This Week In WWE Vintage Collection History: A Slamboree Jamboree
By Aaron Wood May 20, 2012 - 3:32 PM
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COLLECTION #207 Mean
Gene opened the show announcing that we would be starting to take a
look back at WCW Slamboree, a show where many of WCW's most memorable
matches and moments took place. Yes, he did say THE EXACT SAME THING
about Spring Stampede a month or so ago. But we were jumping right
into thing and Slamboree 1998 as Perry Saturn challenged the
unstoppable force that was Goldberg for the US Title. Would Saturn
just be another notch in Goldberg's streak or would the planets align
for Perry SATURN? Get it? Planets align...Saturn... Get it?
After
the break, Mean Gene wound us back a year to 1997 as the man of 1000
holds, Dean Malenko, defended the US Title against Jeff Jarrett, then
a member of the Four Horsemen. Would Jarrett strut away with the
title, or would Malenko take Jeff down south with the Texas
Cloverleaf?
After
the break, we were treated to the pre-match video regarding the
Slamboree 1999 clash between Rowdy Roddy Piper & Ric Flair, which
actually features at the beginning to the upcoming video. Alas,
Scott Hall's unmentioned cameo in Ric Flair's "mental hospital"
stay wasn't included... This match was to determine the presidency
of WCW.
It
was main event time next, and we were going back to the very first
Slamboree, and it was a World Tag Team Title contest inside a steel
cage. The Champions were the Hollywood Blondes of Stunning Steve
Austin & Flying Brian Pillman. The challengers were "Dos
Hombres". However, here is where reality and kayfabe parted.
To an almost ludicrous extent.
To
hear Mean Gene tell it, Dos Hombres were really Ricky Steamboat and
Shane Douglas under masks, who believed the Dos Hombres name had
brought them luck in a previous non-title contest. However, the
reality was this. After the Blondes had cheated their way to the
titles, taking them from Steamboat & Douglas, and then fending
them off by hook or by crook, Douglas & Steamboat donned masked
and posed as a pair of jobbers called "Dos Hombres" and
faced the Blondes on TV. While the match started normally enough,
the "Mexican" pair started showing all the regular
repertoire of Steamboat & Douglas.
This
led to the idea that it really was Steamboat & Douglas under the
masks. And Dos Hombres won the match and earned a Tag title shot.
Then things got REALLY messy. In a rematch, Shane Douglas came out,
seemingly to disprove that it was either him and/or Steamboat under
the masks. Then in another match, a match where it was again assumed
they were Steamboat & Douglas, after beating the Blondes,
Steamboat unmasked to cut a promo setting up Slamboree. Douglas
didn't unmask, and for good reason.
He'd
been fired in the middle of the angle, and it wasn't Douglas under
the match in that match. It was widely believed to have been Tim
Horner under the mask for the matches where Douglas appeared form
backstage and in the follow up where Ricky unmasked. However, for
the PPV match in the cage for the titles, it was Tom Zenk who was put
in the match with Steamboat. However, since it was now irrefutable
that it was Steamboat and Douglas under the masks at this point, not
wanting to reveal Douglas had been fired, the cage match took place
with Zenk being called Shane Douglas. Understand all that?
Mean
Gene signed offthe show saying that Dos Hombres gave it everything
they had, but a Stungun picked up the win for the Blondes before
noting we'd have another week of Slamboree matches next week on the
show.
Epilogue Goldberg
soon enough found himself as the top contender to Hulk Hogan's WCW
World Title, and on the famous Nitro of July 6th at the Georgia Dome,
they faced off for the title, a match which Goldberg, of course, won.
At the following PPV, Road Wild, Goldberg was forced into a Battle
Royal to defend the WCW Title, with everyone else in the match coming
from either the nWo Wolfpac or nWo Hollywood. However, Goldberg
survived that, pinning The Giant/Big Show to win (as pins were
allowed). His title run would carry on until the end of the year
when, as mentioned just recently, Scott Hall helped Kevin Nash take
the title and break the streak.
Saturn,
at this point, a member of Raven's Flock, was having problems with
the group. Indeed, this match with Goldberg was supposed to be a
gauntlet match with Bill facing the Flock, but Saturn told them he
was the only one going to face Goldberg. it eventually ended up with
Saturn facing Raven at that September's Fall Brawl for everyone's
freedom from Raven. As it goes, prior to that, Lodi challenged
Saturn to a similar match where Lodi would leave the Flock if he
lost, but if Saturn lost, he would be Lodi's slave until that Fall
Brawl match. As it goes, Saturn lost, thanks to Flock interference.
However, at Fall Brawl, Kidman turned on Raven and helped Saturn win,
breaking up The Flock.
Jeff
Jarrett would win the US Title from Malenko a couple of weeks after
Slamboree on Nitro. However, as you could see thing were heading for
a collision on the Debra front. Jarrett left the Horseman and
started a feud with Mongo over Debra. Despite Debra being on
Jarrett's side, Jeff would lose the US Title to Mongo on an August
edition of Nitro, with Jarrett leaving WCW that October and going
back to the WWE.
Given
the disputed finish of Slamboree, especially since Eric Bischoff had
no power at that point to change a decision, Piper & Flair met
again the following month at the Great American Bash, although once
again Flair won to retain his spot as President of WCW once and for
all. Well, I say "once and for all", but he would lose it
around a month later on Nitro to Sting. That match saw the ref
knocked out while Flair was in the Scorpion Death Lock, with Bischoff
once again returning to make sure things were done right and that
Sting was named winner. However, Sting promptly gave up the post
upon being given it.
As
for the Hollywood Blondes, once tha Dos Hombres angle was killed off
at Slamboree, no thanks to Douglas, Austin & Pillman were put
into a feud that had already got going with the Four Horsemen, based
on the Blondes being young and the best thing going, which saw the
legendary "Flare For The Old" skit. The big match (which
would be Flair's in-ring return after leaving the WWE) saw Flair &
Arn Anderson challenge for the titles, and despite winning a 2 out of
3 falls match, they wouldn't win the titles as the winning fall was
from a Blondes DQ.
