I always assume that Mero must not be that likable since he seems like one of the only ones who Mick Foley is actually willing to publicly rip on. There was a funny Legends of Wrestling episode (the Heatseekers one) where the rest of the panel was there to bring up guys they don't like and put them on blast, and Foley kept just smiling and shrugging and saying "I like that guy" about people everyone else hated. It brought on increasingly Gob-like "OH COME ON!" reactions from the rest.

he actually goes out of his way to explain that he doesn't hate mero, they were on fine terms, even were friends for a while, and that he just hated the fact that mero kept getting huge contracts despite not drawing while he didn't. For instance, mero's debut was on the same set of tapings as his for the WWF. Mero came in with a huge guaranteed contract and all he got was one that said he had the opportunity to make money (I guess just a by-day payout?)

the only person he really seemed to dislike as an individual was mil mascaras and then he had a lot of problems with flair as a booker

Yeah, obviously really stupid that Mero was out-earning those guys. I assume it has to do with the fact that Austin and Foley were both WCW castoffs making a pittance in ECW whereas Vince had to maybe outbid WCW to steal Mero away. Just guesswork on my end though.

WCW WORLD WAR 3 1996



Nice promotional poster, guys.

Our usual PPV announce team of Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes welcome us to the show. After the usual opening banter, it's time to jerk the curtain.

J-Crown Title - Ultimo Dragon (c) (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: Full match writeup here. Absolute clinic by Ultimo Dragon, showing off an impressive array of offense and dominating most of the match.



I had some criticisms about Rey being able to kick out of too much, and the story itself didn't necessarily draw me in, but the work was top-notch. Ultimo goes over with a slingshot powerbomb (or whatever you want to call it).



Result: Ultimo Dragon via pinfall
Rating: ****

Mean Gene, kicking it up to the tuxedo level tonight, reports from backstage with Diamond Dallas Page. Gene confronts Page about the fact that his neighbor Eric Bischoff has turned on WCW. Page says he doesn't care what's going on in Bischoff's world right now. All he cares about is the battle royal later tonight.

"One Arm Tied Behind My Back" Match - Chris Jericho (w/ Teddy Long) vs. Nick Patrick: Yes, that's the actual name of the match as scrawled across the screen. Obviously Jericho is the one who will be fighting this match one-handed.



Jericho shoves Patrick down with the one arm, then trips and armdrags Patrick with the same. After Patrick takes a breather, Jericho cinches in a hammerlock with the one arm. As Patrick goes to escape to the corner, Jericho hits him with a series of kicks, and Patrick gives the kicks the exaggerated bump.



Patrick goes for another break. He gets into some jawing with Teddy Long, baiting Long into shoving him. More kicks from Jericho. A slap from Patrick. A slap by Jericho, leading to another oversell by Patrick. Not that I was expecting any different, but this is horrendous. The fighting spills outside, where Patrick blocks Jericho's attempt to post him and then rams Jericho into the post as softly as I've ever seen anyone post anyone else. Jericho tries to clothesline Patrick at the post, but Patrick moves, and Jericho hurts his only free arm.

Back inside the ring, Patrick does the Curt Hennig snapmare --> neck-snap combo. Can't say I saw that coming. They did mention that Patrick had some wrestling experience in his past. Patrick goes up top, and Jericho executes a one-handed chokeslam that carries Patrick back to the mat. Superkick by Jericho wins the match.

Result: Chris Jericho via pinfall
Rating: 1/4*

Mean Gene introduces Ric Flair, still healing from an arm injury for an interview out in the main arena. He just cuts a Flair promo on the nWo. Only real point was to give Flair an appearance on the show, I suppose.

The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett: Jarrett jumps Giant at the bell, but Giant quickly tosses him off. A hard uppercut by Jarrett has little effect. JJ continues to attempt the stick-and-move thing, but the Giant is selling at Scott Norton levels (correctly so IMO) and Jarrett is having little success at actually gaining control in the match. Giant misses on a corner splash, Jarrett dropkicks, but again Giant just gets a boot up on the ensuing corner charge and resumes control.

Giant drops a big elbow, then steps his full weight on Jarrett's chest. The crowd rises to their feet and notices that Sting is walking along a catwalk at the top of the arena. Giant drops a big leg, and Sting starts making his way down through the crowd. Giant misses on a splash, Jarrett connects on a cross-body off the top and actually gets a two-count. Giant tumbles out of the ring, and Sting enters and executes another Scorpion Death Drop on Jarrett as Randy Anderson absolutely ridiculously pretends to not realize it's happening directly behind him. The announcers are convinced that Sting is nWo.



Giant re-enters, chokeslams Jarrett, 1-2-3.

Result: The Giant via pinfall
Rating: 0*

We hear bagpipes to start the next segment, and Roddy Piper arrives to the ring holding a contract. He calls out Hulk Hogan, the nWo music hits, and Eric Bischoff leads Ted DiBiase and Vincent to the ring.



Bischoff says that Hogan's a little busy reviewing movie scripts backstage, but Hogan gave him power of attorney earlier today and would be willing to sign the contract if it meets their requirements. Piper says to Vincent, "First of all, I taught you how to fight, so stay out of my way." That's a SummerSlam '91 reference, when Piper trained Vincent (as Virgil) for his match against Ted DiBiase. Piper lays into Bischoff for a bit before doubling down and demanding that Hogan get out there. Here's Hogan, not to mention Giant, Elizabeth, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash.

Hogan says he'll sign the contract, but first he forces Roddy Piper to show the huge scar on his hip for some reason. Then Hogan signs. Then Piper attacks him, Giant and Hall obviously step in and stop that, Hogan gets his shots in, Piper breaks free once and gets more shots in, then Hogan goes and gets a steel chair and wallops Piper on the injured hip, laying him out. Hall and Giant hold Piper as Hogan spray-paints nWo on Piper's hip. As the nWo leaves, Piper gets up, grabs a mic, and vows not to surrender. This was pure boredom, but it's pretty unlikely that any 1996 Hogan-Piper segment is going to be any good.



The Amazing French Canadians (w/ Col. Parker) vs. Harlem Heat (w/ Sister Sherri): If the Heat wins, Sherri gets five minutes in the ring with Col. Parker. Lacking any desire to sit through a five-minute post-match segment, I guess I'm a huge Rougeau/Ouellet mark for the duration of this one. Jacques gets shoulderblocked to the mat, but kips up and dropkicks Booker T. Booker right back at him with a spinning heel kick, then a tag to Stevie Ray. I'm just to look away from my TV and tell you what's happening now that Stevie's in. Punch, punch, kick, bodyslam, punch, shoulderblock. Ah, tag to Booker, much better. He drops a knee on Ouellet, tags back and forth with his brother a couple of times, is back in and throws an axe kick.

Booker misses on an elbow, spinaroonie, Harlem side kick. Jacques pulls the top rope down as Booker runs into it, causing him to spill outside. The Colonel gets his shots in. There's this weird thing where the announce team has been set up all night at a ringside table facing one of the rings that none of the matches are happening in before the 60-man battle royal later. When the action spills out to their side, they're just chilling with their backs to the action. I have no idea why they would set them up like that. The Canadians double-team Booker, with Jacques tripping him as Ouellet throws a hard clothesline.



The double-teaming continues, as they knock Booker down and then Jacques slams Ouellet on top. Double stun gun. I had it in my mind that the Canadians sucked once they arrived in WCW, but they could still go in the ring. Booker turns Ouellet inside out with a clothesline, but Ouellet is up a moment later and returns the favor, turning Booker inside out. Boston crab by Jacques into a second-rope legdrop by Ouellet. Stevie has to make the save on the pin attempt. Booker makes the hot tag to Stevie.

Stevie press slams Jacques into Ouellet. All four go at it, incidental ref bump, Ouellet clears Booker out and the Canadians perform a crappy spike piledriver on Stevie. They proceed to set up a table along the top rope, steel steps underneath, steel steps on top. Heenan: "They're building a clubhouse!" Ouellet goes way up top for the big cannonball, Stevie dodges, Booker with the Harlem Hangover, 1-2-3, Heat wins. Pretty good, even if not my preferred result given the stipulation. I'm left hoping they go full WWF on this one.



Result: Harlem Heat via pinfall
Rating: **3/4

…nah, they don't go full WWF. Sherri clocks Parker and beats on him for a while. After a couple of minutes the Canadians do get their manager out of there.

A Starrcade promo and a hotline ad later, Mean Gene is with Lex Luger. Luger thinks that Sting's new penchant for wielding a baseball bat "just reeks of nWo" even though he doesn't want to believe it. In any case, he's hyped for the battle royal tonight.

Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Psicosis: Dean with a waistlock, Psicosis trips him and grapevines the leg, but Dean counters into an STF until Psicosis forces a rope break. Malenko with a drop toe-hold into a chinlock, then he backs into an anklelock. As Psicosis tries to escape, Malenko grabs the arms almost into a surfboard, then he flips him over into a pinning combo. Some smart mat wrestling. The men trade armdrags and reset. Arm-wringer by the champ, but Psicosis flips out and locks his own armbar on. Again the counter, but Psicosis escapes and we get another reset. Psicosis was predominantly a flyer, but he clearly had a good foundation of mat ability.

Great leg-whip by Dean into a grapevine. Psicosis flips the leverage of the hold, Dean tries hard to escape, eventually re-reverses the leverage, and finally a rope break. The crowd on the hard camera side is literally not even watching the match; they're staring off-camera somewhere. Spinning wheel kick by Psicosis, followed by a dropkick that sends Malenko outside. He tries to follow him out, but commits a rough botch as he simply trips and falls, and seems to actually hit his head on the guardrail as well from the sound of it.



Malenko returns him to the ring. Snapmare, elbow-drop, headscissor on the mat, and an eventual rope break. The champ stays on offense with a snapmare and a legdrop. He slaps on a half-crab in a pretty painful-looking position. Butterfly powerbomb by Dean, into a Texas cloverleaf, but Psicosis quickly flails successfully to the ropes. Dean keeps working the leg…this is psychologically sound, but it's not developing into a very interesting match. They laid a good foundation, but haven't gone anywhere from there. Malenko with a corner whip, goes for a monkey-flip out of the corner, Psicosis reverses and sets him on the top rope, but Malenko scissors him out of the ring.

Malenko baseball slide misses. Psicosis with a pumphandle backbreaker. Nice corkscrew moonsault off the top to the floor. He slides Malenko back in, then sort of botches a slingshot legdrop. As Malenko climbs up top, Psicosis dropkicks him to sit him down on the turnbuckle, then hits a super hurracanrana for two. Malenko counters a delayed suplex into a small package for a believable near-fall. Somersault kick by Psicosis. Malenko counters from the tombstone position into his own tombstone. Psicosis re-counters back into control of the same hold. Malenko re-re-counters and connects on the tombstone. 1, 2, no. Malenko does the jumping move where he throws both legs up and rolls his opponent back, then bridges back for a pin…does anyone know the name of this move? I never know what to call it. It gets the three-count. This match severely under-delivered given the talent involved.



Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall
Rating: **

Tag Team Title Triangle Match - The Outsiders (c) vs. The Nasty Boys vs. The Faces of Fear: So in kayfabe, why the **** do the Nasty Boys get a title shot? They renounced their WCW citizenship, the nWo soundly rejected their bid for membership, they never actually win on Nitro, so…the mythical WCW Championship Committee named them co-#1 contenders? Seems legit. After some brawling by all three teams, the match settles in to Faces of Fear vs. Nasty Boys with the Outsiders on the outside. Knobbs and Sags double-clothesline the Barbarian and attempt to isolate him, but he manages to tag Meng, and it's a four-way brawl between the two non-nWo teams while the Outsiders comfortably watch them beat each other up.

The Outsiders selectively tag in when they see a wrestler prone, and tag out the second they face trouble. In kayfabe they manage the match pretty optimally to start. The action is purely punch-kick-clothesline for several minutes to start. Finally Sags hits a piledriver on Barbarian, with Hall making the save on the ensuing pin. Nash hits his sidewalk slam on Barbarian, who has to be saved from a three-count by Meng this time. Unsurprisingly, this match is pretty much a mess…the teams keep frequent tags going, but there's very little in the way of interesting spots.

Knobbs and Meng go and tag Hall and Nash simultaneously, and Dusty marvels like it was an unprecedented brilliant move. Mind you, Meng and Barbarian were both in as legal men earlier and Meng just went and tagged out. Tony is the voice of reason, saying, "Well if they pin each other, they're still the champs! This was not a good move." After circling each other like they're going to fight, Nash performs the pre-fingerpoke of doom sell and Hall gets on top, but the other teams break it up before the three-count. All three teams in, Jimmy Hart gets up on the apron, a Nasty Boy knocks him off, Hall gets the megaphone and clobbers Knobbs, powerbomb by Kevin Nash wins it. Garbage match. Or, as Tony puts it, "We've seen a lot of triangle matches. This had more action and intensity than any we've ever seen." Sigh.



Result: The Outsiders via pinfall
Rating: 1/4*

Before we head to the main event battle royal, Bobby Heenan again puts over Dean Malenko as his pick. I'm starting to think he wasn't trolling. They split out to three different announce teams, sitting in front of three different rings, the teams being Schiavone and Heenan, Dusty and Mike Tenay, and our A-Team, Larry Zbyszko and Lee Marshall. Marshall picks Nash, Schiavone picks the Giant, Heenan repeats Malenko, the other three are on Lex Luger.

#1 Contender Match - 60-Man Battle Royal: The Four Horsemen and Dungeon of Doom start wildly brawling outside the ring before the match ever gets started. In the meantime the action in the ring gets going as well. So, sitting through this match is a chore each time. You truly can't follow anything. They put it on three little boxes on the screen, and you can't make out anything on any of them. Seriously, best of luck:



Tony Schiavone says that the Dungeon of Doom and the Horsemen have all been ruled to be eliminated as they all fight elsewhere. Also Larry Zbyszko tells us that Lee Marshall got taken out by the brawl between those groups, and is crawling around unable to get his feet. Marshall eventually makes his way back up, and he yells at Larry for just allowing him to get hurt like that. These announcers really expect Larry to be a bodyguard or something for them. The announce teams keep kicking it around to each other to announce eliminations of people who I've literally never heard of. Tenay: "Tony Hummel is out!" Schiavone: "Who?" Tenay: "Tony Hummel." Schiavone: "Ah, Tony Hummel…"

One of the rings features every single wrestler teaming up to hammer Ron Studd, after which every single wrestler dogpiles on top of him and looks expectantly at referee Randy Anderson to count the pin in a match with no pins. Anderson just expresses his helplessness and informs them of how eliminations work in this match. It looks like the American Males both got eliminated, as they're outside the ring bitching at each other. A guy in fatigues whose apparent name is "Jack Boot" gets eliminated. My head hurts.

They finally zoom out to show one ring, where Hall, Nash, the Giant and Syxx are facing off with Lex Luger, Rey Mysterio Jr., Jeff Jarrett, and Eddie Guerrero. DDP is in, but doesn't seem to be taking a side. Steven Regal randomly joins this ring and eliminates Eddie Guerrero, so I guess the WCW vs. nWo thing got forgotten pretty quickly. Wait, this is the final ring? It seems like the other rings cleared out. The Giant eliminates Rey Mysterio.



Jeff Jarrett is out. DDP is out. It's now all four nWo guys in there with Steven Regal and Lex Luger. The whole nWo dumps Regal out, and it's 4-on-1 against Lex Luger. Luger puts Hall, Nash, and Syxx down but not out. Giant corner whips him, tries to follow in with a cross-body, but Luger dodges and Giant lands across the top turnbuckle. Luger ducks underneath him, placing him above his shoulders, and then locks on a completely worthless Torture Rack for about 1.5 seconds until the other nWo guys attack. Luger manages to backdrop Hall out of the ring, then press-slams Syxx out. Luger does another idiotic Torture Rack on Nash, allowing Giant to walk up and dump them both. Giant wins. Incidentally, Luger was also among the people dogpiling on Ron Studd earlier in hopes of mass-pinning him, so basically he couldn't possibly look dumber.



Heenan: "This will go down in history as the greatest battle royal in the history of this sport." Tony: "No question." These people just can't help themselves. This was an absolute greasefire.

Result: Giant wins via Lex Luger stupidity
Rating: 0*

The nWo congratulates Giant and poses with him as the show goes off the air.

Overall: Awful, awful show. Great opening match between Mysterio and Ultimo, but it was long forgotten by the end.

Great write up. At this point in time I was ordering all of the WCW PPVs and only the bigger WWF ones. I was still traumatized by the In Your House where out of 6 matches, 4 of them were schmozzes. Anyway in reference to our discussion after Halloween Havoc, you will notice that they seemed to leave out a pretty big detail, and I'm curious to see if it is addressed at all leading up to Starrcade.

I just want to know who got the first down.

** for Malenko/Psicosis? ugh. My first thought when seeing they had a match was that I was surprised they didn't get a **** write-up.

Yeah, I went into it hoping it could top Mysterio/Ultimo, and halfway through it was going "WTF is this ****." Once in a while you put together two really good workers and just get a ****ty result. I have to imagine it hurt Psicosis more than Malenko since Malenko's spot was pretty secure and he was working great matches with everyone else. Psicosis was definitely the one doing all the botching in this match too, so he was probably more to blame for it falling flat.

Meltzer gave this one **3/4. I can maybe see that being an okay rating, but you surely expect these two to crank out at least *** on a bad day. IIRC there's a pretty great Malenko/Ultimo match coming up at Starrcade.

Randy Anderson practically goes full Nick Patrick in order to pretend not to notice what's going on behind him in that gif.

You do recall correctly. I don't remember what Meltzer gave it but I'm pretty sure it's going to be another **** write-up. I watched it a couple of years ago. It's a good match. I wouldn't classify it as great though (which is what I call **** matches). I'm going to watch that again.

Close race for PPV of the month, I wouldn't want to have to make that decision.

I really don't envy you this stretch of PPVs for WCW (WW3, Starrcade and the first Souled Out). They had basically no idea where they were going.

Yeah, I was sort of wondering ahead as to when the next great PPV is. Canadian Stampede is tremendous, but it's 7-8 months away. I think maybe King of the Ring '97 is really good. I'm not sure when WCW really hits on a PPV again.

I don't think I've ever seen that Souled Out show, but I'm not even remotely curious about it.

coming up = in your house: cold day in hell was one of the worst PPVs ever, though the shamrock/vader match is surprisingly good.

Keep it up LKJ! Just think of the payoff at WM X-7! Easily top 3 ppv of all-time

Did WCW ever have memorable ppvs after the formation of the NWO? A good one.

But WM X-7 is after the war ends.

Fall Brawl '96 was a great PPV, but I don't know what they pull off starting in 1997. It's easier to remember WWF shows because the main event was actually the main point of interest. WCW is almost always headlined by absolute garbage, and you just hope that the undercard is great. I have to keep hope alive that they occasionally have shows with such great undercard matches that I consider them to be great shows.

It's true but I figured you'd go there since the last Nitro is ~2 weeks prior to WM.

Yeah, honestly I still think I'm a pretty big underdog to ever finish this project. When WCW becomes unwatchable then WWF is going to have to be awfully good to keep me going. But that's getting way ahead of myself, since the next year+ worth of material should provide plenty of awesome.

Pretty sure the next IYH is worse.

November 25, 1996

NITRO

Salisbury, MD

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko with the usual opening banter, first talking about Roddy Piper vs. Hulk Hogan getting signed last night. A United States Title tournament will start tonight, as Ric Flair was the champ and The Giant has just stolen the belt, but Flair is out injured and Giant isn't the rightful champion. Our first tournament match is actually right now.

US Title Tournament First Round - Arn Anderson vs. Lex Luger: Arn has taped ribs tonight. He takes a series of shoulderblocks and bumps really sloppily on the last one as he sprawls outside. Luger wraps Arn's arm around the post, then continues to work that arm over, hanging it across the top rope and kicking and stomping at it. Seems like you would want to attack the clearly injured ribs, but I'm old school that way. In any case, this is total dominance by Luger for the entire first half of the match, with Arn not getting a single move in.

After a commercial, the two are trading fists when Arn suddenly baits and trips Luger into the top turnbuckle. Snapmare/knee-drop by the Enforcer to follow, but he tries jumping off the second rope and catches a back elbow to the face. Arn is able to get some more offense in, driving his elbow into Luger's throat and then Luger just blatantly dragging himself into position in plain view of the camera so that he could be catapulted into the bottom rope, which he is. Two-count.



The two brawl on the floor, with Luger ramming Anderson back-first into the post and then back-first into the ring apron. Back into the ring with both, and Lex keeps the attack going with a delayed suplex. He picks Arn up for a backbreaker, and suddenly The Giant starts cutting a promo from the audience, claiming the US Title is his. To Lex's kayfabe credit, he just keeps working the match and ignoring this. Giant declares himself to be the real US Champion, then leaves, and the match was completely unaffected. That's how distractions from nowhere near the ring should usually go.

Arn attempts a floor piledriver, Lex counters and backdrops him, then Lex lifts him up in the Torture Rack out on the floor. The match ends in a double countout. Are you ****ing kidding me? Last night Luger was trying to win the battle royal with attempts at pins and submissions, and tonight he just slaps on the rack on the floor and lets himself be counted out for no apparent reason? They really are making him into the kayfabe dumbest wrestler in the industry. Anyway, very boring match with an incredibly stupid finish.



Result: Double Countout

We get stills recapping the great Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio Jr., Chris Jericho vs. Nick Patrick, and Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett matches from last night.

The nWo music hits. Here come Eric Bischoff, The Giant, Syxx, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Vincent.
For some reason Bischoff high-fives fans on the way to the ring. Bischoff brings up getting jackknifed through a table a few months ago, then waking up the next day and deciding that he'd rather be "part of the force" than getting consumed by the power. Honestly it would be a better explanation to just say that Ted DiBiase bought him off. Bischoff announces that WCW wrestlers have 30 days to convert their WCW contracts to nWo contracts.

As he keeps trollfacing his way through an obnoxious promo, the American Males (sans music) walk out toward the ring, jawing back and forth. Scotty Riggs asks Marcus Bagwell what he's doing, but Bagwell enters and immediately high-fives the nWo, accepting membership in the group. Then Bagwell walks over and plants Riggs with a neckbreaker.



Unlike Ed Leslie and the Nasty Boys, the nWo accepts Bagwell's bid to join, welcoming him to the group.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Disco Inferno: Page ambushes Disco before the bell, then picks him up and crotches him along the top rope. Disco counters with two straight swinging neckbreakers, then rains in some shots, but Dallas fights back, putting Disco down with a series of rights and then hitting a Diamond Cutter for the really quick win.

Result: DDP via pinfall

Mean Gene comes to the ring to interview DDP. DDP says that the nWo is trying to build a dynasty, but obviously they want him, the guy with the "baddest finisher" in the business. Gene confronts DDP about being friends with Hall and Nash, and being neighbors with Bischoff. DDP admits to all of those things, saying he has a history with all of them. He finishes by saying "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." Gene says that Page still isn't giving a straight answer, but that's the end of the interview.



TV Title - Lord Steven Regal (c) vs. Tony Pena: Have definitely never heard of Tony Pena before. I realized during the Bagwell turn earlier that I actually am watching this episode for the first time, because I only ever read about Bagwell's turn on Riggs before due to my VHS failing to record the show. Yes, it's super weird that I for some reason retained that. As far as this match goes, it's pretty standard, uninteresting enhancement match, with Regal retaining clean with the Regal Stretch. The announcers ignored the whole thing, which to me makes it so that it barely does anything to actually enhance Regal at all.



Result: Steven Regal via submission

Mean Gene with Rick Steiner, who says that he was in Japan during the past couple of months. He says that he and his brother are 110% WCW. Rick cuts a completely incoherent promo that nibbles around the edges of unintentional comedy, but doesn't really get there.



US Title Tournament First Round - Konnan vs. Eddie Guerrero: Hour #2 hits early in this one, and of course Eric Bischoff is no longer the host; Tony just switches partners and joins Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay. Nice top-rope plancha to the floor by Eddie in the early-going. Konnan takes control after a minute, connecting on a seated dropkick in the corner and then getting a two-count on a fisherman suplex. Powerbomb gets another two, likewise for a fisherman buster. Another two after another powerbomb. Eddie is taking the moves, but is kind of noticeably sluggish in his movements on this night, and despite some decent-looking moves in a vacuum I'm not finding this to be anything special.

Konnan gets caught hard with a dropkick jumping off the top. Corner mount and a 10-punch by Guerrero, culminating in a European uppercut. Konnan catches Eddie heading up top for a frog splash, superplexes him, covers, and deliberately lets Eddie up before the three-count. I always roll my eyes at that crap outside the context of a squash. You know what happens next: Konnan lifts him up for the powerbomb, Guerrero counters into a totally botched headscissor move, and the botch gets the three-count. The whole was less than the sum of its parts here.



Result: Eddie Guerrero via pinfall

Stills of the Amazing French Canadians vs. Harlem Heat, Dean Malenko vs. Psicosis, and the Outsiders vs. Nasty Boys vs. Faces of Fear matches from last night.

Big Bubba (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Rick Steiner: On his way to the ring, Steiner makes a comment about how he never thought he'd see the day when he didn't know if he could trust Sting. Basic, plodding power stuff here for the first minute or two. Decent release German by Rick gets a two-count, and then Sting appears in the crowd, walking through it. Rick hits a bulldog off the second rope. Sting makes his way into the ring, and just like he did with Jeff Jarrett, he promptly plants Steiner with the Scorpion Death Drop. Bubba cleans up the scraps and gets the win. Bobby Heenan declares that Sting obviously isn't with WCW, which makes zero sense since Bubba is WCW.



Result: Big Bubba via pinfall

Psicosis vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: Ultimo Dragon and Sonny Onoo appear at the top of the ramp as Rey and Psicosis trade early holds. Psicosis botches an attempted stun gun really badly, ending up flinging Rey out of the ring entirely. Rey gets back inside. Psicosis connects on a guillotine legdrop off the top for a two-count. Psicosis sets up for a splash mountain off the ropes, Rey counters into a super hurracanrana, and…I mean, it's great-looking, but it's literally the exact same spot they did to end their Bash at the Beach match, except that this match ended after maybe 90 seconds. Anyway, the hurracanrana counter ships it.



Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall

A heavily bruised Chris Benoit, with Woman alongside, joins Mean Gene for an interview. Benoit is in street clothes. The promo at Kevin Sullivanis to the effect of "you beat me up, but I'm still standing. What you did wasn't enough." Benoit hints at Sullivan's booking power, saying "I know you know what strings to pull to have me shipped out of here," but he challenges Sullivan to not be a coward. Woman takes the mic: "Kevin, I told you that if you kicked him one more time, then that was it. It was over. You said that it's been over a long time. Well I'm making the decision: it's over." I really don't know if they ever acknowledged that Woman and Sullivan were married. It wouldn't have made a ton of sense since Woman sided with the Horsemen all along, but she's speaking to it pretty directly there.



Now they show the entire damn contract signing segment from WW3 last night between Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan. 14 full minutes of Nitro showing a replay from the night before. I won't pretend to understand why they're resorting to 1995 WWF tactics; this isn't the first time they've done this.

Alex Wright vs. Jeff Jarrett: Wright gets the better of the first 30 seconds, but he gets distracted by referee Randy Anderson and Jarrett lands a cheap shot to gain an advantage. Wright still comes back, hitting a couple of those dropkick/headscissor hybrid moves of his, but Jarrett drops him along the buckle a moment later with a snake eyes. Legdrop along the ropes that Wright is draped over. Wright appears to be none too pleased with his station in this company at this point.



Wright hits a spinning wheel kick, whip and a running back elbow, slingshot splash, but Wright hurts his leg jumping in with a missed kick after another corner whip. Jarrett capitalizes, figure-four, ding ding ding.

Result: Jeff Jarrett via submission

Stills of the WW3 battle royal from last night. In response to Lex Luger's absurd kayfabe stupidity, the announcers lavish praise on him for being brave.

Faces of Fear vs. Harlem Heat (w/ Sister Sherri): No Jimmy Hart tonight for some reason. Sherri is rocking purple and black tonight instead of Heat colors. Seems in kayfabe like this would be a #1 contender match, but it doesn't really get mentioned that way. Stevie Ray starts the match for the Heat, so I'll wait for him to tag out. … Alright, Booker T is in. Stevie holds Meng up for a side slam, and Booker drops an axe kick on him for the double-team. Faces of Fear come back with their own double-team a moment later, as Meng reverses a whip, Barbarian comes in the blind tag, Meng backdrops Booker into Barbarian, who actually catches him almost halfway to the ground and manages to lift him back up to execute a powerbomb. Like, that was a partial botch that made the move look worse, but I'll be damned if it didn't take some impressive strength to dead-lift Booker to salvage the spot. I don't remember enjoying the Faces of Fear this much back in 1996.



Match devolves into four-way chaos. Tony declares that Booker T and Meng are the legal men. Not five seconds later, Heenan jumps in with, "There's no way to keep it straight who's the legal man in there." Put the flask away, Bobby. Tony correctly clowns him for it. Backbreaker by Meng gets a near-fall. Stevie runs in illegally with a big boot, Barbarian enters and brawls with him, and suddenly the nWo runs down for the no-contest, including Marcus "don't call me Buff until next week" Bagwell rocking the black-and-white along with them. Shame about the no-contest; I was pretty into this one.

Result: No Contest

The nWo leaves everyone laid out, they stand tall in the ring, and the show goes off the air. I'm sensing a pattern.



Overall: It was okay. Certainly nothing special. The matches, while not terrible, were not very compelling, and the biggest story of the night was a turn by one half of the American Males. Spending 14 minutes replaying a whole segment from the PPV last night is pretty damn bad too. Despite my negative tone, I've certainly seen worse.

RAW

New Haven, CT

We cold-open on the squeals of an electric guitar, and Bret Hart makes his way to the ring.

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (w/ Clarence Mason): Owen taunts Bret with his Team Team Title belt before the match. Bret wrestles Owen into the corner a couple of times and then grants a rope break. Owen with an arm-wringer into a wristlock, Bret reverses the arm-wringer and pulls Owen down by the hair. Armdrag by Bret into a knee-drop, then an armbar. Owen flips and counters his way out, but catches a back elbow before long. Elbow-drop by Bret, who cinches in a hammerlock. Drop toe-hold counter by Owen, but Bret counters back into a hammerlock. Owen gets into the ropes. Solid mat action early.The two brothers trade shoves, then slaps, then Bret schoolboys Owen for a two-count. Bret armbar, again the brothers trade counters, Bret hip-tosses Owen and then connects on a running clothesline.



Bret reverses an Owen corner whip, causing a hard corner bump and then hitting a backdrop as Owen staggers out. Owen back at him with a knee to the gut. He splits Bret's legs and drives a couple of stomps home to the lower abdomen. Owen beats him down, continues to stomp away, corner whip sends Bret into the corner violently. Backbreaker, another hard corner whip, and now a camel clutch by the younger brother. Bret works his way out of the hold, back to his feet, but runs into Owen's belly-to-belly for a two-count.

Owen connects on an enziguri, making for the second gifworthy spot that I'm not giffing because they had stupid split-screens up. They go to commercial right after the enziguri, I guess no longer even humoring the notion that Owen ends matches with that kick. Back from break, Bret tosses Owen off the top rope. The two trade fists in a slugfest; Bret resorts to the headbutt to put Owen down. Russian legsweep gets two for the Hitman, as we're into the moves of doom. Backbreaker. Elbow-drop. Falling headbutt and a two-count. Owen suddenly rises to his feet in a bit of a superheroish sudden recovery, tries for a roll-up, but gets dumped through the middle. Owen comes back in, Bret is about to slap on the Sharpshooter, Steve Austin in with a steel chair to trigger the DQ.



Result: Bret Hart via DQ

Owen and Austin go to work on Bret, with Austin setting Bret's ankle up to possibly Pillmanize it. Owen encourages this along, then suddenly Davey Boy Smith shows up and surprisingly puts a stop to things, saying "enough," pulling Bret's ankle out of the chair, and then yelling at Austin. Owen sides with Austin, actually trying to back Davey down, but again Davey intercedes on Bret's behalf.



Finally Austin has enough, clobbering the Bulldog in the back with a steel chair. Now Owen is upset with Austin, yelling at him over hammering his tag team partner.



Austin doesn't give a **** obviously, and just leaves. That was a fun little time capsule that I have no recollection of…it was a pretty direct tease of the eventual formation of the Hart Foundation faction as an anti-Austin force. I don't know if they had the whole thing drawn up yet, and in fact I doubt they did, but this sure fits as an early piece to that puzzle.

The Executioner (w/ Paul Bearer) vs. Freddie Joe Floyd: Vince McMahon says that The Executioner is facing The Undertaker in an "Armageddon Rules" match at the upcoming In Your House. I'm pretty sure that just turned out to mean that it's no DQ. Dok Hendrix reports from backstage, saying that Owen Hart and the British Bulldog were yelling at each other and that he's going to try to interview them later. He says that Steve Austin refused an interview and used some colorful language in doing so, then left. Dok also says that he's going to try to get a word with Bret Hart. As far as the match goes, The Executioner was utterly worthless. He takes the token offense from Floyd, he throws a few clotheslines, then he finishes things off with the Asiatic Spike. Garbage, but short.



Result: The Executioner via submission

After commercial, Vince sends it live via satellite from San Antonio, where Shawn Michaels is at Jose Lothario's home. Lothario apologizes, saying that he caused Shawn to lose the WWF Title. Shawn says that at some point in the last eight months he lost his edge, and he's going to have to get it back. He says he refuses to let Lothario be blamed for his loss. Vince asks Shawn if it threw him off that the fans were cheering more for Sid than him at Survivor Series. Shawn emphatically says no, says that he wants the fans behind him but that he's not going to beg for it. I don't really understand the point of this interview. Vince keeps asking Shawn if he'll be able to bounce back, as if Shawn lost his smile or something. And then Shawn keeps yelling back at him. I mean…meh. Michaels is booked to get the title shot at Royal Rumble against whoever leaves In Your House as champion between Bret and Sid.



Back in the arena, Sunny comes out in a little blue dress and joins the commentary table. Vince dances with her again. Vince is creepy.



Rocky Maivia vs. Salvatore Sincere: During Rocky's entrance we see comments from Captain Lou Albano and Don Muraco, both of whom talk about what a huge star Rocky is going to be. Stuff like this annoys me because at this point Rocky displayed absolutely none of the potential of a star, and was just another stiff that Vince had fallen in love with and wanted to push to the moon. Basically predictions that can seem prescient just seem like scripted flukes. Dok Hendrix checks in, saying that he just spoke with Bret Hart, who didn't want to be taped but told him that he really wants to get at Steve Austin.

Sunny acts smitten with Rocky as he goes through the motions for his enhancement match. Sincere dropkicks Rocky through the middle rope, but when he attempts to slingshot him back inside, Rocky blocks and slingshots him from the ring to the floor instead. Sincere does throw a nice-looking side suplex a minute later, and gets a respectable amount of offense in this match. He misses on a corner charge though, ramming his own shoulder into the post, and Rocky is on the spot with a shoulderbreaker for the win. Vince teases that we shouldn't be surprised if Sunny is by Rocky's side the next time we see him. That never materializes.



Result: Rocky Maivia via pinfall

Dok Hendrix reports from backstage, saying that Owen Hart and the British Bulldog seem to have settled down. However, Dok heard Bulldog tell Owen in no uncertain terms that he was going to get his hands on Steve Austin.

Billy Gunn vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Mero gets a jobber entrance for this one. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley is on commentary. Mero executes a headscissor, a backdrop, a clothesline over the top, then an axhandle from the apron to the floor. Mero gets distracted with HHH, and Billy tries to take advantage, but Mero spins around to block a punch and remains on the attack, rolling Gunn back inside and hitting a slingshot legdrop. He connects on the Merosault, but finally gets his momentum slowed when Billy stops short of a backdrop attempt and hits a rocker dropper.

HHH: "We're all in this world for one reason McMahon, and that's to use everyone we can. Just because I am smarter than everyone else, and am in a better position than everyone else, I use who I need to use when I need to use them, then I get rid of them like yesterday's garbage." Maybe his gimmick hasn't changed that much in the past 20 years. Billy Gunn controls a pretty lengthy heat segment here, and Mero only sort of flukes into stopping the momentum when he gets up and staggers into the ropes to crotch Billy when Billy had made his way to the top rope.

After a commercial break, HHH gets up from commentary to accost Sable. Mero hits a Samoan drop on Gunn, but then gets distracted by Helmsley and gets in his face out on the floor. Billy attacks from behind, sends Mero back in, Helmsley joins the fray and we have another DQ.



Result: Marc Mero via DQ

Of all the random people to come down for the save, Jake Roberts comes out to even the score, and he and Mero clear the ring. Vince: "Jake Roberts, where did he come from?" Lawler: "The bar. Where else?" Vince softly announces a holonaminutplaya tag match for next week based on that last 2-on-2, and then the show goes off the air.

Overall: Also just okay. Bret/Owen was pretty good, but wasn't anything special. The after-match stuff with Bulldog and Austin was very enjoyable, which helped the episode as a whole quite a bit. There was basically nothing else to this episode, since I found the Shawn Michaels interview to be worthless.

---

Ratings for 11/25/96: Nitro 3.1, Raw 2.1
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 39-17-2

Better Show: Oh I don't know. Match quality was pretty even, with maybe a slight edge to WCW. The Hart/Austin stuff was more interesting than any story stuff WCW did. I've sat here and mulled this for a solid minute, so it's really very much a toss-up on this night. I'll give the thinnest of edges to Raw I guess, just because the underwhelming stuff on Raw didn’t drag like parts of Nitro did.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 45-13

Match of the Night: This also isn't a particularly easy call since nobody wanted to finish their matches properly. I guess I'll give it to Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart.

NOVEMBER 1996 IN REVIEW

Arrivals:
WWF - Rocky Maivia (from CFL), Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon (from AJPW with a stop in ECW), Flash Funk/2 Cold Scorpio (from ECW)
WCW - La Parka (from AAA)

Match of the Month: Unquestionably Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin from Survivor Series. Not remotely close.

PPV of the Month: Survivor Series. Even less close than Bret/Austin vs. whatever the second-best match was.

Ratings: Nitro has rattled off 22 in a row, even as the gap in the product quality has closed by a lot. The nWo thing has gotten dull quickly, but it was still doing tremendous business.

Quality: WWF put on the better product this month, splitting the Monday night decision at 2-2 and putting on the far better PPV. We've already gotten under way with peak Austin here in terms of how great he was…obviously his business impact was still a work in progress.

Gif of the Month:

Terry Gordy being under the mask as the Executioner is one of the most bizarre choices of all time. After the coma and brain damage, Gordy, who once was an elite worker, was sadly nothing but a name. And they hid who he was, taking away his only value. Just bring in somebody else.

Good write up. I know we had this discussion a long time ago here about the NWO and totally decimating the entire WCW roster at the end of Nitros. I guess this is where it started. It just felt like Bischoff had run out of ideas for it and figured everyone like to see a beat down, so let's do that again. It also felt like the camera stayed on too long after the beat down too, with the posing,and trying toad lib stuff into the camera. Looking back on it now,I don't think it was very good television

Yeah, I was going to mention that I'm now seeing what you said playing out. They were really short on ideas, which makes it stunning that they took 13 more months to get to Hogan vs. Sting.

Jim Ross signed Rocky, and even convinced Vince it was a good idea to give him more money than usual for a new wrestler. Ross talks on his podcast sometimes about being in public with Rocky before he signed and everyone staring at Rocky; they just couldn't keep their eyes off him.

Rocky was even more of an old school territory white meat babyface than a Vince face. Good looking, legit athletic background, nice smile that is always on his face. What they apparently didn't realize is that none of the people that rooted for white meat babyfaces in the territories 10+ years earlier watched WWF in 1996. Those are the first fans to go when the show goes downhill, and WWF's audience had fallen so far from the late 80s peak. They are also the fans that are likely to leave because of something like a steriod scandal.

Nice to see you doing these again and funny enough I was thinking about these last night or the night before.

Listening to the 1996 TLF now and I can't remember which stuff I've heard from them or read here when they mention certain things.

December 2, 1996

RAW

New Haven, CT

We cold-open on a match again, this time with the entrance of Flash Funk.

Flash Funk vs. The Goon: Goon jumps Flash to start the match and works the early advantage. Funk throws a kick out of a rest hold and gets a pin attempt in, but Goon kicks out and hammers him with a hard clothesline. Flash eventually takes over, hitting on a jumping plancha off the apron to the floor, then following shortly after with a top-rope moonsault to the floor. After a commercial, Funk's slingshot legdrop is only good for a two-count. Goon gets some more offense, but he's obviously just in here to work fairly dull jobber duty; Funk finishes things with a backflip guillotine legdrop off the top. Funk had some nice offense here, but the match still wasn't much to get into, even by enhancement match standards.



Result: Flash Funk via pinfall

We see clips from a house show in London, England this past week, where Steve Austin was facing Sid and says he was about to win the WWF Title when someone (seemingly Bret Hart) interfered. I guess they're teasing more of this footage later.

Diesel 2.0 vs. Phineas Godwinn (w/ Hillbilly Jim): Was there even a tiny demographic anywhere in the WWF fanbase that this matchup had any appeal at all to? After some dull brawling, Phineas has Diesel set up for the Slop Drop, Razor 2.0 comes down to ringside and distracts Phineas into dropping the hold, and Diesel capitalizes with a Jackknife for the win.



Result: Diesel via pinfall

We go to an interview with Shawn Michaels. He said he wants to apologize tonight. He says that last week he was accused of being defensive in his interview…and he apologizes for not being defensive enough. He rambles on pointlessly, but says that he doesn't apologize for who he is, and says he's going to capitalize on his title shot at the Royal Rumble.



Double J Jesse James vs. Justin Hawk Bradshaw (w/ Uncle Zebekiah): This ****ing episode. The whole thing is just a punt. Funny that I'm saying that since this is certain to eventually be a match where two future Hall of Famers went at it. Jesse James was never much of a worker, but this gimmick was really his low point since he tried playing the charismatic white meat babyface who happened to be a country singer, and it was just never going to go over that well. James works the early advantage, but runs into a big boot from Bradshaw, and a heat segment begins.

Vince announces that next week's show will feature a "No Holds Barred" match between Undertaker and Mankind. That's very weird scheduling; they're going to run a blowoff match between those two six days before Undertaker is to take on Mankind's henchman on PPV? James blocks a suplex and throws one of his own. He tries to follow with a backdrop, but Bradshaw stops short of him and hits a swinging neckbreaker for two. Bradshaw with a sleeper, James counters into a back suplex. A moment later James counters an attempted piledriver into a backdrop.

As James picks up a head of steam with an offensive flurry that literally nobody in the crowd reacts to, Vince comments that "he's really getting this crowd going." Zeb trips James coming off the ropes for a clothesline, and Bradshaw takes advantage with a Clothesline from Hell. The only intrigue this match had for me is that I couldn't tell which failed gimmick was going over, so it was at least unpredictable.



Result: Justin Hawk Bradshaw via pinfall

We get clips of last week, when Steve Austin ran in and hit Bret Hart with a chair during Bret's match with Owen Hart. They show the Bulldog saving Bret, as well as Austin eventually getting frustrated and waffling Bulldog with the chair.

Onto clips from London, where Austin hit Sid with the WWF Title belt and Bulldog ran down to attack Austin. Sid got disqualified, was mad at Bulldog and was going to powerbomb him, but Bret Hart ran down and pulled Bulldog to safety. Owen was also there to get Bulldog back to the locker room. I really don't remember these early Hart Foundation teases.



Sid took exception to Bret's interference, the two faced off, Austin reappeared to hit Bret from behind, and Sid capitalized and chokeslammed Bret. We get a quick promo from Austin, saying that he was about to win the WWF Title when Bulldog interfered. We also get Bulldog saying "I wasn't there to help Bret, I was there to hurt Austin." Owen tries to tell Bulldog not to worry about Austin, and to just concentrate on holding onto the Tag Team Titles. Promos from Bret and Sid as well, but nothing of consequence.

Jake Roberts & Marc Mero (w/ Sable) vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsley & Billy Gunn: I had to think for a bit to rationalize a purpose for this match. I'm guessing maybe Marc Mero gets a title shot at HHH at the upcoming PPV? That hasn't been announced though. I guess the other two can be rationalized as Billy Gunn being an up-and-comer and Jake Roberts being somebody who can eat a pin. As this thing gets under way, Jesse James gives a PIP promo, angry about his earlier loss and challenging Justin Hawk Bradshaw and Uncle Zebekiah to a handicap match next week. … Okay. Oh, and just about on cue, they do announce that Mero vs. HHH for the IC Title is at hing at the PPV.

Mero has control of Billy Gunn, and tags in Jake to run whatever it is of his offense. He seems to have run out of ammo at an arm-wringer, as he gets gouged in the eye and tags back out. They're working the match correctly in terms of building heat for the PPV match, as Helmsley is trying like hell to avoid taking on Mero…he tags out each time Mero comes in.



Mero and Jake take turns working Billy over for a bit. Billy backdrops his way out of a DDT attempt and tags Hunter back into the match. Hunter and Billy conduct the heat segment on Jake Roberts, which is all kinds of slow and boring. Jake hits a sudden DDT on Gunn, but instead of a pin attempt he can only slowly crawl his way toward his corner and make the hot tag to Mero. Mero fights both heels off. HHH accidentally runs into Billy, billy and HHH argue, and Billy walks off. The faces now have a 2-on-1 against Hunter. Mero with a Samoan drop, a shooting star press, and he scores the 1-2-3.



Result: Marc Mero & Jake Roberts via pinfall

Vince runs through the lineup for next week, featuring Taker vs. Mankind, Sid vs. HHH in a non-title match, and Jesse James vs. Bradshaw & Zebekiah in a handicap match. I guess there's some potential in that Taker-Mankind match, but I'm generally unexcited. With those announcements, we're off the air.

Overall: Trash. Closest I came to enjoying anything on this episode was the clips from the London house show.

NITRO

Dayton, OH

Right away I can see from the search bubbles that there's about 20 three-minute matches on this episode, so there's that.

As Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko welcome us to the show, we get an interruption at the announce table by the Steiners. The Steiners cut incoherent promos on Sting, with Rick saying he'll "finish it tonight." Scott was in street clothes, so I assume he's injured at this point. Tony and Larry fill in what that was about, showing Rick calling out Sting last week and Sting attacking Rick during his match. With that, Tony sends us to the ring for some action.

Glacier vs. Hardbody Harrison: Hardbody Harrison is just some dude who got a jobber entrance. He jumps Glacier before the bell, but Glacier quickly puts him down with a series of chops and kicks. Glacier sweeps the leg, hits a spinning heel kick, and makes the pin. The match was certainly shorter than Glacier's entrance.



Result: Glacier via pinfall

Renegade & Joe Gomez vs. The Amazing French Canadians (w/ Col. Parker): I don't think I've commented on it yet, but Col. Parker's outfit since joining the French Canadians is pretty great.



Gomez hits an early dropkick on Jacques Rougeau, but Carl Ouellet helps out on a double-team, and the Canadians whip Gomez into the ropes, where Parker is there to pull down the top rope and send Gomez spilling outside. The double-teaming continues back inside the ring, with the Canadians performing a double stun gun. Renegade gets sick of the double-teaming and just runs in illegally to lay the Canadians out, giving Gomez the opening to semi-hot tag him in. Renegade with a couple of powerslams on each Canadian, followed by a handspring back elbow into the corner. Jacques reverses a corner whip, and Ouellet was still inside to clothesline him. Jacques hits a piledriver, tags Ouellet in, cannonball off the top, and the Canadians ship it.



Result: Amazing French Canadians via pinfall

Mean Gene Okerlund interviews Arn Anderson at the top of the aisle. "Arn Anderson, I wanted to bring you out. Ric Flair, I was hoping he would be here, but of course, as we know, he's in rehab…trying to get that shoulder back in shape." Oh, that kind of rehab. There was enough of a pause that I was taken aback that they were just announcing that Flair was visiting Betty Ford. Gene asks Arn about Roddy Piper. Arn focuses first on Hulk Hogan. He says that the perception Hulk had for a long time was that he couldn't be beat, but that he destroyed that perception not just once, but twice in a row. Anderson talks Piper up, and says that when Nitro is in Charlotte next week, Piper is going to be there and the Horsemen would have his back.



Faces of Fear vs. Robert Gibson & Scotty Riggs: There's this funny sequence that happens when watching these Nitros…the Dungeon of Doom music hits, and for a long time my reaction was automatically one of revulsion. As I've warmed up to the Faces of Fear, I'm now left with this dramatic pause in between the entrance music hitting and an actual wrestler appearing. "Please don't be Bubba, please don't be Bubba…" Like Raw, it seems that Nitro is going heavy on the enhancement matches so far. They spend the first couple of minutes of this match showing a split-screen recap of last week, when the nWo ran in and laid out the Faces of Fear.

Back on full-screen, Gibson and Riggs take turns working on the Barbarian for a minute until Barbarian puts Gibson down and makes the tag to Meng. Riggs makes a blind tag and enters with a top-rope cross-body. The faces keep up frequent tags, but aren't actually doing anything interesting during their 20-second stints in the ring. Meng tags Barbarian, backdrops Riggs into him, and again we have the spot where Barbarian catches Riggs in mid-air and powerbombs him. He really put some extra on that powerbomb as well, but it only gets a two-count.



In any case the Faces of Fear are in control now. Riggs is the face in peril, and the DoDers run their offense. Meng with a piledriver, but Gibson breaks up the pin attempt at two. Riggs attempts a sunset flip, Barbarian holds up and tries to sit down on top of him, but Riggs dodges that and manages the tag to Gibson. Gibson hits some botched move for a two-count and connects on an enziguri to follow, but he suddenly runs into a big boot from Barbarian and stares at the lights for a count of three.

Result: Faces of Fear via pinfall



Scotty Riggs comes back in after the match with a chair and clobbers both Faces of Fear in the head. The Faces of Fear shrug and leave. WTF was that. Scotty ****ing Riggs getting his heat back?

After commercial, we get footage of this Baltimore house show, specifically the match between Chris Benoit and the Taskmaster. As with the Great American Bash, they fought through the crowd and into the bathroom, but this time the Dungeon of Doom was waiting in the stalls to emerge and beat Benoit up. They beat him down there, they beat him down in the ring, then Woman stood over Benoit and demanded they stop. The Dungeon held her back as Sullivan continued the beating.

The Taskmaster vs. nameless local jobber: Sullivan jumps the jobber before the bell and executes his kick-stomp offense. He tosses the kid through the ropes, throws a water bottle from the announce table at him, rolls him back in, sets him up in the tree of woe and rams into him, then hits the ridiculous double stomp for the win.



Result: The Taskmaster via pinfall

Gene Okerlund joins Sullivan for a word. Sullivan says, that night in Baltimore, he hurt Benoit physically. But later that night, Benoit hurt him mentally and "right here" (pointing to his heart). "Benoit, I don't care if I dig my own grave with my own hands with you, because one of us will be buried alive, because now the equation equals three."

Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Billy Kidman: The two men go hold-for-counterhold to open. Kidman with a hurracanrana on Malenko that gets two. Side headlock takeover, then a shoulderblock and a flying headscissor by the challenger that sends Malenko outside. Kidman tries following Malenko outside, but takes a powerbomb on the floor for his efforts. Sonny Onoo comes down to ringside. Belly-to-back suplex by Malenko back inside the ring. Crucifix hold on the mat for a pinning combo that gets two, but Malenko holds onto an octopus and stretches Kidman's arms out.

Nice delayed brainbuster by Malenko. Again only a near-fall. Malenko runs into a boot on a corner charge, then Kidman connects on a fisherman suplex that gets two. Small package gets two as well. Standing dropkick by the challenger. He tries to go up top for a move, but Malenko catches up with him and superplexes him off the top. Malenko now goes up top, Sonny Onoo comes up to him, poised with a camera, and…takes what was supposed to be a picture with flash, but I didn't see any flash. And Malenko's reaction to the alleged flash was to violently fall off the top rope. What on earth.



Just as it looked like Malenko was going to do the Hulk Hogan KOTR 1993 job, he gets up the knees to block Kidman's shooting star press. Texas Cloverleaf, and it's over. Solid match aside from that absurdity at the end.

Result: Dean Malenko via submission

During the next ring entrances, we get the countdown to hour #2, so it's Tony Schiavone joining Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay.

Big Bubba (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Jeff Jarrett: So yeah, the Dungeon of Doom music feels like it's been playing all night now, with this being the third entrance by a member along with two victory plays earlier. Bubba with a shoulderblock early, as well as some other power stuffs, as he openly taunts Jarrett about Jarrett's size disadvantage. Jarrett fights back, connecting on a DDT. Jimmy Hart distracts though, and Bubba capitalizes with a cheap shot that regains the advantage. Jarrett baseball slides out and pursues Jimmy again; Bubba attacks, but accidentally hits Jimmy in the face. Cross-body back into the ring by JJ, whose subsequent attempt at a figure-four is countered by Bubba. Jimmy feeds the megaphone to Bubba, runs distraction on the referee, and as Bubba blocks Jarrett's sunset flip attempt he flails so violently with the megaphone straight at Jarrett's head that he pretty much could have legit killed him if he connected. I haven't seen such a close call since Berzerker tried to literally stab Undertaker with a sword.



Jarrett manages a schoolboy, but it only gets a visual pin because referee Mark Curtis is still distracted with Hart. Bubba picks the megaphone back up, Jarrett dropkicks him high and causes the megaphone to hit Bubba in the face, and Jarrett scores the pin.

Result: Jeff Jarrett via pinfall

Here are the Steiners again, now in the ring and calling out Sting. Sting makes his first appearance of the night, up in the rafters. Rick yells at him, asking if he'll meet him tonight. Sting silently nods and walks off.

After commercial, the announcers hype the apparent impending Sting vs. Steiner match later tonight when the nWo music suddenly hits. Eric Bischoff, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Syxx head up and take over the announce table. Great. Hogan says, "Piper, I'm trying to help you! I'm trying to protect you from Hogan. Did you see what happened to that tub of guts Van Vader?" He throws it to footage of Hogan beating Vader up. That's followed by footage of Hogan beating down Ric Flair and Randy Savage. After some more trash talk, Bischoff sends it to the ring to resume the action.

Squire David Taylor vs. Eddie Guerrero: The nWo guys talk over the match, saying that maybe they'd like to recruit these two guys as well. "We could use a good Englishman." "We need to think internationally; we could branch out into Mexico." Eddie finishes the match off quickly with a sudden frog splash.



Result: Eddie Guerrero via pinfall

Arn Anderson vs. Jim Powers (w/ Teddy Long): Bischoff: "Hey, Jumping Jim Powers!" Nash: "With the robust Teddy Long." The nWo commentary is generally quite annoying, but I have to admit I enjoyed Nash's line. So are they going to do a single match tonight where we don't know the result? I appreciate enhancement matches, but it's out of the norm for Nitro. Arn connects on the DDT for the win.



Result: Arn Anderson via pinfall

Chris Benoit vs. Lord Steven Regal: No Woman tonight, despite Benoit walking out with a banner underneath him saying "Chris Benoit w/ Woman." With regard to Regal, it's weird that the Bluebloods broke up but that Regal and Squire David Taylor continue just walking out to the same music as each other. Some mat wrestling between Regal and Benoit early, with Benoit powering Regal down and Regal kipping back up. Nice palm strikes by Regal, a takeover and a pin attempt for two. Regal gets back up bleeding hardway from the forehead, and Benoit promptly throws palm strikes right at the wounded spot.

Drop toe-hold by Regal into a reverse chinlock. They stand up, Benoit escaping the side headlock and slapping on his own. Shoulderblock by the Crippler. They go into a really wide shot, almost certainly because of Regal's blood. There's some nice wrestling going on here, but it sucks to lose the usual camera angles. Benoit slams Regal, makes the throat-slash signal, and connects on the diving headbutt off the top. Too slow to cover, and he can only get a two-count. Benoit goes for a tombstone, Regal counters into his own tombstone attempt, Benoit re-counters and manages to become the one who executes it, planting Regal hard.



Regal rolls out, Benoit tries following with a pescado, but Regal dodges and Benoit gets nothing but floor. Butterfly superplex by Regal. Slow cover gets two. Nice release German by Benoit. Scott Hall starts bitching about the camera angle, asking if it's some sort of strike by the production crew, which is funny since it was obviously Bischoff's call. Dragon suplex by Benoit, bridge, three-count. The action here appeared to be great, but the wide camera angle and the grating commentary unfortunately reduced it to something less. It's frustrating that two workers performed at that level and the end result was what it was…though this is still very likely the match of the night.

Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall

Mean Gene is with Arn Anderson, Mongo McMichael, and Debra. Benoit makes his way up the aisle and joins them as well. Arn says that two words he'll never use to describe Lex Luger are "quitter" and "coward." He says that if WCW needs leadership, the Horsemen are there to fill the void. But he says that something is missing, and asks Benoit where Woman is. Benoit just says "taking care of Horseman business," and says that she's very much a part of the Horsemen. Arn says that's bull****, that if she was taking care of Horseman business then she would be here. Mongo interjects himself, saying that he was part of a team that should have been a dynasty, but then egos took over and dissension set in. Debra jumps in, apparently because someone thought it would be a good idea for her to speak. "I will tell you what dissension is: having to listen to Nancy every week in the dressing room, talking about how great Chris is and how cute Chris is, and I'm sick and tired of her tacky, cheap perfume she sprays on herself, because she says that Chris loves it.



Arn tells Benoit that he was hand-picked as a Horseman, and says that if Benoit gives him his word that Woman is a Horseman then he would take him at his word. Gene comments that it seems like Woman has been going to the ring with Benoit exclusively. Benoit just shakes his head and says that Woman is a Horseman and he's a Horseman. Arn says that they would all rather be Horsemen than anything in the world, and then of all things he busts out a Ric Flair "woo" to end the promo. This was all pretty strange, but I sort of enjoyed it anyway.

Rocco Rock vs. Lex Luger: Get the **** out of here, Public Enemy. Bischoff: "I don't know about these guys." I wish that had been a shoot. To be fair, at least they picked the clearly superior worker in PE to put in this match. Bischoff says, "The nWo isn't going to eliminate WCW. We're just going to stay ahead of the pack. There's room for more than one wrestling organization. The nWo can be #1." Hall: "WCW can be #2. Throw one of them Japanese organizations in, they can be three…" Nash: "ECW, four." Hall: "Who?" Bischoff: "I don't think so." With these guys calling a full hour of the show, they were bound to entertain me here and there.

Johnny Grunge tries running interference, Rocco accidentally runs into him, Luger with the Torture Rack, and that's all she wrote. Hall and Nash talk about how they want to sign Lex Luger to the nWo too. Basically the only guy they haven't wanted to join from matches this hour has been Arn Anderson.



Result: Lex Luger via pinfall

Rick Steiner vs. Sting: Sting comes out to no music, wielding a baseball bat. The nWo talks matter-of-factly about how he's with them. Sting tosses the bat aside and then turns his back on Rick, giving him a free shot. Rick takes it without hesitation, hammering Sting out of the ring. Scott rolls him back in. Sting promptly hits a Scorpion Death Drop. I really wasn't expecting this match to actually happen, by the way. Sting picks up his bat, points at Rick Steiner's chest with it, pushes him back, and then hands him the bat and turns his back again. Rick is going to hammer him when Scott jumps in the way and stops him. Sting takes his bat and leaves.



Result: No Contest

Sting heads up the aisle toward the announce table. He points his bat at the nWo, but then walks back toward the ring…no, he just goes into the crowd and leaves. The nWo is rattled by that last exchange, but plays it off, saying "We've got him, don't worry about it." The nWo music plays, and Nitro goes off the air.

Overall: Not good. The slow burn with Sting just doesn't hold up to repeat viewing, at least so far. Most of the matches felt pretty pointless. Benoit vs. Regal was given time to develop properly and could have been great, but yeah.

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Ratings for 12/2/96: Nitro 3.4, Raw 2.3
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 40-17-2

Better Show: Neither show delivered, but Raw felt almost 100% pointless and Nitro at least managed to crank out a couple of watchable matches, and strung along some intrigue in the Sting angle. Relatively easy call for Nitro, even if a really underwhelming one.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 46-13

Match of the Night: Chris Benoit vs. Lord Steven Regal

He could at least apologize for wearing that shirt.