Category: Wrestling Television Musings

We open the show with Lex Luger camping out so that he wouldn’t NO SHOW his scheduled WCW World title match against the champion GIANT. Give him points for effort, I suppose.

Steiners defeat Public Enemy in what seems like their 284,872,895th match together this year… I swear it’s like every other week, these two are fighting each other at some point in time. Could it hurt to try and get some other teams for these guys to fight? Maybe bring Harlem Heat back into the mix or something? This is followed by Chris Benoit beating Dave Taylor with a Dragon Suplex in a stiff match and then Randy Savage is BANNED from entering the building, which triggers a conversation between he and Mongo, with Mean Gene along for the ride…. which I don’t mind because whenever you need someone to sum up the situation with a clever quip, you plug in Mean Gene Okerlund and let the man rip.

Ric Flair beats VK Wallstreet in a quick match before sitting at what they call a VIP table at ringside to watch the main event, which sees THE GIANT retain his WCW title over Lex Luger via a CHOKESLAM THROUGH RIC FLAIR’S VIP TABLE… which causes Sting to come out and check on his buddy because WHOSE SIDE IS HE ON?!

Still too soon?

So that was Nitro; a fun little show with some fun stuff that did its fair share of setting up the upcoming Slamboree PPV, which… hey, you know what? If that’s up on the channel, I might give that a watch this week. Should be fun.

Folks, we’re about a couple weeks away from calling this experiment quits… but honestly, I’m not sure that I’m going to hold out if THIS is the caliber of Nitro waiting for me. Even in its hour-long format, there’s only so much bad wrestling I can put up with before I turn the show off and move on to something else… which I can easily do because there’s more than enough good shit on the Youtubes that I can load up and clean the palette of sorts.

We open with a Macho Man/Hugh Morris match that ends with Macho choking Morris with a jacket for a DQ or something. We then have Dean Malenko getting a win over Jushin Liger in the only really GOOD match on the show and it’s not even the best match of either man’s career. Sting beats Steven Regal in a so-so match, but I think their GAB match is better. Giant was supposed to defend the WCW title against Luger, but he no-showed, so here comes HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN to get his shit in for a bit before getting CHOKESLAMMED by the Giant for the win… and then a bunch of people run in, Sting runs in, traps Giant in the Scorpion until Jimmy Hart hits Sting with the Megaphone… and NOW Luger shows up, everyone runs away, and we wonder WHOSE SIDE IS HE ON?!

Too soon…?

Yeah, I wouldn’t categorize this Nitro as “bad.” Compared to some of the stuff that WCW would churn out in its dying days, this is probably tame… but it’s also below the standards of these fine shows I’ve been watching this past year and I’d hate to see things fall off the rail before they’re supposed to fall off the rails with the Scott Hall thing. It’s almost as if this show is daring me to quit while I’m ahead… but you’re not fooling me, Nitro 96. I know you’ve got some fun stuff, ahead… maybe… maybe not… we’ll see, I guess.

Another week, another episode of WCW Monday Nitro… this one is available on the WCW Youtube channel and has been since last year. And it’s a pretty significant episode in some ways.

Continue reading “WCW Monday Nitro (April 29th, 1996) – Gigantic Triumphs And Brawling Brits”

Just to get it out of the way, the main event is a rematch from last week involving Sting/Luger vs. Flair/Giant… and like last week, a cup of coffee is involved that Woman throws at Sting/Luger, but they duck it and it hits the Giant, instead. Flair, realizing he fucked up, begs for forgiveness, but Giant DEMANDS a title shot, to which Flair accepts… oh and Macho Man tries to interfere, but police escort him off the premise. Clearly, there’s some stuff going on here, but there you go, kids. One of Ric Flair’s ladies tossed a cup of coffee in the Giant’s face and that begins a one-week countdown to the end of Ric Flair’s last significant World title run before he eats a chokeslam next week on Nitro.

Nice to see that coffee has a much healthier reputation for bringing people together rather than start wrestling feuds that go badly.

Oh and before anyone wonders what’s on the other channel, here’s Eric Bischoff to bring you up to speed. “Over at the World Whining Federation, the RuPaul impersonator and transvestite Goldust defeats Savio Vega to regain the Intercontinental title. Yawn. Mankind defeats Aldo Montoya. Bigger yawn. Vader defeats Fatu. Oh boy.”

Yes, riveting stuff.

Over at Nitro, American Males defeated Public Enemy via DQ when one of the PE guys tosses the American Male not named Bagwell over the top rope… because somehow, we’re still enforcing that Bill Watts rule in 1996. There’s a Chris Benoit/Eddie Guerrero match that’s short and the ad break doesn’t help much, either… but there are plenty of other places and shows where you could watch these two put on better matches if you have the stomach for it. Finally, it’s the rematch from Uncensored 95 that we’ve all been waiting for, apparently: MENG vs. HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN… yes, it’s a bad match, but not as bad as the aforementioned Uncensored match, so it’s a step up, at least.

Not one of the stronger Nitro shows, but we’re getting SOME semblance of forward movement as it relates to the major stories. If I can get THAT much at the very least, then I can somewhat forgive the lackluster undercard.

Nitro took a week off last week, but it opens with something pretty significant. Hulk Hogan facing off against Kevin Sullivan and Arn Anderson, with the stipulation that if Hogan wins, he gets five minutes with a manager, but if the heels win, they get five minutes with the Booty Babe… isn’t that a slight against Liz and Woman that you’d want five minutes with Kimberly instead? And also, do you really want to piss off DDP?

Anyway, #LOLHoganWins, he beats up Jimmy Hart for a bit before Giant hits Hogan with a chokeslam that he no-sells and everyone takes a powder, including Mean Gene, who almost gets slammed by Hogan, who cuts one last promo before he disappears for a couple months… no, really, this is the last we’re gonna see of the Huckster for quite a while until… some bash at a beach somewhere. Kinda fuzzy on the details… maybe he should have taken a longer break or something.

Nasty Boys defeat Public Enemy in a street fight that saw the PE set up one of the Nasties on the table, but the Nasty Boy slides off, causing the PE guy to break the table and get pinned. And then they beat each other up some more. And then we have Randy Savage versus Bobby Eaton, who’s just pushing all of Savage’s buttons with all the Flair moves and mannerisms before Savage just goes “fuck that,” hits Eaton with an elbow for the 1-2-3… and then hits Eaton with more elbows before a bunch of people stop Savage and he’s taken away by security… wow, actual efficient security forces at a wrestling show. The legends were true.

And then we have a Sting/Luger vs Flair/Giant tag match that ends with Luger ducking coffee and hitting Sting… and then shenanigans. The match was fine, but clearly having two tag teams with issues is a bit too much. My brain hurts from this complex storytelling these people are trying to tell… in another time and place, I probably would’ve been invested in this sort of stuff… but right now, I’m waiting for the eventual blow off that leads to… the switch.

I’m not saying a whole lot on these shows because I’m mostly just taking these in and watching them as they happen. I’m not thinking about much of anything other than… hey, some stuff is happening, there’s some good matches here and there, and then there’s the other stuff. Probably the only thing of significance is the lack of Hulk Hogan for the next few months, which is a benefit to the overall programming because he feels like such a third wheel in the Flair/Savage, Sting/Luger, and Giant/anyone stories that he actually takes away… maybe he needs a new take… perhaps a new turn…

Or maybe he needs a longer break…

See you next week, kids.

Or check out the other shit on the blog when it pops up.

So the show begins with Giant and Sting going at it… apparently, they were supposed to team up against Harlem Heat, but Jimmy Hart paid the Heat to take a hike and now the two partners has a fight. Match lasts a couple minutes before Lex Luger comes in for the DQ finish and that’s it… April Fools, I guess.

The Steiners beat the Road Warriors and the Nasty Boys in a Triangle match (a.k.a. the Triple Threat or 3-way match – apparently, the first time in WCW) in a dubious finish that saw one of the Public Enemy guys knock out a Nasty Boy while the other Public Enemy guy dressed as a Nasty Boy plays dead so that one of the Steiners can pin him for the win and… yeah, stupid fuck finish aside, this was an entertaining enough piece of tag team business. Could have done without the dumb swap finish, but considering how many worse finishes I’ve seen over the years, I suppose it’s inoffensive enough… meh.

Bobby Heenan announces that he is retiring from WCW… only to stick around and say April Fools. In hindsight, maybe he’d had been better off leaving, but whatever. There’s a Hogan/Booty Man match against Kevin Sullivan and Arn Anderson that I refuse to watch… so I skip ahead to the main event where Ric Flair retains his WCW World title over Lex Luger via a schoolboy, hand full of tights, and BOTH feet on the ropes for extra leverage. I’m guessing that’s supposed to show off the lengths Flair has to go to cheat a win out of Luger, but that seems a tad excessive. Regardless, a fine main event to an otherwise meh show.

Well, okay, the 3-way tag was pretty good until the finish, so it’s not all bad.

There’s no Nitro next week, which means a free slot for something else to fill its space and we’re going to fill it with [REDACTED.]