Monday Nitro #157
Date: October 5, 1998
Location: Carolina Coliseum, Charleston, South Carolina
Attendance: 8,782
Commentators: Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay

We’re very slowly making our way towards Halloween Havoc and the stories are already dragging. Thunder was actually a nice break from the Hogan vs. Warrior stuff as Goldberg and Page got the spotlight. We’re also in Horsemen country tonight meaning an appearance from Flair and the boys is a solid possibility. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Hart turning on Sting and revealing his allegiance to Hogan, shocking very few people.

Nitro Girls in pink.

Halloween Havoc promo.

Tony wants to know about the maniacal laugh. I have a very bad feeling about where this is going.

Bret vs. Sting for the US Title tonight.

We look at Piper telling Bret Hart to be a man a few months back as the fans want Flair.

We look back at Bret saving Sting from a whipping by Hogan back in August.

WCW Mastercard ad. Those looked awesome when I was ten and didn’t quite know what they were.

Normal opening about ten minutes into the show, complete with hearing Penzer counting the crowd down to cheer.

Lizmark Jr. vs. Saturn

Saturn grabs a hammerlock to start before pounding away in the corner with kicks to the head. A superkick drops Lizmark but he comes back with a hot shot and chops in the corner. Saturn clotheslines him down and hits a nice falcon’s arrow followed by the Death Valley Driver for the pin. Not much to see here.

Videos on the main events at the PPV.

Nitro Girls in black.

Kaz Hayashi vs. The Cat

Miller does the five seconds thing and calls Hayashi Jackie Chan like the jerk that he is. Tenay lists off Miller’s athletic background including some time in the NFL. Hayashi tries to come back but a stiff kick to the head drops him again. We get an old school stomach claw as the fans aren’t thrilled with this one. Hayashi throws him down and goes up top, only to jump into a side kick. A big kick to the chest is enough to give Miller the pin.

Post match Miller grabs a mic and runs his mouth as Sonny Onoo comes in wearing a purple suit. Sonny offers his services and Miller seems to accept but it’s not clear. Hayashi, a former client of Onoo, isn’t thrilled.

A bunch of eight year olds win the Nitro Party contest this week.

Another Page vs. Goldberg video.

Jerry Flynn vs. Juventud Guerrera

Disco Inferno takes Tenay’s place on commentary and we stay on them for a few moments. Flynn pounds away to start as Disco complains about Juvy messing with his weight. Juvy slides through Flynn’s legs but gets kicked in the face to put him right back down. Guerrera finally gets in some offense with a springboard missile dropkick followed by some chops in the corner. A sitout bulldog ala Rey Mysterio gets two on Jerry and Juvy sends him outside for a big dive. Back in and a quick Juvy Driver gets the pin.

Rating: D+. Why did Juvy get that much offense in this one? It was looking bad for Juvy to start but at least he got the clean win at the end. Disco vs. Juvy in a non-title feud could be interesting, especially if Disco gets to show off some comedy skills by trying to make weight. I’m not sure why Guerrera didn’t win with the 450 here but it was a nice change of pace.

Third Page vs. Goldberg video.

Tenay asks some fans who will win the title match. The people are split.

Heenan joins commentary while Tenay is taking a phone call. The announcers talk about how great Hogan vs. Warrior will be.

Long Hogan vs. Warrior video.

Villano V vs. Wrath

Wrath throws him into the corner and slams him down with ease. Villano is tossed outside and sent into the steps before a slingshot back elbow to the jaw drops him again. The Meltdown is enough for the fast pin. Wrath looked like a monster here.

We get our third video on Hogan vs. Warrior as the night of the video packages continues.

Tenay asks more fans about the World Title match and again it’s split.

A Hummer limo arrives in the back with the Wolfpack. They appear to be hunting for someone as they walk through the back. Konnan is holding a broom and head into the wrestlers’ dressing room. They run behind a wall and a brawl can be heard. The camera shows that it’s against the Black and White until security pulls them apart after a few minutes. They break away from security and the brawl continues until Sting goes into another room and finds Bret Hart. Cops finally come in and break the two of them up.

Back from a break with the Wolfpack walking outside and finding a forklift to flip over the Black and White limousine. Nash and Luger bash it with hammers and Sting slashes the tires for good measure. Cool segment actually.

Hour #2 begins. It’s nice to see the first hour end with something interesting for a change.

Hector Garza vs. Damien

Hector pounds away in the corner to start and takes Damien down with a hiptoss. A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker drops Damien again but here’s Eddie Guerrero maybe a minute into the match. The referee calls for the bell before Eddie does anything.

Eddie wants to talk about what Eric Bischoff has ever done for either of them. Damien and Hector can’t answer and that’s Eddie’s point: they’re just wrestling each other week in and week out without ever getting anywhere. Why can’t they ever climb the ladder of success? They can’t even afford their own rental car or hotel room because the NWO is taking all of the money. Eddie says La Raza has to unite as the LWO and he has shirts for everybody. Both guys accept them and leave with Guerrero.

Mike Tenay is in the back with the Wolfpack. Nash says Hall isn’t here but he’s going to go from bar to bar until he finds him. Cameras are going with them.

Another video on Sting vs. Hart.

David Flair is in the front row and acknowledged by the announcers.

Nitro Girls in white.

Cruiserweight Title: Juventud Guerrera vs. Kidman

Kidman is defending. Psychosis works on the arm to start and wraps it around the top rope, only to get taken down by a hiptoss. A quick northern lights suplex gets two for the champion and Psychosis is sent outside for a nice plancha from the champ. Back in and Psychosis busts out a gordbuster of all things for a delayed two count. A top rope spinwheel kick to the back of Kidman’s head (called a body attack by Tony) puts the champ down again but Psychosis takes forever to cover a second time.

We hit the chinlock on the champion but Kidman is quickly up with a dropkick. That’s the extent of his offense at the moment though as Psychosis hiptosses him out to the floor and follows up with a nice plancha. Billy gets sent into the steps and dropkicked down again as this has been one sided for awhile now. Back in and Kidman scores with a hard clothesline for two but walks into a suplex for the same for Psychosis.

Back to the chinlock from the masked man before he just stomps the heck out of Kidman. The third chinlock doesn’t last as long as Psychosis tries a powerbomb, only to be countered into a faceplant for two. A standing hurricanrana gets two on Kidman and a tilt-a-whirl slam gets the same. Kidman comes right back with a sitout spinebuster for two but walks into a moonsault press off the top. Psychosis puts the champ on top for a hurricanrana but Kidman shoves him off and drops the Shooting Star on Psychosis’ face to retain.

Rating: C+. Nice match here but the ending was looked nasty. Kidman’s knees landed on Psychosis’ face so it’s lucky that Psychosis is even getting up. It’s nice to see a match get some time tonight instead of having them all fly by like the earlier matches have. Kidman is getting better and better every week.

Warrior talks about the Wrestlemania VI main event and rambles about power. The point is he beat Hogan before and can do it again.

Scott Steiner takes credit for the Steiner Brothers’ success.

Tenay is chasing the Wolfpack limo as they hunt Scott Hall.

Here are Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner to the ring when it’s supposed to be Rick Steiner vs. Brian Adams. Scott promises to prove how great he is at Halloween Havoc and Buff starts to bark. This brings out Rick who reminds Bagwell that this is the building where he hurt his neck. Buff might want to make a joke about it, but Rick has someone who takes this seriously: Buff’s MOM, Judy Bagwell.

She gets on the apron and rips Buff apart, talking about sitting with him in the hospital and reading the fans’ letters. Buff says he made a decision and that she and his dad couldn’t eat without his support. Judy slaps Buff in the face so Scott gets in her face. Rick takes out Scott and Judy drags Buff out by the ear. This was so hilariously stupid that it was awesome.

Back from a break and we get a clip of Scott and Brian Adams double teaming Rick.

Rick Steiner vs. Brian Adams

This is joined in progress with Rick in big trouble. JJ comes out and ejects Scott as Brian hooks a chinlock. Adams walks around for awhile before getting two off a piledriver. Slow choking ensues and a backbreaker gets two for Adams. Rick comes back with a powerslam and Steiner Line but walks into a boot. Luckily for him it’s to the head, meaning Steiner can easily come back with a DDT and the top rope bulldog for the pin.

Rating: D. Slow match here though the high impact spots weren’t bad. Rick going through the Black and White on the way to his showdown with Scott is fine for an idea, but they need to actually have a complete match at some point. Adams was good in this role but he shouldn’t go much higher.

Hour #3 begins.

Tenay and the Wolfpack go into a bar to look for Scott. No luck so the search continues.

Time for Hogan and Bischoff who we somehow haven’t seen so far. Bischoff brags about Hogan’s physique. Hogan talks about how the Warrior has been looking for him but it’s clear that Warrior is terrified. Warrior can come out here right now if he wants a fight but no one appears. Hogan runs his mouth even more before they leave.

Video on the Horsemen.

Nitro Girls in black.

Kanyon vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page gets a very quick two off a rollup before shoving Kanyon across the ring. A belly to belly suplex gets another near fall and a forearm puts Kanyond outside. Cue Lodi with signs begging Raven to reform the Flock but he gets a dive from Page instead. The distraction lets Raven come in with a Diamond Cutter to Page for two. Page fights up and throws Kanyon into the corner for some rights and lefts but walks into a Fameasser for two.

We hit the chinlock on Page before he comes back with a sunset flip. A clothesline drops Kanyon but Page can’t follow up. Page hammers away and gets two more off the Pancake but a Raven distraction lets Kanyon grab a rollup for a near fall. Page calls for the Cutter but Lodi and Raven run in for the DQ.

Rating: C. Better match that I was expecting given the first few seconds. I was worried they were going to squash Kanyon but he got to look good at the end. I’m not sure why they didn’t let Page get a pin but it’ snot the worst result in the world. The Goldberg vs. Page match should be awesome.

Page gets double teamed post match but Goldberg makes the save.

Hall isn’t at the second bar either.

Lenny Lane vs. Disciple

Lane dances around like Warrior to start and gets his head knocked off as a result. Lenny tries snapmares and some kicks but Disciple no sells everything, clotheslines him down and wins with the Apocalypse.

Disciple says he’s done carrying Hogan’s bags because he’s his own man now. Hogan and Bischoff come out but Disciple storms past them. The two of them head into the back and the storyline takes a sharp turn into a nose dive. Hogan stands in front of a mirror and says everything is falling apart. He looks up and sees Warrior standing behind him but there’s no one behind him. Hogan sees Warrior in the mirror again (we can see him too) and begs him to come to a truce. Bischoff can’t see the Warrior and asks Hogan what he’s talking about. Hogan ignores Bischoff and keeps talking to Warrior until Bischoff tells the cameraman to get out of here.

So yeah, apparently Bischoff is the crazy one as only he couldn’t see Warrior. I could live with the storyline being stupid and only existing to stroke Hogan’s ego. The segments were really stupid to start with the smoke and everything, but you could REALLY stretch and say Warrior was attacking them under the cover of the smoke. They had toned it down in the last few weeks and just used regular (as regular as Warrior can get) promos to build the match but this takes it to a level where it’s stupid and bordering on insulting rather that just eye rolling. Why do I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse too?

Tenay follows the Wolfpac to a bar that looks a lot nicer on the inside than on the outside. Hall is inside and Nash goes right after him. Nash sends Hall into the mens’ room. The Wolfpack follows him in a few moments later and invite the camera in. Hall is out cold just like you would expect him to be.

Here’s a distressed looking Bischoff with something to say. He assures us that Hogan is just fine but has a story to tell us about a man named Flair. Bischoff makes fun of country fans that go to Waffle Houses, drawing a huge WE WANT FLAIR chant. Flair isn’t here tonight and Bischoff has made sure of that because Ric is a coward. This brings out Double A who says this is a Horseman job. He’s officially in charge of head games, so let’s just bring out the champ right now.

This brings out Reid Flair in a singlet with a medal around his neck. Eric is annoyed and says there are Flairs everywhere. Reid: “Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeean WOO! Gene!” He’s here to handle his father’s light work and steps up to Bischoff before easily taking him down twice in a row. Bischoff goes after him but Arn gives him a look to scare Eric off. Reid holds up the four fingers and Bischoff doesn’t know what to do.

Back from a break with Bischoff alone in the ring, ranting about wanting Ric Flair out here right now. Liz comes to the ring with a phone and is told to call Ric right now. Someone answers but it’s Ric’s wife Beth who yells at Eric until Ric’s music comes on. He hits the ring and takes off the jacket but here’s the Black and White. Benoit, Malenko, Mongo, Anderson and Reid hit the ring to protect Ric and the NWO bails. David Flair gets in the ring as well to complete the showdown. Awesome segment as the Flair vs. Bischoff showdown is another week closer.

US Title: Sting vs. Bret Hart

Pay per view? What’s that? The challenger Sting is alone here as the Wolfpack is still gone from chasing Hall. Bret comes down the aisle but turns around and heads back through the entrance. Sting gives chase and the fight is on in the back. No match of course. Sting sends him into a steel door and then hits him with a dry erase board. Bret gets his jacket off and they head to the cafeteria area where thankfully there isn’t any food left.

Hart takes over with some right hands and suplexes him through a table to put Sting down. He goes after the leg and ankle with a chair and pounds away with fists until Sting throws him down. Sting limps after him and crotches Bret against the side of a door. Bret gets away and tries to commandeer a golf card but there’s no key. Sting chokes him with a pole and puts on a Scorpion. Bret: “CHEATER!” Security breaks it up to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This was a very angle heavy show and they worked for the most part. That being said, the Hogan mirror stuff is just so stupid and sticks out like a sore thumb. The NWO stuff still doesn’t have an end game but at least they’re building up to a card of matches at Halloween Havoc. There are still a lot of problems plaguing the show though.

As has been the problem since he first turned, we really don’t know why Bret turned in the first place or why he turned again last week. The closest we’ve gotten is he respects Hogan and wants to support him but it’s still a problem in the whole story. We know they’re feuding, but there’s really no backstory other than one guy turned on the other after being together for no apparent reason. It’s not confusing and you can figure it out well enough now, but it was a confusing few months leading up without an actual reason for any of it happening.

The wrestling wasn’t the focus here and that’s fine. Kidman vs. Psychosis was a decent enough match but it was just there to have a longer match. This show still needs to be back at two hours as there’s too much meaningless filler. There was only one really bad part tonight and the pure awesomeness of Judy Bagwell brings this one home.

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Thunder
Date: October 1, 1998
Location: The Scope, Norfolk, Virginia
Attendance: 8,858
Commentators: Lee Marshall, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Mike Tenay

Back to the weather show with the big story being Bret Hart turning on Sting after their long friendship of two weeks. The Black and White is reunited again as we very slowly make our way towards Halloween Havoc and the EPIC rematch between Hogan and Warrior. Hopefully Thunder continues its tradition of focusing on everything except that match. Let’s get to it.

The announcers run down the main events, including Raven vs. Goldberg for the World Title.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Lodi

Lodi gets to talk before the match, saying that Page brought Saturn into WCW and Saturn ruined Lodi’s life, so Lodi is going to ruin Page’s life. “YOU’RE NEXT!” Page is fine with the threat and dives over the top to take Lodi out as we get going. Back in and Lodi gets a few cheap shots on Page followed by some choking, only to walk into right hands and a discus lariat. Page calls for the Diamond Cutter and we’re done quick.

The announcers tell us to stay tuned for Jerry Flynn and Mike Enos. Seriously.

Jerry Flynn vs. Mike Enos

Feeling out process to start until Flynn gets in some of his kicks in the corner to take over. The announcers talk about Hogan vs. Warrior in one of the rare occasions where that’s far more interesting. Enos takes over with an enziguri and a hot shot sends Flynn to the floor. We get a quick chase ending with Jerry dropping knees back inside as this just keeps going. Enos catches a leapfrog in a powerslam in the only nice move of the match and here’s a drunk Scott Hall to interrupt things. The match stops and I’ll call it a no contest.

Rating: D-. I really don’t think this needs an explanation.

Hall beats up both guys and does the survey. He talks about all of the bosses he has but Kevin Nash isn’t one of them. They’ll fight but it’s going to be on his terms.

Kanyon vs. Scotty Riggs

Before the match Kanyon says that he’s the Innovator of Offense and no one is going to prove him wrong, especially not Riggs. He calls Riggs a pirate and wants to know where’s his peg leg. Tony can be heard covering a laugh. Kanyon tries to get Riggs to rejoin Raven but gets punched in the face to get things going. Riggs hits his nice dropkick for two and throws Kanyon out to the floor before ramming his shoulder into the post.

Back in and the arm goes around the post again but Riggs misses a charge and hits the buckle. Kanyon comes back with a middle rope Fameasser and a swinging neckbreaker for two of his own. The fireman’s carry into a pancake gets another near fall on Riggs but he counters another Fameasser attempt into a powerbomb. Riggs drives him into the corner but is sent face first into the buckle, setting up the Flatliner to give Kanyon the pin.

Rating: C. The same problems that plagued Riggs over the years plagued him here: he has no character to speak of and his offense looked like he’s been in the ring six months. He had a nice dropkick but there are a dozen people that can make that move look good. There was never a reason to care about him and this match didn’t change things. Kanyon was his usual awesome self.

Raven talks about how there’s no reason to get attached to anything because everything goes away. Those are good words for Goldberg, because tonight his world title is going away.

Wrath vs. Ciclope

Heenan thinks Riggs and Ciclope are the same person in a funny bit. Total dominance to start with Ciclope being thrown into the post and then the corner, followed by kicks to the ribs and a belly to back suplex. They head outside with Ciclope being thrown around like he’s a rag doll. Back in and Ciclope gets in a few headbutts but slips while trying a missile dropkick. A running shoulder block sets up the Meltdown to end the dominance.

Rating: D+. Wrath is good in this role and would make a nice one night challenger for Goldberg on a Nitro with another big main event. It’s also nice to see WCW mixing up their jobbers like they do. That drives me crazy in WWE where they have a huge roster but have the same handful of guys do all their squash jobs.

The creepy laughter is heard again.

Cruiserweight Title: Billy Kidman vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

The bell rings and Chavo goes straight to the corner to pick up Pepe. Back up and Chavo grabs a headlock followed by a shoulder but we need more horse. The champion comes back with a nice flying headscissors to send Chavo outside, setting up a pescado to the floor. The announcers are actually into this and thankfully haven’t mentioned Hall squashing Kidman on Nitro. Back in and Chavo throws Kidman right back to the floor before diving off the top with a cross body for two inside.

Billy elbows him in the face gets two off a dropkick but gets kicked away and taken down by a top rope bulldog for two. We hit the chinlock for a bit but Billy suplexes out of it and heads up, only to get crotched as we go to a break. Back with everyone in the same place (the joys of taped shows) and it’s Chavo dancing around with Pepe before we hit the chinlock again.

Kidman fights up but misses a dropkick and gets caught in a camel clutch. That goes nowhere as Kidman fights up and avoids a splash in the corner, only to go up top and hit knees with a splash. Chavo puts him back up top for a superplex for two but Kidman grabs a quick short powerbomb and goes up for the Shooting Star to retain.

Rating: C+. This was really good while the action was going but they stopped for chinlocks and camel clutches. Kidman is back on track after that annoying loss on Monday where it was made clear that the cruiserweights are secondary to the heavyweights. Chavo continues to show that he can wrestle well instead of just being insane all the time.

Lenny Lane vs. Van Hammer

Hammer is a hippie now. Lane shoves him away and celebrates like he just won the world title but Hammer shoves him down much harder. Another shove puts Lenny down and it’s off to a powerful armbar. Hammer runs into a charge and gets rammed into the buckle for Lane’s period of false hope. Lenny spends too much time posing and gets taken up top for a superplex, followed by an Alabama Slam to give Hammer the pin.

Rating: D. The match was nothing to see but I was a big Van Hammer fan when I was a kid so it’s always cool to see him. Lane was a funny guy but the fact that he looked so much like Jericho didn’t help him. Just a squash here but Van Hammer as a hippie was only going to take him so far.

Raven talks about crying looking like laughing and about how no one has ever taken it to Goldberg like he or Saturn have.

Damien vs. Disco Inferno

Disco bails to the corner to start before getting caught in a headlock. They run the ropes a bit before a crossbody sends Disco running again. Disco charges into a boot but still rolls away from a top rope splash. The neckbreaker and a bunch of stomps in the corner have Damien in trouble and a middle rope ax handle gets two. Damien makes a very quick comeback but charges into a boot as well, setting up the piledriver to give Disco the pin.

Rating: D+. Disco is likeable even as a heel and that piledriver has looked great in the last few weeks. Again, it’s nice to see them mix up the jobbers and build up someone like Disco so that a bigger midcarder can beat him later. The good thing here though was they kept the match at about three and a half minutes so he didn’t wear out his welcome. Simple yet effective.

Konnan vs. Stevie Ray

After his LONG schtick, Konnan scores with an early rolling lariat and the seated dropkick. Unfortunately the match doesn’t end ten seconds later as Stevie comes back with his heavy forearms and punches in the corner. A clothesline puts Konnan down and we hit a quickly broken chinlock. Ray hits a nice high knee and gets two off a slam as we’re just waiting on the screwy finish. Vincent gets in some choking but Konnan is able to stop a charging Stevie with a boot (popular move tonight). The X-Factor sets up the Sunrise but Vincent gets on the apron, allowing Stevie to hit Konnan with the slapjack (object, not move) for the DQ.

Rating: D. Nothing to this one but again they kept it short to take away some of the pain. It seems like these guys have been fighting for months and as always the question is where is this leading? There’s no end game for the NWO war and the matches just keep going and going without anything really changing.

The beatdown ensues until Nash makes the save. Hall comes out to the stage but doesn’t get past the aisle.

Video on Hogan vs. Warrior. I’m fine with it being limited to one segment per show.

WCW World Title: Raven vs. Goldberg

DDP comes out to do commentary. We get the long Buffer entrances to fill in some time. The match is under Raven’s Rules, which Buffer describes as “No time limit, pinfalls or submissions, no DQ or countouts.” Goldberg shoves him down to start as Page says he’d rather face Goldbeg at Halloween Havoc. A powerslam puts Raven down but Goldberg misses a running knee in the corner and falls out to the floor.

Raven rams him into the steps and puts Goldberg on a table, only to miss a dive over the top and go through a table. Page: “He’s like a big cat. Like Ernest Ladd. Er Miller. What the heck was his name?” Back in and the spear connects but it takes out the referee as well. Kanyon comes in with a chair to knock Goldberg into the Even Flow but Page will have none of that. He runs down and lays out Kanyon with the Diamond Cutter as Goldberg gets up and Jackhammers Raven for the win.

Rating: C+. I liked this more than I was expecting to. They actually made Goldberg seem a little bit vulnerable here and Page saving him helped even more. Raven had no chance of course but it was nice to see Goldberg have to break a sweat to win for a change. For a Thunder main event that’s more than you would expect to get.

Goldberg and Page growl at each other to end the show, I believe in their first face to face encounter.

Overall Rating: C+. This is a tough one to grade as most of the matches weren’t very good but they were almost all short so the pain wasn’t that bad. The two title matches were both solid though and seeing Goldberg vs. Page get some focus was a very nice change of pace. It never ceases to amaze me how much easier WCW is to sit through when there’s no Hogan involved. Best Thunder in awhile.

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Monday Nitro #156
Date: September 28, 1998
Location: Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, New York
Attendance: 10,523
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko

We’re four weeks away from Halloween Havoc and things aren’t exactly looking up. The big news is Disciple joining Warrior to close out last week. I’m not exactly sure why that’s big news but Tony Schiavone said it was a huge moment in our sport and Tony would never lie to me. Let’s get to it.

The opening video talks recaps Warrior vs. Hogan and the One Warrior Nation revolution, whatever that was supposed to be.

Announcers and Nitro Girls open things up.

Here’s the NWO for their first interview of the night. Eric thanks the fans for all the money they’ve handed to him tonight. Hogan thanks them for laying on the ground so he wouldn’t have to touch the streets here in Rochester. He brags about making wrestling what it is today and greatly increasing revenue in towns like this.

Hogan made all the “good guys” think they were great but they really couldn’t hang with Hollywood. I’m not sure if he was referring to his friend of the month back in WWF or guys who weren’t all that talented. He’ll prove that again at Halloween Havoc when he beats the Warrior into the ground and moves a step closer to getting the title back around his waist.

He went out to “the hood” and all of his friends said he should slaughter all of the lambs he lead to slaughter (his words) so tonight he’s starting with Sting and Bret Hart. Hogan’s voice is cracking as he talks here and keeps referring to the Black and White as the Wood. You can even call him Woody because he’s just too sweet. Larry: “Did he say the boys in the hood think he’s Ed Wood?”

Opening sequence.

La Parka vs. Super Calo

La Parka has a sombrero this week. Calo blasts him in the head during the dance but La Parka comes back with what looked to be a low blow for two. The dancer is sent face first into the middle buckle and Calo hits a nice middle rope hurricanrana. A running charge misses and La Parka’s shoulder hits the post, setting up a BIG dive from the top to the floor by Calo.

Back in and La Parka quickly puts him in the Tree of Woe for a running spinwheel kick to the ribs. Calo gets his boots up to catch La Parka coming off the top but is almost immediately kicked to the floor. He pops back onto the apron and pulls La Parka off the top and drapes it on the top rope. Another hurricanrana gets two on La Parka but he comes back with an Alabama Slam and a corkscrew off the top for the pin.

Rating: C-. Not bad here and another example of the incredibly deep cruiserweight roster the company had. Super Calo hadn’t been seen in months but came back and had a nice match here. It’s nice to be able to hold back on the big names for once and let the other guys get the spotlight.

Calo blasts La Parka with the chair.

Here’s Bret Hart with something to say. He takes up Hogan on his challenge tonight and promises to have people watching his back to make sure it’s one on one. He’ll make Hogan a zero if the fans give him one more chance to be a hero. The fans really dug the speech.

Disciple vs. Sick Boy

No sunglasses for Disciple here and he comes out to the NWO music though he’s wearing an OWN vest. Sick Boy jumps him to start but Disciple no sells a suplex and chokes away. This time it’s Sick Boy no selling a gutwrench suplex but Disciple immediately no sells a neckbreaker and hits a big boot “to the face” (clearly missed) and the Apocalypse is good for the pin. I wonder how many people knew that was Brutus Beefcake. The only direct reference to it was a one off line from Warrior calling him a barber and he looked so different that it might not have been clear.

The announcers hype Hogan vs. Hart tonight.

We recap the battle of the Steiners and Scott and Buff faking all those injuries. Their match at Halloween Havoc will be No DQ.

Jericho has challenged Goldberg for a World Title shot tonight.

Nitro Party.

Nitro Girls. The song instructs the fans to say HO.

Lenny Lane/Nick Dinsmore vs. Scott Steiner

Steiner talks some trash about his brother before the match. Lane is quickly sent to the floor and Dinsmore gets tossed around with ease. Steiner’s dinner changes places and Lane is put in the Tree of Woe. Dinsmore is tossed into the steps and Bagwell gets in some cheap shots of his own. Scott suplexes Nick onto Lenny and a double Steiner Recliner is good for the win.

Scott feigns an injury post match and is walked to the back by a trainer.

Hour #2 begins.

The lights go out and we get Warrior Speak over the announce system. Warrior says he and his fans have a message for Hogan: ever since Warrior returned, Hogan has only shown him a pittance of what he used to be. Warrior won’t make himself less than what he is until Hogan becomes what he needs to be. That’s the most coherent he’s been in years.

Here’s Buff to talk about Steiner’s injury earlier. Scott is on his way to the ambulance but Gene doesn’t buy it. The evil laughter cuts them off and Buff wants to know where it’s coming from. Back on subject, Buff doesn’t know if Scott will be ready for Halloween Havoc or not.

The Cat vs. Psychosis

Miller does his five seconds schtick but Psychosis doesn’t understand. This ticks Miller off so he kicks the masked man in the face. Psychosis comes back with some kicks of his own and sends Cat to the floor. Back in and a missile dropkick puts Cat down for two and it’s off to a figure four neck lock. Miller blocks a spinwheel kick into a slam but walks into a slam of his own. The guillotine legdrop misses though and Miller’s Feliner hits the shoulder for the pin.

Rating: D. Some of Miller’s kicks looked good and that’s about all there was to see. Psychosis wasn’t bad but he needed something better than Miller to work with. At least it’s better than having another battle of the karate guys. Hopefully the accuracy of the kicks get better as the night goes on.

Alex Wright insults the crowd and the British Bulldog. Who thought we needed to build to that match?

Disco Inferno vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Feeling out process to start until Disco takes over with a hiptoss but stops to nearly break Pepe the stick horse in half. Chavo goes NUTS and takes over with right hands before throwing Inferno to the floor. Back in and an atomic drop and clothesline get two on Disco but he slams Chavo down. A dancing middle rope elbow gets a two count and Chavo makes his comeback, only to have Disco jab him in the throat with Pepe for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was more of a story than a match with Disco proving that he can hang with the cruiserweights but not being legally allowed to compete in their division. Chavo has toned down the insanity in recent weeks and is becoming a more well rounded wrestler as a result.

Juvy comes out to yell at Disco and gets a piledriver for his efforts.

Cool Horsemen video.

Here are the Horsemen for their awesome promo of the week. Before they can start we’ve got Bischoff, Stevie Ray and Doug Dillinger to interrupt. Flair kneels down and bows to “god” but cops snap him back to seriousness. Apparently Stevie is claiming felonious assault against the Horsemen for attacking him on Thunder. Dillinger is getting thrown out as well for allowing it to happen. Bischoff rips on Flair for missing the taping six months ago for his son’s wrestling tournament and mocks southern people. This would be the second time that Bischoff has made the Horsemen look weak while he gets to stand tall.

Video on Goldberg vs. Page.

WCW World Title: Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg

Jericho has a shirt saying “Jericho – 1, Goldberg – 0.” Chris does the long walk from the back and calls this a match for the WCW World Television Unified Championship.” Goldberg comes through the entrance with the Mini-Goldberg on his shoulder. Jericho’s security takes the spear and the one that isn’t Ralphus gets the Jackhammer as Jericho runs.

Here’s DDP for his regular chat. Page says he’s an incredibly competitive wrestler but he isn’t getting in the ring with someone he hates. It’s not Savage or HOLLYWOOD SCUM HOGAN but rather about good competition. He’s getting jacked, the Horsemen are back and he’ll be for real at Havoc.

Scott Hall vs. Billy Kidman

Hall actually looks sober here. The toothpick toss cracks him up but Kidman won’t back down. Hall takes Kidman into the corner for some loud chops but goes for a drink, allowing Kidman to get a quick rollup for two. A sunset flip gets the same but Hall jacks Kidman’s jaw to take over again. Vincent still won’t let him have a drink so Hall stomps away in the corner.

We hit the abdominal stretch as Kidman is getting crushed. Billy tries to speed things up but walks into a chokeslam followed by mocking the Giant. Why Hall would mock his World Tag Team Championship partner is beyond me. Hall goes to the floor for a drink but Kidman takes out Vincent and gets in some shots on Scott. A missile dropkick and high cross body are good for two. Kidman counters an Outsider’s Edge attempt but the second attempt is enough for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was a glorified squash and I’m sure there was no other cruiserweight except for the champion. Kidman got in a few shots and the fans were into him but cruiserweights aren’t allowed to be competitive outside their weight class in this company for reasons that I’ve never been able to fathom.

Hour #3.

British Bulldog vs. Alex Wright

At least it’s not on PPV. Before the match Bulldog says suck it in German. Bulldog shoves him against the ropes before they trade hammerlocks. Apparently Hall has been celebrating a lot in the back and Tony lets us figure out the details for ourselves. Bulldog puts on a surfboard and bends him back for a two count but Wright pounds on Smith’s chest to take over. A slingshot splash gets two for Alex but Smith comes back with right hands in the corner. The powerslam takes Wright down but the referee got bumped. Another referee comes down as Alex hits the German suplex and it’s the old double pin ending.

Rating: D+…….seriously? With everything WCW has going on right now they pick this to continue? It wasn’t a terrible match or anything and Wright could use more TV time but I see no reason for them to fight again. Bulldog wasn’t long for the company due to his back injury flaring up but he didn’t look bad here.

Nitro Girls with the very cute Spice getting a solo.

Video on Kevin Nash.

Brian Adams vs. Kevin Nash

Some kid jumps the rail and runs up the aisle at Nash who seems oblivious to him. Feeling out process to start until Adams takes over with a nice middle rope clothesline. Nash is knocked to the floor but he sends Adams into the steps to take over again. Back in and Kevin hits the big boot and loads up the Jackknife but Stevie Ray comes in with the slap jack for the DQ.

Hall comes down with a cup but pours it out to pound on Nash. Luger and Konnan make the save.

Lex Luger/Konnan vs. Hugh Morrus/Barry Darsow

As we come back we see the exact same section of the crowd for the fourth time tonight. You can see the same Hulk Hogan Wrestling Buddy and a few signs that have been on camera multiple times earlier. Konnan and Luger do a full entrance despite being in the ring just four minutes ago. The Wolfpack take turns pounding on Darsow to start but it’s quickly off to Morrus who misses a running splash in the corner. The rolling lariat sets up Konnan’s low dropkick but Barry breaks up the Tequila Sunrise. A bad looking X Factor puts Darsow down and it’s back to Luger for a quick Rack and the submission.

Nitro Girls.

Hollywood Hogan vs. Bret Hart

Bret comes to the ring with no music and a slight limp. Feeling out process to start with Hogan actually scoring with a takedown but Bret easily takes over on the mat. Hollywood takes over again with a cross armbreaker of all things but Bret is too close to the ropes. Bret avoids three straight elbow drops and they head to the floor with Hogan going shoulder first into the post.

Back in and Bret is pulled to the floor again and the knee is in trouble. Hogan drapes it over the barricade and bends it around the post before putting on a spinning toehold. This brings out Sting to pull Hogan off as the Wolfpack comes out to help Hart. Bret shouts at Hogan to take on Sting and you can see the swerve from here.

Rating: D+. This should have headlined Starrcade and instead it’s a five minute match that is pretty clearly setting up a screwjob to close the show. Nothing to the match of course but seeing Hogan trying technical stuff is always bizarre. One thing though: assuming Hart is with Hollywood, why would Hogan do that much damage to the knee?

Hollywood Hogan vs. Sting

They slug it out to start as Bret is being taken out on a stretcher. A belly to back puts Sting down for two and Bret is nearly in an ambulance. Two medics jump Konnan and Luger before unhooking Bret. It’s Bagwell and Scott Steiner pounding on the Wolfpack as Bret limps back to the ring. Back in the arena Sting avoids the legdrop and hits the Splash but Bret comes in to DDT Sting to block the Deathlock for the DQ. Tony is of course in shock that someone would pull a swerve in WCW.

Bret puts Sting in the Sharpshooter with the knee looking fine. The NWO does a number on Sting’s leg until Konnan comes out and can’t do anything. Luger gets down there and pulls Sting to safety. The lights go out to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. This is a difficult one to grade. For one thing they kept the Warrior stuff confined to the earlier part of the show and we didn’t have any smoke hijinks tonight. On the other hand though, none of the matches were anything special and the swerve into a heel turn is just dead anymore. Actually Hart didn’t so much turn here as much as he dropped the charade with Sting. Either way, there’s nothing to see here and I dread the eventual burial of the Horsemen to make Bischoff look good more and more every week.

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Monday Nitro #155
Date: September 21, 1998
Location: Fleet Center, Boston, Massachusetts
Attendance: 15,144
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko

So the Horsemen returned a week ago and three days later they were outsmarted by Bischoff and Bagwell in an arm wrestling match on Thunder. Due to that loss, Flair is never allowed to wrestle again, which I’m sure will hold up. Other than that we’re coming up on Halloween Havoc and Nitro has turned into a bad horror movie with Warrior kidnapping Disciple last week. Let’s get to it.

Hall arrives and yells at Doug Dillinger about wrecking his car while holding a bag which sounds like it’s full of bottles.

Nitro Girls.

The announcers do their opening chat, mainly talking about Page vs. Goldberg.

The ring fills up with smoke and Disciple is unconscious on the mat. This brings out the Black and White but more smoke fills the ring and the NWO can’t just walk through it and grab his body for some reason. Warrior appears in the rafters under the Warrior Signal with the unconscious Disciple. Hogan says come and finish what you ran away from eight years ago and to tell the people that Warrior lives in fear.

Warrior says he’s been running to reappear and take away all of Hogan’s valuable possessions. Tonight he starts with the Disciple, who kneels beside him because he hasn’t been instilled with the Warrior powers. Warrior promises that the plot will thicken tonight. I know the blowoff match is horrible, but the build for it is somehow even less interesting.

Opening sequence.

Finlay vs. Barry Darsow

They circle each other until Darsow hammers him into the corner but Finlay uppercuts him back. We hit an early nerve hold on Barry followed by a simple pull of the face but Darsow comes back with choking and a chinlock. Finlay counters a piledriver attempt and the tombstone is enough to pin Barry.

Rating: D. Pretty boring brawl for the most part here with Darsow not being interesting at all. Finlay was a decent enough midcarder but he needed more to work with out there. I’ve never understood the mentality behind booking these meaningless matches in the first hour. You have an uncontested hour with no Raw and this is how you use it?

Clips of Flair returning last week.

Clips of Warrior’s speech from earlier because wrestling fans can’t remember something from fifteen minutes ago.

Nick Dinsmore vs. Wrath

Dinsmore is more famous as Eugene. Wrath throws him into the corner to start and sidesteps a dropkick. Meltdown ends this squash quick.

More Flair clips.

Video on Goldberg vs. Page which plays up a battle of the finishers. The match is for the WCW/NWO World Title, making me shake my head all over again.

Rick Fuller vs. Rick Steiner

It’s a brawl to start with Steiner pounding Fuller down to the mat. Steiner catches a jumping Fuller in a kind of belly to belly, setting up the bulldog for the pin in less than a minute. That was a dominant squash.

Steiner gets on the mic and says Goldberg is 146-0 but he’s 9000-0 against his brother.

The evil laughter starts up again.

Here’s the Black and White to continue the nonsense. Hogan wants to take it to the streets with Warrior so he says come to the ring and face him like a man. Warrior appears on the stage and says follow him if you have the courage. The Black and White goes after him and after pausing for the smoke, goes into Hogan’s locker room and finds a burning Warrior symbol and Disciple unconscious in the bathroom. Smoke fills the bathroom and Disciple disappears.

We look at Saturn telling the Flock to go their own ways last week.

Kanyon/Raven vs. Los Villanos

Raven says loyalty is dead and someone has to pay before blasting the Villanos in a fast start. Kanyon loads up a powerbomb on IV with Raven adding a neckbreaker, only to drop IV on the back of his head, causing the match to stop immediately. Raven was checking on IV and looked terrified so I can’t imagine this was fake.

The trainer comes out to check on IV and you can hear the fans gasp as replays are shown. Thankfully it looks like it was his shoulder that landed first. IV is able to sit up and very slowly walk away from the ring, getting a nice ovation from the crowd.

We see Disco Inferno trying to make weight for a Cruiserweight Title shot tonight.

Hour #2 begins.

Alex Wright comes out and shouts in German before saying we’re dumb Americans. He speaks very slowly for us, saying that he can’t stand America and Diamond Dallas Page is even worse.

Alex Wright vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Page is taping his hands up on the way to the ring. Alex stomps him down in the corner to start and knocks him back with a dropkick. A missile dropkick puts Page down again but Page counters a whip into the corner and loads up a belly to back suplex. Wright backflips out but walks into the Diamond Cutter for the pin. I think Page was supposed to catch him during the backflip but couldn’t get his hands up in time, which is hardly a criticism as that would have been very difficult and the way they did it looked fine.

Post match Page says he and Goldberg are different animals with Goldberg rocketing to the top while Page took forever to get there. He’s bringing everything he has at Halloween Havoc and will make Goldberg feel the BANG.

The Nitro Party winner of the week is from a bunch of guys who forgot to include their names.

More Nitro Girls.

Clip of Ernest Miller being arrested last week.

The Cat vs. Lenny Lane

Lane is given five seconds to leave without getting beaten up and actually takes Miller up on the offer. Cat stops him and kicks Lane in the chest before talking even more trash. Another kick to the face drops Lenny as Scott Hall staggers down the aisle. Miller has a chinlock on Lane as Hall says it’s party time Boston style. Dusty Rhodes returns from wherever he’s been for the last few months to yell at Scott, saying he’s throwing his career away. The Feliner ends Lane to wrap up the stuff in the background. We only saw about 45 seconds of the match.

Disco is exhausted and covered in sweat but has made weight. So Matt Hardy in 2003 was ripping off Disco Inferno?

Back from a break with more evil laughter.

We look at Jericho getting lost over and over again. Last week Jericho thinks Goldberg is scared of him and declares himself a unified world champion.

Jerry Flynn vs. Saturn

Saturn easily takes him down before hitting a Thesz Press and a quickly broken choke. Flynn tries a leg lock but Saturn is in the ropes before too much damage can be done. Saturn kicks him in the head a few times and loads up a table on the floor. Flynn hits a nice dive to take Saturn out but walks into a northern lights suplex, which Tony says is out of Curt Hennig’s playbook. More kicks from Flynn set up a cross armbreaker but Saturn rolls out. They head outside and Flynn accidentally kicks the post twice in a row, setting up a splash through the table and the Death Valley Driver for the pin.

Rating: D+. WAY too much offense from Flynn here, especially so soon after Saturn’s big win over Raven. It was nice to see Flynn do anything other than kicks, but at the end of the day he’s still the same stupid mullet wearing karate guy he’s always been. Why the table spot wasn’t a DQ is never explained.

Monday Night Jericho ad, featuring voiceovers talking about people becoming Jericholics. The lights come on to reveal that it’s Jericho himself in a funny bit.

Here are Bagwell and Scott Steiner to brag about their physiques and make fun of Boston for losing everything. They’ve been sent here to find out where Bret Hart stands and demand that he come out here right now, fake knee injury or not. Bret comes in for the showdown but the NWO guys beat him down until Sting makes the save. Rick Steiner sneaks up on Scott and gets in a few good shots as Bagwell runs.

Cruiserweight Title: Disco Inferno vs. Kidman

Disco is defending but is already tired coming in. Kidman has no sympathy and dropkicks him down for a fast two and a slingshot legdrop gets the same. A nice running clothesline gets two more but Disco grabs a headlock to get a breather. They run the ropes and Disco collapses from exhaustion. Kidman hooks a chinlock and drops another middle rope legdrop for his fourth two count before we take a break.

Back with Kidman still in control as Lodi comes to the ring with signs saying they need to reform the Flock. Disco uses the distraction to hit a quick jumping piledriver but takes too long to cover and only gets two. He slams Kidman down but stops to dance, wasting even more energy. A middle rope elbow misses and Kidman comes back with a middle rope bulldog for two. Disco comes back with a neckbreaker but stops to dance before trying a powerbomb, allowing Kidman to counter into a faceplant. Kidman scores with sitout spinebuster and the Shooting Star for the pin.

Rating: B-. Nice match here with a good one night angle to back it up. It wasn’t anything original or ground breaking but it gave the match an extra dimension and made Disco look a bit better. It also helps that Kidman was only in trouble once off that piledriver which only connected because of a distraction.

The evil laughter starts up again as Disco is still in the ring.

Nitro Girls with Tygress getting a solo.

More Flair stuff from last week.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Konnan

Konnan does his schtick and Chavo does the same thing, showing that he’s as loveable as Konnan is. Chavo thinks he should be in the Wolfpack too and wants to talk to Nash about it. Instead it’s Konnan taking him down with a pair of clotheslines and scoring with the low dropkick. Chavo bails to the floor for a meeting with Pepe before coming back with a very elaborate arm wringer before pulling on his trunks.

Konnan gets taken down by a dropkick and Chavo stops for a ride on Pepe. The delay lets K-Dawg come back with a gorilla press drop before sending him face first into the buckle. We hit the chinlock for a bit but Chavo fights back with a running forearm in the corner. Now it’s Chavo with a chinlock for a few seconds until we take a break.

Back with Konnan still in the chinlock as Heenan is talking a mile a minute. Chavo cranks on Konnan’s arms before missing a charge into the post to change momentum. Konnan takes him outside and whips him into various metal objects before bulldogging him down for two. The usual stuff finishes for Konnan.

Rating: D+. This match died after the break with both guys laying around and resting far too much. That’s the problem with having a guy like Konnan go long when he mainly wrestles in squash matches. Not a terrible match due to the comedy at the start but it didn’t work for the most part.

We see Eddie being sent to Japan last week.

Here are Liz and Bischoff with the latter being way too happy given what was happening with Disciple. Bischoff brags about building an empire and being responsible for everyone being in their seats tonight. He built up everything you see here and none of the credit can go to Ric Flair. Eric talks about all the mistakes Flair made last week and reminds Flair that just because he has a contract, it doesn’t mean he has the right to wrestle. Flair and Anderson should never wrestle again since this is Bischoff’s company and he gets to make the decision.

This brings out the Horsemen in black (save for Arn in stripes) to the AWESOME galloping horse music. Security stops the Horsemen in the aisle but Flair has a quick chat with Doug Dillinger and the Horsemen get to come to the ring. Flair can’t talk due to the ovation at first which brings a smile to my face. Bischoff lied when he said Flair wasn’t here and lied again when he said the Horsemen were dead. Flair goes through every member of the Horsemen and why they’re all great but says Bischoff gets to live tonight.

Only Anderson wants to get his hands on Bischoff worse than Ric does, and on his worse day he could roll Bischoff up, smoke him, then stomp on him like a cockroach. Bischoff offers Flair a free shot. Ric: “Yeah I want it and she wants Space Mountain but she’s not getting it tonight.” Flair says the only reason he won’t hit Bischoff is he doesn’t have another two million bucks.

Ric brings up Reid’s wrestling tournament that caused the original suspension (never mentioned on TV before I don’t think) so Bischoff can suck it. Bischoff has said that the Horsemen are too old but Flair says he’s just too good. Flair says he didn’t save his money but he made it by being the best. The only reason Bischoff is living like he is now is because of people like Flair, Sting, Luger and Dusty Rhodes.

Ric keeps ranting about selling out arenas from coast to coast while Bischoff was in a bathroom buying his first condom. Space Mountain may be the oldest ride in the park but it still has the longest line. While Bischoff is puffing his chest, why doesn’t he tell the people who introduced him to Hulk Hogan.

Bischoff says it was just because Flair wanted to carry Hogan’s bag. Ric calls Hogan a guy that went on fourth every night to beat the crowd and says the Horsemen will be in Norfolk for Thunder but Bischoff warns them not to show up. The Horsemen back Bischoff into a corner and show him the fingers to end the segment. No one can rant like Ric Flair, period.

Giant/Stevie Ray vs. Kevin Nash/Lex Luger

The graphic says Stevie Ray/Scott Hall which is due to Giant subbing in for the drunk Hall. Stevie and Luger start us off and do very little before Hall comes up to the announcers’ desk and wants to know why so many people want to see him fight Nash. Scott says there’s no alcohol policy in WCW and his back hurts from carrying Nash this many years. Luger stomps Stevie down in the corner as Hall nearly falls down while talking.

Hall comes down and gets on the apron before throwing the referee to the floor. Nash gets the tag as Tenay plugs a boxing show tomorrow night. Hall tries a right hand and falls down, allowing Giant to come in and beat down Nash. Luger cleans house with a chair and the match is thrown out. No rating due to the lack of action as this was more storytelling than wrestling.

Hall wants to fight Nash but falls to the floor on a charge. Nash is disgusted by what he’s seeing and says that he’s lost his best friend because he doesn’t know who Hall is anymore. Scott yells that he’s lost everything and Nash wasn’t there but Nash says he won’t fight for free. A challenge is thrown out for Halloween Havoc and I guess Hall accepts.

Here’s the Black and White for the final Warrior showdown of the night. Hogan says get Warrior out here so he can send him back to the promised land. Warrior shows up in the entrance and Disciple is behind him. Hogan is thrilled but Disciple turns around to reveal an OWN vest, sending Hogan into a rage as we go off the air.

Overall Rating: D. This was pretty much a throwaway show with one good match out of ten. Even modern day Raw can give you a better ratio than that. The best part of the first hour were those right hands that Rick Steiner threw at Fuller. Let that sink in for a minute: some right hands, the most commonly used move in wrestling, were the best things in an hour of wrestling.

The Horsemen segment was good with Flair explaining his issues with Bischoff to the crowd who probably didn’t know most of the details. However, Bischoff didn’t come off as scared or intimidated in the slightest. He was defiant, bold and standing up to Flair, which makes the Horsemen look far less intimidating than they should. That’s the problem with Bischoff at the end of the day: he almost never got any punishment for what he did, save for the occasional moment like losing to Jay Leno or Larry Zbyszko about ten months earlier. Other than that, Bischoff gets to be this big macho guy who never gets what’s coming to him.

Finally there’s the big story of the week. Based on what we’ve seen since Fall Brawl, it’s very clear that the real main event of Halloween Havoc is Hogan vs. Warrior and Goldberg vs. Page is about five notches lower on the card. I understand the concept of a dream match being bigger than the world title once in awhile, but this is the fourth straight PPV (meaning every one since he won the title) where Goldberg isn’t in the featured match. The title is being treated like it’s an afterthought and that’s not good at any time. This company is on the verge of big trouble and the signs have been there for months.

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Thunder
Date: September 17, 1998
Location: Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky
Attendance: 10,620
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Lee Marshall, Tony Schiavone

This was the second taping of the night and the interesting thing is how many people left. I’m not sure if the second taping wasn’t clear or what but probably half of the audience left before the second episode started. The main story coming into tonight is the return of Flair, whose in ring career rides on Arn Anderson beating Eric Bischoff in an arm wrestling match. Let’s get to it.

The announcers talk about the arm wrestling match tonight and of course don’t say a word about Flair returning as it hasn’t happened yet.

Wrath vs. Bobby Eaton

I think you can figure this one out. Wrath pounds away in the corner and hits a hard running clothesline as the announcers now talk about Nitro, meaning the commentary was done later. So do the commentators just leave during the second taping? Wrath kicks him to the floor and rams Eaton’s back into the post before taking it back inside. A top rope fist and a shoulder block set up the Meltdown to complete the squash as expected.

The announcers talk about Hogan vs. Warrior at Halloween Havoc and how amazing it will be. Man it must be hard to keep a straight face at times.

Mike Enos vs. Lenny Lane

Lane slaps him to start and is LAUNCHED across the ring for his efforts. A nice gorilla press and some elbows have Enos in control but Lane dropkicks him down to the floor. Lane dives down onto Mike to try and wake the crowd up before getting two off a bulldog. Enos powerslams him to counter a leap frog as the announcers talk about ANYTHING but this match. A neckbreaker and stun gun get two for Enos and he finally ends Lane with a spinning fireman’s carry slam (think an airplane spin with Lane facing up).

Rating: D+. There were some nice spots in there but who in the world thought this match needed to happen? I still want to know what the thinking process is to have this match. Is is just picking two names out of a hat full of names that haven’t been on TV in awhile? I can understand why most of the fans left at this point.

Buff and Scott Steiner come to the ring with Gene yelling at the two of them for what they did at Fall Brawl. Both guys laugh at Okerlund and Buff brags about the size of his arms. They fight again at Halloween Havoc and Buff will be barred from ringside. Buff has another idea.

We look at Jericho bringing out the fake Goldberg and beating him at Fall Brawl.

We get some classic Flair clips with him beating up some jobbers. This is the most entertaining part of ths show.

Vincent vs. Steve Armstrong

Oh they’re not even trying now. Steve starts with a quick dropkick and some right hands before running into a boot in the corner. Vincent goes after the arm over and over again and finally makes Armstrong tap to a Fujiwara Armbar.

Post match we get the evil laughter again. This is going to be a mess whenever it happens. I don’t know what’s coming, but it’s going to be a disaster.

Rick Fuller vs. Ernest Miller

Miller doesn’t mention being arrested on Monday, making the segment all the less interesting. He offers Fuller three seconds to leave but Rick doesn’t move. Miller knocks him to the floor and chokes with a camera cable but can’t get in a chair shot. Back in and Fuller slugs him down before showing off the power with a big slam. Miller avoids a cross body and the Feliner is good for the pin.

Rating: D-. This show is testing my sanity very severely. Fuller’s potential is being wasted for the sake of a guy who talks about how great he is at karate. The match was barely long enough to rate and the brawling on the floor went nowhere at all. Miller continues to be a waste of space that isn’t doing anything interesting.

More Flair clips, including him talking in the 80s and returning in 1993.

Curt Hennig vs. Norman Smiley

Feeling out process to start as they trade standing switches. Smiley takes over and outwrestles Curt to start as the fans chant Magic, which is half of Norman’s nickname of Black Magic. I remember standing in front of those guys and not getting the reference at all. Norman takes him down to the mat but Curt grabs his leg to take over. He stomps on the leg and Crunches it before taking Smiley into the corner for some kicks the bad leg. Smiley fights back with some right hands but ducks his head on an Irish whip attempt, setting up the PerfectPlex for the pin.

Rating: D+. Match of the night here which should tell you everything you need to know about this episode. Smiley at least got in some offense to start which is more than I was expecting. I feel like I’m watching an episode of Superstars from mid 1988 with all these worthless matches.

Hall and Stevie Ray come out for the main event and the survey with the NWO dominating the response.

Konnan/Kevin Nash vs. Stevie Ray/Scott Hall

Stevie and Konnan get things going as Hall can’t stand still on the apron. Big Kev talks trash from the apron which only seems to fire Ray up as he pounds away on Konnan in the corner. Hall still can’t stand still. Konnan comes back with a clothesline and the low dropkick but walks into another big right hand. The announcers ignore the match to talk about Hogan vs. Warrior, even mentioning that they’ve met before.

Off to Hall who is easily taken down by a drop toehold. It’s not that big of an accomplishment as he was almost down when he came through the ropes. No mention on Hall improving at all since the mess on Monday. Off to Stevie but Hall doesn’t leave the ring, further ticking off the sober Black and White member.

Hall stays in for some reason as the announcers talk about Disciple being kidnapped. Apparently he got time off for good behavior though as he worked a dark match before this taping. Again, you have a stable with like ten members and you send Disciple out a jobber. That’s poor thinking at least and incompetence at worst.

Anyway back to the angle disguised as a match. Konnan trips Hall down again and puts on a camel clutch which only seems to make Hall look ill. A few rollups get two each on Scott and it’s time for a drink. Konnan isn’t sure what to think but apparently the booze makes Hall a better wrestler as he takes over. We even get an Outsider’s Edge attempt but Konnan easily backdrops him down and rubs Scott’s face in the mat. Hall falls through the ropes and can’t stand up, which is too much for Stevie who walks out. Hall never makes it back in and it’s a countout.

Rating: F. Like I said, this was an angle disguised as a match. I’m not a fan of the story here when it’s this based on real life either. This wasn’t even a match as it was about two minutes of Stevie vs. Konnan then the Scott Hall Show. Also, nice to see Nash earning his paycheck out there tonight. He never even tagged in.

We look back at Flair returning on Monday. My goodness that was amazing.

It’s time for the arm wrestling between Bischoff and Anderson. Bagwell and Malenko are here as seconds. Anderson gets his right arm ready (naturally left handed) but Bischoff says make it left handed. Remember that Anderson had surgery a year or so prior to this and his arm isn’t what it used to be. Bischoff of course is up to his old tricks and swaps out for Buff because Bischoff was never specified. Buff says it’s fair because they both had neck injuries. Anderson threatens Bischoff and gets beaten in a second to end the show.

Overall Rating: F-. Three days. It took them three days after the best moment Nitro has ever had to make sure the NWO went over the Horsemen by outsmarting them. You want to get excited about something in this company? Well it better not be the Horsemen because we don’t care how many times the WE WANT FLAIR chants come up. This is the NWO company and screw you if you think anyone is going to get one up on them.

Also let’s look at this card. Who is the most entertaining guy on this show? Wrath? Miller maybe? I guess it’s Konnan but the fact that those two guys are as close to second and third as they are tells you everything you need to know about this show. Tonight took everything that was good on Monday and just wasted it on a boring episode.

Yeah this was taped in advance and they didn’t know how good Nitro was going to be, but how could anyone look at this card and think it would be an entertaining two hours? What here makes me want to watch the next show? This was as bad as Thunder has been, and that covers A LOT of ground.

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Monday Nitro #154
Date: September 14, 1998
Location: BI-LO Center, Greenville, South Carolina
Attendance: 12,236
Commentators: Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone

Fall Brawl has come and gone and it was little more than a pit stop for Halloween Havoc. The match disguised as WarGames did little more than set up the double main event for next month while offering one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. The main event tonight is Goldberg vs. Sting for the title because WCW cares more about TV than PPV. Something else of note happens tonight as well. Let’s get to it.

The Nitro Girls look great in stomach baring red tops and skin tight black pants.

The announcers talk about DDP earning the title shot at Halloween Havoc last night. Mike Tenay is off trying to find out about the Horsemen, including the return of Ric Flair. Nice job of keeping secrets Tony.

The fans alternate between WE WANT FLAIR and GOLDBERG as we go to the airport where Tenay talks about Flair possibly returning tonight. A limo pulls away from an airplane but Mike isn’t sure who was in it. He chases down a pilot and asks if Flair was on the flight but can’t get an answer. Some reporter.

Opening sequence.

We look at Ernest Miller attacking the Armstrongs for the third time in a week.

Alex Wright vs. Van Hammer

Van Hammer is now a hippie. He shoves Wright into the corner to start as Tony runs down tonight’s card. Alex grabs a headlock and stomps away in the corner before sending Hammer to the floor. Ernest Miller comes out and kicks Hammer in the head, drawing the DQ in a quick ending.

Miller runs his mouth and is arrested. We follow him all the way to the squad car and nothing happens.

We get some stills from the main event last night and Tony says Bret was injured.

Here’s a limping Bret with something to say. Bret says that he’s been a jerk lately and now he realizes that Hogan has been lying to him all along. After last night, he’s going to be out of action for awhile and he doesn’t deserve this US Title or know what he’s doing with it in the first place. This brings out Roddy Piper who says he called Bret a jerk weeks ago because Bret was hanging out with Hogan and ruining a lot of careers. Bret’s parents must be disappointed in him but they’re proud after what he said tonight. Piper leaves and Bret asks the fans for once more chance, which they seem willing to give.

Stills from Saturn beating Raven last night to break up the Flock.

Saturn vs. Kendall Windham

Kendall pounds Saturn down to start but a nice series of kicks knocks Windham out to the floor. Back in and Saturn snapmares his way out of an armbar but Windham goes after the injured fingers to take over. Kendall drives in more right hands to the side of the head and puts on a chinlock for a few moments. A knee to the ribs (Tony: “A great move!”) puts Saturn back down and a clothesline to the shoulder is good for two.

Back to the chinlock for a bit longer this time before a big boot clearly misses Saturn’s face by nine inches or more. Kendall cranks on the arm a bit more and chops away in the corner but misses a middle rope elbow drop. Saturn comes back with a quick t-bone suplex and shows him how to hit a the elbow from the middle rope. Kendall counters a suplex into a swinging neckbreaker but walks into the Death Valley Driver for the fast pin.

Rating: C. Better match than I was expecting here but it was almost entirely because of Saturn. Kendall was just a big guy in jeans with no charisma at all but he could do basic moves in a ring. Saturn should be ready for a rocket push at this point but since this is WCW, he’ll be lucky to be in the TV Title scene.

Post match the former Flock comes down as Raven and Kanyon are seen in the stands. Raven says the Flock had their day of freedom but now it’s time to join him again. Saturn tells the individual people that they can be a star. Horace is a natural athlete, Kidman is so talented that he could win the Cruiserweight Title, Lodi……”How’s your neck bro?” Everyone but Lodi walks out but Kidman won’t let Lodi go back to Raven.

Renegade vs. Wrath

This isn’t going to last long. Renegade tries to get a good start in the corner but Wrath comes back with one of the hardest chops I’ve ever heard. The handspring elbow has no effect on Wrath and the Meltdown is good for the pin.

Here are Hogan, Bischoff, Liz (good lord with those chaps and jeans) and Disciple with something to say. Eric loves that he’s here and Flair isn’t. Hogan can’t stand cowards like Bret Hart with his pathetic injury and Warrior for sneaking up on him and stealing his chance at beating up Goldberg. Hogan will be at Hollywood Havoc (his words) if Warrior wants to fight him man to man…..and there’s the smoke. Hollywood talks the entire way through but there’s no Disciple when the smoke clears. Eric and Liz aren’t asleep either. Hogan: “WARRRRRRRIOR!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Hour #2 begins.

Apparently Kaz Hayashi is injured and can’t get his title shot tonight. Kidman will take his place.

Cruiserweight Title: Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera

The fans aren’t sure who to cheer for here as things start fast. Some chops take Kidman down and Juvy rains down right hands in the corner to take over early. A missile dropkick sends Kidman to the floor as the fans are way into this. Kidman comes back in with a slingshot headscissors followed by a powerslam for two. We hit the chinlock on the champion but he fights up and gets a headscissors of his own.

A cross body from Juvy sends both guys to the floor and we take a break. Back with Guerrera getting two off a rollup but getting crushed by a slingshot legdrop. We go back to the chinlock for a bit before a lifting powerbomb (Sky High) takes Guerrer down for two. A wheelbarrow suplex gets the same but Juvy counters a belly to back suplex into a German suplex for two.

Guerrera goes up for a not great looking hurricanrana for another near fall before the Juvy Driver is countered into a reverse suplex from Kidman. The Shooting Star is countered with another hurricanrana but Juvy dives into another powerbomb. Kidman hits the Shooting Star for the pin, the title, and a BIG pop from the crowd.

Rating: B+. Excellent match here with both guys just going nuts for about fifteen minutes and one upping each other all match long. Kidman was one of the few guys that could hang with Guerrera in a high flying match and he more than did that here. The fans were going nuts here and the match was as good as anything we’ve seen on Nitro in months.

Saturn comes out to applaud Kidman.

Gene flags down a tuxedo clad JJ Dillon and thinks he saw Ric Flair. JJ won’t reveal anything.

Jackie Chan introduces us to a clip of his new movie Rush Hour.

Eddie Guerrero asks Bischoff for a meeting but Eric says he made Eddie a star and sends him to Japan. “No burritos over there!”

Barbarian vs. British Bulldog

Smith eventually knocks Barbarian down with a series of shoulder blocks and sends him to the floor off a clothesline. He follows Barbarian outside but gets rammed back first into the post to stop any momentum Bulldog had going. Back in and shoulder and backbreakers get two each for Barbarian and he be clubberin in the corner. Smith loads up the powerslam but Jimmy Hart grabs Barbarian’s foot to break it up. Another shot to the back puts Smith down so Barbarian can load up the big boot but he walks into the powerslam (minus the power and slam parts) for the pin.

Rating: D. I feel sorry for Smith given how bad his back was messed up at Fall Brawl and all the back work he had to get through here. The match itself was pure filler which isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but at least it went on after a great match and let the fans come back down to earth a bit.

JJ is in the ring with Gene and says what Buff did last night was unacceptable. Unfortunately Scott Steiner went into the ring with his brother as he was ordered but the ending was a joke. Therefore, we’re getting the match again at Halloween Havoc. JJ gets ready to leave but the lights flicker and we get some maniacal laughing. I’m not a horror movie expert but that sounded like Chuckie from Child’s Play.

Nitro Girls in silver and the Nitro Party winner.

Jim Neidhart comes out for a match against a member of the NWO but the Warrior smoke fills the ring. The smoke clears and Warrior is in the ring with an unconscious Disciple. Neidhart leaves as the Black and White comes out. Warrior says we can live our lives as warriors or ordinary men. Hogan’s actions have only enhanced the OWN revolution and the actions of those men who will find the courage. The match is on for Halloween Havoc but Warrior warns Hogan that the graveyards are full of cowardly men. More smoke and Warrior and Disciple are gone.

Silver King/Norman Smiley vs. Scott Steiner

Norman starts for the team but Silver King comes in for his beating at the same time. Steiner casually beats up both guys with hard forearms and knees to the back. Silver King is powerbombed onto Norman and an awesome looking double Steiner Recliner gets the submission.

Nitro Girls again.

We look at Thunder with Eric Bischoff interfering in an Arn Anderson promo and issuing an arm wrestling challenge for Flair’s in ring future.

Hour #3 begins.

Giant vs. Meng

Meng slaps Giant back into the corner and kicks at the legs before they get into a brawl with neither guy going anywhere. Meng staggers Giant with a kick right to the face so the strap comes down. Giant hits him again and Meng is all FOREIGN SHOUTING. A headbutt has no effect on Meng and neither does a right hand to the head. Another kick to the face staggers Giant and Meng loads up the Death Grip, but Giant uses his reach advantage to grab the chokeslam as Meng can’t get to his throat. REALLY fun match for two minutes.

Scott Hall vs. Lex Luger

This is one of the most uncomfortable things I ever remember in wrestling. Hall comes out with a drink in his hand and is acting intoxicated. I get the idea of the character but when Hall has had so many issues in real life, it just never sat well with me. We get the survey and Hall is stumbling around. Hall tries to jump Luger at the bell but gets stared back down. No contact in the first minute.

Hall throws the toothpick in Lex’s face but backs away from a lockup attempt. They finally lock up but Hall can’t keep a hold on him. Hall walks around a bit more before going over for a drink. Vincent reluctantly gives him the cup and Hall falls on his way back inside. Luger tries a hiptoss and Hall stumbles some more, laughing all the way. A clothesline puts Hall down and he acts like he’s dead before rolling to the floor.

Scott comes back in and Luger takes him into the corner for a lecture. Here’s a ticked off Bischoff to ask Hall what he’s doing. Hall mocks him as Bischoff says he can’t save Hall from everything. Nash and Konnan come out as well and Scott gets upset, asking Nash where he was when his life was falling apart. Even Luger is on the floor around Hall now.

Scott has another drink but vomits all over Bischoff and the camera. Eric says go to a break. No rating of course as this was an angle but I’m not a fan of this at all. I get what they’re doing with it and everything, but I don’t like it being inspired by Hall’s real life troubles which weren’t under control at this point.

Here’s JJ in a tuxedo as you can feel the fans getting excited. Dillon has to talk over a WE WANT FLAIR chant and he asks Arn Andeson to come to the ring. Anderson comes out in a suit as well and the wildcat mascot is bowing. JJ apologizes to Arn for the things he said to him recently because that’s not what a friend is supposed to say to a friend. Anderson says you could smell the pop when these fifteen thousand people blew the roof off the building.

People have been asking him for a year for him to bring back the Horsemen. He has to start at the beginning because tonight is a new beginning for the Four Horsemen. Anderson always knew he wanted to be a wrestler and in 1986 he started coming to towns just like this as a member of the Horsemen. Then a year and a half ago he had a neck operation and his in ring career was over. Another Flair chant starts up. Anderson: “Trust me. You’ll get what you want tonight……Bischoff.”

Then Chris Benoit came to Arn and said this can all happen, so here are Benoit, Malenko and McMichael, all getting individual entrances. Anderson says there’s no finer wrestler than Chris Benoit in the world. McMichael is hard headed but all man and will mean to wrestling what he meant to football. Malenko has done his job while Anderson spent the last year talking about what it meant to be a Horseman. He told Malenko that he didn’t get it, but it was Anderson that didn’t get it.

People have told Anderson for years to bring back the Horsemen. Well the lesson is be careful what you ask for because they’re not nice guys that wear white hats. Mongo taps him on his shoulder and Anderson says he’s been accused of being hit in the head one too many times and having a touch of Alzheimer’s. “My God. I almost forgot the fourth Horseman. RIC FLAIR! GET ON DOWN HERE!”

The crowd doesn’t pop or explode. Instead they stand and applaud as Flair, with tears in his eyes, walks down the aisle, rocking a tuxedo as only he can. Arn: “Greenville, I give you the champ.” Flair can’t talk because of all the emotion. The ovation doesn’t stop and the Horsemen just drink it all in. Ric says this moment proves to him that the 25 years that he’s spent trying to entertain these people has been worth it. Someone told him that the most elite group that Eric Bischoff said was dead is alive and well.

Flair gets right to Bischoff, saying that this might be his only shot so he’s giving it his best. Is this what Bischoff means when he says he wants good TV? This is much more than that because it’s REAL. He goes back to a year ago when the Arn announced his retirement and says Sting was crying in the dressing room because it was so real. Bischoff crushed Anderson in one night with the NWO parody and then said disband the Horsemen because they’re dead. The next morning Flair looked himself in the mirror and saw a defeated man.

This brings out Bischoff but Flair calls him out for abusing power before Bischoff can even get to the ring and tells the technical guys to cut him off before he goes too far. Flair keeps ranting anyway with every insult he can think of for Bischoff and tells Eric to fire him because he’s already fired as we go to a break.

For those of you that remember WCW as being the clueless putz of a company that couldn’t do a thing right, this is as perfect of a moment as you’ll ever find in wrestling. I’m not the biggest Horsemen fan in the world and even knowing everything that was going to happen here, the hair on my neck was standing up for every word Flair was saying. It’s as good as WCW ever got and is one of the best moments I’ve ever seen in wrestling.

The announcers have no idea what to say and Heenan has the most genuine smile you’ll ever see on his face.

Here’s DDP, more commonly known as the unluckiest man ever for getting to follow that, with something to say. Actually he comes up to do commentary on the main event, but first welcomes Flair back. We get some stills of the cage match last night before we go to the title match.

WCW World Title: Goldberg vs. Sting

Goldberg immediately slams Sting down as the fans are behind the champion but not entirely. Sting picks Goldberg up in a powerslam position and rams him back first into the corner in a nice power display. A suplex puts Goldberg down but he’s on his feet before Sting, sending the challenger out to the floor. Back in and Sting’s slam attempt is knocked down. Sting dropkicks the champ for the same result as the suplex.

A headlock takes Goldberg down as Page says that’s what he would have done as well. Goldberg shoves him off and wins a test of strength before channeling Undertaker with a tombstone. Sting counters into one of his own and Goldberg is actually in trouble. A pair of Stinger Splashes have the champion staggered so there’s a third. Goldberg shrugs it off again but the spear hits the corner.

Sting chop blocks him down and puts on the Scorpion as the fans go nuts again. Goldberg pushes out of most of the hold and Sting can’t get it back on all the way. Hogan comes in and kicks Sting in the head which the referee somehow misses. Goldberg didn’t see Hogan either so the spear and Jackhammer retain the title.

Rating: C-. They had me going there for a bit even though the ending didn’t work. Goldberg vs. Sting is the kind of a match that should be headlining a major PPV but instead we get it on a Nitro after a single day of promotion. As usual, they care more about the single night of success rather than something that could have made millions on PPV.

Hogan goes after Goldberg until Hart comes out. The three heroes pose to end the show.

Overall Rating: B+. This is one of the best episodes Nitro has ever produced but it’s still not perfect. The Hall stuff doesn’t work for me and the lack of build for the main event gets on my nerves. On top of that you have a lot of filler here which didn’t build anything and just wasted time.

Then we get to perhaps the best segment Nitro ever had with the Horsemen. Since it’s WCW though the interesting question is how can they screw it up as we go forward, but at least the first night of the new Horsemen was as good as it could have been. Other than that there was an awesome Kidman vs. Juvy match to give us some excellent wrestling, meaning the good stuff more than outweighs the bad.

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Monday Night Raw
Date: April 8, 2002
Location: America West Arena, Phoenix, Arizona
Attendance: 13,500
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re two weeks past the Draft now and the main story is that Austin has signed with Raw, finally giving them an exclusive top star. Other than that there isn’t much going on here as we roll towards Backlash. Whatever energy the Draft gave the show is already gone, meaning we’re entering into the dark days for the show. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap from Smackdown with Vince saying Undertaker isn’t the #1 contender because Flair didn’t have the right to make that selection. Vince knows what the fans wants and makes HHH vs. Hulk Hogan for the title at the PPV. HHH said that when Hogan was in the ring with him, he was an obstacle, not immortal.

Opening sequence.

Here’s Undertaker on his bike to open the show. He wants to know who made the decision to take the title shot away from him because it was his turn to take the title. Now it’s HHH vs. Hogan and that’s a bunch of bull. Raw starts right here and now because he’s going to stand here until someone comes out and explains this to him. Cue Raw owner Ric Flair who says maybe he was too ambitious last week. He wanted to see HHH vs. Undertaker at Backlash, but he tried to get there too fast.

However, Undertaker needs to understand that he’s not in charge around here. Flair implies Undertaker gets the next title shot but Undertaker calls him a liar. This must be about Undertaker beating him at Wrestlemania, which is understandable after how badly Flair got destroyed there. Undertaker wants the shot after Backlash and threatens another beating if he doesn’t get it. This brings out Austin to stand up for his boss, because that’s in character for him.

Austin does the WHAT schtick while asking why Undertaker is getting the title shot after Backlash. Is it because of the clothes he wears or because Flair is scared? Maybe Undertaker is dead, meaning he has no pulse, doesn’t breathe, bought the farm or kicked the bucket. Or is it because he rides a stupid bike?

Austin wants Flair to pick between himself and Undertaker for the shot after Backlash, but instead Flair rants about both guys treating him badly. He makes two #1 contenders matches with Austin vs. Hall and Undertaker vs. RVD for tonight. No word on what happens if both win but I think you can figure it out. Undertaker threatens Flair and calls Austin cueball before starting a fight. Austin clotheslines Undertaker to the floor but can’t Stun Flair.

Hardcore Title: Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Booker T.

Bubba is defending but Booker has something to say first. He thinks the people want to see a Spinarooni and that’s exactly what Booker gives them. Bubba comes back with dancing of his own that makes it look like he’s having a seizure. Booker jumps him and we’re ready to go, only to see Bubba dump him to the floor. The champ sends him into the steps and then back into the ring as it’s time to bust out the weapons. A belly to back suplex gets two on Booker as the fans want tables.

Booker comes back with a knee to the ample gut and an ax kick before blasting him in the head with a stop sign. Bubba shrugs it off and hits a Samoan drop followed by a series of elbows. He gets his own table but Booker knocks him down and sets it up himself. Cue Goldust to run in and DDT Booker on a trumpet before Bubba powerbombs Goldust through the table for a pin to retain, because that’s how the Hardcore Title works.

Raitng: D. Why bother pinning him if the title is defended 24/7? The match was nothing of note and it was an even worse sign that they were trying to push Bubba as a singles guy. Yeah he would eventually work as Bully Ray but this was just one half of the Dudley Boys, which isn’t interesting at all.

Bubba dances more on the stage.

Trish says her head hurts and promises to get back at Molly Holly for attacking her last week. William Regal comes up and says no one cares about Trish because she’s only there to show off her figure. He talks about Spike Dudley but Trish makes fun of Regal for getting shown up by Spike last week. Regal calls Spike a toerag, an accident to his mother and an abortion on society.

Kane admires the Divas Swimsuit Magazine and says the rest of him isn’t burnt. He’s no longer ashamed of being a freak because the Kaneanites love him. Tonight he’ll start going through the NWO, because just like the lion roars and the chicken clucks, it’s a simple fact of life that X-Pac sucks. Nice rhyme.

X-Pac asks the Outsiders to wait in the back.

Kane vs. X-Pac

Falls count anywhere. Brawl to start with X-Pac actually taking over with some kicks in the corner. Kane easily shoves him back down and stops a charging Pac with a big boot before heading outside. They fight into the crowd and up by the set before going into the back. Hall and Nash jump Kane with weapons and X-Pac hits the ground with a chair (missing Kane’s head by about eight inches) for the pin. This wasn’t even two minutes long.

X-Pac takes the mask off with Kane’s face on the ground until Bradshaw makes the save. Yeah at this point, the top faces on Raw were Austin, Kane, Bubba Ray Dudley and Bradshaw. Starting to get how long these shows felt live?

Kane is taken out on a stretcher post break and X-Pac is wearing the mask when Flair comes in. Nash is suspended without pay so he threatens to sue Flair.

European Title: Spike Dudley vs. William Regal

Regal is defending, Spike steals the brass knuckles and knocks him out and we have a new champion in 5 seconds.

Tommy Dreamer, Jackie, Big Show, Bubba Dudley and Coach celebrate the title win by pouring Slurpees on Spike.

Rob Van Dam vs. Undertaker

First #1 contenders match, RVD’s Intercontinental Title isn’t on the line and I think only Undertaker can become #1 contender. Undertaker pounds Rob down in the corner to start and chokes him on the ropes. Some knees to the ribs have Rob in more trouble and he walks into a side slam for two. The fans are entirely behind Rob but Undertaker kicks him to the apron for an elbow to the jaw.

Van Dam avoids the legdrop and kicks Undertaker in the face, setting up an Asai Moonsault for Rob’s first advantage. Back in and a kick to the face sets up Rolling Thunder but Undertaker crotches Rob to break up the Five Star. Undertaker busts out a nice top rope superplex for two and heads outside for a chair.

That’s fine with Rob though as he shoves the referee away and hits a quick Van Daminator but has to dive on an interfering Eddie Guerrero. Back in and the chokeslam puts RVD down for a delayed two count. The Last Ride is escapes and Rob kicks him in the face to set up the Five Star, but Rob bounces off too far and Eddie blasts him in the back of the head with the IC Title. Undertaker covers for two before ending Rob with the Last Ride.

Rating: C. Better match than I was expecting, even with the unnecessary overbooking. I’m glad they didn’t have Rob get pinned clean though as it keeps the title looking stronger. Undertaker wasn’t much to see around this time but this was one of his better performances. Not a bad match at all with Rob making up for the lethargic Deadman.

Trish Stratus vs. Molly Holly

Jazz is on commentary. Before the match, Molly, now looking even better with light brown hair says she’s a great wrestler and doesn’t like being off the show while there’s a paddle on a pole match going on. Terri thinks Molly is jealous but Molly says she’s beautiful and wholesome. Trish jumps her in the aisle to start as Jazz has nothing to say. Molly escapes a monkey flip but gets dropkicked down and bails to the floor.

Back in and Molly chokes a bit before hitting a nice handspring elbow. More choking ensues and Molly gets two off something the camera misses. Molly gets crotched on top and the Stratusphere brings her down. Trish goes after Jazz and gets hit with the belt for her efforts, allowing Molly to hook a freaky leg lock into a pin back inside.

Rating: D+. And most of that is for how tight Trish’s top was and how great Molly looked. The match was nothing more than angle advancement which is a great sign. Imagine that: an ANGLE in the Divas division with three different women who can all work a good match. It wasn’t anything of note but it’s light years ahead of what we get today.

Paul Heyman insults Phoenix and tells Brock that he can’t beat up a member of the audience. Heyman reveals that he’s Brock’s agent.

Here are Brock and Heyman to some very generic rock music. Heyman says he can do whatever he wants as long as he’s standing next to this monster. He brags about managing Steve Austin and Undertaker to make them what they are today. Heyman also invented ECW which the WWF stole but that’s beside the point. Paul lists off about ten names for Brock, ranging from impervice to incredible to the Next Big Thing.

We look at a highlight reel of Brock’s destruction, including that awesome F5 to Rikishi. Cue the Hardys to double team Brock but he LAUNCHES both of them to the floor. They both grab chairs and give Lesnar HARD shots to the head that would get them fired today. Brock doesn’t even go down and is all BRING IT ON but Heyman calls him off.

Big Show vs. Mr. Perfect

This is about what you would expect: Perfect gets in some shots, Big Show throws him around, Perfect hits him low and actually gets the PerfectPlex for a one count and the chokeslam ends it.

Austin goes into Flair’s office but finds no one. He has a seat and puts his feet up to wait.

JR recaps the big angle of the show and introduces clips from earlier. JR: “It was time for Ric Flair to make a decision.” Austin: “It’s time for Ric Flair to make a decision.” We also see some of Undertaker beating RVD earlier tonight.

Flair comes in and explains the deal to Austin: if Austin wins, he faces Undertaker at Backlash for the #1 contender spot.

Scott Hall vs. Steve Austin

X-Pac is with Hall here but Austin goes off on Scott to start anyway. He chokes away with the vest and gets two off a slam. They head to the floor with Austin chopping and eye poking. Back in and Scott throws Austin to the floor so X-Pac can get in a few shots, only to have Austin beat the tar out of him. Austin gets back inside and works over Hall in the corner until a mule kick below the belt changes control again.

Steve is sent to the floor for another beating from X-Pac before coming back in to get clotheslined for two. There’s a sleeper from Hall but Austin suplexes out of it. Austin comes back with right hands (shocking) but a double clothesline puts both guys down. An X-Pac cheap shot has almost no effect and there’s the Thesz Press as Austin cranks it up. X-Pac gets a shot to the jaw but the referee goes down.

Both NWO members get spinebusters but here’s the Undertaker to beat up Austin. Bradshaw runs in to fight Undertaker as Hall gets two off Undertaker’s chokeslam. The referee goes down again (bad night for him) as Hall hits the fallaway slam. X-Pac comes in for a double team but Flair comes in to stare down X-Pac. A Stunner takes care of Pac and an even bigger one is good for the pin on Scott.

Rating: D+. This was a kick and punch match until the overdone ending. Austin vs. the NWO isn’t an interesting story, especially with no Nash or Hogan in sight. Hall and X-Pac are just guys in matching shirts at this point and there’s nothing for them to do anymore. Unfortunately they would be around for awhile.

Flair takes a Stunner as well because Austin fights authority you see.

Overall Rating: D. The show went by pretty quickly but there’s nothing interesting to see here. The matches were nothing special and the big story could have been solved by making Austin vs. Undertaker for the title shot in the first place. Austin Stunning Flair made me roll my eyes as they’re trying to force lightning back into a bottle and it just doesn’t work that way. Uninspiring but not completely horrid show this week.

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Today we look at one of the biggest names to never be world champion: Scott Hall. While it’s not his birthday, it is the birthday of Rick Bognar, who portrayed the fake Razor in 1997.

Hall got his start in Florida but would first come to prominence in the AWA as Big Scott Hall. He would win the tag titles with Curt Hennig and defend them at WrestleRock 86 on April 20, 1986.

Tag Titles: Scott Hall/Curt Hennig vs. Long Riders

The Long Riders are a biker team who ride in on their motorcycles. Hall gets an award for being popular pre match. The champions won the titles in Albuquerque apparently, which is nowhere near the AWA territory, so I’m going to bet that match didn’t happen. Also the regular AWA ring announcer, Larry Nelson, is now sitting in on commentary with Trongard. The Long Riders are Scott “Hog” Irwin and Wild Bill Irwin.

Hall starts with Scott (for this match, Scott will only be used for Scott Irwin. Scott Hall will only be called Hall) as we hear about the Long Riders being made to wear wrestling gear. Apparently their biker gear has been used for EVIL and has therefore been banned. Nothing goes on here so the partners both tag off. Hennig hits a HUGE dropkick on the future Goon and we head to the floor for a chase scene. Back to Hall as the champions have been in total control the whole time so far.

Bill manages to take Hall to the mat for about two full seconds but the more famous one grabs an armbar to take over. Off to Hennig and the beating continues. Dropkick gets two as we’re five minutes in. Curt and Bill slug it out and Hennig superkicks him down for two. Bill misses a charge and an elbow drop so Hennig grabs a headlock. They get up and do a weird sequence where they’re both on their stomachs and Curt crawls at him as Bill backpedals to the floor.

Test of strength now and Hennig kind of suplexes him over for two. The Riders take over on Curt with some double teaming. They draw in Hall for some lame double teaming as we’re at ten minutes into this. More double teaming which is mainly just assisted choking. Curt avoids an elbow drop and it’s off to Hall. House is cleaned and noggins are knocked but it’s back to Hennig. Everything breaks down and Curt is sent to the floor. It doesn’t really matter though as Hall goes to the floor with Scott, allowing a missile dropkick from Hennig to retain the titles.

Rating: C-. Not bad here as there was a formula and an idea here, but the execution wasn’t that great. The Riders were a pretty weak team but it could have been far worse. Hennig was a huge deal in the AWA and would hold the world title for over a year starting in May of 87. Decent match but nothing all that great. It’s a big upgrade on the majority of the show though.

Hall would leave the AWA in 1989 and float around for a bit, including a quick run in Dusty Rhodes’ PWF territory. Here’s a match from one of their bigger events: PWF Homecoming.

Scott Hall/Steve Keirn vs. Dick Slater/Bam Bam Bigelow

Keirn has an alligator with him named Wally. Get the reference? Gordon says this is an Australian tag match, whatever that means. Bigelow and Hall start things off. Bigelow is the only one here that looks like he usually looks. Hall works on the arm and brings it’s off to Slater who takes over. Back to Bigelow who looks silly working on the arm. Monster heels go after RIBS man. RIBS. Bam Bam misses a headbutt and Hall hits a dropkick.

Off to Keirn who works on the arm as well. Slater is knocked to the floor and Keirn suplexes him back in for one. This is another boring match. Swinging neckbreker from Slater puts Keirn down but he won’t tag. I guess it’s supposed to tease tension or something. Slater drops an elbow for a delayed two. Keirn hooks a sleeper so Bigelow makes the save. Hall knocks Slater down and after about a day and a half Keirn tags him in. A quick sunset flip gets the pin. Oh and apparently Slater and Bigelow are part of Page’s stable.

Rating: D-. Scott Hall’s mustache alone keeps this from failing. Other than that there’s NOTHING here that anyone should want to see. This show continues a complete lack of being able to tell us anything about the stories leading up to the match. Bigelow and Slater are in the Diamond Exchange? Thanks for telling us that with 10 seconds left in the match. It really made the ending epic.

Scott would have a pretty worthless run in WCW as the Diamond Stud before going to the WWF for the role that made him famous: Razor Ramon. Allegedly the gimmick was invented during Hall’s interview with Vince. McMahon told him to come up with a character on the spot and Hall started talking like Tony Montana from Scarface. Vince had never seen the movie and thought Hall was a genius. Hall’s first major angle in the WWF was a semi-bizarre pairing with Ric Flair against Mr. Perfect and Randy Savage. His first and only major WWF Title shot came at the 1993 Royal Rumble.

WWF World Title: Razor Ramon vs. Bret Hart

Feeling out process to start with Razor getting the early advantage with some right hands. A knee in the corner misses and Bret has on the Figure Four in less than 90 seconds. Razor gets the rope so Bret drops elbows on the knee instead. The leg gets wrapped around the post before Bret goes after the other leg in the corner for some reason. Ramon comes back with a whip to send Bret ribs first into the post.

Now we get to the best part of any Bret Hart match: him getting the tar beaten out of him. Some backbreakers on the floor keep Bret down and we head inside again. Razor pounds on the ribs some more and hits the fallaway slam for two. Helen Hart (Bret’s mom) is in the front row. There’s the chest first into the buckle bump from Bret for two more and it’s off to the abdominal stretch, another Razor trademark.

As always, Bret reverses Hall’s hold into one of his own before getting hiptossed over. Bret is sent to the floor on a kickout and gets two on a sunset flip. We hit the reverse chinlock by Razor, followed quickly by a bearhug. Bret bites his way out of it and sends Razor to the outside in a quick move. The champion follows it up with a suicide dive and the comeback is on.

Bret pounds away in the corner over and over as we hit the brawl. For a guy known as a technical master, Bret brawled an awful lot. Not that he’s bad at it or anything but it happens really often. There are the Five Moves of Doom but Razor gets to the rope before the Sharpshooter is on. The second attempt doesn’t work either as Razor pulls the referee into a pile with the two of them.

Ramon goes right back to the ribs and Bret’s momentum is stopped dead. A belly to back superplex is blocked by Bret into a belly to back suplex for two for the champ. Razor clotheslines Bret down but Bret escapes the Razor’s Edge into a backslide for two. In a pretty awesome ending, Bret counters a test of strength into a sunset flip in a sweet flip counter, followed by grapevining the legs together on the mat and turning Razor over into the Sharpshooter for the submission.

Rating: B. Good match here and again, why did Razor never get more title matches? I know he wasn’t the kind of guy to make the world champion, but are you telling me that when the company was falling apart at times they couldn’t throw him in there as a token challenger? I would have bought him as legit threat to any champion, but it never happened. I’ve never gotten that. Anyway, solid match here as you would expect from these two.

Soon after this, Hall would be turned face by a loss to the Kid on an episode of Raw. He would eventually win the Intercontinental Title in the fall of 1993, leading to his most famous match ever. Shawn Michaels had been the Intercontinental Champion but was suspended while still champion. The solution was to hang both titles above the ring and the first man to climb a ladder to pull them down would be champion. From Wrestlemania X if you somehow don’t know that.

Intercontinental Title: Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon

Shawn has Diesel with him here. Diesel is told to leave but just doesn’t because that’s the kind of guy he is. Basic stuff to start with Shawn blocking a hip toss but getting chokeslammed instead. They hit the ropes to build some speed and Shawn hits a neckbreaker. Razor gets sent to the floor and there’s a clothesline from Diesel, earning him another ejection which actually works this time.

Anyway Shawn gets punched in the jaw and Razor takes over again. Shawn is knocked into the corner before a BIG clothesline puts him on the floor. Razor exposes the concrete but we head back inside before he can use it. The Razor’s Edge is loaded up but Shawn backdrops Ramon over the top and onto the concrete, possibly injuring an elbow. Shawn gets the ladder but Razor jacks his jaw to stop it. The ladder is slid inside but Shawn hits a baseball slide to knock it into Ramon’s ribs.

Back inside again and the ladder is rammed into Razor’s ribs both in the corner and on the mat. Shawn throws the ladder onto Razor’s back which looks SICK. He tosses it at Razor against the ropes and goes for a climb, only to have Razor pull Shawn’s tights down and give us a rather unpleasant (or pleasant depending on your preferences) view. Not that it matters as Shawn knocks him down and climbs again, this time hitting a pretty famous splash to crush Razor again.

Razor saves another climb by shoving the ladder over, sending Shawn onto the top rope. We get a camera shot from above the ring, showing both guys laid out on the mat. Cool shot. Back up and Michaels is whipped into the ladder in the corner, knocking him out to the floor. Razor rams the ladder into Shawn’s chest with his back against the post. If that’s not enough, Razor launches Shawn into the ladder against the apron to keep Michaels in agony.

Back in and Ramon BLASTS Shawn with the ladder to knock him to the outside again. Razor climbs up but Shawn dives off the top rope to knock him down. The ladder falls onto Shawn in the process to keep both guys on the mat. They both start to climb but the ladder is bent. Shawn is higher up but can’t hang in a slugout with Razor. Michaels gets punched down but the ladder gives way under Razor, sending him down.

Ramon climbs again but Shawn dropkicks the ladder which doesn’t topple over this time. In a smart move, Shawn pushes the ladder over onto Razor’s back to take control again. A big piledriver puts Razor down so Shawn goes to the corner. In another famous visual, Shawn rides the ladder down onto Razor, crushing him yet again. Since he’s a jerk though, Shawn puts the ladder over top of Razor, but Ramon gets up and knocks Shawn off the ladder. Michaels gets tangled in the ropes, allowing Razor to climb up to unify the titles.

Rating: A+. This is one of the matches that reignited the midcard scene after things had died down for a bit. It also paved the way for the insane style that would start to dominate about five years later. That being said, it’s still a freaking AWESOME match with some iconic spots such as the splash. It also started Shawn on the roll of a lifetime, as the next year he would be in the world title match at Wrestlemania then win the title the following year. This match is required viewing for fans.

Razor would stick around the midcard title scene for the next several years while still being one of the most popular wrestlers in the company. He would trade the title with Diesel later in the year, setting up an Intercontinental Title defense against Jeff Jarrett at the 1995 Royal Rumble.

Intercontinental Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Razor Ramon

Jarrett is challenging and now has the Roadie with him. Razor starts with his usual assortment of punches and a fallaway slam to send Jeff to the floor. After a little toweling off on the floor, Jeff armdrags Razor down and struts. They trade arm holds until Razor gets taken to the mat where Jeff messes with his hair. Careful with the grease there Jeff. Razor gets annoyed and knocks Jeff to the floor for some more Memphis stalling.

Jeff gets back in and is immediately puts in an armbar where Razor can mess with Jarrett’s hair. Some dropkicks floor the champ and a clothesline gets two. Razor catches a boot coming and ducks the enziguri from Jeff, but Razor misses an elbow to keep Jarrett in control. We hit the chinlock followed by a sunset flip by Jeff for two. Another dropkick gets the same and Jarrett is getting frustrated.

Jarrett hooks a sleeper but Razor quickly counters. The counter doesn’t last long though as Jeff hits a swinging neckbreaker for two. Ramon slides behind Jeff in the corner and crotches him on the post to a big pop. We get a messed up (not botched mind you) spot where Razor was going to try a bulldog off the middle rope but Jeff turns around and it had to be a clothesline. Eh no harm no foul. Jeff backdrops Razor to the floor, injuring the champ’s knee. Roadie clips him in the knee and Razor gets counted out.

We won’t get to the rating just yet. Post match Jeff calls Razor a coward for taking the easy way out like that and calls him back into the ring. Razor pulls a Marty McFly and takes the bait, giving us another match.

Intercontinental Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. Razor Ramon

Razor tries some quick rollups for two but Jeff goes right for the knee to take over. Jeff does his best Ric Flair imitation but as he goes for the third cannonball down onto the leg, Razor kicks him over the top and out to the floor. Back in and Jarrett puts on the Figure Four, putting Razor in a lot of trouble. Razor escapes and starts his comeback with punches and the belly to back superplex but Jeff counters in mid air for two. Razor clotheslines him down and loads up the Edge, but the knee gives out and Jeff rolls him up for the pin and the title.

Rating: C+. I always remember liking this match and it holds up pretty well. Memphis stalling isn’t for everyone but it’s a good way of drawing heel heat, which Jeff might as well have been an iceberg for otherwise. Razor was awesome at this point and had good chemistry with Jeff, so this worked pretty well all around. The ending was smart as it was Razor’s trademark ending for house shows, but he would usually win in about 30 seconds with the Razor’s Edge. Nice to see them switch things up here.

Razor would leave the WWF in May of 1996 and join WCW for the biggest angle of all time. This would lead to Bash at the Beach 1996 and the turn to end all turns.

Sting/Lex Luger/Randy Savage vs. 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 heck 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 where he can go twice and we’re done.

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

Hall would join Kevin Nash as the Outsiders and dominate the tag division, including this title defense at Starrcade 1996.

Tag Titles: Outsiders vs. Faces of Fear

The Outsiders, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, are defending here. The Faces of Fear are the Barbarian (I told you he stuck around for a long time) and Meng, Robert Parker’s old bodyguard, managed by Jimmy Hart. Hall and Meng start things off with the Tongan monster putting on a wristlock. Hall cranks on the arm but gets caught with a stiff clothesline. Meng charges into a boot in the corner, followed by a bulldog by Hall. The bulldog merely seems to tick Meng off though so he pounds Hall down and brings in Barbarian.

Off to Nash who pounds Barbarian into the corner and fires off some big slow knees to the ribs. An elbow to the face staggers Barbarian but he shoves the 7’0 Nash into the corner and pounds away with chops. Meng comes in and the challengers pound Nash down to a big reaction from the crowd. Nash tries to ram their heads together, but Wrestling Law #3 says anyone described as a savage has a VERY hard head, meaning it has no effect.

Nash is kicked down again for a two count for Barbarian but he misses a middle rope elbow. Barbarian is dropped face first on the top turnbuckle in a move called Snake Eyes (a move named by Nash when he portrayed Vinnie Vegas) and it’s back to Hall to pound on Barbarian a bit more. Meng comes down the apron and pulls Hall to the challengers’ corner for a double team with Barbarian. A BIG boot to the face puts Hall down but referee Nick Patrick, who may or may not be in the NWO’s pocket, takes his sweet time in counting two.

Back to Meng for a very delayed piledriver for another near fall. Barbarian tries his luck again with a bunch of chops and a good looking powerbomb. Patrick again takes forever to count, allowing Nash to come in for a save. Barbarian stays on Hall as Tony says he’s confused by who is legal. To be fair though, tying his shoes confuses Tony. NWO member Syxx goes after Jimmy Hart and the pair head to the back.

Barbarian puts on a nerve hold as Hall gets to lay on the mat. Maybe he needs a nap after all the hard work he’s done in this match so far. After not moving for a good 20 seconds and not being checked by Patrick, Hall fights up and suplexes Barbarian down to escape. Tag off to Nash who gets two off a big boot of his own. Everything breaks down and Nash powerbombs Barbarian down to retain.

Rating: C-. This one went longer than it needed to and even when I was eight years old I knew the Faces of Fear had no chance here. The Outsiders held those belts for the better part of a year and a half with no one being able to take them from them (and keep them that is). The match was a watchable power match but the belts never felt like they were in danger at all.

Hall would mainly be in tag team matches for the rest of the year but would win the World War 3 battle royal, earning him a world title shot at Uncensored 1998.

WCW World Title: Sting vs. Scott Hall

Hall won World War 3 which was only four months earlier. There’s your story. He also has Dusty Rhodes with him because he’s a heel turn we’re supposed to care about I guess. Sting hammers him to start and Hall bails. Mark Curtis, the referee, is REALLY skinny. He would die of cancer a year and a half later so maybe that’s partially to blame for it. He looks fine other than that. Maybe he’s just a skinny guy.

Hall hits a chokeslam and does his Giant imitation instead of covering with even Bobby freaking out over his stupidity. Hall goes out to the floor again and Dusty trips up Sting so Hall can clothesline him. Fallaway Slam hits as this is just Hall’s Greatest Hits here. Sting does his collapse into the balls thing. Dusty comes in and drops the elbow which the referee somehow misses despite the slight earthquake off the landing.

That only gets two though and Hall punches some more. Here’s the comeback and Sting hits a Stinger Splash in the corner. Scorpion is attempted but he has to drill Dusty instead. Down goes the referee (shocking) and Dusty throws in some brass knuckles. Another referee comes in for a two count. Outsider Edge is reversed into the Death Drop and we’re done.

Rating: C-. This is one of those matches where it’s supposed to be a big match and is just another match. This could have been a moderately big Nitro main event and no one would have noticed I don’t think. It’s not horrible but dude, that’s it? Sting would lose the title the next month so that Hogan could get it back the next night, because that’s what people wanted to see. Right?

While mainly a tag wrestler, Hall would occasionally have singles success, including a US Title match with Roddy Piper at SuperBrawl 1999.

US Title: Roddy Piper vs. Scott Hall

This match alone should sum up most of WCW’s problems from this era (or most eras for that matter) in a nutshell. First of all, this is the third straight match with the Wolfpac theme music in it. Second, WCW has a roster including but not limited to: Hart, Booker T, Benoit, Mysterio, Jericho, Malenko, Saturn, Guerrero, Guerrero Jr. and probably a bunch of people that I’m forgetting, and they have Piper vs. Hall for the title and the announcers treat it like some dream match. That’s WCW for you.

Disco is with Hall here. We hear about Piper winning the US Title for the first time from Flair back in 1981. Why do you need me here? These jokes write themselves. Piper throws the kilt on Hall and pounds away at him. Piper does his usual punching, choking and poking. Oh and slapping too. Can’t forget the slapping. Hall is about to tell him to suck it so Piper hits him in the ribs then tries an actual wrestling move, hitting a neckbreaker for two.

Hall hits the shoulder blocks with the wristlock but Piper pulls the hair to take Hall down. Disco tries to interfere so Piper messes up his hair. There’s Disco’s career highlight. Hall takes a few atomic drops and Piper pokes him in the throat. Out to the floor for Piper to chase Disco but Hall rams him into the steps instead. Back inside and hall punches him down. Piper hits him low but Hall basically no sells it. Piper gets put in the Tree of Woe as Heenan says Hall is one of the top five in the world today. At what exactly?

Piper gets out of the corner and Tony praises him for doing it on his own. Off to the abdominal stretch and Piper is in trouble again. In a moment that gives me a small seizure, Heenan ACTUALLY EXPLAINS SOMETHING, saying that when Disco pulls on Hall’s arm, it’s not so much for the torque on Piper but also to prevent Piper from being able to move Hall around or hip toss him.

Disco lets go and Piper hiptosses out. Piper hooks the sleeper but Disco comes in to break it up. Disco gets beaten up and Nash runs in. Piper hits him too but Hall gets in a shot and covers with his feet on the ropes to win the title. Yeah, because SCOTT HALL is the right choice to give a title too. That gives the NWO the World, US and TV Titles. In 1999.

Rating: F. This match was awful. I mean really, PIPER VS. HALL IN 1999??? Who thinks that’s a good idea other than Piper, Hall and their mothers? Terrible match with neither guy being able to do much other than punches and really basic holds. Matches like these are the reason this company went under.

He spent most of 1999 on the injured list and would leave WCW in early 2000. After a two year run in Japan, Hall would return to the WWF with Hall and Nash in the NWO. Hall would face Steve Austin at Wrestlemania XVIII.

Steve Austin vs. Scott Hall

That’s a pretty big fall for Austin from main event to this in just a year. The injured Nash is with Hall here to try to make us believe Austin isn’t winning in a walk. Austin immediately stomps him down in the corner before Hall can even get his vest off. There’s the Thesz Press but Austin has to go after Nash on the floor instead of following up. Back in and Hall clotheslines him down for two as momentum shifts. Nash sneaks a turnbuckle pad off as the other two fight in the corner.

Austin gets whipped back first into said buckle pad and Nash adds a right hand for good measure. The fallaway slam gets two for Hall as does a hard clothesline. Hall stomps away at Austin’s ribs and Nash gets in another right hand to the head. Scott pounds away even more but Austin grabs a Stunner out of nowhere. Nash makes the save and decks the referee though, allowing for some good old NWO cheating.

Hall brings in a chair but Austin easily beats them both up and gives them both Stunners. No referee though but we get a replacement, only for Nash to drop an elbow on his back. The Outsider’s Edge is broken up and Hall is backdropped out to the floor. A bunch of referees come out to eject Nash as Hall sends Austin into the exposed buckle and hits a Stunner of his own (good one too) for two. Austin gets up and they do the EXACT same sequence but switch the people, allowing Austin to hit two Stunners to win it.

Rating: C. Again, much like everything else tonight, this was just a match. There was very little heat on this even though it was one of the better matches of the night. The big problem with most of these matches is that none of them feel special and that’s the case here. I mean….Austin vs. Scott Hall? Maybe four years ago, but in 2002? That doesn’t blow my skirt up.

That would pretty much be it for Hall in major promotions for a long time due to his substance abuse and alcohol issues. He would be fired from the WWF a few months later, pop up in the upstart TNA for a few months, then hit the indies for several years. Hall would pop up in TNA again in 2010 and win another set of tag titles with Kevin Nash under the team name The Band.. Here’s his final match before getting fired again for substance issues.

Tag Titles: The Band vs. Ink Inc.

Since Morgan isn’t champion anymore, there’s more or less no build here. Why would you need one of those? Ink Inc. CLEARLY is enough drawing power to not need an angle or a feud or anything pesky like that. Oh and clearly THESE TWO are the second best team in the company. Hall and Moore start us off. Wow I can’t stand these challengers.

Tenay and Taz continue their brilliance by pointing out that they number one contenders have had one match which they had after being named number one contenders. Brilliant guys. The Outsiders use all of their old favorites and it’s just not that interesting. I love Hall just standing there watching his partner getting the tar beaten out of him.

Down goes the referee as the spear misses. Young, armed with a kendo stick is here. Neal gets a spear on Nash though. That’s a bit surprising. Bubba comes out and yells at Nash before popping Neal with the stick. Oh here we go again. Young pulls Nash on top for the cover and the pin.

Rating: D. Seriously? THIS is the best tag title match they could come up with? That makes my head hurt. Just not an interesting match at all and boring to top that off. Horrible and likely worst of the night so far. The whole Band idea just doesn’t work but they keep going with it anyway.

Hall is one of the most interesting and saddening wrestlers in history. There’s incredible talent and knowledge there but he couldn’t control his demons. Thankfully he seems to be in much better shape now thanks to Diamond Dallas Page but it’s too late for his career. He had a lot of success but was never THE guy, though he seemed cool with that. If you’ve never seen them, check out some of his Razor Ramon matches as they hold up very well.

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Thunder
Date: August 13, 1998
Location: Fargodome, Fargo, North Dakota
Attendance: 9,721
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan

We’re coming off the Nitro that should have been Road Wild with the biggest stories being a new US Champion and Goldberg thinking Nash hit him in the back with a chair. I have a problem believing WCW is capable of planning a feud that far in advance so we’ll chalk it up to whatever random idea they’re throwing at us which will likely end up benefiting Hogan. Let’s get to it.

The announcers run down the card for a bit until Scott Hall interrupts. We get the survey with the Wolfpack winning before we go to a break less than five minutes into the broadcast.

Konnan vs. Scott Hall

We start with the stalling and a toothpick throw until Konnan slaps him in the face. Hall drives his shoulder into Konnan over and over before they trade paintbrush slaps to the back of the head. This match already has more energy than almost any match on Thunder in weeks. Hall fakes him out on a test of strength and pops Konnan in the jaw to take over. The fallaway slam gets two and Hall fires off some chops in the corner. This has been one sided so far.

There’s the abdominal stretch with Hall grabbing the ropes like a villain should. Hall finally gets caught and Konnan comes back with the X-Factor but Hall doesn’t even go down. Konnan rams him into the buckle but Scott kicks him low. That doesn’t have much of an effect as Konnan gets two off a small package, only to get caught in the Outsider’s Edge for the pin.

Rating: D+. This was just a step above a squash which is surprising with two bigger names. It’s also strange to see a match ending by pinfall instead of the constant run-ins and inconclusive finishes. While it wasn’t a good match, it was nice to have something definitive for a change around here.

The announcers hype up War Games and wonder how Goldberg will be involved.

Horace vs. Raven

Raven says insubordination will not be tolerated and Horace costing him the triangle match on Saturday was the last straw. He jumps Horace to start and pounds him down in the corner before grabbing the stop sign. Lodi shows a spine and takes it away from him, allowing Horace to kick it into Raven’s face for two. A slam onto the sign and a middle rope splash get two for Horace but he misses a charge into the sign in the corner. Raven throws him to the floor and hits the Russian legsweep into the barricade.

Lodi and Raven head back inside with Raven slapping Lodi in the face. Riggs, Kidman and Sick Boy run in for the beatdown as the bell rings, even though this is Raven’s Rules. Saturn runs in to get the three goons off of Horace but the big man jumps Saturn, setting up a four on one beatdown. Kanyon comes in for the real save and a good pop. I’m assuming the match was thrown out.

Rating: C-. The more I see of guys like Saturn, Horace and especially Kanyon the more impressed I am. The match was too short and had too strange of an ending (Raven’s Rules meaning no DQ remember) to be worth anything but I’m interested in where the story is going so there’s something good there.

Saturn goes after Kanyon for no apparent reason before suplexing Horace down.

Stevie Ray doesn’t want to talk about the TV Title but challenges the Giant to a match next week. That’s quite the step up.

TV Title: Chris Jericho vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Jericho is defending of course. Pepe is taped together after being broken in half on Nitro. Feeling out process to start with Jericho taking Chavo up against the ropes and grabbing the wrist, only to be armdragged down. They trade leapfrogs until Chavo bites Jericho to send him outside. We take a break and come back with a shot of Pepe in the corner as Jericho gets two off the Lionsault.

A suplex sets up the arrogant cover for another two before we hit a surfboard hold on Chavo. Back up and Jericho gets his third straight near fall off a spinwheel kick. Chavo comes back with a running clothesline and a forearm in the corner. A bulldog gets a close two and a rollup gets an even closer one but Jericho goes after Pepe. Chavo freaks out and gets an even thicker Pepe (Tony: “That looks like a Clydesdale!”) to blast Jericho for the DQ.

Rating: C-. This was more about Chavo’s insanity and most of the match felt like it was just killing time until we got to the ending. It’s a good sign for Chavo that his character is working against people other than Eddie. Jericho is his usual good self and his glee in breaking Pepe was very amusing.

After some stills from Hart vs. Luger from Monday, Bret says he’s the best there is, was and ever will be even though the fans are all against him. The only reason Luger beat him was because he caught Bret off guard.

Dancing Fools vs. Public Enemy

Tokyo Magnum is with Disco and Alex. Rocco cranks on Alex’s arm to start as the announcers debate whether the match on Saturday was a street fight or a Sturgis street fight. Rock gets sent to the floor and sent into the barricade with a baseball slide. Back in and Rocco blocks a middle rope ax handle, only to be suplexed down again.

Wright of course stops to dance, allowing Rocco to get his knees up to stop a splash. Off to Disco vs. Grunge but Johnny quickly brings Rocco back in for a double flapjack. Everything breaks down and Rocco is thrown into Disco. A table is brought in but Tokyo Magnum takes the bullet for Alex, allowing Wright to pin Grunge off a neckbreaker.

Rating: D+. This is becoming one of those matches that I do not need to see ever again. We’ve pretty much gotten the same story every single times these four have gone at it and there’s no reason to see them tell that story one more time. The matches aren’t horrible but they’re rapidly losing the limited interest I had in them.

Post match Meng runs in to destroy the dancers. Barbarian comes out to make the save but Meng shrugs him off and death grips Barbarian down. Public Enemy gets taken down as well.

Here’s Big Kev to spout catchphrases and invite Goldberg to join the Wolfpack whenever he feels like it.

Kevin Nash vs. Curt Hennig

Nash takes him into the corner for the heavy knees and a hiptoss across the ring. Hennig twists around in the air as is his custom. There’s the choke with the boot but Hennig avoids a charge, sending Nash’s leg into the ropes. Curt goes after the weakened leg but Nash gets right back up and hits Snake Eyes, thankfully using the ropes to support the injured leg. Nash looks for the Jackknife but Rude comes in to deck the referee for the DQ.

Rating: D+. Not enough time to go anywhere but much like Konnan vs. Hall, it was nice to see Nash have a singles match for a change. Also I was relieved by him holding the ropes on the Snake Eyes. I love little things like that which are unfortunately rare anymore as it helps to keep the fans in the match. The ending was expected because Heaven forbid a veteran job or anything like that, but not terrible while it lasted.

Rude squares off with Nash so Hall can come in for the beatdown. The fans want Goldberg but get Luger for the save instead.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Stevie Ray

Stevie shoves Eddie away and stands in the middle of the ring for a bit. Eddie literally jumps at Stevie and spins around while Stevie stands still. An armdrag and dropkick to the ribs put Ray down but Stevie just kicks him in the face to take over. Scott Hall and the Giant are watching from the stage.

The camera keeps cutting back to them but thankfully we can see the match on the video screen. Stevie gorilla press drops Eddie down and bicycle kicks him off the apron. Eddie comes back with something I can’t make out because the camera is focusing on the NWO guys but Stevie breaks up a belly to belly attempt. Eddie goes up top but dives into a big boot. The Slapjack is enough to pin Eddie completely clean.

Rating: N/A. I can’t rate a match when I missed long portions due to putting the camera on Hall and Giant every few seconds. On top of that, Stevie Ray just beat Eddie Guerrero clean in about four minutes. This is the Eddie Guerrero that had possibly the best match in WCW history less than a year before. Is it any wonder that he wanted out?

US Title: Lex Luger vs. Bret Hart

Luger won the title on Monday and this is the rematch. He shoves Bret around a few times before grabbing a headlock. Bret hiptosses him down and drops an elbow for two, only to have Luger take him into the corner and stomp away. Bret comes back with some stomps of his own before hitting the headbutt to the abdomen. Luger is catapulted throat first into the middle rope for two as Bret doesn’t seem interested in being out there.

The middle rope elbow only hits mat and Luger makes his comeback with the clotheslines and forearm. Luger clotheslines him to the floor instead of Racking him though, allowing Bret to get a chair. Another clothesline drops Hart and now it’s Luger with the chair. The referee tries to take it away and gets knocked down, allowing Bret to DDT Luger on the chair for two. Not that it matters though as Bret puts on the Sharpshooter and Luger passes out to change the title back.

Rating: D-. They clearly didn’t care and the ending was nothing interesting. Nitro’s match is basically erased and Bret has another meaningless title reign. Again, this is more and more like the Alliance every day: these title changes don’t make a difference and just prolong an already uninteresting feud.

Overall Rating: C-. This is an interesting show as it erases almost everything that happened on Nitro, but Nitro was so horribly dull that taking it all away is a good thing. Yeah Goldberg doesn’t resolve anything with Nash, but there’s nothing to resolve in the first place. In theory Goldberg should be fine after spearing Nash and Big Kev doesn’t seem mad at Goldberg at all. The wrestling was kept quick for the most part tonight and only the main event was bad. This show benefits from all the other shows around it being so uninteresting that even a mediocre show like this comes out looking great.

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Monday Nitro #149
Date: August 10, 1998
Location: Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, Rapid City, South Dakota
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone

It’s the show after Road Wild and just like last month, nothing has changed. Goldberg has pinned Giant to wipe him out as a contender and Hogan lost to Jay Leno. Everything kind of resets now as we’re coming up on Fall Brawl, meaning someone should be showing up soon to bring Nitro to its final ratings wins, save for a one off show in October. Let’s get to it.

We open with the opening sequence for the first time in months.

Nitro Girls get us going in the ring, which now has a huge Nitro logo in the middle. Kimberly isn’t here because Page isn’t here.

Bischoff has put a gag order on the announcers regarding the main event of Road Wild. However, there will be a WCW executive here later to explain and show us what happened. Ok then.

Barbarian vs. Jim Duggan

Duggan spins the board around as he comes to the ring and accidentally drops both the board and American flag. The brawl is on in the corner with Duggan firing off right hands and a clothesline to send Barbarian out to the floor. The fans chant USA as Jimmy Hart distracts Duggan, allowing Barbarian to clubber Duggan down in the corner.

We hit the chinlock and one of the loudest USA chants I can ever remember starts up. It doesn’t help as Barbarian pulls him down by the hair and drops some elbows but it was a nice sentiment. Duggan fights up again but gets kicked in the face and chinlocked again. Another comeback works a bit better with Duggan slugging away in the corner and getting a rollup out of the corner for the pin.

Rating: D. Well this was better than having the Faces of Fear go at it for five minutes. Duggan may be old and hasn’t had a good match in years but the fans can get behind him with the USA chants. I’m not sure I’d use him every week on Nitro given how huge the roster is, but there’s at least an idea there.

Post match Hugh Morrus comes out to help beat up Duggan but Meng makes another save. Barbarian, Morrus, Hart, Duggan and Doug Dillinger all get Tongan Death Grips. Meng vs. Goldberg for the title later tonight.

We look at what’s happened to Lex Luger over the last week, including being attacked on Nitro and calling out Scott Hall as the attacker on Thunder. The battle royal elimination is ignored.

Here’s Luger with something to say. He names Bret Hart as another one of the attackers from last week and isn’t leaving without a match against Bret. This brings out Hart who calls Luger a liar because he was nowhere near Luger last week. Maybe Luger should say it was four guys or six guys (dig at Shawn’s Marines story?) but he’s not getting a shot without earning it. Bret says that Luger’s real problem is jealously with Bret’s relationship with Sting at the top of the list. Luger says the only thing he’s jealous of might be that US Title, so how about a shot tonight? Bret quickly agrees and Gene is thrilled.

We get a quick look at the TV Title match from Saturday.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Tokyo Magnum

That’s the scheduled match at least as we get Disco Inferno and Alex Wright. Before Eddie comes out, Alex yells at Tokyo and tells him to commit harikiri, meaning suicide. Disco says Tokyo needs to win if he wants to stay with them or he’s out. Eddie takes over quickly to start with a clothesline in the corner and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. A slam sets up the frog splash for the pin in maybe a minute.

Stills of Kanyon vs. Saturn vs. Raven from Saturday.

Saturn vs. Kanyon

This is the result of Kanyon not showing up for some tag matches. Kanyon charges at Saturn but gets suplexed down with ease. An STO puts Kanyon on the mat again and Saturn fires off kicks in the corner. Kanyon comes back with right hands and gets two off something like a Michinoku Driver. A face first electric chair slam gets two more for Kanyon and an elbow to the jaw puts Saturn down again. Saturn quickly breaks out of a sleeper and puts on one of his own, only to have to counter a belly to back suplex into a cover for two.

Kanyon grabs the sleeper again and takes Saturn down for two arm drops. After breaking the hold, Saturn drops Kanyon throat first on the top rope before catching him in a t-bone suplex. A Russian legsweep from Kanyon puts both guys on the mat but it’s Kanyon up first with a neckbreaker out of the corner for two. Saturn doesn’t like being in trouble so he crotches Kanyon on top and hooks a top rope head and arms suplex. Here’s Lodi for a distraction, allowing Raven to come in and DDT Saturn, giving Kanyon the pin.

Rating: C+. Kanyon continues to entertain, which makes me all the more curious as to how they’ll screw him up. At least it seems like we’re getting somewhere with this story as it’s been going on for months now. These two work well together which doesn’t surprise me given how similar their styles were at times.

Meng beats up more security. They’re doing a decent job at building him up as a one off challenger.

More Nitro Girls.

We see the new grand prize Nitro Party winners. The Nitro Girls and Gene will be at their high school in three weeks.

Sick Boy vs. Steve McMichael

McMichael goes after Sick Boy before the bell but Lodi gets in some cheap shots to let Sick Boy take over. The match starts without a bell as Sick Boy hits a springboard dropkick and back elbow for two each. Sick Boy is a good sized guy so those are some impressive moves. Mongo comes back with clotheslines and a tilt-a-whirl slam but hits his head while trying a three point charge. The Cure (Pedigree) is countered and Mongo tombstones him down for the pin.

Hour #2 begins so here’s the Black and White. As always, Hogan is all smiles because nothing bad ever happens to him. That’s one of the major problems with WCW around this time: Hogan doesn’t care if he wins or loses and just goes on to whatever his next feud was. If he never gets his comeuppance, why should I care about what he does next?

Hogan says that Leno is done so now he wants the world title back. He’s beaten everyone in the world and there’s no one that can beat him, so he wants his title shot sooner than later. Eric says that since Meng has destroyed so many security guards, the NWO will provide security in the title match tonight.

For all of you people wondering if you should change over to Raw, the announcers have a three minute chat about the world title match tonight. Around this time on Raw, Mankind was confronting Vince and Kane about a massive conspiracy involving Undertaker. WCW counters with an announcement: the Wolfpack will also provide security, because apparently they have that authority. That’s enough talking though and it’s time for a commercial. My goodness this company makes me shake my head.

TV Title: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Stevie Ray

Chavo is worried because he can’t find Pepe. Jericho pops up on stage with Pepe so Chavo runs after him and follows Jericho into the back. We can hear sounds of a beating and Jericho walks out with a broken Pepe. We have a change of schedule.

TV Title: Stevie Ray vs. Chris Jericho

Stevie easily shoves Jericho down to start and hits some big right hands, only to have Jericho dropkick the knee. A crucifix gets two on the champion so he kicks Jericho in the face to take over again. Jericho gets draped ribs first over the top rope but he low bridges Stevie out to the floor.

A plancha takes Stevie out but Jericho bangs himself up in the dive. Back in and Stevie catches Jericho coming off the top in a powerslam. Chris comes right back with a running dropkick in the corner but the referee takes an elbow to the face. Stevie runs Jericho over but the Giant of all people breaks up a Slap Jack and chokeslams Stevie to give Jericho the easy Liontamer for the title.

Rating: C. The match was shockingly decent but both guys were wrestling like faces for a good chunk of the match. The ending is confusing but it’s very nice to see a guy like Jericho get even a little taste of the big story. He’s been the most awesome thing in this company for a long time now and it’s nice to see him get away from the cruiserweight ranks.

Heenan joins us at the halfway point and here are Eric and Liz with something to say. He’s the WCW executive that is going to show us what happened in the main event. We get some selected stills and Eric says they won. Also don’t watch the Tonight Show because Leno is a liar. Again, why should I buy the show if Eric and Hogan are just going to laugh and act like the losses mean nothing? Would it be too much for them to be ticked off one time?

Lizmark Jr. vs. Psychosis vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.

No real reason for this. Psychosis takes over to start with a front suplex to Rey and a lariat to Lizmark. He follows it up with a nice missile dropkick to Rey with a top rope backsplash to the lesser known masked guy at the same time. A flapjack into a spinebuster puts Rey down and then onto the floor but Psychosis misses a running dropkick at Lizmark to finally change momentum. Lizmark pounds away in the corner and scores with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker.

Psychosis is sent to the floor where we see Rey limping. Lizmark hits a suicide dive to take out Psychosis and Rey follows up with a running flip dive. So much for the limp. Rey stays on the apron for a springboard seated senton to a lifted up Psychosis (think a Hart Attack) but Lizmark and Rey get in an argument over who should get the pin. They make up and try a Doomsday Device with Rey swapping out the clothesline for a cross body but Psychosis victory rolls Lizmark for two, sending Rey crashing to the mat.

Lizmark stomps on both guys but gets kicked in the face by Rey. A split legged moonsault gets two for Mysterio but Psychosis gets back up, only to get caught in something like a swinging Fameasser. Lizmark goes up but dives into Psychosis’ feet, only to have Rey get monkey flipped into a quick hurricanrana on Lizmark for the pin.

Rating: C+. This was a different kind of match but it still worked well. I’m surprised by how strong Psychosis was pushed out there. He controlled the opening of the match and was destroying both Lizmark and Mysterio for good portions. Mysterio’s knee is always an issue but hopefully it’s not serious.

Nitro Girls.

US Title: Lex Luger vs. Bret Hart

Bret is defending in another match that should have been at the PPV. Luger shoves Bret to the floor to start before accepting a test of strength for some reason. A hammerlock gets the champion nowhere so Luger elbows him out to the floor. Bret grabs the belt and starts to walk away but Luger will have none of that. Luger actually armdrags him into an armbar but Bret takes him into the corner and stomps away.

We take a break and come back with Bret sending him into the barricade and slamming Luger down on the concrete. Back in and Bret does the Hogan hand to the ear but Luger jacks his jaw with right hands. A low blow puts Luger down again but the referee doesn’t seem to care. Hart puts him down with a Russian legsweep and the headbutt to the abdomen.

A snap suplex gets two and Bret takes a breather to yell at the referee. The champ loads up the Five Moves but Luger gets a boot up to stop the elbow. Luger comes back with his clotheslines and the forearm for two before putting on a sleeper. The referee gets taken down and Bret pulls out a foreign object. Before it can be used though, Lex picks him up in the Torture Rack for the submission and the title.

Rating: C-. Pretty basic match here but it was nice to see something get some time on this show. I continue to shake my head whenever Bret comes on screen though as he’s now lost his title in his first defense after being wasted for about nine months. The match wasn’t bad and the Wolfpack did need to win something so I don’t have much to complain about here.

Hour #3 begins.

Stills of the Cruiserweight Title match. The announcers talk about Dean being a fair referee, even though he helped Guerrera winning the title. That’s a quote, not pointing out a flaw.

Cruiserweight Title: Juventud Guerrera vs. Kidman

Kidman is cleaned up here but Juvy catches him with a spinwheel kick right after the bell. A springboard missile dropkick to the back puts Kidman down on the floor. Kidman takes over with a dropkick of his own before sending Juvy back inside for a slingshot legdrop. The champ avoids a charge in the corner and takes Kidman down with a running lariat. Kidman comes back with a short powerbomb as the announcers talk about Bret’s rematch on Thunder. Juvy takes Kidman down with a hurricanrana and the 450 is enough to retain the title.

Rating: D+. This is a match where they could have done something special if they had actual time but you can’t get very far in three and a half minutes. Kidman works better in the clean clothes as he picks up the pace a bit. Juvy’s 450 still looks great, but the announcers didn’t even acknowledge it to hype the rematch.

The announcers talk about Bret vs. Luger again.

We see the real stills from the Leno match.

Here are Raven and the Flock so the boss can beat up Riggs and Lodi for costing him the match on Saturday. Raven goes to hit Horace but he blocks the shot and we get a bell.

Raven vs. Horace

Raven beats on Horace to start and knocks him to the floor. A Russian legsweep sends Horace into the barricade but he comes back with a stop sign shot to the head, knocking Raven back to the floor. Horace hits a nice suicide dive before throwing Raven through the sign. The big man misses a top rope splash and Raven asks for a chair, setting up the drop toehold. The Flock has to stop an invading Kanyon, allowing Saturn to come in with a Death Valley Driver on Raven to give Horace the pin.

Rating: D+. The more I see of Horace the more I like him. He’s a big guy but moves well in the ring and has a good look to him. He’ll never go anywhere but it’s cool to see people like this who had some potential. The three way feud of course continues because we have to go months before getting any real development.

The Nitro Girls dance some more. Of note (for me at least) is Tony announcing a Thunder taping at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. There’s a chance I was at that show.

Konnan vs. Curt Hennig

Curt cranks on the arm to start but Konnan comes back with the rolling clothesline to send Hennig to the floor. The fans chant Wolfpack while Konnan pulls on his pants. Back in and Hennig pounds Konnan down in the corner before shouting that he’s rowdy rowdy. A belly to back suplex gets two for Hennig but Konnan comes back with an X Factor. Curt finds a chain from somewhere but Konnan takes it away from him and chokes Hennig for a DQ.

Rating: D. This hasn’t been the best night for in ring action. It was another boring match with a lot of walking around by Hennig to fill in time. You would think on a show with five title matches (think they were desperate for something to pop a rating?) that there wouldn’t be a need to waste time but it’s been a staple tonight.

Tag Titles: Kevin Nash/Sting vs. Scott Hall/Giant

Kevin and Sting are challenging. The Survey says this is Wolfpack territory, causing Tony to refer to the Wolfpack as the good guys. Giant holds the belt above his head so the referee can’t get it in a funny bit. Nash punches Hall in the face to start but Scott gets away from an early Jackknife attempt. Back in and Hall drives in the shoulders, only to be clotheslined down again. Time for the battle of the giants with Nash firing off some knees to the ribs.

It’s back to Hall for more knees to the ribs but a Giant distraction lets Hall get in a low blow. For once in his career Tony makes a good point: shouldn’t the referee wonder why Nash is keeled over in pain when he turns around? Hall punches Nash down again and brings Giant back in, only to have Nash come back with a big boot. The hot tag brings in Sting for three straight Splashes on Hall but Giant chokeslams the referee for the DQ.

Rating: D. These matches are getting annoying. This was another match that could have been on the PPV but instead they just threw it on Nitro to fill in about ten minutes. It wasn’t entertaining due to the pure formula and cheap ending but the fans reacted to Sting as they always will. One other note: Tony said the powerbomb was banned for a few months, which is as close as we’re going to get to an official ending to the story.

Both NWOs come out to do security on the main event. Why the four guys in the previous match needed to go to the back and come out again is beyond me. There are only six guys in total: those four plus Luger and Hogan.

WCW World Title: Goldberg vs. Meng

Meng pounds away to start but Goldberg hits a kind of flying tackle. A superkick puts Meng on the floor but the Black and White leave Meng alone. Back in and Goldberg puts on a quickly broken leg bar before getting kicked to the floor on the Black and White side. The Wolfpack makes the save but Meng puts him in the Tongan Death Grip, only to let go early. Spear, Jackhammer, we’re done. Too short to rate but they actually did a good job of making Goldberg seem vulnerable. Given the opponent, that’s very impressive.

Hogan comes in with a chair shot to Goldberg’s back but Nash takes it away. Goldberg thinks it was Nash and Big Sexy gets speared.

Overall Rating: D+. It’s the usual WCW mantra: there’s good stuff in there but all the bad stuff is too much to overcome. The NWO feud continues to go nowhere and is starting to remind me of the Alliance. If there’s nowhere to go with these stories, what’s the point in sitting through them?

I mentioned the other problem several times: so many of these matches should have been on the pay per view. The US and Tag Title matches easily could have been done on Saturday to fill in time and make the card feel more complete. Instead they just threw everyone into one battle royal and gave us McMichael vs. Adams. Disappointing show tonight.

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