WCW Monday Night Nitro - Monday, 09/29/97

By Bill

Generally, I come into Phoenix on Sunday night and my co-worker comes in Monday night. She takes a cab to the hotel and comes by my room to get the keys to the rental car so she can go out to dinner while I watch Nitro. She is having a hard time believing I'm watching wrestling because every time she comes by, there's no wrestling, there is just a bunch of scantily clad women dancing around. I try to explain that they are just the Nitro Girls but she doesn't believe me.
I think the Steiners cleanly jobbing last week is a major story. I can't ever remember them cleanly jobbing. In my opinion, it can only mean one thing, they are going to win the title. My logic being that they are going to put other wrestlers over first.
I think there is more to Bill Goldberg than meets the eye. I got a couple e-mails being critical of WCW for stealing the Steve Austin idea. A bald bad ass all in black. If WCW is copying WWF, they will probably do it to goof on the WWF rather than actually reincarnate the idea lock, stock, and barrell. Anyway, from all the e-mail I got, this much seems to be known. It is not Kendall Windham but it is one of the guys who tried out for "Piper's Family". His real name is Bill Goldberg and he played defensive line for the University of Georgia from 1986 through 1989. During his college career, he had 170 solo tackles, 178 assisted, 12 sacks, made two interceptions and recovered three fumbles. (Thanks to Charles W. for the U. of Georgia info.) He was in the Atlanta Falcons organization but may never have actually played. He is a recent Power Plant graduate and has done some shootfighting. He is also said to be a legit bad ass.
King Leo of King Leo's Wrestling Page sent me an arena report for last week's Nitro that I just posted. If you are interested, you should check it out.
I'm finding it somewhat interesting how the different the TV Belt is than, say, ten years ago. Back then, major players held the belt for long periods of time. Dusty Rhodes was always in contention, and Mike Rotundo, Arn Anderson, and Steve Austin all had reigns of 11 months. These days, the reigns are much shorter and the belt is held by mid-carders. Personally, I like it better the way it is now, especially given how the World Heavyweight Belt and World Tag Team Belts have languished for the last 15 months. By the way, I'm generally not in the rumor business, but someone has told me to look for Hugh Morrus to win the TV belt soon. I wasn't going to report that, but it goes hand in hand with my theory on the Steiners. Morrus losing that match to Goldberg had to hurt, and I'm guessing he is putting guys over before he wins the belt.
According to Beavis, the reason Tully Blanchard came back to wrestle Shane Douglas a few years ago in ECW is that ECW was supposed to give Tully air time to talk about God and Christianity. In Tully's word's, he was "gypped" and ECW did not come through on their part of the bargain. As a result Tully does not plan on wrestling again.
This whole angle with Disco Inferno and Jacqueline goes to prove what many people were saying and I didn't buy in to at first but I'm finally starting to believe. The Internet really is starting to affect wrestling booking. If it wasn't for the Net, no one would know what the hell was going on with that. Fans that are not on line must be totally confused about the whole thing.
By the way, wasn't "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan supposed to be on Nitro last week?
The big news of my week is that I am one of the featured pro wrestling sites on the official Slim Jim home page. Ironic coincidence since I spent a fair amount of money to buy a case a Slim Jims to pass out to all the people around me at the house show when Macho Man came out. Did any of you out there who went to the show get one?
One last note on the Tommy Rogers giving Kevin Von Erich CPR incident. According to Derrik S., Tommy Rogers is a certified EMT, which is the reason he was able to react so quickly and possibly save Kevin's life.
If you are wondering whatever happened to Nikita Koloff, check out Micasa's Gleaner.
A reader asked me to help promote a benefit card at his high school. I don't take advertising but since I'm not getting paid for it, and it's a good cause, I figured, why not? Plus, you may find it of interest because the card reads like a pro wrestling "Where Are They Now?":

My name is Brian B. and I am a senior at North Carroll High School in Carroll County, Maryland. I was hoping you could help me out. On November 15, 1997 we will be hosting our 6th annual edition of the Pro Wrestling Spectacular. The federation involved will be the MEWF (Disco Inferno was recently the World Heavyweight Champion there). All the profits go to help buy computers for the Business Department. I was hoping you could help us promote it by posting information on it on your web page.
- MAIN EVENT: Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. King Kong Bundy
- Bob Backlund vs. Doink the Clown
- George "The Animal" Steele vs. "Iron" Mike Sharpe
- TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Misfits vs. The Extremists
- MEWF HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Salvatore Sincere vs. Pit Bull #1
- LADIES MATCH: Malya Hosaka vs. Fantasia
- MIDGET MATCH: Dink the Clown vs. Little Hercules
- MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Three Way Ladder Match
Tickets: Ringside - $15.00, General Admission - $10.00 in advance, $12.00 at the door
For Tickets or More Information Call (410)751-345 or (410)783-5416
Card Subject To Change
E-mail of the week, from Tyler T. of Wittenburg University:
"Hey! Someone asked what Ray Traylor's finisher's called...why not call it the 'Traylor Park'!"

Dark match: Ultimo Dragon defeated Psychosis via submission with the Dragon Sleeper.
Dark match: Steve Regal defeated Hector Garza.
We are taped from Worcester, MA. Show opens with the Nitro Girls and focuses on Kimberly in her bikini top. Yeeeooooowwww!!!
Savage and DDP will be fighting at Halloween Havoc.
"Diamond" Dallas Page defeated Buff Bagwell w/Vincent following DDP giving a Diamond Cutter to both Bagwell and Vincent while the referee was temporarily unconscious.
- You know, Bagwell really does love his job.
- Oh, there's Raven in the front row and Stevie Richards sitting behind him. And they are ...doing nothing. Hmmm, sitting around doing nothing and whining. Well, Raven certainly does represent Generation X well.
- Outside the ring, DDP grabs someone's nWo sign and rips it up.
- Bagwell fakes an injury and then Pearl Harbors DDP in the ring. Well done, I've never seen it before and I thought it was legit.
- Bagwell: "Do not adjust your TV set. I am this good looking."
- DDP gets in Raven's face after the match and then left through the crowd.
Promo for Mike Tenay's series on the Mexican Luchadores. Looks pretty cool.
Rey Misterio, Jr. pinned "El Caliente" following a double top rope springboard into a hurricarana.
- Misterio is Pearl Harbored by "El Caliente" when he goes to give his outer mask to a fan. Gee, I don't know, could it be any more obvious that the other guy in the mask is Eddie Guerrero?
- No one in the crowd is chanting "Eddie sucks!" I can't believe they haven't figured it out yet.
- Tenay and Schiavone saying how much El Caliente's moves are like Eddie Guerrero's. As if on cue, the crowd starts chanting "Eddie sucks!"
- Misterio gets the mask off Guerrero after the match.
Okerlund interviews the Giant. Giant on Hennig: "What goes around, comes around. Paybacks are hell." Whatever!
As we break for commercial, Sting's in the crowd. Tenay mentions that Sting has been appearing unannounced at house shows. You do realize that after Sting's appearances this weekend, it doesn't matter how good the show is, if WCW has a house show in the next few weeks without Sting, everyone's going to feel ripped off.
WCW Saturday Night is back to two hours this Saturday.
Bill Goldberg pinned Barbarian following his combination suplex/powerslam.
- Tenay gives some notes on Goldberg. Nothing you can't find above.
- Man, Goldberg sure does look like a legit badass.
- Okerlund demonstrates his usual fumbling interview skills and gets nothing out of Goldberg again after the match.
Okerlund interviews Zbyszko. Zbyszko says he is going to call the Halloween Havoc match fairly as it will be the best way to embarass Scott Hall.
Nitro Girls again. Kimberly has teeny-weeny bikini top on. Only five girls tonight. I guess working two hours a week was too much for the other one.
- Around six months ago or so, DDP and Kimberly were attacked by Savage and Hogan on Nitro. Kimberly was knocked to the ground and the top of her dress snapped off. Savage, (presumably) not knowing that had happened, grabbed her hair and pulled her up displaying her, uh, talents. Supposedly, one of the cameras zoomed right in on it, well, them, and Bischoff was in the control room freaking out, screaming "Do NOT go to that camera!! Do NOT go to that camera!" Supposedly, it didn't really bother Kimberly.
We will be hearing from Ric Flair live later tonight. He will be giving us a major announcement concerning his career.
Disco Inferno pinned Juventud Guerrera following a pancake suplex to retain the WCW World Television Title.
- Alex Wright came out wearing the brightest yellow pants in the world during the match.
- Schiavone: "He couldn't sneak up on anybody with those pants." Zbyszko: "He couldn't sneak up on a blind guy with those pants."
- Jacqueline came out to make sure that Disco Inferno keeps the TV Title. She tripped up Guerrera right before the finish.
Savage and Elizabeth came out. Savage warned Piper not to get too creative at Slim Jim's Halloween Havoc and dared Sting to "come get some".
Schiavone theorizes that Sting "could be" at the house shows this coming weekend. No fake, Tony.
Jeff Jarrett w/Queen Debra pinned Steve "Mongo" McMichael with a rollup and feet on the ropes set up by Debra distracting Mongo from the apron.
- As Mongo comes out, he says "It's going to be over tonight!"
- Schiavone says that Mongo and Debra are no longer living together. You know, I'm seeing that they are having real life marital troubles reported everywhere. Yeah, right. Another work, imho.
- Hey, this is the same match I saw Saturday night! Mongo reverse Jarrett into a sleeper of his own then, too.
- Different ending, though.
Ha! A "Bischoff Fears Marv Albert" sign. Nice!!
A bunch of med students from Brown University are in the crowd. We'll see their Nitro party tape later.
"Lionheart" Chris Jericho beat Syxx via DQ, I guess.
- Scott Hall comes out on crutches. Tenay says that Hall could not appear at the house shows this weekend due to his injuries. WRONG! He appeared, he just didn't wrestle.
- Hall works the crowd and WCW gets booed and nWo gets a good pop. Ouch!
- I like Jericho's new music a lot better. It's not wimpy.
- The announcers are hyping the Piper/Hogan match at Halloween Havoc by saying it could be your last opportunity to see those guys fight each other. Wasn't last year's Starrcade supposed to definitely be the last time they fought each other.
- Jericho with the giant swing. Don't see that too often.
- Hall distracts Jericho as he is about to put the Lion Tamer on. Syxx puts the Buzzkiller on Jericho.
- Hall jumps in and starts to rough up referree Scott Dickinson, pulling out his shirt and jiggling his fat belly. Yuck!!
- Zbyszko jumps in to make the save on Dickinson. Hall and Syxx approach Zbyszko and Luger runs in to make the save on Zbyszko.
- No official decision on the match was ever rendered.
Flair called in and thanked Schiavone for his support. And, believe it or not, he thanked Hennig for the wake up call. Flair says he is coming back and he will get his robe back from Hogan. Flair told Benoit to go his own way. Flair also told McMichael to go his own way. He doesn't want the Horsemen to risk themselves watching his back. Schiavone asks Flair if he is disbanding the Horsemen. Flair says it is time off, and what he is going to do when he comes back will be immoral and illegal.
We get the see the Brown University Nitro Party tape. Okay, a bunch of interviews with people from Brown. So, where's the party?
Bischoff comes to the ring and says something about Piper and Sting colluding. Whatever!
Hey, a Buff Bagwell hat! Only $20? I'll take two, one for my head and one for my ass, where my brains must be if I pay $20 for an nWo hat.
"The Total Package" Lex Luger made Wrath submit to the Human Torture Rack.
- Someone in the crowd is holding up a "Big John Studd" sign.
- Mongo vs. Jarrett is announced for Halloween Havoc. Wow, they really are promoting this card early.
- A very audible "Luger sucks!" cheer duing the match. Why? You got me.
- Luger takes an early beating and pulls a rally at the end out of nowhere. Gee, that's a surprise.
- Nitro Girls come out at the end of the match this time.
The Giant defeated Curt Hennig via DQ when the nWo interfered. Hennig retains the U.S. Heavyweight Title on the DQ.
- Eric Bischoff joins the announcing team uninvited. He claims he still has the restraining order against the Giant. Too bad they are only valid in the jurisdiction they are issue in. They don't issue them in Federal Court.
- It's a complete squash early on.
- Hennig eventually musters some offense and takes the Giant to task outside the ring.
- Hennig successfully gives the Giant a Fisherman's Suplex!! And the Giant powers out afterwards! Hennig is beside himself!
- Giant does his kip-up. He needs the ropes to do it, but you never saw Andre do that.
- Giant gets the chokeslam and the nWo rushes the ring for the DQ...again.
- As the Giant is receiving his nWo-supplied beating, which he no-sold until he was clocked with the U.S. Belt, Sting rushes the ring. Sting pitches his bat, and fights off some seven nWo guys on his own. And the show ends.
  - Sting fighting off seven guys was kind of silly. They all had to kind of take a turn waiting to attack him so as to make the angle of him fighting off all of them work.

Mike T. sends in this arena report:

Cool sign of the night: Sting fears Mr. T.
Some guy had a bunch of signs confiscated, among them "Hogan to Job At Starrcade to Sting". Duh.
Don't know if you could hear it on TV, but the crowd chanted "She's a Whore" about Debra.
Almost as soon as the Mysterio-Caliente match started, there was an Eddie Sucks chant. Most of us knew at once.
When Flair did his "break time" announcement, you could hear a pin drop. No Horsemen merchandise, by the way.
I don't know when the cameras turned off, but Buff got Stinger Splashed and the place went nuts. Now, I loved the old Sting, so it was great when he did the yell, but no Death Lock?
All in all a good show. I found it rare that there were no tag matches, and I was disappointed at the absences of Malenko, Silver King, and Villano IV & V, but it was still cool.

WCW Monday Night Nitro - Monday, 09/29/97

By Bill

Back to DDT Digest