Throwback Thursday: Looking back at WCW Great American Bash 2000

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last time, I covered the WWE In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker.

WCW Great American Bash 2000

Date: June 11, 2000

Venue: Baltimore Arena (Now Royal Farms Arena), Baltimore, Md.

Some random notes

The Great American Bash summer tours began in 1985, but this was only the 11th time the event was held as a singular pay-per-view.

Unfortunately, this also represented the last time World Championship Wrestling produced the event, as by 2001, WCW had closed its doors and was property of WWE, who resurrected the event in 2004 before taking it off its pay-per-view scheduled starting in 2010.

The running story throughout the show was whether Bill Goldberg would show up to the arena. Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, the co-leaders of the New Blood, hired a fleet of cops to keep Goldberg off the premises.

Despite a heavy police presence, Goldberg's monster truck kept popping in various spots around the building throughout the night.

Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden were on hand to call the matches.

With that said, let's get to the matches:

WCW World Cruiserweight championship – Lt. Loco def. Disqo

You may not recognize the two gentlemen in this match by the names they were using on this night, but Lt. Loco was the man better known as Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Loco was a member of the Misfits in Action, which was comprised of General Rection (Bill DeMott), Major Stash (Van Hammer), Corporal Cajun (Lash LeRoux) and Major Gunns.

Disqo was better known as Disco Inferno. Why was he simply Disqo? Because the singer Sisqo was very popular at the time due to his tune Thong Song being a smash hit.

Disqo represented the Filthy Animals, which consisted of Konnan, Juventud Guerrera and an unmasked Rey Mysterio.

For whatever reason, Disqo wore a Kobe Bryant jersey to the ring — in Baltimore. I'm not sure if Disqo is a Lakers fan or if he did it to get heat. I don't see how much heat he could have garnered in Baltimore being as though that city has not had an NBA franchise in decades.

That is unless you count the Washington Wizards, who were hot garbage at the time.

An old man went to the ring and attempted to hit on Tygress of the Filthy Animals. Konnan ran over and yelled at him, which caused the poor man to have some sort of cardiac episode and faint.

The referee was distracted by all of this, which allowed members from both sides to get a ton of interference in. Once the dust finally settled, Loco pinned Disqo to pick up the win.

After the match, Gunns gave the old man mouth-to-mouth and brought him back to life, but made sure to take off her shirt first because that was the most important part.

We apparently went through all of this to watch a beautiful woman to put her lips on a dirty old man.

KroniK def. The Mamalukes

One of the Mamalukes walked into the match as the WCW Hardcore champion. For whatever reason, it was not clear who was actually the champion. My brain hurts from all of this unnecessary confusion.

All I know is that Big Vito wore the title around his waist most of the match. I believe Johnny the Bull was officially the champion, but I'm not sure. I honestly do not care.

Big Vito was more worried about the title than his tag team partner and it cost them the match.

Despite the confusion surrounding the title, the match itself wasn't terrible. Too bad it was hampered by a weird creative direction.

Ambulance match – Mike Awesome def. Diamond Dallas Page

Awesome and Page going at it had a lot of potential on paper given the amount of talent both possessed. Unfortunately, their physical talent was grossly overshadowed by the atrocity that was WCW in the year 2000.

Awesome's main focus at this point was "ending" wrestler's careers. He had apparently "ended" Kanyon's career at Slamboree (read my recap of that show here) the month prior after tossing him off that awful triple cage WCW was using.

Kanyon was Page's good friend and the latter sought revenge for Awesome's transgression. Page wanted Kanyon to have a good view of the match, so he brought his friend in a wheel chair before the match. Kanyon sat in the wheelchair while wearing a halo because, you know, his career was over.

For some reason, Page and Awesome sucker punched the referee seconds into the match.

Awesome eventually put Page through a table outside of the ring, which on the surface doesn't seem to be a bad thing, but when you have tables match — a best-of-five tables match at that — later on in the night, there shouldn't be any table spots leading up to it.

After putting Page through the table, paramedics carried over to the stretcher and attempted to wheel him out, but Page rolled off the stretcher to keep the match going.

Awesome took control from there, but eventually missed a frog splash. Just as that happened, Page's soon-to-be ex-wife Kimberly ran down and hit her soon-to-be ex-husband in the back with a lead pipe. Miss Hancock, better known as Stacy Keibler, ran down and dragged Kimberly away.

Page managed to shake off the lead pipe attack to counter Awesome and hit him with the diamond cutter from the top rope.

The EMTs then got Awesome on the stretcher and attempted to wheel him out. Suddenly, Eric Bischoff came out and attempted to hit Kanyon in the face with a steel chair.

Page intercepted that attack but was then oddly betrayed by Kanyon, who miraculously stood up out of his wheel chair and hit Page with the diamond cutter from the stage to the floor.

Kanyon stood up, took off his shirt to reveal that he was a member of the New Blood. Kanyon then placed DDP on the stretcher and allowed Awesome to place him in the ambulance to win the match.

Boot Camp match – GI Bro def. Shawn Stasiak

I have no idea why, but for some reason Booker T had become GI Bro and joined the Misfits in Action. I must have blocked this from my memory because I have a very vague recollection of this ever happening.

Fortunately, Booker T was not stuck with this gimmick for very long, as the very next month Booker T defeated Jeff Jarrett to become the WCW World Heavyweight champion.

At the very least, Booker T had a cool entrance as GI Bro, as he zip-lined into the ring from the top of the arena.

Despite all of that, you're probably still wondering what a Boot Camp match actually was? In short, it was a Last Man Standing match. The only way to lose the match was to be unable to answer a 10-count.

The match was pretty standard. In fact, it was too standard for Baltimore's taste, as the fans chanted "Boring!" throughout the proceedings.

Nothing of importance happened here other than Booker T winning and thankfully moving on to something else.

Best-of-five tables match – Shane Douglas def. The Wall

Before the match, Douglas took the microphone and cursed up a storm while challenging The Wall to a tables match.

But this wasn't going to be just an ordinary tables match. This was going to be a best-of-five tables match. Was this going to be like a five-game series where the first man to put his opponent through three tables won the match?

Not according to Douglas, who asked the fans of Baltimore whether they wanted to see five tables, implying that someone had to go through five of them, which would have made it a best-of-nine.

The Baltimore fans cheered mostly just to see someone go through a bunch of tables.

That brought out The Wall, who beat on Douglas early in the match. The Wall eventually choke slammed Douglas through a table to take a 1-0 lead. Moments later, The Wall side slammed Douglas through another table to take a 2-0 lead.

Despite going through a pair of tables in succession, Douglas was somehow able to stand up and wrestle like nothing had even happened to him.

Unfortunately, the announcers were just as confused as everyone else, as they began speculating whether The Wall was one table away from winning or whether he had to put Douglas through three more tables in order to win.

Either the rules changed during the match or Douglas had no idea what he was talking about before it. This was quintessential WCW right here.

Douglas eventually baited The Wall to fight near the stage where three tables stacked on top of each other. Douglas and The Wall climbed up a ladder, which was where Douglas knocked The Wall off, sending him through three tables to win the match.

So apparently it was like a five-game series after all. Douglas said five tables, which I guess he was not wrong about since a total of five tables were broken during the match.

The Wall just so happened to go through three all at once. The Wall didn't stay down for very long, as he choke slammed the referee through a table after the match.

WWE United States championship (Handicap Asylum match) – Scott Steiner def. Rick Steiner & Tank Abbott

As soon as Russo got to WCW, he began implementing a lot of the same ideas he had been a part of WWE.

In some respects, that was a good idea. Some of those ideas helped WWE overtake WCW as the leader of professional wrestling.

It would be like a basketball team hiring Phil Jackson to be the head coach. That team would want to run the triangle offense.

In this specific instance, however, Russo implementing those ideas were not a good look for WCW, as there was another company using them at the same time and frankly, doing a much better job with them.

A prime example was the Asylum match, which was nearly a carbon copy of Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den match.

Rick Steiner was added to the match at the last minute to make it an even playing field for Abbott since the Asylum was Scott Steiner's signature match if that makes any sense. It doesn't? I figured.

Scott Steiner and Abbott didn't wait for Rick Steiner or for the Asylum to be lowered to begin fighting. Once Rick Steiner made his way to the ring, the Asylum was finally brought down to the ring.

As expected, Rick Steiner and Abbott dominated Scott Steiner.

Abbott was about to punch Scott Steiner with a chain wrapped around his hand, but Rick Steiner told Abbott not to use it. I guess beating up his own brother was cool, but punching him in the face with a chain went a little too far.

Why Rick Steiner suddenly showed pity for the brother he was just beating the daylights out of is beyond me.

Abbott dropped the chain, but then pulled out another one and punched Rick Steiner in the face with it.

Scott Steiner got a hold of a chain and hit Abbott with it. Scott Steiner then locked in the Steiner recliner with the help of a chain to win the match.

Hollywood Hogan def. Billy Kidman

Hulk Hogan's evil nephew Horace was the special guest referee for the match. He was Kidman's friend and was a member of the New Blood.

However, Hulk Hogan said before the match during an interview with "Mean" Gene Okerlund that real blood was thicker than New Blood. Get it?

Apparently, if Hulk Hogan lost the match, he had to leave WCW, which was weird because Ric Flair was also having a retirement match later in the show. I guess two retirement matches weren't too many for WCW.

Hulk Hogan mostly dominated Kidman with the latter getting in spurts of offense. Kidman spent most of the match either getting beat up by Hulk Hogan or yelling at Horace Hogan for not going out of his way to help him.

Kidman's girlfriend Torrie Wilson eventually walked down to the ring and got up on the ring apron to hand Hulk Hogan brass knuckles.

Kidman hit Hulk Hogan from behind, which caused the latter to knock Wilson off the apron. Kidman got a hold of the knuckles and decked Hulk Hogan with them. Kidman covered Hulk Hogan but the former world champion kicked out.

Kidman eventually became fed up with Horace Hogan and hit him with the brass knuckles for what was probably the third or fourth ref bump of the night.

Wilson got back into the ring and hit Kidman in the family jewels, which allowed Hulk Hogan to hit Kidman with the brass knuckles to pick up the victory.

Horace Hogan reunited with his uncle after the match. See? Real blood really is thicker than new blood.

Ric Flair def. David Flair

As I said earlier, if Ric Flair lost to his son, he vowed to retire from professional wrestling.

The Flair family, including WWE's Charlotte Flair, was walked into the front row before the match to witness the family squabble in person.

While the Flair family cheered on the patriarch, Russo accompanied David Flair to the ring. "Little Naitch" Charles Robinson was even the referee for the match.

At one point, Russo handcuffed Ric Flair while the referee was dealing with David Flair, which allowed the young Flair to take control.

Later in the match, the youngest Flair, Reid, hopped over the guardrail to stop Russo from attacking his father. Russo shoved Reid Flair down, but he got right back up and delivered a low blow to Russo.

Reid Flair smartly took the key to the handcuffs from Russo, which allowed Robinson to unlock Flair.

Charlotte, or in this case Ashley, got in on the fray and handcuffed Russo's hands behind his back.

Ric Flair eventually strung together a flurry of offense, locked his son in the figure four and won the match, extending his career in the process. The elder Flair then got his hands on Russo and gave him a chop to the chest.

The rest of the Flair clan joined their victorious patriarch in the ring.

Once they left, Russo got on the microphone and began yelling obscenities at the Flair family.

Human Torch match – Vampiro def. Sting

This was sort of like an Inferno match, but not really.

Instead of fighting in a ring surrounded by fire, Sting and Vampiro had to douse the other in gasoline, fight their way to a torch that was on top of the big screen for some reason and light the other on fire.

Vampiro was able to dump an entire canister of gasoline on Sting and fight his way to the torch.

When they reached the top, Sting's lighting effects came on, which actually created a cool look for the fight the two had on top of the big screen.

When Vampiro grabbed the torch, the lights went completely down, which I guess was in an effort to hide the fact that the man about to be set on fire wasn't actually Sting. The camera even zoomed out.

Vampiro then lit a man that looked like Sting on fire. "Sting" then fell off the big screen and onto a clearly padded portion of the stage below.

WCW had a bunch of people with fire extinguishers run in to put "Sting" out. The only problem was that they were spraying him well after the fire had been put out. It became obvious that it was only done to cover up the fact that it wasn't actually Sting. They quickly covered him up with a blanket and rushed him away

The announcers did their best to sell the severity of it, but I couldn't see how anyone could have taken that seriously.

WCW World Heavyweight championship – Jeff Jarrett def. Kevin Nash

The obscenely expensive Michael Buffer did the ring announcing for this match, but somehow put in less work than Ernest "The Cat" Miller, who came out and announced that the special guest bell ringer was Konnan, the special guest timekeeper was Mysterio, the special guest belt keeper was Disqo and that Guerrera was the special guest ring announcer even though Buffer already had that covered.

Miller then announced himself the special guest enforcer. Obviously, the Filthy Animals were put in place to give an unfair advantage to Jarrett.

The match itself was pretty standard and featured a boatload of interference from the Filthy Animals.

Nash somehow found a way to hold off Jarrett and the Filthy Animals and looked to be in position to pull off the improbable win, but Disqo jumped into the ring and hit the referee for what felt like the 20th ref bump of the night.

Miller jumped into the ring to assume referee duties and did everything in his power to help Jarrett win. Nash eventually had enough of Miller and power bombed him.

Nash power bombed Jarrett and went for a cover. Another referee slid into the ring to make the count, but Rick Steiner pulled him out. That brought out Abbott, which brought out Scott Steiner.

At this point, I had no idea whose side anyone was on.

Amidst all of this chaos, Goldberg drove into the building in a monster truck and marched to the ring. Everyone cleared out of the ring but Jarrett and Nash.

Just as it looked Goldberg was going to spear Jarrett and help Nash, Goldberg speared Nash and officially turned heel and helped Jarrett retain his title.

Bischoff and Russo walked to the ring as fans chanted, "Goldberg sucks!" Goldberg then hugged Russo and Bischoff to reveal that he was a member of the New Blood.

The fans in Baltimore tossed a mound of trash into the ring as the show went off the air.

Vaughn Johnson has a podcast with Nick Piccone called the Straight Shooters on WildfireRadio.com. Check it out here HERE.