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The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro–10.02.95

The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro – 10.02.95

We’re skipping a week on the Network for some reason. Was there no show aired 9/25?

Live from Denver, CO

Your hosts are Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan and Mongo.

Lex Luger v. Randy Savage

The video package shows what happened between them last week, so clearly there was a show and the Network has just omitted it for some strange reason. Luger has put his career on the line here, and since he’s not in the WWF he probably won’t choke. They fight to the floor on a lockup and we take a break for a Halloween Havoc commercial that shows Hogan legdropping Vader a bunch of times. Well played. Back with Savage elbowing Luger out of the ring, where Luger wins a battle for a neckbreaker, and back in where Savage gets a small package for two. Luger hits him with a press slam, but Savage gets a hard-fought backslide that Luger blocks and reverses for two. Collision and both guys are out, but Savage tosses him and makes the comeback. Double axehandle to the floor, but Luger runs him into the post. Back in, ref is bumped and Savage drops the elbow to no avail. The Giant heads out and chokeslams Savage and Luger keeps his career at 12:30. I was really into this feud and it was one of the things that pulled me back into watching WCW at the time. ***

Eddie Guerrero v. Dean Malenko

Eddie’s entrance is delayed by a Disco Inferno appearance on the ramp, as he wants to dance. I don’t recall that leading anywhere. They fight over a knucklelock and Eddie flips out of it while Mongo ponders the 1000 moves of Dean Malenko as compared to a book with 100 sex positions. They do a crazy pinfall reversal sequence as we cut to HOGAN’S LIMO ARRIVING! OH MY FUCKING GOD! He wants the Giant! Back with the match and another intricate reversal sequence, but both guys end up on the floor. So then Eddie hits him with a dive from the top rope and literally a quarter of the way up the aisle. WHOA. Back in, brainbuster and frog splash hits the knees. Another series of switches and Eddie gets the last reversal for the pin at 5:41. Dean is upset, but he asks for a rematch like a man. Too short to be worth much, and the Hogan bullshit brought it down some, but what there was, was spectacular technical wrestling for the time. ***

Hulk Hogan joins us with a neck brace, but an old woman throws powder at him from the front row and attacks him with her cane. And of course, that’s no lady, it’s Kevin Sullivan! Wait, is that a stunt granny? So this brings out the Giant, who gives Hogan the Zeus neck twist and allows Sullivan to SHAVE THE MOUSTACHE! All the babyfaces storm the ring and Giant just chokeslams the fuck out of everyone one at a time. Question: How would Zodiac have voted in the Scotland referendum? Too bad the monster truck silliness brought things down because this was a great old school heel beatdown.

Ric Flair v. Arn Anderson

Flair comes out throwing chops and Arn backdrops him for two and goes to work on a hammerlock. Arn goes to the eyes, but Flair low-bridges him to the floor and they brawl out there. Back in, Arn elbows him in the gut, but Flair pokes him in the eye, so Arn puts him down with a spinebuster for two. Flair fights dirty again and gets the figure-four, but they spill to the floor again and brawl. Back in, Arn tries a DDT and Flair blocks it, and it’s back to the figure four. This brings out Pillman for the DQ at 8:30 and the beatdown is on. **1/2

Next week: Ric Flair v. Arn Anderson in a cage, plus Sting v. Avalanche and Hawk v. Big Bubba! Just reading in the WON from that week and Meltzer is kind of freaking out about how both sides are already hot-shotting stuff because of ratings. This, of course, is NOTHING compared to what would come. Dave kind of hated this show because the proto-Crash TV formula wasn’t a thing yet in 1995, but I really liked it for precisely that reason.

Comments

  1. The powder to the eyes out of nowhere was a great holy-shit moment. Sullivan tended to self-aggrandize a LOT on his Cornette podcast appearances (every good, unique WCW idea from pushing Goldberg to pushing the cruiserweights was his), but I believe his explanation that the Dungeon of Doom was created precisely to appeal to Hogan's favor so that Sullivan could eventually gain his trust and get him to do the stuff he really wanted Hulk to do. There was a lot of LOLHogan stuff in the early Nitro days but there was also way more out-of-the-box angles involving him, and more heat given to the heels.

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  2. Funny, ,last night i pick this nitro to watch on youtube and the guy who upload it from vhs, keep the commercials in it. And one time he switch over to raw and there is a '' Is O.J guilty or not hotline ad on raw! 0.50$ the call. Because the wwf fans can express their opinion. And the match was horowitz vs hunter. Check the video at 18min36. http://youtu.be/_pB5agKkY9Y

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  3. As if the Dungeon of Doom vs Hogan story wasn't 80s enough, what about the stupid gimmicks they gave well known guys like Earthquake or Brutus Beeefcake? I mean, WWF had stupid gimmicks, but WCW was well over the top. WWF looked much more fresh with new younger talents, while WCW looked like 1985 instead of 1995.

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  4. The Giant's chokeslam in this early few months was so much better, when he would go down on his flat chest with the person on the mat as he dropped them. Looked killer

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  5. Maybe the previous week wasn't aired because it featured the first Benoit debut promo? My timeline might be off by a few weeks but I remember there was an episode that had him hopping out of a limo and talking about coming to WCW for a couple of minutes. I wouldn't put it past them to skip it for that one segment. But that might have been on the Chicago Nitro in mid-October.

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  6. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomerySeptember 19, 2014 at 1:23 AM

    I think you're lying.

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  7. Really enjoying these Nitro rants.

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  8. It was on the Chicago episode.

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  9. BTW, the 9/25 episode was put up with the rest of the 95 Nitros on renewal week, not sure why it disappeared. It's probably a case like what happened several months ago with the March 15, 1993 episode of RAW (the episode where Rob Bartlett dressed up as Vince McMahon and basically got himself fired in the process) where it disappeared for a few days then re-appeared again.

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  10. Would he get upvotes if he were lying?

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  11. Conspiracy theory time: a way to attract fans to the $9.99 WWE Network is by purposely keeping the current product mediocre whilst showing the more exciting (or is it "exciting"?) moments in wrestling history.

    I don't believe it myself, but... look... eventually they're going to show the WWF programming from 2000 and it'll outshine absolutely everything in wrestling history. I'm not going to shit on WWE for exposing its fans and subscribers to an endless well of wrestling goodness, but... are they really still not going to at least charge extra for WrestleMania? That just seems like A Gimme for any price.

    I'll put it more simplistically... they CAN charge $50+ for WrestleMania EVEN WITH a Network subscription and even non-subscribers will buy it... but they WON'T. I don't even watch their shit and I'm not a subscriber, but shit, an easy $50+ to watch WrestleMania live is not a big goddamn deal.

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  12. 25/09 Nitro is on the Network stream tonight...weird!!

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  13. Just here to agree that WWF2000 is amazing. I would change my name to WWF2000 but I would like to avoid confusion with another poster using the WWF(year) format.

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  14. Considering there are still idiots out there that vote for Republicans, the answer is yes.

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  15. If that's the barometer of what an awesome name is, I'd change mine to Trish Stratus' Asshole Filled With Boysenberry Ice Cream.



    What explodes first, your cock or your brain?

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  16. I don't like Boysenberry Ice Cream. In fact, it detests me so much so that it actually cancels out the heaven of Trish's asshole.

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  17. ...So a sort of ice cream can actually deter you from the ultimate heterosexual pleasure?

    ...I see.

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  18. Hogan had "Honky Tonk Man" heat with me at that time as a mark, as I literally was willing to pay money to see him finally get destroyed. I kept thinking "he HAS to lose at SOME point. Even if it's 10 years from now. Hulkamania WILL eventually end". Sadly, I didn't have PPV access until 1996, and I absolutely would have bought Havoc 1994, Havoc 1995 and Uncensored 1996 specifically in the hopes that Hogan would lose.

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