Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Billy Kidman vs. Shane Douglas – WCW, 2000
History
After getting speared by Goldberg, Kidman had disappeared from WCW TV for a few weeks. When he returned, his main squeeze Torrie Wilson had dropped him for Shane Douglas.
Let the fun begin.
On the July 10th Nitro, Shane Douglas had just defeated Crowbar when we headed backstage. Pamela Paulshock was talking with Kidman, who brought up that Shane had gotten some sloppy seconds, and called Torrie a skank. Kidman then said he didn’t care because he was focused on his career. Jeff Jarrett shoved Kidman out of the way to do an interview of his own. Kidman fought back, and we had a match.
Sure enough, Jarrett won the match after Shane Douglas and Torrie interfered. Torrie’s low blow gave Jarrett the opening he needed for the Stroke, and the feud was on.
Kidman shifted focus on Thunder as he teamed with Lance Storm to take on Mark Jindrak and Sean O’Haire. After Kidman mocked Storm throughout the playing of the Canadian national anthem, the match was on. And over pretty quick, as Jindrak flattened Kidman with a senton.
Later in the night, Kidman and Storm had a match to settle this, which Kidman won.
Douglas and Kidman met in the opening round of the US title tournament on Nitro. It ended when Douglas hit the Franchiser, which sent him into the semifinals of the tournament.
Storm won that match. Afterward, Kidman ran in, taunted Torrie, and dropped Douglas and Storm.
It was also announced that Douglas and Kidman would meet at New Blood Rising.
Douglas and Torrie headed to the ring for an interview on Thunder. Douglas showed off Torrie’s cover on Stuff magazine, and then Torrie talked about how much a man working out turned her on. That prompted Douglas to start grab a dumbbell and start working out. While Torrie fawned over him, Kidman hit the ring. Kidman dropped Douglas. Torrie tried to stop him, so he grabbed her by the hair, which was the opening Douglas needed to clock him with the dumbbell.
Kidman decided to step up the mind games on Nitro. He joined Tony Schiavone and Scott Hudson at the broadcast table to promise to air a “special” video tape of himself and Torrie. I’m okay with it, as long as they keep Sean Waltman and Joanie Laurer far, far away.
Pamela was ready to get to the truth backstage, but Douglas beat her to it. Torrie insisted she didn’t know what Kidman was talking about, but then it hit that there was this one time…
A furious Douglas was taking on Mike Awesome later in the night when the Turnertron lit up with the promised tape. Kidman, wearing a towel, jumped into bed with Torrie and then they pulled up the covers. Still, it was enough to let Awesome nail Douglas with his dumbbell and cover for the win. After the match, Kidman stepped out onto the ramp and showed off a pair of panties, which sent Torrie running up the ramp to try and retrieve them.
Afterward, Douglas ran to the truck and attacked a crew member for playing it. While he was doing that, Kidman headed out to the ring and said that Douglas could attack anybody he wanted to, because he’d made enough copies for everybody! We then took a look at the Yung Dragons and Kiwi, who were all enjoying it. Douglas, predictably, was furious.
Douglas and Torrie were laughing on Thunder. They had their own tape to show. We also saw Kidman carrying another tape backstage.
Douglas and Torrie came out to the ring and talked about how disgusting Kidman’s stunt was on Monday. Douglas had them air what he called a truly raunchy video – and we got to see footage of Douglas and Torrie in bed together. One problem – apparently the Lil’ Franchise had taken the night off. Douglas and Torrie cleared out and caught Kidman backstage. Kidman waved his tape at Torrie and said she should have taken the key to her place back. Douglas simply attacked him and left him lying.
On Nitro, Kidman and Douglas met up in a match. A very special match. A Viagra on a Pole Match. Finally Kidman got the bottle of pills and got ready to clock Douglas with it, only for Douglas to hit the Franchiser on Kidman who landed on the bottle. After the match, Torrie rubbed Kidman’s face in the pills. Afterward, Kidman headed out with three Nitro Girls. I guess they needed to help him deal with that overdose.
Kidman was taking on Elix Skipper on Thunder. One problem – Nitro Girl Siren’s boyfriend (who’d become better known as Reno) showed up, demanding to know where she’d been on Monday. Douglas came over and explained exactly where she’d been (namely, with Kidman). Douglas and Torrie distracted the ref while Reno hit Kidman with his Roll the Dice. Skipper got the easy win.
On Nitro, Kidman decided he’d learned a lesson, and announced that it was Torrie Wilson Appreciation Night.
Kidman later came out to the ring with chocolates, champagne, and flowers. He apologized for everything he’d done, and he called Torrie out to the ring to have a party. She came out, and Kidman helped her into the ring. He asked her to remember the good times they’d had together, and then he said he wanted to show a very special tape (that wasn’t a sex tape this time). The tape? Her sixteenth birthday party (photo courtesy of DDT digest).
Kidman then brought up some of her high school photos, and pictures of a fat Torrie wearing glasses fell from the ceiling. Douglas came out and Kidman fought him off, and then grabbed the champagne bottle from Torrie before she could nail him with it. That brought Reno in. He dropped Kidman then held him while Douglas whipped him with his belt.
Kidman was set to take on Reno on Thunder. Reno had just hit Roll the Dice when Siren came out and started arguing with him. That brought Douglas out, who took advantage of the opportunity to attack Kidman. Unfortunately, the ref caught him and Kidman won by DQ. That brought out Big Vito who stared down Reno.
That brought us to New Blood Rising, where Kidman met Douglas in a strap match. Kidman wound up pinning Douglas, then whipping Torrie with the strap. Douglas then started hanging Kidman with the strap, only for Vito to make the save. That, of course, brought out Reno to attack Vito.
The next night Kidman and Vito beat Douglas and Reno in a tag match, but that was basically the end of the feud. From there, it moved into the expected Vito-Reno feud.
Analysis
This feud had high points and lows. The Viagra on a Pole match was definitely a low. However, some of Kidman’s stunts (notably the Torrie Wilson Appreciation Night) were kind of funny. Look at the picture above and notice the inset shot of Torrie’s reaction. Great production for the WCW crew (something that isn’t said that often).
As for getting people over? Well, it didn’t do that too well. Kidman did come out on top, but it was hardly clean (after all, Douglas wound up getting a last attack or two in on him before the feud died). And the poor Franchise was made out to look like he had problems down below. Maybe that’s why he used to grab his chest whenever Francine would kiss him – he was shocked to find that things were still working.
Where Are They Now?
Kidman stayed with WCW until the company was bought. He was brought into the WWF during the Invasion (and had a notable match at the Invasion pay-per-view – he was the only Alliance member being cheered during his match (against X-Pac)). After the Alliance ended, Kidman went to Smackdown, where he was a familiar face in the cruiserweight division. In March of 2003, he botched his trademark shooting star press and was sent home for medical tests. He returned in June (with a haircut) and married Torrie Wilson in real life in July. He wound up doing an angle where he was teaming with Paul London and was afraid to use the shooting star press. Finally the team broke up when Kidman viciously attacked London, who was on a stretcher at the time. In July of 2005, Kidman was released from the WWE. Kidman has wrestled sporadically since then, even reportedly telling an interested TNA that he was enjoying his time off and had no plans to return to wrestling full-time anytime soon. In March of 2006, Kidman competed against Christian Cage in a match for the NWA World title for NEW (NorthEast Wrestling), which he lost by pinfall.
Torrie Wilson was also picked up by the WWF after the purchase of WCW. Initially she was paired with Stacy Keibler as part of the Alliance, but defected to the WWF after falling for Tajiri. In 2002, she and Tajiri were sent to Smackdown during the roster split. Shortly thereafter, Tajiri began growing jealous of her, so she wound up leaving him and pairing up with Maven. In 2003, Dawn Marie married Torrie’s father Al Wilson as a ploy to get “closer” to Torrie. The storyline gained intensity when Al died of a heart attack on the honeymoon. Torrie wound up being traded back to Raw in 2005. Recently she has been involved in a feud with Candice Michelle relating to the two’s Playboy layouts.
Shane Douglas was not picked up after the WCW buyout due to hard feeling between him and the WWF dating back to his mid ’90s run as Dean Douglas. Douglas worked with XPW until the promotion closed and also made his way to TNA. After a feud with Raven (which resulted in the infamous hair match where Raven was nearly scalped by James Mitchell), Douglas wound up mostly retiring from the ring and working backstage as an interviewer and road agent. Douglas also made headlines in 2005 by scheduling his own ECW reunion – Hardcore Homecoming – in the ECW arena the night before the WWE presented their own reunion – ECW One Night Stand.
Next Week
We begin looking at some career-changing events in the lives of three WCW luchadores. Up first, Rey Mysterio Jr.
