Category: Wrestling Television Musings

This is the show with the Ric Flair/Hulk Hogan match where Ric Flair beats Hogan with Elizabeth’s shoe. Yes, a bunch of run-ins and a really stupid finish took place, but let’s not bury the lede here: after four years across two promotions, Flair finally gets a rare win over the Hulkster. That’s pretty much the only thing worth mentioning on this show.

Well, the Road Warriors make their return and there’s some further squabbling between Kevin Sullivan and Brian Pillman also featured Arn Anderson, who left his glock at home and instead issues a challenge.

Not much to this one. Next.

So let’s do the abbreviated notes. Macho Man defeats Ric Flair in a good opening match to win his second WCW World title, which leads to sportsman of the century Hulk Hogan congratulating the man and demanding his long-awaited shot… which Macho responds by saying that when he beats Hulk, then Hulk has to shake his hand… good luck with that one, Mach.

Brian Pillman defeated Dean Malenko via Malenko getting his foot caught in the ropes and Pillman taking advantage. I have no idea what that finish was and the match itself was just there. And then Sting and Lex Luger win the tag titles from Harlem Heat after Luger whacks Booker with some coinage for the cheap win. I suppose this makes up for the screwjob finish from last week or something. And then Hulk Hogan beats One Man Gang in a quick match before getting mauled by the Dungeon Of Doom and Horsemen before Macho Man comes out to help or something.

I will say that the Savage/Flair match was the best part of the show and the rest is skippable. Moving right along.

We’ve got a rather eventful episode of Nitro this week where a couple of significant things happen going forward. And it’s actually a pretty good episode as well.

Continue reading “WCW Monday Nitro (Jan 15th, 1996) – And Then Public Enemy Appeared”

Today’s Nitro offering begins with Chris Benoit making short work of this Alex Wright fella… I’d use some other word to describe the massacre involved, but… yeah, it’s already feeling awkward. This is quickly followed by a pretty fun match between Eddie Guerrero and Lord Steven Regal that saw Eddie win with a backslide pin, which is a nice, sneaky move that fits the man. I’d use some other word, but that’s being too cute shortly after the awkwardness of the Benoit match.

Mean Gene interviews Sting and Lex Luger, where Luger suggests that he and Sting go after the tag titles, even though Luger is somewhat of a spotty individual. This transitions to a match between Sting and DDP (still a scummy heel at this point, for those keeping track) that sees Sting submit Yoda Man with the Scorpion Deathlock. And then we have our main event tag match that sees Hulk Hogan and Macho Man defeated Ric Flair and Arn Anderson via Hogan dropping the leg on Arn for the pin… and then Benoit and Brian Pillman are brawling with some Dungeon of Doom dorks while Giant comes out and chokeslams the babyfaces to close the show.

A nice breezy hour of Nitro; not much happening, but the wrestling was solid and I was entertained. That’s all I ever want out of an entertainment program. Good job.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Needless to say that I’ve recovered from my musings over that Bash At The Beach show that I’m suddenly in a good mood thanks to the new year… or maybe this was written ahead of time and I’m just dropping this opening bit as a clever means of transition from the morbid mood that last show left me in.

Thankfully, we’re starting the New Year with a quick recap of today’s edition of 30 Year Old WCW Monday Nitro… which we’ll get out of the way now so that the more important post of the day – the annual Winners And Losers list for 2025 – can be posted about a half hour later and get most of the attention.

In the meantime, we have WCW Nitro from the Omni in Atlanta, where Ric Flair is set to defend the WCW World title against the Orange Goblin himself, Hulk Hogan. Will this match work for the Huckster, brother? Let’s find out.

Continue reading “WCW Monday Nitro (Jan. 1st, 1996) – Where The Big Boys Have A Happy New Year”

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all, because this will be the first of several wrestling related musings to be uploaded within the first hour of the day… before the main event…

To anyone who used to bitch about WWE doing live RAW shows on Christmas, I give you WCW Monday Nitro – live from the Civic Center in Augusta, GA on Christmas Day 1995… but hey, they gave us a hell of a show, not the least of which included the Macho Man defending his WCW World title against the Nature Boy…

Continue reading “WCW Monday Nitro (December 25th, 1995) – Seasons Beatings Where The Big Boys Play”

This show is notable for two things and everything else is just an afterthought.

First off, before we can get the show rolling, the former Alundra Blayze – now Madusa – shows up to dump her WWF Women’s title into some trash bin and states her intentions to play with some big people… assuming they show up. Apparently, people were upset by this turn of events; acting like it was some huge betrayal that the reigning WWF Women’s Champion would jump onto a competing sports entertainment show and dump their championship title into the trash. So damaging was this act that WWF never featured another women’s match until Sable became a thing in 1998… for better or worse.

Remember, the people crying foul over Madusa showing up on Nitro with the Women’s title are the very same people who allowed Ric Flair to parade on television with the Big Gold Belt for a few months just to stick it to WCW. It only goes to show that if they do it, it’s fine, but if the other guys do it, it’s the gravest sin of all. This is why nobody takes wrestling seriously even beyond the whole “real vs fake” argument that honestly should have died off in the last century.

The other notable piece of business was the conclusion of the World title bout between champion Randy Savage and challenger THE GIANT, which ended in a DQ when SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR Hulk Hogan cracked Giant with a chair… and then Sullivan shows up and Hogan hits him with a chair too… why is this notable? I’m not sure, but it’s Hogan being a dick and something is mentioned about him being on probation and… oh wait, he’s getting a title shot against whoever comes out of Starrcade as the champion.

Everything else in between is stuff that happened and was completely forgettable.

So this is the show that saw the end of the wrestling career of one “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff.

You folks remember Mr. Wonderful? Wrestlemania main eventer, once had a cage match with Hulk Hogan on Saturday Night’s Main Event? Eventually jumped to WCW and formed a tag team with former Horseman Paul Roma? Yeah, Mr. Wonderful wasn’t feeling wonderful until he had a chance encounter with Gary Spivey – that psychic with the ridiculous hair – and then he had a bit of a revival that ended with his mirror breaking and he needed Gary’s help again… at which point, he got a new mirror.

So he has a match with Disco Inferno and he beats the guy with a pretty slick back suplex… and then he runs into the Horsemen, they have a spat, and next thing you know, they’re given poor Mr. Wonderful a spike piledriver that pretty much put him out of wrestling forever. So ends the career of Paul Orndorff… which was going to end sooner or later due to years of lingering neck issues, so this was a way to write him off. Some psychic you turned out to be, Gary, you fucking hack.

The main event featured Hulk Hogan teaming with WCW World Champion Randy Savage against Flair and Arn Anderson… and since this is Charlotte, NC – Flair Country, pretty much – the crowd is very much against Hogan, who does his usual thing because he’s delusional… so, of course, Hogan wins and there’s a brawl afterwards… eh. I’ve seen worse.