March 11, 1999, I was sitting at an Applebee’s bar drinking Long Island Iced Teas when I happened to call home to check my answering machine messages. Now, keep in mind, this is 1999 and answering machines were still very much a thing. I had one message and played it. I can still remember this message verbatim as it was someone I was a huge fan of growing up.
“Mikey, this is Paul Orndorff from WCW. You have been added to the Uncensored PPV on Sunday March 14, at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. Your plane tickets will be delivered tomorrow.”
Short & sweet but the message was “#1derful” to get. One, it was from a pro wrestling legend and two, I was finally getting a chance to have my first WCW match. I signed with WCW in December 1998 and was sitting home for almost 3 months. Looking back on it, I should have spent more time in the gym lifting weights instead of concentrating solely on my cardio but after 4 years of wrecking my body in ECW I took the time to heal up.
Just as Paul said, my plane tickets arrived on Friday from FedEx. I was flying out on Saturday morning from Long Island’s MacArthur Airport with a 5-hour layover in Philadelphia (of all places) on my way to Louisville. I decided to hit the gym one last time to see how my cardo was. I did 45 minutes on the stationary bike and another 30 minutes on the treadmill so I was pretty confident a 20 minute match would be pretty doable. At least I hoped so.
The flight from Long Island to Philadelphia was pretty routine and for some reason, during the flight I decided to stop by the Holiday Inn by Veterans Stadium during my 5-hour layover in Philadelphia. ECW was at the ECW Arena that night and I knew the crew would be staying there that weekend. I couldn’t tell you what prompted it but looking back, I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to everyone when I left ECW months earlier and seeing all of my friends right before starting in WCW was comforting in a way to say goodbye and start fresh all at the same time. My flight ended up delayed and I was going to miss what I thought was a MANDATORY PPV meeting Saturday night. I called Perry Saturn and he said don’t worry about it because nobody goes to them anyway. Ok then. Lol
When I got to Freedom Hall, I was met by Dusty Rhodes who gave me the rundown of what they wanted that night. He told me I was going to pin Billy Kidman with my finish in 15 minutes. It was uncensored so we could do pretty much whatever we wanted but don’t go over the guardrail. I was pretty stoked. I was making my WCW debut and they were going to put the Cruiserweight Championship on me.
Maybe 30 minutes later, I was met by Jimmy Hart who gave me the rundown of what they wanted that night. He told me I was going to lose to Billy Kidman with his finish in 15 minutes. It was uncensored so we could do pretty much whatever we wanted but don’t go over the guardrail. I was pretty bummed. I was making my WCW debut and they were not going to put the Cruiserweight Championship on me.
A little while later, Paul Orndorff came up to Kidman and gave us the rundown of what they wanted that night. He told us I was going to pin Billy with my finish in 15 minutes. It was uncensored so we could do pretty much whatever we wanted but don’t go over the guardrail. I was pretty stoked. I was making my WCW debut and they were going to put the Cruiserweight Championship on me.
Eventually Mike Graham came over and gave us the rundown of what they wanted that night. He told us I was going to lose to Billy with his finish in 15 minutes. It was uncensored so we could do pretty much whatever we wanted but don’t go over the guardrail. I was pretty bummed. I was making my WCW debut and they were not going to put the Cruiserweight Championship on me.
A little while later, Paul Orndorff came up to Kidman and I again and gave us the rundown of what they wanted that night. He told us I was going to pin Billy with my finish in 15 minutes. It was uncensored so we could do pretty much whatever we wanted but don’t go over the guardrail. I was pretty stoked. I was making my WCW debut and they were going to put the Cruiserweight Championship on me.
At this point I was utterly confused. We kept getting different instructions. I asked Billy what we were supposed to do. He said, we do whatever the last thing they tell us before going through the curtain. We finished going over the match and I went into hiding. I figured if they can’t find me, they can’t change the finish again. Lol. Unfortunately, good old Dusty came back around and delivered the news I was so desperately trying to hide from.
“Mikey baby, 15 minutes. Kidman up with his finish.”
I was sorta bummed they changed the finish again but honestly; I don’t think the finish ever actually changed but was more of a miscommunication between what seemed like 6 or 7 people. I was excited to work with Billy as he was one of the top cruiserweights in the country at that time and was really good. The finish wasn’t all that important as I was just looking to make a good first impression with a new audience. But it would have been nice to win on my debut. Someone sent me a clip of Eric Bischoff speaking about the match and he was very complimentary, admitting they got the finish wrong and I probably should have won.
We were starting the show so I was waiting by the entrance way and the producer told me to wait for my music. Only problem was, I didn’t have any music. My debut was so last minute they didn’t have time to get anything ready for me. I mean ok, but it’s kinda bullshit. When I finally did get music, it was just a recycled theme from one of the Road Wild PPV’s I think. There was no thought involved. They just picked a generic song at random and used it. They could have done the same for my debut but I digress. Should have been a sign of things to come for me in WCW.
I won’t go into a play by play of the match as I put links to videos at the end of the blog but it was pretty damn good. Kidman had just gotten back from a week of partying doing a WCW sponsored “Spring Break” event and I hadn’t worked in almost 3 months. We sorta messed up the first spot but made a nice recovery and everything else was pretty on point. One non-wrestling thing I remember about the match is one of my “in-ring” discussions with referee Johnny Boone during the match after Kidman kicked out of one of my moves.
Me: Come on ref that’s bullshit
Johnny: Mikey don’t say “shit”
Me: Why?
Johnny: Because you can’t
Me: Bullshit, it’s Uncensored
Johnny: Don’t say “shit”
Me: Oh Fuck
Johnny: Dear god that’s worse.
Me: Sorry
All in all, it was a pretty good debut. I heard from a bunch of the ECW guys and they were happy for me and was also informed about Bobby Heenan calling me SheepDick. Check out one of my previous blogs about that story.
Thanks for reading!
-Mikey-
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P. S. - I did go into the crowd once and Here’s the match with Kidman.
Part 1 - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5qzgf
Part 2 - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5qzku