During the opening match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, Chris Candido defeated The Artist. Candido's manager Tammy Lynn Sytch attempted to hit The Artists manager Paisley with a chair, but hit The Artist instead. This enabled Candido to hit a piledriver and pick up the victory via pinfall. During the next match for the WCW Hardcore Championship, Terry Funk successfully defended his title against Norman Smiley. Shawn Stasiak next defeated Curt Hennig via pinfall. Prior to the following match, Captain Rection stated that his gimmick was given to him by Eric Bischoff and he wanted to go by his real name Hugh G. Rection, or Captain Rection for short. Scott Steiner then successfully retained the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship against Captain Rection. Captain Rection attempted to hit Steiner with a moonsault, but Steiner moved out of the way and picked up the victor via submission with the Steiner Recliner. The next match between Mike Awesome and Chris Kanyon ended in a no contest decision. Kevin Nash came to the ring initially to attack Awesome, but was attacked by Billy Kidman, Shane Douglas, Vampiro and Chris Candido. Ric Flair and Sting then came to the ring to help Nash. The Total Package next defeated Buff Bagwell. Elizabeth attacked Vince Russo backstage and then hit Bagwell with a baseball bat, enabling Luger to pick up the victory via submission to the Torture Rack. Following the match, Chuck Palumbo came out and attacked Luger, applying Luger's own Torture Rack on him while Bagwell stopped Elizabeth from interfering. Following this match, Shane Douglas defeated Ric Flair. Prior to the match, it was announced the if Vince Russo would interfere in the match, Flair would get five minutes in the ring with Russo. During the match, a man wearing a Sting mask attacked Flair, which Flair believed to be Russo and demanded his five minutes. Luger returned in order to force the masked man into the ring, but Russo attacked Luger from behind while the masked man attacked Flair with a miniature Statue of Liberty. Russo demanded the five minutes start and the masked man revealed himself to be David Flair. Sting next defeated Vampiro via pinfall after hitting the Scorpion Death Drop twice. The next match saw Hulk Hogan defeat Billy Kidman with guest referee Eric Bischoff. The main event was a Ready to Rumble cage match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship based on the movie Ready to Rumble's triple cage match, which was a hybrid of a cage match, a hardcore match, and a ladder match, with the first tier a cage match, the second tier hardcore with weapons, and the third tier cage a ladder match. Jeff Jarrett defeated both David Arquette and Diamond Dallas Page to win the title. Toward the end of the match, as Page was about to escape, both Arquette and Jarrett broke guitars over Page's head, enabling Jarrett to grab the belt for the victory. Following the match in which Mike Awesome and Chris Kanyon both attempted to interfere, Awesome threw Kanyon off the 20 foot high second tier of the cage onto the entrance ramp.
