Welcome to the Retro Express. This is where we’re taking a stroll down memory lane at wrestling history. This post is part of an ongoing series where we’re reviewing every episode of WCW Nitro from start to finish. Links to the previous posts are at the bottom of this post. We hope you enjoy.
We’ve went to war. World War III came around, headlined by the World War III 60 Man Battle Royal for the vacated WCW World Heavyweight Championship. 60 men vied for the big gold belt in a battle royal featuring giants, sharks, sumo assassins, horsemen, cruiserweights and many, many more. Eventually, it came down to six men left in the one ring. It came down to Dungeon of Doom members The Giant, Lex Luger and One Man Gang battling the babyfaces in Hulk Hogan, Sting and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Friends Sting and Lex Luger united in an attempt to eliminate The Giant. As they were on the verge of eliminating The Giant, Hulk Hogan sneaked up from behind and tossed out all three men including his best friend forever Sting.
The Giant wasn’t having that and pulled the rug from underneath Hogan, by pulling him from underneath the ring and attacking the Hulkster. Hogan and Giant battled outside of the ring and as Hogan had taken care of The Giant, Randy Savage eliminated One Man Gang. Hogan turned around to discover that his friend Randy Savage had been declared the winner and the new WCW World Heavyweight Champion. An irate Hogan pleaded his case that he was never truly eliminated but eventually calmed down and congratulated his other best friend forever Randy Savage on his big title victory….
Date: November 27th, 1995
Brand: WCW
City: Salem, Virginia
Rating: 2.5 (According to my research, the ratings for RAW and Nitro were virtually the same for the last two weeks! Spooky.)
Commentators: Eric Bischoff, Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Bobby Heenan
Johnny B Badd w/Diamond Doll vs DDP
I believe this was a non-title match as they had the TV title match at World War III. DDP getting another title shot the next night wouldn’t make sense but it was hard to figure out what the ring announcer was saying. If anyone is able to confirm whether this was a title match, please let me know.
This was the return match from World War III, where Badd defeated DDP to retain the TV title and gain the services of the Diamond Doll. Despite this, a devastated DDP came out and presented flowers to his former Diamond Doll. As he gave her the flowers, he delivered a cheap-shot to Badd to get the heat.
The Diamond Doll Kimberley was actually shown to not be totally disgusted at DDP but somewhat happy that DDP gave her flowers and thought about her. Nevertheless, she was somewhat confused. She inspected the flowers and discovered a chain within the flowers.
DDP hit the same tombstone slam he hit at World War III which caught me off guard. It was very hard to pay much attention to this one. Firstly, because we saw this match at Halloween Havoc and World War III and this one was just a TV version of those PPV matches. Secondly, because the camera was placed on Kimberley for the majority of the match and not on the action in the ring!
The finish saw DDP wanting Diamond Doll to throw him the chain. She was conflicted but eventually threw the chain underneath DDP’s legs. Badd grabbed the chain and clobbered DDP with it for the win. Badd got initially upset with what Diamond Doll did. He questioned whether she meant to throw it at him or at DDP. Diamond Doll simply responded by saying it didn’t matter as he won. Badd was like… OK, and then they were both happy!
So right now, Diamond Doll’s motives aren’t quite clear and it’s unclear where her affections lie…
Mean Gene Okerlund was with Jimmy Hart and Taskmaster. I would lose my mind about this considering the amount of times we’ve seen a Taskmaster and Jimmy Hart combo promo in the last month’s worth of WCW content, except that at least The Giant wasn’t out there. It was always a trio of Jimmy and Taskmaster cutting promos as Giant looked mean. As much as I love The Giant in that role, at least this was a change!
This was also not their usual spiel. Taskmaster questioned Jimmy’s motives and asked why Lex Luger was running with Sting? Taskmaster was upset that Luger let go of the submission after his victory against Randy Savage at World War III. If Luger hadn’t let go of the hold, Savage wouldn’t have won the title. Jimmy pleaded his case as Taskmaster’s first manager and that this was all part of a plan.
Cutie Suzuki and Mayumi Ozaki vs Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto w/Sonny Onoo
This was a rematch from their amazing World War III match. If you haven’t watched their World War III match, I implore you to go watch it on the WWE Network. It is a thing of beauty. This Nitro rematch… was ALSO a thing of a beauty.
Akira tried a sneak attack but she got double teamed with a double clothesline by the babyfaces. Bull tripped the good guys for the heat for her partner. Bull RAGDOLLED the living daylights out of Ozaki who was TINY in comparison. They repeated the elevated choke Hart Attack from World War III but Suzuki broke up the pin.
Ozaki hit a top rope bulldog. Suzuki hit another beautiful dragon suplex. Akira hit a fallaway slam. The fans went nuts as Bull attempted a top rope leg drop, all giddy with excitement! They did a screwy spot where Suzuki leapt on top of Bull’s shoulders and they just fell down face first! Then Ozaki and Suzuki did a double foot stomp together on Bull but only for a near fall.
Bull pulled out a double suplex on the babyfaces which the fans popped for. Akira hit a NAUGHTY looking powerbomb on Suzuki. I mean she almost lost her grip of Ozaki but she pulled it together and you just heard a big THUD and she got slammed onto the mat. Akira missed a spinning kick. There was miscommunication between the babyfaces and Akira capitalised with a Northern Lights suplex for a near fall. The action spilled onto the floor and this led to Akira trying a Molly Go Round (I know that’s what Molly Holly called it but it’s like a 450 seated senton from the top rope, if that makes sense) but crashing into Bull instead.
They hit a few more moves on each other and Akira eventually hit a Northern Lights Bomb for the pin. The fans were super into this and it was a good match. For four women who had not appeared on WCW television before, these fans ate up the action from the Japanese women. This was awesome.
Hulk Hogan vs Hugh Morrus
There isn’t really much to say about this match. Hogan beat up Hugh Morrus for the majority of the match. Hugh eventually got the heat. Hugh tried a moonsault but Hogan kicked out. Hogan hulked up. Hulk Hogan hit a big boot and a leg drop for the pin. That’s literally all you need to know about this match…
…..
….what more do you want me to say? It’s nearly 90% of all of Hulk Hogan’s matches in his career. He beats on his opponent, the heel gets the heat, Hulk hulks up and beats him. DONE.
I will say this about Hogan. I know this is stating the obvious but Hulk Hogan looked MASSIVE in this match. Hogan was always a tall guy. I think he was actually 6’8. He was in his casual clothes (casual for Hogan anyway) for the Giant and Sting matches he’s had in the last month and during the battle royal at World War III, we could barely see Hogan because of how messy that battle royal was. Here he was up against Hugh Morrus, with the announcers talking about the size of Hugh Morrus, and Hogan dwarfed in height and in broadness of the shoulders. He looked 10 feet tall.
Again, stating the obvious but he was really humongous in this match…
Mean Gene brought out the NEW WCW World Champion Randy Savage for an interview. Savage said he’s ecstatic about being the new champion and that means he’s the only world champion. He vowed to face everyone and he was about to talk about World War III when Hogan interrupted him.
This crybaby Hulk Hogan whined about the finish of the battle royal. Hogan even brought up (like I brought up in the World War III review) that his name is still on the name plate to which Savage replied that he was gonna get it changed!
Hogan then showed the clip from World War III and conveniently at the moment where Giant was going to pull Hogan from underneath the ropes, the clip went fuzzy. Hogan is losing his mind about this as Savage is saying that the clip didn’t show anything and he didn’t see anything. Then The Giant comes down to attack the the babyfaces.
The Giant chokeslams Randy Savage on the cement ramp. Keep in mind by the way, it was believed Savage was working with an injury (well not believed by Hogan if you listen to the opening promo he cut at World War III) and this guy is taking a chokeslam on the floor. Sting tried to make the save but Giant got his hands on the Stinger. Before he can do major damage, Hogan comes flying in with a chair.
He smacks him a few times in the back with a chair and they’re relatively hard hits. He knocks him out of the ring and even elbows a referee in the process. This crazy mad man Hogan continues to run wild with the chair. Then Hogan wants to get in some good chair shots to the head…
In what is a double-edged sword situation, Hogan hits Giant with the lightest chair shots to the head you could think of. He didn’t proper SWING it like Bradshaw would for example. He placed the chair in position and ran at The Giant with a chair to the head. While the fans may have cringed at how bad these chair shots were, these were not chair shots that were ever gonna cause a concussion or head trauma. It was the lightest chair shots you could think of and, I know this is a cliche, these chair shots could not hurt a fly.
Eventually, Sting backs Hogan off of The Giant. So I’m sitting here watching Sting watch out of his buddy. Watching out for his best friend forever Hulk Hogan, even after Hogan eliminated him from behind at World War III. Even when Hogan was accusing him of working with the Dungeon of Doom, Sting still was looking out for Hogan’s mental well-being as he did not want Hogan to make the same mistake Sting almost made against Flair. After all, Sting is a great friend. But ERIC BISCHOFF was sceptical about Sting backing Hogan off of The Giant, like he was protecting THE GIANT.
You know I’ve really tried to cope with Bischoff on commentary, but Bischoff is such an annoying presence on the commentary team. You’ve got three announcers as part of the Nitro team. You’ve got the babyface in Steve “Mongo” McMichael. You’ve got the heel in Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. So they’re polar opposites that are gonna argue with each other about the stars that they like. As the third man (pardon the foreshadowing) Bischoff should be the one that remains neutral.
This is not Eric Bischoff as part of the nWo as of yet (spoiler alert but Eric Bischoff was a part of the nWo). Bischoff, as a generic commentator, is spreading wildfire about this and that and trying his damnedest to make every babyface unlikable except Hulk Hogan. He made the comment about Randy Savage possibly screwing Hogan at World War III, Sting possibly siding with the Dungeon of Doom and Lex Luger possibly siding with the Dungeon of Doom. Granted the third thing happened with Luger but you should be trying to at least report the facts. Not spreading gossip like you’re one of these dirtsheets that you guys supposedly hate.
Bobby Heenan will play “devil’s advocate” and Mongo is supposed to be on the side of right. If you’re the play-by-play impartial one, don’t you go ranting and raving about the WWF. Don’t you go accusing people left and right of turning on Hulk Hogan. Don’t go out of your way to make somebody unlikable. That just degrades the status of these big stars.
He really winds me up nowadays but sadly, we’ve got YEARS of this to go with Bischoff. Buckle up.
Sting and Lex Luger vs Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman
Luger had a really bad night in this match. His timing was off for a number of spots. Luger and Sting ran wild early, minus an Arn Anderson spinebuster. Bobby said he’d never seen Luger and Sting as a tag team… with no memory of their match against Harlem Heat from a month ago.
At least Luger wasn’t going complete babyface on the heels, with the Total Package whipping out eye pokes and heel moves to work on the bad guys. Unsportman-like tactics used against his fellow heel. Sting had Arn locked on a Scorpion Deathlock. Brian tried to dive onto Sting to break it up but Luger accidentally sent Flyin’ Brian flying into Sting to inadvertently break it up. The heels got the heat. Luger and Pillman started fighting on the outside. Eventually, Sting rolled up Pillman for the pin.
All of a sudden, Ric Flair FLIES down to the ring at a speed very close to The Flash. I have no idea what it was but Flair in a jumper and slacks got down to the ring so fast. I wrote up the finish of the match and I looked away from the TV and when I looked back up, Flair was at the ring going to work on Luger!
The Horsemen laid out Luger, Sting and the referee during the scuffle. Flair locked on the Figure Four Leg Lock when Hogan came out for a third time during the night to make the save. Hogan then went for Luger but Sting made the save to stop him from attacking Luger. Sting and Hogan argued but eventually shook hands and got over it.
I understand, from a storyline perspective, why Hogan went after Luger. Hogan allowed Luger to fight beside him at Fall Brawl and then Luger turned on him at Halloween Havoc. It’s well established that Hogan does not trust Luger. Fine.
The Sting situation however somewhat baffles me. I get that because of his affiliation with Luger, the good guys did not 100% trust Sting. Savage even accused Sting of working with the Dungeon of Doom on Episode #2. Sting and Hogan eventually settled their differences in the ring, they worked together at the end of last week’s episode of Nitro and then they’re friends again at the start of World War III.
Hogan even flat out said that Sting’s relationship with Luger doesn’t matter any more. He will never ever doubt Sting again.
Even after Hogan eliminated him from behind at World War III, Sting came out to rescue Hogan against The Giant on this episode and tried to talk some sense into him. After Sting is such an exceptional friend to Hogan, Hogan goes off on Sting about Sting protecting his friend Lex Luger.
After the two babyfaces bury the hatchet, they’re back to bickering at each other about where Sting’s loyalties lie. If Hogan hadn’t been a complete dick in recent weeks on Nitro, I probably wouldn’t have minded this. However, as a fan, why would I possibly get behind Hogan in this feud and why would I have any reason to not trust Sting?
It’s still gonna be at least 6 months of Hogan as a babyface so I don’t think this was planting the seeds of Hogan’s heel turn at Bash At The Beach. Because Eric Bischoff and Mongo after both on Hogan’s side and Bobby still hates Hogan. In their mind, Hogan is absolutely in the right with this issue with Sting and STING is the asshole just because he’s friends with Lex Luger.
What a bubble these guys live in.
That was Nitro everybody. Some mixed feelings about a number of segments on this show. There was some exceptional wrestling that was, I guess overshadowed, by crybaby Hogan who is such a horrible friend to Sting and Randy Savage. Bash At The Beach 1996 cannot come soon enough!
We’ll see you all with Episode #14 of Nitro. I don’t think they plugged anything for Nitro. They did plug a special Starrcade announcement for WCW Saturday Night which I assume will be mentioned on Nitro. Nevertheless, we’re on the road Starrcade!
The Armbar Express 