WCW Saturday Night Tapings - Tuesday, February 16, 1999

WCW Saturday Night Tapings
Tuesday, February 16, 1999

From Lakeland, FL

By Aldo

WCW held a tapings show for its WCW Saturday Night and Worldwide shows in Lakeland, about 75 minutes from where I live. Having never gone to these shows, I'd thought I would check it out.
The following is my pre-show and post-show experiences, as well as the match results. Don't worry about anything being spoiled, as Bill waited for all the tapings to be aired before posting this report. Furthermore, anyone who goes to a Saturday Night taping will experience happenings similar to what I encountered.

The show itself was not scheduled to start until 7:00 P.M. EDT, with the doors opening an hour before. In the parking lot, Norman Smiley was signing autographs and chumming with the fans. I managed to get an autograph and a picture taken. What can I say, I'm a Smiley mark. :)
The WCW employee area was zoned off with cones, so the fans could only walk so far before being stopped by security. In the zoned off area, Ernest Miller sat down at a bench and talked to some of the backstage workers. He acknowledged some fans by raising three fingers to indicate that he was a former three-time karate champion.
Smiley, Kidman, Brian Adams, and several luchadores (one of them suspiciously built like Rey Mysterio, Jr.) walked to a yellow Ferrari that looked awfully familiar....
Sonny Onoo also greeted the fans while talking on a cell phone.
Juventud Guerrera also waved to the fans as he walked towards his car.
Dean Malenko also made himself visible, sitting at the same table that Miller did.
Coming to the door, Doug Dillenger was seen directing traffic. I was told that the ticket takers would be checking our signs, but mine was never checked. For the record, I brought a sign that said "WWW.DDTDIGEST.COM." (Gee, wonder why...) If you see a short guy in a green shirt hold up such a sign, chances are you saw me.
The price of a large popcorn and a medium soft drink is $5.25.
The Lakeland Center itself was sectioned off, with part of the arena curtained for the backstage. For this show, it looked like there were around 4,000 seats or so. The ringside and lower tiers were packed, but the upper rafters looked like a ghost town in Wyoming. My seat was directly to the left side of the ring in a lower tier seat.
David Penzer came out and did his spiel, which led to...

Dark Match Opener: The Border Patrol defeated El Dandy and Barry Horowitz after The Border Patrol applied a 3D-type maneuver on the ropes.
- The Border Patrol were two tall, built blonde guys in shirts with a "BP" insignia. I thought they were representing the British Petroleum company, myself.
- Seeing El Dandy and Barry Horowitz, two guys that have gotten wins in WCW, lose to The Border Patrol was a shocker to me.
Match #1: Lash LeRoux pinned Bobby Blaze after the Whiplash.
- The crowd was calling LeRoux "Carrottop" during the match.
Match #2: Barbarian (w/ Jimmy Hart) made Hector Garza submit to an armbar.
- I was waiting for the Kick of Fear, but I got an armbar instead.
Match #3: Hugh Morrus (w/ Jimmy Hart) pinned Dave Taylor after the No Laughing Matter.
- It's interesting how Jimmy Hart brings out Barbarian and gets booed, yet with Hugh Morrus he is well-received.
Match #4: Fit Finlay pinned El Dandy after the Tombstone Piledriver.
- Small "Finlay Sucks" chant erupted.
- El Dandy is 0-2 tonight thus far.
Penzer announced that the Cruiserweight Title would be defended tonight, which got a good pop.
Match #5: Chavo Guerrero, Jr. pinned Ciclope after the Tornado DDT.
- I made an attempt to get a "Chavo" chant going, but failed miserably.
Match #6: Mike Enos pinned Barry "Hole-In-One" Darsow after hitting him with a golf club while the referee was down.
- This was a candidate for most entertaining match of the night.
- The crowd popped for Enos and Darsow threatening each other with golf clubs.
- The crowd popped even more when Enos broke Darsow's putter.
- Lucky ringside fans got to feel spit from Darsow's mouth when he was elbowed by Enos.
- The referee took a bump late in the match, falling out of the ring. This set up the finish.
Match #7: James Fullington pinned Bull Payne after a Russian Legsweep.
- Bull Payne was already in the ring when the tape machines started to roll.
More announcements hyping the appearances of The Cat, Smiley and his "big wiggle," and Perry Saturn. The crowd booed for The Cat, but cheered the latter two.
Match #8: Psychosis pinned Villano V following a gullotine legdrop.
Match #9: Jerry Flynn made Disciple submit to a cross-armbreaker.
- I was ready to all-out boo Flynn until I saw his opponent. Needless to say, I was actually CHEERING Flynn after the submission win. Just goes to show you how much I despise Ed Leslie.
- The crowd didn't like this match much, either. Some "Boring" chants could be heard.
Match #10: Brian Adams (w/ Horace) pinned Bobby Eaton after a piledriver.
- Adams' piledriver is probably the worst-looking in the business, next to Owen Hart's, of course.
Penzer mentions that Konnan and Rey Mysterio, Jr. will be in action later, heating up the crowd. The cruiserweight title match is next!
Match #11: Kidman pinned Scott Armstrong following the Shooting Star Press.
- As much as I like Scott Armstrong, I wonder what he did to get that shot. Great match, though.
Penzer announces that Chris Jericho will be wrestling tonight.
Match #12: Norman Smiley made Damian submit to the Norman Conquest.
- Damian screwed up on his entrance, so it was re-shot.
- The crowd went nuts when Smiley did the SMBU.
Penzer told the audience to cheer for a length of two minutes to film the opening segment of the show.
Penzer then told the crowd to boo for two minutes. The cheers and boos were most likely done for the heat machine that is added in during post-production. Being the wise-ass that I am, I started cheering while the crowd booed. :)
Match #13: Jerry Flynn made Dave Burkhead submit to a cross-armbreaker.
- This was a total squash that lasted barely two minutes. Burkhead got no offense in.
Match #14: The Cat pinned Steve Armstrong following a roundhouse kick.
- The lights dimmed and the lasers started shooting for half a minute before the footage began.
- While The Cat was walking to the ring, the sound guy kept messing with his theme.
- The Cat had some good heat during his mic work.
- Steve Armstrong got a HUGE pop when he gave The Cat five seconds to get his butt out of Lakeland.
- Post-match, The Cat left to Glacier's old music.
Match #15: Stevie Ray and Vince(nt) defeated Disorderly Conduct following Stevie Ray's Slapjack.
- During this match, I chanted "Virgil," in reference to Vince(nt)'s last gimmick in the WWF. Shortly after, a fan in the upper tier started chanting Virgil, also. I felt like collecting royalties, but I decided to be nice. :)
Match #16: Perry Saturn pinned Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker following the Death Valley (Spicolli) Driver.
- This match made it painfully aware that the only way Saturn can draw heat is to wear that dress of his.
Match #17: Erik Watts pinned Silver King following a reverse Russian Legsweep.
- I'm wondering if it's the same Erik Watts we all know and love, myself. He was quite built and stood no smaller than 6'4" in the ring.
- Until near the end, this match got no heat whatsoever.
Match #18: Van Hammer pinned Johnny Swinger following the Flashback.
Match #19: Meng pinned Kendell Windham with the Tongan Death Grip.
- This match made it painfully aware that Meng needs to take classes in selling moves. He ranks down there with Disciple himself.
Match #20: Juventud Guerrera pinned Lenny Lane following the Juvydriver.
- No Corporate Legdrop this time, but Lane made his job into a fun match.
Match #21: Konnan and Rey Mysterio, Jr. defeated Lodi and Al Greene after Rey hit his top-rope frankensteiner.
- Konnan is definitely over in Lakeland.
- Lodi sign shown before footage began: "It's a Lodi Down Dirty Shame."
- On the back: "Tag Champs."
- For the finish, Mysterio did his top-rope frankensteiner and got the pin while Konnan locked on the Tequila Sunrise.
Match #22: Booker T defeated Chris Jericho by DQ when Disco Inferno interfered.
- While the crowd raised the roof for Booker, Jericho motioned the crowd to simmer down.
- When Disco ran in and attacked Booker T, Saturn came in and dealt with Jericho.
- Booker started to no-sell Disco's offense and opened a can on him.
- Saturn and Jericho ended up fighting near the backstage area.
Match #23: In a "Special Challenge Match," Meng defeated Barbarian (w/ Jimmy Hart) by DQ when Hart interfered.
- The ensuing brawl between the former partners lasted for at least three minutes after the bell until the Referee's Union #839 was able to separate the two.
Dark Match Main Event: Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit made David Sierra and Ricky Santana submit to the Texas Cloverleaf and Crippler Crossface.
- A very lackluster match for what was actually a good show. It lasted about two minutes.
- Benoit and Malenko got little offense in this match.
- The finish was set up by the heels being whipped into each other and the Horsemen applying their respective finishers.

Post-show, my friends and I paid a visit to the backstage area, which was mobbed by the autograph-hungry fans.
Malenko, David Penzer, and Barbarian all walked out without signing anything. Malenko even looked like he shoved a fan to the side.
Booker T was flanked by security as he walked to his vehicle, but he managed to shake some hands at his car.
What these marks did not realize was that these wrestlers worked for three hours and wanted to get the hell out of there. Yet, hundreds of fans yelled for signatures, anyway.
Shortly after, we made way to my car, knowing that the wrestlers were tired and just wanting some peace.
Overall Thoughts:
- This was a fun show. Nowhere near the level of excellence that ECW's Guilty As Charged achieved, but the action was good, and everything moved at a fast pace. It was certainly better than the February 15^th Nitro held in nearby Tampa, in which I did not attend.
  While I've vowed to myself never to attend a live Nitro or Thunder ever again, (see my June 29, 1998 arena report for detailed reasons behind this) I would not mind attending another TV Taping or house show in the future. You can bet that I'd report on those, as well.

WCW Saturday Night Tapings Tuesday, February 16, 1999

From Lakeland, FL

By Aldo

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WCW Saturday Night Tapings
Tuesday, February 16, 1999