World Championship Wrestling had what was on paper its most successful weekend in at least a year, drawing three consecutive sellouts, largely very enthusiastic fans, and selling out of all merchandise in the United Kingdom.
While the gates were huge, the reaction to the shows by the time they were over was typical of the WCW shoot yourself in the foot tour 2000. Birmingham drew 11,812 paying $383,976. London drew 10,450 paying $375,411 and Manchester drew 16,318 (which had a few thousand empty seats which were technical holds so the building itself was sold out of available seats) paying $447,436. WCW didn't seem fit to even announce this level of success on television when they came home. On the surface, that would seem like great news, and WCW has planned a return for November. But reports indicate the crowds were hot to see a big show, and WCW brought out all the trappings such as the pyro, the Nitro Girls along with injured stars like Bret Hart, Buff Bagwell and Kevin Nash, but reports from the shows were strongly negative across the board at the wrestling itself, and the fact that the perceived top guys like Sting, Bill Goldberg (who were both on the tickets themselves) and Sid Vicious weren't there. Goldberg, Page, Sting, Scott Hall and Billy Kidman were all either advertised ahead of time as being on the tour or listed as being there in the program.
Hart was clearly the biggest star on the tour, getting huge reactions for interviews in all three cities, with loud chants for both himself and Owen Hart. Hart received a standing ovation in London, talking about his 1992 match in Wembley Stadium with Davey Boy Smith which he said was his best match of his career, and strongly hinted on the final night that this would be his last appearance ever in the U.K. and was visibly choked up about it. Hart in Birmingham talked about his 1997 match in the same building against Undertaker. In Birmingham he said that he was advised not to fly, but had waited three years to come back to England and said he would wrestle if there was any way he wouldn't be putting himself at serious risk by doing so. He then said he didn't want to wind up like Muhammad Ali or not be able to remember all the good times he's had throughout his career. He actually brought up his memory losses from his latest concussion and how it scared him into reality and ended by saying this may be goodbye forever, getting a hue standing ovation.
Most reports indicated that Vampiro got the loudest response of WCW in-ring wrestlers every night, something of a surprise since he's only started getting pushed on television. The main event all three nights were a disappointment. On the first night, they used Ric Flair vs. Curt Hennig on top, and from all indications, they had a good technical match that the crowd wasn't into, with lots of "Goldberg" chants and even chants for Sid Vicious and overall the two not getting heat. After the match, Lex Luger and Elizabeth did a run-in, leaving Bagwell to make the save and the show actually ended with Bagwell in the ring with his music playing, saying "You didn't get Goldberg and you didn't get Sting, but you got Buff and he's the stuff." Needless to say, that interview wasn't exactly well received by the audience. The second night in London, the main event started as Lex Luger vs. Booker, which ended when Flair and Hennig both interfered and commissioner Kevin Nash turned it into a tag match. There were no chants for Goldberg because the fans were told when the card started it would be an eight match show, and if the Luger vs. Booker match which turned into a tag was counted as two matches, it was, but most of the audience assumed there was still a main event to follow, and when there wasn't, they left disappointed. Nash, who has dropped the amnesia Commissioner Gordon gimmick, was on crutches despite being on two major television shows promoting the tour walking around and acting fine. They put Flair & Luger vs. Vampiro & Hennig in the middle of the card in Manchester (even then, Vampiro was the only wrestler really over with the crowd except for Bagwell doing the run-in at the finish) on the final night, with Bagwell interfering leading to Hennig pinning Flair while at the same time Luger pinned Vampiro. This led to a hugely disappointing main event, headlined by local boxer Steve "The Viking" Foster working as outside the ring second ref for the Mamalukes tag title defense against the Harris Twins. The match had no heat and lots of missed spots with fans filing out as it was going on. Ron Harris actually grabbed the house mic and ripped on the fans for not caring about the match. Reports were the match was terrible. Foster, who weights about 168 pounds today, a local level boxer who in 1997 once challenged for the WBO light middleweight title, using a right hook to floor Ron Harris and fast counted the pin after the first ref was bumped. Foster, we're told, wasn't a big enough name to actually help sell tickets and most of the fans in attendance didn't even know who he was.
The first night in Birmingham, Nash came out in a wheelchair and ordered Elizabeth to the back before a Luger vs. Vampiro match with Luger won with the rack, when Elizabeth showed back up and hit Vampiro with the bat. Nash was said to be embarrassing, badly slurring his words. Nash also ordered Elizabeth away from the ring on the third night, again on crutches.
The tour also featured several Nitro girls, including Miss Hancock performing in that guise doing her distracting the wrestlers routine, in addition to being Skye dancing as a Nitro girl in a totally different outfit. Jeff Jarrett missed the first night of the tour, apparently because he had lost his passport and before the problems could be cleared up he had to take a later flight. Vicious wasn't there. According to WCW sources it was because he's not allowed in the country due to the Arn Anderson incident in 1993 when they got into a very serious fight while on tour, however in 1996 while working for the WWF, he did appear in England. Vicious was doing autograph shows in the U.S. over the weekend.
In a funny segment in London, Jim Duggan got the crowd chanting "USA" in his match against U.K. wrestler David Finlay but it didn't go over as well in Birmingham which had a younger audience that didn't remember Duggan from the WWF days as well. In Birmingham for the main event, Michael Buffer announced Hennig as a "six-time world champion."
