I'd like to think that Ed Leslie trying to join, then getting beat up by, the NWO was an ingenious way somebody came up with to try and get Hulk Hogan's best buddy off the show. Make it so he can't get any good heat or positive reaction, and even the most biased observer will have to admit he shouldn't be appearing.

Watching the available 99 Nitro's is a bit of a chore for me at the moment. The wheels were really falling off. Virgil leading the NWO tests my patience.

WCW CLASH OF THE CHAMPIONS XXXIII



Denver, CO

We start on footage of Hulk Hogan turning on Ed Leslie, then whacking Randy Savage with a steel chair…and then, of all things, they show him announcing that starting with this show, Ric Flair will be known as the "stupid little man." It's like they didn't realize how ****ing stupid that line was.

Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are our announce team for the night. They introduce the show, talking about how unconventional it is that Ric Flair is the crowd favorite for the night against Hulk Hogan. They show footage of Nick Patrick helping Scott Hall avoid the Stinger Splash and then the Four Horsemen hitting the ring and chasing the Outsiders off.

Cruiserweight Title - Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs. Dean Malenko: Mike Tenay sits in as the third man in the booth for this match. Dean jumps Rey before the bell and goes on offense right away. Seems to me like proper booking might be to give Dean the belt back here, but I really don't remember most of these cruiserweight title changes in terms of specifics, so I'll mostly watch these unspoiled despite undoubtedly having seen it back then. Dean whips Rey to the ropes, Rey baseball slides out, Dean follows, Rey back into the ring, greets Dean with a springboard dropkick springing off the second turnbuckle as Dean returned to the apron. Mysterio follows up directly with a baseball slide toward the outside that transitions into a hurracanrana.

Malenko slowly returns, the two move and counter each other for a nice sequence, Rey finally connecting a quebrada for two and then a spinning wheel kick. Malenko bails to the floor for a respite, but things don't go much better upon re-entry, as he runs straight into a drop toe hold that plants him face-first pretty hard onto the mat. Malenko counters an Irish whip and drives a knee into Mysterio's gut, and then picks him up as if for a powerbomb and instead falls back and hangs him along the top rope for a stun gun.



Iceman with a delayed brainbuster. Nice. Two-count. Mysterio throws a sunset flip, Malenko blocks but punches down and only gets mat; Rey with a schoolboy for two. Dean slows things down with a snapmare into a combined reverse chinlock/bodyscissor. As the hold breaks up we get sent to commercial.

After the words from our sponsors, we get a ridiculous sequence that culminates in Rey bridging backward onto Malenko for two. The champ is disappointed about the count not making it to three, and Malenko is actually up on his feet first to go back to the attack, putting Rey down and then grapevining his leg. The announcers talk about Nick Patrick, and mention that he is slated to officiate later tonight. Malenko sends Mysterio off the ropes and throws him up way high on the way back, allowing him to simply drop to the floor. Pretty solid heat for Malenko.



Mysterio leads Malenko into the ropes and then drops down and lets him spill through to the floor. Follows him out with a somersault sentan over the top to the floor. Malenko still tries to fight back, but Rey actually does a quebrada off the guardrail and connects. Malenko heads back in, Mysterio follows with a springboard dropkick for two. Malenko tries for a tilt-a-whirl slam, but Mysterio manages to fall on top. Two. Springboard hurracanrana into a pinning combo, but can't quite the hook the second leg and only gets a near-fall.

Rey whips Malenko into the corner, follows him in, Malenko backdrops him but Rey lands on the apron. Rey lunges at Malenko to double him over and heads up top. Malenko recovers in time to set him up for the gutbuster off the second rope. 1, 2, Mysterio clearly puts a foot on the ropes, but referee Randy Anderson counts to 3. The bell rings as Anderson sees his error. Malenko had grabbed for the belt, but Anderson goes and informs him that the match isn't over, and Rey capitalizes by blindsiding Malenko with a victory roll to get the shady win. Heenan rages about the injustice. In any case, the champ will retain. Really good match.



Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall
Rating: ***3/4

Glacier promo. The law of diminishing returns has to have come into effect many weeks ago at this point.

V.K. Wallstreet vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan: This is an inspired way to drop a show off a cliff after a fun opener. Duggan slams Wallstreet's face into the turnbuckle 10 times. Series of clotheslines. Wallstreet rolls out for a moment, then pulls Duggan down neck-first and hangs him along the top on the way back in. Locks on a rest hold, Duggan works his way out of it, follows with a corner whip but eats a Wallstreet elbow on a corner charge. Wallstreet with a reverse chinlock; Duggan escapes with a jawbreaker. Scoop slam by Hacksaw. He's into the trunks to get a roll of tape for his fists. The referee seems to object, and in the process Wallstreet grabs him and schoolboys him for a three-count. At least it was short.



Result: V.K. Wallstreet via pinfall
Rating: 1/4*

Mean Gene backstage with the Nasty Boys. They're angry about not being included in the triangle Tag Team Title match tonight and vow to make "a nasty, nasty statement."

Ultimo Dragon (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. Konnan: Mike Tenay was spared the indignity of sitting through Wallstreet vs. Duggan, but he's back in the booth for this one. Nick Patrick is the official. Konnan hammers the Dragon down and then wraps the Dragon up in a deathlock variation before letting him go. Konnan with a couple of shoulderblocks, Dragon takes a break but then re-enters and knocks Konnan outside with a dropkick. Sonny Onoo gets physically involved and throws a couple of kicks at Konnan. Konnan grabs Onoo and is going to attack, but the Dragon jumps off the apron at Konnan to save his manager. Ultimo rolls his man inside, hits a moonsault off the top, then gets a two-count with a magistral cradle.

German suplex by Dragon, accidentally releases a bit as he meant to hold on. Tries to fix it by flipping backward onto Konnan, but Konnan rolls through and holds the tights to secure the three-count. Match was nothing, never really went anywhere. Konnan cheap shots Dragon with a thrust kick after the match to hammer the point home.



Result: Konnan via pinfall
Rating: *

Ice Train is backstage chatting online with fans on Compuserve and gets blindsided by Scott Norton. So that feud is still a thing.

Meng (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Randy Savage: Meng enters. Randy Savage's music hits and Savage doesn't show up. Mean Gene relays a message to referee Nick Patrick that Savage is unable to compete due to injuries from Monday Nitro, and this match is declared a forfeit.

Result: Meng via forfeit
Rating: N/A

Gene Okerlund now in the ring with the Dungeon of Doom. Kevin Sullivan gets in Gene's face about kissing Hulk Hogan's ass for years. Gene just kind of accepts the criticism. Sullivan and Jimmy Hart conclude the pointless promo without ever saying anything useful.

Madusa vs. Bull Nakano (w/ Sonny Onoo): Tony Schiavone calls their ending at Hog Wild "controversial." Well it's about time that someone questioned it, since the result made zero sense and nobody at the announce table was questioning it at the time. Nakano throws Madusa violently by the hair a couple of times.



Referee Randy Eller gets distracted, so Nakano busts out nunchucks and hits Madusa a couple of times. By the second time he was basically watching her do it, but whatever I guess. Nakano executes a corner whip, Madusa jumps up onto the second turnbuckle on the way in and then jumps off with a cross-body that misses terribly but gets sold anyway. Follows with a couple of clothesline/bulldog type of slams to the mat. Nakano reverses an Irish whip, Madusa tries a sunset flip, Nakano sits out and for some reason stands up out of the pin at the two-count. Dropkick by Madusa knocks Nakano outside. Madusa tries following her out by jumping at her on the floor…Nakano dodges, but Madusa hits Onoo. Action returns inside, Onoo tries to get involved and kick Madusa, accidentally kicks Bull instead, and Madusa makes the pin. Garbage match, aside from those great hair throws of Bull's that I do always enjoy.

Result: Madusa via pinfall
Rating: 1/4*



Mean Gene with Ric Flair, Woman, and Miss Elizabeth. Flair cuts a decent promo on Hulk Hogan.

A Super Soaker commercial slips in, apparently looking stupid enough that the employee who edited this video figured it to be part of the wrestling show. Super Soakers were pretty fun back in the day though.

Lord of the Ring - Diamond Dallas Page (c) vs. Eddie Guerrero: Heenan immediately goes into his "everywhere I go, airports and everything, everybody always asks me about Eddie Guerrero" routine. It's weird; he always went out of his way to put Eddie over in that exact same way seemingly every time he was on the call for an Eddie match. Somebody in an airport must have actually asked him about Eddie at some point. DDP spits his gum on Guerrero as the opening bell rings. Guerrero puts him down with a shoulderblock and a headscissor. Corner whip by Guerrero, but he rams his shoulder into the post following Page in.

Page with a gutbuster. Tilt-a-whirl slam to follow, and a two-count. Reverse chinlock keeps things on the mat for a while until Guerrero manages to make it back to his feet and hip-toss his way out of the hold. The two trade punches, Eddie getting the better of them, and he throws something of a flying forearm at Page to put him down. Slingshot splash from the apron to the inside. Two. As Eddie pulls Page back up, Page counters with a jawbreaker, then throws a great-looking sit-out powerbomb. DDP sets Eddie up on the top rope, but as he follows him up, Eddie knocks him off and quickly capitalizes with a frog splash for the pinfall. Eddie wins the Battle Bowl ring, which I still think just sort of disappeared at some point.



Result: Eddie Guerrero via pinfall, new Lord of the Ring
Rating: **1/2

Page asks for a handshake after the match, Eddie obliges like an idiot, and Page hits a couple of Diamond Cutters. He sets him up top to execute one off the top, Chavo Guerrero runs out for the save, DDP dispatches of him and completes the third Diamond Cutter.

Suddenly at the top of the aisle, Hulk Hogan forcibly pulls Mean Gene to center stage and angrily demands that Gene explain what he said about Hogan earlier (what exactly he's asking about, I'm not totally sure). Gene says, "It's First Amendment rights, it's free speech." Dammit Gene. Hogan warns him to watch his step. Hogan continues on and again talks about how Ric Flair will be called "the stupid little man who couldn't get the job done." I'm going to have a stroke if he says that one more time.

The Glacier promo runs again. For the love of God. Even if this guy had turned out to be the GOAT, I would still think that they're running this **** into the ground.

Chris Benoit (w/ Woman & Miss Elizabeth) vs. The Giant (w/ Jimmy Hart): Giant is second to enter. As the bell rings, Woman is removing Benoit's vest, but he gets caught up and trapped trying to get it off as she holds on, and as this happens Giant flies in with a dropkick that hits Benoit.



Big huge chokeslam, 1-2-3, and the match is over in less than a minute. Tony Schiavone openly wonders if Woman was holding Benoit on purpose.

Result: The Giant via pinfall
Rating: N/A

WCW Power Plant promo. "The Harvard of professional wrestling."

Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) (w/ Sister Sherri) vs. The Steiner Brothers vs. Sting & Lex Luger: Col. Parker comes out after the Heat enter the ring, so I guess he's going to get in on this as well. Again, dumb WCW triangle rules leave one team on the outside and two legal teams going at it. We start on Scott Steiner vs. Booker T. Scott beats on Booker in the corner, Booker counters a corner whip and drives a knee to the gut, then executes a spinning heel kick. Gets caught climbing the ropes and thrown crotch-first onto the top rope, and Lex Luger capitalizes from the apron with a hard clothesline.



Scott tags out to Lex Luger, who faces off with Stevie Ray to give us our worst possible workrate combo in this match. Tony Schiavone openly craps on the triangle rules, talking about how it's dumb to ever tag out to another team. Rick Steiner blind tags himself in as Luger hits the ropes, then goes in and clotheslines both men. Tony praises him for acting smart within the rules. It's just refreshing to hear an announcer actually call out really dumb rules. Shoddy top rope bulldog by Rick on Stevie, but his pin attempt gets broken up. Commercial break.

Powerslam by Rick, and an elbow drop as Sting blind tagged himself off of Rick. Sting hip-tosses Booker over the top, and referee Nick Patrick rules it to not be a DQ. As Booker re-enters, Sting press slams him. Pin broken up by Stevie. Luger tags in and executes a delayed suplex, but again Stevie is on the spot to break things up, enabling Booker to tag him in. Scott tags his way in off of Stevie. It's nice to see the wrestlers actually using the rules sensibly; this psychology is way better than other triangle matches I've seen. Scott and Sting go at it, with Sting hitting a nice stun gun on Scott. Then a flying clothesline off the top. Rick Steiner breaks up a pin attempt, Luger and Rick start to go at it but Nick Patrick keeps things under control and keeps them out.

Double underhook powerbomb by Scott. Luger for the save. Rick and Luger both tag in. Hard running clothesline by Lex. Corner whip and another clothesline. Empty corner charge by Lex, and he falls back into a release German suplex by Rick. Scott tags in and executes a belly-to-belly. Scott jumps off the ropes, Luger catches him and tries putting him in the Torture Rack. Rick breaks it up, Sting comes in, the Heat comes in. Harlem sidekick by Booker on Scott as the other four fight in the aisles. Tony yells that the Outsiders are here as Scott hits a frankensteiner on Booker. Nick Patrick counts 1, 2, and clearly 3 is available, but instead Patrick looks up to see the Outsiders and calls for the bell to call the match off. Strong match, and I even enjoyed the screwy ending.



Result: No Contest
Rating: ***1/4

Scott Steiner, however, does not enjoy the screwy ending. He grabs Nick Patrick and throws a fit about what just happened, but Patrick stands by his decision and that's that. The replay shows that the Outsiders did actually attack the wrestlers on the outside. Mean Gene interviews Nick Patrick and says that the Outsiders interfered in the match, so he had to call it. Patrick insists that he's "WCW all the way." Gene comments to him that he notices the nice suits Patrick has been wearing lately. For what it's worth: Booker wasn't even legal. There never should have been any sort of pin being counted. But that gets ignored a lot.

WCW Title - Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Stupid Little Man (w/ Woman & Miss Elizabeth): Wow, Hogan was right, I really AM calling him that. Tony says that we know, from what Rey Mysterio said a few weeks ago, that there were more than just three in the nWo. But a few weeks ago, wouldn't the fourth man have just been Ed Leslie? Randy Anderson is our referee here, so Nick Patrick's night is done I guess. Flair with a side headlock takeover, Hogan counters a couple of times into pins that get 1 or 2. Both get back to their feet. Hogan with a drop toe hold into a hammerlock, Flair gets a rope break. Back to their feet, Flair lays in the chops and punches and lays Hogan out.

Hogan rolls out, Flair drops an axhandle from the apron to the floor before returning inside and awaiting the champ. Hulk whips Flair into the corner, leaving Flair to flip out over the top to the floor. The brawl returns there, with Hulk smashing him into the guardrail and raking the eyes before posting the challenger. Back to the inside, another corner whip by Hogan, another flip by Flair, but he lands on the apron this time and punches Hogan from there. Returns inside and connects on the delayed suplex. Hogan hulks up after the suplex, and a non-negligible chunk of the crowd cheers. It's weird that Hogan is doing the classic babyface comeback here, as he no-sells Flair's punches and the crowd cheers. Hulk misses on the big leg and Flair slaps the figure-four on in the center of the ring. Hogan yanks the referee down, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash hit the ring, and it's a 3-on-1 assault. The Horsemen and Sting and Luger hit the ring en masse and chase the nWo out. The match ends in a disqualification as Schiavone pleads that he thinks that Hogan submitted before the run-in.



Result: Ric Flair via DQ
Rating: *

Flair and Sting shove a bit back and forth, but it doesn't come to anything…I think that was probably just a touch by the two men to show that they weren't going to go full Vince and pretend that their long-running feud wasn't a thing, despite seeing eye-to-eye on the nWo stuff. I appreciate that.

Tony and Bobby wrap things up from the booth, and this rendition of the Clash is over.

Overall: Certainly more miss than hit, but I appreciate the really good opener and a good Tag Team Title match as well.

More great stuff LKJ

Especially that dropkick by Big Show. That was great.

I really liked that spot too. The chokeslam that followed was really strong as well, I guess owing to Benoit being small enough that Giant looked like he basically lifted him up to the ceiling before planting him.

WWF SUMMERSLAM '96



Cleveland, OH

Opening graphics hype Shawn Michaels vs. Vader, and our clear #2 match of the evening, Undertaker vs. Mankind in the Boiler Room Brawl.

They prop up the city of Cleveland for some reason and head into the arena, where Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Mr. Perfect are set up as our announce team for the night.

Savio Vega vs. Owen Hart: No Jim Cornette with Owen tonight, as he just heads out alone. The announcers acknowledge it, but don't know the answer. Owen still has the cast on his arm, and referee Tim White stops him from blindsiding Savio with it to start the match. Savio slams Owen's broken arm into three different corners and then wrenches it in an armbar. Audible "Owen" chant. The two men trade missed elbow drops, then we're back into a Savio armbar as we see PIP footage of Jim Cornette pumping up Vader backstage and paying no attention to the match. Vince: "If I were Owen, I would feel a little slighted."

After too long, Owen rakes the eyes to escape the armbar. We're going to have a bad time if Owen doesn't start getting some offense in. The two men run the ropes, but it just results in a Savio hip-toss, and we're back into the same dull armbar. Vega with a corner whip, hard Hart corner bump, schoolboy by Vega gets two, but Owen kicks out with enough authority that it sends Vega shoulder-first through the middle rope and into the steel post. Owen takes over, but he just starts in on an armbar too. On paper there's no way this match should be this boring. Owen does hit a nice armbreaker for two. Ties Savio's bad arm up in the ropes and pounds away. Savio eventually gets loose and starts fighting back, but again we're into the armbar. It's like they're trying to do all 1,004 of Jericho's holds.

Clarence Mason makes his way out to ringside as Owen misses a dropkick. Savio misses a spinning wheel kick. Owen misses a spinning wheel kick. Savio finally connects, hitting a cross-body for two, but after the failed pin attempt the two get up and Owen puts him down hard with an enziguiri. The two trade some kind of unexciting near-falls. Savio hits a spinning heel kick as Owen is in the middle of a corner charge. Corner mount and a 10-punch by Savio. Side salto gets two. Neckbreaker by Owen. Missile dropkick gets two. Hart gets caught and crotched while climbing the ropes, Savio climbs up and does a back superplex, but the back of his head hits Owen's cast on the way down. Both slow to get up, Owen slips the cast off and uses it as a weapon in plain view of Tim White, who somehow just pretends not to notice. Jim Ross even calls out how absurd that is. We get the Sharpshooter to finish things off. Honestly, that's about as bad as matches get between Owen Hart and a competent worker.



Result: Owen Hart via pinfall
Rating: 1/2*

Clarence Mason enters the ring, seems to pitch Owen on joining him, and Owen just shrugs and happily hugs him. I like Mason attempting to raise Owen's fake broken arm and Owen selling it.



Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw and Uncle Zebekiah come out to ringside and yell at the announce team for some reason, and then Bradshaw blindsides Savio with a clothesline. Apparently that feud was still a thing.

Todd Pettengill takes us through the boiler room that will be hosting the Undertaker-Mankind match later. He encounters Mankind just crouching in some random area on the floor. Mankind cuts a mostly pointless promo.

Tag Team Title Elimination Match - The Smoking Gunns (c) (w/ Sunny) vs. The New Rockers vs. The Godwinns (w/ Hillbilly Jim) vs. The Bodydonnas: I'm kind of amazed that the tag team scene ever reached Attitude Era levels after it was at this level. Billy Gunn screams some sort of nonsensical rage at the camera as he approaches the ring. He had this weird thing where he was mostly being pushed as an arrogant pretty boy heel, and then would randomly yell like a psycho sometimes, and it felt totally out of place.

Billy Gunn vs. Henry Godwinn to start. Henry mostly controls for a couple of minutes, including a series of punches that look so terrible that Dean Ambrose would facepalm at them. Billy bails out, tagging Zip. Henry tags Phineas. These two run the ropes, criss-crossing, and suddenly stop short in the middle and scramble over to tag both Gunns in. Then they Flair strut away. What an odd spot.



After a bunch of posturing, Bart Gunn just tags Zip back in. Couple of armdrags and a clothesline by Zip, whose momentum gets broken when Marty Jannetty trips him from the floor. Billy drops a fist and then makes a pin that gets three. In a regular tag match that would never be enough to beat somebody, but in an elimination match everyone becomes magically way way weaker. The Bodydonnas are gone.

Billy tags Leif Cassidy in to face Henry. Leif controls for a moment, then tags Marty Jannetty in to continue the advantage. Marty drops a fist and tags Cassidy back in. Cassidy hits HOG and then carries him over to the other corner, tagging Billy. JR comments that the heel teams seem to be working together, but Cassidy accidentally clotheslines Billy from the apron, so that alliance is torched. A moment later Cassidy accidentally drops an elbow on Billy when Godwinn moves, causing a confrontation between the Gunns and Rockers. Godwinns take advantage among the distraction and hammer both teams. Henry attacks Cassidy, a miscommunication leads the New Rockers to collide, Henry hits the Slop Drop on Cassidy, 1-2-3.

Godwinns vs. Gunns for the titles now. Henry turns Bart inside out with a clothesline, but the Gunns take over the advantage from him fairly quickly. Billy really playing the psychotic screaming to the hilt throughout this match. Billy jumps at Henry, Henry catches him in mid-air and powerslams him, then makes the hot tag to Phineas. Phineas starts to clean house, Henry re-enters and clears Bart out hard with a clothesline that carries both out over the top. Phineas with a Slop Drop on Billy, but Sunny runs distraction on referee Mike Chioda, Bart heads up top and hits an axhandle onto Phineas from there, and as we all know, axhandles are massively powered up if they happen during a ref distraction. 1-2-3, Gunns retain.



Result: Smoking Gunns via pinfall
Rating: 3/4*

With the show being a pretty clear 0-for-2 so far, Vince sends us to a video of the Gunns in a horse and buggy racing across the city of Cleveland against the Godwinns riding on a bus. Who the **** thought up THAT idea? The team that rode a bus wins the race. No ****. We get other fluff about wrestlers doing things in the city as well.

British Bulldog vs. Sid: Again no Jim Cornette. They've long referred to Sid as "Psycho Sid," but on this face reboot they started spelling it as "Sycho Sid." I have no idea why, and I'm just going to ignore it. Dumb spellings notwithstanding, he remains massively over with the crowd, who goes nuts for his entrance. He starts the match with some power offense on the Bulldog, who bails out quickly. Upon Bulldog's return, Sid locks on a side headlock. Bulldog escapes, but Sid powerslams him. Sid drops his head too early on a backdrop attempt and gets kicked in the face. Davey follows quickly with a nice delayed suplex as Clarence Mason again shows up at ringside.

Bulldog with a clothesline over the top, and again we see Jim Cornette backstage training Vader and ignoring his man's match. Bulldog starts to bring Sid back in with a suplex, but drops him stomach-first along the top rope. Cover gets two. Sid fights back, executes a corner whip, runs in and avalanches Davey in the corner. Tries to do it again, but comes up empty on a corner charge. Bulldog quickly capitalizes, hitting the patented running powerslam, but suddenly Jim Cornette is at ringside yelling at Clarence Mason, and Bulldog gets distracted from attempting a pin. This allows Sid the recovery time to connect on a chokeslam and a powerbomb, and he takes it down. Not too bad of a power match. Short and sweet and pretty well-booked.



Result: Sid via pinfall
Rating: **1/4

We see clips from this past weekend on Superstars, when Mankind came out during Marc Mero's match and started screaming "Mommy" at Sable, terrifying her.

Goldust (w/ Marlena) vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable): Jim Ross says that he talked to Mero earlier, and Mero teased to him that he would try out a new finisher tonight if he gets the chance. Goldust taunts Mero and slaps him, then hides behind referee Tim White. They re-engage, and Mero throws a couple of armdrags. The two miss clotheslines on each other, Mero hits a cross-body for a two-count and then slaps on an armbar. After some non-descript action, Goldust backdrops the Wildman out over the top. As Mero re-enters, Goldust turns him around, smacks him on the chest, and then gets a running start and knocks him into the steel barricade outside.

As the action goes back inside, Mankind stalks his way down to the ring, again screaming "Mommy" at Sable. Sable, terrified, cries and backs off. Some officials show up to get in the way, at which point Mankind immediately runs off. I don't know if the Mankind/Sable stuff ever goes anywhere. In the meantime, Goldust has slowed down the match to 1996 Goldust levels. Mero fights back, throwing some fists and then connecting on an inverted atomic drop and a running clothesline. Backdrop. Knee-lift. The two spill out over the top together as they grapple for position, but Marc gets up instantly and then executes a somersault plancha to the floor. Back inside, signature slingshot legdrop. Sets Goldust up near the corner, heads up top, and hits the big high spot with the shooting star press. That may well be the first time a wrestler ever did that move on WWF TV. Marlena was running distraction though, so Tim White was over far too late to make a three-count, only getting two.



Goldust flings Mero into the corner, Mero takes the corner chest-first and then stumbles backward into Goldust. Curtain call, and it's over. Weird to debut the SSP in a match where it doesn't actually win.

Result: Goldust via pinfall
Rating: **

As Sable tends to Mero, Goldust gets down on his knees and crawls toward her. She begs off, he grabs her arm and pulls her close, Mero attacks and clears him out of the ring, then chases him up the aisle with a clothesline before officials finally separate them.

We get an extended video history of Ahmed Johnson's injury and the fallout from it. Faarooq and Sunny head to the ring to join Todd Pettengill. Faarooq with some pretty strong mic work, then Sunny vows that Faarooq will be winning the tournament for the newly-vacant Intercontinental Title.



Video package hyping the Jake Roberts/Jerry Lawler feud.

Next up, Howard Finkel introduces Mark Henry, who enters to Stars and Stripes Forever. He smiles and waves happily to the crowd, becoming the second wrestler in WWF history to celebrate in the ring to Stars and Stripes Forever at SummerSlam after not having actually accomplished anything (in wrestling, anyway). Henry joins the broadcast team for the next match.



Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts: The King opens up his jacket to unveil a Baltimore Ravens jersey underneath. He cuts an entertaining, scathing promo, first on Jake and then on Mark Henry at ringside. Lawler wasn't good in the ring by this point, but he was really good on the stick. Jake comes to the ring. Lawler produces a bag and pulls a gigantic bottle of champagne or some other alcohol out. Jake pulls the snake out of his bag and strangles Lawler with it, causing him to scurry out. King stalls for a while, Roberts eventually follows him out and attacks.

He works Lawler over for a bit, Lawler turns the tables by splashing a drink in Jake's face, Jake launches a comeback and appears to be headed for the DDT and the win, but Lawler grabs referee Harvey Wippleman, essentially blocking the hold, and then when Wippleman proceeds to back Jake up, Lawler grabs a bottle of liquor he brought to the ring, uses it as a weapon, holds the tights, 1-2-3. It's pretty insane that they had Lawler go over after this many months of taunting Jake the Snake. This was one of those feuds where you obviously put the babyface over in the end. Maybe they knew that Jake was leaving soon, but still. Terrible match, weird result.

Result: Jerry Lawler via pinfall
Rating: 0*



The King keeps ripping on Jake after the match, and as Jake is laid out, Lawler declares that he probably needs a drink, then he opens up a bottle of Jim Beam and pours it down his throat. This is all pretty tasteless, but I'm not generally one to high-horse about these things. Mark Henry eventually has enough of watching, gets up from the announce table, and chases Lawler off.

Video package to set up the Boiler Room Brawl.

Boiler Room Brawl: The Undertaker vs. Mankind: Taker's music hits, and Paul Bearer emerges and heads to the ring with the urn. The win condition here was to make it out of the boiler room, to come to the ring, and to claim the urn from Bearer. Referee Jack Doan opens the door to the boiler room, and after a significant delay to sell the gravity of the situation, Undertaker enters. He cautiously searches around the room looking for Mankind, who finally appears behind him and blindsides him with a pole. The two brawl back and forth, mostly with stray pipes or whatever. They're giving it a go, but it isn't the most interesting brawling. It doesn't come off as overly stiff, and the bumps just aren't that compelling for the first while. Mankind opening up a vent and directing hot steam at Taker's face is pretty good though.

Things pick up with some trash can action after this. The announcers mostly lay out for all of this backstage action, with the only commentary being the occasional mumbling by Jim Ross, saying something like "amazing." Mankind crotches Taker hard with a plastic pipe. He follows shortly after by getting a running start and driving a knee hard into the dead man's face against a metal sliding door. Foley mostly remains in control here, beating Taker down to near-lifelessness. He sets up a ladder up that seems to go to the ceiling, climbs near the top to purportedly set up for an elbow drop, but Undertaker gets up and pulls the ladder backward, causing Mankind to take a nice hard bump to the floor, with only some pretty weak stuff (tarp, cardboard) padding his fall.



As this match progresses, I've gotten into it to some extent, but it's just not a match format that lends itself to this damn long of a fight. I think this could have been great if it was abbreviated. The two men fight toward the exit door. Mankind manages to be first out, and manages to shut the door on Taker. He blocks the path behind him with nearby props as he heads out, but Taker fights his way through it anyway. They brawl through the hallway, past a bunch of wrestlers backstage. Stone Cold gets his only appearance for the PPV part of this event as he looks on. The fight continues throughout the quest to the ring, but Mankind is first through gorilla to the aisle.

Mankind delays for some reason, and Taker runs up and catches him with a running clothesline, followed by a 2x4 that breaks over Foley's back. The brawl continues toward the ring, with Mankind slamming Taker hard into the steel steps and then exposing the concrete floor. ****ing sit-down piledriver on the concrete. I thought that was guaranteed to be countered. Mankind tries to enter the ring, where Paul Bearer waits. Taker desperately grabs a leg and stops him, climbing up to the apron to join him. He throws a few haymakers, then slingshots Mankind backward onto the concrete floor.



Taker slowly enters, the crowd pops for his apparent win, he drops to one knee in front of Paul Bearer to reach for the urn, and…Paul Bearer turns his back. Mankind gets in and slaps on the Mandible Claw as Bearer laughs. Taker gets put out by the hold, Mankind sits Taker up, and Bearer slaps and kicks away at his long-time client, turning his back on a partnership of nearly six years. Taker keeps trying to crawl toward his now-former manager, reaches upward, and Bearer cracks him hard over the head with the urn, then delivers it to Mankind. Strong match by the end. Should have been somewhat shorter though.



Result: Mankind via Bearer heel turn
Rating: ***

Mankind and Paul Bearer leave together. Bearer hugs him at the top of the aisle, then looks into the camera and says "I'M PAUL BEARER AND YOU'RE NOT!" as the two exit stage left. The lights drop, Taker's gong hits, and some masked druids come out from the back and haul him off.



Jarring cut to the well-lit backstage area, where Vader and Jim Cornette are with Dok Hendrix. Cornette cuts a quick promo, and we're onto the main event.

WWF Title - Shawn Michaels (c) (w/ Jose Lothario) vs. Vader (w/ Jim Cornette): Full match writeup here. Great match, only brought down by some weird overbooking. In a nutshell: Vader wins by countout. Jim Cornette goads Michaels into restarting the match. Vader wins by DQ. Cornette again goads Michaels into restarting the match. Vader goes for the moonsault, misses, Michaels connects on a moonsault and gets the pinfall.



Result: Shawn Michaels via pinfall
Rating: ****

The show signs off shortly after Michaels's victory, as it ran right up against that three-hour runtime.

Overall: Show was not a good one until the last couple of matches, which did a nice job of redeeming things. Still doesn't feel like a great event, but doesn't feel like the bad one it was headed for either.

August 19, 1996

RAW

Wheeling, WV

We open on still images highlighting the boiler room brawl the night before, showing Paul Bearer turning on Undertaker.

While Vince McMahon voiced over the initial images, we have Kevin Kelly on play-by-play tonight for some reason, hosting alongside Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. They show us a bracket of the Intercontinental Title tournament for the title vacated by Ahmed Johnson.



We're going to get right into it with our first opening round match.

IC Title Tournament First Round - Owen Hart vs. British Bulldog: The brothers-in-law shake hands to kick things off. Hard shoulderblock by Owen, the two run the ropes, and Owen gets big elevation on a monkey-flip by Davey. Davey follows with a standing dropkick, and Owen rolls out. The Bulldog sits on the middle rope to invite Owen back in. A tentative Owen slowly accepts, Bulldog doesn't pull any shenanigans, and the match resets. Hip-toss and a dropkick by Owen knock the Bulldog to the floor. Owen follows suit and holds the ropes for the Bulldog, also letting him in with no foul play.



Bulldog with a hard corner whip, and something of a powerslam as Owen staggers out. Two. Reverse chinlock. After releasing the hold, Davey hits a press slam. The reception goes static for a moment, which the announcers acknowledge…Jim Ross points to it being something supernatural to do with Undertaker. Legdrop by Bulldog gets two. Owen fights back at Davey, hammering him in the corner, but when Davey reverses an Irish whip and Owen tries to jump out over Davey as he arrives in the corner, he gets caught and planted by a running powerslam. Too close to the ropes, and Hart gets a leg on the bottom rope at two. Sunny randomly appears at ringside as the show goes to break.

Owen stomps away, seeming to target a leg as he jumps on the leg a couple of times to follow. PIP promo from Jim Cornette in the back, who is in a frenzy and says that he's furious about these two guys having to face each other, and he doesn't want to take sides. He then references the later-advertised Shawn Michaels vs. Yokozuna match, and claims that "his 650-pounder is going to wipe the mat with Michaels." The announcers say "wat," Cornette seems to claim that he's back with Yoko, and in the meantime Owen locks on the Sharpshooter. Davey manages a rope break. As the two trade punches, Owen drops down and backdrops Davey out to the floor as Davey throws a hard hook.



Bulldog blocks an attempt to suplex him inside and instead suplexes Owen outside. Spinning wheel kick on the floor by Owen. Hard chop by the Slammy winner, who bails into the ring just in time, and Owen takes the match by countout. Solid match.

Result: Owen Hart via countout

That chop caused Bulldog to fall into Sunny. She gets upset with him and throws a drink in his face. They yell at each other. Jim Cornette runs out and gets in her face for trying to start trouble, very audibly calling her "slut" in the process. This situation settles down without further incident.



Video recap of Ahmed Johnson getting injured and losing his title. Man, enough of this footage.

Mark Henry comes to ringside and signs some autographs as we hear Vader's music. Kevin Kelly tries hard to put over just how close Vader was to winning the title last night. Vader gets into Mark Henry's face, but Henry no-sells and it doesn't come to anything.

Vader (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. Freddy Joe Floyd: Jim Cornette is on commentary, and again repeats that Yokozuna has realized that Cornette took him to the top and has reunited with him as a result. Vader finishes this quickly after two Vaderbombs.



Result: Vader via pinfall

Jim Ross, now in the ring, brings out Mankind and Paul Bearer together. Bearer says that he's tired of carrying The Undertaker for the past six years. It's funny to hear a manager who does less than anyone during matches actually make that claim. The arena lights flicker as he says this, and again they act like it's Undertaker's doing. Mankind is set for a WWF Title shot at the next PPV, In Your House: Mind Games. Mankind cuts a promo promising to first put Shawn Michaels' shoulders on the mat for the 1-2-3, and then to put his shoulders on a hospital bed for eternity. I don't think the hospital will book him that long.



More stuff with the arena lights, which clearly worries Bearer and Mankind, but Bearer tries to claim that it's Mankind's doing and that Undertaker has passed away. Gong, lights down, and the druids who hauled Taker off last night carry him to the ring. Bearer says that he's just a decaying corpse now. The druids set him down, and he sits up, stands up, raises his arms, Kane-style pyro comes out of the corners, and Taker chases them from the ring.

Next we get a vignette for "The Stalker," which is Barry Windham with camouflage paint on his face. The promo is him sitting in front of a campfire. This whole thing had a weird trajectory. It seemed to first get advertised like he was a creepy heel stalker, like what DDP entered the WWF to. Then they backed off of that idea, and by the time he arrived he was just sort of an undefined babyface who had that name.

Final Four Sudden Death Battle Royal: So because Ahmed Johnson won the battle royal but ultimately didn't get a WWF Title shot, the last four who were in before he won get their chance to secure a title shot by winning this match. It's Goldust, Savio Vega, Steve Austin, and Sid. Goldust and Austin jump Sid at the bell, and Savio even joins in to triple-team him, as they all dump Sid over the top in a matter of seconds. Well that was surprising. Sid re-enters and powerbombs all of them to the great delight of the crowd, but he's out.

After a commercial, we still have the remaining three going at it. Superplex by Goldust on Austin. Savio nearly dumps Goldust, but doesn't quite succeed. Savio gets a very near elimination on Austin, who manages to stick around, but then Savio dumps him for real moments later. Well, this just got stupid. Goldust vs. Savio for a ****ing world title shot? Savio connects on a spinning wheel kick. He then backs up and charges at Goldust at the ropes, Goldust backdrops him out, and Goldust earns the title shot. Goldust's push SO far surpassed his actual entertainment value in 1996. They scaled the sexuality in his character way down, which then just made him a dude in a goofy costume who stalled a lot and wrestled boring matches. Whatever. Not much entertaining about this battle royal.



Result: Goldust wins by last eliminating Savio Vega

Jim Cornette cuts a promo on Shawn Michaels from backstage. He says he has his other men at the ready, but he isn't going to need them because Yokozuna is going to take care of business.

Yokozuna vs. Shawn Michaels (w/ Jose Lothario): Cornette doesn't enter with Yoko. They show a clip of last night's pre-show, where Steve Austin pinned Yokozuna after Yoko went up for a banzai drop and actually pulled the entire top rope off with him. He was still holding it while he got pinned. Shouldn't that have been a rope break? Anyway, on with this match. Yoko puts Shawn down with a couple of shoulderblocks. Shawn fights back, laying in repeated punches and leaving the big man wobbly, and eventually causing him to fall to the mat entirely. Jim Cornette arrives at ringside as the show goes to break.

Back from break, Cornette attacks Jose Lothario at ringside, which draws Shawn Michaels outside the ring to chase Cornette off. Yoko pulls Shawn back in, executes a corner whip, and then plants the WWF Champion with a belly-to-belly. Yoko's splash attempt misses. Running clothesline by HBK. Flying splash off the top gets two. Yoko catches a superkick attempt and counters into a Samoan drop. Legdrop by the big man misses. Sweet chin music, 1-2-3. So…I believe that we never actually know in kayfabe whether Yokozuna actually reunited with Jim Cornette. He never really confirmed it here, and now I think he disappears.



Result: Shawn Michaels via pinfall

The show quickly rushes off the air after the match, as for the second straight night it looks like they cut it really close on getting their last match finished before they would get cut off.

Overall: Decent show. Solid opener, solid main event, and those two matches combined are as much as I realistically hope for from one Raw to the next at this point in '96. Most of the stuff in between those matches was meh. Still, it felt like the episode breezed by, so that's generally a good sign.

NITRO

Huntsville, AL

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko are our hosts, and we go straight into ring entrances to start tonight.

V.K. Wallstreet vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan: Please stop doing this match. Please. Please. Note: the third "please" just now is as far as I got before turning this Nitro off a week ago. I'm only now summoning the courage to sit through this match again now. Just as I unpause Larry says, "You know, I don't think Hacksaw deserves another match with Wallstreet!" Certainly not on live primetime TV he doesn't. Match is a lot of clotheslines and basic strikes. Duggan goes to tape his fists, referee Nick Patrick pulls the tape away, Wallstreet takes the tape from Patrick and starts to tape HIS fist, but he's apparently not as quick on the draw as Duggan, who whips out a second roll of tape from his trunks, tapes, punches, 1-2-3. Again, stop having this ****ing match on Nitro.



Result: Hacksaw Jim Duggan via pinfall

Mean Gene joins Duggan in the ring. It's time for him to cut another promo on Hulk Hogan. He starts into it, but gets interrupted by Randy Savage. Savage just tells Duggan that he's going to take care of Hogan and not to worry about it. Then Savage takes over the promo time for himself. Generic promo at Hogan. He then shifts his attention to The Giant, who he's facing later. He's irritated that The Giant allowed Hogan to take the belt off him at Hog Wild, and he's "gonna solve that problem later."

Tony and Larry show footage of that very brief Giant-Benoit match from Clash of the Champions, saying that he's obviously been fired up by what happened to his title at Hog Wild. Tony also says, "It's obvious that Chris Benoit and Woman are having their problems" after she had some blame in Benoit getting ambushed to start that match. Back to the ring.

Earl Robert Eaton vs. Chris Benoit (w/ Woman & Miss Elizabeth): Eaton does not have Jeeves or any of his partners with him, and Schiavone comments that there seems to be a split in the Bluebloods. Apparently Steven Regal said on Saturday Night that he's going to have a go in singles. Benoit comes in angry, taking the stiff offense to Eaton from the word go. He pulls Eaton outside the ring, then sends him into the post…Eaton makes that post job look very good. Hip-toss on the floor.

As the action returns inside, Larry drops a "New World Odor" on us. Eaton manages to get Benoit turned around in a corner and chokes him a bit, then counters a moment later with a swinging neckbreaker. He tries to follow with the top rope legdrop, but misses. Crippler with a running clothesline, a swandive headbutt off the top rope, and a three-count. Match was nothing special.



Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall

"Our world is about to change." Glacier promo. They were really playing fast and loose with "about to."

We get clips of the Steiners getting screwed out of a tag title win at Clash, as well as Nick Patrick's explanation for why he called for a DQ right before counting to three.

We also get Flair vs. Hogan clips. Schiavone is still playing the angle that Hogan gave up while in the figure-four but that it didn't get called properly. That referee was Randy Anderson though.

Mean Gene with Sting and Lex Luger backstage, who will be taking on Ric Flair and Arn Anderson later. Luger asks Sting, "How many times, in some combo, do you think we've faced the Four Horsemen?" Sting: "Hundreds, maybe thousands." I'm gonna go ahead and say no on the "thousands." Sting vows that they have a big surprise for the Horsemen later.

Disco Inferno vs. Scott Norton: Norton, wearing a ****ty combination of red and purple, goes right after it as soon as he enters the ring. He not only 100% no-sells Disco's occasional attempts at offense, but he doesn't seem to want to be bothered to actually lower his body or anything to lay in a shoulderblock.



Absolute squash here, with Disco truly getting less offense than you usually see an unnamed local jobber get against a WWF superstar at this point. Norton connects on an armbreaker and transitions into a bad-looking armbar that gets the submission.

Result: Scott Norton via submission

Ice Train and Teddy Long backstage with Mean Gene. Footage of Norton ambushing Train backstage at Clash of the Champions. Generic promo from Train and his manager here.

Lord Steven Regal vs. Dean Malenko: Depending on how you want to classify Chris Benoit at this stage, this is our third straight heel vs. heel match, and Jim Duggan is still the only pure babyface we've seen in action on this episode. Hammerlock into a drop toe hold by Dean, Regal counters, stands up, and executes an armdrag. We get some basic mat wrestling before going to an early commercial break.



Upon return, they're still doing nice move-countermove stuff, with a sequence culminating in a nice enziguri by Regal. Delayed cover gets two. Lord Steven continues with something of an octopus hold. I love when he throws in random palm strikes, as he does here. These two put on action that probably only a smug smark like me fully enjoys, not just because they're heels but because they do lots of cool subtle stuff that the casual fan just doesn't care about. Credit to this announce team for pointing out stuff like Regal grinding in a forearm on his opponent's face during a transitional pin attempt.

Malenko, who has mostly been controlled, hits a springboard dropkick off the middle turnbuckle, then throws a beauty of a release German suplex. And another German, this one holding on for two. Butterfly suplex by Regal gets two. Regal tries more covers, still only able to get two. Steven with a nice float-over transition into a schoolboy for another two, Malenko counters with a magistral cradle that gets the surprising three. Man, this wasn't getting a ton of reaction, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. The crowd does show some appreciation for Dean's win, giving it a pretty good face pop.



Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall

We go to the top of the aisle, where Gene Okerlund introduces the Horsemen. Arn Anderson promises Sting and Luger that they'll know they've been in a fight after tonight. Ric Flair offers more of the same as the countdown to the second hour of the show hits zero and the halftime pyro goes off.

After commercial, Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan take over the call, and we're straight back into the ring.

Nasty Boys vs. Public Enemy: This ****ing matchup was the Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston of 1996. Match goes immediately into split-screen brawling. Swinging neckbreaker by Johnny Grunge on Brian Knobbs gets a two-count. A minute or two later, PE double-whips Knobbs hard into the steel steps outside. Grunge and Rocco Rock also set Jerry Sags on a table outside the ring and attempt to put him through it, but Sags rolls out of the way and Grunge goes hard through the table outside. The Nasty Boys wrap things up quickly from there, rolling Rocco into the ring and making the pin. Nothing we haven't seen before.



Result: Nasty Boys via pinfall

Gene joins the Nasty Boys in the ring. He basically says that everyone knows that Knobbs is Hulk Hogan's boy, and asks if that's still the case. Knobbs says, "Once a friend always a friend, but he does what he wants to do and we do what we want to do. And we want the Tag Team Titles." I really can't imagine an angle less interesting than this recurring speculation about whether the Nasty Boys might turn on WCW or not.

We get highlights of Eddie Guerrero winning the Lord of the Ring title from DDP at Clash of the Champions, and DDP's post-match beatdown on him.

DDP vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.: Chavo with a couple of dropkicks to send Page outside, and then he launches himself out after him hard with a pescado. He takes the fight to Page until Page dodges a corner charge and Chavo sort of goes shoulder-first into the ringpost through the middle rope. DDP takes control and runs most of the offense the rest of the way. He pulls Chavo up twice on two-counts, first after a nice sit-out powerbomb and second after a hammerlock belly-to-belly suplex combo. Page is about to go for the Diamond Cutter to finally polish things off when Chavo reverses into a backslide and scores the pin.



Result: Chavo Guerrero Jr. via pinfall

Page with a Diamond Cutter after the match. He also forcibly takes Nick Patrick's belt off him and whips Chavo with it. Randy Anderson runs out and questions Patrick on not stopping Page from taking his belt. Bischoff strongly agrees with Anderson and demands that there be "an inquisition" against Patrick. Mean Gene comes out and questions Patrick about it. Patrick says that everything is being blown out of proportion and that he hasn't done anything wrong.

Bischoff sends us to a clip of a match from nearly a year ago on Nitro, when the American Males upset Harlem Heat to win the Tag Team Titles. They show us this in support of the next match. I really can't imagine modern-day WWE actually doing a call-back to a year-old match result like that. It's refreshing to see.

Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) (w/ Sister Sherri & Col. Parker) vs. American Males: Bischoff: "Booker T tags the big man in. Booker is…the more proficient of the two in terms of martial arts." Stevie Ray lands a terrible-looking kick. Bischoff: "Standing side kick there…a little slow, but a lot of impact nonetheless." Even Bischoff is just openly despairing about how bad Stevie is. After a heat segment on Scotty Riggs, we see the eventual hot tag to Marcus Bagwell. The Heat's numbers overwhelm Bagwell, Booker goes for a pumphandle slam, but Bagwell actually falls on top in a call-back to the spot the Males won the titles on last year. This time Stevie is there for the save.

Bagwell runs Stevie into Booker to knock Booker out to the floor, then Bagwell rolls Stevie through for a believable false finish. All of this hype surrounding last year's upset had me thinking twice and wondering if they were trying to gloss up a hotshot of the titles back onto the Males here. Riggs hits a missile dropkick on Stevie, but Stevie manages to get back up, and as Bagwell goes for a follow-up move off the top, Booker T shoves him and Stevie Ray catches him into a powerslam to score the pinfall. Match wasn't too bad.



Result: Harlem Heat via pinfall

After ring entrances by Flair and Arn as well as Sting and Luger, Sting takes a mic and asks the other Horsemen to come to the ring right now. Arn summons them down, and here are Mongo McMichael and Chris Benoit. The show goes to commercial, and upon return Mean Gene is in the ring. Sting gets the cue to explain what he wants to say.



After an exchange with Luger where he looks for reassurance that Lex has what it takes, Arn turns his attention to Sting.



I'm enjoying the promos, but Sting sort of already covered his reaction to this by dropping it into his original proposition that he and Luger have "felt" War Games before. He expresses his disbelief that Arn would even ask him about that, implying that yes, of course he has what it takes.

Flair steps in and says that he'll do it if Mongo and Benoit are agreeable to step aside, but it's their choice. Benoit and Mongo both say that they'll make the sacrifice and trust Ric and Arn's judgment. Mongo threatens that if Sting and Luger don't hold up their end of things, then what the nWo does to them will feel like a day at the park compared to what he'll do.

Arn: "I guess everyone agrees. We have a deal."
Gene: "We have got a deal!"

Really well-done segment.

Next we get a "paid for by the New World Order" black-and-white segment featuring Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. This one is really worthless.

The Giant (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Randy Savage: Giant is first to enter, and Savage ambushes him from behind with repeated chair shots on his way down the aisle. Giant recovers too quickly and fights back anyway, posting Savage and then throwing him into the ring. The bell rings, and I guess that's just now an opening bell? Savage fends off a chokeslam with a low blow, flings an interfering Jimmy Hart to the floor, picks up a chair, and the Dungeon of Doom hits the ring to run interference as Savage levels another chair shot on Giant and then hits several members of the Dungeon before running away. Giant, in an impressive display of athleticism for his size, jumps over the top to the floor and races after Savage.



Result: No Contest

Bischoff announces that the War Games match agreed to earlier has been made official, even though we don't actually know of a fourth nWo member yet. He and Heenan sign off the show.

Overall: The show spun its wheels to start out, but Malenko-Regal, DDP-Chavo, and Heat-Males all provided some level of decent entertainment, and the Horsemen/Sting/Luger promo segment was really strong. Pretty good show.

---

Ratings for 8/19/96: Nitro 3.5, Raw 2.9
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 27-17-2

Better Show: Raw would have beaten the first hour of Nitro with ease, but I think that Nitro launched enough of a comeback in the second hour to be the better show again this week. It's more of that effect where it simply feels bigger and better at almost all times than Raw, which had a couple of good matches but didn't have anything resembling a really compelling storyline going on.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 39-7

Match of the Night: I think you could make a case for both the opening and closing matches of Raw, but personally I found Dean Malenko vs. Steven Regal to be the most entertaining match I saw on this night.

That "dance for me" line that Norton drops vs Disco would be so amazing if it had not been delivered by Scott Norton.

August 26, 1996

NITRO

Palmetto, FL

We kick things off with two wrestlers already in the ring, and we skip the usual announcer banter and go straight into the action.

Billy Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera: This is Juvi's Nitro debut. Seems like he would have warranted the Mike Tenay treatment, but Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko will have to do the job on this night. Early powerslam by Kidman, who follows by connecting on a cross-body that carries both out to the floor. Both regain the apron, chop back and forth, and after a sloppy set-up, Juventud manages to powerbomb Kidman onto the floor for what looked and sounded like a pretty hard impact. Juvi follows by slingshotting himself over the top to the floor with a legdrop. He rolls Kidman in, then re-enters by hitting a springboard corkscrew splash.



Guerrera attempts a springboard hurracanrana to follow, but Kidman counters into a powerbomb that gets a near-fall. Slingshot legdrop by Kidman. Two. Suplex for another two. Tony mentions that Guerrera will face Konnan at Fall Brawl. On one hand, he got hotshotted onto PPV. On the other hand…Konnan. Kidman slams Juvi and heads to the top, connecting on a shooting star press, but that only gets a two-count. Not only does Guerrera kick out after the SSP, but when Kidman gets up and climbs the ropes to follow, Guerrera is able to catch him climbing up and stop him. He follows him up, spins around on him into a super hurracanrana, and that gets the three-count. Solid debut showcase for Juventud.

Result: Juventud Guerrera via pinfall

Mean Gene joins the victorious Juventud in the ring. Juventud isn't fluent in English, so he can't really do a promo that the English-speaking audience can understand. He transitions into Spanish, which the crowd boos. He tries to speak English again and just isn't great at it. Gene: "You're gonna have to give it a rest pal, you can take this up with somebody else. I'm sorry I have a tough time…uhhh…Tony, back to you." This was a debacle. It's like they discovered on live TV that Juventud couldn't really do an English promo. They bothered to devote nearly the first 10 minutes of the show to showcasing him, but just finished on a faceplant.

Same old Glacier promo.

Now we get our Tony and Larry intro, talking about the upcoming War Games match that was set up last week, with Sting and Lex Luger joining forces with the two lead dogs from the Four Horsemen. Larry starts off on some weird biblical tangent about how King Nebuchadnezzar foresaw an empire yet to come, and says that if Team WCW isn't ready at War Games, that empire could be the nWo. Tony Schiavone is very impressed by this analysis.



They mention that later tonight, we'll be seeing Sting and Lex Luger take on Mongo McMichael and Chris Benoit. What? Why would they do that match tonight? So that Benoit and Mongo could soften up Ric Flair and Arn Anderson's partners before War Games?

Marcus Bagwell & Jim Powers (w/ Teddy Long) vs. The Taskmaster & Big Bubba (w/ Jimmy Hart): They don't offer any explanation as to where Scotty Riggs is. The American Males music plays, and then Marcus Bagwell just randomly has a new partner tonight. They do mention that Teddy Long manages Jim Powers now. Bagwell and Powers clear the ring early on. After the reset, Bubba catches and powerbombs Bagwell, then sets him up in the tree of woe and allows the Taskmaster to take a run at him in the corner. Bagwell still manages a hot tag to Powers a moment later, Powers hits Bubba with a cross-body and actually gets a legit three-count from referee Nick Patrick with Bubba kicking out late, but then Patrick decides that the shoulder got up in time and restarts the match. As Powers and Bagwell celebrate, Bubba and Sullivan blindside them, and a sidewalk slam by Bubba gets the pin on Powers. More Nick Patrick controversy. I thought the original implication was just that he was supposed to have potentially taken an nWo payoff, but he seems to just be acting as a heel referee in general.



Result: Big Bubba & The Taskmaster via pinfall

Mean Gene joins the Dungeon of Doom in the ring. Big Bubba declares that he should be in all the main events and getting all the title shots, and he's not going to keep getting overlooked. Then he basically says, "Oh by the way, WTF, when is Glacier actually coming? If you're going to come, come." Sullivan turns the attention to the Horsemen and Chris Benoit, so I guess that feud is somewhat alive. He doesn't really say anything though.

After commercial, Gene is with Sting and Luger. They're pissed that they have to fight the lower-ranking Horsemen tonight, but they still vow to take care of business.

Mike Enos vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.: Enos has surprisingly decent music. I keep having this thing happen where that music hits, and I can't quite place it, but it seems like it must be someone good coming out. Then it's a random jobber. Chavo knocks Enos out of the ring, then attempts an over-the-top plancha to the floor, but Enos catches him in mid-air and counters into a fallaway slam on the floor. Pretty nice.



Enos's partner Dick Slater shows up at ringside as Enos delivers a backbreaker inside the ring. A powerslam and a fisherman's suplex follow. Enos collapses on a powerbomb attempt and hurts his leg. Chavo quickly capitalizes with a figure-four leglock. While in the hold, Enos bumps referee Randy Anderson, and Dick Slater comes in and attacks. Slater, who wore a towel over his head as he came out, puts the towel on Enos and executes a completely absurd switcheroo. The two look nothing alike. Swinging neckbreaker by Slater. As Randy Anderson recovers, Chavo surprises Slater with a small package and scores the upset.

Result: Chavo Guerrero Jr. via pinfall

Chavo joins Gene Okerlund and cuts a fiery promo on DDP after the match. The two will face off at Fall Brawl.

Cruiserweight Title - Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs. J.L.: The two men trade armdrags and arm-wringers early. Before this really gets going, we cut away to footage outside of Hulk Hogan and the Outsiders approaching a TBS/CNN video truck and spray-painting "NWO 4 LIFE" on it. Schiavone expresses his disgust and declares that at this point he's pretty sure there are only three of these guys. They return to the match, but go to commercial quickly.

J.L. with an abdominal stretch on after commercial, seemingly working heel tonight as he grabs the rope for leverage. He gets caught doing it, the hold gets broken, and Mysterio quickly knocks J.L. out of the ring with a springboard dropkick followed by a somersault plancha over the top rope. Dean Malenko shows up at the top of the aisle, watching the match as Rey gets distracted by him. Someone should have whispered to J.L. that that would have been the perfect moment for a schoolboy. Instead, he attacks conventionally and does eventually execute a sit-out powerbomb that gets two. J.L. continues to keep the match grounded, first with a Boston crab and then with some sort of transitional submission hold as well. Lynn is fighting a psychologically sound match, but unfortunately that isn't making it particularly watchable. We reach the second hour of Nitro in mid-match, triggering the pyro and giving us our new announce team of Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan.

Mysterio tries to baseball slide out at J.L., J.L. sidesteps and then rams him hard into the guardrail. Then the steel post. Then, far too quickly after those attacks, Mysterio manages a springboard hurracanrana off the steel steps. Back inside, he hits the springboard hurracanrana pin combo for the 1-2-3. Ending felt abrupt and silly. Like The Usual Suspects, it basically just made everything that happened before the final sequence a meaningless farce. So yeah, on paper this should have been a good match, but it basically sucked.



Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall

Mean Gene backstage with Mongo, Benoit, and the ladies. Mongo cuts a bad promo. Benoit cuts a worse one. They're mad about getting bumped from Fall Brawl or something.

They show Randy Savage's anti-Hogan promo from last week again, even though he didn't say anything. Then they show what happened in the Savage vs. Giant main event, with Savage hitting The Giant and several Dungeon members with a steel chair.

Mean Gene is with Savage backstage. Savage is signed for a WCW Title match against Hogan at Halloween Havoc. Vince McMahon was somewhere in the world wondering how it's possible that a company was actually booking two PPVs in advance.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. The Giant: Bunch of really boring brawling here. Duggan attempts a bodyslam and fails to get The Giant off his feet at all, as his back goes out. Suddenly there's a commotion in the crowd, and who do we see…



Ted DiBiase takes a seat in the front row. Giant misses an elbow drop, Duggan tapes his fist and punches. Giant no-sells. Duggan punches again. Giant is somewhat staggered. Jimmy Hart distracts Duggan, Giant chokeslams him, 1-2-3.

Result: The Giant via pinfall

At ringside, Ted DiBiase holds up his fingers one at a time. 1, 2, 3, 4…then he clearly mouths "next week," and holds up the fifth finger. Bischoff: "Maybe he's the fifth Horseman! Maybe he's coming out of retirement!" Wat.

Promo time with Gene and The Giant. Giant vows to take Savage out and get the match against Hogan at Halloween Havoc. I can't really tell if Savage's title shot is actually on the line or not in their upcoming match.

Ric Flair & Arn Anderson (w/ Woman & Miss Elizabeth) vs. The Rock 'n Roll Express: Bischoff: "You know, I just thought of something. He could be the fourth nWo guy, and maybe next week there's a fifth." Seriously, Eric? Even the average rube in the crowd jumped to that conclusion 10 minutes ago. The Express get their ring-clearing moment for whatever reason, and Flair yells at a couple of crowd members for a bit before resetting back in the middle. This match is as devoid of interesting spots as every other Rock 'n Roll Express match in 1996. At least we get to see that patented Arn DDT, as he plants Ricky Morton and allows Flair to make the pin directly after.



Result: Ric Flair & Arn Anderson via pinfall

Gene joins the victors at ringside. They cut the exact promo you expect from them, as Arn vows to make this not only nWo's first War Games, but its last.

Glacier promo.

Chris Jericho vs. Alex Wright: Here is our debut of Chris Jericho. I always liked his "All the Days" theme, and remember not really liking the theme he actually had his greater WCW successes with. Jericho and Wright trade armdrags, Wright with a flying headscissor, and then the two dropkick each other simultaneously. Wheel kick by Jericho, followed directly by a springboard dropkick off the turnbuckle that sends Wright to the floor.



Delayed suplex back in. Tries to follow with a move off the top, but gets dropkicked in the gut on the way down. Cross-body by Wright gets two. Wright with an empty corner charge, Jericho chops him hard, whips him to the opposite corner and follows him in with high impact. Whip to the other corner, and then he tries to follow in with a cross-body and misses, spilling all the way to the floor. Wright goes up top and attempts an axhandle to the floor, but rams himself into the guardrail. Referee Randy Eller was going to count to 10, but Jericho tells him he doesn't want a win that way, and the match gets called off because Wright can't continue. I remembered that Jericho's debut had a really lame ending of some sort; there it is. He's such a virtuous babyface that he's just going to invite wrestlers to attempt high-variance moves against him as a freeroll, because he won't take advantage if they miss.

Result: No Contest

Mean Gene joins Jericho and Wright at ringside. Jericho doubles down on being an overly lame babyface, saying he doesn't want to win that way, that people like Hulk Hogan would take wins like that, and that he and Alex Wright will both fight hard for WCW. Puke. Jericho would redeem that **** by becoming one of the best characters in the company, of course.

The Steiner Brothers vs. The Bluebloods: Both teams get jobber entrances and are ready to face off when the commercial comes back. The Bluebloods fight over who is going to start, and as they're yelling at each other Rick Steiner knocks their heads together. Robert Eaton shoves David Taylor off the apron to the floor, as the dissension continues. Rick clears the ring, the Bluebloods keep jawing at each other outside the ring, but Taylor eventually returns to continue the match. Bluebloods attempt a double-team, Taylor accidentally hits Eaton, the two recover and Taylor holds Steiner up in a delayed suplex for another double-team move, Eaton hits a cross-body on Steiner off the top, but Rick rolls through and gets the pin. This was a complete throw-away.



Result: Steiner Brothers via pinfall

The Bluebloods start brawling after the match. Eaton hits a swinging neckbreaker on Taylor and the two fight down the aisle to the back. Meanwhile, Mean Gene joins the Steiners at ringside. He asks them about their upcoming PPV match. Rick starts cutting a Halloween-themed promo about Halloween Havoc. Scott facepalms, then has to fix things. "Rick, it's not Halloween, it's Fall Brawl!" Gene starts corpsing over the whole thing, but gets a grip on things. Scott finishes the promo.



Chris Benoit & Mongo McMichael (w/ Woman, Miss Elizabeth, & Debra) vs. Sting & Lex Luger: Mongo hits a stun gun on Luger and then punts him in the ribs. Tag to Benoit, who continues the beating, stomping and dropping elbows before bringing Mongo back in. Both Mongo and Benoit selling that they're angry with these two for bumping them out of War Games, and they completely dominate Luger for several minutes starting with the opening bell.

Eventually a hot tag to Sting, and Benoit got caught in striking distance as he tried to stop Lex's tag. Facebuster by Sting. Goes for a Scorpion Deathlock, Mongo interferes and Sting clears him out, then press slams Benoit. His flurry of offense gets stopped when he goes for a top rope splash and hits Benoit's knees. Benoit misses on a swandive headbutt, and suddenly Hulk Hogan is at ringside. Mongo stalks him around the ring, and suddenly gets ambushed by Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, who ram him hard into the corner and then spray-paint nWo on his back.



Result: No Contest

The beating continues, as Hall hits the Outsider's Edge on Benoit and Nash powerbombs Sting. Both get spray-painted like Mongo. Flair and Arn hit the ring and go on the attack. Flair continues punching Hogan, but Hogan still has a can of spray paint and sprays Flair in the eyes, then spray-paints a stripe on his hair. The nWo holds the ring to big heat as trash pours in from the crowd. Hogan and his buddies head up the aisle and take over the announce position. They do some more taunting from there, and the show goes off the air, showing a slow-motion replay of Ted DiBiase from earlier counting out five on his fingers for next week.

Overall: Good, effective ending that built the upcoming War Games match really well. The Ted DiBiase appearance was a good teaser for advancing the building nWo. Unfortunately most of the wrestling was pretty sub-par, so overall I would say that it was a decent show but far from a great one.

RAW PRE-EMPTED THIS WEEK

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Ratings for 8/26/96: Nitro 4.2, Raw N/A
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 27-17-2 (no result this week)

Better Show: N/A
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 39-7 (no result this week)

Match of the Night: That Juventud vs. Kidman opener probably has to take this, even though it felt like they hurt it with the post-match Juventud promo fiasco.

I'm super sad that ive caught up on this thread as I now have to wait for more.



Great thread tho lkj. Keep up the quality content.

LKJ, when writing legal briefs or editing contracts or whatever it is you do, do you find yourself involuntarily inserting the words "Glacier promo" between paragraphs?

Hahaha I like the thought of that. I just checked; the Glacier promos started at the end of April 1996. The next writeup will be September 1996. I keep waiting for additional words to come on the screen saying "next week," but it never happens.

Thanks rmt; glad you're enjoying.

I'm going to start into the next week tonight. Figure I'll get my next writeup posted either tonight or tomorrow.

AUGUST 1996 IN REVIEW

Arrivals:
WWF - N/A
WCW - Ultimo Dragon (from AAA and NJPW), Juventud Guerrera (from AAA with a brief stop in ECW), Chris Jericho (from SMW and ECW)

Match of the Month: Shawn Michaels vs. Vader, SummerSlam '96

PPV of the Month: I liked Hog Wild a bit better than SummerSlam, for being more consistently decent than being a big pile of garbage for two hours and then redeeming things to an extent with a strong final hour.

Ratings: Nitro is still rolling, having won 10 straight at this point.

Quality: While I've been a bit disappointed in WCW's quality since the nWo formed - I had possibly unrealistic expectations of the show instantly launching to new heights after Bash at the Beach - it hasn't been too bad. And has generally been the better company on a week-to-week basis, though this was a rare month where I actually called Raw the better show one week.

September 2, 1996

Raw again pre-empted here, though there is a Raw on Friday of this week, so that will get a separate writeup.

NITRO

Chattanooga, TN

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko, ringside as always. Schiavone, referencing last week's nWo attack, says he's "never seen anything like that in his life." Pretty impressive that he's never seen anything like a faction ambush in nearly 15 years in the business.

We see clips of the nWo spray-painting the production truck last week, as well as Ted DiBiase arriving and promising "five" tonight.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Alex Wright: Page puts Wright down hard a couple of times by the hair, but Wright connects on a hard spinning wheel kick, a clothesline over the top, and an over-the-top plancha to the floor.



Wright returns DDP to the middle, then hits a slingshot splash for two. His momentum is halted when he goes for a cross-body, misses, and flies into the ropes. His misfire gets a pretty good babyface pop (probably more a positive reaction for Dallas than any sort of backlash against Wright). Tilt-a-whirl side slam by DDP. Sit-out powerbomb gets two. Diamond Cutter attempt is blocked, Wright attempts a German suplex that Page blocks, but he connects on a nice belly-to-belly for two. Wright really feeling his oats tonight. Corner mount, 10-punch, whip to the opposite corner, follows him in, sort of does a bicycle kick where he drives a foot into Page and flips, and as he goes back in DDP suddenly kicks him in the gut and connects on a Diamond Cutter for the pinfall. Very nice opener.



Result: DDP via pinfall

Referee Nick Patrick, who called that last match, is approached by Mean Gene afterward. Gene says, "I can't help but notice you were slow on the draw even in that match." Zero idea what he's referencing. Patrick gets indignant and says that Gene is just stirring up drama. He tells Gene off, calls him a liar, and walks off.

After commercial, Gene is with Sister Sherri and Col. Parker. Parker gives her a present…it's a leather vest. Gives her another…it's leather pants or something. What the ****. Meanwhile, they go to the ring, where Harlem Heat were just given a jobber entrance to perform a squash match.

Harlem Heat vs. Greg Valentine & Buddy Valentino: No idea who this Buddy Valentino is. Looks about Greg Valentine's age, but is quite a bit fatter. Ted DiBiase enters through the crowd again, to a big crowd reaction. Again he sets up at a front row seat. Valentine snapmares Booker and attempts a cover that gets one or two, a backbreaker does likewise, and Valentino tags in. He throws a dropkick, which I was not expecting given his size. Booker hits him with a Harlem side kick, slow to cover and only gets two. Stevie Ray slams Valentino, tags in his brother, Booker enters by climbing to the top and connecting perfectly on a Harlem Hangover. 1-2-3.



Result: Harlem Heat via pinfall

Gene with the victors. He says they're facing the Nasty Boys at Fall Brawl. The Heat cut a promo on the Nasties, but the Nasties suddenly blindside them in mid-interview, laying out Stevie Ray on the floor and then double-teaming Booker with a spike piledriver inside the ring. Stevie tries to get up and fight, but just falls victim to more double-team himself. Solid beatdown.

Glacier promo.

Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho: Mike Tenay joins the team for this one; Tony said during the last match that Tenay was going to become a fixture on Nitro on a weekly basis. Some nice chain wrestling between the two men, culminating in a release Northern lights suplex by Jericho. Dean catches Jericho's kick, and Jericho connects on a spinning side kick. Belly-to-back suplex by Malenko. Nice-looking brainbuster by Malenko to follow, gets two.



Snapmare by Dean, and Ted DiBiase gets up from ringside and leaves as Malenko locks in an extended headscissor. Jericho eventually works his way up to a vertical position, holding Dean overhead, and he executes an electric chair drop. Both slow to get up, Malenko actually gets right back on offense with a butterfly suplex. Two. The Iceman cinches in something of an octopus, Jericho gets up but Malenko simply transitions into an abdominal stretch. Jericho counters out of that as well, throwing a hip-toss. Still can't get control of the match though, with Malenko pulling him face-first into the second turnbuckle. Cross-body by Dean carries both men out over the top.

Jericho back inside first, Malenko to the apron, Jericho baseball slides into his legs and causes him to trip to the floor. The Lionheart gets a running start and executes a springboard cross-body from the top turnbuckle to the floor.



The Man from Winnipeg You Idiot sends Dean back inside, following quickly with a missile dropkick off the top. Sets up for a tombstone, Malenko kicks his legs back and reverses into his own tombstone. Two. Keeps trying to pin, of course getting repeated two-counts. Jericho with a bridging German suplex that gets two. Spinning wheel kick. Picks Dean up, goes for a German, Dean reverses and goes behind, Jericho drops down, Dean goes for a short clothesline that misses, Jericho behind, Dean again goes behind, goes for the German, Jericho blocks in mid-air and rolls forward in something of a victory roll for the three-count. Good match; that was a lot better than his debut match.



Result: Chris Jericho via pinfall

We get a video package hyping an upcoming Cruiserweight Title match at Fall Brawl between Rey Mysterio Jr. and Super Calo, who has yet to wrestle outside of apparently some B-shows that they have highlights from. WCW didn't always make a ton of kayfabe sense on guys actually deserving title matches.

Tony Schiavone, hyping the coming WCW Saturday Night, mentions that apparently the Bluebloods are no longer since Squire David Taylor will be taking on Earl Robert Eaton on Saturday Night.

The Giant (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Brad Armstrong: Definitely didn't know that Brad Armstrong was still around. The Giant gets a pretty big face pop upon his entrance. We seem to have the 1996 version of a smarky crowd, as the heels have just been getting cheered all night. Larry says that Giant "makes the national debt look small." The self-satisfaction that he says these lines with is just too much to take. As The Giant is in the middle of squashing Armstrong, we see a limo arriving at the arena. Big-time chokeslam by the Giant ends the bout.



Result: The Giant via pinfall

Paid announcement by the New World Order. This one is all Hogan, cutting the obnoxious heel promo. He's promising to take down "the so-called establishment of WCW."

We return to find that it's the top of hour #2, complete with the usual pyro. Eric Bischoff is joined by not only Bobby Heenan, but also Mike Tenay. Again we see the nWo spray-painting the production truck last week. And the nWo taking over the broadcast desk at the end of the show.

Ron Studd vs. Randy Savage: Apparently the tie-in with the Studd name, per Mike Tenay, is that Big John Studd trained Ron Studd. As the match gets going, Hogan, Hall, and Nash are shown emerging from the limo. Hogan spots a camera and frantically tells them to shut the door, then shoves the camera away. Back to the match, Studd is kind of dominating Savage for some reason. I realize that he's big, but c'mon. Savage pulls him through the ropes to the outside, connects on an axhandle to the floor, returns the big man inside, bodyslam --> flying elbow --> pinfall.



Result: Randy Savage via pinfall

Mean Gene joins Savage in the ring. Savage says he wishes Halloween Havoc was tonight. Gene pointedly says that some people are questioning Savage's mental state right now. Savage: "I'm living on the edge. And if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room." Savage spits some hate at the Giant for not getting the job done at Hog Wild, and guarantees that he'll beat both Giant at Fall Brawl and Hogan at Halloween Havoc.

The Steiner Brothers vs. Sting & Lex Luger: As this match is about to start, we cut to the Four Horsemen running out to the limo out back and opening it up. It's empty. They head back toward the arena. After a commercial, we get the match going. Almost immediately, Rick Steiner and Lex Luger get into a basic collar-and-elbow lock-up, Rick pushes Lex off, he barely bumps into referee Nick Patrick, and Patrick immediately calls for the bell. All four guys start furiously yelling at Patrick, but Patrick declares the Steiners to be winners by DQ. Sting and Luger stalk Patrick up the aisle toward the back…sure seemed liked he was probably leading them into an ambush, but no, they all just disappear backstage.



Result: Steiners via DQ

The Four Horsemen (w/ Woman, Miss Elizabeth, & Debra) vs. The Dungeon of Doom (w/ Jimmy Hart): We start on Mongo vs. Kevin Sullivan. Mongo gets really excited, but doesn't quite know what to do, heading up top and then clearly being confused on why he's there. Hint: the thing to do is to tag out, because your partners are all way, way more entertaining than you. Here comes Chris Benoit, who trades hard chops with the Barbarian. Nice release German by Benoit. Goes up top to follow, but Sullivan pushes him and causes him to temporarily slip, but still he ends up coming off the top and connecting on a splash. Tag to Flair.

Backstage, we have Sting and Luger chasing Nick Patrick all the way outside. As they arrive near the limo, Nick Patrick veers off right rather than going into the limo. Ted DiBiase is spotted getting into the limo. Sting picks up a large rock and throws it through a window. Take notes, Bill Goldberg. The limo drives off. Sting and Luger steal a ****ing cop car and chase after the limo.



Returning to the ring, Flair hits a low blow on Meng. Then another on Sullivan in plain view of referee Randy Anderson, followed by one on the Barbarian. Randy Anderson is cool with it, I guess. A policeman is shown reporting the car theft. Arn DDTs Meng, but the Dungeon saves Meng from a pin. Sullivan sets Arn up in the tree of woe and charges at him. Big Bubba gets the tag and continues hammering Double A. Commercial.

Glacier promo. Man, really? In the middle of the main event, as Sting and Lex Luger have stolen a cop car?

Barbarian powerbombs Benoit. Sidewalk slam by Bubba. Benoit is functional face-in-peril. He pulls out a desperate cross-body that gets a two-count, but he isn't able to tag. The Faces of Fear attempt the double headbutt off opposite turnbuckles, but they miss and Benoit makes the hot tag to Flair. Chaos breaks out among all eight. Benoit actually gets in Woman's face for some reason, yelling at her, she shrugs him off and grabs into the ring to Flair, who has locked on a figure-four and uses the leverage to get a pin out of the hold. He had it on Sullivan. It wasn't getting any attention on camera until that moment.



Result: Four Horsemen via pinfall

Scott Hall attacks at ringside. Here's Hogan. Here's Nash. These guys are way outnumbered, but they beat up the Horsemen at ringside and then beat up the Dungeon of Doom inside the ring. As they fend off the Horsemen's attempts to retake the ring and continue to beat on the Dungeon, here comes The Giant, quickly walking toward the ring. Tenay: "Thank God for The Giant!"



Giant faces off toward the three nWo guys as The Barbarian starts to regain his feet. Bischoff says that The Giant is gonna have their lunch. And then, in a call that I always remember as being the most memorable play-by-play call that Eric Bischoff ever made, he sees Giant grab Barbarian in a chokehold, and then with increasing quickness says, "No, whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! The Giant! THE GIANT! NO! NO!" Giant chokeslams Meng, Kevin Nash embraces him, Hogan high-fives him. The Giant is the newest member of the nWo.



Randy Savage hits the ring with a chair, laying out some chair shots on Nash and The Giant, then turning to Hogan. Hogan takes him down, Nash gets back up and attacks, low blow by Hogan, and Savage is down. Chair shot directly to the head by Hulk. Chokeslam by The Giant. Bischoff, despairingly: "And I'm afraid, my friends, the balance of power has shifted…and this is…Sting and Luger decoyed out of the building by DiBiase, carnage in the ring, and the nWo…this is like the Bash at the Beach all over again." Hogan hits repeated legdrops on Savage. The Horsemen try to retake the ring, but get shoved off. The nWo spray-paints black nWo on Savage's chest, and then paints a yellow stripe up Savage's back.



The nWo goes up and takes over the broadcast table. Hogan throws on a headset while The Giant does as well. He says they got a hold of The Giant and straightened his head out. Then says "tell 'em, big man." Giant says that Ted DiBiase got a hold of him and asked him to fly to Florida, which he agreed to. In mid-promo, Hogan interrupts by pulling the Nitro sign off the desk and yelling at Giant to spit on it. Then he lays on the table posing in the center. A bunch of the WCW guys attack at the broadcast position, but the nWo holds them off. Giant tries returning to the promo, beginning with "before I was so rudely interrupted…" Then 10 seconds later Hogan comes back, puts on a headset, and rudely interrupts him. Hogan couldn't stand that someone else was the center of a segment. I don't think I'm only imagining Giant's annoyance here.



They shove the announce table over and soak in the heat from the crowd as the show goes off the air.

Overall: ****ing tremendous episode. It was already strong before that whole final segment with The Giant turn, but that was a historic and memorable segment that capped the show off really well. This was just about the one-year anniversary of the debut of Nitro, and this was certainly one of its finest shows.

---

Ratings for 9/2/96: Nitro 4.3, Raw N/A
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 27-17-2 (no result this week)

Better Show: N/A
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 39-7 (no result this week)

Match of the Night: Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho wins the night in the first of many strong nights those two would produce together, but an honorable mention to a nice DDP vs. Alex Wright match.

The Giant had the beginning of Rock's famous eye roll there:




That gif is too ****ing hilarious.

I died.

I also vividly remember that Bischoff call. Great stuff.

"Glacier promo. Man, really? In the middle of the main event, as Sting and Lex Luger have stolen a cop car?"

You're making this up just to see who's paying attention, right?

I wish.

I mean, I almost threw "A Glacier promo" into the signup thread for the upcoming WW game because of this stuff. You HAVE to be toying with me.

Had to Google Glacier - his entrance cost $500,000 with all the lasers

Lol WCW

I can see why they thought Glacier had a decent chance to get over. In theory. Mortal Kombat was absurdly huge. You have this guy come in who works differently and looks different than everyone else in the company and is treated like a big deal. But in practice. My God in practice.

I have to say, I was hyped to see him. Then I saw him. tbf, with the months of vignettes, they booked themselves into a whole with needing a larger than life character...which this guy was not.

*glacier Promo*

Hey LKJ,

I just read this entire thread in two days and I got to say .. It`s fantastic. Awesome inside remarks and using gifs is brilliant to illustrate the most interesting spots. Thank you very much and keep up the great work!

One thing that bothers me a bit or maybe it`s more like a remark..
We have Nitro cruising in a commanding lead right now at 39-7, which is absolutely fine given the criteria you are using. I obviously haven`t watched the episodes and I totally get that the lower- and mid card in WCW is way better than in WWF.

But: Isn´t it pretty much the downfall of WCW that their main eventers can`t deliver matches that fit the hype they are creating by their great angles? They have no one in the main event that is a) a real thread to the top dogs (Flair is not, Sting was injured for ever in his NWO-feud and I never enjoyed his in ring stuff) and b) a performer that puts out 3*+ matches on default. The NWO angle is cool, but the main 2 of the 3 guys are among the worst workers ever.

In retrospektive this had to fail in the long run, right? If they had HBK coming over instead of Nash or Hall, this could have been huge and maybe change the entire long term dynamic of the NWO angle. Bret just doesn`t fit as a person and a performer with the NWO mindset, but HBK would have been the perfect fit for the initial angle and his in ring abilities would give WCW way more of an edge, because then their main events would have been able to do much more than some weak ass gimmick matches (e.g. DDP/Malone vs. Hogan/Rodman), which may works short term, but will eventually turn fans away ..

The argument is, that the main event scene in WCW wasn`t able to get the job done in ring, which eventually killed the entire company as in the WWF the main event was pretty well of in the in ring department (Hart, HBK, Taker, Austin, Foley, Rock .. you would never assume a stinker, if you had them paired one on one in just about any constellation), where as WCW pushed too many guys that could not be matched up with each other in regular matches without getting exposed as weak workers. If they had HBK in the initial NWO, they could have done so much more (Hogan turn -> keep the band together till it wears out -> Hogan/HBK feud ... ), because they would have had the one guy in the world that fits the NWO mentality perfectly and makes pretty much every PPV-match he was in special.