Thunder - March 21, 2001 (Final Episode) with KB

klunderbunker

Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
Final Thunder
Date: March 21, 2001
Location: O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay

The company was deader than dead at this point and Vince would make the announcement of the sale in five days. In short, this show aired on Wednesday and the sale was finalized on Friday. Therefore the feuds mean absolutely nothing but for the most part it's Flair vs. Dusty and Flair's team vs. everyone else. I've wanted to do this show for years but never got around to it. Let's get to it.

We open with a messy recap of the major feuds. I mean you start with clips of Dusty vs. Flair and Flair having to kiss a donkey (Dusty's ass) and then cut to Booker saying he has a title shot on the following Raw against Steiner. Then we cut back to Dusty vs. Flair. Even the recaps are strange.

Theme song hits with no lyrics.

Air Raid vs. Jung Dragons

It's Yang (as in Jimmy Wang) and Kaz Hayashi as the Dragons and Air Raid would be Air Paris (no one of note) and Styles, as in AJ Freaking Styles. See what WCW had and still managed to fail? And yes I know they were dead by the time he arrived. He's Air Paris here but screw that name. AJ and Yang start us off, and oddly enough both would be in the first match in TNA's history.

Styles is kept on the match but snaps off a headscissors. And never mind as he runs into a suplex. Paris comes in now and things break down quickly. Kaz comes in and walks the corner, hitting an enziguri to Paris. Styles Clash gets two on Kaz because it's not a big time move yet. Paris hits a spinning cross body off the top for no cover.

Tony calls this the season finale for Thunder and says Monday will be the season finale for Nitro. That's putting it mildly. Off to Styles again who hammers away. He's also a lot smaller than he is now. Paris hammers on Yang in the corner but gets caught in a sitout powerbomb out of the corner.

Hot tag to Kaz with no heat from the crowd. He cleans house and gets a huge swinging kick to a kneeling Styles. Kaz gets something resembling a combination of a Cradle Shock and a Snow Plow on Paris for two. AJ goes up but jumps into a dropkick. Yang Time is broken up and Air Raid goes for something out of the corner. WCW cuts to the crowd for no apparent reason and when we come back they're on the mat. No idea what the point was of that but whatever. In the ring Kaz gets a reverse bulldog (worse than it sounds) for the pin on AJ.

Rating: C. Some nice spots in there but some of the stuff was rather sloppy. Air Raid were crusierweight jobbers so it's pretty clear they were stacked in that division. Match was fun but the ending left a lot to be desired. Also a lack of high spots and such with the guys you had in there hurt it a bit.

We recap the Rhodes Family beating up the Flair Family at Greed. I don't care either.

Here's Dustin with a bag. He shows us the clip of kissing the donkey from Nitro. In the bag is a box. It's a game called Pin The Naitch On The Jackass. We also get some chapstick. There's some mouthwash too. Oh and there's a hotel key for Flair and the donkey. Yeah we get the joke already.

Flair pops up on the screen to say it wasn't funny. It's Dustin vs. Jarrett/Steiner tonight. Oh joy. What a great way to go out on Thunder. Flair rants a lot and says it's not funny because he's a serious personality. Ok then. This has gone on way too long here. Flair says if Dustin lives through this he'll find someone else to hurt him. Dustin holds up the Horsemen sign and Flair says that's the Horsemen sign. Dustin says no it means “Kiss my daddy's ass.” Oh for Pete's sake.

Jason Jett vs. Cash

Cash is Kid Kash and Jett is somewhat known as EZ Money from ECW. He got a push in the last month of WCW and never did anything else of note. A loud ECW chant starts up for a bit. Oddly enough ECW would still officially be in business for about two weeks after WCW, meaning that for those two weeks, ECW was officially the second biggest wrestling company in the country.

Jett is sent to the floor and Cash hits a big slingshot rana outside. Back inside Jason hooks a Billy Goat's Curse but pulls up Cash's arms also and swings him back and forth in a move called the Pendulum. Out to the floor where Cash hits a HUGE dive to the floor. Back in Jett takes over again, hitting a standing moonsault. Very back and forth match here.

Cash tries a clothesline off the middle rope but gets caught in a clothesline from Jett to put both guys down. Cash throws on something like an Octopus Hold for about 5 seconds. Well what was the point in doing it for that little amount of time? Cash hits a huge flipping spinning dive for two. Jett hits a shortened version of Kazarian's Fade to Black for two.

Cash mostly botches a top rope rana but getting to that point was complicated enough to excuse it. There's a pinfall reversal sequence and then a Tajiri elbow by Jett. Cash gets a double underhook piledriver for two. Jett pops up and hits the Crash Landing (sets for a suplex and lets Cash go so he crashes) for the pin.

Rating: B-. Better match than the opener as the fact that they're getting a bit of time is working well for them. Cash wouldn't mean anything else for a few years while Jett just faded away. The botches really hurt this though, and that's mainly on Cash as he missed far more stuff than Jett did.

Flair tries to calm Rick Steiner down.

Ernest Miller tells MI Smooth to not worry about Kanyon.

Kanyon/Animal vs. MI Smooth/Ernest Miller

There's some backstory for this match that isn't important but it's something about Kanyon beating both guys and Animal saving him for no apparent reason. Smooth is big, strong, black, a limo driver and Ice Train. Oh and Miller has a relatively hot chick with Ms. Jones who dances with him. Miller vs. Kanyon to start us off. Cat uses some of his kicks as we hear about an offer to former WCW Champions to show up on Monday. None showed up that I recall.

Miller fires off a bunch of kicks because that's all he's capable of. The power guys come in and Animal takes over because he's older I guess. That seemed to be the rule of thumb in WCW. It turns into a contest of who can sell less so here's Miller again. Say it with me: he kicks a lot and gets two off a spin kick. Smooth comes in to get Kanyon which lets the heels double team to shift momentum.

Kanyon comes in again and hits a Moss Covered Three Handed Family Credenza for two. Off to Animal who comes in from resting and puts on a rest hold. Uh...right. Kanyon beats on Miller a lot more until Miller gets a powerbomb for a counter. See what happens when you use something OTHER than a kick? Animal takes down Miller and we cut to Animal arguing with Jones on the floor and miss the hot tag. Smooth uses various power moves before Miller trips Kanyon so that a big splash can pin him.

Rating: C. The match was your standard formula tag match so it worked pretty well. That being said, I still have no idea why these guys were fighting or what Miller and Animal had to do with it at all. Pretty average match but I've seen far worse. Also it means it's one of the last times I have to watch Miller. He's not bad but he got REALLY annoying at times.

Hugh Morrus vs. Rick Steiner

Steiner beat up Konnan and Morrus protected him for some reason. Konnan seconds Morrus here. Morrus pounds away on him a lot but when they head to the floor, Morrus clotheslines the post and Rick takes over. There's an Angle Slam from Steiner to show he can suplex people I guess. Steiner shouts about someone's brother and sister before getting a two count. There's the Steiner Bulldog but Morrus gets his foot on the rope. No reaction to that escape either.

Steiner Line gets two. Morrus comes back with a clothesline and a spinwheel kick of all things, getting two. Steiner kicks Morrus in the balls and hits him with a chair which the referee is all cool with. He sets to Pillmanize the arm but instead asks for a mic and calls out Shane Douglas. Shane comes out and gets beaten down quickly but Shane gets a cast shot in and Morrus grabs a German for the pin.

Rating: D. Well thank goodness this show ended because it could have led to Douglas vs. Steiner. Anyway the match was pretty bad as Steiner kept beating on him and then just stopped because I guess he wanted to talk to Shane Douglas. Ending made no sense but then again the company would fold in two days so who cares?

Shane gives Penzer a tape to play.

Post break we see the tape and it's Douglas dancing around his back yard with a Brittney Spears cutout. Actually scratch that as it would be more interesting. Basically Shane wants revenge on Steiner for taking the US Title from him. After that, he's going after Flair. He challenges Steiner for Nitro which I don't think happened.

Kid Romeo/Elix Skipper/Chavo Guerrero vs. Billy Kidman/Rey Mysterio/Shane Helms

Shane is Cruiserweight Champion. Romeo/Skipper are Cruiserweight Tag Champions. Kidman vs. Chavo to start but it's off to Shane, who beat Chavo for the title at Greed 3 days before this. Romeo comes in and dances (that's his thing) so Shane kicks him in the face. Off to Rey who gets a nice ovation. He drops the dime on Romeo but doesn't cover.

Rey hits a big dive over the top (allegedly into a Thesz press which is just wasn't) and it's time for everyone to dive. Back in Rey hits a springboard crossbody for two on Skipper. Skipper grabs a dragon suplex for two and Mysterio gets triple teamed. Chavo puts on the Gory Special and then turns it into the Gory Bomb for two.

Romeo throws on a chinlock. Rey gets out of it and tags in Shane who trips after hitting Chavo. Nice job dude. Kidman gets a top rope elbow for two. The good guys take over and Rey takes Skipper to the floor. Romeo tries his finisher but Kidman reverses into the Kid Crusher (Killswitch) for the pin.

Rating: C+. What is with all the Cruiserweight stuff going on tonight? Either way this was pretty good with the double champion dynamic working pretty well. Shane was awesome at this point as was Chavo and the Cruiserweight tag guys were great too. Good match overall here but again it doesn't mean much. The tag titles changed on Monday.

Ad for the WCW Mastercard. That's just funny.

Rick Steiner isn't happy.

Palumbo warns Lance Storm to stay out of the next match.

Chuck Palumbo vs. Mike Awesome

This is part of the tag team title feud. It's leading to Storm/Awesome vs. Palumbo/O'Haire on Monday. No Storm or O'Haire to start. Chuck uses his best weapon, the right hand, a lot. Awesome sends him to the floor and hits a pretty awesome springboard clothesline to the floor. Slingshot splash gets two back in the ring. Awesome hits a butterfly suplex for two.

This is pretty back and forth and the crowd seems into it. Camel clutch by Awesome as he gets the first real advantage of the match. The announcers talk about former champions showing up and the only one I can remember is Sting who fought the face Flair. Out to the floor for a really bad knees to steps spot. Palumbo has been on defense for a long time now. He blocks a chair shot though and hits Awesome with it, which isn't a DQ for some reason.

Back inside and they botch a spot in the corner where Chuck tried to jump over Awesome in the corner but got caught on the shoulder. Awesome nearly dropped him though so it looked pretty bad. Back to the floor with Chuck sending him into the railing. Top rope shoulder gets two. Awesome takes forever to set up the top rope splash, meaning it misses. Here's Storm for a quick beating but O'Haire comes out for the save. In the ring the Awesome Bomb doesn't work and there's some more interference from the seconds. Jungle (super) kick ends Awesome clean.

Rating: C+. Pretty fun match here with Awesome busting out all kind of crazy big man dives with Palumbo getting beaten down something fierce. Not a classic or anything but it adds to the tag title match. Not sure if I agree with the booking as it could have added more drama to the champions but whatever.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Scott Steiner/Jeff Jarrett

Hopefully this doesn't last long. Jeff and Scott say nothing of note to start regarding Dustin and Booker respectively. We cut to the back to see Animal going into Flair's dressing room and Flair is out cold, which was happening to most of his team at the time. This was never resolved. The bell is after the break and the announcers are way too happy about their boss being out cold. It's implied that Rick Steiner did it, as has been accused multiple times on other recent attacks.

Dustin starts with Jeff and hammers him into the corner. He loads up Shattered Dreams which is called the Dustbuster. I'll let you make your own jokes about a move involving an exposed groin being named after a suction device. Scott makes the save, allowing Jeff to hop out of the corner. Well why didn't he do that on his own? Either way it's off to world champion Scott Steiner who does pushups.

Scott puts him in the Tree of Woe and Jeff chokes him a bit. Off to Jeff who gets caught in a small package for no cover. Scott yells at some fans as this has been more or less one sided. Everything breaks down and Dustin gets a brief advantage, even hitting the bulldog for two. Scott lays him out with the pipe though and the Recliner ends this.

Rating: D+. Totally pointless match here as Dustin got beaten down. It's short too at maybe five minutes which is the shortest match of the night by a good margin. Dustin was rather boring on his own which is why the Goldust character was so impressive. The Rhodes vs. Flair stuff was totally stupid here though because no one cared about it at all other than “traditionalists” I guess.

Scott goes for the beatdown post match until Booker saves and says he'll win the title Monday.

Overall Rating: C+. This was a surprisingly entertaining show with some good Cruiserweight stuff. Again though the main problem is that we're done after this so the stories don't go anywhere. As usual the main event stuff is boring beyond belief and not very good while the undercard stuff with the younger guys is solid. In short, it's WCW 101 all over again.
 

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