff, but he’s not actually won a belt throughout this entire series. He goes over after beating Tajiri in the end. Very disappointed about this rating as the fatal four way between these four at Bash At The Beach did so well.
Match 6 – Chris Benoit def. Ric Flair
Well err… this was a mistake. I figured that with his high overness (he’s 100% over) Flair could pull out a great rating with the also over Benoit. However, the game didn’t see it that way! 68%! Bischoff came out as Flair had the figure four locked in. Bischoff declared that the current ref is no longer needed as referee and declares himself as the new referee. He walks down to the ring where Benoit manages to get out of the hold. Benoit locks in the crossface and Bischoff goes to tell the timekeeper to ring the bell. However, Flair rolls Benoit over and is able to kick Flair in the grapefruits to prevent it from happening. Flair breaks out, drops the leg and goes for the figure-four. However, Benoit rolls him up with the small package as Bischoff crawls over to perform the quick count. Now this match adds to the Ric Flair/Eric Bischoff Co-President storyline and I am currently figuring out the way to settle things with the two, probably at Fall Brawl.
Match 7 – Hollywood Hogan def. Bret Hart in a Last Man Standing match
The 75% from this match is really annoying, because I thought the story behind this feud was pretty decent. Bret Hart’s built-up frustration over not winning the WCW Title leads him to snap on the biggest babyface in history and tries to take out Hogan as part of a crusade against the fans really who’ve favored the likes of Booker T, Jericho and Hogan over him. This match is a pretty brutal match. These two are smacking each other with weapons. It’s really bloody. Hogan hulks up one last time, does the comeback. When Bret’s down, before hitting the leg drop, he constantly smacks Bret with the chair. He hits him like 20 times or so. It’s crazy. Then Hogan, who’s exhausted from this match, then hits the Leg Drop. He pulls himself up as he wins the match but then collapses again. Hogan is then raised up by Bret Hart but is then leveled with a chair shot to the head by Bret. Bret screams “You think you’ve won?” and then leaves groggily.
Match 8 – Booker T (c) def. Chris Jericho and Raven in a triple threat match to retain the WCW Championship
I really don’t get why this game doesn’t like triple threat matches. These three have very unique and different styles. Jericho’s a high-flying, technical guy. Booker’s a very unorthodox showman. Raven’s a very ECW, hardcore style brawler. But these three have had decent matches with each other singles match. That was my reasoning for making it a triple threat. That and I wanted to avoid two Booker T/Raven singles matches in a row. I’ve done it before in feuds, but I wanted to add more to this world title picture. Jericho was a former champion that Raven beat, so why not throw him in?
Booker T has been busting his ass for so many years to try and get a break in this business. Time after time though, Booker’s rise to the top has been shafted by one reason or another. However, Booker T finally earned himself the opportunity of a lifetime when he defeated Bret Hart and Chris Jericho in a triple threat match to earn a WCW Championship match at Slamboree. However, Booker would come up short in his WCW Title match with champion Raven and fellow challenger Bret Hart (Bret was interjected into the match after beating Eddie Guerrero earlier on in the evening). Booker’s performance in the triple threat impressed Ric Flair enough that he was given another shot at the title for the Great American Bash. However, Bret Hart was unhappy with this decision and attacked Booker T on Nitro. This attack ruled him out of the Great American Bash title match and Bret Hart took his place (Raven retained the title). However, Booker would not be denied and returned on the 4th of July Nitro to attack Raven and Bret Hart. It was shortly announced that Booker would finally get his one on one opportunity at Raven for the WCW Title at Bash At The Beach. Booker had his title shot. However, the plot thickens….
Bret Hart, as mentioned earlier, was put into the Great American Bash match as Booker’s replacement. However, in order to get into the match Bret agreed to a stipulation – if Bret lost, he would not get another WCW Title shot for ONE year! Despite a valiant effort, Bret came up short. Bret’s effort and desire got the applause following the match and the next night on Nitro. Bret came out sitting on a steel chair, seemingly about to quit the company. However, Hollywood Hogan came out from the back to prevent him from doing it. He got the fans to chant “We Want Bret”! Bret then embraced Hogan with a hug and declared that he was staying! Hogan and Bret began playing to the crowd, but when Hogan’s back was turned…. SMACK! Bret smacks Hogan with a chair and once again to the skull. Bret’s heel turn was finally cemented with a sickening attack to Hollywood Hogan. Bret said he knew at that moment why he needed to stay… to make sure that he would be champion next year and take out anybody that gets in his way. This eventually led to Hart vs Hogan being made for Bash At The Beach. However, with Bret’s vendetta towards Booker and intentions with the WCW Title in mind, Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff both agreed to a stipulation… the winner of that match would be the referee to the WCW World Title match later that night. Whoever wins will play a major role in the fate of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship…
WCW Cruiserweight Champion Yoshihiro Tajiri was into his second reign as champion, having beat AJ Styles at the start of May. However, his legitimacy as champion was called into question as Tajiri had not defended the belt since the Nitro of Champions special. With Tajiri already in violation of breaking the 30 day title defense rule, Ric Flair ordered that Tajiri defend the title on the Nitro after The Great American Bash or else he would be stripped of the title. In his title defense against Rey Mysterio, the match ended in a no contest with interference from Ultimo Dragon and the Steiner System’s Jamie Noble ruining the match. Constant interferences by all four cruiserweights resulted in a fiercely contested cruiserweight division and forced Ric Flair to book a fatal four way match for the title at Bash At The Beach.
WCW Television Champion Perry Saturn and his girlfriend Trish Stratus gloated on the Nitro after the Great American Bash, after retaining the TV title against Arn Anderson. Perry declared himself the greatest TV Champion of all time and there is nobody in the near future that would take the title from him. AJ Styles, who’s considered to be the future of WCW, came out to challenge Perry. Perry would jump AJ after Trish’s distraction which would lead to Perry deciding to put the belt on the line against AJ right now! A referee comes down to the ring and asks AJ if he wants to do the match, which AJ nods to. Perry is on offense most of this match but as he goes for Death Valley Driver, AJ counters into the Styles Clash for the pinfall to win the Television Title! Perry went to Ric Flair on Thunder, demanding a rematch at Bash At The Beach. Then in came Paul Heyman and one of his clients, Eddie Guerrero. They too wanted in this match so Flair made Saturn vs Eddie with the winner going onto Bash At The Beach. With the match ending in a draw, a triple threat was made for the PPV.
Pre-Show – Jeff Hardy def. Keiji Mutoh in a hardcore match
Jeff has been one of my secret TV projects which have worked their way up from developmental to the WCW main stage! Jeff got over pretty quickly since debuting on the main roster at the start of the year I think. This led to Keiji Mutoh demanding a match with him, which I gave him on Thunder. Mutoh would win by cheating but the match got a 91% on that show. So I booked it again for the Bash At The Beach pre-show. I’d hate to put Mutoh in the pre-show since it wasn’t too long ago that Mutoh competed for the WCW title! But since then, his overness and stock has dropped dramatically. So I had Jeff go over in the pre-show match and again, this match got 91%! Jeff’s got a bright future ahead of him I believe.
Match 1 – AJ Styles (c) def. Perry Saturn and Eddie Guerrero w/Eddie Guerrero in a triple threat match to retain the WCW Television Championship
I think Perry dropped the rating of this match a bit. If I had just left it AJ vs Eddie, then it probably would’ve been a lot better. However, I wanted to put Saturn in it to change it up a bit and technically, he has a rematch clause! So the three way happened and AJ retained. Perry’s probably out of the TV title hunt for now but there’s potential for a storyline between AJ and Eddie. Very excited for that!
Match 2 – “The Diamond Enforcers” Diamond Dallas Page and Arn Anderson def. Rowdy Roddy Piper (c) and Steven Regal (c) to win the WCW Tag Team Championship
NEW CHAMPS! The tag titles have changed hands once more! The team of DDP and Arn Anderson beat the “Legion” members, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Steven Regal to win the gold! The decision to have the “Diamond Enforcers” win the belts came after I put them in a tag on Nitro and I got a report saying that Arn and DDP worked well as a team. I had a good feeling about the team already but after that report, I figured that they had to go over really. Piper and Regal were still super over afterwards, so it didn’t hurt them. But Arn and DDP are the new tag team champions!
Match 3 – Sting def. Scott Steiner
I’d say that Sting maybe a little to early on in the card but, then again, he was opening the Great American Bash! Him and Steiner was a match-up I was really interested in doing and I felt that Steiner really needed a huge rivalry right now after losing the RVD International title feud and feuding with Ultimo Dragon. However, Sting’s going over in this one with Steiner attacking him post match. 90% so that means they’re doing something right! However, I’m shocked that they were still beaten by the Pre-Show!
Match 4 – Rob Van Dam (c) def. Curt Hennig to retain the WCW International Championship
RVD wins after he hits the Frog Splash for the 1, 2, 3. As simple as that… or is it? Hennig’s foot was underneath the bottom rope when the ref counted to three! Hennig pleaded with the ref after the match, but the decision stood and RVD is still your International Champion! Hennig is not a happy camper! 2nd highest rated match of the night!
Match 5 – Bret Hart def. Hollywood Hogan via DQ. The winner will be the special guest referee for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship match later that night.
Hogan got DQ’d after a brutal attack on Bret with the chair. Giving Bret a piece of his own medicine after Bret had attacked him with the chair after the Great American Bash. Hogan just batters Hart with the chair and several refs have to pull Hogan off! In what condition will Bret be in to referee the main event.
Match 6 – Yoshihiro Tajiri (c) def. Rey Mysterio, Ultimo Dragon and Jamie Noble in a fatal four way match to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Tajiri retains! The original plan was for Tajiri to actually DROP the belt at this PPV! However, I saw that Tajiri’s overness was slowly increasing so I decided to have him retain the title for now and possibly build to an elimination rematch at Road Wild. That’s the plan at the moment.
Match 7 – Chris Jericho def. Chris Benoit w/Paul Heyman
Jericho and Benoit once again earn Match Of The Night, with Jericho picking up the win. Benoit and Jericho have SO much chemistry and I’m glad that I’m now able to have them feud with each other. Since Benoit won their match at Slamboree, Jericho goes over here.
Match 8 – Booker T def. Raven (c) with Bret Hart as the special guest referee to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
Bret tried to screw Booker T out of the victory, but Hogan came out to attack Bret some more after their match earlier on. After dropping the Leg Drop, Hogan put on the ref shirt. Raven went for the Evenflow DDT but Booker countered for his new finisher The Book End for the win! BOOKER T IS THE NEW WCW CHAMPION! The boyhood dream as come true!
What a way to cap off Bash At The Beach. Just like the Bash At The Beach 2000 in real-life, Booker T walks out the WCW Champion! Ironically, Hollywood Hogan was the one that helped him win the belt! By god! I’ve been waiting for so long to do this but at last, Booker is on top of the world. We hope you enjoyed Bash At The Beach!
NOTE: Don’t forget to check my latest EWR update at this link! Just to recap all of the WCW EWR we’ve been doing as of late… which has been a lot. To tell you about what’s coming up! And if this is the first time you’ve clicked onto the blog and this series, a FULL LIST of all the EWR WCW PPVs I’ve done including the Nitro of Champions special!
Hello guys. I hope you guys have been liking the EWR series as of late. It’s a totally different direction that I’ve taken my blog in since I started the series a few months ago. It’s been a lot of funny and this update is to tell you where that’s at, what kind of content you can expect and all the other projects I have in the works at the moment.
The good news about the blog is that it’s been booming in views for the last couple of days! The EWR series in particular has been a huge contributor to that and that’s good to see. Thank you guys so much for checking the series out as of late and I hope you’ll enjoy the next few months in WCW EWR! We’ve just done the Great American Bash and you can check out that post on this link!
Next on the horizon in that series is Bash At The Beach and we’ve got quite a card lined up. A lot of feuds have ended a lot of exciting new ones have been brought into the fold. In the game, I still have a lot of Nitros and Thunders to book before I get to the PPV so it might be a few days before it gets put up on the blog. Even though, I still have a bit of card in my head for the PPV. The main event of Bash At The Beach has already been decided.
It’s going to be Raven, the leader of the Exiles and the REIGNING, DEFENDING, UNDISPUTED WCW Heavyweight Champion of the World going up against… Booker T!
Yes, Raven vs Booker T is happening at Bash at the Beach as Booker T was injured for his scheduled title match against Raven at The Great American Bash. So he’s getting his title match here! Who do you think will walk out the WCW Title? Vot on the poll below!
Here is the updated full list of EVERY WCW post I’ve ever done! If you want to go back and relive all of the past posts and see what’s led us to this moment. How Raven won the WCW Title at Superbrawl and formed the Exiles! How Rob Van Dam became the undisputed WCW International Champion at the following year’s Superbrawl! Hell Slamboree 2000, the PPV I had Perry Saturn defend the WCW Television title in a battle royal! You can relive all of my booking, from the moments of genius to the moments of out-right stupidity! The best feuds to the worse! The swerves! The chaos! All of it in the links below…
Speaking of the TNA game, I MIGHT actually come back to it. It gets a surprisingly good amount of views despite how short the series has been up until this point! So I might come back and do a few posts soon. Would you guys like me to go back to the TNA series or should I just knock it on the head? Comment below on your thoughts…
Note: Both the last PPV Slamboree and the Nitro of Champions special link into this show, so please check them out before reading on.
Booker T, Bret Hart and Raven fought in an intense triple threat match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Despite fierce competition, Raven found a way to retain the title over very game competition. The next night on Nitro Of Champions, Ric Flair announced that Booker T would be headlining The Great American Bash taking on the WCW Champion. But the question became who the WCW World Heavyweight Champion would actually be at the PPV?
Raven and Bret Hart fought at Nitro Of Champions for the WCW Title but Booker T got involved, laying out both men with a chair. Raven would retain but Bret “The Hitman” Hart was incensed. The next week on Nitro, Bret Hart locked on the figure four leg lock on Booker on the ring post incapaciting the Book man. Booker was ruled out with an injury leaving the co-President Ric Flair in a predicament. He announced a fatal four way match to determine a new number one contender the next week, but all four men were taken out by members of Raven’s group the Exiles. Bret Hart then made an emotional plea to Flair to give him one more oppurtunity at the title. Raven came out to agree to the match. But on one condition, if Bret lost he would not get another title shot for the next 12 months! Meaning that the earliest that Bret can recieve a title shot next would be The Great American Bash 2001! Bret agreed and Flair made the match official for The Great American Bash.
A dangerous alliance was formed the day after Uncensored when Chris Benoit turned his back on the WCW Universe and allied with Paul Heyman and Eddie Guerrero. After the duo destroyed the dream team of Hollywood Hogan and Sting, they set their sets on Chris Jeirhco for Paul’s own personal reasons. Benoit’s constant attacks on Jericho would eventually lead to a match between the two former WCW Tag Team Champions at Slamboree. In the match of the night, Benoit prevalied due to Paul Heyman’s interference. Needless to say, Jericho wasn’t done with Paul Heyman.
Heyman tried to get WCW International Champion Rob Van Dam on board as he and Eddie Guerrero would help Van Dam retain the International title on multiple occassions. Eventually, after they almost cost him the title at Nitro Of Champions, Van Dam struck. Van Dam and Jericho eventually formed an alliance to combat the Radicalz. The hardcore tag team match was made for The Great American Bash between these four former ECW stars.
It was announced the week after Nitro of Champions that Diamond Dallas Page would be making his return to WCW at The Great American Bash. However, Page ignored the plans himself, making a shock return to save Bret Hart from Asbury Perfection the next week! Curt Hennig demanded a match with DDP at The Great American Bash which Eric Bischoff. However, Eric promised to make DDP “see the light” on the pre-show hoping to have him join “Team Eric”.
Pre-Show – Diamond Dallas Page chooses whether to side with Eric Bischoff or Ric Flair
Eric Bischoff comes out to welcome everybody to The Great American Bash. He cuts a heel promo and promises the fans a night they would never forget. Eric announced that he would be the referee for the opening tag team match between Hogan/Sting and Tajiri/Muto. He promises to call that match right down the middle. Eric announced to the world that DDP would sign a contract for the former WCW Champion to join “Team Eric”. Ric Flair comes out to a huge pop (I’m guessing!) and tells Bischoff to shut the hell up. He tells Bischoff that DDP hates his guts just as much as anybody. Flair says that there is not a man more disgusting on this earth than Eric Bischoff. Eric reminds Flair that he still has majority control between the two of them and advises him to not get on his bad side. Flair comes back by saying that just because Bischoff has majority control, doesn’t mean he can tell the Nature Boy what to do. It’s not like Bischoff could fire Ric if he were to say call Eric an Asshole! This gets a pop and enfuriates Bischoff. Bischoff then simple shrugs it off by saying that if Ric thought Bischoff was an asshole now, he can’t imagine think of what Ric thinks of him after he gets DDP on “Team Eric”. DDP’s music hits and he comes out to a huge response. Bischoff tries to get DDP on his side by promising DDP would be the highest paid worker on the roster. He also guarentees DDP that if he joins his side, the winner of tonight’s WCW World Title would defend the title against the King of Bada-Bing at the next PPV! And unlike Booker T, no-one would be able to touch him. DDP shakes hands with Eric but then drops him with a Diamond Cutter! Eric is brought to the back when Flair picks up the mic. He says that since there’s no referee for the opener anymore!, how about old nature boy takes on the role? The crowd pops and is thrown a ref shirt
Match 1 – Hollywood Hogan and Sting def. Keiji Mutoh and Yoshihiro Tajiri with Ric Flair as special guest referee
Clean win for Hogan and Sting. Flair doesn’t really contribute to the finish at all but then again he doesn’t need to. If anything, he like stops Mutoh from using a chair or something but it’s a clean win for Hogan and Sting. Mutoh and Tajiri aren’t really over enough to win this feud, even though I was tempted to just have them keeping jobbing out to heel tag teams! The Asian Invasio have really went downhill since Mutoh feuded for the WCW Title. 82% is a lot better than what I was expecting! It might have been down to Hogan, Sting and Flair more than the actual match quality, which was pretty bad.
Match 2 – AJ Styles def. Kensuke Sasaki in a Falls Count Anywhere match
Match of the Night goes to… these two! Very happy that these two stole the show and it’s awesome that the fans are into both of them. AJ is the future of this company and Sasaki is becoming the most over member of the Asian Invasion. I have to give these two credit. They said they’d be able to deliver and they did! 96% overall! 100% match quality!
Match 3 – Perry Saturn (c) def. Arn Anderson in a tables match to retain the WCW Television Championship
These two were actually feuding before and actually had a match way back at Uncensored. But then Arn Anderson got injured and I had to wait until he got back to kind of wrap up the feud. Perry retains but I’m not sure for how much longer he’ll remain champion…
Match 4 – Rowdy Roddy Piper (c) and Steven Regal (c) def. Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio in a ladder match to retain the WCW Tag Team Championship
Now I know Rowdy Piper in a ladder match doesn’t exactly sound like the greatest spectacle in the world! But then again, they said the same thing about Regal and Dave Taylor when they were in the four way ladder match at Armageddon 2006. And they were both awesome in that match! These guys have a way of suprising you! Legion retain the tag team titles continuing their title reign that started back at Uncensored.
Match 5 – Diamond Dallas Page def. Curt Hennig
DDP goes over Curt Hennig in the end. As much as I’ve loved booking Hennig and Bam Bam Bigelow as the “Asbury Perfection” tag team, I think it’s time for Hennig to have a solo run. He’s got a lot of potential in the International Title picture. As for DDP… WELCOME BACK!
Match 6 – Scott Steiner def. Ultimo Dragon in a submission match
Steiner makes Dragon pass out to the Steiner Recliner. I didn’t really want Dragon to tap out as it wouldn’t have made sense, with him showing the never-die attitude during his I Quit match with Guerrero at Uncensored. So Steiner goes over like that. These two never really seemed to click in the ring, but they’re both still over which made this feud all the more worth it..
Match 7 – Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam def. Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero w/Paul Heyman in a hardcore tag team match
I had the most difficult time in deciding who to put over in this match. I wanted Benoit and Guerrero continue to look strong as the two Paul Heyman guys. Then again, RVD is the International Champion and Jericho only just lost the WCW Title. I went with the faces with the notion that Jericho could still do a singles feud with Benoit afterwards. Then Benoit could get a lot of big wins on PPV. Either way, awesome match with a 93%.
Match 8 – Raven (c) def. Bret Hart to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. If Bret Hart lost, he would not get another WCW Title shot in the next 12 months.
These two have a hell of a match back-and-forth. Raven retains after clobbering Bret with the brass knuckles and Evenflow DDT when the ref was out. Bret looks on into the crowd in disappointment as they cheer him. He walks out of the ring with his hands on his head as the crowd continue to applaud.
I do have a bit of a plan for Bret with regards to the stipulation. I don’t want to spoil anything but Bret’s got a bit of a future ahead of him. I just hope that he can continue to be over in a year’s time!
Alright, this one’s going to be a little bit different from my previous ones. It’s a bit of a BONUS post! Ooooo! We all like bonuses! As for the first time, we get to post about… a Nitro!
You’re probably asking why I decided to do an episode of Nitro for a post right NOW. I’ve done a hundred of these shows off-screen. Why do a blog post of them now? Well you see, I felt my last PPV, Slamboree when HORRIBLY wrong. The battle royal in the pre-show pretty much set the tone for the rest of the show and looking back… the card could have been a lot better. I felt the game graded me a bit too harshly but I felt the WCW Universe deserved a lot more! So I decided to give them a night after Slamboree special edition of Nitro! And seeing as how ALL of my championships lost overness at Slamboree, why not put them all on the line here tonight! As we will have….
NITRO OF CHAMPIONS!
Every championship on the line live on television!
(Note: Kinda forget about the Clash Of Champions event when coming up with the name! Might bring that back as a PPV!)
Segment 1 – Authority vs Authority Confrontation Between Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff
WCW Co-President Ric Flair opens up the show saying that Slamboree was a hell of show. But he’s got to look forward and on the horizon is the next WCW PPV, The Great American Bash! He says he’s already decided on the challenger for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at the Great American Bash, and that man will take on the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. But Flair points out that tonight was the Nitro Of Champions special! He says that every title will be on the line tonight, including the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. He says the winner of the WCW Title match tonight will go on to The Great American Bash against a man that symbolizes the American Dream. A man that has worked hard to get to the pinnacle of this business and a man that deserves a one on one opportunity at the WCW Title… Booker T.
Fellow Co-President Eric Bischoff cuts him off and agrees that Slamboree was a heck of a show. However, he knows that this product can be taken to the very next level and promises that tonight will be a night of fierce competition. A night in which the strongest will survive as he announces that the Whole Damn Show Rob Van Dam will get the opportunity to prove just that as he will compete not once but TWICE tonight! Tonight he will get an opportunity to challenge Perry Saturn for the WCW Television Champion and later that night, he will defend his own International title against Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner.
Flair has a go at Bischoff for announcing these match without consulting him, but Bischoff reminds him that he the majority power between the two of them and can overrule any of Flair’s decisions if he sees fit. He also announces that he’s already decided the challenger for the WCW World Title later that night. Flair cuts him off before he announces him, to announce his own matches for tonight. He says that there are two other champions that he feels needs to prove themselves to the WCW Universe. The Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri and the tag team champions Rowdy Roddy Piper and Steven Regal. Flair informs Bischoff that Hogan and Sting never got their rematch for the tag team titles that he screwed them out of at Uncensored. Flair says that tonight, they get those tag titles and hopes at last, WCW can have tag team champions that can be respected. Bischoff questions Sting and Hogan being respectful champions. Bischoff points out Hogan’s role in forming the nWo and says Sting is a vigilante no child should hope to look up to. Flair admits Eric makes a good point, but reminds him that he can’t deny Hogan and Sting their rematch and that will happen tonight.
He also announces that Tajiri will defend the Cruiserweight title against another man that never got his title rematch… AJ Styles. Bischoff doesn’t have a problem with AJ getting his rematch but wants another up-and-comer to finally get his shot… Jamie Noble of the Steiner System! Flair agrees to add Noble to the match but wanted to add one more man into the mix… Jeff Hardy! The two agree and the four way match is made but Eric gets the final word in. Booker T may have the World Title match at the Great American Bash but will be a no-win situation no matter who wins tonights WCW World Title match. Bischoff announces that Raven’s opponent tonight… will be Bret Hart!
Match 1 (2) – Perry Saturn (c) def. Rob Van Dam via DQ to retain the WCW Television Championship
The Television title lost a severe amount of image from the battle royal at Slamboree, so putting these two quality talents together for a title match was the ultimate way in getting that image back. Perry retained after Eddie Guerrero attacked him, getting Rob disqualified. Eddie and Rob argue with Paul Heyman getting between them and trying to get them on the same page. 90%! An awesome opener to this special.
Interview 1 (3) – AJ Styles Interview About Kensuke Sasaki
AJ Styles is doing an interview. He talks about how him and Kensuke Sasaki took each other to the limit last night but says it’s a damn shame that Kensuke resorted to cheating to beat him. Styles reaches out to Sasaki and challenges him to a serious rematch. No cheating, no shenanigans. AJ says he wants to find out who the best between them really is. The interviewer (probably Mean Gene Okerlund or somebody!) points out his title match tonight. AJ thanks Flair for giving him a shot to reclaim what was his. He says it doesn’t matter if he has to go through one man, two men, three men or thirty men. He will beat whoever there is to beat to prove that he is the premiere cruiserweight in this company.
Match 2 (4) – Yoshihiro Tajiri (c) def. AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy and Jamie Noble in a fatal four way match to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Kensuske Sasaki responded to the promo from AJ by again costing him the Cruiserweight title. Tajiri retains, but I think everybody benefited from this match! Noble and Jeff who were like in the 60s before are now very close to AJ and Tajiri as far as overness is concerned and that’s a good thing… I want a very active cruiserweight division. Hell, Noble and Hardy could be future cruiserweight champions!
Noble is angrily walking backstage when Ultimo Dragon walks in front of him. Dragon doesn’t say a word and just looks at him. Noble then simply attacks Ultimo backstage and throws him into a wall or something. The officials pull Noble off of him, but Ultimo is severely hurt.
Match 3 (6) – Rob Van Dam (c) def. Scott Steiner to retain the WCW International Championship
Another classic between these two. Paul Heyman and Eddie Guerrero comes out to ringside and at commentary to look on. However, Van Dam is hurdled into the ref and then low-blowed by Steiner. Steiner throws him out of the ring. Eddie Guerrero comes out through the crowd and hits Steiner with RVD’s International Championship belt. RVD gets up to find Steiner down. RVD capitalizes with the Five Star Frog Splash for the win! RVD, Eddie and Heyman all celebrate in the ring when a replay off Eddie’s interference is shown on the titantron. RVD and Eddie have words until RVD lashes out at Eddie and then hits the Frog Splash, taking his championship belt with him. Things aren’t going smoothly in Heyman’s attempt to get RVD and Eddie on the same page.
Segment 3 (7) – Trish Stratus compliments Perry Saturn and leaves with him
Perry Saturn is backstage in the trainers’ room when his manager Trish Stratus pops in to see if he’s alright. Trish says she cares about him and says Saturn did great out there. She compliments him some more and the two leave.
Match 4 (8) – Rowdy Roddy Piper (c) and Steven Regal (c) def. Hollywood Hogan and Sting to retain the WCW Tag Team Championship
Piper and Regal retain after Keiji Mutoh and Tajiri interfere. Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio come out to even the score. Simple tag match. Hogan and Sting genuinely never got their tag title rematch on TV or anything so why not have them compete for the titles?
Interview 2 (9) – Bret Hart Interview About His Match Later On
Bret cuts a promo talking about how he should be the WCW World Champion right now and thanked Eric Bischoff for giving him the opportunity to right that wrong and go on to The Great American Bash to defend his title against Booker T. The interviewer mentions that Booker T is expected to be here later on tonight. Bret simply replies that it’s important for Booker to be here tonight. He says tonight Booker will get a clear example of why he doesn’t belong in Bret’s league and that at the Great American Bash, he’s got no chance of beating him for the WCW Title. By the way, Bret’s not a heel now but this is all hinting towards that. Bret’s playing the bitter arsehole role that he played back in early 1997 when he would just complain about not getting the opportunities he deserves. That kinda thing.
Segment 4 (10) – Booker T Arrives At The Building
Speaking of Booker T, he arrives in time for the main event match.
Match 5 (11) – Raven (c) def. Bret Hart to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
This match is interrupted by Booker T, who comes out to attack Raven with the chair while the ref. He also smacks Bret with the chair, leaving them both out! Raven eventually comes to and covers Bret but Bret kicks out. Raven is then eventually able to hit the Evenflow DDT for the win and to retain his title. Needless to say, Booker has sent a clear message to both these guys as we are on the road to The Great American Bash….
So thankfully, this special went well. It elevated some of the up-and-comers like Jamie Noble and Jeff Hardy and ALL the titles gained image! I did what I set out to and I am a very happy camper! Coming up next… THE GREAT AMERICAN BASH! By the way, a slight change has been made to the main event of the Great American Bash announced on this post. I will tweet about it before I post Part 21, so check out my @TomRobinson5199 twitter for more details. In the mean time, have a great day guys!
Way back at Uncensored, Bret Hart won a number one contendership match to earn a WCW Title Shot. Raven’s title defense with Hart on Thunder ended in controversial circumstances when Chris Jericho came out to attack Raven, causing Hart to be disqualified. Bret responded by attacking Raven during the World Title match at Spring Stampede, causing Jericho to lose. Both Canadians got mad and the two brawled at the end, turning Spring Stampede to Canadian Stampede! The next night on Nitro, Bret Hart and Jericho both demanded rematches for the WCW Title while Booker T threw his name into the mix as well. Ric Flair settled things by booking a number one contendership triple threat that same night. Jericho was taken out of the ball game by an interfering Chris Benoit leaving Bret and Booker. Bret had Booker down for the three count when the ref was distracted because of this. Booker then rolled up Bret as the ref turned around, getting the pin and earning the title match at Slamboree.
Bret went on a huge tirade, claiming that he was screwed and that Booker didn’t deserve to be in the main event of Slamboree. Bret and Booker were at odds when teaming against Raven and his stable the Exiles. The two eventually brawled on Nitro with Raven looking on with a smile at his face. Bret truly believed that he was worthy of a title shot. Therefore, Eric Bischoff put Bret Hart in a match at Slamboree with the winner getting added to the title match later that night. It would be Bret Hart one-on-one… with Eddie Guerrero!
Meanwhile, Chris Jericho had to deal with Chris Benoit and his newest advocate Paul Heyman before getting back in the title hunt. Heyman declared his vendetta against Jericho for jumping ship from ECW to the WCW, saying that Jericho believed ECW was a wasteland and left when he got his first tastes of the bright-lights and moved to WCW to become a superstar. Heyman says while Benoit jumped from ECW to WCW as well, the biggest difference is that Chris Benoit moved to WCW to test is wrestling ability against the very best wrestlers in the world. Jericho’s main reason was because ECW wasn’t good enough for him and he was more concerned with becoming a huge-time star and being a fan favorite. Heyman suggests that Jericho on his best day couldn’t lay a candle to the Rapid Wolverine CHRIS BENOIT! Jericho responded by challenging Benoit to a match at Slamboree which Heyman accepted.
Speaking of Paul Heyman and Paul Heyman guys, the REIGNING, DEFENDING WCW INTERNATIONAL CHAMPION Rob Van Dam was watching on at this conflict between Paul Heyman and ex Paul Heyman guys like Chris Jericho and Ultimo Dragon a few months back. RVD question Heyman about whether he was going to turn on him, but Heyman insisted he wouldn’t and had RVD’s best interests in heart. Heyman wasn’t lying as multiple title defenses against both Bam Bam Bigelow and Curt Hennig were saved by interferences from Paul Heyman and Eddie Guerrero. However, a tag team match between Eddie/RVD and Hennig/Bigelow ended with a miscommunication between Eddie and RVD which cost them the match. RVD asked Heyman if the two of them could just separate for now as he focuses on his International Title reign which Heyman unwillingly agrees to.
Speaking of the WCW International Championship,as mentioned “Asbury Perfection” Curt Hennig and Bam Bam Bigelow seemed to separate following the events from Spring Stampede as they targeted the WCW International Championship. However, during a tables match between Bigelow and Goldberg, Goldberg speared Asbury Perfection’s manager Ted DiBiase through a table taking him out. The two were united in their manager’s hardship as they seeked to take out Goldberg. RVD had Goldberg’s back, but it was then announced that at Slamboree, RVD would defend the International Title against Goldberg, Bigelow and Hennig in a fatal four way match!
At the start of the month, AJ Styles defended the WCW Cruiserweight Championship against the Asian Invasion’s Yoshihiro Tajiri. With help from stable mate Kensuke Sasaki, Tajiri won the championship ending the longest cruiserweight championship reign in this series so far. AJ was understandably pissed which led to Ric Flair booking AJ vs Sasaki at Slamboree.
Also, Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio defeated Rowdy Roddy Piper and Steven Regal in a non-title match to earn a tag team title match at the PPV, Keiji Mutoh and the new Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri targeted Hulk Hogan and Sting and Scott Steiner attacked Ultimo Dragon after Dragon prevented him from winning the International title in a triple threat match.
Pre-Show – Perry Saturn (c) wins a 10 Man Battle Royal to retain the WCW Television Championship
Entrants: Perry Saturn, Rick Steiner, The Giant, Jamie Noble, Chavo Guerrero, Buff Bagwell, Disco Inferno, Jushin Thunder Liger, Jim Neidhart and Konnan
Wow, this battle royal got a bad rating! The reason I decided to do a battle royal was because I had no idea who to book Perry Saturn against at the PPV. The original plan was Perry Saturn to defend the title on the pre-show against Disco Inferno! Then I changed it to Konnan, and then I considered throwing in Jushin Thunder Liger and making it a three way. So in the end, I figured throw the top 10 over guys NOT on the card already into a battle royal to try to elevate all of them! Instead, all it did was make the title lose image! I think in this game, the more wrestlers you use in a match, the more downgraded your match becomes. Even if you did like a fatal four way between CM Punk, AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Austin Aries. The overness or one factor of one of those guys that were considerably lower than the rest could hurt the match quality. Me having 10 men fight it out doesn’t help me a lot! Battle Royals, Royal Rumbles and Survivor Series matches don’t get that good grades on this game! Not a great choice for a pre-show! Still… could be worse.
Match 1 – Bret Hart def. Eddie Guerrero w/Paul Heyman. The winner was entered into the WCW World Heavyweight Championship match later that night.
Bret goes over. I’m truly amazed that this didn’t get a higher rating. These two aren’t feuding or anything, but there both incredibly gifted in-ring performers and their stats in this game are high. It wasn’t a bad rating, but I expected a lot more. But anyway, Bret competes in the main event later on.
Match 2 – Rowdy Roddy Piper (c) and Steven Regal (c) def. Dean Malenko and Rey Mysterio to retain the WCW Tag Team Championship
OK, if Piper/Regal vs Ultimo Dragon and AJ Styles from last month was 92%, how was the rating for this one magically dropped down to 75%? It’s not like Dean and Mysterio were leagues below Dragon and Styles in overness. If anything, I think both teams were around the same. They’re both around the same in skill, so why the bad rating? Tough critic here! Regal and Piper retains after fellow Legion member Fit Finlay interfered, Tag titles lost image though… crap.
Match 3 – Ultimo Dragon def. Scott Steiner
OK, I sort of understand why this one was not in the 90s or something. Steiner and Dragon’s styles don’t really click and I think Steiner mentioned this to me afterwards (in the game, not in real-life!). However, the crowd interest was insanely high! The WCW Universe are full of Dragonites and Freaks! Next time RAW is on… #Dragonite will be trending worldwide!
Match 4 – Hollywood Hogan and Sting def. Yoshihiro Tajiri and Keiji Mutoh
I sort of get this rating too. Hogan, Sting and Mutoh are all really old. They can’t go nearly as well as they used to. Mutoh did get the 98% rating with Chris Jericho at Starrcade. However, I believe that was mostly down to Jericho’s who is white-hot in this game. Mutoh was helped by a great worker, but up against the likes of Sting and Hogan it’s difficult for him to deliver the good. Sting and Mutoh maybe would work, but Hogan just ruins it. Tajiri’s probably the best worker in this match but he’d probably be too quick for Hogan and Sting to keep up. Sting and Hogan go over.
Match 5 – Rob Van Dam (c) def. Bam Bam Bigelow, Curt Hennig and Bill Goldberg in a fatal four way match to retain the WCW International Championship
I think ranking this the same as Hogan/Sting vs Mutoh/Tajiri was a bit unfair. RVD and Hennig work well together ALL the time. Bigelow and Goldberg work well together most of the time. So surely a fatal four way would be an awesome idea? Instead all it did was devalue the title. Hmm, I this maybe a running thing…
Match 6 – Kensuke Sasaki def. AJ Styles
Yeah. AJ and Sasaki got the second highest rankings of the night! I just wish it was a bit higher. 😦 Awesome work between these two though. I’m glad these two are feuding!
Match 7 – Chris Benoit w/Paul Heyman def. Chris Jericho
Benoit beats Jericho after interference from Paul Heyman. You just know these two can work well together. Pretty much a safe bet for high ratings. Benoit gained overness from this match after beating the former champion Chris Jericho. It’s a shame this wasn’t in the 90s either. This critic was clearly watching the wrong Slamboree!
Match 8 – Raven (c) def. Booker T and Bret Hart in a triple threat match to retained the WCW World Championship
Raven retains. He was always going to retain. Booker winning the title at the end of his feud with Raven is a huge possibility. But there’s no need for Booker to win the title at this early age. A true underdog is always knocked down before he gets back up. So because Booker’s not won the title tonight, doesn’t mean he’s not going to! Watch this space!
The Armbar Express 