It's the greatest night in the history of our sport!

___________________

 

First up, as usual, WCW shows the ending of the PPV which took place on the day before Nitro, when it applies. At Spring Stampede, Randy Savage wanted to slap Kimberly, but wound up doing that to Eric Bischoff instead. After a bit of still photos from the DDP/Savage match the night before, we begin the action with

 

Alex Wright and Psychosis vs. Hugh Morrus and Konnan.

 

Alex avoids Morrus' wild punches, and Morrus does the same when Wright attempts a springboard moonsault. A leg lariat by Wright gets a 1 count, and Psychosis tags in. Konnan tags in, and gives Psychosis a running clothesline. Psychosis gets a superkick and flying headscissor, then a spinning heel kick from the top rope. He goes up again, and corkscrew moonsaults onto Morrus, who's out on the floor. We go to a split screen view, and DDP has arrived at the arena. Konnan gets a powerbomb for 2 on Psychosis, and Morrus comes in and powerslams Psychosis. He goes up to the 2nd rope and misses an elbowdrop, finally, Alex Wright tags in. A missile dropkick by Wright follows, and a dropkick comes after that. He armdrags Morrus, and goes up top for a crossbody, which gets 2. Morrus gives him a swinging neckbreaker out of nowhere, and goes up for No Laughing Matter, which gets his team the victory at 5:04. **, decent opener.

___________________

 

Right out of the commercial break, we have Lord Steven Regal vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. Sounds good.

 

The bell rings almost immediately, so Regal gives Mysterio a stiff European uppercut. He waves to the crowd, then gives Mysterio a flapjack. Regal's arrogance is amusing, to say the least. He drops Mysterio on the guardrail from a fireman's carry position, and we go to a FULLSCREEN shot of Hogan arriving. He's so special, he can't just have half the screen. He has to be on the whole thing. Back to the match, and Regal's choking Rey with his boot. Regal goes for an underhook powerbomb, but Rey armdrags him in the middle of the move. A springboard dropkick by Rey puts Regal out of the ring, and as Regal comes into back into the ring off the top rope, Mysterio gives him a flying headscissor. Neat. Rey's springboard hurricanrana gets a 2 count, and Regal gives him a reverse suplex. Now there's a move I haven't seen in a long time. The Regal Stretch is applied, and once Rey reaches the ropes, Regal won't break the hold. Needless to say, Regal gets DQ'd, at 4:33. Prince Iaukea runs to the ring and tries to attack Regal, and HE gets put in the Regal Stretch. Regal keeps the hold applied for a long time, until a couple referees make him break it. **.

 

The rest of the NWO arrives, namely Savage, Kevin Nash, Fake Sting, Syxx, Elizabeth and Buff Bagwell. Teasing tension, I see.

___________________

 

After a break, we're treated to the presence of Dennis Rodman, at the premiere of the movie, Double Team. Rodman looks really gay right here.

 

Chris Benoit v. Ice Train. I'll say this, once Benoit's career gets out of the point where he's squashing people on Nitro, and to the point where he's facing important wrestlers, his matches should be shown. But stuff like this, I don't care.

 

Now, we have Kevin Sullivan w/Jacqueline and Jimmy Hart facing Hector Guerrero. Sullivan beats the shit out of Hector over the whole match, and Jacqueline does too. Sullivan stomps on Hector, which finishes the match at 2:48. 1/2* for Jacqueline's involvement.

___________________

 

The NWO makes their way down to the ring, but they're separated in two groups. Fake Sting is the only one that switched groups from before, it's Hogan, DiBiase, fake Sting, Bischoff and Vincent, and the rest are the ones that arrived with Savage and Nash. Mostly the B-teamers. Billionaire Ted has the mic, and says if you're in the NWO, you're in 4 LIFE. There shouldn't be any problems, he says. To save space, Hogan wonders where Scott Hall is, Nash says Hall is NWO 4 LIFE; Savage and Bischoff bury the hatchet, in regards to their problems at Spring Stampede, and that's the end of the segment. Ghey.

___________________

 

It's HOUR #2~!!!~!~!~!~!~!~! That means Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan replace Larry Zbyszko at the commentary table, see.

 

Mean Gene invites Ric Flair out to join him, both Flair and Roddy Piper are ready to fight the NWO, and they'll do it at Slamboree, with Kevin Greene as their partner. WCW PPV's were so weaksauce. Hogan didn't have a PPV match from Uncensored to Bash at the Beach. That's 3 PPV's without the champion wrestling, and since the title wasn't defended from Superbrawl to Road Wild, 5 PPV's without a title defense. Lame.

___________________

 

In a US Title match, the challenger, Chris Jericho will take on the champion, Dean Malenko. A precursor to what would become just a year later, for sure.

 

The opening sequence is sweet, not too sweet, just sweet. Dean tries a hiptoss but can't get it, but his rollup gets 2. Jericho gets an enziguri and spinning heel kick, which puts Dean on the ring apron. Jericho springboards out with a crossbody, and on the inside, gives Dean a missile dropkick. Jericho backslides Malenko for 2, but afterward, Malenko gives him a powerbomb. That's what I'm TALKIN' ABOUT. He goes for the Texas Cloverleaf, but Jericho grabs the bottom rope. Jericho misses a charge to the corner, but gets a superplex. Dean rams Jericho's head into the ringpost, and then kicks him in the face, as Jericho sells a "broken nose." Dean pins him and retains his title, at 3:00. Strange finish, but these two did really well with the time they were given. *3/4.

___________________

 

The Public Enemy vs. High Voltage is next, and this match is a revenge match, as a result of what happened two weeks ago. If you want to see, look HERE.

 

Both teams brawl, and the Public Enemy get the best of it after a double backdrop and double suplex. Rage pulls down the top rope, which puts Rocco Rock out of the ring, but Rocco comes back in quickly, and gets shoulderblocked for a 2 count. Kaos tags in, and Rocco gives him a swinging neckbreaker. Not-so-hot tag Grunge, so Grunge clotheslines everyone, then slams Rage. It's TABLE TIME, but Grunge misses a splash of Kaos, as Kaos gets out of the way. Grunge pretty much flew through that table. Rage gives Rocco a northern lights suplex, which finishes the bout at 3:06! Wow. High Voltage beat them twice. That's a surprise. *, after the bout, the Public Enemy say that they want to face High Voltage in a Philadelphia Streetfight next week. Unfortunately, we won't see it, as Nitro and RAW are going to be skipped. The Public Enemy are "going to take it to...the EXTREME." If I were Paul Heyman, I would have used that as an opportunity to get some cash out of Ted Turner.

 

After the commercial break, we see that Prince Iaukea's ribs are hurt. He still has to defend the Television Title!

___________________

 

Harlem Heat w/Sister Sherri are supposed to face Jeff Jarrett and Mongo McMichael w/Debra, but Mongo isn't there. HANDICAP MATCH.

 

Booker gives Jarrett a shoulderblock, and Jarrett comes back with an armdrag and hiptoss. Stevie Ray comes in to stop that, and chokes Jarrett. He gives Jarrett a falldown slam, and once Jarrett gets up, he dropkicks both men, then does that gay dance of his. Booker gives Jarrett a Harlem Sidekick, and since it occured to me at that point of the match...was there anyone on this planet that thought Jarrett and Booker would become WCW Champions? By that, I mean, in 1997, could anyone believe that would occur? I know, since it was WCW post-1998 it doesn't really count, but still. Stevie comes in with a legdrop, and gets a 2 count. A Booker forearm gets 2, and a scoop slam follows. Booker gives Jarrett a scissor kick, but no SPINAROONIE! and tags Stevie in. Stevie gives Jarrett an axe kick, but only gets 2. A Jarrett small package gets 2, and Harlem Heat give him a double suplex for his trouble. Sherri punches Jarrett a few times, then Booker crotches himself on the top rope after a Harlem Sidekick attempt. Stevie comes in and suplexes Jarrett, then Mongo grants us with his presence. What a swell fellow. He tags in and chopblocks Harlem Heat. Mongo shows us how great of a man he is, by tagging Jarrett into the match as Jarrett's out of gas. Booker gives Jarrett a Harlem Sidekick, and gets the 3 count, at 9:02. 3/4*, wasn't very good.

 

Gene Okerlund interviews Mongo, at which point Mongo rambles about a whole lot of nothing, pretty much stating that he's out for himself. Like I said, he's a great guy.

___________________

 

On The Road with Lee Marshall. Gay.

 

Anyway, here's the TV Title match, The Ultimate (they were still calling him this) Dragon w/Sonny Onoo vs. the champ, Prince Iaukea.

 

Iaukea gets a small package for 2, as that's pretty much all he can do. Remember, his ribs. A backslide gets two, then Dragon kicks him in the ribs a whole bunch. He slams Iaukea and goes up top, but eats the bare foot of Iaukea. Prince chops him, and Dragon gives him a few more kicks. Sensing victory, Dragon pins Iaukea at 2:03, and we have a new Television Champion. Congrats on your first TV Title, Ultimate Dragon. I'm not a fan of him, btw. 1/2*.

___________________

 

See, the Giant and Scott Steiner were supposed to have a match, but that evil Mexican, Konnan and the crazy guy, Hugh Morrus attacked Steiner in the aisleway. Morrus hit Giant with a chair, but it didn't do anything. No match.

___________________

 

DDP comes out for a promo, says he's an anomaly, and explains the meaning of the word.

 

a·nom·a·ly

 

1. a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form.

 

Yeah, pretty much. He wants Savage, and Savage hobbles down toward the ring. Hollywood Hogan stops him though, and says he, and the NWO will take care of Page. "Don't lose your shades, we'll handle it." Savage can sit back and watch.

 

IT'S STING!

 

He comes out of the rafters with two baseball bats, and tosses one to DDP. He climbs in the ring with Page, and honestly, I would have finished the Savage/Page thing at Spring Stampede, and had Page attack Sting here, giving Sting even more reason to stay a loner. I wouldn't have had DDP join the NWO, though, I would have had him program with The Giant for a while, and once Sting beat Hogan, would have had Sting get his revenge on DDP. That's just fantasy booking. What really happens is, the announcers proclaim that DDP has a friend, and that's the end of the show.

___________________

 

Rating: Good. There were good matches, albeit short, throughout, and Sting made an appearance. Not only that, but Hogan made his first appearance after a couple week absence. That, and a title change, are grounds for a good rating. After all, it's a TV show, so they should be held to different standards than a PPV or MSG show.

 

Best Match: Alex Wright and Psychosis vs. Konnan and Hugh Morrus. Although Rey vs Regal was enjoyable, this had a clean finish. Thus, better.

 

Worst Match: Harlem Heat vs. Jeff Jarrett (mostly) and Mongo McMichael.

 

Loudest Sound: NWO and Sting. Duh. Outside of that, Ric Flair and The Giant. No surprises here, the crowd pretty much cheers everyone in WCW. Rarely do people get booed.

 

No Sound: Prince Iaukea and High Voltage. Again, no surprises.

___________________

 

RAW's next.