Since no one cares about where I was sitting, etc, I'll just get straight to the matches and my opinions, etc.

I'd estimate the crowd at about 10,000. Coliseum seats 18,000. Smackdown sells out, usually, in a half hour.

David Penzer came out at about 7:35, introduced the show, etc. No warning about laser pointers and evil signs, oddly enough. Maybe they've given up.

The Nitro Girls came out to a good pop and danced.

The Dark Match of the Night was ACE DARLING vs. CROWBAR, in a match I looked forward to, and would probably call the Match of the Night. Crowbar was way over to start. Darling did a nice moonsault into a standing position to counter a Crowbar whip, but Darling blew a couple of punches, and a superkick missed by about a foot.

Announcers were introduced; TONY SCHIAVONE got about 90% heel heat. MARK MADDEN got about the same, but lots were silent, wondering who he was.

JEFF JARRETT cut a bad promo. He got pretty good heel heat. Good "asshole" chant, but, it was more like Bossman-Heat than HHH-Heat. BIG LAZY came out to a good pop as well. The whole Penzer thing was stupid; I mean, why would Nash care about Penzer?

WOO-HOO! THREE COUNT! They got good heel heat, but I was marking out. They rule. NORMAN SMILEY, IIRC, dressed up like Gino Odjick; the next day, Odjick was traded. Cough. The highspot sequence got a pretty good pop. Shannon Moore's usually reliable Asai Moonsault failed. LENNY LANE nearly killed himself ala Ivory or ala Spike Dudley by not raising his legs high enough to clear the rope on his tope. Shane Helms' Springboard Somersault Plancha was the crispest of them all. Evan Karagias' cross-body was shitty even compared to the moves that got fucked up. At least try. But, even though I'm fans of all 5 of those guys (BTW..Where was Lodi? 2 on 3? Wouldn't it make sense for him to be there?), I had to stare at Miss Hancock when she started dancing on the table. Oh man.

After the break, Three Count said that they were going to dance again just for all those who missed them. I was hoping they'd do the "One Guy's Too Hurt to Dance" version, which is actually a cool visual. TANK ABBOTT came out to a decent pop, but got a huge face pop when he killed Three Count. After he punched out Fuller and the show went to commercial, they showed the Tank Abbott - Mike Tenay promo, which is an obvious ripoff of the J.R. backstage interviews with Foley and X-Pac, IMO. WCW, free advice: Want to get Tank Abbott over? Have him punch out Schiavone.

The Nitro Girls came out and danced, but you didn't see the good part on TV. During the breaks, twice, Spice and another girl CAGE DANCED behind DJ Ran! It was oh so beautiful. DJ Ran was actually decent, spinning a mix of both rock and rap, including the very cool double selection of "Another One Bites the Dust" from Queen, and "Back in Black" from AC-DC, which made me wonder about Candido's return.

THE ARTIST sucked, and got no heat. VAMPIRO got a decent pop, but nothing incredible. LA PARKA got a good pop. KIDMAN got a very good pop. TORRIE chants throughout the match. Vamp got pretty good heat for leaving. After the match, La Parka humped the ringpole, and got a few laughs and some good pops for his dancing.

I didn't see the woman's matchup. Bathroom, soda, pizza.

NARCISSIST vs. FUNK. I had to convince the guy next to me that Terry Funk had more wrestling ability and more of a reason to be out there than Hogan did. The ECW chant for Funk going through the table was weak. Better later for BBB putting the Wall through a table. Boring chant was there. Match was a bitch.

HARLEM HEAT vs. CROWBAR/FLAIR vs. MARMALUKES. Match was unwatchable, and I like 4 of the 6 guys here. Crowbar and Flair were way over. Marmalukes were pretty over. Harlem Heat GOT no heat. I was afraid that Ahmed the Wrestler Killer was going to kill the Marmalukes with those TD91's. EMT's were a joke.

BBB vs. the WALL. Ugh. brian knobbs (doesn't get capitalized because he's Brian Knobbs). Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

DUSTIN RHODES vs. KANYON. I wasn't aware this was Kanyon's last match in WCW until I got home. Rhodes was not over. Kanyon was pretty over. The Shattered Dreams kick didn't get heat at first, which might have drove Rhodes to suicide, so he figured he'd pump up the crowd for a minute and a half before he did it. Crowd had become dead by this point.

DEMON vs. BOOKER T. Fuck no, I'm not saying anything about this. Booker needs his pants back.

HULK HOGAN vs. RIC FLAIR. I came to this mainly to see Psicosis and Juvy wrestle (like WCW.com said they were) and to see Flair get interviewed in the ring by Mean Gene. 0 for 2. Flair got mostly boos, of course, I was on my feet. Hogan got a very good pop, on par with, say, Outlaws. He was able to maintain the face pop during the match, using random no-sells and big boots. Luger's attack got big heel heat, which was surprising and sad at the same time.

Most people thought the show was over after Hogan-Flair, after all, it was 10:30, right? So, crowd was down to about 7,000 for the next 2 segments.

ERNEST THE CAT MILLER came out, and I figured he'd only be on this late because James Brown would come out. Of course not.

SID VICIOUS didn't get much of a pop for a Heavyweight Champion. Match sucked. The Crippler Crossface was laughable. Jarrett's guitar shot was weak, fuck Sid's concussion. This was shit.

Overall, the show wasn't worth the $16.00 I paid to go see it.

Bill Barnwell