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 New World Order is officially in full swing as part of WCW, with the third man revealing himself to be Hollywood Hogan at WCW Bash At The Beach. 5 weeks later, Hollywood Hogan steps into the ring for the first time since that night as he challenges The Giant for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Can the Dungeon of Doom’s Giant defend WCW’s honour against this new threat or will Hollywood Hogan regain the WCW title and re-brand it the “nWo” Championship as he promised to do?
Like the blog post if you understand this reference!
This was the first and only WCW Hog Wild event WCW ever held. The show would go on to be renamed “Road Wild” from 1997. It was an event held during Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. WCW wrestlers and Eric Bischoff himself rode motorcycles to the event along with the fellow bikers at the rally.
As a wrestling show, it was fine. There were a number of a solid matches combined with many, MANY horrible finishes and a horrible couple of main-events featuring the nWo. There was some weird timing with some of the matches, with the majority of matches lasting 10 minutes and Dean Malenko vs Chris Benoit getting 26 minutes. We’ll get to that match in a bit.
Matches like Malenko vs Benoit getting 26 minutes is great in theory and they ended up having an awesome match. However, these were not the type of fans that were interested in seeing Chris Benoit vs Dean Malenko in a classic 26 minute wrestling match. I don’t want to say they weren’t interested in the show but a huge emphasis on the actual wrestling did not work with this crowd. They booed several times and got bored with the technical aspect of the Benoit/Malenko match which really tells you something.
They were more interested in the personalities so whatever they did with the actual matches, they didn’t care for. Therefore, how the matches were put together was sort of irrelevant when the biggest names they popped for during the show were the likes of Hollywood Hogan and Madusa. You don’t need to give a match like The Giant vs Hollywood Hogan 15 minutes when the match was never gonna be a good 15 minute match and all the fans wanted to see was Hogan.
It also hurt that the timing of the matches were made somewhat irrelevant when all we got up and down the show were screwjob finishes and shenanigans throughout the show. What’s the point in doing a 17 minute tag team match when it was only going to lead to the managers interfering at the end of it anyway? Every match after Ice Train vs Scott Norton had a dude or multiple people running in or some kind of cheap victory. The finishes really hurt the show in my eyes…
Date: August 10th 1996
Brand: WCW
City: Sturgis, South Dakota
Attendance: 5,000
Commentators: Tony Schiavonie, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes
There’s something I have to mention before we get started. Take a look at the picture of the announcers from Hog Wild. Tony Schiavonie, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes all wearing sunglasses. Tony was in the middle with a black cap and a denim jacket with no sleeves. Heenan has lighter shades on with like a spiffy jacket and then there’s Dusty Rhodes with a denim jacket on with no sleeves and these horrible denim shorts, which I hope he burned alive the next day! Sweet Jesus. Tony also had a tattoo on his arm which must have been like a tattoo sleeve or something. He probably drew on himself, as Bobby Heenan had speculated! Either way, this was not a good look for the announcers!
Rey Mysterio Jr. © vs The Ultimate Dragon w/Sonny Onoo for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship
Ultimo Dragon was referred to as THE ULTIMATE DRAGON, which is a great name. Not gonna lie. Mike Tenay was at the announce booth for this match.
Nobody clued up Tenay as he referred to the Dragon as Ultimo Dragon. Rey had a Spider-man mask and trunks on which I thought was cool. This is one of the best costumes I’ve see Rey in during his career and think of the ground that covers. If there was one guy worthy of dressing up like Spider-Man on a wrestling show, it was Rey Mysterio Jr!
Rey and Dragon wrestled on the ground as Rey tried to work on the leg while Dragon tried constantly with chin-locks and head-targeted attacks. Now if you’ll recall, Kevin Nash threw Rey Mysterio like a lawn dart into the side of a trailer. Therefore, the Dragon working on the head of Mysterio made a lot of sense! Good ring psychology!
Of course a blow-up doll was thrown around within the crowd. Dragon hit a nice spinning wheel kick. They traded springboard moonsaults landing on their feet. The fans chanted “USA” during REY MYSTERIO VS ULTIMO DRAGON. You have two luchadors previously based in Mexico and Japan wrestling each other and the fans chant “USA” I guess to support Rey!
Dragon delivered some sweet kicks. Dragon hit a hard, and I mean a HARD, hitting running sit-out powerbomb but did not go for the cover as the announcers scolded him for this. If you’ll recall, Dean Malenko made similar mistakes during the title match where he dropped the belt to Rey on Nitro.
Dragon tried a figure four leg lock and Rey got the ropes. Jushin Liger was apparently diagnosed with a brain tumour as WCW wished him well. Ultimate Dragon did a inverted torture rack backbreaker which Dragon was able to pull off seemingly effortlessly. Rey Mysterio Jr, as small as he was, was a very useful asset if you’re WCW. You have a guy even cruiserweights are able to lift us easily to do a big move and Rey was willing and able to go up and take all of these spots. What was the big spot people remember from that nWo beatdown 2 weeks ago? Kevin Nash throwing Rey into the trailer. Here, Dragon was put over by running around with Rey on his shoulders making the fans think “he’s a small cruiserweight but he’s certainly powerful.” It sucks to be Rey as he would take all the big moves! However, he seemed more than willing to take the moves and they looked great in execution!
Dragon did a surfboard submission. Dragon missed a handspring elbow which led to Dragon getting drop-kicked on the back.
Then Rey Mysterio did a dive. Now, I need to properly describe to you just how big of a dive this was. The ring was put, as Tony put it, on a pedestal. The pedestal saw the ring at the very top with a small surface of a mat just below it. Then there’s a few feet to the floor which I guess was meant for the bikes to ride around on. Anyway, Dragon went all the way to the floor that was basically mud and dirt. So Rey Mysterio did a springboard dive all the way from the ring to the ground where Dragon was stood. It was outstanding the amount of space he covered and how perfectly he landed on top of Ultimo Dragon. Bobby said it was 12 feet in the air from the ground and Dragon was so far away, and Rey Mysterio was able to successfully land this move on Dragon perfectly. Rey Mysterio Jr. really did seem like Spider-Man with this leap!
Rey did a top rope hurricanrana. Dragon cut off a Mysterio springboard with a dropkick. Dragon suckered Rey in with a feint 619 and then Dragon did a dive to the mat part of the pedestal. When he did this move, all you heard was a THUD. It sounded like it was NASTY for both of them. It didn’t sound like they hit a safe mat when wrestlers did spots on this “mat” or whatever it was. It looked honestly like it was a structure with a sheet over it and wrestlers were just doing spots on it. Hard to watch.
Dragon hit a german suplex and bridge for a 2 count. Dragon hit a springboard moonsault. Dragon followed this up with a top rope moonsault for a 2 count. Dragon tried another running powerbomb but Rey turned it into a frankensteiner which I thought was an awesome spot. Rey did a top rope frankensteiner for the win.
It was a good match but it felt like something was missing. There were spots where it seemed like they were on different pages and other than the Rey Mysterio dive to the outside, there wasn’t much memorable stuff from the pair of them. I mean, if you think about it, it’s a wrestler coming in from AAA wrestling wrestling a wrestler coming in from NJPW. Two vastly different parts of the world with two very different styles of wrestling. Dragon and Mysterio being on different pages sometimes therefore made sense here.
It’s funny because I started watching wrestling in 2003 and I think Rey Mysterio was the WWE Cruiserweight Champion at the time. Dragon was signed and young me was really wanting to see Rey vs Dragon in a match for the title on SmackDown! We never got it on WWE television if I recall correctly and I now I’ve seen all of these years later, I was kinda let down finally watching the match! The chemistry was not there and it felt at times they were on separate pages with what they were gonna do. It was good but didn’t live up to my expectations, so maybe that’s on me for having two high expectations!
Match Rating: ***1/2 mostly because of the massive dive from Rey.
Mean Gene Okerlund, in the uncoolest gear he’s ever dressed in, promoted the WCW Hotline. He was wearing a motorcycle jacket and in denim clothes and it was not a good look.
Scott Norton vs Ice Train
Ice Train was shown taped up coming down. This explanation that the announcers gave for this was so stupid. It took them about a minute to blurt this out. On WCW Saturday Night, which was the “pre-show” to Hog Wild, Ice Train tried to talk to The Giant and I guess got a beat down for his troubles. It took them about a minute to get to the point of what happened to Ice Train and they didn’t even explain exactly what happened. All they mentioned was that Ice Train went out to meet The Giant and it didn’t end well. I’m assuming it resulted in Giant kicking his arse but then again, it could literally be that Ice Train injured himself by literally slipping on a banana peel! All they had to say was Giant attacked Ice Train but they couldn’t even say that. I hated this.
Norton and Ice Train chopped away at each other with Ice Train feeling it more because of the “attack” from earlier or whatever happened. Norton kicked away at the bandage which Dusty commended Norton for. Norton kept taking off Ice Train’s bandages and working on the chest with chops and smashed Ice Train’s shoulders into the ring post. They explained Ice Train’s manager Teddy Long was at the hospital because of The Giant, because Giant chokeslammed Teddy on Nitro.
Ice Train did some chops to the shoulders and a slam to get back into a match but Norton would do something basic like a clothesline to knock him down. I liked that. Ice Train was trying everything he could but all Norton needed to do was one or two things and Ice Train was left writhing in pain and in trouble again.
Norton just did basic stuff like putting all of his weight on Ice Train’s shoulders which again, I actually thought was very simple and understandable in the context of the match. The announcers called them “one of the most effective tag teams in the last few months” which was an out-right lie. I don’t even think I’ve seen them win a match together yet on any show!
Norton went back to putting his knee on Ice Train’s shoulder blades and holding down the arm. Norton did a leg drop to the arm and Ice Train squealed with agony. Ice Train did a powerslam to get back into the match.
Norton cut him off and locked on an armbar on the injured arm to score the submission win. Norton initially refused to let go of the hold. I think Dave Penzer explained that the referee stopped the match.
I liked the match. It had a very basic story where Norton worked on the arm and despite the big man Ice Train trying to fight back, he was still a wounded man in a fight with a big dude in Norton. I liked it. This gets a thumbs up.
Match Rating: **
Ric Flair was shown talking about the attack on Arn Anderson from Nitro two weeks ago. Ric decided that the nWo and the Horsemen could join forces but then the nWo jumped Arn and everything changed. Ric said he’d fight for the company and it was survival of the fittest. He described it as one company trying to be taken over by another. He explained if the nWo wanted to make their mark, this was their chance. This was a very passionate but soft-spoken Flair about what had happened. I liked this promo Flair cut.
They showed WCW Hog Wild merchandise. This looked so miserable but I bet it is all worth a fortune nowadays. They claimed it was the “coolest look around” and you’d look awesome if you wore it. They showed that it was worth $89.95 for the Hog Wild jacket. I did check eBay and I found one Hog Wild jacket that was valued at $199.99 with $32.37 for packing, which I assume is because I’m based in England and this was from an American seller. Along with “Import charges” this would have cost me at least $300 to buy this jacket in 2020. With the benefit of hindsight, $89.95 seemed like a steal for this jacket!
I was on WrestleCrap’s website and there was a link about this jacket. Co-Author of the Death of WCW book R.D. Reynolds put a comment on the page saying: “I would totally buy that… If it was like, $15.”
Madusa vs Bull Nakano w/Sonny Onoo in the battle of the bikes
Sonny Onoo was driving the bike down to the ring for Bull, as Bull yelled meanly into the camera. The fans were shown revving their bikes in appreciation of the show. To be fair to this crowd, they were really invested into this match even if bikes were a big part of it!
Madusa, dressed in the red, white and blue of the USA, drove down to the ring on her own bike. I will admit that the music they played came off really cool as she rode down in her own motorcycle.
Bull attacked Madusa with nun-chucks and Dusty proclaimed she hit her with a NUUUUN chucks. He just kept repeating that line and the announcers got a good chuckle out of it. Bobby was repeating it himself in a funny manner and the announcers were just having a ball entertaining themselves during this show!
Bull slammed Madusa all over the place as the fans chanted USA. It looked like Bull legitimately clocked Madusa in the face with a clothesline. Madusa ran wild to a monstrous reaction. Bull locked on the Scorpion Cross Lock and it took me forever to remember what the name of that hold was when I first saw it!
Bull then locked on the chin lock as the fans revved up their cycles to cheer on Madusa. Madusa hit a frankensteiner for a 2 count. The key was Bobby kept saying “SHE GOT HER” or “HE GOT HIM” during the night after every pin fall attempt. Even in this match, Bobby kept repeating it over and over and Tony got extremely pissed off at this!
There was actually speculation that Bobby Heenan was legitimately intoxicated during this show. The word was that Bobby did all of these WCW shows while drunk but this was the big one. I’m not going to endorse drinking heavily but Bobby Heenan did everything in his power during his show to entertain himself. I’d much rather listen to this Bobby Heenan entertain himself than these monotone announcers they’ve got in WWE in 2020 with fake humour and fake banter that comes of unrealistic. These WCW announcers were trying to get themselves excited about this show that’s great to see and great to hear.
Madusa missed a spin-wheel kick and Bull made her pay with a big clothesline. Madusa hit a german suplex. Bull responded with a back suplex for a 2 count. Madusa did a sunset flip for her own 2 count.
Then we got a horrible finish in my eyes. Bull did a back suplex and the referee counted to three even though Madusa’s shoulders were up. Bull thought she won. Sonny started hitting Madusa’s motorcycle with a sledgehammer and then the referee rang for the bell. I had no idea what the finish was as did the crowd. Madusa threw dirt at Sonny which apparently stopped him from using this hammer! Madusa grabbed the hammer and tried to hit Sonny with it but then breaks the heels’ motorcycle. Bull did absolutely nothing about this while her bike was being destroyed. Madusa used this hammer over and over again and then just pushed over the motorcycle as Madusa was declared the winner.
I initially thought that Madusa was supposed to kick out of Bull’s suplex but the referee screwed up and counted the pin. However, the bell didn’t ring and Bull acted as if she won. The bell didn’t ring until Sonny started destroying Madusa’s motorcycle. I then figured they were disqualifying the heels as they weren’t supposed to break the motorcycle as the rules were the winner was supposed to break the loser’s motorcycle.
I think officially, Madusa won. Tony explained that the finish was that both of the girls’ shoulders were on the mat during the suplex. Madusa’s shoulders were up but Bull’s were somehow both down and so the referee counted to three and Madusa won. Again, it took the referee, the commentators and the announcers about 3 minutes after the suplex spot to explain what happened. I don’t even know if the crowd knew who won by the end of it, although they were cheering for Madusa.
This was a decent match which had a mess of a finish. Absolutely wretched booking but thankfully, Madusa was super over to this crowd so I guess this match worked in getting Madusa over no matter how the finish went down.
Match Rating: *1/2
Tony Schiavonie then claimed we were going to Mean Gene for an interview. Nothing happened for about five seconds after this. Then he admits he’s being told two different things. Tony then gives up, and says, “We are not…. Allllright.” And then, they just move onto the next match!
This show was becoming a massive train-wreck where these announcers and the production crew were not in sync at all and I don’t think the announcers had any idea what was going on! Thankfully Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit were here to save the day.
Chris Benoit w/Woman and Miss Elizabeth vs Dean Malenko in a match with a fifteen minute time limit
The announcers explained that Jimmy Hart from the Dungeon of Doom was able to strike a deal for Dean Malenko to get a Cruiserweight title shot on WCW Pro and in return, Dean would take care of Chris Benoit for “Taskmaster” Kevin Sullivan. They then explain that Dean had lost during his title shot and I guess Dean would have to still hold up his end of the deal.
Now if I were Dean Malenko and I was such a dastardly heel, here’s what I’m thinking. I’ve already been paid up-front for the job of wrestling Benoit in exchange for a title shot. I lost the title shot so therefore, why should I keep up my end of the bargain? What stake did Dean have in this feud over than getting a title shot? He should have walked out of the match and screw Jimmy Hart. Why does Dean care, other than Benoit kicking his arse on Nitro, about wrestling Chris Benoit?
I’m actually glad he did care as we got a hell of a match between Benoit vs Malenko. This was the type of match which took a while to get into but it turned out to be more of a marathon than a sprint. They gave them time and they continued to battle and battle and battle. This crowd got bored by it but as a wrestling fan, I was super into the match. We got this great match but then we got a horrible finish after a VERY LONG and great wrestling match which we’ll get too.
Benoit and Malenko traded punches on the floor. Heenan put over that the current Four Horsemen could be the best version of the team ever and Dusty Rhodes corrected him saying this was the best they could get at the moment! What a burial from the American Dream! Bobby Heenan goes out of his way to put him over and Dusty just pushed them back down into the dirt with that line! He basically explained this was the best version of the Four Horsemen available! I mean Steve “Mongo” McMichael was in the group, so he may have had a point! However, why would you just expose the Horsemen like that?
Dean went to work on Benoit but then Benoit turned things around. It was weird because you’ve got two tremendous technical wrestlers and it was mostly just brawling and a straight-up fight from the two as opposed to actually out-wrestling each other. This was the case for the first five minutes of the match. These two did have a brawl last week on Nitro so I guess bad blood was still there.
Then out of nowhere, they traded roll ups! They both kept going for bridges and roll ups for the win but neither man being successful. Woman would scream from time to time but whenever they showed her and Elizabeth, at least for the initial portion of the match, they were just smiling and having a good time, even when Malenko was getting the better of Benoit! I don’t know why but I found that satisfying to see Woman with a smile on her face at this time even though she was the heel!
Benoit did a dead-lift slam out of an armbar I think was pretty damn impressive considering Benoit was way smaller in 1996 than how big physically he would eventually become with the WWE. He just lifted him up like he was nothing. It’s weird because he got so buffed up and he was still considered small by WWE’s standards and I think it may have been Dean Malenko of all people that brought that point up during VICE’s Dark Side of the Ring episode about Benoit.
Benoit tried an abdominal stretch but Malenko got out of it. Benoit wore Malenko down with a chin lock. Dusty compared Benoit to a young Arn Anderson. Bobby Heenan made fun of a guy on camera and started making fun of the people at Sturgis. Benoit and Malenko crashed into each other with crossbodies.
I love Benoit blocking a top rope double axe handle from Malenko by just blocking it and then hitting a snap suplex. He didn’t move out of way or come up with a special counter out of the move. He blocked him and suplexed him and then moved on! It was so simple and easy to pull off! I thought that was a great spot.
Benoit hit a diving headbutt for the 2 count. Benoit’s tombstone was reversed by Malenko for a 2 count. Dean tried a Texas Cloverleaf but Benoit reversed it into a small package for a 2 count.
Dean took himself and Benoit over the top rope with a crossbody. Benoit went into the ring post. Benoit hit a big superplex and damn near appeared to spike himself with his own superplex. It looked nasty and I watched this a day or two after watching the Chris Benoit Dark Side of the Ring documentary referenced to earlier. Watching all of the hits to the head Benoit took in his career are not easy to watch with this curse of knowledge and knowing what Benoit would end up doing about 11 years later.
Benoit hit a scoop slam. Dean hit a massive german suplex which saw Benoit get thrown high in the air and he somehow landed right on his shoulders and his back. He landed squarely on his shoulders. It was the perfect high German suplex that didn’t look like it landed right on his head or looked like he destroyed him. It was a pitch-perfect german suplex from both men!
Dean hit a belly-to-belly suplex for a 2 count as the announcers argued about how many moves Dean Malenko actually knew with the numbers ranging from 500 to 3000! They traded suplexs for a while as there was 5 minutes left. Benoit did a high-angle boston crab, putting strain on the back of Malenko. Benoit did a dive to the outside and landed on the mat. As established, this mat sounded unpleasant to do spots on. That couldn’t have been fun for him. Every time they landed on that mat off a dive or did any spot on this mat, I just heard a sickening thud.
They both attempted roll-ups as they both looked exhausted struggling for a simple backslide for a while. Benoit hit a powerbomb for a 2 count with the announcer shortly after this saying there was 1 MINUTE REMAINING. Dean launched Benoit with a superplex but Benoit still kicked out. Dean hit one last powerbomb but Benoit kicked out once again as we got a time limit draw after 15 minutes.
Referee Nick Patrick then just decided that an extra five minutes of overtime was warranted as the fans started to boo this. They were not into this match. I don’t know if it was just that this was the longest match of the show and they were already not into the match, so they were just wanting the wrestlers to wrap it up. If I were in that crowd, I’d be one of the fans chanting “fight forever” as these two wrestled! I had zero complaints at this point.
Bobby Heenan however was upset that they were given overtime. Here’s the one trope in wrestling which I’ve always hated about Iron Man matches. I saw this a month ago when PAC wrestled Kenny Omega in an iron man match on AEW Dynamite. That match ended in a draw with Pac having Omega in a submission and letting go when the time ran out because the match was over. They randomly went into overtime for that match, which appeared to be news to PAC as he was kicking off about it and then Kenny Omega won that match. PAC got screwed when he still had the submission locked in and had the man beat.
It’s the whole reasoning and excuse that Bret Hart would whine about on television after he and Shawn Michaels went into overtime at WrestleMania XII. The match ended in a draw and should have stayed as a draw. However, because I think they wanted the fans to see a winner, they do a daft swerve in giving them five extra minutes or overtime so they can see a winner. This always annoyed me. Why bother doing a time limit if you’re just going to do overtime anyway? At the very least, it should be explained to the viewers that if the match ended in a draw after 15 minutes then the wrestlers went automatically into overtime. Let me know what you think in the comments below but that’s what I think.
Woman started losing her mind as her man Benoit still couldn’t get the job done. Benoit locked on the Texas Cloverleaf of his own as Dean was struggling through his own hold. Dean eventually powered up as Malenko refused to give up and Bobby yelled that HE’S NOT GIVING UP. Dean powered up again but was brought back down with Benoit eventually giving up on the hold and trying something else.
Benoit got the leg but Malenko hit an enziguri. I think both men clashed heads in the corner as they both got knocked down to the floor. Benoit tried as single knee bar or as Tony called it “a scissors on the knee” to Malenko. Benoit held on like a koala bear wrenching on Malenko’s leg. Dean tried one last ditch small package. Benoit went for a last ditch tombstone but Malenko kicked out again as the timer for five minutes elapsed.
Nick Patrick gave out another 5 times of overtime as the fans roared with disapproval yet again. Benoit hit a back bodydrop as the Harley-Davidson Motorcycles roared in the background. Benoit tried a dragon suplex for a near fall. Benoit tried a drop kick but landed on his back as he grabbed his head. Then Dean Malenko finally locked on a Cloverleaf of his own for a second time and then changed it to a STF as Benoit was able to carry himself to the ropes.
Then, after these warriors battled for 26 minutes to see who was the better man, Woman got involved and Malenko went for her with Benoit getting a cheap roll-up for the win.
With the benefit of hindsight, these fans were justified with their reactions to these two being given more time. You had these two men battle and destroy each other for 26 minutes and the finish wa that Woman ran in and Benoit got a fluke roll-up and won? You gave them an extra 11 minutes of overtime only for Benoit to get a school boy roll-up and win? It’d be one thing if before the initial 15 minutes, Malenko had this Texas Cloverleaf on for 5 minutes on Benoit and he barely lasted the full 15 minutes. Realising her man was so close to getting beat, Woman then used the overtime to distract Malenko and allow her man to win. After 15 minutes, that would be fine. After 26 minutes, this pissed me off.
All I wanted was to see who was the better man and Woman took that away from me. One could argue that this gave Woman and Benoit “heat” for robbing us of a clean finish. That’s not what happened. They went 15 minutes and the referee gave them an extra 10 minutes, so they prolonged this match all for nothing as it turned out that neither man was proven to be the better man. All of that work, for an exceptional match, and you still couldn’t just do a clean finish? Jesus Christ.
Match Rating: ****1/4
“Harlem Heat” Booker T © and Stevie Ray © w/Col Robert Parker and Sister Sherri vs “The Steiner Brothers” Scott Steiner and Rick Steiner for the WCW Tag Team Championship
There was literally no break or time to recover for the fans from the Benoit vs Malenko finish to this match. Of all the times I could have asked for a Mean Gene interview or WCW Hotline plug to kill the time, this could have easily been the time after such a long match. I was exhausted and I had just sat through the longest match on the show. They followed up the longest match of the show to the second longest match of the show with this tag match!
The Steiners both looked either exhausted or just down in the dumps. There didn’t appear to be any reason why. Harlem Heat was booed and such heels here. This was the complete opposite to what happened at Disney MGM, when Harlem Heat was so over. These fans hated Harlem Heat and loved the Steiner Brothers. The motorcycles revved all of their bikes as Scott egged them on as Booker tried to cover his ears
Scott started beating the crap out of Booker and the fans went absolutely crazy for that. Scott hit a tiger powerbomb as the fans went even more crazy. The Steiners ran wild as fans continued to rev up and go crazy as the good guys were winning on the heels!
Booker and Scott start wrestling in the ring which led to Steiner ducking a side kick and then delivering a gorilla press to Booker. Rick I guess was setting up for a spot or a dive on Harlem Heat on the floor but Sherri was in front of them so he started to trying to kick Sherri in the face! This was the truth. He just started kicking away at her!
Scott and Stevie have a horrible lock-up which I 99% blame Stevie for. Stevie missed a big kick then Scott dropped the big man with a t-bone suplex. A bottle got thrown into the ring. Rick got tagged in and Stevie Ray actually does a great sell of a Rick Steiner clothesline. He bumped his arse off for Rick.
Sherri has another “breakdown” at ringside and the announcers just laugh at this. Could you imagine the backlash this company would get in 2020 for making light of a woman having a mental breakdown in the middle of a match and the announcers openly mocking this woman?
Scott hit a belly-to-belly for a 2 count. Sherri yelled something and Rick Steiner yelled “SHUT UP BITCH” and the fans popped for this. It was amazing what got these Steiners over in this crowd as babyfaces in the 1990s!
Ray locked on the submission as Sherri commanded he break Rick’s back. Harlem Heat got the heat. Booker tried a kick and got hung up on the top rope and then punched down. Harlem Heat then continued to get the heat on Rick Steiner. Ray locked on a nerve hold. Scott Steiner got the hot tag. Scott hit a big belly-to-belly suplex on Booker. Ray broke it up. Rick went after Ray.
Another screwjob finish to add to the pile with this finish. Parker accidentally threw white powder at Booker. Sherri responded by throwing white powder herself at Scott Steiner and then Parker hit Steiner with the cane I guess to make up for his error to help Harlem Heat win.
I’ve went from mostly just ignoring or accepting these screwy finishes to just hating him. Was there any need for all of this white powder being thrown around before Parker hit Steiner with the cane? Couldn’t Parker have just hit Steiner with the cane? Yes, I understand that Parker made a mistake and so he used the cane to make up for it. However, it didn’t need to be this complicated when either Harlem Heat could have either won a match clean for once in their lives or Parker could have just used the cane one time to score the win. I hated this finish after a really long match, which went about 7 minutes too long for me.
Match Rating: **
They showed clips of WCW wrestlers and fans on motorcycles including Rick Steiner, Steve “Mongo” McMichael, Eric Bischoff, Madusa, DDP and Big Bubba I think. Sting might have been there. It was hard to tell who was actually there riding motorcycles.
I did actually think it was kinda cool they did a gimmick where WCW were gonna do a show at Sturgis and the WCW wrestlers were actively interested in motorcycles and actually riding along with the fans.
Ric Flair © w/Woman and Miss Elizabeth vs Eddie Guerrero for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship
This was the ultimate Ric Flair match. It was the ultimate Ric Flair match which he did everything you would expect him to do and as he did each of these signature trademarks in the ring, fans got into the match more and more and got more and more into him and his opponent. Ric Flair made every attempt in the world to convey to the fans that Eddie Guerrero was on his level.
Ric Flair did a better job with this match than those putting together WCW Monday Nitro, who have had 5 weeks to build up Eddie Guerrero for Ric Flair. They had him win matches by count out and had him get destroyed by Big Bubba but in this match, he made Eddie Guerrero a star worthy of fighting him for the WCW US title.
What I love about Ric Flair is that, his stuff was exactly the same for each and every match and it never got old. What happened in this match? I’ll just list a bunch of a spots they did. The babyface did the 10 punches to Flair, the babyface chopped away at Flair, Flair was sent rolling over the top and clotheslined to the floor, Flair was begging for his life, Flair did a “Flair flop”, Flair did an eye poke, the other dude started doing Flair’s Figure Four Leg Lock. It’s the same stuff every time that a lot of wrestlers did to Flair and Flair was able to get this stuff over with any crowd. Ric Flair… I’m convinced now is the greatest wrestler of all time. Who else connects with the fans and gets everything he does over like Ric Flair did?
Ric made a comment going down the ring like “The women wanna ride this Harley right here, 1200cc”. Ric said to some fan: “when this all over honey it’s you and me.”
Ric and Eddie got into a showing match where Ric would gently push Eddie and Eddie would respond by pushing Flair’s arse to the ground. He would slap Eddie and Eddie would slap him back harder to the ground. This spot belongs on that big list I’ve just made. He made the push and the slaps Eddie delivered out to be better than his own and it did wonders for the babyface.
They had some miscommunication where Ric did a back-suplex and Eddie reversed it into a crossbody but Eddie’s legs smacked into Ric’s face somehow. It was somewhat awkward for a moment. Eddie and Ric go into a chop battle where Ric eventually got forced out of the ring. Eddie took Flair over with a headlock. Eddie smashed Flair with some chops of his own.
There was some problem with the lighting. It was an outside venue so I have no idea what happened. The announcers made a mention of the sun setting for this match or something so I think it went dark because it was night and WCW whacked on some lights to brighten up the ring.
Flair worked on Eddie as the fans chanted for Eddie. Eddie fired back in the corner with the 10 punches in the corner and then sent Flair to the floor with a dropkick off the apron. Eddie did a back drop and Eddie rocked Ric in the face with a clothesline. I have no idea what happened there.
Ric begged Eddie off but Eddie just beat away at him and then Ric flopped to the mat. Flair got in a eye poke as mentioned earlier. Ric did a blatant low blow where I guess the managers distracted the referee as Ric just did this big punt to Eddie’s groin in the middle of the match.
Eddie hit a crossbody for a 2 count. Eddie tried a sunset flip and Ric tried to punch him but Eddie moved and so Ric punched the mat inadvertently. Eddie did the figure four leg lock. He did a hurricanarana off the top rope for a 2 count.
Eddie did a tornado DDT. Eddie did Flair’s strut and I think told the girls to kiss his ass. He threw Flair off the top rope and the fans bought this as a NEAR FALL! It’s the same Flair being pushed off the top spot that he does in every match and they did it here. Ric didn’t kick out until the very last second and it actually came off as a believable near fall!
Eddie tried the sunset flip and pulled Flair’s trunks down showing his pasty white arse. Eddie eventually rolled Flair up for a 2 count as Dusty claimed Eddie “got him by the crack”. Eddie did a frog splash. It was mostly kids and children chanting for Eddie during the match then all of a sudden a bunch of dudes started loudly chanting for Eddie too near the end. Eddie Guerrero was over with this crowd.
Then out of nowhere, Ric locked on the Figure Four Leg Lock, and Woman assisted Flair for leverage as Flair got the pin. Again, this was not a clean win but it was a clean win at least by Ric Flair’s standards so I’ll let it slide!
This was the perfect ***1/2 star match and I noticed Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave the exact same rating at the time. It was nothing exceptional and different but everything they did was so brilliantly done and it was so basic. A great match and fun to watch. TWO HUGE THUMBS UP!
Match Rating: ***1/2
Mean Gene interviewed WCW World Heavyweight Champion The Giant and Jimmy Hart. Jimmy yelled that tonight was a giant step for Hogan and told him not to fall as no one was there to pick him up. Mean Gene claimed Hogan was a man The Giant idolised and then Giant cut a promo about being the biggest Hulk Hogan fan in the world. WHEN WAS THIS ESTABLISHED? I seem to recall that the storyline was The Giant was Andre The Giant’s son and grew up hating Hogan and wanting revenge for Hogan beating his father? Now, he supposedly grew up as a Hulkamaniac but was somehow discovered by the Taskmaster to destroy Hulk Hogan? This was quite the retcon of The Giant’s backstory!
Giant talked about Hogan telling the fans to stick it. Giant said he was the one that was gonna stick it, his fingers around Hogan’s neck and turn Hogan to dust or something like that. It was a weird promo from The Giant and I feel I’ve said that after half of Giant’s promos in WCW. His promos early on with WCW were either a good weird or a bad weird. This promo belonged in the “bad weird” category.
Sting and Lex Luger vs “The Outsiders” Kevin Nash and Scott Hall
The Outsiders came out to the nWo theme. The nWo theme is a classic theme but I much preferred the original Outsiders theme to the nWo theme. I don’t know if they go back to ever using the Outsiders theme or if it is just the nWo theme from now on. I hope they got back to using the Outsiders theme.
Nash and Hall did rock, paper, scissors to decide who was going out first. Hall threw the tooth pick at Sting and made fun of Luger’s flexing. I love Hall made fun of Luger’s flexing and then Luger started to get the better of Hall. Luger did his own flex and Hall backed off and was all scared! Luger snarled as his pecks went up and down!
Nash wanted Sting in the ring and even spat at the man to goad him into the ring. Sting got tagged in and “returned fire” by spitting at Nash. Nash knocked down Sting with an elbow and just laughed.
Sting delivered his own punches as Nash grabbed his face. Sting fired back at the big man and eventually took over with an eye poke and a scoop slam. It’s funny that a lot of giant matches in WCW we see are mostly the babyfaces spending minutes trying to slam the big man during the course of the match and failing. Kevin Nash is the same height of The Giant and he goes up for it for Sting like it’s nothing!
Nash did the snake eyes and then Nash dropped him with a punch. There were constant heel tactics and cheap shots from the Outsiders. Nash delivered knees to the gut and elbows to the jaw. Sting jumped and was caught by Hall who did a fallaway slam
Luger got into the ring because Hall got a cheap shot in. Nick Patrick yelled at Luger and started the count telling him to get out of the ring, yelled at him again and then restarted the count for Luger to get his arse out of the ring. Patrick just did the count, stopped it to chew out Luger and then just started it again. Such horrible officiating but I guess this was by design if you look at the finish of this match.
Sting did a big shoulder tackle and landed right on the grapefruits of Nash I guess by accident. Hall got the tag and Heenan yelled “come on Hall” and Tony abruptly yells “what?” I loved that.
Nash got into the ring and did a big boot without a tag and the referee just accepted the this. Hall didn’t try to make a tag out. Nash just walked and Patrick just allowed it. Again, based on the finish of this match it made sense why Patrick allowed this. In the context of a regular match though, this was horrible referring.
Sting back-dropped Hall and Lex Luger finally made the hot tag which is starting to include a jump kick into the ring to whoever is the victim. In this case it was Hall I believe that took the kick.
Sting does a Stinger Splash to Nash and they brawl as Luger workedon Hall in the ring. Sting locked on the Scorpion Deathlock as Luger runs wild on Hall. Luger tried a torture track and I guess accidentally hits Patrick so Patrick chop-blocked Luger and Hall got the pin for the win. So I guess Patrick is on the nWo’s payroll. Patrick raised his hands in victory and then raised Hall and Nash’s hands.
Match Rating: *1/2 and that’s been generous. This was a boring match
The Giant © w/Jimmy Hart vs Hollywood Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
As a fan that started watching wrestling in 2003, I’ve rarely ever seen Hogan wrestle as a heele. I remember watching The Rock vs Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania where Hogan ended up being a babyface anyway but other than that, I’ve rarely been exposed to heel Hulk Hogan. Seeing Hogan basically wrestle a “Hulk Hogan” match against The Giant as the heel was so surreal to see.
Hogan was doing everything in his power to get himself hated. He did every heel tactic in the book and found another book and did every heel tactic in that book. He puleds off some exceptional facial expressions, he spent time out of the ring, he yelled at the fans and he pulled out everything. After everything, these fans still loved Hollywood Hogan! No matter what he did, they cheered Hogan and booed Giant. These were Hulkamaniacs who loved Hogan as kids and now love him as an adult as he was considered this cool bad guy compared to these other WCW geeks!
The nWo music plays and stopped and then they cut to Michael Buffer in the ring. Bikers steam-rolled all over Buffer’s introduction with the revving of their bikes! So therefore, Buffer screams his head off saying let’s get ready to rumble!
The nWo music plays again and Hogan was wrestling in his classic black gear for the first time. The Giant is billed FROM PARTS UNKNOWN. Fans chanted for Hogan for this match as mentioned earlier!
Hogan kept trying to get in the ring but Giant wouldn’t let him in. Giant charged at Hogan before Hogan could come in. I think it was last week when Giant talked about defending the title with honour and yet he wouldn’t let Hogan get into the ring for a fair fight. I always thought this was a dick move by the babyfaces, when the heel doesn’t get into the ring because the faces try to get a jump on them. The babyface should let him in the ring to settle things fair and sqaure!
Hogan walked out of the ring and the referee started counting him out. Eventually, Hogan got into the ring. Hogan fired away at Giant but Giant no-sold this as Hogan headed back out of the ring! Hogan ran at Giant but is unable to budge the big man. Hogan told the fans to shut up.
Giant dropped Hogan with a back suplex and Hogan rolled out of the ring grabbing his head. Hogan motioned to the fans about Giant grabbing his hair like he would if he were a babyface! He was trying to physically communicate and connect to this crowd by like grabbing his own hair and it was so weird to see him do that as a heel!
Hogan yells “shut up fay boy” and “shut up fatso” to some dude in the front row. Say what you will about Hogan but he was trying so hard to get the fans to hate him. Hogan grabbed Giant’s big arm with both of his arms and he laughs as he’s got the upper-hand and then Giant reversed the pressure and Hogan was wailing in pain. That I thought was brilliant!
Giant wpn a test of strength and Hogan is crying his eyes out. Hogan has this big smile as he wins the test of strength for a while and like I mentioned, the facial expressions were just exceptional from Hogan in this match!
Hogan is able to take down Giant pulling on his air and grabbed the arm for the arm lock as the fans cheer loudly for Hogan after this heel tactic.
Hogan did a leg drop to the arm like it was nothing! This was Hogan’s big finishing move and he just did it and moved on to another hold! I think either Benoit or Malenko did it the same way during their match but Hogan is just doing his big move as if he were a regularly wrestler. It was bizarre!
Hogan tried a wrist lock and pulled down Giant again with the hair as Jimmy pleaded his case to the referee every time. Giant sent Hogan to the floor with a few headbutts. Hogan pulled Giant out the floor and smashes his head into the ring post and raked his back.
Giant dropped Hogan with a back-breaker and Hogan got the foot on the rope. Giant slammed Hogan but missed an elbow drop. Hogan punched away at The Giant and THE GIANT HULKED UP on Hogan, which the announcers were blown away by! He even did the Hogan actions and pointed with the vintage “YOU” as only Tony Schavionie is shown to be extremely excited about this!
Giant chopped away and did the big boot and signals for the chokeslam when Hall arrived. Kevin Nash gets Jimmy Hart’s megaphone. Giant chokeslammed Hall. Giant thwarts Nash’s megaphone attack and gives him a chokeslam, Hogan finally hit Giant with a belt and won the title as the fans go crazy for Hogan! The heels did every under-handed tactic possible to beat The Giant. They win after all of the odds were stacked against The Giant and the fans are mostly approving it!
A lot of fans do throw bottles in the ring but they popped when Hogan actually won! I will say…. this was a bad match. It doesn’t feel right to give this match a minus rating although it certainty was a horrible match. Dave Meltzer gave it minus two stars at the start. I won’t go that far because the fans were super invested into this match whether they loved or booed Hogan! Also, The Giant came off as a valiant babyface trying to overcome all of the odds and it did come off as The Giant was the better man of the two before he was beaten.
On that front alone, this match gets a thumbs up at least!
Match Rating: ¼*
A cake was presented to Hogan for his birthday by none other than THE BOOTY MAN in an nWo shirt.
Hogan grabbed the mic and yelled that the nWo was the way to go. He said Booty Man knows it is Hogan’s birthday and Booty Man congratulated Hogan for being the nWo champion. The fans cheer this declaration as the announcers insist he’s not the “nWo” champion. This was like a babyface promo they do during the dark segments after the show! All the guys are coming out having a party along with the crowd and the crowd was loving the nWo!
Hogan said at Denver, Colorado, Flair is gonna get the beating of his life. I think they mentioned at Clash of the Champions, Hogan would face Ric Flair. Hogan say they never mix business with friendship and pleasure but this is a special occasion. He said Flair’s promo about Arn Anderson proves he’s got a soft spot. Then Nash grabbed Booty Man in a full nelson and Hogan whacked Booty Man in the face with the belt.
Hogan declared that was business and if he can do that to his best friend, what’s he gonna do to Flair. Hogan revealed the can of black spray paint and infamously sprayed the letters nWo on the belt. Nash slapped Hogan’s ass during all of this as the announcers wonder what happens next. Dusty brought up a great question as where WCW was when Giant was defending his title all by himself….
I thought this was mostly a good show. The last two matches really sucked the life out of this PPV for me although the fans were super into Hollywood Hogan. The main-events did not need to go as long as they did but they accomplished what they needed to do for the purposes of the nWo angle. There were also really good matches on the show accompanied with some horrible finishes. Going by the match quality, this show gets a thumbs up from me overall. As far as the finishes for nearly all of the matches, with run-ins and interferences constantly, it gets a thumbs down.
However, I’m a fair man. For this show, I will choose to focus on the positives and this show ended up being better than I thought it was gonna be so I’m OK with the PPV I got!
WCW Nitro Reading Order
The Armbar Express 