This Week In The WCW
This Week In The WCW
Howdy, all. I'm back from vacation. A couple notes before we get started:
- Many thanks to everyone helped out while I was away. For the indefinite future, we should be back to Cubs Fan doing Worldwide, Ben J. doing {Pro}, and me doing Saturday Night and Nitro. Pay-per-views to be determined.
- I am way behind responding to e-mail. I've got 77 in my inbox now. Please don't let that discourage from sending anything; however, it may take me quite a while to respond to you, post your link, or whatever. Please be patient.
- Curious why "Hog Wild" has become "Road Wild"? Well, a number of years ago, Harley-Davidson trademarked the word "hog" whenever used in the context of motorcycles. Me thinks that WCW got in a little trademark infringement trouble with HD.
- In case you haven't noticed, the weekly update is now posted in chronological order.
WCW Saturday Night - Saturday, 07/18/97
- Note from Bill: The guy who was supposed to write this for me stood me up. Nadinet was kind enough to supply me the information from his site.
- Meng made "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton submit to the Tonga Death Grip.
- David Taylor defeated Davey Haskins with a butterfly suplex.
- Alex Wright defeated Hector Guerrero with a German suplex.
- Konan and the Outsiders were interviewed. Konan would be interviewed again solo later in the program.
- Syxx made Lenny Lane submit to the Buzzkiller.
- Prince Iaukea defeated the Cheetah Kid with a slam.
- J.J. Dillon is interviewed. He promises a big announcement on Tuesday's Nitro.
- Super Calo, Juventud Guerrera, and Hector Garza defeated Villano IV and V & Silver King when Guerrera got the pin on Silver King. Afterward, La Parka attacked Hector Garza and Juventud with a chair.
- "The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus pinned Roadblock with a No Laughing Matter.
- Chavo Guerrero Jr. defeated Johnny Swinger with a bodyslam. Hector threatened Eddie in an interview.
- Vincent defeated Scott Armstrong with the Cobra Clutch.
- Konan (K-Dawg) and Scott "Flash" Norton beat Harlem Heat, I believe it was by submmission.
WCW Worldwide - Sunday, 07/20/97
- Mortis over jobber (didn't catch his first name, last name was Bird)
- One for all you AOL Grandstanders, the crowd was chanting USA :)
- Mortis's signal for his finisher is the most overdone one I've ever seen.
- Flatliner for the win
- Glacier over Rick Fuller
- The Sox/Orioles game(4 hours) on Saturday took less time then Glacier's entrance
- Tony and Bobby were referring to Glacier as undefeated (one week delay)
- Fuller looked good, but Glacier again won in under 3 minutes, with the Chronic Kick
- DDP interview with Marshall
- Talks about how he was a color commentator, managed Scott Hall
- Hall left because he didn't haven't patience
- Talks about how he became the wrestler he is today
- Two of the men he thought of as the best wrestlers and studied were Hennig and Savage
- DDP: "I know [Savage] better than you know you"
- Super Calo over Juventud Guerrera
- The only thing I'll remember from BATB in a year will be that high jump Guerrera made in the 6-man tag
- Juventud was definitely the heel in this one, choking and cheating
- Talk about Rey vs. Nash, the squash of the year, IMO
- Tony makes the startling revelation that Konnan might be nWo.
- Super Calo with a Hurricarana (better than last week) for thin win
- Public Enemy over Power Company
- Oh yeah, A Nitro jobbing tag team vs. a tag team that jobs everywhere else
- I know it's not the same person, but does Johnny Grunge remind anyone else of Rad Radford/Louie Spicoli(sp)?
- Typical Table victory for TPE
- Interview with Jeff Jarrett w/ US Belt
- JJ: "Flair, Benoit, McMicheal, and ARN ANDERSON (a sign?) made a mistake when the got rid of me".
- JJ talking about wanting to end Ric Flair's career
- No mention of Debra McMichael
- Ice Train over David Taylor
- Zzzzzzzzz.
- I refuse to make any intelligent comments for this match. Why? Think about Glacier with a title. This match was worse then that.
- Train Wreck for the win
- Main Event - Cruiserweight Champion Chris Jericho over Psychosis (w/o Sonny Onoo)
- Must have been an old tape, Onoo wasn't there
- A lot better match than Train vs Taylor
- Back and forth match with both wrestlers getting in impressive moves
- Match ended when Jericho pushed Psychosis off on a Top Rope Frankensteiner attempt, and waited and waited for Psychosis to get back up, then hit the Missile Drop Kick
- Next week: Steiners Brothers, Prince Iaukea, Greg Valentine and La Parka (they think)
WCW {Pro} Wrestling - Sunday, 07/20/97
- NEWS FLASH!!!
- To start things off this week, we're going to Shana P., a field
reporter who filed this article earlier this week:
- Something funny on The Main Event. {Pro} is on
Sunday for everybody, right? Well, they showed a past {Pro} match on
Main Event that 'took place' after Bash At The Beach, so they were
commentating on Curt
Hennig's backstabbing etc. This is the FIRST {Pro} after Bash At The
Beach.
- Time for me to stroke my ego a bit. WCW must care what I write...
(sarcastic).
- After I wrote sarcastically about how big an effect the Great
Muta has made, he's been featured recently in matches.
- Roadblock has made two appearances this weekend (Saturday
Night and The Pro) after I wrote that I missed his presence. (Even
though it's not posted on DDT Digest yet.)
- Finally, on my deathbed 50 years from now, I'll be saying that
Monday Nitro is on Tuesday this week for one time only.
- Every other sentence and promo was about this. Folks: Don't
go out to eat, mow the lawn or go downstairs to do laundry. Head on
over to USA and check out RAW... wrestling is wrestling, and there are
some old NWA/WCW guys over there.
- Public Enemy beat Roadblock and Casey Thompson after a Power Bomb
off the second rope.
- PE did something that I have not seen in a long time and have
missed: two people piling on one for the pin. Roadblock kicked out of
the double pin by PE. One of the few times I can say: excellent
booking.
- Grunge power bombed Roadblock...and it was the most
impressive thing I've ever seen! Ha! Gotcha! He did it through the table
to Thompson.
- When they replay the end of the previous match, why do they make the
screen all fuzzy with snow? That is almost worse than the brackets
around Pro. Sad.
- Scotty Riggs beat Johnny Swinger with the Flying Jalapeno, or Flying Forearm.
- Jeff Jarrett beat Rick Fuller with the Figure-Four Leglock.
- Why is Jarrett on the Pro? And why isn't this match the main event
instead of the crap they did serve up as the main event? Sad.
- La Parka beat J L with the Spinning Plancha.
- The Cameraman Hitman, Bunkhouse Bunk, lost to Chavo, Jr. after a
Moonsault by Chavo.
- This matchup blows, even by Pro standards. And I'm not going to
put brackets around Pro, either.
- Buck beats up the cameraman because he can't beat up anyone else in
the wrestling ring. In reality, he would WHOOP Chavo's butt to Texas
and back.
- The match was not much more than a series of pin attempts by
Chavo. Not only was the matchup bad, the match stunk. Sad.
In case you didn't catch my note a few weeks ago, keep in mind that I will be in Phoenix on Monday nights for the next four months or so. As a result, I will be posting Nitro results after watching TNT's replay. Thus, my results will not be out there until around 1:30 a.m. EDT. I know that's an inconvenience for those of you who looked for my report immediately after the live broadcast, but believe me, it could be worse. You could be me. I'm suffering through the end of Robin Hood as I type this. Gadzooks, this show is awful. And, to make matters worse, one of the bad guys looks and fights like Glacier.
WCW Tuesday Night Nitro - Tuesday, 07/22/97
- We are live, well, taped, from Jacksonville, FL.
- Show starts with the Nitro Girls. Definitely good looking women, especially Kimberly. Reminds me of the Fly Girls on In Living Color. However, the Fly Girls could dance. I could do the moves the Nitro Girls do.
- Crowd chanting "Larry, Larry!". Larry Z. gives a thumbs up to the crowd, thus completing his face turn.
- Flair will announce the newest Horseman tonight and Curt Hennig will be wrestling.
- The show starts with the Dennis Rodman nWo music and Hogan and Bischoff came out. Bischoff and Hogan talked about how great they were and how great it was having K-Dawg in the nWo. For some odd reason, they laid down on the mat while giving the interview. Hogan said he owns Flexy Lexy and he accepts Luger's challenge and he will break Luger in half at Sturgis.
- The only reason I could figure out they were laying down on the mat was so that they wouldn't be such an easy target and people wouldn't be so tempted to throw garbage at them.
- I'm guessing Road Wild will probably have the spot talked about a while ago. Sting will cost Luger the World Title. It will not be a heel turn, just a payback for the three World Titles Luger has cost Sting over the years.
- K-Dawg made Tsubasa submit to the Tequila Sunrise following a 187 in a very quick squash.
- Tsubasa, wearing a mask, looked a lot like Ultimo Dragon.
- You may be noticing a lot more "tap outs" of late. All of a sudden, Ultimo Dragon (Dragon Sleeper), Chris Jericho (Boston Crab), and K-Dawg (Tequila Sunrise) have switched to submission holds as finishers and wrestlers are tapping out instead of giving up verbally. This is a concious effort on WCW's part to become more like the UFC.
- Ultimo Dragon made "Dirty Rotten Scoundrel" Steve Regal submit to the Dragon Sleeper to win the WCW World Television Championship.
- Finally, someone just grabbed Ultimo Dragon off the top turnbuckle and clobbered him while he was doing his headstand instead of just standing there in amazement.
- Wow, that was odd! It was a really quick match, and Regal cleanly jobbed. Maybe Regal is leaving WCW??
- And, go figure, Regal tapped out.
- Scheme Gene interviewed Ric Flair. Flair said that Arn Anderson contributed to the decision (a hint of a return, maybe?). Flair introduced the newest Horseman. The music started and Syxx came out instead. Syxx said there is no new Horseman and the Horsemen are a thing of the past. Flair said he's been censored because of Syxx and almost lost his job because of Syxx (for you smarts, that's a reference to the pay-per-view where, legit, Flair lobbied to not have Syxx in the main event). Flair said Syxx was too tough for him and went to walk off. Flair then elbowed Syxx to the head. When Syxx get up, Benoit was standing in front of Flair. When Syxx got up, he said "You wouldn't pull this crap if Hall and Nash were here!". Benoit said, "Why don't we just find out?" Huh? The spot ended with no new Fourth Horseman.
- The Nitro Girls appeared upon return from commercial.
- Oh, now I understand, Benoit and Flair were challenging the nWo.
- The Giant defeated The Great Muta via DQ when Muta sprayed green mist into the Giant's eyes when the Giant was about to chokeslam Muta fifteen seconds into the match.
- Nice ponytail, Giant.
- The match was a set up for a run in by Vincent and Savage to do a mudhole stomp on Giant. They got about ten seconds of kicks in before Giant no-sold the kicks and pitched them out of the ring.
- Luger did a run-in to make the save on the Giant while Giant was still blinded by the mist.
- When Luger grabbed the Giant, Giant, still blind, went to chokeslam Luger. Luger yelled in Giant's ear and Giant, recognizing Luger's voice, let him go.
- "The Man of 1,000 Holds" Dean Malenko pinned Steve "Mongo" McMichael with a small package after Jeff Jarrett interfered.
- Tenay talked about all the rumors swimming around about Malenko being the new Horseman.
- As you might guess, Mongo came to the ring alone. Gee, I wonder if Jarrett and Debra are going to show up.
- On the way to the ring, Mongo said "I wonder how many of those 1000 holds he'll remember after I'm through knockin' him silly?!" Pretty funny, and he didn't say "Baby!" at the end.
- Surprise, surprise, here comes Jarrett and Debra.
- In a nearly blown spot, when Mongo went to grab Jarrett, Jarrett snapped Mongo's neck on the top rope. After a dropkick from Malenko, Malenko small packaged Mongo for the win.
- After the match, Jarrett said he and Malenko should watch each other's back as Mongo was escorted out by police.
- Malenko said he works alone, but he's not stupid. There's strength in numbers. Malenko said he'd give Jarrett his answer when he was good and ready.
- So, whatever happened to the nWo being able to challenge for any title at any event? Just wondering.
- Eddie Guerrero pinned Hector Guerrero following a powerbomb and a frog splash.
- Send in your pictures of your Nitro party. WCW's having a contest, more details next week. No joke.
- Great, Eddie bit Hector two times during the match. This biting thing was barely funny the first time. It's been done once in ECW (causing a DQ, practically unheard of in ECW), and twice in the WCW.
- In an funny ending, Dean Malenko snuck into the ring after the match. Malenko decked Eddie, give him a vicious powerbomb, and put him in the Texas Cloverleaf. When Hector came to, he told Malenko to break the hold. Malenko wouldn't do it so Hector clobbered Dean. When Hector went to help Eddie out of the ring. Dean, incensed, started beating on Hector. Eddie walked out and left Hector there to take the beating.
- More Nitro Girls. Hey, now!
- J.J. Dillon came out to say that tonight would be the contract signing with Raven for WCW. "The King of Swing" Stevie Richards came dancing out and said there were two big announcements tonight. Stevie said he was signing with WCW, too. J.J. said that deal was already done. In a terrible spot, Richards took them to the first row where Raven was sitting. In short, Richards had negotiated Raven's deal, Raven launched into a monologue, tore up the contract, and socked Richards. It sucked. I guess Raven's got a schedule like Sting.
- "The Total Package" Lex Luger defeated Scott "Flash" Norton via DQ when Vincent interfered.
- After the DQ, Luger racked Vincent and Bagwell.
- It was a terrible match. Really short and just a set up for Luger to grab the microphone after the match. After about ten seconds of rambling, Hogan came out and interrupted him. Luger, by himself, then chased Hogan, Norton, Bagwell, AND Vincent into the back. Four against one and they ran away. Yeah, that's believable.
- Commercial for Road Wild. They asked, "Do you know what happens when you mix bikers and wrestling?" Yeah, I know. The bikers just want to see the black wrestlers get beat up. Watch a tape of last year at Sturgis and watch the Harlem Heat match to see what I'm talking about.
- Back from commercial and Hall and Nash have arrived. K-Dawg goes up to tell them what's going down but they see the camera and go talk in private.
- Whoa! Win the Nitro party contest and the Nitro girls will come to your party!! Oh, my!
- Mortis and Wrath defeated Psychosis and La Parka when Mortis pinned Psychosis after a combination powerbomb from Adam Bomb, whoops, I mean Wrath, and a neckbreaker from Mortis at the same time. Ouch!
- Here comes Wrath and Mortis for their entrance. Back in a minute, I'm going to run to 7-11 on the other side of town and get a Diet Coke Double Gulp.
- OK, I'm back from the 7-11. I decided to microwave some nachos while I was there. Wrath and Mortis are just finishing their entrance.
- Hall and Nash have accepted Flair and Benoit's challenge.
- Cut to the back. Flair and Hennig talking. You hear Hennig say "Of course I'm considering it".
- Psychosis thrown into the corner face first and he runs up the ropes and accidentally falls off to the floor. It did not look planned. Luckily, he did not seem to be hurt.
- La Parka with a chair to the back of Mortis after the match. After which, Wrath's boot said hello to La Parka's face, sending La Parka out of the ring.
- Buff Bagwell defeated Booker T. following a Buff Blockbuster set up by Booker T. accidentally elbowing Nick Patrick and temporarily blinding him. That set up an opportunity for Norton to clothesline Booker T. and stun him enough for Bagwell to hit the Buff Blockbuster.
- Man, I love Harlem Heat's entrance music. No joke, it is my Windows Start "wav" file on my desktop at home. Also, I have Harlem Heat wallpaper from Web ProWrestling Wallpaper on my desktop at home.
- Nick Patrick got into Bagwell's face after Bagwell shoved him. All of this to reestablish Nick Patrick as a face referee. Mark my words, if the fans will accept Nick Patrick's face turn, they will accept Hogan when he turns face. Mark my words...
- Scheme Gene interviewed Rey Misterio, Jr. who is on crutches with his supposedly broken leg, courtesy of K-Dawg. Gene-O says Misterio's been out for six or seven weeks. K-Dawg came out during the interview and kicked Misterio's crutches out and started after Misterio. Villanos IV and V, La Parka, and Psychosis came out to protect Rey.
- Gene, what calendar have your been looking at? Misterio's injury was exactly three weeks and one day ago. If you are going to get big bucks for ten minutes of work a week in a job most of us would pay money to have, at least get your facts straight.
- Curt Hennig pinned M. Wallstreet with a Fisherman's Suplex (the manuever formerly known as the Perfectplex) in a match lasting less than a minute.
- By the way, it is spelling "Hennig", not "Henning".
- After the match, "Diamond" Dallas Page did a run in. Hennig got the initial advantage (and was sucking wind after all of two minutes of action) but DDP hit a Diamond Cutter. The Keystone Cops made the save on Hennig.
- The Outsiders def. "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and "Crippler" Chris Benoit when Nash pinned Benoit after a Mafia Kick in a relatively clean job.
- Before the match started, it was announced it would be a title match. Well, that removes any chance of Flair and Benoit scoring the clean win. But, then again, that thing with the new Fourth Horseman, both Dean Malenko and Curt Hennig possibly being false teases, and the fact that Arn Anderson was "consulted" on the decision, and that Arn was been rumored to have been traveling with WCW, and Tenay saying before the match "I guess we won't find out who the Fourth Horseman is tonight", you can always hope...
- After my original posting of this report, I got an e-mail from Blitzin that reminded me of one of the high points of this match I forgot to mention. Near the end, Nash had Benoit up in the air for a powerbomb, and Benoit fought his way out of it. Impressive.
- After Benoit was pinned, Syxx got Flair in the Buzzkiller outside the ring, specifically targeting Flair's bad shoulder. Mongo came out to make the save.
- After Mongo made the save, the Steiners started walking to the ring. With that, Nitro faded out.
- Scott has picked up his brother's habit of wearing non matching wrestling boots. He reverses the colors.
- Oh, well, so much for that hope...
R. Davis was at the Tuesday Nitro. He sent the following arena report:
- The show was sold out. I estimate 200-300 disappointed folks were outside trying to get tickets.
- Merchandise appeared to be selling very well.
- The Nitro girls are an interesting diversion, nothing more. They don't dance well, but they are nice to look at.
- Luger, Giant, and DDP drew the biggest heat from the audience. Flair was a close second. Hogan and the NWO crew third.
- The match between Wrath/Mortis and Psychosis/La Parka could be best described as comical interlude. The largest reaction was when Psychosis blew the top rope spot and folks started laughing. Other than the laugh, the audience was asleep during the match. Lots of Adam Bomb comments for Wrath. Glacier was in a dark match, so we were looking for a sneak attack.
- K-Dawg match was a complete waste of time. Folks were saying "It's over?!"
- Nick Patrick was getting some serious heckling from two guys in front of me during the commercial, and to his credit, he turned the situation into an extremely entertaining one. He threatened to backhand the two guys and had us in stitches!
- Another guy in front of me had a sign that said "When your nWo, your nWo for life". I laughed because it should read "you're" instead of "your".
During the commercial break, Syxx, Hall, and Nash noticed the error, and began to abuse the poor clod holding the sign. It was a priceless moment. Those three can really make the audience hate them.
Thankfully, not too many items were thrown at the ring. As a cup flew by Nash, he turned and said "you missed". Flair is the only other guy who does aggravates the crowd as well as they do.
The Dragon/Regal match had some stiff kicks. The crowd gave the field goal sign after Dragon booted Regal in the ribs.
- Giant looks like he's been lifting. His arm definition has improved.
- Jeff Jarrett had no heat, but Debra does have some nice legs.
- The 1-800-COLLECT Lee Marshall commercial was played on the big TV screen in the coliseum. Folks started chanting "Lee Marshall sucks...Lee Marshall sucks.."
- Did your hear Gene Okerlund say "It's Monday Nitro" after one of his interviews? I lost my voice screaming at him after that one.
- Bagwell and Booker T. had a nice match. Bagwell plays the comic villain very well.
- Laughter was tops when the Guerreros did the "rolling ring around the rosie" maneuver. I watched it on tape this morning and still laughed.
Eddie does look to be in good shape. Of course, Mike Tyson's name came up during the match. (after Eddie did the Hannibal Lechter arm bite)
- The fireworks, lighting, and sound system were excellent.
- Wouldn't it be hard to see a WWF match with all the audience signs?
- At the end of the show, the Einsteiners came out and TV faded to commercial. It took about 10 seconds for the wrestlers to leave the ring and split. Most folks thought there would be some action, but the carpets were rolled up quickly.
- Entertaining show. I laughed, lost my voice, and saw my favorite wrestlers. See ya'.
Chuck D. of Chuck's Movie Reviews sends this arena report:
- Nitro was in Jax in February 1997 and ticket prices then were $5, $10, and $15. Not even six months later for Tuesday Nitro, ticket prices were $12, $18, and $24. Do you know how this compares with the rest of the country?
- Two dark matches at 7:30 PM. In February, there was a dark match with Ice Train and some jobber... and the crowd was completely into it. These two matches no one even watched very closely. In the first one, a blond jobber fought some guy who looked like a Steve Austin clone (and I could swear that around 8:05 PM that guy came out still putting a shirt on and joined the security staff). The match lasted about 2 minutes with many blown spots which had us all laughing. I forgot who won, but the Austin clone did manage an impressive powerbomb, and many of us in my section agreed that this guy was pretty interesting and deserved more than what he's at now.
- The second dark match was Glacier and Ernest Miller vs two masked Mexicans (who could have been Villanos IV and V, or could have been The Conquistidors for all I care). The entrance took 4 minutes...the match lasted 30 seconds. Glacier and Miller were really over with the crowd, but I'll explain more about the Jax crowds later. My attempts to get the "Glacier Sucks!" chant going were sadly unsuccessful. Anyway it's 7:35 and we wait forever for the show to begin.
- I find it amusing that the announcer before the show begins tells the crowd that only the craziest, rowdiest wrestling fans get on TV, and then follows that up with "Don't throw stuff." Also, if you want to get your naughty sign on TV, here's a hint. The announcer will tell the crowd before the show that everyone with signs gets on TV and then he asks everyone to hold up their signs, which they stupidly do. Security then goes around and takes away all the inappropriate signs.
- The crowd's cheers for Larry Z. are by far the loudest cheers of the night.
- Konan's match was so fast... no one knew it had even STARTED. None of us ever heard a bell ring at any time during the evening by the way.
- Just as in February, I was the only one there cheering for Regal, and thought the match was pretty poor. I sure hope Regal isn't on his way out. In February he really worked the crowds well, and here he just wasn't given enough time.
- Ric Flair was soundly booed when he came out. When he mentioned Arn Anderson's name, everyone cheered and stood expecting his return.
- They finally figured out 1) The Giant should always go for the chokeslam right away. 2) Muta should always use the mist right away.
- The Jax crowd was soundly with Mongo whenever he appeared, which is odd because when he was here in February all he did was ridicule our football team.
- The Raven/Stevie Richards thing has already disgusted just about everyone. By the way, could Richards look any more gay? He shaves and he could be a Nitro girl with his widdle shorts and cut off shirt. Anyway, my friends and I all think it's hilarious that each week Richards comes out to chat with his buddy Raven, and then promptly gets slapped. Then the next week, he never seems to have a problem with the fact that he keeps getting beat up! WCW writing staff, we salute you.
- The blown spot from Psychosis was the funniest moment of the evening.
- Booker T was really over with the crowd too. Jax crowds really tend to go against the rest of the country.
- Hennig for some reason got pretty good cheers when he came to the ring. But the place then exploded when DDP showed up. I was 4 seats away from where DDP started his run towards the ring. I now wished I had been in the aisle so I could have been thrown aside.
- Jacksonville hates the nWo intensely for some reason... as both shows I've been to the Outsiders and others have wrestled in, and the crowd always favors the anti-nWo wrestlers HEAVILY. Despite the fact that Flair was severely booed earlier... he was now a hero to the Jacksonville folks. During the break before Flair and Benoit made their entrance, Hall and Nash repeatedly ridiculed Raven who was still sitting in the front row. They were pretty comical about it though, and they seemed to be having a great time. I was shocked that the match actually ended cleanly.
- Before the match even began I noticed that the announcers had suddenly leapt to their feet, so I was watching that area for most of the match.
- Both times I've been to Nitro, I went solely to see how they handle the mayhem which is usually still going on as the show goes off the air. Both times the show ended without any mayhem. Anyway, the second the show ended, the announcers took off from the stage. They really moved out of there, like they had to catch a plane in 3 minutes.