WCW Monday Night Nitro Review!

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Since people have responded well to my M.A.S.H review thread , I decided to stick with something I'm really damn good at reviewing. Classic pro wrestling stuff I grew up with. The Monday Night Wars is something a good many of us wrestling fans grew up with. Anyhow , with this thread I will look back at Monday Night Nitro. One of the shows that kick started the revival of interest in pro wrestling in the mid to late 1990's.




Monday Night Nitro - September 4th , 1995 : Mall of America .


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


The show opens with some great graphics and we kinda know who the stars of World Championship Wrestling are. Its Hulk Hogan , Sting , the Giant and more as we see them. Then we get introduced to the show as Bischoff welcomes perhaps the worst WCW announcer in history of fucking mankind ....Steve McMichael. Bobby Heenan lucky for us is announcing so he can drown out McMichael and Bischoff at times.

The 1st match ever on WCW Monday Nitro sets the tone of what Nitro is gonna be about under Bischoff's reign. He has Jushin Liger vs Brian Pillman. Its been about 3-4 years since Pillman/Liger had their classic for the folded WCW Light Heavyweight championship. But after some feeling each other out , the 2 men start clicking within minutes.

Bischoff seemed to know he needed to offer this type of difference in his program. Lighter , faster paced opening matches with cruisers more or less. Pillman was such a great high flyer . This match seems to show some of what he could do then. He wins after a pretty decent , fast opening match. Post match Pillman walks over , helps Jushin Liger up and shakes his hand. Its a great show of respect that Pillman had towards him.

We get a cool promo from Sting during his Sgt. Pepper , surfer days. He faces Flair later.

Tonight the Hulkster faces Big Bubba in the main event. Hogan is signing autographs and promoting this folks. This tells you how bad things was getting for Hulk in 1995 for WCW.




Little known fact , Hulk Hogan's Pastamania would open and close in Mall of America within months.

Its Sting vs Flair as the 2 men are in their prime years basically. Its weird to say that , 20 years later. But there is Surfer Sting and he's all ready for Flair. Before the match begins , out walks ...Lex Luger as fans do a WTF . Setting the stage for what would become a normal thing we'd see on Nitro. In one of the wildest scenes and to sum up that this was a mid 40's Flair , the guy ...does a flying body press into Sting ...throwing each other over the top rope. Its pretty wild to see that.

Minutes in out comes Arn Anderson. At this point AA and Flair who were best friends onscreen and off , had been having problems. Many of course wondered if he was out to jump Flair. Or if Luger was there to jump Sting. Since he had left in 1992 after a feud with Sting after being former friends.

Sting never gets much credit for being a great worker. But honestly...he is a great worker. The man knows what he has to do out there and he never gets the props he should. The match ends as Anderson stops Flair from the figure 4 and brawls with him. Complete insanity breaks out as Scott "Flash" Norton appears screaming he has a WCW contract and wants to face SOMEONE. Macho Man slaps him on the back and tells him WE CAN GO RIGHT NOW ! OOOhhhh yeeeaaahh !!!

A promo for the debut of Sabu airs. With really no reason you would care. Its the tamest promo ever for someone like Sabu showing up in WCW.

Bischoff and company promote WCW Saturday Night. Which was the signature TV show for World Championship Wrestling for years. Then Nitro came...

We get a promo of the arriving soon , Michael Wallstreet (aka Mike Rotunda). Wallstreet was a play partly on his I.R.S character from the WWF run and ....well the next review will discuss that one folks.

During this time Hogan was in a feud with the Dungeon of Doom. Kevin Sullivan's group that consisted of Big Bubba , The Shark and many other odd characters. So Hogan is facing Big Bubba (aka Ray Traylor) . One of the many gimmicks that Traylor would have and to be fair he was Big Bubba Rodgers in the Crockett era WCW. (It at least beat the Guardian Angel gimmick he had before this)

Hogan wins as usual and does the signature pose down as the kids in attendance at the mall go crazy. Then out comes Sullivan's stable and we see Hogan taking each guy on , one on one til Luger arrives. Hogan and Luger aren't happy as Sting and Savage attempt to broker peace between the two. Sting and Luger on one side basically while Hogan & Savage the other.

Luger details that he's in WCW now to take down Hulk Hogan and become World Heavyweight Champion. He also claims he's sick of being around kids and wants that belt. Hogan tells him to shake his hand and he will face him next week on Nitro for the World title !


The Bad - In the history of wrestling , pro wrestling and WCW ...no announcer is worse than Steve McMichael. Sure you can float the names of ...David Crockett , Stevie Ray and more. But the guy who tops them all is Steve McMichael. Why Bischoff or Turner for that matter decided to hand a key announcer job to a football player with no experience announcing anything boggles my mind. Heenan like he did when Monday Night RAW started years earlier , basically tries to drown out McMichael more or less.

Another silly thing is the aspect that Bischoff signs one of the most feared insane as **** guys to ever step in a ring at that point. A man who would f'n staple his own wounds....this guy....



Show nothing really extreme at all from the packaged WCW clips of him at shows before his Nitro debut ..and expect people to get what Paul Heyman packaged. In all it was the complete miss-fire on what is Sabu.


OVERALL : ***1/2 outta 5. While the 1st episode was a 1st and end of an era for a lot of reasons. My teenage mind had no clue the wrestling landscape was changing folks. That Nitro marked the end of WCW Saturday Night as the marquee show for World Championship Wrestling. Or that the next near 5+ years would change the scope of me being a fan.

[Chris Lang]

Bischoff and company promote WCW Saturday Night. Which was the signature TV show for World Championship Wrestling for years. Then Nitro came...

Yes, WCW Saturday Night was never the same after Nitro came along. Dusty Rhodes, in his color commentary, continued to refer to that show as 'the mothership', but it was clear that Nitro was now the ship in charge of the WCW fleet.

In the Nitro years, WCW Saturday Night became better known for featuring Barry Darsow (aka Krusher Kruschev aka Demolition Smash aka Repo Man aka Blacktop Bully) in his evil golfer gimmick, and for the 'WCW Motorsports' segments in which the race car representing WCW always lost. Always. Fans called the WCW car the jobber of racing.

In any case, all the big important stuff happened on Nitro from then on.

We get a promo of the arriving soon , Michael Wallstreet (aka Mike Rotunda). Wallstreet was a play partly on his I.R.S character from the WWF run and ....well the next review will discuss that one folks.

Actually, Michael Wallstreet predated I.R.S. Before Mike Rotundo returned to WWF as the evil taxman Irwin R. Schyster (I.R.S.), he had a gimmick in WCW where he was called Michael Wallstreet. He was a business-man type whose manager Alexandra York (better known as Terri Runnels) advised him via computer. After Rotundo left for WWF to become I.R.S., Alexandra York then managed Terry Taylor as Terrance Taylor in a similar gimmick. (The gimmick was strange, but it sure was better than the Red Rooster, I'll say that).

OVERALL : ***1/2 outta 5. While the 1st episode was a 1st and end of an era for a lot of reasons. My teenage mind had no clue the wrestling landscape was changing folks. That Nitro marked the end of WCW Saturday Night as the marquee show for World Championship Wrestling. Or that the next near 5+ years would change the scope of me being a fan.

Yup. The wrestling business changed FOREVER with the debut of Nitro. The Monday Night Wars would force the WWF to step up its game as the years went by, and at times WWF actually struggled. It was a very interesting era in wrestling at the time, and it's still fun to look back on it and see how much it changed professional wrestling/sports entertainment/whatever you prefer to call it.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

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

The usual opening scene and maybe its me , but WWE Network is doing TNT a favor...they are advertising the network each episode. Thankfully WWE people didn't blur out the TNT sign.

Bischoff promotes the whole Lex Luger showing up and rightfully so. It was a good move to bring in Luger out of nowhere and put him right at the top then. He is getting a WCW World title match this week. Also they discuss the Fall Brawl , Wargames match with Hogan's team against the Dungeon of Doom. Hogan's team is missing Big Van Vader who was fired from the company after a locker room brawl with Paul Orndorff. (Vader would never wrestle on Nitro)

Sabu debuts like a fired up lion . Doing a bunch of insane crazy spots , showing how insane as **** he could be. Sabu nearly sacrifices himself against Alex Wright a few times. He wins with a non-chair version of his Arabian facebuster move. Post match , Sabu shows how insane he is and puts Wright through a table and gets DQ'd. Wright wins , but after seeing what happened , I think Sabu can claim he did.

We get an interview from Ric Flair , as Mean Gene proclaims how Slic Ric was stylin n profilin on South Beach. Flair discusses him and his former best pal Arn Anderson. How he was Joe Montana and AA was Lawrence Taylor. Out comes Luger who just chuckles as Luger claims "Things never change do they , you are still too much , Ric."

Out comes VK Wallstreet (VK was added as a dig towards Vince McMahon) as he is facing US Champion , Sting. He comes out with his "Man called Sting" intro. Which wasn't that good. But it was WCW basically. Before the match Bischoff starts his tradition by giving away RAW spoilers . So people will watch Nitro. He also mentions the WWF during the match discussing Luger.

Sting shows how athletic he really was then. At one point he does a spring leap over the top rope into the ring to Wallstreet. In a weird fashion , Sting wins the match with a flying cross body off the top rope. Not the usual Stinger Splash or Scorpion Deathlock finisher.

WCW Saturday Night is promoted hard as Bischoff runs down the card. We see them promote the Renegade vs Max Muscle , Big Bubba vs Evad Sullivan and Alex Wright vs Brian Pillman.

Up next is Macho Man Randy Savage vs Scott Norton. In watching Scott "Flash" Norton is just a HUGE BEAST of a man. In fact Norton had everything you would think would be success in the United States as a wrestler . The guy was 6'3 350+ pounds and former arm wrestling champion and bodyguard for Prince. Yes...that Prince.

Norton is just doing pure power moves to Randy Savage. Throwing the Macho Man like a ragdoll at times. At one time he football blocks Savage outta the ring through the ropes. Savage however won't stay down. He keeps coming back for more. Of course Norton screws up with a high risk move and one of the best uses of interference in a pro wrestling match happens.

John Tenta (aka Avalanche at the time) charges into the ring with the Dungeon of Doom. Savage whips Norton into him , knocking out the other 2 guys and causing Tenta to fall across his legs. Norton can't move the big guy off his legs , as Savage climbs up and nails his flying elbow drop for the win. Its pretty funny and it actually flows so well...I credit the work of Randy Savage for this and the decent match.

The main event is Hogan/Luger. A dream match from the 1980's for various reasons. Back in the late 1980's the idea and mindset from Dusty Rhodes and Jim Crockett was to make Luger their version of Hulk Hogan. That didn't happen for a variety of reasons. But this match was a dream one for those of us older fans. It was their 1st real match. Plus it showed that Bischoff wasn't above putting PPV main events on Nitro.

Luger and Hogan have some testing out and both men do moves and pose downs. The action picks up as Bischoff proclaims that Luger has never faced this competition before . That the champion in the WWF at the time is Diesel and Bischoff takes a dig that he had never made it past mid-card in WCW. As Luger looks close to winning with the Total Package finisher , he drops Hulk before the ref can check the 3rd time. Luger thinks he won comically and he can't redo the move as Hogan is jumped by the Dungeon of Doom.

Post match as Sting and Savage make the save , the Dungeon doesn't touch Luger. Which has an already paranoid Savage ..MORE PARANOID !! He claims no one can trust Luger. Sting stands beside his long time friend and pushes he take Vader's spot in WARGAMES. Savage however isn't happy with this. But Hogan makes the offer finally and Luger accepts. He will be in the cage come WARGAMES that weekend.


The Bad : Its pretty wild that Bischoff started taking digs at the WWF. In one breath he starts to claim Luger wasn't up to Hogan's level , yet here he was programming the guy at the very top spot in the company. Its one of those weird insane deals that Bischoff didn't seem to realize he was doing.

The show had a better overall flow than the week earlier , but didn't have the solid match like Pillman/Liger to say , wow outstanding . A key problem was basically the quick pace that the 1 hour Nitro was on. The show was only an hour long. Bischoff was trying to hit as many key angles and wrestlers being involved as he could then.

OVERALL : *** outta 5. While not a terrible show , the 2nd week of Nitro presented no one with a reason to care for the Dungeon of Doom. Who would comically run to the ring , get the crap beaten outta them and take off. Its hard to believe this was a main heel stable in the company at one point.

[XPac]

Yes, WCW Saturday Night was never the same after Nitro came along. Dusty Rhodes, in his color commentary, continued to refer to that show as 'the mothership', but it was clear that Nitro was now the ship in charge of the WCW fleet.

In the Nitro years, WCW Saturday Night became better known for featuring Barry Darsow (aka Krusher Kruschev aka Demolition Smash aka Repo Man aka Blacktop Bully) in his evil golfer gimmick, and for the 'WCW Motorsports' segments in which the race car representing WCW always lost. Always. Fans called the WCW car the jobber of racing.

In any case, all the big important stuff happened on Nitro from then on.



Actually, Michael Wallstreet predated I.R.S. Before Mike Rotundo returned to WWF as the evil taxman Irwin R. Schyster (I.R.S.), he had a gimmick in WCW where he was called Michael Wallstreet. He was a business-man type whose manager Alexandra York (better known as Terri Runnels) advised him via computer. After Rotundo left for WWF to become I.R.S., Alexandra York then managed Terry Taylor as Terrance Taylor in a similar gimmick. (The gimmick was strange, but it sure was better than the Red Rooster, I'll say that).



Yup. The wrestling business changed FOREVER with the debut of Nitro. The Monday Night Wars would force the WWF to step up its game as the years went by, and at times WWF actually struggled. It was a very interesting era in wrestling at the time, and it's still fun to look back on it and see how much it changed professional wrestling/sports entertainment/whatever you prefer to call it.

Yeah, part of me did sort of feel bad for WCW Saturday Night. I used to watch it as a kid Saturday afternoon (I'm a left coaster so for me it was on at 3 instead of 6), and once upon a time the show was so important to both TBS and WCW. But slowly it just sort of faded away into nothingness. I guess RAW sort of did the same thing to WWE Superstars (which I used to watch Saturday morning) but for whatever reason that one didn't bother me.

[CJStriker]

Kind of my biggest regret during the era of the Monday Night Wars was never going over more to seeing WCW when I had any chances. I watched WWF RAW Every Monday and was hooked on the goings ons so much with their stories that sadly I kept forgetting that even more Historic Moments where going on at WCW. Some of the only times at the present live moments I saw the NWO was either to big to be interesting or after a few years they where sadly gone. But even without watch on a near religious bases as I did with WWF, its impact could be felt All Over the Place on RAW!

I have greatly enjoyed watch the past moments now, only could imagine how amazing they felt seeing them when you did not know what would happen the following NITRO!

[XPac]

Kind of my biggest regret during the era of the Monday Night Wars was never going over more to seeing WCW when I had any chances. I watched WWF RAW Every Monday and was hooked on the goings ons so much with their stories that sadly I kept forgetting that even more Historic Moments where going on at WCW. Some of the only times at the present live moments I saw the NWO was either to big to be interesting or after a few years they where sadly gone. But even without watch on a near religious bases as I did with WWF, its impact could be felt All Over the Place on RAW!

I have greatly enjoyed watch the past moments now, only could imagine how amazing they felt seeing them when you did not know what would happen the following NITRO!

I used to have to flip back and forth between the shows. It was crazy trying to decide which to watch.

I was more a WWE guy... but there were definately times where WCW stuff was more caught my attention more.

[CJStriker]

I used to have to flip back and forth between the shows. It was crazy trying to decide which to watch.

I was more a WWE guy... but there were definately times where WCW stuff was more caught my attention more.

That is what I think made this such a Genius of the time XPac! Both shows where So STRONG that they made the fans have a crazy time choosing between each one! It was IMO showed how well the stories where and how each industry was putting out maybe their best work ever.

Unless you had 2 TV's in the Same Room, you have to flip back and forth to get what is going on indeed.

That is why not seeing WCW Live at the time was a Big Miss by me while watching WWF was a Grand Gift, you traded one for the other. But IMO WCW for a Long time seem to put out the Better stuff with how the Hulk Hogan, Wolf-Pack, NWO Arc just made each episode by watching the history of it all Just Far more Out of Nowhere TV. When you have moments that purely tug at the heartstrings of the Fans that make then Lobby Trash into the Ring on their Own Accords, just as One Example, You know you hit a Story Pay-dirty Moment!

IMO, this was "The Shot Heard Round the World" in the Wrestle World!

It was the Direct challenge to WWF by WCW to Start the Monday Night Wars and that We, WCW can Out Perform You and Out Story You and for a good time they did. IMO, one of the most Brilliant Moves that still gets talked about today.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

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

WCW opens with the group welcoming us to Nitro and the fallout from what happened at Fall Brawl. We see Gene Okerland interview Kevin Sullivan and the Giant. The Giant debuted and choked out Hogan , which led to him being the son of Andre the Giant. Even Okerland brings up his "father".

Buff Bagwell and Scotty Riggs make their Nitro debut as the AMERICAN MALES. Basically 2 guys who pretty much can make the women scream like crazy. The match is supposed to be against the Blue Bloods. But the Harlem Heat basically show up and beat up the Blue Bloods and take the match. Since they are WCW World tag team champions. Sensational Sherri is the manager .

Scotty Riggs had some talent . The guy wasn't terrible judging from this. But his gimmick as being a Fabulous One alongside Marcus Bagwell except with suspenders , well ya knew it wasn't good. Colonel Tom Parker coming out and screwing up the Harlem Heat was silly. But his story with Sherri Martel was the 2 were in love for each other. In a stunning move the American Males win the WCW World tag team titles. Never has a title change made ya shake your head.

Oh yeaaaah Macho Man hawking Slim Jims baby ! SNAP INTO IT !!

Ric Flair is out to discuss how Anderson brought in Brian Pillman and he won against Fall Brawl. Flair isn't happy believing that Anderson broke the code on being a Horsemen. He swears to chop Pillman so hard Boomer Esasian will feel it ! Flair is gonna find AA after it ! WHOOOOOO !! WHOOOOOOO !!!!

WCW Saturday Night is promoted as Sting vs Steven Regal is promoted as well as Craig "Pitbull" Pittman vs Cobra. Anyone remember those guys ?

At this point Mr. Wonderful comes out and decides to go overboard in loving himself as MR.WONDERFUL. The new ring music and attire symbolize how much he loves himself. At this point Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff had aligned his fragile ego with this weird guy , Gary Spivey.



Who knew Gary Spivey could inspire a guy to love himself like this. He's facing Johnny B. Badd. Which ironically enough , was a career high point for Marc Mero . I **** you not...who knew dressing up as Little Richard and firing a confetti gun would be that. The 2 had a match at Fall Brawl and it was ended when Badd had his eye busted open.

Bischoff does a trademark no no as he announces the matches. He starts giving away who won on his PPV. Not realizing fans may wanna catch the PPV repeats Or that that fans may tune in to see who won other matches. Mr. Wonderful wins basically by getting a weird roll up pin on Johnny B. Badd. Post match Paul Orndorff stares at himself the mirror.

In the next segment Bischoff promotes the WCW stars being on Baywatch . As Randy Savage pumps weight on the beach and being cheered on by beautiful bikini clad ladies , out of nowhere comes Kevin Sullivan to choke him with the weight. Ric Flair and others stop it. Flair checks on Macho Man at the end. Savage in his interview tells Flair "thanks , but no thanks" for saving him. But he swears to take out the Taskmaster Kevin Sullivan.

Luger confronts Savage over how he could be a double agent as well. Savage claims Luger cheap shot him at Wargames and Luger basically tells him he's there to face the big boys. "Well Luger , there is no bigger boy than MACHOOOO MAN ...DIIG IT !!" lol. Macho wants to go then and there. But Okerland objects to that move.

We get to see Hogan on Sunday Night Main Event , where we see Hogan arrive on his cool Hulkamania Harley. Its soon ran over by that no good , stinky Giant ! In a cool Monster Truck ! During the match he comes to the ring in the Wargames cage and takes down Hogan with a choke hold. Can the Hulkster return ?

Now its time for Flair vs Pillman. Which starts off pretty fast and hot. In another show how young Flair was...he climbs the top rope and does a double axe smash off the rope outside ! Pillman had started his crazy famous heel turn that took him to another level with that Fall Brawl PPV. He starts doing some cheating moves as Flair plays the face in this. In the end Slic Ric locks the figure four on and makes him tap.

Post match , Flair yells for Arn Anderson to come on out. Whether its tonight or next week , he's gonna kick Anderson's ass on Monday Nitro ! WHOOOOO....WHOOOO !!

The show goes to end as Heenan claims that something is happening backstage ! Of course we never see this and Bischoff promotes for next weeks show.


The Bad - I have no idea why the American Males was able to win the WCW World tag team titles. Perhaps Bischoff wanted to show that a title change could shockingly happen on Nitro perhaps ? Either way the team wasn't that good .

This episode showed that Bischoff was still holding onto some things from 1993/1994 in a sense. We had Mr. Wonderful and Gary Spivey, we had Colonel Tom Parker and we had the Blue Bloods. It just seemed weird to see them at this point on WCW Nitro.


OVERALL : **1/2 outta 5. Just not enough wrestling action honestly and not so good . Pillman/Flair should have had more time. Instead of the rushed time it received to fit before the show went to break. Then you had the whole silly Son of Andre angle that was a complete turd in a punch bowl. Not many liked that part.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and his dog Pepe with a saddle.

Heenan opens the show and discusses how only Mongo would show up with a dumb dog. You get the sense even Heenan is frustrated with the announcing he has to carry and now has to watch a dog beside him.

Alex Wright is out to face perhaps one of the most fun WCW characters that was ever created. Yes folks... this guy....




Yeah the Disco Inferno makes his WCW Nitro debut. One of the most fun characters they ever created. As the WWE Countdown series discussed , Dusty Rhodes said that Gilbertii took a character people would mock and just rode with it hard ! Making them laugh with the Disco Inferno at the end.

Inferno plays his character up perfect as he shakes himself , checks his hair at points as fans boo. Its a good fun match with him and Wright. Disco's ego gets the best of him and he falls prey to a backslide pin. Disco tries to claim that Wright grabbed his hair , but the ref ain't buying that.

Hogan cuts a promo backstage in the mock dressing room set that WCW Saturday Night had for years. Hulk is in a neck brace and claims he's still working out and ready to face that no good stinky Giant ! In fact he dares him to a Monster Truck match and then a WCW World title match. He talks about burying him next to his father . (Yes this angle was that damn bad)

Gene Okerland brings up last weeks interview with Savage as him and Luger and how he brings up Savage's own personal agenda. That he too wants to be WCW World Champion. Savage wants Luger and were gonna see this perhaps happen and the whole slap he gave Lex. Of course Lex comes out and tells him he should have some Respect for him. That he wants a match against Savage next week. Luger even puts up his career in WCW against Randy Savage !

Halloween Havoc is promoted as we get Monster Truck vs Monster Truck. The people who did Bigfoot's Monster truck is doing Hogan's.

Kurasawa (real name Manabu Nakanishi) is out with Colonel Tom Parker to face Craig "Pitbull" Pittman. Kurasawa's claim to fame in his short 1 year WCW stint was breaking Road Warrior Hawk's arm at a Clash of Champions. Pittman loses to Kurasawa which surprises everyone. In real life Craig Pittman was an actual Marine who after being discharged became a pro wrestler.

In ring with Gene Okerland is Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman , who has started his crazy heel stint as I mentioned in the last review. Pillman compares Flair to a piece of gutterslime begging for a partner to help. Anderson is asked how he could do his best friend he knew for 15 years and AA replies that he's just doing the same deal he's always done. That Flair has no one as Randy Savage won't have anything to do with him after slapping his 70 year old father. Then he tried Sting and why would he help him after 4 years ago nearly crippling him.

Out comes Sullivan for his match against Randy Savage. We see how this match happened after events from last week where Savage was jumped on the beach. Out comes the Zodiac (aka Brutus Beefcake in one of his 100 gimmicks he had). The Zodiac helps jump Savage before the match starts and gets him weakened up for the Taskmaster.

Savage loses control in his match and throws the referee out of the way. He starts beating down Sullivan and Zodiac and doesn't see the Giant come down. The Giant starts choke slamming EVERYONE. At one point the WCW jobber squad guys come down and each one takes a CHOKE SLAM. Then Alex Wright is caught off the top rope and bear hugged to death. Then finally ....Luger comes out and tries to help and he too...takes a CHOKE SLAM. The Giant showing how dominant he was.

Luger is still shaking off the effects of the choke slam as Meng charges the ring for this Main Event match. Meng is in complete ass kick mode and putting a beating on Lex in this. But minutes in Luger gets his 2nd wind and starts to rally back at times. At the end . Meng gets in the corner and pulls out his deadly spike ! Using it to nail Luger and get the cheap heel win.


The Bad - I guess the only real low point was the Kurasawa/Pittman match. Featuring one guy who really shouldn't have been in a mid-card match on a flagship show like Nitro. Nothing against Craig Pittman , but his run in World Championship Wrestling is pretty forgettable. I even had to wiki to remember who he was.

Can you imagine having to try and handle not only Mongo's shitty announcing , but now having to include his dog in the booth ? I'm sure Bobby Heenan was shaking his head.


OVERALL : **** outta 5. Intriguing promos sold this Nitro as we got Luger/Savage heating up. We also saw the birth of Brian Pillman's legendary heel act really start to take off. Also this is the most destructive the Giant had been booked as he destroyed a bunch of guys. So it was an entertaining Nitro.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and his dumb dog Pepe with glasses.

Were welcomes to Nitro with its double Main Event show with Flair vs Arn Anderson and Luger vs Savage. Somewhere someone in WCW had to find those dumb glasses for Pepe. Could you imagine how demeaning that was to a prop guy at WCW ?

Flair grabs the head set and tells us he's gonna give AA a Milehigh Nightmare ! And he's not talking Chuck Rozanski's prices for his comics now. Then we see a replay of where Savage and the locker room was decimated by The Giant. Even Lex Luger can't handle the power of the Giant.

Luger comes out to face Randy Savage. The Total Package has put his career on the line more or less. At this point Luger was playing a shades of gray/tweener character in a sense. He felt disrespected by Macho Man and was gonna face him to earn that respect. Savage meanwhile is paranoid as usual and doesn't trust even his mailman , let alone Lex Luger. So this match is a given.

The match begins with the longest lock up I have ever seen. Which spills outta the ring , with the 2 men locked up. It goes to commercial with them locked up still. Luger is a f'n beast in this. He straight picks up Randy with ease , holding up in the air a good 20-30 seconds ...no effort and slams him over his head. Then the 2 have a very mat based type deal where Savage tries to back slide pin Lex , and Luger hooks the rope with his foot , then reverses it to try and pin Randy.

The match is doing very good and suddenly Luger by accident collides with the referee. Which Savage nails his finisher , and the referee isn't there to count the 3. The Giant comes out and choke slams Savage , as Luger slowly gets up and has no clue this happened and torture racks Savage for the win.

WCW Saturday Night is advertised with Hacksaw Duggen , Bunkhouse Buck and Big Bubba Rodgers. You get the sense that the shows death was already happening.

Out comes the Disco Inferno , by surprise. The Girls are screamin folks...they want more , more , more. Disco is dancing as Eddie Guerrero comes out to end this dancing fool. Because the match is gonna be Guerrero vs Malenko. This folks is a clear radical shift in what Nitro would become. This match really kicks off the era of the Cruiserweights era on Nitro. Bischoff seeing that Heyman had one of the greatest matches in ECW history at that point with Malenko/Guerrero , decided to put these 2 in a match right off the f'n bat.

At this point Malenko and Guerrero knew each other so damn well in ring. They had this chemistry that could make magic. Its rare guys have that. Flair/Steamboat had that magic. So watching the 2 go at such a speed , counter and do awesome fast paced moves is great. In WCW , Bischoff logic he cuts away from this great match to showing Hogan get out of his limo , and telling Jimmy Hart he wants that stinky Giant.

Back to the ring , Guerrero decides to give WCW its 1st wild move of the Cruiserweights. A flying outside body splash , so many feet from the ring to the floor. Guerrero gets the pin out of nowhere with a roll up deal. Post match Malenko wants a rematch telling Eddie he got lucky. This was damn good. Its a shame Nitro was only an hour , because this could have been a great 15-18 minute match really without it being cut down like we see.

Hogan comes out to talk with his neck brace. The Hulkster is dedicated to beating the Giant since a kid named Jason Pittman is having a double lung transplant told him to man up and do it . Hogan leaves the ring and interacting with the fans. Outta nowhere an old woman throws powder in his face , Its Kevin Sullivan of course. Sullivan leads the Dungeon of Doom and Giant to beating down Hogan again and shaving his mustache off ! Yes folks...Hogan loses his trademark mustache !

Sadly Jason Pittman from what I'm reading passed away a year later after suffering a heart attack in 1996 at the age of 22. RIP man ...

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/mar...cal/me-24937/2

Everyone comes out like the American Males and Nasty Boys. They get decimated quick by the Dungeon of Doom.

Anderson is in ring waiting on Slic Ric. This should be a pretty solid main event for Nitro. Flair is playing the face and has been for a few weeks and Bischoff plays up that Randy Savage maybe jealous of Flair after all those years. In a cool spot , Flair does the flip over the top rope , Anderson comes running to knock him off the apron as Flair ducks n pulls the top rope down as AA goes flying outside. Nice spot .

Heenan claims he doesn't know who to cheer for in this . Its a very solid match as Anderson & Flair are just having a good fun match. With each one getting offense and so forth. This match makes you remember just how damn good a worker Arn Anderson was really. Even though he never got to be World Champion , the guy was a hell of a singles wrestler from watching this.

Flair locks on the figure four to try and make AA tap. Out comes crazy Brian Pillman who frog splashes him off the top rope. Both Anderson and Pillman double team poor Slick Ric ending this solid match in DQ. After the match Bischoff announces that WCW President Nick Bockwinkel has granted Flair a cage match against Arn Anderson ...NEXT MONDAY !


The Bad - The only bad parts of Nitro was the ending of the matches. You had one match end due to crazy shenanigans and the Main Event end in DQ. That is the only real knocks against this show.


OVERALL : **** outta 5. Beyond that , Nitro this episode offered some very solid in ring work. Even the odd pairing of Luger/Savage was fun to watch as Savage was working his ass off to make the match really good. Then you had Malenko/Guerrero as the 2 guys decided to show WCW fans what was in store for them. Finally you got Anderson/Flair as that match was pretty solid as a Main Event. The segments all seemed to click as Hogan's mustache being shaved was a key deal .

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan and Steve McMichael

Before the show starts , we see the sad end of Hulk Hogan's classic mustache. There should be a RIP memorial picture - Hogan's mustache : 1979-1995.

The announcing team are in Chicago Bears football jerseys . In fact Mongo is wearing his classic Bears number while Bischoff's ego has him wearing #1. Like Bischoff couldn't wear a regular jersey number without his ego saying he couldn't show everyone he's #1. Bobby Heenan doesn't seem to give a good worth of **** and wears a a question mark jersey.

Sting shows up and welcomes us all to Nitro. That tonight he's gonna make Savage/Luger come together tonight finally. He has a US Title match against Shark (who used to be Avalanche) . Sting is just so excited and full of youth out there. He stinger splashes Tenta who sells for him in the corner a few times. The match is quick and fast , and that over quickly.

Just to symbolize that Hogan lost his mustache , we get yet another replay of last weeks scene where Sullivan shaved it off. I would have laughed if Sullivan left a small Hitler stache type deal . We return and Bischoff is promoting the Monster Truck crap at Halloween Havoc as the greatest thing since ice cream.

Sabu is out after weeks not on TV. The fans actually start a loud Sabu chant for him. Then out comes the mysterious Mr.JL. Which is this guy ....





Yes folks , Jerry Lynn competed in WCW as Mr. JL . In this match , JL is basically used to try and make Sabu look more impressive. With his wild move set and risk to himself. Fans were hot for this guy which is wild , considering this is his 2nd real Nitro appearance. Thus far the match has been very good as Mr. JL is getting more offense in .

Sabu at one point basically does one of his famous botches and misses the frankensteiner off the top rope. He falls , does the point to the sky on his feet , catches Lynn off the ropes and uses the camel clutch as his finisher. Post match Sabu tries to kill Mr. JL as WCW won't let him put guys through tables anymore. Because its too ...dangerous . (This booking actually got Cactus Jack over as well, where he acted like a complete wild ass dude , then sacrificing his body to do an elbow drop outside)

Sting holds a peace treaty for Randy Savage and Lex Luger. He wants them to come together because the Giant is destroying everyone with a choke slam. Paranoid Macho Man , however claims Sting hasn't been touched . Sting shuts him down quick. He sets up a deal if Savage and Luger win their Halloween Havoc matches , they each get to face each other in a rematch to settle the score.

A limo pulls up as Bischoff promotes this next great talent. That this man has made a name for himself in Japan , Canada and Europe. Its the return of CHRIS BENOIT !! Which stuns me his name hasn't been bleeped out here.

Disco Inferno is back being that disco dancing fool ! He's not supposed to be there....but damn it , people came to see the Disco Inferno dance. Big Bubba Rodgers comes out to wrestle as Inferno has his own boom box and song played to dance. Bubba is like WTF IS THIS ? Road Warrior Hawk is out as he gives the death look to Disco. Who backs down quick , then Inferno follows him up the ramp and as a joke puts a kids hat on one of his spikes. Laughing like crazy at this.

Hawk and Big Bubba are wrestling a very decent match til the insanity of Disco who jumps on the ramp and starts dancing again. This pisses off Hawk who rips his cool shirt to pieces and beats him up the ramp , costing him the match by count out.

Hulk Hogan is out as the Chicago fans.....boo. The fans aren't happy with Hogan which was catching more and more on. Hogan is wearing black for the 1st time on Nitro. WCW tries to paint it as Hogan being in black caused fans to boo as Okerlund brings up. Hogan brings up slamming Andre and how he's gonna beat his son. Then we see Hogan bring up how Vince McMahon as a promoter is dying out while he's planting the seeds of Hulkamania in WCW and watching it grow. Johnny Appleseed has nothing on Hulk Hogan folks.

Then we see Hogan compare his mustache to one of the monuments being destroyed. Hogan's mustache next to Lincoln's statue folks. This ends mercifully as the Giant , Sullivan and Zodiac pull up in a monster truck. We see the police have no way of deciding to handle this. Like they are sitting around demanding they leave the truck or arena.

The main event begins as were gonna get Flair vs Anderson in a steel cage match folks ! This match features the classic WCW cage more or less which I always loved. The 2 guys go right at it . No holding back as they start using the cage fully . The Chicago fans demand to see blood !

Chicago loves the Nature Boy as you wonder who will bleed first . Brian Pillman tries to get involved but Flair climbs the cage and knocks him off. Then Anderson uses brass knucks or some object to nail him right when Flair goes to lock the figure four in. Pillman celebrates with Anderson post match. A very pissed off Flair demands Pillman and Anderson next week. He will either find a partner or he won't. Next week !!

Bischoff promotes next weeks show with matches like Meng vs Hacksaw Jim Duggen and the debut of Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero.


The Bad - What is amazing is WCW had these 3 men at one time.... Jerry Lynn , Sabu and Rob Van Dam. In Sabu's case he pushed his way out of the company (not the 1st time he's done that) and in the case of the other 2 ...they didn't know what the hell they had.

This concerns the show and the fact there is this great steel cage , your fanbase is chanting WE...WANT...BLOOD. And you basically don't even deliver that. Its like WCW was afraid to do things like this or let Sabu put someone through a table again.


Overall : ***1/2 outta 5. Nitro wasn't terrible or great really. The big problem was the 2 matches that was getting good (Sabu/JL , Flair/Anderson) ended before fans could walk away happy. Plus after weeks of cheating by AA , him using brass knuckles was getting silly. But WCW was stretching this angle it seems to Halloween Havoc 1995 apparently.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Hosts - Eric Bischoff , Bobby Heenan , Steve McMichael and Pepe as Captain Love Trot (Mongo obviously is on something)

The show opens as we actually see Bischoff reference something that happens on WCW Pro. Flair talks Sting into being his partner for Nitro. But a distrusting Sting tells him , if he swerves him...in the slightest ...he's gonna leave him for dead at Halloween Havoc.

Johnny B. Badd is out to face Diamond Dallas Page who is making his Nitro debut. Badd aka Mero blames DDP for his losing the WCW US Title shot he had against Sting weeks ago. So on Saturday's show he laid out Page in front of Kimberly and Max Muscle. Page gets payback and lays out Badd pretty much and uses the prop gun post match to taunt him. Page is WCW World Television champion at the time. A distraught sad Kimberly looks on as Badd lays there.

Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit is up next. Which promises to be a real classic on par with Malenko/Benoit. Bischoff and the announcers wisely decide to not mention Benoit's last brief WCW stint where he teamed with Bobby Eaton awhile. They also make a good move to play up what Paul Heyman did with him as the Canadian Crippler and how he put people on the shelf basically.

In watching this , it makes me marvel at the skill Benoit has. The man is a machine in this match. Just no stop in him as he shows what he's all about to fans watching. Bischoff wisely decides to actually give these 2 men time in this match. I am thankful that Page/Badd basically never was a match so we can see this film. Benoit taunts Guerrero in this match to get up. Playing the heel role in this match.

After a good long match , Guerrero tries the 5* frog splash finisher but Benoit gets his knees up. After the 2 exchange some more awesome moves , Guerrero plays up the bad arm Benoit concentrated on during the match. Benoit hooks him in a double arm back suplex pin hold . Bischoff wisely after this solid match decides that he needs to build on these guys and claims a WCW Cruiserweight division is coming !

Gene Okerlund advertises the WCW Hotline claiming that a WWF official could be on his way out and a fan got into it with a wrestler there. Okerlund is to interview The Giant and Taskmaster . Kevin Sullivan claims that he is evil and that Hogan created him. In a way Sullivan is wearing red and yellow robe which I guess its a way to play on that.

Paul Wright aka The Giant is in great shape here. The guy was just breaking in but he had the size and all to be huge as we know. He talks about destroying Hulk Hogan and shows Gene how big his hand is and lays it across his face.

Bischoff promotes the WCW Saturday Night show , which has the debut of Hugh Morris.

Its time for another Disco Inferno moment dancing. Disco wisely moves once Meng's music hits and he stays away from him. Out comes Hacksaw Jim Duggen to defend America from Meng . The fans actually love Hacksaw as he gets a huge pop. The fans are actually very into this brawling match for the most part. Its not a pretty match but they are popping for the punches and moves from Hacksaw.

In a comical way to lose a match , Hacksaw has Meng down and looks out at the crowd and does his weird thumbs up to them. He turns back and takes a kick to the face . Meng ends up using his dreaded thumb spike to finish off Hacksaw.

Hogan still in black , is behind a black graphic screen basically discussing how he's gonna take care of the Giant. That there is an evil within the force. Hogan has became a Sith Lord as we know. Evil Sith Lord Hogan warns Jimmy Hart to keep back from stopping what he plans for The Giant and Taskmaster. "Whatcha gonna do when the Evil of Hulkamania ...gouges yooooou !!"

The Main Event is up as Brian Pillman/Arn Anderson vs Ric Flair/Sting is up. Sting oddly isn't out as Flair battles both men at the start of the match. And Flair is beating both guys . Fans chant they want Sting . As Heenan brings up that Sting hasn't teamed with Flair since 1990. In a cool fun spot , Flair hooks the figure four on AA , Pillman climbs the rope to come off the rope as Slic Ric scoots clear and undoes the finisher to beat up Pillman.

Sting finally appears , deciding that maybe Flair isn't trying to con him. Minutes pass as finally the fans go ape **** the moment Sting is tagged in. The crowd is excited as he starts working through Anderson and Pillman . This has been a very entertaining tag team match as Anderson and Pillman decide to not even wanna finish as they take off. Leaving the ring as Flair & Sting share a moment of respect.

Post match Sting and Flair get interviewed by Okerlund. Sting brings up how he waited to see how true Flair was , and he was impressed by his heart he had. He basically tells Flair he will be his partner at Halloween Havoc fully. Flair puts over how great Sting is and tells the fans to give it up for the Stinger !

Heenan hates the whole love Sting/Flair are having now. Bischoff promotes next Nitro as Sting/Luger vs Harlem Heat.


The Bad - Nothing from this show could be bad really. I mean for the most part we had 2 matches. Yet WCW decided to give Benoit/Guerrero more than 10 minutes and let them have a solid great match. I think this is the 1st time Nitro actually made me wanna see the PPV to see what Sting/Flair vs Anderson/Pillman would do.


OVERALL : ***** Outta 5. Perhaps one of the best , enjoyable episodes of a Monday Night Nitro since it started. This one had great wrestling action and fun storyline running through it. Flair/Sting vs Anderson/Pillman is really the more fun program in a way than Hogan deciding to wear black and have his mustache shaved.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

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

There isn't even much of an opening for this WCW Nitro as Randy Savage's music hits. As we see the Macho Man ....ooooh yeaaaah ...facing Kurasawa. Colonel Parker is there and takes a slap right across the face from a pumped up Macho Man ...OOOHH YEAAAH...DIG IT ! Kurasawa actually dominates the 1st part of this match and showcases some of his pretty tough style work. They promote how the guy broke Road Warrior Hawk's arm months earlier.

The match is very slow paced as basically Macho Man is taking the abuse physically . Savage keeps trying to fight back against Kurasawa and the guy does a baseball slide outside botch where Savage ducks by the ring apron and Kurasawa goes so slow and sloppy its screwed up. Eventually he gets the big guy inside and nails his finisher for the shocking win.

Sting/Luger vs Harlem Heat is the main event. The announcers discuss this as suddenly THE MASTER of the Dungeon of Doom appears onscreen. He put Kevin Sullivan months ago in charge of destroying Hulk Hogan. THE MASTER is of course old wrestler King Curtis Iaukea. Of course his big speech is so garbled due to age and all ...all you can make out is Hogan's name. Okerlund talks to Sullivan and the Giant who are prepared for Halloween Havoc. They even have an insurance policy named "The Yeti" .




Out comes Hogan who discusses facing the Giant at Halloween Havoc. He brings up how his "former friends" all seem ready to pick on his bones . But he's gonna show them he's still the biggest dog. He says this to Randy Savage , Sting and Lex Luger. He's in anger mode and wearing the black. Hogan the Sith Lord isn't in a good place as we know.

On this episode of Nitro , Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko team up for this tag team match. They are facing Eddie Guerrero and Mr. JL (Jerry Lynn). The idea was Guerrero and Alex Wright. But Bischoff changed it and has Wright playing like he hurt his knee. This match promises to be very fast paced from what Bischoff claims.

It doesn't take long for Malenko and Benoit to remember their former ECW tag team chemistry. Within minutes the 2 are doing some very cool tag team type moves. Guerrero does one of the best cool arm drag type moves I have seen. The chemistry Benoit , Guerrero and Malenko have is pretty ON. This tag team match is pretty fun to watch.

Of course this great tag team match needs to be cut away to see Scott Norton trying to brawl with Shark . Like the world is demanding to see that match right now. Eventually they manage to focus more on the tag team match for us fans. Basically for this match , Benoit is doing more heelish type actions than Malenko. Using the ropes to inflect more punishment on a guy and so forth.

In fact in a surprising twist , its not Malenko & Benoit who do the best cheating , its actually Alex Wright. Who trips Malenko with a crutch. This allows Guerrero and JL to get the win. Post match as Guerrero walks down the ramp...OUTTA NOWHERE....COMES CRAZY BRIAN PILLMAN ! A quick ddt on the concrete and BAM. He lays him out as Mr. JL chases him off.

WCW has a block of ice there . Which basically will crack open at Halloween Havoc. I remember as a young fan me and buddies joked that the Gobbleygooker was inside the ice. As Harlem Heat come down , Bischoff jokes with Mongo about the WWF's "In Your House PPV" being terrible. Out comes Luger/Sting to face Stevie Ray and Booker T !

In one of the weird things that is happening on WCW at this point , Sting is wearing red & yellow. He also has a fu-manchu like Hogan had. This is pretty odd and a fact Hogan pointed out. That Sting was wearing the Hulkamania colors while he was wearing black to handle the Dungeon of Doom. Heenan plays up the situation with Luger & Sting right now. Saying there is friction there.

Sting stands and waits desperate for the tag. The Harlem Heat have kept working on him and away from the hot tag to Sting. As they keep him in their corner til they get too arrogant. Luger finally makes the hot tag and erupts all over the Harlemt Heat ! Like a pent up locomotive running on all gears , Stinger is working everyone awhile til Sting nails the flying cross body to get the win. (He oddly was pinning a lot of people with this move).

The Dungeon of Doom comes out and lays DESTRUCTION onto Sting & Luger with the Giant laying both men out with choke slams. The Giant is looking to wreck havoc as Savage comes out to face him , but then the place pops as Hogan comes out to take care of the Giant once and for all BROTHER. He at first looks weak , then shatters the Giant's mystique by hulking up and beating him up in ring. Savage and Hogan end up clearing the ring of the entire Dungeon as the place shakes ! THE YETI EXPLODES FROM THE ICE like the giant turd he is. END OF SHOW.


The Bad - Hooo boy this is bad. Bischoff basically seemed to forget what his company was doing week by week. Sting this week basically has to team with Luger after pledging to help Ric Flair. Then the Dungeon for weeks forget about Sting , then remember to jump him too.

The opening match was horrible bad. Randy Savage couldn't save the horse **** we were given. In fact I felt so sad for Savage as the match became such....a....slooooow pace. I think Savage likely had no way to get Kurasawa to lay out the match before hand (which is what Savage's strong suit was , laying out matches) and the result was a slow prodding crap match , with a big botch .

Scott Norton jumps Shark backstage and he doesn't even appear at the end of the show to beat up the guy ? That is pretty wild too.

At this point the cool devil worshipping faction that Sullivan had likely dreamed up was pretty much a friggen joke by now. The best guys in the group were Meng , the Giant , and Big Bubba Rodgers. The rest are comedy of freakin errors like The Zodiac , Yeti and Shark. I'm sorry I like John Tenta and he was a hell of a nice guy , but he didn't fit this group at all. I won't even get into The Master appearing in his chair over the ring.



OVERALL : ** outta 5. No other show made me not wanna watch Halloween Havoc than this one. What is pretty sad is ...this was the go home show for the PPV. The big sell point. Yet with the tons of bull crap we received ...i'm not shocked if this PPV didn't do well.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

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

The show opens with the fall out from Halloween Havoc . Bischoff and Heenan discuss the things from it and weirdly as Mongo talks , suddenly the camera focuses on Pepe dressed as a witch. Again , why is this important to focus on McMichael's dog ? Savage is out and can't face Craig Pittman.

Craig "Pitbull" Pittman is out. Pittman did have one cool catchphrase . Where he'd beat guys up playing his Marine drill instructor deal. "The beatings will continue !" Eddie Guerrero is filling in for Randy Savage tonight . Pittman decides to try and take things to the mat (which is smart) against Guerrero. In a shock , Guerrero shows how friggen strong he is and he picks up Pittman and backwards slams him.

Bischoff promotes WCW's answer to WWF Royal Rumble with "World War III" on PPV. 60 men , in 3 rings ...only one survives to win. In ring Pittman continues to work over Guerrero's arm to prepare him for the code red finisher he would do. Pittman oddly does more suplexes than Scott Steiner would do in a match. Must be in-experience. Anyhow Guerrero gets the roll up pin to win outta nowhere.

We get a run down of the feud everyone was not demanding. Scott Norton vs The Shark. After weeks of no one caring really. This has the making of being a very bad , bad match. In a weird semi-botch spot , Norton climbs the top rope (yes folks...Scott "Flash" Norton climbs the top rope) and does a flying shoulder block. He barely hits Tenta due to being so far away and the fact he's too big a guy to be doing this.

Bobby Heenan goes to talk to Sonny Oono . The two are having a very nice dinner with beautiful women there. Leaving Bischoff and Mongo to announce. Which will please no one.

The match ends in DQ as the 2 big men brawl outside and hit the plastic WCW sign. Which Bischoff proclaims as solid steel. Who knew solid steel could nearly fall over from barely ramming someones head into the post. Tony Shiavone brings up the tag team match with Anderson/Pillman vs Sting. Flair its claimed was beat up. At the end Flair shows up , and does the dumbest move as its claimed....he turned heel against Sting. Reforming the 4 Horsemen with 3 members for now.

The whole idea to do this to turn on Sting is beyond silly. Anyhow Anderson and Flair are doing a very fun job selling the 4 Horsemen. Its the ability to make themselves as heels work. I did like Anderson complimenting Sting for surviving for 10 minutes. The funniest scenes is crazy Brian Pillman acting to crawl to Flair mocking Sting for the tag.

Sabu is out to face Disco Inferno . Which is like sending a dancing clown to face a homicidal maniac in a sense. Sabu doesn't seem to care for Disco's dancing fever. On his tights Inferno has "Monday Night Fever". Because well , Nitro isn't Nitro without the Disco Inferno ! Fans are very hot for Sabu showing how over he was getting at this point. Sabu wins and post match and decides to destroy the dancing fool post match. First throwing his body on him outside. Then deciding to bring back his handy table.....

Sabu goes to do a flip over the top rope as fans go insane. They love Sabu ! They wanna see f'n violence. Lucky for the dancing fool Disco , he moves as Sabu hits with a thud. But Disco sees Sabu getting to his feet for more and he runs like hell. And that ends Sabu's run in WCW folks. Yep...this was his last match for the company. He would return to ECW on November 18th .

Jimmy Hart is out with the Dungeon of Doom as Luger has turned as well. Halloween Havoc is like the day everyone turned heel it seems. American Males vs Luger/Meng. Bischoff promotes the real 1st real fans pick the matches as next week on Nitro people can pick the matches and all. Oddly the American Males are actually handling Luger awhile in this match til Lex rallies back.

Jimmy Hart turning heel was a change since he had been a face since 1993 when he turned and aligned with Hogan and Brutus Beefcake against the Million Dollar Team. Bischoff is angry over how they turned against Hogan this whole match. Its pretty funny to hear how Heenan is goading him over how Hogan was done.

Its weird that Luger is playing the weaker heel in this compared to Meng. Taking more of the beat down from the American Males. Having to tag Meng in when he could feel the tide turning . Even when Bagwell makes the hot tag , he beats up on Lex Luger. The American Males decide to try and cheat some , but Scotty Riggs moronically stands there yelling away from things like a moron , which has Meng come in and finish things as the ref is distracted. Pretty funny finish.

We get a replay of the World title match between Hogan/Giant as Jimmy Hart turns heel against the Hulkster. Then Savage & Luger hit the ring as you expect that Luger will help , then he suddenly jumps Savage ! He turns heel as we see as the Yeti walks down and does this....its the silliest fucking thing ever. As Hogan is in a bear hug , he comes up behind and seems to hump Hogan. No lie....after the beat down Luger torture racks Hogan.

In ring we see Tony Shiavone conduct the interview with the Dungeon of Doom's new members ...Luger and Jimmy Hart. The Giant he details isn't the WCW World Champion and didn't win the belt. But the Giant is doing the whole law of , possession is 9/10ths of the law of Pro Wrestling right now. Jimmy Hart claims he will explain why he turned but gives a very compelling reason . He used to manage Sullivan years ago ...(way back in the Memphis Territory in 1982 to be exact).

Luger claims that Hogan called him out for being a rat and that is what he is. Well I guess true words had to happen I suppose. Its a very fun interview as Sullivan does the Pillman thing and mocks a laying Hogan on the canvas. It was funnier when Pillman did it to be honest. Shiavone shows he's always been a very solid interviewer. In the by ole Crockett days , on WCW Saturday Night ...Shiavone would do the interviews for you fans who never saw them. He could be short and direct , yet let the wrestlers get over.

Shiavone promotes WCW Nitro next week as the show ends.


The Bad - A lot of the heel turns made no sense. Its not like Luger was suddenly gonna be put in a position to challenge Hogan then as the Hulkster was facing the Giant and Sullivan. The Flair heel turn made the least bit of sense as the whole concept was so silly. He takes weeks of beat downs to lure Sting into teaming with him at Halloween Havoc ...for what reason ? I doubt Flair was demanding Sting's US Title since he's a former WCW World Champion.

Then you had the horrible Norton/Shark match which mercifully didn't last long. Least it ended quick.


OVERALL - *** outta 5. While its nice the Horsemen had 3 members with Flair/Anderson/Pillman , the result of this team coming together was kinda silly. It sums up the short term booking ideas by Eric Bischoff at times. Throw a heel turn out that makes no sense right now. WCW had one dominant heel faction as we see with the Dungeon of Doom. The Horsemen being a heel faction below them makes no sense.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

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

Bischoff welcomes us to Nitro as he decides to stop and put over Pepe's costume 1st. Which he's now dressed as a circus clown. WTF is up with Mongo and this dog ?

Anyhow he puts over the interactive Nitro concept. He says that you can call the 1-900 number and fans can pick someone from the red locker room (the heels) and someone from the blue locker room (the faces). Fans get to call in at 99 cents a minute and make the matches ! Hurry kids , run up your parents phone bills ok. Heenan jokes he wants Shiavone vs Okerlund !

Cobra is out and if no one remembers this guy , he basically played someone that appears that Craig Pittman left behind in the service and wanted revenge. Cobra was Jeff Farmer who would ...a year later achieve much greater fame. But we will see that soon. Anyhow Cobra draws the unlucky hand and faces the Giant. The match barely lasts seconds as the Giant chokeslams and wins.

Funniest move was Farmer's entrance which was morse code. I thought it was something with my computer at 1st. Perhaps the worst entrance music for someone.


Savage and Hogan are in Venice Beach , back at home for Hogan. They are with some whacked out drunk man , who screams some of the silliest dumb things that makes no sense. Hogan welcomes Savage to join the Sith with him. The guitar player is ...weird too. I have no clue what the purpose of that promo was and how this was about revenge.

The 1st real match is Sullivan vs Renegade. The Renegade was this guy folks and debuted back in early 1995 and was Hogan's "ultimate surprise".




Anyhow the Renegade rose quickly and fell just as fast as this match shows. Against Sullivan he ends up losing in this match. Post match Jimmy Hart taunts the poor guy calling him just a loser named "Rick". The Renegade was Rick Wilson . He would commit suicide in 1999 sadly.

In funny spot Gene Okerlund would conduct an interview in the heel locker room as the lights suddenly go out. Flair makes the best of it , claiming he doesn't care if the lights are on or off. Shark and Norton brawl outside the locker room.

Chris Benoit is out to face Eddie Guerrero . The 2 had a damn good match weeks ago. So Nitro is having them face each other again. Bischoff claims people shouldn't blink or turn away. This match is gonna be fast paced and exciting. He also promotes the WCW Cruiserweight division which is coming soon at some point.

As this match rages on and its very damn good , outside the ring the New Japan group is watching. Sonny Oono , Jushin Liger and others are eating a great meal and watching this match. Heenan calls them his very rich friends. Benoit and Guerrero are just tearing it up as usual , the super plex off the ropes shows the force Benoit could put into his moves . At one point Benoit thinks he has the win as the referee has to tell him he only got a 2 count.

The finish is hotly debated as Guerrero is outside the ring. Guerrero falls back on Benoit as he tries a back suplex into the ring. Benoit's feet are under the ropes which he can't kick out as Heenan protests.

Back in the face locker room an angry Sting wants Ric Flair so bad. That tonight he's gonna take care of the Nature Boy and he hates his guts. The Nasty Boys wanna face the Blue Bloods. Back after commercial Bischoff promotes the WCW Fall Brawl 1995 VHS on sale at all video stores on November 7th 1995 !

This is a fans vote match as Sting vs Flair will happen. The guy is pumped up to destroy Flair after he turned on him at Halloween Havoc. Ric Flair is out alone for now. Maybe he thinks Sting won't be seriously wanting to kill him. The match doesn't even start and Sting is right on Flair , throwing him into the ring as Heenan claims this isn't about a match , Sting wants to seriously hurt Ric.

Flair tries to chop Sting and then begs on his knees outside the ring. But an angry Stinger is in PISSED BEAST MODE . He finally low blows him to get away some. Sting gets back up , charges the rail and nearly kills himself Stinger splashing the ring rail. Flair gets control and tries the figure 4 deal with the ropes. An interesting thing about Sting is he usually would bleach his hair blond as we know , but his hair is slowly turning black as you can see it close.

The tide turns in this match a couple times . Both men rallying back . Flair tries to use a chair and referee Randy Anderson yanks the chair away. Which ticks Flair off as he pushes Anderson. Who pushes him back as he gets in the ring . Bischoff promotes a special announcement that will follow after this match. Heenan jokes its Hogan retiring .

Sting gets hyped up and picks up Anderson so he can beat on Slick Ric in the corner. This gives Flair the chance to slip on brass knucks and use them to hit Sting. Flair believes he has the match won comically and struts around the ring. Not realizing the pumped up anger the Stinger has. Sting slaps on Scorpion deathlock and won't turn lose. The referees try and pull Sting off Flair. Then wrestlers come out as Flair is begging to be turned loose.

Its payback for Sting as the anger he has...he wants to take Flair out . Finally all the good guys help get to Sting and pull him away from a wounded Flair. Sting starts to walk up the ramp and returns to destroy Flair some more. Finally , Lex Luger comes out to appeal to Sting to turn loose. He says something in his ear to let Flair go. The 2 men walk off together. Which stuns everyone as people wonder what connection the 2 can have with Luger's turn recently.

In ring Gene Okerlund interviews Jimmy Hart , Sullivan and The Giant. Jimmy claims that Hogan was busy with his charities and more , he didn't realize that Jimmy Hart had the power of attorney. So Jimmy used that to write the contract that if Hogan got DQ'd , he'd lose the WCW World Title match to the Giant. A guy named Gene Ambrose from WCW's legal team comes out and tells Jimmy Hart that his scheme has failed. That the WCW Championship committee will award the WCW World Championship to the winner of the 60 man Battle Royal at World War III.

The Giant won't give up the belt at first til Sullivan says the Giant won't be denied the title. That no one can beat him at World War III. Jimmy Hart going insane over the contract he had is pretty funny. The guys promote the next PPV with the title.


The Bad - Nothing really bad per say. We were spared seeing a replay of Shark/Norton thank the gods.

What the **** was up with that Venice Beach deal with the guy playing guitar and that weird drunk guy between Hogan & Savage ? That made little to no sense at all.


OVERALL : **** outta 5. We got at least 2 solid matches for this Nitro as it was the 1st one to run past the 9pm time. Perhaps it was an experiment to see if it could do an over run. Anyhow the show was very solid and Sting's warning to Flair weeks earlier came true. He told the Nature Boy he would burn him if he tried anything. Apparently Slick Ric never took it serious. I did love seeing everyone try and pull an angry Sting off Flair.