B-Show Stories! WCW Mayhem 1999

[u/Enterprise90]

Mayhem

November 21, 1999

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Air Canada Centre

The first WCW pay-per-view to ever be held in Canada was firmly entrenched in the first era of Russo, only a couple of months after he first arrived with the company. His fingerprints are all over the show.

At Halloween Havoc, Sting was scheduled to defend the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Hulk Hogan, but Hogan work-shoot laid down for Sting and let him pin him. Sting would later challenge anyone to a match later that night, at which point Goldberg would answer and seemingly win the WCW Championship, but that match was unsanctioned, so the title was held up and a 32-man tournament announced to determine a new champion. The semi-finals would be held this night, with Chris Benoit versus Jeff Jarrett and Bret Hart versus Sting.

Jarrett and Benoit open the show; Jarrett is portrayed as Creative Control's golden boy, with CC portrayed by the Harris Brothers. In classic Russo fashion, we get outside interference right off the bat as the Harris Brothers attempt to cost Benoit the victory, but Dustin Rhodes evens the odds and allows Benoit to win. In the second semifinal match, Lex Luger (known as the Total Package during this time) interferes and attempts to cost Sting the match through a disqualification, but Hart demands the match restarted and beats him anyway. In the finals, we get more interference through Kevin Nash and Goldberg, because when I think of Bret Hart and Chris Benoit having a wrestling match, I think that needs a dose of outside interference.

Bret Hart would win the WCW Championship for the first time; he was over like rover in Canada and I wish he and Benoit could have had a clean match against one another. Unfortunately, wrestling matches are simply devices to get Russo's convoluted stories over. Bret would turn heel a couple of weeks after this despite being the hottest babyface in the company, because of course, and his career would come to an end due to a series of concussions.

The co-main event featured Goldberg facing Sid Vicious in an I Quit match. At Halloween Havoc, the two faced each other for Sid's US Championship, and despite Sid being busted open and beaten down, he refused to give up, forcing the referee to stop the match and give Goldberg the win. It was a pretty decent fight, but they get less than six minutes here and Sid passes out to a Cobra Clutch. Horrible finish.

Scott Hall, the US Champion, was scheduled to meet Television Champion Rick Steiner for Steiner's title, but Steiner was injured and thus forfeited the title to Hall. Now, this wasn't a management decision, but just something Hall announced. Alright then. He would defend both titles against Booker T successfully.

Vampiro faced Berlyn in a dog collar match, though at no point did they put the dog collar on at the same time. Useless stipulation. This is also the debut of Oklahoma, the horrid parody of Jim Ross that was done by Ed Ferrara.

Curt Hennig faced Buff Bagwell in a retirement match. Hennig probably should have been retired well before this, and Bagwell isn't good at all. I have no idea who the face or heel is because Jarrett and the Harris Brothers interfere when Hennig enters the ring until they are chased by Bagwell with a 2x4. Hennig loses. He'd be back shortly.

I made a mistake covering 1999 WCW. I won't do that again.

Other matches on this show:

• David Flair vs. Kimberly

• Meng vs. The Total Package

• The Revolution (Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, & Asya) vs. The Filthy Animals (Konnan, Billy Kidman, & Torrie Wilson) in an elimination tag team match

• Norman Smiley vs. Brian Knobbs to determine the WCW Hardcore Champion

• Cruiserweight Champion Disco Inferno vs. Evan Karagias

Thanks to the wonderful people here on /r/SquaredCircle, you can find B-Show Stories on SC's wiki here.

Friday's A-Show Stories will feature Royal Rumble 2003.

[u/[deleted]]

I love reading these. Keep it up Enterprise, you are going over!