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Mr. Mean

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BLAH

ON THE WCW BEAT
Like a Broken Record

Oops, they did it again.

However, this is WCW, so why should anyone be surprised? My good friend Super Dave, the biggest Triple H mark on the planet, and I had arrived in Charleston Monday night where we were to work security for the Smackdown tapings the next day.

After watching the first hour of Nitro, we switched to Monday Night Raw. Doesn't everyone? However, I convinced Super Dave that we needed to keep checking on Nitro during commercials and we had to watch the main event. Why? Because this time it was going to happen. It had to.

Scott Hall was returning to WCW!!! I was sure, heh heh. Kevin Nash and a MYSTERY partner were going to take on Scott Steiner. The mystery partner couldn't be DDP because he was going to be wrestling Jeff Jarrett. Therefore, it had to be Hall!

Then came the ring introductions. With great expectations, I watched as..........Rick Steiner comes out as the mystery partner. Sigh. I told Super Dave to change it back to Raw. I mean we just had NO IDEA that Steiner was going to swerve Nash. This is how low things have sunk in WCW.

There's a song called What a Difference a Day Makes - 24 little hours. Because about 24 hours later, I was ringside for a very hot main event. The crowd at the North Charleston Coliseum was so loud, I regretted not wearing earplugs. And I can understand why. The WWF gave them a hot card, including an extra sizzling main event.

I knew beforehand that someone was going over the railing right at my post. We just didn't know who or when. Since the main event had The Rock taking on the Big Show, I nervously thought about my safety since Show weighs 500 pounds. It ended up being Kurt Angle taking a tumble and I got out of the way. Behind me, I heard a crash that sounded like a bomb going off. It was the Big Show being put through the announce table. You can't imagine how loud that sounds unless you're right there. Seeing it on TV is no substitute. I didn't actually see it because I was busy trying to help keep the fans away from Angle, who was selling so good that the fans thought he was really hurt.

Two days later, I'm still wired from the experience. I even got a cheap pop from ringside fans when I confiscated an offensive sign on orders from a WWF producer.

There's just such a gulf between WCW and the WWF. Ironically, many people in the WWF actually want Eric Bischoff to succeed.

"Vince McMahon is at his very best when he has competition," said one WWF official.

Judging by what WCW put on Monday night, Vince is going to have a long wait before he has any competition.

Take for instance Big Poppa Pump squashing four cruiserweights. This was as bad as anything WCW has ever done. Supposedly, the cruiserweights are going to be pushed. Instead, they get buried. Steiner put three of them in the Recliner. The only reason Steiner didn't put all four of them in it is because he nearly killed Yang with a T-bone suplex from the middle turnbuckle. That looked scary.

The match was pointless. Four guys who can really work get buried. Why didn't they just have Steiner squash four jobbers? Gosh, this is ridiculous.

Let's also consider the El Nino disaster. It looked like they were teasing the debut of Super Crazy. Sorry, it's just Rey Mysterio. Of course, we were supposed to be clueless. Furthermore, the booking was stupid. Ric Flair is trying to recruit Chavo Guerrero, so naturally Chavo does the job. I think I know why. Chavo is getting over and that's a no-no in WCW unless you're a friend of Nash, DDP or Bischoff. When WCW came to Columbia on January 21, no one got more heat than Chavo, who was great on the mic and in the ring. So this is how he gets rewarded.

As for Flair, well, it sure is obvious that Bischoff is back in charge. I could just see the heat vanishing from Flair as he was stripped to his underwear and bullied by Nash.

Contrast that to the WWF, which works hard to get all its performers over. On the other hand, WCW looks like it's over - as in done.

Mr. Mean
[slash] wrestling

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