Nitro makes it’s Canadian debut here as we’re getting closer to Spring Stampede. We’re pretty much in the same place we were last week as Thunder meant nothing, though there was the development of Arn Anderson walking away from Ric Flair. I’m curious to see how far they can take this promotion down in the next few months. Let’s get to it.

David Flair and Samantha are in a hotel room in black and white with David talking about his dad ducking Hollywood Hogan. She tells him not to worry about Ric.

Tony hypes up a sweepstakes where you can win a Volkswagen Beetle.

The announcers try to talk over the WE WANT BRET chants.

We recap Bret saying he could beat Goldberg in five minutes last week.

Konnan music video. Again.

Konnan vs. Vincent

Konnan rants about Disco until Vincent interrupts him for the start of their match. Vincent gets rammed into the buckle to start and Konnan stomps away. The seated dropkick has Vincent in trouble but he low bridges Konnan to the floor to change control. Back in and we hit the chinlock on Konnan for a good while until he fights up with a belly to belly suplex. A jawbreaker staggers Konnan again but he nails Vincent again. Stevie Ray comes out to distract Vincent, setting up the X Factor and Tequila Sunrise for the submission.

Rating: D. Can we please just end this story already? It stopped being amusing a few weeks ago and I have no idea why it’s continuing. They clearly ran out of places to go with it a long time ago but it’s just kept going anyway. Stevie is the only interesting person in the whole thing but for some reason we keep hearing from Vincent.

Samantha and Hogan laugh about David wanting Hogan to be his dad. Hogan talks about the Fingerpoke of Doom like it was a huge battle because that’s still a thing.

Here’s Hogan to a BIG face pop. He talks about his history here in Toronto and wants to know where his title is. Hogan told the customs agents that he’s going to beat up Ric Flair tonight and wants a title shot. He keeps going for awhile and says the same thing over again. The only interesting point: one of the agents said they saw Sting in Toronto earlier today.

60 seconds with Goldberg.

The announcers talk a bit more.

Tenay had a sitdown interview with Diamond Dallas Page over the weekend. Page says Kimberly is doing fine but he has a herniated disc in his back that has been messing with his legs. He doesn’t care that he was double teamed at the pay per view. Tenay brings up the thirty day stipulation that Steiner mentioned and then was dropped after the match was over and Page says it didn’t count. Little things like that were telling signs about WCW being a mess backstage. Either have the stipulation or don’t bring it up in the first place. It was so confusing that they’re still clarifying it two months later. Page is coming for Steiner.

Kenny Kaos vs. Wrath

The announcers talk about the interview instead of the match and for once I’m fine with that. Feeling out process to start with Kaos taking Wrath down to the mat, sending Wrath crawling for the ropes. Back up and Kaos hits a nice delayed vertical suplex for two but Wrath nails him in the face with a bicycle kick. A dropkick puts Kaos on the floor and they do some weak brawling outside. They head inside again with Wrath choking away before nailing a clothesline.

Tony goes on a big rant about how he spent forever talking about tradition but, based on the crowd reaction, maybe the NWO had the right way of thinking. Somehow this doesn’t come off as a heel turn but rather WCW catching up to reality. We hit the chinlock on Kaos as Tony says that Monday Nitro will take the air at 9pm. They’ve said this before but there’s never been anything about a different name for the first hour. Kaos slams Wrath down for a top rope legdrop. Wrath shrugs it off and hits the Rock Bottom and Meltdown for the pin.

Rating: D. This was long and not all that great. The one thing that stands out to me here is that Kaos was the only one of these two guys to win a title in WCW. You have one half of a bad tag team and a guy that was built up as a possible challenger to Goldberg and the former got a title. In case you can’t tell, there really isn’t much to say about this match.

Samantha asks Nash if the Fingerpoke of Doom was real. Wrestling fans have been wondering about that for years now sweetheart. It sounds like they’re trying to cause a rift between Hogan and Nash, but this is what they’re going with? A blonde saying that the Fingerpoke was “real”? What does that even mean?

Gene brings out Ric Flair, who is promptly booed out of the building. Flair talks about wanting to beat up Tie Domi (Toronto Maple leafs’ enforcer) because he hates Canada. One of the biggest stars in wrestling is here tonight to make a presentation to the President. Flair brings out Page, making me wonder why they did that interview on tape instead of live.

Page wants to know why Flair is acting like Bischoff. Ric says he can do whatever he wants with Page because he has the book. They get in a mini argument over Flair having to call Page a superstar before Flair says Page wants a match with Scott Steiner. The fans boo when Page insults Steiner, sending Page into a rant about how horrible the Canandian fans are and how they support women being thrown out of cars. I really hope this is one night only because trying to turn Page heel after everything Steiner put him through is as dumb as turning Fla….they’re turning Page aren’t they?

Flair makes Page vs. Hogan tonight which draws out Hollywood to say he has a problem with both guys. Page doesn’t care what it takes to get to Steiner because he’ll go through Hogan and then take Flair’s belt. Hogan says he’ll jump through whatever hoops he has to in order to get his belt back. Flair says he’s going to manage Page tonight. Gene calls Page the People’s Champion but Page says don’t believe the hype. Page doesn’t need either guy but we cut to the rafters where Sting is looking down. Flair demands Sting come to the ring. The character development in this segment made my head hurt.

Regular show intro starts hour #2.

Nitro Girls.

Rick Steiner vs. Scott Norton

Norton takes him into the corner for some elbows to the jaw but they fire Steiner up. A hard Steiner Line staggers Norton and another sends him out to the floor. Back in and Rick hammers away in the corner but Norton drops him face first onto the buckle. Rick comes back with the release belly to belly and Scott bails again. We take a break and come back with both guys down. A big German suplex puts Norton down for two and they head outside again. Norton gets posted four times in a row to knock him silly and set up the Steiner Bulldog for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was a hard hitting power match but it was little more than a Rick squash. I’m not sure why they build up Norton like a monster at times but then have him lose this fast to a guy like Rick Steiner. Then again this is WCW, where having your soul crushed means it’s time for people to boo you so it must make sense to them.

Rey and Kidman team up for later.

TV Title: Chris Adams vs. Booker T

Booker is defending of course and grabs a headlock to start. Adams comes back with an armdrag and the champion is impressed. They trade hammerlocks until Booker nails a great looking dropkick to take over. Back up and they shake hands to a chorus of boos. A clothesline in the corner sets up the ax kick for two on Adams. Chris sends him out to the floor and nails a superkick, followed by a powerbomb inside for two. Booker comes back with a series of kicks, finishing Adams off with a missile dropkick to retain.

Rating: C. Adams got to show off here and the match was better as a result. That superkick always looks good and the powerbomb was a nice touch as well. I miss the matches like this one where a champion gets to show off a little bit and defend the title against a challenger that doesn’t have a real chance.

Nitro Girls.

We look back to last week at Mysterio giving Kidman another match at Spring Stampede.

Chris Jericho vs. Jerry Flynn

Jericho talks about growing up in Canada and learning everything he knows there. But now he’s so happy to live in the United States because Canada SUCKS! Flynn kicks him in the face and hits another one in the corner to drop Chris. Jericho comes back with a spinwheel kick of his own and the fans want Bret again. A suplex gets two for Jericho and we hit the chinlock. That goes nowhere so Flynn grabs a leg lock. Jericho quickly breaks it up and goes up top, only to dive into a kick to the ribs. They botch a rollup in the corner so Jericho trips Flynn up in the other corner and puts his feet on the ropes for the pin.

Rating: D. There was more energy to this one than last week but there’s only so much Jericho can do with someone like Jerry Flynn. The match wasn’t the worst ever but Jericho is clearly not caring as he’s about to leave. Then again, can you blame him when this is what he’s stuck with?

Gene hits on Nitro Girl Spice as they plug the Beetle sweepstakes.

Here’s Bret Hart with something to say. He talks about how people seem to be worried about the ratings, but instead of worrying, let’s sing O Canada. Well it’s more reciting but close enough. “Hey Bischoff, put that in your pipe and smoke it.” He’s been in WCW a little over a year and he’s a five time World Champion, but he can’t get a match with anyone. You have Flair and Hogan taking the top spots, even though Hogan is afraid of him. Bret came to WCW to prove a point so let’s cut to the chase. He calls out the big chicken named Goldberg and isn’t going anywhere until he comes out here to face him.

Bret brings up Goldberg’s challenge to Steve Austin (first mention on Nitro), but Bret beat up Austin every time they fought. He takes off his Calgary Hitmen jersey to show off a Maple Leafs jersey, saying this is hockey country. This brings out Goldberg for a spear….and he’s out cold. Bret slowly gets up while Goldberg isn’t moving. He turns Goldberg over and counts a three count before taking off the jersey to reveal a steel plate attached to his ribs. That’s still an awesome moment and showed off Bret’s intelligence. Bret grabs a mic and tells Bischoff he quits. Tony, of course, doesn’t seem interested.

During the break, Bischoff came out but Bret walked right past him. I believe this was a way to write Bret off for groin surgery.

Another video on Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner splitting up.

Buff Bagwell vs. Norman Smiley

Buff says he and Steiner are no more and that he loves the fans just as much as they love him. Bagwell takes him down a few times and struts a lot. Heenan randomly starts talking about Page and Tony transitions into a discussion about Sting’s appearance. Smiley comes back with some shots in the corner and teases the Big Wiggle. A backdrop and dropkick send Norman outside before hitting some very basic stuff on him back inside.

Smiley blocks a splash with knees though and plants Bagwell with the swinging slam. He rips off Buff’s dance as the announcers get into about the 19th argument of the match over how to pronounce Norman’s name. We hit a chinlock on Bagwell but Norman switches to a neck crank to keep him down. Buff comes back with a sunset flip (including a pull of the trunks) for two. Bagwell makes his comeback with right hands and a dropkick followed by the Blockbuster for the pin.

Rating: D+. The match wasn’t great but my goodness is Buff easy to like as a face. He’s got the look, he’s got the story, he’s got a flashy finisher. No he won’t light the world on fire but the fans like him based on his neck injury and the sympathy is right there. Why did it take so long for WCW to realize that?

The announcers talk for a bit.

Tag Team Titles: Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio Jr./Kidman

Benoit runs Kidman over to start and chops him up against the ropes. Kidman makes the mistake of trying a German suplex so Benoit ducks behind him and punches Kidman in the back of the head. Something like a powerbomb gets two on Chris and it’s off to Malenko vs. Mysterio, wearing blue and gray camouflage overalls. The champions take over on Rey in the corner and the double teaming begins.

Benoit chops Mysterio so hard he breaks one of the suspenders. Rey counters what looked to be a powerbomb attempt but his hurricanrana is countered by Dean coming off the top with a clothesline, added to Benoit’s powerbomb. Rey is still able to kick Dean away though and tags in Kidman to keep things fast paced. Everything breaks down and Kidman gets crotched on top, setting up Dean’s super gutbuster (love that move) for two.

We take a break and come back with Kidman getting sent into the corner, followed by a delayed vertical suplex from Dean for two. Benoit comes back in and goes after Kidman’s sore ribs by draping them over the top rope. Kidman is sent outside so Dean can drive him into the apron. Back inside and Kidman nails a dropkick to take down both Horsemen at the same time and the hot tag brings in Rey.

Everything breaks down and Benoit is thrown to the floor. Rey throws Kidman over the top to take out Benoit and snaps Dean’s throat across the top rope. Here come Raven and Saturn as Dean counters a hurricanrana into the Cloverleaf. Raven comes in and Evenflows Malenko, giving Rey the pin. Wait this was a title match??? Nice job of pointing that out announcers. I had to rewind to see if the referee held them up and he did, but the camera was on a wide shot.

Rating: C+. It’s a good match but man alive what a waste of the Horsemen. They were on fire during the tournament but they’re yet another victim of the “eh let’s just turn them heel” booking. I’d assume it’s because they’re mindless followers of Flair, which is yet another reason to hate Ric’s heel turn. Benoit spent years getting ready to become a champion and he can’t even hold it for three weeks. I can’t blame either guy for leaving when they did.

Spring Break recap video.

Nitro Girls.

Hollywood Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page

The fact that these two never had a one on one match on PPV astounds me. Flair is managing Page against DDP’s will. The announcers play up Page dropping the People’s Champion moniker. They slug it out in the corner to start with Hogan taking over via a clothesline. Page tries to come back but gets clotheslined out to the floor as we take a break.

Back with them fighting at the announcers’ area and Page taking over. They head to the stage and Hogan being rammed face first into the big WCW letters, eventually knocking over the right set. Back to the ring and they whip each other with Hogan’s weightlifting belt. Flair tries to help Page and gets punched in the face by his client. Page gets two off a swinging neckbreaker as Flair is going to the top.

The distraction lets Page take over again and he gets two more off a suplex. Hogan pops up and drops elbows to a surprisingly calm reaction. We go submission for a bit with a cross armbreaker on Page, even though he’s face down which would take away a lot of the pain. That goes as far as you would expect and it’s Page coming back with a clothesline for two.

The referee gets bumped in the corner so Hogan hits the big boot but misses the legdrop. Charles Robinson comes in as a replacement but it’s Hulk Up time. Flair accidentally hits Page with one of the worse chair shots I’ve ever seen. Hogan no sells chops and kicks Flair to the floor. He drops the leg but Robinson won’t count. That earns him a beating as the other referee wakes up to count the pin on Page.

Rating: D+. Well that happened. It was a total mess and overbooked like you would expect it to be but it did in fact happen. The booking continues to confuse me and I have a feeling it’s not just because they’re in Canada. So Flair is a heel because he’s crazed with power, Hogan is a heel because he feels like it and Page is leaning towards being a heel…..why? Because he didn’t give up to Steiner? What sense does that make? So now we seem to be heading for Hogan vs. Flair III but Sting might be a factor as well, while Goldberg and Nash have just been dropped from the whole thing. It’s something, though a very confusing something.

Hogan says he’s got a title shot now and tells Big Kev that the Wolfpack is in the house to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Much like with the main event, they seem to be trying but it’s really not paying off. This is another show that really needed to have an hour cut out of it so we didn’t have to sit through whatever that was with Samantha (just have her stand around in revealing outfits and she’ll be fine), boring matches like Steiner vs. Norton and Wrath vs. Kaos, and whatever this overly complicated booking is. I’ll give them this though: this stuff may not make perfect sense, but I’ll take confusing over boring every day.

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We’re still in my hometown for the taped version. After last week I don’t even want to imagine how bad this one could be but it can’t be worse than some of the stuff they’ve done before. As expected, WCW is coming off a pretty lame show earlier this week as almost nothing happened on Nitro. We’re a few weeks away from Spring Stampede and a lot of the card has already been set. Let’s get to it.

Opening sequence.

The announcers welcome us to the show and promise us a World Title match tonight with Ric Flair defending against…….Barry Windham. Yes, in 1999 Barry Windham is getting a World Title shot. Ten years ago this would be must see TV, but why in the world are we seeing it now? Oh of course: it was awesome ten years ago and that means everyone today is going to love it. I’m sure the match will be decent at worst, but man alive it doesn’t make me want to sit through two hours to get there.

Scotty Riggs vs. Jerry Flynn

This is going to be a very long two hours. Scotty takes him down with an armdrag and does the Crane pose. Jerry comes back and Scotty bails to the floor as the stalling begins. Back in and Flynn scores with a chop followed by some of his martial arts stuff. Jerry misses a bicycle kick in the corner and Riggs goes after his legs. This goes on for a good while as he lays on Flynn’s leg before getting small packaged for two. More leg work eats up time as we hit an Indian deathlock on Jerry.

Flynn fights up with some punches, only to be dropkicked in the knee to get us right back where we were. Things stay slow with Riggs kicking at the knee and using his wide variety of clotheslines and punches. Flynn finally counters a clothesline into the cross armbreaker for the submission. Mike: “The winning streak lives on!” This would be a winning streak of zero, as he lost to Meng on Nitro in his last televised appearance.

Rating: D-. I know I sounded annoyed by Flair vs. Windham, but I at least get the thinking behind it. This was nine minutes where I could feel my brain melting away as I watched each boring moment. Riggs just isn’t any good and never has been, but Flynn is a guy whose employment I do not understand.

Video of Bagwell and Steiner splitting up.

Mike Enos vs. Wrath

Wrath feels like a relic of the past despite being on fire about three months ago. He takes Enos into the corner for some knees to the ribs but Enos grabs a quick armdrag. Wrath puts on a headlock before running Enos over with a shoulder block. Enos escapes a suplex and grabs a rollup for two before getting knocked out to the floor. We actually get something interesting as Wrath hits his cannonball off the apron and we take a break.

Back with Wrath scoring with a top rope clothesline for two before we hit the chinlock. Enos fights up and nails a superplex, giving him a target in Wrath’s back. He cannonballs down on it a few times and puts on a half crab. A rope grab forces the break before both guys try cross bodies. Enos scores with a neckbreaker but walks into a Rock Bottom followed by the Meltdown for the pin.

Rating: D+. Not a bad power match here but it was too long again. Wrath fell through the floor like few others you’ll ever seen and it’s kind of a shame. Enos on the other hand never went anywhere in WCW, but he wasn’t bad in the ring. He could wrestle a decent power match and didn’t screw up anything big. That’s more than you can say for a lot of jobbers.

Video on Lex Luger.

Fit Finlay vs. Chris Adams

Oh yeah we’re on a taped Thunder. Finlay hammers him down to start and drives in some elbows to the face. We hit an early chinlock but Adams avoids an elbow drop. Not that it matters as Finlay takes him down and cranks on the arms. Back up again and Adams scores with an armdrag to send Finlay out to the floor. An enziguri staggers Fit and we hit a sleeper from Adams.

Finlay escapes with a jawbreaker and we hit another chinlock. An elbow drop sets up a third chinlock as this show is putting everyone to sleep. Adams comes back with a belly to back suplex for two. He nails the superkick but it knocks Finlay out to the floor. Back in and Finlay backdrops him out to the floor before ducking a high cross body. Finlay plants him with the tombstone for the pin.

Rating: D+. It was a faster paced match but it’s the same problem with every match tonight: it’s so basic and slow paced that there’s nothing to get interested in. The superkick looked good but it was forgotten a few seconds later. This was the seconds glorified squash in a row, but it was slightly shorter to make things easier.

Video on Benoit/Malenko.

Blitzkreig vs. Kidman

Thank goodness for the cruiserweights. A dropkick puts Kidman down early but he comes back with a running clothesline. They fight over a wristlock until Blitzkreig is sent to the apron for a springboard missile dropkick. The fans are so bored that they don’t even respond. A corkscrew Asai moonsault takes Kidman down and finally gets a reaction, albeit a small one. Back in and Kidman hits a running layout powerbomb for two, followed by a slingshot legdrop.

We take a break and come back with a preview (Ringside Release) of a TBS original movie. Oh and make sure to get in the closing graphics before we see more of the match. Back with Kidman in control before Blitzkreig hits a very flippy kick to the back of the head. Off to a head scissors on the mat to keep Kidman in trouble. A standing twisting moonsault gets two for Blitzkreig but Kidman comes back with a sitout Pedigree.

Kidman nails a middle rope legdrop and we hit the chinlock. Back up and Blitzkreig nails a quick dropkick but tries a powerbomb. The obvious faceplant from Kidman gets two but Blitzkreig gets two off a spinning victory roll. Kidman gets crotched on the top and Blitzkreig slips a bit while trying a top rope huricanrana. A corkscrew moonsault misses and Kidman hits the Shooting Star for the pin.

Rating: C. It’s the best match of the night by about 500 miles but it’s nothing special. I can see why Blitzkreig was so revered at this point, but his stuff just doesn’t hold up. He’s the stereotypical flippy 90s cruiserweight who adds flips instead of doing good moves. For a comparison, look at someone like Kidman who does one flip move but consistently has better matches and gets bigger pushes. He may not be as flashy, but he’s a far more complete wrestler.

This Week In WCW Motorsports.

Horace vs. Kaz Hayashi

Hayashi is still doing the Glacier entrance and it still changes nothing about him. Horace takes him into the corner to start but can’t throw Kaz across the ring. Some dropkicks and a spinwheel kick get one on Horace but he nails Kaz with an elbow to the jaw. Hayashi is thrown outside and into the barricade a few times.

Back in and Horace tosses Kaz around a bit until he comes back with a bulldog. Kaz goes up but dives into a clothesline to put him back down. Horace loads up a powerbomb but gets hurricanranaed out to the floor. A suicide dive hits Horace’s knees but he’s able to hit a missile dropkick for two back inside. Horace comes back with an electric chair and the H Bomb (Samoan drop) for the pin.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t terrible actually, but as usual the stakes are just so low that it’s hard to get into the match. They did a decent enough power vs. speed formula and Kaz’s dropkicks were nice, but at the end of the day it’s a glorified Horace Hogan squash. That’s not the easiest thing in the world to get behind.

Recap of the US Title tournament so far.

US Title Tournament First Round: Saturn vs. Booker T.

This has to be more interesting. We stall to start with Saturn slowly taking off the top of his dress and then walking around for awhile. Booker takes him down for a nice sequence on the mat before a flying forearm puts Saturn down. A hook kick to the jaw does the same and of course we have to take a break. Back with Booker getting lowbridged to the floor and having to avoid some flying stairs. They head inside again with Saturn putting on a bearhug of all things.

A big superkick drops Booker and we hit the seated abdominal stretch. Back up and a t-bone suplex gets two on Mr. T. and Saturn puts on a sleeper. He lets go of the hold for no apparent reason and charges into Booker’s boot in the corner. Booker does the same thing to Saturn’s boot and gets taken over by a German suplex. Saturn misses a top rope splash and Booker hits all of his usual stuff, finishing Saturn with a rollup and a pretty fast count.

Rating: C-. Not bad again but the lack of energy was really glaring. Booker winning was of course the right choice, but it still doesn’t make for a good match. Neither guy looked all that interested in being out there and the finish made things look even worse. Saturn’s dress continues to make me scratch my head, even after hearing his explanation for it.

60 seconds with Goldberg.

WCW World Title: Barry Windham vs. Ric Flair

Tenay briefly mentions the history between the two but doesn’t mention their classics from ten years earlier. The announcers aren’t sure why Hennig didn’t get a shot but Barry does. Barry quickly takes him down with a headlock but Flair asks for a mic. He says he’s going to take five women home and make women out of them tonight. Also there’s a fat boy yelling at him from the front row.

Back in and we hit another headlock before a basic sequence results in Flair getting knocked down by a shoulder. Windham cranks on an armbar before Flair chops him in the corner. We take a break and come back with Barry holding Flair in the Figure Four. Tony: “You can see the Figure Four on but I think Windham has Flair in the hold.” Good to know that Tony goes for popcorn during the breaks. Barry hits a running lariat and a backslide gets two. Flair breaks up a sunset flip with a right hand and they slug it out.

A clothesline puts Flair down for two and Ric gets in Charles Robinson’s face for some reason. The champ suplexes Windham down but Barry comes back with one of his own. Robinson counts very slowly and then does the same after the superplex. Windham gets up to yell some more despite Flair not moving. Robinson trips Barry up in the confusion and gets put in the Figure Four, only to have Arn Anderson pull Barry into the ropes. Arn whispers to Barry and Windham walks out to end the show.

Rating: C. It wasn’t bad but it was mainly kicking and punching until the ending picked up a bit. The angle at the end is somewhat interesting as you have Flair’s closest friend having enough of Ric’s cheating, despite doing about a hundred times worse back in his day. The match was nothing great but it could have been far worse. The audience didn’t get interested though.

Overall Rating: D. Believe it or not there were some things that were far better about this episode than the previous editions. Above all else, they cut WAY down on the video packages. It was common to have nearly half an hour spent on those packages so having them cut down to maybe five minutes was a very nice change of pace.

It spent a lot more time on the wrestling, but that brings us to the biggest problem: there was a lot of wrestling, and the majority of it was really boring. The key word there is boring, because most of it wasn’t bad. It’s just clear that this show doesn’t mean anything to WCW and it’s very dull to sit through.

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It’s Spring Break Out and things are kind of fresh for me as well. I did every show so far this month in the span of a week so this is my first WCW in weeks. That might be the best thing possible as WCW is getting harder and harder to take. However, it seems like we’re setting up a fourway between Flair, Goldberg, Hogan and Nash, which sounds pretty awesome actually. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Flair ranting about how awesome he is as champion and boss, affirming his heel turn and setting up the four way standoff from last week. It still doesn’t look like Flair walked out.

The pool setting is always cool.

We see clips of the threeway hardcore match at Uncensored. I have no idea why as it has nothing to do with the opening match.

Bull Payne vs. Van Hammer

Payne is a bald guy in leather and Hammer is a hippie. Hammer takes him into the corner to start and we’re already getting a BORING chant. A shoulder block and baseball slide put Bull on the floor and they try to throw each other in the water. Back in and Payne headbutts Hammer a few times as Tenay shills his Hotline. A double clothesline puts both guys down before Hammer is sent to the floor for another clothesline. Payne gets two off a frog splash but walks into a cobra clutch slam and the Flashback (whip spinebuster) for the pin.

Rating: D. Again, this is how they decided to use their hour advantage on Raw. The match was really dull stuff too as I have no idea who Payne was and I have almost no reason to care about Hammer. This was a Saturday Night match but instead it’s the opening contest on Nitro. It’s becoming more and more obvious why this company is falling through the floor.

Video of Mysterio winning the Cruiserweight Title last week in a great match.

Mysterio is here live and talks about how much he loves this party town. Kidman can have a rematch at Spring Stampede.

Clip of the Miss Nitro contest. Buff Bagwell and Saturn are judges.

Music video on the beach stuff.

Disco Inferno, in an intertube, doesn’t like this town because a girl in a wet t-shirt contest was heavier than he was. The interviewer (Ricky Rachman, the guy doing all the Spring Break stuff tonight) doesn’t care for Disco’s video so here it is again. A match is made for Spring Stampede.

Video on Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell splitting up.

Finlay goes to see Rick Steiner and they want to fight tonight. This lasted eight seconds.

Video on the four way staredown and main event tag match from last week.

Goldberg did some stuff with NASCAR this week.

Hak interrupts the Goldberg package and wants to be known as “Hardcore Hak: the King of Extreme.” If the fans think Goldberg is extreme, he’ll show you extreme tonight.

60 seconds with Goldberg.

WCW is returning to QVC (home shopping network) with special guest Sting.

Psychosis/Silver King/El Dandy/La Cucharacha vs. La Parka/Damien/Lizmark Jr./Super Calo

Tenay isn’t sure who Cucharacha is, though he’s in a Konnan flannel shirt. I think you can figure it out from here. Cucharacaha starts with La Parka and everything breaks down just a few seconds in. Dandy and Silver King nail a double dropkick before it’s off to Psychosis for a guillotine legdrop and two. La Parka comes back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and everything breaks down again. We wind up with Damien throwing Dandy around until it’s a standoff.

Back to Cucharacha vs. Calo with the newcomer getting kicked in the face. Lizmark comes in and misses a splash in the corner, allowing King to chop him over and over. Lizmark misses a moonsault and gets superkicked as Tony says they’re missing a lot of their moves. King is knocked outside for a big plancha from Lizmark. La Parka and Psychosis throw themselves to the floor and Calo dives onto Psychosis for good measure. Back in and literally everyone but La Cucharacha misses a dive until La Cucharacha Stuns all of his opponents and pins Damien.

Rating: D+. This was odd indeed with the missing sequence being the big moment at the end. Why in the world would you have a bunch of guys look inept for the sake of a comedy angle? I’m sure you can guess who was under the mask but why do that when he’s already got a story going on?

It’s Disco Inferno if that wasn’t clear.

Video on the Mr. Nitro competition.

Regular opening for hour #2.

Nitro Girls.

Flair and JJ were outside earlier today and Flair wants to wrestle tonight. He’s going to challenge the entire company in a lottery style drawing. Ric whispers to JJ to put in a lot of cruiserweights.

Dusty Rhodes is now a consultant and doesn’t think much of Flair’s recent actions. After the issues with Bischoff, Flair promised to make Dusty Rhodes the Commissioner of WCW. Then it became him replacing Larry Zbyszko but that didn’t happen either. Maybe Dusty should have replaced Mike Tenay, but that was another oversight. Dusty calls himself a rap master and says Flair is eating off a table that Dusty set. Flair may be commissioner, but Dusty is still the bull of the woods.

Gene brings out Flair but before the champion can get anywhere, Raven of all people interrupts and asks for a title shot. Flair almost immediately grants a title shot, but makes it Raven/Kanyon vs. Benoit/Malenko for the Tag Team Titles. Kanyon isn’t here tonight so Raven says he’ll beat them himself. That was very abrupt. Flair keeps going and says he’ll put everyone’s name in a hat and draw out a name for a World Title shot.

The announcers recap the top stories.

Rick Steiner vs. Fit Finlay

I believe this was supposed to be hardcore but it isn’t announced as such. They fight up against the ropes to start with Finlay nailing him with some uppercuts. Steiner takes him down to the mat with ease and tries to wrap Finlay up, only to have Fit roll to the ropes. A nerve hold has Rick in trouble and we take a break. Back with a slow motion slugout until Finlay cranks on Rick’s arms. Rick is sent to the floor and pounded in the chest, followed by a top rope ax handle back in the ring. There’s almost no effect though as Rick comes back with a Steiner Line and a belly to belly, followed by the Steiner Bulldog for the pin.

Rating: C-. Better match than I was expecting here but nothing all that great. At the end of the day, this had the same problems that Nitro had with almost every show has at some point or another: why should I care? They built this up with both guys saying they were tougher and then we see them fight for four minutes in a nothing match. That’s the best they can do? I see no reason to care about this and the match was nothing all that special.

Nitro Girls.

Vampiro vs. Juventud Guerrera

Juvy chops away to start before nailing a nice headscissor takeover. Something like an AA takes Juvy down and a powerbomb out of the corner gets two. Guerrera sends him out to the floor and we take a break. Back to this very slow match with Vampiro chopping in the corner and backdropping him out to the floor. A belly to belly gets two on Juvy and Vampiro cranks on his leg for a bit to no effect.

Vampiro hits a nice helicopter bomb but misses a twisting moonsault instead of covering. Juvy misses a springboard legdrop but pops up and slams Vampiro down. Vampiro crotches him to break up the 450, setting up a gutwrench superplex for two. It doesn’t matter all that much as Juvy nails a wicked Juvy Driver for the pin.

Rating: D+. The more I see of Vampiro the more I wonder what I was thinking back in the day. He doesn’t hold up and seems to not care in the ring for the most part. It takes a lot to drag Guerrera down at this point but Vampiro did it. Maybe he’ll get better when he gets some mic time, but this really didn’t do it for me.

Rachman brings out the winner of Miss Nitro: Julie Williams, some college chick who isn’t all that great looking. She doesn’t know how to talk but the NWO comes out with its own army of women in swimsuits. They chase Rachman off and say it’s time for the NWO Miss Spring Break contest. There’s a woman missing so Hogan does some counting. The fans want tops removed, but Nash says he can’t because it’s too cold. He asks for the eighth woman to come out and here are David Flair and Samantha.

She takes off her dress and of course blows away every other girl in the ring. Rachman is brought back in and introduces Miss Nitro again, but Nash wants him to announce a Miss NWO. When he won’t Nash loads him up for the Jackknife but gives him one more chance. Rachman immediately picks Samantha (Nash: “Sable eat your heart out.”) and this finally ends.

Goldberg vs. Hardcore Hak

Hak hammers him out to the floor to start but Goldberg no sells left hands back inside. Another leverage move sends Goldberg outside again for more punching but Goldberg slaps on a cross armbreaker back in the ring. That goes nowhere so Hak brings in the weapons, which only seem to tick Goldberg off. The Russian legsweep is easily countered and it’s the spear and Jackhammer for the easy pin. This was typical Goldberg.

Gene brings out Bret Hart for a chat. Bret talks about being upset over losing his reputation. He’s been here over a year and he’s already sick and tired of people like Flair sticking his nose in Bret’s business. Okerlund brings up a possible match with Hogan but Bret doesn’t think it’s ever going to happen.

Gene tries Kevin Nash instead, but Bret says he’s proven he can beat Nash for years now. With those names going nowhere, Gene suggests Goldberg. Bret accuses Goldberg of never being in the ring with a real technical wrestler. He wants Goldberg to get in the ring with him one time and says he could beat Goldberg in five minutes. This is already more interesting than anything else Bret has done in WCW.

Nitro Girls, dressed as male wrestlers for some reason.

Horace vs. Vincent

From what I can tell, Raw was airing Rock vs. Mankind at this time. Vincent says Horace is just a nephew, earning him a forearm to the face. Horace hiptosses him out to the floor and a big boot puts him right back outside again. Back in and Vincent grabs a quick neckbreaker for two, only to walk into another big boot. Stevie Ray comes out as Vincent and Horace ram heads. Ray shoves Horace into a small package, giving Vincent the pin.

Rating: D-. This story was fun for awhile but now it’s just another boring string of matches that keeps going with no end in sight. Stevie won the bad match at Uncensored to become the boss and now that just doesn’t mean anything. This isn’t entertaining anymore. Now it’s just one more reason to change the channel to Raw.

Brian Adams comes out and yells at Ray post match.

It’s time for the drawing for the World Title shot later in the night. The wrestlers are around the pool with numbered cards. JJ pulls out #23 and it’s that jam up guy El Dandy. However, Dandy is hurt so he gives his card to Rey Mysterio Jr. Flair says Rey isn’t in this because he’s a champion and yells at JJ for screwing up. Rey won’t leave so Flair says this is at his own risk. Mysterio will get a shot later tonight.

Video on the Horsemen, set to the Hardcore Holly’s music. I’ve heard that in several packages before so it must be public domain.

Tag Team Titles: Raven vs. Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko

Raven is going this alone. Thankfully the Horsemen didn’t leave after being in the ring before the commercial and stomp Raven as he comes in. It’s officially Benoit starting but Malenko quickly comes in for a double spinebuster. Dean puts on the Cloverleaf in the middle of the ring but lets it go for no apparent reason. Benoit comes back in and hooks the Crossface but lets it go as well.

A powerbomb/top rope clothesline combo knocks Raven senseless but Saturn walks down to the ring and gets in the champions’ faces. He suplexes Benoit and Malenko but Benoit breaks up the Rings of Saturn. Things settle down with Dean nailing a leg lariat on Saturn before bringing Benoit in for some chops. The Horsemen keep control with a snap suplex from Benoit and a chinlock from Dean.

A double back elbow drops Saturn but Raven gets up and starts cleaning house. Everything breaks down and Saturn rolls through the Crossface into the Rings of Saturn, drawing in Dean with a belt, but Raven nails him with the other belt. The bell rings and the fans think it’s a submission but the referee says it’s a DQ for the belt shot.

Rating: C-. The match was entertaining but it really doesn’t make the new champions look all that great. Then again this is WCW where they turned the World Champion and Tag Team Champions heel about a month after they were the hottest acts in the company because….why did they do that again? Anyway this should set up a rematch at Spring Stampede.

We recap the Miss NWO contest earlier and I can’t complain about Samantha in a swimsuit.

Video of Flair stripping Scott Hall of the US Title and announcing a tournament. We also get clips of Meng beating Bam Bam Bigelow in the first match on Thunder.

US Title Tournament First Round: Scott Steiner vs. Chris Jericho

This has potential even though it’s heel vs. heel. Jericho comes out wearing a sash with Japanese writing on it. Steiner shoves him around with ease to start before dropping to his knees to pose. He takes too long though as Jericho pops up and springboard dropkicks Steiner out to the floor.

Jericho goes outside though and is sent into the steps for his efforts to give Steiner control again. Back in and another missile dropkick puts Steiner down for two. Jericho gets the same off a middle rope back elbow followed by the Lionsault for the third straight two. Steiner easily counters the Liontamer and hits Jericho low, setting up the Recliner for the submission.

Rating: C-. Much better match than I was expecting, even though it was clear Jericho’s soul died about two months ago. I can’t blame him for leaving when he did as WCW wasn’t going to do anything with him. Steiner didn’t seem particularly motivated here either, but the action wasn’t half bad.

WCW World Title: Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Ric Flair

I’ll only refer to Flair as champion. Rey offers a handshake but Flair tells him to get out of here. Feeling out process to start until Rey trips him up and nails a legdrop before sending Flair into the corner. There’s the Flair Flop but Ric throwing Rey out to the floor. That goes nowhere as Rey comes back in with a dropkick and a bad looking springboard seated senton for two.

We get a chase on the floor with Arn Anderson nailing a clothesline to give Flair control. A knee drop has Rey in trouble and Flair grabs a leg for two. Rey gets two of his own off a quick rollup but Flair stomps him down in the corner. A big elbow drop sets up some right hands to Rey’s unmasked face. Rey fights back again and hits a dropkick, followed by the top rope hurricanrana, only to have Anderson pull the referee out to the floor for the DQ.

Rating: D+. This was another nothing match with the guys going through the motions for about seven minutes before the lame ending. Mysterio clearly wasn’t going to win the title and Flair didn’t even go after the leg. It fits in perfectly with the theme of the night: a watchable match that meant nothing.

Flair is sent into the pool to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. The show was watchable in spite of itself. As I said in the main event, there was no effort or energy put in all night. Everything interesting that happened last week was absent here in favor of one off matches that didn’t set up anything. Goldberg vs. Hart coming sounds good, but the rest of the show was meaningless, although not horrible.

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For the life of me I don’t know why I didn’t go to this show. I remember hearing about it on WCW TV around this time but I never saw an ad for the show life. I went to the other Thunder but not this one for some reason. Anyway, WCW is coming out of a really good Nitro and a big upgrade to this month’s pay per view, even though it wasn’t a great show. Let’s get to it.

Opening sequence.

The announcers talk about Nitro’s tag match and mention Flair walking out on Goldberg. They did a really bad job of explaining that on Monday as Flair was legdropped a few seconds earlier and was down when the show ended.

Kenny Kaos vs. Bobby Duncum Jr.

Kaos grabs a few headlocks on the mat but gets countered into a headscissors every time. A hard shoulder sends Duncum to the floor and back inside a powerslam gets two for Kenny. Bobby comes back with a shoulder block but pulls Kaos up at two. He follows up with a shoulder breaker for two and we hit a quickly broken chinlock. Bobby gets a boot up in the corner but walks into a powerslam for two. Duncum comes right back with a Skull Crushing Finale for the pin.

Rating: D. Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t go to this show. There were a few weeks there where Thunder was trying, but a Bobby Duncum Jr. vs. Kenny Kaos match isn’t trying. It’s filling in the TV time with wrestlers who happen to work for WCW. The fact that this is the live show scares me.

We recap the Stevie Ray/Horace/Vince stuff from Monday.

Gene brings out Curt Hennig for a chat. Curt says he’s that certain someone that every promoter is looking for. Flair may be the President of WCW but he’s also the World Champion. Hennig wants to face him for the title tonight and insults short people for some reason. He brings up slamming the cage door on Flair’s head a year and a half ago. Flair has fifteen minutes to respond.

Vampiro vs. Prince Iaukea

This is Vampiro’s return after one match back in June of 1998. A shoulder block and spinning kick to the face drop the Prince but he comes back with a springboard missile dropkick. Prince goes up again but springboards into a clothesline. Iaukea comes back with a dive to the floor and some right hands to the head, followed by a springboard dropkick to knock Vampiro off the apron.

Back in and Vampiro scores with some kicks to the chest as Saturn comes out to watch from the aisle. That goes nowhere and Vampiro nails a Rock Bottom and a legdrop for two. Vampiro flips out of a monkey flip and superkicks the Price down. Nail in the Coffin (Michinoku Driver) gets the pin.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t terrible but history hasn’t been kind to Vampiro. He’s watchable in the ring but time has shown that he’s almost all flash with nothing to back it up in the ring. To be fair to him, dragging an entertaining match out of Iaukea was next to impossible. Not a great debut but there have been worse.

Horace and Brian Adams talk about the events on Monday. Adams isn’t sure what’s going on but Horace cuts him off with a right hand to the jaw.

Gene brings out Flair for a chat. Flair has three things to get straight before he gets to what he needs to talk about. First, whether anyone likes it or not, he’s the World Champion. Before he goes on, he yells at a fat boy in the audience holding a Hogan sign. Second, he’s the President for life. Third, he’s a Florida Gator and has never met a Wildcat that he liked. Flair says he’s tired of walking into these arenas every week and sucking up to the fans, especially when this outfit costs more than an average man makes in Kentucky in a year.

Now on to business. Last night at midnight, Flair had no idea where Scott Hall was, so the US Title is vacant. There’s going to be a tournament for the title, culminating at Spring Stampede. The first match is tonight with Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Meng. That means every title has changed hands in the span of five days.

Flair calls out Hennig and has three things to say to him. One, if he messes up Flair’s suit, he’s fired. Two, he respects Hennig but he doesn’t get a shot tonight. Instead, he can have Hollywood in the main event. Hennig is fine with a warm-up match before he gets to face Flair. Flair’s third point: if Hennig touches Flair, he has three choices: two other wrestling companies or go home. Tony: “There are two other wrestling companies?”

Clips of Mysterio taking the Cruiserweight Title on Monday in a great match.

Cruiserweight Title: Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

This works. Juvy chops away to start and takes the champion down with a headscissors. He tries another headscissors out of the corner but gets dropped face first with a reverse powerbomb. Rey follows up with a moonsault but doesn’t cover for some reason. Back in and Juvy’s running powerslam is countered with a whip into the corner. Juvy bails outside and gets nailed with a running flip dive.

We come back from a break with Rey firing off forearms and draping Juvy over the middle rope, setting up a top rope guillotine legdrop. Juvy counters a hurricanrana and plants him with a running Liger Bomb. He can’t follow up though and I have no idea why the referee isn’t counting when both guys are down with Rey’s legs on top of Guerrera.

Back up and they run the ropes with Rey taking him down with a headscissors for two. There’s a Juvy Driver out of nowhere for two and Guerrera is stunned. Rey’s sitout bulldog is countered with a crotching on the top but Rey crotches him right back. A springboard hurricanrana retains Rey’s title.

We’re past Uncensored and a lot of stuff has changed in WCW. Above all else, Flair won the World Title with the help of Arn Anderson, but it seems to have taken place with a double turn. Hogan was definitely wrestling like a good guy but Flair was somewhere in the middle. Other than that Booker T. is now the TV Champion and Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko picked up the Tag Team Titles as they should have three weeks ago. Spring Stampede is in four weeks so let’s get to it.

We open with David Flair checking into a hotel when the Denise chick from last week shows up. She recognizes him from TV and tries to make some small talk but David isn’t interested.

Tony recaps last night’s events.

Stills of Whipwreck vs. Kidman.

We go to the University of Cincinnati for the Nitro Party with….Lodi?

Stills of the Jerry Flynn match. I really wouldn’t remind people that they’ll be paying for that when they buy a pay per view.

Here’s a press conference with Sonny Onoo and Ernest Miller. Ernest insists to only be called The Cat from now on. He insists that he’s undefeated here in WCW and knows he’s the greatest. This keeps going as Cat challenges a member of the media to a fight.

Meng vs. Jerry Flynn

Meng goes right at him and hammers away but misses a charge into the corner. Flynn comes back with a spinning kick to the head, but since Meng is a monster, Flynn is quickly flying through the air. A clothesline has no effect on Meng but a powerslam puts him down. Flynn’s ankle lock doesn’t get him anywhere and Meng gets two off a piledriver. A shoulder breaker gets the same but Flynn comes back with a cross armbreaker. Meng powers out of it and the Tongan Death Grip gives Meng the win and a BIG ovation.

Rating: D. Thank goodness this was the end of Jerry Flynn’s push. Meng has a way longer shelf life than Flynn could ever hope to and the match made him look like a killer. Flynn looked so one dimensional out there and it was really hard to sit through. When Meng is outshining you, you know you’re in trouble.

Clip of a movie called Ravenous.

Nitro Party stuff.

Clips of Beach Brawl on MTV, a show with WCW wrestling and music.

Denise gets into the elevator with David Flair and David still doesn’t want to talk. After a break, her room key won’t work and she goes into his room to use the phone. David is getting annoyed.

Stills of the hardcore triple threat last night.

Raven is at the Nitro Party and the annoying host asks about Chastity betraying him last night. Raven understands since he set her hair on fire when she was six. Family functions suck and he only goes for the money anyway. He’s going to crush her and Hak like Jerry Falwell at one of Saturn’s bondage balls.

Chris Adams vs. Rick Steiner

They trade forearms to start with Rick taking over via the powerslam/suplex. I’m still not sure which it actually is. A belly to belly puts Adams down and they slug it out again. Adams snapmares Rick into a sleeper before nailing the superkick for two. Rick catches him in another belly to belly followed by the Steiner Line and Steiner Bulldog for the pin.

Rating: C. Considering I was expecting a total squash, this was a really nice surprise. Adams was on for this one and got to show off a little bit, which isn’t something you see that often as he never meant anything in WCW. Rick isn’t doing much at this point as he doesn’t have much of a story other than wanting to fight his brother.

Tenay tells us to call the Hotline.

Disco Inferno comes up to the announcers’ desk and asks why he isn’t getting a music video. He’s tired of seeing Konnan’s music video over and over again (preach it brother) but here it is again. However, we have a swerve: it’s a parody video with Disco dancing badly and singing the song (off a paper and still getting it wrong). This was actually funny.

Konnan t-shirt ad.

Back to the hotel but with Nash and Sam watching from a remote location. Denise tries to seduce him again but David says he’s in love with someone already. We even get the shot of her leg on a bed and David saying “Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?” To be fair they did say her last name was Robinson last week. Sam seems taken aback by David’s words so Nash gets a bit testy with her. He says he got her out of some situation in Detroit and Torrie says she’s paid him back for some of that. Nash doesn’t think it’s been enough. Things never got heated but Nash was clearly annoyed.

Norman Smiley is at the Nitro Party and tries to teach the host to dance.

Stills of Hogan vs. Flair.

Tony says next up is Monday Nitro Live. I have no idea what the Live thing is supposed to be, unless Tony is bragging about the show being how it’s been almost every week for three and a half years.

Opening sequence, so either the first hour was taped in advance (why?) or they’re calling the last two hours Monday Nitro Live.

Nitro Girls.

A bandaged Ric Flair shows up, accompanied by some ladies, Arn Anderson and Charles Robinson. They come out to the ring for a chat with Gene and the fans seem very happy to see him. This is the start of the second hour so at least WCW is FINALLY starting the head to head period with something interesting.

Gene brings up the questionable officiating but Arn cuts him off and says Gene needs to congratulate all three new champions. As for Robinson, all he’s doing is dressing a little bit more professionally and he called that match like the professional he is. Gene says it was a fast count last night, which is true to a degree but Hogan was out cold so it didn’t make a difference.

Also, there are WAY bigger problems with that match than the speed of the count. Like, there being a count in general. Robinson says he called the match fairly and Flair’s wounds were superficial. Hogan on the other hand was a badly beaten man and Flair had given him discretion to make the call.

Anyway, Flair says he is the most powerful person in WCW and the sport of wrestling because he’s both the President and the World Champion. This brings out Goldberg of all people and Flair asks if he’s here to congratulate him for being the champion or the boss. Goldberg says he had Flair begging and pleading for his life last week and Ric is looking at the #1 contender. He wants a title shot tonight but here’s Kevin Nash to object.

Nash says he should be the #1 contender because Flair robbed Hogan of the title. Goldberg gets in his face but Nash says that he’s the one loss on Goldberg’s record. Flair says cool it and Anderson says Goldberg wouldn’t have won what he did if the Horsemen had been a factor but Goldberg threatens him with a spear. Nash says he should get the shot but here’s a ticked off Hogan to interrupt. He says he got stabbed in the back last night because he should still be champion.

Flair says he and Anderson have a party to go to but Hogan says Flair bought his women. Hollywood wants a shot and says Nash can slap old baldie around a little bit. Flair tells them he’s leaving again but Nash suggests a tag match. Goldberg and Flair stare each other down and Goldberg nails him. Hogan throws Goldberg a mic and the monster says he’ll be Flair’s partner to get the belt. Goldberg leaves and Flair makes the match. This was a REALLY good segment but was screaming for the announcement of a fourway.

Vince yells at Horace for screwing up last night. They yell at each other and both declare themselves the leader of the Black and White.

Cruiserweight Title: Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Kidman

Kidman is defending and this really should have been saved for Spring Stampede. Kidman quickly sends him into the buckle and nails a clothesline but misses a charge, sending him out to the floor. Rey hits a nice running hurricanrana off the apron but gets dropkicked out of the air on a springboard attempt. They’re already back on the floor with Kidman nailing a springboard plancha as we take a break.

Back with Rey headscissoring Kidman out to the floor before hitting a huge running flip dive to take the champion down. Kidman comes back in and slams Rey down, only to get crotched on the top for a huge Frankensteiner to give Mysterio two. A faceplant and BK Bomb get two each for the champion but the Shooting Star misses. Rey nails a springboard hurricanrana for a very hot near fall. Kidman comes back with a Bodog but gets crotched when loading up another Shooting Star. The sitout bulldog off the top gives Rey the title back.

Rating: B+. This was really good stuff with both guys looking like equals out there. I would have loved this to go another five or even ten minutes as the commercial cut out almost half of the match. Mysterio taking Kidman down is fine as Kidman didn’t have anyone in the division left to beat. Awesome match.

They shake hands post match.

Stevie yells at Horace but Horace says he’s the NWO boss. Stevie decks him and Disco comes in, wanting to know what happened. Disco is told to find out what’s going on from Hollywood and Stevie leaves. Horace says he wants Stevie in the ring tonight.

Gene brings out the new Tag Team Champions for a chat. The belts look bigger than usual and really stiff. Benoit says their win last night was a testament to the trust and confidence they have in each other. Malenko says they’re ready to defend the titles tonight.

Tag Team Titles: Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs. Hugh Morrus/Barbarian

Benoit stomps Barbarian into the corner to start but Barbarian comes back with kicks of his own. Off to Morrus as the First Family takes over on the Canadian. Benoit will have none of that and chops away as everything breaks down. The Horsemen double team Morrus into Benoit dropkicking him in the face for two. Malenko suplexes him down for two and drop toeholds Barbaian for two more.

Dean is sent to the floor and Hart gets in a few cheap shots before it’s back to Barbarian for a side slam. Back to Morrus who hooks a kind of seated abdominal stretch before Barbarian comes in for some heavy stomping. We hit the chinlock for a bit before it’s back to Morrus for a chinlock of his own. Barbarian puts on a front facelock and we get the referee misses the tag spot. Morrus misses a top rope elbow and now we get the hot tag to Chris. The Crossface goes on but Barbarian makes an early save. Dean gets taken down by a gutbuster but Barbarian’s Kick of Fear hits Morrus, setting up the Swan Dive to retain.

Rating: C. This went on a bit long but followed the tag team formula pretty well. Malenko and Benoit piling up wins over lower level teams is a good idea and will make them look like a dominant team as they should. Morrus and Barbarian didn’t seem to have enough variety to make it through a nine minute match.

The Horsemen want the Outsiders.

Nitro Girls.

Here are Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell so Scott can complain about Cincinnati sports teams being terrible. He’s the best athlete in the city and has the finest mind to back it up. Last night, somebody made a mental error and he’s talking to Buff. Steiner says he taught Buff how to train his body but his mind hasn’t followed. Since Buff hurt his neck, maybe he doesn’t hold up anymore.

Buff says look at the crowd and see all their Buff Daddy signs. Bagwell has been making Steiner look like a million dollars, but maybe Scott is getting jealous. Steiner says Buff was nothing without the NWO and will be nothing without it again. Buff tries to defuse things and they shake hands, but Steiner suplexes Buff out of the NWO. He nails Bagwell with a chair a few times and slaps on the Recliner. It came off like a face turn for Buff, which should be the easiest idea in the world after his injury. Therefore, I doubt it has much of a chance.

Horace vs. Stevie Ray

Horace jumps him to start and the brawl heads outside with Stevie hammering away and sending Horace into the barricade. The announcers debate whether Lexington on Thursday will be as hot of a crowd on Thursday as the crowd tonight in Cincinnati. Back in and Horace stomps away but walks into a side slam. Vince comes out with a chair and stands on the apron, telling Horace to ram Stevie into steel. Instead Stevie knocks Horace into it and grabs a rollup for the pin.

Rating: D. Didn’t we cover this last night? What’s the point in having these guys around if they’re just going to keep fighting over who is in charge? Hopefully the team doesn’t last that much longer as there’s no need to keep them around. Unfortunately Norton, the only guy that I kind of like out of the team, is being lost in the shuffle.

Disco Inferno vs. Konnan

You would think this would get a longer build. Konnan starts with a wristdrag out of the corner as Tony talks about how awesome it is that WCW is stacking the deck against the NWO. I do love hypocrisy in my announcers. Konnan stomps away but Disco snapmares him down and gets two off a middle rope elbow.

A chinlock doesn’t last long but it’s time to dance. Konnan comes back with the 187 for two and Disco goes to the floor to check his hair. We take a break and come back with Disco stomping away as Luger and Liz come to the ring. Konnan hits the rolling lariat and an X-Factor but Liz distracts the referee. Luger gets in a cheap shot and the Chartbuster gives Disco the pin.

Rating: D+. Not much to see here and I’m not sure where Konnan goes from here. My best guess would be a rematch with Disco as Luger is still hurt, but it’s kind of a stupid idea to have them fight this early. It didn’t help that the match really wasn’t all that good. Disco getting another win isn’t the worst thing in the world either.

Nitro Girls.

TV Title: Booker T. vs. Chris Jericho

Jericho, sporting bad ribs, is challenging and there’s no Ralphus. Some elbows to the jaw have Booker in trouble and Jericho runs him over with a shoulder block. Booker comes back with an armbar before kicking Jericho in the face. There’s a side slam as the announcers talk for the fifth time about a party they went to with Flair last night. Jericho sends him out to the floor and rams Booker into the steps.

We take a break and come back with Booker avoiding a dropkick before catapulting Jericho face first into the buckle. Jericho comes back with a rollup for two as the announcers talk about the territory system and how it’s easier to win World Titles now. The Lionsault gets two for Chris but it hurts his ribs again. A spinwheel kick nails Jericho and there’s the spinebuster for two. The ax kick connects but Jericho pulls the referee in the way of Booker’s missile dropkick for the DQ.

Rating: C-. It’s clear that Jericho just does not care at this point and can you blame him? He’s been doing the same stuff for months now and hasn’t gotten any advancement after the awesome year he had in 1998. The match was nothing special and Jericho was just going through the motions. He would be gone soon.

Kevin Nash/Hollywood Hogan vs. Ric Flair/Goldberg

Goldberg comes out last and Robinson is the guest referee. Goldberg gorilla presses Flair to start and Nash plants him with a side slam. It’s already off to Hogan to pound on Flair in the corner. The Flair Flip puts the champion on the apron for a big boot from Nash. After a quick beating on the floor, Flair comes back in and tags in Goldberg for the showdown with Hogan.

Goldberg counters a suplex into one of his own and Hogan pops up. He runs Goldberg over with a clothesline but it’s Goldberg back up and nailing Hogan to take over. They slug it out and Hogan can’t seem to hurt Goldberg. Hollywood blocks an Irish whip and hammers away but gets nailed in the jaw.

Nash gets in a cheap shot from the apron and now the NWO takes over. Now it’s a ticked off Nash coming in and pounding Goldberg down in the corner but it’s back to Hogan after maybe 45 seconds. That goes nowhere so here’s Nash to loudly tell Goldberg to powerslam him. Goldberg does exactly as he’s told but Flair won’t tag in. Hogan comes back in for a belly to back suplex before bringing Nash back in. A low blow stops a Goldberg comeback and Hogan slugs away in the corner.

Goldberg nails a big shoulder and Flair does the clap for a fake tag which Robinson allows, even though Goldberg says it didn’t happen. Hogan no sells the chops and Hulks Up to the big fan reaction. A big boot drops Goldberg but he’s right back up with a superkick to Nash. There’s the legdrop to Hogan but Robinson shakes his head no. Hogan lays out the crooked referee but gets speared down by Hogan as we’re out of time.

Rating: C. This was better than I was expecting as Hogan was doing his old tag team formula very well for a change. Hogan turning face again would be fine any other time, but he’s been done so much to Flair that the double turn isn’t working. Then again, this is WCW where logic goes out the window for the wrestlers’ wishes.

Overall Rating: B-. If this was a two hour show, it’s one of the best Nitros of all time. The first hour and the rest of the show drags a lot of the really good stuff. The Cruiserweight Title match was good and the fourway promo with Flair and company had me wanting to see them go at it at Spring Stamped. Unfortunately there’s a lot of stuff changing between now and then. Still though, this was a really solid episode, assuming you forget the waste of a first hour.

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It’s the final show before Uncensored and I’m getting drained very quickly. Given that this is a taped show, it somehow might be even worse than the Nitro we just came off of. The end of Monday’s show saw Goldberg and Flair get beaten down by the NWO, much like everyone else in this company over the last few years. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip from Booker vs. Steiner from Nitro. That’s an odd way to get things going.

The announcers talk about Hogan vs. Flair, still telling us to go to their website to find out the big stipulation. Inside the barbed wire cage that is.

Dave Taylor vs. Raven

Before the match we get some complaints about Raven about Sunday’s triangle match. They almost immediately head outside with Raven in control and the technical wrestler Taylor having no idea what to do in this situation. They head back inside for a gordbuster to Taylor followed by ten right hands to the face to put him down again. Taylor sends him into the buckle and pounds on him for a bit before grabbing a chinlock. Raven fights up but gets caught in a sleeper. A pair of snapmares puts Raven down and Dave nails some European uppercuts. He loads up a backslide but Raven counters into the Even Flow for the pin.

Rating: D. Nothing to see here, even though they had something with Taylor being completely out of his comfort zone. I’m also not sure how this makes me want to see a three way hardcore brawl. The match was too short to mean much either, making it a regular Thunder match.

Building the cage video.

Konnan t-shirt ad.

Here’s the WHOLE Anderson/Ric Flair video from last week’s Thunder and this past Monday’s Nitro.

Chris Benoit/Dean Malenko vs. Disorderly Conduct

Benoit vs. Mean Mike gets things going with Chris destroying him as you would expect. A running clothesline sets up Mike being draped over the top rope. Tom gets knocked off the apron before coming in and getting nailed in the jaw. Benoit nails a snap suplex on MIke and brings in Malenko for a running clothesline and a beating in the corner. The Cloverleaf doesn’t last long as Dean has to knock Tom off the apron. The Swan Dive to Mike gets the pin.

Rating: D+. Total squash which is more entertaining than the previous boring match. Malenko and Benoit almost have to win the Tag Titles on Sunday to make the last few weeks mean anything. It would also help keep me from falling asleep when Windham and Hennig are out there.

Benoit and Malenko want Hennig and Windham RIGHT NOW but as the champions come out, Disorderly Conduct jumps the Horsemen. This goes badly for the jobbers and they get caught in submission holds as the champions watch from the ramp.

Clips of Hennig/Windham winning the titles.

Clips of the Horsemen attacking Hennig/Windham last week.

Hogan interview from last week.

Kidman vs. Chris Jericho on Saturday Night. Again, someone tell me why this isn’t on Thuder or Nitro.

Barbarian vs. Hak

If they let this be a hardcore brawl, it could actually be entertaining. Hak keeps things obvious by wearing a Sandman (comics) shirt. To make sure this isn’t all that great, Hak takes over with an armbar and drives Barbarian down to the mat. Back up and Barbarian gets in a cheap shot and rakes the eyes before ripping Hak’s shirt off. Barbarian pulls on Hak’s nose and sends him out to the floor.

A whip sends Hak into the barricade but Barbarian misses a charge, allowing Hak to hit a legdrop against the barricade. Back in and a powerbomb gets two on Hak, drawing Jimmy Hart up to the apron for no apparent reason. Barbarian grabs the Singapore cane but Hak takes it away and nails a White Russian legsweep (legsweep with the cane over Barbarian’s throat) for the pin.

Rating: D+. Well, it was better than the Raven match. It helps that they pushed this as more of a brawl than a wrestling match and put Hak in there with a guy that can wrestle his style. For some reason I still like Barbarian and don’t mind seeing him in spots like this. The guy is a one note character but he’s good at the character.

Package on Nash vs. Mysterio from Monday.

Also from Monday, Nash and Hogan watch Flair’s promo from the previous Monday.

This Week in WCW Motorsports. Somehow this is more interesting than a lot of what I’ve seen tonight.

Scott Steiner/Buff Bagwell vs. Booker T./Rey Mysterio Jr.

This could be good. We take a break about thirty seconds in and come back to hear Scott Steiner vs. Booker T. for the TV Title announced for Sunday. So Hall is out with no explanation and Steiner’s logical opponent, Goldberg, is nowhere on the card. Such is life in WCW. Bagwell works over Rey and elbows him down before getting in a shoving match with the referee. Rey tries a springboard but slips and turns it into a double leg dive.

Buff and Scott double team Booker in the corner as Tony hypes up Stevie Ray vs. Vincent in a Harlem Street Fight for control of the Black and White on Sunday. So Hollywood telling Norton he was in charge a few weeks back means nothing? Heenan wants to know why there’s a Harlem street fight in Louisville. Tony: “Don’t try to make too much sense out of these things.” Preach it brother.

Booker hammers on Bagwell but takes a finger to the eye to slow him down. A forearm puts Buff down and Booker cranks on an armbar. Back to Rey who dropkicks Bagwell in the back but Buff nails him with a right hand. Steiner presses Rey over his head for a few reps before dropping him on his face. He puts the little guy in the Tree of Woe but Booker makes a quick save. Mysterio is sent outside and whipped into the steps as the referee is with Booker.

Steiner throws him back inside as Buff is somehow legal. The fans get distracted by something in the crowd as Bagwell gets two. Back to Steiner who hammers away in the corner before a backbreaker is good for another near fall. There’s the spinning belly to belly but Scott pulls him up at two. Buff misses an elbow drop and the hot tag brings in Booker to clean house. Everything breaks down and Booker sends Steiner into the barricade. Rey’s springboard sunset flip is countered but Booker hits a missile dropkick and Rey’s top rope splash gets the pin on Bagwell.

Rating: C+. I liked this one more than I expected to and I’m afraid it was out of boredom. This was a decent back and forth match with a nice makeshift face team getting beaten down until the hot finish. That’s far better of a match than I’ve been sitting through lately so this was a nice treat, even though it was nothing all that great.

Steiner hits the referee with a chair post match.

The three guys in the hardcore match on Sunday all say they’re the toughest.

Videos from the first hour of Nitro with the Hogan/Nash/Torrie/Denise stuff. Still waiting on this to go anywhere.

Disco Inferno vs. Ric Flair

The dancer gets two straight main events. They quickly hit the mat and Flair is more than capable of getting the better of Disco. Back up and Disco cranks on a wristlock but is taken into the corner for a clean break. A hard chop puts Disco down but he comes back with a neckbreaker and puts Flair in a Figure Four as we go to a break. Back with Flair getting slammed off the top rope and Disco staying on the leg.

We hit the Figure Four again before Disco changes it to a messy leg lock. Off to a sleeper but Ric fights out with a belly to back suplex. Back up and Disco sends him out to the floor before taking him back inside for two. Flair comes back with a suplex for two of his own and lets out a WOO. The knee drop has Disco in trouble and Flair sends him out to the floor via the old “how much time left” trick. Back in again and Flair hammers Inferno down before the Figure Four gets the win.

Rating: D+. Kind of a drop from Goldberg on Monday. This was watchable and the fact that the ending was obvious the entire time didn’t really hurt it all that much. Disco is trying but he’s destined to be little more than a jobber to the stars. The thing is, as much of a joke as he was, he stayed around forever in WCW because he had some talent.

One last video on the cage ends the show.

Overall Rating: D. As bad as this was, it was MILES better than Nitro due to having a decent tag match and a good enough main event. On the other hand though, these repeating videos REALLY needs to stop. I saw it last week, then I saw it on Monday. Why in the world do I need to see it a THIRD time? It’s not like these things are thirty seconds long. These are over five minutes apiece and are eating up a lot of possible ring or important promo time. Most of them didn’t make me want to see Uncensored. It made me want to find something new to watch instead of the same videos over and over again.

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We had to get to this one eventually. I’ve heard warnings about this show for a long time now and even though I’ve seen it more than once before, the idea that this was allowed to make air still baffles me. It’s the go home Nitro before Uncensored, meaning this is the big show to get people to buy the pay per view. Let’s get to it.

Video on the cage being built for Uncensored.

Here’s the whole Flair and Anderson talk from Thunder. It runs over six minutes and is summed up as Anderson saying Flair should think about his family more than himself.

The Nitro Girls are at Brown University for the Nitro Party.

Profile on AC Jazz and how she does the choreography for the team. She’s the clown of the bunch.

Here’s the Hogan interview from Thunder about how much he hates Flair and wants him out of wrestling. Again, it eats up about six minutes.

More from Brown University. Konnan is there.

Here’s Konnan’s music video.

Here’s a video of Hogan and Nash watching Flair’s promo last week. The only good part comes when Flair talks about a blonde waiting for him in Charlotte. Nash: “Buddy Landel?” Hogan: “Buddy Rose.” Hogan and Nash need to regroup on David and switch gears to Plan B.

Video on Lex Luger.

Konnan t-shirt ad. This is the second time we’ve seen it so far.

Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell, still on the way to Spring Break, have their bus pulled over. They’re allowed to get out of their ticket if they do police work. They agree, but can’t decide who is Starsky and who is Hutch. Instead they harass people for minor offenses. The cops let them go free.

Back to the Nitro Party where Kidman is holding the belt and eating Domino’s pizza. Kidman thinks Mysterio can beat Nash again.

Video on Mysterio vs. Nash.

The Blonde is at a shooting range when Hogan and Nash show up. Naturally there’s a camera facing her when she’s shooting. They call her Sam and suggest she use some of her other talents to take care of Flair. Nash hits on her and dinner plans are made. Why Torrie is in a sports bra isn’t clear.

Now we go to the dinner where Hogan wants to take Ric out for good. Torrie says she has a friend hotter than she is and will try to get her to take care of David. Nash: “How much for the women?” All this makes me want to do is watch Blues Brothers. The girl shows up and is named Denise Robinson. After some Graduate jokes, she’s promised $20,000 for taking care of David. Denise isn’t bad looking but I don’t think anyone is looking at her with the Blonde across the table.

Opening sequence, fifty five minutes into the show.

We go to the arena for the first time and Gene asks Goldberg to come out for a chat. Instead, here’s the Wolfpack because we haven’t heard that music enough tonight. David Flair and Sam come out to confuse Tenay and Zbyszko (Tony’s voice hasn’t been heard yet). They want Ric Flair out here to settle this man to man. Instead Goldberg’s music hits…..and we go to a commercial.

Back with Goldberg coming out as I guess the music played for four minutes. Goldberg says he respects the Flair name so he won’t deal with David like he usually would. However, David needs to learn some respect. David is disrespecting him by being out here so David pokes Goldberg in the chest. Goldberg grabs him by the throat and we go split screen to see Ric arriving and seeing this on a monitor, sending him sprinting to the ring.

Ric saves his son and chops Goldberg to no effect. Instead Goldberg press slams him but Ric gets right in his face and rants about being the best ever. Goldberg says Flair has lost his mind and stepped over the line. Flair rants about being the line and a match is made for tonight. This REALLY sounds like they’re about to turn Flair heel, which might actually be the dumbest thing I could think of this side of a Jerry Flynn push.

Raven vs. Hak

Falls count anywhere. They hug before the match and then the brawling begins. Raven blasts him in the head with a Singapore cane a few times before they head outside for left hands from Hak. The fight heads up the famp with Raven suplexing Hak on the ramp. Raven puts Hak on a table and dives off the set to drive him through it. Bam Bam Bigelow walks out and adds himself to the match, even though the referee throws it out a few seconds later.

Rating: D. I can’t stand this stuff, especially when Raven is capable of having good matches without this nonsense. Hak is Sandman minus the beer and that’s not something I have any interest in watching. At least in the WWF they made it funny instead of just ripping off ECW this badly.

Bigelow and Raven keep fighting into the back with everyone being thrown into various metal objects. Hak punches Bigelow up against an ambulance but Bigelow rams Raven head first into it as well. Raven puts Hak in a wheelbarrow and throws him into the ambulance. Now they fight over to a limo with Bigelow throwing them both onto the hood. Raven Even Flows Hak onto the hood and everyone gets tired and lays around for a bit. Raven tells Bigelow to bring it on the so the big man dives at the others. Eventually everyone just walks away to end this. The post match stuff was three times as long as the match.

Now we look at these three brawling from last week.

Chris Jericho vs. Lizmark Jr.

Jericho comes out with a dog collar around his neck and a long chain attached. Before the match, Jericho talks about training for the collar match with monks in Nepal and wants to make this a collar match. Tony: “There’s been too much talk and not enough wrestling here.” Lizmark puts the collar on as you can see a bunch of empty seats opppsite the camera. That’s a really bad sign but shouldn’t be surprising at all given how the show has gone so far.

Tony explains some new stipulations to Hogan vs. Flair: if Flair wins he’s President for life but if he loses, his career ends. Jericho chokes with a chain to start before wrapping it around his knee and driving it into Lizmark’s head. Lizmark gets tied up with the chain for two and an ax handle with the chain around Jericho’s hands knocks him to the floor. The masked man goes up top but dives into a chain shot to the face, setting up the Liontamer for the submission.

Rating: D. This was just a preview for Sunday so the idea was there but this is what we’re seeing halfway through the show. The entire show is a waste at this point and there’s almost nothing that is going to save this mess. I’m not usually a fan of gimmick matches being used to preview another gimmick match and this was no exception.

Here’s a look at Goldberg and Flair from earlier.

TV Title: Booker T. vs. Scott Steiner

Before the match, Steiner says no one here in Worcester or anywhere else in the world could ever duplicate his physique. Tony downgrades Booker’s status from #1 contender to the US Title to #1 contender to the TV Title. Steiner hammers him down but gets caught by a forearm to the head. A spinning kick to the face puts Steiner down and another sends him out to the floor.

Back in after a meeting with Buff and Steiner easily takes Booker down with a nice amateur move. A low blow stops Booker’s comeback and the referee shouts to watch the low blows. I’d still like to know when those stopped being a disqualification. They head outside with Booker getting whipped into the barricade as the fans chant STEROIDS at Scott. Tony says the referee is staying inside because he’s intimidated by Steiner. That actually makes sense as we’ve established that countouts and DQ’s don’t really count in WCW anymore, so why wouldn’t he go out there for a better view?

We take a break and come back with Steiner still in control and driving knees in the corner. He choies Booker with his knee while covering but gets small packaged for two. A butterfly suplex gets two for Scott but Booker nails him with a clothesline. There’s the ax kick followed by the side kick, but Steiner distracts the referee so Bagwell can crotch Booker on the top rope. The Recliner retains Scott’s title as Booker passes out.

Rating: C. The match was ok but WCW continues their start and go pushes. Booker beats Bret in a great match then loses to Bagwell and Steiner on consecutive shows. There’s been no mention made of Booker getting his US Title shot on Sunday so odds are that’s been either forgotten or canceled. Granted it’s not like they’re doing anything else right at the moment.

Steiner blasts Booker with a chair after the match.

Nitro Girls as Tony reads the house show (his words) ads.

Now, just to really hammer in the suck, it’s a Jerry Flynn interview but Sonny Onoo interrupts. Sonny offers to buy him off to avoid the match on Sunday but Ernest Miller jumps him. They cut off Jerry’s ponytail.

Scott Norton vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

There are now more empty seats visible than there were before. Norton runs Rey over to start and hits a short arm clothesline. After being sent to the floor, Rey comes back in and gets caught in a release suplex. Norton launches him out to the floor again as the beating continues. Rey fights out of a powerbomb but gets dropped face first onto the turnbuckle. Much like Bigelow last week, Norton pulls him up at two before hitting a one handed gorilla press. I don’t mean he lifts him up with two hands then drops one. I mean he lifted Mysterio over his head with one hand. Then Rey kicks him low and gets a pin. It was that fast.

Rating: D+. That one handed press slam was awesome but that’s about it. The rest of the match was a squash as I don’t think Rey had any other offense besides the low blow and a few punches to escape the powerbomb. The giant killer angle may not produce good matches but the endings are entertaining.

More Nitro Girls.

Another video on building the cage with some narration by Flair.

Van Hammer vs. Bret Hart

Hammer takes him down to the mat with a headlock before we hit a test of strength. Bret grabs a wristlock but Hammer comes back with some very uninspired brawling. Hart of course comes back with a low blow because that’s as common as a headlock in this company anymore.

We hit the Figure Four on Van before Bret wraps the leg around the ropes. A backslide gets two for Hammer but Bret goes right back to the leg. He bends the leg around the post but Hammer counters the Figure Four around the steel. Back in and Bret gets suplexed followed by a cobra clutch slam for two. Hammer misses an enziguri and the Sharpshooter ends it.

Rating: D. WAY too long here for a Bret squash. Hammer was just a guy for him to beat up and the leg work got a bit boring after awhile. By the way, this match is pretty much meaningless at the moment as Bret isn’t even on the card Sunday. Why we’re spending ten minutes on a match that doesn’t build up Sunday is an interesting question, but it’s really low on the totem of things this show has done wrong.

Tony says this has been a hard hitting three hours. Not only has it been two and a half hours, but this has hit about as hard as a baby rabbit’s left hook.

Hogan and Nash come to the broadcast booth, sending Heenan and Tenay running off. They don’t have much to say but they’ll be doing commentary on the main event.

Ric Flair vs. Goldberg

Goldberg easily shoves him down a few times to start and there’s a gorilla press to boot. Flair starts to walk out but Goldberg carries him back to the ring. Tony: “How many men have accomplished so much in less that two years?” Nash: “There was some cat from the Emerald City that did a lot but I don’t remember what happened to him.” Back in and Flair hits him low a few times before hammering away in the corner. A third low blow stops Goldberg’s comeback and it’s time to go for the leg.

The Figure Four goes on quickly and Flair grabs the ropes. Oh yeah he’s turning soon. Goldberg turns it over to escape and starts no selling the chops. He drops Flair with a clothesline and a Flair Flip puts Ric on the floor. Back in and the spear hits the buckle, allowing Flair to nail a suplex. Goldberg pops right back up and hits the spear, drawing in the NWO for the DQ.

Rating: C-. The match was decent enough but you knew the run-in was coming as soon as Hogan and Nash sat in on commentary. There was no way either guy was jobbing here as Goldberg is Goldberg and Flair is in the main event in six days. It didn’t help that the match was exactly what you would expect from these two.

Hogan and Nash come in as well to help beat down Goldberg and Flair to end the show.

Overall Rating: F. Here’s the thing: I had it easier than most with this because I could fast forward the two opening interviews with Anderson/Flair and Hogan, plus a lot of the music videos and t-shirt ads. That made the first hour last about fifteen minutes, a lot of which included the Blonde in various revealing outfits. It wasn’t very hard, though only because I suffered through Thunder and could fast forward.

Now that being said, if I watched the first hour live, I’d have been looking into the quickest and most painless form of suicide. The first hour was one of the worst ideas I’ve ever seen and accomplished absolutely nothing. It was a bunch of recaps and some angle that we didn’t hear referenced for the rest of the night that revolved around David Flair.

That brings us to the rest of the show, which was somehow even worse. Let’s start with the matches. I’m tempted to write off Raven vs. Hak as not being a match as it was barely given any time and was just there for a table spot. Other than that we had a squash gimmick match, a long TV Title match (good for match of the night), another squash with a fluke ending, a ten minute Bret squash, and eight minutes of waiting for the NWO to run in. That’s not really a night worth watching.

Even if you wrote the first hour completely off, the last two hours made for a horrible show. It’s a bunch of bad wrestling, annoying segments, uninteresting build for matches and almost nothing I’d be interested in seeing. The best part about it is Raw wasn’t even very good this week. It was mainly spent building up Wrestlemania but did feature Mankind/Austin vs. Rock/Big Show. Goldberg vs. Flair is big, but it’s not worth sitting through two hours and forty five minutes of drek.

This is pretty high up on the list of worst wrestling shows of all time but it’s a rare case where watching online is FAR better than watching live. This would have driven me crazy watching it on TV as it doesn’t add anything to Uncensored and doesn’t have anything on its own. Uncensored is basically WCW saying “Remember that horrible show from three weeks ago with bad wrestling and annoying booking? Now you get to pay the same price for bad wrestling and maybe some better booking!” WWF was starting to pull away, but a lot of it had nothing to do with what they were doing.

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We’re coming off a good Nitro (I’m as shocked as you are) and have ten days before Uncensored. The main stories seem to be a bunch of rematches from SuperBrawl, which isn’t the worst idea as the matches weren’t bad but the decisions were all wrong. Hopefully things are a bit better this time, though granted that would only make the show horrible. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip from Nitro where Arn Anderson yelled at David Flair and the Blonde.

Ric and Arn are in the back and Arn doesn’t know what to do about David. Ric recaps the story with his son and says it leads to the rematch with Hogan at Uncensored. He isn’t changing a thing because David has to grow up on his own. Arn blames the Blonde and says Ric would have done the same thing when he was nineteen years old. Ric says when he was David’s age, he wasn’t stealing money out of his dad’s pocket or stabbing him with a stun gun.

Anderson hopes that this is just a game face because Ric isn’t this cold. Flair brings up the latest NWO parody and says he’ll be World Champion again. He’ll love David forever, but if David wants to run around with the NWO, he isn’t going to worry about it. Arn says if that was his son, there’s no way he could be out there in front of a crowd. Flair says he’s doing this to prove he’s still the man and that Hogan and the NWO haven’t changed anything. This was a lengthy chat but it helps clarify a few things.

The announcers do their welcome and recap.

We go back to Nitro to see Flair announce the cage match. This video takes us up to fifteen minutes into the show.

Video of Monday’s main event.

Rick Steiner vs. Hugh Morrus

Rick quickly sends him to the floor and bites the ropes. Back in and Morrus pounds away but gets caught in a powerslam. Jimmy Hart gets in a few cheap shots from the floor but it has almost no effect as Morrus is still in trouble. Another assist from Jimmy lets Morrus hit some running splashes in the corner but he takes too long going up for No Laughing Matter, allowing Rick to catch him in an electric chair. The Steiner Bulldog is good for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was nothing and it’s not a good sign for the rest of the show. I just waited twenty four minutes to get to a three and a half minute Rick Steiner squash. Why does this make me think that the next hour and a half is going to be a REALLY long sit? The match wasn’t long enough to be horrible but it was just a squash.

There was a commercial for Monday Nitro. In the video we saw Wrath, Randy Savage (where has he been since the night after Starrcade? He showed up there and hasn’t been seen since) and Syxx. As in the guy that showed up on Raw after Wrestlemania LAST YEAR. This is worse than the Steiner Brothers being in the Nitro intro seven months after they split up.

Here are Benoit and Malenko with something to say. Benoit congratulates the new Tag Team Champions and says they have no problem with losing to a better team. They do however have a problem with losing the way they lost. There will be vengeance Horsemen style. Malenko talks about Benoit’s Swan Dive off the top of the cage and pulls off his belt. He promises that Windham and Hennig will not leave Louisville with the Tag Team Titles. The rematch is going to be a lumberjack strap match.

Back from a break and we get an ad for Saturday Night. These air every week but two of the matches advertised are Juventud Guerrera vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. and Barbarian vs. Meng. Remember those before you read the next match on this show.

Al Greene vs. Sonny Onoo/Ernest Miller

Yes, REALLY. I know Meng vs. Barbarian would be a mess, but it would be a fun mess. On the other hand, this is the preferred method of torture in 19 countries. Announced for Uncensored, Sonny Onoo/Ernest Miller vs. Jerry Flynn. My jaw is hanging open after hearing that. I mean……wow I’ve got nothing. Miller does the whole warning thing to Greene but Al jumps him from behind.

What appeared to be a botched gorilla press sets up a headlock on Miller but he sends Greene to the floor. Sonny offers a distraction so Miller can take over as Tony talks about stipulations for the World Title match that you can only find out about at WCW.com. Back in and Miller drops Al with a superkick before tagging in Sonny. Greene is out cold and Sonny gets an easy pin.

Rating: D-. It could have been Mysterio vs. Guerrera but instead it’s being used to set up a Jerry Flynn match on pay per view. That’s all I need to say.

Gene brings out Perry Saturn, now in a dog collar with chains around his neck, for a chat. Saturn refers to himself as the Bald Bombshell because chicks dig a guy in a dress. Saturn says if Jericho has a chain fetish, let’s have a dog collar match at Uncensored. Jericho comes out and says he wants to keep this company rated G (there are SO many jokes) and get rid of all the R Rated freaks. If he has to tie a collar around his neck to get rid of Saturn, that’s what he’ll do. Saturn promises to wear an outfit so freaky that it’s going to shock Marilyn Manson.

Prince Iaukea vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Iaukea scores with some early kicks but his cross body has no effect at all. Bigelow sends him to the floor and hits some slow motion forearms to the back. Inside again and we hit the chinlock as Tony talks about March being perfect for Uncensored because it’s such an unpredictable month. Right. Anyway, more choking gets Bigelow two and we hit an armbar to kill more time. Iaukea’s offense of course has no effect and Greetings From Asbury Park finally ends this.

Rating: D. This was long and dull with the announcers ignoring almost everything in the whole match. Bigelow getting a push is fine but could we find someone more interesting than dryer lint for him to fight? I’m glad he’s moving down into the midcard scene where he belongs though as the top level push didn’t have much staying power.

This Week in WCW Motorsports.

Vince/Horace vs. Curt Hennig/Barry Windham

This match sounds interesting at this point. Let that sink in for a minute. Non-title of course as a title match might be too interesting. Horace grabs a headlock on Hennig to start but Curt nails him with a clothesline. Stevie Ray comes out to brawl with Vince, leaving Horace alone two on one. Cue the Horsemen to attack the champions and it’s a fast DQ.

The champions bail before too much happens.

Here’s Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who hasn’t been seen in months since announcing that he has cancer. Duggan thanks God for letting him get back here and of course some fans boo. He thanks the fans and WCW for supporting him throughout this whole ordeal. Duggan says he’s proud to be part of World Championship Wrestling and thanks the doctor for removing his kidney to prevent the cancer from spreading. He tells us that if something looks or feels wrong, get to the doctor and get it checked out because early detection saves lives.

Duggan isn’t sure if he’s coming back to the ring, but he promises that he won’t be making any obscene gestures of saying any foul words. All he needs are his board and the American flag. If he gets a second chance, the last twenty years will be nothing compared to what he’ll do in the next few years. He says to remember that we are one nation under God and leads a USA chant before leaving. This was a very cool moment and brought a smile to my face. I got to meet Duggan at Axxess earlier this year and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy so it’s cool to hear stuff like this.

Cruiserweight Title: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Kidman

Kidman is defending. Feeling out process to start and Chavo actually gives him a clean break. Chavo is sent to the floor and taken down with a big dive, followed by a slingshot legdrop back inside. Kidman misses a charge into the corner and a springboard bulldog drops the champion.

Back up and Kidman sends him into the buckle and nails a clothesline. The announcers talk about Mysterio becoming a legend for his victories over Nash and Bigelow, earning him a rematch with Nash at Uncensored. A Gory Bomb gets two for Chavo and we hit a chinlock on the champion. Back up and Kidman misses a charge, sending him out to the floor.

Guerrero sends him into the barricade and then back inside for another chinlock. Kidman sends him to the floor before bringing him back inside for two off a high cross body. Chavo avoids a charge in the corner and gets the pin but Kidman’s feet are on the ropes. Guerrero goes up top but gets powerbombed down, setting up the Shooting Star to retain Kidman’s title.

Rating: C+. This was nowhere near as good as the Psychosis match on Monday but it was still far better than everything I’ve sat through on this show. Kidman is becoming an ace at this point and is one of the most consistently entertaining guys on the roster. Chavo is very good in his own right and has gotten far better after losing Pepe.

We get a sitdown interview from Hogan with Hollywood talking about everyone hating him, even his family. He did the Hulk Hogan thing for the money, unlike Flair who is out there because he loves wrestling and wants to be cheered one more time. That makes him worse than Hogan could ever be because Hogan has a grip on reality.

Hogan loves that David Flair gave up everything his father did for him for a good looking woman. Ric Flair is the rottenest human being on this planet and all he wants is control of this business. Flair can have one more chance, but Hogan wants Flair to quit if he loses. He goes on and on about how much he hates Flair and how much it’s driven him as this somehow takes over six minutes.

Buff Bagwell vs. Booker T.

Before the match, Buff says he’d rather be paralyzed again than be in Winston-Salem. Feeling out process to start with Bagwell taking him down with an armdrag before dancing around a bit. Booker comes back with a slam and quick vertical suplex to send Buff out to the floor. Back in and Buff hammers away before nailing a dropkick. Mr. T. grabs an armbar before kicking Bagwell in the face. Buff sends him outside and poses a lot. A chinlock goes nowhere and Booker comes back with his usual stuff. The referee gets kicked down and Scott Steiner comes in with a chair to Booker’s back, setting up Buff’s Blockbuster for the pin.

Rating: D-. If you want to know what it means when the wrestlers phone in a match, this is a perfect example. Neither guy had any energy or emotion out there, which is usually something you can depend on from Booker. Speaking of Booker, did we REALLY need to have Buff Bagwell pin him, cheating or not? The guy is getting a US Title shot in nine days (against Scott Hall, who hasn’t been seen in awhile) and he loses to Buff Bagwell? Really?

Overall Rating: F. The best part of this show was a tie between the Duggan promo and a pretty good Chavo vs. Kidman match. Everything else was a waste of time a textbook example of why Thunder didn’t need to exist. It feels like nothing has happened on the show in months and this was as dull as it’s gotten yet. This was absolutely awful and makes me want to watch Uncensored even less than I did before.

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Maybe this will be a better month. With two Nitros to go until Uncensored, we don’t have anything set for the show. Given how short the time span between the shows, I’m assuming we’ll be getting a lot of rematches at Uncensored. That’s fine in theory and hopefully we get the right endings this time, but the damage has already been done. Let’s get to it.

We open with an In Memory Of graphic for Rick Wilson, more commonly known as the Renegade. The bell tolls in his memory.

David Flair and the Blonde are in a limousine where David plays messages from Ric, asking to see him. They play four or five messages and Ric gets more serious each time as David and the Blonde laugh. David says it’s time Ric retire. The fact that this is over fifteen years old and Ric is still running around makes my head shake.

Tony tells us that Ric has a huge announcement tonight.

Clips of Scott Steiner vs. Goldberg last week and Rick Steiner returning.

Tony thinks we’re going to this week’s Nitro Party at the University of North Carolina but instead Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell come out. After saying Page isn’t here tonight, Steiner talks about his physique as the fans chant for Goldberg. Bagwell says we’re in UNC country, but he and Steiner are Duke fans (UNC’s big rival). Tonight, they’re calling out Rick Steiner and Goldberg.

Off to the party at UNC.

Clips of WCW doing stuff at UNC this week.

Opening sequence, now featuring Booker T.

Here’s the Wolfpack with something to say and Liz is holding a shirt. Luger talks about his arm injury and Larry gets in a good line by saying Luger only suffers from narcissism. Now for the announcement: Nash is offering Rey Mysterio a spot in the Wolfpack. There’s no Mysterio, so Nash calls him on a cell phone but Rey declines the offer.

Video on Booker T. pinning Bret Hart last week. Booker gets a US Title shot at Uncensored.

Cruiserweight Title: Psychosis vs. Kidman

Kidman is defending and takes him down with a hurricanrana. Psychosis nails a clothesline and the fans aren’t pleased. Another hurricanrana sends Kidman outside and a baseball slide knocks him into the barricade. Back in and Kidman backdrops Psychosis over the post and to the floor, followed by a huge dive to take him down again. Psychosis nails a shot to the ribs and we take a break.

Back with Kidman being sent ribs first into the ropes with a drop toehold. The guillotine legdrop to the back sends Kidman to the floor and into a cameraman for a nice crash. Kidman comes back with a clothesline and a springboard off the barricade into a hurricanrana. Back in again with Kidman slipping while trying a superplex and settling with a slam off the top. The BK Bomb gets two and a bulldog out of the corner gets the same. Kidman counters a powerbomb (of course) and the Shooting Star retains the title.

Rating: B. This was REALLY good with Psychosis continuing his roll. I can understand why you don’t give him the title at this point but he had a great performance in trying. Kidman is looking unstoppable at this point and is firmly in the top level of cruiserweights. He still has to deal with Mysterio though.

We look at Benoit/Malenko attacking Windham/Hennig last week.

Arn Anderson comes in to see David Flair and the Blonde. She says Flair and the Horsemen couldn’t get someone like her but Arn says he wouldn’t get down in the gutter with her. Anderson reminds David of the problems he warned David of when he started wrestling and says the NWO is just using David. This is called jealousy and David says the Horsemen are all old.

Hogan gives Vince permission to knock Stevie Ray out if he complains anymore.

More UNC party stuff. They’ll be at Brown University next week.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

They circle each other to start until Bigelow LAUNCHES him across the ring ala Spike Dudley. Bam Bam misses a charge in the corner and Mysterio hammers away, only to get caught in something like a World’s Strongest Slam. Bigelow picks him up and throws Mysterio onto a bunch of security guards. Back in and the slow destruction continues with a big boot putting Rey down.

We hit the chinlock followed by a Dominator and headbutt but Bigelow pulls up at two. Bam Bam misses a top rope headbutt and Rey nails a missile dropkick. A middle rope X-Factor gets two but Bigelow crushes him with a clothesline. We return to a stupid idea of setting off fireworks to start the second hour when a match is going on. Rey gets sent into the buckle and falls head first between Bigelow’s legs. Mysterio goes up and grabs a victory roll for the surprise pin.

Rating: D+. This was a way to continue Mysterio being the giant killer, which is fine for an idea, except for one thing: Mysterio is the greatest cruiserweight in WCW history and it shouldn’t be the biggest upset in the world when he beats a big guy. This theory that cruiserweights are nothing compared to heavyweights doesn’t hold up but WCW kept going with it for years.

Mysterio says he’s standing up for all the small people when Luger comes up for a distraction. Nash sneaks in and jumps him while shouting about Rey wasting the chance of a lifetime earlier.

Bigelow, Raven and Hak have a hardcore brawl in the back.

Ric Flair arrives in a long white limo and we go to a commercial. We just went to a commercial after the brawl!

The Wolfpack tells Stevie Ray to beat up Vince. DOES NO ONE WATCH THE SHOW???

Nitro Girls.

Here’s Jerry Flynn with something to say. Seriously. He’s tired of Ernest Miller issuing all these challenges and wants to challenge Miller to a fight right now. We cut to the back where Scott Norton tells Miller that Flynn is calling him out.

Ernest Miller vs. Jerry Flynn

Miller comes out to James Brown music with Glacier’s lasers. He dives at Flynn but hits the referee’s feet instead, allowing Jerry to hammer away in the corner. A running spin kick staggers Miller but he trips Flynn down and chokes a lot. Miller misses a charge and hits the post before they trade some more kicks. Flynn gets the worse of it and Miller puts on a chinlock. The fans think this is boring and the guys head outside with Miller still in control.

Flynn kicks him into the barricade before they go back inside for a big kick from Ernest. A superkicks puts Flynn down for two but he comes back with kicks and a belly to belly for two. Then they kick each other at the same time and are both down. The referee decides that the first person to his feet is the winner, so Miller distracts the referee while Sonny Onoo kicks Flynn down to give Miller the win.

Rating: F. When the referee is so bored by a match that he’s willing to end a match that quickly, you can tell it’s a failure.

Flynn chases both guys off post match.

Video on Steiner vs. Page at SuperBrawl.

Hugh Morrus vs. Perry Saturn

Saturn hammers away to start but Jimmy Hart trips him up to give Morrus control. Tony announces Hak vs. Raven vs. Bam Bam Bigelow and Windham/Hennig vs. Malenko/Benoit for Uncensored. Morrus charges into a boot in the corner and Saturn suplexes him down. A Fameasser puts Hugh down but another Hart distraction lets Morrus nail a clothesline. Back in and Morrus gorilla presses him down for two before cranking on a chinlock.

A clothesline gets two more for Morrus as the fans are just dead here. Back to the chinlock for a bit before Morrus goes up, only to jump into a northern lights suplex for two. There’s a t-bone suplex to put Morrus down but Chris Jericho comes out with I think a chain to lay Saturn out. No Laughing Matter gives Morrus the pin.

Rating: D. What a dull match. I have no idea why they started doubling the length of TV matches but it’s very annoying when they have boring matches like this filling in all that time. This really didn’t work as about three minutes were spent in a chinlock. The Jericho vs. Saturn feud needs to die already.

Bagwell and Steiner are still trying to make it to Spring Break.

Konnan music video.

More Nitro Party stuff from UNC.

Clip of Meng on Mortal Kombat the series.

We see Hennig/Windham refusing to defend against Malenko/Benoit. This is pointless as the rematch has already been announced.

Chris Benoit vs. Bret Hart

I think this might pick things up a bit. Bret takes over with some forearms to the back and a running clothesline before taking Benoit into the corner for some right hands to the jaw. Benoit elbows him to the floor before taking Bret down with a chinlock. Thankfully it doesn’t last long and Chris gets two off a clothesline. A DDT gets two for Hart and a piledriver gets the same. Bret is definitely in full heel mode here as he’s taking his sweet time between moves.

Benoit reverses a suplex into a small package for two but Bret stomps him down again. A backbreaker gets two for Bret and we hit the chinlock. Benoit fights up with a belly to back suplex but the Swan Dive only hits mat. There’s the Sharpshooter but Benoit counters into the Crossface, only to have Bret make the ropes. Sweet sequence.

We take a break and come back with Benoit making a rope to escape a Figure Four. The middle rope elbow gets two for Hart and he hammers away in the corner. Benoit wakes up and kicks Bret in the ribs before driving a knee into the stomach. A big running elbow drops Hart and the Swan Dive connects but Benoit can’t cover.

He finally gets two before they clothesline each other down. It’s Benoit up first with a sleeper but Bret suplexes both of them out to the floor in a SCARY crash. They both get up and Bret heads inside but Windham and Hennig come out to nail Benoit with a title belt. Bret puts on the Sharpshooter and Benoit makes the rope, but Hart doesn’t let go, drawing a DQ.

Rating: B. Remember people: WCW thought Scott Hall vs. Roddy Piper was a better option on pay per view than this. The match took a little while to get going but eventually started cranking up with about ten minutes to go. There was almost no way this wasn’t going to be an awesome match and it didn’t disappoint.

Windham and Hennig go after Benoit but Malenko makes the save.

Nitro Girls.

Here’s some of the NWO for a chat. Hogan talks about David Flair slicking his hair because he’s got the flair. He heard Ric begging for mercy and asking Hollywood to not do anything else to him. As he’s talking, Stevie Ray and Vincent get in a fight. Nash breaks it up and Hogan keeps talking about how Flair is going to retire tonight.

Gene brings out Ric Flair for his big announcement. Flair says he’s going to let his one build for awhile. He’s been sitting at home for two weeks and hearing everyone ask how David Flair could do this. Ric talks about how everyone is in the NWO before going on about a blonde that he met in Charlotte twenty years ago that changed his life. Now she’s at home waiting on Daddy.

Flair reminds us that we’re LIVE in North Carolina tonight. He’s the President for twenty eight more days and now his target is Hogan. It’s ending at Uncensored with the title on the line inside a fifteen foot high steel cage with no door and barbed wire on top. After Uncensored, people will want to be like the Nature Boy instead of Mike.

Rick Steiner/Goldberg vs. Scott Steiner/Buff Bagwell

Rick and Buff get things going with Bagwell nailing a dropkick. Rick no sells a suplex and powerslams Buff down. It’s off to Goldberg so Bagwell crawls over to tag in Scott. They lock up against the ropes before Goldberg easily runs him down with a shoulder. Scott nails him with a hard elbow to the face before hammering on Goldberg in the corner. That’s fine with Goldberg as he gorilla presses Scott over his head for an insane seven reps before dropping him to the mat.

Rick comes in to face his brother but Buff trips him up, allowing Scott nail a suplex. Buff comes in legally and hammers away as Scott cuts the turnbuckle pad off. Rick is sent into the steel a few times before Scott nails him with a clothesline for two. Choking ensues as you can feel the hot tag to Goldberg coming. A low blow keeps Rick in trouble and it’s back to Buff for a clothesline. Scott cranks on the leg but Buff’s splash hits knees. There’s the hot tag to Goldberg and house is thoroughly cleaned. Everything breaks down and a double Steiner Line drops Buff and Scott. The spear and Steiner Bulldog take care of Bagwell.

Rating: C. This was your standard main event tag match and that’s fine. I like that they let the heroes stand tall for a change as it’s barely happened since the end of last year. Rick Steiner is decent as a power guy and seeing him vs. Scott is always interesting since we couldn’t get a clean match between the two of them. This was a nice way to send the fans home happy.

Overall Rating: C. If not for the Flynn and Morrus matches this would be a lot higher. This had two REALLY good matches on it which goes to show how WCW can do things right when they’re given the chance. Flair’s announcement wasn’t anything mind blowing but it gives WCW a chance to make up for some of its disasters. This show flew by and was really easy to sit through, which is the first such episode in a long time.

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Things are looking up a bit after Monday’s show, though the NWO was up to their old tricks again with a not very funny parody instead of the big Flair interview that was promoted all night long. This is another taped show which usually means nothing good for the fans. Monday focused more on the wrestling for the most part though so maybe this show has a chance. Let’s get to it.

Tony, clearly from a studio and not in the arena, welcomes us to the show and sends us to a video on Page vs. Steiner.

Hak vs. Damien

Hak (what a funny yet mostly accurate jab at ECW) comes to the ring wrapped in barbed wire. Before the match, Hak says that all of his matches will be Hakfests, meaning no rules. Who or what gives him this authority isn’t clear. Damien hammers away to start but he cuts himself on the barbed wire. A dropkick drives Hak into the wire but he takes it off a few seconds later. They head outside with Damien nailing a baseball slide followed by a dive against the barricade.

Back in and Hak drapes Damien over the top rope for something resembling a top rope legdrop to the back. Tony says the FCC is coming after the NWO for hijacking the satellite feed on Monday, because WCW thinks fans want to hear about FCC fines and regulations instead of wrestling matches to get revenge. Not that the fans have any reason to care about this war any longer after SuperBrawl but WCW never was one to think things through like that.

Hak does the same legdrop over the back to the barricade (RVD’s spot minus the spin) before taking it inside for the Tommy Dreamer Tree of Woe dropkick into the chair. Damien comes back with some Singapore cane shots but gets caught in the White Russian legsweep (legsweep with the cane across Damien’s throat) for the pin.

Rating: D. Oh this is going to be a long year. I wasn’t much of an ECW fan at this point and I didn’t care for the hardcore stuff. It was one thing when Raven did it as Raven was about a thousand times better in the ring than Sandman could ever hope to be. The fact that they’ve put Sandman in black dress pants and a black shirt with no music doesn’t help his case.

Stills of Flair vs. Hogan. We still haven’t seen the announcers and I doubt we will.

Psychosis vs. Hector Garza

They start slow until Psychosis drops him with a shoulder. Garza elbows him in the face and moonsaults over Psychosis, only to get clotheslined down. Hector is sent to the floor and taken down with a baseball slide followed by a dropkick. Back in and Psychosis dives off the top and into a powerslam but Hector misses a charge in the corner. A missile dropkick gets two for Psychosis but Hector comes back with what looked like a clothesline to the side of the head.

Psychosis avoids a running dropkick in the corner, setting up a top rope spinwheel kick (not a flying body attack Tony) for two more. Garza gets crotched on the top rope and dropped by another spinwheel kick. Back up and Hector loads up a powerbomb but just drops Psychosis face first onto the mat. Garza goes up but gets crotched again, giving Psychosis a top rope hurricarnana and the guillotine legdrop is enough to pin Hector.

Rating: C-. Not much to see here as Garza wasn’t the most interesting luchador when he wasn’t doing his big dives. Psychosis is a guy that never got much attention in WCW as he was overshadowed by guys like Mysterio/Guerrera/Kidman. That’s a shame too as he was a very talented guy in his own right.

Stills of Windham and Hennig winning the Tag Team Titles.

Ernest Miller vs. ???

Miller still doesn’t like Glacier’s music. He insults some fans and issues another open challenge.

Ernest Miller vs. Stevie Ray

There’s a break before the match. Tony: “Fans we’ll brb!” Much like hearing people say the word hashtag out loud today, this really should be left on a computer. Ray easily shoves him down and hammers away with right hands. A low blow (ignored by the referee) gives Miller a breather and he knocks Stevie down with kicks to the head. Stevie comes back with a slam but the referee is bumped when he tries another slam. Sonny Onoo gets in and gets laid out as well. Vince comes out and intentionally hits Stevie with a slapjack, giving Miller the pin.

Rating: D. This was another angle instead of a match but it’s good to keep these Black and White things short. Having this as a heel vs. heel match made the fans even more uninterested though. Miller with the Glacier music isn’t interesting but hopefully it doesn’t last all that long.

We look at the Horsemen attacking Windham and Hennig on Nitro.

We see Booker’s promo and match from Monday with a clean win over Bret.

Villano V/El Dandy vs. Raven/Kanyon

Raven’s sister is here with them. Before the match, he talks about the jobbers claiming to be hardcore and Hak stealing the Raven’s Rules idea. What about Raven? He’ll stomp Hak and Bigelow like narcs at a biker rally. As for this match, remember that Raven and Kanyon injured Villano IV’s brother.

Dandy gets double teamed in the corner to start but the makeshift team nails Kanyon with a double dropkick. Off to Raven vs. Villano as Tenay talks about Villano V hopefully returning later this year? Heenan: “How do you know which one you were talking to? It might have been VII!” Tony: “HE’S RIGHT!” Raven runs into a boot in the corner as everything breaks down. Villano hot shots Kanyon but Raven nails him with a chair. The drop toehold sends Villano face first into the chair, followed by the Even Flow for the pin. For some reason the referee has to count it twice.

Rating: D. Nothing to the match but it was nice to see Raven back. Unfortunately it sounds like he’s going to have a feud with the hardcore guys now as the “let’s be like ECW” run continues. It’s a shame too as exploring Raven’s mental issues could be a very interesting path for his character.

Raven puts Dandy through a table post match.

This Week In WCW Motorsports! Monster trucks!

Stills of Goldberg vs. Bigelow.

Blitzkreig vs. Juventud Guerrera

Feeling out process to start with Juvy sending him to the floor. That goes nowhere so Blitzkreig comes back in and gets chopped. Now it’s Juvy being sent to the floor for a big flip dive but Juvy takes him back inside for a chinlock. A Stunner over the top rope sets up a springboard from Juvy but Blitzkreig rolls away and Juvy lands on his feet. Blitzkreig dropkicks him out to the floor but brings Guerrera back in for more chops.

Juvy crotches Blitzkreig on the top, setting up a springboard hurricanrana for two. We take a break and come back with Juvy taking Blitzkreig’s head off with a clothesline. Back to the chinlock for a bit before Juvy puts Blitzkrieg on the top for another dropkick, sending Blitzkreig out to the floor.

Juvy throws him back in for a springboard guillotine legdrop but hurts himself in the process. The delayed cover only gets two and a release German suplex gets the same for Guerrera. Blitzkrieg comes back with a spinning victory roll for two and a backbreaker for two more. A Lionsault hits knees but the 450 misses. Instead it’s the Juvy Driver for the pin.

Rating: C. This wasn’t a bad match but Blitzkrieg still isn’t doing it for me. Maybe it’s all the stuff I’ve heard about him over the years but he’s not on the same level as guys like Mysterio or Guerrero. He’s not bad or anything, but I don’t care to see most of his matches and he’s looked out of his league for the most part.

Stills of Rey losing his mask.

Konnan music video.

Here’s the full Mysterio vs. Nash match from Monday. Granted it’s only like three minutes long.

Bret Hart vs. Disco Inferno

Before the match, Disco wants to sing the Canadian national anthem. Tony: “Oh, because of his opponent.” The song is about drinking beer and playing hockey because Canadians have nothing better to do. Not bad. Disco immediately bails to the floor then does it again. Bret turns his back but it’s a trap, allowing him to hammer away on Inferno. They’re quickly back on the floor with Disco in big trouble. The beating heads back inside and Bret rakes Disco’s eyes across the top rope and we take a break.

Back with Bret getting two off a DDT before sending Disco out to the floor. Bret hammers away before taking it back inside for a Russian legsweep. Disco comes back with some choking and a clothesline before stomping Bret down in the corner. Tony hypes up Ric Flair making a huge announcement on Monday. Maybe we’ll even see it this time. Bret starts going after the leg and puts on a Figure Four. Disco hangs on for a good while and finally makes it to the ropes. That’s fine with Bret as it’s the backbreaker, elbow and Sharpshooter for the win.

Rating: D+. How often do you see Bret hit his finishing sequence and get the submission with no resistance? This was just a long Bret squash and it’s nice to see him in back to back featured matches. The loss on Monday was a good thing all around and now he gets to win something else to get some of his (limited) heat back. Nothing wrong with that and Disco losing to Bret Hart isn’t going to hurt his push.

Overall Rating: D. This show tried but it was stuck with low level talent and a lot of replays from SuperBrawl and Nitro. However, they were at least putting in some effort instead of just throwing guys out there to fill in two hours. Unfortunately the matches weren’t very good and you could tell this was taped in advance due to never seeing the announcers. It’s a bad time for WCW and things aren’t looking up.

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