Released: 8/12/14

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Disc Three
THE EXTRAS:

• Lex Luger, Sting, and Randy Savage vs. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash – (WCW Bash at the Beach 1996)
  

Gene Okerlund stops the entrances and goes over to ask Hall and Nash where their third man is. Hall tells him not to worry about because he knows too much already. WE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING! Nash says they have enough to handle it right now. Luger and Hall start the match. Hall throws the toothpick, Luger pimp slaps him across the face. Hall peppers Lex with rights, but Luger fires back with a STEEL PLATED FLYING FOREARM! Luger gets dumped to the apron and runs Hall down with a clothesline, but he goes right into Nash’s arms where Nash holds him down across the steel turnbuckle connector as Sting flies in and crushes Nash and Luger with a Stinger Splash. Lex is out cold and quickly gets carried out on a stretcher. Immediately you’re thinking, ‘Alright well Lex Luger is going to be the third man. Now it all makes sense as to why he was acting like a pseudo babyface since he’s returned to WCW last September.” Once everything settles, Sting has enough of Hall slapping people around and goes ballistic on him. Savage tags in, but Hall catches him in mid-air as he tries a flying double sledge. Hall draws Sting in as Nash comes in and gives Savage the Snake Eyes. Tag to Nash, he slams Savage down and misses an elbow drop. Sting tags in and takes the knees in the corner followed by the boot choke. He whips Sting into the corner, but Sting floats over and drills Nash with a dropkick. Sunset flip fails and Nash lifts Sting up in a choke lift. Hall comes in and hits Sting with a Fallaway Slam for two. Sting continues to play *your* face in peril for a little while longer. They switch off an ab stretch and cheat like muthatruckas. Hall dumps Sting out for Nash, but Savage knows what’s about to happen and runs over to save him with a chair. Back inside, Nash hits the Side Slam for two. Sting ducks and punches on Nash, he nails Hall, and makes the leaping HOT TAG TO SAVAGE! He nails Hall with a Flying Double Ax Handle and delivers the DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER! Hall gets dumped and takes the Flying Double Ax Handle across the guardrail! Back in, Savage grabs Nash and takes a low blow. Everybody’s down. Here comes Hulk Hogan to save the day! Hall and Nash clear out of the ring in fear as Hogan rips off the shirt…and LEGDROPS Savage! He gives the Outsiders the thumbs up. Several more LEGDROPS follow. Sting and the ref both get tossed out. Hogan covers and Hall counts to three. (16:00) Doesn’t count of course – it’s a no contest. Sting drags out Savage and helps him to the back. The Ocean Center starts emptying their trash in the ring. A crazy fan gets in the ring and DECKED immediately with a forearm by Kevin Nash. Hall helps him stomp the fan out of the ring. Here comes Gene Okerlund for the infamous Hulk Hogan heel turn promo.****

Gene: Hulk Hogan? Excuse me, excuse me. What in the world are you thinking?

Hogan: ‘Mean’ Gene, the first thing you need to do is to tell these people to shut up if you want to hear what I’ve got to say.

Gene: I’ve been with you for so many years. For you to join up with the likes of these two men absolutely makes me sick to my stomach. And I think that these people here, and a lot of other people around the world, have had just about of enough of this man and this man. And you want to put yourself in this group? You’ve gotta be kidding me!

Hogan: Well, the first thing you’ve got to realize, brother, is that this right here is the future of wrestling. You can call this, the New World Order of wrestling, brother. These two men right here came from a great big organization up north and everybody was wondering who the third man was. Well who knows more about that organization than me, brother?

Gene: I’ve been there. I’ve done that. You have made the wrong decision, in my opinion.

Hogan: Well, let me tell you something. I made that organization a monster. I made people rich up there. I made the people that ran that organization rich up there, brother. And when it all came to pass, the name Hulk Hogan, the man Hulk Hogan, got bigger than the whole organization, brother. And then billionaire Ted, amigo, he wanted to talk turkey with Hulk Hogan. Well, billionaire Ted promised me movies, brother. Billionaire Ted promised me millions of dollars and billionaire Ted promised me world caliber matches. And as far as Billionaire Ted, Eric Bischoff, and the whole WCW goes, I’m bored, brother. That’s why these two guys here, the so-called Outsiders, these are the men I want as my friends. They’re the new blood of professional wrestling, brother. And not only are we going to take over the whole wrestling business, with Hulk Hogan, and the new blood, the monsters with me. We will destroy everything in our path, Mean Gene.

Gene: Look at all of this crap in this ring. This is what’s in the future for you, if you want to hang around the likes of this man, Hall, and this man, Nash.

Hulk Hogan: As far as I’m concerned, all of this crap in the ring represents these fans out here. For two years, brother, for two years, I held my head high. I did everything for the charities. I did everything for the kids. And the reception I got when I came out here? You fans can stick it, brother. Because…and if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, you people wouldn’t be here. And if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would be still selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis. And if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, all of these “Johnny-come-lately’s” that you see out here wrestling wouldn’t be here. I was selling out the world, brother, while they were bumming gas to put in their car to get to high school. So the way it is now, brother, with Hulk Hogan and the new world organization of wrestling, brother, me and the new blood by my side. Whatcha gonna do when the new world order runs wild on you? Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do?

And Tony Schiavone closes us out with this: For Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan, for Dusty Rhodes, Gene Okerlund, I don’t know, I’m Tony Schiavone…Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell…we’re out of here…straight to hell.

The third man was rumored to be anybody from Bret Hart, Jeff Jarrett, Lex Luger, Sting, and of all people, Mabel. I don’t say this much, but thank God it was Hulk Hogan.

Sting Chooses WCW – (WCW UnCeNSoReD 1997)

As the nWo celebrates another victory to close out another PPV, Sting lowers from the ceiling and dares the nWo to come get some. Scott Hall attacks first and gets beaten with the ball bat. Sting takes Kevin Nash out at the knees. Randy Savage leaps in, but takes a swing right in the gut. They all get SCORPION DEATHDROPS one after the other to boot. Once they are all taken care of, Sting points at Hollywood Hogan as Dennis Rodman gets the man warmed up. Sting lays the ball bat down, so now Hogan decides it’s safe to meet him in the ring. Sting blocks a punch and fires back on Hogan. SCORPION DEATHDROP to Hogan! Oops, we are outta time! We gotta go, fans.

• La Parka vs. Randy Savage (w/Scott Hall & Elizabeth) – (WCW Monday Nitro 7/7/97)
  

This is all about Randy giving a wrestling lesson, YEAH DIG IT! During La Parka’s entrance, they show what he’s been up to lately, which is mostly beating up Super Calo with a chair on a weekly basis. Savage is definitely taking this lightly. He shows La Parka an armdrag or two. Meanwhile, Scott Hall heads over towards the announce position to badger Larry Zbyszko. Back in the ring, Savage looks to put away La Parka with a MACHO ELBOW, but flies down onto La Parka’s feet! As Savage gets up, La Parka turns him around for a DIAMOND CUTTER! Off comes the mask to reveal that La Parka is indeed Diamond Dallas Page! The crowd erupts as DDP covers Savage for the 1-2-3! (3:09) Realizing what just happened, Scott Hall jets himself back down to the ring to show how furious he is that DDP got one over on the new World order. This had been done many years earlier in World Class when Chris Adams pulled the same trick on Jimmy Garvin. It worked to perfection then, and it definitely worked here as well. No rating.

nWo Parody of the Four Horsemen – (WCW Monday Nitro 9/1/97)

As Gene Okerlund is ready to bring out the Four Horsemen, instead we get Syxx as Ric Flair and Konnan as Steve McMichael. Gene won’t stand for this disrespect and leaves the mic with Syxx. Lots of WOOS from Syxx. Great impression though. Out comes Buff Bagwell as Curt Hennig. Basically, they mock last week’s verbal exchange between Flair and Hennig. Bagwell makes several “spot” jokes. With that over with, they bring out Kevin Nash as Arn Anderson. Just fantastic. He’s wearing a neck collar and carrying a cooler out to the ring, which Nash admits on Legends of Wrestling was Arn’s actual cooler from his car. Of course, Nash confuses the truth so much, that he probably has no clue what is reality or not anymore. He runs Arn down into the ground, makes fun of his drinking problem, and calls him “average”. Nash also felt like everybody was laughing, but you can hear more boos than laughs. More “Horsemen” chants than “nWo”. The tears coming from Syxx’s wig is a nice touch though. He makes more “spot” jokes as he gives Bagwell his spot. In Bagwell’s Georgia accent, he tells Nash that he doesn’t like anybody in the Four Horsemen, but he’ll take his spot anyways. In fact, “it would be an honor.” They reveal some t-shirts with four jackasses on the back that represent the Four Horsemen, obvs. Our esteemed commentators have never been more disgusted. This would have been fine if the Four Horsemen weren’t completely embarrassed two weeks later at Fall Brawl. They were still a hot commodity in the South no matter what the nWo was doing.

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. Bill Goldberg – (WCW Monday Nitro 7/6/98)
  

Literally out of nowhere with very little build, WCW decided to capitalize on Goldberg’s overness and take the biggest money-making match they would ever have and throw it away on free TV just to beat Raw in the ratings for a week since Raw was finally starting to beat up Nitro with its ratings-grabbing Austin/McMahon feud. To be fair, it was in front of over 40,000 people in the Georgia Dome with a near million dollar gate, but just think of the PPV buys it could have garnered. This had most everyone in the world baffled, but nevertheless here we go. Hogan shoves off a headlock, but he’s run down with a shoulderblock. Oh how the tides have turned. Goldberg pushes Hogan off into the corner when he tries a front headlock. Now they do a test of strength and Goldberg wins that until Hogan goes to the ropes. Hogan rakes the eyes and starts whipping him with his weightlifting belt. Goldberg grabs the belt…and throws it away? He wants to win ‘fair and square’, says Tony. Okay, but that’s not ‘rasslin. Hollywood low-blows out of a full nelson and takes Goldberg down for some choking. Goldberg rolls away from some elbow drops and clotheslines Hogan to the floor so he can put his weightlifting belt back around his waist. Hogan takes Goldberg to the floor and bashes a chair all over Goldberg. Back in, Hogan slams Goldberg and connects with not one, not two, but THREE LEGDROPS! Enter Curt Hennig. He’s followed by DDP and Karl Malone – armed with steel chairs! Meanwhile in the ring, Hogan covers for 1-2-NO! Hogan points behind Hennig where Malone is waiting to give him a DIAMOND CUTTER! That takes care of Hennig. In the ring, Goldberg is poised and ready for the SPEAR! JACKHAMMER comes next and we have a NEW WCW world heavyweight champion! (8:11) Another great mark-out match, but another sign that WCW wasn’t going to be around forever since it became obsessed with merely defeating the WWF as opposed to making the right business decisions. **

Chucky Interrupts Rick Steiner – (WCW Monday Nitro 10/12/98)

Gene Okerlund brings out Rick Steiner for a chat. Rick talks for a bit, but it’s not all that interesting. Next thing you know, the CHUCKY doll interrupts on a video wall. Why, you ask? Because “Bride of Chucky” is about to be released from New Line Cinema, which was a subsidiary of Time Warner and one of the studios owned by Ted Turner once upon a time, so go figure. Anyways, we are to assume that Chucky had some sort of friendship with Scott Steiner. The line that I have taken away from this segment ever since I saw it live was, “WHEN YOU MESS WITH SCOTT, YOU MESS WITH ME.” The fall of 1998 is not exactly WCW’s finest hour, OKAY?

Goldberg Spears Bret Hart – (WCW Monday Nitro 3/29/99)

This episode of Nitro emanates from the Toronto Air Centre. Obvs, they LOVE seeing Bret. He’s wearing a Calgary Hitmen jersey instead of his usual pink and black ring attire. After putting himself over and shooting on Bischoff for ruining his legacy, he tries to goad WCW’s franchise player “William Goldberg” into a fight. For some reason, Steve Austin’s name comes up. Bret makes sure to remind us that he’s beaten Austin every time he faced him. AWESOME. He makes fun of Goldberg being an ex-football player and takes off his Calgary Hitmen jersey to reveal a TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS jersey. Oh snap. If this crowd didn’t already have a half chub, they are now. Well, Goldberg has enough and comes out to face Bret. SPEAR! Okay, now get up, Bill. Instead, Bret slides an unconscious Goldberg off him and covers him for a self-counted 1-2-3. Hart then stands up, takes off his jersey, and reveals a STEEL PLATE attached to his mid-section. And with that, Bret Hart straight up announces that he quits WCW. Dang, just awesome. Too bad this really went nowhere.

Vince Russo Hits the Reset Button – (WCW Monday Nitro 4/10/00)

This is the beginning of the Russo-Bischoff era. Vince Russo admits he wants to beat Vince McMahon at his own game, which will never happen. He encourages the WCW roster that they have to step up and seize the moment. Eric Bischoff comes out and admits that his biggest mistakes in WCW were the very ones who made him successful: the nWo, Sting, DDP, Hulk Hogan, Sid Vicious, Lex Luger, etc. Instead, he wants to build WCW around the “new blood” of wrestling. Russo and Bischoff then strips everybody of the titles and essentially resets the whole show. Tournaments are started to fill the title vacancies and would wrap up at Spring Stampede. Yeah, this worked out real well.

• Human Torch Match: Sting vs. Vampiro – (WCW Great American Bash 2000)
  

Sting dares Vampiro that if he wants to set him on fire, he has to join him up on the top of the NITROVISION~! Oh, but he’s afraid of heights. Okay, whatever. Sting comes down anyways and joins Vampiro in the ring. Vampiro blocks one Stinger Splash with a boot, but then Sting completely misses another one. He pulls out a gas can and covers him in gasoline. Sting is COMPLETELY drenched as they head over to the video wall. Alright, so they head up the Nitrovision. Eventually, Vampiro grabs the tiki torch and lights “Sting” on fire as he falls down to the floor onto some sort of stunt equipment. (7:23) Just an awful embarrassment to wrestling. Probably my least favorite Sting match ever. CRAP

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash – (WCW Great American Bash 2000) 

Bill Goldberg returned to WCW a few weeks back. Oddly enough, he and Nash have been REAL good buddies since then, too. Eric Bischoff tries making Kevin Nash’s life tough by adding the Filthy Animals (although they are all given ringside jobs to do – think Over the Edge 1998) and the Cat is the special enforcer at ringside. Nash overpowers to start, but gets distracted when all those outside folks jump up on the apron. Jarrett gets some punches in, but Nash delivers some knees and elbows to come back. To the floor we go, ringside violence ensues until they go into the crowd and brawl some more. Darn you, Russo. Moving on. Back to ringside, Rey Mysterio jabs a chair into Nash’s knee. The rest of the Filthy Animals put Nash back in the ring so that Jarrett can further use the chair on the knee. Time to go to school, Big Kev. After a few minutes of that, Jarrett applies the FIGURE-FOUR in the middle of the ring. Nash eventually makes the ropes. Being the timekeeper, Konnan nails Nash with a REALLY lame ring bell shot. That gets two. Now here comes Nash. Side Slam gets two. Nash fights off the Filthy Animals, ducks a belt shot from Jarrett, and returns the favor. Disqo lowers the boom on the ref, which brings Nash out to the floor. Juventud whacks Nash with a chair as the crowd chants for Goldberg. They roll him back inside, but Jarrett is down too. The Cat takes over as ref. Jarrett covers Nash, but the Cat isn’t quick enough for a fast-count. More Filthy Animals interference occurs as Nash swats them away. However, Jarrett catches Nash with the STROKE. Way delayed cover gets 1-2-NO! Time for the GEETAR, but Nash avoids the shot and Chokeslams Jarrett. The Cat counts two, but then something conveniently gets in his eye. Now he’s got more problems than just a speck of dust. JACKKNIFE POWERBOMB to the Cat. Big Boot to Jarrett. Down comes the straps. JACKKNIFE POWERBOMB to Jarrett. Nash covers, but another ref gets clobbered by Rick Steiner. Geez. While Rick Steiner is there, the Filthy Animals attack again. Meanwhile, Tank Abbott and Scott Steiner brawl in the aisle. Finally, Goldberg rides out in a GOLDBERG MONSTER TRUCK. A man is being beaten by about six guys, but we have to show off this truck before the save can be made. The Filthy Animals clear out. Jarrett is close to getting SPEARED, but instead Goldberg SPEARS Nash instead. Jarrett covers Nash and sleepy Mickey Jay counts the 1-2-3. (17:22) So Goldberg joins the New Blood faction led by Russo and Bischoff. Pretty much the epitome of Russo booking here. Too reliant on brawling, non-existent ring psychology, way overbooked finish, and a nonsensical heel turn. They also tried to make us feel sympathetic for Nash like he’s Ricky Morton here, which is a pretty ineffective way to book a man that is seven feet tall. I’m just saying. ¾*

• Judy Bagwell on a Forklift Match: Buff Bagwell vs. Kanyon – (WCW New Blood Rising 2000)
  

Well, it’s not “Judy Bagwell on a Pole”, but it’s close enough. Kanyon says he couldn’t find a pole that could hold her up. Buff leads a brawl through the crowd to start. To the ring, Buff is still prancing around like he always does. Makes sense when your mom is on the line. Kanyon low blows away a ten-count corner punch and takes Bagwell down with a Russian legsweep. Kanyon takes off a turnbuckle pad, allowing them to tease a bump into the exposed corner. He tries to work over Bagwell with a cobra clutch, but Bagwell fights up and sends Kanyon into the exposed corner a few times. BECAUSE SOMEBODY HAS TO. It gets two. KANYON CUTTER gets two though. Oh wait, here comes the former world champ David Arquette. He hits Bagwell with a construction hat, but Kanyon only gets two. Arquette gets involved some more only for Bagwell to come back and hit a DOUBLE BUFF BLOCKBUSTER. Cover, 1-2-3. (6:45) Buff brings his mom down off the forklift and gives her a big hug. The match itself isn’t all that bad, but the Judy Bagwell thing has got to go. ¾*

• Cage Match: WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T vs. Vince Russo – (WCW Monday Nitro 9/25/00)
  

We’re in the Nassau Coliseum tonight. In the pre-match interview, Russo tries to make himself the babyface if you can believe that. He’s dressed up like a New York Giants football player even. In case you’re wondering, Jeremy Borash is on commentary. A bunch of the WCW roster comes out to watch the match. Immediately, Russo sneaks out a baseball bat and beats the heck out of Booker. Since the door is blocked, he sets up the ladder in the ring and breaks through the ceiling to get out. Before he can crawl out, That’s 70s Guy Mike Awesome and Sting (who drops in from the rafters) scares him back down. Meanwhile, Booker takes away the ladder and Russo drops down to the mat. Booker takes off the football helmet and stomps the head a few times. He continues to beat up Russo until Lex Luger appears and slides his lead pipe (HA!) through the cyclone cage to Russo. He puts his helmet back on and bullies the ref around. Now refs and security come into the cage. However, one of the security guys is RIC FLAIR. WOO! He punches Russo in the mush and brings him into the ring for the FIGURE-FOUR. While the rest of the WCW roster brawl to the back, Booker hits Russo with the AXE KICK and connects with the Harlem Side Kick to leave Russo out cold. He then gets on the mic, exclaims, “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.”, and then starts to walk out. Wait a sec, HERE COMES GOLDBERG. He walks inside the cage and past Booker. Scott Steiner appears and slams the door back on Booker. As Russo charges Booker, Goldberg SPEARS him through the cage to cause Russo to win the match. (8:37) We’re outta time! Is Vince Russo the world champion? Nothing will surprise you in the year 2000! Find out on this Wednesday on Thunder! Such an overbooked mess of a main event. ½*

• 49ers Match for the vacant WCW World Title: Booker T vs. Jeff Jarrett – (WCW Monday Nitro 10/2/00) 

So yeah, Vince Russo did in fact win the WCW world title, but vacated it a week later and this match settles the vacancy. What exactly is a San Francisco 49ers match? There’s boxes hanging from a pole on all four corners and one of the boxes contains the title belt. Russo must have got this idea while watching Let’s Make A Deal reruns. When Booker heads out to hand an old lady his t-shirt, Jarrett jumps him from behind. Inside the ring, Jarrett takes a corner bump and one of the boxes falls down. He breaks up the box to reveal a blow-up doll. A BLOW-UP DOLL. Mark Madden wants that doll. Imagine that. Booker wipes out Jarrett with a Side Slam and slowly grabs another box. Inside is a framed picture of Scott Hall, so he breaks it over Jarrett’s head. To the floor we go, Jarrett starts beating Booker with the two boxes that have already been pulled down. Onto the announce table, Booker gives Jarrett a piledriver. The table doesn’t budge. Booker grabs box number three to find a coal miner’s glove. Jarrett wakes up and crotches Booker on the ringpost. He gets the glove away and uses it against Booker. GO FOR THE FOURTH BOX, YOU IDIOT. He whacks Booker one good time with a piece of a box. Booker manages to stop him from grabbing the final box, but loses a slugfest. Sleeperhold to Booker. His arm drops once, twice, but not three times. Booker hits a back suplex and both men are down. Jarrett gets up and comes off the top with the coal miner’s glove, but Booker counters the leap with the BOOK END. Jarrett tries to stop him from grabbing the box, but Booker nails him with the AXE KICK and the spinaroonie leads to the Harlem Side Kick. Jarrett stops Booker again and continues to dick around instead of grabbing the championship. The Howard Stern midget Beetlejuice comes out to stop Jarrett a final time before Booker finally grabs the WCW world title. (13:01) Afterwards, Scott Steiner runs out and whacks Booker with his lead pipe. Since Beetlejuice can’t defend himself and no one can do anything about it, BPP puts him in the STEINER RECLINER. Another low point for WCW. ¼*

Final Thoughts: They stick in just enough good stuff to make the WCW rubes (like me) want to buy this set and then stick in some of WCW’s worst moments – all coming from the year 2000. Is it really necessary to make bank off WCW and then bury the company at the same time when they have been closed now for over thirteen years? I wouldn’t recommend this set because while there is some good things, you have probably already seen what makes them special ad nauseum elsewhere. No rare gems and way too much WCW 2000 for my liking. Thumbs down for OMG! 2 – Top 50 Incidents in WCW History.