The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 09.18.95
- Live from Johnson City, Tennessee
- Your hosts are Uncle Eric, Mongo and the Brain.
Meanwhile, the Giant and Kevin Sullivan arrive in the back of an ambulance and Giant cuts a stupid promo. But then he was new to the sport at that point. Gene tells him that "his father would be ashamed if he was alive". So Big Bossman killed Andre the Giant?
The American Males v. The Bluebloods
Sadly, Harlem Heat destroys the Bluebloods and thus prevents us from seeing this classic. So instead Booker offers the Males a shot at greatness right now.
WCW World tag titles: Harlem Heat v. The American Males
Brawl to start, and if you're in a dark alley god knows there's no one better suited to watch your back than Scotty Riggs or Buff Bagwell. Riggs evades Ray and the Males hit a double-dropkick on him. "Double your pleasure, double your fun" quoth Eric Bischoff. How did he ever get a job as an announcer, let alone running the company? Bagwell hits a flying forearm, but Booker overpowers him and adds a powerslam. Legdrop misses, but Riggs comes in and walks into the axe kick. Eric goes for the street cred by comparing the kick to K1 competitions. I'm pretty sure guys don't stand there with their head bowed in position for 10 seconds in legitimate kickboxing matches. Riggs comes back with a sunset flip on Booker, but Stevie breaks it up and the double-teaming in the Heat corner continues. Riggs manages to make the hot tag to Bagwell and he hits a bunch of dropkicks, but now Col Parker comes out and sweeps Sherri off her feet, while Bagwell gets a fluke cradle on Stevie to win the belts at 4:35. A world where the American Males are the best tag team isn't a world I want to live in. 1/2*
Ric Flair (only an 11-time champion at this point) is out for his traditional interview with Mean Gene (although I guess at this point it would be the first one). AA broke the code of the Horsemen, because it's OK for them to feud with each other, but if you bring in an outsider, there's trouble.
Paul Orndorff v. Johnny B. Badd
Orndorff is now extra-narcissistic thanks to his personal motivational speaker. The announcers go way over the top complaining about the "new attitude", even though it's just the same Mr. Wonderful gimmick he's always had. Orndorff attacks and chokes away in the corner to start, but Badd hiptosses him and goes up before landing on Paul's knees. Orndorff gets two as we take a break. Back with Badd missing a splash, but so does Orndorff (who "eats a mouthful of mat" in Bischoff-speak). Orndorff gets dumped as they talk about DDP winning the TV title from Renegade. Bischoff is sure that Renegade will get another shot. I…never mind, we won't go there. Badd hits the plancha and they head back in for the Badd comeback, but Orndorff blocks a sunset flip for the pin at 3:53. Not to be a geek about this, but the ref was totally out of position there and Badd's shoulders were clearly off the mat. *
Meanwhile on the beach, Randy Savage is pumping iron, but Kevin Sullivan attacks him until Ric Flair and a couple of actors pull him off. This brings out Savage for an interview on the show and he predicts that Luger will be joining the Dungeon of Doom. So Luger comes out to refute those awful charges and accuses Savage of wanting the World title himself. Things gets heated and Savage wants a match, but Mean Gene yells "This isn't the time or the place!" Standing in the ring on a wrestling show isn't the time or the place? Because it sure sounds like BOTH the time AND the place to me.
Meanwhile, Hulk Hogan gives an interview with Mean Gene on his motorcycle before Fall Brawl, but The Giant and his MONSTER TRUCK OF DOOM drive in and smash the bike while Giant leans out of the truck making faces like a meth-addicted sociopath on a sugar binge. There's bad and then there's fucking hilarious, and this is definitely the latter.
Brian Pillman v. Ric Flair
Pillman misses a dropkick and Flair fires away with chops in the corner and tosses him, and they brawl outside with Flair chopping him against the railing. Back in the ring, Pillman chokes away and throws his own chops, but we get a Flair Flip and Flair clotheslines him from the apron for a change. Flair goes up and Pillman dropkicks him on the way down for two. They brawl outside again and Flair drops him on the railing. Back in, Pillman tries a sunset flip and Flair blocks it, then catches Pillman with a boot on a blind charge. Flair goes up and gets slammed off, but then Pillman misses a flying splash. Flair tries the figure-four and gets cradled for two, and they collide for the double KO. They chop it out and Flair gets another figure-four for the submission at 5:24. I guess this was about as good as it could have been for 5 minutes. **
The Pulse:
Giant crushing Hogan’s motorcycle with a MONSTER TRUCK wins the internets this week.
So coming off his big win over Brian Pillman at Fall Brawl Johnny B Badd jobs to Mr. Wonderful on Nitro. Right...
ReplyDeleteOrndorff would retire a month later, so by WCW logic you had to build him up and give him the rub.
ReplyDeleteDidn't the Horsemen piledrive him on the stage?
ReplyDeleteWooonderfuuuul!!! They caaaallll him Mr. Wooooonderfuuuullllllll!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYep, Bearer really got buried at the end of that PPV.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, he would get a push years later:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPs5eOQbtLs
I still have 3 copies of the first issue of RAW magazine. That's only because it had the WM12 program in it and I went to that show.
ReplyDeleteyea, that's when Pillman became The Loose Cannon
ReplyDeleteWe're probably gonna have to name-drop you, throughout, the next time around... :)
ReplyDeleteUm, last I checked Fall Brawl was in September. You know, the month where fall begins.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they knew that at the time.
ReplyDeleteemail sent as requested.
ReplyDeleteDid WCW ever acknowledge that The Giant wasn't actually Andre's son, or did they just drop it? This pre-Halloween Havoc recap package still says he's Andre's son (it says that the Giant "threw his father's shirt at Hogan"), so it obviously went on for a few months: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COl-Jnwsglo
ReplyDeleteMan, I miss these super comedic Hogan main event angles. Even his 2003 run was bad in an entertaining way, as opposed to today, which is just bad and boring.
ReplyDeleteLOL Ok. Guess I had to watch it to get it, but fapping is enough self-abuse for me.
ReplyDeleteThey just dropped it -- though I can't remember when. Seems like by Starrcade.
ReplyDeleteWasn't there some thing with a psychic? Gary Spivey or something? I loathed wcw at this point but still watched.
ReplyDeleteThis was my 18th birthday.
ReplyDeleteStill buy the PWI year-end issue, at least that's around still. Man, loved WWE Mag in its prime, the great showcases of the PPVs and stories, always a fun read.
ReplyDeleteWhen The Giant joined the nWo, Hall asked if he was really Andre's kid and he told him to drop it.
ReplyDeleteYes he had.
ReplyDeleteI miss how the Apter mags would fill in stuff for the marks like how, at Halloween Havoc 90, the Horsemen knew not only what tights Sting would be wearing that night but the color and pattern of his face paint for Windham to impersonate him. Just wild stuff like that made it fun. And yeah, took me a while to realize so many of their "interviews" were just made up totally to keep guys in character.
ReplyDeleteThis show took place in my hometown, on what would be my high school campus. To my knowledge, it's the only nationally televized wrestling that ever eminated from there.
ReplyDeleteI still get my subscription to physical magazine. This month is a shocking look at turning and coughing.
ReplyDeleteI'd be sad, but the magazine I grew up with ceased to exist around the time of Raw Magazine and the Attitude Era. Though the Sunny/Sable pictorials ended up on my dorm wall, so they kept me as a reader a little longer...
ReplyDeleteI remember the first issue I ever bought was the one that had the recap of Summerslam '89. Was always more of a PWI person before, and after that, but I think I still have that issue of WWF magazine somewhere
ReplyDeleteWatching a one-hour wrestling show would be SO BIZARRE for me today.
ReplyDeleteMan, wouldn't it be great though? A wrestling show that left you wanting more rather than drudging through hour after hour to get to the good bits. Good times.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday for tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteSo what you're saying is....you'd feel like The British Bulldog?
ReplyDeleteCheck out the ROH syndicated show if you can. Reminds me a lot of these old hour long Raws and Nitros, except with hotter crowds and better matches.
ReplyDeletePssst... check the show date at the top of the page.
ReplyDeleteWhile you knew where I was going with that, this was a pretty awesome reply. Well done
ReplyDeleteCheck out Main Event some time if your mind can handle it!
ReplyDeleteSo it was kind of written off in the "Hey, didn't you used to be Jamaican?" Kofi Kingston/Triple H jokey way?
ReplyDeleteFine with me. It was stupid to sell him as Andre's son, but that's far from the least stupid thing about 1995 WCW.
I remember that! That was great stuff that was creative on their parts. I used to think the interviews were real too because every once in a while they'd run a picture of the wrestler in a PWI shirt talking to Apter. Never thought, "He posed for the pic and Apter/Saks/etc. wrote his comments." Apter was on Meltzer's podcast a year or so ago and mentioned that most of the time they were pretty good with predicting storylines and not getting caught saying the wrong things in stories, but sometimes events backfired on them like a team not splitting up or a guy leaving a promotion. It was pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteLOL -- "a major upset as Sabu beat Hollywood Hogan..."
ReplyDelete^ Clicks "delete" after making idiot out of himself.
ReplyDelete