WCW Saturday Night - Saturday, 12/20/97WCW Saturday Night - Saturday, 12/20/97
Note From Bill: Creed had VCR trouble this weekend, so I threw together a real quick report. All my comments for the week will be in my Thursday Thunder report.
- Meng pins "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton with the Goozle.
- Tony S. and Dusty are hoping to "get the footage released" by the nWo of what happened in Baltimore to show us tonight. Puh-lease.
- Meng could have pinned Eaton earlier, but pulled him back up.
- After the match, Meng wouldn't release the Goozle, so Bobby Walker attempted to make the save. He got the Goozle as well for his trouble. And, to my delight, "The Godfather" Teddy Long ate a Mafia Kick from Barbarian.
- It really bugs me how they continue to misuse Bobby Eaton. The guy has incredible credentials and is a great worker. And, all the reports of him being a really nice guy are 100% true. I met him once and rather than rate him as just one of the nicest wrestlers I ever met, I'd rate him as one of the nicest people I ever met in my life.
- "Lionheart" Chris Jericho made Evan Courageous submit to the Liontamer.
- I don't think I've ever seen Evan Courageous before. He definitely played the heel.
- They keep talking about this attitude change with Chris Jericho. Unfortunately, this match was filmed before the attitude change. Thus, there was no evidence of the "attitude change" in what you saw even though the announcers kept talking about it. Sad.
- Courageous hits Jericho with a 450 splash. Not as flashy as Guerrero, but decent. I guess it wasn't too effective, since immediately after it, Jericho picked him up for a couple of powerbombs and turned him into the Liontamer.
- So much for the attitude change. After the match, Jericho looks into the camera, and gives a little smile and a shrug.
- Konnan w/Vincent made Norm Smiley submit to the Tequila Sunrise.
- Now it's Norm instead of Norman. I'm guessing they are trying to jump on the Cheers bandwagon. I say that because it's about as timely as Outback Jack, from Humpty-Doo, Australia, was in the WWF. They brought Outback Jack in after the Australia fad in this country was over.
- Okerlund interviews Mongo after the match. Mongo says that Goldberg needed a foreign (gasp!) object to beat him. I guess Mongo's mad he forgot to bring his Haliburton.
- Mortis pinned Juventud Guerrera following the DOA (kind of a standing pancake DDT).
- The announcers are making an attempt to revive the war that Mortis declared on the Luchadores about six weeks ago or so.
- Vandenburg pulls the ropes so Guerrera takes a spill outside the ring. Dusty points out Superman at ringside again. Hmmm, Superman at ringside again. Matches from the same show as last week.
- Mortis' new move is a Hot Shot where he picks Guerrera up from the apron and drops him across the top rope.
- Good match. A lot of power moves.
- Steve "Mongo" McMichael pinned Louie Spiccoli following a Tombstone Piledriver.
- The first thing Spiccoli does upon getting to the ring is take a piece of crud out of his mouth. If he brushed his teeth, he wouldn't have that problem.
- That was one quick match.
- Replay of Bret Hart's speech on Nitro.
- Fit Finley pinned "Hardwork" Bobby Walker following a Tombstone Piledriver.
- Out the way to the ring, Walker is rubbing his throat trying to recover from the Goozle. Teddy Long is saying he shouldn't wrestle because he is hurt. Yeah, right.
- Normally, two wrestlers in the same promotion don't have the same finishing move, unless it is part of an angle. However, in this case, we see the same finisher two matches in a row.
- Announcers are still teasing us with letting us see what happened after Nitro went off the air.
- "The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus Frankie Lancaster following a No Laughing Matter even though he never touched the guy on the move.
- Disco Inferno pinned "The Candyman" Brad Armstrong following a Stone Cold Chartbuster.
- Okerlund interviews DDP. Good DDP quote: "Luck is when skill meets opportunity."
- Barry Darsow and John Nord defeated Disorderly Conduct when John Nord made one of Disorderly Conduct submit to what looks like a Camel Clutch, but is, I think, a forward chinlock. With a Camel Clutch, the legs are extended straight. In this case, they were folded underneath.
- Announcers are still teasing with Nitro's ending.
- "Diamond" Dallas Page (supposedly) retains his U.S. Heavyweight Title over Curt Hennig when Hennig is DQ'ed when Vincent interferes. In reality, at the time this match was taped, Hennig actually held the belt.
- Announcers say that they haven't received clearance to show the tape.
- Well, the rumors were true. This match was taped before Starrcade. The reason that Hennig did not come out with the belt is that Page stole the belt from Hennig earlier on the card during a Hennig/Eaton match that was shown last Saturday. So, even though Hennig was actually champion for this particular match, they are playing it up as if it happened after Starrcade. Sad. If you don't believe me, Superman was at ringside last week, too.
- During the match, the dry ice machine that was on during DDP's entrance wasn't turned off. I don't think anyone in the crowd could even see the match.
- Hennig pulls Page up at the two-count.
- After the nWo rushes the ring, DDP takes the U.S. belt and leaves through the crowd, making it look like he really was the champ for this match. In reality, pretty well done although the Internet makes it nearly impossible for the promotions to pull off stunts like this anymore.
- Overally, a pretty good show, but the tease of showing us what happened at Nitro, and then not showing it, ruined the show.