The April 10, 2000 edition of Nitro was heralded as the new beginning in WCW history. Indeed, for the first time in years, many viewers flipped to RAW during commercials instead of vice versa. It was a show of debuts, returns, new angles and excessive cursing. Suddenly, WCW was interesting again ... for a few days.

A trend in major WCW angles is the dividing of the organization. First it was the nWo vs. WCW; then the Powers That Be vs. WCW; most recently the new nWo vs. WCW; and now, the “New Blood” vs. “The Millionaire’s Club.” After four years, these different versions of the “company divided” scenario have become stale and overdone. And while the WWF has attempted similar angles, they have never infiltrated every match or become as seemingly endless as the plethora of abandoned attempts by WCW.

For a mere moment, the initial, intriguing days of the original nWo was recaptured via the April 10 Nitro. With essentially only one week to prepare for, script and draw interest in Spring Stampede, WCW Nitro had to be spectacular to re-capture an audience for its failing product. And having seen the “changes,” for many, Nitro was a catalyst to purchase the pay-per-view. Truly, though, Spring Stampede made Wrestlemania 2000 seem good.

But when Jimmy Hart wrestles on a pay-per-view, it is pretty much a given that it’s going to be God-awful. Yes, Hart was defeated by Chicago radio personality Mancow in a dreadful match that saw the weakest punches and moves ever perpetrated in a wrestling ring. The announcers selling the match and moves with gusto shows how out-of-touch Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson and Mark Madden are. Madden (by now everyone’s favorite announcer) was in rare form. Not only did he once again demonstrate his disgustingly pathetic abilities but, through asinine, grossly unnecessary comments about women and teenage girls in the audience, we learned he is also a chauvinist and a pedophile. Hopefully WCW realizes certain members of the audience found great distaste in Madden’s comments.

The Millionaire’s Club vs. The New Blood would be more interesting if the odds were stacked a little more evenly—seven vs. 40 is already redundant. It was funny listening to Sciavone rationalize why The Wall and Scott Steiner were facing one another in the US tournament while both are members of the New Blood. Later in the show, it was equally as entertaining when he pondered Terry Funk’s unspecified allegiance to either The Millionaire’s Club or the New Blood. Funk will probably be a man without a faction unless, that is, he starts the “Men Who Can Barely Walk Club.” In that case, several members of The Millionaire’s Club will undoubtedly jump ship.

But Spring Stampede wasn’t without it’s share of returns and debuts. Former ECW champion Mike Awesome made his in-ring debut, beating formidable opponent The Cat in the first round of US Tournament action. Awesome, who is less than awesome both in the ring and on the mic, lost to Steiner in the second round, making his debut less than awesome as well. Tammy “Sunny” Sytch made her much anticipated debut which was anticlimactic, uninteresting and lackluster considering her glorified, almost legendary past. Tammy received bigger pops while managing the Godwinns in the WWF than at the Stampede. Sunny practically made the WWF back in its troubled days; if her debut is any indication of the future, she will, at best, be a mid-carder underneath Kimberly, Torrie Wilson and the endless supply of Nitro Girls. The auspiciously absent Brian Adams (who had a brief two week run as The Demon) and Bryan Clark (Wrath) returned, attacking Club members Lex Luger and Ric Flair, causing them to concede the tag title to the awkward team of Shane Douglas and Buff Bagwell.

Bagwell and Douglas as tag champs is yet again an “old school” WCW theory—when in desperation for teams, throw together a few singles stars as champs. And with the tag team roster of Harlem Heat, The Harris Boys and the Marmalukes, some improvement has to be made. Though, Bagwell and Douglas don’t seem to mix as a team. The only similarity between the two is out-of-the-ring—both having recently signed contract extensions with the company.

Simple, straightforward observation: Sting’s new beard is pretty silly.

The new, hard-edge Hulk Hogan has no color affiliation, a fondness for and overuse of the term “son-of-a-bitch” and horrible blading abilities. Blading has never been something completely hidden from the audience, though something one doesn’t expect to view as clearly observable. What’s worse than Hogan’s blatant blading on Nitro is the fact two replays were shown which flaunted his obvious swiping of the forehead. It is truly unfathomable someone who has been around as long as Hogan would blade himself so obviously and clumsily on national television. Even more bizarre is why WCW would relive the embarrassment on repeated replays. More than sloppy work ethic—sloppy production.

At Stampede, after Hogan put Kidman through the announce table (second time’s the charm), he went to the back to confront Eric Bischoff. Vince Russo left Bischoff who was pleading with the former Vic Venom not to leave (insert bad acting here). Moments after Hogan found Easy-E, the cops burst in with Russo. All of a sudden, Hogan was in a chair with a shocked look (again, more bad acting) and a dozen pistols pointed at him while Bischoff stood in the back shouting, “Shoot him! Shoot him!” The camera immediately cut to the crowd, leaving many audience members waiting for and anticipating a barrage of gunfire which unfortunately never occurred.