It’s time for WCW Spring Stampede 1999 with a big main event featuring Ric Flair defending the WCW World title in a four-way match involving Hollywood Hogan, DDP, and Sting! Spring Stampede 1999 comes to us from the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington, and drew almost 17,700.
The Best
Spring Stampede 1999 opened up hot with Juventud Guerrera—The Juice—taking on a young SoCal high flyer in Blitzkrieg! This guy was always one of my favorite cruiserweights from late-era WCW. We had three years of luchadors and domestic flyers doing cool stuff on television then we see one of the new wave of domestics doing even cooler high flying!
It was an interesting time because after a while you could see that new wave on indy tapes and TNA’s weekly PPVs with WWE started hiring a couple in the mid-late 2000s. So, this match was really cool to see and very exciting. This could’ve gotten the same reaction if it was shorter but I’m glad Juvi and Blitzkrieg got 11 minutes and made the most of it.
Bam Bam took on Hak—The Sandman—in a hardcore match that I enjoyed a lot. This was a fun hardcore match with some sloppy spots—then again, it wouldn’t be The Sandman if it didn’t appear raw or sloppy. I think it could’ve been a bit shorter and it would still be a fun weapon-smashing brawl.
Rey Jr is defending his WCW Cruiserweight title against Kidman. C’mon people. Kidman became Rey Mysterio’s Psicosis in WCW—they just gelled so well against each other. Plus, there’s a stake here in the title, so their base of a good match got amped up.
These two also had plenty of room to groove with 15 minutes and change but it felt like a speedy 10-minutes. This was a brisk match that stood out a little more where it was on the card but also it was on a better-than-usual card for WCW.
Following that match was a strong tag team bout between the team of Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko taking on Raven & Saturn. First off, we know Benoit & Malenko are a great team. They should’ve just…remained an uppercard/main event tag team. Sure, you’ve got the Outsiders kind of there? You kind of check out on the new World order-WCW factions thing early into 1999.
However, the team of Benoit & Malenko—and Hennig & Windham—were just constants in the tag team division and they were consistent in their work. This match was no different as they really took it to Raven & Saturn—who make for a solid-ass team!
Booker T’s showdown against Scott Steiner for the vacant TV title was pretty good. Again, 1999 Steiner is looking good early in the year. Another match that ran a little long but the action was back-and-forth and Booker looked impressive against Steiner.
That was the thing about Scott Steiner, yeah he degraded in-ring in 1997-1998 but he always looked like an impressive figure. If you didn’t know where he was in the card at the time, you’d think Scott was in the main event before the card promotion.
The main event saw WCW President—I forget if Ric Flair was still president—and World champion Flair defend his title in a four-way match featuring Sting, Hollywood Hogan, and DDP. I’ll say that this was a fun, entertaining bout! It’s been a while since WCW just had a truly fun main event on PPV.
Now, Hogan bails on the match early. I wish he’d stayed because there’s this point in Hogan’s 90s matches where he becomes Hardcore Hogan and he’s brawling outside the ring. I always wanted Hardcore Hogan to be a thing.
That aside, Flair, DDP, and Sting really went at it. Flair wanted to hold on to is belt, Sting was motivated to regain the World title, and DDP was just hungry for the belt. He worked hard as hell, he’d held every belt we could win except for the Tag Team titles—he was the MVP, Most Valuable Page.
DDP really came into this one with some fire in him. Then you had some Page-related interference from Savage which I thought added to the match. This thing really kicks into gear later in the on. Big win for DDP!
The Rest
Mikey Whipwreck taking on Scotty Riggs was a fine match. It wasn’t good enough to be in “The Best” but this was a solid, basic-ass match. It could’ve been Saturday Night, Worldwide, or Pro and it would’ve been a nice match. Part of what hurt the match was that it was a match between two people that the fans didn’t care for or have an investment in.
Konnan vs. Disco Inferno didn’t work and it didn’t work for over 9 minutes. In watching it, you wouldn’t know it was a 9-minute match unless you were timing it or something but you did get the feeling that this was running a little long. The match just wasn’t as entertaining as you’d expect it to be when you had two very entertaining wrestlers.
Kevin Nash and Goldberg had something between them because they do well against each other. If you remove the extra toppings like interference and so on—which are what make a Nash in WCW/nWo match—these two put on entertaining matches.
Mind you, I wouldn’t say it was one of “The Best” from Spring Stampede 1999 but it didn’t slow the show to a crawl. That’s also the benefit of a good card position for this match. It was in the right place where it didn’t harm the show or weaken the main event.
WCW Spring Stampede 1999 Verdict: Silver Medal (6.25/10)
This was a good WCW show but it could be bumped to “pretty good” considering 1998. However, those spring shows are sometimes impressive. You might end up with a show where it’s like “There were some lemons in there but the bangers banged hard and everything else was fine.”
Yes, a lengthy thought but it helps in summing up an event that was good but you wanted more. I’m giving Match of the Show to Rey Jr vs. Kidman for the Cruiserweight title but that Juvi vs. Blitzkrieg match is a joy to behold.
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