Monday
Nitro #93
Date: June 23, 1997
Location: Macon
Coliseum, Macon, Georgia
Commentators: Mike
Tenay, Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Larry Zbyszko
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're getting closer to
Bash at the Beach but more importantly we're getting closer to next
week which is being hyped as a major Nitro, with the debut of a major
name. There would be another major name there actually but not as
big as the other one. Tonight we're likely going to build towards
the PPV but I wouldn't expect Hogan or Rodman to be here. Let's get
to it.
We open with a recap
from the end of last week's show with Luger and Giant getting beaten
down by the NWO.
Opening sequence.
By the way, before the
show started, a local guy debuted (I believe) in a dark match. His
name: Goldberg.
Here are Page and
Kimberly (looking GOOD) to open the show. Page says he has a
surprise partner for the PPV and tonight it's Page vs. Hall, as set
up by Kimberly somehow.
Public Enemy vs. La
Parka/Damien
Grunge and Parka start
things off as Tony talks about the rest of the show because this
isn't an important match. That's not sarcasm. This match is about
as pure filler as you can ask for. La Parka takes him into the
corner but Grunge takes him down. Off to Damien as all four are in
the ring already. Off to Rock vs. Damien with the luchadors taking
over for a bit. Not hot tag brings in Grunge and it's table time.
Rock dives through Damien through the table which isn't a DQ somehow.
La Parka blasts Grunge with a chair and steals the pin. Short and
nothing of note, but it's nice to see a fresh team getting a win like
this.
Here's Eddie Guerrero
who asks for Chavo to come out to clear the air over an issue they're
apparently having. Eddie claims Chavo offered to go to the ring last
week to face Malenko. Chavo isn't sure if that's true but Eddie has
talked to JJ and Chavo is getting Eddie's shot at Syxx tonight.
Chavo isn't sure what's going on but he says ok.
Alex Wright vs.
Chris Jericho
This is a rematch from
two weeks ago. Wright jumps Jericho as he gets in the ring and
things start fast. Jericho comes back with a spinwheel kick to send
Wright to the floor. Alex starts to take a walk but comes back to
kick Jericho in the ribs a few times. Chris takes him to the mat to
take over and works on an armbar. A springboard shoulder block puts
Wright on the floor but Jericho dives into a dropkick to shift
momentum again. Wright stops to dance but Jericho hits a Lionsault
Press for two. Jericho catches him coming out of the corner and the
Liontamer (called a Boston Crab here) gets the submission.
Rating: C.
Not bad here as Jericho continues to evolve into the modern day
version of himself. Wright's heel turn has more flounder in it than
a river in Minnesota and it just isn't working at all. Thankfully
they made the right pick with who to push of these two as Jericho
would become a legend and Wright would become a Nazi character.
The announcers talk
about the PPV main event and the NWO interfering in the tag match at
the previous PPV.
Steiner Brothers vs.
Harlem Heat
ANOTHER #1 contender
match because seventy four of them weren't enough. Vincent
interfered at the PPV so the Heat's victory didn't count. Booker and
Scot get things going and we stall to start. Eventually Scott gets
double teamed and kicked in the face to give the Heat control. Then
again Scott Steiner isn't one to sell so he gorilla presses Booker
and launches him across the ring.
Off to Rick and the
fans start barking. Stevie beats on him and kicks Rick in the head
to take over. When all else fails, kick the guy in the head. Rick
comes back with a belly to back and barks some more. Off to Scott
vs. Booker again with the future Freakzilla taking over via a belly
to belly. A double tag brings in Stevie and Rick with Stevie
powerslamming Rick down for two.
Off to a chinlock for a
bit followed by Booker missing an elbow but Spinarooning up. Rick
powerslams him down and it's off to Scott who cleans house. Stevie
breaks up the top rope bulldog and Sherri is knocked into Booker on
the floor. A BAD looking top rope bulldog (Stevie's head hit Rick's
leg) gets the pin for Rick.
Rating: D-.
This was a MESS. They were all over the place and weren't even in
the same library, let alone on the same page. The ending looked
horrible and the whole thing just never clicked. It didn't help that
the Outsiders wouldn't defend the belts again for months, making this
match, say it with me, TOTALLY POINTLESS.
The NWO D team
(Bagwell, Norton and Vincent) say the Steiners aren't the #1
contenders. Buff says he has the real arms instead of Scott Steiner.
Buff and Norton are now named Vicious and Delicious. The Steiners
get in their faces and chase them off. The Steiners want the
Outsiders.
Video on Ernest Miller.
The guy still wouldn't be interesting for about three years, and
even then it was nothing special.
Hector Garza vs.
Villano IV
Talk about your random
matches. Villano takes over quickly with a Cutter that looks more
like an RKO. He launches Garza to the floor and hits a suicide dive
to take Garza down again. Garza comes back once they get inside and
Tenay goes into one of his interesting stories about Garza's father
being a regional star in Mexico. How did he go from this to hitting
on women thirty five years his junior in TNA? Villano hits a
shoulder breaker but misses a moonsault. They head to the floor with
Garza hitting a backbreaker followed by his trademark corkscrew
plancha. Back inside and a standing moonsault pins Villano.
Rating: C-.
There were some good dives here but the match had zero heat. There's
no reason to care about either of these guys and big flips and dives
mean nothing when you can see Mysterio and Dragon do the same things.
The match was a fine way to kill seven minutes, but the match didn't
mean anything at all.
Here are Luger and
Giant for a chat. They don't like Hogan and Rodman all that much
apparently. They won't quit and they'll win at the PPV. This takes
five minutes to get through.
Cruiserweight Title:
Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Syxx
Hall is with the champ
here. Chavo puts Syxx on the floor but misses a cross body off the
top to give the champ control. The Bronco Buster hits and it's off
to a chinlock. Syxx hits a Michinoku Driver and some of those fast
legdrops of his. A charge into the corner misses Chavo though and
both guys are down. Chavo wins a quick slugout and gets a rollup for
two. Eddie comes out to watch as Syxx is knocked to the floor. A
BIG top rope dive takes Syxx out but Hall decks Chavo behind the
referee's back. The Outsider's Edge sets up the Buzz Kill for the
submission. Eddie has his arms folded on the stage.
Rating: C+.
When you give Waltman a small guy like Chavo to fight, you get a much
better match out of him. This wasn't a masterpiece or anything but
it was entertaining stuff. Syxx would actually lose the title before
the next episode of Nitro at a house show (called Saturday Nitro) to
a certain Lionheart.
Konnan vs. Steve
McMichael
Jarrett is on official
Horsemen probation apparently. Mongo shoves Konnan down to start so
Konnan wants to get in a three point stance. One of these guys would
wind up in the College Football Hall of Fame so guess how well this
goes for Konnan. Back in after Mongo shoves him to the floor, Konnan
pounds away in the corner. We hit a neck crank but Hugh Morrus comes
out to distract Konnan, allowing Mongo to hit the Tombstone for the
quick pin. Nothing to see here.
We get a video on
Benoit's path to get another match with Sullivan, because somehow
Sullivan, who I don't think beat Benoit once in their feud, has the
pull to be able to not have a match he doesn't want. Benoit had to
beat both Faces of Fear and did just that, then he had to beat Meng
again in the same kind of match. Now he gets a career match against
Sullivan at the Bash which will FINALLY end this feud.
Here's Piper for a
chat. He rants about Batman and Mr. Freeze for some reason before
saying he thinks Flair might have abandoned him last week. He talks
about Flair dating two women so when he falls asleep they can talk to
each other. Here's Flair to try to say something that makes sense.
When Ric Flair is the one who makes sense, you know you're in
trouble. Flair comes out and tells Piper to calm down and Piper
references Dante's Peak, a volcano movie. Mongo and Benoit come out
with Debra, who runs her mouth and is immediately booed.
Mongo makes fun of the
kilt and is the only person that makes any sense here. He says lay
off Flair but Piper wants to fight. Benoit tells Piper he's been
around way too long and accuses him of having osteoporosis. Piper
beats up the Horsemen. Mongo hits him with the briefcase and Benoit
puts on the Crossface. We get a Horsemen stomp until security breaks
it up. I have no idea who I'm supposed to cheer for or why they're
fighting in the first place.
Glacier/Ernest
Miller vs. High Voltage
This is Miller's debut.
Rage and Kaos jump the karate guys from behind and are immediately
kicked to the floor. Glacier and Kaos start things off but Rage
comes in with a springboard bulldog. High Voltage hits a double
gorilla press but Glacier comes back with strikes. Mortis, Wrath and
Vandenberg are watching from the stage. Miller comes in and kicks a
lot before hitting something like Trouble in Paradise from the top
rope for the pin. Standard debut match.
Wrath and Mortis stare
some more.
Hogan and Rodman talk
some trash and it's an NWO commercial.
Diamond Dallas Page
vs. Scott Hall
Savage and Liz come out
just after Hall. We actually hear about Page managing Hall back in
the day. They don't mention it being in WCW but they do at least
mention it. Hall takes him down to start and works on the arm but
Page comes back with his shoulders to the shoulder. Hall goes to
Page's bad ribs to take over again. Page hits an atomic drop but
gets backdropped to the floor, which isn't a DQ because of whatever
reason they're going with this week.
Savage sends Page into
the barricade and Hall chops away. DDP gets sent into the steps as
it's all Hall at the moment. Page hits some right hands but gets
slammed down into the mat to stop the comeback. Page's discus lariat
takes Hall down but DDP can't follow up. He calls for the Cutter but
here's Savage for the DQ.
Rating: C-.
Standard Nitro main event here as the match was mostly kicking and
punching before they were setting up a finish and the DQ ending. The
important thing here is that Page looked comfortable in there against
a big name, instead of looking like he was in over his head. The
Savage feud did an excellent job of elevating him to this level which
you hardly ever see anymore.
Savage and Hall beat
down Page. Savage goes up for the elbow but Sting is in the crowd
with the bat. He stares down Savage who is on the top rope, but
thankfully Savage drops the elbow on Page anyway. It took a minute
for him to do it but thankfully the NWO didn't make Savage that
stupid. Sting chases Hall and Savage off to end the show.
Overall Rating: C-.
The problem with WCW at this point is really becoming clear now:
other than the main event and one or two other things, there aren't
any stories going on here. The main feud is a tag match which we
don't know the fourth participant of until we got to the PPV. The
second biggest feud I guess is Piper vs. Flair which makes no sense
at all. After that.....the tag title #1 contender feud which is
going on and on and would result in another #1 contenders match at
the PPV with another team replacing the Heat?
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com
So you're saying that Wright's heel turn was going well? Because there are no flounder in rivers in Minnesota.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why you're confused about the piper/flair storyline. Flair walked out on Piper during a tag match. Piper is unhappy with that. It's not complicated.
ReplyDeleteEric Bischoff in his book, (yes, I own a copy, wanna fight about it?) talked about how he never signed talent for the sake of signing them, he signed guys he thought would be a good fit and had talent. But, that doesn't explain Public Enemy, as they were always out of their element in standard wrestling matches. Rocco Rock was fine in his younger days, as he did well in his few appearences as Col. DeKlerk in the early 90's such as the tag tournament. But as a team, he and Grunge needed to be kept in those garbagy brawl matches, because there normal matches had no flow at all to them. I was a decent fan of them in ECW, but this run in WCW made me hate when they'd come on the tv, and actually made me tune out the show.
ReplyDeleteNo. I'm saying the turn was floundering. If there are no flounder in rivers in Minnesota and Wright's turn has more flounder than those rivers, than the turn is floundering and therefore not going well.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of saying that something has more somethings than something else is that there are a lot of the second things, making the first thing even more impressive. You thought there were flounder in Minnesota rivers. You were completely wrong. For someone that makes as many mistakes as you do, you should be used to admitting it by now.
ReplyDeleteGood lord you amuse me at times. You're now complaining about my lack of knowledge about Minnesota wildlife? Now I know you're a troll.
ReplyDeleteTed, just admit it.
ReplyDeleteIs it wrong that I read these now just for Dougie's troll comments?
ReplyDeleteWell at the time, TPE was a really popular indie tag team with a lot of buzz. Bischoff (or anyone) could hardly be blamed for giving them a shot, given their rep. HE couldn't have known how shitty they'd be, because he probably bought the hype like most of the fans did.
ReplyDeleteI am a proven draw.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the wee troll, here. I don't know Minnesota, but read the review ( which was otherwise excellent ) and assumed that Minnesota must have a lot of flounder. Otherwise Wright would only need one flounder to have more, and that doesn't sound so bad.
ReplyDelete