Hello everyone, Bergs back once again with the return of the Classic PPV review. This time I take a look at WCW Greed 2001 which just so happens to be WCWs final PPV ever. Here are my ratings for each match and some of my thoughts on them.
WCW Greed 2001
Kwee-Wee vs. Jason Jett - ***½
This was a solid opener to the get the PPV Started. Now I'm not familiar with either of these two but I did enjoy what I saw including one of the biggest spots of the match being a top rope powerbomb from Jett getting countered mid-air into a Hurricanrana by Kwee-Wee. One gripe I do have about this match is that at two seperate points Jett hit a low blow onto Kwee-Wee right in front of the Ref and neither were called, But tbh thats just typical WCW Lmao so it didn't bring it down too much.
Finals of the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship Tournament: Prime Time & Kid Romeo vs. Rey Misterio & Kidman - ***½
Another Great match to open the show and a great way to Pump the crowd up further as the Show goes on. Rey & Romeo both looked like stars in the making in this match but it seems only Rey really made it out with anything when he eventually got signed to WWE while Romeo kinda fizzled out following WCWs Closure only appearing on the Independent Circuit. Easily one of my Favorite matches of the night and it's a shame WCW went out of business cause they really could of built the division around these four guys.
Shawn Stasiak w/ Stacy Keibler vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - ½*
Not much to say about this match to be honest, Just a generic hoss fight that didn't really get going. I will say I did like Stasiaks heel schtick but beyond that there wasn't anything to really highlight from this match.
Oh and before I move on I'm gonna start a low blow counter as there were two more low blows that weren't called by the Ref. One by Bigelow the other by Stasiak
Low Blows in front of the Ref Counter: 4
Team Canada (Lance Storm & Mike Awesome) vs. Team American (Konan & Hugh Morrus) - *½
This match was alright but rather slow for most of it, The Crowd really wasn't that into it for the most part and it showed. Not much else to say about it really.
WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match: Chavo Guerrero Jr. (c) vs. Sugar Shane Helms - ****
Another good Cruiserweight match with this one being more techical based with some high flying sprinkled in. Some good moments between the two as Both guys looked really good in this match.
WCW Tag Team Championship Match: Natural Born Thrillers (O'Haire & Palumbo) (c) vs. Totally Buffed (Luger & Bagwell) - DUD
SQUASH! Natural Born Thrillers utterly squash Totally Buffed in less than a minute. Thats it.
Kanyon vs. Ernest "The Cat" Miller w/ Miss Jones - *¾
Another alright match here with the Story of the match being Kanyon going after Millers valet Miss Jones, Eventually it costs him after he knocks out the ref on purpose to get Jones in the ring only for Miller to take him down for the win. It sucks that WCW went out of Business cause I feel like Kanyon could of been a solid mid/uppercarder had it kept going but alas it was not meant to be as once he got signed by WWE it all went down hill from there.
WCW United States Championship Match: Rick Steiner (c) vs. Booker T - **¼
A solid match from these two with some good action. Rick was talking trash throughout the whole match to both Booker and the fans which I thought was pretty funny. Booker was also pretty over with the fans during this match but there were a few people on Ricks side as well. Shane Douglas makes an appearance during this match costing Rick Steiner both the match and the Title as Booker T wins and will soon unknowingly go on to the final Nitro to face off against the winner of the Main Event. Once again we see a Blatant low blow during the match from Rick Steiner onto Booker right in front of the Referee but unlike before the Ref actually acknowledges it and states that he'll DQ Rick if he does it again before Rick threatens him which is atleast better than the other 4 seen earlier where the Ref didn't even say or do anything about it.
And speaking of - Low Blows in front of the Ref Counter: 5
Losing Team has to kiss the Winning Teams Asses: Jeff Jarrett & Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes - **½
This was a really fun match to watch just for the Story of Ric Flair & Dusty Rhodes going at it. The Crowd would light up everytime those two got into the ring and fought with eachother which was really awesome. The wrestling may not have been the outright best but that doesn't matter in this situation in my opinion as this match was all about the story. Definitely a match to watch if you know the story of both men and are a fan of either of them.
Also gotta add to the counter once again - Low Blows in front of the Ref Counter: 6
WCW Championship Pinfalls Count Anywhere Match: Scott Steiner w/ Madajah (c) vs. Diamond Dallas Page - ***¼
Scott was hilarious in the match with his trash talk to both the fans and the Ref. This was a war as both men bled at some point, DDP bleeding the most at the end after getting cracked in the head with the WCW Championship. Scott managed to hold onto his Title following interference from his brother Rick as well as some help from his valet Madajah. In my opinion this was the Match of the night but I'd say the Chavo/Helms match was pretty close. As we all know Scott would go on to lost the belt to Booker T on the final Nitro. Scott wouldn't appear on US Wrestling TV again until he signed with WWE in Late 2002 while DDP would join WWE as part of the InVasion angle to feud with The Undertaker, And we all know how that went.
And even though it was Falls count anywhere it still seems like DQ was still in affect on the inside of the ring as there was distractions for Interference and what not, Idk WCW is weird. Anyways for the last time in the show the Counter will go up - Low Blows in front of the Ref Counter: 7
My Final Grade for WCW Greed is a C+, I enjoyed most of the matches overall as they were good to great however a few of them were meh to crap but this show was not nearly as bad as Bash at the Beach 99. My Favorite match of the show was the Cruiserweight Tag Team Match between Kidman/Misterio and Romeo/Prime Time, Other matches I really liked was of course the Main event match Scott Steiner vs. DDP as well as Chavo vs. Sugar Shane and Kwee-Wee vs. Jason Jett. Overally some great wrestling during the Cruiserweight matches while Steiner/DDP was hard hitting fun. And like I said above I really enjoyed Dusty/Dustin vs. Flair/Jarrett. More so due to the story than anything as well as the Crowd going nuts seeing Flair and Dusty back in the ring against eachother. It's a Solid show overall in my opinion and it sucks that this was the last time WCW ever did a PPV.
Now as for my thoughts on WCW as a whole
I feel like there was a foundation here for the future of WCW had they not lost the TV Deals. Had the Bischoff sale gone through and they were able to keep their TV Deals I feel like WCW was atleast gonna be in some form rebuilt over the coming year. But in the end it was both there failure to create new stars and reliance on old ones as well as horrible creative decisions that cost them big time during the Monday Night Wars. It's definitely a what could of been during the final days of WCW and it's a shame really. Once WCW fell it was a real end of an era for Wrestling and theres no telling how WWE would of handled WCW surviving past this point. I for one would of liked to see or hear about how it would of gone down.
And before I forget - Final Total for Low Blows in front of the Ref: 7
Anyways that concludes my review of WCW Greed 2001
