I remember Bill Simmons had Hogan on his podcast right before WM31, and I was just amazed how much Simmons was lapping up even the most standard Hogan BS, like tearing every muscle in his back slamming Andre at WM3.

If you have the network do yourself a favor and spend every Monday night watching a random nitro from 1997 instead of raw

I might have to do that

Raw has been so bad

The Bryan and Vinny show (Wrestling Observer/F4W) legitimately do this now.

Each Tuesday is a review from 19 yrs ago this week of old RAW and old Nitro.

Man when you break it down like this it's really depressing. Really seems like Hogan was extremely threatened by Savage or just had contempt for him for being better at everything or both.

I'm not sure it was necessarily specific to Savage. I think he just wanted to make sure that any other top face was kept subservient to him. It's just that Savage is an obvious place for a company to turn if they were going to crown a face who isn't Hogan, with Savage being great at everything and having broad appeal.

Guess the only thing I don't know is why Hogan allowed the belt to be taken off him at all in 1995. In 1988 he was going to miss a big chunk of the year and be off the road.

June 10, 1996

RAW

Fayetteville, NC

Vince and King at ringside. As Yokozuna is introduced, they advertise an Ultimate Warrior interview that night as well as a match between Undertaker and the British Bulldog.

King of the Ring First Round - Yokozuna vs. Owen Hart (w/ Jim Cornette): Owen still has a cast on his arm, but obviously is wrestling. I do remember him working with the cast on, but I thought it was after he healed that he kept using it as a gimmick. Yokozuna's mobility really seems like it's becoming less and less with each time that he's on the screen. Owen can't do much of anything with him here. Owen scores the same win that brother Bret did at WrestleMania X. Yokozuna heads up top for a Banzai Drop, loses his balance and falls off, Owen capitalizes by pinning him.



Result: Owen Hart via pinfall

Highlights from the WWF house show tour. They seem to be hitting these ads especially hard at this point.

They show comments from Jake Roberts on the Action Zone yesterday, where he admitted to his past bouts with substance abuse. Jake's public story at this point was that he was sober and leaving his drug and alcohol issues in the past. He joins in on commentary for the next match.

Jim Ross tries to interview Yokozuna backstage. Yoko is despondent. Says "this isn't the old Yoko." Says he has to go find himself.

King of the Ring First Round - Bodydonna Skip vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Not that Skip was going to get over as a face under the Skip gimmick, but he starts right out against the reasonably popular Marc Mero? Mero hits some nice Japanese armdrags early that cause Skip to take a break. Weird moment at the commentary table as Vince McMahon asks Jerry Lawler about some or other embarrassment that President Clinton had happen with White House security (I don't remember this), and Lawler responds, "Uhh, I don't know much about that McMahon, but I know the FBI did a little work on you too, didn't they?" Vince: "Now wait a minute…" Lawler: "They didn't want to put you in the White House, they wanted to put you in the big house. HAR HAR HAR." I'm pretty amazed that Lawler brought that up.

Skip goes for a top rope hurracanrana, but Mero blocks and pushes him off. Marc follows with a sunset flip from up top, but the momentum carries him through and ruins the pin at a one-count. While the obviousness of the result here brings the match down and kills any chance for drama, the action is strong. Mero really doesn't seem like he leaves himself much protection on this dive.



Skip is a good sport and does his own faceplant as he attempts to follow outside with a pescado. Mero hits a somersault plancha, slingshot legdrop into the ring, but only a two-count. Sets Skip up top, top rope hurracanrana, 1-2-3. Nice match. Really should have earned Skip a bit more run as a singles competitor.

Result: Marc Mero via pinfall

After commercials, Vince and the King are in the ring. Vince introduces the Ullllltimate Warrior. Warrior comes out wearing a baseball cap and a pony-tail. According to that DVD that slagged the Warrior, everyone involved was at least internally reacting with "WTF," as nobody knew he was wearing that. Lawler grovels to Warrior and asks him if they can bury the hatchet. He offers him an illustrated, framed portrait. Warrior: "You may be an artist, Jerry Lawler. But how I see it, I see you as the biggest con artist there ever was." GOOD ONE. Warrior vows to kick Lawler's ass at King of the Ring. Lawler attacks him from behind with the picture, Warrior no-sells and chases him to the back. Utterly pointless segment.



British Bulldog (w/ Jim Cornette & Diana Hart-Smith) vs. The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer): During entrances and before this match gets going, Shawn Michaels appears via satellite to answer some questions. Of note, Vince says, "I would suggest that many individuals disagree with you, with your point of view that you let the kliq down in the first match with the Bulldog." Shawn: "You know, that's the way that I feel, and I don't know that I can change that. All I know is that I have a chance to right a very serious wrong. That is first and foremost on my mind." Though I'm sure he's talking about nearly losing the last match, I prefer thinking that they're talking about him putting on a ****ty match with the Bulldog last time out. Jim Cornette jumps on with the interview and announces that Clarence Mason has settled a lawsuit he filed against Gorilla Monsoon, and one of the terms was that they got to hand-pick a referee for the title match at King of the Ring. Michaels is upset. No announcement of who the referee is yet.



With Bulldog getting a title shot at the next PPV and Undertaker being Undertaker, this match seems like a mortal lock to have some sort of non-finish. This is actually surprisingly good, with Davey controlling the offense and doing a much better job of carrying a lesser opponent than I usually see from him. His delayed suplex is impressive-looking when done to someone the size of Taker. He throws a sudden swinging neckbreaker, which I never really remember seeing him use. He takes a nice hard bump into the stairs late in the match. After the stair bump, Taker rolls him into the ring, and then when Taker attempts to follow him back in he's suddenly unable. Camera pans down, Mankind is holding Taker's leg. We have a countout…so not quite the non-finish I expected, but not much of a finish.



Result: British Bulldog via countout

Mankind leaves Taker laid out in the middle of the ring, and that's our final image from this show.

Overall: Better than the average Raw at this point, even if that isn't saying much. Again, Bulldog-Taker was surprisingly good, same for Skip-Mero, and that's enough to make the episode watchable.

NITRO

Wheeling, WV

Tony and Larry welcome us to the show, and one of the first things they advertise is that during the second hour, we'll see Ric Flair and Arn Anderson against "a newcomer we've been hearing a lot about, Joe Gomez, and Renegade." I faintly remember the name Joe Gomez, but can't place a visual on him at all. Renegade is a jobber. That is a weird match to lead the hype with. Also, Giant vs. Scott ****ing Norton tonight. They throw it to highlights of the Hall/Sting confrontation from last week to foreshadow Hall's announced "big surprise" for tonight.

Booker T vs. Scott Steiner: Well right away I'm way more excited for this than for the two matches they advertised up front. Not going to fact-check myself on this, but I believe that these two also faced off in the final Nitro match ever. I didn't remember them beginning to feature Booker T apart from Harlem Heat quite this early, but he was certainly able to hold his own in the ring. I like him quite a bit better than Scott Steiner as a worker here just in terms of the variety of offense. Steiner wins the match pretty abruptly, getting an unexpected three-count after a generic overhead belly-to-belly suplex.



Result: Scott Steiner via pinfall

Mean Gene with Scott Steiner. Gene says that the Steiners are taking on Fire & Ice at the Great American Bash, and "there must be a winner." Suddenly Debra McMichael breaks in apologetically and says she really needs to talk to Mr. Okerlund about something. Scott concedes the floor. Debra gives a rambling promo saying that she's afraid that Mongo is going to hurt someone at the coming PPV and she's afraid that it's her fault. She asks Gene if he'll set a meeting with Flair and Anderson. She hopes to cancel the match for this Sunday. WTF is this ****.



Jim Powers vs. DDP: What the…Jim Powers?? This is the same one as the one from the Young Stallions. It seems like the Stallions stopped jobbing in the WWF like five years prior to this at least. Powers looks way bigger here than he did before, and has obviously been…working out. Powers gets a run of offense and Zbyszko cautions us "not to count DDP out." That's an interesting line about an enhancee in an enhancement match. Really Powers ended up getting a majority of the offense here, but of course it was always headed toward a Diamond Cutter.



Result: DDP via pinfall

Video package hyping Benoit vs. Taskmaster. It's got weird/awkward narration, and I still don't get the full story of what this build is. But the main gist is that they tease that Arn Anderson is possibly aligned with Kevin Sullivan against Benoit.

Then we get a video package hyping…Konnan. They were very determined to make this guy into a thing in America. After the video he is with Gene Okerlund, who says that Konnan is defending the US Title against El Gato on Sunday, "a South American legend." El Gato was Pat Tanaka in a mask, so I guess he's done being from the Orient.

During next match intros, Larry Zbyszko says, "You're talking about these Mexicans and South Americans. I mean, what's he legendary to, a bunch of boa constrictors? U.S. Championship on the line…I think every contender should have at least a green card." Good grief.

Meng vs. Sting: If this match was taking place on a 2015 Raw, you could reliably know that Meng would win on a distraction roll-up when Steven Regal comes to ringside, but thankfully this isn't 2015 Raw. Fair to say I won't be doing a thread about that. These guys had a PPV match against each other in 1995 and it was pretty damn boring, so I'm glad they keep this one short. Meng goes up top, Sting gets up in time to shove him and crotch him along the top rope, then slaps on the Scorpion Deathlock really badly for the win.



Result: Sting via submission

After commercial, Mean Gene is with Bobby Heenan and Debra McMichael. Heenan takes her to come see Flair, then slams the door behind him. Suddenly you hear Debra screaming, and she runs out of the room. It looks like Woman was attacking her. Flair follows her out, randomly runs across Renegade and beats him down in the back, applying a figure-four while Arn double-teams with him. They lay out Joe Gomez too, in a way where I never see the dude's face, so I guess his identity is going to remain a mystery to me for now.

Before the next match, we see highlights of David Taylor costing Hacksaw Jim Duggan his match against Steven Regal last week.

Squire David Taylor (w/ Jeeves) vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan:

Early in this match, they announce that Lex Luger and Sting have agreed to face Ric Flair and Arn Anderson for the Tag Team Titles tonight. This is mercifully short as well. When they switched to two hours, it seems like they more than doubled their average number of matches per week, as they keep putting on a bunch of short ones. Duggan tapes his fist, hits Taylor, 1-2-3. Garbage. Please relegate Duggan back to the weekend shows.



Result: Jim Duggan via pinfall

They go to an advertisement hyping Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio for Great American Bash. Their video highlights of Rey are all from south of the border, so I think the GAB title shot is actually Rey's WCW debut. As much as it doesn't make sense to give a guy a title shot in his first match, I'll let it slide if it means I get to see Malenko vs. Mysterio.

Backstage again to Gene Okerlund, who is with this new-look Big Bubba. This rodent that he super-glued to his face looks awful. They show Tenta/Bubba clips of last week, and I again start laughing out loud for "I'm not a fish. I'm not an avalanche." Bubba cuts a promo saying, "By cutting your hair, I proved that you were only half a man." The promo work in this program is just off the charts.



After commercial, Gene is out at the top of the aisle. Scott Norton out to join him. "Let me tell you something. I didn't take that chokeslam just once, but twice. And here I am, right back in your face." Yes Scott, we know that you don't stay down no matter how much better your matches could be if you sometimes did.

WCW Title - The Giant (c) (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Scott Norton: They do the countdown to zero to kick off the second hour and send it to Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan to host the rest of the way. Here's the match in a nutshell:



After swinging away at Giant a few times, he gets a running start and charges, but just hits the post. Giant chokeslams him on the floor, rolls him in, 1-2-3. Another really quick match.

Result: The Giant via pinfall

Giant is going to keep after Norton afterward, but Luger runs in to stop him. Giant shoves Luger outside, follows him out, clears off the ringside catering table to tease a chokeslam, but Lex hits Giant with a low blow and then clocks him with a champagne bucket before leaving. That…is not a good way to hype a Giant vs. Luger main event for this Sunday. Your babyface challenger is basically helpless unless he hits a low blow and uses a weapon, which he only uses to buy himself the time to run away? That's pretty horrible writing, and is absolutely no way to sell a match.

As I type that, Luger shows up at the broadcast desk and grabs a mic. "You and me, the gloves are off, the rules are out at Great American Bash." Oh, is it a no DQ match? That would mitigate the badness of the last sequence just a bit.

Billy Kidman vs. Lord Steven Regal (w/ Jeeves): Oh my, Billy Kidman looks 14 years old at most here. And just absolutely tiny. As I look up the actual answer, he was 22. Kidman got an entrance of his own here so he wasn't a total jobber, but he was certainly only here to lose on this night. Billy hits a couple of moves, goes up top and attempts a 450 splash that he misses on. Regal follows with a double armbar belly-to-belly suplex that drops Kidman on his head. Follows with a Boston crab while stepping on Kidman's head, close to a Lion Tamer, and gets the submission. Sting sprints down and backhands Regal off of Kidman, yelling something at him that indicates that it was to give him some payback for the backhand Regal gave him last week.



Wish this match had gotten a few more minutes. The match, and really the brief post-match, were fun while they lasted.

Result: Steven Regal via submission

Nasty Boys vs. Public Enemy: Public Enemy sprints down at the end of the Nasty Boys' entrance and starts the brawl early. The announcers spend a lot of it just putting over the Flair/Anderson vs. Mongo/Greene match coming up this Sunday. Bischoff comments that "you haven't seen Mongo really mad. I've seen it, and it's not pretty." I think that was a shoot, as I heard Flair talking about that in a shoot not very long ago. Said that Mongo could be a really scary guy if he had a shorter temper, but that he rarely got all that upset and was generally really laid-back and awesome to be around.

PE and the Nasties put in an excess of really boring brawling. These teams desperately need street fight rules. Johnny Grunge unwraps an ace bandage off his arm to reveal a hard cast underneath as Rocco Rock goes and grabs a trash can. Knobbs picks Rock off before he can get there with the weapon. Nasties go for the double-team, Johnny Grunge hits Knobbs with the hard cast. 1, 2…no. Thought that was it. Bischoff: "That would have been a BIG upset." It would have? Don't tell me I'm supposed to differentiate these teams. Sags hits Rocco with the trash can in plain sight, and we have a DQ. Knobbs follows by throwing the trash can hard down on Rocco, which is a cool spot. The Nasty Boys lose the match, but hold the ring. Pretty bad match that got more time than some better options tonight.



Result: Nasty Boys via DQ

We get another masturbatory Hulk Hogan video next. I really didn't remember this thing where they did fan videos for him every week that he was gone. Just awful. They're repeating this from last week; among other things, it features Hogan beating up Vader. It also features a timed montage of chairshots by Hogan, which is an odd thing to run on a babyface.

Another video montage hyping up Mongo and Kevin Greene. This is altogether too many video packages from a company that never learned how to do them very well.

Tag Team Titles - Sting & Lex Luger (c) vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson (w/ Woman and Elizabeth): Champs out first.



Heenan says that Debra McMichael pleaded to him, "You don't know what my husband is like when he gets mad." That's…awkward to hear, knowing at least how things went with her next husband. Flair bumps around the ring nicely for Lex Luger, as he always knew how to do. After taking a press slam from Sting, a rattled Flair goes running to grab a steel chair, but calms down and drops it before returning to the ring. I absolutely love watching Flair sell being rattled/shook/frustrated. The faces get to absolutely dominate for a good chunk of this match, and even when the Horsemen take over, Flair cedes control when he goes for his signature delayed suplex and his back gives out. There wasn't any particular focus on his back in the prior offense, but I like that touch quite a bit; it's not always going to be apparent that a guy is wrestling through a ****ed up back the way it would be if he has an injured leg.



Sting gets a visual pin on a small package, but the ref is distracted with Luger and Arn is able to forcefully break things up. That leads to a short Sting heat segment. Hot tag to Luger after a couple of minutes, he cleans house and then The Giant suddenly appears and strolls into the ring for what I'm guessing is a DQ of Flair and Arn, even though the ref called for the bell before Giant actually touched anyone. Shame that they ended a good match that way.

Result: Sting & Luger via DQ

Giant puts Luger down, but Scott Steiner runs in wielding a wooden chair, and Sting/Luger/Steiner take The Giant on 3-on-1 and chase him from the ring. Again, there's nothing about this build that actually suggests to the audience that Luger can defeat The Giant one-on-one this Sunday. He's only ever standing tall with the aid of weapons and other people. Mean Gene catches up with The Giant, who promises - he repeats, promises - that Luger is leaving the arena on a stretcher.

Back at the broadcast desk, Bobby Heenan yells at Randy Savage that Savage had better not touch him this Sunday. He suddenly looks off into the distance, like he's suddenly seen a ghost, and drops his headset and scrambles from the broadcast desk. Enter Scott Hall from stage left.

Hall gets in Bischoff's face. Bischoff says he doesn't want any trouble, but says "where's the big surprise? I see a lot of talk, but where's the walk?" Kevin Nash appears behind him.



Bischoff says he'll see what he can do about getting them their fight. He tells them to show up in Baltimore this Sunday and he'll see what he can do about getting them their fight. Roll credits.

Overall: The final act of the show, between the main event and the Hall/Nash stuff, was excellent. Pretty good Steiner/Booker T and Regal/Kidman matches as well. Despite some garbage mixed in over the course of the two hours, I would call this a pretty good episode.

---

Ratings for 6/10/96: Raw 2.7, Nitro 2.6
Ratings Running Score: Tied, 17-17-2

Better Show: Even with Raw putting out a somewhat respectable effort, Nitro wins again and it's not particularly close.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 30-6

Match of the Night: I wish it had gotten a better ending, but I'll go with Sting/Luger vs. Flair/Arn.

I somehow remember laughing at this at the time now that you typed it out. Hilarious.

If you remember, he did a piscato (sp?) a week or two prior that you said the same about and made a gif out of.

Final match was Sting vs. Flair.

Maybe in 2035, 2015 RAWs will be considered some of the GOAT...

I believe this is true.

Finally Duggan's taped fist works. But the announcers have made it clear it is legal to tape your fist, so it isn't clear why he doesn't tape his fist before the match. Perhaps he enjoys the feeling of having tape hidden in your trunks.

Now I remember why I despised the Public Enemy against Nasty Boys so much. Never really liked garbage matches, but more importantly they were the Sheamus vs Orton of the time: they wrestled against each other over and over and over again. And neither were really interesting enough to get behind. Yet somebody important apparently thought it was just a perfect ****ing matchup.

Good points on Luger not looking like he could legitimately win clean at the PPV, but it was clear that he might be willing to resort to cheating so the outcome was still in doubt.

Heenan was so great on commentary during the Horsemen match.

One comment on the ratings. Nitro ran a replay shortly after the initial airing at this time that usually did slightly over a 1.0. Pretty good rating for a late night slot.

WCW GREAT AMERICAN BASH '96



Baltimore, MD

Show opens on pre-taped promos by the participants in the big tag match and the Giant/Luger main event.

We get a national anthem as Sgt. Craig Pittman holds an American flag at the top of the aisle. I just checked his military credentials; apparently he legitimately did attain the rank of sergeant in the United States Marines. Well that's cool, I thought it was just another gimmick.

Tony Schiavone and Dusty Rhodes are our commentary team for the evening. After hyping the event, they do take a moment to acknowledge the death of Dick Murdoch, a great of a prior era who Dusty used to team with. He died young, just 49 years of age, though a look at his Wiki suggests that he had some pretty serious character issues.

The Steiner Brothers vs. Fire & Ice: The ring announcer says "there must be a winner." They don't really ever clarify if that means that this is a street fight or what. This match has difficulty really getting going; there's some okay power stuff, but these teams put on better action on Nitro a few weeks back. Scott Steiner throws a sloppy suplex that drops Norton hard on his shoulder, and almost seems like a receipt for the dangerous Samoan drop Norton laid on him on Nitro not very long ago.



After Norton makes his way back in, Scott Steiner heads up top and goes for a flying cross-body, but Norton "catches" him…basically Steiner's feet still hit the mat, but Norton picks him back up from there and does a powerslam. I understand that catching Scott Steiner in mid-air would be ridiculously impressive, but Norton may want to quit attempting these superman spots where he can catch really big dudes who are flying at him. He botched the recent one terribly with Hugh Morrus, and then basically failed this one as well. Norton hits a shoulderbreaker and then transitions into an armbar submission hold on the shoulder he just attacked. Rick Steiner comes in and kicks him in the head a number of times, not realizing that this is Scott ****ing Norton and that he has no recognition of your puny kicks to the head.



He does eventually let go of the hold anyway. He picks Scott Steiner up overhead for a shoulderbreaker, but this enables Steiner to blind hot tag to brother Rick, so Norton's subsequent shoulderbreaker is rendered irrelevant. Hot tag leads to four-way chaos, Ice Train dumps Scott Steiner out, double-team with Norton powerbombing Rick and Ice Train splashing off the second rope, but Scott Steiner makes the save. They dump Scott outside and then set Rick up for a doomsday device, but Scott is back up on the apron to push Train off. DDT by Rick on Norton. Train saves Norton after the DDT. Scott Steiner holds Norton up on his shoulders, Rick with the bulldog off the top, Train AGAIN makes the save. Rick Steiner and Ice Train brawl, Scott Steiner hits a frankensteiner on Scott Norton, and finally a 1-2-3. Tremendous endgame sequence to the match, with a ton of back-and-forth drama. As bored as I was for the first few minutes, this was a really good match in the end.

Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall (10:29)
Rating: ***1/2

Mean Gene with Jimmy Hart and The Taskmaster. Taskmaster stares somewhere diagonally off-camera as he delivers a promo that mirrors a prior one, vowing that just as he got rid of the last rogue Horseman (Brian Pillman), he'll get rid of Chris Benoit as well. He says that he's doing it for Arn and Ric.

US Title - Konnan (c) vs. El Gato: Again, El Gato is Pat Tanaka under a mask being called a South American legend. Some sharp armdrags here, and a decent-looking sit-out powerbomb (done in distinctly Tanaka style), but the early going lacked flow or any real story between spots. Decent spot late, as Konnan sunset flips from the ring to the floor and powerbombs Tanaka to the floor, though Tanaka protected himself hard enough before impact (by clinging to the rope when halfway off the apron) that it didn't allow the impact to look all that devastating. Konnan wins this with an Alabama slam and a somersault into a back bridge for the pin.



Result: Konnan via pinfall (6:03)
Rating: *3/4

Mean Gene backstage with Sting. Sting calls Steven Regal sissy, and then clearly loses his train of thought in mid-sentence. "You can take…God I can't say that, I just can't say that on TV. Mean Gene, you take it for one second." Honestly, it was as good of a way to mitigate an embarrassing moment as any. Gene Okerlund being the GOAT interviewer is obviously able to seamlessly pick it back up and help Sting get through the interview. Sting basically questions Regal's sexuality and then vows to "straighten him out."

Lord of the Ring - DDP (c) vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell: Page grabs the mic upon entrance and vows to make Baltimore forget all about "Carl Ripken." Nice over-the-top plancha from the ring to the floor by Bagwell. DDP busts out a nice pumphandle back suplex a bit later.



This match plays out a lot like Konnan vs. El Gato in that there's the occasional spot that I like, but the match as a whole doesn't really draw me in. Bagwell goes for a fisherman suplex, DDP blocks, hits him in the gut, and plants him with the Diamond Cutter for the pin.

Result: DDP via pinfall (9:39)
Rating: **

Mean Gene with Jimmy Hart and The Giant. He asks Jimmy where his allegiances lie between The Giant and Lex Luger. Jimmy just laughs off the question and doesn't answer. Giant cuts a pretty meh promo, and we're back out to the ring.

Mike Tenay joins the group to call the Cruiserweight Title match.

Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: Full writeup here. In short, this is a great match that really felt like the beginning of great cruiserweight wrestling in WCW. Compelling, dramatic action…Malenko retains his title when he counters a hurracanrana into a powerbomb and puts his feet on the ropes to score the pin.



Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall (17:50)
Rating: ****1/4

Gene Okerlund with Lex Luger in the back. Luger gives a subdued interview, saying his mind is already in the ring and that he's not going to scream and yell. He talks about The Giant changing the landscape of wrestling, but says that he's going to take advantage of Giant's hubris and the fact that Giant thinks that he's invincible. Luger has a Sting moment where he clearly forgets what he's going to say next, but manages to pick it back up after an awkward 3-4 second pause. At least none of these guys are pulling a Sid and asking for a second take on a live broadcast. This is a pretty good face promo by Luger IMO.

Big Bubba (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. John Tenta: Tenta has no entrance music, and his "titantron" is just a clip of him getting half his head shaved. So right away the crowd has a lot to get behind for the babyface in this match. Bubba attacks before the bell, tries to go up top and Tenta knocks him off to the floor. The one thing that I have somehow remembered for nearly two decades about this match is Dusty Rhodes here saying, "Big John Tenta is down there WAILING ON BUBBER!" I still remember laughing hysterically at him suddenly yelling that. Tenta flings Bubba really hard into the stairs.



I have to admit, as I watch this without remembering the result, there's some part of me that wants Tenta to win this match just so he can shave the rest of his damn head. Bubba goes to his pants and hits Tenta with a foreign object, but takes forever to cover and can't get the three-count. Bubba hits an enziguiri before dropping the leg on Tenta on the ropes three times in a row. Goes for a pin, feet up on the ropes, but referee Nick Patrick catches him cheating and breaks the count. After some more back and forth, Bubba connects on a hard back suplex, but then waits forever again before following up. He eventually gets to the top rope, but Tenta regains his feet and catches Bubba cleanly off the top into a powerslam for the win. John Tenta > Scott Norton. Match wasn't very good, but it was pretty well-booked I think. They kept it short, they did some okay power spots, the stair bump was nice…I've seen worse big man brawls.

Result: John Tenta via pinfall (5:24)
Rating: *1/2

Tenta gets a hold of Jimmy Hart after the match with scissors in hand, Bubba charges in to rescue his manager, Tenta grabs Bubba up around the chin and carefully cuts part of the super-glued rodent off of Bubba's face. Bubba holds his chin yelling "HE CUT IT OFF!" as he leaves to the back. Tenta looks into the camera and says that he's not done with this yet.

Mean Gene in the back with Mongo McMichael, Kevin Greene, Debra McMichael and apparently the fourth one is Kevin Greene's wife Tara. The football players cut a manic promo. Randy Savage enters the shot and does likewise.

Falls Count Anywhere - Chris Benoit vs. The Taskmaster: Full writeup here. Benoit and Sullivan brawl through the crowd, through the concourse, into the men's room, back out of the men's room, to the ring, and Benoit superplexes Sullivan from on top of a table positioned on the top rope to score the pinfall. Great ending to cap off a match that was just okay up to that point.



Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall (9:58)
Rating: **3/4

Benoit continues to beat on Sullivan after the match. Jimmy Hart starts to step in, but Benoit threatens him away. Arn Anderson runs down to the ring, rips Benoit off of Sullivan, signals to him to hold up, and then punts the Taskmaster himself to a huge pop. Anderson and Benoit stomp away at Sullivan. The Dungeon of Doom hits the ring, Benoit and Anderson clear out and leave together holding up the four fingers. ****ing fantastic moment. God I love triumphant Horsemen moments, more than almost anything.



In the back, Mean Gene is with Woman and Liz, then Flair, Arn, and Benoit enter the shot. The master, Double A, has the floor. "What you just saw was the head of the snake being severed. You have tried to poison the most elite fighting unit in the history of all professional sports. Somebody today earned their stripes. His name is Chris Benoit. Sullivan, Taskmaster, whatever you want to call yourself, NOW we are truly at war."



Flair and Heenan continue the promo and focus on the football players and Randy Savage. "Lot of things the Macho Man would like to do that he can't do anymore. Right, Liz? Woooo!"

Lord Steven Regal (w/ Jeeves) vs. Sting: Sting laying right into Regal from the opening bell, quickly knocking him to the outside and delivering a backdrop on the floor. Regal gets a shot back in and slows things down. His European uppercuts and palm strikes always look so convincing. Gets boring for a bit, with some mat-based stuff that I just can't get into. I do enjoy a dropkick that Regal throws, as at least one of his feet appears to catch Sting right in the ear.



Tony and Dusty do point out some nice psychological touches that Regal throws in, as he'll often subtly drive an elbow into the face during a cover or whatever. Regal really lays it on thick with the awkward and exaggerating showboating during this match. He does get a bit more focus on his attack, working Sting's arm. My interest lapses in and out. This is just a bit too glacial. Regal with a double underhook suplex from the ropes and gets a two-count. Locks in the Regal Stretch. Regal for some reason gets frustrated with Sting's lack of submission and just lets go of the hold. Annoyed with how the match is going, Regal throws a lengthy series of strikes, but Sting goes into no-sell mode, turns the tables by beating Regal down. Goes for a Stinger Splash, but Regal gets the legs up to stop him. Regal charges at Sting to follow, but Sting manages a backdrop. Scorpion Deathlock applied, and Regal has to give. Regal dominated a heavy portion of that, but ultimately gives way.

Result: Sting via submission (16:30)
Rating: **1/4

I remember being all stoked at the time that this match's build all set up as an upset win for Regal to continue his push, and was disappointed in this result, but I think the timing just screwed Regal over. Sting was going to be Team WCW in the main event of the next show, and you can't very well job a guy to Regal and then turn around and declare him to be a top three guy in the company a few weeks later. If Scott Hall and Kevin Nash show up a month later then I think that Regal may have gone over here.

Michael Buffer is along to do announcements for the tag team match, which I think makes the tag match a double main event with the World Title match.

Ric Flair & Arn Anderson (w/ Woman, Miss Elizabeth, and Bobby Heenan) vs. Mongo McMichael & Kevin Greene (w/ Debra McMichael, Tara Greene, and Randy Savage): I love that Flair, Arn, and the women get one entrance, and then when they make it to ringside, Bobby Heenan gets his own separate entrance while Flair's music continues. Just one of those fitting tributes to a legend.



Tony Schiavone mentions that Randy Savage will be reinstated to active ring competition tomorrow night and take on Ric Flair. Schiavone talks about how Mongo spent 15 years in the NFL, 14 with the Bears and then 1 year with the Packers. Said he asked Mongo why he went to play in Green Bay, the arch-enemy of the Bears, at the end, and Mongo flatly told him "Money." The crowd is all kinds of hot for this one, and Greene really played the pro wrestling personality incredibly well for an outsider.

Mongo throws a very decent shoulder-tackle from the second rope at Anderson. He and Greene try to stick to basics early like shoulderblocks, punches, kicks, etc. To be expected from total rookies. Flair baits Greene into facing off against him from a three-point stance and then promptly cheap shots him the moment that Greene puts his head down. Shortly after I implied that they didn't really know how to do anything, Mongo actually puts a figure-four on Flair, cuing Greene into the ring to take down Anderson and then lock on a figure-four of his own. As limited as the football players are, they're working around it beautifully. As the figure-four leglocks break up, Woman and Liz confront and chase Debra and Tara to the back, emptying out ringside a bit.



After a heat segment, Kevin Greene gets a hot tag from Mongo and cleans house effectively, throwing multiple chop blocks, a powerslam on Flair, and then a suplex on Flair as well. He celebrates his own suplex, and Arn comes into the ring low with a cheap shot to take his leg out from behind. Arn rams his leg into the apron a couple of times for good measure, and Greene is seriously hobbled. Flair attempts to apply a figure-four to Greene, and Greene counters into a small package. Maybe I'm setting the bar really low, but I'm impressed by what these first-time wrestlers are able to do.

Flair does lock in a figure-four successfully on Greene after that. As Arn Anderson tries to give leverage to Flair, Randy Savage attacks Arn, and suddenly Chris Benoit sprints in to aid Anderson, and Benoit and Anderson double-team Savage. Suddenly Woman and Liz reappear alongside Debra McMichael. Debra had worn a Chicago Bears letterman jacket to the ring earlier, but was now re-emerging in an evening gown. The announce team gives this a collective "WTF." Debra has a briefcase, she approaches Mongo, Mongo opens the case to reveal a Horseman shirt and a bunch of cash. Mongo thinks for a moment, closes the case, and as Greene reaches out to him as he's turned over in the figure-four, Mongo clobbers his partner with the case. Flair makes the pin, 1-2-3, the Horsemen win.



This was very entertaining and extremely well drawn-up. A bit overly long, but that's my only real criticism.

Result: Ric Flair & Arn Anderson via pinfall (20:51)
Rating: ***1/4

Savage confronts Mongo, the two shove each other, Flair, Arn, and Benoit attack Savage, and Mongo joins in. Mongo throws on the Horseman shirt and joins the group. Long-time broadcast adversaries Bobby Heenan and Mongo McMichael shake hands. I mean…none of this made a ton of sense (though I give them credit for throwing in that earlier anecdote about Mongo selling his services to the Packers at the end of his career), and really Mongo seemed like a pretty bad choice for a Horseman, but I was still really excited for the twist at the time. Dusty: "Unbelievable. Brother, I'm an old man, but I guarantee you one thing: this is unbelievable." Keep doing you, Dusty.



Eric Bischoff is up near the entryway, mic in hand. He says that WCW is prepared to give Hall and Nash (still not named yet on WCW TV) an answer. Hall and Nash enter. Bischoff says that if they want a match, they're going to get one at Bash at the Beach. But Bischoff says he has to get a question out of the way first.

Bischoff: "Do you work for the WWF?"
Nash: "No."
Hall: "No."

That question and answer session has been sponsored by WCW's legal team, in response to threats of litigation by WWF's legal team. Hall asks who WCW's three guys are. "You tell Billionaire Ted to break out the money and get anybody he can, because the big mang and the medium-sized mang, and our surprise buddy are gonna carve them up." Bischoff tries to pose another question to Nash. Hall says, "Hey, who are they?" Bischoff: "I can't tell you. I'll tell you tomorrow night on Nitro." Hall forcibly grabs Bischoff's mic. "You can't tell us? You don't jack us around." Hall suddenly throws a haymaker at Bischoff's stomach, doubling him over, and Nash grabs Bischoff and powerbombs him through the platform near the top of the aisle.



So unbelievably well-done. Hall suddenly escalating to that really hard punch just looked so violent and jarring, and then Nash escalating way further really quickly was great. And as I mentioned with Vader and Gorilla Monsoon earlier in 1996, attacking an authority figure was a rare thing that was really out of bounds. I still think it holds up as a great moment.

They go to the broadcast desk with Tony and Dusty, and Tony says a few words before saying that he's going to go check on Eric. Dusty is left just sort of awkwardly holding the bag on his own at this point. He stammers his way through it, and they have to move on to the main event match. Lex Luger's music starts, and he stops and checks on Bischoff on his way to the ring.

WCW Title - The Giant (c) (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Lex Luger: There really should have been a minor match to give the crowd a chance to cool down from the last couple of things on this show. This match, which already had a pretty weak build, seems destined to fail. The announcers spend most of the time talking about Bischoff getting attacked, and practically ignore the main event of the show. It's understandable given the order that things happened in, but that's where someone should have arranged the show differently. Lex Luger jumps on The Giant's back and has a sleeper hold locked in. Jimmy Hart gets up on the apron and looks poised to interfere, but Sting runs down, grabs Jimmy and chases him to the back. Giant gets free of the hold anyway, of course.

The match is dreadfully dull. Luger attempts a bodyslam and does get Giant up, but Giant falls on top. Later, Giant charges Luger in the corner, comes up empty, and ends up laid across the top turnbuckle. Luger ducks underneath, stands up to pick him up in the Torture Rack, gets him briefly up in that hold, but again collapses under Giant's weight and Giant falls on top. Chokeslam, pin, three-count.



Result: The Giant via pinfall (9:21)
Rating: 1/4*

Overall: Even with the weak ending, this is a tremendous PPV. A number of great matches, the great Horsemen moment with Benoit and Arn laying the boots to Kevin Sullivan, the heel turn in the big tag match, the incredible Hall/Nash/Bischoff segment. Loved it.

awesome ppv write up makes me wanna watch it

also as a side note, i do think the hogan ads/packages are good here, given what hes about to do. HEY GUYS ISNT HULK GREAT WE LOVE HIM LETS NOT FORGET HIM AND ALL THE GREATNESS HES BROUGHT TO US into him being the third man is actually good - given that the points of them is what i said and not "dont let people forget me i need to be #1"

To hear Kevin Nash tell it, it sounds like Hulk Hogan was pretty squeamish about the idea of turning right up to the 11th hour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7CM82u_hT0

Your theory is a good one, but I think more likely is that the promos were self-aggrandizing for the sake of self-aggrandizing.

Yeah after listening I retract my comment

need to check out these roundtables though, it sounds enjoyable. Ive always liked what little ive heard from nash in these settings too

I can't stop watching that gif of Scott Norton being kicked in the head repeatedly and no-selling.

If this was Final Fantasy he would be a wrestling move elemental.

LOL

one of my favorite parts of the write up has been norton. was gonna comment on it then forget with the strong end game. he just takes like 5 kicks to face and no sells them all lolol. its amazing

Meltzer was friends with Eric Bischoff at this time among other WCW people, and he said Hogan agreed to turn heel "about 11 days" beforehand. Hogan's contract was going to expire soon, and he had lost a lot of bargaining power because Nitro ratings were much better than the company expected when Hogan was gone filming the movie or whatever he was doing.

because of this thread i watched the next ppv (bash at the beach) for the first time in its entirety

it was pretty damn good

looking forward to your getting there

Norton gif topped Luger for me.

This is a perfect example of how something as small as modifying the delivery of a punch can affect the whole segment. There's just something about that gut shot. Nash recklessly powerbombing Bischoff was the icing. I never saw it live but I remember seeing it replayed in the pre show before BATB for the first time and just being shocked. It was also one of the first pieces of wrestling I'd seen since like 91 so it especially made a big impact on me. I didn't even know what WCW was when I randomly stumbled on BATB being shown either live or the day after. Since I didn't know who Razor and Diesel were, I never really thought they were alluding to the WWF invading so I just saw it as two fresh guys coming in and ****ing **** up and was hooked.

June 17, 1996

NITRO

Richmond, VA

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko have been promoted to the main broadcast desk rather than the ringside table they'd been occupying for the last few weeks. Tony says he'll be in for both hours tonight, for the obvious reason that Eric Bischoff got powerbombed through a table the night before. Tony again references Hall and Nash without saying their names. It's clear that they hadn't decided what names they would wrestle under yet, given that they go out of their way to repeatedly introduce them as "YOU KNOW WHO I'M TALKING ABOUT WINK WINK." Larry Zbyszko, who has been playing the generic heel the past few weeks on commentary, expresses his disgust with Hall and Nash over their attack on Bischoff and says that these two guys are not wanted here.

Schiavone transitions into talking about the rest of what happened last night, including stills from several matches, then they actually show most of the segment with Hall/Nash/Bischoff last night, though they stop it short of the powerbomb. Time for wrestling. Of note, they mention that The Giant will defend the world title against Scott Steiner tonight.

Stevie Ray vs. Rick Steiner: Stevie Ray should not be in random singles matches. He isn't half the wrestler his brother is. Stevie starts out punching and kicking, which leads to this brilliance on commentary from Zbyszko: "Stevie Ray has got the right idea. The reputation of Rick Steiner precedes him, so Stevie Ray is taking no chances. He's started off with the offense, and the man who starts off on the offense usually winds up the winner." It's like Phil Simms calling wrestling. Rick turns inside out on a clothesline, making it look great.

Honestly, this match is better than I was expecting, as they do watchable power stuff and keep it short. Abrupt ending, as Stevie Ray just straight-up jobs to a regular running clothesline from Rick.

Result: Rick Steiner via pinfall



Seconds after the match ends, Booker T runs in and attacks Steiner. Harlem Heat start the beatdown, Stevie Ray powerbombs Rick and then Booker T heads up top. Scott Steiner runs in and throws himself on top of his brother so that Booker hits him instead when he comes off the top with an axhandle. The Heat leave triumphantly after this, with both Steiners laid out. To give Scott maximum babyface cred, the announcers really should have put over the fact that he used himself as a human shield directly before he is to get a world title shot. Maybe later.

As the next match is getting started, Schiavone says, "We received a telephone call last night from Hulk Hogan. He said, 'Listen: if they want to declare war, throw my name in the hat.'"

Disco Inferno vs. Joe Gomez: Punch-kick-dropkick for a few minutes. Disco hits a swinging neckbreaker for the only real wrestling move of the match, then becomes really proud of himself and spends a while dancing and celebrating. He lays back in a lackadaisical pinfall attempt that blatantly telegraphs what comes next: at the two-count, Gomez pulls Disco over into his own pinning combo and gets the win. Worthless match. Also I don't know how they justify the fact that Disco is going to get a title shot at the next PPV; he loses to everyone.



Result: Joe Gomez via pinfall

Mean Gene with Ric Flair and the women, now including Debra McMichael. Gene continues what has become an epidemic and calls her "Debra McMichaels." Announcers keep referring to Debra and Mongo that way. Anyway, he asks her why she did what she did last night. "For one thing it was great company, and it was for the money. I hate to say it again, it was for the money." She's totally unnatural. I don't really remember whether she got better or not, but at this point she's very awkward whenever she talks on camera. Flair cuts basically the same promo he's been cutting on Randy Savage for a couple of months.



Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit vs. American Males: Chris Benoit has significant bruises on one side of his face. Evokes memories of Sonny Corleone telling Michael, "Beautiful. You look beautiful." They look like legit bruises, but they just help put over last night's events even better. Riggs keeps trying to taunt Anderson and Benoit with upside-down four fingers. Riggs, you are incredibly lame and sad. Stop trying. In general, the Males are just too lame for the crowd to embrace as the actual faces in this match, and they clearly favor the Horsemen.



Riggs gets what is supposed to be a hot tag a moment later, which gets zero response. Benoit hangs him along the ropes, then drives through on him for a pin that gets some aid from Arn from outside the ring.

Result: Anderson & Benoit via pinfall

Mean Gene joins the victors in the ring. Arn acknowledges the crowd support and says that people like someone who says what they're going to do and then does it. FFS, he refers to Mongo as "McMichaels" too. If Double A can't do it right then there's no hope. He continues, in the direction of Kevin Sullivan: "Sullivan, you and I had a business deal, but when business deals go south, somebody takes a bath and somebody gets rich. I know it's tough down at the bottom of the wading pool pal, but there's only room for four horsemen." Benoit tries talking also. It…doesn't go as well as when Arn talks.

Big Bubba (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. John Tenta: Okay, I know I wasn't very hard on this match at Great American Bash, but I didn't want to keep seeing it. Tenta does throw a dropkick here though, which I didn't know he was capable of. Regardless of that, this is a pretty terrible match. Jimmy Hart comes in and clocks Tenta with a megaphone from behind. Tenta no-sells, then powerslams Bubba twice and makes the pin (with his feet on the ropes).

Result: John Tenta via pinfall

The face is now 2-for-2 at pinning the heel, so that should pretty much do it for this feud, right? Wrong…Bubba produces a loaded sock, which he whips Tenta with, including clocking him in the face. Like, something is legitimately weighing that sock down, so it seems like that shot to the face must have actually hurt. Sure enough, he unloads the sock and a bunch of coins spill out. Yeah, a sock full of coins right near the eyes can't feel good. The eyes are the groin of the face.



Gene Okerlund with Bubba and Jimmy. Bubba declares that he kicks Tenta's ass every time they fight and then walks off triumphantly. Okerlund points out that Bubba has his facts somewhat twisted as Nitro goes to break.

After commercial, Gene is with Randy Savage. I don't think I ever realized quite what a workhorse Okerlund was for WCW until I started writing these shows up. He's on-screen and having to improvise constantly, and he almost never has a bad moment. He's a WWE Hall of Famer, he's widely appreciated and loved, and on some level I think that his career still might be underrated. Savage says that a psychiatrist diagnosed him as OCD, "one cool dude." I love Savage, but that's a painfully unfunny line.



As Savage is headed toward the ring for his ring entrance, the countdown hits the second hour of the show, and Bobby Heenan heads toward the booth to take over color commentary duties. Savage sees him and starts stalking him. Bobby ends up running into the ring, and then actually jumps out of the ring over the top rope (!) to get away from the Macho Man. Heenan does make it to the commentary booth, shook and breathing heavily, and Schiavone needles him in a funny exchange.

Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair (w/ Woman, Miss Elizabeth, and Debra McMichaels): Flair taunts Savage before entering, Savage snaps and attacks while both of them still have their entrance gear on, and we're started. After Flair gets things under control, he holds Savage up for Liz and Liz slaps Savage. Savage counter-attacks, takes Flair to the catering table, and, among other things, shakes up the bottle of champagne and pours it on him. Seems pointless, but maybe he was hoping to sting Flair's eyes a la Ricky Steamboat at Chitown Rumble '89.

Flair gets slightly broken open hard way during Savage's attack, but as Savage continues he goes for the axhandle from the top turnbuckle to the floor and ends up smashing himself into the steel barricade. After commercial, they're back in the ring chopping, but Flair's chops are of limited effect. I think this match is working well as a brawl stemming from a personal grudge. Ric produces a foreign object from his boot and clobbers Savage with it. Drops an elbow, but only gets two.

As Flair questions the count, Savage attacks from behind, and it causes a ref bump. Macho Man immediately takes advantage with a low blow. Flying elbow off the top. I expected a visual pin, but he pops up and goes up for a second elbow. The women run in and stand in Flair's way, but Savage just jumps through them and hits another elbow. Chris Benoit runs in, but Savage piledrives him to take him out. Arn Anderson into the ring; Savage tosses him out. Here comes the newest Horseman, Mongo. He wallops Savage in the back with the briefcase that bought his services last night. Savage gets up, and Mongo connects for a second time, this time square in the head. He puts Flair on top, revives the referee, and Flair gets the pinfall. I thought this was building well to a satisfying babyface blowoff win, but it's hard to hate that ending as an alternative. Good match.



Result: Ric Flair via pinfall

Mean Gene is with Kevin Sullivan, The Giant, and Jimmy Hart backstage. Sullivan is heavily bruised from last night as well. Sullivan awkwardly meanders through a terrible attempt at a promo. I've heard him do some good talking, but he sounded totally lost on the mic here. The Giant actually does better. "If you're elite, then why aren't any of you the WCW Champion?" That's…pretty much the perfect response at the moment. Giant challenges any or all of the Horsemen to get in the ring with him. As the interview is wrapping, Gene brings up the fact that there will be a drawing later to determine who will take on The Outsiders at Bash at the Beach. Sullivan: "That's a different story. I don't care about the Horsemen. WCW comes first." Man, take a few plays off. I know the idea he was trying to bring across, but you don't voluntarily follow an angry anti-Horsemen promo with "I don't care about the Horsemen." Not Sullivan's night.



Another promo for Glacier, coming soon to WCW.

After Tony Schiavone does more recapping of highlights from GAB the night before, he sends it to Mean Gene, at the top of the ramp with Rey Mysterio Jr. They punch the fact that Dean Malenko had his feet on the ropes last night when he beat Rey, and Rey states his intent to get Malenko back and become the Cruiserweight Champion.

Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: Rey appears to offer a handshake to start, but Dean ignores it. Lot of stick-and-move from Rey early, and he actually gets a believable near-fall when he locks in hard on a magistral cradle. As I always enjoy in big vs. little matches (this being literally the only matchup where Malenko is "big"), Malenko takes Rey's head off with a hard clothesline to stop the smaller competitor in his tracks.



Malenko starts working the leg with a half-crab, but lets go of it to execute a brainbuster, then transitions into an octopus, forgetting about the leg. There's a catch-22 in matches with guys like Mysterio. Clearly if you're going to go at a limb you should take out his legs, because that could really limit his arsenal. That would be the best psychology. But this is pro wrestling and they don't really want his arsenal being limited; he's a high-flier and they want him to get over with his great acrobatics. So basically they're cornered into most or all wrestlers just not being smart enough in kayfabe to try to crush Rey's legs.



Nice electric chair drop by Malenko. A high-impact powerbomb follows, but somehow only gets two. Dean with kind of a t-bone suplex, then transitions into the camel clutch. Rey escapes, dumps Dean out of the ring, and then follows him out with a springboard into a hurracanrana on the floor. Sends Malenko back inside, goes up top, Dean tries to follow but Rey does kind of a botched sunset flip powerbomb for two. Connects on a victory roll a moment later for another two. Lots of fairly believable near-falls. Malenko finally plants Rey with a reverse DDT for the clean three-count. Not quite as good as their Great American Bash bout, but still really good.

That said, on the booking side I don't understand why they introduce Rey Mysterio with two straight losses, one dirty and one clean. I didn't mind last night's result, but put him over somebody tonight, whether it's Malenko or not.

Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall

WCW Title - The Giant (c) (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Scott Steiner: Steiner comes out heavily taped around the ribs. Really? Over one top rope axhandle from Booker T? Scott goes for a bodyslam early and collapses under The Giant, further hurting the ribs. Heenan correctly mocks him for being an idiot for attempting that move. This match gets a decent number of minutes, but it's almost all Giant dominating until the end.

Amidst the dominance, Giant goes and gets a wooden chair for no real reason, gets crotched while re-entering the ring over the top rope, and Steiner attempts to take advantage by slapping on a sleeper. Giant just backs into the corner to break that. Giant with a corner whip, but then he runs into Steiner's boot. Excellent back suplex spot by Steiner, but he only gets two.



Steiner picks up the chair, waffles The Giant with it, referee Nick Patrick basically watches him do it and doesn't do anything about it, but in any case Giant no-sells and chokeslams his way to the win.

Result: The Giant via pinfall

Another Glacier promo. Two in one episode.

Mean Gene here to bring us the announcement of who will be repping WCW against The Outsiders at Bash at the Beach. Gene said that a top six men were selected from, "based on wins and losses and…some other considerations." Hulk Hogan, The Giant, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Sting, Randy Savage. And from that group of six, it's the last three: Luger, Sting, and Savage.

Bobby Heenan: "Everybody's talking about 'the outsiders,' the enemy. Remember in the Gulf War, we were the outsiders in Kuwait. And we kicked their tails. Don't sell anybody short here." Tony looks at Heenan quizzically and says, "…see you next week, fans."

Overall: Great episode. Flair/Savage and Malenko/Mysterio are both really good, the Anderson/Benoit vs. American Males match is decent, honestly even the main event has a fun final sequence. Also a large non-fish gets clobbered in the ****ing eye with a sock full of coins, so there's that. I really enjoyed this.

And now I sigh heavily and switch the feed to:

RAW

Fayetteville, NC

We start right off with Steve Austin's entrance music going. For a bit of flavor, here's the theme before he changed to the first of many variations on the theme that starts on shattered glass. It's not bad on its own merits, but it's way different and the change they made later this year was good.

King of the Ring Quarterfinals - Steve Austin vs. Savio Vega: Austin jumps Savio before the bell. Savio is able to turn the tables, hit an enziguiri, and get a near-fall that sends Austin scrambling outside to safety. He drags Vega to the corner, rams his leg repeatedly into the ringpost, then continues to work the leg. Savio turns things around by following Austin's exact strategy. He goes for a rest, drags Austin into the post, and tries to hobble him as well. Stone Cold's knee is shot, as Savio tries to whip him into the corner and Austin collapses before getting there. I always love it when wrestlers sell a leg injury that way.

Savio pulls Austin away from the ropes, and as Austin hangs on Savio simply jerks him loose and drops him on the back of his head in what looks like a pretty harsh impact. Austin continues to sell like a god, hobbling significantly for the remainder of the match. Savio hits a spinning wheel kick and goes for the cover, referee Mike Chioda very nearly gets to three but Austin gets a leg on the rope. Telegraphed a bit hard, but not bad. Savio continues the attack, beating on Stone Cold from behind, but as he goes for a waistlock Austin reaches behind him and debuts the Stone Cold Stunner, at this moment only named as the "whatamaneuver!" 1-2-3, Austin advances. Really good match, and fun that it ends on the first Stunner.



Result: Steve Austin via pinfall

Highlights of the Mankind/Undertaker feud so far, and a quick grim word from Taker threatening to do whatever it is he does to opponents.

As the next ring introductions begin, Steve Austin joins the commentary team since he will face the winner of the next match. They also show highlights of Jake Roberts beating Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw this past weekend to advance to the KOTR semifinals against Vader.

And, before starting the action, they do a quick video paying tribute to the late Dick Murdoch.

King of the Ring Quarterfinals - Marc Mero (w/ Sable) vs. Owen Hart (w/ Jim Cornette): Owen is still rocking the cast. Mero tries working that arm, but working a hard cast isn't going to accomplish anything. There's several minutes of completely boring action, at least disrupted a bit by Owen connecting on a spinning heel kick. He also throws a fisherman's suplex later, which wasn't part of his usual repertoire. But in spite of a couple of nice-looking spots, this is pretty dull.

Owen comes off the top with a splash attempt that lands on Marc Mero's raised knees. Mero with the comeback, throws a backdrop and then connects on a knee-lift. Owen gouges the eyes to get back into things and goes for a back suplex, but Mero escapes behind and rolls Owen up for the win.



Result: Marc Mero via pinfall

Owen attacks Mero after the bell, knocking him to the floor and then jumping at him from the apron and hitting him with his hard cast to knock him out.



Jim Ross has an in-ring interview, taped in some other arena, with the British Bulldog and Diana Hart-Smith. Bulldog says a bunch of disparaging stuff about Michaels, Michaels eventually races out of the back and tackles Bulldog from behind. Officials and jobbers separate them as they keep trying to fight each other.

Jerry Lawler and Vince McMahon at ringside talking about Lawler's upcoming match with Ultimate Warrior at King of the Ring. Lawler says he's going to give us a taste of what that match will be like, then decides he's going to go talk to Aldo Montoya, who is currently in the ring. Lawler talks on a mic toward Montoya until getting close enough and saying that people are all asking him what's going to happen when he faces the Ultimate Warrior, and he wants to show them. In the middle of his last word, Lawler suddenly jams the mic into Aldo's neck and then starts a beatdown, culminating in a jumping piledriver. Nice.



Suddenly we hear Jake Roberts's music. Jake hits the ring as Lawler scrambles out and returns to his commentary post.

They show footage of Brian Pillman at a press conference officially signing a WWF contract. Pillman gives an emotional speech about how he's dealt with a lot the past few months after a serious car accident, and how it feels amazing to be here signing a contract, etc. He thanks all involved. This was a really weird way to introduce someone who would play an unhinged psycho character. I remember that there was more footage to this press conference where he suddenly snaps, but I don't think it aired on Raw, so all people saw was him being humble and emotional and grateful. They really knew how to hype a heel's eventual debut.



Again we get highlights of Goldust giving mouth-to-mouth to Ahmed Johnson and Ahmed getting mad about it.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. Goldust (w/ Marlena): So this looks like a match made in hell. Harvey Wippleman, who was recently doing that officiating survey, is officiating this himself. While Goldust is doing some early stalling (shocker), they show clips of Jake Roberts from the Action Zone talking about his "past" drug addiction. They had a good idea here with trying to have him be a good example and inspire people to defeat their addictions, but the reality of the situation really made it look awkward in the end. As minutes pass, Goldust is STILL stalling. Holy ****ing ****, what is the deal with almost ALL of his matches having several minutes of stalling and zero contact? They were just grasping for the cheapest heat imaginable, I guess. But it's absolutely painful to have to sit through any of his matches at this point in his career.

At some point in this stalling, Jerry Lawler starts talking about how Goldust is such a Tom Cruise fan that he and Marlena sat and watched Mission: Impossible four times this weekend. Then Lawler proceeds to describe the twist at the end of the movie and gives the ending away. I looked it up, and that movie came out during this same year. I'm laughing out loud at Lawler just getting it in his mind to suddenly go into a non-sequitir about a movie and give away the ending of it. Vince gets disgusted and asks him what he's doing. Lawler: "I can give away the end of this match too, if you want." As the match continues to mostly just be stalling, Vince throws it to Mr. Perfect backstage with Jim Cornette. Perfect says he has the scoop on who is going to be the guest referee for the Michaels-Bulldog match this Sunday. He says he'll announce it after the match. How the hell have I written this much about this crap? This match has had absolutely nothing happen.



After a commercial it looks like the two opponents have finally actually begun to engage in a wrestling match. Jake puts Goldust down, signals for the DDT, Marlena feeds some gold dust to Goldust and distracts the referee. Goldust flings the dust in Jake's face to blind him and then pins him. All involved in this atrocity should be ashamed. Except for Jerry Lawler; that movie ending give-away was pretty hilarious. Oh, Wippleman sees the gold dust in Jake's face and reverses his decision. Jake wins by DQ. Whatever.

Result: Jake Roberts via DQ

A blinded Jake staggers around the ring after the match, Goldust keeps standing in front of him looking to mess with him, but Jake blindly reaches out and plants Goldust with a DDT.

Mr. Perfect with Jim Cornette backstage. Cornette builds up his choice for a referee, and announces that it is Mr. Perfect, the same guy who helped one of his charges back at WrestleMania X. Perfect vows to call the match down the middle as the show goes off the air.



Overall: Well, good opening match, but the show went downhill hard from there. Between the jumping piledriver and the movie spoiler I did enjoy Jerry Lawler, but Mero/Owen wasn't good and the main event was absolutely horrible. All in all, a sub-par episode. But at least Steve Austin birthed one of the great finishers of all time on it.

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Ratings for 6/17/96: Nitro 3.4, Raw 2.3
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 18-17-2

Better Show: Nitro in another huge blowout.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 31-6

Match of the Night: Tough choice between the best two Nitro matches, as it's comparing apples to oranges. Flair/Savage and Malenko/Mysterio were both really good in their own way, but I'll give a very slight edge to Flair/Savage just because it was an effective payoff after being built for a decent while, while Malenko/Mysterio was just a really good match that was sort of dropped into the show. Honorable mention to Austin/Vega as well, but Flair/Savage wins the night.

It's an interesting thing about that Pillman signing that WWF contract. Wasn't it the first one in a long time that had a guarantee money deal and that some people like HHH did not take that too kindly about it?

I'm not too sure of all of the details on Pillman. I know that Vince caved at some point and started giving guaranteed money, but if it was Pillman who he gave the first one to then I wasn't aware of it.

He would be an odd one to be the first to get that though, since his ankle was still ****ed up from the car wreck and he was nowhere near in good enough shape to get in the ring at this point. As it turned out, he was never really much of a worker once he did get in the ring for the WWF.

Marc Mero got a big guaranteed contract before Pillman did. Pillman's contract situation is a really interesting, convoluted story though that is still debated to this day.

Bischoff's story about Pillman, about how they gave him a formal release as a part of a handshake deal to bring him back later after he spent some time in ECW, does at least seem to check out with the way WCW talked about him from the bookerman incident until this point I've written through. Pillman had that wreck, Bischoff took time out of the following broadcast to mention that and wish him well. Suddenly the last two weeks they would plainly reference him and verbally bury him. It seems to follow with the story that he went back on his prior informal agreement to go join the enemy.

Pillman was very good friends with Dave Meltzer because Pillman had this habit of calling people in the middle of the night to talk, and Meltzer hardly sleeps at all, and in any case really needed sources. Meltzer did report that the firing/bookerman angle from WCW was a work, and Pillman was with WCW until his contract expired in April just after the wreck. Pillman then agreed to years and dollar amounts with WCW in June, but then didn't like some of the provisions in the contract so signed with WWF instead.

WWF KING OF THE RING '96



Milwaukee, WI

Opening video montage hypes all of our matches for the night.

Vince McMahon is with Jim Ross to host the show, and down comes Owen Hart (carrying his Slammy of course) to join the commentary team for the night.

King of the Ring Semifinals - Steve Austin vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Some early feeling out. The intensity ratchets up a bit after a hard back elbow by Stone Cold, but they're quickly back into a slow-down sequence, with Mero applying an extensive side headlock. Austin hits Mero hard with a Thesz press, actually sort of overshoots him and lands on the other side after impact, but that honestly makes the impact look greater. The fight takes to the floor, Austin removes the outside safety mat and slams Mero on the exposed concrete. Wildman is able to return, but SCSA has him under control, throwing a textbook suplex and continuing on the attack. Vince is critical of the fact that Austin "continues to punish someone just because he has the advantage." Wat.

Stone Cold stays on a line of methodical deconstruction of Mero, but his line of attack isn't all that interesting. After an extended Boston crab sequence, Mero starts to launch a comeback, but Austin breaks a sleeper hold by dropping down and jacking Mero's jaw. Austin is bleeding hard way from around the mouth. Match turns into more of a back and forth from there. Mero hits a top rope axhandle and gets a two-count. Whips Austin into the corner but gets a boot to the face when he charges in after him. Recovers to toss Austin out and hits the signature somersault plancha to the floor. Goes back into the ring and continues the aerial attack with a pretty impressive diving plancha onto Austin near the aisle. Sends Austin back in, hits a missile dropkick from the top.



Continues the onslaught with a top rope hurracanrana, but has to settle for the near-fall. Austin kicks Mero in the gut, picks him up overhead and hangs him over the top rope with a stun gun, but again only two.



I thought that was it. Stands up and hits the Stone Cold Stunner, and that will get the three. Jim Ross: "The Wildman tastes defeat in the WWF for the first time." The last act of this match salvages it to a reasonable extent, but man it was boring until then.

Result: Steve Austin via pinfall (16:49)
Rating: **1/4

Dok Hendrix backstage with Jake Roberts, who cuts a religious promo. Per a recent podcast, Austin was off getting stitched up due to his mouth getting busted open against Mero, but Dok Hendrix later relayed the contents of Jake's promo to Austin, and it was at that point that Austin had the great promo idea that you'll see rolled out later.

King of the Ring Semifinals - Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. Vader (w/ Jim Cornette): Well let's face it, we're not going to see a heel vs. heel KOTR final, so you essentially know that Jake is notching some sort of bull**** victory here. Vader is dominant, hitting really basic power moves and laying in his hard strikes. The big man whips Jake into the corner, gets nothing but turnbuckle on a corner charge, Jake takes quick advantage with a DDT but referee Mike Chioda gets bumped on the way down and then promptly gets up and disqualifies Vader, who incidentally shoved Chioda on the way down. Even in kayfabe, that's a completely ridiculous disqualification.



Result: Jake Roberts via DQ (3:34)
Rating: 1/4*

Vader beats down Jake after the match, avalanching him against the corner and then executing a Vaderbomb. He threatens a second one, but enough officials hit the ring that, with Jim Cornette's help, they're able to beg Vader off as Jake gets slipped out of the ring, heavily favoring his ribs on the way back out.

There's a Coliseum Video exclusive here where Vader throws a pointless tantrum in the back, screaming that he's the king of the ring.

Dok Hendrix with Sunny and the Smoking Gunns backstage. He mentions something from the pre-show to her, when the Bodydonnas introduced their new manager, Kloudi. A transvestite who dresses like Sunny. What a brilliant idea.

Tag Team Titles - The Smoking Gunns (c) (w/ Sunny) vs. The Godwinns: Jim Ross: "Sunny reminds me of Will Rogers, because she hasn't met a man she didn't like." Ross also mentions that he saw the Gunns refuse to sign autographs for some young fans earlier, so I guess they have gone heel now. Billy picks up a mic and taunts Phineas about the fact that he made Sunny feel like Phineas will NEVER make her feel. That draws an attack by Phineas and creates an opening for Bart to blindside him to open the bout. They go to a PIP interview with ****ing Kloudi in the early going.



The crowd mostly can't be bothered with these teams. The Gunns do successfully get a bit of heat after Billy throws a nice legdrop bulldog (before it was called the fameasser I guess) and taunts the crowd. They get heat on Henry Godwinn for a decent bit of time until Phineas gets the hot tag. During the ensuing four-way chaos, Bart Gunn pulls his boot off and clobbers Phineas in the back of the head with it, allowing Billy to make the pin. Silly question, but: why not just kick Phineas in the back of the head? Anyway, the ringwork in this match was alright, but it was still tough to get into since the crowd was dead. The Gunns and Sunny did some decent heeling though.

Result: Smoking Gunns via pinfall (10:10)
Rating: **

Dok backstage with British Bulldog, Jim Cornette, Clarence Mason, and Diana Hart-Smith. In mid-promo, Mr. Perfect slips into the shot in the back and is getting ready to go. Vince and Dok show disgust with this. Bulldog: "What, you think he's going to change in Shawn Michaels's locker room? He'd probably got his wallet stolen." Bulldog proceeds to yell that he's going to join the "tripleheader" club. He clearly means the triple crown club, but you know Davey; he's bizarre. I enjoy the fact that Perfect is just casually chilling in the background here. Pretty funny.



When they get back into the arena, Owen Hart assures us on commentary that when they were golfing with Mr. Perfect earlier, Perfect promised to call it down the middle. Vince is flabbergasted that they went golfing with Perfect too.

Jerry Lawler comes out for his entrance with a mic in hand, and takes a long time and multiple detours en route to the ring. "And now, Milwaukee…you bunch of losers. Just like your baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers, you're a bunch of losers." Pretty bold words from a noted Indians fan. He stops to personally harass a bunch of ringside fans. Most of them take it in good humor, but one couple clearly gets legit heated at him.



All in all, this is a pretty entertaining walk to the ring. Not all of his lines are that great, but there's just something about him keeping this goofy smile on his face while acting horribly rude that works. I'll take it as a pre-apology for having to watch this next match.

Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. The Ultimate Warrior: Happily, the Warrior seems to have ditched the baseball cap. Lawler attacks with his scepter before the bell, then continues strangling him with it until referee Jimmy Korderas gets it away from him. Then he unwraps some tape from his fist and chokes Warrior with it. This is really high-level stuff. Moves from the choking to a piledriver. Warrior no-sells the piledriver, moves into the signature babyface comeback, and the flying shoulderblock ends this one pretty quickly.

Result: Ultimate Warrior via pinfall (3:50)
Rating: 0*

Dok Hendrix reports from Jake Roberts's dressing room with Gorilla Monsoon. Jake is suffering in the background with his ribs being taped up. Gorilla says that they don't know the extent of the injuries, but that he's going to let Jake have his chance to compete in the finals, but that he'll stop the match if he feels like he has to.

Taker-Mankind build highlights lead us into the next match.

Mankind vs. The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer): Paul Bearer comes out alone, and we don't see Taker actually turn up for his usual entrance. As Bearer raises the urn to bring the lights up, Taker is perched on the corner and opens the match with a flying clothesline. Series of rapid-fire punches beat Foley down in the corner. Mankind counter-attacks, but Taker ends up hammering him in the opposite corner as well. Nice pace to start.



Taker tries to rip Mankind's mask off, to no avail. Have to admit, when this was happening I hadn't ever seen Cactus Jack and didn't know what he really looked like; the Mankind gimmick had me intrigued about that. Mankind gains control of the match and does some pretty solid quintessential Mick Foley offense. During a ref distraction he gets a steel chair and attempts to attack, but Taker puts a boot up and Mankind takes his own chair in the face. Taker continues the assault with another chair shot. Blocked tombstone into a swinging neckbreaker by Mankind.



Good moment on commentary by Jim Ross as Mankind crawls around the fallen Undertaker and just pokes at him a bit. "It's like an animal poking at its prey to see if it's gone yet. If it's defenseless." That's definitely what it looked like; I just thought JR put it well. As a slow resthold moment occurs in the match, a note: Owen Hart has not been very good at the commentary thing. He isn't a disaster, but yeah. Fast forwarding a minute or two, Taker finds himself sitting at the steel steps outside the ring and Mankind executes his great spot of sprinting into him and ramming him into the steps.



Mankind slams him on the exposed floor, then goes for the elbow from the apron, but Taker grabs a steel chair and hits him with it on impact. Referee Mike Chioda staring at the whole thing, seemingly okay with the weapon use. Follows up by standing up and clobbering Mankind with a hard unprotected chair to the skull (Chioda looked away for that one). Taker throws his flying clothesline and looks like he's ramping up toward his finisher, but Mankind fires back with his sit-down piledriver.

He steals the urn from Paul Bearer and rares back to swing it at Taker, but as he lifts it overhead Bearer takes it back. Undertaker starts to get back up, but Mankind catches him with the Mandible Claw. Doesn't seem to have it fully locked in, and Taker gets back to his feet. As the two struggle, Paul Bearer stays perched on the apron, seemingly ready to use the urn as a weapon. Bearer does swing it, but Mankind ducks away and it hits Undertaker. Straight into the Mandible Claw, fully locked in, and Taker passes out. Mankind wins. Good match IMO. By the way, the crowd sucked again here, and unlike the earlier tag match, this definitely deserved some love.



Result: Mankind via submission (18:21)
Rating: ***1/4

Mankind picks up a steel chair and slowly chases Paul Bearer to the back.

Dok is with Mr. Perfect in the back. Perfect laughs off notions of impropriety in dressing in Bulldog's dressing room. Shawn Michaels drops by to urge Perfect to be a fair referee, then leaves. Perfect: "He seem nervous to you, Dok?"

The Goldust match is up next. Boy I sure hope there's like 10 ****ing minutes of stalling.

Intercontinental Title - Goldust (c) vs. Ahmed Johnson: Ahmed bursts through the King of the Ring doors and knocks over the attendants who would normally open them up manually. Charges into the ring, attacks while Goldy is still in his robe, and turns him inside out with a clothesline. Johnson with a flying plancha that looked like it was going to be awesome, but unfortunately missed entirely. Ahmed just no-sells the landing and keeps attacking. He picks up the steel steps and flings them at Goldust, but misses. I like the intensity he's bringing and the lack of stalling so far.



Ahmed pusses out hard on a stair bump. Shades of Kelly Kelly running into the ropes. He gets less of a choice a moment later when Goldust drops the stairs on him. Dustin takes this into slow-down at this point, with an extended reverse chinlock. Ahmed works his way out of it eventually, but Goldust throws some stiff punches to remain in control. Bad piledriver by Goldust. Vince: "He got some of it, not all of it." Actually he got none of it, but Ahmed is selling all the same. Goldust returns to attempting to bore Ahmed to death. I know that Goldust eventually went on to have some good matches in the WWF, but holy ****, this 1996 version of him is just hopelessly dull in the ring. It's like every damn match is an homage to Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts from WrestleMania IV.

Goldust uses the sleeper, seems to maybe have Ahmed out, but he releases the hold and then gives Ahmed mouth-to-mouth. Ahmed, playing the role of Snow White, appears to have been awoken by true love's first kiss, and he beats the **** out of Goldust. Spinebuster, Pearl River Plunge, and we have a new Intercontinental Champion. Hell, I'm surprised to say it, but the more entertaining worker at this point in time actually won this match. That's definitely not how I remembered feeling about this title change.



Result: Ahmed Johnson via pinfall, new IC Champ (15:34)
Rating: *3/4

Coliseum Video exclusive: Ahmed Johnson enters the babyface locker room to find a whole bunch of jobbers celebrating him. The Bushwhackers even. Shawn Michaels enters the shot and gives him a hug as well.

Back to the main stage. Brian Pillman is limping to the ring on crutches. Jim Ross tries to interview him. Pillman gives a decent promo. He's full psychotic heel now, so he's done with the teary act from the contract signing press conference. He vows to rape, pillage, and plunder this entire company.

He encounters Steve Austin on his way down to the ring and gives him some sort of show of solidarity that Austin no-sells. I like that moment.



King of the Ring Finals - Steve Austin vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts: Jake selling that rib injury hard on the way to the ring. Stone Cold attacks him before the bell to kick things off. This is basically a squash match. Jake throws a couple of punches and then crumbling from rib pain when he does. Austin downs him and then rips the bandage away from Roberts's ribs. Gorilla Monsoon enters the ring in mid-match and orders Austin to the corner while Gorilla checks on Jake. Jake strongly waves Gorilla off when Gorilla asks him about quitting, then suddenly goes and cheap shots Austin now that he's been given an unfair timeout from a compromising position. Series of punches by the old man, and he goes for the DDT, but Austin lunges forward and drives Roberts into the corner. Picks him up, delivers the Stone Cold Stunner (which, in its infancy, didn't look near as cool as what it became), and Jake is put out of his misery with the three-count.

Result: Steve Austin via pinfall, wins the 1996 King of the Ring (4:28)
Rating: *

Stone Cold heads to the coronation platform and unleashes greatness.



The legend has arrived. What an elite promo. As they were ramping up toward this I always remember hating sitting through these Jake Roberts tournament matches, but if you book someone else as Stone Cold's final victim in the tournament, Austin 3:16 is never born. Sure, maybe he cuts some other elite promo, but it's crazy to think about this one not happening. All of that is to say…the price of sitting through a few Jake Roberts matches was worth it.

WWF Title - Shawn Michaels (c) (w/ Jose Lothario) vs. British Bulldog (w/ Jim Cornette & Diana Hart-Smith): Full match writeup here. Match starts out kinda slow, but builds to greatness. The Mr. Perfect involvement turns out to be a huge red herring, as Gorilla Monsoon comes out before the match and relegates him to being a referee outside the ring. At the final three-count, he jumps into the ring to count with Hebner, but it appears that they're both going to count to three when Owen Hart drags Perfect out of the ring. Frankly, this being Shawn Michaels, I can't help but think that there was a different ending in mind when Perfect was announced as a referee, and what he actually ended up doing makes it seem to me like plans changed after he was originally inserted. And that points back to a certain world champion with a penchant for tantrums. But in any case, great match.



Result: Shawn Michaels via pinfall (26:24)
Rating: ****

After the match, Owen Hart runs in and attacks, still in a tuxedo from his announcing duties. Michaels fights off both Owen and Davey until the numbers finally overcome and Owen drops HBK with a spinning wheel kick. Double suplex by the brothers-in-law. Ahmed Johnson out for the save. Vader out for the counter-save. The Camp Cornette guys unleash some carnage while at a 3-on-2 advantage, and they have Shawn Michaels held in place as Vader heads all the way to the top, but Ultimate Warrior runs in to knock Vader off the top and clean house. The babyfaces hold the ring.



Before this show even goes off the air, they pass along the announcement that we're getting a six-man tag main event of Camp Cornette vs. Shawn Michaels/Ahmed Johnson/Ultimate Warrior at the next PPV, In Your House: International Incident, the first live wrestling event I ever attended. I'm actually not sure if I've ever seen the TV broadcast version, aside from having watched that main event at least once.

Our last Coliseum Video Exclusive features a pretty fantastic promo from Cornette and his men. Vader doesn't really talk, but the other three do and they're all great here.

Overall: Good event overall IMO. Even with some really weak spots, the rise of Steve Austin and the birth of Austin 3:16 goes a long damn way by itself, and then the PPV proceeded to deliver a great main event as well as a strong first match in the Undertaker/Mankind feud.