This Week In The WCW

• Does it bother Mongo that everyone calls him "McMichaels"?
• Wow, Jarrett now gets booed even in Nashville.
• Jarrett definitely outwrestles McMichael early on.
• Heenan: "The only advantage Jarrett will get showboating is that they can bury him here".
• Wow, Debra actually grabbed Mongo by the hair so Jarrett could nail him.
• Mongo "Hulks" out of a sleeper hold and returns the favor with a sleeper of his own.
• Eddie Guerrero comes in to nail Mongo from the top rope with the belt while Debra distracts referee Randy "Pee Wee" Anderson. Mongo turns it around so Jarrett takes the shot. Jarrett is out, Mongo pitches Guerrero over the top rope, gets the attention of the ref, and, with the crowd counting along (which I love), 1-2-3, a new U.S. champion!
• Of course, now Debra wants to get back with Mongo. Mongo yanks the belt away and says "It ain't gonna be that easy!" and storms off, to the delight of the crowd.
• Well, I guess the devil just threw a snowball in hell, because I'm actually a fan of Mongo.
• Man, the U.S. belt changes hands way more often than it used to. Anybody remember Magnum T.A.'s and Nikita Koloff's best of seven series just to determine the belt holder when it was held up?

• Raven is supposedly still not under contract to WCW. Raven grabs the microphone and says he'll only wrestle for "this company" if it is a no-DQ match.
• WCW is definitely pretending that Scotty Flamingo never existed.
• Schiavone talks about how Raven has had six surgeries on his ankle. As a result, one foot is shorter than the other which you can tell by looking at them. All I can see is that the soles of his boots are two different colors.
• Raven sets a metal chair up in the ring and single leg trips Richards into it and then bulldogs Richards into it.
• Schiavone says that in addition to the tattoos, Raven supposedly has his tongue pierced. I'm not even gonna' go there.
• Richards eventually starts to get some offense but Raven turned it around in short order.
• This match was a clean job.

• As you might guess, The Dancing Nazi did his thing before and during the match.
• It really bugs me that the announcers talk as if Jericho really won the belt on Saturday night. Duh, it was taped earlier in the week in Colorado Springs.
• Dusty: "That was a thumb right in the eyeball!"
• Alex has multiple opportunities during the match to make a cover but doesn't take them.
• Another clean job. I guess WCW is making up for Nitro.

• Eddie Guerrero is really overdoing the heel bit.
• Jericho executed a giant swing on Guerrero. Haven't seen that in a long time. Later, Jericho also suplexed Guerrero out of the ring from the apron.
• After the match, Eddie Pearl Harbored Jericho and finished up the punishment with a frog splash.

• Silver King looks kind of pudgy, but he can really work.
• Juventud was in the match for all of about five seconds before taking a really stiff kick from Psychosis.
• Huge pile of bodies outside the ring at one point.
• That was a lot of guys to fly into Nashville for a very short match.

• It's actually an unoriginal angle as ECW did the same exact thing on their pay-per-view this past weekend with a mainstream rock band getting beaten up by the wrestlers. It you are going to duplicate someone else's idea, you should at least wait a week.

• One spot seemed like a set up for an impending turn by Hennig. At one point, Hennig "accidentally" sent Syxx across the ring right into Flair's knee.
• Boy, even with Okerlund on the case, he couldn't get an answer out of Hennig on whether he is a Horseman or not. And, Lord knows, if Okerlund can't get the answers, no one can.

• The entire nWo came out at the beginning of the match. Well, everyone except Hogan, of course. He had a more pressing engagement than being World Champion, I guess.
• Release of black and white balloons from the ceiling to celebrate the nWo birthday.
• Nash announces that Savage and Hall will be defending the belts tonight.
  • Now, if this is all a set up for Savage to do the job so the tag belts can change hands without Hall or Nash having to job, that's going to suck. That will mean Hall and Nash are following Shawn Michael's example of refusing to job to anyone, for any reason. As they say Tradition Bites, I guess.
• Huh, I never noticed them announcing that DDP was from the Jersey Shore before.
• Bagwell, looking at Luger: "He ain't buff, I'm Buff!"
• The nWo goes back to the locker room before the match except for Nash and Elizabeth. After Nash clobbers Luger outside the ring, Nash gets sent back to the locker room.
• Don't Page's vinyl pants get really hot during the match? Must be pretty ripe when he takes them off afterwards.
• Luger has Hall racked and Savage makes the save. Luger gets pushed into Page who is slumped face first in the corner and Luger unintentionally knees Page in the back. A semi-concious Page, on instinct, gives Luger a Diamond Cutter without knowing who it was (hey, it happens when you don't regularly tag team). Hall crawls over and covers Luger for the pin.
• nWo birthday leaflets are sent down from the ceiling.
• So, what was the point of making this a title match?

• Enough already! Do something, Sting!!

"When a man's heart is full of deceit, it burns up - dies - and a dark shadow falls across his soul. From the ashes of a once great man has risen a curse, a wrong that might be righted. We look to the skies for a vindicator, someone to strike fear into the black hearts of the same men who created him. The battle between good and evil has begun. Against an army of shadows comes a dark warrior. The purveyor of good, with a voice of silence and a mission of justice. This is Sting."

• The fact that Alex Wright was not wearing a belt on the way to the ring is a pretty good clue that this match was taped before the Clash on Thursday, when Alex won the TV Title, even though the announcers pretended otherwise.
• Oh, and the announcers are still saying Alex Wright lost the title on a Saturday night when it was taped the previous Tuesday.
• Interestingly, enough, Alex yelling "I am the champion" fits in with the whole idea that he was TV champion when this match was taped.
• Even better, as we're going to the "post-match" interview, Schiavone announces Wright "is putting his belt on".
• Ultimo Dragon will get a return match against Alex Wright for the TV Belt at Fall Brawl.

• According to Schiavone, Sting's bird was a vulture. I like the term "buzzard" better.

• Crowd chanting, "Table! Table!"
• Grunge was busy getting the table when the pin happened. Thus, after the pin, he proceeded to use the table against High Voltage.

• I usually refer to Brad as "The Candyman". About five years ago, or so, his nickname was "The Candyman" because when he came out the ring, he passed out candy to the kids in the crowd. Lame! It always made me worry that he was a pedophile.

• As Brad Armstrong was short-cutting his way to victory, Dusty was bemoaning how he'd known Brad since Brad was a baby, and how disappointed Brad's family must be with this turn of events. Yeah, right. Dusty seems to forget that Brad's brothers, Steve and Scott, are chameleons. Like Jerry Flynn, Mark Starr, and High Voltage, when they are fighting a face, they become heels. They taunt the crowd, use illegal moves, etc. Likewise, when they face a heel, they slap hands with the crowd on the way in, and smile for everyone. Seeing that Steve and Scott do their share of time as heels, I don't think there is going to be any mass suicide within the Armstrong family due to this "turn" of events.
• After the show, I got an e-mail from Sam Brady, which may explain everything. The e-mail was short. All it said was:

  four words...
  
  Stone Cold Brad Armstrong
  
  Who knew?

• No joke, everytime I see Ciclope wrestle, he hurts himself. Ciclope was out the apron and was going to slingshot himself in and Psychosis dropkicked him off the apron. Ciclope hit his forearm on the apron on the way down and whacked it good.

• "Eddie sucks!" chant from the crowd.
• After the match, Jarrett did a run-in. While Jarrett had Malenko in the figure-four, Eddie frog splashed Dean.

• Harlem Heat cleaned house after the match.

• The show was done at Universal Studios in Florida, which is an hour or so away from where I live. I went to some of these shows, and I have yet to see any of the shows that I attended on TV, and there were about eight of them.
• The first thing that went through my mind when watching this match was the intersting hair-do of Hardbody Harris. He had some sideways cornrows that actually hung down over the sides.
• The second thing that went through my mind was he was the only wrestler to go in the drink at the Monday Nitro up in Panama City Beach, FL when it was at the Club La Verde, and the ring was over the pool. It was a match with Kevin Sullivan.
• Meng executes a HUGE power bomb on Harris. I'm talking face in crotch and all!
• Other than that, the workrate was lacking. Both must have wanted to go on Kongfrontation after the match.
• To end the match, Hardbody goes to corner, slips on the second rope, regains composure, then jumps right into a Tonga Deathgrip from Meng, who actually won with a pin while using the grip.

• Bobby Heenan on Sting wanting Hogan, "JJ, JJ Dillon, it's 1997, it's your wakeup call!"

• Despite his being a heel, this interview showed a lighter side of Eddie, he has a decent sense of humor.
• Eddie actually was interviewing Marshall for a few questions, before the genius realized he had role-reversal syndrome, or something.
• Marshall kept asking Eddie about Malenko, who kept avoiding the subject. At one point, they were talking like old wrestling buddies who hadn't seen each other in years. Marshall mentioned the Steiners, and Eddie was in awe of Scott Steiner's arms, then Marshall mentions Rick, and Guerrero says, "You can never give him too much dog food, he likes it. Always bring a bag of doggie biscuits when you travel."
• Eddie still avoiding question on Malenko, asks Marshall about Cruiserweight division, and Marshall mentions Alex Wright, which shows you they do these interviews some time in advance. Finally Eddie says there's nothing to talk about on Malenko, and storms off...okay.

• Bill mentioned this past week in his report about DDP's vinyl pants, but this Nortcutt guy wears an Eddie Guerrero type vinyl leotard, and is about 150 lbs. heavier than DDP...YIKES!!!
• Nortcutt had a decent superkick, but that was about it.
• Fuller power bombs Nortcutt, which was neat only because Nortcutt is so big. Other than that, it looked like he threw him wrong.
• Fuller does have some crack on his chest chops.
• Shiavone mentions that "This is the hottest ticket at Universal Studios." Whatever. They're free, and you don't even have to buy a ticket to get into Universal. I got an email from the Listmanager at WCW Online and was told of the matches, and they'd be free to attend.
• Who are these two, anyways? I've seen Fuller, but he's always jobbin' to someone.

• I thought I was lost in the last match. At least I had seen one of the guys before.
• Heenan kept mentioning "Boone's Farm."
• Chad Fortune is very tall and relatively lanky for a wrestler. He dwarfed Johnny Boone.
• Heenan mentions that Fortune is having difficulty gripping his opponent, and says, "A lot of guys do put rosin on their hands, a lot of guys want to get their hands sticky." I don't EVEN want to know.
• Boring match. This Fortune guy seems content on working the arms of Boone. I figure his finisher would have something to do with the arms.
• At one point, Boone was yelling in pain, and Heenan (this is why you have to love him), "I haven't heard yelling like that since they handed you the check at the restaraunt".

• Marshall: "Ted Turner, he has the money any athlete he wants, if you don't believe me go ask Glavine."
• Another interview that goes nowhere, just talk of how the nWo and Ric Flair want him.

• PE was able to get the crowd involved before the match.
• Power Co. jump them before the match starts.
• Crowd relatively loud for this show. Chants of "Table!"
• To me, it looked like Rocco Rock was partying a bit too much the night before. He looked a little hung over.
• At one point, Johnny Grunge was getting double teamed, and RR was going in to make the save, but Nick Patrick was able to hold him back...yeah right!
• Patrick yells at RR, who just turns around and puts his hands over his ears. Not only does he look like a kid...he acts like one, too! It was kinda funny.
• Heenan being Heenan: "Things don't look good for the Doublemint twins now!"
• "Double your pleasure, double your fun, Public Enemy is obvious that they are done."

• When I saw who was coming out for this match, I was already writing down the results.
• Chants of "Let's go Flair!" I wonder if WCW is actually selling him as a face, since they have people in the background letting everyone know who to root for.
• There was not a real good workrate between these two. Must have been meeting up with Meng and Hardbody Harris at Kongfrontation.
• Chants of "Figure-Four!"
• At one point, Flair was doing a brainbuster on Lizmark, and was holding him up to keep him from falling down, problem was he grabbed him in the midsection. I'm sure Lizmark mumbled under his breath something obscene in Spanish. Why mumble when Konan does it out loud?
• Lizmark taps out while in Figure-Four.

• Back in the good ol' days, shows like this one and WWF Superstars actually furthured angles and had great segments (Piper's Pit, etc). Now they're just extended commercials to watch the Monday night shows and buy the PPV's. Sad.

• How will the WWF regain the status of the #1 promotion?

• The most important thing that the WWF needs to do is change the pay scale. They currently pay based on where the wrestler is on the card, instead of paying a negotiated salary. The WWF also needs to become unpredictable, up their match quality and rebuild Vader.
• The WWF will regain its old spot when it gets back to promoting wrestlers not gimmicks, not dressing glorified jobbers up in strange garb and not promoting stuff that happens outside the squared circle.
• My answer: There is no way Titan can compete with Turner and Time/Warner. What I think will eventually happen is Titan will be bought out by a super conglomerate like Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox, especially since Murdoch hates Turner so much. That will pump money into the WWF so it can retain the stars that it produces on its own (Deisel/Nash, Razor Ramon/Hall, Jeff Jarrett, Hogan, etc.) and sign a couple back from WCW.

• Scotty H.: "Ted Dibiase, noticably absent, is off negotiating contracts."
• No, he's not. This match was taped back when he was solidly with the NWO.

• Is my laundry done yet? This is a good time to check...
• Larry Z., on {Das Bracketlover}'s name: "Das Volkswagon?"

• Barry Houston? Eddie Jackie? Adrian Byrd? These guys are obsolete. What an honor it is to watch them on Pro. Sad.

• This was the first match that I didn't have the result typed in before the match started.
• A lame, lame match that actually had some potential.

• Yes, yes, YES!!!!!!!
• Another guy with a laser pointer doing his obnoxious thing on Glacier.
  • You guys with the laser pointers, could you, like, stop it?
• Nice double team move by Psychosis and La Parka. One drags Miller half out of the ring, extended straight out, and the other jumps over the top onto Miller's back. Ouch!
• Ultimo Dragon came out to take issue with the ending. Silver King came out and the three bad luchadores beat on Ultimo Dragon. Eventually, Glacier and Miller made a pseudo-save.

• Match starts even though Ultimo Dragon can barely stand when the match starts after the beating from the luchadores.
• Man, Silver King really can work! Supposedly, he is the youngest World Champion in history. The masked legend, Dr. Wagner, is Silver King's father. Zbyszko had a interesting historical note on Dr. Wagner. Zbyszko wrestled Dr. Wagner in Guatemala years ago. Right after Zbyszko flew out, the biggest earthquake in Guatemala's history hit and destroyed most of the country, including the hotel Zbyszko had been staying in.
• For those of you going to meet Jeff Jarrett and Queen Debra at the Springfield Mall in Springfield, VA, on Friday, they will be at Kemp Mill Records at 10:00 a.m. Ric Flair will be at the Baltimore Arena box office at the same time.

• Man, Benoit is really over in Columbia, SC. Good pop for him.
• Tenay calls Queen Debra the ultimate golddigger, "If you've got the gold, she digs you!"
• Tenay says Luger was in the locker room did not come out when Page called him.
• Benoit does a great thumb across the throat. Not as good as Arn, but still good. Benoit does it with the mouth open, not bad, but Arn would do a great grimace. Actually, Arn only did it during interviews, Benoit only does it during matches, right before the diving headbutt.
• Hmmm, since Jarrett recently won a match against Benoit that way at a house show (see my reports), you'd think Benoit would have watched out for it tonight. ;-)

• This match was a rematch from WCW Saturday Night.
• Good crowd pop for a vicious powerbomb from Meng on Mortis.
• Later, Meng no-sells shots and clotheslines from Mortis.
• Meng and Wrath mix it up after the match.

Well, Gene, all I can tell ya', to get a response like this makes what I got to say tonight mean that much more. Ya' see, I'm a realist. As everybody knows, I've got average size and speed and average ability. But I've parlayed that into what I would call a very successful career. And I did that on sheer will alone. But another reality is four months ago they took four vertebrae out of my neck. Consequently, I'm left with a hand, my left hand, too weak to hold a glass, too weak to button a button.
But I thought in my mind, I knew in my mind I could overcome that too through sheer will. And I was doing just like that. I think I've come back a long way. But the other day I had something happen in the gym that was like a cold slap in the face of reality. A guy about your size Gene came up and he slapped me on the back and he said, 'Double A, where ya' been? We hadn't seen you on TV.' And just that slap sent a jolt through me and I dropped the water I was drinkin' and just for a second my system shut down. And it became crystal clear as I watched the few little drops of water draining out of that bottle the symbolism that was involved. It was like someone had turned an hourglass over and the sand was runnin' out on the career of Arn Anderson.
Now the fact of the matter is not only do I put myself in a suicide situation by trying to wrestle again, I endanger these two men's careers and I respect them too much for that. And rather than being anything other than the Enforcer in my best friend's eyes, I'd rather walk away. And for all of you people out there that have ever bought a ticket to see Arn Anderson wrestle, whether ya' love me or you hated me, you know that when that bell rang you got all I had that night. Whether I won, whether I lost, I gave you everything I had. And you knew that. And when you did this to me (the four fingers extended) that was your acknowledgement.
Well, the fact is I got nothing left to give. And I want you to remember me as I was, not as I am. But being the man that I am, my last act formally as a Horseman, I got one last challenge. And that is to you, Curt Hennig. And don't misunderstand me. It's not for a fight. You got something special. I've seen you in this ring. Your skills, your maturity, your commitment to excellence make you something special. And what my challenge is to you, Curt, is stand beside my best friend, Ric Flair, and lead these two men back to the glory and the prominence that the Four Horsemen once had. And I'm going to tell you what your prize is. It's not a spot in the Horsemen. This is worth a lot more than that to me. I'm going to give you the only thing I got left. Not a spot. I'll give you my spot.

• During Arn's soliloquy about always giving his best but needing to retire, Ric Flair was lucky enough to barely keep from crying. I wasn't so lucky.
• Handshakes all around. The Horsemen are back. Yay. Funny, I'm not happy.
• As Mark M. pointed out in an e-mail to me after the show, Arn ended his career just as he lived it, he took "his" moment, and used it to get someone else (Hennig) over. A company man to the end.
• Going through and changing my Arn Anderson home page to past tense will be one of the saddest things I ever do.
• The hardest part of that speech to take is the phrase "I want you to remember me as I was, not as I am". There is probably no sadder phrase any great person, even "just" a great pro wrestler, can say about themself.
• For those of you who wonder why I hate Okerlund so much, does this answer your question? He should be fired for taking the impact out of a great moment like that.
• Many thanks to Chan and Charlie for taking the time to type in Arn's soliloquy and send it to me, without even being asked.

• The ending surprised me. I thought this match would be a chance for Hennig to sell his new role as "The Enforcer".

• Seeing Giant and Misterio standing next to each other is a riot!
• Heenan: "There's the long and the tall of it right there."

• For some reason, a huge "Jarrett sucks!" chant erupts during this match.
• Bischoff talks about how the nWo can challenge for any title at any time at any event. Okay, so why don't they?
• It bugs me that Jericho has renamed a move without making any variation on it.

• Now, with Regal seemingly out of the picture, I wonder if Wright is taking Regal's place in the organization.
• "Alex sucks!" loud and clear from the crowd.
• The three ruffians stomped a mudhole in Malenko after the match.

• Bischoff did very one-sided heel announcing for the match.
• Luger is totally overwhelmed early in the match.
• Elizabeth distracts referee Nick Patrick so Savage can throw Luger over the top and then give him a beating outside the ring.
• Bischoff makes fun of Sting's hair. Bischoff liked the flattop better.
• Savage supposedly gets Luger in a sleeper. Isn't the upper hand supposed to be on the forehand rather than the top of the head? Belly-to-back suplex by Luger to get out of trouble for the moment.
• Luger, being superhuman, cames back after a total beating, hits Savage with a couple punches, three reverse atomic drops, a bionic elbow, and he's ready to rack Savage.
• Scott Hall comes to the apron (to render medical attention, according to Bischoff, as Hall went to medical school), and Luger pushes Savage into Hall and they knock heads. Everyone's out. Page comes into the ring and goes to help Luger up and Luger blindly racks him. Nitro ends.
• Okay, Page accidentally hits Luger with his finisher and Luger later returns the favor. The nWo do the Page bit during the show. DDP does his unanswered calling out of Luger. And Scott Hall is telling Luger at house shows that Page is nWo. Is there anybody that doesn't see where this is going? NOT!!! No f'in way that Page is going to turn given how over he is right now!

• Greg/Graham Blue/Goob(???) def. Bobby Eaton with a chicken-wing suplex
  • I have no clue who the winner was, maybe a local wrestler...
• Squire Dave Taylor def. Scotty Riggs with...surprise...a chicken-wing suplex
  • Go figure, two matches, same finishing move...

• Afterwards, Luger and DDP sat in the ring, consoled each other and made up with a hug...