Vampiro, Muta and The Demon were now collectively called 'Dark Carnival" by some, but my understanding is that Dark Carnival is Vampiro with ICP. But some refer to this trio of Vampiro, Great Muta and The Demon as Dark Carnival so be it, let's call them that as well. I would have liked the idea of the three painted villains at least to a certain degree (I think a team-up completely weakens the character as an individual) if the group's architecture wasn't just Vampiro commanding his two pawns, and there's nothing dark about Great Muta aside from his hair, at least in this incarnation. He just growls and plays a kind of comedic role in the group. I miss The Demon being his own person, with his amazing entrance, rather than just being a goon in the background.
On August 7, 2000 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, The Dark Carnival, now officially a tag team group, were fighting against acrobatic Asian youngsters called Jung Dragons.
The youngsters came out first, and then Dark Carnival, which hasn't been billed as such for the reasons I've given, but oh well. It's the same kind of entrance, Vampiro's music with Vampiro in the lead and his 2 pawns on each side
The youngsters are actually stunningly acrobatic and all that makes for a quite an interesting, if not relatively short match. They even use a ladder to make higher jumps. The match pretty much looks like gymnastics vs strength. For all the spinning and flips the Jungs do, Dark Carnival spooks move slower but tower over them and throw heavy hits. Jungs are small guys, so The Demon even lifts one off the ground and throws him out.
Still, Aside from some out of the ring action and step ins, The Demon doesn't get a tagged turn on the ring. Ugh
Of course Dark Carnival wins, it couldn't be otherwise with such new team as Jug Dragons, but once they do, the lights start to flicker and Sting comes in with a baseball bat and cleans the ring.
This is the last Nitro show before the New Blood Rising payperview. They do appear on August 9 episode of Thunder sending a message. A short video of Vampiro talking about The Demon vs Sting and a bit about The Cat is aired
Vampiro: Sting, I've taken this man and made him a sick, rabid gargoyle, and he's coming to get you
The Demon grinns and Great Muta growls
