Category: WCW Monday Nitro (1995-2001)

The show opens with Hulk Hogan beating on Arn Anderson for a bit before run-ins galore, ref is distracted and sees Savage in the ring, and ends up DQ’ing Hogan, which gives Arn another win over Hogan. Wow, would you look at that?

Belfast Bruiser… took me a while to figure out that this was Fit Finlay because I almost didn’t recognize him with the messy long hair and ‘stache… anyway, he beats up on perennial journeyman Brad Armstrong and it’s perfectly acceptable fodder. Unfortunately, we’ve got another Loch Ness match, with Alex Wright being the sad recipient of a large dent. The show ends with Ric Flair retaining his WCW title over Macho Man thanks to another shoe because… sure, why not? That’s our only fucking finish these days.

This show was a bit of a slog and then it dawned on me. We’re on our way to Uncensored and the DOOMSDAY CAGE match. People are going to have to try and convince me that this show is still good while we’re building towards THAT pile of shit. Good luck.

“Did you tell them my mother was weight-challenged?”
“No, I just told them what to write.”
Al Borland and Tim Taylor
Home Improvement Season 6 Episode 14
The Karate Kid Returns

Long story short – if you like weight-challenged wrestlers, this is the Nitro for you. Otherwise, see you next week.

Continue reading “WCW Monday Nitro (Feb. 12th, 1996) – Mrs. Borland’s Favorite Nitro”

A bit of a historical record breaking moment.

Oh, I’m not talking about Nitro, although I will say that this is probably one of the better episodes I’ve seen in a while as far as general interest goes. But with this post, we have officially surpassed the NWA-TNA run from a couple years ago, when I dropped off after 21 weeks due to the debut of “OH SHIT! IT’S VINCE RUSSO!” and that’s when I decided, “Nope. Not for me.” Fortunately, Russo isn’t anywhere to be found here in 1996, but we are a couple months away from the end of the road when Scott Hall shows up and Nitro expands to two hours. I’m still on the fence as to how to proceed beyond that, but we’ll cross that bridge eventually.

Right now, let’s talk about this Nitro show…

Continue reading “WCW Monday Nitro (Feb. 5th, 1996) – A Breeze Monumental Moment”

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.