Monday Nitro #109
Date: October 13, 1997
Location: Ice Palace, Tampa, Florida
Attendance: 12,000
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko

It’s one of the last shows before Halloween Havoc and WCW has been on fire lately. The main match tonight is a tag title defense with the Outsiders fighting a team to be announced. If they don’t defend the belts, they’ll be stripped of the titles. Not that it took forever to get them to defend the stupid things or anything like that though. Let’s get to it.

Here are Hogan (sans belt), Bischoff and Savage to open the show. Bischoff plugs Hogan’s new movie Assault on Devil’s Island and takes jabs at Raw for not being live. Yeah Eric I wouldn’t compare my show to 1997 Raw. Oh and Savage is in a neckbrace because of the Diamond Cutter last week. Hogan wants Piper to give him his belt back (Piper took it when he was running from Hogan and Bischoff last week) and that’s about it.

We see the Diamond Cutter on Savage from last week.

The announcers say there are four title matches this week. Is it sweeps week or something?

Cruiserweight Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Psychosis

Eddie is defending and there’s no Sonny Onoo with Psychosis for no apparent reason. Psychosis misses a charge into the corner to start, allowing Eddie to hit a fast suplex for two. Apparently Disco vs. Jackie at the PPV is non-title due to the athletic commission. Why is that match even happening? Has that ever been answered? Psychosis shrugs it off and hits a quick leg lariat and a baseball slide to send Eddie to the floor.

We get the spot of the match as Psychosis hits a big old senton backsplash to the floor, possibly injuring his back in the process though. Back in and the guillotine legdrop misses Eddie but Psychosis grabs a quick rollup for two anyway. Psychosis goes for the arm which is kind of rare to see in a lucha match. Once that goes nowhere Eddie takes over, only to walk into a backbreaker. The masked one goes up but is quickly crotched, superplexed and Frog Splashed for the pin to retain the title.

Rating: C. This didn’t work that well but the injury might have had something to do with it. Eddie was gearing up for the showdown with Rey which needs to be announced already. This kept him looking strong though and that’s what a champion needs going into a big PPV title defense. Not a good match here but the big senton got the fans going at least.

Eddie teases ripping off the mask but walks away.

It’s time for the second of Tenay’s videos on lucha libre. Today he’s talking about masks and how important they are to culture of lucha libre. We see the making of masks and hear from Rey Mysterio Jr. and Senior (Rey’s uncle) who says how important the masks are in identity. We hear from Dr. Lechuga (I know some Spanish and either that’s a fake name or we’re hearing from Dr. Lettuce.) about the history of masks and the various cultures that form them. Psychosis talks about how important his mask is.

Rey worries about losing his mask, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Only a completely stupid company would stop making masks that popular which were guaranteed money makers. Silver King says why cover up my pretty face? La Parka says he wears a mask to scare people. We get clips from When Worlds Collide with Eddie getting his hair cut and hear about Luchas De Apuestas. For a two minute segment, this was AWESOME. I love these segments and there’s some really interesting stuff in there.

Here’s Piper who looks a bit different in the face this week. Makeup maybe? Piper is here to talk about Bischoff and makes it clear that he is the boss, not Bischoff. What happened to Savage last week was justice, not an unfair attack. Also Hogan doesn’t deserve to carry the belt (which is nowhere in sight) so for now it’s gone. Piper says the same thing he said last week about the Outsiders having to defend or be stripped and that’s it.

We recap Jarrett/Debra vs. Mongo.

Steve Regal vs. Steve McMichael

Mongo grabs a quick headlock and runs Regal over with a shoulder block. I do love it when heels like Regal are shocked when a much bigger and stronger guy runs them over. That’s always amusing. Off to a wristlock which is more Regal’s speed and he takes it down to the mat for some control. Mongo again powers out of it and tosses Regal around like something that is large and easy to throw around. Regal comes back with an uppercut and some stomping but Mongo pops up again. Now Mongo looks confused so he hits a few elbows and finishes Regal with the tombstone. That was a really awkward looking ending.

Rating: D. It continues to amaze me that Mongo somehow kept getting worse in the ring. He’s in there with one of the best technicians of all time and can’t get a watchable match? Regal is more than capable of walking him through this but I guess Mongo is even beyond Regal’s help. That says a lot.

Gene is with Debra and asks about rumors that Jarrett is gone. Apparently he is indeed gone (SWEET!) but she has a surprise for Mongo at Halloween Havoc. Mongo calls her a snake. No that would be her future husband, who would also be named Steve.

Yuji Nagata vs. Chris Jericho

The quest for Nagata to be useful or interesting continues. Sonny is here with Nagata but wasn’t with Psychosis. Apparently it’s Dragon vs. Nagata at the PPV. I know that would sway me into buying it. Jericho immediately goes for the arm with whatever hold he can put on it. When that doesn’t work, he goes with the easiest idea there is: kick him in the face. Now back to Nagata’s arm but Nagata hits a fast superplex to take over. A snapmare puts Jericho down and there’s a HARD kick to the Canadian’s back.

Now Nagata works on the arm but runs into a boot in the corner and gets caught by a middle rope missile dropkick. In something I’ve never seen, at least not from Jericho, he grabs Nagata in a half nelson and gives him a giant swing. That gets two and Nagata knocks him to the apron and then into the barricade. Out to the floor and Nagata goes into the post. They head back in but Jericho has to beat up Sonny. As they actually get back in, Sonny trips Jericho on the top and the Nagata Lock (standing figure four) gets the submission.

Rating: C. I get that Nagata is skilled and means a lot in Japan, but man alive he is dull in America. He’s just a guy in trunks using wrestling holds. Jericho at least plays to the crowd and has a ton of charisma which can get him through a match. I know Nagata is talented and such, but anything being different about him would be an improvement. He’s just so dull it’s almost unreal.

Raven is in a nursery next to a crib. He talks about how his earliest memories are of feeling of abandonment and sadness. Raven says that our futures are determined in these moments and we’re all creatures of this nature.

Bill Goldberg vs. Scotty Riggs

Goldberg has his signature music now. We get a shot of Saturn and Raven in the crowd along with a third person. I don’t recognize him but there’s a chance it’s Sick Boy. Richards is gone as well, I believe back to ECW. Goldberg shrugs him off and Riggs gets in a few right hands. The spear (more like a tackle here) takes Riggs down and Goldberg pounds away.

Riggs gets up some boots in the corner but gets slammed out of the corner a few seconds later. Scotty comes back with some dropkicks including one that sends Goldberg over the top. Apparently Judo Gene LeBell wants to train Goldberg. Bill will have none of this selling stuff and LAUNCHES Riggs into the barricade to take over again. Back in and the Jackhammer ends this. This would be #4 as Goldberg won on Saturday Night as well.

The Nitro Girls waste some time.

Here are Hall and Syxx for the Survey. The fans actually side with WCW on this one which is a rarity around this time. Hall complains about having to face both Luger and Zbyszko but it’s the only way WCW can have a chance. Apparently Nash is out with an injury and the Steiners want a title match tonight. That’s cool because Syxx will take Nash’s place. As Hall is talking, a fan hits him in the face with a piece of trash. It nailed him square in the jaw.

Tag Titles: Steiner Brothers vs. Scott Hall/Syxx

For the sake of clarity, only Scott Steiner will be referred to as Scott and Scott Hall will only be referred to as Hall. Hall is quickly sent to the floor and the Steiners stand tall. We start with Scott vs. Syxx and there’s a wheelbarrow slam for Syxx to give the Steiners control. Off to Rick vs. Hall with Steiner pounding away, only to get caught by a clothesline to give the NWO control. Rick will have none of that though and hits a middle rope clothesline. Steiner goes up again but a cross body (huh?) is caught in a fallaway slam by Hall.

Rick won’t sell it though and knocks Syxx off the apron, only to be decked by Hall again. Hall pounds on him in the corner but Rick comes back with a Steiner Line. Hot tag brings in Scott and house is cleaned. The Steiner DDT off the top gets two on Syxx as Hall pulls the referee to the floor. Larry Z comes down to scare Hall back to the ring and there’s the Steiner Bulldog to Hall. The Steiners get a double cover and Larry counts the pin for the titles. You know, because being a guest referee in 13 days counts as being a referee here.

Rating: C-. The match was short but the fans were very hot for it. This had been built up for months upon months but then when they get to the payoff, we don’t even get Hall and Nash to do the job. You know, because of that “knee injury” Nash had. Isn’t it amazing how he’s hurt every time that he has to do a job? I’m sure we’ll hear more about the refereeing issue.

Tony says they have an injury update on Savage: “Who cares?” The heartlessness is pretty sad. And yes I know it’s a fake injury.

The Nitro Girls dance a bit.

Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

Apparently the decision in the tag match stands because Larry is an assigned official. Assigned at a PPV but what difference does that make? Also Eric can’t reverse the decision. Rey gives his mask to a baby at ringside but the baby gives it back to him. It’s fast paced stuff to start with Dean taking it to the mat to slow Rey down. Back up and Rey goes from a test of strength into a sunset flip for two. Dean catapults him to the apron but Mysterio pops right back in.

Back in and Rey counters a variety of holds by Dean by flying through the air, only to be caught by a leg lariat for two. A quick victory roll gets two for Rey but a headscissors is countered into a side slam for no cover. Off to a figure four necklock by Dean for a few seconds before he powerbombs Rey halfway back to Mexico for two. Rey comes back and pounds away in the corner but Dean launches him into the corner.

Mysterio lands on the top rope and hits a flip attack to take Dean down again. A sunset flip gets two on Malenko and the West Coast Pop looks to finish. At two though Eddie runs in and rips Rey’s mask off, causing him to break the hold. Malenko backflips up into the Texas Cloverleaf and Rey taps immediately to hide his face.

Rating: B. This was one of the better matches I’ve ever seen them have and one of the best cruiserweight matches they’ve ever had on Nitro. They barely ever stopped moving other than a quick rest hold by Dean. Other than that it was five minutes of nonstop action with an ending that advanced the story and kept Rey looking strong at the same time. Great match here and actually worth checking out for how fast and agile Rey was in his time.

DDP is at the Power Plant and talks about how he hasn’t changed like Hogan and Savage have. Oh and Piper is awesome too. This was just to hype up Savage vs. Page.

Here’s Piper with more to say. The tag title change stands because Larry was officially made a referee last week so the pin counted. HAIL THE STEINERS! This brings out Savage and Bischoff with Eric talking about Savage’s injury. He wants to know if this is how Piper is going to run things and wants Hogan’s title back. Piper says come in and get it (the title is nowhere in sight) but here’s the NWO. Sting comes out as well and holds off the NWO before blasting Piper. At least they didn’t show a closeup of him to show it was clearly a fake. It’s Hogan and Piper gets beaten up.

Video on Hennig vs. Flair.

Scott Norton vs. Ray Traylor

Please be quick. Norton has Vincent and Bagwell with him here because that’s what NWO members do. Traylor starts with uppercuts and hits a quick backdrop but stops to go after Bagwell. Back in and Norton pounds away on Traylor with clubbing forearms to the back. A slam puts Norton down and we cut to the crowd. Kidman, now with eye shadow, sits in the crowd next to Raven and Saturn.

Back to the match and Buff chokes away a bit while Norton argues with the referee. Norton pounds away very, very slowly. Traylor comes back with an uppercut and puts Norton in 619 position for a sliding uppercut. Vincent gets decked too but during the distraction Buff throws Norton the spraypaint can and Traylor is knocked out for the pin.

Rating: F+. After Rey vs. Dean, this was hard to sit through. Then again Norton vs. Traylor would be hard to sit through after watching a dancing bear act. Traylor going to war against the NWO was a nice idea but having him job to Scott Norton doesn’t help anyone. Norton is just a power goon and having him lose would do nothing but help Traylor. But that might mean WCW fans have something else to cheer for and we can’t have that.

TV Title: Disco Inferno vs. Alex Wright

Wright jumps him to start and both guys still have their jackets on. Disco is defending in case you haven’t read anything from around this time. Wright pounds him down against the ropes and hits a good dropkick to send the champion down. Another dropkick puts Disco down and Alex finally takes his own jacket off. Alex whips Inferno with said jacket for good measure but gets punched in the face for his efforts. The offense is short lived though as Wright comes back and stomps away even more. Mostly just kicking and punching so far.

We stop for a quick dance break and Disco gets draped over the apron and pounded even more. Almost all Alex so far. Out on the floor and Wright stomps on his hand for good measure. Wouldn’t the leg be better as it would get rid of the dancing abilities? Back in and Disco tries a fast backslide but gets taken down by a clothesline. A small package gets two more for the champion and here’s Jackie. Disco yells at her and gets rolled up, only to reverse into one of own for the pin to retain.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here but it’s definitely better than Disco vs. Jackie would wind up being. I’m still not entirely sure what the story is with those two but I’m guessing it’s more of Jackie’s “I’m a woman but I can wrestle men. Yeah I suck but I’M LOUD AND THAT MEANS I AM AN INTERESTING PERSON!” Match was nothing.

US Title: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Curt Hennig

Page fires off his shoulder blocks into Hennig’s shoulder to send Curt (the champion) out to the floor. Back in and DDP grabs a headlock but Curt runs away from a Diamond Cutter attempt. The champ gets on the apron and Page spits in his face to send him back to the floor. Back in and it’s back to the headlock as Hennig can’t get anything to work early on. Hennig tries to run the ropes but gets caught in a Russian legsweep for two. The champ finally gets something going by getting in a shot to Page’s likely injured ribs.

A dropkick puts Page down and we hit the chinlock. Hennig puts his feet on the ropes like any good heel would do. Page fights up but gets caught in a sleeper, only to come out with a jawbreaker. There’s the Pancake to Hennig but Curt comes back with a jawbreaker of his own. Cue Flair but security holds him back. Page rolls up Hennig for three as Flair runs in. The three count goes down but I’m guessing Flair was late as the referee says no pin. I’m guessing Hennig wins by DQ but the ending was botched.

Rating: C. The match was ok but the ending was a big blow to it. The problem here was that the three count clearly hit before Flair touched either guy so there’s no real reason for a DQ, especially after Hall pulled a referee from the ring earlier and it wasn’t even a DQ. These two should work well together and did most of the time, but it never hit the level that it could have.

Post match Piper makes the referee give Page the belt. Anderson (referee) isn’t sure and here’s Hogan to try to get at Piper. The NWO runs in and it’s 7-2. Even more guys come in and the good guys are in trouble. Savage, with a neck injury, is able to drop the big elbow on Page. There’s a legdrop and another elbow as Page is in trouble. Piper gets an elbow as well but here’s Sting at the top of a row of stands.

But wait here he comes from another side of the arena. No wait he’s over there. Wait he’s in the ring and coming through the crowd. We’re on our fifth Sting but most of them are getting beaten up. Here comes another one through the crowd and a seventh one joins him. The sixth one gets in and is stomped down.

Now they’re coming through the entrance. Now three more come out. I’ve lost count at this point. All of them are getting beaten down….until Bagwell hits one for no effect. The Death Drop lays Bagwell out and the NWO runs. Piper has the world title belt from somewhere and swings it over his head to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This is the third great show in a row with an AWESOME ending segment. How often do you see a show with four title matches in two hours? There are a lot of PPVs that don’t do that and we got it for free here tonight. Sting was coming for Hogan and they might as well have been printing the money in their basement. I would say there was no way to screw this up, but you know the rest I’m sure. Another very good show here.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Monday Nitro #108
Date: October 6, 1997
Location: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Attendance: 14,357
Commentators: Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay

We’re about three weeks away from Halloween Havoc and the card is starting to take shape. We’re also less than three months away from Starrcade and the biggest match in company history. As for tonight, the main event is Benoit vs. Hennig, presumably for the US Title. Tonight is likely going to be all about building for the PPV, which could stand a bit more work at this point. Let’s get to it.

After the usual banter from the announcers, here’s the NWO A-Team with something to say. Bischoff plugs Hogan’s latest TV movie, Assault on Devil’s Island, which debuts later this month. Hogan challenges Sting for later tonight, but he knows Sting won’t be here because Hogan is here and that no good dirty Sting is a coward. Apparently CNN is going to become the Hogan News Network as Hogan and the NWO are going to take over all of the Turner organization. They’ll be waiting for Piper later tonight and that’s about it.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T

Debra and Jackie are in the respective corners. Things go fast to start with Jeff getting the first offensive move in the form of a hiptoss. Booker comes back with a fast kick to send Jarrett out to the floor. The advantage doesn’t last long though as Jeff suckers him in and pounds away a bit to take over. The fans think Jarrett sucks as he elbows Booker down. Booker spins right back up though and hits the side kick to take Jarrett down. The crowd is hot tonight.

We take a break and come back with Jarrett getting two off a top rope cross body. A clothesline puts Booker down as does a great looking dropkick. Jarrett is in full control but Booker comes back with a forearm to the face. Booker hits a spinwheel kick and a slam to put Jarrett in trouble. The ax kick gets two but the hook of the leg puts Jarrett’s foot on the rope. A clothesline puts Jarrett on the floor and here’s Mongo to yell. Debra slaps him so A Mongo chokes Jeff before sending him back inside. Booker grabs a rollup for the surprise pin.

Rating: C. Not bad here but it didn’t mean anything as Jarrett wouldn’t wrestle again in WCW for years. Thankfully he went over to the WWF and got to bore people on Raw. Booker was still a few months away from his singles push but once it started it kept going and going until WCW went under.

The announcers talk about Hogan vs. Piper at Havoc and say that it’ll change wrestling forever. I’m sure it will.

Billy Kidman vs. Alex Wright

Kidman is still a rookie here and looks very nervous. Billy shoves him into the corner to start and gives a clean break. Alex does the same and slaps Kidman in the face. Nice bit of a story there. Wright sends him to the floor and takes the opportunity to dance. Raven is in the front row and has Perry Saturn with him. Back in and Kidman hits a pair of dropkicks to send Wright out to the floor.

Oh wait we need to cut to the back to see Mongo and Debra arguing. Jeff Jarrett comes up and gets yelled at as well. Mongo says he has an idea and we go back to the match. Wright hits a top rope stomp and dances a bit more. A running corner clothesline hits Kidman and a bridging suplex gets two.

The fans look at presumably a fight off camera as Wright hits a clothesline for no cover. Kidman counters the German suplex into a jawbreaker and hits a middle rope dropkick to send Wright into the corner. A bulldog out of the corner gets two for Billy but he stops to look at Raven. The 450 misses Wright and after some dancing, a German suplex ends Kidman.

Rating: C. Decent match here which apparently was a rematch from Saturday Night where Billy beat Alex. The constant cutting away here got annoying but it actually led to something in this case. Wright continues to be someone that seems like he’s on the verge of a push but would be in the same place for months.

Ernest Miller vs. Mortis

Now here’s a fresh match. Miller takes over with a quick snapmare and a kick to the face for two. Ernest expands his moveset even further by going up top, only to get crotched by James Vanderberg. A top rope Fameasser gets two for the guy in a mask (Mortis) and he even uses the rope for good measure. It’s time for kicks because what would these two be without a lot of kicks?

Mortis keeps being EVIL by throwing Miller over the top rope while the referee is distracted. How EVIL can he get? Apparently Jackie is getting a TV Title shot at Halloween Havoc. A kind of Russian legsweep gets two for the EVIL one before he breaks up a sunset flip with a right hand. Miller rolls away from a top rope splash though and hits two kicks (I’m as shocked as you are), one being from the top, for the pin.

Rating: D. It would take Miller basically going crazy before he got interesting which makes these earlier matches pretty hard to sit through. The guy just wasn’t interesting as you can only take “karate guy” so far as a gimmick. Mortis continues to impress with that wide variety of offense he has. Oh and he’s EVIL so that helps.

Savage says he’ll beat Page at the PPV.

Scott Hall vs. Hector Garza

This is a rematch from two weeks ago when Garza won in a shocking upset. Hall has taped up ribs for reasons that I don’t remember. My guess would be alcohol related. Wait wasn’t he on crutches last week too? I think something is afoot. Oh and hour #2 starts. Hall does the survey and Hall says Nash has a bad knee so he’s not here tonight. Apparently they were watching Larry Zbyszko matches and laughed so hard that Nash fell over and hurt his knee. Points for a funny line if nothing else.

We take a break and come back for the bell. After said bell Hall decks Garza in the head and I think I know where this is going. There’s the fallaway slam but the ribs are hurting a bit. Hall shoves a referee into the corner to allow Syxx to hit a Bronco Buster on Garza. The Outsider’s Edge ends this quick as Hall shoves the referee down for a cover.

Post match Hall puts the referee in the Torture Rack and spray paints a Z on his back.

We get a look at Goldberg’s two wins over the last two weeks.

TV Title: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Disco Inferno

Tony, being the schmuck that he is, wonders if this match will change the Disco vs. Jackie match because the (arguable) co-main event of the PPV doesn’t change if one guy is a champion or not. Disco grabs a quick armdrag and you would think he just won the world title. They go to a lockup and Page tries an early Diamond Cutter but the champion’s slick hair lets him get to the floor.

Back in and Page grabs a quick headlock but gets shoved into the ropes for a hip toss. Disco is actually hanging in this. Scratch that as Page his a neckbreaker to send Disco to the floor, where he gets hit by a baseballl slide and a plancha from Page. Back in and Disco still won’t die as he gets an elbow up in the corner to stop a charging Dallas. Page comes back by channeling the power of hair metal and slugs Disco down before hitting the Pancake. DDP treats Disco like the glorified jobber that he is and hits a Diamond Cutter out of a fireman’s carry (TKO), only to have Savage run in for the DQ.

Rating: C. Believe it or not, this wasn’t that bad. Disco was much better in the ring than he was given credit for, but when you have an awful (or brilliant depending on how you look at it) gimmick like a disco enthusiast, it’s kind of hard to get your in ring skills noticed. It was pretty clear something was going to be screwy with the ending but that’s weekly TV for you.

Post match Savage sends Page into the post and loads up a piledriver on the floor but Piper comes out for the save. Savage shoves him away so Piper spits in his face. Somehow this spins Savage around and there’s a Diamond Cutter on the concrete. Piper and Page bail into the crowd as the NWO runs out to protect the unconscious Savage. Savage gets taken out on a stretcher as Tony is almost giddy over a man being knocked unconscious.

Post break and here’s Piper in the ring with something to say. Apparently if Hogan had twice the amount of hair he had now he’d still be bald. Also Hall is lying when he says he beat Piper (when did Hall say that?) so we get a clip of Piper beating up Hall at Slamboree. Apparently the Outsiders, injuries or not, are going to defend the belts next week or they’re stripped of the belts. Also Savage vs. Page is Piper’s Rules, which would translate to last man standing.

Cue Bischoff and Hogan with Hogan staring down Piper. The Icon stuff stops now because Hogan is the real icon around here. Apparently everyone is here because of Hogan and at the PPV, Hogan is going to prove to Piper’s family that he (Hogan) is the real man. Bischoff fires off a kick to Piper’s bad leg and Hogan pounds away. He holds Piper for a Bischoff kick but Piper, elite level ninja that he is, ducks out of the way and Bischoff kicks Hogan. Piper beats on both of them until the NWO runs in for the save and Piper skedaddles.

Apparently if Mongo beats Jarrett at Havoc, Debra is gone from WCW.

Cruiserweight Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Ultimo Dragon

Eddie is defending. Apparently the main event of Benoit vs. Savage is canceled and it’s now Benoit vs. Hennig. After a quick armdrag by Eddie it’s off to a test of strength. Dragon goes down, only to bridge his body which won’t break even with Eddie’s full weight on it. That’s so awesome looking. Eddie elbows Dragon down but the challenger pops back up and hits a tilt-a-whirl slam to take over.

Dragon hits a hard kick to the back and puts on a chinlock to kill some time. Eddie fights up and hits a suplex to set up an abdominal stretch. That goes nowhere so Dragon counters a release flapjack into a hurricanrana but Eddie snaps back up. A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker puts Dragon down again. That doesn’t get sold long either and here are the rapid fire kicks to stagger the champion. Guerrero heads to the floor where Dragon fakes him out before hitting a suicide dive to take Eddie down. Now it’s picking up a bit.

Back in and Dragon gets two off the dive he hit a second ago before putting on the Dragon Sleeper. Eddie gets his feet into the ropes though and Dragon has to break. Dragon puts the champ on the top rope for the super rana, only to get shoved down off the top. A tornado DDT lays Dragon out before hitting (most of) a long Frog Splash to retain.

Rating: B-. This started slow but once it picked up, it picked up BIG. I knew these two weren’t going to have a sluggish match as there’s just way too much talent out there to not put on an entertaining match. This was also good as Eddie had lost last week and he needed a clean win to keep him looking dominant going into the showdown with Rey at the PPV.

We look back at Hennig vs. Benoit on Saturday Night where Benoit had to fight off an invading NWO. The numbers caught up with him though and Benoit got beaten down.

Chris Benoit vs. Curt Hennig

I’m pretty sure this is non-title. Hennig talks to a fan in the aisle and Benoit jumps him to start. Benoit hits a big hard chop that sends Hennig into one of his usually overdone bumps but he hits his head on the steps. We head inside and the bell rings to start things off. Benoit is in full control and knocks Hennig off the apron and into the barricade. Back inside again and Benoit keeps stomping away before going to the middle rope.

Hennig finally gets in some offense in the form of a dragon screw leg whip to bring Benoit down. The Robinsdale Crunch keeps Benoit down and Hennig wraps the knee around the post. There’s a Flair cannonball but Curt uses the railing instead of the ropes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

We take a break and come back with Benoit hammering away back in the ring. Hennig goes into a RAGE and beats Chris down before taking off a buckle pad. Benoit reverses a whip to send Hennig into the buckle and rolls some Germans for two. Curt comes right back though by sending Benoit into the same buckle to set up the Perfect Plex for the pin.

Rating: B. Hennig’s intensity here made this a better match than I was expecting. These two beat the TAR out of each other and it made for a very entertaining match. The ending was a bit lame but I get why they wouldn’t want the newly lone wolf in Benoit to lose clean here. Benoit wanting to hurt Hennig more than beat him was the right move too, making this a very solid main event.

Post match the NWO comes out for the big beatdown but here’s Flair to get his revenge and try to destroy Hennig. Flair chases him to the back and into the parking lot but Hennig gets away. Ric comes back into the arena and says this is reality. He says he’s been Racked, Scorpion Deathlocked, leg dropped and put to sleep but he’s still right here. Flair talks about being Minneapolis born and bred before saying he’s the best of all time. He promises to get Hennig at Halloween Havoc if it’s booked or not. Flair rants about Hogan a bit to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. The wrestling was a bit slower tonight than last week, but this built up Halloween Havoc very well. The show has now gone from a show with barely anything I want to see to a show that actually sounds pretty good in theory. Nitro is starting to click again at this point and it’s pretty cool to see.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Monday Nitro #107
Date: September 29, 1997
Location: DCU Center, Worcester, Massachusetts
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko

We’re getting closer to Halloween Havoc and to the best of my memory, nothing has been officially set for the card yet. Hogan vs. Sting is starting to heat up as Piper is trying as hard as he can to get the match set by the end of the year. Other than that tonight we’re likely to get another appearance by Goldberg who debuted last week. Let’s get to it.

We open with the usual from Tony and the Nitro Girls.

Video on Page vs. Savage, which I’m sure will be discussed tonight.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Buff Bagwell

At least Kimberly looks great tonight. They stare at each other for awhile to start before Bagwell armdrags him down, meaning it’s time to dance. A shoulder block puts DDP down as well as we’re in slow motion still. Raven is in the front row again with Richards behind him. Page comes back with a clothesline and a second one sends him out to the floor. A pescado hits Bagwell and Page rips up a sign for no apparent reason. Back in and Buff hurts his own knee off a leapfrog attempt. I smell a freshly painted gold brick and indeed I’m correct.

Buff takes over and chokes away as we hear that Larry is going to referee a match at Halloween Havoc. Bagwell stops to tell the camera that he is indeed this good looking and here’s Page with a comeback. An atomic drop sets up more punches from DDP but Buff blocks the Diamond Cutter. Bagwell and the referee argue, allowing Page to get two off a rollup. Vincent tries to cheat so Page gets sent into a distracted referee. There’s the Diamond Cutter to both Vincent and Buff and the referee comes in for the three count.

Rating: C+. This was WAY better than I was expecting with the crowd staying hot almost the entire time. Page overcoming the odds like this including having to beat both Vincent and Bagwell was a solid idea as Bagwell has nothing to lose. This was a solid choice for an opener and it got the crowd going which is the right idea.

Page climbs into the crowd and runs into Raven for a staredown.

Apparently Mike Tenay went down to Mexico and has filmed a bunch of mini documentaries about lucha libre. We get a preview here, talking about how big lucha libre is and the importance of family in the business. I remember thinking these were interesting back in the day.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. El Caliente

Caliente is a masked guy who looks a lot like Eddie Guerrero. Whoever he is he jumps Rey from behind and steals the mask that Mysterio was going to give to a fan. Rey has his back rammed into the buckle and Caliente hits Eddie’s slingshot hilo. Mysterio comes back with a standing Lionsault into an armdrag as things speed up. A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker puts Caliente down but he comes back with an elbow to the face. Rey counters a suplex into an armdrag but the much bigger guy pounds Mysterio down.

Caliente goes for the mask as Tenay talks about lucha de apuestas (bet matches). The fans start chanting Eddie as they’re in on the joke now. A BIG powerbomb gets two for Calieddie and it’s off to an abdominal stretch. Even Tony knows something is up now, and if Tony Schiavone can figure it out, the secret is pretty obvious. A superplex puts Mysterio down but Caliente stops himself from using the Frog Splash. They head to the corner where Rey hits an INSANE double jump into the West Coast Pop for the pin.

Rating: C+. Solid match here with a great looking ending but it would be blown away by their rematch at Halloween Havoc. Eddie and Rey had some amazing chemistry together and the fans loved almost every match they ever had. Good stuff here and a nice idea with the mask to mix things up a bit.

Post match the mask is taken off and of course it’s Eddie.

Giant says he’s coming for revenge on Hennig tonight. Sting is in the audience as he says this.

Bill Goldberg vs. Barbarian

Neither guy gets an entrance. Tenay has some facts about Goldberg now: he played football at the University of Georgia and for the Atlanta Falcons. Feeling out process to start before Goldberg hits a shoulder block to stagger Barbarian. A DROPKICK of all things sends Barbie out to the floor. Now there’s something I never thought I would see from Goldberg. Goldie goes up top but gets crotched for taking too much time.

As Barbarian pounds away on him, we get a split screen of Goldberg’s win last week. Are they running REALLY behind on time already or something? They don’t even have time to show that pre-match? Goldberg charges into a powerslam but comes back with a clothesline and hits a knee drop. His offense is totally different than it would become eventually. Actually scratch that as the Jackhammer ends this clean. No spear yet but he does have generic rock music here.

Rating: C-. The match was nothing special but the angle of having someone brand new out there getting wins is a very interesting idea. We see this a lot, but having someone completely anonymous is a twist on it. Goldberg’s past never would be filled in and there’s nothing wrong with that. You didn’t need a character for him, which is something modern wrestling forgets at times. Just having someone being tough works quite well and Goldberg is the classic example.

Okerlund still can’t get a word with Goldberg so instead he brings over Larry Z. to talk about the match he’s refereeing at Halloween Havoc. Apparently it’s Luger vs. Hall and Larry isn’t going to cheat because it would make the victory cheap. True actually.

Tony plugs Nitro dates as the Nitro Girls dance. He also apologizes for walking out two weeks ago due to Flair’s injuries, which I don’t think anyone was complaining about. Flair has an announcement later tonight.

TV Title: Disco Inferno vs. Juventud Guerrera

Disco is defending after winning the title in a shocker last week. Feeling out process to start as Larry and Mike talk about a wrestling ballet dancer they used to know. Juvy hits a fast rana to start and a springboard dropkick followed by a spinwheel kick. The champion heads to the floor and there’s a big flip dive to take him out again. Back in and the Inferno counters a rana attempt into a hot shot to take over. Disco pounds away on the back and stomps in the corner.

Alex Wright comes out in some loud yellow pants to dance at the entrance way as Disco is in full control. As the champion goes for a cover, Wright puts Juvy’s foot on the rope. Guerrera uses the distraction to grab a rollup for two and a spin kick gets the same. Jackie comes out to yell at Wright as the match is completely ignored. She trips up Juvy for no apparent reason and a front suplex by Disco retains the belt.

Rating: D. Juvy’s parts were good but this is Disco Inferno vs. Juventud Guerrera in a five minute match for the lower card title. Did we really need two people interfering as part of a feud that hasn’t been fully explained yet? The match wasn’t terrible but the overbooking brings it down a good bit.

Hour #2 begins and here’s the NWO with something to say. This incarnation would be Savage and Liz with the former warning Piper to not mess with his match with Page. Oh and Savage wants Sting too, much like everyone else in the NWO.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Steve McMichael

The fans are all over Jarrett here as Tony talks about the problems between Steve and Debra. Apparently they’ve split and Debra lives in Georgia now. Jarrett takes him down and struts a bit, only to charge into a half Rock Bottom half Boss Man Slam. A forearm puts Jarrett down again and a big boot puts him on the floor. We take a break and come back with a fight on the floor and McMichael going head first into the post twice in a row. Debra takes this opportunity to talk about how pretty she is.

Back inside they go and Debra pulls on Steve’s hair from the floor. McMichael comes back with a suplex and the fans react rather positively. There’s a sleeper from Jeff and Bobby gives about four ways to get out of it. Heenan is a lot of things but a good analyst isn’t usually one of them. McMichael escapes and hooks a sleeper of his own but Jarrett quickly suplexes out of it.

A shot into the buckle does no damage to Mongo’s head so Jarrett tries it two more times. Mongo pounds away in the corner and hits a side slam. As McMichael loads up the tombstone, Jarrett counters with a jawbreaker. It’s time to work on the leg but Steve kicks off the Figure Four. Mongo and Debra get in an argument though, allowing Jarrett to hit a fast dropkick and get a rollup for the pin.

Rating: C-. As usual with these two, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t interesting at all. Jarrett never really got over as a heel in this run, although the crowd chants at the start of the match were a good sign. Regarding Mongo, earlier tonight I watched the end of Wrestlemania 11 and saw Lawrence Taylor in his only match ever as a wrestler. In that ten or so minute match, Taylor showed more fire and potential than McMichael showed in his entire career. The guy just wasn’t that good and there’s not much else to it than that.

The announcers talk about Sting.

We get a clip from last week of Scott Hall beating up Mark Curtis.

Chris Jericho vs. Syxx

Hall is at ringside with Syxx here and is on crutches. Syxx hooks that jumping headlock of his (the one where he looks like he’s having a fit) but gets sent off the ropes and caught in a powerslam. Syxx comes back with a spin kick and we get the crane pose from Karate Kid. Jericho gets chopped in the corner and gives a look that says “I would beat the tar out of you for that if I could move a muscle right now).

A kind of Michinoku Driver puts Jericho down but a kind of Swanton Bomb misses. Syxx heads to the apron and gets caught by the springboard dropkick to knock him to the floor. A running dive takes Syxx down again and we head back inside. Jericho gets two off a cross body from the top and there’s a giant swing.

The Lionsault looks to set up the Liontamer (Walls of Jericho) but a Hall distraction lets Syxx hook the Buzzkiller (crossface chickenwing) for….no submission as Hall come sin to rub the referee’s stomach. Jericho is still in the hold but here’s Larry Z to break it up. Luger comes out to even the odds and the match is thrown out. The NWO bails.

Rating: C. This was pretty decent but it was about the post match stuff more than the match. That’s perfectly fine as Jericho didn’t mean all that much yet although that would change soon enough. Zbyszko vs. Hall was a nice idea for a feud, but a little more explanation of why they’re fighting and what their history was (they fought in the AWA a bit but that was never specified on Nitro) would have helped.

Here’s Flair’s announcement on the phone. Tony sounds like a lover hearing Ric for the first time when he wakes up from a coma. Flair says that he respects the fans and wants no one to feel sorry for him. He thanks Hennig for giving him the wakeup call that he needed and promises to be back to settle the score. He’ll also be coming for the robe that Hogan stole from him. Now for the major announcement: the Horsemen are officially disbanded. It’s not fair to them to put their careers on hold and worry about Flair all the time. Flair promises illegal and immoral revenge on Hennig and the NWO. Solid stuff here as expected.

Here’s Bischoff with something else to say. Eric complains about Sting being here when Hogan isn’t here because Sting is clearly scared. Hogan has been calling out Sting for weeks, so why didn’t Sting show up then? Bischoff things Piper and Sting are in cahoots and dares Sting to try to help Piper at Halloween Havoc.

Lex Luger vs. Wrath

Luger pounds away to start and the fans are hot as usual. We hear about Mongo and Jarrett fighting in the background. Talk about it all you want, just please don’t make us have to watch it. Luger misses a charge into the corner and Wrath gets to take over for a bit. Wrath is one of those guys that got a very strong push at various times but then he had to talk. That hayseed voice of his was something he never could overcome. Anyway this is exactly what you would expect: Wrath hits some big power moves including a top rop clothesline but Luger reverses a suplex to come back. Punches, clotheslines, Rack, submission.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here as usual. Luger beating up monsters has become played out by now due to how often it happens anymore. I’ll give him this though: the fans never seem to get bored with him, so why mess with a winning formula? Wrath continues to look better than I ever remember him looking.

The Nitro Girls dance a bit and Bischoff takes Heenan’s spot in the announce booth.

Curt Hennig vs. Giant

Non-title. Giant throws Hennig around as you would expect him to before spitting on him in the corner. There’s what we would call a Stinkface and Curt falls to the floor. Giant suplexes him back in and chops away as this is one sided so far. A knee lift sends Hennig flying but he avoids a charge to send Giant out to the floor. Back in and Hennig hits a PERFECTPLEX on Giant. And it was an AWESOME one too! Giant of course pops out at two and hits the chokeslam but here’s the NWO for the DQ.

Rating: C+. This gets a decent grade for that Perfectplex alone. Hennig got him up in the air and even hooked the leg for a good bridge. I never would have expected him to be capable of doing that. The match was what you would expect other than that though and was barely long enough to grade.

Giant fights off the troops for a bit but the numbers (and a belt shot from Norton) catch up to him. Sting comes out for the save to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This was one of the best episodes of the show in a long time. Almost all of the matches were crisp and fast paced and we built up Halloween Havoc at the same time. Given all of the nonsense that came out of WCW, a lot of people forget how awesome they could be at times. This was a good example of that as the show was great and flew by. Good episode and one of the best they’ve had yet.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Monday Nitro #24
Date: February 12, 1996
Location: Florida State Fair, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, Steve McMichael

FINALLY we’re done with the build to Superbrawl. Now it’s time to start building to….oh no…..oh no……NO PLEASE NOT THIS!!! NOT UNCENSORED 1996!!!!! This would wind up being one of the worst shows that I have ever seen and easily one of the biggest jokes of all time. I guess we start talking about it tonight. Flair is champion and Hogan triumphed again last night so that’s what we’re building up with. Let’s get to it.

Theme song opens us up.

The announcers run down the card and talk about the two main events for the most part. Oh and Liz is evil now, meaning she’ll look much hotter now.

We look at the Strap Match where Pillman acted/quit/got released and Anderson had to take his place. Now it’s the title match. Oh and Hogan in a grudge match went on after the world title match of course.

Randy Savage vs. Hugh Morrus

Savage vs. Flair again next week. Macho is all reserved and ticked off as he comes to the ring. Morrus jumps him as he comes in but Savage fights him off. Uh make that Morrus beats on Savage. Hey let’s talk about Hogan! There’s a new member of the Dungeon called the Loch Ness who weighed like 700 pounds. He would be gone in like 2 months and never faced Hogan.

Randy gets a boot up in the corner to break up the momentum. There are going to be WCW guys on an episode of Baywatch. We hit the floor and Morrus eats post. Back in the laughing dude gets a suplex so he can choke. There’s the spinning finger from Savage after an elbow gets him out of trouble. Morrus’ moonsault misses, slam, elbow, another elbow, pin.

Rating: C. Just your basic hero vs. monster match here that was nothing special at all. Savage gets a bit of momentum for the rematch next week which is certainly a good thing. The match itself was nothing special. They wanted to push Morrus I think but they never had the chance to really do so.

Another elbow follows and Savage says he wants Flair.

Gene talks to some racecar driver and no one cares at all.

Scotty Riggs vs. Loch Ness

So it’s a new monster against a near jobbing tag team face. What do you think is going to happen here? Anderson vs. Hogan is the main event apparently. Riggs gets some dropkicks and goes up for a cross body. Loch Ness drops him and falls on Riggs’ knees. A pair of big elbows end Riggs. Yep this was what I expected here.

Liz and Woman wheel out a stretcher and yep Liz looks sexy in those black boots. Flair pops up off the stretcher for no apparent reason. You may not believe this, but Flair talks about styling and profiling and riding in jets and limos and Space Mountain. Liz says she has half of Randy’s money and implies she screwed Flair last night.

Konnan vs. Devon Storm

Storm is more famous (kind of) as Crowbar. Konnan is US Champion here but this is non-title I think. The bell rings after the commercial. Storm takes him down quickly with a dropkick and we hit the floor. Storm sets up a chair and hits a springboard tope con hilo. A dropkick from the apron is enough to put Konnan in the chair. Storm sets up the steps but when he tries a rana off them he gets powerbombed on the floor. Back in the ring now with Konnan hammering away. Konnan gets a sloppy rana for no cover as we speed things up a bit.

Things slow down a bit as Konnan gets a leg lock. George Steinbrenner is here. You know this math stuff and the leg locks are kind of boring. Storm tries a sunset bomb to the floor but is countered into a rana. Eric clarifies that last week when he implied WWF had something to do with a power outage that he wasn’t being serious at all. He sounds sincere when he says that too so I’ll take him at his word there. Back in the ring we get an ECW chant. Storm tries a top rope rana but Konnan counters into a powerbomb with a jackknife pin for the victory.

Rating: C+. This was like a tale of two matches. The first half was incredibly exciting with Storm showing off a lot. The second half was rather boring and sloppy. It’s a great example of a match that would be much better if you cut off maybe 90 seconds, even though it’s a 5 minute match. Fun stuff but too much boring in the end for it to be really fun.

Hulk Hogan vs. Arn Anderson

According to Bischoff, Anderson is tough but Hogan is REALLY tough. Let the Hogan worship begin! He still has a bad eye too. Anderson gets a shot to the head but can’t do much other than that as here comes Hogan. Hogan no sells a clothesline and gets a pair of his own. Out to the floor and Arn backpedals. He tries a Piledriver out ther ebut Hogan counters into a slingshot into the post. Hogan takes the eyepatch off and rams Anderson’s arm into the post.

Almost all Hulk so far here. Steinbrenner seems to like this. Arn gets a back elbow which puts Hogan down. And so much for that as Arn gets crotched on the top rope. Apparently he has balls of steel as he fights back and here are Liz and Flair. Spinebuster gets two as Hogan does the super kickout. Here’s the usual but Hogan struts and puts the Figure Four on. Flair comes in and while Anderson is in the Figure Four Hogan rolls up Flair at the same time. Woman throws powder in Hogan’s face and Flair slips Arn Liz’s high heel which goes into the eye of baldie for the pin.

Rating: C. This was just to give Anderson the fluke win because what happens next is another eye rolling moment regarding Hogan vs. Flair and company. The match itself was just ok as Hogan dominated and then Arn got in like two moves. If Hogan hadn’t been an idiot (I know just go with it) then he would have won in a squash, which says a lot.

Hogan’s eye is apparently fine as he pops up and beats both guys down. Savage comes in to help and they get a chair shot to Flair. Flair storms the broadcast booth and says nothing of note. Hogan and Savage chase them out of said booth. Hogan vs. Anderson II next week.

Overall Rating: C+. The show was pretty good considering it’s just a TV show. On the other hand, I’m about five and a half months into this show now and the problem is clear: we’re almost exactly where we were in September when this show started. Hogan is the ultimate force, Savage is his lackey, Flair is top heel, Giant is an X factor and it’s Hogan vs. two stables. While the details have changed, it’s the same thing we had almost six months ago. The NWO really was a huge deal as it changed everything. Now get us to that point! Weaker show here than usual and not good given what’s coming.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Clash of the Champions 10: Texas Shootout
Date: February 6, 1990
Location: Memorial Coliseum, Corpus Christi, Texas
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jim Cornette

We’re getting ready for the WrestleWar PPV and there’s one moment on this show that totally altered that PPV as well as arguably the next three and a half years of WCW as well as a legend’s career but we’ll get to that later. Also on this show….uh…..oh you get to see Foley at 24 years old against Mil Mascaras in a match he talks about in his book. Oh and Undertaker is on this show about 8 months before he became Undertaker. Let’s get to it.

The opening video looks like a bad arcade game where you have what appear to be cardboard cutouts of wrestlers being shot in windows of a saloon. It’s going to be one of those shows isn’t it? Cornette gets two talk for two and a half hours so he couldn’t be happier.

Terry Funk has a live mic in Texas to do interviews at ringside. This cannot be good under any circumstances.

Gordon Solie is doing backstage interviews and has the Road Warriors here, about four months before they bailed to WWF. They don’t like the Skyscrapers.

Oliver Humperdink does the intro for Samoan Savage (Tama from the Islanders). He comes out to something like the Halloween theme. These interviews are very, and I mean EXACTLY like ones you would see on a SNME.

Steve Williams puts a dummy in an ambulance and says to the hospital while Bad to the Bone plays in the background. This is going to be a LONG night isn’t it?

Samoan Savage vs. Steve Williams

Oliver Humperdink is listed as the Big Kahuna here. Are you serious? Williams goes right at him in the corner and the brawl is on. The Samoan runs away which is probably the right thing for him to do at this point. Williams fires off right hands and slams that fat man. How did he used to be pretty slim just a few years prior to this? He finally drills a clothesline to take Williams down and get a breath of air.

Humperdink does some weak choking as Williams has been sent to the floor. There’s a house band for no apparent reason called the Tough Guys. Woman is here for no apparent reason again. That sounds like a running theme for tonight. Nitron, Woman’s usual muscle, isn’t here tonight for some reason that the announcers don’t know either.

Time for the chinlock to go on because we have to do that. Cornette makes Mexican jokes as he has been known to do once or twice a minute. Williams fights up with no real trouble but walks into a powerslam for two. That’s almost too interesting though so it’s back to the nerve hold. Sunset flip doesn’t work for Dr. Death but hitting him in the head doesn’t work for Savage. Back to the chinlock as Cornette thinks there should be a Samoan contingent to balance things out.

Williams is sent to the floor and Humperdink gets in a shot which stuns him a bit. So let me get this straight. A right from Humperdink can sent Williams reeling a bit but at the same time a straight downward shot by the Samoan has no effect? Why is Humperdink the manager again? Anyway a top rope splash misses for the Savage so Williams walks around with him in a slam for awhile. Williams gets a backslide of all things and we’re done.

Rating: C-. For a battle of power men there it was just ok. This would be Williams’ last match actually as he was supposed to beat Luger for the US Title at WrestleWar but something happened to change that and he left for Japan as a result. Not much of a match but it’s an opener with Tama as a competitor. What were you expecting?

The Tough Guys play for a bit for no apparent reason.

Terry Funk is here to talk to the Horsemen (faces at this point) who he says will be hard to stop in 1990. In this case it’s Flair (world champion, shocking I know), Arn, Ole and Sting. Yes that Sting. Ole gets in Funk’s face for talking too much. Well no one ever accused Ole of being all that smart. Flair says they’re going to make a statement through their spokesman Ole.

Ole, the great spokesman, has his back to the camera. This is about Sting apparently, because he’s fired. Ole and Arn have been brought back by Flair to get rid of Sting, who is in trouble for wanting the world title. Sting wasn’t taken out yet because Sting saved Flair. Ole offers him a chance to live if he turns down the title shot and has two hours to do that. Sting says not a chance so Ole says the same thing. Sting finally gets a chance to say something but it’s a classic Horsemen beatdown. This isn’t the big moment that I was referring to.

Mod Squad vs. Brian Pillman/Tom Zenk

The Mod Squad is a weak heel tag team made of Basher and Spike. Pillman and Spike (I think) start us off. He’s the skinnier one if nothing else. Pillman can throw a great dropkick. Off to Zenk and the arm work begins. Basher comes in and that goes about as well. Cornette and Ross really don’t seem all that interested in this match and I can’t say I blame them.

Brian beats on Basher for awhile and Zenk adds an enziguri for two. Double teaming doesn’t work on Zenk as Pillman gets a double slingshot clothesline to take both Mods down. Apparently the Midnight Express want to reelect Marian Berry. Ok then. Spike gets a face jam to Pillman to take over as Cornette makes various jokes.

We talk about Sting and Flair some more because the match is rather boring. Double teaming by the Squad as Pillman doesn’t even have the Bengal tights here. Off to a chinlock and then another one by the other Mod dude. This match is taking far too long as there hasn’t been anything of note. Cornette disputes the idea that he loves the fans as Pillman gets an elbow to Basher but can’t tag out. Crucifix gets two for Brian but Spike misses a top rope elbow, hot tag Zenk, house is cleaned, cross body ends Basher.

Rating: D. How in the world was this a ten minute match? It should have been something like three but we had to fill in time I guess. Z-Man and Pillman would win the US Tag Titles less than a week after this so there was no way they were going to lose here. Just WAY too long for what they had going on here.

Cactus Jack Manson vs. Mil Mascaras

It’s Foley before he meant anything at all. Nice heat on his introduction though. Foley BLASTED Mascaras in his book over this match so let’s see how bad it is. Cornette says Mascaras is most popular in Japan for some reason. We get to a bow and arrow almost immediately as Mascaras makes Foley look like an idiot, which to be fair is fine because Foley is a far smaller deal at this point.

Test of strength goes to Mascaras and headscissors a go-go. Cactus gets sent to the floor and falls over a chair, landing on his back. JR: “A breakfast room at a honeymoon hotel isn’t as empty as Cactus Jack’s head.” Jack hammers away and Mascaras ignores it, hooking what can only be called a Liontamer for a bit.

Here’s a great example of the no selling complaints. As you know, one of Foley’s signature moves is the elbow off the apron. He hits a backbreaker on the floor and Mascaras never actually goes all the way to the ground. Foley sets for the elbow but there’s no Mascaras, as instead he’s snuck into the ring and dropkicks Foley to the floor where he bangs his head on the concrete. That was one of his signature moves for a long time, and people wonder why he can barely move. Anyway a top rope cross body ends this.

Rating: D. Match was weak, but I totally see Foley’s point with the no selling thing. I mean dude, shake your head a little bit after a punch at least. You’re in the midcard for a one off appearance. You’re not quite Hulk Hogan here. The backbreaker thing was pitiful too. Jack took awhile to set up the elbow which I’d guess was supposed to be the spot for the plunge, but at the same time you can’t even hit the ground? Foley isn’t the only one to complain about this, so it’s not just a personal grudge.

Missy Hyatt hypes that she’s the new co-host of the Main Event.

The Tough Guys perform and Cactus Jack beats them up. That’s a perk. He and the drummer, an AWA guy named JT Southern, get into it a bit and that went nowhere.

Norman the Lunatic, more famous as Bastian Booger, is a crazy man here. As in he was in a straightjacket most of the time. Here he wants hot dogs or something and is told it’s falls count anywhere against Kevin Sullivan.

Norman the Lunatic vs. Kevin Sullivan

Before the match we get a video of Norman at a zoo, petting pigs. In the arena he’s in a cowboy outfit and hands out valentines to the fans. This was one of those concept characters if you get the idea. Sullivan jumps him and we go to the floor almost immediately. Back at this point, companies could sponsor parts of the ring, meaning Sullivan is sent into the Roos’ post.

Norman does that seated splash of his for no cover. A middle rope splash misses though and we’re back to the floor again. Sullivan actually SLAMS Norman in an impressive and surprising spot. There goes Norman’s shirt which means we have to see something rather unpleasant. A “belly to back suplex” (looked like a Russian leg sweep) gets two. Cornette: “This Norman is so stupid that mind readers only charge him half price.”

Sullivan dominates him for a good while and there’s nothing of note. I guess they’re afraid of trying to let Sullivan work a regular match which I can’t blame them for. Back in for you guessed it, more brawling/pounding by Sullivan. Norman makes a comeback and knocks Sullivan through the ropes to the outside. Up the aisle they go and the ramps is huge. Backdrop gets two for Sullivan. Into the back and they go into the women’s restroom where sound effects are used sans video. Sullivan is knocked out of the room as Norman has a toilet seat in hand. Apparently the pin happened off camera. At least it’s over.

Rating: D. This was junk of course and the ending hurts it even worse. No word on why they were fighting but I’d assume it was some kind of bully thing as that has infected even the past. Better go found a charity to help fight it. How do those work anyway? Do you accept donations to pay bullies off? Norman would stick around for awhile and do nothing of note before he became a trucker for some reason.

Funk is here for his talk show segment known as Funk’s Grill with Luger as his guest. They like each other and Luger says Sting should turn down the shot because Luger would get the shot otherwise. The fans want Sting but Luger says you have the Total Package right now. This goes absolutely nowhere.

Road Warriors vs. Skyscrapers

Skyscrapers are Mean Mark (Undertaker) Callous and Dangerous Dan (Spivey) Spivey and have Teddy Long with them. Spivey beats on Hawk a bit but Hawk runs him over because he’s….uh Hawk I guess. Animal and Callous comes in. I’ll do what I can to not call him Taker but it’s not easy. He’s 6’9, has red hair and is 24 here. Animal no sells his offense but that’s typical for Animal.

Callous MOVES out there, missing a cross body of all things but it’s off to Spivey and Hawk again. Hawk charges but hits the post and the beating is on. We get what would become known as Old School to Hawk. It’s so weird to think that Taker and Foley were 8 years away from having one of the most brutal matches of all time. Taker counters a clothesline into a Fujiwara armbar which only lasts a few seconds.

Old School doesn’t work a second time and it’s off to Animal and Spivey. Everything breaks down and the Skyscrapers double team Animal for a bit until he backflips out of a double suplex. Hawk comes back in and it’s Doomsday Device for Spivey. Callous comes off the top with a chair and everything breaks down and it’s finally thrown out as Hawk takes a spike Piledriver. The Road Warriors get a big beatdown laid on them.

Rating: C-. For Taker being this young guy out there it’s very cool to see. Other than that it’s just a brawl which is ok but they’ve had it a few times already tonight which is a bit of an issue. Either way it’s not a terrible match but at the same time it got a bit annoying throughout. Eh it’s TV so I can’t complain that much.

Back from a break and they replay the Warriors getting beaten down.

Gordon Solie still can’t get an interview with Sting. He does have Brian Pillman though, who says Sting is losing his mind.

Doom say they’re going to win the tag titles.

Tag Titles: Doom vs. Steiner Brothers

This is masks vs. titles despite everyone knowing who Doom is. It’s Butch Reed and Ron Simmons, as in two of the three black wrestlers in the whole company. Sounds bad but it’s true. Reed rants for a bit before Simmons starts with Scott. It’s power vs. power here and the voice of Ron Simmons is unmistakable. Scott makes Simmons look like an idiot and it’s off to Reed (Doom #2).

Doom is sent to the floor as this is all Scott so far. Scott wants the mask already but Reed gets out just in case. The fans chant for Sting as Rick comes in. The basic idea of this match is Doom gets mad, a Steiner runs them around the ring a bit, suplex takes the Doom guy down, start over. Back off to the far bigger Simmons who pounds Scotty down a bit. Scott plays Ricky Morton for a bit as the beating is on.

People didn’t go for as many covers back in the day. Very interesting change in the times indeed. BIG spinebuster gets two for Reed but he picks him up. Scott grabs a backslide for two and a Piledriver gets the same. Sunset flip gets two on Reed but Scott can’t make the tag. There’s a Frankensteiner out of nowhere and it’s off to Rick. He manages to rip the mask off and it’s Butch Reed. Rick rolls up Reed a second later to end it.

Rating: D+. Yeah amazingly enough, this was boring. This whole show has been that way because the matches have been going far longer than they should have. The masks were pretty pointless here so it’s not like the titles were ever in any real jeopardy. Weak match in a running theme for tonight.

Apparently if Simmons doesn’t unmask he’s suspended. If his identity is supposed to be a secret, how could they suspend him? Either way he unmasks and Ross’ reaction of “It’s Ron Simmons” is almost funny it’s so anti-climactic.

We see Sting getting destroyed again.

The Horsemen are like yeah we’re awesome.

Ric Flair/Ole Anderson/Arn Anderson vs. Dragonmaster/Great Muta/Buzz Sawyer

The ones you haven’t heard of other than Muta is called the J-Tex Corporation and had been feuding with the Horsemen. They’re heel now though so this is heel vs. heel in a cage. Dragonmaster is a guy that was known as Kendo Nagasaki who you’ll hear of every once in awhile. There are more than one of him though so it might be a bit confusing.

Sawyer (that guy was NUTS) stars with Anderson. The fans are cheering for J-Tex, which would be like cheering for Vickie Guerrero today. The Horsemen hammer on Sawyer with Flair and he exchanging shots. Off to Ole as Cornette rants about Sting a lot. Dragonmaster hammers away and is cheered loudly. Muta comes in and the place pops HARD. He and Arn go at it and it’s handspring elbow time. And here’s Sting.

Sting charges the cage and the roof is blown off the place. He climbs up the side of it and hammers on Flair over the cage wall but is dragged down by security and other wrestlers. He gets up the aisle but charges again, this time not being able to get at Flair. Sting hops down as the match is more or less forgotten about. Sawyer misses a splash off the top of the cage and Sting appears to have hurt his leg. What wasn’t known at the time is that Sting had ripped some ligaments apart and wouldn’t wrestle for six months, meaning the title match was off. As for the match, everything breaks down and Arn pins Dragonmaster with a DDT.

Rating: D. Match sucked but it wasn’t the point at all. As I’d assume you figured out, Sting’s injury was the big deal here, as it completely changed the company and took all of the heat away from him because it was Luger that got the title shot and Flair held the title another six months instead of giving it to the young lion known as Sting. Either way, weak match to end a bad show.

Flair and Sting “fight” (remember Sting has one leg) in the aisle to end the show.

Overall Rating: D-. Well Sting vs. Flair is made, but at the same time that match fell apart completely due to Flair’s egging him on for the second time there. Anyway, not a good show in the slightest but at the same time….yeah this was terrible. There’s no other way around it. The matches went on WAY too long and at the same time they weren’t that good. Weak show to put it mildly and I’m glad it’s over.

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Clash of the Champions 14: Dixie Dynamite
Date: January 31, 1991
Location: Georgia Mountains Center, Gainsville, Georgia
Attendance: 2,000
Commentators: Jim Ross, Dusty Rhodes

Another one of these and it’s from a pretty bad era for the company. Unlike the one later this year, this show looks atrocious on paper. This is the first one in WCW rather than the NWA so I would expect a few changes. Also Dusty is the booker again so expect the Dusty Finish to abound. The main event is Scott Steiner vs. Ric Flair for the title. I’m not exactly riveted either. Let’s get to it.

After a quick look at the top two matches we get a very 80s opening. You can tell the arena is tiny. I wonder if AJ was there.

National Anthem.

Dusty talks a lot and won’t shut up.

Sting/Lex Luger vs. Doom

Luger is of course US Champion here as he more or less always was. I love that old Sting music. And then again the same can be said of Doom’s music. They’re the tag team champions here in the longest reign in the history of the belts. Ron Simmons and Butch Reed if you weren’t familiar with that. This isn’t announced as a title match but the referee holds up the belts. I guess it is one then.

Reed vs. Sting to start us off. Sting overpowers Reed which is rather impressive. Even in an armbar he shouts to the crowd. Notice what he’s doing there: he doesn’t let the crowd get taken out of it, even in a rest hold. That’s a very nice thing to do. Luger in now as Dusty talks a lot. Ross says in about 5 seconds what it took Dusty 30 to say. We hear about Wrestlewar a little bit where Luger is defending the title.

Simmons vs. Luger now and Ron can’t take him down with shoulders. You can see Simmons wanting to shout his future catchphrase. Luger dominates him with power. How often do you see Doom losing to power stuff? Luger walks into a hot shot though and the champions take over. After a break it’s still Doom in control.

Simmons puts his head down though and Luger manages to get a knee/kick in to put Ron down. Simmons gets the tag though to bring in Reed who hits a dropkick of all things to take down Luger. Dusty talks about football to waste even more time. Luger finally takes down Simmons but Reed drills him with a top rope shoulder block to take him right back down. The problem is that it took him right down into his corner. Well isn’t that always the way?

Sting comes in to clean house but Dan Spivey runs out of the crowd to take down Luger. Spivey was Luger’s upcoming opponent at the PPV if I didn’t mention that. Sting doesn’t seem to care and beats up Doom on his own. Reed hits a shoulder to Simmons by mistake and he stumbles into the referee. The referee gets up in time to see Sting get thrown over the top for the CHEAP DQ.

Rating: C. Well it was fun while it lasted but I’ve never been able to stand that over the top rule. This was kind of a backdrop for the Spivey vs. Luger match but that didn’t exactly work. It was ok I guess but the match didn’t really go anywhere and the titles never felt like they were in danger at all.

We unveil the winner of the WCW’s Sexiest Wrestler award. It’s Z-Man. Next.

TV Title: Z-Man vs. Bobby Eaton

Z-Man is champion here. They REALLY crank in chants for Bobby here. Either that or 2000 people can chant louder for Bobby Eaton than they can for Goldberg. Dusty talks about how great both guys are. I can see why Z-Man won the sexiest wrestler thing. Apparently Zenk had already lost the title at a TV Taping so this shouldn’t really mean much at all. This is live mind you so imagine his mindset.

Dusty’s voice gets REALLY old when he’s comfortable which he definitely is here. The problem is that he talks A LOT. Eaton works the arm a bit but goes up and Z-Man hits a sweet dropkick to send him to the floor. And then Dusty talks about how great Brian Pillman is for no apparent reason. He also can’t wait to remind us that he’s a former TV Champion either.

They start slugging it out as Dusty is getting harder and harder to ignore. We hit a test of strength as Ross says Terry Taylor is a tough guy. Oh dear. If this is the show I think it is we get another stupid moment in WCW history coming up very soon. As Dusty talks about getting hit in the head with a stick, Eaton goes up again and gets caught one more time.

Superkick puts Eaton down. Big backdrop and Eaton is in trouble. Who covers someone off a backdrop? Who does he think he is, Moolah? Eaton gets him down and manages to get the top rope knee drop but Z-Man gets to the ropes. Cradle gets two for the champion but he walks into a neckbreaker that gets two for Eaton.

You can see fans leaving for the concession stand. Nice to see a title match has them so enthralled. Z-Man gets a freaking back slide of all things to get the pin to retain. Eaton’s shoulder might have been up though so expect another match before the airing of Arn winning the title.

Rating: C+. This started out slow but it got a lot better once they picked up the pace a bit. Eaton is a guy that is straight up underrated in wrestling as he consistently put on great match after great match. This was fine for what it was, even though it would have been understandable for Z-Man to do next to nothing out there.

The replay shows that it wasn’t even close with Eaton completely kicking out before three. That was pretty bad.

Alexandra York (Terri) says that she has selected the newest member of the York Foundation (computer assisted heel group that more or less sucked) and we’ll see him tonight.

Fabulous Freebirds vs. Allen Iron Eagle/Tommy Rich

I don’t know who Eagle is either. This is Garvin and Hayes. The Birds are heels here but good luck getting a team called the Freebirds booed in Georgia. Dang it now I’m going to have Badstreet USA stuck in my head all day. Hayes and Rich start as we actually get a reference to the world title reign of Rich. Eagle is another Indian character.

The Indian character of course chops a lot. I’m stunned too. Garvin does….something and down goes Eagle. Eagle ducked his head like he was going for a backdrop and Garvin ran up to him to set for a DDT (finisher) but Eagle just fell backwards. Weird as heck  but whatever. We hit the chinlock as this isn’t much at all. Hayes punches him and it sounds great. Eagle forgets to sell and just stands there, making him one of the worst guys I’ve seen in a long time.

Dusty and Jim try desperately to say that Eagle was stunned from the move and it’s just funny as can be. Anyway, Hayes is ticked and beats the tar out of him on the floor with some hard stuff. When Michael Hayes is the ring general, you know you’re in real trouble. Dusty of course talks about being able to go down Badstreet and be ok because he’s tough.

Amazingly enough they manage to screw up something else with Eagle not realizing that Garvin is supposed to be doing a blind charge so Garvin has to throw up a knee to save the spot. Everyone comes in and we get an awkward looking kick to the guy before an awkward looking sunset flip sets up the tag to Rich that isn’t seen. The Birds DDT the heck out of Eagle to end it, thankfully.

Rating: D-. This is a horrible match, but it’s one of those matches where you can laugh at it very hard. The match is bad, don’t get me wrong, but Eagle was so bad that he was hilarious. There were at least 5 botched spots in a seven minute match. Let that sink in for a bit. It really was that bad.

Dusty talks to Paul E. Dangerously about the arm wrestling match tonight with Missy Hyatt and implies that Paul is gay. Dusty of course has more to talk about which is what he’s there for. Dusty’s comments here are flat out sexist but it’s Georgia so he can get away with it I guess. Somehow Heyman gets into I Have A Dream. Moving on.

Joey Maggs vs. Sid Vicious

What do you think is going to happen here? Sid brings his own paramedics with him if that tells you anything. Sid’s hometown of Anywhere He Darn Well Pleases is still great stuff. He’s a Horseman here too. A clothesline and powerbomb end this in maybe a minute. Sid was a bit of a nut but that powerbomb was sweet every time. The paramedics come out and we take a break. Back with Sid beating up Maggs some more on the stretcher. That’s kind of awesome.

Tony talks to Sid who says everyone fears him.

Ricky Morton vs. Terry Taylor

Here’s another one of WCW’s famous goofs. Terry Taylor is introduced as the Computerized Man of the 90s. That would be all fine and good except for one thing: That was his name once he turned heel. The problem is that the heel turn was that the heel turn hadn’t happened yet, completely giving away the ending of the match. Why did Capetta (ring announcer) even have that on his card? What sense does that even begin to make? Early 90s WCW is made fun of a lot, but it’s not really a secret as to why is it?

Taylor wants respect or something, also giving a good indication of the already spoiled heel turn. Robert Gibson is injured here which would eventually lead to Morton joining the York Foundation as well. Technical/feeling out process to start with no one being able to get a distinct advantage. Nice arm drags by Morton. They speed things up a bit but still no one can get an advantage.

We take a break as Taylor hits the floor to break the momentum. Back with Terry holding an armbar. Nice jawbreaker by Morton has Taylor in trouble though as they’re going back and forth rather nicely here. Dusty of course can’t stop talking long enough for Ross to talk about the match but it’s Dusty’s show so who cares? Alexandra York comes down now as we’re not sure who she’s here for. Apparently no one was listening to the intros either.

For no apparent reason we get an inset promo from York, saying that Taylor is indeed the newest member of the York Foundation and that her computer has told her how he’s going to win this. That was the gimmick of the Foundation: the computer would predict the outcome of the match, such as here where it says the time of the fall and what Taylor will win with. It’s as dumb as it sounds.

Morton gets a small package for two as Taylor turns heel and wrestles all evil and such. A bad bulldog gets two for Taylor. It amazes me that they had wireless so early in the 90s. Morton hammers away in the corner and gets a suplex for two. Dropkick puts Taylor down but a second misses and Morton hits the mat rather hard, allowing Taylor to steal the pin.

Rating: C. It’s ok and the early part is good but other than that this was kind of flat. Morton’s singles time was kind of awkward as he was definitely the better half of the team but he wasn’t someone people wanted to see without his partner. This was ok but nothing really all that special.

We get a preview of the Japanese women’s wrestling at WrestleWar. And 8 seconds is all we get of that.

We see Sting getting the Wrestler of the Year award which allegedly was totally rigged or something.

Dusty talks (naturally) about the Gulf War and praises the troops. The war had just ended or was about to end which messed up the Wrestlemania plans Vince had. How dare international politics and wars get in the way of Wrestlemania??? Didn’t Sadaam watch Superstars?

Ranger Ross vs. El Cubano

Ross is a military dude that would be gone soon after this and in prison for robbery, domestic violence, embezzlement and attempted arson by 1996. Somehow an evil masked Communist is looking like a good guy all of a sudden. Cubano is just a masked guy that is apparently Cuban. In an inset interview Ross praises the troops as well.

Apparently if you can see a guy’s face you can read their mind. This is of course according to Dusty. JR says that Ross (the wrestler that is) is a great role model for anyone of any color. Really? The color line was needed there? Cubano misses a top rope splash and Ross sends him to the floor. Ross runs to the ropes and dives over feet first in a plancha type dive. It wasn’t to hit Cubano or anything. That’s just how he left the ring. A rollup ends it maybe 8 seconds later.

Rating: N/A. The odd comments here were more interesting than the match. This went nowhere of course as it was a generic evil guy against Ross who was gone probably before the next PPV. Just a squash.

Ad for WrestleWar and Wargames.

Arn Anderson/Barry Windham vs. Renegade Warriors

The Renegade Warriors are the Youngblood brothers minus Jay who was dead by now. There are massive portraits of the Horsemen behind the ring on the wall. Yeah this isn’t going to be dominance at all. The Warriors jump the Horsemen to start and it’s a big brawl. Sweet merciful crap they look stupid though with their tights being more or less bright plaid.

Windham and one of the Warriors start this off. Arn’s eyes are flat out hilarious. When he gets freaked out you would think he was in a Three Stooges sketch with how freaked out he is. Dusty really likes to remind us that this is in color. Ok Chris is in the singlet. Arn takes him to the mat and works the knee but gets rolled up for two and Arn wants time out.

Off to Barry now and the Horsemen can’t get anything going at all here. Mark beats up Arn a bit. Oh I forgot: the Warriors are Mark and Chris. That might help a bit. Arn gets a spinebuster out of nowhere and the writing is on the wall now. Off to Barry who gets a kind of jumping DDT for two. Dusty rambles about putting your wife in a front facelock and something about a shotgun as Arn and Chris ram heads.

Atomic drop takes care of Chris but they botch Arn’s pump splash out of the corner as he never hits it but he more or less did here since Chris didn’t roll out of the way and barely got a knee up. Mark back in and it’s a big brawl all over again. He gets sent to the floor though and the Horsemen just destroy Chris with a lariat and the superplex for the easy pin.

Rating: D+. Just a long match that wasn’t interesting or anything as we needed seven and a half minutes somehow to show that the Horsemen are awesome over a glorified jobbing tag team. Nothing that terrible but it still wasn’t all that good at all. Too long as it should have been about half this long.

We get a clip of Vader vs. Stan Hansen from Japan which was a freaking war. They’ve having another match at WrestleWar. Hansen, tobacco flowing everywhere, says that it’ll be a real war between real men at the PPV.

Buddy Lee Parker vs. Brian Pillman

Parker is the guy that trained Goldberg and is widely considered to be one of the biggest jerks in the history of wrestling. In short, he was very short and according to Batista had a bad case of Napoleon Syndrome, meaning he hated being small so he tried to use his authority as head of the Power Plant to compensate for it, including telling Batista he had no future in wrestling for some reason. He was a jobber that thought he had meant something in other words.

This is really just a way to talk about WarGames which Pillman is in. He would be the ending of the match as Sid would more or less kill him with a powerbomb and they had to stop the match due to it. Crucifix gets two for Pillman. Even Parker’s basic offense looks bad. Dusty says he has a daughter named Cody. I’ll leave that one alone. Pillman gets a great plancha over the top to take down Parker on the ramp. Top rope cross body ends this squash (notice a theme going on here?) with barely a bit of sweat from Pillman.

Rating: D+. This was a squash but it was a bit longer than the other ones tonight outside of the tag match. Pillman looked great but since he’s in the main event of a PPV shouldn’t we expect that? A squash is fine but what’s the point of having a bunch of them on one show, especially a major one like this? This wasn’t much at all but Pillman’s flying was awesome stuff.

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It’s time to arm wrestle! This was part of the never ending until it ended feud between Paul E. Dangerously and various men as he was feuding with Missy here. Some country DJ is the ring announcer for this. Oh and let’s talk about the troops because that’s just what southern people do. Dangerously being billed as the Psycho Yuppie continues to crack me up.

This is one of the funniest moments in company history as Missy comes out in this big workout jacket but as she is warming up and Paul isn’t looking, Missy takes the jacket off to reveal a low cut top. Heyman’s jaw drops and Hyatt gets the easy win in like two seconds. Funny stuff.

Lawrence Taylor is chilling with the Horsemen at some bar in New Jersey, even though Flair is defending the title tonight in Georgia. This was odd and rather pointless indeed.

WCW World Title: Scott Steiner vs. Ric Flair

From what I can find, both Flair and Dusty (booking here) came to Scott and flat out said the title is yours, just say the word. Steiner was absolutely awesome at this point and he really was on the verge of shattering the glass ceiling and becoming the top guy in the world. However, he turned them down because it was pretty clear that as soon as his singles push went into effect, Rick was gone. He wouldn’t win the world title for nearly ten years.

Hiro Matsuda is here from NJPW because the first Superbrawl with Fujinami vs. Flair is coming up. El Gigante is here too. Flair won’t shake his hand which resulted in a brief feud between them. Flair has been champion less than three weeks here, getting it back from Sting earlier this month. This has TV time remaining which I’d almost bet anything on that playing into the finish.

Flair shows off his biceps and Steiner is like boy please. Feeling out process to start as you would expect there to be. Steiner counters a top wristlock and Rick gets in Ric’s face as he grabs the ropes. Dusty thinks Scott would like to go into WrestleWar as World Champion. You can’t buy analysis like this people.

Flair hits the floor a bit to buy some time as Scott has been on fire so far. A little more feeling out stuff results in Scott grabbing another armbar. This is some nice technical stuff so far. Flair goes for the knee and Steiner is like oh no you didn’t and clotheslines the tar out of him so Flair hides again. Surprisingly an atomic drop breaks up Steiner’s momentum. I’m surprised his balls can feel anything with all those steroids in him.

Rick shoves Ric’s feet off the ropes when Flair tries to cheat. Is there a reason for those portraits of Anderson and Windham to still be there? Steiner powers out of a cover as we take a break. Back with Steiner throwing the Figure Four on Flair. He’s no Jay Lethal though so he can’t get the tap out. How often do you see a face in control when you come back from a break?

In an awkward looking spot, Flair charges at Steiner but Steiner falls backwards and Flair goes over the ropes. In the awkward part Steiner is supposed to go over also but didn’t have the momentum so after he was stopped he jumped into the air and went over the top. We have ten minutes of TV time left. Flair goes in for the kill on the knee and yells at Rick a lot.

Figure Four goes on and Steiner is in trouble. As we wait for the inevitable reversal, I wonder why the ring ropes were blue, black and yellow. What kind of a weird combination is that? The hold is broken via rope so Flair puts it on again in the middle of the ring. Steiner easily turns is over and we’re back on now.

Flair goes to the floor and Steiner takes him down with a Steiner Line. Down to five minutes remaining. Steiner pounds away in the corner as his leg is ok now. Nick Patrick stops Steiner from punching and Flair a shot in to take over a bit. Ross takes a breath so Dusty talks for a minute or so about how much experience he has in the ring. Under four minutes and Steiner gets a bad sleeper.

Steiner clotheslines Flair over so they alter the rules again so that’s not a DQ with three minutes left. Knee drop by Flair as Steiner is in trouble. Two minutes left and Flair is in the stall mode. Steiner gets a sweet bridge up into a Tiger Bomb but doesn’t cover for no apparent reason.

Ric is on the floor with a minute left. Steiner Line has Flair reeling with 30 seconds left. Flair Flip out of the corner and there’s not enough time. Belly to belly gets two as the bell rings for the time. The whole TV time thing is bogus as we go off the air a minute and a half after TV time expires. Ah ok we needed to show the credits. That explains it. Heaven forbid we don’t know that Ted Turner is responsible for this.

Rating: B. This was good for what it was but with more time it could have been great. Like I said this could have been a title change if Steiner had given it the ok but he decided a tag team was more important. Anyway this was good stuff and it worked rather well considering Steiner didn’t have much big match experience at all. Fun match and interesting for the most part but the ending might as well have been announced at the beginning given how obvious it was.

Overall Rating: D+. Well they tried but at the end of the day there was too much weak stuff here to make this a really good show. The main event is solid but other than that there wasn’t much here at all. Far too many squashes and uninteresting matches for the first hour and a half setting up a good main event doesn’t make a good show though. 91 was really bad for WCW down the line and this was probably the best time for them in the year until the very end of the year. Pretty bad show but the main event is solid. That’s about it.
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Monday Nitro #22
Date: January 29, 1996
Location: Canton Civic Center, Canton Ohio
Commentators: Eric Bischoff, Steve McMichael, Bobby Heenan

Time to wrap up January and naturally there’s a huge match on the card. To open the show, Hogan vs. Flair. We’re still leading up to Superbrawl so there’s also Savage vs. Giant. Hopefully there’s nothing like we had last time with the absurdity that was the Hogan stuff. This should be ok though but I don’t see a really good match on the card. Let’s get to it.

Apparently Giant vs. Savage is for the title. They’re really not minding throwing out these title matches are they?

Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan

Hogan comes out with a bunch of women including Woman and Liz. Flair comes out with Jimmy Hart. Holy role reversal Batman! Flair tries to overpower Hogan and I think you know how well that goes for him. Chops get him nowhere either. Hogan hammers away and gets the clothesline in the corner and a backdrop to send Flair to the floor. Flair is getting dominated to the shock of no one.

Hart distracts Hulk though and Flair gets a shot to the knee which of course hurts his knee. Well what else is new? We take a break and back with Hogan taking a lot of work on his knee. Naturally he’s just fine and pops up like nothing happened.  Flair Flip and the clothesline puts him down to the floor again. Hogan goes to and gets drilled by Flair. Hart throws in some choking for reasons of being annoying.

A lot more leg work by Flair and there’s the Figure Four. Naturally this isn’t enough as Hogan rolls it over. Mongo wants to know how many people have been able to reverse Flair’s Figure Four. Uh, just about all non-jobbers? It’s Hulk Up time and there’s the usual. Hart distracts the referee though and here’s Arn. Hogan drills him but he slips Flair one of Liz’s stolen shoes. Flair pops him in the eye with it and Flair gets the pin. Naturally it’s not clean though. Heaven forbid the thought.

Rating: D+. They were totally going through the motions here and the match was boring as heck as a result. This went nowhere at all as they were just trying to get to the ending which set up some boring Hogan vs. Horsemen story for awhile. Yes they managed to make that boring. This was long but it was still boring.

Road Warriors vs. Faces of Fear

Bischoff brags about being in the top company in wrestling. Their real hot streak would be coming soon but so would the crash. The Warriors are in blue here. That’s just wrong. The fans chant for the LOD and we’re on after a break. Animal vs. Barbarian here. The Warriors have been back less than a week and they’re already in the title hunt somehow. Go figure.

We’re told by Eric that Flair has defeated Hogan and “become one of the elite in wrestling history.” Yes, in other words his twelve (thirteen depending on the source) world title reigns and countless other title reigns that he’s had over the years, being the top guy in the company for like ever, going to WWF and being the top heel, his Rumble win, all of the countless classics he’s had and all his other accomplishments meant nothing. What made him one of the best (not the best mind you but just one of them) was a cheating win over Hogan on a TV show after 23+ years in the ring. See what I have to listen to?

Meng goes off on Hawk but the no selling begins. Ok not yet. Oh there it is: Hawk does his signature move by taking a Piledriver and being on his feet first. I never got how that worked. The Faces of Fear run to the floor as the Warriors stand tall. Bischoff says this is all new talent. Riiiiiiiiight. He does list off some of the young guys that are here which is true. They are brand new here after they were all in ECW first.

Mongo gets us back into the match by talking about Animal having a bad back and Barbarian working on it. It says a lot when Steve McMichael has to bring us back to reality. There’s a chinlock by Meng for a little bit which gets us nowhere. This has been more or less pure dominance by the Fear dudes for the last five minutes or so. Nice way to make the Warriors look awesome.

Barbarian goes up for a BAD looking shoulder block which Animal falls forward from for no apparent reason. They try the spot again and Animal gets a clothesline this time. Oh well either way it gets Hawk in and one step closer to ending this. Hawk comes in and beats on both guys but gets caught on the top in almost a suplex. Animal picks Barbarian off to set for the Doomsday Device but it gets broken up. A top rope clothesline ends Barbarian shortly thereafter.

Rating: D. This was supposed to be their big return? Who thought the Road Warriors having nearly ten minutes was a good idea, especially against the Faces of Fear? This was sloppy and we don’t even get to see their big finishing move? This did not work in the slightest at all.

Gene is with Kevin Sullivan and Hugh Morrus. Kevin is mad about Anderson and in turn the Horsemen not letting Giant go in after Hogan last week. Anderson and Pillman come out and Sullivan says keep Pillman under control or face the consequences. Anderson yells at Pillman about his immaturity and how he wasn’t there when Flair beat Hogan earlier.

While Anderson is yelling at him and threatening him with tough love (cue ominous music!), Sullivan and Morrus beat down the Horsemen. Sullivan whips Pillman with a belt but Anderson gets a DDT on Morrus and Sullivan runs. This would lead to Sullivan vs. Pillman at the PPV in one of the weirdest moments in wrestling history as Pillman and Sullivan had a match set up where Pillman pretended to quit the company. WCW being WCW, they bought it and actually released him and he ran off to ECW and ultimately WWF. It was insane to put it mildly.

Sherri is here and we get a clip of Madusa breaking up her wedding to Colonel Parker. As we come back to the arena, Madusa dives off the top with a cross body and apparently it’s match time!

Madusa vs. Sister Sherri

Madusa kills her to start. Sherri has a surprisingly nice figure. Eric talks about Madusa throwing the WWF Women’s Title in the trash which I think she regrets now. After a quick beating Sherri gets a shot in and goes up, but Madusa slams her off the top. In an ending I haven’t seen before that I remember, Sherri holds on and rolls through into a small package for the pin. Madusa kills her afterwards. No rating as this wasn’t even two minutes long.

WCW World Title: Randy Savage vs. The Giant

Savage comes out with all the women again.  And never mind as there’s no Savage. He jumps Giant from behind and kicks the referee out. He jumps on Giant’s back with a sleeper because that works so well for everyone else and it’s thrown out in less than 50 seconds. Flair is at ringside too.

Flair annihilates Savage at ringside and Giant grabs him too. The fans cheer for Flair which I assure you isn’t real. The fans are just confused. They want Hogan! Chokeslam kills Savage dead. Oh of course Hogan runs down with his eye taped up and a chair in hand to take Giant out. Yes, Hogan saves Savage again because Savage can’t do a thing by himself.

The Dungeon comes out and Hogan kills all of them with the chair too. Flair storms the broadcast position and yells at Bischoff. WOO to McMichael too. Giant does the same and says he’s going to eat his body heart and soul or something like that. Bischoff walks off. Take a guess which of the two matches wound up going on last at the PPV. Flair declares himself the host of the show. Heenan praises them as only he can do to end the show. Oh and Flair is a 12 time champion at this point.

Overall Rating: D-. So let’s see. There are two matches that got any time and they both sucked. This was Hogan saving the day again and was once again the star of the show. It’s more or less a big commercial for SuperBrawl which wound up sucking hard. This was a bad show and one of the weakest they’ve had in their entire run so far. Bad show indeed.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Clash of the Champions 30
Date: January 25, 1995
Location: Casear’s Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada
Attendance: 3,200
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenana

Back to 1995 WCW because all of the time I had suffered through it wasn’t enough I guess. This is another attempt by me to end this far too long stretch of stuff I’ve done with WCW. Tonight, the main event is Hogan/Savage vs. Butcher/Sullivan and we also get Sting vs. Avalanche because…well because someone has to fight him I suppose. I’m not looking forward to this but let’s get to it.

We run down the card which includes a video of Savage shaking Hogan’s hand instead of slapping him in the face at Starrcade. You know, because that would have made things interesting and such.

Flair may be here, despite being retired.

TV Title: Arn Anderson vs. Johnny B. Badd

This was voted on by fans. Anderson has Colonel Parker with him as manager at this point and is champion. This is a rematch after Anderson stole the title earlier in the month. Fans are walking around in droves in the crowd. Badd takes over and Anderson chills in the corner to break the momentum. Anderson takes over for a few seconds but for some reason tries to go up top. His career record up there is worse than Flair’s so Badd dropkicks him down to the floor.

Badd adds a big dive to the floor and works on the arm in the ring. The idea here is that Anderson can’t keep up with Badd’s speed. The announcers talk about how WCW had the only wrestling show in the top 100 cable shows. This is pre-Nitro so that’s on the weekends only, which is pretty impressive. Johnny tries to jump over Arn in the corner but gets caught and clotheslined on the top like a Stun Gun.

Off to a chinlock which doesn’t last long and Arn keeps control. He sets for the traditional jump off the rope into the boot but Arn, ever the genius (no sarcasm) landso n his feet and drops an elbow for two. Badd starts his comeback and knocks Anderson out cold to the floor. Colonel Parker pours water on Anderson and Chase the Manager begins. Badd comes in but gets caught in a DDT to end this.

Rating: D+. This started off pretty well but after that it fell apart quickly. This feud would go on at least until Uncensored where they had a boxing match for not much of a reason. This went nowhere after it became a kick and punch and chinlock match. It could have been worse, but this was a clearly screwy ending coming a mile away.

Kevin Sullivan says that Flair and Vader both may be here plus a guest for Vader. Sullivan says that even though Hogan is surrounded by friends, he’s going to get stabbed in the back. Butcher (Beefcake) says nothing significant in his heel promo.

Video on Alex Wright, who was a hot commodity at this point.

Alex Wright vs. Bobby Eaton

This was far more common back in the day: take a guy like Eaton and put him in the ring with a guy like Wright and let Eaton make Wright look great. It was very common back in the day and very effective. Wright grabs an armbar which doesn’t last long. A headscissors takes Alex down but we’re right back to the arm again. Alex misses a dive and lands on the top rope as Eaton takes over.

Eaton hooks a chinlock and this isn’t going anywhere for the most part. Wright grabs a suplex but hurts his own neck on it to shift momentum again. Spinwheel kick puts him down and a missile dropkick gets two. This really isn’t as good as they were expecting I don’t think. Cross body for two. Eaton pops up out of nowhere and hits the Alabama Jam (top rope legdrop) for two but Wright hits another cross body for two.

Rating: D. This didn’t do much at all for me here. The first few minutes were really boring and then after that, the whole thing was nothing but Wright hitting something for two and then hitting another one of something he hit earlier for the pin. I know Eaton was good but this didn’t work at all for me.

Gene talks about Hogan vs. Vader and how they can’t fight until SuperBrawl. Here’s Vader (US Champion at this point) who says Race might be here tonight and he has a ticket for him. He asks who is the man and gets a mixed response. Vader has looked for Hogan everywhere but there’s been no Hulk. He says Hogan is hiding but Vader will have a ticket tonight.

Tag Titles: Harlem Heat vs. Stars N Stripes

Bagwell/Patriot are the challengers. And they’re late. Instead….here’s Ric Flair. He was retired at this point due to the events of Halloween Havoc. Heenan goes over to shake Flair’s hand, being the suckup that he is. Flair takes a seat in the front row. Here are Stars N Stripes. Booker vs. Bagwell to start with Bagwell hammering away. This is a return match after the Heat basically stole the titles.

Bagwell dropkicks him to the floor and the challengers clear the ring. The fans chant USA. Why can’t Harlem Heat be patriotic? They’re from New York which is certainly part of the United States. Patriot hammers away on Stevie and works on the arm a bit. Really basic tag match here and not much to say for the first three to five minutes.

Bagwell is getting beaten down at the moment, taking that spinning forearm smash for two. The fans show their anti-New York sentiment again. The announcers talk about why Vader has two seats at ringside since Harley Race isn’t here. Heenan: “Maybe he’s going to use the other chair to crack Hogan over the head.” A few seconds of silence pass. Tony: “Maybe he’s going to use the other chair as a weapon.” Heenan never got a break.

The champions keep beating down Bagwell but Sherri gets on the apron to keep the tag from being noticed. The American comes in anyway and everything breaks down. Sherri’s shoe comes in somehow and Bagwell gets an O’Connor Roll on Stevie. Booker kicks his head off to reverse the control though and the Heat keeps the titles.

Rating: D. Total meh match here. This felt like they were told there had to be a tag title match so here’s a quick one so that we can say we had one. It’s not that the match is bad but rather that it’s painfully boring. The Heat would hold the titles for like 5 months until the Nasty Boys won them after they lost them. Long story, don’t ask.

The Monster Maniacs (Hogan/Savage) say exactly what you would expect them to say.

Off to the Control Center which discusses SuperBrawl. One of the things we learn here: Vader has a ticket to tonight’s show. Top notch reporting there Gene!

Sting vs. Avalanche

Guardian Angel (Big Boss Man) is guest referee. Big brawl to start and I think it’s going to be a safe bet that if you’ve seen one of these Sting vs. monster matches you’ve seen them all. Flair has left his seat. Avalanche drops an Earthquake on Sting but poses instead of covering. You know, because THAT has a great track record. There’s a powerslam for two. Sting takes him down and does the falling headbutt to the balls spot. There’s the Splash in the corner and make it two of them. Ok three and the fourth sets up a slam for the Scorpion to end this.

Rating: C-. Dull match but Sting’s incredible charisma helped it a lot. The splashes in the corner worked well enough and the slam is always impressive. The inherent problem with WCW at this time though was that none of these monsters ever got a pin, which really hurt things after awhile because this feud would go on for almost a year.

Nick Patrick came out to call the submission. Angel got in Sting’s face and they brawled, with Angel helping for a double beatdown on Sting. Alex Wright and Stars and Stripes make the save.

Angel says he was disrespected. He says he’s Big Bubba Rogers again.

Hulk Hogan/Randy Savage vs. Kevin Sullivan/The Butcher

Vader is up and all annoyed for Hogan’s entrance. Flair is back in his seat now also. Hogan and Butcher are set to start us off but Butcher stalls like a true southern man. Savage comes in and this is totally one sided to start us off, which is about what you would expect. Back to Hogan who beats on Beefcake even more. Hogan hits a jumping knee (called a boot by that moron Schiavone) but Butcher hooks the sleeper, which put Hogan out at the last Clash.

Now we get one of the weirdest moments ever in wrestling history. Butcher puts Hogan out with the sleeper but lets go early ala Adrian Adonis at Mania 3. The heels celebrate so Savage comes in to wake Hogan up. It doesn’t work, so Savage goes up top and drops the big elbow on Hogan. For absolutely no logical reason at all, this wakes Hogan up and he’s fine again. WHAT SENSE IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MAKE??? I mean who came up with that idea??? Cocaine is a powerful drugs kid.

The heels start cheating and take over with evil tactics, including throwing Savage to the floor. It turns into a standard tag match with Butcher and Sullivan hammering away on Savage. Savage is on the floor and is all shaky as Hogan checks on him. I think they’re playing up that he might have a concussion without saying he’s got a concussion. Back inside he gets rammed by the Tree of Woe because Hogan got drawn into the ring.

The sleeper doesn’t work and Savage kicks Brutus away for the hot tag to Hogan. Notice the pretty weak pop for him coming in for the save WCW. Everything breaks down and Savage drops the elbow on Brutus but Hogan gets to drop the leg for the pin, because goodness knows we can’t have the new guy get the pin.

Rating: D+. It’s just a main event tag match and not a very good one. The problems that WCW had are really showing themselves here: Hogan never loses. I mean he never even got close to losing. He never broke a sweat here and Savage doesn’t even get the pinfall. Also, having Kevin Sullivan and Brutus Beefcake as the top heels didn’t help anything. Vader got beaten up by Hogan so much that he gave up and went to the WWF.

Vader comes in post match for the big staredown. Vader beats him down easily and powerbombs him….and Hogan pops right back up, showing that Vader has zero chance at all of beating him clean. Hogan and Savage clear the ring and stand tall. As Vader leaves, he manages to plug the show: “The champ goes down February 19 in Baltimore. Be there and witness history!” He shouts that at the camera as he leaves. See how simply you can add something to the show’s build? Why is that so hard? Oh because we need things trending on Twitter right?

Hogan and Savage pose for two minutes to end this. Running short on time I guess.

Overall Rating: D. This was boring. That sums up WCW in this year: everything was predictable and only Hogan and his friends got significant time. Not an interesting show at all and not even a big commercial for SuperBrawl (which sucked) really. It wouldn’t be helped at all until Giant came in around October to FINALLY give Hogan a challenge. Bad show, and this whole year isn’t worth watching.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

As is usual with me, I started off planning to have about 10 matches on this list and it got out of hand.  These are in NO order other than the top five which will be separated.  This is a mixture of favorites and best which is how my lists tend to go.  Let’s get to it.

1. Sting vs. Vader – Starrcade 1992

If I’m ever in the mood to have fun watching a wrestling match, this is the one I throw on. It’s the rematch from Great American Bash where Vader ripped out the heart of the WCW fans, crushed it in his hand and sprinkled it on a slice of Sting pizza. The rematch is Sting’s revenge and is one of the best fights you will ever see. If you want to see David vs. Goliath and some AMAZING displays of strength from

Sting, go watch this.

1. Sting’s Squadron vs. Dangerous Alliance – WrestleWar 1992

It’s violent, it’s bloody, it’s everything WarGames is supposed to be. This was the BIG blowoff to the amazing Dangerous Alliance feud and there’s almost nothing wrong with it. If you want a GREAT fight with a ton of blood along with Sting, Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson and Ricky Steamboat in the same match, check this one out.

3. Sting vs. Cactus Jack – Beach Blast 1992

First of all, check this show out as it’s excellent. Just make sure that you watch it out of order and put this one last. Anyway, you have two of my top three favorite wrestlers ever in a WAR. This was the culmination of about a year of Cactus torturing Sting and finally Sting gets to fight back. It’s falls count anywhere and according to Foley himself, one of his best matches ever. I love this one.

4. Vader vs. Cactus Jack – Halloween Havoc 1993

Again, take two guys with some hatred for each other and let them beat each other up. This was another great match which I don’t think was for the title. It also led to WCW screwing up what could have been a huge push for Foley, but instead Hogan came in and WCW decided people wanted to see Paul Orndorff and Brutus Beefcake instead of guys like Cactus Jack.

5. Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan – Great American Bash 1996

Dang I’m in a violent mood tonight. If you’ve never seen this, go watch it. You will hardly ever see a more BRUTAL fight. These two hated each other in real life so you know they enjoyed a chance to beat the tar out of each other for a bit. They did this same match (at one point almost literally spot for spot) for the next year or so but this is by far the best. This is one of Benoit’s best matches ever and definitely his best fight.

As of this point, the rest are in no particular order.

6. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage – Spring Stampede 1997

This is the match that made DDP and there’s a great story to it as well. Savage is the grizzled veteran that refuses to take DDP seriously and Page is the guy that won’t give up no matter what he faces. This also showed off how cool the sets were in WCW as the set was a big wild west theme with wagons and bales of hay. You NEVER get that anymore outside of Wrestlemania.

7. Steiner Brothers vs. Lex Luger/Sting – SuperBrawl I

Take four faces, give them no story and let them have a great match. It’s the only thing on this show worth anything at all and it still holds up to this day. The Steiners were untouchable at this point so having two superstars against them was the only conceivable way they could lose. This is also one of the times where Scott got to show off what he could do in the main event.

7. Ricky Steamboat vs. Rick Rude – Beach Blast 1992

Also from the great Beach Blast 92, this is fallout from WrestleWar 1992 with Steamboat wanting to get his hands on Rude and his US Title, but for some reason it wasn’t on the line here. This was a thirty minute iron man match and it has a story going throughout the entire thing. WCW was on fire in 1992 and this was a great match in that year.

9. Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Thunder Liger – SuperBrawl II

Speaking of WCW in 1992, this is the opening match from the first PPV of the year. Later in the big era for WCW they used this same formula: take two small guys and let them go insane for about ten minutes. The crowd had no idea what they were seeing here but they ate it up. It’s easily one of the best opening matches ever if not the best of all time and probably Pillman’s best match ever.

9. Steve Austin vs. Ricky Steamboat – Bash at the Beach 1994

    Seriously, do you not expect these two to be awesome together? Austin was rapidly getting awesome and the best way to do that was through having Steamboat tear the house down with him. Steamboat would get injured before they could really end the feud, but the first match in it was awesome. I’m running out of things to say about these matches.

10. Ric Flair vs. Vader – Starrcade 1993

    So Sid kind of went nuts and stabbed Arn Anderson with a pair of scissors, earning himself a firing right before the biggest show of the year. When all else fails in WCW, get Ric Flair to main event Starrcade. The idea was that Vader was invincible and Flair couldn’t wrestle his usual cerebral style to beat him. Flair’s career was on the line to add some drama and the end result (in North Carolina of course) was a great match with Flair getting another world title.

11. Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero – Halloween Havoc 1997

    Of all the great matches in 1997, this might have been the best in ring match of them all. You take two great wrestlers and let them go at it for almost fifteen minutes in a title vs. mask match. This is all about wowing the crowd and it’s probably both guys’ best match ever. Think about their careers and let that sink in for a bit.

12. Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat – Chi-Town Rumble

    All three matches are great but I always liked the first one best. It’s a faster pace match than the other two and they keep things fast enough to never get boring. Also it helps that this is where Steamboat finally gets his world title after being the best in the world to never be champion. The rematches were great too but I’ve always liked this one better than the other two.

13. Ric Flair vs. Sting – Clash of the Champions #1

    Why WWE.com put the unification match on the list and not this one is likely due to the NWA thing but screw that jazz. If the WWE can say that the World Heavyweight Championship is related to the WCW World Title then I can say this counts. This is the definition of putting someone over with Flair making Sting a huge star in one night. The match runs 45 minutes but feels like about half of that. This is the first of many matches they have and it might actually be the best.

14. Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard – Starrcade 1985

    So we have a redneck who wears jeans and the wrestler’s wrestler in a blood feud in an I Quit match. Now this is the story of Bret vs. Shawn but they copied it from this match in the first place. This was another huge feud where the only way to end it was to lock two guys in a box and the first man to quit loses. The ending is legendary with Magnum taking a piece of a wooden chair and driving it into Blanchard’s eye to finally quit, only to hate himself for what he did to win the title.

15. Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson – Fall Brawl 1995

    They were partners for years but they FINALLY had a match here, in North Carolina of course. This was all part of the rebirth of the Horsemen but it took a few months to get there. They knew each other so well that at the end of the day, you knew they were going to have a great match against each other. The fans had no idea who to cheer for which made it even better. To the surprise of a lot of people, Anderson won in I think their only match ever.

16. Brian Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd – Fall Brawl 1995

    I don’t think anyone remembers this match but it opens the same show as the previous match. Both guys were on an absolute roll at this point and they were fighting for a title shot. This match runs half an hour and it never once gets boring with the ending being perfect as well. You won’t see this on many lists but it’s an awesome fast paced match that works very well.

17. Bret Hart vs. Chris Benoit – Nitro

    For the Bret Hart fans, this is a must. It’s the Owen Hart Tribute match in the building where he died and it’s by far and away Bret’s best match ever in WCW. It’s also the only match where he was clearly trying for the whole match and there was no stupid story holding him back. This was about two guys putting on a wrestling display and it works to this day. Great match.

18. Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham (pick one)

    Seriously, pick one. These two had so many great matches that you can’t just pick a single one. Windham could have been HUGE if he had kept trying but by 1991 or so he was done. His matches with Flair though were amazing and produced some of the best TV matches you’ll ever see. Barry would eventually join the Horsemen in a spot he was perfect for.

19. Flair vs. Funk – Great American Bash 1989

    The idea here is simple: Funk had injured Flair’s neck and this was about revenge. The problem is that even though Funk was old and mostly retired, you couldn’t quite write him off as a contender to Flair’s title. This is considered the best show WCW ever put on and while I think the show is overrated, the main event is excellent. I’m in the minority that likes it better than the I Quit match but it’s really that good.

20. Sting vs. Rick Rude – Clash of the Champions #17

    We have one of the best heels ever against one of the best faces ever. This is all backstory from earlier in the show as Sting was injured by I believe Luger earlier in the night and was at the hospital. He was told that if he missed the match he would lose the title and the race was on to get back. Rude was sure he was going to be champion but Sting walked through the curtain at the last minute and the place EXPLODED. This is all atmosphere but it was great atmosphere.

21. Dustin Rhodes/Ricky Steamboat vs. The Enforcers – Clash of the Champions #17

    From the same show as the previous match, this is all about the entrance but then the match is awesome on top of it. The Enforcers (Anderson and Zbyszko) had broken Dustin’s partner Barry Windham’s hand at Halloween Havoc so Dustin had a new mystery partner. A guy in a dragon costume came out before revealing himself to be Ricky Steamboat, making his return to the company. Anderson FREAKING and shouting “HE’S JUST A MAN” at Larry to try to convince himself not to panic is great stuff. Oh and the match is great too.

22. Southern Boys vs. Midnight Express – Great American Bash 1990

    Jim Cornette has called this one of the greatest Midnight Express match ever which should sum things up for you. This was another one of those “take two teams, let them go nuts” matches from right before the Express left WCW to form SMW. The Pistols weren’t a great team but when they clicked they could have an excellent match and that’s what they did here.

24. Four Horsemen vs. Sting’s Team – WrestleWar 1991

    WarGames is that one match that you can almost never screw up and this is the second great one. It’s also the only one the Horsemen managed to win I think, which makes their nickname of the Masters of WarGames kind of odd. Anyway, this is a GREAT brawl with everyone beating on everyone and a horrible looking ending with Pillman nearly dying (literally) to end the match. Again, it’s Sting (noticing a theme here) against Flair and it works perfectly.

25. Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair – WrestleWar 1990

    Here’s another great one from these two with Luger substituting for his injured best friend Sting who had been injured at the Horsemen’s hands (not really). The idea is that while it was pretty clear Sting would get to dethrone Flair, Luger gets to beat the tar out of him first. The ending is a mini screwjob but for once it makes perfect sense and is the absolute right finish that hurts no one. This is a great beating and another solid Luger vs. Flair match.

26. Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair – Starrcade 1988

If you ever want to see the Flair Formula worked to perfection, this is the match for you. It’s about 35 minutes long with three separate stages: Flair getting killed, Luger getting beaten up and the finish. These two had one of the hottest feuds of the 80s and this is probably the best match they had in the whole series. Luger should have won the title here and he was branded as a choker because he never got there.

20. Sting vs. Diamond Dallas Page (Nitro, April 26, 1999)
19. Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero (Uncensored 1997)
18. Big Van Vader vs. Cactus Jack (Halloween Havoc 1993)
17. 3 Count vs. Jung Dragons (New Blood Rising 2000)
16. Diamond Dallas Page vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage (Spring Stampede 1997)
15. Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne vs. Nasty Boys (Spring Stampede 1994)
14. Rey Mysterio vs. Dean Malenko (Great American Bash 1996)
13. Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan (Bash at the Beach 1994)
12. Steiner Brothers vs. Sting & Lex Luger (SuperBrawl 1991)
11. Ricky Steamboat vs. Rick Rude (Beach Blast 1992)
10. Brian Pillman vs. Jushin “Thunder” Liger (SuperBrawl II)
9. “Stunning” Steve Austin vs. Ricky Steamboat (Bash at the Beach 1994)
8. Sting’s Squadron vs. Dangerous Alliance (WrestleWar 1992)
7. Ric Flair vs. Big Van Vader (Starrcade 1993)
6. Rey Mysterio vs. Ultimo Dragon (World War 3 1996)
5. Ric Flair vs. Sting (Clash of Champions XXVII).
4. Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero (Halloween Havoc 1997)
3. Goldberg vs. Diamond Dallas Page (Halloween Havoc 1998)
2. Ric Flair vs. Sting (Great American Bash 1990)
1. Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (Clash of the Champions VI in 1989)

Great American Bash 1990???  As I said in my review of it: “The match isn’t great and it’s certainly not their best.”

This is wrong on SO many levels.  Some of these matches weren’t even the best matches on their own shows.  Also, this is leaving out a ton of great stuff from the 80’s for absolutely no apparent reason.  They were still in the NWA for the 1990 Bash so it can’t be that.