This Week In The WCW
This Week In The WCW
WCW Monday Night Nitro - Monday, 02/24/97
- Public Enemy def. Jeff Jarrett and Steve "Mongo" McMichael when Rock pinned Jarrett after Mongo purposely nailed Jarrett with the Haliburton.
- Mongo got a huge pop from the crowd when he nailed Jarrett.
- Flair and Anderson came to the ring after the match and made Jarrett and Mongo shake hands.
- The question of the day was why Arn Anderson was wearing a beeper.
- "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan pinned Galaxy after a sock in the mush with a taped fist.
- Duggan was really over with the crowd.
- I still don't understand how the ref justifies not disqualifying Duggan for taping his fist.
- Duggan called Hogan "Terry" (his real first name) by mistake in the post-match interview. Okerlund had to clarify it for all of the marks.
- "The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus pinned "Desperado" Joe Gomez following The Last Laugh.
- Morrus seems to have left the Dungeon of Doom. He now has different music and Jimmy Hart (who was there that night) no longer escorts him to the ring.
- Ice Train pinned La Parka with the Train Week (a splash from a vertical leap from a standing position).
- During the match, Teddy Long delivered Miss Jacqueline a message. Great, now WCW is going to have a racial angle.
- Ice Train has a great vertical leap for such a huge guy.
- The Faces of Fear def. U.S. Champ Eddie Guerrero and "Lionheart" Chris Jericho when Barbarian pinned Guerrero after Dean Malenko interfered and pushed Guerrero off the top rope.
- This was a great high-impact match.
- My local cable system showed an advertisement for an upcoming local WWF house show.
- Ray Misterio, Jr. pinned Juventud Guerrera with a hurricarana.
- When Schiavone mentioned that Misterio was about to execute a maneuver from the top rope, Heenan said "No kidding, Sherlock!"
- Prince Iaukea pinned Pat Tanaka with a cross body block off the top rope.
- Iaukea, like Hugh Morrus, chewed gum during his match. Now, what kind of example do you think that's setting for all the young wrestlers out there?
- Heenan noted that Iaukea has hair like a Chia Pet®.
- Hmm, let's see. The next non-jobber opponent that Iaukea can face and beat will be Disco Inferno. After that, well, ummm. I guess it's going to be a short title reign.
- The Ultimate Dragon defeated "The Man of 1,000 Holds" Dean Malenko via DQ when Malenko blew his cool and wouldn't stop choking Dragon.
- In the post-match interview, I noticed that Dean Malenko is the only wrestler who doesn't refer to himself in the third person in interviews.
- "Diamond" Dallas Page defeated "Squire" Dave Taylor by countout, I think.
- Page had just given Taylor a Diamond Cutter from a fireman's carry when Hall and Nash came to the ring. The ref rolled Taylor out.
- While Page's attention was on Hall and Nash, Savage Pearl Harbored Page with the spray paint can. They then painted Page.
- At one point a drunken fan got in the ring. This was definitely the high point of the night. Hall punched him really hard on the back of the head and Nash and Savage dumped him out of the ring.
- After a commercial break, the rest of the nWo came out and Savage and Elizabeth were reunited. She was happy.
- Luger and Giant were to defend the titles against Harlem Heat. Both teams were in the ring and the nWo came to ringside. Bischoff tried to take the belts away from Luger and Giant. Luger said they'd give them up if ALL belts were on the line, nWo vs. WCW, at Uncensored. Bischoff agreed. Then Sting came out and stood in the middle of the ring. Hogan embraced Sting but Sting didn't embrace him back. Then Sting stood with the nWo and the show ended.
WCW Superbrawl VII - Sunday, 02/23/97
- The pay-per-view started with Piper's "release from Alcatraz".
- Syxx pinned "The Man of 1,000 Holds" Dean Malenko after Eddie Guerrero's involvement was inadvertently responsible for Malenko getting whacked with the Cruiserwight Belt. Syxx is the new WCW World Cruiserweight Champion.
- Syxx came to the ring with the nWo "second team" music.
- Chants of "1-2-3 sucks!" were very audible during the match.
- Konan, La Parka, and Villano IV def. Ciclope, Juventud Guerrera, and Super Calo in a Lucha Libra style match when Konan pinned Guerrera after a power drop.
- One of the high points was La Parka sitting a semi-concious Super Calo in a chair outside the ring and then flying out of the ring to nail him while he was seated.
- In a painful blown spot, Ciclope flipped backwards off the ring apron onto Villano IV standing on the arena floor. Unfortunately, Villano IV wasn't in position to catch him.
- There were a lot of great high impact moves but there were also a lot of daisy chain holds with all six men that were kind of lame. They get in these piles and they'd look like cheerleaders performing a stunt.
- Prince Iaukea pinned Ray Misterio, Jr. after "Lord" Steven Regal interfered and nailed Misterio. Iaukea retains the WCW World Television Championship.
- The combatants shook hands before the match.
- After the match, Iaukea realized what had happened and tried to give the belt to Misterio. Misterio wouldn't take it.
- Someone was holding a sign that said "Dust-ebonics, if you will"
- "Diamond" Dallas Page def. Marcus "Buff" Bagwell via DQ when the nWo rushed the ring.
- The nWo rushed the ring because Page had just given Bagwell a (Bang!) Diamond Cutter and was about to pin him.
- After Bagwell got hit with a low blow (the first of many low blows during the pay-per-view), Dusty commented, "That'll make you change who you're asking to the prom".
- Approximately four minutes before the end of the match, you could clearly hear the referee say to the wrestlers, "Four minutes more!"
- Eddie Guerrero pinned "Lionheart" Chris Jericho with a Sunset Flip to retain the WCW U.S. Heavyweight Title.
- The graphics at the beginning of the match mistakenly referred to it as a TV Title match.
- Heenan accidentally called Guerrero "Eddie Graham" during the match.
- Jericho wrestled marginally like a heel during the match, but the men embraced afterwards.
- There were lots of "Boring" chants during this match.
- In a Harlem Heat, Faces of Fear, and Public Enemy triangle match, The Public Enemy were the winners when Rocco Rock pinned Barbarian after Grunge nailed the Barbarian with a leap from the top rope as Barbarian was about to piledrive Rock.
- Meng was sporting some nifty new cornrows for the match. Rocco Rock has shaved his head bald.
- When the camera panned the crowd and a woman with enormous breasts was shown, Dusty exclaimed, "Whoa!! Goodness, gracious!!"
- Jeff Jarrett pinned Steve "Mongo" McMichael after nailing him on the head with the metal suitcase.
- The metal suitcase was tossed to Jarrett by Debra back over her head. The angle is that no one is sure who she meant to throw it to.
- The high point during the match was when Jarrett was outside the ring and Debra started toweling him off. Mongo grabbed the towel and started choking him with it.
- When Jarrett nailed Mongo with the suitcase, Shiavone noted "The hits just keep on coming!"
- Since Jarrett had won, he is now a Horseman. The announcers did not know whether Jarrett was to be a fifth Horseman, or a replacement for one of the existing four. I expected something to happen after the match, but nothing did.
- In a San Francisco Death Match, "Crippler" Chris Benoit pinned "Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan after he gave both Sullivan and Miss Jacqueline a splash from the top rope as they were laying on a table in the middle of the ring.
- I think the table was supposed to break but didn't.
- The match was an old-fashioned donneybrook. Woman and Jacqueline duked it out in the ring while Benoit and Sullivan went from the ring to the back of the arena and back to the ring.
- It seems the rumors of Woman being pregnant are not true. She's just fat. There's no way a pregnant woman would roll around fighting like that.
- After the match, Benoit, Sullivan, and Jacqueline were unconcious. Paul Orndorff, Lee Marshall, Terry Taylor, and other WCW road agents came to the ring. Eventually, all three were taken away on stretchers into ambulances.
- The Giant and "The Total Package" Lex Luger def. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash when Luger made Nash submit in the Torture Rack and The Giant pinned Scott Hall after a chokeslam.
- The Giant started the match alone and had the additional problem of Syxx at ringside (although the one big kick Syxx went to give he (legit) missed completely).
- Kevin Nash powerbombed the Giant! Supposedly, Nash hurt his back doing it. That set the stage for Luger to come to ringside and get involved.
- Luger had been forbidden to wrestle by Bischoff. When Luger ran to the ring to join the action, Bischoff stepped in front of him. Luger grabbed Bischoff, threw him to the floor, and continued to the ring.
- The match seemingly was technically over when Nash submitted. However, the Giant chokeslammed and pinned Hall afterwards to cover all the bases.
- "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan pinned "Rowdy" Roddy Piper after nailing Piper with a set of brass knuckles that Randy "Macho Man" Savage handed Hogan.
- Piper "rang Hogan's bell" a number of times during the match. That move was very popular for getting out of bearhugs in the WWF ten years ago. You don't see it much, anymore.
- After Piper hit Hogan with a low blow, Dusty said "Hit him again, there's two of them!". There had to be at least five low blows tonight.
- The set up for the ending was Savage and Sting appearing during the match. Sting everntually went back to the dressing room and Macho went ringside. Savage is obviously nWo but Sting is still a question mark.
- Everyone thought Piper had it won with a sleeper but the ref ruled Hogan's feet were underneath the ropes. While Piper was prematurely celebrating his victory, Savage passed Hogan the knucks.
- After the match, Hogan and Savage did a mudhole stomp on Piper, giving him a couple flying elbowsmashes, a couple Legdrops Of Doom, and spraypainting him.
- And, from Jeff Bristow, an arena report:
- Dark match: Joe Gomez vs Hugh Morrus - Sloppy match. Missed spots, bad work rate and boring. Morrus wins with his laughing whatever off the top rope.
- Dark match: Pat Tanaka vs Ultimate Dragon - This on the other hand, was a extremely good match. Excellent work rate, you would have thought they were on the PPV. Sonny Ono hits Tanaka outside the ring with a spin kick that looked very good. Dragon wins with a frankensteiner off the top rope.
- Not really much else to report from the other matches, except during the TV Title match the crowd was more interested in watching a huge-chested lady try to find her seat than watching the match. And the crowd was much more interested in what was happening between Jacqueline and Woman then what was going on between Sullivan and Benoit. The NWO merchandise was far outselling the WCW merchandise. Kimberly was signing autographs before things started, and she is more beautiful in person.
- My analysis? WCW seems to be running out of ideas. Savage being nWo makes no sense whatsoever, unless he is a double agent. And Prince Iaukea keeping the TV belt? Puh-lease. Certainly, WCW wins points for surprises, but loses points on a lack of a coherent storyline.
WCW {Pro} Wrestling - Sunday, 02/23/97
- A recap of the "Diamond" Dallas Page vs. the nWo issue.
- Unfortunately, they cut out the highlight. Hall and Nash were watching the film of DDP laying them both out when they thought he was turning nWo. Nash was flipped out of the ring onto a table. In the original broadcast, he comically asked "Hey, who put that table there?"
- Recap of Syxx vs. Malenko situation. Uh-oh, it looks like tonight's going to be one big, long commercial for Superbrawl.
- Recap of Mongo vs. Jarrett.
- Recap of Sullivan vs. Benoit.
- Recap of the alliance between Luger and the Giant.
- Recap of Hogan and Piper.
- Well, wasn't that nice? WCW {Pro} was just one big commercial for Superbrawl. It didn't have an inch of new footage.
WCW Saturday Night - Saturday, 02/22/97
- Ray Misterio, Jr. pinned Villano IV following a head scissors from the top rope.
- "The Man of 1,000 Holds" Dean Malenko uncled Mark Starr with the Texas Cloverleaf. Malenko retains the WCW World Cruiserweight Title.
- Prince Iaukea pinned Jerry Flynn with a flying cross body block from the top rope. Iaukea retains the WCW World Television Title.
- "Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan pinned Johnny Swinger after the Tree of Woe and a double belly-welly stomp, if you will.
- Miss Jacqueline cleaned Swinger's clock twice outside the ring, much to the delight of the crowd.
- Miss Jacqueline slaps hands with other African-Americans on the way to the ring, but no one else.
- "Diamond" Dallas Page pinned Bunkhouse Buck following a (Bang!) Diamond Cutter.
- Eddie Guerrero pinned Jim Powers with a frog splash. Guerrero retains the U.S. Heavyweight Title.
- Harlem Heat def. Robbie Brookside and Doc Dean when Booker T. pinned Brookside following The Big Apple.
- Dusty, rightly so, admonished Schiavone for calling Harlem Heat's finisher something different every time.
- "Crippler" Chris Benoit pinned Rick Fuller following a flying headbutt from the top rope.
- Benoit was woozy after the match, seemingly injured from the headbutt. It was a work.
- Lee Marshall interviewed Ric Flair there at the arena. Flair reiterated that if Jarrett beats Mongo at Superbrawl, Jarrett's in. He also reiterated that Benoit is a permanent fixture in the Horsemen.
- Jeff Jarrett def. Konan via DQ when Kevin Sullivan and Miss Jacqueline rushed the ring and started clubberin' Jarrett when he got Konan in the figure-four. Benoit and Woman then came out and made the save on Jarrett.