October 26, 2001.
When Vince McMahon bought out World Championship Wrestling in March 2001, he effectively created a monopoly of the pro wrestling industry that other companies have been trying to break ever since.
Almost immediately, one of the first companies to take a shot at filling the WCW-shaped hole in the wrestling landscape was Andrew McManus' World Wrestling All-Stars, and by all accounts, it looked to have a pretty good shot.
With a roster made up of ex WCW and WWF wrestlers, the company certainly had plenty of star power and enough guys capable of putting on decent matches.
With that in mind, The Inception seemed to have everything it needed to be a very good show.
But was it enough to position the company as a viable contender to the World Wrestling Federation's throne?
Let's head Down Under to the Sydney Super Dome in Sydney, Australia to find out.
Please Stand for the Australian National Anthem
Hoping to lend the event an air of gravitas, Jeramy Borash introduced little-known Australian quartet Ajaqua, who were on hand to sing the Australian National Anthem.A short opening video package followed, after which it was on with the show.
The Hitman Has Never Been Beaten
Brandishing the WWA championship (which looked like a relic from the 70s), The Excellence of Execution started off with a dull, lifeless speech about how much he loved Australia and was grateful to them for looking after him when he got stuck there in the aftermath of 9/11.
Things got more interesting when Bret turned his attentions to tonight, somehow making the tournament for the WWA title all about himself.
First, he took a moment to trash both WCW and the WWF which was surprising. After all, it's not like Hart has a reputation for being bitter or anything.
Next, he claimed that nobody had ever beaten him in either company.
"Not Goldberg, not The Rock, not Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chris Benoit, or even that piece of sh*t Vince McMahon," had even defeated him, at least according to the Hitman.
Of course, Yokozuna beat him at Wrestlemania 9, Shawn Michaels beat him at Wrestlemania 12 and even Bob Backlund beat him at Survivor Series '94. So, even if you strike Montreal from the record, that's still a bunch of people who definitely beat The Hitman for the gold.
Anyway, Bret claimed that as a result of this undefeated streak, he was basically giving his world title to the winner of tonight's tournament.
Look:
I'm a big Bret Hart fan.
I've loved watching and reviewing his matches here on Retro Pro Wrestling, but my goodness that promo was dull.
It lasted about three minutes but felt like it went on for 30 years.
If You Like Stipulations, You'll Love This Show
With Bret gone, we went to our announce team of Jerry 'The King' Lawler and Jeramy Borash.
Sticking with tonight's theme, the two rambled on a bit about being in Australia and how every match in the 'Seven Deadly Sins' tournament was a gimmick match of some kind.
As they ran through the card, it quickly became apparent that most of the time, that gimmick would be "hardcore match."
Borash and Lawler also told us about other matches not included in the tournament, such as Devon Storm vs. Norman Smiley and a 'Black Wedding Gown' match between husband and wife duo Luna Vachon and Vampire Warrior.
According to Lawler, Vachon and Warrior were due to celebrate their first wedding anniversary on Halloween but were now getting divorced instead and had, like many a married couple, chosen to settle their differences not in a courtroom but in a pro wrestling ring.
Of course, this being the inaugural WWA show, we had no idea why the pair had broken up. We just had to take WWA's word for it that they had.
However, that wasn't the weirdest part.
No Sir, that honor went to the way WWA decided to pump Borash and Lawler's commentary through the arena PA system so that everyone in the audience could hear it.
It was strange, and, even watching it at home, would detract from the in-ring action for the rest of the show.
Speaking of which, let's get down to our opening match.
Seven Deadly Sins Tournament Match 1:
Ladder Match for the Vacant WWA International Cruiserweight Champion
His opponent, Juventud Guerrera came to the ring to a knock-off of The Macarena while Borash referred to the time he (Juvi) got kicked out of Australia a year earlier for going on a drug-fuelled rampage.
Speaking of Borash, he was also tonight's ring announcer, so he just introduced the wrestlers from the announce desk and then went back to having his conversation with Lawler broadcast across the entire arena.
"Finally...The Juice...Has come back, to Australia!" declared Juvi in a brief pre-match promo which was pretty terrible.
Fortunately, he made up for a bad promo with a fun opening contest against long-time rival Psicosis.
The last time we saw them competing against each other on PPV was in a four-way match which also included Rey Mysterio Jr and Billy Kidman at WCW Souled Out 1999.
Now it was just the two of them, and they did a great job in putting on a fun spot fest with a couple of jaw-dropping moves.
Not that this was a perfect match.
At one point, Juvi had a ladder the corner and stood on it, ready to jump off onto Psicosis.
However, he took so long to get up there and pose for the crowd that Psicosis had to stand around gormlessly, just waiting to take the move.
Talk about killing suspension of disbelief.
As if it wasn't bad enough that, after all that, Juvi didn't even land the move properly, the ladder fell down and cracked both the combatants and the referee.
While it was enough to keep Juvi and Psicosis out of action for a few moments, the referee decided to no-sell it completely, making him look like the toughest dude in the right.
Despite that, this was a very enjoyable opener that ended when Juvi scaled the ladder and grabbed the gold.
Your Winner and NEW WWA International Cruiserweight Champion: Juventud Guerrera (advances in the world title tournament)
In his post-match celebration, Juvi suddenly started selling a rib injury that he hadn't bothered with at all during the match.
Horny Old Men Lech After Some Women
Just like The Nitro Girls, the Starettes came out on stage and busted out a dance routine while flashing some big smiles. Unlike The Nitro Girls, however, the Starettes had the commentary team leching after them over the PA.
Lawler and Borash came across like a randy, old version of Beavis & Butthead as they oggled the dancing women and picked out their favorites.
I mean, seriously, can you imagine if the WCW Nitro camera panned onto a shot of Spice or Skye and Mike Tenay suddenly blurted out "I'll take her!" over the PA?
Because that's what Borash did. To be fair to the future TNA announcer, he wasn't as bad as the horny old King, but this was still pretty terrible.
Backstage Shennanigans
The two stepped out of their limo, took one look at Lodi & Lenny Lane (back doing their gay gimmick), and left.
Meanwhile, Disco Inferno arrived, complaining about the lack of security. He then handed his credit card to a crew member and sent the guy off to get him two suits.
Quite how a shirt and tie were going to provide him with adequate security is anyone's guess.
Seven Deadly Sins Tournament Match 2: Dog Collar Match
Konan vs. Road Dog Jesse James
If there was ever going to be such thing as a WWF vs. WCW dream card at the height of the Monday Night Wars, this is probably one of the matches we would have had on the undercard.
Proving that little had changed since those days, Konnan rapped his way to the ringside and got all bowdy-bowdy with the audience.
Road Dog too brought a microphone with him, doing his whole 'Oh, you didn't know' routine to a knock off of the familiar New Age Outlaws routine. Yet when he tried to go through his usual Michael Buffer impersonation, K-Dog cut him off and attacked.
Pulling a 'Mexican Heavyweight Championship' belt from out of nowhere (it looked suspiciously like the same belt as the company's world title), Konan lifted it in the air and attempted his own version of Roadie's pre-match promo, but managed to flub it up.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he began. "The WWA boys and girls, children of all ages, the WWA proudly presents your Mexican Heavyweight Champion of the World!"
We weren't done there.
With Road Dog lying in the corner, Konan took the time to mock him for being the only member of D-Generation-X not gainfully employed. I'm not sure if, by this, K-Dog was insinuating that WWA wrestlers didn't get paid, or whether he was insulting his employers by suggesting that wrestling for them wasn't a real job.
Finally, Konan, who hadn't worked for the World Wrestling Federation since 1992, told his opponent that the WWF had two words for him.
The match eventually got underway and was, to be perfectly honest, a bit of a mess.
Dog collar match rules were the same as your average strap match in that you had to touch all four corners consecutively to win. Jerry Lawler revealed that Bret Hart had also decreed that the match could end by pinfall, but neither man so much as attempted a cover, so why this was even brought up is beyond me.
The two got the crowd involved with some interesting spots, but it was all very sloppy and uncoordinated. The action had to be paused on at least three separate occasions as Konan's dog collar kept falling off.
After a few short and uninspired minutes, Road Dog tied up Konan using the chain, bent him over, pretended to have anal sex with him, then casually walked to all four corners of the ring while K-Dog just lay there, looking like an idiot.
Yes, this was probably the first 'touch all four corners' match in wrestling history not to use the Stone Cold/Savio finish from In Your House: Beware of Dog.
Your Winner: Road Dog
Once again, the duo gave us their horny Beavis & Butthead impressions as they lusted after a group of moderately attractive models.
The joke here was that both King and Borash both had the hots for one 'girl' with a nice ass who turned out to be a dude.
Yuck.
Hardcore Match
Devon Storm vs. "Screamin'" Norman Smiley'
Devon Storm was billed as hailing from "the other side of sanity," because he was crazy.
The big difference was that Norman was far less camp and comedic than we'd previously seen him be in matches such as his Starrcade 1999 effort against Meng.
I mean, sure, he did the Big Wiggle on storm twice, giving us no less than three simulated sex acts in the space of twenty minutes, but other than this, Smiley came across as a competent performer in what was a riotously entertaining hardcore bout.
If you like the CZW -or even ECW- brand of ultraviolence, you might not enjoy this one, but if, like me, you liked the kind of over-the-top hardcore bouts that were commonplace during the latter half of the Monday Night Wars, you'll likely find a lot to enjoy here.
The two battered each other with kendo sticks, threw chairs and trash cans at one another, and even took us for a little walk backstage, inadvertently revealing plenty of empty seats in the process and showing us how poorly this show had drawn.
The end came after Storm took half a lifetime to stack two tables on top of one another on the stage, a process which, as in the earlier cruiserweight match, made the suspension of disbelief rather difficult.
When he finally had the props in place, Storm lifted Smiley on top of the top table and climbed the scaffolding surrounding the WWA tron.
After throwing a trash can onto his opponent, the former Crowbar dove off, sending both himself and Smiley crashing through both tables to the floor.
It was an awesome spot that looked a lot better than I've described it here.
It also ended the match, though not in the way that you might imagine.
Storm had practically destroyed himself with that move and was unable to make the cover. His rival, however, was. Despite being just as broken as Storm, Smiley learned over, draped an arm over his chest and scored the pinfall.
Your Winner: Norman Smiley
Disco approached the crew member he spoke to earlier, who was standing by with two guys in badly-done Bananas in Pyjamas outfits.
"What the hell is this?" asked Disco.
"It's exactly what you asked for," replied the stagehand. "Two fruits!"
Irate, the former WCW TV Champion knocked down the bananas and stormed off-camera yelling "TWO FRUITS? I SAID TWO SUITS!"
Sadly, this would not be the last time the terrible 'two fruits' joke would rear its ugly and unfunny head tonight.
Out in the arena, Borash and Lawler ran through the seven Deadly Sins tournament brackets as they stood so far.Juvi's ribs had been so badly injured in the first match that he was no longer able to compete. His replacement wasn't announced.
Meanwhile, the winner of an upcoming battle royal would face the winner of Jeff Jarrett vs. The Front Row...
Yeah...That's what I thought.
Apparently, 'Front Row' was the nickname of Nathan Jones and not the actual front row.
Anyone Can Enter the Battle Royal
Backstage, WWA reporter Stevie Ray asked Commissioner Hart about the upcoming battle royal.The Hitman made the big reveal that the battle royal was open to absolutely anybody that worked for WWA, including cameramen, the t-shirt seller, even the bus driver and yes, to answer Big Stevie's inquiry, even him.
Seven Deadly Sins Match 3:
Battle Royal featuring Buff Bagwell, Disco Inferno, Stevie Ray, Jerry 'The King' Lawler, Jeramy Borash, Norman Smiley, Devon Storm, Some Referees, a Cameraman, a Random Woman, and The Fruits in Suits
Things started normally enough, at least as normal as it gets in pro wrestling.
Disco Inferno started the match with Disco Inferno, Stevie ray got involved, then Norman Smiley, then Devon Storm.
Jerry Lawler also decided that both he and Borash should enter the fray.
At one point, Lawler held Stevie in place while Borash drilled a bunch of weak-looking fists into the WCW legend's mid-section. It looked so ridiculous it was laughable, especially when Stevie simply picked Borash up and dumped him outside.
As Borash died for a while, Devon Storm -fresh from being eliminated- decided that he was going to do commentary, talking about how he was 'sporting the proverbial crimson mask' after his match with Smiley.
Then things got even sillier.
A cameraman and two referees got involved, followed by a random woman in a gold dress.
The poor woman didn't last long and actually eliminated herself from the competition after deciding that this was preferable to getting sexually molested by Jerry Lawler.
Yes, that happened.
Undeterred, Lawler took out his sexual frustrations on Norman Smiley by doing the Big Wiggle on him for Pretend Anal Sex Situation Number Four.
Just when you thought things couldn't get any more ridiculous, 'The Fruits in Suits' turned up.
Yes, that's what Borash called the 'two fruits' from our last segment, presumedly to avoid a copyright claim from the Bananas in Pyjamas.
The duo eliminated Disco, but only after he hit the most bizarre finishing move of all time:
The Village People's Elbow.
Yes, that's exactly what it sounds like.
He hit the move, the bananas dumped him outside of the ring, then got dumped by Buff, and this one was over.
Your Winner: Buff Bagwell
Out in the back, the girl in the gold dress had recovered from getting dry-humped by Jerry Lawler and was now interviewing Rove McManus and Nathan Jones.
I feel bad calling this woman 'the girl in the gold dress.' I honestly did Google around to try and find her name, but it seems that the only mentions of her on the Internet are as "some girl" or "Interviewer chick."
Sorry lady, I tried.
Anyway, the nameless interviewer held the microphone while McManus talked about how Nathan Jones's opponent, Jeff Jarrett, would end up masturbating alone in his hotel room after the sow.
Again, that's not a lie. That's genuinely what he said.
Seven Deadly Sins Tournament Match 4: Guitar on a Pole Match
Jeff Jarrett vs. Nathan Jones (w/ Rove McManus)
According to the laws of pro wrestling, I'm not allowed to review an 'Object on a Pole' match without referencing Vince Russo, even though his only contribution to this show was recommending Jeramy Borash as booker.
Things started out well enough.
Jeff Jarrett came to the ring and got heat by cutting his usual promo about being the chosen one and his love of slap nuts.
Jones and McManus then came down and got the big pop the WWA were hoping for.
As an Australian, Nathan Jones was presented as the proverbial home town hero, the one wrestler the crowds could call their own.
He was huge. He looked like a monster. He even had a famous Australian celebrity cutting a pre-match promo for him.
In short, he had it all.
And then he was beaten in about five minutes by Jeff Jarrett.
To be fair, Double J carried the inexperienced star to a decent little match. Unfortunately, he then ruined the whole thing with a stupid ending.
Nathan Jones went to get the guitar from the pole by climbing up to the ropes even though he was tall enough that he could have just reached up and grabbed it.
This would have proved to be a better option. As it was, the seven-foot star was so bad at climbing the ropes that his opponent was able to just saunter over and throw him off.
Jarrett grabbed the guitar for himself, but before he could blast Jones with it, Rove McManus rushed into the ring. The Chosen One blasted the comedian with the guitar in what was genuinely a sweet looking spot before Jones kind of walked into Jeff Jarrett's stroke.
One three count later, and WWA had disposed of their most popular babyface in about five minutes.
Your Winner: Jeff Jarrett
The duo came to the ring but basically just stood there while Lawler made jokes about how 'fruits' was a derogatory term for homosexuals.
Speaking of whom...
The West Hollywood Blondes came out to interrupt the promo, with Lawler pronounce the name of Lenny Lane's partner as "Low Dye."
Seriously.
Their arrival allowed Jerry Lawler to make the one joke this whole thing had been leading to:
"Hey, now we've got four fruits!"
Because, you know, ripping on homosexuals is funny.
Rounding out the party, Bret Hart returned to the scene to demand that the two fruits leave the ring.
"Which two?" asked Lawler, making the usually super-serious Bret Hart laugh out loud for the first time in his career, if not in his entire life.
"The fruits...the bananas" laughed The Hitman, before announcing that Lodi and "Lonny" would replace the injured Juventud Guerrera in a three-way dance against Road Dog.
Yes, it's weird that the babyface Commissioner decided to stick it to fellow babyface Road Dog by placing him in what was a handicap match against two heels, but heck, it's not like anything else on this show made any sense either.
Seven Deadly Sins Semi-Final 1: Three-Way Dance
Road Dog vs. Lenny Lane vs. Lodi
The West Hollywood Blondes naturally double-teamed the former DX member. Early on, Road Dog moved out of harm's way when his rivals tried to trap him in the corner. This caused Lenny to fall onto all fours and Lodi to fall onto his knees behind him, making it look like he was doing him up the bum.
Simulated sex count: Five
Lenny and Lodi continued to dominate (Road Dog, not each other), but couldn't agree on who would get the pinfall and ended up coming to blows.
Eventually, Lenny hit a sweet moonsault onto Lodi, pinning him in a 69 position. Roadie recovered from an earlier beating dropped a knee onto Lenny's head and pinned the pair of them in a 69, making for six occasions of simulated sex on a pro wrestling show.
Apart from all the sex stuff, this wasn't the worst match ever, but it only lasted four minutes which is too short to really count for anything.
Your Winner: Road Dog
Post-match, Lenny and Lodi made up with a hi-five, hip bump, and a hug. Jerry Lawler reacted to the two men hugging as though he'd just seen them fellate one another in the middle of the ring because homophobia = lol apparently.
T*ts, Whips, and Buff
Before they got started, however, Stevie made Buff hold his microphone so that he could put his hat and glasses back on.
"Let me do this, I don't wanna look like a fruit booty," said the former WCW tag team champion.
That's exactly what I always think of when I see a hat-less Stevie Ray. There goes Stevie without his hat again. Man, what a fruit booty!
Anyway, as if this show couldn't get any weirder or more sexual, Buff announced that his upcoming match with Jeff Jarrett would be -and I quote- "a T*ts, Whips, and Buff match."
Unfortunately, neither Bagwell nor anybody else bothered to explain exactly what that meant.
Seven Deadly Sins Tournament Semi-Final 2: T*ts, Whips, and Buff Match
Jeff Jarrett vs. Buff Bagwell
Buff brought a bevy of unknown beautiful women to ringside with him. The women all had whips, and if either man went outside, the beauties were supposed to whip him.
Yes, it was essentially a lumberjack/jill match with a BDSM theme.
Though it was silly, it would have been fine if they'd just worked the gimmick and given us a decent finish. However, like everything on this card that wasn't the opening ladder match, Bagwell/Jarrett had to take ridiculous booking to a whole new level.
For the most part, it was fine, or at least as fine as a five-minute Buff Bagwell/Jeff Jarrett match was ever going to be, ie: nothing spectacular but nothing terrible either. The two men worked a bit in the ring, Jarrett got whipped on the outside then, when Bagwell got hurled to the outside, his women protected him and gave him a neck massage.
So far, so predictable but inoffensive.
Then, the finish came.
Bagwell hit the Blockbuster, but Slick Johnson had his hands full with one of the girls, so one of the other girls counted the fall. Naturally, Johnson declared that it didn't count, but Buff was so busy celebrating that he didn't notice. Instead, he walked into a Stroke from Jeff Jarrett and lost the match.
Ugh.
Your Winner: Jeff Jarrett
As we approach the last forty-five minutes of WWA The Inception, it occurs to me that this would have actually been a really enjoyable show if they'd kept things simple.
Cut out the ridiculous finishes, ease off on the comedy and just let these guys wrestle, and you'd have a good show on your hands.
Luna is Mad
Hilariously, Luna declared that she and Vampire Warrior had originally come out to celebrate their anniversary, but the former Gangrel kept complaining about losing every wrestling matches he competed in so she had no choice but to kick his ass.
Black Wedding Match
Vampire Warrior vs. Luna Vachon
Well, this was terrible.Another throw-away, five-minute match saw Vampire Warrior trying his best not to hit his wife even after she trapped his grapefruits in a pair of kitchen tongues and smashed a pumpkin into his groin.
Yet it seemed that even a vampire could only resist a spot of domestic abuse for so long. After an irate Luna spat at her husband and threw her wedding ring at him, Vamp impaled her.
Sorry, I should say, he hit her with the impaler. That's what'll happen if you watch a show that has more sexual references than actual wrestling in it.
One three count later, this god awful gimmick was over.
Your Winner: Vampire Warrior
Remember earlier, when Lawler and Borash were shocked to discover that one of the girls in the upcoming Skin to Win match had a penis?
Well, up next Stevie Ray tried to find out who this man/woman/transvestite was because, obviously, suckas got to know.
At one point, Stevie lifted up the person's dress and said "look at that ass," then acted all shocked when they ran away.
I mean, wouldn't you?
Skin to Win Match
Queen Bea vs. Violet Terossi vs. Adara James vs. Sharon A. Wad
Queen Bea and Violet Terossi are, or were, nude models. Adara James was an indie worker who, according to Cagematch.net, wrestled about six matches in her career, and Sharon A. Wad was the transvestite, played by Danny Dominion who was nobody.
To her credit, James had the makings of a good wrestler and probably could have gone on to better things had she stuck with it.
Instead, it's her fate to be best remembered as the only good thing in what was otherwise an absolute piece of garbage.
Danny Dominion dominated the whole thing, going around and beating up the other three women in what made for genuinely uncomfortable viewing.
Eventually, he threw Queen Bea and Violet to the mat and removed their tops. The crowd booed loudly, not because they hated Dominion, but because the girls were wearing pasties that concealed their breasts.
Then Stevie Ray came down, punched Dominion a couple of times, and allowed Adara James to pick up the victory by leaping off the top and planting the dude with a frankensteiner.
Your Winner: Adara James
Afterward, Borash began telling us about the WWA's upcoming shows in the UK, only to be interrupted by the promoter, Andrew McManus.
McManus handed Borash a letter and told him to read it.
It was from former WCW star Midajah, who promised to "be there" with her man.
It was never actually explained where "there" was. Presumedly the UK shows.
Disco Faces The Fruits
Unlike Jerry 'The Perv' Lawler, Disco was sick of seeing attractive women shaking their ass and sent them packing before storming to the ring where a cage had been set up for Road Dog/Jarrett.
Ticked off about being eliminated from the battle royal, Disco called out the two fruits, who came out and attacked him.
Disco fought back and ended the segment by throwing one of the bananas off the top of the cage to the outside. As dumb as it was to have Disco Inferno vs. The Bananas in Pyjamas, this was admittedly pretty impressive.
It would have been even more impressive if the cameras hadn't shown us the giant safety crash mat which had been strategically placed at the foot of the entrance to protect the flying banana.
Seven Deadly Sins Tournament Final
World Wrestling All-Stars World Championship
Road Dog vs. Jeff Jarrett
While that occasionally came off as cheesy, such a strategy should have worked in their favor for this main event cage match between two guys with a long history together, shouldn't it?
Yes, here we had Road Dog, who had once been called The Roadie and served as Jeff Jarrett's lackey before it was revealed that it was he all along who sang Double J's big hit, With My Baby Tonight.
From there, Road Dog had scaled new heights of popularity, becoming one of the biggest stars of the Attitude Era and arguably even surpassing his former charge's success.
So tonight, live and for the first time ever, we'd finally get to settle the score:
Was Double J Jeff Jarrett the bigger, better wrestler? Or was it Double J Jesse James?
It would take thirty seconds to tell this story, but nobody bothered. Instead, we were told that Jarrett had won multiple WCW tag team titles and Roadie had won multiple WWF tag team titles.
of course, this was entirely true, but it was nowhere near as compelling as the actual relationship between the two men.
Not that it seemed to make much a difference.
For the first time since the Juvi/Psicosis match, the competitors in the ring looked to be trying their hardest, busting out a good main event match which was probably the best singles match involving The Road Dog since he faced 123 Kid at In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks.
For those paying attention, that was the same show Jarrett 'sang' With My Baby Tonight.
Things were going well, but then this being the WWA, they had to turn all bulls**tty and ridiculous.
According to Commissioner Hart -who had joined the commentary team- the match could be won by pinfall or submission only, so Jarrett and Road Dogg climbed out of the cage for a brawl around the ringside.
OK, so the brawl itself was pretty fun, but what the heck was the point of the cage?
Back in the ring, Slick Johnson took a tumble, so Jeff Jarett grabbed his guitar and murdered Jesse James with it. He then applied a sharpshooter.
Roadie tapped, but Bret Hart refused to let the match be over. His reasons weren't exactly clear, but it came across as though Hitman simply didn't want anybody else winning with his finishing move.
This idea was further cemented with Road Dog got up, hit a pump handle slam on Jarrett and then applied a sharpshooter of his own.
Proving that he was non-discriminating in his bitterness, Hart refused to let Road Dog win that way either, and decided instead to just walk off with the title.
The New Age Outlaw gave chase, stealing the belt and bringing it back to the cage where Jarrett kicked it out of his hands, dropped him face-first with a Stroke onto the title belt and won the match.
Your Winner and NEW WWA World Heavyweight Champion: Jeff Jarrett
It had been yet another stupid finish, but at least it gave us a credible champion, right?
Not exactly.
Standing battered, bloody and yet triumphant, Jarrett confronted Bret Hart, only to drop to his knees and beg off. Not that this stopped The Hitman.
He grabbed Jeff by the legs and locked him in the sharpshooter for no real reason, ending WWA The Inception by looking like a bitter old man.
I said it earlier and I'll say it again, The Inception could have been a good show.
OK, so Road Dog and a bunch of WCW leftovers were never going to give us five-star classics, but they were all competent performers capable of delivering a decent show had they been allowed to.
Instead, they were all dumped in a bunch of really short nothing matches in which bad comedy, bad finishes, and bad sexual references took precedence over any actual pro wrestling.
Get rid of the bananas, let the guys actually have a wrestling match, and WWA could have been onto something.
Given that this was their first real event, I'm willing to give WWA the benefit of the doubt and check out some of their other shows, but honestly, there's not much to see here outside of an admittedly wonderful opening ladder match between cruiserweight stalwarts Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera.
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