WCW Slamboree 99'

WCW Slamboree 99'

St. Louis, Missouri - May 1999

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, Diamond Dallas Page is the WCW World Champion, Scott Steiner is the US Champ, and Booker T is the Television Champion. Rey Mysterio is the Cruiserweight Champion while the World Tag Team Titles are held by Mysterio and Kidman.

COMMENTATORS: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan

Slamboree 99' kicks off with a match featuring six guys who tore the house down at the previous month's Spring Stampede show - Rey Mysterio Jr. and Billy Kidman defending the WCW World Tag Team Championships against Saturn and Raven and the Horsemen's Benoit and Malenko. While I prefer the simpler Spring Stampede match between the Horsemen and Raven/Saturn, this one is still a ton of a fun with lots of cool spots and a crowd that was enthusiastically anti-Horsemen. In 2017, a match like this may not stand out as much, but at the time, these sorts of bouts were what many fans were pointing to (correctly) as being the "next wave" of pro-wrestling. Like at Spring Stampede, Arn Anderson is great as the heel manager too, a crafty veteran with credibility but also the wisdom to wait for his moment instead of inserting himself into the match at every turn the way a Jim Cornette did (which is not a knock against Cornette, but it just wouldn't make a lick of sense for Anderson to be that type of manager). The match runs a touch long with a few stretches that seem like the guys are just re-grouping before they go on another spellbinding run of high spots and I'm not a huge fan of the screwy finish, but this was much more enjoyable than your typical opener. (3.5/5)

Konnan takes on Stevie Ray next. This match is about as bad as it would look on paper. These two had a match at World War III 96' that I gave 1.5 stars because it didn't overstay its welcome and it progressed a storyline. This time around, not only is the work executed even more poorly with noticeable botches that Schiavone is helpless to cover for (including an awful leapfrog attempt from K-Dawg), but Rey Mysterio's late-match run-in is treated like a total non-factor despite his involvement actually being a fairly big statement (that would eventually lead to the formation of the Filthy Animals stable). I'm not sure who the worst worker is, but I'm going to put more blame on Konnan because, at one point, he was a capable performer, but here he really comes across as sloppy and lazy. At least with Stevie Ray you know the ceiling is low so you kind of expect nothing, but with Konnan, there's always the faint chance he might actually work hard. A half-point rewarded for Konnan's disgusting pre-match promo. (0.5/5)

WCW did not yet have a Hardcore Championship, but the "King of the Hardcores" was Bam Bam Bigelow at this time, putting a target on his back by some of the more violent WCW competitors, including the legitimately roughhouse Brian Knobbs. Like the Bigelow/Hak match from Spring Stampede but with even less athleticism on display, this one takes away the table spots and replaces them with even more weapon shots, some of which are absolutely brutal. Knobbs is the definition of reckless, nearly stabbing Bigelow with the sharpened corners of a mostly-flattened trash can multiple times and then throwing a chair with full force into a guardrail later. Bigelow doesn't just take hits, though, eventually dishing out a nasty chair shot to Knobbs' skull on the outside that really reminds you how much wrestling has changed in 20 years. I mean, its the kind of chair shot you'll be hard-pressed to find even in a hardcore indy these days. The match, which is fought under Falls Count Anywhere rules because no reason given, eventually spills to the entranceway and (for a few moments) backstage. Unfortunately, WCW's production team either (a) legitimately didn't know they were going to end up there or (b) thought it would be "too staged" to adequately light the entranceway/backstage so the final minutes are wrestled in almost complete darkness. These garbage matches aren't great wrestling, but they're fun enough that you will want to see the finish - it's a shame this one doesn't grant you that small favor. (2/5)

The TV Title was on the line in the next bout with Booker T defending against Rick Steiner. A little background is needed here - first, remember, Booker T had failed in his attempt to beat Scott Steiner for the US Title at Spring Stampede, then, weeks later, Booker T  defeated Rick Steiner thanks to interference from Stevie Ray that Booker T didn't see. Coming into the match, both guys are ostensibly faces, but Rick is leaning heel because despite the audience viewing and re-viewing the finish from their last match (and recognizing Booker T didn't cheat), he refuses to reach the same obvious conclusion. Yeah, it's dumb - but the match itself kinda worked for me...at least until the finish. On the plus side, Booker and Rick lay into each other with every move they do and the match comes across as a legit fight with meaningful stakes. When Rick locks in a headlock, it's not the most exciting few minutes of action I've ever seen, but the route they take there makes sense and Booker's comeback gets a pretty good reaction. Unfortunately, what could've been a great stepping stone win for Booker is, instead, used as Step 1 for Rick Steiner's first heel run in what? A decade? It just sucks to see a guy on the rise get cut down so that a well-past-his-expiration-date veteran can get one last unnecessary "rub." (2/5)

Speaking of "rubs," its time for Gorgeous George vs. "Lil' Naitch" Charles Robinson. This comedy match built around Ric Flair's feud with the recently-returned Randy Savage, this match is almost too blatant in the way it exposes all of Flair's tropes as nothing more than pratfalls, "anti-psychology" (in the words of Bret Hart), and man-versus-broomstick shenanigans. This might've been one of the worst matches ever, but there are at least a few moments that I found enjoyable - Flair's pre-match promo is X-rated greatness, Madusa is finally given a deserved-albeit-very-brief role to shine in, and Robinson, for all his goofiness, actually takes a good bump. Gorgeous George was brought in only as eye candy and in that role, she's fine - but by 99' even the WWE had the wisdom to at least try to give their female valets a touch more personality, even if they were terribly sexist (Lita the Thong-sporting Tomboy, Terri the She-Devil, Debra The Southern Business-slut). Having this go 10 minutes was giving it about 6 more minutes than it needed. I'll reward it a star-and-a-half for the few positives it did have. (1.5/5)

...And we return to As The Steiner Turns with Buff Bagwell challenging Scott Steiner for the US Title. Just in case you didn't predict that Rick would help Scott retain his title and officially turn heel, before the George/Robinson match, Rick Steiner told Bagwell to "be careful" and that he (Rick) was going to go find Scott and tell him he didn't need his help. Unlike Booker T/Rick Steiner, this match didn't win me over with stiffness, it won me over with good, simple execution of a good, simple story. Instead of letting Big Poppa Pump run down the crowd with his usual pre-match stick time, Bagwell attacks him before the bell - exactly what should happen in a personal grudge match. Buff maintains control until Scott Steiner hits him with a low blow and from there, the action is back and forth and the crowd is hot for it. Steiner was a great heel at this point - so good, in fact, that even re-pairing him with his brother couldn't slow his momentum as a decidedly singles performer (I'm not sure how long the reunited Steiner Brothers angle went, but I do remember nobody giving the slightest shit about Rick Steiner before or after it happened). As anyone might've predicted, a well-placed ref bump allows Rick Steiner to make his run-in and turn on Buff Bagwell. To me, there's almost no way to book this without it being obvious that Rick was going to turn heel, but you still didn't need him to win the TV Title to get there. I mean, who wouldn't have rather watched a Booker T/La Parka match instead? Complaints about the booking aside, I did find the "meat" of this match to be solid. (2.5/5)

Here we go - in a battle for the WCW Presidency - Roddy Piper vs. Ric Flair. In 1997, these two fought in a match I gave 2 stars but is typically remembered as being far below that. That match took place when Piper was still relatively fresh into his comeback and I gave them some credit for working hard and keeping the audience engaged. Believe it or not, the crowd is interested in this and Flair gets good heat to start things off. As far as "wrestling" goes, there isn't any of it going on in this one as Piper and Flair engage in a slap fight for at least 3-4 minutes longer than they should. Arn Anderson and Asya get involved and, to their credit, Flair and Piper don't take any breaks - the action may not be too impressive, but at least it isn't stopped for a trip to the oxygen tanks that I'm guessing WCW was keeping on hand by this point. Flair busted out a couple flops and tried to lock in the figure four while Piper did his eye pokes and his sleeper so the crowd was certainly engaged enough, but I still wouldn't call this even an "average" level of entertaining. Bonus half-point for the post-match angle with Bischoff, which I think actually muddied up the storyline even more about who was actually in charge of WCW (IIRC), but, when it happened, got a great response and felt like a "big moment." (2/5)

Sting vs. Goldberg is next, a battle of babyfaces that Schiavone notes was set up by Ric Flair to keep the two from joining forces and...well, that part isn't explained. They botch a spot in the first minute, but I've written it before, one sloppy miscue doesn't really hurt a match to me if its followed by the right sequence. In this case, I'm not sure it was covered up perfectly, but it didn't hurt the match too much because the feel of the whole match was two powerful forces clashing in an emotional face-off. To me, there was enough intensity to make the sloppiness work in a weird way as neither guy was willing to give the other a single inch. Somewhat surprisingly, Sting's pops match Goldberg's early on, but when Goldberg eventually counters a Stinger Splash with a spear (looked to me more like a nasty, nasty spinebuster), it gets the loudest reaction of the night by a country mile. What was a pretty good match is cut short, though, by a run-in from Bret Hart who waffles Goldberg with an unprotected chair shot. Hart always claimed that he's never injured an opponent in the ring, but Goldberg didn't wrestle a match for over 2 months, so, you can be the judge of whether or not that chair shot was "safe." The Hart run-in may be a disappointing finish, but at least it makes sense in terms of the storyline. The follow-up run-in by The Steiners? Purposeless. Sting, who came back about as over as humanly possible considering how shitty his 98' was, didn't need to eat a beatdown after this match and the Steiners reunion had already eaten up a whole bunch of the show. My guess is that this was presumably meant to lead to some sort of tag feud with Sting and Buff? Booker T? Luger? Any option that involved tacking dead weight onto hot characters like Scott Steiner and Sting was going to suck. Without the Steiner involvement, this is a better-than-average match, but with it, I have to deduct a half-point. (2.5/5)

Main event time - Diamond Dallas Page defending the WCW World Championship against Kevin Nash. I ranted about it in my UnCenSored review (I think) but WCW's title scene was a total mess by this point due to rapid-fire title changes and heel/face turns that turned a deaf ear to the fans. By this time, Page was officially a heel - or at least he's working 1000% like one - while Nash was the babyface, though, his version of "working from underneath" seems to mean being literally lifeless for extended minutes. He got bigger face cheers working as the cool heel than he does for the entirety of this match (save for maybe the Jacknife finish because, admittedly, powerbombs are cool). Page brings a ton of energy to this match, but Nash is just so ill-fitting in working this kind of style - and that's coming from someone who thought his bouts with Goldberg were good enough and that, in general, for most of his WCW run, he did a reasonably good job of getting big reactions out of doing very little. Here, he might do too little because any "cool factor" he had has vanished. Savage tries to help DDP retain, but Bischoff restarts the match because, based on the pre-established notion that he still has power, he has that power. A good false finish follows soon after - but, in WCW fashion, its a bit of an odd one as DDP eats a rebounding chair and kicks out, which gives him credibility that a heel probably shouldn't have. Nash eventually gets the clean win and celebrates in what is supposed to feel like a big babyface moment but absolutely doesn't because, remember, Nash screwed Goldberg half a year earlier, lied down for Hogan, and then didn't do a single thing to cement that he was a babyface aside from wrestle poorly. Page works hard to save this match, but I found it plodding. (1.5/5)


In my recent reviews of WCW pay-per-views, I've written a fair amount about how, at this point, WCW still had the talent to stay relevant. They may have never challenged the WWE again, but they could've been profitable. They also could've put on crowd-pleasing shows that centered around over talent like Goldberg, Sting, the Horsemen, Scott Steiner, Rey Mysterio, and, though their time to shine in the ring was behind them, even Hogan and Flair in "guest star" roles. Unfortunately, aforementioned nonsensical booking decisions diminished the value of their championships and made watching the shows difficult for casual fans as a fan favorite one month, like DDP, would be inexplicably (and often only vaguely) turned the next week only to feud with another guy who was only recently inexplicably and vaguely turned (like Nash). With a Kwang Score of 2.0-out-of-5, Slamboree 99' isn't the worst WCW show I've seen...but its the worst non-Road Wild show since Slamboree 1996. Road Wild shows were almost routinely awful, so really, this is the worst show WCW put on in 3 full years based on my ratings. Aside from the opener, which is inessential but fun, this show is loaded with lame matches, lame booking, and desperation.

FINAL RATING - DUDleyville