New columnist takes look back at WCW Natural Born Thrillers
Ladies and gentlemen - in the corner to my left, hailing from Ireland, he weighs in as a huge TNA pro wrestling fan with a full appreciation for old-school territories such as WCW, ECW, World Class, AWA, CWA, Memphis and the USWA. Listing wrestlers such as Gino Hernandez, Ric Flair, Jerry Lawler, Curt Hennig, Mick Foley and Matt Striker as personal favorites, this man’s pro wrestling fandom dates back to the early 90s with matches such as RVD and Sabu versus the Eliminators at ECW in 1997, Steve Regal versus Ultimo Dragon from WCW (also in 1997) and John Cena versus Umaga in 2007 among the many matches that made him the fan he is today. Standing as the newest columnist here at WrestlersRamblings.com - put your hands together for the man cut from a different cloth — Celtic Cross! Here, in part one of an EXCLUSIVE in-depth piece, C.C. takes a look back at what might have been with a group of grapplers that came up together in the former World Championship Wrestling. Take it away, Celtic Cross . . .
By Celtic Cross
Wrestlers Ramblings.com pro wrestling news
In the summer of 2000, a group of 7 young wrestlers debuted on WCW TV led by Kevin Nash. Some had appeared on WCW TV before, usually on the smaller WCW shows like WCW Saturday Night and WCW Worldwide. The seven men were Mike Sanders, Chuck Palumbo, Sean O’Haire, Shawn Stasiak, Mark Jindrak, Reno and Johnny “The Bull” Stamboli. The group was led by Sanders who was their official mouthpiece and mentored by Nash. The group’s first real feud was with the Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman - pictured at right, Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr.) During this time, Sanders led an attack on the groups’ former power plant trainer and ex-WCW wrestler “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff, during the attack the Filthy Animals made the save, and this led to the Thrillers first Pay Per View appearance when they took on The Filthy Animals, Disco Inferno, Paul Orndorff and Big Vito.
The Thrillers did well in the match, but it was ruled a no contest when Paul Orndorff was injured in the ring. On the next edition of Monday Night Nitro, Sanders, Jindrak, O’Haire, Palumbo and Stasiak faced off against Tygress and Rey Jr. (the two Filthy Animals team members that were not eliminated the night before) and suffered a humiliating loss to the valet and the former Cruiserweight champion. Help was not far away though, as Kevin Nash started to take an interest in the Thrillers and joined them as their “Coach.” Nash took a special interest in Sanders helped him capture the Cruiserweight championship when he joined him in a 2 on 1 powerbomb match against Elix Skipper, Nash dominated Skipper in the match allowing Sanders to pick up the first title gold of his career. Sander’s was not the only Thriller to taste gold, as Sean O’Haire and Mark Jindrak captured the Tag Team titles in a battle royal on September 25, 2000, before losing them to Lt. Loco and Corporal Cajun on October 9th, they won the titles back less then half an hour later when a rematch was ordered. They held the titles until November 16th 2000 when they lost the titles to Boogie Knights (Disco Inferno and Alex Wright) in Germany.
Sanders began feuding with Ernest “The Cat” Miller (pictured at left) over the commissionership of WCW. Miller was a face commissioner and as the heels, most of his decisions were not in the Thrillers best interests. Sanders was however given special powers by Vince Russo, that allowed him to vacate Norman Smiley’s WCW Hardcore title and create a tournament for the belt. In the finals of the tournament it was Thrillers member Reno against The Wall, The Wall won the match, but Sanders used his powers to reverse the decision, making Reno the Hardcore Champion. The Thrillers now held the WCW Hardcore, Cruiserweight and Tag Team titles. The Cat used his power to make a match between himself and Sanders for the Commissionership at Halloween Havoc, the match was to be a kickboxing match (Miller was a legit former kick boxer.) Miller dominated the match from the start and looked to be on his way to retaining the commissionership until Shane Douglas interfered, causing The Cat to be counted out after the last round had finished (Miller should have won on points.) In the strange world that was WCW in 2000 Mike Sanders won the match and became the Commissioner.
Later that month, Sean Stasiak cost Kevin Nash a World title match against Booker T. Nash set out to teach Stasiak about respect, but Nash was attacked by the Thrillers including his protégé Sanders. With Sanders becoming Commissioner, The Thrillers were more powerful than ever before, and seemingly no longer needed Nash to help them make it to the top. Sanders began abusing his power as Commissioner almost straight after he won it. Sanders used it to help O’Haire and Jindrak hold on to the tag team titles and to make Ernest Miller’s life a misery. Sanders also deciding when and how often he wrestled, Sanders seemed loath to defend his title unless it was against lesser opponents like Kwee-wee at Mayhem. During this time, Chuck Palumbo and Shawn Stasiak (Perfect Event) captured the Tag Titles from Boogie Knights, who had won the titles against other Thrillers members O’Haire and Jindrak. This marked the third time that two of the Thrillers held the WCW Tag Team Titles. Not even Sanders power was able to keep the Thrillers their belts as Reno lost his hardcore title on November 6th 2000 to Crowbar. Palumbo and Stasiak’s reign didn’t last long as The Insiders (Nash along with his new partner DDP) defeated them for the belts on December 17th 2000. Sanders himself even lost his Cruiserweight title to Chavo Guerrero Jr. (pictured at right) at the beginning of the month on Nitro. Battling multiple adversaries such as The Insiders, Flair and The Cat had taken its toll on the Thrillers and by the end of December they found themselves without gold for the first time in months.
With January came a new year and the fourth time the World Tag titles had been held by two members of the Thrillers. Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo won the belts this time, both have won the titles before with separate partners, defeating Nash and Page in mid January. Sanders feud with The Cat continued, The Cat wanted his commissionership back and WCW CEO Ric Flair made the match for Sin 2001. Miller dominated the match and as The Thrillers tried to interfere to help their leader they were stopped by Kronik, Sanders lost the match and the power he had become accustomed too. The Sin PPV marked the beginning of the end for the Natural Born Thrillers. As long as Sanders losing his Commissionership, CEO Ric Flair turned heel and formed The Magnificent Seven, Sanders would become closely associated with this group over the next few weeks. In late January-early February, tensions increased in the Thrillers among Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo and their former Tag Team partners Sean Stasiak and Mark Jindrak. Reno was by this stage not appearing on TV often and Johnny the Bull was now teaming with Big Vito. As the Thrillers imploded, Stasiak and Jindrak went after O’Haire and Palumbo’s tag team titles effectively ending the Thrillers because Sanders was too busy with Ric Flair and The Magnificent Seven to care.
The Natural Born Thrillers were only apart of WCW for around 9 months, but they are still remembered fondly by fans. Had WCW not died it was known that there was big plans for some of the Thrillers, apparently Eric Bischoff himself was certain that Sean O’Haire was a future World Champion, and I personally thought that with a sustained push Mike Sanders could have also made the transition to main event wrestler. The sad thing about the Natural Born Thrillers is WCW has been dead close to 6 years and out of the seven members of the group, four of them are not even involved in wrestling anymore and the other three have yet to strike it big. More significant, the two of the four that have retired are the two that everyone was tipping to become big stars (Sanders and O’Haire.)
WHOA! Let’s stop it here for now and let wrestling fans the world over pause for a breather! Isn’t this great stuff? Where else are you going to get pro wrestling coverage as wide-ranging and diverse as it is here at WrestlersRamblings.com!? Nowhere, and you know that to be true. Next time up from Celtic Cross, he examines each of the Natural Born Thrillers one-by-one, with updates as to where they are now! Thanks for visiting! Catch up to you again in the not-so-distant future. - Mr. Mal
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