Monday Nitro #39
Date: June 10, 1996
Location: Wheeling Civic Center, Wheeling, West Virginia
Attendance: 3,500
Commentators: Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Eric Bischoff, Larry Zbyszko

 

It’s the go home show for the Great American Bash and other than that there isn’t much. The PPV was focused on the football players vs. wrestlers match and the world title was on the side. However, last week the invader (Hall) had promised a BIG surprise for tonight which we’ll get to later. With Sting having confronted him, it was pretty clear that this was going to be a huge angle. Let’s get to it.

 

On the theme song and opening video, there are six shots of people total. Three are Hogan.

 

We get a clip of Hall and Sting last week and them almost going at it.

 

Scott Steiner vs. Booker T

 

This would be huge about four years later. Basic anything you can do I can do greater match to start as I think this is face vs. heel but I’m not sure. Both escape belly to back suplexes but Scott gets a double underhook suplex for no cover. Booker manages to get a boot up in the corner kind of like a superkick to put Scott down. Scissors kick gets two.

 

Off to a front facelock and Booker controls. Spinning cross body off the top gets two. Larry Z giving wrestling advice to Booker is really weird for some reason. Scott gets something like a DDT to break the momentum though and here comes Steiner. We speed things up and Scott gets a belly to belly to put Booker down. Frankensteiner is avoided which gets two for Booker. A top rope splash misses and Scott hits another belly to belly to end it.

 

Rating: B-. Not bad at all here with two guys that were still (kind of) young and motivated and could give you a good match at this point. Also nice to see some young guys out there having some time to show off. Booker wouldn’t mean much of anything for like two years though and Steiner would be about 18 months away, so call this a very early preview.

 

Scott is talking about the match when Debra of all people interrupts him. She wants to talk about her husband and Scott leaves. Nice chick indeed. She talks about how this feud with the Horsemen is her fault. Gene says no it isn’t. She wants to call this off before Sunday and Gene says he’ll try to get something set up with Heenan. It’s not like this mattered because she and Mongo joined the Horsemen on Sunday.

 

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Jim Powers

 

This is for the Battlebowl ring. Naturally we talk about the football thing the entire time because that’s all that matters. To be fair this is going to be a squash so it’s not like it’s as bad as usual. This is Powers’ debut and he’s wearing something similar to leopard print. Page hits a gutwrench gutbuster and stands around a lot. Page’s gum is kicked out and Powers gets some jobber offense in. The crowd does not care in the slightest about him. Powerslam gets two. Not that it matters because there’s the Diamond Cutter and we’re done.

 

Rating: D+. Just a long squash here and by long I mean four minutes. Bagwell faced Page for the ring on Sunday in a match I don’t remember in the slightest. Powers was just a jobber that didn’t mean anything as most jobbers tend to be. Nothing to see here as Page was far from meaning much at this point.

 

Recap of Benoit vs. Sullivan which entails Anderson and paranoia. Anderson said everyone would know where everyone stood on Sunday. The match was great too.

 

Video on Konnan who was pretty different back in the day and in a good way.

 

Konnan, the US Champion at this point, says that he’ll keep the title when he fights El Gato on Sunday. He’s such a legend that no one has ever heard of him.

 

Sting vs. Meng

 

This is more or less just a tune up for Sting for his match with Regal on Sunday. Meng be clubberin to start us off but Sting gets a backdrop to break that up. Meng does his monster that you can’t hurt thing as Sting hits the ropes for a bunch of clotheslines. Face jam puts Meng down but he gets a small package of all things for two. Shoulder breaker puts Sting down so Meng goes up. Sting manages to crotch him and put on the Scorpion for the kind of surprising tap. Not enough to grade but it was exactly what you would expect.

 

Heenan takes Flair to the Horsemen dressing room and shuts the door. Screaming is heard and here they come, beating up a guy named Joe Gomez who is supposed to team with Renegade to face them later.

 

Jim Duggan vs. Dave Taylor

 

Taylor is buddies with Regal. Renegade and Gomez have replacements apparently. The fans like Duggan of course. Oh and those replacements: the world tag team champions Luger and Sting and the titles are on the line. The match of course means little but at least it’s got a point. Taylor cost Duggan a match last week so here you are. After some basic stuff it’s more basic stuff in the form of kicking and punching. There’s the taped fist which is hanging from his hand as the referee counts the pin. Freaking blind idiot. Short and more or less nothing.

 

Video on the Cruiserweight Title which is finally in America. Malenko defends against some guy that is debuting on Sunday. Mysterio I think his name is.

 

We recap Tenta vs. Bubba which is something no one really wanted to see other than them but whatever. Hart says Tenta wasn’t pulling his weight. Bubba says he’ll win and that’s that.

 

Here’s Scott Norton to talk for some reason that no one knows. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak. He didn’t like getting chokeslammed last week so he’s coming for revenge tonight.

 

Scott Norton vs. The Giant

 

We get the stupid countdown to the second hour as we wait on Giant’s entrance. Don’t think this is for the title. Norton goes right at him and gets powerslammed for his efforts. Norton comes back and hammers away but we go to the floor and he misses a splash into the post. Chokeslam out there and we’re done. Less than a minute and a half but Norton was impressive here as he took it to Giant. It didn’t work but points for trying at least.

 

Luger comes out post match and Giant massacres him. Luger kicks him low to prevent a chokeslam through the table. A champagne bucket to the head just ticks Giant off and Luger heads to the announce table. He says throw the rules out on Sunday because he’s ready for the big man.

 

Video of the Nasty Boys on some TV show with Dennis Rodman, who is made an official Nasty Boy.

 

Kevin Greene was on the Tonight Show and talked about the match. He picked the name Shallow Grave apparently.

 

Steven Regal vs. Billy Kidman

 

Kidman is a total rookie here. I think this is his WCW debut. Regal kills him for a bit but Kidman gets some stuff in and busts out a 450 (kind of) which misses. Regal puts on the start of a Liontamer but steps on Kidman’s head instead for the tap in less than a minute.

 

Sting comes out for the save post match.

 

Public Enemy vs. Nasty Boys

 

Please….be gentle. Public Enemy runs out during the Nasties’ entrance and the fight is on. There’s the WCW trademark for tag team brawls: split screens where all four guys can be seen on one screen. Knobbs and Grunge are in the ring so we’ll say they’re legal. Middle rope clothesline takes Grunge to the floor as the Nasties are the big faces here. Ok finally into a regular match.

 

Grunge has a broken hand. Sags takes both of them down with a double clothesline and it breaks down into a brawl quickly again. Sags hits a Piledriver as we take a break. Back with Public Enemy in control. Knobbs takes down Grunge but can’t bring Sags back in. There’s Jerry who hits a World’s Strongest Slam on Rocco for two and it breaks down again.

 

Rocco tries to leave as Grunge unbandages his bad hand/arm. Oh ok Rocco left to get a garbage can. Pumphandle slam by Sags looks to set up a middle rope splash from Knobbs but Rocco breaks it up. The trashcan is brought in and the Nasties get caught using it for the DQ. Kind of a stretch given what they had done before that but I can live with it.

 

Rating: D+. Yeah it was bad but it could have been a lot worse. They know how to make brawls decent and they had the right idea here to not make them act like they could work a competent technical match. I wanted to hate this but I really couldn’t do it in good faith. The Public Enemy would actually be tag champions later in the year.

 

Video on Hogan who punches a lot.

 

We recap the coaches being added to the football player match. This is set to a bad country song.

 

Tag Titles: Sting/Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair/Arn Anderson

 

This should be good and there’s a lot of time left. Flair and Luger start us off as the bell rings twice. Luger beats him up and tosses him with ease and does the same to Anderson. Big old gorilla press puts Flair down again. Flair does the Flair Flip in the corner but runs into a right hand from Sting to put him down. Bischoff mentions the concept of Nitro Parties. I never got the appeal of those but they became a big deal.

 

Sting comes in to beat up Anderson for a bit as the champions have dominated the entire time so far. Sting does his double nipup both times he’s pulled down by the hair. Anderson and Flair both get taken down so Flair runs off to grab a chair. The Horsemen chill in the aisle as we take a break.

 

Back with Anderson being pinballed between the champions before Flair comes in to face Sting. Hard to screw this one up. Flair gets a slight advantage and then goes up top. If you don’t know what happens here, go somewhere else. Top rope clothesline gets two for Sting. There’s a superplex for two. Ric goes to the classic thumb to the eye and it’s off to the Enforcer.

 

Spinebuster gets two. Arn does his jump into the air when the other guy is on the mat and Anderson jumps into the legs between his balls for a funny reaction spot. Off to Flair instead who can’t suplex Sting. Sting gets an O’Connor Roll for two and a weird small package for the same. Off to Anderson as we take another break.

 

Back with Flair sending Sting into the guardrail. Back in Sting gets the backslide but Flair makes a blind tag to bring Anderson back in. Sting gets a knee to the nether regions and falls into the tag to Luger. Powerslam gets two on Luger. Luger hits a double clothesline to put both guys on the floor and here’s Giant for the DQ.

 

Rating: B-. Eh it’s Sting/Luger vs. Flair/Anderson for about 18 minutes. This is one of those matches that is going to be good due to just sheer talent in the ring. They know what they’re doing and they’ve fought so many times over the years that they know each other perfectly, which often helps with matches. Flair and Anderson would win at the PPV and the Horsemen would be back.

 

Giant gets beaten up by Sting, Luger and Scott Steiner but just gets mad because of it. Giant says Luger is dead to Gene.

 

Heenan starts to rant about Savage and here’s Hall in black this week. For some reason the screen splits here into two identical images. Bischoff asks where the surprise is and turns around to run into Nash’s chest. He says they’re not here to play (“Look at the adjective: play.  We ain’t here to play.”  Play is a verb, Kev.) and wants WCW’s three guys. Nash blasts the old guys in the company and wants to know where Hogan and Savage are. Bischoff invites them to the Bash and says he’ll try to have their fight there. That would result in Bischoff being powerbombed off the stage.

 

Overall Rating: C+. Well the Bash was a two match show and they built those up quite well. Anything else you get out of it was a bonus and you had a decent main event and a story running through the entire show so this wasn’t too bad really. The Bash wasn’t all that good but considering what happened a month later it’s not like it really mattered. Pretty decent show this week.

 

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

 

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 9, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the go home show for Slammiversary and we have most of the card set up already. With Foley now fired and apparently legit gone from the company, it appears that Immortal is back in control again. Also we’re likely to get the final push to Sting vs. Anderson which will see Sting/Young vs. Anderson/Gunner. Anyway, let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week of Foley being fired and Immortal having full power again. Hogan is looking extra orange here.

Hogan and Bischoff open the show. Hulk says that the Network finally woke up and got rid of the selfish Foley. Eric says that Foley did have a few good ideas such as the name of the show and that wrestling matters. Eric assures us that the X Division is going to be presented in a fair and balanced manner. First up though he wants the contenders in the world title match to come down here right now.

Here are Anderson and Sting. Hogan talks about how awesome this company is now. They’re not going to go through this with the Network again. Hogan gave his word apparently and he meant it. At Slammiversary there will be a winner and a loser with no gimmicks or agendas. Also there will be no run-ins. If either guy has a problem with that speak now.

Anderson raises his hand and says that he’s been making fun of Sting for weeks because everything Sting stands for is a joke. Anderson is in this for Anderson and on Sunday, he’s getting the title back. Sting says he’s got a lot he’s going to do about that. There are a lot of things he wants to do around here and he’s going to do them because he’s champion. One of two things has to happen: Hogan and Bischoff have to leave or the real Hogan has to come back. He gets in Eric’s face and calls him an infection, blaming him for Hogan being the way he is. Hogan needs to cut away the cancer, and he’s certainly capable of it.

Knockouts are up next.

Mickie James/Tara vs. Winter/Angelina Love

 

Can we just get to the lesbian stuff already? Tara has the motorcycle back. Tara and Winter start us off. Angelina doesn’t seem interested in tagging in so Mickie and Tara work on the arm. I guess Mickie is all cool about the whole Tara running her over a few months back thing. Off to Angelina who wants Mickie. Tara instead hits a spinning side slam and it’s off to Mickie. They hit a wheelbarrow splash for one as Angelina does her zombie thing again.

With Tara accidentally distracting the referee, Winter is able to get a powerbomb in the corner on Mickie for two. The zombie chicks take over on Mickie now as she plays Ricky Morton for a bit. Mickie hammers back and that gets her nowhere. Blind tag brings in Angelina but Mickie hits a dropkick to take her down. Everything breaks down and Madison comes down to distract Tara, allowing Angelina to hit her backbreaker on Mickie for the pin at 4:45.

Rating: C. Not bad here but really just a standard tag match. It sets up the Mickie vs. Angelina match on Sunday which is fine. Nothing too bad but Madison might have been a bit too much out there. Angelina’s chest looked great though so that balances out the questionable ending.

Beer Money and Shelley are ready for their match tonight and on Sunday.

Mexican America says they’re tired of getting less every time.

We get a video of Samoa Joe and Crimson fighting in a bar which is filmed via phone apparently. Joe beats the tar out of him.

Jeff Jarrett gets here and doesn’t want to talk about Karen so he walks off.

The Brits are on commentary here. Well at least Magnus is as Williams stands behind the desk.

Mexican America vs. Alex Shelley/James Storm

 

Anarquia and Shelley start us off. The champions I guess do some of the Guns’ offense which Storm modifies for his own style. I like that as it plays up the best of both world dynamics. Shelley gets caught coming off the top and Hernandez hits his slingshot shoulder to take Shelley down. We keep cutting to Magnus talking so it’s hard to see everything that’s going on.

Shelley tries to fight back but gets caught by the power of Hernandez. Slam sets up a missed splash off the top by Supermex and there’s the tag to Storm and one to Anarquia also. Everything breaks down and Hernandez is knocked to the floor. Storm has Anarquia covered but the girls distract the referee. Sarita gets beer to the face and Shelley kicks Storm in the face, allowing Anarquia to get the pin on Storm at 4:30.

Rating: C. Pretty decent tag match here as we can see the problems that the guys unfamiliar with being partners. I liked how Shelley and Storm worked together out there but I’m not sure I get the point in having them lose. Have miscommunication and let them win still to make it look like they’re having issues but can still win on Sunday. Either way not bad here.

Gunner comes in to see Anderson and Anderson asks for help against Sting, implying he’ll repay the favor later. They’re cool apparently.

Mexican America comes in to see Hogan and wants a title shot. Hogan gets all ticked off and says quit telling me what to do or he’ll turn into the Terminator and play a game of Hulkster Says with the ladies. Mexican America is going to do something when Hogan least expects it. Ok then.

Preview of Angle/Jarrett with the main focus being on Angle. He says he’s not worried about this Sunday and says that he can beat Jarrett this time because there will be no Karen to distract him.

We open the second hour with more talking of course, this time in the form of Jarrett and Angle. Jeff says Kurt is going to listen tonight rather than it being them going back and forth. Karen is gone apparently and won’t be at the PPV. Jeff has had to think about that for seven days now and the first thing he did was panic. He panicked over what Kurt will do to him when it’s one on one. Jeff reminds everyone that he brought Kurt in and Kurt is the best in history.

However, Kurt never thanked Jeff for bringing him in. Kurt wasn’t happy about being the best in the company and the real star. It was always about making people forget about Jeff. Then Jarrett wanted to take everything dear to Kurt, so he took his wife and kids. Now he wants to take away Kurt’s place on top and he won’t sleep until he owns it.

Kurt finally gets to talk and thanks Jeff for taking Karen out of his life for good. All he’s ever wanted was Jeff one on one but Jeff had to keep bringing Karen into it. Kurt isn’t wasting any more words on him because on Sunday, his wrestling will do the talking. Then Jeff will see how real this really is.

ODB doesn’t like how Velvet presents herself and ODB will how Velvet what wrestling is tonight.

Kaz and Kendrick have Janice and are looking for Abyss. Kendrick says Abyss is his type of guy. They say they’re going to go find him.

Bully Ray is here for an open challenge. On Sunday he’ll be the last man standing because he’s a man. I wonder if he’s 40. The challenge is for everyone other than D-Von. Here’s a surprising person to take it.

Rob Van Dam vs. Bully Ray

 

RVD does his poses and gets powerbombed out of the corner for two. All Ray so far as he uses his basic brawling stuff. RVD finally gets in a kick to send Ray into the corner. Monkey flip doesn’t work and Ray hammers away again. AJ is chilling in the stands watching this. Ray hasn’t seen him yet but he does now. The distraction lets RVD recover long enough to counter the Piledriver. Springboard kick sets up the Five Star and we’re done at 3:30.

Rating: C. This is barely gradeable as the majority was Ray hammering on RVD and then the AJ distraction. RVD had a total of about four moves in this. Remember a few weeks ago when he and Angle had one of the “biggest matches in Impact history”? And now he has a three and a half minute match with Bully Ray that he needs AJ to help him get through. Things change so fast in wrestling it’s unreal.

We get a clip from English TV of Angle trying to get back on the Olympic team.

Kendrick and Kaz are still looking for Abyss and they actually find him reading The Art of War again. Abyss talks about how he doesn’t need Janice anymore and calls the X Title the Extreme Title. There can be a three way at the PPV. Kendrick gets into a big philosophical rant and Kaz just leaves.

We run down the card for Slammiversary.

ODB vs. Velvet Sky

 

ODB isn’t under contract apparently so she comes out next to the broadcast table. Sky jumps her before the bell and the brawl begins. Velvet is sent into the steps and hurts her knee as we finally head into the ring and start the actual match. ODB covers immediately but only gets two. This is a sloppy brawl and barely even a match at all.

Velvet can’t get going due to the knee injury but has a chance to breathe due to ODB yelling at the referee. She argues even more and Velvet can’t do anything. The announcers make stupid jokes and we get more arguing with the referee. Velvet finally wakes up and stomps away in the corner. Out to the floor again and Velvet gets her back rammed into the post. Fall away slam sets up more yelling and Velvet grabs a DDT for the surprise pin at 5:12.

Rating: D. Didn’t like this at all as it was about five minutes of stomping, choking and yelling. I guess that’s the end of this feud and if so that’s not saying very much. Pretty weak match here and the only real perk was Velvet looking good. Any match where I have to watch ODB slap her vagina is a bad one.

Eric Young is all stupid again and talks about unifying the titles and Who’s The Boss before Sting yells at him again. He wants him to drop the comedy for one night and let the competitor come out.

We get a clip from Xplosion where D-Von and Pope have been having issues. Pope came out to save D-Von from Mexican America. D-Von doesn’t like Pope being around his kids and wife.

And now let’s have our main event.

Gunner/Mr. Anderson vs. Sting/Eric Young

 

Big match intros kill some time. The slow bell for this makes me chuckle for some reason. Sting vs. Anderson to start but we get the traditional fast tag from Anderson to bring in Gunner. Sting gets the splash in the corner very quickly and adds a second one, both of them to the back. Apparently the second was because a spot was messed up as after the first Sting intentionally turned his back to Anderson. He did it again the second time in the same spot and Anderson drilled him.

Anderson works over Sting in the corner now and it’s off to Gunner again. He works on the ribs with an abdominal stretch and here’s Anderson again. Sting gets a clothesline and it’s off to Eric who cleans a few rooms, adding a big top rope elbow to Gunner. He fakes blowing mist at Anderson but celebrates too much and is rammed into Sting. That counts as a tag somehow and Gunner hits the F5 on Sting for the pin at 6:00. Oh and Young celebrates on the floor.

Rating: D+. What in the world was that? Who in the world thought it was a good idea for Gunner of all people to get a pin on Sting to end the show? I don’t get this at all and the main event is the longest match of the show at 6:00. Not a fan of that at all and I don’t get what they’re going for here in the slightest.

Back and Young doesn’t get that they lost. Sting is mad.

AJ says the plan is coming together. Ray pops up and says he didn’t back away. Agents break it up.

Sting gets something out of his bag and Anderson talks about how he didn’t break a sweat. Sting comes up and Anderson runs. They go into a trailer and Sting beats him down then puts paint all over Anderson’s face. This is Sting snapping I guess. He chokes Anderson out to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Not a bad show tonight but it was rather paint by numbers. Nothing really happened here but it was a go home show for the PPV and they covered the big matches for it pretty well. That being said it was another match where everything kind of dragged which is never a good thing. Definitely not a bad show but really just kind of there at the end of the day. That main event brought it down though.

 

Results

Angelina Love/Winter b. Mickie James/Tara – Backbreaker to James

Mexican America b. Alex Shelley/James Storm – Anarquia pinned Storm after a superkick from Shelley

Rob Van Dam b. Bully Ray – Five Star Frog Splash

Velvet Sky b. ODB – DDT

Gunner/Mr. Anderson b. Sting/Eric Young – F5 to Sting

 

Here’s Slammiversary if you’re interested:

 

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/06/12/slammiversary-2011-some-very-questionable-stuff-but-tnas-best-ppv-of-the-year/

 

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

 

Clash of the Champions 2: Miami Mayhem
Date: June 8, 1988
Location: James L. Knight Center, Miami, Florida
Attendance: 2,400
Commentators: Bob Caudle, Tony Schiavone

It’s the second show in this series and the main event, while still a big match, isn’t quite Sting vs. Flair for the title. Instead Sting and Dusty are teaming up to take on Arn and Tully for the tag titles. They really didn’t know what they were doing yet with this stuff so it’s kind of hard to know what to expect. We’re building to Bash 88 here so there’s that to look forward to. Let’s get to it.

Various people are here, namely being “celebrities” that aren’t really celebrities.

Ah let’s make sure to talk about the NWA promoters because the NWA actually thinks that either they mean something or that anyone other than them cares.

It’s going to be really hard to take Tony seriously with that mustache. He and Bob run down the card.

US Title: Barry Windham vs. Brad Armstrong

Barry is champion here of course and would hold the title for about 9 months and is a Horseman here. Feeling out process to start as we look at a random sign in the audience instead of an armdrag by Brad. Now let’s look at Dillon in the middle of a move. Are these guys following the TNA playbook for camera cuts? Brad gets a slam and Barry chills on the floor a bit.

Headlock takeover by Brad as we hit the mat. After a solid sequence on the mat, Barry heads into the corner to hide as this is taking its sweet time. Windham starts using his power but can’t hit a big elbow. Crowd is red hot here. Off to the headlock to waste some time and QUIT CUTTING TO THE FREAKING CROWD!!! It’s like this show has ADD or something.

Big slam hits as this is almost all Armstrong. Off to another chinlock as they keep getting going and then stopping which is rather annoying. Windham gets out of the way and the Horseman takes over. Powerslam gets two. Figure four goes on because when you have a monster like Windham, the right thing is to have him use a submission hold on a body part he hasn’t touched all match. This is what we mean by bad psychology.

You know Teddy, if you actually watched the wrestlers you might see something happen. I guess he looks at Dillon’s hair and gets jealous or something. This hold goes on longer than should be humanly possible but that’s wrestling for you I guess. This hold has been on for over two minutes now. Windham is either really bad at this hold or Armstrong has legs of steel.

JJ tries to cheat for about the tenth time so the referee finally breaks it. Slam sets up Barry to go up top, only to miss a big elbow. Brad fires off and the fans are loving this. Top rope cross body gets two. Brad tries a second one but Barry rolls through it and grabs the Claw, his EVIL finisher, for the pin. That was a pretty sweet ending actually.

Rating: C+. Not bad here overall with the fans making this a lot better. The figure four in the middle kills it but the times where they were moving out there were really good. The ending helped it a lot as they needed a good ending to carry it through. Not a great match or anything but Armstrong rarely was bad and this was no exception.

Now it’s time for the show to grind to a screeching halt as we plug a sitcom about wrestling with a football player that will air this fall. It’s called Learning the Ropes which is about a teacher that moonlights as a wrestler and the NWA guys were on the show also. Now here are some of the issues: first of all the football player playing the main character stood about 6’7 and had a dark complexion (white, but with darker skin). He was played by the nearly pale and 6’1 Dr. Death Steve Williams for his matches as he wrestled in a mask as a jobber to the stars. Somehow, this lasted a whole season. The 80s never stop amazing me.

Anyway we’re told that the wrestlers are great athletes and how some of them are better athletes than the football players. We get a clip of the show which is more like a promo for it than a clip. This couldn’t be more 80s if they tried. Naturally this needs to be shown for so much time on Clash of the Champions right?

The Rock N Roll Express return to the company and will be at the Bash. They say they’re awesome.

We see Luger and Flair signing their contract for the title match on a yacht. There are a bunch of NWA guys in there and a bunch of business people that own the Chicago Blackhawks apparently. The NWA never quite got the idea of TV did they? The signing is nothing and they both say nothing of note. Total waste of time here.

The Horsemen arrive, 40 minutes into the show. Granted we’re just told this because we don’t need to see it right?

Back and the Horsemen haven’t arrived yet. Oh ok the Horsemen are but Flair is just getting here. THEN WHY ARE THEY ALL IN FLAIR’S LIMO??? Geez people figure out the basic stuff here. Flair says the Horsemen will keep the titles tonight.

US Tag Titles: Sheepherders vs. Fantastics

The Fantastics are champions here and are Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers. The Sheepherders would soon jump to the WWF and change their names to the Bushwhackers. Here though they’re insane heels and rather brutal. They have a flag bearer named Rip Morgan. Luger is just getting here so let’s cut to that before the match starts. The Horsemen jump him and annihilate him, ramming his head into the car and busting him open, which would play a big role in their title match.

Oh hey it’s time for the match. So were the wrestlers just chilling there? I’d bet on a tiddlywinks tournament. Rogers and Butch start us off. Off to Luke almost immediately who gets cross bodied for two. Off to Fulton and the beating begins. We get a weird moment where the Sheepherders can’t figure out who is legal so Fulton just stands there. Out to the floor and everything breaks down. Morgan gets a flag shot in so Fulton drills him.

Fulton vs. Luke in the ring now and Luke takes him down. In theory that is because the camera cut to the crowd to show us that there are in fact people still in the building. Rogers and Luke botch something completely and make what I think was supposed to be a crucifix almost a rollup. Rogers flips through a backdrop and lands on his feet. Everything breaks down again and the Fantastics clear the ring.

Butch vs. Rogers now with Butch taking over. It’s so weird to see him as an evil guy. Off to the chinlock which doesn’t last long. We hit an abdominal stretch as the Sheepherders cheat a lot. Rogers runs into a knee for two. The official time is all over the place as they go from start to five minutes in about four and from five to ten in about three. Fulton comes in and gets stomped down IMMEDIATELY.

Luke hammers away on Fulton as this has been one extreme to the other which is kind of a weird thing to see. Fulton fires back and takes Luke down a few times and knocks Butch down as well but it’s not enough for a tag yet. Here’s another weird part of the match as Fulton takes both Sheepherders down with a cross body and covers both guys. Rogers comes back in and covers both at once again with the referee seeming all cool with it. Both of the Fantastics keep covering both Sheepherders and everyone is cool with this. Weird indeed.

The Sheepherders bail for a bit as this has been more or less a mess. We get an actual tag by the Fantastics and Rogers works on Luke’s arm. Rogers gets knocked to the floor and might have hit his head. Butch throws him into the railing and Tommy takes a belt shot to the back. Where in the world is the referee during all this? After about 12 minutes of wrestling we’re told we’re 15 minutes in.

Chair to the back of Rogers with the referee like a foot away is missed as Rogers has been on the floor for like two minutes now. Back in and there’s STILL no referee for the cover. Heel miscommunication sees Butch hit Luke with a middle rope double axe handle. That goes nowhere because the Sheepherders won’t sell anything. Rogers gets a clothesline and that gets him nowhere at all AGAIN. Rogers rams their heads together and it’s off to Fulton. A rollup to Luke gets the pin that Butch probably broke it up anyway because they needed to end this I guess.

Rating: D. This was weird to say the least. They seemed rather confused out there and the Sheepherders wouldn’t sell a single thing. This would have been far better if they cut this down by about ten minutes but they have to have about 15 minutes a match in the NWA in this era. Not a good match at all which is rare for the Fantastics who I’m a fan of.

Dr. Death sits in on commentary for the next match. He rambles about Luger being awesome and sounds drunk.

Ronnie Garvin/Jimmy Garvin vs. Mike Rotundo/Rick Steiner

It’s Varsity Club time and the Gamesmaster Kevin Sullivan will be in a cage at ringside. There’s a big ordeal going on with the Garvin’s manager Precious and Sullivan which was never really resolved but was getting rather weird indeed. Just a grudge match here. Oh and Rotundo/a is the TV Champion. Steiner is the Florida champion which means nothing. He’s also a clueless putz.

Once again before the match we stop to talk about Luger and cut to Ross because that’s the guy we go to for a big moment I guess. And let’s just reair the thing because no one wants to see this tag match right? Back from a break and it’s a huge brawl. The Garvins hit a double sleeper on both guys before they get sent to the floor. The Varsity guys that is. Sullivan keeps looking at Precious and has something in his coat for her. They’re papers apparently. From what I understand this was supposed to result in an abortion storyline and that was WAY too hardcore for the 80s so it was dropped.

Ronnie gets two on Rick in the ring. Jimmy gets a hammerlock on Rick as we talk about Luger even more. There’s talk of the Tower of Doom which was one of if not the biggest mess you’ll ever see. Sullivan keeps pulling out papers that he wants to show Precious who keeps staring her down and she agrees to something or other. Oh and there’s a tag match going on too.

She has the key to the cage apparently. Rotundo works on Ronnie’s arm as Williams says he’s going to wrestle Rotundo later. Jimmy keeps running off to fight Sullivan even though he’s in a cage. The Varsity guys keep working on Ronnie’s arm as the match means nothing at all. Jimmy finally comes in and beats on Rick for a bit but that might be too interesting so let’s go with a front facelock for awhile.

This is an incredibly boring match as just like almost every match so far tonight they’ve been given way too much time. This is a two hour show and there are five matches. Since there are very few entrances and more or less no long term promos, there’s way too much time in these matches. Ronnie rolls up Rick for two. Off to Rotundo and since Garvin is the worst former world champion ever, Rotundo takes over with relative ease.

The Varsity Club works over Ron as we see Sullivan with the paper again. This needs to end and it needs to end very soon. The tag rope is used to choke Ron and he gets sent to the floor. Everything breaks down again and it’s Rick vs. Jimmy in the ring. Precious goes over to Sullivan who steals the key. Jimmy hits a brainbuster to win over Rick and Precious goes for the papers. Sullivan goes after her and Steve Williams makes the save.

Rating: D. Another match that is boring and way too long, although to be fair with the story being Precious and Sullivan there’s only so much that they can do. Not an interesting match as if you’re going to have a match as a backdrop for a story, don’t have the match be nearly 15 minutes long. Didn’t work at all.

Post match Precious pushes Jimmy away and leaves on her own. To say this was a mess was an understatement.

Road Warriors vs. Powers of Pain in a scaffold match is announced. This would never happen as the Powers jumped to the WWF because they didn’t want to have a scaffold match due to fear of that pesky death thing.

We talk about the Tower of Doom now because we need to waste more time I guess.

Al Perez vs. Nikita Koloff

Koloff you’ve probably heard of. Perez is a heel that is of no consequence for the most part. This is a challenge/grudge match or something like that. They stare each other down for awhile and Nikita shoves him around a lot. Nikita dominates here in one of the least interesting matches I’ve ever seen. The announcers just talk about the Horsemen to fill in time.

Gary Hart, Perez’s manager, interferes and Perez takes over for a bit. This is one of those matches that just keeps going and going with no one caring in the slightest. Hart interferes again and this keeps staying in first gear at best. After Nikita stays on the floor for a bit we hit the chinlock back in the ring. Camel clutch goes on and Koloff gets an electric chair drop to escape.

Koloff is knocked to the floor again because we haven’t been out there long enough in this never ending match yet right? Perez can’t suplex him so Nikita gets one of his own. Nikita makes his comeback and hammers away in the corner before he sends Perez to the floor. And here’s Larry Zbyszko to run in for the DQ and triple beatdown.

Rating: F. End this show already. Another boring match here with a stupid ending that was given about 8 minutes too long which makes the wrestling really boring in the process. This feud of course went nowhere and no one cared, but that’s the NWA for you. No wonder they went out of business.

World Tag Titles: Tully Blanchard/Arn Anderson vs. Sting/Dusty Rhodes

No entrance for the champions. Sting and Arn to start with Sting frustrating him badly. Sting works on the arm as we praise Dusty for no apparent reason. Off to Tully and Sting abuses him a bit too. Dusty, the STAR here I guess, comes in and beats on Tully a bit also. Tully does his usual great selling and it’s time for a figure four by Dusty who of course butchers the thing.

Arn gets a shot in and the Horsemen take over. Clothesline takes Tully down. Oh wait he’s from Texas so it’s a lariat. Off to Sting who cleans a few rooms. He tries the Scorpion on Blanchard but the Horsemen fight him off and send him into the post on the floor. Arn misses a Vader Bomb but Tully stops the tag.

Time to work on the arm which is pure Horsemen to put it mildly. Arn DDTs him on the floor which should kill Sting but JJ throws him back in. Nice guy that JJ. In an unintentionally funny spot, a DDT on the floor gets a one count. That’s just amusing. Backslide gets two for Sting and it’s a collision with him and Tully. Tag off to Dusty and everything breaks down. Dusty shoves the referee and the whole thing is thrown out as Windham, Rhodes’ future opponent, runs in to put the Claw on Dusty. The Horsemen beat down everyone and stand tall to end the show.

Rating: D+. This was just there and another thrown out ending makes my eyes roll a lot. Sting wouldn’t do much for the rest of the year and Dusty would of course get a title somehow. Flair would hold the title forever and this whole feud with Luger would drag on for years with Luger never getting the pin over Flair. Almost a token main event here which isn’t a good thing at all.

Overall Rating: D-. Oh jeez this got bad in a hurry. The last hour is just mind numbingly uninteresting. Nothing really happens here and there are no long term implications of anything really. The Bash had nothing of note happening on it either as the champions were all the same by Starrcade. Weak show and a bad followup to the great first edition of this. The same problem runs through this whole show: WAY too long matches because the NWA thought long meant good, which was rarely the case.

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

Slammiversary 2013
Date: June 2, 2013
Location: Agganis Arena, Boston, Massachusetts
Commentators: Todd Keneley, Tazz, Mike Tenay

The Aces and 8’s saga reaches the end of its first year tonight as TNA is eleven years old tonight. The main event is Sting vs. Ray in a no holds barred match for Ray’s world title with the stipulation that if Sting loses, he can never challenge for the world title again. Other than that we have a four way for the tag titles, Angle vs. Styles, and the second inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is all about Bully Ray and Aces and 8’s, recapping the last few months of the stories and talking about the bikers taking out TNA’s heroes such as Hardy, Hogan and Sting tonight.

X-Division Title: Chris Sabin vs. Kenny King vs. Suicide

King is defending and this is an Ultimate X match, meaning there’s an X made of cable above the ring. You have to climb across the cables and pull the belt down to win, making this a combination of monkey bars and a ladder match. Sabin has only been back from a knee injury for a few months and the knee really hasn’t been tested all that well. King immediately bails to the floor but both challengers follow.

Everyone quickly gets back in but Suicide is the only one to stay inside long. He teases a dive to the floor but climbs up instead, only to be pulled right back down by Sabin. King suplexes Chris down and stomps away on both guys but the numbers quickly catch up with him. Suicide suplexes both guys down but it’s Sabin up first to take over on both guys with a suplex of his own. Sabin hits yet another suplex on Suicide to drop him onto King before going for a climb.

Suicide makes a quick save as King goes for a half crab on Sabin, only to have Suicide put a modified abdominal stretch on King at the same time. Dropkicks put King and Sabin down but King is able to stop a quick Suicide climb. Sabin hits a fisherman’s buster on King out of the corner but Suicide stops Sabin from climbing. King goes up but is pulled down by Suicide as well, followed by a series of rapid fire kicks all around, leading to a springboard Blockbuster from King to Sabin to put everyone down.

Sabin and King head to the floor where Suicide takes them both down with a springboard dropkick to take both guys down. All three head back inside with Suicide shoving the other two together and try a climb with King quickly breaking it up. They load up a Tower of Doom but instead it’s a double superplex to put Suicide down. King and Suicide both go for the belt but King knocks Suicide off with a rake of the mask. Sabin goes across as well and takes King down before pulling the belt down to win at 14:08.

Rating: B-. Nothing wrong with a good old fashioned spot fest to start. This is the same idea that got WCW PPVs off to a good start and it worked here too. I still don’t think Suicide should have been here at all, but at least the right guy won and there was no major swerve at all. Good match here and a solid win for Sabin. Also thank goodness the title is off of King, but who is Sabin supposed to fight now?

Before Sabin leaves the arena, here’s Hulk of all people. He shakes hands with Sabin and tells the fans to cheer for Sabin like they cheered when he beat Andre in Boston for the first time. Just like last year, Sabin can cash in the title for a shot at Destination X. Does that show exist anymore?

Hogan stays in the ring after Sabin leaves and says we have something else to talk about, “Macho Man.” Before he can get anywhere, here are Anderson, Garrett Bischoff and Wes Brisco. Anderson tells Hogan that tonight Aces and 8’s take over. Hogan says that Boston isn’t afraid of ghosts, terrorists, or pussies wearing leather BROTHER. Hogan brags about how TNA will dominate tonight in all their matches before introducing Joe, Magnus and Hardy.

Jeff Hardy/Magnus/Samoa Joe vs. Aces and 8’s

The bikers jump Hardy as he comes in and it’s Anderson starting against him for the Aces. Jeff comes back with a clothesline and a low dropkick for two before it’s off to Brisco. He walks into a right hand of his own and here’s Garrett to take a beating of his own. Off to Joe to a big pop to beat the tar out of Garrett in the corner with a rapid flurry of chops, punches and stomps.

Back to Anderson to face Magnus with the Brit hitting a big boot but getting clotheslined down. Anderson goes to an armbar before Brisco comes in with a suplex for no cover. Back to the armbar for a bit before Anderson comes in to drop some knees on said arm. Brisco comes in again but gives up the advantage, allowing Magnus to make the hot tag to Jeff.

After some dancing (I think?) from Jeff he cleans house on the bikers and gets two off the Whisper in the Wind. Everything breaks down and a bad looking Twist of Fate puts Brisco down, but it’s Garrett in to break up the Swanton. Magnus and Joe come in for the snapmare/middle rope elbow combo on Garrett, but Brisco hits Magnus low. He rolls the Brit up but Hardy comes off the top with the Swanton for the pin on Wes at 10:11.

Rating: B-. The match wasn’t bad up until the VERY hot ending which brought it up a lot. That low blow actually had me thinking Aces would win here, so well done on making me believe that the ending was up in the air. The match was better than I was expecting on top of that, so good stuff here again.

Quick video on Sting putting his career on the line to win the world title from several years ago.

Joseph Park talks about being here for his first anniversary in TNA and sucks up to the Boston crowd before D-Von and Knux jump him from behind.

Gut Check Tournament Final: Sam Shaw vs. Jay Bradley

The winner of this gets into the Bound For Glory Series. Shaw speeds things up to start and tries for a quick pin, only to be shoved down by the much more powerful Bradley. Sam hooks a headlock on the mat but Jay pops up and pounds him down with elbows to the head. A hard whip into the corner has Shaw down again and the pace slows down a lot. Off to a chinlock for a bit before Shaw hits a standing Thesz Press to pound Jay in the head. The fans don’t seem all that impressed here as Bradley pokes him in the eye to break up a neckbreaker. The Boom Stick Lariat ends Shaw for the pin at 4:58.

Rating: D. This was pretty unpleasant as the fans didn’t care about either guy whatsoever and it showed badly. Bradley definitely was the better choice here as Shaw looks like any other indy guy. The fans had no reasons to care about either guy here and it really brought things to a halt. Thankfully it was kept short and now the show can pick up again.

Christy asks Bradley how it feels to be in the BFG Series. “How do you think it feels? GOOD!” Bradley says he’ll win the world title.

Aries and Roode praise each other and Roode says that Gunner is no Bobby Roode.

We recap Joseph Park going crazy and morphing into Abyss mode to earn a TV Title shot.

TV Title: D-Von vs. Joseph Park

Park doesn’t show up due to the beatdown from earlier tonight so D-Von talks some trash about the Boston Celtics. D-Von demands a ten count for Park to get out here….and there’s still no Park so D-Von retains.

D-Von of course makes the eternal mistake of running his mouth, saying that if Abyss was here, he’d take a beating like Park would have. You all know what’s coming next.

TV Title: D-Von vs. Abyss

Abyss cleans house of Knux and kicks D-Von in the face as the bell rings. Knux interferes from the floor to let D-Von get in a forearm to the face and take over with some very basic offense. Knee drops and right hands abound but a middle rope splash misses the monster. Abyss hits a splash in the corner followed by a chokeslam and the Black Hole Slam for the pin and the title at 3:49.

Rating: D. The match was barely there but it was the right result. D-Von has done nothing at all with the title in the six months he’s held it so maybe Abyss will actually defend the thing. If nothing else the split personalities deal is interesting when you add in a title. Nothing to see here, but that wasn’t the point of the match.

We look at Sting beating Angle for the title in the main event of Bound For Glory.

Here’s Dixie to announce the second Hall of Fame inductee. After thanking all of the fans, Dixie calls the roster to the stage for the announcement. The inductee is……..Kurt Angle.

We get a nice video package on Angle’s TNA career, complete with a miniature shot of Angle watching the video in the ring. Dixie congratulates Kurt and gives a brief history of his career before handing the mic off to Kurt. Angle thanks his family and everyone else you would expect him to thank. He also thanks the TNA originals which is the right thing to do.

We look at Sting winning the world title at BFG 08.

Bad Influence says that they’ll win the tag titles tonight because they’re just that awesome.

Tag Titles: James Storm/Gunner vs. Hernandez/Chavo Guerrero vs. Bad Influence vs. Bobby Roode/Austin Aries

Chavo and Hernandez are defending, this is under elimination rules and Storm has a badly hurt leg. Chavo and Daniels get things going with Daniels getting caught between right hands from both champions. Off to SuperMex to face Aries, with the latter jumping into a fall away slam. Back to Chavo who immediately pulls the now legal Roode into a headlock. Off to Storm vs. Roode and James can actually move. He throws a few right hands to take Roode down and it’s off to Gunner.

Bobby tags in Gunner as everything breaks down. Hernandez puts Roode on his shoulder for the backbreaker but Chavo suplexes Aries onto Hernandez’s other shoulder for a double backbreaker. That’s SCARY power. Storm and Gunner whip Roode and Aries into each other before Bad Influence comes in to stomp both guys down. Hernandez gets a running start to jump over the top rope and clothesline both guys down for two on Daniels. Kaz breaks up the delayed suplex on Daniels with a kick to Hernandez’s back before coming in legally.

After some more kicks to the legs of Hernandez it’s off to Roode for a stomping in the corner. Aries comes in with the slingshot hilo for two before putting on a front facelock. The fans chant for Aries but Hernandez suplexes both Aries and Roode down at the same time. Kaz gets the tag but Chavo comes in as well to clean house. There are Three Amigos to Kaz but Daniels sneaks in for Angel’s Wings on Chavo. Hernandez runs over Aries and Border Tosses Kaz, allowing the frog splash from Chavo to connect. Daniels breaks it up with a title belt for a DQ elimination at 10:52.

Aries immediately rolls up Chavo for the elimination at 11:10, leaving us with Aries/Roode and Storm/Gunner. Aries and Roode double team Gunner in the corner but he comes back with some running clotheslines. There’s the tag to Storm who pounds away on Roode and DDTs Aries down. Back to Gunner who catapults Aries into a Storm DDT for two. There’s the Gun Rack (Torture Rack) to Roode but Aries kicks Gunner in the ribs to break it up. The spinebuster from Roode sets up the 450 from Aries but it’s only good for two. Roode throws in a title belt but it’s the Last Call and Gun Rack to Aries for the submission and the titles at 16:28.

Rating: B. Another good match as this show is on a roll so far. I’m glad Storm is healthy enough to do the limited stuff he could do out there and Gunner looked solid as well. Hopefully we never have to see the other three teams fight again as the feud has been done to death already as the tag titles just need fresh blood now.

Brooke Hogan is proud of the Knockouts but won’t say if she still loves Bully or not.

We recap Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell. Basically Gail went nuts and hurt a lot of Knockout’s knees with Taryn being a favorite target of hers. Tonight it’s a Last Knockout Standing match.

Taryn Terrell vs. Gail Kim

Gail attacks in the corner to start but Taryn comes back with clotheslines to take over. Gail puts on an octopus hold but lets it go early and only gets a six count. Kim goes to the floor for a chair but has it kicked out of her hands. Some hair drags keep Gail down for a few moments but she manages to get the chair up to block a high cross body. Gail is up first and goes after the knee for a bit before wedging the chair between the ropes. Taryn blocks a ram into the chair but gets caught in the Figure Four around the post.

Terrell is up at 8 and dodges Gail’s charge into the corner, sending her head first into the chair in a SICK looking crash. That only gets eight so Taryn puts her in the Figure Four around the post for eight more. Taryn misses a charge and lands on the ramp for nine, only to be caught in a legsweep onto the ramp for nine more. Gail tries a piledriver but gets reversed into a bulldog off the ramp to put both girls down. Taryn beats the count for the win at 9:18.

Rating: B-. This was the best Knockouts match in YEARS. The bulldog off the stage was a bigger spot but the missed charge into the chair should have been the finish. It looked MUCH more painful and I thought Gail was out cold. Still though, very entertaining match and I was really impressed with Taryn here. I’d bet on her vs. Mickie at BFG for the title in a veteran vs. underdog title match.

Sting beat Anderson for the title in 2010 as well.

We recap AJ Styles becoming a whiny man and getting in a brawl with an overly aggressive Kurt, setting up their match tonight.

AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle

AJ has some new very slow music about changing his ways. Kurt is coming in with a taped up leg. Styles tries a leg takedown on Kurt which goes as well as you would expect it to go. Instead they head to the floor with AJ sliding back in for a baseball slide to send Angle into the barricade. Back in and Angle stomps away but AJ kicks at the bad knee to take him down. AJ connects with a springboard dropkick into the knee before hitting a regular one to Angle’s face.

Styles tries for a half crab but gets reversed into an ankle lock for a few moments. A big clothesline puts AJ down but Kurt can’t follow up. They slug it out until Angle hits a t-bone suplex for two. AJ comes back with a spinebuster and a Lionsault for two. Angle comes back with rolling Germans including a release on the last one. AJ rolls to the apron and Stuns Angle over the top rope, followed by a slingshot splash for two.

Styles goes up to but but Kurt runs up the corner into a belly to back superplex, only to have AJ land on his feet. AJ charges at Angle but runs right into an overhead belly to belly to send Aj into the buckles. Styles pops up with a spinning backfist and a clothesline to put Angle down again. AJ tries a springboard dropkick but gets caught with a low blow and an Angle Slam for two.

Angle tries the ankle lock but AJ counters into his Calf Killer leg lock. Angle reverses into the ankle lock and grapevines the leg but Styles turns it over and kicks out of the hold. Angle misses a charge into the post and gets caught in the Tree of Woe for a dropkick to the ribs from Styles. The springboard 450 misses but the Angle Slam is countered into a rollup which is countered into a double leg takedown into a cover by Angle for the pin at 15:48.

Rating: B. Good match here but I don’t see why Angle needed to win. The guy is already in the Hall of Fame, so don’t you think he could go without winning a major match like this? AJ still looks good and the Calf Killer is a good finisher….if it had actually finished a guy with a bad leg that is. Good match with bad thinking here.

Ray talks about how a no holds barred match is his kind of match. He talks about various moves being banned, with one in particular being the piledriver. That’s what Ray plans to beat Sting with tonight because it’ll break Sting’s neck.

There isn’t much of a story here. Sting is TNA’s white knight and is trying to take the power back from Aces and 8’s.

TNA World Title: Sting vs. Bully Ray

This is no holds barred and if Sting loses, he can never challenge for the title again. Sting hits a Stinger Splash in the corner to start and pounds on Ray with the title belt on the floor. Back in and they slug it out with Sting clotheslining Ray down. A chop puts Ray down again and Sting beats him in the back with the belt again. They head back to the floor with Sting missing a Stinger Splash into the barricade. Ray whips Sting into the steps and the champion is in full control.

Ray fires off some clotheslines but misses a chair shot against the post. Sting whacks Ray in the spine with the chair a few times and the champ is down on the ramp. Cue Brooke Hogan in terror but Sting tells her to go to the back. Ray comes back with a low blow and more chair shots to Sting’s back, followed by a big boot to send the chair into Sting’s face. The piledriver connects for two so it’s table time. Did you expect anything else from a Dudley? A big old powerbomb through the table kills Sting dead but it’s only good for two here.

In something new, Ray gets a knife and cuts the ring apart, exposing the wood under the canvas. A piledriver onto said wood only gets two and Ray is shocked. Sting hits a quick backdrop to get himself a breather but is quickly taken down by Ray. The senton backsplash misses though and Sting hits the Death Drop onto the wood but here are the rest of the Aces for the save. Sting fights them off as they’re just the Aces and 8’s and hits Ray in the face with the chain but D-Von makes the save. Anderson throws Ray the hammer and a shot with that to the head is enough for Ray to retain at 14:27.

Rating: C+. Yeah it was a garbage brawl but that’s what Sting does best anymore. It continues to amuse me that Hogan preaches coming together to fight off Aces and 8’s but has no issue with letting Sting fight off like six guys at once. I don’t think anyone expected Sting to win here so it’s hard to complain much here. Cutting up the ring was a nice touch too.

Aces and 8’s celebrate to end the show.

Overall Rating: B+. This was TNA’s best show in a very long time. The only bad matches are less than five minutes each and we had three new champions tonight. The ending was what was expected and while I would have liked something different, it is what it is. I had a good feeling about this show as the card looked good despite the lame build up on television. The problem now is that we have four and a half months before Bound For Glory, which means a lot of slow paced television as TNA will likely take three months off before really getting going on things.

Results

Chris Sabin b. Kenny King and Suicide – Sabin pulled down the belt

Jeff Hardy/Samoa Joe/Magnus b. Aces and 8’s – Swanton Bomb to Brisco

Jay Bradley b. Sam Shaw – Boom Stick Lariat

Abyss b. D-Von – Black Hole Slam

James Storm/Gunner b. Chavo Guerrero/Hernandez, Bad Influence and Bobby Roode/Austin Aries – Gun Rack to Aries

Kurt Angle b. AJ Styles – Rollup

Bully Ray b. Sting – Hammer to the head

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

 

Makes sense……BROTHER.Nah just messing with you.  It’s Kurt Angle.

Why on earth TNA would use one of their four PPVs a year as a filler show is beyond me, but that’s exactly what we’re getting here.  Let’s get to it.The main story here is of course Sting vs. Bully Ray as part of the now year long feud between TNA and Aces and 8’s.  The fact that this story lost its legs months ago means nothing to TNA, so the bonus feature is is that it’s Ray’s title against Sting being able to challenge for the title ever again if he loses, as well as the match being no holds barred.  That alone should tell you everything you need to know about the ending.  That being said, this is TNA, meaning they might put the title on Sting as a swerve.  I’m going to say it’s Ray retaining, possibly with Brooke screwing Sting over “for love”, as all signs seem to point to Hulk vs. Ray at BFG.

One of the other big matches on the show is the fourway for the tag titles with Chavo/Hernandez defending against Bad Influence, Bobby Roode/Austin Aries and the new team of Gunner/James Storm.  Adding Storm and Gunner brings some fresh blood into the mix, but the story still isn’t all that interesting.  Either way, they NEED to get the titles off Chavo and Hernandez, as they’re just not interesting at all.  Aside from Storm and Gunner, these same six guys have been feuding for what feels like ever and the story is very old already.  Let these guys fight different people over something a bit more important for a change.  As for the winners, I’ll go with Storm and Gunner, which is a shame as Storm could do so much more (once he’s healthy that is).

In Styles vs. AJ, I think it goes to Styles.  Angle doesn’t need the win and what good is AJ if he loses his first big match back from his pouting?  The Storm match he won was somewhat big but facing Angle on PPV is a bigger deal.  Anyway, I’ll go with Styles for the win here in what should be the match of the night.

Jeff Hardy is back in the six man tag with Joe/Magnus vs. Bischoff/Brisco/Anderson (Anderson is replacing Doc to give Aces and 8’s something resembling a chance).  There’s no reason at all for Aces and 8’s to win here and I can’t imagine they will, as Hardy needs to start getting revenge on Aces and 8’s and there’s no better place to start than here in a meaningless six man.  TNA wins, as they should.

I’ll take Park to win the TV Title, although it’s not like it really matters as he won’t defend the stupid thing.  I don’t get why TNA does this with so many TV Champions.  Joe defended it quite often and it made the belt seem valuable for a little while.  Anyway, Park wins, which will at least remind people that the belt exists.

Then there’s the X-Division Title match in an Ultimate X match with Kenny King defending against Chris Sabin and Suicide.  This is where the X-Division rules get on my nerves.  Sabin and King have a feud going, but we have to add Suicide to it to fulfill some requirement.  Suicide adds nothing to the match at all and is there just to fill in a spot.  I mean, was anyone begging for Suicide to come back?  The match would be fine as Sabin vs. King with Sabin being able to show that he isn’t frail and can still hang with anyone in the world.  Sabin should win the title and I think he will, although watch out for a surprise Suicide win.

Last Knockout standing between Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell: it makes sense for Taryn to win and set up the showdown with Mickie at BFG for the title so we’ll go with stupidity and logic by saying Taryn wins, but it’s really hard to care about this match for me.  I will however give them this: they’re doing a better job with building stories in the Knockouts division as it’s clear how we got here and it doesn’t feel like something we’ve seen a dozen times before.

Finally we have Sam Shaw vs. Jay Bradley in the BFG Gut Check Tournament final.  I’ll go with Bradley as he’s a better prospect and leave it at that, as this is just a match to determine who gets to be the jobber in the tournament while geting a single fluke win.

 

Overall Slammiversary should be ok as a show, but the buildup to it has done nothing for me.  The show feels like a filler PPV, which makes no sense for TNA given that they only have four shows a year.  Sting vs. Ray with Sting’s future title chances on the line again make it about Sting and not the title/champion, which is the way of life in TNA.  The whole Aces and 8’s story has taken so long to go anywhere (it began the show after last year’s Slammiversary) that it’s really hard to care at this point.  At the end of the day, it’s Sting/Hogan vs. the Dudley Boys and Anderson.  Other than that, there isn’t anyone in Aces and 8’s worth a thing and they’re fighting two of the biggest names ever.  TNA is rather dull right now because it takes forever to get anywhere with this lack of PPV, and now they use one on a Sting story.

 

Also I’ll take Jarrett or Angle for the Hall of Fame.

Thunder
Date: January 8, 1998
Location: Ocean Center, Daytona Beach, Florida
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan

Due to the success of 1997, WCW decided to add another show to it’s TV schedule so here’s their new idea. Tonight is a souped up show as debuts often are, as we have a Cruiserweight Title match, an update on the world title situation after the debacle at Starrcade, and the Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Bischoff match from Starrcade in full, which I’m sure wouldn’t get on the nerves of the fans who paid for the show. Let’s get to it.

The announcers talk about how they’re sure Sting is the world champion.

Randy Savage is supposed to be in the opening match but he isn’t here yet. Instead, here’s a clip from Nitro of the NWO arriving in two different limos. We also get Bischoff saying there are no problems.

Tony shows us a clip of the attorney from Nitro (a week ago according to him, which is Tony speak for three days ago) saying that anyone, either WCW or NWO, who violates a WCW policy will be fined and/or suspended. Nick Patrick was suspended at least until tonight to show us that WCW was serious.

Now we see the end of Nitro with the NWO getting in a fight to end the show.

Chris Adams vs. Randy Savage

Adams is a British guy who trained Steve Austin and brought the superkick to America. That’s more or less the extent of his major accomplishments but he’s in the first match ever on Thunder for some reason. Savage jumps him from behind as we hear about WCW never losing Nitro in the first place. Adams is sent to the outside so Savage can drop him on the barricade. Chris comes back with a whip into the post and gets back in which distracts the referee, allowing Luger to come out and cave in Savage’s head with a chair. Adams gets the pin to open the show with a huge upset.

JJ Dillon comes out but we go to a break before anything can happen.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff with something to say. Something I forgot to mention earlier: the set is a big stone wall that had an opening broken into it by some lightning earlier. Shouldn’t the show be called WCW Lightning then? Actually Thunder is perfect: it’s a bunch of noise with nothing of substance. It’s perfect for WCW at this point.

Hogan and Bischoff take forever to get to the ring where Bischoff introduces Hogan as the world champion. Apparently every good looking woman on the beach said that Hogan was the real world champion and tonight we’ll see the tape proving it. Hollywood is the only heavyweight champion in the world and he’s just too big and too tanned.

Here’s JJ again to say that Randy Savage wins the match because of Luger’s interference. Luger comes out and rants against JJ because only now is WCW doing anything after a year and a half of the NWO doing whatever they want. He says that WCW is going to band together and do whatever they want. Point for keeping continuity at least.

Louis Spicolli vs. Rick Martel

Louis cranks on the arm to start but is quickly sent to the floor with a clothesline. Back in and a few dropkicks send Spicolli right back to the floor. They get back in again and Spicolli pounds him down as the Flock heads to their seats. Martel fires off a cross body for two and a left hand to the ribs to stagger Louis. Another dropkick misses but Martel punches Spicolli down and hooks the Quebec Crab for the win.

Rating: D+. For a guy who hasn’t been around in years, Martel really does look smooth out there. At first I wasn’t wild on him coming back as he was just Rick Martel: guy in leather jacket, but they’re pushing him as someone with ring experience who can beat guys with relative ease, which is actually working for him.

We get a clip from Starrcade of Hall saying Nash wouldn’t be there, earning a beating from Giant in the process. I still don’t get why they didn’t just have Hall be a replacement as he would be more than adequate to fill in.

Tenzan vs. Ohara

Tenzan is a guy from Japan who is apparently part of the NWO. Tenay talks about how Ohara is like Ray Traylor as he was thrown out of the Japanese NWO and is now a freedom fighter. He pounds away on Tenzan to start but gets slammed down. The fans don’t seem pleased as Tenzan hits a spinwheel kick for no cover. Ohara comes back with a clothesline and powerbomb for two but gets caught in a middle rope chop. Tenzan hits a swan dive to end a quick match.

We get another clip from Nitro of the very good Bret and Flair segment where they argue over who is better and say each others’ catchphrases.

Ric Flair vs. Chris Jericho

Before the match, Jericho apologizes for his recent behavior and to present Penzer with another new suit jacket. Flair takes him into the corner to start and there’s our first WOO. Jericho takes it to the mat with a headlock and a monkey flip sends Flair down. Chris takes too much time though and gets poked in the eye by the master, giving Flair control.

A clothesline puts Flair back down though and there’s the Flair Flip in the corner. Jericho dropkicks him off the apron before Flair can run to the top but the Lionsault misses as Flair gets back in. Flair asks for the time and hits a low blow before stomping away a bit. Jericho hits a quick backdrop and a top rope elbow for two but a missile dropkick misses. Figure Four ends Jericho quick.

Rating: C-. This was a glorified squash for Flair but he looked very smooth out there which is a good thing for Jericho. At this point, Jericho was nowhere near what he would become so a match with Flair was one of the best things that could happen to him. That’s what veterans are supposed to do and Flair did it more than almost anyone.

Jericho freaks out again post match.

Giant vs. Meng

As Meng comes out, Tony announces Flair vs. Bret for Souled Out and yes, he says it might be the biggest announcement in the history of our sport. Meng hits a clothesline but gets caught in a powerslam to put him down. A backdrop puts Meng down and Giant vs. Nash is announced for the PPV as well. Tony basically says that it’ll actually happen this time, which is a pretty pathetic way to push a match. “Remember last time when we said it would happen and it didn’t? Well this is nothing like that and we’ll actually do what we say!” Meng avoids a splash and fires off some strikes, only to be chokeslammed down for the fast pin.

Goldberg vs. Steve McMichael

It’s just Goldberg now. Mongo goes after him on the floor to start and whips Goldberg into the steps before heading in to be stomped. A gorilla press powerslam puts Mongo down and there’s a rolling leg lock for good measure. Mongo gets to the rope and goes after the leg as well before hitting a middle rope clothesline for two. McMichael calls for the tombstone but gets caught in the spear and Jackhammer for the pin. Heenan points out that Goldberg is undefeated.

Tag Titles: Steiner Brothers vs. Buff Bagwell/Konnan

Scott and Buff start things off and it’s time to pose. Buff takes him down with a hiptoss but Scott drills him with some clothesline and a tiger bomb. Konnan is knocked to the floor as well and it’s time to stall. Off to Konnan vs. Rick with Konnan being rammed stomach first into the buckle, only to take Rick down with a clothesline. Back to Buff who jumps right into a belly to belly and it’s a double tag to bring Scott back in. Everything breaks down and Rick loads up the bulldog, but Scott goes to the other corner for the Frankensteiner for the pin to retain.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here but the main idea is the Steiners having issues. That’s probably the best move as the Steiners had been a big deal for about nine years at this point, so there wasn’t much else that could be done with the team. Scott had been the one WCW wanted to push for years anyway so it really isn’t surprising when you think about it.

Here’s Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Bischoff from Starrcade to tick off the fans and fill in time, because if there’s one thing WCW doesn’t have, it’s a roster big enough to fill in a full show.

Bret Hart comes out to be guest referee. There’s no pyro, there’s no big entrance, there’s nothing but generic music and Bret casually walking to the ring. The theory is that he’s in the NWO but that’s never been confirmed yet.

 

Eric Bischoff vs. Larry Zbyszko

 

This should have been Hall vs. Larry, as those two had been talking trash to each other for months. However, Larry only gets Hall if he beats Eric here tonight. If Eric wins, the NWO controls Nitro. Larry is in good shape here considering he’s 46 and hasn’t wrestled regularly in about five years. Bret checks them for weapons and we’re ready to go. Bischoff has the body of a 15 year old girl. He is however a black belt in karate so you can expect a lot of striking.

 

Bischoff hits a quick shot to Larry’s head and immediately celebrates. More strikes follow and Eric heads out to the floor for consultation with Hall. Back in and Larry hits some shots of his own and Eric is scared. Larry goes after him again and Eric hits a spin kick to the side of the head that knocks Larry down. That’s enough for Zbyszko and he charges at Eric and takes him down to the mat. Bret admonishes him for pulling Eric’s hair, so Larry puts on a sleeper and a headscissors, both of which are broken up for being chokes.

 

Off to a standing figure four but Eric quickly makes a rope. The damage is done though and Larry goes after the leg. Makes sense against a karate guy. Bret keeps Larry away from Eric and the announcers PANIC. Imagine that: a referee following the rules. Eric is sent into the steps and takes a brief walk around the ring. Back in and Bret blocks a right hand from Larry, allowing Eric to get in a kick to the head. Bischoff fires more kicks with Larry on the ropes, although Bret is fine with them.

 

Eric is starting to kick himself out though as the kicks are getting weaker and weaker each time. Now he fires rights and lefts in the corner as Larry is just covering up. Eric can barely move now and Larry shakes everything off. A suplex puts Bischoff down and Larry ties him in the Tree of Woe. Hall pulls something out of his pocket and loads it into Eric’s shoe, WITH BRET LOOKING RIGHT AT THEM. I mean, he knows what’s going on so why not LOOK THE OTHER WAY???

 

Anyway, Eric kicks him in the head with the loaded foot and the piece of metal goes flying. Bret isn’t supposed to see it, despite watching it fly through the air. Eric celebrates, so Bret hits both Bischoff and Hall before putting Hall in the Sharpshooter, which is Bret’s version of the Scorpion Deathlock. Larry chokes Eric for a bit and is declared the winner, presumably by DQ.

 

Rating: F. This was in the second to last spot on the biggest show of the year and featured the boss of the company who has no skill whatsoever in the ring. Larry did fine all things considered, but to waste this spot on this match and to waste BRET HART’s in ring debut on this match is absolutely ridiculous in every sense of the word.

Back on Thunder now here’s Larry to talk about his match with Hall at Souled Out. Larry talks about how he understands why Hall hates his guts after Larry took Hall so far ten years ago. Now instead of being a world champion, Hall is on the ship of fools heading towards Larry Land. Larry can still bench press 405lbs, drive to the golf course and shoot a 73 and then beat Hall from one side of the ring to the other. He’s wrestled in front of royalty around the world and just like he did in 1980, he’ll change the NWO at Souled Out. This was actually a pretty decent promo and I remembered it from when I watched this live.

We recap Ray Traylor being thrown out of the NWO and beaten down by Hogan.

Ray Traylor vs. Scott Hall

Traylor shoves him down to start but Hall comes back with the driving shoulder blocks. He slaps Ray in the back of the head and gets sent into the corner and pounding away for his efforts. A corner splash crushes Hall and it’s off to a bearhug to waste some time. The referee takes a shot to the eye so we head to the floor for a bit with Hall hitting Traylor in the face with his NWO tag title belt. That’s only good for two and the middle rope bulldog gets the same for Hall. Scott heads to the floor to grab a chair but Larry comes out to stop him. The distraction lets Traylor hit the Boss Man Slam for the upset pin.

Rating: D+. The match was barely anything but it did advance the Larry vs. Hall feud so I can’t complain all that much. I’m not sure how many people wanted to see Zbyszko vs. Hall but at least it was a feud that had the time to build up for a few months. Speaking of having the time, can we get a match to last five minutes tonight?

Cruiserweight Title: Juventud Guerrera vs. Ultimo Dragon

Dragon is defending. Apparently Scott Steiner has been fined $5000 for hitting the referee during the tag match. The announcers didn’t even notice it so it’s likely a bit extreme. Feeling out process to start with both guys hitting some quick strikes until Juvy hits a springboard spinwheel kick for two. Guerrera misses a splash in the corner and gets stomped down as we actually talk about the match for a bit. Actually scratch that as it’s time to talk about Starrcade a bit more.

Dragon misses a handspring elbow in the corner as the fans think this is boring. Juvy loads up a top rope rana but gets crotched to the floor instead. Dragon hits a moonsault to the floor but injures his knee in the process. They head back in and Dragon hits a release German suplex for two but the top rope rana is countered again. Juvy knocks him to the mat but dives into a dropkick fro Dragon, only to come back with a quick DDT. The Juvy Driver sets up the 450 for the pin and a new champion.

Rating: C. Pretty slow paced stuff here as their high spots weren’t connecting all that well. Dragon only held the belt for about eight days here so it’s kind of hard to care about the title changing this fast. It’s not a bad match but again at just under five minutes we didn’t have time to get invested in it at all.

Here’s Bret Hart for a chat. Bret says that he’s called himself the best there is, was and ever will be and he means it and he’s meant it every time. He’s accomplished a lot over his career but now he has to prove himself all over again. Bret isn’t going to stop calling himself the best ever….and here’s Flair with a rebuttal. Ric talks about how he’s heard from a thousand people since last week (what’s with that? It was three days ago, not last week but people have been saying it all show long) that they want to hear Bret say his catchphrase to Flair’s face.

Bret does just that, sending Flair into a rant about how Bret used to sit in the front row with a box of popcorn wanting to be like Ric Flair. Bret has been a five time WWF Champion, but while he was doing that, Flair was wrestling Brody in Singapore for an hour. Not exactly but Flair is on a roll so I can forgive him. Flair yells about how he’s been around the world but Bret says he’ll have to beat the man to prove that he’s the man. Ric says it’s not just beating the man, but it’s staying the man. More good stuff here, questionable history aside.

Lex Luger vs. Scott Norton

Norton jumps him on the floor to start before heading inside for a clothesline. A backbreaker puts Luger down but a splash misses in the corner. Luger vs. Savage is announced for the PPV and here’s Buff for a distraction. Norton hits the shoulder breaker for two but Luger comes back with the forearm. The Rack ends Norton quick in a rare loss for him.

Bagwell gets Racked too as Savage comes in, only to be chased off by Luger as well.

We get the video from Starrcade of the “fast count” and it’s just not fast no matter how they look at it.

We get the long awaited footage from Nitro, which shows the referee going down and being replaced by Nick Patrick (who was suspended earlier on Nitro), who counts three on Sting as Hogan rolls him up with a handful of tights. Hogan and Sting keep fighting because that’s just what they do, so Sting makes Hogan give up in the Scorpion, which counts now because the original referee never called for the bell, which is the exact same thing that happened at Starrcade but this is almost over so I’m not going to think about it that hard. JJ comes out and gets decked by Bischoff, causing a huge brawl between WCW and the NWO.

Back live again with JJ in the ring for his decision. Before the decision is announced we need Hogan in the ring. Naturally he brings out about five guys (to no music for some reason) for the big meeting. JJ also asks Sting to come to the ring and bring the belt. The official decision is that the title is vacant until they can make an official decision. Sting says JJ has no guts and that Hogan is a dead man, which is the first thing he’s said in a year (ignoring what he said at Starrcade of course). Heenan swears this is a victory for the NWO because that’s what you do when anything happens in WCW.

US Title: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kevin Nash

Hogan comes out with Nash (despite both guys being in the ring for the previous segment) as Tony swears that we’ll stay with the show no matter what, a mere ten minutes after we saw footage from a match that ended after Nitro went off the air. Page cranks on the arm to start but Nash elbows him down. The champ gets two off a swinging neckbreaker but Nash goes to Page’s eternally injured ribs to take over.

A clothesline in the corner has Page down again and the side slam gets two. Nash pounds on him in the corner and sends Page outside for more very slow pounding. Page is sent into the steps as Hogan tells him to give up. Back in and Nash hits Snake Eyes and an elbow drop for two. Page fights out of another Snake Eyes attempt and loads up the Diamond Cutter but Hogan hits him in the ribs for the DQ.

Rating: D+. We were clearly just killing time until the DQ here which is the case in almost all WCW main events anymore. Hogan being out there was kind of surprising as it could have been any WCW goon for the same ending. Also any bets on there being no mention of a fine to Hogan for doing the same thing Luger did earlier?

Post match Giant comes out to break up a Jackknife and brawls with Nash to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Take everything that was good about Nitro from this week and throw it out the window. Let’s see: short and mostly meaningless matches, the title situation is a mess (and will get messier) and the NWO’s problems aren’t even mentioned. In other words, the focus is all back on the NWO being some kind of a threat and WCW needing to pull together, which is exactly what it’s been since like March. This show wasn’t terrible, but man was it frustrating.

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

Thunder
Date: January 8, 1998
Location: Ocean Center, Daytona Beach, Florida
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Lee Marshall, Bobby Heenan

Due to the success of 1997, WCW decided to add another show to it’s TV schedule so here’s their new idea. Tonight is a souped up show as debuts often are, as we have a Cruiserweight Title match, an update on the world title situation after the debacle at Starrcade, and the Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Bischoff match from Starrcade in full, which I’m sure wouldn’t get on the nerves of the fans who paid for the show. Let’s get to it.

The announcers talk about how they’re sure Sting is the world champion.

Randy Savage is supposed to be in the opening match but he isn’t here yet. Instead, here’s a clip from Nitro of the NWO arriving in two different limos. We also get Bischoff saying there are no problems.

Tony shows us a clip of the attorney from Nitro (a week ago according to him, which is Tony speak for three days ago) saying that anyone, either WCW or NWO, who violates a WCW policy will be fined and/or suspended. Nick Patrick was suspended at least until tonight to show us that WCW was serious.

Now we see the end of Nitro with the NWO getting in a fight to end the show.

Chris Adams vs. Randy Savage

Adams is a British guy who trained Steve Austin and brought the superkick to America. That’s more or less the extent of his major accomplishments but he’s in the first match ever on Thunder for some reason. Savage jumps him from behind as we hear about WCW never losing Nitro in the first place. Adams is sent to the outside so Savage can drop him on the barricade. Chris comes back with a whip into the post and gets back in which distracts the referee, allowing Luger to come out and cave in Savage’s head with a chair. Adams gets the pin to open the show with a huge upset.

JJ Dillon comes out but we go to a break before anything can happen.

Here are Hogan and Bischoff with something to say. Something I forgot to mention earlier: the set is a big stone wall that had an opening broken into it by some lightning earlier. Shouldn’t the show be called WCW Lightning then? Actually Thunder is perfect: it’s a bunch of noise with nothing of substance. It’s perfect for WCW at this point.

Hogan and Bischoff take forever to get to the ring where Bischoff introduces Hogan as the world champion. Apparently every good looking woman on the beach said that Hogan was the real world champion and tonight we’ll see the tape proving it. Hollywood is the only heavyweight champion in the world and he’s just too big and too tanned.

Here’s JJ again to say that Randy Savage wins the match because of Luger’s interference. Luger comes out and rants against JJ because only now is WCW doing anything after a year and a half of the NWO doing whatever they want. He says that WCW is going to band together and do whatever they want. Point for keeping continuity at least.

Louis Spicolli vs. Rick Martel

Louis cranks on the arm to start but is quickly sent to the floor with a clothesline. Back in and a few dropkicks send Spicolli right back to the floor. They get back in again and Spicolli pounds him down as the Flock heads to their seats. Martel fires off a cross body for two and a left hand to the ribs to stagger Louis. Another dropkick misses but Martel punches Spicolli down and hooks the Quebec Crab for the win.

Rating: D+. For a guy who hasn’t been around in years, Martel really does look smooth out there. At first I wasn’t wild on him coming back as he was just Rick Martel: guy in leather jacket, but they’re pushing him as someone with ring experience who can beat guys with relative ease, which is actually working for him.

We get a clip from Starrcade of Hall saying Nash wouldn’t be there, earning a beating from Giant in the process. I still don’t get why they didn’t just have Hall be a replacement as he would be more than adequate to fill in.

Tenzan vs. Ohara

Tenzan is a guy from Japan who is apparently part of the NWO. Tenay talks about how Ohara is like Ray Traylor as he was thrown out of the Japanese NWO and is now a freedom fighter. He pounds away on Tenzan to start but gets slammed down. The fans don’t seem pleased as Tenzan hits a spinwheel kick for no cover. Ohara comes back with a clothesline and powerbomb for two but gets caught in a middle rope chop. Tenzan hits a swan dive to end a quick match.

We get another clip from Nitro of the very good Bret and Flair segment where they argue over who is better and say each others’ catchphrases.

Ric Flair vs. Chris Jericho

Before the match, Jericho apologizes for his recent behavior and to present Penzer with another new suit jacket. Flair takes him into the corner to start and there’s our first WOO. Jericho takes it to the mat with a headlock and a monkey flip sends Flair down. Chris takes too much time though and gets poked in the eye by the master, giving Flair control.

A clothesline puts Flair back down though and there’s the Flair Flip in the corner. Jericho dropkicks him off the apron before Flair can run to the top but the Lionsault misses as Flair gets back in. Flair asks for the time and hits a low blow before stomping away a bit. Jericho hits a quick backdrop and a top rope elbow for two but a missile dropkick misses. Figure Four ends Jericho quick.

Rating: C-. This was a glorified squash for Flair but he looked very smooth out there which is a good thing for Jericho. At this point, Jericho was nowhere near what he would become so a match with Flair was one of the best things that could happen to him. That’s what veterans are supposed to do and Flair did it more than almost anyone.

Jericho freaks out again post match.

Giant vs. Meng

As Meng comes out, Tony announces Flair vs. Bret for Souled Out and yes, he says it might be the biggest announcement in the history of our sport. Meng hits a clothesline but gets caught in a powerslam to put him down. A backdrop puts Meng down and Giant vs. Nash is announced for the PPV as well. Tony basically says that it’ll actually happen this time, which is a pretty pathetic way to push a match. “Remember last time when we said it would happen and it didn’t? Well this is nothing like that and we’ll actually do what we say!” Meng avoids a splash and fires off some strikes, only to be chokeslammed down for the fast pin.

Goldberg vs. Steve McMichael

It’s just Goldberg now. Mongo goes after him on the floor to start and whips Goldberg into the steps before heading in to be stomped. A gorilla press powerslam puts Mongo down and there’s a rolling leg lock for good measure. Mongo gets to the rope and goes after the leg as well before hitting a middle rope clothesline for two. McMichael calls for the tombstone but gets caught in the spear and Jackhammer for the pin. Heenan points out that Goldberg is undefeated.

Tag Titles: Steiner Brothers vs. Buff Bagwell/Konnan

Scott and Buff start things off and it’s time to pose. Buff takes him down with a hiptoss but Scott drills him with some clothesline and a tiger bomb. Konnan is knocked to the floor as well and it’s time to stall. Off to Konnan vs. Rick with Konnan being rammed stomach first into the buckle, only to take Rick down with a clothesline. Back to Buff who jumps right into a belly to belly and it’s a double tag to bring Scott back in. Everything breaks down and Rick loads up the bulldog, but Scott goes to the other corner for the Frankensteiner for the pin to retain.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here but the main idea is the Steiners having issues. That’s probably the best move as the Steiners had been a big deal for about nine years at this point, so there wasn’t much else that could be done with the team. Scott had been the one WCW wanted to push for years anyway so it really isn’t surprising when you think about it.

Here’s Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Bischoff from Starrcade to tick off the fans and fill in time, because if there’s one thing WCW doesn’t have, it’s a roster big enough to fill in a full show.

Bret Hart comes out to be guest referee. There’s no pyro, there’s no big entrance, there’s nothing but generic music and Bret casually walking to the ring. The theory is that he’s in the NWO but that’s never been confirmed yet.

Eric Bischoff vs. Larry Zbyszko

This should have been Hall vs. Larry, as those two had been talking trash to each other for months. However, Larry only gets Hall if he beats Eric here tonight. If Eric wins, the NWO controls Nitro. Larry is in good shape here considering he’s 46 and hasn’t wrestled regularly in about five years. Bret checks them for weapons and we’re ready to go. Bischoff has the body of a 15 year old girl. He is however a black belt in karate so you can expect a lot of striking.

Bischoff hits a quick shot to Larry’s head and immediately celebrates. More strikes follow and Eric heads out to the floor for consultation with Hall. Back in and Larry hits some shots of his own and Eric is scared. Larry goes after him again and Eric hits a spin kick to the side of the head that knocks Larry down. That’s enough for Zbyszko and he charges at Eric and takes him down to the mat. Bret admonishes him for pulling Eric’s hair, so Larry puts on a sleeper and a headscissors, both of which are broken up for being chokes.

Off to a standing figure four but Eric quickly makes a rope. The damage is done though and Larry goes after the leg. Makes sense against a karate guy. Bret keeps Larry away from Eric and the announcers PANIC. Imagine that: a referee following the rules. Eric is sent into the steps and takes a brief walk around the ring. Back in and Bret blocks a right hand from Larry, allowing Eric to get in a kick to the head. Bischoff fires more kicks with Larry on the ropes, although Bret is fine with them.

Eric is starting to kick himself out though as the kicks are getting weaker and weaker each time. Now he fires rights and lefts in the corner as Larry is just covering up. Eric can barely move now and Larry shakes everything off. A suplex puts Bischoff down and Larry ties him in the Tree of Woe. Hall pulls something out of his pocket and loads it into Eric’s shoe, WITH BRET LOOKING RIGHT AT THEM. I mean, he knows what’s going on so why not LOOK THE OTHER WAY???

Anyway, Eric kicks him in the head with the loaded foot and the piece of metal goes flying. Bret isn’t supposed to see it, despite watching it fly through the air. Eric celebrates, so Bret hits both Bischoff and Hall before putting Hall in the Sharpshooter, which is Bret’s version of the Scorpion Deathlock. Larry chokes Eric for a bit and is declared the winner, presumably by DQ.

Rating: F. This was in the second to last spot on the biggest show of the year and featured the boss of the company who has no skill whatsoever in the ring. Larry did fine all things considered, but to waste this spot on this match and to waste BRET HART’s in ring debut on this match is absolutely ridiculous in every sense of the word.

Back on Thunder now here’s Larry to talk about his match with Hall at Souled Out. Larry talks about how he understands why Hall hates his guts after Larry took Hall so far ten years ago. Now instead of being a world champion, Hall is on the ship of fools heading towards Larry Land. Larry can still bench press 405lbs, drive to the golf course and shoot a 73 and then beat Hall from one side of the ring to the other. He’s wrestled in front of royalty around the world and just like he did in 1980, he’ll change the NWO at Souled Out. This was actually a pretty decent promo and I remembered it from when I watched this live.

We recap Ray Traylor being thrown out of the NWO and beaten down by Hogan.

Ray Traylor vs. Scott Hall

Traylor shoves him down to start but Hall comes back with the driving shoulder blocks. He slaps Ray in the back of the head and gets sent into the corner and pounding away for his efforts. A corner splash crushes Hall and it’s off to a bearhug to waste some time. The referee takes a shot to the eye so we head to the floor for a bit with Hall hitting Traylor in the face with his NWO tag title belt. That’s only good for two and the middle rope bulldog gets the same for Hall. Scott heads to the floor to grab a chair but Larry comes out to stop him. The distraction lets Traylor hit the Boss Man Slam for the upset pin.

Rating: D+. The match was barely anything but it did advance the Larry vs. Hall feud so I can’t complain all that much. I’m not sure how many people wanted to see Zbyszko vs. Hall but at least it was a feud that had the time to build up for a few months. Speaking of having the time, can we get a match to last five minutes tonight?

Cruiserweight Title: Juventud Guerrera vs. Ultimo Dragon

Dragon is defending. Apparently Scott Steiner has been fined $5000 for hitting the referee during the tag match. The announcers didn’t even notice it so it’s likely a bit extreme. Feeling out process to start with both guys hitting some quick strikes until Juvy hits a springboard spinwheel kick for two. Guerrera misses a splash in the corner and gets stomped down as we actually talk about the match for a bit. Actually scratch that as it’s time to talk about Starrcade a bit more.

Dragon misses a handspring elbow in the corner as the fans think this is boring. Juvy loads up a top rope rana but gets crotched to the floor instead. Dragon hits a moonsault to the floor but injures his knee in the process. They head back in and Dragon hits a release German suplex for two but the top rope rana is countered again. Juvy knocks him to the mat but dives into a dropkick fro Dragon, only to come back with a quick DDT. The Juvy Driver sets up the 450 for the pin and a new champion.

Rating: C. Pretty slow paced stuff here as their high spots weren’t connecting all that well. Dragon only held the belt for about eight days here so it’s kind of hard to care about the title changing this fast. It’s not a bad match but again at just under five minutes we didn’t have time to get invested in it at all.

Here’s Bret Hart for a chat. Bret says that he’s called himself the best there is, was and ever will be and he means it and he’s meant it every time. He’s accomplished a lot over his career but now he has to prove himself all over again. Bret isn’t going to stop calling himself the best ever….and here’s Flair with a rebuttal. Ric talks about how he’s heard from a thousand people since last week (what’s with that? It was three days ago, not last week but people have been saying it all show long) that they want to hear Bret say his catchphrase to Flair’s face.

Bret does just that, sending Flair into a rant about how Bret used to sit in the front row with a box of popcorn wanting to be like Ric Flair. Bret has been a five time WWF Champion, but while he was doing that, Flair was wrestling Brody in Singapore for an hour. Not exactly but Flair is on a roll so I can forgive him. Flair yells about how he’s been around the world but Bret says he’ll have to beat the man to prove that he’s the man. Ric says it’s not just beating the man, but it’s staying the man. More good stuff here, questionable history aside.

Lex Luger vs. Scott Norton

Norton jumps him on the floor to start before heading inside for a clothesline. A backbreaker puts Luger down but a splash misses in the corner. Luger vs. Savage is announced for the PPV and here’s Buff for a distraction. Norton hits the shoulder breaker for two but Luger comes back with the forearm. The Rack ends Norton quick in a rare loss for him.

Bagwell gets Racked too as Savage comes in, only to be chased off by Luger as well.

We get the video from Starrcade of the “fast count” and it’s just not fast no matter how they look at it.

We get the long awaited footage from Nitro, which shows the referee going down and being replaced by Nick Patrick (who was suspended earlier on Nitro), who counts three on Sting as Hogan rolls him up with a handful of tights. Hogan and Sting keep fighting because that’s just what they do, so Sting makes Hogan give up in the Scorpion, which counts now because the original referee never called for the bell, which is the exact same thing that happened at Starrcade but this is almost over so I’m not going to think about it that hard. JJ comes out and gets decked by Bischoff, causing a huge brawl between WCW and the NWO.

Back live again with JJ in the ring for his decision. Before the decision is announced we need Hogan in the ring. Naturally he brings out about five guys (to no music for some reason) for the big meeting. JJ also asks Sting to come to the ring and bring the belt. The official decision is that the title is vacant until they can make an official decision. Sting says JJ has no guts and that Hogan is a dead man, which is the first thing he’s said in a year (ignoring what he said at Starrcade of course). Heenan swears this is a victory for the NWO because that’s what you do when anything happens in WCW.

US Title: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kevin Nash

Hogan comes out with Nash (despite both guys being in the ring for the previous segment) as Tony swears that we’ll stay with the show no matter what, a mere ten minutes after we saw footage from a match that ended after Nitro went off the air. Page cranks on the arm to start but Nash elbows him down. The champ gets two off a swinging neckbreaker but Nash goes to Page’s eternally injured ribs to take over.

A clothesline in the corner has Page down again and the side slam gets two. Nash pounds on him in the corner and sends Page outside for more very slow pounding. Page is sent into the steps as Hogan tells him to give up. Back in and Nash hits Snake Eyes and an elbow drop for two. Page fights out of another Snake Eyes attempt and loads up the Diamond Cutter but Hogan hits him in the ribs for the DQ.

Rating: D+. We were clearly just killing time until the DQ here which is the case in almost all WCW main events anymore. Hogan being out there was kind of surprising as it could have been any WCW goon for the same ending. Also any bets on there being no mention of a fine to Hogan for doing the same thing Luger did earlier?

Post match Giant comes out to break up a Jackknife and brawls with Nash to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Take everything that was good about Nitro from this week and throw it out the window. Let’s see: short and mostly meaningless matches, the title situation is a mess (and will get messier) and the NWO’s problems aren’t even mentioned. In other words, the focus is all back on the NWO being some kind of a threat and WCW needing to pull together, which is exactly what it’s been since like March. This show wasn’t terrible, but man was it frustrating.

Impact Wrestling
Date: May 30, 2013
Location: USF SunDome, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz, Todd Keneley

We’re finally at the go home show for Slammiversary but there are actually a few things to get through tonight. We have a six man tag between Sting and Joseph Park partners vs. Aces and 8’s, as well as finding out which “big” free agent TNA has signed. The problem with that is Dixie Carter has called many people a big signing over the years so it’s hard to take her at her word anymore. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week’s show with Bully saying he still loves Brooke and Styles still being neutral.

Bully is with Aces and 8’s, saying tonight is about AJ Styles. Ray leaves and Anderson lays out D’Lo Brown for not being angry enough I guess.

Here are the former Dudley Boys to open things up. On Sunday it’s Sting vs. Ray and Joseph Park vs. D-Von for the respective titles. Sting wanted no holds barred and that’s exactly what he got. Ray talks about the legends that Sting has beaten, such as Flair, Hogan and Angle. Oh and Sting beat Jeff Hardy but Ray has too. The difference is Ray took Hardy out of action like he’ll do to Sting at Slammiversary. However, Ray wants the tag match NOW.

Bully Ray/D-Von vs. Joseph Park/Sting

It’s a big brawl to start with Sting ramming D-Von into whatever metal objects he can find. The brawling on the floor continues for about two minutes with nothing of note happening. Ray rams Joseph’s hand into the steps before climbing into the ring. Sting looks up at him and the in ring part of the match finally begins. They throw a few punches and it’s a double clothesline to put both guys down as we go to a break.

Back with D-Von working over Park until Joseph gets in a shot and goes up. Ray crotches him to stop any momentum before coming in and dropping an elbow for two. Off to D-Von for some Hogan posing as Park lays on the mat. Back to D-Von for a jumping back elbow before Ray comes in for a pretty awesome looking dropkick. Park finally gets over for a tag and Sting starts cleaning house.

Sting loads up the Scorpion on D-Von and Park tries one on Ray, only to be kicked into Sting to break the hold. Sting takes both guys down clotheslines but misses a Stinger Splash in the corner. The reverse 3D takes Sting down and the bikers load up What’s Up, but Abyss’ music hits. The distraction lets Sting hit the Scorpion Death Drop on D-Von for the pin at 13:28.

Rating: D+. This didn’t do anything for me for the most part. I do like the idea of putting two feuds into one match though as it’s a great way to free up space for later in the night. However, the match didn’t work when neither feud is anything interesting at all, which is the case here. You can barely even say that Park and D-Von are feuding as they’ve only been interacting for a few weeks. Sting vs. Ray is the filler main event of the year, which is a bad idea when you only have four PPVs a year. Not terrible here but very pedestrian.

Kurt Angle will be watching AJ’s match very carefully.

Dixie Carter comes out to say that we’ll induct a new member into the Hall of Fame on Sunday. The fans will all be cheering for Sting in the title match….but here are Aces and 8’s to disagree. Garrett says that Sunday is going to be more like a funeral but here are Joe and Magnus for the save. Joe doesn’t know who gave Garrett a chance to speak, but instead of talking let’s fight right now.

Samoa Joe vs. Garrett Bischoff

Joe pounds away and hits the corner enziguri as we go to a break. Back with Joe being tripped up by Doc, drawing in Magnus for the save…..and the DQ when Garrett goes to the floor to beat him down. The bell rang at about 5:40 but about four minutes of that was in a commercial.

Post match Joe says that it’s a six man on Sunday with Jeff Hardy making his return.

Storm says he picked Gunner because he’s a beast who has killed people for our country.

Hulk yells at Brooke about being suckered in by what Bully said. Hulk: “When he looks at you like that, it’s permission to rape your life.” Apparently Hogan is betting everything he has on Sting on Sunday, pretty much guaranteeing Sting loses.

Austin Aries/Bobby Roode/Bad Influence vs. James Storm/Gunner/Chavo Guerrero/Hernandez

Gunner and Daniels start things off with Gunner running him over with a back elbow. A backdrop puts Daniels on the floor where Kaz has a quick consultation. Back in and it’s off to Aries who is rather tentative to face Gunner. He’s so worried about it that he tags in Bobby before making any contact. All of Roode’s partners are on the floor so he has to do this on his own, which include charging into a boot to the face before it’s off to Chavo.

Hernandez gets the tag maybe ten seconds later to hit a splash before bringing Chavo right back in. Chavo hits Three Amigos but is sent to the floor very quickly to give the heels their first control. Aries comes in with a slingshot splash to Chavo before it’s off to Kaz for a chinlock. Daniels misses a splash in the corner though, allowing for the hot tag to Hernandez.

All of the heel team tries their luck with SuperMex but he runs them all down, only to have Kaz break up the Border Toss. Aries hits a sweet running dropkick in the corner to slow Hernandez down but Austin is suplexed down to counter the brainbuster. Gunner tags himself in and no sells a discus lariat before putting Aries in the Torture Rack for the submission from Aries at 9:30.

Rating: C-. If they don’t change the titles on Sunday, just retire the things already. There’s nothing interesting about this never ending feud and it’s been boring for months. Adding Gunner and Storm to the thing just makes it more cluttered and keeps Storm from ascending up the ladder even longer. The match was ok but there’s nothing interesting here, which is the tagline for this whole feud.

AJ Styles arrives, causing Bully to go into a massive speech to the Aces. He has a job for Knux and declares war on Impact Wrestling. If there aren’t victims, any member of the team could end up like D’Lo.

Bound For Glory is in San Diego.

Here’s Mickie James to celebrate her title win. She brags about winning and thanks her fans for standing by her, but there are some people doubting the way she won the title. Mickie calls out Velvet to clear the air because they’re friends. Mickie talks about how tough Velvet is and how much she loves her for giving Mickie the shot when she wasn’t 100%. Velvet wants her rematch which Mickie is cool with, but Velvet wants the match at Slammiversary. Mickie says no because there’s already a Knockouts match at Slammiversary.

This brings out Gail to yell at Mickie, claiming that Mickie wouldn’t have won the title without Gail hurting Velvet’s knee weeks ago. Gail has been hurting anyone in her path lately because of how frustrated she’s been. She says she gets the first shot but Velvet gets in her face and says no. Gail goes after the bad leg but Taryn makes the save as Mickie stands around.

Kenny King/Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell/Chris Sabin

Taryn goes nuts on Gail to start and hits a quick neckbreaker to take her down. A high cross body takes Gail down for two before it’s off to the guys. Sabin takes King down and cranks on the arm, only to be clotheslined in the back of the head to give the X Champion (King) control. King misses a slingshot legdrop and gets caught in a spinning DDT for two but everything breaks down. Taryn spears Gail down and Sabin hits whatever his driver is called for the pin on King at 5:00.

Post match Sabin says he’ll win on Sunday but King lays him out. Suicide comes in to clear out both guys and hold up the belt.

Sting talks about all of his title wins over the years.

We run down the Slammiversary card.

Mr. Anderson vs. AJ Styles

Anderson jumps AJ as he comes into the ring but AJ fires off some right hands to come back. Mr. runs him over but gets tripped down and hit with a quick suplex for one. AJ snaps Anderson’s neck on the top rope but keeps looking around for the bikers to run in. Anderson is sent to the floor for a baseball slide as we take a break. Back with AJ not being able to suplex Anderson back in so we head to the floor with AJ being sent into various objects.

Back in and Anderson takes it to the mat with a body scissors and arm lock. AJ fights up and takes Anderson down to shift momentum again. A knee drop gets two but Anderson comes back with the fireman’s carry roll for two. AJ loads up a superplex in the corner but here’s Kurt Angle for the DQ at 13:58.

Rating: C. This was fine but it was too late to save this show. I do like that AJ is wrestling while in this Sting from 1997 period as it keeps him fresh and crisp in the ring. The ending makes sense, but it doesn’t do much for the rest of the show. At the end of the day, it would be ok to have Anderson lose here. Not much of a match but not terrible.

Post match here are the bikers and all of their opponents on Sunday other than Jeff Hardy. Everyone but Sting and Ray clear out and the champ is put in the Scorpion, only to have D-Von make the save and hit 3D on Sting to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. If you don’t like Aces and 8’s, do not watch this show. Literally over half of the TV time this week was dedicated to that single storyline, making for a very tiring episode. The ONLY other stories going on are the three other title matches and none of them have what I would call a strong buildup. This show has become so hard to sit through as the Aces and 8’s story continues to drag on and on. Slammiversary looks good on paper, but the main event feels like nothing but filler, which is very stupid with just four PPVs a year. This show built up the PPV well enough, but man alive stay clear if you don’t like Aces and 8’s.

Results

Sting/Joseph Park b. D-Von/Bully Ray – Scorpion Death Drop to D-Von

Samoa Joe vs. Garrett Bischoff went to a no contest

Chavo Guerrero/Hernandez/Gunner/James Storm b. Bad Influence/Bobby Roode/Austin Aries – Torture Rack to Aries

AJ Styles b. Mr. Anderson via DQ when Kurt Angle interfered

 

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

 

Monday Nitro #121
Date: January 5, 1998
Location: Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia
Attendance: 26,773
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko, Tony Schiavone

It’s been a week since the mess with Hogan and Sting to end the last episode and from what I understand, nothing has been announced yet. Odds are that’s going to be saved for the first episode of Thunder which airs three days after this show. We’re in a new year here though so things should be pretty big tonight to give them a good start. Let’s get to it.

We open with two limos pulling up, bringing the NWO in full force. They don’t seem to be too pleased with each other so Tony is in a frenzy.

The announcers talk about the cameras rolling after the show went off the air last week, but there’s a court injunction keeping them from showing us the tape. That’s all the explanation we’re given, but that sounds so appropriate for WCW. I’m not even going to bother to ask the variety of questions that statement brings up.

JJ says he thinks Sting is champion (Tony already told us that) and he’s sorry for the near riot that took place in Baltimore last week. Apparently lawyers from both sides have wanted the tape but it’s in a judge’s chambers. YOUR tax dollars at work people! Apparently the tape will be released in 24 hours and we can see it on the debut episode of Thunder. Boy that’s convenient. We’ll also see video from Starrcade on Thursday about the fast count and all that jazz.

Here’s Jericho with a chair and a suit jacket in his hands. He wants to apologize for his actions last week because that’s not the real Chris Jericho. The real Jericho is the one standing here right now. He understands that a lot of people look up to him and that wasn’t the right reaction. Jericho gives Penzer a new chair to sit in and a new suit jacket to wear. That will NEVER happen again.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Chris Jericho

Non-title here. Feeling out process to start with Page taking over via a swinging neckbreaker. They get back up and slap hands before Jericho is run over with a shoulder block. Tony is still shocked by the fifteen members of the NWO showing up in two limos. We get another standoff and Jericho offers a handshake, only to sucker Page in with a right hand. Not that it matters as the Diamond Cutter hits for the pin a few seconds later.

Jericho has another fit post match.

Gene talks to some WCW lawyer who reads a prepared statement, basically saying any WCW wrestlers violating WCW policies will be fined or suspended. Also if the NWO violates a policy on Nitro, they’re fined or suspended too. That’s certainly riveting information.

Bill Goldberg vs. Stevie Ray

Goldberg pounds him down to start but Stevie escapes a powerslam and hits a belly to back suplex for no cover. A clothesline gets two for Stevie but Goldberg’s second powerslam attempt works fine. Off to a quick chinlock but Stevie comes back with a superkick. Not that it matters as it’s the spear and Jackhammer to keep Goldie undefeated.

Nitro Girls.

John Nord vs. Barbarian

You might remember Nord as the Berzerker from the early 90s. He’s part of a new wave of talent coming in apparently, which will also include a former WWF Tag Team Champion debuting later tonight. Nord is just a guy in white trunks and furry boots here. They clothesline each other and no one goes anywhere but another clothesline puts Barbarian on the floor. Nord, a big guy in his own right, hits a dive over the top to crush Barbarian but he stops to go after Jimmy Hart. Barbie rams him into the barricade but Nord sends him head first into the steps.

They whip each other into the barricade as this is way more energetic than you would expect it to be. Back in and Nord hits a Samoan drop for no cover followed by a series of elbow drops. Jimmy gets choked a bit but Barbarian hits a big boot to the jaw, sending Nord out to the floor. Back in and a pumphandle slam gets two for Barbarian before he chops Nord in the corner. Nord misses a charge into the corner and falls outside again, only to come back in with a middle rope elbow. A modified camel clutch by Nord (Nord was sitting almost on the mat while pulling back on the chin) is good for the submission.

Rating: C+. This was WAY better than I ever could have expected it to be as Nord looked pretty solid out there. Barbarian was his usual self but a bit more physical than he usually was, making for a pretty solid surprise here. I barely remember Nord at all around this time which is one of the fun parts of rewatching these shows. Good stuff here.

Here’s Bischoff for a chat. He says there are no problems in the NWO so the announcers can forget about it. The fans boo him and Eric loses his cool. He goes on a rant about how Hogan beat Sting twice in a row and how there’s no tape or anything and WCW is just scared of the people seeing it. Eric says Nitro should belong to the NWO after the kick to the head, but we’ll see that on Thunder as well. Eric is still ticked off and walks out.

We look at Ultimo Dragon winning the Cruiserweight Title last week from Eddie.

Psychosis vs. Juventud Guerrera

The winner gets the first shot at Dragon. Apparently we’re going to see Bischoff vs. Zbyszko in its entirety on Thunder. Good to know I paid to see it live because I can now see it again less than two weeks later. Psychosis takes him down twice in a row to start but misses a splash in the corner to let Juvy fire off some chops. Juvy sends him to the floor and there’s a big dive to take Psychosis out.

Back in and Psychosis crotches him on the top rope as Tony starts bragging about the NWO not holding any titles. A facejam gets two for Psychosis but the guillotine legdrop misses. Juvy hits a springboard missile dropkick to take out Psychosis’ knee before pounding away at the masked head. Juvy goes up but dives into a dropkick to the ribs to shift momentum again. Psychosis has a powerbomb reversed into a DDT and the 450 sends Juvy to Thunder (where else?) for the title shot.

Rating: C. This was fine. Both guys got to do their thing and it was a nice change of pace from the match we saw just before it. As stupid as some of the main event stuff would get, the lower card stuff on Nitro was almost always an excellent mix of different styles, which is what we got right here.

We get a clip from last April with the NWO having problems to show that this has happened before. What this has to do with anything that’s happened lately is beyond me but it’s hard to keep up with WCW logic at times.

Hour #2 begins.

More Nitro Girls.

Here’s TV Champion Booker T to say it’s awesome that he’s TV Champion. It was for his son apparently.

TV Title: Booker T vs. Prince Iaukea

Feeling out process to start with Booker’s wristlock going nowhere. Instead Booker kicks him in the head and pounds away before getting two off the ax kick. A side kick misses Iaukea though and Booker falls to the floor. Back in and another kick to Iaukea’s head sets up the Harlem Hangover for the pin to retain the title. Total squash.

We get proof of the fast count: stills of Patrick counting it. Tony: “You can see the fast count.” How does this man remember to tie his shoes every morning?

Buff Bagwell/Scott Norton/Konnan vs. Ray Traylor/Steiner Brothers

Traylor and Konnan get things going with Ray missing a charge into the corner and getting clotheslined down. Konnan loads up a DDT but Scott Steiner takes his head off with a clothesline to break it up. Bagwell gets slapped to the floor as Scott Steiner stomps on Konnan’s head. Everything breaks down and the NWO is sent to the floor. Bagwell gets the tag but wants Rick instead of Scott.

Rick poses a bit in a funny spot, causing Buff to go off with right hands. That lasts all of four seconds as Rick suplexes him down and gets two off a Steiner Line. Back to Ray to face Norton with Traylor being taken down like he’s nothing. Ray comes back with an uppercut and it’s back to Rick for a top rope clothesline.

The NWO finally starts cheating to let Buff take over and Rick gets beaten down by all three NWO guys. Rick finally clotheslines Buff down and tags in his brother as everything breaks down. Everything breaks down and the Steiners set up the Steiner Bulldog, only to have Scott drop Buff down in an electric chair. Rick is distracted but his brother hits the awesome Steiner Screwdriver on Konnan for the pin. DiBiase gets in some kicks to Vincent for old times’ sake.

Rating: C+. This match goes up a letter or so because of the Steiner Screwdriver. If there has ever been a more devastating looking move I can’t think of it off the top of my head. If you’ve never seen it, picture a delayed vertical suplex but instead of falling back, Scott drops the other guy straight down on his head like a fast piledriver. It’s incredibly dangerous but so sweet to watch. That lack of the Steiner Bulldog at the end isn’t a good sign for the Brothers though.

Here are the Nitro Girls again in case you forgot what they look like.

We look at a fan’s Nitro Party.

Brad Armstrong vs. Rick Martel

This is Martel’s debut and his first national match in years. A quick rollup gets two for Martel as I think Armstrong is the heel here. Brad grabs a headlock as Tony is SURE there are problems in the NWO. Armstrong charges into a knee in the corner and gets caught by a middle rope clothesline for no cover. Brad gets in a forearm out of the corner and chokes away, only to get caught in the Quebec Crab for the win for Martel. Another short match.

More Nitro Girls.

Chris Benoit/Steve McMichael vs. Perry Saturn/Riggs

Benoit and Saturn get things going and the chops start flying fast. Off to Mongo who gets pounded into the corner, only to come out with a hip toss. A powerslam puts Saturn down but Riggs comes in for a double team. Benoit is fine with letting his partner get beaten down by both guys in an odd bit. Riggs trips Mongo up for a clothesline from Saturn before drawing in Benoit to allow more cheating.

The Flock cuts the ring off to keep Mongo in with Saturn putting on a Fujiwara Armbar. A double shoulder puts McMichael down but he hooks a double suplex and makes the hot tag to Benoit. Everything breaks down and there’s the Crossface to Saturn but a Kidman distraction lets Raven hit the DDT on Benoit, giving Saturn the pin.

Rating: C-. They’re taking their sweet time to get to Raven vs. Benoit but that has the potential to be a classic when we get there. The tag match was a fine idea to keep the story going now that Benoit has gone through every individual member of the Flock but hopefully Mongo isn’t a fixture in these matches.

Here’s Ric Flair with something to say. He’s glad WCW is taking over again and is glad that Sting is world champion, but everyone wants the belt. One of the people that wants it is someone that has rubbed him the wrong way: Bret Hart. How can someone like Bret call himself the best when Flair is around? This brings out Hart who says that he’ll say the catchphrase and then say WOO at the end of it.

Flair talks about how Bret is a big time columnist in Canada, but we’re here in Atlanta tonight and Flair is prime USA man. He tells Bret to say it again and Bret does just that. If Flair has a problem with it, too bad. Flair lists off some legendary names and says Hart can believe he’s better than them, but Race and Kiniski and Funk and Brisco aren’t Ric Flair. Bret takes off his jacket and says to be the man you gotta beat the man, which he’s done before. Flair says if you think you’re better than me, let’s see you do it again. AWESOME segment here that makes me want to watch them fight right now.

Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage

Nick Patrick is the referee here to tick off the announcers. Actually scratch that as JJ comes out to suspend him, drawing out Bischoff to protest. Bagwell and Norton are here with Savage and Luger gets jumped before the bell. An elbow to the face puts Luger down for two and a belly to back suplex gets the same as this is one sided so far.

A slam puts Luger down but Savage jumps into a right hand to the ribs. Luger starts firing off his wide array of clotheslines and the powerslam looks to set up the Rack, only to have Savage bail to the floor. Savage bails to the floor to avoid the Rack and after hiding behind Liz he’s able to send Luger into the barricade to take over. Back in and Luger gets a small package out of nowhere for the pin.

Rating: D+. These two spent like three years fighting each other and this wasn’t one of their better matches. The match was almost too short to rate and the ending came out of nowhere, making it hard to get into the match at all. Luger was rapidly becoming a shell of himself which would only continue in the coming years.

Post match Savage goes after Luger with a chair but Bischoff pulls the chair away (remember the threat of suspensions earlier tonight). Savage doesn’t know who it was and decks Bischoff, drawing out Hogan to calm things down. Nash comes out and decks Savage as Hogan tries to calm things down. The NWO surrounds Luger but Sting runs in for the save to end things.

Overall Rating: B-. This was actually a pretty solid show with the NWO showing real signs of problems and Sting clearly being the lead soldier in WCW’s war. Add that in with some excellent talking between Bret and Flair and you have a pretty good TV show here. You can see a lot of Souled Out coming together, but right now we’re getting ready for Thunder on Thursday which should be interesting. Good show this week and one of the best in a very long time.

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

Monday Nitro #37
Date: May 27, 1996
Location: Macon Coliseum, Macon, Georgia
Attendance: 4,309
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Heenan, Eric Bischoff

 

We’re FINALLY here as we reach probably the most important TV show in wrestling history. First and foremost, tonight Scott Hall is going to debut by jumping the guardrail, more or less shattering the idea that things are predictable on wrestling. That’s the huge deal so I’ll go into detail on how awesome and shocking it was later. Also this is the first two hour Nitro and there’s a new announce team. Let’s get to it.

 

Theme song opens us up.

 

Tony and Larry are the first hour commentators while Heenan and Bischoff will come in later. NO MORE MONGO!!!!! This is a great show so far!

 

American Males vs. Arn Anderson/Ric Flair

 

Gee I wonder what’s going to happen. Larry calls the Males the young and the useless. That might be the only funny line he has all year so enjoy it while it lasts. Liz looks awesome in blue. Flair vs. Riggs to get us started here. Larry seems like the heel commentator here which wouldn’t last that long. The Horsemen get him on the floor and work him over like the Horsemen are known to do.

 

Yep Larry certainly is because he complains about how the football players that the Horsemen are facing at the next PPV are losers. Everything breaks down and the Males actually clean the ring for a bit. Flair runs over to his VIP table and grabs come champagne for a shot. Well that’s a new one. Things calm down again and it’s Arn vs. Bagwell at the moment.

 

Arn accidentally clotheslines the pole and we take a break. Back with Bagwell fighting out of the corner but he doesn’t tag. And never mind as he brings in Riggs for awhile as Flair chills in the corner. Tony and Larry have been given champagne by Flair. Shame Heenan isn’t there for this one. Flair works on the knee of Riggs as does Arn. Riggs manages to get an enziguri to send Anderson to the floor but as he goes for the tag, Flair and the referee get into a shoving match. Oh never mind as Bagwell gets the tag anyway.

 

Missile dropkick takes down Flair for two and they do the small package bit where the partners keep rolling them over. I love that as the guys don’t kick out for like twenty seconds and just lay there. Fisherman’s suplex hits Flair but Anderson makes the save. Woman saves another pin attempt and Anderson kills Bagwell with a DDT and Flair gets the pin. Quick ending.

 

Rating: C. This was kind of sloppy but for the most part it was fine. No one expected the Males to win here and that’s fine. They weren’t supposed to win anything here and they had a decent match out of it instead. This is what veterans are supposed to do: give the young guys experience and help bring them up slowly. For some reason that rarely happens in most companies and the young guys are seen as weaker when they come up. Either way, just an average match here but it was fine.

 

Anderson isn’t afraid of football players. Flair says his women are attractive and he’ll get Debra. Liz is the Sugar Mama using Savage’s money apparently.

 

Kevin Greene and Mongo are training for their match. This is a waste of time.

 

Steve Doll vs. The Mauler

 

And here it is. Why would this be on TV you ask? The same reason a guy named Steve Gatorwolf was on SNME once: to allow something else to happen. Mauler is Mike Enos and has Colonel Parker with him. Doll means nothing. Crowd is DEAD and the Mauler squashes him for awhile. They both go to the floor and Doll goes into the post. We take a break and come back and you can see him in the crowd.

 

Scott Hall comes over the railing and wants a mic. He says the famous line of you know who I am but you don’t know why I’m here. He calls out some of the big WCW names and has a challenge for Bischoff, Turner, Savage and anyone else that is here in WCW. “You want a war? You gonna get one.” The match of course just ends.

 

Ok so as you likely know, this completely changed wrestling forever for a lot of reasons.

 

1. No one, I mean NO ONE, saw this coming. Hall had literally wrestled less than two weeks prior on a WWF show. Today the 90 day no compete clauses exist because of this moment. If three months had gone by, first of all people would have noticed Hall was missing and there would be a good chance the word could have gotten out that he had signed with WCW. It made things seem like anything could happen on Nitro at the drop of a hat and that made you want to see the show. This was dabbled in with Luger on the debut episode but this blows Luger away.

 

2. Hall’s line about a war made people think that WWF was in on this which was unthinkable. People had jumped before but when they arrived there was fanfare to it and all that jazz. Hall came in through the crowd (by the way if I remember correctly he wouldn’t be named until Bash at the Beach) in street clothes, making it look totally unplanned. The idea of breaking the walls of kayfabe was also unthinkable coming up to this point, which shook everything up.

 

3. This would be the main story for the next three years minimum with all kinds of twists and turns in there. Everything was about Hall and eventually Nash and Hogan, but at this time everything was blown away by what the potential of this could be and it definitely had huge potential to be one of the biggest storylines of all time and it definitely was. It also set up the WWF because they had to respond to it. Granted they didn’t do that for almost 18 months but the idea was there.

 

4. I can’t emphasize this enough but this changed everything. The model before this had been to just go out there and do your thing week in and week out with the same structure every time. This made it look like the script had been thrown out the window and that there was this rogue guy and later this rogue group that didn’t care about the rules and were going to take things over whether you liked it or not. Having it look like the other company is involved in it is a brilliant idea as it looks like something is completely unprepared, which makes you want to see it at the same time. Brilliant.

 

5. Finally, this more or less marks the end of the athletics being the focus of the show. Everything became about drama from this point on. The matches got worse, the young guys got pushed to the back, the storylines and a lot of the face/heel dynamics were abandoned and everything was focused on drama. It wouldn’t really kick in until late July, but from this point on you could see the line of demarcation and how everything would change afterwards. It certainly worked for awhile, but eventually people got tired of it which is what brought the company down, along with about a thousand other things but we’ll get to that later.

 

Craig Pittman vs. Diamond Dallas Page

 

Guy that won a major PPV competition vs. a guy that hasn’t been on Nitro in months. Gee what do you think is going to happen here? No mention of the Hall incident post break. Teddy Long manages Pittman here. Page makes fun of him to start and imitates a soldier. Pittman does one armed pushups and Page thinks for once and tries to jump him. Pittman moved but the idea was nice at least.

 

There’s a slight reference to Hall but it’s not mentioned specifically at all. Page gets choked on the floor by a cord and then gets almost caught in the Code Red (Pittman’s cross armbreaker finisher). Teddy goes down and the distraction sets up the Diamond Cutter to end it. Barely even a match.

 

Video on Randy Savage and how he’s insane now.

 

Shark says he’s out of the Dungeon of Doom. Somehow he has a world title match tonight. They were a lot more liberal with those back then I guess.

 

Video on Hogan and how he’s been chilling with “celebrities” from Hollywood recently. He’s done some charity work too, which is always cool. He’s also been on Baywatch. It’s really funny seeing how big a deal they’re trying to make a guest appearance on Baywatch seem when Rock is a legit big star now.

 

Hour #2 starts. Bischoff says they’re not going to dignify the guy jumping the rail as he dignifies the guy jumping over the rail.

 

WCW World Title: Shark vs. Giant

 

That sounds like a bad Syfy channel movie. Shark is listed from Tsunami. No country or anything. He’s just from a tsunami apparently. Shark (Earthquake) hammers away on Giant. This is somehow fallout from Slamboree as Giant is replacing Shark or something. Shark keeps ramming into him and Giant eventually gets bored and clotheslines him down.

 

Giant chokes with the boot but Shark actually comes off the middle rope with a double axe. The future Big Show is like dude, you’re old and slams him with ease. He held him up there too which looked awesome. They exchange some more big man stuff and I wouldn’t look for this to last much longer at all. Eric says the second hour will start weekly at 8:50 or so. This bothered me back in the day. How can you start the second hour when the first hour isn’t even a complete hour? Jimmy gets up on the apron and the distraction lets Giant hit the chokeslam to end this.

 

Rating: C. Just a battle of the big men here so how much can you really complain? It’s not that bad but another win for Giant is never a bad thing. He needed all the ring time he could get and that’s what he did here. Shark would feud with the Dungeon briefly before just kind of leaving.

 

Post match Big Bubba comes in to cut half of Shark’s hair. This led to a bad match at the Bash.

 

Bischoff keeps talking about Hall without actually talking about him you know.

 

TV Title: Maxx vs. Lex Luger

 

Maxx used to be DDP’s bodyguard so he’s now #1 contender for the TV Title. Don’t you get the connection there? We talk about the Great American Bash where some guy named Rey Mysterio is going to debut. Maxx uses some very basic power stuff as we pad this out since there’s no point in even making fun of Maxx’s lack of a chance here. More babbling about Hall follows as he’s going to get a chance to talk at the end of the hour.

 

Maxx hammers away as Luger stumbles around a lot. Side slam gets two. Make that four which only in wrestling doesn’t get enough for three. Elbow drop gets two. Falls count anywhere between Sullivan and Benoit is mentioned. Awesome match there. Luger hits a powerslam and there’s the Rack out of almost nowhere to end this.

 

Rating: D+. Just kind of there for the most part as just like Giant did with Shark, Luger gets a workout here that doesn’t mean anything. Their title match went nowhere for the most part because the whole thing was about Bischoff getting jumped by the Outsiders. Anyway, nothing of note here but that was the point.

 

Luger says he earned the title shot even though it was taken from DDP and given to Luger. We get a clip of Giant chokeslaming Luger through the table a few weeks back. Luger wants all the big men WCW has before the title match.

 

Bobby Walker vs. Brad Armstrong

 

Just….why? Walker is a no name guy called Hard Work. See what I mean here? Bischoff still won’t say Hall’s name “due to legal reasons” and still won’t dignify him as he mentions him for the fourth time tonight. Walker takes him down with the arm and Armstrong does the same to Walker. Walker botches a few moves before hitting a cross body off the top for two.

 

We hit the mat for some more basic stuff. Headscissors goes on while they’re on the mat as this is pure filler. They didn’t have the whole two hour concept down yet I wouldn’t think. Walker gets a backslide for two. He goes up and slips again before hitting a top rope shoulder block for the pin.

 

Rating: D. So in a four minute match he noticeably botched three moves. Walker would later be part of a racial discrimination lawsuit against WCW, saying that they held him back because he was black. Based on this, I think it was more due to a high level of suck. Armstrong was always around but never really did anything. We did hear about the Cruiserweight Title being in America now, which is definitely a good thing overall.

 

Steven Regal vs. Alex Wright

 

Time to talk about Hulk! Or the Nasty Boys! Or Dennis Rodman! I never got this. It’s not like they’re talking about something major. They’re talking about random stuff that is there to avoid talking about the matches. That makes no sense but they always did it. Wright speeds things up a bit and takes him to the floor. He dives over the top to take out Regal as we take a break.

 

Back with Wright holding his arm as Regal takes over apparently. Headlock on the mat goes on which is a lot worse from Regal than most people. Belly to belly gets two for Wright. Bischoff actually calls Wright green. When do you ever hear that word being used? That’s another thing that started to be added around this time: random insider terms. European uppercut gives Wright some momentum and a rollup gets two. Pretty sweet pinfall reversal sequence ends with Wright hitting a nice dropkick to take over again. Monkey flip is countered and Regal gets a jackknife cover for the pin.

 

Rating: C+. Pretty nice match here as both guys worked rather hard to give us a nice crisp match. Unfortunately neither guy would really mean anything because they couldn’t talk that well but at the same time they were good backdrops for the amount of talking about WCW vs. NWO. Not much here but a decent little TV match.

 

Regal goes on a rant about Quasimodo and makes a semi-Hitler reference, calling Wright a mini-Adolf. Regal says WCW is nuts here and actually references Hall and says it’s time he has his say in what goes on in WCW. He challenges Sting who he would lose to at the Bash in a good match.

 

Scott Steiner vs. Sting

 

Odd main event here but whatever. They shake hands to start us off. Scott overpowers Sting to start as this is the always weird face vs. face match. Sting sends him to the floor with a dropkick and then dives over the top with a plancha. Back in and Scott gets a butterfly powerbomb for no cover. There’s the belly to belly for no cover again. Scott gets a double axe to the floor as he keeps control.

 

That gets two back in the ring as we make fun of WWF again because that’s just how we roll around here right? Sting gets a big boot up to block a charge in the corner as momentum balances out a bit. Scott hits another belly to belly for two. STF goes on. I guess that makes four moves for him right? He just lets it go and hits a cross armbreaker. Sting starts a comeback but the splash misses.

 

Scott gets a dragon suplex and here comes Luger as a second I guess. Rick comes out also and you might as well just paint a big sign that says DOUBLE DQ IS COMING in big letters on the screen. Samoan Drop from the middle rope gets no cover from Scott again. Sting avoids the Frankensteiner but can’t get the Scorpion. Scott tries a Tombstone which is reversed into one by Sting for two. Sting suplexes Scott to the floor and Luger interferes as does Rick and it’s a double DQ even though Luger hit first.

 

Rating: B-. Pretty good match here and the ending was there to protect Scott I think. They always wanted to push him hard but they couldn’t do it for another four years. The tag match that you would expect would happen next week in a show I missed because I was in a garage hiding from a severe thunderstorm. Anyway, pretty good stuff here with a predictable ending.

 

Hall comes up to the booth and says that “we” are tired of WCW’s big mouths. He tells Billionaire Ted to get three guys for a fight because they’re coming for a war. Hall wants to do it in the ring where it matters. Good line there.

 

Overall Rating: C. Industry changing moment aside, this was a pretty weak show. The matches seemed rather inconsequential for the most part but it’s clear they’re setting up for the Bash. On the other hand you have the 800 pound gorilla in the room known as Scott Hall. The show other than him means nothing as he was just the first step in a huge story that was coming. Anyway, from a historical standpoint this is huge and that’s the only one that really matters.

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