Monday Nitro #137
Date: April 27, 1998
Location: Norfolk Scope, Norfolk, Virginia
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan

This week is split into two episode instead of the usual three due to the basketball games on TNT. Tonight is one hour followed by a two hour edition tomorrow night. Tonight’s focus will likely be on Bret Hart explaining why he did what he did last week instead of fighting against the NWO like he had talked about doing for weeks. Other than that we’re closing in on Slamboree which already has a pair of matches (Hart vs. Savage and Sting/Giant vs. Outsiders) almost set. Let’s get to it.

The Nitro Girls get us going. Alex Wright tries to sneak in and dance with them but the girls walk away. Wright is taken away by security.

The announcers talk about Sting’s challenge to the Outsiders.

Here are Nash and Savage to open things up. Nash does a Hall impression for the survey, won by WCW. Big Kev says Hall was last seen with a pina colada at Trader Vick’s and his hair looked great. The challenge is accepted for Slamboree. Nash talks about the Wolfpack, which now consists of himself and Savage and their first target is Bret Hart. Savage is ready for Bret because this right here is where it’s at. Nash says there are going to be more defectors, starting with Konnan. Konnan comes out to do his schtick and says that Hogan doesn’t want any part of the Wolfpack. Nash and Konnan sing a bit to end the segment.

Video on Juventud Guerrera, emphasizing that he will never quit.

Cruiserweight Title: Chris Jericho vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Jericho comes out with the portrait of Malenko and says he’d love to beat up Quasi-Juice Guerrera like he did when he took this mask, which is a bad mama-jamma of a necklace. Jericho “interviews” the portrait but Dean won’t celebrate being the new fry cook at Harry’s Burgers. Instead Dean can live vicariously through Jericho who is dedicating this match to Dean.

Chavo ducks a right hand and pounds away to start. A belly to back suplex puts and we hit a quick chinlock. Jericho comes back with a quick hot shot and some kicks in the corner but Chavo dropkicks Jericho into Eddie for two. Chavo jumps over Chris in the corner but gets caught in a quick Liontamer for the submission in just over two minutes.

Eddie rips into Chavo for the loss post match and slaps him in the face.

Nitro Party winner from a Gold’s Gym in Indiana.

We go back to Thunder to see the Buff Bagwell injury. Tony and Bobby talk about their own neck surgeries and how scary they can be. Bagwell can indeed move his limbs but had to undergo surgery today and we’ll get an update tomorrow night.

Video of Savage’s rant about Bret Hart on Thunder.

Here are Hogan, Disciple and Bischoff with something to say. Bischoff asks Hogan what’s possibly left for him to do after winning the title again. Hogan says all of his fans know he’s done everything there is to do and he’ll be it all until the end of eternity. We’ve now seen what a joke Nash is and now and there’s no one left for him to beat. If Konnan is the best Nash can find, he’s got a major problem. Hogan goes into a somewhat racist rant about how there are a dozen Konnan’s waiting to go pick fruit in Los Angeles. As for Bret, he knows the power lies with Hollywood because Hogan is for life. Not much to say here.

US Title: Scott Norton vs. Goldberg

Now this is a better idea. Norton jumps him to start, only to get taken down by a spinning neckbreaker. They head to the floor with the champion being sent into the post for almost no effect. Back inside and Norton gets caught in an ankle lock but ropes are quickly grabbed. Norton pounds away in the corner and hits the shoulder breaker for two. A Fujiwara Armbar does nothing for Scott so the spear and Jackhammer retain Goldberg’s title in less than three minutes.

We see Bret beating up Piper to end last week’s show.

The announcers talk about how awesome Bret Hart is with Heenan saying Bret has always been out for himself.

Here’s Bret for the first time since last week with less than four minutes left in the show. Bret says it’s nice to be in the house that Hollywood Hogan built to get the fans against him. He talks about suffering for your crimes, even though he’s committed no crime. Wrestling is a long money trench and a plastic hallway filled with pimps and thieves.

If Savage feels bad about last week, then Bret will meet the “half troll and half lizard” in the ring. Gene again asks him why he helped Hogan but he wants to say it to Hogan’s face tomorrow night. Gene asks why Bret screwed over Savage after complaining about being screwed. Bret calls Gene judgmental and says he’s tired of sitting on the bench before leaving.

Overall Rating: C+. This show is a good example of what’s wrong with three hour Nitros. In 45 minutes of air time, we had two title matches, three promos, angle advancement in multiple stories, two PPV matches confirmed and a new member added to a stable. The other hours that we usually have to sit through don’t need to be there and really don’t add anything significant to the show. More wrestling would have been nice, but this did a solid job of building to Slamboree without overstaying its welcome. That’s a very difficult balance to find but it’s almost impossible to do in a three hour show.

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Thunder
Date: April 22, 1998
Location: Carolina Coliseum, Columbia, South Carolina
Commentators: Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone

We’re just past Spring Stampede but the more interesting show was Monday Nitro, where two major title changes occurred. Goldberg won the US Title, but the more interesting change at the moment is Hollywood Hogan taking the world title from transitional champion Randy Savage thanks to interference from Bret Hart. This would be the same Bret Hart who had talked about how much he couldn’t stand Hogan for months now. Let’s get to it.

This show is airing on a Wednesday for reasons that haven’t been explained.

The announcers can barely talk over the Goldberg chants.

Here are Hogan, Bischoff and Disciple to open the show. Bischoff says Hogan is back and Disciple spray paints NWO on the belt again. Eric goes on a rant about how WCW is trying to keep Hogan out of the NWO as the fans think Hogan sucks. Hogan talks about all the people in the back that don’t want him to be world champion.

Everyone is jealous of him because he’s the man, just like the back of his shirt says. Now that the NWO is back together, everything is right again and the ratings prove it. That’s not a joke. Hogan actually said it. Hollywood says he’s retired Savage because Randy dissed him. Nothing special here.

We get more Hogan from Monday for some reason.

We see Savage accusing Hogan of driving the Viper that ran him over from Monday.

TV Title: Disco Inferno vs. Booker T

Booker is defending of course and takes over with some knees to the ribs and chops to the chest. A backdrop to Disco is enough to get the announcers to focus on the match instead of talking about Bret. Booker kicks Disco down and there’s the ax kick for good measure. Inferno is sent over the top and an ax handle off the apron keeps him down. Booker sends him into the steps as this has been one sided so far.

Back in and it’s time to talk about Bret some more. Disco hurts his leg on a leapfrog attempt but he’s goldbricking to take over. An atomic drop puts Booker down but it’s time to dance before the cover. We hit the chinlock but Booker counters into a rollup for two. The big spinebuster puts Disco down again and the Harlem Side Kick sets up the missile dropkick to retain Booker’s title.

Rating: C. This was fine. Booker T was using the most basic formula known to man to get over: he won a bunch of matches. I don’t get why wrestling companies over think this today. Booker has won nearly every match he’s had for four months and the fans are buying into him. It really is that simple but it so rarely happens.

Clip of the title match from Nitro.

Prince Iaukea vs. Barbarian

Did they pull these names out of a fishbowl or something? Barbarian jumps Iaukea to start but the Prince comes back with a dropkick. The fans want Flair but they get a chop block from Barbarian instead. Iaukes comes back by biting but Barbarian kicks the leg out to keep control. The Kick of Fear is good for the pin on Prince out of nowhere. Squash.

Clips from DDP vs. Raven at the PPV.

Another Savage vs. Hogan clip. I think we have a theme tonight.

Vicious and Delicious vs. Rick Steiner/Lex Luger

Rick and Buff get us going with Rick shoving the posing Bagwell into the corner. Buff comes back with right hands and a dropkick for the strutting pose. Rick no sells a suplex and punches Buff down before a big Steiner Line sets up a belly to belly superplex. Off to Luger for a middle rope ax handle but Buff comes right back and tags in Norton. Luger throws Norton around with ease and clotheslines him down but Bagwell breaks up a Rack attempt.

A clothesline puts Luger down and it’s back to Buff for some choking. Norton hits a backbreaker but Luger comes back with a Russian legsweep to make the tag to Rick. Everything breaks down and Rick cleans house with backdrops. It’s down to Rick vs. Buff with Rick going up for the bulldog. The camera misses most of the move as Scott Steiner is taking a chair from Vincent. After the bulldog hits, Scott blasts Rick with the chair, giving Buff the “pin”.

Rating: D. This was a really lame match with everyone going in first gear the entire time. I lost track of the amount of clotheslines being used and Buff wouldn’t sell anything done to him. The Steiner Brothers feud needs to go somewhere already as they split two months ago and nothing of note has happened since.

Now for the serious story: that bulldog severely injured Buff’s neck. I put pin in quotation marks as Buff wasn’t really on top of Rick but the referee counted anyway. Vincent and Norton try to pull Buff to the floor but realize something is wrong. Even Rick and Lex check on him as we go to clips of Nash powerbombing Hogan.

We come back from the break with Buff being checked on by the trainers. Buff is moving his left arm as we look at how the injury occurred: Buff’s head slipped out of the bulldog and it went straight onto Rick’s back and jacked his neck back. It looks much worse on replays. Heenan goes to find out what he can as Tony apologizes for Chris Benoit vs. Psychosis being postponed.

The announcers talk about the NWO war but it’s clear their minds are elsewhere so we go to another break.

Back with Bagwell on the stretcher but still in the ring. The announcers throw it to more Hogan vs. Savage clips. This goes on for about ten minutes as they air almost the entire match. They’re filling in time which is the only thing they can do here. During the clips we’re told Bagwell can move his legs and looks to be ok long term. There isn’t much to say here as it’s just the Nitro main event airing again. Hogan works on the knee a lot, Disciple interferes, Nash and Hart runs in, Hogan wins the title with Bret’s help.

We get clips from Raven taking Page’s US Title at Spring Stampede with shots of Horace as a grip earlier in the match before he cost Page the belt.

Horace Boulder vs. Evan Karagis

Tenay tells us that Horace’s career parallels Raven’s but in Japan instead of America. Horace pounds away and the fans are immediately chanting boring. You guys haven’t had a match in about twenty five minutes and this is your reaction? Karagis gets two off a springboard cross body. Bagwell is going to be fine but is at a hospital just in case. After maybe a minute here’s DDP with a Diamond Cutter on Horace for the DQ.

Karagis and the referee get Cutters of their own. Page says he’s here to get his hands on Raven and he wants it right here in the ring. Cue Raven to the ring but he walks away instead. Page says Raven is walking away just like he did from his sister when she needed Raven the most. That turns Raven around but he keeps leaving. Page invokes a mention of Raven’s mother but that’s still not enough. Page says he isn’t leaving the ring until Raven gets banged…..right before leaving through the crowd.

Here’s Randy Savage with something to say. Savage says he’s not finished but rather just getting started. The worst kept secret that everyone knows is that Hogan is scum. If Hogan is scum though, Bret Hart is nuclear scum. Bret should just join the NWO already because Savage is sick of listening to him complain about getting screwed. Hart is the best con man to ever walk the earth and he’s totally overpaid and unproven.

Video on Goldberg winning the title.

US Title: Goldberg vs. Mike Enos

Enos jumps him from behind and pounds away but Goldberg no sells it and takes Enos down by the leg. A belly to belly suplex puts Mike down and a hard clothesline does the same. Enos comes back with a powerslam for one and it’s time for Heenan to freak out. Spear and Jackhammer make it 76-0.

Sting vs. Scott Steiner

Apparently there won’t be a Thunder until the 14^th of May due to baseball. Steiner jumps Sting to start and ties him up in the coat. Sting comes back with a pair of clotheslines and a third sends Steiner out to the floor. Sting throws Scott into the steps as we’re told Bagwell is moving around which is always good to hear.

Steiner hits a low blow to put Sting down before tying Sting up in the Tree of Woe for a choke. A butterfly powrbomb puts Sting down and Scott goes to pose, only to jump into Sting’s boot. Another boot in the corner puts Scott down and Sting pounds away. The Stinger Splash and Deathlock connect but Konnan comes in for the DQ.

Rating: D. Egads this show has been awful from a wrestling standpoint. This was just there to set up the post match stuff which is almost never a good way to run a wrestling match. Scott continues to not be over at all because they’ve changed everything that got him over in the first place. Nothing to see here, again.

The NWO comes in but Rick Steiner and the Giant make the save. Post match Sting gets the mic and says it’s the same old thing every week: he has to fight off all the bad guys in a bar room brawl. He thinks all the jokes have been made with Nash being the best. Big Kev should be a stand up comedian because he’s just too sweet. The problem is every single joke has a punch line. Sting makes fun of Nash’s Arn Anderson imitation and asks for a tag title shot against the Outsiders at Slamboree with Giant as his partner.

Overall Rating: D. I’m completely ignoring the injury stuff as you can’t hold that against WCW. That left roughly an hour of original TV time (not counting commercials) and what we got in that time was really dull. It was a night of squashes and boring matches which isn’t what they needed to do after the huge Nitro. I guess we’re supposed to wait until Nitro for the explanation from Bret, even though Nitro is on at 12:30AM this coming Monday night due to basketball. Horrible show here but Sting’s stuff at the end was kind of funny.

Remember Nitro is two shows this coming week and there’s no Thunder for two weeks.

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Monday Nitro #136
Date: April 20, 1998
Location: World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko

It’s the night after Spring Stampede and some things have changed. To begin with Savage is the new world champion having defeated Sting with the help of Kevin Nash. This of course turned into yet another Hogan story as Hogan tried to keep the title on Sting but Nash helped take it off of him to screw over Hogan who hit Nash with a baseball bat earlier in the night. Other than that Raven won the US Title last night and gets Goldberg as a reward tonight. Let’s get to it.

We open with exclusive footage from after the PPV where Hogan and Disciple jumped Savage and Nash but the NWO B Team came out to prevent Hogan from taking the belt.

Opening sequence.

The announcers talk about the title picture.

Here are Hogan, Disciple and Bischoff to open the show because it’s not like there’s a new world champion who should be opening things up. Bischoff ensures us that he loves Hogan who loves all of you. Hogan says the NWO is for life and thinks Nash and Savage are caught in the river Styx. There’s no escape for Savage tonight because the NWO is watching all the exits.

The fans are all over Hogan to the point where I can barely understand him. Hogan wants to call out Savage tonight and he’ll take care of Nash too. The NWO has split and it’s time to find out who is going to follow whom and if Nash tries to get involved, Hogan will take him apart too.

Goldberg is getting ready.

The announcers talk about what Hogan said while adding nothing new at all.

Here’s Savage for the rebuttal. He’s wants to fight instead of gloat because the only coward here tonight is Hollywood Hogan. The worst kept secret in the world is that he hates Hogan in life and death. See, Hogan has everyone snowed. Hogan’s main goal was to keep Savage from taking over but now his world is crashing down around him.

It was Hogan behind the wheel of the Viper a few weeks ago but now there’s nothing preventing Savage from fighting Hogan tonight. No one can stop him on live TV, including Bischoff, Turner or the big Macho Man in the sky. Savage brings out Nash, calling him the new leader of the NWO. Shouldn’t the new WORLD CHAMPION be the leader?

Here’s Nash, not even in an NWO shirt. He says that this is the end of Hogan’s career because the NWO is no longer his, brother. Tonight Savage is going to be the end of Hogan when he beats him for the title. Nash is coming for Disciple and Bischoff too, because he’s powerbombed Eric before and he’ll do it again.

The announcers talk even more.

Raven says he won’t be #75 for Goldberg because he’s been through pain before.

Nitro Girls. We’re only half an hour into the show before the first match so why not have even more filler?

Gene tells us to call the Hotline for the latest rumors about nothing in particular.

Konnan vs. Chris Adams

Yep, this is what we waited thirty minutes to get to. Adams takes over with some quick suplexes and armdrags Konnan down to counter Konnan’s technical attempts. Another armdrag sends Konnan to the floor for a conference with Vincent. Back in and Konnan hits the low dropkick and a hard clothesline before cranking on the arm. Adams fights up and tries Kofi Kingston’s SOS for two but crashes into the ropes on a cross body attempt. The Tequila Sunrise gets the submission for Konnan.

Rating: D. Nothing to see here as neither guy is anything of note at this point. Konnan is nothing more than a lackey with an accent and Adams is a jobber that most of WCW’s fans likely haven’t heard of. The announcers didn’t help things either by spending the entire match talking about Goldberg. If they want to get back on top in the ratings, this is a strange way of going about it.

Nitro Party video.

Barbarian vs. Wayne Bloom

Barbarian pounds him into the corner to start but Wayne comes back with a clothesline. Jimmy Hart distracts Bloom, allowing Barbie to get the pin off a big boot. Match might have lasted a minute.

Raven says he’s next.

Here’s Chris Jericho, wearing Iaukea’s skirt thing, with a portrait of Dean Malenko. Jericho has some good news and bad news. The bad news is that Malenko is retired, but the good news is he has a job interview at Harry’s Burgers in Tampa. Jericho will give us updates on how the interview goes.

Cruiserweight Title: Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera

Juvy pounds away in the corner and snaps off a top rope hurricanrana. Off to a quick chinlock but Jericho comes back with a jawbreaker and does his long strut. Juvy avoids a charge to send Jericho to the floor and a big plancha takes Chris down again. Back in and a springboard spinwheel kick gets two. Juvy rolls up Jericho’s body into a DDT for two more as this is incredibly fast paced for the most part. Juvy tries another hurricanrana but gets caught in the Liontamer, eventually passing out from the pain, playing up the Never Surrender idea.

Rating: C+. They packed a lot of action into a three and a half minute match. Juvy continues to be one of the best fliers around and Jericho is more than capable of hanging in there with him when he tries to. It says a lot when you can have a crowd going nuts in the first minute and a half of a match which is exactly what Juvy had them doing here on those near falls.

Jericho: “MY GOD I KILLED JUVY!”

Goldberg is still getting ready.

Hour #2 begins.

US Title: Goldberg vs. Raven

Raven is defending and this is under his rules. He lays the belt out in front of Goldberg and they talk trash, only to have Raven dropkick him down. We head to the floor with Raven being whipped into the barricade to give Goldberg control. Back inside and Goldie puts on a leg lock before superkicking Raven right back to the floor.

Raven grabs a chair and smashes Goldberg in the back to slow him down. There’s the drop toehold onto the chair followed by a reverse chinlock on Goldberg. The big man powers up and no sells a bunch of right hands. There’s the spear but Goldberg has to destroy the Flock. Raven tries to leave but the fans throw him back to ringside. Another spear and a Jackhammer onto a stop sign (brought in by Horace) make Goldberg US Champion.

Rating: C+. Total destruction here by Goldberg which is a good idea, but I don’t know why it had to be at Raven’s expense just one day after he won the title. The guy did some great work with Page and Benoit earlier in the year but now he gets to keep the US Title for a single day? Still though, good, hard hitting match here.

More Nitro Girls.

La Parka vs. Ultimo Dragon

La Parka does his dance to start but Dragon takes him by the arm and sends him down with a flying mare. Dragon avoids a charge into the corner but a spinwheel kick sends him to the floor. La Parka hits a big dive to the floor before throwing on a chinlock back in the ring. A clothesline gets two on Dragon but La Parka goes up top and dives into some boots from Dragon. Eddie Guerrero is dragging Chavo to the ring by the neck as Dragon fires off the kicks. Chavo is forced to shove Dragon off the top, allowing La Parka to hit a twisting body attack off the top for the pin.

Rating: C. This was fine with both guys looking good for the most part and tying it into the Guerrero story could be interesting. It’s a good sign thing to have so many talented guys you can throw out there to have solid matches and giving them a story makes things even better. Nice little match here.

We look at some stills from the main event last night.

Chris Benoit vs. Curt Hennig

Rude jumps in on commentary as is customary anymore. Benoit jumps Hennig as he comes to the ring and goes after Curt’s banged up knee. Hennig tries to take it to the mat which goes about as well as you would expect against Chris Benoit. Rude comes down to ringside as Benoit kicks Hennig’s leg out. Hennig sends Benoit to the floor for a beating from Rude, leaving Benoit out cold. Back in and Hennig loads up the HennigPlex, only to have Benoit counter into the Crossface. Rude comes in for the DQ because the NWO isn’t allowed to lose.

Rude beats up Benoit some more but Booker T makes the save. Benoit yells at Booker for helping him, triggering a fight on the stage.

Come to the Power Plant! You can be told you have no future in the business like Dave Batista!

More stills from the main event.

Here’s Roddy Piper with something to say. Piper sucks up to the University of Colorado a bit while talking about something starting at Spring Stampede tonight. The main event is now No DQ, no one allowed at ringside and they’ll fight until there’s a winner.

More stills from the main event. They’ve pretty much given up on the practice of not saying who wins the PPV matches until the replay was over.

Hammer vs. Perry Saturn

The brawl starts in the aisle with Saturn taking over. Hammer is sent into the steps and we finally head inside. A top rope clothesline puts Hammer down again but he pops up to catch Saturn in a powerslam. Saturn suplexes him down a few times but a Thesz Press is countered into something resembling an Alabama Slam from Hammer. Saturn gets a breather though as Hammer seems to have hurt his knee so a Cactus Clothesline puts both guys on the floor. Instead of going after the knee, Saturn crushes Hammer’s arm between the steps and the post. They fight up the aisle for a countout.

Rating: D. This was more of an angle than a match which barely lasted long enough to be rated. Saturn continues to be awesome with his unique style but he needs something better than Hammer to make this work. They did the right thing by keeping it short though as Saturn’s rebellion against Raven begins.

More stills from the main event. Just show the match already if you’re going to show this many shots from the match.

Hour #3 begins.

The announcers talk even more.

Public Enemy vs. Scott Steiner/Buff Bagwell

Bagwell starts with Grunge and it’s already time to pose. A quick armdrag takes Grunge down and it’s time for the posing strut. Grunge comes back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker before it’s off to Rocco vs. Steiner. Scott easily throws Rock around but gets caught in a sleeper. A belly to belly suplex gets Scott out of trouble as the slow power offense continues. Rocco comes back with a swinging neckbreaker before it’s back to Buff for some choking.

Back to Grunge who gets caught in a Tree of Woe for choking by Steiner as the offense continues to expand. Buff heads to the floor but gets caught by some double teaming to give Grunge a breather. Everything breaks down with Grunge hitting a double bulldog on the NWO. Buff is laid out on the table but gets up before Rocco can drive him through. Back in and Scott gets up the Recliner but Buff wants the Blockbuster instead for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was pretty dull stuff. At the end of the day Public Enemy wasn’t a very interesting team because they didn’t have much to offer in WCW besides the table stuff. Scott continues to seem tentative at best on offense instead of being a killing machine like he was in the early days of the Steiner Brothers which made him a star.

Nitro Girls.

TV Title: Psychosis vs. Booker T

Booker takes him down with a back elbow and it’s off to an early armbar. A clothesline and some chops have Psychosis in trouble but he comes back with a dropkick to the chest and one to the leg for good measure. Psychosis gets two off a top rope spinning body attack and we hit the chinlock. Back up and Booker hits a knee to the ribs to stop Psychosis cold. Booker’s knee drop misses so Psychosis wraps the knee around the post to keep him down. Not that it matters as Booker pops up and hits the snap spinebuster. The flapjack sets up a sidekick and the missile dropkick retains the title.

Rating: D+. This felt like they were trying to fill in nine minutes instead of having an entertaining and competitive match. I didn’t leave much out of the match and it somehow ran over nine minutes. There was nothing to see here and they didn’t even let Psychosis fly around the ring all that much. Also Booker completely ignored the knee work near the end which made it even worse.

Bryan Adams vs. Lex Luger

Feeling out process to start with Luger ducking right hands and scoring with an atomic drop. Lex pounds away in the corner and clotheslines Adams down a few times. A third clothesline puts Bryan on the floor and Luger suplexes him back in, only to have a splash (from Luger?) hit knees. Adams gets two off a gorilla press but Luger comes back with a neckbreaker, expanding his moveset yet again. A powerslam puts Adams down, drawing in Vincent for a torture rack. Konnan comes in and gets a rack of his own but there’s still no DQ. Luger drops Konnan and hits a running clothesline on Adams for the pin.

Rating: D-. This was even less interesting than the previous match with Adams and Luger doing nothing of note for the entire match. I have no idea why Adams is getting this prominent of a role but he’s not showing he deserves it. This show is really dragging before the main event and I doubt Hogan vs. Savage is going to raise the bar very much.

The announcers talk about how great the main event will be.

WCW World Title: Hollywood Hogan vs. Randy Savage

No DQ. Hogan threatens to use his Viper to make Savage a speed bump after winning the title. We get the required stalling to start as Hogan hides behind Disciple, ignoring Piper’s statement that no one would be allowed at ringside. Hogan slowly gets in and is taken down by an early shoulder block. After even more stalling Hogan comes back with right hands and some rakes to various body parts. Savage gets choked in the corner by both Hogan and Disciple and a belly to back suplex gets two for the challenger.

We head to the floor for some chair shots to Savage’s….knee I think but it also grazed the shoulder. Hogan pounds away against the barricade before head head back inside. Savage gets in some right hands of his own but injures his knee while kicking Hogan in the ribs. Take notes Booker. Hogan goes after the leg for a few moments but Savage gets in a low blow. He’s too beaten down to follow up so we head to the floor again.

Nothing happens there so it’s back inside for some choking with the weightlifting belt. Savage is reeling and there’s the slam to set up the leg drop but the champion rolls away. Now Savage gets the weightlifting belt and whips Hogan to the biggest reaction of the last hour and a half. Savage slams him down and drops the elbow but the knee prevents him from covering.

Off to a spinning toe hold into a figure four by Hogan to make Savage scream. The fans immediately turn to the entrance to look for the interference a funny moment. Savage makes the rope pretty easily as Dusty Rhodes would have laughed at how badly Hogan had the hold on.

Randy gets up and throws the referee down so he can choke Hogan even more. Disciple comes in for the Stunner on Nick Patrick and goes after Savage’s knee. The fans look to the entrance again but no one is coming yet. Savage’s knee is wrapped around the post and there’s a Stunner with the belt on Disciple’s shoulder.

Now we get Kevin Nash but Bischoff follows him and grabs his leg, allowing Hogan and Disciple to beat Nash down. Hogan’s belt shot hits Nash in the head and Nash jackknifes Hollywood. He drapes Savage on Hogan but here’s Bret Hart to hit Nash with the belt and put Hogan on top of Savage for the pin and the title.

Rating: D-. Where do I even start? We’ll go with the obvious: the match wasn’t all that good. It went on longer than it should have, though to be fair Hogan going after the knee made sense so there was a basic story being told out there. Other than that though, there wasn’t anything good going on.

To begin with, we had three interferences after Piper guaranteed none. Obviously Piper was watching the match but he didn’t do anything about his rules being broken, making him look like an inept figurehead. Granted that might be better than being a crazy rambling psycho who made no sense whatsoever.

Then after all that there’s the booking. We have two stupid points here. Bret’s turn is the easier one to deal with. No it makes no sense, but there’s still a chance to fix things later on with an explanation. At the end of the day though, there was no build to the turn, no teasing of anything, it goes against everything Bret and Hogan have been saying for weeks and it’s not like Bret has been doing anything of note leading up to the match anyway which takes away from the turn a bit.

Then there’s the bigger problem: Hogan as champion AGAIN. He’s held the title for nearly last year and a half save for five days. The idea has been done, but we get to see it yet again for no apparent reason whatsoever. The fans were going nuts for Savage and then just died for the title change. WCW’s fans were tired of Hogan because it’s the same thing they’ve seen for nearly four years now. Is it any wonder why the people changed the channel over to Raw to see something fresh like Austin on top?

The show isn’t quite over.

Piper finally comes out to yell at Bret as there are four bodies piled up on the mat. Bret decks Piper to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Nitro continues on the same track as always: some decent stuff but the NWO nonsense drags it down. At the end of the day, people are sick of Hogan and whatever he has going on at the moment. Nash vs. Hogan could be interesting, but we’re almost two years into the NWO era now and while they’re splitting up, it’s just putting even more focus onto them. Now on the other side we have Goldberg who is finally pushed up to a higher level and given something of note. There’s good stuff hidden under all the nonsense here but there’s way more nonsense than good.

The next week of shows are kind of weird. Thunder is on Wednesday this week and next week Nitro will be split in two. Monday will have an hour long show and Tuesday will have two hours, I believe due to basketball. I’ll be reviewing both Nitros at once.

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Monday Nitro #150
Date: August 17, 1998
Location: Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, Connecticut
Attendance: 12,655
Commentators: Larry Zbyszko, Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone

This was requested a long time ago so I’m not sure why someone wanted to see it. We’re a little over a week after Road Wild 1998 where, believe it or not, the world champion Goldberg didn’t main event the show because Hogan was in a tag match with a celebrity. The company is starting to reel from the Attitude Era but tonight may be their answer if my memory is correct. Let’s get to it.

Here’s the NWO, led by Hogan and Bischoff, to open things up. Giant is part of the NWO again at this point too. Hogan says all the fans here are NWO Black and White fans because this is the house that Hollywood built. He’s sick of all the games with the media and dealing with all those lower level guys. Instead he wants Goldberg right here tonight in the middle of the ring because there is NO ONE he hasn’t beaten and no one he can’t beat. The fans chant Goldberg as Hogan says Giant will take out Goldberg and hand him the title tonight.

Opening sequence which is still the same as it was at the beginning of the year. Even the Steiner Brothers are still in it.

JJ Dillon talks about the very stupid WarGames this year which is a three team, nine man format because the greatest gimmick match of all time needed to be tweaked. Dillon announced Hogan, DDP and Nash as the captains for the three teams. There are three men to start, every two minutes there’s a three way coin toss and the person who earns the fall (which can be a pin this year) gets a title shot at Halloween Havoc.

We get a clip from Saturday Night with Dean Malenko wanting to reform the Horsemen.

Nitro Girls.

Nitro Party winner. Is there any wrestling coming anytime soon?

Steve McMichael vs. Sick Boy

The announcers spend the first minute or so running down Raw for the night because it was taped weeks in advance and their world title match only runs about ten seconds tonight. That’s likely because it’s two weeks before Summerslam and the WWF isn’t stupid enough to air a long title match that close to their second biggest show of the year. Mongo shoves Sick Boy to the apron but gets his neck snapped across the top rope. Sick Boy fires off some right hands and gets two off a slam.

A dropkick puts Mongo down for the same as the announcers talk about Saturn vs. Raven at Fall Brawl with the future of the Flock on the line. Sick Boy hits a clothesline as this is almost a squash so far. They slug it out from their knees with Sick Boy maintaining control but barely being able to get Mongo up for a suplex. Mongo gets in a shot to the ribs and a three point shoulder block followed by the tombstone for the pin.

Rating: C-. I miss the days when Mongo was nowhere to be seen. You know something? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad Sick Boy match. The guy looks smooth out there and very confident in what he does in the ring but after the Flock broke up he was more or less gone for good. Then again it’s WCW so it’s not like he would have been pushed anyway.

Here’s DDP with something to say. He’s the captain for Team WCW at Fall Brawl so he went out west to recruit his first teammate. This man wants to take out Hogan as much as Page does and Hogan has never beaten him. Page doesn’t name the guy before starting to talk about the NWO beating Page down before his US Title match with Bret Hart.

This brings out US Champion Bret (in a Hogan shirt) to say quick complaining and win or lose like a man. Page says back up of him Jack because he wants a match with Hart tonight. Bret lists off a bunch of guys that he’s crippled and put on the shelf, but Page is the scum of the earth so he’ll give Page the title shot tonight.

Gene brings out Raven for a chat but before anything can be said, Horace Hogan comes out with a stop sign. He says he’s watched Raven’s back for four months but hasn’t gotten anything in return for it. For the last two weeks he’s beaten Raven up but he wants one more match.

Raven says fine as long as it’s a tag match where he can pick the partners. Horace will have Kanyon and Raven gets Saturn because Saturn needs to get used to being subservient to him. Saturn and Kanyon come out with Saturn calling Raven crazy. He changes his mind a few seconds later because he wants to smack Raven when he comes over for a tag. JJ Dillon comes out to stop this interesting idea. The tag match can happen, but if Saturn tries to attack Raven, he’s gone for 90 days. Also the match must end by pinfall or submission.

High Voltage vs. Alex Wright/Disco Inferno

Wright is quickly taken to the mat by a wristlock and a belly to belly suplex. Tony rips on Raw again by saying WCW will give you action you want to see here tonight. So far we’ve seen Steve McMichael vs. Sick Boy and this classic. You might want to try that one again Schiavone. Off to Disco who is thrown around as well but here’s Meng to attack Wright because Meng is a monster.

A referee and a security guard get Death Grips as well. They finally mace him to no effect at all.

Eddie Guerrero is scheduled for a match against Konnan but he comes out with a bag and a cup of coffee. He says don’t go to a commercial or he’ll say this on another show. Eddie wants to talk to Eric Bischoff about business, but if this is the only way to get his attention then so be it. Eddie has been unappreciated for a year despite giving the best effort he can.

All of the young talent in WCW is held down for the sake of the people on top of the company. The fans are loudly booing. Eddie says he hasn’t done this for the sake of Chavo and his children and pours coffee on himself, referencing a meeting where Eric allegedly threw coffee on him (in his book Eddie said that it was actually Eric accidentally spilling the coffee on a table and it landed on Eddie). This would eventually lead to the LWO. I’m sure we’ll get Eddie vs. Konnan later though, because WCW would NEVER bait and switch us like that other company that WCW has spent the first hour running down.

Hour #2 begins.

Kanyon/Horace vs. Saturn/Raven

Raven and Saturn get in an argument before the bell but agree to get inside. Saturn and Kanyon get things going but Raven tags himself in, nearly triggering another brawl. The tag doesn’t count for some reason so Kanyon tries a fisherman’s suplex on Saturn, only to get caught in a belly to belly suplex. Off to Horace who catches Saturn in a bad looking flapjack, giving Kanyon a two count.

Kanyon stomps away in the corner and gets two off a backbreaker. In a surprise, Raven crotches Kanyon on the top to save Saturn as the Raw bashing continues. Raven comes in and rolls some Russian legsweeps on Kanyon but doesn’t cover. Back to Saturn for some kicks in the corner before Raven brings in a chair.

Kanyon is sat on the middle rope and Raven loads up a Diamond Cutter onto the chair (Tony: “Looked like a bulldog or a DDT.” So not only does he brag about how AMAZING WCW’s main event will be but he doesn’t recognize the most over move in the company for the last year and a half.) but Kanyon shoves Raven into the chair instead. Off to Horace who is only here to beat up Raven. A powerslam gets two for Hollywood Hogan’s nephew as Saturn makes the save.

Everything breaks down and Saturn and Raven are thrown into each other. Horace splashes both guys in the corner and Saturn does the Sting falling low blow spot. A powerbomb/neckbreaker combo gets two on Saturn and Kanyon spikes him down with a reverse electric chair (meaning Saturn was dropped face first off Kanyon’s shoulders). Horace brings in the stop sign but blasts Kanyon by mistake, allowing Saturn to hit the Death Valley Driver on Horace for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was a better match than I was expecting though more dissension between Raven and Saturn would have helped a bit. Kanyon continues to be solid in the ring with a bunch of nifty moves but Horace on the other hand was as generic of a big man as you could ask for. Still though, good stuff here.

The Flock comes in post match and Raven DDTs Saturn. He tells the Flock to get Saturn up but Kidman pulls Raven off of him, earning a DDT of his own. Horace gets a DDT as well.

Here’s the NWO Black and Red (the Wolfpack) with something to say. The Wolfpack is Nash, Konnan, Sting (looking like a lobster in red paint) Luger and Savage (injured at the moment). They’re the cool NWO and formed a few months ago because if there was one thing missing in WCW, it was a face NWO team. Sting talks about WarGames coming up and how much he’d love to be involved again. Konnan does his usual schtick before Nash talks about how great it is to be in Connecticut. If you’re not part of the Wolfpack, prepare to be hunted by the Pack…and that’s it.

Scott Norton vs. Scott Putski

Putski is wearing a long coat that makes him look like a pirate. Norton chops him in the corner to start but Putski comes back with a neckbreaker. A Vincent distraction lets Norton snap off a powerslam and a powerbomb ends Putski in less than a minute.

Here’s the Black and White with something else to say. Hogan loves the new WarGames rules because he can take care of all the garbage at one time. Nash is a turncoat and Page is a creep who doesn’t follow the rules. Bischoff is the boss around here and the man that brings in the new talent, even though there’s no one Page could bring in that Hogan can’t handle. There go the lights and it’s time for the reveal of DDP’s surprise partner.

A voiceover says something about destruction and someone walks out but we can’t see who it is. The lights come up and it’s the Ultimate Warrior (just called the Warrior here). Hogan immediately panics because he thought Warrior was dead. A LOUD Warrior chant comes up as Warrior asks who holds the power now. Warrior stands there for awhile before saying people anticipated his arrival. Hogan offers him the NWO shirt off his back but Warrior says it doesn’t smell good.

Warrior talks about how wrestling has tried to recreate something which is recreateable with Hogan at the figurehead. Those sort of things are irreplaceable and Hogan must realize that right now. Warrior pauses for about thirty seconds after each sentence. The fans chant that Hogan sucks but Warrior wants to tell him something he doesn’t know. Warrior talks about history teaching us things but Hogan has misplaced pieces of his history. He mentions that Hogan never beat the Warrior, which brings up an interesting point.

On Warrior’s WWE DVD, Hogan said this was the ultimate no-no. Why? Some of the biggest matches of all time, including the most watched match in American history, have been rematches. Are we supposed to say Warrior lost the match? Also remember that Page brought it up earlier in the show and flat out said it instead of implying it like Warrior did (Warrior said Hogan never beat him, not that he beat Hogan). Earlier Hogan mentioned wanting to get his belt back from Goldberg. Are we supposed to forget that Hogan lost his only match against Goldberg? I never got why this was such a big deal in Hogan’s mind.

Anyway Warrior says he defeated the undefeatable and conquered the unconquerable because while Hogan was great, Warrior was Ultimate. After talking for about ten minutes, Warrior introduces himself to Disciple, saying that must be Hogan’s barber. I believe that’s the first actual confirmation that it’s Brutus Beefcake. Bischoff says Warrior knows who he is and Warrior says if Bischoff gets involved, it will lead to his demise. Also Warrior is going to send him a bill for something that isn’t specified.

Warrior talks about destiny and waiting for the next superhero. Hogan has been rationalizing adolescent behavior and embodies intolerable evil. Warrior isn’t here to beat Hogan up because everyone has already beaten Hogan up. Nice line there. Next week Warrior is going to launch a revolution that not even Hogan can control. That’s next week, same Warrior time, place and channel. Seriously he said that. Smoke fills the ring and Warrior disappears.

This went on FOREVER and easily could have been cut in half to get the same point across. Between Warrior’s incessant pauses, the repeating the same stuff in different terms over and over and talking to Bischoff about bills, this could have been cut down to about six or seven minutes instead of the fifteen that it took. Also it’s more of the same idea for WCW: take something that was a big deal a long time ago and try to get something more out of it. Yes it would work short term, but it was shown to not work in the long term.

More Nitro Girls. Tony is only pretty sure that the Warrior was DDP’s shocker.

Dean Malenko vs. Curt Hennig

This has potential. Curt bails to the floor and we take our second break in about two and a half minutes. Back with Dean pulling Hennig into the ring but Curt taking it right back to the floor to beat on Malenko. Back in and Dean goes off with forearms in the corner, only to be taken down by a clothesline. Hennig cranks on the neck but Dean backdrops Curt down.

A snapmare gets two for Malenko but he runs into a boot in the corner. The HennigPlex is countered with knees to the ribs and Dean suplexes Curt a few times. Tony rips on Raw’s main event again as Hennig escapes the Cloverleaf. A Rude distraction and a shot to the back sets up the HennigPlex to end Dean a few seconds later.

Rating: D. I expected WAY more from these two. They never got out of first gear here and seemed perfectly happy going like that for about five minutes. It’s nice that Dean is back after being gone for a few months in the spring, but Curt seems to be doing exactly what he was doing back in April. That’s not a good sign at all.

Hour #3 begins.

Here are Buff Bagwell, Scott Steiner (with literally half of his body in bandages) and some frumpy old woman. Scott talks about Rick hitting him in the elbow last week, and everyone knows that the elbow bone is connected to the shoulder which is connected to the neck bone, and that’s why his knee hurts. Steiner’s doctor, who is apparently a man, says that Scott is indeed hurt. Scott can’t hold his arm up so clearly he can’t face Rick at Fall Brawl. This brings out Rick who says he wants the match so Scott says he’ll do it at Fall Brawl. The team split up six months ago and we’re still waiting on the match?

Nitro Girls part 3.

TV Title: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Chris Jericho vs. Stevie Ray

Chavo has gone nuts and has a stick horse named Pepe for a friend. Jericho is TV Champion after beating Stevie, who became champion after Booker T couldn’t defend the title due to injury and allegedly gave Stevie power of attorney to defend the title. At least I think that’s what happened as the announcers don’t sound entirely sure. One fall to a finish here with Jericho throwing Chavo into Stevie to start. Jericho bails out to the floor so Stevie throws Guerrero on top of him in a nice power display.

Chavo comes back in with a high cross body for two on Stevie but now Jericho wants to hook up with Guerrero. A running forearm and middle rope bulldog get two on the champion but now Ray lifts Chavo into the air again, only to have Jericho break it up for two. Ray takes them both down with a double clothesline but the smaller guys come back with a double suplex.

Chris and Chavo hit a double missile dropkick from the same corner but Jericho breaks up Guerrero’s cover on Ray. Ray runs over the referee but knocks Jericho out with a blackjack. Guerrero puts a sleeper on Stevie Ray but here’s Giant to chokeslam Stevie, which apparently is what gave Jericho the title in the first place. Chavo gets up but staggers out of the ring. Jericho gets to his feet….and wins by countout because Ray can’t get up? Uh….sure, but why not just have Jericho cover the unconscious Stevie for the pin?

Rating: D+. Bizarre ending, bizarre booking and unexplained interference aside, there were a few decent spots in here to carry things. This is a good example of how watching all of the shows coming up to this could have helped out a lot. Chavo getting to show personality is definitely a good thing though as he’s very talented but didn’t have the character to back it up.

US Title: Bret Hart vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Bret is defending, having traded the title with Lex Luger over the last week. Page gets a quick two off a belly to belly but Bret bails to the floor to avoid a Diamond Cutter. DDP follows him to the floor and pounds away, sending Bret into the barricade. Back in and Page fires off elbows in the corner and gets two off a suplex. Page goes to the corner to rain down right hands but Bret hits him low.

The referee must have been following a piece of lint in the air because it was right in front of him but Bret wasn’t even admonished. Bret drops Page face first onto the buckle to take over even more as momentum shifts. Hart rakes the eyes across the top rope ala Arn Anderson but Page grabs a quick small package for two. We hit the Five Moves of Doom with the elbow getting two. A hard whip into the corner puts Page down again and a good looking piledriver gets two on Page.

DDP pops right up and pounds away on Bret in the corner before taking him down with a discus lariat. A top rope clothesline gets a near fall on the champion and the Pancake gets the same. The referee gets pumped and Bret pulls out a foreign object to blast Page in the head. Then in a bizarre moment, for some reason he puts the object in Page’s tights and drags Page on top of himself but kicks out at two.

The Sharpshooter goes on, Page slaps the mat on three separate occasions (as in three sets of taps) and shakes his head up and down but the referee does nothing at all. Page grabs the rope for the break and grabs a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere. The referee does his job for the first time all match by noticing Bret’s foot being under the rope. Bret claims that Page hit him with something so the referee checks him, only to find the object for the DQ. We’ll ignore that the referee had a completely unobstructed view for the last several minutes and would have seen Page hit Hart or put it back in his tights.

Rating: B-. Good match here but the strange booking brought it down. The ending makes sense given the setup, but the setup made no sense. I get that Bret put the object there as a safety net, but why not just pin Page when he was knocked out? Also there were way too many instances here with the referee coming off like an idiot. These two had good chemistry together but I don’t remember a match between them not being overbooked.

More Nitro Girls, this time with the WCW version of Wrestling Buddies.

WCW World Title: Goldberg vs. The Giant

Tony bashes Raw again, saying they’re going to give the fans what they advertised, unlike their competitors. Giant has Disciple with him. Goldberg’s music hits and the fake chants pipe in. I rarely notice those so they must be really bad here. Buffer introduces Goldberg as the unified WCW/NWO World Champion.

Giant charges at him in the corner to start and slams Goldberg down, only to have Goldberg pop up and slam Giant right back. Giant clubs him down again and hits a quick Russian legsweep for no cover. Goldberg is sent to the floor but has to knock out Disciple. The champion posts Giant but the big man is able to suplex Goldberg in from the apron, only to have Goldie pop right back up. The spear connects but Disciple comes in for the DQ.

Rating: C-. It was indeed longer than ten seconds, but the whole thing didn’t even last four minutes. If I’m WCW, I’d have a bigger match than that if I was going to spend almost three hours bragging about how good it was going to be. This is like a kid bragging that he got a D on a paper when his friend got an F. Goldberg’s power moves were impressive but there was nothing to the match at all. Two straight DQ finishes didn’t help things either.

Goldberg spears Disciple down and hits him with the Jackhammer but Scott Hall comes in to beat the champion down. Nash comes in for the save, takes out Giant and pulls Hall off of Goldberg, only to take a spear meant for Scott. Nash basically no sells it and stares Goldberg down to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This was a pretty entertaining show all around, but there are some big problems and you can see them coming soon. The Warrior idea is a Band-Aid and nothing more. Yeah it might have gotten them a quick boost, but even WCW had to know this wasn’t going to be a long term solution.

At the end of the day, this is the Hulk Hogan Show, not Nitro. Look back at Page’s promo. He isn’t bringing Warrior in to help him win the title or to help WCW win WarGames. Page brought Warrior in to help him get Hogan. Hogan has lost to Sting and Goldberg in the last eight months and it rolls off of him. Nothing ever changes with him and he just keeps rolling along. How is that interesting TV? Good show, but not for the main stories as usual.

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WCW Saturday Night
Date: September 9, 1995
Location: Center Stage Theater, Atlanta, Georgia
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, Bobby Heenan

This is from five days after Nitro debuted, meaning Saturday Night is still the most important show in a lot of fans’ eyes. We’re closing in on Fall Brawl and Lex Luger has just returned to shock everyone in sight. Hogan is reigning on high and feuding with the Dungeon of Doom, which was a vastly underrated stable for reasons I’ll get into at another time. Let’s get to it.

The opening sequence is the same as it always was: a laboratory building a cyborg which grows flesh and becomes a wrestler.

We open with a recap from Nitro with Luger wanting a title shot at Hogan.

Vader vs. Bobby Starr/Scott D’Amore

Yes that Scott D’Amore from TNA. Vader is WAY over and starting with Starr, easily pounding him into the ropes. There’s the Vader Bomb but D’Amore makes the save for some stupid reason. The moonsault ends Scott a few seconds later. To the best of my knowledge, this is Vader’s last match before being suspended for a backstage fight with Paul Orndorff. He would be in the 1996 Royal Rumble.

Muscular Dystrophy sucks!

Cobra vs. The Grappler

Grappler is a generic masked guy and Cobra is a military themed guy. The match is a squash but we actually get a backstory to Cobra: he was in the Gulf War with Sgt. Craig Pittman but Pittman left him behind and reported Cobra AWOL, destroying Cobra’s military career. Cobra is back for revenge. Here’s the thing: yeah it’s a one note idea, but is it that much worse than stuff we hear about today in WWE? Cobra wins with a cobra clutch slam in like a minute.

Post match Cobra says Pittman will pay for breaking the code. Pittman comes in and says it was Cobra who broke the code. The match at Fall Brawl wouldn’t even last 90 seconds.

We go to the Fall Brawl control center to talk about the upcoming WarGames match with Hogan’s team (Sting/Savage/Vader) vs. the Dungeon of Doom (Kamala/Meng/Shark/Zodiac) which is as one sided of a match as you’ll ever see. Other matches include the only Flair vs. Arn Anderson PPV match that I can ever remember and a forgotten classic between Johnny B. Badd and Brian Pillman.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddie Jackey

Eddie jumps him to start but misses a high cross body. Page hits a gutbuster and the Diamond Cutter gets the pin in maybe 35 seconds.

Post match Page says he’ll win the TV Title, which is true.

We go to the Dungeon of Doom to hear from the Dungeon of Doom about WarGames. The leader Kevin Sullivan talks to his boss the Master (played by old wrestler King Curtis Iaukea, who never appeared in an arena I don’t think) about the army of evil he’s produced to attack Hogan inside the cages. It’s like the biggest collection of 1980s monster jobbers you can ever imagine.

Zodiac/Shark/Kamala vs. Julio Sanchez/Rod Thompson/???

This “match” lasts about 30 seconds with the Dungeon destroying everyone. Zodiac (Brutus Beefcake) drives a knee into the back of Thompson’s head for the fast pin. The third jobber was never named.

We look at the rules of WarGames which aren’t important enough to list here. In short, it’s a two ring cage match and you alternate sending in one man at a time, first submission wins.

CALL THE HOTLINE!

Highlight package from Nitro.

Johnny B. Badd vs. Dick Slater

This is a co-main event tonight if you need an idea of what sort of stuff you would get here. Slater is half of the tag champions at this point. Badd has a very simple yet effective way to get the fans on his side: he throws them Frisbees and blows confetti onto them. This is a lost art in modern wrestling for some reason, but fans love nothing more than to be acknowledged by the fans. Look at people like Austin, Flair, Sting, Rock and Hogan. All of them played to the crowd and the fans loved every one of them. It’s so simple but not many people do it anymore for reasons I’ll never understand.

Slater wants to throw punches to start, which is just fine with former Golden Gloves champion Johnny B. Badd. Dick finally elbows him down and gets in some left hands as Heenan is panicking about Dusty Rhodes returning to the commentary booth in the near future. A swinging neckbreaker gets two for Slater but Badd gets in a hard right hand to put Dick down.

Badd drops him again with a running knee lift but here’s Sister Sherri, who has a crush on Slater’s manager Colonel Robert Parker. Slater backslides Badd and puts his feet on the ropes but Sherri breaks it up with her crutch. Dick’s partner Bunkhouse Buck comes out for a cheap shot to Badd, but the referee is with Sherri, allowing Harlem Heat (Buck and Slater’s opponents at Fall Brawl) come out and hit Slater, giving Badd the pin.

Rating: D. There was nothing to the match itself but they managed to have four people interfere in less than four minutes. That has to be a record for a non-Russo match but it doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. I kid you not at one point the Bunk/Slater vs. Heat match was the only thing that could put me to sleep for a good while. That’s how dull these guys were.

Arn Anderson’s wife is concerned about his issues with Flair. Arn gets mad at the camera crew for talking to his wife instead of him.

We get a clip from WCW Pro (the C/D-Show) of what was supposed to be Flair vs. Brian Pillman. For some reason Flair isn’t here so we go to the back where Anderson and Flair can be heard shouting at each other in a dressing room. Apparently Flair has left, meaning Pillman wins by forfeit.

Disco Inferno is coming.

Brian Pillman vs. Barry Houston

Another squash that lasts 45 seconds with Brian winning via a tornado DDT. What else do you want me to say about something that short?

Pillman (not even breathing hard) says he’s friends with Johnny B. Badd but their match is about the US Title shot so it’s all business.

Blue Bloods vs. Sting/Randy Savage

The Blue Bloods are Steven Regal and Robert (Bobby) Eaton. For no apparent reason, Sting (the US Champion) comes out in Savage’s hat and jacket. Savage has his face painted which is a bit more normal for a Sting partner. Savage and Regal get us going with Randy grabbing a quick headlock. Regal takes him over into the corner for the tag off to Eaton, only to have Randy elbow him in the face.

Off to Sting for some arm cranking followed by a monkey flip to send Eaton over to Regal for another tag. Sting cranks on Regal’s arm just as easily but Regal goes to the eyes to take over. Sting grabs a backslide for two so Regal bails into the corner, drawing Savage in for no apparent reason. Eaton gets punched a few times but goes to the eyes as well.

Savage will have none of this being on defense though and punches both Blue Bloods in the jaw. Randy punches Regal to the floor, only to miss a dive to the concrete. Regal hooks a chinlock for all of two seconds, only to have Savage come back with a suplex to escape. The Blue Bloods take over for just a few moments but Regal backdrops out of a suplex attempt to make the tag to Sting. House is cleaned and the heels collide, setting up the Splash on Eaton followed by the elbow for the pin.

Rating: D+. There isn’t much to say when the match lasted five minutes and the good guys were on offense for about four and a half of those minutes. To be fair though, was there ever any doubt as to who was winning here? It wasn’t much of a match but it gave Savage and Sting some practice together before the PPV.

Taskmaster comes out to ask Sting and Savage if they can trust Vader. Vader comes out and says you can trust him to end the show. Not that it would matter as Vader wouldn’t make the show, because there’s nothing stupid about suspending a guy a week before a PPV match where he’s the only intriguing part right?

Overall Rating: C-. This wasn’t much of a show but it definitely keeps moving and doesn’t get dull. They did a good job of keeping things interesting and even hyped up the PPV fairly well. There’s nothing needed to be seen here, but with Nitro around this show’s days of mattering were numbered anyway.

Here’s Fall Brawl if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/04/06/fall-brawl-1995-anderson-vs-flair-and-a-really-stupid-main-event/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews, and pick up my new book of Complete 2001 Monday Night Raw Reviews at Amazon for just $4 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 at:

Superstars on the Superstation
Date: February 7, 1986
Location: The Omni, Atlanta, Georiga
Attendance: 10,000
Commentators: David Crockett, Tony Schiavone

This is a rare show that I’ve heard about for years. Basically it’s a fan selected card with four matches featuring top stars. You could think of this as the prototype for Clash of the Champions actually. We’re just past Starrcade 1985 and Flair is still world champion due to a Dusty Finish in the main event of the biggest show of the year. This is from the glory days of the NWA so the show should be good. Let’s get to it.

We open with a shot of Magnum TA riding his motorcycle, set to a Willie Nelson song.

Magnum and some chick named Linda Curry are hosting tonight.

The announcers run down the card the fans have picked. All matches have 20 minute time limits, other than the world title match which is TV time remaining.

The Rock N Roll Express is getting ready. I’m sure some teenybopper would agree to lace up Morton’s boots for him while he does coke.

We get a clip of the Rock N Roll Express winning the world tag team titles from the Russians in July of 1985. They lost them a few months later, only to regain the belts at Starrcade.

World Tag Team Titles: Rock N Roll Express vs. Midnight Express

If this is anything lower than a B+, it’s a failure for these guys. These teams completely revolutionized tag team wrestling and basically invented the tag team formula you see in every major tag match. This is the less famous version of the Midnights with Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey as the challengers. It’s a brawl to start with the Midnights taking over on Gibson but Morton comes back in to take everything to the floor. The fans are NUTS for the Rock N Roll here.

Back in and the champions quickly clean house, sending the Midnights out for a consultation with Jim Cornette. We finally start with Gibson vs. Eaton as things slow down a bit. Gibson blocks a hiptoss and throws Eaton down before hitting a sweet flying headscissors. Off to Morton who punches both Midnights down and works on Bobby’s leg. They head back to the floor with Morton backdropping Eaton onto the concrete before pounding him against the barricade.

Back in and it’s a double tag off to Gibson vs. Condrey. The Rock N Roll takes over on Dennis’ leg with some slingshot splashes and elbows onto the knee for two. Gibson cranks on the leg before Morton comes in, decks Eaton, and cranks on Condrey’s leg as well. Condrey fights up and hits a knee to Ricky’s ribs but hurts his own leg so bad that he hits the mat. I miss selling like that in today’s product.

The champions take turns working on the leg with Ricky coming in off the top with a knee drop on Condrey’s leg. Dennis finally gets over to Eaton without too much resistance and we’re back to even for a bit. Eaton takes him into the corner for some HARD right hands, only to be taken down by a suplex. Back to Gibson whose dropkick is caught in a catapult, sending him face first into a forearm from Condrey. Dennis comes back in as we take a break.

Back with Eaton holding Gibson in a chinlock before it’s off to Condrey for the same hold. Morton gets drawn into the ring, allowing Eaton to drop a top rope knee to Gibson before Condrey puts on the chinlock again. Gibson finally fights up with a knee lift but Condrey rakes the eyes to stop a tag. Back to Eaton who gets two off a neckbreaker and puts on another chinlock.

Robert fights up and gets a quick two off a sunset flip but Condrey punches him back down. The Midnights miss the Rocket Launcher and there’s the hot tag off to Ricky. Everything breaks down and the double dropkick (Rock N Roll’s finisher) hits Eaton but it takes the referee out as well. Cornette brings in the tennis racket and Condrey BLASTS Morton in the back of the head, giving Eaton the pin and the titles. Keep in mind that this is 1986 when titles NEVER changed hands on TV.

Rating: B+. Yeah it’s still awesome. These guys just know how to work together and the crowd was way into this. The matches would get even better when Stan Lane replaced Condrey which says a lot given how good these guys looked here. Solid match here, which is all you would have expected coming in.

Gibson hits Eaton in the back with the racket for revenge.

The hosts chat about the match a bit.

Buy the Starrcade 1985 video for just FORTY FIVE BUCKS and allow six weeks for delivery. It’s a great show but that’s a WWE PPV today.

Cornette says he told us all so. Eaton, as awesome as he is, sells the racket shot by rolling on the floor in pain as Cornette thanks his Mama.

We look at the Russians beating down Animal from a few months ago. No idea where Hawk is during this attack.

Both Hawk and Animal were beaten down by the Russians a few weeks later. Remember that there were three Russians to two Road Warriors.

Road Warriors vs. Ivan Koloff/Nikita Koloff

The third Russian is Krusher Khrushchev, more famous as Smash from Demolition/Repo Man. Animal starts with Nikita and it’s the Russian diving off the middle rope, only to be caught in a bearhug. That’s scary power. Animal misses a legdrop but pops back up for a staredown. Off to Hawk for some tieups that go nowhere. All four guys are major powerhouses here so don’t expect much besides brawling.

Ivan comes in and avoids a charge but jumps into a punch to the ribs. A shoulder breaker and big boot drop Ivan before it’s back to Animal for a gorilla press. Animal drops an elbow for two as Baron Von Raschke is at ringside and apparently is a replacement for an injured Krusher. Back to Hawk who gets caught in the Russian corner for some evil Commie double teaming. Hawk comes back with a running clothesline and everything breaks down, including Baron coming in to lay out Hawk but it only gets two. Nikita trips Hawk up and Baron comes in for the DQ.

Rating: D+. The styles didn’t mix here but the fans were WAY into this feud as it was tugging at the heart strings of America which is a tried and true way to fire up the fans. Baron was far past his prime here but at least he was another foreigner that could play Krusher’s role very easily. Not a good match but the fans liked it which is what matters.

The Warriors’ manager Paul Ellering gets triple teamed but the Koloffs miss a clothesline with the chain. Hawk gets the chain and the Warriors/Ellering clean house.

Some NASCAR driver is here.

Some very southern fans say who they like and why they watch wrestling. Amazingly enough they love the Rock N Roll Express and want to see Flair get destroyed.

Now here’s a country song while we look at fans.

Magnum talks about how awesome his week in Tuscon, Arizona with Dusty on the set of a movie Dusty has a walk-on roll in. We get an interview with Dusty and country music legend Willie Nelson who is making the remake of John Wayne’s Stagecoach. It’s a TV movie if you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of it. Dusty tells a story about being a Nelson fan for years. Apparently Dusty shows up at Willie’s New Year’s show every year and nearly takes over the show. Shocking indeed. This goes on for nearly five minutes because we stopped being a wrestling show a long time ago.

We still have some of those $45 Starrcade tapes! You know, the one cut down by about an hour or two.

National Title: Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard

Dusty is defending. The National Title was the main title from Georgia Championship Wrestling but it’s a midcard title here. Rhodes has a bad ankle coming in and we take a break less than a minute into the match. Back with Tully bailing into the corner as Dusty’s manager (Tully’s former manager) Baby Doll glares at Blanchard. Dusty takes him down and drops an elbow on the leg before slowly cranking on it for a bit. There’s another elbow on the leg and it’s time for Dusty to lay on the leg for a breather.

There’s the really bad Figure Four but Tully makes the rope. Tully bails to the floor for a bit but comes back in so Dusty can work on the leg a bit more. By work I mean lay down on but that’s Dusty in 1986 for you. The fans chant BREAK IT because they hate the Horsemen so much. Dusty’s matches sucked but the fans got into him vs. the Horsemen. Rhodes goes up for a shot to the head but hurts his bad leg on the way down.

You know Tully Blanchard is going after an injury like that and the leg work begins. We hit the ten minute (out of twenty) mark and Tully kicks the leg out again, making Dusty jump into the air for no apparent reason. There’s a much better Figure Four from Blanchard but Dusty just lays on the mat. Dusty turns it over but JJ Dillon pulls Tully to safety. Back up and Rhodes is of course fine enough to catch a cross body and hit a backbreaker.

A belly to belly takes Tully down but JJ has the referee. Tully realizes that Dusty isn’t going to sell the stupid leg so he knees Dusty in the back, sending him to the floor. Five minutes left now and Rhodes pounds away before suplexing Tully back in for two. Rhodes goes after JJ but Tully gets in a shot from behind to take over. A knee drop gets two for Blanchard and some left hands drop Dusty in the corner.

Dusty backslides him down (complete with crawling over to the ropes) for two as Crockett is almost giddy that time is running out on Tully. A clothesline puts Tully down again as we go from four minutes left to two minutes left in about 45 seconds. JJ trips up Dusty for two as we hit a minute left. Back in and Rhodes puts on a Boston Crab until the time runs out.

Rating: D-. Tully Blanchard is one of the best wrestlers you’ll ever find but there’s only so much he can do when Dusty won’t sell the freaking leg. It’s as basic of a story as you can tell in a wrestling match but when Dusty wants to just walk around and act like the injury he had coming into the match which was made worse during the match doesn’t exist, there isn’t much that can be done. Horrible match but it’s hard to blame Blanchard here.

Tully piledrives Dusty post match and takes the belt with him. He would win it in about a month anyway.

Magnum and Jim Crockett Jr. talk about some stuff that happened in 1985. The Jim Crockett Memorial Tag Team Cup is announced so we hear the sales pitch from the New Orleans Superdome to host the event. This isn’t gimmicked or anything and is as boring as it sounds.

Future Baseball Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry doesn’t have much to say.

NWA World Title: Ric Flair vs. Ron Garvin

Garvin was a bigger deal here than he’s remembered as and he’s challenging here. They chop it out in the corner to start and Garvin takes him down with a shoulder block. Flair bails out to the floor but gets caught in a headlock as soon as he’s back inside. Some right hands (not the Hands of Stone finisher) stagger Flair and a headbutt gives us the Flair Flop. Ric begs off in the corner so Garvin chops away. Ronnie rips at Flair’s nose and fires off more chops before backdropping Flair down.

The champion is sent out to the floor for another breather, only to be chopped even more upon reentry. Garvin goes after the arm for a change but the champion comes back with chops of his own to take over. Ronnie comes back with even more chops and a big right hand to send Flair to the floor. Flair gets caught in a sleeper but suplexes his way out and it’s time to go to school.

A suplex gets two for Flair and there’s the knee drop for the same. Ronnie chokes Flair from the mat and pounds away even more, leading to a chop off. Flair is sent into the corner for a flip but he stays inside instead of going to the apron. Garvin suplexes him down for two but Flair grabs a headlock to set up the bridge up into a backslide spot. A cross body gets two on the champion and there’s the real Flair Flip followed by Flair jumping into a right hand.

Garvin gets two from a small package but Flair chops him down. Ric yells at the referee as Garvin rolls Flair up, knocking the referee to the floor as a result. The Hands of Stone put Flair down but there’s no referee. Flair hits a quick knee to the back and pulls Ronnie’s foot off the rope as the referee counts the pin.

Rating: C. This was different than the usual Flair formula and it didn’t work all that well. Flair was only on offense for a few minutes here and there wasn’t much of a story to the match at all. Garvin continues to be a guy that I don’t get at all as I’ve yet to see anything of note from him in the ring.

Overall Rating: C. Eh it’s a free show so it’s kind of hard to complain for the most part. When you have a four match card and with one awesome match, one horrible match and two middle of the road matches, there isn’t another way to go besides in the middle. It’s always interesting to see how serious this company was when you compare it to the WWF which was setting up Hogan vs. Bundy at this point. Not a bad show but it’s really just an historical curiosity more than anything else.

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Thunder
Date: April 16, 1998
Location: Fargodome, Fargo, North Dakota
Commentators: Lee Marshall, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan

It’s the final show before Spring Stampede and by now the news has broken that Nitro lost in the ratings on Monday for the first time in nearly two years. It should be interesting to see if things change up at all tonight to try to right the ship. Other than that tonight is going to be the final push for the PPV, meaning more NWO whether anyone likes it or not. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the main event from Nitro with Bret Hart cleaning house to save Sting.

NWO video on Buff Bagwell, showing him looking in a mirror.

Buff Bagwell vs. Rick Steiner

Rick throws his collar around to get Vincent off the apron before scaring Buff to the floor as well. Buff armdrags him down and poses so Rick punches him in the face. An atomic drop and a clothesline put Buff on the floor as Lee wonders who brought Scott Steiner to the NWO. Didn’t we cover that like months ago? Back in and Buff pounds away at Rick’s head, which actually has an effect. Buff’s middle rope ax handle is caught in mid air and Rick throws him around a few times. Rick loads up the bulldog but here’s Scott Steiner to shove him off the top for the DQ.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here with the whole match existing tos et up something else at Spring Stampede. They’ve been pushing this battle of the Steiners for months now but there’s no sign of the actual showdown coming. Then again why bother pursuing a match that could be a big deal and bring in some money when you can keep pushing Buff Bagwell?

Hogan is amused at Savage’s injuries and is ready to take the title back from Sting soon.

Here’s Nash with something to say. He’s tired of hearing Hogan talking about how amazing he is because Hogan is afraid. Nash should be champion right now and would be if not for Hogan and then Hart interfering in his title shots. Bret made a huge mistake by messing with Nash on Monday and Hart will be dealt with. Back to Hogan: if he doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do on Sunday, Nash will drive a stake through his heart. He’s ready for Giant and Piper and tonight he’s ready for Sting and Bret with Savage as his partner. Just hyping up the big tag matches here.

We get the same video on Goldberg from Nitro.

Goldberg vs. Barry Darsow

Goldberg vs. Saturn is official for Sunday. Barry tries to match power with Goldberg and is easily run over and thrown into the corner. Heenan: “This could be a very hair raising experience for Barry Darsow.” Darsow is bald if that clears anything up. Barry sends him over the top and out to the floor but Goldberg comes right back in with the spear. The Jackhammer makes it 73 in a row.

We get the same video on Page vs. Raven from Nitro.

Here’s JJ Dillon to say that the winner of Page vs. Raven has to defend the US Title against Goldberg on Monday night. I’m jumping the gun a bit here but that means that both of Goldberg’s title shots this year have been announced four days in advance. You would think he’d get more hype than that.

TV Title: Booker T vs. Rick Fuller

Booker fires off kicks and forearms to start, only to run into a powerslam from the much bigger Fuller. Fuller slams him down again but misses a charge into the corner and walks into a spinebuster. The ax kick and side kick set up the missile dropkick to retain Booker’s title. Squash for the most part.

Recap of Hogan vs. Nash, despite them not being opponents anytime soon.

Tony announces Scott Steiner/Buff Bagwell vs. Lex Luger/Rick Steiner at the PPV. Scott Steiner comes out to say he and Buff aren’t showing up because his parents don’t want to see him fight his brother.

Chris Benoit vs. Scott Norton

Benoit pulls Vincent to the floor for some chops before going in and being chopped down by Norton. A few elbow drops have Benoit in trouble and a slam puts him down again. Benoit comes back with some chops but Norton just punches him down with no selling at all. A splash in the corner crushes Benoit and a shoulder sends him all the way to the floor.

Benoit avoids a charge into the post but Norton is back inside first and still in control with a powerslam. Chris escapes a shoulder breaker and takes Norton down with two German suplexes. Norton charges into the post and gets caught in the Crossface, only to have Vincent come in for the DQ immediately.

Rating: D+. What’s the point in Benoit even being out there if Norton won’t sell a single bit of his offense? Norton went into the post twice, both off his own power, and still wouldn’t stay down. Also for the thousandth time or so, WHY CAN SCOTT NORTON NEVER LOSE A CLEAN FALL??? Benoit is going into a PPV title match but can only get a DQ win over Norton because…..I’m thinking Scott Norton has photos of Eric Bischoff smoking crack while wearing women’s lingerie and shoving an old lady down a flight of stairs.

Post match Booker comes in for the save but gets shoved down for his efforts.

Here’s Giant with Piper on his shoulders and something to say. Giant steps over the top rope with Piper still on his shoulders. That’s rather impressive. Piper rambles on and on as he is known to do. His odd line of this promo: “What’s the opposite of Big Sexy? Pee Wee Herman?” Piper gets off Giant’s shoulders and pretends he’s a tiger that has to be tamed. He spends the next minute and a half or so saying he and Giant will win. Piper: “We’ll bring the bat, you bring the balls.” Again, someone keep Piper away from live mics. Please?

Curt Hennig vs. Super Calo

Rude is on commentary as usual. Curt easily takes Calo down and hits a quick Hennig Necksnap for no cover. Calo avoids a charge in the corner and gets one off a quick missile dropkick. Curt will have none of that and stomps Calo down before ending him with the Hennigplex. Squash.

Cruiserweight Title: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Chris Jericho

During the entrances, Tony rants about how WCW delivers the matches they promise, in reference to Austin vs. McMahon not happening. I would say I remember Ric Flair talking about that last week, but he never showed up as advertised. Chavo pounds away to start, only to get kicked in the ribs and suplexed down for two. Jericho charges into a boot in the corner and gets clotheslined down for two as well as Chavo stays in it. An atomic drop sets up a rollup for two more on Jericho but he trips Guerrero up and hooks an early Liontamer. Chavo crawls over to the ropes but Eddie slaps his hand away twice, forcing Chavo to tap out.

After the quick match, Iaukea comes out with the scale from last week to knock Jericho off of Chavo. They fight to the back, leaving Eddie and Chavo alone in the ring. Uncle Eddie calms Chavo down and says that if Chavo beats Jericho on Sunday, he’s free. Chavo is facing Ultimo Dragon on Sunday but at least there’s a story to the match now.

Here are Hogan, Bischoff and Disciple with something to say. After Eric sucks up to Hogan for awhile, he talks about realizing what he had when Hogan came to WCW in 1994. Hogan runs down Savage and Nash and understands why they’re both jealous of him. He brags about the 3 Ninjas movie and being on the Tonight Show before saying he should get the next world title shot because he’s just that awesome. Nothing much to see here and he didn’t even mention his opponents for Sunday.

Here’s JJ with something to say. First of all, Goldberg will receive his first major title shot this Monday on Nitro. This confirms one of two things: either the TV Title, which Goldberg had a shot at last year, isn’t a major title or WCW doesn’t remember matches that happened five months ago. Also, due to Savage’s injuries, there might have to be a replacement in the world title match. The options would be either DDP, Nash or Hogan. JJ says Savage can wrestle on Sunday if he has a doctor’s clearance, but tonight he just can’t be wearing a cast.

This brings out Savage to say that JJ should be outside watching for red and yellow Vipers that are running over people. JJ says there’s no concrete evidence as to who attacked Savage so he needs a doctor’s clearance and no cast on Savage’s arm. Savage says he’s getting the title shot on Sunday no matter what.

Giant vs. Bryan Adams

Nothing match as Giant shrugs off Adams’ offense (including Adams going up top and just falling off) and kicks him in the face, only to have Vincent run in to break up the chokeslam and draw the DQ.

Post match the B team comes in but gets destroyed as well.

Video on Raven.

Silver King vs. Perry Saturn

Saturn side steps a fast dropkick and hits a running elbow in the corner, only to get caught in a tornado DDT. Saturn avoids a charge in the corner and superplexes King down before the Rings of Saturn gets the submission.

Video on Diamond Dallas Page.

Page says to say he’s ready for Raven but thinking about fighting Goldberg gets him even more jacked up. Goldberg and his buddy Jack Hammer has been running through WCW and Page wants to know if Goldberg can be banged. He’s getting his belt back on Sunday, but the fans are oddly silent during this entire speech.

Sting/Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage/Kevin Nash

Tony goes off about how they’ll deliver what they promised no matter what. Savage has the cast on, despite JJ saying he couldn’t wear one tonight. Bret and Savage get things going but Nash comes in before any contact is made. Nash and Bret pound each other into the corner with Nash hammering Bret in the back to take over. There’s the foot choke in the corner but Nash charges into a boot in the opposite corner.

Bret clotheslines Nash down and fires off right hands before bringing in the world champion. Savage gets the tag and is put in the Scorpion about ten seconds later. Nash pulls Randy out to the floor for a long stall before it’s Bret vs. Nash again. Bret escapes Snake Eyes by shoving Kevin into the corner, only to be punched in the face for his efforts. There’s the side slam but Hart avoids the elbow, only to have Savage break up the Sharpshooter.

Nash puts on a sleeper of all things but Bret suplexes his way to freedom. A double tag brings in Savage and Sting but Nash breaks up the Stinger Splash as everything breaks down. Nash and Bret fight to the floor and the Stinger Splash hits Savage’s cast. Savage goes up for the elbow and waits forever until Hogan and Disciple run in for the DQ because why would a world title match need story development?

Rating: D. This was the usual lazy main event match from all parties involved. Savage being injured excuses his lack of effort but the other three guys just looked bored out there. To be fair though Bret has nothing to do, Sting is the lamest of all lame duck champions and Nash is Nash so why bother trying at all?

Post match Hogan goes after Savage’s bad arm but Nash makes the save to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. This is a strange one to grade as the show did a good job of building up to Spring Stampede, but Spring Stampede is one of the least interesting shows in a long time. Why they don’t just do Nash vs. Hogan is beyond me, but I’d guess neither guy was willing to do a job for whatever reason they always gave. The show had its moments but the NWO drags it down as usual.

Here’s Spring Stampede if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2013/09/07/spring-stampede-1998-2013-redo-here-lies-1997-we-hardly-knew-ye/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews, and pick up my new book of Complete 2001 Monday Night Raw Reviews at Amazon for just $4 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 at:

Clash of the Champions 12: Fall Brawl 90
Date: September 5, 1990
Location: Ashville Civic Center, Ashville, North Carolina
Commentators: Bob Caudle, Jim Ross
Attendance: 4,000

We’re kind of in No Man’s Land here with no major show to build to and none to come off of. This is in the Black Scorpion period so you know things are pretty bad. That’s the main event tonight: Sting vs. the Black Scorpion in what I’m sure will be a classic. Other than that you get a Nasty Boys match of all things. Yes the Nasty Boys in 1990. That should be shall we say, interesting? Outside of that….yeah this is going to suck. Let’s get to it.

Side note: this show winds up having a special moment for me which we’ll get to at the end.

Also keep in mind this has zero connection to the PPV series of the same name. This show is also called Mountain Madness.

Jim and Bob run down the card.

Southern Boys vs. Freebirds

Garvin and Hayes here. We get the music video as it feels like the 80s all over again. You old school fans know what I’m talking about. The Freebirds are faces here which makes me think we might have faces vs. faces here. The Freebirds are the Southern tag champions here which I’m not sure what are. Yep faces vs. faces. This was supposed to be a six man with Bob Armstrong and Buddy Roberts on the respective teams but Roberts has a bad arm so it’s standard.

Hayes and Smothers start us off. The Birds have face paint on which is a different thing for them. Also the ramp is really weird here as it comes to a corner rather than the traditional side of the ring. Ok maybe the Birds are heels but the crowd just likes them. That sounds far more realistic in the South. Smothers hits a nice superkick to send Garvin to the floor. And now the fans think the Birds suck. Maybe it’s just that the crowd is insane.

Armstrong (the Southern Boys are Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers in case the names were confusing you. The Freebirds are Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) hits a SWEET top rope cross body and the Birds go running. Or is it flying? Everything goes nuts so we kind of restart things with Smothers vs. Hayes again. BIG left hand by Hayes catches Armstrong as he’s on the apron.

I’ve looked around and I have no idea what those tag titles the Birds allegedly hold are. Now the Birds are being booed. Caudle thinks if Robert E. Lee had the Southern Boys during the Civil War Atlanta might have been the capital. They really would have been awesome if they had gotten the Confederacy to switch from Richmond to Atlanta for the capital. Yeah I’m that bored here: I’m making US History corrections.

The Freebirds are credited as being the first team to use rock and roll music for their entrances. Ross mentions that here and for once that’s accurate. Listen to some DVDs and see how many people take credit for being the first to do that. Gorgeous George used theme music back in the 50s but I’m pretty sure the Birds were the first to use rock music. Then again almost everyone in WCCW did that at first so it was either them or the Von Erichs. Again, not much is going on here so I have time for tangents like these. I need to do some WCCW stuff.

Armstrong comes in to clean some house and has a nice dropkick. Bob Armstrong comes in to cheat to counteract Roberts’ cheating. Yep his arm is fine of course. Everything goes nuts and Roberts throws a foreign object to Hayes but a double sunset flip gets the pin for the Southern Boys. The heels beat up Bob Armstrong (Road Dogg’s dad. Steve is his brother) after the match.

Rating: C-. Not a great match at all as it was very start and stop which is rarely a good thing. This wasn’t horrible and the fast paced stuff made it fairly good. Far too many dead spots in there though. Also the double Southern gimmick was just kind of a headscratcher. Crowd is red hot though so this was a good opener from that perspective.

Tony talks to the Steiners who just won the US Tag Titles. Rick in a pink hat works somehow. Scott fumbles through both of his lines. They’re fighting Maximum Overdrive tonight. No one has heard of them, which is probably because they’re a pair of jobbers.

Buddy Landel vs. Mike Rotunda

Rotunda would be gone to become IRS in like a day. Landel is still alive here which amazes me. Rotunda has some chick with him that won a poetry contest held by Burger King. Very different time obviously. Technical stuff to start with nothing really all that special about it thus far. Somewhat botched hip toss by Rotunda and we have a standoff.

Rotunda’s tights have an anchor on them for some reason. A second hip toss works a bit better this time as Landel actually jumps. We somehow slow it down even more here which I didn’t think was possible. They slug it out a bit which is definitely the best part of this so far. But enough of that as we hit the mat again. Rotunda gets up and hooks a freaking backslide to get the pin. Wow that’s not something you see everyday.

Rating: D. Just boring filler here as neither guy meant anything at all. Rotunda turned heel soon after this but was in WWF less than 6 months later. This went nowhere at all and was just about five minutes of wrestling to fill in that much time. Landel was pretty worthless here and was gone soon also.

The Freebirds say they’re awesome and are rather ticked off about life in general. Oh apparently they want the Southern Boys again. We get a video of them in Hollywood as they were supposed to be a big time rock band. Fans mob them and that’s that.

Tim Horner/Brad Armstrong vs. Master Blasters

Brad Armstrong is a very underrated wrestler that oddly enough would hook up with the Freebirds as a masked man soon after this. The Master Blasters are a debuting team of giants, one of which has a huge mowhawk which he would soon shave and replace with black hair. When this team died off he would be repackaged as Vinnie Vegas but then he would get released to go to WWF and become a guy named Diesel, who would eventually become known by his real name: Kevin Nash.

It’s weird seeing Nash look all ripped. Armstrong is called the Candy Man here. Any guesses as to what we’re going to see here? Nash, a power guy named Steel, uses a wristlock. Iron, the dude that did nothing other than be a part of this team, is really bad. You can tell Nash is really green here. Iron misses a falling headbutt so badly the fans loudly boo it. When you can see it that clearly without a video screen that’s a bad sign.

Nash hits a decent powerslam on Armstrong to take him down. His eyes are FREAKY as they’re wide open and very white. Nash works the majority of the match as he’s the one that sucks less here. This Iron guy is horrible. He falls down before a dropkick hits him and can’t take a backdrop properly. Horner comes in and gets about 20 seconds of offense in before Nash crushes him. Double shoulderblock ends Armstrong clean.

Rating: D. Just a squash but Iron was HORRIBLE. Nash wasn’t very good yet but he was passable at least. Horner was a jobber for the most part but was decent enough. Armstrong was a good worker but he was a jobber here so you couldn’t see much of that. This was fine for what it was but nothing special at all.

Brian Pillman is going to start a new contest called the gauntlet. Back in the day there was an NWA show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. You would have a match on each show and if you won all three you won $15,000. If you lost the three guys split the money. Kind of a pointless concept but it lasted for awhile. Nothing special though.

Missy Hyatt brings out the “greatest world champion of ever”, Ric Flair. He has a US Title match vs. Luger tonight and is rather over since this is definitely Flair country. Nothing is said here at all.

Jackie Fulton/Terry Taylor vs. Nasty Boys

Fulton is the brother of Bobby Fulton of the Fantastics and did some stuff in Japan. This ends his career highlights. Everyone else I’d think you know. Knobbs and Fulton start us off. This is the debut for the Nasties and of course they would be gone in a few months. Knobbs was in the final three of the 91 Rumble so the couldn’t have been in WCW long after this.

Fulton takes them both down very quickly as the Nasties can’t get much going. Caudle tries to say that Jackie is one of the Fantastics which is incorrect but whatever. Taylor sends Sags into the post as the first time team is winning here surprisingly enough. You would think the Nasties were the jobbers here. Taylor is the key to the match here. Why he’s the key is never explained but apparently he’s the key.

The Nasties take over with the highest extent of their wrestling abilities. Taylor gets a sunset flip for two as Knobbs punches the mat by mistake. Heel miscommunication lets Fulton get the tag. He goes up but Knobbs catches him in a nice powerslam, allowing Sags to hit a top rope elbow to end it.

Rating: C. I can’t believe I’m saying this but the Nasty Boys had an entertaining match. This was kind of an odd debut here but the Nasties looked good near the end. Hardly a great match but I thought it was entertaining enough for about 7 minutes. Power vs. speed is hard to screw up even for the Nasty Boys.

Sid Vicious is here and wants to yell at Sting. Sid was a Horsemen here and wants the title, which are grounds for throwing him out. Just ask Sting if nothing else.

Bill Irwin vs. Tommy Rich

Irwin was the Goon in WWF and something close to a big star in WCCW but is a generic cowboy here. Tommy Rich is the most forgotten world champion ever and we start off fast. Rich hits a dropkick to send Irwin to the floor which Ross ensures us is NOT a DQ because his feet hit the mat first. That makes such little sense I’m not even going to try to make a joke out of it so whatever. We talk about the military for no apparent reason other than Rich is wearing a Confederate style of tights.

Rich hits a jumping headlock takeover which looked like he wanted Irwin to carry him over the threshold or something. Lot of headlocks here. Irwin stomps the same way Lance Storm does with that little hop in his kicks. Rich gets a pretty nice counter to a side slam into a sleeper. Charge misses for Irwin and a Thesz Press gets the pin. As surprising as this may be that is supposed to be a pinning combination. I’m not sure how one move can be a combination but you get the point.

Rating: D+. Far too short to mean much and the headlocks were rather repetitive but they were working rather quickly out there. Rich would join the York Foundation in a rather pointless stable but it had some success. Other than that neither guy meant anything until Rich went to ECW and did some forgettable stuff.

We get the WCW Top Ten.

World Champion: Sting

10. Buddy Landel
9. Tommy Rich
8. Junkyard Dog
7. Flyin Brian
6. Stan Hansen
5. Sid Vicious
4. Barry Windham
3. Arn Anderson
2. Ric Flair
1. Lex Luger

Tag Teams:

World Champions: Doom

10. Rotundo/Horner
9. Junkyard Dog/El Gigante
8. Flyin Bryan/Z-Man
7. Samoan Swat Team
6. Freebirds
5. Southern Boys
4. Midnight Express
3. Horsemen (no members listed)
2. Rock N Roll Express
1. Steiner Brothers

Took a minute to list off and that’s all there is to it. I never got the point of these things.

Stan Hansen is mad that he’s number 6 so he’s going to fight everyone above him.

LPWA World Title: Bambi vs. Susan Sexton

So back in the 80s and early 90s there were a fair amount of women’s wrestling companies. None of them were very good and they had a lot of the same rosters. This is another example of one where they try to get their product on national TV. Susan is champion here but it doesn’t really matter all that much as this won’t be mentioned again. Both are in the old school one piece swimsuit-looking outfits.

Sexton works on the knee early as she’s fairly decent from a technical standpoint. This is all technical stuff which isn’t that interesting but is pretty decent from the standpoint of technique. Sexton does the first move that isn’t technical with a reverse cross body. Boring match so far. Small package by Bambi gets two and is reversed for the pin by Sexton.

Rating: D. Yeah this was pretty pointless. The problem with these companies was that there was absolutely nothing separating these girls once they got in the ring. Today you have companies like SHIMMER where the girls are all distinctly different. These girls had different names and gimmicks but inside the ring they were the same thing, making the company pointless. Pretty worthless match but not terrible.

Maximum Overdrive vs. Steiner Brothers

Overdrive is an unknown team and the Steiners just won the US Tag Titles and are more or less considered the only team in the world capable of touching Doom at this point. What do you think is going to happen here? Scott and one of the jobbers start us off. Scott gets a Sharpshooter without the legs being intertwined. The jobbers names are Hunter and Silencer.

There’s a reason I’ve never heard of them. In the words of Steve Austin, it’s because they absolutely suck. Surprisingly enough Rick seems to be the more popular one here. I know I’m not saying much here but this is just killing time before we get to the end. And there it is as Scott ENDS Hunter with the DDT from the top.

Rating: D-. Again I say so? No one thought there was any kind of chance for the no names here and that’s exactly what the case was. Why should anyone have wanted to see a six minute squash, especially when the other team was awful? They were a jobbing tag team and this was their career highlight. Can we go to something else now?

Missy plugs the Main Event and I want to hit her.

Stan Hansen vs. Z-Man

Hmm what do you think is going to happen here? Z-Man wears pink in this, apparently just wanting Hansen to murder him faster. We’re already on the floor and Hansen pops him with a chair. Hansen is kind of a cross between Austin and JBL when he was a bar fighter. He had a match at a WWF/Japanese (might have been AJPW but I’m not sure) with Hogan and he nearly KILLED Fink. In case you didn’t guess Z-Man has gotten a total of one kick in throughout the match here. He gets some jobber offense in the form of dropkicks until a Lariat ends him.

Rating: N/A. Just to show that Hansen is awesome and giving him a reason to be in the building. Keep that in mind.

We recap Luger vs. Flair at Wrestlewar 90 where Luger STILL couldn’t get the title off of him. He’s been US Champion for over a year now so everyone is just waiting on him to lose it. Luger is second only to Sting in popularity but Flair is his Kryptonite. Luger says he’s not used to being the champion vs. Flair which is true as I don’t think Flair has ever challenged him for anything before.

US Title: Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger

I love that black and white Flair robe. It has to be his best one, including the blue one. Since we’re in North Carolina, Flair is more or less the second coming. There’s no feeling out period here since both of them have fought about a million times. Speaking of a million times, Flair broke his back in a plane crash 20 years ago. Flair chops Luger and Luger Hulks Up.

Luger’s offense is limited at best but the fans freaking love him so it’s easy to see why he was pushed the way he was. Flair’s shoulder might be hurt. To the shock of no one that pays attention he’s faking and a cheap shot gives him the advantage. Ross messes up when he talks about Flair’s past, saying he played football and weighed 265lbs, 25lbs lighter than he is now, putting Luger at 290 here.

Basically Flair wants this to get his shot at Sting again. And there goes the knee as Flair gets a solid shot in on it. Flair chops away in the corner then kicks Luger in the knee and repeats the sequence a few times. Nice. Luger comes back again and we get a Flair Flop, but as he goes down Flair pokes him in the eye. That is what you call thinking while wrestling. We hit the fifteen minute mark (more like 10) and Luger gets two on a backslide. We already had one fall off of that move this century so there was no way that was happening.

Flair goes flying off the top as the crowd is way into this. We get the corner flip and clothesline on the apron as Flair is reeling. Another gorilla press and powerslam set up the Rack. It’s a bearhug first which makes sense for once here. Second rope suplex gets two as Flair gets his foot on the ropes. You can hear the crowd groan as they thought it was over. Flair hits a cross body to send them both to the floor. Luger gets back in and gets MAULED by Stan Hansen. This set up their match at Halloween Havoc where Hansen ended the longest US Title reign ever. Luger would get it back about 7 weeks later and hot it seven more months, giving him the title for two years minus 50 days. That’s not bad.

Rating: B. Rather good match here as these two just have insanely good chemistry together. Other than Sting Flair brought out the best in Luger and this was no exception. It’s a natural face vs. a natural heel which is the easiest formula in the world to work and these two did it as well as anyone. Luger chased Flair for years and I don’t think ever beat him for a title.

The Black Scorpion wants Sting. If Sting wins he’ll tell Sting who he is. Sting says he’s ready.

WCW World Title: Sting vs. Black Scorpion

Scorpion has to be very careful here because he can’t let any of his trademark moves come out here so as to preserve his identity. Sting is so popular it’s unreal. This is actually the NWA and WCW Titles at once but they’re the same thing so it doesn’t really matter. Scorpion is in a hood and a mask so he’s doubling up here. Scorpion beats up Sting to start here but something tells me that’s not going to last long.

The announcers try to figure out who is under the mask as it’s been established that Scorpion is someone from Sting’s past. We hit the floor and it’s more or less even. Back in the ring and Sting takes over. He goes for the mask but the Scorpion gets out. There’s a section of about 20 empty chairs about seven to nine rows deep. Those would be excellent seats as they’re about eye level with the ring. I don’t remember them being empty earlier so they must have left or something.

They brawl on the ramp for a bit and Sting takes over. Top rope cross body gets two and Scorpion keeps the advantage. We take a shot at WWF by saying anyone can have a belt made and say they’re a champion but only this title dates back to 1905. That’s nonsense but since when has truth meant anything in wrestling? In something I hardly ever remember, Sting gets the pin off the Splash and not the Deathlock.

Rating: D+. Pretty much a standard match here which obviously was to further the angle which was blown off as Starrcade where the Scorpion was revealed to be of course Ric Flair. This Scorpion was a former midcarder named Al Perez whose name shouldn’t really mean anything to you. The match was more or less just a power vs. power match and I don’t think anyone believed Sting was in anything resembling danger.

Post match Sting goes for the mask and gets it off, revealing a red mask underneath. He goes for that one but ANOTHER Black Scorpion shows up on the ramp. Instead of, oh I don’t know, RUNNING EIGHT FEET TO GET AT THE BLACK SCORPION, Sting stares at him and lets him walk away.

Sting says he’s confused to end the show.

On a semi-related note, the Black Scorpion standing on the ramp and staring down Sting is my very first memory of wrestling ever.

Overall Rating: D+. Pretty weak show but the Luger vs. Flair match is good and the main event has the most popular guy in the world not named Hulk Hogan so it revived the crowd. The problem is this is a two hour show and about an hour of it is just painfully boring. WCW was in a weird spot here as there wasn’t really much of anything for Sting to do and with Flair leaving in about 9 months things would just get worse. It would take a combination of Rick Rude and Paul E. Dangerously (Heyman) to breathe life into the company in about 13 months. This wasn’t much at all but the last half hour was ok. Not worth seeing though.

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Monday Nitro #1
Date: September 4, 1995
Location: Mall of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Commentators: Eric Bischoff, Steve McMichael, Bobby Heenan

So nearly three years after Raw got going, WCW woke up and realized that being on Saturday nights at 6:05 for your flagship show was freaking STUPID so they decided to go head to head with Raw by debuting Monday Nitro. Their first episode aired when Raw wasn’t on that week which really was the right thing to do when you think about it.

It’s just one hour tonight for no apparent reason, but they manage to pack a good bit in here, including a very important thing that I’ll get to later on. This is a show I’ve seen at least 5 or 6 times so I remember it being not bad. Let’s see how it was.

I always liked the intro video for Nitro as it was a street more or less blowing up with pictures of wrestlers and a great song. It really was cool and I liked it better than Raw’s for a long time. I don’t think anyone knew who McMichael was outside of Chicago, but when did that really bother WCW?

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Brian Pillman

I can’t wait to do SuperBrawl 2 as their match there could rival Bret vs. Owen for beat PPV opener ever. Liger is just coming back from a broken leg so he might be a bit rusty, meaning he’ll be better than 95% of the wrestlers in the world. Naturally, they start off hot. This is another one of those pairings where it’s hard to mess it up. We’re two minutes in and Mongo and Heenan are already calling each other names.

This could be a really long night. Eric is pitching the company like no other which is fine here as it might be the first show for a lot of viewers. We get the surfboard which is a move that I always mark for. Bobby has a great line: “I never go surfing. I always have people do it for me.” I love that. McMichael is trying but he’s just lost out there. For the life of me I have no idea why they thought he was a good idea.

Liger gets a hurricanrana from the top rope which was a move that no one had seen for the most part. And no, the Frankensteiner doesn’t count as it’s nowhere near as fast or as crisp. These two were WAY ahead of their time out here as the Cruiserweights wouldn’t rise to prominence for over a year. Out of nowhere, Pillman hooks a rollup for the pin.

Rating: B. This is based on being the first match in the new era of the company. They set the pace for the show as they had a fast paced and exciting match. What else can you ask for from a debut match? These two simply didn’t have bad matches, which makes sense given their talent and styles.

Sting is ready for Flair.

WCW Hotline ad.

Ad for Batman Forever for the SNES. That game SUCKED. You use Down + R to use the grappling hook yet X and Y aren’t used at all. See the problem?

We come back from break to see…hang on I need a moment here. Ok I’m good. We come back to Hulk Hogan at Hulk Hogan’s Pastamania. Hulk Hogan had a pasta restaurant in the Mall of America, complete with a dish called Hulk A-Roos. You can’t make this stuff up at all. He cuts a generic promo but the kids around him are loving it. The guy was great with kids, I’ll give him that. This was one of the biggest jokes in wrestling history though, but it did show how huge and mainstream Hogan was.

US Title: Sting vs. Ric Flair

I’ll give Nitro this: they got the card spot on for the first show. You have a cruiserweight match that’s going to be awesome and was, you have this which is more or less impossible to screw up, and Hogan vs. a big man in the main event. They played things safe here and that’s all they needed to do. And now we get the defining moment for Nitro until Hall showed up: Lex Luger walks down the aisle and stares at Sting and Flair.

Now that doesn’t sound very interesting does it? The thing you have to remember, Luger had been in a WWF ring wrestling the day before. This was the first big shock and since the internet was more or less a non factor for the most part back then, this was a shocking thing. No one knew this was coming and it really did set the tone for Nitro and WCW in the future as Luger was immediately in the main event picture.

The announcers have no clue what to say to this and even though Bischoff knew it was coming, he’s playing it off well. Sting was the perfect choice to put on the show here as he had the speed, the power, the mat wrestling ability, the look, the charisma and the talking ability to be remembered really well. He didn’t have to do much as he hits his third gorilla press, but the crowd is eating it up. Why mess with what works? Make that four of them.

His strength is overlooked quite a bit. We go to a break and when we come back we have a wide shot of the Mall and it looks VERY cool. It’s a three story mall and you have all kinds of people shopping around and we just happen to have a major wrestling show going on. Arn Anderson walks out as Sting misses a splash. Arn and Flair had been having a lot of problems lately and would finally fight at Fall Brawl.

They play up the shock value to a T here about Luger and the unpredictability aspect of the show. Sting hits a top rope suplex. The announcers’ reactions: Bischoff says the ring moved two feet, McMichael says his monitor nearly fell off the table and Heenan says his monitor went black. I wish I was making this up. Flair gets the figure four but Arn comes into the ring for the DQ and he and Flair go at it.

Rating: C+. Again, this is hard to get wrong. It wasn’t one of their better ones, but it wasn’t supposed to be. It got them in front of a TV camera and showed the fans what they had coming. This was a lot like the debut of a new promotion in a lot of ways as no one really knew what to expect here.

They kind of had to restart a lot of things in the early weeks to give the people a feel for what they were all about. The match was fine and they did their regular good stuff, but this was about angles and not the match and that’s fine.

Scott Norton comes out to yell about not being on the show despite having a contract. Savage comes out to yell at him. They set up a match for next week. It’s so adorable that Norton thinks he means something outside of Japan.

Sabu is coming. Dang it.

Some guy from Alabama wins a sweepstakes. This took 10 seconds of ring time.

Ad for Saturday Night, featuring a double main event: Johnny B. Badd vs. Dick Slater and Sting and Macho vs. the Bluebloods. And people wonder why the fans were very happy Nitro debuted.

Mr. Wallstreet is coming to WCW. It was IRS going JBL’s gimmick. This went badly. He even mentions the IRS. Seriously?

WCW Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bubba Rogers

Rogers is Big Boss Man’s 15th or so gimmick. We go to a commercial before Hogan’s entrance and we get a SLIM JIM AD! Oh and there’s one for Hot Pockets too. Jimmy Hart has stars and stripes pants and a jacket. He looks like a walking barber pole. The fans are going nuts for Hogan if nothing else. What are you expecting here?

It’s Hogan vs. big man 101, Like I said earlier they’re playing it very safe and that’s fine. Bubba gets in his offense and Hogan makes a comeback and slams him before the leg drop ends it in about five minutes. A clean pin on Nitro. That won’t happen that often.

Rating: C. It’s exactly that: average. There was nothing special here but it wasn’t unwatchable or anything. No one was expecting an epic showdown here as it was just Hogan defending his title in a token title defense. Nothing wrong with that.

The Dungeon of Doom which had been feuding with Hogan hit the ring and Luger makes the save. Macho and Sting show up to calm them down. This would be your main event at Fall Brawl. Sting, Hogan, Luger and Savage vs. Shark (Earthquake), Zofdiac (Beefcake) Meng and Kamala. I wonder who wins that.

We go to commercial and see an ad for the Muscular Dystrophy Association which sponsored Fall Brawl for some reason. That’s just odd. There’s also an ad for the Eagles vs. Cardinals game. Dang that would have sucked.

Luger says he wants a title shot. Hogan says sure but says he’ll be champion forever and a day. I love delusions of grandeur that almost came true. They make the match for next week and that’s it.

Overall Rating: B+. For a debut show, this was great. They advanced a lot of stuff and set up next week and the future pretty well. With only an hour they did quite well but remember there was no Raw tonight. The ratings were good but they lost for a good while. The wrestling was ok and we got three kinds of matches and angles were advanced so I’d say very good job here. Things would get far worse for awhile though.

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Monday Nitro #135
Date: April 13, 1998
Location: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Mike Tenay

Tonight is the go home show for Spring Stampede, but much more importantly than that it’s the night that the WWF won a round in the Monday Night Wars. Over on Raw there was the first ever Vince McMahon vs. Steve Austin match, but it should be interesting to see what Nitro was offering that the fans decided wasn’t good enough. Let’s get to it.

The Nitro Girls are in white to open things up.

The announcers talk about the bat match on Sunday.

Scott Steiner vs. Fit Finlay

Vincent has the trophy with him again. I’m assuming it’s some kind of a bodybuilding trophy but WCW hasn’t bothered to explain it yet. Steiner immediately bails to the floor for encouragement from Vincent. Back in and Steiner easily takes him to the mat and rides Finlay over to the ropes.

The belly to belly gets a face pop for Scott and there’s the elbow into the push-ups. Steiner goes to the floor to yell at Larry Hennig (Curt’s dad) before getting caught in an atomic drop from Finlay. The rolling senton puts Steiner down again but Finlay misses a charge into the buckle. A falling suplex from the top sets up the Recliner for the submission from Finlay, making Steiner the WCW Alliteration Champion.

Rating: D+. I’m not wild on Finlay being used for a jobber but it’s better than having big names collide and having them both come out looking lame. Steiner still isn’t over as a heel and the stupid trophy isn’t going to make the fans boo him any more. Nothing match here but Steiner looked pretty dominant.

Bret Hart talks about getting screwed over again. Does he have ANYTHING else he can talk about? This seems to be the first of a bunch of sound bytes from Bret tonight.

Call the Hotline to hear about….uh….wrestling stuff!

Lenny Lane vs. Ultimo Dragon

Things start fast with Dragon taking him over with a headscissors. Dragon has his head slammed into the mat and the corners for good measure with Lane in control. A sunset flip gets two for Dragon but Lane chokes him on the ropes to keep control. We hit the chinlock on Dragon but Lane lets go to yell at the fans. Dragon comes back with the headstand in the corner and a kick to Lenny’s back to take over.

Lane avoids a spinwheel kick and sends Dragon to the floor, only to miss a plancha to put both guys down. Lenny is up first and slams Dragon on the floor but doesn’t follow up. Back in and Dragon runs into a powerslam for two and a bulldog gets the same. Lane tries a suplex but Dragon slips over his back and hooks the Dragon Sleeper for the submission.

Rating: C+. This was much more entertaining than I was expecting with Lane holding his own against the Dragon until the end of the match where he got caught. Lane is one of those guys that was talented but never got a chance to show off. With more charisma, Dragon could have been a solid midcard guy in WCW but he was always stuck around the cruiserweights or lower card.

Bret wants to be world champion.

The announcers talk about the bat match again, this time for like two minutes straight.

Roddy is in the back and says he’s tired of listening to Hogan and Nash so tonight they’re fighting each other. After that’s done, he’s coming after Hogan himself. Hogan and Disciple get tired of listening to Piper’s rambling and run in to lay him out.

Here’s Giant with something to say. He knows Piper is going to be fine for Sunday and lets the NWO know that he hasn’t forgotten a thing Nash has done to him. Very short here but it got the point across well enough.

Johnny Grunge vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Chavo takes him to the corner to start but gets suckered in by a handshake. Grunge takes over on the arm but Chavo spins out to twist on Grunge’s arm instead. Off to an armbar but Johnny fights up and hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to take over. Chavo sends him head first into the buckle and loads up a sunset flip, only to have Grunge sit down on it for the big upset. The announcers treat it like what everyone knew would happen.

Bret doesn’t like Hogan and Nash.

More Nitro Girls, this time with bunny ears.

Here’s Nash with something to say. Apparently Hogan has run out the back door instead of facing him here tonight. Since Hogan has bailed and since Savage is nowhere in sight, how about Nash vs. Sting again this week? This brings out Sting with the bat but no belt. JJ comes out to hold them back but Sting says Nash can have the title shot. Dillon says the match has to be in the main event, but Sting wants the powerbomb reinstated. JJ isn’t sure but eventually gives in.

Glacier vs. Chris Benoit

Glacier fires off some kicks to start but Benoit leg whips him down and stomps Glacier in the corner. Glacier comes back with his kicks as the announcers talk about Booker vs. Benoit for the TV Title at the PPV with no time limit. A kick to the back of Benoit’s head gets two more but Benoit comes back with a hard chop. Benoit takes him down with a German suplex as Tony compares Glacier’s win/loss record to Goldberg’s. Glacier sweeps Benoit’s legs out but Chris calmly waits for him to come over and snaps on the Crossface for the submission.

Rating: C-. The match was nothing of note but Benoit looked great out there. The German looked great and the ending was perfect. Benoit looked like he was toying with Glacier out there which is what you want going into the title match on Sunday. The more Nitro I watch I understand Benoit’s fans raging against WCW for never pushing him. He’s just that good.

Hour #2 begins so we hit the recap button.

Buff Bagwell vs. Lex Luger

Before the match Bagwell and Bischoff have something to say. Buff says the one thing he can’t do is predict the future. If he could, he would have challenged Rick Steiner instead of Luger for attacking Bischoff. Buff makes fun of Luger and Steiner’s poses in a funny bit. Bischoff says Hogan isn’t here to take care of Rick because he’s on the Tonight Show. The idea of Hogan associating with Rick Steiner is rather amusing.

Buff pounds away to start after a quick posedown, only to have Luger run him over with a shoulder. A dropkick puts Luger down and it’s time for more posing. Luger hiptosses and slams Bagwell down, sending Buff out to the floor. In one of the only times I can ever remember, Luger actually shows some humor by doing Buff’s strut and pose, complete with the big grin.

Back in and Luger pounds away but gets caught by a swinging neckbreaker. We hit the reverse chinlock with Luger looking more bored than in pain. Buff lets go of the hold but misses the Blockbuster, allowing Luger to do his usual sequence for the comeback. There’s the Torture Rack but Bischoff comes in for the DQ.

Rating: D+. Of all the matches they could start the second hour with, they picked this? As in the match where the whole story is Bagwell has beaten Luger like five times already? That’s a good way to sum up WCW: yeah we know you’ve seen this already, but here it is again because we don’t have any new ideas. Also, why was Buff Bagwell so protected? It’s not as bad as Norton but he was always losing by DQ or countout instead of pin or submission, even to much bigger stars like Luger.

Post match both Steiners run out with Rick and Luger standing tall.

Bret Hart says Savage should get out of the NWO while he can.

The Nitro Girls are in black now.

Heenan is on commentary.

Cruiserweight Title: Super Calo vs. Chris Jericho

Jericho thinks Super Calo is Iaukea under a stupid looking mask. Calo denies it in Spanish but Jericho insists it’s the Prince. The referee actually goes to check it, giving Jericho the cheap shot for an early advantage. A big forearm puts Calo down and a suplex gets two for the champion. Calo comes back with a cradle, only to get punched in the mask to put him back down.

We hit the chinlock for a bit before Jericho easily avoids a dropkick. A gutwrench suplex gets two for Chris and we get a mini fit from Jericho. Calo jumps over Jericho in the corner and gets two off a missile dropkick. Jericho misses a charge and falls to the floor for a BIG plancha from Calo. Back in and Calo misses the top rope headscissors, allowing Jericho to hook the Liontamer to retain.

Rating: C-. Jericho looked good in this glorified squash. That’s one of the problems with Jericho’s reign: he’s beaten every big name in the division and there’s no one left to seriously challenge him. The biggest name he hasn’t beaten is Ultimo Dragon I guess and he’s not even that big of a deal in division anymore.

Post match Jericho won’t let go of the hold so Iaukea comes down. Jericho: “They’re twins!”

Bret Hart respects a few people but Sting is the highest on the list. If Sting ever needs him, just say the word.

Saturn vs. Hammer

Kidman tries to stop this from happening and is thrown away by both guys. They slug it out with Hammer taking over with a clothesline. He puts Saturn on the top for a slam before ramming Saturn’s head into the mat over and over. Saturn comes back with chops in the corner and some high kicks to the head for good measure. Hammer escapes an armbar with a belly to back suplex before lifting Saturn up into a modified Gory Stretch to block a backslide. Not that it matters as Saturn suplexes him down and hooks the Rings of Saturn for the submission. Better match than I was expecting here actually.

Rocco Rock vs. Goldberg

A hard shoulder block puts Rocco down and a right hand does the same. They trade elbows to the face before Goldberg launches him across the ring. Rocco bails to the floor so Goldberg beats him up out there, only to punch the post by mistake. Rocco whips him into the steps and loads up a table in the ring. Goldberg pops back in and spears him through the table (not a DQ for no apparent reason) and the Jackhammer makes it 72 in a row.

Saturn tries to get to Goldberg but Raven stops him. Goldberg beats up Sick Boy and Kidman for fun. Saturn is next.

Video on Goldberg.

Hour #3 begins.

More Nitro Girls, still in black.

Nitro Party video.

Curt Hennig vs. Yuji Nagata

Well at least it’s not Neidhart. Rude goes to the commentary booth but says he has guests to take care of at ringside. Apparently Rude’s father is in the front row along with Larry Hennig. Yuji jumps Curt while he’s hugging his dad, earning him a Perfect beating. Nagata is sent to the floor for a beating from Rude. We’re in Minnesota tonight so the fans are completely behind Rude and Hennig. Nagata gets in a few kicks but Hennig shrugs them off and chops Yuji down in the corner. Hennig sends him to the floor so Larry Hennig can reveal a HENNIG RULES shirt. Back in and the PerfectPlex ends the squash.

Post match Rude handcuffs Nagata to the ropes so the beating can continue. Neidhart comes down well after they’ve gone and isn’t even acknowledged by the announcers.

TV Title: La Parka vs. Booker T

They lock up and head to the corner for a clean break. The fans chant what sounds like Jesse as Booker backdrops La Parka down. Booker kicks him down and clotheslines him out to the floor. Back in and they clothesline each other down but Booker is up first with a spinebuster. Part of La Parka’s match is torn. A flapjack sets up the side kick and the missile dropkick retains Booker’s title.

Rating: C-. Again the match wasn’t bad but there’s nothing on this show that makes me want to keep watching it. La Parka’s hot streak is over as he’s now just a jobber to the stars. Booker got a nice win here just like Benoit did earlier which makes both guys look good going into the title match. Simple idea yet it’s so rarely done today.

Post match La Parka loads up the chair but Benoit comes out to stop him. Booker offers a handshake but Benoit shoves him down instead.

Video on Raven vs. DDP.

US Title: Robbie Rage vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page runs him over and hits a quick belly to back suplex for no cover. Rage’s partner Kaos grabs Page’s leg, giving Rage a cheap shot to the champion’s ribs. A nice looking springboard splash gets two but Page crotches Rage against the post to stop him cold. Back in and a running Diamons Cutter retains the title. Another squash.

Post match Raven and the Flock come down the aisle with Raven yelling about being stuck in ECW since Page wouldn’t get him a job in WCW. Page dives over the top to take the Flock out but they stop him from getting to Raven.

Konnan vs. Rick Steiner

Vincent and DiBiase get in a shoving match before the bell which distracts Rick (like that’s so hard) to give Konnan an early advantage. Rick comes back with something close to a low blow to send Konnan out to the floor. Steiner follows and gets double teamed by Vincent and Konnan, only to have DiBiase beat up Vincent to a big reaction. Back in and Konnan hits his rolling lariat before putting on an armbar. Konnan tries to jump over Rick in the corner but gets caught in a powerslam for two. Rick suplexes him down again and the Steiner Bulldog gets the pin.

Rating: C-. Oddly enough Rick looked pretty good here with his suplexes and throws. At the end of the day though, it’s really hard to get fired up for Konnan vs. Rick Steiner in a four minute match. It’s nice to see someone new pushed to fight the NWO, but Rick Steiner is only going to draw so much interest.

Video on Savage vs. Nash vs. Hogan.

WCW World Title: Kevin Nash vs. Sting

The announcers have spent all night hyping the fact that the powerbomb is legal. If I know WCW, it probably won’t even be used. Sting pounds him into the corner to start and rains down right hands, only to try to jump over Nash and get caught in Snake Eyes. There’s the foot choke in the corner followed by some knee lifts to the ribs. Nash continues his slow pace by firing off elbows in the corner. Sting comes back with some kicks to the ribs but can’t slam Nash.

Off to a neck crank on the champion before Nash elbows him in the face to stop a comeback. A gutwrench slam gets two on Sting and Nash finally calls for the powerbomb. Scratch that as we need a sidewalk slam for two first. We hit the bearhug as the build to the big move continues. It’s not something you can say that often in a Nash match but the psychology is solid here.

Sting slaps Nash’s ears to break the hold but can’t drop him. Two Stinger Splashes and a dropkick can’t drop Nash so there’s a third Splash. Sting puts on the Scorpion but Savage comes in with a cast shot, giving Nash two. Nash hits the powerbomb but Bret Hart pulls out the referee for the DQ.

Rating: C. Screwy ending aside, this wasn’t all that bad. They did a good job of building up the back injury for Sting and you could see them setting up the powerbomb. Sting has always played a good David to someone else’s Goliath so the result here was a surprisingly entertaining match.

Bret holds off the NWO single handedly to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. I can’t blame the fans a bit for flipping over to Raw. Let’s look at this for a second: the first match of the second hour was built around the idea of they’ve fought six times before, then the main event is a rematch with another run-in ending. The most competitive match in between there was Hammer vs. Perry Saturn and the rest were glorified squashes. Nothing on here was fresh or new and the show felt like it has for months: uninteresting and focused entirely on the NWO which has been going on for nearly two years now.

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