This Week In The WCW

I live in the Birmingham area and on Worldwide this weekend they were hyping the Nitro in Birmingham (I will be there). Well, Lee Marshall is set to do an interview and he calls out, "The Enforcer of the Horsemen" and Arn Anderson walks out! Yes, Arn gave an interview on Worldwide. He talked about how he has changed since the surgery, a new Horseman, and he put down the crowd at Birmingham. I find this very interesting because why would they have Arn Anderson put Birmingham down? My guess it that he will be on Nitro in some capacity with Flair and Hennig. It kind of shocked me at first but then it all fell in place. WCW knew not a lot of people would see him if it was a local shot so they brought him in. Look for Arn on Nitro and the Clash this week.
Also, he was hiding his injured hand the entire interview. He had it in his pocket.

• Eddie Guerrero pinned Jim "Juice" Powers following a frog splash.
  • Chant of "Eddie sucks!" from the crowd to start the match.
  • The card for Clash of the Champions was announced. No big surprises except for Raven going up against Stevie Richards. The official WCW website probably has the entire card if you are interested.
• Stevie Richards (in his WCW debut) pinned Lenny Lane following a Stevie Kick (superkick).
  • At one point the camera cut to the crowd for a couple seconds for seemingly no good reason. I thought, "What, is Ric Flair wrestling and his tights are pulled down?" Well, close. Cut back to the match, and Lenny Lane is rolling on the mat grabbing his crotch. Now, I guess we cut away on blood, full moons, and crotch shots. Geez, next time Flair wrestles, we'll only be able to watch about five out of every sixty seconds of the match.
  • Richards actually put Lane over in this match. You'd think that in a star's debut, they'd book a squash, but not this time.
• Diamond "Dallas" Page pinned Rick Fuller following...BANG!, the diamond cutter.
  • Rick Fuller? What is this, Sunday {Pro}?
• Konan and Syxx def. The Texas Hangmen when one of the Hangmen submitted to Syxx's Buzzkiller.
  • So, is Syxx related to George "The Animal" Steele? He had a green tongue.
  • After the match, Scheme Gene interviewed Flair and Hennig. End result, Hennig is still a free agent. Man, Hennig is going to turn on Flair in a big way.
• "Lionheart" Chris Jericho made "Das Blunderpinned" Alex Wright submit to the Lion Tamer (Boston Crab) to regain the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship.
  • I actually read that this had happened at the Colorado Springs taping on another page this week from someone who was at the taping. I didn't post anything since I didn't want to spoil it for any of you who actually sit through the pain that is WCW Saturday Night. I figured you deserved this little surprise.
  • As the crowd is chanting "USA!", Schiavone points out that Jericho is from Canada.
  • Even though Wright was booked to lose, it didn't stop him from doing his dance in the middle of the match.
  • The ending came on Jericho reversing an attempted German Suplex, rolling Wright up into what looked like a pinning predicament, and turning it around into the Lion Tamer.
  • Eddie Guerrero appeared in the entranceway after the match to ruin the party. The crowd again chanted "Eddie sucks!"
• A "Paid for by the nWo" spot had the nWo with sparklers singing "Happy Birthday to Us". At end, Nash noted "fifty more of these and it would be like Flair's birthday cake".
• Jeff Jarrett, accompanied by Queen Debra, made Mark Starr submit to the Figure Four.
  • During the match, the crowd chanted "Mongo". I guess that's better than the usual "Jarrett sucks".
  • In the post-match interview, Wright interrupted asking Debra about all those things she whispered to him on Nitro. She said, "Sorry, hon, no gold, no Queen".
  • Okerlund called Jarrett "Double..uh, Jeff Jarrett". Jarrett used to be "Double J" in the WWF, and they still own that trademark.
• New commercial for the Syxx t-shirt. The Wolfpack started the commercial by counting "3-2-1", an obvious reference to Syxx having been the "1-2-3 Kid" in the WWF.
• Super Calo pinned the Renegade following a hurricarana from the top turnbuckle.
  • The evil Renegade now sports a sinister looking mustache and goatee.
  • Well, "The Man Who Will Bring Hulkamania Into The 21st Century" was just beaten by a man who had a 5-19 singles record for 1997.
• Steve "Mongo" McMichael pinned Hector Guerrero following a tombstone piledriver.
  • Dusty mentioned Schiavone getting angry and "getting his dandruff up".
  • After the match, Jeff Jarrett ran in and stomped a mudhole in Mongo and put him in the figure-four. Benoit made the save.
• Yuji Nagata made Jerry Flynn submit to a dropback standing reverse figure-four leglock.
• "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Curt Hennig def. Wrath and Mortis when Hennig pinned Wrath with a Fisherman's Suplex.
  • After the match, Konan and Syxx did a run-in to beat on Flair and Hennig. Flair and Hennig quickly dispatched the ruffians.

• Just for your information, Worldwide is rated TV14. In comparison, WWF's SSN, with its "interesting" opening is also rated TV14. Just me, or do those ratings make no sense?
• Corrections from last week:
  • I don't watch a Dean match, and what does he do, finish with a different move! He won by STF.
  • That High Voltage finishing move I couldn't figure out last week is called the Volt Meter. You may be wondering, how the heck did I know that? Well, if you ever want to know about WCW midcard talent, the best place to check is WCWWrestling.com's Ross Reports. They have a lot more info then you normally hear about people like Hector Guerrero, Lizmark Jr., and Joe Gomez. This week's feature is about Jeff Jarrett, and his relationship with Eddie Guerrero.
• Match 1: The Tablewackers/Public Enemy vs. Amazing French Canadians w/Col. Parker
  • Tony and the Brain give me a couple good laughs coming in, "A win will help either team move up the WCW Rankings", "JJ Dillion watches these matches".
  • Tony sounded surprised that Sting didn't sign the Perfect contract. Speculation that Sting might not want to wrestle anymore. (Yeah, he just happens to hang from rafters over wrestling rings)
  • Brain: "Is Stevie Richards Raven's manager or punching bag?"
  • Oh yeah, the match. Jacques is holding Rocko from behind, but Rocko slips loose and Pierre hits Jacques with a lariat. Hot tag to Grunge, who bodyslams the house on fire. It's table time!
  • Tony: "I talked to Nick Patrick [the ref of this match] and he said that as long as TPE doesn't hit their opponents with the table, it's fine" In other words, you can bring in anything want into the ring, you just can't hit your opponents with it. Having them land on it is fine though. Weird.
  • Strange ending, too. TPE was going to bodyslam Grunge through Pierre on the table like last week, but Jacques blocked it. Then, a minute later, AFC tried to do it to TPE, with Grunge on the table. Grunge got up in time, so Jacque flew through the table and got pinned.
• Lying Lee Marshall with ARN ANDERSON!!!!!
  • More hype on the Chicago house show on Sept. 8th. If you want to know about the card, check back at my previous reports, there were no changes this week.
  • Arn Anderson talks about the Four Horsemen's friendship with the Wirtz family (owner of the Blackhawks, half owner of United Center, as well as plenty of non sports stuff in the Chicago area)
  • Arn talks about how the Horsemen have power in Chicago, and when they come there, they are gonna' show off their power to JJ and Debra.
  • Short interview, but hey, any interview for AA is a good interview. Seriously, I don't know anything for sure, but unless they were planning on involving him soon, why have Arn do this instead of Ric Flair, who's the person who actually has the match with JJ.
• Match 2: Buff Bagwell over Mark Starr
  • Posing, Posing, Posing.
  • Bobby on Bagwell "All his former partners (2 Cold Scorpio, Patriot, Riggs) leeched off him" Is the Brain right? Look at them now (jobbing on Monday nights, will job on PPVs, jobbing on WCWSN)
  • Tony "Mark Starr is on a four match winning streak" WTH? Has Starr won four matches this year?
  • Just me, or does Buff gets yelled at by the ref every single match? It happened again with Mark Curtis.
  • The Buff Blockbuster is a great finisher, and got Bagwell the win.
• Match 3: Roadblock over. Lizmark Jr.
  • Can you say "Time filler"?
  • Both touted as up and comers. Problem is, after Roadblock runs over him, Lizmark isn't gonna get up.
  • Dead End Drop followed by a flop from the apron over the top rope and onto Lizmark Jr. for the win.
• Match 4: Steiner Brothers over Power Company
  • It's WCW's best team vs. their worst. Cool, I don't even have to watch this match! Just because I'm a nice guy (and Dean burned me last week), I'll watch it anyway.
  • Ted DiBiase was not with the Steiners. According to Tony, Ted was working on business for the Steiners. My guess is this was an old tape.
  • The Brain with an interesting point, "Is Ted trying to help the Steiners or hurt the nWo?"
  • Rick Steiner had the hot tag, which finished with a Top Rope Bulldog for the win.
• Lying Lee Marshall with Eddie Guerrero
  • Talk about Dean vs. Eddie causes Eddie to come in and start shouting things in Spanish.
  • After getting done with the Spanish version of this interview, Eddie tells us English speaking people that he invited all his people to come watch him kick Dean's, um, behind all around the ring. His people? Eddie's from El Paso, Texas.
• Match 5: Juventud Guerrera over Super Calo
  • I had seen GAB '96 and Uncensored '97 earlier the same day, and you can really see how much more mat wrestling seems to be incorporated into the luchadore's styles since they arrived.
  • According to Tony, Juventued Guerrera means Young Warrior, and he's not related to Eddie or Hector. Maybe the different spelling of his name was a clue.
  • Brain on Rey Mysterio, Jr. and his challenge to Kevin Nash a couple weeks ago "He has a tremendous amount of courage, or his mask is too tight around his head".
  • After Tony tells the Brain that he thinks Rey is better then K-Dog, the Brain warns Tony that he tell K-Dog that. Tony points out to the Brain that talking to the nWo is a serious no-no. Brain's talked about the nWo highly a lot, and has said he likes it except for Hogan. So, assuming that Hogan's gone before the nWo is, are we foreshadowing an Brain nWo turn?
  • Juventud with a Asai moonsault for the win.
• Match 6: Jeff Jarrett w/Debra McMicheal over Chris Jericho.
  • No mention of the US Title, and for that matter, the Crusierweight Title. If you ignore that for a sec, and the fact that this was probably taped during Jericho's JTTS period, this looks like a good match.
  • Jericho is mentioned as a Rookie of the Year. Strange, I remember him first showing up around this time last year. How long can he be a rookie for?
  • Talk about JJ and Dean's alliance. Yeah, that one lasted for ages. Speaking of that, JJ should stop strutting with other people. He starts to strut with McMicheal, Tombstone. He struts with Flair, out of the Horseman. He tries to strut with Dean, and those two are after each other the next week.
  • Bobby "I heard that the nWo may be making a big trade". No, Brain, they're picking up a Free Agent.
  • Tony "You're [Brain] as far away from Dan Rather as I am from a skinny guy"
  • After the close double ten count, Jericho has a nice combo. Starts off with a superkick, followed by a big powerslam, and finished with an Asai moonsault. JJ has to ruin it by kicking out.
  • Match ends after JJ counters a Jericho sunset flip into a sit down, and then gets hold of the ropes and Debra to get leverage to hold down Jericho.

• Question of the week:
  • How will the WWF regain the status of the #1 promotion?
  • The WCW isn't going to have the upper hand forever. Once upon a time, the WWF reigned supreme, but then WCW wrestled the advantage away by spending a lot of money. How is the WWF eventually going to turn the tide back to its federation? I've got one idea, but I'd like to hear yours. E-mail me your thoughts and I'll post them and mine in next week's report.
• DDP Beat Steve Armstrong after a Face-First Piledriver.
  • Well, that's part of it. DDP then nailed him with the Diamond Cutter.
• Hugh Morris beat Alex Porteau after the Last Laugh.
  • Havn't seen "The Laughing Man" in a long while. Could show how old this stuff really is.
  • Announced match at The Clash: Ultimo Dragon vs. {Das Bracketlover} Alex Wright for the TV Title.
• Brad Armstrong beat Doc Dean with the Russian Leg Sweep.
  • Announced match at The Clash: "Lionheart" Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Guerrero for the Cruiserweight Title.
  • (Bill: "Rick Fuller? What is this, Sunday {Pro}?")
  • Loser vs. Loser match? What is this, Worldwide?
• Super Calo beat Rocky King with a modified Tequila Sunrise.
  • Scotty H.: We havn't seen Rocky King in a while.
  • That's because this match is older than Flair.
• Great Muta made Mark Starr submit with a leglock.

• As you may have noticed, I shut the Q&A section down. I'm taking no new questions, but if you have answers for the existing ones, I'll post them. If you are wondering why I took it down, the reasons can be found there.
• My History Of Blading got such an enthusiastic response, I'm going to do a feature on a piece of lost professional wrestling history. My old roommate claims to have an incredible videotape which I'm going to borrow and watch and write up for you in the next few weeks. No hints beyond that, but it will answer some questions for a number of you and open the eyes of some of you younger fans.
• As I found out the hard way last week, the Nitro replay now immediately follows the live broadcast.
• Supposedly, this Thursday's Clash of the Champions (which used to be on Tuesdays) is a harbinger of things to come. Supposedly, there is going to be a Thursday Night Nitro on TBS starting sometime soon. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have two hours of great live wrestling than four hours of mediocre live wrestling. It will be interesting to see what comes about. If Thursday Nitro actually happens, chances are I won't do a report on it until Friday night, since I usually fly home on Thursday night. Also, I'll probably line up another guest reporter for WCW Saturday Night, as doing Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, in addition to all the other features, would get to be a little much. I already have a "waiting list" of two volunteers above and beyond Ben J. and The Cubs Fan. However, if you are sincerely interested in doing a weekly write up for DDT Digest, drop me a note which I will put in my "Future Volunteers File". The requirements are as follows:
  • You've got to be knowledgeable about the past and present of professional wrestling.
  • You've got to be a good, and funny, writer.
  • You've got to send me your report in HTML format. Not difficult, just take a look at the source of Ben J.'s reports.
  • You've got to be dependable and in it for the long haul. I need reports within 24 hours or so of the broadcast and I will be depending on you to send me the weekly report without my reminding you. Ben J. and The Cubs Fan have mastered this art so I now come to expect any other volunteers to perform at their level.
  • You've got to be independently wealthy, because I ain't gonna' pay you squat! Seriously, I don't take in any revenue, so you've got to be willing to do this for free.

• You know, I knew this would happen. I was thinking of this on the way home. If you tune in when the replay is supposed to start, and the live broadcast goes overtime, you get to see the ending. Oh, well, I'll save it to the end.
• Man, they really are going overtime. It's ten minutes after the hour. All in an effort to squash RAW, I guess.
• Finally, fifteen minutes late, the replay opens with Raven giving a whiny Generation X soliloquy. Man, that was dumb.
• Well, next come the Nitro Girls. No more rhythm than they had last week. But, on the bright side, there is no way Kimberly is wearing a bra underneath that halter top. Hummunna, hummunna, hummunna...
• Harlem Heat w/Jacqueline def. Vicious and Delicious w/Vincent via DQ when the referee saw Vincent interfere.
  • Harlem Heat pretty much controlled the match.
  • Great crowd in Birmingham, AL, tonight. Everytime someone connects with a good punch, everyone in the crowd yells "Buh!" I love when the crowd does that but I haven't heard it in a while.
• Barbarian pinned Mortis after a Kick of Fear.
  • Wrath ran in after the match to administer the Death Penalty on Barbarian. Meng came out to put the Goozel on Wrath. You know how it goes.
• Eric Bischoff came out sporting a new beard. He must be using Hulk Hogan's barber. Bischoff invites everyone to "his party" on the Clash of the Champions on Thursday. Bischoff announces that he also has a restraining order against Zbyszko. Bischoff also demands his own show. Hmmm, that time filler was boring.
• It is announced that the Faces of Fear will be facing Wrath and Mortis on WCW Saturday Night. Also, Dean Malenko will be facing Eddie Guerrero.
• Okerlund interviews Flair and Hennig. Ya' know, it really bugs me how Flair puts Okerlund over at the beginning of every interview. Hennig's still not a Horseman. Flair says he's going to beat up Konan tonight and Hennig says he is going to beat up the Giant. *yawn*
• "The King of Swing" Stevie Richards pinned Scotty Riggs following a Stevie Kick.
  • Immediately after the match, Raven came into the ring (through the crowd) and DDTd Stevie Richards.
  • Tony Schiavone said it was the first time Raven was in a WCW ring. Hmmm, I don't know what sport you're being paid a lot of money to know a lot about, Tony but he fought a lot of matches as Scotty Flamingo. Also, he appeared at a house show to DDT Stevie Richards recently.
• Okerlund interviews Jeff Jarrett, Queen Debra, and Eddie Guerrero. Alex Wright, not taking the hint from Saturday Night, gets in Debra's face. Debra blows him off but says that she might give Alex the time of day if he wins the TV Belt at Clash of the Champions.
• "Crippler" Chris Benoit and Steve "Mongo" McMichael def. U.S. Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett and Eddie Guerrero when Chris Benoit pinned Jeff Jarrett after Mongo plastered Jarrett with the U.S. Belt after Queen Debra dropped it..
  • Nice "Guerrero sucks!" and "Jarrett sucks!" chants from the crowd.
  • Crowd chanting "Mongo!"
  • Crowd doing the "Buh!"s again. I love that.
• Nitro Girls again. I would imagine that Bill Gates on the dance floor would have more rhythm than the Nitro Girls.
• The Outsiders come to the ring. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
• Nitro Girls again. Schwing!
• "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def. Syxx via DQ when Norton, Bagwell, and Vincent rushed the ring when Ric Flair purposely took forever to put on the Figure-Four leglock because the nWo goons seemed to miss their cue.
  • Did I miss something? I thought Flair said he was going to fight Konan tonight.
  • Boy, oh, boy, Syxx's Bronco Ride on Ric Flair generated some serious heel heat tonight.
  • Flair Flop to the floor instead of along the apron tonight.
  • Uh, oh, Syxx went to the well once too often. Flair rolled out of the way of the second Bronco Ride attempt.
  • Curt Hennig made the save on Flair after the match.
• J.J. Dillon and Nick Patrick came out for an interview with Okerlund. Dillon says that the Executive Committee spent a week debating Patrick's action and agreed he did the right thing at Road Wild. Nick Patrick says they were wasting their time second-guessing him and they should review Randy "Pee Wee" Anderson's actions since he cost Luger the title.
  • This angle is shaping up weird. Is Nick Patrick going to turn again?
• WCW World Television Champion Ultimo Dragon made La Parka submit to the Dragon Sleeper to retain the title.
  • So much for the rumors of La Parka being fired for going into the crowd at house shows and hitting a fan with a chair. Now you know why I don't report rumors.
  • Ono got a few kicks in on Dragon outside the ring.
  • Dragon had La Parka in the Dragon Sleeper but was distracted by Ono. Dragon went after Ono and took a kick to the head from La Parka. Ono then kicked La Parka by mistake and Dragon snapped the Sleeper on again.
    • The spot where Dragon put on the Sleeper the first time demonstrated that the Sleeper does not hurt at all. La Parka knew he was going to get out of that spot, so he didn't even bother squirming or acting like the hold hurt. Unfortunately, this was very obvious as it took a little too long for Ono to set up the distraction to break the hold.
  • This was a match that I was able to type the results of as soon as I saw Ultimo Dragon start walking down the aisle to go to the ring before the match.
• Curt Henning def. The Giant via countout when Giant left the ring to confront Eric Bischoff.
  • Again, no music for the Giant again. Likes like his tag team with Luger is kaput.
  • Giant started off the match by tossing Hennig around like a rag doll.
  • During the beating, Heenan goes: "Giant acts like Hennig owes him money".
  • Bischoff comes running down during the match and wants to enforce the restraining order. Dillinger says it doesn't count if Bischoff approaches the Giant. Suddenly, Zbyszko appears and Giant leaves the ring (getting counted out in the process) and Bischoff is sandwiched between Giant and Zbyszko. Bischoff tries to leave through the crowd but the crowd treats him like a home run ball from the opposing team at Wrigley Field. Giant grabs Bischoff but Bischoff slips away to the dressing room as the Keystone Cops try to restrain the Giant.
• Scheme Gene interviews J.J. Dillon. Dillon says he's done talking and he doesn't even have a contract with him tonight. It's Sting's turn to talk. Sting has until Clash of the Champions to says what he wants. Sting comes out of the crowd into the ring. Since J.J. Dillon is the only person on the planet who hasn't figured out what Sting wants, Sting has to point to the "Sting wants Hogan" signs. J.J. Einstein still can't figure it out. Finally, Sting picks a "Hulk vs. Sting" sign up off the ground and shows it to Dillon. Someone nails Sting on the back of the head with a cup full of ice and it's time for a commercial.
• "The Total Package" and "Diamond" Dallas Page def. the Outsiders via DQ when the nWo interfered. The Outsiders retain the belts on the DQ.
  • Hey, this is where I came in at 7:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
  • All four wrestlers were legitimately getting pissed at all of the crap being thrown in the ring. It wasn't all that much, but the people throwing it had good aim.
  • Luger has control of both Nash and Hall. Hall tags in Nash and Luger tags in Page. Nash, in a funny sequence, imitates Page gesture for gesture. Not hard, come to think of it, since he always does the same thing.
  • Page gets an early advantage but Nash takes over after the big foot and tags Hall in. Hall administers a beating and tags Nash in.
  • Hall with an abdominal stretch. Page reverses it but Hall tags Nash in.
  • Hall and Nash tagging each other in and beating on Page. Page is in rough shape.
  • Hall gets Page in a sleeper all the way down to the mat. Page "Hulks" out of it.
  • Page gets a brief offense but Hall tags Nash in before Page can tag out. Out of nowhere, Page reverses a move into a head scissor on Nash.
  • Page gives Luger the hot tag and Luger comes in house-a-fire. On cue, the nWo troops rush the ring.
  • Flair and Giant run to the ring to make the save on Luger and Page. It's a pandemonium in my hotel room as we fade out.
• There was a dark match before broadcast, Yuji Nagata beat "Squire" Dave Taylor.
• And, and for all of you who wrote me the night Wright won the title telling me I didn't notice the Queen Debra congratulating Wright on the walkway and I said, "Yeah, I noticed it, but it doesn't mean anything. It was just an ad-lib". Shows you how much I know.
• See you on Friday night with a report on the Clash.

• After the camera went off, Sting left the ring, came back and gave his good old Sting howl to the crowd. From the time Dillon came out to the time Sting left, The BJCC was the loudest I have ever heard it.
• Mongo and Benoit got the biggest pop of the night after Sting. Everything Benoit and Mongo did got the crowd on its feet. I don't think I sat down at all during the match. I tried a "We want Arn" and a "We want Dean" chat but it was so loud no one heard me. The crowd went crazy when Mongo spiked Jarrett with the belt.
• Harlem Heat got a great pop from the Southern crowd, something I didn't expect if you know what I mean. When they kicked Vincent and Bagwell, the crowd went through the roof.
• Before Nitro, they had theme music playing for the crowd. Alex Wright's started to play and some guy was doing the dance perfectly.
• I noticed an EC f'n W shirt along with a WC f'n W sign. I had a small ECW sign but I was off camera all night so it didn't pick up. I held it up in back of me and I could hear people talk about ECW. Speaking of ECW, when Stevie came on, someone asked who he was and their friend said he was the guy with Raven. I asked them both if they ever watched ECW and they said no.
• Yuji Nagata beat Dave Taylor with a modified figure four. Taylor drew monster heat from the Southern crowd and Yuji got a decent pop.
• During the Outsider interview, someone hit Nash with a cup and you can see him motioning to his groin towards the guy and telling him something.
• When everyone was throwing things in the main event, one guy hit Hall dead in the head. You were right when you said they had perfect aim because they did. Luger was off camera trying to get the crowd to stop but no one listened. Before the show, the ring announcer said not to throw anything in the ring and everyone started to boo loudly. I knew we were in for a rainy day then.
• I was sitting behind about 5 20-year-old marks and everytime the Nitro girls came out, they went crazy. I was sitting next to this other guy and the topic of Sting/Hogan came up. I said it would be probably December before we got it and he looked disappointed.
• During the Raven interview I tried to start an ECW chant but everyone was looking at the Nitro girls.
• The crowd went through the roof every time there was a mention of the NWO, Luger, The Giant, DDP, or Sting.
• After Nitro went off all that happened was that Flair shaked Luger's hand. Interesting.