NXT’s TakeOver: WarGames is set to take place on Saturday.
So, let’s look back on a specific edition of WCW’s Monday Night Nitro, in which Vince Russo announced that WarGames: 2000 would be taking place. This particular match went on to be the last of its kind until NXT revived the match and reminded fans what is was all about in 2017.
We were about the witness ‘Russo’s Revenge’.
It was September 4, 2000. Russo was calling the shots and decided to give this match a very selfless moniker. I’m kidding and I’m sure your already aware.
The WCW World Heavyweight Champion at the time was none other than Kevin Nash. Nash led his team of Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner and The Harris Brother into battle against the team of Booker T, Goldberg, Kronik and Sting. What a lineup.
Before the match began, Booker, Kronik and Sting were backstage being interviewed. The best [art of this interview was Sting. If anybody knows me, they’ll know how much of a Sting fan I was growing up. Sting was so vibrant and full of adrenaline that this interview inadvertently became all about him. Sting had a word of warning for his opponents – ‘It’s Showtime Folks!’
Now, this match was pretty interesting and I’m specifically talking about that layout. There were three cages atop each other and the WCW Championship belt was hanging inside if the third cage. Participants would enter the match at a two-minute interval. Jeff Jarrett and Sting were the first two men to make their ways to the ring. Sting started off the match strong, bringing the fight to Jarrett and even using the cage itself as a weapon.
Sting continued to wear out Jarrett and just like that, the two-minute interval had passed and Scott Steiner made a bee-line for the ring. Sting was outnumbered already and he knew it. Steiner and Jarrett teamed up and proceeded to attack Sting with a ladder as he was trying to muster up enough energy to climb up towards the second cage. Steiner and Jarrett lived up to the typical ‘heel’ nature for quite a while.
The question was would Sting be able to regain momentum and somehow control the narrative in this match. What happened next was quite helpful to the Stinger. Kronik (who were the team of Bryan Adams and Brian Clarke) both made their way to the ring. I guess WCW’s logical was that there was one unit. In any case, Sting was no longer alone to suffer at the hands of Steiner and Jarrett. However, whilst Kronic were taking their time getting to the ring, Steiner, had already made his way to the second cell. Personally, this match was already great. It was weird and it was wonderful.
What more could you ask for within the confines of professional wrestling? Perhaps, continuity, we’ll get into that at a later date. Just when I was thinking to myself that ‘this is a pretty damn good match and it really stands up in 2020’, Russo came out. Now, I‘ve got no problems with Russo’s character, I just hated how obnoxious he came across. Russo strutted down the ramp with a hockey helmet on.
At this point, they could have called the match off and I would have been fine with it. The views that followed Russo’s arrival were actually pretty outstanding. You had Sting and Jarrett going at it in the ring and Steiner getting pummelled by Kronic in the second cage.
Later in the match, we got to see Sting hit the ‘Big-Splash’ on Russo followed by ‘The Scorpion Leg-Lock. As dominate as Sting was coming across, there was absolute carnage in the cage above. The plot really thickened however as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Kevin Nash made his presence felt. Nash came to the aid of Russo but quickly grabbed his by the throat instead. Nash’ team seemed to crumble right before our eyes as Nash went on to grab all of his opponents by the neck, striking fear into them all. This was such a great moment in this match.
The fact that the captain and current World Champion did not feel like he heads a fluid and trustworthy team really told the story that Nash was just going to go out swinging. That was great. Booker T aka ‘Mr. WCW’ in my eyes, made his way down to the ring and ignited the crowd on his way. The last man to enter the match was Goldberg.
Goldberg single handily took out the vast majority of the bodies inside the ring. That was until he was struck with a baseball bat and subsequently handcuffed to the cage. Booker T was the smart one, he seemed to sidestep everybody and had scaled atop the third cage and was fingertips away from the Championship. Booker grabbed the gold but that didn’t mean he won the match. Ridiculous.
If Booker wanted to win, he had to make he way back down to the bottom and escape the cage(s). While Booker was trying to make his way down, we discovered that Sting had been handcuffed to the second cage! There was definitely a theme in this match. As if by magic, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship ‘fell’ all the way down to the ring where we had Vince Russo who was taunted a handcuffed Goldberg. Something happened to me when I was watching this 20 years ago and the same thing happened today.
Russo proudly danced around with the WCW World Champion and I had a wave of dread overpower me. Could Vince Russo really become the WCW World Heavyweight Champion? In the nick of time, Ernest ‘The Cat’ Miller, interfered in this match and kicked Russo upside the head, knocking him out! Nash followed up with his signature Power-Bomb to ‘The Cat’ before turning around to taunt Bill Goldberg. Goldberg transitioned into beast-mode and ripped the handcuffs off because that’s what Goldberg does. Up to this point, this has been a great match that ticked all of the boxes that a wrestling fan could have.
1) The bad buys gain an early advantage via number game over the fan favourite.
2) The dream ensues when the ‘Unstoppable’ Goldberg gets handcuffed to the cage.
3) The good guys redeem themselves by defying that odds and at times defying logic.
4) Plot twist (wait for it). Bill Goldberg literally broke cold steel, as the announcers told us, building the hype that surrounded this man.
Once again, Russo got involved and got levelled by Goldberg who then sauntered confidently towards the outside to become the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Just when you think the babyface has gone and done it, beat the bad guys, a casual clothed Bret Hart slammed the cage door in Goldberg’s face, allowed the Champion, Nash to retain the most prestigious prize that WCW had to offer…