WWA U.K. Tour 2001!
From: Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester, England!
1. WWA Cruiserweight Champion Juventud Guerrera pinned Psicosis;
2. Buff Bagwell defeated Disco Inferno;
3. Eight-Man Manchester Rumble Match: Road Dogg won, over Crowbar, Vampire Warrior, Norman Smiley, Konnan, Stevie Ray, Luna Vachon and Scott Steiner;
4. Konnan and Nathan Jones defeated The West Hollywood Blondes, Lenny and Lodi;
5. Hardcore Tables Match: Norman Smiley defeated Crowbar;
6. Road Dogg & Grandmaster Sexay defeated Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner.
Notes: This is the detailed report on the show that I submitted to WrestlingObserver.com , PWTorch.com and 1Wrestling.com , which I had published on all three sites on the same day. More about this at the end of the report.
I’d estimate the crowd to be no more than 5,000, in a 20,000 seat arena. A third of the arena was blocked off for the purposes of the screens and the ring entrance, plus all of the upper tier of the arena had black curtains around it. Even then, there were large empty spaces in the stands, and even on the floor where there were empty seats. The arena set-up looked impressive with two big t.v. projection screens showing the action, and a large WWA banner over the ring entrance. The show started at approximately 7:45pm (15 minutes late), with highlights of the WWA Australia tour shown, set to the music of 'Enter the Sandman'. Jeremy Borash and Konnan opened the show, introduced themselves as the commentators, and introduced Bret Hart as the WWA commissioner.
Bret came down the aisle to his old WWF music and to a big pop (mainly lots of screaming girls). He did his usual interview, and if you've already read the WWA Tour reports so far, you'll not only know what he says, but the order in which he says it. The general gist of his speech was " I came here because I love all my English fans. Sorry I can't wrestle but I got injured and had to retire. I've beaten Austin, Rock, Benoit and Goldberg, but they haven't beaten me. I even beat that piece of shit Vince McMahon". (That Vince bit was his exact words). He returned to the back and the first match was introduced.
1) Juventud Guerrera defeated Psicosis, to retain his WWA Cruiserweight Title. Decent opening match, certainly not at the top speed that these guys can 'go' at. Probably about a *3/4, if I'm generous. Psicosis looks weird with short hair, kind of like Super Crazy only with shorter hair. Psicosis did a lot of Zbysko-stalling and crowd baiting. Guerrera got the win with the Juve Driver.
Borash introduced a local radio d.j., who was in the ring, when Scott Steiner's WCW music started up, and he came out with Midajah and his baseball bat. He climbed into the ring, and promptly threw both the d.j. and Borash out of the ring, with Borash taking a nice over-the-top-rope bump to the outside. Steiner was extremely over with the crowd, and was the only guy on the show who really seemed like he'd fit in and be effective at the top of the WWF card, maybe at the level equivalent to Jericho or Angle. He cut this hilarious promo, claiming his house in Michigan was bigger than Buckingham Palace, his wristwatch was more accurate than Big Ben, that he attended a Manchester United Football (Soccer) match and that it was really crappy, claiming soccer was a womans' game. He badmouthed Bret Hart, claming he deserves a WWA Title shot. In a genuinely shocking moment, he called Bret a 'F****** Bitch'. I say genuinely shocking as there were a lot of pre-teen kids in the crowd, and it seemed he went a little too far with that comment.
Bret then came out and ordered Steiner to be in an eight man 'Manchester (Royal) Rumble', with the winner being declared the No.1 contender to Jeff Jarrett's WWA title. After this interview ended, Disco Inferno came out to the strains of 'Staying Alive' by the Bee Gees. He was wearing a jacket, and when in the ring, opened it to reveal he was wearing a Liverpool Football (Soccer) Club jersey, which got huge heat (Liverpool are Manchester United fiercest and local soccer rivals). He then hilariously sang a rendition of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', an extremely well known English hymn, almost synonymous with Liverpool Football Club, kind of like their traditional club song. This got huge heat. He was going to dance to his music, but his opponent came out...
2) Buff Bagwell defeated Disco Inferno
... and then the fun was over. Actually not really, as the match itself wasn't much, but was played for comedy, and at least it was funny comedy. Bagwell had new entrance music, a slight improvement on his old theme. Disco debuted his Village Peoples Elbow, which consisted of him wearing a yellow builders hat, doing the 'YMCA' hand movements, and then delivering an elbow drop. The crowd ate all of this up, and loved it. The finish of the match was Disco attempted a Lance Dance (stunner) which was blocked, and Bagwell finished him with a double-arm DDT. *3/4 (*** for the comedy though).
3) Road Dogg (coming out to his WWF New Age Outlaws music) won an Eight Man Manchester (Royal) Rumble, defeating in order of appearance, Crowbar, Vampire Warrior (surprisingly big pop, coming out to his old WWF Gangrel music, and he was still dressed in his Gangrel gimmick, holding his 'cup of blood' according to Borash), Norman Smiley (nice pop), Konnan (who rose from the commentators table), Stevie Ray (nice pop, I think for the Harlem Heat music. By the way, I think Stevie's been eating a lot of Chef Boyardee Beefarooni, as he looks to have put on about 20 pounds since his WCW days), Luna Vachon (surprisingly little pop, and her fighting with husband Dave in the Rumble received little reaction from the crowd), and Scott Steiner (huge pop).
Basically a bunch of ring entrances, with countdowns between each ring entrance, which occurred every sixty seconds. The ring filled with guys, then Steiner came down and promptly eliminated them all with ease, with the exception of Road Dogg. The rest went straight to the back, whilst Smiley and Crowbar brawled through the crowd. Steiner and Road Dogg squared off for a minute or so, before Midajah’s attempted interference on the ring apron backfired, and Steiner went over the top rope, giving Dogg the win. *
After the match, Steiner hit Dogg with the baseball bat and put him in the Recliner, until Bret came out and ordered both men to each find a partner for the main event tag match. After a twenty minute intermission, Borash came out, with Disco doing commentary for the second half. I personally thought Disco was phenomenal on color, I really didn't know he was this good. He never got one shot at doing color in WCW. Amazing. He wasn't just funny (he was funnier than Jerry Lawler at times), he actually attempted to get each of the guys in the matches over, a la Jerry Lawler. Seriously, Disco was twenty times the commentator that Tazz, and even Al Snow are, and after hearing his commentary, it amazes me he hasn't had at least a tryout with the WWF as a color commentator.
4) Konnan & Nathan Jones defeated The West Hollywood Blondes, Lenny and Lodi.
Jones' ring moniker should really be 'The Big Green Machine'. Imagine a bald Test, at the very beginning of his career. Lenny has certainly been watching a lot of Adrian Street tapes, as he and Lodi used every effeminate/homosexual-like mannerism and manoeuvre in the book. Long, slight boring match, although the crowd were very good to the match, as they were to all the matches. Jones got the win with a double chokeslam on the Blondes. *3/4
5) Norman Smiley defeated Crowbar in a 'Hardcore Tables Match'. Smiley had two local dj's from local station Rock FM in his corner, whilst Crowbar had local d.j. 'Wildthing Richard Vaughan' from local station 'Key 103 FM' in his corner. This is only notable because for some unexplained reason, Vaughan was dressed up like Terry Gordy's old WWF gimmick, 'The Executioner', complete with hood, and two feather dusters as ‘foreign objects’. Weird to say the least. Match was nothing. When Smiley lifted the ring apron, you could see on the other side of the apron was the old WCW logo, so they were using the old WCW ring apron, turned 'inside out'. Smiley won when he slammed Crowbar through a table and pinned him. After this, he does his ‘Big Wiggle’ dance with the d.j.'s. 3/4*
6) Road Dogg & Grandmaster Sexay defeated Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner in the main event. Jarrett, Steiner and Road Dogg all came out first, and then Dogg introduced his partner. The current WWF entrance music of Scotty Too Hotty played, as Sexay came out to the biggest pop of the night. Apart from his Big Breakfast t.v. appearance in the U.K., he hadn't been included in any of the advertising for the show, and judging by the reaction, it seemed his appearance was a big surprise to a lot of people in the arena.
The match itself was fine, about seven or eight minutes long. No missed spots, everyone did their signatures moves, like Jarrett's Russian Legsweep, Dogg's dancing punches and Sexay's dancing where his pants 'accidentally' fall down. Steiner didn’t do much, as Jarret did most of the ring work. The finish came when Steiner and Sexay were brawling outside the ring, Dogg hit Jarrett over the head with Jarrett's guitar and Dogg had Jarrett pinned. Ref counted to two, before Steiner pulled him out. Steiner and Sexay brawled some more, Bret came out, Dogg pinned Jarrett for a second time and Bret counted the pinfall. **1/2
As Steiner headed to the back, Bret's music played, whilst Bret did his usual tour around ringside, slapping hands with the fans. Then Bret headed to the back and Road Dogg's music played. Then Sexay got on the mic and asked if anyone wanted to dance with him and Dogg. They chose a really fat guy wearing a Manchester United Soccer jersey (an obnoxious fan who Steiner had a verbal spat with earlier on), a young boy and a girl who looked to be in her 20's. They did the Too Cool dance, with the fat guy getting a big pop when he did a spinarooni. The young boy did some break dancing, and Sexay did some 'dirty dancing' with the girl. Then the show ended.
Overall, the show was far better than I expected to be. It was a really fun show, a notch below a standard WWF house show, but fun none the less. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, and there was a really nice atmosphere coming out of the arena, like everyone had got their money's worth. I've attended most of the WWF U.K. ppv's since 1998, as well as a WCW house show and WCW U.K. Thunder taping last year, and this show was easily more fun than the two WCW shows I attended. The actual wrestling was average, but everyone coming out of the arena will have had numerous spots, segments or Disco jokes that they enjoyed and will remember. Konnan was awful on color in the first half. He barely said three words and told no jokes at all. Bret's mind seemed elsewhere and he seemed disinterested, but after the last few months that he’s endured, that's understandable.
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