2001: A WCW Odyssey - WCW Monday Nitro 1/22/01

The odyssey continues as tonight’s episode of Nitro shall be called “the night of bad finishes”.

We open with Jarrett, Steiner, Bagwell, and Luger in the back snapping chicken bones while watching Sid break his leg. Not sure what was in bad taste more … the chicken that they ate or this segment. Then we go to the ring with the same crew, plus Road Warrior Animal and Ric Flair, who introduces Alex Wright as the number one contender at SuperBrawl in a baffling announcement. Kevin Nash then appears, powerbombs Wright through the stage, and announces himself at the number one contender. Cat comes out, starts booking matches, then Flair starts booking other things as they just go back and forth talking over each other and making no sense for what seemed like forever. These talking segments that seem to open Nitro each week are so painful and forced and just seem to be a giant re-hash of the same thing every week, Flair is the evil boss, Cat is the good guy commissioner, and so on. This was just bad, like low-level indy bad.

1. Mike Modest vs. Christopher Daniels - 3

2. Lance Storm vs. Konnan - 1

A completely random match kicks off the in-ring proceedings for this episode. Modest you may remember from Beyond the Mat as the guy who worked for an ambulance service picking up bodies. Daniels looks completely strange with hair and one of those pencil thin beards that seemed to be popular in the late 90s. This was the beginning of the new wave of cruiserweights randomly popping up throughout WCW and there was some good action here with the pace staying rather quick. Modest with a really awesome looking full nelson suplex that Scott Hudson called a “dragon suplex”. Daniels tried the Angels Wings move but botched it and it ended up looking like a weak powerbomb. Such a shame that Scott Steiner had to come out and ruin the fun as this was going really good. Storm and Konnan only went about two minutes and was completely forgettable. Before the bout, Storm got on the mic and claimed this was the final battle between Team Canada and the Filthy Animals. Konnan retorted by stringing random words together. Huge brawl at ringside and Storm locked in a half crab for the win. Nothing more needs to be said, felt completely like a squash of Konnan.

At this point, we’re nearly halfway into this show and there’s only been about 5-6 minutes of in-ring action.

3. Lex Luger vs. Diamond Dallas Page - 2

4. The Mamalukes vs. Mark Jindrak & Shawn Stasiak - 3

Ok, so somewhere in the chaos of the opening segment, Luger and DDP was set up with the winner becoming the special referee in tonight’s main event. Luger took a page out of Larry Zbyszko’s playbook early and stalled like hell. I’ve mentioned it before but Luger is just so stiff and rigid in his movements that it’s not even funny. Imagine DDP trying to have a match with a door and you’ll have the general idea. Ending picked up a bit with DDP kicking the match into high gear but then there was a goofy spot with DDP accidentally elbowing the ref which led to Jarrett interfering and smashing DDP with a guitar. Tag match felt like quite a random match. Tony hypes on commentary that this is the first match the Mamalukes have had together since October. Good to see they hyped up their return and buried them in the middle of the show here. Nice double powerbomb spot by Mamalukes. Did I just see Jindrak hit a lionsault? Pretty sure I did. Vito did a really stupid mistake, distracting the referee while his partner had the pin. Afterwards, O’Haire and Palumbo run down and the referee awards the match to the Mamalukes for some reason. 

I should note that we’ve had four matches and not one has had a single clean finish. NOT ONE!!

5. Shane Douglas vs. The Cat - 2

6. Chavo Guerrero Jr. & The Wall vs. Hugh Morrus & Lash LeRoux - 3

Why do I have the feeling this will continue the trend of bad finishes tonight? Flair comes on the big screen and changes this to a No DQ match for the commissionership. Really sick of this mad with power Ric Flair angle already. Douglas tried an indian deathlock style submission but nope, that didn’t work. Douglas sells Cat’s strikes like he slipped on ice while shoveling his driveway. So much interference from Mike Sanders, Sean O’Haire, and Rick Steiner. Steiner stopped Douglas from hitting Cat with a chain, punched him, and then Cat polished it off with a spin kick.  The Misfits in Action exploded in the tag match but it had all the effect of a fart in the middle of Sunday church service. Fun exchange to start off with between Wall and Hugh. Chavo and Lash kept the pace quick although at times it was a bit sloppy. Morrus on the apron yelling at the referee much like he used to yell at NXT recruits until he got called out on his excessant bullying. Wall seemed to be a non-factor except for the first brawl with Morrus. Roll up from Chavo wins this for his team in what is the first clean finish tonight.

7. Kevin Nash vs. Buff Bagwell - 3

Luger comes out to referee dressed in workout gear. Guess the guy WCW sent with twenty bucks to run down the street and get Luger a referee shirt from the sporting goods store hadn’t made it back yet. Magically, after commerical, Luger has a referee shirt on. Guess whoever they sent to procure a ref shirt made it back in time. I sense bullshit and cheating. Luger started with the bullshit early, getting physically involved, slow counting when Nash had a pin, and holding a chair that Bagwell drop kicked in Nash’s face. Bagwell’s offense was supplemented by Luger’s chicanery, however Nash has a few bright spots mainly in the beginning where he doled out some nasty elbows in the corner. We get DDP interfering and hitting Luger with a Diamond Cutter, Nash hits a powerbomb and does the old count the fall yourself with the ref’s hand spot, leading to a giant brawl to close out the show. 

It's shows like this that really make me wonder why I started this project in the first place. I’ll see it through though but from what I remember after watching all this for fun a while back, the TVs up until SuperBrawl are just absolutely a chore to sit through.


2001: A WCW Odyssey Master List