25 days and counting to SuperBrawl!
1. Cruiserweight Contender Countdown Match w/ Shane Helms, Elix Skipper, Evan Karagias, Billy Kidman, Jimmy Yang, Jamie Noble, Rey Mysterio Jr., Lash LeRoux, Shannon Moore, and Kaz Hayashi - 4
For once, we don’t open the show with a long winded, circle the wagons style argument, we actually open with a match! This consisted of pretty much every cruiserweight under WCW contract at the time and the rules were that of a gauntlet match, you fight until you lose. Opening portion was good with Helms and Skipper as the action was brisk and set a good pace but after a short while, Helms advanced with the Vertebreaker, and dispatched Evan Karagias in short order as well with the same. Kidman was next and held up pretty well until he was eventually sent packing by Jamie Noble. Kidman was probably the MVP here and had good segments with both Helms and Noble, including a nice spot where Kidman reversed a Vertebreaker into a Kid Crusher on Helms. Lash, whose contributions were some god awful punches, and Moore were quickly eliminated at the end, leaving the final as Rey against Kaz. Kaz hit a stiff ass powerbomb on Rey. Rey came back though with a second rope bulldog for the win. Fun match to start out with but it felt like it dragged a bit towards the end.
Our weekly talking segment is next with Cat in an odd shirt, ranting about stupid shit and announcing a main event of Steiner & Animal against Kronik as the announcers cream their pants
2. Norman Smiley vs. Mike Awesome - 2
3. Jeff Jarrett vs. Hugh Morrus - 2
Norman wiggles in front of Awesome and gets leveled by a clothesline for his efforts. Before the match, Norman ran into Glacier backstage and acted like he had just observed the second coming of Christ. Awesome destroys poor Norman while Glacier returns and glad hands and poses for pictures around the ring, getting a reaction as cold as the arctic he represents. Not a whole lot too this except for the Glacier stuff. Jarrett did his typical pre-match schitck on the mic. They had a brief brawl on the floor with Jarrett jamming a chair into Morrus’ ribs. Morrus sells everything with zero emotion. If I would’ve know I was treading water, I’d be pretty emotionless as well. We get a mid-ring collision that was super clumsy. Wall saunters down to ringside, blatantly interferes in front of the ref, and Jarrett gets a win with that shitty looking leg sweep. I’ve seen better matches on shit-level indy shows.
4. Crowbar vs. Ron Harris - 2
5. Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Rick Steiner - 3
Completely random match here with Crowbar and Harris that amounted to exactly nothing. Tony mentions Crowbar’s former career as a gas station attendant in Maryland. That’s odd to say the least. Everything here has been really non-descipt. Crowbar got in a few good shots right at the end but damn this was boring. Was sort of hoping that Bigelow and Steiner would be somewhat violent. Steiner just deadlifted Bigelow on a big suplex. Action here has been pretty good, nothing great but certainly not as bad as some other stuff I’ve seen on this project. Steiner has been just a wrecking machine since coming back. Bigelow was good doing his trademark spots. Second rope bulldog laid out Bigelow for a pinfall. Always enjoy two big dudes pummeling each other.
6. Road Warrior Animal & Scott Steiner vs. Kronik - 3
Pretty sure this is Animal’s first actual match since showing up as the black and white clad mystery man at the Sin PPV. Animal looked pretty good in the first exchange with Adams. Steiner gets tagged in and gets a full nelson slam for his efforts. Clark does another one of his wild running front flips off the apron. Still can’t figure out what prompted him to start doing that. Damn, Clark got Animal up in a big pumphandle slam. What the hell is going on here at the end. Kronik seems lost trying the high tide double chokeslam, Cat runs down after Bagwell and Luger interfere and disappears into a void along with Scott Steiner. Ending is just what has been seen the past couple shows with Flair’s cronies beating down all the good guys.
This wasn't as bad as the episode of Nitro before this but it still felt really stale. Same dudes every week, same ending. It's like the movie Groundhog Day. You know, where Bill Murray keeps repeating February 2nd until he actually learns from mistakes and redeems himself to get out of the time loop? Yeah, it's pretty much exactly like that except I feel like I'll never get out of the stupid time loop as these people will never redeem themselves.
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