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Worst in the World: Sting vs Vampiro-Great American Bash 2000

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2000 was arguably the worst year in WCW history. It was the last full year the company had, most of the big name stars had left or were on the verge of leaving, and to top it off, 2000 featured the infamous World Heavyweight Championship reign of David Arquette. It's only fitting that after so many WCW matches from the early years that the next one to pop up was one from one of WCW's final shows. And to top it off, this match has one of the most outrageous gimmicks in WCW history. This is Sting vs Vampiro in a "Human Torch" match. The only way to win a Human Torch match is to set your opponent on fire. Huh, that sounds a little familiar, doesn't it? By the way, Vampiro appears three more times on the list for this series, so my expectations are pretty low for this.
Sting appears on top of the TitanTron and puts a torch up there, because Vampiro is afraid of heights and I guess the torch is the only way to light someone on fire. The match starts off with some pretty nice brawling, and a nice spinning heel kick from Vampiro. The action is actually very good in this match. Both Sting and Vampiro are doing great work except when Vampiro takes a bulldog on his knees (a huge pet peeve of mine). Vampiro counters a Stinger splash with a big boot, but Sting catches him with a flapjack into the turnbuckle. Vampiro dodges another Stinger splash, and goes to get a gasoline container. So far, this match is pretty good, actually.
Vampiro literally covers Sting in gasoline (I don't like where this is going), and before I go any further, I just want to point out THE STATE of Vampiro's facepaint:
WWE Network
That has got to be the thinest layer of face paint I have ever seen. It's only been two minutes into the match and it already looks like it's about to come completely off. Look at it compared to Sting's:
WWE Network
Sting's looks like it was done by a professional and took lots of time and effort. Vampiro's looks like he slammed his face into some flour. The two fight up to the stage, and one of the commentators (I can't tell who) says the arena is almost "deafly silent", which is such an absolutely asinine comment I can't even believe it. The crowd is literally cheering, screaming, or yelling "BURN HIM!" or "LIGHT HIS ASS ON FIRE, STING!" (I think that's what someone said) like every 20 seconds the entire match. "Deafly silent"...this commentator should be deafly silent. He adds that "nobody wants to see this" in regards to someone being lit on fire. Again, those clearly audible "BURN HIM!" and "LIGHT HIS ASS ON FIRE, STING!" comments contradict that statement pretty hard.
Vampiro starts climbing the big screen, with Sting following after him. You know, the guy covered in gasoline. Yeah, he's climbing up the TitanTron...where the fire is. God, Sting is really dumb. This is like when Abdullah the Butcher ambushed him by hiding in a giant man-sized present. Vampiro kicks Sting and he ends up taking a fall from about a fourth of the way up the big screen, which makes the commentators wonder how anyone could continue after that. Seriously? It wasn't even that high up, and he landed on some kind of cushion. Think of the bump Machine Gun Kelly took from Kevin Owens. Only Sting sold it better.
So about ten seconds after that "incredibly dangerous bump", Sting is back up and starts climbing up again. By the way, isn't Vampiro afraid of heights? That's what the commentators said. He seems pretty eager to climb up to the top of the arena. Whatever. Vampiro gets to the top, and instead of grabbing the torch, he goes after Sting because "reasons".
The brawl at the top for a while, while for some reason, the lights start flashing on and off. Maybe don't have a strobe light going when you want people to watch the wrestling. Then some stock thunder noises start playing because, again, "reasons". Eventually, the lights go completely off, and Vampiro grabs the torch and lights Sting on fire for the win. And yes that is totally Sting, it's not like they would turn the lights off so they could switch Sting out with a stunt double. That would be ridiculous! So Totally Sting ends up jumping off the TitanTron onto a crash pad, I mean, the stage. On an unrelated note, Shane McMahon had jumped off the TitanTron onto Big Show only three weeks prior to this over in WWF. What a coincidence, am I right?

The Verdict

I get it, it's a really dumb match that is over complicated and dangerous, so it basically personifies WCW. But in all honesty...this match is pretty good. Not like "must-see" good, but it's not bad either. It was a pretty easy watch. Maybe because it was only about seven and a half minutes long, or that Sting and Vampiro worked well together. It's the best match I've seen in this series so far.

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1.  Sting vs Vampiro-Great American Bash 2000
  2. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  3. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  4. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  5. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  6. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  7. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  8. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  9. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  10. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  11. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  12. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  13. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  14. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  15. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  16. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  17. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  18. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996 
  19. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
 Up next on the list is...
Andre...Warrior...in the ring at the same time? Oh boy (Just so you know, this is from a Saturday Night's Main Event, I don't know why it doesn't say that on Wikipedia, it just says the venue was "Topeka, Kansas")
Thanks for reading.
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