WHAT WORKED

- Juventud Guerrera and DAMIEN~! had a good little match, eventhough DAMIEN~! was tentative on the rolling Senton and Juventud botched the Firebird. DAMIEN~!'s makeup was absolutely SWANK- it was good to see him again. Juventud could get SO over if they could just get him in a match with Kidman and let it go ten minutes next week....

WHAT DIDN'T WORK-

-YAMMER, YADDA, YAMMER, YADDA, YAMMER, Bischoff, the Giant, Piper, etc, etc., etc... You know the drill.

Then the NBA came on.

Saturn vs Glacier was quite watchable as Saturn decided not to bore the hell out of me this week. Kicks on both sides were so NOT stiff (of course, I watch three hours of frickin BattlARTS this week...) Saturn FINALLY hits a decent Death Valley Driver. Glacier didn't suck like he's not afraid to do sometimes.

Our Role Model came out and- being a JoJo crest-fallen Jerichoholic- I was assuming that the El Dandy match wasn't gonna be much, and the fact that he and El Dandy don't actually hit overly good frickin DANDINO's wasn't a good sign. The interview though worked like gangbusters as the pop for Malenko later indicated. The fact that he called out the chatty President of WCW and actually made it bearable was a true tribute to the magnificence of our Paragon of Virtue. The fit was hilarious as was everything else.

Juventud Guerrera vs Kidman was REALLY REALLY good. I dug ALL this. Juventud was just KING-SIZED and Kidman is REALLY starting to come on. WCW gave this match the Actual Wrestling Match Spot and it paid off in spades. These guys are working twice as stiff as they were six-months and notice how dynamic power moves can look in the context of a good Juniors match- the stiffness sets up the highflying that leads to the power moves- it's the winning combo in this. I dug the counters to the Powerbomb-counter-into-the-DDT, the Kidman endless counters to the Juvie Driver and the variation on the released German Suplex to keep Juventud from landing on his feet. Juventud was Technico Galore and Kidman was great in his first true credible rudo match and the way that each transition was freakin HUGE made this into a sure fire winner. Second best match on Nitro this year and the second best match on Nitro tonight. Just a REALLY REALLY good match. I wanna see these two go best of seven. Juvie cries like a beauty pageant contestant like a great technico will.

Okay, I knew Chavo was gonna be the stuff but I didn't know he was gonna be THIS MUCH of the stuff. Chavo freaking out may be the best thing ever this year. They should definately play it like Chavo is actually gone crazy. Ultimo Dragon beats the holy hell out of the youngster because, HELL!, if a young punk is gonna be put over by a freakin legend, make the little puke pay the price first. I loved the three Dos Caras ridiculously GREAT submission holds by the World's Greatest Wrestler. Ultimo is so frickin great for the sole reasons he shows in this match- "I'll make it look cool when I'm beating the paste out of you and I'll make it look cool when I'm carrying your green hinder to get you over." It's time for the UD push (hopefully as the evil leader of his pack of Group Revolucion minions). The ending was great. Now I gotta get the NEXT golldamn PPV. CRAZY CHAVO RULES!

Dean Malenko should REALLY thank Chris Jericho for getting him twice as over as he ever was all while in absentia. Dean gives WAYYY too much to Lenny Lane, but this was a big old batch of wrestling, which is what I give a shit about so I'm not gonna whine about Malenko being too professional in helping a young punk out. Lane did a crappy job of selling the ankle lock but the ending was classic Malenko. And Malenko is making the most fun faces of ANYONE ever in wrestling. CRAZY MALENKO RULES!

The Goldberg vs Johnny Attitude match sucked as much as any shitty Goldberg match but it worked in showing that ANYBODY could look like Goldberg, be pushed to 90 wins and get over just as much. And hell, Johnny Attitude can sort of sell at least.

WELLL NOW! The Crippler Chris Benoit vs Booker T have the best match they have ever had with each other as this match just KICKED ASS. Terry Taylor is a booking GENIUS when he wants to be and giving these two thirteen minutes for free on Monday night was a great move. Booker T gets to the level of working stiff that he looked credible against Benoit and Benoit helped him out quite a bit by making Booker T's power moves look absolutely HUGE. Benoit- about two minutes in- goes into total WRESTLING MACHINE mode and he says, "Fuck the bullshit, let's have a REAL wrestling match." Booker T says, "yeah sure." Both sell like champs, both kill each other REAAAL GOOD. Benoit start beating the shit out of Booker T and then starts beating the shit out of himself. Booker T keeps up and the finish gets SUPER HOT as Booker T hits his final offensive transition by hitting his signature finisher faster than he EVER has and then it sets up Benoits final transition as the strength of Booker T's final flurry sets up the inevitable Benoit finisher. THAT'S big time wrestling, folks.

HEY! nWo Sting wrestles for farking FOUR and also does the first clean job in the history of post-nWo Nitro main events so it's official- nWo Sting is the best Heavyweight in WCW. GOD! He even made Luger's shitty clotheslines look good. Sting felt the urge to actually work with a modicum of stiffness since he surely realized that his far more talented doppelganger had been in with Yamazaki and Hashimoto as of late. The Giant bumped a little and only stunk it up a little bit.

Piper talks for HOURS. He's not very funny and he's a really bad wrestler. He talked for a really long time.

Chris Canyon is having some kind of sinus problem. I don't look forward to this Man of a Thousand Run-Ins gimmick- since he is a damn good wrestler. Ah Raven....

Golly. There you have it.

DEAN RASMUSSEN.

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