Only in the mid-90s could a T-shirt be one size fits all. Around this time I saw a lot of 130 pound people walking around with Meng sized NWO shirts.

One thing I thought while watching this last one: I don't actually get why Austin is foaming-at-the-mouth hateful toward Bret already. It makes total sense for Austin to aim for one of the big dogs as an ambitious career move, but so far Bret's entire reaction has been to accept the challenge and then to call Austin the best wrestler in the world. Austin's response to that is that he's going to haunt Bret's life for eternity no matter what happens. I mean...okay.

Obviously I loved it regardless, but the level of venom from Austin didn't make a ton of sense. I guess I'm just supposed to see him as a psychotic heel to whom logic doesn't apply though.

TLF actually goes through that in their Survivor Series 96 episode. I won't spoil any of it, though.

I've been waiting to listen to that one until after I get through that PPV. Looking forward to catching up on that.

November 4, 1996

RAW

Fort Wayne, IN

We start the evening on clips of Austin's long-distance faceoff with Bret Hart from last week, as well as Austin's attack on the production staff. Tonight we're live from Brian Pillman's home in Kentucky.

After the credits, we go straight to Kevin Kelly, live outside of Brian Pillman's home. Kelly mentions that Steve Austin threatened last week to show up tonight. Per Kelly, Pillman sent his kids to stay with their grandparents tonight in light of that threat. In the meantime, Pillman is at home but feels very intense and vulnerable due to his ankle injury.

Back to the arena for some wrasslin'.

Goldust w/ Marlena) vs. The Stalker: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley and Crush, Goldust teammates for the upcoming Survivor Series, join his ringside posse for this match. Mr. Perfect is along also. Lawler is the other partner and is obviously at ringside as well. Stalker comes out second and brings Marc Mero, Mark Henry, and Rocky Maivia with him. Barry Windham looks like kind of a super-sized Spike Dudley in this gear. We get interrupted by Dok Hendrix in a split screen, who says that he's got Steve Austin on the phone and that Austin says he's in a rental car headed for Brian Pillman's house.

Dok patches Austin through. Vince warns him that Pillman has friends waiting outside to protect him, which doesn't deter Austin. Jerry Lawler says that Pillman said he would have a gun with him. Austin: "If he's got the guts." McMahon tries to warn him off by saying that this would be outside of wrestling, it would be trespassing. Austin just tells Vince that with his big match coming up, he knows Vince will pull the strings because he can't afford to lose him. The call ends there.



The match goes to commercial. On the way back is a great video Austin promo in black and white, with Austin threatening, "When the bell rings, son, I'm going to take seven years of frustration and being pissed off out on your ass." He compares himself favorably to Shawn Michaels and says he's going to give Bret the peace of mind to be able to go home knowing he was beaten by a real man. The promo concludes with Austin's music.

So yeah basically this match has all been ignored, but I don't mind in this case. Windham and Goldust tumble out of the ring, the teams converge, everyone starts fighting, and referee Mike Chioda calls for a double DQ.

Result: Double DQ



As the teams continue brawling, Rocky Maivia hits a top rope flying bodypress on two guys simultaneously, and the faces hold the ring.

We get a brief look at Kevin Kelly inside of Brian Pillman's home with Pillman and his wife.

Dok Hendrix checks in with a Survivor Series report. Hype for Undertaker vs. Mankind with Paul Bearer in a cage above the ring, including a clip from an in-ring Mankind/Bearer/Executioner promo that Undertaker interrupts by talking over the arena loudspeaker.

Kelly proceeds with an interview of Pillman. He says he's alive and well and that his ankle has a great prognosis for 1997. He turns his attention to cutting a promo on Steve Austin. Vince tells them that he's getting word that Austin is actually circling the neighborhood. Pillman acts unworried. Vince: "Notwithstanding your bravado, do you feel like you're a hostage in your own home?" Pillman: "Steve is a dead man walking! Because when Austin 3:16 meets Pillman's 9 mm gun, I'm gonna blast his sorry ass straight to hell!" The show frantically cuts to break.



After some lame Karate Fighters tournament thing, they return to live footage at Pillman's home, where Austin is in a fistfight with a couple of random dudes outside the house.



Austin gets the better of them. He heads toward the front door, pounds it a minute, gives up and heads around the corner of the home, and the show returns to the arena. For a ****ing Sultan enhancement match.

The Sultan (w/ Bob Backlund & The Iron Sheik) vs. Alex "The Pug" Porteau: Vince does say that they'll cut away at any moment if something new happens at Brian Pillman's home. The squash match is really quick, with Sultan going over in not much more than 60 seconds with the camel clutch.



Result: The Sultan via submission

Back to Pillman's home. Austin busts down the window of a door, reaches in and unlocks, enters, and walks straight into a crazed Pillman pointing the gun right at him.



A split-second later, the feed from Pillman's place goes fuzzy. They go to commercial, but come back to the same fuzzy screen with Vince saying that they've lost the satellite feed.

Back in the arena, Jim Ross introduces Sid for an in-ring interview as Vince says that JR doesn't know what's going on at Pillman's place. As Sid comes in, McMahon assures the audience that the authorities have been called, and they'll let us know whatever they find out. He's in serious voice, saying, "It's a fine line sometimes between reality and what gets portrayed in the WWF." Shawn Michaels gets introduced as well for a face-to-face thing. Ross tries to stir **** up between them. They go back and forth a bit.

As the two shove and seem to be about to fight, Jim Cornette leads Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Vader and Clarence Mason to the ring. When did Cornette make up with Clarence Mason? The heels all invade, Owen Hart hits Sid in the back with a chair, Michaels gets it from him and the faces hold the ring, but now they're doing this stupid thing where Sid thinks it was Shawn who hit him with the chair. There are certain cliché segments that they should really be embarrassed to trot out. The heels again re-enter, and the faces again clear the ring and then face back off with each other. Dumb segment, and one you've certainly seen 50 times before.



After commercial, they still don't have a satellite feed at Pillman's home. I guess they're going to magically get it back right before the end of the hour. If you're going to run a reality angle like this, you need to be a little less tidy about fitting it so neatly around the rest of your show.

Marc Mero vs. Razor Ramon 2.0 (w/ Diesel 2.0): In kind of a funny contrast, Jerry Lawler is announcing in his normal voice while Vince is in super somber voice. These Razor/Diesel reprisals get no crowd reaction at all. They seem to be booked as heels, but the entire character is "this is really stupid that these guys are out here." A production guy, Kerwin Silfies, who was at Pillman's home calls in, and he says that the house's power went out. Says that nobody has emerged from the home but that Austin's truck is still there. He's unsure whether there have been gunshots. Police haven't arrived. Silfies doesn't think they'll get their feed back tonight. The call cuts off.

Jim Ross starts criticizing Vince, saying that he should have seen this Pillman-Austin incident coming.

Vince: "Now wait a minute. Now this is no time for you to take some sort of popular stand."
Lawler: "No, listen guys, this is no time for you two guys to get into it. Let's call the match."
Ross: "That'd be different!"
Vince gets agitated. "I'm gonna say this. There is an unfortunate situation that has occurred, and I said before you came on headset, that if there's responsibility to be taken, by the appropriate…"
Ross: "That's you! You're the head muckity-muck here!" Shades of this great Seinfeld conversation.
Lawler again plays peacemaker.

Missile dropkick by Mero. And a super hurracanrana. Another ignored match from a commentary standpoint, so it's been hard to keep track of. Mr. Perfect and HHH come to ringside as the show goes to commercial. After break, Mero hits a Samoan drop as Mr. Perfect runs distraction on the referee. HHH shoves Mero off the top rope during the ref distraction. Razor's Edge, and Mero does the job.



Result: Razor Ramon 2.0 via pinfall

They go to clips of what we saw at Pillman's home earlier tonight, and that last scene before it cut out. Magically the feed is restored with a minute left in the show, and we're back live in Pillman's home. Pillman is being held back by some randoms, I guess his friends. Kevin Kelly says that nobody was shot. Said Austin saw the gun and left. Suddenly Austin charges back in, Pillman again trains the gun on him, but Pillman's friends have hauled Austin out of the house. Pillman is still being restrained as the show goes off the air.

Overall: Austin carried a whole episode again. I'm sensing a trend that might last for several more years. Really, the Austin/Pillman stuff was pretty compelling TV even if there are valid criticisms to make (most importantly, the overly pristine timing of it all), and above all it was good to see WWF pushing the limits a bit and breaking out of their very boring formulaic mold. Good show.

NITRO

Grand Rapids, MI

As they enter the arena and pan through it, they linger up in the rafters, where Sting is perched, and then into the middle of the crowd where we see The Giant, Ted DiBiase, and Vincent.

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko welcome us to the show from the main announce table instead of their usual ringside seats. Tony says, "One of the most important shows in the history of WCW Monday Nitro." I don't get how nobody ever told him to GTFO with the exaggerations. We're going to see Lex Luger vs. Booker T. And there's a tournament to crown a ladies champion. Also Eric Bischoff isn't here tonight, as he's off trying to sign Roddy Piper in order to set up "the match of the decade" between Piper and Hulk Hogan. Holy ****, Tony. Larry draws some weird comparison between people happily accepting $1.35/gallon gas prices and the nWo. These guys are really ready for the night.

Here are, again, our clips of the Hogan-Piper confrontation from Halloween Havoc. Schiavone says that the fan response was so overwhelming, over the internet and elsewhere, that WCW is trying to make the match happen. As a 1996 AOL smark, I summarily reject the notion that the internet badly wanted to see Hogan vs. Piper.

Brad Armstrong vs. Marcus Bagwell (w/ Scotty Riggs): Say what you will about their entrance music, but the overhead clapping in rhythm was the most obnoxious part of the American Males.



The two trade armdrags and slams, wrestling to a stalemate early. Bagwell gains control with some basic mat wrestling, clinging to a headscissor and then a side headlock. After a commercial break Armstrong throws some armdrags. I was just about to start insulting this match, but Bagwell suddenly gets pissed and slaps Armstrong across the face, Armstrong throws a couple of vicious forearms, and we're going to actually start fighting. Clothesline over the top by Armstrong. The crowd really woke up after that slap too.

Bagwell re-enters with a slingshot clothesline. Nice standing dropkick, and now it's his turn to clothesline Armstrong out of the ring. Pescado by Bagwell connects, but leaves both to recover on the floor. They slowly return inside as the nWo seems to leave their place in the crowd. Tornado DDT by Brad. Slow to cover, only gets two. Gutbuster by Bagwell, followed by a bad forearm. The two men run the ropes, ducking each other's clothesline, they collide at full speed on a cross-body, Bagwell gets the better of it and gets the 1-2-3. Solid opener.



Result: Marcus Bagwell via pinfall

Schiavone continues to put over how ****ing exciting it is that they're going to sign "the biggest match of all time" between Hogan and Piper.

They show clips of the nWo celebrating DDP's win last week.

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Ice Train (w/ Teddy Long): This being a Teddy Long match, of course it's a Nick Patrick match again. Schiavone says that he just saw DDP whisper something to Nick Patrick, implying that they're both nWo and are in collusion for this one. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash turn up in the crowd again. Larry notes that they're obviously signaling to DDP that he has a home if he wants to join them, calling it "very subliminal…domination." So glad you showed up for work tonight, Larry. Hall and Nash leave before long.

Train throws some crappy elbows and forearms. He knocks Page to the apron, but Page hangs him along the top rope, then re-enters with a clothesline off the top. This is just uninteresting brawling, as it's all Train knows how to do and it seems like DDP can't figure out how to do anything with him. Page does hit a pancake for two. Swinging neckbreaker gets two as well, and Train violently shoves Page off onto Patrick. Exaggerated back injury time for Patrick. Scoop powerslam by Train gets two. Sit-out splash by the big man, then a regular splash that Patrick is really slow to count. Train clotheslines Page out of the ring, Patrick goes out to attend to them, Hall and Nash hit the ring and ambush Train as Nick Patrick ignores and Teddy Long yells at him.



Train pops up, but as he yells at the Outsiders DDP re-enters and hits a Diamond Cutter for the win.

Result: Diamond Dallas Page via pinfall

What on earth, a second ****ing American Males entrance in three matches.

Cruiserweight Title - Dean Malenko (c) vs. Scotty Riggs (w/ Marcus Bagwell): Apparently Malenko is defending the title against Psicosis at World War 3. That could be great. We see some basic chain wrestling, and Riggs almost pulling the upset with a backslide early. That jackass Syxx is in the crowd, and here come a series of fans toting nWo signs. Riggs rams shoulder-first into the post on an empty corner charge. He manages to get his boots up on Dean's corner charge a moment later, gets a quick run of offense in including a top rope axhandle that gets a two-count.

Riggs heads up top again, Malenko stumbles to his feet and falls into the ropes, causing Riggs to fall all the way to the floor. Bagwell, looking disgusted for some reason, flings Riggs back into the ring before Riggs has recovered from the impact. Magistral cradle by Malenko ships it. Bagwell lectures Riggs after the loss, as we see our first sign of dissension in a team that nobody cares about.



Result: Dean Malenko via pinfall

Clips of Mongo McMichael hitting Eddie Guerrero with a briefcase last week and enabling Chris Benoit to pin Eddie.

Hector Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit (w/ Woman): I definitely didn't know that Eddie's older brother wrestled in WCW. He looks like an incredibly old version of Eddie; after looking it up he was 42 here, but I would have guessed 50+ from his face. In other news, I will never disapprove of this thing where Woman would wear a bra as a top. It makes her look like an heiress to the Oh Henry candy bar fortune. PIP promo from Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan, threatening Benoit about an apparent upcoming match.

Crisp armdrag by Hector, followed by a couple of flying headscissors. He climbs out to the apron and then does a jump-out splash to Benoit on the floor. It looks like the old man could go. Back in the ring, Guerrero continues with a pumphandle backbreaker, then he twists on the bandaged arm of Benoit. The two trade arm-wringers, but Guerrero gets the better of the exchange since he's the one without a severely-injured limb. Commercial. And an nWo ad during the commercial break.

Benoit hangs Guerrero out stomach-first along the top rope. The Crippler throws Benoit up high and drops to a knee, letting Guerrero land on his knee a la Dean Malenko. Stiff chops by Benoit, and an abdominal stretch, but Guerrero works his way out of the hold and armdrags his way loose. Another gutbuster by Benoit though, as he maintains pretty firm control. Short clothesline as the hour #2 pyro goes into full bloom. With Bischoff gone, Tony stays on, but Larry gets subbed out for Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan. Oklahoma roll concludes with Hector in the pinning position, but he can only get a one-count. This was kind of a botch, where Woman seemed like she was supposed to break it up but was out of position and just ends up tugging at Hector's hair after the pin was already broken.



Hector gets mad at Woman, Benoit beats him with a distraction roll-up. On top of being a cliché, that ending was badly botched. Match was okay, but nothing memorable.

Result: Chris Benoit via pinfall

Clips of Jeff Jarrett beating Ricky Morton last week and the Giant cutting a promo on him from the crowd.

Mike Tenay interviews Jarrett, Benoit, and Mongo. He comments that the Four Horsemen are at far less than 100% heading into World War 3. Jarrett refers to himself as the "lead horse." As he continues, Benoit interjects to tell Tenay, "Any business of the Horsemen will be dealt with BY a Horseman." Mongo says, "In the day of free agency, I don't understand how someone can just walk through a door and sit his butt down and say, 'This is my house.'" Mongo speaks confidently about how strong they'll be once Ric and Arn return, and he says, "Chris, Woman, as far as I'm concerned, this Four Horsemen interview is over." They walk off. Jarrett just keeps a smile on his face and keeps blathering about uniting WCW against the nWo as he completes the promo. Sting, in full Crow makeup tonight, just watches on stoically.



A commercial break, some pointless desk banter, and a Lee Marshall Nitro Party report later, we go back to the ring.

[B]Ladies Title Tournament First Round - Reina Jubuki vs. Madusa:[B] Jubuki is masked, and her mask has a head of feathers on it. Heenan: "Beautiful woman. Half-woman, half-goose." As the match gets going, Heenan says that Madusa "could beat most men." Today I learned that Col. Parker is "most men." A minute or so into the match, a woman with full face paint, white base with a black cross over it, comes down the aisle with Sonny Onoo close behind. They say her name is Zero, which is a lot cooler than Syxx.



As the camera returns to the action, I'm duly reminded that Madusa is just absolutely ten levels of brutal in the ring. She seriously looks noticeably worse than Brie Bella here. Jubuki with a Northern lights suplex. Madusa kicks out. Missile dropkick by Jubuki doesn't ship it either. Jubuki appears to be shedding feathers. Here's a German suplex out of nowhere by Madusa, and that ends it. Garbage.

Result: Madusa via pinfall

Their ongoing tease continues to be to JUST WAIT AND SEE if Piper vs. Hogan actually gets signed. That hook can't have possibly been that effective.

M. Wallstreet vs. Chris Jericho: Wallstreet is in pants tonight for some reason, covering the lower half of his singlet. I really, really, really have no idea why they insisted on putting him on so many Nitros. Jericho works Wallstreet's arm early, Wallstreet fights back, Jericho cross-body/dropkick/spinning back kick for a two-count. Wallstreet sidesteps a charging Jericho and dumps him through the middle rope to the outside. Tony calls Wallstreet "one of the great veterans in our sport" and says "he knows how to win a match." Cite your source, Schiavone. Wallstreet doesn't win dick.

Sunset flip by Jericho gets two, but Wallstreet isn't going to have good action, not even in a Chris Jericho match, and he locks into a rest hold. Jericho gets loose and we get the 10 smashes into the turnbuckle. Missile dropkick next, and Wallstreet rolls out for cover. Jericho heads outside to join him and gets posted. As the action returns inside, Jericho suddenly executes a surprise small package and gets a three-count. Unwatchable. Stop putting washed-up Mike Rotundo on my screen please.



Result: Chris Jericho via pinfall

Interview time with Nick Patrick and his attorney. Jericho gets in his face and again calls him a paid employee of the nWo. Oh, and here's Teddy Long again, yelling at Patrick as well. The attorney points out that Teddy Long was a referee here a few years ago and got suspended. This leaves Long stammering. Jericho jumps in to say that we're not talking about past mistakes. He finishes the promo on Patrick and…that's it. This was just a pointless rehash of basically the same segment last week.

Booker T (w/ Sister Sherri) vs. Lex Luger: As the match starts, we get a pre-taped Luger PIP where he pleads with Sting to talk with him for a minute. Delayed suplex by Lex, and a back elbow that sends Booker sprawling out of the ring. After a commercial, Luger blocks a suplex and lays in some hard forearms. Corner whip and a Davey-esque running powerslam. Booker breaks up the momentum with a stun gun, but has to take a moment to recover himself afterward. He collects himself and connects on an axe kick. As the action goes outside, he rams Luger back-first into the apron and then rolls him back inside.

Arm-wringer into a spinning heel kick. He misses on a Harlem side kick and actually crotches himself, leaving the door open for Luger. Series of clotheslines, and a scoop powerslam. He goes for the Torture Rack, but Booker blocks. He whips Booker into the corner, but Booker bounces back out with a Harlem side kick, this one connecting. Col. Parker suddenly shows up at ringside, hugging on Sherri and cheering Booker on. Parker gets on the apron, Booker angrily grabs him, and we have another distraction roll-up finish as Luger escapes with the win. These ****ing endings tonight.



Result: Lex Luger via pinfall

Back to the desk. Tony, on Hogan-Piper: "Never before in my broadcasting career in doing World Championship Wrestling, in years before that doing the NWA, can I remember a time when there's been so much talk, so much excitement based on one match." STOP. For the love of God.

They get Eric Bischoff on the phone from Portland, Oregon. Bischoff says that unfortunately things aren't going as well as hoped with Piper's agent. He says it's no one thing, Piper's management won't say, and he's just been stonewalled three or four times. He says he's going to take a trip out to Toronto to try to catch up with Piper himself. Well it's a good thing they've hyped the whole episode toward that phone call.

Time for more Halloween Havoc clips. They show the whole ****ing Hogan-Piper thing again. WTF is this ****.

The nWo music hits, and here's Hulk Hogan, The Giant, Ted DiBiase, and Vincent. Hogan talks some **** about Piper, saying he's scared, etc. Time for more posing. And then the show ends. Really high-level stuff, guys.



Overall: This show was built around hyping up a phone call with Eric Bischoff where he announced basically nothing. The main event was a promo that advanced nothing. Not a good look, WCW.

---

Ratings for 11/4/96: Nitro 3.4, Raw 2.3
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 36-17-2

Better Show: It's Raw again, and again it's not particularly close. Granted that Raw wasn't a conventional great wrestling show, but it was an entertaining/interesting episode and Nitro was sheer boredom.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 43-12

Match of the Night: Marcus Bagwell vs. Brad Armstrong

That's 3 of 4 where I've said that Raw was better, and the only time I voted in Nitro's direction in that foursome was a close decision where I let the WWF's ****ty bait-and-switch be the negative tiebreaker. Is this already the turnaround point in terms of them becoming the better company? I honestly don't remember well enough to know; I had it in my mind that it would be until at least early '97, but we may well have already seen the turning point in terms of quality. We were quite a ways out from a ratings turning point though.

Raw seems to contain a lot more Steve Austin as of late. That is a big difference, but other than that Raw still tends to have terrible undercard matches/characters and quality main events, and Nitro has pretty good wrestlers/wrestling in most of the matches.

Happily, the "a lot more Steve Austin" trend wasn't just a passing fancy.

Drastically increasing Austin's screen time and bringing back Bret Hart makes for a pretty big overall paradigm shift.

I think at this point preferences will vary largely based on what people look for in a wrestling show. Your summary of the 10/28 Nitro started with "Pointless and boring, very little to like about this episode." Meltzer's summary of the same show, after giving the facts and figures, started with "very strong show. The wrestlers pretty much all had their working shoes on..."

No question that it's all subjective obviously. As I've sort of derisively criticized Meltzer for, he seems to approach his match grading like a Russian figure skating judge who is giving an opinion on a match based on some sort of objective rubric that minimizes underlying story and meaning and leans heavily on technical analysis. Seems likely that I care more about story advancement than him. To each his own; that's fine.

Oh, those awesome SS96 promos. Here are the Austin ones for anyone who hasn't seen them.

I miss to the point promos that actually build the match and treat the wrestler as tough like that.

But I could have done without the dogs and the camera cuts and the talking over himself though. It seems overproduced and cartoonish; just having a still camera on him while he cut the promo in that area in black and white would have been better.

Goosebumps every time I watch that.

November 11, 1996

NITRO

St. Petersburg, FL

Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko have been relegated back to the ringside seats to kick us off. They say that our opening bout is going to be Chris Benoit vs. Jeff Jarrett, and they send it to clips of last week's promo where Benoit and Mongo McMichael make it clear that they're not accepting Jarrett as a Horseman yet. This includes a part where Jarrett talks about uniting WCW and how Sting isn't getting it done.

Chris Benoit (w/ Woman) vs. Jeff Jarrett: Another Jimmy Hart/Kevin Sullivan PIP promo before the match gets started. Sullivan: "Chris, you know that burning sensation, that desire you have? The sweet nothings you hear? I once had the same thing. I once had that burning desire, because I heard the same exact words. Benoit, my sweet nothings are gonna drag you all around Baltimore." They mentioned on the last episode that this was at an upcoming Saturday show in Baltimore. I can't tell if they're talking about a house show or what. Baltimore is not where the next PPV is.

Headlocks and armdrags and the whole nine yards to start. Benoit throws a chop that he seems to miss his mark on, since he ****ing chops Jarrett in the face, squarely in the nose. You'll break a guy's nose that way. Jarrett seems to be okay though, as the show goes to break. After that break, they're trading pretty stiff punches, with Benoit prevailing, getting on top, and pounding away.



Botched swinging neckbreaker by Jarrett. Suplex. Drapes Benoit across the bottom rope and drops the leg. The Crippler fights back, throwing those wonderful chops and putting Jarrett on the mat. They continue trading hard punches; this is believable and entertaining brawling, really good storytelling given the backdrop as well, of this being a match where Jarrett is trying to prove his worth to the Horsemen. Benoit drops Jarrett stomach-first on the ropes, leaving him out on the apron. Jarrett suplexes him to the floor from there and takes a moment to strut and showboat. And then suddenly…wat.



Sting enters from behind, pulls Jarrett back by the hair, and delivers his first Scorpion Death Drop. Apparently he didn't take kindly to Jarrett's words last week. Benoit halfway tentatively re-enters, but Woman holds him back and he waits for Sting to leave.

Result: Jeff Jarrett via DQ

Benoit goes back into the ring. Woman encourages Benoit to pick Jarrett up, since they don't know that Sting is WCW but they know that Jarrett is. Benoit is resistant. He eventually goes over and picks Jarrett up, but does it violently. The referee steps in the middle and the show cuts to break. Larry, in one of his rare correct comments, says "it's a pretty bad time for a break."

Some random lackey runs up and tries to give an envelope to Tony and Larry. Security rushes him off, but he breaks free and drops the envelope off after all. There's a note and a videotape inside, the note telling them to play it…something about Piper wanting to face Hogan, and this being a video from 1992. Tony says "whatever" and then throws it to a Ric Flair video. The video features Dr. James Andrews helping Flair recover. Andrews goes into significant medical detail explaining the injury, including showing us diagrams, which is quite the exciting thing to be watching on a wrestling program.

Ladies Title Tournament First Round - Malya Hosaka vs. Zero (w/ Sonny Onoo): Well last Nitro basically served to announce that this tournament is headed toward Madusa vs. Zero in the tournament finals. Zero no-sells a dropkick and goes to work with a snapmare and a legdrop. Hosaka's sunset flip attempt doesn't work either, with Zero blocking and sitting down. This is squash city, with Zero picking her up on two pin attempts at two-counts. Finally she goes with a crucifix powerbomb for the win. Really quick match.



Result: Zero via pinfall

Tony welcomes back "truly the greatest interviewer in the history of our business"…and then actually does send it to the greatest interviewer in the history of the business. Well that's refreshing. Here's the return of Mean Gene Okerlund. That really is a noticeable value add to the show.

He's with Diamond Dallas Page. He cuts right to the chase and says that it looks like DDP is being courted by the nWo. DDP laughs it off and says that he doesn't need anybody's help. Page admits that he used to manage Scott Hall and he used to tag team with Kevin Nash, and then as he's about to disavow them they enter stage right. Hall explicitly offers Page a spot in the nWo. Dallas balks, saying, "What, you have seven guys, and I'm #8?" Nash: "We could have come to you a lot earlier, but as you know, wrestling is as political as it gets." Yes, Nash knew a thing or two about politics.



Nash points out that DDP lives two doors down from Eric Bischoff. Page gets defensive, asking if he's implying that he doesn't deserve what he's been getting. Hall and Nash try to insist that they never meant to disrespect him, but that they just couldn't come to him earlier. DDP remains butthurt about how long they took to invite him. Nash: "You don't get it. You're never gonna get it." They walk off. Fade to commercial.

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Ciclope: Ultimo Dragon and Sonny Onoo are just chilling at ringside when Rey arrives. We're getting Dean Malenko vs. Psicosis and Rey vs. Ultimo at the next PPV…that practically guarantees that there will be at least something worth tuning in for. Ciclope puts Rey down, Rey kips up, drops down, and launches Ciclope halfway across the ring. Rey to the apron, springboard headscissor sends Ciclope rolling out, and Mysterio follows with a nice suicide dive.



Ciclope re-enters. Rey gets up on the apron, yells "FRANKENSTEINER," and then springboards his way into a clothesline inside the ring. Ciclope puts Rey on the apron, then sunset flip powerbombs him on the floor. Looked pretty stiff and awesome, but unfortunately the camera angle barely caught it. Malenko watches on from the top of the aisle. Back inside the ring, Ciclope hits a seated missile dropkick. Sends Rey off the ropes, then throws him high up and lets him drop to the mat. Sets Mysterio up on the ropes, then DDTs him directly from there. They cut away during the ensuing pin attempt to show Psicosis coming out as well. He stands a number of feet behind Malenko, who never turns around to acknowledge him.

Powerbomb by Ciclope gets two. I remember Ciclope being a cruiserweight jobber in WCW who was best-known for an awesome moment we'll get to a lot later, but he's doing good work here. Spinning wheel kick by Rey. Attempted quebrada, but Ciclope catches him and tombstones him.



Ciclope to the top rope, Rey recovers far too quickly from that tombstone and dropkicks him to cause him to fall crotch-first on the ropes. That Superman recovery was bull**** after such a strong spot. Rey follows him up top, reverse hurracanrana carries them both from the top rope to the floor. Man they're selling out hard for a match that's basically just an enhancement match. Back inside, springboard hurracanrana into a pin, 1-2-3. Really good match, best on Nitro in a while.

Result: Rey Mysterio Jr. via pinfall

Malenko turns around after the match and sees Psicosis for the first time. Psicosis gives him a warning look and walks off.

We get a look at WCWWrestling.com, and in fact we see a screenshot of it on Netscape. Ah, the good old days.

Here come the nWo, first with a bunch of tools holding signs and then with Hall, Nash, and Syxx following them out. Hall says they're going to be at the Cable ACE awards this week, because everyone knows that they're the reason that Nitro is the hottest show on cable. They surround Tony and Larry at commentary, Tony goes into full capitulation mode, Larry stands up for himself and mouths back. Hall goes back to talking about the upcoming award show. Nash's turn, as he says, "Hey Larry, nice outfit. Get a cup of soup with that?" Tony starts corpsing hard, covering his face to try to keep it together. Nash says that they're getting everything ready to turn this show into nWo Monday Nitro.



After a commercial, we're onto hour #2 with Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan.

Scott Norton vs. Lex Luger: We haven't seen Norton for a while, but Bischoff explains that he just got back from Japan. I'm sure he's rejuvenated and not about to sell for this pussy Lex Luger. PIP promo from Arn Anderson, who threatens Luger over what he's going to do at this mythical upcoming Baltimore show. Luger shoulderblocks, Norton absorbs it and hits a backbreaker. The crowd gets up and notices Sting watching on from somewhere in the arena.



Lex clotheslines Norton over the top, Norton of course lands on his feet and drags Lex out with him and begins chopping him. Heenan: "Norton's the kind of guy who likes to dominate a match! He likes to take control!" No ****ing kidding. Luger posts him and follows with a clothesline, but Norton is unaffected by the post, ducks away and Luger clotheslines the post. Back inside, Norton misses a clothesline but connects on a flying shoulderblock. We go to commercial, and at the first intermission Norton has basically just turned up and dominated the **** out of a main eventer.

After break, Norton is still in control of course, hanging Luger's arm along the top rope. Flash continues the arm work with repeated elbows directed right at the bicep. Norton comes up empty on a corner charge, Luger hits a back suplex, throws some forearms, and Norton gets his no-sell groove back when he just roars at Luger's clothesline. Lex gets another running start and hits a forearm that floors the big man. Luger corner whip, charges in and catches Norton's boot in the face. Norton to the top, misses on a shoulderblock from there. Luger, heavily favoring the arm that Norton was working, just lifts him up in the Torture Rack anyway, and that will do it. This whole match was vintage Norton even though he lost.



Result: Lex Luger via submission

Back up at the desk, Bischoff asks for World War 3 predictions even though we're still a couple of weeks away. Tenay pushes Luger as one of the strong favorites. Heenan: "Three rings, 20 men in each ring, you've got muggers, thugs, thieves, the lowest form of life coming from all over the world for a shot at this one. My pick is Dean Malenko. He's the right size, he's got the right attitude." Bischoff no-sells and goes back to his script, showing Sting's Scorpion Death Drop on Jarrett from earlier.

Mean Gene is with Lex Luger. Gene asks if Luger can figure out WTF Sting is up to. Luger has no idea at this point, and says he really can't figure it out. He grovels and repeats what everyone else has been saying about how he's so sorry that he didn't trust Sting back at Fall Brawl. These apologies to Sting have been going on for two damn months. It's like everyone's promo is "pls respond."

During the next ring intros, Eric Bischoff says that he talked to Roddy Piper earlier tonight and that things are looking more hopeful for a Hogan-Piper match.

Amazing French Canadians (w/ Col. Parker) vs. Harlem Heat (w/ Sister Sherri): Tenay mentions that the Harlem Heat and Sister Sherri have officially done away with Col. Parker, and WCW Saturday Night clips of the breakup are shown. And I guess he's with the Canadians now, I guess because the Frenchies needed a redneck in the mix. As the match gets started, the producers cut to the back, where the Nasty Boys are attempting to get in the arena but are being blocked by security. Doug Dillinger shows up and tells them that they're not welcome.

The match is on split-screen, and…it ends while still on split-screen. The bell rings. Sherri is in the ring, with the Heat holding her back as she screams at Col. Parker. And the show goes to break. The search bubble says it was a no contest, so we'll go with that. Basically we didn't really get to watch a match here, because WCW insists on giving the Nasty Boys weekly screen time.



Result: No Contest

Konnan vs. Chris Jericho: Nick Patrick is the referee. In kayfabe it's weird that Teddy Long and now Chris Jericho can't wrestle without Patrick getting assigned to the match. Jericho and Konnan somersault over each other as Mike Tenay shows Jericho's hockey-playing father's trading card. Springboard dropkick by Jericho knocks Konnan to the floor, but he misses entirely on a pescado and then eats a hard clothesline by Konnan once he gets up. Back on the inside, Konnan hooks in what looks like some sort of stump puller/octopus hybrid. Jericho works his way free, but Konnan kneecaps him with a targeted dropkick. There seems to be a moment where Jericho could be legit hurt, and Patrick looks like he actually checks on him…to Patrick's credit, even while he's doing this, he sells the neck injury.

Konnan with an armbar as Bischoff notes that the Steelers have named their defense "the nWo defense." That figures. Corner whip and a front dropkick by Konnan. Whip to the other corner, empty corner charge, release German by Jericho. Jericho continues the comeback, putting Konnan down with a spinning back kick. Jericho with a near-fall on a victory roll. Konnan reverses a whip, leapfrogs Jericho, Jericho nearly collides with Patrick on the way back through but manages to stop short. Konnan dropkicks him in the back, ramming him straight into Patrick. Patrick disqualifies Jericho.



Result: Konnan via DQ

Juventud Guerrera vs. Miguel Perez: Juvi runs out to no music as Nitro returns from break, and they're instantly off to the races, with Perez and his obscene amount of chest and back hair laying Guerrera out with a hard running clothesline. Juvi misses on an enziguri, Perez tries to wrap up a magistral cradle, the back-and-forth continues as Juvi blocks. Perez backdrops him to the apron, Juvi pushes him away, climbs to the top, and connects on a missile dropkick. High-impact Russian legsweep by Perez.



Slam and a somersault sentan by Perez. Guerrera reverses a corner whip and then connects on a springboard dropkick, then follows him to the floor with a top rope plancha. Crowd is dead as can be even though these guys are doing good work. Guerrera sets Perez up on the guardrail, is going to hurracanrana him from there, but Perez blocks into a powerbomb on the floor. Based on the sickening thud, the moving image alone doesn't do it justice.



As Juventud recovers and regains his feet outside, Perez does a handspring backflip from inside the ring over the ropes to the floor, and Heenan sounds like he yells "**** IT!" a la Mean Gene, though I think he said "look it." Perez tornado DDT gets blocked, Juvi with a jumping kick. Attempted 450 splash by Guerrera, Perez moves, Guerrera lands on his feet, victory roll by Perez takes it down. Crowd was a bummer, but this was still enjoyable.

Result: Miguel Perez via pinfall

Ted DiBiase speaks up from the crowd. He thanks Sting for that number he did on Jeff Jarrett earlier. He has Vincent unveil an nWo t-shirt and tells Sting it's waiting for him.

Faces of Fear (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. American Males: During the Males' entrance, the announcers talk about how they haven't been on the same page. They get into the ring and pyro rains down, but as they pose Meng blindsides them to get this thing going. The Males recover and throw double dropkicks at both Dungeonmates, but Meng is back on top of things quickly, chopping away at Bagwell. Meng misses on a cross-body and Bagwell puts him down with a forearm. Meng tags out to Barbarian, who enters and immediately plants Bagwell with a powerbomb.

Bagwell hasn't gotten his vest off as the heat segment continues. Double clothesline by the Faces of Fear. Scotty Riggs comes in illegally and attacks, creating enough space for Bagwell to tag out. That hardly seems fair. Riggs sends Barbarian into the ropes, Bagwell is on the floor and trips Barbarian, but it wasn't coordinated and Riggs throws a dropkick and falls on the back of his head instead of connecting with the opponent. Riggs gets up and gets his face kicked off, 1-2-3, Faces of Fear win.



Result: Faces of Fear via pinfall

Jimmy Hart screams "STOP THE MUSIC!" as soon as the match ends. He starts ranting and asking how in the world the Nasty Boys can be getting a title shot at World War 3 instead of the Faces of Fear. He's got a legit gripe, not just on his own behalf but on behalf of everyone who will watch that event. He asks for them to make it a triangle match or any type of match the executive committee wants, but demands that they put his team in the mix. Bischoff says, "You know, he's got a point."

Time for them to play the videotape that got dropped off with Tony and Larry earlier by a random fan.

It's a Roddy Piper music video from 1992. I'm not saying it's just a music video with clips of Piper…I'm saying he's the ****ing singer of the music. What in the blue hell. Zero memory of this either. It's extremely cheesy, and Piper is quite the bad singer; it feels like the sequel to Vince McMahon's "Stand Back." This one is called "I'm Your Man." With a dead crowd behind him, Bischoff says, "I've gotta tell you, the crowd really reacted to this!"



The thing they point out after the video is that there's a moment in it where a marquee advertises a Piper-Hogan match, and in the video Piper looks at it. What a bizarre payoff this is to the "what is this tape?" drama.

Out comes the nWo, with Hulk Hogan, The Giant, Vincent, Ted DiBiase, and…Miss Elizabeth in a skimpy Santa outfit.



For some reason Nick Patrick is just chilling in the ring with the nWo throughout the segment too, and nobody actually says anything about it. We get the same damn ending segment as the past two weeks, with Hogan cutting a self-aggrandizing promo and then posing as the show goes off the air. Despite the fact that this is Hogan, I'm astounded that they end at least three shows in a row by doing this exact same segment with almost no variation.



Overall: Setting aside the Piper-Hogan bull****, at least the wrestling was really damn strong on this night, stronger than I've seen from a Nitro in a while. Benoit-Jarrett, Rey-Ciclope, and Juventud-Perez were all good, and most of the other matches weren't bad either.

RAW

Fort Wayne, IN

The show starts off in mid-ring entrance, as we're going to open with a Tag Team Title match. They show clips of how this match came about a couple of weeks ago, with the Survivor Series opponents Sid and Shawn squabbling and Owen and the Bulldog for some reason wanting to challenge them because of it.

Before the match starts, a PIP promo by Steve Austin - apparently facing Bob Holly later - saying that once he gets done with Holly he's going to find Bret Hart here in the arena and put his little Sharpshooter on him.

Tag Team Titles - Owen Hart & The British Bulldog (c) (w/ Clarence Mason) vs. Sid & Shawn Michaels (w/ Jose Lothario): Owen tries to jump Sid before the bell to absolutely no effect, and gets whipped hard into the corner and dropped by his hair for his efforts. Owen does jump out behind Sid after getting whipped to the opposite corner, lays in some punches and then mounts him in the corner for more, but gets flung off the top. Tag to Shawn, who enters with an axhandle off the top. Shawn monkeyflips Owen and then clotheslines him out of the ring as the show goes to break.

We're on Shawn vs. Davey when Raw returns, Shawn in control but tagging in Sid to continue the offense. Sid drops his head for a backdrop attempt and takes a boot to the face. Delayed suplex by Davey, but his following legdrop misses. Shawn tags in with a measured fist off the second rope, but receives a knee from the apron by Owen, allowing Owen to tag in. Inverted atomic drop by Owen, who lays the boots in from there. The brothers-in-law isolate HBK in their corner and proceed to work him over for a bit. Jerry Lawler accuses Sid of not really wanting to get in, and instead wanting him to take the brunt of the punishment tonight before Survivor Series on Sunday. A couple of times Sid lets himself get baited into the ring, allowing for double-teams that fit that narrative.



After a mid-match commercial, we get the Bret half of the Steve Austin promo from last week, featuring Bret highlights and some of his comments playing in the background, finishing on his music. While it isn't on the Austin level, I enjoyed that promo too. Back to the match, Owen connects on a spinning wheel kick on Shawn, who is still the face in peril. I was excited to get to see some more Owen vs. Shawn, but this is all just Shawn bumping and selling. Bulldog tags Owen in and holds HBK up for a missile dropkick, but HBK moves and Owen dropkicks Davey.

Finally, the hot tag to Sid. He chokeslams Bulldog and sets up for a powerbomb, but Owen and Shawn return inside, chaos ensues, and in a predictable and contrived spot Shawn sets up to superkick Bulldog but accidentally kicks Sid instead. Bulldog pins Sid to retain the belts.



Result: Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith via pinfall

The champs continue to beat on Sid and Shawn after the match. Sid is out cold from the superkick. Michaels tries to fight them both off, but catches an enziguri from Owen and is left knocked out in the ring right next to Sid.

After a commercial, Kevin Kelly says that there was pandemonium in the locker room after Sid and Shawn both got back there, but that people were able to separate them. He says he's going to hang out back there and try to get an interview.

Dok Hendrix comes along with our Survivor Series report. After talking about the Team HHH vs. Team Mero match, they mention another survival match coming up on Sunday, with Faarooq, Vader, Razor 2.0, and Diesel 2.0 taking on Savio Vega, Yokozuna, the debuting Flash Funk (2 Cold Scorpio in basically the first rendition of The Godfather gimmick), and a mystery partner. With regard to the mystery partner, Dok says that rumors are running rampant, and that when he comes out the place is gonna go nuts. I don't remember that match even being a thing, and I really thought that Yokozuna had made his final WWF appearance, but certainly you have to think that a returning Ahmed Johnson is the likely mystery partner. Another elimination match will feature tag teams, specifically Owen and Davey teaming with the New Rockers to take on The Godwinns and the debuting Doug Furnas & Philip Lafon, who apparently sent in stock photos from the 70s for promotional purposes.



Kevin Kelly is outside Sid's locker room. Sid is in there throwing a tantrum, but Kelly says he's going to get an interview later.

Mankind (w/ Paul Bearer & The Executioner) vs. Freddy Joe Floyd: As I mentioned, Floyd was better than most in these enhancement matches, but he doesn't do much of interest here, except for taking a solid impact on Mankind's sit-down piledriver. The Mandible Claw finishes things off.

Result: Mankind via submission

After the match, Mankind's lovely piano music is interrupted by Undertaker music, accompanied by a cage lowering from the ceiling with a stuffed fat man hanging upside down in a cage being lowered from the ceiling, obviously representing Paul Bearer. A standard Undertaker promo booms out over the PA system, but he doesn't appear.



Next is a Hall of Fame induction video for Killer Kowalski and the Valiant Brothers. Perhaps the entire company history would look different if Kowalski had just done a worse job of training Triple H.

Another video follows, hyping Rocky Maivia before his debut match this coming Sunday at Survivor Series. Lot of focus on his family's history in Madison Square Garden as he prepares to debut there. It's interesting to watch him talk before he had found his personality. He says, "I think the key advice my father's given me is to always give 100%, and remember that the respect is given when it's earned. So go out and earn it." There were few greater examples in company history of someone only being given fan respect once it was earned, and not a second before.



Kevin Kelly is in the hallway, where Sid is pacing back and forth and raging. Sid is furious about getting superkicked. He doesn't buy that all of these incidents by Shawn have all been "mistakes." Says, "MISTAKE OR NOT, THERE WILL BE NO MISTAKE AT SURVIVOR SERIES!"

Onto another Austin promo from backstage. This one is nothing special.

After more Karate Fighters nonsense, Kevin Kelly has caught up with Shawn Michaels. "It was a mistake, what I did tonight. But the fact of the matter is, on that mistake, I still knocked you out colder than a block of ice. What are you gonna do this Sunday when I'll be gunning for you?" Not bad.

Steve Austin vs. Bob Holly: Austin works Holly over with a side headlock as Bret Hart is shown watching on from the back. Jim Ross advertises that we're going to see Steve Austin vs. Vader on next Monday's show. Yes please. Holly attempts a splash on Austin, who raises his knees and catches him in the gut as the show goes to commercial. We get a replay of the black-and-white Austin promo from last week, for some reason with the word "ass" being bleeped this time.

After break, we get the Thesz press by Austin. Holly still gets his share of offense, hitting a hurracanrana and then a dropkick a moment later. Austin hurts his shoulder when Holly dodges a corner charge, but Holly tries to follow by jumping off the top rope, and he seems to just jump jaw-first into Stone Cold's boot without any actual move in mind. Stone Cold Stunner finishes things off.



Result: Steve Austin via pinfall

Austin heads toward the back with a snarl on his face, and they follow him to see if he's going to make good on his promise to go beat Bret up. He gets up to Bret's locker room door, then turns to the camera. "See, that's what you'd like me to do, isn't it? You'd like me to go in there and beat him up for free. And that's what I said I'd do, but I ain't gonna do it."



Vince must have gotten in his ear since last week's show and straightened him out about the company's policy on following through on what you advertise. Austin says that everyone is going to have to pay to watch him beat up Bret Hart. Austin strolls off, and the go-home show for Survivor Series is over.

Overall: Meh it was alright, nothing too bad but it mostly felt like they were just spinning their wheels to get to Survivor Series. That, coincidentally, is probably also what I was doing while doing this writeup, since I've been trying to hammer these out quickly so that I can get to that show, which I don't think I've really watched since shortly after it happened.

---

Ratings for 11/11/96: Nitro 3.7, Raw 2.5
Ratings Running Score: Nitro 37-17-2

Better Show: Pretty easy win for Nitro this week. Neither show did anything all that interesting from a story perspective, but WCW's wrestling was quite a bit better.
Better Show Running Score: Nitro 44-12

Match of the Night: Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Ciclope

THAT'S NOT CICLOP...oh wait, yeah, it is. My bad.

Flashbacks to his only memorable contribution to wrestling and the GAB earlier in the year.

Good write-ups. Amazing that they closed with Hogan posing again. What the **** is that about? Those Nick Patrick gifs never fail to make me laugh. Thinking of d/l'ing the show to watch the sick thud and the Rey Mysterio match.

Those matches that I complimented are relatively short FWIW, but I think you would enjoy them. These new guys that never actually amounted to anything were definitely reaching for the brass ring. Gotta think it was a huge ****ing deal in their lives to get a legit chance to showcase their talents on a live Nitro. But obviously there was only so many top cruiserweight spots to go around, and to WCW's credit there's no real doubt that the guys who got the best CW pushes (Rey, Malenko, Jericho) were totally deserving.

I definitely remember enjoying the lesser known cruisers back then. JL, Calo, Juvi, Psicosis, etc.. As you said, they worked their ass off to get noticed and to keep a job. Going to grab it now.

Also my favorite thing about some of these Nick Patrick clips is the angry and disapproving look on his face as he unleashes a bull**** disqualification. The thing where he sells it like he's legitimately angry that [whatever babyface] broke the rules is great.

I just love how he sells way OTT and then stands straight up. Pretty sure this is where Roman got his inspiration for selling the chair shots at FL. The finger wag at the very end is just so funny.

-I have to give Luger a lot of credit. I remembered he was good as a heel but I didn't remember him being this consistently over at this point as a face. It is one thing to get a pop during your entrance, it is another to have the crowds into your matches week after week despite facing nobodies and doing nothing risky. Hard to be that over when you have been turned face/heel so many times in your career.

-WWE had a shake up in creative around the start of October of this year. JJ Dillion left. He wasn't part of creative, but Bruce Prichard (Brother Love) took over his job, and Bruce had been Vince's right hand man in creative, with Cornette working under him. I know Cornette stayed on in creative but I'm not sure if that made him the right hand man or what. I know eventually the top two with Vince becomes Cornette and Russo (that is the origin of the heat they have with one another; they always were arguing because of differences in philosophy), but I don't think that happened right away here.

LKJ, I went back itt to look at some stuff and quite a bit of the pictures/gifs are gone. You should try a different host if you want to keep the pictures on here permanently.

As mentioned in the new TLF Starrcade '95 podcast, Luger was also very smart to jump ship on Vince and go to WCW. He was languishing badly in the WWF and ended up being a much bigger star because he jumped, which is saying something since Bischoff gave him a lowball offer in hopes of not actually signing him.

Iso I'm not finding these dead images. Looking back through earlier pages and still seeing live images. Could you quote a post where it's showing up with dead pics for you?

hmmm I got some x'ed out pictures on my tablet for September 96 shows (but not all of the page so pretty weird). On my pc, they come out fine.