If you’ve never heard Austin talk about wrestling, make the time to do so.  The guy just gets the idea behind the business and has one of the most brilliant wrestling minds you’ll ever hear.  He also has one of if not the best wrestling podcasts in the world right now.  Check it out.  The more interviews I read of him giving his take on things the more brilliant he seems.  He’s also one of the few guys who can critique nearly any wrestler ever because of how big a star he was.  Check his stuff out and you’ll have a blast doing it.

Here’s his podcast page which has episodes of him just talking about whatever comes to mind or interviews with legends like Angle, Hart and Nash plus many others.

http://www.podcastone.com/Steve-Austin-Show?showAllEpisodes=true

Bash at the Beach 1996
Date: July 7, 1996
Location: Ocean Center, Daytona Beach, Florida
Attendance: 8,300
Commentators: Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes

So this is it. This is the show where everything changed for WCW. There had been an invasion by Hall and Nash, who up to this point I don’t think had been named, and we had Sting, Luger and Savage joined together to fight them off. There’s also a mystery third man that no one knows yet.

That right there is what causes the whole change in wrestling. It launched WCW into the stratosphere and causes WWF to be about as sick as you can get without dying. The rest of the show is pretty much forgotten and with good reason. Let’s get to it.

If you’re looking for what I think about the beginning of the NWO, scroll down to the end of this and you’ll find it.

This is subtitles The Hostile Takeover. Yep it’s so hostile that they’re being given ring music, a match on the show and the main event spot on the PPV. I wonder if they got catering too.

There are security guards at the table with them. Ok then.

Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis

Rey had debuted at the PPV the month before this. This should be awesome as they have all kinds of history together. Tenay replaces Bobby for this one. Rey is YOUNG here, only being 21 at this point. Rey starts off with a half crab. We hear about how popular these two are, talking about how the masks are sold in the streets. I always wanted a Kane mask. Finally they get tired of the leg locks and go all lucha on us.

And then they hit a chinlock. Sure why not. Psychosis hits the guillotine legdrop that would be his finisher later but it’s just two here. You know for a match with these guys, this is pretty boring. Rey finally starts throwing some ranas to make things interesting. West Coast Pop gets two. And let’s talk about the main event. Heenan is here too actually.

We hit the floor and Psychosis hits a perfect senton to the floor on Mysterio. It’s a back splash, not the Hardy move. This referee is really annoying. He has a hitch in his count just like that Armstrong referee that got released a few months ago. So after almost ten minutes they realize they’re Rey Mysterio and Psychosis and just go off with high spots.

Psychosis goes for Splash Mountain (Razor’s Edge into a sitout powerbomb from the top) but Rey shoves off in mid air and hooks him into a hurricanrana for the pin. That’s still one of my all time favorite endings to a match. Mysterio would win the Cruiserweight Title the next night on Nitro.

Rating: B+. This started VERY slow but once they realized the crowd was only halfway into it, they cranked it WAY up and it turned into nothing but awesome high spots. See, this is a FAR different Rey than you’re used to today. This is when he was the best cruiserweight ever. He was pulling off stuff that is just flat out insane.

Then he destroyed both of his knees and slowed way down to where he was like 3rd best in the world. Either way, he’s amazing at this time and had some of the most jaw dropping spots ever. Also keep in mind: this is the very beginning of this division. Today it’s common to see this all over the place in America, but it had only debuted in mainstream wrestling less than a year ago at this point, so this was mind blowing stuff. Great opener and the crowd is white hot now.

Konnan says he’ll keep the title. When asked what happened to end the match, he says Psychosis had him up for a top rope Splash Mountain but Rey reversed into a top rope Frankensteiner. YOU CAN’T BUY THIS KIND OF ANALYSIS PEOPLE!

Apparently you can and it’s called Mike Tenay. Got it.

John Tenta vs. Big Bubba

This is a Carson City Silver Dollars Match. In other words, there’s a sock full of silver dollars on a pole and either Big Boss Man or Earthquake has to climb it. Keep in mind that Eddie Guerrero vs. Regal and Steiners vs. Harlem Heat for the tag titles took place on the Main Event, which was the TV show that aired before this. Who in their right mind thought this was a good idea? Oh that’s right: they’re Hogan’s buddies.

Bubba shaved half of Tenta’s hair and half of his mustache, making him look even stupider. Is there a point to the bag of silver? Not at all, but why let that stop them? Tenta finally wakes up and tries to take the pole down. Keep in mind that you win by pinfall so the pole isn’t even needed. Then again why would logic make sense here? Earthquake gets tied to the ropes with athletic tape. Only one arm though.

Who in the name of hollandaise sauce thought this was a good idea? Boss Man comes over with some scissors to cut the rest of his hair but Quake uses them to cut the tape. Ok that’s smart at least. We get our first intelligent thing of the night as Bubba tells Jimmy Hart to climb the pole. Tenta gets them and nails Bubba in the jaw with the silver dollars for the pin. THIS GOT NINE MINUTES.

Was this supposed to be a joke that went bad? Again, Harlem Heat vs. the Steiners for the TAG TEAM TITLES didn’t go on PPV, but this did. WOW. Oh and I forgot to mention: THIS IS THE TALLEST POLE EVER. Tenta is 6’7 and wasn’t even half as tall as that thing. Seriously, WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA??? He pours the silver dollars on Bubba afterwards. So not only did he beat him up, but he pays him for it? Is this some kind of weird fetish?

Rating: S. As in SERIOUSLY? This makes the PPV and gets almost ten minutes? I get that Hogan was running things, but this is ridiculous to put it mildly. The match was boring as heck and the whole cutting the straps on the pole went nowhere. This was just freaking bad all around.

The announcers talk for a bit and Tony has a lei on. The others talk about how important this is and Tony looks like an idiot. Bobby says he’s been asking people not involved in wrestling if they know who the third man is. He’s surprised that they didn’t know. Do I even need to make fun of this?

Team WCW says they’re ready for the Outsiders and don’t care who the third man is. They all have their faces painted like Sting. Oh and Luger is full face now, which at least makes sense for this.

Lord of the Ring: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Jim Duggan

This is a taped fist match for the stupid ring that DDP won last month that is now worthless since his title shot was revoked. So apparently in this you can tape your fists more than you usually can? I hate WCW. I truly do hate it at times, but at least it improves for a bit after this. The fans chant USA, even though both guys are Americans. That always made my head hurt.

I’d love to see someone that Duggan was fighting get fired up more than he did because of the chants and shout about how they’re MORE American than Duggan. Apparently 10,000 people were turned away. Maybe it would be better if they got an arena that held 10,000 people in the first place. Duggan has his feet taped together around the post. Again, is there some kind of tape fetish in this company? And he just gets out through some unseen method.

Again, Guerrrero vs. Regal and Heat vs. Steiners. Just thought I’d remind you of that. Page uses the ropes to avoid a suplex and Tony gets on him for it. Why? It’s a legal move. Everybody is shocked that Duggan can manage to take control without tape on his fists. Thanks for the vote of confidence in Duggan. After being on the floor for 8 seconds, Duggan slides Page in and walks into the Diamond Cutter for the pin. Duggan throws some tape on his fist and knocks Page out anyway. Another waste of time.

Rating: D-. Again, WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS? For the life of me I can’t think of one. Either way, the match was terrible and I still fail to see the point in it. Just a waste of five minutes or so.

Giant and Taskmaster say they’re not worried about the Horsemen. Giant is still world champion here.

Lee Marshall talks to Benoit and Anderson who get the aforementioned heels later tonight. Arn of course cuts a decent promo.

Public Enemy vs. Nasty Boys

It’s a tag team dog collar match with a former ECW team. Pay no attention to the Stevie Richards/Raven vs. Pit Bulls dog collar match less than a year before this in ECW. WCW never stole anything from ECW at all. Not a thing. Have you noticed a significant lack of young talent on this card other than the openers or DDP? Bischoff is missing if that means anything at all. Sags and Rock are attached and Knobs and Grunge are attached.

We almost immediately go split screen which has the ocean behind it and only half of the screen is covered by the split screen due to the MASSIVE BATB logo on the top of the screen. Brilliant. A trash can full of trash is brought in. Sure why not. We go up to the beach set and Johnny Grunge gets knocked down and is in pain. He was beaten by an inflatable pink shark. Somehow this has stopped being absurd. That’s a new one on me.

They fight for about five minutes on the beach. This is entertaining at least. I know I don’t say that often but this is one of those matches that reaches the point of insanity that makes it amusing. The announcers not taking it seriously at all helps a lot too. We get a table brought in. Keep that in mind. Rock gets piledriven on the floor and there’s no cover. Knobs hits a GREAT trash can shot on Grunge.

There goes the first table. We’re back in the ring now with another table. Now this one noticeably looks different than your modern Dudley tables. Sags is on the table and Rock goes up. He gets pulled into a front flip and bounces off the table. Remember that Rock weighs about 300lbs. Sags goes up and drops an elbow onto Rock onto the table. It STILL doesn’t break.

Rock comes unhooked from the chain when he’s whipped into the chain of Knobs and Grunge and it clotheslines him. That’s also enough for the pin. Rock knocks Sags from the apron to FINALLY break the real table. Most tables are precut and weakened to make going through them easier. This one wasn’t apparently.

Rating: C+. Not bad actually. They woke up and realized that there’s no point in trying to have these two teams have a coherent match. This was just pure insane fun and it actually worked pretty well. The shark was funny if nothing else. The commentary helped too as they just had fun with it like they were supposed to. Fun match.

Gene is in front of the Outsiders’ locker room. He doesn’t go try to talk to them or anything, but he’s in front of it. Love that hard hitting reporting!

Cruiserweight Title: Disco Inferno vs. Dean Malenko

I hate to say it, but that song is very catchy. He says everyone is here to see him dance and once he wins the title he’ll dance. The guy had charisma and energy. You can’t take that away from him. And let’s talk about the main event more. Ok to be fair, this was a huge match for a change rather than the usual run of the mill main events so I can’t complain that much.

They talk about how awesome the cruiserweights are even though a lot of the really great ones aren’t there yet. This is all Malenko so far. Malenko’s in ring work is really underrated as far as the flying stuff goes. He actually was ranked as the best in the world in the PWI 500 in 97. I was surprised by that. Maybe six minutes in, Disco hits his first offense which is a punch. And now he just goes off in the longest string of offense he’s ever been on I think.

It lasts all of a minute. Heenan says pincovers. I thought only Taz used that term. Most odd. Disco hits his Stunner which was his finisher but checks his hair first. Dean starts busting out springboards of all things. He really could do just about all of it. Dean just goes off and hooks the Cloverleaf for the tap out. Malenko just going off like that made it work for me.

Rating: C+. This wasn’t bad, but the ending was never really in doubt. Inferno looked pretty decent if nothing else, but it’s not like it meant much as Rey would beat Dean the next night in the opener to win the title. Decent little filler match though.

Kimberly says nothing of note. She’s in a towel though so I can’t complain.

Joe Gomez vs. Steve McMichael

So Gomez is a career jobber and McMichael is in his PPV debut as a Horseman. Any bets on what happens here? Mongo is allegedly one of the meanest people Dusty has seen in the last 10-20 years. Wow. This is another of those matches where you know there’s no drama as to the winner. The crowd is DEAD. McMichael just isn’t that good yet. To be fair he never became any good but at least he has an excuse here.

Apparently this is his third match. That’s saying a lot. Gomez is called a rookie here despite having been wrestling over ten years at this point. This is just going on too long. That’s what this boils down to. This match is just too long. They’re making it look like he can’t finish anyone off. He should win this in like 2 minutes and we’re over five already. It makes him look inept rather than elite.

There’s your boring chant. Gomez starts his comeback and they botch the heck out of a sunset flip. Thankfully they realize that it’s going bad and just end it almost immediately. This would have been a success if they cut about 4 minutes out of it.

Rating: F. This was supposed to be a squash and Mongo was supposed to look dominant. Neither happened as Mongo looked like a BAD rookie that had no idea what he was doing. I get that he needs ring time, but he needs to get it in far shorter spurts. This can be blamed on the booking far more than the people in it though. Again, you cut four minutes out of this and it’s light years better.

Flair cuts a promo and forgets he’s fighting Konnan and says that he’s fighting a man with 1000 holds. Right. Gene gets hit on by Woman again which was something I never got at all.

US Title: Konnan vs. Ric Flair

It’s nice to see a guy like Flair going down to Konnan’s level. This is the kind of stuff you just flat out do not see in modern wrestling. Konnan looks…weird. They shill Nitro tomorrow. Once I get done with the PPVs, I might start doing some Nitros and Raws. Just not sure how many of them. We hear about Flair’s cardio which is in a word, unmatched. The Surfboard never stops looking totally awesome.

Konnan Hulks Up and we go to the floor. Konnan gets a running start off of the apron and takes down Flair and Liz at the same time. That’s just WRONG. With the referee distracted Woman kicks Konnan square in the balls. Even the fans cheer for it, I’m assuming out of sympathy. In case you forgot about it, let’s talk about the main event! Konnan makes ANOTHER comeback and Flair is in something resembling trouble.

This is a very different Konnan here as he looks like a guy that actually could win something. Flair gets put in the figure four which for some reason is surprising despite it happening in about every match he’s ever in. The rolling clothesline hits and you can tell we’re running out of time here.

Konnan hooks an abdominal stretch into a rollup for no count as Liz is with the referee. Lucky bastard. Woman pops Konnan with the shoe to the head and throws his feet on the ropes (completely unneeded but it’s what great heels do) to win his first US Title in over 15 years.

Rating: C+. Not bad but it never got me going on this one. Flair getting the belt gave it some legit credibility that it had been lacking recently after runs from One Man Gang and Sasake so this was a big deal. Konnan never was as important as he was here again though, but this was just an ok match. I don’t think anyone thought Flair would lose though.

Gene goes to the Outsiders locker room and there’s a third voice in there. He’s not sure who it was but he’s heard it before. Even knowing who this is, the drama is there man. They’re building this perfectly and I’m excited about this.

Chris Benoit/Arn Anderson vs. Taskmaster/The Giant

Ok so there are two things to keep in mind here. If the Horsemen win, a Horseman gets a shot at the Giant the following night for the title. The second thing is that no one can beat the Giant so they’re going to focus on Sullivan. They brawl in the aisle and Mongo runs out with the briefcase he had to nail Giant who chases Mongo to the back, making it a handicap match for a bit.

It means nothing as Giant is back in like 8 seconds. Ok then. Now Benoit and Sullivan were having a GREAT feud where most of it was shoot stuff as Benoit had (kayfabe) stolen Woman, who was in real life married to Sullivan. In real life, Benoit and Woman had an affair and in real life Woman left Sullivan for Benoit. So in other words, they legit hated each other and were in brutal fights with each other.

Sullivan gets to get beaten on forever as we realize that the match is over once Giant comes in. So he gets a tag (to a freaking POP) and the Horsemen run. Benoit and Sullivan fight up to the announce area as Giant beats Anderson up like a jobber and the chokeslam ends it in like a minute. Benoit dives off of the announcers’ stage to plow into Sullivan.

That could have been a top five ever feud if Sullivan hadn’t sucked so much. Benoit is just destroying him at this point until Woman comes out and yells at Chris to stop it. This never went anywhere because of the NWO. Benoit was just awesome back then, even moreso than he would become. Giant carries Sullivan off like a 6 pack which is kind of funny.

Rating: D+. This did its job and that’s it. There was nothing to the match but somehow it went eight minutes. This was just a filler to set up the next chapter in Benoit vs. Sullivan and to be fair it did that, but we’ll never know where it went after that.

And now the reason why this is the most important show in WCW’s history up to that point: the main event. Since this is legitimately one of the biggest matches ever, I’ll have a special section at the end talking about the NWO at this stage. I’ll save the latter stuff for when it happens, but this will focus on the beginning through about Uncensored 97 where Hogan vs. Sting became the clear end goal. So I’m not skipping this, but I’ll save it for the end so scroll down if that’s what you’re here for.

We recap the invasion and see Hall walking onto Nitro and making history back in May. Those two debuts were some of the biggest shockers I can ever remember. They both blew my mind and even me, perhaps the biggest WWF mark here, forgot Raw existed for a little bit. There’s no commentary of voiceover here.

It’s just clips and occasional audio with them. Not that it really matters but Hall and Nash cost Sting and Luger the tag belts. This whole thing comes down to one question: Who is the Third Man?

Sting/Lex Luger/Randy Savagevs. Kevin Nash/Scott Hall/???

In case you don’t remember, the WCW guys were selected by putting the names of the top 6 WCW wrestlers based on win/loss record over the past I think six months or a year in a hat and drawing them out. The others were Hogan, Taskmaster and Giant. Hall and Nash come out alone and don’t have names yet. Tony gives them their names here. Until then they were just the Outsiders.

I’m not one for six man main events but this feels huge. Partially because it is huge. Gene goes into the ring before the WCW guys are here to find out who the third man is or for that matter where he is. The build for the drama here is epic. They’re milking this for everything they can.

The commentators aren’t even trying to stay unbiased which for once is nice. Even Randy Anderson is taller than Gene. Buffer is almost as tall as Scott Hall. Wow I didn’t realize that. The bell rings and we actually start with a handicap match.

The paranoia of the announcers actually upgrade this, marking the final time the WCW commentators don’t make me want a stiff drink in the history of WCW. Luger and Hall start. Now we get to the interesting part about a minute in. It turns into a big brawl and Nash and Luger are in the corner. Sting launches a Stinger Splash and nails Nash.

He also nails Luger, whose head and neck are rammed into the turnbuckle/bar attaching the turnbuckle to the ring. He’s OUT. They bring out a stretcher to carry him to the back and we have a 2-2 match with the third man on the way out. Now this does a few things. First of all, it makes the Outsiders look like they have a chance. Being realistic, there was no three man combination in the world that could have beaten Sting, Luger and Savage at this point and looked dominant.

That’s a WCW All-Star team to put it mildly and it would have been a waste of time to try. By making it two against what would become three, it makes WCW, the faces, at a disadvantage as they should be (are you listening TNA?). Also, this throws out a tiny piece of meat to the smarks as Luger and Sting had been the top candidates to be the third man.

It opens a door for Luger coming back and never being hurt and it opens a door for Sting to have done that on purpose. Either way the match pretty much stops at this point while we wheel Luger out. Tony says the Outsiders planned that somehow. That makes no sense but whatever. Crowd is RABID here.

Savage comes in but when Nash goes for a big elbow he lands on Savage’s head so Sting has to come in. Nash beats the tar out of Sting as does Hall so Savage is going to get the hot tag. There’s no real penalty or reward if the Outsiders win. They’re doing something brilliant here as they’re pacing things out to the point where we forget about the third man.

That’s very smart booking and I’m in awe of how this match is going. Tony says the Outsiders should get hurt. Wow. I’m not sure if that’s awesome or not. Savage FINALLY gets the hot tag and you actually can barely understand the announcers over the crowd. Nash gets a low blow on him though…and here comes Hulk Hogan. Heenan asks which side is he on.

The Outsiders clear the ring….and Hogan turns heel, dropping a leg on Savage and then another one. To say the crowd is ticked off is an understatement. This is legitimately a shock as NO ONE, not Meltzer, not Keith, not Reynolds, no one called this and if they did they were wrong at the time because from every report I can find, this decision was made the day of or the day before the show as Sting was scheduled to be the third man until Hogan agreed to do it.

This was a legitimate shocker and it lived up to every bit of the hype. Hogan turning was the one thing that made this angle work as I’ll get into later on. This was a great moment and I was about to cry when it happened. The fans flood the ring with garbage as Gene gets in. Hogan cements his heel status by saying the fans need to shut up if they want to hear what he has to say. That line alone makes this promo.

He says the name and the rest is history. Hogan claims the success for making WWF. I’m shocked too. Hogan says he’s bored with WCW and is joining up with the Outsiders and calls them the new blood of WCW. This is the one problem I had with both this turn and Austin joining the Alliance in 2001. Both guys said they were bored with the companies they had been in and wanted better competition.

If you’re going to be fighting the company you used to work for, won’t you be fighting the same competition you were fighting before? Hogan’s title win was over Giant who he had fought at I think three PPVs and his first defense was against Flair and you know that history. That just never made sense to me.

He throws in the for some reason semi-famous line about Bischoff selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis which is actually true. Hogan runs down the fans and does his trademark line. Tony says Hogan can away twice and we’re done.

Rating: A+. This was about launching the NWO. It worked.

OverallRating: B+. Not even considering the main event, this is a very good show all around. There’s one bad match early on, but you completely forget about everything else by the main event. There’s some great stuff on here and you could easily use this show as a definition for how to build drama to the ending. That was all that mattered but it worked like a charm at the end. Great show and well worth watching all the way through.

Despite all that happened to it later on and all the insanity that came from it and how it eventually became an albatross that brought WCW to its knees (and yes, most of the blame can still go on Hogan for reasons I’m sure we’ll get to later), when it began this was one of the best storylines in the history of wrestling (and yes X and others, I know Bischoff stole it from Japan).

Having an invasion could have been the best idea in the world. However, I think it peaked as soon as the Giant and Fake Sting joined. The problem simply was that at that point, it stopped being about an invasion and it was just a big faction in WCW. Hogan had to be there or else it was two guys beating up WCW guys. Hogan was virtually unbeatable in WCW so they needed him on board or everyone would just be waiting on Hogan to come in and save the day for WCW all over again.

The problem became that EVERYTHING became about the NWO. Angles such as Benoit/Sullivan and DDP’s benefactor were just dropped and it was NWO all the way. This is a big part of why the company failed in the long run. People got tired of the NWO and WCW had nothing else to throw out there.

Over in the WWF at their peak you had Austin vs. Vince but you also had the IC Title all over the place, you had the hardcore stuff, you had a (terrible) lightweight division, you had DX vs. the Nation and Rock vs. HHH. The midcard wars were going on and while they were tied to Austin vs. Vince, at the same time they were their own feuds. In short, there were a lot of things going on in the company other than just the main event.

Now, the NWO came out red hot and was the #1, #2 and #3 reason why WWF got its head handed to them and the early days of it were the best. That night where Rey got thrown into the trailer was one of the sickest things I have ever seen in wrestling and I was legit scared of the NWO after that. To say they nailed the start of this was an understatement. The NWO was a brilliant idea and it saved both WCW and Hogan.

The next year and a half were some of the most interesting shows of all time. Note that I said interesting and not good or anything like that. Either way, I’m looking forward to the next bunch of PPVs, but we’re going to reach a point eventually, and it’s not going to go well. Still though, this was GREAT and probably the biggest and best played shock in wrestling history.

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book o the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

 

Monday Nitro #125
Date: February 2, 1998
Location: Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone

Much to my surprise, this is the first time Nitro has ever been in Texas if the announcers are to be believed. We’re on the way to SuperBrawl and Sting vs. Hogan II but the main story continues to be the NWO falling apart. Savage is almost off the team due to fighting with Hogan and Nash is being fined to death. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip from the end of last week’s show with the NWO taunting Savage as he was in the Scorpion Deathlock.

The Nitro Girls dance to open things up in the arena.

Tony promises that the main event will be one of the biggest ever in our sport: Sting vs. Savage

Juventud Guerrera vs. Psychosis

Larry says San Antonio is the home of the first luchador: Santa Anna, who rode up and beat John Wayne and Richard Widmark. Psychosis armdrags him down to start and here comes the Flock to their usual seats. They’re a very tardy bunch. Juvy takes it to the mat with a headscissors and another to send Psychosis to the floor as we take a break. Back with Psychosis in control and putting on a bearhug.

Psychosis goes up but dives into an atomic drop, allowing Juvy to hit a gorgeous top rope hurricanrana for two. A victory roll from the top gets two for Guerrera and they trade pinfall reversals until Psychosis hits a reverse suplex to take over. Juvy falls to the floor but dropkicks Psychosis out of the air on a dive attempt. Back in and the 450 is good for the pin by Guerrera.

Rating: C. This was the usual WCW formula for opening a show: take two cruiserweights and have them do high spots for six minutes to fire up the crowd. Why WWE never used this idea is beyond me because it’s something that always worked. The Texas crowd was very appreciative of this as well.

The announcers talk about Page vs. Benoit for the US Title on this week’s Thunder.

Here’s Page with something to say. He sees Benoit as one of the most underrated wrestlers on the planet and Page respects him. It’s because of Benoit’s work ethic that Page waned to give him a title shot. Gene asks if Page is worried about Benoit’s history of crippling people but Page isn’t scared. Benoit deserves a shot at the title and since the fans want to see it, Benoit gets a shot.

Video on the Giant being injured. Nash has been fined $150,000 for the powerbomb at Souled Out and each additional powerbomb will cost the same.

Ultimo Dragon vs. Kidman

Kidman jumps him to start but Dragon does his handstand in the corner. The masked man comes back with his hard kicks including a hard one to the back. The Dragon Sleeper goes on but a Lodi distraction lets Saturn break up the hold. Both guys get near falls but it’s Kidman taking over with a chinlock. Dragon jawbreaks his way out but gets kicked right back down. They slug it out with Tony calling this a complete match. That’s an odd way to describe things but it’s hard to tell what Tony is thinking at times.

Dragon gets a boot up in the corner and puts on a half crab but Kidman is next to the ropes. With Kidman still down, Dragon puts on a headscissors from behind and takes Kidman to the mat (they’re both face down) before reaching back to pull Kidman’s arms forward while holding his neck in place. Basically it’s Cattle Mutilation but with Dragon rolled forward 180 degrees and Kidman nearly standing on his own head.

Kidman rolls out of the hold and catches Dragon in a sitout spinebuster for two. A springboard bulldog and a clothesline get the same on Dragon but he’s able to crotch Kidman on the top rope. The super Frankensteiner sets up the Dragon Sleeper for the tap out by Kidman.

Rating: B-. That submission hold alone makes this a good match but they were both looking great out there. I don’t think I ever remember these two fighting before and that’s a shame given how good these two were together. Dragon has kind of fallen off the planet in the last few months so it’s nice to see him around some more.

Post match the Flock destroys Dragon with Saturn laying him out with a German suplex.

Ad for Monday Nitro on Playstation. If I remember correctly that game SUCKED.

Here’s Nash to discuss the major fine announced earlier. He was sitting in the back earlier tonight when he saw Kidman use a modified powerbomb called a tiger bomb (“I’m not Tenay but I think that’s what it’s called.”) and wants to know where Kidman’s fine is. Kidman isn’t going to get a fine though because it’s the man instead of the move that gets fined.

Nash doesn’t really mind though because at Souled Out, he dropped Giant on his skull and put him out. If WCW wants to fine him, he can pay anything they ask for. Nash is going to keep using the powerbomb and there’s nothing WCW can do about it because he’s just too sexy and too sweet.

Hour #2 begins.

Cruiserweight Title: Chris Jericho vs. Super Calo

Before the match Jericho gives himself a thank you for putting Mysterio on the shelf. Feeling out process to start until Calo gets aggressive and pounds Jericho against the ropes. Jericho comes right back with a suplex and a chinlock as Calo’s offense is already over. The champion dropkicks the knee and hits a backbreaker for two before chopping Calo in the corner.

A hard clothesline looks to set up something off the top from Jericho, but Calo shoves him down to the floor and hits a dive to take both guys out. Calo suplexes the champion back in and gets two off a springboard dropkick. He goes up again for the top rope headscissors but Jericho rolls through and hooks the Liontamer to retain.

Rating: C-. What’s with the cruiserweight showcase tonight? Calo was fine for a spot title match like this as he was one of the resident jobbers of the division but could still put on a decent match like this. Jericho is starting to feel it in the ring to go along with the awesome character work at the moment.

TV Title: Booker T vs. Steven Regal

Booker cranks on the arm to start before kicking Regal in the face to take over. Regal realizes that going toe to toe won’t work and grabs a cross arm choke, only to have Booker roll out and connect with a flying forearm. Regal ducks another shot and takes Booker down with a European uppercut before getting two off a rollup. Back up and Booker hits a spin kick to the face followed by the ax kick for two. Another flying forearm misses but Booker suplexes him down and hits the side kick to retain.

Rating: D+. The match wasn’t bad but there wasn’t any real flow to it. They didn’t really click as Booker was doing almost nothing but strikes while Regal was just doing random moves. It wasn’t boring but it came off as a series of moves instead of a wrestling match if that makes sense.

Konnan vs. Hugh Morrus

Hugh is a face here in one of those turns that just kind of happened when no one was watching. Morrus starts fast with a delayed gorilla press slam and Konnan rolls to the outside. Back in and Konnan hits his rolling clothesline and a low dropkick to put Morrus down.

They actually get into a battle of leg trips with Morrus putting him down and dropping some elbows for two. A powerslam puts Morrus down but a Vincent distraction lets Konnan powerbomb him out of the corner. That’s another $150k assuming they actually remember one of the biggest stories on the show. An armless Pedigree is enough to finish Morrus.

Rating: D. This is the problem with having three hours to fill: you get to sit through matches like this getting five minutes. Konnan was one of those guys who wasn’t interesting in the ring at all and Morrus was just enough of a star that he wasn’t squashed in quick fashion. The announcers didn’t react to the powerbomb at all.

Here are Hall and Rhodes for the survey with WCW winning by a hair. Hall says that we’re coming up on SuperBrawl VIII so there have been seven beforehand. Every year, the winner of the battle royal has gotten his title shot (not exactly as 1995 was for the title and in 1996 the winner got the shot at Souled Out) but this year Roddy Piper is messing with the system. Dusty rants about how it doesn’t matter who Hall fights because the party never stops with the NWO.

Scott Hall vs. Jim Neidhart

Before the match, Louie Spicolli says he’ll fight for Hall. Scott uses the distraction to hit Neidhart with the mic and takes over early. He pounds on Neidhart in the corner but Jim comes back with forearms to the chest followed by a nerve hold which has Hall nearly out cold inside of ten seconds. Dusty gets on the apron for a tag and the distraction lets Hall hit the Edge for the pin.

Post match the NWO beats down Neidhart until British Bulldog makes the save.

Here’s Luger to talk about his No DQ match against Savage at SuperBrawl. Luger is all fired up and that’s about it. Seriously this was like 45 seconds long.

We look at the Nitro Part Pack winner.

Goldberg vs. Mark Starr

Quick leg locks, gorilla press into a powerslam, spear, Jackhammer, Starr is done.

Steve McMichael vs. British Bulldog

This is a rematch from last week. Before the match, Mongo says that we’re in his country of Texas tonight. They immediately brawl to the floor with Bulldog in full control. Back in and Bulldog clotheslines him back to the floor before throwing him into the steps. They fight up the aisle for a double countout in about a minute.

The brawl keeps going by the announcer booth with Mongo getting the better of it.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff to open the third hour. Bischoff says that he goes berserk when he thinks about the fines. Hogan says that Nash watches his back and the fines will be paid no matter what. He says they’re $50,000 each which goes against what Tony said earlier. As for Savage, he’s on his own against Sting tonight.

Hogan brags about beating Sting twice despite the unfair treatment of the referees. Why is Nick Patrick suspended when he’s proven how skilled he is over and over? Hogan wants Nick Patrick to referee the SuperBrawl match because he was never found guilty of anything. Hogan guarantees a win and that’s that.

Disco Inferno vs. Raven

Raven says there are two rules: there are no rules, and give someone the DDT. Disco is sent to the floor as the bell rings and Raven hits a dive over the top. Back in and Raven armdrags and drop toeholds Disco onto a chair before sitting in the chair for a rest. Disco uses his brain and clotheslines the seated Raven for two. A swinging neckbreaker and a belly to back suplex get the same as Heenan praises Disco.

Raven comes back with a belly to back of his own, followed by a third straight belly to back from Disco. Raven tries a fourth in a row but Disco falls on top of him for two. Inferno pounds him down in the corner as Raven smiles some more. Back up and Disco ducks his head and the Evenflow (now officially named that) is good for the pin.

Rating: C. This was better than I expected with Disco showing some good intensity out there. For a guy who was a comedy character he did pretty well for himself over the years. Raven is becoming more and more entertaining every time he’s out there and is so into the character it’s unreal. This was a nice surprise after a long stretch of dull and short ones.

More Nitro Girls.

Buff Bagwell/Kevin Nash vs. Steiner Brothers

Scott and Buff get things going with Bagwell hooking an armdrag and posing a lot. Scott runs him over with a shoulder and the release tiger bomb for no cover. Rick comes in sans tag to make fun of Bagwell’s poses in a funny bit. Scott cranks on Bagwell’s arm but Nash gets in a cheap shot from the apron to take over. Nash comes in and chokes away in the corner before it’s back to Bagwell for a reverse chinlock.

Kevin hits the side slam for two and there’s the big boot for good measure. Back to Bagwell for another chinlock before Nash comes in to try the powerbomb. Rick makes the save but Scott still can’t/won’t tag. Scott knocks Buff down and looks at Rick but turns around and hits a quick Frankensteiner on Bagwell for the pin.

Rating: C. As is the case with most Steiner matches around this time, this was almost all storytelling instead of about the match itself. In a strange way, you could argue Rick is the selfish one. The team wins when Scott won’t tag out, so isn’t it best for the team that Rick gets to stand on the apron all the time?

Rick yells at Scott post match.

Randy Savage vs. Sting

Michael Buffer does part of his signature entrance in Spanish. Sting is billed as being from Huntington Beach, California which is a first for him I believe. Spotlights go up towards the ceiling as Sting comes down. Why didn’t they do that at Starrcade? Sting gets to the ring and Savage immediately bails to the floor and the brawl starts outside.

Sting’s attire is very weird looking here. He’s wearing tights and a plain black singlet top with nothing on his arms or hands. He looks like he didn’t get finished dressing. The Stinger Splash hits the barricade and Savage rips the turnbuckle pad off. Back in and Sting no sells a piledriver but the Stinger Splash hits the exposed buckle. Randy drops the elbow but Hogan comes in to break up the pin for the DQ.

Rating: C-. This was more of a fight instead of a match but it was still entertaining stuff. The style fit Savage better at this point as he was a loose cannon and matches meant nothing to him at all. The idea of having Sting beaten in the middle of the ring is another dagger to his importance, but by this point the moment is passed anyway.

Luger comes out to make the save and stands tall with Sting to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This felt like a modern day Raw. There’s good stuff in there, but the extra hour of filler stuff drags the good stuff down. The NWO falling apart is interesting and the cruiserweight stuff at the beginning was more than enough for good wrestling. Throw in Benoit getting a title shot in a logical move and the show is good stuff. Again though, the filler really drags this show down.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Thunder
Date: January 29, 1998
Location: Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan

Back to Thursday nights here with the fourth episode of the series. The main story continues to be the destruction of the NWO as Nitro ended with Hall and Hogan standing around while Sting beat up Savage. The main event tonight is the Steiners challenging for the tag titles in a match we haven’t seen before. That shouldn’t make sense so let’s get to it.

The intro has changed to a thunderstorm theme which doesn’t work as well.

The set is now a traditional one with a regular entrance and the Thunder logo on top of it.

US Title: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Sick Boy

Page takes it to the mat but gets caught in an armbar. Sick Boy bails to the floor and the stalling begins. Back in and Page pulls him down but Sick Boy nips up. The discus lariat misses so Page goes to a tilt-a-whirl side slam for no cover. Sick Boy goes back to the apron for a springboard missile dropkick to take over. A spinning belly to belly suplex gets two on Page but Sick Boy misses a kick to the ribs. The discus lariat looks to set up the Diamond Cutter but Sick Boy takes out the knee. Not that it matters much as Page throws him up for a flapjack but pulls him down into the Cutter for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was much better than I expected which is what I’ve said for both Sick Boy matches I’ve seen. He looks good in the ring and can fly through the air for a guy of his size. The Diamond Cutter to end it looked great as Sick Boy’s head bounced off the mat to knock him out cold.

The Flock decides not to jump Page.

Here’s JJ Dillon with an announcement: Nash is being fined $50,000 for his powerbomb on Monday and if he does it again, the fines will grow.

Meng vs. Jim Duggan

Duggan wins a quick slugout and takes it to the floor where he whips Meng into the steps and beats on him with Jimmy Hart’s jacket. Back inside and Meng does what he does best: hit Duggan in the head. It has little effect on the thickheaded Duggan so Meng keeps pounding away. They slug it out until Duggan misses a charge into the corner, allowing Meng to put on a nerve hold. Back up and a double clothesline puts both guys down, allowing Hart to get up on the apron with the 2×4. Duggan intercepts the throw and cracks it over Meng’s back but chases after Hart instead. Back in and the Tongan Death Grip ends Jim.

Rating: C. This was far better than I was expecting it to be with Duggan looking much better than I would have expected him to. Meng continues to get small pushes every now and then, which is likely to build him up for a feeding to a bigger name later on. Both guys were working hard here and it was better than it should have been.

Raven vs. Marty Jannetty

Anything goes again and Marty’s music still doesn’t fit him at all. Jannetty takes him into the corner to start and dropkicks Raven to the outside. He pounds on Raven on the floor but gets sent hard into the post to change momentum. Raven throws in a chair for the drop toehold and Marty is in big trouble. Marty hits a quick bulldog and slams Raven’s head into the mat a few times for two but Raven is smiling. A superkick puts Raven down and the top rope fist gets two, but Raven dropkicks the chair into Marty’s face to knock him silly. The Evenflow DDT is good for the pin for Raven.

Rating: C-. Another decent match here with Marty looking decent in defeat. Raven smiling while he’s in pain is still very creepy and fits his character perfectly. The Raven’s Rules all the time stuff isn’t a problem because the weapons and violence aren’t the focus of the matches. That DDT looked great too.

Jerry Lee Lewis is here.

Bill Goldberg vs. Yuji Nagata

The pops are getting louder and louder. Nagata goes straight at him but Goldberg chokes him down. Goldberg takes him down with a quick leglock but Nagata makes the ropes. Yuji’s slam is countered into a spinning neckbreaker and it’s the spear and Jackhammer for another fast pin.

Goldberg vs. Meng is announced for Saturday Night. There’s the bigger name Meng was being set up for.

We recap Savage’s rant against Hogan, Bischoff and the rest of the NWO from Nitro.

Here’s Hall for the survey with the NWO taking the crowd tonight. Hall wants to know when he gets his title shot from World War III but now it’s time to bring out Dusty Rhodes. Dusty talks about corporate America tearing down what he built in 1991 and taking away the tradition of professional wrestling. He lived on the 12^th floor and got tired of dealing with the suits every day. Now he’s tired of carrying Tony Schiavone for the last four years.

Then Dusty started hearing from Eric Bischoff and realized that the NWO is why you’re here tonight. Dusty says the NWO is the future and they’ve gotten Dusty the biggest checks of his career. This time, WCW isn’t going to make any comeback with anybody because the NWO is going to crush them all. “You hear that marks on the internet?” Also, the powerbomb should be reinstated because a 500lb man shouldn’t be in the ring if he can’t protect himself. Dusty Rhodes ladies and gentlemen.

Scott Hall vs. Disco Inferno

Hall slaps Disco around to start and does the Giant mocking bit. A quick attempt at the Outsider’s Edge is countered and Disco hits the Chartbuster out of nowhere. Dusty puts the foot on the ropes and brings Hall out to the floor for a chat. Back in and Hall pounds away on Disco before hitting the fallaway slam and the Edge for the pin.

Here’s Nick Patrick for the first time since he was suspended. Patrick insists that the count at Starrcade was a normal count and that Bret should be suspended, not him. He’s going to have his lawyers look into this and wants to referee the rematch to prove how awesome he is.

TV Title: Booker T vs. Perry Saturn

Booker is defending and is in blue Harlem Heat attire instead of his usual singles tights. Saturn pounds him down in the corner to start but Booker comes back with right hands of his own. Apparently Saturn is getting this show because Martel has a concussion. A powerslam gets two for the champion and they head to the outside with Saturn being sent into the barricade. Back inside and Saturn gets two off a brainbuster but crotches himself on the middle rope. Booker hits the side kick and ax kick but has to fight off the Flock. Martel comes out to help but Booker sends Saturn into him and rolls Saturn up to retain.

Rating: C. This was your usual fast paced match between the two as the three way feud is starting to develop. Booker is nailing the singles push now and has transitioned from the tag team ranks with ease. I’m also surprised at how well Martel has fit into this feud as I didn’t remember him being anything at all in his return push.

We see the end of Nitro with Hall and Hogan turning their backs on Savage.

Eddie Guerrero/Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko/Chris Benoit

This should be awesome. Jericho and Malenko get things going but the fans are all over Eddie. Dean quickly takes him down to start but it’s off to Eddie to send Dean into the corner. A rollup gets two for Eddie but he walks into a powerslam for two. Off to Benoit vs. Jericho with Benoit hitting a hard clothesline to take over. Jericho comes right back with a delayed vertical suplex and some chops in the corner. You know Benoit is cool with that and takes over with chops of his own.

Jericho comes right back with a German suplex and the Lionsault for two before Guerrero comes back in. Benoit tries the Crossface but Jericho makes the save as everything breaks down. Dean throws Guerrero into a northern lights suplex but Jericho breaks up the Cloverleaf attempt. Jericho hits a missile dropkick on Dean but Malenko reverses the Liontamer into a rollup for two. Dean hooks a superplex on Jericho and Benoit adds the Swan Dive. Eddie tries a Frog Splash on Malenko but only hits feet, allowing Benoit to hook the Crossface on Jericho for the win.

Rating: B. This was a six and a half minute match with the action of a match twice that long. These guys were arguably the most valuable guys in WCW for a long time as you could just throw them out there in any combination and get a good match. Benoit and Malenko looked very good together as a team.

Post match Benoit says his chapter with Raven has come to an end. Tenay asks Benoit why he’s never had a title shot but Benoit says he doesn’t need one. DDP pops up in the crowd (Marshall: “is that Scott Hall?”) and says that the promoters don’t see Benoit as a main eventer. They didn’t see Page as a main eventer either, but Page is interested in the idea. If Benoit wants a shot at the US Title, all he has to do is ask. Benoit agrees to the title match a week from tonight.

Tag Titles: Steiner Brothers vs. Kevin Nash/Konnan

Konnan gets to defend the belts because of Wolfpack Rules. Rick starts off with Konnan with Steiner pounding him down into the mat and hooking an STF of all things. Konnan makes the rope but gets caught in a release German suplex to send him over to Nash. The Steiners knock Nash to the floor and do their signature pose.

They head back inside and Nash pounds on Rick in the corner with the knee lifts and elbows to the head. Konnan comes in for a stump puller of all things but Scott breaks it up. Kevin gets the tag and gets caught by a Steiner Line but here’s Buff Bagwell to challenge Scott to a posedown. Back in the ring, Nash hits Rick with the belt for a DQ.

Rating: D. This didn’t have time to go anywhere and was mainly storyline stuff anyway. The Scott vs. Buff posedown stuff is fine as a catalyst for the Steiner Brothers’ split which had to happen at some point. I’m not wild on the Wolfpack Rules idea as those usually only work when there are two members of a team, but the NWO could pretty much make up whatever rules they wanted around this time.

Post match Nash powerbombs the referee and is taken away by security. Nash: “Make sure Jack Ruby isn’t out there. That’s how Oswald got it.”

Overall Rating: C+. This was the same formula as last week and it still works quite well. They’re using Thunder to focus on the midcard and it offers a nice contrast to the storyline heavy Nitro. The lack of Hogan and Sting allows the show to build on other stories which makes for a more interesting show. Good stuff again this week.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Monday Nitro #124
Date: January 26, 1998
Location: Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko

We’re just after Souled Out and we have Hogan vs. Sting II for the world title set for SuperBrawl. As for tonight, it’s the first regular three hour Nitro which will be the case for the better part of two years. The main event tonight is Hall vs. Luger in a match we’ve seen several times already. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip from Souled Out with Piper making Hogan vs. Sting II for SuperBrawl.

There’s no update on Giant’s health after the powerbomb on Saturday.

El Dandy vs. Ultimo Dragon

Before the match goes anywhere we cut to the Flock arriving minus Raven. Apparently they have tickets this week so they’re allowed to stay. Dragon spins out of a wristlock but misses the handspring elbow into the corner. El Dandy gets two off a back elbow as we get a LOUD Lodi sucks chant. Dragon comes back with an enziguri and a Lionsault to a standing Dandy sets up the Dragon Sleeper for the win. This was short and could have been a dark match.

Luger says WCW is playing for keeps in the war against the NWO.

We go to Chattanooga, Tennessee to see Gene Okerlund and the Nitro Girls at the first Nitro Party grand prize winner. So we’re watching people watching the show? Is this like the forerunner to the WWE App? It’s at a frat house and it’s just a big party with Nitro Girls.

Brad Armstrong vs. Goldberg

Armstrong jumps him to start and Goldberg just glares at him. A gorilla press slam puts Armstrong down but he keeps firing forearms to Goldberg’s back. Not that it matters as the spear and Jackhammer end Brad a few seconds later. Goldberg 101 here.

DDP doesn’t like what Nash did to Giant either. Yeah a 475lb man coming down on his neck two days beforehand with no statement on his health being used as an angle is fine.

Now we get to see Nash drop Giant on his head about seven times. JJ Dillon comes out and bans the powerbomb as a result with an automatic DQ loss and a fine as a result. Somehow this takes five minutes with JJ talking about safety equipment in sports (Fan: “WE DON’T CARE!”). The fans boo the decision out of the building. JJ gets all mad and threatens Nash with considering criminal prosecution if Nash tries another powerbomb. Yes, it’s the dreaded considering prosecution. I’d be scared too.

Konnan vs. Jerry Flynn

Konnan goes after the arm to start but Flynn kicks him into the ropes. Another kick sends Konnan to the floor but a Vincent distraction lets Konnan take over. Larry talks about people who have had neck injuries and can never wrestle again as Konnan armdrags Flynn down. Jerry comes back with another kick to send Konnan to the floor followed by a plancha to take him down again. Back inside and Konnan blocks the 349^th kick and hooks the Tequila Sunrise for the tap out.

Rating: D. Thank goodness Flynn isn’t featured that much as the guy is terribly dull no matter what he does. WCW didn’t even try to hide the fact that he had nothing but kicks to offer. The match was boring stuff with Konnan possibly shaken up from the dive, leaving Flynn to carry the thing.

Here’s Nash nearly killing Giant again.

Buff Bagwell vs. Rick Steiner

No Scott to be seen. We’re told that the NWO arrived in separate limos again this week. Well I guess that’s better than watching it happen for five minutes. Bagwell jumps him to start and pounds Rick into the corner, only to be taken down by a quick suplex. Bagwell bails to the apron for a bit, only to walk right back into an atomic drop. Rick rams him ribs first into the top turnbuckle as the fans are barking.

A Vincent distraction gives Buff control again and we hit a chinlock. Rick fights up and pops off some hard Steiner Lines followed by a half powerslam half belly to belly suplex. A belly to belly superplex puts Buff down again but here’s Scott Steiner to beat up Vincent. Rick hits the Steiner Bulldog but Scott throws Vincent into the ring for the DQ.

Rating: D+. This was angle advancement instead of a match which is fine. Scott’s heel turn is taking its sweet time but it’s well done so far. Bagwell is starting to find himself as the smiling goon, but his in ring work never did anything for him at all. The other thing I like about the heel turn is you can easily see why Rick is getting so mad and why Scott would be consumed by his own ego. The fact that Scott gives into his own arrogance is what makes the heel turn work.

Post match Scott shoves the referee down again, which will mean yet another fine. He rants about hating referees as he walks out alone. DiBiase says he isn’t paying Scott’s fine.

Hour #2 begins.

Here are Nash and Bischoff with something to say. Eric says that instead of gloating, tonight is a very sad moment. They can feel Bill Clinton’s pain as they’ve been singled out by WCW. Nash doesn’t like Luger and DDP saying that what he did was wrong, so he’s going to tell his side of the story. Giant gave him everything he had, but at one point Giant said that he couldn’t go any longer.

However, Nash is a true sportsman and thought that a little coffee would be just what Giant needed. When that didn’t work, Nash tried a little jump start. When that didn’t work, Nash had images of Old Yeller with Giant needing to be shot down. Nash was so sad at that idea, but he loved it when he dropped Giant on his head. As of now, Nash wants to be known as Big Sexy the Giant Killer.

Wayne Bloom vs. Jim Neidhart

Bloom can’t run Neidhart over so Neidhart runs him over with a shoulder block. Jim tries an Irish whip but Bloom grabs him by the beard to escape. Bloom suckers him to the floor and hits a snap suplex on the Anvil. A top rope ax handle gets two for Wayne but Neidhart catches him in a powerslam for the pin on the second try. This felt like an upset win for Neidhart instead of a solid debut.

Ad for Boston Brawl, which was an internet only PPV. I vaguely remember this and I seem to remember it being audio only but I didn’t have the internet for years after this.

Here’s Ray Traylor with something to say. He says the people in TV land are the ones really in charge in wrestling, not the NWO. Nash put Giant down and out so Traylor wants Nash one on one tonight.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Psychosis

Psychosis jumps him to start and hits a quick running dropkick in the corner to take Chavo down. Chavo comes back with a running clothesline and a victory roll for two before it’s off to a headlock. A springboard bulldog gets two on Psychosis and Chavo sends him to the floor for a big flip dive, possibly injuring Psychosis’ shoulder. Back in and Chavo gets crotched on the top but counters a belly to back superplex into a cross body for two. Psychosis comes right back with a spinwheel kick and the guillotine legdrop for the pin.

Rating: C. This was better than I was expecting with Chavo getting to show off what he could do. That flip dive looked great and Guerrero looked crisp in the ring. Psychosis getting a win was a surprise as he hasn’t been much more than a jobber in the division for awhile now.

Here are Hall and Spicolli with something to say. After WCW wins the survey, Hall talks about Dusty Rhodes being the newest member of the NWO. There’s another new member in the form of Louie Spicolli and here’s his first test.

Louie Spicolli vs. Juventud Guerrera

Juvy spinwheel kicks him down to start but Spicolli comes back with a few shots to the ribs and a knee drop for no cover. We cut to the back to see Randy Savage arriving on his own in a rental car and being very ticked off. Back in the arena we see Juvy dropkicking Spicolli to the floor but here’s Savage to beat Guerrera down for the DQ.

Savage gives Juvy a piledriver before calling out Lex Luger. He says it was his three lunkheaded friends’ fault that he lost and says he doesn’t want Hogan, Hall and Nash to help him anymore. As this is going on, Spicolli is covering Juvy like a schnook. Louie comes up to Savage and gets knocked to the floor as the NWO comes out in full force.

Savage calls them all a bunch of clowns but Bischoff tries to play peacekeeper. Randy knows that none of these guys care to him but Hogan says everyone is in this together. The picture the NWO saw the other night was that Savage wasn’t doing so well. They saw Savage in trouble and thought their appearance would give him the inspiration to pull the comeback. However, now Savage is on his own.

Randy has three things to tell the NWO: the match wasn’t over yet, the NWO wasn’t doing all that well when they came out to help him, and third Hogan looked a lot better with the gold on his shoulder. Hogan doesn’t take too kindly to reality and says that he’ll have the title back soon. Savage goes after Hogan before bailing to the floor to grab a chair.

Back to the Nitro Party. Does anyone actually watch the show at this party? They play some pin the name on the Nitro Girl poster as this is still going for some reason.

Raven vs. Mortis

This is No DQ so as Raven is sitting in the corner, Mortis dropkicks him low. A knee lift sends Raven to the floor and Mortis is in control early. Mortis whips him into the steps and barricade as this is one sided so far. A Fameasser off the apron onto the steps has Raven holding his face. Back in we go and Raven holds the rope to block a Downward Spiral to take over.

They go right back to the floor with Raven using the steps as a springboard for a knee to the face. A dropkick off the steps has the same effect and Mortis is in big trouble. Back in and Mortis hits a hot shot and an AA for two as the back and forth continues. A pair of rollups get two for Mortis but after ducking a chair shot, Raven hits a quick DDT for the win.

Rating: B-. That’s probably too high but this was much better than I was expecting. This is at least the second time where Mortis surprised me in a match which is a nice treat. He’s clearly trying out there which makes for more interesting matches most of the time. Raven is still an interesting character and hopefully he keeps getting featured.

US Title: Wrath vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page starts with the driving shoulder blocks but is easily shoved into the corner. The champion comes back with right hands to the head and a quick Russian legsweep but Wrath comes back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker onto the still injured ribs. Wrath stomps Page down in the corner and stops a comeback with a big right hand. A top rope clothesline gets two on Page but he comes back with a discus lariat. The Diamond Cutter ends this quickly.

Rating: C-. Much like Mortis, Wrath looked good out there for the most part. He was never going to be anything great but for a good sized power guy he had some potential. Page winning matches like this was a good idea given how many people WCW had on the roster and could throw at Page from week to week.

Post match a dazed Wrath lays out Mortis. Vandenberg yells at him but Wrath chases him off.

Here’s Bret Hart with something to say. He praises Flair for the match on Sunday and says that he’s cool with Piper’s decision on the world title match. Bret wants a title shot at whichever wins and he’ll prove he’s the best WCW has.

Back to the Nitro Party with Gene doing his own WCW vs. NWO survey.

TV Title: Perry Saturn vs. Booker T

Booker retained the title in a solid match against Rick Martel on Saturday. They shove each other around to start until Booker takes over with a spinning forearm for two. A clothesline puts Saturn down again and it’s off to an armbar. Saturn comes back with a quick snapmare and a legdrop to take over.

A t-bone suplex gets two for Saturn but Booker rolls through a German suplex into a victory roll for two. Saturn sends him into the buckle but Booker grabs a quick suplex to slow him down. Perry avoids a charge into the corner and hits a spinning springboard clothesline for two. The champion comes back with a side kick and the ax kick but Hammer breaks up the Harlem Hangover for the DQ.

Rating: D+. The match was fine from a technical standpoint but it wasn’t interesting at all. Saturn seemed like he was sleepwalking through the match and was just doing one move after another instead of having a good match. The chemistry just didn’t flow here at all and it was a dull match as a result.

Post match the Flock runs in but Rick Martel makes the save. Saturn yells at Martel in the camera instead of looking at him in the ring.

Here’s Jericho in a Mysterio shirt for a chat with Tenay. Jericho says that he can use the toolbox he found to carry his new title belt. Mysterio has a torn ACL and is out for several months, so Jericho dedicates the title to Rey….after dedicating it to himself and the fans. He breaks down in tears and thanks the fans again while wanting updates on Mysterio’s injuries. Jericho is feeling it in this role at the moment.

Steve McMichael vs. British Bulldog

Mongo jumps the heel Bulldog on the way into the ring before hitting a belly to back suplex A chop block takes Bulldog down but he blocks the tombstoone with a clothesline. Bulldog suplexes him down but Mongo comes back with another clothesline and chokes away in the corner. Not that it matters though as Bulldog muscles him up for the powerslam and the pin in a quick match.

Kevin Nash vs. Ray Traylor

Nash throws coffee in Traylor’s face and hits him low before using the illegal powerbomb for a big fine.

Lex Luger vs. Scott Hall

Before the match, Hall calls out Larry Z for another fight as we take a break. Back with Luger charging in and stomping Hall down, only to have Scott go to the ribs to slow Lex down. Lex comes right back with right hands in the corner followed by a powerslam. There’s the Torture Rack but Savage runs in for the DQ. This wasn’t even three minutes long.

Post match Savage loads up the big elbow on Luger but Sting descends from the rafters to make the save. Sting puts him in the Scorpion Deathlock as Hogan and Hall walk around the ring like nothing is wrong.

Overall Rating: C-. This wasn’t too bad but I don’t have a good feeling about these three hour shows. There was a lot of stuff here that felt like it was there to fill in spots on the show and nothing more. The focus on the NWO is getting old in a hurry as there’s no real endgame for the whole story and they’re just yelling at each other right now.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @Kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

This is another very old one but it’s an interesting show.  It’s one of the first 30 reviews I’ve ever done so I know the quality is very low.

Great American Bash 1996
Date: June 16, 1996
Location: Baltimore Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Attendance: 9,000
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes

Another random review here in light of the 4th of July. This show is famous for one incident and semi-famous for one match. The main event was a total waste with Giant defending against Luger. Other than that your big match is Flair and Anderson vs. Kevin Greene and Steve McMichael, two former NFL players which for some reason was a huge deal, or at least built up as one.

Other than that, it’s really kind of forgotten as most WCW shows from this era were. The NWO was just over the horizon as they would unite for the first time a mere 21 days after this. Hall and Nash were around at this time as there was still the theory that everything was a HUGE angle with WWF but no one really was sure.

This was huge at the time and the Attitude Era was being conceived based on the things that were about to happen. On that basis, the thing that happens here was huge, but other than that I’m not sure how much there is. Let’s go with it, and happy 4th of July!

We open with Heenan in the back PANICKING. He’s managing Anderson and Flair as Savage manages the football players. We get short promos from all major parties involved. Luger says he’s going to get a third belt to go with his tag and TV title. Is there a need to put two titles on one guy and then have him in the world title match? Giant says no, he won’t, and we’re on the air.

We get the presentation of the American flag by a guy we’re supposed to forget is a wrestler I guess. Oh apparently we’re supposed to know him. I guess that’s ok. Dusty and Tony explain the two big matches because the video/promos we just got didn’t explain them well enough I guess. They acknowledge the death of Dick Murdock. That’s kind of nice.

Fire and Ice vs. Steiner Brothers

There must be a winner apparently, as this is one of many matches they’ve had but we’ve never had a winner, so the Steiners have to beat them up on PPV instead of trying to find a good feud for one of the best tag teams ever. I love their theme music for some reason.

Fire and Ice are Scott Norton, who is a far bigger star in Japan, and Ice Train, who never did anything. They’re just two big guys that got put into a tag team so they’d have something to do I guess. It’s weird to see a four man match with Rick Steiner being the smallest guy in the ring.

Scott is huge here as the evolution into the singles guy wasn’t quite there yet. Norton and Train are the really weak kind of team who fought all the time but were made a team out of respect. That can work, but I’ve never been a fan of it. Steingers are incredibly over here as the problem was simple: they were WAY too big for the tag titles, so what do you do with them?

Dream’s voice is really very annoying. Tony just sounds like an idiot that makes Cole look great on the mic. Faces, or at least the bigger faces, run off the heels as they do their weird looking pose with Rick running around and sliding between Scott’s legs. There’s just something not right about that.

The Steiner line amuses me as it’s really a jumping shoulder block with an arm extended. This may or may not be for the #1 Contender spot. They can’t simply just SAY that it is or not but rather “this will move them very high up the ranks”. Is it that hard to just SAY the winner will be the #1 contenders?

My goodness Fire and Ice are generic as all goodness. They’re just two big strong guys that I have no reason to care about at all. Norton has one of the trademarks of bad wrestlers as he uses a shoulder breaker for his signature move. They hit their tag finisher on Rick, and as Scott comes running in Norton FREAKING LOOKS AT HIM.

My goodness at least try. Top rope finisher from the Steiners as this is just a mess. Scott hits the WORST frankensteiner of all time as Norton pretty much rolls forward instead of jumping. Nick Patrick counts two and says that’s it as even he wanted this load of garbage to end.

Rating: D+. Holy goodness this was just a train wreck. The styles just completely sucked. The Steiners just weren’t what they used to be at this point and I think a lot of that can be attributed to Scott changing his style. Rick was already a power guy. They didn’t need another one. Fire and Ice completely sucked though, so that has a lot to do with it.

In the back, Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan talk about how this feud isn’t about the Dungeon of Doom against the Horsemen but Sullivan has been beating them all up anyway. Sullivan was just a guy that flat out wasn’t that good. He was too small and did little more than punch.

US Title: El Gato vs. Konnan

This is a prime example of the odd stuff about WCW at the time. They would bring in these random guys, in this case Tanaka of the Orient Express dressed as a Luchador. This was the attempt to make a cross cultural promotion, but there was just one problem: no one cared about the Mexican heritage or whatever. Gato had ONE match, and he gets a US Title shot.

That’s the stupid part of it. He’s a good wrestler, but these matches were just completely random and there was no emotion to them at all. Dusty references people listening to this on the radio. As weird as that sounds, it might actually have happened. JR did WWF Radio for years.

Dusty goes on to make stupid jokes about how Gato is quick as a cat. Problem #2 with this: they’re doing a mat based match. Mexican wrestling is supposed to be high flying. Instead we get top wrist locks etc. Also there’s no Mike Tenay, who was one of the few guys that actually knew what he was talking about in this stuff.

Oh, but apparently he’s going to be there later for Mysterio’s match with Malenko. Oh that’s great. We get a Mexican wrestling expert for a match between two Americans. I’m so painfully bored right now. Gato runs into the corner but gets rolled up for the pin.

Rating: D-. My GOD this was awful. No one gave a second thought about it, the match was dull as watching molasses dry in a freshly painted white room, and the ending came out of nowhere. WCW just thought that if they had foreign wrestlers that things would work great. It’s not that simple. If you have foreign wrestlers, they have to do something that Americans don’t do, like high flying. I don’t want to see a Mexican wrestler do arm bars for 70% of a match. My goodness this was horrid.

Sting is in the back and talks about how Regal’s Britishness is just a bit off. This is a comedy interview and it’s ok I guess. He goes into normal Sting mode and it’s a huge improvement.

Lord of the Ring: DDP vs. Marcus Bagwell

This is for the Battlebowl Ring, because WCW didn’t have enough titles so they made the ring that was won in a battle royal earlier in the year a title as well. This was actually a very interesting time and angle for DDP. DDP had done an angle where he won something like 6 million dollars playing bingo, which yes, it’s as stupid as it sounds.

He started losing money though and eventually got thrown out of the company due to a stipulation in a match. Eventually he came back broke and worked his way up, winning the TV Title and some other things, before going face and being one of the main fighters against the NWO. It was a really long and drawn out process, but it got a guy like DDP WAY over, so it worked. He’s the classic example of a guy that can take one single move and make a career out of it. That’s quite impressive.

The match comes about as the American Males FLIPPED A COIN before we went on air. Seriously, that’s the amount of thought put into this. They flipped a freaking coin. I’m getting sleepy watching this. It’s just so generic and there’s so little thought put into it. Page does a spot that he almost always did as he gets knocked into the front row, prompting Tony to make his “he didn’t pay for that seat” joke.

They recap his comeback with him having a benefactor which was never explored. Bagwell is one of the luckiest wrestlers of all time and proof that an NWO shirt on you can keep you employed. He was the most generic wrestler ever, which is an exaggeration but I felt like saying it. *Norcal says your face is exaggerated*

He did nothing of note ever and was somehow always on the midcard. Was Bischoff getting some sweet Judy Bagwell loving? DDP misses an Orton punt to the ribs, causing him to land on his back. Tony makes a punter joke, which is par for him I guess.

Bagwell’s genericness is making me want to stab something. He’s just so BLAND. Oh and the crowd is dead. No one cares and this is almost a ten minute match. The ending is awful too as Page just grabs him and Diamond Cuts him. Well that was riveting.

Rating: F. Man alive this show sucks. It was boring, it was bland, and no one wanted to see it. I can’t get over the freaking coin toss thing. Bagwell was awful and Page was overrated. What were you expecting here?

Giant and Hart talk about the title match with Luger tonight, which might be the worst main event feud in WCW history. Giant still won’t shut up about beating Hogan. Gene looks sleepy.

Cruiserweight Title: Rey Mysterio vs. Dean Malenko

This is Rey’s debut apparently, so let’s give him a title match! It’s always cool to see mega stars like Rey debut like this. You ever notice that the Cruiserweight Title almost always came down to the heel not flying that much and facing a guy that jumped everywhere? Rey grabs a headlock to start which gets him absolutely nowhere.

Tenay used to drive me crazy but here he’s required almost. They both sit out and it’s a double nipup for a standoff. Malenko takes him to the mat but Rey speeds it up and sends Dean to the floor with an armdrag. He adds in the Jericho springboard dropkick to send Dean to floor. Rey is 21 here but has been wrestling since he was 14 which is insane.

Rey tries some of his leverage stuff but gets sent to the floor. They speed things up a bit but Dean hits the floor to break the momentum as he’s rather smart. Dean goes after the arm and Rey is in trouble. Hammerlock slam as Dean channels his inner Anderson. We hear about the Cruiserweights in the division which really was an incredible collection of talent.

We hear about Rey being in AAA as is Konnan. The more I hear about AAA the more I like it. Rey speeds things up again but Dean takes his head off with a clothesline. We hear about NJPW and Eddie winning the Super J Tournament. Notice what WCW was doing at the time: they were pulling talent from EVERYWHERE and drawing in as many fans as they possibly could. Very smart business as there are more fans in the world rather than in America.

Dean works on the arm more and Rey is in trouble. Dean gets an overhead belly to belly while hooking the arm around like a hammerlock. That was pretty cool looking. Notice here that he’s throwing on a bunch of holds but they’re different, which makes it less boring. Anyone can throw on an armbar 5 times, but throw on different moves and you get a potentially different reaction, which is a good thing.

Off to a surfboard which is always cool looking. Dean drops him back out of it and into a bridge for two. Right back to the arm by Dean and Rey is in big trouble. Butterfly suplex gets two and Dean is frustrated. Rey gets to a rope but the referee is like whatever and lets them keep going. Rey gets a leverage move to send Dean to the floor and hits a springboard sommersault senton to take both guys out.

Springboard missile dropkick gets two as the fans are WAY into this now. The move that would become West Coast Pop gets two. Dean sends him to the apron and Rey goes up. Top rope Frankensteiner puts Dean down but another rana attempt is countered into a powerbomb and the feet go onto the ropes for Dean to get the pin and retain. Awesome match.

Rating: A-. Standard great match with these two. Malenko may have been pretty dull as far as charisma goes, but dang he could go in the ring. Mysterio was always fun to watch when he still had knees, and this was no exception. This right here is what began to carry WCW in the NWO years. They would do the heavy lifting and the main event guys would get all the credit.

Lex Luger says he’s completely focused on Giant. This just screams WORST TITLE MATCH EVER. The build is Luger got chokeslammed on a table. It’s just generic and no one cares, but that could be said of the whole PPV.

Big Bubba vs. John Tenta

Oh dear. This is over the Dungeon of Doom, who was one of the worst big stables ever, cutting half of Tenta’s hair and goatee. Tenta was supposed to be a big face or something I guess but of course nothing ever came of it. These two have the exact same style so this isn’t going to work. Non American object gets Bubba in control. Soon thereafter, I see some interesting looking paint on the wall and I lose my focus. Thankfully this is about five and a half minutes and ends with Tenta slamming Bubba. Afterwards he cuts off Bubba’s beard.

Rating: D. Again, there’s no point to this match. It’s just two guys beating on each other and no one cares at all. Tenta never did a freaking thing in WCW and would be gone very soon to be Golga in the Oddities in WWF. Bubba would turn face after the NWO beat on him.

We go to Gene in the back with the football players and their wives. I still don’t get why this was considered a good idea. McMichael tried really hard but just never got it. However, considering he was a good football player and made an attempt at wrestling, that’s at least impressive.

Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan

This is falls count anywhere. Now this was a very interesting story to say the least. The idea is that the Dungeon and the Horsemen want to team up to fight Hogan, but these two hate each other too much. As for the real life story, these two HATED each other. There was a storyline where Benoit stole Sullivan’s storyline wife. To play up the storyline, they traveled together.

However, it soon became real life as Nancy Woman Sullivan left Kevin for Benoit. The feuds you would see on TV would often be shoots instead of works, with these two really beating the tar out of each other. It’s this match where Benoit allegedly became a big deal, and if I remember it right, that’s a very fair assessment to make.

They’re beating the living tar out of each other very early on and if these shots aren’t legit, they’re the best fakes I’ve ever seen. Almost immediately they’re out in the crowd. They go up into the stands and go into the men’s room. Benoit gets his head slammed in a stall door which has to freaking hurt. For some reason there’s like 25 people in there, which shows how interested the people were in this show.

They fight over shoving the other’s head into the commode. Dusty loses his freaking mind over a woman being in the men’s room. Sullivan lands a great shot with some toilet paper as this is just a wild fight. You really can see the mega star in Benoit just begging to be unleashed, but alas it wouldn’t happen for several years. In a very painful spot, Benoit is thrown down the stairs in the arena.

Jimmy has been standing in the ring the whole time. They say why would people want to come in and declare war? That would make a lot more sense if guys like Benoit got to fight them. Benoit vs. Nash when Nash was worth something. How’s that sound? Tony for some reason can’t get the difference between a chair and a table.

We have a D-Von Special as we get one of the old school tables, as in the oens that don’t break. They sit the table on the top rope and Benoit wins with a snap suplex off the top, which looks VERY painful. Dusty says you don’t want to get caught in the bathroom with Benoit. Anderson runs out to save Sullivan from Benoit but beats up Sullivan with him, officially reforming the Horsemen to a MASSIVE pop. The Dungeon runs out for the save as the Horsemen leave together.

Rating: A. DANG this was a wild fight. Benoit looked like a star out there and he and Sullivan just beat the tar out of each other. Benoit had everything you could want, and he didn’t even use the Crossface yet. How WCW screwed this up is truly beyond me. This match was just pure brutality, making it a very fun match all around. Not great from a technical perspective, but it wasn’t supposed to be at all. Very fun and a pure breath of fresh air given how bad this show has been so far.

In the back Gene is with the women and Flair but Benoit and Anderson come in. Anderson says that Benoit is officially one of them, giving him the biggest endorsement you can get in the sport. Everyone says that they’ll get the football players tonight.

Sting vs. Steve Regal

Their respective teams have been feuding so we get a singles match here that actually doesn’t sound too bad on paper. The pop for Sting is easily the biggest of the night as he’s so over it’s uncanny. They start off pretty fast which is expected but then as also can be expected, they slow things down a lot and get down on the mat where both guys can go, but Regal can go better.

Regal is actually out wrestling Sting here, which isn’t something that you can say that often. Regal is a good guy to have in a role like this as he can just beat on people with all kinds of moves and can get people on the mat where he’ll own them. There’s little better than a guy that can get someone down on the mat and work them over while making them look weak.

The thing that looks better is the guy that can beat him. Regal calling Sting Sunshine is just funny. He plays the cocky British heel so perfectly well that he’s just great. Sting is good enough to keep up with him on the mat which a lot of people can’t say. The announcers all of a sudden have an attitude about the outsiders invading, which hasn’t been here all night.

This was where the thing started to go downhill, as eventually WCW was pushed down our throats as this huge and perfect wrestling company that we had to love, which WCW just wouldn’t accept anything otherwise. That’s just dumb all around. I really like the way Regal just beats on Sting and locks in the Regal Stretch like it’s nothing, but it’s stupid to see Regal just let the hold go because Sting won’t give up.

It’s not like the hold is going to make him feel better, so why would you just break it? That makes no sense at all. Sting hulks up and gets kneed in the chest on a splash attempt. That means nothing as he knocks Regal down and has him tapping in about three seconds. I HATE that ending. He got his head handed to him for 15 minutes and then takes over inside of a minute? That just doesn’t work at all.

Rating: B-. This was a decent match, but DANG the ending messed it up. Regal dominating the entire time worked, but there should have been more of a comeback and less domination as it makes Regal’s offense look bad. Of course Sting was going to win here, but I didn’t like the way it was executed at all.

Ric Flair/Arn Anderson vs. Kevin Greene/Steve McMichael

This is another attempt at crossing over with football, which just never works for one reason: football players can’t wrestle that well because they get a crash course in wrestling. Now there have been players that have gotten long training and are wrestlers for a long time who become good wrestlers and Mongo got close to doing that, but not when they do it in the off season or after retiring for the most part.

Heenan manages the heels here for no apparent reason. Savage manages the faces because he hates Flair, which is fine as it gives them a lot more credibility. Greene walks like a robot. His wife is hot though so that helps a lot. Rhodes makes a great comment that the football players who have been learning to wrestle shouldn’t try to wrestle. So wait, they wasted their time for the last few months? That’s a great endorsement there Dusty.

Arn and Mongo get down in a three point stance because that’s a brilliant idea where Mongo of course dominates him. Tony says that Mongo left the Bears for money. Remember that line. This really is just getting stupid all around. What’s commonly forgotten about Flair is that he was a college football player as well at the University of Minnesota, so the three point stance isn’t exactly a foreign concept to him.

Very soon we start to see the problem: the football guys know about 5 moves each, two of which are boots and punches. You can see that Flair and Anderson are completely carrying them and calling the whole thing, including hearing Flair call spots to Mongo, which might be due to the extreme close-ups in the corner.

Flair whispered, but with the camera 4 inches from him you can’t really blame him for that. The heel women chase away the face women. The announcers are still trying to make this sound epic and are still failing on every level. Mongo gets beaten on forever until the hot tag to bring in Greene for more punches, tackles and slams. Another five minutes or so of beating on Greene until Flair gets the figure four on.

Debra, Liz and Woman come back but Debra is dressed up now and Liz has a briefcase. You know what’s coming next. The shirt and money are in the case and Mongo hits Greene with it to join the Horsemen and end the match, drawing a huge pop as this is Horsemen country. Post match, there’s a huge beatdown by all four Horsemen. Benoit and Savage fight as I drool over the idea of that feud. You can see Flair say good job to Green after he pins him and the Four Horsemen are back!

Rating: C-. This was just pretty bad to say the least. I’ll give the football guys credit though as they were at least trying very hard. The turn at the end was clearly the most important part and while the match went on too long, it wasn’t terrible for what it was. Could have been better but it also could have been worse.

Now we get the really famous part of the show as Bischoff calls out Hall and Nash, but not by name. This segment was really more about clearing up a lawsuit that WWF filed against WCW over the use of copyrighted characters because they said that Hall and Nash were acting too much like Razor and Diesel.

They get their match in three weeks but they first have to say they don’t work for the WWF. The Outsiders want to know who they’re facing because they have a third guy and want to know who their opponents are. Eric says they’ll find out the next night on Nitro but that doesn’t sit well with the big boys, leading to a jackknife off the stage to another huge pop. You can really tell how much the people hated the old school WCW style and were craving something new. Of course the mystery guy would be Hogan while they would face Sting, Luger and Savage.

The cleanup takes longer than a Vince McMahon promo as Tony does the UNTHINKABLE and leaves Dusty alone on commentary. However, since this is live PPV and we’re on a time limit, forget Eric’s possible paralyzing injury and let’s have the main event!

WCW Title: Giant vs. Lex Luger

And so we begin the most lackluster main event that I can ever remember. To illustrate the match, Luger charges and gets his head kicked off within 2 seconds. It’s power vs. power again and since it hasn’t worked twice tonight, it has to work the third time right?

Sting chases off Hart who keeps interfering as Giant just beats on Luger forever with all kinds of power moves. Giant for those of you that don’t know is Big Show minus about 100 lbs and when he was one of the hottest things in wrestling because he really could move all around the ring at a fast pace.

However, he sucked as a world champion because he’s the kind of guy that a big face is supposed to take down, not the kind of guy you give the belt to for months at a time like WCW did. This is as much of a formula match as you’ll ever find with Giant beating on Luger and Luger keeps kicking out until he hits about 6 steel forearms in a row which Giant stays up from. Luger racks him but collapses under the weight. Giant pulls the strap down and chokeslams him for the pin to end what might be the worst PPV I’ve ever seen.

Rating: D+. If there’s ever been a match where the booking killed it, this is it. There was no reason to either have this match or at least have it go on last. It just shouldn’t have happened like this as the Horsemen reuniting was a far bigger and better deal as well as being marketed as the main event. This just shouldn’t have gone on last as it just had no momentum at all and the ending was just flat as possible.

Overall Rating: C-. This is a hard one to grade as there are two awesome matches on it and then the rest is just awful. The stars were in the wrong matches which is weird because it allowed the young guys to shine, but it made for an awkward show. The young guys made the show watchable, but that’s not enough to really save it. Watch the Cruiserweight Title and the falls count anywhere and that’s about it. Oh and the Hall/Nash stuff if you’re a history geek.

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

 

This is one of the older reviews meaning it’s much lower in quality.  It’s the best I could do here though.

 

Bad Blood 2003
Date: June 15, 2003
Location: Compaq Center, Houston, Texas
Attendance: 10,000
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Only reason here is I was looking at my list of shows that I had left to go and I figured I might as well just knock this one off of it. So back in 2003 there were a lot of matches on the show to be had, but there simply wasn’t enough time to fit them all in. The solution became to just have Raw and Smackdown only PPVs.

These wound up completely sucking for the simple reason of there were too few matches to fill in an entire three hour show with feuds/matches from one show. Anyway, this is the very first one so the card is fairly packed. We have Nash vs. HHH in what’s considered the worse HIAC match ever and Jericho vs. Goldberg in a match that should have been in WCW but we couldn’t have a heel that mocked Goldberg get crushed by Goldberg but whatever. So anyway let’s get to it.

Austin is feuding with Bischoff and there’s a Redneck Triathlon or something like that tonight. The intro is just a highlight package of every major feud with red tint to it. Oh and it’s an Austin/Bischoff production. The theme song is Headstrong by Trapt so I’m happy on that front.

Dudley Boys vs. Rodney Mack/Christopher Nowitski

See how brilliant this idea was? Where else are you going to get to see jobbers vs. an over the hill tag team in a match no one cares about? Since the answer is Raw, don’t bother answering that. Nowitski tried to make this a racial thing earlier in the night if you can believe that. Teddy Long is the heel manager here.

Mack was supposed to be a big deal but was squashed by Goldberg so there we are. Nowitski accidentally slaps Bubba. Guess what happens. Oh and Chris has a mask on his face from having his nose broken. The Harvard gimmick would have been able to carry him for years had he not gotten hurt.

Rodney Mack was a guy that I never got the entire appeal of. He’s ok, but just ok. After What’s Up hits, Bubba says get the tables but D-Von doesn’t want to. I love that. Nowitski catches Bubba in the face with the mask for the pin.

Rating: D+. This is the epitome of a match that belongs on Raw and not on PPV. It’s 7 minutes long and it’s an angle that no one cares about. How in the world is this worth paying money to see? You could see the problems already. Naturally is ran nearly four years.

We see a clip from Raw where we see them picking the events for the Redneck Triathlon and it’s a pie eating contest, but the Rock’s kind of pie. Event two is a burping contest. Number three would be determined at the PPV if needed.

Redneck Triathlon Event #1: Burping Contest

Austin is doing jumping jacks to warm up. It’s three burps each and the winner is best overall. This is what is being used to fill PPV time people. Austin destroys him of course in the first one. People paid to watch this. Austin of course wins round one. Oh and this was the first 34.95 show I think. This lasts nearly five minutes and the crowd is just popping for it being Austin. This was freaking stupid.

Test vs. Scott Steiner

Winner gets Stacy as Steiner went from main eventing the Rumble to this inside of five months. That’s rather impressive. Stacy gets her own entrance and hates Test. Test uses the old heel tactic of throw the girl in front of Steiner to get the advantage. The crowd is dead again for this as this is match number two both on the show and on the list of matches that belong on Raw. This is where they should have used the In Your House formula.

By taking it down to two hours, not only does it make the matches more well rounded, but it also takes away the bad ones so it’s just the big ones, making the show seem a lot better. This is exactly what you would expect it to be: boring beyond belief with no real drama. Also I love how Stacy is being treated like property here.

The pumphandle slam gets two and ZERO heat. Stacy slaps Test who then kicks Steiner in the face. Man these two have fallen far. This is just mindless filler. Test grabs a chair and when Stacy tries to pull it away she goes down which leads nowhere. A downward spiral wins it for Steiner. Stacy does her exit twice so Scott can see it again.

Rating: D. Again this was just mindless filler to validate themselves being on TV. What was the point to this at all? I get that there’s an angle that ends here, but dang man, this was just freaking stupid. There was zero point to having this on PPV but there was nothing else to put in here. Like I said, you can see the point just falling away immediately.

Bischoff and Austin talk about the second round of the triathlon which is coming up next.  Scratch that as Austin has to pick the woman for whatever the contest is.  The women are all hot but Austin gets to pick the flavor and you can feel Moolah or Mae coming.

Intercontinental Title: Christian vs. Booker T

So back in late 2002, HHH wanted to be undisputed champion of Raw so the US and IC titles were retired for about six months. Austin brought the IC back and Stephanie brought the US back a month later. There was a battle royal at Judgment Day for the belt which Christian cheated to win so this is the rematch. Oh and Booker has a remix now. Oh great.

He’s the hometown boy here so I wouldn’t look for him to win much here. Christian has just cut his hair so he’s finally looking like he does now. Edge is out injured at this point after neck surgery so there we are since both of them are eternally linked. Booker starts out by dominating and then we get into the formula stuff. Oh and we hear a lot about Booker going to jail for armed robbery, which I’m pretty sure is true but I don’t feel like looking it up.

Christian hits a Rock Bottom of all things to get a two. The Scissors Kick and a missile dropkick hit but both get two. After a Spinerooni, Christian tries to leave. It’s more basic stuff which is what this show should be called. The referee says that if he doesn’t make it back by ten he loses the belt. One day that actually needs to happen just to shake things up. A CHEAP belt shot ends this. There’s a guy dressed like Tigger in the front row.

Rating: C-. Somehow this is the best match of the night so far. This also could have been on Raw but instead we get to pay to see it. Booker would get the title the next month on Raw, but he should have gotten it here where people were paying for it. This was another dumb idea as everything else on this show has been.

Nash is getting ready with Jerry Lawler’s music playing. Oh it’s the triathlon. Screw this getting its own title again. It’s pie eating with oral sex implied. Both guys get full entrances to waste even more time. And yeah it’s Moolah and Mae which was about as predictable as it could have possibly been. Oh it’s just Mae.

The reactions are great if nothing else. After kissing her, Bischoff gets kicked in the balls and Mae gives him a Bronco Buster in a thong and stockings. Austin STUNS MAE and forfeits to set up event number three. Beer drinking follows. That’s another 10 minutes plus that I’ll never get back.

Gail Kim and her Matrix themed video is coming.

Kane and Van Dam are ready but have been having problems lately. La Resistance beat up Van Dam but he didn’t make the save. Kane says nothing. The heels say a lot of insults about America. It’s more bland than it sounds.

Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance vs. Rob Van Dam/Kane

You can more or less see the ending from here. The heels are Sylvan Grenier and Rene Dupree in case you didn’t know. To my complete lack of shock and dismay, this is nothing that couldn’t be on Raw. I mean there is nothing to note here at all. This could be at any house show or Raw but on PPV? Really? The heels are both on the floor and Van Dam dives, naturally hitting all three of them. A double flapjack ends this. It couldn’t have come faster.

Rating: D+. Again, WHY IS THIS ON PPV? That’s the problem with the whole first hour here. I could see an argument for the two title matches, but seriously, none of this has been PPV quality. The matches are ok, but that’s the problem: they’re just ok. Nothing at all here is making me want to watch this show at all and it’s never something I’m going to watch again. I just want to get to the end of this show and forget about it.

We recap Goldberg vs. Jericho who sent Storm to run him over, resulting in a match between Storm and Goldie, which was of course a squash and then he gave up Jericho as the mastermind. No one on the planet thought Jericho had a chance and he didn’t.

Goldberg vs. Chris Jericho

Goldberg is wearing white and black. Words cannot describe how stupid it looks. Jericho had wanted this match in WCW but they decided that it wasn’t a good idea so he just bailed when he could, citing this as one of the major factors. Jericho of course runs like a scared man which I can’t blame him for.

Eventually though, Jericho dodges a spear and Goldberg goes through the security wall. What a coincidence there were no seats in front of it either. Goldberg is bleeding a bit and has a bad shoulder now, so if nothing else they’re trying to give us a reason to think Jericho can win so points for that.

That goes on for a GOOD while which makes sense. Jericho runs the match for the most part which is definitely the best idea here. They botch a moonsault but Goldberg does the smart thing and keeps moving so that it doesn’t look like they botched anything and hits what we would call an FU. There’s a loud Goldberg Sucks chant and the referee goes down.

Dang the fans are behind Jericho here. At least they recognize good wrestling. He gets the Walls of Jericho but leg power gets him out of it. Spear number 2 works a lot better even though it’s a left armed one. After failing to get it once, a jackhammer works the second time for the easy pin.

Rating: C+. Again, this could have been a Raw main event but I can go with this being on PPV. However, another five minutes would have made this WAY better. Jericho was in a rut around this time and he didn’t get out of it until the winter when he turned face to feud with Christian. This was ok but nothing great. Goldberg just didn’t work in the WWE and it showed badly.

We get to see the pick for the last round of the Redneck Triathlon and it’s going to be a sing-off, which is between tobacco spitting and lawn gnome stealing. You can’t make this stuff up. Austin realizes he’s in trouble.

We recap Shawn vs. Flair. Holy crap an actual wrestling match! Flair looks like a cross between Dolph Ziggler and a nightmare. Flair had been asked by HHH to lay down on Raw but Flair couldn’t do it, which Shawn respects. This begins a suck up fest between the two, but Shawn has to know if he can beat him. And then Flair turned heel for the thousandth time in his career by punching Shawn. Shawn says it’s personal now, and you know that means jack but they say it anyway.

Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels

Apparently Shawn dominated the 90s and was a bigger star than Flair ever was. Somehow being in the main event for less than two years and tanking buyrates means you dominate. We start out with more or less a chess match with everyone trying to top the other, and of course when I say everyone I mean two people.

In a spot that I really like, Flair goes to the mat for Shawn to jump over him and Shawn stops on a dime and grabs a headlock on the mat. I like that. Flair at least uses psychology by working the knee and we’re in the figure four five minutes into the show. That was quick if nothing else. Flair is dominating for the most part here but we know that the Shawn comeback is coming. It’s the Flair Formula to the letter.

And Shawn hits an enziguri to counter (it means Head Kick of all things). Flair of course gets slammed off the top as Shawn actually sells the knee. Flair counters the kick into a figure four but that’s countered into a small package. Shawn throws on the figure four. Well they’re moving out there so I’ll give them that.

Flair goes up and actually gets the move off (a chop) but Shawn punches him on the way down. For ZERO apparent reason, Shawn sets up a table. The announcers are surprised too. Randy Orton comes down to try to save Flair but gets nailed. Shawn splashes Flair through the table which is called a cross body though it, although to be fair it looked like one more than a splash.

The referee goes down to a low blow, even though the table should have been a DQ. Sweet Chin Music hits but Orton pops up for a chair shot to give Flair the pin.

Rating: B. This was pretty good but the table spot made me scratch my head. This is a hard combination to screw up and they more or less got it right. The ending was fine since both were in Evolution and would have a reason to help each other out. It’s not a great match but it’s by FAR the best match tonight. Flair was getting old very fast though.

Ad for Freddie Blassie’s book.

Bischoff comes out and lip syncs his own song and Austin interrupts him. They actually get into a you were lip syncing vs. was not argument. Bischoff can’t sing at all. Austin proposes another spin and rigs the wheel to land on pig pen fun. Yes, we have a hog pen match. Somehow, this takes seven minutes. If you don’t get what happened, you’re an idiot.

Ad for the Divas softcore video.

The Cell is lowered. I forgot to mention that Foley is referee to try to make this interesting and it continued to fail.

The feud was just that they didn’t like each other and Austin just declared it Hell in a Cell. Oh Foley is referee because everyone else said they wouldn’t do it.

Raw World Title: HHH vs. Kevin Nash

Yes, this is the main event of a PPV in 2003. The belt it in the ring for no reason other than HHH likes to hold it close I guess. What do you expect here? It’s a Hell in a Cell match. They beat on each other with slow offense and use a lot of weapons. All three bleed and they do this for about twenty minutes. They manage to make a Cell match boring. Seriously Nash, that’s HARD to do.

Oh and HHH uses a screwdriver and a wooden crate. Why was a wooden crate under the ring? Who cares? We get the Mandible Claw if nothing else and Ross says this match is cruel and unusual punishment. You know all the spots that these two are going to do and the ones that Foley will do so figure out what order they go in that makes the match suck the most and you have this match. HHH of course survives the powerbomb and hits the Pedigree a few seconds later for the academic pin. Evolution beats up Foley to end the show.

Rating: D+. Seriously, THEY MADE THE CELL BORING. Do you realize how hard that is to do? This was the time that’s considered HHH’s Reign of Terror on Raw and this match is a great example of it. Really, they messed up the Cell. How do you do that? There was no point to this whole thing other than to make HHH look good and for one of his buddies to get to fight him. This was just awful.

Overall Rating: F. This isn’t a PPV. It’s a Raw with a triple main event. Seriously this show was crap. For one thing it went off at 10:35 which is ten minutes earlier than “3 hour PPVs” normally run. There is a decent Flair vs. Shawn match that could have been good but with 15 minutes what do you expect?

Also, thirty minutes of this was for one running joke which was never funny. You would think that after this disaster Vince would have pulled the plug on it, but no. For FOUR YEARS these things ran and they sucked more each and every time. This is a failure if there ever has been one.

Thunder
Date: January 22, 1998
Location: Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Alabama
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Lee Marshall

It’s the go home show for Souled Out and things are actually cooking for WCW. We still don’t know anything about the world title situation other than Hall has to fight somebody for the title at SuperBrawl. As for Saturday, it looks like the main event is going to be Hart vs. Flair in a really well built showdown for respect. Tonight we have Giant vs. Hall in the main event which brings two major matches for Saturday together. Let’s get to it.

The announcers tell us that we’ll get an announcement on the world title situation on Saturday as well as an appearance from Roddy Piper.

Scott Steiner vs. Konnan

Scott overpowers him to start and shoves Konnan down to the floor with ease. Back in and Vincent earns his paycheck by tripping Steiner up to give Konnan control. Scott comes right back with a gorilla press and a gorilla press as we’re in squash territory here. The top rope Frankensteiner is loaded up but Buff and Norton hit the ring for the quick DQ.

Rick Steiner and Ray Traylor run out for the save but Scott walks out to pose at Bagwell.

Here’s Nash to say that in 90 minutes, he’s going to be $1.5 million richer. Giant wants Nash more than a lap dance after being at sea for 20 years but Nash isn’t afraid of him at all. Saturday is about the physical torture but tonight is all about the psychological. Good promo here as Nash keeps it simple.

Super Calo/Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Silver King/La Parka

This is Lucha Libre rules, meaning you can change with your partner if you go to the floor. Chavo starts out with Silver King and takes over with a quick headscissors on Silver. Everything quickly breaks down with Calo pounding on La Parka but getting caught in a powerslam. Raven comes through the crowd sans Flock as La Parka dives over the top to land on Calo’s stretched out back.

Back in the ring Silver King powerbombs Calo down for two before La Parka comes in for a double enziguri on Calo. La Parka and King allow Calo to make the tag as everything breaks down again. Chavo dives to the floor to take out La Parka as Super Calo hits a top rope hurricanrana on King for the pin.

Rating: C-. This was an entertaining mess with the emphasis on mess. The match didn’t get anywhere near the excitement that these matches are capable of reaching and none of these guys did anything to set themselves apart from the others. La Parka was the only guy in the match who was a big deal at this point but he was barely in the match at all.

Post match La Parka blasts everyone with the chair until Juventud and Lizmark Jr. run out for the save. Psychosis and El Dandy run in as well and it’s a big brawl. Nearly everyone gets to hit a big dive to make up for the so-so match.

Nick Patrick wants to talk about something but Rick Martel walks in behind him. Kidman comes in to yell at Martel for the fight on Nitro. Saturn runs in and throws Martel through a glass door. It’s as out of nowhere as it sounds.

Dean Malenko vs. Marty Jannetty

They start with an armbar each with Marty actually taking over on the mat. Dean escapes and goes after Marty’s knee, only to be put in a front facelock. The technical exhibition continues with Dean going after Jannetty’s knee again, only to be countered into a catapult into the corner for two. We hit a chinlock on Dean for a few moments before Malenko fights up with a belly to back suplex.

A regular suplex gets two for Malenko but Marty comes back with a clothesline for two of his own. Jannetty goes after the leg….and now the arm a few seconds later. I guess all that cocaine made the limbs look the same. Dean fights up again but gets caught in a faceplant for two. In a rare botch in a Malenko match, Marty loads up a snapmare but Dean falls like a neckbreaker, making it look more like a Stunner. A few seconds later Marty tries the Rocker Dropper but is countered into the tiger bomb and the Cloverleaf for the submission.

Rating: C-. This was slow paced and methodical but it wasn’t bad at all. Jannetty didn’t look as good as he did on Nitro but his WCW run isn’t going badly at all. Malenko has been left out in the cold since Starrcade due to Mysterio and Jericho taking the focus on the Cruiserweight Title.

Goldberg vs. Kendall Windham

Goldberg takes him to the mat with a leg lock but Kendall makes a rope. A clothesline gets two for Windham but it’s spear/Jackhammer for the pin. The reactions are getting louder and louder.

Here’s Hall for his survey with WCW taking the night. Hall is looking forward to Saturday so he can shut Zbyszko up once and for all. Cue Louie Spicolli with Larry’s golf clubs which are rapidly bent and broken. Larry comes out and is ready to fight Hall but Spicolli wants a piece of him instead. Zbyszko immediately takes him down with a guillotine choke but has to avoid an elbow drop from Hall. Larry bails and says he’ll have backup at Souled Out.

We get some clips of Piper on Walker Texas Ranger. When Chuck Norris is the best actor ina scene, you know you’re in trouble.

Cruiserweight Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

Rey has a bad knee. Eddie is challenging and charges right at Rey, only to be taken down by an armdrag. A hurricanrana sends Eddie most of the way to the apron as his leg is caught in the apron on the way down. Back in and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker puts Rey down for two as it’s all Eddie so far. A brainbuster looks to set up the frog splash but Rey gets up top for a superplex to put both guys down. Eddie is dropkicked out to the floor and Rey hits a dive over the top, reinjuring his knee again in the process. With Eddie down on the floor, Jericho runs to attack Rey for the DQ.

Rating: D+. This didn’t have the time to go anywhere but it was angle advancement anyway. Rey’s knee is very banged up thanks to Jericho’s recent attacks and this match didn’t do it any favors. Eddie is in the same spot that Malenko is in at the moment: just floating around waiting on something to do.

Eddie and Jericho stomp Mysterio down but Eddie is mad at Jericho costing him a match. Benoit sneaks in behind Jericho for their upcoming match as Eddie bails. The look on Jericho’s face when he sees Benoit is priceless.

Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho

Benoit sends him into the corner as Dean Malenko and referee Mickie Jay carry Mysterio to the back. Jericho bails to the floor as we take a break. Back with Jericho continuing to run but getting caught by a suicide dive. They head back inside and Jericho hits a quick dropkick to take over. A spinebuster looks to set up the Liontamer but Benoit chops his way out of it. Jericho runs some more but gets caught in a dragon screw leg whip.

Benoit is taken down by a back elbow for the ARROGANT COVER for two. The Lionsault connects but Jericho waits for the fans to cheer him instead of covering. Instead a superplex gets two on Benoit and it’s off to a chinlock. Benoit fights up with a belly to back suplex followed by a German and a whip to send Jericho into the Tree of Woe. There’s the Crossface but Jericho taps out before the hold is even on. That’s a smart move given his title shot in two days.

Rating: C+. These two have a natural chemistry that few other pairs can rival. The ending shows thinking as well which isn’t something you often get in wrestling. It’s also nice to see actual stories develop and intertwine with each other with all people involved being elevated. It’s like the company is planning for the future or something like that.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff with something to say. Hogan says it’s going to be a big party when he gets the title back on Saturday because he never lost it in the first place. Bischoff and Hogan praise each other and Hogan poses to end things.

Rick Martel vs. Perry Saturn

Martel charges at the ring and runs Saturn over as the bell rings. Saturn is sent to the floor and into the steps for good measure. Back in and Martel pounds on Saturn in the corner but the Flock comes out for a distraction. Martel is crotched on the top rope before getting suplexed down for two. The Flock leaves and Martel misses a charge into the post. Saturn puts on an armbar and then a cross armbreaker but Martel counters into a quickly broken STF.

We take a break and come back with Martel pounding away in the corner but getting caught with a swinging neckbreaker. Saturn gets some quick rollups for two before going to the middle rope. A sunset flip gets two on Rick but he rolls through into the Quebec Crab to make Saturn submit in a hurry.

Rating: C-. Martel has only been back for a few months but I’m starting to buy into him here in WCW. He looks very smooth in the ring and has more than enough experience to back it up. The window stuff from earlier added nothing to this so the fans weren’t caring at all, but they got an ok match out of it.

Post match the Flock runs in but Martel rolls away to let Kidman hit Saturn.

Scott Hall vs. The Giant

Hall gets in Giant’s face and is launched across the ring as he should be. A front chancery gets Hall placed on the top rope and he dives into the bearhug. Giant headbutts Hall down but here are Hogan and Nash to ringside. Nash gets in a cheap shot with some kind of a weapon as Hogan gets in the ring for the DQ in less than two minutes.

Savage tries to intervene but Luger runs out and Racks him. Nash looks at Savage in the Rack down and does nothing about it. Instead Nash comes in and pounds on Giant but Giant doesn’t touch him. Instead Giant goes to the floor, grabs the post, and BREAKS THE RING to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This was the kind of show Thunder was designed to be: focus on the midcard feuds and have the main event guys do some stuff to close the show. It built up the Souled Out matches that we didn’t get to focus on Monday while giving us some solid action tonight. Good show here and I want to see Souled Out.

Here’s Souled Out if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2013/06/15/souled-out-1998-redo-one-of-wcws-best-shows-ever/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and check out my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Monday Nitro #123
Date: January 19, 1998
Location: Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko

This is the final Nitro before Souled Out and the main matches are already set. The world title situation hasn’t been addressed at all since the first episode of Thunder so it doesn’t look like we’re getting Sting vs. Hogan II at the PPV. We are however getting Bret vs. Flair in what has been a very well built up feud. The main event tonight is Hogan vs. Giant, hopefully without Robin Hood. Let’s get to it.

The Nitro Girls dance to open the show.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Rick Martel

Eddie jumps Martel before the bell but Rick rams him into the buckle to take over. A middle rope clothesline sets up a gorilla press on Eddie to send him out to the floor. Back in and Martel snaps off some quick armdrags and Eddie is getting frustrated. Guerrero goes after the knee to take Martel down and puts on a quick side leg lock. The slingshot hilo hits Martel’s leg and a belly to back suplex gets two. Eddie spends too much time bragging and gets caught in a spinebuster and the Quebec Crab for the tap out.

Rating: C-. This was really quick but it was nice while it lasted. There was a nice little story here as Eddie took out the leg but got too cocky and got caught. For a three minute match, that’s about as effective as you can get. Martel continues to look like he hasn’t lost a step despite not being a regular competitor for years now while Eddie was smooth as always.

We see the end of Thunder with the NWO imploding again as Nash and Savage are on the verge of completely disintegrating. They slapped each other during the match and Hogan had to play peacekeeper. Post match Hogan accidentally hit Savage to make the problems even worse. Giant and Sting ran out for the save and stood tall to end the show.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff with something to say. Eric has Sting’s bat for some reason and presents it to Hogan as a trophy. Hogan says that the NWO has a pecking order and everyone is going to fall in line as they’re supposed to. If anyone steps over the line, they’ll have to answer to Hogan and the bat. He knows everyone is praying to God to rectify the situation with the world title and put the belt back where it belongs. As for Giant, Hogan is proving he’s a fighting champion by beating him tonight before moving on to Sting and for Hogan’s world title.

Chris Benoit vs. Marty Jannetty

The announcers say that this is a match Benoit has been wanting for awhile. Benoit starts pounding away on Jannetty but gets caught in a headscissors to give Marty a breather. A superkick puts Benoit down followed by the jumping fist drop for no cover. Benoit gets a boot up in the corner and takes Jannetty’s head off with a back elbow. Marty actually wins a slugout in the corner and gets two off a knee lift.

Benoit blocks a suplex into a snap suplex of his own for one before throwing Marty to the outside. Jannetty slides through the legs to get back in before slamming Benoit face first into the mat. Here’s the Flock in the aisle but Benoit takes Jannetty down into the Crossface for the fast submission.

Rating: C. This was better than I was expecting. Jannetty really was better than people gave him credit for and he’s been showing that a bit in WCW. He more than held his own against Benoit and didn’t look bad in his other matches so far. Benoit looked good as well here in his tuneup match for Raven on Saturday and the Crossface came out of nowhere for the finish.

Post match the Flock storms the ring but Benoit fights them off and stares Raven down. The distraction lets Saturn get in a cheap shot but Jannetty comes up to make the save. Marty dives onto most of the Flock so Benoit can swan dive onto Lodi.

Jerry Flynn vs. The Cat

It’s Ernest Miller in his more famous persona. Flynn kicks him in the chest to start before countering a kick into a quick ankle lock. Cat makes the ropes and puts on a cross armbreaker which is broken just as quickly. Flynn comes back with a clothesline and a chop but Miller hits an enziguri as the martial arts begin. Cat hits his top rope spin kick for the fast pin. Short match here but it’s clear that UFC is starting to become an influence on professional wrestling.

Here’s Scott Hall with something to say. After the NWO wins, Hall says that he isn’t worried about Zbyszko because he gets the title shot at SuperBrawl no matter what. Hall calls out Larry for only being AWA World Champion (mentioned by name for the first time here) because his father in law was world champion and for the company going under with Larry on top. Hall says Dusty is a better wrestler turned announcer and Larry doesn’t want any of Hall. Larry says he wants him on Saturday and heads to the ring as we take a break.

Buff Bagwell/Konnan vs. Steiner Brothers

Scott starts with Buff and it’s time for a pose down. Buff hiptosses him down and takes Scott into the corner, only to be pounded down with forearms to the back. A belly to back puts Buff into the ropes and it’s off to Konnan. Scott speeds things up and leapfrogs over Konnan before nailing him with a clothesline. A running gorilla press sends Konnan rolling to the floor as it’s all Scott so far. DiBiase yells at him to tag but Scott doesn’t seem interested.

Back to Buff who is powerslammed into the Tree of Woe in the corner so Scott can choke away. He shoves the referee before being whipped into Konnan’s knee, allowing Buff to clothesline Scott to the floor. Rick finally comes over to make the save for his first action at all in the match. Konnan and Buff take turns pounding away as Scott isn’t interested in tagging. Scott clotheslines both NWO guys down and knocks Buff to the floor. The Steiner Screwdriver (now just an over the shoulder tombstone for safety’s sake) hits Konnan for the pin. Rick did nothing other than the save on the floor.

Rating: C-. Scott’s heel turn is working well so far but we’re still in the early stages. At this point the team is winning most of their matches and Scott is looking more and more dominant every time he’s out there. Rick and Ted can’t get through to him but the team is winning so they don’t have much to complain about.

Scott and Buff pose at each other post match with Buff running from a showdown. Rick stares at Scott but Scott walks away and celebrates on his own.

Hour #2 begins so the announcers recap the events of the first hour.

Here’s Giant with something to say. While he can’t touch Kevin Nash, he’s got the chokeslam for Hogan tonight. This brings out Nash with a cup of coffee and Hogan with the ball bat. Nash gets in Giant’s face but here’s Savage to go after Nash. Hogan calls him off but Savage comes in and knees Hogan into Nash, sending Nash into Giant. Nash throws the coffee into a ticked off Giant’s face but Hogan hits Giant with the bad. Sting runs out and gives Hogan the Death Drop to take his bat back. Giant is on his feet again about twenty seconds after Hulk Hogan hit him in the back with a bat. That’s an impressive recovery.

Nitro Girls.

TV Title: Mortis vs. Booker T

They slug it out to start as the announcers talk about Nitro going to three hours next week. Booker hits a quick ax kick and cranks on an armbar for a bit. Mortis avoids an elbow drop but Booker Spinaroonis up and hits a side kick to knock Mortis to the floor. Back in and Booker slingshots into a northern lights suplex by Mortis for two. Mortis loads up a top rope frankensteiner but Booker counters into a scary looking powerbomb off the top. Mortis is dead and the Harlem Hangover is good for the pin to retain.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t much to see but the slingshot into the northern lights suplex looked great. The match was just a quick win for Booker which is fine as it allows him to get on TV and showcase what he can do for a few minutes. It’s also a good sign that WCW can throw different people out there to challenge for the title instead of having the same few guys challenge over and over again.

Post match Wrath comes out to lay Booker out but Rick Martel makes the save. He asks for a title shot at the PPV and Booker says if it’s ok with the company it’s ok with him.

Here’s Flair for the hard sell for the match with Hart. Flair immediately takes the jacket off and says he’s here to wake the dead and make little girls talk out of their head. He takes the mic and lays on the mat, telling Bret to Scorpion this. Cue Bret as Flair gets on the apron. Hart praises Flair as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time but Bret has been waiting for this moment his entire life.

It’s like he’s starting his career over again against Ric Flair, and Bret is going to run over Flair on Saturday. Flair can compare their histories, but on Sunday morning Flair is going to wake up and feel that Bret is the best there is, was and ever will be. Flair says that he respects Bret’s family and he’s giving Bret one more chance to say that Ric is the best ever. Bret smiles at him and says that Flair will know who the best is on Sunday morning.

We look at Jericho attacking Mysterio last week on Nitro and costing him the Cruiserweight Title match. The announcers also talk about Mysterio winning the title on Thursday, setting up a title defense against Jericho on Saturday.

Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera

Juvy gets a quick sunset flip for two and monkey flips Jericho into the ropes to frustrate Jericho again. Jericho offers a handshake but clotheslines Juvy down to take over. Guerrera seems to be a face here despite being a heel against Mysterio last week. Jericho can’t hit a tornado DDT and gets rolled up for two. Juvy hits a top rope spinwheel kick for two more but misses a charge and falls out to the floor to stop his momentum cold. Jericho holds the ropes open and kicks Guerrera as he comes back in, setting up the Liontamer for the submission.

Rating: C-. This was just a quick match to give Jericho more momentum leading into his title shot against Mysterio at the PPV. Jericho’s turn has been well built up to this point and it’s really easy to hate him given his actions. You put that against a natural hero in Rey and you get a good match as a result. It’s basic booking but very effective.

Jericho takes his time to let the hold go and says it’s because Juvy didn’t make it clear that he gave up. Chris jumps Juvy but Rey runs out for the save, setting up a double team on Jericho.

Scott Hall vs. Lex Luger

Hall throws his toothpick at Luger so Lex slaps him in the face. They fight over a lockup until Luger shoves Hall into the corner and flexes a lot. Hall wants a test of strength but suckers Luger into a double arm crank instead of trying his luck. The fans are distracted by something in the crowd so the hold stays on for a good while. Luger finally counters into the same hold on Hall but Scott kicks him low to escape.

Hall stomps away and puts on a sleeper, only to have Luger counter into one of his own. As is always the custom with this counter to Hall’s sleeper, Scott quickly breaks the hold but gets punched down. Luger fires off the atomic drops and clotheslines but Savage runs in for the DQ before the Rack goes on.

Rating: D. The arm hold screwed a lot of this up but it wasn’t much of a match either way. Luger and Savage are fighting again at the PPV in a match that really doesn’t have much of a story other than WCW vs. NWO, which isn’t much to base a major match on. There was no mention of Zbyszko vs. Hall during the entire match either.

Hall and Savage stomp Luger down until Zbyszko runs out and is beaten down as well. Lex makes the save with a chair.

The Giant vs. Hollywood Hogan

Hogan comes to the ring in a neck brace, talking about how Giant caused his injuries. Bischoff says that Hogan can’t fight tonight so Giant lifts him off the floor and suplexes him into the ring as the bell sounds. There goes the neck brace and Giant hits a quick running clothesline in the corner. Nash has come out to ringside as Giant chokes in the corner with his boot ala Big Kev.

They head to the floor with Hogan being rammed into the barricade. In a really impressive power display, Giant presses Hogan over his head and back inside over the top rope. Nash distracts Giant and Hogan FINALLY gets in a shot to the back to take over. Hollywood pounds away in the corner and chokes Giant down before hitting the big boot to the chest. Just like the old days, Hogan slams him down and drops the leg but Savage comes out to distract Hogan. Giant pops up and the chokeslam ends the match.

Rating: C-. It’s really hard to complain about seeing Hogan wrestle for free on Nitro against a big named guy. The match was really just a backdrop for the NWO drama but it was still entertaining stuff. Hogan’s abilities when he’s in his comfort zone are often forgotten because of how bad he can be at times, but almost any time you get to see him against a monster you get an entertaining match.

Post match Giant goes after Savage, Nash goes after Savage, Luger runs out to go after Savage, and the NWO comes in for the save. Sting repels from the ceiling into the crowd (after running to the ring earlier) and finally clears the ring of the NWO. WCW stands tall to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. With only one bad match and some great buildup for Souled Out, it’s hard to find much to complain about here. It’s really interesting to see how well WCW was clicking at this point given how bad things fell apart just a few months later. This was an entertaining show and it made me want to watch Souled Out so the show is a success.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Great American Bash 2000
Date: June 11, 2000
Location: Baltimore Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Attendance: 7,031
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mark Madden, Scott Hudson

 

Well I figured that since I’m halfway through 2000 I might as well finish the year off and for some reason I thought it would be better to start adding one on to the end at a time. Anyway the main event is Jarrett vs. Nash for the title with a huge swerve that would be blasted from one end of the world to another but that’s expected. The rest of the card is your usual WCW 2000 garbage so let’s get to it.

 

There are cops waiting on Goldberg to get here because I guess he isn’t here yet or something.

 

The opening video talks about the matches tonight, which has Flair vs. Flair and Hogan vs. Billy Kidman. Well ok then. No theme to it or anything, just a list of some matches.

 

Apparently Goldberg has been let out of a Nashville jail. Why is he in it? Who cares. Apparently he was in it though.

 

Cruiserweight Title: Disco Inferno vs. Lieutenant Loco

 

Loco is Chavo Guerrero and is champion here. Chavo says he has a surprise for Disco: and it’s something that the announcers aren’t thrilled with him having. I don’t particularly care since they’re not sure either but apparently it’s something they would have gotten in trouble for having. Disco is part of the Filthy Animals here. Can we just look at Major Gunns and Tygress?

 

Everyone is chilling at ringside so it looks like a lumberjack match for the most part. Disco is in a Lakers jersey and Chavo is in blue camouflage so this is a rather weird looking match to say the least. Chavo takes over to start but Disco gets a hot shot to take over. And never mind as he gets sent to the floor for the quick beatdown by the Misfits. Scott dubs Disco the Hip Hop Inferno.

 

Big dive off the top by Chavo takes out Disco as this match is dragging badly. It’s not that bad but it’s just a bit boring to say the least. Back in the rind and Disco gets a slam and dances a bit. Some old dude in a helmet wanders out to hit on Tygress. Apparently he’s General Rection’s grandfather so Konnan shoves him down. While that’s going on Juvy comes in and beats up Loco but Lash Leroux takes out Disco and puts Chavo on top for the pin.

 

Rating: D. What a freaking mess. You have Chavo who was incredible at this point and Disco who was……well Chavo was incredible at this point so he more than could have carried a five minute match by himself. Instead this was a total wreck with no flow at all to it and barely any wrestling at all. Why do I have a feeling that this is going to be a running theme tonight?

 

Some very bad actors dressed as cops tell Bischoff and Miller that their surprise for Nash is safe.

 

The Mamalukes say they’ll win. This results in a lot of bad Italian stereotypes. Apparently Vito claims to be the Hardcore Champion even though Johnny the Bull was supposed to be.

 

Order this show and get a Hulk Hogan…..inflatable raft? Dude…..why?

 

Kronik vs. Mamalukes

 

Winners are the #1 contenders. During the intros we’re assured that Goldberg WILL NOT be here tonight. Good to know indeed. The winner gets the Perfect Event. Apparently since the Mamalukes are in the New Blood they can defend the title using the Freebird Rule. Vito gets beaten down by Adams to start and they switch off. Clark hits a Rock Bottom to Johnny and the Italians are getting destroyed so far.

 

Vito comes back in and still has the belt on. I have a feeling that’s going to be a running joke here. Clark gets chopped and smacked in the chest a few times as Tony talks about how the Mamalukes walked into WCW and won the tag titles. Yes, that doesn’t bury the division in the slightest. Adams comes in to hammer on Johnny a bit. Full Nelson Slam kills Johnny for two. DDT gets no cover for Johnny as he brings in Vito instead.

 

Not that it really matters as Kronik hammers him down using the power of marijuana. Their name was Kronik and their finisher was called High Times. What do you think they were talking about? Clark botches what would become known as the F5, more or less dropping him on his head for two. Johnny comes in so Vito sits goes over and polishes the belt. A reverse cross body literally misses by four feet and High Times end Johnny a second later. Vito doesn’t seem to mind.

 

Rating: C-. Just a match really as there was no real need for them to fight other than for the sake of being the #1 contenders. Not bad or anything, but I have no idea who I was supposed to cheer for out there. In other words, Russo lives! Let there be no defined faces or heels ever!!!

 

DDP has something special for Mike Awesome apparently.

 

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Mike Awesome

 

This is an ambulance match. Page’s surprise is Chris Kanyon in a wheelchair after Awesome threw him off a cage and broke his neck or something. And of course, Kanyon will NEVER turn on DDP EVER! They head to the floor and then the crowd almost immediately. Page gets a shot in to send us back to ringside very quickly as this is a big brawl. They somehow change momentum three times in 10 seconds and make it four in 12.

 

The referee is down also but that’s WCW for you. To the ring now as the referee is getting up a bit. Awesome comes off the top with a back elbow and a belly to back suplex has Page down. Tony thinks it’s odd that there’s no surprise yet, even though Bischoff kept saying it was for NASH, who hadn’t been seen yet. Awesome sets up a table as we talk about Kanyon a bit.

 

Powerbomb through the table as this is a match that was used in a clip on Whose Line Is It Anyway? Page is put on a stretcher because simply throwing him in the ambulance isn’t enough I guess. Awesome gets a chair shot in and we head back to the ring because winning doesn’t matter right? Top rope splash looks to kill Page and the second probably does. A third splash misses as Page is between a pair of chairs this time so he had to move right?

 

Here’s Kimberly because Page is out there. They’re having “problems” which were probably brought on by her heel turn. She hits DDP with a pipe so Miss Hancock (Stacy Keibler) comes out and drags her off. They’re “having problems” also apparently. Awesome looks for an Awesome Bomb off the top but Page gets a low blow and a Diamond Cutter off the top. The medical people put him on a stretcher and here comes Bischoff to take out Kanyon. And of course Kanyon comes out of his wheelchair and hits a Diamond Cutter to end Page. Awesome wins with ease.

 

Rating: D. The match was junk, but let’s take a look at the angle that ended the match. Kanyon was indeed thrown off a cage to the ramp. It’s not like we saw that off camera or anything. DDP took care of him and then Kanyon betrays him for the people that tried to cripple him in less than a month? Are we really supposed to buy that Awesome was able to convince Kanyon that Page was the bad guy? Or that Kanyon was in on this all along and that he went along with being thrown around like that? And people wonder why Russo’s booking is so criticized.

 

The announcers point out how stupid this is.

 

Shawn Stasiak vs. G.I. Bro

 

And here’s the latest way to waste a guy like Booker: he’s a military guy when there’s already a military themed stable. He comes in on a zip line like Shawn did at Mania 12, but at about 1/3 of the height and 1/10 of the speed. The announces speculate that Kanyon was the surprise because they’re not that smart. Oh apparently Booker is part of the MIA. It just wasn’t mentioned until here.

 

This is a Boot Camp match, which means Last Man Standing. Why they’re fighting isn’t required information but I’d bet it’s MIA vs. New Blood. They’re both in camo here because that’s what you do in the army right? Booker takes him to the floor and hammers away as we go into the crowd. WEAK chair to the head (drawing slight booing) takes down Stasiak for all of a second. A horrible top rope forearm gets about seven.

 

Oh and don’t worry: we’re willing to cut away to the back at the drop of a hat if Goldberg arrives. You know, because you paid your money to see a car pull into a parking lot 45 minutes into a show right? Jumping back elbow puts Booker down and they actually treat it like a move that could end this. Big spinwheel kick by Booker takes him down for no reaction for the most part.

 

Stasiak sends him to the floor and we head to the ramp for a suplex. Back in the ring as there’s no heat on this match in the slightest. Back to the floor again as they have no idea what to do with nearly 14 minutes total for this match. Chair shot puts Booker down on the floor and back in the ring a gutwrench powerbomb gets 9. Time for a sleeper because this match isn’t boring enough already.

 

The fans chant boring and I can’t blame them in the slightest. This is what we mean when we say adding a gimmick for the sake of adding a gimmick. They can’t even explain why these two are fighting and yet we’re supposed to want to see a gimmick match between them an hour into the show in the fifth slot? There’s no heat here and the only reason this gimmick is here is because someone has a military gimmick.

 

Book End hits out of nowhere and I don’t bother waiting to hear what the stupid military name of that is. They call it a uranage suplex here but screw that. Of course it only gets like five but it sets up the missile dropkick, as in both of his finishers that can’t take down Stasiak. Palumbo, Stasiak’s partner, comes out with the Lex-Flexor exercise bar but hits Booker low anyway. A shot to the back of Booker puts him down as Tony rants against relaxed rules in a match with no rules. Booker gets up and mostly hits a double clothesline and beats up the tag champions on his own. A shot to Stasiak with the flexor ends this.

 

Rating: D-. Oh give me a break. Someone thought that Shawn freaking Stasiak was the best use of Booker T here? I mean come on now man. There was zero reason at all for this to be a gimmick match in the slightest so they went with it anyway. Guess what is up next: a gimmick match. After that, another gimmick match. Before this, another gimmick match. This is a great example of Russo’s writing in a nutshell and one of the better ones you’ll ever see. Oh and the match sucked, easily the worst last man standing match I’ve ever seen.

 

Goldberg’s monster truck is here.

 

Page might still be here.

 

Kanyon says he’s positive DDP is gone. Make that Positively Kanyon. This was the start of Kanyon’s newest gimmick: he would imitate Page who had a new book out called Positively Page. This, of course, went nowhere of note. This somehow translates to Bischoff got to Kanyon in the hospital and brainwashed him. I give up.

 

The Wall vs. Shane Douglas

 

Douglas curses a lot before the match and apparently doesn’t like Flair and Hogan. Now this is no longer a tables match as we’re going to make it a best of five tables matches with Shane saying now we’re guaranteed five tables being broken. Thank you for admitting you’re going through at least two Shane. Ok now you have to put someone through five tables to win. PICK A RULE ALREADY!

 

It’s first to five now. Ok, let’s stick with that. Wall has a really stupid looking black goatee now so he looks like a cross between Hitler and Kurrgan. Again no reason given for why they’re fighting or anything because that would be important information right? Standard match to start as we continue to waste more time on this show. Douglas hits a suplex and a reverse Hennig neck snap.

 

Wall is sent onto a table but not through it. No one has gone through anything yet. They fight on the floor in maybe second gear at best. Shane tries a suplex through it but gets countered and Wall hits a chokeslam to go up 1-0. Wall blocks a shot into the post and gets a release belly to back suplex through the table as they change the rules in the middle of the match to make it best of five instead of first to five.

 

Back in the ring as Shane is totally fine after a pair of table breaks with a low blow. Shane wants to take it to the back but settles for by the stage instead. What a shock: there are a bunch of tables there with a ladder next to them. Shane goes up the ladder and there are either two tables on a stage or three in a row with a cloth over the bottom one. Wall has his back to the tables but wants a chokeslam anyway. Shane knocks him through it with brass knuckles as all of a sudden it’s just TWO tables again but they say Shane wins anyway as it switches from 3 to 2 to 3 again inside of five seconds. Just go on already.

 

Rating: F+. We get it: you can have gimmick matches. Was there a point to having this be a table match? Or even to have the match in the first place? NOT IMPORTANT!!! This is yet another stupid gimmick match as Russo treats its fans like idiots that are going to be easily fascinated by things being broken. Whatever dude.

 

Wall puts the referee through a table post match just because.

 

Hogan arrives, 75 minutes into the show in an old school Dodge Charger.

 

US Title: Scott Steiner vs. Tank Abbot

 

Scott is US Champion here and this may or may not be for the title. We’ll say it is anyway as it would make sense…..yeah let’s just go with non-title. It’s also in the Steel Asylum. Here’s another brilliant idea of WCW. The Asylum is a small round cage about 10 feet in diameter that is lowered into the ring. No ropes or anything, just a small cage. And now Rick Steiner is added to the match to make it a handicap. Well sure why not.

 

US Title: Scott Steiner vs. Rick Steiner/Tank Abbott

 

Scott is a face here if that wasn’t clear. Rick and Tank double team him for awhile and here comes the cage. The fans chant for Goldberg but even he couldn’t save something this stupid. They destroy Scott for a minute or so until Tank pulls out a chain. Rick pulls a Lee Corso (that name won’t mean anything to you if you’re not from America or into college football) and says not so fast my friend. Abbott hits Rick with the chain, Scott gets a low blow, Recliner keeps the title on him. Ok so it was for the title. Good thing they waited until after the match to tell us it was in jeopardy no?

 

Rating: J. As in just….no. It runs less than four minutes, two of which are spent hammering on Scott before the whole cage thing came down. The stuff inside the little ring of death or whatever is maybe 90 seconds long and the whole thing is just stupid. I guess this was so they didn’t need to have Steiner run or whatever. Just move on.

 

Flair is here, looking like Doc Brown from Back to the Future goes Hawaiian.

 

We recap Hogan vs. Kidman. Kidman got a fluke win over Hogan so this is the rematch. If Hogan wins, he gets a title shot next month (oh boy. It’s THAT show) and if Kidman wins, Hogan retires. Hogan’s nephew Horace is refereeing and doesn’t like his uncle.

 

Hogan says that he’s not worried here because blood is thicker than New Blood. So old > new. It’s like Hogan’s whole belief system broken down into one sentence. He mentions Goldberg and Nash and says if he gets into that it’ll be the good, the bad and the ugly.

 

Billy Kidman vs. Hulk Hogan

 

Horace comes out with Kidman. Kidman has some Shawn Michaels like pyro. It’s the NWO theme for Hulk here. Kidman goes straight at him….and is destroyed pretty quickly. There’s the big boot maybe a minute in so Kidman hits the floor. Torrie has turned her back on Kidman. Meaning she WILL NOT be here right? Kidman has had no offense at all so far.

 

Back to the ring and it’s time for choking. Hogan gets in Horace’s face which of course goes nowhere. Kidman comes back with some choking but a low blow with Horace looking right at them is ignored. Here’s the weightlifting belt which is Hogan going EXTREME I guess. Back to the floor and Kidman dropkicks a chair into the face of baldie. That gets two in the ring as this is as riveting as it sounds.

 

Hogan continues to do almost nothing but punch and choke. Oh wait he rammed him into the railing twice. Hudson makes sure to let us know that we’re here because of Hogan and no one else PERIOD. Back to the ring as Kidman hits a DDT onto the chair that is so bad it’s booed before Kidman can even cover. I mean Kidman is off Hogan who then SLOWLY lowers his head down onto the chair. This is horrible.

 

Kidman gets two again and yells at Horace for calling it unfairly or something. The fans chant for Hogan who I think is the face here, making him out to be a huge bully for hammering on a guy half his size. Here comes the Hulk Up against the guy called the Flea Market Champion. There are ten punches in the corner and a running clothesline. Back to the floor for like the 4^th time and Kidman is tossed through the table.

 

Here’s Torrie so at least we have something to look at now. She hands Hulk brass knuckles because he needs them I guess. Kidman knocks Hulk into Torrie and her ankle is hurt. Kidman gets a shot with the knuckles in for two. Horace shoves Kidman and now let’s get stupid as Kidman hits Horace with the knuckles. So if they were still on his hand, why didn’t he hit Hogan with them again instead of choking him? Torrie hits Kidman low and a shot with the knucks to Kidman ends this. Oh and Hulk and Horace are cool again.

 

Rating: D-. Hey look: another stupid match with a way overbooked ending and a gimmick to it. Hogan was never going to job to Kidman twice and now Kidman looks like just as much of a joke as he did before this whole Hogan thing. It’s the difference between a rub and being in the ring with someone. He wouldn’t do anything after this other than feud with Shane Douglas which went nowhere. It’s not a failure because Torrie looked good and that’s about it.

 

Bischoff yells at a cop about life in general.

 

Bash at the Beach is coming, sponsored by Master Lock. Yes, a lock company is the best they can get at this point.

 

We recap David Flair vs. Ric Flair with the idea being that Russo has brainwashed David into thinking that Russo is the father that David never have and it’s a big Ric vs. Russo thing.

 

Russo says this is going to be fun.

 

Ric says this is going to be fun.

 

Ric’s family shows up.

 

Ric Flair vs. David Flair

 

If Ric loses he has to retire FOREVER (which is how it says it on the graphics). With Russo on the floor we actually gets some wrestling here as Ric does most of the work, namely because he has about 100x the talent. David chops away in the corner and actually takes over for a bit. You know Ric is going to sell for his oldest boy. Ric gets sent into the railing and takes a decent delayed vertical suplex for no cover.

 

And so much for David’s decent run as we hit a bad sleeper. Ric suplexes out of it and we have a very basic match going here. David’s shirt comes off as this is going very slowly here. Out to the floor as Ric takes over again. We need to get to the next match so I can use last names again. Russo interferes and takes out the knee of Ric and handcuffs him. So the referee had his back to Ric and Russo and all of a sudden Ric is in handcuffs….AND THAT’S ALL COOL??? And people wonder why this company was called stupid.

 

David puts on the Figure Four which gets him nowhere for the most part. It does get Russo to hold his hands. Does that mean they’re going steady? Reid Flair jumps the railing and hits Russo in the balls and steals the handcuff key. The referee gets the key as David beats up his brother and frees Ric. Ric’s wife or daughter (like you can tell) cuffs Russo and Ric taunts him a bit. Ric beats on David for awhile before putting him out of his misery with the Figure Four.

 

Rating: C. Somehow this was by far and away the best match of the night so far unless I’m forgetting something. It’s not that bad, mainly because they let Ric walk the far more inexperienced David through it. They didn’t try to make this too complicated and that fits because David had very little experience and his character wasn’t much of a wrestler anyway. Not too bad here I guess, all things considered.

 

Ric chops Russo a bit post match. Russo rants about various things, making a match for tomorrow night between Ric/Reid vs. Russo/David in another retirement match which would retire Flair.

 

We recap Vampiro vs. Sting with the idea being that it’s a human torch match. You have to light the other person on fire to win. That’s nothing like the Inferno match at all is it?

 

Vampiro vs. Sting

 

There’s a torch up by the video screen that you have to climb a ladder to get to. This isn’t going to end well is it? Vampiro lights the torch and has a gas can near it. There’s an ambulance and firefighters here for this. Russo must be loving this. Sting pulls the torch up above the screen as I mentioned before. Sting wants to know if Vampiro is afraid of heights because if Vampy wants Sting he has to come up here.

 

Vampiro yells a lot and we stand around a lot. Sting repels down and it’s time for the actual match to start. They fight in the ring as I have a feeling this is going to end badly. Spinwheel kick takes Sting down so Sting comes back even faster with a powerslam and a bunch of clotheslines. Stinger splash misses in the corner so Vampiro pours gasoline on Sting.

 

As always, in a huge arena, the announcers can smell the fuel many feet away. They fight up the ramp and climb up the structure with Sting getting kicked off. The announcers say that’s it so Vampiro keeps climbing. Sting climbs up anyway and there go the lights as we attempt to conceal the obvious switch that is coming up. They “fight” on top of the screen and even with the camera where it is you can barely see anything.

 

And them Vampy grabs the torch and lights Sting on fire. Sting dives off the screen to a crash pad and Vampiro wins. He must have really been burned badly because between falling down up there and the jump he lost about 3 inches of hair and shrunk a good 4 inches. That’s some powerful fire.

 

Rating: N/A. Yeah this wasn’t wrestling. This is one of those matches that is so stupid it defies logic. This is what I recommend doing in this situation: picture the booker/writer pitching this idea to say Jack Brisco, Lou Thesz and Harley Race. If the reaction is either a blank stare, massive amounts of angry cursing or a right cross, IT’S NOT A GOOD FREAKING IDEA!

 

Bischoff is talked to by some blonde chick in the back and doesn’t want to talk right now. There’s no big surprise. What is this, Monster A Go-Go?

 

WCW World Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash

 

Let’s get this over with. Ernest Miller comes out before the match and introduces the Filthy Animals, as in New Blood cronies (despite them leaving like a week before) to be bell ringer and time keeper and all that jazz. Oh and Miller is referee. Nash shoves him around a lot to start until the Animals distract Nash to let Jarrett taker over. Jeff is champion if I didn’t mention that.

 

Miller is on the floor. Nash hammers on Jarrett and literally everyone stops to look at the entrance and nothing happens. Now back to the match. Weird indeed. Snake Eyes puts Jarrett into the replacement announce table and we go into the crowd. Back to the ring after Nash beats on Jarrett a bit and it’s Jeff with chair shots to the knee. This is one of those matches where stuff goes on but nothing is really happening.

 

Jarrett works on the leg for a good while as we’re clearly filling in time before the whole surprise thing happens. No one buys that the surprise isn’t happen, so I don’t know why we have to waste 15 minutes before we get to it. Half crab to Nash who won’t give up because raising your arm three times in a row is too much effort I guess. There’s the figure four as we waste even more time.

 

The hold goes on for a very long time to the point where most people would have broken their leg already but since it’s Nash he gets to just roll around a bit while barely grimacing. Nash tries to get to his feet but Konnan hits him in the hands with the bell for a two count for Jeff. Nash, despite being in the figure four for two minutes after about five minutes of leg work and a shot to the head with a metal bell from a professional athlete, is able to take over and actually run to the corner to take out Rey.

 

Belt shot gets two as Disco makes the save. Juvy gets in a chair shot to take over as the fans chant for Goldberg. Miller comes in to referee with a two count as this is a total mess. The Animals get beaten down as Nash is fighting seven guys to a stalemate. Jarrett, the world champion, hits his finisher for only two. Well of course it was only two. I mean he’s just the world champion after all.

 

Guitar shot misses and Jarrett walks into a chokeslam for two as Miller has something in his eye. Tony actually shouts BOGUS a few times. Powerbomb to Miller and one to Jarrett but the third referee is taken out by Rick Steiner. Tank Abbott tries to come out but somehow Scott Steiner cuts him off. If Steiner wanted to help, WHERE WAS HE WHEN THERE WERE LIKE EIGHT GUYS ON NASH???

 

Everyone beats on Nash including a Bronco Buster from an unmasked Rey. And cue a big noise as Goldberg is here in his monster truck. Maybe that’s what the sound was earlier? His music kicks on and the place erupts. Goldberg is here….and he joins the New Blood with one of the worst spears you’ll ever see. Yes, the ultra star of the company, the ONE guy they still had that was a big face draw, is added to the super heel group as a Bischoff/Jarrett/Russo lackey. Jarrett gets the academic pin and the SHOCKED celebration ends this mess.

 

Rating: F. You mean, in a Bischoff/Russo booked company, there was a big time face that apparently had been in league with the big heel group the entire time and it was SHOCKING to end a PPV? WHERE DO THEY COME UP WITH THIS STUFF??? The match was awful as Nash wouldn’t sell, the insanity of it was stupid, and Jarrett looked like a guy off Tough Enough.

 

Trash pelts the ring to end this show.

 

Overall Rating: F-. I have no idea what they were going for here but it was one of the worst shows I’ve watched in a long time. The gimmicks were WAY too much and none of them worked at all. You had some bad wrestling, horrid gimmicks, a REALLY stupid heel turn to end the show, and Hogan as #1 contender. Let’s talk about that heel turn for a bit actually.

 

In essence what they were going with was Nash, Hogan and Steiner as the top faces against Bischoff, Russo, Jarrett and Goldberg. In other words, the old guys are the faces and the young guys (if Jarrett counts as a young guy) are the heels. There was one issue with this: Goldberg was so ridiculously popular at this point that he was cheered every time he was on camera, which shows one of two things.

 

One, Russo has no idea what a face is. Oh wait, according to him faces and heels mean nothing. Second, WCW is really freaking stupid. That much is a given so let’s go back to the first part. Assuming what he says is true (it isn’t) then why are there factions or matches at all? Oh that’s right again: Russo doesn’t like having wrestling on his shows. Tell me again, why is this guy praised so much?

 

Anyway, AWFUL show here and somehow it would only get worse with the absolute mess they had the next month with Hogan and Russo clashing.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at: