WCW Thunder - Monday, Week 4, October 2001

 

12,414 in attendance at the Cox Arena in San Diego, CA.

Commentary by Mike Tenay, Jim Ross, and Christian Cage.

This week on Thunder: The show opens hot as Chris Jericho & Mark Henry team up before their match Sunday to face the Men of War, Ric Flair continues his tune-up match tour, Eric Bischoff responds to Steve Corino's demands, and Curt Hennig defends the TV title against Sting in a major main event. Catch all this and more below the break!

1. Men of War (Sean O'Haire & Mark Jindrak) defeat Chris Jericho & Mark Henry in 11:46, after O'Haire was able to hit Henry with the Seanton Bomb following a mistimed attack from Chris Jericho that accidentally hit his partner. (81)

2. Keiji Mutoh defeated Juventud Guerrera in 6:53 with a Figure-Four Leglock. Commentary noted the presence of Jake Roberts at ringside ahead of Mutoh's cage match against Mike Awesome at Halloween Havoc. (85)

3. Backstage, Chris Jericho and Mark Henry are frustrated after the tag team match earlier in the night. They begin to argue with each other, and eventually Jericho slaps Henry. After a tense moment, Henry grabs Jericho and throws him into the lockers before storming off. (78)

4. Barry Windham defeated Scott Hall in 8:05 by disqualification after Bobby Heenan's masked security guards interfered and attacked Windham. (61)

5. Adam Castle is in the ring, with the managers who have petitioned him to represent their stable at Halloween Havoc. He says that he's thought long and hard about it over the past week, but he'd like to give each of the geniuses with him here a chance to make their case. The managers get a minute or so to hype themselves up - Bobby Heenan and DiBiase get the most shine, while Jimmy Hart lags behind. Heenan capped off his pitch by insulting the other two managers, before coining a sick new catchphrase that the fans loved. After their speeches, Castle said that they all did so good - he doesn't know how to pick just one. Then, he feigned confusion, then acted like he had a realization. He said that he challenged Benoit & Neidhart to a tag match, but he never said that it would be two-on-two. As we all know, Castle says, you can totally have more than two people on a team in a tag match. He says that solves the issue - he'll just team with someone from every stable! He gives each of the managers a big hug and thanks them before telling Benoit & Neidhart to get ready to go through hell. (82)

6. Jorge Estrada and Honky Tonk Man are walking through the locker room with a nice bottle of whiskey looking for Terry Funk. Honky Tonk explains to Jorge that they're going to apologize to Terry so he can get out of the match Sunday, Jorge says he isn't scared of an old man. The two start to argue, when Terry Funk walks up to Jorge and taps him on the shoulder. Startled, Jorge turns around and accidentally smashes Funk with the whiskey bottle. Honky Tonk Man and Estrada run away while Funk is clutching at his face and bleeding. (53)

7. The Light (Glenn Gilbertti & Big T) defeated the Road Warriors in 7:27 when Gilbertti was able to pin Animal with a small package. (67)

8. A furious Bret Hart approaches Chris Jericho (who is still sore from earlier in the night) in the locker room. He says that he's disappointed in Jericho, which Jericho immediately takes exception to, pointing out that he's the one who got hurled into the lockers. Bret says that it's obvious that Jericho goaded Henry into it, even if he didn't realize he was doing it. He says that Jericho is the world heavyweight champion, he's supposed to be the standard bearer. He has to act on a higher level than anyone else does. All these other champions in this company might get into fights, but that's not what a Hart does. Bret says that Jericho needs to remember who he is, and who his family is. Sunday is going to be a match between brothers, not a match between rivals - even if Bret has to be right there to keep them in line. Jericho looks like he's about to argue, then seems to change his mind, apologizing to Bret. (73)

9. Tommy Dreamer defeated Bam Bam Bigelow in 6:04 with a Piledriver, earning a shot at Bigelow's Brass Knuckles championship at Halloween Havoc. (80)

10. A super over-dramatic montage is shown of Steve Corino training to return to full health. There's footage of him working out in the gym, running along beaches, whatever we can get to make this unbearable. (69)

11. Crash is backstage, visibly upset. He says that he really thought winning the TV title was going to turn his luck around, shakes his head, and walks off. (62)

12. Ric Flair defeated Genichiro Tenryu in 11:25 with the figure-four leg lock. (81)

13. In the commissioner's office, Eric Bischoff is having a meeting with Steve Corino. Bischoff tells Corino that he can't just strip Chris Jericho of his championship like Corino asked last week. He says it would be bad for business and it wouldn't be fair to Mark Henry. Corino is disgusted that Bischoff would let something like Jericho's brutality go unpunished. Bischoff says that he's not saying that - the incident with Jericho will be dealt with, it's just a matter of the how. Bischoff offers to work something out with Corino without all that legal talk hanging over their heads, but Corino refuses. Finally, Bischoff offers Corino a rematch with Jericho should he retain at Halloween Havoc. Corino says they'll talk after the pay-per-view, but if that match doesn't happen, expect a call from his lawyer. (68)

14. First in Flight (Shane Helms & Billy Kidman) defeated Team Canada (John Tenta & Carl Ouellet) in 6:20 after Kidman hit Ouellet with the Shooting Star Press. (69)

15. Chris Jericho is storming through the backstage area when he's stopped by Jeremy Borash, who asks for his thoughts on Steve Corino's recent actions. Jericho says that Corino's full of it, and if he doesn't stop being such a jackass, Jericho's going to do a lot worse to him than just bruise a rib. (74)

16. When the show comes back from commercial, what appears to be a handheld camera is focused on a man collared to a pole with a hood over his head. A hand pulls the hood off to reveal Raven with his mouth taped up, and the camera pulls back to show Vampiro standing over him, the two in a shadowy warehouse. Vampiro explains that he sees now that Raven's sins are written deep into his soul - all of that sloth and pride he has built has left scar tissue over what he used to be. Vamp says that Raven must be given a new start, born again, baptized so that he may live up to the potential he once had. He says that Raven could have been so much, so long ago, but he became lazy. He turned from a leader into a glutton for other people's punishment. The old Raven would take matters into his own hands and do whatever he could to show the people that they needed a guide and a champion like him. The new Raven sits with his feet up in the locker room, waiting to laugh at people's misfortunes. Vampiro says that there is only one way for such deep sins to be washed away, only one liquid capable of ushering in Raven's salvation - blood. And the method of extraction is going to be the very thing binding Raven to this spot - a collar. Just like Raven has become chained by his sins, Vampiro explains, he will be chained in the ring, so that Vamp may deliver Raven his baptism. At this point, even Raven is surprised at how he's effectively been outcrazied by Vamp. Vampiro says that Sunday, Raven will begin his rebirth. However, before he can find peace, he first must suffer. Vampiro begins to walk away, leaving Raven chained and bound in the warehouse as he begins to struggle against his chains.

Fucked up, when you think about it. (81)

17. Steve Austin defeated Scott Steiner in 5:10 in a match where Dwayne Johnson was the special guest referee. The finish came when Dwayne hit the Rock Bottom on Steiner after Steiner shoved him, then walked off. Austin went over to make the cover and Charles Robinson ran from the back to count the pin. The match intentionally never made it into gear, mostly revolving around the drama with the ref. (57)

18. Ricky Steamboat is in the ring. He says that when he was going into his match at Slamboree, he decided that win or lose, it was going to be his last time challenging for a title. Steamboat's not a selfish man, he knows when his time is up, and he's happy to have been able to come back and have this ride in the sun that he's had. However, Steamboat says, he's no pushover. He's not someone who can just get kicked around and let the person doing it get away with it. Steamboat says that D'Lo Brown could have gone after anyone else for his first challenger. He could have tried to face off with someone like Paul Wight, or Konnan, or he could have done an open challenge. But no, D'Lo has gone out of his way to bully an old man. But, Steamboat says, that's D'Lo's biggest mistake. He thinks that at Halloween Havoc, when he steps into the ring to defend his title against Ricky Steamboat - that's right, he accepts! - that he's going to get an old man. That he's going to get some guy on the back end of his career. That he's going to get just "Ricky Steamboat". Well, Steamboat says, he's got another thing coming. Because, at Halloween Havoc, D'Lo isn't going to face the old man. He isn't going to get the guy who got pulled out of retirement to embarrass Ric Flair. At Halloween Havoc, the man that steps into the ring is the NWA champion - the WWF champion - the WCW champion. At Halloween Havoc, D'Lo Brown steps into the ring with... The Dragon! (70)

19. Commentary is prepared to throw to the main event, but Mark Henry storms down to the ring unannounced and grabs a microphone. He calls out Chris Jericho, demanding he come out right now - which Jericho does. Henry says that Chris Jericho has been treating him like a chump, but he reminds Jericho that he earned his title shot. He didn't luck into it, he did what fifteen of the toughest guys around here couldn't and won the Blackjack Classic. Henry asks Jericho, so why is he treating him like he's nothing? Jericho says that it's an easy answer - because he is. Henry had one tournament win, but he's always been the guy in the background otherwise. He's the quiet one in the Hart Foundation while everyone else talks, and his only title win so far has been because he just so happened to be the Hart Foundation member that wasn't too busy when Owen Hart came calling for a partner. Jericho says that he's sorry to tell Henry, because he has a lot of respect for him - but he's not championship material. He's not gonna sugarcoat it or be a jackass about it, he's telling Henry straight up, man to man. There is a reason Chris Jericho is standing here holding the World Heavyweight Championship and representing the Hart family name, and Mark Henry is not. Jericho says that everyone else can see it, and maybe Mark finally will Sunday. Henry says that Jericho has a lot of guts, but he's also got a real big ego. Ever since he beat Goldberg and won that title, Jericho's only thought about himself. Henry asks Jericho where he was when there was fighting in the Hart family. Where was he when everyone was arguing about if they could trust Adam Castle or not? Mark says he gave Jericho the benefit of the doubt, but he's not going to anymore. After Halloween Havoc, the first thing Mark Henry is going to do as world champion and as head of the family is call Chris Jericho out into this ring, make him take one good, long, look, and then kick his ass out of the Hart Foundation. Chris Jericho raises up the belt, and Mark Henry turns to leave. Jericho follows, and almost hits Henry with the title, but stops at the last moment and lets him walk away. (85)

20. WCW World Television Championship: Curt Hennig defeated Sting to make his second defense of the TV title, following interference from Kevin Nash 12:56 into the match. After the match, Nash hit Sting with another Jackknife and grabbed a mic. He told Sting to watch his back, and that it would be Nash and him Sunday - see you then. (78)