WCW Thunder - Monday, Week 4, September 2001

12,000 in attendance at The MARK of the Quad Cities in Moline, IL.

Commentary by Mike Tenay and Jim Ross.

This week on Thunder: Chris Jericho meets Scott Steiner in the main event, Steve Corino has a special announcement, and the Blackjack Classic rushes to its conclusion this Sunday!

(If you're wondering where Week 3 is, that was the 9/11 episode - and I'm not writing that one out. You haven't missed anything that I'm not explaining in this one.)

1. Blackjack Classic 2001 Quarter-Final: In a hot start to the night, Konnan defeated Jeff Hardy in 9:36 after hitting the Splash Mountain. Konnan will meet Glenn Gilbertti in the semi-finals. (83)

2. Diamond Dallas Page & Simon Diamond defeated Mach Speed (Billy Kidman & Shane Helms) in 5:57 after a brief bit of chaos led to DDP hitting the Diamond Cutter on Billy Kidman while Simon was the legal man, allowing Simon to get the pin. When Kidman & Helms were announced, Kidman was visibly unsure about the name. (73)

3. Chris Jericho and Hector Garza run into each other backstage after their match of the year candidate last week. Jericho says Garza earned his respect last week, and though it seems like Garza might ignore him, the two shake hands. (68)

4. Blackjack Classic 2001 Quarter-Final: Mark Henry defeated Kenta Kobashi in 5:50 with the Death from Above to advance to the semi-finals against either Rob Van Dam or Kanyon. (77)

5. Steve Corino is in the ring. He says that he has his ninth defense of the WCW Television championship tonight, but it's a lot more important than anyone knows. He's been talking to Eric Bischoff over the past couple weeks, and they worked out the perfect way to reward him for his reign. Corino says that it's not just hold the title or lose it anymore - there's an Option C. Any TV champion who gets ten defenses (which, Corino notes, he just so happens to be very close) will have the opportunity to vacate the championship and earn a shot at the WCW World Heavyweight title. He says that Bischoff had a great addition - if you get ten defenses and reject your title match, you can't just get it at any time, you have to get another ten defenses in order to vacate. Corino says that he's not worrying about that, though. Him and Bischoff found a special arrangement to ring in the new idea: after Corino beats his challenger tonight, he's going to defend again at SuperBrawl - and if he wins there, he's going to challenge Chris Jericho later that night! (79)

6. In his in-ring return, The Barbarian (w/ Jimmy Hart) squashed local talent Scott Lost in 1:11 with the Kick of Fear. (44)

7. Backstage, Dean Malenko is on a wall phone. He seems to be on the phone with Fit Finlay, who has been absent for some time. Malenko says that he doesn't trust DiBiase anymore, and when Finlay comes back, they've got to stay on their guard. (65)

8. Blackjack Classic 2001 Quarter-Final: Rob Van Dam defeated Kanyon 10:56 into a fantastic match after hitting the Five Star Frog Splash. RVD will face Mark Henry later tonight in the semi-finals. (88)

9. Commentary confirm two matches for SuperBrawl this Sunday - Chris Benoit asked for and was granted a match against Adam Castle, and Juventud Guerrera and Mr. Aguila will take on The Machines. (62)

10. Vampiro defeated Flying Kid Ichihara in 6:03 after hitting the Nail in the Coffin and spraying blood mist into Ichihara's eyes before he covered him. (67)

11. A vignette airs for the supermodel duo of Milano Collection AT and Vittoria Valentine. Valentine accompanies Milano while he styles a suit on a runway, which just so happens to lead to a wrestling ring. In the ring, Milano dramatically takes off his suit and locks some poor guy into multiple increasingly elaborate submission holds, with the dude tapping out every single time. Milano Collection AT, coming soon. (44)

12. D'Lo Brown comes out for his match against Ricky Steamboat - if D'Lo wins, he will qualify for a match against Tajiri at SuperBrawl for the US title. However, when Steamboat comes to the ring, he's in street clothes. In the ring, Steamboat motions for a microphone and starts to speak. He says that when he returned to WCW, he wasn't looking to prove anything - he just wanted to do what he loved again. Steamboat says he doesn't want to be the guy who stands in the way of the younger wrestlers, and he's glad he deserves the spot, but he doesn't want to be the 'measuring stick' - he just wants to be the Dragon. Steamboat asks for the bell to ring, hands the microphone off, and lays down. D'Lo looks frustrated, but he's unwilling to give up the opportunity and pins for the victory! Steamboat bows to D'Lo and walks up the ramp. When he gets to the stage, Nova attacks him! Nova beats Steamboat down and says that if D'Lo gets his rematch so easily - so should Nova. Bischoff comes out and agrees - Tajiri vs. D'Lo vs. Nova at SuperBrawl! (76)

13. WCW World Television Championship: Steve Corino defeated BG James in 7:23 with an Old School Expulsion to make his ninth defense of the WCW World Television title in a great match. (88)

14. Jake Roberts announces that his plans are all coming together - Keiji Mutoh will face Power Warrior at SuperBrawl. He cuts a promo explaining how this works, but I'm tired and my head hurts, so I don't feel like writing it. Shut up. (83)

15. Jeremy Borash interviews Mark Henry about the Blackjack Classic. Henry says that back in the day he represented the United States in all the bodybuilding competitions that made him the World's Strongest Man. Now more than ever, he wants to represent this great nation one more time. Henry says he's gonna win the Blackjack Classic and go on to win the WCW championship for everyone out there. He says he's gonna make sure everybody knows what American strength looks like! (71)

16. Blackjack Classic 2001 Semi-Finals: Konnan defeated Glenn Gilbertti in 6:26 with a Tequila Sunrise. During the match, both Killings and Big T tried to interfere to help Gilbertti win, but Konnan was able to avoid and outsmart them both to advance to the finals. (82)

17. Blackjack Classic 2001 Semi-Finals: Mark Henry defeated Rob Van Dam in 6:11 with the Death From Above to advance to the finals. It was clear that RVD's match against Kanyon earlier in the night left him significantly more gassed than Henry was, giving Henry a significant advantage. The two also had fantastic chemistry, leading to a great match. (89)

18. Randy Savage comes to the ring and calls out Steve Austin. Savage says that Austin is teaming with Dwayne Johnson this Sunday, so he wanted to warn him about what that's like. Savage says you can never trust Dwayne. Austin says he knows, calls Savage a dumb sumbitch, and then stuns him. This makes Savage look like a geek as I've written it but I promise there's more to this. I just don't feel well. (100)

19. Scott Steiner defeated Chris Jericho in a non-title main event after 11:22. The match ended when Steiner tried to attack Jericho with the pipe and Hector Garza attacked Steiner to stop him - inadvertently costing Jericho the match. Dwayne Johnson was also on commentary for this one. (80)