Category: Wrestling Television Musings

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.

Let’s keep this short.

Harlem Heat retain their tag titles over the American Males; a perfectly acceptable match for the most part. Sting submits some New Japan guy with the Scorpion, but promises he won’t hold back if Lex wins the title tonight (spoiler: he doesn’t). Giant CHOKESLAMS Scott Norton because that’s all we can think of with this guy; have him CHOKESLAM big dudes and shit. And then there was the main event that saw Randy Savage defend the WCW title against Lex Luger… a pretty good match for about ten minutes or so before Hogan and Flair run in for the DQ. Don’t ask me how they got a DQ because I’m not sure I know. Something happened during a pin and then there was a DQ.

You know… I’m enjoying these shows for the most part because they’re nice, easy watches. I’d appreciate it if you kept that going for a little while longer and save the fuck finishes for the nWo days next year. Thanks.

It’s the World War 3 go-home show, where they open the show with Hulk Hogan’s promo where he ditched his black clothes for his usual red and yellow stuff… amazing that we’re opening with this promo and not recapping the main event that saw the Macho Man Randy Savage win his first WCW World title and Hogan being SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR and stuff.

But first, we have a brief match where Johnny B Badd punches DDP in the face for the pinfall win, which makes Diamond Doll Kimberly happy because… reasons… Johnny eventually goes away and they eventually slap in the Booty Man. How long before that happens? Should I even care at this point?

Kevin Sullivan is complaining to Jimmy Hart about something, who assures Sullivan that “he has a plan.” Oh, goodie.

In a rare women’s match on this program, Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto defeated Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki in a fun joshi match. How long before Madusa shows up to trash the WWF Women’s title so that she can get in on this action?

Hulk Hogan squashes newcomer Hugh Morris (a.k.a. future former WWE trainer Bill DeMott) and then we get the eventual confrontation between Hogan and new WCW champ Macho Man that is interrupted by a run-in from Giant, who kills Macho and runs aways from Hogan, who is held back by Sting… this leads to Sting and Lex Luger to win a match over Brian Pillman and Arn Anderson, which leads to a Horseman ambush that is run off by Hulk Hogan, who also wants to kill Luger, but is stopped by Sting. I wonder if maybe Sting should have just let Hogan kill everyone; then we wouldn’t have that whole nWo business next year.

Other than a fun women’s match, not much else going on for this show beyond some story progression. If nothing else, the show wasn’t boring, but it was just there.

Scott Norton defeated Shark (a.k.a. John Tenta) in a short match, Eddie Guerrero defeated Brian Pillman in a slightly longer but still short match… it was fun while it lasted… Road Warrior Hawk defeated Big Bubba Rogers with an assisted trip-up from Hacksaw Duggan, who challenges Rogers to a taped fist match at the PPV… just the one, apparently.

And in the main event, which featured Hogan and Sting going at it… and the crowd openly going for Sting over supposed sportsman of the year Huckster… the match ends with a run-in from the Dungeon of Doom and that’s where Nitro ends.

These shows have their moments, but clearly, the more time they spend on this stupid Dungeon Of Doom feud, the more these shows drag out despite their short run time. I’m almost considering throwing in the towel at this point, but fortunately, this was the go-home for World War 3… and I know what happens on the next Nitro.

But that’s next week.