RETRO EXPRESS: WCW NITRO #65 (DECEMBER 9TH 1996) – “ROWDY” RODDY PIPER AND FOUR HORSEMEN TAKE FIGHT TO NWO IN NORTH CAROLINA

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.

It’s time for WCW Monday Nitro in Charlotte, North Carolina which was typically a big city for WCW. This show in particular felt like a big show with the returns of Rowdy Roddy Piper, Ric Flair and Kevin Greene in “Horsemen country”. This was also the first time in a long time where the New World Order was mostly hated by the fans. They booed the heels of the nWo and cheered for the heroes of WCW as intended during this show. It just felt like the stars were aligned for a big WCW day where they can get the upper-hand on the heels for a change.

The crowd was hot, the big segments were hot and there were fabulous promos up and down the show. There were good matches baked in with some horrible matches which is typical WCW at this point. There was hardly any follow up on the big Sting angle from last week so it’s not really worth me doing a recap of that show. That show felt like filler when compared to this show.

 

Date: December 9th 1996

Brand: WCW

City: Charlotte, North Carolina

Rating: 3.3

Commentators (First Hour): Tony Schiavonie and Larry Zbyszko

Commentators (Second Hour): Tony Schiavonie, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

Rowdy Roddy Piper started off the show with a long promo to set up the rest of Nitro. This felt so strange because this was indeed a change to the formula of these Nitros. Usually they would cut to the announcers for a brief intro and then go right into the action. Instead, we just cut to Piper coming out as if this was modern day WWE. I groaned because I watched this kind of stuff on RAWs on a weekly basis for years growing up and it was so formulaic. On WCW in 1996, this was different.

Not only was it different, it actually worked in making you get invested in this program with Piper and Hogan. Piper was beloved in this area, he called out Hogan and there was the tease of a confrontation with Piper and the nWo later. Now granted, Hollywood Hogan didn’t come out even though Piper challenged him. However, Piper was such a good talker that it made you really want to see and Hogan fight at a pay-per-view. In other words, this was a money promo.

Piper was wearing a Carolina Panthers shirt, a day after they secured a place in the playoffs apparently. There was a massive reaction for Piper coming out. Piper said it was nice to be home. Even a dude in a nWo shirt was shown chanting “Rowdy” as he had come out. There were other nWo fans in the crowd which we’ll come to later.

It was a typical homecoming promo about North Carolina. He eventually switched gears to the New World Order. He mentioned a whole bunch of big guys in the nWo pounded on his leg at World War III which the fans booed. He hopped around on one leg. Piper said they wanted him to fight Hogan at Starrcade. He mentioned how he’s got 6 kids and he’s got to win this fight. There was massive “Hogan Sucks” chants in North Carolina. At least during this promo, they all loved Piper and hated the nWo.

He admitted he’s had some things he was ashamed. He said his son said maybe he shouldn’t go out and fight Hollywood Hogan as Hogan was younger. Piper went on a random tirade about how he ashamed that he boxed Mr T at WrestleMania and “they” wanted him to take a dive for Mr T. He said he doesn’t take a dive and he doesn’t do windows. He called it the most shameful thing he’s ever done. Piper said: “I’ll be damned if I take a dive for anybody anywhere.” They got a fan with a nWo country sign. He admitted that he doesn’t have a problem with nWo but he’s not with WCW as he’s Rowdy Roddy Piper. He made fun of the nWo all wearing leather but with no women. He said Hogan has been in the lead for years and is truly a superstar. He’s not taking this fight lightly. Piper called out Hogan for a fight right now…. and then Piper left the ring! Mixed messages! “I wanna fight Hogan now but I’ll see you later guys!” Then the segment ended.

This was an absolutely solid promo from Piper. The Mr T stuff was odd but the idea I guess was he’s not gonna follow an agenda and he’s his own man which is not a bad angle to go with here. As a means to make me wanna see this fight, Piper did his job fabulously. It was long but if there was anyone that could make a long opening promo work like this, it was Hot Rod.

Last note, it’s funny Piper brought up that his son didn’t want him to fight Hogan because Hogan was younger than him. I can confirm that Hollywood Hogan was in fact OLDER than Rowdy Roddy Piper! It’s incredible that they played up Piper as this old man and battered veteran of wrestling and Hogan is apparently this cool hipster youngster in response! It’s an amazing dichotomy.

 

Mike Enos vs M. Wallstreet

WCW had to be daring the fans to turn over to RAW at this point. Wallstreet vs Enos was your opening match for a big episode of Monday Nitro? Remember when the whole point of an opening match was to get your excited for the rest of this show? WCW’s idea was to put on Enos vs Wallstreet. Take out the fact that it’s Mike Enos vs M. Wallstreet, two heel unpopular wrestlers started off this “hot” show and they put together a horrible short match.

Tony Schiavonie said this was gonna be a great match-up… HA. Wallstreet did a fireman’s carry slam. The nWo’s Ted DiBiase walked out. Enos threw a horrible clothesline at Wallstreet. Enos did a powerslam which Larry Zbyszko claimed was “a good snap”. Ted had a contract in his hands which Enos appeared to like. Wallstreet took advantage and hit a Samoan Drop for the win. Bad match.

DiBiase handed the contract to Wallstreet, which made sense as DiBiase and Wallstreet had worked together in the WWF previously with Wallstreet being I.R.S.. It make sense that DiBiase had hired help that he could trust and did business with in the past. With that being said, Larry I think brought up a point on commentary that Wallstreet already had money. I guess with the nWo, he could improve his financial wellbeing even more. You could never have too much money in wrestling and the IRS can be a valuable ally to some people! So I wasn’t that bothered by the motivations of Wallstreet.

This also felt like the first time we’ve seen Ted DiBiase since the Nitro where Eric Bischoff turned heel.

 

There was a video with Woman and Chris Benoit from WCW Saturday Night. I’ve seen this video before and this was another bit of bad taste this feud is putting into my mouth. Woman said she was a woman of her word when she said if Taskmaster kicked “him” (Benoit) one more time it was over, referencing the “Baltimore incident” that we covered last week. Woman talked about how women have rights and they could vote. Woman said she could do what she wanted and when she wanted to do it. I had no idea if Woman was supposed to be a babyface or a heel but more on that later.

Benoit said he made no mistake. He talked about being the best chess player in this game and finishes by saying: “my bishop takes your queen. Checkmate.” A morally confusing line but it was a great line from Benoit. They drunk wine together and this was shown to Taskmaster who walked away. Again, more on this later….

 

Hugh Morrus vs The Renegade w/Joe Gomes

“Dear god, where are all the good talent at?” was my first note when I realised this match was happening. It was almost as if WCW weren’t aware there was a Monday Night War going on or they didn’t care! Hugh Morrus vs The Renegade to follow-up a “riveting match” between Wallstreet and Mike Enos. This match was also no good just like the opener.

Renegade did a hip toss. Hugh did a spin wheel kick. Renegade did a powerslam. Hugh started no selling punches which led to Renegade just punching him down! It’s not even like when Sting would no-sell punches and start firing back with punches of his own and make a comeback. Hugh started no-selling Renegade’s offense and got punched down anyway by Renegade!

Renegade did a cartwheel elbow smash. Hugh reversed a bulldog into a belly to back suplex which was not a bad spot. Hugh did the moonsault off the rope and got the clean pin which Tony claimed was called the “No Laughing Matter”. He tried another one but Joe moved Renegade out of the way.

No good’s an apt way to describe this match. I won’t say this was bad but it certainly was not good.

Taskmaster walked down and grabbed the mic. He said he just saw that video WCW played on WCW Saturday night. He understood this was a ratings game but asked why they didn’t ask Taskmaster about playing the video? He talked about having a personal life. He doesn’t care about ratings and he demanded they give it to him first next time.

This was another crazy dichotomy which will be my word of the review. Woman cut what appeared to be an equal rights female promo about how women have rights and Taskmaster can’t tell her what to do. Chris Benoit is cutting a promo about taking Taskmaster’s wife and he’s bragging about taking “his queen.” Taskmaster, who was an evil villain that raised monsters to fight Hulk Hogan, is suddenly a sympathetic, cheated-on husband where he’s talking about his personal life. It’s just… bonkers.

I think Woman and Benoit are supposed to be babyfaces even thought they’re doing something morally wrong. They’re flirting together and cutting this promo into a camera towards Sullivan about how Benoit took his queen. I think Taskmaster is supposed to still be a heel even though his woman cheated on him with another man. If the angle was that Benoit was rescuing Woman from Kevin Sullivan, then that’s fine. I mean nothing about this storyline was particular fine when you know the destination of pretty much everybody involved.

The point is, you can do a storyline where a woman leaves her man to be with someone else who treats her like a human being rather than property. If the storyline was strictly that Benoit was trying to save Woman from Kevin Sullivan, that’d be one thing. However, Benoit is cutting a promo about “taking Taskmaster’s queen” I guess because he’s still a Horsemen even though the Horsemen are good guys right now. It’s totally screwed up. Because Benoit is bragging about this and Woman is flaunting her affairs on television directly to her ex-husband, it makes Benoit and Woman come off as the bad guys expect there’s nothing good guy about Taskmaster who is coming off as a control freak.

Is this a terrible storyline? Yes and no. The storyline they are trying to tell isn’t terrible although it’s terrible because of the long-term implications in real life for everybody. The issue I have with this storyline is there was nobody to root for in any of this. At least when Kimberly left DDP to be with Johnny B Badd in an earlier storyline as we’ve covered, Johnny saved Kimberley from DDP who was a kayfabe horrible person at the time. Kimberley was shown to be happier and the aresehole heel got what he deserved. This storyline doesn’t tell that story. We’ve got these crazy love triangle where none of them come off as justified in their actions. That’s my speech about this Chris Benoit, Woman and Taskmaster storyline.

Mean Gene Okerlund interviewed #91 for the Carolina Panthers, Kevin Greene. Greene was well-beloved as expected by this crowd. The Panthers team was doing great and he was a part of that so hometown pride was on full display here!

Greene talked about Steve “Mongo” McMichael being a foe, referencing to when Mongo betrayed him at The Great American Bash. He said the Panthers were gonna kick a lot of ass and he was gonna come after Mongo. He told everyone that the Panthers were gonna surprise some people and they did that. He said the nWo was a bunch of crap. Greene had a line I loved where he said: “If I ever get a hold of Hogan he’s gonna be called Choking Hogan because he’s gonna be choking when I shove my fist down his throat!” This was a pretty solid promo. G

reene being allowed to cut this promo about he’s gonna kick Hogan’s ass. Kevin Greene, each time he’s on WCW, demonstrates so much charisma even though he’s not a wrestler but he was just allowed to have a good time and be a hero in his hometown. This was solid television for a few minutes!

 

Dean Malenko © vs Jimmy Graffiti for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship

I didn’t like this match, mostly due to Jimmy Garffiti. This guy got so blown up that it became such a chore and struggle for Malenko to carry him through this match.

The Ultimate Dragon was now just Ultimo Dragon as they mentioned on commentary. Dean and Jimmy wrestled for a bit. Dean eventually clotheslined him down. Larry called “real men” an endangered species in the 1990s. Sonny Onoo came out after the break and kept distracting Dean.

Jimmy did a belly to back suplex. Grafitti headbutted Dean in the gut a few times but Dean eventually slammed him with a back suplex of his own. Graffiti seemed to be gassed as he got Dean on his shoulders and damn near killed Malenko dropping him on the guard rail.

Dean hit a superplex. Grafitti did the most sloppy looking super kick ever. Vince McMahon could have a pulled off a better super kick than this guy. Grafitti hit a powerbomb. Dean hit a powerbomb of his own for a 2 count. Malenko reversed a suplex into a small package for the win which was a pretty well executed spot.

Dean did the best he could but Grafitti was just not able to keep up with him on this night. However, although this is not saying much, this was the best match on the show by this point.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was Jimmy Graffiti’s last appearance on WCW Monday Nitro. He had a match on WCW Saturday Night against Chris Jericho just over a week later. He was forced to retire from a knee injury in 1997. He died of a heart attack in 2014.

 

Mean Gene interviewed Sonny Onoo. Sonny lost his accent for a bit and Mean Gene called him out on him. Sonny brought this up and he talked about how great America is and you can stay home and get money in this country. He said Ultimo Dragon was gonna destroy the wannabe Dean Malenko. Mean Gene said you know what you can do with the camera? After a brief pause, Mean Gene follows this up with: “I’ll tell you in just a second.” I felt this was great. Mean Gene berating heel managers is never not funny on Nitros!

 

“The Nasty Boys” Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags vs “Faces of Fear” The Barbarian and Meng w/Jimmy Hart

What a load of crap this match was. An absolutely cluttered mess. This was a vintage Nasty Boys match in the sense that they just seemed to do what they want. They got blown up. It looked horrible and it provided nothing positive in this tag team division which is looking miserable right now. The tag team division’s saving grace is that the champions The Outsiders are so over that all of this is kinda irrelevant as long as they remain over as the champions.

The team started fighting. The Nastys did a double shoulder tackle. The Outsiders came out with the belts as they watched on. The fans all reacted. Some boos, a lot of cheers but everyone was making noise for Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

Sags did a horrible looking World’s Strongest Slam. Sags did a leg drop. Barbarian hit Sags with a chair which was not a disqualification. A favourite spot of mine was Barbarian grabbing the arms of Jerry Sags and then Meng slapping Sags’s belly repeatedly! That I enjoyed!

Meng used the chair as the referee’s back turned apparently to all of this. The referee had his back to the action for a solid minute and a half. Imagine if during a UFC fight, referee Herb Dean just distracted himself with the corner men for 90 seconds while the fighters just did whatever they wanted? Then he turns around and he just had to pretend like nothing happened? This referee didn’t hear loud chair shots that the fans clearly reacted to.

That’s one of my most hated things about wrestling. I know the explanation in wrestling is that the referee cannot call what they cannot see but shouldn’t referee do his best to watch everything that’s going on? This referee has his back turned to the other competitors who are just outside doing whatever they wanted. It makes the referees look so incompetent, it makes the rules seem irrelevant and it doesn’t look authentic as a “sport” or something competitive.

Never mind sports. Imagine if in a game of Countdown, Susie Dent in Dictionary Corner just started showing some of the contestants the answers while everyone’s backs was turned. Would this not count as cheating as the judges can only judge based on what they see? This rule is absolutely moronic in wrestling and I hate it.

Barbarian missed a big top rope splash. Sags got the hot tag I think. Everybody started fighting. Knobbs hit a middle rope diving clothesline which I was stunned he was able to do. Knobbs did a top rope splash but the referee was following Sags out of the ring. The referee just left the ring to follow other action not including the legal men in the match! Knobbs grabbed Jimmy. Then Jimmy tired to hit Knobbs with the megaphone but hit Barbarian instead. Jimmy got thrown to the outside. I think Barbarian hit Knobbs with a megaphone and won.

This was some of the dirt worst of wrestling. I feel I say that for every Nasty Boys match but the word wrestling doesn’t even apply here. These dudes just brawled and brawled. The brawling from the Nasty Boys looked miserable because they were blown up. Thank god that Dean Malenko was there to provide some “decent” wrestling I guess. Everything on this show up until this point, in the wrestling department, was misery.

All I could think was that the Outsiders was standing on the ramp watching the match. What were the Outsiders thinking when they were watching this? “Thank god we’re wrestling the Faces of Fear?” Wrestling the likes of Meng sounded like a picnic compared to having to wrestle the Nasty Boys. You’d probably get beat up but at least you’d be wrestling someone decent in the ring as opposed to the just doing blatant and miserable-looking brawling.

Mean Gene interviewed hometown boy Ric Flair coming out to Four Horsemen music. Ric bowed down to Kevin Greene. Ric said he may not like him “brother” but he was the man. That’s always something about Ric Flair which I always loved. If Hulk Hogan used the word “brother” more than anyone in wrestling, then Ric Flair was second on that list of “brother usage” in promos. In literally every other promo, he dropped the word “brother”. Here, he’s taking about how he doesn’t like Greene but he’s the man and calls him a brother! Even his biggest enemies he will call brother as just a wrestling thing! That is something that only Ric Flair could pull off!

Ric wanted Piper to come out to a great Charlotte welcome. Piper came out and the two hugged. Ric said Piper was truly an icon to the sport of professional wrestling. He said Piper came to Charlotte in 1981 in a greyhound bus but 3 weeks later, after travelling with Flair, there were women all over calling him Hot Rod! He put over Piper like a million bucks while he’s out there with him! He called Piper a big time player as Piper was just laughing his ass off at this promo.

Flair said Hogan sucked. This felt like a child learning to swear for the first time. Because afterwords, Flair just kept repeating: “Hogan sucks” because he had the opportunity to says the word “sucks” as much as he likes now as they’re leaning towards more crash television! Ric said Piper was here to rectify the situation and whatever he needed, it was his with the Four Horsemen. He wanted to see Piper kick Hogan’s ass brother.

Piper was just howling during this promo. Piper said they don’t come no finer than Ric Flair. Piper said this was his last shot. Piper said they’re calling  him a gimp and he appreciated Flair’s assistance, but he doesn’t want anyone’s help. If he can’t do it by himself, he won’t be able to live with himself. They all left. This was absolutely fabulous. Every moment of that promo was such a joy. Piper looked like he was having the time of his life. Ric was going nuts putting over Piper. The fans were going nuts. This is true professional wrestling in the sense that you had two larger than life personalities out there cutting promos, putting each other and themselves over and being wacky enjoying themselves! This was tremendous.

 

Bobby Eaton vs Chris Jericho

A very short match. Jericho hit a lionsault for a 2 count which felt so weird against Bobby Eaton of all people. Jericho hit this move as just a regular move in his arsenal when it would become almost a finisher for him in the WWE. Actually, I’m pretty sure the Lionsault was the move he hit when he “beat” Triple H for the WWF title on a historic episode of RAW in 2000!

Eaton dropped Jericho with an electric chair drop. Eaton missed an “Alabama Jam” leg drop from the top rope. Jericho did a super kick and a top rope dropkick for the clean victory. I would have liked for them to get more time to see what they can really do together.

Jericho cut a insert promo saying he’s not done with Nick Patrick. The announcers hyped up Jericho as becoming a superstar some day and… they were pretty much spot on with that prediction!

 

They recapped Sting dropping Rick Steiner a few weeks ago and then what happened last week, when Rick and Sting had their fight,

Mean Gene interviewed the Steiner Brothers. Rick said the Steiners are sick of waiting to see what’s Sting was gonna do next. Scott said we’re waiting on you. Scott looked massive during this promo. His left arm looked absolutely massive as physically he’s on his way to becoming Big Poppa Pump.

 

Sgt Craig Pittman vs Arn Anderson w/Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Debra McMichael

Lex Luger vs The Giant was booked for Starrcade. Pittman appeared to randomly be a heel again although it was never particularly explained why. They just mentioned a change in attitude as announcers are prone to do when someone turns heel. Taskmaster called out Arn during an insert promo and said Arn and him were gonna heat up his life next week. What a weird way to put it. Arn and Taskmaster are gonna “heat up his life” by having a wrestling match?… OK.

Arn and Pittman wrestled and then Arn knelt down in the corner to ask STEVE MCMICHAEL for advice on wrestling! Unreal!

Arn wrapped Pittman’s leg around the ring post. Pittman went for the code red armbreaker but Arn got the ropes with his legs. Mongo hit Pittman with a briefcase as the ref was distracted with Debra. Arn hit the DDT for the win. A nothing match which only led up to the Horsemen cheating anyway.

 

Mean Gene interviewed Arn, Mongo and Debra. Arn talked about Benoit being in Germany but where is Woman… did you not hear the promo from WCW Saturday Night? I thought it was abundantly clear that Woman was still in Germany WITH BENOIT as they are cheating on Taskmaster!

Debra screeched about telling Arn about “this tramp” and girls in the beauty pageant for some reason. She talked about being the most powerful horsemen because she was the most beautiful or something. Mongo cut a promo about Arn beaten Pittman all by himself. I actually liked that line because if the heel contradicted himself, it’s even better. Mongo knew full well he helped Arn win but still put over Arn by saying he did it by himself! Arn told Benoit to come home and he had a bone to pick with Woman.

 

Diamond Dallas Page vs Jeff Jarrett in the first round of the United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament

OK, so allow me to quickly explain the bracket for this tournament. We’ve never seen the bracket so I had to Google what was going on with this bracket because this really confused me. They claimed Diamond Dallas Page vs Jeff Jarrett was the semi-final of this tournament. I thought this was bullshit because I seemed to recall three first round matches on Nitro already for this tournament, which neither DDP or Jeff Jarrett was apart of. Therefore, how was it possible that this was semi-final featured Page and Jeff?

I had to look this up and this wasn’t TECHNICALLY a semi-final match but this was treated as a semi-final match. On one side of the bracket, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero both qualified and will face each other later in their semi-final match. The other side of the bracket saw Arn Anderson and Lex Luger both eliminated following a double count out and this match with Page and Jarrett. Therefore, whoever won this first round match would proceed to the final and get a bye past the semi-final because of double count-out. Only problem? They never explained any of this. I had to look this up! If you were watching at the time, this would have taken you completely off guard. If they could have just shown a bracket at any time during this tournament, it would have made it a lot easier for fans to keep up with what was going on.

As a match, this was actually a pretty good match. You’ve got DDP who was a heel but becoming a fan favourite and Jeff Jarrett who was a babyface but hated by the fans. Therefore, why not switch it up? Jeff was playing the heel and DDP was the babyface in this match. It worked and it played into the finish really well which we’ll get to.

DDP did a back suplex. DDP did slick look tilt-a-whirl side slam. Jarrett knocked DDP down with the enziguri. Jeff did the Flair strut and the fans booed which Tony actually acknowledged.

DDP did a sunset flip for a 2 count with Jeff exploding out of it with a clothesline. Jeff did a fist drop. DDP tried a small package. DDP tried to fight back but Jeff dropped him with a face slam. Jeff continued to get the heat. Jeff tried a sleeper hold with DDP fighting back to his feet. DDP hit a big lariat to a big pop.

DDP ran wild with some punches. DDP did a flying lariat. The Outsiders showed up to distract Jeff. As Jeff got on the middle rope, Hall grabbed him and dropped him with the Outsiders Edge as DDP capitalised with the pin.

I would have preferred that DDP got the clean pin but this progressed the DDP/nWo storyline, because DDP was unaware of the Outsiders interfering, so I’ve got no problem with it. This was a fine main-event match for this episode of Nitro although there is more to come.

 

Mean Gene interviewed DDP. He said he doesn’t need the Outsiders as he has the mostly deadly finisher with the Diamond Cutter in his arsenal. He told the Outsiders to do their thing while he does his. DDP brought up being most improved wrestler in the PWI which I was stunned that WCW actually acknowledged on air! DDP talked about being with a girl and he would tell the broad to stop calling him, so he told the Outsiders to stop calling him. He said nobody wanted the US title more than DDP.

Taking into account Piper’s promo, talking about how there’s no women with the nWo (except Elizabeth I guess), Ric Flair’s comments and DDP comparing the nWo to a “broad” that won’t stop calling him, this was quite an attempt to get the fans to turn on the nWo! They did everything in their power to get the fans to think the nWo was uncool and this strategy worked in North Carolina!

It was supposed to be Rick Steiner vs Scott Norton as the main-event. Instead, Rowdy Roddy Piper came out walking “with a purpose” as the announcers said. Piper grabbed a chair and sat down on it. He said the time for talking is over and it’s time to do some fighting. Piper told Hogan to get his “big bum” out of here. Eric Bischoff showed up instead of Hogan.

Piper rocked his chair back and forth and growled as Bischoff sauntered his way down to the ring. Piper threw trash at Bischoff. Piper slapped Bischoff on the ass and told him to get Hogan. I love the irony of Piper calling out the nWo for not having any women with them earlier and here, he’s slapping Bischoff’s ass and wearing a skirt. With this in mind, I’m not exactly sure what Piper was trying to imply with that earlier promo.

Eric Bischoff said the nWo was not here. Eric claimed he was Piper’s friend as he tried to protect Piper from himself by keeping him away from WCW. Bischoff circled Piper as he was cutting this promo. Bischoff said the 14 inch pythons are gonna crush him. Eric called Piper a gimp and walked with a pretend limp. Piper smacked Bischoff on the back of the head which the fans buzzed over. Piper grabbed a chair but the nWo surrounded the ring.

Piper kept kicking at Bischoff as the fans are going NUTS FOR THIS. Kevin Greene came out to help Piper as the fans are going even more crazy for this. Piper was just kicking away at Bischoff whenever he could during this! The nWo did the two sweet and left.

They showed an “after show exclusive” on the WWE Network as Mongo and Arn both come out and kick away the Outsiders. THE GOOD GUYS WINNING IN THE HOMETOWN OF NORTH CAROLINA! Bischoff held his head as was led to the back. Nash told them to suck it as the nWo and WCW had a showdown. DiBiase watched on as the nWo fell back. Piper and Arn hugged as WCW win the day! I was hoping Greene was gonna clothesline Mongo or something to play into that storyline. That didn’t happen but Greene did point at Mongo saying he had something for him. So at least this was not a complete derailment of that storyline!

I enjoyed this episode of Nitro. Not majorly great on the wrestling side of things but the non-wrestling segments involving Piper, the nWo and the interviews were all real slam=dunks. It made it seem like a hot wrestling show even if the matches weren’t so hot. The main-event match was good and this was a show where the crowd more than anyone made the show great. If this was just a regular crowd, it probably wouldn’t have worked. In North Carolina, this WORKED. This show gets a thumbs up from me!

 

WCW Nitro Reading Order

• #1 – September 4th 1995
• #2 – September 11th 1995
• WCW Fall Brawl 1995 – September 17th 1995
• #3 – September 18th 1995
• #4 – September 25th 1995
• #5 – October 2nd 1995
• #6 – October 9th 1995
• #7 – October 16th 1995
• #8 – October 23rd 1995
• WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 – October 29th 1995
• #9 – October 30th 1995
• #10 – November 6th 1995
• #11 – November 13th 1995
• #12 – November 20th 1995
• WCW World War III 1995 – November 26th 1995
• #13 – November 27th 1995
• #14 – December 4th 1995
• #15 – December 11th 1995
• #16 – December 18th 1995
• #17 – December 25th 1995
• WCW Starrcade 1995 – December 27th 1995
• #18 – January 1st 1996
• #19 – January 8th 1996
• #20 – January 15th 1996
• #21 – January 22nd 1996
• #22 – January 29th 1996
• #23 – February 5th 1996
• WCW Superbrawl VI – February 11th 1996
• #24 – February 12th 1996
• #25 – February 19th 1996
• #26 – February 26th 1996
• #27 – March 11th 1996
• #28 – March 18th 1996
• WCW Uncensored 1996 – March 24th 1996
• #29 – March 25th 1996
• #30 – April 1st 1996
• #31 – April 15th 1996
• #32 – April 22nd 1996
• #33 – April 29th 1996
• #34 – May 6th 1996 (Nitro)/May 6th 1996 (RAW)
• #35 – May 13th 1996
• WCW Slamboree 1996 – May 19th 1996
• #36 – May 20th 1996
• #37 – May 27th 1996
• #38 – June 3rd 1996
• #39 – June 10th 1996
• WCW The Great American Bash 1996 – June 16th 1996
• #40 – June 17th 1996
• #41 – June 24th 1996
• #42 – July 1st 1996
• WCW Bash At The Beach 1996 – July 7th 1996
• #43 – July 8th 1996
• #44 – July 15th 1996
• #45 – July 22nd 1996
• #46 – July 29th 1996
• #47 – August 5th 1996
• WCW Hog Wild 1996 – August 10th 1996
• #48 – August 12th 1996
• WCW Clash of the Champions #33 – Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair
• #49 – August 19th 1996
• #50 – August 26th 1996
• #51 – September 2nd 1996
• #52 – September 9th 1996
• WCW Fall Brawl 1996 – September 15th 1996
• #53 – September 16th 1996
• #54 – September 23rd 1996
• #55 – September 30th 1996
• #56 – October 7th 1996
• #57 – October 14th 1996
• #58 – October 21st 1996
• WCW Slim Jim’s Halloween Havoc 1996 – October 27th 1996
• #59 – October 28th 1996
• #60 – November 4th 1996 (Nitro)/November 4th 1996 (RAW)
• #61 – November 11th 1996
• #62 – November 18th 1996
• WCW World War III 1996 – November 24th 1996
• #63 – November 25th 1996
• #64 – December 2nd 1996

RETRO EXPRESS: WCW NITRO #64 (DECEMBER 2ND 1996) – STING VS RICK STEINER

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.

The countdown has begun. On the night after World War III, the nWo’s Eric Bischoff gave all of WCW an ultimatum. He told the WCW roster to convert their contracts to nWo contracts in 30 days as if you’re not with the nWo, you were against them. Marcus Bagwell of the American Males was the first man to take up the offer, unbeknownst to his tag team partner Scotty Riggs. Bagwell solidified his heel turn by taking out Riggs as the nWo is about to have a massive surge of new members.

 

This episode of WCW Monday Nitro I had no problem with. This was a Nitro featuring a lot of squash matches which I at least appreciate, because those matches were designed to put people over. We had people beating people who no real shenanigans involved. Even if there was, this week they were pulled off really well. Sting vs Rick Steiner was somewhat confusing and a disappointing pay-off to Sting being in the ring for the first time since Fall Brawl. The Outsiders were funny on commentary for the second hour and there was some good matches in the middle of this. I enjoyed this episode a lot more than last week.

There was also ELEVEN MATCHES so I think this is something we should appreciate while it is here. In a few years, we’re gonna be watching Nitros with hardly any matches at all in the span of three hour wrestling shows. 11 matches in two hours will feel like a pay-per-view compared to Nitros we’ve got coming up, especially in the Russo era.

 

Date: December 2nd 1996

Brand: WCW

City: Daytona, Ohio

Rating: 3.4

Commentators (First Hour): Tony Schiavonie and Larry Zbyszko

Commentators (Second Hour): Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (More on this later…)

 

The Steiner Brothers interrupted the announcers as the show started. Scott Steiner had returned as he had previously been injured. He may still have been injured although he said he was here to have Rick Steiner’s back. Scott yelled that he considered Sting a friend. Scott saw what Sting did to Rick and he’s here tonight to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Rick said he’s gonna make sure it’s over and called Sting out. They recapped what happened last weeklast week with Rick and Sting as Sting laid out Rick with the Scorpion Death Drop. A short but sweet promo. They came out, took a minute or two to call out Sting and why they were calling out Sting, made their point and then they left. Simple build that got the ball-rolling with this episode-long storyline between Sting and the Steiner Brothers. They didn’t need a boring 20 minute promo. They got the job done in about three minutes.

 

Glacier vs Hardbody Harrison

We had THE RETURN OF GLACIER. After all of this time and the five months or so building up this guy, Glacier arrived and then he was off television again for a month or so! Larry alluded to “some type of training” which I’m assuming was the WCW Power Plant! Anyway, so our favourite martial artist was back with a new Glacier theme song this week.

Hardbody cheap-shotted Glacier as he bowed to the referee. Glacier took him down and then unloaded with kicks and facepalm chops to the chest. Glacier did a leg sweep. Glaicer did a roundhouse kick and got the pin.

It was strange because as we covered the WWF moved RAW an hour earlier to go head-to-head with Nitro’s first hour. Because of this, we saw a lot more big angles happen in the first hour to counter RAW. Eric Bischoff’s big angle happened in the first hour last week as well as Lex Luger vs Arn Anderson. This week’s opening match on Nitro was GLACIER VS HARDBODY HARRISON! I’m guessing WCW didn’t care about the ratings this week!

Even with this, Nitro still crushed RAW 3.4 to 2.3 in the ratings of this week.

 

Renegade and Joe Gomez vs “The Amazing French Canadians” Jacques Rougeau and Carl Ouelett w/Col Robert Parker

To follow up such stars like Glacier, they had Joe Gomez and Renegade in tag team action against the Amazing French Canadians! The match itself was pretty sloppy. Renegade really had a bad night in particular. He and Gomez came out to massive boos.

The Canadians threw Gomez over the top rope while the referees back was turned and Parker then got some kicks in. Tony said he threw his cigar at Gomez as well. The Canadians did a double STO.

The Canadians got the heat on the faces. Renegade made the save and then made his own hot tag. There were some horrible spots on display. These lads were on different pages for such things like clotheslines. Renegade did a cartwheel elbow smash. The Canadians regained control with a clothesline by Jacques. Jacques did a piledriver. The Canadians did the elevated senton for the victory. A second clean victory on this episode of Nitro.

 

Mean Gen Okerlunde interviewed Arn Anderson. Mean Gene asked about Rowdy Roddy Piper. Arn talked about the perception of Hogan that Piper couldn’t beat him but reminded everyone that Arn himself beat Hogan two weeks in a row on Nitro which is true. He said Ric claimed the toughest fight in his life was with Piper. Arn talked about the hearts and the guts of Piper. Arn said he didn’t see fear and he saw a man focused. He said the nWo took their best shot at World War III but that gave Piper an edge.

Arn said anything that comes to Hogan now is called a “receipt”. Arn claimed Piper is more man and he’s a better wrestler. He’s putting Piper over like crazy with this promo as big nWo chants break out in the background! Arn said you don’t a jump a dog in its own backyard and you don’t mess with family. He said the Four Horsemen had Piper’s back next week as next week’s show will be in North Carolina. He said North Carolina is not such a friendly place. This was a good promo at the end of the day but this crowd didn’t care for it. They all loved the nWo. Arn could have cut the greatest promo in the world and it didn’t matter to these fans as they were all about nWo and hated WCW.

 

“Faces of Fear” The Barbarian and Meng vs “The Scott and Roll Express” Robert Gibson and Scotty Riggs

You talk about a random tag team? Last week, Marcus Bagwell turned on American Males tag team partner Scotty Riggs. Riggs was back in tag team action as they barely mentioned the American Males breaking up on commentary. Riggs teamed up with ROBERT GIBSON of all people against the Faces of Fear. God bless them for trying but this team did not work in the slightest. They announced The Outsiders vs The Faces of Fear for Starrcade which actually sounded a lot of fun actually.

I love the spot in this match of Riggs having a wrist hold locked on to which Barbarian did a scoop slam but Riggs rolled through with the hold still applied. There were big Bagwell chants during the match from a very pro-nWo crowd. I love how the Faces of Fear did their backdrop powerbomb again and Barbarian almost lost his grip but he powered through, got Riggs up and slammed him down with a massive powerbomb. Fans popped big time for that big move. Barbarian did a tremendous job in saving the spot.

Faces of Fear beat up the good guys for a while. Meng did a piledriver. This was Riggs basically playing the roll of Ricky Morton during a Rock ‘N Roll Express match. Riggs tried a sunset flip, Barbarian remained standing and tried an arse drop but Riggs moved out of the way so Barbarian landed right on his backside.

Gibson got the hot tag as usual. When I say Robert Gibson did a the hot tag, this was one of the worst hot tags I’ve ever seen and this is from the man who personified “the hot tag” in wrestling. Gibson tried what appeared to be either a DDT or a neckbreaker while Barbarian was prepared for a sunset flip and they completely screwed up the spot. The finish was Barbarian do a big boot and pin Gibson. They made the babyfaces look like complete geeks. Riggs got beat up for 10 minutes, Gibson was in for 30 seconds and got big booted and pinned. What a useless tag team.

Riggs used the chair to attack the Faces of Fear after the match. This was also lame. Was there any need for Riggs and Gibson to get their heat back after the Faces of Fear destroyed them? The Faces of Fear are going for the tag titles. I guess they felt the need to give Scotty something after his partner turned on him last week. In actuality, it did jackshit for Scotty Riggs to get him over as he just spent 10 minutes getting destroyed. This was poor.

At World War III, they alluded to a fight that Chris Benoit and Taskmaster had in Baltimore but we’d not be shown what happened. They just mentioned something that happened in Baltimore. They finally showed what happened at Baltimore this week with Benoit and Taskmaster having a match. I guess this was a house show, where the return grudge match between Taskmaster and Benoit took place. It was bumped from the World War III show so they did it here.

Benoit looked like he beat the piss out of Taskmaster during the match. They fought in the crowd. Benoit took a bump landing face first down the steps which I encourage all aspiring wrestlers to never ever take. This looked incredibly nasty as he went downwards and looked like he let his face hit one of the steps.

The Dungeon of Doom kicked Benoit’s arse in the bathroom. The entire Dungeon of Doom kicked his arse in the ring but Woman stopped him. Woman attacked Taskmaster but she was held back as Taskmaster beat up her new man. This was the event that Woman alluded to during her promo last week.

 

Taskmaster vs KC Sunshine

I had to look up the name of the enhancement talent that Taskmaster was in the ring with this week because they never even mentioned his name. All I know was this guy looked like the straight-to-DVD version of Dolph Ziggler. This guy had long hair, zebra trunks and off cut off denim jacket. Therefore when Ziggler had that look in I think 2015, we know where he got the inspiration for that!

This went almost exactly like every Taskmaster squash match went. Taskmaster just beat his arse for a long time. He threw him out of the ring by the hair. Taskmaster attacked him with a chair. He continued to beat up this guy for a long time. A bottle of water got thrown at Sunshine’s head. No disqualification for any of this.

Taskmaster did the running knee to the tree of woe and a Double foot stomp for the three count and clean win. We are FOUR FOR FOUR on clean wins on this night.

I was stunned this match was not thrown out. Taskmaster threw a bottle of water at Sunshine’s head as a weapon. I mean technically this probably shouldn’t be a clean victory as Taskmaster used a weapon but this was not presented as a illegal move. The referee didn’t care what Taskmaster did. This was presented as a squash so therefore, this would be classed as a clean win.

 

Mean Gene interviewed Taskmaster. Taskmaster said he thought he was the greatest chess player to ever play this game. Taskmaster said Benoit hurt him mentally and right in his heart. Taskmaster said Mean Gene had his own problems in the past like this to which Mean Gene did not disagree with! Taskmaster said there’s a lot of Benoit in Taskmaster. He warned that this sweetness wears off and, with the curse of hindsight, Kevin Sullivan was never more on point than he was with that line.

Taskmaster said one of them would be buried alive. His closing line from this promo was that now the equation would equal three. I have no idea what that line meant or that was supposed to mean. With a lot of Taskmaster promos in the last few months during this storyline with Benoit, you can put the pieces together as to what he is suggesting and they’re not flat out telling you that Taskmaster was married to Woman and she had fallen for Benoit. However, while going out of his way to not outright tell us that is the storyline, Taskmaster was saying a lot of lines that really didn’t make sense. He tried too hard almost to blur the lines with this promo.

 

Dean Malenko © vs Billy Kidman for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship

Maybe I’m alone but I saw a pretty good match here. Kidman was still new but he sold like crazy for Malenko. The announcers read a letter from the WCW Committee which explained that Eric Bischoff did not have authority over the WCW title changes so at least that explained why the nWo’s The Giant was not just given the US title by Bischoff. The Giant was carrying the United States championship at this time but was never considered the champion. Eric had control but not control over who is the champion. WCW makes those decision which I’m guessing is why the Outsiders are defending their titles against Faces of Fear at Starrcade.

There was some great action as Kidman was competitive with Malenko for a while. Then Malenko killed Kidman with a powerbomb on the outside.

Sonny Onoo came out take photographs of what was going on as Tony remind3e him that you can get video cameras to film it. My suggestion was that alternatively, you could watch WCW Monday Nitro on television or DVR it! As it turned out, there was a reason for the camera which I guess played into the finish.

Dean did a naughty belly-to-back suplex. Dean did a jumping brainbuster which the fans popped for a big pop and a near fall. He held Kidman in the air for a long time and then Malenko jumped and came crashing down with another human being on his shoulders. Even as a cruiserweight, Malenko was still presented as a strong fellow. Kidman allowed himself to be powerbombed here and brainbustered there as Malenko looked like a legitimate champion.

Kidman started a comeback with a dropkick and northern lights suplex. Kidman reversed a powerbomb into a backslide. Malenko and Kidman kept reversing small packages for 2 counts. Dean did a superplex.

Sonny took a photo right in Malenko’s face which was apparently done to flash him right in the eyes. Kidman tried a shooting star press but Malenko got the knees up. Malenko tapped out Kidman with a Texas Cloverleaf. There was an shenanigans but Malenko still pushed through and won. It wasn’t like Malenko was completely beaten after the distraction spot. Malenko got over it, killed Kidman and retained the title clean. I enjoyed this.

I mean they didn’t need that spot with Sonny if Malenko was just gonna beat Kidman clean anyway but it wasn’t like it hurt Malenko either. It was just part of the Dean Malenko/Ultimo Dragon storyline as they’re hyping up a match for Starrcade.

 

Big Bubba w/Jimmy Hart vs Jeff Jarrett

This was very much the repeat of the match these two had a few months ago in Memphis and had the same finish too. It worked really well with that crowd and worked well here too.

Mike Tenay clarified that Piper was not representing WCW but WCW was still behind him. I guess that kind of explains away some of the ambiguity as to where Piper’s loyalties lie. I went on a tirade last week about WCW not making up their minds about if Piper, in storyline is “WCW” or not. Judging by that statement, Piper doesn’t consider himself WCW but the WCW guys consider him WCW as he’s fighting the New World Order. That’s all fine although that still does not quite explain why Eric Bischoff thinks he can fine Piper if Piper is not under contract with WCW.

Bubba caught Jarrett and did a powerslam. The match quickened up a little bit as Jarrett did a running DDT. Jeff stomped on Jimmy’s hand which allowed Bubba to get the heat. Jimmy got his revenge on Jeff by choking Jeff when the referee’s back was turned. Bubba accidentally clocked Jimmy in the face on the outside and Jimmy did fabulous facial expressions! Bubba had a great right hand and Jimmy sold for it beautifully!

Jarrett did a top rope crossbody. He tried a figure four leg lock but Bubba kicked him away. Bubba was thrown Jimmy’s megaphone, he tried to use it but Jeff moved. Jeff tried a roll up but Jimmy distracted the referee so Jeff only ended up getting a one count. Jeff dropkicked the megaphone into Bubba’s face to get the pinfall and win.

Almost exactly the same finish as the previous match between these two but you know what, it worked. You’ve got two guys who are dependable in that ring and they were successfully in carrying out a simple old-school match. It made Jeff look like a great babyface and Bubba and Jimmy looked like stupid heels which is what wrestling is all about. This gets a thumbs up!

I guess the clean victory streak ended here because there was all kinds of shenanigans and Jeff dropkicked a weapon into Bubba’s face.

 

The Steiner Brothers got in the ring. Rick called out to Sting and wanted him to show his face. Sting appeared up in the rafters. Rick yelled at him to fight him one on one. Sting nodded and apparently, accepted a challenge for tonight. Rick actually had a smile on his face as he got giddy at the thought of wrestling Sting. This would be Sting’s first wrestling match in since Fall Brawl 1996 where he walked out on WCW.

 

The nWo arrived as we were in hour two of Nitro. Eric Bischoff, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Syxx and Vincent were there as Nash chased off the announcers and the announcers bailed for their lives. Bischoff, Hall and Nash got on the headsets and took over commentary. Bischoff said they couldn’t miss Sting coming out to “punk” Steiner later. Bischoff said he’s trying to protect Piper from himself and talked about how that’s why he tried to keep Piper from WCW. They showed clips of Hogan beating up Vader a few years ago, the nWo jumping Ric Flair a few weeks ago and beating up Savage and spray-painting around his body as Elizabeth watched on. Bischoff told Piper to stay at home.

Yes, the nWo took over commentary for the rest of the show. The crack between Kevin Nash and Scott Hall in the second hour was some of the best commentary I’ve heard on a wrestling show in years (with the exception of Chris Jericho on AEW for example). Hall and Nash just had the time of their lives on commentary, being able to say whatever they felt like. Hall made some quality jokes throughout the night. They also did a good job in putting over the talent. Everyone of the wrestlers they wanted as members of the nWo in storyline so they put them over. They put them over way better than a lot of other announcers would have done. This was fun television for the last hour of the show, at least with commentary.

 

Squire Dave Taylor vs Eddie Guerrero

Taylor beat up Guerrero with some uppercuts as Hall and Nash talked about having some sushi. Nash and Hall talked about expanding to Europe and other areas in the world which is why they wanted Dave Taylor in the nWo!

Taylor ran wild with headscissors takeovers. Taylor locked on a standing Kimura. Eddie did a headscissors takeover but Taylor somehow landed right on his back coming down. Eddie hit a frog splash and got the clean pin.

By the way referee, Mark Curtis did a massive jump high in the air and came down to do the three count for Guerrero! I felt this was a short but fine match between Taylor and Guerrero.

 

Arn Anderson vs “Jumping” Jim Powers w/Teddy Long

Hall made a crack about North Carolina being the Queen City and Piper walking around in a skirt. It felt weird that Teddy Long was coming out to manage someone for a match and Nick Patrick was NOT the referee. Patrick’s not been on television ever since World War III where Chris Jericho beat him up in a match. Ironically, Chris Jericho has also been nowhere to be seen on television since the PPV either!

Arn worked on Powers, smashing away at Powers. Arn drove knees into the arm of Powers. I love how Eric Bischoff basically played the role of himself as announcer as he was previously on Nitros and Hall and Nash were there making cracks about almost every wrestler and even announcers like Dusty Rhodes and Larry Zybszko.

Powers made a comeback but Arn planted him with a DDT and got the clean pin. There was not much to this match other than a squash victory for Arn which was rare on Nitro. Arn did get clean wins in the past but this was a completely convincing victory. Powers got hardly anything for this match.

 

Chris Benoit vs Lord Steven Regal in the first round of the United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament

Some of my favourite moments of commentary during this match was when Hall and Nash were making jokes about Benoit being unable to go into bathrooms because of the beating the Dungeon of Doom put on him in a bathroom. They talked about how Benoit had to learn bladder control and “having the bladder of a gladiator!” I laughed.

Regal got busted open early on in the match. Regal and Benoit were just smacking each other back and forth during this match. They headbutted each other and face-palmed each other. This was the definition of “laying it in” as the old saying goes. There was a wide shot for the rest of this match where Nash explained that they were looking for Sting in the rafters and Regal just had an abdominal stretch locked on. It was explained to me after watching this that they did it because they didn’t want to show blood.

It was strange because this camera shot actually didn’t look half bad. There was a sense of rawness from just having one wide shot of the action. There wasn’t a 1000 cuts from so many angles. You saw the whole match and the fans watching on. It was different, I will give them credit. The Outsiders, while funny on commentary, did not make things any better by constantly making us aware of it!

Benoit fired back with a chop and a scoop slam. Benoit did a diving headbutt which Hall called out was reckless as it can hurt him too. Benoit and Regal kept reversing tombstones until Benoit dropped Regal who looked like he had hardly any grip. He had to trust Benoit with his life and thankfully, the move was pulled off fine.

Benoit tried a dive to the outside I think but Regal moved out of the way. Regal did a top rope butterfly suplex. Benoit did a German suplex. Benoit did a dragon suplex and scored the pin to advance in the US title tournament. This had to be the record on WCW Nitro for longest match dedicated to one camera angle.

A very solid wrestling match with Benoit and Regal. No matter what the camera shot was like, Benoit and Regal was always going to deliver. I just love how Eric Bischoff then said that they were taking it to Mean Gene Okerlund, and I think Hall asked for them to stick to the wide shot instead!

They cut to Arn and Steve “Mongo” McMichael with Debra as Benoit joining them. Mean Gene interviewed the Horsemen. I absolutely hated this segment. It felt like all four people being interviewed by Mean Gene had their own agendas for this promo and they didn’t mesh well together at all. Arn wanted to keep everything on track with the storyline and asked Benoit about Woman, Benoit just repeated that Woman was a horsemen, Mongo went on a tirade about football and Debra cut the most random promo about her beauty pageant career. Like… what?

Arn talked about losing last week and dropping someone this week. Arn said he’ll never call Lex a quitter or a coward but the Four Horsemen would take the role as leaders. Arn asked where Woman was. Benoit said Woman was taking care of horsemen business. Arn said if she was, she would be here. Benoit insisted Woman was as much as horsemen as everyone here.

Mongo said he was not gonna yell. Mongo talked about dissension and then Debra randomly complained about Woman walking about how great Chris is. This woman jealously angle just seemed to come completely out of the blue because it’s not like they’ve teased this or anything. It just felt like Debra was “going into business for herself” if you could believe it or they just wanted to have women bitching at each other for the hell of it. Debra went on a random rant about being Miss Alabama and Miss Texas and all of this. Debra’s point was Benoit had to rise above it…. I had no idea how her beauty pageant career had anything to do with CHRIS BENOIT and WOMAN. Arn talked about how Benoit was handpicked and if he says she’s a horsewoman, that’s all he needs. Mongo then yelled out to the crowd after he said he was not gonna yell!

This segment… SUCKED and I can’t believe I’m saying that about a Four Horsemen interview but it was true.

 

Lex Luger vs Rocco Rock w/Johnny Grunge

Rocco beat up Luger for a while. Rocco continued to get the heat for a long time. Luger started a comeback. Rocco got turned inside out by a clothesline taking a complete Rikishi bump for Luger. Grunge held Luger but Rocco accidentally knocked Grunge off the apron, Luger locked on the Torture Rack and got the submission win.

Rocco got thrown into Grunge and Luger chased them off. Those are all my notes on that match.

 

Sting vs Rick Steiner w/Scott Steiner

This really felt like WCW had completely no idea what to do with Sting now. They had this “match” take place and I had no idea what was going on with Sting. I’ll just go ahead and break down what happened.

Sting appeared and came through the crowd with a black baseball bat this time. He had a red baseball bat when he confronted Lex Luger. Sting taunted but Rick took a cheap shot at Sting as Scott threw Sting back in the ring. Rick Steiner did some forearms, Sting ducked and hit a Scorpion Death Drop. Sting doesn’t do anything for a while. Sting grabbed the bat as Scott tended to Rick.

Sting pointed the bat at Rick as Sting pushed Rick away. He handed Rick Steiner the bat. Sting turned his back as if to give Rick a “free shot”. Rick tried to use the bat but Scott stopped him. Sting walked down as the nWo thinks he’s gonna sign with them. Sting points the bat at the nWo and then walks back to the ring as Hall thinks he’s gonna “whack them”. Sting then just leaves on his own path through the arena although Bischoff was still confident that they had him signed.

I have no idea what this was supposed to be. I guess maybe to establish Sting was a lone wolf. However, it’s not like he beat up the nWo or anything. He just did a bunch of random things for the sake of being random. I have no idea what story they were supposed to tell with this Sting/Steiners angle.

Last note about the commentary. I love how the Outsiders put Scott Steiner over saying they’ve been in planes and cars smaller than Scott Steiner. Scott was getting massive at this time.

That was WCW Monday Nitro. A lot of wrestling but not a lot of effective wrestling. A lot of the matches were very short or very pointless. The Regal/Benoit match saved the show in a lot of ways by delivering a good match. The storyline with Sting and Steiner Brothers really didn’t help the show at all and the pay-off didn’t deliver. The show served a purpose in getting people over clean wins, which is fine, but the lack of competitive matches did hurt the episode. Not a strong episode of Nitro but watchable.

 

WCW Nitro Reading Order

• #1 – September 4th 1995
• #2 – September 11th 1995
• WCW Fall Brawl 1995 – September 17th 1995
• #3 – September 18th 1995
• #4 – September 25th 1995
• #5 – October 2nd 1995
• #6 – October 9th 1995
• #7 – October 16th 1995
• #8 – October 23rd 1995
• WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 – October 29th 1995
• #9 – October 30th 1995
• #10 – November 6th 1995
• #11 – November 13th 1995
• #12 – November 20th 1995
• WCW World War III 1995 – November 26th 1995
• #13 – November 27th 1995
• #14 – December 4th 1995
• #15 – December 11th 1995
• #16 – December 18th 1995
• #17 – December 25th 1995
• WCW Starrcade 1995 – December 27th 1995
• #18 – January 1st 1996
• #19 – January 8th 1996
• #20 – January 15th 1996
• #21 – January 22nd 1996
• #22 – January 29th 1996
• #23 – February 5th 1996
• WCW Superbrawl VI – February 11th 1996
• #24 – February 12th 1996
• #25 – February 19th 1996
• #26 – February 26th 1996
• #27 – March 11th 1996
• #28 – March 18th 1996
• WCW Uncensored 1996 – March 24th 1996
• #29 – March 25th 1996
• #30 – April 1st 1996
• #31 – April 15th 1996
• #32 – April 22nd 1996
• #33 – April 29th 1996
• #34 – May 6th 1996 (Nitro)/May 6th 1996 (RAW)
• #35 – May 13th 1996
• WCW Slamboree 1996 – May 19th 1996
• #36 – May 20th 1996
• #37 – May 27th 1996
• #38 – June 3rd 1996
• #39 – June 10th 1996
• WCW The Great American Bash 1996 – June 16th 1996
• #40 – June 17th 1996
• #41 – June 24th 1996
• #42 – July 1st 1996
• WCW Bash At The Beach 1996 – July 7th 1996
• #43 – July 8th 1996
• #44 – July 15th 1996
• #45 – July 22nd 1996
• #46 – July 29th 1996
• #47 – August 5th 1996
• WCW Hog Wild 1996 – August 10th 1996
• #48 – August 12th 1996
• WCW Clash of the Champions #33 – Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair
• #49 – August 19th 1996
• #50 – August 26th 1996
• #51 – September 2nd 1996
• #52 – September 9th 1996
• WCW Fall Brawl 1996 – September 15th 1996
• #53 – September 16th 1996
• #54 – September 23rd 1996
• #55 – September 30th 1996
• #56 – October 7th 1996
• #57 – October 14th 1996
• #58 – October 21st 1996
• WCW Slim Jim’s Halloween Havoc 1996 – October 27th 1996
• #59 – October 28th 1996
• #60 – November 4th 1996 (Nitro)/November 4th 1996 (RAW)
• #61 – November 11th 1996
• #62 – November 18th 1996
• WCW World War III 1996 – November 24th 1996
• #63 – November 25th 1996

 

 

RETRO EXPRESS: WCW NITRO #63 (NOVEMBER 25TH 1996) – BAGWELL JOINS THE NWO AND A NEW US TITLE TOURNAMENT BEGINS

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.

This was the night after World War III. The most notable things to come out World War III was that Rowdy Roddy Piper vs Hollywood Hogan was booked for WCW Starrcade and the New World Order won the World War III battle royal with The Giant eliminating Lex Luger and Kevin Nash at the end of the match to secure the victory.

This Nitro felt like a true turning point for the way WCW conducted business, especially when it came to the New World Order. Eric Bischoff joined the nWo last week and this week, Bischoff became the on-screen authority figure for the nWo within the confides of WCW. It was like Bischoff was a completely different person on this show with how he acted and the show was a lot more revolved around segments. We got a big segment at the start of the show with the nWo and they replayed the Piper/Hogan contract singing from World War III.

We still got plenty of matches but the longest segments on the show were the talking segments involving Bischoff and the repeat of the Piper/Hogan segment. I can’t determine if this was better or worse than if they just flooded the show with smaller segments rather than having just two big segments like they did here. What they did here at least gave room for more matches. The problem with that was that we had a fair amount of short matches and a long opening match which really had no right to go that long. Not a good episode of Nitro but watchable at the very least.

 

Date: November 18th 1996

Brand: WCW

City: Salisbury, Maryland

Rating: 3.1

Commentators (First Hour): Tony Schiavonie and Larry Zbyszko

Commentators (Second Hour): Tony Schiavonie, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

 

As you can see, no Eric Bischoff on commentary this week since he had joined the New World Order. Therefore, Tony commentated the entire show alongside Larry for hour one and Bobby and Mike Tenay for hour two.

 

Lex Luger vs Arn Anderson in a first round match in the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament

The announcers revealed at the start of the show that there would be a tournament to determine the new United States Heavyweight Champion for WCW. The Giant had stolen the title and paraded around with the belt but the original champion Ric Flair got injured so he was stripped of the title because of inactivity. This was the opening match to crown the new champion and to be fair, the Lex Luger vs Arn Anderson match they didn’t give us at the PPV we got for free instead on Nitro.

The only problem with that is that this match was pretty garbage! It got way too much time. We had babyface Lex Luger getting the heat on heel Arn Anderson which was completely backwards and didn’t work in the slightest. The Giant came out to cut a promo so there was like a solid minute where the fans didn’t even care and then they had a horrible finish which we’ll get to.

Arn still had taped ribs from Halloween Havoc and actually pointed to it, reminding Luger about it because he was the one who did the damage. There were big Luger chants. It’s incredible how over Lex Luger was at this time. As the only babyface that was able to stand up to the nWo in the battle royal the night before and the default biggest babyface in the company, the fans were into him.

Arn took a cheap shot at Luger as the referee tried to break the lock up. Luger sent Arn to the floor with a shoulder tackle. I loved Arn’s shocked expression at the power of Lex Luger. Every time Arn or Ric Flair even had to sell how strong Lex Luger was, they did such a fabulous job at marvelling at the sheer strength of the Total Package.

Luger wrapped Arn’s arm around the ringpost. Lex worked on the arm for a long time and got the heat on the heel and smaller Arn Anderson. Take away the aspect of a babyface getting the heat, since when is it ever natural for a bigger man to work on the body parts of the smaller man? It’d be like if Braun Strowman worked on the leg of Marko Stunt for example. There should be no need when you are clearly more powerful and bigger than your opponent.

Luger drove the knee in the arm of Arn. Not a lot happened. This was a pretty boring match as Arn eventually gets the heat of Luger. The crowd died out during this and the crowd was hot at the start of this show so that tells you how badly they killed the crowd.

Luger drove Arn back-first into the ringpost and into the edge of the ring apron. Luger got fired up and did a backbreaker but The Giant came out with the US Heavyweight title. Giant cut a promo about having the belt. He says he’s the US Heavyweight Champion. He told the winner of the tournament to get some of The Giant and then he left. I don’t think he mentioned his victory in the World War III battle royal once during his promo!

Arn and Luger continue to fight for a while. Luger goes for a double axe handle but Arn cuts him off. Luger reversed a piledriver on the floor. Luger did a torture rack on the outside as referee Mark Curtis told Luger to get in the ring. Luger did not let go as the refereee calls form the double count out although the timekeeper jumped the gun a little bit by ringing the bell before Curtis counted the men out.

This was pretty bad. They were in the middle of crowning a new champion and in the very first match, Lex Luger gets himself counted out because all he cared about was destroying Arn. The United States Heavyweight Championship was secondary to him. Probably the two biggest stars that are going to be in this tournament were both eliminated in the first round with a double count out. This was bad television.

The New World Order arrived with Eric Bischoff, The Giant, Syxx, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Vincent on hand for this segment.

Before we get into the segment, my initial question was if Bischoff was running the show, can’t he just award The Giant the US title without having a tournament? They explain he’s an Executive Producer so my initial theory was that he may not have that stroke yet. But then, Eric Bischoff brags about being the highest ranking executive in WCW and the nWo. Surely then he’s got the power to award the title to The Giant? The whole point of his association with the group is so the nWo have a man on the inside that can make decisions and yet he’s doing nothing about this tournament.

Bischoff started cutting a promo but his mic was cutting off or the audio just wasn’t synced up at first. Bischoff talked about getting Jacknifed by Nash at The Great American Bash. He said the next day he woke up and he asked himself one very important question, did he want to be consumed by the power or be part of the force? Hall and Nash got together with Bischoff and did some talking and planning. Basically, they had agreed to work together so I guess Bischoff’s involvement with the nWo predates Hogan since Hogan didn’t reveal himself as the third man until Bash at the Beach.

Bischoff told the guys from WCW they have 30 days to convert their WCW contracts to nWo contracts. He talked about how they were gonna build a dynasty. He made the threat that at 30 days and one minute, you’re either with us or you’re against us. Bischoff talked about fining Piper which I still have no idea how he could do that if Piper isn’t with the company as they claimed.

The American Males come out as Marcus Bagwell high-fived the nWo and I guess joined the team to which Scotty Riggs appeared to be blindsided by. He turned around and Bagwell dropped Riggs with the neckbreaker and officially turned heel. They celebrate over his prone body. Now begins the mass recruitment of members of the nWo and there’s probably gonna be a lot more members joining the fold 30 days from now. It’s officially begun.

I’ve got a few things to say about Bagwell. This was obviously something I knew was coming because we’re going to see the emergence of Buff Bagwell shortly. However, they started a slow build for the American Males splitting up as they bickered and bickered each week. Then this week, Bagwell just randomly joined the group and turned on Riggs. I have no idea what was the rush to get this heel turn over and done with so he can join the nWo. Maybe there was some backstage stuff going when it relates to the 30 day deadline. There were plans for nWo Monday Nitro as we’ve discussed previously so did they just need to have as many people in the group as possible to kickstart that concept?

Lastly, I love how all of this went down in storyline. What was the American Males plan when they came down to confront the New World Order? Bagwell clearly had a plan of his own to join the group but what was Scotty Riggs planning to do… fight them? I wonder if Riggs told Bagwell of the plan to fight the nWo who were in the ring. Bagwell, realising how stupid this plan was, agreed to do it but secretly had a plan to screw him. He realised if you can’t beat them join them and there was no chance of them beating up all the nWo guys. Therefore, I guess he lied to Riggs about wanting to fight them and so when he high-fived with the nWo, Riggs had no idea.

That’s my own personal canon as I’d be stunned if they explained away this plot hole. If anyone has a better idea, please leave a comment on the blog post with your thoughts!

 

Diamond Dallas Page vs Disco Inferno

DDP jumped Disco. He punched, elbowed and chopped away at Disco. Disco hit two swinging neckbreakers and danced each time. DPD ran wild with punches. DDP hit an absolutely fabulous float-over Diamond Cutter and got the pin. DDP went over for the float over but instead of doing the DDT, he turned it into a Diamond Cutter and won. This was an awesome finish to a nothing match. Everything I wrote up there were my full notes that I wrote down for this match.

 

Mean Gene Okerlund interviewed DDP. DDP talked about the nWo wanting to build a dynasty and why not have the guy from the most deadly finisher on the planet? The Outsiders had been trying to recruit DDP to the nWo. DDP said him and Kevin Nash go way back as he brought him into wrestling, Scott Hall was his first tag team partner and Eric Bischoff is in his neighbourhood. He admitted all of these things were true with his connections to Nash, Hall and DDP.

Mean Gene asked DDP who he was trying to kid and asked if Page was going with the nWo. DDP said he never knew what Bischoff was doing and made DDP looked like an idiot. He wish he knew back then what he knows now and left things ambiguous as to where his loyalties lied. I loved this interview. Mean Gene was tremendous at connecting the dots and painting a picture that DDP completely denied. Mean Gene was asking all the hard-hitting questions like “Is it not true you’re this and you’re that?” He interrogated the man and tried to get an answer out of him. I’ve been loving these DDP and Mean Gene segments and Mean Gene really brought out some great promos out of Page.

 

Lord Steven Regal © vs Tony Pena for the WCW Television Championship

This was really good. This was a short match but there was some tremendous wrestling on display. Regal was great as well and Tony Pena looked like he could hang with the TV champion. It made Pena look good at being able to hang with Regal and it made Regal good as he got another convincing victory and racked up clean wins as the TV champion.

Apparently Regal was bragging about being the only heavyweight champion in WCW so thank god he won this match clean! In hindsight, it was also a good thing Regal did as well as he did in the World War 3 battle royal. He made it to the final six participants of that match.

It was very much a grappling contest between these two as Pena was able to take Regal down from the legs and vice versa. Pena planted Regal with a DDT for a 2 count. Regal did a butterfly suplex for a 2 count.

Pena slapped Regal’s chest repeatedly with the Englishman’s chest being bright red. Regal did a Regal Stretch to retain the title. This was a lot of fun.

 

Mean Gene interviewed Rick Steiner. Rick explained he had been in Japan wrestling. He confirmed The Steiners were 110% WCW. Rick screamed during this promo and he was at a very high decibel during this interview! He talked about Sting coming out from the rafters. He put over Lex Luger and Roddy Piper about how they’re WCW.

With Piper I have no understanding of what the storyline is supposed to be anymore for him. A month ago, they were talking about Piper being “free agents” as the Nasty Boys did during one of their promos. Now he’s WCW according to Rick Steiner? This was annoying. Tell us if Piper is signed with the company or not! If he has, then that explains why Bischoff can fine him and why he’s “WCW” according to Rick Steiner. Otherwise, you’re just changing your minds about what you want Piper to be or you just can’t remember what happened a month with your biggest storyline right now in Hogan vs Piper.

 

Konan vs Eddie Guerrero in a non-title first round match of the United States Heavyweight Championship tournament

Konan was still the Mexican Heavyweight Champion which they brought up. The thing I hated was they went to the second hour during the start of this match. When the second hour began, they cut away from the action for a solid minute to show all of these fireworks and everything and pay no attention from the match.

They explained Luger and Arn were eliminated from the tournament due to the double count out as they never mentioned that earlier when the match took place. Konan hit a powerbomb for a two count and followed this up with a gutwrench powerbomb with Eddie putting his leg on the rope.

Konan locked on a knee bar. Konan came off the top rope but Eddie cut him off with a dropkick. Eddie ran wild with punches in the corner and a big uppercut. Konan hit a big superplex but Konan pull himself off of the cover. Konan tried a powerbomb but Eddie twisted himself in mid-air to reverse it and landed into Konan’s gut for a pin.

This was a fine match.

 

Big Bubba w/Jimmy Hart vs Rick Steiner

Rick screamed when he was coming out about he didn’t know if he could trust Sting and he didn’t think it’d get to this point.

Bubba charged at Rick and Rick threw him over his shoulder which was great to see on such a big man. Rick hit a big German suplex but Bubba got his foot on the rope.

Sting came down through the crowd. Rick hit a top rope bulldog. Rick clotheslined Bubba over the top rope. Sting made his way to the ring and actually dropped Rick with a Scorpion Death Drop. This was the second babyface in two nights that Sting had dropped with this move and it allowed another heel to get the win as Bubba pinned Rick.

Sting’s totally acting like a heel now but the fans still love and are siding with him. I don’t think if it’s just nWo fans cheering for Sting or its just a group of Stinger fans that sided with him no matter what but Sting was still unbelievably over at this time despite hardly doing anything! Quite a gig.

The important thing when it comes to the storyline is that the beatings he’s been dishing out hasn’t exactly been random. He laid out Jeff Jarrett twice because Jeff was talking all of this crap about how Sting during a promo. Rick Steiner was saying he couldn’t trust Sting so Sting dropped him here. Here’s dropping the people in WCW who are doubting him and his loyalties. “I’ll walk my own path but if you doubt me, you’re getting dropped.” I like this.

 

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Psychosis

Another incredibly short but fun match. Ultimo Dragon showed up with the J Crown titles.

Psychosis did a Alley Oop over the top rope. Tony questioned if this was a disqualification and Bobby claimed Rey threw himself over the top rope. I wonder if WCW ever did drop this “over the top rope” rule or stop referring to it. That’s my big question as we continue to watch this for the next few years.

Psychosis did a top rope leg drop. Rey did the counter off the top rope crucifx powerbomb into a hurricanrana for the win. Very much the finish from their Bash at the Beach match but it still look great and the fans still popped for it.

 

Mean Gene interview a very bruised Chris Benoit and Woman. Benoit told Taskmaster to take a good look as he’s still here. He said Taskmaster’s and Dungeon of Doom’s best was not enough to get rid of one man. He said there’s two ways they can resolve this, the man’s way and the coward’s way. He made some kind of reference of Taskmaster having the power backstage to get rid of him or something. He alluded to Kevin Sullivan’s role as a booker. Woman told him that if he kicked Benoit one more time it was over. Woman has now decided that “it was over” so I guess Woman and Chris Benoit are an item on WCW Monday Nitro.

 

They showed the whole Piper/Hogan segment from World War 3. I skipped it and fast-forwarded to the next match. I checked and there was nothing after they showed that segment before the next match, If you want my thoughts, please read my World War III review at this link. I go into great detail in that review about what happened. There’s no need for me to review it a second time.

 

Alex Wright vs Jeff Jarrett

I don’t know what happened but Wright appeared to smack Jeff right on the head and then they got in the corner and Jeff yelled: “never try that again.” Wright was still very much green at this point but apparently Jeff wasn’t having any of what Wright was dishing out.

Wright ran wild but Jeff turned it around with a snake eyes, dropping him on the top turnbuckle. Wright did a catapult Vader bomb for a 2 count. Jeff locked on the Figure Four Leg Lock and grabbed the ropes to secure the win.

I have no idea if Jeff is a face or a heel now. His allegiances are even more ambiguous than the Nasty Boys if that was even possible. He was apparently a babyface but he’s cheating I guess to gain favour with Ric Flair and to show he’s a true Horsemen.

 

 

“The Faces of Fear” The Barbarian and Meng vs “Harlem Heat” Booker T and Stevie Ray

Harlem Heat did a side walk slam/Scissors kick attempt which was broke up. Faces of Fear did the back drop powerbomb combination they’ve been doing as of late on Booker which was quite impressive considering the size of Booker. That could have went horribly wrong.

Mike Tenay talked about Faces of Fear going on a winning streak one night removed from Faces of Fear LOSING the triangle match to the Outsiders.

A fight breaks out between all four men. Meng tried a powerbomb but Stevie did a kick to the face. The brawl ensued but then the nWo arrived. They beat up everybody. Bagwell was with the nWo in their gear. Vincent did the worst looking choke to Stevie Ray on the outside. Giant chokeslammed Booker and Meng as trash was littered into the ring by the fans. This match accomplished nothing over than to get the nWo over.

There was also no Hollywood Hogan this week.

That was WCW Nitro. The show was lousy in many ways with some bright spots throughout. The time management with the matches was really backwards. There were a lot of matches that I was really mad didn’t get more time. WCW couldn’t give Rey Mysterio and Pyschosis more time but they could give more time to Lex Luger vs Arn Anderson? Not a strong episode of Nitro and they’ve got a lot of work to do going into Starrcade.

 

WCW Nitro Reading Order

• #1 – September 4th 1995
• #2 – September 11th 1995
• WCW Fall Brawl 1995 – September 17th 1995
• #3 – September 18th 1995
• #4 – September 25th 1995
• #5 – October 2nd 1995
• #6 – October 9th 1995
• #7 – October 16th 1995
• #8 – October 23rd 1995
• WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 – October 29th 1995
• #9 – October 30th 1995
• #10 – November 6th 1995
• #11 – November 13th 1995
• #12 – November 20th 1995
• WCW World War III 1995 – November 26th 1995
• #13 – November 27th 1995
• #14 – December 4th 1995
• #15 – December 11th 1995
• #16 – December 18th 1995
• #17 – December 25th 1995
• WCW Starrcade 1995 – December 27th 1995
• #18 – January 1st 1996
• #19 – January 8th 1996
• #20 – January 15th 1996
• #21 – January 22nd 1996
• #22 – January 29th 1996
• #23 – February 5th 1996
• WCW Superbrawl VI – February 11th 1996
• #24 – February 12th 1996
• #25 – February 19th 1996
• #26 – February 26th 1996
• #27 – March 11th 1996
• #28 – March 18th 1996
• WCW Uncensored 1996 – March 24th 1996
• #29 – March 25th 1996
• #30 – April 1st 1996
• #31 – April 15th 1996
• #32 – April 22nd 1996
• #33 – April 29th 1996
• #34 – May 6th 1996 (Nitro)/May 6th 1996 (RAW)
• #35 – May 13th 1996
• WCW Slamboree 1996 – May 19th 1996
• #36 – May 20th 1996
• #37 – May 27th 1996
• #38 – June 3rd 1996
• #39 – June 10th 1996
• WCW The Great American Bash 1996 – June 16th 1996
• #40 – June 17th 1996
• #41 – June 24th 1996
• #42 – July 1st 1996
• WCW Bash At The Beach 1996 – July 7th 1996
• #43 – July 8th 1996
• #44 – July 15th 1996
• #45 – July 22nd 1996
• #46 – July 29th 1996
• #47 – August 5th 1996
• WCW Hog Wild 1996 – August 10th 1996
• #48 – August 12th 1996
• WCW Clash of the Champions #33 – Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair
• #49 – August 19th 1996
• #50 – August 26th 1996
• #51 – September 2nd 1996
• #52 – September 9th 1996
• WCW Fall Brawl 1996 – September 15th 1996
• #53 – September 16th 1996
• #54 – September 23rd 1996
• #55 – September 30th 1996
• #56 – October 7th 1996
• #57 – October 14th 1996
• #58 – October 21st 1996
• WCW Slim Jim’s Halloween Havoc 1996 – October 27th 1996
• #59 – October 28th 1996
• #60 – November 4th 1996 (Nitro)/November 4th 1996 (RAW)
• #61 – November 11th 1996
• #62 – November 18th 1996
• WCW World War III 1996 – November 24th 1996

 

 

RETRO EXPRESS: WCW WORLD WAR III 1996 (NOVEMBER 24TH 1995)

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.

It’s that time of year again where World War III breaks out in World Championship Wrestling. Last year, I reviewed this pay-per-view and my interest in the concept of the World War III battle royal got me interested in the overall show. This year, I was not as enthralled by this PPV. In my opinions, this was one of the weaker pay-per-views for WCW in 1996.

That feels like a fairly harsh comment but there has been a high standard set for pay-per-views since The Great American Bash 1996 which was highly regarded as one of their greatest pay-per-views of all time. Every other pay-per-view since that show has been great but this one did not live up to the standards set. This pay-per-view had one outstanding match, a few matches which you either loved or you hated and a horrible main-event with the World War III battle royal.

This was not as bad as the WCW Slamboree 1996 pay-per-view which, in hindsight, felt like one of the worst wrestling pay-per-views I’ve ever watched. However, when a Rowdy Roddy Piper segment is given roughly 30 minutes and the convoluted battle royal is given 30 minutes, the pressure is on everything else to deliver and steady the ship. I think the opening match was the only one which I think could be considered a pay-per-view worthy match. The Malenko vs Psychosis match was fine but it was nowhere near as good as it could have been. Everything else was passable at best.

 

Date: November 24th, 1995

Brand: WCW

City: Norfolk, Virginia

Attendance: ‎10,314

Commentators: Tony Schiavonie, Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan

(NOTE: Mike Tenay, Lee Marshall and Larry Zybsko were also commentators for the battle royal.)

 

 

The Ultimate Dragon © w/Sonny Onoo vs Rey Mysterio Jr. for the J-Crown Championship

A fabulous match to start off the show. I did check the rating for their last pay-per-view match at Hog Wild. This match far surpassed that one. Dragon was absolutely incredible and Rey sold like crazy for him. I liked the finish a lot although I think given a little bit more time, this would have been one of the best WCW matches of 1996. I’m sure if I go through the ratings I’ve given during the year, it will probably end up being one of the best WCW matches of 1996! However, I was really hoping for a bit more time to heighten the drama. Call me needy but there were signs where I think this match was meant to have more time but it got cut for some reason.

Dragon wrestled Mysterio down and worked on the arm, driving knees to the arm then locking up. Rey responded by going for Dragon’s legs to which commentator Dusty Rhodes yelled “break a leg!” They wrestled for a wrist lock. Dusty noted that Dragon was working like Malenko, who BEAT Mysterio at Halloween Havoc. This was good continuity because clearly Dragon, in storyline, took notes from the Havoc match heading in this title defense against Mysterio Jr.

Rey and Dragon did flips and tried kicks in a great spot which the fans applauded for. Dragon unloaded with kicks in the corner. Dragon dropkicked Rey to the floor. Sonny followed this up with a kick to the gut as the ref’s back was turned. They did bring up what happened last year with Bobby “The Brain” Heenan working with Sonny Onoo and the Japanese last year at Starrcade. A nice reference from the commentators.

Dragon hit a picture perfect German suplex for a two count. Dragon threw Mysterio so high in the air to which Bobby yelled: “hey Rey, can you get the lights?” Dragon did a brilliant inverted torture back backbreaker. I’m pretty sure the one he did to Rey at Hog Wild looked miles better but this one was pretty sweet in its own right.

Dragon locked a single leg Boston crab. Dragon did a powerbomb followed up by an Alley Oop into the ropes which was a combination I’ve never seen before but it looked incredible. This is a spot that only someone like Rey could take!

Dragon did a giant swing to Rey Mysterio as Dragon got dizzy himself which the fans laughed big time at. Dragon did a fisherman suplex for a 2 count. Dragon DROPPED Rey with a brainbuster. Dragon tried another one but Rey reversed it into a 2 count.

Dragon did a naughty jumping tombstone from Rey for a 2 count. Rey got Irish whipped into the guard rail. Dragon did a second tombstone on the floor. Dragon followed this up with a dive. These men just did move after move onto each other. It felt they were doing too many moves given the time they were given but each of the moves they did were pulled off really well.

They showed the backs of the announcers as the action between Rey and Dragon spilled to the floor and Dusty, who was wearing a red jacket, yelled “whose the guy in the red jacket?” It was just funny that Rey and Dragon are doing all of these spots on the outside and the commentators had their back to the action the entire time! They weren’t allowed to turn around and get an up-close look at the action as they just stared at their monitors!

Dragon did frankenstiener from the top rope for a 2 count. Dragon hit a running sit-out powerbomb for another 2 count. Rey did a fabulous springboard moonsault for a 2 count where he launched off the top rope, went diagonally to the middle rope and bounced off for the moonsault. It looked so slick.

Rey did a flipping seated senton to Dragon on the outside. As I mentioned earlier, there were some brilliant moves in this match. Rey did a sunset flip, Dragon did a bridge pinfall both for a 2 count.

Rey did a cartwheel into a hurricanrana for a near fall. Fans seemed to buy that move as the finish. Dragon hit a dragon suplex for the 2 count. Rey tried his Frankensteiner finisher but Dragon caught him, bounced Rey off the top rope and hit a sit-out powerbomb for the clean pinfall victory to retain the titles.

Tremendous action, top notch spots, great chemistry and a great way to open the show. I think if you’re big on spots, this match is an excellent match to watch because these two did sensational stuff in that ring. I felt given a few more minutes to pace themselves better, this would have a sure 4 and a half star match or even a perfect match for that matter. However, I just don’t think it got enough time to solidify itself as a near perfect match. If you’re really big on a spots, then I’m sure you’ll have a different opinion.

Match Rating: ****1/4

 

Mean Gene Okerlund interviewed Diamond Dallas Page. DDP said everyone wanted to get a hold of the best. DDP tried to talk about other stuff but Mean Gene said Page has got to address the people about the New World Order being interested. DDP said he doesn’t care about the life of Eric Bischoff, who had joined the New World Order on the most recent episode of Nitro. DDP says what affected me was the World War III battle royal, which he was a participant in. DDP talked about winning battle royal. and when it’s all said and done, there can only be one. Mean Gene noted that DDP did not answer his question about the nWo but this was solid promo. Clearly Page was conveniently dodging the subject to focus on winning this main-event. Page actually mentioned that he won the Slamboree battle royal and held the Lord of the Ring, to suggest that he could possibly pull off a big win again.

 

Chris Jericho w/Teddy Long vs Nick Patrick in a one arm tied behind the back match

This match was everything it needed to be when it comes to this storyline. Jericho working with one arm was still better than half of the wrestlers in the World War III battle royal. Nick Patrick, for a man who does not wrestle and is a referee, was a phenomenal seller for Jericho. He bumped left and right for this man, getting the right balance between comical overselling and embarrassing overselling. Patrick’s been a great character in the story and the match was booked really well with the storyline in mind.

Nick Patrick was dressed in black and white boxing robe, a neck braces and sunglasses with a scolding look on his face. Thunderous boos coming out for this man! I loved detail of the black and white boxing robe as a nod to the allegations that Patrick was working for the New World Order. I don’t think the announcers mentioned this once but it was great because it allowed you as a viewer to put 2 and 2 together rather than Tony Schiavonie telling you what the storyline is for example. This was not Michael Cole hammering the storyline into your head verbally. You could figure this out on your own.

It was mentioned that Patrick did used to wrestle so at least he has some wrestling credentials about him. Therefore it was somewhat believable that Patrick would be able to get some heat on Jericho.

Patrick being in tough guy mode against a one-armed man was brilliant! Patrick pushed Jericho. Jericho did a one arm push and Patrick does a brilliant sell for Jericho. He takes a big backward bump, with his arms in the air and the fans ROAR with approval! It was the best!

Jericho hip-tossed Patrick out of the ring with one arm and Patrick demanded Jericho to “watch his neck” which I enjoyed. Jericho started a “PATRICK SUCKS” chant. Patrick did the test of strength spot where they put their hands out. He mocked Jericho for not having the other hand available so Jericho does a hammerlock with one hand and Patrick screams with agony!

Jericho kicked away at Patrick as Patrick looked like he was having a seizure on the floor! If you’re gonna do over-selling in wrestling, do it right. Patrick was a great over seller here! He’s a cartoon character and he’s a referee so it was perfect that he would do over the top selling in this match!

Patrick pushed Teddy Long at ringside and Teddy LAUNCHED Patrick with a shove of his own which the referee scolded Teddy for. I actually thought this was gonna end in a disqualification but no, the match continued. Patrick was able to slap Jericho. Jericho retaliated with a slap of his own and Patrick fell over like a inflatable doll with his hands up in the air and just tumbling down to the mat! He just got flipped perfectly from horizontal to vertical in a 90 degree angle!

Jericho clotheslined the ring post so Patrick got the heat on a one-armed man. Patrick wasn’t particularly bad. Patrick did some snapmares and he threw some great right hands as he got the heat on Jericho. Patrick was constantly thrusting his arms in the air as he got punched in the face! Jericho made a comeback. Jericho was somehow able to do a one-arm back body drop to Patrick.

Patrick did a horrible looking Shawn Michaels forearm and it actually made it better that it was so bad, because it’s Nick Patrick who was NOT Shawn Michaels! If this would have been a great forearm, it would have ruined it! Speaking of Shawn Michaels, Jericho pulled off a super kick, as a tribute to his future employers The Young Bucks. and got the clean pin.

As a way for the heel referee to get his comeuppance this was booked really well. Jericho didn’t come off as a geek. Patrick’s over-selling was not too much. Patrick was not out-wrestling the man. We got a clean win and a happy ending for the wrestler who was getting screwed by the evil referee.

I’ve got to get this off my chest before we get into the next match. The idea behind this blog series of mine was to watch stuff from the past and see what we can learn from for the future of wrestling. What old stuff can we incorporate into modern wrestling. This is something that has been lost to time. Nick Patrick has been winding up wrestlers and fans for months with his antics. He finally is thrown in the ring to get his arse kicked and the good guy won as the crooked referee got what he deserved.

If this was WWE in 2020, Nick Patrick would have won this match without a doubt. What would have happened was either Patrick would win by disqualification because Teddy Long pushed him in that spot earlier or someone else would have laid out Jericho allowing Patrick to win. They did the same thing with the Michael Cole/Jerry Lawler match at WrestleMania 27, where the announcer beat the wrestler after a BS ruling where the heel won on a technicality instead of Lawler beating him and Cole getting his comeuppance. If they would have done this Patrick match in WWE in 2020, it would have been the exact same thing to get heat. At least WCW in 1996 had the clue and bright idea to have Jericho go over when he needed to. THUMBS UP!

Match Rating: **1/4

 

Mark Madden and Marcus Bagwell were shown answering questions on WCWWRESTLING.COM.

 

Mean Gene interviewed Ric Flair who was not wrestling on this show as he was injured. I had serious buffering problems at this time, even after I restarted the Playstation 4 I was watching the show on, so I decided to pick this up the next day. This ended up being a pay-per-view that took me two days to watch which really took me out of the game.

Ric said the theme of the event is World War III but in reality its WCW on tour. He made it clear that the nWo are entitled to walk down their own way of life, but guys like Flair, Arn Anderson, Sting, The Steiner Brothers, Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Chris Benoit were “W BY GOD C W.” He promised that the nWo would belong to WCW which I guess ended up coming true, because Ric Flair would be the WCW President in 1999!

 

The Giant vs Jeff Jarrett in a return grudge match from Halloween Havoc

An absolute nothing match. I don’t understand why they felt the need to do this match again on pay-per-view. It wasn’t good the first time but they did it again. There was no Ric Flair to help get the fans behind Jarrett. The fans loved the New World Order on the show so of course Giant was cheered. This to me accomplished nothing and really, both men became irrelevant due to Sting showing up again. They did this horrible match just to lead to Sting coming in and dropping Jarrett with the Scorpion Death Drop.

The Giant still has the US title that he stole from Ric Flair but the commentators confirmed that because the Nature Boy had not defended the title, Ric Flair was no longer the US Heavyweight Champion. The title was vacated and The Giant was not the champion either. Jeff fired away with punches but Giant pushed him away to a big pop. Jeff kept trying punches in the corner but one big clothesline from Giant was enough to turn the tide in the match.

Jeff continued to try and bring Giant down but Giant pushed him away with his foot. There was a giant elbow drop from the big man. The Giant did a foot stomp where he had his foot on Jeff for at least three seconds before he even applied pressure. Jarrett’s shoulders were on the match so that should have easily been a three count!

As Giant was getting the heat on Jeff, the fans react to someone in the rafters who was in fact Sting. Giant did a leg drop and then Sting got down from the rafters and made their way trough the crowd. The fans are paying no attention to the match by this point.

Giant did a backbreaker. Giant missed a Vader Bomb. Jeff did a top rope crossbody for a two count. The police flanked Sting as he came down. Giant got sent over the top rope by Jeff but then Sting got in the ring and did the Scorpion Death Drop on Jeff as the fans cheered. There’s a big thud of Sting hitting a move on Jeff and the referee Randy Anderson, who was distracted, was a couple of inches away from Jeff and Sting and he couldn’t hear a thing and continued to count out Giant! Even if the referee got out of the ring to count out Giant, that would have been better than the referee somehow not being able to hear Sting attacking Jeff Jarrett DESPITE BEING IN THE RING AS WELL!

Giant got in the ring and scored the pin from a chokeslam. A bad match with a bad finish as Sting was the only thing noteworthy about this match.

Match Rating: * (I’m not sure why I’m being so generous)

Then we got a long contract signing with Rowdy Roddy Piper and Hollywood Hogan. I’m a huge fan of Piper and this was a good television segment but it did not need to take place on World War III. They had Chris Benoit vs Taskmaster and Lex Luger vs Arn Anderson originally booked for this pay-per-view but they were cut I guess for this segment. This thing took way too long for a pay-per-view. It was great and Piper was tremendous in selling the nWo beatdown he would get. He and Hollywood Hogan were great characterS but this bored me half to death at times. I really wanted to see more wrestling on this show but instead I got this.

Piper appeared with the contract in his hand for the match with Hollywood Hogan. Some dude was in the ring with a table and a cloth over it with the camera man getting in shots of Piper. Piper said there’s no sense in waiting. He told Hogan to get out here. Coming out to meet Piper was Ted DiBiase, Vincent, The Giant and… ERIC BISCHOFF in nWo gear. For those unaware, Eric Bischoff revealed himself as a member of the New World Order on the last edition of Nitro. This was Bischoff’s first appearance since joining the group. It was Bischoff with a leather jacket and nWo shirt underneath.

Bischoff said that Hollywood was a little busy as he’s got scripts to look at. Bischoff said Hogan gave him his power of attorney. It’s funny to me that they do this angle where Hogan gives Bischoff the power of attorney powers. A year before this, he did the same thing with Jimmy Hart and that led to Hogan losing the title to The Giant which led to the World War III battle royal last year! It all comes full circle!

Bischoff was happy to look into the contract and sign the contract for the Hogan if it is suitable. Piper said he taught Vincent to fight and told him slow his roll. Piper said he’s been doing this for 28 years but he’s never had his hair done or nails done. Piper said if Bischoff thinks Piper is gonna trust a “flake” like Bischoff, think again. Could you imagine if Piper threw out this line in 2020?

Bischoff said he could fine Piper for that line. How could this even be possible if Piper is not associated with WCW? They explained on the Nitro after Havoc that Piper was not associated with the company so how can Bischoff possibly fine Piper if Piper doesn’t work for WCW? Was Bischoff lying? Had Piper signed with WCW full-time and they just didn’t tell us or was this just a cock-up by Bischoff? I suspect this was just Bischoff saying whatever he wanted but the line just made no sense in the context of the storyline.

Piper asked how much would the fine be if he knocked him out. Piper said he will fight Hogan. He’s going for the fight regardless of the nWo as even if they showed up as he doesn’t care about disqualifications. I’m guessing this made the match no disqualification although it was hard to tell what type of match Piper wanted based on his promo.

Then HOLLYWOOD HOGAN arrives with Elizabeth, The Giant again, Syxx and the Outsiders. Hogan said Piper had a problem. Piper responded that he always had problems but that’s never stopped him. He told Hogan to get his butt in the ring, sign the contract and quit talking. Everyone got in the ring. Hogan said he’ll sign but he’s got a real big problem. Hogan said he’s used to dealing people that are number one contenders, on his level and up to his speed. When Piper was his equal, he couldn’t get it done. Hogan said since Piper’s “Mr Self-Righteous, Mr Straight Man”, he asked Piper to show everyone his “hip”. He showed a hip but Hogan wasn’t happy. Piper showed the other hip with a big scar on it as Piper had hip surgery which the scar clearly showed.

Hogan said he didn’t pick on cripples but since the whole world seems to like him and everyone wanted to see the war to settle the score, he would fight him. He signed the contract. Hogan said Piper’s not gonna have a leg to stand on because he can’t wait to beat on a gimp. Piper punched Hogan but the nWo ganged up on Piper, so Hogan punched away himself. Piper clawed through to attack Hogan.

The nWo expose the scar from hip surgery and then Hogan did a chair shot to the scar and one of the worst chop blocks in the history of wrestling. Hall grabbed the leg. Hogan grabbed the spray paint and spray painted the leg of Piper with “nWo”. Hogan says he will break Piper in half and called him a piece of crap. He spit on the chest of Piper and the nWo celebrated.

Piper clawed himself up and knocked over the table. This spooks out the nWo who leave. Piper grabbed the mic said if that’s the best you can do, Hogan’s in trouble because there’s no retreat, no surrender on him. So the match was booked Piper vs Hogan for WCW Starrcade. Dusty decreed the fight of all fights has been signed. Piper crawled his way through the curtain.

The segment itself was really good. The back-and-forth between Piper and Hogan was really good. I even liked Bischoff’s role in this. The beat down of Piper looked really good and I liked the spot where they attacked the hip of Piper. It was done in a safe manner but it looked like it would have wrecked Piper. Piper did tremendous selling of this beating. As a segment it was great. My issue was with it being on a wrestling pay-per-view. With that being said, it was a great segment. I’ll give credit where credit is due.

Segment Rating: ****

 

“The Amazing French Canadians” Carl Ouelett and Jacques Rogueau w/Col Robert Parker vs “Harlem Heat” Booker T and Stevie Ray w/Sister Sherri. If Harlem Heat wins, Sherri would get five minutes in the ring with Parker

An absolute nothing match with what I thought was a decent enough finish. I didn’t have much expectations for the match going in and it pretty much met my expectations. It was boring as a suspected, it had a bunch of goofy shenanigans which I expected and there wasn’t much wrong with the match. There wasn’t much right with it either so I can’t say this was a good match.

Bobby makes a joke about how Parker was gonna find a place in Quebec… in South Quebec. Tony just responded: “very good”.

The Canadians sang the national anthem for the “greatest country in the world” Canada. Ray responded saying: “listening to that is breaking my heart.” I was actually surprised but in the middle of this blood feud involving managers, the Harlem Heat at least had the courtesy to let the Canadians sing the national anthem uninterrupted!

Not much happened in the first few minutes of the match. Harlem Heat gained control of the match for a while as Booker hit an axe kick. Somehow Jacques and Booker screwed up a “pulling down the rope” spot where Booker was supposed to slide over the top rope and to the floor but got stuck on the top rope. This caused the Canadians to get the heat.

Bobby brought up the good point that the Canadians must have been told by Parker everything about Harlem Heat because he was with them for a long time. Therefore, that would give the Canadians the advantage as they know their strategy. Booker tried a roll up but got turned inside out with a clothesline for his troubles by Carl. Stevie got the hot tag. He ran wild on Jacques and Gorilla Press slammed Jacques into Carl. Carl got Irish Whipped into the referee.

The finish saw the Canadians go for a piledriver. Carl whipped out a table. The last time we saw a table spot on Nitro, Johnny Grunge used the table right in front of the referee and was not disqualified. That referee allowed it then because he did nothing about it at the time. In this match, they had to go through the trouble of doing a ref bump so the Canadians could use weapons! Why would you even bother? Public Enemy use weapons all the time in normal tag matches anyway! Why bother with bumping the referee?

They brought in two steel steps. They stacked the steel steps on top of the table in the corner in an completely clunky looking spot that could have ended horribly. It didn’t particularly end great. I don’t remember who went up to the top of this set-up but the Canadians tried an elevated senton form the top of the steel steps but Booker moved and they land from all the way up at the top of the weapons to the mat. That must have sucked! Booker hit the Houston Hangover for the clean win.

I liked the finish for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Harlem Heat got a clean win. After years of Harlem Heat being the heels and having every screwjob finish you can think of, they have a big PPV match as babyfaces I guess and they win clean. Secondly, the finish showed the dangers of going for big spots from above. Granted, Booker hit the Harlem Hangover from the win. However, I think it was Carl went all the way high up for a big move and missed and ultimately paid the price for it. Good finish to an otherwise below average tag team match.

Match Rating: **

 

Sister Sherri vs Col. Robert Parker

I’m not sure if this was ever explained on television, because this took me off guard, but the Sherri vs Parker took place immediately after the tag match. Now before I actually get into what happened, allow me to remind you all that the storyline between Sherri and Parker has went on for more than one year. They had the break-up angle a few weeks ago and now Sherri is gonna get her hands on Parker. She gets FIVE MINUTES in the ring with Parker. Let’s all remember that.

Sherri ran wild on Parker to start off the match. She smashed his head into the turnbuckle and then threw him over the top rope. Sherri did a clothesline to which DUSTY POPPED FOR as he yelled“SHE CLOTHESLINED HIM”. In defense of Dusty, these were some pretty good clothelines that Sherri was pulling off in the ring. Dusty was going nuts.

Sherri did a top rope crossbody and she went for the cover but Parker kicked out. Let’s analyse this for a minute! Remember that Sherri had the opportunity to beat up Parker for FIVE MINUTES and Parker doesn’t want any part of Sherri as the finish clearly demonstrated. Why did she go for a pin if she has five minutes to get revenge on Parker and kick his arse? Why did she bother? Why did Parker even kick out? Why didn’t he just take the pin and then Sherri can’t beat him up anymore? WHY WAS THERE A KICK OUT IN THIS MATCH? That’s not even the least of our worries.

The finish saw Parker run to the back as everyone chased after him… AND THAT WAS IT. Sherri was supposed to get five minutes with Parker. The match lasted…. 1 minute and 30 seconds. After ONE YEAR OF BUILD for this storyline, they have a match together on PPV and it lasts less than 100 seconds. Give me a break. Why did you waste my time for more than a year to just have this crappy finish as the big pay-off to the storyline?

Match Rating: -* because the structure of the match offended me. If you have a match that offends me as a wrestling fan for investing in it, you get a minus star rating.

To their credit. Dusty was still howling at ringside after the match. So at least the American Dream loved it.

 

 

Mean Gene talked about WCW Hotline and advised that another superstar would becoming to WCW in the near future. He interviewed Lex Luger. Luger said he doesn’t know what to make of what happened with Sting and Luger on Nitro. He said the baseball bat reeks of nWo but he doesn’t want to believe it and the fans didn’t want to believe. He called Sting a man of no words. Lex Luger was the odds on favourite to win as he’s been racking big man recently on Nitro. He said he feels on a roll and restore honour to WCW and he wants the title shot really bad. This was a fine Luger promo as usual.

 

Dean Malenko © vs Psychosis for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship

I think this had the potential to be as good as Rey Mysterio Jr. vs The Ultimate Dragon but it just wasn’t anywhere close. I thought it was an average Dean Malenko match, which are good matches by default, but this was not a match that played to Psychosis’ strengths at all. Malenko was good at being Dean Malenko but this didn’t do much to elevate Psychosis.

Apparently this was the first time this two had been in the ring together according to Tony. Dean tried an STF early on but Psychosis got the ropes. The announcers talked about how Regal apparently went to a time limit with Psychosis on WCW Saturday Night. and then Regal said Psychosis would win the cruiserweight title.

Dean tried to tie up the legs, but then grabbed the arms and turned it into a bridge. That was awesome. They traded arm drags. It was a very slow-paced match, which more mat based than high flying. For Psychosis that look out the lucha libre spots which hurt him.

Dean swept the leg and clutched onto it with a leg scissors. Psychosis returned the pressure. Eventually, they both rolled into to the ropes. They did a spot where Psychosis tried a springboard but Dean kicked at his leg so the luchador missed.

Then Psychosis tried a dive to the outside but lost his footing. It looked like a botch but this appeared to have played into the storyline to Dean working on the leg of Psychosis. Because Psychosis tried to do the spot so fast, it was hard to tell. I guess he knew his high-flying spots were so limited when the match was planned out so he wanted to get through the spots quickly as possible so he could get all of his spots in. I’m not entirely sure.

Dean tried a headscissors but the luchador got the rope. I like how instead of doing a simple leg drop, Dean bounced off the rope, jumped onto the middle rope and then came down with a leg drop. Dean needed that extra bounce for a little bit extra impact.

Dean wrenched on the leg like singe leg Boston crab Liontamer. Dean did the powerbomb and went for the Texas Cloverleaf but Psychosis got the rope. There seemed to be some miscommunication where Dean did a dropkick but Psychosis didn’t seem to sell it at first. They tried a monkey flip but both men got sent over the top rope.

Pscyhosis dropped Malenko with a backbreaker. Psyschosis did a corkscrew to the floor which did look awesome. Pscyhosis did a springboard leg drop for a 2 count.

OK, now to discuss a big pet peeve of mine. Malenko worked on Psychosis’s leg the entire the match up until this point. Psychosis then ran wild. He does all of these athletic spots and lucha libre spot with seemingly no difficulty. The announcers then kept talking about the damage to the legs of Psychosis after Psychosis went like 5 minutes without selling the leg at all.

If you’re going to lay out a match where a luchador will get his legs taken out to prevent him from flying around, make sure the man sells his leg. Psychosis was out there pretending like the first ten minutes or so never happened. If your leg is hurt, you can’t run around and do all of these high spots. Heck, I went to the gym for the first time in three months recently after this lockdown and my arms ached because I haven’t done intense workouts like that in so long. My arms hurt so my ability to certain things was limited. Psychosis is pretending like the ten minutes of Malenko destroying his leg were not a concern at all. Get out of here.

Psychosis did a top rope frankensteiner. Psychosis tried a suplex but this was reversed into a small package. Dean tried a tombstone to which Pyschosis reversed this and then Dean reversed that reversal to deliver the tombstone but it was for a two count. That was an awesome spot. Dean did a roll up with a bridge for the clean pinfall victory.

I feel bad for not liking the match more because I really should have. I love watching Malenko getting the heat on someone. There were some awesome spots in between. However, when things like Malenko getting the heat are made irrelevant by Psychosis no selling it and there’s a few botched spots in between, it’s hard to go out there and say this was a great match. It wasn’t. It was a good match I guess but it had the potential to be more.

Match Rating: **3/4

 

“The Outsiders” Kevin Nash © and Scott Hall © vs “The Nasty Boys” Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags vs “The Faces of Fear” The Barbarian and Meng w/Jimmy Hart for the WCW Tag Team Championship

This match was simultaneously the match I wanted to see from these teams and the match I didn’t want to see from these teams! We’ve got three big hard-hitting teams fighting for the tag titles. They had TREMENDOUS brawling where they clobbered into each other like mad men. It’s everything I wanted on that front. It also had triangle tag team match rules to contend with and it felt like whoever put this match together had zero idea of how this type of match should be booked.

I think WWE nowadays currently uses a formula where in a triple threat tag, one member from each of the three teams are legal in the ring wrestling in a triple threat style which negates the problem I’m about to talk about. However, typical triple threat tag matches have two men in the ring from two teams with everybody else around the ring. You can tag out to ANYBODY whether it be your partner or one of the other tag teams.

This rule of the match made this match so difficult to keep up with. These men running in to fight each other was all great but it made this match so difficult to keep up with. Dudes would just in and attack each other. It even got to the point when two members of the same team got tagged in at the same time, which I will get into. It made this title match a mess of a match structurally.

The Nasty Boys actually attacked the Outsiders before the Faces of Fear even came out. Even before the match started, the fighting just starts between these teams. The Nasty Boys actually kicked their arses and sent them packing which was shocking to see. They portrayed the Nasty Boys as such geeks when they were trying to join the nWo and now they’re beating up Nash and Hall like it’s just another day in the office.

The Faces of Fear’s music played and they came out to fight. There was a bandage on Brian Knobbs had on his head as Bobby claimed Knobbs was a brain donor. The Faces of Fear charged at the Outsiders as Scott Hall got beat up by the Nasty Boys. Everybody gets in the ring to fight. The Faces of Fear and Nasty Boys then beat each other up. Then the Outsiders just stood watching it, with Scott Hall even shrugging his shoulders like “why should we get involved? There’s no need for us to get involved. Let these two teams beat each other up and we’ll pick up the scraps.” The match did start off with an awesome fight with the three tag teams. I’m not going to lie.

The Faces of Fear just started clobbering Knobbs so Jerry Sags just ran in and fists continued to being thrown. The Outsiders just applauded on as these two other wild tag teams beat each other up. Kevin Nash tagged himself in. Nash drove knees into the gut of Knobbs. Hall tagged in. I guess Meng tagged himself him because then he beats up Knobbs in the ring randomly.

The Barbarian and Hall fight. Barbarian beat up Scott Hall for a while. Meng got tagged in as he beat up Hall for a while. Hall tagged in the Nasty Boys. Everybody started fighting everybody and got into a wild brawl. The fans popped for a lot of the brawling too. It ended up with the Nasty Boys and Faces of Fear tangled up in like a rugby “scrum” according to the announcers as the Outsiders smiled on.

Nash and Barbarian fight ast he two tallest men in the match. Then suddenly, Barbarian and Meng are both tagged into the ring to face each other… even though they are team mates. It’s explained that Meng has to tag out to Brian Knobbs because two members of the same tag team can’t wrestle each other! Let’s all remember that ladies and gentlemen.

Then Outsiders and Faces of Fear get into a big fight. The match kind of died down for a while. Meng hit a piledriver. Meng voluntarily tagged Scott Hall for god knows what reason. This always bothered me. If I was in this match and the rules was that I had to be tagged in order to be legally able to get the win, why would I tag out? Why would I tag out to another tag team? All the Outsiders and Nasty Boys would need to do is not tag in the Faces of Fear and they can have a clear cut winner and you’d prevent someone else from winning.

Apparently Sags low-blowed Hall which was not a disqualification. Knobbs tried to Irish whip Meng but Meng just punched him right in the gut! You could hear the sound of this punch from the rafters! It was just a hard smack/

Then Knobbs and Meng tag both members of The Outsiders because I guess they wanted Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to fight. When Meng and Barbarian were tagged in earlier on in the match, I thought back to a match at WWE SummerSlam 2015 where the New Day were both tagged in during a similar match and tried to pin each other. I felt that was a cool concept, even if it didn’t make any sense. They exploited the rules to their advantage. Then the announcers explained that Meng had to tag out so I assumed that spot wouldn’t happen.

Therefore, the Outsiders are in the ring together. The tag teams both leave the apron to make sure the Outsiders fight each. These two other tag teams came off as the dumbest geeks on the planet. Because Tony explained that if the Outsiders pin each other they retain the tag titles. Well lo and behold, Nash laid down for Hall as they try to pin each other to retain the titles. Thankfully, the other tag teams broke it up. You allowed these two to try and pin each other and you genuinely believed they were gonna fight? Why would the Outsiders just start fighting each other? That wouldn’t have made even less sense. Why would they fight each…for pride? THEY’RE THE NEW WORLD ORDER. So of course, they try to pin each other and the other WCW tag teams come off like geeks. All four of them. Meng, The Barbarian, Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags.

Jimmy Hart gets on the apron. Tony asked: “whose legal” and then Bobby responded: “Jimmy Hart I think”. Hall used Jimmy Hart’s megaphone and Nash hits a jackknife powerbomb for the win. The match got a bit ridiculous although started off well. Things were falling part, it was hard to keep track of who was legal. It was a train-wreck but the crowd were very much into it and there was some decent action.

Match Rating: **

 

The WCW World War III Battle Royal to determine the number one contender for Hollywood Hogan’s WCW World Heavyweight Championship

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Carl Ouellet vs. Konnan vs. Rick Steiner vs. Ron Studd vs. The Barbarian vs. Mike Enos vs. Kevin Nash vs. Arn Anderson vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Benoit vs. Lord Steven Regal vs. Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs. Jimmy Graffiti vs. Booker T vs. Lex Luger vs. Big Bubba Rogers vs. Meng vs. Kevin Sullivan vs. The Giant vs. Juventud Guerrera vs. Chris Jericho vs. Alex Wright vs. Scott Norton vs. Scott Hall vs. Jacques Rougeau vs. Mr. JL vs. Pez Whatley vs. M. Wallstreet vs. Scotty Riggs vs. Hugh Morrus vs. Disco Inferno vs. Galaxy vs. Syxx vs. Ultimate Dragon vs. Bobby Eaton vs. Jim Duggan vs. Ice-Train vs. Ciclope vs. Villano IV vs. Stevie Ray vs. Squire David Taylor vs. Steve McMichael vs. Bunkhouse Buck vs. Kaos vs. Ruckus vs. La Parka vs. The Renegade vs. Johnny Grunge vs. Prince Iaukea vs. Jim Powers vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Joe Gomez vs. Tony Rumble vs. Jack Boot vs. Mark Starr vs. Road Block

What a miserable battle royal and what a miserable viewing experience if you watched this back like me. It was the worst experience in the world trying to take notes and properly review this battle royal. There was six announcers out there and even they had a difficulty figuring out what was going on. Calling a match with 20 people in one ring would be hard enough. These announcers had to simultaneously call 60 wrestlers fighting each other within 3 rings.

The rules were like last year. You have 60 wrestlers divided into 20 wrestlers in 3 separate rings. Once one of the rings were down to ten men, those men would jump into Ring #2 I believe and then eventually, one man would be left standing in one ring to win the match.

I did make a list of the announcers predictions in case anyone was wondering Marshall picked Kevin Nash, Larry said Lex Luger, Dusty and Mike Tenay also said Luger, Bobby picked Dean Malenko and Tony Schiavonie picked The Giant.

Let’s talk about the way they presented this match because it is important to the start of this match! There was split screens for all three rings so all the action could be shown at the same time. Chris Benoit comes out all bruised up. Lee Marshall talked about what happened in Baltimore like we’re supposed to have any idea what happened. I have no idea what happened in Baltimore. I just know Benoit and Taskmaster were supposed to have a match but it got cut. Marshall I guess explained that Taskmaster beat him up the night before or whatever.

Taskmaster ended up bring the last match to come out. At Ring #3, Benoit jumped Taskmaster outside of the ring. The Faces of Fear and Four Horsemen all fight on the outside except for Jeff Jarrett which I will get to later. Benoit and Taskmaster punch at each other and fight in the crowd as everyone gets into the crowd to break it up

The match started in the three rings. Rather than show the split screen of three different rings, they have to have only one of the screens show the battle royal. The other screens are showing this fight between Taskmaster and Benoit in the crowd! WHAT?

They fight on the steps. Benoit sends Bubba crashing down the stairs. It’s just Benoit up there, I have no idea where Arn and Mongo were because they were fighting with Benoit earlier. They eventually reappear. Taskmaster used the Canadian flag as  a weapon. Mongo fought with Taskmaster. Other Dungeon members ganged up on Benoit. Konan beat up Benoit on the table as the Faces of Fear use a chair.

Lee Marshall suddenly got attacked amongst the conflict! If it’s not bad enough that a ten man brawl breaks out on the outside as fifty men fight within 3 rings, an announcer has to take a bump! So much happened and it did nothing to elevate this battle royal! Remember when Tony was such a pussy on Nitro and didn’t want be out there being pushed around by Nash and Hall. Lee has taken a beating like a champ and it’s not even from the nWo!

Anyway, the Dungeon of Doom and the Four Horsemen were disqualified. 1/6 of the field of this battle royal was eliminated without being thrown over the top rope! This was one of the worst moments of any battle royal in the history of battle royals! It made me hate World War III battle royals with a passion and I had little desire to watch the rest of this battle royal! However, I stuck with it!

Tony Rumble was eliminated from Rumble #1, Ciclope I think was shown eliminated but the announcers didn’t even know if Ciclope was eliminated. That’s how much they knew about what was going on. None of the announcers knew what was going on until it came down to ten men. Marshall scolded Larry for just standing there as Marshall got his arse kicked.

Mike Enos was eliminated but this was never shown. La Parka was eliminated by Lex Luger as one of the first eliminations of the match.… La Parka got a big win on his Nitro debut and he was one of the first guys eliminated. That tells you how much that victory elevated his WCW career!

Jimmy Grafitti, The Renegade and Galaxy were all eliminated by the nWo I believe. Juventued and Jericho wrestled for the suplex to the floor but Jericho threw him back into the ring despite the objective of the match being to throw men OVER the top rope.

The nWo wasted little energy but gathered in the corner, taking cheap shots when they could. There were only four members of the group in this match. No idea what happened to bogus Sting or why Vincent wasn’t wrestling.

Luger eliminated Kenny Kaos. The Giant eliminated Joe Gomez. Mike Tenay said Ron Studd was being a big factor in whatever ring he was in. I don’t think he’d eliminated anyone by this point! At this point, at least each ring was not as clustered as they were at the start of the match.

Disco Inferno was running around at ringside so I assumed he was eliminated but then he got back into the ring. So… if there’s one thing this match didn’t need is Disco randomly running around and me not knowing if he was eliminated or not. The Giant and Roadblock had a showdown as Giant kicked him and then clotheslined him over the top rope to a huge pop. Mr JL was also eliminated.

Disco tried to gain favour with Rey but then suckered him for a beating. Scott Hall interrupted and then Rey took advantage to clobber Disco. Rey pushed Disco under the bottom rope but Disco was not eliminated

In Ring #1, everyone ran wild on Ron Studd with Stinger Splashes and punches. Luger hit one big forearm and then he collapsed. All of the men in the first ring jumped onto of Ron Studd for god knows what reason. I was hoping for a roar spot but I don’t even think we got that. The action in Ring #1 just slowed down to a standstill!

Ouelett, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Rogueau were all eliminated while the patriotic Canadians and American fought each other. Eddie Guerrero and Steven Regal both seem to be eliminated although the announcers couldn’t confirm this. They didn’t have a clue. The American Males were definitely eliminated and they bickered at each other on the floor.

Dave Taylor was eliminated by Alex Wright and M. Wallstreet eliminated by DDP. Marshall claimed Scott Steiner was out and I was completely taken back because I HAD NO IDEA Scott was in this match. I was amazed that he was in the battle royal and I missed him. As is turned out, Scott Steiner wasn’t even in the match! Either Marshall just made it up or meant to say Scott Norton but screwed it up. That’s how bonkers this match was. The announcers appeared to just be guessing who was in this match!

Juventud Guerrera was eliminated. Eddie was still out there so I had no idea what was going on. Tony asked does anyone know what’s going on. DDP and Eddie are fighting on the outside. REGAL WAS STILL IN THE RING. At this point. I was just clueless as to who was actually eliminated. The announcers had no idea who was eliminated. Suddenly all the men wrestled in the same ring to make things even more cluttered.

JACK BOOT got eliminated who I swear was eliminated earlier. I could have sworn he was one of the first people to be eliminated but apparently not! Johnny Grunge got eliminated. The nWo stayed close together in one corner. Jack Boot and Grunge fought on the outside.

Jeff Jarrett eliminated Dean Malenko. Speaking of Jeff Jarrett. On the Nitro before this PPV, Ric Flair claimed Jeff Jarrett was a member of the Four Horsemen and the other Horsemen just had to accept it. Jeff’s first outing as a Horsemen endorsed by Ric Flair was that he did nothing while the other Four Horsemen were beat up seven men at the start of the match. He selfishly stayed to try and win this match! What a Horsemen he turned out to be.

DDP threw Pittman over the top rope. Booker T was eliminated by someone. Rick Steiner almost eliminated Disco but he held on. Nash finally eliminated Disco. Buckhouse Buck gone, Stevie Ray gone, Ron Studd was eliminated by Lex and Wright, Rick Steiner eliminated. Ultimo Dragon was eliminated by Mysterio with a headsicssors. Luger eliminated Wright. Jericho eliminated. Rick Steiner tried getting back in the ring. I was still in the dark as to who was eliminated or not as Rick is just trying to get back in the ring!

Ice Train, in a sweet looking Big E singlet, was eliminated. There was then a nWo vs WCW showdown as the spit screen finally ended. Hall spat at Jeff. DDP was in the middle and he charged at Eddie. DDP Irish Whipped Eddie into Regal who tossed out Eddie. Giant lifted Rey with one hand and thew him into Eddie which the fans popped big for. That was impressive.

Scott Hall tried an Outsiders Edge on Jarrett I think but Regal saved him. Nash clotheslined Jeff over the top rope anyway. Regal eliminated DDP but eventually the nWo eliminated Regal. At least the WCW Television Champion Steven Regal got a great performance in and made the finally six of this match!

It was down to Luger all on his own against Giant, Hall, Nash and Syxx. 4 on 1. Luger ran wild with clotheslines. Giant got stuck on the top rope and Luger lifted him up temporarily for the Torture Rack but the nWo made the save. Hall was eliminated when Luger reversed the Outsiders Edge, Syxx was eliminated with a  Gorilla Press. Luger did a Torture Rack on Nash but Giant knocked both Luger and Nash over the top rope to win the World War III battle royal.

The finish was tremendous. Lex Luger overcoming all the odds and looking an absolute killer, even as he was about to be overwhelmed, was great to see. He got so over with this crowd. He nearly beat all the nWo by himself, just like Sting at War Games, but he was overwhelmed. If Sting was in the ring and if he and Luge were on the same page, maybe they could have won this World War III battle roya. However, one man could not beat four so the nWo. I thought it was awesome when it come to the final five.

Bobby Heenan claimed this was the greatest battle royal he’d ever seen which was incorrect. Thee were fireworks galore as the nWo win World War III.

One of the worst battle royals I’ve ever seen although the ending was pretty great and at the end of the day, the finish was what the people remember from this battle royal. ON those grounds it gets half a star as it was the one redeeming quality of this match.

Match Rating: 1/2*

That was World War III. I just got depressed after that battle royal was over because I realised there was two more World War III PPVs that WCW produced so we’re gonna get to watch two more of these battle royals yet again. Thank god for Ultimate Dragon vs Rey Mysterio this had all the potential to be an all-time horrible PPV. However, I think that match and the finish to the battle royal saved the show in a lot of ways.

 

 

WCW Nitro Reading Order

• #1 – September 4th 1995
• #2 – September 11th 1995
• WCW Fall Brawl 1995 – September 17th 1995
• #3 – September 18th 1995
• #4 – September 25th 1995
• #5 – October 2nd 1995
• #6 – October 9th 1995
• #7 – October 16th 1995
• #8 – October 23rd 1995
• WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 – October 29th 1995
• #9 – October 30th 1995
• #10 – November 6th 1995
• #11 – November 13th 1995
• #12 – November 20th 1995
• WCW World War III 1995 – November 26th 1995
• #13 – November 27th 1995
• #14 – December 4th 1995
• #15 – December 11th 1995
• #16 – December 18th 1995
• #17 – December 25th 1995
• WCW Starrcade 1995 – December 27th 1995
• #18 – January 1st 1996
• #19 – January 8th 1996
• #20 – January 15th 1996
• #21 – January 22nd 1996
• #22 – January 29th 1996
• #23 – February 5th 1996
• WCW Superbrawl VI – February 11th 1996
• #24 – February 12th 1996
• #25 – February 19th 1996
• #26 – February 26th 1996
• #27 – March 11th 1996
• #28 – March 18th 1996
• WCW Uncensored 1996 – March 24th 1996
• #29 – March 25th 1996
• #30 – April 1st 1996
• #31 – April 15th 1996
• #32 – April 22nd 1996
• #33 – April 29th 1996
• #34 – May 6th 1996 (Nitro)/May 6th 1996 (RAW)
• #35 – May 13th 1996
• WCW Slamboree 1996 – May 19th 1996
• #36 – May 20th 1996
• #37 – May 27th 1996
• #38 – June 3rd 1996
• #39 – June 10th 1996
• WCW The Great American Bash 1996 – June 16th 1996
• #40 – June 17th 1996
• #41 – June 24th 1996
• #42 – July 1st 1996
• WCW Bash At The Beach 1996 – July 7th 1996
• #43 – July 8th 1996
• #44 – July 15th 1996
• #45 – July 22nd 1996
• #46 – July 29th 1996
• #47 – August 5th 1996
• WCW Hog Wild 1996 – August 10th 1996
• #48 – August 12th 1996
• WCW Clash of the Champions #33 – Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair
• #49 – August 19th 1996
• #50 – August 26th 1996
• #51 – September 2nd 1996
• #52 – September 9th 1996
• WCW Fall Brawl 1996 – September 15th 1996
• #53 – September 16th 1996
• #54 – September 23rd 1996
• #55 – September 30th 1996
• #56 – October 7th 1996
• #57 – October 14th 1996
• #58 – October 21st 1996
• WCW Slim Jim’s Halloween Havoc 1996 – October 27th 1996
• #59 – October 28th 1996
• #60 – November 4th 1996 (Nitro)/November 4th 1996 (RAW)
• #61 – November 11th 1996
• #62 – November 18th 1996