The official wrestling sim topic

[Evil Vito]

Clash of the Champions is shaping up nicely. I'm always a sucker for War Games. I'll predict The Franchise grabs the US Title against Rhodes via underhanded help from Jarrett or something, leading to him joining the heel side at War Games. No idea who the faces will bring in. Looking forward to seeing it unfold.

[loopydate]

My hunch is the faces add one of the guys sitting out their Time-Warner contracts.

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW Nitro (Week 2, July 2001)

10 days from Clash of the Champions live on FX, Tony Shciavone and Jerry Lawler welcome us to Nitro as Team Canada's music starts...

Lance Storm and Mike Awesome stand in the ring. Storm talks about Mike Awesome's street fight with Road Warrior Animal in 11 days and hypes Awesome up as a future legend when it comes to the extreme. With that, he says tonight Mike Awesome will be giving Animal something to think about by beating a hardcore legend. And that hardcore legend is on his way out right now...

Mike Awesome vs Norman Smiley

Smiley plays to the crowd a little and actually starts the match with a little offense, giving him time to give the crowd a quick big wiggle. This only serves to piss Awesome off who takes complete control of the match, powerbombing Smiley multiple times but refusing to go for the pin. Eventually, the referee is forced to call the match.

Winner via ref stoppage: Mike Awesome in 4:57

After the match, Awesome threatens another powerbomb but Animal and Rick Steiner run out. Storm holds Awesome back as they get in the ring and gets out with him, backing away from the confrontation as Animal and Steiner check on Smiley.

Shane Douglas is backstage with Gene Okerlund where he hypes his US Title match with Dustin Rhodes tonight and declares his title win tonight as the first step toward him ushering in yet another new era in wrestling.

Konnan makes his way to the ring and grabs a mic. He says he always got along with Dustin Rhodes but last week he was trying to do the right thing and help Dustin up only to be taken advantage of. And it wasn't the first time the Filthy Animals have been taken advantage of by a "friend".

He calls out Shane Helms and gets in his face. He tells him what he did by taking advantage of Rey hitting his finisher to get the pin on Kidman last month was cheap. Helms defends his actions saying he didn't break any rules. He just took advantage of the situation.

Rey and Kidman come out and get between the two before it comes to blows. Rey tells Konnan to calm down and sides with Helms. Kidman seems to agree. Konnan argues and finally tells Rey it's alright. He knows Rey and Kidman are too nice to say or do anything about it. So he is. He wants Shane Helms in 11 days at Clash of the Champions... and he wants Rey to be the special referee. Rey declines. Konnan doesn't let up and eventually Helms cuts Konnan off and tells Rey he trusts him to call it right down the middle so there's no controversy when he shuts Konnan up. Rey tells Konnan "If I do this, this thing is over..." before accepting the offer.

A video airs hyping the return of Fit Finlay

Backstage, Mean Gene is with Diamond Dallas Page and Booker T. They discuss their title match at The Great American Bash next month but first... they're focused on War Games. They plan on choosing a 4th man by the end of the night. They'll also be at ringside tonight to be in Dustin Rhodes' corner for his title match tonight.

Kanyon vs Lash Leroux

Leroux keeps it somewhat competitive but eventually Kanyon finishes him off with a flatliner.

Winner: Kanyon in 7:12

After the match, Kanyon gets on the mic. He has some quick words for Mike Sanders. He tells him the new era is the Kanyon era. And Mike Sanders made an enemy for life by stalling his progress on the way to the top. He put Sanders on the shelf last week and every time he tries to come back, he's going to do the same.

The Jung Dragons and Kimona come out for the next match but before it starts, Kimona gets on the mic. She calls out Eric Bischoff and tells him she's claustrophobic and refuses to be put in the cage at ringside for the upcoming match. Bischoff tells her she doesn't have to... but it's the only way she'll be allowed at ringside. And if she willingly declines to be at ringside for the match, as the contracted manager for The Jung Dragons, she will be fired. Kimona throws a tantrum and reluctantly gets in the cage before it is locked by the referee.

The Jung Dragons vs Air Raid (Kimona locked in a cage at ringside)

A quick-paced back and forth match. About 10 minutes in, Kimona suddenly passes out inside the cage. This causes the referee to run out and unlock the cage as EMTs rush to ringside to help Kimona. They put her on a stretcher and start to wheel her back. With the referee and Air Raid still distracted as the match is seemingly on hold, the Dragons attack Air Raid behind the ref's back and Yang slams Styles' head in the open cage door. He rolls him into the ring while the other two fight outside, gets the ref's attention and goes to the top for a leg drop and the 1-2-3.

Winners: The Jung Dragons in 13:40

Paris checks on an unconscious Styles in the ring as the Dragons back down the ramp, smiling and seemingly unconcerned as they celebrate their win. After the break, we see Kimona dramatically over-selling being disoriented as she's loaded into an ambulance.

Gene Okerlund welcomes Lex Luger to the ring. Luger talks about his issues with Midajah and Buff Bagwell and how he wants to get his hands on Buff. He explains his contract situation meaning Midajah has managerial rights and won't allow it. But it's time for a fresh start. He says he wants to be the fourth member of DDP, Booker and Dustin's team at the Clash.

With that, out comes Midajah and Buff. Buff reminds Luger he doesn't make those decisions... His manager does. Midajah takes the mic and tells Luger that since he's been so disappointing lately, he won't be embarassing himself in such a high profile match. Instead, she thinks it's best he prove himself by starting from the bottom tonight. And with that, here is his opponent...

Lex Luger vs Kwee Wee

Midajah and Buff are at ringside. A short match that is controlled by Luger for the most part. At one point Kwee Wee actually gets an advantage for about 10 seconds and this is enough for Midajah to send Buff into the ring to hit a blockbuster on Kwee Wee, causing the ref to call for the bell.

Winner by DQ: Kwee Wee in 3:37

Midajah gets the mic and bashes Luger, telling her she had to send in her A client to show him how it's done before her B client suffered an embarrassing pinfall loss.

Gene Okerlund is backstage with Dustin Rhodes who hypes up the upcoming US Title match and warns Douglas that he's got backup and it's gonna be one on one. Suddenly Dusty comes into view and tells his son he's got his back tonight, too. Dustin says he let him fight without getting involved a couple weeks ago. He's got DDP and Booker in his corner and he wants Dusty to do him the same favor and stay in the back and out of harm's way.

James Allen and Chris Harris are in the ring for the next match. KroniK comes out and doesn't even wait for the bell to ring before attacking. They destroy Allen and Harris until officials come out to break it up. Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire run out and KroniK stands their ground. Both teams get a couple shots in while tons of officals stands between the two teams to break it up. KroniK eventually leaves the ring and The Thrillers get on the mic. They tell KroniK they won't take the titles by intimidation. They're gonna have to man up at Clash of the Champions.

WCW United States Title Tournament Finals: Shane Douglas vs Dustin Rhodes

DDP and Booker T are at ringside for the match. A great back and forth match with plenty of near falls. Dustin has control when suddenly we hear Jeff Jarrett's voice and he appears on the big screen standing by the production truck outside. "Hey, Dustin! What's more important to you? That US Title... or your old, washed-up daddy?" Suddenly the camera pans back to show Dusty Rhodes lying face down on the ground with Jindrak and Stasiak standing over him and Jarrett holding a baseball bat, positioning it over Dusty's head. DDP and Booker quickly run up the ramp as Dustin freezes watching them for a moment before starting to leave the ring himself. Just as he does, Douglas kicks the middle rope up between his legs, pulls him back in and delivers a Pittsburgh plunge for the 1-2-3.

Winner and NEW WCW United States Champion: Shane Douglas in 15:26

Douglas takes the title and celebrates with a huge smile over Dustin as we see DDP and Booker arrive outside the arena but Jarrett, Stasiak and Jindrak are gone. They kneel down to help Dusty but when they turn him face up, they realize it's a dummy. Dustin looks up to see this just as Jarrett, Stasiak and Jindrak come out to attack him along with Shane Douglas. They beat him down until DDP and Booker run out to make things a little more even. Finally, Dusty Rhodes comes out to help clean house, sending the heels running. Dusty grabs a mic and tells Jarrett that in 10 days he's gonna have to fight him like a man. No escape. No numbers game. No weapons. Just bare fists until someone can't take anymore. He's the 4th man on DDP, Booker and Dustin's team for War Games.

[#1-norm-fan]

(I actually thought both 4th guys would be kinda predictable. That's why I tried not to stretch out the announcements for more than a week as to make them seem like a huge deal. lol)

WCW.com post-show news

Clash of the Champions card

War Games:
Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Dustin Rhodes & Dusty Rhodes vs Jeff Jarrett, Shawn Stasiak, Mark Jindrak & Shane Douglas

WCW World Tag Team Title Match:
KroniK vs The Natural Born Thrillers

Street Fight:
Road Warrior Animal vs Mike Awesome

Special Referee: Rey Misterio Jr.
Konnan vs "Sugar" Shane Helms

Great American Bash card

WCW World Heavyweight Title Match: Diamond Dallas Page vs Booker T

Ratings

Nitro: .63 (Down from .66)
Raw: 5.31 (Up from 5.26)

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW Nitro (Week 3, July 2001)

Live from New Jersey, Tony Shciavonne and Jerry Lawler welcome us to the last Nitro before Clash of the Champions.

4 on 2 Handicap Match: KroniK vs Elix Skipper, Kid Romeo, James Allen and Chris Harris

KroniK faces the two teams they attacked in recent weeks. Skipper and Romeo walk out before ever getting in the ring leaving KroniK to make relatively short work of Allen and Harris.

Winners: KroniK in 3:56

After the match KroniK gets on the mic and tells us that Eric Bischoff has implemented a "no contact" rule between themselves and The Natural Born Thrillers to protect the tag title match. The Thrillers come out and face off with KroniK as KroniK calls them cowards, accusing them of asking Bischoff for protection. As tensions rise, The Harris Brothers come out of the crowd and attack The Thrillers from behind, leaving them beaten down. KroniK laughs and shakes hands with them.

We come back from break and The Rhodes', DDP and Booker T come out. Dustin explains that he was hesitant to accept Dusty as his partner but he knows he's the toughest man he's ever known and this Thursday night, Jarrett's team is gonna have to kill him to win War Games. This brings out Jarrett, Douglas, Jindrak and Stasiak with Stacy Keibler. After Jarrett, Jindrak and Douglas run down the Rhodes' family and tell them they're gonna put the old man out of his misery, Stacy grabs the mic to hype Shawn Stasiak and compare him to the old, out of shape fossil in the ring. Dusty has had enough and makes some vaguely sexual comments toward Stacy before telling her a set of muscles don't make him a real man and he challenges Stasiak to a match tonight. Stacy laughs it off and accepts.

Backstage, Gene Okerlund is with a special guest in Mike Sanders. Sanders discusses Kanyon's threats last week and then holds up a baseball bat and tells Kanyon he's gonna get his payback right in front of Kanyon's hometown crowd in Jersey. Eric Bischoff suddenly comes on screen to tell Sanders he's not cleared to compete and for the sake of Kanyon's protection, Sanders' protection and WCW's protection, he asks him to leave. Sanders looks angry before security comes in and he begrudgingly leaves the arena.

Kanyon vs Johnny Swinger

Kanyon controls the match for the most part until suddenly Mike Sanders' voice comes over the speakers. Kanyon looks over at the big screen to see Sanders standing outside calling for him. "Isn't it great to be performing in your hometown? Not having to stay in a hotel. Not having to rent a car..." As the camera zooms out we see that Sanders is standing on the roof of a car with the baseball bat. Kanyon freaks out as Sanders starts laying into the car, smashing the windows out. The distraction allows Swinger to roll Kanyon up and pick up the win.

Winner: Johnny Swinger in 7:12

Kanyon throws a tantrum and races out to find Sanders gone and his car totaled. Suddenly Sanders runs out from a corner, chasing Kanyon around the car with the bat until security comes out to take Sanders away while he yells with a maniacal grin that he's gonna make Kanyon's life a living hell.

Kimona comes out with The Jung Dragons and she speaks very dramatically about her ordeal last week. She says she's planning legal action against Eric Bischoff. Bischoff comes out and says she's a bad actress but if she is planning legal action, he thinks it's best that she not be at ringside for the upcoming match. The Filthy Animals' music hits and out come Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman as Kimona throws a fit while Bischoff orders her away from ringside.

Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio vs The Jung Dragons

A good back and forth, fast-paced match ends with Kidman getting the pin on Kaz after a shooting star press.

Winners: The Filthy Animals in 11:00

After the match, The Jung Dragons attack from behind, beating down Kidman and Rey until Shane Helms runs out to help, taking it to both Jung Dragons before accidentally clotheslining Kidman when Yang ducks. Konnan runs out and beats down Helms until Rey pulls him off, telling him to calm down.

Buff Bagwell vs Kwee Wee

Lex Luger and Midajah are at ringside. Midajah gets on commentary to explain that she asked for this match so her star client could teach her B-level talent how it's done. After a referee bump, Midajah tells Luger to hand Bagwell a chair. Luger is reluctant but eventually gets the chair. After some hesitation, he suddenly goes to hit Bagwell with it as he leans over the ropes reaching for it but Kwee Wee rolls him up, incidentally taking him out of harms way. The ref comes to in time to count a 2 before Bagwell hits a blockbuster and gets the 3 count anyway as Midajah screams at Luger.

Winner: Buff Bagwell in 4:45

After the match, Midajah keeps the two of them apart and reminds Luger she controls him. He's either gonna be a team player or he'll be working the undercard for the rest of his career.

Road Warrior Animal vs Johnny the Bull

A relatively quick match that sees Animal win with a powerslam.

Winner: Road Warrior Animal in 4:17

After the match, Reno and Big Vito attack only to be fought off by Animal and Steiner. The distraction allows Lance Storm and Mike Awesome to run in and attack though. Storm brings in two tables and Awesome ends up powerbombing both men through one.

Gene Okerlund is backstage with an irate Chris Kanyon who tells Eric Bischoff as soon as Sanders is healthy, he wants him in the ring.

Dusty Rhodes vs Shawn Stasiak

Stasiak controls most of the match with Dusty getting some good licks in here and there. Eventually Dusty fights back and gets the upperhand with a flurry of offense. Stacy gets on the apron to distract him, unbuttoning and flirting with Dusty as he zones in on her. This allows Stasiak to run after him but he moves and Stasiak knocks Stacy off the apron and Dusty rolls him up for the 1-2-3 before sliding out of the ring and celebrating.

Winner: Dusty Rhodes in 9:16

Jarrett, Douglas and Jindrak rush out but Dusty escapes through the crowd. He works his way around to the top of the ramp where DDP, Booker and Dustin come out to join in on the celebration while Team Jarrett stands in the ring seething as the show goes off the air.

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW.com post-show news

Clash of the Champions card

War Games:
Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Dustin Rhodes & Dusty Rhodes vs Jeff Jarrett, Shawn Stasiak, Mark Jindrak & Shane Douglas

WCW World Tag Team Title Match:
KroniK vs The Natural Born Thrillers

Street Fight:
Road Warrior Animal vs Mike Awesome

Special Referee: Rey Misterio Jr.
Konnan vs "Sugar" Shane Helms

Great American Bash card

WCW World Heavyweight Title Match: Diamond Dallas Page vs Booker T

Ratings

Nitro: .64 (Up from .63)
Raw: 5.17 (Down from 5.31)

[Evil Vito]

Good show. Every match on Nitro seemed to have some actual meaning to build towards Clash of the Champions. A novel concept that WWE seems to have forgotten about.

[#1-norm-fan]

Thanks, Vito. And yes, WWE really should try to focus on putting meaning behind all their segments.

[Evil Vito]

Had some downtime tonight so I downloaded a new EWR stat update and set the clock back a month so I could get to June. Auto-booked the first two weeks to get right to Sunday’s MITB PPV.

I’m not saying I’ll stick with this game long-term (my track record, of course, suggests I won’t) but I did go out of my way to dump Main Event and replace it with NXT so I can actually book that as a show, and I created all of the NXT titles, too. So I’ve set my game “universe” the way I’d want to if I were going to do a long-term game. I’ve also said numerous times in the wrestling forum that I miss the roster split when it was done properly so I’ll probably re-institute that not too far in the future if I do wind up starting with this game.

Also, I’d only be doing occasional monthly recaps and fairly brief PPV results. Writing out 2-3 TV shows a week always wound up draining me to the point where I lost interest and then forgot all of my storylines when I chose to dive back in.

Anyway, here’s MITB, run with the scheduled card for Monday. I accidentally left CRZ in for recaps instead of Scott Keith, but based on some of the numbers I’d have to say Keith would have given it a huge thumbs up.



Pre-Show: R-Truth vs. King Barrett
R-Truth started the match off like a house of fire, but Barrett was eventually able to outmuscle him and win in convincing fashion with the Bullhammer. A clean win for Barrett? Wow, it’s almost as if the booker feels that the King of the Ring should actually come across as a credible performer, even if it is just the pre-show.
Winner: King Barrett
84% Match Quality, 78% Crowd Reaction, 81% Overall Rating

WWE Tag Team Championships: The New Day (C) vs. The Prime Time Players
Big E and Xavier Woods had to go it alone tonight with Kofi Kingston busy preparing for Money in the Bank later on. Late in the contest Big E and Darren Young the legal men as Big E blatantly attacks Titus O’Neil, sending him off the apron. The referee admonishes E in the corner as Woods sneaks in with a title belt shot on Young. Big Ending on Young and that is that. New Day rocks!
Winners and STILL WWE Tag Team Champions: The New Day
77% Match Quality, 73% Crowd Reaction, 75% Overall Rating

WWE Divas Championship: Paige vs. Nikki Bella (C)
Divas almost never have high-quality matches in EWR unless you have them racking up points in developmental, so this wasn’t bad all things considered. Nikki and Brie attempt a Twin Magic switch-off but Paige halts it. Paige rolls off of Nikki during a Rack Attack attempt and hits her with a German suplex. Paige locks in the PTO and Nikki taps out to end her 7 month reign. New champion!
Winner and NEW WWE Divas Champion: Paige
71% Match Quality, 74% Crowd Reaction, 73% Overall Rating

Money in the Bank Ladder Match
All 7 man flirted with victory at different points in the match and the fans were treated to a flurry of crazy spots that you can only see at MITB. Neville with the Red Arrow to Sheamus from off a ladder. Orton with a RKO to Ziggler off a ladder that Ziggler sells like death. All kinds of hijinx with Kofi and the other members of New Day who ran in on his behalf. But in the end, when the Director of Operations, Kane, appeared primed to win the briefcase for the second time in his career, Reigns came flying in with a Superman Punch from another ladder, sending Kane crashing down to the mat. Reigns maintained his grasp on Kane’s ladder and reached up to grab the briefcase and become Mr. Money in the Bank 2015! Reigns continues his monster 2015 and has a title match at any time in the next year.
Winner: Roman Reigns
92% Match Quality, 90% Crowd Reaction, 91% Overall Rating

Kevin Owens vs. John Cena
I bet nobody saw the MITB ladder match being that good, so Owens/Cena had an incredibly hard act to follow. They had themselves another excellent match, showcasing much of the same drama seen at Elimination Chamber. Cena somehow seemed even harder to put down than last time. The brawl reaches the outside of the ring. Cena charges and ends up being Pop Up Powerbombed on the ring apron! Shades of Sami Zayn several times at NXT. With Cena out cold Owens slid back into the ring for the countout victory! Owens has defeated John Cena again!
Winner (via countout): Kevin Owens
81% Match Quality, 87% Crowd Reaction, 85% Overall Rating
Kevin Owens gained overness from this segment

Kevin Owens’ actions speak louder than words
A winded Owens grabbed the mic and prepared to tell the crowd about how he always keeps his promises – until he looked outside the ring and seeing Cena, against all odds, ignoring attention from the referees and getting back to his feet. Owens drops the mic and Powerbombs Cena on the apron again. The announcers are appalled, even JBL is willing to concede that he went too far. Cena does a stretcher job as a smug and confident Owens leaves with the NXT Title in tow.
81% Overall Rating
John Cena lost overness from this segment, apparently EWR feels Cena actually getting stretchered out is unrealistic

WWE Intercontinental Championship: Big Show vs. Ryback (C)
These two big strong men slug it out in, well, sluggish fashion. In fairness, the match quality still wound up being better than expected as both guys have decent brawl numbers. Anyway, the entire match builds to the big moment at the end with Ryback showing off his brute strength: hoisting Big Show for the Shellsock. 3 seconds later and Ryback has retained his title.
Winner and STILL WWE Intercontinental Champion: Ryback
74% Match Quality, 81% Crowd Reaction, 78% Overall Rating

Ladder Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins (C)
Both men did absolutely inhumane things to each other with a ladder in what was these bitter rivals’ most vicious match to date. Plenty of near-victories on both sides. As expected though, chicanery occurred near the end. Out comes Kane, who sicks J&J Security on Ambrose. Rollins ended up throwing J&J out of the ring, insisting on winning it on his own and that he doesn’t need any help. Kane enters the ring and he and Rollins get into a shouting match. They throw haymakers at one another and end up brawling on the outside. Chokeslam to Rollins through the announce table! BUT WAIT…Ambrose has regained his composure in the ring…and he grabs the belt!
Winner and NEW WWE World Heavyweight Champion: Dean Ambrose
91% Match Quality, 98% Crowd Reaction, 95% Overall Rating

Kane looks gob-smacked as a maniacal Ambrose celebrates atop the ladder, his dream finally accomplished. The celebration doesn’t last long, as J&J recover and pull him back down. The new champion falls victim to a 3-on-1 beatdown until Reigns’ music hits. Reigns rushes down, briefcase in hand and he uses it as a weapon to knock J&J out. He tosses the case to Kane and then Superman Punches it in right into his face.

Reigns pulls his former Shield brother Ambrose to his feet and offers him an embrace. He raises the champ’s hand as the crowd loses their shit. They pose in the corners for the fans. Ambrose jumps down off a corner, turns around, and HOLY CHRIST – SPEAR TO AMBROSE!

Reigns summons the referee to get back into the ring and hands over his newly won briefcase, which can only mean one thing…

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose (C)
Reigns simply pins the already downed Ambrose to win the title. The arena is shocked that Reigns betrayed his “brother” and the announcers are at a complete loss for words. If JR were here he’d close the show with BAH GAWD THE LANDSCAPE OF WWE HAS CHANGED! This wasn’t really a match, but EWR has to treat it as one in order to change the belts accurately…so it gets good ratings, dammit!
88% Match Quality, 88% Crowd Reaction, 87% Overall Rating
Roman Reigns gained overness from this turn (technically the heel turn was tacked onto the end of the title match but whatever)

83% Overall Rating for Money in the Bank
1.89 Buy Rate

[#1-norm-fan]

How the fuck did you squeeze a 70+ rating out of a Nikki Bella match?? lol

I'm one of the few people who are totally cool with the idea of a Reigns title reign heel or face at the moment so thumbs up for the end. You should stick with this. It will help motivate me to stick with mine, too.

[Evil Vito]

Yeah, the diva's match was a bit surprising. Paige's stats are pretty good, but Nikki's aren't horrible either. They might be a bit generous, but in fairness she does seem to have gotten a bit better recently. Also she gets pretty big reactions because all of the male fans in the audience want to motorboat her fake breasts, so that adds to the overall match rating.

I had a lot of different ideas for the main event. I tried to keep things somewhat realistic in that I can totally see Reigns walking out of MITB as champion. I think the more realistic scenario would be Rollins winning and Reigns cashing in after (possibly setting up Ambrose to turn on Reigns instead out of jealousy). I know people like Austin have advocated a Reigns heel turn but I'm not sure Vince is going to be willing to do that yet.

I considered doing that with the idea that Rollins would earn the fans' respect by shrugging off the Authority and winning on his own, therefore sorta turning face and making Reigns' cash in seem like a dick move. But it would have flopped in EWR since I needed Reigns to screw over a legit face, Rollins' disposition is still heel.

My idea is pretty much what I said I'd like to see happen in the Elimination Chamber thread. As a result I also already know my Battleground and SummerSlam main events plus I've planned an admittedly lame angle that will at least give me a kayfabe reason to bring back the split soon. Gives me reason to keep playing to see it through. Also it's kinda funny seeing the 3 Shield members having all held the belt on the same day in my title history.

[loopydate]

I keep wanting to play more of my game, but with Nitro and Thunder both canceled, it's way less fun. Still trying to get WCW a TV deal, but it's not as interesting to me to book WWF and ECW without WCW in the mix.

Came up with an idea for something involving the three remaining active TPWW simmers, but I'm still trying to figure out logistics. Would you guys be up to, in theory, doing an Amrchair Warfare type game where we pick rosters draft-style based on the next stat update and book entirely new promotions from scratch?

[#1-norm-fan]

Possibly. I'd have to try out EWR a little and see if I can get into it again. I feel spoiled by TEW.

[Evil Vito]

I'd definitely be interested in giving it a try. It's not a major time commitment or anything.

[loopydate]

It would be however much of a commitment you wanted to make it. I'm basically envisioning us each creating a "draft board," then I'd go through and allocate people to the different Feds based on how they ranked on each board. Figure out the minimum number of guys you need to run a Global promotion and start the rosters with that many. Then you can sign whatever "free agents" are left on a first-come first-served basis. Do however many shows you want, have however many titles you want, etc. etc.

[#1-norm-fan]

I've never done an "armchair warfare" thing before. Would we have to trade the files back and forth after each booked show or just book our shows without using the other guys' talent or... how exactly does it work?

[loopydate]

I was thinking the latter. Maybe when the file is created, we make the other two promotions with their rosters. If somebody gets released in-game they're fair game to sign? Could create some fun situations where all of a sudden somebody jumps ship mid-story.

[#1-norm-fan]

So say if the AI drops a guy in my game who is on yours or Vito's roster, he'd be free to sign and you'd have to release him in your game? Seems like it would be a bit of a mess.

[loopydate]

You're probably right. Was thinking it could be a fun way to create surprise jumps, but it definitely opens the door for some craziness.

[Evil Vito]

I've continued plugging along booking television in the build up to Battleground. Admittedly though, with the exception of my top few stories my booking is pretty much unfocused for everyone in the undercard (lol at least I'm being realistic ). There are just so many people I'm trying to fit onto television. It's pretty much the reason why I always wind up bringing back the split in my game and this will be no exception. Trying to get through SummerSlam and then bring it back sometime soon after so I can actually try to develop some proper stories.

Anyway, Battleground is more or less being built around 2 matches anyway as sort of a filler PPV before the SummerSlam build begins in earnest. The main event is the sensible one: a triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Title between the 3 former members of the Shield. Rollins and Ambrose both have valid claims to the title having both lost it at MITB. Ambrose is his usual maniacal self and is even more unhinged now after being betrayed by his other "brother". Rollins has slowly become more sympathetic - pissed off that the Authority interfered in his MITB match when he didn't need the help and Kane basically screwed him over outright. And Reigns is being booked as a badass heel champ, polar opposite to what Rollins had been doing up until MITB.

In a perfect world, I'd have loved to have somehow held off on this triple threat until WM 32 but I have no idea if I'll play long enough to see it through, and with the split soon to come back it might be tough to get them all in the same angle again. I'd rather just get it out of my system now, just over a year since the faction split - and then let each man go into their own stories for the time being.

I also have Cena actually staying offscreen, selling the injuries sustained from Owens from the apron powerbomb. Owens has been committing gimmick infringement, doing his own Open Challenges on Raw for the NXT Title and he's also issuing an open challenge for the NXT Title at Battleground. I know who I will pick for it and I'm sure it'll be a really good match to help generate interest in NXT moving forward.

Speaking of NXT, I've actually been borrowing some of the lower card guys from the main roster (such as what Zack Ryder is doing in real life) as the actual NXT roster I have to work with right now is pretty small. I have a ton of people in the actual in-game development system because their ratings are just way too low to use in televised matches and therefore can't use those people on my NXT TV show. Even some of the ones I'm using like Blake & Murphy are horribly unready and might get "demoted" so I can build their stats. I had them drop the tag belts to Enzo & Cass who at least have some charisma to get by on. May sign a few more former WWE guys to beef up the NXT roster a la Rhyno and The Brian Kendrick.

[#1-norm-fan]

I have the same problem when I'm playing a WWE game as far as the roster being too full to focus on everyone. And that's with TEW where I can book way more than just 11 segments and include way more guys. I usually try to roll with kind of an unofficaly semi-roster split. Having the main guys rarely show up on Smackdown while the upper-midcar/IC Title scene regularly main events Smackdown making it seem like a bigger deal. Kinda like what WCW did with WCW Saturday Night when Nitro started.

With the network, I'd definitely take advantage of Superstars and Main Event, too. Let them actually have storylines focused on lower card guys kinda like NXT was before it became developmental. I'm not sure how any of this would translate to be useful in EWR though.

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW Clash of the Champions XXXVI (July 19th 2001)

The opening video airs focusing on the War Games main event, the pyro goes off and Tony Schiavonne, Jerry "The King" Lawler and Mike Tenay welcome us to the show.

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: KroniK vs Natural Born Thrillers

We get a ref bump late in the match. This allows The Harris Brothers to come out and attempt to interfere. One of them attempts to hit Palumbo with one of the tag title belts before getting knocked off the apron. Palumbo picks up the title and turns around, hitting Clarke with it as the ref comes to and calls for the bell.

Winners by DQ: KroniK in 11:23

After the match, KroniK and the Harris Brothers beat down The Thrillers as road agents and referees come out to stop them only to get beaten down themselves. After the damage is done, KroniK stands over the Thrillers, posing with the title as we go backstage.

Gene Okerlund is backstage with Road Warrior Animal and Rick Steiner. Steiner makes it clear he won't let Lance Storm be a factor in the upcoming match.

Hardcore Match: Road Warrior Animal vs Mike Awesome

It doesn't take long for Storm to try to get involved and Steiner goes on the attack, chasing Steiner down the ramp and out of harm's way. The match continues one on one until the camera catches Steiner backstage looking for Storm. Suddenly Storm comes up from behind, knocking Steiner into a room and propping a chair under the door handle. He then heads to the ring, pushing Animal off the top rope as he has Awesome laid out on a table. The two of them double team Animal for a bit and after an Awesome Bomb through a table, the match is over.

Winner: Mike Awesome in 9:56

After the brutal 2-on-1 beatdown, shades of what Team Canada did to Jim Duggan just a month ago, Storm and Awesome taunt the crowd as EMTs come out to help a motionless Animal.

We get a backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett, Shane Douglas, Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak as they prepare for war.

Midajah comes out with Buff and Luger, again hyping Buff as the star of the team while Luger stands by seething.

Buff Bagwell vs Hugh Morris

Luger begrudgingly helps Bagwell midway through the match by tripping Morris as he runs the ropes. Torrie Wilson is seen coming out and watching the end of the match from the top of the entrance ramp much to the confusion of everyone. The match ends with Buff hitting a blockbuster for the 1-2-3.

Winner: Buff Bagwell in 5:33

Rey Mysterio Jr., decked out in his referee shirt is backstage with Gene Okerlund, telling him how conflicted he is about reffing this match. When Gene asks him if he'll show favoritism he simply shakes his head and responds "I don't know".

"Sugar" Shane Helms vs Konnan (Special Referee: Rey Mysterio Jr.)

A hard-hitting back and forth match sees both men questioning Rey about the speed of his count at different times. Konnan gets the upper hand but can't put Helms away. This frustration leads to Konnan choking Helms out in the corner as Rey tries to pull him off. Konan then trades the choke for kicks as Helms sits in the corner and Konnan ignore's Rey. Finally Rey calls for the bell to DQ Konnan and Konnan looks on in anger.

Winner by DQ: "Sugar" Shane Helms in 11:30

After the match, Konnan continues his attack and when Rey tries to pull him off again, Konnan blasts him with a punch, knocking him down. Billy Kidman runs out and a frustrated Konnan just stands there, hands on his head as Rey and Konnan watch him walk out of the ring.

Booker T, DDP and the Rhodes' are backstage with Mean Gene and we are just moments from War Games. After a quick video recapping what's led us here, the cage comes down and David Penzer announces the rules.

War Games: Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Dustin Rhodes and Dusty Rhodes vs Jeff Jarrett, Shane Douglas, Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak

The two men to start the match are chosen. It will be Diamond Dallas Page and Mark Jindrak start the match. Some slow build for 5 minutes as Jindrak holds his own quite well and the first advantage goes to... Team Jarrett.

Shawn Stasiak enters the ring and Stacy looks on in approval as her men spend 2 minutes beating down page before...

Booker T enters to even things up again. He cleans house and allows DDP to make a comeback.

Next in to give team the face team their first advantage is Dustin Rhodes. He gets in and as soon as the ref closes the cage, Stacy walks around to distract Dusty. Suddenly, Douglas attacks him from behind as Jarrett throws the referee responsible for the door out of the way. Before anyone in the ring knows what's happening, Douglas places Dusty's head between the door and the cage and slams it, knocking him out cold. Dustin immediately looks out and rushes to the cage door only to have Jarrett hold it shut and taunt him while Douglas kicks and unconscious Dusty. EMTs run out to help and finally Jarrett and Douglas back off, allowing Dustin to come out as they run through the crowd and stand back laughing while Dustin opts to check on his father as opposed to chasing them. As the EMTs load him on the stretcher, Dustin seemingly forgets about the match and leaves with him.

This allows Jarrett and Douglas to enter the match with a 4 on 2 advantage. Booker and DDP fight valiantly before DDP ends up getting busted open and passing out while in a figure four forcing the ref to call for the bell.

Winners: Jeff Jarrett, Shane Douglas, Mark Jindrak and Shawn Stasiak in 20:12

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW Nitro (Week 4, July 2001)

As Schiavonne and Lawler discuss the events of Thursday night and the hideous actions of Shane Douglas and Jeff Jarrett, Kanyon makes his way to the ring.

He calls out Mike Sanders only for Johnny Swinger to come out and taunt Kanyon about his loss last week. As Kanyon fumes, Mike Sanders' voice is heard and he comes on telling Kanyon he's not in the arena. He loved Kanyon's hometown so much last week, he decided to come back. He's even got a date tonight. The camera pans back and Sanders is standing in front of a limo and an older woman comes into view and Sanders kisses her hand, opening the limo door for her. Kanyon looks on shocked and yells "MOM!?!" Sanders gets in the limo with a smile as the feed cuts. Swinger is laughing hysterically at Kanyon and Kanyon rushes him only to get thrown out of the ring and throw a tantrum.

We come back from break and Midajah is out with Buff and Luger. She tells Luger she's going to let Luger sit back and watch how a winner performs. She issues an open challenge for Buff and out comes a returning Fit Finlay!

Buff Bagwell vs Fit Finlay

Torrie Wilson makes another surprise appearance, this time actually coming down the ramp. Bagwell takes control of the match but is distracted when he sees Torrie making eyes at him. Midajah walks around to Torrie and the two get in a screaming match but the distraction is enough for Buff to turn around into a kneeling reverse piledriver by Finlay for the win.

Winner: Fit Finlay in 9:17

Torrie leaves with a smile as Midajah turns around and chews out Luger for allowing Bagwell to lose as we head to break.

America's Most Wanted vs Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo

We get a quick recap during the entrances of Skipper and Romeo walking out on AMW last week. A fast paced tag match ends with AMW hitting a death sentence bearhug/top rope leg drop combo for the upset win.

Winners: America's Most Wanted in 8:42

Backstage we see Konnan with Gene Okerlund. He asks Konan to explain his actions from the Clash of the Champions. Konnan says he'll do it face to face in the ring...

We come back from break with Konnan calling out his fellow Filthy Animals stable mates Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman. He apologizes for how things got out of hand last Thursday night and how his love for his brothers makes him go a little crazy when he thinks they've been wronged. Eventually he hugs both men. Suddenly Chavo Guererro runs out, grabbing Billy Kidman's leg and pulling out from the ring. Mysterio turns around to help but is quickly spun around by Konnan who throws a fireball in Rey's face! Rey immediately falls to the ground, writhing in pain as an expressionless Konnan slowly backs away and out of the ring while Chavo runs away from Kidman and through the crowd. Kidman rushes to Rey's aid as Konnan backs down the ramp staring at the scene showing no emotion.

We come back to EMTs helping Rey into an ambulance as his face is being covered with a towel and Kidman and "Sugar" Shane Helms leave to the hospital with him.

Rick Steiner vs Lance Storm

Just a few minutes into a match that mostly sees Storm using his speed advantage to avoid Steiner and get in some offense, Steiner grabs Storm and begins to strike only for Mike Awesome to interfere and cause the DQ.

Winner by DQ: Rick Steiner in 3:07

The two start a double team and Awesome holds Steiner's arms behind his back. Storm gets on the mic and taunts Steiner, reminding him that every time he tries to get a partner, they get taken out. Road Warrior Animal then rushes the ring to even the sides but it sends Awesome and Storm retreating. Animal then gets on the mic to tell Team Canada "Don't hunt what you can't kill." He says there's not gonna be any surprises and no numbers game next time. Because at The Great American Bash it's Team Canada vs Steiner and Animal. Falls Count Anywhere.

The Jung Dragons come out with Kimona for the next match when Eric Bischoff makes his way out. He talks to Kimona and asks her how the lawsuit is going. He then orders a video to play. It's a video Bischoff says was sent to him by a fan. It shows Kimona at a club dancing in a stripper cage. After showing it, Bischoff questions Kimona's dramatic response to being in that cage two weeks ago. Kimona stumbles over her words before Bischoff eventually tells her she's fired! She gets escorted out by security leaving The Jung Dragons all alone.

The Jung Dragons vs Jamie Noble and Lash LeRoux

In another tag team upset after a good fast paced match, Jamie Noble rolls up Kaz for the 3 to pick up the win over his former teammates.

Winners: Jamie Noble and Lash LeRoux in 5:19

KroniK is backstage with The Harris Brothers talking to Mean Gene. KroniK says The Harris Brothers were meant to stop NBT from weaseling their way to keeping the titles and they failed. But tonight, The Harris Brothers are gonna earn their paycheck by softening NBT up. Eric Bischoff comes on screen and tells KroniK he's in a firing mood. And if they lay their hands on Palumbo or O'Haire tonight, they'll be fired too.

Natural Born Thrillers vs The Harris Brothers

The Harris Brothers get the advantage early on but it slowly turns into a Thrillers offenseive onslaught finally finishing with a double superkick on Ron for the pinfall.

Winners: Natural Born Thrillers in 7:36

After the match, The Thrillers look into the camera to tell KroniK with their "protection" dealt with... they're next.

Jeff Jarrett, Shane Douglas, Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak come out to the ring and call out Eric Bischoff. He comes out and Jarrett tells him now that they've gone to war and dominated the "faces of the company" ruined the GAB main event, they all have demands. And those demands include gold. Bischoff gets on the mic and tells Jindrak and Stasiak he's willing to give them a shot at the tag titles for their performance in War Games. He then tells Shane Douglas and Jeff Jarrett that he's not as impressed with what they did to Dusty. He denies either of them a shot at the World Title and says they'll have to earn it the right way.

There's a commotion outside and Dustin Rhodes is heading into the arena baseball bat in hand and and look on his face that says he's out for blood. Diamond Dallas Page and Booker T make their entrance too and surround the ring. The three of them jump in the ring to attack only for Jarrett and Douglas to push Jindrak and Stasiak into harms way and quickly slide out the bottom rope to escape. After Rhodes lands a couple bat shots, DDP and Booker trade finishing moves on Jindrak and Stasiak as Jarrett and Douglas back down the aisle having escaped harm. Bischoff tells Jarrett and Douglas that if they wanna be part of the Great American Bash main event and have their shot at the world title, they'll have their chance to prove it next week... when they team up to face Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page.

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW.com post-show news

Next Week on Nitro

Jeff Jarrett and Shane Douglas vs Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page. If Jarrett and Douglas win, they are inserted into the World Title match at The Great American Bash.

Great American Bash card

WCW World Heavyweight Title Match: Diamond Dallas Page vs Booker T

Falls Count Anywhere: Rick Steiner and Road Warrior Animal vs Team Canada

WCW World Tag Team Title Triple Threat Match: The Natural Born Thrillers vs KroniK vs Jindrak and Stasiak

Ratings

Nitro: .63 (Down from .64)
Raw: 5.35 (Up from 5.17)

[Evil Vito]

Good shows, fan. I like Jarrett and Douglas attempting to force their way into the main event. I imagine a 4-way works out a lot better than a face vs. face DDP and Booker match given that neither DDP nor Booker seem to show any animosity towards one another.

Can't say I saw Konnan throwing a fireball coming

[Evil Vito]

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan With the network, I'd definitely take advantage of Superstars and Main Event, too. Let them actually have storylines focused on lower card guys kinda like NXT was before it became developmental. I'm not sure how any of this would translate to be useful in EWR though.

Before I started my game I considered keeping Main Event on Tuesdays and putting Superstars on Friday or something. The idea would be that they'd be officially the new Heat and Velocity (the B-shows, one for Raw and one for SmackDown) and it'd allow me to utilize the undercard. But that's just going to be so much booking. Even if those two shows and NXT are only 6 segments long, I'd still be booking 5 shows a week. Just way too much for my tastes.

I do think there's a chance that my lower card guys will wind up losing morale due to never being booked. I'll probably cheat and just convert them from wrestlers to managers. EWR is not designed for a brand split so it's very easy for people to drop in morale due to a perceived lack of use. But if they're managers they don't give a shit. In my "world" Main Event and Superstars are still around as the B-shows, I just don't book them.

I already had to do that with guys like Bryan (who I'm treating as injured). Otherwise he'd be a main eventer never getting booked and he'd threaten to quit sooner rather than later.

[#1-norm-fan]

Originally Posted by Vito Cruz Good shows, fan. I like Jarrett and Douglas attempting to force their way into the main event. I imagine a 4-way works out a lot better than a face vs. face DDP and Booker match given that neither DDP nor Booker seem to show any animosity towards one another. Can't say I saw Konnan throwing a fireball coming

lol I watched a Jerry Lawler fireball angle in Memphis a couple months ago and it stuck in my head. As the story unfolds it will make more sense.

[Evil Vito]

Alright, scoured the market for some former WWE guys and I signed up a few to help beef up NXT while I try to up the stats for the actual "prospects" in development.

Brought in Kaval given that he just left TNA in real life. I'm not sure he'd have any desire to actually go back to WWE given how he was treated after winning NXT Season 2, but whatever. NXT is its own animal really...and seeing as I could have hired real-life blackballed guys like Colt Cabana I'd say Kaval is at least somewhat more realistic. John Morrison has also returned. He's said he couldn't deal with the grind of a WWE schedule...but I'd assume he wouldn't be averse to doing a NXT taping every so often.

I also signed up Carlito as well and am waiting to re-debut him. He's a guy who reportedly has an open door if he ever wanted to make a comeback down the road, so he'll work some good matches against guys like Balor.

I'm also planning on a couple more signings for down the road. All of the veteran signings I do are likely to be short-term type deals to help supplant the barren NXT roster. Once I have Zayn and Itami return from "injury" and I get a few more people ready for television I'll have more options.

[#1-norm-fan]

WWE is weird right now as far as making an EWR game in that your "developmental" is much higher profile than your B shows. Normally I'd say make "NXT" your developmental and worry more about your lower card main roster guys but it makes sense that you wanna actually book NXT.

I also love the idea of bringing in some older guys. Loved it when Rhino and Kendrick came in to NXT. Made it seem more like a legit brand. Morrison is a perfect candidate for that role. There's 4 or 5 feuds I can think of just using the guys who are in NXT now that you can put him in that would be amazing. Already picturing some sort of interaction with him and Tyler Breeze.

[Evil Vito]

Yep, Morrison's return was him making the save against Breeze. That was a lock for his first feud back.

But yeah, NXT is my favorite thing about WWE in real life so that's why I wanted to book it. But while I want to book it, the actual stats of most of the roster are so low. My male NXT roster that I can count on for good matches is pretty much Joe, Balor, Breeze, Rhyno, Kendrick, the women, and the older guys I signed. Owens is still the champ but about to move to the main roster outright and Zayn/Itami are hurt. I still have a few more on the "active" roster (Enzo, Cass, Corbin, etc) but they really aren't any good from a ring work standpoint.

I signed the veterans to 6 month deals. I may keep them longer but if nothing else it should bide time for me to replenish the roster.

[#1-norm-fan]

(Gonna start just copying and pasting the weake descriptions for some of the less eventful matches to save time and hopefully encourage me to keep going with this. lol)

WCW Nitro (Week 1, August 2001)

3 weeks away from The Great American Bash, the show starts with Mean Gene in the ring and he introduces Diamond Dallas Page followed by WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T. They take turns talking about how ready they are for revenge tonight after what happened just 11 days ago at War Games. They turn their attention to each other and their desire to go one-on-one and prove who the better man is. Page refers to the potential match as "The people's champion vs The world champion" and Booker half-heartedly takes offense, telling Page that he considers himself both. As the two of them playfully play to the crowd and banter back and forth, we get a hint of tension before they shake hands, hug and play to the crowd.

Natural Born Thrillers vs The Mamalukes (Vito and Reno)

In a bout that had solid in-ring action but not much in the way of heat, Natural Born Thrillers defeated The Mamalukes when Sean O'Haire defeated Reno by pinfall with a Double Superkick.

Winners: Natural Born Thrillers in 5:34

Mean Gene with Midajah and Lex Luger. She cuts off Gene's introduction, frantically yelling that she can't find Buff. She warns Luger that if he's done something to him, she will make him pay as Luger feigns innocence. Suddenly Buff comes into the shot in street clothes apologizing to Midajah. "I'm sorry. I had a date last night, I had a bit much to drink and I woke up late..." Midajah doesn't seem happy with this excuse. His match is next...

Buff Bagwell vs Fit Finlay

Buff comes out in his street clothes and barely gets any offense in as his complete lack of preparation leads to Finlay picking up the relatively easy win.

Winner: Fit Finlay in 5:18

After the match, Midajah gets in the ring to yell at Buff but out comes Torrie Wilson who makes a b line for her and flirts with Buff a little before taking Midajah down! A catfight ensues and Buff pulls Midajah off and separates the two as Lex Luger stands in a corner of the ring trying to contain his laughter. Midajah gets on the mic and demands Buff stop seeing Torrie but Buff simply stares awkwardly unable to agree. Torrie suggests they fight for him. Next week. Winner gets Buff all to herself. Personally and professionally and the other walks away for good. Midajah shakes her head at Buff's lack of willpower and accepts.

Kanyon vs Johnny Swinger

Kanyon comes out, clearly still visibly angry over the events of last week with Mike Sanders and his mother. The match starts and it's only a few minutes in before Sanders' music hits and out he comes with a smile on his face. He informs Kanyon that he's just a couple weeks from being cleared for action again after Kanyon injured him over a month ago. He says out of respect to his mother, he's decided to forgive him though. "And by the way. Just in case there was any question. Your mom can officially confirm. Mike Sanders is definitely above average." Sanders gives Kanyon a taunting wink as Kanyon goes apeshit before getting rolled up by Johnny Swinger and upset for the second time in three weeks.

Winner: Johnny Swinger in 4:44

After the match, Kanyon goes ballistic, tearing apart everything at ringside he can get his hands on.

Konnan heads to the ring with Chavo Guerrero following behind. He gets a chair and sits in the middle of the ring with Guerrero at his side and speaks on what happened last week...

"A lot of people were shocked at my actions. It had to be done though. I came to realize it a couple months ago. Shane Helms was an outsider. He wasn't part of our family. He showed his true colors. And when I tried to make it right, I realized my brothers had gone soft. They forgave him. They treated HIM like family. And I was treated like the bad guy. And then the ultimate betrayal. At Clash of the Champions... Rey chose him over me. And that's when it dawned on me. This was years in the making. 2 years to be exact. 2 years ago... Rey allowed this company to rob him of his heritage and take the mask off his face. He laid down and accepted it and I stood behind him. Just like he accepted it when Shane Helms took money from his pocket in that match. And I stood behind him again. And I was paid back with betrayal. So call it tough love. But today Rey is wearing a mask again. One that is scarred on his face."

The crowd starts to get loud as Billy Kidman and Shane Helms rush the ring, sending Konnan and Chavo retreating and looking on from down the aisle. Konnan tells Kidman he had Chavo protect him last week because he still thinks he can be saved. He'll give him a week to think about it and choose between himself and Helms.

The Harris Brothers are about to be interviewed backstage when KroniK interrupts and tells them they paid them a lot of money to ensure the Thrillers couldn't escape with the titles and they've failed. Now tonight, they want them to take out the newest team standing in their way.

The Harris Brothers vs Mark Jindrak and Shawn Stasiak

In a bout that had solid in-ring action but not much in the way of heat, Jindrak and Stasiak defeated Harris Brothers when Shawn Stasiak defeated Don Harris by pinfall.

Winners: Jindrak and Stasiak in 5:41

After the match, KroniK comes out and Jindrak and Stasiak escape the ring. KroniK turns to the Harris Brothers and absolutely destroy them leaving them down and out in the middle of the ring.

Rick Steiner and Road Warrior Animal vs Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo

In an extremely short match, Rick Steiner and Animal defeated Skipper and Romeo when Rick Steiner defeated Kid Romeo by pinfall with a Flying Bulldog.

Winners: Steiner and Animal in 3:49

After the match, Team Canada shows up on the screen standing somewhere outside. Awesome stands behind Storm as he talks about Steiner and Animal being the last two pieces of the two greatest tag teams of all time trying to regain the glory. And at the Bash, they will kill two birds with one stone. The camera backs up and shows a pair of spiked shoulder pads and a Michigan letterman jacket laying on the ground as Awesome lights a match and symbolically sets them on fire.

Jarrett and Douglas are interviewed backstage and explain their plan. How after they win tonight, they'll take out both men first at the Bash and then it's one on one between them for the world title.

Jeff Jarrett and Shane Douglas vs Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page

A back and forth main event with good action and heat comes to a climax when the match breaks down with all four men in the ring. Page's scar from being busted open at War Games opens up again leaving him bleeding by the end. The finish comes when Douglas avoids a missile dropkick and Booker accidentally knocks DDP into a rollup by Jarrett for the 1-2-3.

Winners: Jarrett and Douglas in 17:39

After the match, Jarrett and Douglas celebrate at ringside as Booker checks on DDP inside the ring. Suddenly Eric Bischoff's music hits...

"Congrats. I told you I wasn't pleased with your actions at War Games but you did earn the chance to get into the title match at the Bash and you succeeded. I'm not so sure why you're celebrating though, Shane. Maybe I didn't make it clear last week. If you won the match... you get your title shot. And I didn't see you WIN the match for your team. So unfortunately at The Great American Bash, Jeff will be in the ring with Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page alone. But don't worry, Shane. You'll be in a title match too. In honor of the man you so viciously attacked 8 days ago, you'll be defending the US Title in a Texas Bullrope Match against..."

Bischoff gives a smile and out comes Dustin Rhodes with a bullrope over his shoulders staring down Douglas as he looks on with an angry expression while the show fades to black.

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW.com post-show news

Next Week on Nitro
Shane Douglas vs Diamond Dallas Page

Torrie Wilson vs Midajah (Loser leaves Buff Bagwell alone for good)

Konnan makes Billy Kidman choose between himself and Shane Helms

Great American Bash card

WCW World Heavyweight Title Match: Booker T (c) vs Diamond Dallas Page vs Jeff Jarrett

WCW United States Title Texas Bullrope Match: Shane Douglas (c) vs Dustin Rhodes

Falls Count Anywhere: Rick Steiner and Road Warrior Animal vs Team Canada

WCW World Tag Team Title Triple Threat Match: The Natural Born Thrillers vs KroniK vs Jindrak and Stasiak

Kanyon vs Mike Sanders

Ratings

Nitro: .65 (Up from .63)
Raw: 5.46 (Up from 5.35)

[Evil Vito]

Nice twist at the end there. So weird to imagine Bischoff actually being a proper face authority figure, but I dig it.

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW Nitro (Week 2, August 2001)

Schiavonne and Lawler welcome us to Nitro 13 days away from The Great American Bash...

Dustin Rhodes opens the show in the ring, bullrope in hand, cutting an emotional promo about Shane Douglas. He points out some blood on the bullrope. It's the same bullrope Jarrett used on his father weeks ago and that blood is just a reminder. He promised Bischoff he'd wait until The Bash to take his aggression out on Douglas legally in the middle of the ring but he makes it clear that he hasn't forgotten about Jeff Jarrett.

Air Raid vs Mark Jindrak and Shawn Stasiak (w/ Stacy Keibler)

In a bout that had solid in-ring action but not much in the way of heat, Jindrak and Stasiak defeated Air Raid when Shawn Stasiak defeated Air Styles by pinfall.

Winners: Stasiak and Jindrak in 8:50

After the match, Stacy gets on the mic to hype her men as the "reflections of perfection". She mentions their history as original members of The Natural Born Thrillers and that in 13 days they will become champions.

Gene Okerlund is backstage with Midajah, Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger. Midajah berates Buff for putting her in the situation of having to beat his "girlfriend" in order to save his career while Lex holds back laughter and Buff tries to talk her out of the match, saying he can handle both of them but to no avail.

Midajah vs Torrie Wilson

In what basically amounts to a 3 minute catfight, a conflicted Buff Bagwell stands at ringside pacing. Eventually, Torrie goes for a pin and Buff subtly grabs Midajah's foot preventing the kickout and giving Torrie the win!

Winner: Torrie Wilson in 2:38

After the match, Midajah throws a tantrum. Buff gets in the ring with a smile and shrugs at Midajah as he walks over to Torrie. He leans in for a kiss and suddenly Torrie slaps Buff! He looks at her shocked as she grabs the mic. She tells Midajah she can keep him... under two conditions. #1... Lex Luger is set free. And #2... It's Buff vs Luger at The Great American Bash. Buff looks at Midajah and suddenly begins to stroke her hair and sweet talk her. Midajah just gives him an evil look and yells "I accept!" as Buff turns around, Lex Luger nails him with a right hand, knocking him to the ground and sending him running as Luger and Torrie hug and Midajah screams her lungs out at the situation she's found herself in.

Gene Okerlund is backstage with Booker T. He asks him about accidentally hitting DDP last week and costing themselves the one-on-one match for the title. DDP comes into frame and Booker apologizes. DDP says that he understands how getting Jarrett in the match might have actually Booker if he didn't think he could beat DDP by giving him someone else he could pin. Booker takes it as an insult and the exchange ends with DDP apologizing for questioning him and extending his hand. Booker rejects the handshake and just says "Good luck tonight" before leaving DDP hanging.

Team Canada vs America's Most Wanted

In a bout that had solid in-ring action but not much in the way of heat, Team Canada defeated America's Most Wanted when Lance Storm defeated James Allen by pinfall with a Flying Spinning Leg Lariat.

Winners: Team Canada in in 7:54

After the match, Road Warrior Animal comes out to the stage. He tells Storm and Awesome they can burn all the symbols they want but they can't burn the legacy he and Steiner have created in tag team wrestling. And when they go to war with them in 13 days, they won't be facing two incomplete parts. They'll be facing two warriors. He then introduces... Road Warrior Gremlin. Out comes Rick Steiner in face paint and the spiked pads to stand next to Animal and stare down their foes in the ring.

Gene Okerlund is backstage with Jeff Jarrett. He says plans may not have gone perfectly last week thanks to the corrupt president of WCW but he's still defied all odds and forced Bischoff to give him the title shot he deserves. He then says Shane Douglas will right one wrong tonight when he takes out DDP and leaves Booker T all alone for Jarrett to take the title from.

Konnan comes out with havo by his side and calls out Billy Kidman. He re-iterates that what he did to Rey 2 weeks ago needed to be done to make him a man. And he spared Billy Kidman because he knows he has the sense to understand that. He wants Billy to join himself and Chavo to run roughshod over this company like it's tried to do to them and Rey. Konnan extends his hand as Kidman looks down with a tortured expression on his face and suddenly attacks, taking Konnan down and pounding away before Chavo intervenes and starts kicking Kidman. Konnan rolls out of the ring and gets a chair. He makes Chavo hold Kidman with his head on the mat as Konnan shakes his head, lifting the chair and preparing to slam it into Kidman's head before "Sugar" Shane Helms runs out, tackling Chavo and allowing Kidman to get up and send Konnan retreating. Konnan and Chavo back down the aisle as Konnan yells at Kidman that he made the wrong choice.

KroniK vs The Harris Brothers

In an extremely short match, KroniK defeated Harris Brothers when Bryan Clark defeated Don Harris by pinfall with a Power Bomb.

Winners: KroniK in 5:03

KroniK continues the attack before throwing The Harris Brothers from the ring and welcoming The Natural Born Thrillers to step in and fight them. Out come The Thrillers and they start to head down the ramp when suddenly they're attacked by Jindrak and Stasiak who proceed to pick up and drop both men directly on their ribs on the steel railing. As KroniK looks on and applauds, Tony Schiavonne and Jerry Lawler are left wondering if Jindrak and Stasiak simply picked their spot or if they're in cahoots with KroniK.

Back from break and Kanyon comes out. He gets on the mic and says he hasn't been able to talk to his mother lately and vows to cripple Mike Sanders once and for all so he can never do... whatever he did to her again. Sanders shows up on the screen and tells Kanyon says that he'll have his return match next week, 6 days before they face at The Great American Bash. And because he believes in the power of love, he's invited his girlfriend to come be at ringside for support. Kanyon just stands in the ring fuming at this news. Sanders finishes up by telling Kanyon he's not there tonight but he's got some friends there. Suddenly four guys stand up in the front row and hold up four signs that make up "Sanders banged your mom". Kanyon stares at them with anger before stepping outside, repeating "You think that's funny!?!?" He proceeds to grab one of the men and pull them over the barricade, punching and kicking him as the others try to stop it but get beaten down too before security is able to get there and pull Kanyon away, dragging him backstage as he screams like a lunatic.

Gene Okerlund is backstage with Shane Douglas who hypes his upcoming match with DDP after calling for Eric Bischoff to be fired after his unprofessional "swerve" last week.

"The Franchise" Shane Douglas vs Diamond Dallas Page

Dustin Rhodes sits in a chair at ringside with the bullrope over his shoulders staring at Shane Douglas blankly the entire time. In a match that had some good action and heat, Douglas focuses on Page's leg, eventually using a figure four on him. Jeff Jarrett comes out and pulls Douglas' hands out of the ref's view during the hold. This prompts Booker T to come out and chase Jarrett away. Booker looks up at the ref and yells at him for not catching Jarrett. While Booker argues with the ref, Page rolls up Douglas but by the time the ref finally turns around, Douglas has kicked out. Page starts yelling at Booker and suddenly Jeff Jarrett returns, nailing Booker in the back of the head with a guitar shot while he argues with Page. That distraction allows Douglas to get the upper hand again. Out comes Dustin Rhodes, chasing Jarrett to the back, bullrope in hand. Shane Douglas watches the scene before turning around into a diamond cutter as Page gets the 1-2-3.

Winner: Diamond Dallas Page in 17:01

Page celebrates in the ring as Douglas rolls out and Booker T holds the back of his head outside, staring up at Page as the two lock eyes. We go backstage and see Jarrett looking around the backstage area. He grabs a crew member and frantically asks "Where did he go!? Did you see him!?" The guy just shrugs cluelessly before Jarrett throws him to the side. Jarrett slowly walks in front of a row of metal crates on high alert, looking all around him before we hear screeching tires and Jarrett jumps out of the way as a speeding car crashes right through the crates. Jarrett keeps running straight out of the arena as we fade to black.

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW.com post-show news

Next Week on Nitro

Dustin Rhodes vs Jeff Jarrett

Mike Sanders returns to action with Kanyon's mother at ringside

Great American Bash card

WCW World Heavyweight Title Match: Booker T (c) vs Diamond Dallas Page vs Jeff Jarrett

WCW United States Title Texas Bullrope Match: Shane Douglas (c) vs Dustin Rhodes

Falls Count Anywhere: The Road Warriors (Gremlin and Animal) vs Team Canada

WCW World Tag Team Title Triple Threat Match: The Natural Born Thrillers (c) vs KroniK vs Jindrak and Stasiak

Kanyon vs Mike Sanders

Lex Luger vs Buff Bagwell

Konnan vs Billy Kidman

WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: "Sugar" Shane Helms (c) vs Chavo Guererro

Ratings

Nitro: .63 (Down from .65)
Raw: 5.40 (Down from 5.46)

[Evil Vito]

I’ve finally made it to Battleground…which is not at all a mostly thrown-together show to serve as a vehicle to build for my more interesting SummerSlam card.

Also I remembered to activate Scott Keith’s commentary for star ratings purposes, so there’s that.



Pre-Show: The Miz vs. Jack Swagger
The Miz ran down Swagger on the mic, and when Swagger’s theme eventually hit, the crowd were greeted with a nice surprise as he was accompanied by the returning ZEB COLTER! He gives a spiel about how the American media gives way too much credence to loudmouthed movie stars like The Miz and wraps the whole thing up with a good ‘ol fashioned “WE. THE PEOPLE!”

Oh, right…the match. And like the Miz, it was AWESOME. Seriously, what the hell? A 93% match quality rating for a Miz/Jack Swagger pre-show match? I hope that’s a sign of things to come for this PPV, holy shit. Anyway, Swagger grabs the win with the Patriot Lock.
Winner: Jack Swagger
****, 93% Match Quality, 79% Crowd Reaction, 86% Overall Rating

WWE Intercontinental Championship: Big Show vs. Ryback (C)
In real life the thought of a second straight month of Show and Ryback would sound awful, but hey…they actually had a good showing at MITB. And this match is more of the same. Show overpowered Ryback through most of this build and said he could never be Shell Shocked again. Sure enough, after attempting it several times to no success, Ryback eventually got the big man up again. As he marched around the ring, he was met with a BROGUE KICK! Ryback collapses in a heap with Show falling on top of him for good measure. Ryback wins the match by DQ but hardly looks like a winner here as Sheamus plants him with the White Noise for good measure. It appears that somebody new is gunning for a title shot.
Winner (by DQ) and STILL WWE Intercontinental Champion: Ryback
***, 78% Match Quality, 84% Crowd Reaction, 82% Overall Rating

King Barrett vs. Neville
Barrett has been picking up some serious momentum over the past few weeks, and he challenged his foe Neville to another clash, having lost to him in 2 of the last 3 PPVs. Both guys are good workers, so a good match between them isn’t a surprise – but sorta like my pre-show match I wasn’t expecting it to be THIS good. My undercard is busting their ass on this show. Barrett takes a spinning kick to the gut, sells it. Neville climbs up top, leaps, but Barrett was playing possum. Bullhammer! Barrett gets the win over one of his top foes. All hail Barrett!
Winner: King Barrett
****1/4, 94% Match Quality, 79% Crowd Reaction, 86% Overall Rating

WWE Divas Championship: Nikki Bella vs. Paige (C)
Much like my IC Title match, I re-booked another MITB match because the rating was better than I expected. Also because I’m killing time until I can replenish the divas roster as they did in real life. Brie banned from ringside for this one after being a thorn in Paige’s side during the build-up (even though she was part of the reason Nikki lost last time). But it doesn’t matter here as Paige locks in the PTO for the successful title defense.
Winner and STILL WWE Divas Champion: Paige
**3/4, 74% Match Quality, 76% Crowd Reaction, 75% Overall Rating

Kane vs. Randy Orton
Orton continues to be a pain in the side of The Authority, so The Authority sends the Devil’s Favorite Jobber Demon Kane after him. Simple enough build. Anyway, they have a decent enough brawl between them and the crowd is into it but it really picked up near the end. Kane down, Orton pounding the mat getting ready for the RKO. But then the lights went out and the all too familiar sound effect played. Lights come back on and Orton, still on his hands and knees, comes face to face with BRAY WYATT in the upside down crab walk. Orton raises to his feet, looking confused. Kane spins him around with a Chokeslame. Corporate Kane actually wins! After the match is over, Wyatt hits Orton with Sister Abigail. What is the meaning of all of this???
Winner: Kane
***1/4, 79% Match Quality, 90% Crowd Reaction, 86% Overall Rating

Next up, Kevin Owens comes out and continues to talk shit about how he’s the one who put John Cena out of commission. He’s been running through the competition in his NXT Title Open Challenge week in and week out, and tonight will be no exception. And holy dogshit, SAMOA JOE answers the call!

NXT Championship: Samoa Joe vs. Kevin Owens (C)
This PPV is absolutely killing it, as we have our third amazing match of the evening here. Announcers play up both guys being familiar with each other with prior battles on NXT and elsewhere. Ref bump at one point, Joe down too. Owens says fuck it and grabs the title to use as a weapon. And then, go figure, John Cena’s feud hits as the kids in the audience lose their shit. Cena and Owens have a fistfight and Cena hits the AA before leaving having made his point. Joe and the ref come to. Match continues for a couple more minutes but it’s clear Owens has been taken off his game. Joe locks in the Coquina Clutch and Owens, being the tough bastard he is, doesn’t tap out. But he does pass out for the count of three as Joe is declared new NXT Champion! Incredible match, a IWC’s wet dream.
Winner and NEW NXT Champion: Samoa Joe
****1/2, Match Quality: 100%, Crowd Reaction: 79%, 89% Overall Rating

WWE Tag Team Championships: Tyson Kidd & Cesaro vs. The New Day (C)
Kidd & Cesaro never did get their proper rematch against The New Day, having last had a shot at the gold in the crowded Elimination Chamber. They had a really tough match to follow, but the guys involved here did a nice job to keep the crowd into it and put together a solid showing. The match degenerates as tag matches often times do. Woods gets involved illegally at ringside and in the midst of the chaos Kidd experiences some Trouble in Paradise as the New Day retain.
Winners and STILL WWE Tag Team Champions: The New Day
***1/4, 84% Match Quality, 80% Crowd Reaction, 82% Overall Rating

Time for the main event triple threat match, and before it happens we get a nicely put together compilation package. The match is said to be 2 and a half years in the making as it shows clips from The Shield’s WWE debut. Survivor Series debut right up to Reigns winning the belt off of Ambrose at MITB and the 3 of them brawling on Raw. Nice package to get the crowd a little extra amped up.
84% Overall Rating

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns (C)
Extremely fun main event, all three guys get their own individual moments to shine and of course in big WWE PPV main event fashion there was also a heaping helping of drama and near-falls. Since there is, by definition, no disqualification in a triple threat match, all three guys felt comfortable taking the fight outside for a while as well, including teasing a spot with the announce table that didn’t quite come to fruition.

As most expected, out came The Authority and just like at MITB and through the build, Seth Rollins wasn’t happy about this as he truly feels he can do it on his own. Triple H gets in the ring to direct traffic as Kane and J&J channel The Shield with a triple powerbomb to Ambrose through the announce table. Rollins gets in HHH’s face, screaming that he doesn’t need the help. HHH tells him to stand down, and Rollins shoves down HHH to a pop from the crowd. But it also becomes a “don’t look behind you moment”, as he turns right into a Spear from Reigns. Reigns gets the victory and retains the belt amidst all the chaos.
Winner and STILL WWE World Heavyweight Champion: Roman Reigns
***1/2, 85% Match Quality, 91% Crowd Reaction, 89% Overall Rating

84% Overall Rating for Battleground
1.89 Buy Rate

Holy shit, what a great show considering my main focus is on SummerSlam. Not a single bad match in the bunch and I’ve set myself up nicely for the next month of storylines. Really happy with how this played out.

[#1-norm-fan]

Jesus, that is some mod you must have. lol

I like Barrett actually having momentum. Also, Wyatt vs Orton has been something I've been calling for for a while. Still hate Owens losing clean multiple times against Balor while feuding with Cena. The "refusing to tap out and passing out" option is a much better way to get the title off of him. Instantly sets up a potentially hot feud with Joe if/when you move him to the main roster too by leaving that doubt about who is the better man.

[Evil Vito]

Yeah, I'm fine with Owens losing but I want to save that first legitimate "losing 1-2-3" moment for the right time.

I'm using the EW Battleground mod for May 2015, which is generally regarded as the best mod out there as they come out with a new one every month.

EWR is funny in that you'll get some surprises on who gels. Generally it's based on similar ratings...I knew Joe/Owens would be an awesome match for that reason. Paige/Nikki and Show/Ryback are not matches I ever would have run on my own but since I had to do them at MITB to stay true to the real card, and I was able to find that they have passable chemistry in the game.

I was absolutely floored with Swagger/Miz. Comparing their ratings none of them are stellar at any one thing (save Swagger having a higher than average technical side) but because their overall numbers are so similar apparently it makes them have the ability to really put together something good. Neville/Barrett was even more of a shocker. Neville's top rating is speed (93) but Barrett's is only 20. No idea how on earth the game decided they'd work well together. I saw something similar happen with a Harper/Rowan vs. Lucha Dragons match I had booked on television. I guess maybe brawl-heavy vs. speed-heavy works? I kinda like the randomness to it as it encourages me to go outside the box and book guys together that I normally wouldn't based on ratings.

Speaking of Barrett...yeah, I love the guy so I'm gonna push him. Sadly I'm not sure I really have anything for SummerSlam for him just because I've got a really packed card coming up, but he should get a lot more exposure once I formally split the rosters.

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW Nitro (Week 3, August 2001)

It's the "go home" show to 15th annual Great American Bash. Jeff Jarrett is already in the ring as the show starts.

Jarrett calls out Eric Bischoff who makes his way out. He tells Bischoff what Rhodes did at the end of Nitro last week was attempted murder and he wants him banned from this company for life. Bischoff breaks into laughter as he responds. "What I saw was you having plenty of time to get away. I think whoever was behind that wanted to strike fear into you. And that's exactly what they did. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy." With that, Shane Douglas come out and repeats Jarrett's demands, wanting Dustin out of the company and the US Title match for the Bash cancelled. Bischoff says the first thing he needs to do is prove it was Dustin.

Dustin Rhodes comes out, standing down the aisle and denies being behind the wheel. He tells Jarrett "My dad made a lot of friends in the business. And you've made a lot of enemies. Now, I'm smart enough to get my revenge in the ring and not put my career in jeopardy. But it sounds to me like there's someone else who doesn't have as much to lose. I'll see you on Sunday, Shane Douglas. And I'll see you tonight, Jeff Jarrett. And until then... you just worry about who's lurking around every corner you walk by."

When we return from break, we see Kanyon's mom sitting in the front row as Mike Sanders is introduced for his match. He gives her a kiss before getting in the ring.

Mike Sanders vs Johnny The Bull

In his first match since returning from injury Mike Sanders defeated Johnny the Bull by pinfall with a 3.0.

Winner: Mike Sanders in 6:24

After the match, Sanders goes out to kiss Kanyon's mom again as she raises his hand. A younger kid in a hood next to her suddenly stand up and throws powder in Sanders' face! He takes the hood of. It's Kanyon. As his mom yells at him, he jumps the barricade and attacks Sanders before throwing him in the ring and grabbing a chair while yelling "I told you I'd finish you off for good!" He puts the chair around a blinded Sanders' ankle and steps out to climb the turnbuckle. His mom climbs in the ring and tries to take the chair off before just laying over Sanders' leg, protecting it. After Kanyon yells at her to move for a bit, he starts to climb the turnbuckle anyway just as referees and road agents come out to stop him. Schiavonne and Lawler curse Kanyon, questioning whether he was just about to hit his mother.

Lex Luger (w/ Torrie Wilson) vs Disqo

Lex Luger makes somewhat short work of Disqo in his first match since being freed from Midajah with Torrie in his corner. He makes Disqo submit to the torture rack.

Winner: Lex Luger in 4:28

After the match, Luger gets on the mic and tells us how it feels so good to be a free man and to have outsmarted his ex partner and manager with the help of the beautiful Torrie Wilson. Midajah comes out pulling Bagwell behind her by his hair. She tells Luger that he didn't outsmart her. He simply outsmarted Buff by taking advantage of a... weakness he has. But she'll make sure he is prepared to make Luger pay this Sunday and show him who the real star of her clientele always was. "Tonight, Buff will show the world what he can do when he beats Fit Finlay." Buff doesn't look pleased about the match that's been set up for him.

Billy Kidman and "Sugar" Shane Helms vs The Jung Dragons

Kidman and Helms defeated Jung Dragons in a competitive match when Billy Kidman defeated Yun Yang by pinfall with a Shooting Star Press.

Winners: Kidman and Helms in 11:02

Konnan and Chavo come out post-match. Konnan tells Kidman he made the wrong move. Helms has him brainwashed into thinking he's a friend to protect that title. But not only will Konnan show Kidman some tough love and beat sense into him on Sunday... but his true family, Chavo will make Helms pay by taking the Cruiserweight Title from him.

Gene Okerlund is in the ring and introduces Diamond Dallas Page. Page talks about the triple threat this Sunday and his issues with Booker T, whom he calls out. Booker and Page exchange words over the issue of Page accusing Booker of being afraid to face Page alone last week. Page says he's thought about it and while he stands by what he said. He shows the clip of Booker kicking Page and costing them the match two weeks ago. Booker tells Page he doesn't have any doubts he can beat Page and in fact, he might just take Jarrett out of the equation so he can pin Page and prove his point. Page welcomes it and tells Booker he plans on leaving no doubt by pinning Booker for the title. The two men shake hands while staring each other down to end the segment.

The Road Warriors vs Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo

Animal and Steiner (in Road Warrior makeup and spikes under his "Road Warrior Gremlin" name) fight as The Road Warriors for the first time. In a quick match, Skipper and Romeo get disqualified after Skipper, while retreating to the outside and begging off, takes a pair of handcuffs out of his tights and suddenly cuffs Gremlin to the ring post. As Animal comes out for the save, Lance Storm and Mike Awesome attack.

Winners by DQ: The Road Warriors in 1:59

Awesome, Storm, Skipper and Romeo beat down Animal in the ring as Gremlin watches on helpless. Storm shakes Skipper and Romeo's hand, thanking them for the help. Storm goes out to get a table and sets it up in the ring as Awesome goes to the top and Storm picks up Animal to put him in position for an Awesome bomb from the top through the table. Suddenly Gremlin is able to summon the strength to snap the chain of the cuffs and break free! He gets in the ring and makes a b line for Storm and Awesome but they drop Animal and run from the ring. This leaves Skipper and Romeo to get destroyed by both Road Warriors and both men end up getting slammed through a table as Awesome and Storm look on.

The Natural Born Thrillers make their way out and to the announce table where they'll be for the following match.

KroniK, Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak vs America's Most Wanted, Norman Smiley and Kwee Wee

The Thrillers discuss the rumors after last week that KroniK and Stacy's team have formed a union to take out NBT and then fight for the titles themselves. Those rumors gain more credibility after the teams work together to destroy their opponents with KroniK hitting a double chokeslam on Smiley to finish them off.

Winners: KroniK, Shawn Stasiak and Mark Jindrak in 4:03

All four men stand together and look down on the Thrillers, having sent a clear message. The Thrillers acknowledge what this means but make it clear they have every intention of overcoming the odds.

As we come back for our next match, Fit Finlay is making his entrance but is attacked from behind by Buff Bagwell. Bagwell uses the barricade as a weapon to choke Finlay, tosses him head first into the ring post and simply lays waste to him while Midajah coaches him on before Luger can run out to make the save and chase him off.

Gene Okerlund is backstage with Dustin Rhodes where he asks him about his upcoming match with Jeff Jarrett and his US Title Texas Bullrope match with Shane Douglas in 6 days. Rhodes says he's been talking to his dad every day throughout his recovery and he knows he's gonna make him proud on Sunday when he takes the US title from Shane Douglas. But tonight isn't about a title. Tonight is about revenge. He holds the blood-stained bullrope up for the camera to see and tells us his goal tonight is to have Jarrett's blood on his hands.

Jeff Jarrett vs Dustin Rhodes

Before the match starts, a car similar to the one from last week backs into the arena and stops next to the stage. After a staredown from across the ring, the ref rings the bell. Dustin runs for Jarrett and Jarrett jumps out of the ring, doing everything he can to escape the rage Dustin has had bottled up for weeks now. He tries to run down the aisle only for DDP to come out and stop him. He turns back and Dustin is there to meet him with right hands. Jarrett gets thrown back into the ring and Dustin unloads an offensive flurry as Jarrett seems content to just try to find a way to escape as opposed to fighting back. Eventually, Dustin gets the bullrope and, ignoring the referee, chokes Jarrett with it until the ref has to call for the bell.

Winner by DQ: Jeff Jarrett in 6:18

Shane Douglas makes his way out from the crowd with a steel pipe and goes to hit Dustin with it but Dustin sees him and grabs it just as he swings, pulling it away from him. Douglas looks on frozen for a second before he ducks out of the ring as the distraction allows Jarrett to stumble away as well. Both men back down the aisle, having forgotten what's waiting for them at the top of the ramp. Jarrett suddenly pushes Douglas into Page and tries to run past him only for Rhodes to catch him. Douglas escapes Page and runs through the crowd, watching the scene from afar as Jarrett tries to beg off Dustin before being thrown off the stage and through the back window of the car! The car slowly pulls forward, allowing Jarrett to slide off in a motionless heap and drives away. Rhodes looks down at the scene with a smile and then looks over to Shane Douglas, pointing to him and giving the throat slash gesture as he clutches his US Title. Jerry Lawler and Tony Schiavonne wonder out loud who car and if Jarrett will even make it to the Bash this Sunday now as the show goes off the air.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________

Show Rating: 50 (Lost popularity in 10 regions. Not enough interesting storylines going on. The lack of starpower is hurting but I've got a lot of guys who have been gaining popularity steadily over the past two months so the future looks promising.)

[#1-norm-fan]

WCW.com post-show news

Great American Bash card

WCW World Heavyweight Title Match: Booker T (c) vs Diamond Dallas Page vs Jeff Jarrett

WCW United States Title Texas Bullrope Match: Shane Douglas (c) vs Dustin Rhodes

WCW World Tag Team Title Triple Threat Match: The Natural Born Thrillers (c) vs KroniK vs Jindrak and Stasiak

WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: "Sugar" Shane Helms (c) vs Chavo Guererro

Falls Count Anywhere: The Road Warriors (Gremlin and Animal) vs Team Canada

Kanyon vs Mike Sanders

Lex Luger vs Buff Bagwell

Konnan vs Billy Kidman

Ratings

Nitro: .65 (Up from .63)
Raw: 5.45 (Up from 5.40)