WCW Nitro U.K. Tour 2000! (U.K. House Show)
Sunday, March 12th, 2000.
From: Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester, England! (16,318 sellout)
1. Hardcore Match: Norman Smiley beat Brian Knobs;
2. The Wall beat David Flair;
3. WCW T.V. Title Match: Hacksaw Jim Duggan pinned Fit Finlay;
4. Curt Hennig & Vampiro defeated Ric Flair & Lex Luger;
5. Dustin Rhodes pinned Terry Funk;
6. WCW U.S. Title Match: Booker T defeated Jeff Jarrett via D.Q.;
7. WCW Tag Team Titles Match: Big Vito & Johnny The Bull defeated The Harris Brothers.
Notes: This was the first WCW show that I ever attended, and came during a period when WCW had finally realised that the United Kingdom actually existed as a viable market for touring. This was the first WCW U.K. tour since August 1994. During those six years between U.K. tours, WCW obviously had great success in the U.S., and as business was so strong at home, they probably thought it pointless in touring overseas, save for the occasional Germany tour. Another possible reason why they never toured the U.K. for six years was because it was widely known how strong the WWF was in this market, and they were probably nervous about how they'd fare.
Around the time of this show - part of a three show tour, with the other dates in London and Birmingham, in addition to their satellite/cable t.v. slots for Nitro and Thunder on the TNT Europe channel, WCW actually had a network t.v. slot on Channel 5 in the U.K. It was a good slot too - Fridays nights at 7pm. However, in typical WCW fashion, they aired 'WCW Worldwide'; a highlights/recap show, in this slot, and its' content was about two months behind Nitro and Thunder as well. Despite having a great platform available for promoting this tour, it was never mentioned on t.v.
This tour was called the 'WCW Nitro' tour - which could possibly constitute false advertising, as fans not in the know might have thought one or more of the shows might have been t.v. tapings. Speaking of false advertising, pictured on the tickets (above left) were Sting, Goldberg and Kevin Nash, none of which were a part of this U.K. tour.
Quite depressing all of this, isn't it? I haven't recapped the show yet.... The first thing that was noticeable to me, when arriving at the show, was the big crowd in attendance. In the U.S. at this time, WCW had been drawing pretty badly, with a Thunder t.v. taping on March 7th, 2000 only drawing a sparse crowd of 1,098. This show drew a legit 16,318 sellout, which showed that the crowd was very interested and wanted to be entertained. The second thing noticeable was the arena set-up. The ring seemed tiny compared to the WWF rings I had seen on previous shows. There were no big t.v. screens and obviously, no t.v. cameramen around. I had decent seats, next to the aisle where the wrestlers made their way to the ring.
The opening match was Norman Smiley versus Brian Knobbs in a hardcore match. Smiley made his way to the ring to a big crowd pop, pushing a shopping trolley full of the usual hardcore plunder. Then Knobbs' music played.... and played... and played. After three minutes (I kid you not - some of the crowd were actually booing at this point! Way to go WCW - piss off your biggest crowd in over a year, within the first few minutes of the show), Smiley got on the mic, called Knobbs a 'big pussy', then proceeded to do his 'big wiggle' dance as his music played. Then, in mid-wiggle, Knobbs music cut in and he finally came out. In some hilarious scenes, a ton of ringsiders (all with the same smart-ass mentality) began to point at their wristwatches and yell "What time do you call this?" at Knobbs, who looked like he was having a hard time keeping a straight face. The match itself was pretty crappy, with no brawling outside the ring, and Smiley winning after nailing Knobbs with a fire extinguisher.
Next match was The Wall versus David Flair. This wasn't very good at all. Flair had no business in the ring at this point, and was incredibly green. Wall wasn't that great either. From what I remember, it was a quick match, ending when Wall chokeslammed Flair in the centre of the ring for the clean pin.
Following this, Bret Hart came out for an interview in the ring. Hart was on the injury list at this point, having suffered what would turn out to be his career ending injury at the hands of Goldberg in late December 1999. He got a huge pop coming out, as Bret has long been incredibly popular in Europe. In his interview, he stated that even though he was injured and couldn't wrestle, he wanted to come to England and thank his U.K. fans for all their support, just in case this was the final time he would get to come to England. He mentioned his brother Owen was watching over him in heaven, and he also mentioned Vince screwing him in Montreal. He was received greatly by the crowd, and it was actually quite the emotional moment as he walked back up the entrance ramp 'for the last time'. (Note: Bret returned to England as part of the World Wrestling All-Stars touring group some 21 months later).
The next match was for the 'prestigious' WCW T.V. Title, featuring Hacksaw Jim Duggan versus Dave 'Fit' Finlay. This match was really sad. Before this match, I would have put money on Duggan being wildly cheered, but it just didn't happen. There was a really young crowd in attendance, who perhaps didn't remember Duggan from his WWF glory days of the late 1980's and early 1990's. Finlay received the bulk of the cheers, mainly because he's a Great Britain native, from Northern Ireland. He didn't play up to the cheers though and remained a heel throughout the match. Duggan tried to start a U.S.A chant, and to my great amusement, about 75% of crowd booed. But what about the match I hear you ask? Duggan got the pin after a 'three point stance' clothesline. Match was horrible.
The next match woke up the crowd. Ric Flair and Lex Luger (working as heels; accompanied by Miss Elizabeth) versus Vampiro and Curt Hennig (working as babyfaces). Amazingly, Vampiro got the biggest crowd reaction of the four; even more amazing when you consider that he had only been in WCW for a few months at this point. This was the second best match of the night. Vampiro was the babyface-in-peril for most of the match, as both Flair and Luger worked him over. Eventually he got the hot tag to Hennig, who cleaned house on everyone. From what I remember, Luger got one of the lamest D.Q. decisions ever (I think it was a weak chair shot on Hennig), and both Flair and Luger worked over Vampiro and Hennig, until Buff Bagwell ran out for the big save. After the match, all three babyfaces mugged for the crowd, before heading to the back, as the ring announcer announced a twenty minute intermission.
During the intermission, Norman Smiley came out from the back and signed some autographs for a small group of fans by the staging area. A curtain on the stage was lifted up, and remained raised for the duration of the intermission, so lots of fans could see Terry Taylor and various other WCW agents in the backstage area, as well as Dustin Rhodes (a heel) and Terry Funk (a face) deep in conversation with each other.
First match after the intermission was between those hated rivals Terry Funk and Dustin Rhodes (!).
This was fought under hardcore rules, and was just horrible. Funk got a polite reaction coming out, but Rhodes was so not 'over', he was 'under'. Zero reaction for him. This match included one of the most stupid spots I've ever seen in a wrestling match. Rhodes nailed Funk with a frozen chicken (the ready-to-cook type that you can buy from the supermarket, not a frozen farmyard animal). They then proceeded to spend the next few minutes doing spots with the chicken, which (naturally) ended up on Funk's head (a la Mr. Bean). Oh the hilarity of it all. The finish came when Rhodes nailed Funk with a cowbell. By this point, the crowd were getting restless, as after five matches and two hours, we had only seen one half decent match.
Thankfully, the next match was easily the match of the night. Booker T versus Jeff Jarrett in a match for the WCW U.S. Title. Both worked their butts off, and the athleticism on display was in marked contrast to the other plodding contests on display earlier on in the card. Unfortunately, even in a match where everything went right, we didn't get a clean finish. It was a predictable D.Q. too; Jarrett got D.Q.'d for nailing Booker T with his ever present 'Slap Nuts' guitar. No-one made the save for Booker T, so that left the crowd a bit flat too, after such a good match as well. But not to worry, as we still had the main event to come.......
The crowd came to life, when Michael Buffer made his way to the ring, as we had no idea that they'd flown him over, just to introduce the main event. What could it be? Surprise appearance by Goldberg? Hollywood Hogan? Not quite. "Ladies and Gentleman, it is now time for our main event of the evening. It is for the WCW Tag Team Championship of the world......" Uh-oh... myself, and a bunch of hardcore fans around me all just looked at one another. They can't be serious.... can they? The Harris Brothers music played as they made their way to the ring. The entire crowd in the arena was deathly silent. The Harris Brothers? D.O.A.? Skull and Eight-Ball? Jacob and Eli? In the main event? Tonight? Then the tag champions, The Mamalukes, Big Vito and Johnny The Bull were introduced. Now let me just say one thing right now. I do not have a problem with any of the four guys. Big Vito is a decent wrestler. Johnny The Bull is a young guy with potential. The Harris Brothers, well, I don't particularly think they are very good wrestlers, but I would never deny anyone the right to make their living, and if they had been part of the undercard, fine. But to put this match in as the main event, two heel tag teams against one another, neither of which were particular 'over', well, this decision was totally perplexing to me.
This was the most surreal match I've ever seen. No heat whatsoever. They did hardcore wrestling spots with various objects (great - the third match of the evening to feature this). Then Ron (or was it Don) got so pissed off about the lack of crowd heat that he actually got on the house mic and yelled at us all to 'care more about this damn match'. Can you believe this? Naturally then, the boos started. Chants of 'What a Rip-off' and 'We want our money back' could be heard. By my estimates, about a quarter of the fans in attendance (roughly about 4,000 fans) left during this match. Match was bad, but that was to be expected. I think Vito pinned one of the Harris brothers after a garbage-can lid shot. After the match, people began throwing stuff at the Harris Brothers as they walked to the back. As Big Vito walked to the back, he used the f-word and swore at a fan. Johnny The Bull wasn't confrontational at all, probably because most of crowd recognised him as a young wrestler just starting out, and actually clapped him as he walked past. He gave the people I was sitting with a thumbs up, and let us touch his tag team championship belt.
So overall, a bad show, and as Dave Meltzer described it at the time, in his Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it was '...typical of the WCW, 'shoot-yourself-in-the-foot' mentality of the time....'. As I was leaving, I saw Terry Taylor lurking by the raised curtain on the stage area (mentioned earlier), and I couldn't resist it. I yelled at him "What were you thinking, booking that main event? Why didn't you put the Jarrett match on last?" He just looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and disappeared into the back. I know, I didn't expect him to stand there and actally explain to me the booking decision. I was just so frustrated that WCW, in front of a sellout crowd of over 16,000, had just blown another golden opportunity to improve their fortunes.
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