Monday Night Nitro - July 8th , 1996
Your Hosts - Tony Shiavone , Eric Bischoff , Larry Zbyszko and Bobby Heenan
Tony welcomes us to Orlando Florida and the biggest epic change in pro wrestling that would ever be seen. Shiavone claims that Hogan turned his back on the fans and World Championship Wrestling. He plugs the 2nd hour with pictures that will tell the story of what happened. Then he shows us pictures of Rey Mysterio vs Pscosis and then Disco Inferno/Dean Malenko.
The match that kicks off this show in Orlando Florida and MGM studios ....Rey Mysterio vs Dean Malenko. This show has a very small time set up weirdly. Taking place outside among a small Nitro crowd (imagine an Impact Zone type size crowd , outside. This one is for the WCW Cruiserweight title. This one starts pretty damn quick with Mysterio using his speed and quick moves to his advantage.
This match is a great kick off as Malenko/Mysterio are just great to watch. The two men start having a series where Malenko tries to slow Mysterio down and use moves and submissions . With the show being outside you can see how warm it is in Florida in the middle of summer as Malenko is starting to sweat heavy. Shiavone decides to take some seconds during this great match to apologize to fans at home for his hard language where he told Hulk Hogan to go straight to hell at the end.
Malenko controls much of the match and Mysterio finally fights back each time and finally is starting to make the comeback. In a holy fuck move , Mysterio back flips off the ropes onto the outside to Malenko , nearly killing them both on the asphalt ! Both men take awhile to get up and they keep going. Mysterio gets some close falls against him and soon Dean fights back in awesome fashion with a gut buster from the top rope. Then as he can't finish Mysterio , he gets pissed at the guy and fucks up by not pinning him when he should have. This comes back to haunt him as Mysterio gets the sneaky roll up pin and win ! The new WCW Cruiserweight champion ! WHAT A GREAT MATCH.
Backstage in the locker room (taped earlier) Gene Okerlund interviews the Nasty Boys and the Steiner Brothers. One of these teams will face Harlem Heat for the WCW World tag team titles at Hog Wild. The Steiners and Nasty may respect each other , but they sure as hell don't like each other. One of them will win and face the Heat. Its a nice promo between them all.
Another Blood Runs Cold promo airs for Glacier. This time they show his eye. Shiavone plugs the encore of Bash at the Beach. A day no one will forget and nearly 20 years later they haven't. We see Mickey Mouse on the globe from Disney.
Out comes Big Bubba and Hugh Morrus , the Laughing Man with Jimmy Hart. In a weird change of pace the Dungeon of Doom will be facing ...The Blue Bloods. Lord Steven Regal and Dave Taylor ! The Earl of Eaton is even with them. Its a rare heel vs heel tag team match. The crowd chants USA for the heel Dungeon of Doom team out there.
Shiavone brings up the discord happening each Saturday morning with the Blue Bloods for those who don't watch (and many didn't give a crap) . The Blue Bloods start off brawling as suddenly the match derails as John Tenta arrives and takes Tenta off to brawl with him into the parking lot. Which allows the Bloods to double team and beat Hugh Morrus.
After a plug for WCW Magazine , Shiavone then plugs 2 hours of Saturday Night with the Dungeon of Doom and Randy Savage. In ring we see Eddie Guerrero vs Pscosis. This again should be a great match. Backstage Mysterio speaks on how all the Mexican children were so hurt and betrayed by the Hulkster. He then after speaking in some Mexican he says in English "He betrayed us".
This match is kicking off in high awesome fucking gear as Guerrero/Pscosis is going at 100 mph. Soon as the match rolls along , Pscosis concentrates on Guerrero's arm and shoulder where he had landed outside. Shiavone claims next week Hogan will appear live to give his side of the story as Larry is disgusted so bad by this. Back to action , Guerrero nearly wins in the same fashion that Mysterio had defeated Malenko earlier that night.
Guerrero at one point nearly kills himself into the turnbuckle with his same hurt shoulder. Then as this solid match gets to the near finish , Eddie gets the 5* frog splash for the win ! The replays show some of the classic moments of this.
We cut to Gene Okerlund as the audio at 1st seems off. As he brings up Hulk Hogan as he asks Jimmy Hart about everything going with Hogan. From their history did he see something like him going with these Outsiders ? Hart seems very down and claims he has no comment. Then Sullivan speaks about how he wished for a year and half with Jimmy Hart to destroy Hulkamania and now the man himself did it. That he's getting paid back for his evil by a mad man named Chris Benoit when he looks in the mirror.
Sullivan mentions the New World Order coming and he looks a bit worried over things. Then he claims that Okerlund could be outta a job. But the Giant stops him and claims , he's still WCW World Champion and he took the belt from Hogan last time and he can do it again. This makes Sullivan a little happy but his face tells the story as he is in fear of the NWO.
We return as the Nasty Boys come out to face the Steiner. Shiavone promotes the 2nd hour hard with Flair , Sting and Luger involved. Plus the photos of Hogan. The Nasty's meanwhile are in trouble as the power and speed of the Steiners are a tough thing to handle. And the fact the Nasty Boys aren't at all good wrestlers like Public Enemy.
Shiavone starts the countdown clock to hour #2 as the Nasty's realize they have to go to what works and its using a steel chair on Scott Steiner. Bischoff gets handed the main announcing deal from Shiavone . At least they didn't rush this pretty ok tag match to a rushed conclusion. Suddenly as the match goes , we see Sister Sherri and Colonel Tom Parker get involved. Parker by accident nails Jerry Saggs with the cane as he makes an uh oh look. As he didn't seem to wanna hit Saggs as the Steiners will face Harlem Heat.
END OF PART #1