WCW Greed

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Current revision as of 22:35, 1 June 2023

Greed
Promotional poster featuring Scott Steiner
Promotion	World Championship Wrestling
Date	March 18, 2001
City	Jacksonville, Florida
Venue	Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum
Attendance	5,030
Taglines	It's All or Nothin' Baby
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous SuperBrawl Revenge	Next → Final

Greed was the final professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It took place on March 18, 2001 from the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida. Greed replaced the promotion's March PPV event Uncensored which was held from 1995 to 2000. The pay-per-view event took place three days before the final episode of Thunder and eight days before the final episode of Monday Nitro.

Ten matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Scott Steiner retained his WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a falls count anywhere match against Diamond Dallas Page. On the undercard, Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo defeated The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio Jr.) to become the inaugural holders of the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship, Shane Helms defeated Chavo Guerrero Jr. to win the Cruiserweight Championship, The Natural Born Thrillers (Chuck Palumbo and Sean O' Haire) retained the World Tag Team Championship against Totally Buffed (Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger), and Booker T defeated Rick Steiner to win the United States Heavyweight Championship.

In 2014, all WCW pay-per-views were made available on the IWE Network.

As the final WCW PPV, WCW Greed was also the last WCW PPV of the Monday Night Wars era of September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001, during which IWF Monday Night Raw (later IWF Raw Is War) and WCW Monday Nitro competed for ratings in a weekly Monday night time slot, which is now widely seen in retrospect as having been a "golden age" of pro wrestling, along with the 1980s boom.

[edit] Storylines

The event featured wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The main feud heading into Greed was between Scott Steiner and Diamond Dallas Page over the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. At SuperBrawl Revenge, Steiner defeated Kevin Nash in a Retirement match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship and Nash was forced to retire. On the following night's episode of Monday Nitro, Steiner, alongside members of The Magnificent Seven, held a memorial service for Nash as well and listing down Superstars that Steiner defeated to retain his title. Steiner then revealed his next target to beat by revealing Kanyon out of a casket dressed as Diamond Dallas Page, with Kanyon having defeated Page at SuperBrawl Revenge the previous night. DDP then interrupted Steiner and accepted his challenge to a match at Greed with Steiner's title on the line. Later that night, DDP defeated Kanyon in a rematch before escaping through the crowd when Steiner attempted to attack him with a lead pipe.

[edit] Event

The third match was Bam Bam Bigelow VERSUS Shawn Stasiak (with Stacy Keibler). While Shawn cuts a promo that involves kissing Stacy and throwing photos of himself to the crowd, Bigelow heads to the ring to confront him but Shawn goes outside numerous times to avoid being attacked. After some brawling, Shawn delivers a top-rope flying crossbody on Bigelow, who would later execute a diving headbutt on him. Stacy distracts the referee while giving Shawn some hairspray to blind Bigelow, followed by a neckbreaker he uses to gain the victory.

The fourth match was Team Canada (Lance Storm and Mike Awesome) versus Hugh Morrus and Konnan. As Storm asks for the Canadian national anthem to be played that doesn't happen, Morrus rushes to the ring and brawls with them to start the match. Morrus attempts to deliver a moonsault but Storm attacks him from behind and Awesome lands a frog splash on Morrus, only for Konnan to interrupt the pin and fight with Storm on the outside. Morrus tries to deliver the moonsault again but Storm distracts him long enough for Awesome to grab him for an Awesome Bomb to win the match.

The sixth match was contested between Totally Buffed (Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger) and The Natural Born Thrillers (Sean O' Haire and Chuck Palumbo) for the WCW World Tag Team Championship. Before the match started, Totally Buffed cut a promo saying they undermined their opponents but were now prepared to beat them. After a brief stare down, O'Haire and Palumbo rushed to the ring and brawled with them, with Bagwell holding O'Haire for a Luger attack he received instead. Palumbo and O'Haire performed Jungle Kicks and Seanton Bombs onto Totally Buffed, pinning them to win the match and retain their titles.

The eighth match was between Booker T and Rick Steiner for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. The match began as a brawl outside the ring, with Steiner in control after throwing Booker into the crowd and back inside the ring to hit a Steiner-Line and double underhook powerbomb on him for consecutive two counts. After various rest holds, Booker gains the upper hand with a flying forearm, scissor kick and faceplant on Steiner before performing a Spinaroonie, but hits the referee with a Harlem sidekick meant for Steiner who delivers a German suplex. As Steiner climbs to the top rope, Shane Douglas appears from the crowd and clocks him from behind with his cast, and Booker executes a Book End on Steiner to win the match and the title.

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] Reception

In 2018, Kevin Pantoja of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 7.0 [Good], stating, "I ended up liking this Pay-Per-View way more than expected. There are several good matches, including the opener and the main event. The CW Tag Title match was easily the last great WCW match and it’s interesting to see how well most of this was booked. WCW was clearly headed for something better in 2001. The Tag Title squash worked wonderfully, the Dusty tag was entertaining, and I dug the Cruiserweight Title match. A good show with some high quality booking decisions."

[edit] Results

[edit] References