April 11th, 2004
From Docklands Stadium in Melbourne, Australia
Attendance: 51,167
Announce Team: "The Professor" Mike Tenay and Bret "The Hitman" Hart 
Joining Tony Schiavone, Don Callis and Maria Kanellis on tonight’s panel are special guests King Corino and Brian Kendrick
On the Worldwide Live pre-show: Colt Cabana defeated Michael Modest, King Corino and Prince Devitt defeated The Mighty Don’t Kneel and The Shooting Stars defeated Aaron Stevens and Chris Hero.
I incorporated the UWA Welterweight title when we bought Michinoku Pro solely to do this title unification match. The plan for the match was Knoble winning and unifying the titles, but New Japan made him an offer that I chose not to match, so obviously that plan changed. TAKA won this match that had really nice in-ring action but a lack of psychology, getting the clean pin with the Michinoku Driver in a hot opener. Afterwards he and manager Tammy Sytch held up both belts in celebration.
The panel discussed the TV title match, and Kendrick said he was going to be taking “his” title back very soon.
Veteran champion against a guy making his TV debut in a match that didn’t get any promotion? Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But Shinsuke Nakamura isn’t just any debuting talent. There’s a sense of destiny around him, as Mike and I made sure to promote on commentary. Hayabusa missed a Firebird Splash and then got trapped in a cross armbreaker that forced him to tap out.
Lance Storm wished CM Punk luck in his locker room and promised to watch his back in case Salvation tried anything. Then Lance got a call from an “old friend”, and reacted with surprise when said friend told him he was coming to WCW.
The match between AJ Styles and Enigma would be the finale of the UFS if Enigma won it for the Dead Jesters; if AJ won it would pull the Rated R Superstars even at 2-2-1, and there would be a tiebreaker elimination tag the next night on Nitro. The match itself was surprisingly lackluster despite some great individual performances; I’m honestly not sure what went wrong, beyond it being a little under fourteen minutes. Regardless, after great fast-paced action Bobby Roode interfered, throwing Styles into the ring steps while he was on the floor. Enigma happily took the gift, hit the Swanton and won the UFS for the Dead Jesters.
Matt Hardy came down to confront his brother about taking that tainted win, but Enigma walked off without even acknowledging him.
There was a lack of psychology between Matt and Mortis, but some excellent action and heat made up for it and made this the best thing on the show to this point. Mortis in particular was great here. The Enigma showed back up, attacking Matt while Father Isaac distracted the ref, and Mortis took advantage and finished him off. Isaac grabbed the microphone afterwards and told Matt that his brother was dead and gone and no pleading would bring him back, so it was in his best interests to forget about it and move on before he got hurt.
The Jung Dragons and Stacy Keibler popped up on Piper’s Pit to announce their future plans. They acknowledged all the interest in them from all over the world, but Yang’s message was simple. “You think we’re going to leve? OBJECTION! The Jung Dragons will remain in WCW until justice is served and we have claimed the World Tag Team Championship!” This was a great angle and the crowd reacted huge.
With it being a 2 out of 3 falls match, we gave Rey and Eddie plenty of time and let them do their thing. They did not disappoint, turning in a stellar match that would be difficult to top. Eddie deliberately lost the first fall by DQ after hitting Rey in the head with the very same chair that he’d used to turn on him last year (kayfabe, brother!), and immediately followed up with a frog splash to win the second fall. He controlled most of the third fall until Rey came back and hit the springboard rana to win the match.
Goldberg cut a promo from “his home”, where he said that he’d been barred from the building until future notice. “But that won’t stop me. Just like I destroyed the Destroyer on Monday, I’ll take Salvation out when they least expect it!”
I wasn’t sure until the day of the show which team would be winning the four way tag, but in the end it was the Calgary Bulldogs who got it when Harry pinned Tony Mamaluke of Made in Italy. This match was here as a bit of a wedge so it wouldn’t be three top matches all one after another, and I think it did its job. It was good, and maybe better than expected, but not great.
Becky Bayless interviewed Randy Savage, who revealed he was recruiting talent and figuring out who had the potential to make it to the top of WCW and who would benefit from his advice, dig it!
The panel discussed the US title match, and all agreed that Danielson was the underdog.
This match would have been held back until Great American Bash in June, and even that wouldn’t have been the end of the program. Things obviously had to be pushed forward when WWE jumped in with their massive offer to RVD though, so we wrote Destroyer out and worked Bryan into this match. These two were excellent in a twenty-plus minute match that started off well and only got hotter. I sensed there was a lot of intrigue in this match among the internet fans who knew about the WWE overtures, and that speculation was only stoked when Bryan wrestled RVD to the mat and forced him to tap out to Cattle Mutilation! Bryan celebrated with the title afterwards while the rest of the Dangerous Alliance looked shocked at the result.
The panel discussed the Mayhem PPV next month, and Corino guaranteed he’d win the 30 man Mayhem match and then take the title at Great American Bash. They then moved on to tonight’s world title match, on which opinions were mixed.
Between Rey/Eddie and the US title match, Punk and Unnatural had huge pressure to deliver here. They did not fail in the least, rising to the occasion and producing a thrilling, dramatic match that had fans at the edge of their seats and will surely be very high up in any match of the year ballot. The fans bought into the near falls towards the end, but groaned when The Enigma and Mortis came creeping in from either side while Isaac distracted the ref. But cavalry arrived: Goldberg popped out of the crowd and speared Enigma, while Lance Storm hit Mortis with a superkick that stopped him in his tracks.
That left it up to Punk and Unnatural, who battled for control on the top rope. Punk emerged with the Punk Plunge (a top rope Pedigree; try THAT, Hunter!) and three seconds later, we had a new world champion! Punk and Storm hugged, and the True Heroes posed with their gold as the show went off the air.
News Updates:Jeff Hardy and Tammy Sytch have begun dating. I’m sure Candido is furious at the broken engagement, but their relationship wasn’t very stable even when they worked in the same company. I’m not sure what he expected when he left her here and signed full-time with NOAH.
Elsewhere in the wrestling world:-Taiyo Kea beat Shinya Hashimoto to win All Japan’s annual Triple Crown tournament.
-New Japan’s Honma won his recent MMA fight. That might impress Inoki and earn him a bigger push when he comes back.
-ROH head booker Ian Rotten booked himself to win the company’s world title from Jose Maximo on their All-Star Extravaganza show.
-Tommy Dreamer and his onetime valet/current girlfriend Beulah announced that they’re expecting a child.
Hall of Champions:You can thank franticloser for Bret/Stephanie, and Dead_Jester for Hardy/Sytch.
