WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MONDAY WITH TONY SCHIAVONE & CONRAD THOMPSON
Episode 17: Slamboree 2000
Release Date: June 5, 2017
Recap by: Dominic DeAngelo
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Top Newsworthy Items:
-The main event finish and how it relates to Owen Hart one year earlier
-David Arquette as WCW Champion
-Curt Hennig ribs Bischoff
-Who may have tried to get Tony out of the commentary team?
Subjects covered (with timestamps)
(4:50) Creep recap
(8:50) Wrestling Observer’s Slamboree overview
(16:35) David Arquette wins the WCW World Title
(20:00) Chris Candido vs. Prince Iaukea
(24:54) Conrad has a conspiracy theory
(33:30) Terry Funk vs. Norman Smiley & Ralphus
(39:45) Shawn Stasiak vs. Curt Hennig
(43:00) Hugh G. Rection vs. Scott Steiner
(49:00) Mike Awesome vs. Chris Kanyon
(51:47) Lex Luger vs. Buff Bagwell
(57:25) Shane Douglas vs. Ric Flair
(1:06:00) Sting vs. Vampiro
(1:08:30) Hulk Hogan vs. Billy Kidman
(1:15:00) Jeff Jarrett vs. David Arquette vs. DDP
(1:30:00) Email Q&A
(1:42:55) Poll Topics
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
(4:50) Conrad brings up last week’s story Tony told about the creep that harassed him online during the 1999 Mayhem event. The creep is currently back online, and Tony says he doesn’t want to do anything to give him relevance, so he feels it’s of no value in discussing him anymore.
(8:50) Slamboree took place in Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO (something of note later). They hit the reset button on WCW. Conrad brings up the ridiculousness of calling blood “red.” Vampiro is prominent in the company, Tank Abbott’s in the promotion, David Arquette is around promoting the movie. Lots of stuff going on. Everything is more “shock and awe” than storyline driven. When WCW was hot, those surprises each and every week are what made everything exciting, but in 2000 they were running out of ideas. Kidman’s working an angle with Hogan, who’s wearing a vest that says “F.U.N.B.”, and much more crazy stuff going on. Meltzer considered Slamboree the best booked and best-worked show since 1999 Spring Stampede. It was a substantial money loser for live events.
(16:35) David Arquette wins the WCW World Title on Thunder 10 days before Slamboree with booking portraying it as a happy accident. He acts as the reluctant champion, knowing he has no place as the title holder. Conrad mentions that he thinks Arquette got a bad rap considering he was actually a wrestling fan and donated all of his wrestling earnings to the families of deceased wrestlers. Tony says that Arquette got a terrible rap, the World Title was silly sh*t, and to be honest the whole company at the time was silly sh*t. The whole WCW Title thing is a work – the belt has never been a real thing. He loves all the champions but if you look at it from that angle (that everything was silly and that it was all a work) then it makes sense. Tony’s getting a little fired up at this.
(20:00) Chris Candido vs. Prince Iaukea. Meltzer says the match wasn’t good, but Candido did his best. Big mishap with a missed pinning spot. 2 1/2 stars. Tony says it dealt with two inexperienced people (Iaukea & Tammy Sytch) being expected to pull off something that experienced performers could do. What does Tony think of Mark Madden’s risque commentary? Tony loved his commentary and think that he, Madden, and Scott Hudson all liked each other off-air and it shined through on the fun they had doing commentary for this show. Conrad enjoyed this match. He feels Candido never got a fair shot. How can Tony address Sunny’s rough tenure in WCW? Tony never saw her drugged out and she was always nice and friendly. It’s just known that she had drug problems and one incident in the ladies’ bathroom.
(24:54) Conrad has a conspiracy theory: he feels there was a lot of rumors regarding Bischoff, DDP and Kimberly doing a little “swappage” (they are totally unfounded). Tammy is let go because of drugs founded by Kimberly, Bischoff sends them both home and both are upset. The return after “Tammy gets clean.” Bischoff still sends Tammy out of the company. Conrad is curious if Kimberly sabotaged Tammy. Maybe a kernel of it was true, Kimberly had heat, Tammy wasn’t liked by the locker room so it could make sense.
(33:30) Terry Funk vs. Norman Smiley & Ralphus. “It was perversely entertaining,” says Meltzer. Both Conrad and Tony agree. Conrad recommends going back and watching this match. He can’t help but praise Norman Smiley. Still some hardcore sports with ladders and bloodshed. Ralphus moons the crowd too. Funk wins with a schoolboy. Tony kept thinking Ralphus was gonna die since he wasn’t a wrestler. He’s taking bumps from Terry Funk. Tony loved his and Scott Hudson’s commentary for this match.
(39:45) Shawn Stasiak vs. Curt Hennig. Stasiak won clean after 8 minutes. Meltzer gave it 1 star. Tony thinks Stasiak didn’t have the personality or charisma to get over, but Hennig had all that. Why not have Curt win? Around 38 minutes into the show, something happens backstage: Bischoff brought everybody out to show a gimmicked part of the stage where Kanyon was going to fall into. Bischoff told everyone to not take any bumps there. In that match, Hennig picks up Stasiak to throw him through the gimmick, just to scare the crap out of Bischoff. Total rib.
(43:00) Hugh G. Rection vs. Scott Steiner. 2 ¼ stars. Finish botched badly. Booker T cleaned house after end. Sh*tty finish, says Tony. It was a job guy match to further the angle between Steiner and Booker T. He kept thinking “what the f*ck is Van Hammer doing back here?” Conrad says he had to be doing something with that “Van Hammer.”
(49:00) Mike Awesome vs. Chris Kanyon. No contest. Goes about 10 minutes. There was a fight in the crowd. Does Tony remember? He couldn’t watch that and had to focus on the match. What does he think of Mike Awesome? Conrad was a big fan. Tony thought he was very, very good as well, but Chris Kanyon was indeed the “Innovator of Offense.” He agrees that this was the match of the night. 3 ¼ stars.
(51:47) Lex Luger vs. Buff Bagwell. 9 ½ minutes. Luger wins. Meltzer comments that Lex looks old at 42. Chuck Palumbo interferes after and puts Luger in the rack. Tony says Luger looks old, partially because of Stasiak’s and Steiner’s physiques. Comparisons hurt him here. Chuck had the kiss of death since they mentioned he was on Saturday Night and Worldwide. Tony has no favorite Chuck Palumbo match. He looked good, but he didn’t look tremendous.
(57:25) Shane Douglas vs. Ric Flair. Douglas wins in 8:46 against Flair in street clothes. It looked like Flair didn’t give a damn about the match. Good mic work that was funny, but no wrestling gear was disconcerting. Meltzer says it was a good match. Fans were really into it. The best Douglas has looked in years. There was no excitement for Tony except for the fact of Flair & Douglas’ abilities. David Flair interferes and Tony says Daffney was beautiful. Clusterf*ck of an angle overall. Nutshot crazy in that match. Not many people knew their “indy” feud.
(1:06:00) Sting vs. Vampiro. 6:49. Sting worked really hard in this match. Pins Vampiro. 2 ½ stars. Conrad appreciates the Undertaker like-stuff, but seems a little hokey. Tony says Vampiro looked best under Russo. Reason it looked hokey was because WCW was a cheap knock-off of WWE.
(1:08:30) Hulk Hogan vs. Billy Kidman. Hogan wins. He took an impressive hurricanrana, but lots of chicanery by Kidman and Bischoff. Meltzer gives it 2 ½ stars. Tony thought the fans were into it. He agrees that it looked out of place (Hogan vs. Kidman). Hogan agreed to work with Kidman and to put more shine on Kidman. Hogan was old school and it was a big deal for him to put Kidman over.
(1:15:00) Jeff Jarrett vs. David Arquette vs. DDP. Jarrett wins in 15:30. Klondike Bill probably had a hand in building the cage. Conrad says this match feels uber dangerous walking on the top of the first cage. Tony remembers thinking that “this is f*cking nuts.” A part of the cage fell over. What else could collapse? Tony did think the fans were into it, but Conrad didn’t like the whole thing, especially for the fact that Owen Hart died in that same arena earlier. Arquette turns heel. Kanyon gets thrown off the top of the cage by Mike Awesome. It’s such an unnecessary take on things. Tony regrets being a part of it. He’d like to think that Russo and Bischoff didn’t think of Owen during that, but how couldn’t you? 3 ¼ stars. DDP & Jeff Jarrett can put on a good match.
(1:27:30) Buff Bagwell’s kissy face on the Slamboree poster is the reason no one bought this PPV. Tony thinks Buff has a nice smile. You gotta ask the marketing department about that. Conrad finds it fascinating that Western Union sponsored Slamboree.
(1:30:00) Email Q&A: It was Vince Russo’s idea to have Kanyon thrown off the cage. Ralphus would do anything WCW asked of him (and a legit ugly f*cker too). Tony doesn’t know if Hogan or Kidman really hated each other. IT wasn’t awkward at all between Flair & Shane Douglas (a lot of this is a work). Russo had more authority than Bischoff at this time. Heenan was fired by WCW and Tony let Scott Hudson talk as much as he wanted. Tony gives Buff posters to the Girl Scouts when they sell their cookies. Tony hated the new WCW logo, but understood why they did it. It sucked. Booking committee decided on the commentary team, who Tony had heat with. He took his kids to the MLB All-Star Game this year, and Craig Leathers called to tell him that Tony was being considered to be removed from commentary. Russo told him not to worry about it. He thinks that the person who was trying to move Tony out was Terry Taylor.
(1:42:55) Poll Topics: WCW Sin 2001, WCW Super Brawl Revenge (Tony doesn’t remember a damn thing about this show), WCW Greed 2001
Score and review (8.5)
Same number as WCW Mayhem 1999. There really isn’t a whole lot of newsworthy tidbits worth writing home about, but Tony and Conrad are just flat-out hilarious. The Curt Hennig rib story was one of the best stories I’ve heard so far doing this recap and Conrad has some A+ zingers this episode. Always a great listen week after week.
About the Author
Dominic DeAngelo has a weekly column on PWTorch.com, “Rising Star, Fading Star” and runs a sports, entertainment and lifestyle blog in the Pittsburgh area called The Keystone Statement. In addition, he writes book reviews for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His wrestling top three are Scott Hall, Bret Hart & Bruno Sammartino. Follow him on Twitter @DominicDeAngelo and visit his site www.keystonestatement.com for good articles and the two podcasts he hosts, “The Keystone Cast” & “Here Comes Everybody”
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