NITRO: We open up with a major announcement that Nitro is going to be a 2 hour live broadcast. Tony Shiavone and Larry Zybysko are going to host hour one.
American Males vs The Four Horsemen. (Arn Anderson and Rick Flair) Shiavone spends the majority of the match talking about the horsemen vs Steve McMichael and Kevin Greene coming up at Bash at the Beach. This was a very fun match and we even got to see Flairs VIP section and repeated pit stops for champagne throughout the match. Couple of very fun spots where Flair gets into a shoving match with referee Randy Anderson and Bagwell rolls Flair up with a small package. The referee is distracted so Anderson reverses it only to have Scotty Riggs reverse it again. Flair gets the pinfall after Anderson delivers a beautiful DDT on Bagwell. They did a great job of mixing comedy and match psychology complete with inside and outside the ring action 3.75 stars
Mean Gene Okerlund interviews the horsemen post match, Arn states he has never met a football player he couldn't walk over to get to a better fight. Flair calls Elizabeth the horsemen's sugar mama. 3.5 stars
Come back to a promo of Greene and McMichael working out .5 star
Steve Doll vs the Mauler with Col. Parker is next up. This was unwatchable, I,m still confused why the Mauler would dive over the top rope holding Doll in the powerslam position. Thankfully we go to commercial break soon after. When we come back Razor Ramon makes his way through the crowd grabs a mic and delivers a message to Billionaire Ted, Ken doll wanna be Eric Bishoff, and the Nacho Man. Interesting promo from a guy we just saw on WWE TV a few weeks ago. The bright spot of this interview is that it put an end to easily the worst match I have seen in a long long time. the match gets a .25 star simply because they made it to TV which is better than I could ever do. The interruption by Razor was done brilliantly and I can't wait to see what's next 3.5 stars.
Next up is Craig Pittman with Teddy Long vs Diamond Dallas Page. DDP starts off the match by mocking Pittman's military background. A lot of talk about DDP winning the battle bowl ring and his mystery benefactor. a diamond cutter makes quick work of Pittman and Page wins the match. He sells the arm injury throughout the entire post match celebration and on his way to the back 2.5 stars
Randy Savage is nuts video package explaining why Savage has been banned from all WCW events for the foreseeable future. Then we get a horrible senseless interview from The Shark. This leads to a video package chronicling Hulk Hogans celebrity friends. All three segments got a combined 1 star
We start hour number 2 of Nitro with Eric Bishoff and Bobby Heenan taking over announcing duties for the remainder of the night. Bishoff states he isn't even going to dignify the interruption from Razor Ramon. If he has something to say to Bishoff he can come back out and say it.
Next up is Shark vs The Giant for the world Heavy weight title. The Giant effortlessly picked up 500+ Shark and body slammed him with ease. Choke slam by the giant for the pin. Surprisingly good match from two super heavyweights. Big Bubba comes down to the ring to shave half of Sharks head. 3 stars
Bishoff continues ranting about Razor telling him to bring what ever they have and we go to the ring for a TV title match Maxx vs Lex Lugar. Lugar has always looked stiff to me in the ring, Watching Lugar wrestle has always seemed awkward and kinda weird. Bishoff gets distracted by someone at the announce booth and says he can come out at the end of the hour. Maxx looks impressive and is beating the hell out of Lugar. Couple of near falls by Maxx and a very competitive match that ends when Lex puts Maxx in the Torture Rack for the submission victory. 2.5 stars
Mean Gene is in the ring to talk to Lugar about how he backed into this number one contender position taking it from Diamond Dallas Page. Highlights of the Giant choke slamming Lugar through a table. A lot of yelling by Lex that didn't make much sense. 1 star
Hardwork Bobby Walker vs Brad Armstrong in a cruiserweight match. Bishoff reminds us of the interruption earlier in the night and won't mention the guys name cause he doesn't want any legal backlash. Walker gets the pinfall after a almost botched a top rope blockbuster. 2 stars.
Lord Steven Regal with Jeeves vs Alex Wright. Heenan talking about Dennis Rodman stating that the reason he stays out partying all night is because he's not allowed out in the day light. Wright has some pretty impressive offense and we take a commercial break. Wright and Regal have some really good chemistry together. Heenan says that Kevin Green needs to put a telephone book in the back of his trunks so when Flair starts spanking him it won't hurt so bad. An impressive back and forth with a great blend of high flying, fast paced offense and slow mat wrestling. So far this has been my favorite match of the night 4 stars.
Mean Gene is in the ring for an interview with Lord Steven Regal. Regal starts the interview by calling Gene a miserable little toad. He says that Gene telling him how to act his life is like Quasimodo telling someone how to walk straight. He calls Alex Wright a junior Adolf and the Giant an escapee from Barnum and Bailey's. Gene mentions he saw a fan giving Regal a half a peace sign. He issued a challenge to Sting calling him a painted faced bloody clown, Regal is such a good interview and in ring talent that this was easily my favorite part of the entire night. 4 stars
Sting vs Scott Steiner is next and Sting stops to take a snack from Flairs VIP table. Really a hard hitting main event with Scott Steiner hitting suplexes all over the place. Sting rolls to the outside and Steiner goes from the top rope to the floor hitting Sting with a double ax handle. Lugar comes to ringside followed by Rick Steiner to support their tag team partners. Lugar and Rick get involved and the match ends in a double disqualification. 3 stars
Razor Ramon comes back out to confront Ken doll Eric Bishoff. He issues a challenge for Billionaire Ted to get three of WCW's very best. He tells Bishoff that he is bringing the war down here. He says he doesn't want the fight on the mic's or in the newspaper or dirt sheets, he wants it in the ring where it matters. 5 stars because this is the kind of moment that build intrigue for the future, mystery in what's going on and makes me want to tune in to see what happens next week. Great end to a very strong show by WCW
Bischoff did a great job of putting over the in ring talent while analyzing what is happening in the ring and telling wrestlers back stories and continuing discussion on some of the other story lines that have taken place to build towards the next pay per view. Heenan was great as usual and made me laugh a dozen times during the hour. A good match to start the show and a great match by Regal and Wright plus the interview after that match. This was a very entertaining show that unfortunately had a couple of really bad matches bringing it down. The Razor Ramon invasion angle is one that history has shown was brilliant but even at the time, it was intriguing and had people guessing what is next.
if you are keeping track at home WWE got a combined 3.5 stars for their effort on the week and WCW slightly edges them out with a 3.75..... next post we will see what ECW can bring to the table and find out who from this fans perspective who wins the week.
For more great wrestling content, join me and my partner Shane Sebunia every Monday night at 6:30 pm CST on Lords of Pain radio and check out our archived shows here.
No comments:
Post a Comment