BEETLEJUICE IN WCW

At fifteen years old, there was nothing more important to me than professional wrestling and radio.

For two weeks in the Fall of 2000, those two worlds came together in one incredible moment:

Enter Beetlejuice from the Howard Stern Show in World Championship Wrestling.

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In the year 2000, Howard Stern was truly the “King of All Media”. Mr. Stern possessed the #1 syndicated morning show on radio throughout the 1990s, starred in his own feature film Private Parts in 1997, wrote two best selling books, and started producing a successful television program called Son Of The Beach on the FX Network.

Mr. Stern’s radio universe, in my opinion, reigned supreme above all else. The counterculture and edgy program was must listen to radio. Although there were a plethora of bits, everyone tuned in to listen to the community of characters that were on the show. The conversations between Howard, Robin Quivers, Fred Norris, Jackie “Joke Man” Martling, and Gary “Baba Booey” DellAbate were second-to-none.

With the main characters in play, the show began to build up an eclectic group of secondary characters to make appearances from time-to-time.

Eclectic might be an understatement. This group would affectionately be known as The Wack Pack.

This posse of human oddities found a home with the Stern Show. Alcoholics like Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf and Jeff the Drunk, mentally challenged individuals like Gary the Conqueror and Wendy the Slow Adult, people with speech impediments like John the Stutterer and Fred the Elephant Boy, and countless others made appearances on the radio weekly, performing in bits and sitting down to do interviews with Howard.

What the Howard Stern Show did, unlike many others, was humanize these individuals and treat them like any other “normal” person. As rough, at times, the performances would be on the show, the program would allow these people to be themselves. In turn, they would be booked for show-related appearances and meet their fans.

No member of the Wack Pack, to me, was bigger than the one and only Lester “Beetlejuice” Green.

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The four-foot three-inch Beetlejuice made his first appearance on the Howard Stern Show on July 14, 1999.

Born with dwarfism and suffering from a rare medical condition called microcephaly, which caused his small cranium, the Browns Mills, NJ native refused to let that stop him. He partied and drank with the best of them, all while being his own person and a unique personality. Many consider him to be the unofficial leader of the Wack Pack.

His lovable personality instantly made him a fan-favorite.  Many people tuned in to the Stern Show on radio or on E! to see what he would say or do next. 

One of those fans would turn out to be WCW Head Writer Vince Russo.

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Mr. Russo has always been a die-hard fan of the Howard Stern Show. Being a native New Yorker, Mr. Russo followed the program as far back as the WNBC 660 AM days. He has always stated that one of the main influences of his writing during the Attitude Era was the Stern Show.

As early as 1998, Mr. Russo, then Head Writer of the World Wrestling Federation, attempted to utilize a bit of the Howard Stern influence on an edition of Monday Night Raw. During a segment with the Parade of the Human Oddities on May 25, 1998, Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf and Crackhead Bob, a former connoisseur of crack-cocaine and subsequently had a debilitating stroke, joined Don “the Jackyl” Callis in the ring with an interview segment.

It was “interesting” to say the very least.

Despite this creative idea not panning out long term, Mr. Russo bided his time to attempt more of a Stern influence on another wrestling program.

On September 25, 2000, in Uniondale, Long Island, NY at the Nassau Coliseum, during WCW Monday Nitro, the Wack Pack came back to professional wrestling. And this time, they came in numbers.

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This Nitro is very memorable for a major reason: it was the night Mr. Russo became WCW World Heavyweight Champion.

During a cage match between the #1 contender Russo and WCW World Champion Booker T, Goldberg interfered and, just as Booker was going to exit the cage, speared the Head of Creative through the cage door and into the guardrail outside of the cage. Technically, due to leaving first, Vince Russo won the World Heavyweight Title in his hometown.

Also on this night began one of the greatest memes in wrestling history. 

It all began with an interview segment with the greatest announcer of all time, Mean Gene Okerlund.

WCW Monday Nitro - Peacock (peacocktv.com)

Standing next to Mean Gene in the interview center was Pamela Paulshock, the smokeshow backstage interviewer, as well as members of the Howard Stern “Wack Pack”: Fred the Elephant Boy, Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, Crackhead Bob, High Pitch Eric, and the legendary Beetlejuice. Mean Gene even gave everyone a few seconds of microphone time, which was very generous.

However, Kevin Nash had enough. Currently the “coach” of the young Natural Born Thrillers faction, Nash went off on the Wack Pack, stating that WCW should put the focus where it belonged: on the Thrillers.

Finally, “Big Sexy” looked at Beetlejuice and, with comedic chops galore, said “Hey Elix” to Beet, a reference to then-WCW 100 KG & Under Champion “Prime Time” Elix Skipper.

The Wack Pack then hosted the “Miss WCW” contest live in the ring, with Mean Gene and Pamela hosting. With a bevy of WCW’s finest females in the ring, including Tygress of the Filthy Animals, Kwee Wee’s Paisley, Nitro Girls Chae and Chiquita, Torrie Wilson, Major Gunns, and Leia Meow of the Jung Dragons, the oddballs of the Howard Stern Show awarded the contest to Ms. Paulshock.

That result allowed chaos to ensue as Meow, upset she didn’t win, provoked a catfight with Pamela in the ring. It was quickly broken up to a chorus of boos.

Around ten minutes later, the moment had arrived.

After Goldberg and “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner’s fight inside of Caged Heat, “the Chosen One” Jeff Jarrett was walking down a hallway. He bumped into Beetlejuice, who simply said “Hey Slap Nuts”.

Once Jarrett confirmed Beetle’s “disrespect” with Slap Nuts, the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion took matters into his own hands and LEVELED him with a guitar. Jarrett then barked “That’s MISTER Slap Nuts to you!” and walked off, leaving a prone Beet on the floor out cold.

That was the last we saw of Beetlejuice in WCW, right?

WRONG.

The following week on Nitro, Beetlejuice got himself involved with the main event for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

How did we get here?

After Mr. Russo’s controversial win against Booker T in Uniondale, on the following Nitro from the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA, he decided that he had nothing left to prove and that he would be vacating the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Alongside his “stooge” Jeremy Borash, Mr. Russo stated that he would be a match for the Big Gold Belt, as Steiner and Jarrett would face off in the main event..

Mr. Russo then left the building following a segment with Goldberg where, inside of a “Popemobile”, he announced that “Da Man” had to win every match going forward. If he lost one contest, he would be FIRED from WCW! Russo then gave his authority to “Above Average” Mike Sanders and vamoosed.

In a piece of wrestling history, this would be the last time we would see Vince Russo in WCW, nearly one year to the day he joined the promotion.

Moments later, WCW Commissioner Ernest “the Cat” Miller stated that Sting and Booker T would face off for the vacant WCW Title. 

With some prodding from “Coach” Nash, Sanders went to the Cat’s office and, begrudgingly, made a joint decision regarding the vacant title. It would be Scott Steiner and Sting facing off against Booker T and Jeff Jarrett. The winning team would then face off in the main event for the vacant championship.

All four men went to war with one another. Late in the match, with referee Mickey Jay knocked down, “the Chosen One” got his guitar and went to slam Sting with it. Booker stopped Jarrett, but also received a boot to the gut. As Jarrett went to nail Booker, he ducked, and Sting was leveled anyway. As Steiner and Booker grappled to the apron, Jarrett covered Sting and got the three-count.

Minutes later, “Above Average” Sanders announced that Booker and Jarrett would fight in a “San Francisco 49ers” match, in which there would be four poles, and on top of each pole would be a box. Three of the four boxes would be red herrings. The fourth would possess the WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt.

The match itself was wild. Throughout the match, the contents of each box were unveiled:

BOX #1 - A Blow-Up Doll

BOX #2 - A Photo of Scott Hall (Who Was Banned From WCW VIA Turner Executives)

BOX #3 - A Coal Miner’s Glove (A Throwback to Spin the Wheel, Make The Deal at Halloween Havoc 1992)

With one box left, Jarrett and Booker fought valiantly. However, Jarrett had the upper hand late. “The Chosen One” went to the floor and attempted to grab his guitar from underneath the ring. However, it was caught on a piece of plunder. With that plan foiled, Jarrett decided to just go for the final box instead, with Booker prone on the canvas.

Quite literally out of nowhere, BEETLEJUICE HIT THE RING! With Jarrett underneath the final box, Beetle climbed the bottom rope and proceeded to punch him in the Slap Nuts!

Not once, twice, or thrice: FOUR TIMES!

After Jarrett landed on the floor, prone and hurt, Beetle, like the costume he wore, flew like Superman and splashed on top of Double J!

Shortly thereafter, Booker climbed the ropes and broke the box to uncover the World Heavyweight Championship to win. The celebration didn’t last long.

Scott Steiner, lead pipe in hand, made his way to the ring and decimated Booker. Jarrett, finally grasping hold of Beetle, military-pressed him over the ropes and onto the canvas. The lion-like Steiner spotted his prey.

Nitro went off the air with Beetlejuice hooked in the Steiner Recliner, writhing in pure agony via the man with the largest arms in the world.

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The following Wednesday on Thunder in Long Beach, CA, “The Chosen One” was irate. Jarrett opened the show, ranting and raving about Sting, discussing how Sting had lost his passion for pro wrestling and that he was going to be the man that put him out of WCW for good.

Just as Jarrett challenged Sting for Halloween Havoc, out came Beetlejuice!

Beet called HIMSELF “the Chosen One”, befuddling Jarrett. After “the Chosen One” asked him what he was smoking, Beetlejuice stated that he was going to smoke HIM.

Just as both men were going to square off, Sting made his way to the ring and started brawling with Jarrett. Suddenly, a man in a Sting mask leveled the actual Stinger with a lead pipe. The masked man revealed himself to be SHANE DOUGLAS.

With Sting prone, Jarrett went back into the ring, took down Beetle, and hooked him in a figure-four leglock!