The WORST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2025)
26. 2000 | The ‘New York Rules’ Episode Of WCW Thunder
It’s tempting not to include anything from WCW, because by 2000, the Monday Night War was a bloody massacre. The WWF was (and should be) held to a significantly higher standard. The WWF was still booming, and the creative under Chris Kreski was fantastic. Admonishing WCW for making a creative mistake in 2000 was like complaining about a two-week old infant not using the toilet.
Then again, WCW was funded by a billion dollar corporation. They deserve the kicking. If the WWF Vs. WCW in 2000 was a football match, it would be Manchester United Vs. Yeovil Town, if Yeovil Town were owned by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and had a full decade to take advantage of its wealth.
‘WCW Nitro 2000’ is the ultimate shorthand reference for something in wrestling being bad. When WWE crapped out stuff like the Old Day and Bobby Lashley’s Sisters segments, the 2018-19 days were unfavourably compared to Nitro 2000.
Since Vince Russo loved a swerve, it’s only fitting to reveal here that Thunder was actually worse, and one episode is particularly infamous: the New York Rules edition.
Russo, representing the heel New Blood stable, stipulated that every match on the May 3, 2000 Thunder be held under ‘New York Rules’. The definition was left vague, but essentially, there were no rules, no refs: the wrestlers had to count their own pins.
None of the heels attempted a fast count, and because nobody could do anything about anything, Kevin Nash won the match between Ric Flair and Billy Kidman by defeating Mike Awesome.
That sentence, somehow, was not written incorrectly.