RETRO EXPRESS: WCW NITRO #59 (OCTOBER 28TH 1996) – THE NIGHT AFTER “ROWDY” RODDY PIPER DEBUTED IN WCW

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.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1996 went down in Las Vegas, Nevada. The New World Order dominated with a 4-0 victory in wrestling matches during that pay-per-view. The Giant defeated Jeff Jarrett by disqualification, Syxx defeated Chris Jericho after Nick Patrick shenanigans, The Outsiders won the WCW Tag Team Championship and Hollywood Hogan defeated “Macho Man” Randy Savage to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. At the end of the night, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper appeared to confront Hogan as they yelled back and forth up until the end of the show.

 

What a miserable follow up to Halloween Havoc this Nitro was. I have been very complimentary of Nitros as of late but this was a filler episode to end all episodes of Nitros. Nothing matches, nothing angles and an absolute waste of a closing segment involvement Hollywood Hogan’s “response” to Rowdy Roddy Piper’s comments from Halloween Havoc. There’s no way you watched that final segment and, even as a hardcore nWo fan, could think Hogan’s shenanigans were cool. More on that later but that segment was just adding to the pile of a not interesting episode of Nitro at all.

 

Date: October 28th 1996

Brand: WCW

City: Phoenix, Arizona

Rating: 3.6

Commentators (First Hour): Tony Schiavonie and Larry Zbyszko

Commentators (Second Hour): Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

 

A few things to address before we get started. “Macho Man” Randy Savage was off the show tonight. The reason, as I discussed at the end of the Halloween Havoc 1996 review, was that his contract was coming up with WCW and he had not re-signed. Just like Mean Gene Okerlund, he was off the show until he eventually would re-sign later on. I think he’s actually back in WCW pretty shortly because I’m pretty sure he’s there for early 1997 for WCW. However, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Also, it was explained throughout the show that “Rowdy” Roddy Piper was not officially associated with WCW. Eric Bischoff and Tony Schiavonie both explained that Piper was allowed “five minutes” to come and say his peace at the PPV but he went too long in his promo with Hogan. However, Bischoff was adamant that Piper was not with WCW. He’s considered a free agent just like Sting. We’ll get more into free agents later on in the show…

 

Lord Steven Regal © vs Juventud Guerrera for the WCW Television Championship

I can’t say there was much too this match. There were so many shenanigans going on outside of this match that there was no reason to pay attention to the match. Keep in mind that this match was for the WCW TELEVISION CHAMPIONSHIP.

Sting was shown up in a luxury box high above the fans watching the show. He was not quite in the rafters yet but he was high up there watching the show. Larry Zybszko said it but it really was the case where Sting looked like he had no soul with the facial expressions being displayed by the Stinger. He sat there with no expression to his face, watching the product.

The nWo’s Syxx grabbed the mic within the crowd and welcomed everyone to nWo Nitro. Syxx talked about taking over. There was a dude in a gorilla mask right behind him that made me laugh. Syxx told Sting to make the right choice.

The wrestlers were completely distracted as Regal kept looking on at Syxx as he applied a hold. A Regal tiger powerbomb was reversed into a frankensteiner. Juvi missed a 450 splash, to which Regal did a shimmy in celebration! Regal did a big dance and locked on a Regal Stretch for the clean submission victory to retain the title. A couple of sentences to describe this match for this review. What more is there to say when Sting and Syxx were just doing their own thing up in the crowd? Why would anyone care about a four minute television title match?

The Faces of Fear were promoting the WCW Nitro t-shirt. This was a great commercial where the Faces of Fear said whatever they were saying in their native language and they had on screen subtitles. I will write down word for word what they said:

The Barbarian: Take it from us, the Faces of Fear, these are trendy shirts!

Meng: They’re 100% cotton, and the colors stay vibrant wash after wash. And they feel great.

The Barbarian: Of course, one size fits all…

Meng: …so buy the shirt! (Meng laughs… ha ha ha ha)

There’s so many layers to this. I wish I had an app or some technology to translate what they said to see if they actually said what the subtitles claimed. The idea of the Barbarian talking about “trendy shirts” and Meng talking about vibrant colors is the funniest thing to me! What’s even funnier to think about is how this all went down in kayfabe! The Dungeon of Doom were approached by WCW guys to promote the shirts and I guess Taskmaster allowed THE BARBARIAN AND MENG to do the job! The two most savage and non English speaking members of the group promoting this shirt! Unreal!

 

Tony was about to interview Regal. Tony talked about Sting and Sting had left his sky box. Tony promised the interview with Regal after the break as Regal had already made his way to the back. They came back from the break…. and they had had already moved on to the next match! Poor Tony, he had no idea what was going on! Regal surely had no idea what was going on. There was supposed to be an interview then there wasn’t supposed to be an interview! Either that or Regal just decided that enough was enough after that Syxx and Sting business!

 

DDP vs Mike Enos

This was a decent enough match. I don’t rate Mike Enos that highly but he was completely fine here. DDP was able to get a decent match out of the guy and if you’re able to get a decent match out of Mike Enos and make him look good, at least for this match, then more power to you.

Enos played babyface for a while, sending himself and DDP over the top rope with a clothesline and getting pumped up with the crowd. DDP quickly regained the heat. DDP hit a sit-out powerbomb for a 2 count. It’s weird that I see wrestlers on this show win with all kinds of moves. Sting would change the finish every week from the Scorpion Deathlock, a top rope crossbody to small packages to win his matches. Yet in this match, DDP does near fall spots with Mike Enos of all people because he could only win with the Diamond Cutter! It’s so crazy to see that kind of psychology with just about everyone Page was in the ring with.

DDP hit a top rope clothesline as the fans got distracted by the Outsiders appearing in the crowd with the WCW tag team titles that they won at Halloween Havoc. DDP tried a Diamond Cutter but Enos cut him off and hit a belly to belly suplex. Enos hit a “reverse jawbreaker” and Enos called for the Outsiders come down to the ring. Esso dropped DDP throat first onto the ropes. Enos hit a short arm clothesline. Enos again called the Outsiders down to the ring. Enos hit a powerslam for a 2 count. Enos tried a powerslam but DDP hooked his legs on the top rope and hit a Diamond Cutter for the win out of nowhere as Tony noted that the Outsiders were cheering for DDP.

Decent match and a slick finish as usual from Diamond Dallas Page. With the Outsiders trying to recruit DDP, this appears to be the start of a babyface turn for DDP. He’s been the cockiest heel in the world for the last year but he got over so big with his Diamond Cutter and now, the push for even greater things begins for DDP! At a time where Sting is in the rafters and Savage is gone for now, this was time for WCW to build up some new babyfaces!

 

Jim Powers w/Teddy Long vs Dean Malenko

The announcers put over big about how Dean Malenko, the mat-based wrestler/technical wrestler, was able to beat the high flyer Rey Mysteiro Jr.at his own game at Halloween Havoc, beating him in the air with a top rope gutwrench powerbomb to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. They put him over big time after his big win which is great.

AC Greene was at ringside again in a nWo shirt.  Nick Patrick was once again the referee for a Teddy Long client match… more on that storyline later when Nick Patrick does his interview with his lawyer. Powers was able to use his size to take Malenko down with a headlock takeover.

Powers ran wild with hip tosses and scoop slams. Psychosis was shown on the ramp, who was injured at this time but was interested in the cruiserweight championship. Larry said “muscles don’t make the wrestlers” which made Vince McMahon livid somewhere in 1996.

Malenko took over. Malenko got the heat on Powers. Powers did the atomic drop and ran wild with turnbuckle smashes. Powers got a few 2 counts. Powers hit the powerslam which he flat out just called the “powerslam”. It’s got to help with creativity if you have POWERS as part of your wrestler name.

He hit the move but Teddy Long was yelling at Nick Patrick so Patrick was distracted. Then Malenko got the bridge pinfall and was able to score the pin. Teddy Long and Nick Patrick argued yet again. I AM SO SICK OF THIS. Again… more on that later.

The match was fine up until the same old ending with Teddy Long and Nick Patrick.

 

Ricky Morton vs Jeff Jarrett

I made history with this match. After 16 years of watching wrestling, this is the very first time where I have ever watched a Ricky Morton singles match! I was blown away when I saw they were gonna have Ricky in a singles match with Jeff Jarrett. Not even that, it was a decent old-school wrestling match with Jeff Jarrett.

This is the beauty of having such a big roster for WCW. If you have so many unique wrestlers on the payroll, there’s so much potential for interesting match-ups that you wouldn’t think to put on. Having looked at whatever that roster was at the time, Jeff Jarrett vs Ricky Morton would not be anywhere near my show format! However, it was on this show and I wouldn’t have thought to do that. That’s sublime actually to think so outside of the box that it catches people off guard.

There was some great spots where Jarrett kept trying to get out of an arm lock but Morton clutched onto the hold, even when Jarrett tried a scoop slam. Jarrett eventually got out of it This match was going along fine but there was one spot where they even struggled to do a suplex together. It wasn’t like a straight vertical line or a flip. Jarrett got him up in the air but Morton wavered in the air before coming crashing down.

Jarrett did a top rope crossbody but Morton reversed it and almost got the pin. Jarrett did a swinging neck breaker. Jarret tried a figure four leg lock but Morton rolled him up for a 2 count. Morton tried a sunset flip. Jarrett did the shinbreaker and then did a Figure Four Leg Lock for the win.

It was weird because Jeff Jarrett has been a blue collar babyface since he arrived in WCW. He’s in there with a fellow babyface and he worked the match like a completely heel. He was basically doing Ric Flair spots en route to winning the match.

The Giant was out in the crowd and talked about how Jarrett thought he was the newest member of the Four Horsemen. He said the Horsemen didn’t pass the torch to Jarrett, they passed a wet mat. Giant called the Horsemen pathetic and they banded together like a pack of rats. He said they weren’t bad, they were afraid. They fight scared, they walk scared and they were scared. Their was day was coming. He talked about Jarrett and said his hands were gonna wrap around his neck as he lifted him up and BAMN… the end of Jeff Jarrett. He told everybody to check the closet, look under the bed and say their prayers because there’s a monster behind your back. A SOLID PROMO.

This was a true redemption promo from The Giant. He cut a bad promo in my eyes at Halloween Havoc but this was one was quite the opposite. He showed a lot more passion, a lot more fire and he sounded a lot more confident on the mic. Everything he said was true in the confides of the storyline. The Four Horsemen ganged up on Giant five on one at the PPV and Giant called them out for banding together “like a pack of rats”. He was just allowed to be his old self again with this promo. So I don’t know if Giant himself was just in the mindset of “I’ve got be my old self again to make this work” or whatever. It worked tonight with his promo.

Jarrett called out Giant to come down to the ring but Giant had left by this point. Jarrett said The Giant would not chokeslam him and he didn’t do it at Halloween Havoc. So in Jarrett’s mind, his claim to fame from Halloween Havoc was that Giant didn’t chokeslam him. Keep in mind that The Giant beat his ass for 12 minutes or however long that match was and Jeff would have been chokeslammed if it weren’t for Ric Flair. However, he was just happy he didn’t get chokeslammed. He came off as such a geek. Shouldn’t you be annoyed that you didn’t get the job done because Ric Flair got involved in your match?

Jarrett had one challenge to Hogan and the nWo. The walls will crumble but WCW had to unite. He talked about Dungeon of Doom, Lex Luger, Sting. He rambled on about being a leader. Jarrett said Hogan will go down. He threw in a line where he claimed WCW was here since 1905 and WCW would remain for a long, long time. Now I checked and it appears Mr Ted Turner founded WCW in 11 October 1988 so I have no idea where Jarrett got 1905 from or what he was trying to reference to here.

The promo drifted off in the middle. This was a pretty crap promo from Jarrett as a rebuttal to a slam-dunk of a promo from The Giant. He did not come off good when this segment was over.

 

“High Voltage” Robbie Rage and Kenny Kaos vs “The Amazing French Canadians” Jacques Rogeau and Carl Oulette

These two teams fought for a few minutes with the fireworks going off for hour two during the match. None of it really mattered as the Nasty Boys ran in and beat them both up as the fans chanted for the Nasties. They hit a double powerbomb as they left both teams laying. This accomplished nothing other than to get, of all people, the NASTY BOYS over after they were made to look like complete geeks by the nWo a month ago.

Jerry Sags got the mic and talked about Hogan asking the Nasty Boys to join the nWo which was a big Hollywood Hogan lie. Sags said he and (Brian) Knobbs don’t need to belong. Sting doesn’t need to belong, Piper doesn’t need to belong. Knobbs said we may not be liked, we may not be wanted but one thing we are is nasty. They were nasty before the nWo was even a thought, before WCW was even a thought as they were born nasty. Knobbs made a reference to Buffer and yelled: “let’s get ready to rumble” to end the promo.

So the Nasty Boys are also supposedly free agents themselves just like Piper and Sting because, in kayfabe, they don’t belong anywhere! “We’re free agents because we’ve got nowhere else to go!”

 

ARE THE NASTY BOYS FACES OR HEELS?:  TWEENERS

I’m pretty sure this is the third instalment in this mini-series within the series where I assess where the Nasty Boys are faces of heels! At the very least, I can confidently say that they were definitely tweeners here. They laid out the babyface and heel tag teams regardless of their allegiances. They called themselves free agents and rid themselves of the nWo. Therefore, I think it is very safe to assume that the WCW officially are treating them as tweeners in the mean time. There was no clear indicator to suggest they were good or bad. They were just NASTY!

 

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Jimmy Graffiti

A good cruiserweight match yet again on Nitro. Jimmy Graffiti following up his performance with Dean Malenko last week to have a good match with Rey Mysterio this week.

Graffiti did an electric chair drop. Rey did a monkey flip. A cool spot saw Rey do a flip and then Grafitti tried a flip but got dropkicked for his troubles. Mysterio did a springboard moonsault into the ring. Rey took himself and Grafitti to the outside with the hurricanrana.

Graffiti took over with a hard Irish whip into the steel rail. Graffiti locked on a rest hold. Rey did the frankensteiner roll up for the win. I didn’t make a lot of notes for the match but there was enough entertaining stuff there to appreciate. Not as long as the Malenko match from last week but it was fun in its own right.

 

Lee Marshall did his 1-800-Collect deal from the grand rapids. AC Greene, wearing a nWo shirt, was shouting out to Nick Patrick in the ring.

 

Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit w/Woman

Maybe I’m alone in this but I really liked this match. I’ve seen people said they hated it because of the injury angle. I’m not sure about Chris Benoit but I’ve read that Eddie Guerrero legitimately got a rib injury on the night before so they played up an injury angle for both men. If you were gonna book a match where both men were meant to be injured, this was probably the best possible match you could have done.

Benoit and Eddie were both taped up for this match. Seeing Patrick being the referee for this bothered the hell out of me but at the very least, the Patrick shenanigans were kept to a minimum. Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Debra showed up on the ramp in support of fellow Horsemen Benoit.

Chris and Eddie were writhing in pain, with Eddie being barely able to move and Benoit screaming with agony feeling his ribs. This was like selling 101. How many matches do we see nowadays were we see dudes and women doing spots for like five minutes and then feeling their ribs I guess to “sell” their injuries? Listen, if you’re injured YOU’RE INJURED. You will not be able to do things at 100 miles an hour because you’re wounded. Eddie Guerrero could not do lucha libre spots because he had a bad rib. Every move was important and every bit of motion each men did impacted them, both positively and negatively. They sold for like 15-30 seconds after every move and you as a viewer would show concern for their well-being. I enjoyed this.

This was not a technically brilliant match but this was a FIGHT. This was like every Randy Savage vs Ric Flair match ever, and it was great to me. For example, a simple arm drag to get out on an abdominal stretch saw Guerrero in so much pain afterwards as he stayed on the floor and Benoit just continued to stomp on him. So simple and so effective to tell the story.

They chopped away at each other in the corner. Benoit and Eddie took each other out with a double crossbody, with both men smashing head first into each other. It was almost like a crossbody headbutt from both men!

Woman got on the apron to distract the referee Mongo got into the ring. Please keep in mind that Eddie has bad ribs legitimately heading into this match! Eddie covered his head, because Mongo kept hitting dudes in the head as of late with this blasted briefcase that he still has. This time Mongo hit Eddie in the ribs instead and Benoit got the pin. This was a lame finish to what looked to be a really interesting layout for a match. Mongo ran in to do a cheap briefcase spot for no other reason other than to get himself over on television. Bad finish to an otherwise great match.

Tony interviewed Nick Patrick and his attorney Alan Sharpe. Alan said Mr Nick Patrick has been an honest hard-working official at WCW. He gave professionalism to this sport. He was questioned for his refereeing in a highly controversial match between Savage and Hogan. It didn’t have to happen and he blamed Chris Jericho for this. Jericho supposedly attacked Patrick at Halloween Havoc I DON’T REMEMBER THIS. I don’t remember if it was the push Jericho gave him at Halloween Havoc or something else that happened but supposedly Jericho put his hands on Patrick and now it was his fault that Patrick was a bad referee in the main-event! I would love to see what evidence this Alan Sharpe would have used in court to validate this claim.

Chris Jericho came out and said there’s nothing wrong with Patrick’s neck. Jericho said everyone knew he was a paid employee with the nWo. Alan accused Jericho of having anger management problems. Teddy Long came out. Teddy said people like the attorney are like scam artists. Alan accused Teddy Long of slander and mentioned that Teddy was gonna get “pulp fiction” or something. They bicker and bicker and… this segment sucked.

This Nick Patrick vs Teddy Long storyline needs to die in a fire. I have seen it so many times. I realise this is not the longest on-going storyline for WCW at this point! The Col. Robert Parker and Sister Sherri stuff has been going on for A YEAR which we’ll get too. However, this feud between the referee and manager is just going absolutely nowhere. Yes, I am fine with a slow build for a program. There’s a difference between a slow build and what Patrick and Teddy were doing. This was the same thing OVER AND OVER again.

If you’re going to do a slow build, at the very least there needs to be SOME DEVELOPMENTS over time. I will compare this to the Bayley vs Sasha Banks 2018 feud where it felt like that feud lasted an eternity. That feud was so bad because there would be new “developments” or some big angle between the two every week and there was no direction. Sasha was mad at Bayley just because, Bayley would walk on Sasha just because, they would fight just because, they would get back together just because, they would do a segment with Dr Shelby just because and it made you hate both characters who were both acting irrationally in this screwed up friendship.

To WWE’s credit, they’re doing the slow build a lot better in 2020 with the same two women. However, going back to Patrick and Teddy, it’s not like there’s big angles going on each and every week. It’s the same thing over and it is another example of characters acting irrationally with no direction. There’s a fine line between doing new things every week and doing things every six weeks. You have to plan towards a destination but for the fans to get invested, the stories told each week must be relevant to the destination.

In a logically world, if Teddy Long had such a problem with Nick Patrick, it wouldn’t even get to the point where it has gotten to. Teddy would have at least put a complaint in against Nick Patrick, ask for a different referee or actually become a referee again himself to show Patrick how it’s done. If you’re Nick Patrick, and you have this prick of a manager getting involved in your match, you can throw him out of the match (which you have the powers to do), you can petition with the WCW board of directors to get his manager licence suspended or you could ask not to referee matches with his clients if you think there is a conflict of interest.

There’s no clear explanation that’s ever been given as to why Nick Patrick almost exclusively referees every Teddy Long client match. Therefore, there’s no reason why any of this is happening. Now granted, they’re doing a great job in not outright telling you that Nick Patrick is a crooked referee. Everything related to Patrick’s refereeing is circumstantial. There’s been no evidence of Patrick taking a bribe from the nWo or the heels or from anyone. In kayfabe, because we have no reason to believe otherwise, Patrick is just an incompetent referee!

We think he is intentionally screwing over the babyfaces but the fans and we as the viewers have not seen any physical evidence of him being in anyone’s pockets. You have that angle…. great. However, there is no need for this Teddy Long storyline over and over again. You just don’t.

….so yeah. That last segment was really bad.

 

Booker T w/Sister Sherri vs Lex Luger

Luger and Booker botched a Gorilla Press spot where Booker slipped from Luger’s grip. All the big men Luger’s done that spot with and it’s Booker that is the man he screws up this spot with. Booker was tall in his own right. He was not as tall as a lot of men in WCW or not even as wide but he was large compared to the average person.

Luger sent Booker outside with a clothesline. Sherri kept arguing with AC Greene in the crowd. A lot of this match was Luger beating on Booker and the fans were behind Luger during this. Luger did a reverse elbow as the show went to the break.

We came back and Booker had the heat on Luger. Luger turned Booker inside out with a clothesline. Booker hit a scissors kick for a 2 count. Booker hit a few side-walk slams. Booker tried the Houston hangover but Luger moved out the way… well he almost moved out of the way. He looked like he was clipped him in the head as Booker came own,

Luger fired up and went for the Torture Rack but he stopped. He looks towards the crowd and through super-human vision or x-ray vision, he was able to see Sting all the way up in the crowd watching this match. This was not quite the Wall/Hulk Hogan moment from 2000 but Luger saw Sting from so far away in the ring. Keep in mind that WCW were selling out big buildings at this time! So Sting is right up at the very top of the building and Luger can just see him!

Luger bailed and ran up to meet Sting in the crowd. Sting turned his back on Luger as Luger chased after him. Booker was declared the winner by count out. I should have known when the announcers made a big deal about how Lex Luger was on a roll that some silly finish was coming. Well here it is… Luger bailed on a match because he saw his friend who may as well have been on the moon with how far away he was! Slow, nothing match with a silly finish but at least the crowd was into Luger at this time.

 

They showed the ENTIRE Piper/Hogan confrontation from Halloween Havoc which I think was because not everybody watching the PPVwas actually able to see the whole confrontation. The segment was so long that it just cut out for people across the country so to be fair to them, they at least showed the whole thing on Nitro.

The nWo arrived with Hogan, Vincent, Ted DiBiase and The Giant. The lights were dimmed and Hogan got a spotlight. Hogan had demanded television time earlier. Hogan said we told you what was going to happen and there was no question in anybody’s eyes that the nWo is the only superior body in wrestling. He said they have conquered and won.  Hogan said: “The Nacho Man, if you’re watching from your hospital bed I have nothing but the utmost respect. But with all of WCW on your back, you couldn’t get the job done.”

Hogan said he was gonna take good care of Elizabeth for Savage. The Outsiders won the tag titles which put the icing on the cake. He said he saw the fear in Piper’s eyes. DiBiase then started talking and they referred to having something big planned for this moment which I guess they had planned for a while based on what they were saying. DiBiase’s idea was he decided to have Hogan entertain the loyal nWo fans. Hogan’s “entertainment” was that did his pose and ripped off his shirt to I guess give the fans a show. That was everything that happened in that final segment. Hogan talked for a few minutes, DiBiase talked and then Hogan just did his spiel. This was like a dark segment of a wrestling show that ended up as the main-event of the show by mistake.

This was the BIG FOLLOW UP to “ROWDY” RODDY PIPER DEBUTING IN WCW. The nWo didn’t even do a beatdown or have a big party or anything. Hogan came out, said a few things, flexed and left. What on earth was this segment?

I stand by my earlier assessment. There were some bad aspects to this show. There were a few decent matches but otherwise, there was nothing noteworthy that happened and Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero match wasn’t as good as you were expecting because they both had to work “hurt” as part of an angle. Surprisingly, this show did a 3.6 in ratings which was way more than the 3.2 last week. Quite an increase for I have no idea what reason. I’m guessing it’s down to it being the Nitro after the PPV. This was a filler episode of Nitro and it still crushed WWF Monday Night RAW in the ratings war.

SPEAKING OF WWF MONDAY NIGHT RAW. We will be doing something a big special for next week’s review of WCW Monday Nitro. For the first time since I think June 1996, we will be reviewing both RAW and Nitro head-to-head! I will be reviewing the November 4th 1996 editions of both shows to compare them because in case you were not aware, next week’s RAW is a pretty infamous episode!

This is a bit of a spoiler but this was the episode of RAW in which Stone Cold Steve Austin goes to Brian Pillman’s house! I’ve watched the segment of what actually happened. Austin invaded Pillman’s house and Pillman tried to defend himself. For the purposes of not spoiling things for people that have never seen this, I won’t go into any further detail. However, I feel I almost had to review this angle with Brian Pillman.

The Brian Pillman thing felt like the culmination of everything we’ve seen from him in WCW in this series where he was transforming into the loose cannon, everything he did in ECW and now the stuff he did with Austin. So yes, I think this is a RAW episode worth reviewing.

MAY THE BEST SHOW WIN!

 

WCW Nitro Reading Order

• #1 – September 4th 1995
• #2 – September 11th 1995
• WCW War Games 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 28th 1996

 

RETRO EXPRESS: WCW SLIM JIM’S HALLOWEEN HAVOC 1996 (OCTOBER 27TH 1996)

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 threat of the New World Order has grown larger and larger as the members of the group have grown larger and larger. In the last two months, The Giant, Ted DiBiase, Syxx, Vincent and a fake Sting have joined Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall’s conquest to take over the world. This included NASCAR racing and movie sets as shown in the last few months on Nitro.

A surprising new addition to the group was Miss Elizabeth, who it was revealed signed with the nWo which also messed with the psyche of “Macho Man” Randy Savage. In the week before Halloween Havoc and his title match against Hogan, Savage talked about life being fragile with an ominous threat heading into the big title match.

Yes, we have made it to Halloween Havoc 1996. We’ve entered the unstoppable reign of New World Order at the top and that was not made any more clearer than this pay-per-view. We’ve had Nitros where the nWo took over the show and we’ve had the nWo win impossibly handicapped situations but this was the big one where the nWo DOMINATED.

It wasn’t even just the New World Order that dominated to show either. If you look at WWE booking in 2020, all WWE cares about is getting heat for the heels. There are so many few babyfaces that get organically over as main-eventers in that company because the mindset is constantly to beat the good guys I guess because they did that to Daniel Bryan and he got unintentionally over.

However, I think I have found a source of inspiration for modern day writers of WWE television. This was a WCW PPV where there were no happy endings whatsoever. None. Every heel on the show was victorious in this PPV except Lex Luger. Even when Lex Luger beat Arn Anderson later on in the show, he refused to let go of the hold (which is a heel move) and the heel got a sympathetic stretcher angle. So there was no happy endings during this show at all.

However, if you’re not really obsessed about the booking of the show, this was a good pay-per-view. The opening match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship was awesome. The match was worth the price of admission and it wasn’t even the only good match on the show. We had some good matches across the board as well as the historic debut of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper at the end of the show. A notable and enjoyable pay-per-view.

 

Date: October 27th 1996

Brand: WCW

City: Las Vegas, Nevada

Attendance: 10,000

Commentators: Tony Schiavonie, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

 

One of the first things I heard was a massive beep which scared the death out of me as the show started. I had to pause the WWE Network because I thought it was something else but no, it was some horrible in-show sound as the show started. It was some kind of horrible beeping.

 

Rey Mysterio Jr. © vs Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship

For those who need a recap, Rey won this title from Malenko on the Nitro after Bash at the Beach. Malenko then beat up Rey and took his mask from him, carrying it down to the ring with him as a trophy. Here, we had the big rematch with the championship on the line. Rey had been the champion for 111 days heading into this match. Mike Tenay was on commentary for this one as is the case for seemingly every cruiserweight title match on WCW PPVs.

Dean attacked Rey before the bell and slammed him right on his shoulders with a back suplex. Dean hit a hard spinebuster and tried a Texas Cloverleaf but Rey spun out of it. There was about 90 seconds of awesome spots with some moves I wasn’t able to take down in my notes as it all happened at such a high pace. Dean did a snapmare but Rey landed on his feet. Rey did a springboard moonsault and Dean CAUGHT HIM in mid-air in a powerslam position. The fans were in bewilderment over these spots and words do not give it justice. If you go back and watch the first two minutes of this match, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking.

Malenko grabbed the mask he stole from Rey but Rey dropkicked him off the apron. Rey did a dive and then took off his own mask and replaced it with the mask Malenko stole from them and worked the match with a new mask on. I actually think that’s a cool concept that plays into the stolen mask storyline. Rey at least got some level of revenge.

Rey tried a headscissors but Malenko did a side-walk slam in a clever spot. Dean stopped him in mid-momentum and just dropped him with a slam. It looked sublime. There was one dangerous spot where Malenko got Mysterio in a suplex position but he threw him at the ropes. However Rey landed legs first on the ropes and he looked close to crashing head-first into the mat. It’s the curse of being so small that guys are able to throw you all over the place as Dean launched this man through the air and it nearly backfired in an ugly way.

Dean locked on a half-crab like submission. Malenko pulled on the leg and arm of Rey while putting his foot into the back of Rey for a further submission as Rey yelled about his back. Dean hit a back suplex from the top rope for a two count.

Dean locked on a neck scissors submission and it was clever because it didn’t look like he was squeezing Rey’s throat. Dean had his knees on either side of Rey’s head and looked he was squeezing his head with his knees like a vice grip. There was a different way to apply the hold other than just choking him with his legs. I liked that.

Dean missed a punch and Rey almost got the pin with a small package but Dean kicked ou.. Dean went back to work and did a backbreaker submission. Dean transitioned this into a camel clutch. Vintage fabulous submission wrestling from Dean Malenko being displayed. Dean did a slick looking tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Dean drove Rey’s back into the ring apron and threw him back into the ring after the match spilled out of the ring. Dean locked on a rear naked choke. Dean followed this up with a standing sleeper hold.

Rey fought back to his feet but Dean knocked him right back down with a kitchen sink. Dean did the quickest looking Northern Light suplex I’ve ever seen. It was a quick flip for Rey as he slammed down to the mat hard. Rey fired back to his feet. They battled on the top rope and knocked each other down to the floor.

I love how Rey got on Dean’s back and then he clobbered Dean’s face with big forearms to the face of the challenger. It looked great. Rey fired back with a springboard summersault senton.

Rey did a springboard corkscrew to Dean which Dean appeared to almost not be ready for as he briefly walked away from the ring. However, he was able to recover the spot. Rey did a West Coast Pop but Dean kicked out as the announcers noted no-one had ever kicked out of that move. Rey tried it a second time but Dean but him off with a sit-out powerbomb for a near fall which the fans bought as the finish. I bought this as the finish to be honest. A great near fall. Dean eventually got the victory with a gutwrench powerbomb from the top rope. That was an awesome match.

It was a great because…. THE BETTER MAN WON. It was not like they went back and forth or Rey was dominating him but Dean got a cheap win. Dean beat him outright clean and it was tremendous work. Go out of your way everybody to watch that match.

Match Rating: ****1/4 (Same rating as Wrestling Observer Newsletter and I totally agree)

 

Lee Marshall interviewed Jeff Jarrett. Jeff said the nWo didn’t impress him with monster trucks and jumping Flair. He said they haven’t done anything in the ring and he vowed Giant wouldn’t chokeslam him. Ric Flair walked in. Flair was on vibrate as he cut this promo about Savage and Jarrett taking out the nWo “all night long”.

 

Eddie Guerrero vs DDP in a battle for the ring

Nick Patrick was the referee for this match. This match revolved around the lord of the ring title, which Eddie defeated DDP for at Clash of the Champions. Eddie never actually had the ring as DDP stole it and walked away despite not actually being the lord of the ring anymore. Now, DDP was claiming he didn’t know where the ring was. However, the ring was still on the line for this match. I hope that catches everybody up if you’ve not been reading the WCW Nitro series for this blog and you happened to find this review on its own.

Things were heated as DDP spat at Eddie and Eddie punched away at DDP on the floor. They wrestled for a bit. Eddie took over DDP with a headlock takeover. DDP did a front face lock. DDP got stuck in the middle of the ropes and despite Patrick’s warning, Eddie pushed Patrick away and kicked DDP down to a big pop.

Eddie did a springboard senton. Eddie chopped DDP with sweat hitting the camera which is a trope with television and wrestling I’ve always enjoyed! The action was so intense that sweat was thrusted into the camera lens!

DDP tried a pin with his feet on the ropes but Patrick stopped him. DDP threw Eddie into the air and Eddie came right back down on his stomach with a “nose dive”. DDP did a waist-lock gutbuster. DDP did an abdominal stretch but Eddie got out it. DDP did a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker.

DDP actually pushed Patrick and Patrick pushed back to a ridiculously huge pop and Eddie tried a pin but got a two count. That was crazy to me that Patrick was monstrously hated during these WCW shows as of late but following one tease of a babyface turn, the fans lost their minds! These fans had hope for Nick Patrick!

Patrick chewed out DDP as DDP begged him off. Page shuck Patrick’s hand as he and Guerrero traded punches. DDP and Eddie traded roll ups. DDP missed a lariat as Eddie dodged but then DDP came back across with another lariat which the fans popped for. DDP did the slip-on-a-banana peel spot and almost landed right on his neck with even DDP feeling his head afterwards.

Eddie did the 10 punches in the corner and an uppercut to floor Page. Eddie did a top rope crossbody to the outside. DDP did the “flapjack” Styles Clash facebuster for a 2 count. DDP hit a spinning sit-out powerbomb for another 2 count.

Some fan I think yelled that DDP was nothing and DDP responded: “your mother’s nothing”. DDP hit the Diamond Cutter and Tony said that Eddie may have blocked it with his hands coming down, because I guess Tony believed Eddie was going to kick out and so he was covering DDP’s tracks. But then, DDP got the pin anyway! That was an awkward call from Tony! Eddie somehow blocked a DDP and got pinned in Tony’s eyes!

Patrick then went into his pocket to get the ring, gave the ring to DDP as he regained the ring. It turned out Nick Patrick had the ring all along.

This was a fine match. I’ve kinda changed my mind on the rating of this match a few times. A part of me thought it was great and another part of me thought it was a nothing match. It felt that the match didn’t really have a structure a lot of the time but there was some good drama near the end of the match. I liked the Nick Patrick hope spot and a lot of the moves were done really well. Therefore, I will give this three stars out of five. Not an exceptional match, but a decent enough match to watch in my eyes. Feel free to disagree but I didn’t see a lot of problems with this match.

Match Rating: ***

THIS WAS SOMETHING ELSE. Mike Tenay interviewed “Macho Man” Randy Savage to reveal the winner of the Slim Jim Sweepstakes for Halloween Havoc. The last time we saw “Macho Man” Randy Savage on WCW Nitro, he alluded to wanting to end the life of Hollywood Hogan at Halloween Havoc. He said life was precious,  he was all disturbed, very not Macho Man like and he was dressed in black. He was a changed man heading into this match.

Now we’re here at the PPV, with the main-event of the show centred around a blood feud and, because they have a Slim Jim advertisement deal, Savage started acting like typical Randy Savage. He’s all amped up and goofing around, 6 days after being morose and threatening to kill Hulk Hogan! This was quite a change of tone for the Macho Man. It’s funny what money will do to a man!

He was goofing around as he pulled out a name from this paper mache.  Joan McChellick was apparently the winner. Savage wanted to go on a date with the winner of the monster truck! It’s crazy that he’s making his moves on random women he’s never met before after like 2 months of this angle where Savage was obsessed with Elizabeth! I get you’ve got to do promotions with the sponsors like Slim Jim but give me a break. They sacrificed two months worth of storylines just so Savage can promote Slim Jim and give away a monster truck! This… was bullshit. 

 

We got a whole bunch of time-wasting angles between the DDP vs Eddie match and the next match. They plugged the WCW website and Chris Jericho doing CompuServe. I will be honest, I totally forgot that Jericho was wrestling on this show at this point. I say this because Jericho was in his ring gear doing the CompuServe thing and my notes read: “I’m assuming Jericho worked a pre-show because he was in his ring gear!” This was already promoted to me last week but he was wrestling Syxx on this show! I apologise to Chris Jericho from 23 years ago but surely Jericho would have a shirt on at least before his big match or when coming down to do CompuServe. He didn’t need to do this CompuServe thing topless!

Mike Tenay interviewed Dean Malenko after his big victory. Malenko mentioned that he said he was gonna be more focused than ever and he was not gonna leave this building without the title. He was a man of his word and Malenko said this is what he wanted, this is what he got and this is what he’s gonna keep. He said he was gonna take on all comers. This was a solid promo. I know Malenko has this reputation of not having a personality but he did a fine interview here. He got straight to the point as he told everyone to bring it on! A great way to hype up the new Cruiserweight title reign for the Man of 1000 Holds!

Ted DiBiase cut a promo with The Giant from the crowd. He cut a promo about Jeff Jarrett as The Giant was posing with the WCW United States Championship despite not officially being the champion. The Giant said he was gonna stick Jarrett to the wall, the ceiling, the floor and he was gonna chokeslam him right in the middle. He said when it’s all over, they’ll be no Jeff Jarrett or Horsemen. I wrote down “Everyone was gonna go to the glue factory” but I have no idea who said that line!

Remember a few months ago when The Giant was the WCW World Heayvweight Champion and he was cutting all of these great promos? He had such personality, he roared and he came off as a big deal. He’s now with the nWo and he’s cutting bland promo after bland promo and it’s not really The Giant’s fault. He’s the big man backing up Hogan but he has no direction or not character other than being Hogan’s bodyguard. He couldn’t do his Dungeon of Doom material and he couldn’t do “shoot” promos or clever promos like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Now he’s in a position where he can’t showcase his charisma which we knew for a fact he had based on those promos from before. This was a let down of a promo.

 

The Giant vs Jeff Jarrett w/Ric Flair

Going into this match, I didn’t expect much and the match very much met my expectations. You have Jarrett who is new to the company versus a green Giant. It’s the same Giant match we always see whenever he has to work a long match with a decent-enough worker. This did not need to go 10 minutes and Jarrett was not going to get a good 10 minute match out of the guy. It was also not gonna even lead up to a clean victory either way so what’s the point?

Tony explained his disgust in Nick Patrick for holding up the United States title that Giant was carrying to which Bobby responded that if The Giant told Tony to raise the belt, Tony would raise it. This was a solid point.

Ric Flair came out and they cut to the entrance ramp, and the first gravestone shown on camera as Flair comes out is a gravestone is called “Rick”. You cannot tell me that wasn’t just an elaborate rib on Ric! The FIRST GRAVESTONE they show and it’s Rick! I couldn’t tell you what the significance of these graves were as part of the Halloween Havoc set and I didn’t spot a pattern.

One of the commentary highlights of this show was Bobby explaining something and Dusty Rhodes yelled “I just said that” and Bobby responded, “yes but I’m doing it in English”. I love the chemistry between Dusty and Bobby during their exchanges. The fact these two only did PPVs together for WCW is a crime! Tony actually chime in saying: “That’s a good thing about your guys working together – it’s in stereo.” Bobby responded: “One in English and one in Cowpasture.” Tremendous banter.

Ric Flair was going crazy on the entrance ramp as Jarrett was out-manoeuvring Giant. Jarrett tried a head lock and then Giant lifted him high in the air threw him across the ring! Giant got some distance with this throw too and it looked very effective. Tony questioned why Jarrett would try a headlock on The Giant.

Giant threw Jarrett across the ring. Jarrett tried a sleeper hold on Giant’s back and Giant was struggling to get Jarrett off his back but he eventually crashed into the turnbuckle to get Jarrett off of him. There were big nWo chants. Giant was wobbly because of Jarrett but he eventually cut Jarrett off with a big boot to a big pop. It was a pretty decent looking big boot from The Giant too.

Ric Flair got in the ring and attempted to get a chair in the ring but was thwarted. Giant did a headbutt to the groin of Jarrett but referee Nick Patrick did not call it. Giant did a backbreaker submission.

Ric Flair grabbed a mic and commanded Jarrett to kick his nWo ass. Giant caught Jarrett in mid-air and did two backbreakers while staring right at Flair. This was a pretty boring match to be honest. Giant tried a bearhug, which was the moment where this was confirmed to be a boring match!

Jarrett tried a scoop slam but Giant was too big. Jarrett was able to floor Giant with a top rope crossbody but Giant threw Jarrett off of him when he went for the cover. Jarrett tried a Figure Four Leg Lock but Giant kicked Jeff out of the ring.

Giant tried to charge at Jarrett but Jarrett moved and as Jarrett moved out of the way, Giant crashed into the ring post. Jarrett did a Figure Four Leg Lock on the outside but Giant reached across to Jeff with a hand for the chokeslam but before he could deliver, Flair took off his jacket and did a low blow for the disqualification.

I hate this type of booking. WCW threw in two guys they were trying to protect but because of this, they didn’t want anyone to lose. Therefore, they did a disqualification despite it being clear that The Giant was the better man. If you have such a problem with picking a winner and a loser, why bother doing the match? This did nobody any favours. What the heck did Jarrett get from this match? Giant kicked his ass for ten minutes and he was saved by Ric Flair, who is INJURED! Why couldn’t you have just let The Giant get the win?

And if that wasn’t bad enough, The Four Horsemen ran down afterwards to help Flair and Jarrett from The Giant. Jarrett and Ric had a two-on-one advantage against The Giant and then more men came out to help those two guys. Keep in mind, Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett were supposed to be the babyfaces. Jarrett came off like such a dork and The Giant came off as a monster babyface beating everybody up! Then Tony had the temerity to berate Giant for running away… from an unfair fight! The nWo, despite being heels, were booked as so superior to these WCW geeks.

HUGE THUMBS DOWN for everything about this match. On the bright side, at least both men tried and worked hard to try and get something out of nothing. Therefore, I will give them that credit.

Match Rating: *1/2

 

Ted DiBiase was with Syxx and Vincent. DiBiase said the Horsemen knew the post-match save was the only way Jarrett was gonna get out of that ring. He admitted Jericho was a great athlete but he was a great athlete at the wrong time. He was in there with the best cruiserweight in Syxx tonight. Syxx said Jericho would be crucified for the sins of WCW which is straight out of Stephanie McMahon’s vocabulary. He yelled the nWo is 4 life. I was not a fan of Syxx’s verbiage but Ted DiBiase cut a hell of a promo here.

 

Syxx vs Chris Jericho

Bobby Heenan talked about Syxx making his wrestling debut and I swear Syxx wrestled on that nWo take over show a month ago.

Syxx and Jericho wrestled for a bit fighting speed with speed. If you have two quick guys in there and if they can keep up with each other, you’re very likely going to have a good match and this was a good match when the smoke cleared. Konnan, Taskmaster and Big Bubba were at ringside. Jericho ran wild with a monkey flip and arm drags for a while. Syxx dropkicked Jericho off the top rope and onto the floor.

Jericho tried again to get in the ring but Syxx dropkicked him off the apron and then did a dive to the outside. Syxx stomped at Jericho in the ring and did some kicks in the corner. Syxx did a rest-hold. Syxx tried a spin kick but Jericho caught it, so Syxx kicked him with the other leg which I actually think was really well executed.

Syxx did an elbow drop from the top rope onto Jericho, who was draped on the apron. Syxx missed a dropkick in the corner. Jericho ran wild for a bit to some boos from the crowd as they loved the nWo.

Jericho did a top rope crossbody to the outside. Jericho did a top rope back elbow for a two count. Jericho caught Syxx off the top rope with a dropkick. Jericho went for a cover and Patrick ran around for like 5 seconds before eventually went down to count the pinfall.

Jericho did a lionsault and a bridge pinfall and got a one count which the fans and the announcers disputed as a slow count. When they showed the replays of the slow counts, the slow counts didn’t even look that slow which is a problem with this storyline. If you are told to do a slow count, make sure the count is slow. Don’t do a regular count as it flies in the face of the storyline you’re trying to tell. Just wait for Starrcade 1997 as Nick Patrick’s will get a big moment when it comes to the speed of his counts!

Jericho did a springboard moonsault and again Patrick did what was supposedly a slow count. Syxx did a side kick and Patrick counted down the pinfall as normal for the win. Jericho chased Patrick out of the ring as Patrick carried Syxx to the back. A good cruiserweight match with not a lot to complain about. Jericho and Syxx worked pretty well together in this match.

Match Rating: ***

 

Lex Luger was interviewed by Mike Tenay. Luger said it didn’t need to come down to this but Arn pointed the finger at Luger for WCW’s loss at Fall Brawl. Luger said he accepted the blame but Arn wouldn’t accept that. He said Arn questioned his fortitude but now he’s gonna see a torture rack you’ve never seen before. He’s sick and tired of everyone running each other down in WCW. Luger said he’s gonna beat Arn, rack him and take him out and hurt him.

 

Lex Luger vs Arn Anderson

This was a match that was saved mostly by the finish because this was a boring match. Arn tried all he could and it didn’t work but they did deliver a poetic finish in the confides of the story and it turned the heel shenanigans against the Four Horsemen.

Tony talked about Luger losing but not quitting at Fall Brawl when I seem to recall Luger tapping out after Hogan and Sting locked on a double submission in the War Games match. How that is not considered quitting, I don’t know.

They fight for a bit. Luger powered up Anderson and dropped him with a Gorilla Press. They followed up with a double axe handle from the apron. The Dungeon of Doom was cheering Luger to rack him which was an interesting dynamic. Luger used to be a Dungeon of Doom member but the Dungeon hated Arn and they were feuding with the Four Horsemen in Chris Benoit and Steve “Mongo” McMichael.

That’s actually a great aspect of WCW’s use of stables at this time. The Dungeon and Horsemen had been feuding since Brian Pillman feuded with Taskmaster back in February and after all of this time, they still hate each other and there’s still feuds going on between the groups. That’s great for the members of those groups and there’s a lot of layers to the program.

Arn got hung upside down and the fans are going crazy as Luger had him in peril. Just imagine what Luger was gonna do now that Arn was defenseless. Instead, Luger just throws a few slow punches and then after, the buzz just went away from this match. A better worker would have gotten so much more from this spot and that is frustrating.

Arn hit a spinebuster. Arn beats on Luger for a while. This was a boring match and some fans start to boo because nothing was happening for a long time. Arn tried a DDT but Luger grabbed the ropes to keep himself standing.

Luger started fighting back. Arn shoved Luger into the referee to knock him down. Arn grabbed a chair and tried to use it but Luger dodged. Arn tried a piledriver but Luger catapulted Arn into the ringpost. Luger suplexed Arn on the floor.

The referee Mark Curtis was still dazed. Luger then hit Arn in the back with a chair multiple times as the referee was still unable to see it. Arn was limp as Luger called for his finisher and Luger secured the submission victory with the Torture Rack. Luger refused to let go of the hold as the referee tried to break the hold.

So yes, after Arn yelled at Luger for giving up at Fall Brawl, Arn was the one that gave up from the Torture Rack himself. This was retribution for the babyface and when you’re able to make a heel eat his words, that’s a thumbs up in my eyes. One of the stronger finishes of the show to an otherwise boring match. However, this match did not need to be 12 minutes long.

Match Rating: **

 

Arn was being attended to as Jarrett and Flair both came out. They actually brought out the stretcher. Arn grabbed the arm and “rib cage” as he was being taken out.

 

Lee Marshall played Mean Gene and hyped up the WCW Hotline to apparently have the scoop about Sting. He interviewed Harlem Heat, Sister Sherri and Col Robert Parker. Parker talked about how the Outsiders needed reprimanded. He said they were riding on the coattails of the greatest tag team in WCW. Sherri said this is what the Harlem Heat lives and breathes for. Booker said the nWo were a couple of wannabe thugs and they were gonna jump them Harlem Style.

 

“The Faces of Fear” The Barbarian and Meng w/Jimmy Hart vs Chris Benoit and Steve “Mongo” McMichael w/Debra McMichael and Woman

I will start of this review by talking about our main man Steve “Mongo” McMichael, I’ve really liked his character as part of the Four Horsemen. I don’t rate him as a wrestler but there were times where he at least knew how to carry himself as a star. The example I will provide was from the Four Horsemen’s ring entrance. Benoit came out with Woman by his side and Mongo came out with his wife Debra by his side. They both get on the apron, Debra and Mongo both took off their jackets off and a random woman was outside catching these massive jackets and coats almost effortless. I loved that!

Meng tried a kick but Mongo evaded it by cowering the corner. They locked up but smashed into a each with shoulder tackles. There was a great spot where they Meng and Mongo both roared crashed into each and Mongo did a tremendous shoulder tackle to floor him and send him flying. He jumped high in the air and Meng went flying in the air backwards to sell the pure force of Mongo. It was so cartoonish but I loved it. It was as ridiculously and over-the-top as it needed to be!

Benoit and Barbarian got tagged in and fought. Benoit hit a northern lights suplex for a 2 count. Benoit tried a headbutt but this was a mistake as Barbarian no-sold it and took him down!

In another great spot involving Mongo was when Meng challenged Mongo to a sumo match. Mongo obliged and then they had a full-on sumo wrestling battle slapping each other! They slapped at each other and they wrestled with Meng winning! Think of it as E. Honda from Street Fighter, who did these slaps to palm away his opponent! This was a better sumo match than the WrestleMania 21 match between Akebono and Big Show which included a LEGITIMATE champion sumo wrestler!

Mongo then took out the Faces of Fear with chop blocks for a while but then Meng cut him off. This was Mongo playing to his strengths, acting like an American football player to take down the monsters. I like that.

They did a double headbutt and Mongo just fell to the ground. It was a pretty funny bad sell where he just fell to the ground like this was a trust exercise! Barbarian did a scoop slam to Mongo. Mongo did a dropkick and did it a second time but Meng just moved out of the way and continued with the beat down on Meng.

Meng tried a senton but Mongo moved out of the way. Benoit got the tag. Meng and Barbarian did the back drop/powerbomb combination to a big pop. This was even better than when they did it against the Fantastics. How does no one in wrestling nowadays try that spot? Surely the War Raiders or Authors of Pain should be able to do it?

There was one awkward spot where Meng chopped Benoit and Benoit stood his ground as if to no-sell it and then crashed to the floor after like a delayed reaction. Communication seemed to be off for that spot.

Barbarian did a top rope belly to belly suplex and Benoit got throw HIGH and LONG to the other side of the ring. How a suplex can be so high and so far away is mind-boggling to me. They did really well with that spot.

Faces of Fear did the double headbutt but Mongo broke up the pin. Barbarian did a suplex into a Meng top rope splash but Mongo got involved to break it up. He pulled out Benoit and hit Meng in the face with the briefcase. Benoit hit the top rope headbutt and got the pinfall.

I actually did not see much in this match from watching it but upon writing this review, I realised this match was actually quite great! I think I would have shaved off a few minutes to make it a bit crisper but man, there were some fabulous spots ranging from comedy to full on serious. This match, in a weird way, had a bit of everything. For god’s sake, Mongo had a sumo wrestling match with Meng and it fit right in!

But of course, there were no happy endings on this show. The defacto babyfaces of this feud, the Four Horsemen, were beat up after the match. The Faces of Fear beat up Mongo and Benoit as Benoit made a comeback. Dungeon grabbed Women but Benoit made the save. Benoit however was being fed to the wolves as Mongo was laid out with a piledriver earlier on in the brawl. Benoit fought off everyone by himself briefly but Meng cut hims off with a superkick. Taskmaster beats up Mongo with a briefcase. Barbarian hit Benoit with a big boot. Bubba hit a spinebuster.

Arn was injured and Flair was with Arn and he was injured too so there was nobody to help these guys. Taskmaster went up to Woman. He took off his shirt. Taskmaster said Benoit wasn’t the man, he’s the man. The beatdown itself was actually a solid beatdown. However, in the middle of a show where all the heels were winning and there so much misery, all I wanted was to see was a babyface win a battle. Was that too much to ask, even in the nWo era?

Match Rating: ***

 

Ted DiBiase came out. He says its 2-0 to the nWo. The next match was for the WCW tag team titles but they were soon to be the nWo tag team titles. He said ever since they’ve come in, they had not failed to deliver anything they had set out to do. Ted said they don’t need a second time as they can get it done the first time. Ted DiBiase was a very solid hype man for the New World Order in this role. There was a part of me that felt Ted DiBiase would soon feel out of place for but now, he’s very solid in his role as a hype man. How long that lasts remains to be seen.

 

“Harlem Heat” Booker T © and Stevie Ray © w/Col Robert Parker and Sister Sherri vs “The Outsiders” Kevin Nash and Scott Hall for the WCW Tag Team Championship

MASSIVE NWO CHANTS broke out during this match. To fan the flames a little bit, Tony said: “there’s a lot of punks in the world and there’s also a lot of WCW fans” when the announcers were talking about the fans in nWo fans. What a way to convince the nWo fans that the nWo is evil by calling those fans punks. Quite encouraging Tony.

Before a title match, it is common tradition where the referee will show the titles to the competitors and hold the titles in the air for the fans to see. When showing the titles to the Outsiders, the Outsiders grabbed the belts to pose with to massive cheers. It’s funny because (SPOILERS) the Outsiders won the titles anyway, so this really accomplished nothing other than get a cheap pop. Once upon a time it was a big deal to hold the titles for the first time. Here, the Outsiders already grabbed the titles literally minutes before winning them!

The fans looked to one side where I guess there was a fight in the crowd. You have to wonder how many fights broke out in the crowd during this period because this isn’t the first time where I see the fans in WCW look to the crowd for seemingly no reason. Some times I see this happen on Nitro because I expect nWo but no, it turned out it was a fan fight. I wonder if the WCW vs nWo storyline legitimately caused fights among fans.

Hall worked on Booker in the ring but Booker reversed the pressure and did a side kick as the fans paid little attention to the first few minutes of the match. Booker tried a leapfrog but Hall evaded it and did a straight up punch to a big pop.

Booker did a hip toss over the top rope which was not a disqualification as “the momentum took him” over the top rope according to Dusty. That it such bad logic. So if I did a powerbomb to someone over the top rope in WCW, that wouldn’t be a disqualification because his momentum took him over the top rope? I just dropped him but gravity brought him to the floor. If you’re going to do the rule at all, at least abide to it or tell your wrestlers to not do over the top rope spots.

A hoss fight began as Kevin Nash and Stevie Ray were tagged in to BIG DIESEL CHANTS. Nash overpowered Ray initially with punches and knees to the gut and in the corner. Ray shoulder-tackled Nash down and then spat at Hall. Ray kicked away at Nash with garbage being thrown in. Sherri raked the eyes of Nash. Booker did a scissors kick. Nash took over and did a side-walk slam to massive cheers, even from some women in the crowd. Hall did a sloppy looking bulldog where Hall didn’t even grab his head coming down.

Booker did a rest hold. Nash took a cheap shot at Booker from the apron to massive cheers as Outsiders gain the advantage. The fans were quite approving of this blatant cheating! Nash did a snake eyes and Hall followed up with a clothesline while the referee was distracted. Razor did a chokeslam with Ray breaking up the pin. Booker tried a crossbody and Hall caught him with ease and did a fallaway slam. It was a very well done spot from both men. Scott Hall had arguably his best performance in a WCW ring so far during this match.

As I review this show a few weeks after the #SpeakingOut Twitter campaign centred around abuse towards women in the wrestling business, they do a spot in 1996 where Sherri slapped Scott and Scott grabbed her to thunderous cheers and then kissed her for the biggest pop off the night. This would not play well in the year 2020. This big, jacked-up man physically grabbed this woman, imposed his welll and forced himself upon this woman to get a kiss. These fans were very much approving of this at Halloween Havoc. In storyline, Scott Hall sexually assaulted Sister Sherri. If you do not wish to see anymore of this in wrestling, I would recommend probably not watching WCW, ECW or WWF programming from 1996 to about 2009 on the WWE Network! This is just one spot among decades of on-screen abuse towards women.

This does not get any better on-screen in wrestling and when Vince Russo comes along in WCW, you’re really not gonna like this. It’s disgusting enough on the screen and it’s even worse that these wrestlers bring it home with them. No, I am not suggesting Scott Hall also did this but heck this was established as the norm in wresting for years from this point. I’m sure a lot of young wrestlers watched all of this and the Attitude Era and just assumed it was OK, which IT’S NOT.

Right after this, there’s an understated spot where Sherri came off the apron with a double axe handle to Parker as she kicked off about what happened and him not doing anything about it! That was awesome!

Hall dropped Booker crotch-first on the top rope and Dusty goes: “you’re nuts if you think that doesn’t hurt.” Good form Dusty.  Stevie got the tag and ran wild with punches and clotheslines. Ray grabbed Hall of a Gorilla Press and threw him into Nash which I’m actually surprised they were able and willing to do. They put over Ray pretty well here. Nash got clotheslined to the outside. Booker hit the Harlem Hangover.

This was poetically the best possible finish for this match. I’ve ranted and raved for about a year now about these over-booked finishes for Harlem Heat involving managers and all kinds of shenanigans. It happened all the time. This time, the nWo turned the tables on them as they secured the win by cheating for a change. As the referee is distracted I believe, Parker tried to hit Nash with a cane. Nash intercepted him so basically Parker let him have the cane without a fight and then Ray got laid out with the cane and Hall got the pin to win the tag titles to a thunderous reaction.

With Harlem Heat as the babyfaces and the Outsiders as the heels and the Outsiders being cheered throughout, there was some screwed up psychology. However, this finish was perfect in the sense that Harlem Heat got a dose of karma. They got a dose of karma, they were “out-cheated” and now WCW have lost the tag titles too! This was unintentionally great!

Booker’s facial expressions were awesome as he was in shock, mouth agape in awe as he checked for his brother’s breathing as the Outsiders celebrate as they say: “the takeover is just about complete”.

I very much enjoyed this match with the exception of one uncomfortable spot.

Match Rating: **3/4

 

Hollywood Hogan did his pre-match promo with Giant behind him. Hogan had the worst haircut of his life and think of the ground that covered although the truth would be revealed later on in the match. However this Bart Simpson look did not look any good. He mentioned he’s just done with 3 Ninjas and a new film is coming up with Santa with Muscles. Hogan called Savage a long lost love-sick puppy. He said this was nWo rules and it’s time for Hollywood.

 

Hollywood Hogan © wTed DiBiase  vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship

Now I will first address before this reviewing this match that there was a lot usual WCW backstage politics that led to this finish. If you’ve watched everything Hogan did to Savage in the last 6 weeks or so, he almost had to win this match. Hogan had tortured Elizabeth, put her through hell and now this was his time to kill him. There were contracts and a lot of stuff that happened which led to this finish but let’s review this match in a vaccum.

I say that because every other WCW at this time was watching this match in a vaccum. They had to watch it based what had been presented to them in the last three months or so and they had to watch this conclusion to such a deep storyline with Hogan, Savage and Elizabeth.

Michael Buffer did the ring introductions Savage’s theme song cut off Buffer’s ring introductions but then the production team wised up and shut it off as Buffer finished Hogan’s ring introduction.

Savage brought out a “Macho Man” monster truck which actually did look pretty sweet. One of the better looking monster trucks WCW has trudged out in front of the fans. Savage grabbed the mic to tell Hogan to get his “goons” out of here so he can kick his ass. The referee obliged and I guess threw Giant out. Hogan whispered into Giant’s ears as Giant walked out as I guess he told Giant not to fight it.

Hogan still had his sunglasses on in early parts of the match. Savage is just standing there in the ring as Hogan just walked around… RIGHT AFTER an episode of Nitro where he implied killing Hogan. Hogan is doing his thing and Savage is just… STANDING THERE.

Just like The Giant match where Hogan tried to hide and run from Giant, this match startED the same way. They mentioned that the monster truck was the one given away then correct themselves saying they were given a road legal one… in other words a less cool one was given to the winner.

A whole bunch of nothing happened for like 5 minutes. So I’ve seen a whole bunch of matches with Ric Flair and Savage where he and Flair fought and tried to kill each other. They scratched, clawed and chopped the hell out of each other because they hated each other’s guts. Here Hogan hid and run away and Savage did nothing. He just stopped and stalled in a match against a supposedly. crazy Randy Savage.

Hogan beat up Savage for a while talking trash and saying Savage was nothing. Savage fought back and did punches and a double axe handle. He then grabbed Hogan’s sunglasses. Hogan begged Savage off. Savage grabbed Hogan’s hair and pulled the wig off of Hogan and puts it on. Hogan looks around all panicked at the loss of his wig with some incredibly facial expressions! This was quite great.

Hogan headed to the back. Savage cut him off and fed his wig back to Hogan! Savage beat him u[. Savage grabbed and hit Hogan with a chair on the outside. It was established that you can use weapons on the outside because it’s there’s no disqualification on the outside but yet when Savage used it a second time, the referee cuts him off and Hogan blindsided him. Anything can happen on the outside but yet the referee wouldn’t allow Savage to use the chair a second time? Seems like flawed logic to me.

Hogan then used a chair. As Ted DiBiase distracted the ref, Hogan used the chair again. Maybe there’s some one chair shot rule I’m not aware of. Hogan beat him up on the outside. Then Elizabeth, not in black, came out in a fancy colourful dress. Hogan choked away at Savage. Hogan yelled at Elizabeth but Savage gets a roll up for a near fall. Hogan’s turnks are pulled down by Savage therefore showing his bare ass! He has finished his transformation to a slightly more diabolic Ric Flair now!

I love Hogan’s mood changing. He was all about making jokes and cocky at the start of the match but when he got embarrassed, he gets pissed off and frustrated. Great heel characterisation! It’s all jokes and games until the heel doesn’t get what he wants and therefore, the heels pouts like a child! Savage clotheslined Hogan to the outside.

Hogan grabbed Elizabeth on the outside as a human shield. Savage did a scoop slam and knocked Hogan to the floor Hogan again grabbed Liz as boos from the fans rain down. Hogan threw her and takes advantage with a clothesline. Hogan did a big boot but then Elizabeth entered the ring to boos. Hogan went for the Leg Drop but Elizbaeht threw herself on top of Savage.

Hogan grabbed her. Hogan goes for a Leg Drop again but he missesd. Hogan got a weapon from DiBiase, Elizabeth intercepted it from Hogan, the refereee gets taken down with a clothesline. Nick Patrick and Mark Curtis come down. Savage did a clothesline and Savage did the elbow drop. Nick Patrick did the 2 count but then his neck gave out. Savage pushed Patrick and took off the neck brace. Hogan tried to use “the object” but Savage blocked it. He used it. DiBiase stops Savage from doing the elbow drop. The Giant saved DiBiase from Savage. Giant did the chokeslam on the floor. With The Giant clearly in the ring, Nick Patrick strolled over and did the 3 count as Hogan retained the title.

Tony flat out said: “we’ve been ripped off”. 

Match Rating: *

There was a lot of shenanigans in this match and it was an incredibly over-booked, storyline finish. However, this was one of the better ones where it came off like Savage was fighting to the bitter end. It wasn’t just like a bunch of things happening leading to the finish. The nWo were doing everything in their power to win and Savage and Liz were doing everything could to stop Hogan. In the end, the heel advantage was just too great and Savage was defeated.

I will now talk about the backstage stuff. I read the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from November 1996 I believe. There were a lot of contract negotiations being thrown around at this time. Long story short, Bret Hart had just re-signed with the WWF for a 20 year deal or whatever the situation was in one of the biggest contracts of all time. The WWF wanted to capitalise on this. They supposedly made big offers to Hogan and Savage, so they could continue their feud in the WWF. Savage’s contract was coming up and I think Hogan’s contract may have been expiring as well. WWF probably would not have had the money to attempt to buy Hogan out of a big deal he had with WCW so that’s more likely. The WWF were close to going out of business at this time.

Hogan re-signed with WCW but Savage had yet to re-sign at this time. Therefore, his contract was in limbo and so therefore they took the precautions of having Hogan beat him. Savage was not under contract, although he did work a few commitments after this show including house shows. Acting fast, with no new babyfaces to feud with Hogan, WCW went ahead and signed up a new superstar to feud with Hogan heading into Starrcade. Speaking of which…

Giant brought down a big jug of ice that he was careful carrying when walking towards the ring. He got to the ring and KNOCKED IT OVER! Poor Giant! He was doing so well not to spill it! He came in the ring and threw ice on Hogan to wake him up as the nWo celebrate. I guess Hogan was knocked out which was why he did that.

Hogan said he’s the king of Hollywood. Hogan is tired of Ted Turner, he’s taking over WCW and anyone who got in the ring with the nWo or Hulk Hogan was going down. Then bagpipes play as Giant prepared to fight. Hogan doesn’t know what’s going on and out comes ROWDY RODDY PIPER!

Hogan rubbed his face with a shocked looked as he’s freaking out as Tony called him a chicken! Piper grabbed a mic. I’m a huge fan of Piper promos, especially watching them back now years after his death. However, what on earth was going here?

My only explanation was that Piper, because he’s Piper, just said whatever he wanted and HOGAN OF ALL PEOPLE had to get him back on track because they were running short on PPV time. Piper rambled on and on about how he’s a millionaire, he made Hulk Hogan and told Hogan to admit he was here because of all these people. Hogan shook his hand and said he and Piper were “neck and neck” and then he made a crack about Piper wearing a kilt. They yell and yell about god know’s what and the PPV cuts them half way through!

This was to build up a world title match between Hollywood Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper! It wasn’t even that Piper was a bad talker during this promo. He wasn’t. He had a lot of fire and passion and that was about it. He just went on about all sorts of things that had nothing to do with the New World Order. Then he and Hogan just argued like they were on The Real Housewives or god know’s what. Just a mess of an exchange to end this pay-per-view.

To sum up this pay-per-view as whole, they had a lot of good matches and an incredible opening match. No happy endings to be found, with good guys going over, and a bad ending to the show with Piper and Hogan rambling about…. I don’t even know what they were talking about! I would say that the only two matches you should really go out of your way to watch is Malenko vs Rey and Faces of Fear vs Benoit and Mongo because of how wacky it was. Everything else was really passable and even the nWo shenanigans were not that exciting to me. I will give this PPV a thumbs up on the grounds that although there was nothing exceptional, there were some good matches up and down the show which is really I could ask for… and possibly a Slim Jim.

 

 

WCW Nitro Reading Order

• #1 – September 4th 1995
• #2 – September 11th 1995
• WCW War Games 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RETRO EXPRESS: WCW NITRO #58 (OCTOBER 21ST 1996) – STING RETURNS AND MAKES FIRST APPEARANCE IN BLACK AND WHITE

Welcome to the Retro Express. This is where we’re taking a stroll down memory lane at wrestling history. This post is part of an ongoing series where we’re reviewing every episode of WCW Nitro from start to finish. Links to the previous posts are at the bottom of this post. We hope you enjoy.

We’re very close to Halloween Havoc, with the New World Order leader Hollywood Hogan defending the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Miss Elizabeth is once again in the middle of another Hogan vs Savage storyline in wrestling, with Elizabeth putting together a video apology last week for the Macho Man for singing with the nWo. This heartfelt apology rocked Savage who left the building distraught and possibly throwing him off his game ahead of his big title match against Hogan.

 

This episode I’m about to review I felt was a decent go-home show for WCW Halloween Havoc 1996. Good matches up and down the card. There weren’t many things done to build towards that pay-per-view and even the closing segment with Savage and Hogan was off to me. Keep in mind, that closing segment ended with Savage suggesting that he was going to kill Hollywood Hogan at the PPV! I’ll talk more about the Elizabeth stuff later but this seems like a complicated way to get Savage in a position of wanting to kill Hogan at the PPV, with Elizabeth being in business with Hogan. It felt anti-climatic despite the stakes being raised.

 

Date: October 21st 1996

Brand: WCW

City: Mankato, Minnesota

Rating: 3.2

Commentators (First Hour): Tony Schiavonie and Larry Zbyszko

Commentators (Second Hour): Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

 

Bobby Eaton vs Chris Jericho

I thought this was a solid opening match. WCW have really stepped it up in the last few weeks with the opening matches for WCW Monday Nitro. It was Malenko vs Brad Armstrong last week and it was Jericho vs Bobby Eaton this week. I think in Bischoff’s mind at this time, it’s very clear that the second hour was the more important hour for him. The big angles were done on the second half of the show involving Hogan and Savage for example. However, putting a solid opening match to kick off Nitro was a great way to get the fans hyped up for the rest of the show and appealed to traditional wrestling fans. They tuned into Nitro wanting good wrestling and they got some!

They announced Savage vs Chris Benoit for later on in the show and Sting was set to appear on this episode of Nitro. It was somewhat ambiguous at this point as to which Sting was actually going to turn up for Nitro – the real Sting or the nWo Sting.

I guess Eaton was no longer with the Blue Bloods with Larry claiming he was “thrown out” of the Blue Bloods. They didn’t even show us what happened but I’m guessing based off Regal winning the TV title and Taylor and Eaton brawling a few weeks ago, they cut the man loose from the group.

Syxx and nWo Sting were amongst the crowd with a nWo banner in the background, Syxx was filming the show… for god knows what reason. The commentators explained Syxx was “scouting” Jericho ahead of their match at Halloween Havoc but I’m fairly certain that the New World Order will have owned televisions and would have the money to watch them for the sake of scouting.

Jericho used the speed to gain the advantage over the bigger Bobby Eaton. Jericho locked on a surfboard stretch submission. Eaton did a powerslam where I think Jericho tried bouncing INTO the rope and then bounced off the and stumbled as they did the spot.

Jericho wrestled down Eaton with a hammerlock. Jericho did the springboard dropkick. Eaton turned things around and worked on Jericho with an arm lock of his own. Eaton and Jericho knocked each other down to the floor with a punch at the same time which looked quite comical. They brawled on the floor with Jericho trying a back elbow but smashing his elbow into the ring post. Jericho backdropped Eaton on the floor.

Eaton hit a swinging neckbreaker and tried a move from the top to which Jericho cut him off but then the Canadian got knocked right back down again to the mat. Eaton did a top rope knee drop “on the shoulder” of Jericho but Jericho kicked out. Jericho did a side kick “enziguiri “ of some kind. Jericho did a top rope dropkick and frantically rushed over to score the pinfall for the win.

I love how Jericho had to go up to referee Nick Patrick just to check with him if it was a three count, given Patrick’s recent history with his refereeing. I thought this was a fine opener.

Eaton actually raised Jericho’s hand after the match showing signs of a babyface turn.

 

Tony Schiavonie interviewed Jericho after the match. Jericho said it was only six days before Halloween Havoc and said Syxx would be coming out of the PPV with a loss. He said he will come out with a victory and we’ll see who the better man is. A lot of yelling from Jericho. Far be it from me to critique the promo capabilities of Chris Jericho but I was not enthralled by the generic good-guy promos from Jericho at this point.

 

We got a Rey Mysterio Jr. video package. Some of the video effects used were seizure-inducing. Black and white effects really hurt my brain as they were showing all of these cool moves from the WCW Cruiserweight Champion Mysterio but the visual effects brought down the video package quality.

 

Dean Malenko vs Jimmy Graffiti

Another great Nitro match featuring “The Man Of 1000 Holds” Dean Malenko as he wrestled Jimmy Grafiti. Jimmy Graffiti was dressed as Johnny Grunge, with a head like The Sandman but kinda worked like Super Calo. He and Malenko put on some great stuff together on this Nitro. It’s said that any TV opportunity is an opportunity and Graffiti worked his ass off for this one and that has to be respected.

Very good chain-wrestling to start off the match and after a while, Jimmy hit a decent looking float-over DDT. Graffiti hit a sit-out powerbomb for a near fall. Grafitti hit a side-kick. Some very crisp looking moves hit by Graffiti during this match.

Malenko hit an uppercut but Graffiti fell through the ropes and almost landed right on his head on the floor. I watched that spot a few times and Graffiti was very luck to walk away from that spot seemingly un-phased.

Dean did a chin-lock. The nWo Sting was shown with the video-tape and Larry called him “Stink”. Dean slammed Graffiti with a back suplex. Grafitti tried a bridge pinfall attempt but Dean kicked out. Dean hit a side kick for another 2 count. Dean hit a delayed suplex. Grafitti tried a Magistral roll up but got a 2 count.

Malenko crashed over the top rope with Graffiti following a crossbody and Graffiti landed head first into the apron. It looked nasty. I mentioned he got lucky following out of the ring earlier but here, his head smashed into the apron with a big thud when coming down. It also wasn’t like it was the top of his head, the side of his head smashed the apron. That was ugly.

Graiffit tried a dropkick off the top rope but Malenko reversed into a Texas Cloverleaf for the submission victory. Sloppy in parts but a another fine match to follow up the Jericho/Eaton match.

The irony of the “Power Pin of the Week” was the fact that it featured Dean locking on a Texas Cloverleaf for the submission victory! What a POWER PIN!

 

Diamond Dallas Page vs Sgt. Craig Pittman w/Teddy Long

Nick Patrick, of course, was the referee and still wearing his neck brace. He refereed the opening match too. This was the continuation of the Nick Patrick vs Teddy Long storyline with one of Teddy’s clients in the ring with DDP who had previously put his hands on Teddy on Nitro.

DDP spat at Teddy before the match started. Teddy summoned Pittman towards him on the apron and then DDP jumped Pittman to start the match. Bad strategy from Team Pittman where Teddy allowed Pittman to have this back turned to a cheating scoundrel like DDP!

DDP caught a kick and hit a Discuss Clothesline. DDP did the elbow drop to the gut but Pittman sold it as if DDP hit him in the balls, therefore calling Patrick’s refereeing into question yet again.

DDP hit a Styles Clash-like facebuster. Pittman kicked out but DDP got thrown into the referee who sold his back. Pittman locked on the code red armbar but referee Patrick was distracted with Teddy Long. Pittman yelled that DDP had given up but Patrick didn’t see it. DDP then hit a Diamond Cutter for the win. Teddy and Patrick yelled at each other even more, Pittman got mad at Teddy Long and this storyline needs to go away.

I mean seriously, where is this storyline going? Other than Nick Patrick working for the New World Order, this Nick Patrick storyline just keeps going and going and it is really starting to jump the shark. WCW are just throwing Patrick in there for every match where the wrestler is managed by Teddy Long. You have DDP and Craig Pittman trying to work a match but they are the backdrop and extras to the Nick Patrick/Teddy Long feud. Once again, the referees and managers are more important than the wrestlers in the ring. That I hate about wrestle. It’s not even like Teddy or Patrick are adding any further to the storyline. They’re just bickering back and forth with no end in sight.

 

Tony interviewed Nick Patrick. Patrick claimed he did not hear DDP give up in the previous match. He blamed Teddy for being the reason that he did not hear him as all he saw was DDP getting to the ropes. To be fair to Patrick, how many times does Teddy Long get up on the apron to chew out the referee when really he should be there to help his clients? Teddy Long distracting the referee which cost Pittman the match so of course, Pittman chewed out Teddy after the match as well and got frustrated with him.

Patrick insisted that he was not the nWo referee claiming he was in twice the better shape than that referee. Patrick warned Tony about what happened the last time an announcer came at him with accusations in reference to “Mean Gene” Okerlund. I was wondering where Mean Gene went because he seemed to disappear from the face of the earth but it turns out his WCW contract expired at this time. In case anyone was wondering what happened to hi.

 

They recapped the nWo attacking Ric Flair two weeks ago and the recap of Jarrett’s promo last week which it also said took place “two weeks ago” so that was an error. Those two events did not happen on the same episode.

 

Jeff Jarrett vs Ron Studd

They explain that Ric Flair had a MRI on his shoulder so he’s out of action for now. Ron Studd was on jobbing-giant duty tonight as he faced Jeff Jarrett, who would be fighting The Giant at Halloween Havoc in Ric Flair’s place. This was the continuation of Ron Studd’s role of being the giant to lose to a babyface ahead of a match against The Giant.

It’s sad because any wrestling promoter would kill to have a guy as tall as Studd in their ranks. You know how Vince treats giants and a giant ninja has just debuted recently with Akira Tozawa on RAW in 2020. They did try with Studd as the Yeti but now he’s back to being a random lower-midcard guy as a set-up guy for future matches with The Giant. First Chris Benoit, then Randy Savage and now Jeff Jarrett. It would be difficult to push him as a giant with The Giant and Kevin Nash already in the company for the nWo so Studd is just in this position. To be fair, at least Studd has a purpose in WCW unlike the 100s of other wrestlers signed to the company that are just signed for the hell of it. At least he has that going for him.

Ric Flair made his way down to the ring in a suit which he explained were his street clothes…which I totally believe! He’s Ric Flair! He’s always stylin’ and profilin’! Ric commanded Jeff Jarrett to do his strut to mostly boos but some cheers. Then Ric Flair showed him how to do it. He took off his jacket, slicked his hair and did his own strut as the fans went nuts. Fans booed Jarrett and chanted “Nature Boy” with Ric then going into full Ric Flair mode with his stylin’ and profilin’. It’s an awkward position for Jarrett to be in because they were trying to get him over but when Ric Flair came out and ain’t nobody gonna get cheered more than Ric Flair. Therefore, when Jarrett is doing the struts and he was trying to be Flair, the fans turned on him. Why have a cheap imitation when they had the real Ric Flair?

Flair and Jarrett. shook hands as he left Jarrett to it. Jarrett beat up Studd in the corner. Studd tried a suplex but Jarrett grabbed the rope to block it and then Jarrett did a suplex of his own to Studd as the fans actually popped for. Jarrett did a Figure Four Leg Lock on the big man and got the submission victory. It sucked to be Studd but at least this was effective in showing to the viewers that Jarrett could chop down and beat a large man in preparation for a match with another large man.

 

Tony interviewed Jarrett. Jeff said it’s time for him to put up or shut up. He said it’s time for everyone whose ever watched Ric Flair and who respects Flair to be the hunters instead of the hunted. Jarrett said there’s a big bullseye on Giant’s leg and he’s putting on the Figure Four. He said: “You’ve chokeslammed them all but you haven’t chokeslammed Jeff Jarrett.”

Flair interrupted and said he sat home last week and saw a man talk good about Flair. Flair said the nWo outsmarted outflanked and played the game dirtier than the Four Horsemen at War Games. Flair said he would be in Jeff Jarrett’s corner. He said the day he get back in with Jarrett and The Four Horsemen, he will kick the nWo’s ass.

 

Lex Luger vs Roadblock

THE DEBUT OF ROADBLOCK. It’s almost like a balancing act with how wrestlers are signed with WCW at this point. For every new cruiserweight like Jimmy Graffiti or some great worker like that, they have to sign a big stiff for the big boys of World Championship Wrestling. Roadblock looked massive! He was as wide as a roadblock, he had a road block sign on his shoulders and had an ugly expression on his face. That’s not to say that he’s ugly but the way he gritted his teeth and snarled I enjoyed!

I love how Roadblock ran the ropes first and foremost! He was in the ring with Lex Luger. He ran up and charged at Luger to start the match with his hands in the air to start off the match! It was such a funny run as he charged at the Total Package.

Luger clotheslined him out of the ring. Luger did a scoop slam. Arn was cutting an inset promo about how “those impressive things “he was doing in the ring wouldn’t help him against Arn at Halloween Havoc and at the time of the promo being played, Luger was doing barely anything “impressive” in the ring!

Roadblock did a clothesline. There was an awkward spot where Luger took an Irish whip into the corner and then just turned around! He didn’t even try to do it naturally. He went back first into the turnbuckle and then span around like a Bayblade and then sold the move!

I loved this finish. I don’t think this finish was planned out this way but ended up being perfect with getting Luger over. Luger tried a Torture Rack but Roadblock, because of his size, slipped off of Luger’s shoulders. Luger tried again but Roadblock slipped off again. It was looking like a disaster but Luger started amping up the crowd! He rallied himself up and the fans as he was determined to get this big man up for the Rack. He throws his hands up. He tried the Torture Rack more time and he pullED it off to a big pop and Roadblock submitTED! Then just drops Roadblock down to the mat when he was done!

Whether this was a botched finish or not, this worked out perfectly for Luger. The storyline going on last week was Luger was selling his back because of a chair attack from Arn the week before. Therefore, they put him in the ring with this big guy and Roadblock kept slipping off his back because he was so big and Luger couldn’t keep him up. It played into that. After two attempts, the fans got fired up as they wanted Luger to get this man up for good and he delivered with a great pay-off. This was unintentionally one of my favourite matches of the night!

 

“The American Males” Marcus Bagwell and Scotty Riggs vs “Harlem Heat” Booker T and Stevie Ray w/Col Robert Parker and Sister Sherri in a non-title match

There’s not really much I can say about this match other than the finish. This was your typical American Males match with them working very fast and this was your typical Harlem Heat match with shenanigans. Nothing more, nothing less.

Bagwell hip tossed Booker clean over the top rope as Bobby Heenan correctly pointed out should have been a disqualification. Tenay tried to explain this away as he talked about the momentum and Bobby cut him off and said: “Mike, Don’t think.”

Bagwell turned Booker inside out with a clothesline. As Booker hit a powerbomb, the Outsiders come out also to videotape Booker and Ray. Booker got cut off the top rope with a dropkick. Riggs got the hot tag and ran wild on the Harlem Heat.

Now to the finish, American Males were running wild in the ring but referee NICK PATRICK stopped Bagwell and took him to one side. Riggs punches Col. Robert Parker off the apron. Booker laid out Riggs as his back was turned. Booker went for the cover and Bagwell froze for 2 seconds as the referee counts to two, then he jumps in at the last minute to break it up but supposedly that was a three count and Harlem Heat won the match.

Over-booked tripe for a Harlem Heat match once again. It was honestly like Bagwell was frozen in a block of ice and then thawed out as Patrick got to “two” on his count. Bagwell had all the time in the world to break it up but because Patrick had to be distracted for Harlem Heat to do their spot, Patrick had to turn around and then do the count before Bagwell broke it up. This was a disaster and a miserable finish. I cannot wait for Harlem Heat to lose those titles. I’ve had garbage finishes in title matches for more than a year now with this team and now I want something different with this tag team division. THUMBS DOWN FOR THIS FINISH.

 

“The Fantastics” Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rodgers vs “The Faces of Fear” The Barbarian and Meng w/Jimmy Hart

This was a great way to get Faces of Fear over for their match with Chris Benoit and Steve “Mongo” McMichael at Halloween Havoc. Take a random tag team in the Fantastics and have these two monsters destroy them for five minutes. AEW does this well in 2020 but I love the idea of establishing a dominant force by having them destroy enhancement talent. They don’t need to beat one of your other star tag teams. This was the problem with Nitro doing Harlem Heat vs Faces of Fear last week. Nobody could be booked to lose without losing momentum so they had the Outsiders interrupt the match and caused the match to be thrown. This would have been a better option.

Hire a few guys on the cheap and have them sell for the big stars and get them over. It’s good for the stars you wanna get over, it’s good for the enhancement talent because they have the “rub” of being in the ring with a star and it’s a better financial move to make in the long run. Maybe enhancement talent isn’t the word to describe the Fantastics but they were compared to the Faces of Fear in WCW’s eyes at the time.

My favourite spot of this match was when The Faces of Fear did a back drop from Meng into a powerbomb from The Barbarian in an awesome spot in one motion. The Faces of Fear don’t strike me as “spot” guys if that makes sense. All I’ve seen is big power moves from these two monsters as they destroy people left and right. Then suddenly they do this complex spot and they pull it off! I was blown away by them.

I love whenever Barbarian does a backbreaker to someone. It’s not just a motion where they go up and go down. Barbarian lifts him high in the air and slams him right down on his knee. The Barbarian was quite great in the ring.

The monsters destroy the Fantastics with Meng delivering a piledriver. There was double diving headbutt from Faces of Fear on the floor and then they got one of the babyfaces standing up and did a double headbutt while they were on their feet! Bischoff is constantly talking about how these Fantastics have no chance.

Fantastics get the hot tag. Rodgers ran wild. They slam Barbarian with a double back suplex and then do a double top rope dropkick for a 2 count. Barbarian caught Rodgers I believe from the top rope, Meng then booted him and they score the pin.

The Faces of Fear with a fun dominating display and this was a fun five minutes!

 

They recap the Elizabeth video package from last week. I loved the irony of this. Eric Bischoff made sincere apologises to Savage and his family for showing the video package. He’s extremely apologetic and all morose with his delivery as he is sorry for showing the video package and making Savage “an emotional vegetable”. He’s so sorry… but he showed the video again anyway! “Hey Savage, I apologise for this video but I will repeatedly show it as a way to pop a rating!” was basically what Bischoff did here! Bischof claimed he had footage about how low-class Hogan could be that he would show later on. 

 

nWo Sting vs Mr JL

So Eric Bischoff had been teasing all night that Sting would be here and I don’t remember when it was but then Bischoff got word that it might not be the real Sting. Then, wrestling Mr JL, was the nWo Sting who actually still came out to “The Man called Sting” theme that Sting came out to.

They explained that Elizabeth’s contract would be up in November with WCW which is why I guess she joined the nWo so at least, she would still be signed with the nWo.  The nWo arrived with Vincent, Ted DiBiase, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Syxx and The Giant.

Sting did the World’s Strongest Slam front slam. Sting did the Stinger Splash and a Scorpion Deathlock but the match is interrupted by, believe it or not, THE REAL STING. For the first time in WCW, Sting was here in WCW while wearing the black and white. It was not quite the vintage black and white face-paint he would sport later on in the feud with the nWo. However, he was wearing black scorpion trunks and white face pain and a black trench coat He dropped nWo Sting with the Scorpion Deathlock and he beat him up for a while.

The nWo just stood around the ring as Sting did a Stinger Splash and did the Scorpion Deathlock. The nWo then get into the ring surrounding the real Sting and Ted DiBiase told everyone to say hello to the real Sting. DiBiase offered Sting a place in the nWo. He said if they join them, he would be joining a family. Nash said it’s time for him to break on through to the other side. Hall said Sting had been carrying the WCW banner for 9 years but what does he have to show for it? Hall said he knew the fake Sting would get to him and said there would be no stopping them if the real Sting joined too.

Sting said he may or may not be in their price range or maybe he could be. Sting said the only thing for sure about Sting is that nothing is for certain and then he left. Ironically, after the nWo talk about nWo Sting just being bait and doing nothing to help the fake Sting, Fake Sting still posed with the nWo after the nWo did nothing to save him! It’s weird because the nWo talked about being a part of family if Sting joined and nWo Sting was already in the group and they left him to get his ass kicked! I get the nWo are heels but if this was supposed to sell Sting on the idea of joining “a family” than this was a horrible sales pitch! Such disregard for people who are ALREADY with the New World Order!

The main-event was supposed to be Randy Savage vs Chris Benoit. Benoit made his was down to the ring just like Mike Enos last week. “Macho Man” Randy Savage came out in what was described as his “street clothes” which was in full back. I can suspend my disbelief that Ric Flair would walk down the streets all suited and booted… because he’s Ric Flair! It was impossible to believe that any normal human in the world would wear this outfit Savage had on in the streets! He looked more like the Undertaker than a regular guy street clothes!

Eric Bischoff said he apologised for last week but now he’s got more footage to show! Yeah Bischoff is aware of the effect his music had on Savage but yet he’s got another video to show anyway RIGHT BEFORE his match with Chris Benoit!

The video showed Hogan on the set of the 3 Ninjas film referred to last week. My description of Hogan’s look in my notes noted that he “looked like a shitty version of Shao Kahn” from the Mortal Kombat series! Ironically, there is a blog post on the Armbar Express from my early days blogging about a ScrewAttackDeath Battle video featuring Shao Kahn which you can read more about that on this link!

Hogan complained to his director and claimed the nWo would betaking over produciton of the film. When in the world when making the movie could someone just take control of producing the film like this? Even when Joss Whedon replaced Zack Snyder from Justice League, it’s not like Joss just walked up at the set and said he was taking over the project! There was a process to this change in the movie! The Giant was apparently going to direct the film and Hogan was gonna produce as he said: “welcome to the world of Hollywood Hogan.”

Elizabeth was on the set with the nWo as she supposedly had a cameo I guess agreed to her in her nWo contract. Hogan pressured Elizabeth to tell Savage she loved him. Giant yelled at the camera man “what you’re doing boy?” as Hogan got upset with Elizabeth. Giant sent Elizabeth back to the trailer as Hogan berated her. He said: “What Hollywood wants, Hollywood gets.” Hogan said she wanted some acting lessons Hulk Hogan style.

Eric asked for Savage’s thoughts as they cut back to them at the arena and Savage eventually broke his silence. He said: “it just occurred to me how fragile friendships and relationships can be. Eric, you and I both know how fragile business can be.” He ends with promo with saying: Hulk Hogan, life is fragile” and he waleds away. So yes, it was played up to suggest Savage was going to KILL HULK HOGAN at Halloween Havoc! To be fair, Savage did release a rap video many years later about wanting to fight Hulk Hogan in real life! Maybe this was just life imitating art!

That was a horrible segment. When building up a babyface Randy Savage against a heel Hollywood Hogan for Halloween Havoc, it shouldn’t be this difficult. Hogan turned on Savage at Bash at the Beach, Savage went nuts and wanted revenge. Of course the Elizabeth stuff from WWF is an aspect of this feud but you don’t have to directly address it. Here, they address Elizabeth and it watered down what should have been a great personal rivalry when Savage should do everything he can to try and kill Hogan. They inserted Elizabeth into the middle and it took away from the personal rivalry aspect of Hogan vs Savage.

They had to write the storyline around her which I think took away the heat from Savage and Hogan. I have not been a fan of this storyline but heck, maybe Halloween Havoc delivered in a big way. We will wait and see.

 

The WCW Halloween Havoc review is coming up next on this blog. In the mean time, enjoy time indoors during this crazy time to read up on my thoughts about every WCW up until this point! Be sure to follow the blog as we’ve got more Nitro reviews and PPVs to come for the foreseeable future!

 

WCW Nitro Reading Order

• #1 – September 4th 1995
• #2 – September 11th 1995
• WCW War Games 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

 

RETRO EXPRESS: WCW NITRO #56 (OCTOBER 7TH 1996) – JEFF JARRETT MAKES HIS WCW NITRO DEBUT

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 storyline for the New World Order has suddenly become centred around Miss Elizabeth and her feelings for the “Macho Man” Randy Savage. She was not able to accompany Arn Anderson and Woman down to the ringside for his match with Chris Jericho last week and left the building early. The end of last week’s episode saw Elizabeth arriving at the nWo’s party to discuss deals and movie roles as Savage arrived to express his disgust at his ex-wife, who appears to now be with the nWo.

The drama continues with Macho Man and Liz this week as part of a slicker WCW Monday Nitro than last week. A lot of people might see this differently but I thought this was one of the best Nitro shows in a while. We got a lot of matches to digest, we got a rematch of the Rick Steiner vs Chris Benoit from last week which was actually better the second time around and there just felt like there was more life to Nitro this week. There was typical moments of nWo getting heat especially with the ending of this episode but there were other things going that got a lot more development. They developed the Lex Luger/Arn Anderson storyline a bit more for example. There was a lot to like about this episode.

 

Date: October 7th 1996

Brand: WCW

City: Savannah, Georgia

Rating: 3.5

Commentators (First Hour): Tony Schiavonie and Larry Zbyszko

Commentators (Second Hour): Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

 

There were really cool effects with the Nitro logo spinning as part of the lights on the ramp and these lights were shooting up to the Nitro set at the top of the ramp. It was very flashy and very elaborate as usual for WCW Monday Nitro. Tony Schiavonie and Larry Zybszko talked about what happened last week and Larry immediately came to the conclusion that Elizabeth was with the nWo – did Larry not learn anything from what happened with Sting when they accused him of being with the nWo? They made a big deal last week as to offer Sting a car to say they were sorry for doubting him and here is Larry already concluding that Elizabeth was with the nWo when it’s not even clear what’s going on.

There were new WCW tag team champions as Harlem Heat defeated Public Enemy on WCW Saturday Night to regain the tag team championship, capitalising on Johnny Grunge’s knee injury caused by the Faces of Fear last week. Therefore, we’re back to Harlem Heat vs Outsiders at Halloween Havoc for the WCW tag teams titles as previously advertised.

 

“Harlem Heat” Booker T and Stevie Ray w/Sister Sherri and Col. Robert Parker vs “Public Enemy” Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock in a non-title grudge match

Harlem Heat got the “jobber entrance” despite being the WCW tag team champions, with the former champions getting the big entrance to kick off the show as Harlem Heat were already in the ring! Referee Nick Patrick, with a disgusted look on this face and still wearing a neck brace, was refereeing this match. This was ironic as Patrick was the referee when Public Enemy won the tag team titles 2 weeks ago.

Public Enemy did the drop toe-hold/elbow drop combination early on in the match. Stevie Ray stomped on Rocco on the floor as Sherri screamed at him. Rocco grabbed Sherri to a huge pop but Booker saved her. Elizabeth was shown at the locker room of Randy Savage as she wanted to explain herself but I guess he wasn’t there as she looked disappointed coming out of his locker room.

They cut back to the match where Harlem Heat have got the heat on Public Enemy. Ray hit a sidewalk slam and Booker hit a side kick to a big pop. Ray held Rocco and Sherri clocked him with a punch to the face. This was a straight up punch to the face as opposed to a slap which was different for a female manager and I actually thought was pretty cool.

They get a good close-up of Nick Patrick at exact moment he is adjusting his trousers! Bad timing from the WCW production crew! Heat beat up Rocco in the corner as I guess Patrick missed Grunge getting the tag as he stopped him from getting in the ring.

The nWo arrived in the arena with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Ted DiBiase, Syxx and Vincent all there within the crowd. Hall cut a promo, calling Harlem Heat “hillbillies” and saying if they want some of the Outsiders they’re gonna get it. Nash said they were gonna get the belts. Hall said it was gonna be awfully scary. Nash said he smelt the fear. DiBiase said he smelt the money and it was gonna get real real hot. Then they left.

Booker then missed a dive as the Harlem Heat had completely ignored the Outsiders during their promo and continued to wrestle. The nWo’s words had fell upon deaf ears. It is a change to have guys come out to distract their rivals but the rivals not listening to them or not allowing themselves to get distracted. At the very least, that’s something different where the story is Harlem Heat are not letting the nWo get to them. That I like.

Grunge got the tag and Rocco pulled off a double bulldog as the Public Enemy ran wild. Rocco got knocked off the top rope by Parker as Rocco went crashing through the table. Stevie hit Grunge with a chair to the knee. Sherri was talking to Patrick for about 30 minutes as Harlem Heat place a chair on the knee and Booker did a top rope knee drop to the knee of Grunge and Harlem Heat got the pin.

It’s the same finish EVERY SINGLE WEEK from Harlem Heat. I am begging for something different but no, there has to be some over-complicated spot involving the managers or some shenanigans that is completely bookeed. That’s why I groaned at the start of the show when I realised Harlem Heat were the champions again. Was it so hard to have Grunge awkwardly land on his leg and then Harlem Heat capitalising to get the win? Did we need Parker to get involved and two different leg-based attacks with a chair before Harlem Heat got the pin?

This was an OK match with a hugely over-complicated finish as usual with Harlem Heat.

 

Jeff Jarrett debuted on WCW Monday Nitro dressed all in white with sunglasses on and a black jacket as he mentioned he’s got something to say. It would be later revealed he would be wrestling Hugh Morrus later on in the show.

Tony did an interview with Nick Patrick on WCW Saturday Night which they showed along with the clip of Savage putting his hands on Patrick. Patrick said Randy Savage was being fined $1 million for putting his hands on Patrick and wanted him suspended. He mentioned he’s assured by his lawyers that he’s got a strong case and he hoped WCW got on his side.

There’s actually a bit of lore to this whole Elizabeth storyline particularly with the big fine Patrick has planned. If Patrick is in the pocket of the nWo, as alluded to in recent months, they could have had him goad Savage into striking him and then issued out this fine. How Patrick was able to lobby such a large fine and what authority he has to do that has yet to be explained! However, this fine makes it easier to lure Elizabeth to their side with things like movie deals because she wanted the money to help out Savage. It was explained Flair spent all of his money apparently so she’s joining the nWo to help him out financially. I find that interesting but more on Savage and Liz later.

 

DDP vs Jim Powers w/Teddy Long

Nick Patrick was referring two matches in a row which, if you think about, is completely ludicrous. He’s “injured” with a neck brace on, and he’s refereeing two matches in a row which I feel is somewhat unfair! Tony also talked about Patrick wanting Savage suspended right before his big match with Hogan at Halloween Havoc so this would put WCW in a big disadvantage ahead of such an important match.

I love how Patrick patted down the babyface Jim Powers right before the match but not the heel Diamond Dallas Page! That subtle detail from this heel referee I appreciated.

Powers broke out of a Full Nelson attempted by Page and kicked Page into the ropes. They showed an inset promo from DDP where he called Eddie “Borito Boy” ahead of their match at Halloween Havoc. That’s certainly not nice.

Powers tried a few roll-ups on DDP but to no avail. Powers did a crossbody for a 2 count. DDP hit an absolute solid Diamond Cutter where he countered a full nelson into a Diamond Cutter which looked excellent. A great finish in my eyes to an average television match. CLEAN victory for DDP.

DDP kicked down Teddy Long after the match and pushed him into the corner. Then Teddy yelled at Patrick in the ring for something DDP did…. why? There’s no controversy here regarding the finish as DDP beat Powers clean. I know it was a dick-move for DDP to push around Teddy but how was that Nick Patrick’s fault? Hasn’t Teddy Long learned with the likes of his run-ins with Scott Norton to try and stay out of the ring like a good manager should do?

Mike Tenay tried another interview and this time Randy Savage WAS THERE to be interviewed as he was followed down by a driver sporting Slim Jim gear called Jason Killer. Killer was the driver of the Slim Jim race car. It was mentioned nWo talked about nWo running through the competition at the Nascar event hyped up in recent weeks. It was revealed that the nWo car did not finish the race as it hit the wall as the Slim Jim guy Jason finished in 10^th. Savage said Hogan was gonna crash and burn like the nWo car. Elizabeth interrupted him but he yelled what’s done is done and told her to save it. He left and Elizabeth followed him. A wacky promo from Savage regarding this NASCAR business.

 

“High Voltage” Kenny Kaos and Robbie Rage vs “Faces of Fear” The Barbarian and Meng w/Jimmy Hart

The Faces of Fear attacked High Voltage from behind to kick off the match as Tony revealed Jeff Jarrett was making his in-ring WCW debut tonight. Chris Benoit, Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Debra all came out as the Four Horsemen were facing the Faces of Fear at Halloween Havoc.

High Voltage did a spot where I think they tried a double springboard shoulder tackle. This sounded clunky on paper and looked horrible in execution. What ended up happening was Kaos crashed into Meng as planned (although looked completely un-coordinated doing so) and Rage landed right on his feet making contact with nobody. It made these guys look so horrible.

Barbarian and Meng beat up Rage in the ring. Meng hit a sit out powerbomb with Rage not even landing on his shoulders properly so it look nasty. In response, Barbarian hit a big powerbomb of his own and Rage landed right on his shoulders for the second powerbomb!

Faces of Fear did a catapult into a big boot for the clean pin as they posed in the ring with Jimmy Hart. Jimmy declared that the Faces of Fear were ready for Benoit, Mongo and “that bimbo of yours!” An easy way to put over Faces of Fear ahead of their PPV match with Benoit and Mongo. This gets a thumbs up.

 

Glacier vs Mike Wenner

This was the first I’d ever heard of Mike Wenner but apparently, he was in World War III battle royal in 1995 which I did review, but I have no memory of him actually being in the match last year! He was back for this squash match against Glaicer.

There was a mix of cheers and loud boos from the crowd. Glacier was still undefeated in WCW. Glacier did some kicks and a leg sweep. Glacier rolled out of an Irish Whip and Glacier somehow pulled off a gutwrench flapjack which I’d never seen before.

Some fans chanted boring. Glacier dropkicked Winner out of the ring. To liven up the match a little, Glacier did a springboard dive to the outside. Glacier did a roundhouse kick or “spin side kick” for the win. This was the best Glacier’s looked so far in WCW.

Then we get the longest two minutes of my entire life. Glacier posed in the ring for about a minute or so as they’re waiting for the second hour dynamite timer to go off. What would happen, if you paid close attention to what he was doing in the ring, was that he’d strike a few fighting poses and then bow. He’d do more fighting poses and then he bows to the crowd. He kept doing this to waste time before the second hour countdown hits zeroes and the fireworks would then go off.

Even after the timer went down to zero, Glacier was continuing to do poses in the ring in the same manner. He’d do a few moves and then he bows and just did that on repeat.  He just kept bowing and doing all kinds of kicks in the ring as I guess he couldn’t LEAVE THE RING despite his match being over! He spent more time for his post-match celebration then actually wrestling on this episode of Nitro! This was… mind-boggling!

 

Jeff Jarrett vs Hugh Morrus

This was one of the worst babyface performances I’ve ever seen from Jeff Jarrett. Eric Bischoff tried to play up that Jarrett was maybe with the nWo as he was an “outsider” from the WWF, so of course they had reasons to doubt him. So Jarrett was supposed to be a babyface despite this.

In this match, he did almost everything in his power to get himself booed! Jarrett continued to strut around the ring and laid on the top rope as he bragged about this being too easy. He strutted after every other move he did and the fans turned on him quickly. Hugh eventually cut him off with a big clothesline to a big pop. Hugh mocked him as the fans popped even more!

Jarrett got back in the match. Jeff missed an enziguiri. Jarrett did an atomic drop and a clothesline. Jarret hit a swinging neckbreaker for a 2 count. Hugh missed a top rope leg drop and Jarrett did a figure four leg lock as Hugh gave up. As a match, it wasn’t bad. As a means to get Jeff Jarrett over as a babyface, this failed big time.

 

Tony interviewed Jeff Jarrett. It was revealed that Jarrett was in the “nWo” black limo which explained the connection to nWo Bischoff made. Jarrett said Hogan said he was bigger than the wrestling industry itself and if it wasn’t for Hogan, his father Jerry Jarrett wouldn’t be here. Jarrett retorted to this claim saying Hogan started in Tennessee. Jarrett said history doesn’t mean anything to Hogan but it means a lot to Jeff so Hogan and the nWo could STICK IT as another callback to the infamous Hogan line from Bash at the Beach.

Speaking of that “stick it” line, it’s weird how overlooked that line appears to be in the history books. Everyone remembers the big heel turn from Hogan and people remember the promo but line WCW has attempted to put over in the past few months since he turned heel is the “stick it” line. Hogan told the fans to stick it, Sting told Hogan to stick it, Bischoff told Sting to stick it one time, Sting told Luger to stick it and now Jarrett was telling Hogan to stick it. That line is forever repeated on this show and Bash at the Beach was about four months ago!

 

Arn Anderson w/Woman vs Renegade

Arn tried a piledriver but Renegade reversed it and chased Arn out of the ring. Arn caught Renegade coming back into the ring with a boot to the head. Arn did a knee drop and worked on Renegade with punches to the head.

Renegade tried a sunset flip on Arn but Arn cut him off with a punch to the head. Arn choked away at Renegade. Fans chanted for the DDT. Arn worked on the arm of Renegade as he slowed down the pace of the match as Tenay alluded that Arn would earlier on in the show.

Renegade fired back. Renegade did a handspring elbow smash and he tried this move a second time but Arn smashed him in the back of the head as the fans popped. Arn then signalled for the DDT, he hit it and the fans went bonkers as he got the clean win.

This was such an effective finish. This was a high-risk move that Renegade tried one too many times, Anderson made him pay, he got the fans riled up for the DDT and then he delivered and got the pin. It’s so easy and basic wrestling psychology. This finish gets a thumbs up and I actually thought this was a good match.

Arn beat on Renegade after the match but Lex Luger chased him off.

 

Lex Luger vs Squire David Taylor w/Jeeves

Squire David Taylor literally kicked Jeeves in the arse and slapped him down as he called him a “stupid little person” when coming down to the ring. Bischoff laughed off Patrick’s claim at a fine towards Savage.

All you need to know about this match was Taylor missed an elbow drop from the top rope and Luger locked on the torture rack for the clean submission victory. There’s nothing more I can really add to that although I will talk a bit about the torture rack.

The Torture Rack was so over and it was so over because at this time, there were so few clean victories that when he locked on the Torture Rack and it got the job done, the fans went nuts. There was so many shenanigans in WCW, particularly with the nWo, so when Luger was setting up for the Torture Rack the fans would buzz because they knew the match would be over!

This is a bad show to actually make that analogy about too any screwjob finishes because there were a lot more clean victories than usual this week! However, you will see how much that points stands in a few years’ time!

Arn attacked Luger with a chair from behind as Luger made his way to the back as the referee begged Arn off. I think they did a great job with this Luger vs Arn build towards Halloween Havoc. The seeds of the feud were already in place at Fall Brawl and the Nitro after with the Horsemen beat down. This week, both Arn and Luger won their respective matches clean and then Arn laid out Luger from behind like a coward. Now Luger will want revenge a lot more, leading to their match at the PPV. This was solid booking.

 

 

Rick Steiner w/Scott Steiner vs Chris Benoit w/Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Debra

This was a way better match than last week and last week’s match was good. They got a lot more time which was key and there was a good pay-off to this two-week storyline between Benoit and Rick Steiner.

They mentioned Rick’s brother Scott had two ruptured discs on his back which was why he’s not been in action recently and he wasn’t there last week. However, he was back to have his brother’s Rick’s back against the Four Horsemen. As much as I feel bad for Scott and his injury, an injury does not excuse this outfit that Scott was wearing on this episoe! He was wearing the same outfit that all the announcers were wearing at Hog Wild. It looked terrible!

Rick got distracted with Mongo and Debra which led to Benoit getting the jump on him to kick off the match. Rick hit an absolutely perfect slam where Benoit jumped at him and Rick slammed him down with such finesse and precision. Great stuff.

They punched away at each other as part of this fight between the two suplex machines. Rick did a belly to belly suplex as Eric mentioned Rick was teaming with The Great Muta in the NJPW tag team tournament in October, with Muta filling in for Scott Steiner.

Rick hit a solid looking german suplex with Benoit landing perfectly on his shoulders. Benoit got the heat on Rick for a while. Bischoff called out Patrick on the neck brace saying he’s not buying. Bobby asked “are you calling him a liar?” to which Bischoff said no and Bobby said: “well you just did”.

The nWo limo arrived with WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan and The Giant coming out of the limo. Hogan said he’s got business to take care of and told Giant to watch his back.

Benoit continued to work on Rick and hit a back suplex. This was a huge suplex match where they threw each other all of the place and it was great. Rick eventually hit a big flying forearm to get himself back into the match temporarily but Benoit went back to work by throwing Rick into the corner.

Benoit hit a diving headbutt for a 2 count which Benoit was outraged by as he yelled at Patrick. Benoit was caught jumping off the top rope by Rick who did a big belly to belly suplex. Rick did a bulldog from the middle rope for a 2 count as Scott questioned Patrick for doing a slow count. Rick and Benoit took each other out with a double clothesline.

The finish was great as Debra distracted the referee. Mongo tried to use the briefcase but Scott cut him off and confronted him. Mongo tried to use the briefcase but Rick grabbed it like “yoink”, hit Mongo directly in the head in a funny cartoon manner and then hit Benoit with it in the head for the victory. I loved this match and I loved the finish where the heel shenanigans backfire and the good guys win! It felt like a big win for Rick Steiner and a good-feel moment overall. I give this three thumbs up! This was brilliant!. The fans went nuts with the brothers hugging! I’D RECOMMEND WATCHING THIS MATCH.

 

Ric Flair © vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship

Flair vs Savage was the scheduled main-event for Monday Nitro, clearly inspired by the Halloween Havoc Sweepstake commercial from last week!

Hogan was shown hanging out with the Nasty Boys and Ted DiBiase backstage. DiBiase had the “nWo paperwork” as Hogan wanted them to watch his back. He left the contracts with them as Hogan had a big evil grin on his face. I also love the idea of despite being an evil organisation, you still had to sign paperwork and agree to contracts in order to officially join the nWo! I guess there had to be some honour among theives, even with the big bad nWo!

In case you haven’t figured it out by this point, the main-event never took place. The nWo attacked Ric Flair backstage, as Hall, Nash, Giant, Syxx and everybody was back there beating up Flair as Vincent held the US title for like two minutes! It’s weird that Vincent held that title in his hands when the US title match at Halloween Havoc at this point was Ric Flair vs The Giant. I guess Vincent just really wanted to hold a title in his hands!

Miss Elizabeth was backstage just watching on all nervous as to what was going on. Giant stalked Elizabeth up towards the entrance ramp as she begged him off. Savage came out and had a standoff with Giant with a chair but Hogan blindsided Savage. Hogan threw down a referee and then dropped Savage on the guard rail.

Hogan choked Savage with a chair but Elizabeth begged him off. Hogan grabbed her by the hair and then the arm as he bragged about owning her. Giant carried Savage down to the ring but, in a dangerous and awkward, moment, he lost his footing as he makes way onto the steps. Giant then slips on the steps as he’s holding Savage like a baby and Savage landed on the steps in an awkward manner. This was a bad botch although my big question was why Giant felt the need to go up the steps to throw Savage into the ring.

Giant was about to chokeslam Savage but Hogan stopped him to get a good punch in. Hogan punched away at Savage. Hogan clotheslined the back of Savage in the corner as Giant grabbed the face of Elizabeth.

Hogan did a leg drop on Savage and spat at him as he made Elizabeth watch this beating. He did another leg drop as fans throw more trash into the ring. Someone got a good throw of a box of Slim Jims right into the face of Hogan as he’s yelled at Savage! He spray-painted around Savage’s body like this was a crime scene.. Someone else got a good throw with a cup of beer or something at Giant’s arm as he was holding Elizabeth.

Hall and Nash came down. Hogan grabbed the mic and said: “by the power vested in me, I deem this consummation of Savage and Elizabeth null and void because I own you, I own your body, your soul, your heart as it was etched in stone. Ooooh yeah.” Hogan continued to yell as he said they should destroy the broadcast booth.

Eric Bischoff was adamant about not moving but then he and the announcers bailed as the nWo unveil the nWo monster truck with Syxx in the passenger seat! This was a big monster truck with Hogan’s arms on the side all kitted out in black and white. Despite claiming that he was not gonna leave, this big monster truck was there and Bischoff, Heenan and Tenay were nowhere to be found. They ran for their lives! The monster truck was being revved up near the announce table as they go off the air.

….so yes. They got this big monster truck to destroy the announce table… and they didn’t even do it! They just revved the engine and that was that!

This was best episode of Nitro in a while. I very much enjoyed this episode although the Elizabeth stuff was super uncomfortable but this was a better show than usual. The Elizabeth stuff is hard to watch through but this does strengthen the resolve of the babyface in question Randy Savage. If the plan was for Savage to beat Hogan for the title, then this was effective way to build up a massive threat in Hogan, have him do every despicable thing in the book and have Savage, the knight in shining armour, save Elizabeth from this evil organisation.

The only problem with that is I’m fairly certain Hogan retained the title at Halloween Havoc! Therefore, all the evil shenanigans we’re watching is even worse in hindsight knowing that Savage won’t even get his revenge! It’s like the Triple H/Booker T storyline from 2003 heading into WrestleMania 19. Everything was in place for Booker to beat Triple H. They even went as far as to have Triple H dismiss Booker as a threat because of his race as “people like him” couldn’t be world champion. The stars were aligned for Booker to become the first ever African-American world champion and beat this bigot Triple H… and then he just lost. So in hindsight, all of this awkward and negative led to nothing.

The exact same thing is happening here, knowing Savage isn’t going to get his revenge. With that being said, there were still a fair amount of clean victories and happy endings to at least provide a bit light during this dark time with the New World Order take over.

 

WCW Nitro Reading Order

• #1 – September 4th 1995
• #2 – September 11th 1995
• WCW War Games 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

 

 

How WWE Got It Right With RAW This Week (26/10/15)

The majority of RAWs in the past month have been well below par. It’s featured a lot of repetitive booking which have prevented the show from gaining any good ratings as TV viewerships went to record lows. However, this RAW was actually a pretty good one for a number of reasons. I think the biggest reason for it’s success though is that it appears that the writers have “re-booted” the storylines as it gave wrestlers fresh new material to work with.

It wasn’t like the events of Hell in a Cell weren’t followed up on. Bray Wyatt explained his attacks on Undertaker and did reference his match with Roman Reigns in his promo. There’s also the winners of the matches at Hell in a Cell being given spots in WWE Title contendership eliminator matches which we’ll get onto later. However, it just seemed to me for so many weeks that the writers were some what burned out. A part of me still thinks that’s the case but they did a great job with this week. I think the reason it worked so well is that it almost seems like they started from scratch again which is sometimes not a bad thing. With the current WWE storylines going stale, the writers had to try something else. The transition into these new storylines were pulled off so well that it opens up a lot of possibilities for the future.

They had Paige’s heel turn finally cemented which was a big plus from me. It was almost like they were milking this apparent PCB reunion storyline for so long that it just lost it effect. It was almost making little sense as Charlotte and Becky would have came off so bad for falling for Paige’s act. Paige turning heel for good now shifts the focus onto Charlotte vs a fully heel Paige.

The best part of the episode was the series of qualifying matches for a number one contendership match at the WWE World title. This was exactly the type of thing that WWE needed. I mentioned WWE following up on what happened the night before. With this little concept, all the winners from the night before were actually rewarded for winning these big matches at this big event. All of a sudden, the winners are actually starting to get over as top talent. They’ve earned the right to fight for the championship.

For the majority of the year, there’s rarely been a time where the number one contenders for the WWE World title have actually had to earn their title match in such a way. Usually, just beating Seth Rollins would get you the opportunity. The problem with that is simple… EVERYONE had started to beat Seth Rollins on RAW and SmackDown! Therefore, anyone could have theoretically been the number one contender. With this, only the strong will survive and get the opportunity at the title.

It could be argued that WWE should have stretched this out so it could take place over the course of a few weeks and build up anticipation for future shows. However, I think that’s very difficult considering that the writers have to fill up three hours worth of television RAW every week. I’m happy with the way they went as it could have built up anticipation for the main event.

Another reason why this worked so well is that they could have easily killed the momentum of a lot of the winners from last night, but no one really suffered badly. Kofi Kingston and Big E both lost, but the New Day were coming off a big win of the Dudleyz the night before anyway. Cesaro and Neville didn’t really get a lot from this night after losing but they weren’t stars with a lot of direction in the first place. Cesaro and Neville won in the pre-show match of Hell in a Cell so it’s not like they won a big match of importance.

Then there’s the fatal four way itself. Usually, I’d be mad that they brought Alberto Del Rio back just for him to get beat in the main event of his first RAW with the fatal four way. However, Del Rio looked really good in this match. Hell, everyone in that fatal four way looked strong in their own right. Kevin Owens started to look like a legitimate threat alongside Del Rio. I didn’t believe that Ziggler was going to win the match but he didn’t look that bad himself.

This was a main event that lived up to the anticipation built over the course of the night. It was a main event that actually seemed like a main event. It’s not like the crowd was bored and burned out by the end of it. They got really pumped for the finish of the fatal four way when Kevin and Roman Reigns were staring each other down.

Finally, Roman Reigns won. The right man won this mini-tournament and looked great when he did. He was actually built up to be a great contender by beating up everyone else to do it. These were not just over people too. He defeated the US and Intercontinental champions who were coming off two big wins in the course of 24 hours or so. I think with his win over Bray at Hell in a Cell as well to take into account, Roman now suddenly looks like a main event title contender.

It was just a great show in general that was exactly what the WWE needed heading into November. I’m praying that booking like this can continue on into next week. If that’s the case, the viewership numbers maybe about to turn around and a new star COULD be made.

19/10/2015 RAW Review – The Reunion Of The Shield?

RAW PREVIEW available at this link.

It’s time for the RAW review. I had high expectations for this RAW as I stated in the preview above. With the likes of Steve Austin, Undertaker, Ric Flair, Brock Lesnar and Shawn Michaels available, WWE had a lot of potential with this show. Anyway, let’s get to it with this review.

Steve Austin opened up the show. Austin talked about being back in Texas and plugged the Stone Cold podcast with Brock Lesnar. He brought out the Undertaker. This was a heavy start to the show to say the least with Austin and Undertaker initially! Undertaker said that he and Lesnar have one last battle to fight. The depths of hell are going to look like the gates of heaven compared to where he’s going to take Lesnar at Hell in a Cell. Loved that line. Brock Lesnar then came out! and Paul Heyman cut a promo. He talked about both Lesnar and Taker wanting revenge at Hell in a Cell. He says that Brock Lesnar will take his revenge upon thee. Undertaker cut him off saying that when you take everything from a man, that man ends up with nothing to lose. Undertaker told Brock to just bring it and Brock walked down to the ring. Paul was pleading with Brock to not go and fight Taker, and Brock eventually walked away. I was kind of upset that he did that considering the intensity of this feud so far. However, this was a solid opening to RAW. As it turns out, that ended up being all we got from Lesnar and Undertaker on this RAW. All of the hype which lead to… nothing.

Our first match was John Cena and the Dudley Boyz vs the New Day. It was announced that John Cena would be doing the US Title Open Challenge at Hell in a Cell which I’m looking forward to. It was also announced that John Cena would be appearing on SportsCentre TUESDAY night rather than on Monday as it was originally promoted. I found it odd that WWE initially announced that John would be appearing on ESPN during the second hour of RAW. Did they just tell they audience to change the channel? The New Day called Texas booty and Kofi talked about beating up Cena and the Dudleyz a few weeks ago. Kofi said that “the New Day kicked their”, but New Day cut him off. Kofi then responded by saying “Hey, we’re the New Day…. ASS!” I thought that was so awesome!

The New Day started to the dominate but D-Von got the hot tag. What’s great about the Dudleyz is that usually a lot of tag teams have one man that takes the heat in the match and there’s the one with the hot tag. Both D-Von and Bubba have great hot tags! Bubba did the most awkward clothesline to Big E which tumbled him out of the ring. Cena did a dive onto Big E on the outside. All of a sudden, Xaiver rolled up D-Von and grabbed the tights for the win! I thought that was a bit of an abrupt ending to the match which I thought was down to a bit of an issue with the timing of the show. However, John Cena and the Dudleyz were able to do the post-match beatdown and put Xaiver through a table. So I guess they just booked it like that but I guess they cut a bit off time from the match to make room for Austin or something. Not a bad six man tag but just awkward in some situations.

Michael Cole announced that Randy Orton was not at the WWE tour in Mexico (also featuring the Undertaker) and was injured which JBL already said was caused by the Wyatts. JBL said that his sources told him that the Wyatts did it. JBL must have some incredible sources to announce the assailants before WWE did! Dean Ambrose said he wasn’t waiting for Sunday and that he was going to challenge the Wyatts tonight

Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox were accompanied by Brie Bella for a Divas tag team match against Sasha Banks and Naomi, who were accompanied by Tamina Snuka. There was something off to me when Alicia and Sasha first locked up and it was mostly due to Alicia. Maybe it’s the size difference, but Alicia looked like she could not lock up to save her life. Nikki then got the heat on Naomi and proceeded to push Naomi up on the ropes with her… derrière. I’m not making it up. She pushed Naomi onto the ropes with her backside. That’s EXACTLY what she did!

Sasha got the hot tag and ran wild. Then, Naomi was tagged back in and did a cross body from the top. However, Nikki was able to do a sneak attack onto Nikki which was apparently had so much impact that it KO’d Sasha for the last minute of the match. She was knocked out with this simple move when just two weeks ago, she was up and at Bayley for 30 minutes in an Iron Man match. I hated this tag team match. Sasha was not that active in the match which really hurt it.

It was announced that “Corporate Kane” was suspended by WWE and would not be here for RAW. Shawn Michaels came down to ring and ate some kid’s pizza! XD He talked about Hell in a Cell and being in the first one. Michaels basically plugged the Hell in a Cell matches this Sunday until Seth Rollins came out. I have no idea why Seth’s hair was so freaking wet! Seth said that Shawn was supposed to introduce Seth Rollins rather than talk about the Hell in a Cell matches. Shawn says he ignores instructions all the time and that he wanted to have a bit of fun with the fans. Shawn said they were having a great time until Seth came out. Seth said that he needed to talk about the champion that was going to stop the show at Hell in a Cell. He said that Shawn needed to talk about Seth Rollins. Shawn said that if he had a nickel for everyone that has been called the new Shawn Michaels, he’d be a billionaire. Shawn said it never occurred to him to be the second coming of anybody. Seth said that Shawn was jealous because Seth’s moment at Wrestlemania 31 eclipsed all of Shawn’s Wrestlemania moments. Seth said he had enough of the conversation and told them to hit his music. They wouldn’t do it. Shawn said that Seth’s got a match next against Ryback and told the music guy to hit HIS music. Seth’s last match with Ryback on RAW actually wasn’t that bad so I had high hopes going into this one.

They had their match. It was an OK match I guess. Seth Rollins hit the pedigree and Seth beat Ryback… CLEAN! What a concept! The WWE World Heavyweight Champion won a match clean! They finally had Seth win a match! As Wrestlezone pointed out on Twitter, Ryback won their last match on RAW a month ago because of Sting. To see Seth actually pick up the clean win here actually works fine.

It was announced that Dean Ambrose would be facing Braun Strowman and Luke Harper in a handicap match on RAW. They replayed Summer Rae dumping Rusev last week on RAW. As you’ll recall, Rusev was mucked around on that show. They also showed Summer Rae screwing Rusev as the special guest referee on SmackDown! and then hitting on Dolph Ziggler. It was then time for a six man tag team match with Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro and Neville against Rusev, Sheamus and King Barrett.

It was a good six man tag team match. Just a shame that the announcers were comparing Rusev to George Clooney and Cesaro to Rodger Federer. NO attention paid to this match at all. Neville went for a tag but Sheamus pushed Ziggler off the apron. However as he did that, Cesaro went off the apron himself without being touched! Cesaro was tagged in and ran wild. A very good hot tag. Then Ziggler did his hot tag. Ziggler hit the Fame-Asser but Barrett sold it poorly to be honest. I just think he fell down a bit too quickly. Neville did the big springboard dive onto the outside to which JBL said that Wayne Rooney would never do that! The finish was Sheamus hitting the Brogue Kick onto Ziggler and Barrett getting the win. There’s a lot of potential with a heel European stable with Rusev, Sheamus and King Barrett if WWE ever went with it. You might as well!

It was announced that Summer Rae and Dolph Ziggler would be on MizTV on SmackDown! Ric Flair came out to the joy of myself! Ric talked about Wrestlemania 32 being in Texas. He announced that it would be Roman Reigns teaming with Dean to take on Luke Harper and Braun Strowman. Roman Reigns came out as Ric called him his “main man.”  The Wyatts came out with ERICK ROWMAN being with them but not Luke Harper. Roman called Bray into the ring. Roman said that Bray should be very scared off being locked in Hell in a Cell with him without his crew. All I kept thinking after he said that is, I guarantee that the Wyatt Family will get inside the Cell in someway during the Reigns/Wyatt match!

Seth, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were talking backstage. The Wyatts/Reigns and Ambrose match was now a two on three handicap match. So the match has now been changed twice in one night! Shawn Michaels interrupted Steph, Seth and HHH with Seth with a facial expression of complete disgust towards Shawn Michaels! I loved it! Then the match was changed again when Seth Rollins decided to be Roman and Dean’s partner in a six man tag team match! So I guess it’s the Shield reunited against the Wyatts.

Charlotte took on Brie Bella. Paige was backstage watching on. This match was much better than the tag team divas match from earlier. However, that’s not saying a great deal to be honest. It was very hard care but because the build for this match between Nikki and Charlotte at Hell in a Cell has been so lacklustre. Charlotte won. Renee Young interviewed Paige backstage. Renee asked Paige if she attacked Natalya on SmackDown! and said that she was the prime suspect. Paige claimed that anyone could have had an issue with the Divas Revolution including Alundra Blayze! Renee mentioned that Paige was still not answering her question and Paige told her to get her facts straight.

Kevin Owens was in a non-title match with Mark Henry. The big highlight of the match was Kevin Owens hitting the pop-up powerbomb on Mark Henry! That was impressive. As Michael Cole pointed out, Kevin could easily do that to Ryback if he can do that to Mark Henry. Ryback came out but Kevin wanted to run away. Mark threw Kevin back into the ring and Ryback hit a huge powerbomb to Kevin. It’s nice that they actually did something with this feud.

Seth did a interview with Renee Young backstage and said this six man tag team match was not about reuniting the Shield. It was about proving that he was in fact the man and he was going to show the world just how great he was. They showed another Brock Lesnar/Undertaker hype-up video. They announced for the Hell in a Cell pre-show that it would be a rematch from the six man tag team match earlier as Ziggler, Neville and Cesaro will take on Rusev, Sheamus and Barrett.

Next up was the six man tag team match main event. The fans were already chanting “This is Awesome” before the match started, shades of the match between these two stables at 2014 Elimination Chamber. Rollins and Ambrose were arguing on the apron as Roman started things off. Seth was knocked to the outside and told Dean and Roman “Hey, I already had one match!”

Seth walked out on the match when he “suffered” an injury. The match ended when Dean hit everybody with Kendo Sticks. The Wyatts ganged up on Dean until Roman did the big dive to the group. Roman did spears to Bray and Rowan to end the show. I thought this was a decent main event and good build for Hell in a Cell.

I thought this RAW was better than RAW last week. However, I was expecting a lot more with all the stars that were signed up for this edition of RAW. They could have made better use of Ric and Steve Austin. I was expecting a lot more from Undertaker and Brock Lesnar. I had high expectations for this RAW to be honest. I can’t say this was a bad show but I was expecting a lot more considering this was the go-home show for the PPV.

19/10/2015 RAW PREVIEW – Can WWE Turn Ratings Around With Top Stars In Texas?

How’s it going everybody? Thomas Robinson here once again to talk about RAW. The pressure is on for the writers of WWE as they are coming off record-low ratings for their flagship show. With ratings at their lowest since 1997, Vince is reportedly “freaking out” over ratings which has not done them any favours leading up to Hell in a Cell. It’s also not doing them any favours that they’ve not been able to promote the main event of that show due to availability issues for both Undertaker and Brock Lesnar.

Have no fear though, both men are here for tonight’s edition of RAW in Texas. This RAW is crucial for the writers as it is the go-home show for the PPV. They certainly don’t want to go into Hell in a Cell with low ratings so they’ve brought out a number of big guns tonight. Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels are advertised alongside Undertaker and Brock Lesnar for RAW. Whether Stone Cold Steve Austin will be appearing tonight is still up in the air as it seems that not even Stone Cold knows what he’s doing tonight!

We do know that he’ll be doing his podcast with Brock Lesnar as his guest after RAW which could very well be great to watch. What Undertaker and Brock Lesnar will do tonight is interesting. If Brock is scheduled for the podcast, it’d be strange if Brock and Taker got into a huge brawl or something on RAW. It’s not like Brock will be walking into the podcast and selling an attack from Taker. But you never know…

What we don’t know is what John Cena will be doing at Hell in a Cell. So far, he is not advertised for the PPV. He’s not currently scheduled for a match but his match could easily be announced tonight. With his current feud with Dolph Ziggler, it’s likely that Cena vs Ziggler for the US Championship will be announced for the PPV. Cena could still do his US Open challenge tonight but he’ll likely retain to lead into the PPV.

There’s a few more matches that will no doubt be built up for Hell in a Cell. Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt is a match I’m looking forward to. The build-up so far has been a bit comme ci comme ca and it’s had it’s ups and downs. I hope there’s some kind of brawl tonight because I feel that’s the only way this rivalry should have been built up. Their strongest segments during their program has been because of the fans’ desire to see these two just beat the hell out of each other. If they fight tonight, that’s going to build up Sunday’s fight up very well.

There’s a number of title matches lined up for the PPV too. There needs to be some serious work done for the Intercontinental Championship match. Ryback and Kevin Owens have barely done anything with each other since Kevin won the title. There’s got to be some kind of confrontation. Charlotte vs Nikki Bella for the Divas Championship will also need a bit of work done. I’ve not really thought highly of the Divas Revolution storyline since Paige cut her worked shoot on the RAW after Night of Champions. Charlotte’s not really been that impressive as champion yet and Nikki Bella has just annoyed me with her lack of emotion after losing her title. There’s not a lot going for this feud so unless they add Paige to the title match (which I highly doubt they’ll do), I think the interest into this match will quickly dissipate.

There’s also the true highlight of the show in the New Day. I can’t wait to see what antics those three will be up to tonight! So far, their tag title defence against the Dudleyz is currently just a regular match. However, the tables stipulation could easily be added tonight. Then there’s the final week of the Kane vs Seth Rollins feud. I had a entire article prepared on Seth but I should mention it now just before RAW… Seth NEEDS to win a match tonight. Seth’s record since Night of Champions has been so shameful that it’s incredible that their champion is being booked this way. I know with the other two Hell in a Cell matches, there’s not a lot of pressure on Kane and Seth. However, Seth needs to look credible. If Kane completely dominates this week, Seth’s credibility would be crippled. If Seth is going to be as featured as prominently as he usually is on RAW, he needs to do something of value to justify all of this time he’s given. He needs a pin over “Demon Kane” to lead into the PPV.

I think this RAW could EASILY be one of the strongest RAWs of the year. I know that’s not saying much considering the quality of RAWs this year hasn’t been all that great, but it needs to be. With Lesnar, Taker, Flair, Austin and Michaels all under the same roof in Dallas, something’s got to give. This could be the ratings boost WWE needs but only if they capitalise on the stars that have come together in Texas. The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas. If the WWE allows these stars to shine big and bright tonight, it could be just the boost they need….

14/10/2015 NXT Review – New Number One Contender Crowned In Battle Royal

Bayley opened the show. She talked about making history at NXT TakeOver: Respect. It was a nice little speech and she got a lot of nice chants. Fans chanted “Match of the Year”, “You deserve it” and “Women’s wrestling.” She talked about how it was the next step in the Divas Revolution. Alexa Bliss, along with Blake and Murphy, interrupted her. She initially congratulated her and called her an incredible champion. Alexa then stole the belt with the help of Blake and Murphy. Alexa talked about winning the belt for real and she threw it back at Bayley. So I’m guessing she’ll be in the hunt for the title now.

They showed a backstage post-match segment from NXT TakeOver. Joe and Balor’s interview was cut off by William Regal who was talking about the NXT title. Samoa Joe talked about how he was undefeated and challenged Balor the title. Balor agreed but Regal said that everyone should get a shot, much like with the Dusty Rhodes Classic. He announced the number one contendership battle royal for tonight but Joe protested saying that he should be having the shot. However, Regal made it clear that it would be a battle royal. So Joe came off as the heel following the PPV so it might be him that could be turning in the future. We shall see…

They showed a bunch of backstage promos during the night with the battle royal competitors. Tye Dillinger, Apollo Crews, Rhyno, Baron Corbin and Tyler Breeze all cut the promos. They were short but sweet promos but I’d like to have seen one from Enzo or somebody! The Vaudevillains were in a non-title match against Angelo Dawkins and Sawyer Fulton. It was a short but sweet match. Really, all the match time on this episode was for the battle royal. The Mechanics cut a promo mocking Enzo Amore and Big Cass and talked about how they beat the NXT Tag Team Champions in the Dusty Classic. They basically claimed to be both the number one contenders and the NXT Tag Team Champions! I’m guessing their going to be going after the tag titles. However, there’s a lot of great tag teams that they could pick from to go up against the Vaudevillains. The Dusty Classic did a great job for developing the tag team division even more.

They showed another NXT TakeOver post-match segment, with Asuka going up to Dana and Emma backstage. Asuka was just awesome on that show in general and she was great in this segment. Nia Jax finally debuted against Evie. The crowd was very welcoming, which really helped her case. The NXT arena in Florida is a very good crowd to debut people in because they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and they were giving Nia Jax all sorts of love. They chanted “Nia’s gonna kill you” and they were more than happy with her. Nia’s size really does help her and she’s got a lot of potential. She’s a rare powerhouse for WWE to really get behind. They had Awesome Kong/Kharma before, but there were a few issues. However, if Nia Jax is here to stay then she can become a star. Baron Corbin tweeted this below, which really does sum it up for Nia…

Divas revolution? A truly dominate diva has arrived. Your fancy moves and little tricks no longer matter @NiaJaxWWE will destroy all @WWENXT

— Corbin (@BaronCorbinWWE) October 15, 2015

We had the battle royal for a NXT title shot. There was LOADS of heat on Baron for this one. The fans DID NOT want him to win. The favourite from the get-go was really Tyler Breeze but we’ll get onto him. The Mechanics, Baron and Rhyno all went for Samoa Joe right away! They established Joe as the favourite which I’m all for considering how this ended. Apollo did his Atomic Drop finisher on Johnny Gargano, that he did to Tyler at Respect, onto the men on the outside to eliminate him. That looked cool.

The Mechanics eliminated Big Cass but then Enzo eliminated the Mechanics by himself which got one of the strongest pops of the episode! Sadly, he was tossed over too. There were a lot of big “Tyler” chants as Rhyno and Baron had been teaming up. However, Baron ended up double-crossing Rhyno. I figured Rhyno was going to be the one to do the double cross!

Samoa Joe eliminated Tommaso Ciampa with a hard slam onto the apron. That looked like it sucked for Tommaso! Joe then eliminated both Blake and Murphy. This lead to the final four being Joe, Breeze, Corbin and Apollo. Samoa Joe got rained with boos after he eliminated Tyler! Tyler responded by eliminating Joe which got a big pop. Tyler got a big “Thank you Tyler” chant. Did the NXT crowd really not want Joe to win? I’d understand if it was like Baron Corbin. However, Joe didn’t seem to be getting bad reactions during this show. I guess they just wanted Tyler to get revenge on somebody. Unfortunately, Joe was that somebody. I’m guessing then it won’t be Joe vs Balor at the next NXT TakeOver which is a shame. But you never know.

Apollo Crews eliminated Baron Corbin in an alright final two to win the battle royal and become the number one contender. I’m fine with Apollo winning. I’m shocked that he’s getting a title shot this quickly after debuting with WWE but you can tell they see something big with him. I don’t think he’ll win the title, unless they want to get Finn Balor onto the main roster as soon as possible. I figured they’d want to do it by giving the title to Joe first but I guess Crews makes sense since he just debuted on NXT and he’ll be there for a while first. It was a decent battle royal. I wanted Joe to win but I’m fine with Apollo.

This was an OK show that was really just about the battle royal. The battle royal they put on was fine and this was an OK follow-up from NXT TakeOver: Respect.

Dragonball Z: Battle Of Gods Preview – Top 5 Favourite Dragonball Z Fights Of All Time

 

Hey there Dragonball Z fans, I’m Tom Robinson. Yes, I do things other than wrestling believe it or not! XD. Anyway, it’s time to talk Dragonball Z, and the new film on the way. Dragonball Z: Battle Of Gods! Yeah. I’ve been watching a lot of the old DBZ episodes as of late. Just finished watching the Kid Buu Saga, which is good considering that this film is set shortly after that, so I am ready for this new film! Oh Yeah! XD

Anyway, like I said, the new film is set after the events of Kid Buu, and the peace on Earth is disrupted by the arrival of the God of Destruction, Bills! 39 years ago, the Oracle Fish told Bills that in 39 years, a very mighty warrior would appear before him. Fast forward 39 years into the future, and Bills is ready to find this warrior – who happens to be Goku. Goku learns of Bills existence, and wants to fight him. However, Bills comes to the earth, and before he fights Goku, he takes out all the over fighters of earth with ease. Piccolo, Krillin, Ultimate Gohan, Vegeta (who apparently will not become a Super Saiyan 3 in this film, 😦 ) and even Majin Buu. After destroying everyone else, the fight between himself and Goku commences. However, even at Super Saiyan 3, Goku is no match for Bills. Bills is even able to stop Super Saiyan 3 Goku with one finger. WHAT A BADASS. Knowing that he may not be strong enough to defeat Bills, Goku realizes he has to crank it up a notch. And he’s not talking about Super Saiyan 4 (which apparently is NOT an actual super saiyan form anymore, since Dragonball GT has been deemed non-canon). He’s talking about SUPER SAIYAN GOD! And so, the Battle Of Gods will now commence. Holy Shit!

Now this is a film I will really enjoy watching. Just a shame that it might not get a English Dub. 😦 Apparently, the voice actors of Goku and Vegeta want to do it, but somehow it can’t be done. Nevertheless, the film is coming out, and the fight between Bills and Goku will be absolute sensational. In honour of this film, I’ve decided to bring out a list of my top 5 favourite fights in the Dragonball Z franchise. Nothing from the original Dragonball series or Dragonball GT is allowed. Also, while Goku vs Bills will likely be one of the best fights in DBZ history, it will not be included as the film isn’t even out yet. So, here we go!

5. Kid Buu vs Vegeta (The Kid Buu Saga)

This was a really cool battle in my opinion. Yes, Kid Buu beat the hell out of Vegeta for abour 90% of the fight, but this fight was a real good example of Vegeta’s resiliency and refusal-to-stay-down attitude that he has demonstrated through-out the series. Seriously, this was a guy that could easily destroy planets and ACTUALLY blew up the earth, and Vegeta was still holding his own. I love the fact that Vegeta kept goading Kid Buu into fighting him despite knowing that he was never going to win. This fight was the ultimate test of Vegeta’s endurance, and Vegeta passed with flying colours. Takes all sorts of punishment from Kid Buu, and lives to tell the tale – WHAT A BADASS.

4. Gohan vs Perfect Cell (The Cell Games Saga)

If the Dragonball Z series ended with the Cell Games saga, than this would have been an amazing way to end it. The torch being passed from Goku to his son Gohan as protector of Earth. After scrapping with Cell himself, Goku gave up on the fight and passed on his boss-battle-conquering duties to his son Gohan. And teenage Gohan was holding his own against Perfect Cell, who was giving even Goku a hard time. Gohan even managed to get the upper-hand on Cell. During the fight Cell became increasingly enraged, which would cause him to explode at the hands of Goku. BUT WAIT! Cell was able to regenerate and the fight was far from over. After knocking around an enraged Vegeta, Gohan stepped in. And with the guidance of Goku (who was speaking to Gohan telepathically from King Kai’s place), Gohan gave one final KAMEHAMEHA, which defeated Cell once and for all. It was an insane battle, and this was no-doubt Gohan’s greatest moment in Dragonball Z. A great way to end a saga, and a kick-ass fight.

3. Goku vs Frieza (The Frieza Saga)

Goku’s first real major battle in DBZ, with the tyrant Frieza. Frieza took everything Goku had to offer, and was the first villain to push Goku’s past his limits and reach a form of legend. Up until this point of the series, Goku relied heavily on the Kaioken to defeat his foes. But that was not enough to take down Frieza in this fight. Goku even whipped out the Spirit Bomb, which was good enough to defeat Vegeta. But Frieza still got up from that. And after taking spirit bombs and all sorts of punishments by Goku, he was still able to effortlessly kill Krillin, pushing Goku’s last nerve and eventually cause to reach the level of Super Saiyan. Goku’s new form was more than enough to battle the tyrant, and the battle went on, destroying Namek in the process. Goku even let Frieza reach his maximum power, which just goes to show how badly he wanted to test himself and his new form. But in the end, after cutting himself in half, Frieza was eventually defeated by Goku in what may have been one of the most legendary battles in fictional history. Because it was the first to show of the legendary form of Super Saiyan!

2. Super Saiyan 2 Goku vs Majin Vegeta (The Babidi Saga)

Goku and Vegeta’s rivalry is legendary. Vegeta’s obsession with surpassing Goku has been well-documented. Vegeta would do whatever it takes to defeat Goku – even if it meant allowing himself to be controlled. Believing that he had lost his passion as warrior by living and raising a family on Earth, Vegeta allowed his mind to be taken over by the wizard Babidi, who set Vegeta up on a path of destruction. However, Vegeta’s mind was not fully-taken over, and he was able to refuse Babidi’s command to kill the Supreme Kai, and proclaimed that as a saiyan, he will always have his pride. Vegeta was so desperate to fight Kakarot and realize the evil he once had, and he finally had that opportunity. And the fight didn’t disappoint. Both Goku and Vegeta went up to the level of Super Saiyan 2, and the two were evenly-matched. But when they sensed the emergence of the creature known as Majin Buu, they temporarily put the fight on hold. But Vegeta tricked Goku, and decked him when his back was turned. Vegeta declared that he would defeat Majin Buu himself, and flew-off, leaving Goku laying. Again, WHAT A BADASS! A victory over Goku was so important to him that he would resort to any measures to get it. And, well, he did defeat Goku in a way. It was a great fight to watch, and it truly showed the pride these two saiyans had.

1. Goku vs Kid Buu (The Kid Buu Saga)

The final MAJOR battle of the DBZ series, Goku battled Kid Buu in a fight which determined the universe’s fate. As Kid Buu, Buu reached a power-level unlike anything Goku had faced before. Buu was easily the strongest being Goku had ever faced-off against, and Goku had just witnessed Buu destroy the earth. The ACTUAL earth. Of all the villains who try to destroy the earth, Buu ACTUALLY did it. And even at Super Saiyan 3, Goku was still not able to defeat Kid Buu. Mind you, he gave him a hell of a fight and was even able to bite him. XD But in the form of Super Saiyan 3, Goku’s body was put under SO MUCH strain during the fight. After taking a hell-of-a-beating, Goku needed to a breather and regenerate, and realized that he may not himself be able to takedown Buu. After Kid Buu battled Vegeta, Majin Buu and Mr Satan (of sort XD) Goku was revitalized and summoned the Spirit Bombs of all Spirit Bombs to end Buu once and for all. While the Spirit Bombs delivered to Frieza and Vegeta were actually NOT enough to defeat the villains, none of them spirit bombs were the size of this one. With all of earth delivering energy to the spirit bomb, the bomb was ready. Goku threw the bomb at Buu and was able to destroy him for good. What a battle! And what a way to end the DBZ series, and that was a fight that might not have ever been topped…

 

UNTIL NOW!

 

Goku vs Bills promises to be an epic encounter. And what a film this may end up being! I can’t wait!