Since we last left the WWA only two shows took place however something big happened at the first one. On April 7th Nathan Jones became the WWA Champion defeating Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner and Brian Christopher in a 4 Way Dance. Eddy Guerrero has gone back to the WWF thus vacating the International Cruiserweight Championship. This brings us to…
The Eruption 2002-04-14 (Matches taped 2002-04-13 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Australia)
Champion: Nathan Jones
International Cruiserweight Championship: Vacant
We kick things off we a very uneventful pre show hosted by Jeremy Borash. The only thing worth noting is that they play a video package of Champion Nathan Jones which shows footage of Nathan tagging with Konnan to take on Lenny and Lodi. This is from the tour that took place between 11/27/01 and 12/11/01.
Our PPV opens up with a limo pulling up to the arena. Jeff Jarrett comes out and Jeremy Borash, WWA owner Andrew McManus and some other guy meet him and let him know that commission Sid has banned him from the arena. Jeff promises that he’ll be back.
Opening video.
Borash is with Disco Inferno on commentary tonight. There is a ridiculous looking giant volcano at the entrance ramp, cause The Eruption ya know. It looks like something WCW would have in like 1991. The volcano oozes lava and some shitty has fire works go off. Also like WCW in 1991. Sid pulls up in a limo.
The ring announcer tries to hype the crowd up and welcomes them to the “extravaganga”. He announces the commentators and then looks for them to come down the aisle even though they are already sitting at ringside. HAHA we get shots of them and Borash looks pretty mad.
AJ Styles vs. Nova
Nova wants a hand shake but AJ kicks his hand away. These guys were the last two in the 6 man last time. This is a tournament match for the Cruiserweight title. AJ gets shoulder blocked down but springs up into a rana. Nova hits the weakest looking double power bombs and then throws AJ onto his face from the power bomb position. Nova with a gut buster. We learn that this is a four man tournament. AJ comes back and hits a spin kick. Nova misses a swanton. Nova goes for the kryptonite crunch but AJ fights out and hits styles clash for 3 in 4.02.
Scott Steiner and Midajah are walking around backstage.
The Starettes dance in the ring for like 5 seconds. Useless.
Clips of Jerry Lynn attacking Eddy Guerrero from last month.
Commissioner Sid comes to the ring still using a cane from his injury back in January of 2001 when he touched the chest and felt the power of Scott Steiner (look up the promo it’s great). Sid talks about about tonight’s main event of Steiner versus Champion Nathan Jones.
Chucky vs. Jerry LynnChucky with a body scissors that sends Lynn to the floor and he follows with a spring board dive. Back in the ring Lynn hits a cradle piledriver for the quick win in 1.08.
Puppet is back stage yelling at some guy. He has a wall of tools that he says he is going to us on Teo. Puppet has a head shaped like Frankenstein.
Puppet vs. Teo
Puppet talks shit to the crowd but Teo hits the ring and the match is on. Teo hits a head butt to the balls. Puppet fights back and sets up some chairs in the ring and then he slams Teo onto them. Borash says that Puppet is park of a traveling side show where for “$1 you can lick a midget for free”. Apparently Borash doesn’t know the meaning of the word free. Puppet hits a TKO but Teo gets right up and Puppet stays down. Hmmm. Teo with a blockbuster for 2. Puppet sets up a garbage can in the corner and whips Teo into it then hits a vader bomb splash. Teo fights back and hits a swinging neck beaker then comes off the top with a swanton for 2. Teo puts the garbage can on Puppet then nails it with a chair. Teo goes and gets a ladder climbs it and then splashes Puppet who is still in the trash can and gets the win in 5.21. There match last time was much better.
Queen Bee from Penthouse is in her dressing room getting ready for her evening gown match. Her opponent Madajah is backstage and Teo shows up fresh off his victory and his wearing Steiner’s chainmail. He calls her a freak and says he is the real big bad booty daddy. She rips it off of him and he runs away.
Buff Bagwell & Stevie Ray vs. Ernest Miller & Brian Christopher
Christopher goes from main event to this? Disco talks about Christopher being a giant spaz and won’t stop talking about Buff begin the son of Judy Bagwell haha. Christopher with a bulldog and then he tags Miller. Double back elbow floors Bagwell. Miller with some karate stuff. Disco wonders why the back of Miller’s shirt says “somebody call my momma” but doesn’t display a phone number. Swinging neck breaker by Buff and in tags Stevie. HAHA Disco says Stevie can rip a mans heart out with him even bleeding. Stevie beats on Miller but Miller makes the tag. Christopher comes in and hits a DDT. Stevie though catches him coming off the top and slams him down. Stevie just throws Christopher in the air and Christopher lands on his ass. “The Tushy Bomb” as Disco calls it. Buff tags in and we get a double clothesline. Both teams tag. Miller fires away with some more karate on both Buff and Stevie. Stevie cuts him off with a clothesline. But then hits a pump kick on Buff by accident. Christopher and Miller clothesline Stevie out of the ring and then hit a double chokeslam on Buff. Christopher goes up top and almost falls to his death but manages to hit the hip hop drop for 3 in 8.07. After the match Christopher, Miller the Staretts and a bunch of kids “dance” in the ring. Disco can’t stand the awful dancing so he gets in and dances. Of course Miller and Christopher attack him and even tell the kids to get some stomps in. This was really bad.
The Funkster is backstage and he cuts a promo on Pierre Oulette. Funkster says “brother” like 100 times. I enjoy this.
Alan Funk vs. Pierre Oullette
Pierre “sings” the canadian national anthem except I don’t even think he’s saying words. Funk comes out to “Eye of the Tiger”. Pierre attacks to start the match. Disco tries to figure out who Funk reminds him of. Funk does a great Hogan impression with his mannerisms being dead on. Pierre with a press slam into a powerslam for 2. Sleeper by Pierre. Funk breaks out but then gets thrown to the floor. Funk spring boards off the second rope into a sunset flip. Pierre hits a nasty looking suplex and then gets a 2 count after a top rope leg drop. Pierre with a running sit out power bomb but he doesn’t go for a pin. Pierre heads up top again and hits the cannonball and almost gets the 3 count. Funk hulks up. Disco decides that Funk reminds him of Bobby Eaton. Funk with a tilt a whirl face plant. Pierre comes back and hits an avalanche but Funk reverses an irish whip. Big boot, piledriver and leg drop end things in 6.15. Disco changes his mind and now he says Funk is a young Barry Windham, haha. I enjoyed the match.
The Nathan Jones package that aired during the preshow is shown again.
Scott Steiner hits the ring with Madajah and he has a mic! He talks about all the freaks that went down under and reached nirvana. Cricket is a sissified sport or so says Steiner. Steiner says he is going to beat up people in the crowd after he beats Jones. Jones comes out and says everyone there wants him to kick Steiner’s ass. Steiner tells Jones to come down now so they can have the match. Sid comes out and tells him to wait tip later tonight. Sid adds himself to the match as the enforce at ringside.
Clips from the six man cruiserweight match from last PPV. Not really sure why. This was also on the pre show.
AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn
Championship gold goes to the winner of the match here. Some nice back and forth as they each block and reverse each others moves. Lynn finally able to hit a hard clothesline followed by a back breaker for 2. AJ back flips out of a german attempt and hits a rana. Lynn comes back and goes for a suplex but AJ flips out of it and hits the springboard moonsault into the inverted DDT for 2. Superkick by AJ but Lynn kicks out. Styles goes for a tornado DDT but Lynn blocks it and then northern lights AJ into the turnbuckle! AJ able to dump Lynn onto the floor and he hits a somersault dive onto the floor. Lynn reverses a power bomb into a rana. He goes for the cradle piledriver but AJ reverses it and we go into a series of about 20 pin attempts. Lynn hits a german and AJ lands on the side of his shoulder. Looked pretty painful. Both men down now. Back up AJ blocks suplex and picks up Lynn in a suplex but then turns it into a neck breaker. Lynn slides out of a running power bomb and hits a sit out bomb of his own for 2. Lynn spikes AJ down with the cradle piledriver for 2. AJ fights back and hits the styles clash and gets a near fall. Both men are exhausted after 11 minutes of wrestling. AJ goes up top but Lynn knocks him down and heads up with him. Styles blocks a superplex and pushes Lynn down. AJ comes off the top with a corkscrew senton for the win in 11.30. They shake hands as AJ holds up his newly won International Cruiserweight Championship. Sick finish to a good match.
Devon Storm Sabu video package.
Cage Match: Devon Storm vs. Sabu
Pinfall or submission cage match here. Storm hits a release german early on. Sabu with a nice looking springboard DDT for 2. Borash talks about who these two have been having great matches on the tour. Sabu with two springboard leg lariats. Sabu goes for a rana but Storm holds him up and then rams his back into the cage twice. Sabu on the apron and Storm drops kicks him and Sabu goes face first into the cage HARD. Sabu busted open. Snap suplex and Storm hits a splash off the top. Sabu fights back and hits a superrana. Storm now sent into the cage and Sabu stabs Storm with an object. Sabu’s back also bleeding from when his back was slammed into the cage. They go up top and Storm hits a super release northern lights suplex! Storm calls for a chair and someone just throws on in the ring to him. Why is some random employee getting involved in the match? Storm uses the chair and hits a northern lights onto it for 2. Sabu fights back and throws the chair into Storms face. Two air Sabus follow. Arabian face buster and Sabu misses a moonsault of the top of the cage as the crowd breaks out the “holy shit” chant. DVD on the chair gets 2. Storm leaves the cage and grabs a piece of guardrail. He puts it on the ring steps and another piece of guardrail. Sabu follows him out and dives through the cage door. Sabu gets out a table which allows Storm to recover and drop Sabu on the guard rail. Suplex onto the rail, that looked painful. Storm stacks up two tables. Sabu gets DDTed on the floor and then put on the top table. Storm nails him with a chair and then goes into the ring. The crowd beings to cheer as they know whats about to happen. Storm climbs to the top of the cage and puts Sabu through the tables with a splash!!!! They manage to get back up and Sabu sets a table up in the ring and then goes to get Storm but has the door slammed on his head. Storm nails Sabu with the chair a few times but then Sabu throws a fireball in his face! Sabu throws the chair at Storm and puts him the table. Sabu goes up to the top of the cage and hits a moonsault but the table doesn’t break so he goes back up and hits a leg drop through the table for the pin in 17.04. This match was pretty kick ass.
Evening Gown Match: Midajah vs. Queen Bee
Things happen then Midajah hits a body slam and takes off the dress for the win in 2.20. Puppet and Teo hit the ring and take off Midajah’s dress and she chases them away.
Champion: “Front Row” Nathan Jones vs. Scott Steiner (w/ Midajah)
Sid is at ringside getting ready to enforce and stuff. They shoulder block each other to try and show off who is stronger. Jones wins that battle and Steiner bails to the floor. Back in the ring Steiner takes control and sends Jones to the floor. Jones comes back into the ring with a slingshot clothesline from the apron for 2. Steiner with a jaw breaker but Jones comes right back and hits ten corner punches. Steiner just grabs Jones and pushes him over the top rope out of the ring. Jones looked like he took a nasty spill. On the out side Jones gets sent into and through the guard rail! In the ring Steiner hits a back breaker followed the by clothesline, flex and drop the elbow combo. Steiner starts doing push ups. Belly to belly gets 2. Steiner stretches the arms of Jones’ behind his back in a surfboard. Jones fights up but Steiner hits a low blow and a release northern lights. Sharpshooter by Steiner but Jones gets to the ropes. Bearhug by Steiner and when Jones tries to break out of it Steiner hits an overhead belly to belly. Jones ducks a line and hits a side slam and both men are down. Jones fights off Steiner and then goes up top but falls and misses a clothesline. HAHAHAHAHHAH Steiner sells it anyway even though it was his legs that got hit. Jones goes for a chokeslam but Midajah jumps on his back. Jones throws her off allowing Steiner to hit Jones with the belt while the ref and Sid are checking on her. Steiner covers and puts his feet on the rope so Sid tells the ref to stop counting. Steiner goes out and jaws with Sid. Back in Jones with a few roll ups for 2 counts. Steiner hits a slam and comes off the second rope but Jones catches him and hits a chokeslam but Midajah jumps on the ref to stop the count. Sid into the ring and he goes for a power bomb on her but other refs come out to stop him. Steiner hits Jones with the belt again and locks in the Steiner recliner. Jones passes out and Steiner is our new WWA Champion in 14.44. Sid comes in and says he will raise Steiner’s hand. He says that he wants a chance at the title. Steiner says the only chance he will have is to get his leg broken again. Steiner leaves and then comes all the way back out to the ring just to tell Sid he will shove his cane up his ass.
My thoughts on the show…
A pretty decent show here. The Styles/Nova match was a little to short to really get going but was good for what it was. The tag match was just awful with all four guys just totally sucking in the ring. I liked the three matches before the main event. The cage match being my favorite of those. The main event was ok. Obviously we weren’t going to get anything great from these guys but it was watchable yet again though we get a total clusterfuck of a finish.
– After Eruption WWA would take another hiatus until the very end of November. When they came back Sid was gone and Champion Scott Steiner had signed with the WWE. Cruiserweight Champion AJ Styles was also absent from the tour. Mike Sanders was brought in as the new commissioner and Sting and Lex Luger would join the company. There were five shows before the next PVV. Luger and Sting would be on opposing sides for the first two and the fifth while Luger was not at the other two.
