The Worst Moments Of WCW 2000

The mere mention of World Championship Wrestling in 2000 sends a harsh chill through the bones of those who experienced it. No promotion with WCW's reach and capabilities had ever driven away its audience with such poor decisions and hideously laughable moments. 

The company at the beginning of the new millennium was truly the standard bearer for horrific televised entertainment. 

These are the worst moments from WCW 2000.

10. Viagra On A Pole Match

Of the many inane things that Vince Russo's WCW run is often associated with, pole matches are certainly one of them. In the summer of 2000, the first-ever Viagra on a Pole Match was booked. 

The premise was Shane Douglas had stolen Torrie Wilson away from long-time partner Billy Kidman. Vengeful, the voyeuristic Kidman recorded the two "in action", and it was discovered that Douglas "couldn't perform." Humiliated, Douglas swore reprisal, and that reprisal would come in the form of the aforementioned gimmick match.

Shane Douglas ultimately won in the end as Torrie Wilson distracted Billy Kidman and allowed The Franchise to grab the bottle full of pills. This was after Kidman had already retrieved the bottle, but the referee wasn't looking and Douglas obtained the pills instead.

The Franchise then forced the pills down Kidman's throat after the match, with the commentary team noting that Kidman needed medical attention to avoid an overdose to end the segment.

9. Mike Awesome

WCW seemed to pull off a coup when they signed away reigning ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mike Awesome in April of 2000. Intimidating, powerful, and brutish, Awesome could bring high-impact credibility to a company that sorely needed to evolve. 

Despite some serious legal wrangling between WCW and ECW, the mulleted mauler did turn up as intended for WCW's April 10 kickstart, where he dismantled Kevin Nash.

While booking Awesome seemed like the easiest thing in the world, WCW made it harder on themselves by turning Awesome into the Fat Chick Thriller, an unabashed "chubby chaser" that didn't make secret his particular fetish.

Shortly after, Awesome pivoted into a different comedy character of a leisure suit-wearing lounge lizard called That 70s Guy.

Some wrestlers need gimmicks, but an alpha powerhouse like Mike Awesome was not one of them.

8. Flaming Sting

Sting and Vampiro crossed paths during the year 2000 for what sounded like a strong feud on paper but was horrible in reality.

The highlight of Sting vs. Vampiro was the regrettable Human Torch Match at the 2000 Great American Bash. To win, you simply had to light your opponent on fire, but in practice, what ensued was barely a match as the two wrestlers exchanged bog-standard manoeuvres early, before Vampiro threw gasoline on Sting, seemingly knocking him out. 

The proceedings then continued to drag on as they slowly fought up the entrance scaffolding twice, disappearing into darkness. Then a clearly larger stuntman dressed as Sting appeared on fire and was thrown from the set to score the win for Vampiro. 

7. Halloween Havoc 2000

When a whole pay-per-view is rotten from beginning to end, it bears special mention. WCW had maybe two or three decent-to-good pay-per-views in 2000, juxtaposed with more than half a dozen awful ones. The absolute worst of the lot was the 2000 Halloween Havoc.

In Dave Meltzer's match ratings, five matches in a row received either a DUD or negative stars with a crappy Kickboxing Match with a count-out finish, a First Blood Match to procure DNA for a paternity test, a DQ finish in the world title match, a four-minute handicap closer, and the worst Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett match ever.

6. The Worked-Shoot Semi-Main Event Of New Blood Rising

One problem that Vince Russo's WCW had was their extreme reliance on playing to the internet rumour mill and lacing their storylines with all manner of inside jokes and dirtsheet gossip. 

While terminally-online parts of the audience might pop, such angles went over the heads of more casual observers and were hardly worth the time or effort. WCW didn't learn this lesson in time for August's New Blood Rising pay-per-view.

The event featured a three-way bout between Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Goldberg, and a rumour got out that Goldberg had refused to do the job in the match. WCW turned his refusal into a convoluted alternate reality shoot angle, where Goldberg arrived late for the match, engaged in half-assed, supposed-shoot brawling with Nash and Steiner, "refused" to go up for Nash's Jackknife Powerbomb, and walked out on the match, refusing orders from Russo to go back and do the ending. 

When Steiner did the job instead, the announcers praised him for "doing the right thing" by the script. 

5. Goldberg's Heel Turn

You would think that WCW would go to great lengths to protect Goldberg, seeing as he was the freshest and most popular weapon they had in their losing battle with the more popular, more cutting-edge WWF. That isn’t what WCW did, though. 

Heading into the 2000 Great American Bash, Russo and others crowed about a major surprise taking place on the show, one that Vince McMahon was powerless to stop. If the leading McMahon could have seen the immediate future, he would have encouraged WCW to carry out that surprise, because that surprise was Goldberg turning heel. 

After missing most of 2000 so far with a significant arm injury, WCW's most over performer showed up at the end of the Great American Bash and attacked Kevin Nash, helping Jeff Jarrett retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to align him with the New Blood stable in the process. 

Goldberg then infamously hugged Russo and Eric Bischoff, signifying their union. The heel turn, quite simply, was a disaster, and it was quickly dropped.

4. Bash At The Beach 2000

It was one of the most confusing, confounding, and mystifying chains of events that has ever occurred in professional wrestling. If one positive came out of it, it was that Booker T - after years of hard work - was rewarded with an overdue world title reign. 

Prior to Booker's hasty victory, though, Vince Russo and Hulk Hogan had an unusual spat that spilt into public view, leading to genuine litigation.

Preceding the 2000 Bash at the Beach, Hogan refused to lay down for world champion Jeff Jarrett. This was turned into a worked-shoot angle where Jarrett - under Russo's orders - "voluntarily" took a dive to let Hogan pin him for the belt. 

This was apparently supposed to lead to Hogan briefly leaving, WCW crowning a new champion, and Hulk returning later to feud with them. Instead, a frustrated Vince Russo hit the ring later in the night and shot on Hogan, in particular for all of his political machinations. Furious, Hogan not only never returned to WCW but also filed a defamation suit against Russo, which ended up being dismissed in 2003.

3. The Radicalz Quit WCW

Throughout the late 1990s, WCW boasted one striking advantage over the rival WWF in the quality of the in-ring action. The brilliance of Eddy Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Rey Misterio Jr, and others greatly bolstered WCW events, putting to shame the median match quality over in WWF. In January of 2000, though, four of WCW’s best wrestlers all left the company for the World Wrestling Federation following a major controversy.

During the weekend of January's Souled Out card, Vince Russo was briefly sent home from the company, having butted heads with Turner brass since his arrival. WCW then re-installed Kevin Sullivan as the booker, which sent much of the locker room into an uproar. Around 20 wrestlers demanded releases, though WCW tried to mollify things by putting its vacated world title on celebrated workhorse Chris Benoit. 

Benoit got the belt, but still wanted out. He, Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko all leveraged releases following an incident where WCW agent Mike Graham threatened them with violence. The quartet showed up on Raw two weeks later.

2. Vince Russo Wins The WCW World Heavyweight Title

It was pretty ridiculous in 1999 when Vince McMahon briefly held the WWF Championship. The WWF was so bulletproof by the end of the millennium that they could run a booking stunt like that and suffer no damage. 

WCW didn't have that same luxury in 2000, but they repeated the angle anyway. On the September 25 episode of Nitro from Long Island, Vince Russo challenged Booker T for the world title inside of a steel cage. 

Looking nothing like a pro wrestler and wearing a football helmet, Russo managed to win after Booker T tried to escape the cage for some reason and received a spear from Goldberg through the cage wall, which gave Vince Russo the win and the belt.

1. David Arquette Wins The WCW World Heavyweight Title

There was nothing wrong with having a mainstream WCW tie-in movie starring Scream actor David Arquette in Ready To Rumble, and there was nothing wrong with having Arquette do a few appearances to hype the movie, especially as he was a noted wrestling fan. WCW didn’t just do that, though.

April 25, 2000, was a day that will continue to live in pro wrestling infamy when Arquette was teamed with new world champion Diamond Dallas Page to face Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff in a tag team bout where DDP's title was on the line. Following a series of unfortunate events, Arquette somehow pinned Bischoff to become heavyweight champion of the world. 

Most fans and critics laughed and derided the desperate publicity stunt. Of all of WCW's blunders in 2000, putting the Big Gold Belt on Arquette was the lowest of the low.