Monday Night Wars - The Comprehensive Recap
03-12-2016
, 01:45 AM
WCW HALLOWEEN HAVOC '96
Las Vegas, NV
Show starts on a full Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage recap, going back to the original Bash at the Beach turn.
Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, and Bobby Heenan are our announce team. Dusty rocking the rare short-sleeve polo. After the usual opening banter, we're off to the ring for our opener.
Cruiserweight Title - Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs. Dean Malenko: Mike Tenay joins the team to help call this one. Full match writeup here. Tremendous match despite a slow start. Several believable false finishes, solid psychology, both men executing at the top of their game. Dean Malenko goes over after a sequence where he sets up for the second-rope gutbuster, Rey tries to counter into a super hurracanrana, Dean pushes him off, Rey lands on his feet, jumps back up on the turnbuckle, but Malenko hits a powerbomb off the top to recapture the Cruiserweight Title. As Mike Tenay said, "The stage has been set for an incredible evening."
Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall
Rating: ****1/2
To the locker room, where Lee Marshall grabs an interview with Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett cuts a generic promo, then Ric Flair enters and finishes the promo off. Flair tells Randy Savage, as much as he hates him, that he's going to take Hulk Hogan down tonight.
Lord of the Ring - Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Diamond Dallas Page: I thought the ring would have been phased out by now, but this is announced to be a match over it. Tony Schiavone explains that the ring went missing, but that Eddie is the rightful holder of it, so I guess they're just battling over air, which seems silly since this has been built as a personal grudge match anyway. Eddie charges at Page the second he hits the ring, they trade slaps, but Eddie gets the better of the exchange. Action spills to the floor, where DDP rams Eddie into the guardrail before returning him inside.
Shoulder thrusts and forearms from Page. Eddie throws a couple of armdrags, then settles into a repeated side headlock despite several escapes by DDP. Dallas manages this weird spot where he grabs Eddie and hooks him as if to suplex or possibly double-arm DDT him, then looks to the crowd as if a big spot is coming, then pays it off with a basic pillow-soft takedown. Eddie dropkicks Dallas, who falls into a horizontal position caught up in the ropes. This was one of these unfortunate things where Page was the only wrestler in the world who would land like this after a move, and as a massive kayfabe-breaking coincidence it just happened a ton in his matches. At least he didn't do a damn bounceback clothesline, I suppose.
Eddie kicks Dallas outside, hops over the ropes to the floor, then whips Page into the guardrail. Returns him into the ring, then connects on a slingshot splash. DDP reverses a corner whip, causing a corner bump for Eddie, then Page crotches Eddie along the top rope. He takes it outside and then smashes Eddie's face into the steps. Another whip into the guardrail. Back into the ring, Page throws Guerrero up high and allows him to simply faceplant to the mat. Heenan totally overreacts to the spot on commentary. Gutbuster by Dallas gets two. Jawbreaker, then a tilt-a-whirl side suplex gets two. Page gripes about the call to Nick Patrick, who actually shoves Page down and then nearly follows with a three-count when Guerrero makes a cover. Dallas and Nick Patrick exchange harsh words for a bit, but DDP makes nice and shakes Patrick's hand.
Page and Guerrero trade pinning combos for two-counts until Page suddenly stands up and plants Guerrero with a hard clothesline. He's way too slow on the cover to get a three-count. Page jumps off the mat on a sell of a European uppercut by Eddie. Corner mount and a 10-punch by Eddie, culminating in another European uppercut. Dallas attempts to take shelter on the floor, but Eddie follows him out with a big plancha off the top. After the action returns inside, DDP hits a pancake for two. Helicopter sit-out powerbomb for another two. DDP just follows by slowly setting up for a Diamond Cutter, making it look like it will obviously get countered, but he connects on it. The impact gets blunted, which the announcers note, but Page makes the cover, and…three. Okay. That was like the final sequence of a squash match. I wonder if Eddie got concussed or something and they just went home; Page's reaction after hitting the Cutter seems to betray that this wasn't what they meant to do. This was a disappointing bout, far worse than what DDP did with Chavo Guerrero at Fall Brawl.
Result: DDP via pinfall
Rating: **1/4
Err, there's the ring, Nick Patrick finds it in the corner and hands it over. So it wasn't missing? The announcers are overdubbed because of DDP's music being overdubbed, so there's no reaction available. Thankfully I don't actually care.
Mike Tenay grabs an interview with Randy Savage, who comes in all bright and colorful to help perform a drawing of a sweepstakes. Really? Dude was in all black and making death threats on Nitro, and now he just has to show up and be all happy-go-lucky?
We also get an interview with Dean Malenko, the newly-crowned Cruiserweight Champ. It's a pretty generic promo that fit with his Iceman character. I do think that interviewing a new champion later in a show after they've won is an underused concept that should happen more. "Remember this guy? He's still living it up after becoming a champion earlier." It adds a layer of meaningfulness to a title win.
Out in the arena, Ted DiBiase, complete with microphone, is in the crowd with The Giant, who is holding a belt of some sort. US Champion? TV Champion? Nitro is really bad at actually acknowledging important weekend stuff. Yep, he's the US Champ according to Ted. Giant says that between Jarrett and the Horsemen, "everyone goes to the glue factory." I dig that as a mic-drop line.
The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett (w/ Ric Flair): Nick Patrick is the referee. This is not a US Title match, and Tony throws a fit about Patrick holding up the belt before the match as if it was a title match. That's a weird thing to get upset about. Jarrett enters by himself, but Space Odyssey 2001 hits and Jarrett's backup joins the picture before the match gets going. Jarrett does the stick-and-move thing early, then showboats, trying to bait Giant and frustrate him. He gets away from this for a moment and slaps on a side headlock as Tony despairingly says, "Don't do a side headlock to The Giant!" Giant picks him up and flings him across the ring.
After throwing a few punches, Jarrett runs into the same issue a moment later when he attempts a hip-toss and gets thrown across the ring instead. Jarrett jumps on Giant's back and tries to go the sleeper route. Giant breaks the hold, Jarrett re-attaches, Giant starts to fade but breaks it again. Corner mount and a 10-punch by Jarrett, but he runs into a big boot that he sells violently. They're telling the sensible story, that Jarrett can get his shots in but that the size difference is just too much. Giant goes into wear-down offense, hitting some incredibly soft backbreakers and then locking on a bearhug. Jarrett launches another comeback with a couple of dropkicks, but goes for a bodyslam and Giant falls on top. Only a two-count.
Jeff unleashes another flurry, actually putting Giant down with a cross-body, but Giant kicks him off violently during the pin attempt. Jarrett goes for a figure-four, and again Giant kicks him off hard, all the way to the floor. Giant knocks himself silly when he charges Jarrett and hits the post instead. Jarrett goes for the figure-four outside the ring, Giant fights his way out, and Flair attacks Giant from behind with a low blow to cause the cheap DQ finish. The rest of the Horsemen hit the ring to face Giant down, and he leaves. Not the worst bit of storytelling, but I'd be lying if I said I actually enjoyed it.
Result: The Giant via DQ
Rating: *1/4
Ted DiBiase, from the same place in the crowd, cuts a weak promo on Chris Jericho. Syxx cuts an even worse one. Well that's a nice lead-in to the match.
Syxx vs. Chris Jericho: Still Nick Patrick officiating. Some basic feeling-out early, some move-countermove stuff that ends neutrally. Kevin Sullivan, Konnan, and Bubba are shown hanging out in the audience. Monkeyflip and a couple of armdrags by Jericho, who starts working that arm that he just yanked on. Wicked chop in the corner by Chris, then a corner whip and a clothesline. Syxx reverses the next whip, Jericho tries to counter by climbing to the top rope, but Syxx kicks him off to the floor. A baseball slide prevents Jericho from returning, and then Syxx botches a pescado to the floor. Still, Waltman whips Jericho into the guardrail and maintains control.
Syxx throws his own chop in the corner, then connects on a series of kicks. He follows by making some douchey motion where he pretends to throw down a cigarette and put it out. I really do mark out against most of these nWo guys as heels, because The Giant seems like the only one who actually has to do any acting to play the part. Syxx maintains control, laying Jericho along the apron and then dropping an elbow on his throat. He comes up empty jumping in on a corner charge though, stalling the momentum. We get the Jeri-comeback, as he kicks Syxx outside and then hits a springboard cross-body to the floor. Hard guardrail whip by the young Canadian, who then returns Syxx inside. Flying back elbow from the top gets two. Syxx counters a charge into a stun gun into the turnbuckle, but gets dropkicked as he flies off the top at Jericho.
Lionsault into a slow bridging pin combo gets only one, as Nick Patrick is slow as hell to count. Flying forearm gets another visual pin, but falls victim to a slow count. Finally a spinning wheel kick by Syxx finishes things off, as Patrick is quick to get down and count that one. Match was nothing special.
Result: Syxx via pinfall
Rating: **1/2
After the match, Jericho gets in Nick Patrick's face and chases him off. Patrick catches up with Syxx, who is limping off, and Syxx puts his arm around Patrick and accepts Patrick's help to the back.
Backstage, Mike Tenay is with Lex Luger, who is rocking a funny-looking head of JBF hair. Luger cuts a promo on Arn Anderson and clearly loses his place, saying, "Well now Arn Anderson, you're going to see a side of me…oh my gosh, Arn Anderson…you know what? I'm going to the ring right now."
Arn Anderson vs. Lex Luger: No backup for Arn, not even Woman. Obviously Elizabeth had been redistributed, but I'm not sure where Woman is. Also Arn wears a ****ing jean vest to the ring, so it was a rougher ring entrance than usual in general. Arn knocks Lex to the mat and mocks him with Lex's signature flexing pose.
Anderson dominates early and hollers to the crowd, "What's the big deal?" Luger seemingly regenerates at this moment, getting a shot of adrenaline and hitting a series of moves, clotheslining Anderson out of the ring, then following him out with an axhandle from the apron. Lex picks Arn up and rams him back-first into the post. The Dungeon of Doom, still in the crowd, is openly cheering for Luger. Luger focuses his offensive attack on Arn's back, hitting backbreakers and forearms to the back, etc. Psychologically sound, but dull. Anderson throws a back elbow to pick off Luger's corner charge, but quickly gets crotched after climbing up the ropes but getting caught.
Arn throws the big spinebuster as Luger runs toward him. Both are down for a good while after that, but Anderson is able to take advantage and knock Luger out of the ring. He rams the strongman's back into the apron and the guardrail, then continues to stomp away at it. Can't say I've often seen two men working on each other's backs like this, but it does make sense. Luger blocks the DDT attempt and Arn goes down hard. A moment later Arn bumps Luger into referee Mark Curtis, giving us a ref bump. Arn goes for a chair shot outside the ring, misses, Luger catapults Arn into the post in a spot that just looks absolutely cringeworthy. Lex follows with a suplex on the floor, then goes for the chair that Arn came at him with and hammers the Enforcer three times. Luger rolls Arn's nearly-lifeless body into the ring, goes in and slaps on the Torture Rack, and Arn gives up.
Honestly, while some of the action was really bad, the storytelling here was strong. Arn declares war on Luger for being a huge pussy and giving up at War Games, and Luger fights fire with fire, taking the low road but ultimately getting Arn, who said he would never give up, to give up. I can't say I cared about the build at all, but I like the payoff. Luger doesn't let the hold go for a solid 20+ seconds after the match, really driving the dagger home. Hat tip to Bobby Heenan for really bringing this story home well on the commentary at the end of the match.
Result: Lex Luger via submission
Rating: **1/2
After Luger departs, a concerned Ric Flair comes out with Jeff Jarrett to check on Arn as a trainer attends to him. They put over the severity of Anderson's injury as he gets stretchered off.
Lee Marshall pimps the WCW Hotline backstage. Man, if you're Mean Gene, Tenay or Schiavone doing your interviews is one thing, but Lee Marshall, that's just insulting. Marshall brings in the Harlem Heat and their managers. Decent but generic promo from this crew as they ready themselves for a title defense against The Outsiders.
I've gotta say, this PPV has not been very easy to get through, and just as I was thinking that I hear the damn Dungeon of Doom music.
The Faces of Fear (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Chris Benoit & Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra & Woman): Okay, Woman is around, no big deal. As the match gets started, we get an awkward moment where Dusty notes that the Dungeon of Doom is still taking up ringside seats for the third straight match, Tony no-sells and goes in to call the action, and Dusty checks back in with, "Yeah, don't answer me about that thought. Walk on by it." Tony: "Do I have to answer you for everything?" Dusty: "Well that was a good thought." Dude, Dusty, no it was not a particularly good thought.
Meng and Mongo have a series of stalemates as they collide in mid-ring. Mongo finally throws a flying shoulderblock that does put Meng down. They both tag out and upgrade the workrate in the ring by a magnitude of 10 by stepping out in favor of Benoit and the Barbarian. Barbarian dominates the early exchange until Benoit manages a Northern lights suplex for a two-count. After Benoit lays further beatdown on Barbarian, both men tag out and we're back to the big uglies. It's like we're having a good worker/bad worker mixed tag where one team's tag obligates the other. Meng challenges Mongo to do a sumo showdown with him, which Meng gets the better of, but then Mongo busts out the football moves with a couple of defensive line barrel rolls and then a diving chop block. Gotta say, they've actually made the Mongo vs. Meng stuff entertaining.
The Faces of Fear isolate Mongo for a bit, but he's able to throw a dropkick and tag out after a couple of minutes. Benoit, fresh, comes in and starts throwing hard chops at Meng, but Barbarian makes the blind tag in and halts Benoit's attack sharply by stepping in and powerbombing the **** out of him. Fun spot. Mongo has to make a save to prevent a pin.
Barbarian tries to set Benoit up for a superplex, Benoit headbutts him off to the mat, but Meng heads up the apron and cheap shots Benoit, allowing Barbarian to climb back up and throw the overhead belly-to-belly superplex with both standing on the top turnbuckle. Faces of Fear connect on their double flying headbutt finisher, but Mongo makes another save. We get an interesting tidbit from Tony here, who says that there used to be a one-save rule, where you could legally come in and save your partner once during a pinfall, but anything beyond that was a DQ. That's interesting; I never knew that. They shouldn't have gotten rid of that rule IMO.
Barbarian suplexes Benoit as Meng flies off the top with a splash. Woman distracts the referee, Mongo slips outside the ring and drags Benoit safely out of the pin, clobbers Meng hard with the briefcase, Benoit headbutt gets the Horsemen the dirty win. Man, the Faces of Fear were so much fun here that I actually sort of marked out against the Horsemen stealing that one. Surprisingly good match.
Result: Chris Benoit & Mongo McMichael via pinfall
Rating: ***1/2
Barbarian hammers Mongo with the briefcase after the match. Meng piledrives Mongo. Bubba, Konnan and Sullivan pour in from their ringside seats, and while Benoit tries to fight them all off, the numbers overwhelm him. Sullivan throws a couple more hard briefcase shots right at Mongo's head. I really can't get over how much I'm enjoying this. Of all the matches and post-match segments to turn a show around, I would not have expected this to be the one. Woman pleads for mercy, causing her IRL husband Sullivan to raise an eyebrow.
Sullivan sheds his jacket, loosens a couple of buttons, tells her he's going to show Benoit why he's still the man, then throws a couple of hard kicks at him. Schiavone: "There's something more than meets the eye as it relates to Sullivan and Woman and Benoit." Tony had no idea. The Dungeon leaves Benoit and Mongo out cold in the ring as Woman tends to Benoit.
Ted DiBiase, from his same spot in the crowd, introduces the Outsiders for their shot at the Tag Team Titles.
Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) (w/ Sister Sherri & Col. Parker) vs. The Outsiders: As much as WCW set up the Heat to be the temporary babyfaces for the evening, the crowd overwhelmingly favors Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Booker T connects on a spinning heel kick on Hall early. Hall stops short of a leapfrog and clocks Booker. Tornado punch to follow, and Booker takes a moment to collect himself. The two duel over an attempted hip-toss and Booker gets the better of it, flinging Hall out over the top rope. Stevie tags in, and Hall spits on him before tagging Nash in. I'll let you guess how good the action is when Stevie and Big Sexy go at it. After knocking Nash down, Stevie spits back at Hall on the apron.
Booker enters with an axe kick. Nash kicks out, then pulls out a sidewalk slam to enable a tag-out. Booker throws a flying forearm at Hall and briefly has control, but Nash takes a cheap shot at Booker from the apron, enabling a hard clothesline by Hall and a near-fall. Nash enters with his power arsenal, and Booker needs a tag as the Outsiders continue to isolate him. Hall catches Booker's cross-body attempt and hits the fallaway slam. Sherri gets up on the apron to run distraction, and Hall grabs her and kisses her. Schiavone says, "Well she asked for it." That's…okay, whatever. Spinning wheel kick by Booker floors Hall. Both are slow to get up, they take turns slapping on a sleeper, then they have a mid-ring collision.
Hot tag to Stevie. He unleashes his whole offense on the Outsiders, which is to say that he punches both of them. Booker back in to help, clotheslines Nash over the top, Stevie with a side suplex on Hall, Harlem Hangover by Booker, but Mark Curtis goes to clear Booker out, Col. Parker comes in wielding a cane, Nash coaxes it away from him and hits Stevie with it twice. Parker scurries away, Hall eventually rolls over on top of Stevie, 1-2-3, and the nWo has captured the Tag Team Titles. Dull match, but the crowd loves the result.
Result: The Outsiders via pinfall, new Tag Team Champions
Rating: *
Here's an ad for World War 3, which is unfortunately the next PPV. There's absolutely no excuse for the fact that they didn't pull the plug on that **** after the first year.
Hulk Hogan, complete with ridiculous hairplugs or whatever those are, shows up in the DiBiase section of the crowd. He gives us the usual obnoxious promo.
WCW Title - Hulk Hogan (c) (w/ The Giant & Ted DiBiase) vs. Randy Savage: Hey, at least I can finally say "champ out first" when Hogan is the champ. Referee Randy Anderson ejects The Giant before the match ever starts, refusing to call for the opening bell until he leaves. Once that bell does ring, Hogan stalls. And stalls. And stalls. Forget whatever it is I said about sort of being more interested in this match after the end of the last Nitro. Once they finally go at it, it's glacial offense from Hogan, punches and chops and clotheslines, and Savage falls into his 1996 wheelhouse of doing almost nothing but laying there and selling.
Savage launches a comeback where he connects on an axhandle and knocks Hogan's sunglasses off. He puts them on himself. Then he yanks Hogan's fake hair off…so I guess it was a toupee. Savage also puts the toupee on himself. This is worlds of stupid.
The action heads outside the ring, where Savage gets a chairshot in. Hogan gets the chair away from him and does the same. Both did this in view of Randy Anderson, who I guess doesn't care. After some incredibly pointless brawling outside, here comes Miss Elizabeth in a ridiculous bright multicolor dress.
Hogan puts the badmouth on her, Savage capitalizes with a schoolboy but can't get the pinfall. We return to really bad brawling, Hogan mostly controlling. Savage manages a scoop slam and Schiavone yells the spot like it's Hogan slamming Andre. Hogan twice baits Savage into chasing him on the floor and then hides behind Elizabeth. Back inside, Hogan gets the Macho Man in position for a legdrop, but Liz runs in and covers Savage. He runs her off and eventually goes for it, but Savage rolls away. Ref bump. Ted DiBiase and Elizabeth fight over a foreign object outside. Savage manages a flying elbow off the top as Nick Patrick runs in to sub in for Randy Anderson. Patrick counts to two and has an easy three, but Savage attacksPatrick and removes his neck brace.
Hogan tries to hit Savage with the foreign object. Savage gets it away from him and uses it himself. DiBiase stops the next flying elbow attempt. Here comes The Giant. Chokeslam on the floor. The big man returns Savage inside, Hogan is out cold so Giant has to actually go in and drape him over top of the Macho Man, and of course Nick Patrick is on the spot to count to three. This match had zero redeeming value. Absolute indefensible trash. If I was one for negative stars it would get them.
Result: Hulk Hogan via pinfall
Rating: 0*
Giant brings an ice bucket to the ring and dumps it on Hogan to revive him. He doesn't know what's happened until Nick Patrick raises his hand. Hulk grabs a mic and brags for a while until we suddenly hear bagpipe music. At the top of the aisle, another young up-and-comer emerges through the curtain.
Piper declares that he's just as big of an icon in this sport as Hulk is. That is, of course, patently ridiculous. Piper says that he's the only one that Hogan has never been able to beat. There's a weird moment where Hogan admits that Piper is just as big of an icon as him. This whole feud in late '96 was just the least believable thing ever to me. This is judging Peyton Manning against Brett Favre in a GOAT conversation. Yes they're both all-time greats and obvious first-ballot HOFers, but only one has any sort of claim to GOAT. Anyway, the dueling promos thing continues until they run out of TV time and just go off the air while Piper is still ranting. I was quite done with the whole thing, so I was grateful for the cut-off.
Overall: Not a good show. Excellent opener, surprisingly really good tag match in the middle, and very little else of value, with a main event that was an outright embarrassment. The Piper appearance doesn't move the needle for me since I was never a Piper guy.
Las Vegas, NV
Show starts on a full Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage recap, going back to the original Bash at the Beach turn.
Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, and Bobby Heenan are our announce team. Dusty rocking the rare short-sleeve polo. After the usual opening banter, we're off to the ring for our opener.
Cruiserweight Title - Rey Mysterio Jr. (c) vs. Dean Malenko: Mike Tenay joins the team to help call this one. Full match writeup here. Tremendous match despite a slow start. Several believable false finishes, solid psychology, both men executing at the top of their game. Dean Malenko goes over after a sequence where he sets up for the second-rope gutbuster, Rey tries to counter into a super hurracanrana, Dean pushes him off, Rey lands on his feet, jumps back up on the turnbuckle, but Malenko hits a powerbomb off the top to recapture the Cruiserweight Title. As Mike Tenay said, "The stage has been set for an incredible evening."
Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall
Rating: ****1/2
To the locker room, where Lee Marshall grabs an interview with Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett cuts a generic promo, then Ric Flair enters and finishes the promo off. Flair tells Randy Savage, as much as he hates him, that he's going to take Hulk Hogan down tonight.
Lord of the Ring - Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Diamond Dallas Page: I thought the ring would have been phased out by now, but this is announced to be a match over it. Tony Schiavone explains that the ring went missing, but that Eddie is the rightful holder of it, so I guess they're just battling over air, which seems silly since this has been built as a personal grudge match anyway. Eddie charges at Page the second he hits the ring, they trade slaps, but Eddie gets the better of the exchange. Action spills to the floor, where DDP rams Eddie into the guardrail before returning him inside.
Shoulder thrusts and forearms from Page. Eddie throws a couple of armdrags, then settles into a repeated side headlock despite several escapes by DDP. Dallas manages this weird spot where he grabs Eddie and hooks him as if to suplex or possibly double-arm DDT him, then looks to the crowd as if a big spot is coming, then pays it off with a basic pillow-soft takedown. Eddie dropkicks Dallas, who falls into a horizontal position caught up in the ropes. This was one of these unfortunate things where Page was the only wrestler in the world who would land like this after a move, and as a massive kayfabe-breaking coincidence it just happened a ton in his matches. At least he didn't do a damn bounceback clothesline, I suppose.
Eddie kicks Dallas outside, hops over the ropes to the floor, then whips Page into the guardrail. Returns him into the ring, then connects on a slingshot splash. DDP reverses a corner whip, causing a corner bump for Eddie, then Page crotches Eddie along the top rope. He takes it outside and then smashes Eddie's face into the steps. Another whip into the guardrail. Back into the ring, Page throws Guerrero up high and allows him to simply faceplant to the mat. Heenan totally overreacts to the spot on commentary. Gutbuster by Dallas gets two. Jawbreaker, then a tilt-a-whirl side suplex gets two. Page gripes about the call to Nick Patrick, who actually shoves Page down and then nearly follows with a three-count when Guerrero makes a cover. Dallas and Nick Patrick exchange harsh words for a bit, but DDP makes nice and shakes Patrick's hand.
Page and Guerrero trade pinning combos for two-counts until Page suddenly stands up and plants Guerrero with a hard clothesline. He's way too slow on the cover to get a three-count. Page jumps off the mat on a sell of a European uppercut by Eddie. Corner mount and a 10-punch by Eddie, culminating in another European uppercut. Dallas attempts to take shelter on the floor, but Eddie follows him out with a big plancha off the top. After the action returns inside, DDP hits a pancake for two. Helicopter sit-out powerbomb for another two. DDP just follows by slowly setting up for a Diamond Cutter, making it look like it will obviously get countered, but he connects on it. The impact gets blunted, which the announcers note, but Page makes the cover, and…three. Okay. That was like the final sequence of a squash match. I wonder if Eddie got concussed or something and they just went home; Page's reaction after hitting the Cutter seems to betray that this wasn't what they meant to do. This was a disappointing bout, far worse than what DDP did with Chavo Guerrero at Fall Brawl.
Result: DDP via pinfall
Rating: **1/4
Err, there's the ring, Nick Patrick finds it in the corner and hands it over. So it wasn't missing? The announcers are overdubbed because of DDP's music being overdubbed, so there's no reaction available. Thankfully I don't actually care.
Mike Tenay grabs an interview with Randy Savage, who comes in all bright and colorful to help perform a drawing of a sweepstakes. Really? Dude was in all black and making death threats on Nitro, and now he just has to show up and be all happy-go-lucky?
We also get an interview with Dean Malenko, the newly-crowned Cruiserweight Champ. It's a pretty generic promo that fit with his Iceman character. I do think that interviewing a new champion later in a show after they've won is an underused concept that should happen more. "Remember this guy? He's still living it up after becoming a champion earlier." It adds a layer of meaningfulness to a title win.
Out in the arena, Ted DiBiase, complete with microphone, is in the crowd with The Giant, who is holding a belt of some sort. US Champion? TV Champion? Nitro is really bad at actually acknowledging important weekend stuff. Yep, he's the US Champ according to Ted. Giant says that between Jarrett and the Horsemen, "everyone goes to the glue factory." I dig that as a mic-drop line.
The Giant vs. Jeff Jarrett (w/ Ric Flair): Nick Patrick is the referee. This is not a US Title match, and Tony throws a fit about Patrick holding up the belt before the match as if it was a title match. That's a weird thing to get upset about. Jarrett enters by himself, but Space Odyssey 2001 hits and Jarrett's backup joins the picture before the match gets going. Jarrett does the stick-and-move thing early, then showboats, trying to bait Giant and frustrate him. He gets away from this for a moment and slaps on a side headlock as Tony despairingly says, "Don't do a side headlock to The Giant!" Giant picks him up and flings him across the ring.
After throwing a few punches, Jarrett runs into the same issue a moment later when he attempts a hip-toss and gets thrown across the ring instead. Jarrett jumps on Giant's back and tries to go the sleeper route. Giant breaks the hold, Jarrett re-attaches, Giant starts to fade but breaks it again. Corner mount and a 10-punch by Jarrett, but he runs into a big boot that he sells violently. They're telling the sensible story, that Jarrett can get his shots in but that the size difference is just too much. Giant goes into wear-down offense, hitting some incredibly soft backbreakers and then locking on a bearhug. Jarrett launches another comeback with a couple of dropkicks, but goes for a bodyslam and Giant falls on top. Only a two-count.
Jeff unleashes another flurry, actually putting Giant down with a cross-body, but Giant kicks him off violently during the pin attempt. Jarrett goes for a figure-four, and again Giant kicks him off hard, all the way to the floor. Giant knocks himself silly when he charges Jarrett and hits the post instead. Jarrett goes for the figure-four outside the ring, Giant fights his way out, and Flair attacks Giant from behind with a low blow to cause the cheap DQ finish. The rest of the Horsemen hit the ring to face Giant down, and he leaves. Not the worst bit of storytelling, but I'd be lying if I said I actually enjoyed it.
Result: The Giant via DQ
Rating: *1/4
Ted DiBiase, from the same place in the crowd, cuts a weak promo on Chris Jericho. Syxx cuts an even worse one. Well that's a nice lead-in to the match.
Syxx vs. Chris Jericho: Still Nick Patrick officiating. Some basic feeling-out early, some move-countermove stuff that ends neutrally. Kevin Sullivan, Konnan, and Bubba are shown hanging out in the audience. Monkeyflip and a couple of armdrags by Jericho, who starts working that arm that he just yanked on. Wicked chop in the corner by Chris, then a corner whip and a clothesline. Syxx reverses the next whip, Jericho tries to counter by climbing to the top rope, but Syxx kicks him off to the floor. A baseball slide prevents Jericho from returning, and then Syxx botches a pescado to the floor. Still, Waltman whips Jericho into the guardrail and maintains control.
Syxx throws his own chop in the corner, then connects on a series of kicks. He follows by making some douchey motion where he pretends to throw down a cigarette and put it out. I really do mark out against most of these nWo guys as heels, because The Giant seems like the only one who actually has to do any acting to play the part. Syxx maintains control, laying Jericho along the apron and then dropping an elbow on his throat. He comes up empty jumping in on a corner charge though, stalling the momentum. We get the Jeri-comeback, as he kicks Syxx outside and then hits a springboard cross-body to the floor. Hard guardrail whip by the young Canadian, who then returns Syxx inside. Flying back elbow from the top gets two. Syxx counters a charge into a stun gun into the turnbuckle, but gets dropkicked as he flies off the top at Jericho.
Lionsault into a slow bridging pin combo gets only one, as Nick Patrick is slow as hell to count. Flying forearm gets another visual pin, but falls victim to a slow count. Finally a spinning wheel kick by Syxx finishes things off, as Patrick is quick to get down and count that one. Match was nothing special.
Result: Syxx via pinfall
Rating: **1/2
After the match, Jericho gets in Nick Patrick's face and chases him off. Patrick catches up with Syxx, who is limping off, and Syxx puts his arm around Patrick and accepts Patrick's help to the back.
Backstage, Mike Tenay is with Lex Luger, who is rocking a funny-looking head of JBF hair. Luger cuts a promo on Arn Anderson and clearly loses his place, saying, "Well now Arn Anderson, you're going to see a side of me…oh my gosh, Arn Anderson…you know what? I'm going to the ring right now."
Arn Anderson vs. Lex Luger: No backup for Arn, not even Woman. Obviously Elizabeth had been redistributed, but I'm not sure where Woman is. Also Arn wears a ****ing jean vest to the ring, so it was a rougher ring entrance than usual in general. Arn knocks Lex to the mat and mocks him with Lex's signature flexing pose.
Anderson dominates early and hollers to the crowd, "What's the big deal?" Luger seemingly regenerates at this moment, getting a shot of adrenaline and hitting a series of moves, clotheslining Anderson out of the ring, then following him out with an axhandle from the apron. Lex picks Arn up and rams him back-first into the post. The Dungeon of Doom, still in the crowd, is openly cheering for Luger. Luger focuses his offensive attack on Arn's back, hitting backbreakers and forearms to the back, etc. Psychologically sound, but dull. Anderson throws a back elbow to pick off Luger's corner charge, but quickly gets crotched after climbing up the ropes but getting caught.
Arn throws the big spinebuster as Luger runs toward him. Both are down for a good while after that, but Anderson is able to take advantage and knock Luger out of the ring. He rams the strongman's back into the apron and the guardrail, then continues to stomp away at it. Can't say I've often seen two men working on each other's backs like this, but it does make sense. Luger blocks the DDT attempt and Arn goes down hard. A moment later Arn bumps Luger into referee Mark Curtis, giving us a ref bump. Arn goes for a chair shot outside the ring, misses, Luger catapults Arn into the post in a spot that just looks absolutely cringeworthy. Lex follows with a suplex on the floor, then goes for the chair that Arn came at him with and hammers the Enforcer three times. Luger rolls Arn's nearly-lifeless body into the ring, goes in and slaps on the Torture Rack, and Arn gives up.
Honestly, while some of the action was really bad, the storytelling here was strong. Arn declares war on Luger for being a huge pussy and giving up at War Games, and Luger fights fire with fire, taking the low road but ultimately getting Arn, who said he would never give up, to give up. I can't say I cared about the build at all, but I like the payoff. Luger doesn't let the hold go for a solid 20+ seconds after the match, really driving the dagger home. Hat tip to Bobby Heenan for really bringing this story home well on the commentary at the end of the match.
Result: Lex Luger via submission
Rating: **1/2
After Luger departs, a concerned Ric Flair comes out with Jeff Jarrett to check on Arn as a trainer attends to him. They put over the severity of Anderson's injury as he gets stretchered off.
Lee Marshall pimps the WCW Hotline backstage. Man, if you're Mean Gene, Tenay or Schiavone doing your interviews is one thing, but Lee Marshall, that's just insulting. Marshall brings in the Harlem Heat and their managers. Decent but generic promo from this crew as they ready themselves for a title defense against The Outsiders.
I've gotta say, this PPV has not been very easy to get through, and just as I was thinking that I hear the damn Dungeon of Doom music.
The Faces of Fear (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Chris Benoit & Mongo McMichael (w/ Debra & Woman): Okay, Woman is around, no big deal. As the match gets started, we get an awkward moment where Dusty notes that the Dungeon of Doom is still taking up ringside seats for the third straight match, Tony no-sells and goes in to call the action, and Dusty checks back in with, "Yeah, don't answer me about that thought. Walk on by it." Tony: "Do I have to answer you for everything?" Dusty: "Well that was a good thought." Dude, Dusty, no it was not a particularly good thought.
Meng and Mongo have a series of stalemates as they collide in mid-ring. Mongo finally throws a flying shoulderblock that does put Meng down. They both tag out and upgrade the workrate in the ring by a magnitude of 10 by stepping out in favor of Benoit and the Barbarian. Barbarian dominates the early exchange until Benoit manages a Northern lights suplex for a two-count. After Benoit lays further beatdown on Barbarian, both men tag out and we're back to the big uglies. It's like we're having a good worker/bad worker mixed tag where one team's tag obligates the other. Meng challenges Mongo to do a sumo showdown with him, which Meng gets the better of, but then Mongo busts out the football moves with a couple of defensive line barrel rolls and then a diving chop block. Gotta say, they've actually made the Mongo vs. Meng stuff entertaining.
The Faces of Fear isolate Mongo for a bit, but he's able to throw a dropkick and tag out after a couple of minutes. Benoit, fresh, comes in and starts throwing hard chops at Meng, but Barbarian makes the blind tag in and halts Benoit's attack sharply by stepping in and powerbombing the **** out of him. Fun spot. Mongo has to make a save to prevent a pin.
Barbarian tries to set Benoit up for a superplex, Benoit headbutts him off to the mat, but Meng heads up the apron and cheap shots Benoit, allowing Barbarian to climb back up and throw the overhead belly-to-belly superplex with both standing on the top turnbuckle. Faces of Fear connect on their double flying headbutt finisher, but Mongo makes another save. We get an interesting tidbit from Tony here, who says that there used to be a one-save rule, where you could legally come in and save your partner once during a pinfall, but anything beyond that was a DQ. That's interesting; I never knew that. They shouldn't have gotten rid of that rule IMO.
Barbarian suplexes Benoit as Meng flies off the top with a splash. Woman distracts the referee, Mongo slips outside the ring and drags Benoit safely out of the pin, clobbers Meng hard with the briefcase, Benoit headbutt gets the Horsemen the dirty win. Man, the Faces of Fear were so much fun here that I actually sort of marked out against the Horsemen stealing that one. Surprisingly good match.
Result: Chris Benoit & Mongo McMichael via pinfall
Rating: ***1/2
Barbarian hammers Mongo with the briefcase after the match. Meng piledrives Mongo. Bubba, Konnan and Sullivan pour in from their ringside seats, and while Benoit tries to fight them all off, the numbers overwhelm him. Sullivan throws a couple more hard briefcase shots right at Mongo's head. I really can't get over how much I'm enjoying this. Of all the matches and post-match segments to turn a show around, I would not have expected this to be the one. Woman pleads for mercy, causing her IRL husband Sullivan to raise an eyebrow.
Sullivan sheds his jacket, loosens a couple of buttons, tells her he's going to show Benoit why he's still the man, then throws a couple of hard kicks at him. Schiavone: "There's something more than meets the eye as it relates to Sullivan and Woman and Benoit." Tony had no idea. The Dungeon leaves Benoit and Mongo out cold in the ring as Woman tends to Benoit.
Ted DiBiase, from his same spot in the crowd, introduces the Outsiders for their shot at the Tag Team Titles.
Tag Team Titles - Harlem Heat (c) (w/ Sister Sherri & Col. Parker) vs. The Outsiders: As much as WCW set up the Heat to be the temporary babyfaces for the evening, the crowd overwhelmingly favors Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Booker T connects on a spinning heel kick on Hall early. Hall stops short of a leapfrog and clocks Booker. Tornado punch to follow, and Booker takes a moment to collect himself. The two duel over an attempted hip-toss and Booker gets the better of it, flinging Hall out over the top rope. Stevie tags in, and Hall spits on him before tagging Nash in. I'll let you guess how good the action is when Stevie and Big Sexy go at it. After knocking Nash down, Stevie spits back at Hall on the apron.
Booker enters with an axe kick. Nash kicks out, then pulls out a sidewalk slam to enable a tag-out. Booker throws a flying forearm at Hall and briefly has control, but Nash takes a cheap shot at Booker from the apron, enabling a hard clothesline by Hall and a near-fall. Nash enters with his power arsenal, and Booker needs a tag as the Outsiders continue to isolate him. Hall catches Booker's cross-body attempt and hits the fallaway slam. Sherri gets up on the apron to run distraction, and Hall grabs her and kisses her. Schiavone says, "Well she asked for it." That's…okay, whatever. Spinning wheel kick by Booker floors Hall. Both are slow to get up, they take turns slapping on a sleeper, then they have a mid-ring collision.
Hot tag to Stevie. He unleashes his whole offense on the Outsiders, which is to say that he punches both of them. Booker back in to help, clotheslines Nash over the top, Stevie with a side suplex on Hall, Harlem Hangover by Booker, but Mark Curtis goes to clear Booker out, Col. Parker comes in wielding a cane, Nash coaxes it away from him and hits Stevie with it twice. Parker scurries away, Hall eventually rolls over on top of Stevie, 1-2-3, and the nWo has captured the Tag Team Titles. Dull match, but the crowd loves the result.
Result: The Outsiders via pinfall, new Tag Team Champions
Rating: *
Here's an ad for World War 3, which is unfortunately the next PPV. There's absolutely no excuse for the fact that they didn't pull the plug on that **** after the first year.
Hulk Hogan, complete with ridiculous hairplugs or whatever those are, shows up in the DiBiase section of the crowd. He gives us the usual obnoxious promo.
WCW Title - Hulk Hogan (c) (w/ The Giant & Ted DiBiase) vs. Randy Savage: Hey, at least I can finally say "champ out first" when Hogan is the champ. Referee Randy Anderson ejects The Giant before the match ever starts, refusing to call for the opening bell until he leaves. Once that bell does ring, Hogan stalls. And stalls. And stalls. Forget whatever it is I said about sort of being more interested in this match after the end of the last Nitro. Once they finally go at it, it's glacial offense from Hogan, punches and chops and clotheslines, and Savage falls into his 1996 wheelhouse of doing almost nothing but laying there and selling.
Savage launches a comeback where he connects on an axhandle and knocks Hogan's sunglasses off. He puts them on himself. Then he yanks Hogan's fake hair off…so I guess it was a toupee. Savage also puts the toupee on himself. This is worlds of stupid.
The action heads outside the ring, where Savage gets a chairshot in. Hogan gets the chair away from him and does the same. Both did this in view of Randy Anderson, who I guess doesn't care. After some incredibly pointless brawling outside, here comes Miss Elizabeth in a ridiculous bright multicolor dress.
Hogan puts the badmouth on her, Savage capitalizes with a schoolboy but can't get the pinfall. We return to really bad brawling, Hogan mostly controlling. Savage manages a scoop slam and Schiavone yells the spot like it's Hogan slamming Andre. Hogan twice baits Savage into chasing him on the floor and then hides behind Elizabeth. Back inside, Hogan gets the Macho Man in position for a legdrop, but Liz runs in and covers Savage. He runs her off and eventually goes for it, but Savage rolls away. Ref bump. Ted DiBiase and Elizabeth fight over a foreign object outside. Savage manages a flying elbow off the top as Nick Patrick runs in to sub in for Randy Anderson. Patrick counts to two and has an easy three, but Savage attacksPatrick and removes his neck brace.
Hogan tries to hit Savage with the foreign object. Savage gets it away from him and uses it himself. DiBiase stops the next flying elbow attempt. Here comes The Giant. Chokeslam on the floor. The big man returns Savage inside, Hogan is out cold so Giant has to actually go in and drape him over top of the Macho Man, and of course Nick Patrick is on the spot to count to three. This match had zero redeeming value. Absolute indefensible trash. If I was one for negative stars it would get them.
Result: Hulk Hogan via pinfall
Rating: 0*
Giant brings an ice bucket to the ring and dumps it on Hogan to revive him. He doesn't know what's happened until Nick Patrick raises his hand. Hulk grabs a mic and brags for a while until we suddenly hear bagpipe music. At the top of the aisle, another young up-and-comer emerges through the curtain.
Piper declares that he's just as big of an icon in this sport as Hulk is. That is, of course, patently ridiculous. Piper says that he's the only one that Hogan has never been able to beat. There's a weird moment where Hogan admits that Piper is just as big of an icon as him. This whole feud in late '96 was just the least believable thing ever to me. This is judging Peyton Manning against Brett Favre in a GOAT conversation. Yes they're both all-time greats and obvious first-ballot HOFers, but only one has any sort of claim to GOAT. Anyway, the dueling promos thing continues until they run out of TV time and just go off the air while Piper is still ranting. I was quite done with the whole thing, so I was grateful for the cut-off.
Overall: Not a good show. Excellent opener, surprisingly really good tag match in the middle, and very little else of value, with a main event that was an outright embarrassment. The Piper appearance doesn't move the needle for me since I was never a Piper guy.
Last edited by LKJ; 03-12-2016 at 01:50 AM.
03-12-2016
, 12:17 PM
03-12-2016
, 01:03 PM
03-13-2016
, 02:00 AM
October 28, 1996
NITRO
Phoenix, AZ
Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko give us the usual opening banter, this time featuring Larry wearing a sport jacket over a ****ing Superman t-shirt. We get stills of Roddy Piper's appearance last night. Larry's analysis of last night? You guessed it: "The stench of the New World Odor continues to grow."
As the next match is about to start, the camera suddenly pans up to the rafters…
TV Title - Lord Steven Regal (c) vs. Juventud Guerrera: Regal and Juvi have some back-and-forth on the mat, but first the focus is on Sting in the rafters and then there's a disturbance where Syxx starts cutting a promo from the ring during the match, calling this "nWo Nitro" and vowing to win the Cruiserweight Title. So basically the wrestlers are barely part of the show even though they're putting on a match.
The kid in front of him was far too excited to possibly be on TV. After Syxx says his part, Juventud slams Regal and heads up top, but misses a 450 splash. Regal Stretch ships it.
Result: Lord Steven Regal via submission
Meng and the Barbarian sell WCW Monday Nitro t-shirts in an advertisement. "One size fits all." Umm, for a t-shirt?
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Mike Enos: With regard to the confusion about the ring suddenly being there at the end of the DDP-Guerrero match last night, Schiavone says it was in Nick Patrick's pocket. Speaking of which, Schiavone adds that Nick Patrick and his attorney are going to give an interview later. Page slaps Enos to start the match. Enos clotheslines Page out over the top, goes over with him, but then wastes time celebrating and starts getting the tar beat out of him by DDP. Back into the ring for a helicopter powerbomb by Dallas that nearly ends it.
DDP with a flying clothesline off the top as the Outsiders show up in the crowd. Belly-to-belly by Enos. And a neckbreaker. Legdrop to the back of Page's head. Enos continues the offense by dropping Dallas along the top rope and then throwing a clothesline. He stops to point his finger at Hall and Nash, but maintains control with a scoop powerslam. He picks DDP up over his shoulder, DDP gets his feet up on the top ropes and hooks them around to block Enos's next step, then turns the block into a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere to win the match.
Result: DDP via pinfall
The nWo openly cheers for the result, and Nash holds up the diamond signal.
After commercial, we get a recap in stills of Dean Malenko winning the Cruiserweight Title from Rey Mysterio Jr. at Halloween Havoc.
Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Jim Powers (w/ Teddy Long): AC Green is shown in the crowd, rocking an nWo shirt. Nick Patrick is our referee here, which makes me happy given Teddy Long's involvement. Powers slaps on a side headlock and clings tightly to it through multiple escape attempts by Malenko. Even once Dean breaks free Powers is able to block a hip-toss and throw his own, as we see Psicosis appear at the top of the aisle, making a throat-slashing gesture. I guess that's his way of saying he would like the Cruiserweight Title.
Powers cinches in a hammerlock, but Dean elbows his way free and kicks repeatedly at Powers. He drives a knee to the gut, but after a corner whip he charges in and bumps chest-first when Powers dodges. The champ takes 10 smashes into the top turnbuckle. Two-count. Malenko kind of botches a leapfrog, then Powers knocks him down with a single punch. Scoop powerslam by Powers gets a visual pin, but Patrick starts arguing with Teddy Long, Malenko rolls Powers up and escapes with the win.
Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall
Stills of the Kevin Sullivan/Woman confrontation last night, as well as the Horsemen being laid out. I had wondered what the rationale might be for Ric Flair and to a lesser extent Jeff Jarrett not coming to the save last night, but apparently the explanation is that they went to the hospital with Arn Anderson.
Jeff Jarrett vs. Ricky Morton: Jarrett with some basic takedowns. He corner whips Morton, who jumps up on the second rope and jumps back with a cross-body, all seemingly in super slow-mo. He locks in an armbar, but Jarrett gets loose and dumps the Rock 'n Roller along the top rope. Morton rolls through a top rope cross-body and gets a two-count. He tries to follow with a backdrop, but Jarrett counters into a swinging neckbreaker. Morton counters a figure-four into a small package for two. Sunset flip for another two. Weak single-leg atomic drop by Jarrett, figure-four locked on successfully, and that's all she wrote.
Result: Jeff Jarrett via submission
Right as the match ends, The Giant appears in the audience with a mic and cuts a promo on Jarrett.
After that, Schiavone joins Jarrett for an interview, and Jarrett calls on Giant to come down right now to settle things. Giant is already gone and doesn't return. Jarrett says if Sting doesn't want to be a leader, he and Ric Flair will unite WCW. He vows that, one way or another, Hulk Hogan will go down.
Note: this episode has been intensely boring so far.
High Voltage vs. Amazing French Canadians: High Voltage attacks during the Canadians singing the Canadian National Anthem. Double dropkick by the Volts, who whip the Canadians into each other. I should probably learn which Volt is which so I can write about these matches a bit better. In mid-match, we change over to hour two, with Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan taking over the announcing. Bischoff says that Randy Savage was supposed to be here tonight, but is gone. I think that's actually a shoot, and that Savage was gone from the company at this point.
Jacques Rougeau slams Carl Ouellet on top of one of the jobbers. Jacques takes a tag in a moment later and hits the flying dick attack off the top rope that he used as a finisher with his brother Raymond in the WWF. As they're going for another move, the Nasty Boys hit the ring and attack High Voltage to basically no crowd reaction.
Result: No Contest
Actually there's a faint "Nasties" chant, I think. But most of the crowd doesn't care. Jerry Sags takes a mic and starts cutting a promo about the ****ing Nasties/Hogan angle. My God, nobody possibly cares about this, just let it die already you dip****s. "Me and Knobbs don't need to belong. We don't need to belong nowhere. There's some cat up here in the rafters, he don't need to belong nowhere neither. And I know that Roddy Piper don't need to belong either." No you are not on a Sting or even a Piper level, you jackass. Knobbs continues the promo to absolute silence. I'm so agitated that this **** isn't over after all.
Jimmy Graffiti vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: Rey enters, and plays to the crowd while perched on a rope. Graffiti promptly strolls up from behind, puts him on his shoulders, and performs an electric chair drop. Sit-out powerbomb gets two. Monkey-flip by Mysterio, Graffiti reverses a corner whip, Mysterio jumps backward and then dropkicks Graffiti's attempt to throw a cross-body. Bad asai moonsault by Rey. Hurracanrana carries the former Heavenly Body over the top to the floor. Graffiti reverses a whip and sends Rey hard into the guardrail. Gets up on the apron and throws a somersault sentan at Rey on the floor.
Back in the ring, Rey connects on a jumping donkey kick, heads to the apron, springboard hurracanrana pinning combo wins the match pretty abruptly. Solid work here, but too short of a match to really get into.
Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall
Bischoff says that up next we have Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero. Nice. He notes that Eddie Guerrero broke a rib last night, and Benoit got taken out by the Faces of Fear, so he's surprised that they got medical clearance.
Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit (w/ Woman): Eddie walks to the ring selling that rib injury, those ribs heavily taped. Benoit comes in wearing heavy tape as well, his being over his shoulder. As the action kicks off, Mongo and Debra McMichael saunter out toward the ring. PIP promo from Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan. I really wish they would just let us watch this match. I couldn't make out what Sullivan said on two watches, so I turned on subtitles that say "[indistinct]." Bischoff says "whoa" after Sullivan is done talking, but I don't know what we're whoa-ing about. Sullivan said something to Benoit about Woman, that much I got.
Bischoff: "These guys are hobbled. This is not your classic Benoit-Guerrero confrontation." No kidding. Both men are selling excruciating injuries properly, which I do appreciate, but basically we're not going to see a bunch of great action here. Benoit locks on an abdominal stretch. Really that should tap a guy who has a broken rib. Instead, Guerrero gets loose and throws a violent armdrag. Still, Benoit is stronger, he gets up first and goes straight back on the attack, kicking away at Eddie's ribs. Eddie fights back with some hard chops, but doubles over from his own chopping efforts. Back into a Benoit abdominal stretch. Eddie again gets loose, fights the Crippler into the corner, mounts him there and 10-punches him. After a collision both men are down, Woman runs distraction on Nick Patrick, Mongo levels Eddie in the ribs with a briefcase, Benoit gets the pin. Honestly that wasn't the worst match. Once I got over my disappointment with not getting normal Eddie vs. Benoit action, I could appreciate their storytelling.
Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall
Here's Tony Schiavone's interview with Nick Patrick and Patrick's attorney. The attorney insists that he's going to do the talking and answer the questions. Attorney continues by acknowledging the controversy of Hogan-Savage, and saying it only happened because of one person: Chris Jericho (because of Jericho chasing him off earlier in the night). Bischoff gives a believably pissed reaction of "Oh give me a break!" Jericho appears so quickly through the entryway when his name was called that it feels kayfabe-breaking. Jericho accuses Patrick of being a paid employee of the nWo. The lawyer starts trolling him about being unable to get along with others.
Here comes Teddy Long. Teddy calls the lawyer a scam artist, and says that if he didn't have a degree he'd probably have a squeegee in his hand to wash windows. Lawyer starts threatening Teddy Long with a slander suit. Bischoff: "And people wonder why attorneys are so despised." Heenan: "There's not enough of them!" The segment just sort of gets played out to commercial while people are still talking.
Booker T (w/ Sister Sherri) vs. Lex Luger: Mike Tenay speculates on whether Col. Parker might be on the outs with the Heat after allowing Kevin Nash to have his cane last night, costing the Heat the titles. Parker gives a PIP promo denying all friction within the camp. Luger lifts Booker for a press slam, then kind of loses his grip, then turns it into an inverted atomic drop that he also botches. He clotheslines Booker to the floor, probably to give himself a moment to bask in his own botches.
Booker whips Luger into the ropes, but eats a back elbow charging in, then Luger follows with a knee-lift. A near-fall later, Booker is taking another break. Carrying Lex to a good singles match might be above Booker's pay grade at this point. Luger hammers him down in the corner and then just grinds his boot into Booker's throat. Slow-moving boring dominance by a babyface isn't a great blueprint. After a commercial, Lex is fighting his way out of a side headlock, and he turns Booker inside out with a clothesline. Booker hits a knee-lift and an axe kick, but has to take a moment for his own recovery, leaving a pinfall attempt futile and hopeless. Side salto, and he goes for the Harlem Hangover, but Luger rolls away. As Lex goes to slap on the Torture Rack, he gets distracted by Sting standing up in the crowd. He lets it go and heads out into the audience to confront Sting. Sting walks off before Luger can reach him.
Result: Booker T via countout
After a commercial, Bischoff tells the story of Roddy Piper getting in touch with him and asking for five minutes to talk on the live PPV. Bischoff granted the request. Then he sends it to footage of Piper's entire appearance at Havoc. Gross. Fast-forward.
Back live in the arena, Hulk Hogan comes to the ring with The Giant, Ted DiBiase, and Vincent. He gets on the mic and first taunts Macho Man, telling him he failed and saying that he's going to take very good care of Miss Elizabeth. Then he shifts his focus to Roddy Piper, claiming that Piper was scared and turned and ran away from him last night. He hands the mic to DiBiase, asking him to tell the crowd what he's been waiting to do. DiBiase said that they've been waiting until they had fully taken over the company to do this, but now that they have the WCW Title and the Tag Team Titles, it was time for Hollywood Hogan to entertain his fans. We get the Hogan pose show to finish the show off. Lovely.
Overall: Pointless and boring, very little to like about this episode. Not only were the segments low-quality, but they didn't even indicate an intention to advance almost anything.
RAW
Fort Wayne, IN
We start on a clip from this past weekend's WWF Superstars, where Steve Austin snapped and destroyed Brian Pillman's ankle, "Pillmanizing" it by wrapping it in a steel chair and jumping off the top rope on the already-injured ankle. "If he'll do this to his best friend, what will he do to Bret Hart?"
Double J Jesse James vs. Salvatore Sincere: Vince calls Jesse James Jeff Jarrett right away, causing King to mock him. Dueling hiplocks between James and Sincere, with James ultimately getting the better of the exchange and dumping Sincere out of the ring. Sincere hangs James across the top rope on the way back in. James connects on a cross-body and gets a two-count. Knocks Sincere to the apron, then knocks him off the apron into the guardrail. This is mostly a very disjointed match without much of interest going on. Sincere sets up for his finisher, but James escapes and connects on a pumphandle slam and gets the pin. Seems to get an okay crowd reaction, but this "Real Double J" thing was a bust.
Result: Jesse James via pinfall
Vince sends it to Dok Hendrix for the Survivor Series report. Dok starts to advertise the Hall of Fame induction. An angry Steve Austin steps in and demands that Dok start talking about him. Dok advertises Shawn Michaels vs. Sid for the WWF Title, an elimination match of HHH/Goldust/Crush/Jerry Lawler vs. Marc Mero/Stalker/Mark Henry/Rocky Maivia, Undertaker vs. Mankind with Paul Bearer suspended above the ring in a cage, and Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart. Dok says that we would hear from Bret and Austin later, that as we already saw, Austin is here, and that Bret would join via satellite. Austin storms back in.
SCSA: "How come he's live at home in Calgary?"
Dok: "Well, cause that's…"
SCSA: "What the hell do you mean he's in Calgary? You flew me all the way in from Texas!"
Dok: "I didn't do it."
SCSA: "It's things like this that's gonna get someone's ass kicked, Dok."
It was a minor bit, but I enjoyed it. You could just tell that Austin was really finding his voice here.
During the next ring entrances, Marc Mero calls in, saying he's pissed off and is begging Gorilla Monsoon to reinstate Mr. Perfect, but that in the meantime he'll beat him down if he sees him in a parking lot. In the meantime, he's going to get to HHH at Survivor Series, and feels sorry for him.
Crush (w/ Clarence Mason) vs. Aldo Montoya: Crush turns Aldo inside out with a clothesline. Vince introduces Jim Ross to the announce table, who comes in angry saying that he should be calling the Shawn Michaels match later, not this preliminary match. Ross: "McMahon, you want to bet on this match? I'll take Crush!" Jim Ross makes the announcement that he's got a scoop: Faarooq has joined forces with Clarence Mason, and Ross says that we're going to see some big changes in Faarooq. I'll be glad to see those changes take effect; I didn't realize they were happening quite so soon. Crush hits the Heart Punch and notches the win.
Result: Crush via pinfall
The fans around ringside have "JAILBIRD" signs to taunt Crush, obviously planted with them, and Crush starts jawing at some of them after the match. Then suddenly he pulls one out over the guardrail and beats him down as Clarence Mason and some officials pull him off. I suppose it makes sense to treat crowd members this way in Pacer country.
We see clips from last week, of Mr. Perfect executing his plot to double-cross Marc Mero and get him to job the Intercontinental Title away to Hunter Hearst-Helmsley. Vince speaks almost admiringly, saying, "What a hoax!" I assume he was referring to Perfect's and Hunter's kayfabe hoax rather than his own bait-and-switch. Gorilla Monsoon suspended Mr. Perfect after this hoax, just to clean up any notions that they ever meant to even eventually follow through on a Perfect comeback.
Vince advertises that next week they're going to conduct an interview live from Brian Pillman's house. Austin again says, "What do you mean? You go to Bret's house, you go to Pillman's house? If anyone's going to Pillman's house, it's me." Yep, that's next week. Vince asks, "Don't you think you've done enough to Brian Pillman?" They show the stuff from Superstars, where Austin got pissed at Pillman's exuberance, took his cane away, broke it over Pillman's ankle, and then did the aforementioned Pillmanizing of it.
Austin says that Pillman's gonna get a house call next week. Vince, dripping with disgust, asks what kind of a man Austin is. The exchange continues…
Vince: "Why hasn't Gorilla Monsoon taken action against you?"
Austin: "Why do you keep asking me stupid questions? Because you know, Vince, that Gorilla Monsoon is just a puppet. That's all. You know you're the one who pulls the strings here. You're the boss. Why don't you do something to me?"
Vince: "Because --"
Austin: "Nah uh, shut up. I'll tell you why: because you're a greedy, selfish promoter, and you know that Stone Cold and Bret Hart are gonna get it on in the biggest match of the decade, and you don't want to miss out."
Austin is the best. After a commercial, Vince brings in Bret via satellite and has both Bret and Austin on split-screen. There are some technical difficulties, so they have to cut away.
Sunny heads to the ring and joins the commentary table.
More clips from Superstars, as Billy and Bart Gunn got into a scuffle this past weekend, leading Bart to walk out.
Billy Gunn vs. Freddy Joe Floyd: Billy performs a bad bulldog and then clotheslines Floyd over the top. Bart strolls out to the ring. More jawing between the Gunns as officials step in between.
Bart leaves, and the match resumes. Billy hangs Floyd out to dry with a hard stun gun, then hits a top rope legdrop to polish off the win.
Result: Billy Gunn via pinfall
We go back to our split-screen Bret/Austin promo, technical problem seemingly cleared up. Vince asks Bret if the challenge from Austin was among the reasons that Bret was "reticent to make up his mind" about coming back vs. retiring. That's an incorrect use of "reticent," but to be fair I used to **** up with that word too. Of course Bret's answer was no. Bret tries to give a straight interview, but Austin keeps interjecting to fire shots. Again he's very entertaining here. Vince asks Bret, if he loses, would he continue his comeback? Bret says yes, if he were to come up short he would get right back up. Austin jumps back in. "See, here's the deal - shut up! Here's the deal: win, lose, draw, Bret, it ain't over. It ain't over. You're never gonna get through with Stone Cold Steve Austin. You're gonna have to kill me first, son. Win, lose, or draw, I will always be on your ass."
Austin gets pissed at a production guy for trying to count him down to the end of a segment, then he goes and attacks him. Tremendous. Austin GOAT.
British Bulldog (w/ Clarence Mason & Owen Hart) vs. Shawn Michaels (w/ Jose Lothario): Owen joins the commentary table. Bulldog shoulderblocks Shawn down and showboats. Next sequence, Shawn stops short of a leapfrog and eye-gouges Davey. Hurracanrana by HBK, and a clothesline over the top. We get a bit of stalling here, as Shawn plays to the crowd and Davey feigns anger. Vince announces that he just heard that the cops got called on Steve Austin for his backstage attack. Michaels hits Bulldog with an enziguri. Owen: "I wonder where he stole that move from." Bulldog press slams Michaels, dropping him stomach-first along the ropes.
Bulldog continues the attack, whipping Shawn into the corner and causing Shawn to take the hard corner bump as Raw goes to break. Back from break, Shawn is fighting his way out of a chinlock and does elbow his way free, but Bulldog catches him on the run with a knee to the gut. Delayed suplex by Davey. Again a chinlock, again Shawn escapes, he attempts a crucifix but Bulldog counters into a Samoan drop for a two-count. Sunset flip by Michaels gets his own near-fall, but Bulldog is quick to pop back up and clothesline the WWF Champion out of his shoes for another two-count.
After a second commercial break, Shawn gets a boot up as Bulldog charges him in the corner. He connects a moment later on a flying forearm. He lays down for an extra while, but eventually kips up and backdrops Davey Boy. Corner mount, 10-punch. Bulldog reverses a corner whip, catches Shawn into the powerslam setup off the corner bump, but Shawn escapes and drops him. Connects with the top-rope elbow. Owen gets upset and grabs HBK's leg while he starts to tune up the band. We get the DQ, and Sid runs out for the save.
Result: Shawn Michaels via DQ
We get the cliché moment where an errant Sid elbow hits Shawn, and the two face off and yell at each other. Owen Hart grabs a mic and challenges Sid and Shawn to a tag match for the Tag Team Titles. Sid and Shawn accept, so that's happening soon.
In the back, Steve Austin is leaving angrily, but tells the security guard, "Vince McMahon won't let anything happen to me." Vince: "What??" Austin gets confronted by cops as the show signs off.
Overall: Very entertaining episode. Austin alone made this a good show, but the Shawn/Bulldog match was decent, Owen Hart was funny on commentary, and for that matter the Crush attack on the dude in the crowd was pretty good too. Glad to hear we're on our way to new and improved Faarooq as well. Strong outing.
---
Ratings for 10/28/96: Nitro 3.6, Raw 2.0
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 35-17-2
Better Show: Clear and convincing win for Raw. Nowhere even remotely close.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 43-11
Match of the Night: Shawn Michaels vs. British Bulldog
NITRO
Phoenix, AZ
Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko give us the usual opening banter, this time featuring Larry wearing a sport jacket over a ****ing Superman t-shirt. We get stills of Roddy Piper's appearance last night. Larry's analysis of last night? You guessed it: "The stench of the New World Odor continues to grow."
As the next match is about to start, the camera suddenly pans up to the rafters…
TV Title - Lord Steven Regal (c) vs. Juventud Guerrera: Regal and Juvi have some back-and-forth on the mat, but first the focus is on Sting in the rafters and then there's a disturbance where Syxx starts cutting a promo from the ring during the match, calling this "nWo Nitro" and vowing to win the Cruiserweight Title. So basically the wrestlers are barely part of the show even though they're putting on a match.
The kid in front of him was far too excited to possibly be on TV. After Syxx says his part, Juventud slams Regal and heads up top, but misses a 450 splash. Regal Stretch ships it.
Result: Lord Steven Regal via submission
Meng and the Barbarian sell WCW Monday Nitro t-shirts in an advertisement. "One size fits all." Umm, for a t-shirt?
Diamond Dallas Page vs. Mike Enos: With regard to the confusion about the ring suddenly being there at the end of the DDP-Guerrero match last night, Schiavone says it was in Nick Patrick's pocket. Speaking of which, Schiavone adds that Nick Patrick and his attorney are going to give an interview later. Page slaps Enos to start the match. Enos clotheslines Page out over the top, goes over with him, but then wastes time celebrating and starts getting the tar beat out of him by DDP. Back into the ring for a helicopter powerbomb by Dallas that nearly ends it.
DDP with a flying clothesline off the top as the Outsiders show up in the crowd. Belly-to-belly by Enos. And a neckbreaker. Legdrop to the back of Page's head. Enos continues the offense by dropping Dallas along the top rope and then throwing a clothesline. He stops to point his finger at Hall and Nash, but maintains control with a scoop powerslam. He picks DDP up over his shoulder, DDP gets his feet up on the top ropes and hooks them around to block Enos's next step, then turns the block into a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere to win the match.
Result: DDP via pinfall
The nWo openly cheers for the result, and Nash holds up the diamond signal.
After commercial, we get a recap in stills of Dean Malenko winning the Cruiserweight Title from Rey Mysterio Jr. at Halloween Havoc.
Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Jim Powers (w/ Teddy Long): AC Green is shown in the crowd, rocking an nWo shirt. Nick Patrick is our referee here, which makes me happy given Teddy Long's involvement. Powers slaps on a side headlock and clings tightly to it through multiple escape attempts by Malenko. Even once Dean breaks free Powers is able to block a hip-toss and throw his own, as we see Psicosis appear at the top of the aisle, making a throat-slashing gesture. I guess that's his way of saying he would like the Cruiserweight Title.
Powers cinches in a hammerlock, but Dean elbows his way free and kicks repeatedly at Powers. He drives a knee to the gut, but after a corner whip he charges in and bumps chest-first when Powers dodges. The champ takes 10 smashes into the top turnbuckle. Two-count. Malenko kind of botches a leapfrog, then Powers knocks him down with a single punch. Scoop powerslam by Powers gets a visual pin, but Patrick starts arguing with Teddy Long, Malenko rolls Powers up and escapes with the win.
Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall
Stills of the Kevin Sullivan/Woman confrontation last night, as well as the Horsemen being laid out. I had wondered what the rationale might be for Ric Flair and to a lesser extent Jeff Jarrett not coming to the save last night, but apparently the explanation is that they went to the hospital with Arn Anderson.
Jeff Jarrett vs. Ricky Morton: Jarrett with some basic takedowns. He corner whips Morton, who jumps up on the second rope and jumps back with a cross-body, all seemingly in super slow-mo. He locks in an armbar, but Jarrett gets loose and dumps the Rock 'n Roller along the top rope. Morton rolls through a top rope cross-body and gets a two-count. He tries to follow with a backdrop, but Jarrett counters into a swinging neckbreaker. Morton counters a figure-four into a small package for two. Sunset flip for another two. Weak single-leg atomic drop by Jarrett, figure-four locked on successfully, and that's all she wrote.
Result: Jeff Jarrett via submission
Right as the match ends, The Giant appears in the audience with a mic and cuts a promo on Jarrett.
After that, Schiavone joins Jarrett for an interview, and Jarrett calls on Giant to come down right now to settle things. Giant is already gone and doesn't return. Jarrett says if Sting doesn't want to be a leader, he and Ric Flair will unite WCW. He vows that, one way or another, Hulk Hogan will go down.
Note: this episode has been intensely boring so far.
High Voltage vs. Amazing French Canadians: High Voltage attacks during the Canadians singing the Canadian National Anthem. Double dropkick by the Volts, who whip the Canadians into each other. I should probably learn which Volt is which so I can write about these matches a bit better. In mid-match, we change over to hour two, with Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan taking over the announcing. Bischoff says that Randy Savage was supposed to be here tonight, but is gone. I think that's actually a shoot, and that Savage was gone from the company at this point.
Jacques Rougeau slams Carl Ouellet on top of one of the jobbers. Jacques takes a tag in a moment later and hits the flying dick attack off the top rope that he used as a finisher with his brother Raymond in the WWF. As they're going for another move, the Nasty Boys hit the ring and attack High Voltage to basically no crowd reaction.
Result: No Contest
Actually there's a faint "Nasties" chant, I think. But most of the crowd doesn't care. Jerry Sags takes a mic and starts cutting a promo about the ****ing Nasties/Hogan angle. My God, nobody possibly cares about this, just let it die already you dip****s. "Me and Knobbs don't need to belong. We don't need to belong nowhere. There's some cat up here in the rafters, he don't need to belong nowhere neither. And I know that Roddy Piper don't need to belong either." No you are not on a Sting or even a Piper level, you jackass. Knobbs continues the promo to absolute silence. I'm so agitated that this **** isn't over after all.
Jimmy Graffiti vs. Rey Mysterio Jr.: Rey enters, and plays to the crowd while perched on a rope. Graffiti promptly strolls up from behind, puts him on his shoulders, and performs an electric chair drop. Sit-out powerbomb gets two. Monkey-flip by Mysterio, Graffiti reverses a corner whip, Mysterio jumps backward and then dropkicks Graffiti's attempt to throw a cross-body. Bad asai moonsault by Rey. Hurracanrana carries the former Heavenly Body over the top to the floor. Graffiti reverses a whip and sends Rey hard into the guardrail. Gets up on the apron and throws a somersault sentan at Rey on the floor.
Back in the ring, Rey connects on a jumping donkey kick, heads to the apron, springboard hurracanrana pinning combo wins the match pretty abruptly. Solid work here, but too short of a match to really get into.
Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall
Bischoff says that up next we have Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero. Nice. He notes that Eddie Guerrero broke a rib last night, and Benoit got taken out by the Faces of Fear, so he's surprised that they got medical clearance.
Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit (w/ Woman): Eddie walks to the ring selling that rib injury, those ribs heavily taped. Benoit comes in wearing heavy tape as well, his being over his shoulder. As the action kicks off, Mongo and Debra McMichael saunter out toward the ring. PIP promo from Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan. I really wish they would just let us watch this match. I couldn't make out what Sullivan said on two watches, so I turned on subtitles that say "[indistinct]." Bischoff says "whoa" after Sullivan is done talking, but I don't know what we're whoa-ing about. Sullivan said something to Benoit about Woman, that much I got.
Bischoff: "These guys are hobbled. This is not your classic Benoit-Guerrero confrontation." No kidding. Both men are selling excruciating injuries properly, which I do appreciate, but basically we're not going to see a bunch of great action here. Benoit locks on an abdominal stretch. Really that should tap a guy who has a broken rib. Instead, Guerrero gets loose and throws a violent armdrag. Still, Benoit is stronger, he gets up first and goes straight back on the attack, kicking away at Eddie's ribs. Eddie fights back with some hard chops, but doubles over from his own chopping efforts. Back into a Benoit abdominal stretch. Eddie again gets loose, fights the Crippler into the corner, mounts him there and 10-punches him. After a collision both men are down, Woman runs distraction on Nick Patrick, Mongo levels Eddie in the ribs with a briefcase, Benoit gets the pin. Honestly that wasn't the worst match. Once I got over my disappointment with not getting normal Eddie vs. Benoit action, I could appreciate their storytelling.
Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall
Here's Tony Schiavone's interview with Nick Patrick and Patrick's attorney. The attorney insists that he's going to do the talking and answer the questions. Attorney continues by acknowledging the controversy of Hogan-Savage, and saying it only happened because of one person: Chris Jericho (because of Jericho chasing him off earlier in the night). Bischoff gives a believably pissed reaction of "Oh give me a break!" Jericho appears so quickly through the entryway when his name was called that it feels kayfabe-breaking. Jericho accuses Patrick of being a paid employee of the nWo. The lawyer starts trolling him about being unable to get along with others.
Here comes Teddy Long. Teddy calls the lawyer a scam artist, and says that if he didn't have a degree he'd probably have a squeegee in his hand to wash windows. Lawyer starts threatening Teddy Long with a slander suit. Bischoff: "And people wonder why attorneys are so despised." Heenan: "There's not enough of them!" The segment just sort of gets played out to commercial while people are still talking.
Booker T (w/ Sister Sherri) vs. Lex Luger: Mike Tenay speculates on whether Col. Parker might be on the outs with the Heat after allowing Kevin Nash to have his cane last night, costing the Heat the titles. Parker gives a PIP promo denying all friction within the camp. Luger lifts Booker for a press slam, then kind of loses his grip, then turns it into an inverted atomic drop that he also botches. He clotheslines Booker to the floor, probably to give himself a moment to bask in his own botches.
Booker whips Luger into the ropes, but eats a back elbow charging in, then Luger follows with a knee-lift. A near-fall later, Booker is taking another break. Carrying Lex to a good singles match might be above Booker's pay grade at this point. Luger hammers him down in the corner and then just grinds his boot into Booker's throat. Slow-moving boring dominance by a babyface isn't a great blueprint. After a commercial, Lex is fighting his way out of a side headlock, and he turns Booker inside out with a clothesline. Booker hits a knee-lift and an axe kick, but has to take a moment for his own recovery, leaving a pinfall attempt futile and hopeless. Side salto, and he goes for the Harlem Hangover, but Luger rolls away. As Lex goes to slap on the Torture Rack, he gets distracted by Sting standing up in the crowd. He lets it go and heads out into the audience to confront Sting. Sting walks off before Luger can reach him.
Result: Booker T via countout
After a commercial, Bischoff tells the story of Roddy Piper getting in touch with him and asking for five minutes to talk on the live PPV. Bischoff granted the request. Then he sends it to footage of Piper's entire appearance at Havoc. Gross. Fast-forward.
Back live in the arena, Hulk Hogan comes to the ring with The Giant, Ted DiBiase, and Vincent. He gets on the mic and first taunts Macho Man, telling him he failed and saying that he's going to take very good care of Miss Elizabeth. Then he shifts his focus to Roddy Piper, claiming that Piper was scared and turned and ran away from him last night. He hands the mic to DiBiase, asking him to tell the crowd what he's been waiting to do. DiBiase said that they've been waiting until they had fully taken over the company to do this, but now that they have the WCW Title and the Tag Team Titles, it was time for Hollywood Hogan to entertain his fans. We get the Hogan pose show to finish the show off. Lovely.
Overall: Pointless and boring, very little to like about this episode. Not only were the segments low-quality, but they didn't even indicate an intention to advance almost anything.
RAW
Fort Wayne, IN
We start on a clip from this past weekend's WWF Superstars, where Steve Austin snapped and destroyed Brian Pillman's ankle, "Pillmanizing" it by wrapping it in a steel chair and jumping off the top rope on the already-injured ankle. "If he'll do this to his best friend, what will he do to Bret Hart?"
Double J Jesse James vs. Salvatore Sincere: Vince calls Jesse James Jeff Jarrett right away, causing King to mock him. Dueling hiplocks between James and Sincere, with James ultimately getting the better of the exchange and dumping Sincere out of the ring. Sincere hangs James across the top rope on the way back in. James connects on a cross-body and gets a two-count. Knocks Sincere to the apron, then knocks him off the apron into the guardrail. This is mostly a very disjointed match without much of interest going on. Sincere sets up for his finisher, but James escapes and connects on a pumphandle slam and gets the pin. Seems to get an okay crowd reaction, but this "Real Double J" thing was a bust.
Result: Jesse James via pinfall
Vince sends it to Dok Hendrix for the Survivor Series report. Dok starts to advertise the Hall of Fame induction. An angry Steve Austin steps in and demands that Dok start talking about him. Dok advertises Shawn Michaels vs. Sid for the WWF Title, an elimination match of HHH/Goldust/Crush/Jerry Lawler vs. Marc Mero/Stalker/Mark Henry/Rocky Maivia, Undertaker vs. Mankind with Paul Bearer suspended above the ring in a cage, and Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart. Dok says that we would hear from Bret and Austin later, that as we already saw, Austin is here, and that Bret would join via satellite. Austin storms back in.
SCSA: "How come he's live at home in Calgary?"
Dok: "Well, cause that's…"
SCSA: "What the hell do you mean he's in Calgary? You flew me all the way in from Texas!"
Dok: "I didn't do it."
SCSA: "It's things like this that's gonna get someone's ass kicked, Dok."
It was a minor bit, but I enjoyed it. You could just tell that Austin was really finding his voice here.
During the next ring entrances, Marc Mero calls in, saying he's pissed off and is begging Gorilla Monsoon to reinstate Mr. Perfect, but that in the meantime he'll beat him down if he sees him in a parking lot. In the meantime, he's going to get to HHH at Survivor Series, and feels sorry for him.
Crush (w/ Clarence Mason) vs. Aldo Montoya: Crush turns Aldo inside out with a clothesline. Vince introduces Jim Ross to the announce table, who comes in angry saying that he should be calling the Shawn Michaels match later, not this preliminary match. Ross: "McMahon, you want to bet on this match? I'll take Crush!" Jim Ross makes the announcement that he's got a scoop: Faarooq has joined forces with Clarence Mason, and Ross says that we're going to see some big changes in Faarooq. I'll be glad to see those changes take effect; I didn't realize they were happening quite so soon. Crush hits the Heart Punch and notches the win.
Result: Crush via pinfall
The fans around ringside have "JAILBIRD" signs to taunt Crush, obviously planted with them, and Crush starts jawing at some of them after the match. Then suddenly he pulls one out over the guardrail and beats him down as Clarence Mason and some officials pull him off. I suppose it makes sense to treat crowd members this way in Pacer country.
We see clips from last week, of Mr. Perfect executing his plot to double-cross Marc Mero and get him to job the Intercontinental Title away to Hunter Hearst-Helmsley. Vince speaks almost admiringly, saying, "What a hoax!" I assume he was referring to Perfect's and Hunter's kayfabe hoax rather than his own bait-and-switch. Gorilla Monsoon suspended Mr. Perfect after this hoax, just to clean up any notions that they ever meant to even eventually follow through on a Perfect comeback.
Vince advertises that next week they're going to conduct an interview live from Brian Pillman's house. Austin again says, "What do you mean? You go to Bret's house, you go to Pillman's house? If anyone's going to Pillman's house, it's me." Yep, that's next week. Vince asks, "Don't you think you've done enough to Brian Pillman?" They show the stuff from Superstars, where Austin got pissed at Pillman's exuberance, took his cane away, broke it over Pillman's ankle, and then did the aforementioned Pillmanizing of it.
Austin says that Pillman's gonna get a house call next week. Vince, dripping with disgust, asks what kind of a man Austin is. The exchange continues…
Vince: "Why hasn't Gorilla Monsoon taken action against you?"
Austin: "Why do you keep asking me stupid questions? Because you know, Vince, that Gorilla Monsoon is just a puppet. That's all. You know you're the one who pulls the strings here. You're the boss. Why don't you do something to me?"
Vince: "Because --"
Austin: "Nah uh, shut up. I'll tell you why: because you're a greedy, selfish promoter, and you know that Stone Cold and Bret Hart are gonna get it on in the biggest match of the decade, and you don't want to miss out."
Austin is the best. After a commercial, Vince brings in Bret via satellite and has both Bret and Austin on split-screen. There are some technical difficulties, so they have to cut away.
Sunny heads to the ring and joins the commentary table.
More clips from Superstars, as Billy and Bart Gunn got into a scuffle this past weekend, leading Bart to walk out.
Billy Gunn vs. Freddy Joe Floyd: Billy performs a bad bulldog and then clotheslines Floyd over the top. Bart strolls out to the ring. More jawing between the Gunns as officials step in between.
Bart leaves, and the match resumes. Billy hangs Floyd out to dry with a hard stun gun, then hits a top rope legdrop to polish off the win.
Result: Billy Gunn via pinfall
We go back to our split-screen Bret/Austin promo, technical problem seemingly cleared up. Vince asks Bret if the challenge from Austin was among the reasons that Bret was "reticent to make up his mind" about coming back vs. retiring. That's an incorrect use of "reticent," but to be fair I used to **** up with that word too. Of course Bret's answer was no. Bret tries to give a straight interview, but Austin keeps interjecting to fire shots. Again he's very entertaining here. Vince asks Bret, if he loses, would he continue his comeback? Bret says yes, if he were to come up short he would get right back up. Austin jumps back in. "See, here's the deal - shut up! Here's the deal: win, lose, draw, Bret, it ain't over. It ain't over. You're never gonna get through with Stone Cold Steve Austin. You're gonna have to kill me first, son. Win, lose, or draw, I will always be on your ass."
Austin gets pissed at a production guy for trying to count him down to the end of a segment, then he goes and attacks him. Tremendous. Austin GOAT.
British Bulldog (w/ Clarence Mason & Owen Hart) vs. Shawn Michaels (w/ Jose Lothario): Owen joins the commentary table. Bulldog shoulderblocks Shawn down and showboats. Next sequence, Shawn stops short of a leapfrog and eye-gouges Davey. Hurracanrana by HBK, and a clothesline over the top. We get a bit of stalling here, as Shawn plays to the crowd and Davey feigns anger. Vince announces that he just heard that the cops got called on Steve Austin for his backstage attack. Michaels hits Bulldog with an enziguri. Owen: "I wonder where he stole that move from." Bulldog press slams Michaels, dropping him stomach-first along the ropes.
Bulldog continues the attack, whipping Shawn into the corner and causing Shawn to take the hard corner bump as Raw goes to break. Back from break, Shawn is fighting his way out of a chinlock and does elbow his way free, but Bulldog catches him on the run with a knee to the gut. Delayed suplex by Davey. Again a chinlock, again Shawn escapes, he attempts a crucifix but Bulldog counters into a Samoan drop for a two-count. Sunset flip by Michaels gets his own near-fall, but Bulldog is quick to pop back up and clothesline the WWF Champion out of his shoes for another two-count.
After a second commercial break, Shawn gets a boot up as Bulldog charges him in the corner. He connects a moment later on a flying forearm. He lays down for an extra while, but eventually kips up and backdrops Davey Boy. Corner mount, 10-punch. Bulldog reverses a corner whip, catches Shawn into the powerslam setup off the corner bump, but Shawn escapes and drops him. Connects with the top-rope elbow. Owen gets upset and grabs HBK's leg while he starts to tune up the band. We get the DQ, and Sid runs out for the save.
Result: Shawn Michaels via DQ
We get the cliché moment where an errant Sid elbow hits Shawn, and the two face off and yell at each other. Owen Hart grabs a mic and challenges Sid and Shawn to a tag match for the Tag Team Titles. Sid and Shawn accept, so that's happening soon.
In the back, Steve Austin is leaving angrily, but tells the security guard, "Vince McMahon won't let anything happen to me." Vince: "What??" Austin gets confronted by cops as the show signs off.
Overall: Very entertaining episode. Austin alone made this a good show, but the Shawn/Bulldog match was decent, Owen Hart was funny on commentary, and for that matter the Crush attack on the dude in the crowd was pretty good too. Glad to hear we're on our way to new and improved Faarooq as well. Strong outing.
---
Ratings for 10/28/96: Nitro 3.6, Raw 2.0
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 35-17-2
Better Show: Clear and convincing win for Raw. Nowhere even remotely close.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 43-11
Match of the Night: Shawn Michaels vs. British Bulldog
03-13-2016
, 02:24 AM
OCTOBER 1996 IN REVIEW
Arrivals:
WWF - Bret Hart (from hiatus)
WCW - Jeff Jarrett (from WWF), Roddy Piper (from WWF)
Match of the Month: Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko, Halloween Havoc
PPV of the Month: IYH Buried Alive with a pretty easy nod over Halloween Havoc here, Mysterio/Malenko greatness notwithstanding.
Ratings: The Nitro win streak is at 18 now. WWF had a closer-than-usual number on October 21st, when Bret Hart returned and when they lied and said that Mr. Perfect was going to wrestle, but they went back to getting blown out the following week.
Quality: WWF probably actually managed to be the somewhat better company this month. They've become more interesting, Bret Hart is back, Steve Austin is really hitting his stride and doing some of his finest work to date, and the Undertaker-Mankind feud continues to deliver on big-time matches. WCW felt like miss more often than hot during this month.
Gif of the Month:
Arrivals:
WWF - Bret Hart (from hiatus)
WCW - Jeff Jarrett (from WWF), Roddy Piper (from WWF)
Match of the Month: Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko, Halloween Havoc
PPV of the Month: IYH Buried Alive with a pretty easy nod over Halloween Havoc here, Mysterio/Malenko greatness notwithstanding.
Ratings: The Nitro win streak is at 18 now. WWF had a closer-than-usual number on October 21st, when Bret Hart returned and when they lied and said that Mr. Perfect was going to wrestle, but they went back to getting blown out the following week.
Quality: WWF probably actually managed to be the somewhat better company this month. They've become more interesting, Bret Hart is back, Steve Austin is really hitting his stride and doing some of his finest work to date, and the Undertaker-Mankind feud continues to deliver on big-time matches. WCW felt like miss more often than hot during this month.
Gif of the Month: