Category: WCW Monday Nitro (1995-2001)

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.]

Tonight, WCW World Champion Ric Flair (with Arn Anderson) defends his title against THE GIANT (with Kevin Sullivan)… but don’t get too excited, kids. This one ends in a schmozz where Arn Anderson hits Giant with a chair and Giant thinks Sullivan did it and he gets the guzzle. Giant would eventually win the title a month later, but in the meantime… well…

I’ll be honest; this Nitro didn’t do much for me. Macho Man got a win over Fit Finlay, Konnan retained his US title over the masked man known only as Mister JL, and Sting and Luger retained their tag titles over the AMERICAN MALES, but the matches were just kinda, sorta “meh.” Honestly, the Saturday Night show that they were hyping up – featuring a Finley/Bobby Eaton match – sounds more exciting than the Nitro show that was put up against RAW, which featured *checks notes* Shawn Michaels defeating Leif Cassidy, Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeating Aldo Montoya, and the main event of Ahmed Johnson and Owen Hart going to a double DQ finish.

Fucking riveting television.

Next.

For those keeping track of your WCW events calendar, this is indeed the go-home show for Uncensored ’96, a generally horrible PPV event featuring one of the worst ego-stroking main event cage matches in history: the Doomsday triple-decker cage match pitting the Mega Powers of Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage against the Alliance To End Hulkamania, which comprises EIGHT or more VILE VILLAINS… or something.

Look, I did the write-up years ago on this thing. I have no desire whatsoever to watch it again. All you need to know is that Hogan goes over… because that works for him, brother.

In the meantime, we still have this show, which opens with Giant and Loch Ness battling out in the entryway while Lex Luger comes out for his scheduled TV title defense that is rendered a countout win because either Giant or Loch Ness never made it to the ring… shouldn’t the match be thrown out if that’s the case? Not that it’d matter because Luger would still call it the fastest title defense of his career. Hell, him NOT having a match would actually given credence to that since he’d have a title defense that lasted about zero seconds.

Steiner Bros. defeated Public Enemy in a pretty fun brawl that saw a table or two get broken… which is then followed by Arn Anderson jobbing to Brother Bruti or Booty Man or whatever the fuck he’s called this week… good lord, this gimmick sucks. The High Knee… as in heinie? Even Russo would gawk at that shit, guys. And then the Road Warriors defeat the Nasty Boys in another fun brawl before we get the main event of Hogan and Savage against Ric Flair and Kevin Sullivan, which ends with Brian Pillman running in and being followed by the return of ZEUS of No Holds Barred fames and some guy called the Final Solution, who turned out to be Jeep Swenson, who played Bane in that Batman & Robin movie that nobody liked apparently. And then the heels cut a promo to end the show.

Hey, the two tag matches not involving the Mega Powers were kinda fun and even Luger celebrating his non-title defense was kinda funny, but this Hulk Hogan jerk-off session to build towards the biggest BJ main event is dreadful and I hated every moment of it.

We open today’s edition of WCW Monday Nitro with the Giant NOT making short work of Hacksaw Jim Duggan… because he ain’t doing a job without getting his shit in, tough guy! Hey, at least now I know it’s not just a lack of wanting to put over that German kid Alex Wright in ’99; this was fairly consistent behavior for an otherwise swell guy.

Speaking of Alex Wright, he gets beat by Lex Luger in a thing that happened and Hulk Hogan and his band of merry idiots (the Macho Man and the BOOTY MAN… fucking shoot me) overcome the odds… but the most significant piece of business is the return of the STEINER BROTHERS to WCW, where they have a match with the Road Warriors that turns out to be quite a fun spectacle before Rick eats a spiked weapon from Animal and gets pinned by Hawk. Well, that was odd… but then again, maybe it’s odd now knowing which of these teams stuck around and which didn’t.

Yeah, so other than the one tag match, this Nitro didn’t do much for me… but then again, it’s hard to get excited for this show when we’re building towards one of the most worst WCW PPVs to ever be conceived by human hands: WCW Uncensored 1996.

You know… the one with the Doomsday Cage match.

If you don’t know, here’s a refresher.

Now you do.

Fuck.

Opening match see Sting defeat Big Bubba (a.k.a. the former Big Bossman is he big, Ray Traylor) with a crossbody in a pretty fun opening match, which is followed by the Road Warriors challenging Sting and Lex Luger to defend their titles in a Chicago Street Fighter at the upcoming Uncensored PPV… which is in Tupelo, by the way… the farthest thing from “Chicago” as you can get. For those who have seen the Monday Night Wars DVD, this is where the clip of Eric Bischoff giving away RAW results is taken from. You’ll note that I don’t make mention of these happening all that often because I try to blank out on commentary… and part of that has to do with Mongo, who started off tolerable and sometimes even good, but had since degraded into unintelligible twat that it’s almost sad. It’s probably for the best that he eventually transitioned to wrestler in a couple months.

Lex Luger defeated THE RENEGADE via Torture Rack with an assist from Jimmy Hart, which causes Sting to come out and cry foul. The Renegade is no longer wearing any facepaint, but still maintains some Warrior mannerisms. It’s too bad the guy stuck with this Warrior rip-off gimmick and never bothered to remake his image because I’d imagine he would have had some modicum of success for being his own man rather than being a rip-off… maybe he wouldn’t have taken his own life as a result… yeah, I’m being grim here. Sorry.

Road Warriors defeated Harlem Heat to cement their status as challengers for the tag titles. Good match for what it was and this is followed by our main event, which features Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, and the BOOTY MAN (Ed Leslie’s 48,882,802th gimmick change after being Zodiac… his sudden turn from the Dungeon Of Doom being explained that he was actually a SPY for Hogan… so that whole thing with Starrcade ’94 and them fighting for the World title was a ruse? My brain hurts more than it deserves to be hurt – why are you stupid, Nitro?! WHY?!! Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah…) facing off against Ric Flair, Kevin Sullivan, and Arn Anderson – the last one being the recipient of a Hogan legdrop as the Huckster gets his win back, JACK!

The show ends with Hogan helping Liz put handcuffs on him so that he can get pummeled by Flair and friends. An absolutely wretched main event to close an otherwise serviceable Nitro.

So quick note before we close up: there’s no Nitro Musings next week because Nitro didn’t air next week, so we’ll be continuing two weeks later. However, Nitro musings will resume on Wednesdays rather than Thursdays for the simple reason that 1996 was a leap year (every fourth year, February has 29 calendar days) while 2026 is not. That way, we can continue the gimmick of “On This Day 30 Years Ago…” that these Nitro posts have adopted.

With that said, there is going to be something to fill the void, but you’ll have to wait and see…

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”