Throwback Thursday: Looking back at WCW Greed

WCW Greed

Date: March 18, 2001

Venue: Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, Fla.

Some random notes

This was the first and only Greed from World Championship Wrestling, as this represented the promotion's last hurrah on pay-per-view.

As many of you may remember, WWE purchased WCW five days after this event on March 23. The final episode of Monday Nitro aired three days later on March 26, marking the official end of WCW.

Before all of that, WCW was preparing itself for at the very least a hard reset. That meant out with a lot of the veteran talent that brought great name value, but also brought expensive contracts.

In an effort to change the complexion of WCW, the promotion brought in younger, cheaper talent that had not yet been jaded by the bright lights of the business of professional wrestling.

Greed had a handful of those names on the card. In theory, WCW was doing the right thing, but it was also another indication of just how far WCW had fallen in a span of only a couple of years.

Names like Kwee Wee and Jason Jett were not names usually associated with WCW, but here they were in the opening contest of Greed. Another name that represented the young crop of talent WCW brought in was a guy by the name of AJ Styles. You might have heard of him.

There may have been some new faces in the ring, there were a pair of familiar ones at the announce desk, as Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson were on hand to call the matches.

On a recent edition of his podcast that was about this event, Schiavone said that he believed crowd noise was piped in during the event.

After watching the show, I tend to believe him.

With that said, let's get to the matches:

Jason Jett def. Kwee Wee

This was apparently an unannounced match, which I don't think I have ever seen in the opening bout of a pay-per-view, but that was the case when Jett took on Kwee Wee.

From an aesthetics standpoint, Jett and Kwee Wee looked odd. I can't find the words to describe Jett's ring attire and Kwee Wee's hair looked like he had just been electrocuted. It also didn't help that he wrestled in pink parachute pants.

Some of you may recognize Jett as EZ Money from the latter days of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Unfortunately, Jett holds the distinction of wrestling on the final pay-per-view of both WCW and ECW.

Despite their odd get-ups, Jett and Kwee Wee showed that they could go in the ring.

Wee attacked Jett before the bell rang, causing the match to begin outside of the ring. They eventually fought their way into the ring, which was where Kwee Wee would have fits of rage. The announcers described it as Kwee Wee becoming "Angry Allan."

Kwee Wee's real name is Allan Funk – no relation to Terry or Dory Funk.

There was a lot of innovative offense during this match. At one point, Jett attempted to power bomb Kwee Wee from the top rope, but Kwee Wee countered in mid air into a hurricanrana.

The ending came when Jett suckered Kwee Wee by playing possum. Jett followed that up by hitting a release suplex he called the crash landing for the win.

WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team championship – Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo def. Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman

One look at the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team titles and it was obvious that this division never had a chance to succeed. Those belts were absolutely hideous. Awful.

What wasn't awful was the athleticism that was showcased in this match from all four men. Skipper was probably the best athlete in the ring and would go on to a successful run with TNA Wrestling.

As good as he was, I have nothing good to say about that dance he did at the beginning of his entrance.

Kid Romeo's brief run in WCW was the highlight of his career, which is surprising considering how much talent he had.

As expected, the pace of this match was fast. It was actually too fast at some points because the action was hard to keep up with.

All four men spent a considerable amount of time in the ring, making it hard to keep track of whom the legal man was.

That didn't make the action any less riveting. Kidman especially stood out, as he delivered a sit-out power bomb to Skipper from the middle rope and later hit a shooting star press from the top rope to the outside of the ring onto Skipper and Romeo.

Despite all of that, Skipper and Romeo walked away victorious and were rewarded with a terrible pair of title belts.

Shawn Stasiak def. Bam Bam Bigelow

Stasiak, who had Stacy Keibler in his corner, had theme music that sounded like a knockoff version of Fatboy Slim's Right Here, Right Now.

Also, Stasiak's entrance reminded me of Ethan Carter III's for some reason.

The referees in WCW didn't care one bit about low blows, as there were a bunch of them during this show that the officials simply ignored. Stasiak and Bigelow traded low blows right in front of the official that went unchecked.

Bigelow hit a head butt from the top rope and seemingly had the match won, but Keibler made her way to the ring apron to distract Bigelow. Bigelow took the bait – who could blame him — and became occupied with her.

The referee turned his back to Keibler, as he was trying to get Bigelow to refocus on the match. That gave Keibler just enough time to toss Stasiak a spray bottle, which he used to spray Bigelow in the eyes before hitting a neck breaker to win the match.

Stasiak and Keibler shared a very awkward after the bell.

It is sad to think that this was Bigelow's last hurrah on a big stage in professional wrestling.

Lance Storm & Mike Awesome def. Konnan & Hugh Morrus

I would have loved to have seen Awesome and Storm have a real run as a tag team. I think that could have been a lot of fun.

Morrus wasn't in a fun-loving mood before the match and immediately ran to the ring to fight Awesome and Storm.

Konnan ran down to the ring soon after to even the odds.

The match was good, but nothing really to remember, which is weird considering all four men were very talented.

WCW Cruiserweight championship – Shane Helms def. Chavo Guerrero

WCW made the mistake of putting the wrong graphic up before the match. The graphic was supposed to say that the match was for the Cruiserweight title.

Instead, the graphic said that the match was for the Cruiserweight tag titles, which happened earlier in the show.

Helmes' entrance came complete with dancers doing a routine that fit perfect in 2001, as every music video that featured dancing at the time looked exactly like Helms' entrance. The dancers were apparently called Helms' Sugar Babies.

Helms backed up his entrance by having a good match with Guerrero. At one point, Helms hit a frog splash to a standing Guerrero outside of the ring.

Helms won the match by using the vertebreaker, which looked amazing but painful. Helms celebrated the victory with his Sugar Babies.

WCW World Tag Team championship – The Natural Born Thrillers def. Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell

Bagwell and Luger called themselves Totally Buffed, which was obviously a combination of Luger's nickname "The Total Package" and Bagwell's first name.

Too bad the promo Luger and Bagwell cut a before the match was totally boring.

The match itself was actually much shorter than the promo that no one in Jacksonville cared about.

Chuck Palumbo and O'Haire ran to the ring, quickly took it to Luger and Bagwell and finished them off with a pair of swanton bombs from O'Haire.

O'Haire and Palumbo pinned both Bagwell and Luger to retain the titles. I'm not even sure the bell even rang to begin the match, but that was it.

Ernest Miller def. Kanyon

Miller cut a babyface promo before the match. If there was one thing Miller could do very well it was talk.

On the flip side you had Kanyon, who as a decent talker in his own right, but his strong suit was definitely his work in the ring.

If I were to create a wrestler with Kanyon's athleticism and Miller's charisma, I think I'd have a big star on my hands.

The fight began outside of the ring, but eventually made its way inside of it.

Kanyon knocked down the referee and challenged Ms. Jones to get into the ring. Miller held Kanyon while Jones attempted to kick Kanyon, but Kanyon ducked out of the way, causing Jones to kick Miller instead.

Jones managed to fend off Kanyon with a kick to the head. Miller followed Jones' kick with a kick of his own to finally pick up the win.

Before Miller could cut a rug in the ring, Kanyon attacked him.

WCW United States championship – Booker T def. Rick Steiner

Here were another two wrestlers I was fond of, but the match was nothing to remember.

The only thing I remember was Shane Douglas hopping over the guardrail and hitting Rick Steiner in the back of the head with a cast he had on his arm. Booker T took advantage of the interference by hitting the bookend to win the United States title.

Booker T defeated the other Steiner brother, Scott, for the world title on the final episode of Nitro eight days later.

Dusty & Dustin Rhodes def. Ric Flair & Jeff Jarrett

The big stipulation of this match was that the loser had to kiss the winner's butt. Dusty Rhodes promised Flair would be doing the puckering at the end of the night and was so confident that he ordered and devoured 40 burritos so that his butt could be as smelly as possible when Flair get ready to kiss it.

Schiavone said on his podcast that Dusty was known for his flatulence, which at times could be downright offensive.

At this point in WCW, Flair was the chief executive officer of company in storyline and was your typical heel authority figure.

For some reason, he ran around with Jarrett and Road Warrior Animal, who donned his iconic face paint despite being in plain clothes. It was an odd combination.

I guess Flair wanted to match Animal because he showed up the match in plain clothes as well. Instead of his usual ring attire, Flair showed up in a Tommy Bahama shirt and slacks.

Flair got on the microphone and said that he wasn't dressed to wrestle so he wasn't going to and that Jarrett would beat them both by himself.

Flair inexplicably changed his mind moments later and wrestled the entire match.

Hudson mentioned something before the match raised my eyebrows. Apparently, WCW Greed was the first time Flair and Rhodes were on opposite sides of the ring on pay-per-view. Yes, Flair and Rhodes headlined Starrcade multiple times during the 1980s, but those were not pay-per-views.

How crazy is that to think about?

As for the match itself, it mostly consisted of Flair and Jarrett isolating Dustin Rhodes until he made his way over to his father to tag him. Dusty Rhodes stepped into the ring and saw a familiar foe standing across from it in Flair.

The crowd came alive for this. There was no need to pipe in any noise for this moment and Rhodes and Flair milked it for everything it was worth.

Eventually, Dustin Rhodes got back into the match and was isolated yet again by Flair and Jarrett.

That forced Dustin to make the hot tag to his father, who jumped into the ring and got funky like a monkey and made Jarrett and Flair flip, flop and fly.

Flair and Jarrett managed to halt the Dusty's momentum and attempted to lock in double figure fours, but Dusty and Dustin countered, which led to Dustin rolling up Flair for the pin.

Since Flair and Jarrett lost, that meant one of them had to pucker up and kiss Dusty's big white butt. Those were Dusty's words, not mine.

Dustin held down Jarrett in one of the corners, which gave Rhodes time to pull down his pants to reveal a large pair of red briefs. Dusty sauntered over to Jarrett and gave him the stink face a la Rikishi.

According to Schiavone, Dusty never wore underwear, but thankfully decided to do so on this night.

WCW World Heavyweight championship (Falls count anywhere) – Scott Steiner def. Diamond Dallas Page

WCW was on death's door, but still found money in the budget to pay the obscenely expensive Michael Buffer to do the ring announcing.

After Buffer did his thing, Page and Steiner got fighting all over the arena.

At one point, Steiner grabbed a crutch from a fan, whom could not have look more like a plant, and bashed Page with it. The same fan tossed Page his other crutch and walked away, as if he never needed crutches. I guess it was a miracle!

Page took that crutch bashed Scott Steiner with it. Steiner and Page fought their way back to ringside, which was when Steiner grabbed a sign from a fan in the front row. That fan was a young Paul London.

Page and Scott Steiner eventually got back into the ring and created some pretty exciting action. Page hit the diamond cutter, but Rick Steiner pulled the referee out of the ring before he could count to three.

Page took out Rick Steiner and dragged the referee back into the ring. Page rolled up Scott Steiner, but when the champion kicked out, Page fell on top of the referee.

Scott Steiner then hit Page with the world title, causing the challenger to bleed all over the place. Scott Steiner attempted to pin Page, but Page kicked out.

Scott Steiner then put Page in the Steiner recliner, but Page fought his way out of it. Scott Steiner was done messing around by this point and picked up a lead pipe and pummeled Page with it.

Scott Steiner locked in the Steiner recliner again, which caused Page to pass out and end the match.

Vaughn Johnson has a podcast with Nick Piccone called the Straight Shooters on WildfireRadio.com. Check it out here HERE.