Booker T is the world champ, and even though the ship was sinking at this point and I barely watched, I still bought Booker as a great young champ. Had I known he would go on to be a pretend Brit king, I don’t know that I would have felt similar. I am realizing that this is apparently not set up to be a three way, since Awesome isn’t out there. Great, a mid match angle. That stuff only ever work with already over characters and structure in the original ECW. I’d rather be watching old ECW, come to think of it.

Scott Steiner, of all people, is creating movement and selling in this match. He looks better than Booker at times, but either way, he cooperating. Steiner curses a lot in these late Nitro matches.
Awesome is out two minutes in with no explanation as to why they waited. He clears the ring of Steiner to no reaction. Why are there two babyfaces beating up this one heel? Regardless, Steiner is motivated as heel and Booker’s offense looks good tonight. Awesome being sprinkled in for power stuff here and there could be fine if it’s not overstated. Awesome was not over a a face what-so-ever. Good spots between all three men, often tossing one out so the other two can work. Awesome and Steiner have an ugly section outside, and that includes a chair shot for no reason and no consequence.

They slow down and sell, but I think they’ve lost the fire, and the crowd doesn’t carry the slow parts. I wonder, with a hotter crowd, in a better setting (say WWF at the same time period), how much more or less I’d like this match. I’d assume more, especially with a hot crowd and Jim Ross call. It’s fairly good as it is. Steiner decimates Awesome and puts him in the recliner. Booker knocks out Steiner with a kick, and hits the Book End on Awesome for the pin in 9 minutes. This might be the best you can do in the last year of WCW. 3 ¼ and 6.2/10.

This starts out on two odd notes. First, they are commenting on the death of Yokozuna. Then Steiner comes down with a tiger. This is supposed to look cool, but it looks horrible, because the Tiger obviously doesn’t want to be there, looks annoyed, and needs a trainer to walk him down with Steiner. The tiger pulls Steiner along and gets pet hesitantly.

This one gets no reaction early, as Mike Awesome dominates Steiner before he cheats to gain the advantage. It’s nothing horrible, but it feels average. I hate all these un-unique matches were they start brawling from the onset and run through some big stuff. This match might not be the perfect example, but these guys are definitely not on the same page. Steiner can’t bump or throw any punches/chops well at this point. He does still throw a good belly-to-belly. It does get a bit better with Awesome in control mid match, but then Steiner takes a huge swing with a pipe and it’s not the finish. It’s barely even sold correctly. Steiner hits a Samoan drop and wins with the recliner, so it did lead to the finish. It put over Steiner to some degree as they were building up a match with him and Booker T (who was on commentary. Six minutes of okay stuff. 2 ¼ and 5/10.

Awesome is no longer the fat chick thriller, he’s the 70s Guy. He has the worst entrance and gimmick yet on this set. He challenges Vampiro because he and Insane Clown Posse ruined his 70s bus. Got it? Hardcore match now.

Crappy brawling in the ring, but Awesome does throw a good suplex. Then he hits one of his big dives. I’m guessing for this he’s the face in this match, if there is one, getting revenge for being wronged.
Even Schiavone sounds so whorishly lifeless pimping this. Vampiro jumps off a balcony while Awesome just stands there to catch him. Contrived and lame, yet the crowd chants “holy shit” and they bleed the audio (announcers included) over and over. They keep selling that these guys are hardcore legends in Japan and Mexico. Don’t they realize ECW was going out of business at the same time? No perspective. Vamp does have a cool look, and they tease a few table spots, so it’s not all bad. This isn’t great, but it’s not as bad as a lot of stuff from the same time period. Awesome tosses Vamp through the table on the floor in about six minutes or so. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you’re a big fan of either guy and want to see all their matches. 2 stars and 4/10.

Finally, and shining light from the brutal death year of WCW. Lance Storm was someone I grew to enjoy from my time watching him in ECW as a Triple Threat member, his feud with Candido, and finally his run as half of the Impact players. He was the bright spot in late WCW, where as I felt Mike Awesome was exposed when he left ECW near the same time as Lance. Still, this has got to have some substance to it compared with most matches of the time – the equivalent of bad fast food. I need a meal, guys.

This is the finals the U.S. title tournament. Storm gets heat playing the Canadian national anthem. I’d forgotten that Russo’s big thing at the time was letting everyone curse and then bleeping it live. What a simpleton. The brawl in the aisle way to start. No one wrestled in 2000 WCW. The last few matches are a lot of brawling. Awesome is pretty good playing big man here, and Lance is the bumping heel. I like it more once Storm gets control and they get in the ring. They actually wrestle! Storm could have been so much more in WWE if they’d played it differently. I enjoy is control segment here, and Awesome’s power moves here are um… awesome. Storm bumps like a rag doll for the guy. They screw up a spinning DDT and Storm has the presence of mind to sell it like he was thrown off. Bonus points. Storm hits a superplex on the big guy, and Awesome kicks out at two.

The finishing sequence with the reverse out of the Awesome bomb into the half crab is really good, and Awesome taps right away in five minutes. He even taps like a sissy. He gets fat girls for his troubles – I’m serious. A good five minute match with so slight choppy parts, but in this era of WCW it was a real stand out. Unfortunately, for the history of Nitro it was nothing special. 2 ½ and 5/10.

Awesome was fun when Paul Heyman booked him as a big man in the later years of ECW, but he was hiding a lot of flaws. I don’t remember his WCW run being much fun past a lame Russo gimmick of “That 70s Guy”, but hey, DDP always worked his ass off. I wish there was Triad (DDP, Bigelow, and Kanyon) stuff on the comp, but hey, this is somebody else’s best of compilation.

Eric Bischoff is already back from being fired, so we’re into the Russo/Bish era where they were all over TV and we had Millionaires versus “New Blood”. Bisch booked himself to be with the very beautiful Kim Page, once again proving pro wrestling books real divorces. There out to heel him on commentary. Awesome comes out with a stretcher. The set looks so silly and overly bright. The only cool this is the elevated walkway to the ring. This era of Nitro is really hard to watch.

This match is a full of brawling, so it hides some inherent weaknesses and up excitement levels. Both guys go hard thankfully, and even though DDP isn’t Masato Tanaka, he does well leading this match through the paces. It’s ugly or mistimed periodically, but there’s some great spots like a urinagi (spelling?) suplex by Page. Page goes for his clothesline, which is good, about 20 times in the first three minutes, and when it hits it’s pretty great. His head scissors – not so much. This is a total Page match for better or worse. It gets ugly around the time Kim Page goes up on the apron to get her divorce papers signed. Lots of ugly, yet unsafe, chair shots. Fans are hot for the hardcore stuff. It’s the era. Awesome sends Page through a table without even a tease, then Bisch makes an unconscious Page sign the divorce papers by moving his hand. I HATE this match. They wheel Page out and he loses in six minutes. Worst. Match. Ever. 1 star and 1/10.