What SCSA did was way worse than what Hogan did so him getting released would just be the tip of the iceberg.

I still remember the noise Rey getting thrown made. That noise and the fact that things like that were so rarely done at the time really helped make it so huge. Especially with the heels and faces not with the NWO all being on the same side. A lot of people actually called the police on the NWO that night. But if crazy stuff like this happens every show people become desensitized to it.

Schiavone had some technical skill as an announcer but the hyperbole really killed his credibility, and credibility is essential for a play by play announcer in wrestling. Otherwise things can feel phony and absurd at times that they are supposed to be intense.

August 5, 1996

RAW

Seattle, WA

Jerry Lawler is en route to the ring carrying a paper bag and a bottle of liquor inside, swigging on it. Man, I didn't remember them carrying on his mockery of Jake Roberts for so long. Vince McMahon and Jim Ross on the call, and Vince hypes a battle royal for later tonight, where the winner will get a WWF Title shot the night after SummerSlam. Lawler picks up a mic and has another go at Jake until he's interrupted by Aldo Montoya's music and pyro.

Jerry Lawler vs. Aldo Montoya: Lawler suckers Montoya into bending over to pick up his microphone, and obviously uses that opening to take a cheap shot. Montoya turns the tables quickly, flooring King with a dropkick and then a punch off the top rope. Signals for Jake's DDT, but Lawler escapes. Backdrop by the masked underdog, then a corner mount and a 10-punch. Montoya drops his head too soon on another backdrop attempt and eats a piledriver from Lawler. Lawler goes directly into a second piledriver and scores the win. He grabs the bottle of liquor from ringside and pours it down Montoya's throat after the match. Obviously they were building Lawler toward a grudge match with Jake Roberts, but I don't think it ever materialized.



Result: Jerry Lawler via pinfall

New Rockers vs. Bodydonnas: Hillbilly Jim joins in for commentary. The Rockers ambush Skip and Zip before the match, then start straight into a double front suplex that lands Zip across the top rope. These two teams could both go to some extent in the ring, but the crowd couldn't possibly care less about either one, so watching them wrestle each other is death. Speaking of death, it seems like you could have gotten huge odds and a huge payout if you bet on Marty Jannetty in a last longer pool against Chris Candido. PIP promo from Sunny and Faarooq, as Faarooq will apparently wrestle Skip next week.

The Godwinns and Gunns are both sitting around in separate areas backstage watching this match for some reason. Leif Cassidy hangs Skip along the top rope from the apron when he's not the legal man. Marty Jannetty baits Zip into the ring while Cassidy executes a very nice swinging neckbreaker on the floor.



Cassidy continues stomping at Skip and then rolls him in, but Marty's cover only gets two. More nice double-teaming from the Rockers here. I always rooted for them and hoped they would get over, but I'm not sure I ever saw a crowd react to them even a little bit. It really doesn't help that only Al Snow was actually trying hard between the two. In mid-match, we get footage of Gorilla Monsoon telling Clarence Mason that he is very reluctantly reinstating Mason's ex-convict client to the WWF. I know who it is, but he still isn't identified. Vince says he'll be in action next week though, and Jim Ross adds that Mason has now gotten a manager's license to manage this wrestler.

They go to commercial, and Skip must have made a hot tag during the break, as they come back to four-way action in the ring. Rockers whip the Bodydonnas into each other, Jannetty hammers on Skip, Cassidy goes up top but Marty ****s up and whips Skip into the near ropes and causes Cassidy to fall and get crotched along the turnbuckle. Skip backdrops Jannetty out, follows with a top rope hurracanrana on Cassidy, and just as it looks like Zip is going to finish things off, the Smoking Gunns show up out of nowhere and attack for the DQ. There was some occasional good work in this match, but a dead crowd still doomed it and made it feel far too long. That and a lame finish means that I give this one a pretty firm thumbs down.

Result: Bodydonnas via DQ

The Gunns and Rockers go 4-on-2 at the Bodydonnas, but the Godwinns come out to even the score, and the faces hold the ring. This rendition of the tag team division was so dreadful.

Kevin Kelly has a pre-recorded interview with Shawn Michaels on a park bench. Kelly asks him about Vader coming at him, Mankind coming at him, and asks if Michaels's "whole world is crumbling around him." Shawn says that he never claimed to be unbeatable, declining to mention that he of course refuses to actually lay down for almost anyone ever. He says that he's just like anyone else. He puts his pants on two legs at a time…except that once his pants are on, he makes gold records. Look, I love watching Michaels work in the ring, but it's nauseating to watch him pretend to be the humble salt of the earth back in the mid-90s.



Raw Invitational Battle Royal: The entrances we actually see here are Mankind, Ahmed Johnson, Goldust, Sid, and the Undertaker. I remember who wins, but if I didn't then I could believe that a number of these guys have some sort of shot at securing a title shot. In a rare moment, Taker's gong hits, the lights stay on, and Taker just races to the ring and attacks Mankind to kick things off. He clotheslines Mankind over the top and both hit the floor simultaneously to be the first two eliminated, then they keep brawling to the back. Ahmed eliminates the British Bulldog. One positive thing I'll say for WWF here is that the ring contains a lot of realistic options for winning this match.

Sid eliminates a guy who clearly didn't have a shot, Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw. After a bunch of slow-moving nothingness, Marc Mero clotheslines Owen Hart out over the top. A couple of minutes later, Mero charges at Goldust like an idiot and gets backdropped into the abyss to be eliminated. Then Savio Vega, who looked totally out of place from the opening bell, just randomly eliminates himself like a moron.



Taker and Mankind have been brawling through the arena and actually brawl through the middle of the ring before taking the fight back into the crowd. They've built that feud well. We're down to Sid, Steve Austin, Ahmed Johnson, and Goldust as our final four. Goldust seems like obvious cannon fodder, but the other three were all believable contenders. This final four goes on for ages, with the remaining guys pretending to try to eliminate each other as they wrestle against the ropes. Sid does powerbomb Goldust, but doesn't eliminate him. Also powerbombs Austin a few minutes later, but then just follows with a camel clutch which would never ever accomplish anything. They try to entertain us by occasionally showing footage in the back of Taker and Mankind brawling in the backstage area.

Owen Hart and British Bulldog come to ringside and distract Sid, allowing Austin to eliminate him, and we're finally down to three. Goldust and Austin strike an alliance for a moment to attack Ahmed, but Dustin backstabs Austin as soon as Ahmed is down and beats Austin to the mat. He nearly eliminates Austin, but Austin hangs on and manages to survive, then re-enters with revenge on his mind. Ahmed comes up behind and kicks Austin in the ribs. Vince actually mentions that Ahmed has a ruptured kidney…that happened on Faarooq's attack earlier in the taping (so a couple of episodes ago), and I guess they must have acknowledged the injury on weekend TV in the meantime. It is pretty crazy that he worked for this long on the night with that serious of an internal injury. Ahmed tries to eliminate Austin, and Goldust runs up and helps him toss Austin out.

Goldust vs. Ahmed for the title shot. Goldust drops an elbow right on Ahmed's kidney area, then executes a piledriver. They choose that moment to go to break. Back from break, Ahmed clutches Goldust in a hold from behind. He stands up, charges toward Goldust along the ropes, it knocks both of them over the top, but Ahmed hangs on for dear life and survives long enough for Goldust to hit the floor. Ahmed earns the title shot.



Result: Ahmed Johnson wins

After the match, they advertise Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart in a non-title match next week. Hope they get quite a bit of time. Vince joins Ahmed in the ring and unfortunately asks Ahmed to cut a promo. Ahmed says that he's not sure if he's happy or sad, because if he has to face Shawn he'll be sad. Ahmed lacks the requisite heart to bury his friend, I guess. Faarooq runs to the ring and interrupts. They do a bit of brawling because Ahmed hadn't taken enough of a beating for one night. Officials try to pull them apart, and that's how the show ends.

Overall: Battle royal REALLY dragged on forever. Tag match dragged too. Another bad episode with very little to like.

NITRO

Orlando, FL

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko welcome us to the show. Larry specifically welcomes us to another week of saying "New World Odor." Tony points out that there are four empty chairs at ringside, and they speculate that those are there for the nWo. With that, we go to the ring.

Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) (w/ Sister Sherri & Col. Parker) vs. Rock 'n Roll Express: Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton are set up as the babyfaces here, but before the match ever starts the fans have broken into a "Heat" chant. There really wasn't much value to the Express at this point. Tony Schiavone rattles off the card for the night, then says it's one of the finest cards they've ever had on Nitro. Note: only one of the matches sounds even mildly intriguing, and that one is basically an enhancement match. But anyway, we'll get to the rest of the card later.

Booker T shoulderblocks Morton hard to the mat to get this thing going. Morton takes like a full minute to collect himself from a single shoulderblock, which would be more understandable if he was actually as old as he looks. Booker throws another shoulderblock…can hardly blame him since Morton sells it like it's a jumping piledriver. Robert Gibson runs in illegally, the Express are able to double-team Booker to the floor, and as order gets restored we head to commercial. After break, they note that wrestlers are actually standing watch as bodyguards against the nWo during the match. This includes the services of your hero and mine:



Booker hits a mafia kick on Morton, then drops an axe kick on him as he's doubled over. The Heat continue double-teaming Ricky and preventing him from tagging out. Morton gets a surprise roll-up when Stevie Ray gets distracted by Parker and Sherri outside, but the roll-up only gets two. Booker expresses his agitation with his idiot lovebird managers. Booker tags in, misses on an elbow, but spinaroonies back to his feet and hits the Harlem sidekick. Side salto, then he goes to the second rope and again misses, this time on a knee drop. Morton makes the lukewarm tag to Gibson, four-way chaos ensues, the Express connect on the double dropkick, but Stevie Ray runs ref distraction during the cover, Sherri gets mixed up with Gibson, who shoves her down, and amidst all this Booker hits a front kick and gets the pinfall with half of his damn body outside of the ring. Not a good match.



Result: Harlem Heat via pinfall

Mean Gene with the Nasty Boys at the top of the aisle. Gene asks them about their relationship with Hulk Hogan. Brian Knobbs says that Hogan does what he wants to do and they do what they want to do. Sting and Lex Luger come out and confront them. Sting asks where they actually stand, in WCW or in the nWo. The Nasty Boys just say they stand with themselves.

Malia Hosaka (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Madusa: Well this match sucked the last time they did it, so my hopes are certainly high. Leg trip by Madusa, takedown by Hosaka to counter. Madusa with a sunset flip that gets two. Hosaka throws her across the ring (read: a foot or less) by the hair. Catapult by Hosaska pulls Madusa throat-first into the bottom rope. Madusa back up with a spinning wheel kick, but Hosaka double-legs her to the mat and then grapevines her right leg before slowly transitioning into a figure-four leglock. The fans chant "USA," which I suppose is better than awkward silence. Madusa escapes, Hosaka back into a bad leg hold, cranks on the leg a couple of times, and…I don't know why I'm giving these women play-by-play. This action is awful; both wrestlers seem to be awful. Frankly, it just doesn't take much to no-sell this action.



Superplex by Madusa. Onoo gets up on the apron, Madusa dropkicks him off, but Hosaka blindsides Madusa and Onoo holds her leg to enable the pin.

Result: Malia Hosaka via pinfall

We're shown highlights of Eddie Guerrero scoring the cheap countout victory over Chris Benoit a couple of weeks ago after Dean Malenko interfered. Tony Schiavone updates us from the weekend shows and says that Jimmy Hart has cut Malenko a deal and said that if Malenko takes care of Benoit, Hart will get Malenko another Cruiserweight Title shot.

Alex Wright vs. Chris Benoit (w/ Woman & Miss Elizabeth): This would be the mildly intriguing enhancement match I referenced earlier. Benoit wrestles Wright into the corner, feigns a clean break and then keeps hammering until referee Nick Patrick backs him up. Patrick stepping in opens a window for Wright to get some offense in, a series of moves culminating in a dropkick that sends Benoit sprawling to the outside. We see a shot of a black limo, presumably belonging to the nWo. Wright continues with another flurry of moves, connecting twice on that spot that looks like a dropkick and turns into a flying headscissor.



Wright's momentum is finally broken up by a missed corner charge as Larry points out that Meng is working bodyguard duty for a Horseman despite being in the Dungeon of Doom. Crisp back suplex by Benoit, who rakes Wright's eyes against the ropes and then flings him hard to the mat. Front suplex hangs Wright stomach-first across the top rope. I don't understand why that spot is so widely used…it never looks all that good. Abdominal stretch. Then a camel clutch. Unfortunately this match isn't good either. Jimmy Hart shows up at ringside and gives the hard sell to Woman to leave the Horsemen and join the Dungeon, as if this is the moment he would choose to do that, live cameras rolling and all. Now Dean Malenko comes out and grabs Woman by the arm. Benoit sees, jumps outside and attacks, and brawls up the aisle with Malenko to get counted out.

Result: Alex Wright via countout

Lord Steven Regal (w/ Jeeves) vs. Randy Savage: Ah, this could be good, though they announced this match as "Randy Savage in action later" and didn't even mention Regal. That couldn't be good for the state of Regal's push. Regal hits a couple of minor moves early, and showboats after a hip-toss. Some more nice mat wrestling from Regal as he counters into a drop toehold and continues to strut around the ring. For whatever I said about Regal's push, at least he's getting to show respectably against the Macho Man here. As the countdown starts to the second hour, Tony comments that he's just getting word that Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan haven't arrived for some reason, so he just says that he and Larry will stay on.



Some vicious forearms in the corner by Regal. Savage fights back, and then the camera shows Sting and Lex Luger calmly walking to the ring. They sit in two of the vacant ringside seats on the hard camera side. Savage suddenly goes into the end sequence by executing a scoop slam and hitting a flying elbow off the top. There was a bit of good stuff here, but it didn't really develop into a full story, and the ending felt abrupt.

Result: Randy Savage via pinfall

Sting and Luger head over to the limo as the camera follows them. Sting opens the door and finds a bouquet of white flowers with a sash that says "Condolences on the death of WCW." Schiavone for some reason responds as if he's Joe Buck watching Randy Moss pretend to moon the Green Bay crowd, calling it a "really cruel, unfunny joke." Really it was just lame.

Mean Gene with Randy Savage. He says that Randy Savage will get the first WCW Title shot after the Giant defends against Hulk Hogan. Sting and Luger bring the flowers into the ring and go back over the message that accompanied it. Sting reacts very literally and proclaims that WCW is alive and well. Sting sets up the flowers like a football so that can Savage can kick them. This is really, really stupid.



After commercial, it's still Tony and Larry. They're alarmed that Bischoff and Heenan aren't here, and they think that some foul play might have happened.

We see footage from WCW Saturday Night, where Ric Flair had Chavo Guerrero in the figure-four and wouldn't release it, causing Eddie Guerrero to run in for the save.

Booty Man (w/ the Booty Babe) vs. Ric Flair (w/ Woman, Miss Elizabeth, & Debra McMichael): After the entrance of Flair and the women, Arn Anderson strolls out in street clothes, one arm heavily bandaged. He sets up a steel chair and sits in it facing outward to stay on watch for Flair during this match. Flair with a cheap shot before the bell, brawls with Booty Man to the outside and then rolls him back in to continue to work him over. Blatant low blow by Flair right in front of the referee, who doesn't so much as blink. Bobby Heenan arrives at ringside with no answers, asking WTF is going on with Bischoff being missing. As that distraction is happening, Chris Benoit and Mongo McMichael come into the ring and attack Booty Man while he's already in Flair's figure-four. So they just got Flair disqualified for no apparent reason I guess. These matches are a mess tonight.

Result: Booty Man via DQ

The beatdown continues after the match, with Arn Anderson walloping Booty Man's knee hard with a steel chair. Mean Gene comes in and joins the Horsemen for a word. As Flair keeps beating up Booty Man in the background, Arn cuts a promo about how last week's beating just woke him up and helped him see the meaning of life. He continues, "If you're gonna take a baseball bat to a Horseman, finish the job! Because there's one rule of gang fighting. See, we are the original gang, and we are the most vicious in all of professional wrestling history. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue."



Benoit continues the promo…badly. Then onto Mongo, who threatens the nWo more and tells them that they'd better get eyes in the back of their head. Flair yells that he's sending a message to Hogan and goes back to attacking Booty Man. He comes back to the mic and tells Hogan that Hogan crossed the line this time.

They kill off 5+ minutes showing the footage of last week's nWo ambush again. What is this, Monday Night Raw?

We get another black-and-white paid announcement by the nWo. It gets interrupted midway through by the production truck, who say that Sting and Luger asked them to stop it. We see inside the production truck, where Sting and Luger are threatening the production guys not to air something like that again.

WCW Title - The Giant (c) (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Sgt. Craig Pittman (w/ Teddy Long): Giant punches and rams his ass into Pittman a few times. Pittman attempts a flying headbutt that just bounces off the big man. Chokeslam, cover, and this is another quick squash.

Result: The Giant via pinfall

Giant sets up for a second chokeslam on Pittman. Teddy Long comes in and begs for his man's safety, and Giant drops Pittman and chokeslams Long instead. Tony protests while Long is being chokeslammed, but then just sort of embraces it as a message to Hulk Hogan.



Gene Okerlund upbraids the Giant for attacking Teddy Long. "This is just a manager, a man off the street." Jimmy Hart starts to cut an anti-Hogan promo, but the black limo returns to its previous spot in the back, causing Gene to interrupt. Nothing happening yet, so Giant finishes the promo.

Glacier promo. No longer coming in July I guess.

Footage from WCW Saturday Night, when Mongo McMichael repossessed his briefcase from Randy Savage during a Savage/Sting vs. Nasty Boys match. I didn't actually realize that Randy had permanently taken it just because he took it and briefly used it as a weapon on Nitro recently.

Nasty Boys vs. Sting & Lex Luger: After the ring intros, the Steiners come down to ringside as well, standing watch with steel chairs. The Nasty Boys are less than pleased to have them there. Jerry Sags hammers on Lex to open, but Lex quickly fights back and hammers Sags in the corner in return. Sags raises the boot on a corner charge and then tags out. Clotheslines by Luger on both Nasty Boys, then he tags Sting in. Jumping shoulderblock, running facebuster, cover gets two. Sags trips Sting from outside the ring as Knobbs capitalizes with an elbow. Luger gets furious and distracts the referee so that Knobbs and Sags can double-team at length.

Hard clothesline on a corner charge by Sags. He and Knobbs continue a pretty boring double-team on the Stinger, keeping the match grounded and slow-moving and difficult to sit through. We wait this out until the inevitable hot tag to Luger. Luger enters with a slingshot kick, clotheslines to both opponents, powerslam to Sags. Torture rack gets cut off quickly by Knobbs. Sting returns to even the score, Luger and Sags take the action outside, and Rick Steiner hits a clothesline on Sags. Luger rolls him back into the middle, Sting applies the Scorpion Deathlock as the illegal man, but the submission counts. Whole lot of nothing.



Result: Sting & Luger via submission

After commercial, Sting and Luger have some kids in the ring and flex with them. They help the kids out of the ring and start in on an interview with Mean Gene. Gene mentions that the limousine is back. Sting and Luger act really corny and decide to go check it out. Okerlund follows. Sting opens the door, someone tosses a leather bag out to him and slams the door, then the limo drives off. Sting goes to open the bag, but the show goes off the air. But then we get an "after the show exclusive," where Sting opens the bag to find a note saying, "Rey was right, there are four guys…or are there five? See ya in Sturgis!" Well it's a good thing they cut off the normal show before that lame excuse for a cliffhanger.

Overall: One of the worst Nitros I've seen. Just completely awful. They obviously had no ideas to actually advance the nWo story tonight, so they basically stalled for two hours to get themselves to the PPV. In the meantime, none of the matches were good. The Arn Anderson promo was fine, but it had been done before, and it would be scraping bottom to even pick that brief minute out as a bright spot anyway.

Ratings for 8/5/96: Nitro 3, Raw 2.8
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 25-17-2

Better Show: I'll take Raw on a really bad default, because one bad hour of wrestling was easier to sit through than two horrible hours.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 37-7

Match of the Night: I would truly pick nothing. Forced to pick something…****, I don't know. Randy Savage vs. Steven Regal.

So it might be the only PPV that this is true of for a good while in the Monday Night Wars, but I've never seen Hog Wild '96. I remember I was on a family vacation when it happened and I just had to find out what happened later. I'm supposing that I'm going to find out that I've seen a match or two from it once I get it started, but I can't remember seeing any of them. Despite that awful Nitro killing all of my will to watch wrestling, this PPV does look like it was good on paper, so I'm hoping for an enjoyable watch when I get to it.

No, I'm almost sure they fought at Summerslam. Don't remember anything else about it, though.

What you're going to find is a very polarizing match between Malenko and Benoit. You'll find it either really boring or zomg technical wizards because it goes on for ev er. Benoit and Malenko are two of my favorites ever but I hated it when I saw it a year or so ago. The match is much in the same vein as Guerrero/Malenko 2/3 falls in ECW. The main event is fun for what is was trying to accomplish.

Alright, well I'm interested to see it one way or the other. It will get the full Meltzer thread treatment since Dave apparently liked it a lot.

That was worth it just for pictures of the really cool guy Scott Norton.

Maybe Glacier's arrival was intended as a joke, playing off the fact that Glaciers move very slowly.

I'm guessing it went something like

1. Advertise Glacier at length for a July debut.
2. Book five shows starting in early July for the outdoors in Orlando, as well as a PPV in outdoor South Dakota.
3. Realize that the elaborate entrance they had worked up for him can't be done outside.
4. Delay Glacier debut until they were back to doing indoor arena shows.

I suspect that within two Nitros we'll get our "next week is the most long-awaited debut in the history of our sport" announcement.

WCW HOG WILD '96



Sturgis, SD

A video montage welcomes us to the event, and…



…mother of God, Dusty. Let's just go to the ring.

Cruiserweight Title - Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs. Ultimo Dragon (w/ Sonny Onoo): Mike Tenay joins the announce team to help call the match. This is Ultimo's WCW debut, at least for PPV/Nitro. Dragon and Rey trade armbars/armdrags. Some nice move-countermove mat wrestling between the two, and Dragon settles briefly into a reverse chinlock. Slam and another chinlock. Sends Mysterio into the ropes and connects on a spinning wheel kick. Lots of quick action between the two so far, but the match hasn't really gone anywhere yet. Dragon hits his signature series of kicks culminating in a jumping back kick, then a dropkick after sending the champion off the ropes. Corner whip and a handspring back elbow. While I do hate the handspring back elbow into the corner, it's admittedly better-looking out of Ultimo than it is out of someone like Chyna who would seemingly go into slow motion and destroy all forward momentum before finally just hitting the person.



Running powerbomb by the Dragon, who doesn't bother following up with a pin. Figure-four. Tenay puts over that the Dragon recently beat Jushin Liger in two and a half minutes, and then turned around the next night and beat Shinjiro Otani as well. Rey eventually gets the rope break and takes a breather as Dusty calls Sonny Onoo "a snake in the rice paddy" as opposed to Jimmy Hart being "a snake in the grass." Dragon with an overhead rack, does something of an airplane spin and then drops to his knees for a backbreaker. Now into an attempted surfboard, but can't quite get it fully locked in and Rey is able to slip out.

Dragon backdrops Rey over the ropes, but Rey lands on the apron. Springboard dropkick by Rey, who then puts Dragon all the way out of the ring and sends him all the way to the lower level of dirt beneath the floor. Rey hits a huge springboard plancha all the way down there that unfortunately the camera doesn't bother capturing. It seems like it was probably awesome given how long the jump was, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, we'll never really see it. Both make their way back in. Rey with a hurracanrana from the top to the mat. Mysterio flips over the top, attempts a springboard maneuver, but Dragon dropkicks him on the way in, knocking the champ back to the floor. The challenger pulls up early on a run toward the ropes, but then executes a dropkick through the middle rope, hangs on and skins the cat, and then hits a pescado to the outside. Nice sequence.



Both up slowly, both back inside. Dragon gets a near-fall on a German suplex. Follows with an asai moonsault, then a beauty of a moonsault off the top rope. Still only two. Goes for another running powerbomb, but Rey counters into a hurracanrana. Rey sets Dragon up on the top turnbuckle, hurracanrana attempt is blocked, but Rey jumps straight back up and connects on the rana for the win. While the first half of the match was disappointing, the second half was strong and made this a good match.

Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall (11:35)
Rating: ***1/2

Scott Norton vs. Ice Train: Train has a heavy wrap around his left shoulder and bicep, apparently from getting in The Giant's face during the pre-show and Giant reacting accordingly. Norton and Train trade hard punches and chops. Norton gets the better of the exchange and kicks directly at the bandaged shoulder, and starts to tear the bandage away. Train spills outside, Norton follows and softly runs him shoulder-first into the ringpost. Action continues back inside, Train gets some adrenaline up and bodyslams Norton, but Norton pops back to his feet and goes right back on the attack. This is just a lot of punches and elbows. Train tries launching a comeback, throwing a few chops and finally dropping Norton, but again Norton just springs to his feet and fights back, putting his former partner down and then dropping a leg on the injured arm.

Norton misses on a running clothesline, Train counters with a quick powerslam that gets a near-fall, but that was seemingly his last gasp. Norton with an armbreaker on the injured limb, and then an armbar gets the submission. This match was crap, but at least mercifully short. Norton mostly dominated the brief action, so there really isn't even a good Norton gif to present to you.



Result: Scott Norton via submission (5:05)
Rating: 1/4*

Next is a vignette where Ric Flair talks about the attack nWo launched on Arn Anderson. Said "if Arn Anderson is down, I'm there." Continues by saying that he had decided that the Horsemen and the nWo could co-exist until they jumped on Arn Anderson, and now it's a whole new ballgame. He said that his other best friend is…this company, WCW, and that he'll fight for it. Then why had he decided that he was just going to co-exist with the nWo before? That contradiction aside, not a bad promo.

Battle of the Bikes - Madusa vs. Bull Nakano (w/ Sonny Onoo): Onoo rides a bike in with Nakano. Madusa rides in on her own. I don't actually know what the gimmick is here. Nakano attacks Madusa with nunchucks in plain sight, which I guess is legal since the referee clearly watches it happen. Nakano continues by flinging Madusa across the mat by the hair a couple of times. Apparently the winner gets to destroy the loser's bike after the match. I wasn't even aware that these women owned bikes; they probably don't. Whatever. Madusa with a series of clotheslines and a two-count.

Double-leg by Nakano into the scorpion cross-lock, but she can't quite get it locked in. She drops it and moves on. Bull continues with the DDT, and then locks in a reverse chinlock. Madusa never ever impressed me on any level, but I always kind of liked Nakano. Bull misses with a clothesline, Madusa executes a nice hurracanrana and gets two. Bad spinning wheel kick continues the comeback, but she attempts another one that Nakano dodges and follows with a hard clothesline. Waistlock by Nakano, Madusa escapes and goes behind for a German suplex. Two. Back suplex by Nakano gets another two. Bobby Heenan keeps saying "she got her" on every damn two-count, and Schiavone finally yells at him about it. Great comic instincts by Heenan a moment later when Madusa does a sunset flip and Heenan quickly jumps in with "she didn't get her" on the kickout.



Nakano hits a back suplex, referee counts to three despite Madusa getting her arm up on two, referee tries to wave off his own three-count but Sonny Onoo already grabs a sledgehammer and races toward Madusa's bike to hammer it as the referee tries to wave him off. Now the bell rings as Madusa gets the sledgehammer and beats on Nakano's bike. Referee raises Madusa's arm in victory for no apparent reason. It's like they disqualified Bull Nakano because Sonny Onoo tried to go after Madusa's bike after a three-count. Until the idiotic ending this was half-decent.

Result: Madusa via DQ (5:00)
Rating: *3/4

Dean Malenko vs. Chris Benoit (w/ Woman & Miss Elizabeth): Full writeup here. Long, and far too often boring, match. Very disappointing. From iso's description I thought I was going to fall on the opposite side from him, but instead I absolutely agree. Benoit wins with a schoolboy after Woman distracts Malenko.



Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall (26:55)
Rating: **

Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) (w/ Sister Sherri & Col. Parker) vs. The Steiner Brothers: Massive crowd heat for Stevie and Booker. I remember hearing that this biker crowd acted super racist toward them…I don't know if that's implied by the amount of heat for them compared to everyone else tonight or if something makes it explicit, so I guess I'll be on the lookout. Ah, I see a Confederate flag in the audience being proudly waved by someone in the audience. I'm going to go ahead and say that what I heard was legitimate. Well that's ****ty.



Scott hits a press slam on Booker. Corner mount and a 10-punch. Hip-toss sends Booker rolling to the floor. He tags Stevie upon re-entering. Stevie drops some hammering blows down on Scott. Scott counters with a modified northern lights suplex before tagging out to Rick. The crowd revs their bikes and honks their horns for the tag. Running clothesline by Rick gets two, and he tags back out. Booker tags in as well and hits a side salto on Scotty. Scott raises a boot on a corner charge, then executes a nice belly-to-belly that gets two. Back to Rick. Rick blocks a suplex attempt by Booker and then connects on his own. Stevie slows Rick down with a cheap shot from the apron, then tags in. It's always stunning how huge the downgrade in action is when Booker tags Stevie…Stevie was just the ****ing worst.

Fast forward to the tag to Booker. Rick catches him on an attempted leapfrog or cross-body and turns it into a powerslam. Tag to Scott, who hits a dropkick. Transitions into an STF from there that Stevie runs in to break up. As the referee is getting rid of him, Steiners strangely do that heel move where Rick comes in illegally even though he could have tagged, and then they pretend he did tag. Stevie pulls the top rope down as Rick goes running into the ropes, and he spills hard to the floor. Upon Rick's eventual re-entry, Booker attempts a Harlem side kick, ends up hung up in the ropes, and Rick knocks him hard to the floor.



The sun starts setting during this match, and it's noticeably darker than it was just during the ring entrances. Front kick by Stevie Ray, who is really proud that he got one of his feet off the ground, so he showboats a bit. Tag to Booker, who continues the control of Rick with a reverse chinlock. Releases the hold, misses an elbow drop, spinaroonie and a Harlem side kick connects. Tag to Stevie. Please stop tagging Stevie. Suplex, almost a brainbuster, gets two. Booker in, climbs to the second rope, taunts the rednecks in the crowd, then misses with a knee drop. Hot tag to Scott Steiner. Usual hot tag stuff, four-way action, Sherri and Parker both get on the apron, Parker inadvertently throws powder in Booker T's eyes, but he makes up for it by clobbering Scott with a cane and knocking him out. Booker scores the pin, and the Heat retain. The crowd is none too happy…given the dynamics here, their unhappiness makes me happy, if for no other reason than it would have been gross to see the undertones for a really happy Steiner title win.

Result: Harlem Heat via pinfall (17:53)
Rating: **1/4

Video package showing the bike pilgrimage from Minneapolis to Sturgis by a number of WCW superstars.

US Title - Ric Flair (c) (w/ Woman & Miss Elizabeth) vs. Eddie Guerrero: Funny commentary moment, as Bobby Heenan says about the women during Flair's entrance, "Check out the gams," and Tony has to explain to Dusty that he means the legs. Heenan and Dusty try to discuss further and Tony laughs and forcibly cuts them off. Eddie and Flair trade shoves before the bell. Once we're under way, they wrestle into a corner and then break. Side headlock by Guerrero, shoulderblock, Flair shoves Eddie and Eddie shoves him down twice. Rattled, Flair does the shoving match with the referee. I've seen it before of course, but I do still enjoy this stuff.



Flair goes for a back suplex, Eddie was supposed to fall on top but the whole thing gets botched and Eddie ends up rolling outside. Flair clutches his shoulder, and I suspect he could have legitimately ****ed it up a bit on that exchange. Eddie returns, and I guess we're a go. Hard chops back and forth in the corner. Eddie gets the better of it, stalks Flair, now it's Flair taking a breather. It's sort of an odd thing to compliment, but Flair's timing on these little breaks was always good, and he always sold the "rattled, but calming down and walking it off" emotion well. Back inside, Eddie hits a side headlock takeover. Grounded side headlock, Flair throws him off, Eddie kips up. Another battle of chops, another advantage to Eddie Guerrero. Backdrop by the challenger, as they lose a serious bit of lighting on the ring. Flair begs off and buys time for a cheap eye gouge.

Flair wrestles Eddie into the corner, Eddie turns him around in there, corner mount and a 10-punch, then he continues the assault on the mat. Whip into the other corner, Flair flips to the apron, Eddie dropkicks him to the floor. He waits for Flair to re-enter, then backdrops him and clotheslines him back over the top. Flair slides back in and drops to his knees to beg for mercy, but Eddie goes back on the attack, chopping away in the corner until we get the Flair flop bump. Eye gouge gets the champ back in it though, and then he seizes an opening to kick Eddie in the junk.

Flair slow to capitalize, Eddie hits a cross-body for two. Heads to the top, sunset flip from there, Flair holds up and punches down, but only gets the mat. Eddie with a drop toe hold and then a figure-four. Really seems like the "put the figure-four on Flair" sequence was overused. Flair gets a rope break. Eddie walks the top rope and transitions into a hurracanrana. Two-count.



Tornado DDT by Guerrero. Two. He gets up and mockingly does the Flair sttrut. Gets back to work with a corner whip, but comes up empty charging in after him. Snapmare by Flair, climbs the ropes, but gets thrown off. Two-count for Eddie. Sunset flip, exposes Flair's ass, eventually gets him down for two. Eddie turns Flair's eye gouge around on him and does it to him. Puts him down, heads to the top, frog splash. His knee buckles on impact. WTF, that's the exact same thing he did on Nitro a few months ago after frog splashing Flair. Flair back up, connects on a running clothesline, locks in the figure-four on the newly-injured leg, Flair gets leverage from Woman outside, Guerrero stays down for a three-count. Seriously? All of that was the exact same endgame sequence they did on Nitro earlier in the year. That wasn't a house show, you noobs. Good match aside from the replicated ending. It's super weird that they followed through on that specific ending pattern again without changing anything.

Result: Ric Flair via pinfall (14:14)
Rating: ***

Mean Gene with The Giant and Jimmy Hart. Pretty nice intense promo from Giant here, who seems to have graduated since earlier in the year when he was a terrible, awkward novice on the stick.

The Outsiders vs. Sting & Lex Luger: Tony mentions how Luger got knocked out early in the Bash at the Beach match, as Sting inadvertently hit him. A mention like this almost feels like a tease of Luger turning on Sting here, though that obviously doesn't happen. Luger starts against Hall, wrestles him into the corner, rope break. Hall with a hammerlock and then something of a backdrop. After a reset, Hall drives a knee into Lex's abdomen, but Lex blocks the follow-up and executes a hip-toss, knee-lift, and a slam. Kevin Nash tags in as Lex stares earnestly at him and shuffles his pecs. Nash asks for Sting, spits on Sting, and gets his wish as Sting tags in and spits back.

Nash with a forearm that floors the Stinger, Sting fires right back with a forearm of his own. The two trade shots back and forth. Eye gouge and a bodyslam by Sting. Nash catches Sting trying to jump behind him and drops him along the top with a snake eyes. Hall throws a clothesline in for good measure on Sting from outside before tagging in. The Outsiders isolate him in the corner, Hall connecting on a tornado punch as Luger protests to referee Nick Patrick.



Fallaway slam by Hall gets two. Corner whip and a follow-up clothesline. This heat segment goes on for a decent while. Sting has what looks like a couple of believable attempts to tag out, but gets cut off each time. Hall sets up for a Razor's Edge, but gets backdropped. Sting finally makes the hot tag. Luger goes hard at the Outsiders, Sting re-enters and hits a Stinger Splash on Nash as Luger works Hall over. Sting with a Scorpion Deathlock on Nash outside. Luger with a powerslam, then an attempted Torture Rack sort of hits Nick Patrick. Patrick stumbles around, falls into the back of Luger's leg to put him down, and then makes a quick count as Hall makes the pin. Ending came off kind of stupid, though it sort of seemed like it was designed to be clumsy-looking.



Result: The Outsiders via pinfall (14:36)
Rating: **

WCW Title - The Giant (c) (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Hulk Hogan: Hulk Hogan comes out to the nWo porno music. No Jimi yet. Speaking of which, I fear that they probably overdub Voodoo Child on the WWE Network, but I don't think I've watched anything in the Hollywood Hogan era to know. Pretty loud Hogan chants before the match gets going. See, that's another problem with having the match in front of all of these casuals…a bunch of them probably didn't even realize that they were supposed to hate Hogan now. Doesn't help that WCW's white knight was a heel. Hogan does a bunch of pre-match stalling and won't go into the ring. Even pretends to go for a walk, but ultimately turns around and enters the ring. Tries to hit the Giant a few times, Giant no-sells, Hogan bails.

The Hulkster is back in to give it another go. Giant shoulderblocks him to the mat, and Hogan is going full Goldust with this thing, rolling out and doing more stalling. At least this tactic does seem to be turning the crowd against him. He goes back in, takes a back suplex, rolls out, stalls. Stalls. Stalls some more. They battle over a test of strength for a long time, just switching positions/rest holds once in a while. I think that Glacier has finally arrived in the form of this match.



After many minutes, Giant works his way loose, throws a few headbutts, and the third sends Hogan out of the ring. He trips Giant from the floor and drags him out, hammering away and then posting him. Tries for a second post, but Giant blocks and posts him. Back into the ring, Giant hits a backbreaker that gets two. Hogan fights back and hammers Giant down, but Giant starts no-selling and hulking up. Okay, corny as that is, it's pretty entertaining too. Big boot by the Giant. Signals for the chokeslam, but Scott Hall runs down to the ring. Giant throws him off the top rope and chokeslams him. Kevin Nash takes the megaphone from Jimmy Hart and stalks Giant, but Giant fights him off. Chokeslams Nash. Amidst the chaos, Hogan gets the WCW Title and clobbers Giant with it. 1-2-3 gets a big face pop, and the nWo has taken over the World Title.

Result: Hulk Hogan via pinfall, new WCW Champion (14:56)
Rating: 1/2*

Ed ****ing Leslie emerges from the back wearing an nWo Hogan shirt, along with two guys carrying in a celebratory cake. He comes in, takes a mic, and kisses Hogan's ass for a while. Hogan tells Leslie that he loves him, then addresses Ric Flair and says that Flair showed his soft spot for Arn Anderson, but says that he's not going to mix business with friendship. Says he has a surprise for him, and the nWo jumps him and dumps him out of the ring. Hulk says, "If I do that to my best friend, imagine what I'll do to you." He takes a can of black spray paint and spray paints "NWO" along the front of the WCW Title. Incidentally, Giant is still just laid out selling the belt shot from like 10 minutes ago that originally put him down for the three-count.



The nWo leaves the ring triumphantly, and the broadcast team goes into wrap-up. Tony describes the WCW Title being spray-painted as "the most sickening thing he's ever seen in his life." Dude just couldn't help himself from talking in extremes. They wrap up from there and send it to credits.

Overall: I thought it was a decent show. Couple of good matches in Mysterio-Ultimo and Flair-Eddie, the nWo angle continued logically by giving Hogan the title, the vibe in Sturgis was unique even if not always in a positive way. Certainly a watchable few hours.

Nice write up on the PPV, and I find it odd that it was on a Saturday Night. Does anyone know if this was shown live or tape delayed on Sunday?

Also I think you inadvertently summed up the fatal flaw with the entire NWO angle. For far too long nobody ever got a comeback on them. It felt like 134 consecutive Nitros that ended with the NWO standing in the ring while a WCW guy or guys were selling being knocked out.

I'll have to see as I continue watching, but I guess I don't remember that being a problem. They did a nice job of executing the really slow burn to December 1997 while still filling many hours of TV a week including two weekly primetime hours and monthly PPVs. It's just that once they got there, they completely ****ed up the PPV.

I could easily be exaggerating it, but I really feel like that was ending of Nitro more often than not. And yeah it worked then because the fans by and large didn't look at wrestling the same as we do now. Had it been now, everybody would have been booing that by week 3.

I can safely say that one of the reasons I went back to WWF from WCW was because of what is being described above. Nobody EVER got the upper hand on NWO. If they ever did it wasn't in an important match or anything. I also remember thinking that every match ended in a run in. I'm sure it's not that bad, but it was enough after a while for me to switch back to WWF and never look back. Of course it helped that WWF was doing awesome then, but if it wasn't for WWF turning around I would have probably turned off wrestling "forever" at that point. It was that bad for me watching the same crap week after week for a couple years straight.

I think I said this early on, but I imagine you - LKJ - are going to have a hard time getting through anything from like 2000 on, accept on a few rare occasions. The saving grace of course will be WWF coming back around.

Up until Starrcade 97 my thought was 'It'll be ok, Sting will get there in the end.' Yep.

I didn't see it as the NWO winning contantly either. They 'won' most of the gang warfare, but the win-loss record in the actual PPV matches of the members wasn't that great, and when they did win it was rarely clean. Hogan got pinned/submitted more in 2 years on PPVs than he got pinned total in his whole 10 year WWF run. The NWO had a better gang than WCW but not better wrestlers (in storyline).

I remember hearing Scott Hall talking about the way NWO was booked in an interview somewhere. I don't know if it was a shoot interview or podcast or whatever, but he was talking about when the Outsiders first showed up. It was in reference to when he and Nash had baseball bats and a good portion of the locker room was out confronting them but no one would attack.

After the segment he said Bischoff was absolutely ecstatic with how it came off, but Hall said it was terrible because he said you had two guys backing down the entire WCW roster. Now take that for what it's worth, but I found it interesting.

It's definitely interesting. Scott has a great mind for the business. It would've been nice if he could've been a booker or an agent for matches.

I wasn't referring to win/loss record, I was talking more about the gang attacks on Savage, Flair, the other Horsemen, etc. that seemed to go on at the end of every Nitro. Again it may have seem worse now looking back almost 20 years later, but I guess we will have to wait for LKJ to review it for us.

Not that Scott doesn't have a point, but take away the weapons and the numbers and they weren't much compared to the top WCW wrestlers. How many times did the Outsiders beat Harlem Heat or the Steiners or Sting+partner clean? Yes, the heel gangs usually come out on top on TV. So people pay to see them potentially lose matches on PPV.

I haven't watched the actual programming since it originally aired but the book "Death of WCW" reminded me why I stopped watching the product. Wait until Russo comes in, you're in for a great treat. Honestly, if you get through the Russo period you deserve some kind of award. Each time you think it's hit the bottom they'll dig deeper into the hole to prove you wrong. Regardless, I look forward to your continued thoughts on it all.

I agree with that to a point, but even this early on in the War, WCW put a bigger emphasis on TV over PPV. So much so, that with some PPVs they didn't even bother with builds or announcing matches until the PPV started. But I don't want to get too far ahead

What is really bad booking is when the outnumbered face(s) beat up the heel gang on TV leading up to the PPV. Like Reigns taking out the entire League of Nations and then facing one member of the gang at the PPV. He already beat the one member plus others, how can one member be a threat? Plus people already have seen the supposed payoff. Same with Kane and Undertaker taking out the whole Wyatt family.

At times they did overemphasize TV ratings. And overemphasizing TV ratings often ironically has the impact of making the TV shows worse because wrestling is better when it is building to something and/or building someone up as opposed to when it just feels like they are filling time.

August 12, 1996

NITRO

Casper, WY

We are finally back indoors. It's been since the historic Bash at the Beach since we've seen indoor WCW. Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko are our hosts. Tony declares this to be a dark day due to Hulk Hogan's title win the night before. Larry is decked out in all black, and he says he chose this outfit because of that title change. Then he quickly gets on the board with our first "New World Odor" of the night. They show stills of Outsiders vs. Lex Luger/Sting, with Tony wondering what was up with referee Nick Patrick. Off to the ring we go.

High Voltage/Rough & Ready vs. Taskmaster/Hugh Morrus/Meng/Barbarian (w/ Jimmy Hart & Big Bubba): For some reason the jobber teams don't have any entrance music, but it's not as awkward as it could be since they at least get surprisingly decent crowd heat. The Taskmaster has shed his usual silly red-and-yellow devil clothing in favor of a t-shirt and jeans tonight. Barbarian sets one of the High Voltage guys up in the tree of woe, then tags Taskmaster. Taskmaster goes racing into his opponent in the corner, then picks a fight in the enemy corner. We temporarily get eight-way chaos, suddenly it dissolves with Meng being the new legal man for some reason. He hits a superkick on one of the High Voltage guys and gets the three-count.



Result: Dungeon of Doom via pinfall

Rough & Ready jump High Voltage after the bell, seemingly just mad that High Voltage lost them the match.

After commercial, Tony mentions that Clash of the Champions is coming up this week, then he gets interrupted by Lex Luger and Sting. Sting says he doesn't care about any controversy from last night, and they just want to clear things up right here, right now. They go into the ring, Sting with a mic, calling the nWo out to come face him right then. Pan to the crowd, and we see a guy holding up this brilliant sign:



Seriously, who the **** brings that small of a sign to an arena? Especially an adult. And he got on TV for it? <New World Odor #2> The nWo doesn't answer. Sting and Luger give up and walk away.

Glacier promo.

Lord of the Ring - Diamond Dallas Page (c) vs. Renegade: How can Renegade possibly compete without the assistance of Joe ****ing Gomez? For some reason this match was the WWE Network thumbnail for this episode. Yeah, that'll jack up the views. I really didn't remember Renegade hanging around this long. He showed up in February '95, was a complete bust immediately, and a year and a half later they're still trotting him out there. This match is all punch-kick awfulness. Page was a good worker by this point, but he's mailing it in tonight. I just noticed that Nick Patrick is just officiating this match as normal without being mentioned. I would have thought the announcers would acknowledge him after the Sting/Luger segment just now.

Renegade launches the babyface comeback, gets a two-count on a schoolboy, tries for a suplex that DDP blocks and transitions into a Diamond Cutter. Page gets big heat for the win.



Result: DDP via pinfall

Backstage, the nWo talks some **** and mocks the people they beat last night. Hall and Nash say they'll fight Sting and Luger tonight.



Konnan vs. Jim Powers: Konnan has shed the ridiculous ninja turtle costume for the night, just wearing black trunks with some pink boots and leg guards. Tony talks like Konnan has turned heel. He's getting booed by this markish crowd. Guessing something happened on the weekend shows. He gets his boots up on a corner charge by Powers, then once Powers goes down from that impact, he drives forward on him and puts the legs up on the ropes for the heel leverage pin. 1-2-3. Tony: "He's really done a 360." No, Tony.



Result: Konnan via pinfall

Mean Gene joins Konnan in the ring and calls him out for cheating. Konnan says Gene's opinion is irrelevant. "Do you pay my checks? No? Then shut up." Konnan starts cutting a heel promo, then suddenly veers left and starts cutting a promo on the "New World Odor." FFS, Larry has successfully spread his AIDS. He concludes his promo by saying that he's sticking with WCW. It's weird how this first Nitro heel promo suddenly went face by the end.

Chris Benoit vs. Ron Studd: Ron Studd is formerly the Yeti, after stripping away his mummy costume and then I guess his gigantic ninja costume. Now he's basically just a very large jobber. Benoit gives away a ton of size here.



Despite that, Benoit brazenly slaps Studd, just setting the big man off and causing him to unleash a beating until Benoit turns the tables by getting his feet up on a corner charge and beginning to work one of Studd's legs hard from there. <New World Odor #4> Studd eventually battles his way back on a bad wheel and actually heads toward the top rope, but Benoit dropkicks him there, then superplexes him from there for the three-count.



Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall

Gene Okerlund in the ring with Benoit and the ladies. Apparently Benoit is facing The Giant at Clash of the Champions. Benoit gives Dean Malenko respect for how stiff of a test he was at Hog Wild, but then meanders into just a terrible promo. "I respect the man's talents, but what he didn't realize was he was in the ring with a man on an agenda. The Horsemen have an agenda. And until we fulfill that agenda…we WILL fulfill that agenda…relentlessly. Unabatedly. Until that time, there's a few obstacles in the way. This coming Thursday, Giant. You are strong, by stature. You're big, by stature. When you get into the ring with the Crippler, I will knock you down to size." Benoit was so, so bad on the mic at this point.

We see stills of Harlem Heat retaining their Tag Team Titles against the Steiners at Hog Wild. Tony says that they'll have a rematch of that tonight. I have no idea whether I'm right about this, but I would guess that this is the opportunity to swap the titles onto the Steiners without the embarrassment of so many racist bikers in the live crowd.

We're onto the second hour, pyro and all, and Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan take over the broadcast.

Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) (w/ Sister Sherri & Col. Parker) vs. The Steiner Brothers: Steiners clear the ring to open, then kick things off for real with Scott vs. Booker T. Powerslam, repeated punches, and a belly-to-belly by Scott. Both men tag out, and I tune out, because that means Stevie Ray. At least they pick a good time for a commercial here, as they head to break and then come back with Booker T now in for the Heat.

Rick suplexes Booker, Booker rolls out and runs away, Rick goes running into the obvious ambush and takes a hard blind clothesline from Stevie Ray and continues to get worked over as Nick Patrick is occupied with Scott Steiner in the ring. Action goes back inside, Booker jumps at Rick, Rick counters very nicely into a powerslam.



Tag to Scott. Running clothesline for both Booker and Stevie. Butterfly powerbomb on Booker. Rick and Stevie brawl outside as Scott clotheslines Booker over the top to the floor. Scott tries to suplex him back inside, Sherri pulls Scott's foot, Booker falls on top and seems to have the pin, but Col. Parker stumbles into the ring and trips over Booker in mid-count and Nick Patrick disqualifies the Heat, awarding the match to the Steiners. Eric Bischoff declares that if there was any question about the integrity of Nick Patrick, you can consider it to be resolved here. This wasn't a good match. There hasn't been anything resembling a good match tonight.

Result: Steiner Brothers via DQ

The Heat confront Col. Parker after the match. Sherri jumps in to settle things down.

We get footage from the Madusa vs. Bull Nakano match from last night. They don't actually explain how Madusa could have been declared the winner. We also get stills from Rey Mysterio vs. Ultimo Dragon.

Cruiserweight Title - Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs. Ultimo Dragon (w/ Sonny Onoo): Dragon spews some red mist before the match. Dragon throws his signature kick combo at Rey right away. I always love that series.



Holds Rey up overhead, airplane spin into a backbreaker, two-count. Whip followed by a handspring back elbow. Running sit-out powerbomb. Dragon showboats a bit, heads to the top, and runs into Mysterio's raised boots on the way down. Rey with a springboard hurracanrana, then a nice somersault plancha over the top rope. Markedly more elevation on that than you'll see from Marc Mero.

Rey tries a move from the top rope, Dragon dropkicks him on his way down. Dragon dropkicks him through the ropes, hangs on, skins the cat, gets a running start and hits Mysterio hard with a suicide dive. Back inside, Ultimo hits a dragon suplex but only gets two. Scoop slam, top rope moonsault. Two. Quebrada by the Dragon gets another two. He's repeating a lot of Hog Wild spots, but I'm still enjoying myself. Dragon sets up for a powerbomb, picks Rey up overhead, Rey escapes through with a sunset flip, actually gets to his feet and drives through as the referee counts to three. Good match.

Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall

Stills of Ric Flair vs. Eddie Guerrero from last night. Bischoff says that Guerrero will wrestle at Clash of the Champions, though he doesn't mention an opponent.

US Title - Ric Flair (c) (w/ Woman & Miss Elizabeth) vs. Randy Savage: Flair jumps Savage before the bell, Savage recovers quickly and takes the fight back at him, fighting furiously against his long-time rival. Their feud has taken a back seat to the nWo, but they're still doing this up as a big personal grudge match. Flair goes outside, holds Elizabeth up as a shield, then she bails as Savage just goes sprinting toward them anyway and clobbers Flair. They continue brawling outside until the show goes to commercial.

Back, Flair has control of Savage, hanging Savage along the bottom rope, where Elizabeth slaps Savage hard. That's legitimately the first time I've actually seen her lean into any of her attempts at interference. He reaches out at her, but she manages to duck away.



Savage isn't selling much here, continuing to fight back regardless of the assault he takes. Honestly I don't mind it given: (1) the underlying match story, and (2) Savage's obvious propensity for…stimulants. Flair chop blocks at Savage's leg and then dumps him outside, where Woman steps in and kicks Savage in the ribs as well. Savage back inside, where Flair directs low kicks at this new leg injury. Savage is selling now, of course. This isn't Scott Norton we're watching. Figure-four by Flair, complete with intermittent rope leverage. Savage eventually reverses the hold, and we get a rope break.

Back suplex by Flair. Long delay before covering; two-count. Flair continues to try for the methodical attack, Savage keeps fighting back. Flair puts him down and tries to climb the ropes, but of course Savage is there to throw him off. Corner whip by Savage, Flair flips to the apron, Savage with a clothesline there. Savage backs Flair into the corner, referee Randy Anderson backs him down, Flair takes the opportunity to take a run at Savage, but ends up clotheslining the hell out of Randy Anderson. That's a much stronger bump than refs usually take. Savage sends Flair outside, following him with an axhandle from the top rope to the floor. Backdrop by Savage outside.



As Savage pulls the floor mat away and is going to set Ric Flair up for a piledriver on the concrete floor, Hulk Hogan suddenly appears, walloping Savage with a steel chair and returning him to the middle. Flair, unaware, heads back in and makes a cover. Randy Anderson is still out, but Nick Patrick is on the spot to make the three-count.

Result: Ric Flair via pinfall

Bischoff and Heenan wonder aloud if Flair has joined the nWo since Hogan helped him and didn't do anything to him.

We see the footage of the Booty Man showing up as nWo at Hog Wild and being turned on by Hogan and the nWo. It's really just about the worst thing you can do to a character, what WCW did to Ed Leslie here. He turns on WCW to make himself irredeemable, and then gets taken out by his purported new allies. The good news? It's Ed Leslie, who had absolutely no business still being in wrestling at this point anyway. Also unfortunately this wasn't the end of him.

Mean Gene at the top of the aisle. Here's Hulk Hogan to come join him. Hogan maintains that he wanted to face Flair at 100% at Clash of the Champions so that he wouldn't have any excuses. Hogan threatens to give out new nicknames to top WCW stars. He harps on this for a full minute, talking about how Ric Flair has been known as the Nature Boy. "And as far as I'm concerned, starting in Denver, Colorado, Ric Flair will be known as the STUPID LITTLE MAN, brother." I don't even...great payoff, Hulk.



After commercial, they say that Randy Savage just now finally got stretchered off during the break after his neck got immobilized by paramedics. They show clips of Arn Anderson being laid out a couple of weeks ago. Bischoff says he doesn't know where the nWo is out. Says the production truck is telling him that the match is still on, but they don't know where the nWo is either. Amidst the confusion, the Outsiders walk in through the crowd and enter the ring.

Sting's music hits, and Lex Luger walks out alone with a concerned look on his face. I guess we are going to have something of a match, but no sign of Sting.

The Outsiders vs. Lex Luger & Sting: Nick Patrick is out to officiate, by the way. Luger double clotheslines Hall and Nash, takes the fight to both of them, but is going to lose out on the numbers game. Sting suddenly appears, heads to the top, flies off and takes out Nash. Follows by clotheslining Nash out over the top, and Sting and Luger hold the ring. The Outsiders stall outside for a long time before trying to re-enter. When they do, Sting and Luger fight them off again.

Hall and Nash double-team Sting to get the advantage; Luger must have been taken out off-camera. But no, Luger reappears, and we're back to all four men brawling. It's back and forth, neither team having a clear advantage. Sting hits a Stinger Splash on Nash, but misses his attempt to hit one on Hall. As Hall goes to capitalize, the Four Horsemen hit the ring and run the Outsiders off. Outsiders exit through the crowd, so I guess this thing is over. Nick Patrick has simply walked out, so there's no bell or official word.

Result: No Contest

The Horsemen hold the ring with Sting and Luger, who look at them suspiciously. We see replays of Sting's attempted Stinger Splash on Hall, and from a new camera angle it's clear that Nick Patrick actively pulled Scott Hall out of harm's way. Bischoff and Heenan yell angrily, declaring that there's no doubt that Patrick was paid off.



Mean Gene with the Horsemen at the top of the aisle. Flair says that he doesn't like Luger and Sting, but he's going to play ball with them because they're WCW. Flair cuts a manic promo on the nWo as Nitro goes off the air.

Overall: Solid. Rough first hour, but I enjoyed Mysterio vs. Ultimo and Savage vs. Flair. The Benoit enhancement match was decent, and the nWo stuff at the end was too. I'll take it.

RAW

Seattle, WA

We open with an announcement that "due to life-threatening injuries," Ahmed Johnson had to undergo emergency surgery this past week. So yeah, he's out for SummerSlam, which I'm sure they knew in prior weeks despite advertising a SummerSlam match for him. These injuries go back to the first show of this taping, when Ron Simmons showed up and legitimately hurt him badly. He fought through that long battle royal later anyway. Safe to say that Simmons really ****ed things up here, instantly injuring one of their hottest up-and-comers, even if I was no fan of Ahmed.

Faarooq Asad (w/ Sunny) vs. Skip: Vince: "Faarooq Asad, nothing short of a thug." Sunny looking even hotter than usual tonight. She distracts Skip long enough for Faarooq to blindside him. Sunny's man continues the assault, throwing a short clothesline. The fact that he kept that silly helmet on while wrestling was just beyond absurd. Skip ducks a clothesline and attempts a cross-body, but Faarooq catches him and transitions into a fall-away slam. As a non-sequitir, they announce during this match that Jake Roberts vs. Jerry Lawler has been signed for SummerSlam. I have zero memory of that, but hat tip to True North for getting it right.

Skip sells what appears to be a total miss from Faarooq. Faarooq with a powerslam as Vince McMahon says that Gorilla Monsoon will make an announcement later about the Intercontinental Title. Faarooq reverses a corner whip and hits another powerslam. He connects on a gutwrench overhead slam that would come to be known as the Dominator, and scores the pinfall. Vince tries to sell that as an awesome move, but it sure never looked very good to me. I came to really like Ron Simmons later, but this particular rendition with the goofy outfit and the crappy finisher just didn't do it for me.



Result: Faarooq Asad via pinfall

After the commercial, we'll see Clarence Mason's new client.

And here he is:



Savio Vega vs. Crush (w/ Clarence Mason): During Crush's absence, he actually had been in jail after being caught with some illegal guns and some steroids, and they reference it on-screen here (of course referring to steroids as "drugs"). As good as it usually is to incorporate real life into someone's on-screen character, I'm surprised they did it here. It did feel like he was getting a strong heel reboot though. Plus Clarence Mason really was a lawyer, so we were getting a nice blurring of kayfabe and IRL. Crush hangs Savio over the top rope and then drops a leg on him along the apron.

As Vince keeps harping on Crush's illegal activities, Lawler says, "Vince, stop being so argumentative. You of all people should know about the judicial system." Outside the ring, Crush pulls Savio up over his shoulder and rams him shoulder-first into the ringpost. Lawler keeps taking digs at Vince for his past of being put up on steroid distribution charges. Crush hits a big boot to the face, goes for the cover, then pulls Savio up. Vega starts to launch a comeback, hitting a spinning heel kick, but then he whiffs on a spinning wheel kick. Crush rams him into the ringpost, then slaps on the full nelson for the win. The 1980s called, they want their finisher back.



Result: Crush via submission

We see clips of Undertaker and Mankind fighting throughout the building during last week's battle royal and then a video hype package for their Boiler Room Brawl for this Sunday.

Sunny does a tease as they show her trying on different swimsuits from behind a privacy screen.

More update on Ahmed Johnson, as they have footage of him laid up in the hospital. We go to an interview with Kevin Kelly, talking to Ahmed in his home. Don't ask me to transcribe WTF he says. I gather that he says that he doesn't know if he'll wrestle again though.

TL Hopper & Who vs. The Godwinns (w/ Hillbilly Jim): Who is Jim Neidhart under a mask. The whole gimmick is a rib put in place to allow the announcers to do Abbott and Costello jokes. Bob Backlund joins the announce team for this match. He vows that he's going to bring in a wrestler who can take the WWF Title, as he attacks Shawn Michaels for being a bad example for the kids. Backlund does some politarding for a while until getting so worked up that he drops his headset and storms off.

Our next guess is Gorilla Monsoon, who checks in from another location to announce that the Intercontinental Title is now vacant. During this conversation, Henry Godwinn ends the match with the Slop Drop.

Result: Godwinns via pinfall

Gorilla continues by saying that they will be starting a title tournament for the IC Title next week.

We get an interview from a ferry, where Mr. Perfect caught up with Bret Hart and got an interview. Bret admits that he's contemplating retirement and isn't sure whether he'll return. He says he's had a great time at home but also misses the fans. He says that in 2-3 months he'll come back and announce his decision. I really don't know how much of a shoot his retirement thoughts were here.



Footage from a house show this past weekend, where HHH confronted Mark Henry but Henry pushed him to the mat. Whatever.

Owen Hart (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. Shawn Michaels: This is a non-title match. Good back-and-forth technical wrestling to start, as Michaels kips up after Owen slams him to the mat, but Owen answers with a kip-up of his own a moment later. Owen clotheslines Shawn outside, Shawn skins the cat, dragging Owen out with a headscissor while hanging upside down (terrible spot, too contrived), then completing the flip back into the ring before executing a pescado to the floor. Michaels waits; Owen returns. Spinning wheel kick by the Slammy winner misses. Cross-body by Shawn gets two. Into a side headlock by the WWF Champion.

Back up to a vertical base, Michaels blocks a hip-toss and hits one of his own. Then an armdrag, and back into a resting position as he slaps on an armbar. Hart works his way back up and slams Michaels, but misses on an elbow drop, and we're back in the Michaels armbar, Michaels cranking on the cast-laden arm that was only injured as a heel goof at this point. Owen throws some forearms to fight his way loose. Michaels reverses a corner whip, Owen takes the hard chest-first corner bump before turning around into a stiff clothesline by HBK. Two-count.



Owen whips Michaels into the ropes, then executes his trademark elite belly-to-belly suplex on Shawn's way back. Backbreaker by the King of Harts as we go to break. And then he's also hitting a backbreaker as we come back, so I don't even know if they cropped the match. Into a camel clutch. Michaels draws on the fans for some babyface adrenaline to fight his way out of the hold, but Owen hits him with a stiff spinning wheel kick to put him back down. Owen was so consistently great the spinning heel kick that it always made Savio Vega look worse for having it as a signature move too.

Reverse chinlock by Owen. These guys are doing nice work tonight, but it feels like they're calling the match on the fly given the number of these holds. Shawn fights his way out, manages a surprise pinning combo for two, but Owen is right back up with a hard clothesline, a legdrop, and a neckbreaker. Owen is slow to head up top, but still successfully connects on a missile dropkick. Commercial.

Back from commercial, Owen is mockingly tuning up the band in the corner while HBK is down. HBK gets back up, Owen attempts an enziguiri, Michaels ducks and puts Owen down. Follows with a powerslam. Top rope, and Michaels connects on a flying elbow. He sets up in the corner for a superkick. Enter Vader, who gets up on the apron, but Michaels knocks him off with a dropkick. Sidesteps Owen and attempts a superkick, but it gets botched and only catches Owen in the chest. To both of their credit, they quickly improvise their way into a redo from there and within a second or two Michaels connects on a legit superkick for the win. Very good match. I was hoping this one would end in a pin instead of just a Vaderference no contest, so I'm happily surprised with the ending.



Result: Shawn Michaels via pinfall

Vader goes and gets a steel chair. Michaels pulls Owen's cast off his arm. As they stare down, Owen gets Jim Cornette's tennis racket and is going to sneak attack, but Shawn turns around, takes the racket, and hits Owen with it. Vader seizes his opening and beats Michaels down, then drags him to the corner and executes a Vaderbomb. Vader flings an official to the floor and then executes a second Vaderbomb. He heads back for a third one, then actually climbs to the top as if to do the moonsault next, but the show goes off the air before we can see what happens.

Overall: Strong main event carries this into being a decent show. Didn't really like anything else very much, but I would still say that was enough to land at "decent."

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Ratings for 8/12/96: Nitro 3.3, Raw 2.0
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 26-17-2

Better Show: Sorta close, but not really after a full review of both shows. Raw's one best match (for a one-hour show) vs. Nitro's two best matches (for a two-hour show) would leave us close in quality, but Nitro clearly offered more entertainment above and beyond that. Raw was meh at best outside of that main event. Nitro wins the night.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 38-7

Match of the Night: Three different matches could win on a lesser week, all pretty close in quality, but Owen Hart vs. Shawn Michaels was probably my favorite by a narrow margin.