Millennium Final
Date: November 16, 2000
Location: Arena Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany
Attendance: 9,000

Most of you likely haven’t heard of this show and I can’t say that I blame you. In the dying days of WCW, they woke up and did what WWF had been doing for years: going after Europe, and this was the result. It was only aired in Germany and parts of Europe and never once mentioned on American TV or put released to the American market.

There’s a weird and over the top thing for the European Cup which hasn’t been around since 1994 and a world title match with Booker T and Scott Steiner. I’ve never seen this so let’s get to it.

It’s never explained why the Millennium Final is being held 11 months into the millennium but I think that might be too much for WCW to get so I’ll leave it alone. Ah apparently it was the Millennium Tour and this is the FINAL night, even though I’ve found matches dated from December so whatever. Mind you that commentary here is all in German so I’m kind of on my own here. There’s no intro or anything other than pyro and we’re right into our first match.

Rey Mysterio/Billy Kidman vs. Kronik

Naturally the commentary is in German but the announcer speaks English. They were out of business in five months and it’s not hard to see why at this rate. The small guys are actually heels here. Make sense out of that. Kronik are Crush and Adam Bomb. I loved them but they just kind of sucked. Kronik’s finisher was a double chokeslam called High Time.

Why they made a ton of pot jokes is beyond me but whatever. Adams and Kidman start and I have no idea who the faces are all of a sudden. The big guys were way over but they’re being booed here. Oh how I love WCW from this era. Nothing makes sense and they have no problem with it at all. What do you really expect to happen here? Rey didn’t become a big deal until WWE so he’s a regular cruiserweight here.

Tygress, the manager of the Filthy Animals, and yes that’s really their name, was just disturbing looking. She wasn’t hot at all but they decided she was I guess. And hey look here, the faces are dominating and then Kidman walks into the double chokeslam for the pin. That was freaking stupid.

Rating: D. Holy goodness this was BORING. I never thought an 8 minute match could be so stupid but I was wrong. I mean just NOTHING interesting happened here. This was so uninspired it was pathetic. No one cared at all and it just was painfully obvious. The crowd was into it but that’s all they had going for it.

Watch WCW television. Or try the veal. I’m not sure what was actually said here.

Battle Royal

Apparently the winner here qualifies for another qualifying match later on to fight in the Europe Cup Title Match where Sting is already in. The winner here gets into a triple threat with Nash and Alex Wright, who is already in this match, making his entry completely pointless but then again it’s WCW so there we are. And apparently this is Royal Rumble style. Ok then. We start with Elix Skipper and Lance Storm as this continues to make less and less since every few seconds.

They’re teammates here so they just kill time until the next guy shows up and it’s General Rection, more commonly known as Bill DeMott. Rection and Storm were feuding over the US/Canadian Title so it fits perfectly. It’s it funny how that always happens? The time is like a minute here as Ernest Miller is 4th. He was commissioner on and off around this time as control changed about once a week literally.

And there’s your obligatory stupid USA chant in a non American country. Mike Sanders who is apparently Commissioner of the Week is 5th. The guy could talk and that’s it. Skipper throws the WORST kicks I have ever seen. That 70s Guy Mike Awesome is 6th. Now let’s stop for a second here. For those of you that saw Awesome in ECW, you know he’s a killing machine.

He’s 6’6 and could fly like a cruiserweight. The guy was a freaking monster. So what did WCW do with him? They turned him into a guy obsessed with the 70s and made him love fat women. WCW, you deserved to go out of business. You know what his original gimmick in WCW was: The Career Killer. Think of Orton but in Swagger’s body and TICKED OFF. No we can’t have that. That kind of gimmick could be, and perish the thought, GOOD!

We can’t have that, so we’ll turn him into the Fat Chick Thriller. WCW stuns me to no end at times. Actually make that all the time. At least he’s in his regular attire here. Kwee Wee, another gay character that never says he’s gay, is 7th. The music in late WCW just plain sucked. Storm goes out. Nothing of note is happening at all, meaning it’s a traditional battle royal. Disco Inferno, a face believe it or not, is 8th and there goes Miller.

The time thing is completely off as usual. Ninth is Kidman who is holding his ribs from all of 15 minutes ago. Again, this is just boring. Nothing of note is going on and the crowd is dying. This really shouldn’t have been Rumble rules. Apparently Kronik come out as a unit, so we’ll call them ten and eleven. They throw out Rection, Kwee Wee and Skipper. Sanders and Disco are out too and it’s Rey out at 12.

Awesome goes through the ropes, so they actually go with the same match we saw LESS THAN TWENTY MINUTES AGO. The stupidity here is astounding. Sean O’Haire is thirteenth as we have five to go. Kidman is out and so is Rey. AND WHAT A SHOCK it’s Sean’s partner Mark Jindrak in next to give us another tag match. Awesome is just hiding on the floor which is smart if nothing else, even though he’s supposed to be a monster but when would WCW use intelligence.

Norman Smiley is 15th to a huge pop. The four guys gang up on him and with little trouble after the worst piledriver this side of a backyard wrestling fed. Alex Wright, the hometown boy, gets a fairly weak pop at number 16. He’s bald now as he had been Berlyn recently. Out last is Konnan for no apparent reason. Ok so the final group is Adams, Clark, Jindrak, O’Haire, Smiley, Wright and Konnan.

Oh and Awesome who is hiding. And I miscounted so the final guy is Finlay. Well he get a good pop if nothing else so that’s good. He puts Kronik out so he’s a superhero. And we have a chair in there for no apparent reason. Smiley puts O’Haire out. Jindrak is out. Finlay puts Smiley out so it’s Konnan, Finlay, Wright, and Awesome and there goes Konnan.

Finlay has the chair but throws it down due to stupidity I guess. Wright puts Finlay out with a dropkick and celebrates to a sweet pop as the hometown boy winning the match. And then here’s Awesome to say SCREW YOU to the fans and win the match. Good night WCW was freaking stupid.

Rating: D. It’s a battle royal so it’s hard to grade, but the booking was just stupid here for reasons already explained. Awesome was fine but then again I mark for him so it’s not that easy. The booking for this show is just all over the place as you’ll soon find out.

Kwee Wee vs. Elix Skipper

Since his real name is Alan Funk, we’re calling the first guy Alan. He was a character that was kind of a combination of Rico and something else resembling Rico that lacked the talent or the intrigue. Skipper was more or less just a regular cruiserweight at this point so this is really just filler. Alan and Skipper actually feuded but it went nowhere given the whole going out of business thing.

For some reason I was always a mark for Skipper. I have no idea why but I was. Surprisingly this isn’t bad. Also much like Rico, Alan was a guy that couldn’t get a break because of his gimmick. He was far more talented than he was made out to be and he shows it here. They do some solid chain wrestling that I like. A common thing tonight is that these matches are getting a good amount of time and that’s rather nice.

Guys like these two that don’t often get to showcase themselves are getting to do so, but they’re a bit tired after the battle royal which sucks. This is pretty good stuff, but Skipper looks terrible as he has to job again. The guy had talent but he was always jobbing. To be fair though the gimmick didn’t help things at all. He almost hits the Playmaker but it’s countered and Alan gets a quick rollup for the pin.

Rating: C+. Ending kind of sucked but WCW’s strategy with small guys was simple: let them wrestle and it’ll work. They never messed with these guys and it helped a lot, but at the same time they just left them there when they were ready to move on up and that’s what killed the company off in the end, at least for me.

Ernest Miller says he runs WCW. Good to know.

Ernest Miller vs. Mike Sanders

This is for the Commissionership, which of course makes sense in a major company: have two men fight to see who the boss is. This was another of the mindlessly dumb feuds they had over who got to be boss like 18 or whatever. I think Sanders is commissioner coming in here. And it’s a two minute match with the Cat winning with a spinkick. I hated these things back then and I hate them now.

Rating: N/A. It’s stupid so it must be WCW. Miller was a guy that I never got the appeal of so he kept getting pushed further and further up the card. I was surprised he never won the world title because it would have failed that much better.

US Title: General Rection vs. Lance Storm

Storm had been pushed as the greatest thing on the planet, winning every singles title other than the World all at once, but now this was all he had left. This was allegedly a hot feud back in the day but I never saw nor felt any of said heat. Morrus starts off hot. Ok that’s a lie. He starts off moderately not cold as I don’t think hot was something he was capable of ever reaching.

This is as much of a cookie cutter of a match as you could ask for. Oh and Major Gunns is at ringside. She thought she drew what Booker and Steiner did. That’s just amusing. You can see the stupid ending coming from here so let’s just skip to that. The flag hits Morrus as he’s about to win the title. There’s about 4 minutes of Storm winning and the half crab and a comeback thrown in there but it was all boring stuff.

Rating: D+. This could have been on any house show and it still would have sucked. Morrus won the title ten days later at Mayhem so it’s not like this was anything more than practice I guess.

Random hot girls come out and dance to what sounds like a German singing a bad English song.

Norman Smiley vs. Fit Finlay

This is a hardcore match. WCW tried to have a hardcore division and it failed worse that a condom for Jon and Kate. Both guys are far more famous in Europe so this makes sense if nothing else. Smiley is over as all goodness here and is dressed like a Swiss guy. This is an Oktoberfest match apparently. It’s a standard basic hardcore match to start out as it’s just random weapons and Norman screaming.

I think by this point Meng had left with the hardcore belt and ended the division once and for all but I’m not sure. It was another case of WCW just putting a title on a guy with no contract and thinking that was ok. He was in WWE about two weeks later and there wasn’t a thing WCW could do about it. They brawl up to the concession/merchandise area (read as Finlay beats on him and Norman conveniently walks that way).

They’re in the crowd now and this is boring yet not awful stuff. Ah good they’re back on camera now. Yeah go ahead and chant for ECW. It’ll die in like two months anyway. Norman takes over in the ring and we hit a chinlock. We have a chinlock in a hardcore match. I don’t know what to type. Ok now I know. That’s freaking stupid. Wow how did I not get that faster? Naturally it turns into nothing but a weapons match.

Finlay keeps getting booed so he gets on the mic and yells in German which is kind of creepy in a way. We hear about Flair for no apparent reason. It’s sad that guys with this much talent have to do stupid stuff like this. We get a crossface chicken wing but Finlay goes through a table.

Finlay goes through a table feet first which looked cool and apparently is good for a pin. Norman dances for awhile and then goes to the back where he does an interview in English but Finlay jumps him. This also went nowhere.

Rating: C. It was a long TV match but that’s fine for something like this. Norman was incredibly over in America for no apparent reason and that translates worldwide I guess. This was a decent match but rather boring. There were just so many of these things that it was hard to really find one that stood out and this one didn’t at all.

Tag Titles: Boogie Knights vs. Mark Jindrak/Sean O’Haire

So the non dancers are the champions here, but Disco Inferno is hurt. Since we need to have a German win the belts though, we have Alex Wright teaming with General Rection for no apparent reason at all and he’s wearing a sweatshirt despite wearing tights in the previous match. Rection isn’t US Champion here as you saw a little bit ago but he’s announced as it and holds up a German flag. He and Jindrak start us off.

We hear that Wright has been inserted into the Triangle Match later on to qualify for the Europe Cup with Awesome and Nash. It’s weird but slowly and surely you get to understand German to an extent. Wright hits a sweet double nip up to get back up. That was awesome. They mention the Dancing Fools and Berlin but say tonight it’s just Alex Wright. Now why couldn’t we get this Alex Wright in America? This guy is freaking awesome.

The heels take over on Rection to set up the insanely hot tag that’s coming soon. The General looks like a fat Jeff Hardy. And we hit an arm bar ten minutes into the match. That fails to make sense but it’s WCW so whatever. The Seanton Bomb misses and there’s the hot one. Actually make that a slight fever one.

There was a tiny pop at best. And he’s getting beaten up now. This is already making my head hurt badly. I think Alex forgets to kick out of a rollup meaning that Mark has to just kind of let it go which looks completely stupid. Wright hits a missile dropkick from the top for the pin and the titles for him and Disco and a huge pop.

Rating: C-. Odd booking aside, this was all so that Wright could get a huge pop and that’s fine. He’s the hometown boy and he deserves a moment like this. I think it was mentioned on TV as a European match but Rection was never mentioned so there we are. This wasn’t bad but it wasn’t anything worth watching either. It’s your standard TV match which is fine. Not a great match but a cool moment.

Kevin Nash vs. Mike Awesome vs. Alex Wright

Dang Alex has to be getting tired out there. This is his third match tonight. The winner fights Sting who for no apparent reason is in the final match already. Oh that’s right: he drew money at one point in his career. Nash just kind of stands around because moving more than that might cause his spleen to rupture or something and he would be out two days before he could come back and get an easy win.

It amazes me that Awesome went from being a great character to such an awful one in just a few months. That’s WCW for you though. Alex is clearly tired but he’s doing what he can I guess. This is called a triangle match but it’s just a triple threat. Sorry if I don’t seem that interested in these matches but they’re just not interesting. I would guess that it’s because of the lack of commentary. Or maybe it’s just that WCW sucked so badly at this time.

Nash is in the ring now and Awesome is dominating for the most part. Wright is easily the fans’ pick to win but that’s simply not going to happen. That would mean a young guy would get a push and even in a country where that’s never going to be seen we can’t allow that right?

Nash just looks completely out of his element in there and it’s bad. With Awesome taking Nash down, Wright makes his comeback. The fans are barely popping for it. Even in another country WCW was crap. Wright puts him down with the neckbreaker but Nash is waiting. He takes Wright out and pins both guys at once to advance.

Rating: D+. They were just completely out of their element here and it hurt them badly. Wright was the only one the fans cared about but that was just because of the hometown aspect. In retrospect they should have just put him into the main event, if nothing else to give him a chance to catch his breath.

WCW Title: Scott Steiner vs. Booker T.

I believe this is match number 8000 in their eternal series. These two are more or less joined at the hip everywhere they go other than WWE and that’s probably not a good thing. Naturally the title isn’t going to chance here as Steiner would get it at Mayhem in ten days just like Morrus did earlier. This is about as formula based of a match as a human being could possibly ask for here. It’s not very good but it’ll do I suppose.

Booker starts in control and Steiner takes over. He moves. Incredibly. Slowly. Naturally he works on the back which is the closest thing to psychology you’ll get out of that roided up mess. He busts out the Frankensteiner which allegedly is a big move but I fail to see it anymore.

When you have Rey and Juvi jumping all over the place it’s just not worth much anymore. We get the Booker comeback but Steiner manages to get him down and gets the Recliner. Booker gets the ropes and then the kick to end it.

Rating: C+. Like I said this was the standard match for these two and it was ok I suppose. With about ten minutes to work with what more would you ask of them? At least it was a clean pin. It wasn’t bad I guess but they would have a, I guess you could say this, better match, in ten days anyway so this was fine for practice.

Axel Schulz is refereeing the main event. Naturally he was someone that hadn’t meant anything for about three years. You know the jokes that I’m thinking of.

Europe Cup: Sting vs. Kevin Nash

And again it’s two guys in their 40s in the main event instead of pushing a young guy to something. This match is a microcosm of everything that was wrong with WCW for its last two years: the match is sloppy, nothing new is attempted, Sting and Nash don’t really try that hard, and this pales in comparison to some of the other stuff we saw earlier, yet they’ll get their huge checks anyway. This goes on about 9 minutes and is the same thing you saw before. Sting wins by submission and holds up the cup to end the show.

Rating: D-. For all the reasons listed above plus the fact that no one cared at all. This was crap. What a shock, two old guys get to go on for a match that no one is going to care about. Why is this not surprising?

Overall Rating: D+. This was just not that good. To be fair though, most European shows aren’t. The fans were kind of there but this had nothing on an English crowd. The guys on the lower half of the card worked very hard and the guys on the main event didn’t, so it fits very well. There’s a lot of house show stuff in here and it’s just not that interesting. If you can actually find this, don’t bother watching it unless you speak German or just REALLY like WCW.

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Monday Nitro #141
Date: June 15, 1998
Location: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Laryr Zbyszko

We’re past the Great American Bash and the main development is Sting holds both tag team titles. Seriously, other than that not a ton has changed. Hogan, Hart, Piper and Savage had their match which changed absolutely nothing and Booker is the TV Champion again. There’s not much else to say about the show, which is a good indication of how important that show was. We’re now four weeks away from Bash at the Beach so let’s get to it.

Public Enemy vs. Hugh Morrus/Barbarian

This opens the show as Public Enemy is on their way to the ring as Tony welcomes us to the show. It’s a street fight meaning the weapons are flying as soon as the Public Enemy hits the ring. As usual it’s pure insanity with everyone hitting everyone else in the head and Grunge being sent head first into a garbage can. Even Jimmy Hart gets in a cheap shot with a sheet of medal.

Hugh backdrops Rocco into a powerbomb from Barbarian and a bunch of garbage can shots keep Rocco down. Grunge comes back in with some trashcan lid shots to Barbarian as Morrus loads up a table on the floor. A frying pan to the crotch slows Morrus down but he’s good enough to bulldog Rocco. Jimmy tries some more shots to Rocco’s head, earning him a suplex into the ring. Rocco is eventually suplexed over the top and through the table, but he lands on Barbarian for the pin.

Rating: D-. I can’t stand these matches. I get the idea of appealing to the ECW fanbase but couldn’t they come up with something more interesting than just hitting each other in the head with metal? These matches don’t add anything at all and when it takes a few seconds to determine who won, there’s probably a problem.

We get the opening pyro display and the announcers’ usual recap of the recent events around these parts.

Earlier today Mike interviewed some fans to find out if they were ready for Nitro.

We recap the Wolfpack recruiting Page from last week.

Opening sequence.

Nitro Girls.

Here’s how to get a Nitro Party!

Here’s Savage for an interview. He has a message for Piper and that is….that he wants DDP in the Wolfpack. Savage talks about Wyatt Earp wanting to help the Wolfpack and goes into a sales pitch to Page for a spot on the team. He wants Page in a cage match tonight and if Page can beat him, Page can join the team with Savage’s full endorsement.

We get some stills of the tag match last night.

Chris Benoit vs. Fit Finlay

Tenay suggests that this is a #1 contenders match for the TV Title but I don’t think that’s official. Benoit takes him into the corner to start and this is going to be a physical one. The fans are all over Finlay from the bell and he seems a bit shaken by it. Finlay takes him down with a headlock and cranks on the arm a bit before just kicking Benoit in the face. We hit the chinlock on the Canadian before Benoit fights up and hits a backbreaker to send Finlay to the floor.

Finlay sends him back first into the apron before taking him inside for a reverse chinlock. Benoit stands up and drops Finlay down onto his back for two. We come back from a break with Finlay dropping a knee on Benoit’s face for two. Chris fights up again with some hard boots to the ribs but gets dropped throat first across the top rope. Finlay misses a charge into the post and Benoit hits the Rolling Germans to put both guys down.

Benoit is up first but the Swan Dive only hits mat and Finlay drops another knee to the head. These shots are making me cringe more and more every time. The rolling senton puts Benoit down again but Benoit goes into beast mode, countering the tombstone into the Crossface for the win.

Rating: C+. This took some time to get going but everything after the break was awesome. These two beat the crap out of each other, but the shots to the head are hard to sit through. It’s good to see Benoit get a win after losing the series though, so maybe there’s hope for him yet. Solid match here for the most part though.

Post match Gene comes into the ring to interview Benoit about the series with Booker. Benoit invites Booker out here to see him face to face for some business. Here’s Harlem Heat and Benoit stares Booker down, only to shake and raise his hand. Booker calls Benoit the best man he’s ever been in the ring with and Benoit says to say the word if Booker ever needs a good man in his corner.

This isn’t cool with Stevie who calls Benoit a pipsqueak. Benoit repeats what he said and Booker offers another handshake but Stevie blasts Benoit in the face. Cue Mongo (dang it) to pull Stevie off but Booker breaks it up. Harlem Heat leaves and Benoit says he’s here for one thing, and he holds up the four fingers.

Post breaks here’s DDP to answer Savage’s challenge. Well in theory at least as Page would rather talk about Hogan and Rodman. They’re both somewhere between a cockroach and that white stuff that accumulates at the corner of your mouth when you’re really thirsty (direct quote from the movie Con Air). Apparently there’s a tag match at Bash at the Beach with Page having a partner to be named. Oh and Savage is on for the cage match tonight.

We get a clip of Hogan and Rodman attacking Page with chairs last week. Apparently there are rumors that NBA superstar Karl Malone might don the tights and join WCW. I’m guessing that was the major announcement that wasn’t made on Thunder.

Nitro Girls.

Gene is in the ring again and it’s time for Piper’s weekly rambling. Piper: “GOD BLESS FRANK SINATRA!” Sinatra died a month before this, so I’m assuming it was a tribute, but that’s a bit late isn’t it? Anyway, Piper talks about remembering the Statue of Liberty wearing a kilt (I rescind my thought on it being a tribute and vote for Piper is nuts) and says he’s tough enough to make Rush Limbaugh lose weight and put Howard Stern on the Disney Channel. The smark crowd stops him with a loud RODDY chant but Piper confirms the cage match for tonight, but with him as the referee for no apparent reason.

Hiroshi Tenzan/Masahiro Chono vs. High Voltage

The Japanese guys are IWGP Tag Team Champions and are in the Black and White. Robbie Rage gets jumped to start but Kaos comes in off the top with a clothesline to take down Chono. High Voltage clears the ring and we take a break. Yes, this match is getting a break. Back with Rage stomping on Tenzan and putting on a reverse chinlock. Tenzan fights up as the announcers talk about Goldberg being with his sick mom tonight.

Chono comes in off the tag and everything breaks down for a few moments. Things settle back down with Kaos blocking a Chono suplex until High Voltage comes in for a double team. Kaos’ top rope clothesline hits Rage by mistake, allowing Tenzan to drop a top rope headbutt for two. Not that it matters as the Mafia Kick ends Kaos seconds later.

Rating: F. I can’t stand these matches as we’re just supposed to instantly care about people we haven’t seen in months because they’re wearing NWO shirts. Yeah Chono and Tenzan are awesome, but we need more than a few matches a year for the fans to realize that. On top of that the match was horrible with everyone looking sloppy and the match being a big mess. Given what I’ve seen from both teams, I blame this pretty much entirely on High Voltage.

Still shots of Giant vs. Sting last night.

Here’s the Wolfpack to a BIG reaction. Nash talks about how life is full of ironies, such as the last man to join the Wolfpack is the first one to bring home some gold. He brings out Sting for his pick of the partners but Sting wants to suck up to the crowd first. Sting talks about how everyone in the group has credentials, ranging from Konnan coming from a bunch of tough barrios, Luger holding every title there is to hold and Nash being a living, breathing monster. Savage isn’t listed as a possibility for some reason. However, he’s going to wait until the tag title defense tonight to make his announcement.

Kanyon vs. Sick Boy

Kanyon charges to the ring and the brawl is quickly on. Sick Boy is stomped into the corner and punched a lot before Kanyon pulls him down with a neckbreaker for two. Kanyon heads to the floor where a Lodi (in a safari hat because he’s odd like that) distraction lets Sick Boy take over. Back in and Sick Boy goes up but hops down, allowing Kanyon to hit a great looking forward electric chair for two. A faceplant out of the corner puts Sick Boy down again before the Flatliner gets the pin.

Rating: C-. This didn’t have time to go anywhere but Kanyon continues to look awesome. His offense was so different from anyone else and he had a solid look, but for some reason he never reached that higher level. The feud with the Flock is working though and I’m curious to see where it goes.

Here are Rude and Hennig with Curt now in the Black and White like he should have been all along. Rude talks about how everyone has been asking why they turned on the Wolfpack and it’s the stereotypical answer: money. If it had been Hennig in there with Goldberg, the streak would be over. That’s going to be the case one day because Hennig has won over 3,000 matches. Hennig brags about swerving Konnan and promises no swerves with the Black and White, even though he’s now swerved DDP, Flair and Konnan. He’d never swerve Rude though.

JJ Dillon is here to address the Cruiserweight Title issues from last night. The referee was right to call the match last night so here’s Jericho, already in celebration mode. He sings about being the champion and says there’s dancing in the streets. JJ says Jericho is the champion, but he has to defend against Malenko within 30 days. Jericho rips into Dean’s dad again, but thankfully Dean was about two feet from Jericho to jump him immediately. Malenko beats him into the back and throws Jericho into anything he can find, ranging from what look to be portable bleachers to a cardboard box. Security finally breaks it up.

Chris Adams vs. The Giant

Giant is smoking again. This actually lasts longer than I expected, going a full 20 seconds before the chokeslam ends Adams.

We look at Hogan and Rodman attacking Page again last week.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff for their weekly (or hourly depending on the show) chat. Hogan says that God created Hollywood on the seventh day. Back in the day when he was selling out MSG, the slimy one (Nash?) was wishing he could be like Hogan one day. As for Page, if he wants a piece of himself and Rodman, come get some, even if it means bringing in Karl Malone. Hogan and Rodman have already signed for Bash at the Beach, so make sure to check the show out to see who Page and his partner take a beating. This was short and actually accomplished something. I’m as shocked as you are.

More Nitro Girls and the Nitro Party video.

Hour #3 begins.

Here’s Sting for his decision. He wastes no time and picks Nash. Tony calls this a curveball, even though it was one of four possible options. Nash does a survey of which NWO the fans are here to see, which sums up this company in a nutshell. Lastly, he says Hennig is the Pack’s newest prey.

Tag Titles: Sting/Kevin Nash vs. Harlem Heat

Tony gets the continuity wrong before the bell, saying Sting has been a tag champion for a long time, even though it was clearly stated the titles were vacant coming into last night. Booker and Sting get us going in the best possible pairing for this match. Things start fast with Sting jumping over Booker before taking him down with a hiptoss. Booker bails to the floor for a meeting with Stevie before coming back in with the jumping forearm.

Stevie yells at Booker so T brings him in to try his own luck. Ray stomps Sting down but he comes back with some of those odd shots to the face of his own, allowing for the tag off to Nash. Kev comes in but walks into a slam, only to have Stevie miss an elbow drop. We take a break and come back with Booker missing a dropkick on Sting. Back to Nash for knees in the corner and the big boot to the jaw before the side slam gets two.

Off to Sting again who stomps a mudhole on Booker before actually hitting his jumping elbow drop. A Vader Bomb of all things gets two but a regular splash hits Booker’s knees. Ash comes in before Booker can make the tag though, meaning the match slows down again. Nash powers Booker down but tags back out to Sting before he breaks a sweat. You have to protect that hair at all costs you see.

The Wolfpack keeps up the fast tags with Nash coming back in but Booker escapes Snake Eyes and gets two off a rollup. Booker avoids the Stinger Splash and finally makes the tag off to Stevie. Sting walks into a powerslam but Stevie talks trash, only to get caught in the Death Drop for the pin about 10 seconds after he was tagged in.

Rating: D+. Not a terrible match here and at least Stevie did the job instead of Booker. The match was pretty dull though with Nash seeming to be as bored as you could imagine him to be and Sting just going through the motions as well. Harlem Heat was done as a top tag team but they were still good enough for a spot like this.

The announcers talk about the cage match.

Remember that video of Scott Steiner on a movie set with Hogan where they met Carl Weathers? Well here it is again.

The cage is already set up but first we get Bischoff talking to Scott Steiner in a sitdown interview. Scott says it’s nice to be in New York but it’s nothing compared to Los Angeles. He name drops a bunch of actors who congratulated him for the snow job he put on his brother. Just establishing the new character for Steiner, which I can’t imagine lasts long.

Nitro Girls.

Randy Savage vs. Diamond Dallas Page

There’s a top on the cage and Piper is the referee. Page climbs on top of the cage to pose before getting inside. We get the bell and Page goes after Savage’s bad arm, only to have Randy hit him in the bad ribs. Page goes up top but gets crotched down, only to pop up and go after Savage’s own injured ribs. A ram into the cage gets two so Savage sends him into the steel for the same. They ram each other into the buckle before Savage goes head first into the cage.

Back up and they hit heads to put both guys on the mat again. We take a break and come back with Page pounding away and scoring with a clothesline, only to be taken down by a low blow. Savage goes up for the big elbow but hurts his knee on the way down, allowing Page to kick out. Savage and Piper get in a fight over the speed of the count with Savage laying him out via a piledriver. Page comes back with the Diamond Cutter to put all three guys down.

The fans (or the PA system) wants Goldberg as all three guys get back up. Page punches Piper for trying to pull him off Savage, so Piper sends Page into the cage three times in a row. Now Piper beats up Savage, because Heaven forbid a match doesn’t focus on Piper at least once. Piper rams both of them into the cage….and the cage raises up. Cue the Black and White to fill the cage which lowers after they get in. The massive beatdown is on as the match is thrown out.

Rating: D+. This was more about Piper than either wrestler and that’s a big problem in WCW at the moment. Piper is playing WAY too big of a role and I have no idea why WCW thinks he’s the right man for this spot. The match itself was nothing special as both guys were banged up and basically going through the motions out there until Piper did his thing.

The NWO destroys Savage with Bischoff kicking a chair into his knee. The Wolfpack comes out to try for a save but they can’t find a way in. Nash runs (work with me here) to the back and finds the button to raise the cage and we go off the air.

Overall Rating: C-. While not great, this was SO much better than last week as they kept things moving. Rather than focusing on one story, the show focused on different stories at different times which made things a lot easier to sit through. Hogan only having one promo and a run-in at the end is a great example of this as he had something like nine appearances last week. The wrestling was passable and the stories were advanced as well, which is all you can ask for a lot of the time.

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Monday Nitro #59
Date: October 28, 1996
Location: America West Arena, Phoenix, Arizona
Attendance: 6,300
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, Mike Tenay, Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan

We’re FINALLY done with Halloween Havoc and the big reveal: Roddy Piper is back. Hogan and he literally talked until the show went off the air last night and neither really said anything. Tonight we begin the road to World War 3 which wasn’t a world title match for Hogan because he took that show off I guess. Hogan vs. Piper wouldn’t happen until Starrcade where the ending was pretty stupid. Oh and the Outsiders are tag champions now. Let’s get to it.

Larry is in a sport coat and a Superman t-shirt. He and Tony talk about Piper arriving last night. The still of Hogan’s face is GREAT.

TV Title: Steven Regal vs. Juventud Guerrera

Sting, in white facepaint, is watching from the rafters. Oh here we go. Some NWO fans come in with signs and the fans all react. Juvy and Regal hit the mat and wait for things to calm down. Syxx pops up in the crowd with a mic. The match basically stops and Syxx says he’ll be Cruiserweight Champion. Now the match gets going again as Syxx gives Sting a recruitment speech. Juvy snaps off a rana and a dropkick. He loads up the 450 but Regal moves. The Stretch ends this quickly. Too short to rate, especially with the match just stopping for about 45 seconds for Syxx.

Tony is about to interview Regal but talks about Sting first. Sting gets up and walks away.

We get some stills from Luger vs. Anderson last night.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Mike Enos

I don’t like Enos’ chances. Enos slaps him almost immediately and they go to the floor. Page sends him into the barricade to take over. Back in a Batista Bomb gets two. Top rope clothesline hits an we’ve got Outsiders. Page points at them so Enos can take over. Enos points at them and maintains control. I guess he’s better at time management than Page is. Enos points at them again and hits a powerslam again. He loads up a Bulldog powerslam but takes too long, letting Page hook the ropes and counter into a Diamond Cutter. The Outsiders seem pleased as Page gets the pin.

Rating: D. Eh it’s just a three minute match so how bad can it be? This would start the angle that made Page a star which I’ve been mentioning for months. See? I’m not crazy. Enos had signaled that the running powerslam was his finisher, which is impressive since I didn’t know he had one. You learn something new every day.

Stills of Dean winning the Cruiserweight Title last night from Rey.

Dean Malenko vs. Jim Powers

There’s a player from the Suns in an NWO shirt. Psicosis comes out to watch the match. Powers controls to start with headlocks but Malenko uses the technical stuff to get us to even. They go to the mat and Powers grabs an armbar. Dean is a heel here if you’re not familiar with this period. Off to a chinlock as Nick Patrick has a sore neck and argues with Teddy for awhile. Powers makes a brief comeback with an atomic drop and clothesline for two. A right hand gets two. Knee lift puts Dean down and a powerslam gets no count because Patrick is arguing with Teddy. Dean rolls Powers up for the pin.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here other than to continue the Patrick is a bad referee and is feuding with Teddy Long storyline. I don’t remember what Patrick has against Long but I guess we’ll get to it soon enough. Powers is fine at what he’s doing which is just easily jobbing to people, but he’s pretty boring. Granted that’s his job so it’s hard to complain.

Still of the Dungeon vs. Horsemen last night. The Horsemen won but Benoit and Mongo got laid out. Sullivan and Woman had words but we don’t know why yet.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Ricky Morton

Memphis explodes! Jarrett controls early but Ricky works on the arm. Morton hits a spinning crossbody out of the corner for two. Jarrett suplexes him down and Tony plugs World War 3’s ticket info. Top rope cross body is rolled through for two but Jeff hooks a neckbreaker to keep control. Figure Four is rolled up for two. A knee crusher sets up the Figure Four and it’s over.

Rating: C-. Again not bad but just there to get Jarrett on TV. He was so painfully uninteresting at this point and I don’t think anyone cared about him at all. They basically did the same thing with Hennig like a year later and it actually worked. Jarrett didn’t get over as a serious guy until he ditched the country music, but that was years away.

Giant, with the US Title which isn’t his, says he had Jarrett last night but Flair saved him. He runs down the Horsemen, saying that Jarrett will be chokeslamed soon. Jarrett says bring it on. He says it after Giant leaves but he does say it. Jarrett also becomes the probably 58th person to say WCW has to unite to face the NWO.

Amazing French Canadians vs. High Voltage

High Voltage starts off fast and beats up every French Canadian in sight. Rage vs. Oulette start us off. We launch fireworks to remind the fans that the show is two hours long, because the wrestling match going on doesn’t tell them that the show is still going. Savage isn’t here tonight. The foreigners take over and hit the Rougeau Bomb onto Kaos and then load up the Quebecers’ Cannonball finisher before the Nasties run in for the DQ. Too short to rate but it was just there to give the Nasties two teams to beat up.

The Nasties yell about Hogan and swear revenge. They don’t belong to WCW, just like Sting and Piper. They’ll always be Nasty though.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Jimmy Graffiti

Graffiti jumps him and hits an electric chair drop for two. Rey comes back with a springboard moonsault for two. A rana takes Graffiti to the floor but Rey is sent into the railing. Graffiti gets up on the apron and hits a flip dive to crush the more famous one. Chinlock by Graffiti but Rey casually gets up, speeds things up and hits West Coast Pop for the pin.

Rating: D+. All of these matches have pretty much been interchangeable tonight. Nothing has lasted more than about 4 minutes and nothing has been really interesting. Everything has been focused on what happened last night and it’s really slowing things down. The matches haven’t been bad, but they’re all coming and going with nothing really happening at all.

Lee Marshall is in Grand Rapids, Michigan to hype up the show.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit

Please give them more than four minutes. We have like 40 left in the show not counting commercials so it’s not like they don’t have time. Benoit is all taped up from the beating last night. After a break we’re ready to go. Mongo and Debra come out just a few seconds into it, apparently to watch out for the Dungeon. We get an inset interview from Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan who say there’s something about Woman which is going to be revealed soon.

Eddie is banged up too so the match consists of them both trying to get going but every time they do something physical they have to stop and lay on the mat for a long time. Benoit goes after Eddie’s bad ribs. Back in and Eddie is in agony. Benoit hooks on a seated abdominal stretch but since he’s hurt, Eddie fires off an armdrag which really injures Benoit.

Back to that stretch after some more slowly moving around. I don’t remember what caused Eddie’s injuries but I think it was a match with DDP. Wikipedia says I’m right so there you are. Eddie wakes up and pounds away in the corner but he has to pause again. He hits something that looks like a flying headbutt and both guys are down. Woman offers a distraction and Mongo pops Eddie in the ribs with the briefcase so Benoit can steal the pin.

Rating: C. This is a hard one to grade. As far as a match, it’s dull due to having to go very slowly. However, it would have been REALLY stupid to have them go out there and fly all over the place after we saw at least Benoit get mauled last night. I’ll go with right in the middle because the match made sense, but it was still kind of boring.

Nick Patrick and his attorney have an “interview”, which means the attorney is rude and spins things. It’s Jericho’s fault apparently. Jericho comes out and calls BS, saying Patrick is NWO. The attorney suggests Jericho needs anger counseling. Teddy comes out and blasts the attorney so the attorney threatens a slander lawsuit. This just goes on and on for like 4 minutes.

Booker T vs. Lex Luger

This would be a very different match a few years later. There’s no Stevie or Colonel Parker with Booker. There must be a LONG segment planned to close the show because we have well over 20 minutes not counting commercials, so it was probably about 9:30 when this match started. Colonel Parker has a quick promo, saying his gaffe last night (came in with the cane, Hall stole it and clocked Stevie with it for the titles) is all just blown out of proportion.

Lex takes over to start with pure power and sends him to the floor. Booker takes over back in and Sherri yells at the basketball player outside, saying he can help Booker win. Booker gets knocked to the floor again and things slow down one more time. Lex pounds him down in the corner and is acting more aggressive than usual. Lex hits a forearm and we take a break.

Back with Booker holding a chinlock. Wow a match getting over ten minutes. I don’t know how to handle this. Booker takes over and hits some of his basic stuff as Eric seems to drool over the idea of Piper being WCW. The Hangover misses and Lex calls for the Rack, but Sting pops up in the crowd and stares Luger down. Lex jumps into the crowd and runs after Sting for the countout loss.

Rating: D+. This was an elongated version of what we had going on earlier. Nothing to see here but they had a lot of time so they let them go for awhile. The problem is Booker wasn’t ready to do this yet so the match was pretty boring. It’s not that bad but it was again there just for the ending.

Eric talks about Piper calling WCW and asking for five minutes to confront Hogan. Here’s the whole segment from last night which basically says that Piper is as big a star as Hogan and Hogan is terrified. They talk forever and Hogan keeps backpedaling. Why Giant didn’t destroy him is still beyond me. This goes on for about ten minutes. The line of “If they didn’t hate me so much do you think they would have loved you so much” is pretty dead on though. They cut off the ending due to time.

Here’s the NWO to offer a rebuttal to last night because they didn’t talk enough there. Hogan gets a spotlight and says he told you so. As for Savage, he respects him due to carrying the burden of WCW. Hogan implies sex with Liz I think. After about two or three minutes he addresses Piper. He lies about what we just saw (classic heel move) and says Piper is scared. DiBiase says Hollywood is going to entertain us now so Hogan poses to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. I really wasn’t feeling this one. Everything here was kind of a big recap show for Halloween Havoc. Nothing at all was advanced in the main event as the whole ending was just a quick thing from Hogan which goes nowhere. I still don’t get why they went with Hogan vs. Piper in 1996 and then in 1997, but it made them a fortune so it’s really hard to question them. It doesn’t pick up for about three weeks though.

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Monday Nitro #139
Date: June 1, 1998
Location: MCI Center, Washington D.C.
Commentators: Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay

We’re less than two weeks to go from the Great American Bash and we really don’t know much about the card so far. The main event will be Hart/Hogan vs. Savage/Piper, but the interesting (by comparison) question is what happens to Sting and the tag titles. Odds are Sting is going to pick a side soon, but that doesn’t really do much overall. It’s just more of the same faction wars which have dominated the company for months now. Let’s get to it.

We open with a montage of Sting over the years and all of his different looks.

Opening sequence.

The announcers talk about Sting for a few minutes and Tony is sure we’ll get the decision tonight.

A white limo with a WCW logo pulls up and it’s JJ Dillon, Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T and Goldberg.

We see Luger’s recruitment speech to Sting from Thunder.

The fireworks display kills even more time after a break.

Nitro Girls.

Jerry Flynn vs. Ernest Miller

Miller starts with a backdrop but can’t hit a few spin kicks to the face. Off to an armbar on Jerry but Flynn comes back with some kicks in the corner. Now it’s Flynn with an armbar followed by some kicks to the arm but Miller comes back with a fireman’s carry powerslam. The latest version of the Feliner (in this case Kofi Kingston’s Trouble in Paradise) misses by about eight inches but it’s enough to pin Jerry.

Rating: D-. This is the same problem you always have with the guys in these matches: just because they can throw kicks doesn’t make them interesting. Jerry Flynn is an uninteresting of a wrestler as you’ll ever see and Miller was only starting to become competent in the ring at this point.

A black limo pulls up, revealing NWO Wolfpack minus Hennig.

Here’s the Wolfpack with something to say. Hennig is with them on crutches despite not being in the limo. Nash does a survey about which NWO the fans are here to see with the red and black winning. Luger gives another recruitment speech and offers a challenge to Giant and Hogan to face himself and Nash.

We see Bret recruiting Sting on Thunder.

Saturn/Raven vs. Public Enemy

Saturn pounds Grunge into the corner to start before it’s quickly off to Raven who walks around but makes no contact before tagging back out. Public Enemy comes back with a double elbow to the jaw before Rocco stays in to work over Saturn’s back. Grunge comes in for some shoulders in the corner before Public Enemy drops Saturn with a double clothesline again. A modified top rope Demolition Decapitation gets two for Grunge but Rocco misses a Lionsault press. Raven makes a blind tag but accidentally blasts Saturn in the back of the head.

He and Saturn stare each other down but Grunge clotheslines both of them. They fall to the floor for a dive from Rocco before going back inside for a swinging neckbreaker from Grunge to Saturn. The Drive By (the Quebecers’ old Cannonball) crushes Saturn and Rocco hits a flip dive over the top and onto Raven on a table but the wood doesn’t break. Rocco is fine with that and hits the same thing again to break the table down. Grunge is sent into the chair that Rocco is holding, sending it into Rock’s face. Saturn hits a quick Death Valley Driver on Grunge but Raven sneaks in for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was mainly an angle instead of a match and there’s nothing wrong with that. What there is something wrong with is this style of wrestling in front of all audiences. The people here weren’t digging the hardcore schtick which is why it shouldn’t be done all the time in a major company like WCW. That kind of stuff is for a niche audience, not a national one.

Post match Raven says he won before throwing in Saturn’s name too. He’s also rehired the Flock for protection against Kanyon. It’s also Saturn vs. Kanyon at the PPV.

More of Luger recruiting Sting from Thunder.

More Nitro Girls.

The Nitro Party winner of the week has a sign saying “La Parka Chair Club For Men.” Ok point for a cute line.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Alex Wright

There’s no Eddie here this time. Alex easily takes Chavo around before hitting a hiptoss and dancing a lot. Back up and Chavo gets caught in a backbreaker so he can dance even more. Chavo gets ticked off and grabs him by the throat for some choking and right hands. Wright bails to the floor and gets caught by a suicide dive to put both guys down. They whip each other into the barricade before heading back inside for Chavo to miss a charge into the corner, allowing Alex to get an STF for a very fast tap out.

Post match Eddie comes out and tries to keep the guys from fighting. Alex leaves so Eddie can tell Chavo he was talking to grandma who has freed Chavo. Therefore there’s no need for them to have a match at the Great American Bash. Chavo says oh yes there is a need because Eddie is trying to hide from him.

We take a break and we’re supposed to have Randy Savage for a chat but Piper’s music plays instead. Now it’s the Wolfpack song and here are Savage and Liz. Randy accuses Tony of wanting to date Piper before calling out Roddy himself. Roddy thinks Savage needs a psychiatrist but Savage wants a match with Piper one on one after the tag match. Piper says it’s on before asking Savage if his parents built him a swing facing the wall as a kid. Piper doesn’t believe Bret is in the NWO until he sees him in an NWO shirt, which he somehow ties into Savage being a Muppet and the Washington Capitals.

MORE from Thunder with Bret asking where Sting stands.

Hour #2 begins.

Here’s JJ with something to say. Tony is doing the interview again instead of Gene for some reason. JJ says that he thinks Sting is going to stay in WCW even though it’s not cool and he had trouble when he stayed with WCW last year.

NWO Hollywood arrives in another limo.

After a break here’s the black and white for their interview time. Bischoff brags about how awesome Hogan is before Hogan talks about being in Hollywood to make a movie. Apparently Scott Steiner was in the movie with him or at least was hanging around the set. On the way to the arena tonight he was watching the show and heard the challenge. He and Giant are glad to accept to show Sting how awesome the black and white is. Bret opens his shirt to reveal a Hogan shirt, proclaiming Hulk to be the greatest of all time. Hogan says a t-shirt is worth 1000 words and promises to own Savage’s soul.

Heenan joins commentary as the Nitro Girls dance again.

Konnan vs. Lenny Lane

Konnan easily takes him down by the arm to start and gets two off a slick rollup into a sunset flip. Off to a Boston Crab with Konnan lifting up Lane by the arms and rocking him back and forth for extra torment. Lane comes back with a bulldog and stomps away before getting two off some side rolls. Konnan slams him out of the corner with an Alabama Slam before the 187 and Tequila Sunrise are good for the pin. Not terrible actually.

Here are Hennig and Rude with something to say. Rude says he doesn’t have to brag about Hennig being a 3 time world champion or his 3000 wins when Goldberg only has 89 wins in a row. Apparently Hennig has a bad knee and has to take ten days off. Curt calls out Konnan and asks him to face Goldberg in his upcoming matches around the country. Konnan is cool with the idea.

TV Title: Fit Finlay vs. Eddie Guerrero

Finlay grabs a quick headlock and runs Eddie over with a shoulder block. A snapmare puts Eddie down again and it’s off to a chinlock. Eddie counters into an armbar and rakes his boot over the champion’s eye as only he can get away with. A top rope hurricanrana attempt is broken up and Finlay gets two off a belly to back suplex. Back to the chinlock for a few moments before Finlay rams him face first into the apron. Finlay counters a sleeper and dropkicks Fit down before pounding away in the corner. Not that it matters as Chavo comes in and the match is thrown out before he does anything.

Rating: C. Not bad here but the ending made it more of an angle than anything else. I like that Chavo cost him the match without Eddie losing as it keeps both guys looking strong at the same time. Finlay is fine as the TV Champion, but I’m still not sure why he of all people got the belt. At least he isn’t horrible though.

Chris Jericho is at the Capitol Building but is thrown out almost immediately. After the Capitol police throw him out, Jericho claims to have talked to Clarence Thomas and he’s sure Jericho has a case. Jericho talks to other people protesting some issue and tells them he should be Cruiserweight Champion. He isn’t allowed on the White House lawn so it’s off to the Library of Congress to look for a section on WCW title belts.

Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera

Jericho calls out JJ to give him the evidence he’s acquired but gets Juvy. They trade hammerlocks to start until Jericho flips Juvy down. Back up and Guerrera chops away before going up top for a slightly botched hurricanrana. Jericho comes right back with a butterfly backbreaker, good for two. A standing hurricanrana gets two for Juvy and he botches another move by rolling up Jericho’s body and gently laying him down instead of snapping off a DDT.

The Juvy Driver looks to set up the 450 but Jericho crotches him on the top. Guerrera fights back but another hurricanrana attempt is countered into the Liontamer, only to have Juvy roll out and send Jericho to the floor. A slingshot hurricanrana takes Jericho down again but as the referee is with Chris, Reese comes in and chokebombs Juvy down, giving Jericho an easy pin.

Rating: D+. Juvy’s botches really brought this match down as it looked like half his moves were trying to make sure Jericho wasn’t hurt at all rather than trying to pin him. On top of that they were nowhere near as fast as their matches usually were which was often the highlight of their stuff. Bad match here and mainly due to Juvy.

Hour #3 begins.

We recap the best of 7 series with Benoit leading 2-1 after winning on Saturday Night.

Booker T vs. Chris Benoit

Feeling out process to start with Booker elbowing Benoit down for two as Finlay watches from the ramp. A powerslam gets two more on the Canadian and we hit an armbar. Booker goes up for a spinning cross body to send Benoit out to the floor. That goes nowhere so we head back inside for a mudhole stomping by Benoit. A snap suplex puts Booker down and it’s back to Finlay for some trash talk.

Booker hits a quick elbow to the jaw and it’s off to a chinlock. Back up and the forearm to the head gets two on Chris and more chinlockery abounds. Benoit fights up again and hooks a German suplex but can’t follow up. Some right hands have Booker in trouble but he comes back with the ax kick for no cover. Benoit is all screw this getting kicked in the head thing and counters a suplex into the Crossface for the win and a 3-1 lead.

Rating: C+. The matches are good but it’s getting a bit repetitive at this point, given that these guys have been feuding for weeks beforehand. That being said though, I could watch Benoit drive people down into the Crossface all day. Booker isn’t going to be hurt by feuding with Benoit either, but a match with someone else would be a nice breather.

The announcers discuss Sting for I think the fifth time, not counting talking about him during matches of course.

We get the same video on Sting that opened the show.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Riggs

Riggs sends Page into the corner so DDP shoves him down with ease. Page stomps him down in the corner before taking out Sick Boy. An over the shoulder gutbuster sets up a fireman’s carry Diamond Cutter for the fast win.

Sick Boy gets a Cutter as well.

US Title: La Parka vs. Goldberg

La Parka cracks him in the head with a chair before the bell but Goldberg no sells it. A spear and Jackhammer are the only moves of the match.

The Giant/Hollywood Hogan vs. Lex Luger/Kevin Nash

Bret is with the black and white again. Luger now wrestles in long black pants instead of trunks. Hogan and Luger pose at each other to start before Luger shoves him into the corner and flexes a bit. A cheap shot gets Hogan out of a test of strength and he goes to the throat to take over. Off to Nash who fires off knees to the ribs and follows up with the corner elbows. They trade clotheslines and Hogan slugs away, only to tag in Giant for the real battle of the big men.

Big Kev pounds away on Giant in the corner but Giant superkicks him down in a nice display of athleticism. Giant misses an elbow drop and it’s off to Luger to pound away. Another clothesline puts Luger down and it’s back to Hogan again as the slow heel offense begins. Nash walks into the ring anyway and kicks Giant in the face as everything breaks down. Hogan hits Nash in the back with a tag title belt for the DQ.

Rating: D. There’s not much to say about this one. This was exactly what you would expect it to be. It was mainly kicking and punching which is what you expect but that doesn’t make this any better to sit through. At least it was short, but that’s not really a plus most of the time.

Post match here’s Sting from the ceiling with a buttoned up trench coat. He takes it off to reveal….the black and the white. Hogan and Giant celebrate but Sting decks Hogan and slams Giant (with ease) and rips off the shirt, revealing the red and black. Tony sounds THRILLED with this development to end the show after about three minutes of Wolfpack celebrating.

Overall Rating: D. This is a hard one to grade as it’s all about one idea. They did a decent job of getting that idea across, but three hours is a LONG time to get to push one single thing. I did like the false finish as it was obvious Sting was going to the Wolfpack but at least they teased a swerve. Just too much focus on the NWO here though, and who does this leave as WCW’s main guys? Piper and Page? Goldberg is a rising star but he hasn’t proven himself against big names yet. Wait why am I even asking? WCW has nothing to do with this show.

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Thunder
Date: May 28, 1998
Location: Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Lee Marshall, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan

The main story coming into tonight is, say it with me: what side is Sting on? After Luger joined the Wolfpack on Monday, Sting was offered a spot but the show ended before we got his response. We’re heading into the Great American Bash and we only know a few matches so far. Whatever we’re getting though isn’t the most thrilling stuff in the world. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the end of Nitro with Sting holding up the Wolfpack shirt but not putting it on.

Opening sequence.

The announcers talk about the Sting situation for the first of about 95 times tonight.

Here’s Bret Hart to open things up. He wants peace and quiet while he talks because the fans sound disappointed in him. That’s fine though as he’s disappointed in the fans as well. No one knows what it’s like to be in a tough situation better than he does. Every time he steps in the ring he gives everything he has and he’s the best there is, was and ever will be. However there’s one guy going through a tug of war with his conscience and that would be Sting.

Bret knows exactly what Sting is going through with everyone pulling him in various directions. The red and black don’t suit Sting at all but later tonight, Bret is going to offer Sting the keys to his wrestling future. He won’t need the people anymore and he’ll be more successful than ever before.

Jim Powers vs. Barbarian

Barbarian grabs a headlock to start but Powers comes back with some weak kicks to the ribs. Choking puts Jim down again, Powers makes a comeback, Jimmy Hart interferes, big boot gets the pin for Barbarian. This would have been boring even as a dark match.

Here’s Chris Jericho in a Rey Mysterio shirt for an interview. Chris feels bad because he and JJ got in an argument on Monday but that will never EVER happen again. He’d be perfectly happy if JJ just brought him his Cruiserweight Title right now, but JJ isn’t here tonight. Jericho makes Tony hold up the Conspiracy Victim sign and swears that this isn’t over. On Monday, Jericho is going to Washington D.C. and find the best legal sources he can find to prove that he should be Cruiserweight Champion.

The announcers talk about Sting some more and show us a video of Giant calling out Nash, resulting in Luger joining the Wolfpack. We also get the ending of the show again.

High Voltage vs. Jim Neidhart/British Bulldog

The non-WWF refugees jump start the match but get sent into each other and out to the floor. We start with Neidhart vs. Kaos and Jim cranks on the arm for a bit. Kaos takes him down by the head and it’s off to Rage for a slingshot legdrop for two. Rage misses an elbow and it’s off to the Bulldog with the fans not caring at all. The delayed vertical suplex gets two and everything breaks down. Bulldog powerslams Kaos for a fast pin. Another worthless match.

Here’s the Wolfpack, debuting their signature rap song. There’s no Hennig or Rude with them which is probably the best option. Savage says Luger is the man. Luger says there are times in life where you have to go with your gut instinct and that’s why he’s here right now. The Wolfpack is the place to go if you want to win titles and it felt right to make the jump. He still respects WCW and didn’t turn his back on them. Sometimes in life you’re either a player or you’re not, so he’s a player in the Wolfpack right now.

This brings Luger to Sting. They’ve known each other for years and while they haven’t always seen eye to eye, there will always be friends. Luger felt something on Nitro and Sting told Luger he felt it too. Sting needs to take the same step that Luger took and don’t listen to someone like Bret Hart who knows nothing about him. Luger does the too sweet line and we’re out. This explanation took less than five minutes and made perfect sense. Why couldn’t we get something like this from Bret?

Glacier vs. Van Hammer

Are they just trying to torture me this week? Feeling out process to start with Glacier casually kicking Hammer down. Hammer comes back with a cobra clutch slam and does the Crane Kick pose from Karate Kid. Back up and Hammer shoulders Glacier down for two and the ice man rolls to the floor. They head back inside with Glacier kicking away in the corner, only to be punched in the side of the head for his efforts. A big kick to the face puts Hammer down and Glacier puts on the Rings of Saturn but he lets go early, allowing Saturn to run in and beat on Glacier for the pin.

Rating: D. The fact that this is the match of the night so far should tell you everything you need to know about this show. Glacier isn’t interesting as a character and it’s a downgrade for Saturn to have to feud with him. This match was as bland as the rest of them have been tonight but this was longer, which could be a benefit or a detriment depending on how you enjoy torture.

Post match Raven and Saturn lay out Hammer and Glacier. Raven gets on his knees and begs Saturn to be his partner again but they think they see Mortis, only to beat up a popcorn vendor instead. Mortis sneaks up behind them dressed as I think a construction worker to blast Raven with a cookie sheet and leave. Saturn carries Raven to the back.

Chris Benoit vs. Booker T

This is match #2 in the best of seven series for the TV Title shot at the Bash. Benoit won the first match on Monday with the Crossface and I’m sure this is going to be the best match of the night. Booker grabs a headlock to start but Benoit takes him down with a drop toehold. A powerslam puts Chris down and an elbow drop gets two. Off to an armbar on Benoit for a few seconds before they trade standing switches and a spinning kick drops Benoit to the floor.

Back in and Benoit gets two each off a snap suplex and a clothesline. A hard whip into the corner puts Booker down for two more and we hit the chinlock. Benoit shifts into a double arm crank before hitting a hard chop to put Booker down again. Booker comes back with a clothesline to put both guys down as we take a breather. It’s Benoit up first with a backbreaker to set up the Swan Dive for a very close two.

Back to the chinlock on Booker but he fights up with a flapjack to get a rest. Benoit avoids the side kick and crotches himself on the top rope and a German suplex is good for two. A big mudhole is stomped in Booker but he comes back with a suplex of his own. Benoit ducks the side kick but the second attempt connects, setting up the missile dropkick to tie the series.

Rating: C+. This was more of a back and forth match than what they did on Sunday but the action was still very solid. These matches are very helpful for WCW as they give the show some meat instead of the quick and dull matches that dominate the shows most of the time. Good match here.

Benoit praises Booker but questions his heart. We’ll find out what Booker is made of but he’ll find out why Benoit is the Crippler.

TV Title: Brad Armstrong vs. Fit Finlay

Feeling out process to start until Finlay grabs a headlock. That goes nowhere so they run the ropes a bit and Armstrong gets two off a hiptoss. Finlay comes back with a shot to the side of the head and a slam. A clothesline puts Armstrong down as the announcers talk about which NWO Sting will join. The idea of him staying with WCW isn’t even considered. We hit the chinlock and the boring chants begin. Finlay drives some elbows into the chest but Armstrong comes back with a belly to back suplex for two. Not that it matters as Finlay tombstones him down to retain.

Rating: D-. END THIS SHOW ALREADY! I can’t take many more of these matches. There has been one decent match in an hour and a half of this show. The best part so far was a Lex Luger promo which lasted about two minutes. Those are your highlights so far. Is there no one else Finlay can fight for that belt?

This week in WCW Motorsports. Next.

The announcers talk about the Savage/Piper segment from Nitro and of course we see the whole thing.

Barry Darsow vs. Saturn

They hit the mat to start with Saturn grabbing a headlock. Darsow misses a right hand and gets suplexed down before Saturn fires off kicks in the corner. Darsow gets two off a clothesline before sending Saturn’s shoulder into the post. A spinwheel kick puts Barry down but he comes back with a quick shoulder breaker. His Barely Legal arm hold can’t get locked on so Saturn superkicks him down and ends Barry with the Death Valley Driver.

Rating: D+. Oddly enough Darsow’s psychology worked here. It’s really basic stuff (he has an arm hold finisher so wok on the arm) but that’s often enough to carry a short match like this. Nothing special to see here but somehow this is in the upper half of the matches on this show. Let that sink in for a minute.

To cap off this horribly boring show, we have technical issues and get a graphic of the arena. Well of some arena, as when the feed comes back we see a wide shot of a very different building.

US Title: Barry Horowitz vs. Goldberg

Seriously, this is the main event. Match lasts 45 seconds and you can fill in the blanks yourself.

Here’s Bret for the big recruitment speech to Sting despite Bret not even being an official NWO member as far as I know. Giant and Bischoff come out with him so at least there’s some kind of association. Bret says he’s the only man that can trust Sting and he was there to prove it at Starrcade. If he had anything to do with it, Sting would still be world champion. He lists off some similarities before calling Nash and Savage old and washed up. Sting can’t trust those guys but here’s the Wolfpack to disagree. Bret calls them all scum and the brawl is on to end the show. No Sting.

Overall Rating: F+. This is the worst kind of show you can have. It wasn’t really terrible, but it was SO boring. What happened on this show? We got a bunch of low level acts in squashes, no development in any storyline (unless you really stretch and call Booker tying up the series significant) and no Sting. Oh wow the NWO factions are fighting again. Such an interesting story. Absolutely retched show tonight and it really makes it clear how WWF was taking over.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of Complete Monday Nitro Reviews Volume I at Amazon for just $4 at:

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It’s TNA’s biggest show of the year so why not throw in a count-up for it too?  Unfortunately I came up with this idea after it was too late to redo these but I’ll get fresh versions of these up some day.

Bound For Glory 2005
Date: October 23, 2005
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Attendance: 900
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West

It’s the biggest show of the year (I think it was back then at least) and the main event is Nash vs. Jarrett. In theory at least, as Nash has come down with his latest life threatening illness and has to back out. Therefore we’re going to shuffle the card around and have a ten man Gauntlet for the Gold with the winner immediately getting a shot at Jarrett. There’s a celebrity guest referee for the main event in UFC legend Tito Ortiz. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how this started a year ago at Victory Road and how hard they’ve all worked in the year since then. We actually see their voiceover guy who is a large black man. Tonight is their night.

Samoa Joe vs. Jushin Thunder Liger

Joe gets the full tribal entrance. Liger gets the streamers and offers a handshake but we cut to a shot of the NJPW owner so I don’t know if Joe shook it. The fans are behind Joe here and he runs Liger over a few times. Out to the floor and Liger takes over, hitting a big dive onto Joe. Back in Joe hits knees in the corner and the fans are split. A kick sets up a knee drop for two. Tenay talks about Monday Nitro as Joe hits a powerslam for two.

Now the fans are just chanting for Liger. I’m not sure why as Joe has been doing his usual stuff and isn’t acting like a heel or anything. Could it be because the fans change their minds faster than they can change a tire? Liger gets in a Liger Kick and hits a suplex for two. Considering the size difference that’s not bad. Frog Splash gets two. Liger’s palm thrust is avoided and Joe hits a kick to the head to take over. Joe’s superplex is countered into a powerbomb for two. A pair of palm thrusts get the same. Liger goes up but gets caught in the MuscleBuster and the Clutch ends this.

Rating: D+. That’s it? The match was ok but for something that they were building up as close to a dream match, I’d expect more than a seven minute match with Joe barely having to break a sweat. I’m glad that they brought in Liger who people at least know rather than some Japanese guy that about 1% of their audience could name. That’s a plus. The match was pretty lackluster though.

Clip from Fanfest this weekend. The fans saying they don’t want soap operas is amusing today.

We see two fans who won a contest and get to train at the NJPW Dojo before joining the Impact roster. I don’t recognize them.

Simon Diamond fires up the Diamonds in the Rough.

Diamonds in the Rough vs. Apolo/Sonny Siaki/Shark Boy

The Diamonds are Elix Skipper, David Young and Simon Diamond. Shark Boy and Diamond get us going. Diamond takes him down with some kicks and a clothesline for two. Sharky comes back but the Dead Sea Drop is countered. He bites the tights of Diamond and we’re in comedy match territory. Off to Skipper who is taken down almost immediately by a drop toehold. Things speed up a bit so it’s off to Apolo.

Apolo is more of a power guy and gets two off a Diamond Cutter. A spinning half nelson slam looks to get a pin but Diamond distracts the referee. Young comes in with some cheating and the Diamonds take over. Skipper stays in and hits a kind of spear for two. Apolo comes back with a one man 3D to put both of them down.

Double tag brings in Siaki and Young but everything breaks down. Apolo hits a TKO on Young (he LOVES Cutters apparently) and Shark Boy dives on Skipper. Young takes both of them out with a spinning dive and Apolo dives on everyone but Simon. Skipper and Siaki go inside and Elix throws Siaki to Young for the spinebuster and the pin.

Rating: D+. Just a six man here. Apolo was a guy that had some potential to him but he wound up going back to Puerto Rico (I think) soon after this. The Diamonds were a lower midcard heel team that never really went anywhere. This wasn’t much for the most part but fill in matches like this were regular for TNA in these days.

We get some clips from the pre-show, one of which being of an X-Division fourway and the other of Larry Z yelling at Raven, resulting in Rhyno yelling at Raven and goring him. This is about both of them wanting the world title shot later tonight.

Jarrett laughs about Nash having chest pains and says he doesn’t care who he faces tonight. Jeff either just got out of the shower or it’s about 200 degrees in the back. He says screw all of his potential opponents. Monty Brown comes in and wants Jeff to say screw him too. He can smell the fear in Jarrett. This goes on for awhile.

Lance Hoyt vs. Monty Brown

Hoyt fires off some shoulders to start and “hits” a flapjack (Brown rolled through it for some reason) and they head to the floor. Brown sends him into the steps and back inside but due to Monty yelling at the crowd, Hoyt hits a dive (literally bouncing off Brown as they hit the floor). Back in the ring and Monty chops away in the corner. Hoyt punches away in the same corner, and it’s punches > chops in this case. Brown is face first down on the mat but as Hoyt goes up, Brown is playing possum. Nice job.

Back to the floor and Monty suplexes him onto the mats. Back in, Hoyt hammers away but Brown throws him down with a belly to belly. Lance gets up and hits a big boot and his moonsault, which still can’t get a pin. I never remember that getting a win actually. Hoyt goes up but jumps into the Alpha Bomb (fallaway slam position but Brown throws them up into a powerbomb) for two. Hoyt hits either a Rock Bottom or a chokeslam for two. And never mind all that Hoyt offense because a Pounce ends it.

Rating: C. I kind of liked this actually. Brown was a power guy and he didn’t need to be anything more than that. On the other hand you have Hoyt who was agile and good, but for some reason they refused to let him beat anyone significant. This was a decent power match but again it really didn’t need to be on PPV. There was no reason given for this match happening that I caught either.

Quick video on Global Impact.

3 Live Kru says they’re together and will fight tonight. Billy Gunn pops up to offer his help to take out D’Amore. Truth likes the idea as does BG but Konnan says no and storms off.

3 Live Kru vs. Team Canada

It’s Roode, Young and A-1 here. Eric and Konnan get us going as Tenay gives us a history of the New Age Outlaws. Konnan speeds things up and counters a headscissors into an Alabama Slam. Roode tries to come in but only manages to get caught in a three man What’s Up. Roadie and Truth hit some punches and dance some more then stomp on Roode a bit.

It’s Roode vs. Truth now with a hip toss getting two for the rapper. The annoying fans are shouting/singing something. Now they’re chanting USA for the team with a Cuban on it. Kip James is sitting on the stage, drawing a New Age Outlaws chant. A-1 comes in to choke on Truth in the corner. Those dastardly Canadians double and even triple team and it’s off to Roode. Truth hits his spinning forearm and tags in Road Dogg who cleans Canadian house. Shaky knee gets two on Roode. In the calamity, D’Amore’s distraction lets Roode get in a hockey stick shot and Young pins BG.

Rating: D. These teams feuded FOREVER and it never seemed to end. It wound up being about the Outlaws and to be fair, that’s probably the best possible outcome. The Canadians would just kind of float around for awhile until I think they broke up right around June of 06. The Kru would break up soon enough after this.

Post match the Canadians hold Konnan for Billy to hit him with a chair but he beats up all of the Canadians with it. Konnan isn’t sure what to do now but the Kru celebrates despite losing.

Shane Douglas asks Larry Z who is getting the shot tonight. Larry says he has a lot of options but is waiting for a word from upper management.

We recap the #1 contender’s match for the X Title. It’s Ultimate X which Williams has had some success in. Bentley and Sabin are in there due to needing two more spots filled in here.

Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin vs. Matt Bentley

Ultimate X, #1 contender’s match. Petey goes up but Sabin pulls him down and the faces (I think?) beat on him a bit. Williams counters a suplex from Sabin into one of his own but Bentley comes in with a kick to slow Petey down again. Wheelbarrow suplex puts Williams down again and Bentley goes up. Petey takes Matt down again but Traci’s (Bentley’s chick) rack distracts him. Matt goes up but Sabin pulls him down.

It’s Sabin vs. Bentley at the moment while D’Amore coaches Williams. Sabin picks Williams up and puts him in Razor’s Edge position, throwing him at Bentley in the corner. Sabin tries to climb but barely gets started before Bentley makes the save. We’re way too early in the match for a potential win anyway. Petey sends Bentley to the floor and hits a SWEET slingshot rana to put him down even further.

Everyone is back in now and Bentley hits a neckbreaker on Sabin and a cutter on Williams at the same time. Matt goes climbing but Sabin follows him and hooks a powerbomb to take both guys down in a painful looking move. Sabin gets caught in the Tree of Woe so Petey sings O Canada. Bentley pops up and dropkicks him off and out to the floor before going up. Sabin gets out of the Tree and shoves him down, before diving on both guys when the X was there for the grabbing because Sabin is an idiot.

Sabin goes up and Bentley dives at him with a shoulder block. That knocks Sabin down, but it knocks the X down as well. We more or less stop the match so that the crew can put the X up again with a ladder. The fans chant USE THE LADDER. Sabin and Bentley go up for the X but knock each other off. The X falls and Petey catches it, so TNA says screw the rules, Williams wins.

Rating: D+. The match was good, but there’s really no excuse for the ending. Put it up there again and have someone get it immediately or whatever, but COME ON. This was just freaking stupid and it makes the company look inept because they can’t get their own signature match right. Invest in some better tape guys.

We recap the tag title match. AMW interfered at a house show to get the title off of Raven and onto Jarrett again and then Jarrett helped AMW destroy Team 3D. Look up the funeral for Team 3D. It’s absolutely hilarious. AMW beat down the Naturals as well for the titles so tonight it’s about revenge as well as the belts for them.

Tag Titles: America’s Most Wanted vs. The Naturals

I can never remember which one is Stevens and which one is Douglas. It’s a big brawl on the floor to start with the Naturals in control. Ok Douglas has the bandage on his head. Got it. Storm gets powerbombed into the railing which looked SICK. The challengers get Harris in the ring and beat him down in the corner. Storm is walking out on the match. The Naturals go back and get him because it’s about revenge more than the titles. I can live with that if it’s done right and it has been here.

We’re over three minutes into this and there has been no tagging or one on one in the ring at all so far. Harris gets choked by both Naturals on the floor until they get bored and Douglas goes after Storm. Gail finally does something and distracts Douglas, allowing Storm to send him into the Ultimate X structure. Douglas’ cut is busted open now. Five minuets in now and they’re in the ring but it’s still 2-1.

Ok it’s FINALLY Storm vs. Douglas. Eye of the Storm gets two and Harris comes in without a tag. Stevens comes in after Douglas was in trouble for about a minute. Douglas is bleeding pretty good though so that likely has something to do with it. A Naturals double team gets two on Storm. The move that would later be named the Last Call misses and Stevens hits a kick of his own for two.

Gail throws in some powder to Harris but Chase Stevens knocks it into the Wildcat’s face. Harris hits the Catatonic (spinning Rock Bottom, his finisher) on Storm. The Naturals hit the Death Sentence on Harris but it only gets two. Gail breaks up the Natural Disaster (double team elevated Stunner) so Douglas goes to the floor and grabs her by the hair. The distraction lets Harris handcuff Douglas to the barricade. Stevens his an enziguri on Storm but Harris busts a bottle over Stevens’ head and the Death Sentence retains the title.

Rating: B. WOW. This was only about ten minutes long but they flat out DO NOT STOP the whole time. It’s a wild brawl and I bought into the revenge that the Naturals were wanting the whole way. The biggest criticism of the Naturals is that they have no charisma, but man they were bringing it here and the match WORKED. Very good stuff. AMW would hold the titles for over eight months until the dream team of Styles and Daniels took them away.

We recap the Monster’s Ball feud. It’s Abyss vs. Rhyno vs. Sabu vs. Raven. This is when they still had the idea that each guy was held without food, water, light or human contact before the match. That was a bonus deal for these matches in the early days but it was dropped I think after this one.

James Mitchell says that Abyss (who is behind him despite the rule being that he has to be released right before the match) will be ready because he’s used to being put through torture.

Rhyno vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Sabu vs. Abyss

WHOA WHOA WHOA. Rhyno was at the preshow remember? So they can’t even get their own rules straight. This is Monster’s Ball, which means it’s a wild brawl where anything goes. The power guys jump Hardy to start but Sabu pelts the chair at Abyss to get him off. Rhyno gets knocked to the floor and Sabu dives onto him as Hardy dives at Abyss. This is falls count anywhere. Abyss gets knocked to the floor and Hardy dives on him too.

The announcers say that they were released when the PPV began this evening. That’s fine for Abyss, BUT RHYNO WAS ON THE FREAKING PRESHOW!. All four go into the crowd and Sabu’s eye is busted open. Jeff dives off a balcony and takes Abyss down. They all get back to ringside and Hardy and Abyss go back into the ring. Sabu tries a dive off the apron but Rhyno moves to send Sabu crashing onto the floor.

Whisper in the wind puts Abyss down but the Twist is countered into Shock Treatment which gets one for Sabu. Rhyno hits Abyss and Sabu with a chair and then hits Abyss again. Hardy uses Sabu as Matt for Poetry in Motion so Sabu beats him down. If someone tried to make me into Matt Hardy, I’d probably do the same. Now it’s Rhyno again with a kendo stick to kill everyone. The Gore is countered into a chokeslam onto a chair for two.

Hardy pulls out a ladder which winds up being rammed into his chest by Abyss. Abyss sets up a table near Hardy by the stage and then another next to it. Sabu sets one up between the ring and the barricade as a platform. Jeff chairs Abyss down and Sabu hits a triple jump dive through Rhyno and through the table. Hardy climbs up on top of the set and dives over the stage through Abyss through the table. If he went too short on that, he would literally be dead.

Back in the ring Sabu loads up the triple jump moonsault but Rhyno hits him with the stick to break it up. The fans think this is awesome. The Gore hits a chair in the corner and Sabu hits the triple jump moonsault for two. Abyss and Hardy crawl back to the ring with Abyss setting up a table in the corner. Sabu throws a chair at him but gets thrown to the floor and through a table for his trouble. Here come the tacks but Abyss gets Gored through the table. Hardy prevents a cover but walks into the Rhyno Driver (middle rope piledriver) for the pin.

Rating: B. This was another wild brawl and in this case it worked very well. That Swanton was absolutely incredible but at the same time REALLY scary. Rhyno looked good but the match was really a group effort. Much like the TLC matches, sometimes you just throw people out there and tell them to be violent and it works. That’s what happened here.

Larry says there’s a ten man Gauntlet For The Gold for the title match and the participants will all have competed earlier tonight. Shane thinks that’s unfair to Jarrett.

We recap the Iron Man match between Styles and Daniels that Styles won in overtime. Daniels said he could beat any three X Division guys that Styles picked in 15 minutes. The first two went down so the third was Styles which resulted in a brawl. The result: Iron Man II.

X-Division Title: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

AJ is defending and it has a thirty minute time limit under Iron Man rules. Daniels jumps AJ before the bell and we’re off quickly. He controls for the opening minute and they trade chops, won by AJ. A backbreaker puts Daniels down and onto the floor but Daniels blocks AJ’s dive. Daniels hits some palm strikes but Styles dropkicks him down. Back to the floor and Daniels is knocked into the crowd. AJ dives over the barricade and both guys are down.

They head back inside and AJ controls with a headlock. Five minutes in and the fans say both guys are awesome. The headlock stays on for a few minutes but you have to burn some time in a match like this. Daniels rolls out of it and hooks an armbar. AJ fights out of it and sends Daniels into a few corners. A hard kick puts Daniels down as it’s been almost all AJ so far.

Bridging Indian Deathlock goes on and Daniels is in big trouble, so he bited AJ’s hands to escape. Ten minutes in now. Daniels heads to the apron but AJ clotheslines him back into the ring. Springboard forearm is countered into a high collar suplex to put both guys down. Daniels takes over and twists AJ’s neck around a bit. That can’t feel good. A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets two and it’s off to a neck crank by Daniels.

AJ grabs a cradle out of nowhere for two and then another one for another two. Koji Clutch out of nowhere has AJ in trouble. AJ tries to power out of it but goes right back down. Another power out attempt works and AJ makes the rope. Slingshot moonsault gets two on the champion. We’re halfway through and it’s 0-0. AJ escapes a backbreaker and hits his moonsault into a reverse DDT.

Hammerlock belly to back suplex gets two as does a pumphandle gutbuster. That’s a new one. AJ tries a moonsault but gets caught in a Death Valley Driver for a very close two. Daniels puts him on the middle rope and flips him forward into a mat slam for two. AJ counters a neckbreaker into one of his own for a slightly delayed two. AJ tries the moonsault DDT again but gets caught in a spinning powerbomb for two. BME STILL doesn’t get a fall as it only gets a two count.

Ten minutes to go and AJ puts on a torture rack and then spins it out into a slam for two. AJ dives into the corner but Daniels moves and knocks Styles to the outside where he lands on the steps. A BIG suicide dive destroys AJ but Daniels can’t follow up due to exhaustion. As they come back in, AJ hits the Pele to knock Daniels back to the floor at 8 minutes to go. Another BIG flip dive takes Daniels out and both guys are down.

Seven minutes to go and both guys are down on the floor. As they get back in, Daniels blocks a suplex back inside and hits a belly to back suplex from the apron to the floor. That was pretty awesome, much like this match. Six minutes left and it’s still zero to zero. They’re both back in with five minutes to go. Scratch that as Daniels kicks AJ out of the ring before he was all the way in.

With about 4:25 to go they slug it out in the middle of the ring with AJ taking a slight advantage. Four minutes left. AJ has a big bruise on his leg. Small package gets two for the champion. Pele misses and Daniels rolls him up for two. AJ does the same and gets the same. Daniels hits a German suplex but AJ pops up and hits a discus lariat before collapsing. Under three minutes to go now.

AJ falls on top for two and we have two minutes left. Daniels channels his inner Piper and pokes AJ in the eye. That gets him nowhere because AJ gets to the apron and hits a springboard cross body for two despite a handful of tights. 90 seconds left and they trade forearms. The fans are split here. One minute to go and Daniels blocks a suplex. AJ kicks him in the head again but it only gets two. Daniels kicks him in the head but the Angel’s Wings are countered into a suplex for two. AJ hits the Clash with two seconds left for the only fall and the win. WOW that was a hot ending.

Rating: A. The only way to make this better would have been to say AJ loses the title in a tie. Still though, GREAT match here and pretty easily the best match I’ve ever seen these two have. That’s some pretty awesome timing too with AJ getting the pin literally with two seconds left. I know I complain about AJ and Daniels a lot, but back then it was great, with this being the best I’ve ever seen from them.

Gauntlet For The Gold

This is kind of like the Royal Rumble as everyone comes in after I think a minute and it’s over the top eliminations. The winner gets Jarrett immediately thereafter. Joe and Truth are the first two entrants. Oh ok these two go for two minutes and then every entrant is one minute. Got it. Truth dances for about 20 seconds to make fun of the Polynesian dance stuff earlier.

There’s no contact until 46 seconds in when Joe punches him in the face. Off to some Facewashes and the running boot. Truth pulls himself to the top and hits a Blockbuster. Downward Spiral puts Joe down and #3 is Sabu who can barely walk. He falls through the middle and bottom rope but has a chair. He BLASTS Truth with it and hits the triple jump moonsault on the same. Air Sabu hits Joe. Remember that there are only one minuet intervals from now on.

Joe throws the chair at Sabu’s legs and Lance Hoyt is in at #4. Joe no sells Hoyt’s punches but can’t no sell a big boot. Abyss is #5 who cleans house and has a staredown with Joe. They chop it out and Abyss grabs him for a chokeslam. Joe grabs HIM for a chokeslam, which is why Joe is awesome. And then Truth breaks it up because he likes to annoy me. Jeff Hardy is #6 and Sabu is busted open. No one has been eliminated yet.

Monty Brown is #7 and he’s limping for some reason. He Pounces Sabu and throws Hardy to the apron, but Hardy pulls him along with him to eliminate both guys. Abyss is almost out but he fights everyone off. #8 is Rhyno who also can barely walk. All of the Monster’s Ball people are in this. Rhyno easily clotheslines Hoyt out and we have five in and two still to go. Kip James (who didn’t wrestle earlier) is #9 and he cleans house. Fameasser to Abyss and AJ is somehow #10, meaning no Raven which is a surprise.

So we have Kip, AJ, Abyss, Joe, Sabu, Truth and Rhyno. AJ goes right after Abyss because he’s just that kind of guy. Apparently Sabu went out off camera somewhere so it’s down to six. Joe pounds on Kip and is the big crowd favorite. Things slow down a bit until AJ hits a big jumping kick to the head of I think Truth. Truth is put onto the apron but he hangs on. Kip charges like an idiot and goes out to get us down to five.

Pele puts Truth down and everyone is down. Abyss talks to Truth, calling him Ronnie. AJ throws Truth over but Kip holds him up from hitting the floor. And never mind as he goes out anyway. So it’s Rhyno, Abyss, AJ and Joe. There’s a solid tag match in there somewhere. AJ somehow explodes on Joe with forearms but gets caught in the choke next to the ropes. Abyss eliminates them both and apparently you win by over the top. Usually it’s a one on one match when it gets down to two. Gore to Abyss and Rhyno tosses him for the quick win.

Rating: C-. Considering that these guys had all fought tonight this wasn’t half bad. AJ had to be gassed after having to stop for about 10 minutes and then start up again. Raven belonged in there instead of freaking Billy Gunn but I think that was part of his feud with management so it made sense I guess. Still though, it was relatively short and the minute time limits weren’t so bad because there weren’t that many people in it.

NWA World Title: Rhyno vs. Jeff Jarrett

Tito Ortiz is guest referee. Jarrett brings out a casket for no apparent reason. He jumps Rhyno before the belt even comes off and hits a dropkick to put Rhyno down. Out to the floor and Rhyno gets rammed into the announce table and then the casket. Back in a top rope clothesline puts Rhyno down again. He’s had zero offense at all so far. Another top rope clothesline puts the challenger down again so Jeff goes up a third time. Rhyno catches him in chokeslam position but instead throws Jeff into the air and kicks him in the balls.

Gail Kim comes out as the Gore misses. Gail goes up but jumps into the arms of Tito. She tries to slap him so she gets placed on the apron. Guitar shot misses but the second one hits Rhyno square in the face. Rhyno is busted open but it only gets two. Jarrett yells at Ortiz and AMW comes out. There’s another guitar but Ortiz drills both members of AMW. Rhyno Gores Jarrett down and pins him out of nowhere in I think his second offensive move of the match.

Rating: C. The match was nothing great but at the same time, this was Rhyno’s third match of the night and second in a row, plus there was no story to the match but that’s certainly beyond TNA’s control in this case. The match only ran about six minutes and Tito didn’t have much to do with it but again I’m assuming it made more sense with Nash in there. All things considered, this wasn’t bad.

Post match AMW runs in to beat Rhyno down as Tito is gone. The 3 Live Kru runs down for the save so Team Canada comes in as well. The casket is brought into the ring and Rhyno takes another guitar shot to the head. They shut him into the casket and Jarrett holds up the belt. Team 3D returns and cleans house along with the Kru. Only Eric Young is left so he gets the 3D and gets thrown into the casket. Rhyno and company celebrate to end the show. This was a REALLY bad choice for an ending, but again I’m assuming it was for Nash where it would have made better sense. That being said, DON’T DO IT IN THIS CASE.

Overall Rating: B+. This worked really well overall and when you considered the ending of the show had to be completely rewritten because of Nash’s life threatening medical condition of the month, it was solid. Rhyno’s title reign wound up meaning nothing because he lost the title at the next taping, but for a nice surprise ending it worked pretty well.

The middle part of this show, as in from the tag titles through the Iron Man, is EXCELLENT and the opening part isn’t that bad. The Ultimate X match is solid other than the awful ending and the longest of the first four matches is 7:15 long so they hardly cripple the show. Very good show and I can see why people were so hyped about TNA at this point.

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Monday Nitro #137
Date: May 18, 1998
Location: Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko

It’s the night after Slamboree and naturally we’ve got more NWO drama and not much else. The main story is that Sting and Giant won the tag titles due to Hall turning on Nash, apparently aligning himself with Hollywood Hogan and the Black and White, despite them keeping him off TV for months and Nash standing up for him. This would be the third (fifth if you include Konnan and Hennig) yet to be explained turn in less than a month if you’re keeping track. Let’s get to it.

This is a one hour show tonight due to the NBA Playoffs. On Thunder it was announced that we would get an hour before the basketball game and a second hour after, but the second hour was just a repeat of the first. I’m not sure if it was a last second change or WCW just making stuff up to get ratings, but at least it’s less nonsense for me this week.

We open with the stills from last night’s main event. I think that was Nash’s official face turn after being a face for at least a month now.

Here’s Eric in the ring wearing a red velvet crown and siting on a motorcycle. He says it’s good to be king and as he ponders his future in this sport, he has to look back at the past. His television record is 98-2 and now his in ring record is 2-0, having defeated Larry Zbyszko and Vince McMahon. He wanted to beat Vince in the ring, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. Now he has to look to the future which holds a record better than Bill Goldberg’s. He’s going to chase a dream which started last night. What that is isn’t specified but the music plays and he’s done.

Nitro Girls.

We get the video from Thunder with Saturn saying he hasn’t stolen the Cryonic Kick because it’s a basic side kick that has been used for thousands of years.

Saturn vs. Psychosis

Saturn pounds him into the corner to start but Psychosis slams him down for two. A dropkick knocks Saturn out of the air and a second one knocks him out to the floor. Psychosis hits a nice plancha to the floor but gets caught in a release dragon suplex back inside. The superkick and Death Valley Driver set up the Rings of Saturn for the quick submmission.

We get some stills from Bret vs. Savage last night, focusing on Hogan interfering, leading to Savage giving up to the Sharpshooter.

Here’s Piper with something to say. This isn’t likely to go well. He’s ticked off because of how much interference there was and he’d never do that job again. Apparently Liz was swearing a lot and it allowed someone Savage hit him in the back of the head (it was Hart). Piper wants Savage out here right now and here’s Macho himself. For once, Tony is logical here by saying Piper could watch the tape and see that it was Hart attacking him.

Piper says he isn’t a guy to apologize but if he was he’d apologize right now, but since he isn’t a guy to apologize he isn’t apologizing. He’s watched the tape and saw Hart hit him in the back of the head, so as Commissioner he’s naming Savage as the winner of the match via a disqualification. This is treated as the biggest news in the history of WCW but here’s Bret Hart to complain. He wants to fight but doesn’t want to do it two on one. Actually scratch that as he’s ready to go but Hogan and pals come out to stop him. The end result is a tag match at Great American Bash.

Buy the Randy Savage shirt!

Heenan replaces Zbyszko on commentary for the second half of the show.

The announcers talk about the Cruiserweight Title situation for a bit. We get a post match interview with Dean Malenko with Gene saying he can no longer call Malenko a loser. Dean says it’s water under the bridge because tonight was the beginning of his new quest. He isn’t done with Jericho because Jericho insulted his family. This title is for his dad. If Malenko has ever cut a better promo, I haven’t seen it.

Jericho freaked out after losing the belt last night.

Damian vs. Juventud Guerrera

There’s no opening bell but Juvy takes over with a quick spinwheel kick but charges into a boot in the corner for two. A dropkick sends Damian to the floor but he whips Juvy into the steps to take over. Damian dropkicks him from the apron but gets caught in a top rope hurricanrana back inside. Juvy gets crotched on top and Damian gets two off a kneeling Muscle Buster of all things. Juvy almost no sells it and gets two of his own off the Juvy Driver. The 450 totally misses but Juvy gets up and drops a quick elbow for the pin.

Rating: C-. Botched ending aside this was pretty fun. I prefer the elbow drop over pretending the splash worked because it was more or less two feet to Damian’s chest and certainly wouldn’t have kept him down. Also it’s nice that they’re mixing up the matches a bit with new names like Damian, even though he isn’t the biggest star in the world. It’s better than doing the same pairings over and over.

More Nitro Girls.

There seems to be some confusion as to what’s next. Tony says we’re going to Gene but here’s Goldberg for his match.

US Title: Goldberg vs. Glacier

Goldberg blocks a bunch of kicks to start and clotheslines Glacier down. Glacier misses an enziguri and it’s the spear and Jackhammer to make it 89-0.

Here’s DDP for his weekly interview. Gene lauds him for his win last night but Page doesn’t want to think about how he beat Raven. He did it for the fans who always jack him up, but now he has a new target. Page wants to be world champion and hopes he gets to take it off of Hogan because he hasn’t forgotten what Hogan has put him through for the last six months. Not much from DDP this week but it’s a new plot development.

Here’s the Black and White to close the show. Bret is with them but still in street clothes. Dusty is there too, despite ripping into Hogan last week on Nitro. Hogan talks about how great he is and laughs at the idea of anyone following Nash. Everyone is here tonight because of Hogan because he controls the money and the talent.

If there was any doubt to Hogan being great, here’s Scott Hall as the ultimate proof. Hall rubs his fingers together to symbolize money on the way to the ring, which is probably as good of an explanation as we’re going to get. Bischoff calls out Sting for his explanation. Giant comes up to Sting in the aisle and gets spat on, causing Giant to choke Sting down. Nash comes out with a pipe to scare

Overall Rating: C. This show continues to prove that three hours simply aren’t needed at all. This show covered almost every major story and gave us some watchable wrestling at the same time. The ending is all you would come to expect from WCW as we get about two minutes of storyline development which will lead to three hours of talking next week. Bischoff mentioning Goldberg is interesting though as it’s the first mention of him from the NWO. Page going after Hogan might be worth something too.

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Thunder
Date: May 14, 1998
Location: Whittemore Center Arena, Durham, New Hampshire
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay

It’s the final show before Slamboree and we have even more drama in the NWO. This time it’s the Giant joining NWO Hollywood to help protect Hogan and get his hands on Kevin Nash at the same time. The latter makes little sense as Giant already has a match with Nash on Sunday but if you try to think too much about this stuff your head will explode. Let’s get to it.

The announcers talk for a bit about the end of Nitro and give us a quick preview of tonight’s show, including Savage vs. Sting.

We get a new version of Bischoff’s challenge, this one themed like an NWO announcement. Basically Bischoff is a martial arts expert and invites Vince to come break Eric’s limbs and choke him to death, so come to Slamboree. Expect to see this about a dozen times tonight.

Mando Guerrero, Eddie’s older brother, is disappointed by Eddie’s recent actions. Chavo has it tough enough due to being a second generation wrestler without having to be Eddie’s nephew.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Reese

Reese is Eddie’s handpicked opponent, selected for how similar he is to Chavo. Reese lumbers at Chavo but the smaller guy speeds around and fires off chops for no effect. Reese throws Chavo around with ease but Guerrero comes back with a springboard kick to the chest to stagger the giant. Chavo goes up but an Eddie distraction allows Reese to catch Chavo in the chokebomb for the fast pin.

Post match Ultimo Dragon, Eddie’s opponent on Sunday, comes out to stop Eddie from berating Chavo. Chavo walks away while Eddie is caught in the Dragon Sleeper.

We recap the “fan” attacks (Kanyon) on Raven over the last few weeks.

The announcers talk about Raven’s challenge for a Bowery Death Match on Sunday.

We also get a clip of Raven beating Page for the US Title at Spring Stampede and the ensuing brawls over the next few weeks. They also air Page’s promos on Raven from Thunder two weeks ago, the fight with the bullrope, JJ giving Raven a riot squad and the challenge for the Bowery Death Match. Are they running REALLY short on time tonight? They aired about seven minutes straight of videos of the feud.

Since that’s not enough on these two, here are Raven and the riot squad. He’s tired of hearing about DDP. What about Raven? This isn’t Dodge City and Page can’t string him up like Josey Wales. If Page wants him, come get him right now. Here’s Page through the crowd because he was just waiting at the top of the arena. Page dives over the squad to get at Raven but the beatdown is on almost immediately. That looks a lot like Austin diving over the cops to get at Vince a few months after this aired. Page gets hung by the bullrope.

Goldberg has to defend the US Title by running a Flock gauntlet on Sunday.

The Outsiders will actually be here tonight.

TV Title: Kenny Kaos vs. Fit Finlay

In case you didn’t think the other High Voltage member getting a title shot was stupid enough. Finlay grabs a nerve hold to start but Kaos comes back with a hiptoss before pulling Finlay away from the ropes. Finlay drags him to the floor by the hair for a quick pounding before taking Kaos back inside, getting two off a splash. Kaos gets the knees up to block a Vader Bomb and gets two off an atomic drop. The champion pounds away but misses a charge into the post, only to take it to the floor where Rage helps out his partner. Back in and Finlay hits the rolling senton and the tombstone to retain.

Rating: D. Nothing match as Finlay didn’t sell anything Kaos did and easily beat him after getting double teamed. This wasn’t really even a squash with Kaos getting in some offense but to no effect. I still don’t get why Finlay was champion anyway as he hadn’t really done anything significant prior to winning the title.

We see Savage calling out Bret from a few weeks ago.

Here’s a live action person dressed as a character from the animated movie Quest For Camelot to hand out t-shirts. This doesn’t seem to be announced to anyone in the arena, but why would they need to know who this big viking looking guy is?

US Title: Sick Boy vs. Goldberg

Sick Boy goes right for the champ and actually takes him down with a snapmare. We get a nerve hold but Goldberg easily fights up. A pair of dropkicks stagger him but Goldberg comes back with a gorilla press, setting up a bad looking spear and the Jackhammer to retain the title.

The Flock swarms Goldberg but he takes down Riggs, scaring everyone else off.

Saturn says he uses a basic side kick like people have been using for thousands of years. He didn’t steal it from Glacier or any other reject from a video game.

Chris Adams vs. Saturn

Before the match Kidman asks Adams if he wants to lose to the Rings of Saturn or the Death Valley Driver. Adams doesn’t say anything so Kidman picks the Death Valley Driver, which will be set up by the Cryonic Kick and there’s nothing Glacier can do about it. Security holds Van Hammer back from getting in the ring. They trade hammerlocks to start as Tony rips apart the Flock for being a bunch of spoiled brats as children.

Saturn catches an incoming boot to the ribs but Adams takes him down with an enziguri for two. Adams misses a top rope knee drop and Kidman hands Saturn a chair. Saturn gets a springboard into the corner for a clothesline before sending Chris out to the floor. Adams comes back with some right hands but gets sent into the ropes, setting up the superkick and Death Valley Driver for Saturn’s pin.

Rating: C. Better match than expected here with Adams at least being game out there. I like the idea of Saturn calling his finish but it would be better if it was in a feud with ANYONE but Glacier. Was there no one else out there you could have use a superkick to set up a feud with Saturn at all? Not a bad match at all though.

This week in WCW Motorsports because all WCW fans care about car racing.

Robbie Rage vs. Chris Benoit

Apparently Nitro will be split in two on Monday with one hour from 7-8 and one hour from 11:30-12:30. Rage no sells some chops to start and gorilla presses Benoit down with ease. An overhead belly to belly has Benoit in even more trouble and it’s off to a half crab from Rage. Kaos is nowhere to be seen for some reason tonight. Rage loads up a powerslam but rams Benoit back first into the corner instead of slamming him down. Benoit avoids a top rope splash and there’s the Swan Dive followed by the Crossface for the submission.

Rating: D+. Nothing special to see here but Rage got in far more offense than he should have. This was out of the 1995 Randy Savage playbook: get destroyed for most of the match and then hit a big move for the win. It doesn’t do much for Benoit but at least he got the win going into his title match on Sunday.

Here’s Eric Bischoff with his fists up and something to say. The announcers talk about the challenge but aren’t sure if they should support Bischoff or not. Bischoff talks about Vince sending guys where Vince knows Eric won’t be, but he’s received a letter from Vince’s lawyers, saying that Vince will NOT be at the PPV and stop promoting him as such. Bischoff says ok but Doug Dillinger will still be there to guard the door and make sure Vince gets to the ring safely. The announcers still aren’t sure what to say.

Buy the Outsiders shirt!

Tag Titles: Outsiders vs. Public Enemy

And there’s no Hall. Nash complains about politics in the back with Bischoff and Hogan keeping Hall off live TV. However, they can’t stop him from being at the PPV for some reason so Hall WILL be at Slamboree. He stops to talk about how sexy he looks tonight and brings out his replacement partner for the night: Dusty Rhodes. Rocco starts for the challengers as Dusty chills on the floor.

Nash throws Rock into the corner and chokes him with the boot before firing in some elbows for two. More corner choking ensues before Public Enemy double suplexes Nash down. Rhodes pulls Grunge to the floor and the Jackknife to Rocco followed by the Bionic Elbow retains the titles. Heenan: “DUSTY IS 1-0!”

Rating: D. This was barely long enough to rate but it was basically a joke match. The fans popped for Dusty so I guess the Wolfpack is officially a face group. They’re definitely faces in the NWO but it wasn’t entirely clear if they were faces overall. It’s nice to see the belts defended at all though as I don’t think they’ve been on the line since February.

Sting vs. Randy Savage

We get a lot of pyro before the entrances. Savage jumps Sting in the aisle and I don’t think there was a bell. They head inside with Sting taking over and backdropping Savage down. Savage rakes the eyes and takes it back to the floor with Sting sending Randy into the barricade and actually hitting the Splash against the steel. That might be the only time I’ve ever seen that connect in WCW. Back in and the Stinger Splash misses but Sting comes back with an elbow to the jaw. Not that it matters as here’s Bret Hart with a chair for the fast DQ. Match was just over two minutes long.

Giant comes in to save Bret from Savage, only to have Nash come in to save Savage with a chair shot. Sting hits Nash with the chair, leaving just Sting and Giant standing. Giant gets a mic and says that once they win the tag titles, Sting has a decision to make. He throws Sting a black and white t-shirt and Sting doesn’t immediately say no. Giant leaves so Luger comes out to try to talk reason into Sting.

The Bischoff challenge to McMahon ends the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Well let’s see: we get no explanation from Giant, the only major story development is for what happens after the tag title match, we saw two High Voltage matches for some reason, and nothing new was added to the PPV. This show just didn’t need to happen, which is the case with almost all of the Thunder shows anymore.

Here’s Slamboree if you’re interested:

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Monday Nitro #135
Date: May 4, 1998
Location: Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay

It’s another two hour show this week instead of the usual three hours due to the NBA Playoffs. My response: God bless the NBA. We’re closing in on Slamboree and the main story is the NWO civil war. Nash, Savage and Konnan have officially formed the Wolfpack who will have their own everything very soon. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Konnan joining Nash and Savage.

Opening sequence.

Nitro Girls.

The announcers talk about the NWO’s troubles. Brian Adams has officially sided with Hogan.

Now for a change of pace, we get a recap of the Wolfpack forming and Nash wanting a piece of Hart. We also see Konnan joining the team for the second time in less than six minutes.

Here are Eddie and Chavo for a match. Before the match, Eddie says he’s going to be a good example for Chavo. The announcers go nuts on Eddie as he calls out Scott Norton.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Scott Norton

Surprisingly enough, Eddie doesn’t send Chavo in instead immediately. He actually waits about thirty seconds before “hurting his knee” and sending Chavo in to face Norton. Norton slugs away on Chavo in the corner and press slams him down before going after Eddie. Chavo uses the opening to dropkick Scott’s knee a few times. Norton comes right back with a powerslam and the shoulder breaker for the pin. Squash.

Ultimo Dragon comes in to check on Chavo but Eddie tells him to get away.

Scott Putski vs. Kidman

Tenay talks about how Putski’s dad, Ivan, was more of a power guy. Larry: “Let me put it another way. Ivan was stupid.” Putski slams Kidman down and drops an elbow for two but Kidman hits a running bulldog out of the corner to take over. Scott comes back with a sitout spinebuster as the Wolfpack comes through the crowd, complete with the red and black NWO logo shirts. They storm the ring to take out Putski for the fast DQ.

Nash says this is how things are going to be from now on. The Wolfpack is very hungry, so they’re going to pick Sting and Giant’s bones at Slamboree. Nash refers to the team as the red and black attack and says it’s about to be a war between them and Hogan’s crew. Savage says that Hogan’s new friend Bret Hart won’t get screwed unless that’s something he wants.

Nash brings out the newest member of the Wolfpack: Curt Hennig. Bryan Adams comes out to ask Hennig what he’s doing but Curt blows him off. Hennig takes off the black and white to reveal the Wolfpack colors. Konnan challenges Adams for later and Nash wants a piece of Sting, so why not have Nash vs. Luger to show Sting what he’s in for.

Video on Raven, talking about being alone. He wasn’t allowed to play ball with the other kids but they wouldn’t have let him play anyway.

Here’s Jericho with the picture of Malenko again. We also get a video featuring Malenko talking about his dad passing away. Jericho says Dean’s dad Boris must be rolling in his grave over how much of a failure Dean is. Jericho dedicates his career to someone who is much better than Dean and knows far more holds: Bore-Us Malenko.

Chris Jericho vs. Bore-Us Malenko

Malenko is a tiny guy in Dean’s gear and this is about what you would expect. Jericho pulls Bore-Us on top of him for two before making a comeback and taming the Bore-Us lion for the win.

More Nitro Girls with Alex Wright interrupting them again.

We get Hogan’s comments from last week which didn’t really say anything.

Hugh Morrus/Barbarian vs. Public Enemy

This is a street fight which is probably the best idea all around. Grunge whips Morrus with a big rope as Rocco blasts Barbarian in the head with a trashcan. Morrus comes back with a trashcan lid to Johnny’s head as Barbarian crotches Rocco on the top rope. It’s amazing how often one guy on a team making a comeback triggers the same comeback from his partner. Everyone gets inside for the first time, including Jimmy Hart to get in some stomps of his own. Barbarian misses a dive through a table but Morrus slams Rocco through one to make up for it. Hart hits Morrus by mistake and gets splashed by Grunge for the pin. Ok then.

Bryan Adams suggests that everyone here have a glass of shut up. Are you telling me that Rock was ripping off BRYAN FREAKING ADAMS??? After my mind is blown by that line, Adams tells us all that Hulk Hogan made wrestling and is the reason we’re here tonight. He’ll fight Konnan tonight too.

Video on Chris Benoit vs. Booker T, making it look like a big time rivalry. Benoit swears he made Booker tap out but Booker says he was reaching for the rope. The video isn’t conclusive enough to tell either way. Another match is set for Slamboree.

Heenan joins commentary.

We look at the end of last Tuesday’s show with Hart not explaining his actions.

Hour #2 begins.

Saturn vs. Hammer

Kidman says this is a loser leaves the Flock match. Hammer sends Saturn into the steps to take over and gets two off something like an airplane spin. Saturn comes back with a superkick and some chops in the corner followed by a Cactus Clothesline to take both guys to the outside. We look at Raven’s dressing room to see the Flock watching the match. Saturn dives into a powerslam for no cover and a delayed superplex gets the same lack of cover.

Hammer goes for the legs but gets kicked into the ropes, setting up a top rope legdrop from Saturn. Saturn brings in a chair which is legal here it seems. A springboard dropkick using the chair knocks Hammer into the corner but a second attempt hits the referee. Saturn hits something like a Van Daminator and loads up the Death Valley Driver, only to have Kanyon come in dressed as a beer vendor. One beer case to the head is enough to knock Saturn out of the Flock.

Rating: D+. This was better than I expected and it’s nice to see the Flock have a story outside of whatever Raven is doing at the moment. Saturn leaving the Flock is interesting, but he’s always been the rebel of the group. Nice match here though and it should set the stage for more interesting stuff in the future.

Raven is mad and comes to the ring, only to have Page storm into the locker room with a stop sign and a bullrope around his neck for no apparent reason. Page drags Raven around the back and into the ring. Pyro goes off as Page comes down the ramp and scares everyone to death. The guys are tied by the neck but Raven comes back with a low blow to drop Page. DDP counters the Even Flow and hangs Raven over the ropes, drawing in security as we take a break.

More Nitro Girls as Tony tells us there’s no Thunder again this week. Well if he insists.

Sick Boy vs. Juventud Guerrera

Is this Flock Night or something? Sick Boy jumps Juy in the corner to start and stomps him down in the corner. An elevated Pedigree gets two for Boy but Juvy comes back with a spinwheel kick for two. The ring is soaked from Kanyon’s drinks so they keep slipping out there. Juvy is sent to the apron for a springboard missile dropkick and there’s the Juvy Driver. Horace breaks up the 450 and that’s a quick DQ.

Juvy gets out of the double team but the seven foot Reese is too much for him. He isn’t however too much for Goldberg who makes the save and Jackhammers Reese.

Here’s Rick Steiner for a chat with Gene. Rick wants his brother to come out here right now and tell him whether the Steiner Brothers are getting back together or if one of them will be left laying. If Scott has any guts, he’ll be out here right now. Scott does come out, but on crutches.

Scott says he’s lost friends and their parents aren’t talking to him the same. Sometimes bad things happen like what happened to Bagwell, but Scott doesn’t want something like that to get between the Steiners. Rick says they either fight it out right now or walk to the back together. Scott denounces Hogan and the NWO, saying he wants to reform the tag team.

Rick, somehow the smartest guy in the room, says he can’t trust Scott, even as he appears to be on the verge of tears. The intelligence is short lived though as Rick says he’ll give Scotty another chance, but if Scott stabs him in the back, Rick will hunt him until he dies. They hug and here’s Adams with a ball bat. Scott is of course fine and cheers Adams on, confirming his loyalty to Hogan’s camp.

Bryan Adams vs. Konnan

Konnan goes right at Adams to start and clotheslines him down. Can we please get Konnan some fitted pants? All that tugging must get annoying. Adams comes back with a bad looking piledriver (Tony says it was the jumping variety despite the complete lack of jumping) and sends Konnan to the outside. Cue Bret Hart to get a cheap shot on Konnan and send him back inside. Adams gorilla presses Konnan down but Nash comes in for the DQ.

Adams gets jackknifed.

Nitro Girls again, this time in silver.

We look at the Nitro Party winner of the week.

TV Title: Fit Finlay vs. Booker T

Fit takes him into the corner to start and hits a hard kick to the champion’s back. Finlay cranks on the leg as Tony is thrilled to have Nitro back to three hours next week. Booker fights up with a good looking spin kick to the face before backdropping Finlay to the floor. Back in and Finlay hits a hard clothesline, only to be taken down by a running forearm. The ax kick puts Finlay down and the whip spinebuster does the same. There’s a flapjack from the champion as Benoit saunters down to the ring. The distraction lets Finlay tombstone Booker down for the pin and the title.

Rating: D+. Nothing special here but it furthers the Booker vs. Benoit feud, which has already had developments since the last time we saw them. Over the last week, Booker and Benoit traded the TV Title at some house shows, but neither of Benoit’s two wins were acknowledged tonight. Instead we need Finlay to get the title. That’s not a knock on Finlay, but he hasn’t done anything of note in months and he gets a title?

Kevin Nash vs. Lex Luger

We have less than five minutes of air time left during Luger’s entrance. Luger pounds away in the corner to start but a Konnan distraction allows Nash to kick him in the face. Nash fires off elbows in the corner and does the foot choke to really expand the offense. A running clothesline hits Luger in the corner but a second one runs into Luger’s boot. Savage and Konnan get taken down but Nash gets in a cheap shot to take over again as the Wolfpack comes in for the fast DQ.

Sting and Giant come out to break up the Jackknife and start a fight. Adams comes out but Bret stops him from hitting the ring, wisely saying let them fight to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. This is an interesting case for Nitro. On one hand, this was a story driven show which did the last thing WCW needed: put even more focus on the NWO. The silver lining for this show though was the length. It’s amazing how much easier it is to sit through Nitro when it loses that third hour. There’s a lot of good stuff in WCW, but the extra time is always given to pad out the bad stuff, dragging the show down in the process. Not a bad show here, but the bad is going to take over in a hurry.

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Monday Nitro #54
Date: September 23, 1996
Location: CSU Convocation Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Attendance: 4,308
Commentators: Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone, Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay

As mentioned on the previous show, this is the one where everyone not named Savage is in Japan. Eric, ever the lunkhead, mentioned this last week and the NWO knows about it. Expect a lot of unusual names on this show and a lot of matches that no one would ever want to see. Oh and a lot of the NWO as well I’m sure. Let’s get to it.

Tony holds up an ad that is allegedly in the USA Today, talking about Nitro being taken over by the NWO tonight. Larry talks about parasites.

We get clips of fans tearing up NWO stuff.

Konnan/Kevin Sullivan vs. Brad Armstrong/Juventud Guerrera

The two Mexicans start us off and Konnan takes it to the mat. Juvy is like “screw that in Spanish” and fires off a plancha and slingshot leg to speed things up. And there’s the 187 to stop that quickly. Sullivan won’t tag in so Konnan has to keep fighting. Armstrong comes in and cleans house a bit but there’s a powerbomb. Sullivan finally makes a tag and here are the NWO sign guys. Sullivan gets a pin. That’s literally all he did in the entire match: walk in and get a pin. Pretty much a squash match.

The Dungeon beats down Konnan for no apparent reason post match. And then they stop and help him up. It was an initiation according to Sullivan.

We get some clips from the end of last week’s show where the NWO said they were coming for Savage this week. Savage says he’s a marked man and if that’s what it takes to get at Hogan, that’s cool with him. He’s the last hope for WCW and says he volunteered to stay here tonight on his own. As for Liz, and I quote, “The only thing we have in common is that in a thousand lifetimes, we might be goldfish swimming in the same water.” Kids, don’t do drugs.

Mike Enos vs. Chris Jericho

We’re told that it’s Harlem Heat vs. Outsiders for the titles at Havoc. They start fast and Jericho gets slapped, as does Enos. Enos channels his inner JYD and gets on all fours to headbutt Jericho. Pretty basic match so far as we talk about Savage and the NWO. Larry says there was something else Savage said that Larry didn’t like. He doesn’t bother saying what that is, but I guess that’s an exercise left up to us.

They go to the floor and it’s all Enos. He loads up the steps and suplexes Jericho onto them, which isn’t a DQ I guess. Three minutes after he initially brought it up, Larry says it was the last hope for WCW line that he didn’t like. Off to a bearhug and then a powerslam for two. All Enos so far. Jericho gets put into a Boston Crab which isn’t ironic yet. Over the shoulder backbreaker now but Jericho counters into a sunset flip for two.

Missile dropkick puts Enos down and up to the corner we go. He sets for a super rana but Enos powerbombs him out of it (not as exciting as it sounds) for two. In a pretty cool ending that I don’t think I’ve seen before, Jericho counters a powerslam into something like a powerslam of his own (better than it sounds) for the pin. That looked pretty sweet actually.

Rating: B-. Much better match here than I was expecting. Enos was fine for what he was supposed to be here: a power guy acting as a foil for Jericho to look good against here. The ending was good too and it’s always fun to see a guy like Jericho getting one of his first big breaks on national TV. Fun match that did things simply but well.

Pat Tanaka vs. Glacier

Tanaka comes out to what would become Goldberg’s music. The guy that got the music became one of the biggest stars ever while Tanaka became the referee for Micro Championship Wrestling. It’s snowing again and we hear about Larry being a black belt also. Think they’ll be kicking a lot? Larry explains what the fist behind the hand for the bow means (wanting violence to be the second choice). They avoid kicks for awhile until Tanaka hooks a sitout powerbomb. Ignore that as a spin kick ends this in about 30 seconds. Glacier won in case you’re really stupid.

Tag Titles: Harlem Heat vs. Public Enemy

Arn vs. Lex is announced for Havoc as well. The champs jump them and double team Rock for a bit. Booker vs. Rock to start but it’s off to Grunge quickly. We take a break and come back with Heat in control now. Booker crotches himself on a kick attempt though and it’s a not hot tag to Grunge. Big clothesline puts Johnny down (it’s Booker T/Stevie Ray vs. Johnny Grunge/Rocco Rock if you’ve been confused so far) and it’s off to Ray.

Time to talk about Savage again and we have a table from nowhere set up on the floor. Grunge is knocked to the floor and hit his back on it on the way down. Well that sucks. A Harlem Side Kick hits Grunge for two and we cut to the back to see the NWO arrive, now in two limos. At least it’s a chinlock that we’re missing which is an old school technique for getting around this kind of stuff. It was usually used when there was a fight in the crowd or something. Whenever you see fans looking elsewhere, you’ll often see a veteran go into a rest hold to make sure the fans don’t miss anything. That’s how a good wrestler thinks.

The hot tag brings in Rocco and he cleans house as well as a dirty man like he can. He fires off a bunch of right hands but runs into the Heat. The Hangover misses for the most part (Booker’s back landed on him instead) and we get a near fall due to Grunge’s foot being on the ropes. There’s a small package on Booker and Rock reverses it for the pin and the shocking title change.

Rating: D+. The match sucked but this was the kind of surprise that was designed to make you think anything could happen. They lost the titles like two weeks later so that Harlem Heat could defend against the Outsiders so it’s not like this lasted a significant amount of time, but it was a good surprise and I was legit shocked when it happened.

Second hour begins.

Greg Valentine vs. Randy Savage

Eric says there’s a new NWO member tonight. I can’t think of who that would be as the next member wasn’t until October and it was nothing of note unless I’m totally overlooking someone. Valentine jumps him and that doesn’t work all that well. They go to the floor with Valentine having his token control period. We hear that Super Calo has injured his elbow in a dark match so he’s out for awhile. Savage clocks Valentine with a chair twice and that’s a DQ. The whole point of this is coming down the aisle though.

Here’s the NWO and it’s beatdown time. A Jackknife puts him down and Savage is in trouble. Giant grabs a mic and introduces Hogan. They beat him down even more and drop a leg on him. They even beat him with a Slim Jim. Hogan talks about Savage being bald and they spraypaint the top of his head.

They storm the announcers’ booth and Bobby runs with Tenay. Eric can’t get away though and the announcers sit down with him. They debut their head of security: Vincent. That would be Virgil from WWF. To be fair, no one cared about him or had heard of him in years so it’s not like this meant anything.

Ok so the NWO will be running the commentary for the rest of the night. Eric keeps trying to leave but can’t get away. They debut the NWO Nascar car which used to be the WCW car. Kyle Petty is the driver.

Jim Powers vs. Michael Wallstreet

Giant is the new announcer. Hall and Nash leave the booth and DiBiase sits down instead. The Outsiders are beating up Powers now so there’s no match.

Randy Anderson walks out so Nick Patrick says he’ll do all the refereeing.

Giant chokeslams Powers again and we cut to Hogan in the back, spraypainting something. He comes down the hall and runs into the Nasty Boys. Hogan gives them his hotel key and says tonight they won’t be fighting the Outsiders because they can talk some business with Hogan later. A defection is implied.

Jim Duggan vs. Syxx

It’s supposed to be Ron Studd but that doesn’t happen as Hogan and Nash beat him down in the aisle. We hear what might be the debut of the NWO theme song. Hogan jumps in on commentary which is something that is very rare to hear. Duggan takes over to start and gets the USA chant going. You know, Syxx is from Minnesota. Wouldn’t a USA chant help him as well? The three point clothesline hits but Giant pulls Duggan out and hits one of the worst chokeslams I’ve ever seen on the concrete so that Syxx can get the pin. He had no other offense.

NWO Sting vs. Bo LaDue

LaDue has never had another televised match as far as I know. Sting does the usual Sting stuff and no one buys it. Splash and Deathlock end this.

Hogan talks about Savage a bit.

High Voltage vs. Outsiders

This is part of the NWO Tag Team Tournament. The French Canadians are supposed to be the opponents but the Outsiders come out next so the French dudes run. I have no idea what there is to say about this. Hall beats on one of them, Nash beats on one of them, we take a break, we come back with more beatings, we get a Brooke/Nick reference, Hall suplexes Rage off the top, a Jackknife pins Kaos. That match lasted about 11 minutes.

Rating: F. Yeah it’s a squash, yeah it’s supposed to be dominant, yeah it was really boring.

The NWO talks for a few minutes to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. This is one of the benchmarks where you can see that everything is about TV instead of being for the live audience. Can you imagine how bored they’ve been for the last two hours of this show? Nothing has happened at all. The whole thing was about the NWO and they have no idea that Vincent is the new man either. This was all for the TV show, which is fine but it takes the crowd out of stuff quickly. Not a good show, but a lot of that is due to everyone being in Japan.

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