10 Crazy Things You’ll Find On WWE Network (If You Search Deep Enough)
1. That Which Is WCW Thunder In The Year 2000
That entry, on the AWA Team Challenge Series being even worse than WCW in 2000?
That is accurate, as it pertains to Nitro. WCW Thunder was the worst, most incomprehensible, most outrageously lazy milk-job of a rights fee any promotion ever had the gumption to produce. It is horrendously, hysterically bad. Deep into the year 2000, WCW, to which Thunder began as an inconvenience, dropped the pretence of creating a good TV show entirely.
Look at the state of some of the cards bearing the name. Shane Douglas headlined well past his prime. Scott Steiner battled three cruiserweights at once, just because. Gene Okerlund wrestled. Handicap tag matches were as prevalent as straight singles. Straight singles matches were the exception, and not the standard, under Vince Russo's "bro-bro-wrestling-is-boring-bro" mentality. It's a wonder the guy never popped a "sis," just for the swerve.
On the subject of Russo, on May 3, 2000, he presented arguably his greatest desecration of wrestling on one of its most hallowed grounds: the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis Tennessee. Every match was fought under 'New York Rules', which, until they forgot what the stip was halfway through the show, saw matches held under no rules with no referees. The idea, perhaps, was to promote a series of contests so violent that they would endanger the officials. The Wall helpfully put this brutal premise over by gently landing leg-first through a table, thus securing Lex Luger the win, in a Tables match, on a show on which every match was to be a New York Rules match.
In another match - this is real - Kevin Nash declared Mike Awesome the winner of Ric Flair Vs. Billy Kidman via disqualification in a match with no rules.