Monday Nitro #79
Date: March 17, 1997
Location: Savannah Civic Center, Savannah, Georgia
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan

It’s the night after Uncensored and the big story is that Sting has declared his loyalty for WCW by attacking the NWO to close the show last night. At the same time though it’s not all good for the purple and gold (WCW for you young people out there) as the NWO won the main event last night, basically giving them unlimited power in the company. There are eleven matches tonight so expect some quick finishes. Let’s get to it.

Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis

Mysterio takes him to the mat to start and controls from behind. Psychosis takes him to the mat as we see the Japanese announce table which has Ultimo Dragon sans mask. Rey tries to do his kickoff out of a test of strength position but they mistime it horribly. A springboard headscissors sends Psychosis to the floor and Rey follows it with a rana off the apron. Back in and Psychosis rams him stomach first into the buckle. Psychosis misses a charge into the post and Rey hits a flip dive to the floor. West Coast Pop is HORRIBLY botched as Psychosis’ head is drive into the mat ala a piledriver for the pin.

Rating: C-. I haven’t seen Rey botch this much stuff in years. The ending was almost scary as Psychosis just stopped moving when his head got driven into the mat like that. The match wasn’t horrible but with two noticeable botches in three and a half minutes, how good can you consider a match?

Arn Anderson says Sting came home last night, but that’s not what he’s here to talk about. He was injured at Halloween Havoc and has to have neck surgery. Arn talks about how his grandmother stayed alive long enough to see him become a mature adult. Last night he saw his family, the Horsemen, mature. He also saw Sullivan’s son recently and it looks like the Sullivan family has broken up completely. Anderson says he’ll be back, but he never would be, at least not in the ring.

We recap last night with Savage and Liz attacking Kimberly and Page. They spray painted Kimberly when page was down.

Maxx vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Maxx is a muscle guy who is part of the Dungeon of Doom. There’s a slight chance that he’s the same guy that played Maxx Muscle, who was Page’s bodyguard back in 1995. This is a squash, with Page hitting a top rope splash of all things. He escapes a full nelson and hits the Cutter for the quick pin in maybe a minute and a half.

Page says he’s hunting for Savage and Liz. We’re also told possibly for the first time that Page and Kimberly are married in real life. Savage is a dead man walking. Page starts to leave but Savage and Liz are in the crowd. Savage says he’s the icon and Page is the wrestler with no name. Talk of a non-sanctioned match is mentioned but Savage says it’ll be later. Page charges into the crowd but Savage gets away.

Hugh Morrus/Konnan vs. Renegade/Joe Gomez

Before the match here are Bischoff and the Outsiders to take over the announce desk. Actually scratch that as they just have an announcement: they’ll be getting in the ring tonight but no opponents are mentioned. Apparently them getting to challenge for any title they want according to the stipulations from the main event last night now means the champions get to pick when they wrestle ever.

Back to the match which starts with Morrus jumping Gomez and working over his knee. Konnan comes in quickly and kicks at said knee. The Dungeon trades off a few times but the offense doesn’t improve at all. The announcers talk about Spring Stampede a bit as not much is going on during the match. A clothesline puts Gomez down and Konnan comes back in for a half crab. After about three minutes of leg work Gomez finally tags in Renegade. He cleans house for about fifteen seconds and then tags back out when Gomez can’t even stand. It takes about ten seconds to hit No Laughing Matter for the pin on Joe.

Rating: D. This was a dull match and it seems like they were trying to set up a feud between Renegade and Gomez for who knows what reason. The match was boring as it was about four minutes of leg work followed by the angle to end the show. Gomez stayed around for a long time and never did anything at all.

US Title: Dean Malenko vs. Scotty Riggs

Malenko won the title last night. Riggs lost a strap match to Bagwell last night so he gets a title match tonight. Makes perfect sense right? Scotty hits a quick dropkick to start but it only gets two. Dean will have none of that and sends Riggs to the floor and into the barricade. Back in and we get a pinfall reversal sequence for some two counts. Riggs makes a quick comeback with his jobber level offense before he gets caught in a hot shot. Dean grabs a rolling cradle for the pin to retain fast.

Lex Luger/The Giant vs. The Knuckles

That would be Knuckles Nelson and T. Rantula. I don’t know about you, but I’m smelling an upset here. Giant and Rantula start us off and the man who would be Peter Parker is thrown back into his own corner quickly. Nelson comes in and this is squash territory already. Giant works him over in the corner for awhile until Rantula comes in to help. That goes nowhere either and it’s a chokeslam for Nelson. Luger walks in without a tag and powerslams Rantula as Giant pins Nelson. Luger Racks Rantula post match. Total squash.

Luger and Giant talk about Sting coming back last night. We get some clips from the show with Sting destroying the NWO as Giant talks about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Luger says it made him believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. These guys do know they lost the main event right?

We get some stills from last night with Mortis vs. Glacier. Wrath debuted post match to beat down Glacier.

Bobby Eaton vs. Ultimo Dragon

Dragon stalls on the floor to start so Eaton punches him in the face. And never mind as Dragon puts him on top and hits a rana for the pin. This wasn’t even a minute and a half.

Here’s the NWO in full force. Hogan and Bischoff brag about winning last night and talk about being able to challenge for any title. That would be the TV and US Titles, unless you want to count the Women’s belt if that exists yet. Savage says he’ll face Page at some point. Nash says the Outsiders will face the Steiners at Spring Stampede. That would wind up being Rick vs. Nash for the titles. During this announcement, Hall takes a beer to the head. In PERFECT response, he wipes his hair as he is known to do.

Call the NWO hotline!

Hour #2 begins and it seems a lot later than usual. We do the usual recap.

Alex Wright/Mark Starr vs. Jeff Jarrett/Steve McMichael

Jarrett and Wright start things off with Alex firing off some dropkicks. Jarrett takes him down and Mongo drops an elbow on the back of Wright’s head to take over. There’s a side slam and it’s back to Jarrett. Tony calls that a solid tag. How can a tag exactly be solid? Everything breaks down with Starr diving over Mongo which is called a chop block. Figure Four ends Starr quick.

Public Enemy comes out and beats up the Horsemen post match. The Horsemen fight them off and then go to talk to Gene. Apparently these teams are going to be fighting at the PPV. Debra screeches a bit and Jarrett says he’s walking the walk now. Mongo dares the people to boo Debra, again not seeming to know if he’s a face or a heel.

Lee Marshall does his schtick.

Scott Norton vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Norton runs him over and Chavo bails to the floor. Back in and Chavo goes after the knee but Norton won’t go down. Two more shots to it and he still won’t go down. A missile dropkick won’t put Norton down and a sunset flip doesn’t either. Norton powerbombs him to death to end this. Norton wouldn’t sell a thing here.

Hogan and Rodman talk about nothing of note.

Chris Benoit vs. Billy Kidman

This doesn’t even last a minute with the Crossface ending it. That hadn’t been his finisher long at all at this point.

Benoit and Woman have something to say but Flair comes out before they can start. Benoit talks about Sullivan of course and Flair blames Piper for the loss last night. Ric isn’t worried about Arn because he’s tough. As for Piper, he can come be a Horseman and take Arn’s spot. That’s quite the offer.

Steiner Brothers vs. Harlem Heat

Scott and Booker get us going with Booker hitting a fast side kick. He walks into a gorilla press slam though and it’s off to Rick. Stevie comes in to stomp away and adds in some punches for good measure. They trade powerslams as it’s time to talk about Sting. Booker comes in and side slams Rick down but it’s off to Scott who cleans house. Everything breaks down and it’s the NWO in for the DQ.

Rating: D+. The match was just filler until the NWO got there for no apparent reason. I guess it was to beat down the tag teams like the black and white used to do but it didn’t quite work as well. These teams seem a level or two beneath the NWO, but at the same time the NWO has beaten up everyone so many times that it doesn’t mean much when they beat up the main event guys anymore.

Luger and Giant come out for the save and clear the ring. Sting drops from the ceiling to end the show. He stands with WCW and that’s it. Hogan is terrified.

Overall Rating: D+. WCW hit a MAJOR funk over the summer, as the world title wouldn’t be defended on PPV from March until August, making most of the PPV main events totally worthless. Spring Stampede would be Savage vs. Page, the next month would be a six man tag and the third would be Rodman/Hogan vs. Luger/Giant. There were no major matches to build to so there was little going on in the way of television. This was a good example of that, as aside from Page and Savage getting set up, almost nothing happened here. That would be the case for the next few months.

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Monday Nitro #111
Date: October 27, 1997
Location: Cox Arena, San Diego, California
Attendance: 6,281
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan

We’re past Halloween Havoc now where Piper beat Hogan in one of the more confusing cage matches you’ll ever seen. At that point though I think they knew everyone was going to buy Starrcade so why bother putting in the effort at the other PPVs? Other than that, Hennig retained the US Title over Flair and Rey Mysterio won the Cruiserweight Title in arguably the best match WCW ever produced. I’m guessing nothing tonight is going to top it. Let’s get to it.

Apparently this show is three hours, which I believe is a forerunner to the three hour broadcasts which are coming soon.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff to open the show. Eric brags about how Hogan is still world champion and says that Hogan will be champion for as long as he wants. Hogan says that he’s tired of the word icon being thrown around so freely so let’s just call Hogan God. He challenges anyone in WCW or in the crowd to come fight him right now. That’s not a bright thing to say after a fan climbed into the cage last night.

Bischoff says this network will soon be named Hogan Network Television and plugs Assault on Devil’s Island tomorrow night. We get a clip from the movie which looks like a bad TV movie. I actually watched it once and it certainly lived up to what it looked like in the trailer. It says a lot that Hogan keeps getting these movie roles when he is such an abysmal actor.

Cruiserweight Title: Rey Mysterio vs. Dean Malenko

Rey won the title last night. Dean immediately takes it to the mat as is his nature but Rey counters into a hammerlock. Back up and the champion hooks an armdrag to send Malenko right back down. Rey tries a test of strength for some reason and does as well as you would expect him to. Raven and the Flock are here as they are every week. A rollup gets two each but Dean charges into a boot in the corner to stagger him. Rey goes up, only to have Malenko catch him with his awesome top rope gutbuster for a very close two. A standing rana is countered into the Texas Cloverleaf but Rey rolls through into a cradle to retain.

Rating: C+. This was your usual solid match between these two and that gutbuster is awesome as usual. Rey getting another win after the excellent match last night was a good move and having it be over one of the best in the division like Malenko worked well. These two always had solid chemistry together.

Here’s more about lucha libre from Mike Tenay. This time we hear about the merchandise in Mexico before transitioning into wrestling families. El Hijo del Santo talks about how devastating his father’s death was. I wish would could get stuff like this today instead of the same gags and segments over and over again.

Glacier vs. La Parka

La Parka takes over to start and hits a few fast right hands but Glacier comes back with a few kicks of his own. The masked dude is knocked to the floor and Glacier hits a cross body to take him down again. Back in and La Parka hits a kick and a piledriver of all things, but instead of covering it’s DANCE TIME. Another kick sends Glacier to the floor and there’s a nice corkscrew plancha to take him out again. La Parka loads up a chair but takes too long going up, allowing Glacier to crotch him. Glacier launches him into the chair before heading back in for the Cryonic Kick for the pin. Nothing match but a nice dive by Parka.

Here’s DDP with something to say. Actually it’s Gene with something to say as he talks about all of the injuries that Page had coming into his loss to Savage last night. Page knows it was Hogan as Sting last night (shocker there) and says Savage knows that one on one, Page is the better man. If Hogan has an open challenge for tonight, DDP will take him up on it. Ok then.

After a break here’s Larry Z with something to say. He’s glad of what he did last night when he reversed the decision of Hall vs. Luger and has a piece of paper which apparently is a one way ticket to Larryland. After some more insults here are Hall and Syxx with Scott saying that Larry has shown he can’t do anything in the ring. Scott things Larry couldn’t even beat Bischoff and we get a clip of Eric beating up Larry from a few weeks ago. Hall still won’t agree to fight Zbyszko and that’s about it.

Lex Luger vs. Stevie Ray

Feeling out process to start with Luger grabbing a headlock to control. They trade shoulder blocks but neither guy moves. A clothesline puts Ray down but Stevie comes right back with a shoulder of his own to put Luger down. Lex comes back with a few slams but misses that big elbow of his. The move we would call the World’s Strongest Slam gets two for Ray and it’s off to a bearhug. Luger counters into a quickly broken bearhug of his own but the clotheslines he uses work a bit better. The Rack is blocked though and a bicycle kick puts Luger down. Lex comes back with a powerslam and the Rack for the win.

Rating: C. This was FAR better than I was expecting with Ray actually looking like a threat to Luger. For a guy who never did a single thing as a singles wrestler, that was pretty impressive. Luger was never in any significant danger but at least we were convinced that he was. Nice little match here.

Raven sits in a tree and talks about not liking the dark.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho

We get clips from Jericho’s match last night with Gedo where Jericho landed on his head in a botch off the top rope. Feeling out process to start but Eddie goes after Chris’ bad shoulder. Jericho comes back with a spinwheel kick and some chops in the corner, but Eddie gets in a shot to Jericho’s shoulder again to take him down. A dropkick to the back of Jericho’s head keeps him in trouble as does one to the shoulder.

Jericho ducks a right hand and hits a HUGE release German suplex for two. A butterfly powerbomb puts Eddie down but the Lionsault misses. Eddie’s Frog Splash is countered by a good old fashioned crotching and a superplex, but Jericho can barely stand up. Jericho escapes a powerbomb and suplexes Eddie to the floor. That destroys Jericho’s shoulder and he falls to the mat in pain, allowing Eddie (who landed on his feet on the floor) to come back in with the Frog Splash for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was your usual good match between these two guys with a fine story about Jericho’s shoulder. The ending was a creative one too as Jericho just couldn’t fight all the way through the pain he was in. Eddie getting another win is a good thing after the loss from last night against Mysterio.

Chris Benoit vs. Fit Finlay

These two know each other very well from other countries. Finlay runs him over to start but charges into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and some HARD chops. Finlay tries a headlock but Benoit suplexes him right back down. An enziguri puts Fit down and they head to the floor for a HARD forearm by Finlay. Benoit gets dropped face first onto the barricade and goes shoulder first into the post for good measure. They head back inside for some stiff kicks to Chris’ back.

Off to a chinlock by Fit before he slams Benoit down. Finlay steps on Benoit’s chest to get to the corner for a Vader Bomb for two. Back to the floor but one of those hard chops by Finlay hits the post instead of Benoit. Finlay comes back immediately by sending Benoit into the barricade before heading back inside. A charge in the corner misses Benoit though and the Canadian hits a German suplex to set up the Swan Dive for the pin.

Rating: C+. Another good match here in a complete different style from the previous few matches. That’s one of the things Nitro did best: they could show off a bunch of different styles in one show such as a squash, a lucha libre match and then a stiff brawl like this one. That’s the benefit of the huge roster WCW had at this point and the international flavor helped a lot as well.

Here’s Flair with something to say. He talks about how close he got to beating Hennig within an inch of his life last night and if he sees Hennig tonight, Hennig is a dead man. As for the rest of the show though, Flair gets Savage and then after that he’s getting Liz.

Raven vs. Scotty Riggs

Richards, Saturn, Kidman and Sick Boy all jump the railing with Raven. Tenay calls them the Flock, I believe for the first time. Richards says this has to be Raven’s Rules. Raven says there’s no point to them fighting tonight, because Riggs can join the Flock instead. Riggs wants to fight and is shoved into the corner almost immediately. Raven offers him a hand up but Riggs wisely doesn’t take it. A suplex puts Riggs down and we get an ECW chant. Saturn throws in a chair and Riggs gets caught in a drop toehold, sending him eye first into the chair. The match is stopped and Raven goes back to his seat in the crowd.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Hulk Hogan

Non-title of course and amazingly this isn’t the main event. Page of course has taped ribs as he always does. Hogan immediately shoves Page into the corner but Hogan takes him down with a hammerlock. Page is in jeans here. Hogan slugs him down as Tony plugs Assault on Devil’s Island some more. All Hollywood so far as he clotheslines Page down for two. A jumping knee to Page’s face puts him down again but DDP comes back with the driving shoulders.

Page tries for the Cutter but Hogan immediately bails to the floor. Back in and the discus lariat takes Hogan down and out to the floor again. Hogan gets back in and slams Page down before dropping some elbows and choking away. Page is sent to the floor and out into the barricade before suplexing Page down on the floor. Back in and Diamond grabs a quick neckbreaker for two but gets caught in an atomic drop for the same for Hogan.

Hollywood goes after the ribs and hits a BIG running clothesline in the corner. Hogan hits a suplex for three straight two counts before DDP comes with with a bunch of punches to send Hogan to the floor. That goes nowhere so it’s back inside for the big boot from Hogan to stop Page cold. The legdrop misses though but a fake Sting (might be Syxx) comes out and jumps into the Diamond Cutter as the bell rings for a DQ.

Rating: C-. Not the worst match in the world as Hogan actually went almost fifteen minutes for free on television. It was his usual heel stuff with really basic moves, but he had the crowd riled up which is what Hogan was a master at doing. Page hung in there and the run in finish was the only thing they could do here. Decent match though.

Post match here the NWO for the big beatdown (including Syxx so he wasn’t the fake Sting) until the real Sting makes the save and beats up everyone. A long point at Hogan has the champion terrified. Scott Hall stays in the ring and gets caught in the Death Drop, as does Hennig.

TV Title: Disco Inferno vs. Goldberg

No match as Alex Wright jumps Goldberg on the way to the ring. Goldie throws him into the ring for a Jackhammer before hitting both signature moves on Disco. Mongo comes out for a brawl to end this. The bell never rang.

Here are a ticked off Hogan and Bischoff to say that they’re tired of Sting and that Page isn’t in Hogan’s league. They plug the movie premiere tomorrow night and say that if Sting wants to come see him in Vegas, they can sign the contract there. That’s a big step.

The Steiners say it’s been a tough year but anyone that wants a title shot can come get it.

Tag Titles: Steiner Brothers vs. Public Enemy

Scotty and Rocco start things off with Rocco being press slammed very quickly. The challengers (Public Enemy if that’s not clear) bails until we get back to Grunge vs. Rick. A powerslam puts Grunge right back on the floor and starts the stalling process as we take a break. Back with Rocco knocking Scotty out to the floor for some cheating from Grunge. Johnny sends him into the steps for good measure as the referee continues to be clueless. The announcers are about the same as they spend the whole match talking about the Hogan/Sting contract signing.

Back in and the challengers elbow Scotty down so that Grunge can chinlock him for a bit. Scotty tries to fight up but charges into a knee as it’s back to Rocco. A swinging neckbreaker puts Steiner down again but Scott comes back with a clothesline to both Enemies. The hot tag brings in Rick and house is cleaned until it’s the Steiner Bulldog for the pin on Rock.

Rating: D+. Very basic tag match here which didn’t work all that well. This would set up a rematch in a street fight next week for no apparent reason. This was a clean win for the Steiners, so why should we need to see this match all over again? Nothing to see here at all and the match was dull.

US Title: Booker T vs. Curt Hennig

Main event time and Curt is of course defending. Booker starts fast with some clotheslines and a shoulder to knock Hennig down. Curt bails to the floor but comes back in with a rake to the eyes and some loud chops. A neckbreaker puts Booker down and we hit an early chinlock. Booker fights up and they head to the floor with the champion taking over, only to be rolled up for two back inside. Booker takes over as Liz comes out for a distraction. While she has the referee, Savage comes in to deck Booker, drawing in Flair for the DQ. Too short to rate but nothing of note.

Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage

This is joined in progress after a break with Flair pounding away in the crowd. The referee is knocked down as this is a brawl instead of a match. They fight against the barricade with Flair in complete control. A low blow keeps Savage down as they head back to ringside. Savage gets in a microphone shot to Flair’s throat but Flair chops him down. Savage tries to hide behind Liz so Flair kisses Savage’s shield. Smart man.

They finally head inside with Savage being taken down by an elbow so Flair can dance a bit. Liz rakes his eyes, allowing Savage to send Flair back to the floor. Ric is sent into the steps and choked down, allowing Macho to load up the top rope ax handle, only to crash into the railing. They head back inside but here’s Hennig for the DQ. Yeah after all that we get a DQ.

Rating: C. This was a wild brawl but that’s all you need sometimes. The idea of Flair being in such a rage that he couldn’t wrestle a match was a fine idea and Savage just happened to be the victim at this point. Surprisingly enough, this would be the last time that these two would fight on Nitro.

Flair is beaten down to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. This show was about advancing stuff after last night. The contract signing would show where the end of the year was heading and that’s when things get awesome. If nothing else we don’t have to hear about Hogan’s movie anymore which is always a good thing. Good show tonight, but the three hour shows are going to be torture when they’re a regular thing.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Monday Nitro
Date: March 8, 1999
Location: DCU Center, Worcester, Massachusetts
Attendance: 9,400
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko

This is another request and the ultra rare Nitro request on top of that. This show is another three hour show from WCW and the first hour is considered one of the worst hours of wrestling TV ever. This is also the go home show for Uncensored which has a main event of Hogan vs. Flair. There’s some innovative thinking. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video of the special cage (the Cell) being built for the main event on Sunday.

We get a clip from Thunder with Arn Anderson talking to Flair, trying to console him about David Flair turning on his dad. Flair talks about how he’s got Hogan to worry about so he can’t worry about David right now. It’s David’s responsibility and that’s not Ric’s problem anymore. Anderson says that David is young and making mistakes. Ric says that’s not his problem right now. He says the Horsemen are back on top if he wins the title. Anderson says he hopes this is just a game face and that he really is concerned. Flair basically says screw that, it’s my time. Anderson doesn’t like it. This goes on for like seven minutes.

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The Nitro Girls are in Rhode Island at some kind of Nitro Party with competitions and such.

We go to a live Nitro Party in Providence, Rhode Island. They’re at a university apparently. There’s a spring break special and a guy here (last name Kazarian) won a trip to it.

We get introduced to Nitro Girl AC Jazz and see one of their practices.

Hogan talks about how everyone hates him but he did it for the money or something. This is tied into David Flair joining the NWO. Ric is only obsessed with the belt and power and doesn’t care at all about his son bailing. Hogan would NEVER do that but he’s willing to give Flair another shot, but he wants Flair’s career vs. the title. This also runs 5 minutes.

We’re over 20 minutes into this show and we haven’t seen the arena yet.

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Back to the Nitro Party after a presumed commercial. Konnan is at the party too.

Here’s a Konnan rap video to make sure we don’t get any wrestling.

Another NWO video, this one of Hogan and Nash watching a Flair promo. It’s basically them riffing on him as Flair talks about coming back to WCW and seeing his son leave him for the NWO. Hogan and Nash make Buddy Landell jokes that maybe 2% of the audience will get. The NWO says they’ll regroup.

Video on Lex Luger.

Scott Steiner is pulled over while driving a Hummer limo. The cops recognize him and Bagwell……and make them cops. We get a montage of them “stopping crimes” after starting them in the first place while calling each other Starsky and Hutch.

Back to the party with the girls dancing. Kidman is there now and thinks Mysterio can beat Nash.

Video on Mysterio. The NWO took his mask so this Sunday he can get revenge.

Torrie Wilson is shooting a gun at a shooting range when Hogan and Nash come in. They go in to see her and the camera would be right in the path of her bullets. The guys suggest she sleep with David to get him back on their side. They plan to meet for dinner later.

45 minutes in, no arena yet. Keep in mind that this was the hour they had unopposed by Raw. Raw would be having the final push to Mania 15, meaning Austin vs. Rock/McMahon. AND THIS IS WHAT THEY GIVE US. Is anyone surprised they went out of business?

And uh, here’s the dinner. They talk about destroying Ric Flair and plan about David.

See, apparently at this point there were four dark matches going on in the arena. We’re getting this hour of stuff instead. Looking at the card though, this might be more entertaining. Looking at Torrie Wilson with a dress that comes to her upper thigh is never a problem. She says there’s another hot girl she knows. The girl is some chick named Denise who I don’t recognize. Her last name is Robinson, meaning we get Graduate jokes. Apparently she’ll get 20 grand for taking care of David. Sounds like a sweet deal actually.

Now we get the theme song. SO WHAT WAS THAT FIRST HOUR???

We go to the arena…for an interview. Well of course we do. Gene calls out Goldberg for a chat but we get Torrie and David instead. David wants to talk to Ric man to man tonight. Goldberg’s music hits….and we take a break. Back with Goldberg in the ring, talking to David about respect. He isn’t going to take care of things like he usually would. That’s good. It might be entertaining.

David needs to respect what his father has done for the business because it’s more than David and his friends could ever do. David also needs to respect Goldberg because this is his time. David shoves him and gets choked, so here comes Ric. Flair sprints down and chops Goldberg once before turning to David, who is running away. Press slam to Ric (who is president at this point) and Naitch is in trouble. Flair makes Goldberg vs. himself tonight. Goldberg says Flair is crossing the line so Flair yells some more.

ANOTHER commercial.

Raven vs. Hak

Falls count anywhere. Neither gets an entrance. Raven has a chair and Hak (Sandman) has a cane, but as the bell rings….they hug. Oh never mind as Raven pounds him down almost immediately. HARD cane shot to Hak’s head and they head to the floor. Bam Bam Bigelow will join these two at Uncensored in a triangle match. Hak puts him on the guardrail and hits a leg to the back ala RVD minus the spin.

They go up the ramp with Raven hitting a suplex onto the steel. Bird Boy busts out a table on the stage. He climbs the scaffolding to put Hak through it and here’s Bigelow, who isn’t in the match. He beats up Hak anyway as the fans chant for Goldberg. The bell rings and I guess the match is thrown out to HUGE booing.

Rating: D+. This was stupid. I guess they were previewing the PPV match but it didn’t make me want to see it. Also it’s Raven’s Rules so how can that be a DQ? Stupid match with a stupid ending. The table spot and the cane shot weren’t bad, but what was the point of this?

Apparently the bell was inadvertent so we’re going to continue this in the same match we’ll see on Sunday. Great.

Hak vs. Raven vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

They’re fighting in the back with Hak being thrown all over the place. Hak comes back and fights up to an ambulance. Here’s Raven again and it’s just random brawling. There’s a trash cart and Hak goes for a ride in it. They fight over to Flair’s limo and Raven DDTs Hak on the hood, only to get crushed by Bigelow.

He hits Raven in the groin on the hood and they’re all exhausted. They keep beating on each other and you can hear the boring chants. The problem here is they’re just laying around, doing a spot, then laying around more. They all just walk away to end it. No rating because it wasn’t really a match, but this was STUPID.

Now we get clips of the three guys fighting last week. Ok then.

Lizmark Jr. vs. Chris Jericho

Jericho (WITH RALPHUS!) comes out wearing a dog collar. Jericho grabs the mic and welcomes us to Monday Night Jericho. Tony: “Hey we’re talking here fellow!” Chris wants to talk about Perry Saturn, who has challenged Jericho to a chain match on Sunday. Jericho is a master of the chain match though, after training on mountain tops in Nepal. He’s a Swami you see. This match is going to be a chain match. Tony: “There’s been too much talk and not enough wrestling here.” I think I just died because of that line.

The bell rings so let’s talk about Flair some more. I think you win by pin or submission here. Jericho steps on the chain to pull Lizmark in to start and chokes with it. He wraps the chain around the knee and drops it in a unique spot. Lizmark gets tied up with the chain as Tony talks about the chain match at Starrcade 83. Can we watch that instead? It’s a MUCH better match than anything that’ll be on this show. Lizmark chokes him a bit but walks into a kind of spinebuster and the Liontamer for the tap.

Rating: D+. There were some nice moves in this from Jericho but it was just a squash. Jericho has said he had more or less made up his mind that he was gone soon after this and in fact he would be in the WWF by I believe August, where things would go MUCH better for him. Lizmark never quite meant much in WCW.

Here’s Steiner to say he’s well built and all that. The fans are all fat. Buff Bagwell says Booker is too stupid to back out of the match tonight.

TV Title: Scott Steiner vs. Booker T

Steiner is TV Champion. The announcers talk about how great the NWO has been at what they’ve done. We’re two and a half years into the plan so far and it still hasn’t worked but whatever. Feeling out process to start and Booker hits a spinning forearm for two. A hook kick knocks Steiner to the floor and Tony complains about Steiner taking a break. Larry goes into some weird environmental speech about breathing clean air before Tony cuts him off.

Back in the ring and Booker rams him into the corner a few times before Scott kicks him low to take over. Out to the floor again and we get a steroids chant. We take a break and come back with Booker hitting a forearm for one but getting taken down by a clothesline. Spinning belly to belly puts Booker down and Steiner keeps pounding away at the back. He pounds Booker down in the corner with punches and gets two off a backbreaker.

Steiner keeps up the power with a slam and chokes Booker in the Tree of Woe. Booker escapes another slam and hits a neckbreaker to break up Steiner’s momentum just for a second. Ax kick out of nowhere puts Steiner down and there’s the Spinarooni. Booker goes up but gets crotched by Bagwell. There’s the Recliner and Booker’s arm drops twice. He holds it up for the third drop so Steiner drops him….which counts as the third arm drop and Steiner wins by knockout. At least it’s over.

Rating: C-. Not a horrible match here but Steiner just wasn’t over yet. That didn’t stop the company from shoving him down our throats of course but when did it ever? Bagwell was beyond annoying here and did the match no favors. Still though, it was nice to see a match get some time as opposed to what you were expecting with Raw at this time.

Steiner hits Booker in the back with a chair post match.

We see the Flair vs. Goldberg showdown earlier.

The Nitro Girls dance as Tony talks about upcoming house shows (his words).

Jerry Flynn gets promo time for some reason. Before he talks, Sonny Onoo (one of his opponents on Sunday and minus his accent) comes up but Jerry grabs him by the shirt. Ernest Miller, the other opponent, kicks Flynn in the back of the head and they cut off his mullet.

Scott Norton vs. Rey Mysterio

I think you get the idea here as Mysterio has Nash on Sunday. Norton is looking old here. Rey gets knocked to the floor and is holding his back. There isn’t much to say at all here. Mysterio charges at Norton, Norton knocks him down, Rey lays around a lot, Norton hits him some more, Rey charges at Norton and we repeat it again.

Norton throws him out to the floor and Rey’s back is hurt. Rey counters the shoulderbreaker but gets dropped on the buckle to stop the comeback. Norton kills him with a clothesline but picks him up. He does the same off a one handed press slam. Ok that was cool. Then Rey kicks him low and a fast count pins Norton. Seriously, that’s it.

Rating: F. What in the world did this accomplish? Rey looks like a ragdoll, Norton looks like an idiot, I have no reason to believe Rey can beat Nash fairly or have a chance against him, and the match was boring because Norton did little more than stand around the whole time. What was this supposed to accomplish?

More Nitro Girls.

The same cage building video from earlier is shown.

Van Hammer vs. Bret Hart

O……k. Apparently there are more stipulations for Flair vs. Hogan but you have to check the WCW website for them. Egads. Feeling out process to start and Bret is sent to the floor to cool off a bit. Back in and Van Hammer works on the arm but Bret nips up into an arm hold of his own. Van Hammer takes him right back down into a wristlock. He takes Bret into the corner and has been in control most of the match.

Bret is like screw that and hits Hammer low to take over. It’s time to work on the leg so Bret goes through his usual sequence of wear down stuff. Figure Four goes on (the wrong leg) but Van Hammer makes the rope. In a nice heel move Bret won’t let go and spends a long time explaining to the referee that it’s because Hammer is laying on his leg. Small package gets two for Hammer.

Hammer hooks the slowest motion backslide ever for two. Bret goes back to the knee with a cannonball down onto it. The leg gets wrapped around the post and a DDT gets two for the Hitman. Back to the floor and Bret tries to ram the leg into the post again, only to get pulled into it face first. Back in and Hammer suplexes him for no cover. Van Hammer’s cobra clutch slam gets two. An enziguri misses and it’s Sharpshooter time. You know that ends it.

Rating: C-. Not bad here but why would you wasted a 12 minute Bret Hart match on freaking Van Hammer? This is where WCW never made a ton of sense (I know, I know): they had no clue what to do with Bret as he was in the midcard for most of his time there, especially after the first few months where he didn’t do much of anything.

Bret hits the leg with a chair post match.

Hogan and Nash come to the commentary booth and run off Heenan and Tenay.

Ric Flair vs. Goldberg

You know you might think this should be saved for a PPV. That would make too much sense I guess though. Nash brings up a good question: why does Flair wear his knee pads below his knees? Flair gets taken down quickly and is shoved down a second time. Shoulder block doesn’t work at all for Flair. A second does even less. A third results in a gorilla press powerslam to have Flair in agony.

Flair tries to walk up the aisle but Goldberg drags him back. Nash talks about some really strong dude from the Emerald city but he isn’t sure what happened to him. A low blow puts Goldberg down (popular move tonight) and chops don’t work. Another low blow puts Goldie down for an easily broken two count. Goldberg stars a comeback but Flair kicks him low a third time. Refereeing in this company sucks.

Time to go after the legs and after a single shot it’s Figure Four time. That gets powered out of so Flair fires off some kicks. Goldberg no sells them and sends Flair to the corner for the Flair Flip and out to the floor. Flair gets slammed down but the spear misses and he hits the buckle. Goldberg no sells a suplex and spears him down. The NWO D-Team runs in for the no contest.

Rating: C+. This was getting really good until the bad ending. See, here’s what I don’t get. What was the point in the NWO coming in? Hogan is facing Flair on Sunday so wouldn’t they want him to get hit with the Jackhammer to hurt him more? Goldberg didn’t have a match on Sunday and wasn’t on the show at all, so why would they attack him? That’s a basic plot problem.

Hogan and Nash come in also and it’s a big NWO beatdown to end the show.

Overall Rating: D-. I know the expected thing is to say that this is the worst show ever and all that, but it really isn’t. Don’t get me wrong: it’s bad and this was a chore to sit through, but it wasn’t the worst show ever. This was just dull for the most part. Considering I didn’t have to pay much attention at all to the first hour, this was just a bad Nitro. That being said, the show still sucks, but I’ve seen far worse shows. The lack of energy or anyone caring at all is really evident though.

Here’s Uncensored if you’re interested:

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WCW Pro
Date: March 7, 1992
Location: Civic Center, Columbus, Georgia
Attendance: 3,000
Commentator: Tony Schiavone

This is another show I’ve never looked at before but it’s the equivalent of probably Main Event today, not to be confused with WCW Main Event which is an entirely different show. We’re a few days past SuperBrawl which means Sting finally won the world title back from Lex Luger, who is on his way out of the company now, not be to be seen again for over three years. I’m not sure what to expect from this one so let’s get to it.

We open with Rude talking about how he’s beaten Sting before and he can do it again.

P.N. News vs. Fred Avery

News is a 400lb white rapper who is as stupid as he sounds. Avery weighs about 300lb himself and is from Wyoming of all places. News pounds away and dropkicks (kind of) Avery down. A clothesline puts Avery down again as does a fireman’s carry/Samoan Drop. News pounds away very slowly and hits a side slam before strolling around even more. Off to a reverse chinlock for a bit as this is dragging already. A belly to belly puts Avery down and a top rope splash ends this. News’ music was playing before the splash even hit.

Rating: D. News was as fat a fat slob that ever entered the ring this side of say Loch Ness. This was slow and plodding with News walking around the ring, likely in search of a Twinkie to prevent collapsing. He feuded with Steve Austin of all people at this time because when you have Austin, you put him in a feud with a fat tub of goo like News who can barely move an inch.

The new World Champion Sting talks about a title defense against Rude in Chicago.

Terry Taylor vs. Larry Santo

Taylor gets things going by sending Santo into the corner and dropping him with a jawbreaker. Santo is sent to the floor as we hear about Taylor taking Marcus Bagwell under his wing, only to turn on him in an attempt to destroy him. Taylor drops some knees on the back of the head and puts on a Boston Crab which goes nowhere. Taylor won’t even cover off a sitout powerbomb or a powerslam. The Five Arm (a forearm with a semi-clever name) puts Santo out of his misery.

Rating: D+. Not that this was good but it was better than the drek we sat through before this. Taylor though is one of the guys that I never have cared for no matter what he did, primarily because of his lame gimmicks. At this point he was the Taylor Made Man which meant he wore nice clothes. Seriously, that’s it.

Danny Wilson vs. Abdullah the Butcher

Butch is a guy who will run over everyone in sight and doesn’t care about rules at all, making this a more intense than usual squash. That’s what I can’t stand about these old shows: there’s nothing to say about them because it’s the same stuff over and over again. It’s the same destruction over and over again and there’s nothing to say here. Wilson is thrown to the floor and run over with a shoulder block back inside. Two big running 400lb elbows end this.

Rating: F+. Again, what do you want me to say here? Thankfully Butcher didn’t stab anyone in the head or main Wilson this time which is a step in the right direction for him. I’ve never been a fan of the guy as he’s in that camp that thinks bleeding everywhere and dropping an elbow or two makes you a wrestler. Now granted he’s done different stuff before, but his WCW stuff was dreadful.

We get a video from Jesse Ventura at the post-SuperBrawl party. Sting shows up for an impromptu press conference. He says he’ll face anyone who wants to face him and he’d love to defend it in Japan. Sting talks about how strong Luger (the guy he beat) was before Jesse asks what the trash talk was about. Apparently they were saying this is it and they were asking each other if they were ready. Sting doesn’t know who his next opponent will be but here’s the Dangerous Alliance, headed by Rick Rude.

He’s very happy about Sting being champion and offers Sting a drink. Sting says he has no reason to drink with Sting so there’s a drink to the face. Sting is ready to fight right now and it’s on with Rude getting a front facelock and riding Sting down with ease. The rest of the Alliance shows up and Sting is WAY outnumbered until security makes the save.

We get a segment called the Brickhouse Bonus which is an editorial from Jack Brickhouse, a legendary Chicago sportscaster. This is the Chicago version of WCW Pro, which is the same from a content perspective, but has stuff like that thrown in, along with ads for Chicago shows.

Young Pistol Steve vs. Ricky Steamboat

Steve is Steve Armstrong of the Armstrong Family. Feeling out process to start with Ricky carefully taking him into the corner. Steve heads to the apron as we’re over two minutes into this with barely any contact so far. A few shoulders put Steve down before Steamboat slaps him for no apparent reason. Ricky wants a test of strength but Armstrong stays in the corner. Armstrong grabs a headlock takeover out of the corner as they’ve got a lot of time to use here.

Another headlock takeover puts Ricky down again but Steamboat counters into a top wristlock. They go to the mat for some chain wrestling until Armstrong goes to the hair to keep him down. They get back up again with Steamboat taking over via a clothesline and a chop. Out to the floor now for nothing of note so we head back in for Steamboat to keep control. Armstrong goes into the corner a few times but he sends Ricky’s head into it instead to take over again.

Some punches to the face keep Steamboat down as Tony rambles about someone slapping someone else in the face. I would have more details about that but listening to Tony Schiavone makes my head hurt. A suplex puts Armstrong down but Armstrong hits one of his own on the Dragon. Ricky pops back up though and pounds away on Steve in the corner. Steamboat misses a clothesline and it’s off to a surfboard by Armstrong. A sunset flip gets one for Armstrong but Ricky rams him face first into the mat. Armstrong misses a charge and hits the ropes, allowing Ricky to go up top and finish with the cross body.

Rating: D+. This is one of those matches that was long for the sake of being long which doesn’t make it entertaining. At the end of the day, this was a former world champion against a lower midcard tag guy. This would be like Orton taking ten minutes to beat Epico. At the end of the day, it’s really hard to stay with a match that long when it’s just ok. Nothing to see here.

We run down the house show card again.

Rude says he’s going to show Chicago who the better man is between he and Sting.

Brian Pillman says don’t do steroids.

Overall Rating: D. This was your basic show from this era: a bunch of squashes and a feature match which didn’t work all that well. 1992 was decent at times, but you need more than this for a show to work. To be fair though this was the lower level show of the era which didn’t do it any favors. This was boring stuff, but at least it was relatively short.

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Monday Nitro #77
Date: March 3, 1997
Location: The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia
Attendance: 13,693
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko

We’re closing in on Uncensored and we need to get the main event established already. So far we know it’s Team WCW vs. Team NWO but if my memory is right, tonight we’ll hear about a third team being added. This show would be going against Raw in Germany which had Bulldog vs. Owen in one of the best TV matches ever, so I think Nitro is going to lose in the quality war tonight. Let’s get to it.

The NWO arrives in what looks like a Hummer limo. After they come in another limo pulls up, containing Dr. Harvey Schiller, the real head of Turner Sports. Again with WCW’s idea of having real suits with no connection to the business playing themselves.

Hugh Morrus/Konnan vs. Jeff Jarrett/Steve McMichael

Morrus and Jarrett get us going and it’s time to talk about the Dr. that showed up earlier on. Jarrett speeds things up and takes Morrus down with a shoulder and an atomic drop. Morrus comes back with right hands and brings in Konnan with the rolling clothesline. Morrus tries a spinning cross body while Konnan holds Jarrett, but Jeff low blows K-Dawg and Konnan takes the fat man. Mongo cleans house but here’s Public Enemy. Jarrett swings the briefcase at Rocco but it blasts Mongo for the pin.

Rating: D-. How many weeks in a row have we seen these two have some kind of a mishap that leads to a pin? It seemed to go on for months on end and it would continue over the summer. Jarrett didn’t get over because of this and he made the right move by jumping to the WWF in the fall.

Here are Anderson and Flair to complain about the miscommunication. Jarrett says that he’s Horsemen material but Flair gets in his face. Ric says Jarrett is making Flair look bad. Now THAT says a lot. Mongo yells a lot and Debra starts talking, drawing some LOUD booing. She doesn’t want to be on a losing team so GET IT TOGETHER.

Rick Fuller vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Fuller is a big guy standing probably 6’7. Page works on the arm to start followed by a belly to back. Fuller powers him down and drops a leg for two. The fans chant for DDP so he hits the spinning clothesline to take Fuller down. A slam is reversed into the Diamond Cutter for the easy pin. Fuller had a good look.

Page talks about the NWO beating him down last week and focuses on Savage in particular. He tells Savage to snap into the Diamond Cutter.

Juventud Guerrera vs. Ray Mendoza Jr.

That’s Mendoza, not Mysterio and he’s more famous as Villano IV. Mendoza tries to make this a technical match by taking it to the mat which makes sense against Guerrera. Juvy is like screw that in Spanish and hits a pair of ranas to send Mendoza to the floor. The plancha misses though and Mendoza takes over again. Back in an overhead belly to belly gets two. Juvy takes over and hits a springboard legdrop for two.

Off to a chinlock so the guys can catch their breath which is fine. Back up and a victory roll into a rana gets two for Juvy. Mendoza gets backdropped to the floor and they ignore the DQ rule because they want to. Juvy hits a suicide dive but Mendoza kicks away at him anyway. A slingshot rana brings Mendoza back in and they both go to the corner. They both go up and Mendoza gets crotched. A spinwheel kick puts him down and the 450 (to the knees) ends this.

Rating: D+. This was a lot sloppier than you would expect. The match wasn’t bad but other than Rey, you could more or less throw any Cruiserweight from another country and throw him in these spots and it would be about the same. Then again, this was still pretty new stuff at the time so it’s ok.

Kevin Sullivan, Jackie and Jimmy Hart take over the announcers’ desk and Jackie takes credit for Benoit and Woman not being here. She challenges any man on the roster, throwing out names like Hogan, Nash and Savage. Why is she allowed to talk? Who thinks it’s a good idea?

Hank Aaron is here.

Mike Enos vs. Dean Malenko

Malenko is all fired up here because of Eddie ticking him off and costing him the title if I remember right. He chokes Enos in the corner and takes out the knee. They head to the floor and Malenko works on the leg using the barricade. Back in and Enos finally gets in a knee lift to slow Dean down. And never mind as Dean takes the knee out again almost immediately. Malenko hits a top rope cross body but Enos rolls through for two. A clothesline puts Malenko down but a splash misses. Enos tries a slam but Dean small packages him for the pin.

Rating: D+. Basically just a squash but it was fun to see Dean going OFF like this, showing emotion for almost the first time in his career. He would pick up the US Title at the PPV, which should have been a step up in the card for him and to a degree it was, but he never really moved past that. To be fair, Malenko didn’t exactly have the charisma to get much higher.

Dean says he’ll do that to anyone that gets in his way.

Here’s Bischoff who says he would love to put up the NWO’s belts at Uncensored because they’re awesome like that. As he brags about how great the NWO is, here’s Harvey Schiller. Once we actually explain who he is (he’s in charge of Turner’s Sports and Bischoff’s real life boss), he says that Bischoff has to follow rules which he hasn’t been doing. Therefore, Eric is SUSPENDED. This was a big deal and it was one of the first big shots that WCW got back against the NWO. And of course WCW capitalized on it and won the war within 4 months right?

US Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Ultimo Dragon

Eddie is defending. The fans chant USA and it’s a feeling out process to start. Eddie takes him down with a headscissors but gets sent to the floor. Sonny tries to fire some kicks but Eddie is having none of that. He will however have some of Dragon’s kicks, including a spinwheel kick to take him down. Eddie rolls through a cross body and even though his feet are in the ropes, Dragon’s shoulder was up and Eddie is rolling on top of Dragon, the pin counts. That was a major botch of some kind and Eddie looks stunned by whatever happened.

Eddie says he’s tried to apologize to Dean so here’s Malenko in the flesh. Dean says he knows what Eddie’s true colors are and Eddie has no idea what’s going on. They yell a lot and that’s about it.

Hour #2 begins.

Scotty Riggs vs. Mr. Wallstreet

This is a fine example of people that remember Nitro being all drama and young guys having great matches. A lot of the time we had stuff like this to sit through. Riggs takes over quickly and hits a double ax to the head for two. Wallstreet sends him to the floor and does nothing out there, so let’s go back inside.

Schiller has officially made the main event for Uncensored, but it’s going to be a three way match with Piper having a team as well. We hit the chinlock but Riggs jawbreaks his way out of it. Elbow drop misses and Wallstreet takes over again. Riggs comes back with a middle rope missile dropkcik and a top rope sunset flip for two. And here’s Buff Bagwell for the DQ because MICHAEL FREAKING WALLSTREET has to be protected.

Rating: D. This got four minutes and a DQ finish. Look at the participants in this match for a minute and let that sink in. Riggs vs. Bagwell was such a pathetic feud and it was about as close to the Billy and Chuck of their day as you can get. Nothing here and for the life of me I don’t get why they didn’t just have a regular ending.

Piper is here because I guess he heard the announcement about getting a team and warped over. He talks about beating Hogan twice and calls the Outsiders cloned monkeys. Piper has two families: one in Oregon and one here with the fans. He’s going to make a third family out of people he…..oh sweet goodness not this. He’s going to have a series of tryouts tonight and the three winners make his team. Assuming there was nothing set up in a different kind of time frame, this was all set up within the last eight minutes or so. The fans are going to get to decide who makes his team.

Now keep in mind: three of these six guys will headline a WINNER TAKE ALL match on PPV in 13 days. Piper gets down to his trunks and the first guy is…..some dude in jeans. Tony: “I have no idea who that is.” Piper takes him down in an amateur position and the guy taps to a hammerlock very quickly. That’s a thumbs down.

Guy #2 is Horshu, who is more famous as Luther Reigns, who isn’t named Horshu yet and would only become a WCW Saturday Night guy in a few years. He fires off some left hands but gets put to sleep quickly.

#3 is a guy but “some guy with boxing gloves” jumps him. He looks like a cross between Eugene and Steve Williams. Piper has boxing gloves in his trunks for no apparent reason and let’s have a boxing match. Piper punches him into oblivion, gets knocked down then beats up Boxing Guy again, until Boxing Guy takes out the legs. The fans are starting to boo. Piper says bring it on and eventually gives the guy a spot on his team.

Wait we’re not done with Boxing guy because Piper says the fans are being too harsh so let’s fight some more. They take the gloves off and fight for about 20 more seconds before finally giving up on it.

#4 (I guess?) is a big fat guy who REALLY looks like Steve Williams. He’s barefoot so Tenay declares him a martial artist. Heenan: “He’s barefoot and tattooed. Sounds like the winner of the Miss Kentucky contest.” Piper gets kicked down but comes back with kicks of his own. He’s a legit black belt in Judo so he actually knows what he’s doing in a fight. This is before the letters UFC meant anything though, as they were only on their 12th show. The martial artist (none of them have had a name so far) gets totally gassed but tries to throw Piper out anyway. Piper escapes and gives this guy a spot on the team.

The final guy is John Tenta who at least gets a reaction because people know who he is. After a quick fight, the other teammates get in and it’s a big brawl. There’s the team I guess. Piper says it’s war with the NWO now. Thankfully this lasted about 5 minutes before WCW forgot these people existed and put in Jarrett, Benoit and Mongo instead. This got EIGHTEEN MINUTES. Let that sink in for a minute.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Mr. JL

Prince Iaukea gets to talk during this match for some reason. Rey takes over to start with a corkscrew dive for two. JL throws him into the air and brings him down into a DDT for a delayed two. He goes up but misses a diving headbutt. They go to the floor and JL hits a flip dive off the apron. Back in and Rey ranas him down for two. Rey finally gets to the apron and hits the West Coast Pop for the pin out of nowhere.

Rating: D. This was a REALLY awkward match. It wasn’t terrible I guess but these two might as well have been wrestling blindfolded. They didn’t click at all and it felt like they were going with random moves instead of any kind of match with a flow or story at all. Just didn’t work at all.

Madusa is here and says she’s been here for more than a year. She threw away a title belt to open up women’s wrestling but can’t get on TV because of Bischoff. Gee what a shock. This goes on for awhile with her talking about how great women are until Luna Vachon debuts and jumps her.

Here’s the NWO in full force with “Sting”. Wait that’s actually him. Ok then. Eric says that they’re not worried about Schiller because they’re friends with Ted. Hogan makes fun of Piper’s team and Savage says Piper needs a psychiatrist. This somehow takes seven minutes to get through.

Steiner Brothers vs. Lex Luger/The Giant

Rick and Lex get things started as we’re rapidly running out of time. Lex takes him into the corner and Rick comes back with punches. Luger shows off the power and down goes Dog Face. Off to Scott as this is the Steiners’ first match back from the car wreck. Scott hits a butterfly powerbomb and it’s off to Giant who gets the crowd fired up. Rick tags himself in and comes off the middle rope with an ax handle to take him down. A GREAT double suplex puts Giant down for two. Everyone stops to stare at each other and it’s NWO time. Sting stands with the NWO and the match just kind of ends.

Rating: D. This was a lot of standing around for the sake of standing around until the NWO ran in to end the match. These four would wind up being Team WCW at the PPV which would be fine as all four had reason to face the NWO guys. This could have been a big time tag match too.

Piper and company come in through the crowd and the brawl finally gets going to end the show.

Overall Rating: F. This was a horrible show on all accounts. All of the matches were either barely watchable or horrible, there was a nearly 20 minute segment that got booed out of the building, and other than the Bischoff suspension (you know, the guy that was back an hour and a half later saying it meant nothing), NOTHING happened on this show. Terrible episode here and one of the worst in the history of the show.

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Monday Nitro #110
Date: October 20, 1997
Location: Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, Mississippi
Attendance: 5,950
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan

We’re finally at the go home show for Halloween Havoc and the show is on the hottest streak it’s been on since it first started. We’ve had three weeks straight of good to excellent show and hopefully things continue in that direction from here. After last week it’s very clear that Sting vs. Hogan is coming in the very near future but tonight it’s the final push towards Hogan vs. Piper in the cage. Let’s get to it.

We open with the NWO b-team laid out in the back. We see the letters DDP spray painted on various things along with Piper t-shirts and ball bats on the ground.

In the arena Hogan and Bischoff storm the ring, yelling about improper leadership from Piper and various other things in general. Hogan calls it a bunch of crap and Savage joins in for more yelling. The announcers of course laugh.

There’s a cage above the ring.

Cruiserweight Title: Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero

Eddie is defending in match #4857 of about 58379 between these two. Eddie shoves him to start so Benoit runs him over with a shoulder block. They chop it out before Benoit launches him into the air in a release flapjack. Benoit stomps away in the corner but Eddie comes back with strikes of his own. Very fast paced stuff so far. A dropkick puts Benoit back into the corner but Eddie misses a charge and is launched face first into the buckle. The Canadian chops away in the corner and knocks Eddie out to the floor.

Back in and Guerrero snap mares Benoit down before taking some skin off with a chop. Benoit will have none of that though and puts Eddie on the apron before chopping him into the barricade. A suicide dive takes Guerrero out and we take a break back with the champion holding an abdominal stretch but Benoit arm drags out of it.

Eddie comes back with a headscissors and more chops in the corner. We’re told that Hennig is still US Champion after last week’s messy ending which is the wrong call but whatever. Benoit tries a tornado DDT out of the corner but gets sent into the middle buckle for his efforts. The Frog Splash retains the title clean.

Rating: B-. Really solid opening match here with both guys chopping the tar out of each other every time they were in the corner. Benoit knocked himself silly by hitting that buckle so the Frog Splash was academic. Good match here but that goes without saying when it’s these two. Their chemistry is some of the best of all time and this was no exception. Somehow, this was Eddie’s worst match of the week by miles and miles.

We get the ending of the US Title match last week which somehow keeps the title on Hennig. That was a pretty bad screwup.

Bill Goldberg vs. Wrath

Wrath’s entrance takes about two minutes to get through. The match: spear, Jackhammer, pin in 20 seconds. Wrath didn’t even get his helmet and coat off. We also get an error from Tenay who calls the Jackhammer a combination suplex and powerbomb instead of a powerslam. This would be back in the day when Tenay was the smartest guy in wrestling and might have made one error a month if he was having a bad night.

Goldberg shouts WHO’S NEXT in the aisle before getting in a staredown with Mongo who is coming out for his match. Sounds like Goldie has a feud coming.

Steve McMichael vs. Mortis

Mongo jumps Mortis to start and Vandenberg is freaking out on the floor over possibly losing two matches in a row that fast. Mongo pounds away in the corner but Vandenberg protects his investment by tripping up Mongo, allowing Mortis to hit a quick Flatliner (Samoan Drop off the middle rope) to get control. A Death Valley drier gets the same and McMichael is thrown to the floor. The suplex from the middle rope (just the rope, not in the corner) brings Mongo back in for two but Mongo shrugs it off. He hits a few three point shoulders and the tombstone for the pin on Mortis out of almost nowhere.

Rating: D+. This was on the higher end for Mongo although I’m not sure this was the best way in the world to set him up for a match against a machine like Goldberg. Somehow Mongo would be around until 1999 and would still get to hang out with Ric Flair until the very end. I’m not sure what the appeal was of the guy other than his football stuff, because it certainly wasn’t anything of note between the ropes. This wasn’t awful though.

Raven is at a playground and talks about his bad childhood. He sits on a slide as he talks about this, which prompts a quick sidebar: why do we not get promos on location anymore? Taking people outside of the arena can add a lot to the promos, if nothing else just for a change of scenery. Look at HELL NO having their segments in a meeting room. It worked far better than it would have in the back and got funnier results when we put these guys in the real world. Why don’t we see more of that?

Time for Lucha Libre and the Mexican Luchadores. This time we focus on Rey Mysterio who talks about how he used wrestling to get out of a barrio in Mexico City. He got his name from his uncle but has surpassed his uncle’s success. Rey talks about how important the mask is to him but isn’t sure what would happen without being able to wear it. Nice way to tie this into the match on Sunday.

Juventud Guerrera vs. Yuji Nagata

Nagata pounds away to start and the kicks start ripping into Juvy seconds after the bell. A big boot to the face misses though as Raven and the Flock arrives. Juvy charges into a powerbomb but elbows out of a German suplex grip. A quick rana puts Nagata down for two and Juvy chops away. Nagata misses a charge in the corner and gets caught in the back with a missile dropkick. I might as well watch this match on mute as the announcers are talking about the NWO non-stop. Onoo crotches Juvy as Dragon comes out to take care of Sonny. The Nagata Lock ends Juvy in a short match.

Dragon goes after Onoo but runs into Nagata for some double teaming by the evil ones.

Los Villano vs. Damian/???

We don’t find out the partner as Giant comes out and destroys everyone in sight. Giant talks about Kevin Nash lying about being the true giant of wrestling. The luchadores try to fight the Giant and get powerbombed for their efforts. The build for one of Starrcade’s big matches begins.

Savage talks about Page and the PPV. Short and nothing out of the ordinary here.

TV Title: Disco Inferno vs. Rey Mysterio

Mysterio speeds things up to start and gets a fast rana for two. Rey charges in again but gets caught in a powerbomb for no cover by the champion. Disco heads to the floor for no apparent reason and allows Rey to hit a baseball slide. Back inside and a sunset flip gets two on Disco so Rey goes to the apron. He hits a kind of messed up cross body and loads up the West Coast Pop but Eddie comes out for the DQ.

Eddie goes for the mask, but who cares about that because IT’S JACKIE TIME!!! She comes out to beat up Disco and the champion runs. Please get to Sunday so we can move on to ANYONE but Jackie.

Hour #2 begins.

Here’s the NWO again with Hogan going on a RANT about how Page, Piper and Sting are cowards for what they did earlier tonight. Bischoff says no one is leaving the arena tonight until those three get out here. Trash is thrown and Eric says that Vince is afraid of him. I have no idea what that has to do with anything but it’s the end of a short appearance from the bad guys.

US Title: Curt Hennig vs. Dean Malenko

Hennig is still champion coming into this. Curt is a big banged up from being attacked earlier so he’s in slow motion tonight. They both grab a fast hammerlock but Dean is in better condition so he rolls the champ up for two. Hennig bails to the floor for a bit to clear his head before getting droppkicked down back inside. After that gets two we take a quick break.

Back with Hennig suplexing Dean down for a quick two. Dean fights up and hooks a chinlock which isn’t exactly something you would expect from a good guy. Back up and Hennig tries to fight back, only to get caught in a belly to back suplex. Thankfully the NWO is involved in this match so the announcers actually give it some attention. Dean goes up top and hits a cross body for a VERY close two, only to walk into the HennigPlex for the pin a few seconds later. Oddly abrupt ending.

Rating: C. Not either guy’s best work here as the match never really got going. They were going through the motions pretty bad here which is really surprising given how awesome Malenko was back in 1997. Hennig would be facing Flair in the future to get him back to matches that actually mattered. At least Dean got to hang in here with someone on a higher level.

Nitro Girl time.

Scott Norton vs. Ray Traylor

Oh come on. Did THIS match really need a rematch? Seriously? As the match starts, Traylor has to scare off Vincent, allowing Norton to his a fast (kind of?) powerslam for two. We get the slow offense that you would expect from Norton: knees in the corner, clothesline, clubs to the back, all in slow motion. Ray comes back with a splash in the corner and a spinebuster, followed by a fat man enziguri of all things. He hits his sliding uppercut before going up (?) and hitting a fat man cross body, only to get painted in the eyes by Vincent. A clothesline ends Traylor.

Rating: D. Again, did ANYONE think we needed to see this match? Also, Traylor gets to lose again, making sure that he gets no momentum behind him and making sure that the NWO D team is made to look strong, because we certainly can’t have Scott freaking Norton do a job on Nitro right?

Traylor gets beaten down by Hall, Konnan, Norton and Vincent post match.

We get an ad for Assault on Devil’s Island. Oh that’s going to be bad.

Booker T. vs. Lex Luger

We’re still months if not years away from Booker meaning anything. Lex throws Booker around to start and poses a lot to start things off. T. comes back with a forearm to surprise Luger but Luger comes back with a powerslam. The jumping elbow misses Booker of course (did that thing EVER hit?) but Booker’s elbow misses too. He Spinaroonis up though and kicks Lex down before hooking a chinlock.

That goes about as far as a chinlock can go as Lex fights up and ducks a side kick, sending Booker into the ropes. The forearm puts Booker down but he manages to block the Torture Rack. A spin kick puts Luger down but the Harlem Hangover (top rope flipping legdrop) only hits mat. The Torture Rack is enough for the tap out a few seconds later.

Rating: C. Much better than I was expecting here as Booker showed some of the skills that he would get to really put on display months later. Luger continues to have very little to do going into the PPV as we’re getting closer to the match with Hall. No Larry or Hall here which is kind of surprising.

Luger has nothing of note to say post match but Larry comes out and says he’ll be an impartial referee on Sunday.

Here’s Hall for the Survey. You know the drill I’m sure.

Scott Hall vs. Scott Steiner

Hall is Hall and Scott is Steiner here for the sake of simplicity. This is a return match from last week with the Steiners winning the titles. Hall hits the driving shoulders to start things off but Steiner runs him over. Hall comes back with a kind of suplex/backdrop to set up an armbar. Steiner won’t have any of this being suplexed stuff so he throws Hall down as well before clotheslining him out to the floor.

We take a break and come back with Steiner messing with Hall’s hair. There’s a full nelson and Hall looks drunk. Odds are he is so I’m guessing the hold is working fine. Hall breaks it up by ramming Scott into the corner and clotheslining him down. The fallaway slam gets two on Scott and he makes fun of Giant with a chokeslam. Hall walks around like Frankenstein’s Monster before hooking an abdominal stretch. After over a minute of the hold, Hall gets caught holding the rope and the referee breaks things up.

Steiner grabs an abdominal stretch of his own but instead uses it for a pumphandle slam. There’s an overhead belly to belly to put Hall down again and a Steiner Line does the same. Hall ducks a second Steiner Line and punches the referee, wanting a DQ. Instead there’s a Tiger Bomb from Scott but there’s no one to count. Hall comes back though and hits the Outsider’s Edge as a hooded black referee comes in to count the pin. It’s Vincent if you couldn’t tell.

Rating: C-. Not bad here with Steiner getting to show off some skills here. He’s about to turn heel and become Big Papa Pump though and end one of the best tag teams ever. Hall was in two feuds at once here which left him kind of in the middle of nowhere, as he didn’t get to focus on one or the other. He’s spent two weeks fighting the Steiners and now he gets to fight Luger on Sunday. Why they didn’t do the tag title change later (or at Road Wild when it would have made sense) is anyone’s guess but it would have made things easier.

Here’s the NWO for the third or fourth time tonight to close the show. They want the attackers here right now and they prove it by having Bischoff rip on McMahon some more. Hogan gets to plug his movie but here’s Sting. By Sting I of course mean “Sting.” As he’s coming down the aisle, two more Stings come through the crowd and jump the NWO. It’s Piper and Page of course. The cage lowers and Sting repels from the ceiling to beat up the NWO to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Well you knew the hot streak wasn’t going to last forever. We’re limping into the show on Sunday and the cage match is going to reach levels of bad that you didn’t think were possible before this match. As for tonight though, the show was slow and long which aren’t two things you want to mix together. There’s some good stuff in this but it’s definitely an episode you could skip.

Here’s Halloween Havoc if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2013/02/23/halloween-havoc-1997-age-in-the-cage-and-one-of-wcws-best-matches-ever/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

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