WCW Monday/Tuesday Nitro - 04/27-28/98
WCW Monday/Tuesday Nitro - 04/27-28/98
- Trivia Question: Who is (was?) married to Cathy Gagne, daughter of Verne Gagne? (Answer at bottom of the report)
- The mailbag:
- From an anonymous reader at University of Nebraska at Kearney:
Uh, I'm kind of embarrassed to know this, so if I could remain anonymous, I would appreciate it.
I was watching a "mature" film called "The Girl From Impanema" and these five people were having a "party" to Chris Benoit's entrance music. Needless to say, my ears perk up when I hear Chris Benoit come out.
- We are live from the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.
- The show starts off the with Nitro Girls. And here comes Alex Wright! He's immediately pushed out by security. He keeps trying to dance as they're pushing him off.
- Kevin Nash and Macho Man come to the ring.
- Kevin Nash takes the survey. Norfolk is nWo country. "One more for the good guys".
- Kevin Nash accepts the challenge for the tag titles at Slamboree from Sting and Giant.
- Kevin Nash says Macho Man is now in the Wolfpack.
- Kevin Nash says he'll be Bret Hart's "huckleberry" if there's anything left after Macho Man gets done with them.
- Macho Man says Bret Hart is in a lot of trouble.
- To prove that Hogan is not in charge of the nWo, Nash brings out Konnan to draw the battle lines.
- Konnan says Savage and Nash are great and Hogan "don't want none of the Wolfpack".
- Replay of Bret Hart "shocking the wrestling world".
- Interview with Juventud Guerrera. Larry Zbyszko points out that if Guerrera is so proud of his heritage, he should take note of the fact that the Aztecs were wiped out by the Spanish. Nice.
- Jericho brings out an easel of Dean Malenko. He talks trash about Juventud Guerrera and then proceeds to interview the picture of Malenko. Typical Jericho stuff. Pretty funny. Jericho dedicates his match to Malenko.
- WCW World Cruiserweight "Lionheart" Chris Jericho defends his title against Chavo Guerrero, Jr.
- At Eddie's insistence, Chavo attacks before the bell.
- Chavo's on fire in the early going.
- Jericho comes back and slaps Chavo around and Eddie starts yelling at Chavo.
- Chavo dropkicks Jericho into Eddie and almost gets the pin.
- Jericho turns an attempted head scissors into a Liontamer and Chavo taps out.
- Eddie and Jericho go face-to-face after the finish.
- Jericho points at Chavo.
- Both Eddie and Jericho start yelling at Chavo.
- Replay of Guerrera's unmasking and Buff's injury.
- More talk about Bret Hart and another couple of replays of Buff's injury. The really scary thing in watching the replay is that Rick Steiner roughly rolled Buff over after the bump before realizing Buff had been hurt.
- Heenan's already replaced Zbyszko in the booth.
- Replay of Macho Man's rant from Wednesday.
- By the way, Johnathan S. sent me an e-mail and said that the crowd repeatedly chanted "We want Flair" during the show.
- Oh, no. It's Hogan, Bischoff, and the Booty Man. Hogan says Nash is a joke, Savage is a joke, yadda, yadda, yadda. Hollywood says Bret Hart is with him. Hmmm, I wonder where that will lead.
- Replay of Bret Hart decking Piper.
- So, think the Bret Hart push is to make us forget about Flair?
- WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Goldberg (presumably) defends his title against Scott "Flash" Norton.
- Nose to nose to start.
- Norton with a flying tackle.
- Nose to nose again.
- Spinning neckbreaker by Goldberg. He took more time to set it up than it takes Zodiac to set up his Stone Cold Chartbuster.
- Norton and Goldberg duke it out outside the ring.
- Inside the ring, Norton hits his shoulderbreaker. Goldberg kicks out.
- Norton works on the left arm.
- Norton goes for the shoulderbreaker again and Goldberg reverses out of it.
- Spear, jackhammer.
- 1-2-3
- 77-0
- Announcers talking about Bret Hart being an "impact player". A more appropriate analogy would be that he is as obsolete as my "impact printer".
- Okerlund brings Bret Hart to the ring.
- Okerlund asks "Why, Bret, why?"
- Sign: "Chump of the month"
- Hart says it's nice to be in the house that Hollywood Hogan built.
- "There's no guilt or innocence in professional wrestling..."
- yadda, yadda, yadda
- Hart calls Savage "half troll and half lizard".
- Okerlund asks "Why, Bret, why?" again.
- Hart says he will explain "tomorrow night" face-to-face with Hogan.
- On and on. Whatever. In the background, you can plainly see no one in the crowd is paying any attention to the interview.
- After the interview, Okerlund: "If I can't ask a question and get a straight answer out of this man, then I should get out of the business".
- End of Monday's show. One hour, two matches. You'd think we were watching RAW.
- We are taped from the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.
- The original announcing team is back. They're are actually pretending that this is live and it's "tomorrow night". Puh-lease.
- "Lodi sucks" chant in the background.
- Black-and-white montage of Bret Hart.
- "Crippler" Chris Benoit vs. Disco Inferno
- imho, Disco Inferno is a great guy to open a show with.
- BIG "Free Ric Flair" sign.
- Benoit wastes no time taking Disco Inferno apart.
- It's amazing to think that Disco Inferno has held the TV Title twice and Benoit has never held a belt in WCW.
- Benoit continues taking Disco Inferno apart.
- Disco mounts a comeback and stomps Benoit, hits a spinning neckbreaker, and nails a clubbing forearm off the turnbuckles.
- Benoit comes back with knife-edges and a roll up.
- Disco hits a jawbreaker, snapmare, but misses the elbow.
- Big "Whoos" with each Benoit knife edge.
- Benoit with a German Suplex and flying headbutt.
- Disco powers out, Benoit goes for the Crossface, Disco gets to ropes, Benoit pulls him back to center of the ring, and Disco Inferno taps out.
- Your winner...Chris Benoit.
- A promo for Chris Jericho..."Wouldn't you like to be a Jerichoholic, too?" Damn funny!
- WCW World Cruiserweight Champion "Lionheart" Chris Jericho defends his belt against Psychosis.
- Jericho comes to Malenko's music, with a bad hairdo, and he's even twisting his wrist like Malenko. Hah!!!
- Jericho introduces himself as Dean Malenko with a deep voice and then cries that he wants to go home. The announcers say he's not focused. I thought it was a hint that he might lose the belt tonight until I heard Psychosis' music.
- Mostly Psychosis early on and Jericho's crying like a baby.
- Jericho goes for the Liontamer and Psychosis reverses into a roll up and almost gets the three-count.
- Jericho goes for the arrogant cover.
- Jericho with a backbreaker and then he goes to work on Psychosis.
- Psychosis comes back but he misses a dropkick. Jericho misses an elbow.
- "Jericho sucks" chant.
- Jericho goes outside and Psychosis hits a suicide dive.
- Jericho with a big German release suplex.
- Psychosis hits the guillotine legdrop, two-count only. Crowd thought it was three.
- Psychosis tries for a frankensteiner but Jericho blocks it and turns it into a liontamer.
- Psychosis taps out and Jericho gets the win.
- Jericho gets Malenko's music after the win.
- Nitro Girls. They are the centerfold in this month's WCW Magazine. By the way, if you haven't seen it, this month's WCW Magazine has a great article about Arn Anderson's autobiography.
- Barbarian vs. Rocco Rock of Public Enemy.
- The crowd's chanting "Boring" thirty seconds into the match. Geez, give the guys a chance, folks.
- All Barbarian early on.
- Rocco Rock comes back until Hugh Morrus sneaks in and clobbers Rock.
- Johnny Grunge comes out and nails Hugh Morrus with a garbage can.
- Grunge then nails Barbarian with the garbage can as the referee's back is turned.
- For no logical reason, Penzer announcers that the referee has decided this is now a tag match.
- It's a street fight outside the ring with the garbage can, cookie sheets, etc.
- Back in the ring, Public Enemy get an advantage.
- Jimmy Hart makes the mistake of interfering with a belt. PE put Jimmy Hart on the table.
- Hart slips out but Rocco Rock puts Hugh Morrus through the table.
- Barbarian "kick of fears" the garbage can into Johnny Grunge's head and gets the pin.
- Your winner...Barbarian and Hugh Morrus.
- Replay of Savage's monologue from Thunder.
- A Juventud Guerrera montage. I see a title shot at Slamboree on the horizon for him.
- Juventud Guerrea vs. Kidman
- Schiavone says Juvi has never, ever quit. Hey, Tony...oh, never mind. Why bother?
- Juvi attacks early, but Kidman hits a low blow and Kidman nails a spinebuster from the top turnbuckle. Unbelievably, two-count only.
- Kidman misses the big legdrop.
- Guerrera blocks a suplex, hits a press, but Kidman comes back with a running lariat.
- Guerrera crotches Kidman and gets a two-count with a frankensteiner.
- Juvi Driver in the corner.
- 450 splash and it's over. Guerrera wins by pinfall.
- The Flock rushes the ring. Guerrera pitches Riggs and Sick Boy, but Horace Boulder nails him and Reese plants him.
- Okerlund interviews "Das Wunder-Guy-In-His-Mid-20s" Alex Wright.
- Wow, he's got big arms now.
- Alex says he was on vacation in Germany for six months. Odd, since WCW magazine said he was out due to the concussions.
- Alex is still playing the heel.
- Alex dances again and security ushers him off as he continues to dance again.
- WCW World Television Champion Booker T defends his belt against Eddie Guerrero.
- Eddie and Chavo come out together.
- Snapmare by Eddie but Booker T uses size to his advantage.
- Armlocks traded and a big back kick by Booker T.
- Guerrero with a nice single leg trip.
- Eddie with a kick and a suplex.
- Tony lists the possible reasons why Bret did what he did, including the most popular one, the Bret wants to take the title specifically from Hogan.
- Eddie with a series of rest holds.
- Booker T comes back with some forearms and a flying forearm.
- Eddie almost gets a pin with his feet on the ropes, but Chavo points out that Eddie's feet are on the ropes to the referee.
- Harlem side kick, missile drop kick, 1-2-3, Booker T pins Eddie and retains the belt.
- Eddie and Chavo have angry words after the match.
- According to the announcers, Savage and Bret Hart have never wrestled each other before. They replay Bret Hart's interview from last night.
- Saturn w/Kidman vs. Marty Jannetty
- Saturn with the early offense. Kicks, running elbow, big kick. Jannetty comes back with an elbow of his own.
- Saturn pitches Jannetty outside the ring but Jannetty slips back in.
- Big legdrop by Saturn.
- Over-the-head belly-to-belly by Saturn.
- Superkick by Jannetty.
- Fist into the forehead off the ropes by Jannetty. Well, actually about three feet away from Saturn's forehead.
- Death Valley Driver by Saturn and he pins Jannetty.
- Another dissing of Spiccoli's memory by WCW. ECW actually renamed the Death Valley Driver the "Spiccoli Driver" sometime after Spiccoli's died
- Okerlund interviews Diamond Dallas Page. Page says he had to make it personal to get Raven's attention. Page calls Raven out. Kidman and Sick Boy come to the ring. Sick Boy, speaking for the first time ever, says "Yo, you don't want to kill the messangers". They roll a video of Raven. More (supposedly) personal comments by Raven. Raven says he's beaten DDP and "it's over". After the video, DDP diamond cutters Sick Boy and Kidman makes like a Nitro Girl and splits.
- Black-and-white Goldberg montage.
- WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Goldberg pinned Jerry Flynn after a jackhammer.
- Kicks by Flynn to start but he gets speared within about 30 seconds.
- Jackhammer after holding Flynn upside down for about 15 seconds, and it's over.
- 78-0
- I wonder if Jerry Flynn even bothered to shower after that match.
- Update on Bagwell is that the prognosis is very good.
- Oh, no. It's Michael Buffer.
- Sting, Giant, and "The Total Package" Lex Luger vs. Konnan, Brian Adams, and Big Poppa Pump w/Vincent and the two weightlifting trophies.
- Where was Vincent while Norton was getting squashed by Goldberg?
- Luger's acting like a goof peeking out from behind Giant on the way to the ring. (If you haven't done so already, click on the picture on the top of this report.)
- Sting and Brian Adams to start.
- Adams with an atomic drop and a backbreaker.
- Sting reverses a suplex. Face plant, attempted scorpion deathdrop and Adams grabs the ropes and slips outside.
- Giant and Konnan tag in. Announcers say that Giant was 450 lbs. when he debuted, now he's over 500 lbs. I believe it...well, the relative difference, anyway. I saw some tapes of the Giant from back when he started and he was comparitively thin.
- Konnan tries to go toe-to-toe with Giant. Nothing doin'.
- Luger and Big Poppa Pump get tagged in.
- BPP wants a posedown but Luger wants to wrestle.
- Luger with the early advantage but Konnan provides a distraction and BPP gets the advantage.
- Giant shows BPP what he thinks steroids have done to a certain part of BPP's anatomy after BPP gives him crotch chops.
- Luger takes Konnan and BPP down with one clothesline.
- BPP and Konnan go to tag Brian Adams and Brian Adams just walks back to the dressing room. At that, Konnan and BPP walk away, too, although not with Adams. Giant grabs Vincent and chokeslems him in the ring.
- Your winners, Giant, Sting, and Luger by countout.
- As we fade to black, Sting and Giant are picking up Vincent. We never get to find out what they did with him.
- Nitro has a tradition of lame main events, but that's got to be one of the worst.
- Okerlund brings out Bret Hart and asks "Why, Bret, why?"
- Bret says "Shut up". Heh. Hart will only say what he's got to say to Hogan's face. Okerlund "begs" Hogan to come out.
- Hogan, Bischoff, and The Name With No Name come out and get pelted with crap on their way to the ring.
- Bret Hart says to Hogan "You are someone I've looked up to for a long time".
- Hart tells the crowd that Hogan is the best paid wrestler, most recognized wrestler...
- Hogan says he appreciates Bret Hart setting the record straight. The crowd pops because Macho Man comes out.
- Savage comes in and nails Hart in the mouth before Hart can tell us "why".
- Hart, Hogan, and The Barber start beating on Savage.
- Fade to black.
- Trivia Answer: Larry Zbyszko
