History
After Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara had taken over WCW, Madusa began having problems with them. At the time, WCW was marketing a new cologne called WCW Nitro. At that year’s Halloween Havoc, Madusa came out dressed in a bikini to hock the cologne, which Bobby Heenan bashed as smelling awful (not the best idea to sell cologne – telling how bad it smells). Anyway, Madusa grabbed a microphone, said that the only reason she was out there was because the Powers That Be had forced her to, poured the cologne on Heenan, and stormed out.
The next night, WCW had a tournament going to crown a new world heavyweight champion after Sting was stripped of the belt at the PPV. Madusa was entered in the tournament, but her first round opponent was not revealed. She came out for the match and discovered that her foe was Meng. Madusa tried to fight back but ultimately was locked in the Tongan Death Grip and submitted. After the match, Evan Karagias hit the ring and helped Madusa to the back.
A week later, Madusa was back in the tournament – this time scheduled to face Karagias. Before the match, Karagias talked with Gene Okerlund about how hot Madusa was and how he hoped they could still be friends after the match.
The match consisted of such solid wrestling holds as Madusa pinching Evan’s rear end and Evan copping a feel. In the end, Evan was pinned by the dreaded Greco-Roman Liplock and Madusa advanced.
The next week we saw Madusa’s quarterfinal match as she squared off against Chris Benoit. Madusa came in ready to fight, although Benoit seemed reluctant as he kept telling her to just leave. When Benoit chopped Madusa, Karagias started arguing with the ref. That was the cue for Jarrett to come in and drop Benoit with a guitar shot, disqualifying Madusa. Jarrett bragged about knocking Madusa out of the tournament before he left.
On Thunder, Evan opened the show by facing Lash LeRoux. Disco Inferno soon made his way out and joined commentary as Madusa took a place at ringside as well. It didn’t take long for Disco and Madusa to start flirting with each other. Evan spotted what was going on and left the ring to attack Disco as Madusa slapped him. After obliterating Disco, Evan slid back into the ring and fell victim to LeRoux’s Whiplash.
After the match Disco made a challenge – he’d bet $25,000 that he could retain his cruiserweight title against Evan at Mayhem. With prodding from Madusa, Evan accepted the wager.
Evan faced Johnny Boone on Nitro while Madusa joined the commentary team. After Boone ripped Evan’s necklace off, Madusa pulled Boone’s shirt off and shoved him down. Karagias seized the opportunity and covered him for the win.
On Thunder, Gene asked Evan about his upcoming match for the title. Evan told Gene that he’d beat Disco for love.
He then went out to face the Maestro. Maestro seized control of the match and Madusa climbed up onto the apron. Maestro kissed her, which infuriated Evan. Evan took Maestro down, then kissed Madusa and got rolled up for the pin.
At Mayhem, Evan got his chance at the title. Disco was being accompanied by Tony Marinara, who Disco owed a large sum of money to. In the end, Tony decided to check out Madusa a little closer, so Evan went outside the ring and after him. Disco grabbed a chair and accidentally blasted Tony. Evan came off the top rope and covered Disco for the three. Afterward, Disco carried Tony backstage, apologizing all the way.
On Nitro, Evan faced off against Perry Saturn in a non-title match. As the match went on, we were distracted by “new†wrestler Buzzkill (Brad Armstrong, doing a bad Road Dogg rip off) on commentary. Evan lost when he got caught in the Rings of Saturn and Madusa was unable to help him as she was tied up with Asya on the outside.
Later in the night Madusa faced Asya. Madusa wound up tapping to a leg scissors submission while Saturn attacked Evan outside. Afterward, Madusa denied tapping to the referee.
The next week on Nitro we saw Evan and Madusa making out backstage. Madusa suddenly paused and asked Evan for a cruiserweight title shot at Starrcade. Evan, whose brain wasn’t working really well at the time, agreed.
Thunder saw Evan having second thoughts about the upcoming match. Madusa simply promised that he’d have everything he’d dreamed of afterward.
Later that night, Evan and Madusa teamed up to face Jeff Jarrett and Mona (better known as Molly Holly). Madusa and Evan wound up overpowering Mona and pinned her. After the match, Jarrett was complaining about Mona’s loss, so she dropkicked him. Jarrett retaliated with a shot from the acoustic equalizer.
On Nitro, Evan faced Madusa and Mona with the stipulation that the winner got the title shot (if Evan won, neither woman got the shot at Starrcade). The match ended when Madusa rolled Evan up for the win and then got leveled by Jarrett, who called out Goldberg.
On Thunder, Madusa faced Rhonda Singh (WWF’s Bertha Faye). Madusa wound up ducking a Singh assault (which leveled Evan) and quickly pinned Rhonda for the win. After the match, Rhonda started dancing until the lights went out and someone attacked her.
Things started going sour on Nitro as Madusa caught Evan flirting with Nitro Girl Spice. The two women wound up in a fight. Later, Gene found out from Madusa that she’d be wrestling Spice that night.
Sure enough, the match happened as promised. Evan came out and refused to hit Spice when Madusa told him to. Spice got free, crashed Madusa into Evan, and rolled Madusa up for the win. As Spice cleared out, Madusa kissed Evan and then hit him with a German suplex.
On Thunder Evan came out for his match against The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea with Spice on his arm. Evan was holding his own until Madusa hit the ringside area and first started jawing with Spice, then with Paisley. Madusa and Spice then began brawling and wound up in the ring. As Evan tried to separate the two, the Artist rolled him up for the win. Afterward, Madusa slapped Evan, who still left with Spice.
At Starrcade, Madusa got her shot. Evan was gaining the advantage when Spice hopped up onto the ring apron and nailed Evan with a low blow. Madusa got the pinfall and the easy win.
At this point in history, most of the WCW belts had become totally devalued. The world title was being hotshotted around and was vacant half the time anyway. The United States title was a bit more stable, but was gaining a reputation for being won at a PPV and lost to someone else the next night on Nitro. It seemed like the tag belts were changing hands on a weekly basis. The television title had been won at Mayhem by Scott Hall, who promptly chucked the belt into a trash can.
Yet, through it all, there was always the cruiserweight belt. Traditionally, the belt had become one of WCW’s brightest stars. And then it went from Psychosis to Disco Inferno. Disco wasn’t the greatest cruiserweight, but it couldn’t get worse, right? Then Evan won it and lost it to Madusa.
Madusa’s win was the breaking point for the belt. After Madusa won, she wound up losing it to Oklahoma, who was by far out of the cruiserweight weight class. Although talented cruiserweights like Kidman and Chris Candido would regain the title later, the damage was done. The prestige of the belt was gone and would never return.
The best thing that came out of the entire angle was the fact that soon thereafter Evan formed Three Count, which brought Shane Helms and Shannon Moore into the company.
Evan Karagias remained with WCW until the WWF buyout. His contract was picked up by the WWF and he soon found himself sent to development where he would remain until he was released about nine months later. Evan’s next stop was the AWA Superstars of Wrestling, where he won their version of the AWA world heavyweight title twice. After a disagreement about his working for another company as well Karagias left the company (vacating the title in the process). Since, Karagias has only made sporadic wrestling appearances, preferring instead to focus on his acting career.
Madusa also remained with WCW until the buyout. Although she vanished from television in early 2000 apart from a brief feud with Shane Douglas and Torrie Wilson, she remained with the company. She headed to the Power Plant where she worked to help train new talent. Madusa’s contract was not picked up by the WWF after the buyout. She wrestled one match in 2001 and retired. Today Madusa drives a monster truck named after herself for Team Bigfoot. She has driven since 2000 and won the 2004 Monster Jam World Finals title for freestyle and the 2005 Monster Jam title for racing.
