UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted October 30, 2006 The purpose of this is to post reviews of old episodes of WCW television, to point out things that older fans may have missed, or drop knowledge to newer fans about WCW's history. So if you have old episodes, review 'em and discuss! I write my reviews in Scott-Keith fashion, but I feel they're a pretty accurate assessment of the product, though I'm a much harsher critic than he is. __ WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - January 1, 1996 Live from Atlanta, GA Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Arn Anderson Vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage Anderson helped Ric Flair win the World Title from Savage at Starrcade. Slugfest to start, then Savage absolutely dominates Anderson outside of the ring. Bischoff congratulates college football teams for winning Bowl games, then calls the WWF's taped "Raw Bowl" which is running opposite of Nitro the "toilet bowl" and says The Smokin' Gunns won it. Some basic brawling back in the ring, with Savage then hitting a flying axehandle off the top for two. Bischoff, very cockily,claims WCW is "often imitated but never duplicated, hahahaha", as the others ignore him. Anderson targets Savage's injured arm. Out to the floor for a quick second, then Anderson continues to destroy Savage's injured arm. Bischoff claims 1995 was WCW's most successful year in history. Arn uses the ropes for leverage to further wear down Savage's arm. I feel like Savage wrestled the same match for like 6 months in 95-96: start hot, get arm destroyed, flying elbow, win. Clever spot sees Arn fake a punch, Savage duck, and Arn drill Savage with the DDT as the crowd erupts. Rope break saves Savage. Ref gets bumped, Arn pulls out a foreign object, but Savage clocks him, then punches Arn with the object as the ref wakes up and counts the three at 7:55. Pretty boring. * 1/2 for effort. Horsemen members Brian Pillman and Chris Benoit hit the ring and chase Savage away. Lord Steven Regal (with Geeves) Vs. Chris Benoit Matwork to start and then a headbutt battle! Regal gains the advantage with a cravate, as a faint "Horsemen!" chant starts. Regal with a nice counter, and palm strikes Benoit repeatedly on the mat and then in the corner. Benoit ducks a clothesline and drops Regal on his neck with a release German suplex. Regal with a butterfly suplex, and gets 3 two-counts before Benoit hits him with a clothesline. Electric chair drop by Benoit, but he misses the Swandive Headbutt from up top. Benoit counters a Regal tombstone piledriver into one of his own! Benoit with a slingshot plancha to the floor, but Regal moves and Benoit hits hard and knocks himself out. Regal scores the easy pinfall at 5:41. ** 1/2, could've used much more time, but what they had was quite good. Afterwards, Gene Okerlund has the Horsemen (minus Flair) in the ring for an interview. Brian Pillman viciously berates Benoit & Anderson for losing and spending too much time partying. Benoit says Regal got lucky. Anderson tells Pillman to stop picking unnecessary fights with Paul Orndorff and The Dungeon of Doom. Kevin Sullivan and The Zodiac run to the ring to attack but are pulled off by The Giant. The Super Assassins (with Col. Rob Parker) Vs. Sting & Lex Luger The masked Assassins are The Warlord & The Barbarian, wearing hideous black & yellow attire with yellow masks and a big yellow "S" on their chests. A split-screen shows Sgt. Craig Pittman interrupting the announcers, discussing his credentials, and asking Steve McMichael to manage him. McMichael declines his offer and says he doesn't need a manager. In the ring, Sting rather easily avoids the Assassin double-teams, with #1 (Barbarian) accidently clotheslining #2 (Warlord). #2 gets clotheslined to the floor, but Luger's arguing with the referee allows them to get an advantage on Sting. Sting gets trapped in a lengthy Canadian backbreaker submission hold. #2 uses a deadly headlock forever, keeping Sting fromm making the tag. The Assassins hit a sloppy suplex/top-rope clothesline combo on Sting as Luger continues to argue with the referee and cost his partner. Powerbomb by #1, who heads up top and jmisses a splash. Luger gets the hot tag FINALLY, and manhandles the big guys, finishing off one of them with the "Torture Rack" for the win as Sting applies the "Scorpion Deathlock" to the other at 5:48. Absolutely dreadful - heatless power moves and restholds. * Interview with The Giant and Jimmy Hart Hart says he'll go back and forth between managing Ric Flair and The Dungeon of Doom. The Giant says tonight is his night to destroy Hogan, who has a WCW World Title match later. WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair Vs. Hulk Hogan Hogan repeatedly shoulderblocks Flair off his feet. Flair tries to mat wrestle, and then comes back with chops and punches, but Hogan is not affected by them. Five rights from Hulk, but he runs into Flair's elbow and the "red & yellow crowd fully in support of Hogan" (so says Bischoff) lets out a huge "WHOOO!" Flair gets slammed off the top rope and clotheslined over the top to the floor. Flair gets pummeled on the floor, but then targets the knee of Hogan back inside the ring. Kneedrop on Hulk's left knee. Flair works on it some more then locks on the Figure Four Leglock. Hogan reverses the hold, but gets distracted by Jimmy Hart at ringside, who proclaims Flair as the greatest of all time. Flair goes back to the knee, but Hogan "Hulks Up" and Flair's in trouble. Hogan hits the Big Boot and Legdrop, but doesn't cover and instead decks Jimmy Hart. Arn Anderson sneaks into the ring and hits Hogan with a foreign object behind the referee's back, but Hogan gets up totally unaffected by it. Hogan decks Anderson and retrieves the foreign object from him, shows the referee, and Flair is disqualified at . Let me repeat. Hogan, who has been seeking a World Title shot forever, and who knows he can't win the title by disqualification, purposely got Flair disqualified at 7:52. OK. Next, in one of the worst WCW moments of all-time, Pillman and Benoit hit the ring and get decked. The Four Horsemen, all on their knees, beg Hogan to show mercy on them. The Giant hits the ring, wielding a wooden bar stool, but Savage intercepts it and Hogan fights him off. This was quite a bad Hogan/Flair match, the most basic and standard one I've seen, so we'll go * 1/2 for a whole lot of nothing. Postmatch, Hogan & Savage claim they want to tear Flair & The Giant apart. Should be easy, since they just handled 5 of them with ease. ____ WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - January 8, 1996 Live from Charleston, South Carolina Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Chris Benoit (with Brian Pillman) Vs. Alex Wright Benoit attacks before Wright can take off his jacket. Benoit hits a snap suplex, elbow to the face, and bodyslam to quickly take control. Wright gets tossed to the floor where Pillman chokes him with a Horsemen shirt. Benoit keeps on Wright with chops, but Wright moonsaults off the top rope to evade a charging Benoit and hits him with a jumping kick to the face. Wright then hits a high cross body from the top rope and a slingshot sends Benoit over the top rope and to the floor! Wright slides and kicks Benoit into the guard rail, then connects with a cross body from the top rope to Benoit on the arena floor! Back inside, Wright gets a dropkick and bodyslam for 2. As Wright gets a Boston Crab locked on Benoit, Eric Bischoff announces that "Titanic Sports" (the WWF) is raising their Pay-Per-View prices, unlike WCW who will be delivering a free "Clash of the Champions" from Las Vegas in January. Wright wears down Benoit with the crab, then turns it into a STF submission. Suplex by Wright gets 2. Wright turns his attention to Brian Pillman, who tried to trip him, and delivers a slingshot plancha from the ring to the floor to take him out! Wright tries a splash, but Benoit gets the knees up. Wright counters Benoit's dragon suplex attempt, and Benoit counters Wright's German suplex attempt. Wright then counters Benoit's Northern lights suplex attempt, and Benoit counters Wright's attempt at a double-underhook suplex. Finally, benoit slugs Wright in the mouth and delivers the Dragon Suplex for the win at 6:39. Wright pretty much dominated this one, since Bischoff was trying to make people think he was a, quote, "new international star debuting here in WCW", despite Wright being in the company for quite some time. Still, some pretty good action here. ** 1/2 Lord Steven Regal (with Geeves) Vs. Eddie Guerrero Quick mat exchanges get this started, with Eddie out-quicking Regal, and Regal using his power to escape from Guerrero's holds. Bischoff says to forget about the WWF's "Royal Fumble". Regal keeps Eddie grounded and palms him to the face repeatedly. Knee to the stomach slows down Eddie. Eddie escapes a double-underhook suplex with a nifty armdrag, then headscissors Regal to the mat. A little sloppy on the "multiple nearfall counters" spot, and Regal thumbs Eddie in the eyes. Eddie fights back and gets a sloppy transition into a standing O'Connor roll for two. Kicks & European uppercuts continue to keep Eddie at bay. Eddie keeps trying, but Regal has a submission or palm strike for every attempt. Regal hits five brutal palm strikes and Eddie is done. Regal gloats, attempts a European uppercut, but its countered into a backslide for three and Eddie wins at 8:09. * 1/2, definately lacking for these two, and way too one-sided. Regal strikes him again and uppercuts Eddie to the floor. Gene Okerlund Interview with Lex Luger & Sting Okerlund takes a shot at two "social security collecting" new members of the WWF's "new generation". Luger doesn't want to air their business out on TV, but Sting wants answers about Luger stopping him from getting back in the ring at Starrcade. Oklerlund stirs up trouble between the two. Luger says he hurt his knee and simply grabbed Sting for help. Luger suggests they form an actual tag team together. "Diamond" Dallas Page Vs. Sting This would be a nice WCW Saturday Night squash in 1992. Page uses his cigar on Sting before the bell and works over Sting. Sting comes back and dropkicks Page to the floor. Sting with a plancha to the floor on Page. Sting tries to leapfrog Page, and barely gets over, so they play it as he crotched himself and Page takes over. Swinging neckbreaker by Page. Cue the chinlock. Page drops Sting throat-first across the top and hits him with a Russian legsweep. Bischoff acts surprised at Page's offensive attack being so strong. Sting escapes an attempted back suplex, catches Page by the leg, trips him, and locks on the Scorpion Deathlock for the submission win at 6:18. * 1/2. The theme of this show continues to be "The winner steals a victory after being dominated all match" and it's getting old. WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair & Arn Anderon Vs. Hulk Hogan & "Macho Man" Randy Savage Hogan and Flair start, with Hogan mat-wrestling Flair down, then no-selling a chop. Hogan hits Flair with the Big Boot, then drills Anderson & Flair with four clotheslines and they scamper to the floor. Anderson & Savage now go at it, with Savage running Arn's head into Hogan's boot, then delivering a flying axe-handle from the top to the floor. Hogan and the referee are tied up, allowing Flair & Anderson to get an advantage over Savage. Flair gets tossed off the top rope, but as Hogan and the referee jaw-jack again Anderson sneaks in and DDTs Savage. Anderson tosses Savage over the top rope behind the referee's back. We go to commercial. Back, and it's Arn with an abdominal stretch on Savage, using Flair to give him extra leverage. Flair then chops away at Savage. The Horsemen work over Savage forever, but Savage gets a few counters, blocking a punch and backsliding Flair, then countering the Figure Four into a small package for two. Hogan finally gets the tag. Backdrop on Flair. Clotheslines on Arn & Flair. Hogan clotheslines Arn & Flair over the top rope. Savage sends Anderson back in. Anderson reverses an Irish whip and hits the Spinebuster on Hogan! And Hogan no-sells it and "Hulks Up" as Arn celebrates. Punches, Big Boot, and Legdrop win it for Hogan over Arn at 12:19. * 1/2, quite boring. Benoit & Pillman hit the ring, but so do Kevin Sullivan & The Zodiac, and they start fighting each other outside the ring. The Giant hits the ring and chokeslams both Hogan and Savage. For the second straight week, The Zodiac yells at The Giant to stop, screaming "No! Friend!" as the show ends. ____ WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - January 15, 1996 Live from Miami, Florida Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael "The Total Package" Lex Luger Vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage These two have been enemies since Luger's arrival in WCW back in September of '95. Luger pearl harbors him, and then tosses Savage over the top to the floor as the referee removes Luger's chair from the ring. Savage gets a World Title match next week regardless of the outcome here. Luger has Savage's number in big matches. Luger throws Savage into the steps. Savage recovers, pulls Luger to the floor, and does the same to him. Flying axehandle off the top gets Savage a two-count. Luger cowers in the corner but Savage stays on him. Luger gets a cheapshot and stays on the offensive. Savage fights back, drops Luger throat-first on the top rope, then comes goes up top for the Flying Elbow. He gets great height, but Luger moves. Luger puts Savage in the Torture Rack, and Savage's arm drops 3 times, giving Lex his 4th straight win over Savage at 5:11. This wasn't bad at all, I actually wish they had more time. ** for actually having some energy. Gene Okerlund Interview with The Four Horsemen and The Dungeon of Doom It's a business meeting, and Arn Anderson yells at Brian Pillman for not dressing appropriately. Also, the goal needs to be simple: protect Flair's World Title and stop having silly fights with the Dungeon. Kevin Sullivan puts over Flair's legacy and will let The Giant team with Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions. Sullivan respects Arn, but he has a big problem with Brian Pillman. Arn says the Horsemen respect the Dungeon, but don't fear them. Pillman then grabs the mic and begins screaming about the Horsemen not fearing anyone, which leads to Anderson slapping him and telling him to shut up. Benoit looks pissed at Arn. Sullivan reminds the Horsemen that Hulk Hogan is facing Meng tonight. Really good segment. The Public Enemy Vs. The American Males This is the WCW debut of The Public Enemy, Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge. American Males have such laughably bad theme music. If only this could've taken place in an ECW ring back then. Double clotheslines from the Males send TPE to the floor. Some tame brawling on the floor, then back in, with Marcus Bagwell hitting a flying bodypress off the top onto Rock & Grunge. Double-dropkicks send TPE back to the floor. Not a great start for them. Riggs & Grunge start, with Riggs in control. Bagwell in, hits Grunge with a backdrop. Backdrop on Rocco. Dropkicks for both TPE members. Powerslam on Grunge. Rocco hits Bagwell as he is executing a super-sloppy O'Connor Roll. And after a delay, the punch to the head leads to Grunge rolling up Bagwell for three at 3:28. One of the worst debuts I have ever seen. 1/2* They got one offensive move in, an illegal punch, and got the win. Post-match, Public Enemy beats up Bagwell outside the ring. They stack up two of the thinnest wooden tables you'll ever see, then put Bagwell on top of the stack. Rocco Rock climbs up to the top rope and executes a somersault from the top rope to Bagwell, absolutely destroying both of them and sending them onto the floor! AWESOME visual there! So they looked horrible in the ring, but the last moment was pretty memorable. WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Jimmy Hart) Vs. Sting Of course, Hogan squashing Meng gets to be the main event. Flair pulls the hair three times, and Sting kips up three times. Sting dominates early. 10 punches in the corner. Standing dropkick. Gorilla press slam. Flair flips over the ropes to the apron, and gets clotheslined. Flair rakes the eyes and hits some chops. Sting blocks a suplex, then puts Flair up top and hits a superplex! Big splash, but Flair gets the knees up. Commercial break. Sting escapes a back suplex attempt, and comes FLYING at Flair, who moves, sending Sting throat first across the top rope. Refreshing to see Flair in there with an energetic opponent. Sting gets tossed, and eventually fights back, but Flair hits the back suplex finally and both men are spent. Sting with right hands, but Flair avoids a dropkick. Sting counters a Figure Four attempt into a small package for two! Backslide gets Sting 2. Gorilla press, but Sting runs into Flair's elbow in the corner. None of Flair's offense will work now. Chops no-sold. Sting flexes. Crowd goes wild. Gorilla press on Flair. Jimmy Hart is on the ring apron, and Lex Luger comes to argue with him. Sting whips Flair into their corner. Luger steals Hart's megaphone and falls into the corner, where Sting, executing the Stinger Splash, goes head-first into it. Allegedly. Luger and Hart argue, with Luger yelling "He's my friend! You're not hitting him with that megaphone!" Sting is out cold. Flair puts on the figure-four and Sting, shoulders down, is pinned at 11:06. Fun match, bad ending. Gets *** from me, and Nitro's best match of '96 so far. Afterwards, Luger tries to pull Flair off Sting, but Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage run Luger away. Gene Okerlund enters the ring to interview them. Hogan says Luger cost Sting the match. Savage yells at Sting and tells him to "Wake up!" and get away from Luger. Sting acts clueness and says he needs to find Lex and find out for sure what happened. Hogan's also pissed that Savage gets a World Title shot and Hulk doesn't. They're on a roll, and Hulk says he should get the shot since Savage is hurt. Meng (with Kevin Sullivan) Vs. Hulk Hogan Meng works the back and send Hogan to the floor. Back in, Meng keeps chopping and forearming Hulk in the corner, as a "Hogan!" chant starts and ends rather quickly. Meng now chokes Hogan on the mat. Sullivan gets a cheapshot on his mortal enemy. Meng with a nerve hold on the neck. Hogan eventually fights back with some clotheslines, but Meng illegally uses his "golden spike" to hit Hogan in the throat. Hogan no-sells it during a pin attempt, and "Hulks Up", with the crowd not really caring. Big Boot, but Sullivan is on the ring apron. Randy Savage comes out to stop his interference, Hogan decks Sullivan, takes the "golden spike", and hits Meng in the chest with it to get the pin at 4:40. This gets a * because I'm feeling generous, although I don't know why the most heatless match on the show was the main event. ___ WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - January 22, 1996 Live from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael "Mexican Heavyweight Champion" Konnan interrupts the announcers to declare that at the Clash of Champions, he'll defend his title against Psicosis and defeat him. "Macho Man" Randy Savage (with Woman, Debra McMichael, Linda Bolea, and other women) Vs. WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Jimmy Hart) Savage brings a ton of women, usually Flair's deal, including his ex-manager Woman, to psyche him out. Flair tries to kiss Woman and gets slapped. Eric Bischoff announces Miss Elizabeth will be in Savage & Hogan's corner at Clash of the Champions. Savage attacks Flair on the outside and beats him up., but Flair sends the challenger into the guardrail. Back in, Savage gets a clothesline, but Flair eventually cheats and works him over in the corner with chops. Bischoff announces Kevin Greene and The reunited Road Warriors will be at the Clash. Savage gets thrown outside, where Jimmy Hart attacks. Savage gets sent into the guardrail and flips into the crowd. Slugfest ensues on the floor and Flair rakes the eyes. Savage backdrops the champion, and heads up top for a flying axehandle, but Flair moves and Savage lands on the guardrail. Commercial break. We're back, and in the ring, with Savage gaining momentum. Punches, and then 10 punches in the corner. Flair gets flipped to the floor. Flair low-blows Savage, and this match really doesn't have a flow. Savage gets a miracle backslide for two, but Flair goes after the knee. Flair locks on the Figure Four leglock and uses the ropes. Flair eventually has to release it, but keeps Savage grounded with chops. Flair up top, but he gets caught and thrown to the mat. Flying double-axehandle from Savage. And a second one. Jimmy Hart gets on the ring apron and distracts the referee as Arn Anderson comes to the ring with a foreign object. He accidently hits Flair, which referee Randy Anderson sees, but the match continues anyway. The bell rings, eroneously, but the referee never signalled for it. Hulk Hogan comes out and fights off Anderson, and Savage climbs up top, delivers the Flying Elbowdrop, and pins Flair to win his 2nd WCW World Heavyweight Championship at 8:03. By the way, the bell rang again right as Anderson was counting the third second, so whoever was on timekeeping duty really sucked that night. Match gets ** 1/2, if only for the return of Woman to WCW and some decent effort from Savage. Hogan comes in and celebrates with Savage like Hulk just won the lottery. Gene Okerlund enters the ring for an interview. Savage says cut the music, and Hulk needs to stop celebrating like he won the title. Hulk congratulates Savage and asks for a WCW Title shot. Savage says he doesn't make matches, but if Hulk becomes the #1 contender he'll give him a shot. Savage also says that he and Hulk need to have their match in Caesar's Palace. Ironically, it would end up being Hogan giving Savage a title shot in Caesar's Palace some 9 months later at Halloween Havoc...and boy, things sure were different in WCW. Dean Malenko Vs. Brian Pillman Malenko scores early with a hiptoss & dropkick, but Pillman rolls outside as Dean tries the Texas Cloverleaf. Pillman cheapshots Malenko, rubs his face in the mat, and psychotically yells at the camera. "I'm the Shooter...Because I've got a Full Metal Jacket!" Malenko comes back with a clothesline into the corner and a brainbuster. Pillman's an effective heel, because Malenko, a heel, had yet to really get over with the fans, yet they cheer him when pounding on Pillman, who was just quite unpredictable at this time. Neckbreaker gets 2 for Malenko. Pillman begs off in the corner, then gets in a shot and a Tornado DDT from the top. Now the crowd is really dead. Double-underhook powerbomb gets Dean 2, and a dropkick sends Pillman halfway over the ropes, then under them to the floor. Pillman looks sluggish. Malenko's baseball slides misses and he is sent into the guardrail. Back in, Malenko blocks a second Tornado DDT attempt. Overhead stomach breaker on Pillman. Malenko gets an anklelock submission on, but Brian's in the ropes. Pillman decks Malenko, who has his ankle tied up in the ropes. Pilman falls off the apron, then gets back in, blowing the whole finish, and covers Malenko as the "ref didn't see Malenko's ankle tied up", for the pin at 6:16. Crowd hurt the match, which was already hurt by the blown finish and sluggish Pillman effort. Call it * 1/2. WCW World Tag Team Champions Harlem Heat Vs. Sting & Lex Luger Stevie Ray and Luger start, with Ray pummeling him until Luger hits a big clothesline. Booker T. distracts Lex and Stevie hits a kick to the head. Lex evetually double-clotheslines the Heat and tags Sting in. 2 Stinger Splashes for Booker and Stevie, and Sting locks on the Scorpion Deathlock to Ray. Booker T. delivers the "jump axe kick", however, as the referee is tied up with Luger. Beautiful leaping sidekick by Booker. The announcers are all ga-ga about the return of The Road Warriors as Sting makes a comeback, but Booker slams his face to the mat. Stevie Ray applies his deadly "choke and chinlock" combo. And then a nerve hold. Booker in, another headlock wear-down, then he goes to the top. Sting moves out of the way of the Harlem Hangover. Luger gets the hot tag and Jimmy Hart is at ringside, but Lex's tag doesn't count. Sting brawls with Stevie at ringside, then Sting and Booker collide in the ring with a crossbody attempt from each. Luger gets the tag, comes in, and decks Booker with a roll of silver dollars given to him by Hart. He gets the pin and the titles at 9:33. *, this was really boring. Luger picks Sting up to celebrate the victory, and clueless Sting celebrates with the cheater. WCW U.S. Champion The One Man Gang Vs. Hulk Hogan Yes, you read that right. This is non-title of course. Hogan's too good for that title, but that doesn't stop him from burying the champion. Did I just stick up for the Gang? What a main event! Gang avoids the Big Boot early. Hogan throws Gang into the steps. Hogan bites the Gang. Gang comes back, delivers the Big Splash. Hogan no-sells it. Clothesline in the corner from Hogan. Big Boot. Bodyslam. Legdrop gets the pin for Hulk at 2:59. DUD. Awfully insulting. Post-match, Hogan & Savage beat up The Four Horsemen and The Dungeon of Doom. The two factions retreat. Zodiac tries to hold Giant back again. Pillman is being a trouble-maker and egging on The Giant. Giant threatens Hulk & Savage, and Anderson yells at Pillman for causing trouble again. Gene Okerlund interviews Hogan & Savage, who promise to do bad things to Flair & Giant at Clash of the Champions. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dobbs 3K 0 Report post Posted October 30, 2006 Thanks for posting these. I enjoyed reading them. Despite the bad wrestling, WCW was pretty much outshining WWF in terms of big matches on Monday nights at the time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
reign 0 Report post Posted October 30, 2006 Thanks for posting...WCW was great in that there was such a HUGE roster that they could could have seemingly endless combinations for matches. And at this time there were still many older wrestlers like One Man Gand, Sullivan and others that still had name recognition that in paper made it seem like these were low level "dream matches"(very low but you get the idea)...Now we get the same matches over and over and there's zero build to PPV because the guys's have all worked each other to death over the year...thats why with three shows I think the roster split should or give the champs the option of working whatverer show they want... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted October 31, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - January 29, 1996 Live from Canton, Ohio Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Jimmy Hart) Vs. Hulk Hogan (with Miss Elizabeth, Woman, Linda Bolea, and Debra McMichael) Wow, those young guns Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair are curtain jerking! Hulk overpowers Flair to start, no-sells the chops, then hits a backdrop and clotheslines Flair around the ring. Flair has little luck outside the ring, as well. Flair clips the knee twice as the show goes to commercial. Back, and Flair is in control with chops in the corner. Flair goes up top but gets slammed off, and Hogan goes back in control. Flair, however, quickly targets the knee again. As Flair poses, Hulk no-sells Flair's attacks and goes back on the offensive, eventually clotheslining Flair to the floor. Hulk kicks away Jimmy Hart, who sticks his nose in the match. Later, Hart chokes Hogan on the floor when Flair tosses the former champion to the floor. Very faint "Hogan!" chants. This isn't that good. Flair with a shinbreaker, then slaps on the Figure Four Leglock as Hogan screams in pain. Hulk of course eventually reverses it, then blocks a Flair suplex and hits one of his own. Hogan no-sells Flair's chops, punches, and forearms, but runs into an elbow and goes down. It's like the same slow-motion moves every 3 minutes. Flair gets a two count and Hogan "Hulks Up". Flair's punches & chops have no effect. Three punches, Big Boot, and Legdrop, but Jimmy Hart has the referee distracted. Arn Anderson runs in and Hogan easily fights him off. Anderson steals Miss Elizabeth's shoe and gives it to Flair. Hogan got a two count on his delayed pinfall attempt. During Flair's kickout, he hits Hogan in the eye with the shoe heel. Flair covers Hogan and gets the three count at 11:05! We'll go ** with this one, as it was slow and repetitive, unclean, and rather insulting to have Flair repeatedly hit Hogan with multiple moves to no effect, then a second later easily take him down with a weak reverse elbow. One of Flair's few pinfalls over Hogan, for sure. Postmatch, Hart, Flair, and Anderson celebrate as Elizabeth tends to a blinded Hogan. Randy Savage comes down to check on Hulk, too. For God's sake...this has to be mentioned. On the screen shots for WCW Saturday Night, there is a Lex Luger Vs. Eddie Guerrero match hyped. Guerrero, at this time, is about 175 pounds. And Luger just cleanly beat the World Champion. Jeez. The Faces of Fear Vs. The Road Warriors Nitro debut of The Road Warriors. First-time Meng & The Barbarian teamed together on Nitro, I believe. Goes to commercial immediately before the bell. Animal & Barbarian start. Animal overpowers him. Kick to the face by Barbarian. Road Warriors have their WWF-ish tights on, only blue trim instead of red. Irish whip reversal and powerslam by Animal. Meng and Hawk in. Meng really beats the crap out of him, then hits an AWESOME piledriver, which Hawk bounces up from and no-sells. Hawk powerslams him and hits the fist-drop! Pretty good so far. Animal in, and the Faces of Fear cheat to get the advantage. Bischoff claims WCW has "more new faces in 90 days than the other guys have had in 2 years, and we're not talkin' about Rupaul wannabes!" Barbarian works over Animal, targeting his back, which Luger claimed is still injured. Animal is slow. He gets his back rammed into the ringpost by Barbarian. Meng hits a nice dropkick! Meng has his thumb taped up, ala WWE star Umaga, who stole his finisher. Barbarian powerbombs Animal! Not a great debut for The Road Warriors. Barbarian on second rope, hits the flying clothesline, and Animal sells it strangely. They botched that up. Barbarian goes to do it again and now Animal weakly clotheslines him. Hawk tagged in. Clotheslines for both Faces. Big boots for both. Double-clothesline on them. Signals for the Doomsday Device. Barbarian puts Hawk on the top rope, but Animal electric chairs him, setting up the finisher. Meng pushes Hawk off the top, though. Barbarian piledrives Animal. He goes for a second one, but Hawk hits the top-rope clothesline for the pin at 8:57. Really, really close match, probably not what the Road Warriors needed, but put the Faces of Fear over nicely, too. We'll go ** for some good power action. Gene Okerlund Interviews Kevin Sullivan (with Hugh Morrus) Sullivan's pissed at Arn Anderson for not controlling Brian Pillman. Either control him or pay! Arn & Pillman hit the ring and gloat about Flair beating Hogan, but Arn says Pillman needs to stop being a child and be a team player. Arn promises Pillman tough love and takes his belt off. Sullivan and Morrus attack Anderson, as Pillman runs away and hides at ringside. Sullivan then whips Pillman with Anderson's belt. Anderson fights back and DDTs Morrus before running Sullivan away. Arn gets on the mic and threatens Sullivan, then tells the executive committee to get him a match with Sullivan and Morrus. Pillman promises to get them out of this. Sister Sherri Vs. Madusa Madusa interrupts Gene Okerlund's in-ring interview with Sherri with a flying top-rope crossbody and the match begins. They fight to the outside, and Madusa sends Sherri into the steps. Snap suplex by Madusa on the floor. They brawl on the floor, and this isn't bad. Bischoff reminds us that Madusa trashed the WWF Women's Title on Nitro. Double-leg takedown and legs to the stomach by Sherri. Up to the top, but Madusa throws her off, which Sherri counters mid-air into a small package for the pin at 1:53. Madusa then kills her with a German suplex, slaps her around and rams her head into the mat as referees break it up. Bischoff claims Madusa could take on many of the WWF men, including, as Steve McMichael calls him, "Goldfart". WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage (with Woman, Terry Bolea, Debra McMichael, and Miss Elizabeth) Vs. The Giant Giant's introduction is very cool looking. Savage sneaks into ring from the crowd with the title and uses it to attack Giant. The match is instantly thrown out and never begins. NO MATCH. Ric Flair comes out and beats down Savage with a chair. Giant suplexes Savage and Flair takes out the referee. Savage is destroyed and finally chokeslammed. Hulk Hogan, with his eye and head bandaged, hits Giant three times with a chair to clear the ring. Chairshots for Hugh Morrus, Kevin Sullivan, Meng, and The Barbarian. Ric Flair is at the announcer's table berating Hogan and ranting about the two cage matches at SuperBrawl VI. The Giant claims he'll destroy Hogan. Flair seems to want to fight Steve McMichael. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted October 31, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - February 05, 1996 Live from Lakeland, Florida Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Chris Benoit Vs. WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage (with Woman and Miss Elizabeth) Wow, interesting match...and this IS for the title. Benoit would have to wait about 43 months for his next shot, so he better make it good! No Linda or Debra with Savage tonight. Crowd solidly behind Savage. Benoit on offense to start early, and tosses Savage outside, where he tastes the guardrail. Back in, Benoit hits his trademark clothesline. They blow the slingshot under the ropes "guillotine" move, so Savage attacks him in the corner. Benoit back in control and gets him in a chinlock. Snap suplex. Woman looks on at her World Champion being beaten up by her future husband. Benoit up top and he hits the Swandive Headbutt! Benoit is dominating. "Back-leg roundkick by the Macho Man", claims Bischoff, as if "kick" wouldn't suffice. High impact elbow smash by Benoit. So why is Benoit getting a World Title match when Flair has one a week later, exactly? Benoit continues with stomps and chokes. Benoit throws Savage shoulder-first into the ringpost. Savage pretty much no-sells it and clotheslines Benoit in the ring. Savage runs at him, but Benoit backdrops him to the floor. Benoit with a Suicide Dive through the ropes, but Savage moves and BENOIT KILLS HIMSELF ON THE FLOOR. Splat! Flying Elbowdrop to the unconscious Benoit. But Ric Flair is out and accosting Miss Elizabeth. Woman turns on Savage, choking him by the neck with television cables from behind, and Flair attacks him. Thus, Benoit is disqualified at 8:19. We'll go * 1/2, this wasn't very good. Arn Anderson is out stomping Savage. Woman laughs. Hogan in with a chair and lays out Anderson and Benoit. The Horsemen and Woman retreat as Hogan & Elizabeth tend to Savage. Post-match, Gene Okerlund interviews Hogan. Hulk can see and they need to stop Flair & The Giant. Flair sneaks in behind Hogan and punches Hogan in the eye, then rips at it as The Giant and The Zodiac come to the ring. Giant cracks Hulk with the chair as Zodiac tells him to stop. Savage comes back to the ring, steals the chair, and chases them away. Savage logically questions Elizabeth about why she didn't warn Hogan about Flair's sneak attack. Hogan's bleeding. Pretty damn good segment after the slow, boring match. Kevin Sullivan & Hugh Morrus Vs. Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman This got setup the previous week on Nitro. Commercial and WCW Saturday Night preview follows the entrances. Back, and Pillman starts with Morrus. Chops don't phase Hugh. Morrus with a gorilla press on both Pillman and Anderson. Horsemen regroup. Pillman and Sullivan no-sell each other's offense and tag out. Horsemen double-team Morrus and Anderson hits a slow spinebuster. Arn keeps Hugh down with a chinlock. This is really dull. More disjointed double-teams. Pillman and Sullivan are tagged in and have a slugfest. Pillman in the Tree of Woe, but he no-sells it and goes right for Pillman! Sullivan bites Pillman then tries to pull his face off. ANderson and Sullivan brawl to the back. Anderson tries to piledrive Sullivan on the floor, but alledgely Arn gets a broom broken over his head. Couldn't see anything but the announcers described it. Back to the ring, Sullivan has a strap to whip Pillman, and the Dungeon of Doom is disqualified at 7:19. I give it a *. This was AWFUL. No flow, no selling, and sloppiness everywhere. Morrus goes up and barely hits the No Laughing Matter moonsault. Sullivan whips Pillman with the strap. Marcus Bagwell Vs. "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Woman) Before the match, Paul Orndorff interrupts the announcers to vaguely claim he hit Anderson with the broom, in case anyone cares. No one does. Commercial break before the bout. Back, and Flair struts as the crowd "Whooo!"s. Flair in control early with chops and punches in the corner. Bagwell comes back with a backdrop and clothesline, then clotheslines Flair over the top. Flair has basically had the same match beginning on every Nitro this year. The two trade shots in the ring with Bagwell winning. Another backdrop by Bagwell. Standing dropkick gets him two. He misses a second one. Bagwell counters the figure-four into a small package for two. Flair dodges either a clothesline or cross-body and Bagwell falls to the floor. Back in, Flair hits the kneedrop. Bagwell fights back, eventually getting some punches and a clothesline. Up to the top rope, Bagwell hits a superplex for two and a half. Bagwell tries a slingshot splash into the ring but Flair gets the knees up. Figure Four is locked on by Flair and Bagwell submits at 7:00. We'll go **, really standard stuff here, but Bagwell brought some excitement at times. Flair doesn't release the hold and punches referee Jimmy Jett. Randy Savage runs to the ring and chases Flair to the back. The Road Warriors Vs. WCW World Tag Team Champions Sting & Lex Luger Why this is being given away I have no idea, especially since there was a World Title match earlier. "LOD!" chants to start. Sting & Animal start, and Animal's much too strong for him. Big elbow misses and Sting hits the bulldog, then a flying clothesline off the top. Luger and Hawk tagged in. Luger hits the piledriver and Hawk no-sells it. Running shoulderblock by Hawk, then a fist drop. Hawk then pummels Sting. Sting fights back and goes for the Scorpion Deathlock, but Animal saves. Luger low bridges Animal and he falls to the floor. Sting's not happy with Lex's tactics. Punches, bodyslams, and elbowdrops from Lex. TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, as the building lost power. Bischoff & McMichael blame the "competition" for the power loss! Sting with a long facelock weardown on Animal. Luger in and he powerslams Animal. Animal avoids the "Rack" and back suplexes Lex. Hawk and Sting brawl at ringside. Animal powerslams Luger. Jimmy Hart runs to the ring with a weighlifiting plate. Luger grabs it, hits Animal in the back with it, and gets the pin at 7:56. * 1/2 for this, as it was a rather important bout, but not that good. Post-match, The Road Warriors demand a match with the winners of Sting & Luger Vs. Harlem Heat. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted October 31, 2006 The problem I've noticed is that the good workers get short matches together, or matches with workers who can't hang or wrestle high-impact matches. Flair's matches are so basic and essentially the same match. Hogan no-sells everything and has awful matches. Savage gets no offense, was basically squashed by Benoit, then has a run-in or Flying Elbow at the end. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest The Brain Report post Posted November 1, 2006 Great idea - really enjoyed reading your reviews. I have been watching some Nitros from 1997/98 and have been reminded about how great the show was. It's cool to go back and see interesting matchups and unexpected great matches (on one of the first Nitros I watched from early 97, there was a fun match with Faces of Fear vs. Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero that surprised me). It's also neat to see how history has treated some of the most famous/infamous moments (the Piper family tryouts were just as excrutiating the second time around). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BUTT 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2006 You know what was funny about that Nitro where Flair beat Hogan (which was actually Hogan's first job in WCW......and no, I don't count having Jimmy Hart knock out the ref and getting Hulk DQ'ed and then revealing that he had power of attorney and the title could change hands via DQ and Nick Lambros vacating the title as a job........but right as that was airing, maybe a few minutes after, they aired a Billionaire Ted "press conference" where "The Huckster" remarked that "My contract with Billionaire Ted says I never lose!" I don't know, I remember my older brother always thought that was funny. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2006 According to WCW and WWE, The Giant's first World Title win was officially at Halloween Havoc 1995. The whole "screwjob" did officially count as a title win, but was of course stripped of the title. Giant won his second title on a taped Nitro in the late Spring of 1996. I have every Nitro from '95-'97 and '00-01, and I'm getting there. The crowd popped huge for Giant no-selling the Figure Four and chokeslamming Flair for a rather quick & easy win. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hasbeen1 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2006 Good stuff. Amazing the amount of talent around that time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) – February 12, 1996 Live from Tampa, Florida Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Extended look at SuperBrawl VI still photos for 3 minutes. Hugh Morrus Vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage No flashy ring attire for Savage, who they’re pushing as focused and really crazy for what Elizabeth & Flair did to him at SuperBrawl. Brawl to start, which Morrus wins with clotheslines, but Savage fights back. Punches and chokes for the next minute. Savage takes Morrus down with chokes and axehandles. Morrus blocks a suplex and hits one of his own. Savage easily rebounds. More ground and pound, and not very exciting. Slam by Hugh, and he misses the No Laughing Matter. Slam by Savage and he hits the Flying Elbowdrop. He goes back up and delivers a second for the pin at 4:51. * ½ for this, as it wasn’t very good, but was short. Gene Okerlund Interviews WCW Motor Sports #29 Car Driver Steve Grissom He’s excited about qualifying the next day for a big race, which Sting will be in the “pit” for. Scotty Riggs Vs. Loch Ness (with Jimmy Hart) “American Males, American Males, American Males…”. We go to commercial before the big Nitro debut of Loch Ness. Loch Ness is your basic 500 pound, yellow-toothed fat guy who can’t wrestle. A perfect fit for Hogan’s rogues gallery! Stupid referee Nick Patrick forgets to ring the opening bell. Riggs punches and second-rope dropkick have no effect. Super Blown Spot Alert! Riggs leaps off the top rope into the arms of ol’ Nessy, who accidently drops him and looks lost. Ness then attempts a big elbowdrop spot, and mis-times it, so he goes back to the corner and waits as the crowd sleeps. Ness finally remembers a move and drops an elbow. A second elbowdrop wins it at 1:10. DUD. Horrible. Ness was originally going to be brought in as Hogan’s next big opponent, but luckily that idea was aborted. Gene Okerlund Interviews Ric Flair (with Woman & Elizabeth) Woman & Elizabeth roll Flair out on a gurney, under the sheets. Elizabeth insinuates that she & Woman slept with Flair all night long, then he pops up from under the sheets with the WCW World Title and cuts a glorious promo, old-school sunglasses and all! Elizabeth in a black leather dress works for me. Elizabeth explains that Savage kept her in the shadows, and that now she had his alimony money and his pride. “Dangerous” Devon Storm Vs. WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Konan Storm has quite a hideous wardrobe and a “suicidal” style. Konan actually tops Storm by wearing a hideous pink & blue puffy coat to the ring. Commercial before the bout. Storm attacks early with a dropkick and baseball slide to the floor. Storm grabs a chair and sets it up in the ring, giving him more leverage to hit a somersault over the ropes. Dropkick off the apron to the floor by Storm. Storm sets up the ringsteps and attempts a rana on the floor off of it, but Konan catches him and delivers a sloppy powerbomb on the floor. Back in, Konan hits a big lariat. Konan flips into the ring and catches Storm with a hurancanrana. He then hits a lucha armdrag and a slow headscissors. The moves aren’t crisp, but they’re somewhat good for this time period. Konan picks up Storm with one arm and powerbombs him, as George Steinbrenner looks on from the crowd. Konan works on the ankle with two different submission holds. Crowd’s not very alive. Storm springboards off the second rope with a leg lariat. Storm tries to go over the top rope and powerbomb Konan onto the floor, but Konan reverses it into a hurancanrana. Slow and sloppy, maybe a little too innovative. The powerbomb would’ve sufficed. Bischoff apologizes for last week when the announcer’s insinuated that the WWF caused the power outage on Nitro. Storm has Konan up top and tries a “Frankensteiner”, but Konan powerbombs him and flips over with a cradle of the legs for the pinfall at 5:20. That last move looked sloppy and dangerous. I’ll give this ** ½, if only for the fact that the guys tries to cram a TON of moves into their 5 minute window, they were pretty innovative, and although the executions were sloppy at times, they kept you watching. No restholds and a reason to watch next time, if only to see Konan kill Storm with a powerbomb again. Arn Anderson (with Woman) Vs. Hulk Hogan Hulk has the left eye patched up. Hulk overpowers Arn and works him over in the corner with 10 punches and a bite to the face. Hulk no-sells a clothesline and hits two of his own. To the floor, Arn tries to piledrive Hogan – it gets blocked, of course, and Hulk slingshots Arn into the ringpost. Then rams him shoulder-first into it and works on his left arm. Hogan chokes Arn with his wrist tape in the ring. Hulk hits an atomic drop and back suplex. Arn’s getting killed out there. Big running clothesline by Hulk. Arn finally gets an elbow up which Hogan runs into. Arn to the top rope, but Hulk is up and straddles him. Arn recovers and delivers punches, then goes for the injured eye. Here come Ric Flair & Miss Elizabeth. Arn hits the spinebuster rather nicely for two, but Hogan “Hulks Up”. Three punches, Big Boot, and a Flair Strut by Hulk. Hogan locks Anderson in the Figure Four Leglock. Flair gets in the ring, but Hulk, with Arn still in the figure four, pulls Flair into a cradle and embarrasses him. Woman up on the apron, and she throws powder into Hogan’s eyes. Anderson has Elizabeth’s high-heel shoe, and hits Hogan in the eye with it! Arn scores the shocking pinfall at 9:16! We’ll go **, as it was a basic match that saw Hogan dominate, get hit with a finisher, and Hulk Up. But this time Hogan plays Arn’s role and loses! Nice scene for long-time fans of Arn. Post-match, Arn, Flair, Woman, and Elizabeth celebrate. Hogan’s back up and rams Arn & Flair’s heads together, then hits the Big Boot on each. Randy Savage hits the ring and they all brawl, with Savage hitting Flair with a chair. The Horsemen hit the announcer’s table and bash Savage & Hogan, with Bobby Heenan sucking up to them. Arn Anderson gloats about his victory. Hogan & Savage chase them away and threaten Heenan, claiming “No More Mr. Nice Guy!” Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - February 19, 1996 Live from Salisbury, Maryland Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Recap of Steve Grissom winning a race with the WCW #29 Car in Daytona. Arn Anderson (with Woman) Vs. Hulk Hogan Rematch from the previous week. Hogan paces to the ring, the crowd is really hot for him, and Hulk immediately attacks before Arn can get his jacket off. Hogan gets the jacket off and chokes him with it on the floor. Arn gets thrown shoulder-first into the post. Hulk hits a big running clothesline then pounds away. Hogan catches Arn coming off the top after “laying possum”, then chokes him. Bischoff, while plugging the Baywatch episode featuring WCW stars, calls out Vader by name and mentions he ran out of WCW like a coward from Paul Orndorff. Hogan continues to destroy Arn with clotheslines. Hulk scolds Woman, takes a “Hulkster” bandana from a fan, and chokes Arn with it. Arn hasn’t gotten a single move in. Arn gets slammed head-first into the mat repeatedly. Some relatively loud “Hogan Sucks!” chants for a few seconds. A Hogan punch sends Arn over the top rope. Arn fakes a punch, goes for the DDT, but Hogan escapes it. Hulk hits the Big Boot and poses. Hulk locks on the figure-four. Kevin Sullivan runs into the ring, but Randy Savage cuts him off. Referee Nick Patrick only sees Savage in the ring and immediately disqualifies Hogan at 7:17. We’ll go *, as this was a glorified squash with a BS ending, giving Arn two wins in a row. Arn got not a single offensive maneuever in. Gene Oklerlund Interview with WCW Motorsports Steve Grissom Grissom briefly talks about his race victory and having Sting & Lex Luger in the “pit”. Alex Wright Vs. Loch Ness (with Jimmy Hart) Commercial before the match. Wristlock, go-behind, and two dropkicks have no effect on Loch Ness. Wright gets a sleeper on him but is ultimately tossed off. Wright leaps into a Loch Ness bearhug. More dropkicks and kicks from Wright. Running elbow strike. Wright runs into a boot and the Loch Ness elbowdrop finishes Alex at 2:21. * for Wright using his speed. Post-match, Loch Ness yells something about Hogan. There’s no way in hell that Hogan could’ve ever slammed this guy. The Belfast Bruiser Vs. Brad Armstrong Bruiser is in WCW to beat up Lord Steven Regal and Brad Armstrong is looking forward to the upcoming “WCW Cruiserweight Title Tournament”. Commercial before the match. “USA!” chants. Finley with a smooth wristlock and arm-bar keeps Armstrong grounded. Bruiser is sporting a gray/black mullet haircut. Bruiser with a surfboard submission. Armstrong keeps getting to a vertical base but Bruiser is too strong. Brad finally gets the advantage with a headlock. This isn’t particularly interesting. Brad kicks the Bruiser over the top rope, but he is on his feet and starts attacking Armstrong’s knee. Single leg crab by the Bruiser. Bruiser puts on a modified STF. Brad fights back and hits a backdrop, then a crossbody which sends both men to the floor. Back in, a backslide gets Bruiser two. Armstrong nails a bulldog for two. A back suplex follows. Armstrong runs into a gutwrench suplex, which gets the Bruiser the win at 6:47. **, as it wasn’t super interesting but the selling and action was solid enough. WCW World Heavyweight Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair (with Woman & Elizabeth) Vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage This is the return bout from SuperBrawl VI. Apparently Savage has lost a ton of money to Elizabeth recently, although they’ve been divorced for quite some time. Savage is back in his flashy gear. Flair’s keeping cool outside the ring in no rush. Apparently Flair purposely left Savage’s nameplate on the title belt to taunt him. Savage starts hot with punches and a backdrop. Flair comes back with a knee to the groin, then throws Savage into the crowd. Savage chases Woman, then gets blindsided by a Flair elbow. Flair beats up Savage in the aisleway, then Woman rakes the challenger’s eyes. Flair up top, by Savage throws him to the ground and locks on the Figure Four leglock! Two count on Flair, who’s hurting. And another. One more before Flair gets to the ropes. Savage puts a sleeper on but Flair counters with a back suplex. They criss-cross, and Savage runs full speed into Flair’s elbow again. Vertical suplex by Flair. They trade shots, but Flair hits the shinbreaker. Figure Four Leglock applied by Flair! Savage finally reverses it and Flair breaks. Savage sneaks in a backslide for two. Big chop puts Savage down. They trade chops and punches. Savage spits at him and Flair begs off. This is a pretty decent bout. Savage throws more punches and hits a backdrop. Flair gets flipped over the ropes and clotheslined. Flying axehandle by Savage. Elizabeth on the apron. Woman throws in a shoe, Savage intercepts it, and nails Flair! Savage makes a cover but Flair is in the ropes. Kevin Sullivan is out, and Hulk Hogan comes down to keep him out of the match. Arn Anderson sneaks in with the referee distracted and gives Savage the DDT. Flair crawls on top for the pin at 11:22. ** ½, a pretty energetic bout that while basic never really got boring. Post-match, Kevin Sullivan, Arn Anderson, & Ric Flair brutalize Hogan until The Booty Man (formerly The Zodiac/Brutus Beefcake) runs in and clears house. Booty Man chases Sullivan to the backstage area as Hogan checks on Savage. Ric Flair takes over the broadcast booth ranting about Hogan. The Booty Man then runs the group off by himself and dances. Hulk Hogan commandeers the broadcast booth, demanding a six-man tag match for the next show. Savage sees Flair’s title belt at the broadcast booth and flips out, almost attacking Bischoff. Hogan says “Booty Man” about 30 times. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 5, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - February 26, 1996 Live from Knoxville, Tennessee Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Big Bubba Rogers Vs. Sting Sting's half of the tag champs, Bubba's a depushed former foe of his. Bischoff gives away the taped "World Whining Federation" Raw results - "DQ Yokozuna in a handicap match, Jake Roberts? Talkin' about diggin' up some bones here, over Isaac Yankem, DDS, and Diesel over Bob Holly, he's still around". Wow. Bubba gives Sting a clean break in the corner to start but Sting isn't fooled...for once. Big Sting bulldog but Bubba comes back with an uppercut, ropes straddle, and a second big punch. Bubba's always been a tough fight for Sting. Sting comes back with a big jumping attack but gets caught and spinebustered. This isn't bad. But now we cue the chinlock. Bubba splashes him into the corner and keeps on the offensive. An obviously planted "granny" in the front row jaw-jacks with Bubba. Lame. Sting totally botches a piledriver, landing on his knees and dropping Bubba slowly head-first, like a tombstone piledriver but Bubba facing away from Sting. Sting just cant setup the "Stinger Splash", and Bubba counters a pump splash. Sting finally trips Bubba off the top rope and hits a flying bodypress for the pin at 7:14. **, Bubba seemed motivated but Sting on defense isn't pretty unless it's Vader. Gene Okerlund Interview with Lex Luger & Sting The Road Warriors interrupt. They respect Sting but think Luger's a big coward. Luger talks smack and challenges the Warriors anywhere, anytime. Sting's all "dude, shut up." The Road Warriors claim Lex isn't really from the streets of Chicago, and Sting agrees Lex is from the "white collar section" to simmer his partner down. A "Chicago Street Fight" gets set up, with the Road Warriors saying Luger's gonna be in trouble. Luger accepts the match then has no clue what a "Chicago Street Fight" is as Sting is all pissed. Lex Luger Vs. The Renegade Renegade actually overpowers Luger early on, but Lex pokes the eyes. Renegade with more clotheslines, crowd doesn't really care. Backdrop on Lex, but then Renegade leaps and gets caught on the ropes, missing Luger. Luger chokes him and drops an elbow. Basic stuff, here. Back suplex and running clothesline. Then an exciting chinlock. Big vertical suplex. Renegade still fights back, hitting a powerslam and a handspring elbow in the corner that makes Muta cry. Renegade goes up for his top-rope splash finisher, but Jimmy Hart runs down and trips him. Luger "racks" Renegade for the submission win at 5:47. * for basic slow power wrestling. Sting comes out and is pissed that Jimmy Hart cheated for Lex. Luger is all "I didn't see him!" and then raises Renegade's hand in a funny moment. Lex may not have it in the ring, but he's been funny on this show. Sting screams in Luger's face and Lex looks scared. Harlem Heat Vs. The Road Warriors This is a #1 Contender's match, which they announce half-way through the match. The whole show's been about the tag team division so far, when's the last time you've heard something like that in today's wrestling scene? Booker and Hawk start with Booker in control. Hawk with a clothesline and weak dropkick. Neckbreaker and fist-punch gets Hawk two. Animal and Stevie Ray in there now and this could be bad. Lots of "feeling out" and then Stevie takes control for a short while before Hawk gets back in. Stevie powerbombs Hawk and stomps him. Booker T. in to deliver the "Jump Axe Kick". "Hawk!" chant ensues. Road Warriors are getting beat up pretty badly. Big front face-lock weardown spot. Hawk runs shoulder-first into the post. Booker with the Harlem Sidekick, called a "Jump Wheel Kick". Hawk finally hits a clothesline and tags Animal. Double-clotheslines on Heat. All four brawl. Booker hits the Harlem Hangover but there's no referee. Animal kicks Booker in the face and Hawk gets the pin at 7:47. * for some terrible booking here, as the Road Warriors got pummeled and stole a win for some reason. WCW World Champion Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Kevin Sullivan (with Woman & Elizabeth) Vs. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and The Booty Man Hulks' team clears the ring and a brawl is on. Booty Man and Arn Anderson start, as Kimberly (former "Diamond Doll") comes out in a white dress with roses to watch. Arn gets triple-teamed and hit with a high knee from Booty Man, the guy who was "The Zodiac" in the Dungeon of Doom but, surprise, was Hogan's secret spy all along. Booty locks the sleeper on Arn, then one for Sullivan. Booty Man overpowers Flair, then tags Savage in. 5 minutes in and it really hasn't gotten started. Savage escapes the heel corner. Nitro is pre-empted on March 4th for a Civil War movie. Flair gets thrown off the top, but counters Savage's flying axe-handle with a punch. Hulk tagged in as Flair gloats. Hogan with clotheslines and a backdrop. Flair flips to the apron and gets clotheslined. Hogan clotheslines Sullivan & Arn to the floor. 10 punches for Flair in the corner. Booty Man in, and a double-Big Boot for Flair by Booty and Hulk. Booty Man beats everyone up. The heels have gotten maybe one move in. 8 minutes in and nothing's really happened, all 6 seem fresh. Woman & Elizabeth distract Savage and the heels attack him. Sullivan works over Savage with stomps & punches. Now Arn in with a guillotine on the bottom rope. Quick heel tags and double-teams. Savage & Sullivan collide and both down. Hot tag and Booty who sends the heels into Hulk's big boot. Legdrop on Arn gets Hulk the pin at 12:02. The heels then attack Hogan, handcuff him to the ropes and briefly whip him with Flair's belt. We'll go * 1/2 as this never really got going until late and made the Horsemen/Dungeon look really weak. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 5, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - March 04, 1996 No Show. Pre-Empted for Civil War movie on TNT. WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - March 11, 1996 Live from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan Vs. The Giant (with Jimmy Hart) Duggan cheap shots to start, Giant no-sells. Giant gets punches at and staggers, but he easily fights back. Two Brian Pillman 900 Number posters are held up in the second row. On the floor, Giant crushes Duggan into the ringpost. Giant keeps slugging away. Bischoff mentiones Brian Pillman at ringside, then Eric leaves the table. Giant bear-hugs Duggan forever. Bischoff went to ringside and apparently had security remove Brian Pillman from ringside. Duggan bites Giant's nose or kisses him, I can't tell. Giant continues to beat up Duggan. Please stop this. Elbow for Duggan. Giant crashes into the corner as Duggan avoids a splash. Duggan three-point stance clotheslines Giant to the floor. Giant right back in and kicks him in the face. Another long bearhug. Duggan breaks free. Duggan uses the duct tape on the floor to tape up his wrist as Giant pushes the referee aside. Three Duggan punches knocks Giant down. Jimmy Hart and Duggan have a tug-of-war for the tape. Duggan slugs Hart, but Giant chokeslams him for the easy pin at 6:30. Way, way too long and really bad. A generous *. Gene Okerlund Interview with WCW Motorsports Driver Steve Grissom A "pretty decent year" so far. He recently started 43rd and ended up in 4th place. Overall the WCW car is 3rd in the points standings. Not bad, but this is a wrestling show, so let's keep these short. The Steiner Brothers Vs. The Road Warriors Motorcycles rev and the Steiner Brothers make their surprise return to WCW, apparently replacing The Nasty Boys who got attacked in the back and need medical assistance. Big pop for Rick & Scott. I don't recall these two ever having many matches, just this one and the Steiners' win at Starracde 1989 in the Iron Team Tournament. Wow, had The Road Warriors not looked pretty inferior in their Nitro bouts so far, this could be a big-time bout. Matching ugly striped singlets for Rick & Scott. Scott & Hawk start and Hawk overpowers. Scott answers with a spinning belly-to-belly out of the corner and a pumphandle slam. Crowd is hot, but doesn't this match just further take babyface heat off the Road Warriors? Hawk with a top-rope clothesline and this match may just be spots, but it's a fun one. Big kick from Hawk. Neckbreaker from Hawk. Double-underhook powerbomb from Scott and Rick gets tagged in. Animal gets tagged in to a pop. Powerslam from Animal. And a dropkick follows! Rick with two Steinerlines and Animal's down. Release German suplex! The LOD is *bumping*! Rick belly-to-belly suplexes Animal off the top! What! Scott in with an overhead release bellyto-belly! Animal tied in the "tree of woe" and choked by Scott. I like this match. Now Rick chokes Animal in the corner. "LOD!" chant breaks out. Rick tastes Animal's boot and tags Scott in. Scott with a reverse chinlock, a preview of the Steiner Recliner. Rick puts on the same. Things slow down, and Animal & Scott clothesline each other. Rick & Hawk tagged in. Hawk clotheslines everyone, Scott to the floor and Rick gets leveled, too. Powerslam on Rick. Big double-team clothesline on Rick. Doomsday Device on Rick as the fans pop! Scott breaks the pin. Rick gives Hawk a German Suplex. Scott comes off the top with a flying clothesline, but then Animal hits Scott with the same. Scott drills Animal with the Frankensteiner! Hawk saves his partner. Double-team Steiner Bulldog off Scott's shoulders. Animal has a spiked arm-band from his entrance attire and hits Rick in the face! Hawk scores the pin at 10:11. This was really fun and I didn't expect the Warriors to be able to bump around. Probably one of their last good bouts, and The Steiners came back strongly to WCW in a big-way even though they lost. *** 1/2 for a miraculous LOD effort and a very good surprise return for the Steiners. Best Nitro match of 1996 to this point! Post-match, Gene Okerlund interviews Rick & Scott. They've hunted the Road Warriors for 4 years and now they're in big trouble, plus they had to cheat to win. Gene doesn't know what happened to the Nasty Boys, another team that if motivated can really work well with Rick & Scott. Rick's pissed he got cheated. Alex Wright Vs. WCW Television Champion Lex Luger Luger won the TV belt from Johnny B. Badd on the previous WCW Saturday Night. This was to be Badd's rematch, but Bischoff claims he blamed his loss on Kimberly and couldn't hang with the big boys of WCW, so he's out of here. Luger's also a World Tag Champ. I wonder what the first Nitro to get all 5 titleholders on the show will be. Wright with a dropkick and armdrag works over Lex. The need to put the TV Title on Luger made absolutely no sens in the long run. Wright's all in his face, sends him to the floor and hits a dive over the ropes. Big flying axe-handle from Wright gets two. Luger uses sneaky tactics to gain control and hits a "Snake Eyes" on Wright in the corner, countering him. Lex slaps him around. Wright tries to fight back with kicks and European uppercuts. He gets a backdrop. Spinning kick gets two. Missle dropkick by Wright, who goes back up as Jimmy Hart interferes. Lex drops Alex throat-first on the top rope and gets the pin at 6:36. **, as Wright kept things interesting. "Lumberjacks with Straps" Match - WCW World Champion Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, & Kevin Sullivan (with Woman & Elizabeth) Vs. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, & The Booty Man Lumberjacks include Meng, Hawk, Animal, Dave Sullivan, Dallas Page, Squire David Taylor, Earl Robert Eaton, Konnan, Lord Steven Regal, The Barbarian, Loch Ness, and The Giant. Big brawl to start. Loch Ness and Giant brawl after Ness accidently hit him. Heels get beat up together early on. Hogan's pummeling Flair, Savage chokes out Arn, and Kimberly comes to the ringside area again with a white outfit and roses. Flair tries to run away but Animal brings him back to the ring. Sullivan gets triple-teamed with the leather strap. Brawl in the ring continues as Flair chokes Hulk and the heel lumberjacks go after him. Kimberly looks concerned as Hulk's team gets beaten up. Hulk beats up Page, Barbarian, and Blue Bloods. Punches in the corner for the babyfaces. More choking. Crowd pops when Flair gets the advantage. I really want this to end. Hogan beats up Flair some more. Big Boot. Legdrop. Flair is pinned out of nowhere at 6:29. Boring and gets a * for having no flow. Post-match, Gene Okerlund interviews Kevin Sullivan who says Hogan will pay in four cages at WCW Uncensored. Dungeon of Doom, Luger, the Horsemen will all be in it. Arn Anderson says tonight didn't resemble professional wrestling (Amen) and that the PPV will be uncensored. Gene notes Hulk's team dominated them. Flair tells Hulk to lay off his women and does his crazy man antics to end the show. Flair briefly interrupts the announcer's booth and rants. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dobbs 3K 0 Report post Posted November 5, 2006 Nice recaps again. Thanks so much for posting those. Again, Lex Luger's character was quite intriguing around this time, and this was probably the best he'd been booked in quite some time. I remember his TV Title reign being pretty weird at this time though. I think the only reason he beat Badd was because he (Marc Mero) was jumping to WWF and they had to get the title off him. Then, Luger basically stopped carrying around the TV Title and it seemed WCW was going to abandon it in favor of spotlighting the new WCW Cruiserweight Title...then Luger ended up dropping the TV Title in a rare WCW Saturday Night title change to Lord Steven Regal, in a move designed to appease Regal from jumping to WWF. In fact, in that match on WCW Saturday Night, I don't think Luger even carried the belt to the ring, and Regal won via Outsider interference. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MillenniumMan831 0 Report post Posted November 5, 2006 He did haul the belt to the ring. It was weird to see nWo representation (being Aug 1996) on Saturday Night that wasn't in an empty Nitro arena. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 6, 2006 One of Lex's classic Nitros is coming soon. Lex/Loch Ness opens Nitro. Show begins with Giant pummeling Loch Ness in the entranceway. Luger's music hits, he POSES WITH THE PYRO as they're brawling RIGHT NEXT TO HIM. Luger goes to the ring and the referee gives Loch Ness the 10 count and Lex retains the TV Title. Luger celebrates like he just won the World Title. Jimmy Hart runs in the ring and jumps into Lex's arms. Then Lex remembers Sting doesn't want Hart near him. So Lex is all (fake) "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? DON'T HUG ME!" Later on, Luger runs his mouth off and gets him and Sting in a Chicago Street Fight, and Sting's all "Dude, you grew up in the white collar section". Sting's PISSED Lex got them in the match. Luger - "We'll be GLAD to meet you in a Chicago Street Fight at UnCensored! Uh, what's a Chicago Street Fight?" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 6, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - March 18, 1996 Live from Chattanooga, Tennessee Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Show starts with Loch Ness and The Giant brawling in the aisleway, as apparently Giant attacked Ness on his way to the ring against Television Champion Lex Luger. Giant is dominating Ness. WCW Television Champion Lex Luger Vs. Loch Ness Luger hilariously poses in the entranceway as his pyro explodes while Loch Ness is being beat up just feet away by The Giant. Luger tells referee Randy Anderson to start the ten count, and Luger retains the title by countout at 0:12. DUD. Jimmy Hart, who Sting forbids to associate with Luger, jumps into Luger's arm as he celebrates, Luger hugging him back...but then Luger wises up and acts like he didn't want Hart there. Funny. Luger then hits the announcer's booth, gloating about his record-setting title defense and how it's like winning the Super Bowl during the coin toss. Luger is absolutely money here. Tony Schiavone Interview with The Mega Powers - Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage Hogan and Savage will take down everyone in their path at Uncensored. Texas Tornado Match, Leather Strap Lumberjack Match, it doesn't matter, the Mega Powers will win or lose together. They'll play dirty, too. Crowd's pretty hot. Oh, and Sullivan can bring whatever new additions to the Dungeon of Doom he has. The Public Enemy Vs. The Steiner Brothers This is a "stand-by" match to replace the Television Title match, which logically doesn't really make sense because all of Loch Ness' matches thus far have been a minute or so. TPE grab a table and bring it to ringside. Steiners are back to their more colorful singlets. Steiners last through Rocco Rock around back at Starrcade 1990. Scott pounda away on Rocco, but he reverses Scott's tilt-a-whirl attempt into a nice armdrag! Scott hits the tilt-a-whirl suplex anyway right after, and a gorilla press follows. Grunge and Rick tag in and the crowd's hot. Rick powerslams Grunge, then the Steiners give TPE multiple "Steinerlines" and clear the ring. Crowd's super hot. Rocco sends Rick to the floor and Grunge bulldogs him onto a plastic chair. Rocco with a moonsault headbutt from the second rope, followed by a DDT. Rocco comes off the top but gets caught in Rick's powerslam. Scott in. Overhead suplex off the top rope on Rocco, but Rock comes back with a springboard moonsault! Grunge in with a nice short-arm clothesline. Public Enemy drops Scott throat-first on the ropes. This isn't that great, but it's not bad. Overhead belly-to-belly from Scott on Grunge. Rick in and a brawl ensues. Rick put on the table outside. Rocco Rock with a tope con hilo but Scott moves Rick and Rocco goes through the table! Back inside, Scott lifts Grunge up and Rick hits the top-rope bulldog at 7:02. ** 1/2, this wasn't bad at all, and surely TPE's best offering (wrestling-wise and booking-wise). Arn Anderson (with Woman) Vs. The Booty Man Arn's got the badass black jacket and Woman looks smokin'. Booty Man comes out to his hideous "Shake-shake-shake your booty!" theme song and equally hideous Brutus Beefcake ripoff attire. Bischoff hypes the awful Uncensored card, forgetting to mention Regal Vs. Belfast Bruiser, which was actually good. Booty struts around, but the entire front row are huge Horsemen fans. Booty rams Arn's head onto the buckles. Arn cowers in fear. Arn works him over in the corner. Booty Man no-sells and easily beats Arn up. Arn runs to the floor and suckers Booty into an attack. More basic garbage. Booty Man gets choked and punched around the ring. Arn works over his arm. Hammerlock slam. Booty Man gets a powerslam in. And a backdrop. Crowd really doesn't care. Kimberly comes to the ringside area as Bischoff gets REALLY irritating. Woman had her shoe off ready to give to Arn. Booty Man seperates the ladies and Arn attacks. Booty Man hits the running knee as Arn is getting back in the ring and gets the pin at 5:40. * 1/2. Booty Man and Kimberly celebrate. On WCW Saturday Night, Lex Luger Vs. Brad Armstrong. WHAT? The Road Warriors Vs. The Nasty Boys Warriors have new music, with an "Iron Man"-type introduction and half generic music. Nastys run in and attack. Hawk and Sags brawl near the crowd. Knobbs hits Animal with a double-axehandle. Hawk pounds the crap out of Sags. Hot opening. Commercial break ends it. Nasties are bandaged up from whoever attacked them last week. Animal hits both Nasties with a chair but no DQ is signalled. Animal shoulderblocks Knobbs. "Nasty!" chant. Knobbs continues to get worked over. Gene Okerlund is home with the flu, apparently. Animal powerslams Knobbs and drops an elbow. Sags comes in but eventually gets double-teamed. All four men in. Steiner Brothers hit the ring and attack Sags. Animal hits Knobbs with the spiked arm pad and gets the pin at 5:50. **, this was pretty decent but the commercial hurt the hot start and it could've used more time. The Steiners brawl with Hawk in the entranceway. Texas Tornado Match: WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair & Kevin Sullivan (with Woman) Vs. Hulk Hogan & "Macho Man" Randy Savage No Elizabeth with Flair. Big brawl to start. Crowd's really hot. Hogan backdrops Flair. Savage chokes Sullivan. Hogan chokes Flair with a Randy Savage foam hat. They're brawling on the floor. Sullivan whips Savage into the post. My goodness, the heels are getting some offense! Hogan throws Flair off the top rope. Flair flips over the ropes and Hulk clotheslines him to the floor. Hogan chokes Sullivan with a cable as Woman rakes Savage's eyes. This has been a decent brawl, but I hate the "split screen" WCW loves to use. Hogan hits both heels with the blue plastic chair. Sullivan rakes Hogan's eyes and back. Flair throws Hulk over the top rope. Flair locks the Figure Four Leglock on Savage and Hogan locks the same move on Sullivan. Savage reverses Flair's hold. Hogan clotheslines Flair after Flair's done getting shoved by the referee and being embarassed. Flair comes back with a back suplex but Hogan no-sells it. Hogan flips Flair over the top rope again via the corner. This is getting repetitive now. All four fight on the floor again. Hogan backdrops Flair as they're back in the ring. Flair has Woman's shoe, though, and hits Hogan in the eye with it. Two count and Hogan "Hulks up". Arn Anderson is out. Three punches, Big Boot. Anderson trips Hulk while attempting the Legdrop. Brian Pillman, wearing his 900-number t-shirt, is at ringside, fighting with Savage and wielding the mighty blue plastic chair. The referee calls for the bell at 10:16, presumably disqualifying Flair & Sullivan for outside interference. **. Savage and Pillman are really going at it. The Booty Man is out to help Savage & Hulk clear the ring. Coming down the entranceway is Jimmy Hart with the wrestler formerly known as "Zeus" in the WWF and a huge camo-wearing, camo-face-painted wrestler who is bigger than "Zeus". Hogan, Savage, and The Booty Man retreat. Flair taunts Hogan on the microphone. Pillman has disappeared. Tony Schiavone interviews The Alliance to End Hulkamania. Sullivan introduces "Z-Gangsta" (Zeus) and the other man, called "The Final Solution". It'll be 8-on-2 at WCW Uncensored in 4 cages. Flair rants as the two huge guys flex and yell. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 6, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - March 25, 1996 Live from Unannounced Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael The Belfast Bruiser Vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage Bruiser is of course Dave "Fit" Finlay with gray hair and a black mullet. Apparently Hogan "overcame all the odds" and finally won the war with the Horsemen and Dungeon at Uncensored, despite losing Elizabeth and the World Title in the process. Okay. Bruiser grounds Savage to start and keeps a chinlock on. Elbow smashes and European uppercuts stagger Savage. Savage comes back with a running clothesline, then knees Bruiser to the floor. Bruiser then CRUSHES Savage's face into the ringpost and drops him across the guardrail. Bruiser works him over further on the floor and throws him over the guardrail. Savage slowly gets back into it, and Bruiser runs into the ringpost. Savage hits the Flying Elbowdrop out of nowhere and gets the win at 5:06. **, could've been better with more time. Savage no-sells the beating at the end, but did a good job (as usual) of selling Bruiser's offense during the match. Gene Okerlund Interview with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Elizabeth & Woman) Liz looks amazing and Woman caresses Gene's face. Flair's gonna slay The (fire breathing) Giant tonight. Flair's got the belt, the ladies, and the whole world in his hands. Last night Lex Luger cheap-shotted him and Flair knows it. Luger wants to be him. Luger's on the "enemy" list now. The girls say Flair's more man and has a better body than Luger. J.L. Vs. WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Konan J.L. beat Dean Malenko the night before in the "Cruiserweight Title Tournament". Also, Brian Pillman backed out of the Doomsday Cage Match the night before. J.L. uses his speed early and headscissors Konan twice. Nice kip-up and go-behind by Konan, and a short armdrag takes J.L. down. Konan monkey flips J.L., but the challenger lands on his feet. Konan kicks his knee and DDTs him to take control. Somersault senton splash and a modified surfboard keep Konan in control. Randy Savage is causing a ruckus backstage trying to attack Ric Flair. J.L. fights back with a fireman's carry and armbar. J.L. gets two lucha-esque armdrags in, one out of a full nelson (very nice!) and hits a spinning elbow on the champion. J.L. hits a missle dropkick to the back of Konan's head for two.Konan gets a gutwrench into a powerbomb for two. Bischoff claims Chris Benoit amd Psychosis advanced in the WCW Cruiserweight Title Tournament. J.L. counters a powerbomb into a sunset flip for two. Series of heatless near-falls. This is decent, crowd just doesn't care. J.L. DDTs Konan, who is sitting on the top rope, to the mat and gets a close two-count. Konan catches J.L. in the corner and hits the Angry Man's Slam/Alabama Slam, then rolls over for the pin at 6:20. **. Disco Inferno Vs. The Booty Man Disco brings his "hit CD" to the ring. Disco looks frustrated with someone basically doing his gimmick. Booty embarasses Disco by dodging him and hitting atomic drops. Kimberly comes to ringside and cheers on Booty Man. She smacks her man's "booty". Booty Man hits the running knee for the pin at 1:16. DUD. Come on, now. Booty Man and Kimberly kiss afterwards and she acts all winded and flabergasted. Great. WCW Saturday Night has Dean Malenko Vs. Sting, cool. The American Males Vs. WCW World Tag Team Champions Sting & Lex Luger The story: Bagwell has always been Sting's little protege backstage and knows Luger's a big jerk. Luger acts all nice and high-fives the fans when Sting is looking, when he isn't Luger makes mean faces to the crowd and ignores them. AWESOME. Commercial before the match. Riggs dropkicks Lex twice and Luger rakes the eyes to get back in it. Riggs backdrops Luger, wow. Luger cheapshots Riggs. Lex clotheslines Riggs and cheapshots Bagwell. Luger goes to attack Bagwell on the floor but Sting stops him. Bagwell's ready to fight Lex in the ring so of course Lex tags Sting in to fight his protege. Fact-paced criss-cross sequence sees Bagwell backdrop Sting. Sting blocks a bodyslam and slams Bagwell twice. Bagwell's all "ya got me" and tags out. Luger and Riggs in with Lex in control. The Males double-hiptoss Luger and a Bagwell splash gets two. Luger dodges a Bagwell bodypress and then viciously stomps the hell out of him! Now he's punching him and going crazy, followed by a taunt. Perhaps Luger is jealous of Sting's loyalty to Bagwell, hmm? Bagwell hits him with a flying forearm. Sting and Riggs in. Sting hits a high crossbody block for the pin at 6:29. Bagwell was in the ring and could have broken up the pin, but chose not to attack Sting. Luger grabs the belts and gloats at ringside, and Sting is all "Give me my title belt!" Sting raises the Males hands in a show of sportsmanship as Luger poses at ringside with his title belts. ** 1/2 for telling a really great little story there and elevating Bagwell & Riggs somewhat. The Giant (with Jimmy Hart) Vs. WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Woman & Elizabeth) Expect Savage to ruin this since they mentioned he was causing a backstage ruckus earlier. Elizabeth throws away Savage's alimony money to the crowd. Savage tries to get to ringside but is restrained by security and low-card wrestlers. Woman slaps him for good measure. Hogan's back next week to wrestle. Giant shoves Flair easily to the mat and taunts him. Savage was handcuffed and forced to leave the arena. Flair runs into Giant like a moron. Giant press slams Flair. And another one! Bischoff says Flair overcame the much larger Vader and can beat big guys. Flair tries to run away, but Giant carries him back in. Flair's chops and punches have no effect. Big vertical suplex from Giant. Flair comes off the top, gets caught, and Giant delivers a backbreaker. Giant climbs to the top rope. Stupid. He misses Flair by a mile and lands on his head. Looked bad. Giant then no-sells a chop. Ha. Giant misses a corner splash and falls to the arena floor. Flair has a wire drom Woman and chokes Giant on the floor. The ladies distract the referee and Flair uses the wire again. Flair thumbs Giant in the eyes. Flair punches away but Giant shoves him away. Flair punches away and gets shoved again. So Flair kicks Giant as hard as he can in the groin. Woman chokes Giant with the wire. Flair gets slammed off the top rope. Giant drops the strap. Flair's spazzing out in fear. Giant chokeslams Flair! Elizabeth and Woman in the ring. Arn Anderson comes out and chairshots Giant in the back. Kevin Sullivan in and grabs the chair, but Giant turns around sees Sullivan with it. The Giant chokeslams Sullivan! The Giant then chokeslams Anderson! Jimym Hart is in the ring, the referee has called for the bell at 8:56, and this one is over. The official decision is a no-contest. **, this was fun while it lasted. Giant walks to the backstage area pissed off. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 6, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - April 1, 1996 Live from Cleveland, Ohio Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael The Giant (with Jimmy Hart) & Sting Vs. Harlem Heat It was sneaky Jimmy Hart's idea to substitute The Giant for Lex Luger, but it turns out to have been a setup, as Sting & Giant stand toe-to-toe after Jimmy Hart paid off Harlem Heat to drop out of the match and let Giant have Sting to himself! NO MATCH. The Giant (with Jimmy Hart) Vs. Sting Sting rocks Giant with clotheslines and chop blocks. Giant no-sells Sting's punches and gains the advantage. Outside, Giant throws Sting into the guardrail and throws him over the top rope into the ring. Sting counters a chokeslam and kicks Giant to the floor. Lex Luger hits the ring and stands by Sting's side and the referee calls for the bell at 2:41, apparently giving Giant the disqualification victory. Jimmy Hart seems really pissed at Luger and yells that he'll be sorry. I guess this is Lex's official babyface turn. The Road Warriors Vs. The Steiner Brothers Vs. The Nasty Boys Can't recall any previous "triangle (3-way) tag team matches" in WWF/WCW before this one. Rick & Knobbs slug it out and Rick powerslams him. Scott dropkicks Sags out. Animal clotheslines Knobbs. Big elbowdrop. Crowd's hot. Animal crashes into the top rope as Knobbs dodges him. Hawk kicks Sags in the mouth. Scott's in, pumphandle slam on Hawk. Lots of action. Scott & Hawk clothesline each other. "LOD!" chants. Hawk runs into the ringpost but comes back with a neckbreaker on Scott. Fist drop gets two. Animal in with a big shoulder tackle, but Rick tags him with a "Steinerline" from the apron. Rick in, crossfaces Animal. Scott in with an overhead belly-to-belly on Animal! Sags in to beat up Scott. Nasty Boys beat up Scott and Rick is in. Lots of tags here. Big crazy brawl on the floor and finally the teams get seperated. Rick stupidly whips Animal into the LOD corner. Hawk takes down Rick and locks a chinlock on. And another one. Nasty Boys still won't tell who mugged them a few weeks ago. Rick rather easily tags Scott. Scott clotheslines Knobbs but then walks into a vertical suplex. No one's gotten a big advantage or come close to winning. Sags and Rick trade punches. Backbreaker on Rick by Sags. Knobs with a clothesline and elbowdrop. LOD beats up Sags on the floor and Rick hits a German suplex on Knobs. We go to commercial. We're back, with Rick and Animal double-clotheslining each other. Sags and Hawk come in. Hawk with a powerslam. Hawk's on fire, but Knobbs gets the better of him with a clothesline and splash. They're giving this plenty of time, which is great. Knobbs with a splash in the corner on Hawk, then gets a bulldog for two. Rick is in, release German suplex on Knobbs. Scott and Sags are in, with Sags in control. Tags are plentiful as Rick and Knobbs come in. Rick and Knobbs get tossed to the floor by the LOD when Rick tries a top-rope belly-to-belly suplex. Knobbs throws Rick into the post. Scott backdrops Hawk to the floor. The Public Enemy run down, attack Knobbs, and Johnny Grunge, who is dressed up like Brian Knobbs, rolls into the ring and Scott Steiner pins him for the win at 12:32. Grunge's impression looked pretty spot-on: fat, blonde guy with graffiti shirt and black pants. Bischoff thinks TPE mugged the Nasties. **, I liked that they gave it time, but it had no flow, just guys in and out of the ring every minute or less, so I can't really call it "good". Kevin Sullivan & Arn Anderson (with Woman & Elizabeth) Vs. Hulk Hogan & The Booty Man (with "The Booty Baby" Kimberly) Kimberly has an ugly green hat to make her more annoying. What a body, though. Commercial before the bout. Bobby Heenan announces he is retiring from professional wrestling after this broadcast. Booty Man and Arn start, with Booty Man punching him out. Atomic Drops for Arn and Sullivan. Hogan clotheslines Arn on the floor, then he & Booty Man give Arn a double-Big Boot. Booty Man throws Sullivan off the top rope. Arn in, he wants Hogan in there. Arn holds his own, but Hogan drops him throat-first across the ropes. Hulk rams the heels' heads together. Heenan, for the 50th time in 1996, notes Hogan's team is dominating. Sullivan works over Booty Man with throat-chops. Woman rakes Booty Man's eyes for the loudest crowd pop of the match. Booty tossed to the floor. This is boring. Arn guillotines Booty Man on the bottom rope. Booty and Sullivan crack heads. Hogan tagged in to little crowd response. Big Boot on Sullivan. One for Arn sends him to the floor. Kimberly gives Hulk her shoe. He hits Sullivan with it and gets the pin at 7:45. Thank God. End this feud. Please. Please. It's just so stupid. I hate Booty Man. I hate Booty Babe. I hate high heel shoes. Sullivan's too short to wrestle Hogan. Stop having Kimberly and Booty Man make out. Stop jobbing Arn Anderson to these guys. Please. * for lots of boring action. Afterwards, Booty Man went to get Kim's shoe but Arn & Sullivan attacked him. Hogan quickly saves. Post-match, Gene Okerlund interviews Hogan & Booty Man, with Kimberly and her ugly lime green hat. Hulk's sick of the Dungeon getting the last laugh. Booty Man has a special plan to get them some satisfaction. Booty Man tells Hulk to be his partner on the next Nitro and they'll get the last laugh. It's a big secret and a special match. Great, this match AGAIN! Hulk and Booty Man have no idea there's no Nitro the next week. WCW Television Champion Lex Luger Vs. WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Woman & Elizabeth) Luger would leave with the World, TV, and World Tag belts if he wins. Steve McMichael's wife Debra, is sitting at ringside, and Flair gives her a quick gesture. Steve says Flair has good taste. This is the 5000th World Title match between these two, and Luger has come close to winning the World Title from Flair about 4,999 times. Flair's got nice crowd support. Lex overpowers to start to a mixed reaction. Flair is frustrated. Liz is laughing hysterically about something and trying to hide from the camera. Luger press-slams Flair and he rolls to the floor. He stalls and regroups with the ladies. Another gorilla press slam for Lex. Flair stalls and suckers Lex into an attack. Lex then runs into an elbow. Luger comes back with a running clothesline, then clotheslines Flair over the top rope. Flair throws a tantrum and sulks with the ladies. Flair is basically in "Honky Tonk Man Title Reign" mode from February-April of 1996. Yet another press slam for Lex, and he drops Flair on the top rope. Running clothesline. Another. A third. Flair's dead. No Nitro on April 8th. Flair throws Luger to the floor and Woman rakes the eyes. Flair stomps the challenger and chokes away. Woman claws him. Flair chop blocks the knee. Flair locks on the Figure Four Leglock. Two count. Luger then no-sells it and reverses it. Lex gets tossed to the floor. Lex wakes up and chases Flair in. Sunset flip gets Lex two. Backslide gets Lex two. Flair flips over the ropes, Luger catches him up top, and hits a superplex! Powerslam from Luger and he calls for the "Rack". Woman grabs a cup of coffee from a planted fan. Luger has Flair in the Torture Rack, but Elizabeth is on the apron. Woman throws the coffee in Lex's face. Flair rolls up Luger (with feet on the TOP rope) and gets the pin at 10:56. ** 1/2 for a spirited effort there. Sting chases Flair away. Heenan's "retirement" was, shock, an "April Fool's Day" joke. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jericholic82 0 Report post Posted November 6, 2006 great stuff, and helps to jog my memory of nitro at the time. the luger-sting angle was tremendous and it was weird to see it end so abruptly as the logical payoff would seem to be Luger finally turning on sting. But with the nWo angle just weeks away from starting I guess they needed Luger to be babyface. too bad the ppvs arent reviewed cuz it leaves out uncensored 96 where Luger was "forecd to be in the main event by jimmy hart" and couldnt wrestle in the street fight, so he was replaced by Booker T of all people(with stings promise of a title shot as the reason). during the match (which oddly was non-title) booker and Animal (I think) fough tot th eback and ran into Luger who was posing in fornt of a mirror, animal ran into him and knocked him over which pissed Luger off so he attacked (with help from stevie ray) and tied animal down, allowing sting and booker to pick up the win and a note the first 3 way wcw tag match I can recal was actually at Bash At the Beach 95 and featured Harlem Heat vs The Nasty Boys vs The Blue Bloods I used to be pissed at Bischoff giving away Raw results cuz back then I lived in Cali and TNT didnt have a seperate east/west coast feed at the time (they finally changed in summer of 98), so I could watch Nitro live at 5 pm PST and RAW taped at 9 pm. and the giant fake face turn just reviewed was interesting, as I totally bought into it at the time. the odd thing is giant would turn against Flair for real when He threw coffee in his eyes by mistake which led to their title match. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - April 15, 1996 Live from Charleston, West Virginia Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Handicap Match: Hulk Hogan Vs. Kevin Sullivan & Arn Anderson (with Jimmy Hart, Woman & Elizabeth) Booty Man was attacked two weeks ago on WCW Saturday Night so he's not there to team with Hulk. Heels attack but Hogan clears the ring and briefly gets a figure-four on Sullivan. If Hogan wins he gets the manager of his choice in the ring. If the heels win they got The Booty Babe. Heels pounds away but Hogan no-sells and beats them up. Big Boot on Arn. Arn tastes the guardrail. Hogan hits the softest chairshot EVER on Sullivan, then one for Anderson. Heels get slammed together. Heels try to spike piledrive Hulk, but he counters and slingshots Arn into Sullivan. Back suplex for Arn. Slam for Sullivan, and the Legdrop gets the pin at 4:21. *. Post-match, Hogan throws Woman into the ring and scares Elizabeth in there, as well. Woman holds Elizabeth in front of her to hide. Hogan grabs both of them by the arm, then turns his attention to Jimmy Hart. Woman & Liz flee. Hart tries to use powder but Hogan avoids it. Hogan tears up Hart's custom jacket and atomic drops him. Big Boot hits poorly. Here comes The Giant. He chokeslams Hogan and Hogan totally no-sells it. What? Big Boot staggers Giant. Hogan slams him. Gene Okerlund comes into the ring for an interview and Hogan accidently scoops him up for a slam, then lets him down. The fifty heels that Hogan easily dominated all flee. Hulk's on a roll so watch out, 'cause he wants the World Heavyweight Title. Odd, I thought Hulk disappeared shortly after this. Tons of Hogan posing leads to a commercial. "Anything Goes" Falls Count Anywhere Street Fight - The Public Enemy Vs. The Nasty Boys The Nasty Boys jump Public Enemy and kill them with weapons. Sags works over Rock with a chair. More trash cans are obtained. Rock with a nice tope con hilo on Sags. Knobbs dominates Grunge and puts a rubber trash can over his head. Double shoulderblock from the Nasties. Rock uses a metal trash can lid. Public Enemy gets to team at Slamboree in the "Lethal Lottery". Grunge uses the can on Knobbs. The "split screen" really hurts the match. Brawling around the ringside area continues. Knobbs throws a table at Grunge. Sags throws Grunge into another. Wow, Grunge thows a table half at Knobbs' head. Rock bulldogs Knobbs on a chair. This really has no flow and is just brawling. The trash can shots get weaker and weaker. This thing feels like it's been going on the entire show. TPE setup a table in the ring. Grunge tries to legdrop Knobbs through it, Knobbs moves, and gets the pin on Grunge at 9:15. * 1/2, just brawling and kind of boring. Grunge then lays out Sags on a table outside the ring, Rocco flips over the ropes onto Grunge (on the apron), and they crash through Sags and the table in a nice spot. Earl Robert Eaton (with Geeves) Vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage Eaton's really at the end of the road at this point, but it'll be cool to see him and Savage work together. Commercial before the bout. Savage stays on him with chokes and kicks and then backdrops Eaton over the top rope, which the referee doesn't see. Savage posts Eaton. They fight inside, and Eaton throws Savage over the top rope with the referee talking to Geeves. The lack of mullet on Eaton is tough to watch. Eaton targets the knee. Eaton does Flair's "Whooo!" and strut, then locks the Figure Four Leglock on Eaton. Geeves tosses Eaton a IV Horsemen t-shirt, which he taunts Savage with. Funny. Savage of course comes back, chases Geeves away, and backdrops Eaton on the arena floor. Slam and Flying Elbowdrop get Savage the pin at 3:57. * 1/2, not very good at all. Savage throws the referee to the mat and delivers goes to deliver a second Flying Elbow, then leaps over the undercarder who hit the ring and delivers it. The police come to ringside as Savage is handcuffed. Bobby Walker, Alex Wright, and Jim Duggan help take the handcuffed Savage to the back. Ric Flair & The Giant (with Woman & Elizabeth) Vs. WCW World Tag Team Champions Sting & Lex Luger Flair of course is the World Champion, but he and Giant are challenging for the tag straps now. Flair grabs Debra McMichael, in the front row, by the hands, but she pulls away and isn't interested. Flair & Sting start, and Flair's cheating doesn't work. Nice criss-cross but Flair gets press slammed and Giant gets kicked off the apron. Sting presses Flair over the top onto Giant, who catches him and throws him back in, pissing off Flair. Luger then press slams him back onto Giant and the same happens. Flair runs full force at Giant and chokeslams him, then runs away. Giant chases him backstage and we go to commercial. Sting & Luger both should've been disqualified and/or Flair counted out. We're back and Luger is slugging away at Flair, but gets chop blocked. Giant is tagged in. Giant's too much for Luger. Big suplex. Flair tosses Lex to the floor and Woman rakes his eyes. Flair with a kneedrop. Giant in and Luger's in trouble. Flair stomps on the knee and locks on the Figure Four Leglock, with an assist from Woman. And Flair has it on forever. Flair has to break it and has a shoving match with referee Nick Patrick. Luger finally shows life but runs into an elbow. Flair goes up top and gets slammed to the mat. Sting gets the tag. Press slam and dropkick for Flair. Flair flips over the ropes and gets clotheslined, taking out the camera man. Sting hits a nice superplex and locks on the Scorpion Deathlock. Woman in with a cup of coffee, aims for Luger, he ducks, and Sting takes it in the eyes. Referee calls for the bell at 10:34, disqualifying the challengers. Giant chokeslams Luger, then one for Sting. Flair struts and Giant is angry. We'll go **, as this was okay. Bischoff handcuffs Heenan, who was showing off what was used on Savage. as the show ends. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - April 22, 1996 Live from Unannounced Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael In the main event, the World Title, World Tag Team Titles, and Television Title can all be lost, depending on who loses the fall. Also, Giant can pin his partner Ric Flair. The Public Enemy Vs. The American Males Bischoff calls the "World Whining Federation" taped, and reveals the taped results of Raw - "Goldust over Savio Vega, 'Yawn', Mankind defeats Aldo Montoya, 'Bigger Yawn', and Vader defeats Fatu, 'Oh boy'." Wow. Bagwell's gonna "star in a movie" says Bischoff. Wow, the entire crowd is doing the Males "clap" routine. TPE ambush them. Bagwell hits a flying double-clothesline, then a slingshot plancha on Rock. Riggs hits a plancha on Grunge. Bischoff wishes Brian Pillman a swift recovery from a severe automobile accident. Riggs dropkicks Grunge to the floor and the Males double-dropkick Rocco. Quick tags help keep control on Rocco Rock. TPE cheat and get the advantage. Rocco Rock hits a second-rope moonsault on Bagwell. Flapjack on Bagwell. Double clothesline and this thing isn't very exciting. Rocco Rock misses a somersault senton off the top rope. Riggs gets the hot tag. Dropkicks galore. Flying punch on Grunge. Rock backdrops Bagwell over the top behind the referee's back. TPE toss Riggs over the top rope and are disqualified at 7:22, despite dominating the match. * 1/2. Lame. Riggs get put on a table at ringside. TPE do their "Enemy Sandwich" and kill Riggs through it, ouch. Gene Okerlund and Two Women Draw "Lethal Lottery" Combinations The chicks names are Emily and Cherry, who I believe are the girls who take the wrestlers' ring gear to the backstage. Morrus/Meng face Barbarian/Walker. Stevie Ray/Bubba Vs. Fire & Ice. Okerlund draws Randy Savage & Ric Flair Vs. Arn Anderson & Eddie Guerrero. Chris Benoit Vs. Eddie Guerrero This should be fun! Benoit looks old school with the red tights and white boots. Benoit offers an arrogat clean break. Eddie delivers the same. Snap armdrags from Eddie and a nice dropkick send Benoit to the floor. Nice armdrag reversal sequence, and Benoit hits the back suplex. Chinlock and we go to commercial. Shinjiro Ohtani is apparently in the Cruiserweight Title finals. Eddie, Eaton, and Brad Armstrong are still in it. Ohtani beat Benoit in the tournament, already. Eddie hits a back suplex. So was there actually a tournament or is Bischoff totally BSing this? At any rate, Benoit didn't lose to Ohtani in the tournament final according to Bischoff. Unless the other semi-final ended in a draw. Benoit tosses Eddie to the floor. Announcers don't care about this. Eddie with a leaping hurancanrana off the top rope to Benoit, and gets a leg hooked for two. Eddie tries a sunset flip from a victory roll position, but Benoit blocks and grabs the ropes to steal a pinfall win at 4:58. Way too short and gets **. Crowd gives lots of Horsemen signs. Things are short tonight, the usual 10-minute tag got 8 and this, which would have usually been 8, gets 5. Gene Okerlund Interview with WCW Vice President Rob Garner They're going to discuss Randy Savage's recent actions, but here comes Randy. Garner is concerned with his actions and they are unacceptable. If it continues, his career will face ramifications. Savage doesn't like "suits" and says he'll be Flair's partner "from hell". Savage gets in Garner's face and says he'll do what he wants to. Garner says he should seek professional help. Savage calls him a "little, little, stupid person" and threatens to slap him. Savage storms off. Meng Vs. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan Oh man. Meng comes out in a fantastic-looking kimono! We go to commercial before this. Darn. Meng's got a cool outfit on with gold kickpads and black tights. Bischoff insults the WWF and gives their results away again. Meng chops Duggan in the throat and chokes him. Hogan will be back on Nitro "real soon" says Eric. Meng rakes his back and bites him. Duggan's stupid and targets Meng's head. This is slow and bad. Another chop to the throat. More "nerve holds". Duggan battles back. Three point stance charge misses. Meng beats up Duggan in the corner and shoves the referee. Duggan grabs the 2 x 4, but Meng kicks him for a two count. Duggan tapes up the wrist and punches Meng. He gets the pin at 5:58. * for Meng's kimono. Gene Okerlund and Two Women Draw "Lethal Lottery" Combinations Eaton & Slater Vs. Wright & Disco. Regal & Bruiser Vs. Wallstreet & Duggan, possibly the worst tag team I've ever heard of. "All Titles Are On the Line": WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair & The Giant (with Woman, Jimmy Hart, & Elizabeth) Vs. WCW World Tag Team Champions Sting & WCW Television Champion Lex Luger Flair again flirts with Debra McMichael and kisses her by the hand. Randy Savage pearl harbors Flair before the match, but the police handcuff him and throw him out. Flair goes back and flexes for Debra, and Steve McMichael is getting annoyed. Huge crowd heat for Luger & Sting. Any champion pinned will lose his title, and apparently Giant can pin Flair, claimed Bischoff earlier. Giant and Sting start. Bischoff says the Detroit Lions want to sign The Giant. Lex & Sting clothesline him to the floor. Sting press slams Flair. Back in the ring, Lex and Flair go at it. Lex press slams him. He then hits two running clotheslines and Flair "flops". Sting dominates Flair but runs into an elbow. Flair gets tossed off the top rope. Sting superplexes Flair off the top. Same Flair match every week for 4 months in 1996. Sting accidently splashes himself into the guardrail. Woman rakes his eyes. Giant tags in and squashes Sting. Flair in, hits a vertical suplex, but Sting no-sells it. Woman has a cup of coffee in her hands. Luger tagged in. Flair flips over the ropes and is clotheslined. Luger powerslams Flair. Giant in, goes to chokeslam Lex, but Sting chop blocks him off the top rope. And another! Giant still won't let go of Lex. Sting finally breaks Lex free. Flair begs off from Sting and gets the coffee. He throws it at Sting, Sting ducks, and it goes into The Giant's eyes. The referee calls for the bell at 7:02, apparently a no-contest. ** for the usual same match. Flair runs away because Giant is steaming. Lex & Sting bail out. Flair comes back with a towel for Giant's eyes and gets on his knees for Giant's forgiveness. Flair gets out of there. Gene Okerlund is in the ring for an interview. Giant's pissed, that coffee burned. Giant wants a World Title match the next week. Flair is up at the announcer's booth. Flair's mad Giant didn't accept his apology and wants Giant to apologize or next week he "kicks Giant's big ass". Giant flips out and chases him backstage. Heenan thinks Flair's in big trouble. 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GODSON 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - February 26, 1996 Live from Knoxville, Tennessee Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Big Bubba Rogers Vs. Sting Sting's half of the tag champs, Bubba's a depushed former foe of his. Bischoff gives away the taped "World Whining Federation" Raw results - "DQ Yokozuna in a handicap match, Jake Roberts? Talkin' about diggin' up some bones here, over Isaac Yankem, DDS, and Diesel over Bob Holly, he's still around". Wow. Bubba gives Sting a clean break in the corner to start but Sting isn't fooled...for once. Big Sting bulldog but Bubba comes back with an uppercut, ropes straddle, and a second big punch. Bubba's always been a tough fight for Sting. Sting comes back with a big jumping attack but gets caught and spinebustered. This isn't bad. But now we cue the chinlock. Bubba splashes him into the corner and keeps on the offensive. An obviously planted "granny" in the front row jaw-jacks with Bubba. Lame. Sting totally botches a piledriver, landing on his knees and dropping Bubba slowly head-first, like a tombstone piledriver but Bubba facing away from Sting. Sting just cant setup the "Stinger Splash", and Bubba counters a pump splash. Sting finally trips Bubba off the top rope and hits a flying bodypress for the pin at 7:14. **, Bubba seemed motivated but Sting on defense isn't pretty unless it's Vader. Gene Okerlund Interview with Lex Luger & Sting The Road Warriors interrupt. They respect Sting but think Luger's a big coward. Luger talks smack and challenges the Warriors anywhere, anytime. Sting's all "dude, shut up." The Road Warriors claim Lex isn't really from the streets of Chicago, and Sting agrees Lex is from the "white collar section" to simmer his partner down. A "Chicago Street Fight" gets set up, with the Road Warriors saying Luger's gonna be in trouble. Luger accepts the match then has no clue what a "Chicago Street Fight" is as Sting is all pissed. Lex Luger Vs. The Renegade Renegade actually overpowers Luger early on, but Lex pokes the eyes. Renegade with more clotheslines, crowd doesn't really care. Backdrop on Lex, but then Renegade leaps and gets caught on the ropes, missing Luger. Luger chokes him and drops an elbow. Basic stuff, here. Back suplex and running clothesline. Then an exciting chinlock. Big vertical suplex. Renegade still fights back, hitting a powerslam and a handspring elbow in the corner that makes Muta cry. Renegade goes up for his top-rope splash finisher, but Jimmy Hart runs down and trips him. Luger "racks" Renegade for the submission win at 5:47. * for basic slow power wrestling. Sting comes out and is pissed that Jimmy Hart cheated for Lex. Luger is all "I didn't see him!" and then raises Renegade's hand in a funny moment. Lex may not have it in the ring, but he's been funny on this show. Sting screams in Luger's face and Lex looks scared. Harlem Heat Vs. The Road Warriors This is a #1 Contender's match, which they announce half-way through the match. The whole show's been about the tag team division so far, when's the last time you've heard something like that in today's wrestling scene? Booker and Hawk start with Booker in control. Hawk with a clothesline and weak dropkick. Neckbreaker and fist-punch gets Hawk two. Animal and Stevie Ray in there now and this could be bad. Lots of "feeling out" and then Stevie takes control for a short while before Hawk gets back in. Stevie powerbombs Hawk and stomps him. Booker T. in to deliver the "Jump Axe Kick". "Hawk!" chant ensues. Road Warriors are getting beat up pretty badly. Big front face-lock weardown spot. Hawk runs shoulder-first into the post. Booker with the Harlem Sidekick, called a "Jump Wheel Kick". Hawk finally hits a clothesline and tags Animal. Double-clotheslines on Heat. All four brawl. Booker hits the Harlem Hangover but there's no referee. Animal kicks Booker in the face and Hawk gets the pin at 7:47. * for some terrible booking here, as the Road Warriors got pummeled and stole a win for some reason. WCW World Champion Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Kevin Sullivan (with Woman & Elizabeth) Vs. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and The Booty Man Hulks' team clears the ring and a brawl is on. Booty Man and Arn Anderson start, as Kimberly (former "Diamond Doll") comes out in a white dress with roses to watch. Arn gets triple-teamed and hit with a high knee from Booty Man, the guy who was "The Zodiac" in the Dungeon of Doom but, surprise, was Hogan's secret spy all along. Booty locks the sleeper on Arn, then one for Sullivan. Booty Man overpowers Flair, then tags Savage in. 5 minutes in and it really hasn't gotten started. Savage escapes the heel corner. Nitro is pre-empted on March 4th for a Civil War movie. Flair gets thrown off the top, but counters Savage's flying axe-handle with a punch. Hulk tagged in as Flair gloats. Hogan with clotheslines and a backdrop. Flair flips to the apron and gets clotheslined. Hogan clotheslines Sullivan & Arn to the floor. 10 punches for Flair in the corner. Booty Man in, and a double-Big Boot for Flair by Booty and Hulk. Booty Man beats everyone up. The heels have gotten maybe one move in. 8 minutes in and nothing's really happened, all 6 seem fresh. Woman & Elizabeth distract Savage and the heels attack him. Sullivan works over Savage with stomps & punches. Now Arn in with a guillotine on the bottom rope. Quick heel tags and double-teams. Savage & Sullivan collide and both down. Hot tag and Booty who sends the heels into Hulk's big boot. Legdrop on Arn gets Hulk the pin at 12:02. The heels then attack Hogan, handcuff him to the ropes and briefly whip him with Flair's belt. We'll go * 1/2 as this never really got going until late and made the Horsemen/Dungeon look really weak. 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UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Taped) - April 29th, 1996 Taped on April 22, 1996 from Unannounced Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Special 7 pm EST broadcast (NBA Playoffs on TNT) Harlem Heat Vs. WCW World Tag Team Champions Sting & Lex Luger Return match from WCW Saturday Night which ended controversially. Sting and Booker start, thankfully. Booker with a kip-up and a Harlem Sidekick to the champion. Fast criss-cross sees Sting hit an impact clothesline and big elbowdrop. Luger and Stevie Ray in, and Stevie beats him up in the corner. Luger fights back and stomps Stevie to hell, and at least this time they're not using a billion rest holds like they did when Sting & Luger won the titles. Double clothesline on Stevie by the champions. Booker comes in and gets dropkicked by Sting. This match is decent. Lex in, and we get a commercial. We return with Booker missing an elbowdrop on Sting. But Booker busts out the not-yet-named Spinaroonie and lands a beautiful Harlem Sidekick! Stevie Ray in with a "jump front kick" (thanks Eric...) and gets two. The Heat must realize WCW has a billion teams so they're actually working hard now. Nice. Nevermind, Stevie puts on the chinlock. Booker in, but he & Sting clothesline each other. Lex gets the hot tag. Clotheslines for everyone. Powerslam on Booker. Sting gets dumped. Double-team maneuever sees Stevie Ray powerbomb Luger while Booker T comes off the top rope at the same time with an elbowdrop on Lex. Jimmy Hart runs to ringside and throws in a towel, which Booker catches. Booker tells the referee to ignore Hart, and Stevie Ray throws Hart into the ring. As Booker is going to deck Hart, Sting rolls him up from behind for the pin at 8:25. Not a bad little match there, we'll go ** for some good effort. So is Luger still in cahoots with Hart? I hope so, because babyface Luger blows. Fire & Ice Vs. The Steiner Brothers Fire & Ice, who are Scott Norton & Ice Train, respectively, have some really lame generic 80's movie music. I mean really bad. I'm pretty sure they changed it immediately after this to something better. Apparently the Japanese writers and photographers have tons of respect for Fire & Ice. Okay, great. The Steiners face each other at Slamboree. Rick & Train start. They criss cross and Train hits a nice powerslam. Train avalanches Steiner but misses a second, and Rick hits a release German suplex. Scott and uh, Scott in. Norton yells so Scott throws him over his head, then hits an overhead belly-to-belly. Awesome. Steiner goes up top but Norton catches him and gorilla presses him. Norton hits two clotheslines, but Steiner hits him with a Hot Shot and tags in Rick. Norton totally runs over Rick with a shoulderblock. Train is one step ahead of Rick and Scott, and then kicks Rick in the face. Wow, Steiners are getting their asses handed to them. Scott in, and Norton clotheslines him over the ropes. Rick sneaks in and tags Train with a big Steinerline for the pin at 3:23. 3 minutes??? Fire & Ice looked pretty smooth and the Steiners were game to throw them around. Give these guys 10 minutes please. ** for a good start. Afterwards, Norton's all "we'll get 'em next time" to Train. Gene Okerlund Interview with WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Woman & Elizabeth) So is Flair worried about The Giant? Feast your eyes on Woman & Elizabeth as Flair flirts with them and know that Flair isn't worried about a 7 foot idiot. Woman says Giant is a "small man" and Liz says Giant's nowhere near the man Flair is. Parking Lot Brawl: The Belfast Bruiser Vs. Lord Steven Regal This is different. Bruiser kicks his foot through a car window aiming for Regal. Bruiser has control early on and slams Regal into a car, then kicks him and throws a piece of slate on him. Bruiser hits Regal with a car bumper, then slams him on a truck hood. Regal fights back with kicks, but Bruiser uses a seatbelt to choke his opponent. These two will team at Slamboree. Bruiser drops Regal stomach-first into a guardrail. They fight in the bed of a truck. I can't understand why this is getting more time than the previous match but oh well. I also can't figure out why Regal and Bruiser didn't wear pants in a street fight. Bischoff sells the parking lot brawl like its a murder scene. Regal slams Bruiser's head into a window and hits him with a bumper. Bruiser tries to tombstone Regal but his Lordship escapes. Regal and Bruiser are atop a car. Regal tries a piledriver but gets backdropped. Regal gets in a low blow, then hits the piledriver on the car roof and scores the pin at 6:13. Interesting bout, ** I suppose, as it wasn't awful but not particularly exciting to watch. The Giant (with Jimmy Hart) Vs. WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (with Woman & Elizabeth) Flair's had a very shaky title reign in which he's been dominated by opponents, and last week Flair accidently threw coffee in Giant's eyes, pissing him off. Flair stops to bother Debra McMichael, asking for a kiss on the cheek, which she regrets. Mongo's not happy. Flair still has Savage's nameplate on the title belt to taunt him. Flair cowers early from Giant. Giant press slams him. Flair gets flipped over the ropes in the corner to the floor. Flair rakes the eyes, but chops/punches don't work. Giant misses with a corner charge. Flair goes up top but of course is thrown off. Giant goes for the chokeslam but Flair has a deathgrip on the ropes. Woman is on the apron and Flair low blows Giant. Giant, on two knees, still pushes Flair around! Flair knocks Giant down with an illegal object. Flair clowns around and locks on the Figure Four. Giant wakes up and grabs Flair by the throat, stands up, and delivers the chokeslams. Giant scores the pin at just 5:51 and is the new World Heavyweight Champion! * 1/2 for a super simple match. Jimmy Hart leaps into Giant's arms as they celebrate. Woman is freaking out. Gene Okerlund enters the ring for an interview. The belt's always been The Giant's and he'll be a fighting champion. Savage, Sting, Hogan, whoever, they'll all fall. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cheech Tremendous 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2006 I remember marking out big time for the Giant title win. It seemed so out of nowhere and uncharacteristic given the main event storylines WCW was pushing at the time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2006 WCW Monday Nitro (Live) - May 06, 1996 Live from Daytona Beach, Florida Hosted by Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, and Steve McMichael Special 7 pm EST Broadcast (NBA Playoffs on TNT) Hugh Morrus Vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage Both guys are nuts. Morrus sneak attacks Savage on the outside and drops him across the guardrail. Morrus throws him into the post and pounds away. They finally get in the ring, and Hugh puts on Savage's hat, sunglasses, and coat to mock him. Savage fights back and seemingly tries to pull Hugh's eye out of the socket, then chokes Morrus with the jacket and hangs him over the top rope. Savage doesn't let go, continues to hang Morrus, and is disqualified at 2:51. * for not much of anything except Savage not listening to the rules. Savage keeps choking him, then goes up and hits the Flying Elbowdrop. The referee pushes Savage off of Hugh, which is a big mistake, and Savage knocks him out. Oh boy, Savage slams the referee. Flying Elbowdrop for him, too. This is pretty "out of control" for the time period. WCW security and the police come out as the announcers continue to blame Ric Flair for Savage's mental instability. Savage is escorted backstage. Eric Bischoff gives his condolences on the passing of Ray "The Crippler" Stevens. Dean Malenko Vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger (with Sonny Onoo) Oh, this can't suck. Ohtani is announced as the new WCW Cruiserweight Champion and will compete on May 18th weekend on Worldwide and at Slamboree. Liger slaps hands with the fans despite being managed by Onoo. Cool black/white/yellow outfit for Liger. Series of reversals nicely done. Multiple kip-ups by both wrestlers, and a criss-cross that ends with a Liger enzugiri, called a "backleg round kick" by Bischoff. We go to a split-screen as Ric Flair, Woman, and Elizabeth, all dressed up, come to ringside and sit at their private VIP section. Liger with a modified abdominal stretch. We go to commercial. Flair & the girls wine & dine at a special table (with a private waiter), apparently spending Randy Savage's money. Malenko hits a dropkick but Liger is in the ropes. Malenko locks on a spinning leg grapevine and targets the left knee. Malenko stomps the knee then locks the grapevine back on. Malenko tries for the Texas Cloverleaf but Liger rolls him up for two. A back elbow by Liger gets two. Rolling kick in the corner by Liger. Malenko blocks a superplex attempt, so Liger dropkicks him to the floor. Liger goes up top and delivers a bodypress to Malenko on the floor. Cartwheel back elbow is countered by Malenko into a two count, then Liger gets a two count on a reversal. Liger goes up, but Malenko catches him and delivers an over-the-shoulder gutbuster from the second rope! But Liger counters a powerbomb attempt into a two count. Series of go-behinds and standing switches leads to a double-underhook sit-out powerbomb for Malenko, which gets him the pin at 6:43. ***, nice little match there. Gene Okerlund Interviews "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, Woman, & Elizabeth Flair's on top of the world with his ladies, and they're not like the ordinary people in the world. The Giant got lucky last week and he'll get his eventually. Flair says at Slamboree they'll take out Randy Savage, and Arn Anderson better not make the wrong decision again. Flair says Debra McMichael wants to drink with him and sends a cocktail her way. She pours it out on the arena floor and makes rude gestures to him. It's okay if she wastes a drink because Savage has plenty of money to waste. The first of a long series of brief promos airs: Our World is About to Change. Blood Runs Cold. Coming to WCW. Great... "Lord" Steven Regal (with Geeves) Vs. Sting Regal's busted up from his parking lot brawl. Sting's been one of the World Tag Team Champions since January. Luger has a World Title shot later but has yet to arrive at the building. Sting with a backdrop and almost has the Scorpion Deathlock on but Regal gets to the ropes. The Belfast Bruiser is injured and won't be at Slamboree to team with Regal. We go to commercial. Back, with Sting on offense. Sting's fired up and ready to fight but Regal's cautious. Not a lot happening here. Regal pokes the eyes and pounds away. Sting comes back with a dropkick, 2 Japanese armdrags, and a series of clotheslines. Stinger Splash misses. Regal goes for a double-underhook suplex, but Sting backdrops him, and bridges up with Regal still holding onto the arms, and bridges up to pin him at 6:11. ** for being alright, with little excitement, though. WCW World Television Champion Lex Luger Vs. WCW World Heavyweight Champion The Giant (with Jimmy Hart) Sting's music plays for some reason, but Luger doesn't show. Instead, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan makes his way out, apparently to replace Luger. Dave Penzer announces that Luger hasn't arrived and Duggan will replace him. NO MATCH. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan Vs. WCW World Heavyweight Champion The Giant (with Jimmy Hart) Duggan attacks before Giant can take the belt off but it has little effect. Duggan tries again but Giant shakes it off and chokes him with his boot in the corner. Giant squashes him in the corner. Running kick from Giant. This is a squash and not terribly interesting. Duggan falls to the floor. Giant misses a charge into the corner and Duggan starts taping the fist. He doesn't get the fist taped in time, however, because Giant chokeslams him for the easy win at 3:14. *. Giant delivers a second chokeslam to Duggan and stomps him. Cobra runs in and gets a chokeslam. The Cuban Assassin gets a chokeslam. Alex Wright gets a huge chokeslam. Ric Flair, in a tuxedo, runs in with a wooden chair and hits Giant in the head, to no effect. Sting comes off the top rope and chop blocks Giant's knee repeatedly. Sting has Giant rocking with punches. Flying axehandle takes Giant down. Sting then locks the Scorpion Deathlock on The Giant but Jimmy Hart breaks it up. Lex Luger runs in with a briefcase to confront The Giant, but Hart tells Giant to leave Luger alone. Hot little ending there. Gene Okerlund is in the ring for an interview. Sting's pissed and wants to know where he was. Luger's upset at Sting for doubting him. They continue to argue as the show ends. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Richard 0 Report post Posted November 11, 2006 Password DavidEFC http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HUWF3V57 Thanks for the upload, though I don't think I've ever gone through so many junk mail offers to see something. I had forgotten what a shitty announcer Bischoff was, even Tony was better than that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dobbs 3K 0 Report post Posted November 12, 2006 Password DavidEFC http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HUWF3V57 Thanks for the upload, though I don't think I've ever gone through so many junk mail offers to see something. I had forgotten what a shitty announcer Bischoff was, even Tony was better than that. Bischoff's main function as an announcer seemed to be to constantly poke fun of WWF and announce RAW spoilers. Coupled with the awful Steve McMichael and a declining Bobby Heenan, it was a pretty bad announce team, but all the hot matches and angles made up for their suckitude. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UseTheSledgehammerUh 0 Report post Posted November 14, 2006 Booker T. delivers the Harlem Sidekick, which has been called a Harlem Sidekick for years by WCW. Bischoff: "Jumping back-leg round kick! Look out, what a move by Booker T!" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
