WCW Monday Night Nitro Review!

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe with a cape now.

Bischoff and Heenan promote the World War III PPV and the WCW World title on the line. Mongo takes time to promote his dog wearing a cape to claim he's super pup like the WCW Wrestlers. They cut to perhaps one of the silliest , dumbest promos Hulk Hogan has ever done. No folks...this one takes the friggen cake from last week.

Hogan is dressed up like the character from a Phantom of Opera with black mask. He then stands up discussing how Savage is gonna bring him the head of Meng tonight. He even has a sword. He then believes Sting is on the dark side of Hulkamania. After the events with Sting & Luger last week. The entire promo tops last week as the silliest thing Hogan has ever done.

Savage is introduced from the dark side of Venice Beach , CA now. People wait as Savage comes from the ringside and blindsides Meng . Which is a great move basically since Meng is pretty damn tough really at this point. One of the best of the Dungeon of Doom under Sullivan. Jimmy Hart comes out soon to try and help them out.

Meng soon takes control of the match and starts beating Savage down pretty good. He is using brute strength to destroy Macho. Then the final end hits as Savage rallies back and beats Meng. Post match the Dungeon with Lex Luger destroy Savage. So much for the Sith power of the dark side of Hulkamania helping Savage beat these guys. Luger focuses on Savage's arm post match and beats him down. I don't think Lex likes Macho Man judging from this.

Up next is the match with Kensuki Sasaki vs Chris Benoit. Sasaki is part of the New Japan group deal that Bischoff did. He started using talent from the company soon enough. Kensuki Sasaki is one tough sob and actually before his debut in WCW was called the Power Warrior and would team Hawk in matches , and sometimes Hawk & Animal. He dropped the Power Warrior deal when he competed solo.

Anyhow this is a good tough match for Benoit as Sasaki brings that same tough sob style like he does. Eventually though Benoit nails a german suplex pin and win. Sasaki has a US Title match later in the week against Sting from what Bischoff claims.

Out comes Johnny B. Badd . Who was TV Champion at this point and going up against Eddie Guerrero in a title match. Badd doesn't have the confetti gun with him . Instead he has frisbees he throws out to fans. This could be a very good match really. Since Guerrero and Badd can go at a fast paced. The match has a great near pin sequence where Guerrero does a leg sweep , then Badd tries it and misses , then neck drags Guerrero for his pin attempt. Nice spot.

The 2 men then do yet another fun pinfall sequence they work into the match. This is such a great fun match and Mero (Badd) is really showing he had the ability then. He does a wild 360 flip over the top rope onto Guerrero outside the ring. After Guerrero basically pushes Badd's buttons by being so quick and several pin attempts , he brings out the big punches that Badd can do.

Badd realizes he was losing his temper and decides to let Guerrero get up to wrestle. This pisses Guerrero off as he takes Badd down and starts beating Badd down with punches. Eventually both men regain their tempers as Anderson (Referee) warn them to calm down and wrestle. The two men wrestle some more , brawl and keep brawling as the TV time limit ends. Making this match a draw. Which is a shame because this was a damn good match. Post match both men have some time to cool down and both shake hands.

Bischoff brings up Hulk Hogan wanting to show up next week on Nitro. He asks both men to guess who Hogan wants to face. Both guess Giant , Luger or Meng. But no....Hogan wants to face Sting ! Both are surprised.

Gene Okerlund is in ring and interviewing Giant , Jimmy Hart and Sullivan. Okerlund puts over what a scum bag Jimmy Hart is . Sullivan acts to fall down and do Hogan's pose as Giant claims he's gonna be the WCW World champion come World War III.

Dean Malenko vs Sting is up next. Which could be a very fun match. I never knew the 2 men had wrestled each other til now. So this should be a good fun match to watch. A less angry Sting is out to face Malenko this week. After destroying Ric Flair the week before , Sting looks more happy . Will he be as pumped to face the man of 1,000 holds ?

Mongo keeps bragging Sting up as being a bigger , better athlete than Malenko. I'm sure McMichael could logically say this if he knew what wrestling was. Bischoff points out a good smaller athlete can always beat a bigger on and brings up the 1972 Olympic trials. Its rare I even agree with Bischoff on anything , but he at least tries to make Malenko seem like a credible guy to face the Stinger .

Malenko starts working on Sting's knee through the match , which is wise. He takes the guy down to the ground using leg holds and more . Sting manages to win a tough match against Malenko with a good roll up. The finish doesn't make Malenko weak at all as he kicks himself for letting the win slip away. Malenko actually wrestled for years as pointed out and became a pro wrestler at 19 (in 1979).

Post match we see the announcers discuss Hogan vs Sting. That also what is up with Luger/Sting from last week ? In the ring Okerlund decides to interview Sting. He asks what is going on with Luger and all. Sting has nothing against Hogan but as he points out , "I never dreamed you'd come...knock , knock , knockin at my door Hulkster. I can let it slide when you call me a little dog on the front porch . Here at World Championship Wrestling ...I'm a BIG DOG. If you wanna check the list of the men who have came and got in my face over the years. This is where the Big Dogs play Hulkster...."


Okerlund points out that Hogan claims that it looks like a rat and smells like a rat , then its likely a rat. Sting claims they will get this squared away and he'll see Hogan next week. Bischoff brings up how Sting walked out with Luger last week. Heenan brings up how paranoid Hogan is right now.


The Bad - This....



What the fuck is Hogan and WCW thinking with this ? Hogan becomes the Phantom of the Opera basically. They should have had him playing a church organ with this.

Plus after Hulk promotes Randy Savage beating Meng and bringing his head to him....Savage gets decimated. That is pretty funny. Being a Sith Lord doesn't help Macho Man it seems.



OVERALL - ***** outta 5. Nitro again was carried by 3 solid matches basically. Sasaki/Benoit , Badd/Guerrero and Malenko/Sting. This Nitro will be remembered for basically giving all guys a chance to shine and they made this one a very solid Nitro. This Nitro sadly won't be remembered for Guerrero/Badd though. More or less goofy Hulk Hogan as the Phantom of the Opera though. Which is so wrong.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe.

The announcers welcome us to a very big Nitro. Hogan vs Sting in the Main Event. Its really showing that Bischoff wasn't afraid to put a PPV caliber main event match on free TV as usual. This is a match as Heenan claims , not many expected to see. He wants both to eliminate each other in comic fashion. Falling on the steps.

Fresh off hyping a match many want to see , we get a rematch that no one wants to see. Scott Norton vs Shark. The fans boo once the match starts to show , this isn't what Nitro should kick off with. Heenan , god love him tries to promote Norton as a big star from Japan. But at this point , this is one match no one really wants to see anymore of. Since both men really can't do much in ring due to their size. (Picture a really bad WWF match from the 1980's)

Norton uses a power slam to finally pin Shark and hopefully end this Shark. Post match both men shove each other . But it shows the power Norton has. He actually power slams 500+ pound John Tenta. Its impressive. If it wasn't such a bad match and program to get .

Gene Okerlund interviews Jimmy Hart and Kevin Sullivan at the top of the Nitro ramp (this would become something they would do a lot) . Hart brings up how Hogan has lost the Hulkamanics and how he's betrayed Sting. That he needed Hulkster when he came to WCW to give him the seal of approval from fans. How the 2 did Thunder in Paradise. Now time has changed and its all for his best buddy Macho Man. Sullivan puts over WCW World War III and the Giant winning.

"Thank you , from two of the biggest pieces of human garbage I have interviewed." - Gene Okerlund to Hart & Sullivan.

Disco Inferno is back out dancing like a nut as usual. The match is supposed to Flair vs Guerrero. But the way Inferno shows up and tries selling his disco CDs is priceless. Nice fun touch. Finally Eddie Guerrero comes out and just walks by Disco . I sense Eddie isn't feeling this. Flair is supposed to face Guerrero but he's in street clothes and Pillman is dressed to wrestle.

Flair puts over how he's on a whole other level than Eddie Guerrero . That his mind is on the Stinger. Considering that Sting nearly killed him 2 weeks earlier , do you really wanna push Sting's buttons anymore ? At this point Chris Benoit had joined the 4 Horsemen and made them a united 4. He puts over Pillman and claims he's facing Guerrero.

Its amazing how Pillman snapped within a couple weeks from Nitro's debut to being the insane heel Loose Cannon Pillman character we see now. It wasn't that long folks. It was like within 2-3 weeks , he suddenly was working as a heel and acting like this. Pillman basically taunts Guerrero and keeps doing the 4 fingers. This brings out the temper of Guerrero who starts using some punches on him on the mat.

At one point Guerrero does his flying body splash outside the ring which has Heenan joke that Guerrero isn't his real name. Its Clark Kent since he flies like Superman . In a surprise move , Pillman actually gets too cocky and eats a 5* frog splash from Eddie. At the end they ask what happened to the Horsemen as Bischoff jokes , they are busy as Flair claimed earlier with Hooters Girls , champagne and on a jet.

We get a replay of how being a Sith Lord didn't help Randy Savage at all. The silliest comical spot as part of the beat down Savage gets from the Dungeon of Doom is that his music plays in victory . WCW quickly cuts it. They play up that Savage suffered a severe arm injury possibly. Bischoff plays up there being controversy where Savage could be faking the arm injury to get the WCW World title at World War III. They also play up that someone may show up we don't expect like Luger. (Which was a great selling point for Nitro)

Fresh from 1985 , Road Warrior Hawk vs Big Bubba Rodgers. This was a hell of a match back on WCW Saturday Night back in the 1980's. But its a decade later and I'm sure not many think this would be a good place. But what can ya say....Bischoff was still working on what Nitro should have. Hawk starts this match off quick , just in some anger at Big Bubba.

The 2 men brawl and Bubba takes control. Another pretty funny botch happens as Hawk is too late to move outta the turnbuckle as Bubba charges. He collides with Hawk's side. In a pretty weird botch of that. At the end Bubba tries to take his fist up , years before CM Punk started doing that , and runs to the ropes. Hacksaw sneaks down as he trips and falls comically on his fist. Hawk proclaims to the camera he told us he was back !

Sting vs Hogan is next as the big main event is coming. In a great touch Sting decides to possibly show Hulk Hogan he's behind him with the red and yellow colors. Heenan claims its to taunt Hogan while Bischoff brings up how its to bring Hogan back to where he began. Either way its a good touch to get in his mind as I wonder if Hogan will show up in a Phantom of the Opera mask.

Savage is out first with his arm in a sling. Savage keeps motioning for Hogan as we wait ...and wait......and wait. Maybe Hulkster got mugged by the drunk at Venice Beach. Hogan is out with his phantom of the opera mask and people boo. Bischoff wants this match to not happen. But lucky for us , he doesn't have the remote to end it as the match starts. Sting ain't backing down from Hogan as fans boo when the Hulkster takes control.

In the match Hogan shocks me for the fact he takes a drop kick and flies over the top rope. That is the most athletic thing I think Hogan has ever really done. The match continues and at one point you get the sense that Hulkster never knew the power of the Stinger. The show over runs as Bischoff jokes that the other guys are playing commercials , while this match is still going folks !

Hogan worked on Sting's arm , so later Sting works the leg of Hogan. Setting him up for the Scorpion death lock. Hogan summons up the power of the Hulkamaniacs and pulls out of it. He hulks up as usual and and does the boot and misses the leg drop. But Sting gets up.....the power of Sting can't be denied......as he again locks the Hulkster in another scorpion deathlock. Hogan pleads he's gonna tap and can't take it.

Before he can tap out comes the Dungeon of Doom. Sting and Hogan battle , driving off all the members of the group as the Giant comes down. He goes to double choke slam Hogan & Sting but Savage nails him with a chair shot. He choke slams Savage as Hogan grabs a chair as him and Sting team up and clotheslines the Giant with the chair outside the ring ! Hogan seems to realize where Sting stands after this.

The Dungeon of Doom hit the broadcast booth as pure insanity reigns. The over run is going so long as Bischoff promotes the insane situation that has unfolded. Finally he apologizes for how long the show ran over.


The Bad - There was 2 bad matches honestly. The world wasn't clamoring for the Shark/Norton feud to get a rematch on this Nitro. Why it was used to kick off a hot show with Sting vs Hogan is absolute bonkers.

Then you had Hawk vs Big Bubba. Which itself wasn't a good match either. The botch regardless I give Hawk props for being a solid worker , but he needs Animal with him. The Road Warriors was the greatest team of the 1980's I feel.

Hogan vs Sting at least ended with a good "what if ?" deal. Which works best. Even though as a fan you so wanted to see if Hogan would tap as he was telling Macho he was hurting bad.


OVERALL : **1/2 outta 5. Basically only 2 bright spots was Pillman/Guerrero and it was too short sadly and then we Hogan vs Sting. It was a very good match where the tide turned a few times as the match flowed. Either way whoever booked Norton/Shark and Hawk/Big Bubba hopefully doesn't put them on the next weeks show.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe

Nitro opens as usual with the announcers welcoming you TO THE PARTY . This Nitro is in Salem , Virgina. Which is pretty cool as its an hour from where I live. Pepe is now dressed in animal skin clothes . As far as the fallout of WCW World War III goes , Randy Savage is WCW World Champion. We cut to a promo where at the PPV Hogan sheds the Dark Sith look and proclaims the Dark Side of the Force is gone FOREVER ! He tells Sting and Macho Man are his best friends and he will stand by them.

Out comes Johnny B.Badd as TV Champion. He retained the title against Diamond Dallas Page. Badd now has the Diamond Doll (aka Kimberly) at his side as his valet as she left with him. She even fires the confetti gun. I really miss someone shooting a confetti gun. Why the WWE doesn't have that deal is beyond me now. Surely some WWE guy could bring out the gun and fire confetti.

DDP comes out and hands Diamond Doll some flowers and acts to beg forgiveness. Then he sucker punches Badd. Kimberly looks at the gift and thinks its a great deal , til she realizes that DDP sneaked a chain inside the flowers. Ok that was a great cartoon touch. Page later begs for the chain and she throws it under him to Badd who lays him out . Ok its not a great match , but the finish was pretty comical fun for the fact Page has a chain in the flowers.

We return to Gene Okerlund who is interviewing Jimmy Hart & Kevin Sullivan. Things aren't going well and Sullivan asks why he can claim to be so smart and Luger is helping Sting. This would be a great point if Sullivan had brought it up weeks ago. We see that Sting managed to stop Luger from taking out Randy Savage at the PPV. Jimmy claims that Luger & Sting are best friends and known each other a long time. But they will work a plan out to solve this.



Back to wrestling as were gonna get a women's tag team match. The first Women's wrestling match for Nitro and its ladies from Japan as its Cutie Suzuki/Mayumi Ozaki. They are facing Sonny Oono's team of Bull Nakano/Akira Hokuto. This looks very cool and interesting. I really gotta give props to Bischoff as he realized Nitro could have a variety of talent from all over on the show.

Cutie is a pretty famous former Japanese wrestler . She had her own video game and has had some movie roles. Ozaki continues to wrestle still. Hokuto is married to Kensuke Sasaki who its claimed proposed after 1 date. She retired in 2002 and helps run his school from what I read. Bull Nakano would go onto the most interesting post wrestling career and join the LPGA and become a pro golfer.

Nakano is the most eye opening star of the match with her wild hair and look. She was in the WWF a couple years earlier so fans likely notice her . The ladies are really coming out and putting on a very solid show. They are really showing what was missing from American tv a long while. Hokuto drops Cutie on her head in cool brainbuster slam . Daaaamn.....

Bischoff decides to promote WCW Saturday Night. Gonna see Sting vs Kurasaw and VK Wallstreet vs Jim Duggen folks.

Hugh Morrus (aka Bill DeMott) is out. The laughing man is a pretty cool gimmick. I actually like DeMott as Hugh Morrus. He is facing the Hulkster brother ! Time to feel the power Hulkamaniacs. The Dark Sith Lord is over . Before the match the Hulkster throws his ripped shirt at Morrus to symbolize that he wants to go BROTHER !

This match isn't anything special as Morrus gets a lotta offense. Heenan brings up that Hogan is still tainted by the dark side. That he's changed now. Hulkster hulks up , hits the boot and leg drop for the pin. Post match Hulk Hogan smiles and starts his signature pose down deal. They wonder how Hogan will react to Randy Savage being WCW World Champion later.

Randy Savage is called out for his interview with Gene Okerlund. OOOOhhhh yeeeaaaahh....Macho Man looks good with the WCW World Title. This was his 1st reign as WCW World Champion. He discusses the situation with Hogan as he comes out to show the tape , which cuts off as Savage can't really see anything to confirm Hogan lost. Outta nowhere comes the Giant who lays out both guys. He is gonna beat down Hogan til Sting arrives. Giving an angry pissed Hogan time to grab a chair who goes insane , with chair shots on Giant. Up the ramp repeatedly.

Sting calls Hogan off from killing the Giant. As the two men check on Savage . They wonder why Sting called off Hogan from finishing his job on Giant.

The main event is up next as Pillman/Anderson vs Sting/Luger. Anderson's music is what they come out to. They wonder if Luger will be out to help Sting in this match . Eventually out comes Lex Luger who is a bit late. Heenan wonders where Jimmy Hart is. He doesn't understand this friendship as the two are close in the ring. They work pretty solid together.

Luger uses some cheap heel tactics in this match at times. He uses thumbs to the eyes on both and all. His tweener role continues basically. At the end Luger possibly throws Pillman into Sting as he has Anderson in the scorpion deathlock. Making people wonder as Pillman and Anderson take advantage. You have to wonder is Luger turning against Sting this match as Pillman goads Luger to fight him outside , missing the tag.

Eventually Luger gets in the ring and helps Sting. Outta the back comes Ric Flair who beats down Luger and Sting . The three are beating down both til...HULK HOGAN arrives. Who clears the ring til Flair makes the mistake of thinking he can take Hulkamania on. Hogan is beating down Ric til Pillman pulls him out and at the very end Sting stops Hogan from beating down Luger. Saying that Lex Luger is his friend. Hogan isn't happy but him and Sting hash it out with a hand shake and hug .

The announcers plug the replay of World War III. They put over how Savage with one arm basically went through 60 men and became WCW World Champion. Bischoff plugs WCW Saturday Night for something including Starrcade 1995.



The Bad - There wasn't really much wrestling this episode as it mostly concerned fallout from World War III. The Morrus/Hogan match wasn't anything special really. You kinda wish they gave more time to the female Japanese wrestlers.


OVERALL : ***1/2 outta 5. Not a bad show as we got to see some new talent appear from Japan. Also the fact Macho Man , Randy Savage won his 1st WCW World Title. What is amazing is Vince McMahon wanted Savage to retire from in ring work 2 years earlier but Savage wanted to show he could still work.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe .

The guys welcome us to Nitro bringing us the news of the big Main Event at Starrcade 1995. Its Luger/Sting/Flair in a triangle match and the winner faces Randy Savage in the main event of the PPV. Luger vs Savage is for the title tonight and Heenan predicts that Lex will win the title and put Savage in the triangle match for it at Starrcade.

The American Males are out (Riggs & Bagwell) and WCW has basically went into not care mode at this point for them apparently. The music for them doesn't hit til they are halfway down the ramp. The Harlem Heat have the WCW World tag team belts back and won them at a WCW Saturday Night TV taping back in October. The Males have dropped the silly suspenders deal , realizing just like Tommy Dreamer did , its hard to be taken serious when your wearing goofy suspenders to wrestle.

It may seem like I diss the American Males team a lot. Its just the case of the fact the 2 men really didn't have great chemistry in ring as this match shows. They try of course. But when your main offense is mostly drop kicks and double team drop kicks ...its not that good. Halfway through the match Colonel Parker brings Sherri a special Christmas gift in a box. The 2 kiss after she sees the gift. Ahhhhh.....Hallmark WCW moment folks.

AC Green is on Nitro , which is the 1st real outside celebrity in ringside that would become a common deal for WCW and the WWF as the Monday Night Wars became so popular. Green takes offense to something Stevie Ray says and stands up and says a few words back. Sherri has left with Parker again. Bagwell has been working out as Bischoff points out and nails a perfect plex and pin attempt. But the Harlem Heat win this match , without a manager. Security keeps AC Green from wanting to get at Harlem Heat.

Sting is out with Lex Luger to talk to Mean Gene. The Stinger requested Luger to be out to talk. He doesn't agree with his best friends business manager with Jimmy Hart. But he details that Luger stands a good chance of winning WCW World title tonight. And he stands a shot at winning at Starrcade...the 2 friends will face each other. Sting won't go easy as Luger replies the same way. Both men agree they will face each other the best they can come Starrcade.

Kurasawa is out to face Sting in this match. The bad heel Kurasawa tries to focus on breaking Sting's arm but doesn't realize he's in there with a man who has the Little Stingers support. He quickly takes over and beats Kurasawa making him tap out. Post match everyone agrees that Sting is on a roll ! AWWWWOOOOO!!!

Bischoff's deal with New Japan is really taking off as Starrcade promotes the stars of New Japan vs stars of WCW at Starrcade 1995. Benoit/Pillman are in tag team action ....sadly on WCW Saturday night. I give WCW some props for trying to keep both shows relevant for now.

Of course I do blame Bischoff for the idea to try and push Scott Norton on Nitro while Benoit is on Saturday Night. Bischoff knew Norton as he claims from being a bouncer. But the real story was Bischoff was in the AWA when Scott broke in. The Giant vs Norton is the match and this could be worse than Shark/Norton. Of course ...could we see Norton pick up the Giant ?

Its rare someone can handle Scott Norton with ease. But the Giant is so big , he gets picked up like a cruiserweight by him. In a cool spot Norton picks up Giant in a near back suplex. Of course Norton is likely under orders he can't slam The Giant backwards because it will make the guy look weak. So he drops him onto his knee after holding him for so many seconds. Norton eats a choke slam a minute later and loses of course.

Gene Okerlund is out in ring to inerview The Nature Boy ...WHOOOOO !! Out comes Charles Barkley ....ole Sir Charles is out with Slick Ric. What ...ya think Barkley just hung around CM Punk folks ?



Flair and Barkley high five whoooooo !! Barkley is a natural at getting heat , he shushes the crowd and tells the crowd no one can be like his man , The Nature Boy. Flair puts over Sir Charles for how they party together. Then Barkley puts over Phoenix for being the best basketball fans (pop) and the best wrestling fans who better cheer Flair (Boo). At the end Flair claims Barkley may quit the NBA and become a Horsemen. Which automatically makes Barkley better than what will come down the road......regarding the Horsemen.

Jimmy Hart brings out Lex Luger to face Randy Savage . Bischoff promotes that he will be announcing the Team WCW vs Team New Japan at Starrcade on WCW Saturday Night. OOhhhh yeeeah , Macho Madness is out ....dig it ! Heenan claims how wounded Savage is with his arm and back. But the Madness won't go down easy !

Savage is out for payback against Luger and jumps the guy quick. He starts beating down Lex quickly. No way is he gonna go on defense as its joked. Luger plays the tweener role he's been doing. At times taking a heel beatdown and at times coming back as a face. The match is going past 9pm of course. Which is how WCW was trying to eat at the WWF with the over run with this main event.

So as the match goes , Savage decides to pay Lex back and focuses on taking his arm out. Ramming it into the ring post and then doing holds on it. This is pretty good pay back for the Macho Man who has no love for the Total Package after the beat down he suffered weeks ago. Eventually Savage takes a high risk move and nails the ring steel guardrail.

Jimmy Hart is going absolute bonkers outside which is comical fun. This again is a very solid Main Event for the WCW World title. Bischoff uses this time to say no one would do this on TV and points out the competition is gaga. Savage snaps back into this match as Jimmy removes the turnbuckle pad which backfires as Macho Man uses it and nails the elbow. But the referee is out cold too. This has Flair come out and use brass knuckles on Savage who he taunts and Hart puts Lex over Randy to try and win.

Flair laughs and backs up the aisle taunting for fun. He doesn't realize Hulkster is behind him in a comic scene and backs into him. He chases Slick Ric , down to the ring and is beating on him and decides to take Jimmy Hart out as the referee gets pushed and DQ's this match. Hogan wants to hit Luger but Sting moves him and takes the punch by accident from Hogan . Then we have Savage trying to play peacekeeper.

The show ends with Okerlund interviewing all 3 as Sting is tired of his friendship with Luger being pushed and that he is a good guy. He questions Savage at times but doesn't doubt him. Hogan claims that Savage was the one who called out Luger for being a traitor. Sting says they need to pull together and be a team because the Horsemen are a group. They all agree and finally Hulk and Sting shake hands.


The Bad - None of the matches was really good. The Main Event was interesting for the chaotic finish and all. But its clear Savage shared really little chemistry with Luger in ring as most of the match was rest holds and some things outside.

WCW seemed to sense Norton wasn't ever gonna work as a main event guy and after several weeks just fed him to the Giant. A big failure was that Norton started off hot by challenging Macho Man. Then was locked into a feud that really no one wanted with Shark. Which exposed both guys as lumbering slow big guys.


Overall : **1/2 outta 5. With no real good matches and another week of how the Lex Luger/Sting/Hulk Hogan relationship turns , its looking very boring honestly. This storyline makes more sense than a reunited 4 Horsemen. But the whole chaos with the Dungeon of Doom and Sullivan allowing Sting & Luger to be friends for weeks as we see and never confronting him onscreen over it is silly.

[steve2275]

this is good stuff

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe

The hosts welcome us to Nitro as the Main Event is Ric Flair/Arn Anderson vs Sting/Hulk Hogan. They play up the whole , can Hogan/Sting co-exist ? Also the fact Mongo promotes himself wearing a leather jacket alongside Pepe. Yes , he actually takes time to tell us this.

Nitro doesn't even let the match have intros as Mr. JL vs Eddie Guerrero is ON right now. You can see the talent Jerry Lynn had , and its so sad that he basically was put under this mask and used more or less as enhancement type talent for others. This match is doing pretty good as an opening after weeks of some pretty shitty opening and non-opening matches.

Guerrero is part of the Team WCW deal and will be facing the Japanese team at Starrcade . Bischoff decides to stop talking about the match were seeing and promotes the Triangle Match for the shot at Savage's WCW World title. As soon as he does this , Guerrero wins with a very cool roll up type pin . Very short sadly , decent match. The way both men did that roll up pin finish together was pretty cool.

Lex Luger is out , looking awesome this holiday season as Gene Okerlund starts. He rips Jimmy Hart for his fashion sense but soon Luger starts the interview. He basically says he OWNS the Macho Man pretty much. He also claims he doesn't care for Hogan. But him and Sting are friends and they will meet in the Triangle Match at the PPV . They will have to put the friendship on hold for that match.

Disco Inferno is out ....for an actual wrestling match ! Hold the phone folks...the DISCO INFERNO is gonna go at it. Against Mr.Wonderful ! Of course we haven't seen Paul Orndorff is the 1st guy to actually I believe selfie himself in a way with the huge mirror. Taking various poses at it with his face and I think even doing duck lips. Now we know who to friggen blame for that. Now Disco must by all that is holy ...DESTROY this guy.

Its weird to see these 2 facing each other in a match you know. Maybe for the fact its basically both guys at this point are comedic type heels and Disco's silly act is so fun , it actually has some in the crowd do his Disco type pose. The match basically has Disco jump Mr. Wonderful. But sadly Mr. Wonderful takes control soon enough and ends up beating the Dancing Fool !

Gene Okerlund brings out 3/4ths of the Four Horsemen. Arn and Ric are sporting Horsemen t-shirts basically for the fact this is about selling some merch people . Brian Pillman clearly doesn't buy into selling himself and is sans 4 Horsemen shirts. To be fair the shirts are pretty generic in a bad way with a big Roman numeral IV and horses on them. Its like the people at WCW decided...fuck putting all 4 men or anything beyond some horses and IV.

Chris Benoit seems oddly absent from these Nitros. You would think that as a Horsemen he'd be there right ? Just a weird deal. Pillman claims that even the Hulkster himself wanted to be a Horsemen. He started dressing in black. Then Pillman starts ripping on everyone. He jokes about Steve McMichael , the American Males and does his impression of Kevin Sullivan and Zodiac. He then rips Mr. Wonderful for going to the psychic friends network and no longer Horsemen material. This brings out Paul who rips Pillman as a bags carrying nobody.

Pillman hits Wonderful as he just throws him to the ground. Anderson and Flair try to pull him off Pillman and then all 3 put the boots to Wonderful. They then piledrive Mr. Wonderful on the concrete. They play up that the Horsemen may have taken Mr. Wonderful out for good with his neck being drove into the concrete. The trainers try and load him slowly into a stretcher as Mongo discusses every old football player who had a neck injury from Big Daddy Dan Wilkerson to William Fuller.


Luger is out next with Jimmy Hart to face American's Hero....Hacksaw Jim Duggen. Even Luger is puzzled at this guy in a way as he yells HOOOOOOOOO repeatedly. As Heenan jokes , Luger is a blue chip athlete , Duggen is a blue collar buffoon. Who knew Lex would struggle against ...Hacksaw of all people ? Because he's taking a beating early in this match . We get clips of Wonderful being loaded int an ambulance.

Duggen makes the mistake of deciding to start taping his hand up more than CM Punk would. And Jimmy Hart tries to stop him which distracts him enough for Luger to knock him into the 2x4 he carries. This allows Lex to torture rack him for the submission win.

Gene Okerlund interviews Macho Man Randy Savage as the WCW World Champion about his pretty hard trek he has in December to get through. He has to face The Giant next week. He then the week after has to face a Japanese wrestler as part of the New Japan deal . Then if he survives those challenges....Starrcade. But the Macho Man is game son...he's gonna take em one at a time as he proclaims ..OHHHH YEAAAAHHH.

Starrcade is oddly on Wednesday as a PPV as they promote. The show is coming December 27th 1995. I can see why for 2 reasons...

1.) The usual Sunday PPV slot would be December 24th . Which is Christmas Eve. I can't see PPV companies then holding a PPV then.

2.) The workers may have wanted that day off for families then.

Now its time for the main event ... Anderson/Flair vs Sting/Hogan . Sting comes out first and is joined less than a minute later by Hogan. The fans are not in a happy mood with Hulk Hogan as they start a very loud , very clear "HOGAN SUCKS" chant. Anderson claims he wants Hulk and he tags in Flair as the place erupts. This is clearly a Flair/Horsemen country were in. Sting gets pops of course , but Hogan gets booed completely.

One comical spot is when Anderson catches Hogan from behind ...big pop. Then when Flair starts cheating as they pop for his cheating. This is getting pretty funny to watch as the audience clearly wants the 4 Horsemen to win this match. Sting and Flair go from some wrestling , to brawling back to mat wrestling. They are so in tune with each other its scary.

Hogan and Sting are having problems working as a team due to issues together and one fun spot sees Sting try the scorpion death lock on Flair as Anderson sneaks in as Hogan tries to stop it...and he nails the DDT as fans pop ! Then Luger sneaks down and attacks Hogan and tries to knock him out . He sneaks back up the ramp after he's done. Sting having no clue this happened.

Sting takes a massive beat down in ring. The 2 men start working his knee. Fans pop when Flair puts on the figure four and he then makes a key Flair mistake...he slaps Sting. Which fires Sting up INSANE. He starts dragging Flair across the ring with it on as Anderson jumps in . One comical spot is you can hear Hogan slap Sting's hand across the arena and the referee acts like he never heard the tag at all.

Sting never says quit as this tag match is just a classic on how to do tag team wrestling old school with heels and faces. The fans aren't the least bit happy when Hogan makes the hot tag finally , and soon beat the Horsemen. Pillman comes down post match and helps jump Sting and Hogan. Then Luger comes down and pushes Pillman off Sting and tells him he can beat up Hulkster. Just not Sting.

Luger tries to keep sting away but he saves Hulk and then Savage comes down and the entire thing breaks down as Sting starts hitting everyone and nails Savage. Post brawl they talk with Okerlund and Sting apologizes and claims he didn't know what Savage was gonna do when he saw his hands go up. That Hogan got him last week. Hulk plays peacemaker and the 3 agree to keep working. Hogan tells him he has the Giant next week to work.

The Announcers plug the show next week and WCW World title match. And how Hogan/Sting/Savage have to find a way to work together.

The Bad - This was a very entertaining Nitro pretty much. From the opening JL/Guerrero match to the funny singles match of Luger vs Duggen. The only real draw back is , the Main Event was one where you clearly see that an audible should have been called. The fans weren't at all into Hogan this entire match and even during the end show interview they chant HOGAN SUCKS.

Instead of Sting playing the Ricky Morton role of taking the tag team beating and making the hot tag, it should have been Hogan. They also should have let the Horsemen win this match after laying out Mr. Wonderful. Because if anything the group needed the credibility due to losses for weeks.



OVERALL : **** outta 5. Not a bad show. The Main Event is just a How To , Guide to being a tag team wrestler classic style. With solid tag work and fun heel moments as we see.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe

This Nitro is from Augusta , Georgia folks , its the 2nd to near end of 1995 show for the company. Its a loaded show as they promote and Mongo is promoting his dog as usual then outta nowhere....comes Madusa ! This is the famous show where Madusa pretty much torched any hope of ever returning to the WWE ever , by throwing the WWF Women's title in the garbage can. Considering the belt hadn't been much at all really since her program with Bull Nakano a year or two earlier.

Mongo decides he has insurance so no one can come to the announce booth un-announced anymore. So he brings his best pal from the Chicago Bears 1985 Super Bowl , William "Fridge" Perry. Its hard to take the Fridge serious because he's pretty outta shape and barely climbs the stairs without being tired .

Ric Flair vs Eddie Guerrero is up next. Flair was supposed to wrestle Guerrero 2-3 weeks ago , but tonight he will face him for real.Before the match even begins , Slick Ric is doing his usual taunting tactics to get in Eddie's head. The two try some mat stuff , but Guerrero's speed is something Flair can't handle. After taunting Guerrero he gets paid back and after some fun moments , Eddie does his strut in a spot.

Its a very solid match even if Flair is older and more slower paced. The 2 men seem to know what to do at times as they each get control of the match . Flair knocked Guerrero off the top rope and targets the knee. Flair using the ropes with the figure four is a great spot. He slaps Guerrero as he screams NOOOO....that he won't tap. Guerrero won't tap and finally passes out due to pain instead. Post match Flair gives Guerrero some stomps as he goes to speak to Okerlund.

Gene nearly cuts the interview til Flair stops and allows trainers to take Guerrero back. Anderson brings up how the Horsemen have been leaving a trail of hurt men the last few weeks. 1st , Johnny B.Badd on WCW Saturday Night , then Mr. Wonderful and now Eddie Guerrero. Out comes Kevin Sullivan who isn't happy with Pillman mocking the Dungeon of Doom and himself last week. He demands that Brian Pillman be kept on a short leash and Flair nearly obliges til AA takes the mic ..."You come looking for Pillman , your gonna find Anderson and Flair behind him !"

One important thing is the fact Sullivan says there is no allegences in WCW. Which the announcers play up . This is a world of friends rarely existing together. Heenan claims that in new WCW , if someone is in your way....SQUASH EM LIKE A BUG. Craig Pittman comes out to the announce booth and tries to find a manager on his quest to the WCW World Title. He wants Heenan but as Bobby Heenan says , he's an announcer now and not a manager anymore. But he will refer him to someone who can handle his money.

And what happened to Fridge guarding the booth ? My guess is Pittman put some pizza and seafood somewhere and distracted The Fridge.

Lex Luger is out to face Marcus Bagwell as the company was viewing Bagwell as a solo guy down the road wisely. Because love or hate Bagwell , the guy is actually showing some things. He actually monkey flips Luger in the middle of the ring. The poor guy was just stuck in a crap gimmick with the American Males. Luger being the veteran guy soon takes control and actually torture racks Bagwell. Showing off his strength. The 2 guys are pretty built.

Outside the ring Okerlund is with Luger and Jimmy Hart. His manager proclaims that the Total Package is the uncrowned WCW World Champion. Luger promotes that without Hogan stopping him , he would have tapped out. That he knows it.

WCW Saturday Night is promoted with Sting , Luger , Arn Anderson , and a few others. Its amazing to see WCW try and keep WCW Saturday Night relevant at this point still.



Out comes the Earl Bobby Eaton. Because as comically as years later when Tommy Rich and Tracy Smothers became Italian on ECW TV , Bobby Eaton born in Alabama in the deep south suddenly became British. Earl Bobby Eaton with Jeeves is facing Sting. What is amazing is , Eaton is still a great technical skilled wrestler and one of the best. His match against Ric Flair at Clash of Champions XV is very damn good and one I really love watching .

Sting and Eaton have a very old school match as The Earl of Eaton takes the Stinger to the mat in some submission rest holds . But the Stinger is a force of nature as we know. Of course Sting soon takes control and beats Eaton in a very short decent match. After he makes Bobby tap out. This is kinda sad in a way as Bobby Eaton basically at this point was nearing the very end of his last serious push in WCW and he'd become a trainer at Power Plant and work Saturday Nights.

Okerlund interviews Sting who promotes his future Starrcade PPV match coming. He jokes he's miffed Luger never mentioned him. But he wants to become a 6 time WCW World Champion ... 6 MEAN GENE !! Post match Bischoff promotes the cool Monster trucks and the WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 video on sale tomorrow at video stories everywhere.

The Main Event is up as its Randy Savage vs The Giant. This is gonna be Savage's 1st big challenge as December is loaded with them for him. They play up his injured arm but MACHO MADNESS can't be stopped OOOOOOHHH YEEEAAAAH......DIG IT !!

Savage tries to use his speed and keep the Giant off guard. But eventually the strength of the Giant starts to take over. Beating down the Macho Man. Heenan promotes that Giant just has too much power . Too strong as he bear hug rag doll throws him around. Its amazing how in shape Paul Wright looks here folks . How in shape is Wright...he claims the top rope folks....THE TOP ROPE. To do a flying move...and he misses. Savage then nails his elbow and gets a 2.

Then to show some more how bad ass he was then...he DROP KICKS Savage ! I am not lying ...he friggen drop kicks the guy outta the ring. In a fun spot he tries to suplex Savage outside the ring , but Randy hooks the ropes and manages to let Giant fall on his back . This pisses Wright off as he climbs in and choke slam and then mocks Hogan with a leg drop. Hogan takes none to kindly to the diss and stops the Giant from winning the WCW World Title.

Post match he is using that chair like a weapon as he nails Sullivan , the Giant and a poor referee who tries to stop him. All while Bischoff claims Hogan is on probation for gods sake. I'm sure if Lance Storm was around doing columns online he'd be screaming about how WCW seems to have a probation office and all. Mongo and Fridge run down to the ring....ok...I'm sure Fridge got a big head start since he barely could walk up steps without being wore out.

WCW Security try and stop Hogan from getting to the Giant. The blood thirsty fans wanna see Hogan use a chair and go ape shit. He nails some security and and finally Mongo and Fridge stop him. They return as Okerlund tells Hogan he maybe suspended. Which Hogan tells us WCW gave Flair a title shot on probation , they gave Luger one as well as the Giant. So he doesn't care at all anymore.

In a comical scene the Giant comes out screaming for Hogan as he's barely held back by Craig Pittman and Sullivan. This gives Hogan a shot at nailing the Giant and Sullivan like crazy. Pittman runs off from crazy Hogan. Back in ring Savage jokes that Hulkster has went loony tunes. At the end Savage claims he's got Flair next week , then Japanese wrestler and finally Starrcade. Then he will give Hogan his title match.

Hogan and Savage celebrate with his music as the announce team plug next weeks show and WCW World title match.


The Bad - The matches for the most part were short and sweet deals. The Flair/Guerrero match had some great spots and moments. You kinda wish they hot gotten longer of course. But it is , what it is. Either way WCW was trying desperately to make the Horsemen an imposing heel group again. Since the Dungeon of Doom was starting to really appear weak beyond The Giant and Lex Luger at this stage.



Overall : *** outta 5. While not a terrible Nitro , the show had a bunch of short matches that really didn't do much except prop the storylines running towards Starrcade and beyond. The best match was Flair/Guerrero for sure. The Savage/Giant one had a bunch of wild fun moments as well.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Santa Pepe

Bischoff welcomes us to this Christmas themed Nitro as everyone is in Christmas type clothes pretty much. Mongo decides to show us his dog as Santa Pepe. The show starts as Lex Luger comes out with Jimmy Hart and a pose down as usual. After last weeks match with Bagwell they decide to see if Scotty Riggs can have any luck as a singles perhaps. To see if he shows anything.

Riggs isn't as big as Bagwell was getting and more agile. So he can move quicker and do more type moves . He starts working Lex's arm in the match as we watch as well. Bagwell isn't out there with Scotty and even though Riggs does control a bit of the match , his youthful inexperience costs him with a move off the top. Luger soon torture racks him as we see for the win.

Gene Okerlund is with Sting to discuss his eyes on the WCW World title at Starrcade. He again is in the triangle match for a shot at the WCW World title. He decides to ask about Luger and the Stinger shuts him down. Claiming again Lex is a friend and that they will be friends. He snapped of course and maybe he snapped for the right reasons. He doesn't diss a friend. Okerlund tries again at the end as Sting warns him.

Sting vs Big Bubba is up next . In a fun spot he jokes about the pyro that goes off and has people look at his scorpion on the ramp to film as he comes down . Sting's hair is like Dolph Ziggler's in a sense right now. You can see the black and dyed blond slowly leaving his hair. Big Bubba takes early control of this match but the Stinger again is a force of nature you can't stop. He quickly manages to pin Big Bubba with an off the top rope roll up pin that shocks even Bubba.

Gene Okerlund interviews Luger and Jimmy Hart again. How many times can we see them ask each other about the friendship ? Before it gets boring as shit to hear ? Anyhow Luger brings up again ...they have been friends for 10 years. They will stay friends. Luger claims again he is the uncrowned WCW World champion. Then out of the back comes Craig Pittman , who wants Jimmy Hart as a manager. Hart has him remove his shirt and claims his body doesn't stack up next to the Total Package. That has to be the weirdest reason to decline a way to manage someone.

Out next is Dean Malenko vs J.L now. The Mr. part is now gone. Again why they felt the need to make Jerry Lynn wear a mask and not use his name is beyond silly. J.L. at least gets an intro music for this. But the match is very damn good and fast paced. Malenko is moving at a very fast pace with JL . The fun counters , cartwheels and all is a great touch the 2 men can do.

Malenko eventually after a very fun , fast paced match locks JL into some wild rollup submission which locks the knee and stretches it. JL taps , but hey , this was a very fun match to see on Nitro at least to end the year.

Gene Okerlund is out with Ric Flair as he promotes his WCW World title match against Randy Savage. As he starts to promote it , out comes Jimmy Hart who sucks up to Flair and tells him how Sullivan didn't mean to snap on him and Anderson over Pillman. That he plays no part in that. That he also wants to thank the Nature Boy for saving him a few weeks ago when Barkley was with him. So as a favor he wants to be out with Flair when he defeats Savage and be his manager for the night . Flair oddly accepts this bizarre idea.

The Main Event is Savage vs Flair as out comes Nature Boy with Jimmy Hart. Heenan claims that Flair is a 11 time World Champion and tonight he will be a 12th one. Savage comes out all pumped ...MACHO MADNESS.....DIG IT...YEAAAAHHH !! He tosses his shirt at Flair since he still wants to pay back Slick Ric for his jumping his dad last year as he said last week on Nitro.

To start the match a wounded Savage starts beating down Flair's leg and trying to take him out. He even shocks everyone and locks the figure-4 on as Jimmy Hart tries to help him and gets him the ropes to break the hold. Macho weirdly for himself botches a roll up cradle pin attempt , which is rare for him. But I guess its bound to happen to anyone at some point.

This is a fun great match as Savage and Flair have a fun chemistry. I know Savage was the type who laid out matches before hand and didn't call it in ring as Flair brought up. But they know what to do with things and its great . Bischoff promotes that 1995 was a great year for WCW and that talent from all over is coming to WCW . That they are leaving the WWF in droves folks. He promises more surprises in 1996 as well.

The match is running past the over run as usual. Bischoff promises they will stick with this match as long as its there til the end. Savage is in the figure-4 as Nature Boy works the leg over. But the Madness can't stop....won't stop OHHHH YEAAAH. He fights back as champion. Both men keep trying pin attempts after some moves and each time , the guy kicks out near 3. Its a fun match til the lame DQ finish at the very , very end as Lex Luger comes out . to jump Randy Savage. But Savage is ready and beats down Lex in the corner.

Sting comes in to likely broker peace as we know. But Flair grabs him and ends up basically tasting a Sting splash and big over head slam til he rolls free and leaves. Luger himself escapes as the announcers ask what Sting was gonna do . Post this Savage and Sting get in each others face over it.


The Bad - The DQ finish for the 2nd week in a row for Randy Savage title defense. Don't get me wrong , I think the DQ finish for Giant made sense from a booking perspective as we saw. The Giant can't take a loss since he's looking as impressive as possible right now. They wanna keep him strong til they blow off the feud with Hogan.You can understand that.

Its just he can't beat Ric Flair with a pin ? Or the fact they could have had Flair get accident run into Jimmy Hart and sets up Savage to win ? Post match you could have Luger come running in for a beat down.


Overall : ***1/2 outta 5. Beyond some short matches that didn't go long Riggs/Luger and Sting/Big Bubba , we did get a very cool match with JL (Jerry Lynn)/Malenko that was very awesome to see. Full of fun counters and more. The Main Event itself was a good fun match til the DQ finish.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

As this ends the 1995 year of WCW Monday Night Nitro , the company had to sit and examine quite a number of things obviously.

Dungeon of Doom - While the Dungeon was very good with Lex Luger , Meng , Big Bubba and The Giant ...the rest were a collection of silliness . You had one guy named the Yeti which was so damn bad , words can't explain why WCW dressed Ron Reece up like they did . Another silly one was The Zodiac who was Ed Leslie and doing the weirdest gimmick he had been saddled with at this point. Then you had The Shark , who played by the late John Tenta was saddled with another gimmick .

WCW seemed to slowly drop the supernatural elements of the Dungeon of Doom after a horrible appearance by The Master on a Nitro where they had his chair suspended above the ring the entire night after a horrible promo he cut that not many at home could understand. It became more of a human stable with the guys above and Sullivan leading them.


The Four Horsemen - One of the biggest problems with reforming the Horsemen was the fact , the group had no other faces to be programmed against. They were now a stable taking a 2nd footing to the Dungeon of Doom more or less. It was a classic mistake WCW seemed to be in where they didn't seem to want Flair to be a face and have him align with Hogan , but as Scott Keith said in one of his books years ago "At this point , fans just wanted to cheer Ric Flair since he had achieved so much."

Its hard to watch the Horsemen take a #2 role behind the Dungeon of Doom considering how great this stable was in the 1980's. It also didn't help that for weeks Sting , Hogan and others would beat the Horsemen clean.


Newer vs older talent - Nitro was a weird mixed bag that 1995 year. Bischoff would import Eddie Guerrero , Chris Benoit , Dean Malenko , and Jerry Lynn. Those talent additions would really give WCW fans a breath of new talent who could perform things they had never seen. Also add in the New Japan deal done and you see a company that improved its mid-card by leaps and bounds.

Yet Bischoff was still trying to hold onto older WCW talent that he had brought in before he opened Turner's checkbook. You had Craig Pittman , Hacksaw Jim Duggen , the Blacktop Bully and others he seemed to keep employed for a reason no one could guess. A lot of the talent shouldn't have been on Nitro really and kept on WCW Saturday Night.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe

Its the 1st Nitro of 1996 folks. Its also the weirdest thing since Nitro came on the 25th of December , then this Nitro arrives January 1st. Anyhow Bischoff reveals that Ric Flair is a 12 time WCW World Champion . He will face Hogan in the Main Event. Arn Anderson meanwhile will face Randy Savage who demanded this match .

Savage vs Anderson is up next as he wanted this match after AA helped Flair win the WCW World title. Macho Man is feeling the MADNESS folks as he charges the ring to take on Anderson in his pissed fury. He gets to the ring and action starts quick. The action outside is pretty quick as they brawl . Savage stays in pretty firm control early this match as Anderson is wobbly at times trying to figure out how to handle THE MACHO MAN ......OHHH YEEEAAAH !!

Eventually Anderson gets control and starts working Macho's injured arm that has been played up a good while on TV. Bischoff promotes the return of Hogan after his suspension and going bonkers 2 weeks earlier. AA is working Savage's arm pretty good. Trying to unwrap the arm and smash it into the ring railing. The MADNESS folks is hurt !

Arn is in control til the referee gets bumped and tries to load up with the brass knuckles , and Savage ends up getting them. Deciding to use them on AA as payback. He tucks em back and pins him as the ref has no clue. Finally after 2 months it seems , Chris Benoit returns to Nitro and actually shows up with the Horsemen as him and Pillman hit the ring as Randy rolls out . Those 2 complaining Savage used an object.

Up next could be another solid match.... Benoit vs Steven Regal. This one should be fun as the Canadian Crippler has his no nonsense bullshit mood on . He just flashes the 4 fingers and gets to the ring. This is one that should be a fun technical type classic . Regal tries to bully Benoit with head butts which piss the Crippler off who manages to get Regal down and head butt him back.

The 2 men basically are doing a mat style match with holds awhile. Regal uses his bigger size to his advantage early , but Benoit is a younger , hungrier ass kicking animal who won't stop coming. Its kinda cool as a match as Regal is getting a lot more offense than you'd imagine in this. Of course what hurts Benoit in this is he keeps trying high risk moves and Regal moves outta the way at times. In a shocker , Benoit knocks himself out outside the ring and Regal ends up getting the win.

Pillman post match in an interview with Okerlund , rips into Benoit for losing as well as Anderson for losing. Benoit tells Pillman he's more than enough proved his worth and that luck plays into someone beating him. Anderson tells Pillman he's been doing the wrong things and starting wars with Dungeon of Doom that they shouldn't be having. Pillman jokingly refer to the Dungeon of Doom as the Island of Misfit Toys , as out comes an angry Sullivan and Zodiac as the Giant pulls em back from starting a war with the Horsemen.

Colonel Parker brings out his masked tag team "The Super Assassins". The team is facing Lex Luger/Sting . As Heenan brings up that Luger and Sting have a deal where Jimmy Hart won't be out at ringside when the 2 team up. Since the 2 men are friends pretty much.

Out again is Craig Pittman still looking for a manager as usual. He brings up how Mongo was a NFL player who with guidance became a star. He too needs guidance and decides to ask Steve McMichael to be his manager. This is how desperate the poor man is for a manager. You approach a man who is more known for bringin a f'n dog to the announce booth in dumb outfits. Mongo tells him he has no experience with that and is an announcer.

The guys play up if Luger really wants to help Sting or not. But as the match goes , you have to wonder if he really cares for his pal or not as he takes a lot of punishment. He eventually like a head of fire after making the tag gets in ring as the 2 men soon make the Super Assassins team both tap to each finisher. Luger high fives Sting after the match is over. The finish seemed to race to a conclusion due to Nitro being live and running behind perhaps.

Jimmy Hart brings out The Giant as Okerlund interviews him. Hart brings up how Hogan told him about switching gears at times and changing things up . That is how as a manager he will come out with Luger , Giant and Flair some nights. The Giant is pissed off at Hogan for costing him the WCW World title 2 weeks earlier.

The Main Event is up next folks as 12 time WCW World Champion Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan is now. Flair comes to the ring and proclaims "He's not just back in the ball game , he's on top...WHOOOOO!!" Hogan comes down all ready BROTHER . He rips the shirt and points at Flair. Its gonna be on now folks. The Hulkster is ready to run wild !

The crowd is very split in Atlanta Georgia. Its like a very Cena type crowd as half cheer Flair and the other half cheer Hulk Hogan. This is the one aspect WCW beat Vince McMahon on though. They gave the audience Flair vs Hogan on PPV and matches like this to make the audience care. Thus far both guys are having a decent type match for themselves. Its not the greatest work ever , its just , playing to what they do best as stars. With Slick Ric doing heel work and taking apart the Hulksters knee and figure four.

Heenan is pretty much behind Flair the entire way. Proclaiming that Hogan needs to give up and that Hulkamania is dead. Jimmy Hart comes out to taunt Hulkster which allows Flair to take control of the match again. Flair taunts too long as usual and this allows the Hulkster to HULK UP. Flair is gonna lose til Jimmy Hart gets on the apron and distracts Hulk from winning. The Horsemen hit the ring as Hogan grabs the knuckles and uses em on EVERYONE.

He has the entire Horsemen in the corner afraid as the Giant wants to use a bar stool to nail Hogan but stopped by the Macho Man. Post match interview Hogan wants a tag team match with Anderson/Flair with Savage as his partner. Hulk claims he's gonna go to Infinity and Beyond next week and after he finishes with those 2 men , he's gonna chop down that stinky giant ! At the end Hogan playfully mocks using the knuckles and puts em in his tights.


The Bad - I have no idea why Benoit was booked to lose after weeks of winning to Steven Regal. Its one of those ...really ? I mean...I am a fan of Regal's for sure , but this is a decision that made no real sense really. They of course played it that Benoit knocked himself out cold outside the ring with his suicide dive and that is at least good for that.

Another bad spot is how WCW seemed to do the Craig Pittman character. Him going to Steve McMichael was one of the silliest , funniest moves ever. When you get turned down by the worst announcer in WCW history to be your manager , ya know your career is absolute crap.


OVERALL : **** Outta 5. While the matches could have been longer and Nitro started to have to run through a segment as we saw with the 4 Horsemen interview post match after Benoit took a loss and the Sting/Luger match was rushed at the end ....this was a very decent Nitro for what we received. Regal/Benoit was a good mat based match that soon became a very solid match between the 2 men.

Even Hogan vs Flair as a Main Event wasn't terrible for what those 2 older guys could do. They kept the audience hot through the match , they worked so well as we see. Plus the show ended very hot with people waiting for next weeks tag team match.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe

Nitro is coming from historic Charleston , SC as Bischoff plugs. Hogan/Savage vs Flair/Anderson in a tag team match after Hogan continues to go insane. Mongo plugs how they are giving such great matches away for FREEEEE. The other guys can't do this like they are. (Which was pretty true as McMahon wouldn't change with the times at 1st).

Out first is Chris Benoit , with Brian Pillman. Bischoff plugs how that Benoit and Pillman are the young , new breed of Horsemen. AA is like a coach who tries to hold things together. Alex Wright draws the unlikely card of facing a very PISSED off Crippler after last week. Poor Alex can't even get his jacket off as Benoit is all over his ass from the jump.

The guys plug as the match rolls along and Wright starts getting offense , how great the young talent WCW was getting. Which is very true at this point. WCW was bringing in guys like Benoit , Malenko and others. Bischoff claims how WWF was raising PPV prices and tickets but WCW wasn't. Wright locks in a solid boston crab submission as Benoit refuses to tap. They put over how young Wright was then (19) and his youth causes him to make mistakes like trying to attack Pillman who distracts him.

This causes Benoit with the dragon suplex pin finisher to beat Wright. Post match Pillman gets in his face and spits on him. Which has Bischoff say that Pillman's actions will cause him to be suspended at some point.

We see that Steve Regal is coming out to face Eddie Guerrero. Which is gonna produce 2 solid matches in a row for Nitro. Guerrero is pretty small at this point compared to Regal . Who decides to use mat based offense and holds like he did last week against Benoit. Of course Eddie is quicker , faster and can do things like do a counter from a pump handle slam that stuns Regal. The near pins on Regal are some of the best I have seen.

But Regal uses his size and strength on Guerrero to slow the pace back down. He has several near close pins as the match goes. Thus far this match has been pretty damn good . It really shows just how good Regal was as a wrestler before Vince decided he should be a punchline . At the end , Eddie Guerrero stuns Regal with a pin counter which post match , Regal seems to have some respect for Eddie Guerrero.

Gene Okerlund is interviewing Luger & Sting . The Stinger has a question for Lex. Which has him nervous about the photos. Sting wonders from the pictures if Luger was trying to stop him from winning the WCW World title. But Luger claims his knee was hurt and he was reaching for help up and didn't realize. But Luger claims he wants to show Sting he's there for him and wants to legit tag with him ! This makes Sting agree and says they will team for good .

Sting vs DDP is up next as this was starting Page's slow push to the top since he was Bischoff's next door neighbor. In a cool spot Page gets tossed sideways into the ropes and Sting drop kicks him outside. This was a fun match for the fact DDP was still trying to put it together in ring and even botches a normal jump into the air and hits Sting in the head from it. Sting being a better worker at this stage and veteran quickly plays like DDP meant to do it. Letting the heel Page take control of the match .

This was a very solid match as Sting sells well for Dallas the entire time. At the end , he gets too cocky and the man called Sting gets the energy from the little Stingers and shocks Dallas with the finish and submission. Heenan puts over how lucky a man Sting was to beat DDP. Bischoff plugs the main event tag team match and claims it should be a PPV main event.

The Clash of Champions is coming January 23rd as we see. One of the cool things back in the 1980's and 1990's was Turner Time. For you newer kids who never came along then , Turner Time was Ted's idea to have shows actually run past the usual time slots. He'd have shows start at 8:05 and all. It was to keep people from tuning into the other cable stations in a way and became something TBS was known for , for years. (They eventually phased Turner time out in early 2000's)

Flair is strutting folks in only the way the Nature Boy can ...WHOOOO !! The fans are all basically kneeling and going were not worthy. SC is clearly Flair Country more or less. Savage comes out in Red & Yellow to symbolize he's back with the MEGA POWERS. OOOOOHH YEEEEEAAAHHHH.....DIG IT !!

The announcers put over that within the 4 Horsemen , Arn Anderson is the most consistent one with the new 2 young kids he's recruited. In a fun spot Flair gets tagged in and Savage tags in Hogan. Those 2 share a fun skirmish to start where he slaps Hogan so hard , it actually shook my TV screen years later. Hogan stares at him and smiles. The fans go ape shit for this and then we see Hogan clear the ring as usual as fans go crazy again.

Savage gets tagged in and becomes the usual face in trouble...it lasts awhile til another fun spot has Hogan and Savage put on figure 4's on both guys . But its broken up as Flair and Anderson take control as bad guys often do. Savage takes the punishment as we have to wonder when the MADNESS will make the tag and give those bad guys a lesson.

In a bad heel move , Flair tries to knee Savage to stop from making the hot tag. Instead the knee knocks Savage into Hogan to make the tag and cleans house. The Horsemen try to hit the ring as Hogan goes for the pin as the ref counts . The Dungeon of Doom stops them and brawls with them outside. Pillman and Benoit brawl with Sullivan and Zodiac as the Giant gets in ring and DESTROYS both Hogan and Savage ! The young Horsemen see they need to go and split as both good guys are left laying as the show ends !


The Bad - Really nothing bad at all with this Nitro. Bischoff let the young guys he strong about work and even Sting gave a solid match against a young DDP who was still growing. I give props to Sting because he really made Page look credible in the match. The Main Event wasn't bad either , with all 4 guys knowing the roles to play.


OVERALL : ***** Outta 5. Another solid Nitro and Bischoff was right....this was a great show he had planned. He loaded a good Nitro with solid matches and advanced the stories some as we saw. If anything this was a direct shot at the WWF then who were saving PPV type matches for the most part for PPV's and charging. Bischoff didn't care , he was wanting to do great shows and his method worked.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael

Bischoff promotes that Ric Flair will put the WCW World title on the line against Randy Savage next week possibly. This is pretty wild that Flair has been more on screen and made more title defenses than Brock Lesnar would do 18 years later. And Lesnar was a decade younger than Flair at the time of this. In some convulted plot booking , Savage has to beat Luger to do it. But if he loses and Sting loses to Flair , he still gets the match . Or if....its WCW....

So were getting Luger vs Savage . The MADNESS can't be stopped as he wants Lex Luger so bad. Since the Macho Man had his arm hurt by Total Package. Luger uses the distraction of throwing a chair into the ring to get the jump on Randy Savage . He takes control of the match early pretty much and taunts at the camera what a physical god he is . But you can only push the MACHO MADNESS too far....OHHH YEEAAAH. !!

Luger gets back in control and tries to punt Randy across the ring years before Randy Orton did it. Savage in a killer spot waits too long to nail his finisher elbow. Going so far in to the air. Lex gets up and locks on the torture rack and Savage decides to pass out rather than give up in it. Luger proclaims what a f'n beast he is and how he deserves the WCW World title shot. Hard to deny he doesn't deserve it after making MADNESS pass out.

Out comes the Dungeon of Doom and 4 Horsemen. There is more guys in the ring for these 2 teams than possible. One Man Gang spotting folks ! He's US Champion at the time. This is a cool move. They grab Gene Okerlund and the 2 heel factions decide to meet and discuss family issues. AA gets after Pillman that this is a business meeting and he should have dressed appropriately for it. He then puts over Flair being Champion is why the Horsemen are together. Its about money and this feud with the Dungeon distracts them from it.

Sullivan puts over his respect for Ric Flair and how he views him as WCW World Champion. Then he puts over his respect for Arn Anderson and what a pro he is. But he doesn't respect this punk (Pillman) and he won't. Anderson tells him not to mistake sound business for fear , because he sure as hell isn't afraid of the Dungeon of Doom. Pillman starts running his mouth and SMACK across the face from Anderson who pledges these out burst won't continue. Sullivan respects that as we see a future tag team match with Flair and Giant vs Hogan.



The WCW debut of the Public Enemy is up next folks. This is the most silly WCW signing from ECW in a way. The PE was a very fun , thug type team who once they arrived in WCW became a PG rated version of themselves who weren't the same guys. The American Males end up facing them in the debut . The fans start a very loud ECW chant for Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge as the match continues.

The 2 tough guys from South Philly will never be confused for being the best tag team for technical skills. But they could brawl very damn good and get a crowd to love them. They also really started the whole tag team who loved using tables. Post match the PE stack up 2 tables and put Bagwell through them as fans love that moment. RIP Flyboy Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge. You 2 guys are missed.

The main event of Sting vs Flair is up and its a WCW World title match folks. Jimmy Hart is out with SLICK RIC. As Flair tells us , its hard being this damn good ya know. Whoooo.....WCW promotes the Clash of Champions and wedding of Sherri Martel and Rob Parker.

In ring we see Flair vs Sting start as Nature Boy tries to slap Sting down. In a cool bit of flash back , I think Sting is wearing the 1988 trunks he wore when he 1st faced Flair at that Clash of Champions that made him. Flair himself has no real answer for the Stinger as he bumps around for him. Eventually Flair uses heel tactics to get the advantage and starts working over the Stinger.

During the match , Bischoff promotes how loaded with stars WCW Saturday night is as Mike Ditka will be on for a 2nd week. First George Foreman , then Charles Barkley and now DITKA ! During this the match rolls along as Sting does a superplex to Flair that shakes both guys up. Then we see that Sting's wild reckless style costs him a few times with a crazy running splash that Flair gets his knees up and then a dive into the ropes where he misses.

Both guys are just doing a very solid match . They know what to do , when to do it. That is some great chemistry as Flair years later claimed the 2 guys he faced the most in ring was Ricky Steamboat ....and Sting. In a comical spot , Sting flips over Flair from the outside and tries to roll him into a pin. Flair fights it as Sting yanks on his tights , showing the crowd Flair's ass off camera.

Out comes Luger to get Jimmy Hart off the apron and stop him from getting involved in the match. They show that Luger was trying to pull the megaphone away from Jimmy and nails Sting . Luger claims he didn't mean it and wants to beat down Flair , til Hogan chases him off. Flair runs off as the good guys get in ring. Post match with Okerlund we see Hogan and Savage tell Sting what happened. But a woozy Sting has no clue what happened and he goes off to confront Lex over it all.

Hogan tells how him and Savage have the Giant/Flair at Clash . He also isn't happy that Luger beat Randy and he has a WCW World Title match and he still can't get one since he's on a roll. Savage tells him he signed the match already and Hulk points out his bad arm. That he's wounded and can't possibly do anymore but an angry Savage walks off from him and claims he will see him at the Clash.

Meng vs Hogan is up for the Main Event. Why this is a main event boggles my mind really. I like Meng , but in no way should he be over a WCW World title match . Even if its Hulk Hogan. The match basically is a standard punch , kick , rack the back from both men. The fans are behind Hogan , yet coming off a solid match with Flair vs Sting , why this is happening is insane.

Sullivan tries to get involved as we see. Meng is playing evil heel to a great level as fans are again behind Hogan. Waiting for him to make the Golden Age Superman comeback. Meng uses the loaded spike , but the Hulkster stuns Meng and HULKS up like Superman . Sullivan tries to use the spike again , but the Hulkster grabs it and uses it on Meng as Macho Man comes to his aid to help. Hogan swears vengeance on Flair , the Giant and Sullivan BROTHER !!

The announcers put over the wacky fun relationship of Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. One moment they get along great. The next they don't. Bischoff plugs Nitro next week and the greatness of Jim Belushi on WCW Saturday Night. No ...I'm not kidding...Jim Belushi on WCW Saturday Night.



The Bad - The bad problems was as much as I love the Public Enemy and how fun they are personality wise , they weren't good wrestlers. In fact you had to feel for Bagwell and Riggs who went through some botches with the 2 men during the match. One comical spot was a simple roll up pin that Bagwell tried on Grunge went pretty bad as Grunge didn't execute it right.

Then there was the crazy idea that Hogan vs Meng should be the Main Event of this Nitro. Killing a very solid real main event match we saw with Sting vs Flair. There was no reason we got this as in this slot beyond the fact Bischoff thought Hogan = Main Event as usual.

And at this point WCW was trying anything to make WCW Saturday night worth a damn to watch. Like having Mike Ditka give interviews for being...Mike Ditka. And having Jim Belushi appear...because he's Jim Belushi.


OVERALL : *** outta 5. Beyond the silliness of 2 really not so good matches , we did get a very solid opening match with Luger/Savage and Sting vs Flair. Plus the interview we got was very damn hot with AA trying to broker business with the Dungeon of Doom.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe

Its the day before the big Clash of Champions show from Las Vegas. This Nitro is coming from Caesar's Palace. They promote 2 title matches tonight and in ironic news , Hulk Hogan is facing the One Man Gang for the US Title. Clearly Hogan can propel the US Title if he wins.

Konnan shows up at the announce booth as he promotes his Mexican Championship and his title match with Psychosis tomorrow at the Clash . This was again a great move by Bischoff as he brings in yet more young talent like Konnan and Psychosis. Randy Savage's music hits as a line of beautiful women come out 1st to Macho Man's music. One of the women is Nancy Sullivan (Woman). Why is this match happening now ? Shouldn't this be a Main Event ?

Savage is playing mind games as he brings out Woman who had some history with Flair. He promotes the women will watch him strip the Nature Boy of the WCW World title. Then we learn from Bischoff that not only is Woman gonna be in Savage's corner , so is Miss Elizabeth ! Before the match Flair tries to get Woman to ride Space Mountain again and she answers with a hard slap , letting Savage take control early.

As the match goes , the Clash news is coming bigger. Kevin Greene will be part of the show in Hogan's corner. Also the biggest is the reunion of Hawk & Animal ...the Road Warriors. Its like WCW was on a roll at this point as Bischoff was spending to bring in new talent and not caring if it pissed anyone off. This match isn't as good as the Sting/Flair match as Bischoff holds off going to a commercial as Savage tries to kill himself on a ring railing.

We get an ad for WCW Magazine. Which is suprising to see then. I had forgotten all about the WCW Magazine then . The 2 men brawl a lot around ringside as Savage isn't in a happy mood after Flair stole the WCW World title from him. Savage is still in his arm bandage as its been 2-3 months since the injury from Luger. That is selling an injury folks.

I can say this for Flair , the man is a fighting heel champion. He has defended the title twice in 2 weeks against some tough competition in Sting and Randy Savage. And out comes Arn Anderson who tries to use the brass knuckles like he did that 1st time , but AA slugs Flair with them by accident as Hogan pulls him down. This makes the 2nd WCW World title reign of MACHO MAN ....OOOOOHHH YEEEAAAAHHH !!

Post match as both Hogan and Savage celebrate together , a paranoid Macho Man gets after Hogan for celebrating with him. That he was being a clown there as Hogan calls him out as he watched his back and he wants that WCW World title shot . Savage claims if Hogan becomes the #1 contender , he will grant him the WCW World title shot. Hogan claims he will do whatever is needed to become the #1 spot and will shake Savage's hand if he loses ! OOOHHH YYYEEEAAAAHHH !!

Malenko vs Brian Pillman who is doing his full Loose Cannon character for us folks. With Malenko he sent a message last week when he wouldn't turn loose of his Texas cloverleaf finisher til referees pulled him off a guy on WCW Saturday Night. They put over how Pillman has been acting crazy the last few weeks and starting potential fires with the Dungeon of Doom.

Pillman makes the mistake of pissing off the cold Dean Malenko who decides to drop him on his F'N head with a suplex. But as the match goes Pillman gets back in control and gets way too arrogant crazy and mocks Malenko some more. Its pretty wild as Pillman could likely win the match if he'd stop being arrogant crazy and put the guy away. The fans pop when Malenko in cold fashion drops Pillman over his knee . To win the match , Pillman ties Malenko's leg in the ropes to get the cheap pin as a pissed Malenko wants to kick his ass some more , in smart fashion Pillman takes off.

Out comes the Harlem Heat who are defending the WCW World tag team titles against Lex Luger & Sting. Who are trying to stay friends as Luger screwed up last week. The HH told Sherri to take a hike because they don't need a manager. Not on distracted by love for Colonel Robert Parker. Sting comes out in the brightest damn yellow costume I have seen. It actually makes my eyes bleed.

After weeks of his hair slowly growing out of the bleach hair dye , Sting has pretty much decided to basically dye all his hair black . There is little blond left in his hair as his character begins its change. Luger works the match and playing a face. The working agreement is brought up again where Jimmy Hart has agreed not to come out during tag matches with Luger and Sting.

WCW was busy rebuilding the tag team division as we see. Sting/Luger , Harlem Heat , Public Enemy , Nasty Boys and now the return of the Road Warriors. Part of Bischoff's plan to keep bringing in whatever talent he could for the company . As the match rolls along Sting plays the face in peril role. Taking the beat down from both Harlem Heat members at times.

Sting tries to rally back at times , but people are questioning if Luger is purposely causing Sting to take more punishment in this match. But the fans are behind Sting , wanting him to make the hot tag to Lex. The Harlem Heat get too cocky as the match goes , believing they have a beaten down Sting at their mercy . After Booker misses a move off the rope , Sting makes the hot tag or the ref stops it. As this distraction happens , Jimmy Hart comes down and hands Luger something in his fist.

Sting has no clue and after he makes the real tag , as the ref turns ...Luger loads up and nails Booker T ! The silver dollars go all over the ring as the referee counts and we get new WCW World tag team champions. The referee Nick Patrick doesn't seem to find a ton of silver dollars all over Booker and the ring weird. Luger celebrates with Sting as he picks him up and claims they DID IT !

Out comes the cool One Man Gang (formally Akeem from WWF). Its kinda cool to see the One Man Gang back as his prior persona after years of playing Akeem. Why this is a main event boggles my mind again. I do miss Akeem for the dancing and all.....



This is a terrible....terrible main event basically. Why this was put last again makes me wonder what Bischoff was smoking. The best part is where One Man Gang believes he's won the match with a big splash . Stands up to celebrate and Hogan HULKS UP...as he makes a WTF face. Its a non-title match we learn seconds later form Bobby Heenan.

After Hogan wins , a few Dungeon of Doom members hit the ring as Hogan is cleaning house. Out comes the Horsemen , and Hogan with Savage clean house ! Loose Cannon Pillman wants to turn loose of the Giant and face Hogan now. But AA tells him no , there is a tag match tomorrow at the Clash of Champions. Post brawl , Hogan tells Mean Gene about the plans tomorrow when they face the Giant/Flair. They have Miss Elizabeth with them and Mean Green Kevin Greene coming with them as well !

OOhhhhh yeaaaaahhh !!

The announcers promote the Clash as even Heenan gets frustrated with Mongo and takes off at the end.


The Bad - Why did Flair even win the title at Starrcade if the idea was to put the title back on Savage within a month ? Things like this seemed to sum up WCW's odd booking at times. Its one of those ...did the company have a long range plan yet ? Or just booking title changes on the fly ?

At this point Hogan's last 2 Nitro Main Events were let downs honestly. Flair should have been the Main Event since his matches were way , way better. I still have no clue on what Earth , One Man Gang vs Hulk Hogan should be a main event. The crowd was disgusted by the match as a good many booed it.


Overall : *** outta 5. After a string of solid Nitro's , the show went quickly into the gutter essentially. There was a solid Malenko/Pillman match but that match was won by insane means . The referee couldn't see a man's feet tied in the ropes ? Then you had Nick Patrick see all these Silver dollars in ring and doesn't say a word. This was Sting/Luger's 2nd WCW World tag team reign by the way.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe

After weeks of over-runs for Nitro , this one oddly is under the 1 hour time limit for them. I guess they had programming at the next hour to not miss. Bischoff proclaims what a big show they have , Flair vs Hogan and The Giant vs Randy Savage. The return of the Road Warriors tonight as well. They promote the Road Warriors/Sting & Luger as potential program and tonight Madusa will finally wrestle.

Hogan brings out the ladies and the ultra hot Miss Elizabeth. Even with her gone a few years , it didn't change the fact Elizabeth still was a very stunning woman . She was the 1st real diva to me. Because she was the lady who tried to handle the wild Randy Savage. Even though the marriage never worked , she still was tops in my book.

Flair tries to match power for power at first with Hogan. He then comically shoves Hogan , who once shoved back falls backward. With being in Ohio , a Northern city ...Hogan has the fanbase here. In the South its typically a Flair crowd. Hogan seems to draw power from the sexy women as they claim. Least its better than him dressing up as Phantom of the Opera. In terms of seeing Nancy Sullivan and Elizabeth , I choose them over seeing Hogan dress up doing a bad act without the church organ.

The WCW Magazine spot airs again . It seems so like a old WWF spot really. Also it just came to me...that kid in the ad is likely a 30 year old man now. Wild has time passes.

The Flair/Hogan match is typical of what the 2 men do. They basically know how to work each other at this point. Flair gets in control , does some leg work. Then he gets too cocky and pays when Hogan , HULKS UP during the match. Even at their ages in their 40's , both men knew what they had to do and the fans don't care how old or limited they are . Jimmy Hart adds to the match as he beats up on Hogan in spots. Flair after minutes away goes back to the knee and slaps on the figure-4.

The fans are damn hot for Hogan to power back up. He reverses the hold after a minute. But the Hulkster is slowly hulking up as Flair tries chopping him several times. Then Flair gets control again and struts. Which is the BIG MISTAKE as Hogan starts the BIG HULK UP. Jimmy Hart distracts the referee as Arn Anderson comes down with his knuckles as Hogan stops that. He goes to pin Flair again as Anderson decides to mug Miss Elizabeth and take her high heel and hand it to Flair....who stabs Hogan in the face unknown to the referee and gets the win.

WCW Saturday Night continues to be promoted hard as Bischoff has Public Enemy , Sting , Flair and others on that show.

WCW decided to pull Meng from the Dungeon of Doom apparently at this point and made him a tag team with Barbarian in the new team "Faces of Fear". The FoF are facing the ROAD WARRIORS.....aka Legion of Doom. Of course this sadly is the Road Warriors a few years after their big ass whupping spree of the 1980's and early 1990's. Animal had been out of action awhile due to a bad back. Hawk carried on of course and teamed with Power Warrior in Japan. He also did singles a good while.

The music itself isn't the classic Crockett era Road Warriors theme due to music rights and all. In fact here is the classic 80's Road Warrior theme....



Animal shows his back is pretty good right now. He does a hell of a power slam to Barbarian. The Faces of Fear as a tag team isn't bad. I mean Meng is considered a pretty tough sob. In fact in a fun spot Meng pile drives Hawk , who stands up and growls at him as Meng is stunned. Bischoff proclaims in the last 3 months he's brought more new talent to WCW than any other promotion has. And he's pretty right. I mean here was a list of talent from November to January.....

Chris Benoit
Dean Malenko
Eddie Guerrero
Konnan
Public Enemy
Road Warriors

The heels work on Animal's back pretty much during the match. Showing he is human after all. But the big question is can Animal take it ? Will he make the big tag to Hawk ? Barbarian is just a beast folks. And little known fact , I saw Barbarian a couple years ago on the indy scene. The guy is still built like a friggen tank at 56.

Hawk makes the tag from Animal and starts cleaning house. The Road Warriors try their finisher but can't get it off , then Hawk later stalks his prey and nails the finisher on Barbarian.

In ring with Gene Okerlund is Kevin Sullivan and he's not happy with Arn Anderson and what happened. He claims that he thought Anderson was a man of his word. While AA is out there to get some words of wisdom outta Pillman. He decides that he is gonna give Pillman some tough love. He starts to take off his belt to whip Pillman as he starts to beg off. Then Sullivan does the wrong thing.....he jumps AA with Hugh Morrus. Pillman gets scared and hides awhile as Sullivan finds him and whips him with the belt. AA regains himself and beats Morrus and chases off Sullivan.

Back in ring Anderson claims Sullivan did the wrong thing. That he wants to teach Sullivan and Morrus a lesson. He demands a match next week against Sullivan.

We get a replay of the wild Madusa/Sherri Martel brawl at the wedding we saw. In pro wrestling weddings never really happen 90% of the time folks. Anyhow Okerlund is gonna interview Martel , until outta nowhere comes Madusa who tries to jump her. Mean Gene runs for the hills as this wild womens match and brawl happens. Martel wins the match , but Madusa gets up and does a suplex , dropping Martel on her head as she plays knocked out ! Referees manage to stop her from killing Martel post match.

Out comes Randy Savage with the women now , as Savage has Elizabeth come out last. In fact the entire deal is DISTRACTION as Savage jumps the Giant from behind , with the WCW World title. The referee calls a DQ before the match even begins . Ric Flair decides to get involved and the 2 men double team Savage. Since Hogan had to leave due to his eye. This is leading to the infamous double cage deal that is planned soon at Super Brawl I believe as Bischoff claims.

Hogan eventually comes out , eye and face taped up as he clears the ring with a steel chair. The entire Dungeon of Doom attack as Hogan starts nailing guys with a chair. Flair at the announce booth goes INSANE as only he can promoting Super Brawl. He sits in Bischoff's chair and screams out "I'm the Host ...Super Brawl Hogan.......Super Brawl Savage !!"

He claims he's gonna be WCW World Champion for a 13th time Whoooooo !!!


The Bad - There really wasn't any good matches at all honestly. The show had a very lack of good matches. Hogan/Flair really didn't do much beyond the standard match they could do. Then you had Road Warriors who wrestled a standard big man match. The main event didn't happen as we saw.


OVERALL : **1/2 Outta 5. Beyond the bad matches the high light was obviously the slow turn that the Dungeon of Doom and 4 Horsemen were on. The Horsemen eventually was gonna turn face as we see. Brian Pillman at this stage was pushing to leave WCW and his clock was ticking down as the Loose Cannon. Not a great show.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

One of the silly things about WWE Network is ...somehow they can't actually keep the right dates on these Nitro's. In fact they are a day off in January for shows and a day off in February at times. Oh well.....




Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe

Tonight things are heating up towards Super Brawl 1996. The show is gonna be huge as the Road Warriors vs Luger/Sting for the WCW World tag team titles. Then we get Randy Savage vs Chris Benoit. This should be special folks. Benoit gets some boos because he's a Horsemen. But he doesn't care , he's the new breed of the Horsemen and best young guy they could get.

Randy Savage comes out as fans go ape shit over MACHO MAN ...OOOOHHH YEAAAAHHH DIG IT !! Savage wants to start this match as Benoit watches outside. This should be interesting for what we get. Also the fact this is the 1st time onscreen Nancy Sullivan and Chris Benoit are onscreen together. After the 2 men do some hand gestures and Benoit flashes the 4 Horsemen sign , Savage does it upside down.

Benoit quickly takes advantage of Savage due to his intensity and youth . At one point the angry Benoit mocks Randy by yelling out "Ohhh yeaah...". At one point Benoit snap suplexes Savage across the ring in a quick fashion. You get the sense the guy was so ON the moment he came in you knew he was destined for better things. Savage seems to really respect Benoit as he lets him basically own the entire the match I'm watching. Macho Man has had little to no offense as The Crippler is just doing all his moves and all.

In a complete ooow moment , the tide turns when Benoit tries his dive outside the ring. You can see Benoit's head crack the concrete in a thud smack. Wow....and he gets in control til Flair comes down. Then in a spot we knew we saw coming a mile away , Woman (Nancy Sullivan) turns heel 2-3 weeks in. She aligns with the Horsemen. Anyhow as Okerlund is in ring we see Hogan talk and not realize Flair has came back down to jump him. Its pretty wild as Flair busts Hogan open . In a wild spot Zodiac stops Giant from killing Hogan with the chair as Savage makes the save.

Out comes Sullivan/High Morrus against Pillman/Anderson. This is one of the weirdest angles since Sullivan seemed to fuck up and got involved in Horsemen business. Jumping AA wasn't smart as he was gonna handle Pillman himself. You get the sense poor AA has some issues working with Pillman as the guy takes off and runs over to yell at some fans.

As Bischoff jokes the only real sane guy in the ring is Arn Anderson since each guy is nuts . The match is a unique one for the 2 heel groups facing each other. The Horsemen start showing Sullivan they are the better heel tandem when it comes to cheap shots and moves on Hugh Morrus. The strategy seems to be to try and weaken Morrus but he's a tough one to keep down. He makes the tag to Sullivan finally as the match breaks down basically. AA brawls with Sullivan outside and someone nails him with a broom to stop him from taking the guy out.

Post match we learn there is gonna be a strap match for respect between the 2 teams . That should be unique .

Marcus Bagwell vs Ric Flair is up next. This one should be unique for the pure fact its a match I never expected to see. Mr. Wonderful comes out in a neck brace and jokes , "The funny thing about payback is , ya never know when its gonna happen." As its basically said he was the guy who nailed Anderson with the broom across the back earlier.

This seemed to be a tryout of sorts for Bagwell to see how well he handled being a singles. The women loved Bagwell with his look and all. Plus he wasn't a terrible wrestler. He displays good offense against Flair. Its just he was in a bad face gimmick at this point as part of the American Males. He does botch a cross body attempt on Flair at one point in the match.

But this match rolls along as Bagwell and Flair each get control at times. This is likely the best match Bagwell has really ever had since Flair knows his shit. He can get the fans and tempo good. At one point he screws up and Flair locks in the figure-4. He won't turn loose as he keeps the move locked in as he gets DQ'd after winning the match. This causes Savage to run out as he's back from the hospital and chases Flair around the ring to the back !

In a surprise I'm shocked that WWF never sued the WCW for the fact that the Road Warriors WCW theme was a near rip off from the WWF Legion of Doom deal. Its one of those ....jeeze Bischoff. Were you just begging for that ? Sting & Luger come out as the 2 share a high five hand shake and come down together. Luger is still playing a conflicted guy , he's friends with Sting ...yet does heel things. This should be a fun WCW World Tag team match.

Fans start a very loud , loud LOD chant. This is like a classic WCW , 1989 type tag match . Hard to believe its been a few years since both teams faced each other. Bischoff brings up the whole , who is the dominant team of the 1990's. Well that team would actually show up later to answer that one. But it wasn't Sting/Luger or the Road Warriors (who were the 1980's most dominant team) .

At one point Luger does some cheating to get advantage on Road Warrior Animal by pulling the rope down. Sting just shakes his head as he clearly doesn't like cheating. The fans are behind the LOD after that move and Luger takes control of Animal. At one point the show seems to lose power , the entire building lost power and returns as Bischoff claims .(The WWE Network brings up technical issues deal)

The match rolls along til things break down as Sting and Hawk go outside the ring. The 2 men are fighting as Jimmy Hart sneaks down and tries to get involved. Luger gets the weight deal and nails Animal from behind . No one sees it , as he gets the cheap win and Sting is like WTF happened ? Gene Okerlund gets in the ring as Hawk is PISSED.

The Road Warriors demand a match with the winner of Harlem Heat or Sting/Luger after Super Brawl. Or they will run through every team possible ! The Warriors leave to go to the back as the announcers promote Super Brawl and the double cage match.


The Bad - This was actually the best Nitro in quite a few weeks. The worst part is likely the Horsemen/Dungeon of Doom tag match from a strictly wrestling stand point. The match was just terrible to watch between the no selling Morrus was doing to Pillman's wild act once Sullivan tagged in. Another bad point was Mongo as announcing and he seemed to hit a terrible low point each week. This week he proclaimed everyone watches Nascar due to car crashes like they do WCW. (Yeah...it sounded that bad)


OVERALL : **** outta 5. The show had some solid matches ; Savage/Benoit , Flair/Bagwell and Luger/Sting vs Road Warriors and some good storyline build . Flair looked really impressive and they seemed to realize Nancy Sullivan just made a way better heel than face valet. Also the fact the Dungeon/4 Horsemen feud was starting to get hotter.