Video Review: WCW Souled Out 2000

VHS Review: WCW Souled Out 2000

Here we go folks yet another retro video review of some of my wrestling collection (before they get confined to the bin). 

Here we have WCW presenting a show that had many promising bouts on paper, but they lacked to ignite a fire in the crowd when they played out. This was unfortunately the way WCW was functioning in this period and it was sad to see the once mighty company reduced to this.

However we did have some decent stuff here and for fans of the era, there are a few faces you will want to see and some moves we have long missed.

In no particular order here are some highlights form Souled Out 2000:

The Hardcore match (for the HC title) between Norman Smiley, Meng, Fit Finlay and Brian Knobbs was a great affair and one that does indeed warrant a few viewings. This is a level of aggression that we miss in this day and age of the PG programming.

Buff Bagwell and Diamond Dallas Page had a decent scrap. This was all down to Bagwell possibly being a love interest for Page's wife Kimberly.

The Madusa/Oklahoma match for the Cruiserweight Title was an odd beats. This was seemingly there purely to show Madusa in her bra and pants.

There were also a few reasonable appearances by Billy Kidman, Vampiro and other low/mid card players in WCW at the time, but they really did not set the place alight.

The two main matches here were the battle for control of the company between the veteran grappler Terry Funk and Kevin Nash. Which was a brutal at times encounter.

The other one was the main event which (due to injuries suffered by Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett) saw Chris Benoit face off against Sid Vicious for the WCW World Title.

The main event saw Benoit win the gold (even though he was destined to leave the company). This meant that the next night it was deemed that Vicious' leg was under the rope when the three count was called, so he could not be pinned legally. The belt was once again held up.

Souled Out 2000 was a mid-reasonable PPV by WCW, but the cracks were showing here and the bookers were not really making the effort. The writing was on the wall and the WWE buyout was not too far away I am afraid to say.

By Phil Allely