July 1, 1996

(Starting on Raw again this week because I've decided that I'll always reorder show in order to finish on a company's go-home show and then start on their show the day after the PPV. Bash at the Beach this Sunday.)

RAW

Green Bay, WI

Cold open on Shawn Michaels making his way to the ring with Jose Lothario, taking live video of the crowd on the "kliq cam." Seriously, every man in the audience should have booed the **** out of this character. The New Rockers have recruited the help of Jim Cornette tonight.

Shawn Michaels (w/ Jose Lothario) vs. Marty Jannetty (w/ Leif Cassidy and Jim Cornette): Staredown between the former partners to open, but they back up before starting to fight. Decent move-countermove sequence with simultaneous kip-ups. Couple of Japanese armdrags and a dropkick by Michaels send Marty outside to regroup. The crowd is into Michaels, but this heel run by Jannetty never got any heat. He basically went from being a babyface that got a decent reaction to being a heel that got very little reaction.

Match has a bit of a problem where there are spots that are at least fine, even good, but they telegraph the **** out of them before doing them, and it takes me out of the match a bit as a viewer. After a second commercial break, Marty hits a Rocker dropper, goes for a top rope fistdrop, Michaels avoids, Marty lands on his feet, and the sequence ends in Michaels hitting a jumping piledriver.



Top rope elbow, superkick, three-count. Pretty good match, not a ton of amazing spots but it kept a nice pace and both guys put in some solid work.

Result: Shawn Michaels via pinfall

Leif Cassidy attempts a post-match attack but gets superkicked also. Jim Cornette is the next one to start to take a run at Michaels, but Michaels turns around and sees him, causing Cornette to go scurrying into a hard right from Jose Lothario.

Clip from Superstars this past weekend, where Sunny emotionally apologized to Phineas Godwinn. Phineas tells her that he loves her. She invites him to lean in for a kiss and she slaps him across the face and then cuts a nasty heel promo on him. Pretty good acting from both. The Smoking Gunns hit the ring and beat Phineas down, but Henry Godwinn and Hillbilly Jim run in for the save, clean the Gunns out, and then they trap Sunny and allow Phineas to dump the contents of the slop bucket all over her.



Mankind vs. Duke "The Dumpster" Droese: Jake Roberts at ringside to do commentary for the match, since he's facing Mankind at the next PPV. Jerry Lawler unleashes an endless number of "you're a huge drunk" shots at Jake. Jake keeps trying to remain calm in the face of the onslaught from Lawler. He says, "I'm proud of what I went through because I can help others who are going through that right now." Lawler: "You're proud of the fact that you were a stumbling, bumbling drunk?" Jake: "I'm proud of the recovery." Lawler: "Yeah, right. You're a big hypocrite and you know it. I know it." It's crazy to hear all of this with the knowledge that Jake actually had fallen off the wagon and had started drinking again, and was just keeping this façade up, as the WWF would soon find out.

The absolutely relentless attacks from Lawler are a pretty great guilty pleasure here. Hardly feels like I should laugh at a guy's legitimate problem, but Lawler's lines were funny, and it seemed to all obviously be pre-approved by Jake. Meanwhile, yes, there was a match going on. Mankind wins with a Mandible Claw.

Result: Mankind via submission



Lawler keeps it up after the match is over, then actually slaps Jake twice, leading Jake to finally get fed up enough to attack him. Mankind interjects himself and slaps a Mandible Claw on Roberts on the floor as Lawler rubs his boot on Roberts's face.

Have never bothered mentioning this before, but every week the WWF advertises their hotline and uses Lex Luger's current WCW music as the backdrop. It was weird, but WCW did mostly stick to public domain music for entrances.

Goldust (w/ Marlena) vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Steve Austin is in for commentary on this match. He's wearing a WWF polo shirt, so they haven't exactly introduced the anti-corporate side of his character yet. I remember Goldust and Mero having a good match later in this year, but no idea about this one; here's hoping. Austin keeps getting upset with Vince, first when Vince cuts him off in mid-sentence and then later when Vince is being too positive about Marc Mero for Austin's liking. I suppose this is our first glimpse of Austin vs. McMahon. Fair to say we didn't realize that it would one day carry WWF to victory in these wars.

In the meantime, Goldust and Mero are having a solid but unspectacular match. At least it isn't marked by Goldust's patented "20 minutes of pointless stalling" move, and I think that the two men had good chemistry. Mero stands all the way up out of a camel clutch and executes an electric chair drop. A moment later he counters a charging Goldust into a scoop powerslam. At this point Marlena heads over to Sable's side of the ring and paces behind her, seemingly checking her out as the action continues. Sable tries to ignore her and keep cheering her man. Mero gets distracted by the scene Marlena is creating and falls prey to Goldust's Curtain Call for the 1-2-3.



Result: Goldust via pinfall

Next week we'll see The Godwinns vs. Vader and Davey Boy Smith, as well as Owen Hart vs. The Ultimate Warrior, and with those announcements, the show suddenly goes black.

Overall: I think I was basically entertained by each segment in some way, so no complaints here; certainly at least a watchable episode.

NITRO

Landover, MD

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko are back at ringside to open the show, relegated from the main broadcast desk I guess. DDP suddenly interrupts them and says that the Lord of the Ring ring has been stolen. He demands that they stop the show and close the arena to strip-search everyone to find it. Tony yells at him to go away, so he eventually does. We get highlights of the previous week's standoff between the Outsiders and the combination of WCW and the local rent-a-cops. Zbyszko calls them cowards for not revealing who their third man is. Tony wonders if we'll find out the third man tonight. Larry: "This Sunday night, there will be a New World Order in professional wrestling." That's the first time I've heard "New World Order" in the context of this angle.

Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) vs. The Steiner Brothers: Booker T strolls out talking on his Zack Morris cell phone. Last time the Heat did that, it led to them introducing Sherri Martel as their manager. The early action is between the two superior workers, Scott Steiner and Booker T, but it's pretty lethargic and sloppy during the initial sequence. The entire Horsemen group, including all three women, are shown set up at the banquet table near ringside. Solid release German by Rick on Stevie Ray. Col. Rob Parker shows up at ringside as the action continues. Wouldn't make a lot of sense if he was the one on the other end of the cell phone.

Booker with a Harlem sidekick that draws a great bump from Rick, then a top rope cross-body by Booker gets two. Tries to scale the ropes again, but Rick catches up to him and executes a belly-to-belly from the second rope. Tags in Scott, who loses control after a cheap shot from the apron by Stevie Ray. Booker with a top rope splash on Scotty that causes Rick to have to break up the pin. Mid-ring collision, both slow to get up, Rick gets the hot tag. During the ensuing four-way action, Scott plants Booker with a frankensteiner, Rick follows shortly after with a top rope bulldog, but referee Nick Patrick is distracted. Steiners set up for a doomsday device, Col. Parker runs interference by clocking Rick Steiner with his stick, and the Heat make the pin to retain. Solid match. No real sign given of whether or not that officially makes Parker the new manager of the Heat. I mean…they fired Sherri for being hooked up with Parker, but whatever.



Result: Harlem Heat via pinfall

Mean Gene with the Horsemen and their harem. He says that they're going to be in an eight-man tag later. Gene talks to Debra and then Liz first. Debra is so incredibly bad that she makes Liz sound like a competent talker. Mongo gets his first mic time since joining the faction. "Just like Debra said, money makes the monkey dance." I somehow remembered that line this many years later and knew it was coming, though I remember it for being stupid. Anyway, I generally love Horseman segments, but this was pretty pointless.



Glacier is still coming to WCW in July 1996. Which is here now.

Disco Inferno vs. Kurosawa: Hey, Kurosawa! I forgot about him. I like watching him work. He throws a hell of a stiff chop early in this one that puts Disco down. Unfortunately Disco mostly turns this into a comedy match. Kurosawa is in control of the bout when Disco's music starts playing and some other guy in a white jumpsuit comes out. Kurosawa is distracted as a large disco ball lowers from the ceiling. Disco pushes the disco ball into Kurosawa, which poor Kurasawa has to sell and do the job to. This was very stupid, and I feel like I'm more likely than the average to enjoy some good Disco Inferno comedy.



Result: Disco Inferno via pinfall

DDP vs. Scotty Riggs: Page accosts several crew members en route to the ring, searching them for his ring. We get a bad PIP promo from Jim Duggan and then get on with the match. This is obviously just an enhancement bout, with Riggs getting some token offense but ultimately succumbing to the Diamond Cutter. Not too bad, as predictable squashes go.



Result: DDP via pinfall

Gene with DDP. DDP is still mad about the missing ring. He tries to search Gene. Gene yells at him to **** off in slightly nicer words.

Greg Valentine vs. Randy Savage: The epic rematch of their WrestleMania IV encounter from over 12 years ago. Didn't realize that Valentine was still wrestling at all by this point since it had been roughly five years since he last appeared in WWF as himself (though he did pull one-time masked wrestler duty at Survivor Series '93), but the announcers say that this was his return to WCW after some years of working in Japan. He was approaching his 45th birthday here. As far as this matchup goes,

A week after Savage dispatched of Mike Rotunda, I suppose the idea is that he was just going through former WWF midcard stars in order to prepare himself for whoever might be invading from WWF next on Sunday. Tony wonders aloud if Valentine might be the third man. That would have been quite a twist. Savage not only goes over with the predictable flying elbow here, but he does it just before the countdown to the second hour of Nitro occurs so that the match doesn't suddenly get interrupted by a massive pyro explosion.



Result: Randy Savage via pinfall

Eric Bischoff is back tonight, and is here to host the second hour with Bobby Heenan. Bischoff thanks the people who sent in get well cards, then sternly tells Kevin Nash that he didn't scare anybody and that WCW is all going to be there on Sunday, himself included. While this segment is ongoing, Hall and Nash enter through the crowd carrying snacks from the concession stand. Doug Dillinger confronts them, but they show him that they bought tickets. Bischoff says, "Well, it's a free country, what can you do" as if they really couldn't boot them.

WCW Title - The Giant (c) vs. John Tenta: Heenan tries to say "Hey, if Tenta gets mad enough he could become world champion here. He's big and strong." Bischoff basically buries his own title match by giving a response of - paraphrasing - "LOL no." The Giant bodyslams Tenta with ease. He also lays in some of the softest chops I've ever seen. This is a bunch of slow and plodding nonsense until the challenger Tentas up and throws a second rope clothesline and a dropkick that floors the champion.



He actually has the momentum until the Dungeon of Doom and Jimmy Hart run interference, helping the Giant hit the chokeslam for the win.

Result: The Giant via pinfall

Bubba shaves half of Tenta's beard off after the match. The Taskmaster comes and joins his Dungeonmates at the top of the aisle with Mean Gene. Bubba cuts a promo on Tenta to hype their match this Sunday. Giant screams at Tenta that his first mistake was leaving the Dungeon of Doom, which is weird since the Dungeon fired Tenta and it seems like him leaving is probably what they wanted. Giant's babbling continues incoherently from there. Sullivan acts all distracted during his promo and then just walks off in the middle of it. Giant hangs around to babble for a moment longer. Not a good promo segment.

Eric Bischoff informs us that Rey Mysterio and Psicosis will be lighting things up at Bash at the Beach, then introduces a hype video for Rey. The video suddenly gets interrupted by Hall and Nash, who have gotten a hold of a house mic and start raising a fuss in the crowd and taunting Bischoff. As they exit the crowd toward the broadcast area some rent-a-cops swarm and Nash drops a clear f-bomb at one of them while telling them to back off. WCW stars, face and heel alike, spill out of the back and stare down the Outsiders as the Outsiders are forced out of the building by officials and by the cops. Nash yells "Attica! Attica!" as he's forced out. I'm a huge fan of Dog Day Afternoon and can appreciate a reference to it (as well as to a real life event), but damn Kevin Nash is annoying here. Still a good segment though.



After commercials, Mean Gene gets interrupted in the back by Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who says that he looked down in the bathroom while relieving himself and found DDP's ring. Page interrupts angrily and calls Hacksaw a thief. Hacksaw gets mad at being called a thief and says, "You want it? Here, take it" and drops it on the ground, then promptly tapes his fist and clocks him. Everything about Duggan was terrible.



Four Horsemen (w/ Woman, Miss Elizabeth, and Debra McMichael) vs. Rock 'n Roll Express/Joe Gomez/Renegade: As you can imagine, this is pretty much just a Horsemen showcase match. Chris Benoit lays in some ridiculous chops on Joe Gomez. Though they also make a big thing of Mongo getting his first action in as a Horseman, he doesn't do much, and Benoit actually probably gets put over the most with his vicious assaults on Gomez during his ring time.



In hyping the main event of the upcoming PPV, Bischoff says, "This is gonna make the Normandy invasion look tame … with all due respect to veterans." I think he quickly realized that was kind of a ****ty thing to say. The ending, amidst eight-way chaos, gets botched when Mongo fails at the simple task of "knock a guy off the top rope with a briefcase."



After Renegade's fall, Flair just locks in the figure-four for the win.

Result: Horsemen via submission

Gene Okerlund gets a group interview with the Horsemen. They cut various promos hyping up their Bash at the Beach matches. Not much of note.

They go to the broadcast desk for wrap-up and for Bischoff to build the PPV for Sunday. He gets word that there's more going on backstage, but it's just the cops finally forcing Hall and Nash into their car so that they'll leave. The Outsiders peel out to close the show.

Overall: Mixed bag. Good opening match, decent Outsiders segment…I felt like the show did its job of hyping the coming PPV well enough I suppose, but it wasn't great.

---

Ratings for 7/1/96: Nitro 3.3, Raw 2.6
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 20-17-2

Better Show: Very close call this week. Raw was less flawed from one segment to the next. Nitro just has a bigger feel week to week, where Raw feels decidedly minor league. I first typed this up as Raw being my pick for the night, but it didn't feel right. It's Nitro again, just barely.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 33-6

Match of the Night: Slight nod to Michaels vs. Jannetty over Steiners vs. Harlem Heat.

Such a simple yet effective angle to get a valet/manager over. They should've tried this gimmick again with Summer Rae or someone.

That Renegade/Mongo gif is ****ing hilarious.
Amazing that WWF kept so close in the ratings considering the ridiculous 33-6 quality scale.

Except it wouldn't work anymore because the owner of the company buried angles that are about "just" the title on his own Network in a shoot interview, among other actions devaluing the titles.

The brand loyalty thing is just so strong. I was among the weird sheep that really actively rooted for WWF even while they were clearly the inferior show, was a huge apologist for everything they did while being a lot more critical whenever WCW would roll crap out, etc. I can't even really rationalize what a silly approach that is (to be fair, I was a kid), but I don't think I was alone in that, as you see signs in the audience of these shows slagging on the other company. Somehow loyalists felt like they had a horse in the race and really wanted one billionaire to beat another.

I remember on the Great American Bash '96 rendition of the Lapsed Fan, J.P. was talking about being the same way, and took it as far as saying that on the night after Bash at the Beach, his Monday night consisted of desperately waiting for WWF to go to commercial so that he felt like he could flip over and find out what was going on at Nitro. Instead of just flipping over in mid-show. I was less loyal than that at least, as I would flip back and forth to whatever actually interested me more, and was still happy to enjoy the good that WCW was offering. But I really wanted WWF to win because it was the company that I grew up on.

The fact that there were both more WWF fans and more WCW fans than people who were wrestling fans first and foremost is what a lot of people didn't realize when Nitro was put head to head against Raw. Some people were even saying WCW was practically committing suicide doing that, not realizing that even though Raw was drawing great ratings relative to most wrestling shows, many if not most of the people who were into WCW didn't watch Raw. Today it is much different; most of the people that watch TNA or ROH (or any other US wrestling show) watch WWE also.

A note on the ratings: Nitro was replayed shortly after the first airing with a pretty good rating for the late night time slot, and the first airing wasn't on during prime time on the west coast at first, while Raw was.

The other thing I would add is that I'm almost sure that, at the time, most weeks I found Raw to be the better show. This 33-6 count is purely the detached perspective of two decades later. If I had been keeping a tally of how I felt back then, you probably could have flipped that number in Raw's favor. There was a lot of wanting. I bought into Vince's weird propaganda about how he was just the poor struggling family business trying to defeat the evil mega-corporation. Mistakes were made.

All of that said, if one company had to run the other totally out of business, I'm not sure that WWF winning out wasn't the better result. But it's impossible to know.

Holy hell is the finish to that Horsemen eight man match hilarious. Why was the guy falling before Mongo even got there? You bring in a football player to be a wrestler, and the guy you pick to try and make him look good is Joe Gomez/Allen Iron Eagle? And the fake Ultimate Warrior? Did they not know Ric Flair and Bobby Heenan, two of the best resources on how to make a big stiff look competent, were in the company? Maybe Heenan didn't like Mongo and gave them bad advice on purpose to make him look like a clown.

WCW BASH AT THE BEACH '96



Daytona Beach, FL

When I first got the WWE Network, this was the first show that I fired up. Before getting into it I'm pretty sure it's not as good of a show as last month's Great American Bash overall, but the reason for this one having more of a historical imprint is obvious.

Opening video features the Outsiders, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, and their various unwelcome appearances at WCW events, including the powerbomb of Eric Bischoff.

Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, and Bobby Heenan introduce us to the show. They say that nobody knows where Eric Bischoff is tonight. Dusty questions whether he's been held hostage. After some hype, they send us to the ring for the opening match.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psicosis: WCW spelled Psicosis's name as "Psychosis," but whatever, I'm going to roll with spelling his name as he did in Mexico. Which is sort of weird of me since Rey spelled his name Misterio there and I'm adopting the Americanized edition. Full writeup here. Thought it was a tremendous spotfest, won the crowd over nicely and also provided an energetic curtain-jerker to a big event.



They saved the best spot for last in this one, as Rey Mysterio countered an attempt at a splash mountain powerbomb off the second rope into a hurracanrana for the win.



Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall (15:18)
Rating: ****1/4

Mean Gene with Konnan backstage. He asks him to describe what just happened, as if Mike Tenay hadn't already done that. Konnan just repeats the names of the last moves. Konnan is defending his US Title against Ric Flair tonight. "If your manager gets into the match, I'll cripple him. If one of the women gets involved, I'll clothesline them. If that football players gets involved, I'll chop block him. Ric Flair, I'm going back home with this US Title." Not bad.

Nevada Silver Dollar Match - Big Bubba (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. John Tenta: From the high-flying luchadores to this. There's a really tall pole in one corner of the ring, with a sock loaded with silver dollars on top. The person who reaches that can use it as a weapon. John Tenta still doesn't have any entrance music or half his hair, but he does have a full mustache. Progress.

This starts out with some dreadfully boring brawling, with both men taking turns trying to reach the silver dollars, but both announcers pointing out that it's ****ing impossible that either of these huge guys is going to actually climb that high. Bubba pulls Tenta off the top and into a back suplex. Bubba chokes Tenta with his belt and then tapes Tenta to the middle rope and begins whipping him with the belt. Okay, now come on. The gimmick of this match is that you have to do something in order to use a specific weapon, but before that's ever happened it's cool for one of the wrestlers to just start openly using an unrelated weapon in front of the referee? Jimmy Hart hands Bubba some scissors as Tony asks, "What's he doing now?" Heenan: "Surgery." I laughed. Bubba goes to cut some of Tenta's remaining hair, but Tenta hits a low blow and gets loose, then uses the scissors to start to clip the pole loose.

Bubba attacks from behind during Tenta's pole-cutting, then dispatches Jimmy Hart to climb the pole for him to get the silver dollars. While Hart does this, Tenta takes control of Bubba and puts him down, then is waiting on the silver dollars when Jimmy gets down with them. Tenta rips them away from Jimmy and clocks Bubba with the coin-filled sock to put him out cold and make the pin to a surprisingly big pop. Awful, awful match. They set up a gimmick for the match that neither wrestler could satisfy without using a manager, not to mention the earlier note about a belt being totally legal in lieu of actually getting the designated match weapon. Just stupid all around. I still liked seeing Tenta's win get a big pop, because I do think that this feud was pretty well done as a simple personal grudge feud. But watching this match was death.



Result: John Tenta via pinfall (9:14)
Rating: 1/4*

As they talk between matches, I notice that Tony Schiavone's outfit for the evening features tan slacks along with the top half of a tux, complete with red bowtie and cummerbund, and a lei around his neck. What the ****, Tony. You don't get to wear half a tux. They spend this segment still going on about who the third man might be.



Mean Gene with Sting, Lex Luger, and Randy Savage - Team WCW for the main event. They all say they don't care who the third man is, and say they're just going to hurt whoever it is.

Lord of the Ring Taped Fist Match - DDP (c) vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan: Duggan comes out with his fists already taped, which will probably confuse him when it comes time to try to win. Wait, but then DDP has him in a compromised position early and removes these things from around Duggan's fists…it's like they were gloves posting as taped fists. WTF. He really WAS going to be confused if he didn't have bare fists to manually tape on the fly later. Tony: "If Duggan wins, he gets the ring." Heenan: "That'll make two!" Tony: "Two rings?" Heenan: "He's got one around his tub."

Match is awful. Page was a pretty good worker at this point, but he couldn't do anything with Duggan. Few could at this stage. He does bump around a bit, but to little effect. There's just some messy brawling, and then suddenly a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere, and a three-count. The stipulation never actually entered into the match in any way, so that's pretty special. Garbage.



Result: DDP via pinfall (5:39)
Rating: 0*

Duggan tapes his fist after the match and clocks DDP, I guess to get his heat back or something. Why they felt the need to do that when Page is a rising star and Duggan is a veteran JTTS is beyond me.

Mean Gene with The Giant, The Taskmaster, and Jimmy Hart. Gene tells Kevin Sullivan, paraphrasing, that he'll probably get his ass kicked before he can ever tag out. Sullivan yells, "You think I'm the weak link? Ask The Giant what I am." Giant says absolutely not, says that he's the backbone of the Dungeon of Doom and is the one who brought him to WCW. Not much point to this promo.

Top of the aisle, Lee Marshall is with Chris Benoit and Arn Anderson. Anderson first addresses the Outsiders and says that they're going to be in for a big fight against Sting, Luger, and Savage tonight, no matter how much he doesn't like them. The rest of the promo focuses on Sullivan and the Giant. This is below the usual Arn level of promo.

Four-Man Dog Collar Match - Public Enemy vs. The Nasty Boys: Oh boy. I've so had enough of this match. Guess we'll see with the unique stip though. Brian Knobbs and Johnny Grunge get chained together, with Jerry Sags and Rocco Rock the other dance partners. They do the usual brawling, using a chain as a weapon and magically finding a bunch of trash cans to use as weapons also. Knobbs and Grunge head up into the beach setup at the top of the aisle, leading to Knobbs hitting Grunge multiple times with an inflatable rubber shark. So that's good. A surfboard and life preserver get used too.

Grunge executes a bulldog on Knobbs onto a chair. Knobbs gets his ire up and hits Grunge HARD with it multiple times, getting a two-count. Guess it's falls count anywhere. So much of this has felt like a comedy match, but that sequence at least made it seem more like a serious street fight.



Sags piledrives Rocco on the floor, but can't successfully follow with a cover. The action makes its way back into the ring, where Rocco heads to the top, gets yanked down by a chain onto a table set up in the middle, but the table doesn't give and Rocco just bounces off of it. Ouch. Table gets set up again, Rock on top of it, Sags wraps his forearm up in the chain like he's a tougher version of Jim Duggan, and tries to put Rock through the table with a chain-wrapped forearm off the second rope, but again the table doesn't break.

While Knobbs is choking Grunge over the top rope and has his chain held horizontally across the ring to do it, Rocco gets run into it and essentially clotheslined by it. Sags drops the chain down on Rocco and just makes the pin. Probably not the exact intended ending. I don't know…this was sort of halfway fun I guess.

Result: Nasty Boys via pinfall (11:25)
Rating: **

Public Enemy attacks the Nasty Boys after the bell. Heenan: "Nothing here was settled." Tony and Dusty agree. COME ON. How do you blow this feud off? However you do, please do that.

Mean Gene is backstage and says that he tried to get a word with the Outsiders, but hasn't been able to. He just takes the time to build the main event more. Some of these segments feel a bit pointless, but given the angle I can appreciate why they went out of their way to build up the main event all night. It would sort of be kayfabe-breaking if everyone in WCW wasn't distracted by the looming specter of that match all night.

Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Disco Inferno: Disco has thrown aside his normal white for the evening and is all decked out in orange. Dean is more emotional than usual, actually yelling angrily at Disco and then throwing a right before the opening bell. Dean breaking from his usual stoic demeanor and wrestling angry is an effective change of pace that helps set the tone for a serious match against a comedy wrestler. Great brainbuster by Malenko, but only gets two.



Malenko goes to work on one of Disco's legs for a while, then hits a low targeted dropkick at Disco's back while Disco is sitting up. Dean moves into an STF for a bit, then gets up and goes for a modified sunset flip for a two-count. Disco finally fights back, turning Dean around into the corner and laying in some right hands. Disco connects on a stun gun, then hits a forward Russian legsweep. It takes a low blow by Malenko to slow the match down. Schiavone does a nice job of putting over Disco as a serious competitor after that last run of offense, saying he's proving a lot here.

Malenko, back in control after the low blow, applies a crucifix that targets both arms, then cranks on the neck as well. Disco fights hard and eventually gets a rope break to survive. Malenko remains on offense though, throwing a high-leverage dropkick along Disco's throat. Disco does a nice job blocking a flying axhandle off the top, then counters it into a neckbreaker.



Disco throws a swinging neckbreaker shortly after. Disco keeps doing this thing where he has an impulse to dance and celebrate, and then suddenly realizes he can't be wasting time and gets back to it. Malenko is able to turn things around and hit a springboard dropkick, then goes for a Texas cloverleaf that Disco counters into a small package for a great false finish. Hard clothesline by Disco gets two also. Malenko blocks Disco's hip-toss and throws a hard clothesline of his own. Butterfly powerbomb by the champ, Texas cloverleaf, and we have a submission. Man, I loved this match, easily more than I was expecting to (even as a big fan of Dean). Strong ringwork, strong story work, and the character development of Disco Inferno during the course of this match was done very well.

Result: Dean Malenko via submission (12:04)
Rating: ***3/4

We edit straight ahead into the next match.

Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra) vs. Joe Gomez: Debra comes out carrying a poodle. Tony: "Poor old Pepe. The minute they get some money, they put him on the shelf." Mongo gets his lip busted hardway early in this one, on or around a Gomez cross-body. Really seems like the best move here is to give Mongo a pretty dominant and quick squash match, but this carries on for a number of minutes and kind of exposes the fact that Mongo doesn't particularly know how to wrestle or anything. They also give decent protection to Joe Gomez for no apparent reason. Mongo eventually manages a tombstone piledriver for the win. Poorly booked, poorly worked.



Result: Mongo McMichael via pinfall (6:44)
Rating: 0*

Mean Gene is with Ric Flair, Woman, and Liz backstage. Flair says that after he wins tonight and Anderson and Benoit win later, he will end tomorrow night with the US Title and the World Title. "Konnan, they say you're a guy who knows 1,000 holds." Dude. Flair doesn't know the difference between Konnan and Dean Malenko? That's cold. Gene flirts with the women, particularly Woman, for a while. Flair completes the promo and invites Gene to the after-party. Gene declares that in addition to wrestling, they're "going to have a pole-vaulting competition." Okay then.

US Title - Konnan (c) vs. Ric Flair (w/ Woman and Miss Elizabeth): Flair actually gives the handshake to Konnan before things kick off. Konnan controls the early offense, and actually slaps Flair to the mat after a series of moves. After a reset Flair starts to do a bit better, putting Konnan down a couple of times, but Konnan is quickly back into control, locking in a surfboard but not quite getting it to the point of full leverage. Press slam by Konnan followed by one clothesline in the ring and another that carries both men out over the top.

As Flair is out on the floor, Konnan heads up to the top turnbuckle, but Flair delays him by putting Elizabeth in the way, and while he does this, Woman trips Konnan off the top rope. A minute later, Flair distracts referee Nick Patrick while Woman just brazenly walks into the ring and kicks Konnan really hard in the balls. Next, Liz runs ref distraction duties while Flair dumps Konnan out over the top and Woman scratches Konnan's eyes on the floor. It's fun to watch so much heeling in broad daylight.



Konnan launches the babyface comeback, knocking Flair to the floor with a springboard dropkick. Flair blocks a sunset flip, punches down and goes for a figure-four, Konnan counters into a small package for a two-count, then slaps on his own figure-four. The challenger gets the rope break. A sequence of moves later, Konnan slaps on an abdominal stretch and pulls Flair back into a visual pin as Liz runs referee distraction again until Flair escapes. Woman to the apron, hangs around for absolutely forever with her high-heel shoe, eventually gets the chance to clobber Konnan with it, and we have a new US Champion. Not great, but certainly watchable.

Result: Ric Flair via pinfall, new US Champion (15:39)
Rating: **1/2

Okerlund is backstage and still trying to get a word with the Outsiders. He says that they sound like they have a third man in their dressing room, that there's a third voice that sounds familiar, but it's muffled and he couldn't place who it was.

Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit vs. The Giant & Kevin Sullivan (w/ Jimmy Hart): The Horsemen get jumped in mid-entrance. Chris Benoit appears to have incredibly terrible peripheral vision.



Sullivan hits Arn with a chair in the aisle. Mongo cuts and runs by hitting Giant with his briefcase before scurrying off to the back, which baits Giant into chasing him to the back, leaving Sullivan alone to start the match 1-on-2 in the ring. Giant returns before long though. Not quite sure why they did that when it didn't amount to anything. I guess it did put the Horsemen in control for a lengthy segment to start the match though, as they pay good attention to detail in isolating the Taskmaster on their side of the ring.

Sullivan executes a badly botched catapult to send Arn into Benoit, who was perched on the top rope. Then he throws a botched back suplex. That's how he finally makes the hot tag to The Giant. Benoit and Sullivan brawl up the aisle as Anderson tries to deal with the big man. Sullivan bodyslams Benoit on the announcing platform. Giant chokeslams Arn in the ring and makes the pin.

Result: The Giant & Kevin Sullivan via pinfall (7:59)
Rating: **

The match is over, but Benoit comes flying off the announce platform at Sullivan, then hammers him with a chair shot. The Giant has left victorious, and Arn is still laid out in the ring. Benoit and Sullivan inside, and Benoit hits a back superplex. Woman appears from the back, running down to the ring. She gets into the ring and begs Benoit to let up on Sullivan, screaming for him to stop. Uncomfortable.



Giant hits the ring, and Benoit and Sullivan bail. The announcers don't understand why Woman was trying to beg Benoit off. Giant carries Taskmaster to the back over his shoulder.

We get one final Outsiders vs. WCW video package that takes us into our main event for the evening.

Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, & ??? vs. Sting, Lex Luger, & Randy Savage: Hall and Nash go to the ring without a third man. Michael Buffer apologizes for not knowing who the third is. Gene Okerlund comes into the ring with a mic and asks who #3 is. Hall and Nash say that he's here in the building, and that's all they'll say. Nash says they have enough to handle things with just the two of them. Team WCW heads to the ring, and the announce team all strike the perfect chord as they hype how big of a moment this is.



The fight starts quickly, with Savage going at Hall and then Nash and Luger brawling in a corner. Sting comes jumping in with a Stinger Splash that hits both Nash and Luger and sends Luger to the floor, seemingly knocked out. Sting checks on him, but he's not moving. The medics come out and put Lex on the stretcher. I was a fledgling IWC member at this point, and I remember the strongest rumor being that Luger might turn on Team WCW and be the third man, and this stretcher job seemed to strengthen the case that it might actually be that. Spoiler: it wasn't. I'm guessing this might have been one of these situations where they decided to deliberately tease one of the rumors that was making the rounds on online dirt sheets.



So anyway, Lex is gone, and now we're at 2-on-2 after the delay. Hall slaps Sting, and Sting explodes into him with a flurry of offense. He falls under the Outsiders' control though, as Nash blocks a sunset flip attempt and grabs him up in a two-handed choke hold, then drops him to the mat. Sting falls into face-in-peril mode. This segment goes on for a long while until Sting hits a desperation kick to counter a backdrop attempt, then lays in a series of right hands and jumps his way to the hot tag to Savage. Savage starts to clear house, but the referee is distracted with Scott Hall when Kevin Nash unleashes a low blow that drops Savage hard to the mat. Savage, Nash, and Hall are all down when the fans on the hard camera side rise to their feet and look toward the top of the aisle. Who's coming out?



Dusty yells, "Hulkamania!" Tony: "Hulk Hogan's here!" Heenan: "Yeah, but whose side is he on?" Sigh. Not Bobby's finest moment. Dusty yells at Heenan, but Heenan doubles down and asks again. Hulk rips his shirt away as he enters the ring, and Hall and Nash clear out to ringside. Hogan briefly stares down Hall and Nash outside, then turns around, backing into a corner while facing Savage, and shocks the whole ****ing world by dropping the leg. Tony: "Oh my God."



Referee Randy Anderson holds his head in horror as Hogan drops another leg. Hall and Nash enter the ring and high-five their new ally. Sting tries to make his way back in, but is weakened and Hall quickly does away with him. Hogan tosses Randy Anderson out through the ropes as Schiavone, sounding legitimately nauseous, again mutters, "oh my God." Hogan drops a third leg on Savage and pins him as Hall counts to three. Dusty: "The career of a lifetime, right down the drain, kid. I hope you love it. You just sold your soul to the devil." The three allies stand together, arms raised, united.



Result: No Contest (16:55)
Rating: ***

---
Personal perspective: there was just nothing that had ever come close to this moment in terms of shock appeal. The only thing that has ever possibly surpassed it in terms of shock was the end of the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak, and this was much, much, much bigger in its overall impact than that was. The longer you watched face Hogan in his prime, the more shocking it was to you. I started watching in 1989, so I wasn't there from the beginning, but I had watched him be the huge star and the great American hero for over seven years at this point. I had told my friends that I thought that he might be the third man, but even when I had that idea in my mind I had a very hard time believing it could actually happen.

As he marched to the ring, my jaw dropped, because it suddenly seemed very possible. I don't think Heenan's commentary did much to affect my perception since it's all a leveling game with a heel commentator anyway, but I understand that would be different from lots of fans who didn't think it could be Hogan. Even as I thought it was highly possible as he came out and entered the ring, I still thought to myself, "But no, they couldn't. Could they?" It was SO jarring to see that leg actually drop, and just sent shockwaves everywhere. News of Hogan's heel turn got mainstream news coverage. It was that big.
---

Tony says, "I guess this was just premeditated all the way back to 1994. I guess this is what it was." The ring begins to fill with trash as fans throw stuff in. Tony actually encourages it in the moment, which I think was subtly great…an announcer should basically always take the stance against fans throwing things, but this was the exception.

Mean Gene enters the ring to try to get a word.

Gene sends it back to the announce table. Tony grimly says, "Okay, we have seen the end of Hulkamania. For Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan, for Du - Dusty Rhodes, Ge - Gene Okerlund…I don't know…I'm Tony Schiavone, Hulk Hogan you can go to hell. We're outta here. Straight to hell." Roll final video and credits. I can't overstate to you just how much Schiavone killed it on this main event and post-match stuff. He was absolutely perfect. Dusty was great too, but Tony was the announcing star.

Overall: The rest of the show could have been garbage and I would still probably be somewhat kind in this segment just for ending on one of the most legendary moments in history. But the show offered two really good cruiserweight matches as well, so it's certainly a good event. Up at Great American Bash level? No. But good, and one that just left you absolutely thirsty as hell to get to Nitro the next night.

I recently watched this event and agree that Tony just destroyed it. It's a shame Heenan couldn't just roll with it for 90 seconds for the full effect. Hulk promo also really good (side note: it's the same approach to the promo heel cena should be giving if/when that ever happens). Really liked dustys line about throwing it down the drain kid. Another good line I thought was "we're not even gonna acknowledge that 3 count" or whatever it was.

Rey match was fantastic as well

FWIW, Heenan claims that the announcers were all in the dark about the turn, and Eric Bischoff said the same as well. So he didn't truly know that Hogan was the third man when he came down.

I think the line can be justified logically in terms of fitting with Heenan's character, but if he had any sort of inkling that it might actually be a turn, he still should have shut up.

did not know that. That makes the line make a lot more sense. It also makes me even more impressed at Tony having that reaction in real time. Awesome.

Yeah, apparently the story is that Hogan was hidden from everyone, that he just hung out in a car with tinted windows backstage, so most people didn't realize he was even there.

As the story goes, Bischoff had Sting ready on standby to turn on the team and be the third man if Hogan suddenly went full Hogan and refused to turn on the night of the event. But Hogan showed up still willing, so Bischoff told Sting what was up, and that was it. Most in the locker room had no idea of where the whole thing was headed.

Heenan had been feuding with Hogan since before they even were in the WWF, accusing him of actually being a villain for 13+ years. So his comment had no effect on me; it was completely in line with some promos Heenan did on AWA and WWF TV in the 80s.

I think my reaction was more of awe at seeing history and interest in what would happen next rather than shock.

I'm a Hogan hater but he fng killed that heel promo, A+.

To go from 15 straight years of telling kids to say their prayers and eat their vitamins into telling the fans to stick it was so shocking

Same, although I feel like we should put this in the 'unpopular opinions' thread.

Up until that moment, Paul Orndorff turning heel against Hulk Hogan in the late 80s was my favorite heel turn ever. But it paled in comparison to this

July 8, 1996

NITRO

Orlando, FL

You know that feeling when a PPV is so good that you spend the next day REALLY looking forward to the Monday night show that follows? Never can I remember that feeling being more pronounced than after the Hogan heel turn.

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko welcome us to the show. Tony only touches vaguely on what happened last night, references "what Hulk Hogan did to WCW," then says that the pictures they'll show in the second hour will tell the story. Larry refers to what Hogan did as a "total act of unmanliness." I immediately have traumatic flashbacks, since I'm pretty sure that Larry obsessively uses forms of "unmanly" to describe the nWo for months and months after this. There are donkey fetuses with bigger vocabularies than that of Larry Zbyszko.

They give us highlights of the best two undercard matches from last night, Mysterio-Psicosis and Malenko-Disco, and say that Malenko will defend the Cruiserweight Title against Rey to kick things off tonight.

Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: As the opening bell is happening, Tony again talks about what happened at the PPV, and Larry just grunts, "UNMANLY." Full writeup here. Larry says "unmanly" again in mid-match two more times, so our count for the night is at four. The match is a really good one, bordering on great, that only annoys me in how it plays out in the end. Malenko seems to have the match won, but pulls Mysterio up twice, then suddenly loses to a hurracanrana pinning combo. Pulling his man up twice is both untrue to Malenko's character and also takes some of the impact of Rey's win away, which bugs me since it's still early in Rey's run. Either way, we have a new Cruiserweight Champion, and these two work brilliantly together as always.



Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall, new Cruiserweight Champion

Mean Gene is with the Steiner Brothers and Nasty Boys backstage, saying they're going to meet later, with the winner getting a title shot at Harlem Heat at Hog Wild. Nice of WCW to release the Nasties from their ironclad "only ever wrestle against Public Enemy" contract. This promo segment is stupid and incoherent. They do the mutual respect thing, which I guess means the Nasty Boys are faces these days? I've had no idea who were supposed to be the faces and heels in their Public Enemy feud.

Yet another Glacier promo. Still says "coming to WCW," but no longer says "July 1996." I don't remember exactly when he arrived, because it fell pretty flat and never really mattered.

As we go into our next ring introductions, we again hear "unmanly." Five.

Big Bubba & Hugh Morrus (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. The Bluebloods (w/ Earl Robert Eaton & Jeeves): "USA" chants to start, so I guess the fans prefer these Dungeon of Doom weirdos. John Tenta comes to the ring and attacks Bubba while Bubba is on the apron, those two start brawling, the Bluebloods execute a double back suplex on Hugh Morrus and get the victory. They're really not done with the Tenta/Bubba thing yet? How many times does Tenta need to beat him to blow off the feud?



Result: Bluebloods via pinfall

Eddie Guerrero vs. Psicosis: Jobber entrances for both men. We get an awkward PIP promo from Rey Mysterio Jr. during this match, not about anyone in this match, but about Hulk Hogan turning heel last night. Weird. Zbyszko "Unmanly" count reaches six. They're throwing up too many unrelated distractions while two great workers are going at it, but holy ****ing **** at what I think is a reverse corkscrew plancha off the top to the floor by Psicosis. Awesome.



Psicosis starts working Eddie's arm after this, impacting it with a series of moves and putting it in a seated cross-armbar. Tony mentions that we'll see Hulk Hogan on Nitro next week, so he's not here tonight. "Unmanly" #7 as Eddie locks in the same hurracanrana pinning combo that won for Rey earlier…it only gets Eddie a two-count here. Eddie whips Psicosis into the corner, but runs the injured shoulder into the post on a corner charge. Quick top rope rana from Psicosis to follow, only gets two. Psicosis back up, Eddie follows him up the ropes and seems to be setting for an electric chair drop, but Psicosis counters into a sunset flip bomb that gets two.

Eddie again catches Psicosis climbing the ropes, and this time hits a superplex. Follows up quickly with a frog splash and scores the three-count. Man, great first two performances from Psicosis between Bash at the Beach and here, and they leave me wanting to see him get a win for his efforts. Hopefully he gets a Nitro win within the next few weeks. Either way, very nice match, the cruisers are really bringing it tonight.



Result: Eddie Guerrero via pinfall

Mean Gene with The Giant, Kevin Sullivan, and Jimmy Hart. Jimmy says he's lost for words about what Hulk Hogan did last night, and has no comment. Man, I was excited to watch some blatant kayfabe hypocrisy from a turncoat like Jimmy Hart against the man that he has betrayed. Kevin Sullivan rambles incoherently. The Giant says "whoa whoa whoa, everyone just settle down. As long as I have the WCW Title, nothing here can go wrong. If you people remember, I'm the one who took this belt from Hulk Hogan last October at Halloween Havoc." Well, sort of.



Nasty Boys vs. Steiner Brothers: These two teams share one rare common trait in this company, in that neither one has stock public domain music for an entrance theme. Both have their own names in the lyrics of their own themes. Nasty Boys control the early going here until Scott Steiner manages to execute a butterfly suplex on Jerry Sags. The back-and-forth here really isn't very interesting. Fast forward a number of minutes and Sags takes a chair away from a kid at ringside to go waffle Scott with it outside the ring while the ref is seemingly distracted, and we get interrupted by the pyro to start the show's second hour. Either way, the Nasties are in control of Scott after the chair shot.

Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan take over commentary in mid-match. Sherri and Col. Parker suddenly hit the ring. Sherri runs distraction, Parker hits Sags with a cane that looked to be meant for hitting Scott Steiner, and this leads to Scott making the pin. Awkward, clumsy ending. Match was a complete mess.



Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall

Mean Gene is in the ring with the Nasty Boys. They're pissed. Sags says that they've gotta change something. Knobbs says that he doesn't condone what Hulk Hogan did last night, but he also doesn't see anything wrong with it either. Man, Brian Knobbs would literally follow Hulk Hogan off a cliff. So I guess the Nasty Boys are heels then.



Eric Bischoff just dismisses the whole "Bischoff was missing last night" thing by saying that he had a lot of last-minute stuff that he had to take care of, so he couldn't be at the event. He speaks disgustedly about Hogan's turn.

US Title - Ric Flair (c) (w/ Woman, Miss Elizabeth, and Debra) vs. Jim Powers: It's a bit difficult to get into this one since it feels like the first truly pointless match of the evening. The announcers prattle on about the nWo and don't really acknowledge the match very much. Powers knocks Flair out of the ring. In kind of a funny moment, Flair yells at a ringside fan and then the next second seems to get re-energized by briefly dancing with Woman before re-entering the ring.



Flair works Powers's leg over, drops the knee on it, slaps on the figure-four, and of course retains the title.

Result: Ric Flair via submission

The Horsemen, without Chris Benoit, come to ringside to chat with Gene Okerlund. Arn Anderson says that the Horsemen have never claimed to be role models, but that Hulk Hogan was supposed to be one. He was supposed to stand for something. Mongo and Ric Flair don't say much more.

Sgt. Craig Pittman (w/ Teddy Long) vs. Chris Benoit: Craig Pittman wears a WCW hat to the ring, which is basically a gigantic sign that screams "jobber." Pittman hits a couple of very nice suplexes early, but as you might suspect (from the hat, even if you knew nothing else of these two guys), the advantage doesn't last. Benoit takes over and beats Pittman down, running him from one corner to the next. Benoit locks in the Crippler Crossface, Pittman doesn't give up, but Teddy Long gets into the ring and submits for him, demanding that the referee ring the bell. Quick match, and not much to it.



Result: Chris Benoit via submission

Arn Anderson vs. Sting: Sting comes out looking subdued after the events of last night. He still does take the time to high-five some kids near the ring. Anderson offers a handshake, but Sting isn't biting. I guess Sting must subscribe to the "fool me 12 times, shame on me" principle. As this match gets going, Bischoff says that a black limo is apparently pulling up, and they're not sure who is in it. The match is a lot of stalling followed by a lengthy abdominal stretch segment. There's just not much here; both seem to be sleepwalking.

They cut to footage of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall emerging from the limousine and headed toward the ring. Nash is rocking a t-shirt advertising a New Jersey sports bar, which for some reason I look up to find that it's actually a strip club. As Nash and Hall get to ringside, Savage comes running out to the apron to stand in between the match and the Outsiders. Amid the chaos, Sting manages to slap on the Scorpion Deathlock, and quickly gets the submission victory. Match was nothing.

Result: Sting via submission

Sting and Savage face Hall and Nash down, and the two Outsiders just sort of walk away. Quite the high-impact appearance.

Mean Gene joins Sting in the ring. Sting says that he was shocked by what Hogan did, but that he should have known something was up when Hogan wanted to ride everywhere in a limo and was too good to ride to shows with he and Savage. That he should have known when Hogan only had time to drop in sometimes for a cameo. That he should have known when Hogan referred to Sting, Luger, and Savage as "three little dogs waiting for a chance to wrestle the great Hulk Hogan." Sting said he should have known, but made a mistake. Seems to be a common promo for Sting.

Sting says that Hogan's mistake was bigger than his own, because Hogan just betrayed all of his young fans. Sting was a great babyface character who always came off very believably with righteous indignation about a heel treating little kids badly; it made him furious, and he brought it across here as well. Great mic work from Sting here IMO.



Savage takes the mic and makes the first reference to "Hollywood Hogan." He says that he can't say what he wants to say on TV, especially at Disney. Savage intensely threatens Hogan as well.

After a commercial, Gene catches up with Hall and Nash. Nash says that Hogan will be here next week. He botches his way pretty hard through this promo. They say that Hulk is off doing a movie tonight. This is a pretty lame promo segment.



Finally, Eric Bischoff shows the stills of last night's Hogan heel turn, Heenan yells angrily at Hogan, and Bischoff encourages people to order the encore of the PPV as the show signs off.

Overall: Simultaneously a good episode and a disappointing episode all at once. The two cruiserweight matches, especially Malenko vs. Mysterio, were tremendous. Two matches of that quality is enough for me to give a really high mark to the wrestling on the program even if the other matches sucked. I liked some of the anti-Hogan promos during the show, especially Sting's, but it was hard not to be disappointed in the lack of impact from the nWo to directly follow up the big shocker from last night. If Hogan couldn't be there then there's not a lot they could do I guess, but having Hall and Nash just slink away the second they're challenged seems pretty bad. Regardless, I look forward to the next episode that actually has Hogan on it.

RAW

Green Bay, WI

We open tonight's show with breaking news from Gorilla Monsoon. "It is with great reluctance that I announce the indefinite suspension of the Ultimate Warrior. This suspension is a direct result of Ultimate Warrior's failure to appear as advertised last weekend in Indianapolis, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. This suspension will be immediately lifted, however, after the Warrior posts an appearance bond to ensure WWF fans that he will appear where advertised. However, the Ultimate Warrior is here tonight as advertised, and will wrestle Owen Hart. We remain hopeful that Ultimate Warrior will post an appropriate appearance bond and return to action here in the World Wrestling Federation. Despite the immense popularity of the Ultimate Warrior, no one wrestler is above answering to our loyal WWF fans."



So yeah, this is one of those nights where it really sucks to have taped four episodes in advance. They simultaneously needed to write Warrior off TV while still showing a match that he main events the show in. He's already been fired in real life, and now your show two weeks before a PPV somewhat centers on him anyway. I don't know what it was about Warrior and scheduled tag team PPV main events, but they tended to not go well. At SummerSlam '91 he allegedly holds Vince up for money with the threat of not going on, and gets fired at the end of the show. He gets fired shortly before Survivor Series '92, when he was scheduled to team with Randy Savage against Ric Flair and Razor Ramon. Now he gets fired before this one.

Owen Hart (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. The Ultimate Warrior: They're obviously doing new commentary for the night, as Vince openly states his hope that this isn't the last they ever see of the Warrior. Jerry Lawler takes counterpoint and gleefully says that this is it for him.



Warrior recklessly flings Owen out over the top rope as the broadcast goes to a PIP interview with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson. Vince asks them who they're going to be teaming with at In Your House. Michaels says that they've secured their third man, that he's on his way and will be there soon. Ahmed does a lot of mumbling, and the interview ends. Warrior clotheslines Owen out over the top to the floor. Vince openly wonders if maybe the partner could be Mr. Perfect as Owen gets slingshotted back into the ring. Kind of a front-facing press slam by Warrior follows. Owen is bumping his ass off for this guy, and just by default this is already the best match Warrior had in his brief 1996 run.



Owen finally gets some offense in. Warrior keeps trying to no-sell it, but Hart gets enough of an onslaught in that Warrior is forced to slow down and sell a bit.



Bulldog comes to ringside late, after the Warrior kicks out following a top rope missile dropkick by Owen. Warrior enters babyface comeback mode and stops selling Owen's punches. Three running clotheslines by the Warrior, a flying shoulderblock, and Bulldog runs in for the obvious DQ.

Result: Ultimate Warrior via DQ

Warrior sidesteps Davey and puts him down, cuing the arrival of Vader. Warrior tries fighting off all three of them, but the numbers eventually prove too much, and they beat the Warrior down. He takes a Vaderbomb here as well. Well this was a fortuitous last Warrior moment to have in the can when they fired him.

They talk to Shawn and Ahmed again. Shawn said that their will-be partner is somebody who he has had differences with in the past, but adds that he's had differences with a lot of people. Shawn says the partner is on his way. Ahmed adds about the partner, to Camp Cornette, "And you won't just run through him like you just did through the Warrior." Okay, minor burial performed.

Savio Vega vs. Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw (w/ Uncle Zebekiah): Brian Pillman comes out and almost hits Savio Vega with a crutch at the start of Savio's entrance. JJ Dillon shows up and yells Pillman to the back. Onto the match, it's a hard-hitting slugfest to start, with the two throwing stiff rights, forearms, elbows, and clotheslines at each other. It's some fun brawling even if there aren't any real standout spots. Unfortunately it does slow down after a bit, and we have to wait through an extended reverse chinlock.

In mid-match Vince takes a call from Mr. Perfect. Lawler asks Perfect if he's going to be the tag team partner at IYH, but the show goes to commercial before Perfect can answer. After returning from break, we find out that their call dropped, so we're left without an answer. After a miscommunication between Bradshaw and Zebekiah, Savio catches Bradshaw with a spinning heel kick and is able to score the pin. First half of the match was good, second half was very boring.



Result: Savio Vega via pinfall

Bradshaw and Zeb jump Savio after the bell. Bradshaw clocks Savio in the head with the cowbell at the end of his bullrope to leave him laid out.

Back to Shawn and Ahmed backstage. Their partner is still on his way. Vince mentions that Shawn will defend the WWF Title against Billy Gunn next week, and Ahmed will defend the IC Title against Bart Gunn. Sounds like a couple of delightfully pointless matches, but hopefully at least Shawn vs. Billy can provide some good action.

The Godwinns (w/ Hillbilly Jim) vs. Vader & The British Bulldog (w/ Jim Cornette): Lawler comments, as the Godwinns enter, "I hate that music, McMahon!" Yeah, I hate that overdubbed **** too, King. Cornette joins the commentary team for the match. After some underwhelming action, Henry Godwinn actually throws a nice-looking suplex on Vader. HOG always had good strength, and was occasionally able to show it on spots like that.



Pretty good back-and-forth in this one. Henry eventually falls into a heat segment, and actually gets to kick out of multiple big Vader power moves. He also actually catches a jumping Vader out of the air and executes a front powerslam. Nice spot. Hot tag to Phineas. He gets a big offensive flurry, but Vader eventually hits him from behind, causing him to stagger straight into a big powerslam from Bulldog, and that's the match. Surprisingly a very good match here, certainly the best of the episode.

Result: Vader & Bulldog via pinfall

They send it backstage to Shawn and Ahmed one more time, as the show is wrapping up. Ahmed says that their partner is in the parking lot now, and they go to the last commercial break.

After returning from break, the camera is on a grinning Jim Cornette, who is convinced that Shawn and Ahmed are just bluffing about having a partner. We get a split-screen with Shawn and Ahmed on the other side. Shawn: "Jim Cornette, we don't bluff, this is the World Wrestling Federation. You've gotta know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em, and you should have folded…surprise, surprise, look what we have for Camp Cornette:"



Sid cuts an intense promo. Cornette is suddenly panicked and rants about how he's going to stop Sid from getting to sub onto that team as the show goes off the air. This was a solid surprise partner to build to throughout the hour. Sid hadn't been around for over a year, and he fills the Warrior's shoes nicely on a few levels. He was absolutely awful in the ring of course, but he was hugely over and was a very credible replacement.

Overall: Pretty good episode, all things considered. The Warrior stuff was awkward since he was fired and they had to work with that, but his match with Owen wasn't terrible, the tag match at the end was surprisingly good, even Savio-Bradshaw wasn't bad. Add in a solid surprise return for Sid, and this was certainly above the usual Raw level for the time.

---

Ratings for 7/8/96: Nitro 3.5, Raw 2.5
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 21-17-2

Better Show: It's Nitro again. One great match, one really good one, bigger and better atmosphere than Raw. But I'm still glad that Raw at least performed at a higher-than-usual level.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 34-6

Match of the Night: Rey Mysterio vs. Dean Malenko

interesting line to do the turn and then keep hogan off the show this week (and iirc sting luger and savage off next week). i think i like it to build tension.

wcw cruisers are stealing shows left and right

I'm not sure that keeping Hogan off was a choice. Well before the turn, but during the absence, they advertised him for the Hog Wild PPV that's up next in mid-August. Seems like a decent chance that he really wasn't done filming whatever and just quickly flew in to turn heel and then had to resume filming. May not have meant to be back until closer to the next PPV.

ah that makes sense then
still works tho

Shawn's smarmy gloating after introducing Sid was more evidence he just wasn't cut out to be a face.

July 15, 1996

NITRO

Orlando, FL

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko welcome us to the show. We are assured that Hulk Hogan will be here tonight. After only showing stills last week, they actually show the actual running footage of the Hogan heel turn at this point. Tony rants about how ridiculous it is that they threw a ticker tape parade for Hogan when he arrived in WCW. Larry drops "unmanly" #1 for the night. Tony also mentions that Sting, Randy Savage, and Ric Flair aren't here tonight, and that the only top guys WCW really has to stand behind are The Giant and Lex Luger. After that, it's time to jump into the action.

Fire & Ice vs. The Steiner Brothers: I thought GAB was their blow-off match as it was basically explicitly labeled as one, but these two teams do work well together and Rick Steiner might try to kick Scott Norton in the head again, so I'm ready for this. We get a few minutes of slow, plodding power stuff from Norton until Norton gets caught in a belly-to-belly by Scott Steiner. After a commercial break, Teddy Long heads toward ringside and watches the match from the aisle. Rick Steiner throws a suplex on Ice Train that doesn't really connect well. Nobody looks good tonight. An outdoor show during the summer in Florida can't make for the easiest conditions to work under.



Fire & Ice attempt a double-team, with Norton holding Rick Steiner's legs for an Ice Train splash, but Rick moves and Train ends up splashing on Norton. Rick follows with a botched German suplex on Ice Train, and Nick Patrick counts to three while Train's boot is clearly under the ropes (which nobody mentions). Match is really bad all around.

Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall

Gene Okerlund with Kevin Sullivan, Jimmy Hart, and Big Bubba. As this promo starts, Fire and Ice pass through yelling at each other.



Kevin Sullivan says that they didn't expect Hulk Hogan to try to take over WCW like this, but that Jimmy Hart has a plan. Then Jimmy Hart cuts a promo exclusively about the Four Horsemen. WTF. Then Big Bubba cuts a promo on Lex Luger, who he's apparently facing later tonight. The Faces of Fear show up in mid-promo, just to lend moral support apparently since they say and do nothing.

After a commercial, our world is about to change and Glacier is coming. FFS quit running these and just debut him.

Mean Gene is with Fire & Ice. Scott Norton yells at Ice Train for screwing up their win. Teddy Long comes along and says holonaminutplaya, I really don't want you guys to break up. Then Scott Norton shoves him down by the face. Ice Train takes umbrage with that, Norton walks away disgusted, and I think they just broke up. Ice Train goes to tend to Teddy Long.

Dean Malenko vs. Billy Kidman: In the middle of Malenko's entrance, Jimmy Hart comes out and tries to say something to him, but Malenko sort of brushes Jimmy off. Tony Schiavone says that Malenko is set to face Chris Benoit at Hog Wild, so Jimmy Hart might be willing to align with Malenko over that.

Kidman hits a missile dropkick off the top for a two-count early in this match. Malenko sets him down and then goes to work at grounding the match, working Kidman's leg with a grapevine hold and then repeated knee lunges. You can definitely kind of tell how ****ing hot it is out there, as for the second straight match the referee's shirt is sweat-soaked after just a couple of minutes. Kidman gets near-falls on a couple of surprise pin attempts, but his attempt at a shooting star press comes up empty, and Malenko quickly capitalizes with a brainbuster, a powerbomb, a butterfly powerbomb, and a Texas cloverleaf for the win. This match had trouble getting going, but that last flurry of offensive moves in quick succession was fun.



Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall

Mean Gene is with Kevin Greene. Greene starts an angry promo about Hogan, calling him a hypocrite who believes in nothing. Greene also calls out Mongo, saying he doesn't want to wait until after the season, and wants to get Mongo tonight. Greene was such a natural at promos, and really everything about wrestling. It's a shame he didn't get to explore this career more, but at least he was a highly successful beast on the football field instead.

Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) (w/Col. Parker & Sister Sherri) vs. Rough & Ready (w/ Col. Parker): Rough & Ready are Dick Slater and Mike Enos. And yes, Col. Parker seemingly manages both teams. Stevie Ray wrestles for probably about five straight minutes to start the match, which is to say that the first five minutes suck. Sherri and Parker keep squabbling at ringside, I guess because she wants to insist that he stay in the Heat's corner the whole time. The crowd chants a bit for the Heat, so I guess they've chosen their temporary babyfaces for the evening. I'm always struck by how often WCW does heel vs. heel.

Match devolves into four-man chaos, Enos powerslams Booker T and leaves him prone, Col. Parker runs referee distraction, Sherri runs over and kisses Dick Slater to intentionally disgust him, then the Heat make the pin. This, too, was terrible. Please keep this Sherri/Parker stuff on weekend TV if you have to do it.



Result: Harlem Heat via pinfall

We get a video montage honoring Rey Mysterio, heavily featuring a lot of his spots from his past few matches.

After commercial, Mean Gene is with Kevin Greene, who rips his shirt off and says he's gotta have Mongo now, and he has a plane to catch. Gene says he doesn't think Greene will find Mongo. Greene just immediately accepts this and says that he'll be back in February.



Madusa vs. Malya Hosaka: Some stiff shots early in this one, some hard chops by Madusa and a hard spinning kick by Hosaka…then it devolves into something resembling a modern-day divas botchfest. Too bad. Madusa wins the short match with a German suplex.



Result: Madusa via pinfall

That takes us to the end of the countdown to the second hour. Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan take over as the pyro goes off. This mid-show fanfare will never strike me as anything but weird.

As Bischoff and Heenan are introducing this hour, they look back and see that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall are putting nWo letters over the WCW steel letters in the balcony.

Meng (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Arn Anderson: Lots of slow-moving punch-kick stuff. Barbarian strolls down to ringside in mid-match as the show goes to commercial. They get a number of minutes with this match, and nothing comes close to being interesting about it. Both men just being very lethargic; it feels like I'm watching them kill time for the sake of it. Jimmy Hart runs referee distraction, Barbarian interferes and enables a crescent kick by Meng, and he scores the pin from there. Just brutal to sit through.



Result: Meng via pinfall

After commercials, Mean Gene is with Mongo and Debra McMichael. Mongo has surfaced now that Greene is gone. They trash on the Panthers for being an expansion team. If Greene is actually gone now until February, it's odd to cut a promo for something that might happen in seven months. Debra does slightly better with her talking this week, which is to say that she's still not good but doesn't have me cringing the entire time.

Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero: Benoit talks the referee into checking Eddie's boot before the match starts, then takes a cheap shot once the referee and Eddie are preoccupied with that. Benoit follows with his usual crisp offense, controlling the bout until Eddie counters a powerbomb attempt into an armdrag to the outside, then follows him out with a top rope plancha to the floor. Eddie rolls him in, then does his signature slingshot diving splash into the ring.

Benoit counters and executes a back suplex, following with a press slam and then slapping on a camel clutch. He drops the hold and locks in a side headlock, but Eddie seizes the opportunity and hits a belly-to-back suplex. Benoit right back on it though, laying in a vicious chop and then a snap suplex. Loud "Eddie" chants as Benoit applies a lion tamer. Eddie powers out of that move, but Benoit plants him hard with one of those beautiful powerbombs.



Benoit takes a long time to attempt a pin, and only gets two. Stays with the attack and hits a backbreaker. Whip and a back elbow. Scoop slam, and then he tries to go up high, but Eddie gets up and meets him at the top rope and buries him with a superplex. Both are back up equally quickly, and we're into a back-and-forth. Benoit stops an Eddie 10-punch, and the two trade hard chops. Benoit goes for another rana, but Eddie counters with a hurracanrana that carries both out over the top to the floor.

Both up slowly. Benoit slams Eddie face-first into the steel steps. Dean Malenko suddenly runs down to ringside, rams Benoit hard into the post while the referee is tending to Eddie, then escapes like a thief in the night. Both men are laid out on the floor, Eddie is able to get up first and barely beat the count for a countout victory. Good match.



Result: Eddie Guerrero via countout

Another Glacier promo. Honestly, two of these each and every week?

TV Title - Lex Luger (c) vs. Big Bubba (w/ Jimmy Hart): Bischoff says that Luger isn't cleared by doctors, but insisted on wrestling anyway. My inner lawyer cringes at the thought of a company VP just openly begging for liability if something terrible happens, but I realize that what he's saying is a work. I can kind of appreciate that they at least took a step to go "yeah, he got stretchered off eight days ago and this is a ridiculously quick turnaround, but we'll at least give you some sort of explanation." As an added bonus, it helps his babyface sympathy.

Bubba tries to climb to the top early and Luger knocks him off, then clotheslines him over the top to the floor. Bubba regains control and hits some basic power offense. One of his signature spots for years has been this one where the opponent is knocked down near the ropes, and Bubba baseball slides outside and uppercuts him from the floor…he still does that here, but it always strikes me how much slower it looks than it did in his WWF prime. At this point they cut away to footage of Hall and Nash emerging from a limo out in the parking area. Back to the ring, Bubba hits an enziguiri. After some slow offense, they go to commercial, while showing that Hall and Nash are still hanging out near the limo.

Mid-ring collision after the break. Hall and Nash are headed toward the ring. Jimmy Hart runs distraction on the apron and then throws in a foreign object that Luger intercepts. Luger questions it, then takes it and hits Bubba with it, knocking him out. Then Luger gets indignant with Jimmy, suddenly objecting to the weapon after he's already used it. Amidst all this, Hall and Nash hit the ring and ambush Lex.



Result: Lex Luger via DQ

Camera near the limo picks up Hulk Hogan in all black, grinning and strolling to the ring. Nash and Hall double powerbomb Luger as Hogan enters and congratulates them. Hulk stands over Luger and slaps him. Hogan helps Bubba up and shakes his hand, causing Bischoff to speculate that Bubba is the fourth nWo member. Then the Outsiders ambush Bubba as well, laying him out and then flinging him out of the ring. The nWo stands triumphant as the crowd rains boos down on them.

Mean Gene comes out for the interview. Hogan says he wishes he did this two years ago. He says he's bigger than the sport of wrestling, and that they're going to rule the wrestling world. Gene confronts him about how many calls came in from parents with upset children after Bash at the Beach. Hogan repeats that he spent years teaching their kids all the right lessons, and that fans still had the gall to come to arenas and boo him. He repeated, "Again, you fans can stick it, brother." Trash starts flying in again.



Hogan calls Sting a skinny crybaby, and then continues: "I heard all the crying from the so-called Macho Man, for three years he blamed his divorce - the fact that he couldn't rise to the occasion - on Hulk Hogan, brother." Strong. This is another great heel promo from Hulk, and it gets massive heat. Hogan suggests that more people will end up following him. He challenges The Giant to a title match at Hog Wild, saying that he'll take the WCW Title and make it the nWo Title.

The Steiners, the Faces of Fear, and Arn Anderson, all of different loyalties and affiliations, come out to ringside to face the nWo down, but at this point the show goes off the air. Great final segment.



Overall: As always, close a show strongly and a lot gets forgiven. Really though, I can't forget that there was a lot of bad, bad wrestling on this show, with only Eddie vs. Benoit and to a lesser extent Malenko vs. Kidman offering any redeeming value. Still, those things plus that final segment at least made the show passable.

RAW

Green Bay, WI

Quick cold open featuring Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson arriving at the arena earlier today, Camp Cornette confronting them, and a yelling match ensuing.

After credits, we're on with the action.

Intercontinental Title - Ahmed Johnson (c) vs. Bart Gunn (w/ Sunny): Neither of the Smoking Gunns had any credibility as singles title contenders, so this match as well as the Shawn Michaels vs. Billy Gunn match later are obviously just one-off exhibitions, despite Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler trying to put over the fact that this was Sunny's chance to take all of the gold in the WWF over by the end of the night. Ahmed controls early, Bart suckers Ahmed in with a handshake and a cheap shot and takes over from there, executing a slow and tedious attack over the course of the next handful of minutes. I tell you, you take the attempted Ahmed high spots out of an Ahmed match and you're left with absolute nothingness.

Vince mentions in mid-match that there has been dialogue between the WWF and Ultimate Warrior's attorney about possibly coming back. He was hitting this pretty hard for the second straight week; there must have been real hope on Vince's end that his relationship with the Warrior wasn't over this time. Ahmed crotches Bart along the top rope and then does a running dive that carries them both out of the ring. Alright, that was the closest thing to an Ahmed high spot that we're getting this time.



Ahmed executes a spinebuster and a Pearl River Plunge to score the pinfall. Terrible match.

Result: Ahmed Johnson via pinfall

Generic backstage promo from Shawn Michaels. Shawn believes that he and Ahmed can trust Sid.

Marc Mero (w/ Sable) vs. TL Hopper: Yeah, I'd been wondering where the especially embarrassing WWF cartoon characters were hanging out. TL Hopper is the wrestling plumber. His music is a toilet flushing. He comes out carrying a plunger. That's about it. En route to the ring, Goldust's usher runs out and gives a present to Sable. Sable is grossed out by it and throws it down without opening it to see what it was.

Mero starts fast in the match and a few moves look alright, but in keeping with the pattern of the first match, Hopper takes over and runs an extremely boring slow-down offense. We get a PIP promo from Stone Cold Steve Austin, who faces Mero at In Your House this Sunday. Mero leapfrogs Hopper during a rope-running sequence, spins around and throws an uppercut and then a right hand…and then just pins him off of that two-punch combo. Terrible match.



Result: Marc Mero via pinfall

Extended Undertaker video promo. Nothing to this.

WWF Title - Shawn Michaels (c) (w/ Jose Lothario) vs. Billy Gunn (w/ Sunny): Shoulderblock --> stall --> shoulderblock --> stall to start. Incoherent PIP promo from Ahmed Johnson. Vince: "I'm inclined to agree with that." Lawler: "You understood him?" Shawn dumps Billy Gunn over the top rope, Sunny jumps up onto the apron, Shawn Michaels grabs her and forcibly kisses her against her will, and Sunny has to sell (primarily to Chris Candido backstage, but I guess to the crowd as well) that she doesn't like it.



Shawn goes for a top rope axhandle, Billy counters it with a punch and then connects with what would become the fameasser. Michaels drops out of the ring and drags Billy to a corner, crotching him against it. Follows in with a slingshot clothesline. HBK tries to follow it up by heading up top, but Sunny distracts him, Billy throws him off the top, and then Billy clotheslines him over the top to the floor.

After commercial, we come back to a Billy Gunn side headlock, but Michaels is fighting his way out of it, only to run into Gunn's back elbow. Two-count. I really want this match to get going…it's far better than the first two matches of course, but it's not all that good. They for some reason show Camp Cornette leaving the arena despite having had no involvement in the show so far anyway. After a second commercial, HBK is in the middle of a babyface comeback, kipping up and landing multiple right hands and then a dropkick. Tunes up the band, hits the superkick, 1-2-3. Then Shawn flings Billy out of the ring for no apparent reason. Okay match, best of the show by default, but far from great.

Result: Shawn Michaels via pinfall

Shawn and Ahmed are going to give an interview backstage, but Jim Cornette runs up and baits them by throwing Coke in their faces, then runs them into an ambush by Vader, Davey Boy, and Owen. This ambush has barely gotten started when Sid comes screeching in driving a car and then gets out and chases the heels off to end the show.



Overall: Episode was complete trash. Almost entirely unwatchable. I really sigh heavily when I get into a section where I have to go Raw --> WWF PPV --> Raw.

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Ratings for 7/15/96: Nitro 3.4, Raw 2.6
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 22-17-2

Better Show: Nitro by miles and miles despite not being very good.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 35-6

Match of the Night: Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit

Can't wait to get to the Rey Mysterio lawn dart episode, I don't know why I thought it was closer to BatB than it apparently was.

It can't be far now. But yeah, I'm finding that I don't remember this aftermath of BATB very clearly; makes it more fun to rewatch it.