The Dark Carnival (The Great Muta and Vampiro) vs. KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) for the WCW World Tag Team Titles – WCW New Blood Rising – August 13th, 2000

Sometimes, I pick a match that I think is exemplary of an era. Boy, does this one scream WCW 2000. The Dark Carnival, comprised of the legendary Great Muta and the…we’ll go with controversial Vampiro make their way to the ring. Muta had already lost a match against Ernest “The Cat” Miller that night, but I suppose that can’t keep a good oni down. Vampiro has had an easier night, though he and Muta decided to attack Sting, and garnered the attention of KroniK who ran in to save the icon. Did I mention that KroniK already wrestled a championship match earlier in the evening? That was a Four-Corners match wherein the Filthy Animals reffed. Oh, and The Dark Carnival interfered in that one too. And Chavo, who was not one of the refs, put on a ref shirt and counted the three. So, KroniK won anyway, and were the champions going into the second half of the show.

Oof, I’m already exhausted. I don’t know how these guys had the energy.

So, now we have a grudge match which was at least thoroughly established. In the ring were four veterans. The Great Muta’s matches both in Japan and the U.S. had established him as a threat to anyone on the roster, but his American reputation was built around his rivalry with the equally face-painted Sting. While Vampiro was not a huge star in the U.S., his reputation from Mexico followed him to WCW and they were intending to use him as a player in the years to come. Bryan Clark had been on the mid-card for many years, as the colorful Adam Bomb in WWF and as the Mortal Kombat inspired Wrath in WCW. And then, Brian Adams. Adams was one of those guys who was an absolute constant in professional wrestling, but never quite got to the top for long. In the WWF, he wrestled as Crush. Crush itself is an interesting character, one that had at least four distinct personas over its tenure. In WCW, he first appeared as a member of the nWo. Certainly a logical addition, but one that tends to be forgotten when the history of that group is recounted. He fell into the later era, where the group had already ballooned. This type of line-up is typical for the promotion at this point: Plenty of good talent, almost no direction. The match itself is fine, I guess. A little short. Obviously no one is fresh but KroniK does their cool big guy stuff, Vampiro and Muta make it look great and are surprisingly energetic.

But then, WCW 2000 strikes again.

The Harris Brothers come from the crowd, allowing The Dark Carnival to win. Sorry, I ruined it, but its part of what this match, and this era, is. I kept this one short because that’s how it feels, all this information, all this fury and almost no pay off. It is a cautionary tale of where wrestling can go when creative starts to lose track of they’re their.

If you’d like a taste of WCW’s dying days, this match can be found on the WWE Network.