WCW has offered plenty of questionable PPV events throughout their history, especially in the last few years of the company’s existence when things were getting desperate and bizarre. Spring Stampede had been quite a strong event during the 1990s, with the 1994 and 1999 events in particular standing out as pretty great shows.
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Things weren’t entirely the same when it came to the 2000 show though, and it ended up being disastrously bad despite some top names being on the card. There are several things that fans should show about this event, from the awful to the not-so-terrible, and much more.
10 Last United Center PPV Until Forbidden Door 2022
The United Center is a huge arena and one which feels perfect for more major professional wrestling events. WCW’s Spring Stampede 2000 though was the last wrestling PPV show to be held there for over twenty years, with WWE surprisingly never running the venue.
It wasn’t until AEW came along and hosted Forbidden Door 2022 in Chicago’s United Center that a wrestling PPV finally made its return to the arena. WCW didn’t fill out the arena though it must be said, given their bad business at the time.
9 WCW Reboot
Spring Stampede 2000 is mostly known for the fact that it began the WCW reboot. WCW was a complete mess at the time, and this led to Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff “rebooting” the company in a crazy decision.
Every title was vacated, which felt like a slap in the face to many of the champions and to the importance of those belts, and the roster was given somewhat of a slight refresh (though it was mostly the same faces). Of course, this only made things worse in the end for WCW. It was an act of desperation for sure.
8 A Show Of Tournaments
Due to WCW’s reboot stripping all champions of the titles, this led to title matches being littered all over this PPV, and in the case of both the United States Title and World Tag Team Titles, show-long tournaments.
This meant for a card of 14 matches, many of which were very short due to wrestlers working multiple times in one night. There was only one match on the entire PPV which lasted for longer than 10 minutes due to the layout of the bout.
7 New Blood Vs. Millionaire’s Club
With WCW’s attempts at creating a new product with their reboot, it saw the creation of two stables - The New Blood and The Millionaire’s Club, and the feud between the two sides was felt all over the show. The New Blood was made up of younger names and those who had been sitting on the sidelines, frustrated at the veteran Millionaire Club members for stealing the spotlight for so long.
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The New Blood were heels, and many of their members (by hook or by crook) became champions on the show. WCW’s attempt to create gang warfare was one final push to try and boost interest in the product, trying to recapture the magic of the nWo and perhaps also of WWE’s Corporation. It didn’t work.
6 Dustin Rhodes Gets Fired
The likes of Bischoff and Russo wanted New Blood members to end the night with all WCW’s titles around their waists. However, Dustin Rhodes’ interference inadvertently led to Terry Funk beating Norman Smiley for the WCW Hardcore Championship.
New Blood’s leadership didn’t take kindly to this, and Rhodes was fired during the PPV. Rhodes legitimately parted ways with WCW, not returning until the following year.
5 Hulk Hogan Nearly Gets Shot
Hulk Hogan didn’t wrestle on the Spring Stampede event after previously being involved in a kayfabe car accident, orchestrated by Eric Bischoff. Hogan’s presence was still felt on the show though, discharging himself from hospital, attacking Billy Kidman, and confronting Bischoff backstage.
Despite professional wrestling being a world in which wrestlers have fought anywhere in the arena and authority figures have been physically involved, law enforcement chose this moment to PULL THEIR GUNS on Hogan in a crazy moment. Would they have shot Hogan had he got too close? It was weird.
4 Vampiro Pulls An Undertaker
The Undertaker made the spot of appearing from underneath the ring and dragging someone underneath famous. However, even when he repeated the spot over the years, it was never as good and felt progressively more goofy. No one else successfully pulled it off, Vampiro included.
After losing to Sting earlier in the night, Vampiro took his revenge and dragged Sting through the ring. It didn’t look very scary though. Vampiro did something to Sting before pushing him back up into the match to allow Scott Steiner to pick up the victory.
3 Referee Leniency
One aspect of Spring Stampede that was supposed to give WCW a fresh coat of paint was “referee leniency”, which was supposed to be incorporated into the show according to commentary. For a company with so much chaos and DQs, this had promise.
However, this was inconsistent throughout the night, as sometimes referees called for a DQ, and at others things were just allowed to unravel, such as when Hulk Hogan attacked Billy Kidman. There was no logic to anything that happened when it came to referees on this event.
2 One Of The Worst PPV Matches Ever
Not every match at Spring Stampede was focused upon crowning a new champion, as manager Jimmy Hart took on TV and radio personality Mancow in a torrid celebrity match.
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It was a complete mess with neither man really able to do much in the ring. The only saving grace was that it was over in under five minutes, but it was still among the most WCW PPV matches ever (and that is saying something).
1 Kimberly’s Heel Turn
WCW couldn’t help themselves. On a show that was supposed to reboot the company ended up with yet another screwy “shock” finish in the main event. Kimberly turned on her husband Diamond Dallas Page at the end of the match.
This heel turn led to Jeff Jarrett winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a moment which was supposed to bring about a new era, but instead it showed that things were still exactly the same.
